“Beatrice. Explain yourself this instant young lady!” I yelled. Oh, man. That sounded way too motherly for me to handle.
“Er, I mean, what’s going on here?” I said instead. Much better.
“Ah, Mother, allow me to explain. You see, I was gathering food, and these scavenger squirrels were attempting to reclaim our meal. In the end, they chased me, but it worked out due to your impressive display of power!”
Beatrice was entirely too excited about this. I had to use around 1.5% of my Mind for each squirrel. That wasn’t cheap! Well, it kinda was.
“You unnecessarily put us in danger, Beatrice.“
The squirrels weren’t very strong, but I hadn’t ever used my powers to kill multiple at once. It took concentration just to kill one, and considering how many squirrels Beatrice had kited, they easily could have gotten the jump on us.
Her disappointment radiated through the Link, her emotions echoing in my brain. I felt sort of bad, but I couldn’t give an inch. She was clearly smart, so why couldn’t she see the risks? Although I guess she was just born… today?
“Tell you what,” she perked up at my words, “Make it up to me by helping me test some Mind stuff. After that, I’ll make more workers to help you out.”
Delighted by the opportunity to help her mother, Beatrice glowed in anticipation. It wasn’t much as a punishment or lesson, but I’m sure she got the idea. In the worst case, I could directly control her with the Link. Speaking of…
“I want to test out some elements of our Link. Do you mind? I’d at least like your consent first.”
“Mother! I am your humble servant. You needn’t ask my permission for anything!” Beatrice said grandly. I shook my head.
“Wrong, Beatrice. If you’re going to be as important as we think, then I want you to give me advice. Contradict me. I’ll rely on your counsel in the future.”
Beatrice was frozen in the air, the only feeling I could get from the Link being pure admiration.
“Yes, Mother!”
Oh boy. Beatrice already had strong feelings about me, but that comment only intensified things. I should probably pick my words more carefully going forwards. I shook off the weirdness of being worshiped. Time was a-wastin’, so I focused my Mind on Kin Link.
There were a few things I wanted to test out. First, I tried using it to control Beatrice’s body directly. Nothing.
“Beatrice,” I said, “slap me.”
She wasn’t expecting that. I knew she would follow my commands anyways, so I had to make her do something she would never do.
I could see her physical exertion to avoid moving toward me, but I didn’t even need to use my Mind at all. The Kin Link worked instantly, and I received a sharp smack to the face.
“Mother! I am so so so so so-”
“Enough. How much did you struggle to resist my order?”
“I… tried my hardest not to harm you.”
This was a terrifying ability. The pitiful 0.0005% required for the link was enough for me to completely control Beatrice, forcing her to do what I wanted with no effort at all. I would have to be careful when issuing commands and take care not to force the bees to go against their will. Well, not too much, anyway.
“Alright, check that off the list.”
“Ah, I will make a list immediately!” Beatrice took my turn of phrase a bit too seriously, to the point that I could actually feel her using her Mind to create a mental list.
With a sigh, I moved on to the next thing I wanted to test.
“Alright, now I’ll see what happens if I increase the amount of Mind in your specific Link. You’re at 0.0005% right now… I’ll bring it up to 1%.”
“Wait, Mo-” Before she could continue, I focused, and Beatrice dropped out of the sky.
“You idiot! What the hell are you doing, Enno!?” came the furious humming of Queen.
“I know, a bit risky, but I was sure I could dedicate tons of Mind to the Link,” I said, flustered. “I didn’t think such a small change would have this big of an effect!”
Beatrice had only frozen for a moment before righting herself and looking around with a stupefied expression.
“I… Mother…” she whispered, seemingly at a loss for words. Oh, man. What did I do this time?
“Ooookay. I’m going to reset the Link now.”
“Wait!” she yelled, startling me. She hadn’t been this intense about anything, and that was saying something.
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“With this much power, there is something I must do. I can…”
For a moment, nothing happened. A buzzing feeling slowly built up, something I felt through my link. As the buzzing hit a crescendo, Beatrice’s posture straightened even further, and her 6 arms- or legs?- folded behind her back. I could immediately feel a difference in her Mind through the Link, a feeling of order and organization.
I hurriedly reset the Link only to allocate 0.0005%, but something stopped me. What?
[Kin Link: (0.01%)
A Mind connection with produced offspring offered to certain species. Allows for enhanced communication and control of related kin. Slightly enhances the capabilities of the linked kin’s Mind.
* Aide - Minimum 0.01% Mind / Unit
* Simple Worker Link - Minimum 0.0005% Mind / Unit
* Simple Warrior Link - Minimum 0.00075% Mind / Unit
Breakdown:
* Beatrice (Aide): 0.01%
]
The hell is an aide?
[Name: Beatrice]
[Age: 1 day]
[Subtype: Aide]
[Status: Healthy]
[Abilities:
* Aide Report(Lv.1)
* Venomous Stinger
* Aide Authority (Lv.1)
]
[Mind: 2nd Degree]
[Tapped Mind: 0% / 90%]
[Mind Locks:
* Life (5%)
* Queen’s Wisdom (5%)
]
There was… a lot to take in here. Beatrice’s menu looked like it belonged to an entirely different creature, losing some abilities and gaining new ones, a new subtype, and even a Mind Lock!
I did a quick calculation and promptly smacked my head. What was I thinking?! I had casually increased the Lock by nearly 200,000%! Considering how strong my Mind apparently was, I was lucky not to kill Beatrice or something!
[Subtype: Aide
Of the Bee species. Managerial servant of the Queen.
Capabilities include {Aide Report} and {Aide Authority} unique abilities, siphoning of additional power from the Queen.
]
[Aide Report:
Level 1
Acquired by: Self-evolution into a unique subtype, Aide
A comprehensive report of Hive statistics. Summaries can be sent to the Queen or those with the relevant authority.
Level up: additional information added to report
]
[Aide Authority:
Level 1
Acquired by: Self-evolution into a unique subtype, Aide
An evolution in hive hierarchy. Authority is only below that of the Queen. Grants a degree of control over lower-authority bees.
Level up: further control over lower bees
]
[Queen’s Wisdom: (5%)
Higher intelligence and deeper understanding are obtained through the connection with the Queen’s Mind.
]
What. The. Fuck.
“Beatrice. Explain yourself this instant, young lady!” Motherly was the perfect tone to use here. This was insane; nothing could have prepared me for changes this drastic in such a narrow time frame.
I only got more unsettled when Beatrice adjusted her antennae like glasses. They weren’t actually damn glasses!
“I would say my menu is quite self-explanatory.”
Of course. Self-explanatory. Right.
“Then how do you explain losing your abilities?”
“No clue.”
Ah. Alright. Of course.
“Then how exactly do you expect to expand the hive if you can’t make wax?”
“...”
No answer for that, huh?
“I can still make wax. It just… will not be as flexible,” Beatrice explained, “If more workers are created….”
“I told you! Start. Small!”
“Do not worry. With my new management capabilities, it will be possible to raise several capable children. Five should suffice for now.”
I was not about to make five eggs at once, at least not at the moment. Dealing with Beatrice was exhausting, and I had barely interacted with her for a single day. Interacting with even more people would drain me instantly.
Still, her personality and behavior deviated from the norm of what I expected of an average worker. Queen herself had stressed the lack of individuality in a hive, bees being unnamed. And yet here was Beatrice, just doing her own thing.
This entire situation seemed wildly unfair. Just by letting Beatrice borrow a bit of my Mind power, she was able to make herself evolve? No, something else had to be at work here. I thought back through everything, from creating Beatrice’s egg to her new evolution.
Despite being the lowest-tier worker and using minimal Mind, Beatrice emerged from the egg fully formed and full of spunk. Naming her had caused an actual, physical change, but what that was hadn’t been apparent. Now, she had managed to create an entirely unique evolutionary path for herself using a fraction of my power.
How the hell did this even work?
With a bit more Mind power, Beatrice had changed herself and changed her system. This went way beyond the simplicity of psychic powers. She was using Mind and this world’s system in a way I hadn’t even begun to think of. Just with that extra push from my own Mind, she manifested her desires into reality.
To make matters worse, Beatrice was now useless as a typical grunt.
Beatrice’s sudden evolution put a bit of a kink in my dubiously formed plan. I had intended to learn more about what my bee offspring would be by observing her. Plus, if she couldn’t do the labor to make the hive, that meant I had to make actual workers. More egg laying.
I had no choice. Soon I would have to create more children to actually begin with the hive’s development. Begin… making… eggs…
It was then that I realized something horrid.
“Oh god. I’ll never be alone again….”
“Mother… I- The hive will always be here for you.”
Not like that, idiot. Whatever. For now, I needed an excuse to stall before making the first actual batch of eggs became a reality.
Thunder rumbled, a constant source of irritation in the otherwise noiseless forest. Perfect. Beatrice’s sudden transformation only heightened my curiosity about Mind’s potential, and there was an obvious way to research those possibilities.
“Beatrice, let’s go,” I said, rising into the air, “I want to investigate the abnormal phenomena in this forest before I begin creating the hive. The humans that caused this destruction are clearly developed in their understanding of Mind, and if we learn from their remnants, then the power of our Mind will increase.”
Without another word, I began floating towards the nearest crystal shard, trusting Beatrice to fall in step behind me.
“But the hive….”
I ignored her. Before Beatrice had shown up with the squirrel gang, I was contemplating the possibilities of Mind, coming to a wall when it came to its potential. The various supernatural phenomena around the broken forest implied Mind had way more potential than I initially expected, and Beatrice’s transformation confirmed it.
The most in-your-face example would be the skyscraper-sized crystals jutting out of the ground.
The closest one was not even a kilometer from the temporary base, so the trip would not take long. On the way, one of those vulture monsters looked like it was flying a bit too close, so I decided to preemptively give it the ol’ neck twist.
Unlike the Mister Squirrel incident, I decided to start safely. It came as a bit of a shock when 3% was enough to kill the beast without destroying it. Did that mean it was twice as strong as a mister squirrel?
Beatrice deftly caught the falling vulture corpse and brought it along, and I couldn’t help but note that it was huge. If it were standing up, it would probably be as tall as a tree!
Beatrice complained about the quality of the monster’s meat as we continued gliding toward the crystal. It didn’t make much difference to me. I could only stomach the wild animal meat on the ground because it had already been ‘cooked.’ Eating nothing but charred, gamey meat was already starting to wear me down, and I was just getting started in this new life.
As we approached the towering shiny mass, I noticed something odd. The hairs on my body stood on end and my heart began to race.
Electricity.
I stopped in my tracks. Thunder roared overhead again, and I finally saw why lightning never seemed to accompany it.
The crystal glowed slightly as the rolling sounds quieted. Considering the dark gray clouds hid the top of the crystal, I could guess as easily as anyone that the crystals acted like massive lightning rods. But for what purpose?
“What shall we do about the… ‘electric crystal’?”
“Do you even know what those words mean?”
“She likely has some level of understanding from the Link.”
“I have some level of understanding from the Link.”
Thinking of making more bees gave me a headache. I could barely deal with two foreign voices in my head, not even considering my own. A hive of thousands of bees? Impossible.
That said, I was… hesitant to deal with the crystals any further. Annoying. I had been fascinated with electricity in my old life, enough to make a career involving it. Now just because of one traumatic event, I was totally paranoid about electricity? Stupid.
“I’m going to bring back samples of the different phenomena from throughout the forest. Hopefully, experimenting with them will inspire a revelation about Mind.”
With those words, I lifted a stone from the ground and smashed it against the crystal, breaking off a decently sized chunk of the stuff. It was quite cathartic, really. I didn't have to hold back, taking out the building exhaustion of the past few days on this random giant crystal. Now, time to collect some rocks.