Experiment

This approach left Rowan complaining constantly. He now had to travel much farther to hunt down straggling Black Ants, then drag them back to the cave, which added considerably to his workload.

But it was worth it. After being fed meat for the past few days, the Mother Nest had finally recovered enough strength to begin another round of hatching.

Rowan had also spent the past few days thinking about whether his last attempt had been the right move.

Directly hatching adult insects had been somewhat wasteful. Hatching a Mature Form Black Armored Beetle had allowed it to pass through the stages from egg to larva to adult in just two days.

Rowan didn't know whether Black Armored Beetles had a pupal stage in their growth process. If they did, then it had skipped all four stages.

Although he could immediately gain the fighting strength of a Mature Form, the cost was too high. Its enormous body had been built entirely by absorbing the Mother Nest's flesh.

Following that line of thought, Rowan reasoned in reverse: if he had the Mother Nest produce eggs and let them hatch and grow on their own, wouldn't that take far fewer resources?

This guess wasn't without basis. After feeding the Black Armored Beetle tree roots nonstop for the past few days, he had noticed that it had grown a little.

Back then, the Mother Nest's size had meant that the Black Armored Beetle it hatched was nowhere near its normal size.

Rowan had originally thought Black Armored Beetles were like products rolling off an assembly line: the moment they left the factory, all their parameters were set. But he had still underestimated the Mother Nest. This was no longer the mechanical technology he was familiar with, but an entirely new form of biological technology, one that held all kinds of impossibilities.

It was only after observing that the Black Armored Beetle could continue to develop normally that he began to understand how the Mother Nest was meant to be used.

This time, he would try to have the Mother Nest produce an Insect Egg without any fancy genetic fragments. He would use the Black Ant's genes exactly as they were.

He wanted to hatch a Black Ant egg and, while he was at it, test whether it carried the Interaction System.

Everything went smoothly. The Mother Nest produced a tiny Insect Egg with ease, and it seemed to have no effect on the Mother Nest itself.

Rowan was thrilled. This proved his earlier theory: the Mother Nest was meant to produce Insect Eggs, then let them slowly mature on their own.

But reality soon doused Rowan's excitement.

Looking at the tiny, pale-yellow Insect Egg in front of him, Rowan fretted. He had no experience caring for eggs and didn't know how to make them hatch.

He realized he had acted too hastily. Before he could think of a way to fix things, the Black Armored Beetle, wandering around the room, stepped on the egg. Its sharp hooked claw sliced right through it, and the liquid inside spilled across the floor.

Rowan was stunned. The Black Armored Beetle didn't have eyes like his, which could see in the dark. It sensed its surroundings entirely through sound and vibrations. The egg had just been laid and was completely still; it was tiny compared to the Black Armored Beetle; and Rowan had been distracted by his thoughts and hadn't noticed it. All these factors had led to this tragedy...

The Black Armored Beetle was completely oblivious. It had no idea what it had crushed and kept wandering around. Rowan didn't move either. There was nothing he could do to save it now. Besides, it was only an insect. He had no attachment to it.

Still, the incident did give him something to think about.

Although the Mother Nest had evolved from Rowan and split off from him, the insects it produced weren't Efiash. That was the conclusion Rowan had reached from observing the Black Armored Beetle and the Insect Egg.

If Efiash could reproduce this way, they would already be a common species. They wouldn't be so rare.

The insects produced by the Mother Nest were more like some kind of machine—living machines that mechanically carried out certain tasks. Of course, there might be other things that set them apart, but with so few specimens to observe, he couldn't yet draw any conclusions.

So the Insect Eggs produced by the Mother Nest couldn't be as indestructible as Efiash eggs. They were still fragile and needed some care.

And the Black Armored Beetle was clearly not a good choice to look after them. Rowan couldn't give it orders; it would only patrol mechanically around the Mother Nest.

After thinking it over, Rowan came up with a plan.

He touched the Mother Nest and gave it the order to produce.

Half a day later, the Mother Nest spat out two miniature Black Ants. This time, the Mother Nest was only slightly weakened. It hadn't become as drained as it had the last time.

Having learned from his previous mistake, Rowan used his body to shield the two ants while they were still weak from being newly hatched. That way, when the Black Armored Beetle bumped into Rowan, it would change its patrol route.

Though they were miniature Black Ants, they were still much larger than an Insect Egg. After taking a little time to adjust, they both climbed to their feet.

The two ants touched each other with their antennae, seemingly communicating.

Rowan watched from the side, completely baffled. His head began to ache. What was going on? Had they got the Interaction System, while he didn't?

But soon, apparently triggered by something, a previously dormant ability of his also awakened.

This ability seemed to have come along with the Insect Nest when it evolved during that period of dormancy. It seemed to involve secreting something. In hindsight, it must have been pheromones. But he hadn't had anyone to communicate with before, so the ability had remained dormant.

Once it awakened, Rowan immediately understood what the two ants were expressing. They were confused, as if they didn't know what to do and were waiting for instructions.

They smeared pheromones expressing this meaning over their bodies and antennae. Other ants could then receive the information when their antennae touched.

But Rowan could directly "see," "smell," or otherwise "sense" what the information meant, bypassing the antenna-to-antenna contact. Some genetic fragments must have been at work, though he didn't know exactly how. It seemed as if it were simply meant to be.

Rowan didn't dwell on the question. This novel means of communication had already captured all his attention.

After testing it for a while, he learned how to communicate through pheromones too. He infused the meaning "follow me" into the pheromones, then released their scent.

The two ants seemed to sense something and moved over to Rowan, touching his body with their antennae. Then they obediently stood behind him.

Interesting, Rowan thought.

He then led the two ants into a passage and issued a new order: "Dig together."

Then three little insects began digging in the passage.

"Go dig over there," Rowan tried, giving them a slightly more complicated order.

After receiving the new order, the two ants gave off pheromones expressing confusion. They didn't understand what it meant.

Damn, they can't understand that? Their intelligence is pretty concerning.

Rowan had one of them stay where it was, then took the other some distance away and ordered it, "Go get the one over there and bring it here."

This time, the ant understood. It hurried over to the other ant, and the two touched antennae and communicated for a while. The other ant didn't suspect a thing, and the two of them returned to Rowan together.

After doing a few more tests, Rowan gained a decent understanding of the limits of the orders he could give them.

The ants needed a clear target to understand what he meant.

For example, if he gave them the order "Go over there," they would become confused. They couldn't understand which way "over there" meant. But if he told them "Return to the nest," they could understand and carry out the task perfectly.

Now, he needed to conduct some other tests.