Laws of the Insect Hive - Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Slime And Ants
Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
In System’s mind, a battle between a fearless army of ants and the low-intelligence slime would end with both sides suffering great losses.
The slime’s colloid would devour countless ants, but the endless number of ants would also cause the slime’s colloid to be damaged badly.
Even System could not guess the outcome of the battle. It should be based on the size of the ant colony. As long as it was big enough, then the slime would definitely be swarmed by the torrent of ants.
It was just unknown how intelligent such a magical creature was.
Would it choose to fight to the death after facing danger? Or would it quit while it was ahead and escape by jumping after eating some ants?
…
The slime was not very far from the nest of the reddish-brown ants, only 12 meters separated them.
System had a method to make the slime move—he could throw dead branches to attract the slime.
From the previous test, System realized that the slime’s movement pattern was extremely simple. As long as there were subtle abnormal movements in the surroundings, it would move toward that spot.
If that slime maintained its movement pattern, it would not run around randomly. Thus, System was confident he could pull the slime to the ants’ nest through throwing dead branches around 100 times.
System made his decision and acted swiftly.
System had nearly gotten caught in the slime’s aroma trap, so he was more or less angered. Therefore, even if throwing dead branches wasted a lot of time, System would do that resolutely.
He searched for suitable dead branches and brought them diagonally above the slime. He then aimed carefully and threw the first one. Soon, System repeated that action.
The slime’s intelligence was indeed low, and as System had expected, it gradually moved toward the ants’ nest.
However, the slime’s movement speed was slightly different from System’s estimation. The slime would only move about five centimeters each time System threw a branch. Also, the forest’s terrain was complex, so System would need to repeat his action, at least, 200 times to be able to pull the slime to the ants’ nest.
He would need seven to eight hours to finish throwing the branches 200 times, and by then, it would be nighttime already.
System wanted to give up upon considering the pitch-black sky, coupled with the toll on his mind and physical exhaustion.
However, if he missed this chance, the slime would most likely disappear.
System pondered for a moment and decided to continue. He tried to make his movements more agile and efficient.
For the first half of the distance, it was troublesome to pull the slime. However, when it was near noon, an unexpected development happened when attracting the slime.
A few reddish-brown worker ants appeared near the slime and they headed toward its direction as they explored.
The slime jumped toward them and devoured the few worker ants into its colloid body.
Not long after, the worker ants that crawled out of the ants’ nest to investigate appeared once again. The slime continued jumping toward them and devoured the ants. It was getting closer and closer to the ants’ nest…
In the afternoon, System basically did not need to make a move as those ants would take the initiative to attract the slime to their nest.
System discovered that ants and slimes should be part of the food chain in this forest. Thus, even if he did not take the initiative to pull the slime, a battle with the ants was destined to happen.
System could not guess who was the higher one in the food chain between the slime and ants. Although it looked like the slime was devouring the ants, they might be the bait to attract the slime.
As the slime gradually got closer to the ants’ nest in the rotten tree, the number of ants patrolling the surroundings increased spontaneously. The slime’s devouring action became more frequent, so it moved closer to the ants’ nest faster.
System could see reddish-brown spots appear within the slime’s colloid—they were the ants’ carcasses. The slime was unable to digest the ants in a short period.
The slime got closer and closer to the ants’ nest. When the slime was around half a meter away from the ants’ nest, ants surged out from within like a tide and charged toward the slime!
The reddish-brown ants’ mandibles were slightly smaller than the dark brown ones, while their size was thinner and smaller. However, their speed was much faster than the dark brown ants.
After the slime jumped and rolled on the ground, it easily flooded and devoured hundreds of ants. However, as the slime continued rolling, thousands of ants had already crawled all over the slime’s colloid body by stepping on their comrades’ bodies.
The slime was still devouring more ants, but System could see that many of the worker ants were already carrying colloid chunks that were the size of rice grains back to their nest.
The battle between the ants and slime was extremely tragic. Half an hour later, as the slime had devoured too many ants, the viscosity of the slime’s colloid had decreased greatly. Many ants’ carcasses and the slime’s colloid started dropping onto the ground.
Maybe due to its survival instincts, the slime did not choose to fight to the end with the ants.
It jumped and escaped from the ants’ nest. At the same time, more colloid chunks and ant carcasses dropped from its body.
It had been as big as a basketball when it had arrived, and it was still the same size as it left after devouring countless ants. However, quite the amount of the slime’s colloid had been carried away by the ants.
Although the ants had snatched a large amount of the slime’s colloid, they had also paid the price of tens of thousands of ants’ lives.
The battle ended with great losses for both sides.
Under the guidance of the huge soldier ants, the remaining worker ants near the nest carried their comrades’ carcasses. They cleared the colloid on their comrades’ bodies and carried them back to the nest in an orderly manner.
…
System did not observe those ants. Instead, he chased toward the direction where the slime had escaped.
The colloid and ants’ carcasses scattered on the slime’s escape route were enough to allow System to have a taste of its colloid and fill his stomach with the carcasses.
The slime’s size decreased by 1/3 after escaping for over 10 meters. Its colloid was falling from its body as it jumped to escape. Finally, it jumped into the mud of a puddle and stopped.
Upon seeing where the slime had stopped, System tried eating the scattered colloid chunks.
The dropped colloid chunks did not immediately die. Surprisingly, they slowly squirmed on the ground as if trying to gather together.
However, besides a small portion of larger colloid chunks that successfully gathered, the smaller ones stopped moving after leaving the slime’s body within a few minutes.
“Is this a method of multiplying through splitting?”
System looked at the slightly trembling 5cm-colloid-ball that gathered in front of him. He felt that he had a deeper understanding of the magical creature now.
System aimed his insect head toward that colloid ball and started sucking.
The small colloid ball seemed to be a whole new life form. As System’s mandibles touched the colloid, the colloid ball tried to jump toward System and devour him.
Unfortunately, the colloid ball was too small and its strength was weak, too. Thus, System’s forelegs sliced it to pieces effortlessly. Afterward, the scattered colloid started to gather again.
The taste of the colloid was okay—it had a rich yogurt flavor and tasted almost the same as the mushrooms, though the taste was much stronger.
The colloid’s taste was also slightly better than the pupae, but the gained EXP was thrice that of the pupae.
As System ate the colloid, he could feel that it was slightly wiggling in his stomach.
The colloid’s movement in his stomach did not make System feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, it was a pleasant feeling, and System felt like the devoured colloid was massaging his abdomen.
