Marigold – A LitRPG

 

 

"Now that we are all gathered, I hereby declare this emergency meeting officially open for discussion." Yan declared.

The meeting room is used a lot these days, so this place has evolved quite a bit over time. The room is completely enclosed, devoid of windows, the only entrance and exit are the large doors heavily guarded by royal guards, the entire room is lit by high-ranking royal attendants, the temperature of the room is also controlled by them, whenever the place gets hot they spray cool water around the room to lower the temperature, and then remove the excess moisture by drinking the dew that forms on the walls and pouring the used water outside the colony.

In the middle of the room there is a large round table with several comfortable seats, in the deepest part of the room there is a large raised seat how looks more like a large bed filled with pillows - The place where I sit. The room also has various decorations such as wax statues and moss carpets. Right in front of my "seat" there was a special space for Yan, and another seat a little further away that served as seat for Ravy -A young Beacon who works as a transcriptionist for the meetings.

"Very well, to start this meeting I would like to address the main problem: The threat of humans." Steve declared promptly.

"We have to kill them! All of them! They are too big a threat to be tolerated!" Trouble said furiously as he slammed his hands on the table.

"This is reckless, even if we had the means to kill them - Something we do not have, we would be too extreme to declare war against an entire species because of this disagreement." Jon declared as he drank a cup of hot tea.

"'Disagreement'?! They put the lives of 7 spies at imminent risk. They were almost sliced ​​into pieces by those humans!" Ken said visibly furious.

"Jon is just pointing out that we shouldn't start a war against beings that can kill us so easily, Ken. Especially because of low-level spies!" Zack said complacently.

"Are you serious!? Are you saying that we should just forget about this because the wounded are "not important"?!" Ken demanded.

"Ken, stop being so melodramatic, you took on the worst personality traits of the Queen Mother, as a member of the inner circle you should be able to analyze this objectively and clearly, not emotionally and morally." Steve said.

"Are you kidding me, man?! It was Me! Personally me! How took care of every member from the 2nd generation onwards since they were young larvae! You have no right to tell me how I should feel about them! You only see numbers and resources, you don't know what it's like to look at one of your brothers that you raised from an egg, unconscious in a bed fighting for his life!" Ken said almost yelling.

"Ken, we understand your point of view as the leader of the care club, but we need to think first of an efficient way to keep the colony alive and functioning, not the well-being of each individual." Miles said.

"You- Trevis, say something! These are the members of your group!" Ken demanded.

"... First of all, I would like to point out that I am very angry with how the situation unfolded, but I must say that I completely agree with Steve and Jon's point of view, the wounded are not indispensable and irreplaceable troops, I am more angry with the fact that I could not do much, with the fact that my men were injured." Trevis declared without much delay.

"You! You are all pieces of shit!" Ken said.

"Ken! Stop it, if every time we get into a serious matter about troop availability you start throwing a tantrum, we're going to remove your position as leader of the care club and take away your privilege of attending inner circle meetings." Steve said harshly.

"You! Mom! Say something!" Ken said as he glared at me.

'Damn it Ken, why did you have to involve me in this...'

Ken is basically the reincarnation of my maternal side, I guess? He's very serious when it comes to caring for the members of the hive, he cares a lot about everyone's safety, and he loves babies, the problem is that he's much more firm than I am when it comes to giving in to someone's demands.

He doesn't shy away from having to argue with the entire hive to defend his views, and he doesn't mind being seen as "Irrational, Clumsy, or Naive", all that matters to him is if everyone is safe, healthy, and well. He reminds me of my own mother, a strong woman, of few words but a lot of action, someone who doesn't bow her head when questioned, but the kind of person who would rather "die hugging her family" than "cut off her arm to save her body". I understand his side, i don't think Ken is wrong, in the beginning his safety measures and concerns were good, because we had a little over 50 members in the hive, but now we have over 1000, it is not healthy for Ken's body and mind to try to keep each one of them safe and alive.

It is impossible, this is not healthy at all, it is not good for him to care and worry so much, I need to do something now, I can't wait for the problem to blow up in my face like Steve's management situation. I love my children, I am sure I do, I care about them, and the last thing I want is to see them die, but Steve is right, I need to think outside my comfort zone if I want to think of ways to keep the hive alive.

'The boy's are right? Should I relieve Ken of his duties?... No, that's too extreme, but I have to do something, I can't let the bucket overflow before taking action.'

"Ken... You are hereby suspended from your duties for an indefinite period of time. Your position as a member of the inner circle will be maintained, but you are absolutely forbidden from performing any function or offering any support to the care club - Except in cases of life or death threat."

As soon as my words fell the room went completely silent, some looked at me in absolute surprise, some seemed astonished that I had turned against Ken, and others seemed happy.

"Q-Queen mother!! This is absurd! I am absolutely necessary in the care club! Without my presence the club will be left without supervision! This is-"

"Keb will be in charge of the administrative work of the care club for now, I want you to... Talk to someone. Why don't you talk to Emy? Or Ciel? They are good listeners." I said clearly.

"Talk? Talk? To hell with talking! I need to take care of my club!" Ken said gritting his teeth.

"Ken... I'm worried about you, you're not well... All this work, all the pressure, I don't think someone who has taken care of babies since birth should be in charge of treating the wounds of those same babies after they reach maturity. This isn't good for you, physically and mentally, I want- No, I need, for you to stop thinking that everything depends on you, you can't take care of everything and everyone, and it's not your fault dear, I was stupid to think that I could put so much pressure on you and you would be fine emotionally... I'm taking you away from your job indefinitely, until I assess you're well enough to work again. And as soon as you return... You will no longer be the leader of the care club, but the leader of the neonatal club." As soon as I said what I wanted to say I could see a mix of anger and disbelief on Ken's face, but it didn't seem like he had an answer.

"Honey, you're not well, I need you to take care of yourself before you try to take care of others... You still have the right to attend the inner circle meetings, but right now, you are excused from this meeting."

"Mom!-"

Before Ken could speak the large doors of the meeting room opened, and 2 strong and robust royal knights came in, they stopped right behind Ken and stared at him, waiting for him to get up peacefully.

"Ugh-h."

Without saying a word, Ken got up from the table in frustration and ran out of the room, as soon as he left the knights slowly followed behind him, soon the doors were closed again, and now there was an empty seat.

"Jess... Not to be a freeloader, but I think this is the perfect opportunity to raise the need for therapists and specialized mental health classes for the hive." Matt said.

"This is a subject that will be brought up for discussion in a specific meeting for the social and personal needs of the hive members." Steve said as he wrote something down in a small notebook.

"Okay... Now Ken... Has gone on "vacation" can we summarize the conversation? I really wanted to go to the party room tonight, there's a great party scheduled for tonight!" Matt said trying to speed up the meeting.

"Cough-cough... Well, getting back to the subject, we must look for ways to neutralize, contain or eliminate the humans, and before certain idiots open their mouths..." Zack said looking at Trouble "... We need to remember the fact that humans - Just like us - live in society, so if a single human manages to escape from the forest shouting "Killer bee monsters" we are basically inviting dozens, if not hundreds of humans who will try to kill us." Zack said as he rubbed his eyes with his hands.

"HA! That doesn't mean we just have to make sure no one escapes!?! That's easy, my skills for tracking prey are excellent! When I find an enemy, they die! No matter what!" Trouble said.

"You airhead, we don't know anything about them, what if they have magical means of communication? What if they have skills to escape? Magic items, or just physical strength? We can't afford to make mistakes! This is the future of the colony and the Queen Mother we're talking about! There's no room for "foolproof plans" that are nothing more than ridiculous jokes!" Max said irritably with hands on his head.

"SHUT UP yo fop! You don't know anything about real fighting! You just stare at crystals and stupid letters all day!" Trouble said as he put his feet up on the table.

"What!-"

"Be quiet both of you, I will not tolerate another stupid fight in this vital meeting, we are here to discuss the survival and future of the hive, not your personal relationships with each other or points of view, now shut up and behave in the presence of the queen mother." Hans said as he emanated an aura that made everyone shut up.

Everyone is afraid of Hans, even I am, as the first member to be born in the hive, and the strongest soldier, every word that comes out of his mouth is like orders, some members may be afraid to obey orders from Yan, Ken, or Trouble if they are ordered by them, but no one questions Hans' words, if he asks someone to do a handstand while playing a harmonica they would do it without thinking twice.

"Thanks Hans, Max is right, we don't have enough information, all we know is that humans are powerful - Physically and magically, and that they are looking for [Tears of a Saint] for some reason." Steve said.

"Why did they come all the way here looking for a bunch of pretty grass? Can't these things be found all over the place?" Matt asked disinterestedly.

"Well... No. The Queen Mother informed us that the herbs [Tears of a Saint] are [Legendary] grade herbs, and it took us months to acquire just 10 specimens of this herb, something we only managed to do after long expeditions made by Trevis." Buck said.

"So... Is it our fault that they are here?" Miles asked.

"What do you mean? Explain yourself!" Max said.

"Well... Supply and demand? If we monopolized all the herbs [Tears of a Saint] that exist in the forest, the reason they came to these regions looking for the flowers must be because we dried up the "market" of herbs." Miles said.

"Shit! That may be true, we should have left the herbs where we found them!" Trouble said.

"No, no, monopolizing the herbs may have been a factor that contributed to the appearance of humans, but we can't say that it is 100% our fault!" Matt said.

"Cut the crap, it's obvious that it was because of that." Zack said.

"But that could be a good thing, right? If they only came here for the herbs, we can move some plants closer to the edge of the forest, and that would keep the humans from coming to us, right?" Matt asked.

"No, it's too late, they've already found the kobolds, they also know we're here, and they'll want answers about how a bunch of kobolds living in tents had access to legendary herbs." Jon said.

"Hey, they claimed they found the herbs by luck, problem solved, right?" Matt asked.

"Stop being stupid man, did you really fall for that obvious lie? You could see on their faces that not even they believed their own lie, let alone the humans, and she even said "We'll be back soon", what do you think that means, genius?" Miles said.

"So what do we do? We can't fight them, or ignore them, so what can we do? Can we start a diplomatic relationship with them? Like, what did we do with the kobolds?" Zack asked.

"Well... It doesn't hurt to try... But we're able to maintain our "friendly" relationship with the kobolds because we have higher ground." Jon said.

"Guys, you're overthinking this, and you've forgotten the main point of this whole story: We're not their target. The solution is right in front of us!" Jasper said.

"Oh? What would be the solution, Jasper?" Steve asked.

"Well, they want the kobolds, right? They don't know nothing specific about us, they just know that someone was watching them, but they don't know what, who or why. All we need to do is close our eyes and let the kobolds deal with it, the kobold settlement is miles away from Aurum, as long we keep it quiet it's basically unlikely that the humans will go deeper into the forest and even come close to Aurum." Jasper elaborated.

"Hmm... That could work... We would need to keep a close eye on the humans, and make sure they don't follow the explorers, but..." Steve said looking at me.

'Shit. Shit. Shit, and it all comes back to me again, they basically want to abandon the kobolds to deal with the humans alone, I promised myself that I would help them... What should I do? Warn them they are alone against the humans? Help them? That I will fight alongside them if necessary?'

I wouldn't even dream of fighting those guys. My hive can't even kill a monster without the help of kobolds, let alone armed and trained humans?

'Should I evacuate them? Or let nature take its course? I don't know what to do... Wait...'

"...Aren't we having too many negative thoughts about humans? They might very well be willing to start a friendly relationship with kobolds, right?"

The boys looked at each other for a moment as they listened to my words, thinking about their answers, the room remained silent until Hans began to speak.

"Queen mother, I doubt that humans have good intentions at all." Hans said with his arms crossed.

"Why do you say that?"

"They weren't friendly, they weren't pleasant, and they made their superstitions and beliefs quite clear. I believe the only reason they didn't attack the kobolds was because they were a search party, not a slaughter cavalry." Hans said sincerely.

"How can we know that? Isn't that very misleading?"

"Well, first they probed the kobolds, and then openly provoked them - Possibly trying to provoke a casus belli. After seeing that provocations wouldn't work, they decided they needed to retreat and regroup, so they bought the medicinal herbs at a high price and left without causing any trouble.

Secondly, they tried to buy all the [Tears of a Saint]-based medicines the kobolds had in stock, probably in an attempt to weaken them down, then there's the fact the humans noticed our presence, but did nothing about it, no questions, no interrogations, no explorations, which indicates that they were more concerned with retreat, than colecting information." Hans said

"Hmm, we must also take into account the fact that the humans clearly had an advantage over the kobolds, but still chose not to start a conflict, this is the result of a good combat strategy and information gathering, the most experienced soldiers of the colony are also instructed to do something similar, if a group of explorers finds a nest of insects, or a group of animals, they are instructed not to start the confrontation under any circumstances, but rather to collect as much information as possible and report it back to the information club." Jon said.

"Yeah! And after the information is processed and analyzed, a hunting mission is sent to the hunting club, then the club leader can accept the mission - Sending some combat class individuals to the determined target, or if he evaluates that the mission is too dangerous, they pass the mission to one of us, members of the Lifeguardians." Zack said.

"The difference between us and humans is that we can process information much faster than they can, so a hunting party can eliminate a target the same day a scouting party finds them, but humans seem to have to go back to their city to report that information." Steve said.

"Damn... So you're saying that..."

"Well. Yes, I believe the humans will came back soon, and this time they were accompanied by a hunting party." Hans said.

---

 

Aurum - Year 3     

 

"W-What are you suggesting, Keb?"

"After analyzing the mutations that occurred in the members affected by the magic explosion accident, the research club in collaboration with the magic and care club came to the conclusion that if we could inject small amounts of magical life energy into developing larval eggs, we could create soldiers and classes with natural physical characteristics superior to their counterparts." Keb said proudly.

Keb became the person in charge of the care club in Ken's "absence", all i gonna say is yht Keb is much less kind than Ken. Keb cares more about the future than the present, he prefers to worry about increasing the overall quality of life of the entiry colony instead of worrying about the personal well-being of each one like Ken.

And because of this, as soon Ken left the scene, Keb used the opportunity to present a bold research project: Genetic Engineering using Life Energy. A project how would never have been approved or even considered research if Ken had been in charge of the care club.

"Honey... Isn't this dangerous? Mutations are not always positive, and we could end up creating invalid individuals, or killing these children before they are even born, there is no guarantee of the success of this operation."

Just thinking about the members of the colony who still suffer from negative mutations to this day makes my stomach turn with nausea. In response to my counterargument, Keb signaled to a royal guard, and soon the doors to the throne room were opened, them a small group of nurses accompanied by soldiers carrying small wooden cages entered the room.

The wooden cages contained some [Spiny Larva] larvae. A creature we use as food for other insects we raise as livestock, and as bait for larger animals. The boxes containing the larvae were then placed on the floor, and Keb soon began his presentation.

"This is the result of a research project on genetic modification using Life Energy. The project was initially rejected at the time due to Ken's efforts and the lack of information we had at the time, but since the project was deemed "too spectacular" to be shelved, instead of being conducted on young larvae, it was conducted on creatures like the [Spiny Larvae] over a long period of time." Keb said.

'And there we go, of course he wouldn't come here empty-handed.'

"Huff... So what are the results, Keb?"

"Well! After conducting the experiment on a control species where about 1 point of life mana was used for each larvae egg, the mages of the research club determined that 100% of the affected larvae died almost immediately after the mana injection." Keb said.

"AND INS'T THAT HORRIBLE?!"

"Let me finish! After the failure of the first experiment, 3 control groups were established, the 1st group received dosages of 0.1 mana points in each egg, the 2nd group 0.01 and the 3rd 0.5, after the larvae hatched it was recorded that 10% of the larvae of the 1st group died in the incubation phase, while the hatched specimenshad had different physical appearance from their respective relatives, such as markings in strange patterns, unusual colors, or unusual sizes and growth rates, of the 90% that emerged successfully, 24% had benign physical mutations, 52% had positive mutations, and 14% had harmful modifications.

The 2nd group had a hatching rate of 98%, the specimens that hatched from this group basically had no physical divergences from their parents, or any visible changes. And the 3rd group had a birth rate of 32%, but 25% of the specimens of the hatched group had unique physical characteristics, such as golden markings on the body, sizes advantageous, and impeccable health compared to their siblings, besides that, according to experiments the carapace of these larvae is significantly more rigid than the ones of their counterparts, and their spines have a superior rigidity and sharpness. In contrast, 34% had severe detrimental mutations resulting in their death after a short period of time, or the inability to live without third-party care, while only 9% of the specimens in the group had no physical mutations." Keb reported.

"So to sum up all this scientific nonsense... All the ones that survived are stronger?"

"Well... To summarize roughly, Yes." Keb said.

"Keb, I will not risk a brood of over 100 offspring for a risk of death as high as 32%"

"I am not asking for permission to perform experiments on larvae from the queen mother nursery!" Keb said happily.

"R-Really? Then what is all this for?"

"I want you to help us with the current experiments on larvae and in carrying out scientific experiments.!" Keb declared.

"Why me?"

"After analyzing the results, we determined that the high rates of death at birth, are due to the fact that the mana is not properly prepared to perform the function we want it to fulfill, so if you could help us develop a magic spell that can cause mutations, or simply help us by injecting magical life energy full of intentions into the eggs, we would be very happy to be able to collect and analyze the data!" Keb asked with a pleading face.

It's not a bad idea, the boys' "failure" is partly because the life mana injected into the eggs had no intention - no path, no purpose. The mana didn't know what to do, and ended up behaving erratically, in some cases it worked, and in others went very wrong, if I was there to add purpose and direct the path for this energy, the results could be very satisfactory.

"Very well, Yan, put that on my agenda."