〔Foreman Bee〕: 10% to base strength and endurance.
My Foren Bees raised their hamrs, mirroring . Their stats grew right before my eyes.
〔Nurse Bee〕 〔Ally〕 〔Progeny〕
〔Na〕: B1
〔Active title〕: Foreman Bee
〔Health〕: 11 / 11
〔Stamina〕: 11 / 11
〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee
〔Age〕: 30 d
〔Remaining lifespan〕: 76 d
〔Attributes〕
> Strength: 9
> Agility: 40
> Endurance: 10
> Defense: 9
> Intelligence: 100
> Perception: 43
〔Special abilities〕
Flight, Barbed Stinger, Royal Jelly Production
〔Genes〕
Enhanced Intelligence X
〔〕〔〕〔〕
As I bead at them, I heard the system's voice.
〔Fast Learner I: increases training speed by 10%.〕
Well, that was just nice!
Now my students had to take their own students.
Even after Ambrosia's pheromones wore off, the smarter bees still recognized my authority. At least, as long as I told them that what we were doing would help the colony.
Only older, dumber bees had problems with obeying orders from soone besides a Queen Bee, since they were mostly led by instincts.
By my directive, each new Foreman Bee took 10 students, while I took 10 more pupils from among my daughters and began teaching them how to make stone hamrs.
They were going to beco Craftsn Bees and free from the terror of having to make those *fucking hamrs* ever again!
〔Craftsman Bee〕: 10% to crafting speed.
And the system gave them a simple, solid bonus.
A week later, there were 110 Foreman Bees and 10 Craftsman Bees.
Then each of the Foreman Bees each took 10 more students.
10 Craftsman Bees began working too, tirelessly making more hamrs (and 10% faster than I could), each making at least 8 hamrs a day—if Forager Bees brought them enough materials. But I ensured they would (by shouting a lot at Foragers).
It was most of what I did the next week. Foragers with 3 intelligence needed a lot of micromanaging.
But I got 1 Developnt Point for implenting 'Stone Hamrs' in the colony.
My colony's brainpower and developnt points kept growing during this ti, but the overall populace count stayed still. 12000 bees matured during this week, but 12000 bees had died to old age and the so-called "hunters".
Worse, the colony's food supplies kept dwindling. As the system told when I asked, a thousand bees ate a unit of food a day… So there wasn't a lot in the first place.
I could only guess that too many Forager Bees were dying outside to get enough food for the hive.
And my developnt points were still agonizingly close and far away to the next developnt level!
〔Your colony〕
〔Wellness〕: 85 %
〔Population〕: 23 thousand
〔Developnt level〕: 1
〔Developnt points〕: 59 / 60
〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee
〔Attributes〕
> Workpower: 13
> Military: 11
> Brainpower: 61
> Logistics: 15
> Resilience: 8
〔Resources〕:
> Food: 79 units
> Building materials: 10 units
〔Technologies〕
Dance Communication
Hive Building
Food Preservation
Stone Hamrs
Forager Posts
〔〕〔〕〔〕
73 units of food. The colony lost an average amount of 4 units of food per day. And *only* I knew, because only I knew how to count above 20. The way things were going, the colony would die from hunger long before I would die from old age!
The hive really was down on tis, but I planned to change that.
The training of my 550 Foren Bees was complete, and all their hamrs were ready.
These bees had to be enough to protect my colony's Forager Bees, or my dream of living a long and peaceful life will end before it could even begin. And it was already a hair's breadth away from an abrupt end.
When my Foreman Bees prepared for their first workday, I watched them anxiously.
In the morning, a first Forager Bee returned with her fuzz soaked in nectar and pollen and danced a dance that pointed at the flowers where she got it from.
As soon as she finished, other bees helped her bring her haul and store it in the hive; while five dozen Forager Bees flew off at where the bee pointed.
There were 50 Foreman Bees with , which I already separated into groups of ten. Now I addressed the first one.
"Alright, girls! Ti to establish your first forager post. Go forth, and good luck!"
I gave each of them a head rub for good asure.
"Don't worry, Father, we got this!" a Foreman Bee said. "We will return soon with lots of food!"
'Soon' was several hours, but she was right. The bees returned safely, carrying nectar and pollen with them in droves. None of the bees were wounded, but several Foreman Bees had hamrs stained with blood. They fought!
Then I counted the heads again and realized. There were one fewer Forager Bees than when the group left…
"What happened? Where did the last Forager Bees go?" I asked a returned Foreman Bee.
"Oh, a huge hunter snatched her from a flower. Even if we tried to fight, it was too fast. But we fought off all the other hunters, Father!" the bee boasted.
"Good job, girls," I said weakly. "At least you weren't hurt. Just clean your hamrs at so point."
The hunters…
I knew I was probably going to regret the next thing, but I had to see more of the outside world with my own eyes. I had to know what was killing my bees.
When the next group of Foreman Bees prepared to leave the hive, I declared I was going with them.
"What?! Father, but it's dangerous out there, even with our protection! And you are the only Drone in the colony!"
I stared down at the Foreman Bee that said this.
'I'm so proud that they can understand such complex things, but…'
"Look, I'm older than you. And I'm your father. I know what I'm doing, yeah?" I narrowed my eyes. "Just… guard . And the Foragers. And yourself, too."
"Alright… You *do* know a lot, I guess, Father. And you've trained us to be strong enough to protect you."
"Oh, c'mon! Why do you act like I have no credibility at all? Did you inherit Ambrosia's sass gene, or what? Have so respect for your dad…"
"Alright, Father."
It didn't sound respectful at all.
And like that, I and 60 other bees took off into the grand and terrible outside again.
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