Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 318: You are (not) adopted

In the morning, our squad gathered our camp and moved out. By my estimate, we had a week left, which meant there was no time to lose. While scouts searched for more dodo nests, we were going to deal with the one they found already.

Reaching it was already a challenge. The dragons were reluctant to fly anywhere after the long journey here, and I didn't want to fight my way through hundreds of small predators again.

I told the dragon riders to let the dragons do what they wanted for now, but stand ready for telepathic orders, then turned to Malevolence.

"We will fly higher up, way above the forest level, and watch out for dragons. There are many of them, but if we are ready we should be safe enough."

It was a risk. Dragons usually had extremely sharp eyesight and liked to swoop at whatever was careless enough to poke its nose from under the cover of trees. They could attack even a large swarm like ours, especially if the dragons were evolved.

But it was a calculated risk.

My squadron—which now had only a hundred bees, because all the scouts moved out and there were only soldiers left—flew up and gradually sped up to the top speed we could. We flew with the speed of the slowest chaotically evolved bees in the group, who didn't have the 'Flight V' gene.

And we were attacked almost immediately by a small but brazen blue dragon. It dived at the back of our group, trying to pick one of the slowest bees.

'Watch out above!' one of the Beemarines sent everybody a telepathic warning.

Immediately, the attacked bee moved to dodge, while the rest of the group turned to intercept the attacking dragon!

Noticing the change, it flapped its wings frantically, slowing its flight and changing its trajectory. However, it still got close enough for me to see individual scales on its belly.

And it meant I was close enough to shoot a stinger at it!

I didn't expect it to hit, but it did, barely sticking between the scales.

"SCREEAAAAW!" the beast cried out, spasmodically flapping its wings and falling toward the distant ground.

"Yes!" Malevolence cheered, raising her spear, but I interrupted her with a wave of hand.

"Get moving before more predators come here, girls!"

We did, and were attacked two more times on our way—but each time, my girls dealt with these attacks splendidly. The bigger creatures, in the meantime, clearly had no interest in prey as small as bees.

Soon, we reached a notable place on a tall pillar mountain—a split where one pillar-like branch turned into three. In it, amid the sparse grass and trees that grew on the mountains, was the dodo nest. Except, of course, it was also a hawk's nest.

As we approached it, I gave an order to hide among the other mountain vegetation for stealth, and we landed on a mountain branch.

The nest was a construction the size of half a beehive, made from entire tree trunks and the fern leaves the size of entire living blocks. Three chicks were sitting inside, each of them the size of a black dragon and covered in baby white scales.

The shape of these beaks was unmistakable. And even if it wasn't, we were close enough to see the chicks' status.

〔Dodo〕

〔Health〕: 15 / 15

〔Stamina〕: 10 / 16

〔Species〕: Dodo

〔Age〕: 7 d

〔Remaining lifespan〕: 14 y

〔Attributes〕

> Strength: 15

> Agility: 8

> Endurance: 14

> Defense: 9

> Intelligence: 30

> Perception: 14

〔Special abilities〕

Enhanced Intelligence III, Imprinting, Increased Fertility X (MAX), Improved Immunity V (MAX), Universal Antibodies, Hunter Antibodies, Universal Blood Compatibility

〔〕〔〕〔〕

Dalmanrach didn't lie about making dodos useful to the Bee Empire and humans. If these genes worked as Dalmanrach described, then injecting the blood of these beasts would work like vaccines!

I just had to invent syringe needles. And, of course, get these dodos from the nest.

It was hundreds of meters away from the ground! There was no way they could get down there by themselves. They looked incredibly clumsy and at the moment just sat there in their nest.

Like the helpless chicks they were.

"What are your orders, Father?" Malevolence asked me. "We didn't bring enough ropes to haul these birds down, but we can craft them, given time. However, we don't have enough strength even all together to carry someone that large…"

"Careful, there's a large dragon!" a Beemarine called, pointing in the distance.

It was a large brown dragon like the one we killed recently—a hawk-dragon. The nest's owner!

"Quiet, everybody," I ordered. "Let's watch for now."

It flew right toward the nest and landed near, crushing the stone of the mountain with its giant claws as it held on. In its mouth was a corpse of a small bug-like beast.

Immediately, the dodo chicks began screaming loudly in agitation and jumping towards their mommy, which looked so differently that if Dalmanrach didn't say otherwise, I'd be 100% sure that the dodos were adopted.

The dragon began tearing the pieces from the corpse with its teeth and claws. However, instead of giving them to the chicks, the dragon swallowed them themselves!

I raised my brows in shock, only to realize what was going on a moment later.

Thus, I turned around and didn't see how the hawk-dragon vomited chewed and half-digested meat right into the waiting mouths of the scaled dodos.

The dragon-birds of this world fed their young just like the birds on Earth! Absolutely disgusting…

Only my daughters were unaffected. Of course, they were already used to eating someone's vomit!

The "dinner" lasted a while, after which the hawk flew out again, leaving the nest defenseless.

This was a great time to act.

"Alright, girls. The coast is clear, so let's try getting these chicks down. Prepare the ropes that we *do* have."

My plan was simple—use ropes to tie a dodo and have two or three black dragons haul it to the ground.

The problem was just in making the dodo *and* the black dragons agree to it…