Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 160

Chapter 160: Hurdles along the railway
〔Improved Metal Smelting〕

Brainpower requirement: 20000

Allows the extraction of most metals from raw ore.

Improves effectiveness of ore refinement.

Allows unlocking more advanced metal smelting technologies.

〔〕〔〕〔〕

Instead of appearing cool and reserved, today Researchina was almost shaking with excitement.

“This is it, Father,” she told me, showing the inside of one of the forges. “The ‘blast furnace’, as you described to us.”

The furnace was almost as tall as I was and had a cylindrical shape. The entire forge of bees was busy operating it: four girls fiercely worked two sets of large bellows, three more were pouring iron fragments and coal on top of the furnace, and three gathered iron that poured from the bottom of the furnace into ingot-shaped clay forms.

“During the experiments, as a side-discovery, we also found minerals that can work as ‘flux’, improving ore refinement—just like you described. This iron is already pure, but it helps with gold ore. We don’t have a big supply of flux minerals at the moment, but I made scouts point flux deposits on the map,” Researchina continued, rolling back and forth on the balls of her feet.

Fluxes had many forms and functions. I suspected Researchina found one of the earliest known fluxes—lime. But maybe it was something else, like borax.

“You look very excited about this,” I noted. “Is this because you didn’t want to disappoint me? You wouldn’t have, anyway.”

“No. I’m proud to serve the Empire, but it’s the discoveries, Father! We find that metals in liquid form can be mixed with other things, just like water can be mixed with pollen flour to make dough!”

Researchina spun to me, and I saw a manic glint in her eyes.

“Father, I request to keep the forges that were temporarily given to us. Metal research needs further experiments. The potential of mixing things—not only metals, *all* things—is too high.”

I narrowed my eyes at Researchina.

“You have half of our forges already.”

“Yes.”

“And we need to smith the rails.”

“Just build more forges, Father.”

I sighed.

My girl discovered chemistry and was way too enthusiastic about it for the peace of my mind.

On one hand, if we could refine iron into steel, that would be incredible. We had all the components: iron and carbon (as coal), even if iron was limited.

On another hand, we needed rails.

On the third hand, I had an idea.

I scratched my chin with the fourth hand as it solidified.

“Well, with the amount of iron we must smelt and forge, it will be much easier to do it near Camp Rich, anyway. So we *do* need to build more forges… Alright, Researchina. You can keep these.”

She flashed me a grin.

“I *knew* you will be reasonable, Father.”

“I hope *you* will be reasonable, too… And focus on improving iron!”

***

Building furnaces in Camp Rich had its own problems.

All discovered and used deposits of clay were closer to the heart of the Bee Empire—Hive Supremo. Bees had to carry materials for forges over a large distance.

It was still easier than carrying all the iron and coal. And with the amount of Builders and Craftsmen doing the job, the building itself took almost no time at all.

Even better, I got reports that all materials from the giants’ corpses were dismantled, leaving only bones behind. The work on those was a low-priority task.

I could tell that there were no free meals anymore in Camp Rich, because Scourge, Disaster and Woe resumed begging for food near Hive Supremo again.

At least they brought more dragon scales in exchange, and let some Beemarines hitch rides on their back with almost no resistance.

I also got reports about Explanatory’s progress in dragon language. She made a small vocabulary of their growls and claimed that it was 95% precise.

I had a good feeling that in a few more weeks, we could use dragons to scout the human settlement. It was unnerving to not know whether humans were preparing for another visit.

We would be ready if they did. Bloodhero had learned from what I told her about humans and their capabilities and was teaching the Warrior Bees tactics of swift response—stinging the eyes, swiftly cutting out the stings afterward.

The Empire’s scouts were spread farther out now, too.

For now, they didn’t report any major threats, and the railway construction continued.

As soon as the first new forges were built in Camp Rich, they were taken by smiths that used new technologies to cast meter-long rail segments.

<Congratulations! You’ve implemented an ‘Improved Metal Smelting’ technology in your empire. You gain 100 development points.>

The same day, they were installed on the crossties of the railroad with iron staples forged next door. Then another, and another…

And with each new forge built, the speed with which the railway grew increased too. At first, the new rails had to be carried only a few dozen meters, so it wasn’t too bad even if each rail had to be carried by several bees walking on foot.

Then, a few dozen became a few hundred meters. The bees built a cart, put the new rails on it, and pushed it down the road.

The railway wasn’t even finished, and it already had practical benefits!

But this was all something I got from written reports with a day of delay. Meanwhile, I could watch with my own eyes how the first bee-pulled wagon-train was built at Hive Supremo’s end of the road.

The train was designed with detachable carts. Each of them was a sturdy construction with thick wood parts, plenty of sturdy iron nails, and iron-reinforced axles. Those constructions were made to carry tons of coal, ore and metal—they couldn’t crumble under their weight!

But like every train, this one began with the front cabin, where bees would rest at night. A massive wagon, built to withstand storms and minor beast attacks if such happened.

And by all estimates I was given, it should’ve been finished *yesterday*.

Instead, as I flew over to watch the results this morning, all I saw was a hull with half-finished walls and bickering bees.

What’s more, the bees in question were the last ones I’d expect to bicker over a train.