Lair

Chapter 031 - Step By Step

By Skalsar

Today, let me introduce you to a new creature: the [Watcher].

While the name might suggest that it's some sort of big eye, I have to tell you otherwise.

I thought about it for quite a while.

How do we make sure that our new friends the humans, stay true to their words?

I mean, how could we simply trust someone who doesn't trust us, right?

'What if they get reinforcements behind our backs', Sora had asked me.

So we sat down and talked about ideas for a while.

Humans are hard to control. You never know what stupid thing they do next.

I won't even wonder if one of their little quarrels about who owns what part of what land, that they aren't even going to use for anything, escalates into a full-fledged war that destroys them all.

My [Hiveworkers] and [Drones] are good lookouts, but they are supposed to do other stuff.

So we have to make something new.

That's what I decided.

'Well, their bodies aren't really that complicated if you break it down to their life-force.'

It's weird to hear that from Sora.

Not long ago, she thought about her own evolution and started to collect knowledge.

Plants, animals, magic and.. emotions.

I was wondering why emotions, but the reason was the [Hero] we captured.

She had kept our guest company and tried to learn more about her.

As mentioned before, humans don't react to pheromones the same as animals do.

But they produce them as well.

'They react to it, but not as strong.'

Ah, my fault.

Well, what Sora told me is this: Humans need a much stronger stimulation.

After some trial and error, she was able to influence the [Hero] slightly.

It was much easier with male adventurers though.

When she learned that, she started to look for useful features.

She changed the wings of a bat slightly, but that alone wouldn't let her fly.

There seem to be laws in nature that prevent heavy objects from taking flight.

If I calculated right, she would need immense power in her wings to do so.

Luckily there is magic.

She studied the body of the [Hero] and adapted her mass to that before adding the wings.

Everything was connected with small channels for the magic power to expand through the body.

Like I did, in order to ending the need of breaking down the whole body.

But she made me change her core slightly and add the wind element.

With that, her body weight was changed dramatically.

As if air itself was pulsating through her, she was now a lightweight.

Small jumps were all she needed to take flight.

And using some wind magic under her wings, let her fly for hours.

While I don't really care that much about flying, I was surprised that she learned that much.

Mostly about humans, she seems far ahead of me now in that point.

It's even hard to comprehend everything she shares with us.

And there was that other feature..

She doesn't stop with magic power.

When watching the [Hero] suffer, she noticed.

Remember the [Enhanced Vision – Energy Flow] a [Queen] has?

Remember that living things are showing red?

Sora pointed it out.

It's called energy flow for a reason.

The red that is being shown is the flow of life-force.

It's another powerful energy that can be extracted.

But it would kill a living being to drain it completly.

Sora is the only one in the hive able to do so right now.

I was a bit terrified for a second to learn that.

Danar looked shocked too.

Like if he wondered if he was still the most powerful now.

Sora was quite proud of her accomplishment and we were too of course.

And it didn't stop there.

While experimenting she learned something else.

The way animals and monsters reproduce is useful for her.

Before, we had to devour animals and other races till we got the hang of how their bodies work.

And even then, we would only be able to imitate most of them.

But there is the genome, she told us.

Something that is hidden in the fluid that is exchanged though reproduction.

While it's a problem to get the female part, the male part is easy to get.

She can just act as the female part, mating with the male.

But she won't produce any descendants.

She only acquires information from the genome that way.

After trying it on some adventurer, she was so damn far ahead of us.

It also seems to be fun for her.

She said she imitated the human copulatory organ in order to enjoy it.

Well, the evolution was registered as a [Succubus] by her.

So, what does that mean for the [Watcher]?

Now that Sora understands the human body, she can influence them easily.

The [Watcher] has two states.

In his normal state, he remains hidden inside stone, earth or any other substance.

Moving through by becoming part of it through a mix of earth and water elements.

He can't see, can't hear.

What the [Watcher] does is watching the life-force and vibrations.

If a human passes them, they enter the second stage.

They get out of their hidding places and shoot a tiny needle at their target.

After that, they hide again.

The real trick is in the needle.

Even through it's tiny, it's part of the [Watchers] body.

Something that holds on to the target and enters the body.

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Draining tiny bits of life-force to stay alive.

Unlike magic power, you don't need a core connected to the bodypart in order to absorb life-force.

All [Watchers] are mentally connected to eachother and the bodyparts.

They are shattered all around the hive entrance and the territory we live in.

It's a massive intelligence network, allowing us to monitor the humans movements.

Sora is working on a way to decrypt human bodies even more in order to integrate the parasitical needle-like bodypart into the human body. If she succeeds, we might soon be able to even monitor voice through the vibrations of the body.

Looks like I will have to learn a few more things from Sora.

I kind of feel like loosing, I don't really get why.

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>Blazer!<, Lily shouted happily and ran to the beast that was walking casually through the village.

Naturally, everyone else was startled to the point of wetting oneself.

Terrified screams, kids crying, adventurers taking their weapons and surrounding the monster.

Since Lily had tried to see the beast every day, Nydar had decided to send Blazer to them insead.

Naturally he told Lily the name of the [Blazing Hellhound], who in return told her father.

>Get away from the monster, girl!<

>It will kill the girl!<

>Oh my god, someone, do something!<

Shouts errupted as she simply hugged it.

>Sit!<, she told it and Blazer sat down for her to climb the big body.

It didn't even flinch when she pulled out some fur because of a mistake while climbing.

>What the hell?!<, an adventurer who watched the scene shouted trembling.

>Oh my god! Lily! NO!<

The lord had entered the scene and ran to Lily, grabbing her and stopping her ascension.

>I told you not to climb on the inhabitants of the dungeon, it's impolite!<, he scolded her.

The rest of the onlookers were even more irritated now.

Did the lord not even care for the deadly beast in his village?

How was it possible that it didn't attack?

>But Blazer told me it was alright!<, she fended off the accusing.

Lily still didn't talk much to anyone.

Maybe because she wasn't accustomed with it.

But when she did, she said the weirdest things.

>Lily, you have to learn common sense.

I tell you, it's impolite.

So please stop it.<

>No.<

>What?<

>I said no.

Just because someone set some weird rules about what is polite and what not, doesn't mean that I have to act according to it.

Even more impolite than playing with Blazer is forcing me to obey rules that don't have any meaning to it.<, she told her father who didn't even know what to say about it.

He was just in pure shock.

How could his daughter be that intelligent at the age of ten and still act like a spoiled brat that only did what she wanted to do?

Well.. It might be partly his fault for spoiling her too much because of her not speaking.

>I.. I..<, he tried to find his words.

>You see, Blazer came here to play.

He came to me.

Apparantly he doesn't care about being impolite to the villagers who are startled, which you should maybe comfort first.

Still, you tell me what to do instead.<

Odas was looking around now.

Weapons drawn, kids crying, woman scared.

She was right.

He let her down and thought about what to do.

>Please. Take down the weapons.<, another voice rang through the village.

It was Rego, the [Village Chief].

>This [Blazing Hellhound], while being terrifying to see here, was tamed.

He poses no threat to anyone here, as long as you don't attack it.

It was a present from a powerfull [Sorcerer] towards the lords daughter!<, he explained.

Naturally it was all lies.

But Rego knew that it was neccessary.

>Hello Blazer.<, Rego bowed slightly before the beast.

The beast in return lowered his head for a short moment.

Not that anyone would have heard about a monster of the dungeon being tamed even once, but this was a small village yet and it wasn't unthinkable for a [Sorcerer] to do so. Quite much more viable than a [Blazing Hellhound] happily walking through the village on his own accord, just to play with a little girl.

>Rego, thank you.<, Odas told him, grabbing his hand.

>Mylord.<, he bowed his head.

In the meantime, Lily had already climbed Blazer again.

>Lily! NO!<, the lord shouted.

>And off she goes.<, Lant said, who was looking at the scene from the sideline.

A moment later, Blazer and Lily fled the scene.

>Oh if just her mother were still with us..<, Odas facepalmed himself.

>She is just in her rebellious phase.<, Rego said and laughed.

>What if it eats her?!<

>You told me it's already a [Greater Dungeon], right?

Believe me. If so, no one in this village poses a threat to it anymore.

We are lucky if we can really establish peace with them.<, Rego told the lord with a serious face.

With that, the scene was resolved for now, even though the people around didn't get what happened.