The Primal Hunter

Jake was taken aback at the Queen’s intense stare but even more so by how she addressed him.

”Sire?” Jake asked with confusion. No, wait, she had just been born, right? How did she even know how to talk? Why did she look like a fully mature woman? Why did she also give him the vibes of a fully grown adult with some innate sense of manners?

”Is that not what you are?” the Hive Queen asked as she moved her limbs, stretching as if asleep for a long time. ”Through your power, I was allowed to awaken and become who I am now. As the reason for my current existence, is it an inaccurate assessment to refer to you as my sire?”

Jake was about to answer but kept his mouth closed. ”It is just that the word comes with some implications I am not sure are entirely on point.”

He tried to keep his eyes locked on hers to not stare too much, and she seemed to notice.

”Excuse my indecency; I failed to consider your cultural norms,” the Queen said as a yellow silken dress was summoned out of thin air and covered her body. ”I did not mean to cause Sire any discomfort.”

”Just… you can just call me Jake,” he said, shaking his head. Saying this, he got a sense of deja vu from how many times before he had this kind of conversation. He never freaking got people to just use his damn name. They always defaulted to using something like Chosen, Lord Thayne, or even something horrible like Mas-

”Very well, Jake,” the Queen nodded in agreement.

Wait… just like that? Jake questioned his own sanity. That easy? Really? He finally got his bearings to also Identify the Queen and did not find the name overly flashy... but something was definitely off.

[Vespernat Hive Queen – lvl 200]

Vespernat. Vesper. Jake knew what that meant, as a sense of horror overtook his mind.

He had made a bloody wasp and not a bee! A wasp! Jake questioned how much he had fucked up. No one liked wasps. Wasps were the asshole counterparts to bees, only bringing misery and suffering while not giving any of that sweet honey or even being good pollinators.

”Say… do you remember your prior race? The one you had in D-grade as an egg,” Jake asked, unsure how things worked as he wanted to figure out how something like this could have happened.

The Hive Queen nodded in confirmation. ”Pollendust Bee Queen, I believe it was.”

”And now you are a wasp, correct?” Jake asked.

”Yes,” she confirmed.

Damn.

”As the Origin of the bee species, is that not only to be expected?” the Hive Queen asked, a bit confused at seeing Jake failing to hide his disappointment.

Wait… really? he questioned himself. Jake had to admit he had no idea where bees actually came from historically. Not now and not before the system had arrived. He did know that bees and wasps had stuff in common, but they were definitely not the same thing. Maybe the system had changed how things worked, or maybe Jake just didn’t know enough about the genealogy of bees.

”Could you give me some insight into what exactly a Vespernat Hive Queen is and how you ended up as one from being a Pollendust Bee Queen?” Jake asked, knowing he was maybe overstepping a little. ”Only if you feel like it, of course.”

the cultivation of nature and supplying their hives with resources. Often these bees will be seen working closely with other species and not be solitary hives, finding protection from those more

Jake nodded in

Bee Queen as my first daughter to better harness materials, but I need to know if that decision is up to me

if it is up to you?” Jake asked,

for my birth. Debt has been made, and expectations

realized… that was a damn good question. Why had he worked so hard on the bee

thoroughly handled what gardening was being done in the big underground cavern. He had acquired the Bee Queen Container before he had ever gone to the Order or really been aware going there was an option, and by now,

and hard to get, and

question of what the Bee Queen would want with her life he hadn’t even considered. If it was a non-intelligent insect monster, which was kind of what he had expected upon buying the container, it would have been all fine and dandy to just leave her in a nice big garden and have her

some point. The objective had shifted from being about the result to the process itself. It hadn’t been about the Queen at all but about actually being able to spawn her and create the core. He hadn’t even considered what the hell his end goal was once she was born or what he wanted

front of him, patiently waiting for an

goal moved from what a Bee Queen could help me with and became how I could use my

to do something for him, his own code of conduct wouldn’t allow him to demand it. He never gave her a choice to be born, so who the hell was he to have expectations of a return?

Queen was the same as Sandy or Sylphie. Their own people, with their

uncertain what exactly you mean?” the Hive Queen asked with confusion. ”If it

head. ”As odd as it sounds, then, from my end, all debts are already paid, and we don’t owe each other anything. It’s probably weird

her head. ”You have sired my Path and allowed me to evolve into what I am now. Both parties have to agree if a debt

the one confused,” Jake said, befuddled. ”How can you pay a debt when I don’t think one is owed? How can you do something to

now, but something in the future,”

we? My awareness of the outside world was limited

words about debt and was a bit surprised at her change of subject. She seemed to realize it was a dead topic and shifted

the twelve Primordials,” the Hive

how do you even know that? How do you know, well, a bunch of things? Were you sealed inside the

most monsters born at maturity, I inherited Lineage Knowledge from my ancestors. I know of my own history, of my race, and of many things in the multiverse. As a True Royal of the Ectognamorph race, my granted knowledge surpasses that of most manifold. As for the question of

there was something like that inherited knowledge,” Jake nodded. He had read a bit about how most monsters were born with some innate knowledge, and it made sense that something like a Hive Queen was born with a lot of it. He was just surprised that she held not only knowledge of her own skills and heritage but of the multiverse as a whole. Jake didn’t comment

you tell me what a True Royal is?”

important structures. It is not simply a preference but of conceptual power. Within a singular hive, the drones bow to their commanders, the commanders bow to their Hive Queen, and the Hive Queens bow to

play into that?” Jake

is the apex of a particular variant. If I went to a hive of bees, I would be seen and recognized by the Queen there as her superior – as royalty standing above her in

see,” Jake nodded with recognition. Damn, he had underestimated what a True

name for me before

Beella,” Jake said, cracking a joke. Jokes that would have Miranda threaten to kill

Queen smiled, actually getting the

sadly, it was ruined by you turning into a

bit more serious. ”If nothing was pre-determined, I would like to adopt the

yourself!” Jake