She had spent longer than she wanted finding a safe place to evolve, not knowing what to expect and all. She hoped and prayed that it did not ruin her chances of being among the first to evolve.
Hiding within a nook in the tunnels she had dug out, she finally told the Myrmidon Control System that she wanted to evolve. She watched the Biomass counter in her Evolutionary Status screen plummet down to zero. Her core trembled within her body, and from it, a large blob of pitch-black goo escaped from her body through her mouth.
It puddle together at her feet, and from it, an egg was rapidly constructed. Within five seconds of having begun the evolution, the large, solid black egg was complete. More goo escaped from her core, and then out of her body through her mouth, until the egg was filled up to her antennae with it. The moment that the goo stopped coming, the System piped up.
Second evolution has commenced. Your accomplishments and subtypes have all been kept track of by the Myrmidon Control System, and your selection of evolution options has been tailored to your existence.
As the fourth Myrmeke to evolve among the 23rd batch and the first to evolve amongst Cavern 3 Pupae, you have been granted a special privilege:
Direct your Greater Path. You are currently a Soldier.
Scout
Warrior
Lowest Queen Reda wishes to make it known to you that very few Lower Myrmidons receive the privilege of being able to direct their Greater Path.
She thought on the text from the System seriously. The two options she was presented were relatively simple; Scout would lean further into how she had fought so far, while Warrior would act as a direct upgrade to Soldier.
So far, she hadn’t truly gotten caught up in any enormous struggles; she ran away, spat acid, and bit down on people’s heads, meaning that Scout seemed to fit her better.
She had only had to do all of that because she wasn’t as strong in front-on fights, though. Choosing Warrior could completely change that. Minutes crawled by as she thought deeply on her choice.
Finally, she chose Scout. The text disappeared, but returned soon after.
Your Greater Path has been chosen. Direct the evolution of your Lower Paths. You are capable of utilizing 132 Biomass (Lower Venomous Flyer), (Lower Featureless Myrmeke), (Lower Acidic Flyer), (Lower Lockjaw), (Lower Flyer), (Lower Venomous Lockjaw).
Acid (Hydrochloric)
Articulated Arms (11)
Bladed Legs (13)
Durability
Lockjaw Mandibles
Venom (Neurotoxin) (14)
Size
Strength
Springlegs
Wings (21)
Biomass Essence Combinations
Acidspray Wings (24)
Poisoncloud Wings (40)
Venomous Lockjaw Mandibles (17)
Absorbable Commendations: “Good senses” – Lower Queen Burhun. (Mutation) (53)
She only barely glanced over the first many Lesser Paths, focusing instead on the ‘Biomass Essence Combinations’ and, after that, the ‘Absorbable Commendations’ section.
It took a minute to truly understand, but the self-explanatory nature of the text made it possible.
She had thought that the ‘commendations’ were simply accolades, but they were actually just Queens pointing out random mutations or traits of note, it appeared. So… she could take the Venomous Lockjaw’s ‘Good Danger Sense’ commendation.
After considering that, she looked at the Biomass Essence Combinations section and quickly figured out that it looked like she could merge the traits of her victims. Acidspray wings, for example, came from the Acidic Flyer she had killed in the tunnels, and it would let her spray acid from her wings. That didn’t seem very useful at first, but it would let her attack to the right and left of her and not just in front.
The Poisoncloud Wings seemed like they would be useful for escaping, as it would allow her to release large amounts of gaseous venom-turned-poison into the air from her wings.
Ultimately, Venomous Lockjaw Mandibles seemed the best of them all, though.
With a sigh, she began picking and choosing what she wanted and how much Biomass she wanted to spend on them.
Soon, just like before, she hesitantly decided that she was finished and the System popped up within her mind to make sure she was sure.
You have chosen:
“Good senses.” – Lower Queen Burhun (Mutation) (53) 53
Venomous Lockjaw Mandibles (17) 70
Springlegs (21) 91
Articulated Arms (11) 102
Acid (10) 112
Durability (10) 122
Strength (5) 127
Size (5) 132
You cannot change your mind once your Evolution begins, and your form won’t grow or change until you reach the third Stage. Are you certain?
She was, of course, not sure, but agreed regardless.
Then, the evolution began, and it was agonizing.
∑
She had never endured such pain before. Her entire body had been torn apart and rebuilt dozens of times, and throughout it all, she had lived and endured. Finally, though, the black goo that tormented her ran out, and the egg began to crack without its support. Her body stopped changing, and text appeared.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
In order to evolve to the second stage, you must expend 394 Biomass.
Your Myrmidon Control System has evolved to the second stage. You have gained access to fea-
The text didn’t disappear, but instead paused, flickering a little bit. After a few seconds, it resolved the problems it must’ve been having and continued.
Your Myrmidon Control System has evolved. You have gained access to a pseudo-feature.
Your Evolutionary Status has changed significantly.
She would check that in a minute; right now, she just wanted to rest a bit. Her body was better than it ever had been before, but her mind was exhausted beyond belief.
After several minutes, she finally broke the egg open and stepped outside. The first thing she noticed was that, even though the tunnels were ten feet tall and wide for the most part, giving her a decent way to measure herself. It seemed that she had shot up from three feet tall to five. This didn’t include the height that her Articulated Arms added, though; with them, she could even touch the ceiling.
A surge of interest hit her when she recalled the ‘pseudo-feature’ that the System had granted her. She mentally recited the strange term, and the System responded.
Pseudo-Feature: ‘Self-affirmation’.
A bit annoyed with how strange this process was, she mentally recited the new strange term and was quickly shaken out of her annoyance as the System showed her a mental image for the first time.
It was… her. Text popped up to the side, listing off a few interesting parameters about her second stage form, but she shut it up in order to get a better look at herself.
She was twelve and a half feet long, and exactly five feet tall, with a black, chitinous exoskeleton. The two Articulated Arms jutting from her thorax, right by her petiole, gave her a disturbing and frightening appearance. The limbs were covered in black chitin, just like the rest of her, but the joints had a more flexible, gray chitin around them. Speaking of joints, there were three across the four-foot-long limbs, and their ends had three spindly fingers in a triangular formation.
Her change of Greater Path towards being a Scout had also caused her to become slimmer and more sleek, even in spite of the Biomass she’d put into increasing her size. It also made her legs bulkier, and according to the text that kept on stubbornly popping up, would make it so that, if she lost one, it’d regenerate in only a day- it applied to her Springlegs, too, meaning that breaking them this time wouldn’t be the end of her ability to leap and bounce around. She only briefly glanced at the rest of her body, as it wasn’t anything she wasn’t already aware of herself or couldn’t find out with her own two eyes, and eventually dispersed the mental image. She’d probably return to the feature eventually, though, because it actually told her a few things about her abilities that she hadn’t known, like the changes that her nature as a Scout had caused.
It was strangely difficult to control the carefully-articulated fingers, and despite knowing that she could do far more with them, the best she could manage at the moment was simply opening and closing. The Articulated Arms weren’t really meant for combat, but the fingers ended in sharp claws at least.
Her antennae felt a bit different, too, and in a way she couldn’t figure out. She felt them carefully using her new Articulated Arms, but they didn’t seem any different physically from before. She knew it had something to do with the ‘”Good senses”’ commendation.
Lastly, she started feeling her Venomous Lockjaw Mandibles. They felt way stronger than before, but more importantly, they had needle-like formations all over them that could inject venom. She was a bit surprised that her Lockjaws had gotten any stronger than before, actually; she had mostly expected for them to just gain the ability to inject venom.
Finally, she got over the new and returned to the old. Her previously-shattered Springlegs had been remade better than ever, the springs of flexible metallic chitin much more durable and powerful than before. She had a more intuitive sense of the strength and amounts of acid she had, but still decided to spit a glob of it onto the ground in order to see how it did.
It sizzled and bubbled, rapidly consuming a large amount of the packed dirt it had landed on. She didn’t need to touch it in order to know that it was very dangerous to her as well. She’d need to be careful not to get any of it on herself.
Finally, the most boring and foundational things: her strength and durability. Strength was easier to measure; her muscles felt significantly stronger than before. Definitely nowhere near twice as strong, but half that seemed like a reasonable guesstimate.
Her muscles weren’t twice as strong, but her greater size meant more muscles. Thus, she was relatively certain that she was twice as strong as before. Measuring durability wasn’t as easy to prove, but Myrmidons had an excellent understanding of their own bodies- they needed to, since they were constantly changing- and she reckoned that her chitin was thirty or so percent more resilient.
With a clack of her more powerful mandibles, she had the System bring up her Evolutionary Status.
Nameless Lower Myrmeke Pupae
Greater Path: Scout
Current Subtype: Springarmed Venomjaw
Second Stage
Acid: Above average
Articulated Arms: Greater
Durability: Below average
Strength: Below average
Size: Slightly below average
Springlegs: Powerful
Venomous Lockjaw Mandibles: Greater
Biomass: 0
Commendations: “Intelligent.” – Lower Queen Andromeda. “Good senses.” – Lower Queen Burhun.
Beseech Lower Queen Andromeda for a name?
Beseech Lower Queen Burhun for a name?
‘Name,’ She confirmed, recalling her prior rejection. New text appeared soon after both Burhun’s and Andromeda’s disappeared.
Lower Queen Andromeda has declined your request for a name. Reason: Unworthy.
Lower Queen Burhun has declined your request for a name. Reason: Unworthy.
She was very careful not to feel any anger or annoyance at all, fearful of what the System might do to her if she did. She tried to avoid thinking about it, and instead focused on her increasingly long subtype.
With a clack of her jaws, she eventually rid her mind of the System’s text and began learning how to function in her new form. She had been born with a moderate understanding of her old one, and was quick on the uptake with this one, too, but the articulated arms in specific were very difficult to control, even if they seemed very useful.
In direct combat, she imagined that they would only be useful for putting pressure on her opponents and aiming for weak points; after all, their claws seemed unlikely to be able to break the exoskeleton of her opponents. That was still very valuable, but they seemed like they were certainly going to shine even brighter outside of combat.
A half-hour or so later, she was able to close the hands without clenching them with all her strength, and open them without having them uncomfortably straight. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing that half-hour had been spent on.
She had a few half-formed plans of how to use her Articulated Arms, but none of them were open to her here. She checked the clear mental map she had made of the tunnels, and started her trek towards Cavern 3.
As she did, she tried to test as many of her newfound abilities as she could. She hadn’t even had a good grasp of her old ones, let alone the new, and so she started with her Springlegs. They were more resilient and springy than before, but they were still easy to damage and would take a while to regenerate afterwards. So, she tried to learn how to use them without damaging them as much.
There wasn’t very much she could do to minimize the harm to the springs, but there was plenty she could do to receive better results while putting less pressure on them; like rapidly bouncing backwards on them, or using the force of her falls to half-charge her Springlegs.
She traveled at a pace she had no problem keeping up for ages, but it was still significantly faster than before. After all, she had invested quite a bit into her Springlegs, and was larger and stronger.
Her goal was simple; to suppress her emotions, and slaughter her kin until there were only ten thousand left. Right now, she probably wouldn’t have any problems killing first stage Myrmeke, and would only struggle when confronted with her peers, which would become increasingly common. Hell, she hadn’t even been the first, although that was likely because she hadn’t evolved instantly.
∑
You have slain a Lower Myrmeke Pupae, stage 1. Greater path: Soldier. Lower path: Articulate Springleg.
The corpse of an ant lay before her. She blocked out the lingering pheromones of agony it had produced as she considered the ‘fight’.
This ant was weird. It had Articulated Arms, just like her. They were weaker, but she hadn’t seen anybody with features outside what she’d personally seen. It’d all been venomous this and acidic that. She supposed it simply had a weird mutation like the Lockjaw she’d killed.
She’d found this one in the tunnels, a minute or two away from the cavern. She’d sensed it with her improved antennae and had even felt the miniscule vibrations that it’d produced while walking.
‘”Good senses,”’ she repeated with a bit of amusement. This went beyond being merely ‘good’. Fifty-three Biomass had been expensive, and she would doubtlessly lack raw power in many ways, but it was worth it. The ‘good’ senses she had gained would help her to find her kin… her prey.
Suddenly, she stopped. This mindset was wrong… wasn’t it? Her instincts conflicted. The more primal side told her that she was not meant to be indiscriminately slaughtering her kin; they were meant to work together in order to bring glory to the hive.
The other side, the one that she guessed was tainted by the Myrmidon Control System, demanded that she follow orders and slaughter her kin to become powerful.
Seconds passed as she was paralyzed with indecision, before she eventually fell back on her previous justification: she just wanted to survive, and to survive here, she needed to kill.
The logic seemed weak now that she was more than strong enough to protect herself, but she knew that not even a full day had passed yet, and she hadn’t even been the first to evolve. Others would reach the second stage soon enough, and the competition would become fiercer for her. If she was too slow, they’d reach the third stage before her, and she would become the hunted. Maybe… maybe she’d stop at the third stage… or the fourth, if necessary.
After a moment of hesitation, she ruthlessly put the mortal quandary down and continued forward.