Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 416. Spatial distortions everywhere

"Scholar Vale, look at me," Theo said in a commanding tone, forcing the man to turn his gaze toward him instead.

"That beast will do nothing to you. It’s just an aura skill. You have to get out of it; that’s the only option."

The man couldn’t even swallow properly under the pressure, and Theo could tell right away that he had never faced real danger in his life. He was just a scholar after all.

After a few seconds, the scholar finally began to recover, albeit slightly.

Then a head peeked out curiously from Theo’s side.

The moment Scholar Vale looked into those eyes, he froze. His body stiffened for a long moment before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed unconscious.

Theo placed a hand on his forehead and took a deep breath in exhaustion.

He needed to get used to this until the mantis became intelligent enough to control it.

For now, whenever Theo told it to suppress its aura, the mantis had only shown confusion, making things far more difficult.

"When he wakes up, you need to go inside the beast space, Mantis."

Upon hearing the words ’Beast space’, the mantis screeched in protest with its alien-like voice.

Clara involuntarily stepped back, thinking the mantis had finally snapped, but soon realized that she was here to protect her master.

But right at that moment, Theo simply made a half fist and tapped the mantis’s head, making it bob to the side.

"There’s no room for saying you don’t want to. The scholar here is unconscious because of you."

The mantis let out a low, unhappy screech.

The way the mantis made the alien-like voice made Clara pity the creature. Ever since she had started working with these creatures, every day had been no less than an emotional rollercoaster.

The mantis shuffled back into the corner with the same voice and began eating the leafy greens again, making Theo sigh.

He picked up the scholar and placed him on the comfortable chair nearby.

Once he was done taking care of him, Theo stepped inside the terrarium and resumed his training.

He had been there for less than thirty minutes when the commotion outside snapped him out of it.

Theo stood up, but his legs felt wobbly. His mind was too exhausted, and the usual mental focus he used to maintain balance because of the spatial awareness had weakened.

’This is such a shitty situation.’ 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Theo steadied himself, though the discomfort in his mind always made him want to grind his teeth and start training again just to distract his mind.

When he stepped outside, he saw Clara grabbing the scholar around the upper waist with a casual expression while the man struggled to enter the terrarium room.

"Young Theo, I felt that distortion once again!" the scholar shouted, trying his best to get out of Clara’s grip.

Theo didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry at that.

The man didn’t seem scared of the presence behind him anymore, as if his mind was completely locked onto the spatial distortions.

That made Theo realize something.

Maybe the mantis’s suppression didn’t work when someone wasn’t thinking or looking at it. When their mind was too absorbed in something else to care about anything around.

Still, Theo doubted that might be the whole explanation. It would require a lot of trial and error, or research, to understand properly.

"Calm down, Schlar Vale. I will take you in there if you calm down," Theo said, placing his hands on the man’s shoulders.

The scholar’s crazed eyes softened a little, and he nodded in agreement.

Theo nodded to Clara, signaling to let go of him. When she slowly let go, the scholar stood there normally.

Before the mantis’s suppression could affect him again, Theo invited him inside.

Once they were inside, Clara stepped in as well and closed the gate behind them so that the matis couldn’t enter.

When the scholar looked around the room from the inside, he couldn’t help but have his mouth wide open in amazement.

"This... feeels like a study..." he said as he looked around the large terrarium and then at the many smaller ones scattered around it.

Then there were larger boxes near one side of the walls.

His eyes then drifted to the table covered with all the pages and stacks of journals. He instinctively wanted to step forward and examine them, but he stopped himself and looked at Theo instead.

"Young Theo, my apologies for forcing you to bring me here. If I had known what this place was for you beforehand, I would have asked for proper permission first," the man said, bowing his head politely.

Theo quickly made him stand upright with a hurried smile.

"I don’t mind you coming here," he said, pointing toward a relatively large terrarium, not as big as the biggest one, but still large enough.

"This is what you came to see."

As Theo said that and began walking toward it, the scholar’s guilt began to fade. The young man had allowed him just now, and that was what mattered.

"This is my ant colony. Have you seen one before, Scholar Vale?" Theo asked, making the scholar shake his head.

"There was never really a need to. I think I have only seen insect-type beasts just now and perhaps only a few other times before. But these ones are quite big... were they always like this?" he asked while peering into the glass container.

"No. I think these are the largest ants you will ever see in this world," Theo muttered, making the man nod thoughtfully.

"Time for that to happen," Theo said as he instructed the ant queen to use Hive Mind with the others.

Soon, the antennae of every single ant, and even the spider’s eyes, lit up with a faint golden glow.

"OHHHHHH THIS IS IT!"

The scholar explained, staring with wide, almost crazed eyes as he felt the spatial distortions forming all around the container.

Theo had always believed that his ability was better than most, but it turned out he couldn’t see the distortions the scholar was currently observing.