Ten Myrmekes with wounds ranging from grievous to minor stood before her hesitantly. They were the ones that had submitted to her, but she knew that they did so only out of fear for death.

That wasn’t good, for they would leave the moment she wasn’t actively monitoring them, and it also prevented her from finally undergoing evolution.

She forced herself to take it step by step. She wanted them to like her, and feel loyal to her- enough that they wouldn’t stab her in the back when granted the opportunity; the way to do that was to get them to believe that working for her would be valuable to them.

She could emphasize to them the value in numbers and coordination. Emphasizing the values of what they had going now was plenty all on its own and cost her nothing. She doubted it would be enough, though, so she kept thinking.

Aside from that, she decided that they’d all be allowed to keep the Cores of the things that they killed on their own. If they killed something with the assistance of another… well, she’d think about it later. Paired with the safety they’d gain from being in a group, and one with a powerful soon-to-be-fourth Stage Myrmeke, it seemed like a pretty valuable proposition that they’d accept.

Ah, that was another thing… she felt like they might be more loyal if she gave them the choice. No matter what they chose, it would make the whole having subordinates thing easier.

Assuming they all didn’t want to flee… but these Myrmekes were smarter than usual. She was confident they’d see the value in their group.

Finally, she began ‘speaking’ to the line of Myrmekes. Translating pheromone to language, she said; “I do not intend to exploit any of you. In fact, I want you all to see value in working for me, and so I will give you a sales pitch.

There is safety in numbers, and there is safety in strength. With me, you would have both, for I am the most advanced Myrmeke in the entire 23rd Batch. The Myrmidon Control System itself said so- or at least that I was the very first to reach the third Stage, and I’m about to evolve again.

Moreover, you will not need to give up anything for this. The Cores of everything you kill belong to you, and in exchange for only war, as you would have already had to wage, you receive the protection of a soon-to-be fourth Stage Myrmeke that wants to keep you alive.

You lose nothing, and gain much. I lose nothing, and gain much. There is nothing to lose, here.

Finally… I will allow you to leave, if you do not want to follow my orders. Once you leave this cavern, however, know that you will be prey once more.”

The ten Myrmekes were like statues, only their antennae moving as they processed her speech. She felt she had done a decent enough job highlighting the greatness of her proposition, and was relatively confident that most if not all of these relatively intelligent Myrmekes would accept.

One of the Myrmekes responded quicker than the rest by a good margin. Its pheromones roughly translated to; “This is good. I accept, as long as you are telling the truth.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Smelling that, another agreed. Smelling that, two agreed, and then five. After a few long seconds, six and then seven, but the last three seemed like they were having a hard time.

That was fine, because she suddenly had a brilliant idea. She began to communicate, but stopped suddenly.

Don’t. The system commanded, and she hesitated. A few seconds later, she offered a slightly altered plan, and received nothing. So, she pushed forward.

“I will give you something to call yourselves, and for others to call you by; titles.” She said, and the Myrmekes didn’t seem to respond. To her, the proposition seemed incredibly valuable… but they didn’t think so. They had no need to.

She had never noticed it before, but much of her thought flowed with the same rules as the text that the System used. It followed the same grammatical rules and such, although she didn’t know enough of the words to actually think entirely in it. Still… that was more than she guessed most of them were capable of.

She saw the words ‘Lower Myrmeke’ frequently and the self-describing text made it clear what that meant. They were expendable; only smart enough to make coherent, sometimes even clever, moves on the battlefield. Lowest Myrmekes were practically drones, and they’d needed something in-between the rare, extremely expensive and powerful Greater Myrmeke and hordes of tiny nuisances. They weren’t valuable, though.

However, not only did they not really have a need for a name due to thinking in more abstract thoughts, but they also didn’t even know what it was. She did, because of her Commendations, but they didn’t have any; thus, they’d never seen the ‘Beseech Lower Queen…’ thing.

In the end, the addition didn’t change anything in terms of value. The Myrmekes just thought she wanted to make coordination easier, not that she was tossing out another benefit.

“Simple numbers, in order of which ones joined first,” She told them, telling the first one that it was now called One, the second and third that they were called Two and Three, and so on.

Honestly, now that she thought about it… if they wanted a name- ah, title-, why would they want it from her?

Now that she thought about it… why did she want a title- she was very careful to think of it as a title and not a name, for the System had made it clear that names were something only Queens were meant to dispense- from the Queens, anyway?

She’d wanted something to call herself by mentally for a long, long while. So, as she finished entitling Eight- there were only two that still remained thinking about it-, she moved to herself.

“And I am Zero.” She decided, sticking with the numbers theme.

A few minutes later, Nine came to join them and the last one chose to leave, meaning there would be no Ten. Not yet, at least.

Now… it was time to get to work. She had the Myrmekes harvest the Cores of their former comrades and bring them to her, which would have been cruel had they not cared for each other in the slightest. Although she did not need to, she chose to promise each of them two Cores, as there was an overabundance regardless.

It was to promote loyalty, mostly, but also because third Stage subordinates would be exponentially more valuable than second. With second stage Cores being worth roughly 50 Biomass, and with evolving to the third Stage costing 400, that should be quite the boost for them.

Of course, she didn’t want them to reach it before she evolved to the fourth stage, but she intended to do that soon. Very soon, even.

When all of the Cores were piled before her, she counted them out. None seemed to be missing, luckily, because she really didn’t want to have to kill one of her subordinates so soon. She gave each of them two, and then devoured. At the end of it all, she looked at her Biomass counter.

Biomass: 3,567

You have reached the prerequisites to begin the third evolution.

“Stay here. I will begin my evolution elsewhere.”

She trusted them to stay put, as they hadn’t left already and could presumably see the benefits. If one or two did, that was okay, but she hoped not to return to that.

She started towards the tunnels eagerly. With such a huge amount of Biomass, she would probably be one of the strongest fourth Stage Myrmekes to have ever lived- not that it’d matter if the weakest fifth Stage Myrmeke would be able to slaughter her in an instant.