Swarming Sovereignty

The nameless foot soldier sat in a corner in the burrow, slowly making sense of her life. Everything before just a few minutes prior was so…hazy and indistinct. She was a rat, doing…whatever rats did, eating and running and hiding and then she was caught by some giant creature and then she had been transported to here, where she met the Queen.

The sight of the Queen had filled her with terror for a reason she just…couldn’t understand. The Queen was…the most important thing in the world, so why had she been so scared? Fortunately, the Queen had caught her before she could run away, and had shown her the true meaning of her life. She had been converted into something stronger, faster, better. She had fought with her sisters against the terrible green things the Queen called goblins, and had emerged victorious again and again.

They had even managed to make the green things into new sisters, at the cost of a few of their own. That fact didn’t bother the foot soldier; her sisters had given their lives for the greater good, and they lived on as the substance the Queen called modeling wax, allowing them to continue to serve even past the time they stopped living.

And then…then the Queen had asked her a question. You there, the Queen had asked, are you able to evolve?

That question pierced the fog that had been over the foot soldier’s mind. The concept of being…individual had never occurred to her before. She had just…been. She struggled over that for a moment before finally pointing to herself, and the Queen confirmed it; she was her own being, not just part of the swarm.

And then she felt something fill her, and she was…more. She hadn’t had a true sense of self until that moment, she was just a bundle of…impulses, telling her to do things. She couldn’t think like she was now, she was just one of the swarm, doing her duty as well as she could. But now everything was so…crisp and clear.

It was disquieting in a way, knowing she was not the same as she once was, not the same as the rest of her sisters. But that was a minor thing; what was important was that the Queen wanted her to be individual, and that overrode any doubts.

And she knew this individuality would lead to greater production for the whole. Being able to think for herself would allow her to better perform the Queen’s will, and that would only bring about good.

The Queen had asked her questions about evolution, which she had dutifully answered. She had even asked permission to see the foot soldier’s evolutions, something that the foot soldier was stumped by. She was the Queen, she didn’t need permission for anything. It was her right to take whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, however she wanted.

But the Queen had asked, so the foot soldier gave permission, pointless as such a task was. And then the Queen had given the foot soldier her first task as a truly sapient being – she was to pick her own evolution.

The Queen had made it clear that the foot soldier was to pick whatever the foot soldier thought would be best to evolve into, not to just evolve into the next tier of foot soldier because that was what she had been originally. And that was a task that was surprisingly difficult for the foot soldier; she had only just gained the ability to think rationally, so she was still just trying to…figure everything out.

Which had led to her desperate little recollection of her life. And, now that she had considered everything in her rather short existence, she had to make a choice. So, she opened up her menu once again, just to double-check her options.

The foot soldier thought about those once again. Evolving into the “normal” Swarm Foot Soldier would be the easiest thing to do, as she wouldn’t have to change any of what she was doing, but…was that really best?

She only had to take a moment to think about that. No, it was not best. Many of her sisters would be evolving into that race, the swarm would not lack for foot soldiers. On the other hand, she was the only one capable of evolving into an enlightened swarmling, which would in turn lead to something greater than a simple foot soldier.

So, she chose to evolve into an enlightened swarmling, and closed her eyes, letting unconsciousness take her as she changed.

Lia watched as almost all of the rat foot soldiers scampered away and began to evolve. Most of them didn’t stop to think about anything, which she could only assume meant they had only one option available for evolution.

Still, the one she had “enlightened” appeared to be deep in thought, so that was probably a good sign. She needed creatures with intelligence to help manage her swarm and make decisions, not just…some AI.

…If that foot soldier had a soul, did that make it a person? It…did, right?

She really should not have to be asking that question. You couldn’t just give something the ability to have a soul. People had tried before, and nothing had come even close. It wasn’t something you could just do on accident like she did. She had, in essence, messed with the circle of reincarnation itself just by asking a simple question.

It wasn’t something she was keen to repeat, either. She was still half convinced the only reason she hadn’t called down the wrath of the gods was because it was an accident. The gods were understanding, they would realize she had no idea what her actions would ca –

Lia almost began hyperventilating then and there. This could only mean one of two things, and she didn’t like either of them. The first and, in her opinion, most unlikely, was that the Title was real. That meant that the gods wanted her to continue her world domination plan and completely upset the order of everything.

That would be convenient, but it also threw into question everything Lia thought she knew about the gods, and that wasn’t a can of worms she wanted to open. The other, more likely, option was that the tampering with the system had resulted in a fake Title that claimed to be from the gods. And that was a recipe for smiting if she had ever seen one.

And then a voice rang out in her mind. As it did, it rooted deep into her soul and left her with an unmistakable impression of exactly who was speaking to her.

It is not fake. The Goddess of Life told her. But your analysis is incorrect. We do not actively wish for you to take over the world. We are, instead, ambivalent. So long as you have your swarm continue to worship us as they have, we will provide no aid to the rest of the world. Your tampering with the system and with granting sapience to non-sapient beings is acceptable, so be not afraid.

And then her presence was gone, and Lia breathed a sigh of relief. It was really good to know that the gods weren’t angry with her over this, and she wasn’t about to get blasted with some divine punishment for what she was doing.

But that also puzzled her. It didn’t make sense for the gods to not care. Their job was to watch over and protect the sapient races, not to allow them to be completely subsumed by someone like herself.

She thought on that for a few minutes before eventually deciding that she wouldn’t get any answers just by trying to think it through. The gods moved in mysterious ways, and if those ways happened to benefit Lia, she wasn’t going to complain.

Well, her foot soldiers were still evolving, and she couldn’t go raid the market again until they had finished, so she found herself with some free time. She had taken a moment before coming into the burrow to get the plant converting, and it looked like it had finished, so she went up to inspect it.

The entrance was now covered in a thornbush, further reducing the light that made its way into the burrow. It didn’t bother her because of her Night Vision, but she couldn’t help but wonder if her swarm would have trouble with it.

…Well, they had started making a second floor and seemingly had no troubles doing so, so they were probably fine. She walked up to the entrance and, after a moment, the thorns parted, leaving her a clear path to the surface.

That was…handy. She’d have to invest in more of those so intruders had a harder time getting to her base. Not that she wanted this burrow to be her permanent base of operations in this dungeon, she was planning to move into one of the buildings in the future. It just seemed more…convenient. They wouldn’t have to excavate an area if they wanted more space, and, even more than that, she would feel…well, like a person.

Camping out in a hole in the ground made her feel like an animal or a monster, and that just wasn’t something she wanted.

…She was a monster based on an animal, but that was beside the point! The point was that she didn’t want to live in a hole in the ground forever. She wanted a proper bed, and a place to bathe and things that would make her feel civilized.

That settled it. As soon as she had taken care of the goblin infestation, she was going to take over the dorms. Her room had probably been turned into a boss room, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t bunk in the other rooms like some sort of hobo.

She sat there for a while longer, contemplating the lands she would soon conquer before she was interrupted by a hesitant tap on her back. It nearly caused her to jump out of her skin, too; her swarm had left her alone up until now, so she had unconsciously dismissed their presence entirely.

This, however, was not a normal member of her swarm. It could only have been the foot soldier she had enlightened earlier, finished with its evolution. Lia turned around to find…a rather ordinary-looking rat. It was slightly larger than normal, and its fur was far cleaner than the other members of her swarm, but other than that, it was indistinguishable from a regular rat.

Are you finished evolving? Lia asked.

The rat hesitated, its face screwing up in concentration.

Tap the ground once for yes, twice for no, three times for you don’t understand. Lia said kindly.

The rat gave her a grateful look before tapping the ground in front of it once.

May I look at your stats?

The rat gave her an incredulous look but tapped once. Brimming with curiosity, Lia opened its status.

So, about the same stats as a regular foot soldier. Still, why did it show her how many Skills it could gain? Lia’s status didn’t show that, so why did this rat’s? Whatever, it wasn’t important. Do you have a name?

It tapped twice.

Would you like one?

Almost instantly it gave a single tap.

Good. Were you a boy or a girl?

The rat paused, mulling that over, then gave three taps.

You don’t know?

The rat tapped once.

Oh. Do you care which you were?

The rat tapped twice, paused, motioned at itself, then tapped once.

You don’t, but you care about which you are now?

The rat tapped once.

I see. Give me a second to think of a name for a girl, then. Lia delved deep into thought at that. She wasn’t particularly good with names, so it was probably best not to overthink things. The rat was…well, a rat, so why not a name that started with R? And then…well, best to just pick, so Rose it was. Your name will be Rose, then.

Rose tapped the ground happily, then paused. She looked back at the drones that were still working, and then to the foot soldiers that were starting to fall into a formation, before looking back at Lia questioningly.

You stay here and help the drones for now. Lia said. You’re too valuable to lose. We’ll figure out a way of getting you EXP later. Actually, you know what, no, you wander around this area and look for more rats to convert. Are you capable of making simple conversions like you were when you were a foot soldier?

Rose tapped a yes.

Great. In that case, get to making more drones. Burrowers too, if you can, but if you can’t, just convert them all into drones. I want a better workforce ASAP, we’re going to need better infrastructure if we want to be able to make full use of the stuff we’ll get from subjugating the goblins. And if you encounter even a whiff of danger, I expect you to run to safety, understood?

Rose gave a sharp tap for yes and turned to leave, but Lia stopped her.

Don’t worry too much if you can’t find a bunch right away. And go ahead and make your conversions however you feel is most efficient, don’t feel required to convert everything into drones right away if you think you can do better by waiting or whatever. Just use your judgement, alright? As long as you’re making visible progress towards getting a better workforce, I’ll be happy.

She added that last bit for two reasons. The first was that she didn’t want Rose to feel forced to do things a certain way just because Lia’s orders implied that. If Rose did things that way, she might as well have assigned a random foot soldier to the task; she wanted Rose to get used to acting on her own initiative.

The second was to gauge how…smart was a poor term for it, but she wanted to know how much oversight she would need to give enlightened rats when it came to things like this. There would probably be some variation in their intelligences, just like with normal people, but she wanted an idea of what she could expect.

So, she let Rose go, and ordered her army to assemble. It was, once again, time to go on the offensive.

Fighterman481

This is the last of the chapter dump. As of now, this series is five chapters behind Patreon, and updates will come in a strict "They're done when they're done" manner. As this will be much more sporadic than my other series, if you want to know when a chapter is coming just check Discord, I notify there every time I post a chapter of any of my stuff.

...Or just check the series whenever you refresh your reading list, I can't tell you how to live your life. Anyway, commentary for the chapter itself:

I'm honestly at a bit of a loss as for what to say here. I guess that you...could say the "overarching" plot is advancing ever so slightly, but also I have not much to say in that regard either?  With this series I'm just sorta winging it so things happen as they happen.

Umm...other than that, Lia's naming process was basically exactly what I was thinking about when choosing a name, so...there's that, I suppose? 

Anyway, I suppose that's all for me, so, as always, thanks for reading!