A Legion Grows From My Smartphone

Chapter 5: Endless Expansion (2)

I barely accepted it.

That's right. That place is another worlds an alien world.

Anything could happen and it wouldn't be strange. Even the ants on Earth can shoot poison and acid.

"But how can it make sense for them to shoot hydrochloric acid?!"

Having given up on finding termites, I returned home, bitten by mountain mosquitoes.

Since we can already suck blood, mosquitoes, or rather, those damned insects, were utterly useless.

[It's good to remember. That cave is a labyrinth that should never be taken lightly.]

"I know that."

Giant spiders the size of king crabs, huge scorpions with six tails, and so on.

I knew that place, where monsters that could rival Earth's prehistoric creatures lived, was extraordinary and nothing that emerged from there would be surprising.

[Today's event will be recorded in the history of our race. The day we, our race, met a worthy opponent for the first time.]

"...Can we win?"

[No one knows that. But one thing is certain, our legion never stops. If there's an obstacle, we break it. If there's an enemy, we devour it. There's no other choice.]

"So we keep growing and growing... What will happen in the end? What if we devour the whole world?"

[Then we will devour another world.] Madness was glimpsed in the words.

I didn't particularly comment on it.

I simply searched the internet for a site that sold termites for breeding.

I thought about what was most important in this game.

And I concluded that it was the luck of the draw and the player's wealth... no, ability.

That was why I went to the shop on this bloody weekend, after quitting my part-time job, on a train.

It was faster for me to go than to have it delivered.

[I don't understand. You just need to take a picture. Didn't you say it's a waste of money?]

"That's stealing."

[Even for a single ant?]

"...Honestly, I'm a bit tempted."

Wouldn't it be okay to sneakily take just one ant?

If worst comes to worst, I could even get a recently dead body.

But the conclusion I came to upon arrival was to just not do anything suspicious.

What if I get caught and interrogated just to save a few thousand won?

I didn't have the skill to explain the phenomenon of things disappearing with a flash when I took a picture.

"I'm stockpiling power in preparation for war."

I took a picture of the termites I bought and sent them directly to the nest.

The legion, which had broken down the termites down to the microbial level, now had the ability to digest wood.

I went back to the back mountain.

In fact, stealing wood is also illegal.

I didn't know about other things, but I had no choice with this.

In the mountains where there were no CCTVs, I took a picture of a log that was rolling on the ground.

Perhaps due to the 20kg limit, not all of it was transferred and a part was cut off.

"What's the big deal with a tree?"

[We will maximize the efficiency by combining the ability we acquired this time with our existing abilities.] Threads began to stretch out from the log that fell in the middle of the nest.

The supplies arrived safely in preparation for the war.

Now all that was left was to wage war based on these acquired supplies.

[The legion, having received nourishment, began to prepare for war. The dormant nest woke up again and began to produce soldiers.] The legion is intelligent.

The various genes absorbed were not just physical.

By imitating and combining the combat methods of each race engraved in the acquired genes, they created a single strategy and tactics. In particular, group tactics were already obtained from the genes of bees and ants.

[The legion dispatched a reconnaissance squad. They planned to continuously engage in local battles with the bastards and extract everything about them. The winged soldiers set off. The bastards had once again placed troops that spit saliva at the front.]

These creatures were incredibly stronger than Earth's ants. However, we were well-prepared. In the war between the two legions, we had an additional weapon at our disposal.

[Once deceived, the legion will not be fooled again.]

The artillery-like fire spat out by the bastards was avoided by the reconnaissance soldiers with precise movements. If forces of similar size clashed, could we really lose?

We are one. We move as one body.

There is no fear or inefficiency.

The reconnaissance soldiers swooped down and grabbed the enemies with their strong jaws and feet.

Then they coiled their tails and stabbed them with their stingers.

It was the beginning of a full-scale war.

[The legion has made a decision. We can win.]

When I switched the screen, the main force that had been waiting was all setting off.

Large heads, powerful jaws, hard carapaces, etc.

The troops, modified to be optimized for dealing with those who dig and live on the ground, knowing that the enemy was such.

[The enemies, who were focused on our aerial reconnaissance soldiers, noticed our main force. But it was already too late. We continued to advance forward, even risking damage from the powerful acid attack they spewed.]

I held my breath and watched the spectacle.

They were no match for us in terms of organization.

In this war, our goal was only the annihilation of the enemy, and the enemy's goal was survival.

It was a natural fact proven in human history that those who prioritize survival are pushed back by those who fearlessly attack.

The ants of this world, struggling for survival, could not stop the legion's troops moving only for killing.

The entire place became a battlefield.

Other life forms that had come for no reason were also caught up in the battle and devoured by us.

[We won the field battle. The bastards started to block the entrance of the nest with their bodies in a hurry.] We won.

And the enemies retreated to their fortress.

But we had already anticipated all of this.

Our secret weapon appeared.

A snake with a thick carapace on its head.

It wasn't particularly large, but it was sufficient to breach their nest. Even when they spewed acid, the snake's thick carapace provided ample protection, allowing it to push the acid away. Consequently, the rest of the troops began to infiltrate the damaged nest one by one.

Why was I so anxious about an ant nest?

The tide of the war had already shifted significantly. The enemy, who had initiated a power struggle from the onset, was now in shambles. Their resistance had become futile; they had failed in their defense and were merely being slaughtered.

[It's important to broaden your perspective]

"...To prepare for when the scale of war escalates?" It was an undeniable statement.

The legion would never be content here.

It would grow further, fight bigger enemies.

[We decimate the enemy queen and use the larvae and eggs as food. We have won a war between legions. This event will be recorded in history]

I glanced at the clock.

Merely four hours.

In just four hours, the white cave ant colony that ruled the fourth floor fell to us. But that wasn't all.

The annihilated opponent left us an inheritance.

Their weapons could now become ours.

Weapons capable of capturing the beings on the upper floors.

"Do they ever rest?"

[Even in moments of rest, our nourishment is consumed] The legion never stops. *

The peaceful, wide expanse of the cave.

This unusually spacious place was quite developed with vegetation around the central lake.

This meant it was rich in nourishment.

Indeed, the fungus that grew here formed a colony of giant mushrooms, the size of a child.

A toad living here casually consumed something crawling on the ground.

This toad, about the size of a small dog, thoroughly enjoyed the popping sensation in its mouth.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.𝘤𝑜𝓂 for the best novel reading experience

The white cave ants, armed with strong acidity, were one of the lowest life forms here, living modestly in small numbers, unlike the lower floors where they formed a large legion as the rulers of the stairs.

The toad yawned with its mouth wide open and moved to another place.

It was the outskirts of the hive.

The toad, moving its sensory organs absentmindedly, suddenly looked down at its feet.

[It's time to hunt more advanced life and increase the size of our legion]

Countless ants, or rather, monsters hard to call ants, began to cling to the toad's body. The toad jumped and shook its body.

But other monsters, buzzing in the air, rushed at the toad.

[It's a new poison combined with strong acidity. A powerful extreme poison that melts the target's nerves and blood vessels] The poison injected by the stinger-tipped tail was no longer ordinary bee venom.

Even the thick skin immune to acidity couldn't withstand the acid directly injected into it.

The toad's massive body, struggling against this relentless attack, slowly fell.

[Even the predator of predators is our prey]

Something quickly cut through the air and flew in upon discovering the toad's corpse. It was a large bat, flapping its double-layered wings.

But the moment it grabbed the toad with its claws.

The legion covering the toad's body also attacked the bat.

The startled bat flew up.

The bat's body was covered in fur, but its skin was much thinner than the toad's.

The soldiers of the legion ruthlessly crawled over the bat's body and began to tear at the thin membrane of its flapping wings. [...This is just the beginning]

The bat, its wings reduced to rags, eventually staggered and fell to the ground.

It was the moment when the black wave crawling up from the weakest bottom of the labyrinth began to overturn the ecosystem of this labyrinth in earnest.