He could do it himself, but he just wasn't in the mood for it.
The mushroom tree fell, splurting blood everywhere. But Ben was not surprised. He had seen this happen multiple times.
The tree's fiber was like that of meat; it had blood and veins. Ben would then order the ant workers to chop it up into meatballs and then roast them over a fire.
Normally, one ant could only carry one red-spotted mush tree. However, with Alex's invention, they could easily gather up to 999 of them before going back.
Or, if Alex blockified it, he could bring back 9,999 pieces of Meaty Fungi Block. From a single tree, he could get 9–10 blocks, so it wasn't much different.
Ben then pulled up the kingdom-building screen. Under the status, it showed the current territory under his control.
125x Red Spotted Mush Tree
842x Roasted Mush Ball
One kitchen, barracks, two houses, two warehouses, one junk storage
24x Spike Trap, 43x Boulder Trap…]"
The stone bricks were created by Ben from stone blocks; the ant workers would then take and stack them on top of each other to create buildings.
Right now, they are focused on adding more housing facilities. Ben also created a sewage system, where everything was then pooled at the end into junk storage.
Although the only one who used it was mostly Elvira. With his class and complete control over his body, he didn't have any waste nor need to go to the bathroom.
He only did that for cleaning. 'The walls and tiles are running out, but my stone blocks are also almost emptied. Seems I need to start digging deeper again.'
'If only Elvira found that ant queen, we could capture her and force her to keep procreating.'
Ben had an idea to capture the ant queen and turn her into some kind of biomass farm. He planned to make another sphere-like chamber for them, close to his kingdom.
Ben also learned something as he expanded and built. If he created a structure in an area that was close to his current territory, the area would then be counted as part of his kingdom.
As for the kingdom name, he changed it from Six-Legged Cartel. "Ben, here you are! We finally found the queen that escaped from me. But there is a problem."
"They made a nest in a biome similar to this one. With the nutrients, the ant queen is focused on creating her army."
"In total, there are more than 200 soldiers."
"Didn't you say the ant queen can produce even more?"
"Yes, but that's if they produce weaker ants. That's why I say this is trouble."
"Almost all of the ants are ant soldiers. It seems she was prepared to wage war back with me to take her territory."
"Wait, does this mean she will come after us?"
Elvira gave a nod, "Each of the Krell Scouts should be able to kill 10 ant soldiers or 2 royal ants."
"I know you're thinking of waiting for them to attack us, but in that case, they will come with even more numbers. Are you sure you can defeat all of them?"
"Hmm… Based on your observation, how many ants can they breed in a day?"
Ben wanted to calculate the possible enemy they faced. He still didn't give up on creating a trap for them.
It was the only way he knew to beat that many with their current strength.
"If she keeps going at this pace, there should be 20 new ants per day. But I have a feeling she's gonna grow it to one thousand before attacking."
"Or focus the rest of the nutrients to create royal ants or even a king ant."
"King ant? Never heard of them."
Even in his old world, Ben had never heard of an ant colony having a king.
Based on some documentary he watched, it only had an ant queen, with many drones working, cleaning the queen's body, and helping her produce the eggs.
The other important role was the ant princess; they would be sent outside to create new colonies.
Making sure their species kept expanding and surviving if one of them met an untimely end.
"King ants take a long time to incubate. It also costs the ant queen her life."
"If she succeeds in giving birth to one, the colony will change structure."
"The king ant will visit all the ant queens separated from their colonies. He will gather them all, creating one supermassive faction."
"You say if she succeeds… how high are the odds?"
"Not large, only around 1% at most. That is why there's also a chance she won't go that far."
"But remember her personality and how I defeated her? I feel this is not out of the realm of possibility."
"So the ant queen is sentient?"
"Yes, why else do you think she has a Hive Mind skill?"
"Ah yeah, I forgot that. How about negotiation? No chance at all?"
"No! Didn't you listen to me? They want to take revenge."
Ben shook his head. "That is not what I mean."
Ben explained his plan to Elvira. After a lengthy explanation, her eyes lit up.
"It can work, but don't bring the ants. You should also do this…"
She leaned in, whispering into Alex's ear. They went back and forth multiple times.
Until they finalized the plan.
Sometime later, inside a dark cavern, a huge ant was lying on the ground.
It was even bigger in size than Elvira's ant queen form. Its stomach was pulsing in large size.
Different from what Elvira thought, the queen was impatient.
In her last escape, she had been ambushed by other monsters underground, causing her grievous wounds.
Her life was nearing its end. Considering this, she decided to risk it all.
If she was going down, she would pull her enemy down with her.
'Ah… my son… You should become the strongest ant king and take revenge for your mother.'
She then ordered the drones to supply her with more nutrients.
A few hours passed by, and the ant queen's stomach started contracting.
The chitin became so thin it looked almost transparent. A long, painful screech reverberated in the air as a claw tore through the ant queen's flesh.