Chapter 10 Ant Nest

"Scree…" a large, 12 meter scorpion screeched in discontent, leaning its claws on the rocky, dirt covered ground. The centipede couldn't help but feel slightly…awkward?

Since the moment his companion came back to the cave to now…it had been acting this way. The queen ant had woken up around an hour after collapsing, and he was able to get a more in depth explanation as to what happened to her colony.

She said something about a large creature with a long snout and claws the size of the trees in the jungle; which are around 25-45 meters…and a humped back with smoke billowing out from it. 

Just from deduction alone, he understood that they were likely smoked out of their burrow and eaten by what is the equivalent of an ancient anteater with a pretty useful ability for hunting, well…ants.

They both agreed that in return for a place to stay, she would follow his rules for as long as she's here. By the time the scorpion could reveal its discontent, they had already made a sort of telekinetic pact between each other.

Again, the arachnid thumped its tail on the ground, nudging his carapace. They really didn't seem to like having a newcomer take attention away from itself. Moreso because of the food she was eating and because the centipede was incredibly interested in the nest she planned on making.

Due to the urgency of the situation, the ant queen was already ready to give birth and if what he had interpreted was correct, she would lay around 1000 eggs every hour. 

It was a lot, but when one looked at her size, which is around 38 meters at minimum, around twice the scorpions height, it was an average amount.

She said the moment she was done nurturing her litter, she would be outta our shells in no time and that she didn't want to impose. At least, that's what he had translated.

In all honesty, a piece of him didn't want her to go due to her skillset. Being able to give birth to an army of ants with the only downside being that raising them was tiring, and the [Soldier Call] ability…were already tantalizing enough to keep her here…

But just like humans, bugs and animals, at least the mutated ones, can't always be tyrannized by fear. One day, she might just retaliate when she realizes how incredibly weak he actually was in terms of the real world.

Rather, the best way to gain a beast's loyalty is to show willingness to cooperate or to be generous. An example is the scorpion. He very much doubted that the current Earth showed much mercy to anyone, and that small bit of kindness to an intelligent creature in a world where kindness is practically non-existent…?

It's the best and most efficient method to gather followers. He was determined to make her his follower as well. An army is an army. The scorpion is his right leg, and the ant queen could possibly be his left.

The more the merrier as the saying goes. The queen looked down at him with inquiring, beady eyes. For a moment, he thought she heard his thoughts, but she simply turned around and walked deeper into the tunnel. Ah…was she going to begin?

He wanted to follow behind her, but she turned and shook her head. Oh? Did she grasp the concept of a head shake from his previous conversation? 

In the end, he decided best not to disturb her as she works. Instead, he made the choice to leave the cave for once. It felt acrid, being holed up like that. No matter how wide the space, it just reminded him of his time in the caverns.

His goal in leaving? To find suitable creatures to devour. The best place for that? The ocean. He had scouted the area beforehand just a few days ago to train his motor skills after making sure nothing dangerous would appear. It did indeed improve his maneuverability, but it's hard to swim too fast without disturbing the ecosystem.

He began to crawl east towards the shore with that in mind. He wanted to bring the scorpion, but the arachnid couldn't swim. He had no choice but to go alone.

There was no need for unnecessary death because of it, and he was confident too, now that he's trained his abilities and control. He needed to keep growing so he could actually have freedom of choice in this cruel era.

Eating a strong marine creature would also help him develop more modes of transport as well as underwater combat. It was a necessity, especially because it was unknown as to what would happen in the future.

His round, red eyes stared at the pearl white sand…if only he could admire it without the knowledge that mutated beasts existed. 

He slowly slinked into the water like he had done so before, finding himself back in the coral reef. Reds, blues, greens, yellows and all kinds of colors bore itself to his eyes. 

Just like above, it was a precious sight, but he didn't focus on that. His antennae glowed like it does whenever he's alert, using his perception skill to take in his surroundings in a 360, third person POV. 

Time seemed to physically slow down as he slithered like a snake. His first opponent came in the form of a shrimp. The coloration of its body was a mix of different browns and whites, along with splotches of pale green. There were more behind, between 5-15 meters in size.

Its legs were in the shape of long spikes, thin and seemingly specialized for charging in straight lines. 

They both spotted each other at the same time, but he wasn't met by an attack like he'd been expecting. The shrimp simply swam slowly away from him without a care in the world. 

He didn't…expect such a peaceful outcome…most of the time, he was met with violence. But he soon learned that everything else seemed to be uncaring of him too. 

He felt frustrated. Every time he tried to attack, they either easily dodged or simply looked at him and swam away almost tauntingly.

…The fact it was all shrimp played another factor into that. Why was he encountering so many damn shrimp!? Finally, his senses spotted a large eel-like creature. 

It had bright blue and yellow spots with an equally as atrociously green body. It reminded him of a clown in a circus. It seemed to be sleeping. He swam towards it hastily before it could escape, mandibles snapping onto its throat.

The eel woke with a gargled screech, face splitting into 5 different segments similar to a starfish, mouth a beak. He was startled. What the hell? He's never seen that before? The eel died and changed a pale white the next moment, yellow blood mixing with the water.

In the back of his mind, he hoped he'd never turn into something so disgusting and horrendous one day. 

Surprisingly, the creature gave him the ability he'd been trying to obtain for a long minute, [Swim: Increases swimming speed]..and 15 [EP]. The gain was a lot from just one creature.

He was starting to grow more excited, watching the shrimp swimming with greedy eyes. They didn't seem to know a massacre was about to happen. And oh, he was so gonna get revenge.

To be continued…