After a few hours, Theo stood there with a sweat beading across his forehead. The sumr heat this ti was turning the forest outskirts into a boiling haze.
Only the shade of the larger trees brought any relief, but Theo had no access to that opportunity. The ant colony lay near the outskirts, just before the first few trees that were smaller and had thin canopies compared to the giants, who didn’t let even a single ray of sunlight touch the forest ground, but out here, the heat roasted without rcy.
Still, being there hadn’t been a waste by any ans.
*****
Bloommoss Sli
Rare
Level 0
Type: Nature type beast
*****
Theo let out a deep breath, as if he had just completed sothing really exhausting. But in truth, all he had done the entire day was search for flowers and feed whatever he found to the sli.
The sli’s eating speed was very impressive, at least when it wasn’t intimidated.
To help with that, Theo had sent the mantis out of the forest for a few minutes, giving the sli space to move again.
"Are you sure you want to send it away, young master?" Clara asked, watching the sli continuously secrete so kind of sticky, gooey liquid onto the ground.
"I am sure," Theo replied, holding a small blue flower in his hand. "And I think I know how to evolve more of them now."
This particular flower was the one that had been properly pollinated. Theo had started to notice the difference; so varieties were getting pollinated right now, while so remained dormant.
"Alright, enough fun for now," Theo said with a grin. "If I am right, and this guy survives the next few days, we might end up developing a whole new sli variety in the forest."
Clara studied the boy before her with mixed feelings. He had chosen a relatively safer path this ti, but what if she hadn’t been there to give advice? Would his curiosity and fun have led to the deaths of people, all just because he had upgraded the core of a beast that wasn’t supposed to be there?
When Clara thought that, she couldn’t help but want to say it out loud, but she held herself back. Theo had only just recovered from a long coma. She didn’t want to ruin the rare joy he was experiencing.
anwhile, Theo returned to his small army and began trying to evolve them as well. He even tried to draw his aura out, which was working steadily as usual.
But despite all that, there was still sothing Theo had been avoiding all this ti.
’Do I go in or not?’ he asked himself.
His mind drifted back to the pain, sothing he felt like he had grown numb to, yet not entirely free from.
A quiet hesitation lingered in his heart, sothing he wanted to get rid of before continuing his training.
By the ti night fell and the attendants left, Theo couldn’t sleep at all, continuously thinking of the decision he needed to make no matter what.
Lying on the bed, he swallowed hard and muttered under his breath, "Hive link 1."
His eyes turned golden instantly. But this ti, there was no sudden jerk, no violent yank into the link or anything. Instead, he slipped in gradually, as if he was entering with his own will.
Inside, the ant queen imdiately abandoned everything it was doing and yanked him closer toward it, trying to shield him from too much pressure.
It sent many emotions through their bond, clear, direct and easily understandable.
’I didn’t force myself this ti; I wanted to check it out again,’ Theo said, his thoughts echoing throughout the hive.
He drifted toward the cluster of minds and slowly closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down.
There were many emotions in front of him, but the one he could feel most clearly right now was so kind of mild happiness, sothing he didn’t know when his ants had learned to express.
Still, a hint of concern lingered.
Theo moved toward it, slipping into a mind he hadn’t interacted with in a while.
’How are you, spider?’ Theo asked.
A wave of excitent washed over him, as if he were standing before an eager, playful dog.
’You’re asking if I am feeling okay now?’ Theo clarified, and emotions akin to a nod ca in response, making him chuckle.
’I am completely fine,’ Theo replied, while trying to know what was going on in the spider’s mind.
What he found surprised him.
There was almost no pressure in his mind; in fact, it felt unusually light, even relaxed to so extent.
Theo didn’t know if it was psychological or not, but he didn’t mind it at all.
Theo soon realized that the spider had been working tirelessly for a while now, using its large body to dig through the soil and widen the tunnel.
Theo felt like it was overworking, but in terms of a spider, he wasn’t even sure if there was such a term as ’overwork’, so he left the topic for now.
’I will co to help you evolve soon,’ Theo muttered before withdrawing from its mind and looking at the hive again.
The hive of mind had subtle differences in shape, and Theo could tell which ones were above level 5, because the ones below appeared a lot smaller.
At the far end, Theo noticed a larger presence, a blob that was different than the others.
He took a deep ntal breath and moved inside it, even though the ant queen tried to stop him.
Inside, it felt familiar; Theo could sense everything as usual, but there was sothing more to it in this one.
This one was... complex. In a way Theo couldn’t fully grasp.
’Good work,’ Theo said quickly, then pulled out after receiving a wave of curious emotions.
’You were right, I cannot handle the crawler just yet,’ Theo admitted, making the ant queen respond with emotions that almost felt like it was being... grumpy.
Theo didn’t show it, but he felt quite satisfied, knowing that the ant queen’s intelligence was increasing with ti.
’In so ti, I will be leaving for another gate,’ he said, sending along ntal images.
The ant queen’s mind perked up in curiosity.
’You just moved into this new territory... you don’t want to leave with , right?’ Theo asked, prompting the ant queen to think deep.
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