Taking a good bath then spending several minutes doing stretching exercises to remove the stiffness of my muscles before heading downstairs to get something good to eat.

Taking the healthy route, I make a large sandwich from fresh ingredients cooked on those large stoves with the metal cover on top used for making lunch in restaurants. The only thing that changed from that is how we heated them up because manually making food has always been better then getting fast food in every way and in today’s time, healthy bodies are really needed.

Anyway, making my noon lunch I go to the living room while eating.

News about the weather, prices of production dropping and rising, situation of the space expansion which was actually interesting.

Apparently the several satellites that were sent to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, have finally reached it and they are starting to properly put it in orbit. Which isn’t new since they have constantly sent them out since last century to figure out the look of the planet behind that haze that shrouds the planet.

It’s a high optical camera type satellite like those used to map the surface of the planet. This satellite is to be used to find a safe location for the settlement on its surface where an enclosed settlement would be built. As of right now it would take around 6 months to reach it from Jupiter's moon colonies and they are already preparing the large colony ships that will be doing just that.

Colony ships have the most high tech we possess and put the passengers in a cryogenic sleep state while the crew remains awake to drive the ship. Drive tech is still eons away. The so-called Faster than light technology is simply too hard to understand even with all the tech we have nowadays.

Besides the cryogenic sleep tech, it is loaded with non perishable food left in a vacuum so that it wouldn’t spoil.

Most of it is used to survive until more supplies arrive.

Well who knows what will be found or done to that frozen moon. Maybe they can unfreeze it or whatever.

Shifting through the channels i find a channel on VLO which is actually the channel used specifically for this. It’s kind of like a sports channel used just for telling the news of what is happening in the world.

“...the southern region a new event has begun in the so-called Death Desert. As of right now, it’s said that some of the highest level monsters in the desert, Earth Dragons and the infamous Sandworms have begun fighting. The source of what caused this is unknown and may simply be territorial but the dangers of this region has risen to the max. To travel to this region it is most suggested to head to the eastern coast region and go by boat as it is currently suicidal to cross the desert.” The news woman said.

“In other news, it was shown today that the bug infestation within the current capital city of the Western region Yggdres was caused by the demon cult of a demon called Beelzebub. From what we can tell it is the same demon spoken of in myth, the demon lord of flies. It’s unknown if there is an event going on at the moment but someone had tipped off the guards and now all the churches are on high alert and looking all around for these cultists and the ‘Officials’ that had recruited the several npc that were being recruited. We had gone to interview the priests of the Churches and were able to gain some information on the cult. Quote “For the recruits of this cult to officially join they had to breed Demon flies which are only born in a city besieged by other bugs and the death of hundreds of human lives as sacrifice” unquote. As it's seen they are a dangerous cult but it is easy to spot their tracks since they are found in high concentration of bug infested lands filled with regular blowfly which seems to be the only insect the cultists can control.” The male news reporter says.

“The final bit of news comes from this video taken a few days ago of the player who went and completely destroyed the rabbits in the region and caused the race as a whole to drop several levels making them easier to hunt.” The woman said pumped.

The next moment a video of me finishing off the rabbits with that mad glint of my eye appeared. It was at the moment when the players and guards appeared. The next moment the event window appeared and Lance punched his way out of the ground leaving the entrance to the dungeon open.

Then began my fight which I was rather surprised to find was really short. We exchange several heavy hits each causing lots of damage to the rabbit and some to me before the rabbit called reinforcements which may have been a skill of his as a boss monster since the message did say no one could interfere but since i summoned the bugs to zap them it could be the same for me whose class used bugs.

As I thought that, the lightning striders and ThunderBolt darters appeared and began to charge before striking them leaving them dazed and paralyzed with a lot of damage to them.

Then the slow charge up and second hit that killed most of them.

“SERIOUSLY WHO KILLS A BOSS SO EFFORTLESSLY!? And what are those things he summoned?” The male reporter shouted.

“Let’s see, interviewing those players that were there at the time said that the strange cloud was buzzing so loudly that it sounded like thunder… buzzing so bugs?” The woman said.

“How can bugs have so much power?” The man asked.

“Hmm… considering the electricity traveled through the entire swarm maybe it’s a swarm attack and the actual single bug attack isn’t much stronger then a strong zap.” The woman explained.

As expected of a pro who has seen many skills and abilities. These guys are pros at guessing the abilities.

“Well, we are still trying to find this guy to interview him but we haven’t found him nor what his name is. From the report it says the player saw he was around level 19 when he finished off the boss but gained three levels so level 22. Considering the time difference from when the video was made and right now we can guess that he is between level 22-30 at the moment.” The man says.

Oh, they are good, with the recent rat massacre I gained 2 levels reaching level 25. I think it may be time for me to scram from Yggdres. Hmm considering the news and the new terrains, going southward would be a good idea. I can also train my haggling and marchant skills by transporting stuff with my little cart… nah need to sell that shitty thing and get a proper cart.

As I was finishing the sandwich I was eating I saw the game reporters move on to the central region showing the rapid expansion and how some blacksmiths in a small guild called Emporium had begun to develop modern arms like guns. They said they plan to make new classes like marksmen and gunner and even cannoneer or things like that.

Just what you would expect from Jonas, who is the boss of a research facility. Since i had nothing else to do i go upstairs and brush my teeth before jumping into bed and sticking the glasses on and returning to the game.

When I got back I found myself in my bed and thankfully with no Levi in my bed.

Getting up and stretching from the nap ingame I start moving to the door when I feel my feet step on something.

Looking down I found that a small plate of green shell was under my feet.

Taking it and examining it and failing countless times to identify it I just try examining it.

After a while the image of Levi pops up.

“Hmm… some bugs shed their exoskeleton and grow stronger ones as well as bigger one for them to grow.” I mutter.

I walk out and into her room and find her there and lots of exoskeleton parts on the ground while on her body there was already a new set. She also looked a bit taller. I also noticed how a line of exoskeleton had appeared around her eye riding up over her hair.

“Levi?” I called and she looked happy.

“Daddy look! I shed my first exoskeleton and grew a bit. Also look!” She said as the exoskeleton on her head pulled back removing the big black bug eye like it was goggles revealing really charming emerald green human eyes below them.

“I finally grew enough to have human eyes!” She said jumping around.

I smiled and looked around and started to pick up the parts of her exoskeleton. Though it was sort of stupid i was still interested in what they were made of and if it could be made into armor.

I also noticed how a pair of wings were on the ground but when i looked at Levi i saw she had wings.

It made me really wonder about this but she really had a fast growth.

“Help me gather these exoskeleton parts you dropped Levi.” I tell her.

She nods and we gather all the parts.

“Daddy what are you going to use them for?” She asked.

“Don’t know, I can't even identify it?” I tell her.

“Use buglore.” She said.

I looked at her a moment but took one part and used buglore to identify it.

Queen exoskeleton piece.

A small piece of the exoskeleton from a humanoid bug from the race known as ‘Queen’. The structure of this exoskeleton is made from Chitin and some calcium carbonate in a somewhat weak structure. This is still 6 times harder and stronger then regular bug exoskeleton.

Crafting Material

Bug lore has leveled up

“It’s crafting material!” I say surprised.

“Wow, does that mean that daddy can make some armor! That means as this great one grows I can protect daddy even if I’m not there!” Levi says with a blush while she said this.

I am really conflicted as to what she said but what it said is true, this is crafting materials but i need to figure out how to process this. I won’t get any more until she enters her next growing phase and sheds again. I look at the wings and use buglore to identify them as well.

Queen Wing.

The wing from a queen, the size indicates she is still in her child phase. The wing is still robust and as strong as cloth armor and can handle a certain amount of damage before breaking. This can be used in armor for a small boost to protect the back.

Crafting material

Just like the other parts it’s a crafting material. Still armor on the back, I doubt it would do anything but I wonder…

“Drone!” I call making her appear.

“Make a hidden area and store all of these parts.” I tell her though I grab one and store it in my inventory to see if someone can work with it.

She takes the remaining parts and the wing and goes to store them.

“Well, since we still have a lot of time why not try to practice some magic?” I tell Levi.

She doesn’t know any and she shows a face that says, “Do we have to?”

“If you want to go hunt with the bugs I won’t stop you.” I tell her to make her brighten up.

She flies up and gives me a kiss on the cheek before flying into the portal she makes.

Now then. I remember reading about meditation but just in case I open up ‘the Bugman’ book and read through it and I find what I want.

Over time the development of the hive will cause the mana to become dense within the hive. This is good because of several reasons. First is that for the bugs to advance they will need to feed off the mana and do one of the following. First would be to develop a mana pool in their chest which would, in the end, result in them evolving into a more humanoid form. The second option would be to develop what is called a mana core. It is a kind of gem that appears inside monsters after a certain threshold of power. This holds mana like the mana pool but the monster can’t use it as it pleases and can only use skills and not magic. The mana pool allows you to make magic using bugs. Not all bugs have the capability to use magic through. It depends on their nature and affinity. That won’t stop them from learning magic though which could still help to cultivate their culture by having witch doctors and so on.

Both of the methods above can only be done when bugs have truly become monsters and no longer normal bugs.

For the first process they need to have eaten a substantial amount of human or humanoid flesh or blood and undergone at least 2 body changes which they become more powerful and more evolved.

For the second process they need to evolve once by eating human meat then focus solely on monster meat that isn’t humanoid. Hunting inside the hive terrains is the best method for that as the animals would all naturally become monsters and unless humanoids are introduced that kind of evolution won’t appear.

After they have undergone these two evolutions, the owner of the hive must create a location known as Holy Land by adding magic crystals and gems to the hive. You need only the Four basic elements, Fire, Earth, Air and Water to make the Holy Land but adding more would also make the area more effective as it would keep increasing your mana capacity the more you integrate.

By making either type of monster bug absorb mana from here, they would slowly undergo a metamorphosis and develop either a monster body or a humanoid body.

So in other words the book tells me how to evolve monsters into humanoids. That makes things easier. Now I know exactly what I need to do huh. Feed humanoid meat to tier 3 monster bugs and get the first evolution. Then focus on either one of the types I want. I can even split the races in half, make a monster half and a humanoid half.

I look a bit more and find that there is actually meditation technique here. It’s a method specifically for the Holy land to help me cultivate my magic ability. There is another one which is the basic mediation to recharge mana.

I sigh and open a portal into the Holy Land and step inside and feel that weight on my head and the difficulty to breath.

I do as it says and sit anywhere cross legged then start. Breath deeply even if it’s hard. Try to breathe in the mana in the air and move it through my body. This is pretty much a cheating way to access my own mana from the outside.

I breath the mana into my body and have it circulate my body slowly while it gets more dense with each breath.

I failed a lot at the start. The objective is to make a kind of aura to protect me from the dense mana concentrated here. If bugs enter here they would instantly begin absorbing mana of all types but the largest kind would be of their best element.

After a while, my head started to get dizzy. I started to feel the mana in my body. Instead of trying to control the outside mana I began to circulate my own mana first. I began to move rapidly and it appeared in the Holy Land as a strong wind passing through the forest.

I then began to absorb the mana in the air and add to the circulating mana.

Slowly a glow appeared around me and the dizzy feeling began to decrease but my mind was already in a trance and I kept absorbing more mana with each breath making the windstorm slowly grow stronger but no trees ever fell but were blown around by the strength of the circulating mana.

After a while I felt I couldn't hold any more mana in my body and simply let a sigh out as the mana returned to my mana pool. It was then that I noticed the whirlwind that had begun to calm down with the return of the mana but then I also noticed how the mana had become denser from me absorbing the ‘exterior’ mana in here. I could also handle this and walk around normally.

You have learned new skills

Meditation

Basic Level 1

By sitting down and feeling the mana of the world you can absorb the mana into your body and temporarily increase the maximum amount of mana you possess in your body.

By constantly using meditation, it is possible to permanently increase mana capacity. The best results in meditation will appear in places of dense mana concentration.

Sitting 10 minutes will increase mana by 3% for 1 hour.

Mana Aura

Basic Level 1

By covering your body with mana you can improve its defense and even the offensive power. Besides your own body you can also cover a weapon in her hands in aura like you would when coating mana directly but the aura is much stronger.

Passive: Protects you from suffocating pressure or killing intent.

Active: Improves defense and attack by 5%

Cost: 1% per 10 seconds

So I got the meditation skill from this huh. Not only that, an OP skill. I can improve my attack and defense by 5% at the cost of 1% of my mana for every 10 seconds. So without using spells I can maintain it for 16 minutes and about 40 seconds. But since I would use skills that's not possible. Still a good skill to train. Not only that I can also now train to permanently increase my mana capacity.

With this done, I checked the time and saw that about 14 hours have passed and only now did I feel the pangs of thirst and hunger hit me with both down near 10%.

I open the portal and jump into the palace and bring out all my cooking gear and tell the drone to make a kitchen for me.

When i reached the location that was the kitchen, which is next to the drying room. I found a large cooking pot in the center of the room with the cauldron hanging there. On the sides were counters and shelves that held the pans and with me drawing up the design I made a large stove that used wood.

From here I began to cook up a good meal.

When it was done I told the drone to call everyone that was up. The ones that came were Flor and Levi but none of the policemen appeared.

While we ate Flor told me she was enjoying gathering the herbs in the forest and rainforest. The diversity has grown a lot since everything seems to evolve quick here but none of it beats the Wilderness zone.

Considering there was nothing else in the other areas I sent an order to the Drone to capture and send some rabbits, birds, bugs, wolves and rats to the other terrains except the Holy land.

I needed to get some fox and other nearby animals so that we can get the basic animal groups.

Maybe we can get cats and dogs from the city as well. Who cares, the diversity will continue to expand as they grow and spread. Desert will probably make coyotes from wolves or foxes, beetles may appear from bugs. Desert eagles and vultures as well may appear. Desert hare and rabbits and small rodents from rats.

All this will make prey for my bugs to feed them. I wonder if my thought process may be altering because of the hive mind. Though the queens of the Tier 3’s take a load of my mind I still have to contend with the others that aren’t like that.

Well whatever, i call the drone and tell her to chop up all the remaining rats except the ratmen, which is to be left hanging in the freezer, and distribute it to all the Bullet Ants, Mantis, Striped Glitter Moth, Neural Poison Glitter Moth, Toxic Poison Glitter Moth, Glitter Wing Dragonfly, Bombardier Beetle, Flare Fly and Ice Flare Fly.

I also examine all these and put them to continue breeding. The ants have grown in number but I focus on several males that have the strongest stats.

Ants are a tricky thing to breed due to the Queen ant being the only breeder. I need to make better queens. The nest already numbers over 200 which is good. They have the queen born with soldiers and workers.

I connect my mind with the queen Bullet Ant and see how she breeds and it shows she controls the type of ant that is born but she just does that.

It seems that for ants it’s a completely different type of growth pattern. After looking through their eyes in the nursery how they feed the ants differently I found that it was food related. Workers are fed less and make them smaller while soldiers are fed more and are smarter to be able to fight off enemies.

When the drop of meat came the meat was crushed and taken inside and the amount of food they had was larger and so they instantly began to feed more food but in the same proportion.

I could already see that this would cause growth. But they need a bit of help. The meat needs to be broken down and turned into something eatable by the larva that hatches.

I create an image of a large ant that eats all the food and turns it into raw food into a mush that holds a lot more nutrient value for the larva. They would bloat from eating the food and would regurgitate as an edible mush for the larva and would feed them in proportion to what they need.

Instantly five eggs of this type was born. I named them feeders.

With this the ants would grow lots.

With this I was satisfied and since we didn’t have much to do we headed off to do as we like until the others came back.