While the ant previously thought to be the queen was about double the size of normal ants, this one was more than triple the size.
With legs as thick as Mitch's thighs and a body that dwarfed his, the ant was just lying there while constantly nibbling on the various foods delivered to it by its underlings.
This dwelling was even busier than the last one. Mitch guessed that there were at least 40 ants in there but was unable to count them properly.
He then saw some ants making their way towards the entrance he was located in, but not before noticing a bed of eggs. One thing that stood out to him was a few unusually large eggs mixed in with the smaller ones.
Deciding that it was too dangerous to delay any longer, Mitch ran back to the two carcasses and brought them further away from the room with the actual queen of the colony.
He might be slightly lost in the seemingly infinite maze of tunnels and branching paths, but he still had an inkling of where the nest entrance he used was located.
However, finding his way back out would take too long, and having two corpses with him would further increase the risk of being caught.
Reaching a conclusion, Mitch ran back towards the smaller queen's compartment, but not all the way. He leaned towards the wall just far enough from the room to notice if an ant started approaching, but not close enough for it to see him before he could back away.
'This is enough for now. I should quickly eat these two and increase my strength before doing anything rash.' As he finished that thought, he picked up one of the ants and started gorging.
"Just because you're stressed doesn't mean you need to eat like an uncivilized beast. H—have some manners, at least." Katherine attempted to lighten the mood, but her voice breaking showed exactly how shook she was.
Both of them now knew that the fight soon to come would be a hard one, especially if the rest of the nest was alerted.
'I usually like it when you joke, Katherine, but now is really not the time. If you have some idea of how to kill the ants faster while minimizing the risk I put myself in, then please say it. Otherwise, I need to focus on making a plan.'
He realized afterwards that what he said might have been a little harsh, but even he was starting to feel the pressure mounting.
Swiftly finishing both ants, Mitch started feeling something in his stomach, finally understanding what Madeline had been referring to.
He opened his status window to perform the mutation, but before he could even start, he noticed that he had progressed to 5% completion in his Devouring power.
'Didn't I get 2% for the first ant I ate? Why is it suddenly so much lower?' But before Katherine could answer, Mitch grasped it himself.
Since he had yet to start cultivating that power before, he was essentially a dry sponge; the moment he came into contact with water, he would absorb it. But as he absorbed more and more water, he would need larger and larger amounts to keep soaking it up.
In other words, he would need to eat stronger things that had accumulated more energy to keep progressing.
Putting that matter to the side temporarily, Mitch opened the {Gene Tree} interface and navigated to Extreme Strength.
[Extreme Strength]
[100% / 6.3% Complete]
[Time needed in hibernation: 0]
[Tip: The mutation can be changed from somatic to germline if enough genetic diversity is documented, even after choosing to undergo the former type of mutation.]
Seeing the guidance provided by the system made Mitch feel relieved. This played in perfectly with his future plans for the Legio.
If it could be added, it could surely be removed too, meaning he had a nigh-infinite amount of combinations he could experiment with before choosing which he preferred more. Hell, he could even make different armies that specialized in different things.
Taking a few deep breaths before his excitement made him get ahead of himself, he refocused on the mutation.
'Is there anything I need to think about before executing the transformation?' Although the tooltip told him that the mutation would be instantaneous, he refused to believe that it would really cost him nothing.
"I am unsure myself, to be honest. The description said that it requires energy, so I can imagine you will be exhausted or starved when it's done. You should be fine. If you could kill an ant as a regular Legio, surely you can kill one now, even while being on an empty stomach."
'That's all I needed to hear. Let's do it! {Gene Tree}, Extreme Strength!'
…
"That's… anticlimactic. Is it done?"
'I'm not sure. Am I supposed to feel somethi—aaAAARGH!'
"MITCH!"
Pain.
Extreme and intolerable amounts of pain.
Mitch fell and started rolling around on the ground.
He felt his muscles snapping, his joints rearranging, his tendons stretching beyond reason, and his bones cracking. Old wounds once again opened and started spilling blood.
Mitch was barely holding his screams back. He brought his forearm up to his mouth and bit down hard, so hard that both his arm and gum started bleeding too.
Tears started forming in his eyes before transforming into tears of blood.
MMMMMHHHHHH
Every muscle in his body was being reformed, from his toes all the way to his eyes.
Just when Mitch thought that the situation couldn't become any worse, he was proven wrong.
Three ants started making their way towards him, and because of both pain and his muscles being snapped, Mitch could do nothing but watch as they slowly but surely came closer and closer.
There was no miracle to save him, and the ants soon noticed the oversized insect squirming in a puddle of its own blood.
Keeeeee
The ants screeched in unison. Before long, the ground started shaking like there was an ongoing earthquake.
Only now did Mitch realize that he would pay dearly for this blunder of his.