Path of the Hive Queen

Regina stared at the notification for a moment longer, an excited grin on her face, before she turned back. She could dive into System screens later, at least as far as it would let her. For now, they had to deal with the monster they’d just killed.

She glanced at Max. It was a pity that he hadn’t leveled up, too, but that shouldn’t take much longer. Regina had fought a monster before and arguably contributed more to this one’s death than him, so it was probably to be expected.

“It’s probably best if we bleed it out here, before we get it back to our camp,” she said.

“Alright,” Max agreed. He crouched and cut open what was probably a vein with one of his blades, then lifted the corpse of the wolf to let the blood drain.

Regina grimaced, considered if they should have dug a hole for it, then stepped closer to help him lift it.

Max glanced at her hesitantly, then at their kill. “Uh, may I …?”

“Sure,” she said. She didn’t know what exactly he was asking for, but he’d probably earned the right to take a bite.

Instead, the drone lowered his face to the cut and started drinking the blood draining out of it. Regina raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. The smell did seem vaguely appetizing, although she’d rather wait until they had some actual meat that they’d cooked on the fire.

It didn’t take long for most of the blood in the corpse to drain. Max lifted the front of it, while Regina grabbed the wolf’s back legs, and they started walking back the direction they’d come. The monster was heavy, but it was doable, especially with the two of them.

It occurred to her that a human would probably find it weird to think of eating a wolf. Regina didn’t mind, though. It was their prey which they’d killed. Wouldn’t leaving it to rot be the irresponsible thing to do, anyway?

The trip back took longer than they’d taken to get there, since they were weighed down by their kill. Regina kept a wary eye out. The smell of blood might attract predators, and just because she hadn’t seen any higher-level monsters here didn’t mean they didn’t exist.  A few times, a rustling in the undergrowth made her tense up and reach for her spear. But she never smelled anything alarming, and they didn’t see another monster.

“Let’s stop here,” she said once they reached the edge of the forest beside their camp. “I don’t really know how to clean or gut a catch, but let’s try our best.”

Max didn’t seem to mind. She used some vines to string the corpse up, then he set to the task with enthusiasm.

“Leave it to me, my queen,” he said when she approached with another sharp stone. “I think I understand the basics, and there’s no need for you to dirty yourself with work like this.”

Regina nodded. Truth be told, she definitely preferred not to do this herself. She leaned against a tree so she could at least watch him.

“If we can get the fur largely intact, we can use it,” she commented. “I’d also like to get the bladder, so we can have something to store water in. The rest is optional, though we should have enough meat to last a while, especially if we cook it. Hey, you’re doing pretty well.”

She could see that Max fumbled a little. His Dexterity wasn’t very high. But he used his small claws and, carefully, the blade on his other arm to good effect. After a moment, she started digging a hole to bury the innards in. Then she leaned back and finally took a look at her status sheet.

Her stats were still unavailable. But as she’d expected, the entry for Hive had risen to 1/2. After a moment of looking at her status, she saw another notification.

Regina whistled, although the sound didn’t come out quite right. An actual magic spell? That sounded great. She’d have to take a long look at her possible choices and consider it carefully. But for now, her eyes were drawn back to the fourth line of her status, where it described her hive.

“You know, I’m not quite sure what to do.” She sighed.

Max raised his head, looking at her with perfect attentiveness, while he kept handling the wolf’s rib cage.

“I don’t know if I should make another egg. I could, now, especially after I get a good meal. At least I think so. But would it be good to just create another person like that? And what about my mana? If it limits my regen again, that might be a problem. What do you think?”

Max frowned, bending back down over his work. “I don’t know, my queen. I feel like our hive should grow, but it’s not my decision to make. A hive’s growth and makeup are the Hive Queen’s purview.”

“Hm. Alright.”

Regina shook her head, then stepped forward to take some of the cuts of meat Max was making. She put the first two on sharpened wooden sticks and stuck them over the fire.

It didn’t take too long for him to finish and for their food to be done. She carefully lowered the first spit and put the meat on a large leaf, then laid it beside her. She knew Max would insist she get the first steak. She pushed the second one towards him and he copied her.

The monster tasted a lot better than the rabbit. Regina chewed in silence, calling up another screen to check on that Spell she’d been promised.

Regina raised an eyebrow. A teacher or books were obviously not an option for her, so she’d have to pick one of those. It looked like a pretty basic list. Well, she already knew it was possible to do magic without the help of a Spell. Hopefully, that meant she could learn something like Water Manipulation on her own with training.

“I can learn a spell for my level-up,” she told Max. “I just have to choose one.”

He nodded. “That’s great. Which one are you getting?”

She considered it for another moment. “I think I’ll choose Magic Missile. Hopefully, that will help me understand how magic in general works. And we don’t have a ranged option yet, so that takes priority. My senses are already pretty good, I don’t think my physical stats are too lacking, and they all seem pretty basic. I’d love to be able to conjure stuff, but that would probably be so weak that it’s not worth it.” She sighed. “Hopefully, unlocking Magic Missile will enable me to get more powerful attack spells later.”

She focused on it intently for a moment. The screen vanished in a shower of small sparks, and she felt something settle in her, like a small shift in the mana in her body. Narrowing her eyes, she thought hard about her Spells, calling up a new window.

No further information was provided. Interesting that I already have the Spark Spell. I guess my practice paid off. Well, the others are probably much harder to learn, unfortunately.

Regina stood up and tried to brush off her hands, which wasn’t easy with her current lack of accommodations. She then turned and eyed a piece of rock some distance away. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed Max perk up expectantly.

She took a deep breath and focused on the mana inside her. It was easy to move it, a lot simpler than when she’d started. She knew the shape she had to give it. Magic Missile was more complex than Spark, but she guided it into place almost by instinct. Then she raised a hand and focused on pushing the mana out in just the right way.

There was a slight ‘fwoosh’ sound and a faintly blue shimmering ball shot out of her hand. It arced through the air slightly, its passage disturbing nothing and causing no wind, before it hit the side of the rocky outcropping.

Regina narrowed her eyes and stepped closer. There was no sign of her attack, the rock wasn’t even scratched. Still, this was a good start. She glanced at her status again quickly. 105 out of 120 mana and rising. Good. I guess a 15 mana cost isn’t too bad, especially if I might be able to optimize it, and if I get more by growing my hive.

“That was awesome!” Max grinned. “The next monster that tries to attack you is in for a nasty surprise!” He deflated a little. “I hope I get a cool ability when I level up.”

“I’m sure you will.” She smiled at him. “It shouldn’t take much more for you to get to level 2, anyway. There’s no experience bar in our screens, but the System might still tally XP behind the scenes. Anyway, are you finished with the remains of the monster?”

“Oh, almost!” He jumped up quickly. “I think I’ve got the bladder, but I still need to clean it, and I should bury the rest of the viscera.”

“You do that.” Regina wandered back to the campfire while he scurried off to continue working.

Then she cracked her neck and walked over to the little hollow where his egg had been, while Max was still busy working. She took a deep breath. Time to make another egg.

A prompt popped up.

“Hm.” Regina regarded the prompt with narrowed eyes. Suddenly, the System was involved in this process and telling her what sort of drone she could make? Well, not that she’d had a lot of conscious control last time. She’d probably chosen subconsciously.

With a little sigh, she reached out and tapped the ‘Drone Warrior’ option. A worker would be nice, but right now, she was still concerned about survival. A Worker might have some ability to fight and defend themselves, but she couldn’t rely on that. Her limit would increase again when she leveled up, so it wasn’t like she’d be limited to only warriors for long.

She crouched down and closed her eyes as she felt a sense of pressure gathering again, this time definitely involving her mana acting up.

A few minutes later, she walked away from the nesting spot, another large, dark egg sitting snugly in the earth. It looked almost identical to how Max’s had looked. Regina busied herself moving a small pile of sticks over, making another small fire close to it to warm the egg.

Hopefully, her options would expand when she leveled up. She was excited to see what other types of drones her little hive might get. Maybe something that could fly? That seemed pretty advanced, but maybe later. A specialized hunter or scout could be nice. Maybe something to help her out with more mundane things. What I’d really like is a magic teacher drone, but that’s probably too much to ask for. Still, getting some drones with magic should be in the cards, right? I can’t be the only one in the whole hive. Maybe eventually something that lays eggs, too?

She checked her status again over the next while and grimaced to herself. Her mana regeneration was reduced by a lot, as she’d feared. Well, considering drones apparently grew to maturity (or something close) within just a few days, a bit of her mana was probably a more than fair price.

She had a feeling that her class, or race, or whatever, was already really powerful as it was.

Sure, in terms of hives, having a single point of failure was probably a risk, but if you considered a Hive Queen herself? You’d quickly have a strong mage with an army of loyal subordinates.

Regina wasn’t sure if she should hope that the people of this world didn’t know about them or that they did.