Following the Drone, the five walked into an empty room which could be used as a training room since it was so big.
“So… what kind of thing should I try to copy first?” I asked.
“Oi jackass! That is easy! WINGS!” DD shouted.
“He is right, you should try and copy some bug wings to fly with. That said I wonder how they function in a human body.” Flor said.
“Now that I think about it, are there any bugs that evolved into a humanoid shape yet?” I asked.
“There has not, master but several bugs are following such a pathway.” the Drone said.
“Pathway?” Mary asked
“An arthropod of any type at tier 1 is considered a common bug, Tier 2 can be considered a magic bug of sorts, Tier 3 is a monster but tier 3 is split into several forms. The first form is considered Tier 3 Larva form. It is the entry form into the Tier, afterwards only after eating the flesh or drinking the blood of humanoids, monster or sentient, will it enter the Tier 3 Pupa stage where it will grow gaining several unique features and enhanced intelligence. From here there are two pathways. The first is only eating humanoids or only eating monsters. By eating humanoids only until the bug has finally reached Tier 3 Adolescence it will start to gain a form resembling a human. Intelligence will rise even further and begin to form unique mental capacities and will gain capability to strategize. All leadership and Royal guard have followed this path without fail and only feed on humanoids within their habit.” The drone said.
“What's the other path result?” Flor asked.
“The second path is eating monsters, instead of becoming humanoid they will degrade into monsters further and grow larger than humanoid forms and be at least 2 times stronger but also several times more aggressive. Lower grade workers class to soldier class bugs have reached this stage. But it is not the end. Following adolescence, the final stage, Adult. Similar to the previous stage, eating humanoid and beast will differ the form. Bugs that had previously eaten humanoids or beasts and only eat humanoids at this stage will evolve into bug type beastmen and demi humans once they reach Tier 4. Beast men will be human shaped bugs with most insectoids features retained but standing on two or four legs. Humanoid bugs will remain with two arms and two legs, gaining full human corporeal structure but outwardly will be covered by their carapace still with only part of the face being revealed with human skin. Humanoids eating beasts only will degrade into beastmen type. If beast type bugs continue to eat beasts they will finish their evolution as monsters of very large port usually to be domesticated by beastmen and demihuman type bugs possessing servantile mentality due to hive structure.” The drone finished saying.
While listening I quickly flipped through the book rapidly until I found the section. Having speed reading I could easily flip through the pages and ignore what is irrelevant.
“So which is the most advanced one?” He asked while reading over the section.
“Two of the queens. The Vampiric Mosquito and the Lightning Bulb Beetle are both within their adult form. The queen Rocket Ant is also one which is in the adolescence stage human path as are her royal guard.” The drone said. “The Ninja Spider race is the only unique bug race which all offsprings are undergoing only humanoid hunting. Current capability is of adolescent humanoid path throughout all regions. They adopt a bait and waiting system of hunting monsters to attract the weaker humanoids.” She explained.
“Wow things are a bit complicated after all.” I said.
“Since there are two queens at the adult stage does that mean the rest of the race is also at adult stage?” He asked.
“That is correct, most races use the queen as reference, as she represents the highest power.” The drone said.
Droso looked at the others and nodded, “Bring the Vampiric Mosquito queen and the Royal Guard class here.” Doros said.
At once two portals appeared and soon the queen, and surprisingly three smaller queens, followed by a small swarm of royal guards.
Just as the Drone had explained, unlike the previous basic Tier 3 Larva form that I had seen, now they all had at least 60 to 90 cm in height and had a human-like figure. They were very much like halfling bug type beastmen at this moment and had a rough humanoid shape while keeping all their insect features.
The Queen Vampiric Mosquito had her long stinger at her head and her large eyes covered most of her head, the antennae were large. Her second body section was larger than normal bugs now and in fact had split into three sections while the abdomen was connected on both body sections and was now behind her back. One pair of much longer legs were on the lowest section and they seemed to be able to support her weight but she flew most of the time. The other two pairs of arms were in the section right after her head and when Droso looked he saw there were four large claw fingers one of which was a thumb. What was curious was three very bloody red spikes on the queen’s head that seem to radiate a strange aura to her.
Looking at the little queens next to her, they all had only one spike meaning they were secondary queens guiding smaller hives under the original queen.
The Royal Guard looked similar to the Queen but lacked the spike-like crown on top of the head and instead their carapace looked thicker and they were much larger than the queen, who was around 70 cm tall, and they were 90 cm.
As for the Lightning Bulb Beetle, they buzzed and landed on the ground while standing up. They possessed a very similar structure to the mosquito’s with four sections to the body and the abdomen stuck to the two lower ones, a pair of legs on the lowest section, two pairs of arms on the upper one and four fingers. Their carapace was yellow with black like a bee while the light they flashed was strangely purple which fit with how magic portrayed lightning with the same color.
Similar to the other queen, there were some spike-like crowns made of three spikes but strangely these kept discharging electricity and causing it to flow up the antenna as forming an electric arc.
The information about this seemed to flow into my head when I saw it, this was a new born method of communication for the bugs. Besides just feeling hormones and chemical signals that can be blown away. Now they possessed an electric pulse type communication method. If compared, the Lightning Bulb Beetle could effectively do the same as sharks and could feel the electric pulses that the body gives off. They also had control of these and could send something akin to an electric pulse massage like morse code. It not only had a very long range, when compared to this world's current form of communication, but, funny enough, because of the lower intelligence of the bugs, they could easily pass along the messages without losing a single word. When setting up a large system of scouting, if not for the fact that they buzz so noisily they would be a very good scout. If it is in the forest though it would be easy for them to scout since the bugs in the forest along with all the monsters and bird calls were equally as noisy.
“Master is back!” “Return of king!” The queens announced in their own methods.
Very quickly all the bugs began to buzz and it began to hurt Droso’s head because of the overload of information. He isn’t a bug and he is receiving so many chemical messages and pheromones with a human body.
“Okay quiet!” he shouted and every bug stopped. “Alright, before wings I think I need to properly integrate a set of bug antennas so that I can talk with them without being overloaded.” I said with his pain in his head.
“Wow it seems quite uncomfortable.” Flor said.
“Don’t mind it. Anyway, I am going to train my class skills and I need you all as models for my transformations.” I said.
All the bugs buzzed but in confusion.
“Master, although they possess intelligence, it is primitive in the best of cases, they possess innate information passed down by chemical messaging as to which place they work. They do not comprehend the idea of ‘training’ without you forcing them to follow a specific action which benefits them to the highest degree such as a swarm attack.” The Drone said.
“Oh. Well then… you come here.” I pointed at a Royal Guard of the Vampiric Mosquito and it quickly flew over and landed but was very hunched back for several seconds after landing before standing up right. “Do not move or do sudden movements.” I said.
I began to focus mana into my eyes activating mana vision and slowly started to see the mana signature. I quickly took out a crystal and slowly examined all the parts of the antenna and finally reached the base of the head but followed it all the way back to the brain where I found the section which connected to it.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
If you were to say that a bug’s brain wasn’t comparable to a human's then remember that these bugs have undergone several evolutions becoming a magic bug, a monster bug and going through 3 humanizing evolutions. At this time the difference between a human brain and the royal guards brain was a difference of about 5 to 10 % different but the overall shape and positioning had already developed into the shape of a human's brain because, how else would the queens and royal guard be able to ‘speak’ legible words to me. Intent given by fear, joy and such are one thing but true words similar to when Levi was a baby, cannot be done without at least a developed brain comparable to a human brain..
As such, after finding the area, through the countless colors appearing in the Royal guards brain and isolating that specific region I focused on this and copied the form of this neural connection into one crystal.
I allowed the bug to go back and then closed my own eyes and began to feel my own brain.
Within all creatures, the coloration of specific parts are the same. In places like the brain where each section is meticulously arranged that is even more correct so after several tedious moments of searching I finally located the section of the brain which corresponds with what I needed. I was shocked to find that the section was incredibly degraded and unused. It was clear to me now why I developed such a huge headache. If this section was used directly it would obviously develop much more but as a human and not a bug he couldn’t speak with pheromones so a section of the brain which read this kind of message would obviously not be used.
Still I had to use what I had and so I found the nerve connections that still existed for these nerves and following the makeup of the Mosquito. The nerves slowly began to stretch as Droso expanded them with magic. A buzzing pain began to appear in that section of his brain as the nerves expanded. He also found that as they stretched out the section began to expand a bit more it was quite a good thing since it would properly enhance the section.
Finally the nerves split and went to both sides on his forehead. Then began the section stage and I drank a mana potion for this as it was dropping fast. Slowly a carapace appeared around the area of exit and began to expand. Muscle, veins, nerves and all were slowly forming and expanding to nearly 40 cm until it ended.
When it finally ended, I let out a deep breath I had held while gripping my head. “Ah damn it!”
Finally opening my eyes after the migraine passed. I felt the strange new muscle on his forehead and saw a window appear.
You have learned Aspect of Communication
You have integrated the antenna of an insect onto your own body developing a more stable method of communication to insectoids.
Once the message was complete the pain in my brain seemed to lessen greatly but I soon began to feel something in the air. The antenna twitched and moved towards the other bugs. I began to feel the pheromone output from them in much greater quantity and clarity. Not only that, I was able to easily figure out the meaning of each.
“I completed it.” I said with a sigh then turned to Flor, “Why isn’t there a skill level?” I asked.
“Most transformations are passive boosts. Only by finding better forms of the same thing will it upgrade. If you copy Levi’s stinger, when she grows up to adult form she will have a better one so you can copy the new one and upgrade it.” She explained.
“Ah makes sense.” I nodded and felt around.
“King has awakened! King shall hunt?” The Vampiric Mosquito Queen asked.
“No not now.” I replied.
The queen tilted her head confused.
“I really have a long way to go.” I sighed. Suddenly I thought of something and looked at the Drone, “You said the final stage is Adult correct?”
“In Tier 3 that is correct.” The drone replied.
“Then how do they get to Tier 4?” He asked.
“Those who reach Adult stage, when allowed into the Holy Land will undergo a metamorphosis into Tier 4 evolving into the corresponding form. They will also form a mana pool and channels unlike previously and will be considered primitive sentient beings. Cultural development follows as they grow. Estimate time between tier 4 and 5 evolution is unknown as hundreds upon hundreds of requisites are needed to break the barrier.” The drone said.
“So in short it is simply birthing a primitive tribe. I guess that is fine. Let me copy this first.” I said and took a crystal and ingrained it with the Aspect of Communication’s form.
Finally the crystal finished storing the aura and I looked at the crystal with the aura of the Royal Guard and whipped it clean clearing the crystal for use.
Finally standing up I looked at the two queens. “Drone, are the followers of these two races completely adult rank?” I asked.
“All queens and Royal guards are full Humanoid path. Common type, Workers, hunters and soldier type are beast man type beasts having eaten a balance of both until adult rank. 50% of all bugs are still in the adolescent stage.” She said.
“Good, then those who are already in the Adult stage can be transported to the Holy ground. I want to see how they evolve.” I said.
Two large portals open and the bugs take a moment and enter the portal. I told the others to wait since they couldn’t enter and went in.
When I passed through and entered the Holy ground. As before, the concentration of mana was incredibly dense but I found it strange when I found himself surrounded by several structures in a clearing.
“What is this? Drone?!” I shouted and the Drone appeared.
“Guest Mary has explained the proper method to storing gathered items. Efficient storage can preserve and even improve items so such things once properly preserved and butchered are transported to corresponding element storage unique. Meat of all but fire type creatures are frozen while other items are put in cold storage with a dense nature mana if they are vegetable type items.” She explained.
“Wow! So where are the bugs?” I asked.
“This way sir.” She said and walked down the path that had formed.
Following after her, I walked down that path slowly. Soon enough we entered a very strange section of the Holy Land. The trees were very spread out and on each tree appeared what looked to be a cocoon but what was strange about them is that they were like fattened versions of the bugs that had entered. The abdomen was gone but the enter body’s exoskeleton was expanded and it was like a fat bug now. They all hung in the trees upside down and slowly wiggled about.
“What is happening to them?” I asked.
“They are getting ready for metamorphosis. It is a complete remake of their body, it is similar to a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.” She replied.
“I see…” I muttered and looked at all the bugs.
Suddenly he felt a huge rush of mana blow onto the bugs and very rapidly the extra arms and even the head dropped down leaving the midsection only and very rapidly the skin and body hardened into an almost steel hard cage. After the mana flooded a few minutes it ended and only a very weak flow kept entering the carapace as the Holy Land nourished the now growing bugs.
“How long will it take for them to come out?” I asked.
The drone did not say anything for a long time, “Due to the very thin density of mana within the Holy Land, estimated time is between 6 months to 1 year.” She said.
“Low density? This place has the densest mana concentration in the world probably.” I said.
“It does not. It ranks within the top 200 only and this is also your mana. The mana value here is quite small and only because in the hive we are reduced by more than 100 times the size outside that it is very dense here. When compared to overall, it is quite small.” She said.
“So how do I increase it?” He asked.
“Upgrades to the hive will always cause improvement to your body overall. Guest Florista had previously obtained land minerals but due to you or the queen not ordering they have been stored. Higher quality magic crystals being integrated will also drastically improve the mana quality and quantity. Current improvement is overall 20% due to low quality crystals.” She said.
“So it was that huh? Well integrate the minerals then, it's better to set that up before anything else. I need to go back now.” He said and made a portal open.
“I shall get to it master.” She bowed as he left.
Hive Upgrade commencing.
Minerals detected, Copper, Iron, Coal, Nickel, Tin, Zinc, Lead, Silver.
Time to finish integration, 7 days.
As soon as Droso stepped out of the Holy Land he found himself in the middle of the two women he left behind and Levi was here laughing and had a little demon girl in her arms.
“Heh?” I muttered as he looked at the tiny demon.
“OI JACKASS! WHAT IS THAT FACE HUH!?” DD roared spitting fire in rage.
“That… is very… fitting.” I said holding back his laugh.
“YOU FUCKER!” He roared as he flew into the air glaring at Droso.
“Be careful hehehe. Others can see below your dress! AHAHAHAH!” I laughed, unable to hold it anymore.
That is right, currently fit into a small dress made of small pieces of bug carapace and some kind of glue which made an impressively cute dress and there was also a headband with antenna coming out. Because of DD’s size, he was quite gender neutral so when all was said and done, he looked very feminine. Also his hair was longer compared to Droso’s and was put in a twin tail style.
“YOU!!!!” He roared.
“Why didn’t you just hit Levi away? From the way you act, you seem the type that would bite, kick and scar someone for life.” I said.
“Hmph, I’m your darkness but you think I don’t have principles!?” He roared and shot his glaive right in between my leg making his blood run cold. “Jackass! Remember this, even though I am everything hateful about you. I am still ‘you’. What you hate, what you like and your morals, I know and agree with them because we are the same person. Just like you, I would never dare to hurt a kid unless the brat really deserves it.” He said and pulled the Glaive out of the ground and snorted before waving his hand and his old clothing vanished.
“AH~! Why did you change out of it!?” Levi complained tearfully, making DD’s face twitch and sigh before he called it all back and sulked as Levi smiled.
Flor giggled, “A tough guy with a soft interior. Just like you.” She said, looking at me, who smiled wryly.
“Levi, come here and let me see your wings.” I said and she cheerfully dragged DD over and I began to process all over again and the same thing happened several dozen times with the stinger and several other things from different bugs as he examined each type of bug with the others and learned their traits.