‘Ah, now this is the best. I should’ve done this more often as a human, it’s soooo good. How can people even live without this?’

Gaia lazily stretched her leaves while enjoying the warm sun on her plant body. Sunbathing was something she really came to appreciate, especially now that it was vital for her in order to stay healthy. But even if it wasn’t, she just really enjoyed the warm and bright feeling on her bark.

A cloud came by and cast a shadow over her, making Gaia groan. The warmth slowly faded and Gaia shivered. A cold wind brushed past her and blew a large brown leaf in face. She brushed it away and opened her eyes in irritation.

It was obviously autumn now, the temperature was dropping and leaves were falling from trees. Sunny days like these became rarer as time moved on, which saddened Gaia deeply. Apparently she arrived in this world late in the summer, although she had no idea how long the seasons lasted on this planet.

A lonely worker strolled past her, carrying a centipede between its madibles. The ant looked tired, but stopped to wave at her with its antennae nontheless. Gaia waved back with one of her leaves and the worker moved along again. Two other ants peeked their heads out of their nest and helped the worker carry in the food, while Gaia watched them silently.

The ants had completely moved into their new nest by now and were settling in nicely. The brood was slowly developing in their own chamber, and Scarlet was content with her new quarters as well. They hadn’t really spoken at all since Gaia had last seen her, probably because Scarlet was very busy at the moment managing her large family.

Unlike the ants on Earth, the queen here didn’t just function as an egg laying machine, but as an actual queen as well, meaning that all important decisions were taken by her alone. Gaia was truly impressed that Scarlet could keep up with managing the colony and laying eggs, all at the same time. It couldn’t be an easy job, that much she could tell.

Gaia had seen Scarlet and the brood being moved in, and she was shocked when she saw the grubs that would later be members of the colony as well. Gaia had seen pictures of ant grubs before, and she remebered them to be fat, wormy creatures without eyes. These grubs were just bigger variants of normal grubs, except for the fact that they weren’t fat at all. They looked more like withered bananas and were clearly underfed.

Gaia had felt bad about taking a fifth of the colony’s food when they clearly needed all the food they could get their mandibles on, so Gaia had immediately insisted that she would only get her share after the grubs were as round as balloons.

Scarlet had refused at first, saying that she wanted to fulfill her end of the agreement as well, but she gave in after she saw seeing the grubs wriggle hungrily. Gaia could see it pained the queen to see her children like this, so she said it was okay if they paid her back later.

Since then, Gaia hadn’t seen Scarlet anymore. She really wanted to ask the ant queen some more questions about the world, but she had to wait for now. She wouldn’t want to give Scarlet even more work after all, not after the big move. She would ask questions later, for now she had something else to deal with.

Three ants had come back with food as well, but these weren’t headed towards the nest. Instead, they made their way over to her, carrying an enourmous spider together. Gaia had to remind herself that this was probably the normal size of spiders, but she just couldn’t help but shiver at the sight.

The spider was almost twice as large as the ants, and significantly more horrific. Eight large hairy legs hung loosely down its body and dragged over the floor as the ants walked towards her. Its large fangs dripped with green liquid, and the same stuff came out of a gaping wound on its backside.

But most horrendous thing about it was its eye: instead of eight eyes like normals spiders have, this one had one single eye positioned on its forehead. Gaia could see the eye was deep red, even though it was almost completely destroyed in the fight.

Gaia looked at the three ants carrying the monstrosity and recognised them as the first three ants she had talked to a few days ago. Gaia could remeber them because they were always together, like a little patrol. She often saw them scuttling towards the nest, always carrying prey much larger than themselves.

That’s why Gaia had silently dubbed them “The Daredevils”. They were always energetic and ready to fight for their colony, so the name just fitted them perfectly. They were the first to wave at Gaia when walking past her, something the rest of the colony had quickly picked up on. Just watching them always put Gaia in a good mood.

This time the mood was a little dampned by the food they had brought her. When the ants arrived, they heaved the giant spider up, toppling it over and letting it fall on the ground before her, green blood splashing all over the place. Gaia looked at it with a disgusted expression before she turned towards the ants.

“Can you not do it like that, that’s gross! Be a bit more careful next time!” She yelled.

The ants nodded silently and Gaia looked at them more closely.

They didn’t seem afraid of her anymore like they had been before. Apparently, their initial fear had turned into reverance towards her since the colony had moved in, and Gaia liked it better that way. The overlord vibe it gave off was nice, but relationships based on trust usually lasted longer.

“It’s alright, I’m not mad anymore. Is this for me? Does this mean the grubs are well fed?” She asked.

The ants nodded in sync. Gaia was glad the colony was doing so well already. The potent mana she was emitting made it possible for the ants to work more without getting tired as fast, meaning that they had been hunting for almost a few days nonstop now. No wonder they were able to collect this much food already.

Gaia turned towards the spider again. She stared at it for a while before she realised she had no idea how she was supposed to eat it. She had no mouth after all, thank god for that, so there was no real way she could consume it, right? Plants got their nutrients through their roots by sucking up organic material and nutrients, and there was no way a spider larger than herself would fit through her roots.

Hestitantly, she decided to try asking Scarlet about it. Since the food problem was solved now, maybe the ant queen could spare a few moments to explain to her how she was supposed to eat this giant spider. Gaia couldn’t ask anyone else either, since Scarlet was the only one around who could actually talk. Besides, she knew a lot about evolution and such, far more than Gaia at least, for who this was all still new.

“Scarlet…? Can you hear me?” She tried softly.

“I can hear you, mother. Is something the matter?” Came the reply.

“Are you busy right now? ‘Cause I can come back later, if you want…”

“Nonsense. Whatever it is, I will be glad to do it. Do you need assistance, or more information perhaps?”

“More information, actually. But before that, I told you to call me by my name, right?”

“Ah, yes. I am sorry, I just can’t help myself. Somehow, saying your name just feels wrong. Would it be okay if I called you mother instead?”

Gaia sighed. “Sure, suit yourself. More importantly, three of your ants have brought me this giant spider, and well, uhm…”

“Does it not suite your taste? I apologise, we’ll correct this mistake at once.”

“Nonono, that’s not it, although it’s true it’s a bit… No, actually, this might sound a bit silly, but do you know how to eat it? I can’t really figure it out, and I don’t exactly have a mouth, so…”

“Haven’t you evolved before? I assume it’s the same way as before. Don’t you remember how you consumed creatures before?” Scarlet sounded suprised and Gaia was aware how strange her question must have been.

“I’m not sure, all I know is that I fell asleep somehow. When I woke up, the aphid was gone, so I figured another creature must’ve eaten it while I was asleep. I can’t remember eating anything myself though.”

The ant queen thought for a while before she answered.

“Try to imagine eating it perhaps? I can’t of anything else besides that.”

Gaia was a bit skeptic at first, but tried it anyway since there was nothing else she could think of as well. As soon as she really focused on the spider and imagined munching on the hard, hairy exoskeleton, the whole spider started sinking into the ground.

Gaia gaped as the spider just dissapeared before her eyes, leaving only a few specks of green blood behind. Gaia was about to say something, but was interrupted when a horrible taste filled her mind. Gaia felt like she was eating large eggshells covered with slimy overcooked pasta, all evenly dipped in the most bitter mayonaise ever produced.

“Did it work?” Scarlet asked curious after a few seconds of silence. Gaia had to try her best to sound normal when she spoke again.

“Yes, it did. The taste is… curious. But why am I not evolving though?” Gaia felt that eating something this disgusting should at least give her some sort of reward in the form of evolution, but she wasn’t falling asleep as before.

“Probably because you need to eat more creatures first. Evolving a second time costs more biomass than the first time, and the third even more than the second and so on. It’s hard to say how many more creatures you must consume before evolving again, but I believe it’s probably around two or three more.”

Gaia shuddered at the idea of having to eat three more spiders in order to grow taller. She decided not to think about i tand change the subject instead.

“Oh, there was one more thing I wanted to ask. The first time I evolved, I only had to eat a single aphid. But your ants are killing and eating all sorts of creatures on a daily basis, yet I haven’t seen a single evolved ant so far, even after you guys moved here. How is that possible?”

“I told you about the massive amount of mana that is needed for evolution, remember? The amount of potent mana you are emitting is still small, only enough for just a few of us to evolve. This will probably increase over time as you evolve. Does that answer your question?”

“I guess it does. So once I evolve, you guys will evolve faster as well? Is there any-”

Gaia was interrupted when she saw a few ants running towards her from the nest. Once they arrived, they started circling around her. They all looked alarmed for some reason.

“What’s going on? Why are your ants running around me?” Gaia asked. Scarlet was silent for a moment before she answered in a serious tone.

“A worker has just informed me about a group of spiders heading in this direciton, mother. It appears we are under attack.”