Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 81

Chapter 81: Preparing for the real science
Of course, there were volunteers. Too many volunteers.

When the next day Workharder gathered for me all the volunteers that fit my requirements (bees without specialized training and young enough to have the most recent set of my genes), I realized that there were literally *every* bee in the hive which was young enough.

Several thousand of them! Since the development level 4 happened an entire month ago already (time truly flew by when I had so little of it), there were several mature broods worth of bees.

They gathered in front of me on the hive cave floor like fans at a concert of a popular band.

“All these bees are ready to volunteer for whatever risky mission you have for them, Father!” Workharder said, bursting with pride.

I looked at the front row of the volunteers, trying to not show my inner pain on my face.

‘I should’ve expected this… Stupid me…’

“This will be risky, my daughters!” I shouted to the crowd. “Are you sure you are ready? Some of you might get hurt in the process! Or even die!”

The crowd exploded with responses.

“Father, we really want to help our sisters!”

“We got their well wishes… we must show that they didn’t work on them for nothing!”

“Please, let us help!”

My ears blasted with the noise. They were all shouting so loudly that I feared that the nearest honeycomb walls might fall on our heads!

I clutched my ears with one pair of hands and waved at my daughters with the other.

“I get it, I get it! Ah… Thank you for your support, girls. And on my side, I will do my best to ensure your safety in the future. Now…”

In the gradually returning quiet, I turned to Workharder.

“Are the Material Foragers ready?”

“Yes, Father. The plant-gathering had already begun!”

***

A swarm of Material Foragers, helped by ordinary Forager Bees, spread out from Hive Supremo, picking through the fern forest in search of medicinal plants.

I was with them, giving the Chief and Lieutenant Material Foragers directions that they would pass on to their subordinates.

“Pick every separate kind of plant you see, or anything remotely plant-like. Are there any tree seeds, or even fruits?”

I looked around us, at the forest that was very bare thanks to the Material Foragers’ continuous efforts over the last months.

At first, they picked leaves, then bark, then wood itself… Now, for several hundred meters in all directions, only the thickest trees were left standing.

None of them had any flowers, much less fruits.

“Well, pick some tree bark, too. Grass, moss, tree leaves, fern spores—everything! Be thorough, Material Foragers, but don’t gather a lot of a single plant.”

As I spoke this, the line Material Foragers were already working. Entire meadows were picked clean of grass and moss, which was then carried to the Hive Supremo.

I could only imagine haystacks of grass growing there.

“Father, should we fly to the mountain forest, too?” Material Forager asked, pointing upward.

I looked there.

So far away that they seemed bluish, inclined pillars grew out of the main body of our pillar mountain. They themselves split into more pillars, creating a somewhat fractal-like structure, tight enough to block most of the sky.

On top of those horizontal pillars were their own ecosystems, with their own trees and plants. And also…

I squinted.

Ah, yes, something *absolutely massive* was moving over the upper part of the pillar mountain. More than one thing. They had bright colors, many of those mountain beasts, and were a source of some of the terrifying cries I was used to hearing.

I looked back at the Chief Material Forager.

“No. Fuck no. Never go up there.”

These beasts thankfully never cared for bees, but the last thing I wanted to do is to change that by accident!

***

As my Material Foragers picked potentially medicinal plants, Craftsmen Bees and Research Bees picked the resulting haystack apart and cataloged plants before they could be tested.

But soon, Researchina came to me to report an unexpected roadblock.

“Father, we make so many notes about plants that we have no space to store all the wax tablets we fill with them. Plus, it takes more and more time to find the tablets we need to reference. I’ve already ordered the building of a separate storage space for the tablets, but I can’t decide what to do about the second problem. Especially since we took some trainee Researchers—they have no idea where anything is.”

“Oh, shit, yeah! I feel like half the wax the hive currently produces goes into making the tablets.” I chuckled. “Good thing that we have so many bees making wax!”

Almost all of them. Special glands on the sides of the bees’ tails covered them in wax flakes over time. Bees either left these flakes in storage, or they fell off naturally and Cleaning Bees picked them up from the floor.

Researchina nodded seriously.

“Yes, otherwise we’d have to spend resources on inventing a different thing to write on. Perhaps leaves or soft wood?.. No, that’s irrelevant right now. It’s too inconvenient to find wax tablets when they are all simply piled on the floor, and only a few bees remember what lies where.”

I nodded.

“Luckily, your father knows just what you need, Researchina! It will take some resources and time, but will be a good long-term investment—an archive. Also called a library if it contains books… But we don’t have books yet, so it will be just an archive.”

I began sketching things for Researchina on a wax tablet.

“First, get someone to make shelves. The hardest part is the organizational system. In short, you need someone to write down where all the wax tablets lie, and to make sure this information is still true…”

The idea was simple enough, especially for Researchina’s sharp mind with all the ‘Fast Learner’ genes–my Advisers always got the genetic upgrades faster than all other bees. Researchina understood the concept almost immediately and even began improving it.

<Congratulations! You’ve unlocked ‘Archives’ technology!>