Storage, Part One

The stench of blood attracted some hunters with a keen sense of smell. They lurked, observed, and steadily approached the Swarm's base.

However, once they crossed a certain warning line, they were detected by Type—I Flying Insect patrolling the sky. They immediately reported the situation to the Ant Queen that Arboreal Sub-base through the Swarm Network.

The two queen Ant Queen had previously received higher-level authorization, allowing them to view the field of vision of insects with lower-level permissions. After receiving the report and inspecting the situation, they were unsure how to proceed and immediately reported the situation to Rowan.

The whole process happened very quickly. In fact, less than half a minute had passed from the discovery of the intruders to Rowan receiving the message. Some of the cautious hunters hadn't even moved from their spots.

Rowan switched to the perspective of the Type—I Flying Insect used for aerial reconnaissance, took a look at these covetous creatures, and discovered that the reason these guys were so cautious was because they were all weaklings.

Although they vary in species, they are generally not large in size, with the largest being only a little over two meters long. They are mostly mammals, and whether they walk on two or four legs, their limbs are relatively sturdy and they are good at running.

However, their offensive weapons and defenses are relatively primitive. Based on Rowan's observations and understanding of the creatures in this area over this period, they are mostly scavengers, feeding on the remains of animals and plants, and specializing in scavenging leftovers.

Among them are Fat-Tail Rat, who are simply looking for scraps but can't beat the prey themselves, and Small Dinosaur, who can hunt for themselves but aren't too picky about leftovers.

Rowan manipulated the Flying Bug to survey the area, but found no adversaries he needed to worry about. He then handed over the authority to the Ant Queen, instructing them to properly entertain their guests; since they were here, they shouldn't be in a hurry to leave.

The Ant Queen's ability to learn and imitate is quite strong. Although the battle commanded by Rowan ended too quickly, dozens of Ant Queen were observing at the time, and they filled in the gaps in each other's skills. It was a good opportunity to practice while the opponent was not strong.

When new Ant Queen arrive, he can teach them. He can't possibly demonstrate for every batch of Rowan Ant Queen himself. It's like learning to drive; the first ones teach the later ones.

His consciousness returned to his body, and Rowan got up and headed towards the base. Although he didn't need to command the battle, no one could replace him for the subsequent transport work.

By the time Rowan returned to the base, the battle had ended quite some time ago. Outside the base, numerous animal carcasses lay scattered about.

This was still due to the fact that the Insect Nest's forces were insufficient to attack simultaneously, which scared away many potential predators.

This was a large quantity of prey, weighing over two tons in total. Rowan spent a whole day moving them all back to the base.

During this time, two more groups of vegetable deliveries arrived.

One of them was a dog-like creature with mottled black, white, and yellow fur, which was quite unattractive. They were not large, and a group of a dozen or so of them had strong limbs, were fast runners, and had great stamina. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to use these abilities against the new type of venom.

At the same time, this Mottled Dog has a unique muzzle structure, making it the animal with the strongest bite force that Rowan has ever seen. Even Leopard, which are larger than them, are slightly inferior in this respect.

The Leopard excels in explosive power, capable of bursting into great speed in a short period. However, its endurance is clearly inferior to that of canines.

Moreover, Leopard usually act alone. Fortunately, they can climb trees and catch birds, otherwise they really wouldn't be able to compete with these canine creatures on land.

Many of their genes are complementary, and perhaps in the future, they could be used as templates to create a new type of combat creature.

Mounds of earth rose up around the base, and because the Swarm currently lacked large excavation units, the construction of the underground storage chamber was progressing very slowly.

Moreover, at this rate, the storage room won't be ready anytime soon.

But leaving these prey like this isn't a good idea. Right now, they're just petty thieves; who knows if the next ones to come will be those top-tier predators?

The food piled up here at this moment is enough to cover the appearance fees of those big shots.

Do we need to produce more Giant Scorpion to dig burrows?

However, the growth period of Giant Scorpion is also very long, taking at least several dozen days.

With such a long timeframe, there are too many variables, but for the time being, there's no other way. Rowan still placed an order for several Giant Scorpion, which he estimates will be shipped out along with the heavily armored Soldier Ant.

After placing the order, Rowan was still somewhat unwilling, as this was only a temporary solution. The situation was no longer like before when gene reserves were scarce; they had recently acquired so many gene fragments, and their abilities had increased several times over. They should be able to find a better solution.

Slowly calm down, carefully review the creatures you've encountered, and think about which abilities can help him.

The main problem now is that the Swarm is too small. Back then, the mountain of skeletal remains that stretched for ten kilometers was dealt with quickly.

However, at that time, no other creatures dared to covet the Swarm's spoils.

There was no point in thinking about the past anymore. The first thing that came to Rowan's mind was the Worker Ant's method of preserving food with saliva. They used a mixture of saliva and formic acid to wrap and preserve their food.

This method is still effective, but the problem remains: the Swarm is currently too small, and there are not enough Worker Ant. Several million Worker Ant simply cannot process more than two tons of food in a short period of time.

Moreover, due to their size and processing methods, they inevitably leak a lot of blood and qi when handling food, making them too unsafe.

Next, Rowan thought of many other ways animals store food. But most of these animals were in a state of not knowing where their next meal would come from, and they didn't have the same worries as Rowan.

Other species, such as the Fat-Tail Rat, have evolved special organs to store food inside their bodies. However, these methods are not applicable to the current situation.

Suddenly, Rowan thought of the spiders that were spinning webs.

Some of them will wrap their prey, which is entangled in their webs, in spider silk to preserve them, and inject a little venom every now and then, so that the prey can neither escape nor die immediately.

Rowan glanced at the prey, which were already dead; this method was clearly not going to work. Perhaps he could try it later, but it seemed that none of the insects currently in the Swarm were equipped with glands capable of producing spider silk.

Some spiders inject digestive fluids into their prey, turning the prey's skin into a natural container, melting off small amounts to consume each time.

Rowan did exactly that when he hunted the Long-Face Beast. The melted muscle tissue had to be eaten immediately, otherwise it would decompose very quickly.