Chapter 113: Heart of the hive.

<NOT GOOD ENOUGH PENN>sally roared. Sally quickly wound back her fist before unleashing a blistering, quick jab towards Penn, who just managed to duck underneath it; unfortunately for Penn, Sally was ready, and before Penn could register it, her knee careened into her face, sending her flying back

<thats enough sally. I think you’ve beaten her ass enough already.>

Sally let out a sigh and helped her to her feet.  <you are getting better. You managed to dodge a few in our last spar. However, at this rate, you're still a liability on any team youre in. >

< Thanks, Sally, how very honest of you> Sally shrugged and gave her a smile.

<Ill tell you what, has anyone ever told you that your punches hurt> penn complained as she rubbed her armour. I chuckled. How would she react if I told her she was holding back?

< It could be worse, Penn.> I interjected. <You could have been sparring me>, penn visibally shivered at the thought.

<ill pass>

I chuckled as I got back to my training. This time it was a mixed batch of a worker, a spitter and a warrior

Like before i sank into the weave before waking up to see 3 different views

<okay lets try something simple. We will all move 1 meter forward. On 3. 1, 2, 3!>

Immediately, all hell broke loose. The spitter shot up into the sky before plummeting to the ground, the worker face-planting straight into the ground, whilst the warrior tripped over its own feet and tumbled. Backwards into a tree.

< That went about as well as I expected.> Penn chimed.

I pulled out from my children, returning to my original body.

<DAMMIT! Sorry, my children.> I apologised. Thankfully, all 3 of them shook it off with ease and returned to their original positions. Dammit! I've been trying for 3 hours, but no damn progress its always the same damn result!

<dont worry, mother. I'm sure youll get it eventually> sally reasured me, but I didn’t believe her.

< It's just Frustrating! You guys dont understand, but imagine trying to play 3 different pianos at once. One with your feet, one with your tongue and the other with your hands. Maybe if it was just one, it would be fine, but all 3 is near impossible> i slumped to the ground. Ive hit a damn wall. Ive been at this pretty much all day and have no progress to show for it.

<Go back to your duties. The 3 of you. Thank you. You all have been of great use today.> The 3 of them left, leaving me alone with Sally and Penn. A moment of silence echoed across the clearing as I stirred in my thoughts about how to do this simple thing.

<moth->

< Don’t sally. Just don’t. I need… I just wanna go inside. Can you 2 help me>

The 2 of them exchanged a glance before rushing to my sides. They wrapped their arm around me and easily hoisted me up.

<Thank you. Ive never been so…. Huge before.>

I looked down at my enlarged belly. Maybe my added frustration comes from this one growing in me.  Inside me now was a tunneler, singular. You wouldn’t think that looking at me, but yes, this is a singular tunneler. My belly in the space of 2 days had ballooned to the size of 5 footballs. Which completely caught me off guard. No wonder the system tells me not to put this egg in any humans.

<Im so happy you didn’t put that in me.> Sally said.

I glared towards her. <And with that comment your getting the next one.>

<M…Mother!>

I shook my head and gestured forward to move. Sally protested my impregnating her, but she, of all people, knows she doesn’t get a say in it.

The ground opened up beneath us as I was escorted to my room. Honestly, this hive has never felt so big. It took 30 minutes for us to reach my room!  It felt like an eternity!

<thanks you two, but I think I can manage from here.> I slowly stumbled towards my bed before collapsing in it.

<That will be all, thank you>

I gave them a smile as they left me alone in my room. I hate this part the most. The lull is the period of time where I've done all I can, the eggs are all impregnated  and will be ready in the next few days

I made around  300 eggs for this battle. 100 of them are the basic combat units. They are sadly the fodder in this battle. I dont expect most of them to come back. Additionally, I've made 30 bulwarks and 20 spitters. The remainder was an even split of warriors and skirmishers, which makes up the bulk of the fighting force. Honestly, this whole endeavour against the spiders has put war into perspective for me, and my one big takeaway. WAR IS FUCKING EXPENSIVE. The bullwarks alone set me back 100k biomass alone! And the total cost of the skirmishers, warriors, etc. Around 200k biomass. Biomass isnt hard to come by, but you try to eat several truckloads worth of mushrooms on your own! What I'm trying to say is I need to outsource some of the production of units, preferably the creation of workers and combat units. They are the back bone of hive and we are always in need of them. But how?

The system and hive menu show no signs of me being able to create something like that. unless….

I opened up my  system

NAME:

DIVA: *LVL 33

HEALTH: 3500/3500 (+75/min)

STAMINA: 150/3000 (+220/min)

MP: -12000/2800 (+80/min)

POINTS: 124

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)

̶D̶r̶a̶g̶o̶n̶ ̶F̶o̶r̶m̶

MAGIC:

Null release

Null shroud

Null driver

Null spiral

Purge

Umbral piercer

Ebony Grasps

Obsidian Spike

Watchfull eye.

Calamity Prison.

Healing spells

Adaptive heal.

Resistances

Pain resistance (Moderate)

Cold Resistance (Minor)

Subordinates

Cindi (Servant)

Sally

MISC

HIVE MANAGEMENT

ABILITY

SHOP

HIVE CORE

My eyes landed at the bottom. Hive core. This was something I unlocked but never got to use. And seeing how my progress in controlling the hive has reached a temporary dead end, this is something I can move forward with in the meantime. The system is vague about what this does, but if I had to guess,Ithe ability to automate the production of units would be. It would be here.

“Let's see, I've got  5 days until the tunneler is made. I reckon I can knock out the 500k biomass in 2 days”

The order to bring me food echoed across the hive. Here I go again….

3 days later…

<Mother, I don’t think you should be moving>

<I know! But this hive core wont place itself>

Sally held me by the arms as we slowly moved to the underground core room I made.

<Just how far is this place!> Sally complained as she strained to keep me up. The tunnel had grown in size again, to the point where I could hardly move unassisted.

<Not too far now. were almost there>

We kept moving forward untilwe reached a solid wax wall.

<Open> the order echoed out. On cue, the wall broke open, revealing an empty altar, and Penn lugged me to the altar. Every step took a stupid amount of energy to lug my body, but eventually I made it. Penn and Sally gently dropped meat at the foot of the altar.

<Thanks you two>

I looked towards the podium. It took a while, but we're here. I opened up the system screen and selected Hive Core.

Would you like to create a hive core?

COST 500,000 biomass

This process is irreversible.

YES

NO

I selected yes. The menu suddenly disappeared, and then nothing. I looked at Pen and Sally, who were just as confused as I am.

<Anything?>

They both shook their head. Did I just spend 500k biomass on not-

A weave of nausea suddenly filled my body.

<Mother…are you okay? Sally asked. I couldn’t respond. An old familiar feeling bubbled from my stomach. Anyone who has a wild night drinking and partying recognises this feeling. My hand held my stomach in a wasted attempt to quell the bubbling sensation, but it was about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. My stomach churned and twisted like a stormy ocean. Every clashing of waves sent a wave of nausea straight up my body over and over again until finally something broke

<BLEAUGGHHHHHHHAAAAA>

A projectile stream of golden vomit gushed onto the floor, spreading across the altar floor. My body trembled at the unending torrent of sickness. I tried to hold some of it back, but that just led to me heaving again and again. It felt like my insides were suddenly gonna become my outsides.

The vomit burned as it left my body and splashed onto the nearby walls. however that wasn’t the worst part. The fowl taste of rotten fish eggs, the putrid smell of it, all of it was something I could not describe, and the worst part was the sound of it slapping against the cold floor, which was something that I would never forget till I die, but eventually, all awful things must come to an end. The torrents of vomit slowed down from a spray to a tiny trickle that I was able to contain. I don’t know how long I was throwing up for, but it felt longer than 10 minutes.

I watched as the last amounts of golden vomit splashed onto the ground.

<finally…..its…..over.> a wave of weakness washed over my body. Something was gonna give, and that thing was my arms. My right arm buckled, sending me headfirst towards the vomit. When suddenly someone grabbed my body, it was Sally, dressed in a maid's dress, covered in sick.

<Where were you with me the whole time?>

She just nodded. I didn't even notice.  She slowly dragged me away from the altar to the far wall, where Penn was waiting. I looked across the now sick-covered core room. What was the point of all that? spend 500k biomass to just vomit all over the place?

<What a waste.>

<Don’t be like that, mother. Look, maybe there is an extra step. She paused. I looked up towards her sick, covered hands. The vomit that was sprayed everywhere like a Super Soaker was moving? Just what the hell is-

<Hey diva, Sally. You might wanna look at this.>

We both looked towards the centre of the room.

<Just….. what the hell is that.> sally cried.

<I think.. that’s the hive core> I replied. I watched as all the vomit in the room slowly moved towards the scentre coelescing and forming into a large orb of golden mass that hovered above the altar. As we watched, the orb grew and grew as more and more vomit collected into the mass. I shot a glance towards sally all the vomit that was on her arms and clothes had disappeared. When did it?.... It doesn’t matter; we already know where it is in the growing golden mass in front of me

Eventually, the last bit of vomit joined the orb. There was a brief period of nothing, then slowly the orb rose. It kept going and going until it connected with the ceiling. The orb suddenly pulsed with an orange gold light. With that pulse, the surrounding wax suddenly moved and melded into the core, becoming one with it and glowing a bright orange as the wax grew around some of it, elongating and stretching along the core.

<Penn, don’t those look like>

<Blood vessels> she muttered. The wax blood vessels grew until most of the core was covered before finally stopping their advance.

Sally stood me up to my feet as we looked at the glowing core no- the heart of the hive.

<Mother?> sally asked. I looked at her with the same confusion she looked at me. I'm sorry, my daughter, but I'm just as clueless as you are

<its doing something again,>penn said.  My head snapped towards the core. Golden energy suddenly pulsed through the wax and into the hive. Every pulse thrummed through the hive like a heart pumping blood around the body.

<Can you guys feel that?> penn asked. With a sort of calmed relaxed expression on her

We both nodded. I looked at their faces; they looked relaxed, refreshed and energised. Rach thrum of the core went further than the physical hive; it went into us as well. I took a deep breath and braced myself before hoisting myself up on my own power.

<Mother….did you just>

<yes sally. This feeling.  Its…..I feel good. REALLY GOOD>

HIVE CORE COMPLETE

Territory claimed 125,664 Sq Meters

Territory Bonus active:

IMPROVED RECOVERY

REDUCED STAMINA DRAIN

INCREASED CONSTRUCTION SPEED.

<Amazing>, Penn said with childlike wonder as she turned to face me.

<Too think you vomited this whole thing…..Just what the hell are you, diva?>

I did a fake chuckle but honestly im starting to wonder just how my body works….