(TL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_jelly )
Sheyan was ecstatic reading the notifications he just received. He immediately inquired about the details of the completion rate for this mission. The response was:
[ Silver Mission Series hidden branch, Chapter 2: Injection will not complete by itself. When the completion rate of the task reaches 100%, you may perform the necessary step to complete the mission. But you can also choose not to complete it, and instead continue to provide various “nutrients” to the liquid metal enhanced life-form in order to achieve additional completion rate. The higher the additional completion rate, the greater the probability of getting a “Level Max” evaluation. ]
This was similar to work on Earth. An employee would get the basic wage only after they completed the basic amount of work they had to perform. After that, the extra production would be paid with bonuses.
Ramtas did not bury itself in the soil to further evolve after eating the ant queen, but its overall might had improved. Its Strength and HP had increased by about 15%, the cooldown time of nature spells were reduced by 25%, MP consumption were reduced by 25%, and it had also learned a new nature spell.
The upper limit of the nature spells Ramtas could learn before was Rank 2 spells, but now it had become Rank 3.
Ramtas’ improvement had forced Sheyan to carefully consider its position. If Ramtas kept evolving, it would become of great value. If possible, Sheyan would not mind taking Ramtas in as his servant.
At that moment, Ramtas suddenly dug out a coconut-sized object that looked like a gall bladder from among the ant queen’s internal organs. It then respectfully gave the object to Sheyan with an excited grunt.
Sheyan took the object and found that it was wet and disgusting. It looked like a tumour. There were many blood vessels on the surface. A viscous, crimson liquid flowed out of the cracks between his fingers and dripped to the ground.
Despite how disgusting the object looked, Sheyan chose to believe in his summoned creature. He shaved off the surface layer of the tumour-like thing with a knife. When he did so, he found that the thing was similar to an orange or a pomelo in structure, with an astonishingly thick skin. Although it was as big as coconut, the cavity inside was actually only as large as a fist.
After cutting into the cavity, an indescribable smell drifted out. It smelled a little fishy at the beginning, but after getting used to it, the smell actually felt quite comfortable. Sheyan looked and found that there was a clear liquid inside, so he poured it out. There wasn’t much; only about 150 grams.
“Master… drink…” Ramtas gestured anxiously before Sheyan. Sheyan looked at Ramtas dubiously. If anyone else had said that, he would surely not have dared to put the liquid into his mouth. After all, the ant queen was a highly poisonous creature. If this object was a poison sac, he would die for sure.
But considering Ramtas’ loyalty, Sheyan decided to take a sip with his nose pinched. He immediately received some notifications:
[ You have consumed a rare medicine: the Royal Jelly of the One-Horned Flying Ants (Ant Nectar). ]
[ All attributes +1 ]
“WHAT!!!” Sheyan never expected such an amazing thing.
It must be known that since he had become a Growth Hunter, the amount of free attribute points needed to increase his attributes had increased drastically. He now needed three free attribute points to increase his two main attributes, Strength and Physique, by one point.
Five free attribute points were needed to increase his secondary attributes by a point, while other attributes required a staggering seven free attribute points! This small sip, which boosted all his attributes by one point, was equivalent to a reward of 40 free attribute points! Of course, the shortcoming was that the 40 free attribute points could not be freely distributed, but it was still really amazing nonetheless.
Sheyan immediately took another sip. As expected, he again received the notification of all attributes +1, but after he greedily took the third sip and had increased all his attributes by 3 points in total, he received a cruel notification:
[ The energy your body can absorb from the rare medicine ‘Royal Jelly of the One-Horned Flying Ants (Ant Nectar)’ has reached the limit. To drink any more would be ineffective, and may even lead to some adverse effects.” ]
Sheyan sighed with regret. He had been very careful when he drank the royal jelly, so he had consumed approximately 50 grams with the three sips. There were about 100 grams of the ‘Royal Jelly of the One-Horned Flying Ants’ left. Based on the amount he took, the remaining royal jelly could be divided into six parts, with each part providing the effect of “all attributes +1”.
This was no doubt a huge fortune. Any loss Sheyan had made from renouncing his claim on the Pi ores and unknown mysterious items had been more than recouped.
Paul and Aldaris would probably never discover the rare medicine even if they got their hands on the corpse of the ant queen anyway, for a very simple reason.
It must be known that for an ant colony, the royal jelly had only two uses – one was to raise male ants and the other was to raise queens. This ant colony was in full bloom before they met the contestants, so the ant queen naturally would not easily secrete any royal jelly, the same way a woman would not easily enter the lactation period. Even if the ant queen had secreted some royal jelly because it had nutrition to spare, the royal jelly would probably be absorbed back immediately.
Due to the lack of information in this regard, and without Ramtas, who had a strong sense of smell, it would be extremely difficult to find the organ that secreted the royal jelly in the corpse of the queen that was as large as a locomotive, and almost impossible to know that there was royal jelly inside.
Sheyan took out some test tubes and divided the remaining ant royal jelly into six parts. Not long afterwards, Paul and Aldaris came out of the nest laboriously. Why laboriously, you ask?
Because they had to carry eight pieces of high purity Pi ore. Even the smallest one among them was the size of a grinding disc. Their personal storages were already stuffed full of things, so they could only do the hard work themselves.
Before the discovery of planet Uplos, Pi ore was considered a rich ore if the content of Pi element in it reached 0.00007%, but since the discovery of the corpse of Ryant, senior explorer of the Galactic Mining Association, and the ore he carried, the standard for rich ore had been raised to 5%.
The crushing extractor that Sheyan and the others carried could process ores with purity as low as 1%. According to the preliminary analysis of the samples, the purity of these eight pieces of Pi ores ranged between 2%-7%, so they were definitely worth refining.
So now that everything had been distributed, Paul and Aldaris naturally would not choose to carry the ores with them as they traveled. They would purify the ores first before they left.
They crushed the ores into walnut sizes, then threw them into the crushing extractor. It should be noted that the Pi element was not any known metal element, so Paul’s power had no effect on it. Paul had been lamenting this fact all this while….
Sheyan did not hide his gain from Aldaris. He was not someone who pursued the maximization of profit to begin with. He quietly threw a test-tube containing the ant royal jelly to Aldaris. Aldaris gave Sheyan a glance and drank it quietly without a word. Then, Sheyan helped the other two move the remaining ores above the ground.
The Pi ores were truly pleasing aesthetically. They looked like they were made of snow-white, tiny sand grains kneaded together and inlaid with topazes, sapphires and other gemstones of various sizes. Under the sunlight, they gleamed with various colours.
Being close to the Pi ores gave one a sense of calmness and a clear mind, as if one was washed clean by clear spring water. This feeling was likely the reason why the One-Horned Flying Ants kept the Pi ores. Sheyan checked his log and found a mention of this phenomenon:
[ You have basked in the radiation of Pi element. MP recovery rate +10%, HP recovery rate +10%. ]
The work of crushing the ores was naturally left to Heracles the battle robot and Ramtas. The three contestants comfortably rested on dry rocks, basking in the warm sun, while dressing up some of the wounds left on their bodies.
Not long after, Paul suddenly sat up and narrowed his eyes. He said with three-tenth mockery and seven-tenth vigilance, “Here they come.”
Sheyan’s heart skipped a beat. His Perceptive Sense was not low at all, but it was Paul who noticed first! Paul obviously must have some special means for detection. Maybe because the three of them had successfully cooperated once, so he had let his guard down considerably and had started to show them the cards he had up his sleeve.
Soon, Sheyan could see Hedi Curry’s huge, bear-like figure taking large strides in their direction. The others followed behind him. When they saw the ores, multiple emotions could be read in their eyes. There were greed, jealousy, fury, envy….
“You, you, how could you…” Ronnie was the first to yell. He seemed to have difficulty finding his words, but the greed in his eyes was evident.
Sheyan secretly smiled. According to the agreement, he had given up his claim of the Pi ores, so there was no need for him to step forward. Sheyan really enjoyed the feeling of hiding in the shadows of others.
