Chad slowly regained his awareness, his mind foggy and his thoughts muddled. Wait, that wasn't right. Chad was dead. The memories of the last day of Chad's life and subsequent rebirth flashed through his... her mind, and her thoughts cleared. She lay in a wooden hollow across from a familiar giant bee who was... eating a piece of wood? It didn't look like his mandibles were doing much to the silvery wood. Beatrice watched him chew for a minute before giving into her curiosity.

  "What are you doing Ian?"

  Ian put down his piece of wood and responded with his usual enthusiasm.

  "Good morning Beatrice! I was just carving a statuette of you. I acquired a woodcarving skill last winter you see, and I was eager to memorialize our fortuitous encounter. This stuff is rather hard though, so it takes a lot of work to shape it. On the other hand, with the amount of effort it requires to make even small changes to the wood combined with it's fine grain, the amount of detail possible surpasses any other wood I've worked with."

  "Oh. That's neat." Beatrice couldn't help being a little happy at how nice Ian was being. 'Ian's such a cool guy! It's a good thing he was kicked out of his hive, or we would have never met and I'd be all alone.'

  "Do you have any plans for today Beatrice? I personally know how hard it can be to keep oneself busy without a hive to work for, and I would be happy to make some suggestions." Ian picked up his unfinished statuette and continued gnawing on the chunk of wood with his mandibles while he talked. "It might be a good Idea to practice normal hive work, just to be ready to join a new hive."

  "I don't think I'd be comfortable in a hive right now. Not after what happened to my old hive. Besides, I was planning to finish looking through my status first. I'll come up with something else to do after that." Beatrice tried to express a sense of her sadness and unease, but the whole dance-talking thing was still very new even if it was intuitive.

  Ian stopped gnawing on the chunk of wood that was actually starting to look distinctly bee-shaped. Then he nodded with understanding. "Of course. My apologies for making you uncomfortable. There's no rush." Then he picked up the statuette-in-progress again and continued chomping away at it.

  The whole situation was absurd by Beatrice's old standards. Here they were, two giant bees just chilling in a giant silver tree. Maybe it would be good to take a moment and let everything sink in. Breath in, and out, In and out. 'First things first, I'm a monster bee now. What does that mean for my new life? I always wanted to start a family in my old life, but I'm a little less enthusiastic about doing that as a female. Laying eggs does sound less painful than live birth though... Not that it matters, since I'm an infertile worker. Starting a sports career is also out of the question.' Beatrice took a moment to focus on her bee body, taking special note of the lack of hands or feet. A sudden mental pressure interrupted her thoughts. It felt like someone giving her a little nudge with their elbow, but in her mind.

  Delaying system rewards is not recommended. Please choose two of the following rewards within the next hour or else the rewards will be rescinded.

  10 free attribute points

  1 grade C skill selection

  2 mutation points

  1 growth type grade E piece of equipment

  'Oh yeah. That was a thing.' Beatrice felt some annoyance at the distraction, but she was more relieved to focus on something other than her ruined lifegoals. Although she figured that having lifegoals after dying was a luxury not afforded to most. She read over her options again, considering them carefully. After the whole reincarnation as a bee debacle she was extra careful not to rush through these prompts. First of all, what was this system being referenced? Is this system why she had words popping into her mind? She figured it wasn't actionable information, so she refocused on the rewards. 'Wait, how good are ten attribute points? I assume leveling up would get me more based on what little I know of video games, but there was that saying about making assumptions.'

  "Hey Ian. Could I get some advice about some system rewards? I have no frame of reference for how good the options are or aren't."

  "By the system itself?!" Because of his shock, Ian's words were barely intelligible. He had to visibly gather himself before continuing. "I would be happy to help."

  Was it that big of a deal? Beatrice had no Idea, but Ian's enthusiasm was welcome as always. She quickly lay out the details of her rewards while being careful not to leave out any details.

  "Hmm, I would recommend not choosing the free attribute points. Most tier one monsters get four to six attribute points per level, and that doubles at tier two so they won't make much of a difference in the long run. Mutation points could be a good choice. But you do get a mutation point at your fifth level, and I've heard you get more when evolving so it might not be worth it. But that depends on the evolution, since better evolutions give more benefits... The rank C skill is the obvious choice since skills are hard to acquire and even harder to advance. I don't have any skills above grade D after nearly a year of life experience. That's how hard it is."

  'A year? Is Ian saying he isn't even a year old?' Beatrice's mental image of Ian changed drastically as she adjusted to that information. Ian however continues his analysis, oblivious to Beatrice's shock.

  "I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know what an equipment is, but the fact that it grows is promising. Maybe this grade E equipment can become grade D or even C."

  Beatrice was still hung up on the whole age thing. Sure she was technically younger than Ian, but almost eighteen years of life made that hard to feel. At first Ian came off as an older gentleman, maybe thirty-something years old and wearing a monocle. Actually, what was the life-expectancy of a drone? What about workers? 'Am I going to die before living my new life to the fullest?'

  "Thanks for the information and advice Ian, but something is bothering me. Do you know if monster bees live longer than normal bees?"

  "I don't have a clue about other bees, but I've never heard of a drone or worker who was older than I am now. I did hear that my hive's queen emerged more than three years before me, which is quite something. From what I've seen of workers -which is the caste you are no doubt most worried about- it all comes down to whether they die fighting or work themselves to death. I've seen many a worker throw their very life into the teeth of grade three or even grade four monsters, just to inject their venom and die anyway."

  Beatrice was surprised at how matter-of-fact Ian was when talking about all the death he'd seen. Thinking back, Ian was very composed when he found her in the ruined hive surrounded by the dead. It didn't bother Beatrice, but she wasn't exactly used to being a bee. But that was getting off topic from her earlier question.

  "I think you misunderstood my question. When I asked whether or not monster bees live longer than normal bees, I was trying to ask when I can expect to die of old age."

  Ian was silent for a moment before he responded with a sense of bemusement in his wiggles. "Beatrice my dear, you keep coming up with the oddest ideas. Are you suggesting that a bee could die, just from getting older? An interesting Idea, but I'm afraid I've never seen it happen. I've seen bees die to fighting, poisonous plants, winter weather, starvation, overwork, and a few lucky drones from mating with a queen. I've never seen or heard of a bee dying spontaneously from time passing... That being said, if bees died at ten years old on the dot, then I don't think I'd have seen it once."

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  Beatrice had the impression that bees died a lot, and usually by sacrificing their own lives. Not the kind of answer she wanted, but such is life. "Well, thanks for answering my questions again. Your answers were enlightening, even if they weren't the answers I wanted."

  "No no, do not mention it. To share the company of a fellow honeybee after all this time, it is as sweet as nectar. That honeybee being you only makes it sweeter." Ian ended his statement with a little bow, but it was spoiled a bit when he dropped the piece of wood. "Ahem. Oops."

  Beatrice was glad that holding back laughter wasn't really a thing for bees, but she was laughing on the inside. She pretended not to notice Ian's blunder and refocused on her reward options. The rank C skill selection was an obvious choice, and she decided to go with the rank E growth type equipment over the mutation points. There would be more opportunities for mutation points, but how many chances would Beatrice get to grab some equipment?

  You have chosen 1 grade C skill selection and 1 growth type grade E piece of equipment as your rewards.

  Please select a C grade skill from the list of compatible skills.

  A list of skills immediately appeared in Beatrice's mind. She didn't pay too much attention earlier with everything else happening, but it was disturbing to have anything in her mind other than her own thoughts. Putting that aside, Beatrice figured out how to make the list scroll through the options and started looking through them.

  'Advanced wax construction, advanced swarm tactics, honey alchemy, suicidal impact, aura of command, expert pollination, expedition coordination... Is it just me, or are most of these skills very bee-oriented?'

  She continued looking through the list while taking note of any interesting or useful skills, but something was horribly wrong with the skill options available. Every attack skill had words like "sacrificial" or "suicidal" tagged on the front of it, and one noteworthy skill was simply called "self-destruct". Beatrice wasn't sure how a bee would self-destruct, but she didn't want to find out the hard way. She kept reading each skill choice meticulously, not wanting to miss anything good.

  'Seductive honeybee interpretive dance, master annoying buzzing, flower farming expert, advanced hive defense, honey manipulation, advanced grub-nursing, advanced queen pampering... Some of these options are a bit much. I'd prefer to go the rest of my bee life without seducing anyone... There's a skill for queen pampering?'

  Unfortunately Beatrice wasn't seeing any skills for worker pampering, and for a moment regretted not being born a queen bee. But enough of that, she was looking for a skill that would let her fight without sacrificing her life. Then she found her attention drifting back to the honey manipulation skill, the simple name catching her interest.

  'Honey manipulation. If the skill were a basic honey handling skill then I would've expected to see an "advanced" or "expert" in the name. Is this a more advanced kind of skill?'

  Beatrice had a mental image of a bee controlling honey while doing martial arts forms. Sort of like waterbending, but with honey. A honeybender? But just because she liked the skill didn't mean she'd choose it without looking through all the options. Beatrice spent what felt like hours looking through every option, but the options just got more niche as she reached the end of the list. Not a chance she'd choose the "master chitin polishing", or "wax fashionista" skills. After she finished, she was staring at the honey manipulation skill again. She tried pulling up a skill description, but no descriptions of any skills were presented.

  With some frustration, Beatrice tried to pull up her status page to look at her skills and was shocked when nothing happened. Was she stuck in the skill selection until a skill was actually chosen? Couldn't this "system" be more user-friendly? She tried to huff with indignation, but her bee lungs weren't really cooperating. So she stomped a little to try and release her anger. She stopped when she noticed Ian had stopped carving his statuette and was looking at her. Embarrassed, she turned away slightly and focused on the skill selection. She considered her options for a bit longer before choosing honey manipulation.

  Congratulations! You have been granted the skill Honey Manipulation (C) by the system.

  'It would've been funny to pick the seductive dancing skill. Imagine a worker going around seducing all the drones! Bet I'd get a funny title from that.' Beatrice was imagining the funny scene when another system message appeared in her mind.

  Congratulations! Due to your knowledge and experience in seducing the opposite sex, you have acquired the skill Novice Seduction (E).

  'What?'

  She would've rubbed her eyes, but the system's words were in her mind. Also she didn't have eyelids to protect them. She couldn't even facepalm correctly, but she mimed the motion of smacking her forehead anyway.

  'Uuuugh. I don't want this skill. I wouldn't have minded getting such a skill back when I was a dude, but I have no intention of seducing bees, men, or bee men. Nope. Just going to pretend this skill doesn't exist.'

  Beatrice had about two more seconds before the next notification broke through her thoughts.

  Generating compatible growth type equipment. Equipment generated.

  Congratulations! You have been granted Cape of Authority (E)

  With that notification, a velvety lilac-purple cape appeared directly in front of Beatrice. Ian stopped his carving again and examined the small pile of cloth on the floor. Beatrice examined the cape as well, and noticed little honeycomb patterns and bees embroidered around the edges of the cape.

  "Is that your new equipment? It looks splendid! I dare say I haven't seen a more beautiful piece of equipment in all my days! It looks so, comfortable?" Ian was trying to act excited, but he was clearly a bit confused about the whole idea of equipment.

  Beatrice leaned onto her back four legs and used the front two to lift up the cape and get a better look at it. She didn't see it before, but on the center of the cape was a beehive. The beehive was in a classic somewhat idealized style and was formed out of two shades of a light yellow cloth. The stitching on the cloth was so fine that Beatrice almost thought the yellow cloth was part of the purple cloth, until she noticed that the spot was a bit thicker than the rest of the cape.

  Despite how fine the cape looked, Beatrice was disappointed. She didn't think a cape of authority would help against fire-breathing bears. But she knew better than to complain about free stuff. So she reached up to put on the cape... Or tried to. Her legs didn't want to bend the way human limbs did, and putting on a cape was far from instinctual movement for a bee. This resulted in a lot of fluttering cloth, an internally cursing Beatrice, and a confused Ian.

  After way more time and effort than Beatrice would've liked, the cape lay from her head to her abdomen. She didn't even try to attach the neck of the cape with her little bee claws, but to her amazement the cape strings tied themselves into a neat little bow. Then the cape settled around her and she had the impression of a connection forming between herself and the cape. Not a physical or mental connection, but something else.

  Beatrice and Ian stood there waiting for something to happen.

  "Let me check my status." Said Beatrice, metaphorically breaking the silence with her dance-speak.

  Name: Beatrice

  Race: Silverwood Honeybee Worker Level 1 Tier 1

  Strength:9

  Agility:20

  Endurance:11

  Vitality:9

  Intelligence:13

  Wisdom:10

  Charisma:38

  Skills: Honey Manipulation (C), Novice Seduction (E), Aura of Authority (E), Honeybee Interpretive Dance (E), Sacrificial Strike (E), Swarm (F)

  Mutations: Suicidal Stinger (F), Venom Gland (F), Maneuverable wings (F)

  Equipment: Cape of Authority (E)

  Titles: Reincarnator (A), Survivor (D)