Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

Talking with an almost three-minute delay with Whisper was really inconvenient and slowed things down by a lot, but I thought this was a price worth paying.

Picking genes was a nice introduction to Whisper's new role. Later Bloodhero would pass Whisper her new responsibilities, but this would take much longer.

The first four gene picks were really straightforward, and the Council (and myself) agreed on them almost unanimously, and even Oracle Undecided couldn't give any worthy advice today. This was the usual case when I only had enough luck for *one* decent option of genes.

Again, I began spreading my attribute points equally, starting with one of the lowest attributes: defense. A lot of stuff in the defense gene pool was useless to the extreme, at least now—like "Radiation Resistance" which I rolled on this pick.

Oh, I was sure it will be more useful one day when someone *actually invents nuclear power*!

But I also got "Heat Resistance II->III", which was way more useful—both to defend against fire in battle, and to help all the bees busy in our ever-growing forges and metallurgy manufactures!

〔Heat Resistance III: reduces damage from fire and reduces the speed of overheating by 60%.〕

Then, recalling what a hard time my scouts had (according to Bloodhero and Bloodimina) in wild areas when all the evolving insects and other beasts tried to kill them left and right, I invested into agility and perception.

This way, the Empire's scouts would have an easier time finding and avoiding threats. If I got genes useful to this, of course.

And I got them!

〔Heat Vision: allows seeing infrared waves.〕

〔Quiet Flight I: decreases noise from flying by 50%.〕

Last but not least, I put a point into endurance. There were a lot of good genes there… Today, the best one I got was the "Sweat" gene.

〔Sweat: increases stamina recovery by 200% and heat resistance by 20%, but increases the need for hydration for up to 200% based on exertion.〕

A massive boost in stamina recovery! Extra heat resistance! Too bad that it came with being stinky. But I and the Council agreed it was a worthy price to pay.

As soon as I picked these genes, I couldn't wait to add them to my personal morphotype (except for the "Sweat"…). At least the heat vision, because I was really curious how it would work. I doubted I will get much practical use from it, but it was just one gene point out of a hundred-and-some.

"I will just have to be careful to not get blinded when I'm near you, Amby," I said with a laugh.

She tilted her head in confusion.

"Why would you get blind? Specifically, near me? There's some danger I'm not aware of?" Amby frowned. "Should I call your bodyguards here?.."

I laughed louder, to the even stronger confusion of both my bee-wife and every other bee in the room.

"If I take heat vision, I might get blinded from looking at you, because you are so hot!" I made four finger pistols at Amby and winked. "Get it?"

Her face didn't change a bit. Same was with half the Advisers, while realization dawned on the face of the other half.

"Barely."

There was a moment of silence before Ambrosia let out a short laugh. She covered her mouth with a palm and turned away from me. She was blushing. Blushing!

"Adviser Worriesgone, write this line down somewhere. I want it to be preserved for future pun collections," she said in a perfectly calm-sounding voice. "Then get back to business, everyone. Necty, you too."

"Oh, this one will be so popular, Mother!" Worriesgone gasped with a starry-eyed expression. "A pun made up by Father himself… Oh, entire sub-hives will laugh from it. I will just add to the notes that hot can mean 'amazing' for the sub-hives where this expression didn't spread…"

I was still chuckling under my breath when we continued with the gene-picking. I've just decided that the next—the last for today!—improved attribute should be intelligence for a chance of another supernatural ability…

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, this is hilarious! Father, your puns are the best." Listener didn't laugh, no—she carefully pronounced every 'ha'. "Whisper said."

I dropped my hand in my palms, laughing again. And I *knew* that Listener was sending my laughter back to Whisper in the same 'ha-ha-ha-ha', and it made things even funnier!

It took me half a minute and a large gulp of tea to fully calm down and for the Council to continue picking genes.

〔For improving intelligence, you have a choice of next genes: 'Advanced Pack Tactics', 'Technology: Currency', and 'Attribute Inheritance I'.〕

〔Advanced Pack Tactics: dramatically improves coordination of attacks in small and medium groups.〕

〔Technology: Currency: gives instinctual access to 'Currency' technology.〕

〔Attribute Inheritance: progeny inherits 50% of invested attribute points.〕

'Lame, lame, la—oh, wow, what?! System, is this another special gene from the "universal pool"?'

<Yes. The 'Attribute Inheritance' gene is a rare gene that can appear when increasing any attribute.>

Oh, that was just too incredible. Especially with how many attribute points I've already had invested in myself and couldn't share with my girls.

Although this gene will still give them only a half of what I had, thanks to my "Genetic Tree Prediction" special ability I could see that the "Attribute Inheritance" was a precursor to "Improved Attribute Inheritance". I could only guess that it would let me share even more attribute points.

'Too bad it's not just tiered. Then I'd be able to simply morphotype it up… That'd be so OP! Perhaps this is why? I wonder if more OP abilities cost more of their divine points for the gods to add to the system.'

Either way, I picked the "Attribute Inheritance" gene—it wasn't even a question—and addressed my Advisers.

"Now that we know what genes we have… There's a vitally important thing to consider. I can create a new morphotype from scratch. With only the best genes. But what should it specialize in?"