The Bee Dungeon

The next day, Belissar got to work. He moved the original Dirt Tunnels back up to the second floor so that the Apiary hives could gather from the subterranean plants and mushrooms, then spent the rest of the day working on the Orchard tree hive. He and the squad of soldier bees helping him managed to build a relatively flat platform across the tree branches, with a beam frame reaching down to the ground to provide additional support and a basic ladder for Belissar.

Then, came the moment of truth. Belissar held his breath as he selected a beehouse feature and tried to move it on top of the platform…

The transparent beehouse did not turn red. Belissar grinned as he clenched his hand into a fist.

“Yes! Looks like it works.”

“King is best king!”

Niobee led the soldier bees and the curious workers from the Orchard hives in a celebratory dance. Belissar would be ready to begin construction on the actual beehouse now, though he held off. It was just about time for the daily purification, so the beehouse would have to wait until tomorrow. Belissar made his way to the Flower Meadow where the soldier bee army was already gathering. After confirming they were ready, he opened up the purification menu.

Please select a purification strength:

- Minor (Cooldown: 14 hours)

- Minor+ (Cooldown: 22 hours)

“No new ones?”

Niobee flew in front of him.

“King, something wrong?”

Belissar shook his head.

“Last time we did an expansion, we got access to tougher daily purifications. It looks like this time we didn’t, though I think those cooldowns are a bit shorter now. I wonder why?”

Niobee wavered in the air.

“Sorry, don’t know.”

Belissar chuckled and shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s a Tower of the Gods after all. Let’s just focus on what we do know and go with the normal purification then. Is the army ready?”

The queen in command for the day saluted him and confirmed. Belissar nodded and selected the minor+ purification.

“Ok, here we go.”

In the end, the minor+ purification was no different from any other they had faced, and the bees handled it flawlessly. Belissar was able to safely add another fifteen mana to his pool as he led the victory celebrations.

The next day, Belissar started by double checking his mana.

Mana: 27/455

It wasn’t the most but it was a start, and should be enough to handle the basic rooms. Belissar double checked his Tower once more. He currently had the first floor with the Flower Meadow and Orchard, along with an empty space for a new room. He then had the second floor with the Apiary and the Dirt Tunnels, along with yet another empty slot. Finally, he had an empty third floor, which at the moment only contained his core room and a staircase room to the second floor.

It was time to change that.

He walked over to the closest Apiary hive, the one with the largest queen. He turned to Niobee.

“Niobee, the closest queen is kind of the leader of the Apiary, right?”

Niobee danced her confirmation.

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“Yes, First of the Fifth lives closest to King, makes most and best honey! Other Apiary queens listen to!”

Belissar thanked her and then walked over to the hive. The First of the Fifth had already crawled and happily greeted him. Belissar smiled as he greeted her back, then asked her his question.

“Hey, so, I’m thinking of moving the Apiary up to the third floor now. I want to put the karnuq on the second floor so they won’t be right be the entrance, but also not right by my core room. Is that alright? Are there any downsides to moving your hives further from the first floor and the entrance?”

The First of the Fifth paused, going completely still. Then she began to tremble.

Then, she erupted into dance.

“YES! IS FINE! WANT TO BE BY CORE AND BY KING!”

Belissar blinked, then shook his head and chuckled. At this point, he should probably expect such reactions from his bees. Close to him, huh? That wasn’t how he had been thinking of it, but if that was what the bees wanted then that was what they would get. He’d have to make sure to visit each hive regularly as his Tower began to spread out.

In this case, though, he had just wanted to make sure he wasn’t interrupting the bees’ foraging by this move. But well…clearly the First of the Fifth wouldn’t mind even if it did. He thought of trying to calm her down and ask more specifically…but then shrugged. The point of this was to make sure he wouldn’t inconvenience his bees…but this queen clearly wanted him to go through with the move even if it would.

So, he proceeded with his plan. He moved the Apiary and its connected Dirt Tunnels up to the third floor, and then added a bunch of new rooms to the Tower. He added a new Flower Meadow, a new Orchard, and a new Dirt Tunnels to the second floor. The Flower Meadow was connected to both staircases to the first and third floor, which were placed right next to each other at the front of the room. This would allow his bees to bypass the second floor without disturbing the karnuq, and with the shortest possible trip. The Dirt Tunnels and Orchard were connected to the Flower Meadow, sectioned off from the rest of the Tower for the karnuq’s convenience.

Mana: 7/455

Belissar rubbed his chin. The new rooms alone had drained most of his available mana, so he wouldn’t be able to do much with them just yet. He went ahead and enabled the free flower types he had available for the Flower Meadow just for variety, but otherwise left them alone. At the bare minimum, he needed to add a pond or two at five mana a piece so the karnuq would have sources of water, so they wouldn’t be fully ready today.

He could move features between rooms, he found, and in fact planned to move all the resource nodes he made for the karnuq up to their new home once they moved in. However, that wouldn’t work for the ponds because he wanted one in every room in case of fires, so cannibalizing from the existing rooms wasn’t an option. Besides, it would only take a day to get enough mana for the ponds and the karnuq were right outside the Tower where he could help them in case of an emergency, so Belissar figured it would be fine to wait. He turned to Niobee.

“Ok, the second floor is built, though there’s not much in those rooms yet. That’s going to be where the karnuq live. The bees can still visit and use the flowers there and even move there if they’re comfortable living around the karnuq, but they should be aware that the karnuq will be free to gather whatever resources are on that floor. Can you let them know?”

“Ok!”

Niobee landed by the First of the Fifth and began to dance with her, so Belissar left them to it. Because, now that the new rooms were built and his mana was spent, it was time for the other task of the day. The one he was looking forward to.

Now that the Orchard grove had a platform that could hold a beehouse, it was time to ensure the last of his queens had a home built by him. And to complete one of the missions from the God of Bees in the process. He walked down to the Orchard with a spring in his step.

Meanwhile, the Conduit gathered the First of the Fifth and the Firstborn once again. She passed along the King’s decrees on the second floor…and then the queens and the Conduit began to discuss. The First of the Fifth was still somewhat in a daze from her earlier discussion with the King, who wanted her to live closer to his core and stand between him and the outsiders but managed to watch the Conduit’s dance enough to respond.

“So, King doesn’t want bees to claim second floor?”

The Conduit took a moment before starting a slow and unsteady dance.

“Not…exactly. Think King is worried about bees. Karnuq will take good flowers on second floor, so bees there might have less. Might also want to take honey from hives on second floor.”

The First of the Fifth buzzed her wings at the thought of anyone other than the King taking her honey. Fortunately, she would not be subjected to such a travesty with her now guaranteed proximity to the King, but it bore considering. Previously, she may have been tempted to raise another queen so that the new territory could be claimed by her children. And while she was no longer as concerned about territorial claims, it was only natural to want to see any unclaimed resources put to good use in service of the King and of bees. But now? Would she be willing to see a child of hers subjected to the treatment the Conduit warned of? To surrender flowers…or even honey…to these newcomers of uncertain trustworthiness?

No, no she would not.

The Firstborn replied while she was deep in thought.

“Then…could just send some workers? Gather from flowers if can, but not make hive. Can gather a bit without getting in the way, and can keep an eye on newcomers?”

The Conduit’s dance grew a bit more steady.

“Good idea. Queens cooperate, both send less workers?”

The First of the Fifth danced her confirmation. In this case, the gathered nectar would be secondary and not at all guaranteed, so it made sense to share the burden between the queens, especially those who did not need to worry about sustaining their hives like herself. And keeping an eye on these newcomers was a task of great importance.

And so, the queens agreed to adopt a wait and see approach to the second floor. They would take the measure of the karnuq before any queen would make their home among them…

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