Marigold – A LitRPG

When the day began the works finally started to wake up, everyone looked very confused, but totaly unhurt.

"M-Mom? What happened? We were working and then- I don't know..."

"I-I heara a big noise and then everything went dark"

"Boys! Are you all okay? I had a mental breakdown that eventually spread to all of you..."

"We're fine, I'm just feeling tired..."

"Why is it so dark here?"

"I closed the entrance, I was afraid that we would be attacked."

"Did something happen to Hans?!"

"No, but we were all weakened and much more vulnerable than usual."

Everyone seemed to have immunity against mental attacks because of {Unshakeble Will} but this immunity seemed to be only against external attacks, is useless when the attack comes straight from me.

"Boys, eat something, Hans please open the entrance for all of us."

"Of course mom"

While the workers were walking in confusion to the honey tank, Hans reached the small wax wall that I had made, and tore it all up as if it were paper, the wax was just ordinary wax so Hans opened the "Protection" very easily.

"I still don't quite understand what happened..."

"Just shut up and eat."

"It's Okay guys, it's okay now."

Getting close to the boys I could hear their arguments and I was worried about them, they were scared and not knowing the right way to react, but they didn't seem to be hurt and had no negative effect. The only one that had a negative effect was me, the effect of [Mental exhaustion] it didn't seem to do anything, just left me with a horrendous head ache.

"Boys, I know you all must be very confused, but I really need your help right now."

"What do you need mom? We are completely fine physically, we can help you with whatever you need!"

Steve spoke for all the group, I could see that some of the boys seemed unhappy with steve's "animation", but everyone also seemed to share his feeling of wanting to help.

"I need all of you to help me raise more workers, I need more nurseries and want you guys to increase our food supply."

"More workers?!"

Everyone shouted in union, looking very excited and happy, very different from Hans who seemed worried about the idea.

"Mom! Have you decided to spread our numbers?! That's incredible! How many do you need to get started!? 20? 40? 80?!?"

"Well Ken, I'm not going to start increasing our numbers like crazy yet, but I want each of you to tell me how many workers you need!"

The workers seemed genuinely confused by the question, as if I had asked something stupid or senseless.

"What do you mean? Just make a bunch of them!"

"What I'm trying to say is that I want to divide each of you into teams, each one responsible for an essential aspect that only operators can do, with Ken responsible for maternity, Levi for construction, Carl for food production, and Matt and Milles serving as the collection and distribution team."

"B-But what about me Mom?"

"Steve, I want you to supervise all your brothers and ensure that the work is being done correctly, you are by far the most competent in management."

"I-I still don't understand what you want to do mom."

"I will place each of you to serve as the leader of a group of workers to do specific tasks"

"That way you won't have to do a little bit of everything, and you can focus only on what you are good at, Steve, Ken and Levi, I recognized your talent in these roles since I saw you working, Carl, Matt and Miles, I'm not sure what your strengths are, but I'm sure you guys will work very well in the tasks I gave you."

"I-I A-As a L-Leader?! M-Mom i n-I don't think im good for that!"

"Of course you are Levi, you are very hardworking and talented, now you just need a little attitude."

"Now I understand.. If so I want 2 worers to help me! The work in the nurseries is not exactly difficult, just repetitive, I don't need much help."

"Hmm, mom, as a food production manager, I need to collect nectar? Or is that Matt's job?"

"It will be Matt's job, your job just gonna be to make sure our reserves are always full."

"So I guess I just need 2 or 3, just enough to keep a consistent production I guess..."

"If I'm from the collection team then I need the largest number of collectors to help me!"

"And I need a large number of workers, and some collectors, so I could distribute the materials quickly among everyone."

The boys seemed certain of what they needed, only Levi was frozen by the idea of having to lead an entire group alone.

"Levi? What about you?"

"I-I think... That it depends on your plans with the expansion of the nest..."

"Oh! I want big as possible, and fast as possible, and safe as possible."

After hearing this Levi tried to make some mental calculations and it looked like he was going to cry, being from the construction group that currently had the highest priority, Levi was worried that he would end up having to manage the largest group of all.

"No need to be afraid Levi, just give me an estimate, remember that you don't have to do everything yourself, you will still have everyone to help you, and Steve will definitely make sure that you can do everything easily."

"W-Well, then I would say that about 40-50 bees would be ideal... That way we could build the nest quickly..."

"Ken, do we have room for all this in here?"

"50 no.. we would need to build a second floor of nurseries, but this place is not high enough for this, but it is possible to build about 20-30 units in the space we have."

"So what do you think of 20 workers and 10 collectors? Together with the ones we already have growing, we would have 20 workes and 12 collectors. So we could distribute them between Ken, Carl, and Miles, and leave most of them with Levi, and leave about 8 collections for Matt, and 4 for Miles."

"Sounds like a good number! We can start producing the nurseries now!"

"So please do it boys!"

Soon as we finished discussing the distribution arrangement, the boys left excited to complete the job, Levi the only one nervous, but still seemed happy to receive more workers.

"Mom, What do you need me to do?"

"Hans, protect the boys, soon this place will get cramped, but until we have more soldiers the safety of everyone will be in your hands."

"I won't let any harm happen to any member of our family while I am alive mom!"

Hans, noble as ever, but that promise is just a nice way of saying, "Just over my dead body."

---

 

While the boys were working in the new nurseries I took the opportunity to take a look at the eggs, specifically a gray egg shaped like a grain of rice.

 

 

I still had the drop of royal jelly capable of causing mutations, and I wanted to use it on this little guy soon as he hatched, I don't know if Royal Jelly rots very quickly over time, but I'm sure it wouldn't last forever, and I don't want to risk another mental breakdown trying to manufacture another drop of it.

The effect of [Mental exhaustion] had already passed, and now I could try all the jelly work again, producing jelly could be dangerous, but extremely rewarding.

I still wasn't going to give up jelly production, the jelly seemed to be able to mold itself according to my desires and manage to create a unique effect, of course it had a cost that I was now aware of, and it also seemed to be very limited, the more abstract or "wild" the desire was the greater as the price to pay, but if I played in the right lines I could get a valuable item to help the colony.

Arriving near the honey tank while is as carring a pile of wax dishes I begin to fill my chest and try to create a special jelly, capable of solely nourishing the body of larvae.

 

 

I managed to create the jelly without any problems, but the effect isn't impressive. The first time I created Jelly the effect was incredible and the quality was excellent, but all the other jellies I created so far did't even reach her feet. Was that because of my feelings? Or desire? The first Jelly had been "made with love" but I didn't feel love when I was making the jelly... Just a burning desire to create Royal Jelly. So that would be it? The desire? Was my intention when creating this jelly not strong enough to generate a significant effect? Or was it the question of "mental power"? Did I need to pour more of it into the jelly to create a powerful effect? But how do you do that? If that were the case I would need to do it unintentionally like I did the first time...

Leaving for my next attempt, I try to pour out the desire to create a jelly capable of causing a powerful effect, specifically (recovery) and try to focus solely on this desire and ignore everything else, I throw intentions like "Heal" and "protect" to try the maximum to achieve the desired effect, and when I finally spit out the little ball of royal jelly I feel dizzy and my headache has returned.

 

 

Success! So it really is a matter of intention and intensity, I got tired as hell just creating this, but the effect is incredible, well at least the [Recovery] part, the [Deep Sleep] part and [Exhaustion] worry me, is possible to create a jelly without these debuffs? But I think these negative effects must be the price to pay for a powerful positive effect, perhaps a way for the system to ensure that there was some balance.

"Mom! We finished the nurseries!"

While I was distracted making jam the boys were making more production units, and in the meantime they had already finished everything.

"Well, I'm going to lay the eggs, and I wanted to ask you to separate the Scout egg from the others, I want to try to feed it with the special jelly I created yesterday."

"Hmm? All right!"

---

 

After laying the 30 eggs very easily I just watched as Ken carried them one by one very carefully into the brood Combs and then gently placed them inside each unit, now there is no turning back, I have raised several eggs, and I know I would raise more if needed, laying these eggs is so easy that it doesn't even feel like I'm giving birth, I just feel a slight pressure and then Ken handles everything himself.

One of the things I had never realized about [Laying eggs] was that using the skill made me very hungry! I had never felt this before because I had never created a significant number of drones, but now that I created several I was hungry.

"Ken, I'll eat something, and then make some rations, can you tell me what the others are doing now?"

"Hmm. I think Levi, Carl and Steve are trying to finish the first part of the nest expansion, and Miles and Matt are looking for nectar."

"All right then, I'm going to eat something and then I'm going to create a significant number of rations for us."

"All right!"

Leaving Ken alone tending the eggs I headed to the tank and soon drank a large amount of honey, when I felt satisfied I sat down and started creating some honey crystals, until I thought.

Can I do better than these honey crystals?

The crystals were good for sure, but it was Results of a skill I gained from [Creat honey] lv 5, so it shouldn't be the "perfect food" it was super nutritious and easy to store, but the workers needed so much time to eat this, tha it was even sad having to see them trying to break the piece of super hard sugar.

So what would it be? Regular jam looks good, but it would be hard to store, the [Bee candies] look easier to eat and easier to store, but they're not nutritious, so what could I do? It had to be something easy to eat, highly nutritious and easy to store like a cereal bar.

Cereal bar?

Could I try imitating a cereal bar with just honey? I try to focus on the idea of a hard bar made of honey, and soon I can feel the honey getting thicker inside my chest, and when I spit it out I see that it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but still close.

 

 

It's practically a success! This piece of honey looks like a piece of moldable clay, only harder, I can still mold it but with some difficulty, just like [Hard Wax] made solely with pollen.

'This is very useful! I can attach it to the walls or to a larger block and then the workers will just need to tear off some pieces to eat!'

"Mom you need help?"

"Oh, Matt and Milles, just in time! Yes, i need some help , I will create some rations, and I want you guys to fill the honey tank for me in the meantime."

"No problem!"

"You can count on me! Because this idiot here is useless!"

"What' did you say?!"

"No fighting boys!"

"Humph!"

After an exchange of ugly looks the boys empty the honey they had brought and soon left to quickly get some more, or maybe they left quickly so they wouldn't fight in my presence, who knows?

---

 

"What is this new ration?"

"Looks good!"

"I-isn't it very sticky?"

"At least it's easier to chew than those crystals!"

"Mom what is it?"

"Well, they are pieces of hardened honey, but they are still malleable enough so we can gather the pieces into a single ball, and tear off pieces to eat!"

"It's very tasty!"

"What do you think Hans?"

"I don't care about taste... But it's actually a lot easier to swallow."

"Ah! And you had problems eating the honey cristals? You eat those crystals like popcorn!"

"W-Well, yes but they still tired my jaws because they so hard.."

"Ha ha, the important thing is that now we have a better feed, I don't know if this is the best version of food I can do with [Create food], but it's still much better than honey crystals."

The day was already over, the first part of the expansion of the nest had been partially finished, the room was already ready and was well reinforced, but it was totally empty, I couldn't help but notice how the room was a perfect cube made of wax bricks, and certainly drew a lot of attention even from afar, but the workers said they were very satisfied with the result, since even with the strange appearance the wax brick house had become super firm and resistant, it would be very difficult to break the walls.

Well that's if you didn't have fire, a sledgehammer, or be super strong.

"What should we do tomorrow, mother?"

"Well, I think the ideal would be to continue with the expansion, and increase the number of honey tanks, how many tanks do you think can fit in the new room?"

"Hmm, I think we could build 2 large tanks on the walls and leave a clear path in the middle to pass, so we would make the most of the space."

"Then we will do it!"

---

 

When dawn broke in, the boys returned to the building while Hans patrolled the area like a hawk, and Ken tended the eggs.

And today I had a great plan, and my little scout larva was going to help me

 

 

I decided to feed the little larva with the royal jelly capable of causing mutations because I want to know what these "mutations" are, Would a mutation be giving a random [Skill]? Or are they physical modifications? Maybe it's even a [Trait]?

After throwing the small drop of jelly into the brood comb the little larva began to eat everything as if it were starving, and when it finished eating it stood still as before, as if nothing had happened. After analyzing it I could see that really nothing had happened.

'Is that it? Do I need to wait until it emerges as an adult bee to know the mutation?'

Before I could finish my thoughts, the little larva began to struggle rapidly drawing Ken's attention.

"Mom! What did you do with him?!"

"I-I don't know?!"

Upon our frightened glances the innocent-looking larva began to change color and went from a pale white to a light brown and almost doubled in size in front of our eyes!

I tried to analyze to see what was wrong with this guy and soon I found out what had happened.

 

 

 

'A [Tracker]?! What the hell does this class do?! Can jelly change the [Classes]?! But what about my lovely boy scout? I'll have to create others now! And what is this tracker for? Is it a better version of [Scout] or an entirely different class?'

"Mom! what the hell happened to him?!!?"

"Ah! Ken! He mutated and his [Class] changed from scout to tracker!"

"Because of the jelly?!"

"Yes! The jelly I gave him was capable of causing a mutation, I just didn't know what kind of mutation..."

"Wasn't that dangerous as hell?! You could have killed him!"

"Of course not! Well mean maybe? No! He would be fine regardless of the outcome!"

"I know... Then what? What a [Tracker] can do?"

"And you think I know?"

"Then why did you do that?!!"

 And I an Ken stood there staring at each other's faces I didn't know what to say and Ken visibly upset that I had "experimented" on the larva, until the tracker larva started squirming in a sign of hunger.

"Oh! I'll get you some food baby! Mom! Please don't keep throwing random things at the larvae!"

"Okay, sorry about that.."

When Ken came out it was just me and the hungry [Tracker] that would emerge at the same time as the [Soldiers] hatched, he had a different color and an odd shaped head but still cute for a larva...