Marigold – A LitRPG

'The link has been broken! It's an attack! Kill her now!' Shouted Yan through the link.

The swarm became furious and began to advance towards the beast tamer, but when I received a very weak signal from Ciel I made everyone stop.

'Stop... Please...' Ciel sent through the link that was damaged.

"Ciel asked us to stop! Don't attack!"

"This must be a trap! Ciel is no longer part of the link, he must be being controlled by that wolf! Kill him along with her!" Yan demanded.

Damn, now things got bad, the hive completely turned its back on Ciel because he was no longer an official member of the hive, and everyone was too angry to listen to me.

'SHUT UP'

My command hit everyone like a wave through the link, and all spirits were calmed. Except Ciel who remained the same as before.

'Ciel! Are you listening to me!?'

'Yes....Weak....Signal' Ciel spoke through the link.

'Drag Ciel here! Get him away from that woman!'

'-It's not safe, Ciel is no longer trustworthy! The link has been compromised! He must be eliminated!' The beacons shouted through the link

'No! Bring him to the meeting room!'

'-But!'

'No buts! Do it now!'

With my orders, the swarm that surrounded the beast tamer and Ciel began to surround Ciel in a tornado of bees and grab him by all his limbs, completely immobilizing him, as if he were an enemy, and not a member of the hive.

Soon he was forcibly dragged into the meeting room and held firmly to the floor by soldiers and tanks.

"Brothers! Please! Hear me out" Ciel whined.

"Quiet traitor!" Demanded a soldier who tightened his grip on Ciel, preventing him from speaking.

Soon all the members of the inner circle arrived and began to sit in their chairs, while Ciel was kept restrained like some kind of criminal. The friendly and warm looks that everyone had for each other had disappeared, and everyone looked at Ciel as if he were a complete stranger, even though he was one of the oldest members of the hive.

The meeting had turned into a trial, and Yan was serving as judge.

"Ciel! As a former member of the hive, we declare that you must die alongside with your "master" for your betrayal! How do you declare yourself!!?" Yan demanded.

"I-I didn't betray my brothers! I just wanted to help! I can provide the information you want!" Ciel swore.

"Lies! He must be being controlled by the wolf! We can't trust any word that comes out of his mouth! He's no longer trustworthy!" Shouted Ken, as if he no longer knew Ciel, who had been his assistant for ages.

"No....I swear! I would never betray mom's trust! I...I just wanted to help! I swear I just wanted to help! Please believe me!" Ciel whined.

"He is no longer trustworthy, Ciel has been compromised, we must eliminate him with the beast tamer to avoid any problems." Hans declared coldly.

"Ciel! As the inner circle of the hive we sentence you to-" Yan said before I entered the main door.

"Mother!" Everyone declared and stood up while saluting me in unison.

I couldn't allow Ciel to be judged like this, so while the "Trial" was conducted I slowly moved to the meeting room, everyone was too angry and when I arrived the suspicious looks and stern expressions disappeared.

"...All of you! Be ashamed! Ciel is a member of this hive like all of you, even though his link has weakened, it is still existent and I can feel it clearly!"

"Mom! Don't let yourself be fooled! This must just be a way tp deceive all of us! We must kill him quickly as possible! It's possible that he's transmitting everything he's hearing or seeing directly to the wolf!" Trouble said.

"Leave Now! All of you!"

"BUT!"

"I. Said. GET OUT!"

This time, without blinking, everyone started to leave the room, except Ciel who no longer seemed to be affected by my commands, soon only me and Ciel were in the room, while Ciel was whimpering sadly in a corner without the courage to look at me.

"Ciel dear, don't be afraid of me, can you tell me everything that happened?"

"A-Are you going to believe me? N-Not even m-my brothers believe m-me anymore..." Ciel whimpered

"Of course I'll believe you, dear! Come on, tell me everything that happened."

When Ciel calmed down he came to me and knelt in front of me, keeping a respectful distance. He told me that when he established the contract with Hilda, they became "partners" Hilda had no control over him, but Ciel was bound to Hilda, and could not cause her any harm. The contract would expire only when Hilda released him, or died. The contract allowed Hilda to send "commands" to Ciel, and for Ciel to answer questions asked by Hilda.

Communication was still difficult in the early stages of the contract, like my link before I had the [Beacons], but it still allowed them to partially understand each other.

Ciel and Hilda would also share XP while the Contract lasted, Ciel would receive a share of Hilda's earnings, and Hilda a share of Ciel's earnings. It wasn't a 50/50 split, whoever won the Xp would get the large share. Hilda could also use weaker versions of Ciel's Skills. And Ciel could extract Mp from Hilda to use.

"W-What should I do mom? I don't want to be kicked out of the hive!" Ciel pleaded.

"...We will do the following. You will help me understand Hilda, and I guarantee that you will remain in the hive. There is no need to be afraid, child, my promise is a debt."

"Really? Do you think the other members of the hive will accept me like they used to?"

"...I can't say for sure, but I can force them to accept you."

"I don't want them to accept me out of obligation, I want us to go back to how we were before! I never thought the contract could break the link! I thought it would only weaken it or overwhelm it." Ciel complained.

The link between us hadn't "Died" but it was almost there, now all that connected us was [Maternal Connection], very likely because despite everything Ciel didn't stop being my descendant. The link that was left couldn't be broken, but it was so weak that I could barely feel Ciel.

Besides the fact that Ciel became much more "open" without the link, he could think for himself, and didn't have the "flaws" of the link members. Ciel was no longer affected by my commands, or influenced by my desires, but this caused him to become a "foreign body" in the hive, a speck of red in a sea of blue.

But stopping to think now... What is the link?

I always thought it was like a [Skill] or something, but it wasn't a skill. Because it didn't appear in my skill list, so I thought [Link] was a function of [Maternal Connection], but Ciel is "no longer part of the link" and I can still feel him through [Maternal Connection]. So what the hell is [Link]?

"We'll do the following, try to get everything you can from Hilda, then we'll kill her ok? That way the contract will be broken and you can return to the hive without any problems."

This hive story was also influencing me, the drones weren't the only ones that could be influenced, each member of the hive could influence me too, but the mental influence of each member of the hive was so insignificant that it wasn't even worth the mention. But now that we are in the thousands their presence in my mind became a fixed point, they were distorting my most basic principles, little by little, but something was definitely happening.

It wasn't really anything negative, at least it didn't seem to be. They just aligned me with the hive's goals, numbed my feelings for anyone who wasn't a member of the hive, and made me more focused. With that I could see the death of members outside the hive as something insignificant, but these thoughts couldn't control me, only give me a boost.

"Really? I kind of like her... I felt she was trustworthy, that's why I wanted to make the contract with her..." Ciel replied.

"If you want we can just ask her to break the contract with you later. Until then we'll be counting on you to help us understand her."

"I won't disappoint you mom!" Ciel exclaimed.

---

 

Aurum - Year 1  - 1 Month later

 

Last month things got a little hectic, Ciel was working hard to create a dictionary for the hive, and the hive was reluctant to believe in anything that Ciel give to us.

Ciel was loyal, I was sure. The [maternal connection] still connected us, but Ciel was no longer connected to the hive. It was as if the hive was group A and Ciel was group B. Group A couldn't communicate with or feel group B, but I could feel them all, and connect with them. I believe that if I "sent" a beacon to group B, I could establish a stable connection with Ciel again, but I didn't want to risk it.

In the last month, translation progress hasn't made much progress, we only managed to get some broken and meaningless information. The only useful thing we got was the information that this world was called "Elysium". We didn't get anything useful from Hilda other than questions about "God" and "Divinities".

Hilda seemed to think that we were some kind of envoys from some god, if that lie made her open her mouth then you can call me Mother Teresa of the Honeycomb. I just wanted to know what the hell she knew and send her away.

In this period of time we were also able to make great advances in mana research. We discovered, for example, that mana energy was an energy that ran throughout the planet. The [Spellcasters] were the only ones able to see this energy flowing, and they described it as bright currents of air that went everywhere.

The magic also seemed to be able to carry [Affinity], the natural mana of the world seemed to be "pure" (without any afinnity), but would acquire an affinity when they entered a "body with affinity" that body could be a living creature, an item, or natural formations.

According to our tests, I could produce "living mana", which was charged mana with [Life] affinity, the problem was that once outside my body this living mana tended to decay quickly and become ordinary mana. I didn't know exactly why, but the theories said that "living mana" was very "complex and unstable". So when I didn't have a container to contain it (me), it tended to quickly decompose into simpler forms until become stable.

Like energized atoms, they tend to lose energy quickly if they are not in suitable environments. The difference was that mana did not generate explosions when decaying, just waves of pure mana. Another thing was that my [Spellcasters] went to the poisoned forest and discovered that the air was flooded with mana full of [Affinity], but they couldn't explain to me how the mana remained "stable" without decaying and they didn't even know what affinity was in the air.

If I were to guess, it would be the [Poison] affinity, but I can't say if this affinity really exists, or if it is some other type of affinity.

The [Spellcasters] were also advancing research together with the artisans and scientists. His main research focus was mana crystals. More specifically in how they would contain the mana within them, in a stable way.

Research and testing showed that the crystals were not actually "storing" mana, they were pulling mana from the world around them and converting it into mana with some specific affinity. Once inside the crystal, the mana could no longer escape and began to "solidify" becoming a mana crystal with affinity. Once solidified, the mana became "stable" and would not leak.

We still couldn't explain how the hell this crystal pulled in mana and solidified it. Or much less the purpose of doing so. But this research helped the boys develop new items with magical qualities.

One of the items created was [Living Wood], wood that had been flooded for weeks within [Drops of Life]. The living wood was an excellent conductor for living mana, and carried the [Life] affinity. The problem was that living wood was only a conductor, it could not serve as a living mana battery.

For this purpose, the research club develops a pool made of [Life Drops] and [Mana Crystals] shards. The "pool" was kept in a room in the center of the hive, specifically where my laboratory was once located. The new laboratory was moved to a separate room for "security" and now the inside of the tree had become a mana storage.

The mana pool was made with our entire supply of [Life Drops], and there were small mana crystals floating throughout the liquid. Once energized with living mana, these small fragments of crystals pulled in living mana, and because they were very small, they quickly solidified the living mana. Right in the center of the room was a single dark brown root, which grew throughout the lake of life. Once I poured live mana into this root, all the mana was guided throughout the lake and deposited into the crystal fracturings. So the living mana couldn't escape because it was submerged in large amounts of [Life Drops].

It served as an "insulator", since the life essence was saturated with [Life] affinity, the living mana became stable when it was submerged in the liquid, but this did not stop the decay of mana, it only slowed it down. The mana didn't seem to want to remain stable, and always tried to return to its "original" form, but if we wanted to study living mana, we would need to find ways to store mana with [Affinity].

Another thing was that common mana (without affinity) was also not easy to store, firstly, common mana was in absolutely everything, from stones to living creatures. But it gained [Affinity] depending on the "container", but when we tried to flood an object with common mana, it would either break or be irreversibly damaged.

Trying to flood living creatures with ordinary mana wasn't a good idea either. The [Mana] status had a limit, and we discovered why, trying to absorb more mana than your storage capacity left you with the effect of [Mana Poisoning], it was a very devastating effect by the way, causing nausea, discomfort and hallucinations.

Our bodies have a bottleneck, everything has a bottleneck for how much mana it can handle, if we tried to "circumvent" this bottleneck we would end up hurting ourselves.

Mana batteries were a way to get more mana, I could store about 5 mana points in the "living pool", and if I used all my MP, I could absorb the source energy with a 1 to 1 conversion rate .

Spell enchanters could also "inject" their mana into me, but the conversion rate was 50 to 1, which was totally ridiculous, and there was also the fact that spell enchanters couldn't convert live mana to regular mana. , I could use their mana to produce more living mana, but they couldn't use my living mana to replenish themselves.

The living mana was indeed a mystery, it decayed quickly when outside my body, or the mana pool, and it could not be intentionally converted to ordinary mana, the living mana had mysterious "properties", and it was still very volatile and "Wild".

The whole place looked pretty nice to be honest. The root that grew throughout the bright golden lake had a flower that looked like an lily. The lily was able to tell us how much living mana there was in the lake, since if the lily was healthy and blooming it meant that there were large amounts of mana in the lake, but when it withered and closed it meant that the reserves were low.

I became so good at depositing mana into the lake that I gained the [Mana manipulation] skill, the skill just helped me control the mana more easily, and I could use my will to add "Purpose" to the mana.

With this charming-looking "battery", the research club could finally analyze living mana. And now they were showing me a prototype of a portable mana battery.

The "battery" was nothing more than a hollow ball of [Begonia Wax] flooded with [Drops of Life] and [Living Wood] roots wrapped around small fragments of mana crystals.

 

 

"So....What should I do with this thing?"

"Just flood it with your mana! If the tests are correct, this nucleus will be able to store your mana, and we can use it in various projects and research!" Isaac declared.

"hmmmm..."

Pouring mana into the core I could feel a small pull, the core could only store about 0.3 mana. It was nothing compared to the mana pool that could hold up to 5 mana points. But it still felt like it was "stable".

"There you go, here it is."

"Thank you mom!" Declared one of the researchers.

As everyone surrounded the mana core, they soon realized that they were unable to pull mana from within the wax orb.

"Damn! Why can't I access the core's mana!?" Exclaimed a spell caster.

"It must be because [Begonia Wax] is an excellent mana insulator. We should have left a living wood root protruding from the core so that we could have access to the living mana." declared a carpenter.

"No! If we did that, the mana would quickly escape from the root, the core cannot store much mana, so we need to isolate much mana as possible inside, and plug any leaks, not create doors to let the mana out!" replied Albert.

"If we used mom's moss, wouldn't we be able to pull the mana out? After all, it's the only plant with [life] affinity that we have at our disposal." asked a spell caster.

"...It could work. The moss roots should penetrate the core in a non-evasive way. And serve as a stable, lossless conductor." Isaac declared.

"Mommy! Please let us get a piece of your moss!" He asked for a carpenter.

Looking at them like that, they looked like little kids playing with some new toy, only to discover that they need batteries. And I was the adult who had to go get batteries for them. It was quite cute to be honest.

"Of course dears, feel free to take what you need."

The moss in question was a more "improved" version of the moss that served as the carpet in the royal room, I had fed this moss with daily doses of [Drops of Life] and injections of living mana, so much that a few days ago it gained the affinity of [Life] and became huge. So much that he had a room just for him. It was kind of like my "personal garden" the room contained soil, and some workers who were emitting light during the day. In addition to farmers who took care of the moss and watered it daily. The moss had gained shades of blue and turquoise, as well as roots that looked like mycelium. They had fern-shaped leaves and from time to time produced small golden flowers capable of healing.

After waiting for a while, a farmer arrived accompanied by some workers carrying a jar full of moss. Without delay, the farmer saluted me, and handed the jar to the researchers.

As soon they got the hands on the jar, the carpenters took the mana core and placed it inside the jar with the moss.

Then as if it were a living creature, the moss began to wrap itself around the mana core, and began to create small spines of living wood, after a few moments the moss began to move on its own and crawled out of the jar like a slug, while leaving a trail of mud.

"What the hell is that?!"

"I-I don't know! It seems like the core fused with the moss and became a living creature!" Shouted one of the spell casters, amazed and scared at the same time.

Without delay, the soldiers advanced like bulls onto the moss, attacking it without any hesitation. Impaling, kicking and punching him, but the moss didn't seem to mind the blows at all.

"Stop! Do you have any idea how much work it took to create this mana core! You're going to end up damaging it! You muscle heads!" Shouted Isaac.

"This thing is an invader! And it must die!" A soldier replied without stopping kicking the moss.

"Stop boys! Let me see that moss!"

"But!"

"Don't worry, he doesn't seem threatening, he seems to be as harmless as the Wappos."

"Ugh... Okay.."

When the soldiers left the moss alone, I could see that it was all deformed, but it slowly started to return to its "original" form and continued to walk as if nothing had happened.

 

 

'Holy cow! We create artificial life!?