Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 427. Evolving the moss slimes

When Theo was done with the first beetle, more were brought in with the help of the attendants. He did his best to evolve them as well.

And by the end of the second day, he had successfully discovered three different evolutionary paths for the beetles.

The first was a simple one. A small, docile beetle, one that wouldn’t even eat meat without the ant queen’s command, had evolved into an ’Ironshell Beetle’.

Theo considered this to be the most basic form of evolution when it came to metallic-type beasts.

He was able to achieve it by feeding the beetle a mixture of different kinds of powdered minerals. The process was unstable, to the point that anything could have happened inside its body and could have even led to its death, but it worked.

But at this point, Theo wasn’t going to make bonds with the insects. It was easier that way. If they evolved first and then he grew attached to them afterwards, that would be a lot better for him.

Without evolution, the insects were little more than tools, playthings that were meant for his mere hobby.

The second evolution was done with a beetle that had an Earth-affinity path, which evolved into a ’Stoneback Dung Beetle’.

Theo found this one oddly familiar. He remembered the dung beetles from his previous life. He was satisfied to know that some were still the same since the first evolution. It made him realize just how similar this world was to his previous one, at least before everything was altered by the artifact.

The third one was turned into more of a defense while still maintaining its brute. It evolved into a ’Bulwark Horn Beetle’.

Theo was satisfied with these three evolution paths for now. The foundation of what he envisioned as the ’tanks’ of his armies was coming together nicely.

But beetles weren’t the only insects he had his eyes on.

For starters, Clara soon brought a few more Iron Mantises, and they were the only ones that didn’t scitter away when Mantis was nearby.

Theo decided to experiment with a different evolution route than the usual for them. It took him several hours, but he eventually succeeded.

But when he got the evolution path, he decided to use it on all of them.

The new species was called the ’Razor Iron Mantis’. They looked mostly the same as they did before, just slightly larger and more refined.

Since he needed a proper army, Theo decided to train them alongside the ant colony. He instructed the ant queen to let the ’Iron mantis’ practice their metallic strike skill as much as possible, then reward them with gems whenever they did well.

However, upon seeing this, the mantis felt a little jealous and began training even harder.

It went and began slicing through every practice dummy, then carved an entire section of the training ground’s wall to show that it was practicing too.

Theo didn’t know whether such behavior deserved encouragement or not, but he still rewarded the mantis with some of its favorite dishes.

For the first time ever, Theo also turned his attention to the ’earthworms’ around the colony. They were being hunted by the burrowing ants and brought back alive for future food supply. Some ants even kept them pinned in their mandibles so that they wouldn’t run away. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

And since he wasn’t sure of their potential yet, Theo decided to partially tame a bunch of earthworms and use them for exploring the underground.

Meanwhile, the ants had yet to kill a single moss slime, but Theo wasn’t concerned.

According to him, growing in size had to be their first priority since strength would follow.

Theo didn’t stop the supply of massive amounts of food to the colony, allowing the brood to grow larger and stronger.

The two subordinate ant queens had already been inseminated by the newly mature males. Theo even discovered a way to influence the process, which allowed the ant queens to use the new generation’s semen instead of the previous species’ to produce better and stronger offspring.

And within a single day, Theo could already notice the changes.

The new brood had faint brown veins instead of the usual shardjaw patterns. They were slightly larger as well, though not as massive as those directly produced by Theo’s ant queen.

The week was coming to a close, and Theo’s training was about to begin. In a hurry, he introduced even the butterflies into the colony. He didn’t know what most of them could do, but for the butterfly, he had one clear idea: he wanted to use its vision to look at the world.

With the ant queen’s help, Theo tried it.

But to his disappointment, the images he could see through that vision were fragmented, scattered into thousands of shards. Still, it wasn’t without its perks.

Through the butterfly’s eyes, Theo saw the world in a new light.

Certain things glowed far brighter than they ever did to him.

Theo soon realized what it was: the flowers. Those were the colourful flowers that bloomed brilliantly, almost like beacons.

’They are pollinators...’ he concluded.

Since he didn’t have time to explore what he could do with that, he simply let the butterfly roam and pollinate the land as much as it could.

But Theo’s curiosity didn’t stop there.

He summoned the mantis and made it stand in front of a moss slime, freezing the creature in place.

Then, he stepped forward and placed a hand on it, starting what he called a ’secret experiment’.

_____

In the present, Theo had just kept a hand on the moss slime’s body and activated his skill.

*****

Moss Slime

-Uncommon

-Level 1

-Type: Nature Type Beast

*****

Evolution Potential: Not Detected

Evolution requirements: N/A

Evolution information: N/A

*****

"Alright... let’s try evolving this slime," Theo muttered, opening a satchel and pulling out several items.

He glanced at Clara, who stood on the side with a pout, and chuckled.

"I told you; we can’t evolve the pup and the bor just yet, Clara," he said. "If the evolution strays too far from the recorded paths, you could get in trouble. And my secret could get out."

"So will you keep on evolving random beasts?" she asked, still pouting, completely unaware of it.

"What do you mean ’keep evolving’? This is the first one."

With that, Theo began tossing pieces of what he called ’evolution materials’, watching carefully to see which one would have a reaction.