Marigold – A LitRPG

Now, I was looking at a large group of bees, composed of all my children, ranging from the oldest workers to the youngest collectors.

I needed to clear the air with all of them and figure out a better way to act. I seemed to have a very bad reputation in the Hive, and I had no idea why! All my descendants were loyal and seemed always to be happy. But it seemed that all this 'joy' was not because they were really happy with the situation; it was because something, possibly [Maternal connection], forced them to be happy if I was happy. They needed a lot of effort and time just to have the courage to report this kind of serious problem to Steve.

No. Maybe Steve knew this a long time ago. It's impossible for Steve not to know. So what must had happen now is that the problem must have gotten so big that even Steve couldn't sit still anymore.

"All right, everybody attention on me!"

Soon, all the bees that were whispering or paying attention to something else looked at me and silently waited for my words.

'This shit looks a lot like the reunion of a fanatical religious cult. These guys would kill themselves for me and wouldn't hesitate if I tell them work themselves to death.'

"Listen! I had heard about your requests and opinions and gathered everyone here to say that all your ideas will always be very welcome! Never feel ashamed to say something or ask for something. I want to personally apologize to everyone for acting selfishly with you guys. I did not think at any time about the well-being of all of you and only cared about my wishes. But now, I declare that community projects will be of higher priority! Being the project of the bedroom, dining room, and ballroom the highest priority projects at the moment!"

"Really?!"

"I always thought mom was more... undecided? Steve and Carl always said she wasn't 'conventional.'"

"Of course, mom is unconventional! She's extraordinary!"

"One bedroom! Finally!"

Everyone seemed very happy with the pronouncement. Everyone wanted comfortable rooms and a proper place to eat, but I don't think I ever thought about their well-being. For me, if I was well-fed and sleeping comfortably, then everything was fine.

This was clearly a mistake, like a spoiled girl who lived in a Golden Cradle.

"Boys! Look out! Now priority number 1 is the dormitory! The dorm should be comfortable, easy to expand and secure. The dorm will have access to a 'party room' where everyone can socialize and eat as they wish. All projects should be done near the main building and stay in the crown of the tree!

"Yes!"

"Finally! I was so tired of having to sleep on the floor!"

"It will be nice to be able to eat without having to look for somewhere to sit!"

"Hmm, to make such a project, we can build a rectangular room! So the dormitory could be on top, and the party room on the ground. We could then easily expand to the sides or up later!"

"But where would the doors be? Would we have to go out and in from a room to other room? This is inefficient..."

"We don't have to! We can make a large vertical corridor right in the center of the building! So we could access the upper floors by flying and easily get out from above or below!"

"This can work! We could also try using dry fiber and a thin layer of wax to create mattresses and pillows. The fact that we don't have lights bothers me, so we can't use the ballroom at night, only at lunchtime."

"Yeah, that's sad!"

"Mom will do something about it! Hans has spoken about it! Now we have to think about the salon! Are we going to put a single giant table? Or several small tables for groups?"

"I like the idea of creating small and medium tables made of hard wax and twigs! So we could easily move the tables and use the space to do other things!"

"Like what?"

"Sing! Dance! Play, even do minor jobs! And speaking of games, couldn't we make some? Zund made some board games while working on the main building! We could create a few more, and we could all play!"

"YEAH!"

Wow, these guys are excited. They are already drawing up plans and deciding what to do with the space. They must have been wanting this for a long time, but I'm glad they have their own desires and diversions. But seriously? Sing? Dance?! Do bees do that?! I've never seen a bee killing it on the dance floors.

I know bees could 'dance' to signal directions or things, but it was a kind of language, like a sign language using the whole body. The members of my colony were talking about dancing for fun! Not for comunication.

"Now! The priority from the most urgent to the least urgent projects is as follows: bedrooms; dining room; nursery; stock; Independent honey tank; walls; reinforced entrance and for last personal requests like that of Hans, Trevis, and the Scouts!"

"Yes! Thank you!"

"I love you, mom!"

"Thank you!"

"You guys are too much!"

After letting everyone go to their work, I headed to the honey tank we had now and started creating more pieces of honey. It was very sad that I was the only one in this colony capable of producing 'super rations.' But soon the Cook bees would be born, and I could dedicate myself to other things while occasionally laying some eggs.

As I stood there alone creating all the food for the colony, I kept thinking to myself..

What the hell am I for them?

I acted like a "Karen" to everyone, I let everyone stay in precarious situations and I didn't even care because I was fine.

'At least I didn't yell at them and talk a lot of nonsense.. But I still feel so bad. I am their mother, even if it doesn't look like it, I am still their mother, they are more mature than me, more responsible and more self-sufficient, but I am the mother, I should be the responsible one around here, I should be protecting them, not them protecting me... Maybe it's because bees don't have a special a relationship as humans... Hans, Ken, Steve, Levi.. All each of the members of the hive care about me, I can feel for our link, they... Love me.. They really do.

So why can't I feel the same way about them?'

---

 

Finally! Finally! Go! Emerge my precious ones! Come on!

"Mom! Stop looking at them like that! You'll end up putting an evil eye on them before they're even born!"

"I'm sorry Ken, I've waited too long for these cooks. I love making food for you guys, but honestly, this job is so boring for me. I urgently need someone to take on this job. 70% of my day is creating food to feed everyone."

Ken seemed a little bothered by me staring at the cooks lightly browned cocoons, but he was a little happy to see how much I cared about them.

"Humf, of course if you say, leave them alone, when they are ready, they are born!"

"Sure."

I kept looking at the cocoons, and Ken decided to just ignore it. The workers were trying to build a 2nd floor to increase the production, but for that, they needed to create pillars, and for that, it was necessary to sacrifice some production units. But as all the reproduction units were full, Ken firmly refused to let the workers to move the old combs. They had to make separate combs, put the eggs inside the new comb, and only then they could start making the pillars.

After a while, waiting for the cooks to be born, the slightly brown cocoons began to break, and soon, from them, 2 bees that were similar to me emerged. The difference was that these bees were much taller and slimmer, had a 'weak' appearance, and busts that made me look small in comparison. Even with the clearly female appearance, I could feel through the link that the 2 were males, which was very strange. I don't know why all my children are men. Any limitation of the system? Or some problem with me? Because even bees with female appetizers are men!

"Hello Ma'am, how can we help you today?"

"Yes, please give us a task that can help your day!"

'What polite guys! They look like waiters from a 5-star restaurant.'

 

 

Shit! These guys have [MP]!? Why?! Is it because of the Skill? Or do they have this Skill because they have mana!?

Now that I look right at them, their eyes have a little golden glow, and the most obvious, and yet the thing I didn't see, was that these guys have no wings! They are like yellow ants that walk on 2 legs!

"Boys? Can you tell me why you have [MP]? And what use would you have for that?"

"Huh? Oh well.. We can use mana to create food or royal jelly without the need for natural resources. But its conversion rate is a lot... inefficient."

"That's right! But! We can also use [MP] to make the effects of royal jelly more powerful or unique, according to the necessity of the colony!"

"We can also increase production efficiency by using mana! Increasing the yield of royal jelly production!"

'Wow, these guys are really professionals. They seem to know exactly what to do with mana. So is mana really an 'energy' that fuels powerful [Skills]? Or is it just because the [royal cooks] are not combat troops?'

"Can you tell me why you don't have wings? Or how you guys know how to use mana?"

"What? Fine... I don't know why we don't have wings, but the [skills] come with a kind of 'manual' and we know we can use mana to use skills such as [Magical Jellyycraft] and [Efficient Gland Harvesting]."

"That skill [Efficient Gland Harvesting]? What's that for?"

"Well.. We have a special gland in our head that is responsible for creating a special substance, which is the main ingredient of [royal jelly]. But if we use this gland too much, we can end up hurting ourselves. This skill allows us to extract the substance from this gland with greater efficiency and care, making the job of producing royal jelly easier!"

'Gland? What gland? Is from that gland in my head that comes my 'mental power' and is just to make the royal jelly? So aren't those mind powers the same as the X-Man's Jean Grey powers?! Is it just some weird thing that i have on in my head?! I figured if I had developed this well enough, I could even levitate things!'

"A-a gland? Are you sure? Do I have the same gland?"

"Yes mother! It is this gland that allows us to create the jelly; without it, we could not do anything!"

'Noooo my X-Man dream!!'

"Ugh, all right, can you show me what you can do? Let's go to the honey tanks, So you guys can make me some royal jelly!"

"Sure!"

After the great disappointment of knowing that I didn't possess mental powers, I flew to the honey tanks. But halfway there, the cooks shouted at me.

"M-Mom! We can't follow you like this!"

"Oops, I'm sorry, I forgot that detail."

'They don't have wings, now what? Are we going to have to make ladders for the cooks? But for now, I think we can use a little help.'

After sending a mental signal to the soldiers standing nearby, soon the group of teenage soldiers arrived through the main entrance.

"Where is the danger!?!"

"Whos gonna die today?!"

"What idiot had the courage to come in here!?"

Always brave as always, at least they take their work seriously.

"Boys! Here!"

"Mom!? Where's the problem?!"

"Nothing~ ~ I just want you to help me. Would you please carry the new cooks to the honey tanks?"

"Is that it?!"

"Yes~"

I'm sorry dude; I should have said the rules about the amount of pulls on the link.

"...Humf all right."

After the soldiers loaded the cooks into the tanks, they quickly left, and just only 1 stayed behind to help in case the cooks needed it. Soon, the cooks went to the honey tank and began to drink absurd amounts from the tank. Soon, about 1/4 of the entire tank that was giant had been completely consumed by the bee.

Soon after the Cook Bee drank all this honey, he closed his eyes and became immobile. Soon, his chest, which had a slight golden hue because of the Honey, began to turn light yellow and much smaller. Soon, the Cook went to a small empty tank and 'poured' all the contents into the vessel.

"Ready, mom! This version of royal jelly without mana, and without any specialization! Just ordinary royal jelly!"

"Okay, let me evaluate it..."

 

 

'And he has the Dick face to tell me that this shit is 'ordinary'?! I've been trying to make a royal jelly capable of feeding adult bees for days, and these guys do it on the first try and still say it was easy!'

"W-What an incredible job boys... Can you show me a jelly with a specialization?"

"Sure! You can choose between nourish, accelerate growth, strengthen, immunize, or change!"

"What would this 'change' be?"

"It's a special jelly to cause changes in status or skills!"

"And what about a jelly how can change the class?"

"This is beyond our capabilities! It would be a very high expensive, and we could even kill ourselves in the creation process. Only you could create such a jelly, since you have a royal gland larger than ours. But it is still very dangerous, and it can be fatal!"

'Oh Fuck, that's what i got for trying things I don't know what they're for.'

"O-okay! Thanks for the tip! Can you guys try to create one to accelerate growth? Fast as you can?"

"All right!"

This time it was the other cook's turn. He went to the tank, drank a lot of honey, and then did the same process again. Soon, he spit out a substance that was slightly brownish. It didn't look like ordinary jelly to me, but when I went to analyze it, I saw that for sure they knew what they were doing.

 

 

"Gee! That's very good; how much of this royal jelly did you manage to produce?"

"Well... It depends a lot on the quality of the honey and its properties. Of course, our levels are also influenced, but as we are now, we could fill an average tank if we used all the honey we have in stock... I think."

"Yes, that's true, the honey we have now is... Mediocre, not fit for Royal foods, so I would say a little less... Maybe 60 ~ 70% of a medium tank..."

"That's a fucking huge amount of jelly! The boys manage to re-fill all these honey tanks in one day! So you guys may can keep with a good production line. Now show me a jelly created using your MP please!"

"Of course mom!"

Soon, one of the Cooks ran to one of the tanks and drank another large amount of honey. This time, when he went to create the royal jelly, his chest began to emit small points of light. It was barely noticeable, but it was still there.

Soon, the Cook spat into a small jar a drop of jam like the ones I made. The Cook clearly got tired with the work and began to stagger.

"What happened?! Are you okay, kid?"

"Y-Yes Mom... I only used a lot of MP at one time; I'll be fine after resting for a while."

"Why did you use MP a lot?! You could have used just a little for demonstration!"

"I wanted you to be proud of us..."

Whoa!

"You don't have to put yourselves in danger for me to be proud of you! You are the first guys in this hive to have MP; I'm already proud of you guys!"

"T-Thank you, but please mother, judge our work!"

"Okay..."

 

 

'These guys just created a bee energy drink!?!'