The aftermath of the Scavenger War (creatively named by myself) was quite gruesome. Vulture corpses littered our little glade, and blood stained the otherwise clean river. I had feared that in the days following the end of the War, we would be overrun by other scavengers like Mr. Squirrel, but that never came to pass.

It probably had something to do with Bedivere, to be fair.

Speaking of, the warrior tirelessly patrolled the edge of our glade to ensure nothing would disturb our cleanup or rebuilding. Did I really make that guy?

“He is quite dependable. Though, his awareness is quite unsettling.”

Queen had a point. Bedivere wasn’t just strong physically. I remembered what he told me the night after I defeated the Vulch…

I was discussing the future of the hive with Bess. I had wanted a central core to be created first, somewhere to house the food storage, a nest room, and a place for the workers to rest while working. All of this should come before beginning to expand into a vast structure.

Bedivere buzzed over to me and pulled me aside.

“Mother, how are you feeling after your battle? It could not have been easy to need to do such a thing.”

“Oh, I’m fine, thanks Bedivere. Thanks for your help during the battle.”

“Very well. If either yourself or other Mother wish to speak your minds, then know I am here for the both of you,” he said before buzzing away. What a nice guy. Wait. Hold on.

Other Mother?!

After that night, I was having trouble reconciling with what Bedivere said. He knew about Queen. About how Queen and I were different. He called us both Mother, so I could only assume he wasn’t one hundred percent sure about what the deal was. But how did he know?

Even Vulch only knew once he had trapped us in his weird Mind world.

Bedivere was by far the strangest member of the hive thus far. He was soft-spoken and gentle, yet violent and cold. I could tell he cared deeply for the hive and everyone in it, so I wasn’t exactly afraid of him. But something about him just rubbed me the wrong way.

His status was one thing.

[Name: Bedivere]

[Age: 3 days]

[Subtype: Simple Warrior (Zenith)]

[Status: Healthy]

[Abilities:

* Venomous Stinger

* Guard Authority (Lv. 1)

* Apid Vibration

* Stinger Fencing (Lv. 1)

]

[Mind: 6th Degree]

[Tapped Mind: 0% / 80.5%]

[Mind Locks:

* Life (5%)

* Strength (5%)

* Higher Senses (1%)

* Reinforced Link (8.5%)

]

By all accounts, it didn’t make any sense. Thankfully, I no longer bemoaned the fact that none of my children were normal! That sounds a bit mean.

Seriously, though. I hadn’t increased Bedivere’s Link or anything, but his menu was all sort of crazy. The Locks? Sure, why not. They were self-explanatory. The Abilities? Okay, I could see how those fit Bedivere. With a Mind as strong as his, it would make sense that he could somehow make new Abilities.

6th Degree Mind?

Well, that’s my boy! My only point of comparison was myself- or rather Queen- and the workers, so Bedivere here was way at the top of the curve. I would have liked to see Vulch’s menu, but unfortunately, I hadn’t thought of that in the moment. Note: try to see other creatures’ menus before killing them.

Now. Zenith. What in the goddamn was that supposed to mean?

“Zenith can be described as the apex, the highest point of succ-“

“I freaking know what it means, Queen. You know because I know!”

“It’s funny to mess with you though.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Was Queen more free-spirited now? She had a habit of teasing me since we met, but after the War, she seemed… liberated. Like she could finally do what she wanted to do.

As for Zenith? I had no clue what it meant (in the context of Bedivere’s menu). He didn’t have a clue either when I asked him about it. All of these mysteries were starting to become frustrating. I didn’t expect to know everything about this world from the get-go, but at the very least, would it hurt to know something about our system?

At best, I could theorize that there was some sort of limit that simple subtypes could reach. Even if that were the case, what would the limit constrain? Bedivere didn’t seem particularly limited. Each theory and guess only produced more questions.

Bedivere aside, I understood how Queen felt. As of right now, our immediate obstacles have been minimized. I knew Vulch and his flock were the de-facto leaders of this forest, which meant there was a power vacuum.

A vacuum I intended to fill.

“With what? Ash?”

Okay, even I could admit that was a good one. Anyways! If we wanted to take over this forest to prepare for the possible appearance of humans, there was much to do.

The first order of business was to expand our forces. Bella and Belle were working overtime to collect and produce resources and were getting tired. They barely had a moment to rest after the War, after all.

Unfortunately, that was a no-can-do. My Create Egg Ability still wasn’t working, even after Bedivere hatched. I was beginning to suspect something else was at play, but there was really nothing I could do about it. I had tasked myself and Beatrice to help with food collection, but Belle had refused help to make wax.

That needed to be amended.

Belle’s wax production directly impacted Bess’ construction work. The builder had been hard at work forming the hive’s core, but there just weren’t enough materials to make a solid wax structure. She instead had to manage with the bones of the vultures, which was beginning to give our hive a seriously creepy vibe.

I turned my attention to my map. Ah, yes, Beatrice had been hard at work with this one. With Ben’s help, my Aide had begun sketching out the picture of a map in her Mind. Beck served as an intermediary so Ben could directly send imagery to Beatrice even when he wandered far away. I really needed to figure out a way around that.

Bees were meant to stay with the hive and maybe travel to find food. For our purposes, though, communication was key, so it would be best to have a network that allowed us to communicate over long distances, allowing Beck time for his own things. For now, though, the setup worked well with our smaller numbers.

The map was pretty cool. It wasn’t pretty by any means, but it was efficient in classic Beatrice fashion. Ben had scouted a fair radius around the hive’s center, maybe a kilometer or five. All he had found were trees trees trees. And squirrels. I was surprised to learn that Queen’s old hive was only around five kilometers away since it felt impossibly far during the early days.

Well, I guess I did go back and forth a bit… In a mortally injured state. Sort of silly when I think about it.

For now, we had no idea how far the forest went. I knew that mountains stretched upwards in the east and that ‘mossy creatures’ were there, but otherwise, not much. I also knew a gathering of humans was nearby, but we hadn’t seen any sign of them. I also wanted to make more workers to help Ben scout, but that was also off the table.

This… felt nice. I hadn’t been granted the opportunity to really relax since I arrived in this world, and now with the threat of the vultures behind us, I felt content. And antsy. I wanted to expand the hive, dang it!

“You have bee in you, Enno. Working is what we love.”

Well, I did have a bee in me, but that was beside the point.

Time to work! Belle’s wax production was my immediate concern, so I floated over to the dirt balls where she stayed. Those trusty dirtballs had been super helpful, but they were ultimately in the way. Bess had already constructed supports, so I didn’t have to maintain their flotation, and I had begrudgingly deactivated the force field. I only disabled the Lock, so I could activate that line of defense in case of an emergency.

That freed up a decent chunk of Mind for me to leave wasting away.

A peek into the old nest room revealed Belle sitting inside, and I floated in to chat.

Belle was in a bad spot. Nothing had gone right for her. But to be honest, I didn’t care about all that. She was instrumental as the wax maker, but if she didn’t accept some type of help, then another failure could be in her future.

“Belle. Do you want me to get Bella or Beatrice or someone to help you make wax?”

“No. Thank you Mother.”

“Belle,” I sighed, “I know how you feel, but the wax is important. You’ve been doing so well in creating strong yet malleable material for the hive’s construction, so I want to see your success continue.”

“Calling my actions successful is unfair to the other workers.”

“You know that isn’t true. Sure, some bad things happened, but they were ultimately outside your control! The wax is completely different. You have pretty much full control over the hive’s rate of growth. Those other failures are meaningless to me, but failing here would be devastating.”

“Argh! Do not call her failures ‘meaningless’! You are diminishing those events she finds monumental!”

“I see. In that case, you may burden Bella with wax-creation.”

This was not going well. I needed a Queen Crash Course on this sort of thing.

“Belle-“

Tears. Oh shit.

“I apologize, Mother. I… I know the family will be there for me, as we will be for you. But I just don’t understand. Why must everything I am tasked to do fail so spectacularly?”

I decided to turn the bees’ own methods against them and embraced Belle in a hug. Hey, it worked for me!

“It’s alright, Belle. Tell me why you think you keep failing, even though I think you aren’t.” The waterworks began in earnest.

“Is it not clear?! The hive was destroyed because I could not defend it. Bedivere is missing half his limbs because I could not move his egg in time. My siblings enjoy successes and grand achievements, yet all I can do is sit here, eat, and spit out wax all day.”

“But you weren’t the only one in the hive the day it fell; Beck was here too, and they don’t drown themself in tears about it. Bella hasn’t performed some grand achievement, and neither have most of the workers. You’re too hard on yourself.”

“Listen, Belle. I have made the most mistakes of anyone in the hive. Even now, I can’t lay eggs and create the expanded workforce we desperately need. So! Instead, I bury myself in other work. I won’t say that’s the healthiest, but it doesn’t seem like a bad option as long as you have time to reflect, like you are now. You are all connected to me, and I will take responsibility for your actions. Okay?”

“Okay, Mother. In that case, I will take all the help I can get,” she wiped her tears and nodded, mumbling, “Bess’ outrageous demands for material far exceed what I can produce. Ideally, all of the workers could help make wax, but….”

Hm. Not a bad idea at all! I called Beatrice over the bee-phone, or in other words, I just talked normally through the Link.

“Beatrice! What do you think about a wax-making rotation of all the workers to lighten Belle’s load?”

Belle perked up. Getting every worker that could still produce wax to assist would surely help her out. Maybe make her feel less alone in her struggles.

“I believe that should be possible. Yes, looking at their rough schedules, the workers that are still capable of producing wax effectively can go on a rotation. Those would be Bella, Bess, and Ben.”

Oh, man. Bess and Belle making wax together? Well, maybe they would actually sort out their differences that way.

As for those three bees, they all had important jobs. I would have to create a priority queue for which workers would make wax and for how long. Bella’s gathering was important, but at the moment, we were overflowing with food. I wanted to prioritize scouting and building before gathering, so she would be top of the list.

Bess would be last. As much as I wanted to learn about the forest, constructing the hive was just as important. In that same vein, Bess’ work was important, but I wanted her to spend the least time making wax so she could do her own job. If wax production increased due to this ‘policy,’ then Bess would be overflowing with building material which would just go to waste if she wasn’t building.

Beatrice agreed with my assessment and sent a notice to the others. With that settled, I decided to go out and talk to the remaining bees. I noticed Belle give a sideways glance at a lumpy wax shape. Was that one of the crystals? Maybe it was a reminder of a success of hers. I hoped so.

In the meantime, I wanted to increase our efficiency even further. Bess, Bella, Belle, and Ben would all be swamped with work, which left Beck, Beatrice, Bedivere, and myself relatively free.

We can’t have that! The name of the game is productivity!