Collecting Some Interest

Rowan had an incredibly deep impression of those ants from the desert; their hook-shaped mandibles, their catapult-like launches, and their fecal-spraying attacks were things he could never forget, and even now, they would occasionally cross his mind.

Every time he thought of them, he would grit his teeth in frustration, secretly vexed that he had been swept away by a storm. Now, he had no idea where he was, nor if he could ever return to his homeland to exact revenge for the time they had ripped his gut open.

He never expected that fate would bring them together again across such a distance, and that he would encounter the kin of those very ants in this strange, foreign land, allowing him to collect some interest in advance.

He was no longer the same as he once was; his size had surged, his armor was thick, and he decided to practice Rowan's Combat Technique on these relatives of his old tormentors to show them a thing or two.

The size of these earthy-yellow ants was about the same as his when he was only the size of a fingernail, whereas his own body had now expanded to the size of a small egg.

He rushed rapidly toward the nearest earthy-yellow ant. Along the way, he had already counted them: there were seven in total, currently exploring toward Rowan's position in a dense formation.

Without further ado, he opened with the starting stance of Rowan's Combat Technique.

Facing the massive Digging Leg smashing down toward it, the earthy-yellow ant's round head—which already had comical little eyes—wore a dull expression, and when paired with its long, eyebrow-like antennae, it looked even more ridiculous.

Rowan did not show mercy because of its dazed expression. After the Digging Leg struck its target, the second move followed immediately. His mandibles were relatively small, but that was only in proportion to his own body; compared to the earthy-yellow ant, his mandibles were like two giant guillotines.

When facing an opponent of similar size, the target of the second move was the enemy's limbs, meant to paralyze their mobility first before using agile maneuvering to slowly wear them down.

But now, facing opponents far smaller than himself, there was no need for such flashy maneuvers. His mandibles clamped directly onto the ant's waist and thorax, and with a slight exertion of force, the earthy-yellow ant, still wearing its dazed expression, was severed into two pieces.

Before its kin could react, Rowan had already repeated the process, finishing off three more earthy-yellow ants. The remaining three finally reacted, arching their thoraxes and extending their abdomens forward—it was their signature move, the fecal-spraying attack.

Watching this familiar motion, Rowan did not panic. He simply used his two massive Digging Legs to shield his eyes and let the ant acid solution spray onto his body, causing wisps of white smoke to rise from his armor.

Since the last time he suffered this attack, his acid resistance had improved tremendously; the ant acid solution spraying onto him could no longer cause him any harm.

Sure enough, as the white smoke dissipated, it revealed armor as smooth as new. Not only was he uninjured, but the armor looked as if it had been polished, gleaming and bright.

As his figure flashed, another earthy-yellow ant was bitten in two. The remaining two ants, seeing that their ranged attack was ineffective, performed a catapult launch, and their hook-shaped mandibles hooked onto him.

To be honest, against an opponent of similar size, these hook-shaped mandibles could lock the enemy down and prevent them from escaping. Back then, these mandibles had caused Rowan endless suffering, and he had only barely escaped by sacrificing three segments of his abdomen.

But against an opponent several times their size—especially one like Rowan, whose body was largely protected by smooth chitinous armor—their mandibles could find no purchase, let alone lock Rowan down.

His Digging Leg smashed down violently, crushing the ridiculous round head of an earthy-yellow ant that was gnashing its teeth beside him, causing fluids to splatter everywhere.

Wiping his Digging Leg on the ground to clear off the disgusting juices, Rowan suddenly whipped his head around, clamped onto the final earthy-yellow ant, and with a burst of force, finished it off.

He felt a sense of wonder; although he had been busy with excavation work, he was already far stronger than when he was first born. Back then, when he encountered earthy-yellow ants, he had turned and fled before they could even engage, and he had still nearly lost his life.

Yet now, seven earthy-yellow ants couldn't even survive two moves under his hand.

After tidying up the battlefield slightly, he swallowed all seven earthy-yellow ants. He had long coveted their genetic fragments. However, the only genetic fragment he wanted now was the catapult launch.

As his body grew larger day by day, his agility was inevitably affected; the catapult launch would allow him to be more flexible in close-quarters combat.

As for the hook-shaped mandibles and the fecal-spraying attack, the former was too limited—he hadn't even bothered with the massive mandibles of the Black Armored "War God," let alone these hooks. And the latter, while called a fecal-spraying attack, was actually a fusion of ant acid.

His ant genes had dwindled significantly since the shedding of the Mother Nest, and the little ant acid he had left was mixed into his saliva; he had no excess to perform such a wasteful spray attack, so this ability was like a chicken rib to him.

However, they could be used to cultivate new ants. The combat power of these earthy-yellow ants was far higher than that of the Black Ants. Without adding other genetic fragments, simply using the earthy-yellow ants' own templates to hatch eggs could increase the combat power of the Insect Nest by several fold in the future.

But where did these guys come from? This was quite a distance from the desert, and for creatures like ants, two or three hundred meters was like a natural chasm.

Could there be a nest of earthy-yellow ants nearby?

Looking at the sky, Rowan decided to focus his exploration starting tomorrow in the direction from which the earthy-yellow ants had come.

These earthy-yellow ants were extremely aggressive. While he wasn't afraid, if they continued to explore in this direction, they would be a huge threat to the Insect Nest and the three ant colonies.

Rowan felt his current life was good and that he was about to make a breakthrough; he didn't want this harmonious scene to be ruined by these intruders.

He found a nearby tender branch, drank some sap, and brought a piece back for Big Black. In truth, with the current defense system of the Insect Nest, Big Black's role was negligible, but since it was an insect that had nearly cost the Mother Nest its life to hatch, he would treat it like keeping a small dog.

Returning to the Insect Nest, he checked that the Transport Team and the Excavation Team had all returned. Ever since a Transport Team had disappeared and he hadn't noticed until the next day, Rowan had developed the habit of counting the insect population before resting every day.

However, this count was just a rough scan, because the insects didn't line up to be counted; they scurried everywhere. Rowan was also somewhat face-blind when it came to insects, so it was impossible to get an accurate count.

But if dozens of insects were missing, it would be obvious; if only a few were gone, Rowan probably still wouldn't notice.

There were no abnormalities in the Insect Nest, so Rowan fell asleep with peace of mind.

When he woke up again, it was because he had been disturbed. A dense, rhythmic vibration was coming from the surface, bringing with it a strong sense of crisis. This scenario was somewhat familiar; the last time he was woken up from his sleep was during a sandstorm in the desert, and he had been similarly jolted awake by dense vibrations and a sense of crisis.

But he had left the desert, so a sandstorm was unlikely, and the sense of crisis brought by these vibrations was far more severe than the last time.