Chapter 44: Cat
"What... is that?"
The egg was about the same size as that of a queen’s. From the outside it looked very similar to one as well.
But as Mitch got a little bit closer, he noticed something different about it.
"That ant... is that legs? And hands?" Even Katherine felt unsure of what she was seeing.
Through the slightly translucent shell, Mitch saw a creature in the fetal position. Unlike regular ants, however, this one had more developed limbs.
Unsure of what exactly he was seeing, Mitch cut the egg open, as opposed to crushing it.
Out of the cut flowed a viscous liquid. Following that, the creature that was inside fell out. It still looked underdeveloped, and it did not wake up even after exiting the confinement of the shell.
But that did little to put Mitch at ease.
He finally realized why it looked off.
"Hey, Katherine. Doesn’t this remind you of a legio?"
Indeed, this ant was eerily similar to legios. Two legs similar to that of a human, covered in a chitinous exterior, as well as four arms ending in clawed hands.
Excluding the head, it could pass off as a legio, and no one would bat an eye.
Still feeling confused but equally intrigued, Mitch went back to the queen’s chamber and brought a guard.
He then started autopsying both ants, comparing their anatomy.
What he found switched his mood to a combination of fear and excitement.
The ant, which he decided to call "Champion," had a similar muscular structure to the royal guards, but with a few differences.
First of all, it had a closed circulatory system. Secondly, it had a skeleton. Third, its brain was shockingly developed for an ant.
All of which were similar to legios.
"So the ants are not only huge, but they also have some innate ability similar to my unique skill?"
"Maybe? I can say for certain, whatever this is has nothing to do with your skill. No matter the method, the limit placed on your skill for creatures except legio is absolute."
Yet the queen had birthed an ant version of the legio.
"Is this another thing the simulation was preparing me for?"
For some reason, a lot of fantasy stories on Tellus included ants that adapted infinitely. The exact process differed, but a common theme was laying eggs with traits similar to the prey they had consumed.
Mitch was still unsure about how all of this was connected, but he wasn’t naive enough to think that it was all a coincidence.
Which meant that this ant nest probably wasn’t unique.
"How many continents does this world have?"
He really hoped that the entire landmass of his world was connected. That way, he could at least reach all the colonies to kill their queens.
"There are three continents, all similar in shape and size," Katherine squeezed out; she too understood the gravity of the situation.
It was still suboptimal, but Mitch felt a little relieved. His intention had been to recreate a world similar to Tellus.
In other words, a world with several continents and an uncountable amount of islands.
Worst case scenario, he could still build a boat and make it to the other continents that way.
He doubted that ten years would be enough to clear all ant nests, but at least he had the option to.
That’s when he thought of something crazy.
"Do I really need to clear all the nests?" A plan was starting to formulate in his mind. It was a maniacal idea, but very plausible as well.
The past three weeks had confirmed many things, but one of the most important facts was the criteria that decided how much Mynt a follower’s prayers provided.
First was intellect. The smarter and more aware they were, the stronger their prayers were.
Second was purity. A believer that prayed to him of free will provided purer Mynt. This also went to show that not all forms of Mynt were equal; there were different levels of worth based on how pure the Mynt was.
Third was individual strength. Mitch still did not understand the reason for why this mattered, but the stronger his followers were, the faster faith flowed into him.
It was precisely the third criterion that Mitch wanted to abuse.
Originally, he wanted to raise ants like cattle, strengthening his followers through that method.
His plan was to feed progressively stronger ants to Hailey until she reached 100% completion in Devouring. After that, she would take care of raising the rest of the rats.
But the bottleneck Mitch experienced when he reached 20% crushed those plans. It was safe to assume that 20% was not the only bottleneck he would experience.
"So the rats will need a lot of meat from animals of different strengths to progress. At the same time, I don’t want the ants growing too strong. What use is there in raising cattle if one misstep is all it takes for them to kill you?"
Separate land masses solved that issue.
He would let the ants in this nest grow to a certain level of strength before harvesting them.
After the rats stopped growing from eating the caged kind, they would go hunt the free-range ants.
By doing this, Mitch would minimize the risk to his followers while also providing them the best opportunity for growth.
The champion ant still made him uneasy. There was a valid reason for that.
They were basically the ants’ version of him.
He had the body of a legio with the most beneficial aspect of the ants.
On the other hand, champions were ants with the best traits of legios.
"Will my experience be enough to defeat one of them at equal strength?"
Probably. But it would be close.
The champions had all the positive traits of legios while retaining the best parts of ants. Meanwhile, Mitch only had the muscular strength of an ant.
Furthermore, his skill recommended against choosing several mutations from the same creature, meaning Mitch couldn’t imitate the ants.
He opened the skill window to see if him breaking through was enough to mutate again. The answer was yes.
All the previous ant mutations were once more available, but Mitch ignored them.
He had already chosen his second mutation.
"Time to find myself a cat."
