Insect Tamer's Ascension Chapter 543. Colony’s unexpected development

’Since when can you speak, Ant Queen?’ Theo asked. ’No, scratch that. What led you to think you should speak in human language?’ Theo asked.

The Ant Queen was about to answer but was confused by the second question until only a millisecond later, it replied with the emotions that meant, "To make it easy for Theo to understand me."

Theo sighed. ’I understand you very well, Ant Queen. You don’t need to learn the human language to communicate with me. What we have is more convenient and efficient, we talk in emotions.’ Theo said.

’But let’s leave that. It’s been many months since I have seen you. Have you been healthy?’ Theo asked, only to get a reply within seconds which made him want to jump in happiness.

It had been such a long time since Theo had this efficient conversation that happened in less than a minute.

According to the Ant Queen, it was perfectly healthy and was producing around 200 ants per day.

According to that, Theo knew there were about 6000 new ants from the Ant Queen every month. And he was gone for around 7-8 months, so 48,000 new burrower ants as big as his palm, maybe even bigger now, in the colony.

And aside from that, there were two more Ant Queens generating 50-100 brood a day, which made Theo feel like they were going at a steady pace.

The Ant Queen gave him the whole statistics of everything, about how next to no ants had died in these months Theo had been gone.

Except for the male ants. Even though their lifespan went beyond a month now, it still ended very fast.

The numbers were only increasing, and that led Theo to ask the next question.

’It’s been a while, can you let me see how the colony looks now?’ Theo asked, and jitters of excitement were sent all around the Ant Queen’s mind.

It obliged, and soon, Theo saw flashes of vision that were crystal clear, as if he was there.

The blurriness in the ants’ eyes had reduced a lot, which made Theo relax. The quality was a hundred times better than when they started.

Theo saw chambers similar to previous ones, but the main ones were a lot bigger. There were countless chambers that tended to the brood and then ones that were for storage.

Theo felt crazy when he saw chamber after chamber after chamber of cores just piled up on one another.

It just showed how good they had gotten at hunting.

But the next chamber made Theo feel even more ridiculous.

There were worm-like insects in many rooms with ants tending to them. The Ant Queen showed the close-up of how an ant was getting water from its second stomach and making the worm drink it, which was happy about it.

Seeing how all the worms were this fat and there were so many, Theo couldn’t help but ask one thing.

’Where do you get so many? Do you breed them here or get them from around the forest?’ Theo asked.

The Ant Queen, seeing how fascinated Theo was, became even happier.

It sent out emotions that told Theo that they were bred inside the colony, making Theo know that they were not some caterpillar stage of another insect like the silkworm.

Around the many worms being fed by the ants that were allotted to them, there was one in the very corner that was even fatter than the rest of them.

The one in the corner wasn’t even inside the chamber fully, and Theo was shown images of how half of the lower body of the big worm was attached to another tunnel where it gave birth to more eggs or brood, and the ants got them to another chamber.

Theo wanted to get seated to process how good the ants were doing on their own. He could be nitpicky and ask them why they were focusing on such insects and not the bigger beasts in the world, but Theo knew what it took to even get to this point.

He didn’t want the ants to be pushed too much. With time, he knew they were going to be the ones at the top of the food chain.

Since Theo knew what the lifespan of each level category of burrower ants was, he didn’t have a problem with making them grow more slowly.

The burrower worker ants that were below Level 5 had yet to die even now. They weren’t anywhere close to their lifespan ending.

And each breakthrough made it double, so Theo had no problem with their lifespan. Not even the mantis now, as even physically, it wasn’t in any of its later stages of life.

With that gone and Theo caught up with how the ant colony was doing, Theo was about to ask the main thing, but the Ant Queen quickly switched to the next type of chamber, making Theo’s jaw drop in real life too.

When Clara noticed it, she quickly went ahead and closed it as if it was a normal thing that had just happened.

’Is that... skin?’ Theo asked as he tried to zoom into the vision from habits of his old life.

The Ant Queen understood the need and sent one ant closer to the skin that was piled on top of each other in a long chamber.

It showed Theo scales on the skin and how much precision had been used to scrape or eat away the fat and flesh from it.

’Is that the... viper?’ Theo asked, making the Ant Queen become even happier.

But seeing its reaction, Theo felt a cold sweat reach into his real body, making the attendants alert.

Just how far had the colony expanded?

Just like that, the Ant Queen went and showed a memory akin to a movie where they got rid of what looked like a giant serpent but was actually just a Level 1 viper.

The more Theo saw, the more he felt like things had progressed more than he had expected, and he felt bad for keeping his expectations this tame when the ants were amazing.