The winter hadn’t been as bad as Regina had been half afraid it would be. It even started getting warmer again pretty soon, at least. She was prepared for a new cold snap to come, though. From what she remembered, that was hardly uncommon.

She didn’t know what it meant for the start of the planting season or the growth of their crops. She’d let Mia and the others worry about that. They still had enough sources of food to hold out for a while without any new harvest. Mostly because she cycled large groups of Swarm Drones through the forest’s outskirts. That also gave them some combat experience and leveling opportunities fighting against monsters, and it made it easy to build up their first settlement.

Now, if only everything else lined up as nicely.

“I think food and other resources are going to be a major issue going forward,” Tia said on the subject, in a meeting of Regina and her senior drones. They were all visiting one of the new outposts closer to the forest. “Or at least the bottleneck when it comes to expansion.”

“How many drones are hatching right now, again, my Queen?” Mia asked.

“I have about three hundred eggs currently developing,” Regina answered. “Most of them from the new Breeders. The last one of those will also hatch soon, so it’ll bump up our growth again. Assuming we want to maintain it, of course. We already have over a thousand new Swarm Drones per week. I also need to focus on growing the ‘inner hive’, which is still going to take up a lot of my mana regeneration.”

“Plus, you’ve been mentioning for weeks that you’d like to have more of your mana back for making things,” Max added.

Regina shrugged. “What can I say, I want to make some actual progress with my Spells. Not to mention that there are a lot of things I can Conjure that the hive could use.”

“Quite a few of our people know Conjuration now, too,” Mia noted. “Actually, couldn’t Tim and Max get it, as well? You guys do have mana, right?”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” Tim replied. “But I wouldn’t mind learning that Spell. It could be very useful.”

Max had only taken two days to get his Evolution after Tim. It would have probably been even less if he’d focused completely on training and gaining experience instead of accompanying Regina. He’d had more trouble choosing his Class, too. But in the end, he decided to choose something close to Royal Bodyguard, which was also offered as an option again. Like Tim, he’d also been offered a few Knight classes, and she knew he’d been tempted by Royal Knight. But he settled on Royal Sentinel. That would presumably keep his defensive focus.

“You’re definitely welcome to join our practice anytime you want. For now, though, we should talk about a few other issues,” Regina continued. She glanced at Ada. “Have we heard anything about the Delvers?”

“Not a peep,” the scout answered promptly. “I’m pretty sure they’ve withdrawn, for now. To be fair, that might have something to do with the tunnels around that underground door suddenly getting a lot more dangerous. I mean, we’ve secured it, but it still shows it was never as safe as they might have believed.”

“Plus, they definitely have to decide how to deal with us,” Max added.

“Let’s hope that’s the ‘interact’ and not the ‘get rid of’ kind of dealing with someone,” Regina said drily. “Not that we’d be helpless if they tried. Even assuming they wanted to piss the elves off that badly.”

The others exchanged looks. She could tell they were all still a bit nervous about that, which she couldn’t blame them for at all. That situation with the Delvers had not gone quite as anyone would have wanted.

“What are you going to do about them, Regina?” Max finally asked.

She shrugged again. “For now, I’ll just wait and see how they react. Not much else I can do. Besides that, I’m making plans for the best way to reveal my identity to them and try to pull them to our side. But I’d prefer to have a better idea of how they’ll react to news like that, first.” She paused for a second. “Not to mention a way to, you know, prove I actually am what I say I am, ideally.”

Tim nodded. “Yeah, somehow, I don’t think they’d take Galatea’s word for it.”

“What about the civil war?” Mia changed the topic a little. “Is that likely to affect the situation at all? And what do we know about how it’s going?”

“It’s not going very well,” Janis answered with a small grimace. “From what Lady Kiara wrote in her latest letters, I get the impression their advance hasn’t just stalled, they are actively being pushed back, or at least on the back foot. There haven’t been any major battles, that I know of, but with spring coming, the war is probably going to heat up.”

The idea of the seasons being that important for a war was still a little strange to Regina, but she knew that Janis was right. The System and magic in general could do a lot to deal with problems and enable things that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, but it still had to be a lot harder for an army to get anything done in winter. The logistics alone would be a headache. And even if the winter hadn’t been as bad as she’d feared, there was still quite a bit of snowfall.

“I guess we’ll deal with it when we have to,” she said. “Either way, we’ll be in a much stronger position than we were at the beginning. Keep up the contact with Kiara, Janis. Without Galatea around to tell us what she can see, we need that kind of information more than ever.”

“Should you officially ask the marquis for more intel?” Tia asked. “I mean, we are still allied, right?”

Regina hesitated for a moment, considering the question. It wasn’t the first time it had come up. She was just hesitant because she didn’t want to depend on Lyns, and she didn’t like the idea of asking him for anything, anyway. “Perhaps. Janis, maybe you could sound out Kiara, see what she thinks about the idea?”

“Of course, my Queen,” Janis nodded.

From there, the conversation turned to details of their various plans and current issues, and the others started excusing themselves. Regina ended the meeting when it was apparent everything important had been said, and stepped out of the … hive. Or burrow. Anyway, she stepped out of the underground portion of their new homes and through an exit onto the training field. There was a row of straw dummies and wooden targets to the side, but most of it was kept clear to let people practice sparring in bigger groups, or run exercises with Swarm Drones.

From there, she glanced around a bit and then unfolded her wings, carefully pushing them through the slits in her shirt and jacket. By this point, Ira had joined her, standing a short distance away. Regina glanced at her, but didn’t say anything. She’d gotten used to having one of the Attendants (or Attendant-based Classes, anyway) around, even when Max wasn’t. In particular, Via and Ira had settled into the role of her personal assistants, helping her with whatever she needed, running errands, and serving as training and occasionally sparring partners.

Regina beat her wings, ascending into the air. One of the side benefits of her recent Tier increase was that she had a lot more stamina for flying. Her wing had clearly received a subtle upgrade. They were a bit larger when fully extended, and she felt more in control in the air. Not that she hadn’t felt in control before, but there was still a noticeable improvement.

Right now, she practiced a few more elaborate maneuvers. Barrel rolls were actually pretty simple. Corkscrew turns were a bit harder, but she could see those being important if she ever had to fight in aerial combat, so she put in some practice. After that, she practiced diving rapidly and ascending again, as well as sharp turns and shifts.

It had also gotten a lot easier to stay in place in the air. She couldn’t stay completely still, even now, but Regina tried hovering more or less in place and sending some Spells down at the ground, or random spots in the air. Hitting anything was hard enough even if she stood still, so trying to practice anything more complicated would have to wait. She didn’t think hitting a moving target while she was flying herself was in the cards, yet.

I should tell the others to practice this more, too, though, she reflected as she came to a stop above the entrance to the tunnels again. Even those who can’t fly can ride Winged Drone Mounts. Like Janis. Having fliers is still one of our biggest advantages. Not that the capability for reconnaissance and bombing runs or whatever isn’t good already, but straight-up fighting from the air is probably a good option to have, too.

Regina glanced down, watching as Ira practiced a corkscrew turn of her own. Ray, Ken and a few others had joined her, as well. They were pretty spread out in the air, given what they were practicing, but seeing all of them flying over the hive still brought a smile to her face. We really have come a long way.

A shout from somewhere down below drew her attention. When she turned to look, she saw Ash on two unevolved Winged Drones. He was actually standing on them, one foot on either one. Ria was a few meters away, calling something to him. It looked like he’d crossed her path. She was just glad they hadn’t collided. And Ash was doing pretty well staying upright despite his precarious position. The two drones were pretty well coordinated, but they couldn’t fly beside each other with their wings fully out. Then again, she remembered that he did have a Class Skill that granted him sure footing, among other benefits. This was definitely a creative use of it.

Regina gained some altitude, looking around further. Not that she really needed to. She could feel the Winged Drones in the air over her territory, almost see their pattern even without actually looking. There were forty-three Mounts now, and a bit less than that in Carriers and other types, respectively. That wasn’t much compared to the size of her Swarm, but she also had a lot of Winged Drones who’d reached the upper tens in terms of levels currently. There were going to be quite a few newly Evolved ones in the next few weeks, she could tell.

Regina considered flying further out to see some of them in person, and stretch her wings a bit more, but a System notification interrupted her as a blue screen appeared in her vision.

One of your Swarm Drones has reached level 40 and thus fulfills the requirements for Evolution.

Evolving to the third Tier will grant your Swarm Drones increased System access along with gaining full sapience.

Note that they will still be linked to your Hive mentally, however, any sapient member is automatically considered a member of the Inner Hive. If there is no free capacity for a new member, Evolution will be delayed until such time as your Hive limit increases or one of the current members dies.

Regina almost let herself fall a few meters in the air before she caught herself. Then she glanced around again, sending a quick mental message to Ira, before she tucked in her wings and started a quick but guided descent to the ground.

She had almost forgotten about Swarm Drones potentially becoming sapient. That it happened when they Evolved to the third Tier wasn’t much of a surprise, all things considered. If she hadn’t picked Swarm Strength, which apparently pushed it back, it might have happened at level 20 or 30 instead. Not that she had any way to know for sure.

She recognized the drone in question, even before she landed in front of it. It had apparently just finished a training session with a group of others, under the supervision of one of the younger Warriors. Regina nodded to him before focusing on the drone. Its mind was already quiet, its body encased in that dark shell that grew around her drones during their Evolution. Still, she knew it was one of the first War Drones she’d ever had, the one that had Evolved first, to a War Drone Elite. She quickly checked its status.

Name: N/A Drone Paragon (War Drone) Level: 40 Mana: N/A Con: 15 Str: 16 Dex: 12 End: 17 Int: 13 Wis: 11

Regina raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t gotten any notification about its Class choice, and she wasn’t sure if the System had chosen again or if the drone had already been smart enough and made the choice for itself. Either way, she wondered what its mind would be like when it woke up. Wait, can I still call it ‘it’? She blinked and shook her head.

Let’s get this one to the safe room first, she said, partly to herself and partly to the small group of drones who’d gathered around. We can figure out the details of this later.

If the pattern held, it was going to take at least a day for the new drone to wake up. Who also needed a name now, she noted. She didn’t know if it - they? - might want to choose one for itself/themself, or want her to choose one like she did for newborn sapient drones. If it was the latter, she might have to come up with a new pattern. Though that really wasn’t the most important thing right now.

Regina stayed and watched, supervising, while a few other Swarm Drones carried the newly ascended one into the hive, to the room in the center of the new burrow that they had set aside for those undergoing Evolution.

There probably weren’t going to be many more of those coming, at least for a while, but she still wondered how this would change her hive’s dynamic. She couldn’t really afford for all or most of her Swarm Drones to reach level forty like this, even if that would usually be a good thing to happen. Though, both of her Hive limits should be growing greatly now.