By the time they made it back to the hive, the sun was almost setting. Regina had gotten tired of flying and was now on the ground again, walking. She’d discovered that using her wings drained a bit of her mana, or rather, reduced her mana regeneration. Since she needed all the mana she could get for healing right now, she’d reluctantly grounded herself. The fact that her wings were new and untrained, and she’d discovered they could feel sore from being used too much, also played a role.

Zoe and Ace were carrying the human they’d taken captive, while the others and the surviving War Drones ferried the corpses of the Delvers that hadn’t made it. Regina was pretty sure that none of them had escaped. Even in the chaos of the fight, she’d remained aware of how many there were. Of course, there could have been someone who’d stayed in the tunnel, watched or listened from a distance and then retreated. She couldn’t rule that out, although she had sent a few War Drones back into the tunnels after the fight to take a look.

Her thought process was interrupted when she almost stumbled over a root, and Regina forced her thoughts back on track.

“Leave me some space, Max,” she said irritably. “I can walk on my own.”

The boy backed off a bit, though he kept walking beside her. “Sorry, my Queen,” he muttered.

Regina sighed and shook her head. She could tell Max felt bad about only arriving once the threat was over, especially since she herself had been in danger, too. She debated telling him that she didn’t expect him to be there whenever something dangerous might happen, but she didn’t think that would help. Especially since she knew he’d been unhappy about not being allowed to accompany her to the cave entrance they’d found in the first place, anyway. Regina simply hadn’t wanted to concentrate all of their strongest fighters in one spot. Or the de facto leadership of her hive.

Then they finally left the trees behind and walked across the field to their little village. Regina felt some of the tension drain out of her. She glanced around, quickly taking stock. She’d lost too many War Drones, but the force remaining here at the camp was still considerable. Most of the Workers and the two Harvesters were also here.

Regina paused as she saw two new drones among the group coming out to greet them. Right, the Shooters had finally hatched today. She’d have to take a closer look at one later. For now, it looked like they had two different weapon-limbs as well. One of them was mostly smooth and a bit bulky with a kind of hook at the end. After a moment, she realized it was one of those spear thrower things. What was the name? An atlatl, right. The other limb seemed to be mostly a narrow cylinder. Probably a blowpipe or something similar, given the name. They also had strange sections of chitin on their torso. Maybe those would help with shooting some weapon?

Most of the drones present rushed out to help the returning group deal with their cargo. Tim directed them to place the bodies in a convenient location and tie up their prisoner.

Regina stretched, grimacing. She hadn’t realized it at first, since she’d been occupied with other things, but something was going on with her. Her mana, and maybe her body, were slowly changing. It felt like her mana was condensing, and of course her body had finally finished growing its wings. Regina flapped them weakly, craning her head back to look. They looked delicate, like an accident or misplaced sharp implement could rip right through them. They also felt sticky. At some point, she’d gotten some blood on them, and she didn’t like the way they poked out of her back. She tried to fold them back in, but it didn’t quite work.

“Damn it,” Regina grumbled, trying to reach back and failing to accomplish much.

Luckily, she didn’t have to deal with it alone. Mia, who’d come out with the others, was eager to help. She dragged over one of the amphorae of not-wax they’d made to store water, then used a rough piece of cloth and the water to help Regina clean up. With her help and a bit of fumbling, Regina managed to fold the wings neatly against her back, covered by the shell plates. That gave her the full mobility she’d gotten used to. Her shirt, which was ripped and had only hung on barely, seemed like a total loss, though.

“Thanks,” Regina told Mia with a smile.

“Of course. Can I do anything else to help?”

Regina shook her head. She sat down on a log someone had dragged out at some point, glancing at the crowd. Then she turned her attention to the System notifications she’d received, reading them again.

Congratulations, you have reached Level 20 as a Hive Queen! You have passed the first milestone on your Class path.

As your Class Hive Queen does not offer a Class Progression, you are not eligible for Evolution at this time.

Physical changes will occur as your physical form is refined. The Drones of your Hive may now undergo Evolution upon reaching level 20.

Regina sighed. She’d expected something like this. And being able to grow wings and fly would have been a great Evolution benefit, anyway. She switched her focus to the next screen.

Frequent use and diligent training have improved your mastery of your Class Skills. After reaching level 20, further improvements may manifest themselves. Your Hive Drones may now gain the ability to communicate through your psychic bond if they are close. They may also connect to the minds of Swarm Drones. The number of foreign creatures you may induct into your Hive using Infect has risen from 2 to 4. Infected Hive members now receive a baseline +20% to Experience gain, irrespective of factors such as species or commitment.

Regina resisted the urge to whistle once again. These gains were pretty good. It sounded like her drones would be able to talk to each other telepathically, at least if they met some conditions, and would also be able to send mental commands to Swarm Drones. That could be really useful in a situation like the confrontation with the Delvers they’d just had. And the last benefit was great, too. Plus twenty percent?! I mean, I knew there was an increased leveling speed because of boosted experience gain, but I didn’t expect it to be so high. Some people might just want to join my hive for that buff alone. And she finally got some actual numbers regarding that Ability, which the System hadn’t given her when she’d chosen it.

She’d need to spend some time testing this out in detail, especially the drones’ telepathy thing. For now, though, Regina dismissed her System screen and looked up again. The drones had handled things by themselves while she’d been distracted, and most of them had already gone back to work, doing whatever they had before. She tuned in just in time to hear Max finalizing a new deployment for the War Drones, to account for those they’d lost in the fighting.

After that, he, Ada, Tim and the other leaders of the hive gravitated towards her. Regina made an executive decision and headed for the firepit and the table and benches they had erected close to it. They all deserved some food for the trouble they’d gone through. She spent the short walk thinking of names for the new Drone Shooters, and finally settled on Len, Lou and Lea. She was nearing the end of the rope, she had to admit.

Once they’d all gotten some grilled monster meat and water and rested their feet for a moment, Max spoke up. “What are we going to do about the Delvers?”

The mood instantly turned even more somber. Regina looked at Ada. “What were your impressions of the group you met, Ada?”

The young Scout shrugged. She seemed a bit hesitant. “I don’t know, my Queen. It’s not like I’ve interacted with many humans. I’m sorry.” She frowned slightly. “They seemed pretty upset to see us down there, though. I guess that much is obvious. And they were obviously contemptuous of us, but that seems to be par for the course for the Delvers. I got the impression their leader was a bit extreme, though. The others might not have attacked us that readily, or chased us all the way through the tunnels.”

Regina nodded. It seemed like bad luck that the most brash of the humans had been in charge. Maybe things would have gone differently if they’d met more reasonable Delvers. But that didn’t matter much, now, what was done was done.

“To be honest, I’m not sure how this will impact the truce deal we have,” she admitted. “The Delvers obviously didn’t seem to think the Cernlian marquis’ agreement bound them, but I’m not sure how much we can trust that. They were probably Cernlian citizens, or at least acting in territory that is technically supposed to be Cernlian soil, as I understand it. That probably means it would be part of this march, if their claim was more than empty words.”

“Uh, aren’t you making this a bit too complicated, my Queen?” Tia asked. “They were humans, and they definitely ‘engaged in aggression against’ us. Isn’t this a clear violation of the truce?”

“I guess,” Max said slowly, capturing the gazes of the others, “the question is what you want it to mean, my Queen. Do we want the truce to be broken?”

Regina sighed, leaning back and stretching out her legs. “Good question. This is definitely sooner than I’d hoped to be in conflict with the humans. But I don’t want to appear weak by just letting an attack slide, either.”

“No one might know about this fight, anyway,” Tim pointed out. “There probably weren’t any survivors on the Delvers’ side, and it’s not like any of us are going to inform the human authorities, unless you want to send a message.”

“Good point,” Regina admitted. “But the Delvers are definitely going to search for their missing members, at least. I don’t think ignoring this will make the problem go away.”

“Then what do we do, my Queen?” Mia asked.

“I don’t think we should send any word about this to the humans,” she replied after a few seconds of consideration. “At least, it would be better if we could talk to the elves first. Beyond that, we’ll just do what we can to prepare. Keep growing our forces and our strength, level up, and maybe make some defensive preparations, draw up a few plans.”

Max nodded. “That sounds reasonable.”

“Maybe we should try to get more information from the Delver we captured,” Regina added.

“I already tried to ask her a few questions,” Tim said. “She went completely silent. Didn’t even give me her name. And considering we can get that from the System, that’s just pure stubborn spite.”

Regina sighed. “Alright. Maybe stewing for a while will make her feel more talkative.”

The woman was still injured, though she wasn’t in danger of dying any time soon and even seemed to be healing on her own more quickly than normal humans should. Probably because of the System. Regina didn’t feel like wasting mana on her. Let the Delver deal with her injuries and be happy she wasn’t dead.

Like her companions. Wow, I guess I’m more vicious than I thought. Regina shook her head at herself, watching with one eye as the others left.

She knew that her urge to fight against the humans might be a bit stronger than it should be, coming from her Hive Queen instincts. But now that she considered it in depth for the first time, she realized just how much she might have let it guide her decision-making.

It was especially apparent when you compared it to how she felt about the elves. Regina didn’t trust them and would prefer not to give them complete information about her and her hive, but she didn’t feel like she was actually in danger from them. Maybe it would be better to say she didn’t feel threatened by the elves. They had never actually attacked her and clearly didn’t have any designs on her territory, since it had already been theirs and they’d given it to her. While they might be trying to manipulate her, that was probably just to be expected. Who wouldn’t try to get help when they were facing war?

Regina buried her face in her hands. Should she have just tried to make peace with the humans and live peacefully in her little village, expanding into the forest? Or tried harder, at least? Even though they couldn’t expand much before getting into the elves’ territory?

Well, it might not matter now. What’s done is done. We have the truce for one month, and we fought and killed Delvers.

Besides, even knowing that how she felt might be coming from her Hive Queen side, that didn’t mean she should ignore it, right?

Regina took her hands from her face and straightened up. She had too much to do to sit here brooding.