On what—according to the latest edition of this world’s calendar developed with united efforts of bees and humans—was 24th of July, I got news I have been waiting for weeks already.
Aveker City, the largest harbor of Eastern Expanse Reach, was taken and occupied by Gresch’s army with Bloodimina’s support. The Vardish army that tried to defend it was soundly defeated despite its superior (only to Naregan army) numbers. A lot of people were taken prisoner or killed; so fled into the surrounding territories and hid in living mountain forests and marshes.
The ships docked in the harbor even opened fire from their broadside cannons at the city when the Naregan army entered, but it dealt more damage to buildings than to Gresch’s soldiers. Then my girls, Bloodimina’s soldiers, set several ships on fire and the rest fled.
My forces now controlled the harbor. Vardish ships would have to try really hard to dock here—the place was fortified from attacks from the sea much more than from attacks from the land.
Plundered resources and captured slaves were already being brought from the Eastern Expanse Reach to the Naregan Kingdom. It was a great day!
Of course, this wasn’t the end. I expected it will take much longer to fully subdue the Eastern Expanse Reach and its people. But I was sure that teaching locals so dicine and hygiene (or beating it into them if they refused to listen) would go a long way to make them more disposed toward us.
Bloodimina also reported that there was much less provision in the harbor than Gresch expected to find. The locals weren’t starving yet, but they were approaching a country-wide famine. The insects have eaten crops in Eastern Expanse Reach as eagerly as anywhere else, and the Vardish people avoided starvation mostly by fishing and hunting a lot.
And after this, the Vardish Empire will definitely gather more forces and attack more viciously than before. But this will take ti.
anwhile, the Bee Empire was already approaching the heights never seen before. The first two dozen Princess-type chas were built and crewed and now worked all over the Bee Empire.
They helped a lot with growing crops in our fields. They also built gargantuan manufactures and dug the deepest mines that fed these manufactures resources. These manufactures required chas or custom-built machinery to work, and a lot of this machinery was fueled by electricity from steam engines or coal power plants built nearby.
But despite their complexity, these giant buildings were worth it in effectiveness. Instead of relatively small workshops that worked with small amounts of resources, my bees now worked on massive electric conveyor belts, a lot of standardized work on which was automated.
Even sothing as simple as a press to cut things into forms could save a lot of ti on a lot of production lines: furniture, clothing, armor, weapons...
And building sothing of this size would’ve been impossible without chas to haul heavy things around.
So directly or indirectly, each cha was a massive boost for the workforce, despite all their downsides. And there were downsides: the chas’ joints needed regular cleanings, the chas used a lot of oil and ethanol for lubrication and fuel, regularly there were accidents that resulted in traumas and sotis deaths of the crew and need for repairs for chas.
But my girls got into various accidents all the ti. At the very least, chas were well-protected against wild beasts. And the fuel used was a fair price for the chas’ power.
Thanks to them, we could finally build bridges over the massive rivers that cut off the Bee Empire from spreading wider into lands not populated by humans. The first of these bridges was already being built.
Slowly but surely, the Bee Empire was growing from sothing that could exist underfoot of humans into sothing that stood equal to them in size and resources!
I was drafting plans for our future spread deeper into the continent (all these massive buildings required way more space than an average hive), when I got a notification from the system.
I gasped.
"Yes! Yes, finally! Not just attribute points, a morphotype too! My girls need more morphotypes!"
My shout made Ambrosia jolt. While I was working with papers at my desk, she was sitting on the floor with her head on my knee, reading reports from bees all over the Empire.
Now she jerked her head and hit my elbow hard. Right on the nerve!
"Ouch!" I jerked it away. "Ahem. Sorry for startling you, Amby—but we’ve just reached the next developnt level!"
A wide smile appeared on her beautiful face at this news, mirroring mine. My excitent was so big that I pulled Amby up and kissed her deeply right there.
"We must gather the Council as soon as possible," she said breathlessly after we separated, putting her hands on my cheeks and hips. Her breasts pressed into my chest, and through the thin fabric of her dress, I could feel every curve of them.
I swallowed.
Thoughts sward chaotically in my head.
’I’m closer to Developnt Level 12, which is where my next lifespan upgrade... Damn, Amby always slls so well... We are still young, aren’t we? I have... 3186 days left to live. Almost ten years! If we are teenagers, can we fuck like teenagers?’
"Necty?" Ambrosia tilted her head a little and raised her eyebrows.
’Surely this is more than enough to reach Developnt Level 12. What is it, 30000 points away? I will just have to build more factories, conquer a few countries... I got points for EER. Yes, I can... do sothing...suboptimal first, can I? D-damn, she’s holding so close... Is she really expecting to have coherent thoughts like this?!’
"Amby, you know, we can celebrate first in our bed and *then* do the upgrade-picking!"
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