〔Population〕: 590 thousand
〔Territory〕: 48042 sq. kilometers
〔Settlement count〕: 22
〔Development level〕: 4
〔Development points〕: 783 / 1000
〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee
> Building materials: 291 units
> Crafting materials: 36 units
〔Military Adviser〕: increases total military by 10%. (Bloodhero)
〔Science Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to brainpower. (Researchina)
〔Industry Adviser〕: increases total workpower by 10%. (Things-Things)
〔Economics Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to military. (Workharder)
〔Culture Adviser〕: increases all total attributes and wellness by 3%. (Ambrosia)
Dance Communication, Hive Building, Food Preservation, Forager Posts, Rank-Based Hierarchy, Border Patrols, Candles, Primitive Spiked Armor, Work Camps, Literacy, Scientific Method, Basic Hygiene, Technology of Stone Age, Archives, Medicinal Plants, Feudal Government, Dedicated Medicine, Job Orientation
All that massive boost in stats reflected the sheer increase in the prosperity of the Bee Empire. Really an Empire, since I was an Emperor of many Queens, and even renamed my Council! (I taught all my princesses about feudal government.)
The population of subjugated bees slowly died from old age made worse by remaining symptoms of the Paleness (a.k.a. "being fed on by mites"). Instead, the subjugated hives—or sub-hives, as I've begun calling them—have been filled by more and more of my granddaughters.
Although they carried only 75% of my superior genes, it was more than enough to use the Empire's technologies and train new specialists.
With plenty of my specialists to serve as teachers, new titles have been given to thousands of new bees!
20 thousand Foremen and Hunters, 15 thousand Craftsmen, 17 thousand Material Foragers, 5 thousand Warriors, Commandos, Researchers and Teachers… And more were training every day!
Only Physicians stayed a relatively small group, but at the moment there just weren't enough sick bees to warrant more Physicians. Yes, some minor disease outbreaks happened (especially since mites probably carried an entire zoo of microbes), but thanks to all the preventive measures, none of them were serious.
*That* was how great things were going!
And, of course, there were Artists. Doing their small but important job of being the most adorable of all the bees.
I expected that despite everything, reaching development level 5 will happen *way* before I get old again.
It was beautiful to just stand at the exit of our hive and look into the distance between the endless pillar mountains.
As soon as the sun rose, hundreds of bees would fly out, carrying items and orders. I could watch them fly, close to the ground, until they left the spreading barren circle left of the forest by Material Foragers and hid under the fern canopy.
Until some much greater technological advancements were achieved, we were doomed to fear the clear sky, the tops of pillar mountains and shadows of the giant beasts (dragons!!) moving beneath them.
'I wonder if I should invent the wheel after all. But building anything permanent on the ground, like roads, is too troublesome with local storms. Besides, half the hives are built above ground. No, ground transport won't be viable until some *major* infrastructure advancements.'
Either way, signs of emerging civilizations were everywhere.
Scavenger posts, small hunting camps, patches of forests where grass wasn't growing because it had medical properties and thus became *our* property…
Not to mention all the tree stumps. More and more of our things were made from wood or clay, which was hard to work with compared to wax, but much more durable.
Thanks to the tireless work of Foremen Bees and Warrior Bees, who have been carrying many more patrols over many more places than before, most competitors against my girls have been driven out of our territories.
Wasps? Kill those bitches and destroy their nests.
Ants? Every problematic anthill has been drowned, or marked for drowning.
Giant hungry beasts? They already knew not to mess with bees!
Hornets? Even they weren't as dangerous as before!
Several of their scouts have been spotted in our territory, but a patrol of 50 Warrior Bees, each armed with a hammer and several bolas and wearing spiky bone armor, was enough to defeat a lone monster.
Spiky armor gave the attacking hornet something to think about, while the squad smashed a hornet's vulnerable eyes, tied her wings with bolas, and brought her down!
I wished I could see those fights, but from the reports—they must've been glorious and vindicating.
Those hornets didn't know how lucky they were that their nests were too far away from our hives to be discovered and burned to a crisp.
Butterflies were the only ones who had a special permit to drink from our flowers, because I knew they would lay eggs that would grow into massive and tasty caterpillars.
I knew that right now, my Researchers were working hard in their laboratories, writing things for the *rapidly* expanding archives and perfecting existing technologies.
But their primary task was to find a way to dig deeper! Into our pillar mountain, and just underground.
Pollenia told me that her aphid ranchers in Hive Hornet's Nest did their best, but the large tunnels were getting harder and harder to sustain.
They also had to kill several worms they've met on the way. But those were tasty, at least.
'But after we learn how to dig better… We can build properly defended castles, fit for living even in this awful place! Oh, if I could, I would gladly prevent any of my daughters from ever stepping outside. Live like dwarves! Sounds good. Maybe I should invent beer while I'm at it!'
So far, we found no metals around—but I hoped to discover some underground or in the mountains, and start making better tools, too!
Like that, more days passed in relative peace.
After everything, peace felt like a scarce resource, so I enjoyed it to the fullest.
Spent more quality time with my bee-wife, invented new dishes, taught Artist Bees about the concept of "fiction novels"…
Then, almost twenty days later, *it* happened.