Yes! he was not in a den of life-threatening Chimera ants, but he was rather trapped in a cage with an abundance of food. He was practically living in a buffet.
However, this was power he could not achieve because he was lacking in knowledge.
After all, if one put knowledge and information first, power would never stop coming in.
At least this was the system Lenny was familiar with.
As an assassin, he would spend days if not weeks on end as he investigated a particular target.
It was absolutely necessary that when he hits is the most opportune time.
Even though he was dealing with Insects, such was the dynamic that he was most familiar with.
Meaning that his first task was actually to know the environment.
Lenny immediately sat on the floor as he was deep in thought.
This was a colony. In other words, it had a caste system.
Lenny thought back to the basic Caste system he could remember about ants.
Ants were born with necessary habits that dictated their entire lives. The usual one was Queen, Males, Soldiers, winged ants (for reproduction) and workers (all females, but incapable of reproduction)
However, these were Chimera ants. Lenny was sure that this was not formerly in this world but came here from the demon world during the apocalypse.
one look at them and he could tell that their caste system was far more divided than usual.
For example, the Cotton worm he ate earlier looked like a worker, but it could obviously not do the heavy lifting of rocks. It was obviously more suited for a special kind of work.
Meanwhile, the cockroach-looking insects and ants with sharp Mandibles were probably worker ants designed to get food.
Even though this was not exactly a clear description of them, it was definitely accurate enough.
And then they were the giant Prey Mantis. No one had to tell him before he knew that this one was for eliminating threats. Meaning that it was a soldier ant.
He also easily concluded that there were places where other types of ants were not allowed to go.
For example, the hole he was hiding in was one of them.
And so the questions in his head came as follows:
Why were the other ants not allowed into this cave?
In the colony, are there other caves like this one?
If there are, where are there?
If Chimera ants are also like ants, that meant that they also grew into adulthood. This means that facing the Prey mantis ant outside was not a necessity. If he could find younger ants, he could use them as training to sharpen and increase his power before facing the bigger ants.
But where could he find them?
Also, if the Cotton worm increased his stats, then that meant that the other castes would also do the same. But where was he to find them?
Especially the wing reproductives.
And lastly, If this was a colony, that means that there was a queen. Surely, she was the price of the colony.
Lenny could not help but leak his lips. Without a doubt, he already had plans to eat her.
As he spoke, he used a sharp pointed stone to carve out the questions on his forearm.
Naturally, the system tried to heal him, but he discovered that he could stop the system from doing it.
He needed a place to jot down his points. He really did not want to forget.
this was another habit he had. Even though the brain of a Half born was far better than that of an average person, he could care less about that.
This was his current plan. After which, he smiled as he wrote on the other hand: Payback!
Lenny had already sealed the fate of either demon or half-born in his heart.
After jotting his temporary plans, he stood up from where he was.
It was time to explore.
Lenny could not go out through the path he came from, but he was sure that this cave should at least have an extra passage somewhere.
After all, Ants had a habit of connecting everything to everything.
He followed the path that the cotton worms took and went deeper into the cave. As he did, he discovered that the size of the Cotton worms got bigger.
Apparently, the ones he had killed earlier on, were the younger ones.
After a while, he saw some that were as high as his waist.
There were rolling around different substances.
There rolled around balls of different colors. there were yellow, green, white, and even indigo, and others.
These balls were rolled into different corners based on their colours.
Lenny intercepted one of the Cotton worms and then he took one of the balls from them.
It was squishy and felt like an actual ball.
He looked closely, and that was when he understood.
These cotton worm were not just worker ants, but worker ants in charge of taking care of the eggs.
This was good news and bad news to Lenny.
It meant that the queen's cave was somewhere close by. But that also meant that the Soldier ants there might even be several times bigger than the one he saw previously.
Meaning that they were most likely stronger too.
Just then, at one corner of the cave, he noticed something.
One of the red-coloured eggs had hatched.
From within it came out what looked like a smaller squishy prey mantis.
This interested Lenny and he followed after it.
Even though the beast had just hatched, it somehow knew where to go.
It took turns and then left the cave.
This time around, the moss on the walls was not green but red.
Lenny took notice of this.
He continued to follow the Prey mantis ant. As he did, he got an alert from the system.
<Would host like the area to be mapped?>
Lenny Confirmed the request, and a map appeared in the corner of his eye. It saved him the trouble of memorizing the path he took.
Lenny knew that he was leaving the safe region but this was something that he needed to do. After a few more turns and about two hundred meters, he suddenly got an unexpected alert.
<Daily quest: Survive the Chimera Colony>