Harvest

Although Rowan prided himself on being the backbone of the operation, he hadn't expected that all he would contribute in the end was his brain. There hadn't been a single moment when he needed to fight.

He felt that his combat strength had improved considerably over the past two months. The spider, which had once been several times his size, was now only a little more than twice as big as he was.

But no matter how confident he was, he didn't think he could defeat the spider in a one-on-one fight. That venom fang of its was practically cheating; it could inflict far too much damage. One mistake, and the spider might even kill him instead.

Yet such a powerful enemy had been reduced to a lamb waiting for slaughter by the precise teamwork of more than a hundred bugs. It had been dealt with without putting up the slightest resistance.

This made him feel that the path he had taken, one different from that of other Efiash, might well hold greater promise.

He had only planned the general strategy for this battle. The bugs had relied entirely on their own instincts to carry out such exquisite coordination.

That also made him reflect. From now on, he couldn't just recklessly rely on his own strength. He might end up capsizing in a gutter, just like this spider—killed by a group of much smaller bugs working together.

By then, the giant spider had fallen silent. Even if it was still alive, it posed no threat. It might be able to kill all the Soldier Ants, but it couldn't kill the many Worker Ants that had burrowed inside its body.

Many little spiders were still scurrying about in panic inside the crevice. They hadn't fully matured and had little fighting strength, but they were all excellent sources of protein.

In the spirit of not wasting anything, Rowan ordered the bugs to start hunting them.

But the little spiders were extremely nimble as they crawled along the cliff face. The bugs worked for ages and managed to catch only a little over twenty; most escaped.

Rowan didn't mind. Let them escape. Once they grew up, they could provide even more protein.

The purpose of this trip had been fully achieved. The most important spoils were right in front of him; there was no need to care about the scraps.

They dragged the giant spider to the edge of the cliff and threw it down. A drop of five or six meters wouldn't send it far off course, and there was no need to worry about other bugs trying to steal it. If any bug dared to snatch his spoils, it would surely be asking to see his talent show.

The team then climbed down the cliff as well. Rowan cut up the giant spider, dragged the biggest piece himself, and headed toward the Insect Nest. At the same time, he sent two Worker Ants back to call for help.

The giant spider was quite large, after all. Almost every bug was dragging some part of it, large or small, leaving them short on guards. If they ran into Scout Worker Ants from another nest along the way, it could be troublesome.

Just then, Big-Eye Scout Ant arrived after gathering up the Worker Ants that had been flung away. Rowan counted the bugs. Besides one Soldier Ant that had been bitten to death, two Worker Ants were missing. Their losses had been very light.

Those two Worker Ants definitely hadn't died from the fall. They might be nearby, but there was no need to look for them. The Insect Nest wasn't far away; they might even find their way back on their own. Even if they were lost, it didn't matter. They were only basic Worker Ants.

On the way back, they met the Insect Nest's reinforcements: more than twenty Soldier Ants and over three hundred Worker Ants. Once the two groups joined up, they had half the Insect Nest's fighting force with them. Naturally, they no longer had to worry about running into ants from other nests.

They encountered several Scout Worker Ants along the way. Rowan didn't even need to act. The Worker Ants on perimeter watch held them off, and then the Soldier Ants arrived and killed them.

Watching everything unfold in such orderly fashion, Rowan finally felt a little like a leader.

Back at the Insect Nest, Rowan directed the bugs to pile all the spider's body parts in his bedroom. That's right, in the new nest, he had dug himself a bedroom to serve as his private space.

The room was covered in dry wood shavings. The ants had chewed through the roots of some unknown kind of tree and, after it withered, dug the shavings out of its trunk.

That was a job that took a long time to complete. Rowan naturally had no time to wait for a tree to wither. The shavings had been stolen from an ant nest.

After shooing the bugs away, he looked at the spider parts of all sizes before him. At last, it was time to enjoy the spoils.

The spider had been cut into too many pieces, and its skin was covered in bristly hairs that were hard to eat. In the end, Rowan couldn't finish it all. He only ate the meatier parts.

He called over a few Worker Ants to clear away the leftovers, then fell into a deep sleep.

The spider's genes brought about quite a few changes in Rowan. As he slept, his body gradually secreted a sticky fluid that encased him. The fluid slowly hardened, eventually turning into a cocoon.

When Rowan woke up and found himself inside a cocoon, he knew that he had probably changed quite a bit this time. He hadn't felt anything unusual in his sleep; it had just felt like an ordinary nap.

He broke free of the cocoon. There was no mirror in the room, so he couldn't get an immediate look at his new appearance. That was a little disappointing.

Still, his eyes had a very wide field of view. Apart from a few blind spots, he could see almost his entire body.

After bending and twisting in every direction to look himself over, he felt a little puzzled.

Honestly, his appearance hadn't changed much. His body was about the same as before, with few obvious differences. His six limbs, on the other hand, had changed quite a bit.

They had gone from short little legs to long ones, somewhat like a spider's walking legs. They were much sturdier and had more joints. Each leg was made up of seven segments, making them extremely flexible. They were covered in a sturdy chitinous exoskeleton, studded with sharp barbs and fine hairs. They still had small claws at the tips, with a tuft of sticky hairs tipped with hooks beneath each claw.

Rowan remembered how the spider had reached out and "stuck" him back to the cliff after he had already gotten free of it. Now he felt that he could do the same thing.

After crawling around the room a few times, he discovered that he could even hang upside down from the cave ceiling and still crawl quickly. He used to struggle just to climb a vertical cliff. He couldn't believe he had evolved to this level all at once.

The evolution of his walking legs had not only strengthened his offensive ability but also improved his ability to survive. If he needed to flee now, he probably wouldn't have to worry about the terrain.

Besides his walking legs, he could feel that his mouth had changed too. He had gained a pair of chelicerae. Before, he could only grip an enemy with his mandibles and then snap it in two. Now, with these chelicerae, he could bite. He could also feel thin tubes inside the teeth. They were probably venomous, allowing him to inject poison into prey as he bit down.

Thinking of the spider's venom, Rowan reminded himself to be careful when eating from now on. He didn't know whether he was resistant to the poison. What if he accidentally bit himself while eating and poisoned himself to death...

Come to think of it, that didn't seem very likely. He could control whether or not he injected the venom. Even if he had no resistance to it, he wouldn't poison himself to death.