The Bee Dungeon

The next day, Belissar started his newest routine of checking on the Heart of the Forest, watering it from the nearby pond and creating some mana honey to feed it. It hadn’t sprouted just yet, but the gardeners hovered overhead assured him it was growing well.

After that, he set to the task of reviewing his rooms and floors. He now had a brand new floor to deal with, as well as an additional room slot for each of his floors. He figured he’d check the whole set up in case he wanted to rearrange anything.

The first floor held the Dirt Tunnels, Fairy Grove, and Lava Field that were meant for fighting. The second floor started with the battle meadow, then held the Lava Field where the burning bees lived and the Fairy Grove with the nexus door to Tarwantrad’s dungeon. The third floor was the Orchard room with all of the shortcuts, as well as the Fairy Grove where the chromatic bees lived and the Apothecary’s Hut for lack of any better spot to put it. The fourth floor was the karnuq’s, with a Flower Meadow, Orchard, and Dirt Tunnels holding all the resources they needed. The fifth floor held the Apiary, a Dirt Tunnels for the digging bees and subterranean resources, and the bumblebee’s Flower Meadow where the Heart of the Forest was planted. The new sixth floor was currently empty.

The first thing he did was move the Apiary floor up to the sixth floor so that it would remain by the core room, as he and the bees preferred. He left the empty floor as the fifth for now, not entirely sure what he’d use it for just yet.

He then considered moving the battle meadow back to the first floor and the Apothecary’s Hut to the karnuq’s floor, but decided against both. For the former, he realized he liked the battle meadow’s place on the second floor, as the last line of defense for the Tower, and would rather keep the first floor room slot open for addition defense-oriented rooms. For the Apothecary’s Hut, the only person who needed access to it was Juosiutik and she had a shortcut right in her home. Leaving a slot open on the karnuq floor, as well, would be useful in case he acquired rooms with new resources they might want.

In the end, Belissar shrugged and left the rooms mostly as they were. With the shortcuts, all the rooms were accessible to one another so it didn’t matter all that much where in the Tower they were, save for those meant for defense.

With that settled, it was time to consider new rooms. He placed a new Flower Meadow in the empty second floor slot, then lowered the elevation in the center of the room as much as he could while raising it around the edges. It was, not quite a crater, but there was at least a slight depression in the center of the room, creating downward slopes from all the edges.

Then, in one of the corners of the room, he placed a pond with a lotus flower node at its center, a water stone node along its edge, and a mana flower node nearly on top of the water stones. He noted the mana from the mana flowers start to turn a darker blue whenever it drifted near the water stones, and water began to condense on the surface of the node almost immediately.

Belissar nodded. With any luck, the room would flood soon and then maybe he’d have a Lake or something similar. With how many fire shades the Hunger was making recently, a room like that could prove useful indeed.

He held off on vapor hemlock for now, as he wanted to see what sort of room would result first and if it would be better for defense or resources. He reached up to brush Niobee on his head.

“Could you let the bees know about the new room? They should wait for it to flood before trying to build hives here, but they can definitely visit the flowers. Nenavann said the water stones might affect the flowers, so maybe they’d find something new.”

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“Ok!”

On that point, Belissar finished up the room with a shortcut to the Orchard, which Niobee flew through right away. Belissar himself made his way to the karnuq floor to speak with Chief Rohsuak and Juosiutik, meeting them in Juosiutik’s home. She now had a simple table in the center which they could sit at. Chief Rohsuak gave him a smile as Juosiutik brewed them a simple drink with herbs and honey.

“So, Tower Keeper Belissar, how may we help you?”

Belissar thanked Juosiutik as she handed him a mug as well.

“Have I told you two about the deal with Tarwantrad?”

Both of them shook their heads.

“Well, we’re going to set up nurseries for the different flower types we have in our towers, then let the bees fly between them. We’re hoping the gardeners will cross-pollinate and plant the different flowers so that we can each get some of what the other has.”

Juosiutik looked a bit confused, so Chief Rohsuak interjected.

“She’s the fairy from the banquet we recently held. The one dressed in flowers.”

Juosiutik’s eyes lit up.

“Ah, I remember seeing her! I wanted to ask her if she was a gardener or potion-maker of some sort, but…”

Juosiutik glanced away with a slight flush.

“I, ah, know I can get excited and I didn’t want to upset a fairy…”

Belissar let out a hum.

“I’m not sure about potions, but I think yes on the gardener. Kind of, I think. She’s a Tower Keeper like me but blessed by the God of Flowers instead, so she definitely raises a lot of flowers. She said she wants to speak with you sometime, actually.”

Juosiutik’s eyes widened with each word Belissar spoke.

“A fairy Tower Keeper…blessed by the God of Flowers? Who’s going to share her flowers with us? We’re going to get fey flowers?”

Juosiutik began breathing heavily, twitching and taking a step towards Belissar before catching herself. Belissar hesitated a second but continued with a nod.

“Yes, I wanted to ask if you’d be ok using your Apothecary’s Hut as the nursery…”

Belissar didn’t finish before Juosiutik marched forward and slammed both her hands on the table, staring at him intently.

“YES!”

Belissar blinked for a moment before chuckling with a smile.

“Thanks, I’ll let her know. Ah, I’ll need to ask the gardener bees to plant whatever flowers are in the Tower that you might not have there…”

Belissar was about to ask her if she was fine with that but assumed her intent stare and heavy breathing meant she was.

“…so I’ll, um, ask them to coordinate with you on where you might want each kind of flower?”

Juosiutik nodded repeatedly as fast as she could.

“Yes, please, do that.”

Belissar smiled. He figured Juosiutik wouldn’t have a problem with this, but he also didn’t know enough about potion making to know if putting all the flowers in the hut’s garden and then cross-pollinating them might mess with something she was doing. It was fortunate she agreed, however, as his available mana reserves had dwindled quite rapidly. He currently didn’t even have enough mana for a second Apothecary’s Hut if she had refused.

But since she was more than happy to accommodate those plans, he could use what mana he had left for other purposes. He turned to Chief Rohsuak.

“Thanks Juosiutik. Next, I’d like to make a water stone node for the karnuq. Could you let me know a good place to put it? It will start making water if it’s exposed to mana, so you probably want to keep it somewhere without any if you don’t want the area to get wet.”

Chief Rohsuak made a huge grin, even as Juosiutik froze and then stared intently at him once more.

“My thanks, Tower Keeper Belissar. There should be plenty of suitable spots in the Dirt Tunnels, shall I guide you to one now?”

Belissar nodded and the three made their way over, Juosiutik grilling him for as much detail on the water stones as possible along the way. Apparently, a theoretically endless source of water and Water mana had major implications for potion making on top of all the obvious benefits of water on demand for daily life. Chief Rohsuak herself seemed to have a spring in her step even as she tried to calm Juosiutik down. She gathered Muuraqi and the karnuq miners along the way, so that they could immediately begin gathering the stones as soon as Belissar placed the node.

With that finished, Belissar’s mana was just barely above the single digits. Despite now having abundant room slots, there wasn’t much more he could do until they finished some more purifications. So, Belissar set that task aside and turned to another.

It was time to talk to a certain gardener about her achievements in the name of flowers.

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