I found a trail of ants carrying bits of flesh in their mandibles. They were marching in a column. There were about fifteen in the group, and they were protected by two much larger ants that walked at the front and back of the column. None of the worker ants were above level four with most of them being level two or three. The ants stood out clearly their bright red carapace making them like a column of old British soldiers marching back to their colony.

  The soldier ants had a little than under double my current health. Upgrading my toughness had raised my max health from twenty-five to thirty-one. I seemed to get an extra point of health per level for every two points of toughness I had above ten. These ants must have either had a much higher toughness or gained more health per level than I did, perhaps both.

  Trying to straight-up fight both ants and the entire column of lower-level worker ants would be suicide. That didn’t mean I couldn’t attack them, but a stand-up knockout fight was out of the question. Picking a level three ant in the middle of the column that only had thirty health. I readied myself, ejecting my stinger from its sheath and testing my wings. Jumping off the fallen branch I was perched on I dived down. I struck the worker ant in the neck between his head and midsection. The ant died immediately from the damage my stinger inflicted. With the multiplier from sneak attack and my added poison damage, the ant hadn’t stood a chance.

  Snatching up the ant’s corpse I took to the air again. The ants had dropped the food they were carrying and rushed me immediately, but I was already gone. Luckily for me, they didn’t have good eyesight and couldn’t see the way I’d come. They marched around the spot I’d landed tapping it with their antenna and spreading out in a circle searching. After about two minutes they gave up and went back to their mission of delivering food to their colony.

  I’d landed on the top of a twig from the oak tree above. It was the size of an entire fallen tree to me. The acorns themselves were only the size of my torso but still, everything was on a scale I still hadn’t adjusted to. Bugs and the environment weren’t the same as I remembered them on Earth, ants were much bigger in proportion to their environment although we were all still dwarfed by most things. Grass rose a few feet over my head making walking through a lawn the equivalent of hiking through a jungle.

  Perched on my spot I ate the ant dropping its parts as I finished sucking the meat and juices from them. I cracked them with my hands like crab legs. When I was done, I let out a belch of satisfaction.

  My work wasn’t done, not for a long shot, I wasn’t just eating to survive, I was in it for the biomass and XP. Another column of ants, or maybe the same one I couldn’t tell was returning the way they come from. I followed them for a time coming to the body of a massive cricket. It was the size of an elephant and the ants began stripping it of meat as the now three soldier ants patrolled around them.

  Unfortunately for the workers, their guard’s attention was fixed in the wrong direction. I fell from above, I landed hard on my legs and grunted with discomfort, but my stinger had already pierced through a level four worker ant’s head.

  Grabbing the ant, I took off into the air again. The ants swarmed my previous position, but they were far too slow. I was already landing as the soldier ants reached the spot where I’d slain the worker. Again, they tapped the spot with their antenna and spread out to search. I snorted; I was in the air there was no way they could track me.

  Snapping off its legs I began eating, I needed a lot of biomass to activate my available biomorphs and unlock my remaining mutation paths. Finishing the ant quickly, I looked at the ants who had gone back to work and were now about to leave each with a chunk of the cricket’s flesh in their mouths.

  Jumping down again, I went into a glide and hit a small level three ant in the head grabbing them while I was still flying, never even landing as I soared away with my prize.

  The ants had only just dropped their prizes as I perched above them on the edge of a massive log. I began eating the ant as I watched them mill about helplessly. They kept searching for around five minutes then picked up the cricket meat and marched off. I finished the ant and dropped it to the ground.

  Flying down to the cricket corpse my antenna twitched as I smelled the food source. There was no point in letting the ants take all this biomass for themselves. I began stuffing my face, my antenna twitching all the while on the lookout for the ant’s return. I picked up their scent after about half an hour. I was stuffed to bursting at that point.

  I took off my wings feeling sluggish as I took to the air. Landing above the ant’s kill I watched as an even larger force returned to the clearing under the log.

  There were five soldier ants this time as well as a few larger ants and some thin agile ones that were only three times the size of a worker, instead of the six times larger soldier ants. I wasn’t close enough to examine them yet but the risk of farming these ants was growing larger.

  Swooping down my antenna twitched as I examined the ants.

  The jump in health was astonishing. Even using all my charges from my stinger on that ant I don’t think I could have taken it down. The ant’s head jerked up as I passed overhead then it turned its back on me and lifted its rear end. A jet of acid shot out, I pulled up spinning to get out of the way; the acid passed under me, but it still struck one of my left wings and a hole began to form as the acid burned into it.

  I flew up and landed on the top of the log. I looked back at my wing. The damage had stopped but flying would be much harder with that hole. I looked down and saw the ants converging on my position. The smaller agile ants were easily climbing the sides of the log, their antenna waving as they tracked me.

  This wasn’t good. I started running towards the other end of the log. Jumping off I pushed off with my wings. My left wing had to beat extra hard to make up for its damaged brother and I felt my stamina draining twice as fast as normal. I couldn’t keep flying for long like this. I landed two-hundred yards away. Looking back, I saw the tips of the grass swaying as the ants continued their tracking of me.

  I had to rest to regain my stamina. I stayed atop the rock and let the ants come closer. One of the agile ants came up the rock and charged me.

  This ant was a higher level and had more hit points than the soldier ants I’d seen. It lunged at me, its mandibles snapping at my torso. I rolled to the side and stabbed out at its flanks scoring a five-inch-deep cut.

  The ant wasn’t dead yet, but I’d dealt twenty-five points of damage. I dodged another lunge from its mandibles and watches as another ten points of damage dropped off as the poison damage ticked away. Another second passed and it took another fifteen points of damage, but the damage stopped after that.

  I rolled and jumped to the side moving an impressive distance with each jump. I didn’t escape without punishment every time; the scout managed to get in a few hits here and there, but my armor reduced the damage to nonlife-threatening.

  You have learned to use your carapace to absorb and deflect attacks. Skill Gained, Armored Defense Level 1.

  Using Dodge took up stamina, so I wasn’t actually regaining the stamina I needed to fly. I needed to end this. Using my wings to give me a boost I jumped forward landing on the scout’s back. I drove my stinger into its thorax. My attack dealt thirty points of damage. The scout spasmed then collapsed and I retracted my stinger from its back.

  I sagged; my stamina was almost empty. My antenna twitched alerting me of the approaching ants. Another scout climbed up the rock and charged me. I stood firm, I couldn’t run and there was no more time to dodge. Snapping forward the ant lunged at my abdomen with its mandibles. I sidestepped and drove my stinger into its brain. The second scout had over fifty hit points, but my attack had instantly dropped it. Apparently, it didn’t matter much how many hit points you had a venomous stinger to the brain was still instantly lethal.

  The other ants were a little behind their two scouts. I bent down and touched the first scout I’d killed. I didn’t have time to eat them, and I didn’t want to leave them behind.

  Selecting yet my energy passed into the scout before leaving and reducing its body to ashes.

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  There was a terrible itching in my antenna. I screamed but I managed to keep myself from passing out this time. With my enemies approaching I couldn’t afford to be unconscious. Touching the second scout I began to repeat the process.

  Again, I selected yes. The scout’s body was reduced to ash in seconds as the energy passed through ravaged it.

  I had around ten stamina now. It would be enough to hopefully get me out of the ant’s detection range. Taking to the air I flew toward the base of an oak tree which loomed like an impossible mountain above. I made it around four-hundred feet before running out of stamina. I crashed more than landed. I couldn’t move, I was so bottomed out on stamina.

  I lay in the mud. I heard the pattering of feet behind me. I managed to push myself to my feet, but I’d only regained around three stamina.

  Four more scouts were closing in one rushing to take the lead. I couldn’t fight them all and turned and started to run. The scout was much faster on its feet than I was and closed the distance quickly. I started to buzz my wings when the ant tackled me, and a searing pain went through my back. Rolling over I shoved my stinger into the ant’s underside two times. It struggled and snapped at me for a bit but then the poison reduced its health to zero.

  I looked at the ground to see the ant had done some devastating damage. My wings had been torn from my back. I was trapped on the ground with the other ants closing in quickly. Shoving down my panic I looked around. There was a massive puddle at the base of the oak. I dove in and started swimming, I had to hope that ants either couldn’t or weren’t good at swimming.

  I made it out to the middle of the puddle which was the size of a lake in comparison to me. Ants had gathered around the puddle, but they didn’t seem willing to enter the water. I crouched down on my piece of bark. I was crippled, no wasp hive would want a member who couldn’t fly.

  I didn’t have tear ducts, so crying wasn’t an option for me. I shook with fear and rage at my predicament. I took several deep breaths; I needed to survive now and worry about the future later. I had stat points and biomass to spend and new skills to look at.

  “Status,” I whispered, I wasn’t sure if the ants could even hear but no point in taking chances.

  Seeing the alert, I sagged with relief. I wasn’t crippled permanently, well as long as I survived the next five days. I spent the fifteen-biomass required to get the process started. There was a slight itch in the stumps of my wings but other than that, nothing.

  I first spent my stat points putting them all in toughness. I was trapped on the ground so I needed as much defense and hit points as I could get. I felt an itch all over my body that quickly subsided as my entire body swelled and grew in size putting on mass.

  Next, I went over my available biomorphs. What to select?

  Getting my face really close to the jaws of an angry ant didn’t seem like a great idea so I put Pincers to the side for now. Pheromone Gland had some promise while not directly applicable to combat the ants all used Pheromones to communicate being able to understand and communicate with them might provide valuable information. I wasn’t really sure what a Trophallaxis Stomach was, but it didn’t seem like it would help fight an army of ants.

  I spent the twenty-five required biomass on Pheromone Gland. There was a searing pain in the base of both antennas. It lasted for fifteen minutes before finally fading.

  I had low charisma and didn’t have the Communication Skill. Still, it did do what it said and that’s why I’d gotten it in the first place. After activating this biomorph I had eighty-five biomass left. I pushed off activating any more biomorphs for now. I needed to upgrade the mutation paths I had now.

  I selected Pheromones first since it was the one, I’d just unlocked and was the most familiar with.

  Looking them over I dismissed Command Pheromones, it was the sort of upgrade a queen bug might take but it wouldn’t help me survive. Fear Pheromones would help to scare off the ants, but it only had a chance of doing so and since it was based on Charisma it would be a low chance. The last one had the most promise, avoiding the ants would be my best chance of surviving. They seemed to track me by scent so blocking that off would help to move past and escape from them without being hunted down like I had been.

  Infiltrator Pheromones was my best bet in the long run I felt. Selecting them I felt more burning in the base of my antenna but not as bad as last time.

  This was exactly what I needed. I didn’t have my wings anymore, but I might be able to sneak by the ants on foot now. I still had biomass to burn so I sat down and got started upgrading. Next was my armor to upgrade.

  If I’d looked at this before taking Infiltrator Pheromones, I probably would have taken Light Shadow Carapace. I didn’t want to devote myself to a rouge build too heavily, however. That armor upgrade would be useless as soon as I broke stealth. Considering I couldn’t even fly now Padded Light Carapace was pretty useless now. That left Hardened Light Carapace, it wasn’t flashy just a straight-up upgrade to the armor I had now. The ability to resist even more damage was something I was probably going to need soon so I selected it.

  I did pass out this time. When I opened my eyes, the sun was setting but the ants hadn’t left. Their numbers had reduced but several of the larger higher-level variants were now patrolling the perimeter of puddle scouts running about their antenna’s waving about as they searched for me. I pulled up the description for my upgraded armor and looked it over.

  The damage reduction had gone up a lot since I’d last looked at this ability. I assumed this had to do with my much higher Toughness than before as well as me unlocking the Armored Defense skill. Speaking of unlocked skills, I’d gained a number of them but still had no idea how they worked.

  Going over to my skill in my menus I pulled up the description for Armored Defense, Dodge, and Poisoner.

  They were all still low-level, and it would take some grinding before they had a major increase to my abilities. I’d already spent my stat points, but I’d gained something called a race upgrade when I hit level five. Going over to my description I saw that my race was flashing. On selecting it I received a prompt from the system.

  Looking around I wasn’t in a safe place however it was safe from the ants so it would have to do for now. Praying I wouldn’t be killed during this upgrade I selected yes.