Once the race was settled, it was time for Bates’ family.
After becoming the lord of the Dark Forest, the number of family members Bates received was not fixed.
He could have a family with two warrior templates, or he could split the family into four elite templates, or he could split the family of the elite template into ten advanced templates.
Obviously, Geer had chosen to split them.
He’d had a warrior-class goblin priest and four elite-class goblin guards.
Bates’ goal for his race was group warfare. He planned to overwhelm his opponent with a large number of ants, so naturally, he wouldn’t want to split his family members.
With two warrior-class attribute templates, Bates gave them directly to the worker ant and the queen ant.
Similar to the whole race, the worker ant and the queen ant were only low-level creatures. They had not even reached the level of an official monster.
When Bates chose the worker ant and the queen ant as his family, the system also gave him a few options for the worker and queen ant’s abilities.
[ identity ] : Queen Ant
[ race ] : Ant
[ level ] : Tiny
[ template ] : Warrior Attribute Template (Health + 2,000, Strength x 5, Agility x 1, Energy x 25, Spirit x 3)
[ attributes ] : Strength 0.11, Agility 0.02, Energy 0.5, Spirit 0.08
[ talent ] : Mutated Egg (unique talent), Adaptability (race talent), Rapid Digestion (race talent)
[ skill ] : Mental Network (passive skill, able to sense and control the movements of the ant colony through mental energy), Rapid Reproduction (passive skill, doubling the amount of food consumed, doubles the number and speed of egg-laying)
[ mutated egg: as the first ant queen to obtain the warrior template, this talent enables the queen ant to obtain a certain amount of gene points while eating. When the amount of gene points reaches a certain level, there is a chance of producing an ant egg that inherits the creature’s characteristics. ]
Currently, the attribute panel of the ant queen was still very simple.
However, the appearance of the [ mutated egg ] talent allowed the ant queen to become the strongest family member!
As long as she consumed enough meat of a certain creature, there was a chance of producing an ant egg that inherits her characteristics. Coupled with the talent of [ adaptability ] and [ rapid digestion ], the probability of an elite appearing in the ant colony increased by several times!
And when these elite ant species grew up and achieved a certain level, goblins, even players possibly, would be devoured by them!
With the two impressive talents, coupled with the queen ant’s [ mutated egg ] talent and the passive skill [ rapid reproduction ], the potential of the ant species had already taken shape!
Finally, there was the little worker ant.
[ identity ] : Worker Ant
[ race ] : Ant
[ level ] : Tiny
[ template ] : Warrior Attribute Template (Health + 2,500, Strength x 10, Agility x 7, Energy x 10, Spirit x 8)
[ attributes ] : Strength 0.1, Agility 0.08, Energy 0.05, Spirit 0.21
[ talent ] : Gold Eater, Adaptability (race talent) , Rapid Digestion (race talent)
[ skills ] : Rapid Healing, Malicious Perception
[ gold eater: by swallowing metal, you can gain a large amount of experience, and there is a certain chance to obtain strength and defense from the metal. ]
[ malicious perception: passive skill. Born with strong spiritual power, you can sense the emotions of other creatures, and can clearly sense the malice of others towards you. ]
[ gold eater ] was a very powerful talent Bates had specially chosen for the little worker ant.
As long as it passed the initial growth period, this talent would allow the little worker ant to become stronger in a very short period of time. It could easily be considered only second to the [ devouring evolution ] that Bates possessed.
Bates opened his storage space and felt a sense of relief.
A heart the size of a bowl, and two green arms that were 1m long, fell out of the virtual backpack.
These were the heart and arms of the goblin general, Geer.
When he was devouring corpses in the goblin city, Bates had purposely left Geer’s heart and two arms behind. He wanted to see if he could evolve the worker ants by using Geer’s body.
To the worker ants and the queen ant who were only at the ‘tiny’ level, the heart and two arms of a lord-tier monster were the equivalent of treasure that was rarely seen in a thousand years. It was enough to help them survive their initial growth period.
After becoming Bates’ family, the worker ants and the queen ant could already understand what he told them, even though they couldn’t communicate fluently yet.
When the heart and arm landed on the ground, two ants, one big and one small, crawled toward the heart at the same time. Without Bates’ telling them, they knew that the heart contained a huge amount of essence.
Compared to the worker ants and the queen ant, Geer’s heart was like a small mountain. Every time they swallowed a mouthful of meat, they would gain a large number of experience points.
In Bates’ opinion, in just a few minutes, the worker ants and the queen ant had become much stronger. Even their bodies had begun to grow slowly.
As for the other ants in the nest, they were unfortunately destined to be abandoned. It was very difficult for mature ants to evolve, and it would be the newly laid eggs of the queen that would be the ones to evolve and become part of Bates’ race.
Time passed slowly.
An hour later, Geer’s heart had fully been consumed. The worker ant and the queen ant managed to pass the ‘tiny’ level, and evolved into official monsters, at the same time!
Then, under Bates’ instructions, the worker ant and the queen ant each received an arm and continued to eat.
Another few hours passed, and when the two arms turned to bones, the growth of the worker ant and the queen ant finally came to an end!
The worker and the queen ant had managed to reach level 3. Thanks to their warrior templates, the worker and the queen ant already possessed four attributes that were similar to advanced goblins. Their health had exceeded that of advanced goblins, too.
If Bates were to let them go, the worker ant and queen ant would now have the initial strength to survive in the Dark Forest alone. They could even freely travel through the Dark Forest, occupying land, and commanding other creatures.
As long as they did not encounter lord or elite monsters, the ant race would quickly grow and grow.
Finally, they would replace the goblins, as the strongest race in the dark forest!