Chapter 5: Chapter 5 - Eating Dirt
She decided she should make a few workers and maybe a scout while she was in the forest because it would be the best place to grow undetected by human life until she was ready to go out.
The forest seemed like it lacked any form of human intervention— it had no signs of footsteps, no paths made, nothing that would give her a sign that humans were here.
Meaning it was most likely inhabitants or untouched by humans, which was great.
The animals in the forest wouldn't pose too much of a threat to her in her current stats— that is unless she came across either a pack of them or a strong animal.
But seeing as she hadn't seen a single animal during her walk her, she wasn't too worried.
She actually hoped she would be attacked by something.
Then she could devour it and take not only its mass, which she can use to make hive units or power herself up further, but also start learning their traits.
But with no animals currently available she made do with what she currently had, a lot of dirt, stone, and water.
While it wasn't as good as other materials— especially flesh— it was still mass, and would still attribute to the making of her hive.
It just wouldn't be very useful— but something was better than nothing.
'I wonder how it'll taste?'
She wasnt worried about the aftereffects of eating things such as dirt or stone, because unless the thing she ate was truly poisonous, her body would be able to break it down with no issue.
It was one of the perks that came with her body being the way it was. However, it didn't completely stop her from tasting how the thing she ate would taste to a member of her species.
Which made her curious.
So, scooping up a handful of dirt she placed it in her mouth and chewed, swallowing it. She didn't have to worry about any germs on it, and while she did feel weird eating dirt that was just laying around the forest, she knew it would help her grow.
So she ignored the human parts of her that lingered with thoughts of opposition.
Surprisingly it didn't taste terrible.
It wasnt any sort of quality meal— it didn't even taste good— it just didn't taste bad.
If there was one way she could describe it, it would be extremely salty.
Like very salty.
It tasted almost as if she was drinking seawater with how salty it was.
Wrinkling her lips a little at the taste, since she didn't like overly salty things— she decided to wash it down with some water.
Unsurprisingly water tasted the same as it always had, it wasnt like water had a flavor, to begin with.
She decided to next taste stone— which was a bit harder to do because of the texture of the stone.
It was hard— even the small peddles she found near the water were quite hard, and if it wasnt for her enhanced physical capabilities she wouldn't have been able to do what she wanted to do.
'I really hope I don't choke on these this. While I know that eating it wouldn't harm me from what my instincts are yelling, I can't help but doubt it. Maybe it's my human past talking.'
Ignoring her human commonsense of not putting a stone in her mouth, she did it anyways, and bit down on it hard.
It cracked instantly— thanks to her strength and durability that was both above the level of a human— adding to the power her teeth had.
The bits and pieces of it slipped down her throat as she swallowed it, hurting very slightly because of the rough texture it had going down her throat.
Its taste was odd to say the least. It taste somewhat like nothing, but had a taste of the same thing.
It was like eating ice— where it doesn't have a taste yet did.
'Definitely strange.'
She thought to herself as she finished it.
With that out of the way— she wanted to know how much a handful of dirt and a peddle the size of her nail would give her in mass— so she summoned her status.
Checking her mass on her status panel she saw she now had 2 points at mass— which meant that both either gave her 1 point each, or one gave her a decimal amount.
But she decided to go with the idea that it gave 1 each.
It wasnt a bad amount, to say the least, especially for being such a common material.
The only issue was that she intended to use 100 mass to make her first worker unit, which was the bare minimum she could do without it dying within days.
That meant she needed to eat a lot of dirt or stones for this to work.
Dirt was easier to eat so she decided to go with that for her main source of mass.
With a sigh, she started eating away at the dirt, not worrying about overfilling herself since her body would store it easily.
It took her about an hour to eat enough dirt to collect up a total of 100 points in mass, she also ate a few stones in between just to have some variety in the taste, but it was worth it in the end.
The only reason it even took an entire hour to eat so much dirt was because she took short breaks in between some in order to wash her mouth of the salty taste.
It got very disgusting very quickly with how much she was eating.
But she had finally done it— and just in time too because it was getting rather dark.
A worker could be useful for gathering in the dark or even distracting anything that tried to attack her.
'Finally have enough to create one, let's see how this works. I wonder how it feels.'
She instinctually knew how to make a hive unit— she just never tried it before so she had no idea how it would actually be.
How it would feel.
Chapter 6: Chapter 6 - Creating A Mimic
She sat down with her legs folded and focused on herself within.
She didn't need to do this in order to make a mimic— she just wanted to fully understand and experience it for herself since it was her first time.
She focused on what she wanted and activated her abilities.
Instantly her body and mind kicked into drive— it understood what she wanted and knew how to make it possible. It started to use the matter it had stored within her to create the body of the Mimic.
Her mind coded the DNA and other information that would be stored within the mimic she created.
A worker— a basic worker— it took a matter of seconds because of how easy it was, but with each passing second, you could see it forming.
Slowly a gooey liquid started to leak from her body and drop on the ground next to her— taking the form of what would commonly be attributed to a slime.
Once it was done she opened her eyes— feeling marveled at what she had just experienced.
It was insane.
Words simply couldn't be used to describe it.
It felt as if her body was melting and going to euphoric heaven.
Every part of her body— every single cell in her— felt at such blissful ease that she didn't want it to stop.
It felt great.
But it came to an end when the mimic was complete, causing her to open her eyes and release a soft sigh of relief.
'That was definitely not what I expected. I can see why they wanted to create such massive hives that they killed themselves over it. I hope I don't get addicted to that feeling.'
She knew her worries were unfounded since her body would adapt to become resistant to that as well as time went on, but she couldn't help but ponder.
Finally, she looked down at the creature before her— a mimic.
Her mimic.
Someone would call it a slime if they saw it— it definitely resembled one from the shows she saw in her past life— however, this one was semi-translucent and black in color.
It took this form for one simple reason— it didn't have a form of itself yet.
It was called a mimic for that very reason— they mimicked the forms of things that they have seen, or make new forms based on information they had.
That's what made them truly terrifying, because you can never tell them apart from other things if they wanted to do so.
It also aided them in conquering because then they can adapt to better suit any form of environment— be it aquatic, aerial, land, or even worse climates like fire and ice.
But what she needed right now was something simple but helpful in gathering.
She needed something small that could hide in the bushes of the forest, and fast so they can avoid prey that caught onto them.
An idea of a form that would work came to mind, a centipede-looking creature that was around the size of a rat but somewhat longer.
It had pincers for hands that it could use to harvest things.
With the idea clear in her mind— she connected mentally to the mimic.
The connection was already there— it would always be there— it was just in her subconscious because she had just formed it.
She could use this mental connection for all sorts of things, from sensing wherever they were, to seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and even tasting through them.
They basically acted as an extension of herself— should they gain something, she would too— should they eat something, she would too.
They were her and she was them.
So with the link strengthened and the image installed into the creature's coding, it instantly started to take form.
It broke down the stone and dirt around it to use as a body, taking mere minutes to take form because of how weak the material was.
And when it was done she was truly impressed.
It looked exactly as she imagined it, just more refined.
She couldn't help but smile at her first hive member.
The first of many to come.
Thoughts of the future were grand and all, but now wasnt the time to get distracted about a future that may never come if she acted foolishly, so she focused on the matter at hand.
She sent her command to the hive member, but it was more like a will.
It wasn't like she was commanding someone to do something in the sense of how humans did it, but rather it was like moving an extra body part.
It was that easy.
She ordered the mimic to go around the area using the bushes and tree line as a cover in order to harvest leaves, fruits, and other useful materials it might find.
She also ordered it to keep hidden from anything that might threaten it, anything that moved.
She ordered it to instantly run in a random direction if it was getting attacked.
The reason she chose a random direction was so it didn't lure the creature back to her location, and she would never lose the mimics because she could sense them no matter how far apart they were.
So, with the order in its coding— the creature started to harvest.
'It's really so amazing to look at, I can't help but marvel at it. Now, onto myself, what should it do?'
She didn't need to worry about collecting things to eat anymore because the mimic would do that, but she needed to start planning and executing those plans while she was here.
'Alright, let's take a rest for the night because it's rather late. First thing tomorrow I should explore the forest some more and see just how big it is— I need to see if humans had been to any other parts of the forest and it was just my part untouched, or if it's untouched in total.'
With an idea in mind for the next day, she decided it was time to take a rest. But sleeping on the ground would be too dangerous, so she decided to climb a tree.
The tree would help her avoid being attacked by any creature that couldn't climb it, and it was also a good vantage point to get a wide view.
While it was uncomfortable to lie down on, it was bearable, and she didn't care about comfort right now.
So slowly, she fell asleep.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
12 Power
stone 
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