Day 10

There has to be something there.

Joe knew the decree contained loopholes. That didn’t mean he was aware of them, or even had a hint of where they might be, but he knew that there had to be something there. And time was on his side.

“Great one.” That was the sole phrase Ego used for Joe after he’d been threatened to stop. Joe wasn’t too worried about being found out. The creature had been very adamant about thinking of them as a waste of time. “I have a plan.”

“Yes?” Joe said.

“Create me an elite monster, and they will feel my wrath.”

“Okay, I get that you’re mad,” Joe said.

“Furious!”

“Rightfully so, but going and getting us killed isn’t going to do anything good for us. We need to wait for an opportunity. If we strike at the right time, they’ll crumble.”

Ego didn’t give an eloquent response but grunt, which surprised Joe. he wisp turned into a blur as he alternated between spins, and ceiling touches. If this was some sort of workout, Ego was going to be getting very big.

One of the Uxyx’s structures would steal 50% of all his earnings, making him very hesitant to collect his truemass. Hell, this core, no, stupid rock ruined the best time of the day. Instead, he opted towards looking at his two projects, the firebug and ant breeding, as well as the ladybugs. He could already see that some interesting developments had come forth.

It worked!

Feeding a couple of ladybugs to the firebugs had done the trick. He spotted more spawns. Four new spawns to be precise, and three of them looked hideous and useless. One slug got the ant legs, but without the power, so they laid broken beneath it.

Another got the ant’s carapace and hunger for stone, but without the ability to break the stone, it simply sucked at it. Christ that looks disturbing. Since the flames leaving the slug weren’t powerful enough to melt the stone, that’s all it would be doing.

The third spawn carried the shape of an ant. It had received the slugs mouth, and because of it, it could now swallow things whole. It had died when Joe tried to dominate it, but fortunately that wasn’t the case for the most promising looking one.

The fourth ant-looking breed looked peculiar. Unlike the ants, which were gray, this one was completely white, with small red eyes on top. Keeping the same size as the ants, it had gained the firebugs color, but he hoped that meant it had gained something more.

Sadly, the ant could not turn aflame. So his first guess was wrong. Even when it was attacked by another ant it did not retaliate by attacking with fire, and instead used its mandibles just like an average stone ant.

Joe wondered if it had gained some sort of fire resistance, and sent it towards one of the firebugs that had turned aflame. It did not hesitate, or even slow down. Even when the firebug was right below it, sending fire right into its abdomen, the ant didn’t make a single noise. Fire wasn’t hurting it.

Fire immunity! Maybe it might even be heat immunity. That’s a great development.

If he could somehow figure out how to strengthen the firebugs flames, it would be able to ride on top of this ant, burning anything that came near. They’d make a scary combination, and surely be deadly effective in combat.

He returned to the window that had popped up when he first dominated the white ant.

Evolution detected!

Would you like to learn the breed Ignis-Ant?

Cost fifty truemass.

[Yes][No]

Sadly he didn’t have twenty truemass for the moment.

Gritting his teeth, and getting ready to pay an insane amount of tax, he directed all of the ants that had been mining to give him their truemass, as he couldn’t think up a better way to use their truemass. As soon as the truemass entered him, he felt a force suck away half of the power. All in all, he gained 105 truemass.

His rage for Uxyx would be ignited each and every single time he received truemass. Directing his ants back to mining he turned towards the ladybugs. He felt pain when he purchased the ignis-ant. Fortunately, unlike their unlock price, they only cost ten truemass to produce.

He looked back at his ladybugs, and despite the fact that he’d controlled every single one of them, yesterday, he only controlled one ladybug now, despite there being nearly one hundred ladybugs etching away at the wall. The ladybug Joe controlled sat quietly and ate stone whilst a sharp and killing tail seemed to guard it. The other ladybugs kept a good distance away from this one.

So it’s got a stinger.

Joe ordered it to come to him and remembered that it could fly. It was pretty horrifying to see a scorpion’s tail attached to an innocent ladybug. He didn’t know how it could still manage to fly with all of that weight, but his sight was clear in what it told him.

Fortunately, it seemed that the ladybugs procreated with each other at a faster rate than they ate each other. He thought that made sense as there was food readily available on the wall, and all they had to do to breed was stand beside each other. If he simply left them be they’d eventually be filling each square inch of his base of operations.

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That was unless they produced a true monster. A risk that Joe was running by not killing them. As long as all of the ladybugs remained his, no matter what the outcome would be, he’d get it, but with this generation, he wouldn’t get the strongest ladybug, which could end disastrously for him.

Sub-Evolution detected!

Stone Ladybug has evolved three times.

Evolutions:

1: Stinger and poison gland.

2: Stinger strengthened.

3: Poison gland strengthened.

Would you like to add this as a creatable subspecies?

Cost two hundred true-mass

[Yes][No]

Two hundred! Aaaaaaa

Nevertheless, his idea bore fruit. This had been a really strong upgrade, nothing world-shattering, but it certainly turned the useless ladybug into a fearsome creature. At this rate, he could produce one evolutionary adept ladybug at a day, if he kept up the production of ladybugs, which essentially meant not killing them. And if he kept letting them feed, their total number would increase, increasing the chance of a real monster popping out.

Do I want that to happen or don’t I? On one side, I need strong units to beat this Uxyx pebble. On the other, I don’t want to sacrifice myself in the process. I think I’ll continue culling them every now and then so that if a really lethal combination comes out, it won’t get enough evolutionary essence to evolve too many times.

Pitting them against each other was a great way of weeding out terrible combinations that could come out of his [Unchained] perk, but he needed some sort of safety mechanism. He opened his structures tab.

Just to be sure his entire BOP (base of operations) wouldn’t be filled to the brim with ladybugs, he built a small door with an double door setup attached to it. To open one door, the other door would have to be locked, stopping any ladybugs from escaping. In all in it cost him 19 truemass. He was down to fifty truemass total.

He still carried perfect vision of the ladybugs within his base. He assumed that was because they were in his area of influence, and that it would change if they traveled further from him.

The best part of all of this was that Uxyx didn’t have a single clue about it. Since the ladybugs technically weren’t his, he wasn’t breaking the decree. It didn’t account for the fact that he could reap their evolutionary essence whenever he wanted to.

Loopholes. I spotted a loophole Yes!. Oh, just now did I realize that the word has three holes in it.

“Hey Ego,” Joe said.

“Yes?” Ego said.

“What loophole has multiple holes in it?”

“Your wisdom is too great for me great one.”

“The word!” Joe giggled like a maniac.

Joe realized he didn’t need to limit a ladybug to doing the culling. The benefit to leaving it to ladybugs to naturally produce a unit was that all trash evolutions caused by [Unchained] would be eradicated. All in all, it made the process automatic, but, if he sent his jawed ant in there for example, he wouldn’t have that problem. It was something he was going to try out.

So my army is going to become a group of highly dangerous ladybugs… At least it makes for a good book title.

The scorpion-ladybug flew up to the ceiling, perching beside the jawed-ant which took a few steps away. Joe noticed that the jawed ant was displaying a bit more intelligence than he thought it would. He wondered if it had gained a “silent” perk, allowing for that.

I need to get another barrack. The upside to receiving another barrack was that he could purchase more ants, which would increase his income. He’d be making loads, but because of the outrageous tax amount, he simply couldn’t.

Also, I need to explore the area around me next. Being connected to a cave meant lots of things, and primarily, the fact that spotting ore would become much easier. He’d be able to carry mining operation.

That didn’t have to wait. He didn’t have to go into a stupor. His wisp was more than eager to do something, and sending him on a scouting expedition would do just the trick. He informed Ego about his thoughts.

“Hey Ego,” Joe said.

“Yes, great one?” Ego said.

“I need you to go out and check the surroundings for me. Make sure to look for ore. Hopefully we’ll be able to start greater mining operations.”

“Alright,” Ego said. “What insect should I use?”

There was a tone of bitterness in his words. No doubt they came from having his elite form forbidden. Joe assumed that Ego could go on and on about this not being befitting the great commander he was. He’d just have to sulk it up for the time being.

“Use the Jawed-Ant. It’s the fastest and most mobile.”

Ego took control of the jawed-ants body. There was a little bit of reluctance there, a bit of conflict, the jawed ant wasn’t giving its body as freely as the other insects had. It made Joe more skeptical about its intelligence.

In the end, Ego still managed to take the jawed ants body, and it flew off into the darkness. Whilst it carried quite good night vision, which was rather common for ants, it was still rather difficult for it to see. its sight only extended two meters away from it, which would be more than plenty for any regular ant.

“Stick to the walls Ego,” Joe said, communicating telepathically.

“Yes great one,” Ego said, making Joe flinch. Maybe doing it out in the wilderness wasn’t the best idea. Then again wasn’t the brightest of ideas from the first place, he just didn’t care.

Even though Ego hadn’t controlled the jawed-ants body before this, that didn’t change the fact that he was quite a skillful pilot, flying close to the walls without an issue despite their random and rough pattern.

Through the bond, Joe heard a hacking noise coming from slightly ahead of them. Ego was traveling directly towards that noise. It grew louder, and suddenly a tiny green face came into sight. It was a standard goblin, the type he’d seen in television.

Ahh, it’s a shame we can’t attack it without breaking the decree.

Joe felt rage well up within his wisps mind.

“Ego, I know our position is messed up, but don’t do it, ” Joe communicated telepathically.

“Ego?”

The ant dived right into the goblin’s eye. It cried out a loud shriek.

Joe felt the urge to scream and shriek, but this wasn’t a trivial event. It was life and death and if any evidence of them breaking the decree reached Uxyx, they wouldn’t stand a chance. He quickly ordered all of his ants, and his ladybug, to rush out and aid Ego in whatever happened.