The Bee Dungeon

Belissar watched as the denizens of his Tower prepared themselves for another fight. The burning soldiers gathered by the shortcut to the new Lava Field, the soldier bee army assembled in the sky of the battle meadow. Beero and her battlecasters practiced their dances while bumblebees helped the wounded soldiers to their platforms. The Second of the Sixth arrived early this time, leading the first medicinal soldiers Belissar had ever seen. They hung around at the rear of the soldier bee army rather than integrating into it. The karnuq arrived as well, setting their new shields down in a wall of iron before the battle meadow’s entrance.

With everything ready, Belissar triggered the daily purification.

Just a minute or two later, a bird shade tried to hop over a pit, got doused by the Sticky Honey Trap aimed over it, and fell down inside. Belissar shrugged.

“Fell into a pit again, everyone.”

The bees danced among themselves and this time it was the burning soldier squad that flew into the Dirt Tunnels with the digging soldiers leading the way. The burning hives had been growing all the while and raising more and more soldiers, including a sprayer. The sprayer stopped just before the pit and unleashed her Fire mana-imbued toxic spray.

The entire pit burst into flames as the Fire mana toxins contacted the mana rich honey. And just like that, the purification was over.

After the usual celebration, Belissar gathered with the queens and karnuq leaders once again. He had more than enough DP for another shop purchase. Beyond that, however, they had started gathering after every daily purification even when he didn’t have a purchase to make, just so that everyone could touch base and have a chance to speak.

“How’s everyone doing? Anything we should talk about?”

Chief Rohsuak nodded to Belissar’s surprise. Once he finished jumping, he nodded to her.

“Thank you, Tower Keeper. At this point, it seems that your defenses are tight enough that the daily shades are unable to get through. This is a good thing, but it does mean that our hunters have no opportunity to fight against any opponents save the most dangerous.”

Belissar frowned.

“So, should I weaken the traps? That doesn’t seem right.”

Chief Rohsuak shook her head.

“No, as I said it is good that the shades assaulting your Tower cannot get past the door. Instead, I would like to ask if our hunters could resume challenging.”

Belissar’s eyes widened and he nodded.

“Oh, those mini-shades, right? Um, sure, if you can get them to spawn again.”

At this point, the Second First of the First began to dance.

“Would like to train with karnuq, too, help fight intruders.”

Belissar nodded.

“Sure, if that’s fine?”

He turned his gaze to Chief Rohsuak and she nodded back with a smile.

“We would be honored.”

The Second First of the First then flew over to her.

“Should train with bee army in Fairy Grove first. Hard to move, easy to get lost. Should figure out before fight enemies.”

Chief Rohsuak nodded with a serious expression. Belissar began to rub his chin.

“What about the Lava Field? Is it even possible for you to fight there?”

Chief Rohsuak chuckled.

“Well, for Metsaitti and myself it would be no issue. For the others, they would need a full blessing first and foremost. Noigakkuq probably could handle it, though she would not enjoy the experience.”

Belissar nodded.

“I see.”

Chief Rohsuak, Metsaitti, and the battle meadow queens then discussed a few details before Belissar moved things along.

“Ok, if no one else has anything, we have enough DP for more shop purchases now. Does anyone have any ideas of what to buy?”

This time, no one had any pressing needs that had not already been discussed. The First of the Fifth and the Apiary bees were still evolving honeypots and working on the flowers they already had, the bee army was adapting to fighting in the Fairy Grove, and the karnuq were figuring out metalworking and pottery. So, while there were the usual opinions of “more flowers, more bees,” no one had any specific requests or recommendations. It feel to Belissar to decide.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

So, Belissar went with his fallback of when in doubt, choose bees. He never did acquire a battle-oriented option with the last two choices, come to think of it.

Extra monster choice purchased. One monster choice now available.

Please select a monster:

- Monster Leafcutter Bee (Rarity: Common, Type: Bee, Nature)

- Monster Bee Archer (Rarity: Uncommon, Type: Bee)

- Monster Bee Captain (Rarity: Uncommon, Type: Bee)

Belissar couldn’t help but grin. Not just one but two uncommons this time, both battle-oriented from the names. Still, for thoroughness sake he’d look over the common as well. More than once the rarer sounding choice hadn’t actually been the one they ended up picking.

Monster Leafcutter Bee

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minimal+

Speed: Average

Magic: Minimal

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Minimal

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Bite

Spawner Upkeep: 1

Description: A leafcutter bee that has accumulated enough Nature mana to become something more. Its sharp leafcutting mandibles can deliver painful, if small, bites in addition to its stings.

Another non-hive bee like the carpenters, from what Belissar could tell. This one was also about the same size as the monster bees. He did know from the existence of lumber bees that non-hive bees like this could have their own evolutions, but it would take time and effort to grow them to that point assuming this species even had a follow-up evolution. So, Belissar thought it best to consider this bee as it was. Maybe cutting leaves would let them help the karnuq with harvesting, but it was clear they weren’t going to fight on the frontlines anytime soon. Their small size and presumably smaller numbers would prevent that.

Much unlike the other options.

Monster Bee Archer

Vitality: Minimal+

Strength: Minor+

Speed: Average+

Magic: Minor

Defense: Minimal+

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Small

Notable Skills: Stinger Shot, Death Blow, Chitin Growth, Brood Offspring

Evolves From: Monster Bee Sprayer

Description: This monster bee sprayer has reverted back to a stinger, with a twist. It uses a combination of powerful muscles and volatile chemicals to launch a detachable stinger from its body, allowing it to sting from afar. It is capable of regrowing its stingers unlike regular bees and has the ability to regrow damage to its chitin as a side effect.

In addition to existing monster bee sprayers evolving, a few monster bee soldiers may be born as archers, though this requires notably more resources from the hive.

Now this was a solid choice for battle. The monster bee archer was even larger than the soldier bees, though it was closer to them than the lancers. It had an enlarged abdomen compared to its head and torso terminating in a straight and narrow stinger that reminded Belissar of the spiky salamander’s spines. Beyond that, it had larger wings than usual and its chitin was a bit thicker than the sprayers relative to its size.

Belissar didn’t even need to imagine its use. This bee would let them fight like the spiky salamander had, bombarding a foe with stingers from afar. Whereas the sprayers only doused a foe with poison, archers would stab right into them, dealing physical damage as well as delivering their poison inside the enemy’s body. The next step along the route opened by sprayers.

The last choice was a repeat that had appeared a few times now, the monster bee captains. Belissar wasn’t entirely sure how necessary they would be, however, given that the queens didn’t seem to have an issue coordinating their hives with the help of communers. Well, the description did say they would also buff soldier bees, so maybe they’d make the whole army stronger? That could be powerful as soldier bees were still the most numerous in the army by far, but would it outweigh the ability to sting foes from a distance?

Belissar once again turned the question over to the others. The battle meadow queens were having an intense dance off with one another when they noticed Belissar’s attention. They had one final round of dances before the Second First of the First flew back towards him.

“Archers, captains, both good! Archers strong, captains help coordinate.”

Belissar nodded at that, though the opinion merely matched his own and so didn’t necessarily help him decide. He turned to the Fourth of the Seventh and the First of the Fifth. The Fourth of the Seventh was just zipping around happily and saying “both!” so he chuckled and focused on the First of the Fifth.

“Firstborn should decide, both bees good for army.”

Belissar tilted his head. Firstborn? That was first time he had heard that name so it took him a moment to realize she was talking about the Second First of the First. That made sense though, he guessed she was the firstborn…of the living queens, at least.

That thought depressed him…and just so happened to tilt the decision in a clear direction.

Monster Bee Archer now available. Monster Bee Sprayers may now evolve into Monster Bee Archers. Some Monster Bee Soldiers will now spawn as Monster Bee Archers.

The archer was an evolution on the sprayer and so presumably stronger overall. Its stats indicated it was stronger than a baseline soldier was well. Moreover, it could attack at a distance without putting itself as much in harms way. Even if he made the soldiers stronger via captains, they still had to fly in close. If they ended up facing more spiky enemies like the turtle and spiky salamander shades, then they needed more options for attacking at range. The archer would help on that count while also boosting the overall strength the bee army could bring to bear, and as an evolution of the sprayer would benefit from the new perks and honeypots Belissar had recently chosen. He figured it would do more for the bee army than captains would at this point…and might just let them avoid casualties next time.

And any choice that could keep his bees that much safer was a good one.

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