After leaving the Battle Maidens to sleep, I headed to the treasury. Weapon and magic item storage is different from the magic material one. It was like a common palace treasury that was well organized into rooms of different items.
I asked which room the Mana stone was in and was led to one of the back rooms. The stone was on a pedestal in a room surrounded by all the Low quality magic crystals each with their own pedestal.
Looking at the crystals, I found something surprising under it. A small sign showed the name and when I touched it a screen appeared.
Lesser Water Magic Crystal
A small low quality water magic crystal that can be used to make very weak magical items with water element. When mana is inserted inside, it will eject water.
These stones gather near places of strong water mana. Found generally at the bottom of clean streams.
Hive mana quality improvement: 1%
Hive mana quantity improvement: 1%
“What is this ‘Hive Mana Improvement” part?” I asked.
“This indicates how much this piece of Magic Crystal is improving the mana quality and quantity. All Low quality Magic crystals bring about the existence of these crystals and improve both by 1% thus the current improvement is 10%. You currently have Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Ice, Lightning, Sun, Light and Dark. Of these, Light and Sun are regular rank. That is 7 lesser magic crystals that give 1% each and regular that give 1.5% each.” the drone explained.
“Why the fuck is the regular one so small of an improvement!?” DD shouted.
“Magic crystals add elemental attributes to the Hive, not mana. This regular Medium Quality Mana Stone is what adds true mana quantity to the hive. Lesser Mana stone of the low quality would improve 5% mana quantity but regular mana stone of low quality would improve 15% but medium quality improves 25%. Acceleration to metamorphosis of bugs in Holy Land will happen and upgrading of Lesser low quality magic crystals to medium quality and above will also occur. Estimated improvement is an increase of more than 40%. All Lesser magic crystals of medium quality improve 2% and regular quality improve 5%.” The Drone said.
“T-That’s a huge improvement.” I said in shock.
“Won’t this jackass face a problem of exploding from the sudden increase of mana? That is too large an increase?” DD asked.
“It shall not, improvement of Mana stone causes improvement to the brain's central working as well as expands the mana pool meaning his intelligence and wisdom will increase accordingly to support the strain.” She replied.
“Dipshit! You need to train like hell and buff your INT and WIS!” DD shouted.
“Be quiet, I’m not going for a swarm charmer, I want to be able to fight on my own on the off chance that I can't use the hive.” I replied.
“How long does it take to integrate the Mana stone?” I asked.
“Integration takes 7 days, all around upgrading to mana quality, magic crystal quality and appearance of mana stone within areas of high quantity of mana will result in the evolution boom of the wilderness population as well as expansion of all wilderness habits. Level range will increase and danger of the wilderness will rise.” She said.
“Okay… don’t integrate it, i already have enough trouble battling the weakest creatures that feel like boss monsters to me.” I replied.
“Understood.” the Drone said.
I sigh and with that, we exit and start to decide how to go about it. Flor was going to experiment with her druid abilities and I was planning on training during the night while everyone was asleep. The advantage of players is the lack of need for sleep.
Like that I began my cruel grinding of the weakest creatures that were rabbits but each one was a savage killer that left me on the edge of death each and every moment. That said, killing one resulted in half of a level. This was the difference that more than 40 levels can give, of course the fight was almost an hour long and the rabbit had even gone berserk during that time.
“This is taking too long.” I said huffing.
“Why not use your little ‘daughter’ as a bus. It’s only half the exp and you will climb the levels up quicker along with her.” DD said.
“That isn’t that bad of an idea, Levi probably also wants to grow stronger so using her as a bus can help me catch up.” I said and froze. “That’s right! She has stat points i haven’t put out.” I said and pulled up her status screen. DD flew over to see it and we were both shocked.
Status
Name:
Levi
Race:
Queen
Level
45
Stat points
147
Health
100%
Mana
100%
Stamina
100%
Class:
Battle Maiden
Satiety
100%
Thirst
100%
Strength
85
Agility
89
Dexterity
68
Endurance
92
Intelligence
120
Wisdom
120
Skills
Unconscious Notetaking [Passive]
Speed reading [Passive]
Bug Lore [Basic Level 3]
Identify [Basic Level 6]
Bug Language comprehension [Max Level]
Hive Portal [Basic Level 2]
Hive Mind [Max Level]
Flight [Max Level]
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Lance Mastery [Basic Level 7]
Battle Charge [Basic Level 5]
Charging Pierce [Basic Level 4]
Shield Smash [Basic Level 3]
Battle Rage [Basic Level 3]
Battle Cry [Basic Level 1]
Magic
None
“FUCK! 147 fucking extra points!” DD shouted.
“That’s quite impressive.” I said in shock. “How do you think she would grow?” I asked.
“You don’t want to add mental stats since that grows with each growth spurt. 144 points can be divided by 4 and each physical stat gets 36 points, the other 3 you just put in whatever. This is only making your bus more efficient.” DD said.
Although it sounded crude, he was thinking about her own growth so I sighed and put all the stats with 36 before I added the three extra on Dex as that was her lowest stat. It resulted in the following stats.
Status
Name:
Levi
Race:
Queen
Level
45
Stat points
0
Health
100%
Mana
100%
Stamina
100%
Class:
Battle Maiden
Satiety
100%
Thirst
100%
Strength
121
Agility
125
Dexterity
107
Endurance
128
Intelligence
120
Wisdom
120
Skills
Unconscious Notetaking [Passive]
Speed reading [Passive]
Bug Lore [Basic Level 3]
Identify [Basic Level 6]
Bug Language comprehension [Max Level]
Hive Portal [Basic Level 2]
Hive Mind [Max Level]
Flight [Max Level]
Lance Mastery [Basic Level 7]
Battle Charge [Basic Level 5]
Charging Pierce [Basic Level 4]
Shield Smash [Basic Level 3]
Battle Rage [Basic Level 3]
Battle Cry [Basic Level 1]
Magic
None
“It makes us feel really inferior.” I sighed at the inequality we felt when seeing how all her stats had already breached the hundreds. I mentally call Levi after that and she appears quickly.
“What did you want papa?” She asked.
“Mind helping papa level up?” I asked.
“Really?!” She said excitedly and I patted her head and we headed into the wilderness to hunt for prey.
The following morning, after half a night of hunting, since Levi grew tired, we stop and I happily reached level 29.
Eating the meat from monsters like War Hogs, Savage Hare, Jackalope and a few others, raises my stats permanently. War Hogs gave me 2 Str and 3 End, the hare gave me 4 agi and the Jackalope surprisingly improved my Int and Wis by 2 each. 13 stats points which translates to two and a half levels.
I already had the extra points from training for real and now i was getting extra points from eating monsters, it can be said that I am a total cheat character now with Iron stomach.
Levi wasn’t slow either but much slower since she was already higher level, she leveled up twice.
As the morning light lifted on the outside world, the palace also began to light up with the sun crystals soon waking the girl up.
I woke up earlier and prepared a light breakfast for all 340 of them so that they would not be hungry when they started their hunt and thus distracted. The 34 leaders begrudgingly ate it as well and a few weaker ones hid their tears since they imagined the banquet from the previous night.
“Alright, now that you are all ready, i heard that your level range is around 30-40 correct?” I asked. Most nodded, “Alright, how many of you have stats over 100?” I asked.
From this, they all opened their status screen and around half lifted their hands.
“Alright, those with 100+ stats, form into groups of five.” I tell them
Those with raised hands looked around and started to move about and after a few minutes there were 34 groups, each of the 34 brat leaders were in one group.
“The remaining girls, choose a group that is not from the same church you originated from.” I said.
Suddenly, expressions of shock spread through the remaining girls, if I had just said for them to make 340 random groups then they would split into 34 groups from their original, since that would not help form a quality group of united fighters made the second half split up. The fun will start after they raise a few levels though.
The still startled girls looked at each other but my shout made them flinch, “GET MOVING!”
Maybe because of how I disciplined the 34 leader girls or because my level raised almost matching the lowest leveled girls they slowly started to move to his orders but were a bit like headless bees until they formed 34 groups of ten people.
“Alright, i will release you into the weakest areas of the wilderness, one thing to notice are these…” I suddenly summoned one member of all the bug races I owned, “These are all my own creatures. They will not attack you and you will not attack them. These are all monster bugs but their level range is the lowest but when attacked, they swarm so if you wish to attack them then it is your life and the life of your party you are putting at risk.” I told them.
They trembled when they saw the monster bugs that were all very large. Bugs monsters were known to have the lowest stats of all creatures alive and would die easily in 1vs1 but have bugs ever been 1vs1 creatures? Obviously not! Even apex predators would think twice to attack a monster hive numbering millions without them being certain their defense would surpass the offensive.
“Now, you may go hunt!” I shouted and in completely different locations all over the wilderness, their groups were thrown into the safest pockets.
“Now, how should i do the ranking for these girls?” I mutter.
“About that, what do you mean ranking?” Flor asked.
“I was thinking that every week, I would make an evaluation of each group and each individual and use the drones to do the evaluation following a set of designated rules. The prize would be varying qualities of food while the poorest would be forced to dine on smoked meat as punishment for a poor evaluation.” I said.
“I see, you want to start forming a union between the girls while punishing the ones that are being rowdy!” Flor exclaimed.
“That’s about right.” I nod. I take out some paper and start deciding on rules.
Group Evaluation
A group evaluation is presented in several aspects.
* How fast the group adapts to hunting
* How fast they form a group mentality.
* How well they hunt
* How much they hunted
* Average of increase in level of the party.
Individual Evaluation
Individual evaluation is presented in several other aspects
* Mentality during hunts and group activity.
* How present they are in decision making.
* How they act towards their fellow groups whether positive or negative.
* How much they contributed to the success of the party’s hunt.
* How many levels they increased within a period of 1 week
Grading of each aspect will be done using the ranks of F, E, D, C, B, A, with F being the lowest and A being the highest.
“This seems like a solid set of rules.” Flor said.
“Alright, Drone, for the next week, evaluate all the girls in these two types of category while saving them just before they die.” I ordered the Drone.
The drone bowed and took the paper, “I understand.” She said and vanished.
“Alright, now should we leave?” I asked.
“What about your leveling?” Flor asked.
“Levi is too conspicuous and easy to track.” I said.
“Can’t the hive follow any bug?” Flor asked.
The Drone suddenly appeared once more, “Only designated tier 3 and above queens can move hive only when Hive master or Hive Queen designates it as such.”
“That is a convenient thing!” I shouted.
“Idiot, now you're gonna go grind while leaving the travelling to her?” DD said.
“I don’t mind, he has to catch up anyway and won’t really be useful if we did meet any strong monsters after all. Don’t let Levi level you too much or your skill levels will suffer as well. Fight and train yourself.” She poked him in the chest.
I smile wryly and nod, “Alright, I think the Ninja Shogun would be a rather good travel companion.” I said and summoned the sovereign ranked spider.
It was pure black with a shiny black exoskeleton. It’s legs were thin and didn’t make sound but they weren’t thin as hairs like some spiders have. Instead it was similar to a Black Widow leg and had some girth to it and it moved skillfully. It was the smallest monster spider because it wasn’t even 15 cm big unlike the huge bugs that were 30 cm long or even some that were more. It was easy to confuse it as a regular spider.
“You will act as Florista’s familiar, you are also going to be designated as the bug that will transport the hive while travelling because I need to grow stronger. Help Flor out when she needs to and listen to her as well.” I order it.
Hiss!
It bobs up and down before turning to her and lifts a claw and shockingly releases strong silk from its front claws instead of its back. It attaches to her arm and the spider grabs it and quickly climbs up before eating the silk back up.
It moves to her shoulder making a rather strange sight of a beautiful woman with a black spider on her shoulder. That was of course, until it activated its Stealth ability and its presence almost vanished making it seem just like the shadow of her hair.
“Fuck! These things really did become fucking Ninja! … Oi, with their size and habit of hunting only humanoids, won’t they become fucking midget spider people?” DD asked.
“You mean something like Levi’s size?” I asked.
“Yeah, i mean, look at them? The vampire mosquito still had size enough to suggest it becoming something like a grown sexy woman with a great spankable ass but these are so shitty small!” DD said.
“Whatever, Flor I’ll let you out, sorry to make you travel all alone, i can give you bugs to fly you if you want.” I suggested.
“That would be great, actually I wanted to develop wings so if you would lend me some spiders to catch some birds, it would really help.” She said.
“Alright.” I said and agreed to her calling on the Ninja spiders to catch some birds.
She was let out to head to the southern desert where we agreed to meet the cop group before. Me, DD and Levi entered the hive in a completely separate wilderness area away from the hunting Battle Maiden to go grind more.