Chapter 51: A True Horde

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: A True Horde +++ Subject: Myrme (Subject Code: AQ#031) Race: Undead (Insectoid Variant) Status: Tamed Class: Broodmother [Attributes:] — Strength: Low — Agility: Very Low — Durability: Very High — Intelligence: Minimal (Can only command the hive members) [Evolution Potential: None] [Hunger Level: 3%] [Regeneration Rate: Low] [Decay Rate: Halted] [Special Traits:] — Broodlink: Emits a pheromone-based signal that boosts all stats of allied insect-type undead within a mile radius. — Titan Carapace: The chitinous shell has hardened into a fossilized shell. All incoming damage is reduced by 80%. — Matriarchal Bond: Can command all insect-type undead to do her bidding. [Other Information:] An immobile undead unit with no outstanding abilities. It can’t fight, can’t lay eggs, can’t do much of anything. However, its true strength lies within its undead insect army. Whoever controls it, controls its hive. +++ Useless through and through, at least on the surface. Blaze thought as he lazily sat atop Myrme’s head. While nothing about her stats was outstanding, it was as the system said. The ant queen’s strength were the ants. The same ant she was devouring so heartily at the moment. The ant queen was similar to Saturn in more ways than one. With eating their kin being one obvious one. However, unlike Saturn, Myrme brought a lot of soldiers with her. Too many, in fact. It was thanks to that fact that Blaze achieved his goal easily. [Infected beings: 712/100] [Lair has evolved!] [Grade two installations are now available for use.] Blaze began all of it to upgrade his lair, but the sight of hundreds of undead ants made the achievement appear bleak. The ant army was the true spoils he gained from it. Along with the unlocks in the Undead Encyclopedia. [Entry #14: Undead Ant Queen unlocked.] [Entry #15: Undead Worker Ants unlocked.] [Entry #16: Undead Soldier Ants unlocked.] [Entry #17: Undead Spitter Ants unlocked.] [Entry #18: Undead Reaver Ants unlocked.] [Entry #19: Undead Hive Guard unlocked.] [Entry #20: Undead Digger Ants unlocked.] There would have been more ants in his army, if not for an unforeseen circumstance. After converting Myrme, Blaze assumed all ants would be under his control. It turned out that the living ants no longer recognized the undead queen as their queen. Instead, the undead ants accepted her. It caused a bigger breakout among them, and Blaze’s plan to have an endless supply of ants failed right then and there. With Marrow’s help, he killed all the remaining female ants before turning them into his undead army. In the battle, quite a few ants were devoured by the undead ants. That’s why their numbers had dropped from over a thousand to a little over seven hundred. Excluding the larvae, of course. Thankfully, not all ants were dead. The larvae were kept in a separate chamber attached to the queen’s chamber and didn’t perish in the fight. Along with the male ants that were captured by him, these larvae gave Blaze a second chance for his ant nursery plan to come true. Now he could create another queen for the living ants and raise them as food for the frogkins and for materials for further base development and more. *** A few minutes later, back in the lair. Once again, Saturn was on the separator duty along with the undead worker ants. Only this time, the ants were being dumped inside instead of zombies and frogkins. However, not everything got processed by the separator. Some ants were used to feed the frogkins. With their stomachs filled, they all jumped in the water to do the humping dance. I wouldn’t have any trouble farming frogkins in the future. He turned around and saw some of the undead worker ants were bringing the eggs and larvae to the lair. Blaze repurposed the reptile house into a nursery for them. It was also where Mryme would rest, helping the eggs grow. It was surprising that even after dying, the ant queen’s maternal feelings didn’t die. It made Blaze wonder what she’ll do once the eggs hatch. But that was a thing to see in the future. For now, he needed to do something about the ants before him. There were too many ant classes and too many ants as a whole. So he had them divided by their roles. 310 workers, 155 soldiers, 80 reavers, 78 diggers, 52 spitters, and 37 hive guards... That’s quite an army. He immediately assigned the diggers to Fester, creating a unit dedicated to mapping out and linking the entire city with the zoo via tunnels. Prioritizing the naval base and the Carmel Valley first. Blaze knew it was an ambitious goal, but he had all the time in the world to fulfill it. The hive guards were to fill their previous role of protecting the ant queen. Blaze formed a special ranged unit comprising spitters and frogkins under Saturn. The workers... hm... let’s divide them into smaller groups. General labor, gathering corpses after battles, maintenance and feeding the ant queen. All these responsibilities were handed over to the groups. As for the soldiers, they were handed over to both Raven and Breaker to fight on the front lines. That left the reavers, or the scout ants. The logical thing to do was to hand them over to Crawler, but Blaze had other plans. Only half of them were assigned to the same circle as Crawler, while the other half joined the worker ants. On second thought, let’s add some soldiers with them as well. It was a sort of hunting party. They will work with Fester’s crew and hunt smaller monsters within the zoo. That way, Blaze would have new materials to experiment with. With that, everything was done. Well, not everything, as Blaze had something else on his mind. He turned towards the separator that was constantly popping out materials scavenged from the ants. Following his fight with the humans, Blaze knew he couldn’t underestimate them. Their special powers were a threat that he needed to protect his horde from. Now, he had all the materials in the world to make them stronger. Or at least not as fragile as they are right now.