New Changes

The environment was complicated, and danger lurked everywhere. Rowan didn't have any more time to slowly adjust his mindset.

He stopped hesitating and told himself to think of it as drinking milk tea.

Closing his eyes, he bit a small opening in the Camouflage Bug's belly with his two fangs. Thick liquid welled out of the wound and flowed into his mouth.

His newly changed chewing mouthparts sealed the opening. His mandibles opened and closed, drinking up all the liquid that flowed out.

Actually, once he got past the mental hurdle, it tasted pretty good by insect standards. After all, it was the Black Armored Beetle's muscles concentrated into liquid. It was like an old hen stewed for three days, with all the essence infused into the broth.

Unfortunately, the lapping-sucking mouthparts that could have served as a straw had just been replaced. Rowan felt more like he was drinking from a pouch. He bit a small hole in it, then slowly sucked the liquid inside dry. Every now and then, he came across some solid bits, like pearls, grass jelly, or fruit in milk tea. He chewed them and savored the taste. (Hope this helps everyone enjoy their milk tea even more.)

The Camouflage Bug's once-swollen belly gradually deflated. Rowan's digestive system went into overdrive, rapidly digesting the broth he had sucked in.

This wasted some energy, but given the difference in size between Rowan and the Camouflage Bug, he would have wasted even more if he hadn't done this.

Even with his digestion sped up, he still ended up a little too full this time. After all, this was the combined essence of the Black Beetle and the Camouflage Bug. The Camouflage Bug wasn't much of a problem; it didn't have much meat. But even with its shell removed, the Black Beetle's muscles alone were several times bigger than Rowan.

By the time he had finished eating everything, Rowan could barely keep his balance as he walked. His swollen belly dragged along the ground, forcing him to hold up his limbs just to crawl. It was extremely awkward.

He was in terrible shape. He had never been fast on the surface, and now he was even clumsier. He couldn't risk another insect stumbling upon him, so as soon as he finished eating, he stuck out his rear and started digging.

Only deep underground could he feel safe.

This time, he dug a passage wider than usual to avoid squeezing his distended belly. The head-down, feet-up position also kept his mouth tightly shut. His mandibles were fully closed, making him look as if he were wearing a faceplate—and somehow making him look a little more handsome.

After struggling to reach a safe spot, he hastily dug out a small chamber. He didn't even have time to dig an escape tunnel before Rowan fell into a deep sleep.

In his dreams, he sometimes saw himself as a gigantic black "War God," dominating the ant colony with no match in sight. At other times, he dreamed he was an old-school assassin, using all kinds of props to disguise himself as he took down one hideous, powerful insect after another...

Far underground, at a depth few insects could reach, a small room had been dug out of the soil. A little black insect was hiding inside.

His body was undergoing some kind of change.

Time passed. No one knew how long it had been before Rowan finally woke up.

Perhaps he had slept for a long time. He was still a little dazed when he first came to.

But only for a moment. He quickly gathered his wits and began inspecting his body.

His first pair of Digging Legs was too large for delicate work, so he used his second pair of thoracic legs as hands. Their fine hairs went to work, carefully sensing every inch they touched.

He felt from top to bottom. His eyes had not changed.

His mouthparts were still made for chewing, and his Digging Legs seemed normal.

He had the usual number of limbs. None were missing, and none had been added.

His 360-degree panoramic eyes glanced over his back. His shoulder armor was normal, and his back armor hadn't changed. Even his body seemed to be the same size—still about as big as a fingernail.

Then he sensed something strange in his abdomen. He hurriedly twisted around and looked down at it.

"Huh? Did I only sleep for a little while?"

His abdomen was still swollen and round. Still somewhat dazed, Rowan thought he hadn't finished digesting his food.

But then he noticed something was wrong. His abdomen hadn't shrunk. It had grown several times bigger and stretched much longer.

"What the hell is this thing?"

Rowan couldn't help swearing.

He had thought that absorbing the Black Beetle's essence—even secondhand—might make him bigger or strengthen his exoskeleton. Either would have been great.

Even if he hadn't directly absorbed the Black Beetle's meat and couldn't evolve the Camouflage Bug's ability to secrete glue from its back, he could have made do. Even if all he got was its mouthparts, which fired sharp spines, he would have accepted that.

But what was with this belly getting fatter and longer? Had he eaten so much that he'd damaged his stomach?

For a moment, Rowan couldn't make heads or tails of it.

He tried walking around a few times. This thing on his abdomen seriously affected his speed and agility, and it felt awkward too.

Not daring to take any chances, he laboriously rolled onto his back and arched his upper body like he was doing a sit-up to get a better look.

Once he saw what was going on, Rowan cursed under his breath. His abdomen hadn't grown after all. Something else had grown behind his rear.

Before, his body had been divided into three main parts: head, thorax, and abdomen, the standard insect body plan. Now it had four.

His abdomen had originally had nine segments. He lost three of them fighting the Earth-Yellow Ant. They later healed, but they had never grown back.

Now the six remaining abdominal segments looked like an extended spring that had been compressed, squeezed together into a small lump. The new growth was behind them. It looked a lot like his swollen abdomen, with rings circling it, so Rowan had kept mistaking it for his belly.

But when he had wandered around earlier, he'd noticed that this last section dragged behind him like a trailer, making it very hard to turn. A closer look showed that his poor belly had been wrongly blamed: this thing had simply grown out behind his rear.

What was he supposed to do now? He had already been near the bottom of the insect food chain. Adding a burden like this would make foraging far more dangerous—unless he could find another long-term meal ticket like the White Grub.

After his initial panic, Rowan gradually calmed down. Each time he had evolved a new organ or ability, there had been clues pointing to what caused it. If he could find a few hints, he was sure he could figure out what was going on.

First, he thought of the first time he went to the surface. He hadn't wanted to be nearsighted, and his eyes had changed afterward. His eyesight had gradually improved, and his field of vision had grown much wider.

Then he had struggled to dig through soil, so he grew a new pair of Digging Legs. To this day, he still hadn't found an insect that could dig faster than he could.

Later, he couldn't bite through tree roots or the White Grub, so he grew a pair of fangs. When he fought the Earth-Yellow Ant and lost, he grew a thick backplate. After eating the White Grub, he had undergone pupation when he was injured.

And most recently, he had replaced the lapping-sucking mouthparts he had always complained about with chewing mouthparts.

By rights, eating the Black Beetle and the Camouflage Bug should have given him some of their genes. Even if the Black Beetle's were incomplete or he hadn't absorbed them, he should definitely have gotten some from the Camouflage Bug.

So why had something unrelated grown after the food was digested and he had seemingly burned through quite a bit of energy?

He thought again about the Black Beetle's and the Camouflage Bug's physical traits. His own appearance already bore some resemblance to the Black Beetle's. Even if he had gained some of its genes, the most likely result would have been that he grew bigger.

But his body size hadn't changed at all, ruling out the possibility that the Black Beetle's genes had caused this mutation.

Before it ate its fill, the Camouflage Bug's abdomen was long and flat. Once full, it became swollen and round. The thing behind Rowan's abdomen had combined those traits: it was both long and round.

Could that have caused his body to change?

At first glance, it almost seemed plausible. But the theory was ridiculous. Rowan shook his head. When the Camouflage Bug's abdomen swelled, its actual length didn't change. That wasn't a gene at all; it had simply eaten too much.

So what was really going on?