Flaws

At that moment, the Black Beetle, which had been lying in a pile of slime, struggled to its feet.

It was slightly larger than Rowan. Modeled after the Black Armored Beetle "War God," it had a pair of enormous mandibles, longer antennae with better signal reception, and an extra pair of Digging Legs, giving it four pairs of limbs instead of three.

Looking at the result before him, Rowan silently praised it. Amazing. He felt a little better.

He had to admit, in the human world of his previous life, with its advanced technology, combining organs from different insects to create something like the Black Beetle before him would probably have been impossible.

Unless they were dead insects glued together.

But the one before him was alive. And judging by its movements, its newly added organs weren't awkward or uncoordinated at all. It used them with ease.

However, the longer Rowan watched, the more he realized something extremely awkward.

He couldn't communicate with the insect in front of him!

What a ridiculous joke.

Who could have guessed that after all that effort—and nearly wrecking the Mother Nest—he would end up with this thing?

Rowan didn't know whether he was supposed to communicate with it in insect language, but he'd never learned that. How was he supposed to know any insect language?

Fortunately, although the beetle couldn't communicate, it didn't attack him either. Maybe that was because its model was a big shot who ate plants.

But the more he thought about it, the less likely that seemed. Even if the big shot was vegetarian, he still had a terrible temper. Rowan hadn't given him the nickname "War God" for nothing; he had earned it in battle. Of all the insects Rowan had seen so far, he was the strongest in a head-on fight.

If that was the case, the insects hatched by the Mother Nest had to be capable of distinguishing friend from foe. So what had gone wrong with the Interaction System?

Rowan figured that under normal circumstances, an insect would definitely come with an Interaction System. So what had caused this awkward situation?

He calmed his thoughts and began to consider the matter. The Mother Nest had grown from genetic fragments belonging to an ant queen.

That had only been a guess before, but after the Mother Nest came into being, he was able to check the gene bank and confirm it. Rowan really did carry some of the ant queen's genetic fragments, though he wasn't sure whether he'd gotten them from the Black Ant.

Then he thought of all the ants in the Ant Nest, living in perfect order. They must have some way of communicating. So, assuming his ant queen genes had come from the Black Ant, could he also have absorbed the genetic fragments that let ants communicate with one another?

At the thought, Rowan hurried to check the Mother Nest. Fortunately, he could now use it to indirectly inspect his own genetic repository. Otherwise, this would have been difficult to sort out.

Luckily, there weren't many genetic fragments in the gene bank. That should have been depressing news, but for now it saved Rowan a great deal of time.

Besides the ant queen genes, the genetic fragments from the Black Ant included one that should be called formic acid. The Spit-and-Stick skill he'd recently acquired was related to it.

There was also a gene that made the body secrete certain pheromones. He had no idea what it was for yet.

Rowan reasoned that since formic acid could combine with spit to glue things together, it probably wasn't used for communication. Still, he could test it.

And he would see the result right away.

Rowan spat several times at the Black Beetle. It showed no reaction.

As expected, formic acid couldn't be used to communicate...

But then again, his spit might not be pure formic acid anymore. It seemed to contain genetic fragments from the Camouflage Bug, whose secretions stuck leaves to its body as camouflage.

Thinking of it that way, he couldn't rule out formic acid just yet, even if it seemed unlikely.

That left one highly probable explanation: the genetic fragment that made the body secrete certain pheromones was part of the Interaction System. Unfortunately, when preparing the blueprint, he hadn't installed it in the Black Beetle.

By then, the Black Beetle had recovered from the weakness of birth and was crawling aimlessly back and forth outside the Mother Nest's room.

It looked like it was patrolling.

Could it instinctively protect the Mother Nest? If so, it might actually be useful.

The Black Beetle had a pair of mandibles Rowan lacked, covered in sharp spikes. Its intelligence was questionable, but its head-on fighting ability should be a little better than Rowan's at the moment. With the Black Beetle guarding the Mother Nest, Rowan could scout farther afield.

There was no time to waste. Rowan went to replenish his food, then brought back two roots and gave one to the Mother Nest. The Black Beetle took the other without hesitation, as if Rowan was obviously supposed to feed a combat unit like him.

Rowan cursed under his breath but didn't dwell on it. There was no point getting angry with an insect he couldn't even communicate with. He'd just treat it like a little watchdog.

After carefully sealing up the Mother Nest's small chamber, Rowan glanced at the Black Beetle, which was chewing on its root without reacting to him, then set off toward the surface.

Ever since the Mother Nest had become a burden, Rowan hadn't been up on the surface to roam around for a long time. After so many days underground, the air seemed fresher than ever.

The surface was far more dangerous than underground, but Rowan had advantages in both places.

Underground, he could dig quickly, and no insect could catch up with him so far. But he had poor warning coverage and could only detect danger through vibrations sensed by the hairs on his body. If he ran into something that stayed still, it would be difficult to notice.

And underground, although he was fast, he wasn't nimble when changing direction. If he went too fast, it was also easier for his eyes to lose their protection, which could injure him.

On the surface, however, his field of vision far exceeded that of other insects. Among all those nearsighted bugs, he could be considered a Clairvoyance.

There were still ambush predators like the giant earthworm and insects that disguised themselves before launching surprise attacks, but Rowan now knew they existed and was on his guard. With his eyes refreshing at such a high rate, they could barely sneak up on him.

That was why Rowan liked exploring the surroundings on the surface. Even if he encountered danger, all he had to do was stick out his rear end and retreat to the terrain where he excelled.

Rowan was now patrolling clockwise around the Mother Nest, making wider and wider circles as he searched the area for potential dangers.

If he found a minor threat, he'd see whether he could deal with it. If he found a major threat that he couldn't handle, he'd have to prepare early and run as fast as he could.

His antennae picked up several insect calls from the surrounding area. Within his field of view, two sound sources were Black Beetles. They were clinging to tree trunks, making calls that sounded almost hysterical.

Rowan had no intention of provoking them. Those big shots were beyond his reach for now. Besides, they were herbivores. As long as Rowan didn't go looking for trouble, their interests wouldn't clash, and they could coexist peacefully.

On his third outward patrol, Rowan spotted a target—an ideal specimen for an experiment.