Chapter 56: Chapter 54: Musings, Responsibilities

The first chance she got, when she could be assured of her privacy, Regina pulled out the information Enais had given her and took a look at it.

She still wasn’t sure what to think about this. About the fact that apparently, her (new?) species had lived here but been wiped out a thousand years ago. Regina supposed she’d already known some part of it, since she and her hive obviously existed but there were no others of their kind anywhere here. They had to have come from somewhere. Of course, she still didn’t have an answer to that question. Did my egg somehow survive in some place for centuries? But what about my memories from another life? Did I get them from the same people that did this, or am I missing something?

She shook her head and forced herself to focus on the information on the piece of paper. It was written in a neat, elegant hand, but the writer had apparently had some trouble keeping their lines straight, which might indicate that they didn’t often write like this. Enais probably had a secretary. Or maybe the elves usually used lined paper, who knew.

Regina read it carefully, then reread it to make sure she didn’t miss anything. There wasn’t much about the actual situation of the Hivekind in the past, the history. Most of the information written here were things she already knew. It was nice to have confirmation of a few of her hypotheses, though. For example, Enais mentioned both sapient and Swarm Drones, but there didn’t seem to be any further types of drones, and it was also mentioned that Hive Queens seemed to be the only non-drone members of the species. The paper was light on details, however. It contained speculation about a psychic connection between members of a Hive, but Regina had already found out far more about it than was written here. The information also stated that her race grew quickly but had short lives, with the possible exception of Hive Queens.

Regina frowned as she read that part. She had already suspected that they leveled up more quickly than humans, just like elves probably leveled up more slowly, considering their lifespans. Still, this was concerning. At least the information Tim and Bea had brought back from the elven city said that reaching higher levels increased one’s lifespan, and since this tended to be absolute rather than relative gain, it made far more of a difference for the shorter-lived species compared to people like elves. Regina didn’t know if this applied to her sapient drones as well, or only Swarm Drones, or the reverse, or what.

One other thing made her freeze and re-read the sentence to be sure that she had gotten it correctly the first time. The Queens of the Hives were one of the anomalies raising many questions regarding the way mana interacts with the sapient races. They are born as Hive Queens, with all of their potential already unlocked. There have been no reported cases of one evolving as some monsters do. Whether it is possible for them to undergo Evolution at all is unclear.

That meant she probably wouldn’t be able to unlock a new Class, as Hive Queen was already a top-tier Class? She still only got one stat point per level, but Regina supposed that the rest of the benefits coming with it, like the potentially vast mana pool, were great enough on their own. She wondered why Enais hadn’t written anything about the way the System worked for her kind directly, though. Was that too secret to be included in the information she found?

Regina skimmed through the sheet of paper one more time, then carefully folded it up and put it away. She should try to copy the most important parts down, perhaps expanded with her own observations, later. For now, she was going to give this to Max and the others and let them read it. Not only did they deserve to know about their species just as much as she did, if not more, but she was curious to see their reactions and opinions.

They turned out to be surprisingly calm about it.

"I guessed something like that,” Max said after she finished talking about her assumptions regarding the lifespan thing. “It does line up with what Tim and Bea brought back.”

Tim nodded. They were sitting around the fire, and he had just finished reading the piece of paper and passed it on to Mia, who was now looking at it with a frown, while Tia was reading over her shoulder.

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“This also implies that we are indeed monsters,” Tia said, glancing up. “Sapient monsters. But I guess we knew that.”

“I don’t think it matters all that much.” Max shook his head. “Enais and the other elves are on the way back, right?”

Regina nodded. She’d deliberately waited with this until the elves had departed. She didn’t want Enais to watch, and she didn’t know how much the other elves accompanying her knew. Better to be careful. Right now, she closed her eyes for a moment and focused on Dark, who she had told to follow the elves at a distance. The bird hung so far back that she barely even saw the party, but she recognized enough of their surroundings to have a rough idea of where they were going. “They’re heading back to the city, moving pretty quickly.”

“From what I could gather, the war has gotten more intense,” Tim remarked. “They probably don’t want Anuis and the other fighters to be gone too long, since they might be needed.”

“Probably,” Regina agreed. “Did you learn anything else about the war, Tim?”

“Nothing specific. They’re pretty good about not letting details slip. I know the war has come closer to the city, though. There have been a string of skirmishes over the last while.”

Regina nodded, then stood up. “Alright. I guess that’s all for now. Let’s get back to work, and let me know if anything important comes up.” She’d let them mull it over in peace and maybe discuss it among themselves.

The others followed suit and started scattering to their various tasks. Regina headed out to check on the current batch of eggs first, then decided to do some more practice and make her rounds of the camp.

She had just finished a workout and thrown a few Magic Missiles, one of them at a passing bird, when the System gave her a familiar notification.

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