Today the Hive Queen decides to take a closer look at what Mark is doing. She starts by questioning Erik about his father and manages to learn that he works on metal to create tools. The Sylv can easily evolve for new tasks and therefore do not require tools. At least that is what Sylvia thinks so far. She is aware that other species do not have such a high adaptability as her own species and therefore tools are very useful for them. Her interest in the production of tools is therefore initially not very high.
After some thought, however, the Sylv queen's attitude changes. Tools could also prove useful for her swarm. It is a fact that she has not yet found any good strains for the armor of her hive creatures. This could be compensated through metal armor pieces. Sylvia is not sure if this is viable and effective, but she is interested enough to find it out. In the end, she decides to visit Marks's workplace and observe the production process there. Perhaps Mark would additionally answer some of her questions on the subject.
Together with Erik, the young queen sets out. Shortly after they arrive at the smithy, where Mark is working on a new piece of body armor. The blacksmith is not disturbed in his concentration and continues to work with focus. With Erik's help, Sylvia finds a suitable spot from which they can both watch without getting in the way. The boy is calm, as he has done this before. The Sylv queen on the other hand is quite excited by all the new impressions. Erik notices and whispers in a proud tone, “I told you, father is really cool. He can produce all kinds of awesome equipment!”. The Hive Queen agrees.
Sylvia watches Mark's work for a while and concludes that the Sylv lack the skills to reproduce this work. The more elaborate the equipment, the more elaborate the production process. To work metal at all, other tools and devices are necessary, which in turn would have to be produced at great expense. But there is a simple alternative. She can already communicate well with humans. This should make it possible to acquire the desired objects from other people. The question that arises here is how she implements this most effectively.
A couple of minutes later, Mark makes a small break and takes a look at the viewers. The young queen uses this chance to ask him some questions regarding his work. She is still eager to learn more to make better judgments regarding human equipment in the future. The smith answers the questions while he starts working on less complicated things that do not demand so much of his attention. Sylvia learns that there are many kinds of armor and weapons. Each of them has their own advantages and disadvantages. This knowledge could be useful even if she never uses armor for herself or her swarm.
Lunchtime arrives and everyone gathers in the living room. This time Elise is absent because she is still doing her missions for the adventurer guild. She took something to eat on the way. Mark still does not fully trust Sylvia. At the same time, he wants to make some progress in his smithy. If possible, he does not want to leave the Hive Queen alone in the house with his son. His solution is to lure them into his smithy where he can keep an eye on them. As a result, he drops some hints to make the kids interested and then offers them to explain more in detail right over at his workplace. To eat there are various vegetables, from which the Hive Queen cannot extract strains.
Sylvia decides to take a small nap and join in some hours later. She is always quite sleepy after lunch. “This didn’t work as planned, but it’s not a big problem. I just have to alter my plan a bit …”, thought Mark and decided to suggest that they could postpone their lesson until everyone is ready. Erik pouts a bit but agrees in the end. It takes some time but eventually all three of them gather in the smithy, where Mark showcases the things he talked about earlier. This provides the Sylv queen with some new insights about all the different errors one could make while producing equipment, which confirms her previous views regarding the topic. It's probably too much work for the Sylv to make their own equipment. The effort would exceed the benefit. Tools just don't have the same value to the Sylv as they do to the humans.
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Eventually, Elise arrives back home from her job and greets the rest of the family, which she finds in her husband’s smithy. She doesn’t want to interrupt the explanations Mark is giving while gesturing excitedly. It is obvious that he is really into the subject and likes to talk about his profession. After a couple of minutes, Elise decides to start preparing for dinner. She heads to the kitchen and prepares her latest prey, which she hunted in the forest while working on a mission from the adventurer guild.
For dinner, there is a Capan, a crab about 1m long with a particularly strong exoskeleton. Elise hunted it together with another adventurer, she met in the forest. They divided the meat evenly and then each went their own way. Elise thought of Sylvia, who enthusiastically eats new species of animals. The nice meal should in a way also compensate for the fact that she is hardly at home at the moment. She prepared some of the meat already separated from the hard shell and other pieces still connected. It is nice to get the meat yourself out of the shell before eating it, but it may be too hard for the children. The whole dish is thoroughly cooked and then served at the big table in the living room, where the rest of the family is already gathered.
The young Hive Queen begins to eat with a great appetite. At the end of the meal however, Sylvia looks for a few smaller parts of the exoskeleton and swallows them whole. Meanwhile, no one is surprised that Sylvia always behaves a little differently. It is observed with an interested look and then accepted. The Hive Queen is able to extract a trait from the meal and gains the Strain ‘Hardened Carapace’. This Strain allows to harden the chitinous armor of the afflicted Sylv creature, increasing its defense but making it a little bit slower at the same time.
The next day, the time has come and the first of two drones hatches. It quickly proceeds to go to the prepared place in the underground Hive Complex, which is still in construction and immediately starts to morph into a Digestion Pool. This will take about another day to finish, then the immature living structure needs some time and biomass to grow to its final size, but it can already be used with decreased performance. This structure needs two more days to grow from its immature form to its final size.
The Hive Queen herself decides to spend the day playing with Erik. This helps her to get a better feel for her motor skills, improving her coordination and reflexes. At the end of the day, she is faster and more dexterous. At lunch, the rest of the Capan is served. This time the Sylv queen is not able to extract another trait, but she still makes some progress in case she eats Capan meat in the future again. While they eat lunch, Sylvia wonders what useful traits she could extract from a human. Though, her current situation does not allow her to find out. She would never consider harming her new family. In her opinion, however, this does not extend to all other people …
The Sylv are in fact an expansion-oriented species with an aggressive stance toward other life forms. The Hive Queen is the only creature created with communication in mind, which allows the swarm to enter into diplomatic relations with intelligent species. Making everyone your enemy is in most cases a really bad choice. The Hive Queen, as the most intelligent creature in the swarm, is also responsible for the general strategy the hive uses. This allows the whole swarm to act as an intelligent being and adapt to its surroundings accordingly.
At the end of the day, dinner is prepared as usual. It doesn’t include any meat. On the next day, the second drone hatches and starts to morph into the Spawning Grounds, right next to the immature Digestion Pool, which is fed biomass by Spinny. Sylvia explores together with Erik and Mark the forest surrounding the house. Learning about the ecosystem of this place. This will be useful information for the hunters, which will be produced starting tomorrow. Later that same day the Hive Queen plays with Erik, learning to climb a small tree in the garden surrounding the house. Soon her hive will start functioning properly, she can hardly wait.