The Bee Dungeon

Juosiutik yawned and she stepped out of her house and then stretched her arms out, rolling her shoulders. And then, for the first time in a while, she didn’t immediately zip to her pot, but instead looked up at the sun. She took in a deep breath and smiled.

“Welcome back.”

She whipped around and found Chief Rohsuak smiling at her. She flushed.

“Oh, um, sorry. Um, how long has it…”

Chief Rohsuak just chuckled and Juosiutik’s flush grew deeper. She…may have gotten a bit focused exploring her new abilities. She…wasn’t actually sure for how long she had been working, as she hadn’t paid attention to anything else, including the passing of time. Or even…

She jumped a bit and her eyes widened.

“Wait…the Sacred Den Master! He, um, hasn’t been waiting on this time, has he?”

Chief Rohsuak chuckled again and shook her head.

“He has had projects of his own. Speaking of which, you may wish to explore the settlement a bit.”

“Wait, since when did we start building things out of stone?”

Chief Rohsuak smiled.

“Much has happened. You should speak to Muuraqi before you begin any new experiments. You might benefit from a fireproof structure.”

Juosiutik hung her head.

“I’m sorry. I just got so excited…”

But Chief Rohsuak cut her off by patting her shoulder, making a smirk.

“Everyone’s that way with their first blessing, it’s fine. I would have interrupted if we truly needed you. Just tell me this…was your time productive?”

Juosiutik made a small, sheepish smile.

“Well…yes. Very.”

Her eyes gained a bit of light.

“I’ve been testing all the different recipes with magic honey and it works with all of them! Not only that but it makes all of them better, and I can even substitute it for a few ingredients we don’t have anymore. Plus, they taste much better, so maybe the hunters can finally stop complaining.”

Chief Rohsuak chuckled.

“Good, glad to hear you’ve made some progress. Now, may I assume you’ve made usable amounts of everything you’ve worked on?”

Juosiutik nodded and Chief Rohsuak patted her shoulder once again.

“Good. Now that you’re ready, we’ll have need of you. Let’s discuss supplies with Metsaitti later, shall we? And maybe you can show the Sacred Den Master what you can do as well.”

Chief Rohsuak chuckled to herself as Juosiutik hung her head. In truth, this was only the beginning of the rampages she expected from Juosiutik. And if she got this way just using her blessing on old recipes…how would she be when she saw the other materials the Sacred Den Master had available? Chief Rohsuak wasn’t entirely sure about the details of the cross-pollination the Sacred Den Master had mentioned during her meetings with him and the bee queens…but if she had to guess, she’d say Juosiutik’s world would soon expand dramatically.

She…should probably have Muuraqi prioritize a stone house for Juosiutik…

Belissar double checked his mana again.

Currently Available Mana: 10(19)/770

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He let out a light sigh. It took a few minutes, but the mana went back up, so it seemed launching the mini-volcano attack had not been a permanent expenditure. It was also quite good to know he could trigger it manually if he needed to.

He paused, and then checked one of the Sticky Honey Traps.

Activate Sticky Honey Trap for a one-time cost of one mana?

It seemed it would work for those as well, though they only aimed in one direction so he couldn’t adjust the aim. He wasn’t sure why he’d want to, though. Still, it was good to know for future traps.

He then had a thought and tried focusing on the Slime Flower…but no messages appeared. Maybe it didn’t work on spawners? He tried focusing on one of the monster bee queen spawners with the thought of activating it.

Max spawns active.

Well, it turned out he couldn’t activate the spawners past their limit…and all his current spawners had hit their limit a while ago. But a message had at least appeared, so maybe it would work with new spawners?

That also confirmed that it specifically didn’t work with the Slime Flower. Maybe it was because he got it for free and didn’t spend any mana on it to begin with? Well, if he ever made a Slime Flower through the Tower’s abilities, he’d check that. If he remembered.

He decided to stop being distracted and get on with his day. He and the Third of the Sixth left the core room and moved back to her hive. The Third of the Sixth then evacuated most of her workers and brood, just leaving one worker and one egg back inside, as Belissar wanted to test what would happen to them if he moved the feature with the bees inside of it. He didn’t expect an issue since he had upgraded beehives into other features with them inside without any problem, but he wasn’t going to chance a whole hive on it without confirmation.

He moved the hive around to the other side of its hole. The hive glowed, vanished, and reappeared where he indicated. The worker then flew out and confirmed that she was alright, and the egg as well.

Satisfied, Belissar had the Third of the Sixth move her hive back inside, and then moved the whole hive to the alcove in the Lava Field. He then moved the flame radish and fire mana flower nodes there as well.

Currently Available Mana: 33(39)/770

He nodded. As expected, the Lava Field was a far more suitable environment for those flowers. They were not only no longer costing him extra mana but had an additional discount due to the suitable environment.

Available Resource Plants for Lava Field:

- Flame Radish (Mana Upkeep: 10 per node, 5 due to suitable environment)

- Mana Flower (Mana Upkeep: 5 per node)

-Fire Mana Flower (10 per node, 5 due to suitable environment)

-Ground Mana Flower (10 per node)

He double checked the resource plant menu for the Lava Fields but didn’t find anything new. Maybe because he already had flame radishes? Besides, he couldn’t imagine any of his other flowers growing here, so that made sense. The only surprise was that Ground mana flowers were available here too…and didn’t even cost any extra, though didn’t get the suitability bonus from the Dirt Tunnels. He wondered why…maybe all of the rocks? Didn’t Chief Rohsuak say something about lava being liquid rock?

Belissar shrugged and then made his way through the Tower, passing through the new staircase between the Orchard and the Flower Meadow. Since the Tower just sort of skipped stairs, it was more like just a small room than a staircase, but it still added a small amount of distance between the Orchard and the Tower exit…which would only grow if he added more rooms for defense later. He wondered if there’d be a good way to let the Orchard bees exit the Tower quickly, since they were the ones scouting outside.

In any case, he continued on his way and soon stood outside of the door to the Lava Field. He was vaguely aware that the Tower would keep him safe from his own features…he could walk over Pit Traps without issue, after all, but he still needed a moment before stepping into the new room. Every other room up to this point had been fairly normal, and nothing he hadn’t encountered in his life beforehand. This one was not.

So, he paced a bit, took one final deep breath, and then stepped inside. He was immediately hit by a blast of hot air as the temperature rose dramatically. His ears were assaulted by crackling, hissing, and roaring noises, something he hadn’t noticed from the core’s quiet view of the room. His nose was likewise assaulted by noxious fumes that smelled like rotten eggs. He immediately covered his nose…but the moment he thought that the smell faded. He could still detect it, but it didn’t completely overwhelm his nose like before. The heat faded as well, to the point he could tell it wasn’t comfortable but that wasn’t causing him active discomfort.

He once again thanked Tower magic and the gods as he climbed through the lava fields. The rocky floor was not a smooth surface but covered in small ripples and curves and sometimes jagged edges. He had to be careful not to lose his balance, particularly when he jumped over the lava rivers. While he trusted the Tower not to kill him, he did not particularly want to touch the hissing, crackling, and glowing red rivers.

Eventually, though, he made his way to the left edge of the room and climbed down the ridge he had set up. He made his way to the alcove, where he found the Third of the Sixth’s hive buzzing and swarming over their new surroundings. The red burning bees were flying over the surface of the lava river, apparently not at all bothered by the heat that made the air shimmer. They were also swarming over the fire mana flowers, which were glowing brighter than Belissar had ever seen them. The Third of the Sixth rushed out and began zipping around him once more.

Apparently, he didn’t even need to ask. He chuckled instead.

“Guess you like it?”

A swarm of burning bees dancing “King best king!” at maximum speed was his answer.

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