Jason’s system began to work overtime.

He felt it the moment they burst through the shattered wall and into the winding passage—a strange, unfamiliar hum beneath his skin, like electricity coursing through his veins. But this wasn’t because his body was rejecting whatever had been planted inside him.

It was because it was adapting to it.

The spiders born in this dungeon all listened to the queen. That much Jason had pieced together from the scattered fragments of conversation. The queen was the source. The hive mind. The command center.

All these things, he just knew, it was like they were synchronized in a twisted way.

If this spider—whatever had been inside that egg, whatever had hatched and somehow found its way into Jason—if it had the ability to adapt, to evolve, to learn from its environment... there was no telling what its limits would be.

But Jason didn’t plan to find out.

-

When his eyes shot open, everyone froze.

Ylva had been crouched beside him, her claws hovering over his chest. Thalion had been standing guard at the entrance of a small alcove they had dragged him into. Mae had been pressing a damp cloth to his forehead.

His eyes were wide. Unblinking. And they burned.

"Jason?" Ylva’s voice cracked.

His skin was hot—too hot. Feverish. His pulse raced under his jaw like a trapped bird. He shouldn’t have been able to regain consciousness in this state. His body should have shut down completely.

Instead, he was awake. And something was wrong.

Ylva shoved everyone aside. Her shoulder connected with Thalion’s chest, sending him stumbling into the wall. Her elbow caught Mae in the ribs, forcing the cow woman back. She didn’t care. She rushed to Jason’s side, her golden eyes scanning his face, his neck, his hands.

"Jason! Can you hear me?"

He blinked. His mouth opened, but no words came out.

Ylva grabbed his shoulders. "Say something!"

"I..." Jason’s voice was a rasp. "I don’t... what’s happening to me?"

His body was burning up. Not fever—something else. Something deeper. His muscles twitched. His veins seemed to pulse with a dark, viscous energy that wasn’t there before. He had no idea what was going on, but for some strange reason, his body was reacting.

Or maybe it was evolving.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

Ylva glanced at Thalion. The elf held up twenty fingers.

"Twenty minutes," Thalion said. "Approximately."

Jason tried to sit up. His arms shook. His chest heaved. Mae stepped forward, her brown eyes wide with concern. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Here," she said, pressing her breast toward his mouth. "Drink. It helped before."

Jason’s lips closed around her nipple. The milk was warm, sweet, thick. He swallowed once. Twice. Three times.

But nothing happened.

The burning didn’t stop. The twitching didn’t cease. Mae’s healing milk—the same milk that had closed his wounds and cleared his mind—did nothing against whatever was inside him.

However, it gave his body enough strength to push through. To stay conscious. To fight.

Jason pulled away, gasping. "It’s not working."

Mae’s face fell. "I don’t understand. It should—"

"It’s not your fault." Jason grabbed Ylva’s arm, pulling himself upright. His vision swam, then cleared. "Something’s in me. Something from that nest."

Thalion’s pale face went paler. "The egg?"

"I don’t know." Jason pressed a hand to his stomach. "But it’s... adapting. My system is adapting to it."

Ylva’s ears flattened. "Your what?"

Jason didn’t have time to explain. His body jerked—a violent spasm that nearly threw him off balance. Something was moving inside him. Crawling and squirming.

"THALION!" Ylva commanded, her voice sharp as a blade. "RIP IT OUT! USE YOUR MAGIC! NOW!"

Thalion raised his hand, mana crackling around his fingers. His pale eyes locked onto Jason’s torso, ready to tear out whatever lurked beneath the skin.

Jason shook his head weakly. "No... wait..."

"WAIT?!" Ylva’s claws extended. "You have something inside you, and you want me to wait?!"

"If he rips it out, I might die." Jason’s voice was strained.

"Besides, the system... it’s almost done..." Jason thought to himself.

Thalion hesitated. His hand hovered in the air, mana still swirling.

A cyan screen appeared in front of Jason’s eyes. Only he could see it.

[Ding!]

[20 minutes elapsed!]

[Adaptation to Ant King: 100%!]

[Congratulations! You have dominion over the Ant King!]

[Adaptation limit reached!]

Jason’s breath caught.

"Ant King?" Jason thought to himself because there was no such thing as an ant king.

The moment the system finished its announcement, something crawled out of his mouth.

It was fast—so fast that Ylva nearly missed it. A dark, glistening shape, no larger than Jason’s thumb, skittered across his lips and dropped onto his chest. It had too many legs. Too many eyes. Its body was segmented, shiny, like polished obsidian.

Before anyone could react, it scurried down his stomach, leaped off his leg, and disappeared into the dark corner of the alcove.

"What the FUCK?!" Mae screamed.

Ylva spun around, her claws raised. "Where did it go?!"

Thalion raised his hand and formed a small orb of light—just enough to illuminate the corner.

The creature had wrapped itself in a cocoon.

Silk—thick, white, glistening—covered the thing from head to abdomen. It was already larger than when it had left Jason’s mouth. The cocoon pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat. Cracks and pops emanated from within—the sound of chitin hardening, limbs stretching, a body growing at an unnatural rate.

This thing had taken less than an hour to hatch.

From egg to... whatever it was becoming.

It was unheard of.

Thalion’s hand trembled. The light flickered.

"What the hell was that?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Mae didn’t answer. Instead, she stepped forward, grabbed Jason’s head, and pressed her breast back into his mouth.

"Drink," she said firmly. "You need your strength."

Jason drank. His body was still weak, but the milk helped—not against whatever had happened, but against the exhaustion that followed.

Ylva watched. Her eyes drifted down towards his crotch.

She noticed the bulge in his trousers.

"Really?" she asked, her voice flat.

Jason pulled away from Mae’s breast, his face flushed. "It’s not—I can’t control—"

"Save it." Ylva turned back to the cocoon. "We have bigger problems."

The cocoon pulsed again. Louder this time. Faster.

Jason pushed himself to his feet, swaying but standing. His eyes fixed on the dark shape in the corner.

"Ant King."

Such a thing didn’t exist. Not in this world. Not in any world he knew of. Spiders had queens. Bees had queens. Ants had queens.

Not kings.

So why had his system called it that?

Jason’s mind raced back to Kaelen’s story. The egg in the Crimson Depths. The one that no one had been able to claim. The one that had killed half the reptile’s guild.

Jason didn’t know if this was related to that event but he intended to find out.

"We need to move," Mae said. "Before that thing hatches."

"Or we can kill it...!" Thalion suggested but Jason got up to his feet weakly.

"...N-No. No one harm it," Jason commanded and Ylva wanted to object but the look in his eyes, it was so serious and she instantly knew Jason understood the gravity of the situation.