"Would such rapid growth of low-leveled workers truly benefit the hive?"

Beatrice might've had a point. The five newbees had been made with a bit more Mind than the minimum, unlike Beatrice, but they were still just simple workers. Of course, Beatrice sure was one to talk.

"You were created with the minimum required Mind, Beatrice, and yet look how you turned out." No way would it be a waste, especially not with the circumstances we were in at the moment.

Although she nodded curtly, I could feel embarrassment coming from Beatrice. I guess as bright as she seemed, we were all still figuring this stuff out one step at a time. It was comforting to see the unshakable Beatrice show a minor imperfection. It made me feel less bad about my shortcomings and remember Beatrice's humanity.

I turned my attention to the newbees. The more I thought about it, the sillier I felt I was. I had a free upgrade right in front of me, and I decided not to take it? What was the point, then?

"Alright. Allocating 1% of Mind to Beatrice's Link caused some pretty severe effects. She was able to evolve and everything. Did anything bad happen to you, Beatrice?"

"It was quite shocking, but I had already been experimenting with accruing more power, so I was able to handle the sudden influx."

Alright, nothing terrible happened. Wait, did she say she was trying to become more powerful anyways?

"While it may be possible to allocate 1% to each of the five, I would warn that they may not enjoy the same level of growth I managed. Also, any more than 1% may be damaging to their Minds."

I guess I'll ignore her power comment for now. Everything she said made sense. I would take things more slowly this time, remembering the shock when I had experimented with Beatrice. I didn't want to harm my new workers!

"Let's begin with a small amount. I'll be allocating only 0.005% to each of your Links and try to slowly work my way up to 1%. Tell me if you start feeling any negative effects so I can determine your threshold."

It may seem like a small amount, but considering their Link was currently at 0.0005%, bringing it up to even 0.005% was nearly a 1000% increase! It struck me just how little Mind was required for these purposes.

"Ready? Go!"

I cranked up the Link percentage. Thankfully I could observe the bees visually and mentally while modifying the Link. {Compartmentalization} was turning out to be a godsend.

As the bees were exposed to more and more Mind, their movements became twitchy and erratic.

"Make sure to be extra careful with Ben. We do not know how physical injuries may be affected by these increases in power."

Great call, Queen. I did as she suggested, increasing Ben's Link in smaller increments. Thankfully, the little guy seemed more excited than anything else.

"I think I'm gonna be sick…." Bess' words startled me. Her Link was only at 0.01%, and the others were still climbing. Was she less tolerant?

"Alright, Bess' Link is capped at 0.01%. Can you make a note of that, Beatrice?"

"Already done, Mother."

Excellent. One down, four to go. Over the course of what felt like an hour, each bee showed signs of negative effects at surprisingly variable moments. Bella began to feel sick at 0.05%, Ben followed at 0.09%, and Belle at a whopping 0.3%. The only one left was Beck, who was actually nearing 1%.

"Woohoo, let's go, Beck! I know you can do it, honey!" Queen's cheering echoed in my Mind. Honestly, I was also rooting for Beck. It would feel weird if Beatrice was the only one capable of withstanding that much power.

Right on cue, Beck signaled to stop increasing the Link, stopping right at 1%.

"How are you all feeling?"

Like Beatrice, the five bees looked around in wonder, as if they had been transported to another world.

As if they knew what that would be like.

"I can't believe you live like this, Mom," Bess finally said, "And this is just a tiny bit of your Mind… it's amazing!"

Then others nodded in agreement. Was my Mind really that impressive? Maybe I should be a bit smugger about it.

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"If only they knew how your mind really worked. That would be quite embarrassing for you."

Party's over, then.

"How long will it take you guys to evolve?" Beatrice had managed to evolve or change or do whatever it was she had done nearly instantly, but who knew what these guys were capable of. Instead of answers, I got questioning glances. Was something wrong?

"Mom, how do we do that?" this time, Ben spoke up. Beatrice seemed extremely upset that Bess' nickname for me was spreading, but I was more concerned about the actual question.

"Er, Beatrice? You mind explaining it to them?"

"Of course, Mother. Now, then. All you must do is imagine the ultimate heights that our hive will reach, complete with perfect levels of organization and order. You must feel that you are the only one in this entire world capable of elevating Mother to the heights you imagine her and that you are the only one capable of maintaining complete control over the entire hive."

Beatrice looked quite proud of herself. I was a bit more confused. She got achieved her newfound power by… being arrogant? Dreaming big? Judging by the sense I got from the Link, the five newbees were even more confused than I was.

"Beatrice. I think that may only apply to yourself," I told her. I didn't want to burst her bubble but considering that her pride came from such an (apparently) extraordinary accomplishment, I didn't feel too bad.

"Oh? But it seemed so obvious to me…."

Great. If nothing else, it was apparent that Beatrice was unnaturally talented both at using and manipulating Mind to do her bidding. The five workers didn't seem quite as inclined. Was that related to their tolerance, or was it completely unrelated?

"I don't know about all that, but I want to explore more! These injuries can't stop me!"

Pressure mounted around Ben, and he rose into the air. I could feel that he had done something, so I reset his Link. Unlike Beatrice's monstrously increased minimum of 0.01%, Ben's barely increased from 0.0005% to 0.0008%. I watched with worry as Ben lifted himself into the air using his Mind, zipping out of the tree.

"Wait, Ben! I need to see-" Hold on. I didn't need to be near Ben to talk to him or see his menu, right?

"Ben," I spoke to Ben from a distance. Ben's flight faltered at my voice, "Give me a moment to inspect your current status. With your injuries, it's best if you don't explore for a bit, so come back."

"Oh, alright Mom!" Ben said, appearing at the top of the dead tree moments later. Good, now I could check-

Screeching sounds filled the air. The same screeching the vultures had made.

"Everyone, quiet. Ben, get down here now." I took a peek outside.

Two vultures circled high in the air. Thankfully they weren't directly above our tree, but why were they here in the first place?

"You must be more careful, Ben. You are injured, and now those vultures are roaming about!" Beatrice exclaimed.

Things were worse than I thought.

"Those vultures likely aren't here by chance. I think they're searching for their missing friends."

Beatrice paled at my words. "They are searching? But we do not have a defensible hive or even warriors yet. Why- How have they come searching so quickly?"

I didn't have an answer. If the vultures really had come around looking for the ones I killed, we didn't have as much time as I would have liked. And it meant there might be even more vultures prowling about. Clearly, our timeline had moved up at the revelation, so we didn't have a moment to waste.

"We need to begin planning. Everyone, do what you can with Mind while Beatrice and I figure something out. Sorry Ben, but nobody is to leave the hive until further notice."

I tried to ignore Ben's dejected moans and pulled Beatrice aside. She seemed weirdly frightened.

"Are you okay?"

"Those vultures will destroy us if we are not careful. If I hadn't insisted on only creating workers…." Beatrice was falling back into that bad state of mind. The longer the rest of the workers stayed cooped up here, unable to do their jobs, the worse their mental state would become. Luckily, they were currently focused on their Mind tasks, but that would only last so long.

"We need to take action immediately, Beatrice. If our mental state fails, then we will absolutely be destroyed."

I distracted her with ideas. The initial plan had been to gather as much food as possible, create a big hive, and defend ourselves against threats, but we were more limited now. These were still the priorities, but we needed to do so while keeping in mind that the vultures were an ever-present danger.

"The immediate issue is food. Not only do we need to eat, but it is also our most important resource to expand the hive," Beatrice murmured. At least she was thinking about something else now.

"The most important thing right now is still to expand the hive, both structurally and with bees," I said, "To do that, we need food. If food is the most important issue, we should focus on that."

That said, there was a clear obstacle. If the vultures were actively patrolling the forest, we couldn't just send Bella out to gather food by herself. Even if they weren't specifically looking for bees, there was no doubt they would notice piles of floating carcasses to feast on.

"I could go with Bella to protect her."

"True, she would need some sort of defense against the vultures. But put yourself in danger? And leave the main hive defenseless? I think not."

Wow. Sassy, much? Not that the change of pace wasn't a good sign that Beatrice was feeling better.

"Bella needs a guard, someone who can protect her."

"Alright, I can create a bunch of simple warriors then." Those vultures were nasty. I thought a bunch of warriors would be needed to prevent any badness. Actually, a ton of warriors might be needed.

Ya'know, maybe this wasn't a great idea after all.

"But… where will acquire the food to create and feed these warriors?"

Oh, thank goodness, a great point. I needed food to make the warriors, and food was needed to sustain them. How could I minimize the amount of food required?

"Here's an idea. How about one super-strong warrior. Then we would only need enough food to feed one more person-er, bee, even if I need to eat a ton to make them in the first place." It would also reduce the number of eggs to lay! Win-win.

Beatrice agreed. I would have to be careful about how much Mind I put into the new warrior. Each of the five worker eggs needed more food than Beatrice's, so if I used more Mind than our food stores could handle, we would be in a bit of trouble.

"Now, that's all well and good, but what about the five?" I was still concerned about the five newbees and Beatrice. How would I keep them busy while I waited for the warrior to hatch?

Beatrice would be the easiest to keep busy. I could distract her with talk of strategy and planning, and she had far more responsibilities than anyone else in the hive. Bess also seemed like she could continue her work since it concerned the hive's construction. Even though she wouldn't be able to work on the food storage ball's supports, there was plenty she could construct within the tree. Belle and Beck hadn't found their niche, but that could change with this new Link experiment. Bella would have to wait for the warrior's birth, and Ben…

Aha.

"Everyone, gather 'round," I blurted out. Beatrice seemed confused that I had brought the rest of the hive into our private strategy conference. However…

"Listen to me, kids. The family's going to war." Yup. I could see no other way around it. The vultures were a threat, and we had to survive. Each of the workers would have a part to play. Thinking of Ben's adventurous spirit and speed helped me realize what needed to be done.

"Ben. I need you to scout out where the vultures are coming from. After you've healed a bit, of course." The vultures were numerous, and since some of them were intelligent to a degree, it wasn't unreasonable to assume they were working together. Information was power, especially against bird-brains like the vultures. I could outsmart them with my human intellect.

"You can barely outsmart Beatrice."

Well, Queen, where do you think Beatrice got her big, beautiful brain from in the first place?

"Me," she said smugly. Sure, whatever you say.

"Bess, as soon as you're finished with your evolution or upgrade or whatever, I need you to build a nest or something. Whatever I need for… optimal… egg-laying… conditions." Did I really just say that? These vultures were the most devious enemies I had faced in my two lives.

"Bella, you'll have to gather as much food as quickly as possible. When Bess finishes the nest thing, I'll be creating a powerful warrior to act as your bodyguard. In the meantime, it's too risky to carry around food, so we'll have to carefully manage what we have."

"As for you two," I waved towards Belle and Beck, "It would be helpful for you two to figure out your specialties asap. We'll need all the help we can get if we're going to war."

All that was left for now was to wait. With renewed vigor, the five worker bees concentrated on themselves, focused on what they could do to help the hive. I settled in, preparing to study the five's new upgrades and figure out how to use them as effectively as possible.