Tokyo underground city

Chapter 106 True Sociality

"A strange thing?"

Lin Huai'en was stunned for a moment.

"Yes." Officer Shao nodded, "According to Leonardo, the monsters that attacked them seemed to show a certain degree of organization."

"For example, in the general impression of explorers, monsters like cicada-eating ants rarely attack by surprise."

"Even if the sentinel is a little lazy, when attacked by cicada-eating ants, he will scream loudly and wake up others."

"But this time it was different. The sentry was killed quietly."

"When others were awakened, they found that their tents had been chewed through, and their sleeping bags were stuck together with a milky white, glue-like mucus."

"Only Leonardo used his [Escape] skill to reduce the friction on the body surface to zero and escape."

"So, I feel a little confused from Leonardo's statement——"

"A trace of doubt?" Lin Huaien asked subconsciously.

"Yeah." Officer Shao nodded: "Dungeon monsters like cicada-eating ants, in addition to showing some potential true sociality like ants, can also behave like Leonardo described. Can we develop more advanced strategic planning capabilities?”

At this point, everyone followed Officer Shao's gaze and looked at Yuan Xiaole.

Yuan Xiaole hesitated for a moment and nodded: "In principle, this is not impossible."

He used his knowledge of biology to explain to others:

"Dungeon monsters like cicada-eating ants have just appeared not long ago, and there is not enough research data on them, so I can only make a simple guess based on the life patterns of regular ants."

"First, let me explain [true sociality]."

"I don't know how much you know about [eusociality], Officer Shao, but to put it simply, all eusocial creatures should have the following three characteristics in common -"

"That is [division of reproductive labor], [overlapping generations] and [cooperation in caring for immature individuals]."

"Except for the ants, bees, and wasps of the order Hymenoptera, and the termites of the order Blattella, which are well-known among ordinary people, among [mammals], there are only two kinds of moles that are [eusocial] .”

"Even we humans cannot be considered true social creatures in the biological sense——"

"Because we have not yet evolved the ability to [reproductive division of labor], that is, handing over our reproductive responsibilities to other female relatives, while we only focus on taking care of the cubs."

"The 'termites' we are familiar with in daily life are actually not the same species as 'ants'. In terms of blood, they are more like close relatives of some kind of cockroaches."

"And the reason why I want to mention this is because the degree of evolution of eusociality varies greatly between different 'orders' and even between different ants."

“‘Termites’ of the order Blattata are generally more eusocial than ants of the order Hymenoptera.”

"Some ants even lack basic nest-building abilities, such as the notorious 'army ants'."

"However, although termites are highly eusocial, they lack a strong exoskeleton, so their combat effectiveness is generally weaker than that of [Hymenoptera] ants."

"In the biological competition, there will even be 'ants' attacking the 'termite' nest, snatching eggs from the 'termite' nest, and placing them in their own nests to hatch, making the 'termite' larvae become slaves of their own group and engage in Production, while he is a 'fierce ant' responsible for plundering from outside."

"So, if you ask me whether 'ants' can evolve strategic and tactical planning capabilities, I can only say that it is possible."

"But in theory, cicada-eating ants will not suddenly evolve this ability-"

"Unless this is their inherent ability, it was just because of insufficient materials and environment that they were not specialized."

Yuan Xiaole finished the analysis of cicada-eating ants in one breath.

Although Lin Huai'en heard something a little confused, he thought about it and roughly summarized what Yuan Xiaole meant: "In other words, Yuan Xiaole, you think that a new type of cicada-eating ant has appeared on the fifth floor. This new type of cicada-eating ant either has assassination capabilities or a certain degree of command ability?"

"Maybe it's both, or both." Yuan Xiaole nodded and replied.

His answer was a bit too concise, but Lin Huai'en still understood what he meant.

"In other words, these two abilities may belong to an unknown new type of cicada-eating ant. Or may they belong to two different cicada-eating ants?"

"Yes." Yuan Xiaole nodded and confirmed.

Lin Huaien nodded and said nothing.

Neither of these conclusions is good news.

But the information that Officer Shao wanted to provide them was more than that.

Officer Shao and Leonardo looked at each other and looked at Yuan Xiaole:

"So...can the new cicada-eating ants on the fifth floor evolve into a type that can use skills?"

"A monster using skills?!" Yuan Xiaole was surprised: "Are you talking about spell-like abilities?"

"No...I'm pretty sure that's not the monster's mutant ability or spell-like ability."

Leonardo took the initiative to explain: "The moment I escaped from the shelter, I felt the influence of [Rainbow Jet], and my vision became blurry."

"In this case, I had a brief confrontation with two tall cicada-eating ants. I avoided the attack of one of them, but I could clearly feel the giant cicada-eating ant's pair of forelimbs. , specially transformed into sickles. And these two pairs of sickles, while slashing at me, also emitted the heavy-hit fluorescence unique to dungeon skills!"

Lin Huai'en was stunned for a moment before he understood what Leonardo meant.

Physical dungeon skills will emit a faint skill fluorescence when used. Currently in Wilderness House, it is not known what the meaning of these skill fluorescence is, but basically it can be divided into the following categories based on color -

[Defense against blue light]: Can effectively increase body or armor strength.

[Offensive Red Light]: Can increase attack power and skill destructive power.

[Swift Yellow Light]: It can increase the attack speed of skills, for example, causing a three-hit combo in a short period of time.

In addition to these three basic colors, there are other relatively rare colors.

For example, [Seduction Orange Light] can attract enemy attacks, [Destruction Black Light] has extraordinary destructive power, and [Shining Silver Light] focuses on balance and control.

An experienced explorer can determine what kind of skill the opponent wants to use just by looking at the skill fluorescence when the opponent attacks.

Leonardo, on the other hand, obviously felt that he was attacked by skills such as [Powerful Attack] and [Piercing Strike].

However, this shouldn't be possible...

After all, using and acquiring "skills" is the exclusive preserve of dungeon explorers. Even if the aborigines can learn "spells" or "sword skills" similar to those of explorers through their own efforts, they will not emit a faint skill fluorescence when releasing skills like explorers.

However, Leonardo firmly denied that——

"I can never be wrong!"

"I definitely did not mistook the explorers from other forces for dungeon monsters in a panic!"

"That must be some new type of giant cicada-eating ant!"

"At least over 2.5 meters tall!"

[This morning’s update should be postponed]

[Recent content is written faster and with less deliberation, so there may be more changes]

[Welcome to point out any questions]

[As long as you communicate in a normal tone, it will be considered and accepted. 】