Golden Experience

The skill tree that contained Sugaru’s [Haplodiploidy] didn’t really have any new skills to learn. However, a completely new tree did get unlocked: [Insect Production].

The very first skill in this tree was [Ant Queen], which from the name probably created an ant queen. Instant buy! However, unlike regular ant eggs, this skill cost XP instead. It had a similar system to the treants’ [Root Division]: if [Haplodiploidy]’s ability to create more eggs corresponded to the treants’ [Scatter Seeds] skill, then [Insect Production]’s ability to birth queen-class units seemed to correspond to the treant [Root Division] skill. But even with the additional cost, the advantage of being able to create more queens was huge. Rare spent the required XP to try it out.

<They are significantly larger than normal eggs. The amount of time they require for incubation has increased as well.>

Standard ant soldiers were born from eggs about a quarter the size of these ones. They didn’t require much time before they hatched, either. In comparison, while the queen eggs didn’t seem like they would require hours to incubate, neither did it feel like they would hatch at any second.

“Well, we’ll just have to wait patiently. Let’s examine these other skills.”

Running parallel down the tree with [Ant Queen] were the skills [Spider Queen] and [Coleopteran Queen].

“If I remember correctly, some species of spiders are social, but ‘coleopteran’ means beetles, I think? Do beetles even have queens?”

Beetles though they may be, they were also monsters, so if she were told this species of them had a queen, Rare’s only response would be to nod and say “Sure, seems legit.” After looking it up later, she would find out that while they didn’t have queen colonies like ants or bees did, there was apparently a species of stag beetle where adults would raise larvae in a social manner.

“I’m curious, but it’s not something I need to know right now. I’ll think about after I’ve restocked my emergency XP.”

Finally, the egg film began to tear, and a familiar-looking queen ant emerged from within. It was a vespoid queen.

“Now, we should be able to expand our battlefronts. The capital region will be managed by Sieg and his order of undead, Treu and Lourdes will be under World Tree and the treants, and it should be fine to leave Erfahren under the control of Sugaru’s colony. Now, for this queen…”

<Boss, if I may?>

Normally, Sugaru would immediately make all newly hatched ants her followers, then assign them a place in her colony. However, she didn’t use [Subordinate] on this vespoid queen. Without [Subordinate], this queen was equivalent to a wild monster to Rare. However, the newly born monster appeared aware that she was in the presence of her creator and grandcreator and simply listened to them meekly; there was no need for Rare to take any immediate action.

<I believe Boss should be the one to [Subordinate] her. If she were to be my follower, then in times of need, Boss would not be able to [Summon] her directly.>

“That’s a good point… Produce more queens and put them on standby somewhere, then the next time I take control of a town or city, I will [Summon] one directly to rule our new location. Just like I did with Sieg this time.”

Since Sugaru had beeing overseeing the farm and the theme park up until now, Rare couldn’t transfer her away from the great forest before. However, the park was effectively closed now, and if it were just the farm, then management duties could be given to another ant now.

“All right, I will directly [Subordinate] her. Now that the nearby city is gone, this forest base will be pretty stable. In that case, let’s use it as a site to train new leaders and let them get used to leading projects.”

If Rare did need to call someone over to administrate a new city, she had no idea if a newly born unit would be able to pick up the reins right on the spot. In order to get a bit of experience beforehand, this safe forest was perfect.

<As you will. I shall lay more eggs so that they can all hatch together.>

Since the queens all needed to learn stuff like [Enhance Follower], they needed their stats raised in order to strengthen their brood, which mean more XP was necessary. Considering how many more queens Rare would need, then she would need to farm even more XP.

“The grind never ends…”

Rare could still power up herself as well, and the same went for all the other reincarnated leaders like Deas. Everyone must have unlocked many new skills.

“Before all that, we need to get La Colline settled. It’s a huge transportation hub for the kingdom with multiple major roads running through it. We should be able to turn the region into a primary access point. Let’s plan to make it a new provisional newbie dungeon.”

Who knew what kind of newbies would want to travel to a country that had been overrun by monsters, though.

<Please leave La Colline to me. I have the knowledge to oversee it.>

“Perhaps… We could also get a seed from World Tree and raise it as an elder to become a terminal. At any rate, it’s just a mountain of wreckage right now, hardly attractive at all. We’ll want to turn the area into a place lush with nature in order to get people to visit.”

If they truly wanted to turn it into a new theme park, then there were other points of concern as well. There needed to be accommodations. Unless there were safe zones that players could set as their spawn points, it would be hard to get them to stay for long periods of time.

“However, if it’s an attractive enough destination for players to come despite all the demerits, then they’ll think of solutions on their own. Thinking ahead, there won’t always be a town conveniently located near a farming zone.”

Maybe she could indirectly ask the developers “What should I do if I want to grind in a zone where there aren’t any safe zones I can use to log out?” The questions and answers would be posted publicly, but the name of the person submitting the question should be kept anonymous, so it wouldn’t be a problem for Rare to send in the question herself. If the answer that came back was practical, then other players should be able to see it and decide on their own if that method was worth it to them.

“Actually, as far as social media goes, ‘Rare’ should simply be known as the winner of the first event, so there shouldn’t be any problems even if the name does get out. The real problem would be if the idea that ‘the seventh catastrophe’s name is Rare’ spreads. If that were to happen, then the idea that ‘players can become catastrophes’ would also get out.”

There was no way a player-catastrope would want to friend other regular players anyway, and if there was ever a need to name oneself it would be fine to use a fake name. However, choosing a poor alias would occasionally result in sharing the name with another player, which would be a pain in the ass. And Rare still hadn’t found out if players and NPCs could share names either.

“Nah, someone had to have looked into that already. I’ll try to find that information later. It really should be fine to just come up with a proper-sounding name. I called myself a catastrophe this time, so I can just keep doing that. It looks like social media is calling me some kind of undead angel, so I could try to go in that direction, but… hm, most of the time, cheap misdirection like that always backfires.”

Better to not do anything overly complicated.

“Now then, let’s go to La Colline, Sugaru. The ants and wasps I sent on ahead should have just about arrived.”

<That does not seem to be the case. Would you like them to be [Summon]ed once we are there?>

“…Nah, I want to test out your flying capabilities, so let’s fly there together. Deas, watch the pups.”

“Your Majesty, your will is my command, but…”

“I won’t go picking fights on my own. Sugaru will be with me too.”

When they were about to depart for La Colline, Sieg sent a friend chat.

<Your Majesty, do you have a moment?>

<What’s wrong?>

<I have a report regarding your request to modify the throne to fit Dame Yoroizaka’s stature.>

Rare had left Yoroizaka and the other living weapons behind. The NPCs and other players had the mistaken impression that Yoroizaka wasn’t a separate monster but the catastrophe’s first form. Therefore, it made sense to leave her back in the capital acting in the role of the catastrophe.

<We attempted to move the throne temporarily, but, to my utter disgrace, that appeared to have activated a trap installed in the room.>

<Wait, who set it off? You did? You sound pretty unperturbed, all things considered.>

<Indeed. The trap’s effect was [Seal]. Fortunately, because there were a few other undead in range when it happened, the effect was dispersed across all of us and I was able to destroy the seal from within.>

Rare’s eyes widened. “So that’s what he was after…!”

She had doubted that a shrewd man like the prime minister would have wasted his final artifact for no apparent reason. However, it was possible that he either overestimated the artifact’s power or underestimated Rare’s strength, so she didn’t put much thought into it. She never could have imagined that he had been hiding another item like that.

“No, not an item but an entire trap installation. I wonder how he saw visiting dignitaries from afar if he had something like that set up in the audience chamber.”

However, it didn’t seem as though the trap was all that strong. If just trapping Sieg and a few undead led to its effects dropping by that much, then it couldn’t have possibly contained Rare. Even if she had been affected by that weakening artifact at the time, the effect duration was too short to have been problematic.

<What would be the point of a combo attack like that…? Even if they were able to seal something while it was weakened, as soon as the weakening wore off the target would be able to break the seal, end of story.>

<We analyzed the trap spell and discovered that the target wouldn’t be able to interfere with the outside world, nor would anything outside be able to interact with the sealed target. However, at the same time, any time-limited effects would remain frozen but active until the target left the seal.>

So while the catastrophe was sealed, they could prepare all their forces and launch a full-powered attack at the same time it broke free to defeat it. If the timer for the debuff wouldn’t restart until after the seal broke, that meant they could possibly pull it off if they aimed for that exact point in time. It was impossible to know how the seal would actually affect players without experiencing it for herself, but it was better not to be hit by if it she could help it. It was a pity that they couldn’t experiment with the trap activation due to a lack of personnel, but the mechanism was originally planned to go off if the throne were moved. However, the prime minister had miscalculated since there were more people in the room at the time, the nobles who had been struck with fear due to Deas and Sieg’s sudden transformation as well as the surviving sorcerers who had run out of mana.

“I really have to thank Deas and Sieg… Oops, I forgot I was still chatting.”

<So what did you do with that seal trap thing? Destroy it?>

<No; it no longer activates, but the mechanism is still in place. While it seems to have no relation to His Majesty the spirit lord, after examining it we have discovered how to operate it.>

According to Sieg, when filled with mana, it could be activated from outside and any characters within range would easily become sealed. Since it had just been triggered, it needed both time and mana before it could be used again, but as an emergency measure, it was an excellent trick to have on hand.

<The only downside is that it cannot be moved from this room where it was installed.>

<Well, not much we can do about that. In any case, if we ever have a pressing need for it, it’ll be in that room, so ensure it’s ready to be used at any time.>

Now the only remaining concern truly was the exiled royal family. However, there wasn’t anything Rare could do about them at the moment.

First, she had to bring Sugaru to La Colline and set up an attraction in the forest there.

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