As it turned out, Regina’s feeling was correct. The new Swarm Drone Breeders took a full week to hatch.

They kept growing in that time, until they were a lot bigger than any normal drone, never mind a normal egg. When the first egg finally cracked, it was almost the size of a building.

The Swarm Drone that hatched turned out to be just as mindless as the other types, although it did have a few key differences. For once, it was squat and almost blocky, looking, in many ways, more like some kind of mad scientist’s living factory than a normal animal. Its six limbs were mostly stumps, though it did have legs that were functional. Regina got the impression it could be moved, but not very quickly, and probably not while it was incubating or hatching any eggs. That was fine for her, though. It wasn’t like she needed to have a mobile ‘spawn point’ for new drones.

Drone Breeder (War Drones) Level: 1 Mana: 100/100 Con: 12 Str: 6 Dex: 4 End: 6 Int: 6 Wis: 6

She quickly tested its capabilities, confirming that her Ability that created additional Swarm Drone eggs of the same type for a given number didn’t work for this drone. Not that she’d really expected it to. She also got the feeling that its eggs would take longer to hatch, probably three days instead of two. Regina chalked that additional knowledge up to the improvements to her psychic link with her drones. Besides, all of her drones, even the Swarm Drones, were born with some instinctive knowledge related to their role, so it wasn’t too strange that this one might have some information for her.

It had its own mana pool, though that one was quite limited. Apparently, though, making it develop more eggs just meant that her own mana pool would be taxed instead. She assumed that it would grow with the drone’s levels. Suddenly I feel like I’m playing a strategy game, Regina mused to herself. At least I don’t actually have to spend any resources to create units. Except for time.

She was definitely going to create quite a few of these drones. Even with all the limitations, this new Template basically removed any limit to her hive’s growth rate. Now, it was all about practical limitations. She did still have to feed all of the drones she wanted to make, and she also felt like having too many Swarm Drones for her sapient hive members would be a bad idea. That might be a Hive Queen instinct talking, but Regina wasn’t inclined to dismiss it either way.

At least their food production was also taking off. Getting settled here at this time of year put a bit of a damper on it, but luckily, her Workers were good at working underground. The hive had gathered a few plants that would grow quickly and didn’t need too much attention, as well as a few varieties of mushrooms. One of Ina’s main projects was making some caverns for underground mushroom farms, both repurposing already existing ones and digging out new ones. Well, they would also grow lichen and other things, but Regina preferred not to think too deeply about all of the food sources her hive was using and preparing to get on a grander scale. Like bugs. Luckily, her Swarm Drones weren’t exactly picky about things like that. For now, they could also still live off the land pretty well, especially since she spread her Swarm Drones around the new territory.

She was also using the opportunity to build more outposts and new bases. That was probably a more accurate term than ‘village’. She’d narrowed down options with the senior leadership of her hive, focusing on strategic positions and easy access to resources like the few small woods nearby or the lake they’d used before. Their new building techniques were already proving their worth here in the main base, so she didn’t see any point in not trying to do the same in those locations. If nothing else, digging was easier both in terms of the work done and logistic chains, even in winter. Of course, the tunnel network they envisioned to connect all of these would still need quite a bit of time to get anywhere, and she decided to focus on building the actual settlements up for now.

Once spring came, Regina was expecting their growth to really take off. It was a little hard to make detailed prognoses with hard numbers, since there were still many factors she found hard to estimate. Theoretically, she could easily get into the tens of thousands of drones in a few months, but would it really be that simple?

Well, for now, she made sure her drones were distributed effectively and ordered some of them into hibernation to reduce the amount of food they needed. That worked perfectly well over the psychic link, even if they were many kilometers away from her.

She’d been afraid that her hive growing this much would make things harder in that regard, maybe cause her some mental strain. The opposite seemed to be the case. Regina was getting much better with it, especially because of the System’s newest boost. Reaching out to any of her drones was effortless, and sometimes, when she was giving orders to Swarm Drones, they felt almost like an extension of her.

“That is nice, but I have to admit a part of me finds it a little disquieting,” she admitted to Max a few days after the first Drone Breeder hatched. They had just finished a short sparring session, and she’d dispatched a group of Swarm Drones to hunt a Lionit that had strayed too close to one of their new outposts, near the forest.

He cocked his head. “Afraid of becoming some kind of hive mind?”

Regina snickered and shook her head. “If anything, we already are one.”

“Which would not make it better, would it?” he pointed out. “I don’t really understand, but I think I get why you might feel a bit ambivalent about it.”

Regina sighed. “I don’t think we’re ever going to lose our individuality. But - maybe a partial hive mind of sorts …”

Max watched her in silence for a moment, before he returned his axe to the weapons stand near the training yard. They started walking away from it to make room for others. “How about the other parts of this upgrade?” he asked, changing the subject a bit. “Have you seen much progress with your psychic powers in other contexts?”

“Not really, but I don’t exactly have much opportunity for that, since there are only hive members around,” she pointed out. “I was too distracted to focus on that with Owin and the Delvers. But once I get back to Forest’s Haunt, I’m definitely going to investigate it. I think there are still things I could do through the psychic link, so with the same range, but those are subtler. Anything more powerful is probably only possible for a shorter range.”

“So, you can’t sense other minds within the range of your psychic link?”

“Well, I can,” she hedged. “It’s still not easy, and it helps immensely if there are drones nearby. But I can’t really use it, since there are just so many. It’s overwhelming. So I usually ignore that.”

Max looked thoughtful. “But you’ll get better at it with practice, right?”

“Sure, that and a thousand other things.” She shrugged. “I’ll spend some time training it. That kind of ability could be very useful.”

They stopped once they’d reached the main part of the base. Regina would have continued the conversation, but Tim was running up to her, looking unusually excited.

“My Queen,” he greeted her. “I just got my level-up notification!”

“You reached level 40? That’s great!” Regina smiled at him, then glanced at Max.

The other warrior looked somehow both happy and disgruntled. “Congratulations, Tim,” he said.

His brother grinned at him. “I told you I was going to reach it first this time, Max.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll catch up in no time, and I’ll reach the next Tier first, just wait.”

“Settle down, kids,” Regina said, but she was still smiling. She didn’t mind seeing that kind of playful rivalry, as long as it didn’t get serious. And with Max and Tim, that wouldn’t be a problem. “You’re both doing very well, and I’m proud of you.”

Max and Tim both straightened up. “Thank you, Mother!” they chorused.

Regina cleared her throat. “Of course. Anyway, Tim, what Evolution options did you get?”

“I have six options again, although I don’t think most of them are real options,” Tim answered. A moment later, he shared his screen with her.

Regina looked through the options, frowning. “Yes, I don’t think something like ‘Valiant Knight’ would really suit you, no offense. Same for Duelist or Shadow Sword. ‘Drone Knight’ sounds interesting. And two Royal something options again.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “I’m not sure why I’m offered Royal Blade again, since that’s the Class I already have.”

“From what I’ve heard, you can take some Classes a Tier earlier than most, or a Tier later. They’ll just provide fewer benefits at the lower Tier, obviously,” she explained. “A straight upgrade can make sense. In this case, I’m pretty sure ‘Royal Champion’ would be a better one, though. That doesn’t sound like a Class you can get at Tier Two.”

“I actually heard the earl say something about Champion Classes once,” Tim said. “I think there are pretty exacting requirements for them.” He hesitated. “Are you sure about this option, my Queen? Even disregarding anything from the Class itself, there are going to be cultural expectations coming with the Class name when we’re dealing with other people.”

“I don’t mind that at all,” she assured him. “I’d be happy to have you as my champion, Tim.” She glanced at Max. “Well, not that others wouldn’t …”

He seemed to understand what she was getting at and shook his head. “I’m perfectly happy for Tim to get that Class instead of me, my Queen,” he assured her. “If nothing else, he’s better at dealing with outsiders. And my primary duty is protecting you.”

“Alright. Then it’s settled. If you want to, of course,” she added, looking back at Tim.

“Of course.” He smiled brightly. “Thank you, my Queen. I’ll get inside so you don’t have to drag me anywhere if this goes like last time.”

Regina watched him go for a moment, then turned away. It would take at least a day for Tim to get through his Evolution, so there was no point waiting for it.

“I’m going to go back to training,” Max said.

Regina nodded and hid a smile. She was pretty sure he just wanted to catch up to Tim. It wouldn’t take long for his own Evolution to be possible. For that matter, Tia, Mia and a few others were also getting pretty close.

Regina walked through the base, glancing at the drones passing her. She was increasing the inner hive’s numbers again, though it would take a bit of time for everyone to hatch and find their places. The settlement was expanding rapidly, and she watched Bea and a group of younger drones set up the next building. They’d already prepared a connecting doorway, and would build this so it could be expanded later on, too. Two of them were already getting started with bricks made of the material the Production Drones made.

Regina shook her head to herself and continued on to the area where most of the local Production Drones stayed. They still lagged behind in levels compared to the strongest War Drones, but some of them were getting relatively close to the higher levels, too.

She wondered what Evolutions they’d get for the third Tier. And for that matter, how or when Swarm Drones would get sapience. She wasn’t really sure how she felt about that prospect. How many of them would be affected? She certainly wouldn’t be able to use them as disposable shock troops the same way. Well, maybe I could, Regina corrected herself. But I wouldn’t. Besides, they’re probably going to be a valuable asset, if they have the autonomy and capability of people and keep the leveling bonus of Swarm Drones.

She had a feeling she would need it, and all the other advantages she could get. Forget the Delvers, she was clearly playing a game with the deck stacked against her. The way Deirianon had just dropped a bomb in her lap like this had shown her that.

Sure, Alianais might be helping her too, but how far would that go? Besides, I still don’t know what she really wants. Or even if I want to be working with her at all.

Regina sighed. She wished she had one of the gods in front of her right now, so she could ask some questions. Or punch them in the face. She felt inclined to the latter.

Still, if she was going to do that, she needed to work on it. She could figure out if she really wanted revenge for the Cataclysm later, or how she might want to take it. First of all, she needed the capability to stand up to whatever might come at her. Hopefully, she’d find some way to let her deal with even the gods on a mostly even footing at some point. If nothing else, there were clearly some things they were scared of, and things they depended on. That was a start.

For now, she would focus on building up her hive. She still had mortal enemies to deal with, and if nothing else, she needed a solid powerbase. That would probably be easier said than done, anyway. There was still a lot she had to learn about the world she’d found herself in, but also a lot to gain.

And Regina was through being pushed around.

Not that she wouldn’t still play along with things if she had to. But she would make sure that she and her hive would come out on top eventually. Even if she had to make sacrifices for that goal.