Chapter 22 Delving into the Ant Lair

In Fang Senyan's world, based on the common knowledge he had, the habits of ants varied from region to region.

African ants liked to live in "buildings."

Even without ideal conditions, these creatures would use trees as a framework to build towering anthills, ant mountains, several meters or even tens of meters high. They were incredibly sturdy. An adult using a large axe to chop at them would only produce sparks, without damaging the surface.

Most ants preferred to live underground.

Relative to their small size, the underground ant nest could have a floor area of ​​dozens of square meters, similar to storage rooms, nurseries, queen chambers, tunnels, small rooms, residences... with different functions, and complete supporting facilities. To put it in modern terms, it was even better than a second home.

As for this group of unicorn flying ants on the planet Upsilons, they possessed both habits.

The worker ants built their nests on top of the mushroom rocks, because doing so allowed them to take full advantage of the commanding position, seeing far and wide, monitoring their entire territory like sentries. In case of any accident, they would swarm out in groups.

The queen ant of the unicorn flying ants and the guard ant team of drones lived comfortably in the magnificent underground nest under the mushroom rock, warm in winter and cool in summer, supported by the worker ants.

If half of the mushroom rock hadn't collapsed suddenly, causing the two or three hundred worker ants hidden inside to suffer a devastating disaster, Fang Senyan and his party would never have been able to come here and carry out such a thorough clearing of the ant colony's sacred nest.

Although Ardariss had only fled in a hurry before and had not penetrated so deep under the mushroom rock, this did not prevent him from quickly finding the entrance to the underground ant nest. These unicorn flying ants crawled here all day long. Although they flew when hunting, they crawled in and out when carrying food to feed the drones and the queen ant. So, you just needed to see where there was no grass and it was as smooth as a path, and you could just follow it.

The entrance to the underground ant nest was located below the stone mountain at the base of the mushroom rock. Because the size of the unicorn flying ants was similar to that of lions, the entrance was also tall and spacious, very smooth and flat, and had no foul smell. It looked like a dark hole.

At this time, after fighting until now, Paolo's powerful metal puppet Heracles had always been the main force in the lead. The surface of this huge puppet had also been corroded by a lot of sprayed formic acid, and the originally smooth surface was also pitted.

More importantly, the surface of the metal puppet was originally engraved with many magic arrays. Once it moved, the magic arrays would have traces of energy quickly presenting a mesh-like flow, emitting bursts of red light, which could add "Bull Strength", "Anti-Gravity" and other effects.

Now, after being corroded by the formic acid, most of the magic arrays on this metal puppet were also destroyed. When it walked, it was obvious that it felt much heavier. The joints would also make harsh creaking sounds, as if they hadn't been oiled, and the movement speed was also particularly clumsy.

Paolo had to keep supporting the operation of the metal puppet at this time, and the consumption of mental power was also very large. After arriving here, he could only watch the two make a helpless gesture. Fang Senyan and the two knew that he must still have trump cards, but after all, they had been killing all the way, and Paolo had put in a lot of effort. It was impossible to demand more from him at this time.

So Fang Senyan said nothing and asked Paolo to take his metal puppet Heracles back, and then let Ramtas come out to block in front.

In fact, this was also where Paolo's scheming was deep. He deliberately proposed that his metal puppet Heracles take the lead, the purpose was to allow his puppet to experience battles with relatively low intensity, but long duration.

And no one knew what the queen ant's combat power was like, and there might be crazy attacks, which would lead to the complete destruction of the metal puppet Heracles. Therefore, it was natural and logical to pretend to be unable to support it before facing the queen ant.

Fang Senyan was of course very clear about his calculations in his heart, but because he himself was an MT (main tank), he didn't care about Paolo's actions. After all, there was a saying that tolerance is a virtue. You can't ask everyone to dedicate themselves selflessly to you. In short, as long as it doesn't exceed certain limits, then you can tolerate his behavior.

Because the ant colony relied on touch and pheromones to move around in the nest, the nest was dark and there was nothing luminous. However, before departure, the future humans had long expected that there might be cave adventures, so the selection list they were given listed a special detector called "Ladybug".

This high-energy special detector was about the size of a tennis ball. It used gravity-fighting technology to levitate in the air. It could fly at high speed and nimbly, and could spread out ultrasonic wave mesh exploration rays up to fifty meters around it, accurately drawing the geological conditions and related creatures in the cave. (Um, it's actually the thing in Prometheus)

Because the price of ladybugs was also quite expensive, Fang Senyan and the others only used one ladybug, which flew thirty meters ahead and lit the way. After walking about forty meters into the ant nest, they felt that the air quality was still very good, and there was still wind from time to time.

Although the claw marks of the worker ants on the cave walls were clearly visible, they also looked quite smooth. Although they certainly couldn't compare with human buildings, if you looked closely, the walls looked like they were glazed, hard and smooth. If you tapped them lightly with your fingers, they would even make a dull "shell, shell, shell" sound. Even if you splashed water on them, it would flow directly down without soaking in.

Continuing forward for about a hundred meters, everyone felt that the front was suddenly clear. The passage of the ant nest was originally the size of a train tunnel, but at this time it was as if they had entered a temporary stop at a station. The "Ladybug" also flew directly into the air twenty or thirty meters, illuminating the entire field, so they could clearly see that this should be the storage room of the ant nest.

Many plant roots and stems, fruits, and of course the corpses and furs of wild beasts were piled up separately. The edible meat was clamped into the size of fists by worker ants, and dehydrated and dried like beef jerky and piled up together. You could only smell the rotten smell if you got very close.

Looking at the dense crawling marks on the ground, everyone felt a sense of fear in their hearts. If this was a trap of the ant colony, and dozens of worker ants suddenly rushed out from all directions to encircle them, then they would really have to shed a layer of skin even if they didn't die.

The most regrettable thing here was that many of the wild beasts' furs were quite precious, but they were all corroded by formic acid when they were killed. Otherwise, this would be a huge fortune. But now, although it was still valuable, considering the huge cost of bringing these damaged goods back from planet Upsilons to Alpha 7 base, and that there might be more and better spoils in future adventures that would need to take up space, they could only give up.

Continuing forward from the storage room, a three-way intersection appeared in front. At this time, Ramtas's fat nostrils kept twitching, and then he pointed at the road on the left with great excitement and started roaring, and also made continuous pig-like grunts, as if there was a female wild boar in heat inside.

Fang Senyan originally planned to take the largest intersection, but under this guy's strong request, he had to change his route.

But this time, after walking about fifty meters into the passage, they smelled an indescribable smell. The smell was like the smell of urine stains washing the urinal with hydrochloric acid, suffocatingly sour and smelly, and the further they went inside, the stronger the smell became. Ardariss and Paolo couldn't help but put on gas masks.

When they reached the end of this passage, it was also a spacious hall. Many grid-shaped caves were dug out in this hall. After arriving at this hall, Fang Senyan felt relieved. It seemed that this ant colony had indeed reached the end of the road and had no tricks left, because no ant colony could bear such a cost to confuse the enemy.

This was the nursery of the ant colony.

After the queen ant laid eggs, the worker ants would carry the eggs here for incubation, and they would also take care of the hatched larvae.

Because almost all the worker ants had died, it could be said that this place had been in a state of disorder for a long time.

According to the information provided by Artificial Human No. 1, after the unicorn flying ant larvae were born, they had to eat nearly ten times a day (24 hours), all of which were fed by worker ants, and different foods were fed according to the orders issued by the queen ant using pheromones.

The vast majority of the larvae were fed "slurry" processed by worker ants with their powerful mandibles. The worker ants chewed the fruits of plants and a large amount of meat, mixed it with their own saliva, and stored it in their crops to feed the larvae, and they had to eat at least four kilograms at a time to be full. Larvae that eat "slurry" will eventually hatch into worker ants.

And a very small number of larvae, while being fed "slurry", would be fed "ant dew" at least once a day. This thing was similar to royal jelly and was usually the exclusive food of the queen ant. These larvae would be hatched into male ants for transfer to combat and breeding.

Only when the queen ant died or the ant colony swarmed would the larvae be qualified to enjoy eating all the "ant dew". It would be the queen ant as soon as it was hatched.

At this time, the incubation room had lost the care of worker ants for at least dozens of hours. Under the instinctive drive, the hungry larvae naturally attacked the eggs and their fellow brothers next to them, oh no, they should have eaten them... The smell emitted by the corpses of rotten larvae or eggs was the source of the stench that Fang Senyan and the others smelled.