Amelia the Level Zero Hero

“What’s wrong, Bucky?” I asked as I stared at the chicken.

All around me, the baby bastion bees buzzed. Their queen fluttered her wings, even as she sat on my shoulder. And Bucky’s gaze just bore into me.

It was almost like she was judging me. I pursed my lips and dropped down to one knee. I extended a hand to her.

“Are you alright—” I started.

And she began to cluck angrily, pecking at me. I blinked and drew back.

“Ouch, what are you doing? I don’t even know why I said ouch, that didn’t actually hurt. But— what’s going on?”

Bucky continued clucking and pecking at my hand. I picked her up, and she squawked. It was evident that she was angry about something.

However, she couldn’t speak. So I just watched her as she waved her wings in the general direction of the baby bastion bees.

“You’re angry because… I’ve been neglecting them?” I asked, tilting my head.

“I’m, uh, sorry about that. But I was busy with Edlyn…” I started.

But Bucky glared at me, not buying what I was saying. I scratched the back of my head.

“And I’m back now? So I can make it up to them?” I suggested apprehensively.

But Bucky just clucked louder. She pecked at me again, and I rolled my eyes.

“Alright, if that’s not the right option, what should I do?” I asked.

Of course, I couldn’t understand the chicken. All I could tell was that she was upset with me. She continued squawking as she flapped her wings angrily.

And then I heard a soft buzzing. Almost panicked. Looking down, I watched as the baby queen bastion bee flew up at Bucky, intercepting the chicken.

Blinking, I just stood to the side as the two creatures seemed to argue. Bucky clucked, and the baby queen bastion bee buzzed.

“Is she… defending me?” I stared in disbelief.

Bucky hissed as she backed away from the baby bastion bee. I blinked a few times, then just stood in shock as the baby bastion bee flitted back to me.

I didn’t know what was going on. However, I knew it was a complicated situation. So I sighed.

“Alright, I guess it’s time for me to pay Dorien a visit to figure out what’s going on.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Bucky huffed as she turned away from me, hearing what I said.

—--

After dropping off the unconscious Edlyn at her bed so she could rest somewhere that isn’t behind a bush, I brought Bucky and the baby bastion bees with me to Nolan’s farm. There, I asked him about where I could find the only person who could help me resolve this problem— the [Druid] who introduced me to the bastion bees in the first place.

Dorien.

Unfortunately for me…

“Dorien has returned to the Vox Forest,” Nolan said as he shook his head. “You can find him there, if you need his help.”

“I… see.” I sighed, and I drew back. “Well, this is going to be a bit of a pain in the ass, huh?”

I glanced back towards the swarm of baby bastion bees who were waiting right outside of the farm. Bucky was there, standing guard over them. Like a glorious steed mounted by a knight in shining armor. I had them all wait outside as I talked with Nolan.

Finally, I returned to them as I shrugged.

“Let’s go find him.”

Bucky clucked frustratedly, and I gestured at her to follow. The swarm of baby bastion bees and the chicken trailed after me as I made my way away from Wolfwater.

—--

After an hour of traveling, I realized this wasn’t going to work. We were moving way too slow. By the time I reached the Vox Forest, it would be after a week of travel at the very least. The baby bastion bees simply couldn’t travel as quickly as I could. That wawa why progress would be too slow.

So I made my decision on how to deal with this issue.

“Alright, we’re heading back!” I said as I spun around.

Bucky clucked in confusion, and the baby queen bastion bee blinked at me. But I marched forward as I led them back towards my restaurant. It took two hours to bring them back to my hive, and when they arrived, I nodded at them reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back in an hour. Just stay put.”

“Bawk bawk—” Bucky clucked protestingly.

But then I took off into the distance, leaping into the sky as they watched me go.

—-

The astrid beetle. It was a rare species of monster that was known to be docile towards humans despite their carnivorous tendencies. The reason for their strange tendencies to avoid feasting on humans had eluded experts for as long as their species had been discovered. Depending on their stage of evolution, one could reach up to the size of an elephant. And there were many well-documented examples of large groups of Level 30 or 40 astrid beetles completely ignoring a town of helpless humans during a time where food sources were scarce for all, but they never attacked.

Dorien had been observing them for a month now, and he was starting to understand their behavioral pattern. Or so he thought. As a [Druid], he could understand animals and monsters to a certain extent. However, that didn’t mean he was capable of understanding their deepest thoughts immediately. Especially if they didn’t communicate with them.

That was why he knew he needed to build up his trust with them. And it was time for the barrier between being an observer and interacting with them broke.

Striding forward, Dorien walked towards a group of astrid beetles as they were building a home out of dung. There were five of them in total, and they were each the size of a person, since they were of a lower-evolution.

Dorien brought his hands up as he lowered his head. That way, he didn’t intimidate them.

“Hello,” he started as he drew closer, and the astrid beetles tilted their heads at him curiously. “I don’t mean you any harm. You don’t have to fear me—”

But before Dorien could finish, a shadow fell from the sky. It came crashing down right in between the [Druid] and the monsters. The ground was smashed open, and a plume of dust shot into the air.

The astrid beatles went scattering in a panic— in fear and shock at what just happened. Dorien stumbled back as he coughed, wondering what just happened. He looked up in alarm, thinking a comet or a monster had crashed before him.

However, he paused at what he saw.

“Amelia?” Dorien blinked. “What the fuck are you—”

But before he could finish, Amelia grabbed him and leapt into the air. “Sorry, I’m kidnapping you for a bit.”

“Wait, no DON’T—” And Dorien screamed as he was lifted through the air into the horizon.

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