After eating for quite a while, the big soldier soon turned to me bowed in gratitude and quickly walked out through the crack with some difficulty, while I stood back not knowing how to feel about this cold-blooded soldier...
I was his mother that's undeniable, but the very idea of being the mother of an insect was disturbing, but he didn't act like an insect, he only had the appearance of one, if we were in my world and I saw him walking around like a human I would think it was just a cosplayer, because well, he was very formal for an insect! He spoke clearly and objectively and always very respectably, he looked more like a human than insect.
Maybe it's because of my influence, maybe if I was just an ordinary insect he would be an ordinary insect too, but because I'm conscious and wise and he's an extension of myself he has absorbed a lot of what I am, and so what should I do with it? The idea of rejecting there was a link between us was already impossible in my opinion, it would not be right for me to treat a conscious being unfairly just because I don't feel ready for this.
I needed to determine how I would treat him, as a friend, an ally or a son, and if I ended up creating more drones would everyone be like this? Before I thought if this soldier was just a drone without Will, a gear in the machine, it would be easier to simply create many of them to help me, but now knowing that these drones are individuals, beings, sentient and Sapient with emotions and feelings just like me, would be difficult to start creating a lot of them for small purposes.
About my soldier, I should at least give him a name, when he told me what he thought of me, I could tell clearly from the link we had that he was sad, disappointed in himself for thinking he was a burden to me, and I couldn't let him keep thinking like that!
After so many conflicts about this new child that I ended up bringing into the world I go and check the tank of mine to know how much had been consumed, and to my great amazement, the tank, which I spent 1 full day filling, more than 30 trips collecting nectar and pouring honey into the tank, was now almost empty! It was all gone, the soldier had consumed it all! And where the hell did he put all this honey?! He was big for sure, but there was a lot of honey there to fit everything inside him!
That should be the price for being so strong, or simply the result of the class [soldier] had a high maintenance cost to maintain destructive power, and I could see that in his [Skills] there is nothing related to creation or sustenance, so he seems to be very dependent on me to keep him well fed, of course he could live by eating nectar from flowers, but I felt that he would need absurd amounts to maintain himself, and if he did not have someone to provide his fuel, he would need to focus all his energy on eating all day to keep himself healthy maintain.
After getting slightly mad at this kid for simply ending my hard work, I'm soon surprised with a warning.
[Warning]
Your soldier killed a [Water flea], you gained 1 Xp
Oh God! We really have Xp here, I didn't see any Xp bar in my status, is it some kind of privileged information? and seriously? only 1 Xp! Of course I wasn't doing anything, just sitting around waiting when my soldier did all the hard work, but it still felt like very little Xp.
I think this must be where the bees get their power from, a Queen produces so many soldiers that provide her Xp, then produces many workers to take care of the soldiers needs, and then as she levels up she produces more soldiers and more workers.
Wouldn't that mean bees are very dangerous? if small, fragile bees could continue to grow wildly and become ever larger and more powerful swarms, wouldn't that mean bees would be scary enemies? After all, if you didn't kill the Queen, The Swarm would keep coming back later....
But I really don't believe that bees are so dangerous, I've seen ants that in theory should be as dangerous as bees, for the same reasons mentioned before, but ants could be described as ordinary, maybe there is some kind of level ceiling, or breeding limit for bees and ants, or something totally different that has nothing to do with it.
Coming out of my little hiding place and heading towards the flowers for another round of honey breeding, I end up thinking of the scene of my big soldier squeezing himself hard out of the crack, should I move? after all, the shelter was only temporary... And he would be of no use if my soldier could not defend him perfectly.
I realized that I would first need my soldier's opinion before making any decisions, and that he needed a name.
----------------------------------------
[Warning]
Your soldier killed a [Earth Beetle], you gained 2 Xp
[Warning]
Your soldier killed a [Midnight cricket], you gained 1 Xp
[Warning]
Your soldier killed a [Rotten meat fly], you gained 4 Xp
My soldier was doing a good job! he seemed to know very well what he was doing, I did not know where he was, but with our link I could tell a general direction and distance, he was close, always around the tree without distancing himself too much, he should want to be able to react quickly if i needed help. And if I must say something about this guy, is that he sure is efficient!
Now my honey tank was full, I had gained another level in [Create honey] and together I got a special surprise!
[Warning]
The [Create Honey] skill has reached Lv5! You have unlocked the sub-skill: [Flake creation]
[Sub Skill]
[Flake creation]
You can use pure honey to create super concentrated honey flakes.
This is something new! and what would be the use of these honey flakes? Is this a way to save space?
To test my new skill I filled my chest with some honey from my tank and tried to use the skill [Creating flakes] but nothing happened, I needed to focus on the action of creating flakes itself instead of the ability to create flakes, but it was difficult for me to imagine the flakes, since I had no idea of the process to create these flakes, if I'm not mistaken the bees of my world did not create this, I tried to imagine the act of honey becoming solid, or of a drop of honey being compressed, I don't know what was, but after a few tries I felt the honey inside my chest compress slowly, similar to the [Create wax] but still different, I didn't feel any discomfort or nausea different from when I used [Create honey], soon I opened my mouth and from there a yellowish paste came out, it was very consistent and with a strong smell of sugar, soon after coming into contact with the air the strange mass solidified quickly, with all the Honey I had in my chest I just managed to create a small drop that wasn't the size of my hand, disappointed with the result I try to analyse it to see if there is anything special.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
[Description]
[Crystallized Boungain Honey]
A super nutritious food created with honey, capable of sustaining a bee for days.
QUALITY: GOOD
Damn it! That marble was some kind of super food! I think the bad part of that this thing should be chewed before swallowed, which would end up spending more time than just drinking honey directly and coming out right after, one thing I noticed about this skill is that it doesn't seem to have levels, maybe due to the fact that it is a sub-skill it evolves along with the main skill, or maybe it doesn't evolve after all.
After seeing my soldier's abilities I realized how abstract these abilities can be like the [Royal Duty] ability, that's was an ability that really reminded me of video game abilities, and had strange limitations, like the fact that it grants the (incapacitated) effect after the fight is over, but how does the ability determine that a fight is over? when one side dies? or when will they stop fighting? if it was the last option what prevented someone from starting a fight against my soldier to activate the effect of [Royal Duty] and then immediately giving up the fight? Would that activate the effect (incapacitated)? If so that would be very unfair! there is no honor in a fight for survival, if this dishonest method worked nothing would stop the attacker from simply killing me after activating the effect of [Royal Duty] and retreating to leave my soldier unable to help me! Maybe the skill had a minimum activation time? Once activated it would have a minimum time to deal as much damage as possible before a retreat would be considered as the end of the fight...
And about his abilities like [Unwavering will] obviously there were manufacturing, fighting, and defense abilities, and this one fits into the latter category, this ability seemed to be a form of prevention against mental attacks, which means that there were forms of mental attacks in this world! And most importantly, my soldier seemed immune to these attacks, but I was not! And by the ability of [Maternal connection] it seemed that if my mind was controlled by a power higher than mine all those connected to me would be controlled together!
The idea that if I ended up creating a large hive with tens or hundreds of powerful members, it could easily be destroyed if some kind of upper force controlled me and used my connection with my decendents to order them to kill themselves, left me with a chill down my spine, now I understood why I was so weak, and why this soldier was so strong compared to me, it was because I was his weak point, a big weak point, if I had a big swarm of bees and I was killed, soon the whole swarm would fall to the ground, without my mental connection keeping everyone together the bees might start to separate and fight with each other, soon several soldiers would end up dying in fights naturally like bees, and without a queen to raise new soldiers the workers would be unprotected and die to predators, and if the workers died there would be no one to produce food for the remaining soldiers! I think that must be why bees, ants, or any colony of insects that have Queens, despite an unlimited potential end up falling into oblivion, you didn't need to kill thousands of insects to bring down the nest, you just needed to kill the queen that the castle would fall quickly!
Was I overthinking again? Another prank from [Concerned player]? I have no way of knowing if bees are as easy to kill as I think, or if they really have as much potential as I think...
While i was eating away myself from the inside with the tricks of [Concerned player], I received a mental notification of the results of my soldiers hard work.
[Warning]
The {Solitary honeybee - soldier} evolved into the Lv2
What an efficient child! I was here a little over a week and still hadn't achieved any level meanwhile this child who had been born this morning had already reached Level 2 in just over 8 hours!
After a few moments the big intimidating looking soldier appeared squeezing himself with difficulty through the small crack, he looks at me for a moment and then kneels down.
"Mom I finished the the task was given, please give me another task to fulfill!"
"All right, calm down, big guy... First of all I want to analyze your status, and ask you some questions..."
[Status] Name:N/A Species: Solitary honeybee Level: 2 Class: Soldier Mana:N/A Life: 10 Str: 4.2 Def: 3 sp: 3.6 Int: 5.2 Wis: 7 + Information
[Skills] - 5 [Traits] - 2
Well, still a little monster, but it has almost no difference between the Lv1 and Lv2
"I wonder if when you leveled up you chose to increase the speed and attack status? Or was something that increased automatically?"
The big guy looks at me with a confused expression, as if he didn't understand, then lowers his head as he seems to search for an answer, I can feel a slight click on our link, as if he is trying to find the right words with our link.
"My status increased automatically mom! I have no control over how they are distributed, and I don't know if I can influence them!"
"Okay, that's enough for now, so now I need your help in other matters, first of all, tell me, how long do you think you could go without eating after having this?"
I offer him the small [Crystallized Boungain Honey] in the hope that he can sustain it for several days as the description told me.
"Hmm, I'm not sure just looking at it, I'd need to eat to say for sure how much energy it can offer..."
"Go ahead."
After taking the small crystal from my hand he puts it in his mouth and then begins to chew, in a few seconds with a lot of noise from something being chewed he finishes the small orb and then closes his eyes, as if thinking about how long he could go without eating after that.
Was that some kind of bee instict? being able to know how long you can keep up with a food does not seem like something anyone can do, no one looks at an Apple and knows exactly the next moment that you will feel hungry again if you eat it.
"Mom, I would say that I can meet all my daily needs without problems with 2 of these rations."
2 in a day?!
This kid really eats a lot! the description said it could sustain an ordinary Bee for several days, and this kid needs 2 of those for a single day!
"All right, could you tell me how you know exactly how long these rations can last you?"
"I don't know? I don't have a specific reason to know how long they last, I just feel that my estimate is correct..."
"Okay, so it could be the Bee instincts at work, now tell me, do you think we should go after a new house? I can see how difficult it is for you to get in here, and I must add that I have to go further and further to get nectar from the flowers, since the nearest ones are already empty, and this hole seems very small to you..."
"I understand. I must admit that I am uncomfortable here, any place you choose will be of great pleasure to me, we could always build a wax nest out of the hole if necessary. But I have a question that has been bothering me, and I would appreciate very much if you could end my doubts mom..."
"Of course, ask whatever you want"
"...Where are the others? My brothers? It shouldn't just be me here... I feel that this is wrong, very wrong, I cannot fulfill my purpose if I have no other brothers to ensure your safety in my place, and I have not seen a worker since my birth... They should be essential to the safety of our home. Without them we have no one to build great fortifications or feed the young...."
Damn, now I'll have to explain to a normal Bee, that I'm not a normal Bee!