5 Object get

David finally got up after several minutes. He asked for an ant to lean against and learned more about the situation from the queen. This was a relatively small colony of about 500 ants, and they had no real neighbors for kilometers around. David sighed in relief. He could actually trade Ants into the system if he classified them as slaves, but David had a better use for the ants. He quickly ordered them to help the mining bots dig. Huge tunnels, with massive amounts of ore being carried back in orderly lines. The ants ate a fungus that grew in specialized habitats, so David commanded the queen ant to keep expanding her home. Day and night industrious bots and ants would side by side dig. The smeltery was tripled in size and scale. It was a quarter of the size of the mothership core. As more metal was inputted into the system, David got special alloys and commanded the construction bots to build a new ring around the core. Work went smoothly, and David just rested on a chair, watching a new A.I. being created. In the mean time David worked on improving his ability with time. He already bought a book on how to do it, and pondered his situation. Mage ranks went from 1-9. 1 was a beginner; while 4 was the average rank for standard military forces. 6 was the rank of the leaders, and 7 were the Emperors and Paragons. 8 and 9 were a bit more obscure, as it was used to describe other races like Demons and Dragons with rank 8 or 9.

What had David worried was that the queen ant was on the cusp of breaking through. The slave collar only worked for people who weren't mages. David forgot about it soon as he focused on drawing energy from the void. As the end of the month neared, David stopped. He had the ability to slow down time for a few seconds. Now it was for a minute. He also could barely project his power to speed up the area around a plant. David sighed as he awaited the rankings. "I should be very high up," David mumbled as he watched a screen appear in front of him.

[Monthly Rankings: Rank 23rd]

David sighed and knew why it was like that. Yes he had hundreds of ants, but others had millions of people under their control, or they were already mining in space, while David was barely consolidating his place. The first ring of the mothership was half built, and the A.I. was almost done. David wanted a couple things from this ring. The first were laser batteries lining the top and bottom of the ring. He then wanted smelters, and a hangar for mining. However all this costed a lot of points, so David had to think fast. He quickly decided to take over another colony. He already located one, so he grabbed food, and started to jog off. David wasn't defenseless as he could mimic bullet time and he had his sniper rifle. He jogged through a forest, the planes, but there were barely any animals. The ants had asserted their dominance by exterminating other predators. David got to the entrance that was guarded by soldier ants. When he sprayed himself and got close, the ants rushed towards with their claws raised.

"Crap its a rank one nest," David secretly thought as he ran away. As one of the ants drew near David shot him while running using bullet time. The bullet cleanly pierced the ant's head, but David had another worry. He was now hurting from awkwardly shooting the gun, and using his power. He took a break and thought of a new plan. He was a slaver, and the colony was a village. Well he only had to enslave the queen. If it were a stage 2 or higher colony even the workers gain sentience making mass enslavement near impossible. David didn't support slavery, but if what he had to do to survive was to enslave indigenous species, well...

David got up again. He still had around 3000 points. His achievements were helping, but he was spending about a hundred points each day to build the first ring. David sighed as he went towards the dead ant. David had studied the colony that be controlled and found mass graves at the bottom. He cut open the ant and decisively jumped in. It was warm, slimy, and worst of all smelled horrible. A few minutes went by, before more ants came who carried their dead comrade back to the morgue. He was unceremoniously chucked into a pit. As David got up he shivered in disgust. He shook it off, and climbed the walls. He could barely see in the darkness, and didn't really embody what overlords did in other starts. They were leaders who delegated responsibility, while David was the only one who could do anything. Alone, and no one to rely on, he still persevered. As he got to the opening he noticed the horrible stench. It he threw up into the pit as he walked away. David had been pondering how to stay hidden. He had already tested everything. Eye sight, sense of smell, and much more on the ants back at base. He had confirmed that the workers had poor eye sight and used smell and touch to communicate. However the queen ants had psionic powers making them be able to control the colony. David smelled horrible, but he used it to his advantage as he rushed forward. The ants naturally avoided the bad smell, and couldn't see David as he ran beneath their height in the dank tunnels. Guard ants had none of those weaknesses so David started to conserve his energy. When he finally found the queen ant after tracing the ants carrying larvae, the guards reacted. Worker ants moved out of the way, while guard ants stepped in David's path. Time went forward at a tenth of a second. It was tearing David's body apart. He rolled underneath the giant ants, before pulling out his gun and shooting the next guard ant in front of him. As he rushed forward he ignored the pain. A slave collar materialized into his hand, as he rushed forward. There was nothing between him and the queen ant. Except that the queen grabbed a nearby worker and used it as a shield. David cursed and sidestepped the ant and placed the collar on the Queen ants antennae. The queen writhed in pain, before sending the colony back to normal. David nonchalantly took off the collar and put it back on the neck of the queen. Throughout the galaxy, queen ants were valued as amazing slaves, yet David already owned two. David quickly ordered the relocation of the colony back to the old one, and watched as his ranking shot up to 2nd. He didn't have to guess who first place was. It would be Pearce. Pearce had decided to spend everything he owned into a space ship, and marines and rushed a nearby Overlord. The man turned into a military superpower. He was an ally with David, because David would help out in his strategies. David also had no real ambitions except to be left alone anyways so their interests aligned. David was content however. He would receive the most important item in the early stages.

[Monthly inspection completed: Congratulations Overlords who received rewards]

A list popped up with the rankings. Allie ranked 1030 which was funny to David, because she was underrepresented like many others.

[Overlord David's reward: Upgrade token]

"Nice," David smiled while exclaiming out loud.