Chapter 195: [Hive link detected: Shardjaw Ant Queen → Moss Carapace Mantis]
Theo went to the same place where he had been sitting for hours on end.
There had been no real progress since then aside from some normal ones here and there.
When Theo was just looking at the terrarium like usual, the knocking sound from the big terrarium soon entered his ears.
He looked at the mantis tapping at a small rocky mountain, wanting Theo to get it out of the already done-for area.
"Your eating speed is getting better and better, you glutton," Theo stated with a smile. Playing and interacting with the mantis was the only thing that would let him take his mind off the bigger issues that were going around right now.
Theo got the mantis out and placed him on the chair he was sitting at before moving back to the bigger terrarium.
He brought a small box that had countless tiny black silhouettes moving all around creepily.
Theo peeked at the mantis one time, who was looking at the ants, before moving all those small livestock insects in the terrarium and moving out.
"Alright, it’s your turn now." He went to the green spider that had webs all over its box. It was the only box that Theo cleaned very few times due to just how clean it was.
When he opened the lid, the spider quickly got up with the help of the webs and stayed at the edge before Theo’s hand came forward.
Theo was a lot more used to the spider being on his hand, and while it was because of the trust they had built, it was also because of the antidote Theo had for its poison now.
The spider kept sitting on Theo’s hand very patiently. It only looked at Theo the whole time with its curious eyes.
When it was near the insect-repelling powder, its body jerked for a moment, but Theo quickly moved his hand ahead and gently caressed the spider’s back to calm it down.
The spider quickly got off and, after a single look at Theo like usual, it went to the darker corner of the terrarium before vanishing away.
Theo looked at it warmly, yet there was some sadness in his eyes.
He had his eyes on taming the spider since his journey started, but now that he was at this point, his mind was diverting toward how the ant queen could potentially be a better beast to get.
Leaving the spider alone, Theo went to the observation spot again only to see the mantis with its eyes etched on the ants’ colony.
"Don’t you even think about eating them, you glutton." Theo said out loud and tapped the mantis’s head to get its attention.
But weirdly, it did not react. Seeing the mantis sitting so calmly on the chair was a new thing, so Theo brought another chair instead to sit alongside it.
For the next few minutes, he observed the colony in focus.
And by every minute passing, Theo started feeling weird about something.
He moved his face ahead to look inside the chamber where the queen and some ants were.
"Why... is only your antennae glowing right now?" Theo asked himself.
All the ants were completing their own duties like usual, but the queen was frozen in place with its antennae glowing bright.
Theo felt weird and he kept on looking at it.
"Isn’t that weird, mantis?" Theo spoke with a sigh. There was nothing happening.
He looked toward the mantis and his stare lingered on it before a frown came to his face.
’Mantis, look here,’ Theo ordered, yet the mantis was still looking directly toward the chamber.
’This is not normal,’ Theo thought with a deep breath.
He gave many other commands to the mantis, yet it did not react to any of them. And the last nail in the coffin was thwacked in when Theo gave it the choice of eating its favorite snacks again.
The mantis did not react.
"What is happening to you?" Theo asked.
He moved his hand gently toward the mantis and tried picking it up, only to feel a push from the mantis’s forelegs and body for the first time.
"Mantis!" Theo shouted in panic this time. The mantis was reacting to almost nothing.
He looked at the trajectory of its eyes and found that it was still looking at the chamber of the queen.
Yet when Theo squinted his eyes and looked at the queen, he finally realized something. The queen itself was looking at the mantis too, outside the glass wall.
Theo moved his hands away from the mantis and made some distance. He didn’t know what was happening. It was the first time since he had tamed the mantis that it was not reacting to even the greedy offers of food.
’Is the ant queen doing something to it?’ A thought came to mind and Theo quickly checked the mantis’s status to see any abnormalities.
"..." Theo didn’t know what to think or speak.
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Moss Carapace Mantis [Partial Hive Link]
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Theo felt danger from the mantis. Looking at its status now, he had made concrete the fact that something was wrong.
’What should I do?’ Theo thought and made distance of a few more steps until he thought of something.
Their bond had become better after having trusted each other for a while. Theo decided to use that bond to his advantage.
He sat on the floor with criss-cross legs and started meditating.
After a minute of just trying to think about nothing, he calmed his heart first and then started looking for the bond with the mantis in his mind, through which he gave orders to the mantis and learned its emotions.
Theo kept digging deeper and deeper until he was there in the bond again. For some reason, it was very weak right now, which made finding it difficult.
’What...’ When Theo felt the bond again, a shiver went down his spine as if a cold breeze had gone past him.
The mantis, for the first time, showed signs of being scared. Theo could directly feel that feeling of being scared that was rubbing off him.
In desperation, he tried focusing more and peering deeper in the mind when he found the link and the emotions.
It was then that Theo halted in his mind. He felt a presence that was unknown to his bond with just the mantis and him.
Theo instinctively tried going deeper, to know what the feeling was, until he finally saw the mantis’s big face again, just like when he had tamed it in this space.
Theo went to try and hug the mantis, to know why it was so scared.
But soon, he felt the presence of something else in their bond grow stronger. The mantis’s ethereal head shivered. Theo could see it shiver until he looked back and froze too.
There was a big monster head in their bond, a head that was twice the size of the mantis’s. But Theo couldn’t mistake what it was, not in a million years, there were two gfaintly glowing antennas attached to the head. It was an ant.
Theo felt invaded by the new presence. He didn’t know what to do until he felt the emotions of being scared from the mantis again.
Something clicked inside Theo. His anger boiled aggressively, and he instinctively tried going closer and closer to the ant’s face. The feeling of being scared was there, but the feeling of protecting the mantis was stronger.
When Theo’s consciousness got extremely close to the ants, it started feeling farther and farther until all Theo could look at was just a dot.
Just when he was going to travel further toward the head, he halted.
There were prickly feelings all around him as he saw one dot in the bond become two, then three, until there were many dots in formation waiting for him.
’What the f---’
Suddenly, he felt a small prickly tap on his body, and Theo opened his eyes with a jerk.
There was sweat all over his face, and only when Theo saw the mantis with its head looking at him and the foreleg gently tapping on his finger did he realize that he was back again.
There was a notification in front of him that made Theo feel even greater emotions.
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[Hive Link Detected: Shardjaw Ant Queen → Moss Carapace Mantis]
[Status: Partial/Unstable]
[Congratulations! Quest ’Discover an insect with a hive-mind ability’ completed!]
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He read the notification before he was invaded by a strong pain all over his body.
Just like that, Theo fainted in the terrarium room all alone, with no one to help him but the mantis.