The Bee Dungeon

The next day, Belissar made his way over to shortcut Orchard, carrying a peculiar beehouse he made after observing the carpenter bees for a bit. He set it down by the monster carpenter bee spawner, right amidst the apple trees. Rather than a box filled with trays, this one was just a solid block of wood with legs. Belissar had drilled a bunch of holes into the block, most about the size of the carpenter bees but he made some larger by varying degrees in case the carpenter bees grew. Since he saw the carpenter bees branching their tunnels with his Tower sight, he made sure to leave enough space between the holes for side tunnels.

Curious carpenter bees hovered around him as he placed the block down. He motioned them to the box.

“What do you think?”

One of the carpenter bees flew over to the block and stuck her head into one of the holes. She pulled it out, spun around, and then backed into the tunnel, her head barely poking out. Belissar smiled as other carpenter bees began to check out the house and still others just zipped around him in rapid circles.

“Glad you like it, but it’s not done yet.”

Belissar didn’t recall ever hearing of carpenter bees making honey so he tried to turn the carpenter home into a bee nest rather than a beehouse feature.

Compatible feature detected. Upgrade Bee Nest to Belissar’s Nest Block? Cost: 5 DP

Belissar smiled and saw no reason to refuse. The carpenter bee home glowed slightly as mana settled into its walls.

Belissar’s Nest Block

- Mana Upkeep: 2 per nest (1 due to Blessing of Bees)

- Description: A beehouse for bee types that prefer small burrows and tunnels. Boosts the growth and happiness of any bees living inside of it. Eusocial bees and bees that make communal nests gain an additional boost to coordination.

Belissar nodded in satisfaction as more and more of the carpenter bees landed on the Nest Block, exploring the different tunnels. He even saw some of them start to gather up around one of the larger holes. It seemed his experimental carpenter bee home was a resounding success.

The carpenter bees weren’t the only ones getting a new structure today, however. Belissar led Muuraqi and a team of karnuq and soldier bees to the Apiary. From there, Muuraqi took over and guided the team in assembling the stone, while burning worker bees from the Lava Field hives provided wax and propolis as necessary. Once the small structure was assembled, the karnuq brought in clay jars and set them down around the room.

Now that the Lava Field hives were established enough to produce excess burning honey, Belissar was taking a crack at making mead for the God of Fire. He quickly ran into the same problem that had plagued his bees, however. Gathering any quantity of the burning honey together began to dramatically increase the surrounding temperatures, a dangerous proposition given that the Apiary farmhouse was made of wood, filled with flammable mana honey, and surrounded by vegetation. So, Belissar had asked the karnuq for help setting up a fireproof storage room where he could safely keep burning honey and any mead he might manage to make from it.

Once they were done, he handed them trays of mana honey, then got to work filling some of the jars with water and burning honey.

He then hopped over to the Apiary farmhouse to check on the rest of the mead. The bees kept giving him honey on a daily basis, so he had started pouring the excess stockpiles into mead making. He nearly had ten jars of the mana honey mead ready to send to the God of Bees at this point and had also started to branch out. He had a jar with mana honey and a few of the cloudberries mixed in for taste. Additionally, he had one jar of medicinal honey…and one jar of maddening honey. At first, he was loathe to use up any medicinal honey in case of mass injuries, but with the continued growth of the Second of the Sixth’s hive and his own ability to make medicinal spell-bees, he finally convinced himself it was ok to use some of the ever-growing stack of medicinal honey trays that were starting to pile up.

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As for the maddening honey, well, Belissar didn’t truly know what he was doing there. However, he had confirmed that maddening honey was not permanently harmful to ingest in small quantities. He still wasn’t sure drinking mead made from it would be a good idea, but figured turning it into an alcoholic beverage might improve its intoxicating effects. He might end up with a stronger poison rather than a drink, but it wouldn’t be a loss either way. Besides, what else was he going to do with all the excess maddening honey?

He then paused and tilted his head.

“Huh, I wonder what kind of mead the God of Flowers likes?”

He had a quest to send mead to his other two patrons, so he couldn’t help but think of his third.

The God of Flowers wishes to offer you a quest. Accept?

Apparently, she appreciated the consideration. Belissar nodded to accept.

New mission received: Make and offer meads made of honey sourced from five different flower types.

Belissar smiled and nodded. Well, that answered that.

“Got it. Well, that’s four, so we’ll need at least one more, huh. Ah, how about the digging hives honey?”

He hummed to himself as he set about prepping another jar of mead with the dense and earthy honey from the Ground mana flowers.

Meanwhile, the Firstborn was currently zipping between trees. She wanted to buzz her wings and surge ahead, but she forced herself to hold her pace to that of the colorful worker ahead of her.

She reminded herself once again that the bee army had not failed this time. Thanks to Beero and the bumblebees, they had managed to bring down the latest invader, though at a heavier cost than she had wanted. There was no shame in the hive of hives’ latest victory. And though the King had gone and ended an invader by his own magic yesterday, she knew that this was not indicative of his trust in them. The Conduit had made sure she understood the King’s intentions, that he was simply working to grow his magic and testing what it could do.

She knew that in her head, but her heart could not help but buzz at the thought that the King might one day enter the battle. But she tried to set her sight forward. Instead of despairing over potential failures, she resolved to build up the army as much as she could.

The King, in his wisdom and grace, had granted the opportunity to do just that. He had rearranged the realm and placed a brand-new room in the defensive zone, a room where the bee army could do battle. He stated this new Fairy Grove was to provide cover for the bee army, so that they could approach a shade like the previous one without taking spines. The Firstborn’s heart had soared at this, for it was proof that the King still considered them as his first line of defense. That he was continuing to make ways for them to defeat his enemies. So, the battle meadow queens had immediately begun training in the room, intending to adapt their tactics to the new environment.

It had gone utterly horribly. The room seemed to encourage mistakes. Soldier squads got mixed up and turned around. They ended up flying in directions they didn’t intend, scattering when they meant to gather, or piling up when they meant to disperse. Soldiers collided when their dives rounded a tree and ended up putting them in each others’ way. The queens and communers had tried to resolve the situation…only for their minds to suffer the same fate. Each soldier seemed to be seeing a slightly different view even while looking at the same places, which meant the queens and communers’ minds were filled with hundreds of conflicting images that made it impossible to determine what was actually happening. The soldier bee army’s organized formations had collapsed into a chaotic swarm going ever which way.

So, they had brought in the experts. The children of the Fourth of the Seventh and the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter who had moved to the other Fairy Grove lent their workers and taught the queens what they had learned of their home. They taught them how to ignore their sight and other senses and instead follow the flows of mana. Their workers led soldier squads through the room, their bright colors standing out and allowing the soldiers to easily keep track of them. The Firstborn and her fellow queens had joined the training as well so that they, too, would come to understand this room.

Little by little, they grew more accustomed to the room. The soldier bee squads grew more sure of themselves as the Fairy Grove workers directed their dives and dodges. The Firstborn and her fellow queens began to cut through their own confusion, a picture of the room as view through mana taking shape in their mind. Beero took to this with ease and did her best to pass on her mana senses as well.

Once again, the hive of hives proved capable where an individual hive could not. The Firstborn no longer had any doubt that when an intruder came to this room, the bee army would be ready to face them.

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