Both Bee and I stood still, completely shocked. We were both staring at the comically large boulder that my magic had thrown straight at the boss, which was deeply embedded into the Dungeon’s ceiling now. If it weren’t for the blood dripping down the rock, I would’ve thought it was always like that. 

“Bravo, bravo!” The old man came walking in, slowly clapping. “That’s a big rock. That… that is genuinely huge. Last I checked Rock Golems were Physical monsters. Well, I won’t pry further. You can’t even tell me anyways. You have no mouth!”

Oh, I forgot he existed. I wonder what his deal is anyways. Why is he here? He said this is a beginner Dungeon, and he’s clearly not a beginner. “Oh, what’s this. Are you think something, Golem?” I think he really can read my mind. “My guess is that you’re wondering why I knew you guys were finished.” 

What? No. Maybe he can’t read my mind after all. “You see, Dungeons have this neat little thing where the System provides real-time footage of battles between a boss and its challengers. Let me tell you, hoo boy, that was quite the fight.” Huh. That’s quite the cool feature. Except what would be recording the fight? I looked around, trying to see if there’s anything that would hint at something.

“Magic. That’s how. Dungeons have access to mysterious magics. No one can really figure them out. Now then, my inner clock is telling me it’s nighttime. I’m going to make camp and sleep, and you two can… well, do what monsters do, I guess. I’m going to guess the bee will meditate on your head, and you’re going to check your status, the bee’s status, and my status. You sure love using Appraisal.” Huh? How did he know? “Live long enough, and you’ll notice when someone is looking at a screen. Most of the time, it’s Appraisal. Anyways, I’m off to rest. We’ll continue the dungeon crawl tomorrow. Good night, have fun appraising.”

He quickly propped up a tent and went inside while Bee took their usual spot atop my head. This left me in a large room with nothing to do. Maybe I will appraise a bunch of things. Starting with me. I did level up.

674 INT. 674. 600+74. I have a feeling that’s not normal. I’m going to ignore that by looking at my new Skills and Titles. Let’s start with Hive Queen. That one has me thinking.

So Bee is a Queen Bee or higher. That’s interesting to know. It might explain why they were stronger than the rest of the bees that came to fight us. The +5 is… aren’t I secretly overpowered? Are stat increasing skills that common? Reincarnator privilege? What do I even mean by reincarnator privilege? You know what, onto the next thing.

Oh. Well, that’s convenient. I have a way to communicate… except only with Bee. Might as well try. Testing, testing. Can you hear me, Bee?

What do you want, my Queen?

Nothing, really. Also, stop calling me Queen.

Understood, my Liege.

Is it me, or does Bee have a large vocabulary for a bee? I should really give Bee a better name. Also, since they’re a Queen Bee, does that mean she’s female? Wait… is she even a Queen Bee? There’s a chance she’s higher. I’ll check her status after I’m done seeing the new things.

That is… oddly vague. Does this mean I can just come up with spell after spell? Do I just have complete control over earth? I need to find out the limits. Ooh… this gets my mind going. But first, time to see the upgrades for both Appraisal and The Library.

More detail and stat differences. You become more useful by the day Appraisal! I don’t know what it means by more detail, though. Upgrade 2 for The Library seems useful, time to test it out. Hey Bee, I’m going to test something, so please stay on my head.

Got it, my Monarch. Bee changed the title again. Whatever. Before I go, I’ve gotta check the old man is truly slee- and I can hear him snoring. Loudly. Guess it’s safe. The Library!

Once again, I found myself face to face with the reception like area, with Metis sitting upon the desk, kicking her feet to and fro. “Huh. About time you got back. I was getting lonely. By the way, congrats on the whole Bee thing and battle. You looked really cool. I can see you’ve levelled up and unlocked the whole friend upgrade. Soon you’ll unlock me, and we’ll be Gucci.”

Gucci?

“Slang. Forget about it.”

Oh, since I’m here, I might as well see what Appraisal means by more detail. Appraisal!

Damn you, Goddess!

“Did you just try to Appraise me?”

Yeah.

“Oh well, that would fail. In this form, I’m not part of the System.”

That makes sense.

“Anyways, don’t you have a friend to tend to?”

Huh?

“The bee.”

Oh yeah, Bee. I looked up and saw Bee hovering above me, staring at the shelves upon shelves located within the Library. My Lorddess, where are we?

The Library. It’s a Unique skill of mine. Keep it a secret, okay.

I will take it with me to the grave, my Sovereign.

Stop it with the titles.

No, my Highness. That is one thing I will not do.

Fine. We’re exiting now, okay.

Understood, my Ruler.

I walked through the portal that led back to the real world, back in the boss room where the old man had set up camp. Fortunately, he was still asleep. Now then, time to Appraise Bee, who had gone back to meditating on my head.

So Bee levelled up too. The numbers on the side must be the differences, and I see what it means by more detail. Seems I’m looking at this, might as well skim through the skills. I’m going to leave Bee’s Unique skill last, that sounds interesting.

Sting… that… that seems overpowered. Then again, it only did 10 DMG to me with it, so… how does the whole DEF and STR thing work? INT and FOR too. Hivemind is… what I expected it to be. Size Change explains why it can change sizes, although is there a limit? Immovable Stance explains why it sticks to my head. Now then, for the dessert. Her Unique skill.

… what? Work in progress? Goddess, are you slacking? Does this mean Statuses are updated in real-time by some outside entity? I guess I’ll wait for Hive: Mammoth to be done, in the meantime, Bee’s titles!

Midget explains a lot, and Hive Member seemed pretty self-explanatory. Loyal Retainer… uwaah. That’s... that’s really good. The penalty though… rough. Well then… that’s everything, I guess. I do have a new question though. Time to add it to the list.

1. How to get fingers? (Priority)
2. How to get a mouth or some way to communicate? (Maybe priority)
3. Where am I? (Not that important)
4. How do I level up? (Clearly not by killing)
5. How to kill that bee? I became its friend.
6. What do I look like? (Rocks, probably)
7. Why is the Goddess interfering? (Maybe it’s about curiosity and the cat)
8. What kind of name is Elgenhein? (Old Wizard Man Elf Thing, probably)
9. How do I remember these questions? (Magic?)
10. How did Bee get her Unique Skill? (Is she actually female?)
11. How is Bee above a Queen Bee? (Appraisal told me nothing)

Jarkon

So this was long than expected. I was going to split it, but nah. Also, help, I still have no idea how to name chapters.