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?

to handle the flood of information that

my advice in order to produce more young. I believe that

plainly see the upgrades to the

the efficiency of the organ to produce more deconstructed Biomass

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

a bonus +2

Fantastic!

organs carefully, I estimate

rolling. My dream scenario would have the Queen producing about a million ants a year,

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

Beast that was hatched would

I can make use of

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

cheaply than before but still be a little stronger

the Queen's core I immediately congratulate her on the wise choices

mean more

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

there! Hold on a

Queen 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

way! Not yet!] I say

tell she is genuinely

are going to get that egg production gland to +10 for sure. If it's possible to get another +2 to all stats to stack with the existing advancement that will absolutely insane. Game breaking even. I'm not kidding, +10 for the egg laying is a

moment. I can almost

get you to +10!

you child] she says