Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Types and Abilities

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 Max and the two lower-level warriors. Tim 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.

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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.

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