Chương 419: Ant's Development. Aiming for the Terragore King.

Aiming for the Terragore King.

Looking at the report card, Flor was baffled.

"Is this… accurate?" Her assistant at the side nodded solemnly.

"We've verified it. There is no doubt that the report is real." Flor placed one of her hands on her face and looked around her office.

"Oh, branches above. Why did the <Terragore King> leave the nest? How many people has it killed already?"

"The official numbers are 500. However, that's only an estimate. After all, there was no way for news of his attacks to reach us because all groups that met with the <Terragore King> had been annihilated." The assistant added.

"Still, one of them managed to at least peek at the Phoer Body Cores that he has…" Flor's eyebrow twitched.

"How many?"

"3191…"

"Three—!?" Flor's eyes widened.

"That's triple Liu Shu's Phoer Body Cores!" With a heavy heart, Flor decided to order a recall of the groups that didn't have at least 100 <Third Energy Cycles> in the group.

"How is Ignatia's evolution going? Has she finished? I heard that she had finished another one of her quests, right?' The assistant nodded.

"Lady Ignatia has been awake for a day. However, she has been adjusting her nest workers and told me not to worry about her for now." Flor nodded and asked, curious.

"Has she told you her current <Tier>? I heard she has increased it, but I am unaware of the extent." The assistant smiled.

"How could we be informed of such a personal matter, Lady Flor? Lady Ignatia is quite cold to everyone who's not her family, haha." Flor blinked and defended her wife.

"She might look cold on the outside, but she is very warm on the inside!" The assistant smiled faintly.

"Sure. If Lady Flor says it, it must be the truth." Seeing the expression of the assistant, Flor blushed. It was a face that looked slightly amused as it expressed: 'Everything you say is correct; I dare not disagree.' Clearing her throat, Flor stood up and flapped her wings to float in the air.

"A-Anyway, is this all?" The woman smiled.

"Yes. This is all for today. Lady Flor can go and be with Lady Ignatia for the rest of the day."

"... Why do you know me so well?" The human woman blinked and smiled.

"I am your assistant for a reason, Lady Flor. After more than ten years together, I am proud to say that I know you quite well." Flor pouted.

"You are always like this…" Then, she humphed and left. After being pampered by Ignatia for a long time, Flor had become slightly more childish, regaining a bit of her nature as a young fairy. Of course, she only showed this side to people she considered close. Flying through the massive city, Flor took a few minutes to reach the entrance of the Ant Nest and dive inside. She traveled the tunnels with ease, and soon, she reached the core area unimpeded.

She first looked in Ignatia's main nesting grounds, and after not finding her there, she visited the newly built research center. The closer to the center, the stronger the ants she saw roaming around. A sign that Ignatia was nearby. Happy to have found traces of her Ant Queen Wife, the fairy sped up and searched for her. It took only ten more minutes to enter a room with smooth walls and see Ignatia observing a group of ants working. She wanted to call her.

However, seeing her concentration and the focus of the ants, she decided to wait at the entrance.

'Hm… What are they doing?' The ants were somewhat different from usual ants. They were not fully humanoid, as they walked around with four of their six legs. However, the abdomen and head of the ant were vertical, while the frontal arms were somewhat thicker and had long and agile fingers at the front. Her eyes focused on the hands of the working ant, and she noticed a familiar shape. It was a wooden sword that was slowly being treated. Her eyes widened slightly.

'The ant has created such a sublime sword?' What Liu Shu had honestly failed to calculate when creating the [Temple Of Craft] was that it affected all allied creatures in her domain. This included the ants. With Ignatia's previous idea and projects to develop part of her children as crafters, adding to the new bonuses and ease to cross that first boundary, crafter ants had started sprouting in abundance in Ignatia's colony. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

After a few more minutes, the ant finally made a final gesture, clacked her mandibles quite happily, and grabbed the sword, presenting it to Ignatia with gleaming compound eyes. Flor couldn't resist a smile from creeping up on her face.

'Cute~.' Ignatia grabbed the sword and smiled, her throat making some clicking sounds as she hugged the ant's big head into her bosom. Flor was curious, and she analyzed the sword as well. [Level 12 Ironwood Sharpsword (Low-Grade Flawed Level)] Note: A mediocre sword that can only be used against the lowest-level monsters. However, this sword is something created by, surprisingly, an Ant! The implications this sword carries are quite terrifying. Flor was somewhat surprised.

'Not bad at all! An E- Rank Sword.' Ignatia sniffed the air twice, and she looked sideways.

"Flor?" Snapping out of her thoughts, Flor smiled and flew forward, landing in Ignatia's arms.

"Here I am. I was curious as to why you didn't come see me. However, I can now see why~." Ignatia looked at the gorgeous fairy in her arms and lowered her face to kiss her lips.

"My pretty little wife is so cute~. So, what did you want me for? Has something happened with the <Terragore Empire> mission?" Flor nodded and sighed.

"Yes. The <Terragore King> has, for some reason, left the nest and started hunting people. There have been a few hundred deaths already." Ignatia was surprised, but soon, he commented.

"Isn't this a chance?" Flor blinked, confused.

"A chance? How so? It has made it much more difficult to organize ourselves." Ignatia smiled and kissed her forehead.

"Think, love. You've gained a lot of intelligence, so you should see the chance." Flor could feel Ignatia's insectoid eyes shining with love and patience. Other people were scared of Ignatia's eyes. But, for Flor, they were gorgeous like black jewels that shone with charm and seductiveness. Moreover, after a long time, she had strangely started to detect feelings through them.

She was confused whether this was her delusion or not; after all, without pupils, sclera, or anything similar, emotions were impossible to express adequately through her eyes. Still, Flor believed that she could read some of her lover's emotions. After being encouraged, Flor frowned, and then her eyes flashed with recognition.

"This is a chance to capture the <Terragore King>!" Ignatia chuckled.

"That's right. We can use bait to lead him into a trap room. <Terragore King> are violent and love hunting by nature. They are usually the ones in charge of feeding the <Terragore Queen>." Flor hummed and blinked.

"It's so strange."

"What's strange, love?" Ignatia tilted her head, confused.

"Well," Flor chuckled.

"The fact that you don't have male ants in your colony. I find it strange. It's like you are going against the natural order of how things should be, right?" Ignatia paused and commented.

"It's not that I can't have them, though. I just have a few titles that makes it redundant to make male ants… Still, I can create them."

"Don't!" Flor frowned deeply.

"You mustn't give birth to male ants!" Ignatia hummed with a hidden smile, as if she were thinking about it. Flor pinched her cheek and humphed.

"Come to the room. I'll show you that you don't need them!" Ignatia was dragged into the room without Flor noticing how her lips arched in a triumphant smile. Three weeks later, a group of nearly 5000 people gathered in the temporary town built in the <Blooming Aether Swamp>. The town was created with an entrance toward the center area of the <Terragore Empire>. All powerful people used this entrance to go hunt Terragore. The group of 5, 000 people gathered were all <Third Energy Cycles>.

At the lead, Flor, Ignatia, and many others stood ready to dive deeply. In the center of the army, one could see a cage, a 4x4x4 meter structure, large enough to capture the Terragore King. This cage was built with roots from Liu Shu and other World Trees. In terms of the value of just the materials, it was enough to buy a small city. Not to mention the price of having the best Crafters in the country to build it. Flor spoke loudly.

"Today it's the day we hunt the <Terragore King>. Once this monster is out of the picture, the <Terragore Queen> will be forced out of her hiding spot. Otherwise, her nest will be hunted to extinction. Of course, we know that the <Terragore Queen> won't go out to save the <Terragore King>. However, you must not underestimate the king's strength. From our reports, his Physique is around 60, 000 points, and his <Phoer Body Cores> hover at around 3, 000.

One hit from it, and most of the people gathered here would die instantly. That's why we will use the Summoning Army as a way to gather its attention." Seeing the solemn faces of the group, Flor smiled.

"We are not here to send a bunch of you to die. If everything goes according to plan, no one will have to die. The majority of you here are summoners. While the rest are Earth Aether Mana users and people who know strong debuffs. We've been working together for two weeks already, and you should be quite familiar with each other. Now, let's set off!"

"Yes, Lady Flor!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Wall Forest, Evangeline and Jolie stood in front of another burning World Tree. Evangeline looked at the powerful flames and muttered.

"Three down, eight more to go. At this pace, we will be able to take over this place in just four years." Jolie nodded with a smile.

"Once we are done here, even if Tianlian Liu Shu's growth is ridiculous, she shouldn't be able to outgrow us who've been constantly battling, right?" Evangeline crossed her arms.

"We need to focus and try to reach the <Fourth Energy Cycle> during the following four years. If we can't, at least we should upgrade our equipment to High-Grade." Jolie nodded.

"Understood, Mother."