Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 321: Non-tamed beast guided successfully (2)

It showed Theo images of how they had formed the bond with some other beasts, of Theo speaking with them just like how he had with the spider.

But instead of the ant queen partially taming those beasts or anything, they obeyed without any bond at all.

’I like that. Let’s try it soon, Ant Queen,’ Theo thought through their connection.

As if in response, the ant queen sent back emotions that were the same as it were saying, ’We can start right now.’

Theo was then guided into the bond, and he quickly closed his eyes.

He went deeper and deeper until finally, he could see the massive head of the ant queen appearing within the dark void.

Theo then placed a hand on the ant queen’s head, as one would comfort their child, and the ant queen’s enormous mandibles moved slowly in response.

When up close, most would find this scene horrifying. But for Theo, who now knew how the insects worked, it was different. He knew they couldn’t express their emotions through facial features like boars or apes. Still, with enough time, Theo had learnt to sense when they were feeling happy or stressed.

Right now, the ant queen was simply happy to see him.

After that, Theo turned his attention to the side.

The small head of a crawler was darting wildly through the void, panic evident from its actions. Its emotions of being scared were flooding the whole space, but that was just normal. Not many creatures could get used to the ant queen’s overbearing presence within the beast space.

Theo then moved toward the crawler.

The moment the creature noticed him, its initial panic turned into outright terror.

The surge of such strong emotions made Theo feel a little dizzy.

’It seems a lot more scared than usual,’ he thought.

’Has this been happening ever since you evolved, ant queen?’ Theo asked.

The ant queen replied only by showing calm and confusion. It had no idea as to what he was talking about.

The ant queen’s reactions only made Theo chuckle softly.

He continued forward until he was right before the crawler, then quickly placed a hand on its side, making the creature latch onto him and stop floating around.

Theo then began sharing some chosen images, ones he thought would help him convey the best results to the crawler.

He showed the crawler the images of the gigantic crawler lying dead on the ground, with him playing a big role in killing it.

It was as if the crawler’s emotions had shifted far more strongly than what he had expected. Theo felt a literal tremor ripple through its being and even through himself as if it were his own emotions. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Then he formed new images of the crawler standing alongside him after defeating the giant crawler. He yanked a large chunk of the gigantic crawler’s flesh and passed it to the crawler, who ate it slowly and happily and seemed content.

Theo kept his hand on the crawler’s side. It might look a lot creepier than any other insect, but Theo could clearly feel the raw emotions forming within its being.

Now, the crawler was anything but scared.

Theo no longer showed it images and waited to see any changes.

After a moment, he could feel a subtle change in its emotions. Although fear still lingered in it, now, there was a hint of curiosity in it too.

Theo dug deep into those emotions and showed it more images, just like before, of the massive corpse of the basilisk. In the image, Theo passed a chunk of its meat to the crawler only for it to eat the food calmly once again.

’What do you think?’ Theo asked with a grin.

If Theo could see the crawler in the real world right now, he was certain that it would have started salivating, such vivid were the fantasies he was showing to the beast right now.

But then he went ahead and did something a lot more daring.

He showed it images of the mantis; first as a small insect, then he evolved it to a much larger one.

He showed the crawler images of how the evolved mantis killed hundreds of them in an hour and devoured their flesh like nothing.

He then showed it images of the ant queen, followed by the evolution where the ants started growing larger, stronger and more terrifying.

In an instant, the crawler’s curiosity faded and gave way to more unease... it was now horrified.

And yet, Theo did something that even he hadn’t realized he could do currently.

One had to know that the crawler was not an insect.

Still, he showed it images, the ones he made up, of how it was normal and then of what it could become.

A gigantic crawler.

One who could be made and empowered by Theo’s help.

The moment those images formed, the crawler’s rising horror vanished, and it started feeling curious once again. It was until it became restless as an urge, a desire for Theo to make it like the one in the image, that it planted its roots firmly within the beast’s being.

Theo’s eyes flashed with excitement within the beast space.

*

*

[Burrowing Crawler (Level 2) wants to form a contract.]

[Error! Curse detected!]

[Contract failure]

*

*

Confusion rippled through the crawler due to this interaction and the contract failure.

Theo, however, didn’t seem surprised.

Leaving the curse part aside, he hadn’t even broken through the level 10 barrier yet. Taming the crawler was simply impossible for now.

He quickly showed it some more images to explain what was going to happen now and how they would work this out.

The images showed the whole process, with Theo giving the crawler some commands, which the ant queen would actually relay to it, and then it would be executing them for some while.

Theo showed it some rewards as well, giving it the promise to get a share in all kinds of food while it worked with them.

The crawler was already sold, and Theo nodded internally.

’I can’t believe this worked,’ he thought.

’Who am I kidding? Giving beasts the promise of high-tier food works wonders every time. Isn’t that right, Ant queen?’ Theo thought while laughing out loud in the beast space.

What he didn’t realize was that his laughter could be heard in the real world too.

The baron, Clara and Elias turned toward him, but in the end, they just ignored it. It seemed Theo was having yet another breakthrough.

The ant queen, meanwhile, didn’t know what to think about the interaction.

The entire scene felt like deja-vu to it, as if something similar had happened to her once.

Soon after, Theo withdrew the bond and asked for the mantis to guide the crawler to the colony.

It wasn’t up on the ground but deep beneath the chambers.

When Theo shifted his perspective to that of an ant nearby...

He froze.

’W-What have you done to it?!’