New Discoveries

The newly hatched ant larvae looked as though the eggs themselves had grown little handles. Honestly, when they were placed beside the eggs, they were hard to tell apart at a glance.

The hatching of the eggs meant that before long, Rowan's number of underlings would explode day by day. But before then, his workload had increased.

The larvae needed the adult Black Ants to partially digest their food, then regurgitate it and feed them the disgusting stuff.

And Rowan was the Insect Nest's sole supplier of meat.

With more and more Scout Ants being killed, the neighbors had rarely sent ants toward the Insect Nest anymore. Aside from a few that had gotten lost while heading elsewhere and wandered over, it had been days since any had set out from the neighbors' nest in this direction.

Faced with this situation, Rowan's hunting grounds had crept closer and closer to the neighbors' nest. With his eyesight, he could now stand on slightly higher ground and watch Black Ants coming and going through the entrance.

Of course, no matter how bold he was, he wouldn't dare provoke them right at their doorstep with his current abilities. That didn't stop him from observing them from a little farther away, trying to learn about their habits and pick up some useful experience from their behavior. Perhaps it would help him manage the Insect Nest better in the future.

These days, he brought six or seven Black Ants along whenever he went hunting.

Whenever he killed a Black Ant from the neighbors' nest, the Black Ants from his own nest would swarm over and devour it. Anything they couldn't finish, they broke into pieces and carried back to the Insect Nest.

Rowan had already cleared all the dangers along the way, and the ants left pheromone trails to guide them, so he didn't worry about them getting lost.

Rowan's current hunting ground was only a little over ten meters from the neighbors' nest, while the neighbors' nest was more than fifty meters from the Insect Nest. So his Black Ants took quite a while to make a round trip, giving Rowan time to sneak a snack and observe.

This method both satisfied the needs of the many insects inside the Insect Nest and eased Rowan's burden. Before, he had spent most of each day transporting food and traveling back and forth to his hunting grounds.

Ever since he'd started doing this, the ants had been a little slower at transporting food than he was, but the arrangement freed up a great deal of his time.

Besides, the ants seemed tireless, as if they didn't even know what slacking off along the way meant. Rowan, on the other hand, had to rest and contemplate the meaning of life every time he made a round trip to the Insect Nest. When you added it all up, the difference in efficiency wasn't that great.

Today, while waiting for the Transport Team to return, Rowan noticed something strange happening in front of the neighbors' nest.

A New Species of Insect, from who knew where, swaggered right through the entrance to the Ant Nest. The Black Ants not only didn't stop it but actually moved aside to let it pass.

Now that was strange. The Ant Nest was their forbidden zone. Rowan could tell from his steadily growing knowledge of entomology that the insect definitely wasn't related to ants; they were entirely different kinds of creatures.

The insect was yellowish-brown all over, a little larger than the Black Ants. Its head and thorax were small and flat, and a long abdomen trailed behind it, covered in a layer of armor.

That armor was what gave it away. Ants didn't have anything like that.

But how could it enter the Ant Nest so freely? Rowan couldn't figure it out.

Time flew, and several days passed. With most of his time freed up and plenty of chances to sneak a snack, Rowan had grown a little bigger, another size up from before.

Although he had integrated the Black Armored Beetle's genes, no pair of giant mandibles had grown on his head. Rowan guessed there were two reasons. First, there wasn't enough room in his head. His two big eyes already took up half of it, leaving no space for giant mandibles.

Besides, the Black Armored Beetle had a flat head, which let it put its mandibles to good use. Rowan had a narrow, tapered face; even if he grew them, he probably wouldn't be able to use them effectively.

But the main reason was probably that giant mandibles would interfere with his digging. Having a pair of those things underground would be extremely inconvenient. Apart from his eyes, he had shed every other gene that might hinder his digging. He didn't know why. Was he, deep down, just a coward who played it safe?

Today, he spotted a giant ant at the entrance to the neighbors' nest. It was several times bigger than an ordinary Black Ant, with stronger limbs and larger, harder, sharper mandibles. Just from looking at it, Rowan could tell it was far more powerful than an ordinary ant.

Rowan began to understand. Based on what he'd learned in kindergarten back when he was human, those ordinary Black Ants were probably Worker Ants, and this big fellow was likely a Soldier Ant.

Although he'd always called the neighbors' insects ants, he was now on an unfamiliar planet. They only looked like ants; he had no idea what species they actually were. He wasn't good at coming up with names, so he could only name them after similar creatures from back home.

Until now, he'd only seen ordinary Black Ants and had assumed they didn't have Soldier Ants. He hadn't expected one to show up after all. Was this planet's environment similar to Blue Star's? Even the insects he'd seen were so alike.

What puzzled him was that he hadn't seen any flying creatures. There were plenty of flying insects on Blue Star, by rights, but he hadn't seen a single kind here. It was truly strange.

Then again, perhaps he'd explored too little and hadn't seen many kinds of insects yet.

With the Transport Team around, he'd had plenty of free time these past few days. After some thought, he'd ruled out the possibility that this was the Wizard Planet.

For a species of insect that had been hyped up as so incredibly powerful, he'd been developing for so long and still couldn't even steamroll an ant nest.

Something had to be wrong. Either there was a problem with him or with the environment. Most likely, there were problems with both, which was why he was so weak.

And yet, he still hadn't seen any flying insects, let alone reptiles, mammals, or anything of the sort. He hadn't even seen a humanoid creature.

Putting those two things together, he figured he was in a completely unfamiliar new world. His theory still had some flaws, but he chose to believe it anyway, because it was better for his mental health.

Rowan hadn't expected the neighbors to have such a powerful fighting force in reserve. His size had grown a bit over the past few days, and his confidence had grown with it. He'd thought he was getting close to steamrolling the Ant Nest, but today had poured cold water all over that idea.

After developing for all this time, he was already considerably larger than an ordinary ant. But although this Soldier Ant wasn't as fat as he was, it was still twice his length. They both had only a pair of big mandibles as weapons, but Rowan had an extra set of half-armor. Even so, he had to admit that he wouldn't win in a one-on-one fight.

After all, the other ant was a professional, born to fight, while he was only a part-timer whose main job was digging tunnels.

Besides, who knew how many more of those weapons the neighbors had hidden away? He'd better stop talking about steamrolling the Ant Nest.

Just then, a yellowish-brown blur flashed in the distance to his right.