Spider Forest

While the elite Zergling was rapidly evolving.

The Overmind suddenly sensed within it a power he had often studied over the past few days—a fragile, exquisite power with an astonishing influence on reality: the soul.

Using the Overlord's vibration-wave senses, the Overmind sent the Zergling's scan data to Elar and simply stripped him of his free will. "Tell me, what happened to it?"

Elar was stunned for quite a while before recognizing that the thing mapped out by vibration waves was the Zergling from earlier.

After a moment of silence, he replied, "I can't tell. Could you tell me what you did to it?"

He wasn't a doctor. How was he supposed to identify something from this kind of image?

"I gave it the genetic information of a Dragon Lion," the Overmind replied.

"The bloodline of an epic species?" Elar said. "It should be undergoing a transformation. The blood of an epic species is enough to turn an ordinary beast into a magical beast."

"Explain in detail." As he stabilized the Zergling's condition, the Overmind asked, "What is special about epic species?"

"Yes..."

Elar was not particularly articulate, but with his mind-reading ability, the Overmind still figured it out.

So-called epic species were not simply famous magical beasts. Rather, once a creature's soul power reached a certain level, driven by the urge to reproduce, it could break through the barriers of bloodlines and forcibly impregnate other species...

For example, a rock troll could only produce little trolls with another rock troll, so it was merely a magical beast. But a wyvern father of a Dragon Lion could produce a Dragon Lion with a lion, making it an epic species.

Seen this way, the process by which the Zergling's body reconstructed itself after receiving the Dragon Lion's essence must have somehow aligned with certain crucial stages of natural gestation. Perhaps it also had something to do with the Dragon Lion's current condition.

In short, the elite Zergling had somehow become the Dragon Lion's offspring, then somehow activated the Dragon Lion's reproductive mechanism of "a new soul being born from an old soul," gaining a soul of its own. It had become a "dragon dog"... or perhaps a lion dog, depending on which traits were more pronounced on its body.

If that was the case, then obtaining souls for Zerg units was far easier than imagined? They only needed to find an individual with a powerful soul to serve as a "mother" and be reborn once more... No, there should be other mechanisms the Swarm did not yet understand...

Perhaps it was time to create an evolution chamber dedicated to souls... Did they still have enough organic matter in reserve?

The various experiments in evolution chambers were genuine resource-guzzlers. On top of that, the Swarm still had to maintain mass production and construct all kinds of biological structures... Its organic matter expenditure greatly exceeded its income.

In a world without crystal ore, even the Swarm would find rapid development difficult.

Crack~

The Zergling's evolution cocoon split open.

A tiger-sized, lively dragon dog leaped out.

Yes, it was a dragon dog, not a lion dog... More precisely, it should be called a Dragonkin · Four-Fang · Zergling. Dragon dog for short.

The Overmind had previously wondered just how ugly a lion's mane would look on the Zergling's almost nonexistent neck.

Now, aside from its further differentiated teeth and the animal fur growing from the gaps in its joints and exoskeletal plates, it had no other leonine features.

In contrast, its draconic traits had increased greatly. Several bony supports extended from the insect-like vestigial wings on its back, while the feet of its hind legs evolved toward reptilian paws. Most importantly, parts of its carapace had been replaced by a dragon-scale structure.

It was a special multilayer composite material. It offered top-tier physical protection, while also providing excellent defense against certain unscientific attacks—when Elar had slashed at the Dragon Lion, the areas of its neck covered in scales had suffered the least damage.

The dragon dog's soul ultimately stabilized at around Level Five, slightly weaker than a rock troll. However, it was difficult to test exactly how much its combat power had increased.

Then they might as well.

With a simple reassignment, the Overmind handed command of more than eight hundred Zerglings, including the dragon dog, along with several infected organisms modified for self-destruction, to the Overlord that had just commanded the boar-type aberrant combat forms.

He ordered them to attack the last region around the Dragon Lion's territory that had not yet been covered by creep—the Spider Forest.

The Zerglings raced off in a flurry.

The Overmind, meanwhile, summoned a Drone and began selecting a site for a specialized evolution chamber focused on "vitality."

He planned to place the evolution chamber within the Heart Tree forest, simply letting it grow together with the Heart Trees. This required some adjustments to the Drone to prevent the evolution chamber's development from damaging the Heart Trees.

Less than half a day later.

A massive insect cocoon appeared within the Heart Tree forest. Trees with root-vine hearts pierced through the cocoon membrane, their bark partially dissolving as their cambium was exposed to the cocoon's fluid. The Drone, having shed its carapace and useless organs, wound around the trees within the cocoon membrane, constantly developing.

Once this special evolution chamber was complete, it would cover the entire Heart Tree forest. By then, even if research into vitality failed to meet expectations, the evolution chamber itself would become a super life-form using the Heart Trees as its skeleton.

But that would be an exceptionally long process. At the very least, until the Drone gathered enough "essence," this special evolution chamber could not function normally.

Perhaps more Drones should be assigned to this task...

Just as the Overmind was considering it, his heart stirred. The hive mind issued a warning: the eight hundred Zerglings had suffered losses.

What had they encountered?

The Overmind immediately contacted the Overlord.

While the Overmind was still adjusting the variant cocoon for the evolution chamber, the Zerglings had already reached the Spider Forest. A species of large spider did indeed roam there.

Spiders over three meters long and half a man tall were quite intimidating. Yet their strength was generally weak. They might defeat beasts of the same size, but they had not reached the "supernatural" level. A group of primitive humans armed with spears could probably kill one.

To Zerglings that could tear apart steel with a pair of limbs, they were merely piles of meat. So after watching the dragon dog's imposing display for a moment, the Overmind had stopped paying attention.

Only after checking the Overlord's memories now did he learn what had happened.

Following the spiders' tracks, the Zerglings had found a cavern as wide as a national highway. They charged in without hesitation, only to meet fierce resistance, resulting in casualties...

"Report something like this next time... Forget it. There's no point telling you that." The Overmind did not hold the Overlord accountable.

After all, it was only a little over eight hundred Zerglings.

Even for an Overlord, the lowest-ranking commander in the Zerg hierarchy, they were an insignificant force—the sort it would not regret using to make splashes in the water for fun.

Besides, the Overlord's grasp of the battlefield was quite professional. Through the senses of each unit, the battlefield environment it compiled and reconstructed was highly detailed.

Even without an overhead view inside the cavern, the Overmind still clearly understood exactly what had happened on the battlefield...