“I should go, Wei Ya.”
After sitting for a while, Xia Jin looked at the sky and stood up again.
“Your Highness.”
The maid looked reluctant. She had cared for the Princess since childhood. After the Princess's last departure, she had almost fallen into despair, only able to visit the Princess's former room every day to keep it clean.
She was truly happy today because she never thought the Princess would appear before her again.
“By the way, do you know who the current heir is? It wouldn't happen to be my cousin, would it?”
“Most likely. Normally, he wouldn't have succession rights, but with Lord Gor's support, I'm afraid he is destined to be the next King.”
“I see.”
If the information the maid received was reliable, then Gor was likely already working for the Empire.
“Um...”
Seeing the Princess was truly leaving, Wei Ya bit her lip and suddenly stepped forward, hugging her tightly.
“Your Highness, can I go back with you?”
“Mph—mph~~”
Finally breaking free from the other's chest, Xia Jin took a few deep breaths and rolled her eyes.
“You can, but it's not convenient right now. If you insist on remaining my maid, I'll find a way to take you away later. For now, stay in the palace just like before. Don't go looking for information on purpose, and act as if you've never seen me.”
“Yes!”
Though disappointed, Wei Ya could only obey.
...
The departure was still relatively smooth.
Looking back from outside the city, the kingdom's capital was still magnificent.
During this trip, Xia Jin had briefly explored the city and confirmed that the capital region was very difficult to capture. However, she had identified several relative weaknesses and sent them directly to the brain bug.
Meanwhile, her true body, far away near the main hive, tallied the current production status of the Swarm once more.
First were the Tier 7 queens. One queen could produce 5 larvae per hour, meaning each queen could produce 120 larvae a day.
Currently, all the queens in Xia Jin's hands had been upgraded to Tier 7.
The total number of queens had reached 120.
Regarding distribution, 5 queens were dedicated to supporting the underwater battles in Clearwillow Lake, primarily producing Swimmers. Occasionally, they would produce one or two Floating Hive Bugs for underwater support.
Another 5 queens were responsible for mass-producing troops along the shores of Clearwillow Lake. Combined with the 15 units per hour from the hive, this allowed for the hatching of 960 units a day, all of which were roaches.
Yes, each roach cost 1,500 units of standard energy, which meant this small base alone consumed 1.44 million units of energy a day.
Of course, there was a reason roaches were so expensive; they were many times stronger than zerglings.
Another 10 queens and one base were allocated to the city states.
A war of attrition was still ongoing there.
By maintaining full production every day, they primarily wore down the effective strength of the city states while stockpiling their own resources.
Another 10 queens were responsible for replenishing the Swarm's production north of the main hive. These units were mainly zerglings and hydralisks, with the clear goal of controlling the vast area held by the Zerg to prevent magic beasts from the north from sneaking through. At the same time, they were on alert for magic beast lords attempting to migrate south, ensuring the road between the city states and the main hive remained clear.
Additionally, there were 10 queens in the underground world.
The remaining 80 queens, along with the 4 other hives, could produce 11,040 units a day.
Out of these, only 1,000 were drones.
In other words, Xia Jin was currently stockpiling approximately 10,000 military units a day for the kingdom's direction.
After accounting for all previous combat losses, she had about 120,000 land-based combat units and roughly 25,000 drones.
80,000 of those insects were concentrated in the territories of Amelo and several Eastern Lords.
This was the true main force, and they had all been upgraded at the first opportunity.
The remaining 40,000 were distributed across the city states, the underground world, the shores of Clearwillow Lake, and the controlled areas of the Border Forest, expanding steadily.
“Before I knew it, the scale has grown quite large.”
It turned out the current expansion strategy was correct.
This was because every upgrade for the Swarm required a large amount of high-energy crystals and gold.
As for gold, none had been found in the forest for now. Even after digging all the way down to the underground world, there was still none to be found.
From this, it was evident that gold mines could likely only be obtained from the humans.
Continuing north or west might lead to some, but now, with every bit of distance pushed, the risk of being noticed by mythic kings also increased.
If Xia Jin's previous expansion was limited and unlikely to be noticed, her territory was now truly too large. While the magic beasts allowed various tribes to fight over territory, it didn't mean they would permit one faction to become truly dominant.
Therefore, she had intentionally slowed her rate of advancement and instead mobilized more of the main force to harvest the inner cores of magic monsters in the underground world.
“Sorry about this, magic monsters.”
At the thought of the Magic Monster King's two daughters becoming her captives, Xia Jin couldn't help but smile.
This race had really gone to great lengths for the prosperity of the Zerg.
“Let's produce two more primal brain bugs. One will be responsible for guarding the hive, and the other will take over the 80,000 main force units in the south.”
Xia Jin prepared to quickly dispatch the Swarm over the next couple of days to seize control of the Eastern Lords' territories.
This would be similar to what she had done upon first entering Amelo's territory—wiping out disobedient rebels and bandits in various regions and bringing every village under her control.
“Also, produce 100 more swarm hosts, and send a group of insects to wipe out the lords who refuse to submit to me.”
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