Swarming Sovereignty

Lia was having a hard time getting used to her new form. It wasn’t that it was hard to move in or uncomfortable or anything like that, but that she kept seeing glances of her fur in the corner of her vision and thinking something else was there.

She had a hard time getting a grasp on how the fur actually looked. It looked pretty enough from her perspective, but she couldn’t help but wonder if that weird color thing looked worse from a distance.

But Rose had seemed to like it, so it was probably fine. And…while she was thinking of Rose, what was up with that? It was starting to sound like Rose had been right, she was someone super important. Why did her soul get sent into the body of the rat that Lia had enlightened, and not some other soul?

Lia didn’t think it was random chance. No, she refused to believe it was random chance. If it was, then Lia would be one of the luckiest people on the face of the planet – there would have to have been some aide she didn’t know about that died recently enough so as to have not been reincarnated, then that aide in particular would have had to just happen to be next in line for reincarnation.

But she also didn’t think the gods would have sent her the soul. They had promised non-intervention, yes, but nothing more. And if they were doing more, then Lia really wasn’t sure what to make of…anything, really. It seemed far more likely that Amelia had somehow obtained the soul and then reincarnated it like she had with Lia.

All that aside, her new race was shaping up to be pretty good, if the stats were any indication.

She was undoubtedly weaker than she had been directly before evolution, but she was confident that wouldn’t last too long. Her Magic, Magic Defense, and Mana were double what they had been when she had first become a rat queen, and her other stats were just that bit higher. She just needed some time to level up and she would be ready for action again.

Well…she had a base now, so why not send out some “scouting” parties of her own? She could probably capture a few goblins and bring them back for conversion that way. She wouldn’t even need to lift a paw herself, she could spend that time experimenting. The problem was that it was a bit of a risky proposition, and she hesitated to commit any of her strength to it when she was so sorely lacking compared to her opposition.

…Well, there was nothing for it. If she was constantly scared of the risk, she would never get anywhere. She was going to have to make decisions like this on larger scales later, so she needed to get used to it now.

Though that didn’t mean she needed to throw caution to the wind and just do everything no matter the risk. It was…probably best to get a second opinion on this, so she stopped in her tracks, turning around and heading back to where Rose was.

As Lia approached, Rose stopped what she was doing and turned around to face Lia. My – I mean, Lia, is there something else you need? She asked, surprise clearly visible on her face.

Sorry to bug you again so soon, Lia said, but I was thinking about sending out some raiding or scouting parties to go out into the bazaar and bring back goblins for use in conversions. I really wasn’t sure how good of an idea it was, though, so I wanted your input.

I don’t see why we shouldn’t. Rose said. It seems to be a sensible next step whilst we build our power. What’s causing you hesitation?

I’m worried it’ll be a fruitless endeavor, that the goblins will be sending out patrols stronger than what we are.

Rose thought about that for a moment. Did you have the gates guarded during your raid?

Yes. Why?

There were no gaps in the wall that would indicate a goblin broke through it. I don’t think the main force of the goblins knows what we’ve done yet. We should be able to take out at least a couple of their patrols before they catch on and start tightening security. Though…that might also cause a counterattack. Then again…they would have to know we’re here first and not just raiding…

Rose muttered to herself for a moment more before looking back up at Lia. I believe we should be fine to do this if we play things carefully. Would you like me to take care of it for you?

Would you? Lia asked. I know I’ve put a lot on your plate, and I honestly feel really bad about that, so if you’re busy then I can just do it myself.

Not at all! Rose replied. I’m really just sitting here and getting reports. I used to do way more back in the day, so this is nothing! Adding on managing a couple of scouting parties will hardly make a difference.

Ah, did you? I suppose that’s yet another thing pointing towards you being in some sort of leadership role in the past.

Rose stopped, blinking. I…suppose I did. She said. It just sorta slipped out without me realizing it. Yeah…I seem to recall constantly having a million things vying for my attention when I was doing any sort of management. Now…I don’t know what management I

did, but I’m sure it was…something to do with people.

Ah, good. Then…I guess you’re already familiar with this sort of thing?

It seems that way. This all feels…like something I did a lot.

That probably puts you as one of the aides who helped the Ruby Emperor during the war against the Lord of Monsters. Lia said, nodding her head. They had to do a lot of managing of armies and forts, so that would probably be why this is all so familiar for you.

That makes a lot of sense! Rose said brightly. I’ll let you know first thing if I get anything more concrete, though, I’m sure being able to pin down who exactly I was will really help the memories come back!

Right. Well, I’ll…leave you to it, have any bodies be brought back to the main piles. Oh, and if it comes down to capturing an enemy while making sacrifices or killing the enemy and having no sacrifices, kill the enemy. I can still benefit from that, and I’d rather keep the more experienced members of the swarm alive instead of potentially having something stronger that starts weaker.

Consider it done, Lia. Rose said. Do you require anything else from me?

No. Just…keep up the good work. Lia replied, and set back off towards the piles of stuff that had been gathered in the center of the fort.

Her first order of business was to try out other magic. She wanted to see just how easy using other types of magic actually was now. So, when she arrived, she set out to do something simple and non-destructive – create a small pile of dirt in front of her.

And, to her delight, it really was just as easy as weaving mental magic had been. Her next step was to try creating a spike of rock, a rather common offensive earth spell. And, while it was easy, it was also drained more Mana than she would have liked, over half her current pool.

But that was fine. She’d level up, and the Mana cost would become less significant. So…next question, could she create modeling wax? It was an odd material that could take on the properties of…a lot of things, so if she tried to make the dirt-like modeling wax that was in the burrow, would that work?

She focused, and found that, while it was harder than focusing on mental magic or on earth magic, it wasn’t something that seemed impossible; she still felt like she could activate the spell once she had focused properly. But she did have to focus quite a bit on the exact image she wanted, much like she had had to when she was a foxkin and had to use chants to cast spells.

And, once she did activate the magic, it wasn’t quite what she had hoped; instead of creating more modeling wax out of nothing, it instead seemed to sort of…use the modeling wax inside of her as a catalyst, reforming in equal amounts where she had wanted it.

That was…fine actually. It provided her with a ranged method of applying modeling wax, which was going to be extremely useful. Modeling wax was, in a sense, her trump card – as long as she was able to cover enough of an opponent in it, she could end a fight instantly.

Right, what was next on the list? Was she able to combine her magic types to make composite magic? That type of magic was a thing, she knew, but it was supposedly pretty hard so she wasn’t sure how it would go.

A pretty simple test would be to try light and earth together, to see if she could make a glowing rock out of nothing. She began to focus on that and, while she definitely couldn’t use the combination magic as she intended, there was…something else. She kept focusing and, after a moment, cast her spell.

A pebble appeared on the ground in front of her, and then a moment later it began to glow, and a couple of windows popped up in front of her.

 

Oh. That would probably end up coming in handy in the future. It was more expensive than Magic Multitarget (Mental), but it was also much more broadly applicable. And…well, it seemed like there was no reason she couldn’t apply Magic Multitarget (Mental) to each individual spell she cast.

Well…unless those two were competing for the ‘extra brains or processing centers’, which was a real possibility. Now…she could try to test that herself, or she could just wait until she had enough Mana for Analysis level three, which seemed a lot easier.

Actually, there were a couple of things she wanted to run through Analysis. First and foremost was if she lost traits unique to her race upon evolution – it would be a real bummer if she evolved into something closer to a foxkin and lost her magic as a result. She was hoping that wasn’t the case, since she still had all the innate magic that Swarm Rat Queen gave her, and Swarm Rat Mage-Queen hadn’t mentioned that, but that really wasn’t the best example given how connected they were.

Still, it would be super unfortunate if she just…lost something because she accidentally evolved into a race that didn’t have that trait. It wasn’t like – and, suddenly, she was hit with a headache, one that lasted for only a moment before vanishing and leaving another pair of windows in its place.

 

…Lia was getting tired of doing the impossible. Not because it was particularly difficult, but because it was bad for her heart every time she accidentally did something that really should not have ever happened.

Fortunately, Favored of the Gods hadn’t disappeared, so it looked like the gods were willing to overlook yet another instance of “tampering with the fabric of everything”. Though…Amelia had been messing with the system for a while, so perhaps that wasn’t too surprising? Still, Lia was stumped as to how she had done it; she hadn’t even been trying and it just happened.

But…she also felt…drained. She could feel something missing, and she wasn’t sure what. She tentatively opened her status, and found that all of her Blood Money was gone. Every last bit of it had just…vanished into the ether. Had she…accidentally done something similar to whatever the Dimension of Discounts did? If that was a thing she could do, why did she have the Dimension of Discounts?

No. That wasn’t it. Lia wasn’t sure why, but she could feel that that was wrong. It wasn’t just the Blood Money that had vanished, and it wasn’t similar to what the Dimension of Discounts did. Her Mana and Stamina had remained untouched, and physically she felt fine, but something else was gone. She hadn’t even known it was there until it had vanished, but now it had, and she knew instinctively she wouldn’t be able to do any more tampering until it returned, however long that took.

Not that she was planning to do more tampering. As lenient as the gods had been so far, she wasn’t keen on getting on their bad side. The most she was willing to purposefully do at the moment was to give Rose Preservationist as well, but that would have to wait until she got her whatever-it-was back.

Uh…where had she been? Well, she knew that she kept race-specific benefits after evolution now, but what else…

Right, she had been waiting on her Mana to recover enough to use Analysis so she could figure out the brain/processing center thing. She must have taken longer to process doing…whatever she did than she thought, because she actually had enough now. So, she went ahead and activated the Skill and began to read the window in front of her.

Right. With that question answered, it was time to look through the piles of junk that she had had her swarm gather in the center of the camp, and see if there was anything useful.

Unfortunately, the pile was…large, and Lia didn’t exactly have any hands with which to sift through it. Which meant it was time to make another, sort of embarrassing, trip back to Rose to see if any converted goblins were free to help her out.

As she approached, Rose once again turned to face Lia before she should have been able to hear or see Lia coming, interrupting her talk with a drone. What can I do for you, Lia?

How are you noticing me so early? Lia asked curiously. Did you get a new Skill or…?

Yes. I obtained a new Skill that lets me know when someone is approaching me with the intent to ask me something related to work. You…are basically the only person who can trip it right now, though, so it’s really just something that lets me know when you need me.

O-oh. Lia replied. Handy.

Very. Now, how can I help?

Uh…I was wondering if any of the converted goblins were free. Doesn’t have to be a particular type, I just need something with hands to help me look through our loot.

Rose gave her an amused look. You know that it doesn’t matter whether or not there’s a “free” goblin, right? If you desire me or one of my sisters, then that is our highest priority, regardless of whatever else we were doing. Anyway, can’t you tell if they’re free via your link to them? Why ask me?

I wasn’t sure if you were going to need any soon. I just figured I’d ask to be safe, I really don’t want to drop the efficiency of their work just to help satisfy my curiosity.

I see. Give me a moment to think, then. Rose paused for a bit, then nodded. Yes, actually. The knight is just doing manual labor, since I don’t want to risk the goblins catching a glimpse of her on an expedition. She can easily be reassigned.

No, that’s fine. Lia said quickly. Keep her doing what she’s doing, she’s probably the thing with the most physical strength we have, so she’s best doing that sort of work. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that the knight low-key creeped Lia out, not at all.

I believe in terms of raw physical labor the goblin drone is better, actually. Rose corrected. Though that strength does not translate well to tasks other than lifting or moving goods, it is nonetheless far stronger than its frame would suggest.

Still, I feel better having her out there just in case the workers get attacked while building the wall or something.

Understood. In that case, why don’t I send you one of the foot soldiers doing labor whilst waiting to go raiding?

Lia thought about that for a moment. Yeah, that should be fine. Just…come grab it when it’s needed for a raid, okay?

Of course. If I find myself lacking in raiders, I will grab that goblin.

Lia gave Rose a suspicious look. You’re sounding like someone who doesn’t intend to make use of the goblin. She accused.

Perhaps. Currently there is a surplus of goblin foot soldiers for the number and size of raids I’m sending out. If we take casualties, then it is possible I might need that goblin. Otherwise it would just be doing manual labor.

But–

No buts. Rose said sternly. She had suddenly adopted the tone of an older sibling lecturing her younger sibling, one that made Lia almost instinctively want to listen to what she had to say. It is not as if your work is of no import either. You are doing research that could be vital for our continued survival. And, as the only member of the swarm save for me that is capable of doing so, it is only logical that we assist you however we can.

When the first raiding parties come back, I will have plenty more sisters to work with. The work on the walls will only slow by a negligible amount, so this is a trade well worth making. You will take the goblin, understood?

As she finished, Rose blinked, then, a moment later, seemed to realize what she had said. M-my sincerest apologies, my Queen! She said quickly. I don’t know what came over me, I really shouldn’t tell you what to do! It won’t happen again, I promise!

No, that was perfect. Lia replied. Like I said before, I want people who are willing to tell me “no”. Stuff like this is perfectly acceptable, and I expect you to keep doing it, so long as you are bringing a new argument to the table.

Y-yes, my Queen! Rose stammered. T-thank you!

It’s only natural. You have a lot of skill in this area, so it would be strange if I didn’t listen to your opinions on the matter. Send the goblin to the pile of stuff, and I’ll take it from there, alright?

At once!

And with that, Lia turned to leave for the piles for the third time. As she was walking off, she thought better of it, and turned back to Rose. Rose?

Y-yes?

Would your efficiency drop if you came back to the piles with me? I’m guessing I’ll end up wanting to grab you a few more times, and if it won’t cause any interruption, then I think it would be convenient to have you nearby.

Where I am matters little. There will be a little extra travel time for the sisters that are bringing me messages, but the vast majority of those are not time sensitive, so the efficiency loss is negligible. I will move after I finish with this next round of messengers.

Awesome, thanks. Lia said. I’ll see you in a bit, then.

See you in a bit.