Evolution. Mutation. Whatever the right word was.

For Shen Cong, it was a system without precedent — a science that hadn’t existed before May 18th, with no literature to consult and no researchers who’d been at it longer than him. Everyone had started from the same zero point, groping forward through Activity’s implications with whatever intelligence and preparation they’d brought with them.

He’d had more preparation than most. He’d also come closer to dying from it than most.

The balance sheet still read positive. Four bulls had become five-plus, the body repairing itself steadily as the days passed, the overload’s damage receding toward a baseline he could work from. The path forward had complications he hadn’t anticipated. He still wanted to walk it.

Bored people who stay in bed recovering have a harder time than bored people who stay in bed recovering while making weapons.

He filed that as life wisdom and picked up the next antenna segment.

The three days of forced rest produced an inventory of Activity-core weapons he was genuinely satisfied with.

Ranged — bone-gold:

Fang Javelins: 8 from Fangwolf fangs, 1 from the Teddy Tyrant fang. The highest-impact ranged weapons he had.

Fang Arrows: 8 Fangwolf fang-tip arrows, 1 Teddy Tyrant equivalent. For the crossbow.

Soldier Mandible Arrows (Soldier-Fang): 10, from Short-sting soldier ant mandibles. Below fang arrows in power but above standard alloy tips.

Worker Mandible Arrows (Worker-Fang): 40, from Short-sting worker ant mandibles. Same application at lower power.

Soldier Stinger Blowdarts: 7, from the stinger Activity cores. The blowgun was a range curiosity with limited stopping power, but at close range against small targets, the bone-gold tips gave it an edge a normal blowgun wouldn’t have.

Soldier Antenna Pellets: 35, from Short-sting soldier ant antennae. Three pellets per antenna segment, ground to shape, Activity-infused for slingshot use.

Worker Antenna Pellets: 106, same process from worker ant antennae.

141 bone-gold slingshot pellets total. The slingshot’s range and accuracy at this point, combined with Activity-enhanced arm strength, made this the single highest-volume offensive option in his arsenal.

Close-range — bone-gold:

Fang Knives: 2 (Fangwolf fang, as before). Rat Picks: 2 (Gnawrat incisors, worked into a pick configuration). Burrower Sickles: 2 (Burrower mandibles, sickle shape retained and sharpened). Crescent Blade: 1 (remaining Tumour-Pig tusk, fitted with a handle and sheath, hung in the cab as both tool and decoration).

After everything was worked and stowed, the remaining Activity core material was mostly Short-sting ant fragments — mandible off-cuts, antenna stubs, the bone-analog wing from the winged soldier specimen.

He looked at the scrap pile and looked at the ant larvae container.

They eat metal. Whether they eat Activity-core material is an open question.

He tipped the scrap pile in.

The larvae investigated the metal waste first — then pivoted immediately toward the Activity-core fragments and began eating with notably more enthusiasm. The fine rasping sound took on a slightly different quality against the denser material.

He logged the observation. Activity-core material was preferable to plain metal as a larval food source. Whether that preference translated to developmental benefits remained to be seen.

August 16th.

The heat had become the dominant environmental fact. 45.6 degrees Celsius outside — the kind of temperature that made the armored interior of Vajra feel relatively reasonable by comparison. The small river bend had lost its water entirely, the channel reduced to a series of shallow muddy puddles that no longer supported the fishing lines. The ground surface had developed deep cracks, some wide enough to catch a foot.

He pulled his remaining water reserve from the sediment-heavy remnants of the channel, processed it through activated carbon filtration, and boiled it. The taste was acceptable if you weren’t particular about taste.

Three days had also been enough time for the two surviving test subjects to reach their final development states.

The Avenger: two-fist size, the sustained high-quality feeding having produced consistently superior physical development compared to its siblings.

Variant 1: one-and-a-half-fist size, the four absorbed second-generation specimens having provided a measurable boost past its previous plateau.

Both were at or near their apparent developmental ceilings. The comparison would yield no further data unless they were pitted directly against each other.

He welded together a steel-wire enclosure about the size of a shoebox, dropped both flies in simultaneously, and sat on a supply crate with a piece of dried fish to watch.

The engagement began without any preliminary period.

The moment both specimens occupied the same space, the combat commenced — no assessment phase, no territorial display, straight to contact. Variant 1 attacked immediately, consistent with its established behavioral pattern of first-mover aggression. The Avenger initially circled wide, which Shen Cong read as unfamiliarity with enclosed aerial combat rather than fear.

Four or five engagements in, the reading changed. The Avenger had adapted.

What followed was genuinely impressive as a demonstration of insect aerial combat dynamics. Both specimens were operating at the outer edge of what their biology allowed — the Activity enhancement having produced flight capabilities that went well beyond normal fly performance, the combat instincts that Activity seemed to sharpen in mutated creatures producing attack and evasion patterns that were rapid and specific rather than random.

Variant 1 was technically superior in the early exchanges — the accumulated experience of a longer developmental period translating to more refined maneuvering. The Avenger had the physical edge: faster, heavier, greater endurance.

At the five-minute mark, the decisive exchange:

Variant 1’s power-to-endurance ratio was deteriorating. The flight speed dropped. The Avenger’s needle proboscis found Variant 1’s head on the final pass.

Crack. The compound eye structure — a compound rupture, the reddish pigment of the photoreceptors dispersing like burst capillaries.

Variant 1 hit the floor of the enclosure and didn’t get up.

The Avenger landed on the body, wings fanning, the behavioral display of something that had achieved its objective.

Shen Cong raised the blowgun.

Pff.

The stinger dart took both flies simultaneously — through the Avenger and into Variant 1 beneath it, which was either a remarkable shot or a convenient coincidence of positioning. He decided not to examine which.

He retrieved the bodies, updated the research log:

Second-generation ambient-mutation specimen versus first-generation acute-toxin-mutation specimen — comparative results: second-generation demonstrated superior physical development metrics across body mass, endurance, and terminal combat performance. First-generation showed compensatory advantage in acquired combat skill, insufficient to overcome physical gap at full development. Conclusion: ambient mutation from birth produces better developmental outcomes than acute transformation in mature organism.

He tossed the carcasses into the nearest trap with the dried fish scraps as supplemental bait.

Something might come for that.

(End of Chapter 57)