The situation became more and more convoluted. Mitch had still held hope that he could kill all the ants by successively transforming himself with their genes, thereby attaining greater strength.
It was not all lost though. Maybe the mutation he wanted Madeline to gain didn't require a lot of genetic information. He might be able to get away with just killing a few more ants.
As he walked over towards Madeline, a forced smile on his face, he tried using {Gene Tree} on her. After trying for a while another red screen popped up in front of Mitch, this one with even more exclamation marks.
He quickly looked through all of them and found most to be identical to his own, except the one he was aiming for.
[Broodhouse]
[0.02% / 0.002% (locked) Complete]
[Time needed in hibernation: 0 (30 days)]
Dread spread through his body and he started shaking. He sat down in front of Madeline while still maintaining a smile, but inside he was screaming in frustration.
'One, ten, hundred, thousand… That's ten thousand ants! Not to mention if she would be able to eat that many within a year, I doubt there are even that many ants alive in this nest. I hope queens fill the requirements faster for this mutation.'
"The Lord has told me that it is too soon for you to go through this metamorphosis. I shall seal this power inside you, to prevent any mishaps from occurring." He reached towards Madeline with his hand.
She blinked her large, child-like eyes in confusion. "What's a metamorphosis?"
"It means change. The Lord has given your kind the blessing of changing their bodies, for better or for worse. I am here to prevent the latter from befalling you." With his hand on her head, he closed his eyes and focused.
'I should be able to lock someone to a single mutation, right?' He might have acted confident in front of Madeline, but this was his first time actually trying to do something like this.
"It should be? Although I helped you do it, you have sealed the ability of transforming from every species except for the Legio. Maybe try making your intent as clear as possible?" Even Katherine was unsure about how to proceed, but her words gave Mitch an idea.
He reopened the skill window showing Madeline's alternatives in his mind and imagined all of them locking, except for Broodhouse.
One after the other, the markers started fading away, and the associated models of DNA returned to the background. Eventually, only one big "!" remained, positioned right in the middle of the interface.
"It is done."
'Now, I just need to slaughter a whole ant colony to get enough biomass for her to complete the evolution. Shouldn't be too hard.'
"I still can't believe you have decided to put a child through something like that." Katherine's voice contained a hint of betrayal, as if she had expected more from Mitch.
'I still don't see what the big deal is. Sure, she will be severely restricted when it comes to freedom, but other than that there is nothing that should make her suffer.' Even with her continued warnings Mitch remained pretty blasé about the whole situation.
Katherine lost her cool after hearing his reasoning. "How can you say that! She's just a child, and you want to force her into mating so you can build an army of followers faster? How do you not see the problem with all of this?!"
The shrill screams were echoing in Mitch's head, bringing with them a severe migraine.
The confusion Mitch felt deepened. 'That is exactly why I am doing this though? Among every species able to lay copious amounts of eggs, ants are pretty much the only ones able to do it asexually.'
'Although the queen usually needs to be fertilized for her to lay proper worker ants, I'm sure that my skill can solve that issue. Wait, you didn't think I would force a child into doing it just for my own gain, right?'
Mitch felt betrayed. How could she think that about him? Although he could understand where the doubt came from, it still hurt that it was her first conclusion about his decision.
"But… th- then, what is your plan? Surely there is more to it than just making her lay an absurd amount of eggs, right?" Her voice had shrunk back, embarrassed from having misunderstood Mitch so gravely.
The response came with a cold snort.
'Now you care to ask, instead of making assumptions? Whatever, I have better things to do than to argue with you. Originally, I wanted to collect as many mutations as possible before finding a place for Madeline to start her kingdom, but it seems I have to change my approach.'
Not feeling like talking to Katherine any longer, Mitch opened his eyes and saw a befuddled Madeline looking at her hands and patting her stomach.
"How do you feel now, child?"
"I feel… better, I think? I don't feel sleepy anymore, but I suddenly started craving more ants. Is that normal?"
It seemed that her body was instinctively seeking to fulfill the conditions for mutating. All Mitch could do was shrug his shoulders and give a vague confirmation.
"I'll try bringing more ants to you after I have finished eating. Please do not move around on your own while I am gone. It's dangerous to wander alone in these woods."
After having seen how large the ants were, Mitch did not trust that his knowledge about the size of animals from Tellus would be accurate anymore. What would happen if some predator had grown as much as the ants had? How would he ever defeat them then?
'It's unnecessary to worry about something that hasn't been confirmed yet. I just have to be cautious.'
After ravaging the second ant and feeling his power increase from it, Mitch started his search for an entrance into the ant hill.
He originally wanted to mutate his exoskeleton before starting his search, but eventually decided against it. His own defenses should be strong enough for most threats. He treated the ants as exceptions rather than the norm.
He settled for increasing his fire power.
The strongest alternative was rapid healing, but that would require a year in hibernation. He was running on a very big time crunch, so he had to do with the next best option.
Unfortunately, he couldn't find any more ants on the surface to complete the demands with. Instead, what he found was an opening to the nest.