Helzar awoke, feeling the ground tremble beneath his feet. Looking around, he saw nothing unusual—not even crumbs of earth falling down.

  'Is there... an earthquake?' He couldn't help but wonder. His spawns were still outside, but their last report was that nothing unusual was outside.

  'Speaking of spawns, they bring back a lot of ants. Are they easy to kill?'

  Every time the spawns emerge, they'd quickly return with an ant's body in tow.

  ‘Maybe there's an ant colony nearby,’ Helzar thought, displeased. He was weak, and his “colony” consisted of merely three members.

  Himself, and his two spawns. Even brand new ant colonies had more than three members after the nanitics (first batch of ants) hatch.

  ‘I need to move places. Ants might be no match for the spawns, but I don't want to see a swarm of ants right now,’ Helzar sighed, spending his remaining energy to recall his spawns.

  In just a minute, one of the spawns returned...

  ‘Damn, where's the other one?’ Helzar clacked his mandibles. He waited, but only one of his spawns returned.

  ‘Did it die? No, I still feel a connection to it. Why isn't it coming back? Where is it?’ Helzar felt a headache, someting he cured by eating the remaining spawn.

  ‘No matter, I can produce three more spawns anyway. The ants they brought me gave a lot of energy,’ Helzar clacked his mandibles. Dropping the nest on the soil, he watched as it spat three more eggs.

  All three quickly hatched into spawns.

  ‘Go on, onwards! One of you, block the tunnel behind us. Make sure those ants meet a dead end!’

  +++-+++-+++

  “Woah, look at it go,” Rex chuckled, watching a spawn running around a test tube frantically. It tried biting the glass once, only to realize it was useless.

  “It's sensitive to its surroundings,” Dexter muttered to himself, watching the spawn for a while before giving it to Rex. Then, he took out a set of digging tools.

  “Time to…”

  “Huh? Oi, Dex, look at this,” Rex called out from behind, making Dexter look at his partner.

  “What happened?” Dexter asked, prompting Rex to show him the test tube.

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  “It stopped moving? Did it die?” Dexter frowned. One moment, the bug was energetic, and then the next it was limp. "Truly an anomaly,” Dexter shook his head, resuming his digging.

  +++-+++-+++

  ‘Are we far enough?’ Helzar mused, but he never stopped digging.

  The tunnel was tiny, barely enough to fit his 1 centimeter body and his spawns' 0.5 centimeter body when they stood side by side. However, they could dig quickly thanks to the small size.

  ‘The spawns can dig with their powerful mandibles, two of their three legs, and their mouths. They're busier than ants,' he thought.

  He watched as a spawn took a grain of dirt using its mandibles, holding it in its mouth, before taking another piece of dirt with its mandibles. Then, two of its legs held the grains of dirt firmly, before using its third leg to drag it back. At the back, one spawn was constantly blocking the tunnel behind them.

  ‘Such fascinating creatures, I wonder how they're even able to function.’

  He had many questions, but the answers had to wait for now. The spawns had short lifespans, and it would shorten even more whenever they do anything.

  ‘It’s time to eat them,’ he judged, clacking his mandibles. Hearing the sound, all three spawns stopped, crawling toward him and letting him eat their bodies.

  Soon, another three spawns hatched from the nest.

  ‘I’m just a bit short to produce one more spawn egg, what a shame,’ Helzar sighed, deciding to help his spawns by taking the role of blocking the tunnel behind them.

  They continued for a few more minutes, before Helzar told his spawns to start digging upwards. He had no idea that just behind him, a handful of dirt was dug out.

  +++-+++-+++

  ‘This should be far enough.'

  After digging for who knew how long, they finally stopped. Currently, he was crouching on the ground, watching as his three spawns surfaced through the entrance hole.

  This time, he told them to stick together—there was strength in numbers, after all.

  ‘Spawns are too small and resemble dust in a way. Most creatures don't target them. At the same time, they can only hunt small insects like lice or ants.’

  It might seem insignificant. But, for the current him, those were more enough.

  ‘It’ll take a lot of time, but when the swarm grows to dozens, we should be able to prey on bigger creatures.’

  He stood up, crawling around his new chamber, thinking of the future. The wild was unforgiving, and he would never risk himself needlessly. But, if his spawns never return, then he would be forced to hunt on his own.

  He wasn't one to cower, but thinking of his current size...

  'That's enough.'

  With a thought, he reigned on his temper. Then, he crouched at the center of the dirt chamber, patiently waiting for his spawns to return.

  +++-+++-+++

  Atop a leaf, a spawn was sitting still. Meanwhile, another two were under the leaf.

  Moments before this, they saw a lizard doing the same. It remained stil, its eyes following a mosquito buzzing about. When the mosquito flew near its range, it struck, gulping down its snack before waiting for more.

  The trio wanted to copy the lizard.

  Time trickled down, and a fly had just flown in. Hovering above the leaf for a few moments, it landed. The spawn slowly turned its body, spreading its mandibles wide, then suddenly...

  JUMP!

  The leaf shook madly, like someone was swinging it from side to side!

  However, on the spawn's vision, it clearly saw the predator that stole its prey. It was a creature with eight legs, a pair of mandibles holding the struggling fly, and a set of multiple round eyes.

  Looking at the baby jumping spider, the spawn felt no fear. Instead, it was thankful. After all, the kind spider killed the fly for them, and now it offered itself on their plate.

  Without wasting another second, the spawn rushed at the jumping spider. The jumping spider couldn't even react as the spawn's mandibles bit on its leg, forcing it to drop the fly and back off—but the spawn clung onto its leg.

  After the jumping spider paused, the spawn pierced the leaf with all three of its legs, clutching on the underside of the leaf. The two spawns were already on top of the leaf by this point, and only half a second had passed.

  The next moment, the jumping spider was cut in half, its flesh being carried to the Helzar by two spawns. The third was looking for the fly killed by the spider. When it found the dead fly, it went home.

  That day, Helzar produced sevn spawns after "recycling" the three spawns.

  +++-+++-+++

  “So? What's wrong?” Rex asked Dexter, who was frowning while observing the handful of soil inside a glass tank.

  “It's not here… damn it, did it die? No, it shouldn't have…” Dexter tutted, while Rex just shrugged. He couldn't care less about the strange bug. After Rex went inside the truck they rode in to get here, Dexter pulled out a communicator and spoke.

  “Sir, can you locate the anomaly? I lost it,” asked Dexter.

  A distorted voice replied to him, “No. Return now, several anomalies are acting up.”

  “Understood,” Dexter replied and entered the truck. Just as he was about to enter the side seat, he remembered something and called the person again.

  “I forgot, I managed to seize one of the bugs. What is it, anyway?” Dexter asked.

  “Got it,” the distorted voice replied. Dexter waited for an answer, clicking his tongue in frustration when none came.

  ‘What a bastard,’ Dexter thought before entering the truck.