Insect Tamer's Ascension

Two days passed with just leveling up and making strategies.

The ants were only the size of half of a human's fingernail, making it hard for them to defeat bigger beasts.

But at the same time, the ants were able to pick things five times their size and weight, and that was what Theo was playing with.

His focus was to help the ants evolve, so he started giving the ants different minerals to eat, but the unfortunate thing was that they didn't eat and just kept them in their food chambers.

The chambers had now increased from one to four, where one had brood all over it, and the others were filled with their ration of different food.

All the minerals he gave went to these chambers, and no matter how much he told the ant queen to eat it, it refused, making Theo wonder why.

Out of the 15 ants, there were four that had already reached level 1 with constant effort.

There came a time when the ant queen stopped allowing certain groups to fight. It had now fully understood what the roaches were and their strength, so letting the only four-ant squad in this colony take care of them was okay.

The others had to attend to other tasks in the colony, such as food storage and collecting roaches to store as food.

They were a fascinating bunch, and Theo knew he needed them to become stronger quickly.

"It's ready, young master," Elias spoke with the new product right beside him. Theo quickly went in to look at it.

It was so similar to what he had thought, he couldn't help but pat Elias's shoulder.

Four wheels looked steady enough, a square on top of them, and then a big block of soil or some material on it.

There was a time when Theo had thought doing this was not going to work, but seeing that it was already halfway complete, he nodded with a deep breath.

"Good job, Elias. You have a knack for planning and building, you know."

"I did not build this, young master. It was the artisans. They are always happy to get orders from you, as yours are quite unique."

"Maybe I should meet them someday," Theo said and dragged the trolley with the long handle.

They quickly made it enter the terrarium room and looked at the ants inside their colony.

It had only been two days, but they had made quite a progress. But now, it was time to shift somewhere else, somewhere that would help him and them to travel faster.

"How do I make them enter this now? They are tamed beasts, so I can give them some orders to do it… But what about this lengthy glass with the repellent powder on it?" Theo thought out loud.

"There is a way, young master," Elias spoke. "Would you like to do it right now?" Elias asked, making Theo nod instinctively without even asking.

"There were methods made in this so that one day, if you want to shift them to an even bigger one, we just have to do this."

Elias was tall enough that he removed the top lid without even the chair and kept it down before moving to the side.

"There are clips all over here, this is not just design, young master." Elias spoke and maneuvered his fingers across the edges of the side glass, making 'CLICK' sounds come again and again.

Theo moved forward to look at it and saw the clips opening one after another until he reached the end and all the clips were open.

"I can open it now. What would you like me to?" Elias asked, his face very close to the ants that were having a small war against the roaches.

"Open it," Theo said, and brought a chair forward to get on it.

Elias nodded and pulled the side glass until it came off little by little while taking some of the soil stuck with it.

They were stuck together quite well.

"But after this, there will not really be any way for them to not go out of the block of soil, young master. You might have to give them the order to stay there." Elias spoke before the glass got out and he moved back.

'Kill all the roaches fast, I will shift you all to a better place.' Theo gave a mental command, and the ants kept working until the ant queen processed the order and passed it to them.

The ants all went up, leaving all their work, and within the next few minutes, got rid of each and every roach, making only the dead carcasses of them be left behind.

The ants, after completing the order, moved around like usual until one found its way across the edge and moved a little down. Its antennae glowed, and that was when each and every ant knew there was new space to explore here.

'Make the workers follow my finger,' Theo came closer to the chamber of the ant queen and showed it his finger before it gave the order.

Theo kept his finger right at the edge of the terrarium where there was an opening now. Not all, but about five ants moved forward until their antennae hit the finger and they halted.

Theo slowly moved his finger down the soily wall without the glass, making the ants follow him.

"What are you doing, young master?" Elias asked in confusion.

"Ants work with pheromones; they are different and use other things too, but still, new land is always covered with their pheromones so that others can follow suit. I am making a pathway to this one ust for safety." Theo pointed at the small trolley before telling Elias to move it closer.

When he was at the end of the terrarium and the ants had reached so far, Theo moved his finger sideways till he reached the wall of the room and then moved down along that.

The ants became faster when they were on the wall, and soon Theo got them on the floor, and Theo made them reach the trolley before he pulled that little wooden walkway out of the trolley and touched it on the ground.

He moved up there, and the ants followed until they reached the block.

'Tell them to scout and tell you how this home could be,' Theo gave a mental command to the ant queen.

After five seconds, finally, the antennae of the ants now had a dim glow, and instead of Theo's finger, they now moved across the block of soil.

Theo stayed there but moved his finger away.

It took them 10 minutes to fully scout the whole area until their antennae glowed and the ant queen got the report.

'What do you think?' Theo asked the beast as if it could communicate back.

The ant queen didn't say anything, but its actions said otherwise.

The five ants that were in the new place were now moving back with the help of the pheromone trail they made until they reached the wall of the room, then the terrarium, and then the colony itself.

When they were safely back, Theo was shocked to see the ant queen moving on its own for the first time.

It got out of the chambers and then to the edge of the terrarium.

'Wait, I will carry you and the ants to the new colony, you already have the pathway so we can do this.' Theo gave advice, not much of a command.

Until he realized that he was talking to them as if they were human, which was weird. He didn't know if the ants would understand that or even trust him, but so far, there had been no troubles related to 'trust' yet.

The ants waited at the edge with the ant queen until Theo smiled and made his hand go near the edge before connecting to it like a bridge.

The ant queen tapped its big antennae on the finger a few times before it moved its way toward the four fingers and then the palm before stopping.

The other ants followed suit; there were five of them beside the ant queen now.

Now that Theo had taken the ant queen in his hand, he realized how big it was.

It covered halfway to all his four fingers, and almost a quarter of his palm in comparison to them both.

And he didn't even feel a chill with them walking here and there, unlike some other insects in the terrarium room.

"Alright, let's go." Theo spoke and made his hand slowly move to the new home of the ants before he reached there, and the ants slowly got off.

The queen scrouged the soil block with its antennae many times before it started doing something.

It was not until Theo could see it move its mandibles and get out small pieces of soil.

"You're the most unique person I have seen in my whole life, young master. I just wanted to get this out of me finally." Elias spoke, and Theo could feel a proud tone from him.

"I can be like that."

Just like that, the ants found their new colony, and soon enough, Theo could see the other ants moving with the ration of food in their hands.

Things were going to get exciting real quick.