Discovering fire

I stood in a vest and a headdress made from dozens of curved bones and stingers tied together. The bones were all sharpened and arranged to make bone spikes poke outward.

〔Primitive Spiked Armor〕 

Brainpower requirement: 18 

Military: +1 per 1 thousand affected soldiers.

Grants temporary "Spikes I" special ability. 

〔〕〔〕〔〕

Whoever tried to bite a bee wearing the spiky bone armor was going to have the worst splinters of their life!

And it was almost like clothes, which I was about to invent as soon as the hive wasn't threatened by anything.

I spun around, while the Craftsmen Bees stared at the result of their work with awe. Then I moved my arm the wrong way and immediately poked myself with a sharp bone.

"Ouch. Ahem. The design requires moving carefully… Maybe some adjustments… But I see it as a success. Now, girls, all we need is to make a weapon to match this bad boy!"

"You have an idea already, Father?" a Craftsman Bee asked with anticipation.

"Will there be a lot of spikes, too?"

"No, stupid! If spikes and stingers worked as weapons, the *bad hunters* wouldn't have killed our Warrior Bees so easily. It got to be something much more. Something… amazing!" The Craftsman Bee spread her arms wide.

I nodded proudly. My daughters got smarter every day.

"Yes! The greatest thing in human—sorry, *bee*—history since the invention of honey and the wheel. I will show you—somewhere on the ground."

I yawned. A second later, every Sergeant Craftsman yawned too, in perfect unison.

They made me want to yawn again… which I did.

"Yeaaaamhm, yes. On the ground, and tomorrow. Everybody should get some rest."

***

Tomorrow. I gathered my Sergeant Craftsmen for a demonstration on the hive cave floor, a distance away from other bees, but still somewhere with light. I took off the inconvenient bone armor, but kept the headdress—it looked cool. Almost like a crown for me, the king!

There, I put some dry leaves and bits of bark into a small pile on a smoother part of the floor—my kindling—and sat next to it.

"Alright. Now watch this carefully—this is very important!"

The Craftsmen Bees watched in wide-eyed curiosity as I stuck a thin branch into the kindling and began furiously turning it left and right by rolling my hands over it.

Rolling and rolling… Rolling and rolling…

My stamina went down from 〔22/22〕 to 〔20/22〕 then 〔18/22〕. My upper pair of arms got tired, so I switched to the lower pair of arms and continued until that got tired, too…

All the while, there was no effect on my kindling whatsoever.

〔Stamina〕: 6 / 22

'Stupid stick, stupid kindling—why are you taking so long?! It's going to work soon, I'm sure.'

"Father, is it supposed to do nothing?" a bee asked innocently.

'Noooooooo!' I cried on the inside.

"J-just wait! Just a little bit more… Be patient!"

I was panting. My Craftsmen Bees looked more and more worried.

I was on the verge of giving up and falling to the ground from the lack of stamina when I smelled the blissful smell.

"Smoke! YESSS!"

I rubbed the stick even harder, and finally, there it was—a tiny spark of flame!

The surrounding bees all gasped in shock as it timidly nibbled the kindling. Forgetting my tiredness, I leaned closer to gently blow at it to make the fire stronger. Then I put some branches in, and here it was—a tiny bonfire.

〔Fire〕 

Brainpower requirement: 15 

Resilience: +0,2 per 1 thousand populace.

A cornerstone technology that's necessary for many other technologies. 

〔〕〔〕〔〕

〔Heat Resistance I: reduces damage from fire and reduces the speed of overheating by 20%.〕

My Craftsmen Bees gaped at the bonfire, absolutely stunned.

"Incredible… It's so pretty and warm…"

"Like a tiny piece of sun."

"Ouch, it burns!"

I jolted.

"No, girls, don't put your hands in this! It's fire—it's *dangerous*! But yeah, it's nice and warm when at the same distance. You can cook with it, too, and boil water. Too bad all our jugs are made from wax. *But* we can make a lot of candles. It's actually the next thing on the list."

Despite my warnings, my Craftsmen Bees huddled closer and closer to the campfire. They were like moths near a flame!

I glanced away only for a second.

"Look, sisters! My hair—it can burn, too. Hot-hot-hot!"

"SHIT! Don't just stare at the fire, put it down! Just, fuck, slap it! Someone, bring me water!"

I grabbed the hand of a Sergeant Craftsman whose body hair was burning and hurriedly slapped the fledgling fire off. A minute later, a couple of Sergeant Craftsmen returned with water jugs. I used the water to clean the slight burn, gulped down some to soothe my hoarse throat, and glared at my daughters.

"I told you, I told you, girls—don't touch the fire! But you didn't listen."

At least now they looked guilty.

I sighed and softened my tone. It was impossible to stay truly angry with my adorable daughters when they pouted like that!

"Now, I'm going to teach you rules of basic fire safety—which you are going to follow like the word of the God and the Queen—and *then* you will get your next research project. Not sooner! Understand?"

"Yes, Father…"

"Please, don't be angry, Father…"

"The fire was just so pretty…"

I sighed again and shook my head.

An hour of lecturing later, we finally got to the next item on the research list.

Making it took very little time. Just some string and a wax sausage.

"So, some of you were asking 'but how will fire kill hornets?'. Here's the answer. The weapon!"

With a proud grin, I raised a simple prototype beeswax candle I just made.

〔Candles〕 

Brainpower requirement: 18

Reduces penalties for working in the dark. 

〔〕〔〕〔〕

"It's so tiny…"

"Aw, I thought it'd be bigger."

"Looks pathetic."

W-what?!