Chapter 191: Breakthrough Complete! (2)- Why have they stopped moving?
When Theo saw the big insect that was the queen, he found it good enough to get the metal box down.
Many small ants were frolicking around at an increased pace, leaving only the big ant queen to stay at one spot and feel the ground through her antennae.
Theo had already had Elias put a coating of the special mixture at the start of the main big terrarium too.
The height of the ant colony’s container was really high, but still, they could never be too sure.
When he saw the box on the ground again, Theo frowned. There were a few ants still left inside it.
’Mantis, capture them one by one, but don’t kill,’ Theo gave the mental command, making the hungry mantis already move.
He emphasized the point of not eating them, which would be rewarded with its favorite food, and after watching it get the first ant, he smiled when the mantis didn’t eat it.
He quickly tapped his hand and moved it down, making the mantis hop on it.
Theo hovered the mantis over the ant colony and gave the command to throw the ant inside it, and when the mantis did that specifically, both Elias and Clara kept looking at each other in awe.
The level of bond and cooperation in that little task made them wonder just how intelligent the mantis had become at this point.
The next few minutes were easy; Theo didn’t have to make the mantis look for the ants that would have scattered under normal circumstances.
But each one of them had its antennae glowing and at the same place on the ground.
Theo let them be for a few moments to see if they could track back up toward the colony on their own.
But unfortunately, that connection between them was not strong enough to help them reach back to the queen.
Theo could tell why it was: not only was this a totally unknown terrain for them, but it also didn’t have any already-made tracks of pheromones.
There was also the fact that for most ants, the area before them was the only thing that existed, so the queen being so high up and far made it seem like they were all in a different realm altogether.
But this was all what Theo theorized would be the case. Most of the stuff about the ants in this world was still unknown.
After some time, Theo was able to get each ant that they had brought into this room inside their terrarium.
Elias finally closed the lid above the terrarium, and it was at that point that Theo finally sat down.
"That was amazing, young master. The level of control over the mantis that you showed today is far from what I had thought you had reached." Clara spoke in astonishment, and Theo nodded.
There weren’t many occasions where he could show off this control over the mantis to anyone.
And it was all because of the help of the greed the mantis had for all kinds of different foods.
The mantis was given its favorite event of devouring countless small fodder insects inside the big terrarium.
And while it was fully enjoying itself, Theo kept staring at the ants and what they were doing.
But so far, there was nothing but them sitting at one place with their heads and antennae moving left and right in a synchronous manner.
While that was a sight that could go inside his journal, Theo wanted to know more, and his restlessness was only increasing with time.
An hour passed, and by that point, Clara had gone back to the town for the day while Elias prepared things for dinner and the future.
All that time, all Theo saw was them at one spot. He wanted to move now, but there was this feeling at the back of his head that made him want to keep staring at them.
He didn’t want to move his sight for a moment only to see them start making their colony again out of nowhere.
Yet another half an hour of nothing happening told Theo that this was going to be a really long observation.
When the time for dinner finally came, Theo finally stopped looking at them and went outside for the moment.
The mantis was already done with its small massacre inside the big terrarium and was now out and eating some veggies.
"Are you going to stay inside that room all the time now, young master?" Elias asked while sitting opposite to Theo.
There was still some hesitation after a long time of being made to do this, but still, Theo was adamant for him to sit and have dinner with him, just like with Clara.
"You know my quest, Elias. I literally have nothing to do but sit and try discovering something about these ants..." Theo spoke while massaging his eyes.
Leveling up and doing the training of being a knight was not taxing on the brain; even reading was a leisure activity he did without any pressure.
But this thing was entirely a pressure on his brain. Everyone knew it by this point.
There was silence for a few minutes with Elias thinking what could be said to the rigid noble heir, but the silence was only short-term when they heard the courteous three knocks on the gate.
"I will get it."
Elias quickly went and opened the gate, only to bow down and move to the side right away.
"I see he is making your life a lot tougher too, Elias." The baroness spoke with a light chuckle, making Elias look back finally.
"Not at all, this is the greatest opportunity I have had so far. And young master Theo is not that hard to handle." Elias spoke with a rare smile.
When Theo heard them talk, he felt weird for a moment. It was not like the usual attendant and his mother’s interaction.
There was some familiarity in the baroness’s tone, and for the first time in a few days, Theo’s interest was piqued by a completely different thing.