The Empress’s Gateway (3)
It looked like I’d poured too much investment into agility.
But with I could fix it anytime I wanted.
What was funny was that as soon as my agility rose, the effect of the agility boost from my familiar, the bee-wasp “Twelve Bytes,” was added to it.
LT__12 Bytes> is enjoying the effect of increased agility.
So right now I was throwing every stat point I got into agility for the upcoming battle against the Megahornet. There was nothing more important than boosting the bee-wasp’s stats for the aerial fight against the coming giant monster.
So I decided to put all twelve ability points from the level-up and the two I’d saved up through my own stubborn development work straight into agility. Right now I was wearing the belt of the Two-Handed Mantises, so the fixed agility limit of twenty was gone. Besides, there was no reason to avoid a full agility strategy.
LT__Agility> reached 125.
Boom!
Boom!
The fifth and sixth queens were sacrificed to the bee-wasp’s jaws and claws. They were specialists at fighting worker bees, so the resistance from the old-style marching bees was like poking a rock with an egg. There was no way a queen bee just one meter long would survive a single peck or claw from Twelve Bytes.
Once it clamped down or grabbed them, the bee burst with its guts and fell helplessly to the ground. After death it was just another pitiful insect carcass, and no one would ever know it had once been a queen.
At that moment Twelve Bytes and I entered a rocky section where the honeycomb was sparse. From here I wanted to taste the handiwork too. “Twelve Bytes, now big brother’s getting some hands-on practice.”
When I said that, Twelve Bytes lowered its head and answered with a squeak, then threw itself completely into movement.
Fwoosh!
I immediately breathed fire at the marching bee right in front of me. The mana-infused water sprayed from the hose connected to my backpack created the flames. The fire hit the marching bee’s wings exactly and burned them clean away.
I wasn’t turning the whole area into a sea of fire. Exactly. I only needed to lightly char the wings. My supercharged agility with 125 gave me superhuman hand-eye coordination. So I was firing just the right amount of flames—neither too much nor too little, perfectly measured. There was no risk that the embers would hit the caterpillar nests or the Gaeggul.
Fwoosh!
Fwoosh!
Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz!
Buzz buzz buzz buzz!
The honeybees were wildly excited by our performance. The moment ten or so queens were snatched or burned alive, the remaining queens still on the track looked stunned and didn’t know what to do. The first defection happened. A terrified queen took her two bodyguards—the marching bees—and broke away from the track.
At once, dozens of queens from the Boulder Hollow and a hundred Devil-Bees swarmed the traitors and tore them apart without mercy. Even so, the second and third defections came one after another. The bee-wasp’s attacks and my flame breath were so savage that the remaining queens on the track chose flight over staying.
But the Boulder Hollow queens and the Devil-Bees simply raced around the edge of the track like a short-track team relay, then chased every defector at high speed and sliced them to pieces. The one-bees from the Waterfall side grew furious and flapped their wings in rage. Then the elders stepped in to mediate. “Show mercy to the defectors!” “These are traitors! Proof exists.” “Traitors?”
At that moment I saw several Devil-Bees dragging a few captured honeybees and one paralyzed marching bee into view. The captured honeybees were all members of the Waterfall tribe. They were begging for their lives in terror. “Please… just spare our lives.”
Once things reached that point, the race was essentially over. Dozens of Boulder Hollow queens and a hundred Devil-Bees surrounded the Waterfall queen, and the Waterfall queen plus her two giant matriarchs landed on the ground without resistance. The remaining Waterfall queens did the same.
Then the captured one-bees of the Waterfall tribe threw everything away and started spilling their sins. “This afternoon… our marching bees… led us… to the holy ground.” Buzz buzz buzz! Buzz buzz! “What reason… did you have for such a thing?” “The Waterfall queen… rejected the order… impossible.”
In this way every one-bee of every tribe realized that today’s invasion by the marching bees had been pre-planned by the Waterfall queen. Of course the Waterfall queen could never have predicted that it would lead to the death of the Empress. But simply luring her enemies here to spread pheromones so the Boulder Hollow tribe would be wiped out was an unforgivable crime in itself. The Waterfall queen, however, still couldn’t let go of her obsession with power. She kept pointing at me even to the end and inciting her own kin. “That beast… I… will challenge the Empress one last time.” Buzz buzz buzz! Buzz buzz!
Every bee gave a jeer. Then the Waterfall queen poured out even more provocative words. “It’s already… everything… over. Tomorrow morning… the bee army… will launch a massive assault… the Boulder Hollow Empire… has no hope.”
When the Waterfall queen said that, some honeybees showed signs of wavering. If the bee corps launched a full-scale offensive, the Boulder Hollow Empire really had no way to survive. Seeing her followers waver, the Waterfall queen gathered strength and kept stirring her sisters. The personal insult toward me was the breakthrough. “That… black-haired beast… what Empress? You can’t fly. You can’t even shoot stingers.”
I stepped off the bee-wasp. “I can fly, and I can shoot stingers.” The moment I finished speaking, I shot up into the air with a quick Double-Handed Mantises Leap, then spun my whole body at high speed with Screw Spade and reduced the Waterfall queen’s chest to scrap. Whoosh—
Boom!
Right now my agility was 125. Every second of that was over in just one second. By the time I came to my senses, the Waterfall queen was already floating in the air with her head and abdomen completely separated. I had slid down the ground from momentum, then stood up again. And when I turned around. The Waterfall queen’s remains finally collapsed and rolled onto the ground. Thud!
That was the miserable end of the traitor who had wanted to seize power by collaborating with me. Buzz buzz buzz! Buzz buzz!
The buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz! Buzz buzz buzz buzz!
Zzrr!
Zzrr!
Every bee was sending cheers and staring at me. It was clear that public sentiment was gathering around me. But I didn’t rush and said seriously, “Now… I’m going to solve the riddle of the ancient honeycomb!”
When I said that, the elder bee appeared and spoke. “Follow this old lady.” * * *
I told the Boulder Hollow queens to report the traitor and clean up the mess, then relied on Twelve Bytes to fly after the elder bee. As the elder bee and I took off, thousands and tens of thousands of bees followed us. They were in a hurry not to miss any big sights.
A short while later, the elder bee entered a small cave inside the large honeycomb apartment building ten floors tall, and gestured for me to follow. Since the bee-wasp couldn’t pass through the cave, I had no choice but to land on its back and walk inside. When I looked inside, I saw a honeycomb that looked both sacred and strangely ancient—something that deserved to be called an ancient honeycomb. The elder bee said, “The final… Empress’s gateway… riddle.” “What do I have to solve?” “The number… of rooms… in the ancient honeycomb.” “…”
LT__Time limit>: Until tomorrow morning. I looked at the ancient honeycomb. It was huge, and counting the number of hexagonal rooms would take a long time. But the mana glow was already turning orange. At most thirty minutes to an hour later, the light would disappear. It seemed impossible to count the thousands of visible hexagonal rooms in a giant honeycomb within that time. Damn it. How am I supposed to do this! Even if I had time, if I made even one mistake in the middle… Besides, the honeycomb’s outside shape was random, so it wasn’t even a math problem I could solve with geometry. “Give me more time!” “Impossible. Originally… the ancient honeycomb riddle… is performed just before sunset.”
Hah. At that moment I remembered that this really was a riddle. Yeah. It’s a riddle. There’s no way they’d pick the Empress by looking at how fast I count the honeycomb! It had to be testing wisdom. I looked at the problem again. The problem was “The number of rooms in the ancient honeycomb.” The time limit was “Until tomorrow morning.” Wait a second. If it gets dark soon anyway, why put the clue “tomorrow morning”? Even if I counted it perfectly before it got dark today, if something happened to the honeycomb by tomorrow morning, I’d be wrong. At that moment lightning struck in my head. I got it! I know how to solve it! I asked the elder bee, “Did the previous Empress get this answer right?” The elder bee answered, “She did.” I said, “I figured out the solving method.” “…” “Put one of her following bees into each room, then have them all escape the cave one by one by tomorrow morning while counting. That’s it.” “…” “In the end this is testing leadership and public sentiment. If the bees she follows aren’t enough, no matter how much you win the air race, you can’t become Empress. That’s the core of this riddle gateway.” The elder bee slowly nodded and said, “Correct. Also… the Empress… must solve any problem… not by herself… but together with… her comrades… and that… is a lesson.” “Good. I know the solving method, so now appoint me Emperor.” “No. Knowing the method and actually solving the real answer are different.”
Damn it. “Directly display leadership… prove public sentiment.” I was in a dilemma. The only trustworthy bees I had were a hundred Devil-Bees. Of course I could summon thousands of reliable worker bees through Ganeungi, but if even one Waterfall queen follower slipped in, I couldn’t get the exact correct answer. Besides, I had no time. : 5 days, 11 hours, 14 minutes, 20 seconds remaining. I can’t wait until tomorrow morning for the bees to fly around shouting numbers comfortably! I decided to go for the radical solution. Tick— Puuuhaak—
The elder bee was startled when I suddenly grabbed the flame-breath nozzle and caused fire. “What are you doing in this sacred place right now?” I answered casually, “I know. But I’m busy right now, so I don’t have the mental space to count nonsense until tomorrow morning. I have to get the riddle answer right now, so I have no choice.” “What kind of talk is that?” “What talk? It’s simple. If I burn the entire ancient honeycomb here, the answer comes out easily.” “…But that…” “I’ll tell you the answer in advance. The number of ancient honeycomb rooms… is zero! Zero!” After saying that I spat fire again. Then the elder bee’s face turned completely panicked. “Cheating! Cheating!” “What cheating? The problem is to count the ‘number of rooms’ in ‘ancient honeycomb’ until ‘tomorrow morning.’ Was there any other condition?” The elder bee looked like she had nothing to say. She’d run into a logical dead end. Puuuhaak~ When I breathed fire into the air again, the elder bee finally showed six hands and four wings in surrender. “Surrender! Surrender! Please stop!” What else could she do. This was like ordering someone to count the roof beams of Gyeongbok Palace, and a lawless guy burns the whole palace down and answers the number is zero. “Then now recognize me as Emperor?” “…” I breathed fire again. Puuuhaaa ha ha ha ha haak! “Recognize! Recognize!”
Hm. This one’s solved now. ★ Quest completed! ★ Having passed the Empress’s Gateway test, I became the Honeybee Emperor. Acquired ownership of the .