Chapter 555 Chapter 555. Beetle is ready but is it still ready?

"Well, ours, on the other hand, once they are big enough, will breed and produce at least 20 eggs at once. I still don’t know what the lifespan will be like, but other than that, we can have them ready in bulk and train them with the help of the Ant Queen on our side." Theo spoke with pride all over his face.

"What do you think?" He asked, making Elias think about it for a few seconds before he smiled too.

"In that aspect, your beetles will be better, young master. But it still comes down to whether the beetle can travel at the same pace as a wyvern, which is known for being able to travel across hundreds of kilometers without stopping."

Listening to that, Theo sighed. It was going to be a long while until this transport beast would have any demand.

’But it’s a good thing that it’s not just my curiosity at this point. This really could work if I am selective with the evolution options.’ Theo thought with a nod to himself. ’The sheer number of evolutionary materials being sold in the royal capital... if I had access to them back when I was evolving the mantis, maybe it could have been stronger.’

But he shook his head. The mantis was already crazily strong. There was no point in thinking about whether he needed anything stronger right now.

At this point, Theo felt like this was all going to come down to how well-trained the beetle would become. From being able to carry weight with proper balance to becoming much faster, everything needed training.

And that led Theo to want to make this beetle reach Level 5 too. If it wasn’t tamed, then it wouldn’t have any evolution quest. Not that Theo needed to worry about that. He was already Level 10, so even a partial tame later would easily bring it to Level 10 or higher if he wanted it to.

They did a few more runs after that, enough that Elias stopped looking doubtful and started helping with the ropes on his own without Theo asking him to.

Clara even got close enough to observe how the beetle adjusted its legs and wingbeats whenever the weight behind it shifted.

Theo wrote all of that down too.

By the end of the short mission, the beetle had moved everything they had brought from one marked area to another and back without any actual losses.

"Our main problem right now is the flight height. It needs to be way above what it is right now..." Theo thought out loud. He stayed like that for a while until he sighed once again.

"It’s time we evolve this one again. With the improved experience and a good evolution, things can start looking good." Theo muttered.

Elias and Clara were staring at the beetle and had only one thought in mind.

"Young master... this is taking too much of your time." Elias spoke, trying to bring Theo back to reality.

"You are not as free as you used to be, young master. You have the last arena match in a few days, and then the Kingdom Games later. Are you sure you want to focus this much on the beetle?" Clara chimed in with the same seriousness. There was no concern on her face. She was trying her best to be practical and logical about this.

Theo looked at her and nodded. He had no retort to that. He looked at the beetle, which was about to take another lap, unconcerned about what was going on around it.

"Let’s go back now. For a first outdoor test, I consider this a success."

After that, there was only one thing he wanted to do with the rest of the day.

"Alright, since we are free again, I want to travel back to the Ant Queen with the beetle, the millipedes, and the earthworms." Theo commanded and started walking to let the beetle know it was time to get back into the big box.

Yet Clara and Elias stayed silent in one place. Clara leaned over and whispered something into Elias’s ear. He nodded before moving quickly toward Theo.

"Young master, I have something to suggest." Elias spoke, making Theo look at him with his eyebrows raised in curiosity.

"With the plans that you told me about before, I suggest not going back to the Ant Queen just yet, young master. It will be inefficient." Elias spoke, and Theo stayed silent to let him continue.

"You said you want the breeding process to be taken care of by the Ant Queen and for it to take care of the newer beetles too."

"So I suggest that you first make a healthy pair of every insect that you have evolved. Then you can go, explain everything to the Ant Queen, and let it handle everything while you complete this year’s tournament duties. By the time you return, there should already be a large number of these insects." Elias explained and stopped for a second before speaking again.

"I hope you don’t see this as me getting out of line." He spoke and gave a deep bow.

Theo chuckled and moved forward only to tap Elias’s shoulder twice.

"I am proud that you came up with this, Elias. I will be sure to take your advice."

"It will be better to take them in pairs or in larger numbers with the same evolution before going that far. That will be much more efficient." Theo spoke and was about to move back when Elias whispered,

"Actually... Clara was the one who came up with it. She told me to tell you instead, young master."

Theo looked at Clara, who, after noticing his gaze, smiled as usual.

When Theo, Clara, and Elias finally returned, the whole day felt like it had been far too long.

They were not exhausted physically, but all the planning and execution had drained their minds so much that Theo decided to take a nap and ordered the attendants to do the same.

In the end, his thoughts went back to how the more he did things like this, the harder it became to return to normal academic life, as if his real work was waiting somewhere else.

Just before ending the day, he wrote everything down, organized the failures and successes separately, and prepared the next thing he wanted to work on.

One by one, he knew things would overlap and stack. They would help him in the long run.

Even though not many could understand his intentions right now.