The Bee Dungeon

The First of the Fifth hovered before the Apiary’s Shrine of Bees with all the other queens hovering before her. They were, of course, not all too excited to be summoned from their hives…but their wings were not buzzing and their stingers were not subconsciously extending like they did in previous group meetings. It seemed they were growing more curious than suspicious at each and every meeting. The First of the Fifth didn’t blame them, for she had done everything in her power to suppress her rivals previously. Still, they needed to work together for the sake of the King and the hive of hives, so she was pleased that they were starting to lower their guard. Especially since today, she would be requesting their help.

“Want to raise new queens. Any queens ready to raise too? Can exchange drones this time. If need more honey, can give.”

The First of the Fifth had countless tasks at this point. She needed to test and cross-pollinate new flowers. She needed to look into the dangerous karnuq’s manipulation of fully-processed honey. She needed to ensure the new, slower queens continued growing at an acceptable pace. She needed to arrange the delivery of honey from the Apiary to the Flower Meadow, more so now that there was a new, significantly larger soldier type to raise. She had to continue supplying honey to the King’s honey traps. And, of course, to do all of this she needed to not only maintain but expand her honey production, all without sacrificing the quality that the King deserved.

So, she decided the first task to address would be her latest plan to raise new queens, not to send out and claim new territory but to reinforce her own hive as her daughter, the Fourth of the Seventh, and the Flower Meadow queens had all done. Scaling up her operations would allow her to then tackle each of her tasks with more resources and attention than she could if she attempted to do so now.

At the same time, though, she was not going to demand that the Apiary queens provide her with drones like she did before. All of them were donating honey to the Flower Meadow, so all of them could benefit from scaling up their operations. It would therefore benefit the entire hive of hives if all the Apiary queens raised new daughters. And if the First of the Fifth had to give up some of her own honey to get them all ready, then she would.

The other queens watched her for a moment before the Second of the Sixth slowly began to dance.

“…can. Can’t expand deliveries to Flower Meadow at same time, though.”

The other queens looked at the Second of the Sixth for a moment, and then slowly began to report their hives’ statuses as well. The queens that were still baseline monster bees generally had enough. The queens that had evolved into more specialized types were a bit short of reserves due to the honey spent evolving all of their workers and, in the case of the digging and burning queen, moving their hives into new beehouses. Still, the situation was such that the First of the Fifth should be able to cover them…though, as the Second of the Sixth stated, they wouldn’t be able to expand their deliveries to the Flower Meadow at the same time. She’d have to ask the Conduit about that, then, as doing so could delay them from raising lancers. For perhaps the first time, the First of the Fifth found herself short of honey, compounding the need to scale up their operations.

Coincidentally, the Conduit arrived just then. The First of the Fifth happily saluted to her. At least they’d be able to ask her right away, while they were all still gathered.

The First of the Fifth froze at the Conduit’s words and began to tremble.

“The King…wants us to expand?”

“Yes!”

The First of the Fifth’s mind went blank. She had had the same idea as the King? The King was now going to build them new palaces for exactly the purpose she had gathered the queens? The King was…asking them about it, indicating he planned to collaborate with them on the new palaces as he had for the Flower Meadow queens?

The good fortune…was just too much.

Belissar stayed a bit to help the soldier bees and karnuq work together. It didn’t take long before the bees were helping the karnuq build a house’s roof. Belissar nodded and then took his leave. The Flower Meadow queens were, after all, not the only bees he planned to speak with today.

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He stopped by to check in on the bumblebees, who were doing great. Bumblebee workers now filled the field and gathered from the flowers, each happily spinning around him when he approached. The queens themselves were growing rapidly, each was now the size of a monster bee soldier already.

That caused Belissar to rub his chin. He wondered if the bumblebee queens would be able to raise soldiers? Or any of the other special bee types the monster bee queens could? How about sprayers, communers, lancers, or gardeners? He supposed he would find out soon, as the bumblebee queens were nearing the size the monster bee queens hit before they started raising soldiers.

After that, he made his way to the Apiary, where Niobee had just finished speaking with the queens there. The First of the Fifth was laying flat on the ground with her legs splayed out, so Niobee flew up to him instead.

“King! Apiary bees wanted to expand, want new queens to live with them! So, can make hives bigger?”

Belissar smiled and nodded.

“Of course, sounds perfect. We’ll start upgrading them into Bee Apartments, then.”

Niobee then slowed down a bit.

“Though…they said can’t give more honey to Flower Meadow than doing now. Won’t be able to help raise lancers.”

“Ah…”

Belissar paused and rubbed his chin for a moment. That was something to consider, then. But he had to make his choice quickly as he saw the Apiary queens begin to stir, since he knew they’d prioritize his plans over their own.

“Um, they’d also need to evolve gardeners for themselves, too, right? I think we should expand first, focus on getting their hives going.”

“Ok!”

Well, slower lancers meant a slower expansion purification…or less options should another emergency purification come about. But Belissar hoped that Beero’s new lightning attack would cover them for the latter, so he was willing to wait on the former. If the Apiary queens expanded, that would mean more honey for the gardeners and lancers, as well as anything new they got from the next expansion. But well, Belissar thought of all that after making the decision. The truth was he’d rather the bees focus on what they wanted to do than to drop everything for his own plans.

And indeed, the Apiary queens would have plenty of their own work to do in the future. Because Belissar had received a message, and reports from the bees, that there were several new cross-pollinated flowers now.

A new sleepy chamomile flower bloomed that slowly pulsed with a faint glow. A light mist condensed around the latest cloudberry and sweetvetch flowers. But there was one in particular the drew Belissar’s attention. One whose changes were so great that the Tower itself now acknowledged them.

New plant detected. Slime Flower is now available.

A new mana flower had sprouted up among the Gelatinous Heather. Faintly glowing nectar seemed to ooze out of its center, almost a jelly rather than a liquid, and even its stems and leaves appeared moist. Belissar walked over to observe it more closely.

Slime Flower

- Type: Slime, Nature, Trap, Spawner

- Mana Upkeep: 20 per node (40 due to Blessing of Bees), 10 (20 due to Blessing of Bees) to enable in compatible rooms

- Description: A flower that concentrates its mana into thickening its sap, which will spill out and engulf any creature that damages it. This effect extends partially to its nectar as well, which if left to pool in sufficient quantities may eventually condense into a slime core. The slime will then carry the flower’s seeds along with it as it begins to move, spreading the seeds around while also hunting nearby pests, further protecting the flower.

Belissar couldn’t help but stare at the description. A flower…that spawned slimes? In fact…a flower that was itself a monster spawner.

Just…what? How had this happened? How was this possible? Belissar just stared in stunned silence for good minute before shrugging. He was in a Tower of the Gods raising bees that could understand human speech, grow as large as dogs at least, spray venom and use magic. Why exactly wouldn’t a slime-spawning flower be possible? He couldn’t answer that, so he decided not to worry about it.

Besides, said flower was extremely expensive. Apparently, since it counted as a monster spawner and was not bee-related, the Blessing of Bees was working against it. Yet, Belissar checked his mana and it hadn’t changed since yesterday. So, apparently, having bred the flower via cross-pollination didn’t count and so wasn’t costing him. Any additional ones would, however.

He decided he would take it. It was a bit unfortunate that it was in the Apiary instead of the Flower Meadow, though he could move the whole Gelatinous Heather node it grew out of if he wanted to. Likewise, he was slightly concerned about the description. Would the sap, nectar, or slimes try to hurt the bees? The bees wouldn’t try to eat the flower itself so he didn’t think so. And would the slimes listen to him like the bees did? Would they be considered part of the Tower at all, given they were spawning from a flower that he hadn’t specifically spawned? Well, the new queens the spawned queens raised did, so hopefully that would be the case. Belissar would have to keep a close eye on things to make sure, though.

Because as long as the slimes did get along with the rest of the Tower’s residents…then he had just gotten a new monster spawner for free. Cross-Pollination was proving to be a better and better perk with each new flower that grew. If Belissar had needed any convincing that the Apiary queens deserved to expand, then this would have done it.

Not that Belissar would ever need convincing that his bees deserved nice things.

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