My not-so-mini-map showed me kilometers of forest. I studied it intently, looking around for any red shapes. It didn't take me long to find one, and it was one that was not particularly far away. I grinned as I looked at it and click it to identify the thing I was about to walk towards.

[Nearby enemy detected. Preparing proper notification... Scanning enemy...

Enemy status identified.

The selected enemy is a level three Black Caiman, a massive and powerful predator. It is hostile to the concept of humanoids and in your humanoid guise, it would recognize you as an enemy. This enemy is at full health, and is currently calm.]

I nodded and muttered a quick thanks to my power, before setting off in the direction of the reptilian monster.

________________________________________________

I found myself wandering in a different direction than I had the last time I was in the forest. And to my surprise, it was a brighter direction. I could see much more vividly in this area of the woods, and I visually explored my surroundings with interest.

I laid my eyes on bright grass, on thick trees filled with all manner of life and even on birds that dared to fly close to the ground. This part of the forest was louder too, filled with the constant and pleasant sounds of bird song, of frogs croaking, and the rhythmic sound of my feet crunching leaves and grass.

I could sense all manner of life around me, from frogs and worms to wild canines, beetles, and all sorts of other ambulatory creatures. I could also sense trees, flowers, fungi, and more throughout the forest. Being here made my tremorsense flare to life, as my entire minimap was alight with all kinds of colors and shapes. It was a nice feeling.

Something I noticed, as I silently strode through the forest was that some types of creatures seemed to exist in enormous numbers in the forest. I could sense what could only be entire colonies of ants, and bees that seemed to live in extremely close proximity to each other.

As far as I could tell they numbered in the hundreds. There was more than one as well, several were situated throughout the forest.

"I wonder why that is..." I mused, aloud. I was referring to why it was that those insects appeared to live in colonies, especially such incredibly close ones.

[Do you mean why it is that some insects seemed to live together in the hundreds?] The system asked me, after hearing me vaguely question the air.

Upon hearing the confused voice in my head my face contorted until I had the facial expression of someone who was just deeply confused. "I thought you could read my mind..." I said, questioning the system.

[Hey, it's not that simple. Over time we'll start to lose this... close connection we have with you. We won't go away but we will lose our ability to know what you're thinking at all times. We can still hear many of your idle thoughts but not all of them. Not anymore. And in the future, you'll have to direct a thought to us in order for us to hear it.] The system revealed.

"Oh! Well, you were right earlier. I was wondering about how it was or why it was that some insects seemed to live together in colonies." I told the voice in my mind.

[Many types of insects are social creatures. Some insects are in fact maximally social, and there is a term for those sorts of creatures: eusocial.] The system whispered, launching into an explanation.

[Eusocial beings tend to be insects, crustaceans, or mammals. Eusocial creatures live in colonies, though among humanoids the term colony tends to serve a political designation as well as a biological one.] The system explained as I edged ever closer to the creature I was hunting down.

[For insects, colonies are often a necessity for the continued existence of their communities. This is because insects tend to be among the creatures who are the easiest to prey on. Colonies allow for the emergence of castes, which is a key component of the success of creatures like ants or bees.] My first companion told me, beginning to explain an insectoid caste system to me.

"Wait a second, these colonies have castes?" I asked, curiously. The words "colony" and "caste" both made sense to me, weirdly enough.

[Yes they do. This is especially the case with insect colonies. Individuals in insect colonies almost invariably serve a role of some sort. This includes ants, bees, and wasps, but isn't limited to them.] The system said, somewhat cryptically.

[Some are worker-gathers who go out and grab resources for the colony, others are warriors who hunt or who deal with threats, and some are reproductive drones who ensure that there is always another generation of insects to maximize overall survivability.] The voice in my mind said, educating me as to the realities of insect life.

"That's really interesting. Could I make such a colony into worshipers of mine?" I asked, curiously. At that point, I was just killing time, but asking questions was fun and allowed me to learn more about the world I lived in.

[Hmm... not many deities sought to be the overlords of colonies of insects...] The system confessed. There was uncertainty in its voice. I chuckled.

"I am a god of vermin. Would I be right to call ants vermin?" I asked, chuckling all the while. I was met with silence for a few moments as the system thought about how to answer me.

[You know... you probably could become the god of colonies of insects. You may have to awaken them though as their intelligence ambiently is probably too alien for them to worship you otherwise. But with the limitless magical energy that you possess, that'd be easy for you. If you awaken and evolve, or even just evolve colonies of ants you could gain powerful, fanatical servants.] The voice told me, but something about its tone suggested it wasn't done talking.

A few seconds of silence passed, and I had a question but I wanted the system to finish talking before I asked it.

[Most gods preferred the worship of humanoids, spirits, and extraplanars. Only a few courted the rare sorts of intelligent insects. If you opt to court the worship of insects... especially if you cultivate them by hand and raise their intelligence yourself, you may gain a ferociously loyal army of eerily intelligent worshipers.] The system revealed, after thinking through my scheme a bit longer.

"You mentioned that I may have to 'awaken' insects... what does that mean?" I asked the system, curiosity infusing my voice.

[Awakenings are when you grant non-humanoid creatures that are less intelligent or are far too alien the sort of intelligence that a humanoid possesses. In the cases wherein an alien-like creature is awakened their intelligence isn't stripped from them, it's more like they gain a second stream of consciousness that is more humanoid-like. In the cases of other things, their intelligence is elevated to humanoid levels.] My friend explained, kindly educating me.

[Awakening something is done either via mutations or magic. The spell to awaken an animal is an ancient, lost spell. Powerful deities of nature and animals get access to the spell.] The voice in my head said, rather cryptically.

[Powerful in this context means deities of nature and animals with the third tier of influence over both domains. Once you have access to it you can allow it to return to mortal hands. If you wish.] The system explained, allowing me to see a hint of the power I could one day possess.

"So this'll be a long-term process huh? Nothing is ever easy I guess." I said, chuckling to myself. That didn't deter me though, and I knew this was something I wanted to do. I contemplated what it told me, while I was walking towards the black caiman.

"If I fed the ants, how do you think that would affect them?" I asked the system, channeling my inner curiosity as I considered how to continue from here. The silence my question caused lasted a few moments before I heard an exasperated sigh.

[Honestly? I don't know. I can tell you're gonna want to find out. I'd advise against that personally, but you are a dangerous mix: chaotic neutral and curious. You're gonna have some fun with this one aren't you?] The system asked, sounding like an exhausted parent.

I didn't dignify the remarks with a response. At least not right away.

I walked in silence for a few minutes, before sighing and speaking aloud once more. "I guess I'll go ahead and find out. For the sake of answering questions. Even and especially my own questions." I muttered as I visualized grapes.

I pictured entire vines of the things and then began to cast the spell "Create food", aiming for areas close to anthills throughout the forest. In seconds I had created dozens of grape-filled grapevines and placed them all close to the anthills located throughout the forest. A total of close to two dozen grapevines could now be found throughout the area.

After doing that, and noticing ants beginning to approach them via tremorsense I smiled and quickly proceeded to inch closer and closer to the caiman. It wasn't until several minutes later that my mind would be flooded with notifications.

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I was almost where the caiman was when I began to receive over one hundred notifications every two seconds. I could faintly see the lazy crocodiles' body lounging on a thin shoreline, and right as I began to examine the thing my mind's eye lit up.

[Alert: Incoming notification barrage. Cause: Ants have begun to eat your fruits. Their minds are... not well-suited to the potency of your fruits.] The system warned me.

And immediately after that, I had to hiss in annoyance as I received multiple notifications that were themselves little more than slight variations on a notification that looked almost exactly like this:

[Influence over ant: 10%]

I was able to quickly intuit something: each bite an ant took caused me to gain a new amount of influence over the thing. I intuited this because I kept noticing the numbers of ants opening themselves up to my influence was both increasing and increasing in intensity.

The numbers didn't stop at 10%. They kept going. It was in smaller and smaller bursts after the initial upswelling, and it eventually tapered off at 30% but it was still an easy way to go from 0% to 30% in a matter of moments.

"That feels... significant." I said when the sudden burst of notifications began to slow down. I felt... odd. Stronger somehow. And also more open. I felt... a lot of things flow into me. It was easily the strangest thing I had felt since I first opened my eyes.

I felt like I wasn't alone. Like I was accompanied by perhaps a few thousand other beings, at all times. I closed my eyes to focus and try to feel like myself again, but when I did I saw a new notification.

[New title received: Sovereign of the swarm

Title explanation: Titles are the informal titles by which you as the center of a religious movement are known. Each title is unique and they generate spontaneously whenever you commit unique acts.

Titles are historically unique and so too are the powers they bring with them. In the past deities were too proud to relish the idea of being worshiped by insects, favoring the forms they found more "beautiful", which were those of humanoids, or rarely of dragons. Your decision to feed and experiment with insects is thus a unique act.

As for the 'Sovereign of the swarm' title itself, it is the way for the system to grudgingly recognize your willingness to be creative and to reward you for your desire to feed creatures.

Sovereign of the swarm passive powers:

Respected by ants: Ants respect you automatically. This doesn't mean they worship you, but they will serve you. Consider this you becoming an ant king.

Swarm mind: This links you to the minds of all of the ants who've eaten your food. You are currently linked to about ten percent of the ants in the area. Ants who've eaten your food fall under your control. Ants in that category are part of your swarm. Other insects, especially other social insects like wasps and bees, will also fall under your control this way.

Sovereign of the swarm active powers:

Command: You can command ants under your control to do a particular act. This can be done once a day, as of right now.

Dream: You can send creatures in your swarm a dream.

More things will be unlocked as your swarm grows, as you gain greater influence over the domains of dreams, minds, civilizations, and the subdomain of vermin.]

It was at that last part that I curiously asked the system a question about the subdomain of vermin. "When are you at least gonna let me gain access to my vermin powers? Especially now that I'm a swarm-sovereign?" I asked it, curiously. It sighed.

[I'll grant you access to your vermin powers as soon as you finish practicing with the magic you wanted to practice with.] The system said that to me in the same tone as a parent might deal a child to practice what they learned at school before setting out to play with their friends. It made me chuckle.

[We're also gonna lock down the swarm sovereign things. At least until you battle the caiman. We want you to experience more of life in the world before you start to play with your godly toys.] The system told me, this time truly sounding like a parent with an exhausting child.

I sighed and muttered something under my breath. "Of course you would. I just want to be free to use my powers, yet they all keep being locked away." I said, annoyed at that declaration by the system. I began to stride towards the caiman, hands out as I readied myself to practice my spells.

And it was at that point that I recalled something I had heard before. It made me grin devilishly. "You said that for me to gain influence over the subdomains I want to gain influence over I have to use the spells right?" I asked, a confident glimmer in my eyes.

[Yes... Why do you ask?] It said, curiosity and cautious audible in its voice.

"Well, I'm gonna use those spells. But I won't kill the thing. I won't even permanently damage it." I told the system, hoping to take the wind out of the pesky thing's sails. I heard a mechanical sigh once more.

[We figured you wouldn't. But at least you have some self-control and don't want to kill everything you see.] The voice told me. I grinned at that and began to ponder which spell I should use first as I laid my eyes on the creature I came to hunt and studied it for the first time.