A Game of Numbers

Sensei scoffed.

«If I agree, you essentially admit to being no better than a lower life form, and nourishment is all you're good for. Are you a lower life form?»

My body twitched in annoyance at his taunting voice.

"Do you confess to being a leech?"

«If only one of us is meant to survive.» Sensei casually replied. «I'd rather be the one that wins, as should you.»

"Can you even call yourself a human, don't you have any empathy?"

«My empathy has nothing to do with it, sentiment won't help you when you're dead. You either adapt or perish.»

I focused on the egg that was already dead. Knowing it would be the first of many, I couldn't help the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

My HP was already low, and I needed a refill, but I knew I couldn't risk eating any of the eggs here. The cells had to remain as undisturbed as possible, but could I just let the larvae infect the creatures as they pleased?

Doing so would make me no different from Sensei and I refused to rise to his provocation. To confirm this egg was the only one, I scanned around the chamber with [Heat Sense]. Once satisfied, I climbed out.

With nothing else to vent my irritation I could only look closely at the other twenty nine cells. I wasn't delusional to think I alone could save all the hosts, but there had to be something I could do.

All of the hexagonal chambers contained creatures that were predators of some sort, and earlier, I counted nine eggs that had already hatched but now that I looked at them. I noticed they all shared one commonality.

Only these out of the thirty, held additional eggs in their cells.

Like the lizard's cell, there was one egg affixed to the wall along with an extra egg placed over the backs of the paralysed hosts.

These eggs were all hatched now, some like the lizard's had even burrowed into their hosts, and were currently controlling their bodies to test the use of their new limbs. Whereas the eggs fixed to the walls had yet to hatch.

What were the chances that only these nine eggs had hatched when all their counterparts had not?

If it was just the odd egg in the lizard's cell, I would have dismissed it all as the random action of one wasp. But different wasps going out of their way to place additional eggs made it more than a coincidence. I could only surmise the wasps were split into more than one faction.

The likelihood of there being more than one queen as Sensei had said, increased. The disparity between the numbers of those eggs showing even more that, one queen was weaker than the other, and the hive was not as unified as it seemed.

If the eggs were split evenly I would have been less sure.

The slug creature in the cell whose egg I just poisoned, had been one of the normal ones. They amounted to 21, with the weaker queen having only 9.

However, the weaker queen was not so weak. Her 9 eggs hatched much quicker than the other queen's, whose had not even begun to peak. With all nine out, and burrowed into their host, it left me no chance to try to save any of them.

I would have to beat them all like I did with the lizard and my HP was not enough to survive that.

So, I had no choice but to let the larvae continue.

The first victim to fall was a feline monster with dark arrow-like ears, wicked hooked claws, and extended twin tails. Within seconds of the larvae taking control, it swiftly climbed up the walls, knocking down the unhatched egg.

It shattered on impact, and the feline monster promptly closed in to eat the larvae inside.

Almost identical scenes repeated in the other cells and once all the eggs were destroyed, the eight new hosts resumed their positions in the centre of their hexagon cells, falling back to unconsciousness.

Their very first action as hosts was to destroy what was unneeded, and it made sense. In an effort to increase her power, the weaker queen had likely imbued her eggs with a shorter incubation time to get the host body before her rival did.

What better way to win than to get a head start over your opponent?

Even the creatures chosen for the nine larvae were different. They all favoured stronger, vicious monsters, as opposed to the majority of insects in the other cells.

There wasn't any weak Labyrinth monster but it was better to use those that actively hunted, rather than those that set traps. So If they did return, they would be much stronger compared to those that lived in relative safety.

Forcing the larvae host outside the nest where only the strongest survived, with odds of only 1 in 5 to return, wasn't exactly terrible as long as you started off with the right tools. If I was an aspiring queen with competition, I would likely do the same.

Fortunately, I did not have such grand ambitions.

"This queen likely doesn't want her actions to be discovered." I said to Sensei. "So her rival's eggs were immediately destroyed. With all the larvae looking the same, it would be impossible to tell which eggs have been switched."

«Well done figuring that out, but you're thinking way too hard. You're better off killing the hosts that are still petrified now before they get strong enough to resist.»

"They can already move. They will attack me like the lizard as soon as they see me."

«That is different. The larvae assimilated the lizard quickly to defend itself. It attacked you because it saw you destroying one of the eggs and thought it would be next. Excluding it, only eight are aware, the rest of the hosts are still paralysed.»

"I'd rather not waste my venom. Even if I control the amount I use, the effect on each one won't be the same."

«The potency of your venom has also increased. Using less will go a long way.»

With [Poison Fang] at LV3 I did indeed have more shots of venom, but that didn't remove my concerns. Excluding the lizard there were 29 creatures in total, would 15 shots really be enough?

"That wouldn't matter if some of the hosts are resistant."

«You haven't encountered any that are.»

"That lizard had the ability to heal itself, who knows what other defensive abilities these hosts have."

«It's a risk you'll have to take.»

I didn't want to consider it but as I watched these new hosts, a plan began to form in my head.

"What if I don't have to? The one thing I'm confident of is the system the wasps have already set. They know to come just when each host's paralysis is about to wear off. Everything in the chamber has to be under a fixed timer from the moment these hosts are brought in, to every successive round of paralysis stings, so why not use their careful set up against them?"

By sealing the holes with a membrane, the wasps had to be confident all the eggs would hatch. By that time, the hatched larvae would continue to use their own paralysis to subdue the hosts, until they were no longer at risk.

I already lost 9 hosts, but there were still some left. If I destroyed all those eggs, before they took over their hosts, naturally the paralysis keeping the creatures contained would wear out, and with nothing left to restrain them, they would all break free.

«You mean to release them?»

"Not all of them, just 21." I answered, with a smile.

Sensei chuckled. «It's not a bad plan but let me remind you, this is all just conjecture. Have you ever stopped to consider the two queens could be equal? The eggs could all just be miscounted in this chamber.»

I thought about it and shook my head. "That's very unlikely, but I will be going to the other chambers to see if there are still some eggs that haven't hatched. We can confirm the truth then."

Could two queens really live in peace without any problems? There was no way.

To be a queen, you had to be the only one standing, and what ambitious person was willing to give up their power? Such an ideal world would only be possible somewhere outside the Labyrinth, perhaps in the shimmering land of fairies.

There was only a slim chance, at best. Even if they were peaceful at first, the two wouldn't last for long. And if they were truly peaceful I just had to manipulate the conditions to make sure they ended in conflict.

With all eight hosts paralysed along with the lizard who was safely asleep, the cavern fell into tense silence once more, taking on a semblance of peace, which did nothing to stave off my nerves. I was anxious whether my plan would work at all, but I didn't dwell on it and immediately moved into action.

Reaching the first hexagonal chamber I scanned it with [Heat Sense] before climbing in. There was only one creature, a host in the shape of a large centipede. It's hard shell was covered in dark gouges, like scorch marks in numerous places where it had been stung. As I approached it, I focused on its numerous legs and its fearsome mandibles, so I could be ready to attack at first sign.

However, the creature which should have been terrifying was rendered completely harmless with paralysis and it was easy for me to access the egg glued to its segmented body.

A single bite with venom was all it took to kill the larvae inside the egg, and from there I proceeded to visit the other paralysed hosts in the other chambers, repeating this action until I'd poisoned all the unhatched eggs in the cavern.

Excluding the 9 eggs that already hatched, I'd poisoned only those of the stronger queen.

Destroying 21 eggs did not give me a lot of creatures to fight my way out of the hive, considering the hundreds of wasps I'd seen. But the freed creatures would at least cause a little havoc which would increase my chances.

But the real show would be the aftermath.

What would happen when out of the original 30, only 9 eggs survived with 21 hosts escaping after their eggs were destroyed?

They would conclude there was sabotage and who else would get the blame if not the weaker queen? They would assume the remaining 9 hosts had destroyed them to lessen their numbers and the two factions of wasps would likely begin to attack themselves to settle the blood debts.

And once all the wasps are busy fighting in their internal war, escaping would be a piece of cake.