The process of evolving had always been an agonizing and miserable one, but it was different this time. Her body was torn apart and rebuilt thousands of times in order to come ever-so-slightly closer to perfection, just like every other time, but there was also some sort of… something that sank into her body.

The something sinking into her body nullified the agony she otherwise would have endured, replacing it almost entirely with a feeling of tremendous power. Her body devoured the something with ravenous desire, her cells filling with an unidentifiable energy.

Soon, it was over. The process still left her a bit tired regardless of the something that had infused her body, but it wasn’t too bad.

Your evolutionary status has changed drastically. The System told her. With a sigh, she mentally recited the now-familiar text.

Nameless Lower Myrmeke Pupae

Greater Path: Ether-blessed Scout

Lower Path: Regenerative Ether-Springarm

Fifth Stage

Ether: Lower

! Rapid Regeneration: Transcendant/Pitiful

Acid: Average

Articulated Arms: Transcendant

Durability: Powerful

Lockjaw Mandibles: Average

Mass: Ascendant

Rending Claws: Superior

Springlegs: Powerful

Strength: Powerful

Superior Pheromones: Greater

Biomass: 0

Commendations: “Extraordinary mental faculties.” – Lower Queen Andromeda. “Good senses.” – Lower Queen Burhun.

Her attention was drawn to the increasingly annoying word, taunting her lack of understanding; Ether. What was it?

Ether is magic’s fuel. The System told her.

…It could tell her now? Was it because she’d chosen the Ether-blessed Greater Path that the System allowed her to know?

“So… Ether’s like my stamina for magic? How do I use it, though?” She asked.

The System was silent for a while, but it eventually answered. You have already subconsciously been using it, far before you even knew it existed.

“That didn’t answer the question… and elaborate.” She demanded.

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The acceleration of your mental processes was caused by a very feeble subconscious manipulation of Ether.

That was helpful. “You’re still dodging the question of how to use it.”

The System did not respond.

“If you’re not allowed to tell me, just say so.” She told it; she didn’t want to waste her time trying to get it to tell her if it wasn’t going to.

You are not privy to that information. The System confirmed. It is not hard to figure out, however.

Well… the little hint was nice, at least.

“Are you sentient?” She asked. She was shocked that she hadn’t thought to ask sooner. “Or are you only mimicking it?”

I am unsure. The System answered.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

I cannot tell if I am or not. The System helpfully elaborated.

“How can you not tell?”

The System did not respond.

Whatever; she needed to do other things, anyway, like figuring out Ether. She listed off everything she knew about it.

Ether was the fuel for magic, which was the power to influence the world through supernatural means. Judging by what the System had said, Ether needed to be manipulated to do things like accelerating her speed of thought.

She focused on the word ‘Ether’ again, to see if anything had changed since she had changed her Greater Path. Surprisingly, it somewhat worked.

Ordinarily, she’d gain a firm, instinctive understanding of the terms or words she focused on thanks to the strange nature of the text. This time, though, it was a limited but still instinctive understanding.

The knowledge didn’t include anything she didn’t already know, but the instinctive understanding led to her coming up with a few ideas and making connections.

The idea of figuring out how to use Ether had been daunting before, but she at least had an inkling of where to start now.

Ether needed to be manipulated. She was relatively certain that the ‘something’ that had been infused into her body during her evolution had been Ether. She focused on the power hidden in each of her cells, immersing herself in the feeling.

She stayed like this for a minute, before trying to get it to move. She pushed, pulled, and mentally commanded it, but it remained anchored in place. She pulled away from the strange feeling and fell deep into thought.

‘How do I get it to move? How do I manipulate it?’ She wondered. ‘I’d been doing it subconsciously, with less of it and even less control over it, so it can’t be hard… I’m just doing it wrong.’

She’d been doing it subconsciously… she felt like there was something hidden in that sentence, but it stayed just out of her perception, like a forgotten word on the tip of the tongue.

A minute later, she gave up on the Ether for a moment, albeit sadly. Instead, she focused on her body; it wasn’t very different from the projections, but there were extremely minute changes that she took a moment to get used to. After that, she started her trek towards Cavern 1.

She’d had no clue where it was before, but now, she had a rather instinctive feeling of where it was.

“That’s you, isn’t it?” She asked the System.

It is. The System responded.

At first, she continued to familiarize herself with her new, incredible form, but as the minutes crawled by, it became boring. She’d known almost everything about it even as she created it, and when she’d actually inhabited it, her control over the form had become greater than her control over any others despite her short time in it.

Thus, as the minutes crawled by and she rapidly traversed the tunnels, her mind wandered back to Ether. It was difficult to immerse herself in the feeling of the Ether within her body while walking at first, but it was practice that she felt would be very important in the future.

A few hours later, once she’d gotten to the point of being able to immerse herself in the feeling while still heading towards Cavern 1 and monitoring her surroundings, she started trying to manipulate it again.

‘I’d been doing it subconsciously…’ The idea still felt like it was hiding the key to figuring it out, but for the life of her, she couldn’t pinpoint it. Her attention was pulled away from her musings as her legs detected faint vibrations in the ground. Her antennae didn’t detect any pheromones from her kin, though… so what was causing those vibrations?

“How far am I from Cavern 1?” She asked the System.

You are a third of the way there. It answered. She was surprised at how far away Cavern 1 had to have been, but she supposed it made sense when Cavern 4 had been four hours away from Cavern 3, which had been relatively nearby.

“Do you know what’s causing the vibrations?” She decided to ask, as there was nothing to lose.

I do not.

She’d expected that answer. She didn’t stop moving towards Cavern 1, but the vibrations gradually became more and more powerful even though she could now tell that they were behind her. She decided to turn around and see what was going on.

A minute passed as she traveled back the way she came, the vibrations rapidly becoming stronger and stronger. They were still weak, obviously, but to the sensitive nerves in her legs they were easy to detect.

The second minute, she became certain that the origin of the vibrations only had to be a few tunnels away. She sped up, her curiosity burning, and soon rounded a corner to see… a creature she’d never seen before.

It wasn’t a Myrmeke, though; that was for sure.