Infrastructure Part 2

After getting used to the design of the new system, Beatrice was able to quickly implement it in the other floors in just under a week.

Furthermore, after spending a little bit more effort, Beatrice changed the implementation of this system on the eight floor, where her most valuable possessions were held, making it so that every single thing placed in there had a certain permission requirement placed onto it.

Other than this, the implementation of the system was a breeze.

At the same time as Beatrice was busy with this, another infrastructure project of an even grander scale was being built just nearby.

...

Hundreds of ants moved in uniform under careful eyes of Intelligent Ant Number 78, moving stone blocks that weighed tens of tons.

After what seemed like a near eternity, the group of ants finally arrived with the large stone block at its intended spot.

Soon after, the first row of ants in the front carefully placed the smooth block of stone onto the ground before retreating from below it and moving to its sides and continuing to hold it up.

Mere moments after, the second row of ants followed suit, lowering the stone block even further to the ground.

With every row of ants that did this, the pressure placed on the remaining ants increased, as even though the other ants tried to help, they were unable to get a good grip onto the block of stone.

But even so, in the face of this huge monster of a thing, which could crush them to death if they made the slightest error, the ants continued holding on, not wavering in the slightest.

Thankfully, by the time only five rows of ants remained holding up the block of stone, Intelligent Ant Number 78 suddenly interfered.

With a wave of her antennae, every single one of the ants suddenly felt their energy be reinvigorated.

At the same time, small pieces of stone emerged from the side of the block, allowing the other ants to finally begin helping their brethren.

After some more time, the block of stone itself began glowing a brown color, as the ant began using her own strength to personally hold the block of stone.

Because of these circumstances, the brave row of ants, who were left behind last, were able to fully hold the large block of stone above their heads and begin slowly but surely lowering it to the ground.

Then, after Number 76 made sure that everything was alright, these brave ants finally let go and retreated, causing the block of stone to float just a little bit an above the ground.

The block of stone then began slowly but surely lowering itself to the ground, touching the other block of stone that had been placed just below it.

Merely a few moments after the stone was finally placed down, as the other ants began recovering, and preparing for the next block, Number 76 continued her work and began verifying that the block was placed perfectly onto the block below it.

After making sure that the block of stone was aligned with the others, Number 76 then began the next part of her job, and began connecting it with the others, eliminating the tiny cracks and imperfections that would have plagued the block otherwise.

But even so, the work of an ant was never done, as Number 76 had to now begin coordinating the ants for placing the next block.

Unconsciously, Number 76 couldn't help but raise her head and stare at the empty space above her.

With a rough estimate, Number 76 was able to see that the distance between her and the ceiling was currently five hundred meters.

Based on the size of the cubes, which was about 16 meters, Number 76 had to place around 31 of them to reach the ceiling.

Although at first glance, this might not seem like much, one must understand that the ants didn't only have to place blocks of stone vertically, instead, they also had to do it horizontally around the 1 km by 1 km sized underground palace.

Since there was not one, but three blocks of stone on a single layer, this meant that to fill a single layer the ants had to place at least 750 blocks of stone.

And in the end, to fill this entire underground place, the ants will have to place around 23 to 24 thousand more blocks of stone.

After daydreaming for a few moments, Intelligent Ant Number 76 shook off these thoughts of hers and returned to normal.

'Too slow, I need to be more efficient...' thought the Ant as she began coordinating the other ants to bring the next block of stone over.

In the end, although such a task might seem nearly insurmountable to a human, to ants, who were willing to fully dedicate themselves to the colony, this was nothing much.

In fact, the hardest part of the work was already done by the ants that had come before her, as well as the ants that had died building the colony.

In comparison to them, Number 76 felt like her work was nothing much.

Of course, Number 76's group was not the only group of ants working on this project, as several dozen more groups worked just as hard as theirs.

Furthermore, these ants that worked on building were dwarfed nearly ten times by those who were busy mining and preparing the large stone blocks.

In the end, over one hundred thousand Earth Ants worked day in and day out on this project, with only a few thousand being the builders themselves, and just under half being the miners and workers.

But even though this was the case, not a single ant from this group had ever complained, not a single ant from this group had ever tried to slack off, not a single ant from this group had not given it their all.

After all, for their Mistress and for the colony, every single ant was willing and even desired to give their lives.