Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 369. Getting settled in the castle again

When Theo opened the door and stepped inside, a nostalgic smile formed on the corner of his lips.

"It’s been cleaned properly," he muttered with a satisfied nod before heading straight toward the terrarium room.

The moment he opened the door, a really strange, foul whiff drifted out, forcing him to cover his nose.

Elias reached the same way, frowning as he tried to understand what this was.

"Please stay back, young master. I will check what’s causing the smell," Elias spoke, stepping inside first.

All the boxes were still in their places, neat and clean.

Theo had assigned a trusted servant to feed these insects once a day. Seeing that they were still alive, he let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"This smell is really bad... like something is rotting," Theo muttered.

"Hmm." Elias nodded as he began inspecting every box carefully.

The scorpion, the beetle and many other primary insects moved about their habitat as if everything was normal.

Yet what pleased Theo the most was seeing that all the silkworms were alive.

They had woven silk almost everywhere, covering the space so thoroughly that Theo couldn’t help but wonder whether they really were silkworms or spiders knitting their web.

But as he leaned closer to one of the thicker stems near a cluster of many silkworms, Theo’s eyes widened in surprise.

’A cacoon...’ Theo thought.

One of the silkworms had already started the next phase of its life. It was the first time Theo had witnessed such a transformation in person.

He quietly stepped back, giving the rest of the silkworms and the cocoon some more rest. There would be plenty of work to do after his evaluation.

"Young master... it’s the bigger terrarium..." Elias’s voice came from the front.

Theo immediately made his way toward the bigger terrarium, only to realize that the insect-repelling powder had completely turned dark.

"This needs to be replaced... but it shouldn’t smell like this," he murmured, peering inside.

At first glance, nothing seemed like it was out of place. Theo couldn’t pinpoint where the smell was coming from.

Until Theo spotted something and sighed. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"It’s mold, Elias."

Elias’s eyes widened.

"I can see it growing near the entrance of that small mountain I built for the scorpion."

He fell silent for a moment, thinking.

"We might need to remake the entire terrarium room... No," Theo corrected upon realizing something.

"We will need an even bigger place now.’

He then turned toward Elias.

"Once this is over, talk with the property merchants. Find me a large place, one that has a lot of wide and open space and is big as well, something like a stable."

Elias immediately pulled out the small notebook from Theo’s desk.

"Noted. I will make some enquiries before we leave for the capital," Elias said and stood there in silence, staring at the terrarium’s condition.

"Yeah, but for now, all of this needs to go. I will need an even bigger place if I want to continue this operation. And as you know, I have been using this big terrarium for the mantis, but now, it has completely grown past."

"Yes," Elias nodded in agreement. "It has begun feeding on colossal worms instead of smaller insects."

They exchanged a knowing glance, very well aware how much havoc the beast would wreak in this place if it was left here.

Not wanting to stay inside the big terrarium anymore? Just break the glass and you can move. Don’t need to go through the insect repeller when walls could get broken instead.

Theo checked on the livestock boxes as well and was satisfied to see they were plentiful.

If Elias had seen the thousands of insects crawling over one another, he might have grown dizzy or simply passed out on the spot.

The ants began exploring too, the ant queen following in tow. Theo noticed that the ant queen was bringing along the newer generations, the ones that had grown in overwhelming numbers inside their first home.

He watched them climb the makeshift wooden ladder Elias had built and enter the smaller ant terrarium.

Theo couldn’t help but chuckle at the scene playing before him. Some of the ants had grown so large that there was no way for them to move anywhere but continue forward.

They couldn’t turn around to return, which seemed to have become a problem.

To avoid making things too troublesome, the ants formed a giant, living block in front of one of the larger ants to get on it. Using the wall as leverage, the massive ant flipped itself completely over and managed to crawl out of the terrarium.

"I guess you all are too big for your first home now."

"And we had to ditch the second one too... because you outgrew it as well..."

Theo felt a wave of nostalgia, and the ant queen sent him images of the times they had lived inside those places.

The first few were of this glass terrarium, where Theo saw all the small ants that had once inhabited this terrarium through the ant queen’s memories.

Theo couldn’t help but marvel at the growth spurt for the next generation.

In comparison, the previous ones had only grown to about a quarter, or at most half, the size of a fingernail. But the largest of the new generation could span an entire palm, some even reaching over fingers and part of the forearm.

’Now we can finally complete one more thing we had been planning to do, ant queen,’ Theo said through their bond, making the ant queen curious.

’We will make you tame many more ant queens. Then we will expand our colony like never before.’

As Theo said those words through the bond, the ant queen sent a surge of delighted emotions, making him smile.

The gnat queen really wanted to become an even greater queen.

’Now that I think about it... we haven’t had a naturally born ant queen this whole time...’ Theo mused, making the ant queen speak through emotions again.

According to the ant queen, that was extremely rare and didn’t happen often. Theo nodded in understanding at her explanation.

While the ants continued exploring the room, Theo gave them simple orders, like not to eat or to tame any of the insects inside the boxes, before walking out of the room.

There were many things he needed to write down before leaving for the royal capital.