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Rise of the Antanoid - Chapter 14

Published at 21st of October 2022 06:03:03 AM


Chapter 14

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Kai stood in front of the 10th egg together with Anna and Tiffany. She was understandably excited as this was the worker that would take the hive to the next level. Now she only had to wait for the egg to hatch.

To pass the time and distract herself Kai went through the last week again. After Ember had made her dress they had taken things relatively slow. Anna had stopped building and instead spent her time together with Kai.

This also meant they had trained together, which resulted in Anna unlocking the skill mana manipulation. This gave Kai a lot more information about her training and where she currently stood, at the very bottom of the ladder.

Ember had continued her clothing research and everyone had a toga now. She had also ,in a cute way, reinvented pillows, by trying to make a silk puppet of the tree the hive stood under. It was pure luxury but helped Kai sleep better, so everyone was happy. Hopefully she would also create some covers so they were equipped for cold weather.

Tiffany on the other hand had done her thing and kind of became the construction leader. She had even gotten a quest line where she had to prove her leading and management abilities. The reward was a special system similar to the one that Kai had, though a lot smaller in scale.

Thanks to Tiffany and the others they now had 12 rooms and slowly the need for a second hive floor arose. 10 of those rooms were living rooms and then one each for storage and drones.

The last few days of the week the builder crew had done experiments with the silk, searching for a way to improve its capabilities in regards to building. They had discovered a weaving technique that improved the stability of straight surfaces of silk. It still wasn’t strong enough to hold a worker let alone Kai, but it did manage to hold a drone. With this technique they had built a second level into the drone room that they could access via dronewalk.

Tiffany had told her that there was a lot of room for improvement and that the ramp would likely collapse in a few weeks. 

Speaking of drones, they have been working diligently too. The hive map now extended all the way south to the hills and about the same distance in the other directions. They had also discovered the corpse of a large snail that had fallen off of a tree. The thing had been the size of a hippo and made Kai really curious about the leaves of the trees. They had to be equally gigantic to feed those snails.

They had yet to find a normal forest, but Kai wouldn’t let herself be dragged down by this anymore.

The drones were also responsible for the hive's food. They didn’t have a lot of food reserves, because they had no real idea of how to preserve the food for long enough, but the surroundings were supplying them just fine for now. Kai’s only worry in this regard was a change of seasons.

She focused back on the egg and clenched her fists. Finally it was time for her to improve and not only watch as everyone around her slowly got stronger and was productive.

Anna took her hand and Kai relaxed a bit. She had no idea what she would do without her daughter, though it had likely to do with being plagued by doubts.

The egg shook and Kai suddenly got the weird feeling of being filled up with something. Anna stiffened for a short second, but relaxed again fastly so Kai wasn’t sure if she was imagining things.

Tiffany on the other hand made it clear that something was up. She bent over holding her belly and breathed out heavily. “Oof! That’s the worst feeling I ever had and I was hungry once.” 

Kai wasn’t an expert, but hunger should take a day to feel bad enough for some to bend over and more for those who could take a little more. 

The feeling of being filled up ended and she looked concerned at her daughter. Tiffany rightened herself and turned to Kai with a shrug. “What? I am too young to know true suffering.” The girl was right, but that wasn’t what Kai had wanted to know.

She sighed. “I just wanted to know what happened.”

Tiffany slapped herself. “Ahh well, my whole mana pool just forcefully got emptied in one go and it wasn’t exactly pleasant.”

The girl smiled again. “It’s over now though, so you don’t have to worry.”

On the contrary, Kai was now worried a lot. She was pretty sure that just had been her level up and the resources for that came from her children, but they didn’t get to decide if they were okay with this or when to donate their mana.

What if they were in the middle of a fight and Kai leveled up?

She would be responsible for the deaths of those that got surprised and were taken off guard. It wasn’t truly a flaw in the system as it ensured that she got what she wanted, but it was a lazy implementation.

Her children should get the chance to delay this for at least a day. In that time somebody else could take over for them by choice to save possible lives.

Kai frowned and watched as her new daughter hatched. Anna squeezed her hand reassuringly. “It’s going to be okay my lady. Maybe the one who created the system will improve it now that a problem has arisen.”

That girl really helped Kai a lot not to worry about things too much and Kai got worried really fast. There was just so much more to lose and do wrong here for her than there had been on earth.

She took a deep breath and let go of Anna’s hand. It was time to welcome a new life and this was a happy occasion.

With a final push the 10th worker of her hive freed herself from her egg and tumbled a few steps away from it. The girl took in her surroundings and immediately went down on one knee when she spotted Kai. “My queen.” 

Kai really wondered why they always did that. They weren’t some knight reporting to their lord or anything, though she had to admit knights were cool.

Kai smiled at her new daughter. “Please get up Erika, there is no need to be that formal towards me. Take some time to eat and clean yourself and then visit me please.” 

This had somewhat become her way of welcoming a new hive member. It was a compromise she had worked out with Anna. Kai would bestow a name upon them and in turn got to say that she didn’t want to be addressed as queen. Originally she had wanted to give them a chance to choose a name, but Anna had made clear that doing so wouldn’t give the name any meaning.

Kai turned towards Tiffany. “Tiffy can you please show Erika around and help her if she needs it?”

Tiffany nodded and walked over towards the still kneeling Erika. “Sure thing mom!”

Kai watched the two for a moment before she turned around and walked towards her room. Anna walked beside her with an innocent smile on her face that told Kai something was up. She glanced at her oldest daughter. “Is there a reason for you to be so happy?”

Anna looked her in the face and then at her tail. “You aren’t dragging it over the ground anymore my lady and watching you become stronger and more confident just gives me joy.” Kai tried to ignore the last part. That Anna was helping her to fit the role she now was in she had already noticed.

Kai looked at her tail and stopped for a second in surprise. “Huh, you are right.”

She was indeed holding her tail above ground for the first time since she had eaten the wasp-thing. It was only barely above the ground, but a sign that she had become stronger nonetheless and she hadn’t even noticed it herself. She would have to test her new limits later.

Kai walked into her room and sat down on her bed before she opened her status.





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