“That was incredible,” Darian remarked to himself, chuckling lightly as he recounted what had happened. “I mean, I can’t stand what they did to my children, but to quote the huumans, ‘Good lord, that was amazing” he trailed off as he recounted the nonsensical comments the humans used to describe wonder. “That fire caused me great frustration, but to see them wield it offensively was amazing. And the protective barrier, if I would recreate that my hive would be unstoppable.” Darian could not stay still as he recounted the events of the last hour. “Fayne, I can’t believe she was capable of doing that!” he recounted the wave of light and the teleportation beam. “She immediately restored their stamina, it was as though their fighting spirit was immediately restored. To harness that ability would be phenomenal” Darian was quivering in excitement. The deaths of his children meant nothing compared to the potential prosperity of his hive as a whole.

Darian launched his hands forward, mimicking the actions their casters made before blasting his hunters with fire. “How did they do that?” he threw his hands forward again to no effect. “I need that human… That…” Darian pondered what it was he had faced. The creature was like a human, but had a different hue, it had horns and an entirely different energy signature. Darian had decided before he even returned to his own body, that the strange red human was necessary for the growth of the hive. He sent his prowlers out to retrieve info on this creature and back to him on any movements. Darian was certain that she would remain with her hive, which would prove problematic, as her hive had caused significant damage to his children, killing several before disappearing. Part of him was confident, however, that at some point they would lower their guard and he would have a moment to strike. In the meantime, he instructed his drones to dig down, deeper into the earth. For the threats that stood against him on the surface, would likely have a more difficult time fighting him within his own home, so it was only logical that he increase the square footage that his home occupied.

Darian spent the rest of the day perfecting his newest creation. He saw the damage that had been done to his hunters and wanted something to absorb both magic and kinetic energy, something that could buy his brood additional time to strategize and respond to the threats that presented themselves. He eventually was able to spawn two eggs of substantial size, each one causing him a great deal of physical distress. There had to be a better way to go about this. Darian approached Caretaker and requested information, and to his delight, he did hear a response, though it merely muttered, “Brood” to him, again and again. He knew he had to create additional brood, but knew not how, at least how to meet the demand that he knew was requested of him. After trial and error, Darian discovered upon his own merits, an opportunity that would catapult his hive to new heights. He decided to delegate the birthing processes.

Darian sat still on the spongy floor of his hive, tinkering with the genetic makeup of his newest spawn. He wanted to grant it all of the benefits of expanding the hive, with no backlash from the obvious gain in status one would receive from having such an exalted role. The superior intelligence would give him someone to talk to besides Caretaker, who hasn’t so much as budged in all this time. Darian birthed a brood mother, but not without hesitance. He made sure to form within the new creation, an unyielding dedication to her hive, a sense of purpose that could only be fulfilled when enacting Darian’s orders. This was by far, the most nerve-wracking experience Darian had gone through, though he believed it would pay off ten-fold if he could delegate someone to produce his offspring. She would need to have all of his ambition, and yet, she would need to know her place. This baffled the young Vescarid King, but he kept at it. Soon an egg was forming that would determine the direction his hive proceeded in. It had been several days since the humans attacked. Darian was not aware, but an entire day had passed in Fayne’s world since they tried to exterminate him. Despite that attempt on his life, he didn’t feel much different. If the mixture of Human and Vescarid could share any common ground, it was in understanding the survival of the fittest. Just because Darian was not offended by the attack, did not mean he was going to allow his hive to remain in danger. When his brood mother was ready, he would begin the production of soldiers. Darian only hoped he would be ready when the hostile humans returned.

Darian was not sure why the humans had not attacked again and merely chalked it up to their inability to initiate an offensive. He had figured their numbers were limited, that the attacking force he experienced was the pinnacle of human might. This left him with a strong sense of superiority, and yet, he was disappointed that Fayne had not returned after so much time. His brood-mother was developing, and this alone was no cause to cease production of his hive, for he was the true queen, or, well, king, and it was his responsibility to produce offspring above all else. Darian felt as though his drone count was low, but they were doing their due diligence and digging deeper into the earth. In this time, he produced additional hunters to bring in wild game, and to feed the hive that grew more ravenous with each passing day. As they delved deeper into the earth, Darian felt the need to produce less sentient life, if that were possible. His worker drones were the most basic of creatures, that followed his every order, and yet even these beasts could be left to their own devices and he was reasonably assured that should one-hundred years pass by, he would return to a hive that far surpassed his expectations. When all was said and done, a more complex hole for his people to proliferate in, was far from ideal in the grand scheme of things.

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Darian began to commune with the strange fleshy substance that dwelled beneath his feet. What he believed to be earth, was rather an organic coating that spread across the native floor and produced nutrients for his kind to ingest, and then the waste they disposed of would be fed back into the floor to supplement the further growth of these peculiar fungi. He was aware of their general purpose from the moment he broke free from his egg, but to actually comprehend their function within the hive, was a matter of willpower. He sat on their surface, soaking in what it was to exist as they had. He understood that they served a higher purpose and merely fed his kind, that they were the ultimate support unit to guide the hive to true success.

Darian had never questioned his tremor sense, that is until he questioned it. Once he took the time to understand why he could see everything within his hive, he understood that the organic material was another form of drone, it was feeding him this information and directing him to potential targets he could assimilate. His first interaction with the material was when he fed upon insects and grubs, pinpointing their location despite a direct method to do so. Once he understood that it was the very hive itself that guided him, he gained a much deeper understanding of what it was to be Vescarid. As Darian drew into himself, he brought up a third-person view of his surroundings, thanks to the strange sentient material at his feet. He immediately saw everything that touched this material, and knew what it was composed of, and if it were friend or foe. It was at this point that Darian understood that to be successful as a Vescarid, he would need to expand. His genetic material always screamed for expansion, but now he knew it was not only a desire but a necessity.

As his brood-mother formed, Darian took it upon himself to use his drones in ways he had never thought. A strange human feeling took hold of the young king, forcing him to give a name to everything he had created. Knowing that the substance at his feet was assisting him, he was compelled to grant it a title, to designate it as something other than “the floor”. Darian pondered the options he had at hand, he thought he could refer to it as, “The Vescarid Veil” but that felt heavy-handed, there was something about the name that was weighty on his tongue. He went the other direction and pondered, “Biocarpet” but that was so unfeeling. After all, this being was a vital part of his species survival. He even considered something short but to the point, such as “The Sprawl” but again it wasn’t quite right. Eventually, digging deep into his encyclopedia of information, he decided upon, “Vescora”. Something about the name offered a sense of power, a bit of mystery, and the dignity his hunters and prowlers would have expected with their names. So going forward, Darian was determined to give the respect to Vescora that it deserved. For without it, he would be as blind as a… Well, he wasn’t sure what he would be as blind as, but it would be unpleasant to be assured.

When Darian’s brood mother finally hatched into this world, it was a day for celebration. Upon inspecting the creature, Darian was able to distinguish its superior intellect, and more importantly, its egg-laying potential. A single brood mother would be able to produce twenty of any given variation of Vescarid that Darian wished. This was many times more than he could hope to produce, though, to not be outdone, he did believe that with adequate refinement, he could create an untold number of children. It was a matter of dedicating himself fully to the task, of which he had specifically created the brood-mother to do.

After some examination, it was clear that the brood-mother was not capable of creating twenty of his newly developed drones, the ones whose bulky frames would take control of an entire tunnel. That being said, they could create twenty hunters, or prowlers, or twice as many drones. Such a feat was more than he could have hoped, and was quickly pondering the benefit of producing multiple brood-mothers.

The logistics of such a task would quickly force his nest to cannibalize itself in order to produce the necessary nutrients needed to upkeep its daily needs, so Darian dismissed it. Perhaps when he had enough hunters or enough drones, he would return to the subject of additional brood mothers.

As his glorious creation came to life, breaking free from her shell and entering the world with the inquisitive nature that fit so many of the higher-tier Vescarids, Darian was eager to meet her and answer her every question. Unfortunately, this occasion was cut short, as an alarm blared without his head, declaring a state of emergency like he had not seen since the initial human invasion. Darian took stock of his children, determining the following:

Four patrols of hunters were out and about, while 3 were butchering recently hunted carcasses within the hive, giving him seven hunter units. Accompanying them were the standard five drones each, for a total of 35 support drones. Within his hive, he had another twenty drones digging out chambers deeper in the earth. Since Darian had last been attacked, he moved Caretaker to the fourth floor below the earth, with his drones working on floor five. Twenty more drones were designated as farmers, spending their time monitoring the growth of the nutrimoss, harvesting the fungi to the pantry, and moving Vescarid waste to patches of fungal growth.