Path of the Hive Queen

The hive settled into a new routine quickly. Very quickly. Clearly, Regina wasn’t the only one who felt good about finally having a bit of space to call their own, and the drones were working hard to develop it into something approaching a real home.

She’d had a long discussion with Max and Tim about their security and defensive measures. In the end, Regina decided that their fortifications would have to wait a bit. Not because they weren’t important, but because they wouldn’t be able to finish them quickly, anyway. She wanted a proper palisade around their homes, and since she expected rapid growth, that meant they’d need to reserve space inside it. There was just no way they would be able to chop down and process enough trees for such a large wall, at least not with their current strength.

That left the Warriors free to assist the Workers and to hunt. Regina had laid more eggs the same day they arrived here. Two Drone Scouts and a Drone Worker. The scouts should be able to help the warriors hunt, as well as help guard their hive. Her hive was growing by leaps and bounds, but it still felt small. Regina wanted to start a proper settlement, and that needed manpower.

She also needed to level up. Max had quickly followed Tim in reaching her level, which meant that even if the two of them fought enough monsters to earn another level-up, they wouldn’t be able to get it. A higher level would also raise Regina’s limit for her hive and possibly speed up her mana regeneration, if nothing else. She was probably gaining experience for establishing herself like this, but it hadn’t been enough to put her over the threshold yet. A part of her wanted to wait and see if the hatching of her three next drones would do so, but without any way to chart her progress or experience gain, that was probably not very helpful.

So she set out to hunt monsters, accompanied by Tim and the two lower-level warriors. Max was staying behind along with the higher-level Workers in order to protect the hive.

Regina had considered what might go wrong during this trip and resolved to stay close enough to get back quickly and take whatever they could use for first aid. She had not considered the possibility that she wouldn’t find anything to fight.

“This is a little ridiculous,” she huffed, plopping down on a fallen tree trunk as they crested yet another hill. “I can’t believe there aren’t any strong monsters around.”

Tim glanced at Ben and Dan, who were breathing heavily and clutching their makeshift weapons. They’d both had several fights, with low-level monsters they had encountered. Tim had held back and only stepped in when they seemed to be in real danger to help them level up. It had paid off, since both were level 2 and could probably reach level 3 quickly.

“There are still monsters,” he noted.

“But they’re no challenge for me and I doubt I’ll get real experience from them,” Regina retorted. “That is why I left them to Ben and Dan.”

The two Warriors exchanged a glance. Ben looked like we wanted to say something, but then closed his mouth and looked away.

“Bianorn did say that the stronger monsters are either dead or have retreated, my queen,” Tim reminded her.

“I know.” Regina sighed. “Do you think we should keep going or head back?”

Tim frowned, glancing at the sky. “We’ve been out here for several hours, and even if we’ve been walking in an arc around our territory, I wouldn’t go too much farther.”

“You’re right. Let’s go back. Maybe we’ll see some monsters on the way.”

On the way back, they encountered another small pack of Flametongue Wolves, none of them over level 4. Tim joined in and helped Ben and Dan fight them, taking on two of the wolves to leave them one each. Regina hesitated, but didn’t join the fight herself. She didn’t have a real weapon at the moment, and she was more focused on using magic, anyway. But with her mana regen limited, she didn’t want to use any mana she didn’t have to.

It took longer to get back than she’d thought, especially since they waited for the younger Warriors to gut and clean their kills. Regina lent a hand in carrying them back to the camp. When she finally walked out of the forest and saw that everything appeared to be calm, the same as when they’d left, she breathed a sigh of relief.

She set the carcass of the wolf she was carrying down with a thump and watched as Bea hurried over to take it. Her hive couldn’t afford to waste any materials they got. Still, as Regina walked away and looked out over the field and the sparkling water of the lake, she felt cautiously optimistic. They just needed some time to grow. But we might not get that time.

That night, she slept in the first of the completed shelters, using wolf pelts as mattress and blanket. Her sleep was more restful than it had been in days, and she went about her day with new energy.

By her count, it had now been about three weeks since she first woke up in this world. Since she hatched. And a week since the monster horde started. It had been relatively short, but apparently vicious. Her hive would have to be strong enough to face the next one in five years, whatever else happened. Regina didn’t worry about that, though. Five years were a long time, especially to someone with her Class, or Template, or whatever made her a Hive Queen.

She helped the Workers finish up the last of their provisional shelters and helped with preparations for their real building projects. The boys were set to work chopping down trees, passing the one good ax they had between them. Regina and the Workers went to what she would optimistically call a clay pit and started experimenting with the material. They would probably need wooden frames to form proper bricks of the same size and shape, and from what she vaguely remembered, mixing in straw would be good. Maybe they could also try just using the clay as a binding material for walls with a structure of woven branches.

They didn’t get a lot done that day in terms of building, but they made good progress in figuring things out. Regina felt motivated to get it done quickly. The next day, she woke up early, took some of the cooked meat they had left from dinner, and set off to the location.

She wasn’t the first one to arrive, though. Mia was already there, bent over the frame of rough wooden planks they’d prepared the day before, apparently immersed in her work.

“I hope you got enough sleep,” Regina commented. She’d had to almost drag Mia away last evening, too.

The drone started, looking up and reflexively drawing in her work-limbs. After a moment, she relaxed. “Oh, my queen! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. Yes, I slept well and I feel rested enough.”

“Good. It’s nice to see you so engaged.” Regina put down the waterskin she’d taken along and started poking at some clay they’d dug out. “Do you think this is more promising than the log cabin idea, then?”

“I don’t know. We probably won’t know until we really get started. Speaking of, where should we try to bake the bricks?”

“I was thinking just setting them up over there. It’s a clear space and the sun will shine directly on it. It’s going to be a warm day, too. Let’s see …”

They both dove into their work and didn’t talk much except to point out issues or suggestions. Tia was at the forest’s edge today, trying to get wooden beams prepared for the actual building. Ben occasionally showed up and she saw Dan patrolling around the field, but she didn’t pay them much attention.

Regina was so engrossed in her work that when it was interrupted, she felt disoriented for a moment. She blinked and looked up, then paused as she realized what it was that felt different. That sense inside of her, not quite her mana but connected to it, had shifted. If she focused on it, she could feel three presences more clearly. But her moment of realization was interrupted by the System.

Regina gasped and crouched down. She felt dizzy for a second, and there was a warm sensation in her body. It spiked until she she felt a stab of heat through her core. It took her a moment before she could focus on the next screen the System showed her.

“My queen! Are you alright? What’s happening?”

She felt Mia’s hands on her shoulder. Regina took a deep breath, pulling her attention from the System to her surroundings, and answered, “It’s okay. I leveled up and apparently unlocked a new type of drone.” She paused and grimaced. “I think we’re going to see what that means quickly.”

A pressure grew in her abdomen, one that felt familiar, though slightly different. Regina closed her eyes, focused on the agitated mana in her body, and tried not to worry as she let her biology run its course.

When she was finished, Regina straightened up and took a step back, breathing deeply. She felt tired, though no worse than last time. Which was interesting, since there were five eggs laying in the grass this time.

They had the same swirling brownish gray coloring as her other eggs. But these eggs were a little smaller. Regina carefully picked one up, turning it in her hands thoughtfully. It felt slightly warm, almost alive, like the others.

Then she glanced at Mia. “Well, let’s get these into the shelter.”

Mia nodded and carefully gathered up the eggs. The two of them headed back to the edge of the forest, where they’d built their shelters. It wasn’t a long trip.

Once they arrived, Regina put the eggs into a small indentation on the ground in one of the shelters, braced by twigs and cushioned by leaves and fur scraps. Only then did she step back and look around for the former inhabitants of this space.

Max was talking to the three new drones a short distance away. They and Tia had all stopped what they were doing and were watching her, but clearly didn’t want to come and bother her. Regina eyed the two new Scouts for a moment. They looked like leaner versions of the Warriors, for the most part. Although, interestingly enough, one of them seemed to be female. Like the other Scout, one of her lower limbs extended into a blade like the Warriors’, but shorter. The other one instead was a more complicated, multi-pronged tool, and Regina couldn’t make much sense of it with only a quick glance.

But she turned her attention back to the System. It felt like it still held information for her. As soon as she thought about it, it showed her a new screen.

Regina whistled to herself. It sounded a bit higher-pitched and yet more scratchy than she would have liked. So, she now had a new type of drones, Swarm Drones, with one new Template, War Drones. From the name and the eggs, she could guess that they were intended to be weaker but more numerous. Still, that couldn’t be all of it. ‘War Drones’ sounded very generic, less like a proper class than something like ‘Drone Warrior’.

Regina blinked and turned her attention to the next notification screen the System was showing her. She’d finally unlocked her first Ability, and she was curious to see what that meant.

Regina couldn’t help herself and whistled again. All of these Abilities sounded very good. Even if she had to wait ten levels, they seemed a lot more powerful and complex than what the drones got. But she knew what she wanted as soon as she saw the option.

Mage’s Focus was very tempting, especially since the reduction in her mana regeneration rate was one of her greatest issues right now. But its main effect was something she would get anyway as she leveled up further. It was the only choice that focused on her own power, not her hive.

But she wasn’t just any mage. Regina knew that, while her path might be one of magic, her greatest strength was her hive. She should choose something that would help her strengthen it further. Hive Locator would be cool, but what really called to her was Enhanced Telepathy. Besides, it sounded like she could get most of the effects of the locator option with that, too. And if it strengthened the psychic connection between them, it might affect not just herself, but her whole hive. It might even allow the drones to talk to each other eventually.

And while Hive Locator’s map might be a great strategic asset, the prospect of using psychic power on people outside the hive was what really convinced her. If she could just walk up to an enemy and make them surrender, or stand still while her drones killed them, that would be a real game changer. Even if actual mind control wasn’t possible, it sounded very promising.

Resolved, Regina tapped on the middle option. The screen disappeared with a small shower of sparks. For a second, she just stood there, wondering if that was it.

But after a moment, she could tell that something had changed. Her sense of the drones was clearer. Not really any different, but it felt a bit deeper, for lack of a better word. She wouldn’t be able to describe their locations any easier than before, but it was far more profound than that. For an instant, she felt like they were a part of her in a way that she hadn’t noticed before.

Smiling, Regina turned and started heading to the cluster of drones, who were still not so discreetly watching her. Time to meet the new drones, and maybe try out her new Ability a little.