After Lairay went outside the cave he was relieved when he saw the outside world of the Hive.

Unlike the city he lived in, this place is untouched by civilization. 

Except for the huge stones acting as an open wall. This place is nature's territory.

The forest encircling the hive's cave is teeming with life, wild plants, and animals grow wild.

Despite the limited size of the island, the environment here thrives.

After walking and enjoying the fields, Lairay looked back at the cave, and before it was huge mountains, stretching to the north and south.

The mountain range had peaks rising toward the sky, the lower slopes were covered with forests, streams of crystal-clear water cascading down the rocky slopes, the higher slopes had meadows with vibrant wildflowers, and further up, the mountains became more rugged and untamed, it had hardy shrubs and tenacious vines clinging to life as the wind blows strong.

Lairay was in love and amazed by this magnificent view.

Below the majestic view was the entrance to the hive.

The arc leading to the hive's entrance can be seen as 'keeping the darkness trapped within it'.

Aether told Lairay, "The mountain range cuts the island into two sides, the West and East.

There are still more mountains behind that, which makes it hard to cross. There are no alternatives besides using the sea.

You are currently on the Eastern side where the sun rises. This place is where the hive mostly operates.

In terms of landmass, the Western side was much larger than the eastern side. But the East also has a fair space, stretching from north to south.

If Lairay were to head further east, he would reach the nearby sea, which was not far away."

"Aether, have you been to the west side?" Lairay asked Aether.

"I have, the wildlife over there is thriving and there are more animals than on our side.

The forest is large and dense. However, whenever the hive ventured to the other side, I always avoided the center because there were a lot of four-legged black beasts living there.

One night, when I camped near their territory, they suddenly appeared and killed all of my drones. Not a single one survived," Aether explained.

Hearing Aether's story gave Lairay a thought that Aether was scaring him.

"That's why I have avoided their territory ever since. Unfortunately, the westernmost side was blocked by another two mountains, one from the north and one from the south. The only path was in the center where their territory was located," Aether added.

"How did you get to the westernmost side?" Lairay said.

"In order to avoid their territory, I directed my drones to travel along the shoreline. It was a long journey, even more, if I chose to cross the mountains, but I managed to reach the other side anyway.

I rarely go there since the journey is long and the resources don't significantly differ that much from the East side of it" Aether replied.

"Right, based on your knowledge and my past experiences, this island was a tropical rainforest, there may be no winter seasons, but typhoons and heavy rainstorms frequent this region in all seasons.

But don't worry about the typhoons; the mountains behind us will keep them from reaching us. 

The cave was also designed to make sure it wouldn't cave in, and if we were trapped inside from the outside, we still had supplies until we successfully removed it.

It should be the same region as where you came from," Aether added.

Hearing this, Lairay became worried. Living underground could be beneficial since strong winds can destroy most houses. However, living inside a cave has its own disadvantages, such as the risk of getting trapped inside during landslides or rockslides.

Lairay couldn't go back to the hive in its current condition.

The enemies may still be patrolling the area and it will turn bad if they are found.

"The hive has another cave, not far away from here, we use it whenever we visit the other side, but will require us to go around that mountain behind the cave's entrance.

That cave doesn't have much equipment, but will allow us to survive for now." Aether said.

Before departure, Lairay went back to the cave entrance and took a sword from the hand of a fallen drone, although it's big Lairay should be able to wield it in front of an enemy or someone who would eat him.

He then used it to chop down a few small trees nearby for a long time, considering his 10-year-old body.

After taking a short break, he dragged each tree one by one toward the entrance and placed it carefully with Aether's assistance, this will act as a cover to keep animals from easily entering the cave while he was gone.

It was unbelievable that no animals dared to enter this cave.

Talking about animals, "Aether, you said you farmed animals right? Like where you got your wools from your sheep, where are they?" Lairay asked Aether.

"I didn't keep them all in one place, I let some of them roam these fields freely since they don't really go somewhere else, if they did they always go back the day after, most of them that were inside a pen must have died.

Some of them must have run off when we got attacked and got scared, if not some of them must have been killed." Aether replied

Lairay understood and Aether then went back to the topic.

Aether told Lairay that this would also help them figure out if the enemies were still around, if the enemies were still here they should notice that someone was here and would destroy the blockage.

If they didn't, then they would notice it anyway, upon entering the cave and finding the collapsed wall in front of the chamber we woke up in.

After building the blockage, he sheathed his sword to his scabbard and carried it on both of his arms, and headed for the other cave.

Upon climbing the mountain and reaching the middle, he looked back in the direction of the cave, and all he could see were the stones surrounding it, far beyond the cave and the forest, he could see the vast ocean near the horizon.

He continued walking, surrounded by trees and following a trail avoided by grass. He came upon a stream of water, and he looked for a place where he could drink. After finding a suitable spot, he had a short rest on top of a huge boulder.

While resting, he saw an animal not far from him: a deer. It was unlike anything he had seen in pictures. Its body was white, slowly transitioning to pink then to black toward its head and legs.

Its antlers were growing with leaves and its fluffy tail was colored blue.

The deer was heading for the stream but was suddenly stunned by Lairay sitting on top of the rock and running as fast as it could.

Lairay was surprised and a little scared when it suddenly turned around in his direction and headed back to the forest.

It was in that split second that almost gave Lairay a heart attack. But surely Aether will handle it.

Aether assured Lairay that it was harmless and joked that it was the first to feel frightened when it saw Lairay's unfamiliar form.

Lairay continued walking after that and wanted to reach the cave as soon as possible to avoid drawing attention, especially to evade hunting predators.

Lairay foraged for anything edible on their way with Aether's help. In the end, Lairay only ate wild berries and what looked like an apple, since he felt uncomfortable eating other unfamiliar fruits that didn't even taste great.

Lairay never went to the top of the mountain, Aether warned Lairay that while it is a short path, it is also dangerous, the path would get perilous and would have to go through a narrow cliff, he should only go there if he had escort drones for the journey, which he did not have.

Aether advised him to stick to the path, Lairay didn't notice but it was finally afternoon; the sun would be setting in a few hours.

After hours of walking, Lairay was able to reach the back of the mountain.

Lairay noticed that the shadow of the mountain from which he went around could be seen nearly reaching for the top of the other mountain behind it, he noticed that the sun would go down in a few hours, but there was still time before the sun rested for the day.

Aether advised him that some animals frequently hunt at night in this land, and this place would get darker faster than on the front side of the mountain. Since the light from the sun is now getting weaker and the rest of it will be blocked by the mountain in the front, Lairay had to pick up his pace.

He knew he had to head to the cave soon, rather than later.

Aether directed Lairay to the shortest route to the cave.

But on their way, they were suddenly disturbed by the sudden movements of the bushes from a distance, which made Lairay stop and quickly unsheathed his sword preparing to defend.

But Aether advised him that he was practically inexperienced and that he should hide quickly before it approached him.

Lairay searched his surroundings for cover.

Fortunately, there was a bush that could accommodate his size behind a tree, it should also allow him to see what it was that was approaching him at that speed.

The sound of bushes gets nearer and nearer.

He hides himself perfectly.

As the sound of the bushes approached near where Lairay stood, four figures suddenly appeared.

They looked similar to Lairay's body, another human being.

Two tall boys about the same age as he was in his previous life, a girl but a bit shorter than the first, and a boy just as tall as Lairay being held by the other tall boy.

They were wearing half-clothes, and the rest of their bodies were exposed.

The two tall boys only had clothes around their waist to knee-length, they had a good lean body, the rest of their bodies were exposed with unknown drawings and marks, slightly different from each other, and a necklace made of bones could be seen. There is a spear made of wood and sharpened stone on top being held by one of the two.

The girl wore clothes covering his breasts and a cloth below her waist to knee-length. She had a petite body and had drawings that massively differed from the rest, a few ornaments, on her hair, a crown made of small feathers, some beads on her hair, and her necklace with colorful gems and stones.

The little boy had only one cloth on his waist and had fewer drawings than the others, however, he had a necklace and a bracelet made of beads.

The four were being chased by 3 animals just as tall as Lairay.

Seeing that there was an open space, the 4 people stopped on the opposite side away from their chasers.

"We will face them here!" said the boy with a spear.

The tall boy carrying the child put him down and guided him to the back, he then picked up a tree branch nearby where he noticed an unfamiliar object, it was Lairay's scabbard, but kept silent about it, and went back to the group.

Aether pointed it out to Lairay for leaving his scabbard behind, Lairay was speechless as he blamed himself for leaving it there.

The two tall boys went in front and the girl was behind them with the child.

Aether was confused when the four people appeared and expressed his curiosity with Lairay as there had been no human beings seen here before since the hive had explored this whole land long enough.

Lairay then asked Aether inside his head, how long they were asleep.

"Supposedly, a drone will spend its days inside a growth vat normally for 7 days and will be born like a 3-year-old.

In your case, the former Hive Progenitor (Aether's former self) at the time decided to give you more time after the invasion.

However, I do not have the information for how long, I wasn't able to tell how many days it had been since the invasion, and I only recently was able to gain awareness just after a long time before your soul saved this body," Aether said.

Aether's current consciousness only had information on how to survive and some helpful information that would help him rebuild the hive. 

Lairay's body during the invasion only developed a 1-year-old baby and was not old enough to fully allow the former Hive Progenitor to fully migrate the Mind to his body, therefore, only a portion of the consciousness was shared that would help it survive and rebuild the Hive.

"Priestess the barrier," the boy said with the spear.

"Right," the girl replied.

During Lairay's and Aether's conversation, they were interrupted when the girl suddenly made awkward gestures with her hands.

Lairay and Aether were confused about what the girl intended to do.

But was then surprised when the leaves in the area suddenly flew toward the four, right after the girl did her hand gestures and stopped around them while suspended in the air.

Just at the same time the girl, three grey wolves suddenly appeared from where they came from, they looked skinny and seemed to be hungry for food.

The girl's barrier formed just in time.

This was the first time Lairay saw wolves his size except for the Beethoven, but at the same time doesn't know which one to be astonished by what happened.

The two of the wolves rushed forward while the other one remained standing aggressively behind.

The two wolves rushed toward the group but were blocked by the leaves floating in the air.

This gave an opportunity for the tall boy to use his spear to successfully stab the first incoming wolf's front body.

It was not deep, but made the wolf yelp, whine, and howl in agony, the tall boy tried to kick the wolf hard rushing toward them but avoided it.

The injured wolf rushed backward and took a moment to recover from the pain.

The other boy on the other hand who had a tree branch tried to attack but didn't successfully hit the second incoming wolf as he was aiming for its head, but the wolf was quick to avoid and went one step backward.

Meanwhile, the wolf that stayed back accidentally sniffed a scent and suddenly turned his head around to find out more about the scent and it turned to where Lairay hid.

The wolf was able to notice Lairay peeking just before the leaves.

Then rushed toward Lairay's direction. This wolf had excellent eyes.

Lairay was panicked and got scared by this and suddenly made a small shrieking sound but Aether was able to inhibit Lairay's fear for a bit and controlled his adrenal gland to produce adrenaline just enough to ensure he was able to fight and run after.

Lairay had no choice but to go outside the bush where he was hiding and try to confront the fierce wolf.

Lairay couldn't no longer hide from the group, he didn't want to risk his life when the wolf already made it obvious.

Aether knew that Lairay didn't have experience in actual combat, but still decided to help Lairay by controlling the flow of adrenaline and other hormones throughout Lairay's body based on Lairay's knowledge of the human body, influencing his muscles with adrenaline, unknowingly inducing a human's secret ability, the 'hysterical strength'.

(Hysterical Strength: It enables a person to operate beyond their physical capabilities during moments of extreme stress)

...