Volume One: The Infernal Lord’s World Chapter 59: Synthesizing the Ant Nest

Indeed, from the moment those ants rushed out, Chen Gu had conceived the idea of synthesizing such creatures. At first, his thoughts were not so elaborate; he merely intended to gain control over the ants and enhance their attributes somewhat. However, once he acquired the ant nest and a few items from beside the Elven Queen, inspiration struck him.

Just as Chen Gu had originally thought, the subject of synthesis would certainly not be the queen ant before him. Without hesitation, he began to disassemble her. As he dismantled the queen, the battered ant army, as if provoked, charged at Chen Gu recklessly. Yet none managed to breach the barrier of the sacred light magma; all were incinerated within its fiery embrace. Chen Gu did not spare them a glance, for at that moment he was sorting through the ant nest, contemplating how best to proceed with synthesis.

Although he lacked the Heart of the City and Building Stones, the combination of an ant nest and queen ant equated to an underground kingdom. Chen Gu believed that even without those special items, he could still employ [Nest Synthesis]. Sure enough, upon activating [Nest Synthesis] and placing the hive inside, the prompts changed.

[Please insert synthesis item (0/1), kindred essence (0/1), source of colony (0/1)...]

Seeing this, Chen Gu smiled. This was as it should be; if only the Heart of the City and Building Stones could be synthesized, what use was a nest or a pet? This, he realized, was the proper way to unlock [Nest Synthesis]. With that thought, he swiftly placed the necessary items inside.

For the synthesis item, he chose the [Blessed Sacred Leaf]. It was clear that the previously emerald-green ants had been affected by the Elven Queen’s trio of equipment. The other two items had their uses and could not be expended, so the less important Sacred Leaf became the offering. As for kindred essence, Chen Gu placed the ant nest itself inside—surely this counted as essence. For the source of colony, he inserted the headless queen ant; her abdomen contained enough eggs to serve as the new source of ants.

After placing all three items, a new interface appeared before him.

According to the prompt, Chen Gu would obtain an ant nest, from which the same emerald-green ants would emerge. There would be three types: queen, worker, and soldier ants. Provided the queen could eat and lay eggs, the number of ants would have no upper limit. Chen Gu was quite dissatisfied with this synthesis; aside from occupying a nest, what else did it accomplish? He almost abandoned the idea—until he noticed something new on the interface.

In this new interface, one could add different items to influence the synthesized ants. Chen Gu instantly understood: this was fine-tuning within the grand synthesis. Previously, he hadn’t noticed this simply because he’d never needed to. Now, however, the ant nest presented enough potential for him to experiment.

He quickly retrieved various items from his inventory and placed them into the new interface. A metal ingot would sharpen the soldier ants’ oversized teeth. Barnacles and mussels from the World Tree would turn their chitinous shells gray and tougher. Wolf fangs would grant the ants a white exoskeleton. Each material produced a corresponding change, leaving Chen Gu with difficult choices.

According to the interface, during the first synthesis of an ant nest, five items could be added to enhance the ants’ bodies. Any further enhancements would have to wait until the nest upgraded again. This nuance had eluded him during his previous synthesis of Building Stones. With this new understanding, he set aside the wolf fangs, barnacles, and mussels.

Chen Gu had a clear purpose for these ants: he needed high yield, and ants capable of biting through stone and bone. Their vitality and defense were of little concern—after all, an ant is still just an ant, whether it’s crushed with one foot or two. Strengthening defense was less valuable than boosting attack and speed; he intended to use these ants as living bullets.

Therefore, he focused on attack power, a touch of venom, and increased speed. Enhancing their teeth with metal ingots was an obvious choice. Poison was a problem—none of his materials possessed toxic properties. However, he did have several fire elemental cores, remnants from failed fire elemental synthesis attempts. Lacking poisonous items, he substituted these instead. To his surprise, the synthesis produced a +5 fire attribute attack for all ants. The efficacy was uncertain, but better than nothing.

He experimented with other materials but found no superior attributes. Not wanting to weaken his synthesized ants, Chen Gu began to search his carriage for anything suitable.

When he placed a vial of liquid into the interface, his eyes lit up. Initially, he thought it was water from the Sacred Lake, but it turned out to be water from the pool in the grove where the Elven Queen was crowned. This triggered a new option.

Whereas the previous queen ant remained a typical ant, the queen now displayed in the interface was a humanoid figure clad in a chitinous shell. Unlike the others, a small note appeared below:

[Emerald Ant Queen (Unique): Synthesized using Moonlit Pool Water. Only one Emerald Ant Queen can exist at a time; she is the sole ruler of the Emerald Ant Kingdom. When the previous queen dies, her successor must devour her corpse to ascend as the new queen.
Note: The Emerald Ant Queen holds absolute control over the Emerald Ants; under her command, they will never betray.]

This description made Chen Gu’s eyes gleam; he had discovered a new detail. There was more to this than he had imagined. Originally, he’d only intended to strengthen the ants themselves, but now he realized he could also empower their leader. If so, he possessed ample materials to proceed. Swiftly, he gathered several items he had not yet tested and placed them into the interface.