The sight in front of them was a cruel one, but it was also the main reason why Sheyan judged that the ant colony was not playing any tricks, because no ant colony would be willing to pay such a tragic price just to confuse the enemy. To achieve victory at such a cost was not worth it.
As was previously mentioned, what the One-Horned Flying Ants larvae grew into in large part depended on what they were fed.
At the moment, the surviving larvae in the incubation room were eating the eggs and the other larvae, and they had developed a very strange appearance as a result. They had turned out vastly different from other One-Horned Flying Ants, becoming very fierce and very bloodthirsty.
But for some reason, Ramtas was visibly thrilled to see them. It had immediately rushed over to greedily feed on these ant larvae. These larvae were indeed very fierce, but just as fierce young lion cubs were no match for adult hyenas, the larvae were also no match for the massive Ramtas. Ramtas waved its stick around while grunting excitedly, easily killing or knocking all the larvae unconscious. Then, it eagerly stuffed the larvae into its mouth so that its six stomachs could absorb the nutrients in them.
After stuffing itself full, Ramtas suddenly roared in pain, then dug a hole in the ground furiously and buried itself inside.
The contestants waited for over ten minutes before a huge earth mound slowly arched out of the ground. Following the rupturing of the earth mound, a powerful figure stepped out from inside. It started showing off its muscles by making various poses commonly seen in body-building competitions. When the dry earth shell broke, soil was sent splattering everywhere; Sheyan was covered in soil from head to toe as a result.
Evidently, Ramtas had succeeded in evolving after eating those larvae like they were Mini Oreos. Even Sheyan, the culprit behind it all, had not expected that. The evolutionary ability seemed to be a new function that came from Sheyan adding his own blood to the mix.
The current Ramtas was even taller than it was before. The vital parts of its body were covered in a hard outer shell akin to an ant’s. Some of its bristles had changed into the shape of an ant’s antennae.
Sheyan could clearly sense from the blood connection between them that, of all the changes that had occured in Ramtas, there were two crucial ones.
The first was its strength which was now at least three times as high as before. The second was an ability to attack the enemy by puking out a strong acid from its stomach, which was as hard to get rid of as chewing gum.
In addition, it also had stronger senses, higher HP and higher defence.
To give an example, if the previous Ramtas was not as good as Paul’s metal robot in a melee fight, then the Ramtas right now already had the capability to confront Heracles head on. Moreover, Ramtas’ support abilities and low maintenance were not something Heracles could compare to.
One could imagine the jealousy in Paul’s eyes right now.
Although the cave was dark and did not permit sunlight to penetrate inside, they could tell by calculating the time that the day had already brightened outside. The rest of the team were not blind, so they had surely discovered that the trio had gone missing.
What’s the greatest pain in life? Of course it’s to have the peaches picked by others after you’ve eliminated all the obstacles….
(TL: Picking peaches is a Chinese slang that means to profit without putting in the effort.)
For the conveniences of the readers, I shall explain it in gaming terms. It would be like if you had fought a boss until it had only a trace of HP left, but a few people suddenly appeared and killed you, then easily killed the boss that was on the brink of death, then looted a number of valuable equipments from it….
Therefore, the trio decided to hurry up. They rushed back to the intersection before and went down the bigger tunnel this time. Sheyan deduced that this tunnel should lead to the queen’s chamber, and Ramtas’ nose supported Sheyan’s judgment.
Nearly a hundred meters past the intersection, three of the cyborgs suddenly stopped and reacted simultaneously. They took out the portable reading instruments that could measure the concentration of Pi elements from their backpack.
At this time, the screens on the reading instruments were shining with a dark green glow! This indicated that there were medium-purity Pi veins within ten kilometers of them!
When the cyborgs raised the concentration index of the instrument, the light on the screen actually stayed dark green. This indicated that the vein was a rich vein!
However, Sheyan could not help but sigh. The reading instruments did not respond when they entered the cave, and only reacted after they had went deep down inside, so it was very likely that this medium-purity Pi vein was 10 kilometers deep underground. The values of such veins were actually very low because the cost to mine them was astronomical. It would be impossible to satisfy the higher-ups with merely this discovery as the result of their exploration.
Suddenly, the “ladybug” that was flying in front of them shook once, then crashed into the wall beside it and burst into flames. It continued struggling for several meters in the air before it fell to the ground, all the while emitting a hissing sound. After it fell, the others could see that its outer shell had been corroded by acid.
Fortunately, the three contestants were prepared for a sudden attack. As soon as they saw something went wrong, they immediately threw several fluorescent rods around them. The fluorescent rods could float in the air and they were not afraid of being attacked. If they were chopped into several pieces, then there would simply be a few more light sources. They instantly illuminated the surrounding area.
There was only a small hole before at the spot where the acid was shot from, but now, soil started to rustle down. Next, the soil was sent scattering everywhere as dense cracks started appearing on the wall of the ant cave!
Then, the whole wall collapsed amidst a deafening roar like the last moans of a dying old man. Half a section of fluorescent rod flew into the space behind the collapsed wall amidst the dust, illuminating the huge space inside. Two male ants and three worker ants could be seen lying in a pool of pale-blue body fluid with parts missing from their bodies. They seemed to have been eaten!
A small part of the space was occupied by a nest which had obviously been carefully built. There was a groove in front of the nest that had a lot of bite marks on it. In the middle of the nest was a fleshy, red giant object which looked like a dry sack but also like half a train compartment. Its size was astonishing and it was covered with wrinkles and dents. At one end of the fleshy, red giant object was a conspicuous wound about the size of a grinding disc. A large amount of internal organs were overflowing out of the wound, and a dark, bluish body fluid was constantly gushing out.
One glance at this situation and everyone present could guess what had happened. Obviously, the queen had felt a strong sense of crisis. At the same time, under the torment of extreme hunger, it had killed and fed on the worker ants and male ants around it. Then, the queen bit off the part connecting it to the egg sack to separate the bulky egg sack from its body.
The ant queen would obviously not live for much longer after doing that, but at least for a short period of time it would be free, and thus it could die with the enemies. This showed that the ant queen had a very high intelligence, almost comparable to that of a human being’s.
But, but, where was this ant queen who was so cruel to itself so that it could be even crueler to its enemies? Up to this moment, the trio had only seen the traces behind left by it, but had not caught even a glimpse of it! A strong sense of crisis immediately assaulted all three contestants.
A thought instantly entered Sheyan’s mind:
‘If I were the ant queen, what would I do?’
Sheyan immediately had an answer to that question. The answer prompted him to decisively turn around and run for his life. His behavior no doubt set a good example for the other two, who followed suit. After the three men had run for five or six seconds, a violent vibration and a loud rumble came from behind them. A huge arthropod limb had smashed through the wall, causing large cracks to appear and spread. A huge amount of stones and soil instantly fell from the top of the cave….
The horrifying ant queen was trying to bury the three men alive!
Evidently, its biological power was the ability to move freely underground, which was why the contestants could not catch even a glimpse of the monster. Therefore, if they fought with the monster in an underground environment, they would just be seeking death!
Fortunately, the running speed of the trio were quite fast. Movement speed was indeed Paul’s weakness, but Sheyan had ordered Ramtas to carry him. That warmed Paul’s heart.
The three had treaded carefully when they went into the cave, but they were naturally running as fast as they could when they go out. Thanks to their agility as contestants, they took only less than two minutes to escape outside. The sky had already turned bright. Sheyan quickly looked around at the surrounding terrain, then ran straight towards the bottom of the mushroom rock. There were a lot of large rocks there. Even if the ant queen had that strange biological power, to travel among the rocks should still be very energy consuming.
All of them understood that since the queen had bitten off the egg sack, it meant the queen’s hatred for them was so intense that it was prepared to die to bring them down. No matter where they ran, it would surely follow. It would kill them if it was the last thing it did!
Since they had established such a firm aggro, they did not have to worry about the queen slipping away. So, they simply chose a favourable terrain to wait for it.
Sheyan handed out his mixes to the other two. Aldaris provided an ion shield for everyone that would burn the enemies that approached them. Paul put his hands on the ground and closed his eyes.
The metal components in the earth nearby were extracted out by Paul’s powerful ability. They first floated in the air, then went over to the three of them to cover their vital parts.
The ant queen did not make them wait for too long. Right after it realised that the cave collapse plan had failed, it had immediately given chase. It was now slowly emerging from the soil in the distance!
