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.”

to 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

nodded

daughter to better harness materials, but I need to know if that decision is up to me

you mean if it is

not blind to the investment required for my birth. Debt has been made, and expectations of a return are

hard on the bee ritual and wanted to create

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

him. He had money if he needed to buy anything, he had nepotism if it was rare and hard to get, and even if he did want to cultivate his own garden, it would take a long time before 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

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

at the Hive Queen in front of him, patiently waiting for

tend to my garden back on my home planet, but with time, that shifted from no longer being necessary, yet I continued working on the ritual. My goal moved from what a Bee Queen could help me with and became how I could use my abilities to help birth a variant as powerful as possible,” Jake answered genuinely. ”So, if I am being honest, then I have no expectations now. One could say I already accomplished my objective simply by

Jake had wanted to prove he could do something, and he had done it. He wasn’t the kind of person to think that the Hive Queen owed him for being involved in one of his own selfish goals. Even if he did want her 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? Only shit

was the same as Sandy or

uncertain what exactly you mean?” the Hive Queen asked with confusion. ”If it is desired, I could help cultivate a garden. I have the skills and

we don’t owe each other anything. It’s probably weird from your point of view, but you are free

that, but I do not,” the Hive Queen shook her head. ”You have sired my Path and allowed me to evolve into what I am now.

pay a debt when I don’t think one is owed? How can you do something to pay it when I

now, but something in the future,” the Hive

but where are we? My awareness of the

was a bit surprised at her change of subject. She seemed to realize it was a dead topic and shifted the conversation, something Jake was more than happy doing. ”This is the Order

twelve Primordials,” the Hive

do you know, well, a bunch of things? Were you

looked at him and shook her head. ”For being my sire, your lack of comprehension of my race is truly puzzling. Like 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 if I was

with a lot of it. He was just surprised

me what a True

highest level of variants within a particular Lineage among the ectognamorphs,” the Hive Queen answered. ”For us ectognamorphs, the hierarchy is one of the most 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,

do True Royals play into that?” Jake asked, already knowing

I would be seen and recognized by the Queen there as her superior – as royalty standing

he had underestimated what a

ask, Jake, had you considered a name for me before my birth?”

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

Hive Queen smiled, actually getting the

you turning into a wasp,” Jake shook his head in fake

a bit more serious. ”If nothing was pre-determined, I would like

decide for yourself!”