Evolution Chamber and Spawning Pool

Outside the Hatchery, the Overmind opened his eyes from the throne.

There were nearly three hundred elf tribes in the entire world. Elar knew the exact coordinates of roughly a hundred nearby ones—thanks to the elves' miraculous talent of "never getting lost in the forest," their sense of direction was far more developed than the Overmind had imagined.

The Overmind did not need to worry about recording coordinates. The Hatchery's built-in neural hub could store all relevant information.

What he needed to focus on now was the construction of secondary bases.

Now that he understood the elves' circumstances and habits, the Swarm needed to prepare itself to develop in the gaps between elven territories.

The elves' almost socially anxious nature meant they could not possibly live too densely packed together. Combined with the rangers wandering outside elven settlements as their outermost warning force, an elven settlement's actual territory should not be small.

But compared to the vast forest, it was still insignificant.

For example, according to Elar's estimates, the Swarm's current Creep would need to expand roughly thirtyfold before it might draw the attention of the rangers from the three nearby elf tribes—excluding rangers who happened to go on long-distance patrols on a whim.

Of course, the Overmind had no intention of truly developing the Creep to the warning line.

He had already decided that after expanding the Creep here by another three to five times, he would stop its growth in this area and focus on establishing Creep elsewhere.

According to his plan, it would be best if, before war fully erupted with the elves, patches of Creep had become a common "natural phenomenon" in the forest.

While linking the patches of Creep through tunnels, he would station troops underground. Once he had amassed enough combat units, he would overturn the entire world in one stroke.

The moment the Hatchery's first batch of Drones finished hatching, the Overmind ordered them to develop into a Spawning Pool and an Evolution Chamber.

The Spawning Pool could be regarded as the Swarm's "editor." It contained all kinds of extremely complex catalytic enzymes and various "essences," making it laborious and difficult to develop.

The Evolution Chamber, on the other hand, had not unlocked or researched any genes yet. It was merely a heap of flesh supported by various bones and shells. It did not even look as large as a Venom Devourer, and it was the first to finish developing in a short time.

But though the Evolution Chamber looked unremarkable, its importance was irreplaceable. It was the testing ground and research base for all sorts of genes and traits, as well as the prerequisite for producing countless Zerg unit types and structures.

Take the Nydus Worm, indispensable for establishing a Nydus Network, for example. To produce a fully functional Nydus Worm, its unique "tremor myoprotein" gene fragment and "hollow-tube bone" gene fragment first had to be activated in the Evolution Chamber. A planet-specific "corrosive fluid" gene fragment also had to be activated according to the planet's soil.

Next, these activated genes would undergo unified assembly and integration in the Hatchery's advanced structure, the Lair. Only after the corresponding activated proteins had been produced and bestowed upon the Drones could Nydus Worms be produced.

In truth, the crude, simplified tech trees found in games did not exist in reality. It was not a matter of the Overmind issuing an order, the Hatchery turning into a giant cocoon, and then, once the timer ran out, evolving with a snap into a "Lair."

To upgrade the Hatchery, the Evolution Chamber first needed to unlock and test a series of genes, such as "moist soft environment," "acidified nest," "gelatinized eggshell," "Level I exchange membrane," "rejection suppression"...

Furthermore, if the superior traits of dragon lions, elves, or trolls were to be added to the Swarm's genetic chain, they also had to be tested and adjusted in the Evolution Chamber first—though that was from the Swarm's perspective. Individual Zerg did not need to go through so much trouble. Many Zerg units possessed the ability to directly obtain gene fragments from food and evolve on the spot.

At this point, however, the Overmind did not immediately have the Evolution Chamber unlock the prerequisite genes for the Nydus Network.

There was no need to rush into such relatively advanced units.

Instead, the Overmind had the Evolution Chamber begin trying to unlock the genes for "digging feet," "Sokin Fungus," and "compression chamber."

"Digging feet" were a prerequisite for the Zerg's "burrowing" ability, but they were also the easiest prerequisite to fulfill. The real difficulty lay in modifying the nervous and respiratory systems.

"Sokin Fungus" and "compression chamber" were both intended for the infected. Working together, they would only require simple modifications to the Venom Devourers to turn the infected into fairly powerful self-destruct units.

Judging from the battle with Elar, ordinary infected were completely useless against high-level combatants who ignored minor injuries and physical exhaustion.

The Overmind needed the infected to unleash stronger offensive power. Compared to further enhancing muscle strength, bone structure, and neural reactions, self-destruction was the easiest option to achieve.

As the Overmind's orders were issued, The fleshy Evolution Chamber began changing at rapid speed. Dozens of sharp feet of varying sizes and entirely different structures grew from one end of the meat mass, swiftly performing digging motions. At the other end, a patch of highly elastic fleshy lumps emerged, expanding and contracting rapidly with the pulse of blood vessels. In the middle, a cluster of black fungus was cultivated, occasionally igniting and erupting with dazzling red light...

Three days later.

Sixty kilometers west of Dragon Lion Territory.

With a thunderous boom, accompanied by enormous flames, smoke, dust, and trees bent in all directions, a centipede-like magical beast over ten meters long, which Elar called a "thick-shelled many-legged bug," was blasted into several pieces by more than sixty infected that charged in together and self-destructed.

It also signaled that the Swarm had once again begun expanding its territory on a large scale.

This time, however, they did not follow their usual method: first capturing centipedes to read their memories, then spreading Creep over a wide area. Elar's memories had already sufficiently proven the surrounding area's safety.

Instead, while the self-destructing infected launched their surprise attack, Arrow Gulls scattered into the sky and rained down Creep, while the infected advanced in step with the Creep's expansion.

Just one day later, Centipede Forest had fallen into the Zerg's grasp. Of the seven giant centipedes, three were killed, while four were infected and became the Overmind's subordinates.

At the same time, The Spawning Pool's development was finally complete.

A massive pool composed of tentacles, shells, and various glands, filled with green mucus, appeared not far from the Hatchery.

After ordering the Hatchery, whose incubation chambers had long been emptied, to begin hatching Zerglings, the Overmind crouched beside the Spawning Pool and reached in to scoop up a faintly glowing clump of mucus, giving it a squeeze.

It was soft and sticky, somewhat like snot, and carried a faint fragrance—but the Overmind no longer trusted the nose the Swarm had modified. Who knew what this stuff smelled like to a normal person?

Fortunately, he did not need to soak in it himself.

He activated his psionic power, drew all the mucus from his hand into the air, returned it to the Spawning Pool, and turned to look at the dragon lion and Agatha behind him.

"Get in. The sooner you come out, the sooner you can help me."

"As you command." Agatha responded. Controlling the dragon lion, she dove headfirst into the Spawning Pool.

The instant it entered the pool, the tentacles at the bottom connected to every part of the dragon lion's body. The Spawning Pool's brain linked with the dragon lion's nervous system, plunging it into sleep.

Then, parts of their bodies began to dissolve and separate.

The Overmind grabbed two larvae that had long been prepared at its feet and tossed them down.

One larva would embed itself into Agatha, completing her neural cord and lower body in the form of a symbiote.

The other would revert to the most primitive form of the Zerg, burrowing into the Dragon Lion's spinal cord and beginning a complete transformation from its nervous system.

At the same time, the Dragon Lion's genes would be thoroughly analyzed and uploaded. After testing in the Evolution Chamber, they would be fully incorporated into the Swarm's gene pool.

The Overmind also intended to take this opportunity to completely transform the Dragon Lion into a Zerg unit...