Warlock Apprentice Chapter 994 - Heart of the Swarm

Chapter 994: Heart of the Swarm

Isn’t the nest supposed to be useless?? How did Angor find so many healthy eggs and even a queen?

When thinking about how he might have lost a great treasure, Kanter felt his heart aching with regret.

“But that’s impossible. Mutation Larvae went extinct because their queen died off way before them. You can’t just... bump into one all of a sudden!”

“But... I saw it giving birth to new eggs.”

Kanter’s eyebrows twitched. “That can’t be. You must have mistaken sothing else for a queen larva.”

“You gave this nest, sir. Are you sure it only contained Soft Larva eggs?”

Kanter slowly looked into the nest. A small part of him wanted to believe that Angor was talking nonsense. But he wouldn’t hope for it.

The piles of dead larvae around the entrance of the nest were enough to tell him that the nest was not the “random, useless item” he used to believe.

Before handing it to Angor, he only saw a few eggs inside. But now, he was looking at dozens of dry corpses lined up. The only way to explain this was that sothing was spawning new eggs.

When he looked deeper inside and saw the “sli”, he finally had a reason to scold himself for being so blind.

That was indeed the queen of Soft Larvae. It perfectly corresponded with what he saw from relevant books.

“Is that not a queen larva, but sothing foreign?” Angor asked again, which badly worsened Kanter’s inner trauma.

“It’s—well—I an—yes! It is a queen.”

“For real??”

“Yeah, yeah...” Kanter took a deep breath so that he would not lose his wise image of an elder. “You’ve done a good job taking care of them.”

Kanter watched Angor joyfully checking the nest and couldn’t stop complaining in his mind.

Well, I would never give it to anyone if I had known—but wait, I couldn’t be so careless as to overlook a queen’s egg back there. I checked more than once! Even the other wizards told that these eggs were hopeless. The only thing worth ntioning is the nest itself. They said it’s full of enriching energy that might help the eggs grow faster.

But that alone couldn’t change one of the eggs into a queen, could it?

Kanter shook his head and took the nest to look again.

“Why are so many of them dying though? Are they threatened by so kind of predator?”

Angor scratched his head. “I also have a Dream Weaver inside my storage. That thing kinda loves invading the larva nest.”

“Dream Weavers eat Soft Larva? That’s new.”

Kanter kept looking and discovered another clue in the nest, which was a block of hardened blood.

“Such energy... That ca from a wizard-level monster. At least.”

“Yes. Both the ant and the larvae can drink it as food. In fact, the ant even helped the eggs grow by providing more blood to them, so it could find more larvae to kill.”

“A Dream Weaver learned how to breed eggs??”

Kanter knew that certain monster blood was good for feeding critters, including Soft Larva. But he never succeeded when using such a thod on the eggs he had, which also proved it for him that these eggs didn’t have much potential.

“What’s different in Angor’s case? The ant? Or the blood?”

Kanter asked for a drop of Akeso’s blood from Angor and put it in his mouth.

He imdiately felt a powerful aura invading his nerves and quickly put up his inner defense to get it out.

The aura contained overwhelming vitality energy that would undeniably help soone who consud it grow stronger. But Kanter couldn’t let it “inside” because it also ca with a foreign will that might harm him.

This was one of the most energy-rich monster blood he saw in his life, if not the best one. It was enough to grant soone immortality if they knew how to remove the harmful elent from it.

No wonder the larva eggs developed so vigorously.

There was sothing else in the blood. Kanter thought he just recognized a small trace of sll from it. He knew that sll when he was studying in a dical school.

“What kind of monster is it?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. I think it’s a snake or sothing that looks similar?”

Kanter easily saw that Angor was hiding the truth. But he wouldn’t force Angor to spill. There was no point.

“It’s a perfect source of energy that can even rejuvenate soone on the brink of death.” Kanter sighed. “Too bad we can’t use it as is.”

Of course it is. Angor thought. It kept Dodoro young and alive for a thousand years!

Hold a minute. Could we use the blood to help Jon? I need to ask the professor later.

“The energy alone cannot evolve a common larva into a queen.” Kanter glanced at the pile of worm corpses. “This ans the Dream Weaver played a role in it.”

“The ant helped create a queen? How?”

“From the books I read before, a Soft Larva Queen does not dump large numbers of eggs freely as this will exhaust it too fast. It did so probably because an ‘enemy’ is near. Using its spawns to create a wall of defense is the only tactic it could think of...”

Angor nodded. It could be explained if a dangerous elent stimulated the larva colony to undergo so sort of mutation, which in turn caused one of their mbers to turn into a queen. This queen knew that it would beco ant food if it hatched too early, so it stayed dormant and consud as much monster blood as it could to gain strength.

In the end, the queen successfully maintained a “balance” in order to stay alive, but at a cost.

Using the energy provided by Akeso’s blood, it could unlimitedly create new mbers to throw into the pan.

Knowing these, Kanter didn’t feel so bad for losing the nest. Even if he kept it in his hands, he didn’t have the necessary materials to achieve such a miracle.

“Heh. There was a rumored legendary Summoner who called himself ‘Heart of the Swarm’. I never believed such a lad existed because bugs can’t possibly have hearts. But now I understand. Worms certainly can have a mastermind that gives them commands. A heart.”

Kanter knew for a long ti that Angor had unparalleled potential. He never doubted his eyes. But at this mont, he was beginning to envy Angor’s fortune as well.

“Ahem, Angor? You know, the Phantom Island is always in a good relationship with my Lilith’s Clan. Both Sush and Flora used to pay us visits. This leaves you the only one we have yet to welco. Once the fracas here is done, how about spending so ti with us? You can use the chance to bond with Keely. She’ll like it.”

Angor slightly shook his head. He more or less knew why Kanter would bring up Keely’s na every ti they talked. But he wasn’t going to mind.

“Sure, when I have the chance. And Mister Kanter? Can a Soft Larva Queen lay different types of eggs, like the eggs of Mutation Larva?”