Chapter 42: Experiment
On the west side of the Maestrin Manor stood a small building. Originally used for storing sundries and miscellaneous items, it had, after a night of thorough cleaning, been emptied of all contents—even the basement was cleared out. Once tidied, it became Charles’s private laboratory the next day, guarded by four of the strongest retainers, with access strictly forbidden to even members of the family.
At noon, two hunters were brought into the building by the guards, waiting nervously for their audience. Ever since two hunters had met trouble following Charles last time, the others had grown fearful of this idle young master. Yet the lure of a generous reward proved irresistible; some still ventured forth to earn a living.
“Did you bring the goods?” Charles hurried up from the basement, eyes immediately fixed on the jar in one man’s hands.
The two men quickly shuffled forward, smiling obsequiously. “Young master, these are the most dangerous bees we could find. Without proper precautions, even a grizzly bear could fall to them!”
“Oh? Open it up,” Charles instructed, his interest piqued.
As the baron’s favored son, his first order after gaining his father’s support was to seek out the deadliest swarming insects—ants, bees, and the like. The promise of dozens or even hundreds of gold coins as reward stirred every hunter in Goldflash Town into action, many braving the depths of the forest.
The hunter opened a jar the size of a washbasin, revealing a massive honeycomb, teeming with yellow bees.
“Young master, we used smoke to stun them. They won’t wake for a while yet.”
Charles casually plucked one out, listening as the man explained, “These bees fly fast and can shoot their venomous stingers from their abdomens. If you get hit, it festers into boils—if untreated, it spreads fast!”
Charles glanced at him, noting the swollen hand—a clear sign he’d been stung.
The bees were each about the size of a pinky finger, similar to common bees but with only four legs instead of six. Their bodies were divided into three segments, all legs clustered on their round bellies. Most peculiarly, they bore three venomous stingers—two near the forelimbs, and the thickest protruding from the tail.
“We call them Giant Needle Bees. The two front stingers can shoot, and the rear one’s even more toxic. In serious cases, it can kill,” the man recalled with a shudder.
Buzz!
Suddenly, the bee in Charles’s hand awoke, its two pairs of wings fluttering as it struggled to escape, but his fingers held it fast.
Seeing no way out, the creature arched its body, thrusting its gleaming white tail stinger viciously at the back of his hand!
“Careful!” The hunters and guards exclaimed in alarm, unprepared for such danger. This was the future lord of the territory—any harm to him could provoke the baron’s wrath, and execution would not be an uncommon fate. In this land, the lord was a petty emperor, able to kill at will with any charge—that was the power of the nobility.
But to their amazement, the deadly stinger seemed to strike an invisible barrier, unable to pierce Charles’s skin no matter how hard it tried.
“Excellent. Is there a queen bee inside?” Charles asked calmly, flicking the bee unconscious and tossing it back into the jar.
The hunter recovered, nodding hastily. “Yes, yes. We brought the whole hive—only a few escaped!”
Still bewildered, they stared at him, unable to fathom why the stinger couldn’t penetrate his skin.
“Very good. Collect your reward,” Charles said.
Relieved, the three bent ninety degrees in a deep bow before taking their leave, faces beaming with joy.
“Would you like us to carry it in for you, young master?” one guard offered deferentially, but Charles waved him away. No one could witness his next experiments.
His enhanced physique allowed him to effortlessly lift the heavy jar with one hand and carry it into the basement. The entrance was protected by a luminous barrier—ordinary folk could neither find nor enter it.
This was merely a temporary lab, relocated from his riverside facility. Once his research was complete, he would destroy all evidence, leaving nothing behind.
On the spacious workbench, Charles cast a spell of confusion, trapping the mentally weak bees as if within transparent glass. They flew about inside, none escaping.
He took out the Rainbow Pine Sphere, inhaled deeply, and channeled the energy stored in several source crystals to power his experiment.
Hum!
A cascade of rainbow light washed over the bees, and one by one, they fell motionless onto the table.
The source energy he controlled was rapidly consumed—within a blink, an entire crystal’s energy was depleted, and the rate only accelerated.
Pop!
The rainbow brilliance faded, but the Giant Needle Bees remained unchanged—
Failure!
“Ah, as expected, it was too simplistic,” Charles mused, unfazed. He immediately launched his second plan, extracting a bee and applying a deciphering rune.
Brilliant inheritance factors emerged, which he quickly sketched onto parchment.
He repeated the process, drawing and discarding bee after bee, continuing for three hours until no new inheritance factors could be discerned.
Rubbing his aching temples, Charles felt his mind reel from the intense drain of spiritual power. He had a theory: the evolution points of the modulator and the half-totem transformation of the Rainbow Pine Sphere drew from his own knowledge base, manifesting the inheritance forms he understood and allowing them to develop.
Otherwise, that jungle lizard would not have evolved to resemble the Komodo dragons of his previous world; this experiment further validated his hypothesis.
Having mapped out the inheritance factors of the Giant Needle Bee colony, Charles now held its future evolutionary pathways in his grasp.
Next, he dissected several bees, using a microscope to study their internal structures in detail.
Knowledge was power; now it was time to test if his theory held true.
Charles picked up the queen bee—three times the size of a normal Giant Needle Bee—consumed five source crystals, and the radiant rainbow glow flared anew...