Worker Bees
Currently, the Insect Empress has laid five Insect Eggs, which will undergo a long development period before they can begin their duties.
The main reason for this situation was actually Rowan.
Whether it's the Ant Queen of the past or the Insect Empress of today, they all originate from the Mother Nest, and only the Mother Nest can produce these special units with hatching capabilities.
Although the Mother Nest was separated from Rowan, they still maintained a certain connection. Therefore, due to Rowan's size of 60 centimeters, the Mother Nest had reached its limit when it grew to less than 70 centimeters.
Therefore, the newly hatched Insect Empress Egg are only a little over ten centimeters in size. Just imagine how long it would take for such large Insect Egg to develop into insects over ten meters long.
Rowan was also somewhat troubled. Should he give up his "assassin" profession, which he had already honed to perfection?
If he's starting a new account, he'll definitely need to choose a large template. Since the Swarm has limited exposure to large creatures, he certainly can't choose one that's too ugly.
The deformed head and tail and slow movement of Diplodocus would definitely not work. The Tyrannosaurus, while its head looks majestic and imposing, is unfortunately quite unattractive with its short arms.
The Black-Ringed Red Dragon, which can fight against the Tyrannosaurus, is decent, but it's only a land-based unit. Rowan's current body has undergone numerous combat improvements, allowing him to fight on land, sea, air, and underground—essentially a "quadrupedal" unit. His adaptability and survivability are extremely strong.
To increase the size of the Mother Nest, they had to sacrifice most of their own combat power—that's just too much of a loss.
And then there's the Pterosaur. Although soaring through the blue sky has always been Rowan's dream, the problem remains: the Pterosaur is an air force unit. While it can operate on the ground, it's at best an "amphibious-and-a-half" unit, and its survival capabilities are far inferior to Rowan's current abilities.
Moreover, once he acquires Pterosaur genes, he can simply create a Pterosaur, switch perspectives, take over the body, and still fulfill his dream of soaring through the blue sky. There's no need to give himself a Pterosaur body.
Rowan was racking his brains, but couldn't come up with a good solution for the time being. In the end, he simply decided to grow his current body to a gigantic size. Although it would require him to molt constantly, he could avoid the risks of molting by forming a pupa, but it was still very troublesome.
Fortunately, the plan to increase the size of the Mother Nest is not urgent. This is because, apart from the Insect Empress, all other Zerg units, both the existing Ant Queen and the future Insect Empress, can be produced.
The initial Insect Empress Egg are small, which only prolongs the development period. The Swarm now has plenty of time; it only needs to slow down its expansion and wait for about a hundred days Insect Empress arrives before continuing its advance.
So, within two days, Rowan put the matter out of his mind and focused his energy back on tinkering with plant Seed.
The Swarm slowed its expansion and began to consolidate its existing territory.
Rowan took some time to further improve the Worker Ant, replacing their exoskeletons with cuticles and increasing their size to about ten centimeters. Although this weakened their strength somewhat due to the lack of exoskeleton support, their increased size actually greatly improved their work capacity and efficiency.
To distinguish them from the older version of Worker Ant, the new version of Worker Ant was renamed Worker Bee. Of course, the older version of Worker Ant still produces, but they are responsible for some more detailed work.
Swarm 'Rowan crops have been updated several times through continuous research and experimentation. The new crops have increased yields and have also incorporated genes from parasitic vines, allowing them to directly absorb nutrients from other plants.
As a result, the overgrown environment of the Swarm's territory was improved, and many places were covered with this purplish-red spore-bearing plant.
However, Rowan still controlled their growth to prevent them from damaging the surrounding trees. Whenever they spread onto the trees, the affected parts would be cleared away by Worker Bee and Worker Ant and transported back to the base for food storage.
Rowan has recently found some new ideas. Although he can be considered a hybrid of various biological genes, he also possesses some mysterious primitive genes that contain the core secrets of Efiash, which are impossible to decipher.
However, it can still be used for some experiments. For example, through experimentation, he discovered that some of the original gene fragments can actually act as a bridge, building a connection channel between plant genes and animal genes, making them possible to fuse.
The new discovery made Rowan even more engrossed in it.
Time flies, and the Swarm's production system has gradually been replaced. The new Insect Empress begins to take over the production of large production and combat units. Except for a few queens left behind to continue producing Worker Ant, the rest of Ant Queen Type III have been sent out to establish Arboreal Sub-base to produce air units.
As a result, the number of Arboreal Sub-base the Swarm's tree reached twenty-one, and the number of Flying Bug troops exceeded one million. These were large Flying Bug, each ten to fifteen centimeters in length, and most of them were equipped with ranged weapons. Back then, wild Flying Bug could roam the forest with just five thousand melee versions.
Nowadays, Swarm can wipe out most forest creatures with just their Flying Bug armies.
The giant pythons in the forest have been having a really bad time lately. There are quite a few of them, and they come in several different species. The longest are twenty or thirty meters long, and the shortest are over ten meters long.
They exist between the pinnacle of power and the pinnacle of individual power. They usually perch in the trees, each going its own way, and have virtually no natural enemies. During mating season, they gather together, even though they come down to the ground. But at this time, even Tyrannosaurus dares not provoke them.
However, ever since the Swarm killed a 30-meter-long giant python, proving the combat effectiveness of the anti-python Self-Destruct Bug, these pythons have lost their deterrent effect and have been added to the Swarm's diet.
Whenever food reserves reach a certain warning level, the Blade will select a giant python of suitable size and build to hunt it down. Although they usually hide very well under the cover of tall tree canopies, they are nowhere to hide from the Flying Bug scouts equipped with Echolocation System.
Each python has a meat yield of ten to twenty tons, and each one slaughtered greatly replenishes the Swarm's food reserves. The python swarm, with its relatively low intelligence, feels no sense of crisis and is completely unaware that they have become livestock raised by the Swarm.
After a period of stable development, the Swarm once again bared its fangs. Soon after, the Swarm's combat forces invaded the territory of a nearby Tyrannosaurus.
Large Flying Bug Type I scout insects dispersed like scattered petals, using Echolocation System to quickly create sound wave maps and upload them to the Swarm Network.
Within the Tyrannosaurus's territory, various hidden creatures gradually came into view before Rowan.
The combat troops ignored these small fry; they were all provisions for the Tyrannosaurus's territory. Once the lord of this place was eliminated, they would automatically transform into food supplies for the Swarm.