A kunai shot from Ronin's shadow clone's hand, flying straight toward the giant ant's head.
But as the kunai approached the giant ant, it continuously began to shrink, until even the shadow clone could no longer see it.
What was going on?
Before the shadow clone could figure out what had happened to the kunai, the ground beneath his feet split open again.
The great snake with three exposed tails had broken free from the genjutsu and found him once more.
This time, the massive tail gave the shadow clone no room to dodge. It struck solidly against the arm he had raised in defense.
Terrifying force erupted from the tail. The shadow clone couldn't withstand the blow at all and was smashed apart in midair.
The giant ant watched everything unfold, a trace of confusion flashing in its eyes. At the same time, its enormous belly shifted slightly, as if the thing still being nurtured inside it had also felt that confusion.
And as the shadow clone was scattered by the giant snake, Ronin, who had yet to reach the cave area himself, received everything the shadow clone had seen and sensed.
The giant ant's belly was a sign, representing its supreme status as the Queen.
After all, in the entire Chimera Ant colony, only the Queen possessed reproductive ability.
At the same time, there was no Nen on the Queen's body, yet she possessed an ability that made her completely unafraid of attacks. Either the Queen had used a Vow and Limitation, putting everything into this special defense—
after all, to the Queen, as long as she stayed alive, she could endlessly produce more ants—
or there was another possibility: she truly didn't know Nen at all, and something else was protecting her.
Ronin leaned more toward the latter.
Because the Queen really didn't look like she could use Nen. But when he thought about her ability to communicate, he became a little less certain.
As far as he knew, even if a Queen had extremely high intelligence, she shouldn't have the ability to communicate with humans. At most, she could exchange brainwaves with other Chimera Ants.
But the one his shadow clone had encountered had clearly demonstrated traits beyond his understanding of Chimera Ants.
As for that giant Chimera Ant with snake-like genes, Ronin didn't take it too seriously.
It might very well be one of the guard ants in this ruin nest, but the feeling it gave him was nowhere near comparable to existences like Neferpitou in the manga.
Why was that?
Ronin told Mascher and Vanessa everything he had seen and learned.
Unfortunately, the two of them knew far too little about Chimera Ants and couldn't provide him with much help.
"If you really think they aren't as strong as expected, then we can go over there ourselves and test them," Mascher suggested.
Ronin felt conflicted.
The giant snake hadn't posed enough of a threat to him, but the chill he felt the instant his shadow clone stepped into the cave was enough to make him take the situation seriously.
"Judging by the time, Benkt and the others should be getting close to that cave too," Ronin said, not rushing to make a decision.
Because when his shadow clone charged into the cave area, Benkt and the others had already passed Ronin's group of three.
It was just that Ronin's group had chosen to hide themselves at the time and hadn't let that group discover their traces.
The road ahead had also been cleared and diverted by the shadow clone.
The remaining ants couldn't stop Benkt and the others from advancing.
In fact, those traces of clearing would better conceal the fact that Ronin's group had fallen behind them.
Mascher and Vanessa weren't especially kindhearted people either. Since Benkt and the others were still pushing deeper, trying to investigate the exact situation here, they didn't mind making use of them.
After all, everyone who entered this nest should have already prepared themselves.
Besides, if things truly reached a critical point, the three of them hiding behind might become the key to saving the team.
Benkt was indeed still leading the others forward.
Although Ronin's group suddenly breaking away from the team, along with the appearance of Chimera Ants, had somewhat disrupted his rhythm, he had also noticed something unusual about these Chimera Ants.
There was a biology expert in the exploration team. After studying the corpses of the two Chimera Ants, the expert proposed a hypothesis.
The evolutionary path of the Chimera Ants here seemed to have diverged from that of normal Chimera Ants in the outside world.
Phagogenesis allowed a Chimera Ant Queen to eat other species and then pass those species' genes on to her next generation.
But the traits on these ants were mostly similar to spiders.
Their thick legs covered in bristles, the compound eyes growing on their heads, and the silk-spinning abdomens—all of these resembled the spiders that had surged out of the underground city.
And the key factor behind this might lie in a single food source.
As for the tiger-like monsters and scorpions in this space, there seemed to be some difference between them and the Chimera Ants.
It appeared that the Chimera Ants could not obtain those monsters' genes by killing and eating them. On the other hand, when someone tried attacking those monsters with fire, they were easily set ablaze.
In other words, those monsters were more like the wood-attribute monsters born from the giant tree in the underground city.
And the Chimera Ants could not absorb the genes of such wood-attribute monsters.
"If the Chimera Ants are evolving, then it's most likely because after the ruins opened, humans who entered this area were killed and eaten," the biology expert concluded after integrating all the information.
"But in the Kurta ruins, we found information about trials for Kurta clan members. They should have entered this space too.
"If the Chimera Ants could catch those Kurta clan members, shouldn't they have started evolving long ago?" Benkt had also collected plenty of information.
He knew a great deal about the Kurta ruins hidden in the right-hand passage.
After all, the team that handed the stele content brought out from the Blood-Red Forbidden Land to Ronin was his team.
"I don't know," the expert said with a shrug. "Maybe there are still some hidden secrets here. Perhaps the Kurta people weren't undergoing trials, but came to this area to do something else.
"After all, even now, we still haven't found the giant tree that created those monsters other than the Chimera Ants. That doesn't make sense, because wave after wave of beast tides that rushed out consisted entirely of those flammable monsters."
Benkt said no more.
There were indeed still many secrets within the Mahawi ruins.
And what they had to do was uncover all of those hidden secrets inside the ruins.
A buzzing sound came from the sky.
Flying ants.
After drilling out from the wall in the direction of the cave, they were flying toward the direction from which the shadow clone had previously launched its attack.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!