Ambling into the chamber, I and the other nymphs marveled at the size of it; and although it wasn’t as large as the “Main Chamber”, as I called it, it was equally imposing. Furthermore, it lacked the somewhat spherical dimensions of the main chamber as it was more of a rectangular shape, but I imagined that it was just as difficult to construct.

Opposite the entrance we came through there was another opening in the ceiling of the room whose purpose I could not discern. But other than that the only other thing in the room was some sparse pieces of the moss that decorated the queen’s chamber, in what looked like a circular area carved into the wall adjacent to the entrance.

Grubby followed soon after our entrance and after allowing us a moment to take in the room she declared, in what I now knew was broken language, “ You stay in here and fight grubbys until first change” and with that, she turned back to the entrance and motioned for the Generals to close the door.

With the awareness of our situation settling in, I felt another wave of nervousness diffuse from the other nymphs. Not long after, a cacophony of squeals, quite similar to the one from my first meal resounded from the ceiling, and then came the dulled thumps of a few tens of the grubs dropping into the chamber. I saw them role and waddle into one another, their eyes basically non-existent. However, they had very small antennae that touched the ground on different occasions when they moved.

Finally building up the control to divert my eyes from the delectables, I glanced behind me and noticed that the other nymphs had backed away considerably and were now clumped up uneasily, staring at what I now realized was the reason this was called the “Feeding chamber”.

Figuring it would be easier to show than explain to them that these things were nothing to be uneasy about, I carefully approached the clump of now dispersing grubs. I zeroed in on my target as I approached, one of the grubs who had wiggled its way too far from the group.

My legs tensed, feeling the power begin to build and culminate in them for one moment, I exploded into action the next. My body was subject to a speed never before experienced, I was only surprised for a moment before my gaze was once more steady, eyes locked on my now rapidly approaching prey.

The instant before impact my mandibles unfurling before fiercely latching onto the grub, a pleasant squeal an award for my beautifully executed hunt. I trotted over triumphantly to the nymphs who now looked at me curiously, with the grub still falling helplessly between my mandibles.

Stopping right before them, I took the grub and bringing it into my mouth I clamped down quickly ending its life with a dying squeal and an always pleasant squelch. Their curiosity now transforming into interest and amazement, I told them, “Eat grub, grub make you full and stronger”. Seeing the interest and amazement finally settle on understanding, I let my eyes wander to the notifications that came up while I was hunting the grub.

**Congratulations**

Skill has been created

*DING*

*Gained 6 experience points*

Looking at the first few words with quite a bit of excitement and expectation I read the part of experience gain which would bring my current experience points up to 7/10. Meaning I need to kill only one more grub to level up again.

However, the proximity of another level was not enough to occupy my mind as I now had a basic understanding of skills. Not only could they level up and evolve but they could be created as well. Now that I think about it the skill was probably related to that last supercharged attempt I made at escaping my egg.

Glancing over my status I also realized that the short use of reduced my stamina by 10 points. Do active skills require stamina points I wondered? I never checked my status before when using but something told me all active skills did.

Breaking out of my introspection, I was eager to grow stronger again as there was a new aspect of strength I needed to pursue in order to attain true power. I wanted to level up my active skills to see if they would evolve and the best way to do that was practice and I had a few tens of willing, well, able individuals to help me achieve that goal.

Turning back to the grubs I realized my other siblings, or well at least the bravest out of all of them, were attempting to repeat what I did, to no success might I add. All the grubs had grouped after hearing the dying squeals of one of their kind and they made a circle that would fervently bat away any approaching nymphs using their tails.

Observing the impasse, I chuckled at my siblings disregard of their mandibles as they were only using them to poke and prod instead of clamp or skewer. Bidding them to pay attention to my actions once more, I silently approached the left flank of the pile.

Based on my previous interactions with the creatures I realized that they had a terrible sense of sight but a greater sense of hearing. So being as quiet as I possibly could, I slinked nearer until one of the unaware grubs was within the reach of my .

Ensuring that the movement of spreading my mandibles was quiet as possible, and as slow as possible so my relatives could see. I waited until it was wide enough to easily clamp one of the juicy creatures and then I burst into action. The grub I was targeting was very easily skewered between my mandibles but while I was backing away I was struck twice by the ones on either side of it, and for a moment I felt sluggish at their onslaught, but I quickly escaped their range despite the damage.

Safely away from the pile of less than easily preyed on grubs, I regarded my aching head. The darn creatures really did a number on me as I realized that I lost 4 health points. Realizing it might be more difficult than I portrayed for the other nymphs; as at level 0, which all of them were at now, one hit from a grub was enough to deplete 20% of their total health points.

Instructing the other termites to back away from the pile in order to avoid unnecessary deaths, I quickly finished off the grub that I picked off. Gaining a more than a welcome string of notifications and one odd achievement…

*DING*

*Gained 8 experience points*

**Congratulations you have leveled up**

*Criteria met*

Achievement gained. Grants a bonus of 5% more experience to individuals in your clutch. Limit: 0/7

has leveled up! (Lvl 3 > Lvl 4)

*Status*

Name: Crete Species: Cleial Isopteran (Nymph) Gender: Male Level: 1 > 2 Health Points: 25/25 Stamina Points: 45/45 Mana Points: 0/0 Spirit Energy: 6/6 > 7/7 Strength: 3 Endurance: 2 Agility: 4 Vitality: 3 Intelligence: 11 Luck: 4 Spirit: 5 Perception: 6 Will: 10 Undistributed Stat Points: 0 > 5 Experience Points: 7/10 > 5/20

Skills:

(Active)

Desperate Chomp- Lvl 1

Chomp- Lvl 3> 4

Inspect- Lvl 2

(Passive)

Strong Body- Lvl 3

Pheromone Language- Lvl 1

Compound Eyes- Lvl 2

Hyper Metabolism- Lvl 3

Titles: N/A

Achievements:

First of the clutch (15 % faster experience gain)

Leader of the clutch (5% faster experience gain) Limit: 0/7

The achievement stunned me for a short while. What were the criteria? Was it just to direct fellow termites or get them to respect you? But it felt oddly specific due to the limit of 7...does that mean the system is somewhat cognizant? That it knew not only my actions but also the number of nymphs that hatched from my group amazed me.

Trying to rid my mind of the daring assumption, I looked at the 7 nymphs lined up before me. I willed to make them a part of my group and it appeared they got a notification because they looked somewhat confused at something in front of them, but they accepted soon after and were now a part of my group.

I felt that I was now connected to each of them and that I was now responsible for the life of these 7, here in the chamber, I was the one they looked to for guidance and support and deep down I wondered if I was worthy of that responsibility. Looking inwardly for the confirmation I found nothing but the resolve I had in that egg. At this moment and from this point on, I was a leader, nothing less, nothing more, everything else be damned…

Basking in the moment, I recollected myself before I determined that taking account of and differentiating each nymph was the most important thing to do. So one by one I accessed each of their statuses using which to my surprise showed more information than using the skill ever had, maybe had something to do with it.

*Status*

Name: N/A Species: Cleial Isopteran (Nymph) Gender: Female Level: 0 Health Points: 10/10 Endurance: 1 Strength: 2 Vitality: 1 Agility: 2 Intelligence: 6

*Status*

Name: N/A Species: Cleial Isopteran (Nymph) Gender: Female Level: 0 Health Points: 10/10 Endurance: 1 Strength: 2 Vitality: 1 Agility: 3 Intelligence: 6

*Status*

Name: N/A Species: Cleial Isopteran (Nymph) Gender: Female Level: 0 Health Points: 10/10 Endurance: 2 Strength: 1 Vitality: 1 Agility: 2 Intelligence: 6

*Status*

Name: N/A Species: Cleial Isopteran (Nymph) Gender: Female Level: 0 Health Points: 15/15 Endurance: 2 Strength: 1 Vitality: 2 Agility: 1 Intelligence: 6

*Status*

Name: N/A Species: Cleial Isopteran (Nymph) Gender: Male Level: 0 Health Points: 10/10 Endurance: 3 Strength: 1 Vitality: 1 Agility: 1 Intelligence: 6

*Status*

Name: N/A Species: Cleial Isopteran (Nymph) Gender: Male Level: 0 Health Points: 10/10 Endurance: 1 Strength: 3 Vitality: 1 Agility: 1 Intelligence: 6

*Status*

Name: N/A Species: Cleial Isopteran (Nymph) Gender: Male Level: 0 Health Points: 20/20 Endurance: 1 Strength: 1 Vitality: 3 Agility: 1 Intelligence: 6

Surprisingly, each of them had the same amount of Intelligence but the other 4 base stats were different with 6 points distributed across them. There were 4 who were obviously specialized to one base stat and the other 3 were more of all-rounders. That made me think, because I had one more point across my other 4 base stats bringing my total to 7, and a whopping 5 points more in Intelligence, was that normal...?