Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Yellow Meadow Ants
The anthill in question was three full hours of flight away from the hive—well past the borders of our guarded territory. Pillar mountains there were sparser and smaller; instead, the fern forests were taller and grew thicker.

If a Commando Bee didn’t point at it, I’d easily mistake the anthill for an ordinary hill. Although it was built from rocks and logs, there was soil stuffed between them, from which plenty of grass was going.

And there were barely any ants in sight: only a few workers loitering near the entrances, instead of the usual dozens.

〔Worker Ant〕

〔Health〕: 9 / 9

〔Stamina〕: 13 / 13

〔Species〕: Yellow Meadow Ant

〔Age〕: 246 d

〔Remaining lifespan〕: 632 d

〔Attributes〕

> Strength: 15

> Agility: 21

> Endurance: 13

> Defense: 8

> Intelligence: 3

> Perception: 22

〔Special abilities〕

Sharp Teeth I

〔〕〔〕〔〕

These ants were only half a meter tall—barely reaching my knee!—and had yellowish skin, sparse, colorless hair, and tiny eyes.

Even for ants, they looked ugly—like gremlins. Yes, gremlins!

They paid no attention to a dozen bees hovering in the air over them. They probably couldn’t even see us with their pitiful eyes of underground dwellers.

“You said they smelled sweet?” I asked my squad of Commando Bees.

The squad’s Sergeant nodded.

“Get closer, Father, to feel it.”

These ants looked so nonthreatening that I fearlessly flew right to one of the anthill entrances. It was less than a meter tall—built for pygmies.

From inside, I smelled the faintest whiff of something sweet—like a syrup. My eyes widened.

“This is it! This—”

My actions attracted the attention of an ant. She lunged at me, about to bite.

I twirled, dodging—then, a Commando Bee swooped from above and smashed the ant’s head like a melon with a single swing of her hammer.

I winced and flew away from the body. Several more ants waved their antennae and walked toward it.

Walked, not run. They acted like there was no hurry or threat, which proved their abysmal intelligence. There were no chances of peaceful communication.

I landed on a fern tree leaf and put my hands over my hips.

“This is *it*! This is even better than I was hoping for!”

Commando Bees listened silently and patiently, with only a hint of curiosity.

Not the most grateful audience—Researchers or Craftsmen Bees would’ve already been all over me with excitement.

Nevertheless, I continued.

“Girls, soon, we will abandon the need to search for the nectar entirely. It will be a new age—age of sitting underground all day, *safe* from all aerial enemies.”

Commando Bees looked more interested.

“These ants you’ve found have the secret of animal husbandry! And not just of any kind. Several species of ants ‘herd’ aphids or caterpillars. The aphids drink plant sap and produce sweet honeydew we can eat—the thing we smelled from the inside the anthill.”

I didn’t mention that aphids shat that honeydew out of their ass. The less I thought about that, the fewer reasons I had to become exclusively carnivorous.

Besides, honey was bee vomit, anyway. Even in this world.

No, fresh nectar was the best.

“I didn’t expect to meet *those* ants, exactly—but I knew they existed. This was very lucky! Most aphids feed outside, in forests. Remember them?”

A couple of Commando Bees nodded. Aphids were just one out of many types of forest insects. In this world, they fed on tree sap—in mine, just on grass sap.

“Normal aphids can be herded near home, which is already good. But! But *these* ants herd root aphids, which dwell entirely underground and feed on tree roots. Underground. We can herd them without leaving our hive and be safe!”

Then, unless a predator attacks our hive directly, my daughters won’t have to risk their lives for nectar.

“Father. The root aphids must be deep underground,” Sergeant Commando said. “How?”

“How what? How will we get enough of the aphids to create our own herd? How do we steal the secrets of animal husbandry?” I looked at the anthill entrance. “Someone will have to get inside this hole.”

My Commando Bees with me stood to attention.

“We are ready.”

“No! You aren’t. Not yet!” I waved my hands at them. “To enter, we need special preparations. The ant pathways will go extremely deep, and they are too narrow for a bee to even stand upright. And even though they are dumb and blind, the ant tribe will fight to defend their anthill.”

I was so focused on finding the right ants to steal the technology from, that I didn’t think through the “hows” of the plan.

Oh well.

I wasn’t in *too much* of a hurry, thanks to all the development points from other upgrades. I just wanted my bees to be safer.

“Let’s return to our hive and think things through. Maybe the attack squad of bees will mask themselves as ants,” I mused.

But before we could reach home again, my squad crossed paths with a creature I’d gladly never see again!

The gigantic black beast with white striped snout was lying near a pillar mountain’s foundation. With its oval bug-like shape, the lounging position and the sprawl of its legs would’ve been comical if the monster wasn’t so massive and dangerous.

The badger!

I stopped mid-flight. There was at least a hundred of meters between my squad and the beast, and I still felt unsafe.

“Shit. Let’s stay away from it.” I showed the badger four middle fingers and shouted, “Learn to fly, loser!”

The badger turned its head toward me.

I paled.

It couldn’t have heard this! No way! There were a hundred meters between us—too much for the badger to even see us well, if at all! Badgers of my world had poor eyesight.

The badger sniffed the air.

I didn’t care anymore if it could or couldn’t spot us from this distance.

“Fuck it. Let’s bail away from here, girls!”

But before we flew away, the badger moved again—and not at all in a way I expected.