Insect Tamer's Ascension Chapter 554: 554. Gigantic Beetle (8)- A Wyvern vs Beetle: What is better?

Theo did not wait too long after that.

The whole point of making a bigger transport type was to see if it could actually be useful in the real world and not just inside his room, where all it did was move in circles with meat tied to it.

Theo was optimistic about the beetle working wonders, but in reality, anything could happen. The beetle could hit a bottleneck in some aspect but be good in others. Anything was possible.

So the very next morning, Theo, Elias, and Clara went to the nearby forest again.

The mantis got out of the beast space on its own, and as there were still other tamers around, some of whom froze without knowing the reason, Theo decided to move farther into the forest until there was no one nearby.

The mantis went onto the trees to start its snacking session while Theo opened the lid of the box, making the beetle fly out at a very high speed.

It no longer looked like the small black insect Elias had brought from a merchant.

Its body had become broader and heavier, while the green on its shell had spread into finer patches around the black. The shell itself had a layered feel to it now, and when the wings came out, they looked a lot steadier than before. It was still nowhere close to being a true mount, but compared to how it had looked some days ago, Theo could already see a path ahead of it.

“We still have to work on your size, little one,” Theo muttered while looking up at it flying. “But for now, it’s fine. I can work with small.”

He had already planned what to test.

The group had brought a tied bundle of cut beast flesh, a few pouches of mineral powder, two rolled-up empty glass tubes wrapped in cloth, and a dead branch thick enough that a normal person would not want to keep carrying it around for no reason.

The first few tries were not as smooth as Theo would have liked.

The beetle managed the flesh and powder well enough, but once the dead branch was tied on top of its body, it kept tilting to one side mid-flight.

Theo had to stop it many times, untie the branch, adjust the ropes, then make Elias hold the bundle at a different angle while he gave the beetle instructions through the taming space.

It was extremely annoying to do this without the Ant Queen, which drove Theo insane enough that he was ready to tame the beetle. But he wanted a good future, not one built on a rash decision.

There were a lot of failures, but there was one variable that never seemed to change.

The beetle did not once drop the material because it lost strength. The only times it failed were when the balance was off and the weight shifted to one side, making the beetle drift that way instead of flying in the direction it was supposed to.

And that problem seemed like something a human could fix for the beast, so Theo didn’t mind it.

“Again!” Theo spoke in a commanding tone. He had entered the beast taming space again and again and taught the beetle the meaning of “again” so that there was no need to keep entering the beast space and losing brain cells in the process.

The beetle tapped the ground once and moved forward.

This time, it flew much lower, as if understanding the issue through its own instincts. The branch still made it sway a little, but not enough to force a crash.

Theo walked behind it at a much faster pace than Elias and Clara and kept his spatial senses on the insect the whole time.

He made it move from one tree marker to another and then toward a flatter patch of land where they had placed another bundle beforehand.

By the time the beetle completed the whole route and came back with the second load, there was a smile on Theo’s face that he wore with pride.

It was not just because the beetle was strong enough to carry such weight, but also because it remembered the path they had taken again and again, as if it had memorized the route.

That showed some level of intelligence.

“Young master, there is a long journey ahead before making this a true transport beast,” Elias spoke while watching the insect land on a branch to rest.

“I know,” Theo replied before Elias could even finish.

Theo knew very well that this still was not a transport beast one would risk taming when there were options like draconic beasts and the like.

And at that thought, Theo finally smiled.

“But do you know what our biggest advantage will be?” Theo asked Elias while Clara was out there playing with the boar and the pup, who was not really a pup anymore but an adult Silverfang Direwolf.

“What is it?” Elias asked, as curious as ever.

“If I can take some time and make this insect even bigger, it will one day be considered a transport beast. But our biggest advantage is in the numbers.” Theo spoke.

“Tell me, how long does it take for a wyvern to produce an egg and for it to hatch?” He asked.

Elias thought about it for a while before answering.

“Hmm… they don’t breed very fast. It could be years before they breed, and the number of wyvern eggs is always left to luck. Then the eggs take a few months to hatch.” Elias spoke before remembering something else.

“After that, they have to be trained from a young age, and only after at least five years are they finally ready for transport duty. Even with those 5 years, I have heard of mishaps happening because the Wyverns are still considered very young in terms of their age.”

Theo smiled.

Elias looked at Theo and knew he had something better in mind after listening to him speak.

“Well, ours, on the other hand…”