The discovery of monsters in the tunnels set back their plans, but it could have gone worse. A few of the warriors investigated, and Regina sent some War Drones as well, since those were smaller and better able to fit through tight tunnels. It turned out that the Tunnelers they’d encountered seemed to be either an isolated group or some distance away from their main group. The tunnels they had dug were a rather haphazard warren no more than a few hundred meters long in total. There were two very narrow tunnels leading farther off into the distance, but Regina simply had them closed off.

The Workers were easily able to handle it. With their Ability, they produced some reinforced compressed dirt that they used to brick off these tunnels, melding it into the surrounding earth.

Still, Regina insisted on some warriors staying close to keep an eye on things. From now on, there would be at least two warriors there whenever they worked on the tunnels, and several War Drones posted nearby at all times. They could even help with the digging, so it wasn’t a total loss, even if it did hurt the hive’s productivity.

Regina wasn’t discouraged by the discovery of underground monsters, though. If nothing else, it indicated there could be more to find underground, not just danger, but also opportunity. Still, their levels seemed to be higher than those of the surface monsters in the area, unless they’d just had the bad luck of encountering an exceptionally strong group. Comprehensive exploration could wait until her hive was stronger.

In the meantime, she got a bit more practice in with her new Spell. She also used this occasion to finally ask the warriors to bring some injured monsters back alive if possible. Not only would that allow her to further practice and perhaps improve her healing, but it was worth trying if they could use it to level other drones. She was a little skeptical, since it seemed the System rewarded effort and true accomplishments more than just kills, but with her new healing spell, they at least had a safety net in case things went wrong.

Of course, this was still easier said than done. The warriors were all eager to please, but bringing back injured monsters took some doing, and she emphasized that she did not want them to put themselves into unnecessary danger.

Her eggs were still in development, which limited how much mana she could use, but at least she didn’t need to conjure as much stuff now that they had some things to work with. The day after the fight, Regina spent some time walking around the settlement, checking on everything, making sure things ran smoothly and taking note of what they needed. Max trailed along behind her for most of the way. He seemed content to leave the training of the other warriors and workers to Tim. Regina didn’t send him away, though. She liked his company, and he spoke up when he saw a problem.

After she was done with her rounds, which didn’t take too long, since their burgeoning village was still very small, she settled down by the main campfire and waited. She checked on Tim and Bea and could tell that they would be back very soon. Their elven companions had already departed, leaving them to return to the hive on their own. Regina used the time to glance at her status screen.

Regina Hive Queen Level: 13 Mana: 203/420 Hive: 10/34, 4 Swarm: 16/30, 0 Con: 12 Str: 12 Dex: 12 End: 12 Int: 16 Wis: 16(+1)

Her mana had risen in tandem with the growth of her hive, especially with all the War Drones. She still hadn’t quite figured out how its cap increased. It probably depended on other factors besides the number and types of her drones. Maybe there was a soft cap at certain levels. Still, she was pretty sure she had a large mana pool for her level. The caps for her hive were also rising, and the one for Swarm Drones was quickly catching up with the one for sapient drones.

It didn’t take long for them to hatch. Regina stood up as soon as she sensed the change and made her way towards the edge of the forest. They’d kept storing the eggs in the most sturdy of their old shelters, since they were still building more actual houses. Or at least huts.

The drones had gotten free of their eggs and were already outside by the time she came. Regina paused, then grinned. There was one Drone Warrior, one Drone Worker and one Drone Scout, as expected. But this time, the Warrior actually seemed female.

She paused to consider that development while Max started greeting his new hivemates. There seemed to have been a specific gender distribution, and she’d been quietly worried about that. It was good to see this apparently wasn’t an absolute.

“Welcome, kids,” she said after a moment, stepping forward and smiling at them. “I’m Regina, and this is our hive. It’s still quite new, but we’re happy to have you. Your names are …”

She hesitated for a moment. Did she want to go with her current pattern of three-letter, single syllable names for boys and two-syllable words for girls, or for warriors and workers? Well, it really didn’t matter. “Amy,” she pointed at the Worker, “Ash,” at the male Scout, “and Zoe,” at the female Warrior.

“How long are you going to be able to keep that up?” Max asked in a quiet murmur.

“Probably not long,” she admitted. “We still haven’t named the hive, either.” It could just be referred to as ‘the hive’ or maybe ‘Regina’s hive’, but a proper name would be good at some point.

Max glanced around. “Perhaps everyone could offer suggestions for a hive name?”

“Don’t you trust my naming sense?” She mock-pouted at him.

Max opened his mouth, then closed it again. “It’s going to be hard to find a cool, meaningful name with just three letters.”

“Don’t be silly, Max, a hive isn’t a drone.”

She watched silently as other drones came by to greet the new hatchlings. Max helped, as well, offering them a quick tour while he explained some things. Regina felt as if maybe she should be doing that herself, but in truth, the other drones were probably better suited to it.

It didn’t take long for Tim and Bea to return. Regina went to greet them, then gathered around the fire with the two to listen to a more detailed recounting of their trip.

Tim did most of the talking, with Bea taking over the more technical stuff related to her field. Regina listened quietly, trying to make sure she remembered it well.

“This is going to be very useful,” she said as they finished. “The political implications aside, we should be able to build up our hive better, and we need various crafts for it. I was already considering building a water wheel, anyway.”

“I examined the one they showed us, my Queen,” Bea said, “but I’m not sure that’s enough to reproduce one entirely.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Regina replied confidently. Or you Workers will, anyway.

“Speaking of implications,” Tim spoke up. “They didn’t have much on old history, but I noticed that there didn’t seem to be any reference to anything more than a few centuries ago. A thousand years, tops.”

Regina nodded slowly. “That is interesting. Although, given the cultural and technological level around here, I’m not sure if I would have expected them to develop writing or proper historical record-keeping that long ago, anyway.”

“The elves do seem to have a democratic system,” he said. “For the most part, at least.”

“Fair enough. Did you find out anything more about religion?”

Tim exchanged a glance with Bea, before he nodded. “Yes. I did find a few mentions of the names you told us to look out for. Apparently, Alianais and Benerron are both major gods in this pantheon. Although the latter is, uh, not exactly beloved, I think? Someone called him the god of monsters.”

“Really?” Regina leaned forward slightly. “That sounds interesting.”

“To be fair, I don’t think that’s actually his official title or anything. According to a section of a book I read that was written by a priest, he’s the god of struggle.”

“And there were like two different books that mentioned he’s supposed to be responsible for the monster hordes,” Bea added.

“Huh.” Regina frowned. That does hang together, at least. This was just one more thing to ask about and try to find information on. At least, if he was a patron of monsters or something, it made some sense why he might be keeping an eye on them. Unless she was misinterpreting things.

Although, having a god of struggle paying special attention to you might not be the best thing. She shook her head. “And the other one? Alianais?”

Tim looked down. “I didn’t find anything specific,” he said. “She was mentioned a few times, but it sounds like everyone would know, and I didn’t have the time to look for more details, since I also wanted to get other information.”

“That’s alright,” Regina assured him. “I don’t think there’s any hurry. Let me just call some of the others in, and then we can go over the information again in detail.”

She closed her eyes for a moment and focused on her connection to her drones. She contacted Max, Ben, the two older Scouts, and the rest of the Workers and told them to come. That would leave Dan, the new guys and the War Drones to keep an eye on things, like the tunnels.

The drones came quickly, gathering close to the campfire. Regina smiled at them and stood up to greet them. “Tim and Bea just came back from the elven city. They’ll recount what they learned, especially about crafts. Please pay attention and try to remember it. Then we’ll discuss what to do going forward.”

Everyone looked expectantly at the two drones. Tim glanced at Bea, who cleared her throat, then started talking. With little preamble, she dove into an account of the workshops they’d visited and what she’d seen and heard there.

Regina listened closely again. From what she could tell, it sounded like the elves were indeed at a medieval level of technology in most things, but perhaps not quite. Maybe closer to Renaissance level in general? And it appeared the plastic-like substance she’d wondered about before was a special kind of tree sap they harvested from patches of the forest around the city. It had other uses in their crafting as well. They also used magic to grow wood in specific shapes and with specific properties. That seemed to be something the elves in particular specialized in, compared to humans, who preferred clay, stone, and metal, and a slightly different school of enchantment. None of that sounded very surprising to her.

After that, they discussed what they wanted to do for their hive. It was mostly the Workers who talked, while Regina held back and listened. There seemed to be general consensus that working metal in large amounts was out of their reach, but they should at least make some more use of the clay they had found, at least for things like storage containers. Wooden houses were working out well so far, and while they needed to think about long-term food production, it wasn’t an immediate problem.

“We’ll need threads and something to make fabric, at least eventually,” Regina said thoughtfully. “That means hemp or something. Growing that shouldn’t be too troublesome here, and I’m pretty sure we can find seeds to get started. That leaves crops for food.”

“Which ones do you want to try cultivating, my Queen?” Mia asked.

“Well, given that our metabolism is apparently a real cheat, we don’t really need plants that are usually considered food crops. There should be lots of plants that grow quickly. I guess we have moss on the trees and stuff in the forest. Then there’s things typically considered weeds people don’t want.” She considered for a moment. “Maybe to start with, we should just mark out some areas where we’ll let the fields grow wild and see what happens. Then we can help some of those plants along.”

She’d actually had two of the War Drones eat nothing but grass, leaves and weeds for over a week, and it didn’t seem to have harmed them in any way. She was pretty sure their gastrointestinal tract was like that of the other drones and probably herself, too.

“Hay should be easy enough to make and keep well over the winter if we have a dry place to store it,” Bea said thoughtfully.

“And from now on, we’ll start smoking some of the meat from hunts,” Regina added, looking at the gathered drones pointedly. “Mia, figure out how best to do that. We need to build a storage shed, anyway. And we can always feed scraps to the War Drones.”

She knew that, when it came to monsters and animals they hunted, her drones usually ate pretty much everything, down to the bone marrow. Regina approved of the efficiency. In principle. She suspected they’d eat the skins, too, if the hive didn’t have other uses for them.

“Alright.” Regina stood up again. “You can get back to work. Actually, Tim, Ben and Ace, I have another task for you.”

Most of the drones dispersed while the three she’d named remained, looking at her expectantly.

“I want you to take one or two War Drones and travel away from the hive,” she explained. “It’s probably best if you go roughly in the direction of the elvish city, but not directly there. Tim and Ace should be able to handle the navigation. I want you to test out what happens when War Drones travel outside my control radius.”

“Of course, my Queen,” Tim said. “What should we be looking for, specifically?”

“I’ll give them some orders before you set out. I’d like to know if they’ll keep on doing what they are and if they’ll still follow orders you give them. Plus, simply checking if the limit is the same in the first place.”

“You can count on us, my Queen,” Ben said. “We’ll set out right away.”

Regina shook her head and smiled. “No need, this can wait. Tim should get the chance to rest first. Besides, I want you to be at the top of your game.”

There might still be dangers in the forest, after all. But she didn’t want to send too many Warriors away from the hive, either.

It was important information to get, though. And it might help her shed light on some other aspects of the way her hive and her bond to it worked, like the passive transmittal of information the drones seemed to receive at the start of their life and how it worked for the non-sapient War Drones.