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.”

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.

Hive [Unnamed] Total: 51 Inner Hive: 17(18)/58 (+0) Swarm: 32/75 (+0) Warriors: 8 War Drones: 29 Workers: 4 Production Drones: 3 Scouts: 4 Harvesters: 1 Monsters: 1

She whistled silently to herself. They were already over fifty people? Well, not people but beings; over half of those were Swarm Drones. Seeing the numbers made her realize a few things, like how much Workers had fallen behind in terms of numbers compared to Warriors. And she still only had one Harvester. Maybe it was time to make one or two more. As well as a few more War Drones, of course.

Regina grinned to herself, then went to do as she had decided, preparing to add one more Harvester as well as another nine War Drones to her hive. She would have liked to make it ten, but she was already pushing herself. She’d just have to be content with that.

She was already putting a lot of strain on her body, or maybe her mana, over time. She didn’t know if that had any negative effects. Regina didn’t really think so. It seemed like Hive Queens were made to produce eggs. But still, it was probably better not to push it too far.

Still, while fifty seemed like a lot to her right now, it really wasn’t. It probably wouldn’t even come close to matching the combat power of the Cernlian fort, much less the rest of the region around it. Of course, she wouldn’t want to attack while the country’s attention was in any way there, but it still showed that if she wanted to contend with what they could throw at her, she would need more than this. A lot more.

Realistically, she probably wouldn’t be able to get as much from just her hive in a single month. I guess I always knew that, really.

Regina shook her head and made herself focus on the immediate situation. Now that she had a few more War Drones available, she could make a wider perimeter for them to guard and watch, and spare a few additional ones to watch the tunnels or other spots. She also sent two of them out further into the forest, trying to chase down some monster packs’ locations and get a better feel of the surrounding land. They wouldn’t be as good at it as Scouts, but that was okay.

The rest of them would focus on training, along with the warriors. She knew Max and Tim were excited about the possibility of trying out some larger formations, and she would gladly let them have their fun. They didn’t have much to draw on, so they’d have to work out tactics themselves. Which might be a good thing, since it meant they didn’t have much bias to overcome. Hopefully.

When Regina came to watch, she realized that she might have been thinking about it all wrong. “Swarm tactics, right,” she muttered to herself.

She’d been picturing something more like the typical Zerg rush, hordes of weaker enemies drowning their opponents in numbers without much rhyme or reason. This was not what the War Drones were doing. Or rather, she realized, what the Warriors were practicing with them. Instead, the drones moved in formation, close together and their steps synchronized to perfection.

She could even feel the echo of it in her mind. She wasn’t entirely sure how, but she was pretty sure that the psychic connection was playing a role here. Maybe she didn’t need to relay everything after all, or maybe she was doing it subconsciously. In any event, the fighters she watched marching on the exercise field showed a level of drill and discipline you wouldn’t have expected without at least a few weeks of drilling.

And they weren’t just marching, of course. The boys also tried out basic combat moves and formations. Charging, defense with raised shields, even a pincer maneuver. If they went on like this, they’d probably get to specialized movement combos or raising field fortifications eventually.

Regina paused, watching them and thinking. She knew enough about the forces the human kingdoms could probably field to know just how weak her hive was in comparison to them. It was why her idea had always been to nibble at the edges, while they couldn’t send their most powerful, highest-level fighters at her and their armies were occupied, using her connections with the elves to arrange things and get backup if necessary. But now she realized that she had advantages the humans didn’t, not just in terms of producing new fighters quickly.

The men who had attacked their hive had been basically mercenaries, adventurers who had enlisted in the forces of the local lord. There were drafts, levies. Obviously, the various factions did also have professional soldiers. Probably the knights, like those who had accompanied Janis and Kiara Lyns. They did seem to have a basically medieval social structure. And knights had been high-status, expensive professionals, lower nobility themselves. There couldn’t be that many of them. Not to mention, every noble with a fief would be responsible for fielding their own forces, and if they tried to build up a standing army or hire too many knights, the king probably wouldn’t like it.

Ever since she’d heard that there was tension between the local marquis and the king, Regina had been considering whether she could use that for her own ends. It felt like another piece of the puzzle was now slotting into place.

The elves had only one major city, in this region of the world at least, and they were still obviously holding their own against more than one human kingdom. They also had a different, arguably much more efficient system and a much more professional military force.

Although, even then, their real soldiers were, what, a few percent of their population? Regina had much more warriors compared to ‘civilians’, because she could afford to. It didn’t take that much work to sustain them, to provide food and other necessities for them. That might change if her hive grew, but not by that much, considering her drones would still be extreme omnivores.

"Is everything alright, my Queen?” Max asked. “You’ve stood here looking preoccupied for a while.”

Regina started. She’d been so deep in thought that she hadn’t noticed him break off from the others and approach her. “Of course, it’s fine, I was just thinking.”

Max nodded and stood beside her. They looked at the Swarm Drones training for a few seconds. “What were you thinking about?” he finally asked.

Regina didn’t turn her head to look at him. “Right now, I was considering how much better I could be doing things for the people in the human kingdoms.”

Max raised and eyebrow and nodded. He seemed to sense her mood and didn’t distract or annoy her, but just stood there for a moment. Still, his interruption had brought her back to reality. She shifted.

“Actually, my Queen,” he began. “I don’t know if we will gain enough strength to really do anything against the human kingdoms in a month.”

She sighed. “I know. I suppose I knew that’s probably unlikely. But we did say we would reevaluate our relationship after a month.”

“So we’ll play for more time?”

Regina frowned thoughtfully. “If nothing else, we’ll be strong enough that they can’t just wipe us out that easily. They would have to have some of their higher leveled people take valuable time away from the front, or divert larger units. It should be in their interest to keep us neutral, or attempt to, at least.”

Max nodded. He started smiling. “That makes sense. You’ve really played this well, Regina. I didn’t realize how much.”

She shrugged. Not really. I just hope it’s well enough.

Then she shook her head. “Let’s go join the training.”