After the, ahem, tender moment, I felt reinvigorated. In all honesty, I didn’t have a choice. Now that I had created these hive members, I was responsible for them, and the best way to care for them was to use them.
At the moment, I sat alone in an empty ball of dirt illuminated by the dim glow of the massive warrior egg and my collection of Mind artifacts. This particular dirt ball was connected to the food storage by a small tunnel, just big enough for my body to get through. The first order of business had been to prepare for the warrior’s eventual birth more productively, so with Bess’s help, I created a second, larger dirt ball. I had been hesitant to use so much Mind to expand the force field, but Beatrice had convinced me to do it.
I understood where she was coming from. My Mind was not only our strongest weapon but our most powerful form of defense. The vultures hadn’t been able to break the food storage, so the force field was highly effective. I didn’t know if the Vulch hadn’t tried yet, but he also hadn’t done anything to the force field.
I was saving my Mind’s percentage, ready to spring into action and destroy as many vultures as possible, but it was clear that wouldn’t matter as long as I kept saving it.
Worse, I couldn’t make any eggs.
After the hug, I had decided to get over myself and create a small army of warrior bees to tide us over until the strong warrior’s birth. The vulture corpses would, unfortunately, work as a significant food source to fuel this army.
It didn’t work.
To my dismay and confusion, every time I tried to use the egg creation ability, it just did nothing. How annoying. I could only theorize that this was some bizarre consequence of my overly ambitious warrior egg that the Ability didn't make clear. Nothing indicated that such a thing was even possible. I had no idea when I would be able to create more eggs or how to prevent this consequence from happening again, so my stupid decision for the warrior was worse than I thought.
What a frustrating system.
In the meantime, we had once again begun sneak attacks on stray vultures. Ben and Beck worked closely together, Beck distracting vultures with Mind while Ben slipped away. Ben would then do his best to assassinate vultures with metal spikes.
That hadn’t worked very well.
Ben’s attempts were valiant, but between being careful to avoid detection by the Vulch and the limited time from Beck’s distraction, his attacks tended to wound vultures rather than kill them outright.
Which was why I was currently sitting alone in this dirt ball.
This strategy could work, but only if the vultures’ numbers actually decreased permanently. In that case, the best thing I could come up with to increase those chances was to make better weapons.
Unfortunately, the others weren’t weapons experts. Bella had done a great job of sneaking around to gather spikes and chunks of crystal, and Beck’s distractions had become much more effective, but the rest were unhappy with their roles.
I had tasked Beatrice with figuring out an effective way to defeat the Vulch, considering I couldn’t simply overpower him. Bess had been busy improving the dirt balls’ structure. And Belle?
Belle was in crisis. She was doing her best to reinforce the dirt balls with wax, make more cells, and care for the damaged warrior egg, but she had a permanent haunted look on her face. This was the second time she had been left behind while my life was under threat, and to make matters worse, the tree trunk base had been destroyed under her care.
In any case, the spikes were strong and sharp, but because Ben’s time was so limited, their simplicity became a weakness. Further, making the weapons more dangerous would hopefully make them useful against the Vulch if he was encountered.
I looked at the crystal shard.
Using those had been my first idea. Their ability to conduct and store electricity was fascinating, and making electrified metal spikes was obviously a great idea.
Yeah, right.
Well, the idea was interesting, but I had no idea how to actually do it. The metal spikes did conduct electricity when they touched the crystals, but their application was limited. I hadn’t figured out how to modify the spikes to attach the crystals or prevent too much electricity from discharging.
That wasn’t the worst part. The crystals just didn’t have enough electricity to make the spikes particularly deadly. The chunk I had first obtained had already discharged most of its power, but even the pieces Bella had brought recently just didn’t pack enough punch to kill a massive creature like the vultures. The shock might be useful, though.
Venom was another idea. Even the workers had stingers with venom, so turning those natural weapons into a ranged variant was an obvious choice.
Unfortunately, our venom was exceedingly weak. In large doses, it could be deadly, but even if we figured out a way to effectively extract large quantities of the stuff, I had no idea how to use the spikes to inject the venom into the victim’s body.
“Er, Mother? I was wondering how the warrior was doing…”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. Even if I had been re-energized and became more confident in using the workers, I was still trying to do everything in my power to defeat the vultures singlehandedly. Belle’s interruption was a welcome distraction from my own thoughts.
“Hey Belle. The egg’s fine for now.”
“Belle has been troubled. Figure out a task for her to do so she can feel busy, at least.”
“Ah, is there anything you would recommend for the egg’s care? Or maybe something else you could do with your wax?” I tried.
She hesitated. “I… do not know about caring for eggs.”
…
Was… was that it?
Man, taking care of people was tough. And I could read their thoughts!
What could Belle help with? So far, her specialty involved making wax, but I wasn’t sure how exactly that would fit into war.
[Name: Belle]
[Age: 14 days]
[Subtype: Simple Worker]
[Status: Healthy]
[Abilities:
Beeswax (Lv.2) Venomous Stinger Pollination]
[Mind: 2nd Degree]
[Tapped Mind: 0% / 95%]
[Mind Locks:
Life (5%)]
Geez, had it really been two weeks since I arrived in this world? Wait, no. It had been 14 days since Belle’s and the other worker’s birth, so I had been in this world even longer. It also meant the warrior had been in its egg for… nearly thirteen days?! This lazy bastard was starting to get on my nerves!
“Did you forget that your own mental instability is the reason for the excessive incubation time?”
Okay, ouch. I wasn’t going to disagree, but was calling it ‘mental instability’ not a little harsh?
In any case, Belle’s status was not very different from an ordinary simple worker. Herself and Bess had seen the least changes in their status after the experiment. In Belle’s case, it meant that the only difference was her Beeswax Ability gaining the capability to level up. Impressively she had already managed to level the Ability, which, as far as I knew, made her the only bee beside myself to gain a level.
As for what she could do to help? I wasn’t sure. Right now, the most important things were the warrior and new weapons. How could wax help with either?
…Hm?
“Belle, can I see some of your wax?”
She seemed confused by the request but didn’t hesitate to pass some over. The stuff was gross, but whatever. In its current state, it was just wax.
Wax was an interesting substance I didn’t know too much about. In my world, it was mainly used for candles, protective coverings for preservation, or various other wacky applications. I remember having seen beeswax hair products and cosmetics and being weirded out. But in truth, it was a fascinatingly flexible material.
Its primary use in our case was to construct the hive itself and make the cells that would eventually contain eggs, as that was apparently considered ‘ideal conditions.’ I had also instructed Belle to apply a wax coating to the inside of the dirt balls as a temperature and moisture insulator.
That was the keyword. Insulator. With only a bit of hesitation, I smothered wax onto one of the crystal chunks that still had a good amount of power stored up and tested the thing. I carefully touched a spike to the misshapen wax object, and to my delight, I didn’t see any signs of discharge.
Interesting! I wasn’t sure exactly how to use it, but Belle’s wax could also serve as an electric insulator, like a sort of rubber. While this opened many possibilities, it didn’t seem like a major breakthrough besides a way to prevent the crystals from running out of charge as quickly.
“…Mother?”
“Ah, thank you, Belle. In the future, this wax will be great for making tools and devices.”
How cool! A society of bees with electrical devices!
“Oh… that’s great, Mother.”
Hm. Belle didn’t seem as excited as I felt.
“What’s wrong, Belle? This is great news!”
“It's just… I thought I would finally be useful….”
Oh god. I forgot she wanted to be useful now, not in some far-off future. In some way, I agreed. The future would be irrelevant if we didn’t win this scavenger war.
As I wracked my brain, trying to think of some way to apply wax to war, Belle wandered over to the egg’s side and gently touched the scar that marred its otherwise smooth surface.
“I’m sorry….”
Suddenly, my head started to hurt. Huh?
Orange goo dribbled off the egg. Was it hatching?!
Wait. No.
“It is in pain! Do something Enno!”
Do something? Me?! The hell was I supposed to do? I concentrated on the egg, trying my best to hold the scar shut to prevent more leakage. I started as I realized the percentage of Mind I was using began to steadily increase.
“Mother, what is happening!? The egg… it’s… hungry?”
Hungry? For what, my brains?! I had little choice. I could see Belle concentrating, doing something to the egg. How much more trouble would this one warrior cause?!
Beatrice barged into the ‘nest room,’ the others crowding into the entryway.
“What is happening?! Is the egg hatching?!”
“No, something’s wrong!”
The screeching of the vultures outside grew frantic. I could feel the pressure mounting inside the dirt ball and realized something terrible was happening.
“Everyone, stand back! We’re getting out!”
With a burst of concentration, I modified the Food Storage Lock and blasted a hole through the bottom of the nest room. Undoing the forcefield around the nest room was risky, but we needed to leave now.
The egg dropped onto the ground less than a meter away, and the screeching of the vultures seemed to double. Black and milky white filled my thoughts, and I followed the egg outside, intent on protecting it.
“Everyone, protect the egg!” Beatrice shouted, and the tiny hive swarmed, buzzing frantically around the rapidly expanding orange ball.
Nearly forgetting to breathe, I forced myself to exhale. Nearly all of my concentration was on the egg, little able to be spared to the frenzy of vultures trying to crush the dirt balls to dust. The workers threw spikes and snapped necks, and I felt a pressure again. This one felt different.
The Vulch.
I didn’t see him, but I knew he was hiding nearby. He had been waiting for this moment, the moment when I would show myself. I refrained from lashing out, afraid that if I attacked him, he would suck me into his mind again. I couldn’t afford to be trapped there again and wait for Beck to bail me out, not with the warrior on the line. Not with the hive surrounded.
“Raragagar!” Ben screamed before suddenly zipping away. Where was he going?!
I saw. A small, dark form, like a chasm threatening to swallow me whole.
The Vulch.
I wanted to chase Ben. To stop him from charging the Vulch, to smash the Vulch before he did something to Ben. I wanted to save Ben and protect the egg and shield the other workers and...
I couldn’t.
“Someone, help Ben!” You were right, Queen. I didn’t even trust the other workers in this situation. And yet I had no choice.
An ugly, squishing noise filled my thoughts. I turned just in time to see the egg explode, finally hatching after thirteen long days.
After the, ahem, tender moment, I felt reinvigorated. In all honesty, I didn’t have a choice. Now that I had created these hive members, I was responsible for them, and the best way to care for them was to use them.
At the moment, I sat alone in an empty ball of dirt illuminated by the dim glow of the massive warrior egg and my collection of Mind artifacts. This particular dirt ball was connected to the food storage by a small tunnel, just big enough for my body to get through. The first order of business had been to prepare for the warrior’s eventual birth more productively, so with Bess’s help, I created a second, larger dirt ball. I had been hesitant to use so much Mind to expand the force field, but Beatrice had convinced me to do it.
I understood where she was coming from. My Mind was not only our strongest weapon but our most powerful form of defense. The vultures hadn’t been able to break the food storage, so the force field was highly effective. I didn’t know if the Vulch hadn’t tried yet, but he also hadn’t done anything to the force field.
I was saving my Mind’s percentage, ready to spring into action and destroy as many vultures as possible, but it was clear that wouldn’t matter as long as I kept saving it.
Worse, I couldn’t make any eggs.
After the hug, I had decided to get over myself and create a small army of warrior bees to tide us over until the strong warrior’s birth. The vulture corpses would, unfortunately, work as a significant food source to fuel this army.
It didn’t work.
To my dismay and confusion, every time I tried to use the egg creation ability, it just did nothing. How annoying. I could only theorize that this was some bizarre consequence of my overly ambitious warrior egg that the Ability didn't make clear. Nothing indicated that such a thing was even possible. I had no idea when I would be able to create more eggs or how to prevent this consequence from happening again, so my stupid decision for the warrior was worse than I thought.
What a frustrating system.
In the meantime, we had once again begun sneak attacks on stray vultures. Ben and Beck worked closely together, Beck distracting vultures with Mind while Ben slipped away. Ben would then do his best to assassinate vultures with metal spikes.
That hadn’t worked very well.
Ben’s attempts were valiant, but between being careful to avoid detection by the Vulch and the limited time from Beck’s distraction, his attacks tended to wound vultures rather than kill them outright.
Which was why I was currently sitting alone in this dirt ball.
This strategy could work, but only if the vultures’ numbers actually decreased permanently. In that case, the best thing I could come up with to increase those chances was to make better weapons.
Unfortunately, the others weren’t weapons experts. Bella had done a great job of sneaking around to gather spikes and chunks of crystal, and Beck’s distractions had become much more effective, but the rest were unhappy with their roles.
I had tasked Beatrice with figuring out an effective way to defeat the Vulch, considering I couldn’t simply overpower him. Bess had been busy improving the dirt balls’ structure. And Belle?
Belle was in crisis. She was doing her best to reinforce the dirt balls with wax, make more cells, and care for the damaged warrior egg, but she had a permanent haunted look on her face. This was the second time she had been left behind while my life was under threat, and to make matters worse, the tree trunk base had been destroyed under her care.
In any case, the spikes were strong and sharp, but because Ben’s time was so limited, their simplicity became a weakness. Further, making the weapons more dangerous would hopefully make them useful against the Vulch if he was encountered.
I looked at the crystal shard.
Using those had been my first idea. Their ability to conduct and store electricity was fascinating, and making electrified metal spikes was obviously a great idea.
Yeah, right.
Well, the idea was interesting, but I had no idea how to actually do it. The metal spikes did conduct electricity when they touched the crystals, but their application was limited. I hadn’t figured out how to modify the spikes to attach the crystals or prevent too much electricity from discharging.
That wasn’t the worst part. The crystals just didn’t have enough electricity to make the spikes particularly deadly. The chunk I had first obtained had already discharged most of its power, but even the pieces Bella had brought recently just didn’t pack enough punch to kill a massive creature like the vultures. The shock might be useful, though.
Venom was another idea. Even the workers had stingers with venom, so turning those natural weapons into a ranged variant was an obvious choice.
Unfortunately, our venom was exceedingly weak. In large doses, it could be deadly, but even if we figured out a way to effectively extract large quantities of the stuff, I had no idea how to use the spikes to inject the venom into the victim’s body.
“Er, Mother? I was wondering how the warrior was doing…”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. Even if I had been re-energized and became more confident in using the workers, I was still trying to do everything in my power to defeat the vultures singlehandedly. Belle’s interruption was a welcome distraction from my own thoughts.
“Hey Belle. The egg’s fine for now.”
“Belle has been troubled. Figure out a task for her to do so she can feel busy, at least.”
“Ah, is there anything you would recommend for the egg’s care? Or maybe something else you could do with your wax?” I tried.
She hesitated. “I… do not know about caring for eggs.”
…
Was… was that it?
Man, taking care of people was tough. And I could read their thoughts!
What could Belle help with? So far, her specialty involved making wax, but I wasn’t sure how exactly that would fit into war.
[Name: Belle]
[Age: 14 days]
[Subtype: Simple Worker]
[Status: Healthy]
[Abilities:
Beeswax (Lv.2) Venomous Stinger Pollination]
[Mind: 2nd Degree]
[Tapped Mind: 0% / 95%]
[Mind Locks:
Life (5%)]
Geez, had it really been two weeks since I arrived in this world? Wait, no. It had been 14 days since Belle’s and the other worker’s birth, so I had been in this world even longer. It also meant the warrior had been in its egg for… nearly thirteen days?! This lazy bastard was starting to get on my nerves!
“Did you forget that your own mental instability is the reason for the excessive incubation time?”
Okay, ouch. I wasn’t going to disagree, but was calling it ‘mental instability’ not a little harsh?
In any case, Belle’s status was not very different from an ordinary simple worker. Herself and Bess had seen the least changes in their status after the experiment. In Belle’s case, it meant that the only difference was her Beeswax Ability gaining the capability to level up. Impressively she had already managed to level the Ability, which, as far as I knew, made her the only bee beside myself to gain a level.
As for what she could do to help? I wasn’t sure. Right now, the most important things were the warrior and new weapons. How could wax help with either?
…Hm?
“Belle, can I see some of your wax?”
She seemed confused by the request but didn’t hesitate to pass some over. The stuff was gross, but whatever. In its current state, it was just wax.
Wax was an interesting substance I didn’t know too much about. In my world, it was mainly used for candles, protective coverings for preservation, or various other wacky applications. I remember having seen beeswax hair products and cosmetics and being weirded out. But in truth, it was a fascinatingly flexible material.
Its primary use in our case was to construct the hive itself and make the cells that would eventually contain eggs, as that was apparently considered ‘ideal conditions.’ I had also instructed Belle to apply a wax coating to the inside of the dirt balls as a temperature and moisture insulator.
That was the keyword. Insulator. With only a bit of hesitation, I smothered wax onto one of the crystal chunks that still had a good amount of power stored up and tested the thing. I carefully touched a spike to the misshapen wax object, and to my delight, I didn’t see any signs of discharge.
Interesting! I wasn’t sure exactly how to use it, but Belle’s wax could also serve as an electric insulator, like a sort of rubber. While this opened many possibilities, it didn’t seem like a major breakthrough besides a way to prevent the crystals from running out of charge as quickly.
“…Mother?”
“Ah, thank you, Belle. In the future, this wax will be great for making tools and devices.”
How cool! A society of bees with electrical devices!
“Oh… that’s great, Mother.”
Hm. Belle didn’t seem as excited as I felt.
“What’s wrong, Belle? This is great news!”
“It's just… I thought I would finally be useful….”
Oh god. I forgot she wanted to be useful now, not in some far-off future. In some way, I agreed. The future would be irrelevant if we didn’t win this scavenger war.
As I wracked my brain, trying to think of some way to apply wax to war, Belle wandered over to the egg’s side and gently touched the scar that marred its otherwise smooth surface.
“I’m sorry….”
Suddenly, my head started to hurt. Huh?
Orange goo dribbled off the egg. Was it hatching?!
Wait. No.
“It is in pain! Do something Enno!”
Do something? Me?! The hell was I supposed to do? I concentrated on the egg, trying my best to hold the scar shut to prevent more leakage. I started as I realized the percentage of Mind I was using began to steadily increase.
“Mother, what is happening!? The egg… it’s… hungry?”
Hungry? For what, my brains?! I had little choice. I could see Belle concentrating, doing something to the egg. How much more trouble would this one warrior cause?!
Beatrice barged into the ‘nest room,’ the others crowding into the entryway.
“What is happening?! Is the egg hatching?!”
“No, something’s wrong!”
The screeching of the vultures outside grew frantic. I could feel the pressure mounting inside the dirt ball and realized something terrible was happening.
“Everyone, stand back! We’re getting out!”
With a burst of concentration, I modified the Food Storage Lock and blasted a hole through the bottom of the nest room. Undoing the forcefield around the nest room was risky, but we needed to leave now.
The egg dropped onto the ground less than a meter away, and the screeching of the vultures seemed to double. Black and milky white filled my thoughts, and I followed the egg outside, intent on protecting it.
“Everyone, protect the egg!” Beatrice shouted, and the tiny hive swarmed, buzzing frantically around the rapidly expanding orange ball.
Nearly forgetting to breathe, I forced myself to exhale. Nearly all of my concentration was on the egg, little able to be spared to the frenzy of vultures trying to crush the dirt balls to dust. The workers threw spikes and snapped necks, and I felt a pressure again. This one felt different.
The Vulch.
I didn’t see him, but I knew he was hiding nearby. He had been waiting for this moment, the moment when I would show myself. I refrained from lashing out, afraid that if I attacked him, he would suck me into his mind again. I couldn’t afford to be trapped there again and wait for Beck to bail me out, not with the warrior on the line. Not with the hive surrounded.
“Raragagar!” Ben screamed before suddenly zipping away. Where was he going?!
I saw. A small, dark form, like a chasm threatening to swallow me whole.
The Vulch.
I wanted to chase Ben. To stop him from charging the Vulch, to smash the Vulch before he did something to Ben. I wanted to save Ben and protect the egg and shield the other workers and...
I couldn’t.
“Someone, help Ben!” You were right, Queen. I didn’t even trust the other workers in this situation. And yet I had no choice.
An ugly, squishing noise filled my thoughts. I turned just in time to see the egg explode, finally hatching after thirteen long days.
