1.1.12 – Not Pooh’s Kind of Honey

Warm liquid gold flowed from the sac I located into the leather pouch. While it might have looked like honey, it lacked the typical floral scent of honey but had an earthier aroma. I would have expected a wasp of this size to produce more honey but they did not exactly produce this nectar to be stored.

This was liquified meat that the wasps stored in their own body as an energy supply and to occasionally feed their young. I only harvested about three ounces from a single wasp. I gulped my own saliva and could not help but to give it a taste, pouring a spoonful into my mouth directly from the pouch.

I had expected a more full bodied honey but what I got instead was like drinking caramelized bacon that had been marinated in a sweet sauce. That was the closest thing I could think of that could describe the taste. I was tempted to drink more but Mr. White’s voice saying “No, we don’t eat our own supply” in my head was the only thing that stopped me.

No wonder the nobles only used this stuff on desserts rather than adding it into their tea. Bacon flavoured tea would have been weird even for people of this world. I quickly harvested the second wasp, giving myself a mental pat on the back for working out an effective strategy on the fly.

I wiped the knife on a clean patch of moss and sheathed it in the holster, before recalling that I had leveled up earlier. I pulled on the Weave to check on the status.

I was making progress but it’ll be a while before I make it to yellow. Most people took a while to progress through Orange grade as their spells did not progress as fast, and they had to hunt more orange cored beasts as the main contribution to their progress if they wanted to be quick.

I on the other hand got most of my progress from my spell levels. I definitely need to develop more spells considering my advantage in mastering lightning spells and keep up my progress. There was a chance I might need to escape from the Orphanage and be a fugitive if I wanted to avoid military service. Though that will definitely land Marta in hot soup.

I dismissed the window and looked up at the forest canopy. The sun was barely visible through the branches and leaves but I could tell from the direction of sunlight that I had a few hours left before it got dark.

My stomach growled, reminding me that I had missed lunch and I wanted to make sure I did not miss dinner as well. I would give myself an hour to locate another pair without going too deep, otherwise I would start heading back.

I cast Electro Perception and kept it running as I trekked through the forest. I was no expert at navigating the woods so I was mainly keeping to the outer perimeter while marking trees to ensure I did not get lost.

It did not take long before I noticed a single wasp buzzing through the forest. It was by itself and by the looks of pieces of flesh in its mandibles, it was probably on its way back to its nest. I decided to try and follow it, preferring to wait till it was stationary before trying to ambush it.

I almost lost track of it as it was flying a lot quicker than I could travel across the uneven forest ground. I had to use Lightning Infused dash a few times when there was an open or flat stretch to keep up. I could feel my legs starting to burn, as repeated usage of accelerated muscle contractions was not without its limitations.

I also had to use Lightning Infused jump to get over a small ridge that it flew over. If I had tried to climb normally I would have lost sight of it. As I got over the ridge, I saw the wasp slowing down as it dipped lower into a karst window, a bowl-shaped depression in the middle of the forest.

I could see that there was a small cave that it was flying into. I crept closer, keeping my perception spell on before spotting the nest. I could not actually really tell it was the nest using my Electro Perception but seeing around ten wasps crowding around a small area told me all I needed to know.

The depression was thankfully not that steep, so I quickly crawled down, keeping low to ensure any other wasps flying back would not spot me easily. There was very limited light in the cave but I guessed that was not a problem for the wasps as I saw occasional flashes of lights, likely from their abdomen.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Whether they were using that to communicate or they actually needed to see I did not know. But I knew that there was no way I could take on ten wasps at the same time by myself. I could in theory ambush them a bit further out but there was no guarantee I would be in their flight path.

Furthermore, being so close to the nest, there was a risk that the sound of my spell might draw the rest who were in the nest out even if I could ambush them on their way back. I decided to leave it for now and come back another day with a better formulated plan. I made a mental note of where the location was before leaving for the day.

It took a few more days of observing and counting to make sure that I was not dealing with a bigger nest than I had expected. The nest had a total of 12 wasps, with one wasp that seemed to be larger than the rest, likely the alpha.

Unlike traditional honey bees, Glimmerwasp have a social structure closer to a pack of wolves, where the alpha male leads the pack, or in this case the swarm. Though they also tend to nest in pairs when there were less of them around.