My stinger drove through the back of soldier ants head as I dropped down on it from above.

  The ant spasmed under me in it death throws and I jumped off towards the soldier ant ahead of me. It turned hearing the sound its breather made in death and took two blast of poison spray to its face. The attack only took off about a third of its health, but its health was still going down from the damage over time. It snapped its mandibles forward and I rolled under the strike stabbing up with my stinger to where it head met its thorax.

  Three scout ants rushed me, and I sidestepped the first two rolling to the side of the third stabbing my stinger into its side as I went passed. It didn’t kill it instantly, but I could see it health bar ticking down over its head. I blasted off three shots into one of the ants I had side sidestepped. It clacked its mandibles in what might have been its version of a scream. The other ant rushed me, and I stepped back letting its mandibles nip me just barely. It was a deadly game of toying with death, but I had to take a hit to level up my armor skill.

  The ant I’d shot in the face rushed me but I easily dodged its attack then lunged forward and rammed my stinger through its head.

  The other ant I’d stabbed limped towards me only a quarter of its health remaining, I ignored it for now focusing on the uninjured one. It snapped at me again and I jumped back then lunged forwards, it jerked its head back dodging my own attack before striking forwards. I rolled under its mandibles driving my stinger up through its thorax.

  The last remaining scout stumbled forwards than crumpled to the ground succumbing to the poison finally.

  Half a dozen notifications popped up as the battle concluded and my skill leveled up.

  My dodge had gone up by two levels and was close to getting its first skill point. I was really close to reaching level seven. One more patrol like this and I’d reach it. I reached out my hand and tried to absorb it.

  I selected yes and the creature crumbled to ash before me but I didn’t receive any new mutation path. It was to be expected having already gotten most of my mutation paths from this species already.

  I would try to get as much biomass as possible, but I just couldn’t carry all of this and the ants would collect their dead if I just left them. There was still a roughly twenty-five percent chance that I’d get a mutation from them though it would continue to go down with this species. Trying my luck, I attempted to analyze three more but failed each time. Sighing, I shouldered the massive horse sized soldier ant up and began to carry it back to my lair.

  All my time carrying my prey that weighed as much or more than me had finally leveled up that skill aided by the Thick Muscle Structure mutation path. I set down the soldier ant and began to eat my massive store of bio-mass as I looked over my skill upgrades.

  I munched on the ant a pile of other insects behind it for me to eat my way through.

  Looking over the options I dismissed Opportunist it was some sort of spy skill to let me gain trust then assassinate my target. It was a toss up between backstabber and assassin, one would be still usable during a long fight while the other would let me potentially snuff creatures double my own level.

  I went with Backstabber it just had more reliable continuous uses and I wanted these skills to be useful continuously not just in narrow circumstances. I looked over the skill to see how it had changed.

  Next I needed to level up Venom-arbalist, I’d chosen my subrace based on the ability to shoot venom but I really needed to work on upgrading it more.

  Looking them over I went with the first option the other two were just to specialized plus one of my mutations increased accuracy so hopefully it would help to counterbalance this skill evolution

  Next came Heavy Porter.

  This wasn’t a skill I thought to much about, but I used it all the time and the way I used it dictated how I spent my skill point. I selected Raider, I was always having to run off with my food so not being penalized for that was something I prioritized.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  With my skill ups finished I began to seriously cram in food. My stomach bulged by I kept at it ignoring the notifications until finally I literally couldn’t push down another bite. I’d gained three-hundred-and-fifteen points of biomass from my accumulated kills I’d stored but now my larder was empty. I felt tired and curled up in a corner of the tunnel and fell asleep.

  I awoke to a terrible itching on my back. I rolled around on the ground rubbing my back until finally with a wet plop something ripped. I sat up and looked back, my wings wet and soggy had finally regrown and were quickly drying.

  “Yes!” I shouted. “I’m back baby!”

  I immediately shut my mouth, who knew what sort of monster might hear me and come to take a bite out of me. Arrogance and overconfidence was the thing that had cost me my wings in the first place. With my wings back it was time to upgrade them. I hadn’t even bothered to do this before since I didn’t have wings at the time so these were all fresh options to me.

  While my rogue build would recommend the Feathered Pannels and my desire to fly free and fast told me to get the Aerodynamic Pannels experience told me to get the Armor Pannels. There was no point in upgrading wings if you didn’t have them and my time being grounded had shown me the importance of durability. I chose that mutation path and screamed my wings feeling as if they were being dissolved in acid again and ripped apart by ants. An hour later I looked back at the sleek wings they were still semi-transparent, but they looked thicker now and had a glossier sheen to them. I touched them, feeling the much harder panels now covered in a thin carapace.

  The upgrade had cost me one-hundred biomass, but I still had three-hundred-eighty-seven biomass to spend on upgrades. There were limits on what I could do, I couldn’t choose more upgrades for certain body parts without unlocking new paths for them with Analyze. Looking over my mutation paths I’d selected everything but legs. I remembered the option for legs, I’d thought about it for a long time and made my selection.

  I climbed out of my hole in the ground and buzzed my wings. Laughing I took off into the air, I only needed nineteen XP to level up. It was time to grind levels and my Flight skill. I jumped and took off letting my wings carry me up and away. It was time to be a proper wasp and hunt from above.

  I spotted a group of ants with one of the dreaded arbalists that had taken me down before. I buzzed overhead immediately opening fire before the arbalist could. My venom splashed against it, and I watched the Fire-Ant Arbalist’s health drop down. My venom dealt twenty-three damage per second for 5.5 seconds. I hit it with three shots missing with a fourth one, but its health was already dropping to nearly half. I did a barrel roll as a glob of fiery poison fired past my head.

  I had my notifications set to silent, but I could feel my skills shooting up. Dropping down to a branch I resisted for a moment to let my stamina go up and took shots at several of the massive guardian ants and the soldier ants as well.

  I felt the level up and dropped off the branch taking flight again as more barrages of fire acid shot towards me.

  The arbalist I’d shot finally died as its hit points ticked down and I felt another level up come as I killed the much higher-level creature. I only had a few shots left in my venom sack. I spotted the two remaining arbalist among the ants and took my shots giving each four shots from my stinger feeling my venom go dry as I ran out of shots. The health of the arbalist ticked down as I dodged their return fire. The arbalist’s and several of the tanks died and the ants scattered retreating deeper into the grass jungle towards their colony.

  I dropped down onto a large leaf of a plant exhausted and nearly out of stamina. I looked over my notifications and level ups condensed into one notification. I’d killed three arbalists, two of the guardians, three soldiers and two workers.

  I had almost doubled in level from just that one fight! My Flight skill had also massively increased almost reaching level fifteen and its next upgrade. Dodge had gone up which was a surprise but I guess made sense as well and it made me feel better at acquiring it and leveling it up.

  I opened my status and spent my stat points. Something about advancing my race had increased how much attributes I gained per level. Before it had only been two, now it was four per level. I put eight into brawn increasing its neglected state from twelve to twenty. I put four into Dexterity bringing it to twenty, and two into Toughness bringing it up to twenty also. I put four points into Charisma bringing it from its measly eight to twelve and the last two points I put into Perception.

  While this battle against the ants had almost been entirely one sided on my part and I’d routed them it had also taken all my venom and left me nearly drained of stamina. I needed to do what I could with their bodies and get lost before they came back with reinforcements. Gliding down I began attempting to absorb them, I lost XP and was met with failure after failure as I tried to analyze the Guardians and soldiers.

  I analyzed one of the arbalists and was finally met with success.

  I had plenty of biomass, so I selected yes.

  The upgrade had changed the name, but I didn’t have time to go over all it changes just yet. I kept trying to analyze the rest of the ants. I lucked on the last arbalest after failing on the second one.

  I felt a painful swelling in my forearm as my Venom Gland underwent another change.

  The ants were an evolutionary dead end for me now, but I’d gotten so much from them and they were still a plentiful source of biomass. I grabbed a soldier and took to the air leveling my Raider and Flight skill as I fled the scene of my massacre. I sat down to eat as I looked over the changes to my Venom Sack…Venom Gland now.

  The two mutation paths had upgraded my Venom Gland’s damage and doubled the number of charges I had. Fire damage might have been considered unethical by some but I for sure was going to have a lot of fun burning my enemies down.