Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 60

Chapter 60: Development level 4 comes fast and furious
“Aphids? Oh, *those*!” Pollenia perked up. “You want me to rule over their work camp? But what about my colony? This isn’t how you told me it will go!”

“This is it—the camp will *become* your colony. You will get the bees you need and gradually build the place up. Then I will help you search for a good Drone…” I cringed. “Or maybe Amby will… Eh…”

“I understand.” Pollenia nodded with a regal grace that copied Ambrosia’s. “But it’s not right for colonies to be so close to each other, Father. We will compete for flowers!”

“We won’t, because your colony will keep aphids for food. See how it works out? And because we are this close, it will be easy to exchange items and workers. It will be like we were never apart! You will be able to visit your dear dad at any time!”

“Yes, yes, I shouldn’t have doubted your ideas, Father… You really know best.” Pollenia sounded unhappy about this.

I huffed and ruffled her hair in protest.

“You are still such a brat, Polly!”

***

By the time I, Pollenia and our battalion of guards (of course, a Queen could leave the hive without guards even less than I could), the destroyed hornet nest transformed drastically.

All corpses were removed, and Builder Bees formed wax into the first honeycombs. Some of them were built right on top of the charred paper cells, where they were still tough enough to hold them.

The old cells were more tough than I expected after the first glance. Although I called them “paper”, the hornet-made material more resembled thin plywood. Very thin plywood.

Few bees lived in this place permanently. Most moved back to the main hive, since it was only half an hour of flight away. However, bees were constantly moving in and out of the work camp, and Foragers Bees prepared supplies of snacks for all the workers.

In total, about 2000 various bees were in this camp at any giving time, guarding, building, digging, and keeping aphids.

But most of the digging was already done.

Workharder met us here and led us to the sloping tunnel entrances. The dug-out earth was carried in jugs and heaps by bees and dropped outside the colony.

Meanwhile, Pollenia was looking around like she was already owning the place.

“We are still digging, but we’ve reached a lot of roots, Father, Queen Pollenia,” Workharder explained. “All as you instructed! We’ve even brought a few aphids inside to see if they will like the roots. Everything should be ready to gather the first honeydew!”

“Were there any problems, Workharder?” Pollenia asked before I even opened my mouth.

“Nothing critical, Queen! It’s very dark in the tunnels, and inconvenient to work without light. I had to ask for candles for all the tunnel workers. But aphids don’t like fire at all, so they have to be careful near them. And the air gets stale deeper inside, but… not too bad, not too bad!”

“Good job, then,” Pollenia said.

I nodded a couple times, too.

“Yes, good job, girls. All of you!”

At the tunnel entrance, a Cleaning Bee smiled at us and gave a candle to each person. She lit it with a small burning candle of her own.

We descended the tunnels. They were narrow and with a low ceiling, but tall enough that Pollenia—the tallest of us all—could walk without bowing her head.

Her antennae were scraping the ground, though, and she tucked them down with an unhappy expression.

“I understand looking around the rest of the hive, but do I really need to be here, Father? Workharder already reported to us.”

“If you don’t see how things happen here, how will you know how to fix the problems of your bees, Polly?” I chastised. “One can’t play a strategy effectively on the grand scale if he doesn’t know how to micro-control!”

“Control… yes, I will have control over this place!” Pollenia turned to Workharder. “Tell me more about these tunnels. How they aren’t squished by the buildings above?”

Workharder explained how they only dug away from the honeycomb, and showed the wax and even sticks that were strengthening the walls in places.

It was very shoddy, but it didn’t fall over our heads… yet.

After some walking past many diggers, we reached a place where thick tree roots were poking out of the ground. The thickest was the size of my wrist.

A couple of aphids sat idly, sucking on the roots with their tiny mouths. Pale orange, sweet-smelling liquid gathered in droplets on the ends of their chitinous tails.

Pollenia’s eyes widened.

“Father, isn’t this it? Quickly, gather the honeydew, Workharder!”

Workharder gasped and pulled out a small jug. The aphid barely moved when Workharder began gathering the honeydew.

“Hey, hey… I read that ants are stroking them, too! Try stroking. I think it will like it,” I said, coming up to the side and stroking my hands over the tail.

This actually worked and brought slightly more honeydew out of the aphid.

I was so invested in the process that I didn’t even think about the grossness of it all.

Finally, all the honeydew was gathered. Workharder immediately licked her fingers and nodded.

“Delicious! Do you want some, Father, Queen?”

<Congratulations! You’ve unlocked and implemented ‘Animal Husbandry’ technology! You gain 20 development points.>

〔Animal Husbandry〕

Brainpower requirement: 130

Allows taming, keeping and breeding animals for various resources.

〔〕〔〕〔〕

‘Twenty? What a huge bonus! I will take it.’

Now I was at 〔176/200〕 development points!

So close…

I shook my head and turned to Pollenia.

“So, I want you to take over this place from Workharder. If you want, you can make your own Colony Council, but it will be from your own bees. Of course, we will share our resources—remember, we are still the same family. Same clan!”

Pollenia smiled smugly.

“I will, Father. My colony will be great, and it will make yours better, too. I will start searching for Drones as soon as possible.”

<Congratulations, for establishing your first secondary settlement you got a new achievement: “Makings of an Empire”! Your reward: 50 development points.>

<Congratulations! Your colony has reached Development Level 4. You gain 5 attribute points.>

<This marks an important milestone for your colony and progress in taking over the world, user. As a result, your colony status will reflect extra parameters. Also, a special limited-time offer is available today to improve your lifespan. Do you wish to know more?>