Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Exploring all the ants
Military Adviser B1374 reported to me with anger on her youthful face.

“Father, our trained Commando Bees have tracked the ants that tried to come past our border patrols, and ants that came through them despite everything. They discovered that there are ant colonies living even in our territory! Father, I suggest we destroy them.”

I shrugged.

“But *those* ants aren’t a problem to our food production, so… This can wait. More importantly—I must know if these ants did *agriculture*!”

I wish I could tell just by looking at them, but innate technologies weren’t part of a creature’s special abilities.

“Agri… culture?” B1374 frowned. “Is that dangerous?”

“It’s precious. I guess… Even if this won’t do much, I will feel better if I take a look at these colonies.”

“Going out again, Father?” B1374 frowned deeper. “You get in trouble every time you do.”

“Hey! It was just a coincidence. Thousands of bees go out every day and they are *just fine*. It will only be a brief visit, and ants can’t fly.”

Outside was dangerous and scary, but sitting in the hive for a month was giving me cabin fever.

It was almost like during the pandemic. At least now I didn’t have to rent an apartment together with any radical political activists that started every morning with a lecture on Marxism.

Oh, how I hated this guy. But rent prices are rent prices…

If he knew that I’d reincarnate in the land of communist-monarchist bees, he’d have a good laugh on my behalf. And another lecture.

“Yes, Father,” Military Adviser B1374 conceded. “I will arrange guards for you.”

***

The guards were a dozen of Commando Bees who were already issued their bone armor. Together with them, I made a quick tour of the nearest ant colonies.

There were three:

The closest was a tiny dwelling of Prominent Ants. They were the opposite of prominent: only a few workers were seen moving in and out of the burrow they lived in. Their stats weren’t exciting, either.

“These guys aren’t a threat to us at all,” I said. “Neither are they useful. Forget about them, girls.”

The next two were outside of our borders. The closest was, as I expected, the colony of Red Wood Ants.

I thought they would live in a burrow, too—instead I saw a massive ant-made hill. It didn’t have the most elegant shape, but it was made from actual wood logs and rocks, held together without a single nail or any mortar!

(The ants weren’t even *close* to inventing nails or mortar.)

Next to this construction, even my beehive felt a bit inadequate. It was at least fifty meters high, and ants were moving in and out in an endless stream of bodies. Some were empty-handed, while others carried logs and heavy rocks on their shoulders with ease.

No one paid attention to some bees over their heads.

“These aren’t the ones I’ve been looking for, either.”

“Father, do you want us to burn this place?” one of my guards asked.

I thought about the thousand ants underneath me, not even suspecting what kind of danger their lives were. The feeling of power was making my head spin.

“For you, ants… We are gods, too! Gods that can fly and rain fire on your heads!” I looked around us. “But that can start a forest fire in this place. Today, the gods are merciful to you. Keep your candles unlit, girls.”

The Commando Bee nodded curtly, and we moved on.

The last ant nest they found was more alarming.

〔Soldier Ant〕

〔Health〕: 18 / 18

〔Stamina〕: 26 / 26

〔Species〕: Legionary Vampire Ant

〔Age〕: 43 d

〔Remaining lifespan〕: 379 d

〔Attributes〕

> Strength: 24

> Agility: 22

> Endurance: 25

> Defense: 24

> Intelligence: 3

> Perception: 24

〔Special abilities〕

Sharp Teeth III

〔〕〔〕〔〕

‘What a threatening species’ name! They don’t look vampiric, though.’

The ant I examined was about 160 centimeters tall, but with a disproportionately large head. Her teeth were crooked and didn’t fit fully in her mouth, with two fangs giving her a sabertooth look.

She was also surrounded by a hundred of her sisters, which filled a meadow in the forest and were furiously gathering everything edible in it. A caterpillar was their main focus, but several ants found other prey and were carrying it into a small burrow nearby.

I shivered.

“These guys are bad news. Legionary ants are one of those who attack with entire armies and eat everything that’s not nailed to the ground. Then they pull off the nails and eat them, too.”

My Commando Bees frowned.

“Can we trap them underground?” one asked.

I shook my head.

“They can just dig out more entrances. Leave them be—unless they try moving into our territory. They have an entire world of *other* directions to choose from. I can’t be unlucky in gacha *and* ants!”

Commando Bees all nodded. Their faces told nothing about what they thought of my outburst.

By then, it was getting late, so I eagerly went back to the hive. There, I gave new instructions to the Military Adviser.

“Tell the Commandos to keep searching. Tell them to especially look out for ants that keep around other living insects. And they should look more intently everywhere underground—the ants can burrow very deep.”

As my Military Adviser was nodding and assuring me she got it, I got a notification.

<Congratulations! You’ve improved the ‘Primitive Knives’ technology to ‘Stone Knives’. Implement the improvement, user, to replace the old bonuses with the new ones.>

〔Stone Knives〕

Brainpower requirement: 25

Workpower: +3 per 1 thousand affected workers.

Military: +2 per 1 thousand affected soldiers.

〔〕〔〕〔〕

‘Wow, that’s almost two times as good as the old version of the tech! Does that mean my scientists have succeeded?’

The answer flew into the Council Chamber less than a minute later. It was my Science Adviser, holding a triangular rock in her hands. Her palms were covered in leaves held together with string.

“Father, we made the stone knife prototype, and we are sure that we can make ‘spear’ and ‘axe’ prototypes soon. Only ten bees suffered injuries, and none of them were debilitating. What will be next in our research queue?”