The Bee Dungeon

Belissar decided to first check out the cross-perks before making the final decision. He grinned as he opened the reward.

Select a cross-perk (Bee/Flower):

- Bee-caller Pheromones

- Symbiotic Foraging

- Empowering Pollination

Belissar nearly giggled from how giddy he felt. Even from just the names alone, he had a good feeling about these.

Bee-caller Pheromones

- When damaged, flowers and Flower-type features and monsters release pheromones. Pheromones may stick to the damaging entity.

- Affected bees and Bee-type features and monsters are drawn to the damaged flower and targets marked by the pheromone.

Belissar rubbed his chin as he considered this one. So, his bees would grow stronger if a shade or invader damaged a flower? If that applied to regular flowers too, then this perk would automatically trigger the moment anything stepped into the Flower Meadow, so it would be a constant boost to the strength and speed of the bee army.

However, Belissar hesitated due to that last part. The bees acting more aggressively might be a downside rather than a benefit. He thought of the moment he and the bees realized the Tower Lord’s son had found them. Belissar had found the bee army swarming as Niobee danced angrily. In that moment, the precise and trained formations of the bee army had broken down and they reverted to their base instincts…the exact kind of instincts which led the first hives to disaster. Is that what would happen to his bees when they smelled these aggression-boosting pheromones. If so, then these pheromones might lead to more bee casualties rather than less, depending on if the boost in strength and speed could make up for the bee army abandoning its carefully honed methods.

Additionally, there was a question of how exactly the perk worked. Would Belissar have any say in when the flowers released the pheromones, or would it be any time a flower was damaged? Would the pheromones affect him or the karnuq? What about a visiting sigmaka? Would they be attacked if they stepped on a flower, making the Flower Meadows completely off-limits to everyone? Would Juosiutik be attacked if she picked a flower for her potions?

The perk just felt like a risky one to Belissar, so he moved on to the next.

Symbiotic Foraging

- When a bee forages from a flower, they exchange mana with each other.

- Bees and flowers affected may gain temporary boosts or traits from each other, if applicable.

- Bees and flowers may adapt to one another if repeatedly foraged. If Cross-Pollination is available, boosts the rate of cross-pollination and new seeds may receive traits from the pollinating bee. If Bee Hybridizing is available, boost the rate of pollen and nectar based evolutions.

Well, that was certainly a curious perk. Belissar wasn’t too sure what the first two parts would do, but the last one made things a bit clearer. So, this perk would assist with Cross-Pollination and raising new bees both? That alone made it a tempting choice indeed. And then there was the part about adapting to one another. He knew the bees had a hard time gathering from the flame radish and fire mana flowers until they evolved burning workers, maybe this perk would have let normal workers adapt earlier? There was also that part about new seeds receiving traits from the bees…could the shocking queen make some sort of lightning mana flower? If this perk did everything he thought it might, the possibilities could be staggering.

If that was the case, was the second part about temporary boosts or traits something like a temporary evolution? Could regular bees temporarily become maddening or medicinal bees by foraging from those flowers? Or was that too great of a change?

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Whatever the case, this perk definitely had his attention…and that of his bees as well, if the way they were hovering closer was any indication. The next option certainly had steep competition.

Empowering Pollination

- Bees and Bee-type monsters and features imbue flowers with mana while foraging

- Affected flowers and Flower-type monsters and features receive a boost to stats and capabilities, depending on the flower and bee types in question and the amount of mana imbued.

- Affected flowers and Flower-type monsters and features receive a boost to their growth

- Boosts the rate of pollination and seed formation. If Cross-Pollination is available, boosts the rate of Cross-Pollination.

Belissar tilted his head. At first glance, this one seemed similar to the last one. On closer inspection, he noted that this one was more focused on the flowers themselves. It didn’t affect the bees, but it would also help the flowers grow more quickly, both by growing the existing flower and by spreading more seeds.

On the one hand, he’d prefer something that affected his bees a bit more directly…but flowers did. More flowers growing more quickly meant more honey and pollen to raise more bees. Faster Cross-Pollination gave him some of the effects of the previous perk, as new flowers also meant new bees.

And as far as boosting flowers went, his bees had just raised a new flower monster, so who knew what its capabilities might be if they spread and strengthened it? He also had the thorny roses and the gravilion flower which could also benefit from a boost. He wasn’t entirely sure since they hadn’t actually come into contact with a shade yet, but more options were always helpful. Additionally, there was that option for the bursting death camus, a flower-based trap that seemed easier to utilize than the roses or the still mysterious gravilion. If the bees could forage from it, that was. In fact, in that case, the second option might be better since it might let the bees adapt to the poison.

Belissar took the opinions of the bees, this time asking each queen one by one for her opinion. The battle meadow queens were split between Bee-caller Pheromones and Symbiotic Foraging, mainly depending on if they were excited for the strength and speed boost or if they shared his reservations about the increased aggression. The Third of the Sixth and the other Lava Field queen seemed not to have such reservations and so preferred the first. Beero was mainly curious about Symbiotic Foraging and how it might impact a bee’s mana.

The Fourth of the Seventh liked all of them. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter and the other Orchard and Fairy Grove queens preferred Symbiotic Foraging. The Apiary queens were somewhat split between the latter two, debating amongst each other if it was better to grow more flowers or to change the bees themselves. The bumblebees and the carpenter bees just zipped around in circles, but zipped a bit faster for the latter two.

He checked with the karnuq. Chief Rohsuak shook her head and chuckled.

“Well, as usual, you are more informed for these decisions than we are, Tower Keeper Belissar, but I will say this. Any improvement in the amount or types of plants available will benefit our people as well, and Juosiutik would be well pleased.”

Belissar nodded and made his first choice.

Symbiotic Foraging selected.

In the end, more bees preferred this choice than either of the others and Belissar himself agreed. The benefits it offered both his bees and the flowers were too good to pass up, especially in light of the earlier choices of honeypots and Bee Hybridization. Symbiotic Foraging made both of them better, made his whole Tower better.

He then crossed his arms and began to hum. The next choice was not as simple, as there was ample case for either of the three. Bee Balm offered more nectar for more honey, further boosting the benefit of honeypots, but didn’t offer much new in and of itself. Still, it had the word bee in the name, so it couldn’t be a loss. Bursting Death Camus would strengthen their defenses on its own and offered more potent toxins. It was a choice that could open up new options for bee evolutions and Cross-Pollination…if the bees could forage from it. Symbiotic Foraging might help with that but what if the poison was so deadly no bee could survive long enough to adapt? And then there was the humble clover, which did little by itself or for the bees, but that would improve every other flower in the Tower. More flowers of every type meant more bees, and it meant faster growth for new flower types should they arise. Speaking of which, maybe it could help the newly sprouted flower monster as well?

Belissar grunted and furrowed his brow, pacing a bit. He thought about his bees and what they desired. He thought about the Tower and all the rooms it had. He thought about the different flowers they had available. He thought about the karnuq and what they could do. He thought about the battles they had fought, and were soon to fight. He considered the God of Flowers and the God of Bees. Finally, he made his decision.

Bee Balm selected. Bee Balm is now available!

Symbiotic Foraging would see his bees and his flowers working together to become stronger together. He decided, then, that a flower made for bees would be the best choice. Bursting Death Camus was tempting, but it was a flower that might poison the bees. It was a flower that would operate on its own. If he just wanted stronger poisons, then perhaps either the bees or Juosiutik could do something with the death caps, or maybe the Enhanced Toxins perk might show up again. If he wanted a flower that could attack, well, his bees had already raised a monster flower on their own. As for clovers, he could always buy more flower nodes if the flowers weren’t growing fast enough.

Bee Balm, on the other hand, was a flower that would make his bees happy, and ensure they had the honey needed to grow as they wished, especially if it could be cross-pollinated. It worked with everything he had chosen recently and worked towards the future he ultimately desired.

And, most of all, it helped the bees grow faster…which is ultimately what they needed most. He didn’t think one uncommon poisonous flower would be enough to stop a ten-thousand stronger Tower Guard army, and didn’t know if it would stop even a single powerful shade. At the end of the day, it would probably be up to his bees to do that.

The least he could do was ensure they were happy and well-fed.

The bees burst into their usual happy dances as Belissar announced the new choices. He could only hope he had chosen as wisely as they believed.

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