Chapter 25: New horizons

As the water bird was making its way back to the church with the hunting team's status update, Ethan was traversing into the next area. As he progressed there was a decided temperature drop Ethan definitely didn't mind, especially since he could no longer sweat. Trees started appearing as he made his way further and further into the next area. Then it started raining as the trees grew bigger and bigger and then Ethan noticed that everything was covered in moss and fungus.

"This looks like a rain forest.... I bet I will find some delicious Mutogene here.."

Ethan made his way further into the forest.. It grew darker and damper as he progressed.

"Woah, this place is getting creepy... " Ethan said to himself as he walked. He could feel something watching him " lets see who's out there... " Ethan willed his minions to spread out into the trees and search nearby for enemies. One of his minions sensed movement, and then another and another. They were making their way to Ethan. Ethan spawned more Swarm-lings and had them burrow into the ground awaiting the aggressors.

Then they walked out into the open. It looked like a jaguar just... wrong... decaying and single minded with purpose. To feed. Then a gorilla looking... thing, it also looked wrong. Then more of them started appearing, different animals and monsters alike, but all of them dead or mostly dead. When Ethan was surrounded they all screeched and began sprinting full bore at Ethan. As they got closer, Fungus and mold-like tendrils began sprouting from their bodies and began lashing the air around them as if anticipating the kill.

" You will have to keep waiting for your meal!" Ethan yelled as his swarm-lings burst from the ground and latched onto the first Mold Zombie that came close and burst with a loud concussive blast, it had heated itself up with friction and burst into a ball of flame that burned the critter to ashes.

The rest of the zombies kept running at him and then more and more swarm-lings burst from the ground and latched onto the zombies and then blew up into an explosion of fire. Until the numbers started thinning out and Ethan could get some breathing room. He summoned more swarm-lings for the final push, they plopped onto the ground from Ethan with thuds and took off running at the zombies because there was no need to will them or catch them up to speed any longer, they were one entity.

With that final push, the only sounds left were fire burning and the smell of burning flesh. " What the hell were those?" Ethan asked Hiamel.

Hiamel appeared and looked around " It reminds me of the zombie fungus on Earth, you know cordyceps? It's different here though, it legit turned them into zombies and I have a feeling that if they had touched you.. It will be game over."

Ethan paused for a second. " Well that is dangerous... and also scary..but I can use that." Ethan forced his swarm-lings to begin eating the corpses and began getting ready to mutate them when the fungus began trying to take hold of the swarm-lings. Ethan mutated them to take advantage of the mold by making them a similar composition so that it could be integrated properly.

The swarm-lings began dying over and over as they tried to take it over, they were replaced and changed over and over again.. Through a forced evolution.

Hiamel was silent, he hadn't expected this. Ethan was progressing much faster than anticipated. If it wasn't for the fact that he had Ethan under control, he would be worried.

" What are you doing?" Hiamel asked " I am making it a part of our DNA, once it works for the swarm-lings.. It will be a part of the swarm as a whole." Ethan almost seemed to smile, hard to do as a spider. It came across as menacing and foreboding. " This will be a good hunting ground for a bit, lots of Mutogene and DNA sources to add to the swarm-lings and myself, definitely need to find a place to hunker down though."

With that Ethan made his way further into the forest as he made the swarm-lings continue feasting and dying. He found a place a little further in, it was a copse of trees that looked like they were quite old. But they were all clustered together and were also close to the rest of the forest. He got to work making himself a spider fortress, covering the trees in webbing and making pathways and traps around the trees and connecting to the surrounding trees. With that Ethan settled himself in and sent out his swarm-lings to begin scouting while he decided to spend some Mutogene. He had enough to get each of his skills to 20 with the straight up massacre that just happened. This brought up multiple mutation options for each skill, as Ethan looked over the options he chose the following new upgrades for his skills.

Ethan

Species: Cheiracanthium inclusum swarm queen

Gender: Female

Power level 40

Strength: 100

Agility: 90

Intelligence: 90

Luck: 70

Vitality: 130

Mana: 150

Mutations:

Lightning Mandibles +20 ( this upgrade deals 200% more electricity damage)

Blitzkrieg legs+20 (keeps the previous armor bonus, but when moving you speed up and when you hit an enemy you deal an extra percentage of damage based on how fast you were moving and from how far away you hit them)

Euthanasia Webbing +20 ( when targets hit the webbing they start falling asleep almost immediately unless they pass a vitality check based on their level.)

Mind obliteration Venom+20 ( if a target is bitten, they will need to pass a mana check. If they fail, they will become your permanent slave and part of the hive-mind.)

Constant Swarm-ling hatchery +20 ( you do not have to will swarm-lings to be created. You constantly spawn them from your birthing ducts which have been heavily upgraded to allow this.)

Rapid fire cannon swarm-ling ducts+20 ( swarm-lings can be fired from the holes in your carapace that will allow you to fire them rapidly while not losing the damage from the previous upgrade.)

Hive-mind control +20 ( you are one with your swarm, you are the swarm. You do not need to will your swarm-lings to move or attack; they respond to your wavelengths and you see and feel what they feel. Swarm-lings will mutate upon realizing need for mutation due to outside stimuli)

With those choices Ethan spun a cocoon and went to sleep, while he slept he underwent changes to make him a more efficient hunter and killer, soon he will be put to the test.