Chapter 198: [The Shardjaw ant queen is interested in becoming your tamed beast!]
Theo didn’t wait for the mantis to wake up, and he went directly inside the terrarium after having some good food.
This time, he didn’t let Elias enter the room, and Clara had already gone out of the castle because she was not an attendant anymore and only came to see if he was doing good or not.
’Should I go closer?’
Theo was at the other corner of the terrarium of the ants. The trauma he faced still made him sweat.
’I can’t believe the ant queen and even the other ants invaded a bond made by the benevolent artifact between me and the mantis. This is... unheard of, right? I don’t know how nobody else experienced this, because if they did... they would have discovered what a hive mind was too...’
No matter how much Theo thought and how much history said otherwise, he couldn’t help but think for certain that there would be other individuals out there with the same hive link discovery.
His best options were those who actually wrote a book about it or authors who wrote about someone else’s life.
’But... what do I do now? Can’t just not go toward them, they have not been fed for half a day now,’ Theo thought.
After contemplating whether it was the right decision or not, Theo took a deep breath and started moving toward the ant terrarium.
When he was only a few steps away, he halted and brought the box filled with roaches first.
They were dead ones, so it was only going to be them eating the roaches, not killing them.
Theo looked at the ant queen, who was working like usual, yet he frowned and looked closer. He knew the ant queen had already realized that he was here, but still, it didn’t feel like it cared about it.
Yet Theo’s gaze was on the corner of the room, where the ant queen and some worker ants were tending to something.
’The brood....’ Theo thought. They were the eggs of the ant queen, the future ants of the colony.
They were quite small, making him wonder if they would be the same or resemble the big-headed ones he had seen in online documentaries.
Theo tried counting them, but they were so tightly packed and also on top of one another, he could only count till 10 before it became fuzzy.
Yet this much was already enough. If they would successfully hatch, Theo knew it would be a great increase in their power.
’Should... is this a good time to tame it?’ Theo thought. He had already seen it inside his consciousness once, and that was what he had to do again.
’Even at that time, the ant queen didn’t really hurt or anything. According to the doctor, my mind was extremely exhausted, that was about it.’
The more he thought, the more tempted Theo became.
After a few minutes of just standing around, Theo finally made his decision. It had to be done anyway, so might as well do it before it increases its power.
’But I have to make sure that if I can’t control the other ants, or this taming is just too different, then I will have to break the taming forcefully... and if I do that... there will be some backlash that will go away after some years...’
Theo tried taking in the risk in mind, but even beyond that, he was too obsessed with getting them as his 2nd beast.
He quickly stopped thinking about anything and moved closer to the glass.
He focused closely on the ant before thinking about taming it, and his eyes closed completely.
[You have tried taming the Shardjaw Ant Queen]
Theo saw the message with closed eyes, and soon he was in that dark place again, with his body floating and unseeable.
He waited for the ant queen to show her head, and he didn’t need to wait for a long time because a big head, the same as what he had seen going away from him before, came forward from the darkness.
Theo felt like it was as scary as that of the mantis when seen close up and with so much detail.
Theo knew there was a light contact between him and the ant queen right now, so he quickly offered it some deals.
The first was Theo showing her clear, imaginative pictures of having no food shortage ever. In that image, he made it seem how the ants had a full belly even after making it eat all day.
He gave it the image of how it could lay as many eggs as it wanted later, after the taming, with the image of hundreds of eggs being tended by at least twenty to thirty worker ants.
At that image, the big mandibles of the ant queen moved for a moment. Theo’s eyes widened, and he felt like his plan was working; he was not done.
He gave another image of how it and its colony would always be protected with the help of him, Theo, with whom it would make a contract.
There was not much reaction there, so Theo went directly on to the next big reveal.
He made it imagine the scenario of the ants completing different evolution paths that could only happen with him and showed it images of how the Iron Mantis became a Moss Carapace Mantis, and soon it would complete its 2nd evolution.
Theo had kept many of his cards on the table, and the ant queen just kept looking at him with that unknown insect-like face, just like the mantis.
But with the mantis, Theo could only feel its emotions for some reason. Maybe it was due to their bond even before the taming.
Theo waited and waited until his body froze. The ant queen’s head started moving toward him until it was dangerously close.
Theo’s body jerked back, but he refrained from moving. He couldn’t be hurt in this place, right?
The antennae of the ant queen started flailing around until one of them touched Theo’s head.
Just after that, Theo’s head jerked back and he saw many high-definition images in front of him, and they were so fast that it made it look like a movie.
It was how the ant queen led the ants out of this terrarium and into the home they had before. Their chambers were a lot bigger and their brood in thousands, just like it was supposed to be.
Then it made Theo appear in the small movie too, and Theo made the ants change just like the mantis.
At that point, the movie stopped, and the antennae went up again, making Theo’s eyes come back.
He looked at the ant queen with dumbfoundedness, but at the same time, it was unbelievable.
’Did I... just get an offer from the ant queen? Were they the things that the ant queen demanded in exchange for the taming?’
Theo found this more fascinating than ever. There were quite a few, if any, beasts that could have this level of intelligence at this stage of their development.
Yet he didn’t accept the offer just like that.
He showed it more images of how the ants trusted him with their life and they with him. He showed it images of them fighting alongside too.
Theo added another big reveal where he concentrated and showed it images of ants as big as him, working and teaming alongside him and destroying monsters one after another.
The ant queen took a few inches of distance from Theo. Its mandibles jerked constantly; Theo could almost tell that it was literally thinking of what decision it would take.
’I know you care more about your people, the colony, than anything else, and I respect that. I will never let a single one die under my command. I promise.’ Theo thought in words for the first time, and he didn’t know if the ant queen understood it or not, yet he had to get it out of him.
He had a feeling of respect toward it, the ant queen that sacrificed its wings, its motorized functions only to protect its people, the ants.
Theo showed her one last image of how she would not need to sacrifice that much anymore and that the chain could change with just a slight help.
Theo showed her images of the amount of food he had for them that could almost last them for 1000 years if not 10,000.
The ant queen’s distance increased, and Theo feared that this would not work.
’I guess this was it huh... can’t say I didn’t do my best.’ Theo thought before moving his face up again and speaking, ’Thank you for your time, ant queen. If you reject this offer, I will help you relocate back to your original place. I won’t keep you if you don’t want it.’ Theo thought.
He only did that because for some reason, the ant queen felt more humanly intelligent than any other insects he knew or interacted with.
The ant queen just stayed there for a moment before its antennae started glowing again. Theo only chuckled; that was it in his eyes.
But to his surprise, many other small lights flashed in the distance until they came closer and closer, before all the ant heads with their antennae glowing made a circle around Theo.
[The Shardjaw Ant Queen is interested in becoming your tamed beast!]
[Do you accept?]