Regina had to admit that she had been a bit nervous about dealing with an Evolved sapient Swarm Drone. After all, she was using the Swarm Drones she, well, bred, as manual labor and even cannon fodder for her own purposes. Now she had one who could tell her exactly what they thought about that.

As it turned out, of course, she didn’t need to worry. Judging by what she got from the newly named Kit, the War Drone never even thought about things in that way. Regina hadn’t come out and asked her about it, but she was still a bit curious to hear her answer, so she might after the drone had settled in properly.

For now, Kit was doing well. Ben and many of the other Warriors were pretty enthusiastic about coming to her and testing out their capabilities. The same way they usually acted when she unlocked a new drone Template. Privately, Ben had talked to her about the prospects of not having any non-sapient drones above level forty. It would impact their strategy. Then again, they’d always focused on numbers over individual strength or levels when it came to the Swarm. It probably wouldn’t change much in that regard.

Regina put it out of her mind, and focused on her other duties for now. She’d already realized that having the Hive Queen hanging around was a bit nerve-wracking for most drones, so she’d give them some space.

The underground farms weren’t working as well as she’d hoped, which was probably to be expected, really. They couldn’t exactly grow normal plants there, given the lack of sunlight, and anything they did grow still needed nutrients, so while they were a good place for making use of some leftovers, that didn’t exactly lend itself to being scaled up very much. Still, they were experimenting with various types of fauna, including some that did really seem to metabolize mana. At least in part. So she considered that a qualified success.

The construction projects went better. She’d even go so far as to call them an unmitigated success. They’d found, or rather, developed, several new types of construction material, mostly variants of the Production Drones’ substance. Digging the below-ground part of their new warrens went well despite the partly frozen ground, since she could just throw numbers at the problem by using Swarm Drones to do the grunt work. And they were getting better and faster at constructing the actual buildings, too.

Besides that, the hive was also starting to have more in the way of amenities, from proper bedding for everyone to board games, chalkboards for every sapient drone, and more. A few drones were even working on developing new cooking recipes. Regina doubted any of them would get a Chef Class, but it was still a nice change of pace.

For her part, Regina spent some time working on her magic. She continued teaching and training with the magic-using members of her hive, but she also took some time to practice privately. She was getting to the point where she could actually use Galatea’s scrying for something. She still reserved most of her mana regeneration for growing the hive, though. At this point, making eggs was part of her daily routine, and even if she didn’t like the time it took up and still sometimes felt a little wrung out, it was a lot better than it had been, back when she’d really pushed herself to build up the hive. That was only a few weeks ago, though it felt like longer.

Her suspicions regarding the weather turned out to be spot on, as it got colder again quickly. There wasn’t much new snowfall, but the temperature was still in the negative degrees almost all the time, so the snow and ice still covering the landscape didn’t melt. It didn’t really affect the hive too much, although she noticed the grumbling of Forest’s Haunt’s villagers. Not that they seemed surprised, either, just annoyed. Still, from what news she got from the war, the east of the country didn’t seem to be as affected, and the weather probably wouldn’t slow down the resumption of hostilities too much after the slower phase of the winter. Or so Neralt and Janis said, anyway. Regina herself didn’t know enough about the country or warfare in magical pseudo-medieval societies to tell.

Regina used the opportunity to keep training her drones. Even the Swarm Drones were barely slowed down by the cold, so they could still go out and hunt or train combat in larger units easily. Ada even took the opportunity to start a wide-scale field exercise. More of a wargame, really. It involved tracking and trying to hide from the opposing team, hunting monsters for points, scouting out the terrain, and even building some fortifications. Ben made sure those were all in locations where they would actually be useful to the hive after the exercise was over, though.

Regina didn’t involve herself too much, but she approved. It was good training, and they’d make use of the training fortifications. Those might not be much more than a few ditches, palisades and small makeshift outposts, but that was still better than nothing. Most of all, she approved of her commanders taking the possibility of more war seriously and preparing for it. From conversations with Ben and the others, she knew they were just as ready for her to launch a more offensive campaign as to defend the hive against more threats.

Regina hadn’t given them a clear answer on that. It wasn’t like she had any concrete plans, so far. Besides, the hive was still growing by leaps and bounds. She reached level 41 at some point, but the hive’s numbers had already risen by a lot. At this rate, she really would run into their limits. She couldn’t say the thought made her unhappy.

Her hive was also growing in other ways. The training exercise actually provided a few catalysts for that. Dan had just won a major ‘battle’ against an opposing group of drones led by Eva, when he reached level 40 and got the opportunity to Evolve. Which he took immediately, choosing to advance his Class directly, so his companions had to carry him back. He was still slower than Ben, who’d started his own Evolution earlier after Regina told him he didn’t need to wait. She was not surprised at all that he was offered and took the Class Drone General. That was basically his role in the hive, after all.

Mia and Tia both got their Evolutions at around the same time. Tia decided to stick with her Class of Drone Combat Engineer. None of the other choices she was offered really seemed better than that, and they would each take her away from that specialty in slightly different directions.

In contrast, Mia took a Class Regina wouldn’t have expected. She’d even debated saying something, but decided to let the drone make the decision herself. Drone Designer sounded a bit weird, even if it was clearly following the naming pattern of the other Templates and Classes. And it was evidently more of an inventor Class than anything like a graphic designer. She had to admit she was curious where Mia was going with it.

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For that matter, maybe it would be good if they got some artist Classes or related ones. Or just artistic and cultural work in general, it wasn’t like you needed the System’s help for that. For now, the hive didn’t have much in the way of cultural trends or institutions. But as it was growing, that would probably change on its own. Did she really want to leave that to chance? Maybe giving a few nudges and some general direction wouldn’t be a bad thing. Although, Regina had to admit that her own memories and knowledge, and the drones’ knowledge that clearly drew from it, already made a clear bias in what they would develop. Again, she didn’t exactly mind that, though.

After the training exercise was over, Regina finalized some ‘deployment plans’. She wanted the borders of her territory to be covered. The good thing about Winged Drones was that they could keep an eye on a lot of terrain from the air, but she also wanted backup from the ground, and the occasional sapient drone to oversee things. Luckily, there were now enough Attendants and Witches who could fly to make a difference. Witches in particular were probably going to be a real game changer once enough of them got to that point and they started Evolving into higher-Tier Classes in larger numbers.

Of course, it wasn’t like Regina really needed to do much to end up with a nigh-unstoppable army except to continue as she was doing and wait for long enough.

But people might not be content to let her.

That was why she retreated to her private rooms (the others had insisted on giving her more than just a bedroom when expanding their new home) not long after the conclusion of the exercise, to try and finally put her new scrying magic into practice for real. She’d already gotten as far as making a few test runs with nearby or otherwise completely safe places. Now it was time for a real test, one that might carry a bit of a risk, but also opportunity.

There were still a lot of limitations to what she could do, especially compared to Galatea. She could easily scry something that was just a few rooms away, but the practical use of that was rather limited, considering she could just as easily see anything in her vicinity through her hive. For places that were further away, it was generally only possible if she knew them. So, she could scry on Forest’s Haunt, even if, again, it would be easier and more effective to use a flying drone or something. Then there was the option of scrying on people she knew. That worked pretty much the same way, and it could let her see things she wouldn’t otherwise, even if she didn’t have much control over where the person was or what they did. It was also a lot harder if she didn’t know where they happened to be, but Regina was confident she could pull it off. She did have the advantage of having immense mana stores.

She sat down in a meditation pose, her wings slightly unfolded and brushing the ground behind her rather than bunched up against her back, then closed her eyes and started taking deep breaths. She drew on her mana, carefully guiding it out of that metaphysical place it was stored and letting it trickle into and through her. Then she formed it into shape. Regina was deliberately not attempting to imprint the pattern to make a Spell, so it took care and attention to detail more than pressure or force.

It took her what felt like at least ten minutes until she’d finished forming the mana construct for her attempt. Then Regina put more mana into it. At the same time, she left just enough of her attention on maintaining and controlling it, while she focused on something else. Or rather, someone else. She recalled every interaction she’d had with him, his exact appearance, his System description, and the way he fought, talked and acted.

She’d thought about starting out with something a bit safer, but at this point, she had actually spent more time with Owin than Kiara. And if her scrying attempt was detected and she only got one shot at this before her ability got out, she’d rather use it for maximum effect.

She almost lost focus on the Spell when it finally connected and she received a view of Owin and his surroundings in her mind’s eye. He was in what had to be a modern — as in, ‘Ancient’ — structure. The style of it, with wood-paneled walls, carpets, smooth white ceilings and even fastenings where electrical lights used to be made that clear. It actually looked like a relatively classy place, even if it did show some signs of deterioration. Someone had clearly gone to quite a bit of trouble to paint over the cracks in the walls, mend the carpet and generally keep the place in good shape, though.

Well, maybe she shouldn’t have expected anything else from the Delvers. Regina quickly turned her attention to Owin himself. He was wearing what passed for casual clothes, and walking down a hallway. After a few seconds, he passed through a door and entered a room set up like an office, with a desk, chairs and a bookshelf.

Gwen was just standing up from behind the desk, and flashed him a quick smile. “Finally! I thought you would never get here. I really want to see Lil doing that trick with her new Class.”

Owin stepped inside and rolled his eyes slightly. “I said I would come, and it’s not even dusk yet. And if it was that important, you could have just left already.”

“I know, but you know how the Commander gets about securing important information.” She waved at a few papers on the desk, which she was putting into one stack.

Regina immediately tried to focus on what was written on them, but she didn’t get much. Fine details of that sort weren’t very clear over scrying, and the fact that Gwen was moving the sheets didn’t help. She did get a look at the page on top, but from what she could make out, it was just some logistics report. Regina could understand how that might be sensitive information, but even if she’d been able to read the whole thing, she didn’t think it would tell her much. It was interesting to note that Owin and Gwen apparently had real leadership positions with actual administrative work, though.

“There’s nothing particularly sensitive in there, is there?” Owin asked with a faint frown. “If I recall correctly, you mentioned that Rodrick took our report about what happened near Door Three.” From his expression, he either really disliked this Rodrick or didn’t want him to have that report for some other reason.

Gwen just shrugged, though. “Of course he did. I’d be surprised if anyone who matters hasn’t gotten to read a copy by now, honestly. Go ask the scribes if you want confirmation. There is some information about our numbers, recruitment and supply situation in these, though.” She looked down and made a face. “Before you get ready to deliver another lecture, yes, I know it is important for me to be at least generally familiar with these things, but that doesn’t make it less boring.”

“Well, I’m here now, so you can head out to the yard.” Owin stepped behind the desk and smiled at Gwen.

She nodded and smiled back, then turned to go. Before she did, though, she paused and glanced back.

“They didn’t move the meeting, did they?” she asked.

“No, it’s still this evening,” Owin confirmed. He paused, then shrugged. “I just ran into Trito. I’m confident we’ll get him and his ilk to agree to be reasonable on that matter. Even they have to realize the Hive isn’t an enemy to make lightly by now.”

“Let’s hope so,” Gwen agreed. She shook her head slightly and turned. “The last thing we need right now is more idiots doing -“

That was when the spell cut off. Regina gasped, opening her eyes and blinking. She winced and instinctively held her head, trying to ignore the sudden headache and bite back the nausea that started swirling in her guts. After a few deep breaths, her body settled down, at least. She could still sense that she was very low on mana.

She was curious about what Owin and Gwen had been talking about, but it was clear that she wouldn’t be able to resume her scrying. Even if the Delvers didn’t detect that someone had spied on them, she didn’t think she’d be ready to do that again for a while.

Regina still took it as an accomplishment, though.