Kai watched Sveck leave the tavern with a frown, tapping her upper hand’s index finger on the silken block they had used as a table. The conversation with the strange human left her with a lot of things to consider, plan and prepare for the near future. It was still better than remaining in the dark only to be surprised in the end,
She looked at the 3 armed daughters that would change shifts with the group that had gone with Sveck in a few hours. “Could you three please tell Artemis about our guest and to remain ready? And make sure you take a break afterwards!”
Artemis was by far next to Anna by far the strongest of her daughters afterall, especially now that she had received the [huntress] class. Having a class seemed to make it easier for a person to pick up skills related to the class since her daughter unlocked quite a few like [short bladed weapon mastery] or [bow mastery] during the last week and her ability to use these things was improving rapidly, paving the road for the rest of the hive.
The three girls nodded and left to fulfill their task so Kai took the strange bag, the bag of holding, and handed it over to Anna. “After Artemis you are currently the most proficient in [sense mana] dear, but I want your sister to be ready in case of an emergency so could you try to figure out how this magic functions?”
Her daughter nodded and pointed to a table behind Kai. “Of course mother. I will be over there if you need anything.”
Kai watched Anna stand up and was reminded that she still hadn’t gotten her to tell what class she had, but put the matter aside for now. She leaned back on her tail with a sigh and thought back to the conversation.
Thankfully, while cautious, Sveck didn’t have the most political mind and told her quite a few things that could have been used against them, though she took all she learned with a grain of salt. In the end the weird mutant human’s lacking english or rather ancient had probably hidden more knowledge than he himself had wanted to.
Kai opened the hive map and started to vaguely add all the things she had learned. First of all the forest she was currently in, the so-called barrier forest, was the border between the ruled lands to the south west and the scorched expanse to the north east. She had been unable to ask about the meanings of the latter’s name without raising suspicion, especially since she had apparently fled the scorched expanses, at least that was what Sveck was thinking.
The ruled lands on the other hand were apparently the land that humans had successfully settled in since the planet’s colonization, something that made Kai extremely giddy and doubtful at the same time. She again hadn’t been able to ask more, but Sveck’s medieval attire was strange to say at least considering that humans had somehow come from another planet.
Anyway, the ruled lands were basically the human land, governed by various countries that squabbled with each other, countries that were that much more dangerous than the hell mo-, the Xanai and one of those countries’ borders was less than a month’s travel away from the hive.
Kai frowned as she looked at the white unexplored part of the map she guessed the Kingdom of Ver, their apparent neighbor to be. A squad of drones was already on the way to scout things out and most importantly to discover the abandoned dungeon.
When Kai had heard about dungeons she had lost her composure a bit and had needled Sveck with a lot of questions, because if they were what she thought they were, her hive needed them.
This was were her troubles started however, because for one, the dungeon was abandoned so the baron of the land probably has some kind of claim to the area, even if it was currently under no ones rule and secondly, the dungeon was quite close to her hive, which meant that should her hive reach the required population no new dungeon would form and the damn baron had claim to land that was close to her.
The existence of this dungeon forced Kai to make a decision. She could either choose to leave the dungeon be, probably making her hive a lot weaker in comparison to other settlements in the near future and leaving herself and her daughters at the mercy of an unknown kingdom or she could claim the land around the dungeon as well as the dungeon for herself. According to Sveck this would give them resources and strength, but it would also mean that conflict between the hive and the baron was ensured.
Kai bit her mandible, already knowing she would choose the second option because she wanted only the best for her daughter, but the best required them to be strong, not weak.
She clenched her four fists in worry. They would have to prepare and they had at most a month of time to do so.
Sveck had fallen to a pretty low position in terms of problems for Kai. If he was to be believed he was just a low ranked retired adventurer of the adventurers guild, a neutral party when it came to most conflicts. Killing him or putting him in custody would only cause more trouble so she would let him go the next day, marking the beginning of their grace period of one month. Hopefully that would make the adventurers guild refrain from joining the likely conflict.
With her mind made up and their guest taken care of by Ember, Kai fully accessed the hive connection, starting to plan the hive’s next steps. As much as she hated giving orders like this because she wouldn’t ‘see’ her daughters directly, it wasn’t a convenience she could ignore any longer.
First of all, Kai assigned Artemis as the temporary leader of their armed forces until someone else was ready to take over the role and send her a message to meet with her, preferably before Sveck left. She wanted to speak about the future with her face to face.
Then she decided to assign Caro, their first [lumberjack], as the leader of their lumberjack site. The girl spent most of her time there anyway. She would get a group of 5 scouts as well as a smattering of drones to keep the area safe and an eye out for danger and her job would be to continue to harvest wood.
Kai sighed and sat upright again, turning to look at Anna who was staring at the weird bag.
That was another problem they faced, their technology and knowledge of magic was a lot worse than that of the other counties. At the moment they didn’t even have metal, let alone knew how to build a smelter, though Kai believed that they could build one from the images in her mind.
It would take some time and multiple tries however and it was unlikely that they would get time to catch up.
Wait! Kai realized something. Wasn’t she thinking in an extremely pessimistic manner about the situation?
She hummed to herself thoughtfully. It wasn’t the worst thing to do, but if they started to fully prepare for a battle that in itself might be taken as a threat.
Kai had reacted like this in the first place because her opponent was not only a noble, but one that had lost a whole town to the Xanai so she had assumed him to be a stupid self-centered brat.
Based on that he might give them the chance to get in contact with the humans which would make the whole hive stronger. Their ability to share that knowledge wasn’t known either so that was pretty likely.
Kai sighed again and shook her head before she stood up. She should probably get the input of her daughters before she decides on anything else. Kai wasn’t an experienced leader after all, strategy games didn’t really count.
She walked over to her daughter and sat down opposite her. “Have you found anything yet?”
Anna looked up and uncertainly creased her brows. “I don’t know, mother. Maybe a bit?”
She pointed at the middle of the bag. “There are visible mana markings on the material, but it isn’t really mana or at least not mana in the same state as it is in our surroundings.”
Kai eyed the bag of holding with interest, only barely able to see what her daughter was talking about. “So you suspect that mana has multiple states like water can be solid, liquid or gaseous for example?”
Anna nodded to that. “Yes, exactly like that. I can’t tell for sure if that is what I am looking at here, but that is my theory at least.”
Then she took two of Kai’s hands and smiled warmly at her. “You should also calm down a bit, mother. You are not alone and I think I speak for all of my sisters when I say we are here to help you as much as possible.”
Kai let out a heavy breath and smiled back weakly. “Thanks Anna. I think I needed that.”
Her daughter just squeezed her hands before she started to grin evilly. “You should also wait until after Ember is done with Sveck before we do any more planning. She will probably get Sveck to tell her some kind of state secret he wasn’t even aware he knew before he gets to go and all in the pursuit of clothes.”
Kai couldn't help but laugh at that. “You are right. When it comes to clothes the girl shouldn’t be underestimated.” She had learned to sew clothes all by herself after all and the only thing she had to look at were a bunch of Kai’s memories.
With a lighter heart she accessed the hive connection again. “Allright, I will tell them to meet with us after Sveck is fully gone.”
Then she looked up at the daughter that had been with her the longest with a smile. “And until then, I will try to help you with this stupid bag.”
Anna returned her smile. “As you say, mother.”
Kai watched Sveck leave the tavern with a frown, tapping her upper hand’s index finger on the silken block they had used as a table. The conversation with the strange human left her with a lot of things to consider, plan and prepare for the near future. It was still better than remaining in the dark only to be surprised in the end,
She looked at the 3 armed daughters that would change shifts with the group that had gone with Sveck in a few hours. “Could you three please tell Artemis about our guest and to remain ready? And make sure you take a break afterwards!”
Artemis was by far next to Anna by far the strongest of her daughters afterall, especially now that she had received the [huntress] class. Having a class seemed to make it easier for a person to pick up skills related to the class since her daughter unlocked quite a few like [short bladed weapon mastery] or [bow mastery] during the last week and her ability to use these things was improving rapidly, paving the road for the rest of the hive.
The three girls nodded and left to fulfill their task so Kai took the strange bag, the bag of holding, and handed it over to Anna. “After Artemis you are currently the most proficient in [sense mana] dear, but I want your sister to be ready in case of an emergency so could you try to figure out how this magic functions?”
Her daughter nodded and pointed to a table behind Kai. “Of course mother. I will be over there if you need anything.”
Kai watched Anna stand up and was reminded that she still hadn’t gotten her to tell what class she had, but put the matter aside for now. She leaned back on her tail with a sigh and thought back to the conversation.
Thankfully, while cautious, Sveck didn’t have the most political mind and told her quite a few things that could have been used against them, though she took all she learned with a grain of salt. In the end the weird mutant human’s lacking english or rather ancient had probably hidden more knowledge than he himself had wanted to.
Kai opened the hive map and started to vaguely add all the things she had learned. First of all the forest she was currently in, the so-called barrier forest, was the border between the ruled lands to the south west and the scorched expanse to the north east. She had been unable to ask about the meanings of the latter’s name without raising suspicion, especially since she had apparently fled the scorched expanses, at least that was what Sveck was thinking.
The ruled lands on the other hand were apparently the land that humans had successfully settled in since the planet’s colonization, something that made Kai extremely giddy and doubtful at the same time. She again hadn’t been able to ask more, but Sveck’s medieval attire was strange to say at least considering that humans had somehow come from another planet.
Anyway, the ruled lands were basically the human land, governed by various countries that squabbled with each other, countries that were that much more dangerous than the hell mo-, the Xanai and one of those countries’ borders was less than a month’s travel away from the hive.
Kai frowned as she looked at the white unexplored part of the map she guessed the Kingdom of Ver, their apparent neighbor to be. A squad of drones was already on the way to scout things out and most importantly to discover the abandoned dungeon.
When Kai had heard about dungeons she had lost her composure a bit and had needled Sveck with a lot of questions, because if they were what she thought they were, her hive needed them.
This was were her troubles started however, because for one, the dungeon was abandoned so the baron of the land probably has some kind of claim to the area, even if it was currently under no ones rule and secondly, the dungeon was quite close to her hive, which meant that should her hive reach the required population no new dungeon would form and the damn baron had claim to land that was close to her.
The existence of this dungeon forced Kai to make a decision. She could either choose to leave the dungeon be, probably making her hive a lot weaker in comparison to other settlements in the near future and leaving herself and her daughters at the mercy of an unknown kingdom or she could claim the land around the dungeon as well as the dungeon for herself. According to Sveck this would give them resources and strength, but it would also mean that conflict between the hive and the baron was ensured.
Kai bit her mandible, already knowing she would choose the second option because she wanted only the best for her daughter, but the best required them to be strong, not weak.
She clenched her four fists in worry. They would have to prepare and they had at most a month of time to do so.
Sveck had fallen to a pretty low position in terms of problems for Kai. If he was to be believed he was just a low ranked retired adventurer of the adventurers guild, a neutral party when it came to most conflicts. Killing him or putting him in custody would only cause more trouble so she would let him go the next day, marking the beginning of their grace period of one month. Hopefully that would make the adventurers guild refrain from joining the likely conflict.
With her mind made up and their guest taken care of by Ember, Kai fully accessed the hive connection, starting to plan the hive’s next steps. As much as she hated giving orders like this because she wouldn’t ‘see’ her daughters directly, it wasn’t a convenience she could ignore any longer.
First of all, Kai assigned Artemis as the temporary leader of their armed forces until someone else was ready to take over the role and send her a message to meet with her, preferably before Sveck left. She wanted to speak about the future with her face to face.
Then she decided to assign Caro, their first [lumberjack], as the leader of their lumberjack site. The girl spent most of her time there anyway. She would get a group of 5 scouts as well as a smattering of drones to keep the area safe and an eye out for danger and her job would be to continue to harvest wood.
Kai sighed and sat upright again, turning to look at Anna who was staring at the weird bag.
That was another problem they faced, their technology and knowledge of magic was a lot worse than that of the other counties. At the moment they didn’t even have metal, let alone knew how to build a smelter, though Kai believed that they could build one from the images in her mind.
It would take some time and multiple tries however and it was unlikely that they would get time to catch up.
Wait! Kai realized something. Wasn’t she thinking in an extremely pessimistic manner about the situation?
She hummed to herself thoughtfully. It wasn’t the worst thing to do, but if they started to fully prepare for a battle that in itself might be taken as a threat.
Kai had reacted like this in the first place because her opponent was not only a noble, but one that had lost a whole town to the Xanai so she had assumed him to be a stupid self-centered brat.
Based on that he might give them the chance to get in contact with the humans which would make the whole hive stronger. Their ability to share that knowledge wasn’t known either so that was pretty likely.
Kai sighed again and shook her head before she stood up. She should probably get the input of her daughters before she decides on anything else. Kai wasn’t an experienced leader after all, strategy games didn’t really count.
She walked over to her daughter and sat down opposite her. “Have you found anything yet?”
Anna looked up and uncertainly creased her brows. “I don’t know, mother. Maybe a bit?”
She pointed at the middle of the bag. “There are visible mana markings on the material, but it isn’t really mana or at least not mana in the same state as it is in our surroundings.”
Kai eyed the bag of holding with interest, only barely able to see what her daughter was talking about. “So you suspect that mana has multiple states like water can be solid, liquid or gaseous for example?”
Anna nodded to that. “Yes, exactly like that. I can’t tell for sure if that is what I am looking at here, but that is my theory at least.”
Then she took two of Kai’s hands and smiled warmly at her. “You should also calm down a bit, mother. You are not alone and I think I speak for all of my sisters when I say we are here to help you as much as possible.”
Kai let out a heavy breath and smiled back weakly. “Thanks Anna. I think I needed that.”
Her daughter just squeezed her hands before she started to grin evilly. “You should also wait until after Ember is done with Sveck before we do any more planning. She will probably get Sveck to tell her some kind of state secret he wasn’t even aware he knew before he gets to go and all in the pursuit of clothes.”
Kai couldn't help but laugh at that. “You are right. When it comes to clothes the girl shouldn’t be underestimated.” She had learned to sew clothes all by herself after all and the only thing she had to look at were a bunch of Kai’s memories.
With a lighter heart she accessed the hive connection again. “Allright, I will tell them to meet with us after Sveck is fully gone.”
Then she looked up at the daughter that had been with her the longest with a smile. “And until then, I will try to help you with this stupid bag.”
Anna returned her smile. “As you say, mother.”
