Kai and Anna went to the nearby river for cleaning this time. Neither of them had the stamina or will to go to one of the smaller streams this late, so washing themselves with their hands at the shore of the still somewhat wild water had to be enough.
Now that Kai had some time to work through the things that happened in the last hour, she had to admit that things could have gone way worse. The wound she had given the moth was a result of luck and had the moth not given her the time to even get the axe, she and Anna would likely be its food. It made her aware of how different her new life was compared to the way she grew up once more.
She had slain hundreds of thousands of monsters in games sure, but never had she felt this alive afterwards. She would have never thought that she would fight them in real life too. It was an exciting yet scary feeling to have and Kai could understand why some people did dangerous things now. With the right mindset the thrill you got from it was quite intoxicating.
If Kai was honest however, she still prefered slaying monsters in a virtual reality over doing the real thing. The stress she had to endure during the fighting was not worth the excitement afterwards in her opinion and the years of life expectancy she lost because of that couldn't be paid by the thrill either.
After cleaning the two of them went back to the hive. Kai really wondered where the river led to and considering that it was also going westwards it might be worth it to have a squad of drones scout along the water flow.
If they found a source of wood downriver they could use the river for easier transportation. Binding the logs together like a raft and slowly pushing them upriver with a long pole would be a lot more efficient and faster than carrying the logs to the hive.
Kai looked at the growing hive village, city or whatever you wanted to call it and sighed. She would really love to send four of the drones away, but they didn't have the capacity for that at the moment. Even if they hadn't been able to bring down the moth the drones had been a lifesaver for her and her daughters and she would rather have most of the drones near the hive in case of another attack.
They would also have to support Erika in crafting tools more. Kai had shown that just having something to throw was already a big help. Artemis finishing her bow would do a lot to help them in that regard too and they should craft bows for the other hunters in addition. They would need to train afterwards or otherwise they would be quite useless so having the bows earlier should be better.
Kai entered the back of the first floor with Anna.
The others had managed to clean up most of the webbing that had been on the way to her room, but there was still a lot more to do.
Resting was important in Kai's opinion however so she sent them all off to sleep except for Susi, who had been on guard duty before. They would need another guard to look out for moths in the future too. Not doing that had been a large oversight by Kai. She wouldn't blame it on her daughters. They weren't old enough in her opinion to think about everything. No matter how much knowledge you had, that was something that came with experience and Kai had undoubtedly more of that than any of her daughters.
She watched as Tiffany and Lena dragged Ember away from the webbing and smiled in amusement at the sight. People who wanted to work so desperately on something like Ember were quite rare and it was always mind opening to see them do what they love.
After that Kai entered her room and took one last look at the fighting scene before she would go to sleep.
The ramp to the second hive floor was still blocked by webbing and there were blood stains here and there. The biggest of them was next to the tavern the moth had smashed itself against. They were the only proof left behind of the event, next to the drone corpses that is. Her daughters would have to do a lot of egg laying the next day and they would have to figure out what to do with the dead drones.
Kai slept surprisingly well that night and dreamed of epic adventures with fights against enormous foes. There were sad moments and losses in her dreams too, but she couldn't remember what exactly it had been about.
The next morning per her routine she started by laying another worker egg. Anna joined her this time by laying her own egg. Her daughter's drone had been one of the casualties they had suffered during the night. After that the two of them had breakfast before they welcomed the new members to the hive.
Her youngest daughters were told tales of what Kai had done since the hive establishment by her older daughters over the day and she wasn't sure what was more embarrassing, the fact that they spoke about her like she was a hero or celebrity or that she was painfully aware of all those things because of their hive connection.
Anyway, besides chatting her daughters spent most of the day cleaning up the moth webbing and removing the blood stains. The drones had collected the bodies of their fallen and now waited for the decision of what to do with them.
Kai wasn't fond of using them to nourish the next generation, but something in the back of her mind told her to do exactly that. Her daughters also pointed out that not using them as food for the new drones and burying them instead would be a waste of resources they didn't have. The forest around them was slowly nearing the point where it couldn't provide for them anymore without the ecosystem getting damaged too much and the drones would have to start searching for food and hunt farther away from the hive.
In the end Kai gave in to her daughters and her inner voice. Burying the corpses wouldn't be a workable option if the swarm continued to grow in the same manner and they didn't have any farms where they could use them as fertilizer.
The only thing that had been fighting against the option of having the bodies eaten was her human understanding of morals and she wasn't a human anymore anyway. She still didn't want to witness the act of cannibalism though and let the drones do their thing while she was occupied with training.
At some point during the day Tiffany split up the work crew and delegated some of them to build more rooms while the rest would continue to collect the webbing. They already had a pile large enough to nearly fill one of their rooms, but there was still more of the stuff, a fact that made Ember a very happy Antanoid.
The hunters that wanted were armed with an axe Erika had made in the morning and sent out to collect more of the bushes they could use for short bows. Artemis was positive that they could make two bows out of one trunk if they were careful in the crafting process. The rest of the wood that couldn't be used for arrows could then be used as fuel for fire.
The next day most of the working focus was back on construction. The first floor was completely clean again and there was not a sign of a fight left back.
Kai laid another worker and hunter egg and continued training with Anna. 3 more eggs and she would reach the next level.
Kai wondered what or even if she would get anything for that level. She hadn't gotten anything except for the stats the last time and didn't think she would get anything now, even though the system should have information that would help them out greatly. Something to grow plants or a simple method to preserve food for longer would be really helpful.
In the afternoon Kai gave in to her curiosity and sent a squad of 4 drones out to scout along the river to the west. The drones were all young and in a way inexperienced. Hopefully that wouldn't get them into too much danger though. She could really do without more of her species dying.
It was the morning afterwards that news reached the hive that Kai had been desperate to hear for a long time. She had left the first drone squad she had sent westwards to their own devices and had been concentrated more on the things in the hive, the things that promised success to a higher degree. The drones had been traveling westwards for the whole time though, even if they did walk in the occasional circle.
Now they had reached the end of the titan forest. The already sparse standing giant trees stood apart even further and in the places the sun was now able to reach a part of nature had grown that Kai really wanted. A part that provided one of the most commonly available, most commonly used and important resources to sapient civilization. Between the giants of plants grew their smaller cousins, normal fucking trees.
Otjag I want to thank my new patrons Franzisko and Platymage and my older patrons for supporting me!
If you want to support me or read chapters ahead of the official release (currently 7 chapters) schedule you are welcome to check out my patreon site here.
I appreciate every bit of support!
Kai and Anna went to the nearby river for cleaning this time. Neither of them had the stamina or will to go to one of the smaller streams this late, so washing themselves with their hands at the shore of the still somewhat wild water had to be enough.
Now that Kai had some time to work through the things that happened in the last hour, she had to admit that things could have gone way worse. The wound she had given the moth was a result of luck and had the moth not given her the time to even get the axe, she and Anna would likely be its food. It made her aware of how different her new life was compared to the way she grew up once more.
She had slain hundreds of thousands of monsters in games sure, but never had she felt this alive afterwards. She would have never thought that she would fight them in real life too. It was an exciting yet scary feeling to have and Kai could understand why some people did dangerous things now. With the right mindset the thrill you got from it was quite intoxicating.
If Kai was honest however, she still prefered slaying monsters in a virtual reality over doing the real thing. The stress she had to endure during the fighting was not worth the excitement afterwards in her opinion and the years of life expectancy she lost because of that couldn't be paid by the thrill either.
After cleaning the two of them went back to the hive. Kai really wondered where the river led to and considering that it was also going westwards it might be worth it to have a squad of drones scout along the water flow.
If they found a source of wood downriver they could use the river for easier transportation. Binding the logs together like a raft and slowly pushing them upriver with a long pole would be a lot more efficient and faster than carrying the logs to the hive.
Kai looked at the growing hive village, city or whatever you wanted to call it and sighed. She would really love to send four of the drones away, but they didn't have the capacity for that at the moment. Even if they hadn't been able to bring down the moth the drones had been a lifesaver for her and her daughters and she would rather have most of the drones near the hive in case of another attack.
They would also have to support Erika in crafting tools more. Kai had shown that just having something to throw was already a big help. Artemis finishing her bow would do a lot to help them in that regard too and they should craft bows for the other hunters in addition. They would need to train afterwards or otherwise they would be quite useless so having the bows earlier should be better.
Kai entered the back of the first floor with Anna.
The others had managed to clean up most of the webbing that had been on the way to her room, but there was still a lot more to do.
Resting was important in Kai's opinion however so she sent them all off to sleep except for Susi, who had been on guard duty before. They would need another guard to look out for moths in the future too. Not doing that had been a large oversight by Kai. She wouldn't blame it on her daughters. They weren't old enough in her opinion to think about everything. No matter how much knowledge you had, that was something that came with experience and Kai had undoubtedly more of that than any of her daughters.
She watched as Tiffany and Lena dragged Ember away from the webbing and smiled in amusement at the sight. People who wanted to work so desperately on something like Ember were quite rare and it was always mind opening to see them do what they love.
After that Kai entered her room and took one last look at the fighting scene before she would go to sleep.
The ramp to the second hive floor was still blocked by webbing and there were blood stains here and there. The biggest of them was next to the tavern the moth had smashed itself against. They were the only proof left behind of the event, next to the drone corpses that is. Her daughters would have to do a lot of egg laying the next day and they would have to figure out what to do with the dead drones.
Kai slept surprisingly well that night and dreamed of epic adventures with fights against enormous foes. There were sad moments and losses in her dreams too, but she couldn't remember what exactly it had been about.
The next morning per her routine she started by laying another worker egg. Anna joined her this time by laying her own egg. Her daughter's drone had been one of the casualties they had suffered during the night. After that the two of them had breakfast before they welcomed the new members to the hive.
Her youngest daughters were told tales of what Kai had done since the hive establishment by her older daughters over the day and she wasn't sure what was more embarrassing, the fact that they spoke about her like she was a hero or celebrity or that she was painfully aware of all those things because of their hive connection.
Anyway, besides chatting her daughters spent most of the day cleaning up the moth webbing and removing the blood stains. The drones had collected the bodies of their fallen and now waited for the decision of what to do with them.
Kai wasn't fond of using them to nourish the next generation, but something in the back of her mind told her to do exactly that. Her daughters also pointed out that not using them as food for the new drones and burying them instead would be a waste of resources they didn't have. The forest around them was slowly nearing the point where it couldn't provide for them anymore without the ecosystem getting damaged too much and the drones would have to start searching for food and hunt farther away from the hive.
In the end Kai gave in to her daughters and her inner voice. Burying the corpses wouldn't be a workable option if the swarm continued to grow in the same manner and they didn't have any farms where they could use them as fertilizer.
The only thing that had been fighting against the option of having the bodies eaten was her human understanding of morals and she wasn't a human anymore anyway. She still didn't want to witness the act of cannibalism though and let the drones do their thing while she was occupied with training.
At some point during the day Tiffany split up the work crew and delegated some of them to build more rooms while the rest would continue to collect the webbing. They already had a pile large enough to nearly fill one of their rooms, but there was still more of the stuff, a fact that made Ember a very happy Antanoid.
The hunters that wanted were armed with an axe Erika had made in the morning and sent out to collect more of the bushes they could use for short bows. Artemis was positive that they could make two bows out of one trunk if they were careful in the crafting process. The rest of the wood that couldn't be used for arrows could then be used as fuel for fire.
The next day most of the working focus was back on construction. The first floor was completely clean again and there was not a sign of a fight left back.
Kai laid another worker and hunter egg and continued training with Anna. 3 more eggs and she would reach the next level.
Kai wondered what or even if she would get anything for that level. She hadn't gotten anything except for the stats the last time and didn't think she would get anything now, even though the system should have information that would help them out greatly. Something to grow plants or a simple method to preserve food for longer would be really helpful.
In the afternoon Kai gave in to her curiosity and sent a squad of 4 drones out to scout along the river to the west. The drones were all young and in a way inexperienced. Hopefully that wouldn't get them into too much danger though. She could really do without more of her species dying.
It was the morning afterwards that news reached the hive that Kai had been desperate to hear for a long time. She had left the first drone squad she had sent westwards to their own devices and had been concentrated more on the things in the hive, the things that promised success to a higher degree. The drones had been traveling westwards for the whole time though, even if they did walk in the occasional circle.
Now they had reached the end of the titan forest. The already sparse standing giant trees stood apart even further and in the places the sun was now able to reach a part of nature had grown that Kai really wanted. A part that provided one of the most commonly available, most commonly used and important resources to sapient civilization. Between the giants of plants grew their smaller cousins, normal fucking trees.
Otjag I want to thank my new patrons Franzisko and Platymage and my older patrons for supporting me!
If you want to support me or read chapters ahead of the official release (currently 7 chapters) schedule you are welcome to check out my patreon site here.
I appreciate every bit of support!
