Hidden Worries

Rowan navigated the familiar path deep into the Hatching Room, ate his fill, and then found a secluded corner rarely visited by other ants to begin digging.

After excavating a small hole, he turned around to seal the entrance connecting to the Hatching Room before continuing his work outward.

Pheromones were truly a marvelous thing; since mastering their basic application, Rowan had already developed several extended uses.

For instance, using marked pheromones as coordinates was not exactly a new invention, as the Black Ants had long been capable of such methods.

However, they could only receive this information through close-range contact with their antennae, whereas Rowan could sense the coordinate information he left behind from a great distance.

At this moment, he was digging toward a coordinate point he had marked—the underground tunnel that had been the result of two days of labor with the Transport Team.

Because this underground tunnel had been very close to the Mother Nest to begin with, it took Rowan little time to connect the newly excavated passage to it.

Crawling into the underground tunnel, he summoned the waiting Transport Team to clear the soil from the new passage, then used his saliva to reinforce the walls of the new tunnel.

Next, he dug a temporary storage room near the section of the tunnel closest to the Mother Nest, ordered the Transport Team to stand by, sealed the connection between the storage room and the tunnel, and cleared away the pheromones the Transport Team had left behind.

With that done, Rowan returned to the Hatching Room of the Mother Nest and began transporting food from there to the temporary storage room he had just dug.

Although other ants passed by during this time, Rowan possessed legitimate identification information, so they paid him no mind.

After moving enough food, Rowan sealed the connection between the tunnel and the Hatching Room, scattering pheromones that signaled "do not approach."

He then opened the connection between the storage room and the underground tunnel, calling the Transport Team to begin moving the food from the storage room back to the Insect Nest.

The plan went smoothly; the Insect Nest was like a parasite attached to the Mother Nest, beginning a life of ease and comfort.

Rowan was suddenly liberated from the busy work of hunting; he no longer needed to search for lone Scout Worker Ants or perform Rowan's Combat Technique. He only needed to transport some food to the storage room every so often.

Regrettably, such days could not last.

The neighbors had a population of over a thousand, and their daily food consumption was staggering, leaving very little to be stockpiled. This was evident from the number of Soldier Ants; these specialized combat units, which did not produce but only fought, were only supported in numbers of about ten for a colony of over a thousand ants.

Yet, as the number of insects in Rowan's Insect Nest gradually increased over these days, the food in the neighbors' Hatching Room had visibly dwindled, and the Black Ants grew noticeably restless, unable to figure out why the food was disappearing.

Rowan was also anxious. These past few days had been incredibly comfortable, but the number of ants in his own Insect Nest was growing daily. He had already stopped the Mother Nest's task of hatching two adult ants per day; aside from hatching 10 eggs daily, the remaining resources were reserved for his own development.

Even so, in a few days, when the pupating larvae broke out of their cocoons, Rowan's Insect Nest would increase by about ten adult ants daily, in addition to the 10 or so eggs hatching.

These hungry mouths would rapidly increase the burden on the nest, and it wouldn't be long before it collapsed; he had to find a solution.

But before he could think of a plan, Rowan's attention was drawn to the Yellow Worms in the Hatching Room. By now, he viewed the Mother Nest as his own food production base, so he found these parasites particularly unsightly.

His mind whirred as he thought of a method; not knowing if it would work, he decided to experiment.

He slowly crawled over to a Yellow Worm; the worm, busy gorging itself, was completely unaware of Rowan's approach.

Rowan secretly spat a mouthful of saliva onto the Yellow Worm and quickly moved away. This saliva contained a pheromone mixture—essentially a different ID card, only one that did not belong to the Mother Nest.

The Hatching Room was an important facility for the Mother Nest, providing a steady stream of new labor, and its importance went without saying.

The sudden appearance of an unfamiliar identity signature in such a vital place was a dangerous matter, quickly detected by the surrounding worker ants feeding the larvae. They stealthily surrounded the Yellow Worm, and several of them rushed off toward the patrolling Soldier Ants.

The Yellow Worm, enjoying its meal, was oblivious to the impending danger. A long-term safe environment had cost it its vigilance, and it could never have imagined a sinister creature like Rowan, wearing an insect's skin.

The Soldier Ants in the distance began to move toward the scene, and Rowan witnessed the formidable combat power of these living weapons for the first time.

Two mandibles clamped directly onto the unsuspecting Yellow Worm, and with a single shake of their heads, the worm was torn in two. The Yellow Worm had tenacious vitality, and even then, its upper body continued to move.

Unfortunately, it had no chance to escape; in the blink of an eye, it was overwhelmed by the many worker ants that had been lying in wait.

Rowan watched from the side, feeling a lingering fear. Relying solely on a single sensory function to identify friend from foe had massive flaws. It was fortunate that his Insect Nest had two identification systems; otherwise, relying only on pheromones would be a gaping vulnerability. Any insect with the ability to alter pheromones and a certain level of intelligence could destroy the entire nest from within.

It was fortunate that he was currently the only insect with both ability and intelligence, but the world was vast; who knew if other such peculiar insects had evolved?

He pondered that even two identification systems might not be foolproof; once his abilities improved, he would definitely need to develop several more.

It was like the television shows he had seen in the past: when human technology was underdeveloped, they could only rely on the naked eye to distinguish friend from foe. Many masters of disguise could easily infiltrate enemy camps until technology advanced and things like fingerprint, iris, facial, and DNA recognition emerged to improve the situation.

He must take these past lessons as a mirror.

However, it was too early to think about that now. He already had two identification systems, which were sufficient for the time being; this matter was not a high priority. The most important thing right now was to clear out the other Yellow Worms to avoid further wasting the nest's food.

The other Yellow Worms showed no reaction to their companion's death, continuing to eat and drink as if it were none of their business.

Rowan spat saliva carrying the forged scent onto them one by one, then watched as they were successively overwhelmed by the Soldier Ants and worker ants.

Clearing out all the Yellow Worms not only reduced food consumption significantly, but they themselves also contributed to the nest's food reserves.

However, this was still a drop in the bucket. Faced with the impending population explosion in the Mother Nest, he did not know how much longer the nest could bear the burden.