Chapter 195 Surface Situation (1/2)
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 Bioma.s.s 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 Bioma.s.s 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?
Bringing my antennae forward I activate the core surgery skill and spin my mind up into overdrive to handle the flood of information that nearly knocks me off my six feet. Okok. Here we go then. Ah, this is the bit I'm looking for!
Trying to arrange all of the details in my mind I find the information I want and check in on the Queen's mutation advancements. Oh ho! I would not have been surprised if she had neglected my advice in order to produce 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 she would prioritise it over everything else, but in a pleasant shock she has constrained herself!
In front of me I can plainly see the upgrades to the three egg production organs than she has selected:
[Efficient Bioma.s.s Deconstruction Organ +5, increases the efficiency of the organ to produce more deconstructed Bioma.s.s per point of Bioma.s.s spent]
[Smooth Bioma.s.s Recoding Gland +5, the recoding process utilises less deconstructed ma.s.s to encode the same material, increasing efficiency]
[Boosting Egg production Gland +5, Gives a bonus +2 to all stats for each egg produced]
Fantastic!
The first two upgrades were exactly the sort of thing I spoke to the Queen about. After studying the organs carefully, I estimate that these two advancements will synergise together to boost the egg production by 10%! Possibly more!
That might not sound like much, but it isn't as if the Queen will be producing ten eggs per year 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 all.
The thing that really grabs my attention is the +2 to all stats 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 to the mental stats is fantastic!
If we were to think of the Croca beasts and how much Bioma.s.s 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 that much difference but for eight workers? The difference is huge!
In fact… I can make use of this…
Knowing 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 stats to slide into.