CHAPTER 159: THE GLASS PRISON

Flain walked to his new room—or rather, villa—number 5.

It was a large house with a pointed golden wall, white marble, and gold-gray columns. Around it were planted flowers and majestic bushes from which the sweet scent of various fruits spread.

Flain took the key he had been given and unlocked the door. At the entrance, six maids were lined up, waiting for him.

"Greetings, master," they all said at once.

Flain looked at them coldly. "Get out, I don’t need you right now."

The maids obediently left the house. Flain lightly stomped on the floor. Just as he expected. Beneath him was another room where they lived.

Flain would much prefer if they lived somewhere else. Just like in room 29, he didn’t need servants who were not loyal to him.

---

A week passed.

In the meantime, the larva waited hidden in a clump of grass, killing and eating ants that came out of the hole under the tree root. The larva assumed that was where their anthill was.

The larva doubled in size, so now it was about as long as a middle finger. And it gained 2 more mutations from the ants.

The first was ant antennae. When it tried them out, it found it could communicate with ants. So the antennae were useless, since the larva killed and ate ants and didn’t befriend them.

The second mutation was an ant exoskeleton. At first, it didn’t understand what that was, but when it used it, it realized it was essentially ant skin—much stronger than its weak larva skin.

But in battle it only used one mutation, and that was ant legs. It couldn’t maintain two mutations for long and would quickly tire, so it was more efficient to use just one.

The ant legs were, in its opinion, the best mutation out of the three it had. The reason was simple: it was 5 times faster than normal. Which in reality was even better than on paper.

The larva dared to attack only 3 ants at once, but it planned to change that. Something started to come out of the hole. Emerging were 5 ants.

The larva smirked from its clump of grass, already salivating at the sight of the ants’ soft bodies.

"Be honored to die at the hands of the future ruler of the world," she thought as it watched them.

The larva charged at the five ants. It used its ant legs, its movement quick. It struck the first ant from behind and bit through its leg. The ant fell to its side.

The larva’s bite was, by nature, much weaker than an ant’s. But since the larva had grown much stronger, even such a weak bite became usable.

The other four immediately attacked. One leapt from the front and sank its jaws into the larva’s body. The larva hissed in pain, struggling to shake it off. A second ant bit into its back. The larva writhed, its legs flailing.

The larva used secretion. Sticky fluid covered two of the ants, but only stopped one. The other shook itself free, but its legs were coated in the sticky substance and it was slower.

The larva struck back. It bit into the head of the first ant that was holding it. The ant stopped moving. Two others attacked at the same time. One struck the larva in the side, the other bit its leg. The larva lost its balance and fell to the ground.

The fight continued in the grass. The larva kicked with all its legs. It threw one ant off, but another held on tightly. It felt its body growing weaker.

With the last of its strength, the larva released another secretion. The ants stuck to the grass. One was caught completely, the other only partially. The larva quickly bit into the weakened one and crushed its neck.

Two remained alive and free. The larva was torn in several places, but it was still moving. It attacked directly, without thinking. It leapt at one and bit through its abdomen.

The last ant struck its hind part with its jaws. The larva trembled in pain, but turned its head and bit. The ant tried to resist, but the sticky fluid was already slowing it down. After a short struggle, it stopped moving.

The larva lay on the grass. Its whole body burned, its legs trembled. It breathed heavily, but all five ants were dead.

Five minutes passed, the larva was still lying there. It could already stand, but didn’t want to. If it stood, the pain would just make it fall back to the ground.

Behind it came the footsteps of two people, though the larva didn’t hear them since its already weak hearing was damaged.

Two people appeared behind the larva. A tall man with long hair, and a little girl.

"Dad, what is that?" The little girl looked at the larva excitedly.

"A larva with legs? I’ve never seen anything like that in my long life. Zang Yu, it’s better if you don’t touch it. It probably killed those ants, it might be poisonous," the man said.

"Please, daddy." The girl’s big eyes sparkled as she looked at him.

The man lifted the larva into the air and began to examine it. The larva began to tremble in fear.

’Hey, you big bastard, put me down.’

The man then handed it to the girl. "It should be safe. It’s injured, but it will survive."

The little girl held the larva tightly. If it were healthy, the larva could have easily slipped away and escaped, but at the moment that was beyond its strength.

The girl carried it further into the forest along with the man. They came to a vast plain where a large city rose in the distance.

The man and the girl entered the largest building, and the girl locked the larva into a glass container. In the city, people greeted the man and the girl respectfully, and the larva liked it, imagining that they were bowing to her.

----

Flain went out in the early evening with Aran and Ivy, a smirk on his face.

His first week at the academy looked practically the same as in attempt 13. The only difference was that there was more attention on him, since his room number was one of the best.

He came to the door marked with the number 100. He expected that Cru’s group was already there, but he wanted everyone to know about him...