Although Draven didn't fully understand why the swarm couldn't completely possess the Divine Power Insect Nest and only benefited from the energy it emitted, this at least solved part of the mystery in his mind.

  The reason the swarm in the old nest was unwilling to leave through the tunnel dug by the new queen was probably because they couldn't bear to part with that Divine Power Insect Nest.

  Thinking this, Draven couldn't help but worry a little about the bees' intelligence.

  "Can't bear to leave? Why not just take it with you?"

  Watching Liliana carefully cradle the palm-sized Divine Power Insect Nest, Draven felt speechless.

  "How troublesome could it be to bring such a small thing?"

  But in fact, this was his ignorance. The Divine Power Insect Nest was specially designed for magical insects and naturally wouldn't easily recognize them as masters.

  Though it appeared small, it contained countless complex rules and restrictions.

  In other words, it wasn't that the wasps didn't want to take the Divine Power Insect Nest—they simply didn't have the ability to do so.

  These magical insects chose to build their nests beside the Divine Power Insect Nest not by chance, but because they relied on the power it provided. The nest and the Divine Power Insect Nest were two completely different entities.

  Of course, Draven still couldn't fully comprehend the truth behind all this, but that didn't stop him from excitedly moving toward the ant colony.

  As if by prior unspoken agreement, the bee swarm and ant colony occupied opposite ends of the bottom of the crevice, seemingly making great efforts to keep their distance and avoid contact.

  However, the shape of the ant colony struck Draven as very strange.

  On the opposite cliff wall, there were piles of earth of various sizes shimmering with a metallic luster.

  Draven's expression darkened slightly as he called Liliana over.

  He approached and gently tapped the pile of earth closest to him. The sound was crisp—undoubtedly the sound of metal.

  If it weren't for the openings on the piles that looked like entrances, Draven would hardly have associated them with an ant colony.

  At that moment, the queen ant crawled out from the largest and tallest pile. It fluttered its wings and glided slowly in front of Draven.

  This queen ant was over a meter long—almost big enough to be a mount. If not for its slow speed, it might have been a strong competitor to the Nightmare Horse.

  Bound by the forced contract, Draven directly contacted the queen through the contract, ordering her to bring out the treasure.

  At Draven's urging, the queen ant reluctantly flew back into the nest. Draven felt a surge of joy—there really was treasure.

  But the next moment, when he saw what the queen ant held in her mouth, his expression darkened somewhat.

  It was a gold bar as thick as an arm and dozens of li long. If placed in the old world, it would undoubtedly be a huge fortune.

  But this was another world. Even if one risked the lord's pursuit to mint coins, what great value could it really have?

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  Draven waved his hand at the queen ant in disgust, not even bothering to connect with it. Meanwhile, the little treasure-hunter Liliana's eyes lit up.

  Seeing Draven uninterested, she happily snatched the gold bar from the queen ant's mandibles. Once in hand, she weighed it and disdainfully threw it to the ground.

  "Fake! Too light!" Liliana kicked it aside as well.

  The gold bar flew quite far from the kick.

  Draven was full of astonishment. Strange—how could such a big gold bar fly so far from just one kick?

  He didn't believe the queen ant was capable of forging fakes. Driven by curiosity, he ran over and picked up the gold bar.

  As Liliana said, it felt almost as light as wood. Upon closer inspection, the gold bar was hollow inside.

  He tapped it in his hand, and it made a crisp metallic sound.

  Draven's suspicion grew—could this be a special kind of metal?

  At some unknown time, the queen ant flew back to the nest and brought out another object shimmering with a golden-yellow glow.

  Draven glanced at it briefly, then looked back at the gold bar in his hand, increasingly convinced that this thing wasn't ordinary metal.

  Why did he think so? Because this time, what the queen ant carried out was a golden skull.

  Seeing this, Draven's expression instantly grew strange.

  He took the skull and examined it carefully, then urged the queen ant to continue bringing out all the golden bones.

  After a while, following some waiting and assembling, before their eyes appeared a severely incomplete but remarkably human-like skeleton.

  The skeleton was badly damaged, with less than a quarter of it remaining intact. At first, Draven thought the missing parts had been gnawed away by the Gold-Devouring Demon Ants.

  But after repeated tests—even the queen ant's incredibly sharp mandibles couldn't leave any marks on the bones.

  This only deepened Draven's confusion. Looking at the remains, which aside from their unusual color showed no special features, he couldn't help but frown.

  These bones looked just like ordinary stones—showing no signs of life or energy.

  In contrast, the Divine Power Insect Nest at least emitted faint energy fluctuations. These bones, however, had absolutely no fluctuations.

  Nonetheless, despite the queen ant's reluctant gaze, Draven still stored the skeleton into his storage bracelet.

  Then, he ordered the queen ant to gather the entire ant colony. It was time to take them back.

  As the flying ants swarmed out, carrying ant eggs, they slowly flew away from the nest.

  Immediately after, the metallic ant nests of various sizes began to tremble slightly, then slowly detached one by one from the cliff wall.

  Accompanied by an ear-piercing screech that made teeth ache, those loose ant nests began to contract, gradually transforming into glowing metal spheres emitting a cold light.

  Draven reached out and beckoned; the metal spheres obediently flew into his storage bracelet like well-trained pets.

  This was the new skill he had gained after contracting with the queen ant—Metal Control.

  Controlling metal sounded impressive, but in reality, this skill was rather useless.

  After all, this was a magical world, and simply controlling matter itself was far from powerful enough to make much of a difference.

  The Metal Control skill Draven inherited from the queen ant was mainly about changing the shape of metal.

  In other words, it was more than enough to make ordinary weapons and tools, but bloodline weapons and magical artifacts were not included.

  Still, for everyday life, Metal Control was quite practical. At least, it temporarily eased the shortage of blacksmiths in Black Flag Territory.

  However, Draven had no idea that in Selene City at this very moment, Rurik was agonizing over recruiting blacksmiths.

  In Selene City, the best blacksmith without question was the dwarf Edric.

  This was a well-known fact. Yet even the lord's manor couldn't secure Edric's full loyalty.

  Let alone a young werewolf like Rurik. Of course, Rurik wouldn't foolishly try to strong-arm Edric, who had cooperation agreements with the lord's manor.

  In fact, almost every blacksmith who could open a forge in Selene City was powerful and earned a good income. Rurik had no confidence in persuading any of them.

  But the chief's mission was clear, and he had to find a way.

  That night, Rurik held Angelica and Katia, full of worries and completely dispirited. Even with two rosy-cheeked bunny girls cuddling and acting cute beside him, he couldn't cheer up.

  These two bunny girls, wanting to improve Rurik's situation, offered some ideas to help. They mentioned a few rat-men in the slums who were quite skilled blacksmiths by trade.

  Rurik had naturally heard of these few. They had arrived in Selene City around the same time as him.

  Among the rat-men was a leading bloodline warrior. At first, several rat-men had great ambitions to open a blacksmith shop in Selene City.

  But due to their small size, they couldn't forge weapons suitable for most demi-humans.

  Moreover, their success rate for making bloodline weapons was extremely low. Before long, these rat-men gradually disappeared from public view.

  If it weren't for Angelica and the others recalling this, Rurik might have forgotten them altogether.