An Ant Survival Guide

The topic of soul and spirit has always been deemed as a subject to look into, even in times before times. Many spiritualists and wanna-be's would scam people off their money with subjects related to soul and spirit. After many scientists gathered and invited spiritualists from all around the world to join hands and uncover the secrets of the soul and spirit, the scientists all chased the spiritualists out in a feat of rage as none of them could prove or provide any evidence or pointers about souls and spirits. Instead, after a large question and answer session with some threats and little violence, the scientists had discovered that superstition is a deadly disease. And had publicly hanged the topic of souls and spirits as superstition and fraud.

But at this moment, the ant knew that right above its little head was its soul. "After reincarnating, I have somewhat started having the belief of soul, but this... this confirms it. But isn't the soul supposed to be in the body?" He looked at his soul. "But seeing the size difference, it's understandable. But I could also be wrong, and the soul exists outside the body instead," he thought as he looked intently at his soul.

Then suddenly, he could somehow see from his soul. This in turn surprised him very much, looking left and right with his mortal body, he was even more surprised as he could see from both his body and soul at the same time. "No, it's not that I can suddenly see from my soul; it's more like that's how it's always been, yet I never noticed, and it's not really 'see' but more like 'feel' things," he thought.

In his soul's vision, everything was in black and white, yet it didn't feel discomforting but instead was calming. Once in a while, he would see particles of things, which from reference to his former life were particles of light and some other basic particles. "To think one would be able to see such basic flow of things without special equipment; the soul truly is marvelous," he thought.

"But more important," he said as he looked at a passing worker with his soul gaze, and he was surprised to find one tiny speck of light shining in the ant's inner being, covering the radiance speck was a phantom-like form of the ant with light brown color inside the ant, as though the body of the ant was clothing for it. And lastly, at the head of the ant, where the brain should be suited, was a small greyish fog constantly repealing clouds.

"Those are... The speck of light, the soul, the phantom body, the spirit, and lastly, the grey fog is the mind. How intricate; these aren't just bland mixtures of chemicals," he thought. Suddenly, he had a thought and looked towards himself in his ant-like body from his soul gaze. His spirit and mind were as small as the worker, but at where the worker's soul inhabited was a string made of his soul, which was attached instead to the large soul above.

"It seems as though only my soul is unique... But what can the soul do other than look into hidden things?" he thought as he tried to send all his concentration into his soul, only to discover how meaningless it was. It felt like a child trying to use his mind to pick up a bottle of water, only to be slapped by reality.

"If that didn't work... Then, how about this?" he thought as he used his thoughts to manifest a feeler and manipulate it as though it was part of himself without much effort. "I wanted to manifest a hand, but this is all that came out? A feeler? But the thing is..."

Stretching the feeler forward while attempting to grab a nearby piece of stick, only for it to pass through. "It still can't do much, uh? Then what about the spirit and mind? Let me try those out." But no matter how much he tried to manipulate the spirit, it didn't show any reaction whatsoever, leaving only the mind.

"From what I've observed, the mind ripples every time I think about something, though it only ripples lightly and returns to normal quickly, but the more complex the thought, the more it ripples. But it shouldn't be possible for an ant's brain to calculate my complex thoughts, except it's my soul that I've been using instead to take the force of my thoughts instead of the mind. Truly fascinating."

With his experience as a top eccentric scientist and a mad novel reader, he could quickly put one plus one together and didn't bother much if the answer he came up with was right on the mark or was slightly strayed. "Then let me try to use my mind instead," he thought as he concentrated all his focus on his mind, which coursed it to ripple wildly. Yet after some time, nothing happened, making him stop his attempts on the mind after another few tries.

"It seems as though only the soul is able to respond to my call... Then, do I have no other options but wait and die in two weeks or so, like an ant that I've become? What if I don't get another chance like this, and this second life was a mistake on the part of some divine being? I just can't die this pointless and meaningless death. He thought as his mind slowly began to wander off when he suddenly received a message from the queen via pheromone.

And his body responded in its most natural state, walking aimlessly amongst the other ants towards the queen's birth ground. The message was simple: gather below her bed, as invaders had somehow managed to enter their nest, deeper floors... they are to protect the queen—even if it means dying.

Halfway towards the bed tower, he forced himself out of that state by using his soul to somehow influence his mind. This helped him regain control over his body and gain a certain type of enlightenment. Very quickly, he ran towards a certain corner with a hidden space and hid himself. This space was perfect, as it was behind the Queen's bed, which meant it was also protected by hundreds of thousands of ant soldiers.

Suddenly, two hornets flew into the nest with great speed. Upon seeing them, the ant was surprised, then quickly became serious as he looked forward to see if more were coming. Upon seeing none, he looked towards the queen. These were no mere hornets; they were European hornets, widely known for their ability to make insect colonies disappear with few of their numbers.

After flying shortly, one of the hornets landed in an unoccupied space while the other was attacked upon flying too close to the Queen's bed. A winged drone jumped and clung onto it, which came unexpectedly to the hornet, yet quickly flapped its wings and hit the ant drone with its wings, bending its neck to another direction, making it fall down straight as one of the drone's wings fell off.

As for the hornet, it seemed to have been enraged, as it straight up attacked the queen. Yet ants fell from above like rain and clung to it. As it fell down, it was immediately ganged up on and attacked by the army of ants. Yet, no matter how much they attacked, they couldn't pierce its armor.

The other hornet attacked at that moment as well and started an onslaught against the ants, not only did they kill, but they feasted as they killed. In a few tens of minutes, over a large company of soldiers were killed by both of them. And for those who don't know, a company is comprised of 62 soldiers, while a large company is 190 soldiers. So, together, both of them had killed over two hundred soldiers.

The worst part was that both of them had almost no scratches from the onslaught and were instead brimming with energy. This, in turn, enraged the quiet queen, and she gave a simple order: KILL. This time, not just your average soldiers attacked, as this time those from the second, third, and fourth generation of soldiers led the charge. And this time, the hornets could not be as leisurely as their original was.

In two or more minutes, they were starting to get overwhelmed, and at that moment, two more hornets flew in. These ones were much bigger than the first two and probably much older and more experienced than them as well. Very quickly, the ants were at a disadvantage again. This, in turn, forced the second generation to go all out and attack the younger hornets madly.

At that moment, the queen gave another command, this command wasn't widespread but instead directed towards the false Queen's, who are her personal guards. Two of the false queens attacked the two new arrivals, and the ant was eager to see this special grade of guards in action.

'They still have their wings? Well, they don't need to shed it, after all, they are not true queens.' One of the hornets noticed a large ant almost its size flying towards it and looked at it in disdain. It had seen many ants that size before; they had little fighting power and would hide until their people were completely massacred by herself and her gang. Afterwards, they too would be killed by herself and her gang.

Without much thought, she flew towards the ant and attacked the incoming flying ant in mid-air. And the next moment, the hornet's stinger stabbed the ant, yet it didn't cause much damage, as it only scratched her, yet didn't penetrate into her exoskeleton.

'It's hard... Impressive,' the ant thought, as he had been using his soul gaze to watch the battle unfold. 'But something else piqued my interests... First thing I noticed is that after I used my soul as a force to manipulate my mind, I can now smoothly do it than before. Next would be the false Queen's and the hornets have similar size mind waves, and their spirits are more bright even than normal ants by a little. And lastly, the Queen, her mind fog is more lighter than others; it's similar to how mine became when I temporarily used my soul as a force to manipulate my mind. He thought.

The battle carried on for an hour. And the hornets retreated in defeat, with one of them being injured badly enough that it could barely fly and escape; it probably won't live long. As for the losses on the queen colony, over half a battalion of ants were killed, around a battalion being crippled or badly injured, with few seeing death soon, and one of the queen's special guards losing a half a wing and two legs with shallow stabs, but she will survive.

The ant calculated the losses and couldn't help but shake its ant-y head. 'I can't live like this, I must find a way... Away, my enlightenment!' he thought as he retreated back into the small cave where he had hidden.

Upon reaching inside, where everywhere was dark, he could still see using his soul gaze and his ant adaptation and feeling. Pushing a small rock that he had rolled inside originally to block the passage and using a stick to support it. Then he stood at the middle of the small cave.

'Now I can finally try this...' The next moment, he sent out a feeler towards his mind fog, yet before it could go far, he felt danger and stopped. Instead, he softened the feeler and made it more radiating, and its radiance started cleansing the fog. Slowly but surely, it started turning from dark grey to light grey. Yet, the lighter it got, the smaller the fog got.

Seeing this, he wasn't surprised much, but he was now certain of something, then he continued. And this cleansing lasted for a while. Suddenly, small light-blue liquid-like things started appearing and floating around in the fog. They looked like drops of rain.

'This... what are these supposed to be?' he thought. Then he sent out the feeler to probe. And when the feeler came in contact with the water droplet, he could feel a strong vibration and resonance between his being from his soul, spirit, mind, and even his body.

He felt the urge to— The next moment, he opened his pincers, and in-between the pincer, a faint glow appeared, and with a little throw, the glow vanished immediately. Nothing happened at all, not even the air vibrated to show that something happened, yet he knew something happened.

'It was those light particles that I could see with my soul gaze; the particles gathered around my pincer, yet when I threw it, they powered as though nothing happened, but my soul gaze saw them gather and scatter.' His mind was in disbelief and disarray. He had just discovered something that resembled something he had given up on... something all boys would eventually give up on: magic.

'Well, I can't say that it's magic just yet, but from my memories of all fictional base books I've read, it's definitely close...' He was unsatisfied, verily so. 'I'll try again, this time I'll gather as much as I can before throwing it.' He thought as he looked at his mind fog and became surprised to see that from the five drops of water droplets, only one remains.

'It seems as though the water droplets are the source of this power... well, them and the soul.' He thought as he decided to start refining new mind droplets because he knew this one wouldn't be enough for his experiments. Yet, when he tried to refine more mind droplets, he discovered that the fog had reduced so small and it had stopped producing droplets, no matter how much he purified it.

This, in turn, left him with only the remaining one and a new one, which he managed to refine before it stopped producing. 'What's going on? Why won't it produce? Could it be that this is my limit... But what if I can't produce more droplets ever again?' His mind started to worry and wonder into strange directions. Slowly but surely, his worries were increasing, and it started developing into something bad: insanity.

Yet, at that moment, his soul rippled and sent out a wave through the connecting thread into his being. This wave was like a calming force towards his mind. This ripple wave calmed his mind and helped him correct his stray thoughts.

'This—So—Did I just escape madness? I almost fell into insanity. Is this the result of draining one's mind? The more one drains their mind, the more it affects their thoughts, so straining the mind is straining one's ability to control one's thoughts. So, what would have happened if I had forced it and cleansed all the fog?' He thought with fear.

'Luckily, my soul is strong, and it's cleansed my cleansed my mind just in time... But who could have thought the soul could heal the mind?' he thought.

Suddenly, he felt hungry. Then, he left the cave, looking around, and found the dead bodies of two recently deceased ants and the wing of the false queen. He walked up to one of the corpses and very quickly started eating from the soft exposed parts.

How can he eat ants, you would ask? Isn't he a reincarnated civilized person? You would add. But the thing is... for a whole week, he had been eating and living like an ant, eating ant nectar and devouring insect corpses.

You may think that only one week and he had started acting like a barbarian, even with his knowledge of his humanity. The answer is kind of sad. You see, ants are creatures with a short lifespan, and male ants, the drones, have an even shorter lifespan, around three weeks if lucky. So, basically, for an ant, a week is so many years.

And this man had been subconsciously living as an ant until he slowly and completely gained control over the body. After a good meal, he slept a little, but he didn't take long, as ants are only able to take power naps.

After resting a little, he discovered that his thoughts fog was rolling like clouds and seemed to have started healing and growing again. 'At this rate, it'll be refilled back to the brim in a day... But what would I be doing during that time?' he thought.

Then, he sensed something. It was the Queen's call, yet he ignored it as it seemed to be nothing serious. Yet, it came again, and he ignored it again. Then, it came the third time. This time, he wanted to ignore it as well, yet at that moment, a sudden realization hit him.

'That... might work,' he thought.