«Don't get too happy. I'll remind you that their paralysis still needs time to wear off. It will take hours and even then, there's no guarantee the creatures wouldn't start fighting amongst each other.»

Sensei's sarcastic chuckle put a damper on my good mood as he brought up even more problems. I checked the timer on the system.

[Quest: Train Nest Mates. [Time Remaining: 129 Hours]]

The hours counting down to my doom were moving too fast!

"Why would they fight against each other instead of confronting the wasps. Are they stupid?"

«Their intellect is on par with your nestlings.» Sense said as if stating the obvious.

This bastard.

I refuted him. "Predator or prey, inside the hive, the wasps are the common enemy. Regardless of their differences, as long as these hosts aren't affected by the larvae, their goals of escape should all be the same."

«Are you trying to convince yourself or me?»

"Neither!" I continued to scold Sensei for his negative view. "They won't fight each other like fools, these creatures are smarter than you give them credit for. The hive is neutral ground, they will bind together and fight the common enemy. If they make it out, they can then address their grievances with each other."

Sensei chucked dryly. «Just long enough for you to escape and leave them to their fates.»

"Until we all escape." I corrected him. "Without my interference, they will all be slaughtered without mercy. With this, I'm giving them a fighting chance."

Sensei sighed . «I suppose they should be all grateful to you then.»

I ignored his oozing sarcasm and calculated how long I would have left from looking at the system's timer. I would need 10 hours or more at the least for the paralysis to wear off and I had 33 hours until my poisoning became fatal. Could I really afford to waste that amount of time?

The poison was still in my system and the time I had left was slowly ticking away even if I wasn't experiencing any symptoms. Once that grace period ran out I would be in deep trouble.

I really couldn't think about the hosts right now. Surviving was entirely up to them, but I would definitely make use of the opportunity they provided. I didn't need Sensei poking holes in my plans for his own amusement.

The cavern made an excellent hiding place and the sealing membrane over the chambers meant the hosts did not intend to return. It was a good thing I already had one ready and waiting, the lizard's. If it tried anything like attacking again I'd just have to beat it until it was half dead again. But did that mean I just had to be patient and wait the time out?

Of course not!

There were only 30 hosts in this chamber. Setting 21 free was hardly enough to cause a ripple in the horde of wasps! It simply wasn't enough, to improve my chances of success I had to find and set more loose.

The eight new larvae hosts and the Lizard lay still in their hexagonal chambers and they showed no sign of waking up any time soon, so I left the quiet cavern and went out into the unknown.

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Exiting the chamber to the tunnel I stuck closely to the ash grey walls, hiding my presence with [Stealth].

There, I listened for any noises I could pick up with my senses. The slim tunnel spread out in front of me was quiet if not for the insistent humming vibrations coming from under the floor.

I looked towards the opening at the end of the tunnel, watching for approaching footsteps. But the exit was too far down to gauge properly and exceeded the range of my [Heat Sense].

It looked empty now but travelling along the tunnel was too dangerous. It left me exposed to anything that could be coming from both ends. I chose to go left of the tunnel this time, going right would lead me to the centre, to the opening where the ape had vanished from.

Ideally, I would want to be as close to the bottom of the hive as possible for the exit, but I didn't want to leave as of yet. The top most layer was a prime location. It wasn't entirely safe from wasps but at least it was not as densely populated as the ones below.

This corridor had received its final sting wave so there wouldn't be any more wasps coming for a while. I could move freely if I hid properly and avoided any hosts. It was the perfect place to stay with a vantage point of the hive where I could observe the wasps moving around the nest in case of anything I needed to be aware of.

I could hear the wasps coming since there were only two openings on either side of the corridor. In addition, I could retreat back to the host graveyard that was largely empty, if this place grew to no longer be safe.

Once I climbed down, there would be too many eyes to guard against. Even though I had the scent of a larvae now, there was no telling if it was enough to fool a wasp. I had to bide my time until the best moment.

I kept going, slithering briskly over the rough ground until the slim tunnel ended, opening up into a wider corridor with a much taller ceiling and pillars scattered all over for support.

The space was largely barren with nothing else in it but the same ash coloured walls but past the tall pillars. I could see rounds of more tunnels leading off to other spacious caverns in an elaborate maze.

If these new caverns were like the one I'd come from, each would contain about 30 hosts or more. That is, if this was actually the only layer of the hive that served as a bonding chamber. That would bring the total amount of hosts to a lot more than I initially counted.

«These wasps are more ambitious than I thought.» Sensei said in a surprised tone.

«In typical nests, most larvae assimilate their hosts in the first 1 to 3 days. It happens so quickly, there is never any need to build a hive with so many cells, since they just get reused. Here they have purposely built more cells. It seems they are planning to expand. The number of hosts present here is also three times that of a normal hive.»

"The wasps must be preparing an army." I suggested. "Do you think the two queens are about to fight each other?"

«It is likely a suggestion put into action by one of the queens as a defensive strategy to increase the soldiers.» Sensei added.

I looked around the space trying to count the number of tunnels - it seemed their civil war was about to begin even without my help. Since the wasps were so organised to assemble such a maze, why not lend them my assistance? There were bound to be tons more host creatures here!

I quickly entered the nearest tunnel, leaving the open space behind. I was so eager to find more eggs to poison that I almost forgot to be careful and nearly came face to face with a host.

It was crouched just behind the tunnel wall, a mere step away from me. If not for the quick glimpse of the outline of a heat source behind the grey walls, I would have slithered straight into it.

It crouched by the exit, waiting for unsuspecting prey and as I backed away in retreat, it raised its four legs to lift up its body. The two blades on its arms swing up stiffly in a jerking motion, covering the entirety of the entrance as it began to approach.

I backed away from the tunnel, but behind me was open space, sorely lacking any sort of boulder to hide behind. The only option were the pillars. I quickly slithered over to them but the creature was already out of the tunnel. With quick jerky movements it stalked over, the sickle like arms so large they scraped along the floor as it moved, creating a grating sound.

My eyes fixed over its huge arms. If it swung at me I'd definitely get cleaved in two.

To my horror, the creature's eyes fell on me before I could reach the nearest pillar and it continued to approach. Swiftly covering the distance, it was almost upon me, until suddenly it wasn't.

The huge creature simply slipped past me and proceeded towards the next tunnel like I wasn't worth paying attention to.

I stood frozen on the spot for a moment as the creature's actions slowly dawned on me. Then as I regained my senses, I broke into a wide grin. My scent hadn't given away the absence of a larvae and to it I was just like any other host.