"Let's craft something more useful!"
I was on the roll. And what was easier to craft than…
The three Foragers tilted their heads in unison as I held a rock toward the sky.
And all I needed to do was to pick it from the ground.
"What about this rock?"
"You can throw it, of course! Look… See this tree?"
It was one of the weirder ones, shaped like a mushroom (or like a dick—it really looked like that, I swear!). It was five meters away, close enough for a good throw.
I swung my hand and threw my rock. It hit the tree with a thud, leaving a small gouge in the soft bark.
"Now imagine if it was someone you wanted to kill. One rock won't do much damage, but if a hundred bees threw a rock… it'd be devastating! And you won't have to sting anyone."
Brainpower requirement: 6
Military: +2 per 1 thousand affected soldiers.
This technology had a lower brainpower requirement, but didn't my colony only have 4 brainpower? Still, I saw something like thoughts light up in the Foragers' dumb eyes.
"A hundred… What's a hundred?"
I groaned in my palms.
From my animal trivia knowledge and from the stats of the Foragers in front of me, young bees grew to Foragers in about a month after their eggs were laid.
I had to wait a month until the next, smarter batch of bees—my daughters!—will be here to talk with. Which meant that I had to come up with something really, really simple for these dumb girls to use. Then convince Ambrosia that it was useful.
Easier said than done.
I found an arm-length branch lying on the ground, then used a rock, my claws, and lots of swearing to split one end of it in two. Afterward, I stuck an oblong rock in the crack and tied it all together with lots of string until it stopped threatening to fall apart before even hitting anything.
The resulting stone hammer was as crude as they got and took me way too long to make. But it sat nicely in my hand, and when I swung it around, the Foragers actually look curious.
"That's a tool, but also a weapon. A hammer! You can hit people with it."
Brainpower requirement: 7
Workpower: +1 per 1 thousand affected workers.
Military: +2 per 1 thousand affected soldiers.
"That would hurt…" a Forager said, leaning to look at my hammer closer.
I let them poke at it a little, then went to the soft mushroom-tree to show its power.
The wind blew some dust in my eyes as I raised my hands for a mighty blow.
Something buzzed above me.
I looked up and saw her—a graceful and deadly wasp-woman, two meters tall, coming at me with murderous intent. She had red stripes over her eyes, pale skin and a sharp stinger that was aiming right at me.
〔Species〕: Common Beewolf Wasp
〔Remaining lifespan〕: 20 d
Flight II, Paralyzing Stinger II, Claws III, Sharp Fangs II
Get away? She was so quick that she was already there before I could shout, "Fuckfuckfuckno!"
My hands acted faster than my tongue. In reflex, I swung my already raised hammer at the approaching wasp.
She cut her advance short, stopping right before the hammer could hit her nose.
Then the Foragers descended on her with reckless abandon.
Each grabbed whatever part of the wasp's body they could: the arms, the wings, the abdomen-like tail thing, while the wasp trashed and tried to get free. She was stronger than an individual bee, but there were three of them.
Their stingers rose, preparing for their attacks.
"No! Don't sting her!" I shouted.
It would kill my Foragers!
It was stupid to worry about lives of individual worker bees, which existed to give their best to the hive and die; but they were humans to me at this moment.
The wasp-woman, who hissed and bared sharp teeth at me…
My shout made the Foragers pause, and the wasp freed a pair of arms. Her stinger moved, threatening to hit one of the Foragers.
I quickly raised my hands and brought the hammer over her head.
〔Critical hit! You deal 15 damage!〕
There was a crack and a splatter. Blood splashed what felt like all over me. The wasp twitched for the last time and went limp.
The combat log windows floated in the air for a few more seconds, then disappeared.
Then the hammer fell from my hands, too.
"Wow! The Drone just killed a small hunter!"
"With the hammer thing!"
"That was… wow! We should tell the others, right?"
"Yeah! We can—can we dance it so everybody sees?"
"I only know the flower dance, I don't know the hammer dance."
I turned away from the wasp's corpse, and from the Foragers who chatted like nothing happened. I had some blood on my chest… The Foragers were bloody, too.
It was gross as fuck.
"Hey, Foragers… are there any water sources nearby?"
They paused to think and wave their antennae.
"I smell some water—right out there!" a Forager pointed.
"There," was a couple hundred meters away.
At least we left the wasp's corpse behind. Someone was definitely going to eat it soon. I was inwardly glad that honey bees were vegetarian.
The water source was just a tiny murky pond created by rainwater gathering inside a hole in the earth. A tree was hanging above it, with several yellow flowers growing on its branches.
Each of the flowers was the size of a bed. I could sleep in one. There was something strange about the pond's shape, too…
It was shaped like a paw print! A lone and smudged paw print three meters wide.
The realization made my jaw drop.
What size was the creature that left this footprint? Was it anywhere near? Did it eat bees?
'I am a tiny bee in a huge, huge world…'
The creator of the footprint was nowhere in sight.
The water was murky, but I really needed a wash. Ever since my "meeting" with Ambrosia, really…
As I washed in the chilly water, I was more cautious than before, constantly looking out for more predators—but no danger came, thankfully. Instead, I sometimes saw several Forager Bees flying over in the sky above.
A dozen minutes later, with myself and my hammer kind of cleaner, I looked at my stats and the attribute point there.
'So, I must increase Endurance to have a *chance* to improve lifespan, huh? Alright… Let's try it.'