Insect Tamer's Ascension Chapter 548. Gigantic beetle (2)- Wrong evolution potential

"So this is the one you were so excited about?" Theo spoke in his dorm room.

He was seated in front of a small box where a certain blackish beast was moving left and right slowly as if perceiving the land around it.

Elias’s eyes were flashing with excitement when he saw the young master take notice of it.

"This is the one. The merchant told me it’s famous with some merchant families. They use the hard exterior of this insect to make rings and jewellery, polished into a fine black, young master."

"I have personally seen how the jewellery looks, and it’s got quite the lavish appearance." Elias spoke and finally stopped.

Theo nodded at that when he looked at the insect from up close. When he went a little too close.

The hard exterior of its body moved up, and delicate wings came out of it. Elias and Clara panicked within seconds when they noticed the beetle fly directly at Theo’s face.

They were just about to kill it, but Theo moved his hand into the beetle’s trajectory, making a small landing spot.

The beetle stopped and landed on his finger vertically as if staying on the bark of a tree or a wall.

Theo looked at it again, now on his hand and curiously looking around.

"So this one is known to have a hard exoskeleton even by normal people, huh? That makes it the perfect target." Theo grinned and kept the beetle back in the box.

That was when Clara hesitated to say something but didn’t mind saying it out loud the next second.

"Young master, why are you choosing insects like this? Why not get a few more mantises and repeat the process?" She asked.

Theo looked at her with a smile as if he had been waiting for that question for some time now.

"Getting a beetle to the market is the safest option. It won’t be much of an attacking beast but will be quite a good defense for its tamer." He spoke and continued, "But if we were to give people a beast that has the capability to hunt down anything, that also craves it and has no fear, that will make many go from doubtful to horrified." He explained.

"So we need to be careful." He said but remembered something else and smiled.

"And also, I am specifically an insect tamer, so it’s only right that I keep the best insects for myself. The market will get the ones that I think can be sent out in bulk. Not a mantis that needs special training to reach this level."

With that, Theo was done explaining.

He went toward a table in the corner of his room and opened a drawer where small boxes were kept organized.

There were labels like "Fire," "Water," "Earth," "Wind," and also "Venom." Aside from that, there were "Hard Exoskeleton" and "Speed."

All the other boxes were unlabeled.

Theo went for the box that had no label, and Elias could tell where he was going right away. Most of it had been brought by him from the market to begin with before they tested which evolution option was brought by which ingredient.

"So far, these are the only ones that helped an insect grow bigger with evolution." Theo said while he opened it and brought out a small pouch.

Elias brought out a small cup from the other side, and Theo poured the contents of the pouch inside it.

It was a fine grayish powder, almost like concrete dust, but there was a sparkle to it too, as if glitter had been added to the powder.

Meanwhile, Clara brought something to Theo with disgust written all over her face.

"Hahaha, thank you, Clara." Theo could only chuckle at that.

He opened the box Clara gave him only to see about 50-100 worms just wiggling around nonstop.

He went and grabbed one out of the box before giving the open box to Clara, who accepted it but kept it at arm’s length.

Theo kept the worm inside the cup and pinched a lot of the powder before pouring it over it.

The worm that was all slimy and green turned grayish with all the powder stuck to it.

Theo took a pair of metal tweezers and grabbed the coated worm with them before bringing it toward the beetle’s box and placing it inside.

"Now it’s time to wait." He spoke and went to the desk where his notes were kept and a list of ingredients with their potential uses written across all the pages.

He had found countless evolutionary materials till now, be it beast parts, flora of any kind, plain dirt that triggered an evolution, or precious metals.

The beetle moved slowly around the box, and everyone went back to their work as if knowing the slow speed of an insect in a new environment with no control over it.

Finally, after ten minutes, the beetle came across the wiggling worm. It took it five tries of moving all around, touching the worm, and repeating the cycle before it latched onto the worm and started the feast.

Theo didn’t mind that and kept on working. If something were to happen, he would get the notification, as even a measly milligram of a resource could help trigger an evolution.

Theo had already used his evolution ability on the beetle, so he could see its evolutionary details, which had nothing on them so far.

{Evolution Potential Detected}

Just when Theo was about to write another page of potential theories, he saw the message and smiled.

When he got to the beetle, it was still eating bits and pieces of the worm, but there was a stark difference in how it was eating.

There was already less than a quarter of the worm’s body cut away and brought to the side by the beetle, where it enjoyed it while the coated worm was still wiggling around.

When Theo finally saw what it was, his eyes drooped in disappointment.

’It’s not the beetle but the worm instead that can evolve...’

Theo didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but the next step was already decided.

To the next resource feeding he would go.