Insect Tamer's Ascension Chapter 551: 551. Gigantic beetle (5)- Gale burden Beetle

The next few days did not go by like normal days at all. Theo had thought that getting away from the academy for a little while would make him feel relaxed.

But in the end, all it did was put him back where he liked being the most.

Experimenting. He couldn't stop at all, as if an endless class was going on, a class that Theo liked a lot.

On the very first day, Theo took the mantis and Elias deep enough into the forest that there would be no interruptions.

Professor Velra had already given orders to the tamers guarding the entrance of the royal academy's nearby forest. It was to allow Theo entry and not disturb him.

Theo didn't know what to think about that, but it made him realize from the professor's behavior that the forest was not a danger to him.

When he entered the forest fully, and there was no one but Elias and him around, the mantis got out of the beast space. It looked around as if it had just entered heaven.

Its body moved once, twice, and then it simply vanished from Theo's sight for a moment. And not even the 'Metallic Strike' ability had been used.

The next second, a small bird beast with green feathers was split at the neck before it could even react while perched on a tree branch.

When Theo saw that, he couldn't help but chuckle. "You really were hungry, huh?" Theo muttered while the mantis came back with the body in its forelegs.

The mantis did not even hide the emotion of greed it sent, which only made Theo smile and let it eat first.

By the time it was done, it had left behind a quarter of the bird as promised for Theo.

Theo went and collected a little blood from the bird's carcass into a glass tube before corking it and safely storing it in a pocket on his waist belt.

The next two kills were not much different either.

A small wind squirrel that leaped too slowly.

And then a wind rabbit that tried using a sudden burst of speed to escape, only to get caught by the mantis from above.

The whole forest had little beasts from what Theo could tell, and they all seemed to be of the wind affinity.

Theo stored all the blood separately, and only after that did he return to the dormitory again.

The moment he reached his room, he didn't even sit down and moved toward the beetle's box.

Elias couldn't watch these fascinating developments anymore as his class was already about to start. Clara was already in her attendant class, leaving Theo all alone in his room to focus.

The Armoured Pack Beetle was now used to Theo's presence much more than before. The moment it saw him, it flew to the wall Theo was facing and tapped its front leg against the wall twice.

Theo didn't waste any time and mixed the blood of the three wind beasts in a small bowl before pushing it inside.

The beetle approached it, touched the blood once, twice, and then started drinking.

Theo looked at it without blinking. The black-and-green shell looked no different for a while, and he was about to think it wasn't enough.

Until the notification came.

--

[Evolution Potential Detected]

[Evolution Name: Gale Burden Beetle]

[Evolution Requirements:

Carry five times its body weight for one hour (0/1)

Drink the blood of three Wind-type beasts (1/1)

Travel 500 meters while carrying beast flesh (0/500)]

[Evolution Rewards:

Load Glide (Passive): While carrying a heavy object, the beetle uses airflow more efficiently and loses less stamina.

Stabilizing Grip (Passive): The beetle can keep carried material balanced with much greater control.

]

--

"Good..." Theo muttered under his breath, only to realize that no one was in the room.

"The dream of having a transport beast that is an insect isn't that far. The foundation is being laid..." Theo didn't mind that no one was there. He still talked out loud. It kept his mind clear.

"But I still need a beetle that is a tank... I will need to work on that together with this one." He said to himself.

That was the first conclusion he came to in those days. It was already clear that not all insects had to be made into killing machines. The Ant Queen had already proved that.

Theo just had to make sure the insects he evolved became irreplaceable pieces of the world.

And so, for the rest of that day, Theo made the beetle carry strips of beast flesh, then whole cut pieces, and finally a tied-up portion of a dead millipede's body while making it go around a marked path again and again.

It failed many times. In the first attempts, the flesh slipped many times from the ropes.

Then it flew too high and dropped the load, and finally, it simply got tired and stopped on the wall as if saying it had enough.

Theo did not mind any of it and wrote everything down to have a written blueprint that would make the next beetle's process faster.

At the end of the day, the number on the evolution requirement had only reached 327 meters.

But on the second day, after many more rounds and a lot of tapping with Theo's finger that the beetle had started understanding as encouragement, it finally reached the end.

{Evolution Requirements:

Carry five times its body weight for one hour (1/1)

Drink the blood of three Wind-type beasts (1/1)

Travel 500 meters while carrying beast flesh (500/500)}

Theo felt the anxiety and adrenaline he would usually get from fighting a tough battle.

An evolution requirement being completed had always been a delightful feeling in his heart.

The beetle's shell opened and shut repeatedly as if it were breathing through its whole body.

Then it curled its legs in and stayed still.

Its body wasn't making a cocoon like the mantis had before, but the shell was clearly changing from the inside.