Discovery

This ability was pretty good, especially those powerful hind legs. Unfortunately, the bug was quite vigilant. Rowan had barely rustled a blade of grass when it was startled into fleeing. It hadn't jumped very far, but the grass and plants were so thick here that Rowan's Clairvoyance was severely weakened.

Even with excellent eyesight, he couldn't see through the weeds to what lay beyond. Since he'd lost the biggest advantage of traveling above ground, it was safer to keep moving underground.

He wasn't far from the lake, so the soil was fairly damp. He hadn't gone far before he noticed some movement. Carefully approaching, he discovered that it was an earthworm.

This earthworm didn't look much like the foul-smelling ambush predator he'd encountered before. Its whole body was dark red, and it wasn't as hideous as the Stinky Earthworm.

The earthworm was wriggling through the soil, inching along. Rowan figured that meeting it must mean they were fated to cross paths, so he'd take a bite first and see how it tasted.

The more gene fragments in his gene pool, the better. Any one of them might come in handy someday. Take the Stinky Earthworm, for example. It was hard to swallow, but its ability to draw nutrients from soil was impressive. The energy it provided at a critical moment could save his life.

Now that he'd come across a new species of earthworm, Rowan naturally wanted to see whether he could acquire a new gene. Different kinds of earthworms might absorb different nutrients from the soil. If he collected enough and fused them through evolution, maybe someday he'd be able to eat dirt without needing to take a dump. Then he'd really be something.

Grabbing one end of the earthworm, he didn't bother being picky. He shoved its mud-covered body into his mouth. The worm looked rather pathetic and couldn't fight back against Rowan at all.

Maybe because Rowan had swallowed things that smelled even worse, the earthworm's taste wasn't too hard to stomach. It was a little earthy and somewhat stinky, but still tolerable.

After eating half the earthworm, Rowan let it go. It had lost half its body, but was still full of life. In no time, it burrowed into the soil and disappeared.

Its vitality was enviable, but Rowan had long since gained the ability to regrow lost limbs. Still, this gene fragment seemed to be slowly integrating into his body, gradually improving his regenerative powers.

More than that, though, he wanted to taste the spider that had ambushed him on the Cliff. He wasn't too worried about whether he could acquire the spider's gene fragment.

Spiders weren't insects, but Efiash wasn't exactly a proper insect either. It had certainly looked like one when it was first born, but the meaning of "insect" here differed from the definition on Blue Star.

As Efiash grew, it fused all kinds of bizarre biological genes. If it had to be classified, it belonged to the Zerg, not the insects.

Though Rowan might now be the only member of that species.

After thinking over how he compared to the spider, he couldn't see any way he'd win in a one-on-one fight. If it weren't poisonous, maybe he could use his sturdy armor to hold it off. But if it had venom, that would change the fight entirely.

A one-on-one fight was out of the question. But if he brought all his underlings from the Insect Nest, he might be able to copy the Earth-Yellow Ants' tactic and overwhelm it with numbers. They could use cannon fodder to exhaust the venom in the spider's venom sacs, then swarm it all at once.

That plan could work—very well, in fact. If he wanted to build up the strength of the group, he couldn't keep thinking of doing everything alone.

But there was no rush. First, he needed to find somewhere to build a nest, then he could go back and bring all the bugs over.

As for where to build, he'd do best to find a place with lots of ant nests.

Ants really were widespread. Rowan hadn't dug far underground before he found some familiar hollow tunnels.

He climbed to the surface and, sure enough, found plenty of black ants. After inspecting them closely, he realized they were probably the same species as the Black Ants in the desert above.

That made things easy. He changed his pheromones and brazenly entered the Black Ants' nest.

The pathways inside felt very familiar. Rowan followed the widest tunnel to the Hatching Room and, to his surprise, found some other old acquaintances there.

As the saying went, old acquaintances seeing each other again were like enemies meeting. Rowan spat a few mouthfuls of concentrated venom at them, sending them to their graves. Then, based on the Hatching Room, the Storage Room, and the number of Soldier Ants, he estimated that the nest had over five thousand members.

Places close to water and rich in vegetation were certainly abundant in resources. Even the random ant nest he'd found here was far larger than any in the desert.

After grabbing a meal, Rowan crawled out of the nest and resumed exploring the surrounding area.

A nest this large meant there probably weren't any major threats nearby. Otherwise, the weak Black Ants wouldn't have been able to grow their colony to such a size.

So Rowan no longer wanted to dig around underground. Beneath the surface, there were only tree roots and earthworms. To find more gene fragments, he'd have to search aboveground.

He crawled cautiously through the grass. Every so often, grasshoppers of different colors and sizes sprang up nearby. Most perched on blades of grass and were extremely alert. Given Rowan's size, it was far too difficult for him to sneak up on them. So even though there were plenty of grasshoppers, he still hadn't had a chance to show off his talents to them.

He also found quite a few new insects along the way, but most were unremarkable and had no special tricks worth mentioning. Since he'd just had a good meal, he wasn't very hungry and couldn't be bothered to put on a show for them.

Besides that, he found many Black Ants searching for food.

Beneath a broken stone, a group of Black Ant workers dragged out a long, semicircular bug. Its body was covered in thick armor and had many joints and little legs. Surrounded by the ants, it curled itself into a ball.

The workers were helpless against its armor, but they kept it surrounded. Whenever the bug uncurled and tried to escape, they swarmed it, forcing it to curl back up again.

That only delayed its death for a little while. Rowan spotted a huge Soldier Ant being led toward them through the grass by several workers.

Sure enough, the battle broke out again a short while later. The bug's armor couldn't withstand the powerful weapons of a giant Soldier Ant built for combat. After a few rounds, it was badly wounded and lay where it was, its body severely damaged.

The workers swarmed it, broke it into small pieces, and carried it back to the ant nest.

Rowan also spotted the hardworking Black Ants on the stems and leaves of many plants. Some of the leaves were covered in tiny, translucent green bugs.

The Black Ants didn't attack them. Instead, they patrolled nearby. Every so often, the little bugs raised their abdomens and excreted a blob of sticky liquid. A worker would crawl over and scrape it off the bug's rear with its mandibles.

A little while later, it would spit out a half-solid, jelly-like substance and feed it mouth-to-mouth to a companion that hadn't found any food...

Rowan found the blob of jelly-like stuff oddly familiar. He remembered eating some of it in the ant nest earlier, and it had tasted pleasantly sweet.

At the time, he'd thought it was great that there was more of that good stuff around. But now, he felt like he was going to throw up.