A soft, dreamlike laugh echoed in Leon Ford's mind as the feeling of falling washed over him. His body jerked slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes. The world of dreams faded away, replaced by the familiar sight of his room. He was still seated on the chair where he had begun the experiment.
Right beside him on the table, Ant Sage—the tiny ant whose mind he had just visited—was also waking up. The little creature moved its antennae rapidly, almost trembling with excitement. Leon could feel that excitement through the faint chemical signals lingering in the air.
A moment earlier, inside the dream world, Leon had successfully stolen the pheromone system of Ant Vita, the dream-host ant. And now that he was awake, his brain was processing that stolen information at lightning speed.
His senses felt… different.
"My sense of smell… it's completely changed," Leon whispered, twitching his nose slightly.
Something fundamental inside him had shifted. It wasn't visible from the outside—he looked exactly the same—but the world around him felt sharper, richer, and more layered than before.
The meanings of ant pheromones—how they were produced, how they were interpreted, and how they encoded concepts—had all merged directly into his subconscious. He didn't need to think about how to understand pheromones.
He could simply smell them… and automatically understand.
His sense of smell and touch had become hyper-sensitive. The air around him felt alive with invisible signals. Leon realized he could detect tiny pheromone molecules floating within a two-meter radius of his body. And the moment his brain caught these molecules, it instantly decoded them, transforming them into complete meaning.
It felt nothing like learning a new language—it felt like he had always known it.
As if this ability had been part of him from birth.
Even more astonishing, when Leon touched another living creature, he could sense pheromones released through their body surface—though he didn't yet know what range of emotions or information he could detect.
He took a gentle breath and smiled.
"I've gained something truly extraordinary. A new way of communicating… beyond human abilities."
Pheromones were not exclusive to ants. Every living organism released them—humans included. It was just that humans had almost no sensitivity to pheromones, making them unaware.
But Leon was no longer limited by human senses.
"I wonder… can I sense human pheromones now?" he murmured thoughtfully.
Before experimenting with people, he lowered his gaze toward the ants gathered on the table.
All around the teacup, the ants that had formed those strange concentric circles earlier suddenly began to move in unison. At the same time, a stream of delicate pheromones drifted up from inside the cup.
These pheromones carried emotional messages—excitement, curiosity, ambition—and they flowed like invisible ripples across the room.
The ants were discussing what they had just heard from Ant Sage.
Words like:
'Civilization.'
'Explore.'
floated through the air.
Because every ant in the Destiny Nest now had a pheromone-based name, Leon could easily distinguish individuals. Each self-identity was encoded in a unique pheromone signature.
Suddenly, a strong message pulsed through the air.
"Queen Terra, I request permission to explore this world."
That came from Ant Sage, who stood proudly at the edge of the cup.
Instantly, the other twelve Destiny ants erupted into debate, their pheromones mixing like a storm.
"Sage One: I request to meet the Lord!"
"Sage Two to Sage Nine: We wait for the Queen's command."
"Sage Ten: Exploration sounds exciting! I want to try!"
"Sage Eleven: I oppose this! We should focus on gathering food, not wasting energy!"
And then came the most dramatic signal of all—
"Sage Twelve: Don't communicate! Don't communicate! Don't communicate!"
The final warning came in three escalating waves, trembling with pure fear. Sage Twelve clearly did not want to engage with higher beings, higher thoughts, or anything unfamiliar. His panic was strong enough that even Leon felt its emotional weight.
Then suddenly—
"Silence."
The entire table froze.
A powerful command pheromone rolled across the room like a shockwave. Queen Terra had spoken.
She slowly circled the teacup, her large body radiating authority. When ants released dominance pheromones, weaker ants couldn't resist—they fell instinctively silent.
Then she spoke, each message crisp and commanding.
"The numbers of our Destiny Nest are not enough for safe exploration. I will increase the pregnancy hormones. Our next generation must grow faster."
Leon's eyes widened.
So that was the answer to his earlier mystery.
The sudden increase in ants today—those perfect concentric circles—hadn't been random at all. Queen Terra had purposely manipulated her hormones, allowing new eggs to hatch in just minutes instead of weeks.
These ants were born fully equipped with knowledge—because pheromone inheritance allowed instant memory transfer.
They were an artificially accelerated, hyper-intelligent ant society.
And now Queen Terra intended to go even further.
"Sage Eleven, lead the foraging team.
Sage Two through Sage Nine, return with me as guards.
Sage Ten, expand our nest."
Her orders came with absolute clarity and force.
In seconds, the ants split into three teams:
A scouting party rushing toward the food source
A defensive unit escorting the queen
A construction crew gathering materials to expand the nest
Within minutes, the entire table was empty.
But though the ants were gone, Leon could still feel the location-marking pheromones they had left behind—like tiny glowing footprints only he could sense.
"Pheromones… are truly magical," Leon muttered.
As he prepared a quick meal for himself, he let his mind stretch outward, absorbing the countless signals coming from beneath the floorboards where the Destiny Nest was rapidly mobilizing.
Food markers.
Location signals.
Calls to companions.
Warnings and instructions.
Leon was like a biological antenna, effortlessly receiving and translating everything.
The entire ant colony was alive, busy, and bursting with purpose.
Leon leaned back in his chair and sighed softly.
"I'll sleep for now. Tomorrow… I'll test whether I can sense human pheromones."
With that final thought, he closed his eyes, letting the new system inside him rest, settle, and grow stronger.