Chapter 21: My voice changed when I"m nervous in front of the person I like.
The Imperial Ant.
While a.s.sessing her, I noticed that she has an astounding breeding capability.
It"s a common belief that a single Killer Ant means that there are ten more Killer Ants nearby.
However, the Imperial Ant is different.
There"s a group of no less than a hundred thousand if you see one.
It can be said to be a prolific breeder.
There"s even a story of a continent that was completely devoured by a black mountain that"s actually a colony of Imperial Ants.
The Imperial Ant Queen can produce a hundred eggs a day. It takes ten days for them to hatch and a month for the hatchling to grow into an adult.
It is explosive propagation.
Besides, their leadership and cooperation are ridiculous.
They work together perfectly as if they share the same mind.
Which can be said to be the forte of smaller ants.
There"s evidence that the newer battle formation was actually based on the coordination of the Imperial Ant.
Furthermore, all the ants born from the queen is the same level as the intermediate-cla.s.s.
Intermediate-cla.s.s are like trolls and earthworms.
The same as those monsters….
Because of their excessive reproduction and strength as a group, they are considered to be a disaster-cla.s.s.
Once there"s enough them, they can even prey on predators like White Wyvern and Accurate Crow.
By using their sheer numbers.
However, they become less threatening as their number decrease.
But more than 400 years ago, due to how dangerous they are, they were completely eradicated by the human allied forces.
It took them decades to completely annihilate the ants.
Moreover, the strength of the Imperial Ant Queen is almost the same as General-cla.s.s. And since Ann is a high-rank species, it can be said that she"s on the level of a semi-King-cla.s.s.
I"m sure that, with Ann"s strength alone, she can fight the White Wyvern and Accurate Crow.
Though I don"t know whether she can win or not.
I mean, she"s probably stronger than me who has no battle experience at all.
Well, Ann doesn"t seem to have realized that yet.
She has evolved into an incarnation of nightmare.
『Hwaa~, I look amazing and what"s this? Un, I can feel a tremendous power gushing forth like guaaaaa and fuooooo. 』
She spewed out bad comments while making weird poses.
I ma.s.sage my temple in spite of myself.
That"s strange. I"m sure that monsters get smarter as they evolve…
Did she evolve properly?
I"m worried that it"s not the same species as in the picture book.
It should be the same….. Right?
Totally(?) Yup.
Her looks match…. The wave of her magic is also the same.
『Well, Ann. Increase the number of soldier ants and do your best to protect this place. 』
『Roger that Jiryuu-sama! 』
I give orders to Ann for now.
Similar to before, the Imperial Ant is capable of single reproduction.
It doesn"t need to make out with a male.
The lumps on Ann"s abdomen.
They are eggs.
The size of those things is now different which almost like a balance ball. They are big.
Ann has now grown to nearly 3 metres.
She looks funny, doesn"t she?
『Hnng! 』
Ann put her strength into work. Oh, her abdomen is expanding.
Then eggs drop one after another.
『Ah, Jiryuu-sama, umm, it- it will be a great help if you don"t stare too much…』
*Plop* *Plop* Dripping with goo, the egg rolls around Ann.
Eww, gross.
You don"t need to tell me that.
I can feel magic emitting from the egg covered in a thin membrane.
They are fully-developed already.
…..What an amazing fertility.
Ants will instinctively follow their queen, Ann.
In addition, Ann is my subordinate which means that they will follow me.
In other words, free excellent soldiers (security guard).
Although she would"ve died if the evolution failed.
It"ll be quite a pain if that happens, the army of ant will go berserk without their leader and I"ll also lose my decoy.
But I wonder why.
Strangely, I didn"t think it was going to fail.
When I saw Ann on the upper floor, somehow failure never crossed my mind. Despite her being an ant.
Why is that so?
Whatever.
『Ann, when you"re done with that, guard every floor. Also, don"t go outside yet for now. I will tell you when to go. Magic in this home should last for a while. 』
『Yes! ……Eh? Haa…』
Hm, what"s wrong?
『N- no, it"s nothing. I will not go outside! Absolutely, never! I understand Jiryuu-sama. 』
『Oh, ok. 』
Is there something wrong?
Well, whatever.
The entrance seems to be blocked, we won"t be found for a while.
Magic from this place is still leaking out even it"s by a little.
No matter how skills the human or demons are, without any clue, it will be difficult for them to spot my house.
I"m confident that it will stay like this for more than a year.
Well, that"s if they completely believe in Elibel"s research.
There is a need to eventually compare her knowledge with the knowledge of the present day. However, it"s not the time for that yet. A little more preparation is needed.
By the time they found this place -in a few months or so- it will already be completely guarded.
It won"t pose any problem if they can"t find it though.
Still, there"s no way they can. Hahaha.
After that, Ann alone prepared it.
According to the data, the Imperial Ant became a large army in the past performed a number of violent acts on their Disaster-cla.s.s opponents.
That is if you don"t consider the damage they did to their own kind.
Also, a Disaster-cla.s.s monster is so rare that only one appears every several hundred years.
That put my mind at ease.
Now, it just makes me feels hungry.
Guess I"ll go to the lower floor and eat magic stone.
Then, practice my magic afterwards.
I"m looking forward to it.
Leaving the upper floors to Ann again, I return to the lower floor.
A little bit explanation.
Besides strength, the ranking of monster such as the King-cla.s.s, Disaster-cla.s.s etc. also changes according to level of threat to humankind. Since the Imperial Ants deal a huge damage to humanity in the past, as a warning, the people of that time recognized them as a Disaster-cla.s.s.