Max wasn’t sure what to make of his life.

He had only been alive for a few minutes, definitely less than an hour. He had a vague feeling that it wasn’t normal to be the only hive drone of a queen in the wilderness, without even proper tools or structures. He kind of liked the forest, actually, although it wasn’t like he had seen much of anything.

He glanced around warily as they walked through it. That was a bit of a problem, since he didn’t have any experience with its dangers. As the only Warrior, it fell to him to protect the Hive Queen. He wasn’t sure he was up to the task. But he had to be! Failure wasn’t an option.

He looked at his Queen, Regina, and noticed that she walked with easy grace down the game trail they’d found. She kept a quick pace without any signs of tiredness. Which was actually more than he could say, since he was starting to breathe hard already. Just then, she looked at him, caught his gaze and smiled. Was she actually stronger and had more endurance than him? Maybe that had to do with those stats? He knew his were low.

“Regina,” he began hesitantly. She’d told him he could call her that. He wasn’t sure if that was a softly-worded command or just an offer. “Can I ask you about stats?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Sure. I only know what I can guess from the video games that I somehow know about, though.”

He nodded when she paused, perhaps gathering her thoughts.

“I guess Con means Constitution and says how tough you are,” she began. “That probably means general hardiness and resistance to poison and so on. There doesn’t seem to be a Vitality stat and I haven’t seen any health bars, so I guess that just works like the real world. I mean, like it would without a System. This isn’t a video game.” She shook her head.

“Anyway, Strength seems pretty straightforward, just the strength of your muscles. Dexterity is presumably related to fine motor control and how nimble you are with your hands. If I had to guess, speed is probably determined by a mix of Dex and Str. But who knows. And Endurance is probably your stamina. I guess Intelligence and Wisdom sound clear, but I honestly have no idea how the System would measure them. Or increase them, if raising stat points is a thing. That thought is actually a bit scary.”

“It is,” Max agreed. He didn’t want any weird System messing around with his head. Sure, his Queen might have access to it, too, but that was completely different!

He shook his head to dispel that thought and focused on what he’d wanted to talk about. “My Queen, if I may ask, what about your own stats?”

She glanced away. “Well, I guess I have to take the plunge sometime,” she mumbled.

He kept quiet as she stopped and stared off into the distance, clearly checking a System screen. After a second, her face twisted into a scowl. “What do you mean, unavailable? What the hell?” She paused, then narrowed her eyes. “And what the hell is up with that mana count? I’m pretty sure it was at most ninety earlier, I was practicing, and how did that increase?”

When she turned back to him, Max had to fight the impulse to bow his head and scramble away. He rather doubted that would please her in these circumstances. Instead, he gathered his courage and asked, “Is there anything I need to know, my Queen?”

“Hm.” Her expression turned thoughtful. “Maybe I can share it with you. Hold on a moment.”

For another few seconds, she seemed to focus on her System interface while he waited. Then another window opened up.

Regina Hive Queen Level: 1 Mana: 105/120 Hive: 1/1, 0 Your stats are currently unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Max could understand why Regina was frustrated at not being able to see her stats. He wasn’t sure what was up with the mana, though.

As if sensing his thoughts, she started to explain, “I had a mana pool of 100 earlier. I guess your hatching changed that. Maybe my mana actually increases based on my hive?” She looked happy at the thought, and Max had to agree with that. Her getting stronger would be nice. “It’s also regenerating faster,” she continued. “Look, it just jumped up a point. Not sure why that is, it could also be because of your presence. Or maybe having an egg developing was siphoning off mana.”

He nodded. It wasn’t like he had any input to offer.

“Then the Hive.” She frowned again. “I’m guessing it shows the limit of the hive members I can have, not just how many I currently have. Which means just you. Hopefully that increases if I level up, but I can’t see how it wouldn’t. And the third number is probably the number of eggs currently gestating, or whatever you call it.”

Max nodded again, more glumly this time. He really would like to have more brothers or sisters to help him. There was strength and safety in numbers. “Thank you for the explanation, and for allowing me to see your status.”

She gestured with her hand as if waving off his thanks. “Let’s keep going, Max.”

They followed the trail for another few minutes, while Max thought about what he’d seen. He wished he had her stats to compare his to, though that might not be a good comparison. He had his natural weapons, hopefully they would be enough in a fight. He did want to hunt, though. The idea of a good fight and fresh meat made his heart beat faster in excitement and his mouth water. Hunger was a growing hole in his belly, but he still had enough strength to last for a while. It would have to do. He didn’t even know what he could eat. Except meat, obviously, given what Regina had said.

At that moment, she stopped again, this time beside a bush with dark berries. It looked like half of them had been stripped off.

“You should be able to eat those,” she said. “Go ahead, eat as many as you like.”

She took one of them and popped it into her mouth. Max copied her. The berries tasted pretty good, and before he knew it, he was eating them by the handful. Regina ate a few, as well, but not as much as him.

Then, with the worst of his hunger sated, they continued on. Max glanced around, looking at the birds singing in the trees above them. They might be tasty, too, if he could find a way to catch them.

“I was hoping to get a deer,” Regina explained quietly, “or maybe a weak monster. Can you help me track some prey?”

“I’ll do my best, my Queen.”

Max focused on what his nose could tell him. He did catch traces of deer, not that he knew how he recognized the scent. There should be a herd around here somewhere. Monsters were harder to identify. But he started walking in the direction he smelled the deer, his Queen keeping pace with him. They quickly stumbled onto a game trail that was probably used by the deer. He could also smell water close by, though he didn’t see the stream itself.

The wind shifted, which would help them hide their own scent from their prey, but made it harder to find that prey. They hadn’t walked that far, but Max got the impression Regina hadn’t been here before. She glanced around warily.

He frowned to himself, taking a deep sniff of the air. There was something about it. The trees were thinning ahead of them, probably leading to another clearing, but they were still thick enough to hide behind.

“Wait!” He darted forward and grabbed Regina, bringing them to a stop. He could almost feel the sudden surge of anger from her, but his attention was fixed on the trees.

A few meters away, just behind them, leaves rustled. They turned around and he let go of her as the smell got stronger. Then the monster jumped out.

After a moment, he recognized it as a wolf. A really big one. It had mostly gray fur, though its eyes were burnt orange, and when it bared its teeth at them, they looked really big and sharp. As Max stared at it, the System gave him a notification.

Flametongue Wolf — Level ?

Flame? Just as he was thinking it, a burst of heat grew in front of the wolf. He jumped aside just in time to dodge the tongue of flame that shot from the monster. It crashed into the tree behind them, sending out showers of sparks.

His heart seemed to skip a beat as he looked for Regina. But she was okay, she’d dodged to the other side. Now she advanced on the wolf, her makeshift spear held out in front of her. Max scrambled to do the same on its other side. He really wanted to tell his Queen he would take care of it himself, but he could tell that would be a stupid idea.

The wolf seemed to consider her the greater threat, since it turned to face her. He jumped forward and stabbed at it with his blade-arms. Or tried to, at least. One of them glanced off its thick fur, and it jumped just in time to dodge the other one.

But that opened it up to attack from Regina. She darted forward, thrusting her spear at it. The hit connected, but it seemed to be a shallow slash. The wolf carried through with its movement, only a little blood trickling from the wound.

Max had only a split-second of warning and dove to the side to evade another flaming attack. It scorched the back of his shell, and his left blade-arm drooped. Burning pain prickled in it, but he still had his other limbs.

While Regina occupied the wolf’s attention, Max crouched and picked up a few stones. He threw them at the monster with all of his might. One of them hit it on the snout and seemed to daze it, allowing his Queen to rake its chest.

The wolf retreated, yipping a little. Then it growled at the two of them.

Max charged forward, sweeping for its limbs. The wolf tried to dodge, but his blade clipped its right foreleg. That made the monster stumble to the side.

This time, Regina didn’t press the attack. Max learned why a second later, when a burning piece of wood sailed for the monster. The wolf ducked, but the torch still hit its back.

Max crouched in a defensive position as the smell of smoke stung his nose. But after a moment, he realized it wasn’t very strong. The wolf’s thick fur seemed to protect it against the fire somewhat. Maybe he should have expected something like this, given its ability. It growled at them again, a sound that would have made his hairs raise if he’d had any.

“You take its left side, I’ll go right,” Regina said in a clipped tone.

Max moved to obey right away, keeping his injured blade back while he led with his other one. He tried to take his cue from his Queen.

When she darted forward once again, he moved in, too. He swept his blade low, then stabbed upward when the wolf moved. It managed to dodge the thrust of Regina’s spear, but Max got it in the side. He put all his strength and weight into it. When the wolf stumbled to the side and he had to correct his balance, he saw that he’d gotten it. That wound bled a lot more than the others, and the wolf was obviously panting.

Regina didn’t give it any time to recover. She swept in again. She feinted to the side, which the monster managed to dodge, but then Max pushed it off balance and she managed to thrust her spear into its eye.

He moved to her side, taking a defensive position. But the wolf only thrashed aimlessly. Finally, it collapsed to the ground, its eyes staring lifelessly upward.

“Huh,” Regina said. “Did you level up, too?”