Chapter 251 - 239: To Spare Him Is to Harm Him

In this half of the villa district alone, there were now no fewer than thirty beehives. And that was with Flora Bloom limiting the queens’ reproduction.

The swarms produced honey very quickly, but only bees raised on royal jelly were of higher quality and more likely to give birth to new queens. However, the swarms produced royal jelly much more slowly than honey.

Flora Bloom’s intention was selective breeding. High-quality swarms were larger, and the venom in their stingers was more potent. Naturally, their combat effectiveness was far greater than that of ordinary mutant bees raised on honey.

But if Sherman Lynch wanted to use her swarms to expand the safe zone and clear the residential area, she could lift the limits on their reproduction and let Sherman Lynch and the others each claim a queen.

Back in Azuregard City, Flora Bloom had already experimented with making her bonded Spatial Creatures obey others’ commands. All she had to do was issue an order for a specific creature to obey a certain person.

For ease of identification, Sherman Lynch and the others just needed to leave a trace of their spiritual power on a queen, and they would be able to control the entire mutant swarm in that queen’s hive.

Flora Bloom summoned a queen that had nested in the villa district to her side. A queen with a black body and bright yellow stripes on its abdomen flew before Flora, beating its wings and buzzing with a fluctuating hum, as if trying to curry favor.

Flora summoned a handful of spiritual water into her palm. Upon seeing it, the queen immediately beat its wings and buried its head in Flora’s palm to drink the spiritual water.

"Dad, all ability users have spiritual power. Try leaving a trace of your spiritual power on this queen!" Flora patted the queen, whose body was larger than her own head, and said to Caleb Bloom.

Caleb Bloom looked at Flora doubtfully, not understanding. "Leave my spiritual power on it? Flora, don’t tell me this will make it recognize me as its master and obey my commands?"

Flora gave a mysterious smile and sent a command through her spiritual link for the queen to accept Caleb Bloom as its master. "Dad, hurry and try."

Caleb Bloom released his Gold Ability’s energy, and a thread of his spiritual power slowly approached the queen.

Because it had been ordered by Flora to accept a new master, the queen didn’t reject the approach of Caleb Bloom’s spiritual power. Instead, it suddenly flew onto Caleb’s shoulder and landed.

"Dad, probe into its body with your spiritual power and leave a trace of it inside."

Caleb Bloom did as he was told, then looked at Flora blankly. Suddenly, his expression froze, then gradually turned to sheer excitement.

"This... It... It can understand me?"

Flora smiled. "Dad, your spiritual power is now inside the queen. It has accepted you as its master, so of course it will listen to you."

Caleb Bloom rubbed his hands together, his face alight with excitement. "Flora, so... this queen is mine now?"

Flora nodded. "The queen is the leader of a hive. All the bees within its hive obey its commands. So, not only does it belong to you, but all the worker bees and larvae in its hive will listen to you as well."

Caleb Bloom was busy communicating with the queen on his shoulder, as excited as a child. Beside them, Sherman Lynch watched with eyes full of envy. Seeing Caleb make the enormous queen fly up and down, spiral, dive, and spin, he immediately looked at Flora.

"Flora, you can’t play favorites! This business with the queens accepting masters... this..."

Flora’s lips curled into a mischievous grin. "Don’t worry, Old Lynch, I won’t leave you out." She then summoned four more queens, which lined up in front of Sherman Lynch, Shauna Wallace, Fakyoo, and Mark Sterling.

Beaming, Sherman Lynch quickly completed the bonding procedure according to Flora’s instructions. Then he and Caleb Bloom went off to the side to communicate with their new pets.

Meanwhile, Mark Sterling, Fakyoo, and Shauna Wallace stared at Flora in astonishment.

"Boss, this... we get one too?" Fakyoo, a blond man, asked excitedly.

"I... We can too?" Mark Sterling stared in disbelief at the giant queen before him.

"Flora, this... I get one too!?" Shauna Wallace pointed blankly at the queen, then looked at Flora.

"Here’s what I was thinking. Sister Shauna, you, Mr. Wallace, Old Monroe, and my dad will be going out to clear areas and hunt zombies, so safety is the top priority. With these, your safety will be much more assured."

"Then what about us?" Mark Sterling and Fakyoo asked, confused. ’We’re supposed to be following Old Lynch. Are these swarms even useful for us?’

"Stu, Fakyoo, you’ll be with Old Lynch. If you’re going to recruit new people to join us, you’ll need some power to establish authority. The situation in the base is chaotic and the people are a mixed bag. The general level of the ability users isn’t high, but if you want to command respect, you need to have strength of your own. Besides, when you recruit newcomers, there might be some troublemakers who sneak in. Your own safety is also a concern."

Flora helped them complete the bonding process with their queens. Suddenly, Joel Bloom rushed over, an urgent look on his face.

"Sis, I want to go out and hunt zombies with Dad too! I’ll be really careful and protect myself. I won’t drag everyone down!" Joel Bloom looked at Flora, his face full of earnestness.

"The zombies outside won’t give you time to adapt. If you run into a horde, what will you do?"

"I...!" Joel Bloom’s eager expression faltered. "But Sis, I don’t want to just stay inside and do nothing! I want to get stronger too!"

"So, starting tomorrow, you’ll follow Old Lynch. You will listen to him no matter how he trains you. We’ll talk about you going out with Dad and the others when I think you’re strong enough!"

Joel Bloom’s eyes lit up. "Really?"

"You should know Old Lynch’s background, right? If you can’t meet his standards, you’ll stay put in this base for the rest of your life and you’re not allowed to go anywhere!"

"Yes! I’ll definitely do my best!" Joel Bloom suddenly thought of something. "Sis, but didn’t you tell me to train with brother-in-law and the others before? My brother-in-law, he..." He was cut off by Flora before he could finish.

"Brother-in-law this, brother-in-law that. Here today, gone tomorrow. He’s unreliable. The people Old Lynch has trained in his life have all been commander-level talents. Train yourself well. My only requirement is that you get your body into shape. Otherwise, forget about me—even Dad won’t agree to let you go out!"

A smile—his first since the apocalypse began—appeared on Joel Bloom’s face. "Dad, Sis, don’t worry, I’ll train hard." Then he turned to Sherman Lynch. "Old Lynch, you can train me as you see fit. I absolutely won’t complain about the hardship or fatigue!"

Sherman Lynch nodded knowingly. "Starting tomorrow, you’ll be up before dawn for morning training. Any problem with that?"

"No problem!"

"Go check on Mom first, and take today’s water to her." Flora took a bottle of spiritual water from her space and handed it to Joel Bloom.

The group watched Joel Bloom leave. Sherman Lynch said, "Are you treating my place like a daycare? Your brother’s constitution isn’t particularly good. He might not be able to handle my training methods."

Flora gave a faint smile. "Old Lynch, don’t go easy on him for my sake. Train him as you see fit. As long as it doesn’t kill him, train him to within an inch of his life. He has to grow up eventually."

How could Caleb Bloom not understand Flora’s reasoning? Though his heart ached for his son, he didn’t say anything. Sherman Lynch, however, was surprised. "Aren’t you being a little too harsh on your own brother?"

Flora shook her head. "The longer the apocalypse goes on, the stronger the zombies outside become. We’re already seeing Middle Level zombies appear. Without a superpower, going out there is a death sentence. If I’m not harsh with him, I’d really be doing him harm."