Chrysalis

The Queen was in her chamber much the same as she had been over a day ago, covered in workers and resting peacefully. She hasn't had any reason to go out and fight lately so I hope she's enjoying a period of relaxation.

Considering the measly supply of Biomass that the workers have been extracting from the surface there hasn't even been much laying to do. I'm not sure if Queen ants can get bored but perhaps she might be feeling that things have become a little dull?

[Bored?] she responds when I ask her, sounding for all the world like she didn't even understand the word, [why would I be bored?]

[Well, there isn't much to do at the moment?]

[Foolish child] she chides me, [the colony is not under threat and you have provided food and a great hope for our family. I am content, as we should all be]

How is this giant ant monster always so positive?! Such a good mother!

Before I can get too emotional I need to focus on the present.

[So you've received the Biomass we sent up?]

[Yes. The children have been working as hard as they can. They found it and brought it to me]

[awesome]

I stare hard at the Queen for a moment, trying to judge whether she's upgraded herself as we discussed. Rather than accuse my own my own mother of lying, which would be rather tactless, I try a different angle.

[Is it ok if I check on your core? There may be more that I can do to improve our chances]

[of course child]

She answers without hesitation. I seriously doubt that she's even capable of doubting her own children. I wonder if all the ant Queens are like this?

activate the core surgery skill and spin my mind up into overdrive to handle the flood of information that nearly

more young. I believe that she considers producing young as her primary responsibility and the best way to serve the family as a whole, so it's only natural that

of me I can plainly see the upgrades to the

the organ to produce more deconstructed Biomass per point of

+5, the recoding process utilises less deconstructed mass to encode the same material,

Gives a bonus +2 to all stats for each

Fantastic!

to the Queen about. After studying the organs carefully, I estimate that these two advancements will synergise together to boost the egg

once the colony gets rolling. My dream scenario would have the Queen producing about a million ants a year, so an extra 10% would represent an increase of 100,000 workers. Not a small number at

in the egg production gland. +2 might not seem like much but it's enough to make my mind boggle! That's a huge deal! The ants will be so weak that +2 to their physical stats is going to be significant enough but +2

beasts and how much Biomass would be needed to create one as opposed to a hatchling worker, I would guess that for each Croca Beast that was hatched would be able to make eight worker ants, perhaps more. An extra two stats on one Croca won't make

I can make use of

that every worker is going to be getting this boost from the Queen I make a few minor adjustments, bending my mind to its limits to enforce them. I trim down on the workers a little, basically shaving one point from each stat and giving clear paths for the bonus

this trade-off is that the ants will be produced more cheaply than before but still be

core I immediately congratulate her on the wise choices

are fantastic! The two efficiency upgrades will mean more workers and the +2 to all stats was perfect. Great

Queen sounds genuinely pleased to be praised in this way. [Are we ready to lay the first generation

there! Hold on a second!

is pumped up to get back to growing the colony and the promises I've made about the next generation are clearly exciting for her but she needs to hold onto them horses for a

way! Not yet!]

Why?] I can tell she is genuinely

all stats to stack with the existing

for a moment.

We brought up a huge feast from below, it'll surely get you to +10! I'll make sure the workers bring every bit of

you child] she