Rowan was a little annoyed at his keen eyesight, and a little frustrated with himself for watching the whole process.
Why had he had to witness how such a rare delicacy was made? How was he supposed to eat it now? It was practically a devastating blow to a foodie.
He turned away and stopped looking around, focusing on finding the way ahead.
With his vision obstructed, he only managed to search a few hundred meters around before nightfall, and found four ant nests. They were all Black Ant nests, and generally quite large. Perhaps that had something to do with their ability to raise other insects. A richer food supply allowed them to sustain more of their colony.
Rowan had also chosen a site for the new nest: the central point where the four nests met. It was somewhat dangerous, but he was already quite experienced at concealing nests.
The Black Ants couldn't dig very deep underground. He only needed to build the nest deep belowground as before, then construct a Transfer Station above it that was completely separate from the nest below.
The Insect Nest beneath would be like an isolated island, connected to the Transfer Station above only when food was being transported.
Since he had accomplished what he'd set out to do, it was time to return. It was already late, so he decided to rest for the night and leave in the morning.
Early the next morning, Rowan crawled out of the soil. He first stopped at a nearby ant nest to mooch a meal, then headed toward the Cliff.
His last encounter on the Cliff still made him uneasy. This time, he chose a different spot, dug his hooks firmly into the rock face, and hauled himself upward.
Climbing was extremely tiring, especially with Rowan's somewhat round build, which made him expend even more energy. However, his large size also meant his limbs were thicker and stronger, making him better at withstanding strong winds. There were pros and cons.
He carefully watched the cracks in the Cliff, wary of anything suddenly leaping out. If he was ambushed, this time he wouldn't hesitate—he'd use Catapult Start and launch himself away at once.
That would mean climbing all over again, but Rowan's purpose this time was to find a safe route. When he returned, he'd bring a lot of underlings, so he had to make sure the path was safe.
Fortunately, he wasn't attacked along the way. It seemed there weren't many of those spiders on the Cliff. He'd just been especially unlucky to run into one last time.
He climbed from morning until dusk before finally scaling the dozens-of-meters-high Cliff. The climb took so long not only because going upward was exhausting, but also because the wind grew too strong for a while. Even with his sturdy limbs, he could barely hold on. He found a crack in the rocks and sheltered there for a long time, only emerging to continue once the wind had eased.
The barren land above posed little danger, so Rowan decided to travel through the night.
By dusk the next day, after pushing on almost the entire time and taking only a few short breaks, he finally made it back. The trip out had taken more than two days, but the return took just one day and one night.
By his estimate, the whole outing, including the time he'd spent in restorative hibernation, had taken about a week. Everything in the Insect Nest was more or less intact. Aside from the food stores being almost depleted, there had been no other losses.
Most of the insects lay quietly on the ground to conserve energy. Only a small number of the smaller Worker Ants were feeding the larvae.
Rowan also spotted more than ten tiny Black Armored Beetles nearby. It seemed the first batch of specially bred eggs had finally grown into adults.
He unsealed the chamber where the Mother Nest was kept and fed it some food. Then he connected to it and uploaded some newly acquired gene fragments.
Rowan had already worked out how to move the Insect Nest during the return trip.
The nest had over a thousand insects in all, including adults, larvae, pupae, and eggs. Adults made up the largest group, accounting for just over half. Most of the rest were pupae and larvae.
Since the Mother Nest had been ordered to stop producing new eggs early on, there were only a few unhatched eggs left in the nest.
First, he ordered all the insects to eat the remaining food. Then each adult was assigned to carry one larva, pupa, or egg. Rowan connected himself to the Mother Nest, while the little Black Armored Beetles gathered beneath it in formation, pressing their carapaces together to make a simple platform and lift it.
Once everything was ready, the great migration set off.
A few digging ants led the way, first tunneling a path to the surface.
Big Black couldn't communicate, so Rowan had initially planned to leave him behind. But when Rowan and the little Black Armored Beetles started hauling the Mother Nest outward, Big Black followed closely behind.
Across the barren land, a giant beetle slowly dragged a fleshy lump along. If you looked closely, you could see little beetles moving beneath it. Hundreds of ants followed behind, carrying pupae and other things in their mandibles.
This great throng of insects, clearly made up of different species, lived in harmony as they slowly moved together in the same direction.
With the whole group on the move and everyone carrying something, their pace was naturally much slower than Rowan's when he traveled alone. He estimated that it would take at least a week to reach the Cliff at their current speed.
The Black Armored Beetles would be fine. There were still some tall trees along the way that hadn't been ravaged, and there were always a few fresh, tender branches for them to eat. The ants, though, could only lick tree sap to get some moisture. Rowan didn't know how long they could survive on water alone without food.
He decided that once they reached their new home and began producing a new batch of eggs, he would definitely add the gene fragment for eating soil. That way, at least, he wouldn't have to worry about them starving to death.
Every evening, Rowan led the insects in digging a temporary burrow. The temperature dropped at night; the adults could cope, but the larvae couldn't.
He hadn't noticed the problem on the first night, and as a result, all the remaining eggs froze to death. Some larvae died as well. The pupae were fine, but two newly emerged adults froze to death too.
There was nothing else to do. They were protein, after all, so Rowan ordered the insects to eat them, which at least replenished some of their energy.
The scattered Earth-Yellow Ants they'd occasionally seen before were nowhere to be found along the way. They traveled for days without seeing even one.
A week later, the migrating group finally reached the edge of the Cliff. By then, the Swarm had dwindled from over a thousand to just over nine hundred.
Apart from the insects that had frozen to death on the first night, they'd lost some every day for various reasons. Most were larvae that died from a lack of food. Some were newly emerged adults, and the weaker ones hadn't made it either. Others had fallen behind and failed to catch up.
The reasons varied, but all that was in the past. They had now reached a milestone in their journey.
But now they were about to face an even graver challenge.
Before you continue