After slumping back into our chamber and putting Vibrant on guard duty, it was time for me to spend my newly amassed wealth. The last few days have been extremely productive, both for the colony and the village, not to mention the significant gains I've made within my own personal strength.

The knowledge that I've gained has proven itself to be valuable almost immediately, my skills have been rapidly levelling. It'll probably take weeks to get things to the point I'd be happy with it but at least I'm on the way.

The job I have now is to spend it up big!

I've got 246 in the bank and I'm ready to go!

At 60 apiece, this is enough to get three body parts to +15, not enough to complete the +15 body but enough to close the gap.

But what to mutate first? I'm not sure. I've hit the main points in the mandibles and carapace. I think I'll go with a bit of a mix of utility here. I'll upgrade the coordination cortex, my legs and my gravity magic gland.

That should be a good boost.

[Do you wish to improve your Divergent Combined Coordination cortex to +15? This will cost 65 Biomass.]

Yes.

[At this level you may choose to combine your mutations, or emphasise one. Which will you select?]

For this one I'm going fuse the two options. This should help the brains remain strong at both cooperation and individual spell casting.

[Do you wish to improve your Rapid Absorption Legs to +15? This will cost 65 Biomass]

Bring it!

[At this level you may choose to combine your mutations, or emphasise one. Which will you select?]

I'm less certain on this one. Moving fast is nice, absorbing mana through the legs is also nice. I don't 'really prefer one over the other to a large degree, but I'm also not certain that they will fuse to something worthwhile.

I guess for the time being at least I should emphasise the spell casting ahead of the quick movement. Absorbing mana through the legs has increased my MP regeneration by a ferocious amount. If I keep on using spells in battle, having that increased regen will be very helpful. So I'll emphasise the absorption.

[Do you wish you improve your Expanded Deep Gravity Magic Gland to +15? This will cost 65 Biomass]

Naturally.

[At this level your mutations will be reinforced. Do you wish to proceed?]

Since I've taken the same upgrade twice for the gravity magic gland then I naturally won't get the choice to fuse. I'll be interested to see how much capacity I'll have once this mutation is done.

Confirm all of those!

Hmm.

Humma….

HENG.

HANGARAMBA!

DAMMIT!

As the itch overpowers my senses I can only fall to the ground, twitching uncontrollably as my body no longer responds in the way I want it to.

I, I hate this.

Eventually it fades and I regain control of myself, averting my gaze from the judging eyes of Tiny. I can't help it man! It's not my fault!

With that behind me I can have a quick rest. After farming away in the expanse and mutating, I'm ready for a quick break.

….

I'M UP!

Back in the attack!

Getting my legs moving I quickly check out the situation in the nest. Phew! The pupae haven't hatched yet, but it isn't going to be long. Ominously, the next two hundred larvae have already hatched. Very small at the moment, so soon after emerging from their eggs, the little grubs are tended to by a small army of workers who diligently clean them and stuff them full of the food they'd been amassing for just this purpose.

As soon as the flood of eggs started hitting the nest, the workers, ever on the job, began to horde food, storing it in their social stomachs and squirrelling it away for the young. Secretly, I'm hoping that this will slow down the Queen a little on her march to explode the colonies population. Even though the first batch of two hundred eggs has hatched, there's another two hundred waiting for their moment. In a few days they'll hatch as well and it'll be a hell of a job trying to get four hundred members of the new generation up to speed.

The whole point of creating this new breed of ant to be members of the colony is to give them a chance to fight intelligently, so they don't have to throw their lives away and die meaninglessly hurling themselves into the enemy. If I don't raise them properly and bring them out of the weak hatchling phase, then they might die as soon as something looks at them sideways anyway.

Since I have a moment of time I head over to the village and bring along a sample of the wood that we brought up from the expanse. I want Enid to take a look at it, since she was a merchant who specialised in Dungeony type stuff.

To my displeasure, she is otherwise occupied supervising a Dungeon delve away from the village and only Beyn is around to speak with me. Talking with the one armed priest is always… loud.

[OH GREAT ONE. I AM HONOURED BY YOUR GIFT OF THIS STICK!]

[Too loud! It's not a stick, we took it from the expanse below. Give it to Enid]

[I understand O Great One. I shall present your stick to the mayor as soon as she returns]

[Not a stick. Mayor? Enid has been promoted?]

Beyn shrugged.

[It was more just making formal what had already been in place. She's been running this place since we got here, may as well call her the mayor for her trouble].

Makes sense I suppose.