Swarming Sovereignty

When Lia woke, she was back on a bed in the place Amelia had been transporting her to, with a mirror in front of her. Reflected in the glass was her new form, a fox with fur the same auburn as her hair and fur had been when she was a humanoid. The only distinguishing feature about her was that her tail was knotted in exactly the same way it had been when she was a rat queen, but other than that she looked just like any other fox.

“Ah, you’re awake.” Amelia said. “So…no humanoid option, then?”

Lia paused, briefly considered nodding or shaking her head, figured both could be taken as agreement, then decided to try and send her feelings with mental magic like she died in that last trial. She took a second more to cast the spell, trying to send her best “there were” to Amelia.

Amelia frowned. “Can I read your mind? I’m not exactly sure what you’re trying to say.”

Lia nodded, and the after a moment a look of realization dawned on Amelia’s face. “I see. Do you mind showing me?”

Yeah, just turn around.

Amelia obediently turned around, and Lia began looking into herself, trying to figure out exactly how her ability worked. And, after a moment, a window popped up, detailing a new Skill she had received.

After she read it, she took a moment to focus, then transformed back into her old self. Or, rather, an idealized version of her old humanoid self. The pudge she had built up was gone, her tail was much bushier, and she was just a little taller, almost everything she had wanted back in the day. “I’m done.” Lia said.

Amelia turned around, eyes starting to well up with tears. She rushed over to Lia and gave her a hug, sniffling softly. “You’re back.” She mumbled. “I missed you so much.”

“Yeah, I’m back.” Lia replied, stroking Amelia’s head. “And I have a few questions for you.”

“Go ahead, I’ll answer whatever you want.”

“Are you…a noble?”

“Yeah.” Amelia said, letting go of the hug and wiping her eyes. “Sorry. I wasn’t allowed to tell you, I wasn’t even supposed to be out. My parents didn’t even know you existed until we became roommates. “

“How…?”

“Was I out so much? I just made a duplicate of myself that stayed locked in my room. Not that difficult.”

“R-right.” Lia said, shaking her head in disbelief. “I’ve been meaning to ask. What exactly is your Job? I don’t believe for a second that it’s ‘Witch’.”

“Oh, right, I didn’t tell you. Give me a second to open my status…”

Lia raised an eyebrow. Only kids didn’t have their Jobs memorized; they were short, and you saw your Job often enough that it just happened naturally.

“Right, let’s see here…it’s Heroic Expert Elder Grand Great Glorious Superior Mythical Legendary Champion Archsage of the End.”

“Excuse me?”

“Heroic Expert Elder Grand Great Glorious Superior Mythical Legendary Champion Archsage of the End.” Amelia repeated. “A bit of a mouthful, I know.”

“Aren’t you only supposed to have one modifier?” Lia asked feebly.

“To my understanding, yes.” Amelia replied. “I’ve done a lot of research, and as far as I can tell I’m the only exception. I’m pretty sure that’s why I’ve been able to do…everything that I can do.”

“Wait, you’re a Hero?!” Lia asked, desperately trying to catch up with the situation. “Doesn’t that mean there will be a Lord of Monsters soon? Shouldn’t you be focusing on that?”

“What do you think I’m doing?” Amelia said smugly. “We’re going to make the Lord of Monsters part of the swarm, easy as that.”

“I’m…not prepared for that.” Lia said. “I’m not a Hero, I can’t handle the Lord of Monsters.”

“You’ll be fine.” Amelia said reassuringly. “You’ve got me on your side, and the Lord of Monsters isn’t going to be coming for another decade or so. By that time, we’ll have sorted everything else out and we’ll be able to take care of it before it becomes a big problem.”

Lia sighed, and decided to file that away under her ever-expanding list of problems for future Lia to worry about. “Couple more questions, I guess.” She said. “Where are we?”

“A hideaway I’ve made far away from civilization. I teleport here to do all my secret work, so nobody catches even a hint of what’s going on.”

“R-right. Then…um…how is my family doing?”

“They’re safe.” Amelia confirmed. “I’ve been keeping watch over them for you, and made sure none of them get hurt. Emotionally…well, they weren’t the same since you died, but I’m sure they’ll go back to normal once they’re back with you.”

That…was not a good sign. “Not the same in what way? “

“Well…your dad goes to the bar almost every night now, and your siblings have been struggling a little with school, but they’re making it work. I’ve been surreptitiously giving money to them if they’re ever in danger of…well, running out, so don’t worry about that, either.”

Yeah, getting her family out needed to be priority number one. “As soon as I’m done with the dungeon, I’m going to get them converted, and I’ll need your help…getting me into the city and not setting off any alarms.”

“We could just do it now.” Amelia offered. “Shouldn’t take more than half a minute to teleport them here.”

“No!” Lia said quickly. “I’m not ready yet. I want to have a more stable swarm, and I don’t want to just teleport them and convert them, either. I want to try and talk them into it first.”

“If you say so.” Amelia said dubiously. “It would be a lot easier to do it my way, though.”

“It would, but I don’t want to do it like that.” Lia said. “I want to talk to them. But…speaking of getting things more stable, where is the dungeon I’ve been conquering?”

“Way out in the middle of nowhere, even more than this lab. I basically picked a place as isolated as I could find so no random adventurer stumbled into it. Why?”

“Can we use it as our base of operations after we finish conquering it? It’d be helpful to already have fortifications when we start going into the wider world.”

“You should be able to, but you’re not going to grow as much as where I was thinking of sending us. Are you sure that’s is what you want?”

“Positive.” Lia said confidently. “If we’re going to be bringing people into the swarm, I want them to be as safe as physically possible. Besides, there’s no reason we can’t establish a satellite base wherever you were thinking, I just want that as a fallback.”

“You’re right, as always. We’ll do that.” Amelia said, a faint smile on her face. “Anything else you want to ask before I send you back?”

“No, I’ll be going, thanks.”

“Have fun, then, see you soon!” Amelia snapped her fingers, there was a lurching, and then Lia was back in the encampment she had set up in the dungeon.

“Ah, Lia, you’re ba–” Rose froze as she turned around, eyes going wide. “Woah. You’re…humanoid! That’s great!”

“Only temporarily.” Lia said, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. “Or, rather, I can only hold this form for three hours every day. My true form is a fox.”

“Like…those?” Rose asked, pointing behind Lia.

Lia turned to find that the foxes she had converted in the other dungeon had been teleported with her. “Yeah, like those. The only difference is that my tail is knotted and my fur is this color.” She said, tugging at one of her ears. “Those are the foxes I converted in the other dungeon to help get this evolution. Oh, and apparently the other dungeon is no longer on the table for after this. Amelia apparently converted it into a fox-and-rat breeding ground. So…we’ll be out in the world once we finish here.”

“I see.” Rose said. “We actually made some progress on that front while you were away.”

“Oh?” Lia said, raising a brow.

“We were scouting the rest of campus, and the stadium was…well, it seemed under-staffed. There was just one troll and a smattering of goblins, so we cocooned the troll and brought it back here, while we converted or killed the rest of the goblins.”

“A…troll? It was probably one of the bosses of this dungeon. Modeled after my gym teacher, if I had to guess, Amelia always liked to call him a troll.”

“That was what we thought, too.” Rose said. “Uh, not the gym teacher part, we didn’t know about that, but we figured it was one of the bosses. Which should…only leave three before we get to fight the main boss, right?”

“To my understanding, yes. My guess is that the main boss is going to be in the headmaster’s office, and the other three will be in my room, the observatory, and my old homeroom classroom. I spent lots of time with Amelia in those places, and the headmaster’s office is…well, it just seems important, you know? Anyway…how’d the hive conquest go?”

“It went well.” Rose said. "By the time you were pulled out you had killed almost three quarters of the hive, so we just had to mop up. We’ve cocooned the queen as well, she’s stored in the same place we’re keeping the troll. We found the rat farm, too, but there were no instructions other than some notes telling students off for various mistakes they made while tending to the rats.

“We’ve pretty thoroughly scouted out the library, and it seems like the monsters there are mostly worm types, so we’ve been working on clearing it out slowly, so we don’t damage the books. But, um, what did you end up evolving into?”

“Something called a ‘Swarm Fledgling Kitsune’.” Lia said. “Have you heard of kitsunes before? The description said that people from other worlds talk about them.”

Rose paused. “I…have.” She said. “Which is odd, since there weren’t any Outsiders during my life, I don’t think. Perhaps I read of kitsunes in a book?”

“That seems about right. I–”

“What’s going on?! I heard a new voice!” Chrys said, bounding into the clearing. “I…” She trailed off, studying Lia intently. “Queenie?” She finally asked.

“That’s me.” Lia replied. “Freshly evolved.”

“Well, welcome to the humanoid club!” Chrys said, smiling broadly. “You’re…shorter than I expected. I kinda thought you would be as tall as mom.”

Lia shrugged. “This is just a bit taller than I used to be. I could make myself taller if I wanted, I could make myself look like…well, almost anything. And I’m not really a humanoid, not yet. I can only maintain this for three hours every day. It’s not going to feel like I’m really back to being humanoid until I can keep this up the whole time I’m awake.”

“And how are the stats?” Chrys asked. “Better than before, right?”

“A bit. I haven’t really checked, give me a second.” Lia replied, pulling up her status.

“A bit better than before. I downgraded from a champion race to an elite race when I swapped evolution paths, so it’s not as big a jump as it could have been, but I feel like the power of my last race was mostly in its unique characteristics, and I kept those when evolving, so…yeah.  Best of both worlds.”

“Well…what’s your plan now that you’re back?” Rose asked. “Do we want to keep looking for information on the rat farm or…?”

“Shift in priorities.” Lia said. “We’re going to conquer this dungeon as soon as possible. I’ve convinced Amelia to let us use it as our base once we conquer it, and we’re going to be establishing a secondary base wherever she was thinking before. We can take our time pouring through the library once we’ve conquered the place, and, for the time being, Amelia’s probably got enough rats from the other dungeon.

“But…even more than that, it sounds like my family has been on a downward trend ever since I died. I want to get them back with me as soon as I can, but I don’t want to bring them to an active warzone. So, we need to get this place secure in preparation for their arrival. So…Chrys, you go fetch Lily and come back, and Rose, I want to speak with Bella. Could you–”

“I am here, my Queen.” Bella said, causing Lia to jump and whirl around.

“How long have you been there?!”

“Since Chrys got here. I chose to remain silent while you were conversing with the others.”

“Alright, just…announce yourself next time. You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“If it is prudent, I will, my Queen.” Bella replied.

“So…what you’re saying is you’re not going to.” Lia replied flatly.

“I will, when it’s prudent.”

“Whatever.” Lia sighed. “When Chrys gets back, I want the two of you to go scout out the dorm buildings. I want to move us in there once we’ve made the surroundings safer. I need to know if they’ve been turned into beehives or whatever. Make sure you’re extra careful around the third floor of any given dorm building; Amelia and I were in room three-oh-two in the northwest building, and there’s almost certainly a boss there. But…just be cautious on any given third floor, just to be extra safe.”

“Understood, my Queen.”

Lia turned back to Rose. “The two of us are going to go to the main office. It’s where I first was teleported in, and it’s most likely where the exit is. Furthermore, it’s also the main defensive structure of this campus, and I want to get your thoughts on its fortifications. We may have to clear a few monsters, since it’s apparently not a safe zone now that I’ve evolved, but hopefully resistance won’t be too stiff if we’re not near the headmaster’s office.”

“Got it. Do you want to get the troll and queen bee converting before we go?”

“Yes.” Lia responded. “Please bring me there once I give Lily her instructions.”

A few moments later, Lily strode into the clearing with Chrys. “What would you have of me, my Queen?” She asked.

“Excellent timing.” Lia said. “We’ve had a change of plans and are going to be using this dungeon as defensive fortifications. I’ll fill you in on the details later, but the long and the short of it is that I need you to supervise the drones in cleaning up the biology building, so we can expand the rat farm that’s in there. Try and save as much comb and wax as you can, those might come in handy later.”

“Of course, my Queen.” Rose replied. “How much of the swarm should I take with me?”

“As many of the non-combatants as you see fit, twenty foot soldiers, five archers, and one of the knights. Since most of your work will be indoors, that group should hopefully be enough to keep you safe from any threats, but if you do get in danger, I expect you to flee, even if it means abandoning all other parts of the swarm. You’re sapient, and that automatically makes you worth any number of losses, understood?”

“Understood.” Lily said gravely. “I will be off, then.” She wasted no time, turning around and walking purposefully back into camp.

“What will I be doing, Queenie?” Chrys asked.

“I’ve been meaning to say this, but you really should be more respectful.” Rose said sternly. “That’s not a proper way to address Lia.”

“And Lia is?” Chrys said defiantly.

Rose blushed and looked away. “She asked me to call her by name.”

“It’s fine, Chrys. I really don’t mind what you or Bella call me.”

Chrys frowned. “What about Lily?”

Lia paused. “Lily feels…different. I don’t mind you two because…well, you’re Rose’s daughter, and Bella…I expect to be working closely with her in the future, but Lily feels less…personable than either of you.”

“Whatever, I guess.” Chrys said. “So, what am I doing?”

“You and Bella will be scouting the dorms for me. I’ve given Bella some instructions already, just listen to them and you’ll be fine.”

“Got it. Shall we get going, then?” Chrys asked, giving Bella a nod.

“I’m ready.” Bella replied. “We won’t let you down, my Queen.”

“Good.” Lia replied, and the two began walking towards the exit of camp, already talking about their mission. Lia turned back to Rose and gave her a smile. “Shall you show me to the cocoons, then?”

Rose smiled back, then bashfully reached downwards and grabbed Lia’s hand. “They’re this way, follow me.”

Fighterman481

So, first off, let's talk about Amelia's Job. Yes, it's absolutely absurd, yes, all those qualifiers together make little sense, yes, that is as it is supposed to be. Several of you are also going to be worried about her OP-ness getting in the way of things, but rest assured it's not going to impact things. You'll see what I mean in...well, whenever we finish the dungeon and officially add her to the swarm. For now, though, just don't worry about it.

Anyway, a bit about Lia's race - I wasn't fully ready to get rid of the trappings of a non-humanoid body, but at the same time there are enough humanoids in the swarm that her being one makes little difference, so I decided to compromise and only have her be able to be humanoid for a limited period of time.

I also wasn't intending for her family to have taken such a dark turn in recent times, but...well, it just sort of happened so I'm rolling with it. This chapter also represents an official "change in plans", as you have no doubt noticed over the last few chapters. I cut out that second dungeon because I felt like it would be sorta pointless and stale and I didn't want to write it, so I didn't.

Anyway, that's all I really have to say, next time we'll be looking at those conversions and then checking out more of campus, so look forward to it!

And, as always, thanks for reading!