Several days later,
Staring at the little ant egg sitting in the middle of a metal box, Beatrice couldn't help but take in a deep breath, as a smile appeared on her face.
"As long as none of the ants die halfway through, and things continue the same way, the first Earth Ant should be born in about four weeks," mumbled Beatrice as she touched the tiny Yadoilae ant egg in front of her.
After Beatrice successfully cast the Ant control spell on the Yadoilae ant, she then walked up towards another box, then another, each of them holding a single or just a few ant eggs inside of them.
Beatrice's efforts in breeding ants gave out certain results, namely, four different species of ants, each of which had long since extinct for whatever reason.
The Yadoilae and Gnechinian ants, which would eventually breed together to hopefully give birth to a Nunnileon ant.
As well as the Gneonoid and Stotid ants, which will create an Onone ant.
Finally, the Nunnileon and the Onone ants be crossbred so as to hopefully create an Earth Ant.
Although Beatrice could have gotten rid of the earlier ant colonies, she decided to leave some of them alive, as a sort of backup, as for the vast majority of the ant colonies, which had grown somewhat large over time, Beatrice decided to do something else with them.
"Hopefully you give me some excitement, my little buddies," mumbled Beatrice as she picked up a box that held a colony of over a thousand ants inside of it.
Inside of this box stood the Burvopous ant colony, which thrived at a temperature of mostly -7 to -10 degrees, dying when exposed to other temperatures.
...
War, war was something utterly horrific, but sadly, in the struggle for the limited resources available war was inevitable, in the pursuit of growth, as well as survival, thousands of ants would wage war every day against their bellow brethren.
Colonies fighting against each other for survival, leaving no ant behind.
It had been long since the ants had been transported from their peacefull home into this battlefield, enough time had passed that an entire generation of ants had managed to be born, one which knew no peace, living only in the terror of war every moment of their lives.
...
Staring at the several-meter-tall box in front of her, Beatrice couldn't help but smile.
Two weeks ago, back when she was just breeding a new generation of ants, a somewhat strange idea couldn't help but appear in Beatrice's mind.
'What would happen if she put all of the ants in one place?'
After this idea entered her mind, she quickly put it into action, managing to obtain a large enclosure, suitable for ants for sixteen elemental stones, a worthwhile price in Beatrice's opinion.
A seven-meter tall and twelve meters wide and long rectangle, this was the new home of the over one hundred ant colonies in Beatrice's collection.
Every single day, Beatrice would send food into the rectangle, placing it at eight points near the eight corners of the rectangle.
Over the course of two weeks, the number of ant colonies in the rectangle drastically decreased, from over one hundred to just around thirty.
Thankfully though, under the effects of the Ant Growth spell, not only did the number of ants in the enclosure not decrease, but it increased instead.
As Beatrice may, or may not have subtly influenced the ants towards expansion and war with the ant control spell, battles for food quickly emerged as the population increased.
"I should keep the few final colonies alive, and not allow them to fight to the death," mumbled Beatrice as she watched several Strotegan ants grab hold of a Wrozenian ant, holding it's much larger legs, trying their best to slow it down.
As time passed, more and more Strotegan ants slowly approached, grabbing hold of the Wrozenian ant, slowing it down even further, not allowing it to move in the slightest as their allies began killing the downed ant.
Merely five red Strotegan ants had died in the process of killing the Wrozenian ant, signally that a clear victory had taken place here.
Quickly the Strotegan ants devoured both the body of the Wrozenian ant as well as the bodies of their dead comrades, leaving nothing behind, wasting not even a hint of food in this time of crisis.
Rather surprisingly, or unsurprisingly depending on how you think about it, the tiny Strotegan ants, with their small bodies and weak formic acid are actually one of the most powerful colonies in this entire place.
Even compared to other ant species, the Strotegan ants are completely unrelenting, not only eating their opponents, but even their own dead colony members.
At the same time, they were one of the most aggressive ant species, allowing them to quickly wipe out some other ant species in their vicinity, increasing their numbers with the increased amount of food.
...
For the past two weeks, Beatrice continued her previous schedule, every single day, she would first refine mana for as much time as she could, after that, she would make sure that her ants were alright and that Guinevere had not messed up before beginning to experiment on the Information Cube, trying to personalize it somewhat more.
Sadly though, Beatrice could not ask the mage which her teacher had captured, Ighor, for help regarding the items she had taken from him, a both he and her teacher had left the underground abode not long after the two weeks began.
Fearing that the objects could have self destruct mechanism, Beatrice did not touch them.
Rather, Beatrice spent more of her time practicing her control of the soul using targets that her teacher had left behind whilst also reading her teacher's soul notebook.
...
As she flipped over the last page of the notebook, Beatrice couldn't help but become somewhat suspicious, feeling as if something wasn't right.
Suddenly, Beatrice's eyes widened, as she felt a pair of eyes look at her from the notebook.
It was not the fact that her teacher had placed a soul inside of the notebook which surprised Beatrice, but rather, it was what soul was inside.
Suddenly, Selena emerged from the notebook, and took one look at Beatrice before shaking her head.
"Not ready yet," mumbled Selena before going back into the notebook, not giving Beatrice any time to respond.