Chapter 43: Heart of the Swarm

The effects of the multicolored pinecone were truly terrifying—it could forcibly transform ordinary creatures into totems, using their flesh and blood as the foundation. Although the result was a semi-totem, one that existed in the world like any common creature and could not be stored away, in his hands, with the modulator, its power was at least ten times greater than what anyone else in that organization could achieve!

The modulator allowed him to spend evolution points to forcibly evolve totems, completely bypassing the painstaking process of gathering countless resources. Unfortunately, the energy cost was steep; each activation required the use of several source crystals, and his already meager supply was nearly depleted.

The multicolored light enveloped all the giant stinger wasps, wrapping them in a shimmering cocoon and emitting a crackling electric sound. In the blink of an eye, the source energy he had summoned was consumed, making his heart ache as he reluctantly drew upon several more source crystals. One after another, they turned to dust, leaving a powdery layer across the laboratory table.

He had already used a third of his energy reserves today. If this attempt failed as well, he would have to reconsider whether to continue these experiments at all.

As the source energy was consumed, the multicolored light grew ever more brilliant, illuminating the entire basement in a dazzling array of colors. After a while, the radiance slowly faded, revealing the queen and the other giant stinger wasps, all seemingly unchanged.

“Failed?”

Charles sighed, rubbing his temples, a headache mounting. By his calculations, there shouldn’t have been a mistake. The queen was the heart of the hive, the sole mother of all the giant stinger wasps, with the most complete inheritance factors—she could certainly serve as the core, transforming the entire swarm into a cohesive whole.

“It seems more research is needed—wait!”

His eyes narrowed, focusing on the translucent interface that had appeared before him. At the very bottom, a third totem’s three-dimensional image had manifested. Strangely, though it was labeled ‘Giant Stinger Wasp,’ the image was a miniature heart-shaped hive.

“Heart of the Giant Stinger Swarm: Special Totem, not yet evolved, can be enhanced, evolution success rate 25%, cost: 8 evolution points. Abilities: Poison Sting, Missile Needle.”

Heart of the Swarm?

Charles concentrated on the term, and a brief explanation surfaced, clarifying its meaning.

“Heart of the Giant Stinger Swarm: A group-type totem formed around the queen, composed of ordinary giant stinger wasps. Can evolve as a whole. Feeds on various nectars and even insects. Using green and blue gemstones can increase evolution success rate.”

His eyes shone brighter. He realized that his bold idea might finally be possible—he could truly establish a formidable army of insect totems.

“Well, let’s see just how much the success rate can be improved.”

He eagerly dragged over the jewel box, extracting every green and blue gemstone within—a total of six, each sparkling under the lamp's glow.

Each of these gems was worth hundreds, even thousands of gold coins, the kind of luxury only nobles or wealthy merchants could afford. Out in the world, they’d be enough to easily tempt a naïve young maiden. Yet, he had no such intentions. Without hesitation, he activated his source energy, prompting the modulator to scan them.

“Two blue Spark River Core Stones, three green Moonstones—can improve success rate by 50%, reducing evolution point cost to two.”

Five gems, worth nearly twenty thousand gold coins, could boost the success rate to 75% and cut the evolution cost by three-quarters.

He could only sigh—Totem Masters truly burned through money. Tens of thousands of gold coins could vanish in an instant, and even someone with his ‘cheats’ had to invest heavily!

But Charles considered it a bargain. The evolved swarm would be an immense asset, so without hesitation, he focused his mind and pressed the ‘+’ sign.

Evolution began!

Two evolution points vanished instantly, and at the same time, the heart-shaped swarm icon wavered. A faint white glow shimmered over all the giant stinger wasps before him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

One after another, the wasps exploded like balloons, unable to withstand the surge of power. In an instant, a layer of wasp remains piled up before him—a sight both chilling and grotesque.

But Charles’s expression remained unchanged—he had expected this. Many creatures simply weren’t qualified to evolve; force the process, and their bodies would collapse under the strain. It was a hardware limitation, as if trying to build a skyscraper on a shallow, unstable foundation—collapse was inevitable.

Minutes later, the process ended. Of the hundreds in the original swarm, fewer than fifty survived.

Charles picked up one and observed its dramatic transformation.

Its size had doubled. Where its segmented body had once been, black connective tissue now joined each part. The antennae on its head were shorter, and the prominent mandibles had grown sharper. Curiously, its two forelimb stingers now featured guard-like extensions, and stingers had sprouted from both hind legs as well. The white stingers were marked with alternating black and white stripes.

This meant it now possessed five stingers at once!

“Super Giant Stinger Wasp, Special Totem (Swarm Member), evolved, can be enhanced, evolution success rate 20%, cost: 6.5 evolution points. Abilities: Poison Sting, Missile Needle, Sting Burst, Venom Shock.”

Charles was overjoyed. Who would have thought that ordinary giant stinger wasps could suddenly possess four abilities, even more diverse than the Komodo Dragon Totem!

Clearly, this evolution had further enhanced their toxicity, making their attacks even more deadly and covert. Their needle-like stingers were so fine that once an attack was launched, it would be almost impossible for enemies to detect—especially effective against large, hairy totems.

Giant stinger wasps had no sexual dimorphism, being divided only into ordinary workers and the queen, whose sole role was reproduction. If the queen died, the entire swarm would be unable to produce new wasps. Thus, he had to protect her at all costs—so long as she lived, he could maintain a never-ending army of wasp totems.

However, his current army was pitifully small, not even fifty, and each one was still weak enough to be prey for an ordinary bird.

Such was the weakness of insect totems—their evolution rarely brought great power unless they completed an ultimate evolution, breaking through the limits of their species and, as it was said, shattering the shackles of their genes!

Therefore, he needed to find a way to quickly increase their numbers, or they would never be a force capable of annihilating his enemies.

To boost their numbers, he needed the queen to reproduce en masse, which required ample food—but he was still unsure of the queen’s dietary needs and would have to experiment to find out.

Once he had thousands upon thousands of super giant stinger wasps, even if he faced Roddy head-on, he would make sure the man paid dearly for it!