Darkness.
That was the first thing I knew. Not a poetic, gentle darkness. Nope. This was the suffocating, wet, I'm-being-buried-alive kind of darkness. I couldn't see, couldn't move much, and something slimy just brushed against me. Again.
Also—why is everything so loud?
Crkkk... crkkk...
Gnawing. Skittering. A constant chorus of crunching echoing through walls I couldn't even see.
My head was pounding. No, scratch that—I didn't have a head. Not the way I remembered. Everything felt... off.
I tried to speak.
Click.
...Click?
Did I just... click?
Okay. Let's take this slowly. I don't remember dying, but I clearly didn't wake up in my bed, or anywhere remotely human. My limbs—wait, I have how many limbs?
Six. I have six limbs. And tiny, twitchy antennae.
Hold up.
...Hold up.
[Species Identified: Subterranean Worker Ant – Lv.1][Status: Hatchling][System Booting… Loading Evolution Tree…]
What.
[Unique Trait Acquired: Sentience (Glitched)][Warning: This unit has achieved premature ego awareness.][Processing side effects…][No compatible tutorials found. Proceeding anyway.]
OH COME ON.
I jolted—well, as much as a larva could jolt—as a crack split the slimy wall around me. My egg was breaking. My egg.
This is fine. I'm just... a sentient bug baby.
No big deal.
Piece by piece, I peeled away the shell—my mandibles clumsy, legs twitching. Instinct told me to bite, crawl, follow the trail. But some other part of me—human, analytical, sarcastic—was screaming, "WHY ARE YOU AN ANT?!"
My tiny vision, blurry and monochrome, adjusted to the dim glow of phosphorescent fungus lining the walls.
Ants.
Hundreds—no, thousands—of ants. Crawling, working, hauling things in organized streams. Larvae twitching in egg clusters. Soldiers with sharp mandibles patrolling like bouncers at a bug rave.
And then, towering above them all...
The Queen.
She was massive. Towering. Regal. Disgustingly moist.
She barely even looked at me. A pair of drones snatched my egg remains and scurried off to the trash pile. I was nudged forward with a burst of pheromones.
[Command Received: Work.][Sub-mission: Forage. Status: Mandatory.][Instinct Override: 92% Active.]
Work? I just hatched!
I was shuffled along with a group of equally tiny ants, like some kind of elementary school field trip to the murder mines.
The Great First Foraging Expedition
(Also Known As: Please Don't Let Me Die on My First Day)
We reached the outer tunnel—a curved corridor of packed dirt, smoothed down by generations of scuttling feet. Monsters passed us. Giant centipedes. Glowing worm-things. A slime slid across the far wall, not even noticing us.
I saw an ant from another squad get yoinked by something that looked like a spider's leg with spikes. Gone. Just like that.
Nobody stopped. Nobody screamed. Just... another statistic.
I gulped. Well, clicked. Loudly.
[Skill Acquired: Tremble Lv.1]Your cowardice has been noted. Good job staying alive, loser.
Gee, thanks, System.
I trailed after the others until we reached the scrap grounds—a dumping zone where dead things rotted and strange magical mushrooms grew. Glowing weeds. Bones. Bits of monsters.
I was supposed to carry something back.
Instead, I crept toward something weird.
A half-eaten... book?
No. A spell scroll—chewed to bits, but still glowing faintly.
I hesitated. The others ignored it. But I felt something—like static in my mandibles.
I bit it.
Yes, I'm aware how dumb that sounds.
[Foreign Magical Material Consumed.][Assimilation in progress… Mutation unlocked.][New Evolution Branch: Mana-Absorbent Ant Available.][Skill Acquired: Arcane Siphon Lv.1]
Wait. What? I can use magic?!
I paused, trembling. Ants weren't supposed to do that. I could feel the Queen's pheromones radiating disapproval all the way from the hive.
But I couldn't stop. Something deep inside was stirring—ambition? Hunger?
No.
It was the sudden realization that I might just be special.
I scuttled back to the nest, scroll fragment clenched in my tiny jaws. Nobody noticed the faint glow in my carapace. Nobody noticed the little spark crawling along my antenna.
But I noticed.
And so did the System.
[Branching Paths Detected.][Next Evolution Available in 1 Level.]
Worker (Basic) Soldier (Offensive) Mana-Ant (Rare – Unlocked via Unique Action)
Choose wisely. Or keep biting garbage, I guess.
To Be Continued...