Swarming Sovereignty

Lia looked down at Rose, conflicted emotions rising within her. Rose…Rose had been the Ruby Emperor. Someone who had been heralded as the greatest leader of all time, one of the best military minds, someone who was…so far in a league of his own that he had entered the realm of the superhuman.

And that made her feel…she didn’t even know. Insignificant? Unworthy? Proud? On the one hand…her instincts were telling her that she was in charge, come what may. This was her swarm, and Rose being part of it made Rose’s strengths her strengths.

But, on the other…she just felt inadequate. She didn’t have the expertise required to command someone of Rose’s caliber. It felt like things would just…work out better if she left Rose in charge and acted as a figurehead.

But she couldn’t do that. For one…Rose would hate it. She had made it abundantly clear that she preferred it when Lia was the one calling the shots, and she was just dealing with the details. Two, as much as Lia’s rational mind had doubts and insecurities, her instincts were too strong to make her comfortable with leaving someone else in charge. That was her place.

She studied Rose’s convulsing body, thinking deeply on the future. Perhaps…perhaps those weren’t mutually exclusive things? Before, she had reconciled it by saying that it was like a king having a great general, but…why not just…leave more to Rose, at least in the short term?

Yes. Lia would have the final say in everything, and she would give Rose orders, but how Rose accomplished those would be up to her. Those orders would just be…broader than she was planning on giving. Instead of asking her to manage one part of a task, like she had when she put Rose in charge of defenses or growing the swarm, Lia would have her manage the entirety of it, more like Rose had been doing when trying to get Analysis.

For a time, anyway. She would make Rose tutor her until, eventually, Lia was competent enough to start splitting the swarm between the two of them, and Rose would just be one of her generals. That was, for sure, better than just leaving everything to Rose and not trying to improve herself. Rose had been the best there was, sure, but that didn’t mean Lia couldn’t, eventually, eclipse her.

For now, though, she needed to focus on the aftermath of the battle, specifically what she had gained since she had put Rose in charge. She had gained six levels during the fight, putting her at level seventeen. Each level netted her fifteen HP and Stamina, twenty Mana, five Magic, Magic Defense, and Mental Fortitude, and three Strength, Defense, and Dexterity, so she was stronger than ever.

She had also gained enough Blood Money to purchase Dimensional Search Engine from the Dimension of Discounts. That would have to wait until she was in a bit of a safer situation, though.

Furthermore, many of her Skills had gained multiple levels, and some were approaching the cap of level ten; she was looking forward to seeing what she would be able to evolve them into. Most of the levels were boring, such as levels to Battle Commander and Dimensional storage just making their numbers better, but others were more interesting.

Active Camouflage had reached level nine and was on the cusp of level ten, decreasing its Stamina cost to half of a point per second and increasing the number of colors added to Lia’s skin by two, totaling four.

Motion Blur started to provide moderate blurring, Spiderclimb began to strengthen the cling it provided, making it harder to knock her off of things, and while Night Vision just bettered its numbers, her vision had gotten to the point where she barely even noticed the darkness of the bazaar anymore.

That about did it for the Skills, now she just needed to take stock of the swarm’s losses and gains. She knew that, coming in, the swarm had had…just over one hundred combatants. They had lost at least fifteen rats, probably more, but everything else was was...shockingly fine. She had counted at least ten goblin foot soldier deaths, and most had been wounded, but all the “important” soldiers were alive.

Judging by the amount of Blood Money she had, she was guessing they had killed somewhere around one hundred to one hundred and fifty goblins, and about a fourth of the goblins they had fought had been disabled instead of killed, so that left roughly fifty she could convert, if she included the leader and other “special” goblins like the archers and commanders.

And, of course, she had yet to loot the goblin camp. She needed to make sure it was clear first, though, so she organized her swarm into four groups, and sent three to scour the camp for survivors, with orders to capture if possible. She also sent the terramancers and pyromancers out with them, and told them and the other members of the groups to put out any fires they saw. She wasn’t sure just how far the fire Rose had started at the walls had spread, but hopefully they would be able to deal with it without too much collateral.

That…was strange, now that she was thinking about it. Why did Rose set fire to the wall? They just uprooted it a moment later, and the fire didn’t help that much when it came to loosening the wall for said uprooting.

Was it…perhaps a holdover from when Rose was the Ruby Emperor? During the Ruby Emperor’s conflict with the Lord of Monsters, innumerable fortifications just like this had been destroyed; they weren’t of good enough make to provide any significant protection from the Lord of Monsters’ armies, and clearing out monster nests like this made it take longer for their population to build up again.

Yes, that had to be it. Lia doubted Rose even consciously realized what she had done, and had been acting off of instinct. Lia felt a guilty sort of comfort at that realization; it meant that Rose wasn’t perfect, and if she could make mistakes, then it was probably alright for Lia to be making some as well.

She shook her head, dispelling the dark thoughts. She could unpack that later, when Rose was awake, and she could talk it out with her like an adult. Right now, she needed to go check out the food and water dispenser. There was also the goblins’ leader, but she had decided to hold off on thoroughly examining any special goblins until she had some rat cocoons and she could turn them into kobolds. Plus…who knew what kind of items would be available for her to mess around with by then?

It wasn’t like she had to worry about them struggling or anything. The swarm had built up a lot of modeling wax, and her entire army had come with full…stomach…pouch…things. Uh…perhaps she should just call them pouches and be done with it? It would probably be best if she had a way of referring to them.

Anyway, between that and the huge amount of modeling wax she had stored in Dimensional Storage, she was pretty confident she would at least be able to half cover all of the goblins, and that was all it took to stop their resistance.

So, Lia had a goblin pick up Rose, and took the remaining group to where she felt the infiltrators were waiting. They had exceeded her expectations in every way, even if those expectations had been abysmally low. She really hadn’t thought that goblins would make for competent enough stealth units to be worth the risk, but they had proved her wrong in every way.

The three were waiting for her next to a cocoon and a large…metallic pole rising of some sort. She had the infiltrators take the cocoon and move it away, while she took a closer look at the pole. It was smooth and featureless, unmarked by any dirt or grease. It was entirely unlike anything else she had seen in the bazaar, and that could only mean that it was the feeding station.

Unsure of what else to do, she gave it a hesitant touch. There was an odd sensation, one that gave the impression that it was scanning Lia’s intentions. Then, a moment later, a hole grew in the tube, and deposited a steak on a plate on the ground in front of Lia. Shortly thereafter, a bowl filled with milk slid out, landing next to the plate without spilling even a drop.

She dug into the steak, downing it in almost no time before she turned and drained the bowl of milk dry. It was good quality stuff, too, and…well, it was enough to make Lia start feeling like a person again. There would be no more eating corpses unless it was to get modeling wax, and she would be able to have some variety, too. She would have let the rest of the swarm dig in then and there, but first she needed to do some more testing.

As it turned out, the food dispenser had a broad range of foods it was able to make, and an equally broad range of serving options. While the food dispenser wasn’t capable of making anything complex like cakes or cookies, Lia had yet to see an ingredient it was unable to replicate.

But…even more interesting to Lia than the food itself were the ways the dispenser could serve food. It was capable of just dumping the food onto the ground, dumping a lot of food onto the ground, making bowls, cups…and, to Lia’s surprise and delight, jars for jams and the like.

Those jars, once she cleaned them out, would be incredibly useful when converting things; she would be able to use them to hold water, which she was guessing would dramatically increase her available options for conversions. It could probably also be used to hold other things, and, if she was lucky, an empty jar would qualify as having a bunch of air for the purpose of conversion.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to make the jars terribly big. Well, big by humanoid standards, anyway. The largest jar she was able to make was about twice the size of a normal rat, which was about as big as Lia herself.

Actually…now that she was thinking about it…what would happen if she sealed a bunch of modeling wax in a jar and tried converting something with that in there? Would there be a change? She had to try it out.

She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She could deal with all of this later, when she had more rats and was ready to start converting things in earnest. For now, she had other things to do. She told the part of the swarm that was with her to eat up, then walked over to where Rose had been set down.

Her body was still undulating and writhing, but the changes were already becoming apparent. She was slowly but surely growing larger, her fur receding and beginning to turn green. It…was not pleasant to watch, so Lia turned her attention away from Rose and began to scan the surrounding area.

Honestly…the place wasn’t anything special. She had kind of been expecting…more from the goblins’ main base, but it really looked much the same as the one they set up in the market, just…less ramshackle. There really wasn’t much of a draw to it, aside from the food dispenser.

Actually, could she move that without breaking it? Because, if she could, she was totally going to. The base she was currently set up in was in a much better position for tackling the rest of the dungeon, and it had already been fortified by the swarm. The walls there certainly looked sturdier than the things the goblins had made, and while this base could be fortified as well, it would just be…well, more effort.

Then, a note dropped out of the air in front of Lia. You should be able to move it if you like…make sure it’s completely dug up first. It read. It’s designed to be pretty sturdy in case monsters are rough with it. It goes like…three feet down, just make sure you’re thorough when you remove it and you’ll be fine.

Lia nodded. In that case, she’d absolutely just uproot the thing and take it back to her other base with her. Though…she was also planning to abandon that base when she secured a good foothold in a proper building. But…now that she was thinking about it, it would probably still be wise to have to keep at least some of the swarm in her current base, which they could use to get resources from the bazaar, if the dungeon chose to spawn more things in there.

Now that she was thinking about it, it had…probably been a bad idea to have Rose evolve there and then. Lia had been sort of shocked by the revelation of Rose’s previous identity as the Ruby Emperor, and hadn’t really been thinking clearly. Now she was…basically forced to stay with Rose here until Rose finished evolving.

Wait…no, that wasn’t totally accurate. If she was fast about it, she could transport Rose before the changes got drastic and she became too hard to move safely. So, as bad as she felt about cutting her swarm’s meal short, she needed to have them help her get Rose back to safety, so she would be able to move about without worrying about Rose.

The moment she gave the command, those of the swarm that were eating instantly ceased their meal and formed up around Lia, a couple of the goblins picking up Rose as they did. Lia took them back through the bazaar, their trip entirely uncontested. There were likely a few goblins still out and about, but, knowing goblins, they had been thoroughly cowed by the assault on their base; Lia doubted they would feel bold enough to attack any of the swarm any time soon.

She was soon back at her main base, where she found Lily pacing back and forth, clearly waiting for any news. When she saw the group approaching, she hurried over, worry visible on her face. “How did it go? Where’s everyone else? Is Rose alright?”

Overwhelming success, scouring the goblin camp, and she’s just evolving. I’m here to drop Rose off so she’s in a safer place while she evolves. I’m going to wait here for a minute to let everyone catch their breath, but after that I’m bringing you back with me. Lia instructed. I’m going to need your help to keep track of everything we get from looting the place. At the very least, I want you to count our losses and gains when it comes to troops

“Of course. May I take this to mean you are back in charge?”

Yes.

Lily let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear. It feels…wrong having someone other than you being like…overall in charge, even if it’s only temporary.”

You haven’t even experienced me being in charge yet. Lia pointed out.

“Yeah, but I know it’ll feel better. It’s an instinct thing, you know?”

I suppose I do. Lia admitted. Now, go get everything you need. You…do need paper and stuff, right?

“Nope.” Lily replied, smiling. “As long as I use it for stuff related to work, I can produce paper out of thin air. It only lasts for a couple of days, but it’s enough for our current purposes. Of course, I would like to get a supply of real paper as soon as possible, so I can start leaving a paper trail and we can start more serious analysis of the numbers, but until then we’ll have to make do.”

Right then. In that case, we’ll be leaving in five minutes. When we get there, you’ll be able to eat some actually good food, we’ve secured a food dispenser. We’ll be taking it back with us, so…actually, go grab a few burrowers and drones, we’ll need them.

“At once, my Queen.” Lily gave a short bow, then left at a brisk pace.

Lia watched her go, a satisfied feeling rising up within her. She…she had missed giving orders, she realized. She was able to ignore it for a while, but it felt…good to see people obeying her commands, and she liked being in charge of the situation.

Even if she delegated lots of work to Rose, she’d have to keep a unit that she was personally in charge of. Rose could be foremost among that unit, but…that would be mostly in name, Rose wouldn’t have much to do with that unit’s day to day work. She just didn’t want Rose to feel like she was being left out for any reason.

Yes, that was a good idea. She would miss seeing people immediately get to work on things too much to give it up and delegate everything.

It was with those thoughts that she waited for Lily’s return. And, once the bookkeeper had come back with a detachment of workers, Lia began to make her way back. She left a small force of soldiers as a sort of honor guard for Rose, but she doubted they would be necessary. The bazaar had, finally, been subjugated. It was time to start looking to the future.

Fighterman481

I skimmed over a lot of the Skill "housekeeping" because, IMO, it just felt weird to have when it really wasn't important. Like...I still did it all in the background, but that doesn't need to be shown.

I had to redo the bit talking about the food dispenser's exact mechanics, since it just wasn't working, but other than that this chapter had been mostly smooth sailing. It was actually almost finished like...a week ago, but that was when I was leaving for my trip and then I got sick after getting back so...yeah.

Anyway, next time we'll probably get into the spoils of this raid a bit more, so look forward to that!

And, as always, thanks for reading!