《Bugs》Chapter 22

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Wasting no time at all after reaching my workplace I jumped on the largest pc we had in the lab that had six different monitors attached to it. Rapidly entering my ‘researching mode’, my hands start flying over the keyboard as I open the several sites I had marked down.

On the main monitor which was the lower middle screen I had a notepad page open and looking at one site I began to look over the information.

The first thing I gathered was information on all the ways bugs communicate. The things I ended up with was, Chemical reaction (pheromones), Sound, and flashing lights.

The lights are, contrary to popular belief, not exclusive to fire flies. Other types of beetles, which fireflies are, also use lights and not for the same reason as fireflies who use it for mating. Some use it to signal to others of its kind that it’s being attacked by predators depending on the intensity of the light.

Besides the firefly, the railroad worm has green and red light illuminating its back and head. Being the only known bug to use red lights, it uses its lights to warn predators of being poisonous.

Besides flashing, which is less common on land then in the water, sound is widely used. In today’s time it’s widely known, at least to researchers of this field, that nearly all bugs produce some sound. As I had personally seen, the spiders used a screech but that was a monster one but a common spider also uses high pitched sound waves that are either too quiet for human ears to perceive or it is out of our audio range.

I obviously look for these research files that have been studied but it is mostly in the field of echolocation that has been on a standstill for decades. I begin by downloading the information of all gathered sound research on bugs.

Most of the information is the same, on sound at least. It is separated into 5 categories. The first is by rubbing one body part against another, like crickets and grasshoppers. Second is by striking some body part, such as the feet like band-winged grasshoppers, the tip of the abdomen such as cockroaches, or the head against the substrate like death-watch beetles do. Third is by vibrating some body parts, such as the wings, in air like mosquitoes, flies, wasps and bees. Fourth is by vibrating drum-like membranes called tymbals which cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers and spittlebugs possess and fifth by forcibly ejecting air or fluid like short-horned grasshoppers.

To capture sound, bugs have tympanal organs or hair sensilla. The organ that makes the sounds can be different and up to any part of the body can be that organ such as antennas, like how Levi used hers when she still couldn’t talk since she vibrated hers and released pheromones in conjunctions

The ability of an insect to discriminate between the various rhythms of its own species, or to single out the sounds of its own species from those of others is largely untested, and represents one of the most fascinating aspects of the study of insect acoustics. Because of this, research into the acoustics have been done but not highly in depth as there are many holes.

For me, who has felt it on his skin how an insect speaks, will not only be trying to use sound alone but mix it with pheromones. I don’t know if my body naturally releases the pheromones in the game when I speak with them but they understand me.

Finally there are pheromones. This is something all creatures use yet humans and mammals are creatures that can’t willingly release it and it is done naturally by the body. Bugs on the other hand are different. It is done instinctively for various reasons such as finding food and mates, aggregating to take advantage of food resources, protecting sites of oviposition, and escaping predation.

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One plus to pheromones is that pheromones differ from sight or sound signals in a number of ways. They travel slowly, do not fade quickly, and are effective over a long range.

Because of this, the pheromones make up a huge part of a bugs lives, it can even be used as a pest control method which has been used for a long time already.

Though I would have liked to gather all the research results and information on this subject quickly this is far from a small bit of information.

Around 10 pm Debbie walked in and saw me working on the pc and came over shaking her head.

“So you are seriously trying that, huh?” She said looking at me.

“Sorry, can’t help it.” I said. She sighed and shook her head while rubbing her forehead before walking behind me and looking at the screens. Her eyes turn wide as she sees the amount of information I had already downloaded.

“Seriously, this is crazy how fast you work when you put your back to it. Why don’t you do the same with your bugs?” She said.

“Well I will do that. From today on I will be exiting the game earlier and download the moments where I communicate with them. If there is sound from them I can get some information on that. Especially the queen variants that have shown to vocalize along with using pheromones. If only I could examine the pheromones themselves. Unlike what we have here the pheromones the Topaz queen released as well as Levi were used for speaking and showing a desire like hunger, fear and so on.” I said.

Debby looked at me as if she was looking at a man going mad.

“The sheer amount of information is impressive to say the least. More than a century of research results are slowly being built up. I think I should first start with testing the bugs acoustics, maybe a spider would work since I have heard them talk more than other bugs since arachnids are a smart type of Arthropod.” I said.

I could only sigh as I saw the info kept downloading.

It was then that I heard the sound of a door opening and looking towards the entrance I saw the boss here.

“Hello sir, you’re here late?” I said getting up and greeting him with a handshake.

“I got a call that said someone was downloading a massive amount of information to this lab. Know anything?” He asked.

Debbie sighed a very deep sigh before starting.

“I unknowingly gave this idiot the idea of communicating with bugs in real life simply because he got a unique class in Virtual Life Online.” Debby said.

“Ho~! Mind explaining the class in some detail?” My boss, Jonas Marvel Beethoven, asked.

“Don’t expect all the lore behind it but let’s start then.” I said sitting down and gesturing to sit.

I then began telling about the main basics of the class. First being the class is limited to a double headed Glaive weapon and its ability to tame anything that falls under the Arthropods. Info about Levi was put under tight lips as well as what bugs I have since that is like telling someone your combat strength. Not even Debbie knows all the bugs I currently possess.

After I explained more or less the function, including the hive mind and bug comprehension skills, I explained what Debbie had said that got me interested in what I was doing.

When I finished talking he suddenly started laughing.

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“That idea is so stupid!” He said holding his gut. “It’s a madman's idea to communicate with bugs.”

“See, I told you that already.” Debbie said.

“That said…” Jonas continued, “The world is built on madmen’s ideas so I will allow this but since it’s not your proper area of research you will remain on night shift. Also keep all your research in a separate memory disk since it’s not this research center’s field.” Jonas said.

“So, there is no problem in me searching this up?” I asked.

“Nah, it would bring a good laugh for sure but who knows if something like this would be useful. Maybe we will live through something like that movie from last century, erg… something troopers.”

“Starship troopers.” Debbie completed his words.

“Yeah! That one! The remake was rather interesting but I have seen the original but it’s only science fiction.” Jonas said. “Welp, I had come only to check on this so I should be getting home because I have a rather… irritated cat waiting for me and domesticating her takes a LOT of energy so I should be going.” He said making us both laugh remembering how the man's wife had complete and total dominance over him.

“Oh right! Where are you two in VLO?” He asked.

“We are in Yggdres in the western region.” I tell him.

“I see, if you two ever come to the center region come visit, I made a guild called ‘Emporium’ most of the members are people of this company so there wouldn’t be much problem in fitting in.” He said and with a shake of our hands he turns and leaves.

“So are you going to continue?” Debbie asked.

“I need a separate memory bank but yes. I think for the first month I will be spending my time reviewing all this, none of it is in my field so I need to learn more in depth about this.” I tell her.

She sighs and shrugs it off seeing as she can’t change my mind especially after the boss gave me permission.

“Then I will be returning to my own lab, I have been going around the alchemist forums and found there are requests and so on for certain potions as well as some recipes for really basic ones that I can base my potions off and try to improve with different brewing methods.” She said.

“Don’t forget that brewing alcohol is also something alchemists can do and it would be a good source of money for you. If you need anything ingame call and if you need anything out here call as well.” I said with a grin making her smile as she left.

Levi PoV

After Daddy left I began to look around. He had told me those rules and it was all in my head. I spread the rules word for word through the hive using the hive mind. I am so happy that I got praised and hugged so much by daddy. Still I wish he would leave that cow tits alone.

I frown and look down at the bare flat chest of a child.

“I just need to make sure to grow more than that cow tits.” I said sticking out my small chest.

“Now daddy said I can go hunting as long as I was careful but…” I mutter as I widen the portal opening and add more mana to make seeing outside possible. Out there I see a lot of humans moving down the road making their way to the rats sewers.

I sigh as I see them because now they were blocking my exit. I can only come out near daddy or where he last vanished when he returns to his world.

Though I don’t like it I can’t help it so letting the small portal close I reopen it but this time to a different place.

Getting my Lance and Shield ready I spread my wings and jump out and appear in the air of the Wilderness Zone.

Unlike the first time I was here with daddy, the wasteland has been completely remodeled. Spread out before me was a large world with clouds, mountains covered in vegetation, rivers at the bottom and it all went on and on without an end.

Daddy had dropped a nursery full of rabbits here and I wanted to see how they were doing. Rabbits breed fast and grow faster and in this world with no poisonous vegetation yet, since none had evolved to fight off plagues, they were sure to evolve rapidly with the abundant food.

I could feel in the hive mind how the bugs of my hive were already all fluttering and crawling around. There weren't any bugs that naturally appeared here but there was vegetation and space. The hive’s bugs were all spread through this world slowly making their place slowly changing their surroundings to suit them better.

In the air several hundred meters up in the air I could see very far and with my antenna’s I was trying to pick up on the rabbit’s hormonal trail. Truly only beings of my origin and those bred by master would be able to possess such an amazing ability.

Soon a soft breeze passes me and I notice the hormones. Turning to the right I begin flying while following the trail.

After an hour of flying I finally found their location. The place was near the edge of the forests. About 2 kilometers from this spot was an open grassland with sparse trees. This area has some berry bushes and other stuff that would work for food.

Floating in the air I could see the rabbits had already reached adult size and were level 2 already. It was the natural size of the rabbits but then I noticed the mother rabbits daddy captured to protect them.

[Grand Elder Rabbit level 19]

So the eldest one turns into the Grand Elder no matter who it was. She was walking around when I noticed her turn to one of the other females who was growling at her.

They suddenly started to fight and the challenger was beat in the matter of minutes but she wasn’t killed.

Instead she was exiled but she made sure to take several children with her.

“So the natural process of this place has already begun to work.” I mutter.

I slowly follow the exiled group. I watch the female growling and notice how her fur and that of the clutch she had taken with her slowly darkened to a burnt brown and the name [Senior Elder Rabbit] turned into [Grand Elder Meat Eater Rabbit Level 15]

All the others suddenly turned just like her and started to snarl and salivate. They all wanted to return but their numbers were too small so they resigned themselves to munching on berries. They reach a cliff face and find a small cavern there. By the beck of the leader they squeeze in after her and from there they begin making their nest.

“Now predators were born and it wouldn’t take long until their numbers are large enough for us to hunt but maybe I should look for more animals for daddy.” I say out loud.

Making a small portal in front of me I look outside and see that it’s still not night time and the area is filled with people.

As long as there are humans I can’t exit so I resign myself to returning to my room.

Since I had nothing to do I go explore the places that were made. I stopped at the armory and remembered that daddy had stored some weapons he had in here.

Flying in, I spotted the many bone weapons daddy had gathered from the beasts he had hunted.

I then notice the long lance on one of the weapon racks.

It was really long and didn’t match my size but it was a long lance.

I put my own in my inventory and then try picking up the bone one only to not even make it budge. I identified it to see why.

Lance’s Bone Lance

A bone lance made from unknown animal bones. The bones were of some very large creature and was carved carefully to make the lance.

Because this lance is a single piece of a dense bone, the weight is 2 times heavier than regular metal lances of the same size.

Durability 30/70

Attack: 32

Requirement: Level 20, 60 Str

Special effect:

Heavy weight: The extra weight makes the weapon heavier but due to this attacks would also be much heavier due to the extra weight behind the weapon.

2x more damage.

My eyes were shining seeing this great weapon. I WANTED IT!! I need to get strong fast so that I can have this!

Without a care I open a portal in the ceiling and flying up as fast as possible I fly straight up and towards the forest where there would be stronger prey. I didn’t really think at that moment since there was lots of hunted meat in the freezer but because I did this the humans saw me and were surprised.

Still I was too fast in the air and I flew into the forests away from the rabbit fields.

I wanted to find animals for the wilderness zone because if I didn’t get it fast the rabbits would start rapidly evolving into tons of different types of animals to fill the world up. I really don’t want rabbit meat for all eternity.

Because of that I flew around and did some rather mean things like take a bird and her nest and then I searched for worms and dropped them in the wilderness zone as well. I need to feed the birds with stuff besides my own hive. I find lots of birds and stuff that is sent to the wildernest zone.

Then I started looking for other animals.

The sun was finally starting to lower when I had descended lower to the ground to find animals.

I looked around carefully near the edge of the forest near where the rats were and found parties of humans but they were sparsely spread out.

Because it was darker now I was able to fly over and near the area that had only animal type rats and grab them in bunches then toss them inside.

As I fly around looking for anything else I spot a small swarm of Fireflies. Remembering we had Flare flies I fly down and summon the flare flies and tell them to feast on the fire flies. It’s one of the few ways to properly feed them I think. I felt in my head it was so I did that.

With the flare flies in the mix the number of lights in the night sky grew to a large number.

I personally sat on a high branch watching them because I thought it was pretty.

After a while I heard voices, human voices. They were coming from the edge of the forests and were walking this way. After a while a peasant farmer and his wife and kids came running over. The kids were happily running around in the middle of the firefly swarm. I tell the flare flies to ignore them and stay away from them and they do just that.

In the hands of the kids was a glass case.

“Kids, don't make too much noise!” The father of the three children said. “It’s night time so there may be animals out.”

Thankfully there weren’t at least to what degree I could sense but out of fear for them I stayed in the trees up higher in the trees out of sight.

The kids grabbed some fireflies and stuck them in the glass bottle and watched them glow up close.

I found it funny how they thought it was fun to watch them glow.

Suddenly I heard a growl coming from a short distance away and looking there I saw nothing but I felt animal hormones there.

I have one flare fly go over there and what I find is a large black wolf. Wolves run in packs which means that there may be more here. It was aiming for the humans.

I quickly spread to flare flies out and try to find it. What I encountered was 6 other wolves, 2 adults and 4 pups. This was probably hunting training.

Suddenly I saw the movement from an adult and knew no bug would stop it so in my hands my lance appears from my inventory.

I looked quickly over the wolves head seeing a [Black Wolf Level 19].

Seeing that, I knew I could hurt it enough to stop its charge at least.

The wolf jumped out at the closest child which was a 3 year old girl. In the same instance my wings beat down and I rapidly fell right where it would be in mid air.

The lance sticks into the wolves back just behind the left shoulder and I hear a pop signalling the arm had been dislocated.

With the force behind me I push the wolf to the ground 2 meters away from the child.

The parents of the kids suddenly look my way after hearing the sound of the crash and then the sound of the wolves howl.

They saw the injured wolf and without question ran over and grabbed the little girl but suddenly the other five wolves jumped out with glowing angry eyes.

I pull the lance and stick it through the wolves eye and into its brain killing it with a fatal hit.

When I see the wolves circling the family.

With a series of pheromones and mental orders the Flare Flies swarmed around the family and in unison began flashing their lights like a wave.

I fly over the wolves and land in front of the family.

“Don’t leave this circle or I can’t protect you.” I said.

“Yes please save us!” The kids mother said. She saw I looked strange but I think knowing beastmen exist she believed I was something of that nature.

Signals for the Vampiric Mosquitos come out. I only needed the queen and her Royal guard. I did the same with the spiders and called them.

I told them that when the wolves come to jump they should trick them into the Wilderness zone.

The three other queens and their Royal Guards took the two sides and back of the family making sure they were now completely covered.

The wolves seem to get irritated with the lights and the wolf who was most angry after seeing her mate killed jumped at me only to be met with the entrance to the wilderness.

The pups were shocked and the queens didn’t miss the chance to jump out.

The Royal guard ran out and began to do faint attacks on the wolves who all dodged skillfully but were completely preoccupied by the royal guard bugs who were small and nimble.

They didn’t notice the queens come from behind and only when they were entering the wilderness zone did they notice the trap but it was far too late.

The final wolf was the easiest because he had seen his family taken care of so easily and was now whimpering on the ground.

I opened a portal under it and it fell into the wilderness zone.

From them I’m sure something to control the rabbits will appear. I just hope the predator type rabbits will not be too strong.

As I turned around I noticed the humans looking at me with some worry but the kids were watching me with glowing eyes filled with awe.

“Thank you miss…”

“T-this great one is known as Levi!” I suddenly blurted out trying to hide my embarrassment at being looked at like that by the kids.

“This great one was passing by and let her subjects feed on lesser insects.” I gestured at the flare flies.

“I see…” The father of the kids said looking at the swarm that was moving as one as well as the queen's and royal guard which were monster sized bugs.

I tell the queens to return to their own places and they do just that.

I tell the Flare flies to take the wolf corpse for themselves and to set it on fire to feed from it. Also to share with the Bombardier Beetle that eats burnt meat.

“Miss miss! How do you contwol the bugs?” the smallest child asked.

“I-it’s because I’m a great queen so they listen…” I suddenly blurted out.

“So you're like a queen of bugs?” the mother of the kids asked while looking at me worried.

“I’m not a demon so don’t look at me like that! I’m hm… I think you humans call them demi-humans? or was it beast-humans?” I said.

“Oh so you're an insect type beastman, that makes sense now but why are you here?” The man asked.

“I’m here with my da... master. My mommy left me with daddy to help him.” I say and notice I didn’t use the facade and because of that I blushed hard and looked away.

“My, my what a shy child.” The mother said giggling with the daughters.

“Please tell no one that you saw this great one.” I asked them to try to build the facade again but there were two big tears at the corner of my eyes already.

“Don’t worry, for such a nice little girl that protected us we wouldn’t mind keeping quiet since you seem to have your reasons.” the man said.

“Queen miss! Queen miss! Can we play sometime?” The eldest daughter said. The order of age was girl, boy, girl.

“Ah… if… daddy lets me.” I mutter blushing fiercely. “You should get going before other wolves come.” I warn them as a way to get out of this situation.

“Yes, she is right. Come on kids that is enough for today. If the great queen visits, I’m sure she can make us her own personal firefly show with her subjects.” He said with a wink my way.

“Yes, if daddy lets me visit, this great one can show you her subjects.” I said making the three kids cheer.

From there the humans left from where they came and I recalled all the bugs before jumping into my room with a big smile while still blushing.

“I hope daddy can let me play with them again. And also doesn’t punish me for showing myself and saving them.” I mutter but then jump into bed and go to sleep happy about what happened today.

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