Chapter 260: Chapter 260: Getting sunlight to grow the ants (1)

"Everything went well, young master," Elias spoke with a heave of relief when they got out of the study finally.

"You call that good, Elias? We are stuck in the forest till I show enough strength."

"But weren’t we always in that part of the forest anyway, young master?" Clara chimed in with a chuckle.

Theo did not have much to say, but his mood became even grumpier, and they both didn’t try to make it worse.

When he was back in his room, a nostalgic feeling invaded all over him. Theo went directly to the terrarium room.

All the boxes in the terrarium room were empty except for the one big one.

As no one was there to care for it, Theo had thrown each of the insects inside the big terrarium in hopes of making the stronger ones even stronger.

Only the silkworm was in the same box, munching on the fresh leaves a servant gave to it every few days.

He crouched and looked at the silkworm with a smile.

"I definitely have grown tall. There was a time when this box was as tall as me." Theo spoke with a chuckle.

"Haven’t you seen you’re as tall as Clara too now, young master?" Elias spoke with a knowing smile, making Clara glare at him and Theo look back in curiosity.

He came close to Clara and realized that not a lot of difference was left in their heights.

"All your family is tall, young master. It was bound to happen." Clara spoke with a pout, which made Theo think she was very cute.

He moved back to the silkworm and saw all the silk that the worm had woven all around it.

Theo was not surprised that it was able to live up to now, as the lifespan of these worms was around three to four years. But once they became a moth, they didn’t live much longer.

"I need to make this guy level up too somehow. But it never kills like that damn beetle." Theo grumbled, trying to find a way to level it up.

Elias pulled the movable ant hill to its previous location, making Theo move to it now.

"Clara, we still have the fiber manufacturing class book in my bag, get that out and start studying already. We don’t have a lot of time." Theo muttered before he called out to check the numbers of the ants.

He was so focused now that even though Clara was surprised, she still went away with a "Yes." Her eyes were filled with excitement as if she wanted to read it already.

For the next two minutes, Theo looked at Elias one to two times and frowned. The guy was looking at the door with a knowing look, and Theo knew what he wanted to do.

"Elias, go read any of the books you’d like. Grow your knowledge. There is no use of you staying just here with me." Theo spoke and went back to the counting.

Like Clara, he had something to say too, but seeing Theo so engrossed and focused refrained him from doing so. He didn’t need to disturb Theo more than he already had.

He left too, leaving Theo and the insects alone.

"There are 965 ants in the colony now, out of which 100 are embermaw workers and the other hundred are aquamandibles... that leaves 765 of them that are still shardjaw ants."

Theo could tell that his system of leveling and training them might not have been very good to start with. He trained a small group of ants each time and rotated them.

And this was all in automation, as when the ant queen caught on, it always tried doing the same thing to copy Theo, as he too was trying to make the colony stronger.

’Currently, my focus should be on converting at least 100 of these basic shardjaw ants into spined worker ants. I will have to see how big they can get with the help of sunlight...’

Theo noticed that around 46 of the ants were level 3 and on their way toward level 4.

So he just needed to focus on them first and get them to level 4 before doing anything else.

’Mantis, do you want to go hunting?’ Theo spoke in the bond only to realize that they hadn’t communicated since the time it had messed up.

It was strange to say the least. Mantis could never be this quiet even after the last evolution, which made it more mature.

’Mantis, are you okay? Do you feel bad that I scolded you so much?’ Theo asked again.

Within moments, the emotions of feeling extremely bad came through the bond, which made Theo’s heart ache.

’Mantis, don’t be sad... I will give you your favorite insect to eat right now.’

The emotions changed to that of excitement and restlessness for a moment before it went back to feeling bad, and more toward guilt this time.

Theo hadn’t realized Mantis’s intelligence had reached the point that it could feel so many emotions on its own.

’I know you were just trying to eat the essence that called out to you for evolution... but it was bad that you did it when I was in such a place.’ Theo spoke.

’But it was my mistake, not yours. I should have told you that. I won’t be mad at you again. Will you come out now?’ Theo spoke while feeling guilty.

In anxiety previously, he had said some really bad things to it which it never deserved.

He waited for a minute, and the mantis didn’t get out, which concerned him. Depression in beasts was very common, and a phase like that came to every one of them when their intelligence got better.

But for Mantis, it was still too early.

TAP TAP.

Theo flinched and looked down at his leg, only to look at the crimson-colored cute mantis tapping its foreleg at him.

When he did, Theo finally felt good enough to smile. The mantis was his lifeline, and nothing could ever change that.