“`
Accompanied by the ‘crack crack’ sound, more and more cracks appeared on the surface, rapidly spreading across the entire beast egg. The eggshell broke off piece by piece, revealing a small creature inside that resembled a pony.
“Master.”
The creature sprawled on the ground, greeting Ivan, clearly an intelligent creature.
Ivan could sense that this creature was wholly subservient to him, and he could strip away its life at any moment, truly deserving of the high-level puppet’s heart given by the Five Leaves Spear.
He carefully examined the creature before him, indeed an Ant Beast, with a pair of golden antennae on its head, a body mostly black adorned with pale, earthy yellow stripes circling around it. It also had two pairs of dark, translucent wings on its back.
Overall, it looked lean, giving off an undernourished impression.
Beside him, the Silkworm Queen’s vigilance increased, her gaze unfriendly as she watched the flying ant before her.
“Rise, and from now on call me ‘Sorcerer Ivan’. As for you, begin by telling your own history,” Ivan stepped forward, saying gently.
“I follow your will, Sorcerer Ivan,” the four-winged flying ant said, without any concealment, revealing all the information it knew.
In fact, its memories were limited; it only knew that its kind should be called ‘four-winged swamp king ants.’
It was placed there to be nurtured and await revival, but something had happened. The supply of power had been cut off, and something had been continually depleting its strength, preventing it from hatching.
It had been secretly accumulating energy all this time; recently, it had gained a large amount of energy supply, and it would have been able to hatch soon, but then the supreme master had arrived.
“Since you do not have a name, then you shall be called ‘swamp ant’.”
Ivan speculated that the arrangements here must have been made by the Tidal Flats Ant Beings, not knowing what happened, the Tidal Flats Ant Beings suddenly went extinct.
Later on, the Ant Being camp was occupied by sorcerers, who may have discovered some documents or Secret Techniques, turning them into Shadow Ant servants for summoning. Ironically, these actions inadvertently prevented the soon-to-be revived swamp ant, of ‘King Blood’, from hatching.
It was both timing and destiny.
It must be said, this fellow had some bad luck.
Aside from a few half-dead beast eggs, the Ant Beings’ secret vault contained nothing else of value and wasn’t a place to stay for long. Afterward, Ivan took the swamp ant back to the Twin Towers without any trouble.
Ivan called two Shadow Ant servants over, ready to have them clean up the protection chamber.
As soon as the Shadow Ant servants arrived in the protection chamber, they suddenly kneeled before the swamp ant, smaller than themselves, an even more devout manner than when they saw Ivan.
“Swamp ant, what is the meaning of this?” Ivan immediately realized that the birth of the Shadow Ant servants must have a significant connection to the swamp ant.
“They should be my Ant Guards, forever loyal to the king’s guard,” the swamp ant pondered before responding.
“Explain in detail,” Ivan said, his expression turning somewhat strange upon hearing this answer.
It turned out, the birth of the Shadow Ant servants was related to one of the swamp ant’s innate abilities. It could use its ability to continuously create ‘Ant Guards’, achieving the idea that one ant could establish an entire family.
What’s more surprising, the Ant Guards, though possessing independent thoughts, also served as extensions of the swamp ant; it could descend its mind onto the Ant Guards at any time, taking control of their bodies.
Ivan couldn’t help but marvel; this was even more domineering than the Silkworm Queen’s ‘Power of Crowd Control’, perfectly suiting the methods of insect continuation.
However, this meant that the sorcerers at the academy were likely unable to summon Shadow Ant servants anymore, or perhaps let the swamp ant continue to play its original role, assisting in the creation of Shadow Ant servants.
“`
“Can these Shadow Ant servants become your ant sentinels again?”
“Of course, they were originally my guards, they just need a little time.”
The swamp ant replied confidently, and with his permission, it took half a minute for the swamp ant to transform one of the Shadow Ant servants into its own guard and demonstrated ‘what it means to be an extension of oneself’.
This was utterly ridiculous!
Ivan didn’t even know what to say when he realized that in Mongna Ant Land Cottage, Shadow Ant servants were a sorcerer’s standard aid, and there wasn’t a single sorcerer who didn’t have them at their disposal. As a result, he had unwittingly planted such a secret weapon for himself.
His thoughts started to race. Once the swamp ant turned the majority of the Shadow Ant servants into ant sentinels, would that not mean his eyes could be everywhere, even within all the sorcerer houses, including the Three Great Families.
The thought alone excited him.
Secondly, with the Ant Beings’ secret vault at hand, he seemed to have an extremely hidden research location, and at the very least it could serve as a warehouse.
“Silkworm Queen, swamp ant, you must get along well and must not fight,” Ivan pondered for a moment, noticing that the Silkworm Queen was staring at the swamp ant with indignation, looking ready to engage in a fight, which he found amusing.
“Alright,” the Silkworm Queen obediently agreed.
“Your command is my mission,” the swamp ant answered immediately in a stiff manner. Under the control of a high-level puppet’s heart, its words rang true: Ivan’s command was its mission.
The Silkworm Queen, unaware of this, silently cursed it as a ‘brown-noser’, and became even more wary of this unwitting being.
Ivan, unaware of the Silkworm Queen’s thoughts, examined her for injuries more closely and had her consume a healing potion and a Mental Power Recovery Potion, thinking she should recover after a few days of rest.
Afterward, he took the two insects to the testing grounds to begin the swamp ant’s testing.
As it turned out, the swamp ant was a Level 3 creature that, due to severe lack of nutrients, appeared to be more like a Level 2 creature, barely stronger than the Silkworm Queen.
The swamp ant had three abilities: ant sentinel, Boulder-Marsh Control, and Gravity Manipulation.
Compared to the Silkworm Queen, the swamp ant’s combat abilities were clearly superior, putting it in the ‘ferocious insect’ category, inherently equipped with a certain degree of combat and killing instincts.
“Ivan, I want to compete with it to see who truly is your Number 1 Battle General,” the Silkworm Queen, hearing Ivan’s inadvertent exclamation, immediately protested, clamoring for a match with the swamp ant.
“You’re still injured.”
“It’s a minor injury, not a bother.”
“My role for you is ‘logistics steward’; combat strength isn’t that important for you, although having it is merely icing on the cake.”
“Ivan, just let me have a contest with it, let me teach this newcomer a lesson,” the Silkworm Queen persisted stubbornly, coquettishly pleading with Ivan.
Reluctantly, Ivan granted their wish, allowing the two insects to spar but to stop short of injury.
The next moment, the testing grounds erupted with the ‘boom and roar’ of battle, almost tearing the grounds apart. Even with the Silkworm Queen backed by the force of her entire race, she still found herself at a disadvantage.
After the expansion of the protection chamber, it was able to draw more power from the Ant Being barrier, and the defensive power of the Twin Towers had increased by a level, saving the testing grounds from being completely destroyed in the skirmish.
In the end, under Ivan’s suppression, the Silkworm Queen and swamp ant, on the verge of a real fight, ceased their battle and made peace, thus concluding the contest of the old guard versus the new.