Ben could have cut the mushroom tree himself, but he was not in the mood.
SPLASH.
The mushroom tree fell and sprayed blood everywhere.
Ben did not react.
He had seen this many times.
The tree fiber was like meat.
It had blood and veins.
After cutting it down, Ben ordered the ant workers to chop it into meatballs and roast them over a fire.
Normally, one ant could only carry one red-spotted mush tree at a time.
With Alex's invention, they could gather up to 999 trees before going back.
If Alex turned the harvest into blocks, he could bring back 9,999 pieces of Meaty Fungi Block.
One tree gave around 9 to 10 blocks, so the result was about the same.
Ben pulled up the kingdom-building screen.
Under status, it showed the current territory and resources under his control.
[Krell Kingdom]
[Forces:]
[Krell Scout: 2]
[Ant Soldier: 4]
[Ant Worker: 25]
[Stockpile:]
[125x Red Spotted Mush Tree]
[842x Roasted Mush Ball]
[12,345x Stone Brick]
[12x Stone Tile]
[2x Stone Wall]
[Facility:]
[Kitchen x1]
[Barracks x1]
[House x2]
[Warehouse x2]
[Junk Storage x1]
[Trap:]
[Spike Trap x24]
[Boulder Trap x43]
The stone bricks came from stone blocks that Ben created.
The ant workers carried and stacked the bricks to build structures.
Right now, they focused on adding more housing.
Ben had also created a sewage system.
All the waste flowed into a junk storage chamber at the end.
The one who used it most was Elvira.
With his class and full control over his own body, Ben did not produce waste and did not need a bathroom.
He only used water for cleaning.
'The walls and tiles are running out, and my stone blocks are almost gone,' he thought.
'Looks like I need to start digging deeper again.'
'If only Elvira found that ant queen, we could capture her and force her to keep reproducing.'
He wanted to capture the ant queen and use her like a biomass farm.
His plan was to build another sphere-like chamber for the ants, close to his kingdom.
As he expanded and built, Ben learned something.
If he created a structure in an area close to his current territory, the area became part of his kingdom.
He had also renamed the kingdom.
It was no longer Six-Legged Cartel.
"Ben, here you are!" Elvira called.
"We finally found the queen that escaped from me.
But there is a problem."
"What is it?" he asked.
"They made a nest in a biome similar to this one," she said.
"With all the nutrients there, the ant queen is focusing on making her army."
"How many?" Ben asked.
"In total, there are more than 200 soldiers."
"Didn't you say the ant queen can produce even more?" he asked.
"Yes, but that is if she makes weaker ants," Elvira replied.
"That is why I say this is trouble."
"Almost all of the ants are ant soldiers.
It seems she is prepared to wage war with me and take back her territory."
"Wait, so she will come after us?" Ben asked.
Elvira nodded.
"Each of the Krell Scouts should be able to kill 10 ant soldiers or 2 royal ants."
She looked at him seriously.
"I know you are thinking of waiting for them to attack us," she said, "but if you do that, they will come with even more numbers.
Are you sure you can defeat all of them?"
Ben fell silent and thought.
"Hmm.
Based on your observation, how many ants can they breed in a day?" he asked.
He wanted to calculate the enemy's possible numbers.
He still did not give up on the idea of trapping them.
With their current strength, traps were the only way he could see to defeat that many.
"If she keeps going at this pace, there should be 20 new ants per day," Elvira said.
"But I have a feeling she will grow it to one thousand before attacking."
"Or she might focus the rest of the nutrients on creating royal ants, or even a king ant."
"King ant?
Never heard of them," Ben said.
In his old world, he had never heard of a king in an ant colony.
From the documentaries he had watched, there was only an ant queen.
Many drones worked around her, cleaned her body, and helped with the eggs.
The other important role was the ant princess.
The princesses left the colony to start new ones.
That was how the species expanded and survived if one colony met an early end.
"King ants take a long time to incubate," Elvira explained.
"It also costs the ant queen her life."
"If she succeeds in giving birth to one, the colony structure will change."
"The king ant will visit all the ant queens that are separated from their colonies.
He will gather them and form one supermassive faction."
"You said if she succeeds," Ben said.
"How high are the odds?"
"Not high.
Only around 1 percent at most," Elvira said.
"That is why there is also a chance she will not go that far."
"But remember her personality, and how I defeated her?
I feel this is not impossible for her."
"So the ant queen is sentient?" Ben asked.
"Yes," Elvira said.
"Why else do you think she has a [Hive Mind] skill?"
"Ah, right.
I forgot about that," Ben said.
"How about negotiation?
No chance at all?"
"No," Elvira said.
"Did you not listen to me?
They want revenge."
Ben shook his head.
"That is not what I mean," he said.
He then explained his plan to Elvira.
He went through it step by step.
After his long explanation, Elvira's eyes lit up.
"It can work," she said.
"But do not bring the ants.
You should also do this…"
She leaned in and whispered into his ear.
They adjusted the idea several times.
They went back and forth until they finalized the plan.
Some time later, inside a dark cavern, a huge ant lay on the ground.
It was even bigger than Elvira's ant queen form.
Its stomach pulsed and swelled in large waves.
It was different from what Elvira had expected.
The queen was impatient.
During her last escape, other underground monsters had ambushed her and wounded her badly.
Her life was close to its end.
Because of this, she decided to risk everything.
If she was going to die, she would drag her enemy down with her.
'Ah… my son… You should become the strongest ant king and take revenge for your mother,' she thought.
She ordered the drones to feed her more nutrients.
A few hours passed.
The ant queen's stomach started to contract.
Her chitin grew so thin it was almost transparent.
A long, painful screech echoed through the cavern as a claw tore out through the ant queen's flesh.