Now that a week had passed since he laid the worker ant egg, it had grown into a 2-inch-long pupa.

‘It will soon eclose,’ Adam thought.

As he was resting inside his nest, the forest aboveground was in a state of unrest.

The magic beast mantis was a king of a small territory, and Adam happened to be living inside its newly formed territorial grounds. It was hard to say who was more unlucky between Adam and the mantis.

It had arrived a day ago and laid its eggs after devouring the magic beasts nearby. The mantis relied on its nimbleness, speed, and flight to reign over the area, but never in its short life did it expect Adam to be around. It probably wished in the afterlife that it scanned the area a little better.

Adam qualified to become the king of the territory too but he never tried out of caution. With his venom and intelligence, being a king was too easy. Now, it's impossible.

After the mantis’s death, the small patch on the forest floor became unoccupied. Hence, countless magic beasts were warring it out. Every day, a new magic beast carcass would drop to the forest floor, only to be picked out by scavengers.

If Adam was still actively hunting, he would’ve rejoiced. But it was too late as the forest had calmed down again. Another magic beast was now the owner of these lands and no one knew how long its reign would last.

Blissfully unaware, Adam watched as his first worker ant eclosed from its pupa. It stretched its legs, getting used to its newly obtained vessel. When it waved its antennae, it sensed Adam and the caterpillar.

Because the caterpillar had been showered by Adam’s pheromones, the ant didn’t pay it any heed and merely tended to Adam. There was no egg, larva, or pupa around. What else could it do aside from waiting on its queen?

But it seems Adam had a different opinion.

‘Stop clinging to me and go hunt for food!’

Adam waved his antennae, releasing a cloud of pheromones that would’ve choked the ant if it was an actual cloud.

‘Bring me something to eat!’

KRR!

Adam repeated, opening his mandibles to emphasize his words.

Krrr…

The ant did the same, only it did it out of obedience. It was a magic beast, and it inherited most of Adam’s traits minus intelligence. It can easily hunt in the dangerous forest.

As Adam watched the ant leave the nest, something in his mind clicked and he suddenly regretted his order.

‘Fuck. Come back!’

What if you die?! I can’t lay another egg!

But his mind was too foggy and he can’t turn back time or press the undo button.

'Why do humans regret too late?'

Wait, I'm an ant now.

Stepping its foot out of its birth nest, the ant waved its antennae and scrambled about. Its sensing abilities were weaker than Adam and it could only see gaseous outlines of what it could sense. It couldn’t even distinguish between magic beast and regular insect.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

It merely relied on luck.

Krr. Krr?

As it scouted the area, it stumbled upon a line of silk. It lowered its head, poking the silk with its antennae, and realized a key point.

The silk was far too fragile and thin.

Krr!

Its gaster pointing up in excitement, the ant waved its antennae around and focused on following the line of silk.

Soon, it reached a spider’s home. It was a tarantula with a body length of 2 inches, the same as the ant. Though, if you measured its legs too, it would be around four to six inches.

Uncaring about the thick carpet of silk, the ant treated it as a welcome mat and charged at the tarantula without care. The tarantula noticed the intruder and rushed out to capture it, only to be met with a strong pair of mandibles and legs.

KRR!

The tarantula silently struggled as the ant roared in victory, stinging the tarantula with its stinger. It didn’t feel like using its mana, so it was still full of it after the tarantula became paralyzed.

Adam's and the ant's venom would first paralyze the prey, but the prey would be in a sea of pain. As time goes by, the prey would "melt" into a puddle of goop if it wasn't already eaten. During the whole process, it would be alive for as long as it could.

The tarantula twitched in pain but the ant didn’t kill it yet.

Instead, it scouted the tarantula’s nest and was pleased to find a fresh, wrapped-up insect. It was a caterpillar, a normal one. The ant bore a hole through the silk coating and chowed down, storing the caterpillar's blood and flesh in its social stomach.

Then, it lifted the tarantula like it was a piece of paper and marched back home.

The way back home was uneventful and the ant safely reached the nest.

Seeing the ant return with a booty, Adam was very much pleased. He devoured the tarantula as soon as it was placed down. When the ant offered to feed him through trophallaxis, he didn’t shy away and opened his mandibles to be mouth-fed by his worker ant.

‘Ahh… Life is good…’

Feeling food running down his stomach for the first time in forever, Adam felt relieved.

Just as he was basking in the feeling of triumph, Adam felt a tingling sensation at the back of his gaster.

‘Status window.’

[[SS — Queen Ant]: Eggs: (20 mana) Worker Ant: 0 (+1)]

‘GREAT!’

During his one-week fast, he didn’t put all his mana, recovered through resting, into his core, which was inside his head and looked like a polished jade. Instead, he spent a portion of it into saving up for another egg.

With the added push from the tarantula and whatever the worker ant fed him, he gained enough mana for another egg.

He didn’t hesitate to create another egg…

[[SS — Queen Ant]: Eggs: (20 mana) Worker Ant: 1]

...and lay it on the nest. Seeing a grain-of-rice-sized white object pop out of Adam’s gaster, the ant went to work and grabbed it, placing it down in a sanitized and humid place inside the nest.

Adam didn’t know how to take care of eggs properly, so he was worried as he tended to his first egg. Thankfully, instinct was engraved on the worker ant and it knew what to do. Adam just has to lay back and rest.

‘The worker ant was lucky. It didn’t encounter and magic beast,’ Adam heaved a sigh of relief and waved his antennae.

Then, he gave an order through pheromones.

‘Don’t engage with magic beasts. Avoid any “prey” possessing mana.’

Adam didn’t know what insects were to ants, so he just labeled them all as “prey,” magic beast or not.

The ant sensed Adam’s order and waved its antenna, releasing a pheromone that roughly meant “yes,” “okay,” or any other type of acknowledgment.

‘Hmm, I thought they can “speak” like me.’

Adam could give out detailed speeches through his pheromones, but he found out that his ants could only roughly give vague answers or thoughts.

‘It doesn’t matter. As long as they obey me, it’s all good.’

He was the queen, and his orders are absolute. In a normal ant colony, this may not be the case, but in a magic beast ant colony, this was how the hierarchy worked. Adam unknowingly did what a magic beast queen ant would normally do.

After tending to the new egg, the ant left the nest again to search for prey.

‘Huh. I guess even magic beast worker ants are ravenous. Or are they greedy only because they have to feed me and the egg?’

Worker ants are diligent. This was true even in normal ant colonies. They placed the colony above all else as it was engraved into their bodies to do so.

After leaving the nest, the worker ant traveled far and avoided the magic beasts that it occasionally found. Normal insects littered the area, but the ant ignored most of them. It was looking for a sizable prey.

Just as it was scouting, it spotted a small insect crawling on the ground like it.

It was an ant, a magic beast ant.

The ant had wide open, long mandibles. Its head was a little flat and long, and its body was slender. Its gaster was pointy, and at the end of it was a thin stinger that carried a deadly venom. The ant’s exoskeleton was obsidian black, and it looked menacing with its size of 1 and a half inch.

The worker ant had no idea, but it was facing a magic beast trap-jaw ant. The only thing it knew was that a trap-jaw ant colony was nearby.

Even though Adam ordered it to avoid ant colonies, the worker ant’s innate arrogance against other species of ants sprang into action as it dashed forward. It quickly bit the trap-jaw ant’s neck, trying to decapitate it but the trap-jaw ant’s exoskeleton was tougher than expected.

The trap-jaw ant struggled, but just as it aimed its mandibles at the worker ant’s head, the worker ant bent to deliver a lethal venom to the trap-jaw ant.

Adam, who had no idea that his ant was already waging a war: Egg #2, you better hatch and be good like your older sister.