Today the new carpenters would emerge, and I was excited about that, the birth of these guys meant the beginning of a new era, with them we could cut wood and create wooden furniture. We could also repair my laboratory and even expand it, which would allow me to get back to my crazy experiments.
When the first carpenters started to hatch I was super excited, and soon I was able to see them in all their glory. They were the size of a common soldier, they had no chitin armor, and they had a mane much smaller than that of a common soldier, they had 4 arms, and 2 of them was shaped like a saw. Their wings were large and powerful like Trevis's and they all had large eyes and the common color of a bee.
[Status] Name: N/D Species: Solitary honeybee Level: 1 Class: Carpenter Mana: N/D Life: 2.2 Str: 1.5 Def: 0.1 Sp: 1.3 Int: 13.1 Wis: 6.4 + Information
[Skills]
{Precise cut} lv 1
You can cut solid materials with much greater ease and precision
{Maternal Connection} - locked
{Glue creation} Lv 1
Use natural resources to create glue with different consistency for different uses
{Strong muscles} - Lv 1 {Unshakeble Will} {Enhanced senses} Lv 1
{Material Reuse} Lv 1
When consuming materials such as [Wax] and [Wood] you can reuse them with a loss of 10%.
[Traces] [Patience and Perseverance]
[Craftsman's Eye]
You have an innate ability to see the potential in a piece of material. Visualize a final product and understand how to bring out the beauty and functionality of that material.
These guys didn't look like much when you first looked at them, but their status said it all, they were the artisans of the hive, and they could still fight! Of course, any member could fight, but at least the carpenters have some chance of coming out of a fight alive.
They could also create something I've always wanted, glue! With this we could create insect traps! But I think it's too late for that, any insect that gets too close ends up turning into XP for the soldiers, but they could still use this to create custom furniture!
There were furniture using only wood, no metal nails, just wood fittings, wooden nails and glue. If we used these methods we could create a mill, a loom for the weavers and even wooden tables for the cafeteria.
We could create wooden gears, and even small machines with wood, like a mixer, a water wheel, and large barrels made of wood.
'I think I'm thinking too much about this, I might end up disappointed, I don't think newborn bees can do precision work, just like tailors can't create high quality materials yet, these carpenters shouldn't be able to create masterpieces. "
When they emerged everyone started helping the younger ones out of their cocoons, and soon I had a large group of 50 carpenters waiting for my orders.
"Hello everybody, and welcome to the world! I'm your mommy!"
"Hello mother!" The carpenters responded.
"Boys, I need you to explain your abilities to me, and what you can do."
"We can use [Glue Creation] using things like honey and resins, with this we can create objects or make small repairs."
"We can also cut wood and wax with ease, and create composite materials with wax and wood scraps!"
This seems useful, the workers had [Precise Cut], which allowed them to 'recycle' wax, but it seemed like a stupid skill when you stopped to think about it. Why go to the trouble of consuming the wax, to spit out balls with 15% loss, when you can simply break the wax wall and reuse the wax without any loss?
My initial theory was that this recycled wax might be better, but it was the same old shit. So I asked the workers, and apparently there were specific situations for using this skill.
They could consume pieces of wax full of dirt and things that shouldn't be there, and recycle just the wax. Basically they could filter wax, separating the dirt from the wax, but with a loss of 15% of the wax.
But these carpenters couldn't just do the same thing, they could even do the opposite, they could take 2 different substances and combine them into a single material. I don't know how useful wax and wood together would be, but it seems stronger than regular wax.
"Boys, can you show me what you can do with this? I want you to create a mixture of wax and wood to see what it can create."
"Immediately!" Said the oldest of the carpenters.
Soon a small group of carpenters quickly left the nursery, and after a few moments returned again while chewing something. After continuing to chew for a few moments, everyone spat out small strange wax balls that had pieces of wood infused with them and a dark color like wood.
[Description]
[Begonia wax]
Created with sawdust from a begonia tree and high-quality wax, this powerful wax is super resistant and difficult to break with physical impacts.
Quality: Good
'This is really cool, it's a totally new construction material, we could build much more stable and resistant constructions and buildings with it, it would still be useless against fires, but we could resist impacts and invasions very well.'
"That's incredible boys, now another thing, do you think you can make fine cuts in wood? Make them into custom furniture and things like that?"
All the carpenters started to argue, and then they turned to me and said that they couldn't do precision work, they could cut wood, and cut holes in a tree, but they wouldn't be able to do the same work like a machine. They cannot create custom-made pieces, or several identical pieces, they can only cut wood and make these new construction materials.
It wasn't bad, these guys signaled the beginning of bigger and more stable constructions, they signaled our expansion and said that we had officially entered the "wooden era".
----------------------------------------
[Warning]
You earned 22 Xp from your soldier
[Warning]
You have leveled up to Lv 15
[Warning]
Now you can evolve by choosing one of the options below
{Evolution options}
[Radiant Sunbee]
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
These bees are known to sustain their bodies with the magical energy of the world, in addition to having a deep connection with the world.
[Pollen pixie]
Pollenpixie are small creatures born from flowers, have the appearance of a small insect with butterfly wings, and can use a limited version of nature magic focused on plant growth and fertilization.
[Beetle wisp]
Beetle Wisp are small beetle-like fairies that can use a limited version of earth magic, being able to dig small tunnels and holes.
[Fluttermite]
Fluttermites are small creatures from the pixie family, their appearance can vary depending on their [Affinity], large groups of Fluttermites can cause great benefits to the natural environment around them.
[Wisper Bee]
Wisper bees are known for their control over the air, proving to be excellent flyers and highly silent creatures.
Five more days had passed, during which nothing really interesting had happened, except that the new cooks had been born the colectors are making they cocoons, and i had layed another great wave of soldier. Also the laundry had been finally done, and in the meantime, all the old soldiers had already achieved their first evolution, and were now on their way to their second evolution, but that afternoon I was surprised by an evolution notification that I didn't expect to arrive so soon.
'I finally did it! I will evolve! So I don't really evolve my class, but rather my species, but what's wrong with these crazy options?'
When I received the notification, I was happy with the evolution, but confused by the options, I was evolving. But I could stop being a bee and become other things, which was strange. I never thought I could grow up and stop being a bee, I thought that if I evolved I would gain a more powerful [Class], or evolve into a kind of "super bee", but now I had the option of becoming another completely different creature.
Isn't this wrong?
Didn't that mean that an ant could grow up to one day become a dragon? Or do these evolutions limit me to [Insect]-type beings? After all, all the options looked like some kind of insect. Minus [Pollen pixie] and [Fluttermite], these seemed to be some kind of fairy.
And these Fluttermite have affinities! I don't think I have any affinity, but maybe if I evolve into this species I will gain an affinity.
Or I might end up as a rare Fluttermite with no affinities.
But if I evolved my [species] then what would happen to the boys? Would they evolve with me, or would they never evolve?
Perhaps the queen bees only stay in the hive until they evolve, and then continue their life as another creature after evolving.
But that was stupid, if I chose a Fluttermite or Pollen pixie, would I lose my skills like [Lay Eggs] and [Maternal Connection]?!
So I would have to choose to evolve into a bee, which would leave me with [Wisper Bee] and [Radiant Sunbee]. I think that like bees that control the wind we could go all out with this windmill idea, after all we could produce our own energy. But these [Radiant Sunbee] seem more self sustainable and powerful.
Even if we weren't able to absorb 100% of our nutrients from the earth, it would still be a significant reduction in food consumption. And possessing a conection with the world sounds incredible!
'Call an emergency meeting with all my older children'
'-Immediately.' Said the beacon
After waiting for a while everyone started to arrive one by one.
First it was Ken, followed by Matt, Milles, Carl, Steve, Levi, Trevis, Hans and Trouble. That was kind of my inner circle and the people I would lean on to make important decisions.
As everyone arrived and settled in, I began to explain the situation, the pros and cons of each evolution and asked for everyone's opinion.
"I think [Fluttermite] is a good option. We could not only gain an affinity for free, but also improve the quality of the environment around us without doing anything." Ken said after thinking for a while.
"That's optimistic, we don't have any information on whether [Fluttermite] gain an affinity at birth, or if they need to gain one, all we know is that their appearance changes depending on their [Affinity]. And these benefits to the environment around them are very abstract. Earthworms are beneficial to the environment around them, they eat rotten things and defecate fertilizer. Fly larvae are beneficial to the environment around them, they eat rotten bodies, helping with natural decomposition and serving as the base of the food chain." replied Hans.
"B-But what about the [Beetle wisp] brothes? No one talks about them, but their earth magic can be extremely useful, we could build incredible fortifications with it..." Spoke the shy Levi.
"That could happen, but what if these [Beetle wisp] were creatures that lived on land? Would we lose our wings and need live on the ground?" Trouble asked.
"We don't even know if we will all evolve together with mom, but the most likely thing is that she will evolve alone." Ken said.
"This is something that worries me a lot, if is only me that's gointo to evolve, what happens to you guys? And i can lose my abilities to produce new drones?"
"Hmm? Probably not, I think in the worst case we would continue as [Solitary honey bees] until we die, and then our new brothers who have a similar species to yours would take our places." Ken said it like it wasn't a big deal.
"Isn't that bad?!"
"No? It's just the natural cycle, the old die and the new take on the work, we wouldn't stay alive forever even if we changed species along with you. Everything that is alive must one day die." Said Steve as if it were natural logic for anyone.
Everyone agreed with Steve's words, but it hit me like lightning, the bees in my world lived for about 1 month, something that had already passed, but everyone was still alive and well.
But until when?
I still had the mentality of a human, and I faced the passage of time like a human, a month didn't seem like a long time to live, but that could be an entire cycle for the workers. My luck was that it seems that bees in this other world live longer than common bees.
But until when?
As a queen, i should live longer, but how long would the workers live? 3 months? 4? Is that why they are trying so desperately to work hard and have much fun as they can? Because they know their lives are short?
"B-Boys, how long can an ordinary worker live?..."
"Um.... I have no idea, I've never seen anyone die of old age to know, but I'm one of the oldest and I'm still full of energy!" Ken said.
'Damn, I messed up again, I never think about every detail. I should have thought about my children's lifespan.'
"So I think we agree that [Radiant Sunbee] is the best option? It doesn't seem risky, and it could provide significant bonuses." Steve asked, resuming the conversation.
"I think we could make more use of bees [Wisper Bee], we would have much more faster workers, soldiers and any other unit." Trevis argued.
"I like that idea too!~" Matt encouraged.
"I don't think you're thinking about the uses of a [Pollen pixie], we could increase the quality of our home, and produce a lot more food, increasing our numbers explosively." Told Carl who was eating a candy
"But don't we already have farmers to fulfill this task? Wouldn't it be counterproductive to turn our entire species into fertilizers when we already have a class capable of achieving the same effect?" replied Hans.
"Alright boys, let's vote. Those in favor of [Radiant Sunbee] raise a single hand."
With that 5 hands were raised, only Carl, Trouble, Matt and Miles didn't agree with the idea, which left me in the tiebreaker, if I voted against we would have to discuss it even more, if I voted in favor it was official.
"....I vote in favor of [Radiant Sunbee], I believe they are the safest option."
"That's right!"
Some were upset with the result, but we had already decided everything as the "inner circle" of the nest, now all that was left for me was to evolve.
With that I moved a little away from the boys and left instructions to take me to the infirmary as soon as I passed out, and I made my mental choice.
After making the mental choice of [Radiant Sunbee], I nervously waited for some kickback or something, but after a few moments nothing happened.
I just stared dumbly at everyone, until I was hit by what felt like a rock directly to my head, everything started spinning and getting confused, and all I remember is Hans and the boys running towards me.
----------------------------------------
When I woke up I was back in that dark room from the past, completely immobile and unable to move, I tried to move and soon I could hear some muffled voices, I kept rocking to break this prison where I was.
This time I had experience, I knew I was in a chrysalis and I had already seen what needed to be done.
After a lot of effort I finally managed to break my prison and what I saw as soon as I came out was everyone's surprised faces, they for some reason seemed much smaller than before, I was laying on the floor but I was able to look directly into Hans eyes, and the whole place felt very cramped for me.
'What the hell is happening? Have I grown in size? The description never said these bees were big. Or is it a result of my class?'
Looking around me I could see a golden chrysalis with other shades of bright colors like blue and purple. The chrysalis was huge and was scattered all over the floor, some workers were picking up the pieces and moving them out.
'My status!'
[Status] [Information] Attributes Name: N/A Species: Radiant Sunbee Life: 32.4 Def: 0.7 Level: 1 Class: Queen Vit: 9.3 Int: 21.5 Sex: Female Stamina: 70/70 Dex: 1 Wis: 8.2 Mana: 1.5 Affinity: Life Spr: 15.3 Str: 0.3
[Skills]
{Life Echo} lv 1
use MP to create a bubble capable of damaging enemies and healing allies, the bubble lasts until destroyed or naturally dispersed
{Food creation} lv 4 {Maternal Connection} Lv 2 {Egg laying} Lv 5 {Analyze} Lv 5
{Memorial Memory} Lv1
{Healing Radiance} Lv1
Emit a soft glow that can heal all your allies quickly, uses 0.01 mana per second healing 0.1 health per second
{Radiant Renewal} Lv1
Choose a single target to heal 10 of health at the cost of 1 mana.
{Queen's blessing} Lv 1
Choose a target to grant them a 15% boost to all statuses, consumes 0.01 mana per second while active.
{Radiant wings} Lv1
Your wings are made with living mana, once they are broken or damaged they regenerate themselfs quickly at the cost of MP.
{Resilient Vitality} Lv1
When you get sick or poisoned your [Vitality] is multiplied by 2.
{Life exchange}
Sacrifice your life points and Xp to create [Life Drops].
[Traces] - 4
'What the hell is that?! My status has changed, and what skills are these? Now do I have mana? What affinity is this? Why I have attributes that I didn't have before?!'