The First Hatching

His original idea had been to face the enemy and shout, "Sacred F2 links us together! Bugs, charge!"

Then an endless sea of bugs would sweep over the enemy like a surging crimson tide.

As things stood, that idea would have to remain in his imagination for now. He didn't even know if the day would ever come when he could make it a reality.

In the end, Rowan grew so frustrated with feeding the Mother Nest that he simply bit through a small section of root, picked it up, linked himself to the Mother Nest, and dragged them both back to the underground cave.

Back in the cave, he shoved one end of the root into the Mother Nest's absorber. Since the root was long, more than half of it stuck out. But that would do. He'd let the Mother Nest digest it on its own.

Rowan gave himself a pat on the back for his cleverness. Sure, this would slow the Mother Nest's absorption and conversion rate, but it saved him a lot of effort, didn't it?

For the next few days, Rowan went nowhere. He planned to make a temporary nest here.

He expanded the little underground cave he'd dug several times over, then dug dozens of different tunnels: some leading to the surface, some to unknown areas in every direction, and others deeper underground.

He also dug small chambers partway along some tunnels or at their ends. They weren't useful yet, but he had nothing better to do. Some tunnels ended in dead ends, serving purely to confuse anyone who might come looking.

Several tunnels were especially wide. They were escape routes for moving the Mother Nest in an emergency, and he had added plenty of forks along them.

When he got hungry, he took the Mother Nest to the surface to drink some sap from the roots, biting off another piece for it to absorb at its leisure. When he got tired, he lay down beside the Mother Nest and slept.

After waking from his first rest, he gained a new ability: he could secrete a kind of slime from his mouth that could bind soil together and make it more solid.

The hell? Was this thing trying to keep him from going above ground? Why was it giving him so many abilities for digging tunnels and hiding?

Still, another ability was always a good thing. He used the Mother Nest to check and discovered that it came from a gene fragment of the Black Ant. Apparently, they were skilled diggers too.

After grumbling a little, he eagerly used his new ability to renovate and reinforce the chamber where he kept the Mother Nest, though it took quite a lot of spit.

Over the next few days, the Mother Nest, now an independent individual, grew several times larger. Rowan suspected it was lining its own pockets, secretly using the energy meant for producing bugs to grow itself instead.

At its current size, Rowan was already having trouble dragging it around. If it kept growing, all those wide escape tunnels he'd dug would be pointless.

Only after examining things carefully did he realize that the blame lay with him after all.

The first bug he wanted to hatch was modeled on the Black Armored "War God." He'd also given it digging legs and replaced its two short antennae with longer ones that could pick up signals better, lowering the chances of it being successfully ambushed.

Unfortunately, this caused the required materials and energy to skyrocket—and that wasn't even the main problem.

The key issue was that the Black Armored "War God" was more than ten times Rowan's size. Since the Mother Nest had detached from Rowan, it would have to grow even larger than the War God before it could hatch one directly.

After learning the truth, Rowan cursed the Mother Nest's rigid operating system. Couldn't it be a little more flexible? So the energy it had been using all these days really had gone toward lining its own pockets.

But the Mother Nest was a production facility now, more like a machine. It had no interest in pleasing its boss, and it certainly wasn't afraid of Rowan. If he had what it took, he could stop feeding it. He could leave it here to fend for itself. That was how brazen the Mother Nest had become.

In the end, Rowan backed down, of course. He couldn't abandon the Mother Nest.

He quickly corrected the faulty command and told it to hatch a miniature Black Armored "War God" at its current size.

While digging tunnels lately, Rowan had also scouted the surrounding area and found no threats. So he didn't keep as close an eye on the Mother Nest as he had at first, taking it everywhere with him. Besides, its current size made that impossible.

Instead, he dug a secret chamber beside the large room and hid the Mother Nest inside, leaving a small opening that he could just squeeze through. He made a door out of saliva and blocked the opening with it whenever he went out, sealing it in place with more saliva.

After a few tries, his handiwork had become so precise that the door fit perfectly, and no one could tell it was there just by looking.

Rowan pondered. Why was he so talented at anything to do with digging?

He realized that the Mother Nest's size did have some advantages. For one, it chewed through roots faster, making its energy conversion more efficient.

So was bigger always better for the Mother Nest? He was a little hesitant. If it got any larger, he really wouldn't be able to drag it.

Fortunately, it was big enough for now, so he set the question aside. He'd hatch a few bugs first, see how they turned out, and decide what to do next.

After another two days, the Mother Nest had finally accumulated enough energy and began hatching its first bug in earnest.

The hatching took far longer than he'd imagined. Two more days passed before the Mother Nest "spat" out a black-armored bug exactly like the one Rowan had envisioned.

Though perhaps "sprayed" would have been more accurate.

One side of the Mother Nest split open into a gaping hole, then it sprayed the bug, along with a mass of slime, onto the ground.

Luckily, Rowan had prepared in advance and widened the room's entrance. Otherwise, the black-armored bug would have been splattered against the wall.

After spraying out the bug, the Mother Nest deflated rapidly, as if it had sprung a leak. Rowan was terrified.

Could this thing be disposable?

He hurriedly touched the Mother Nest to check its condition. The results were worrying. The Mother Nest wasn't disposable, but hatching the black-armored bug had left it seriously weakened. It would need a long time to recover before it could be used again.

And during that recovery period, it would need a great deal of energy.

Did the Mother Nest have to go through postpartum confinement too?

Rowan was a little depressed. Two days to replenish its energy, two days to hatch a bug, and then even more time to recover. At this rate, when would he ever build the Zerg army he had in mind?

Was this the power of the collective?

At this rate, maybe it wasn't the power of the collective at all. Maybe this was just a trial on the road to becoming the ultimate individual, meant to wear him out ahead of time.

After putting in so much effort only to get this result, it was no wonder Rowan found it hard to accept. Still, he forced down his frustration for the moment and turned to look at the newly born black-armored bug, hoping it wouldn't disappoint him.