Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

〔Danger-Averse Reflexes: greatly reduces reaction time to sudden threats.〕

〔Perfect Swarm Coordination: further improves instinctive swarm coordination in the air, allowing swarm members to fly even in tight formations without interfering with each other.〕

〔Runner Legs: increases running speed by 10%.〕

Another simple choice.

'I'm already *so* danger-averse, this gene is a perfect fit!'

And the last point went to the defense stat.

〔Venom Resistance I: reduces damage from venoms and poisons by 20%.〕

〔Chitin Carapace I: grows a carapace that improves base defense by 20%, but reduces base agility by 10%.〕

〔Dense Bones: increases base health by 20%, but reduces flight speed by 10%.〕

This was a harder pick—until I did the math.

'A bee base's health and defense are both 10. A 20% increase is just an extra 2 points, at the cost of these downsides. Cutting down base agility by 8 in exchange, that's insane! Meanwhile, a ton of insects use venom to attack, so at least it won't be useless.'

Finally, with all the upgrades done, I looked lovingly at my status panel.

〔Drone Bee〕 

〔Name〕: Nectus Stingprince 

〔Active title〕: Drone-Consort 

〔Health〕: 21 / 21

〔Stamina〕: 22 / 22

〔Attribute points〕: 0 

〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee 

〔Age〕: 68 d 

〔Remaining lifespan〕: 123 d 

〔Attributes〕 

> Strength: 11 

> Agility: 41 

> Endurance: 24 

> Defense: 11 

> Intelligence: 100 

> Perception: 43 

〔Special abilities〕 

Flight, Horizontal Gene Transfer 

〔Titles〕 

Drone-Consort 

〔Genes〕 

Enhanced Intelligence X, Technology: Primitive Containers, Increased Lifespan II, Fast Learner I, Enhanced Endurance II, Enhanced Strength I, Danger-Averse Reflexes, Venom Resistance I 

〔〕〔〕〔〕

Ah, what a beautiful list of genes! I couldn't wait to pass them on to my future children, so I immediately flew in search of my beautiful bee-wife.

But today, she was busy laying eggs, so I went right back as soon as I found her.

Wonders of childbirth were something men weren't meant to see. For their own sake!

Only on the next day did I find her.

As always, after laying eggs, Ambrosia was too tired to welcome any advances. She was sitting in her chambers with her back resting on a wall, relaxed but still effortlessly beautiful and regal.

She greeted me with a pleased smile. With her beautiful face and everything else, that smile made it really hard for me to keep my cool and dignified air.

"These Foremen Bees were a great idea, Nectus. My Attendants already told me about all the Forager Bees they protected. I don't see why you had to go outside again, but you did a great job, Nectus. It's such a pity that you won't even live until next winter. I hope there will be resources for you to help me make a daughter Queen before you grow old."

I blushed and clutched my chest.

"Amby, Ambrosia, don't say this! I-I mean, I'm glad that you appreciate my effort, but I'm so *not* going to die, I swear! We will live more years than you know how to count!"

"That would be nice."

She sounded like she didn't believe me at all! I huffed.

"Just you wait, Ambrosia, just you wait. Speaking of—I came for your help. The hive needs more Foremen Bees, but to find out how much more, I need your help. I can't do this great thing alone."

"The great thing?"

I raised my hands dramatically.

"The Great Counting! We need a population census! At the very least, I want to know how many Foragers the colony has, so I'd know how many Foremen Bees they need for protection!"

Ambrosia's eyes sharpened with interest.

"More Foremen Bees—that makes sense. But can't you just train more Foremen Bees until we have enough of them? It's how things were always done."

I pursed my lips.

"Yeah, because you don't know how to count past twenty. But it'd be very slow to just train Foremen Bees in small batches until "enough". I'd rather train ten, then a hundred, then a thousand, then as many as we need! It would take four weeks at most. I mean… Twenty and eight days. As opposed to an unknown, but larger, amount of days."

Ambrosia nodded thoughtfully and stood up. Now I had an easier time looking her in the eyes and not the "eyes".

"I see. But don't forget that they need hammers, too."

"Right… So?"

"I will help you, Nectus. What do I need to do?"

***

Of course, there was no way for me to write down the name and occupations of all *24 thousands* bees in the hive (the population grew while I wasn't looking). It would take me, as I quickly counted, 84 days—assuming I took 5 minutes per bee.

But Ambrosia helped me to go through a faster counting process.

Later that day, when all the bees were returning from their work and preparing to sleep in their cells or on the stone floor of the hive cave, Ambrosia's Attendants told all bees to gather on the ground.

Together with these helpers of hers, Ambrosia sorted the confused bees by their occupation. Then I quickly estimated their headcount by the density of bees on a square meter of the floor.

By the end, I somehow counted 25 thousand bees in total out of 24 thousand. But it was better than nothing!

In total, the colony had about:

1500 Cleaning Bees, 3100 Nurse Bees, 150 Queen Attendants, 4300 Builder Bees, 15000 Forager Bees, 10 Craftsmen Bees, and 550 Foreman Bees. I wrote all the numbers on a wax tablet.

With this, I could absolutely say that the hive didn't have enough Foremen Bees for all the Foragers. Not even close!