In the real world, Micro-Management was Duncan's only solace in the boring world.

In the two days that he had to wait for the eggs to hatch, Duncan had fought against more [Lesser Acid Centipedes] as they probed his Den's defenses. The sounds in the stairwell grew excessive at times, sometimes the door leading to the stairwell jarred from shock as something kept ramming into it. Measures have been taken to barricade the door as of now.

Duncan kept thinking about what could possibly be on the other side of the door. He knew the creature couldn't have a way to open the door, hence the ramming but this creature knew that there were good things for it if it did get through the door.

Points from the hunts in the morning, afternoon, and evening of the two days had accumulated into a total of 43 points, and five of those points came from a [Lesser Acid Centipede] that the survivors killed in the raid. Luckily they learned from the past experience and no one managed to die.

Finally for the moment of truth, from the cluster of 63 eggs, about 8 of them wiggled. Duncan watched intently as the eggs started to crack and hatch. From these eggs 8 centipedes hatched. He checked the information window of each centipede as Duncan couldn't tell if a variant has appeared and after checking a few of them he checked the information on a centipede and something interesting showed up.

Rank 2 Sentient Centipede

Name: [Unnamed]

Age: 10 minutes

Trait: M [Single-Minded, Reckless] F [Obsessed, Enhanced Body]

Growth Potential (Courtesy of Rosa): 39%

Extra: Born from a human and a centipede, this creature has the body of a centipede but is aware of itself like a human. The traits it inherit from it's mother and father, this rascal is reckless, only thinking about it's obsession, and it's enhanced body allows it to withstand hits.

Mother: Lesser Acid Centipede.

Father: Eric Syndrome

The chances of getting this variant was so low, Duncan might have considered that he spent his entire life's luck on this single creature. "Interesting, interesting, but what are traits exactly? Can I find out what they are?"

"Help: Traits" Duncan said as he wondered how the traits worked in the game and an explanation popped up.

Traits determine the individuality of a survivor in the den. Whenever breeding between two survivors occur, they pass half their traits to their offspring. In some instances, a trait may change depending on actions or mindset of a survivor. These changes occur as they are growing or traumatizing experiences as well as how well a survivor copes with a situation and actions on overcoming a particular trait.

Duncan looked at the traits of each of the centipedes and he put together the traits that the lesser acid centipede had. [Single-Minded] [Reckless] [Sense Heat] and [Scent Driven]. Sense Heat allowed the centipede to locate their Den, which would explain why it attacked. Since they were situated in a cave, no natural heat signatures would be given off, but since humans are warm-blooded, the centipedes followed the heat. Scent Driven can be interpreted to the attack that happened a few days ago. If the first centipede had sprayed a chemical agent, then the other centipedes could follow that scent and therefore find the Den.

Duncan looked at the 8 centipedes, each separated from each other in fear of them killing each other.

The centipedes cried out, their satiety low as they wailed for food, and finally they were fed, the morsels of deer and wild dog.

The eggs that didn't hatch were fertilized again, the sentient centipede included despite how young it was. With a centipede of it's own species, the chance of hatching was raised from 25% to 75%, and that would mean more Sentient Centipedes would appear.

The centipedes grew, Rosa began calculating some results on selective breeding and showed the best possible route to take for the centipedes, they could be raised as mounts and shields if interbred with [Tough Body] or [Enhanced Body] traits, As for the Sentient Variant, [Sense Heat] and [Scent Driven] would make them excellent scouts.

Duncan had the centipedes fight with each other and ruled out the weaker ones from the breeding pool. The sentient one became more and more aware of itself and as observed, started to formulate plans on how to overcome it's opponent. After the fight was over the girl Sandra was sent in to patch up and care for the wounded. The centipedes were wary of her at first, some even tried to attack her, but a quick order was given and they backed off, some were reluctant to let such a meal pass, but Duncan killed one randomly.

The centipedes were shocked at the outcome but when they attacked again another one was killed. As for a third time, the other centipedes attacked the one that was attacking, nearly killing it.

Truthfully Duncan was contemplating whether his strategy was good, He randomly killed two potentially good centipedes, but all in all, the centipedes had learned that attacking Sandra came with dire consequences. The 6 remaining centipedes surrounded Sandra and waited.

As time passed by to see which side would move first, the people at the wall cried out in alarm, the Dryad was screaming loudly, as a Dragonfly swooped down and grabbed her. Taking her back to the hive. Duncan growled in anger at the loss of a valuable asset, but he couldn't be weak now. So he moved his plans further ahead of schedule.

Duncan passed the time quickly, waiting for a sizable army to grow. Within 6 days, a total force of 17 centipedes, one sentient centipede, one poison-blood human, and two lesser acid mantises were born and raised. Of the 21 newborns, all of them were ready for combat with the exception of the poison-blood human.

The points from the various hunts during the days had brought a total of 103 points, and the wild lesser acid centipedes were beginning to become more and more aggressive. Duncan normally won against the centipedes, but he would occasionally lose one or two of his hatchlings who were growing up to fight, thus bringing his forces to the 21 he had.

As for the base, the corridor with the 2 rooms were nice and tidy. The science room was being worked on trying to understand it, The hatching room was where all the fertile eggs, and pregnant people were located, The generator room is functioning properly, Lincoln had increased his accessibility to 5%, while Rosa with the addition of the centipedes was at 7%.

Duncan gave the knowledge of weapon making and set up a specialized workshop for such, costing him all his points. Luckily the remains of the iron tracks from the railroad could be salvaged and converted, as well as the deer hide and bones.

Outfitting the group for an attack, Duncan had left the scientist, the crafts-smith, and another male to be left behind while the other three were sent out to fight, the sentient centipede, and poison blood mantises were left behind as well while the 17 other centipedes were ushered toward the hive of the dragonflies.

The centipedes swarmed the bottom of the hive, entering through the bottom, the three humans closely following behind. Loveheart was leading the way, spear in hand leather armor protecting his vitals. After some orders he went in.

Loveheart POV:

I recieved the order as soon as the latest batch of centipedes grew.

You are to attack the hive today, lead your forces well

I gulped once the message popped in front of me, I wanted to disobey it but my body already moved me to grab my spear and armor.

"Might as well eliminate the threat now" I thought to myself, I saw that Derek and Henry were joining me, the two non-specialized people. "Ready to go out and do some hunting?" I asked flashing them a smile and they both reluctantly smiled back before following my lead.

The centipedes were rowdy, they could sense that they would be able to go and kill, and that put them into a frenzy. "If only Favor was here, What would she do" I said under my breath and looked at the centipedes, before having Sandra release them.

Sandra was slumped over in a gloomy mood when she did release the insects, and she gave the order "Attack the Hive"

The centipedes with the [Single-Minded] trait immediately rushed out of our Den and rushed toward the hive.

"A good distraction, quickly, follow them and make use of their sacrifice." I ordered and charged alongside the others.

Upon the raid site, the five Single-Minded centipedes were already reduced to two, but the corpses of a few dragonflies were strewn about.

"Derek take one of the dragonflies back to base, have Arnold examine it." I said to him and with a salute Derek left with a relieved face. Leaving the two single-minded behind the rest of our forces entered the lower portion of the hive. As we entered I noticed the ground was very soggy. "Great place for the Sahuagins right?" Henry joked and from a hole above, a Dragonfly bit Henry and pulled him into the hole, his screams Reverberated inside the hive. I ordered the centipedes to stand guard and attack any movement. An we slowly progressed, We collected some eggs for later taming.

Progressing through the hive, I fought against many dragonflies, I pierced the abdomens of the insects, I smashed them into the wall. I witnessed some of the centipedes biting the dragonflies in half and vice versa. The carnage of going through the hive was taking a heavy toll on our forces, of the 12 centipedes that entered the hive with me, about 5 of them were left.

In the center of the pod a huge mound of dead bodies were strewn about, and a large dragonfly queen was sitting there, laying her eggs in the water, while the larva ate the bodies floating on the surface of the pond.

"If we had the Aquatic Centipedes this might be a bit better, but CHARGE" I ordered and I rushed in alongside the remaining centipedes that hadn't died in the battle.

As soon as we did show our face though, the water erupted with dragonflies, the walls also became alive as dragonflies dropped down from the walls and ceiling.

Oh..... crap" Loveheart exclaimed as the swarm approached his group.

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Hope you enjoy this chapter, I intended to release it on Halloween, but.... its Halloween, I get free candy and its great. Hope you had a great Halloween and sorry for not releasing this later than intended.

Remember to support me by complimenting/critizing me, I would gladly take either.

Having suggestions and want to influence the story?, suggestions go into the comments and influencing goes into the votes for polls (when they do show up)

All and all, all is well, see you all and get ready for another chapter sooner. (or later)

-Author Sederance