After so much time spent cooped in the hive, the outside world was so freeing—and so terrifying. But having a hammer in my hands and being surrounded by sixty other bees assured me a lot.
After a few minutes of flight, I smelled thick sweetness. Soon after, I saw a spanning grove of trees with white flowers hanging on their branches. Each flower was half a meter in diameter, and they smelled strongly of nectar.
Maybe a kilometer in the distance, there was another pillar mountain similar to ours. From this distance, I could see its curious shape better. It looked like a hand stretching toward the sky, with its "palm" covered in its own forest.
On one of the mountain's "fingers" I saw a massive silhouette—it had to be at least the size of our hive.
I squinted, trying to make out the details with my facetious eyes.
The creature's silhouette looked like it had a long tail and perhaps… wings? Or were those arms?
Before I could decide, the creature jumped off the mountain and disappeared amid the flora growing on it.
I shook my head and turned toward the flowers.
Half a dozen of this-world-versions of insects already were loitering around them. All of them were humanoid, four-armed, winged creatures, with the smallest being half a meter tall, and the largest being three meters tall.
The system provided me with their names.
Ignoring the other insects, the Foragers immediately went for the flowers, while the Foremen Bees spread around.
"I see a good place here!" one of them shouted, pointing at a massive fern-tree leaf with a concave form. It was close to the flowers, and nectar could be stored in it for future transportation.
"Got it. We will establish a post here. Father, you can just sit and look. Foremen Bees, let's get to work!"
"Good luck, girls!" I shouted.
I landed on the leaf and looked out for danger. So far, there was nothing threatening around. The other insects, even those bigger than bees, scurried away at our approach. Bees clearly had the dominion over the flowers!
Meanwhile, Foremen Bees were working, bossing around their dumber older half-sisters.
"No, not to the hive! Come here. This goes to a forager post!"
"What?.. Alright. If you say so… Ah, all that nectar is heavy."
Foremen Bees also waved their hammers at anything that got too close to Forager Bees.
"Hey, get your face away from this flower! It's *our* nectar, not yours! Want me to break your head, huh?!"
I watched this racket with a sense of fatherly pride. I really made thugs out of them. True physical labor workers, not any worse than a dockworker from Earth! All they lacked was swearing.
More importantly, they were doing their job well. The forager post rapidly filled with nectar and pollen.
Once, I shot in alarm as I spotted another Beewolf Wasp try to snatch a Forager Bee who had her head in a flower; but a Foreman Bee spotted it first.
As the wasp charged, the Foreman Bee intercepted her with a swing of a hammer. It didn't hit the agile wasp, but then two more Foreman Bees approached, and the wasp fled the area entirely.
"Yeah, and don't come back!" a Foreman Bee shouted.
"You show them, girls!" I cheered like a dad supporting his kids at a school competition.
Then I saw movement near me and turned to see a face with facetious eyes and a pair of waving antennae rising over the edge of my fern leaf.
〔Species〕: Red Wood Ant
〔Remaining lifespan〕: 745 d
Formic Acid Spray, Sharp Teeth I
The ant girl had dark red chitin plates covering her chest and parts of her body, and was a couple of heads shorter than me. But there was some serious muscle visible between the chitin plates!
She ignored me and turned to the miniature pond of nectar next to me. And all the Foremen Bees were too busy protecting our Foragers to intercept the ant.
"Hey, get away from *our* food!" I shouted, raising my hammer.
The ant tilted her head.
I had no idea if she understood me at all, but the shout attracted the nearest Foremen Bees.
They charged at the ant immediately with angry shouts.
"Fall to the ground and die!"
"Crush chitin and break bones!"
"Don't even try to touch what's ours!"
Their ferocity was frightening.
In a second, three Foremen Bees smashed into the ant, leaving her no chance to escape or fight back.
The ant didn't even have time to spray anyone with her acid. Only with her own blood. Then the force of the blows threw the ant's body off the leaf.
A moment later, I heard a thud from below.
"Yesss!" a bloody Foreman Bee cheered, pumping her fist.
"Now back to work, sisters. Back to work!"
I watched them, feeling a bit sick.
'Those hammers made the Foremen Bees so scary. Are there really threats they can't beat off? No, they said there are. But then, what can it be?'
I turned back toward the flower patch and gasped.
"Watch out! There's a wasp!"
While I was shouting it, the wasp already snatched a Forager Bee in her claws. All the Foremen Bees were too far away to do anything but watch as the wasp pierced the bee's stomach with her stinger.
The Forager Bee let out a choked gasp as her health went down to 〔3/10〕. Then the wasp carried her out of my sight.
"What?! And she's gone, just like that?"