An armored and well-equipped soldier with the symbol of the Church on his shoulder and the sign of the Inquisition on his chest enters a decently furnished room in a tavern in Westerville. In front of him in the room, two acolytes of the Inquisition sit at a table and look at him attentively. The soldier licks his lips thoughtfully and announces, "Sir Michael, Lady Jennifer, I bring grave news. We have picked up a woman in the city, an adventurer who claims to have seen a Sylv Queen."

Jennifer's face shows a mixture of surprise and delight, while Michael scowls. With a serious tone, Michael commands, "A Queen? That's more than we expected. Bring the adventurer to me at once, I want to question her directly."

"Yessir!", the soldier salutes and leaves the room again to comply with the order. When the door has closed behind him, Jennifer says, "Finally, something is happening again. We're going to find this beast and eliminate it."

Michael replies, "If what the adventurer claims is true, then we have a big problem. The Sylv are reproducing at an extremely high rate. We need to notify Lord Darkhammer in that case and call for reinforcements while we strike immediately with the troops we have here right now."

Jennifer replies, "If there is a Queen, she must be very young. Another full-grown one would have been noticed by Lord Darkhammer in his final strike against the Sylv Hive Cluster. We will strike quickly and decisively; our victory is beyond question!"

"I wouldn't be so sure ...", Michael thinks to himself, but doesn't say it openly. Hopefully Jennifer is right and the young Queen hasn't had time to raise a new Sylv army yet. Realistically, however, this is probably not the case. Everglade Forest provides almost ideal conditions for a Sylv colony.

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(POV Sylvia)

I'm glad everything is turning out so well. Today Elise is going hunting in the woods again and I decided to come along. It wasn't easy to convince her, but a demonstration of my camouflage skills convinced her that I can hide if necessary. For my sake, we leave at night. But until then there is still some time. To have as much as possible of the pleasant night, as well as of my day-active family, I sleep around noon. The sun is at its strongest at that time, so I prefer to hole up and take a nap.

The new sleep pattern ensures that I must keep myself busy at night, but I don't see that as a big problem. It allows me to check in on my Hive Complex, process what I've learned from the day and continue to train on my magical skills. If there is nothing else to do, I sometimes take a nap at night to reduce my sleeping time during the day. In doing so, I've noticed that people seem to have a much harder time adjusting their waking and sleeping times dynamically. In general, I seem to have a significantly higher degree of control over my physical functions.

During the daytime hours, I primarily accompany Mark in his work for now. I am eager to learn how to process metals correctly. My interest pays off and in the end, I understand how a forging furnace is able to reach such high temperatures. In parallel, the experiments in my Hive forge also show progress. The first copy of the forge furnace is finished and passes a simple burning test with regular wood. However, I will need a better fuel like coal and a good air supply to get to the necessary temperatures. I will continue to work on these things another time.

When it is dark enough for the planned hunt with Elise, I set out to get her. Shortly after, I stand in front of her and announce, "I'm ready, can we get going?" Elise looks at me with a benevolent smile and replies, "We can leave right away. Let me take care of the laundry here and then I'll get ready." With a smile I reply, "Ok, can I help you with that?"

Elise is delighted to have my help and shortly thereafter, Elise gears up for the hunt. I am sooo excited already! I can hardly wait to capture new Strains together with Elise. On the other hand, the forest is not exactly safe, it would be better to take a small Sylv escort, so I ask, "I'd like to take a few Sylv warriors along for our protection. Is that all right?"

"Yes, that's fine. But it would be nice if they kept a low profile and only intervened in an emergency," Elise replies. I agree and we set off. I decide to take two Brawler-type and two Roach-type warriors each. A larger escort would attract more attention, which I don't want. We are seen off by Mark and shortly thereafter my escort from the Hive Complex already arrives.

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Elise comments, "Your Sylv warriors look pretty dangerous. I hope we don't have to resort to them." The warriors move deftly behind us on their six limbs and, turning to Elise, I assure her, "We can rely on my warriors, they have already proven themselves in battle. As long as we don't go too deep into the forest, we probably won't have to rely on them. I am quite capable of taking good care of myself."

Elise replies, slightly concerned, "I wasn't planning on going too deep into the forest. Don't be too sure of yourself and stay careful." It makes me happy that Elise is worried about me and I can understand it well. After all, I just made it back and Elise hadn't had a chance to get a good picture of my new abilities. I assure her that I will be careful and suggest, "How about I show you what I am capable of?"

"Gladly, I'm eager to see your performance," Elise replies to me. I concentrate and create a small flame in my hand with Fire Spark. After a moment, I make it disappear again and cloak myself. "As you know my control over flame magic has increased and my optical camouflage is very hard to detect here in the forest," I comment as I change my position as fast as I can. Elise tries to follow me with her eyes, but my blurry shadow is hard to make out, especially when I get a little farther away from her. Of course, Elise could use True Sight and pick me out by my magic signature, but that's not the point here. I want to prove my optical camouflage skills and my high agility, which I seem to succeed at.

A minute later, Elise has seen enough and says, "I'm pleasantly surprised by your skills. I think this is enough as an exercise. Don't rely on them too much, though, because as you know, there are some options to counter them." I expose myself and come back to Elise. She is right and I am aware of it. Together we walk further into the forest, my escort a little way behind us. The experienced huntress leads the way and I follow close behind. Elise takes the opportunity to better enlighten me about the plants in the forest. It is interesting to learn how to distinguish plants that are edible to humans from those that are potentially poisonous, but the value of this information to me is only moderate. The Sylv species is very hardy and can digest any type of biological matter in the digestion pools. Workers can test unknown material before it reaches the digestion pools, ensuring that no toxic substances are added to them and it is quite easy to replace them. Most toxins can be assimilated and integrated into the swarm by a Queen like me anyway.

I find the traces of animals in the forest, which Elise points out to me, much more interesting. These are not only footprints, but also other signs such as broken twigs or flattened grass. It doesn't take long until we follow a trail, and she asks me: "How good is your sense of smell? Could you smell our prey?"

That's a good point, one I hadn't given much thought to myself until now. I know that without a Strain that enhances the sense of smell, my Sylv swarm can't do very well. I as a Queen am better equipped, but the difference is not enormous. After a moment's thought, I reply, "I think I have a well-developed sense of smell, but I don't know how well exactly."

"Let's test it then," Elise replies, then points out a small tuft of hair to me, "This is from the animal we're hunting." I move closer and deftly pick up the hair with one of my claws. Sniff Sniff. "It works well. I can now better detect the scent it left behind," I announce with a satisfied smile. It was a good idea, and as a result, we're making even faster progress.

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(At the same time at the house of the Sternensucher family)

Mark is taking care of his son when he hears a knock at the door. Cautiously, he takes a look through the window facing the front door and sees the familiar figure of Karina standing there. "Why has Karina returned? Did she forget something?", Mark ponders and goes to the door to let her in. There is another knock before he reaches the door. "I'm coming," he replies and opens the door a moment later. Karina seems out of breath and looks quite worried. With a serious look she turns to Mark: "I have bad news. Where are Elise and Sylvia?"

Somewhat confused, Mark replies, "You just missed them. They left for the woods to hunt earlier. What's it all about?" This seems to worry Karina even more and she replies, "Sylvia is in great danger! There is another Sylv Queen in the Everglade Forest and she has attacked a group of adventurers! One person survived and notified the Inquisition in town. The troops have just left for the forest to find and eliminate this Sylv Queen!"

At the words Mark's face turns chalky white and with horror in his voice he states, "We must find Sylvia and Elise immediately. If they run into the Inquisition troops, they won't stand a chance." Mark already wants to leave, but Karina stops him, "We have to act thoughtfully. We should first notify Sylvia's swarm so that it can warn her or help in the search instead." Mark didn't think of that at the moment, still too shocked by the news, but Karina's suggestion makes perfect sense. He agrees and the two head off together to the Hive Complex next to the house …