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.”

dedicated their skills 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 from those more capable

Jake nodded in

better harness materials, but I need to know if that decision is up to me or not?” the Hive Queen

do you mean if it is up to you?”

my sire, and I am not blind to the investment required for my birth. Debt has been made, and expectations of a return are only natural. So tell me, Jake.

so hard on the

he had now mostly neglected, and Rick had 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,

to 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

of what he had expected upon buying the container, it would

totally lost track of his purpose with this entire Bee Queen thing at 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

evolve into what I am now. Both parties have to agree if a debt exists or not, and in my view,

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 pay it when I

something in the future,” the Hive Queen smiled as she

ask, but where are we? My awareness of the outside world was limited while within

to realize it was a dead topic and shifted the conversation, something Jake was more than happy doing. ”This

of the twelve Primordials,”

know that? How do you know, well, a bunch of things? Were you sealed inside the egg or something while in

of my own history, of my race, and of many things in the multiverse.

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 on the last part, though it made him feel weird that the woman he was talking to was

what a True Royal is?”

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, and the Hive Queens bow to the oldest Queen, often their own mother. This is

play into that?” Jake

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 the hierarchy. True

he

I may ask, Jake, had you considered a name for me before my birth?” the Hive

Beella,” Jake said, cracking a joke. Jokes that would

sense,” the Hive Queen

you turning into

more serious. ”If nothing was pre-determined, I would like to adopt the name of my ancestor and first

for yourself!” Jake