Marigold – A LitRPG

I was eagerly awaiting Hans's return, and soon on the horizon, I could see him flying while carrying a large chrysalis in his feet, accompanied by several soldiers who were clearly on high alert.

"Mother! We're back, one of my men has evolved. Forgive him for not allowing you to choose his [Class], he's well-known for his lack of patience, but I assure you that this mistake won't happen again in the future!" Hans exclaimed.

"No need for that, Hans~ I was a little sad not to see the options, but that's all. If you guys wish to choose yours own [Classes] by yourselves, I approve of your choice." 

"See, I told you, Hans? Mother doesn't have a problem with it! We didn't need to come back at all!" One of the soldiers in Hans group said.

"We still needed to clarify things, and it was time for the shift change anyway." Replied Hans.

"By the way, did something happen for only the new soldiers to gain levels, Hans? I've received many notifications of soldiers leveling up, but it's been a long time since I received one from you."

"Yes! Now, I'm focusing on getting all the soldiers to evolve at least once. Since I've already evolved once, I can weaken the enemy and let the soldiers deliver the fatal blow!" Hans said proudly

So that's how it works? The person who lands the final blow gets all the XP? Isn't that a bit unfair? You could end up putting a lot of effort to kill a super-powerful ancient dragon, only for someone who did nothing in the fight pop up to land the final blow and take all the XP?

"How does that work, Hans? Don't you get any XP for assisting? Or does it all go to whoever delivers the final blow?"

"It depends! If I inflict significant physical damage on the enemy and then someone else kills it, I get about 90% of the XP. But if I only immobilize it and let the soldiers kill it, then I only get about 20% of the XP!" Explained Hans

It's still kind of unfair, but not so unfair. Killing an immobilized target doesn't seem like a greater merit than immobilizing the same target, but this is the system way of sharing Xp, it must know what he's doing.

"Alright, leave him in the nursery, the new soldiers hatched this morning, and in 2 or 3 days, you'll have 40 new soldiers to assist you."

"Thank you very much! But while we're here, I'd like to make another request, Mother!" Hans said.

Hans's requests... Why do I feel afraid of this? They're always noble requests, which seem like selfish, petty requests.

"Of course, feel free to ask, Hans!"

"I'd like a general quarters for us soldiers! And a real infirmary!" Hans replied

"What do you mean?"

"A place for us to train, sleep, plan, and receive treatment for our wounds!" Hans said.

"Don't we already have the dormitories, a cafeteria, and a nursery?"

"The dormitory isn't ideal for us! It's common for us soldiers to have to leave quickly when we detect danger, but the current dormitories don't allow us to come and go without disturbing the other workers. We can't continue sharing the cafeteria with the workers because the soldiers... Intimidate the workers with their 'violent' way of eating. Soldiers often fight over food or argue loudly, which scares or bothers the workers. And as for the nursery, the name itself says it all; it's a nursery, not a place to treat the wounded. It wouldn't be convenient to fill the entire nursery with chrysalises or with wounded soldiers!" Hans replied to me

And here comes the new bomb, I think my windmill project is going into the drawer much sooner than expected. All of Hans's reasons are too valid to refuse. I don't like having a separation between the soldiers and the workers, but I think it's only natural. It's like making a separation between elementary and high school students, everyone is still in the same 'school' but they don't mix with each other.

"Of course, Hans... I'll talk to Levi and ask him to do that, but until then, keep up the good work."

"Thank you, Mother!" Hans replied happily.

After we went our separate ways, I went to Levi and delivered the news. Levi quickly understood the situation and began making plans immediately. Nowadays, Levi could speak openly with a small group of workers who were part of his "inner circle"; he passed all the ideas to these bees, and then they passed the ideas to other bees. After talking to Levi, I went to the nursery to speak with Ken and give him the news that he would have to work in a nursery and an infirmary.

"Hello, Ken!"

"Mother, how can I assist you?" Said Ken giving me only a part of his attention.

Ken was feeding soldier larvae, while the others occasionally cleaned the bards cocoons.

The [Bards] had 3 days of incubation and an impressive 10 days of maturation, we managed to reduce the time with royal jelly, so they would hatch soon.

As for the [Weavers], they had an impressive 7 days of incubation, so they hadn't hatched yet, but nothing compared to the [Beacons], who had 15 days of incubation. The 2 beacons tha i had laid days ago still needed a bunch of days just to hatch.

"Ken, I came to talk to you to tell you that I approved the construction of an infirmary for the soldiers, so I think it would be a good idea for you to start accepting more 'nurses' here to prepare them for the future."

"Really?! I told Hans that we didn't need an infirmary! We could take care of everything from here, but what a pain. But alright, if you can send me a few more workers, I'll train them to perfection!" Ken said a little irritated.

"N-No need for that much..."

"Perfection or nothing! I'm not going to let a bunch of idiots go around taking care of the soldiers while claiming that I had trained them!" Ken replied with a serious face

This boy seemed to have a kind of "pride", i can't blame him at all, he has a good reputation within the hive. I think he just wants to maintain that.

After leaving and telling Steve to send some workers to Ken, I went to my laboratory to continue my experiments. There wasn't much else to do now besides waiting for the new troops to hatch and the workers to finish the job, so doing some experiments wouldn't hurt.

---

 

 

I was doing my experiments, I created some potions that didn't help me much and a perfume in the meantime, and after a while with no goal in mind I thought about creating propolis, but when I tried to mix various ingredients wax, resin, oil, pollen and earth I ended up creating this strange resin that was clearly not propolis.

'Maybe it has something to do with the substance produced by my gland?'

I had this mysterious substance that was produced by some gland in my head, but I didn't know how to use it voluntarily, the Cooks gave me some guidelines but it was easier said than done.

'Calm down, following the guidelines I should think of a drop of... spit? No.. "secret ingredient", and then she would just appear as magic, but that's not what's happening here...'

I kept trying to imagine this secret ingredient drop, but nothing ever showed up, the cooks kind of had a [Skill] for it, while I was completely alone and on my own.

After a long time without any success, I started to get annoyed and started thinking of new ways to create the secret ingredient, after another great time failing tirelessly, I finally managed to create a small drop of pure white color of a substance that should be the secret ingredient

 

Was this tiny white droplet the secret to such powerful items with the royal jelly? It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it sure has a lot of uses!

After analyzing the drop of secret ingredient I throw it into the cauldron, I ask the boys to put it back on the" stove " and then I start stirring like crazy, until the liquid began to darken and get a thicker consistency.

 

 

So that's it? Did I waste my day creating this thing that didn't seem to serve any purpose? I think Ken could use this as some kind of non-hazardous bleach for the breeding Combs, but I'm not going to breed gallons of this shit to sustain Ken's cleaning addiction.

Leaving the propolis aside along with my great disappointment, I ask my helpers to empty the cauldron and put the propolis inside some jars, after everything was finished I started to create some items that could be really useful, as ingredients for the cooks.

The first thing I tried was something very simple and obvious to do, I put a lot of honey with pollen in the cauldron and then let it" dry " until the honey turned into a super thick syrup. Then I threw all the contents into large jars made with walnut shells, waited until the honey hardened, and then asked the boys to grind small pieces of the honey stone to create a kind of sugar.

 

 

Sugar was a super useful ingredient, I don't know how Cooks could use this stuff, but the important thing was that I had created sugar.

After a few experiments I managed to create things like Rose Powder, seed oil, sugar cubes, honey tonics, sweet syrup and for me the crown jewel, Golden millet flour! It was made with some grains that would seem to be quinoa, which I first cooked in boiling water, then kneaded with some stones and finally dried on the fire before grinding everything with a mortar, in the end I got a rustic flour of yellow color.

 

 

This flour made me hopeful because first it was a completely consumable emulsifier, and second that I could use it to create various other things! Like cakes, sweets, breads and stuff like that!

Now I just needed eggs, milk and yeast. In addition to a body that could digest this type of food.

Speaking of digesting certain types of food, all the bees that consumed [Nutrient paste] started doing it... Poop, before this had never bothered me, we ate and everything went somewhere mysterious and there was no residue, but because this nutritious paste was more than just honey and Royal Jelly, the bees that ate it ended up having to expel the waste later, it wasn't disgusting at all like real poop, it was just a strange yellowish brown liquid, and each bee made sure to move away from our house before dumping everything in mid-air, but it was still a little disgusting to me.

Maybe it's just me being complacent, after all if you have a asshole then you would need to tke a dump at some time, but simply starting to need a toilet after so long without a toilet was still uncomfortable.

Leaving the shit behind, I go back to thinking about the flour, specifically the yeast that I could create with it, in my school days I remember creating a pot of natural yeast for the primary science show, so theoretically I could create a natural yeast only with flour, pure water and a sealed pot.

I could get the pure water with the [Tears of heaven], and I already had the rest. Now whether this flour could turn into yeast or not was an entirely different matter.

Speaking of exotic flowers, Trevis was very successful in his mission, and now we had about 10 Flowers [Tears of the saint] that grew solely on the roots of our house, Trevis was currently serving as a "teacher" for the scouts, he taught them to find tracks and to 'hunt' they preys, and harlet them whenever there was a substancial danger nearby. But for sure my [tracker] wasn't being used in the best way, and i didn't have many utilities for him now.

Unless I send him after the Beastmen again, but I'm too afraid of what he might find to send him there, I would feel even worse if Trevis went there and found out that the Beastmen are still alive, and find out that them where struggling to survive until now. Maybe they were dead by now, but I wouldn't confirm it until I could guarantee my family's safety.

---

 

Today in the morning the new soldiers emerged, they all joined Hans group, and then went out for a training, now I was waiting for the new soldier who had evolved to emerge, he was an [Striker] and I didn't know exactly what this class did, but taking into account the... aggressive" nature " of soldiers I think a class like a striker shouldn't be 'elegant' as a [Lancer], but if an attacker can deal large amounts of damage in a short time then i'am fine with it, but I would still prefer the cool headed soldiers like Hans, who were so few that I could count on one hand..

We were all waiting for the new soldier to emerge, and soon the chrysalis that was identical to Hans when it evolved began to tremble and vibrate, soon the chrysalis broke in half and inside a bee that was much more robust than an ordinary soldier, with thick arms and strong appearance emerged, the main difference in this bee besides its obvious size, was the lack of a chitin armor that all normal bees had, it had a comically small head compared to the large body and darker colors.

"Hey Mom! What's going on?"

"What's up? You idiot! Hans warned to let mommy choose ours evolutions! Lucky for you that mom didn't mind it! If not Hans would burst you on the floor!"

"Shut the fuck up! I'm sure mom would choose this class! The others were too weak or boring!"

"It's not up to you to decide that!"

"Why don't you go get lost, and go find a place to fuck yourself!?"

'Hmmm, it looks like he still has a mentality of a brawling teenager, but let's see what really matters.."

 

 

'W-Wow.. This guy is really badass! He doesn't have much speed or defense, but this guy's damage is incredible!! He seems to be a hand-to-hand combatant, I feel sorry for anyone who has to face him in a close combat fight.'

He has some interesting [Skills], [Sharp Jaws] and [Strong Muscles] seem to be evolutions of a skill, while [Heavy Attack] seems to be a really dangerous skill! It can deal 3x damage in a single attack, it looks very powerful! Does it have any limitations? Like being able to do this only one time per battle, or some kinde of timer before using again? Or could he continue throwing several consecutive blows as long  he doesn't miss any of them? Just like Derieri from Nanatsu no Taizai? Of course her skill was even better tham that, but nothing prevented this soldier from one day having a similar skill, after all this [Heavy Attack] had its similarities with [Combo Star].

"Hello~ Please boys, don't fight, I'm not mad at him for evolving, I think he made a good choice, you are all free to choose the path you want to follow in your life, if he likesa class that can cause a lot of damage In a short time, i don't have any kind of problem with that."

"See?! Even mom gave me her blessing! So shut the fuck up!"

"UGH.."

"I'm going to ask you.. .you... Do you have a name?"

"Um? Not an official name! The soldiers call me Trouble, but it's not an official name!"

'Trouble? What kind of name is that, is it like an 'affectionate' nickname among soldiers? And what do you mean by the official name? Ken had given names to his helpers, but I never looked at them to see if the name had appeared in the [Name] tab, do I need to name them to become an official name? Is there any reason I need to nominate them to be an official? It shouldn't be so important that you need confirmation, it's a name, you can change it later if you want... Right?'

"Alright... Trouble. I would like to congratulate you on your progress, and ask you to help Hans take care of the new soldiers, I know you can be a bit... impulsive, but please remember that with great power comes great responsibilities, as one of the only drones to have evolved, you are now the elite of our hive, and we all count on with your protection, failing in this task could be fatal for your brothers or for you, I understand that this may be a lot to ask, but please, try to be responsible and trustworthy, I can feel from the atmosphere between you and the soldiers, that you must tend to be unreliable, or easily influenced probably because of [Hot Head], and now with [Persistent Brawler] you can become even angrier, I won't ask you to suppress your nature, but please save that fury and anger for our enemies."

"I understand mother! I will ask my brothers for forgiveness for all the trouble i caused for them, but I am also sure that my methods are effective! Hans prefers safe fights that he have sure we can win! But I prefer to fight with anyone who challenge me! If I can kill him then, great, if I can't I'll run away! But I'm not going to think too much about whether an enemy is worth my time or not! I prefer to test it first hand and go all out, to win a high XP instead of probing an enemy that will give me a little bit o XP!"

'Damn, this guy is a real fighter, he's not cautious, he gambles with his own life, I can't say that his methods didn't work, but if he didn't have several brothers to help him in a fight or simply had bad luck he would already be dead."

You need luck every day to survive, but death only needs a single day of luck to kill you.

"...I understand, I cannot question your methods, the results are impressive for sure, but remember, your life is precious, if you wish to continue on this path I will not stop you, but do not drag anyone who does not want to be on the same path with you."

"Understood mother! I would never force my brothers to follow my path! But I have some who identify with my ideals! Now that I am powerful enough to be a group leader, I will personally train those who wish to follow the same path as me! And I promise whith my life on the line that I will never let any of them die because of my actions!"

"Thanks.... Trouble."