Chapter 53: Chapter 51: Priorities and Tactics

Regina felt like just when she’d started to settle in and feel like she’d found her feet, she was reminded how little she really understood the world in general and her surroundings in particular. She wouldn’t have guessed that there was such a tunnel system beneath the forest, although on second thought, the possibility had obviously been there.

For now, she wasn’t sure how best to proceed, but resolved to be very careful. There were obviously strong monsters down there, and she wasn’t sure how well her hive would fare against them. Maybe it was better to wait with any exploration missions until they were stronger, and she had a better understanding of what they might face.

Besides, there had to be other entrances, other ways into the place. It had shown obvious signs of being visited by people, at least in the past. She wasn’t sure if that meant the elves or humans or maybe both, but it was one more reason to be very careful.

“I suggest waiting until one of the War Drones has reached a higher level and sending it in then,” Max opined, as they walked back to the main camp. He craned his head back slightly, apparently enjoying the sunlight on his face. “They’re smaller than the rest of us, which will be useful in those tunnels, you can still see through and direct them precisely, and if it gets into a more dangerous situation, well …”

“Then we’ll only lose a War Drone and not a sapient member of the hive,” Regina finished. She nodded. “Good idea. Let’s station at least one or two in the tunnels to watch for anything coming up, but I suppose there’s no need to rush otherwise. It might even be best to give it some time, in case something down there noticed your trip.”

Luckily, she’d been replenishing her number of War Drones, so sparing a few of them for this wasn’t that much of a burden. It would still slow down their leveling, if the War Drones just stood guard without fighting anything or training. Well, unless the occasional Tunneler ventured out.

“I’ll make a cover, something to block the tunnel,” Tia said. “We probably can’t do anything to completely barricade it, especially if it’s supposed to be removable, but that will still make the place more secure.”

“Good idea,” Regina answered. “I’ll depend on you, then.”

They’d reached the middle of the camp by now, and Regina looked around. “Go and rest,” she said to Max. “You’ve had a long day, and I don’t want you to wear yourself out.”

He paused for a moment, then bowed his head. “Of course. Please do call if you need me for anything, though.”

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Regina nodded, but she wasn’t planning on it. Instead, she watched as Max trudged to one of the houses. Then she turned back to the others. Bea had stayed by the tunnel entrance, and Tia was eying one of the houses. Regina realized after a moment that the sound of people at work was coming from it. Tia probably wanted to compare notes with Mia. So she just nodded at her and went to the training field, to work off some stress and practice with magic a bit.

She had gotten better with her Conjuration, although, if she was to be honest, she wasn’t sure how much of that had to do with talent or creativity and how much with simply practice. She also wasn’t sure how much more she could improve in her usage of the Spell. Ironically, she’d had more luck with Spark and even Magic Missile recently. She could now use Spark as essentially a light spell as well as to start fires in various ways, at different temperatures and even some distance away from her body. She didn’t know if it was possible to upgrade the Spell, but she was curious if just working on and perfecting it might let her get an upgrade.

Regina also used that to test the substance the Production Drones made. She had a long meeting with Mia where they discussed it in detail, and then tested it against pressure, temperature and other hazards. It held up pretty well to high temperatures, though she didn’t have a good way to test if the same was true for freezing, and it handled vibrations and mechanical stress well enough, too.

They just needed a lot of it if they wanted to really use the stuff as a building material, which Regina thought probably wasn’t very economical. Still, it was a substance that was as easy to shape as wax, but would harden out in time and stay in its shape. That would let them use it for lots of detailed work, from window latches to cutlery. Maybe they could even work it into armor, at least for some components. She’d let Tia figure that one out.

In the meantime, Ivy and a few others began cutting some grass, letting it dry and gathering it up. Ina and a few other drones also started a makeshift vegetable and herb garden (not that humans would have quite agreed with everything they took as a vegetable), and Dan made some harpoon-like spears that worked well for fishing. They’d probably do well against some types of monsters, too.

Regina encouraged them to continue with that work, and at the same time kept the drones back from going out hunting too much. The forest was big, but if they overhunted this area, they’d have to go farther out to find monsters to fight or even regular game. That wasn’t worth it.

The hive had settled into a routine by now. In the end, even the discovery of the tunnels didn’t upset it very much. They just had to be sure to guard their own small tunnel system and its entrance more seriously, but the threat of monsters digging up from below had already been there. Regina watched her drones advance, fine-tuning their routines and what few procedures they had to try and get the most out of the time they had.

The average level of the War Drones dropped, since more newly hatched ones joined them, but the older ones still rose in level, even if they had slowed down. The same went for the Warriors, as well as the not as numerous Workers and Scouts. Regina considered adding a few more Workers, actually, but ultimately decided to hold off for now. Their military strength was still the priority.

The day her latest clutch of War Drones hatched - still at level 2, but probably for the last time in a while, as this added ten of them to her hive at once - she pulled up her Hive sheet from the System to consider it.

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