When his mana reached in and out of his body, the noises around them stopped. The leaves on the trees still rustled, the birds still chirped, but there were no other sounds of life. Cicadas went quiet, bees stopped buzzing. No insect was caught making any sound.
From below the bench, a lone ant began making its way to Jack until it reached his clothes. Sensing the mana coming from his hand, it began to climb along his body. As it reached his arm, another ant had joined it on its quest, and another, and another. When the first ant reached Jack's hand, he stared at it with a peculiar interest, warping the mana around him to envelop the ant. Once he had, the ant disappeared and suddenly his vision swirled. Somehow, his vision delved into the spatial area in his stomach, and within was something beyond his imagination.
Somehow, inside his stomach was a forest, in which a lone ant searched around, scared yet also excited. He had no idea how he knew there was only one living thing in the forest apart from the tree, nor how he understood its emotions. Within seconds, another ant appeared. And within twenty seconds there were already 100 ants inside his spatial world. Jack lifted his view to see the forest from above, and he was shocked. The forest was not the only thing in his vision, with clearings and ponds littered about. Far off on the horizon he could see faint mountains in the north and in the south lay a beach connected to a lake or sea, he had no idea the scale of the water body only that it was there. To the east lay a desert, which once again, he had no clue the true size of and to the west lay more forest. Somehow, within his stomach was a small world. And the inhabitants were insects. Well, more specifically, common black ants also known as Lasius platythorax which were able to live in forests.
From what he gleaned from the description, he would only be able to support one species of ants within his newly dubbed Insect World. Which was lucky because if the species worked like in real life, then he would have to deal with social parasites such as ants from the Lasius mixtus group.
Suddenly, a bell ring sounded in his mind and he was brought back out of his Insect World to see his hand completely covered in ants that swiftly disappeared.
"Jack, what the fuck is happening" His friends all said in unison as they clung onto the edges of the large three seating bench to avoid the group of ants that were now clambering onto his body.
"Wait give me a second I got a new skill" Jack said as he held up a finger to quiet them.
[Summon Minions Lv 1]
Insects from Insect World are able to be summoned and will act as familiars to you, responding to commands and being able to level up as they are bound to your system. You will gain a fraction of the XP that they gain and vice versa. All insects below a centimeter in length/size are considered Level 0 until they level up.
"I think my System is actually good"
After the initial shock of nearly two hundred ants clambering around near them, the group relaxed and the number of ants reduced to nothing.
"You better explain right now what is happening, you know insects freak me out man" Leo said adamantly.
"Let me try something first" Jack said as he willed the Summon Minions skill to activate.
All of his mana drained as only 10 ants appeared from the skin on his right arm and coalesced into a troop standing on his hand.
"Bring me your Queen" He whispered to himself.
As the words came from his mouth, the ants slowly made their way back in the direction from where they came.
"Okay, from what I understand about the skill. I have a bloody world inside of me. And I can absorb insects into my body to populate this world. I can also summon them, but it costs me ten mana per insect to summon. So I shouldn't be able to summon as many as my world can host for a while.
"Hmmm okay. That's definitely not insane at all" Leo nodded as if he thought it was normal. It was not.
"That is so cool Jack!" Alice said as if she meant it. She did not.
"Woah I wish I had that ability" James also added.
"Come on guys its not that useless, my insects can level up, plus I can get insect queens as well so I can probably breed them inside my world and get even more insects. Think about it, when those ants came to me you were all scared shitless, imagine that many ants climbing all over you."
"You guys, he's right! He can scare the monsters to death by making the creepy crawlies climb on them" Leo blurted.
"How about we not talk about it for right now and just relax. We all have combat classes and are going to an academy!" Jack said excitedly, not letting his pessimistic friends draw down his mood. If his skill could help him kill monsters he would find a way to use it to the best of its ability.
"Yeah, you're right. I can't wait, it's gonna be so much fun. Learning how to use our abilities to protect the city and stuff, I can't wait."
"I really should have actually put effort into the fight training classes, I have no clue what I am gonna do. Plus I made a promise to Mike that I would let him train me if I had a combat class. Fuuuuuuck that's gonna hurt."
"Jack, why didn't you train fighting. I know you are interested in insects and never paid any attention but that can't be the only reason." Alice prodded. The others were curious about it but had never asked as it was never relevant until now.
"Well to be honest, whenever I started to try, I just got flashbacks to the incident and felt like I couldn't move or breathe. It fuckin sucked. Not sure what I am gonna do now though. Shit this is gonna be rough."
"Damn man, that's rough." James stated. The mood suddenly dropped from their excitement about their skills.
"Well I know the very best way to get over that stuff, at least for tonight. Let's go get fucking shitfaced at mine."
"Haha give me a minute, I can feel my ants returning".
Despite not being able to see his ants, he could feel their presence through the small tether of mana that connected him and them. It wasn't any kind of visible mana that is able to be seen after manifesting a system but it was still very much present. It was akin to not being able to see your own arm yet knowing where it was even if you had your eyes closed.
When they were less than a meter away, Jack asked his friends to move out of the way as they clambered up the park bench with a much larger ant in their mandibles. Behind them was a line of roughly 100 ants all marching in tow ready to join with Jack. At this distance, Jack could almost hear their thoughts as they relayed their arrival.
After a minute or two of climbing up Jack, the queen ant was on his hand and ready to be absorbed. Before it vanished into his palm, it almost seemed to bow in recognition of his power.
[Congratulations! You have subdued the Queen Lasius Platythorax Lv1!]
In recognition of this achievement, you have been rewarded with the new skill [Propagate]
[Propagate Lv1]
Increase the production of insect larvae by 50% when said insects are within the area of effect of [Protector]