I chewed quietly on the pig, not caring about the dirt that got mixed in. I'd eaten who knows how much dirt in the past month and a little more wasn't going to hurt.

[How much longer until we can try out the new abilities?]

[Well, look who's enjoying themselves. What happened to the ant that wanted to stick with just Void Bite?]

She had a point. Much as I hated to admit it, I was immensely enjoying the feeling of getting more powerful. I was no longer on the bottom of the food chain, and while I was far from the top, I was climbing quickly.

[All right, that should just about do it. Your reserves are at a much more manageable level now, and you've finished regenerating from the improvements from earlier, so we can try the new skills.]

[Great! Although... they don't use too much energy, do they?]

[If you're worried about a repeat of the Void Creation incident, then no, they don't.]

[Good.]

I didn't want to have that feeling of emptiness again. It made my carapace crawl.

[Okay, here's the first one. I'm calling it Illusion.]

A warped, ghostly version of myself slowly peeled away from me, taking my body with it. No, that wasn't quite right - I could still feel my body, just not see it.

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[This could be helpful.]

[No kidding. I got the idea from the heat distortion the anteater was giving off.]

[How does it work?]

I notice a frustrated emotion drifting off of Joule.

[I... don't know. Something about light manipulation through shadow inversion? I don't get all the physics, which shouldn't really be possible. I'm designed to quantify that sort of thing.]

[Don't worry about it. What else do we have?]

[Aside from Illusion, I improved your Void Bite to consume less energy and expand further from your mandibles. You shouldn't have any trouble attacking prey from as far as eight feet away.]

[Now that's helpful.]

[No kidding. It's the next one that's a real kicker, though.]

I'm interested. If I can turn invisible and bite from a distance, what could possibly be considered to be so much greater of an advantage?

[It's a subspace storage unit!]

My mandibles hang open in confusion, and Joule mistakes it for awe.

[Exactly! Now, these physics I can deal with! I just generate a micro wormhole, create a looping internal structure, stabilize it using the unique properties of your void emissions, extend the half-life duration by a couple of centuries, then secure it as a permanent fourth-dimensional circle! It's genius if I do say so myself.]

[I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. What do you mean by subspace?]

There's a stunned silence from Joule's end.

[The - the subspace? Did I lose you at subspace? But that was the very beginning of the - can you even appreciate the complexity of what I just pulled off?!]

[Not really, no. So what does it do?]

Defeated, Joule decides to cut to the chase and explain 'physics' to me later.

[Basically, you can store anything that isn't alive in a sort of... moving pocket.]

[Okay, I understood that. Why can't I put anything alive in there?]

[Let's just say it would very quickly be unalive, and in an uncomfortable manner for all parties involved.]

[Fair enough. But... why do I need a pocket? I can eat everything I hunt.]

[Simple! You can use it to-]

She cuts off abruptly, and for a moment I think she's left again.

[Joule?]

[...This is absolutely useless for you, isn't it.]