The Antventure Begins

45. My Mother is a Giant Monster

I can feel something under my head. It’s solid, like… a rock? My legs are so heavy. How long have I been asleep? I try to stretch my arms out and can’t for some reason… Where the heck are my arms?

Wait…

I don’t have arms anymore! Then it all comes flooding back. The fight, the ants, the ape. What the heck happened? Am I alive?

I try to spring to my feet, but a solid force is holding me down. What the heck! Am I still under attack?

My vision swings wildly before finally settling and I can see an enormous monster above me, pressing me down with one large leg.

What is this thing? Don’t eat me! I’m not delicious!

It takes a moment for my head to settle down. I haven’t been harmed I don’t think. The force on my back is pressing me down but not harming me in any way. I check my status. I’m at about half HP. I remember being next to dead…

Err… where did these Levels come from?

I’ve gained three whole Levels? Is this from the bat-gorilla? I don’t really remember how that fight ended.

And as I look closer at this massive monster above me… isn’t it an ant?

Like, a massive ant?

Hang on a second. The queen?

A truly enormous monstrous ant, easily four times my size is standing over me, pressing me down to the ground and watching me as I wake up. She leans in and her antennae begin to glow brightly.

When those antennae touch mine, a surge of icy energy sweeps through my body. I’m shocked at first but then it reminds me of something, my Regenerative Healing Gland! Is she healing me?

Checking my status, I’ve gained another ten HP. This is a bit of a surprise. The queen knows healing magic?

Suddenly the pressure from my back is gone and I can stand up. The queen turns away from me to pick something up in her mandibles and turns back, dropping a huge chunk of monster in front of me. I think this is… the ape’s arm!

After dropping off some food for me, the massive queen chirps in a friendly manner before wandering off around a corner, leaving me in a small dirt chamber on my own.

Ok, Anthony, let’s cool down and think about this.

Growl.

My stomach is seriously rumbling. Why the heck am I so hungry? Let’s think as we eat then.

[You have consumed a new source of Biomass: Pugnus Fulgur Simiae. You are awarded one Biomass.]

[Basic profile of the Pugnus Fulgur Simiae unlocked.]

[Pugnus Fulgur Simiae: Lightning Fist Ape. Brutally powerful but severely lacking in Cunning, this monster has a strong affinity to lightning and can channel Mana into electricity.]

Not wrong about those electrical attacks. Yeouch! Quite the formidable monster, but I do have to agree, it was very stupid. I would hate to run into a monster that powerful with some semblance of smarts. Unable to trick it, I’d be quickly defeated.

[You have gained one Biomass.]

[You have gained one Biomass.]

Two whole Biomass just from eating one arm? That is unheard of! Is it because it’s an advanced creature of some kind? Possibly I was right and it was double evolved, so it provides more Biomass. It certainly gave me a heap of XP, enough to Level three times even after I evolved.

Although the pain of hunting them is real, the benefits cannot be denied. If I was able to get a whole one to myself…

Whoa, snap out of it, Anthony. You almost died fighting this one! No need to go planning to throw your life away already.

How did I end up here anyway? And where exactly is here?

Since the queen is here then that can mean only one thing. I’m in the nest! Since I passed out when battling, my allies must have dragged me here to be healed when they brought the food back. Which means the titan-croc should have also bit the dust.

Go team!

I’m not sure how I feel… I’ve been through a lot and risked my life multiple times to try and get back to the nest of my colony. Almost everything I’ve seen since I awoke in this place has been trying to kill me. I just wanted to be somewhere I wouldn’t have to be so cautious, so afraid.

Now that I’m here, I’m pumped up to check it out.

Just as I’m about to rush out of the small dirt chamber I notice something else glowing softly on the ground.

What is this? A monster core? As far as cores go this one is massive! Easily the biggest I’ve seen.

I move closer.

[Compatible monster core detected. Would you like to reinforce your core or reconstitute a monster?]

Is this the core of the ape? Did the colony leave it here for me? That seems… a little odd for a group of monstrous ants to do. Was it the queen? She does seem a little smarter than the others. Maybe she left this here as a reward.

You know, I’ve wondered what the reconstitute a monster option does. Reinforcing my core is hugely important since it will allow me to increase my ability further when I evolve, but… I really would like to know what the heck this option does.

Maybe I can just check it out without consuming the core.

[Would you like to reconstitute the monster?]

Sure?

[Manual Reconstitution is locked since requisite skills have not been acquired. Reconstituting monsters.]

Wait! No!

Before my eyes the precious core begins to glow brighter and brighter before it melts into a bright liquid that gradually reshapes itself. When the process is finished, the light recedes and a small monkey-looking creature is sitting on the ground looking up at me with its large eyes.

What. The heck. Is this!

The little simian has dark grey skin and tiny bat-like features, as well as soft black fur growing all over its body. The small chimp starts to look curiously around the room, eventually standing up and slowly waddling around with an awkward gate, as if it hadn’t quite worked out how to walk.

So, the core is gone and reconstituting the monster literally brings it back to life as an infant. What is the point of that? I could have used that core to reinforce my own, possibly getting some sort of bonus since it was such a large one!

I’m lamenting, seriously lamenting.

Ignorant to my pain the chimp is still waddling about scratching at the walls before it eventually walks over to me

What do you want, chimp? Wha—hey!

After hesitating for the moment, the tiny monster smiles and clumsily starts to clamber up my abdomen, eventually succeeding, and it happily sits on my back, hooting to itself in delight.

It looks so cheerful up there I decide to leave it alone. It isn’t like he can do much harm. Perhaps he has some sort of loyalty to me since I reconstituted him? The system didn’t have much to say on the matter. Although I can apparently learn skills to make the process manual. What does that entail?

The more I learn about this crazy system, the stranger it seems.

With my new passenger on board, I decided to go and explore the nest of my colony. Hopefully the other ants won’t eat him.

Walking out of the small dirt chamber, I enter a narrow tunnel that winds around some rock protrusions before joining up to another slightly larger tunnel.

A few ants are making their way back and forth, moving up and down the tunnel, looking super busy. At first I react with shock, seeing a monster up close usually means a fight is about to happen. These ants completely ignore me, hurrying about their business. It looks like they can recognise I’m the same species and from the same colony as them.

It’s kind of strange to think this is my first chance to see what I myself look like. These ants really are just very large wood ants. Normally, wood ants would create a large mound rather than digging into the dirt. I suppose their options are limited down here in these tunnels. Maybe they could make a mound in the huge cavern I was in before.

About half of the ants are still hatchlings, significantly smaller than I am, looking adorable as they rush past, their six legs almost a blur.

It seems safe. Time to keep exploring!

I decide to head down and run into two more chambers connected to this main tunnel by narrow paths. For whatever reason these chambers are mostly empty, just a few workers resting in them.

Farther down, however, the action is really happening.