Subjugation complete! Each and every Moss Worm in the shallow waters had azure tinge to them, circulating like tree branches, tracing their every nerve. The ones closest to Husan arose from the depths and bowed. The old man however was still cowering, with his eyes and ears sealed tight.

Now that the situation was under control, Ava took a closer look on these semi-aquatic creatures. Each had segmented bodies, bristling with tiny hairs and finger-like tentacles. Their mouths contain pouches, storing their tentacled hooks. The curved hooks remained outside like rows of jagged teeth.

Like what Husan had observed, Moss Worms had no eyes or the usual face to speak of. Ava guessed these creatures must’ve hunt using some kind of electroreception, sensing biomagnetic field of living things. As Husan was given a powerful suit, naturally they had no issue to track him from the darkness.

Most of these creatures were shorter than a zhang but a few was an exception. Some were quite large, enough to swallow a man whole. Curiously, the ‘boss’ worm referred by Ava and Husan wasn’t the biggest but the fastest. They were only able to trap it after observing which worm that moved often.

For a primitive lifeform, Moss Worms were quite cunning; ordinary people would mistake the big ones as chiefs and attack them instead. While the intruders were distracted, the actual boss worm led smaller worms to circle and kill the enemies. Husan and the centipedes had experienced it first-hand.

Ava snapped her gaze to a bunch of Azure Centipedes, barely stopping them from biting the worms to the death. They swayed their tails side to side in protest, wanting to avenge their fallen kin. She stressed that despite their boiling hatred, these worms should be kept alive, to serve in her grand plan.

However, this fight was cutting it close; the centipedes suffered major losses, again. Disruption to her connection became severe, greatly limiting her quanta supplies and consequently her abilities. These issues forced her to rely on Husan at the moment but how long can it last? Something had to change!

Crack, crack, clank, clank!

Her flying cylinder disassembled itself and vanished after completing its task. This was certainly difficult; with her quanta reserves next to zero, it was just enough to either regenerate herself once or summon the cylinder again. She was left with a choice to be on the run or do another risky conquest.

Ava put the matter aside while replacing her gauntlets with pair of gloves. The young girl went to tap one of Husan’s arms, “Old Man, are you okay?”

“Is it…is it…over?” Husan croaked before screaming in pain, “Ouch! Ow, ow, ow!!!”

Ava wanted to restrain him but found her strength wanting, “Old Man? Calm down.”

The elder continued to wail, anguish written all over him. Ava signaled with her eyes; the subjugated Moss Worms used their tentacles to lock the old man in place. The young girl then gently pushed her finger on his neck to immediately knock him out. So, even with the suit, he received quite a beating.

Ava hovered her hand a tenth of zhang from Husan; the elder broke two of his arms’ upper bones, multiple fractures on legs and deep bruises all over. It was quite severe but at least he has all of his limbs intact; at the present if Husan missed any of his limbs, Ava wouldn’t be able to regenerate them.

She pointed out her ring finger, materializing several palm-sized white cubes some distance away. The cubes floated over his injuries, each taking specific position on his person respectively. One by one, they melted down to rays of condensed white light, gradually reversing Husan’s injuries at a slow pace.

This treatment had completely used all of said cubes, leaving Ava with only medicinal salves she got back then in Wanderer Association branch at Kazar. These salves were pasties, unlike the pills that Muzaid gave to Akeila. They were heaven and earth apart; the salves were only for external injuries.

She did have some herbs and plants she collected in the previous oasis but she didn’t know how to process them into ones like Akeila had used as her knowledge on involved methods was still lacking. Thus, Ava determined Husan was now a liability; she could regenerate herself but not the old man.

Her mind clocked in high speed, parallel thoughts exchanging and deriving ideas. Subjugated Moss Worms had all but replaced Husan’s usefulness as they were self-sustaining and able to grow in numbers. How would Ava remove him from the picture? She was in deep thought, mulling the options.

Her line of thought was interrupted when the elder opened his eyes, “Old Man, do not move so much.”

“Uhh…” Husan clutched his head, “Did I...? Wait, what?”

“Ava confirms Moss Worms are Ava’s friends now.” The young girl waved her hands, quickly dismissing the rest of the worms in the shallows lest the old man getting jumpy again.

Husan knew the situation was strange but he decided to check his limbs instead, “Uhh…good to see yer, young missy. How long this old one was out?”

“A few hours.” Ava gave him an ambiguous answer.

The old man then sat up, rubbing his eyes in confusion, “So..uhh…we won, right?”

“Ava confirms.” Another short answer. She summoned a small Moss Worm to their location.

Husan took a good look on this creature. It certainly felt different, with occasional azure tinge on it, “Uh-huh, so this here is a Moss Worm huh?”

“A worker, Old Man. They seem to have multiple jobs.” Ava called a slightly bigger one. It bowed like the earlier smaller worm.

The four armed elder got up and flexed most of his muscles. Some were still sore, “Uhum, so my hunch was correct. Them worms farm moss, right? How bout we see some?”

“Ava confirms.” Her golden eyes flickered and both worms slipped back into the waters.

Surviving Azure Centipedes were originally tense, barely restraining themselves but as Husan woke up, they became passive. They knew Ava’s plan took higher priority and thus forcibly calmed down. Therefore, the vicious insects moved close to Husan instead, greeting him by clicking their mandibles.

Husan felt strange that these insects didn’t charge at the Moss Worms just now. Nevertheless, he returned their gestures by nodding at them. He could tell they were faking it as their movements were janky. Ava must’ve told the insects to stop, that the worms were integral to her next course of actions.

A few moments later, one small Moss Worm emerged from the shallows. The worm put several spheres on the shore with its tentacles. As it was dim, Ava produced a small glowing plant to illuminate them. These curious spheres had varying wild colours from silver to red but green made the majority.

“What in the desert are they? Moss? Snot? Err…..” Husan picked one up. All of them were wet to the touch.

Ava placed her attention to one of the greenish ones, “Some of them are moss, Old Man. Ava think they did not only farm moss but other stuff as well.”

“Oh, like us who plant many stuffs? Then, which one is edible?” The elder put down the sphere on his hands.

The young girl pointed at two spheres in vicinity, one green and another purple, “Ava confirms these are but they do not taste good. The purple one need additional preparations.”

“Hm right, I never seen any of these before. Thought only moss grows in them caverns.” Husan took a second glance and stared at the lineup, face full of doubts.

Ava on other hand looked at the centipedes, “Ava cannot process some of them at the moment. But green and purple ones can be used now. Old Man take green, Ava’s centipede friends take purple.”

“That purple thing? Is it even edible for yer friends? Them purple stuff looked like those purple crystals, but round, young missy.” The elder was still skeptical.

The young girl picked the purple sphere and placed it in front of one of Azure Centipedes. It was quite reluctant to eat it, “Ava think so. It will taste terrible but Ava think it can give them energy. No, Old Man cannot eat it.”

“Eehhh…. why? Them worms farm it so it must be edible, right?” Husan was about to bite it but put it back on the ground. It was springy to the touch.

The Post Human had a hunch, ordering the Moss Worm to dissect the object in question, “Ava confirms that it contains sharp needles. Old Man will get injuries.”

“Ah..ahaha…right. So them purple thing have needles in it.” The elder didn’t know to laugh or cry.

Ava gazed at the Moss Worm and it brought all of the spheres away, “Old Man, Ava requests help again. Moss Worms can change their farming. We need to lead preys and modify caverns for it.”

“Hmm…yer centipedes can easily do them tasks. What can this old man do? And before I forgot, the Moss Worms can pack them food stuff into spheres, huh?” Husan felt awkward. Jin by jin, the centipedes were obviously superior and fearless.

The young girl called remaining centipedes to assemble in front of her, “Ava knows Old Man can understand Ava’s centipedes friends. It is enough for Old Man to listen them. Ava also confirms that Moss Worm usually pack their food like pellets, easier to carry around.”

“I see…guess this old man will do it.” The elder agreed to her assessment. The vicious insects had terrible fates so far. Perhaps he can lend an ear to them, solidarity in these dangerous caverns.

Ava nodded in approval, “Ava confirms. Restrictions on Old Man gauntlets are now released. Please be careful, there are a lot of work ahead.”

“Uh-hum. Oh yeah, I know we’re talkin’ for long time now but how many we need, young missy? Till them worms can do their thing.” Husan stopped in his tracks.

The golden-haired girl answered, “Ava worm friends told Ava they have seven main areas. To support us, they need to double that. It comes to getting thrice amount of small fishes or equivalent. We also need to watch for their predators.”

“Something out there can eat these worms?” The old man shook his head in disbelief, “You know, I almost got done in by them….”

“Ava confirms. Black Yellow Centipedes sometimes lure Ava worm friends out of their pools and eat them.” She replied with a blank face.

Husan frowned, “Cursed desert, it’s them again. Can’t we do something bout it?”

“Not at the moment, Old Man. We just need to be alert. Ava friends can handle the rest. They have been battling the centipedes for a long time.” The young girl dispersed the Azure Centipedes with the wave of her right hand.

The old man had a headache by just thinking about it, “Uh-huh, guess that’s how it is. Oh, another thing, what if we use yer floatin’ cylinder things again? Against those cursed black-yellow insects? I know yer have couple of them.”

“Ava would want to. But Ava is out of power.” She turned her gaze to the side.

The four armed elder frantically waved his arms, “Oh! No, no, no! I’m just sayin; this old man is sorry.”

“Ava knows Old Man is worried. They cannot be used like the one before, but they are telling Ava what is coming.” The young girl stored the glowing plant she had put out earlier.

Husan breathed in relief, “Uhh…okay. So they’re tripwires, got it. We just need to find new preys for them worms, right? And watch for those cursed black-yellow centipedes?”

“Ava confirms.” The Post Human walked to the edge of the shallow waters and summoned a different Moss Worm. She stood on it and it brought her to the other side.

Husan was still uncomfortable with their enemy-turned-friends and thus he just swam across the waters. After confirming with Ava that she would be fine to be left with the worms, the old man went ahead with a couple of Azure Centipedes. The Post Human watched them depart into another tunnel.

She devised her plans again; the old man was determined to be useful up to the point where the Moss Worm can radically increase their food production and numbers. It may take several days or a week but she was willing to wait. There was no ready chance to transfer Husan out of her planning anyway.

There was indeed a lot of work pending; the subjugated Moss Worms had never cared about anything else than maintaining their broods. Expansions into new areas were limited by availability of flowing water and threat of predators. Consequently, the worms knew nothing outside of their current turfs.

Therefore, the young girl coaxed some of the smaller worms to start scout deeper in the caverns, map it out. Another reason was that she noticed the shallow waters here contained some interesting trace compounds; sulphides and others that could’ve been expected to come out from a hydrothermal vent.

This collaborated on her observation that some of the things Moss Worms were farming required a bit of warmth and such trace compounds to grow. Caverns were usually deficient in just about anything and thus existence of such underwater vents was like an oasis in these nutrient poor caves.

For the Post Human, they will feed into one of her foundations, to create all the necessary tools for world domination. Despite being primitive, natives of this strange world can fight back. Some of them will certainly stood in her way and she needed significant amount of force and quanta to remove them.

Days had passed as Ava and her entourages worked on their respective objectives. Husan and the centipedes had been giving the worm broods new preys, allowing them to spawn three new broods. The Moss Worms lost twelve scouts for various reasons but they located four new hydrothermal vents.

It was less than what Ava had hoped but she persevered. On one day however, one of her outward deployed cylinders informed her; there were some humanoids out there in their previous base. She didn’t fully scan them as she was saving up her quanta. This might be the chance to remove Husan.

The Post Human didn’t tell the old man of the news as she recognized some of the new arrivals were similar to their previous pursuers in the desert up above. They didn’t seem to be people she was familiar with and so, they might be another opportunistic pursuer, just like the probably dead Shalim.

Ava quickly worked up a new plan; using Shalim as the baseline, she guessed these pursuers will ambush her and Husan at one point. She had shown enough back in Red Scorpions’ lair and Crescent Sharks fights before and so they will try to avoid direct confrontations and strike from the shadows.

What she didn’t know however, whether they will go for the kill but considering her implied connection to Kazar City Lord, she doubt they would do anything funny. Ava assumed Muzaid and Makya had probably been captured by them and so she just needs to throw a wrench in their plans.

Day by day, she could roughly sense they were getting closer. She decided to talk to Husan out of the blue, “Old Man, how are things going on your end?”

“Well…we’ve seen some Black Yellow Centipedes and escaped. Damned insects stole our prey.” Husan paused his steps and punched the wall.

Ava signaled with her eyes and a few Moss Worms crept in the shallow waters, “Ava confirms. Some of Ava’s centipedes friends are injured, correct?”

“Uh yeah, Rakh. But it’s nothing bad; with yer gauntlets, I wiped out those damned black-yellow stuff! We managed to bring Rakh back home.” The elder uplifted his head. He had always wanted a payback against those cursed insects.

The young girl nodded, “Ava confirms. Old Man, be careful.”

“What do young missy mea…” Before Husan could’ve finished his sentence, the summoned worms launched their tentacles on Ava.

It was over in a split second; the worms ripped apart her small body into halves, dragging them into the watery depths. Husan was glued in place, unable to respond in the slightest. Wait…what?!! When the realization struck the old man, he wanted to give chase but an unfamiliar gruff voice stopped him.

“Well, well, well. So that golden-haired brat amounted to such. Ah, that’s fate, I guess. Old Man, lights out. Don’t blame me, I’m just doing my job.”

Husan managed to ask a question before he lost his consciousness, “Who in the desert are you?!!”

“Count.”