Chapter 94: Hive core

<Right…. relax diva relax…..>

I took a deep breath. There is a lot I need to go over, so I'll come back to that. I pulled up my system one more time

NAME:

DIVA: *LVL 16

HEALTH: 2500/2500 (+15/min)

STAMINA: 2000/2000 (+100/min)

MP: 1800/1800 (+20/min)

POINTS: 148

BIOMASS: 50,000

RACE :

Alvearix

TITLE:

(outworlder) (herald of the end) (Fanatic Xenophobe) (sadist) (Silent assassin)(mother)(midwife) (Scholar)(Glutton)

ATTRIBUTES:

MIND: 40

BODY: 30

SOUL:20

RECOVERY: 24

ABILITIES:

Hive Leader (LVL 2)

Living nest (LVL 2)

Insect Agility (Lvl 1)

Aerial Expertise (Lvl 1)

Mana control (LVL 3)

Venomous carapace (Lvl 1)

Insect Vision (Passive) (LVL 2)

Hive optimisation (lvl 1)

More eggs (Lvl 6)

Enhanced Growth accelerant (Lvl 1)

Meditative restoration (LVL 1)

Tail Whip strike (Lvl 1)

Pheromone production (LVL 1)

Mastered:

Tears of the Hive queen (LVL MAX)

Conversion Process (Lvl MAX)

Level based XP earning (lvl MAX)

MAGIC:

Null release

Null shroud

Null driver

Null spiral

Healing spells

Adaptive heal.

Resistances

Pain resistance (Moderate)

Cold Resistance (Minor)

Subordinates

Cindi (Servant)

Sally

MISC

HIVE MANAGEMENT

ABILITY

SHOP

HIVE CORE (NEW)

My eyes instantly shot down to the new box that had appeared, “hive core” I looked at it with apprehension. Another system I have to manage? I already have 2.

I stared at it for a few moments before finally selecting it. Instantly, my system screen disappeared before being immediately replaced by a different screen.

HIVE CORE

The hive core functions as the central core of the hive. The core sets the main location of the hive and allows for better management and control of the hive. Whilst unlocking a set of unique abilities.

To get started, place the hive core down. This will cost 500k biomass

Keep in mind that once placed, the hive core will require 250k biomass to absorb and move.

You will not lose anything when moving the core.

In the event that the core is destroyed. Any and all functions granted by the core will be removed, and any abilities given will be lost.

I read the prompt over again to make sure. It seems simple enough its just 500k biomass is a steep fucking investment. However, for something this expensive, It needs somewhere secure to live. I closed my mind and connected to both of the hive architects.

<Mother?> they both said in unison

<Hello, my sons, are you busy…>

< I'm never too busy for your mother. How can we help?> One of them said

<I need you to design a secure room for the hive core….. You do know what that is right….>

<Of course> the other replied. It appears that my children are already aware of the new addition to my system. How useful.

<Good. Once you are done, tell azuura. This is a top priority.>

My mind disconnected from the two of them. I let out a sigh. I guess I'll have to wait before I can have fun with the hive core in the meantime, however….

The prompt disappeared, and my status popped back up. I have a buttload of points that need spending. 148 points, to be exact, so let's start from the top attributes. If I remember correctly, attribute points have been increased for me. So they now cost me 2 points instead of one.

With that in mind, let's see what we can do with this…….

Some time later….

I think I'm happy with this. I pressed confirm on the system, and I felt a rush of energy around my body.

<Fuuuuuuuck. That feels gooooooooooood> I moaned as I felt my muscles get denser and my mind get sharper. I felt the mana in my body surge as the amount I had swelled. I should have done this sooner

64 points spent

HP: 2500 -> 3500

STAMINA:  2000-> 3000

MP: 1800 -> 2800

HP RECOVERY: 15/MIN -> 75 /MIN

STAMINA RECOVERY: 100/MIN -> 220/MIN

MP RECOVERY: 20/MIN -> 8O/MIN

The feeling quickly wore off. Man, that feels good. I really should do that often.

<Did you just spend some points?> I looked towards Sally, who was still sitting in the room.

<was it that obvious>

<Very mother. How did you spend your points>

<Well Sally. I spent 64 points in total. I put 10 into mind, putting it up to 50. 10 into body, bringing that up to 40, another 10 into soul and 6 into recovery; wanna take a look?>

Her eyes lit up with child-like wonder.

<Hey, be careful!> I cried as she jumped onto my bed and cosied up to me.

NAME:

DIVA: *LVL 16

HEALTH: 3500/3500 (+75/min)

STAMINA: 3000/3000 (+220/min)

MP: 2800/2800 (+80/min)

POINTS: 84

BIOMASS: 50,000

RACE :

Alvearix

TITLE:

(outworlder) (herald of the end) (Fanatic Xenophobe) (sadist) (Silent assassin)(mother)(midwife) (Scholar)(Glutton)

ATTRIBUTES:

MIND: 50

BODY: 10

SOUL:30

RECOVERY: 30

ABILITIES:

Hive Leader (LVL 2)

Living nest (LVL 2)

Insect agility (Lvl 1)

Aerial Expertise (Lvl 1)

Mana control (LVL 3)

Venomous carapace (Lvl 1)

Insect Vision (Passive) (LVL 2)

Hive optimisation (lvl 1)

More eggs (Lvl 6)

Enhanced Growth accelerant (Lvl 1)

Meditative restoration (LVL 1)

Tail Whip strike (Lvl 1)

Pheromone production (LVL 1)

Mastered:

Tears of the Hive queen (LVL MAX)

Conversion Process (Lvl MAX)

Level based XP earning (lvl MAX)

MAGIC:

Null release

Null shroud

Null driver

Null spiral

Healing spells

Adaptive heal.

Resistances

Pain resistance (Moderate)

Cold Resistance (Minor)

Subordinates

Cindi (Servant)

Sally

MISC

HIVE MANAGEMENT

ABILITY

SHOP

HIVE CORE

Her eyes bulged as she read over my stats.

<How do you have so much health! I'm nowhere near that close>

I chuckled. <Remember, I've been at this a lot longer than you. You will get up there given time.>

<I hope so. Apollinaris has been getting a lot stronger as well. I feel like I'm lagging behind>

I patted her head. <Trust me. there will be plenty of opportunity for you to gain experience, especially now humans are gonna be roaming these woods>

She nodded. <How do we plan to deal with that. If they find us….>

<I know. It’s a bridge we will cross when we get there; however, for the meantime, let's spend the rest of these points.>

I focused on the point, and suddenly, another large menu appeared.

Rapid Gestation.

In a pickle and need a member of your family at your side. With this ability, you can have a member of your family right at your side in a fraction of the time.

(WARNING: The egg must be implanted directly into a host to do so and will Guarantee the host's death)

Cost: 30 points

Paralytic venom.

With this nifty little upgrade, your venom won’t kill people but immobilise them instead.

Cost 5 points

Molting

A beautiful dame like yourself always has to look her best. With this little trinket, you can do just that by shedding away that ruined shell. Giving  you a brand new one and refilling your health, mp and stamina

Disclaimer: Shedding requires 6 hours at level 1 and at least 2500 Biomass. Increasing the level lowers the time this takes.

Cost 40

Enthral.

Girls like you have a habit of twisting people around your finger. Now, with this ability, you can use your pheromones to enthral people, making them more susceptible to your way of thinking. Be careful, though not everyone is as weak-willed as they look.

Cost 60

Big [Birth]a

Hehehe. Let's keep this one a secret, shall we….

Cost: 250 points

Tail-positor (New)

What's better than one ovipositor? 2 of them! With this beauty of an upgrade you will be able to impregnate hosts right there and then.

Cost 20 points

Resonant carapace. (New)

Tired of armour that only works on physical attacks but sucks at dealing with anything magical? Well, boy, howdy do I have a skill for you! This skill allows your armour to resonate with any magical spells that hit it. Drastically reducing its effect.

Cost 50 points

<Only 3 new skills… How disappointing.> I read over the 2 skills I got. Honestly, they were both pretty good. The tail-positor looks like it would synergise well with rapid gestation.

<Oh, that could be beautiful. Dammit. I wish I saved some points.>

The psychic translator sounds like it could be amazing, and the resonant carapace could effectively make me invulnerable to magic.

<What to choose. What to choose. > My mind kept looking at the rapid gestation and tail-position skill. Maybe it's my breeding instincts overacting, but I really want those. I wish I could take the carapace now, but it's just too expensive, and I would rather save the points.

<I guess it's decided. Congratulations, Instincts, you won this time.>

I selected the two skills, and suddenly, another menu popped up.

Are you sure you want to purchase

Rapid Gestation

And

Tail-positer

<Yes>

The menu disappeared, and suddenly, I felt warmth resonate in my stomach and tail as something again changed in me.

I swung my tail out of the bedsheets and brought it before me. My tail radiated heat as It grew slightly in width. My eyes darted to the end of the tail. I watched as the dark ebony blade I had started to grow and change shape, turning from a thin blade into a menacing ebony spear tip with a small hole at the tip of it. I watched as several 4 lines led down from the tip into the tail. I placed my finger on the tip, and as soon as I did, the tail started to split.

<Ah, I see. The lines have split the tail into 4 segments, allowing it to expand for the eggs>

Heat surged to the tip once again, and several ebony, sharp and thin ridges formed along the spear tip. As soon as they formed, a sharp jolt of electricity shot through my spine. Like something new had just been plugged into me. I looked at the tip again, and almost instinctively, I realised I could fold the ridges flat against the tip, making it sleeker. After playing with the ridges for a little bit.

I brought up my status one more time and confirmed the skills were added. I still had 34 points left, so let's upgrade some of my existing skills. The first one that caught my attention was the living nest ability.

Living nest Lvl 2

A queen and her nest are one and the same. Wherever she goes, her nest must as well.

(Inside your body is a small personal nest that can store certain types of insects. You can summon from this nest at any time. Current capacity 400.)

(Insects summoned from the living hive can now feast on behalf of the queen. Anything eaten by the queen)

Next upgrade:

The insects in the living nests are Now bigger and tougher, making them more resistant to physical attacks.

<So even this has changed, interesting….> My eyes glanced towards the next upgrade for this skill. Bigger, more robust insects would make them more useful in battle.

Would you like to upgrade this ability from level 2 to 3

Cost 4 points.

Yes, please.

Ability successfully upgraded!

I felt a brief flash of warmth from my chest, followed by a loud drowning hum.

<Wow, so loud.> Sally chimed as she pressed her ear against my chest

I nodded. I hope they aren't this loud all the time now; it would make it hard to do anything stealthily. Eventually, the hum died at a lower level. I geld out my hand and on cue a royal….

<Wow, you have grown.>

He was no longer a fly, if I had to say. He was closer to a wasp in size. They still had the unique black and yellow pattern, but it was enhanced with a larger, bulkier carapace.

<How do you feel?>

<I feel GREAT, Mother> he said as he fluttered his much larger wings.

<please give me an order, Mother! Anything!> I chuckled < your enthusiasm is noted, but Maybe later>

He crawled back into my body with excitement. Well, that’s one skill. How about another. My eyes fell on the new hive leader perk.

Hive leader Lvl 2

As a queen, your authority is unmatched. Use this authority to control, direct and Lead your hive to success.

(You can now access the weave that connects all members of the hive; this allows you to see and speak through your children and communicate with them in the language of the alvearix)

Next upgrade:

Your authority now extends to other arthropods. Allowing you to communicate with them and order them.

My eyes bulged. Now, this one has the potential to be incredibly strong. That’s incredibly strong! In a flash, I quickly bought the level up. The system menu disappeared as I felt my head warm up quickly.

<that’s….. very good>

<Mother, are you>

<Shhhhhh. You are killing the moment.>

The heat wafted across my skull in a pleasurable wave that I embraced fully. The heat spread from my head down to my spine and throughout my body. Was it working on my nervous system? Maybe. Do I really care? No. Soon, the heat passed, leaving me back in my room.

Ability successfully upgraded!

I opened my eyes and looked at my body. I don’t look any different or even feel any different.

<How do I look.> I asked sally.

She gave me a glance over before shrugging. <Besides the new tail, not much different>

Is that so? It must be an internal change. I looked at the skill tree once again. I was tempted to upgrade one more skill but held fire. I don’t have many points left, so it's best to save some for an emergency.

<So this is me, huh.>

NAME:

DIVA: *LVL 16

HEALTH: 3500/3500 (+75/min)

STAMINA: 3000/3000 (+220/min)

MP: 2800/2800 (+80/min)

POINTS: 26

BIOMASS: 50,000

RACE :

Alvearix

TITLE:

(outworlder) (herald of the end) (Fanatic Xenophobe) (sadist) (Silent assassin)(mother)(midwife) (Scholar)(Glutton)

ATTRIBUTES:

MIND: 50

BODY: 10

SOUL:30

RECOVERY: 30

ABILITIES:

Hive Leader (LVL 3)

Living nest (LVL 3)

Insect agility (Lvl 1)

Aerial Expertise (Lvl 1)

Mana control (LVL 3)

Venomous carapace (Lvl 1)

Insect Vision (Passive) (LVL 2)

Hive optimisation (lvl 1)

More eggs (Lvl 6)

Enhanced Growth accelerant (Lvl 1)

Meditative restoration (LVL 1)

Tail Whip strike (Lvl 1)

Pheromone production (LVL 1)

Rapid Gestation (Lvl 1)

Tail Positer (lvl 1)

Mastered:

Tears of the Hive queen (LVL MAX)

Conversion Process (Lvl MAX)

Level based XP earning (lvl MAX)

MAGIC:

Null release

Null shroud

Null driver

Null spiral

Healing spells

Adaptive heal.

Resistances

Pain resistance (Moderate)

Cold Resistance (Minor)

Subordinates

Cindi (Servant)

Sally

MISC

HIVE MANAGEMENT

ABILITY

SHOP

HIVE CORE

A smile crept up my face. This is good, very good. I can't wait to put this to use. I looked towards sally, and a devious thought crossed my mind. In a flash, I grabbed her and twisted until she was lying on the bed with me on top.

<M..mother> She cried with confusion and a bit of arousal in her voice. It's too easy with her.

<Don’t you think it would be fun to use my new toy?> I said as my tail wafted in her face. Her eyes followed it.

<T…t….that could be dangerous….>

<Oh come on, where is your spirit of advent-?

My head suddenly snapped upwards. I felt something pulling on my mind. It was one of the children

<Im needed outside the hive.>

I quickly climbed off her and quickly bolted out of the room. In no time, I was going through the main hive and the main entrance/exit tunnel.

<MOTHER SLOW DOWN> Sally cried as she slowly brought up the rear.

<You have no idea how much faster you are now…> she said, taking a few deep breaths

<No time for this, come on.>

I kept going up the tunnel until finally, 2 earth workers came into view. As soon as I got close, green mana swirled around their antennae. Instantly, the ground broke open, revealing a grey, overcast sky. 2 of the combat units peaked their head into the tunnel as I walked out into the clearing

<This better be import->

I stopped when I saw it or correctly them. Dozens of different insects swarming and buzzing away around the hive.

<Why are they all here?>

And then it hit me. The level up I got. This is the effect of it. One of the insects stopped in front of me.

<THE EMPRESS. SHE IS HERE. SHE IS HERE!> The buzzing intensified as thousands of tiny insects swarmed around me.

< it's Good to meet->

<EMPRESS PLEASE HELP MY NEST>

<EMPRESS HOW CAN WE BE OF SERVICE>

<WHAT DO YOU NEED ILL->

<ENOUGH!> I screamed. Instantly, the buzzing died down as the swarming slowed to a halt.

<I get you are all excited to see me. However, this is my hive. All of you swarming around here is not good. I don’t need you for anything at the moment>

<But we must serve the empress. We must!>

My eyes darted to what looked like a bee, but judging from its size, it must be a queen bee. I groaned internally. Why are insects like this? This is gonna be troublesome. I need them to go away, but their swarming here is too suspicious.

<Fine, this is a task for all of you. I want you to watch the forest and keep an eye out for any humans and demihumans that enter this part of the forest. If you see anything, report back to me. This is important. You are my eyes and ears out here. this is a vital mission>

A buzz of happiness went through the swarm of insects as they all disappeared back into the forest.

<That was…. Something> Sally chimed.

<Yeah. But at least we got some free surveillance out of it. However, we will still keep an eye out for ourselves. We can't become too reliant on them. All I hope is that this new level-up doesn’t cause me any more headaches.>

Meanwhile….. somewhere in the forest….

<Mommy. Do you feel that? I feel drawn to it.>

<Yes, me too. It…. annoys me. An upstart queen is trying to muscle in on my territory. I don’t like it. I don’t like it all>

The creature moved to another part of the room.

<My babies. Are you awake?>

Suddenly, the room lit up with hundreds of beady red eyes.

<Mommy is going to need all of you.>