As the dark of night deepened, I thought along with Queen. Our plans, broadly, were to grow the hive, of course. To do that, I need bees. Lots and lots of bees.
This world especially had some interesting provisions. I didn’t have a hard limit on the number of bees I could control, per se. In theory, I wouldn’t even need to have a bee Linked. A bee could be part of the hive without being Linked, but it was a bit of a strange thought. As for why I was thinking of such limitations?
Mind, plain and simple.
[Tapped Mind: 0% / 50.869963%]
[Mind Locks:
* Life (5%)
* Float (0.5%)
* {Kin Link} (25.442537%)
* {B-box} (18%)
* {Hive} (0.1875%)
]
Too low! My available Mind was way too low! How on ‘insert this planet’s name here’ was this even possible?! The immediately obvious thing was the Kin Link. Linking 50 or more new humans had put a huge dent in my available Mind, especially certain individuals. Harven took up a monstrous 1.425%, compared to someone like Yelah, who used 0.375%. That difference is insane! Oh, and Jill Yemonto was taking up 1.475%, but I wasn’t going to tell Harven that, lest he become even more annoying. I mean, it was impressive because I had a feeling the Link cost wasn’t a linear increase, but I could be wrong about that.
Other than the Link, which was an obvious problem, there were other things of note. The new Hive section only had one thing, that being the water filtration thing I did. Which, by the way, was apparently still active despite my distance. I was pretty sure it had to do with Beck, somehow. At some point during my trip, they had told me that they felt a strange sensation, then a sort of connection to the water filter.
Something to experiment with later, for sure.
Of course, all of these Mind-related matters had a very particular aspect that had to be discussed: their ultimate cost. The astute might notice a few inconsistencies. Yelah used to have a much higher cost to her Link. And though it made sense for the Kin Link cost to explode, it might not be as high as expected, considering the huge number of new bees (Linkers and otherwise).
It was all because of [Combined Mind].
[Combined Mind:
Acquired by: Attaining the impossible feat of hosting multiple Minds in one body
Impossibly, you have multiple Minds within your body. This unique trait caught the gods' attention, and this Ability was granted. Efficiency of Mind = Base Efficiency x Number of Minds.
Mind Efficiency: 4x
]
One number. That one number difference was enormous, to the point that it was carrying me hard. I imagined myself pouring out a glass of honey for my main man Yafoot. Thanks to his Mind being absorbed into my own and giving that plus one, my Mind situation was way beyond what it should be. With the absolutely broken Ability, each aspect of my Mind’s usage was increased in efficiency by four. In other words… A number popped into my head, a calculation courtesy of my B-boxes. Without [Combined Mind], the Kin Link alone would take up an unbelievable 101.770148%! More than would even be possible. But with the Ability, I still had around half my capacity to be used.
It felt a bit odd. Except, thinking about it, it wasn’t strange at all. The humans, which made up the majority of the Kin Link (more than 18% by themselves, by the way), should technically not be a part of the Link. It was only because of the Linker Bees I had somehow earned that it was a possibility. If I didn’t have this absolutely stupid Ability, it would be impossible to pull any of this off. Hell, it would’ve put a drain on my Mind just to Link Yelah and her crew.
None of that could compare to the weirdness that was the B-boxes, though. Despite the increased efficiency, the cost of the Lock had actually increased. And not by an insignificant amount either, especially if the efficiency boost actually did help it. The absurdity told me that the cost of the B-boxes would soon become unsustainable, especially as the hive grew.
Well, anyway, all that talk of Mind and such was just to express the importance and limitations on expanding the hive. Specifically in one aspect: capacity. And according to Queen’s preconceived notions, the best way to do such a thing was to make more queen bees.
“Yes, all this numerologizing and mathematolgism is quite interesting, but who cares? Making new queens is an integral and basic step in expanding the hive of any bee mother, so it was only a matter of time.”
Well, sure, but I think it’s actually important stuff. Think about it this way: without the number stuff, we could run into bad roadblocks and prevent the hive from growing. It’s all in the name of efficiency and expansion, which I would expect you to be glad about.
“Oh, I understand its importance. But before meeting you, I barely knew what a number was. Our statuses were not expressed in the same way the new one is.”
Wait, really? That’s a new one. Though, I guess a screen full of percentages and words wouldn’t mean much to a bee….
“Indeed. As for how we would create queens, the answer is quite obvious. They must be selected from the list of available eggs. Otherwise, it cannot be done. And so, we need to unlock them by leveling up the Ability by creating more eggs.”
All of that was fairly obvious to figure out. The issue was time, resources, and, as previously mentioned, capacity. The last time, it hadn’t taken that much, actually. Man, that had been… a while ago. All the way back just after the Valkybees’ birth.
And yet, despite the insane amount of Linkers I’ve produced, the Ability hasn’t decided to level up. Things would only get more dire moving forwards. There was, of course, the huge number of humans I wanted or needed to Link. The hordes of Linkers I made weren’t for show, after all.
The other problems were the bees. Comparatively, most of the bees took very little actual Mind to maintain the Link. However, there was something that was getting consistently reported.
Most of the bees were seeing increases in the amount of Mind their Link required.
Such numbers weren’t exactly reflected in the status screen. For example, Beatrice’s Link cost less right now than it did a week ago, thanks to [Combined Mind]. However, her base cost was somewhat higher. So unless I somehow absorbed more Minds, her ever-increasing cost would overtake her previous costs. It was a less extreme version of the increases of the B-boxes, but still just as worrying. In fact, it could be even more so. Since it meant the bees were growing in power or needed more of my Mind to do what they wanna do, adding more bees to the hive would just become insanely Mind-intensive.
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And yet, I needed to make bees to unlock the queen. I need to create the bees to create the bees.
“A true poet. An artist, a-“
Oh, stuff it. All that is to say, we’re going to have to be a bit careful. Or creative. And creativity was the route we were thinking of going.
Queen and I, along with some of our best and brightest, developed a plan. A sort of program, if you will. Here’s the deal: our hive is not perfectly efficient. Of course it wasn’t; nothing could ever be perfect. However, we were thinking that the hive could be made more efficient despite the influx of new ‘hive members.’
Thus, the new program. Once the initial Yiwi cleanup was complete, I would go through our collection of humans and pass their control onto our bees. They would still be part of the Link, but instead of being directly connected to me, they would be connected to the Link via a bee buddy.
Now, how would this exactly free up my Mind resources? Outsourcing, of course. The bees had Minds of their own, and in general, they weren’t being used fully. Tons of the warriors, even in combat, didn’t use their Minds to the fullest. Some of the workers, too.
The issue would come in that the bees with a human buddy would most likely need to further tap my Mind, but it would hopefully be negligible compared to the cost of having the humans directly. As for whether this whole thing would even work?
No clue. I called it a program, but it was more like a theoretical project until it was proven to be effective.
This would work in tandem with the soon-to-be larger Worker population of the hive. Drones are great, but they’re pretty limited in their capabilities. Regular Workers were far more flexible, and would be able to slot in nicely with this buddy program. And even if the program didn’t pan out, well, we needed workers regardless. Both to level up [Egg Laying] and for simple labor purposes.
It was all perfectly laid out. Or something. Well, it was laid out nicely.
The night continued like that. Thinking on future plans, just chilling outside Yiwi’s walls. I did notice at some point that the bees who were sticking with me were fawning a bit, but looking into their thoughts, their minds were whirling. Some, like Bend, who had sustained serious injuries, were lost in thought. I say that, but ironically, Bend was the only one not actually thinking very much. Instead, he was… bragging to some fellow warriors?
“Yeah bro, I know my shredded real-guns are totally gone, but that’s alright.”
““It’s alright bro?””
“Yeah, bro. Here’s why: cause now I’m more like the top bros! Beryl’s hurt too, so now I’m just like her. And since I’m missing arms…” he trailed off, looking at the small crowd of warriors expectantly. Some of them began to realize what he meant, I noticed.
““…!””
“That’s right bros! I’m more like the Ultimate Warrior!”
““Whoa, bro!””
I wonder what Bedivere would think of this little fan club he had accrued just by existing. It was still nothing compared to mine, but it was respectable. Oh, and when I say fan club, I’m not exaggerating. Most of the warrior bees, including Beryl, Bend, and all the Valkybees (and Ben) regularly discussed the legends and capabilities of Bedivere. It was a bit strange, to be honest, but I wouldn’t stop them from having a… hobby? Could that be considered a hobby?
As the barest hints of light began to crest the horizon, I floated up above the ruined treeline to watch with some measure of relief. Watching last night’s remnants of a sunset, and now this sunrise was a breath of fresh air - literally. The forest was so stuffy sometimes.
I was interrupted by some bees coming towards the wall from within the city. It was Bennet and Benita, along with several other bees in tow. Bees I couldn’t feel the Link from.
These were the fallen.
“Have you decided what you will do with the bodies?”
Yes. We’ve been discussing it for a bit, but there were some different ideas on what to do with the dead warriors and Linkers. Burial, burning, eating. Yes, eating; the thought had vaguely flashed into my mind as a way to conserve resources, but it was squashed immediately. No chance I would be doing something like that.
As the pair approached, I led them to the rest of the bees. We gathered in a circle of sorts, surrounding the bodies of the bees. Silence reigned, besides the buzzing of bees. As for what we would do with their bodies?
The decision was to encase them in wax. Their bodies would be properly preserved and given a resting place of honor in the hive. Part of me wanted to make a big speech. Something rousing and inspiring to rally the troops and ensure the Yiwi cleanup would go smoothly.
But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Family members. Dead. I was far more comfortable sitting in the silence, doing my best despite my broken wings to buzz in mourning alongside the others.
I did say one thing. Privately in my head with only Queen bearing witness. Without anybody knowing, our hive gained several named bees. I still remembered these warriors and the names they yearned for, and I granted them, no matter how silly, how ridiculous, or how awful. It was the last thing I could do for them.
When the cleanup was over, I would personally carry them back to the hive so they could be encased in wax. For now, all we did was buzz.
Far below, in the ruins of the city of Yiwi, people milled around with barely a purpose. Some were already hard at work, cleaning and removing corpses. Many didn’t know what to do. How do you even begin with such a monumental task? And so soon after the events of the past few days?
This little bee queen had a proposal for them.
I took a big bite from a pastry before promptly spitting it out. Disgusting! I looked down at the broken city and scoffed; the humans were going to thank me so hard when I began using their resources to increase our honey production. Whatever they were using to sweeten their pastries and other assorted sweet things was super nasty, less sweet than even the smokey, strange meat honey we were currently producing.
After we mourned my fallen children, I had waited a bit longer for the sun to rise properly before coming up here, high above the city. I marveled at the accuracy and detail of Beatrice’s maps; it was basically a copy of the real thing. Perhaps not a surprise when Ben was on the job.
Now that I was here, I took a deep breath, tossing the pastry away. Hopefully it didn’t fall on anybody. The air up here was so fresh, devoid of smoke and ash and thundercloud humidity. Looking to the west, away from the rising sun, I saw it. The strange mirage Ben sometimes looked at.
It was no mirage, I knew. I had enough humans under my belt to have some basic knowledge of this world. That was the Spiral Spire, sitting at the center of the continent. All I knew was from random people’s knowledge, so as for what the Spiral Spire was about, I wasn’t totally sure. I just knew it was a fuckass-huge tower that served as the primary religious symbol of Humanity, for some reason.
I shook my head. A part of me desperately wanted to explore, to see for myself what this world was all about. But I had more important things to worry about, so I set that aside for later.
Instead, I looked down at the fallen Rotor. The gigantic blades had certainly done some serious damage on the far eastern side of the city, very nearly damaging the wall, even. But the shaft was the real problem. It was basically just a gigantic, mostly solid cylinder of metal that crushed the city, making it look like someone had dropped a pen in the sand and caused a weird wall to be erected right smack in the middle of the city. An eight meter wide, nearly thirty meter long pen, but still.
The destroyed Rotor was the target. A B-box was already set up to keep an eye on my Mind usage so I could focus, and I began to think. I thought of the Rotor rising up, floating above the wreckage. I thought of it flying away, leaving the remains of its city to be free of its presence.
A small lurch messed with my stomach. Not true nausea, but it was something. Thanks to some bees, I began to hear murmurs and shouts in the city below. The Rotor’s shaft and blades had begun to creak, almost as if they were trying to move.
Which, technically, they were.
I poured my Mind into the task, instinctively raising a bee arm as if shooting psychic power from my palm. I mimed grabbing the Rotor, imagined pulling it up with pure force. And the thing began to shudder.
People were in full on panic mode now; how was the Rotor being moved? It would take a large team of the strongest Mind users in the city to even start making it roll over, much less rise straight up off the ground!
Panic. Shock. Fear. These emotions weren’t just bubbling up among the general populace. My Linked humans were feeling these things too, realizing the force they were contending with. Despite my concentration, my brain apparently decided to fantasize, because I could swear I was hearing some sort of hymn or angelic epic music. Hey, wait…
“Beck, will you cut that out?! At least a little, please? I’m trying to focus here!”
Despite what I said, the Rotor wasn’t wavering. Instead, it was still rising, now a meter off the ground. Another meter. Three. I tried keeping the giant metal structure straight so as not to smack a house with it. And now people were going straight from panic to sheer confusion.
Except the Linked humans. They were practically pissing their pants. See?! No need to resist my influence, little humans! Bask in my awesome, incredible power!
“What happened to focus?”
Er, I still need to focus, but the shaft was practically above the rooftops now. Just a little more and the remains of the blades would also be high enough. And the amount of Mind required was way less than expected! The B-box wasn’t just far from the danger zone; it was light-years away. I bet I could lift five of these things at once! Well, maybe five was a bit much, but who knows?
As the Rotor rose, it slowly began to move towards the forest. I saw people watch, awestruck by the display. For the regular people, my show would be a nice little mystery, a miracle if you will. Who was helping them? Who was powerful enough to do so?
For the Linked humans, it meant something else. You see this, fellas? This giant floating hunk of metal? If I wanted to, I could drag it through your city like a pen through sand. You don’t stand a fucking chance.
“You already used that metaphor.”
I concentrated super hard, ignoring Queen’s words because I needed to concentrate. Super hard. The people watched their former symbol gently float over the wall and into the forest, settling down some distance away. I decided to drop it a little at the end to produce a crashing sound, not unlike the impact of the Rotor on the city itself. Let that trauma now be associated with something else.
The Ben Squad watched people cheer and cry, and I wiped nonexistent sweat from my brow. All in a day's work. Well, not quite. That little spectacle was important for several reasons, not least of which was expediting the rebuilding of the city. But now I had other things to do.
It was time to pay some mercenaries a visit.