Swarming Sovereignty

About half an hour later, the scoutmaster finished converting. While she had features that distinguished her from regular kobolds, such as a more humanlike face and the presence of very small breasts, she looked decidedly more like a monster than the bookkeeper. Where the bookkeeper was very well groomed and wouldn’t be out of place in an important meeting, the scoutmaster was wild and unkempt, like she had just come out of seclusion in the woods.

She was shorter than the bookkeeper, too, though both of them were still miniscule when compared to Rose. She was wearing furs and rags, and there was a certain…roughness to her that the bookkeeper and even the knights were lacking.

But…before she could be sent to do any work, it would be best if Lia enlightened her. So, she walked up, placed a paw on the scoutmaster’s foot, and spoke. Be enlightened. She said, and then, privately, continued. And…be Rose’s daughter or wife, if that’s an option.

The scoutmaster sort of shook her head, blinking. “I…thank you.” She said. “What would you have me do, Queenie?”

Well…we’re going to have you do some scouting for us, but first…do you want a name?

The scoutmaster nodded. “I would appreciate that, thank you.”

Then…how about Chrys? Short for Chrysanthemum.

“Works for me.” She paused, looking up from Lia and around at her surroundings, before her eyes stopped on Rose. “You’re so…big!” She said, eyes sparkling. “What’s your name?!”

“Rose.” Rose said. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“So…cool!” Chrys said. “What do you do around here?”

She’s the second in command. Lia said. She’s going to be orchestrating a lot of our battle plans.

Chrys’s furled her brow in confusion. “Isn’t that your job?”

Yes, but she’s better at it than I am, so I’m having her teach me until I’m competent enough to work separately.

Chrys nodded in understanding. “I see. So, what’ll you have me be scouting, then?”

We’ll come show you the map. Rose, if you would?

“Of course.” Rose replied, scooping Lia up. “Follow me, Chrys.”

Chrys obediently followed the taller woman towards where Lia and Rose had left the map. It was flat on the ground, so Lia had Rose set her down on top of it, then walked over to where their encampment was. This is where we are. She explained. Ignore where the sign says is “here”, we took this from somewhere else.

She turned, gesturing towards deeper within the market with a paw. That’s north. As you can see from the map, we’re on the east edge of campus. Lia walked over to the biology building on the south end of the map. We need you to investigate this place, the biology building. I want to know if there are any obstacles on the way over, what kind of monsters make the building their home, and anything else that might be important for conquest of that area.

“Understood.” Chrys replied, studying the map carefully. “This shouldn’t be too hard.”

Glad to hear it. Do you need anything else before you go?

Chrys reached into what appeared to be a pocket of sorts, sifted through it, then shook her head. “No, everything’s here. Should I try and preserve the smoke ball or be liberal with its usage?”

Use it if you can’t otherwise escape a situation without harm. Don’t just throw it away at any convenient point, but it’s also not something that’s worth getting injured over.

“Gotcha.” Chrys said. “I’ll be off, then. Big sis, if I do well, will you reward me?”

There was silence for a moment, and Rose looked around for a moment before pointing to herself. “Me?”

“Yes, you!” Chrys said excitedly.

“Shouldn’t you be asking Lia that?”

“I don’t need a reward from her to do anything.” Chrys said. “Just knowing that she’s satisfied is reward enough from her. But…why not be a little greedy?”

Rose looked towards Lia uncertainly. “Uh…”

What kind of reward are you wanting? Lia asked.

“I dunno…headpats or something?” Chrys said, scratching the back of her head.

I don’t see a problem with it, then. It’s up to Rose if she wants to, though.

“I…guess that’s fine.” Rose said. “But only if you perform admirably. Half measures will get nothing, understood?

“Understood, ma’am!” Chrys said, giving a salute. “I won’t let either of you down!”

Good. Now…here’s some modeling wax, go take that and get to it, alright? Lia said, letting some modeling wax out of her storage.

Chrys gave a salute, scooped up the wax with a hand, shoved it into her mouth, and then scampered off towards the south end of the camp, moving faster than Lia had seen anything move since her reincarnation.

“That was…not what I was expecting.” Rose said. “Did you know she was going to be like that?”

Not in the slightest. Lia replied. I have no idea how the whole “enlightening” thing works, it just sorta…happens. Maybe she just likes tall people?

“I…guess.” Rose said. “So…what now? Do you have something in mind while we wait?”

I want to mess around with getting jars and stuff from the food dispenser. Want to join me?

“I don’t believe I have anything better to be doing, so…why not?”

---

Chrys crept along the path, resisting the urge to hum to herself. She felt…good spirited, and she wasn’t sure why. She had, in essence, just been born, but everything seemed so…bright, metaphorically speaking. Queenie seemed pretty cool, and Rose was…awesome.

She felt…drawn to Rose for a reason she couldn’t quite fathom, and wanted nothing more than to be spoiled by her. But, in order to get that, it appeared she needed to do a good job on her scouting. She wasn’t going to be lazy about it in the first place, but now she just had extra motivation to do well.

So far it was going well. By what she remembered of the map, she was about halfway to her destination, and her memory of the map was surprisingly sharp. It was like…like she could still see it, as clear as it was when she was physically there. That had to be part of her new species, right? While her memories from before were…muddled, she certainly never remembered remembering anything this clearly.

And her memories were…odd. She had two separate sets, one from her time as a goblin, and one from her time as a rat. Neither were particularly clear, it was like…like she had been half asleep when she was a rat and a goblin, and everything was all…hazy. That haziness lasted right up until Queenie had done…whatever she did, and then everything was crisp and clear.

But that was unimportant. Right now, it was more important for her to focus on her surroundings and prepare a good report. And it felt…good to be out and about, running as fast as she could and feeling the wind in her fur.

The remainder of her trip to the “biology building”, whatever biology was, was uneventful. No monsters appeared on the outer paths whatsoever; the most exciting thing she saw was a rabbit that had been startled by her passage and had bolted away. And all too soon, she found herself in front of a large stone building, the path terminating at a glass door labeled “biology”.

Just looking in made it immediately obvious what kind of monsters they would be fighting – bees. The inside of the building was coated in a waxy yellow substance, and she could hear a faint buzzing from inside.

She looked at the door for a while, then shook her head and began to walk around the building. It wasn’t because she was afraid of going inside; that was her duty, and she wouldn’t shirk it. No, it was because it seemed foolish to throw herself straight into the hive without exploring her other options. If the bees hadn’t overtaken the whole building, then it would be more beneficial to find an entrance that wouldn’t lead her straight into the enemy’s home field.

But it seemed that her hopes were in vain. A quick perimeter search revealed that the building had, indeed, been completely taken by the bees. By peeking in through the open windows she was even able to catch glimpses of the bees themselves; they were large, easily twice the size of her hand, but in a sense that was better than the bees being small. Her gut told her that it would be far easier to convert fewer larger creatures as opposed to many smaller creatures, but it also meant that the bees were larger targets for individual members of the swarm to fight.

She was about to enter the hive when she heard the buzzing intensify. Worried that she had been caught, she dropped into the bushes she was stalking through and made herself as still as possible. A few moments later, a small group of five or six bees flew out of one of the windows a few yards away from her. They ignored her and began lazily moving away from the building, off to the west.

Chrys waited until she was sure no more bees were coming, then reached into her pocket and pulled out the smoke bomb before stealthily leaving the bush. She stalked the bees until they were a decent distance away from the hive, producing small balls of modeling wax from a gland on her wrist as she did. Once she was satisfied that the bees wouldn’t be able to get back and alert others, she dashed forwards and threw the smoke ball right below the group of bees.

The bees were instantly engulfed in smoke, and Chrys maneuvered herself so she was on the side of the cloud that the bees had been moving towards. Once there, she waited for a bee to emerge. Eventually, one did, separated from its peers, and Chrys reached into her pocket, pulled out one of the balls of modeling wax, and threw it at the sluggish bee.

The ball struck the bee in its side, throwing it off balance before the modeling wax spread and coated the bee in its entirety. She repeated this process with each bee that emerged, then picked up the cocoons and stashed them in different pockets. It was a little clunky, but she didn’t have any better way of transporting them, so she put up with it as she ran back towards their fortress.

---

You’re back already? Lia asked, looking at Chrys. And what’s that in your clothes?

“Yes, I know it’s soon, but it’s important.” Chrys replied. “I not only figured out what we are gonna be fighting,” she reached into the folds of her clothes and pulled out a small cocoon, “I brought a few back.”

“And you didn’t set them onto alert or anything?” Rose said cautiously.

Chrys shook her head. “No. Or, at least, I don’t think I did. They sent out a patrol while I was outside the building and I used the smoke ball to nab them before running straight back here.”

And what are they? Lia prompted.

“Bees.” Chrys said. “I looked over the whole building, they seemed to have turned it all into a giant hive.”

Great. Lia groaned. There goes the plan to move in once we get the rat farm.

“Not necessarily, just makes it a little more…difficult to mold the place to our liking.” Rose said. “I don’t see why we can’t have the drones tear apart the hive stuff.”

I guess, but that seems like more trouble than it’s worth. Lia replied. It’ll take days or even weeks to fully sanitize the place, and we’re moving out of here once the dungeon has been conquered.

“We are?” Chrys asked. “Why?”

Because we have a second dungeon to conquer, and we’re going to need the swarm for that. Plus…well, I don’t even know where this place is in the real world. If it’s too close to people or something, then we might want to leave it alone. We don’t want to reveal ourselves to the wider world too soon.

“I suppose we’ll just have to look at the place ourselves before we can make any decisions, then.” Rose said. “We’ve yet to see any of the bosses, so we can’t any super accurate predictions about time until we figure out how much of a roadblock they’ll be. Perhaps we will have time to sanitize the place, you never know.”

Amelia said that I should be able to take them after I evolved twice. I mean, I kinda took a side-grade or two, but if she’s to be believed I should be more than ready to take them on. Though…well, I question her sense of what a normal person “should” be able to do, but I have you and the knights, so I’m sure we’ll be able to make it work.

“If…if you say so.” Rose said cautiously. “I just would rather not see you get hurt because you’re unnecessarily rushing things.”

Well, we can scope things out first. Lia replied. That’s what Chrys is for, you know.

“Speaking of, did I do a good enough job to get rewarded? I know I didn’t bring back too much in the way of the number of their forces or their defenses, but I found out what they are and I even brought a few back, so that’s good, right? Right?”

“I suppose it is.” Rose sighed. “But first you need to go put the cocoons you got away. Go put them with the other cocoons over there.” She motioned over to the group of cocoons on the ground, and Chrys happily wandered over, taking several more cocoons out of her clothing and putting them all on the ground.

She walked back and placed her head right next to Rose’s head. “Pats, please.”

“Um…there you go.” Rose said, awkwardly placing her hand on Chrys’s head. “Uh…good job?”

Chrys smiled hugely, pushing her head up against Rose’s palm. This lasted until, eventually, Lia interrupted them. That’s enough! She said, a feeling she couldn’t quite place welling up inside of her. If you want more, you need to go back and scout even more for us while we plan.

“Aww.” Chrys pouted, looking longingly up at Rose’s hand. “I was enjoying that!”

“D-do you want pats too?” Rose said bashfully. “You…kind of sound like it.”

W-what? I…I’m fine! Lia protested. Just…we have work to do, and we can’t spend all day doing this!

“Well, pat me more when I get back, then!” Chrys said. “But…uh, can I eat before I go back out? I’m a little peckish.”

Yes, please do. Lia said, eager to change the subject. You can also sleep if you want, it’s important not to run yourself ragged. We probably don’t need that much more info for a bit, so don’t push yourself.

“Yes, Queenie!” Chrys replied. “I’m not tired, so I’ll just eat and then be on my way!” She gave a little salute, then sped off.

“Does she know where the food dispenser is?” Rose asked.

I’m sure she’ll figure it out if she doesn’t. Lia replied. She’s capable in this kinda stuff, I assume. Now…I think I know what I want to make that goblin mage into.

“A smoke mage?”

Exactly. It seems like Chrys was able to use the smoke against them and it worked out…decently well, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t use that to our advantage.

“A fair thought, but…have you thought about after we’re done with the bees?”

I don’t see why we wouldn’t have use for a smoke mage. Lia said. Good for making distractions and, while I’m not too familiar with smoke magic, I’m sure it has some combat spells too. I mean…it’s smoke magic essentially fire and wind magic combined, right? Shouldn’t it have access to fire and wind spells?

“Maybe, maybe not.” Rose said. “Sure, it works that way for people, but it feels like monsters are…different. You have wood magic but can’t use life magic…can you?”

Lia paused, looking into herself. No. I suppose I can’t. That’s…fair. But…what else would we make the mage?

“I don’t know, we haven’t experimented enough with it. I was sort of thinking we should try and see if we could combine it with one of the commanders and some melee weapons, and maybe even an archer and bows, along with the staff and robes, see if we can’t make a sort of…all-rounder.”

You…have a point. Lia said. Actually…why don’t we just throw a bunch of stuff in there and see what we get? I’ll get another smoke ball from the Dimension of Discounts, and maybe a couple of other things I’ve seen, and we can get also get the stuff we used to make the other mages and then hopefully when they’re all together it’ll make something awesome?

“I don’t see why not, more options can’t hurt.” Rose said. “Let’s do it.”

Right. I’m going to go find Lily so she can get us some other equipment and random odds and ends, and then we’ll see how this goes, shall we?