Chapter 46: Chapter 46

"No, *you* will be the teacher this time. Together, we will bring literacy to every bee by making a school!" I could already see Ambrosia's puzzlement. "A school is a place where teachers teach many people, all the time, because students never end. *Every* bee, remember. New ones will be born every third day! Teachers will always be busy." Implementing literacy in my colony was another project that could boost my development points into the skies even before I could get agriculture. "*Every* bee?" Ambrosia sounded skeptical. "Most of our daughters don't *need* to know how to count past twenty." I shook my head vigorously and brought up the stat block of the tech. Brainpower requirement: 80 Workpower: +1 per 1 thousand affected workers. Military: +1 per 1 thousand affected soldiers. Brainpower: +1,5% to total value per 1% of affected populace Logistics: +0,8% to total value per 1% of affected populace Allows creating advanced administration "You are absolutely wrong here, Amby! Literacy will improve almost every aspect of our colony, and more so when more people know how to read! Workers will be able to exchange written messages and write things down to not forget them. We will be able to write people's names on their sleeping cells, so they could put personal possessions there instead of carrying them around all day long." "Is that really worth the effort?" "It does! The system says so. The total percentage bonuses… Those are going to be *sweet*." I made a hand kissing gesture. Ambrosia stood straighter. "Alright. Then, as your Culture Adviser, I will establish a school. I've watched you teach bees for long enough to know how to do it myself." "Amby, you are the best. Don't bother teaching everybody stuff like divisions and multiplication… Just the bare minimum will be a good start. The alphabet and such." "I understand. But I won't be teaching alone, so I will need… Teacher Bees." 'Amby can even almost create titles on her own? She has learned so much from me… This is great. Yeah, create!'

〔Teacher Bee〕: makes teaching students 20% faster.

I smiled at Ambrosia again.

She made such a way from someone whose primary responsibility in the hive was laying eggs, and the secondary responsibility was convincing other bees to listen to me.

All my daughters were smart, but Ambrosia had confidence many of them didn't possess (except for Foremen Bees, which had too much).

I felt at ease giving her full reign of this project.

"You are the best, Ambrosia. Kissy-kissy?" I made a goofy expression and puckered my lips.

"How many variations of the word 'kiss' are there?" Ambrosia said, smiling.

Smiling! At my clowning! My attempts to infect her with my humor were working!

Then she kissed me, and her lips were sweeter than honey.

One day, I was going to make her laugh properly.

***

My Researchers did a good job making prototypes. Next morning, I was showered with notifications.

〔Stone Weapons and Tools〕

Brainpower requirement: 80

Workpower: +10 per 1 thousand affected workers.

Military: +10 per 1 thousand affected soldiers.

〔〕〔〕〔〕

'Oooh, this is *great*! I assume this means I won't have to manually unlock shovels, pickaxes and so on…'

I immediately hurried to the Industry Adviser.

3333 Craftsmen Bees (that counting Sergeants, Lieutenants and Chiefs) finished their new tasks in just one day.

One day—that was almost like one turn. Incredible.

By the end of this day, all the bone knives they and Material Foragers used were replaced by stone knives! Even more, my Craftsmen Bees prepared 1000 stone axes and 1000 stone spears—for gathering wood, and in case of war against someone squishy.

All at the small price of several hundred minor injuries. At least clothing protected them somewhat.

On their own, stone hammers and bone knives gave me 1-2 workpower and military points per worker or soldier. But now, this number has shot up to 10 points in an instant!

The difference in my colony's stats was drastic.

〔Your colony〕

〔Wellness〕: 84 %

〔Population〕: 37 thousand

〔Development level〕: 3

〔Development points〕: 100 / 200

〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee

〔Attributes〕

> Workpower: 165

> Military: 46

> Brainpower: 169

> Logistics: 32

> Resilience: 59

〔Resources〕:

> Food: 1715 units

> Building materials: 155 units

〔Colony Council〕

〔Military Adviser〕: increases total military by 10%. (B1374)

〔Science Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to brainpower. (B581)

〔Industry Adviser〕: increases total workpower by 10%. (B601)

〔Economics Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to military. (B339)

〔Culture Adviser〕: increases all total attributes and wellness by 3%. (Ambrosia)

〔Technologies〕

Dance Communication, Hive Building, Food Preservation, Forager Posts, Rank-Based Hierarchy, Primitive Containers, Border Patrols, Primitive String, Fire, Candles, Primitive Spiked Armor, Primitive Medicine, Primitive Clothing, Stone Weapons and Tools

〔〕〔〕〔〕

I've reached 100 development points! Next development level was soon.

The future looked hopeful. My colony was really growing!

Bees now looked not like some animals, but like an actual organized tribe. With clothes.

I told Craftsmen Bees to make more armor, as well as keep working on maintenance of things we had already.

Next day, I was about to try leading the first hunt for another-world-steak, when a report from the Military Adviser interrupted me.

"Father, Commandos have discovered an ant colony that fits your requirements! They say that they smelled something sweet from the inside, despite ants barely entering or leaving the place. The scouts even wondered if there were entrances to the colony they didn't find."

My eyes widened.

Today was becoming even better. If those were really the ants I've looked for…

"Prepare my guards! I must look at this ant colony *immediately*!"