The Day She Became the Malevolent Demon Lord

Chapter 17

Colony Tunnel Network

Several Worker Ants have worked day and night in the makings of a larger tunnel network.

But compared to their previous treatment by Astranul's Underling, Nadia's was vastly different in comparison. The Worker Ants worked with regular meals, given time off as long as they don't exploit it, and common punishments are a rare occurrence.

Should a worker ant find themselves facing punishment, The supervisors in charge will provide reasonable punishments from relocation to the Central Colonies or their reassignment to other tunnels under a supervisor's supervision.

Speaking of Supervisors, This specific role was given by Nadia as a way to promote the workload in a more efficient manner and establish a network of information that goes all the way to her ears.

So far, The progress within the tunnels has gone smoothly. Save on the accounts of monsters and possible cave-in caused by them.

But Nadia didn't have to worry about it since the soldier ants stationed in the tunnels were more than capable of handling monsters while cave-ins are easily manageable since Worker Ants are hardworking individuals.

Then there's the chance of rousing the enemy's suspicion. 

To avoid such a thing, Nadia specifically ordered to have some of the goods, consisting of rich materials and gems, be gathered in a certain area and have a few ants disguise themselves as Astranul's underlings to deliver said goods to the Main Capital of the Western Region.

This keeps Astranul from suspecting anything as Nadia's ants continue their work in the tunnels.

Surface

The Western Ants slowly prospered as the rule of Astranul's Underlings faded away.

In addition, Some of the ants become a bit inventive after Da Vinci provided some lessons on the basics of mechanical engineering.

A couple of days later, a few ants showed promise as they worked toys with some screws, gears, etc.

Hence, those with mechanical ingenuity were transported to the Central Colony and practiced their talents there for future use.

However, there are those who find these teachings quite redundant since they prefer [Adaptation] over Mechanical Engineering. Though they wouldn't voice their opinions until a report was sent directly to Nadia.

Her response was to send these ants to Altan and have them study under him despite the latter's lack of morals. Though Altan isn't one to teach, he is one to give as he biologically altered the minds and bodies of his 'students' to think for themselves and make their own hypotheses.

To put it simply, Altan altered his adepts to follow the way of Evolution.

The end results of Altan's 'teachings', Some of his adepts were overcome by the effects of Altan's experiment and went psychotic. These ants were exterminated as Altan deemed them failures to adapt to his biological experiment.

As for those who succeeded, Altan instructed them not to work together but to work for themselves. From his perspective, The flow of evolution is unique but separate.

Hence, Some of Altan's Adepts stayed but established their own workspaces away from each other and the rest wished to move to the Central Colony to work there instead.