Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

I had to choose 'Increased Venom Potency I'.

Thanks to the memories I recovered with the 'Perfect Memory' gene, I was sure the Bee Empire could build half-decent ballistas or even trebuchets.

But we would need a truly colossal ballista to harm a human, and even then, they could wear armors. Not to mention that ballistas took a lot to haul around.

A single assassin with a sting as venomous as that of a black widow would be much more deadly and effective! And our current problem was the green giants, not hornets.

Although I wished I examined them with the system sight, just to be sure. Maybe they had extreme venom resistance, although I doubted it. I was still sure they were humans, maybe with minor genetic differences.

But the attack upgrades weren't over yet. I put two more points into strength, and my luck was benevolent.

〔For improving strength, you have a choice of next genes: 'Venom Spray I', 'Detachable Stinger I', and 'Increased Venom Potency I->II'.〕

〔Venom Spray I: allows to spray venom through the stinger over a small distance.〕

〔Detachable Stinger I: allows stingers of bees to be detached from the body without a trauma. Lost stingers don't regrow.〕

〔Increased Venom Potency I->II: increases damage of venom by 100%.〕

All venom. No new gene trees, either.

"Most bees in our empire don't use stingers nor for daily life, nor in fights, Father," Tabletina commented on this suggestion. "If you pick the detachable stinger gene, not only will you stop be worried about the losses among the few soldiers that are forced to use stingers—"

"We will be able to gather the venom and use it in weapons!" Things-Things cut. Tabletina glared at her for interruption, but Things-Things' excitement couldn't be stopped. "Hornet and wasp stingers already make good spears, but they are limited, especially since they eventually rot. If bees that work inside the hive will offer their stingers, which they don't use anyway, unlimited amounts of deadly venomous spears could be made!"

"But these sisters are our last line of defense!" Bloodhero protested. "They can't be left weaponless!"

Things-Things shrugged.

Continue your saga on My Virtual Library Empire

"They have their tools. Craftsmen, for sure, know better how to stab than how to sting."

"Quiet, girls. Things-Things, Tabletina, I will think about this idea—but the detachable stinger still has a great synergy with all those venom upgrades I'm picking up."

My Advisers quietened. Researchina nodded.

"Very reasonable, Father."

Coming from her mouth, it felt like high praise. I grinned and went to the next spread of genes, hoping that my streak of good luck would continue.

But the genes I saw weren't more than good.

〔For improving strength, you have a choice of next genes: 'Paralyzing Venom I', 'Acid Blood I', and 'Electrical Charge I'.〕

〔Paralyzing Venom I: reduces damage of venom by 50%. The venom now slows victims based on its total potency.〕

〔Acid Blood I: blood deals slight acid damage on contact. Also increases resistance to acid damage by 20%.〕

〔Electrical Charge I: creates a special organ that passively generates low-voltage electricity that can be discharged at any time to deal electrical damage.〕

Not only these genes were great by themselves, I saw that 'Electrical Charge' opened a path to 'Magnetic Fields Control'. Would a gene like that make me able to outright manipulate metal with magnetic fields? It was like magic!

"This isn't just good… this is *shockingly* good! This must be because my strength is approaching 40 now. I get more cool genes!"

I laughed, but this time, no one at all caught my pun. Instead, Researchina frowned at me, as if wondering if she was too fast to call me 'reasonable'.

"Nectus, please, explain to your Council what 'electricity', 'voltage' and 'magnetic fields' are if you want us to give you advice," Ambrosia said.

I choked on my laughter and had to clear my throat.

"Right, of course. Well, electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge…"

I trailed off as I saw even less understanding on the faces of my Advisers than earlier.

'Shit. I just read them a Wikipedia page… I glanced about it once in my life, and now it popped into my head unprompted! Perfect memory is really scary.'

"Well, if you have charge, you can touch things and they will go 'zap!'. Like lightning, yeah?"

"Like lightning…" Ambrosia frowned. "What is lightning?"

I blinked.

Was she toying with me again? But although I carefully studied her beautiful face (something I could do for a long time without a particular goal), I couldn't see any humor in Amby's expression.

Other Advisers also stared at me, silently and hopefully waiting for an explanation.

Then it dawned on me—although there were storms in this world, all the bees spent them huddling inside their closed hives. And even then, storms usually happened at night.

With how loud the storms were, even the rumbling of thunder was easy to miss. Even the bees guarding the entrances during the night would at most see some flashes which were easy to dismiss.

More than that, even my perfect memory could recall only a couple of storms bad enough that there was thunder at all. Those were ones I didn't just sleep through.

My wife and daughters never witnessed the destructive power of lightning… and for the good—I could imagine how terrible they could be.

"Just listen, electricity is good! And magnetic fields are… complicated! And the 'Electrical Charge' gene is amazing, but I don't like that the system doesn't give much detail on where this charging organ would be. If it's in an inconvenient place, the charge might even deal more damage to the user than to the target."

And of course, if I had to put 10 points into the charge before I could even dream about cool abilities like magnetic manipulation, I might as well forget about them. For the next 10 years, at least.

The Council was silent, and hard thinking was visible on the faces of my girls.

Bloodhero rubbed her forehead below the recently painted blood mark of the Warrior Adviser.

"Acid blood sounds really heroic, though…"