Imdiately, several people opened their mouths and closed it. I nodded at the first of them—Bloodhero—wanting to hear her suggestion.
"More fire! Fire and fire resistance to burn all our enemies! With fire immunity and a more powerful fire breathing gene, these bees will scorch all our enemies even when they are outnumbered a hundred to one!"
I nodded, then pointed at the next person with a suggestion.
"What did you want to say, Amby?"
"With how many Queens we have, we can create a morphotype for them with a focus on fertility," she replied. "A boost in growth will help us in future military campaigns."
I narrowed my eyes.
"You forget armies need not only *trained* soldiers, but equipnt and supplies... And I’d rather have more quality than quantity."
"We can also just build more sub-hives," Researchina pointed out. "This always worked before."
Amby frowned, but didn’t protest. I clicked my tongue.
"Yes, well—I’m pretty sure we talked about this the last ti I created a new morphotype. So—let’s hear you too, Workharder."
She raised her chin.
"Father, we already have soldiers and scouts and Queens... What we need are people who can work better and harder, especially in forges and in mines. The jobs in these places take a lot out of bees, even if they have chaotic mutations and fresh sets of genes that help them out!"
"Thank you. Nobody else has anything to suggest? Then let think about it for a mont."
I scratched my chin in thought while my girls exchanged telepathic ssages, discussing their ideas.
Workharder’s suggestion was the idea I had myself for a while now, but wasn’t sure about. To think about it with sothing solid to base my thoughts on, I opened the morphotyping interface.
〔New morphotype〕
〔Gene points〕: 0 / 66
〔〕〔〕〔〕
A new morphotype was a clear page with 66 free gene points. This was enough to create anti-human death machines with deadly venom in their stingers and stinger-guns that could shoot for kiloters. Or give them an ability to shock their attackers (although it proved itself to be too tricky to use to be effective).
Or I could give them the highest tiers of ’Chaotic Evolution’... No, all the chaotically evolved bees were enough as they were. I didn’t want to sacrifice other useful genes for the sake of this one. I actually feared to imagine how higher tiers of ’Precognition’ could look when Oracles were already as they are.
I began adding the most necessary genes one by one, and the more I did, the clearer picture I had of the new morphotype.
〔New morphotype〕
〔Gene points〕: 66 / 66
Danger-Averse Reflexes
Heat Resistance V (MAX)
at Digestion
Faster Regeneration II
Flying Carriers
Improved Immunity V (MAX)
Fast Learner IV
Thick Skin III
Olfactory Perception III
Improved tabolism X (MAX)
Claws I
Perfect mory
Grass Digestion
Slow-Twitch Muscles
Reduced Sleep V (MAX)
Telepathy X (MAX)
Flight V (MAX)
Perfect Swarm Coordination
Deeper Breathing
Photosynthesis I
Improved Aerial Evasion
Protective Scales
Heat Vision
Sweat
〔〕〔〕〔〕
I needed to cut so things from this morphotype to fit others—the sense of sll of these bees was going to be lower than that of average ones, and their claws would be shorter. Still long enough to climb if necessary, though.
But the bonuses I could afford as a result were worth it!
〔Heat Resistance V (MAX): reduces damage from fire and reduces the speed of overheating by 100%.〕
〔Improved tabolism X (MAX): reduces need for food by 50%.〕
〔Reduced Sleep V (MAX): reduces the amount of sleep needed daily by 5 hours.〕
〔Photosynthesis V (MAX): allows filling up to 50% of daily energy needs via sunlight.〕
Like Workharder suggested, the new morphotyped bees were going to be workers: tough, requiring the minimum of sleep, could see how hot a piece of tal is without touching it, and who could stick their hand into molten slag without getting burns.
And what was incredibly important, they barely needed any food! First their need for food was halved by improved tabolism, and then they could get half of the rest by photosynthesizing!
Perhaps even all of it—the system wasn’t kind enough to explain. I expected the worst, though. The combination was too broken for non-plants otherwise!
"There. These are going to be incredible workers that will boost our economics imnsely!" I declared. "I will morphotype as many bees into this morphotype as I could—it’s a pity I physically can’t do this with everybody."
"I knew you would listen to , Father!" Workharder grinned. "My suggestion is the only one that makes sense. What will the new morphotype be called?"
I smiled back at my daughter.
"You tell . These are going to be mostly your subordinates, after all."
Workharder gasped, then nodded with utmost seriousness. Other Advisers turned in her direction curiously. I caught a thought-whisper of Worriesgone trying to give Workharder hints and her brushing them off.
"I got it! Since they work so hard, and they are so hardy, they will be Hardbees!"
I slapped my hand on the table.
"Accepted! It even has a ’bee’ in the na, it fits perfectly with the other morphotypes!’
With this, I saved the new morphotype—Hardbees—and began clicking buttons.
"Ti to upgrade the other morphotypes. Beehounds definitely need more tiers of ’Quiet Flight’ and the heat vision, while Beemarines finally can max out their shootable stingers into stinger-guns like mine... What a pity that I can’t afford to max out their telepathy, though..."
Upgrading Beemarines and Beehounds today didn’t take much thought. Soon Beehounds got two tiers of ’Photosynthesis’, ’Quiet Flight II’ (the maximum tier, which made their flight quieter by 100%). Both Beehounds and Beemarines got ’Sweat’ (the boost to stamina recovery was just too good), but Beemarines now also had protective scales and more powerful stinger-guns (the fifth tier of the ’Shootable Stinger’ gene).
There was only one thing left before today’s council session could end—upgrade my own morphotype. I knew that I would improve my stinger-gun even more, but was I going to upgrade any other important genes?
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