Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

I turned to the Lieutenant Builder Bee, who breathlessly watched my inspection.

"Make a small hat for the chimney, Lieutenant. A cap, I mean, a cone cap. So water doesn't fall into them when it rains, but smoke could still escape."

"Caps for chimneys? Oh, yes! We will make this and every chimney pretty caps, Father!"

The caps ended up having spikes that resembled my bone crown if you squinted hard enough.

Tomorrow morning, Researcher Bees brought prototypes of metal tools and molds for them.

<Congratulations! You've unlocked 'Basic Metal Tools and Weapons' technology!>

〔Basic Metal Tools and Weapons〕

Brainpower requirement: 8000

Allows creating metal tools and weapons from basic metals and alloys.

Workpower: +20 per 1 thousand affected workers.

Military: +20 per 1 thousand affected soldiers.

Resilience: +50 per 1 thousand affected medics.

〔〕〔〕〔〕

The technology was even more incredible than I hoped!

With this boost in workpower, every project would be done twice as fast as before—and they were already being done incredibly fast. Metal scalpels and needles clearly were a *big* bonus for Physicians, too.

And soon, I was going to have it all.

While the first forge, Craftsmen Bees had just fired up the furnaces, next to it, several thousand Builder Bees were digging out and laying bricks for a hundred furnaces.

And after the furnaces began spitting smoke out of the capped chimneys, the first brass needles, knives and axes began to appear in the blink of an eye!

Of course, the first of the brass items were brought for me to look at.

A brass needle was large and dull, but sharper and tougher than a bone needle. A brass axe head had a much straighter edge than a stone one. It would cut into wood much easier, just like a small brass knife blade.

"Great job, just *great* job, girls!" I said, grinning at the expectant pair of Craftsmen Bees who brought me these items. "Now take these back so you and your sisters can finish working on them."

And while they did, I went to look at the forges themselves.

Long before I reached them, I could hear loud dings of stone hammers hitting metal from inside the forges. Columns of smoke rose in the air from the working chimneys.

Dozens of Craftsmen Bees with soot-stained faces and thick protective clothing were hanging around, recovering their low stamina, chatting lazily and snacking. Other bees constantly left and entered forges, either carrying things or just to replace those who went on a break.

All forge doors were open to vent excess heat, but after I leaned into the hatch of a working forge out of curiosity, the wave of rising heat from inside made me blink.

The furnace was full of coal and bright flames. A bee was studiously waving a large wooden fan at the coals to keep them hot.

'I will have to invent bellows soon. Shouldn't be too hard, but it will help a lot.'

A dozen more Craftsmen Bees were working like a well-oiled mechanism under the commands of their Sergeant.

One put raw pieces of brass into a clay vessel for smelting, the other was pouring brass into forms, a third was hammering still red-hot pieces of metal to make their form better. One more bee was cooling them down in a pot of water, and the last one was sharpening them with rough stones.

There were storage chests for both raw materials and finished items, and assigned Forager Bees swiftly moved things in and out. That was my idea—establishing dedicated haulers so my Craftsmen didn't have to spend time on anything but crafting.

This was like a miniature manufactory without a conveyor belt!

The small space was really efficient.

Craftsmen Bees used protective leather clothes and aprons, and although they didn't sweat, their faces were flushed from the heat. That 'Heat Resistance' gene they had was doing a lot of work, but I still saw why they had to make so many breaks.

'Perhaps if I will have a spare morphotype in the future, I will give it a lot of resistances, so these bees could take hard jobs like this one.'

Although the smithing and smelting technologies Craftsmen Bees used were primitive, their results—which I've seen already—couldn't be denied! Your adventure continues at My Virtual Library Empire

And there were already ten forges working and 140 more being built. Not just for brass, but for gold, too.

Staring at all the excavation in progress and the columns of smoke rising toward the air, I raised my hands in the air and laughed.

"Metallurgy industry, here I come!"

***

The forges and smoke didn't agree with Scourge, Disaster, and Woe. Ever since the metallurgy started, they didn't get closer than a hundred meters to Hive Supremo. Thankfully, they didn't leave entirely, and even still brought their "gifts".

No more coins, though—only a few smooth boulders and some colorful dragon scales.

Several more brave Beemarines went on expeditions on dragon backs. However, since I strictly instructed that being lost in the wilderness half a world away from Hive Supremo won't help, they had a hard time finding the exact location of green giants' settlement.

***

Three days later, the coin was fully reforged into tools.

My girls really worked so, so fast…

Now we had 6000 brass axes, 1000 brass shovels, 3000 brass tongs, 6000 brass knives for various tasks, and whooping 60000 brass needles.

This was enough that the core workers of Hive Supremo were fitted with brass tools, increasing their effectiveness. As for needless, we had enough for the entire Bee Empire!

Not to mention, all the furniture with luxurious gold nails.

Every day, big leather bags of coal and gold were brought from the expanding Camp Rich to Hive Supremo. The gold was swiftly cast into nails, and those used for furniture. Although there wasn't enough for the entire Hive Supremo yet, there was already enough for *me*.

Now I had a bed to cuddle with Ambrosia on, a bookcase for my wax tablets, and most of all… A table and a chair!

No more eating without a table!

And the system hit me with an entire string of notifications.

<Congratulations! You've implemented a 'Basic Metal Tools and Weapons' technology in your empire. You gain 50 development points.>

<Congratulations! You've implemented an 'Advanced Furniture' technology in your empire. You gain 50 development points.>

<Congratulations, user. Your colony has met the necessary requirements to move past the Early Bronze Age and enter the Middle Bronze Age!..>