Chapter 189: Ant queen captured! (1)
All of Theo’s time went into looking at the ants who kept drinking the honey from the small puddle.
It had been a minute since many came, and Theo had already observed something.
From what Theo knew from the previous world, the ants communicated through the pheromones which they left behind to help others travel and know if a place was safe or not.
They also communicated with the help of touch, which was mainly with the help of the antennae.
But in this world, something different was happening; the ants did not communicate through touch or pheromones—at least Theo had not seen them do so yet.
Instead, the ants’ antennae just glowed, and suddenly, every single ant knew where to proceed.
But Theo could understand; the ants were not even normal to begin with, just like all the beasts. This made Theo want to tame them more and more.
After five minutes of everyone just observing the ants eat their fill, Theo finally saw something else move out of the small hole. It looked like something that Theo couldn’t believe had come from the small hole that every other ant used.
___________
Shardjaw Ant Queen
Level 1
Ordinary
Type - Insect Type
___________
"Wait... that’s the... queen?" Theo spoke in bewilderment; he hadn’t expected the queen of these ants to just come out.
According to his understanding, when the ant queen stabilizes itself inside a safe colony, it doesn’t come out.
But clearly, he was wrong as the queen was already out. He quickly analyzed how big it was, and when it came near one of the smaller worker ants, Theo could tell it was ten times the size of them.
He slowly moved his finger ahead in order to know how big it was and was shocked to see it was as big as his index finger.
"S-Should we grab it?" Theo spoke in a whisper, making Elias and Clara come forward.
The ant queen, feeling the tremors in the ground, looked at Theo and the others for a moment before its big antennae started glowing.
As soon as it did, all the ants, which were around fifteen, stopped drinking the honey and looked straight too, their antennae glowing simultaneously.
Theo got a bad feeling from this; he didn’t know if the ants could even look at him properly.
But the next moment, his thinking was revamped when all the ants around the puddle started moving toward them.
"...Are they trying to attack us, young master?" Elias said with an almost laugh.
Clara was amused too, but Theo, on the other hand, was not only amused—he could almost feel some nostalgia.
’It’s the same as the mantis,’ Theo said with a chuckle.
The ants were fast. They reached them in almost no time, and that was the time Theo ran.
"Don’t hurt even a single one, let’s go." He spoke and went toward the carriage.
Theo looked back only to see two slightly big glowing lights in the far distance. While the queen was stationary at one spot, the other ants were still trying to get to them.
It was not until they reached the road that the ants halted and started moving back.
"Nah, I want them more now," Theo spoke with a wild grin.
By this point, everybody knew that grin—even Warren.
"Do we have the container, Elias?"
"We do, shall I bring it out?"
"Please do, we will be getting them all today," Theo said.
While Elias went to get the container from the carriage, Clara approached Theo and asked with curiosity, "Didn’t you decide to first see if they have more exits of the colony, young master?"
"Hm? Ah, that. Yeah, that was when I wanted to excavate the queen out of the colony that is underground." Theo stated with an excited smile, "But it’s not needed anymore as the ant queen itself is coming out of the colony. I don’t know the reason for that right now, but surely, it’s going to be in our best interest."
Clara only nodded, and when the container was ready, the trio made their way toward the colony again, only to see each and every one of the ants near the puddle again.
Theo could see the big queen ant too, and before the ants could even come and attack them—which would in turn make them kill themselves—Theo hastened the process.
He quickly grabbed the little tool they had brought with them. It was a tong with cushioned cloth attached to each of the tong heads.
Before the ant queen could even notice the vibrations, Theo ran very fast and grabbed the ant queen with the tong.
He himself couldn’t believe how easy this all was going, and to not jinx the situation, he quickly kept the wiggling ant queen inside the open container that was in Elias’s hands.
"Now, Elias. Keep it down." Theo spoke with haste, and Elias didn’t disappoint.
He quickly kept the container on the ground and took a few steps back.
Theo observed the other ants who were looking and touching everywhere with their antennae in haste.
The ant queen’s antennae started glowing bright, and so did the other ants’ soon after. Theo took a few steps back, too, only to see all the ants make their way toward the box at high speed.
They all came and touched the container’s wall and started trying to climb the wall as if already knowing their queen was right inside it.
Many tried but fell halfway up the wall, making Theo want to do something for them.
’They can already climb halfway... maybe they can do it fully soon?’ Theo thought to himself. There didn’t seem to be a problem in waiting and giving them more time.
Both Clara and Elias looked at the situation with astonishment. The topic they had thought to have been boring at first had quickly taken quite an interesting turn.
But as if the ants were done trying, they all stopped and moved their glowing antennae left and right for a few seconds before they moved again, only to do a completely different thing.
"Wait... what?!"