Edited by: KenChi死

It’s bad. Whatever hive mind is, I drew its attention too quickly. Waaay too quickly. I have barely started my preparation. For what? For the extermination of this place, of course. I am still an adventurer and I was told that this place has to be wiped out. There are a few thousands mantises here, some castle sized beasts, a few lone hunters… Lots of troubles one could say. A small army would need months to get rid of them by themselves. But… there is something I can do.

What? Make those beasts kill each other of course. That is also why I ordered building those camps. This is why I wanted a “solider” cast… if there is such… to move into those camps. I would provoke one of those beasts and lead it to one of those camps. Many would die spreading pheromones causing the rest of the camps to react.

And do you remember how those mantises react when one of them die? They start running in havoc looking for anything to kill. Apparently hive mind wants peace, steady growth and it cares for the food supplies to never run out. Sorry, hive mind, but our objectives differ…

And this is why I can’t come there just yet. I still need more time to master psionic, mostly to protect myself from it and… hopefully for better control over other bugs.

I am running out of time.

I ordered drones to double their efforts. Many of you may die from overworking yourself to death, but it’s a sacrifice, I am willing to make. Shu-shu little ones. Go back to work. The end of your race won’t come by its own, will it? Oh no-no-no-no-no. You stay. Yes, you. Stay. I have business with you.

As soon as the drones flew away leaving one of theirs brother behind, I began to spread pheromones “it’s ok” “peaceful here” and “no danger”. No, not to calm down the confused drone, it was but a nice side effect. Mostly to cover those, that will be released soon.

I circled drone from behind and jumped at its back burrowing my fangs in its neck. It squealed in pain as I injecting poison into its body. Have you ever been bitten by an ant? Not nice feeling, the burning sensation could last for a few hours. But notice the fact, that you were big and ants were small. Now imagine that you were bitten by ant of your size. Pain, agony and death. And paralyze. Don’t forget about the main role of the venom.

As resistance was dying in the foolish little drone, I managed to get a better grip on its head, jerked in both direction successfully separating the head from the rest of the body.

I dismissed information about getting exp. It is not the main reason why I killed it. This specie is about to get endangered, hunting them will become harder, so will collecting their DNA. Well… I think that my part will have to change a little.

Gluttony… boost my metabolism to its peak. As I said, I am running out of time…

The end of the second day as a bug. Work progressed smoothly – another locations for the next camp was found sufficient. And just as I planned – the first one has new inhabitants. Very big individuals with [Solider] in its name lead by a single [Knight]. They were a bit clumsier and way slower, yet I could easily tell, that if I were to to bite one of their exoskeletons, I could lose some teeth. Their sickles were also far more intimidating, looking more like a glaive’s blade than a limb. Well, I will leave death and murder to you, guys.

I was summoned yet another time. I can no longer ignore it. I will have to move out. It also means that I will have to change the way I wanted to start the havoc. Doesn’t matter, even with my limited magic, I still can find a few tricks. What did I do? I planted some smaller [Fire bombs] inside new camps. On my wish, I will be able to trigger them damaging, not killing, a few drones in each camps. That should be enough for the smell to travel in all directions, both other mantis and possible predators. Or so I hope.

But, don’t let a woman wait for you, even if it’s an intelligent psionic-bug, it is simply a lack of courtesy. Now-now, here I come. Hm, this will be my first encounter with royalty…

I began to march back where I came from. With a small dose of sadness I say my goodbyes to the wide-open, green space and dived into the bronze maze of tunnels. I walked, and I walked. If not for the signal from the queen I could have easily lost my way several times. The hive was big… of course it was, it was made for some thousands of individuals, there probably is also an incubatory, “food” magazine and so on.(ED: don’t forget the amusement park.)

But what was still bothering me, was that the structure was weirdly… human-ish. I mean, workers were having mass rooms for a few hundreds of them at the edge of hive. It could be understandable, one – because they are bugs and don’t need golden rooms and so on, and two: they would be closer to their workplaces… but in that case, why the higher rank became, the differences became so incredibly… human? Solider were sharing rooms just a bit smaller than workers, but in each of such room only one or two dozen of the creatures were living. Then Knights of three-four.

And then, nearest to the center, I saw an open cave of the personal queens “lover”. Or so I called it, because the name [Inseminator] I found a bit too… you know… straightforward.

So, let the grey-mass of workers lives in dirt, while those that are dealing with you directly will live in “Honey and butter sleeping on velvet beds?”... Queen, whatever you are, I think that you got a bit too much influenced from humans…

Finally, I stood before the chamber of the Hivemind. And here I saw her personal guard. An elephant sized beasts, looking like walking insectoid armor.

Killer Giga-Mantis [Elite Templar]Level38Hp[880/880]Sp[901/1200]SkillBattle Amok [Passive] [Triggered on Command]

Sturdy Body [Passive] [Level 14]

Strong Body [Passive] [Level 9]

Harder Exoskeleton [Passive] [Level 6]

Hand-to-hand Combat - Regular [Passive] [Level 16]

Trading Blow [Passive]

That’s one big motherfucker. It also the first time I have seen so many passive buffs. The creature was lying in a semi-sitting position, almost like the meditation of monks, always ready to jump and ready themselves for battle.

For a moment I thought that they would stop me, waited for some verification of identity… and then I needed to mentally slap myself. Connected mind or something. Why the fuck would they even stop a fellow bug…

I just moved past them, into the square room. Just on time to witness a very small bug taking away an egg from a pile of flesh and walk deeper, into the cave behind it. I almost followed it, before I noticed what the pile of flesh truly was. If I thought that those behind me were big, than this was truly colossal. Or maybe not exactly? How to say it… the torso part, that almost scraped a ceiling, was like the one of a regular mantis, but then from the “belt”- like level up to the floor below, there was 20 meter long abdomen all swelled and pulsating.

Killer Giga-Mantis Elite [Queen] [Hivemind]Level???Hp[1500/1500]Sp[211/1800]Mp[214/1250]TitleQueen of the race

The Mother of Many

Hivepart

HiveMind

Enlightened

Seeker of WisdomSkillHigher Psionic [Level 24]

Hand-to-hand combat - Expert [Level 4]

Restricted form [Passive]

… How do you kill it? No honestly. How? With fire? Could do.

So, I am here… What should I do, she talks first? I do? Someone would bring us tea and biscuits? Well, I think, that I will start… in the end what can I loss? My life?

“You called for me?” I sent a message.

It came to my room. How weird is that child of mine. It’s colors are unusual, if I would have seen it after it was born I would order to kill it immediately. There is a reason why mantises are green, brown and black. To blend their shapes with the environments. And this partly albino individual could be seen from miles! It’s a mutation, that if his genes would spread, could threaten the whole colony. Yet he survived in the wild. He also appeared to be an extremely skilled and intelligent individual. To be able to call me back… Maybe… he is a new breed? First of a new cast? Each cast is different, workers are most balanced and small, to fit in every slit. Drones were more agile and having wings. Weaker body frame but stronger venom, mostly to bite and ran away. Warriors were big and durable, and my personal servants like maidens were very small with their front limbs transformed, not for fight but to carry.

And he… so, so weird. Body structure of the drone… but its head is so much different… looking like a mix of my children and… makers? Yes… he is weirdly similar to those creatures from the memories of my ancestors and to those on sculptures and paintings.

He stood there, I had all my time to appraise his body, in the end, my children after being called would wait in the same spot untill I would gave them an order…

“You called for me?” I heard him in my head.

He is… inpatient? So, so many deviations! But is it bad? Impatience means that he has purposes… purposes different than mine. Should I… should I terminate him? He is both wonderful and disgusting! His mind… so clear and steady, yet he became too much of an individual, he may stop carrying for the greater good… he may… use us? No, it can’t be… First I have to examine his mind more clearly…

“Yes, come to me, my child…”

He came right away. Good, so he still follows basic commands.

“ I summoned you yesterday. Why did you wait?”

It needs to be clarified

“It’s the rank I gave to your order. The good of the hive is the most important. I gave it highest priority. From your message I deducted, that it’s only for a reward, I as an individual mean less than a hive. So my personal reward could wait.”

… so the good of the hive is still your main priority, good… But…

“Why did you think that I didn’t have any more urgent orders?” “If it would truly be urgent, you would never waste time for calling me just to give the task in person, instead you would tell it via our link to send me to the location immediately.”

So he can use selective information to build final conclusion. My-my.

“You ordered drones specific pattern of behaviors. Different than my. Why?” “Is my queen unpleased? If so, I will order them to immediately abandon their tasks and…” “I would do so myself. It’s not the nature of my question. Answer: why?” “I found the pattern insufficient and began looking for possible improvement…” “So you found my orders to be… wrong?”

Now I just wanted to see how would he react to a little teasing…

“Wrong? No. You are coordinating actions of thousands of workers, solider, drones… you are overseeing every action, from manual labors, planning directions of hive expansions… I am merely suggesting, that there is too much data to proceed for one being, even so magnificent. You are simply focusing your attention on to many categories and thus you can’t truly master any. I thought, that maybe if I could somehow ease your pain, to unburden you…” “You think, you can replace me?” I keep teasing. Mostly to elongate our conversation. The last creature I ever talked to was my mother, and it was decades ago. “Replace? I am lacking to many features to even consider such thing. But to aid you? To support you? You don’t have to be responsible for every action by yourself, why should you oversee every move? Every breath? Of thousands? This is why, I believe, I was born.” “Why?” “To be a messenger. A part of the link in the hive. Why should you send your orders to thousands, if you can to dozens? And then those dozens in your name would spread them to hundreds. Each would master different category, from working, scouting, fighting, commanding… So you could focus on mastering yourself.” “We are one. I am because we are. We have to grow together. Adapt together. I am afraid that putting too much power in only a few individuals may…” “May I say my mind?”

He cut in my words. That’s something new… I am not sure if I should be even more amazed or angry…

“You just did, so you might as well proceed.” “Thank you… And you are wrong…” … what? “… forcing whole population to improve at the same time is a waste of time and resources. If there would be a few individuals that would get to a certain level of experience, wisdom, skills… they would pave the way for others. What would be better? To hold those more skillful individuals, or let them adapt quickly? We already know the outcome of the first possibility, and let’s not say, that the first individual would show how to do it to five other. Then those five would do the same with the next five… Isn’t there so much potent?... and if I may, the structure of building camps outside the hive has one more use…” “What is it?” “it would allow the quick movement of solider.” “And what is that for?” “To conquer this land completely for ourselves.”

… that’s…. ridiculous!

“Why would you want to do that?! Where would we find food if we would slaughter everyone?! How short-sighted are you?!”

Did I put my faith in him in vain?

“Because true skills are forged in battle. Fighting is the fastest way to eliminate weak individuals, empower strong and learn new ability and adaptation skills. And about food… we could capture hundreds of herbivore individuals, build special sections within the hive, and then breed them there. This way we would have as much food as we would ever want… My queen… I am exhausted. I have enough of waiting for everyone else to catch up. I have been training hard, mastering my mind… I don’t want to crawl on the path of evolution. I have waited long enough. I don’t want to crawl any longer, nor walk nor run. I want to leap. And so I wish for my kin.” “So… you suggest massive extermination?” “… I wish to apologize. I have selfishly spoken my mind, criticizing the dream that you and those before you devoted their lives and…” “No… I… I was also lonely… You are the first to speak. You are the Change, that we have waited for. If this is a wish of the first of the many… I think I will listen to you… my beloved Taskmaster… Because you really care for your brothers and sisters? Don’t you?”

… He is shaking my world upside down. He has such a different point of view… but… if the face of my children is to posses every part of intelligence shown to me by that variant… I am willing to embrace it. Indeed, no longer crawling. Time to leap.