Became the Queen of the Legion

“Ugh…”

The chieftain groaned as if in pain. He didn’t expect any consideration from these beasts, but his body was in too much pain.

It was due to the poison seeping into his body. Thanks to that, not only resistance but even suicide was completely impossible. He could only be dragged along as they dragged him.

‘This is the eastern forest.’

The place where these unidentified insects dragged the chieftain was where the hunting party had gone hunting during the day.

The chieftain’s eyes gradually widened as he was dragged to that place, which had been without any particular danger until now, and approached their nest.

“What on earth is this…”

Slowly, little by little, the surrounding landscape began to become desolate. Places that should have been lush forests were being logged and uprooted one by one, turning into barren soil.

The contrast was even more stark because trees and grass had been growing abundantly and green until just before.

‘Is that these creatures’ nest?!’

The place they arrived at was the entrance to a huge cave. Thanks to their diligent repairs and expansions so far, it had become much larger than before.

After that, the chieftain was completely speechless. Tentacles crossing the cave interior stretched along the ceiling and walls, and where the tentacles connected, there were huge, writhing masses of flesh.

The chieftain was shocked to see the insects that had captured him pushing food into those flesh masses that looked like some kind of internal organs.

And from another flesh mass next to it, huge eggs were falling one by one along with viscous mucus.

Countless workers were mechanically moving, processing, and transporting them.

The chieftain was dumbfounded by this orderliness. At the same time, he recalled his goblins who would cause a commotion and barely accomplish tasks when he ordered them to do something.

At least in terms of group cohesion alone, the goblins led by the chieftain were at a level that could never compare to these insects.

“This can’t be.”

“Welcome. To our nest.”

And the most shocking sight of all existed in the deepest part.

The soldier carrying the chieftain in its mouth raised its jaw to allow the dazed chieftain’s face to be seen.

The being grinning at him was a female figure sitting on a chair made of black flesh walls.

It was an appearance that didn’t match at all with the damp and gloomy insect nest.

Although parts of her body were covered with black exoskeletons and leather like those of demonic beasts instead of clothing, and black tentacles protruding from the chair and walls were connected to her body, the chieftain thought she looked similar to a human.

“What on earth are you.”

So he could only ask this.

Even the chieftain, the smartest and most knowledgeable of the group, didn’t know about beings like her.

“What on earth are you, I’m asking. Why did you keep me alive and bring me here!?”

The chieftain struggled with his legs that didn’t move well due to the poison, as if feeling terribly wronged.

She smirked at that sight, then crossed her legs and slowly opened her mouth.

“Would you believe me if I said we’re a kind of Black Death Worm, and I’m the queen of this Black Death Worm group?”

“B-Black Death Worms? Impossible! Black Death Worms didn’t look like this. The Black Death Worm queen is the same!”

The chieftain strongly objected to the words “Black Death Worm” coming from her mouth. The Black Death Worms he knew were ordinary demonic beasts.

And they didn’t have abilities like poison or hook legs.

The queen of the Black Death Worms, too, was just a slightly larger individual worm. She didn’t have such an alien appearance.

“Above all, there’s no way a mere queen of those worm creatures would dare to converse with me.”

“Is that the general perception held by demon races? Then I guess we’re mutants. I don’t think we’re part of the Black Death Worms anymore either. We might need a new name.”

What was most perplexing to the chieftain now was that he was having an equal conversation with the queen of a group he had thought to be mere worms, beasts.

No, rather, she seemed to know even more than the chieftain.

‘This can’t be.’

The goblin chieftain, realizing this fact himself, unconsciously shuddered, his dangling body twitching.

“Originally, I had them bring you to just have any kind of conversation, but the harvest is bigger than expected. At this rate, it might be better to keep waging war with goblins rather than going around hunting.”

She slowly rose from her seat and came down from the chair, approaching him. The chieftain gritted his teeth, instinctively feeling fear.

Although her appearance itself was no different from a human woman, the moment he noticed the enormous consciousness residing within, a mere goblin’s consciousness could only be crushed instantly.

“Are there other goblin villages nearby? I want to eat more.”

“D-do you think I would tell you that?”

“No. There’s no need for that.”

The chieftain felt terror at her nonchalant manner and tried to put on a brave front, but it was useless.

Her eyes glazed over for a moment as if she had lost consciousness, then she soon grinned, raising the corners of her mouth.

“T-that’s!”

What a worker diligently crawled over and held out to her with its jaw was a map made of demonic beast hide. The map that the goblin chieftain himself had made.

“This should be useful enough, right?”

Her eyes sparkled as she looked back at the chieftain. It was evidence that she had the ability to read and interpret the map.

* * *

[The goblin chieftain has also entered the digestive organ]

“Well, we got everything we could get…”

The reason for keeping the chieftain alive was for a brief amusement. Curiosity about how an intelligent resident of the demon realm would react to seeing us now, wanting to have a normal conversation after a long time, and so on.

That was enough to get from the chieftain. After that, he was useless, so I turned him into nutrients as quickly as possible.

I thought about keeping him alive and playing with him because it was lonely, but I soon gave up the idea when I thought of the meaningless nutrients that would go into feeding him.

I’ll be encountering many like him in the future anyway. There was no reason to be fixated on one individual.

‘Indeed, even to ordinary demon realm residents, we are alien beings.’

The sight of the goblin chieftain being surprised at us was vivid in my mind.

He couldn’t believe it even when I directly revealed that I was the queen of the Black Death Worms.

That was the normal reaction. We have already transcended the limits of the Black Death Worm species.

Both physically and mentally, we were no longer at a level that could be grouped in the same category.

Thinking that this would probably continue in the future, I smirked.

‘Did I find it fun?’

Clearly, the beginning was a struggle to survive somehow in this situation I was caught up in without knowing why.

The survival instinct of not being able to be eaten by stronger demonic beasts. With that alone, I chewed and swallowed even nauseating pieces of corpses.

But now it’s a little different. I even felt a subtle pleasure seeing the goblin chieftain’s shocked reaction upon seeing us just now.

I became confident that with stronger power and more soldiers, we could do more than just survive.

“The next target is obviously other goblins.”

I unfolded the map that had been stuck in the goblin warrior’s corpse again. Although it’s an extremely crude map, essential things like rivers, streams, high mountains, and the locations of other tribes were all marked.

[Use your trait points before attacking those places]

“I’ll do that too.”

And what I gained from this war wasn’t just simple spoils.

It was the first war fought against a demon race. There were quite a few achievements related to that.

「Trait Points: 5」

As many as 5 points accumulated at once.

These points are the fundamental power that makes us grow into completely different beings from our fellow species.

I had to carefully consider and allocate each one.

「Consciousness Enhancement 3」

「Physical Enhancement 2-3」

「Reproduction Enhancement 3」

This was the result of my careful consideration and selection. Now consciousness and reproduction have entered stage 3. Physical enhancement will also reach stage 3 with just 2 more points invested.

「Auxiliary Brain」

「Genetic Replication」

As a result, I was able to unlock two additional traits.

These traits, received as rewards for reaching stage 3, were ones that could supplement parts I had been thinking were inconvenient until now.

‘Auxiliary Brain. Can this make things easier?’

I was starting to feel the limits of my brain.

Although my current brain, which is only at human level, would be the smartest in the entire colony, it was too meager a brain for a queen who has to command a huge colony as if it were one body.

The first thing I thought of was trying to create an artificial brain like artificial uteruses or artificial digestive organs, but it was impossible.

Now that has become possible.

“Tch… Are goblins the only material we have?”

[Data that can form an auxiliary brain is limited to that of demon race or higher]

The problem is that all I have in my hands now are the brains of the goblins we devoured today.

Naturally, not all brains are the same. Efficiency varies greatly depending on structure and composition. In that respect, goblin brains could never receive a high grade.

‘Can’t be helped. It’s urgent now. It should be a bit better if we at least make it enormously large.’

To overcome this, we needed to invest more nutrients to increase the size of the auxiliary brain.

I glanced behind my chair.

It seemed like we could sufficiently expand the space to fit the brain in a day if we deployed workers.