Lair

Chapter 007 - Variation

By Skalsar

Rumors travel fast.

Rego was quite happy about it.

'Like I predicted. Even the [Local Lord] is curious.'

But his wife looked worried.

For the [Local Lord] to visit the settlement and draw even more attention to the dungeon, it could mean trouble.

Maybe the dungeon IS dangerous.

>We should be careful.She tells Rego and he nods in agreement.

With that in mind Rego will still speak to the [Local Lord] in the afternoon.

If he plays his cards right, the lord might name Rego a [Village Chief].

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The "Hivemind" is worried.

Some big human with strong prey arrived in the settlement.

Maybe we will have to devour them all, again.

Did the hive grow too fast?

Or maybe it was my fault for appearing with a [Blazing Hellhound] on the lowest level.

But "Hivemind" told me not to worry.

Since we only were there for a moment, the humans won't care, he says.

Even so, I will try to think of ways to help.

Some treasure? No.

If it was because of the [Blazing Hellhound] could it be possible to only imitate the appearance?

A creature that looks like a [Blazing Hellhound], but is weak?

Oh, I get it.

Magic power.

I will create a creature with the magic power to only make the image of a [Blazing Hellhound] appear.

Something that is fast running and does that to escape.

"Hivemind" tells me that if prey dies inside the hive, everything they leave behind is collected.

Like that weird tool the human was using.

A [Hoarder] travels through the hive and brings these things to special rooms.

I will change the [Hoarders].

"Hivemind" likes the idea. It will scare the humans first, but when they notice, all their worry will be gone. They will be lured in even more.

And when they don't realize, they will run into rooms later, from which they can't escape.

That will be fun!

But it's really hard to fiddle with the "core" of a [Hoarder].

Time and magic power gets wasted.

Since "Hivemind" needs the magic power to grow stronger, I have to be careful with it.

I dislike failing "Hivemind".

Huh? I'm not failing him?

My idea will work, he believes in me. That's what he tells me.

Another breeder is going to help me, too!

'Hello, "Hivemind" told me about your idea. I'm interested in helping.', the breeder connects to me.

Together we start collecting more information.

Like, about animals and monsters.

Most creatures in the hive are created after the image of monsters and animals.

Even we breeders.

Looks like we are an adaption of some very small insects, called ants.

To be more specific, ant queens.

But our upper body was redefined to be upright.

And we were given hands, so that we could weave the magic power better.

But that is something "Hivemind" knew how to do from his birth.

'Found it!', the other breeder tells me with a very happy feeling.

While there were many monsters with the ability to use magic power to attack or to defend, only a few were capable to use illusions.

These illusions are what we are looking for.

We will have to get one of these monsters.

But they seem to appear only at night if the moon is shining.

Very small, but very fast. Its called a [Wisp].

We will send [Hiveworkers] to search for them tonight.

"Hivemind" tells me, we only need one.

That helps alot. But how are the [Hiveworkers] supposed to catch one?

Maybe I can change them to some extend?

'Help me please!', I inform the other breeder and we start to fiddle with a core.

Adding some sticky secretion to them and making them a bit bigger.

Bees have stings, I guess [Hiveworkers] should get something like that as a defense.

Therefore, we add some small needles. With Poison? Something that stops the prey.

Paralysis. It will only have one or two needles with paralysing poison.

Otherwise it would cost too much magic power to produce them in its body.

Thats good! It will spit the sticky stuff from its mouth and shoot the needles from its bottom.

Huh? I should rename them?

"Hivemind" likes my better variant of a [Hiveworker]!

He wants me to give them a new name to register them as a "subspecies"!

But what is a "subspecies"?

According to "Hivemind", all monsters can "evolve" into a stronger variant.

Creatures can do that, too. If the stronger variant is known to "Hivemind" that is.

The same way a creature can be created out of knowledge about animals and monsters, variants can be created for them to evolve into.

"Subspecies" is a term for a "variant" to evolve into.

Like a small [Goblin], evolving into a [Hobgoblin].

I name the new [Hiverworker] variant a [Drone].

Somehow the name seems to fit, but I don't yet know why.

Neither does the "Hivemind". It should be connected to human memories.

Weird humans with their need for names and terms.