Swirling, spinning, churning, twisting, spiraling. I couldn’t stop this strong force pulling me through this tube. The darkness had a substance to it, almost like murky water. For a time I didn’t know what was happening. Streaks of lights finally enter my view as I span. More and more continue to come washing away the dense darkness. In an instance a large new planet appears. The skies, the seas, and the land seemed so familiar, but as I fell fast into the atmosphere I felt it in my soul that this wasn’t the Earth that I lived my entire life on.

“Wher-”

Before I can usher a word things turn black again. Lights out, in a flick of a switch.

This really isn’t what I call a satisfactory result. I’m a fucking ant queen. But at least I know Ari is here somewhere in this world…

“GAH! What the hell! I’m a damn stupid little ant queen! No way in hell Ari and I can do things together like this now!”

I smack the ground with my front leg hard. Strength LV 7, activates. The dirt crumbles creating a small crater underneath my leg. Instead of clenching my teeth and gritting it like I used to, I chatter chitter my two blade-like jaws.

How would I even talk to Ari, I’m sure she doesn’t speak ant or whatever. God. Even death wants to ruin our special relationship huh?!

“My Queen, are you alright?”

Looking up I see the ant that greeted me when I was born, standing at the giant entrance. Her formidable, but beaten up appearance and formal talk really set her from her fellow soldiers. ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ can literally be used to encapsulate her. Although, I just named her Konchu (insect) for my convenience. She didn’t really matter to me.

“Go away, Konchu. I need my space and time to myself, just do as you’re ordered and guard outside my room.”

“As you command, my Queen.”

“Hmph.”

I spread my wings and flutter them a bit before moving to sit on my dirt throne.

Who gives a fuck if even death do us part. I will find a way for us to be together again. And Only Us.

I close my eyes searching my mind for ideas, anything and everything that could help.

Bing!

Feeling a weird sensation flow through my body I open my eyes. In front of me appeared to be a menu screen.

>[Status] [Colony] [Base] [Map]

Huh… so… we’re in some sort of weird video game-like world? Or am I hallucinating? Well I’m surprised I just now asked this question.

The small arrow seemed to follow wherever I looked. But if I looked too far from where the menu is, the entire menu would constantly reposition to be in front of my eyes. Getting the sense of using my mind to click on the options I choose [Status]

>[Status] [Colony] [Base] [Map]

[Status]

Name: >

Race: Fire Ant

Class: Queen

LV 1

HP: 2,000/2,000 (green)

MP: 400/400 (blue)

SP: 500/500 (orange)

Offense: 1,000 Defense: 1,000 Magic: 500

Skills (20): [Hard Skin LV 5] [Strength LV 7] [Life LV 7] [Fly LV 4] [Command LV 7] [Accuracy LV 5] [Touch Sensory LV 5] [Smell Sensory LV 5] [Vision LV 3] [Movement LV 3] [Aura Detect LV 8] [Intelligence LV 7] [Fire-Breath LV 7] [Tactics LV 5] [Resistance: Fire LV 7] [Resistance: Poison LV 5] [Poison LV 5] [Bite LV 5] [Manipulate LV 10] [Soul-Bound: Ariki]

“Huh…”

That’s quite something I guess. Probably basic stats for an ant queen, but the two things that do stand out are my Manipulate LV 10 and Soul-Bound: Ariki. Hehehehe… Nice to know I have a definitive connection to her.

I hover my arrow over the Soul-Bound skill and mentally click on it

>[Soul-Bound: Ariki]

[Soul-Bound: Ariki]: Given to those who feel a strong connection to the One no matter where they may be. Closer you are to the One, the stronger you’ll feel their presence. Cannot be LV’d.

Shivers flow through my spine and I let out a satisfied giggle.

“Hehehe… Hahaha! Huh. So that’s what this means… the feeling isn’t strong at all, but the shivers alone tells me that she is alive, breathing, and walking around on the same dirt and soil as me. With this skill… I will Always find her.”

I spend a lot of my time reading up on the other skills. Since I’m deep underground within an ant hill, I couldn’t really tell time. Despite it being pitch black, my senses still allowed me to see as if it’s day. By then I was too fixed on my status screen to notice when another ant entered my chambers.

“Uh, my queen. Don’t mind me, I'm here to fix your floor.”

A small worker ant strolls in with a clump of dirt. She places it on the hole I made earlier.

“Just don’t be annoying about it, also could you get someone to get me some damn food. Haven’t eaten since I was born.”

“Yeah… uh right away my queen.”

After the small ant leaves I return to my screen highlighting and opening the text for Fire-Breath LV 7.

[Fire-Breath LV 7]: A ranged flame breath attack. This form burns hot enough to melt stone. Range, 245 meters. Active LV-ing.

“A stone melting move that can hit that far at LV 7. I guess the final form should reach 350 meters or more. Assuming LV 10 is the max, since I do have one at that LV. Huh. It doesn’t explain using it so…”

I look at the wall at the far end of my chambers and focus on it. For a minute no flame burst from my mouth, so I tried moving my jaws and even saying the skill’s name, but still nothing. I close my eyes and concentrate on the feeling that I had when opening the menu screen. Something between my jaws ignites and shoots out almost like a laser.

Tchh! Zzzzrrrrrr! Fwoosshhh!

Just like in the description it incerates a big hole into the wall. Completely blasting the dirt, stone, and rumble that molded the wall. Embers sparked and jumped as smoke emitted from the hole.

I guess this’ll do for when I wanna take care of anyone in my way. I’m an ant, queen or not, I’m still fucking way smaller than any human let alone a kid! It still melts stone so this’ll definitely hurt or kill if I aim these shots right. Now then the most important skill…

[Manipulate LV 10]: A talk based skill used to convince others to believe your truth or lies. This form can convince multiple targets with almost complete success or a focused target with the highest success. Passive, Max LV.

I could feel the corners of my lips curl as high as they could despite not having a mouth. More giggles seep from my jaws as I read over the text again and again.

“Hehehehe… Oh Ari… Hahahaha! Ari… It’ll make things easier for us, but I won’t use this unless I really have to. I’m sure you’d understand once you’ll know how happy you’ll be. How happy we’ll be.”

“Uhh… um. Yeah here’s your food that you requested, my queen.”

“Hm? Oh thanks.”

Disregarding the flashy colorful looking fruits placed in front of me, I stare at the little worker ant.

“Uh… Oh did you need me to fix that hole in the wall too? I’ll leave now to-”

Manipulate LV 10, activates.

“You’re a human. Somehow, someway you’re a human standing in my dark cold chambers.”

“...”

For a moment, she stood there. Seemingly shut down, not even a twitch to communicate.

“Ahhhhhh! What- Where am I?! It’s dark! Oh no! It’s dark, I can’t see! I’m blind! Hel-”

The little ant kept screaming, yelling, and scrambling around the dark room.

Kind of amusing to watch her run around, this feels relieving somehow...

“Stop, I’m kidding. You’re not human, what I said earlier was a lie. A joke.”

The moment I spoke that it’s a lie she freezes. As if time for herself paused. In the next second, time for herself resumes.

“Oh… haha… haha uh sorry I totally thought I was human. Well um I should go fix that hole for you, my queen. Don’t mind me.”

Huh… so it doesn’t erase their memories? Maybe I have to be very specific in my instructions so they forget my manipulation. At least now I know, hehehe… thanks little ant. Ugh I should name her, just calling them ant 1, ant 2 and so on is pretty dumb and it’ll get confusing down the road.

I spent the next few days familiarizing myself with my colony and the way things are. Movement came almost naturally to me, allowing me to act in a way an ant queen would act and do things. Although mentally getting the grasp of how I am now instead of my usual human body is still a work in progress. Looking back at my status I did name myself. Throwing away my wretched birth-name I decided to stick with the name I received from Ari.

[Status]

Name: Isa

I did look at all the other aspects of my menu. It’s about what you can expect when you see a status screen, the other three would be similar and RPG-like. [Colony], showed me the statuses of all my ant underlings. [Base], laid out a 2D picture of the ant hill detailing the facilities I have, what I can construct, and it even shows where the other ants are in-base. [Map], showed the world ‘Celestia’ all unmarked and covered in black leaving only a small section colored in. That miniscule colored-in-area is the ant hill in where I currently reside.

“Out of all my soldiers, Konchu has the highest stats. Even if I don’t necessarily care much about her, she’s useful in more ways than one at least. I’ll make sure she stays alive to serve her purpose.”

Judging by her built stats she’s been through a hell of a lot of battles.

I sit on the soft grass, basking in the rays of the sun at the base of my ant hill. A few guards roam around patrolling the area for me. Staying cramped up in the darkness slowly itched at my ‘human’ mentality so I usually take some time in my day to be outside.

‘Tanning under the sun’ is not a thing a normal ant queen should be doing scientifically speaking, but since I’m the ruler I obviously do whatever I want. My Earth’s logic flew out the door the moment I discovered the menu screen and tested out my outrages skills.

Opening up the [Colony] screen I look over Konchu’s stats to read up more on her skills.

Name: Konchu

Race: Fire Ant

Class: Hardened Commander

LV 16

HP: 1,700/1,700 (green)

MP: 200/200 (blue)

SP: 2,100/2,100 (orange)

Offense: 2,000 Defense: 1,500 Magic: 300

Skills (20):

[Iron Skin LV 5] [Strength LV 7] [Life LV 6] [Command LV 7] [Accuracy LV 7] [Touch Sensory LV 5] [Smell Sensory LV 5] [Vision LV 5] [Movement LV 7] [Intelligence LV 5] [Fire-Breath LV 7] [Tactics LV 5] [Resistance: Fire LV 7] [Bite LV 7] [Terrorize LV 5] [Guard LV 7] [Charge LV 7] [Train LV 7] [Moral Boost LV 5] [Grapple LV 5]

Compared to me her stats are beyond competent. I’m not sure about the standards of the strong and the weak in this world. Although, LV 7 seems to be the hardstuck level before moving up to LV 8, 9, and 10. So by this logic… Konchu is mostly in her prime in terms of power.

“Uhh… my queen. Here are the oppa fruits you requested.”

The little ant timidly places a wood plate full of colorful cylinder-shaped fruits in front of me.

“Thank you, Maru. Come here”

“Are… you sure, my queen?”

“I’m sure, I insist. Sit with me, Maru.”

She glances at the guards before slowly approaching me and sitting down next to me. I place a front leg on her like I’m wrapping my arm around her.

Small, cute, and round. That’s why she’s Maru, currently she’s my little pet. She’s still hesitant around me, but that’s fine since she probably isn’t used to this sort of treatment especially from a queen. Maru’s been quite helpful in my experiments regarding my manipulation skill. I could have her completely under my control because of this LV 10 skill. But. No fun in that.

Grinning with my jaws I hand her a fruit to snack on while I snack on mine. Not objecting to the offer she eats along with me. I can hear the little chirps of joy as she takes her bites.

“Hehe… hehe...”

She’s quite the foody, besides she reminds me of that one ‘friend’ Ari has in her group. That little squeaky mouse. She’s tolerable… but always pushing it every time she tries to be ‘cute’ around Ari. Taking all the damn attention and fooling Ari with her stupid act. Lies, all of it. Trying to act weak and garner sympathy from others. Leech affection and attention from anyone that’s wrapped in her fingers. Such a filthy small insignificant parasite. That’s why I hate small things like her.

I gently stroke Maru’s pastel red carapace. Her squeaks omit a little louder as she chews on her fruity meal.

This one on the other hand…

I open up her stats.

Name: Maru

Race: Fire Ant

Class: Worker

LV 1

HP: 600 / 600 (green)

MP: 100 / 100 (blue)

SP: 500 / 500 (orange)

Offense: 100 Defense: 500 Magic: 100

Skills (12): [Hard Skin LV 3] [Strength LV 3] [Life LV 1] [Accuracy LV 2] [Touch Sensory LV 2] [Smell Sensory LV 2] [Vision LV 3] [Movement LV 4] [Intelligence LV 2] [Fire-Breath LV 1] [Resistance: Fire LV 3] [Bite LV 3]

Compared to the normal worker ants, she’s weaker. Even her stats embody her tiny physique.

“I’m told you’re a small born, right Maru?”

“Hehee… Oh, uhhh yeah I am. Me and 20 other sisters are small born. Most of them are workers but there’s that one elite sister.”

“Oh yeah… I haven’t met her yet since she’s been out scouting this entire time I have been born.”

Heard some interesting things about that small born from Konchu. Apparently if the strongest were to be named in this colony it’d be her. Plus she’s been the mentor of previous queens and such. Huh. Well the quicker she gets back the quicker I can find out about this damn world. And the quicker I can find Ari.

“My Queen! She should be arriving soon!”

Konchu charges through the open land as she loudly chirps out the news to me.

Finally, now let’s see how useful she really is.