HC: Handyman | Ch. 187 - Splitting

The Breach was mostly as Jack had left it.

Christoff was by the fire, busy crafting arrows. Esther and Riku were nowhere to be seen, probably running errands for Marie and Horace.

The only real difference was a small pile of pickle jars set aside in the corner, lids opened. Someone had helped themselves. A few jars were even missing altogether. Jack figured his friends had taken them before heading out to explore.

Then again, he hadn’t been gone for long. The fire still burning strong was proof of that. Without the [Kindle] skill, the others could throw as much fuel into it as they wanted — it would still go out.

Jack raised a hand. "Hi, Christoff! How’s it going?"

The hunter glanced up from his work and offered a quick nod. "All good, sir."

Between visiting the market and pulling that little stunt at the Pottery Association, not even two hours had passed. He thought back to the Eye-Patch Hog and smiled darkly, remembering how he had showered Og with insults. The look of pure rage on the man's face had been cathartic, and some of the anger he felt toward IronIre for what they were doing to his cousin had been appeased.

But the best part was knowing that Og — and however many people the Slayer had sent to camp — were in for a long, long wait.

Jack pulled up his team menu and messaged his teammates. “Hi, everyone. The first stage of the plan was a success. I’m back. It worked!”

A flurry of welcoming and thumbs-up messages followed. 

He dismissed the menu. No time to waste. The next wave would hit in about twenty minutes.

After alien-like roaches and prehistoric squirrels, he wasn’t sure whether he was eager or dreading what Piri would throw at them next. He hoped it would be something with horns — a few bone carving recipes made use of them.

Top of the list was making a new batch of vases etched with the One-Eyes' pattern — his ticket back into the Breach if he needed to leave again. But now that he had another pot hive, there was something else he wanted to try first. Hopefully, it wouldn't take too long.

Jack rushed to the back of the fortress. It had been nearly five hours since he’d last visited his hive, and he was eager to find out just how much [Royal Jelly] had accumulated.

According to the description of the upgraded [Honey Harvesting] skill — unlocked after reaching journeyman tier — [Royal Jelly] would now be passively generated by his hive, with the amount scaling based on luck.

He needed 10x[Royal Jelly] to split the hive. He had no idea how much he could get, though. His luck was at 10, which his teammates said was fairly high, but was it high enough? Five hours might not be enough.

As he approached, the faint scent of honey drifted to his nose, warm and sweet. Jack reached for the hive window, palms slightly sweaty, and prompted it open.

You’ve collected: 37x[Alpine Honey].

You’ve collected: 13x[Royal Jelly].

Jack grinned and gave a small fist pump.

Yes! I got enough!

[Royal Jelly] was no joke. It was rare and expensive — fifteen credits, or about twenty gold coins per piece, according to what he’d read online. It was unthinkable for most players to buy it in bulk.

At roughly two royal jelly per hour, his production was better than he’d dared hope. Not bad at all. That meant he could already split the hive!

He pulled an empty [Pot Hive] from his inventory, remembering the rows of clay hives he'd seen at Gretchen's apiary. She hadn’t seemed worried about spacing them too close, so he simply placed the new pot hive right next to the old one.

Then he opened the details of the skill he was eager to use:

Queen Breeding (Rare)

Raising a new queen requires time and resources.

Effects: Passive. When a hive is without a queen for 24 hours, a new queen will be raised. It takes an additional 24 hours to mature and start laying eggs.

Requirements: 10x[Honey], 10x[Royal Jelly], beekeeping, lvl. 9.

Cooldown: 30 days.

Jack winced.

"That’s a very long cooldown..." he muttered.

He’d thought [Royal Jelly] would be his biggest limitation in growing his apiary. Time turned out to be the real enemy here.

Unless... I buy queens from others or capture more.

Both options were costly and time-consuming. Queens weren't cheap, and hunting them would eat up precious hours.

Oh well. He’d work around it. He always did.

Jack moved 10x[Royal Jelly] from his inventory into the hive. Then, carefully, he opened the lid.

Inside, hundreds of bees moved around, humming in a steady, soothing rhythm. 

Jack smiled proudly, remembering when the entire hive had fit on a palm-sized comb, barely enough bees to fill a hand. Now, honeycombs stretched across the pot’s interior like a living city.

The queen had been busy, too. From just a handful of workers, the colony had flourished into a vibrant swarm.

Jack peered into the hive, searching. The queen was larger than the workers, with a longer abdomen, and she moved with a slower, almost stately grace.

There—near the center of the hive, on a thick comb crowded with larvae, he spotted her. A little larger, a little slower, and attended by a half-circle of loyal workers, feeding and grooming her.

Jack pondered how to move her without causing chaos. He remembered back to when his first hive had been set up. Beekeeper Jarvis at the Entomology Department had placed the queen inside the hive by moving a piece of comb along with her.

I don’t need to put the queen in a cage, he reasoned. But maybe I can grab the piece of honeycomb she’s on, rather than trying to pick her up directly.

He carefully lowered his hand into the pot. The bees moved aside for him, a few landing gently on his skin, but none showing any aggression. His scent marked him as a friend.

Jack reached down, braced his wrist, and gently broke free the section of comb where the queen rested.

The hive remained surprisingly calm.

They really trust me, huh?

It was a strange feeling — to have so many tiny creatures deposit this much faith in him — and a pleasant warmth spread through his chest.

He double-checked that the queen was still on the piece in his hand, then pulled it out and carefully closed the lid of the old hive to keep the colony stable.

Jack walked over to the new pot hive and wedged the comb carefully between two support sticks, just like Beekeeper Jarvis had shown him.

The moment he finished, a small progress bar appeared over the old hive:

Raising New Queen — Progress: 0% (24 hours remaining)

"Good! It worked!" Jack said, beaming.

Within one day, the old hive would have a new queen, and the new hive would already have one to guide it. A beautiful symmetry.

OK! Now I can leave them be.

It was almost time for wave 21. Time to see what the next beast in the Breach would be.

Jack made his way back to camp, where Esther and Riku were munching on some pickles.

"Hi, Esther. Hi, Riku," Jack said.

Esther gulped down a pickle whole, nervously trying to hide what she'd been doing. The scene made him grin. She looked like a child who had found where her mom was hiding the cookie jar, only to get caught red-handed.

Riku, on the other hand, couldn't have been more obvious. "Hi, Mister," he said between mouthfuls of pickles.

Jack laughed. "There's plenty to go around. You guys can have your fill, no problem."

The pair relaxed and immediately reached for yet another jar.

Glancing at the clock, Jack frowned. Usually by now, his teammates would be sitting around the fire, waiting for him to whip up a quick meal before the wave hit.

"Hi, everyone. Aren't you coming to camp?" he asked the others via message.

The reply came quickly. "It should be okay. We have the pickles," said Amari.

"What about the stat boosts?" Jack pressed.

"Should be OK. It’s just the first wave of this series. Just come meet us on the battlefield," Amari responded.

Jack sighed and did as asked.

As he crossed the moat and the fields of traps between the gate and the carriage, he couldn't help but feel a little sad at how sorry their defenses now looked. Compared to before, when it had been hard to walk a few steps without stepping on a caltrop or a bear trap, now the traps were few and far between.

That last boss really left a dent in our defenses, Jack thought.

The cobalt romie had triggered so many of their traps. And without ingredients to make more, the best Horace could do was ask Riku to redistribute the remaining ones more evenly.

Good thing I brought a lot more supplies, Jack thought.

He spotted Amari, Horace, and Marie waiting just before the first ditch. Christoff was there, too, eyeing the horizon grimly.

Jack was strangely relieved to see his friends in their in-game gear. Somehow, it felt more natural — as if this was the real them, and the outside world was the illusion.

"Hey, Jack," Amari greeted.

"Hi, guys. I come bearing gifts," Jack said, operating his inventory. "For Horace, occupying over half of the orders — armor, shield, war hammer, and a bunch of stuff to make traps with."

"Oh, goody!" Horace said playfully, rubbing his hands together.

"For Marie, a bunch of bomb shells, gunpowder, and other explosive stuff."

"Sweet," Marie said with a bright smile.

"And for Amari, a new set of claws and a bunch of obscure consumables no one's ever heard of."

"Thanks, Jack," Amari said, grinning.

"I've got a few more supplies too. I'll just dump them in the courtyard for you guys to go through later, okay?"

"How was it with IronIre?" Horace asked. "Were they camping at the Pottery Association like we imagined?"

"Oh yes," Jack said. "But I managed to slip past them with Snowy’s help. Just as we planned."

"Atta boy," Horace said approvingly.

"Did you provoke them a little?" Marie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jack offered a sheepish grin. "I guess you could say that, yeah."

Marie approached, squinting suspiciously and poking him in the chest with her finger. "Why do you look so shady?"

"I might have gone a little overboard," Jack admitted.

"Overboard? What did you do?" Marie asked again, a devilish grin spreading across her face.

"Why have him sugarcoat it when we can just watch the show?" Amari chimed in.

A system notification blinked in front of them:

Amari Ninja is sharing a video with you.

"Huh? Amari, what are you—" Jack started.

"What does one hen say to the other?" he heard himself say in the video.

Right. Amari had access to his video feed.

How did he even get it so fast? Jack wondered. It was almost like he'd been waiting for the chance to share it. He was starting to suspect that Amari had already watched the footage.

The group watched the video with laser focus. It was all too reminiscent of that fateful night when Jack's dad had played the video of him quitting his job at CheapMart. Jack felt a knot tighten in his stomach. He braced himself for a scolding.

However, the reaction of his teammates couldn’t have been more different.

Horace burst out laughing. Marie giggled, occasionally chiming in with things like, "Sick burn!" or "Good one!" Even Amari chuckled, though he tried — and failed — to contain it.

By the end of the video, Horace was laughing so hard that he was wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. "Who knew our Jack had such a sharp tongue?" Horace added, slapping him on the back.

"Oh man, that was brilliant," Marie said, still grinning. “Respect, Jack. Respect.”

"Thanks, I guess," Jack said, sighing in relief.

It looked like his teammates were proud of him — proud that he had stood up for them.

The moment was cut short.

Wave 21 comes. Beware.

“OK, everyone focus up!” Amari said. Everyone assumed their positions with Marie and Christoff at the center of the ditch, Horace and Amari each guarding a flank, and Jack a few steps back, ready to chip in with his bard buffs.

There was a rumble in the distance. Jack closed his eyes, focusing on the sound, trying to identify the incoming beasts. From the rhythm of it, it almost sounded like horses. Or buffalo, maybe.

But what made its way into the mountain pass wasn’t either. The creatures that poured into the mountain pass looked like a mix of a boar, a bear, and a rat. Thick, matted fur covered their broad frames. They ran low to the ground, their heavy feet churning up the rocky ground with each step, kicking up dust and pebbles.

Jack recognized them immediately.

"Wait, aren't those beasts the same ones littering the courtyard in the fortress?" he asked.

"Shagrats," Horace confirmed. 

Ch. 186 - Trash Talk

INDEX

Ch. 188 - Shagrats