Chapter 50: Chapter 48: Upgrade and Training

The next few days passed in a blur of work. The hive expanded again, getting new members, building a new hut and finally making some decent progress on the palisade around their budding village. Regina also decided to resume the tunnel project, which Tia seemed happy about.

After her latest pair of Warriors hatched, who she named Ted and Tad, Regina decided to add one more Warrior and one Scout to their number. By this point, the development of the sapient drone eggs had been out of sync with the War Drones, but she didn’t exactly have so many that she was in danger of losing track. They were also coming back into alignment, with the latest group of Swarm Drones she had prepared hatching on the same day as the sapient drones.

Regina waited until they were all hatched, sighing to herself as she finally felt the everpresent drain on her mana fade. With her rising Wisdom stat or maybe just growing experience, she had become more sensitive to these kinds of things, able to sense them more clearly. The feeling of her mana regeneration being impaired didn’t really bother her, as such, although she preferred having all of it available to her. The latest batch of Swarm Drones included two Production Drones this time, since she’d decided she could try to experiment with them or at least get started on getting a few to higher levels. After she’d sent them to their duties, she hung around near the last eggs.

Once they finally hatched, Regina found herself once more trying to come up with names. The Scout seemed to be be male again, while the Warrior felt like another female.

“Alf and Eva,” she finally decided. She smiled at them. “Welcome to our hive. We still don’t have a name for it, sorry. I’m Regina. The big guy over there is Max, he should be able to help you get started.”

“Of course, Mother, thank you,” Eva replied.

Max let out a barely-disguised sigh and shot her a disgruntled look before he stepped forward. Regina tried not to smile as she listened to him greet the two hatchlings before they moved off.

While she had the chance, she used her mana to create a few things the workers had asked for, mostly metal nails and such. Hinges were a bit tricky, but she managed to make shapes you could probably put together into working ones.

Regina then moved into the now empty hut and called up the System Screen. She’d decided to make one big batch of War Drones now, ten at a time. At only two days of development for their eggs, they really could replenish and increase their numbers quickly. Already, she’d be able to make up for the ones killed by the Brazen Blades, and more besides.

Once she was finished with that, Regina stepped out of the hut, blinked against the sunlight and stretched. Then she froze as she saw another System notification window appearing before her eyes.

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