Neighbor

It was a black ant, seemingly a scout among them, alone at the moment, crawling forward aimlessly, occasionally touching this and then that with its antennae.

Rowan slowly approached it, observing its surroundings. In the direction it came from, the ants gradually increased, with seven or eight appearing within Rowan's sight.

However, the closest black ant companion to this suspected scout was more than two meters away.

This was a considerable distance for ants, making timely communication difficult.

Rowan's gaze locked onto it, the distance of over ten meters rapidly closing.

Even while crawling rapidly, Rowan remained vigilant, dodging a Stinky Earthworm's trap midway.

Except for the first time when he was caught off guard and ambushed at close range, he could easily discover them afterwards with preparation.

This was because the places they dug traps would have a small vortex of mud and sand, which was incredibly easy for the sharp-eyed Rowan to notice in advance.

This ant was much smaller than Rowan, exactly the type he preferred.

As Rowan approached, the black ant finally noticed something was wrong, its antennae waving frantically. But it was too late; Rowan was already close, and a thick digging leg was smashing towards its head.

It would be an exaggeration to say these black ants had poor eyesight; they primarily relied on the olfactory organs on their antennae to find food. Now, caught off guard by Rowan, they could only be beaten.

Still dazed from the heavy blow of the digging leg, the black ant hadn't recovered when Rowan bit off one of its hind legs.

The black ant's other limbs rapidly rubbed against the ground, making faint sounds, seemingly calling for help. Unfortunately, even the closest ants to it showed no unusual reaction to the situation here, indicating they couldn't receive the distress signal.

With no response to its cries for help, the black ant could only resist on its own. However, it was suppressed by Rowan in terms of size and weight, and it was much weaker than the yellow earth ants Rowan had encountered before. Not only could it not spray feces as an attack, but the two mandibles at its mouth were also much smaller, making it difficult to threaten Rowan's armor.

Although ants have always been called strongmen, it is said that if ants grew to human size, their strength would far surpass humans. But now, they were all insects, and didn't they all have some exoskeleton armor?

After several struggles, the black ant lost two more limbs. It then remembered to escape, but it was too late. With only three legs left, it could barely maintain its balance, let alone move at high speed.

It could have struggled for a bit longer, though the outcome wouldn't have changed. But by fleeing now, it exposed its back to Rowan, saving him considerable effort.

Rowan easily caught up to the limping black ant from behind, his digging leg precisely pinning its slender waist. The black ant struggled to twist its body, attempting to attack Rowan with its mandibles, but they couldn't penetrate the digging leg's armor.

After subduing the black ant, Rowan used saliva and mud to make a muzzle, sealing the ant's mouth. Then, he dragged it away from the attack site before digging a hole to leave.

After digging for a while, he found a passage he had dug in advance. In the passage, Rowan dragged the black ant rapidly towards the underground room. Although the black ant resisted stubbornly during this time, it posed no threat to Rowan with its mouth sealed.

As he neared the room, Rowan stopped, placed the ant on the passage floor, blocked the path he came from, and forced the ant towards the underground room.

The black ant was already terrified by Rowan and had no intention of charging into the passage behind him. Propping itself up on its three legs, it limped towards the room.

After crawling out of the passage, the black ant was suspended in mid-air; its three limbs couldn't secure its body. With a thud, it fell out of the passage and onto the floor of the large cavern.

The Black Beetle, which was strolling in the room, immediately stopped alertly, its antennae probing towards where the ant had fallen.

In the dark cavern, the function of the visual organs was reduced to the extreme; without Rowan's mutated compound eyes, one couldn't see anything.

At this moment, the perception of sound was amplified several times.

The Black Beetle's body, considerably larger than the ant's, moved across the ground, and the sound and vibration were also perceived by the black ant.

Its antennae also probed in the direction of the Black Beetle, and thus, their antennae collided in the air.

After a brief entanglement, both concluded that the other was not a familiar insect, and before the black ant could react, a pair of giant mandibles with spikes extended and bit its body in half.

The black ant's vitality was tenacious; even broken in two, it was still struggling, its antennae waving frantically. The intruder wasn't dead yet, meaning the fight wasn't over, and the Black Beetle's giant mandibles extended again.

After several openings and closings of the giant mandibles, the scene was difficult to describe. Some unclear liquid stuck to the giant mandibles, the invasion crisis was resolved, and the Black Beetle resumed its stroll.

Rowan, observing from the shadows, nodded with satisfaction; the experimental results were quite good. Although the Black Beetle couldn't communicate, it could indeed guard the place, so Rowan could confidently entrust the security of this room to it in the future.

Crawling into the cavern, the fragmented and indescribable mess on the ground left Rowan with no appetite, and the Black Beetle was a vegetarian. However, there was someone else who didn't mind these things.

After a quick cleanup, he fed all the relatively intact parts to the Mother Nest. Rowan then bit off a section of tree root and dragged it back to reward the Black Beetle.

The Black Beetle showed no signs of pride, as if doing all this was natural, and Rowan providing it with food was also natural.

Rowan felt annoyed every time he looked at this stupid bug.

He wasn't one to hold grudges, but once his resources were abundant, he would definitely melt this bug down and remold it.

With the Black Beetle guarding the nest, Rowan rested briefly and then prepared to go out and play again. The discovery of so many black ants in that direction earlier indicated an ant nest nearby, which he needed to investigate to understand this neighbor.

A few days later, Rowan was lying in the cavern contemplating insect life. Due to absorbing some genes from the Black Beetle, his size had increased somewhat in these past few days, growing from the size of a fingernail to the size of a one-yuan coin.

Therefore, the tunnels he had originally dug were a bit small. Today, he had widened them all, and he had just finished.

This cavern seemed like it would be used for some time; it was temporarily his lair.

After days of patrolling, he had explored a radius of 100 meters.

Lone travelers come and go quickly; perhaps they are seen today and gone tomorrow, so there's no need to pay too much attention.

The greatest threat to his lair was its only permanent neighbor, the black ant nest located more than 50 meters away.

This ant nest was quite large, but for now, there was no need to worry too much. This was because the farthest point reached by the scouts they dispatched was still more than ten meters away from Rowan's lair.

Moreover, recently, the scouts sent in the direction of Rowan's lair had been disappearing inexplicably.

Therefore, they had reduced the number of scouts sent in this direction.