The Bee Dungeon

Soon, Chief Rohsuak and Metsaitti returned to their camp and arranged the move. The karnuq were used to packing up quickly, and so the entire clan was heading into the Tower before long. The karnuq who hadn’t visited before glanced every which way…or else nervously watched the bee army hovering over their heads. Soon, though, they arrived at their new home and had set up their tents once more. Belissar then moved the resource nodes intended for the karnuq to the places Chief Rohsuak had specified previously.

He had intended to let them set up in peace, but later in the day recalled there was one more thing he should discuss with them. He quickly found Chief Rohsuak once more.

“A purification?”

Belissar nodded.

“A smaller one then the one you saw though. We do them every day around this time. So, um, you should be careful around now.”

Chief Rohsuak immediately turned to Metsaitti, who nodded and began shouting for the hunters to gather. She turned to face Belissar and saluted.

“We’re ready to do our part, Sacred Den Master Belissar.”

He immediately began waving his hands.

“Ah, it’s ok. These ones are pretty small and the bees can handle it no problem.”

“Still, would you permit us to join you? It’s our duty to help…and if nothing else, I’d like our hunters to see what they may need to face one day.”

Slowly, Belissar lowered his hands, thinking for a moment before starting to nod.

“I…guess that makes sense? Ok, we’ll wait for you to get started, then.”

And so, the karnuq hunters gathered and followed Belissar to the first Flower Meadow. The soldier bee army had already assembled into their formations. Metsaitti took the hunters and moved closer to the entrance, where they’d be able to get a good look at the fight. Chief Rohsuak remained with Belissar near the Bee Barracks.

“Ok, here we go.”

The bees saluted and then Belissar triggered the purification. This time, a small bird shade appeared once again. The bees immediately adjusted their formation and the shade was set upon the moment it coalesced. It screeched as soldier bees landed on its back and clung on, stinging it repeatedly. Only moments later, it crashed to the ground. The karnuq hunters blinked repeatedly as they stared at the scene.

And so, the karnuq joined the daily purifications.

The next day Belissar…wasn’t sure what to do. Having completed beehouses for every bee in his Tower, he was left without an urgent task. He did use his new mana to add some new resource nodes for the karnuq, mainly some cave carrots and potatoes in the Dirt Tunnels section and a couple wood tree nodes in the Orchard, but that only took a minute. He considered helping the karnuq, but they were all noticeably larger and stronger than him, so he wasn’t sure how much help he’d actually be. He could have asked the bees for help again, but since this wasn’t something he needed to do or something related to them he didn’t want to take them away from their own work.

So, instead, he spent the day practicing his magic, trying to form wax into larger shapes. He also prepared some more honey for mead. It wouldn’t be too much longer before his first batch was ready!

And so, time passed. After four days, the karnuq were mostly settled. But, Belissar wasn’t paying attention to them at the present moment. Because, after four days of purifications and mana increases, it was finally time.

First, Belissar had added a new Flower Meadow to the third floor, connected to the Apiary. Next, he had added another resource plant node of every flower he had available. Mana flowers, healing herbs, poisonous flowers, textile flowers, flame radish, sleepy chamomile, gelatinous heather, snakebane, and more. Next to them, he added an entrance to the third floor’s Dirt Tunnels that opened into the wide cavern with node for the subterranean flowers. Mushrooms, cave carrots, cave potatoes, and, of course, Ground mana flowers.

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It had been a lot, a lot more than he had expected, and so a lot more days of purifications to afford it all. While he was waiting, he went ahead and built some beehouses as well, ready to upgrade into Beehive features once there were bees to occupy them.

And now, he was finally ready to add those bees.

Mana: 11/560

His mana had even crossed the five-hundred mark and he could start a new expansion purification if he wanted. He didn’t, however, seeing as he hadn’t even filled up all the new room slots yet, and the bees were still evolving their new communers. But now, finally, he had added all the new flower nodes to ensure that his current bees wouldn’t need to give up any of their current resources, a new room to ensure sufficient space, and enough mana to actually afford the spawner.

And so, finally, Belissar was ready to add a monster bumblebee queen spawner. He turned to Niobee with a grin.

“Ready for new bees?”

Niobee danced around rapidly.

“Ok!”

He selected the option. Whereas the monster bee queen and monster bee soldier spawners took the form of beehives hanging from a tree, this spawner took the shape of a hole in the ground. In its center was a pile of haphazardly placed tiny wax pots. Belissar placed this spawner next to the collection of resource nodes and confirmed. He stared at the spot in the ground that began to glow as the Tower’s mana streamed towards it. When the light faded, there was the spawner. And then the Tower’s mana began to flow towards it once more. Belissar began to grin as one of the little wax pots began to glow.

A moment later, a little ball of black and yellow fuzz climbed out of the pot. Belissar’s first monster bumblebee queen. She was a bit bigger than the bumblebees Belissar remembered, about the size of his finger. She shook herself and then extended her wings that seemed entirely too small for her fuzzy body. But she beat them anyways, and soon took off into the air. She turned towards him and made her way over, hovering in the air in front of him.

“Hello, welcome to the Tower.”

The monster bumblebee queen responded by flying in a wide circle around Belissar. It didn’t come across as exact words like the monster bees’ dances, but Belissar could still decipher her intent. She was happy, and ready to work.

Belissar smiled and stepped to the side, pointing to all the various flowers he had made and the beehouses.

“Go ahead, use anything you want in this room to make your hive.”

The monster bumblebee queen turned to look at all the flowers. A moment later, she began zipping around Belissar in wide circles, completing several repetitions as fast as she could. Belissar grinned.

“I’m glad you like it, enjoy.”

After one final circle she zipped towards the mana flowers and began to drink nectar and gather pollen. After she was satisfied, she left the flowers and flew…away from the beehouses. She began to land on the ground and look around. Belissar frowned and rubbed his chin.

“Does she not like them? Does she need something else?”

Niobee flew over to the bumblebee queen and the two began to brush antennae. After a bit, Niobee flew back over.

“King! New queen says looking for hole, place to hide underground!”

Belissar’s eyes widened a bit.

“Ah.”

He began to nod as he recalled bumblebees he had seen before. He remember finding a nest in the ground at one point. If that was the case…then his normal elevated beehouses wouldn’t be particularly helpful to the monster bumblebee queens.

New mission received: Create a home for bumblebees

And now the God of Bees confirmed as well, so Belissar got to work thinking of what to do. His first thought was to try and dig something for her, but then he realized he should check if the Tower’s powers could help. The Flower Meadow…didn’t have anything that would. He could move the dirt up and down but couldn’t make holes in it or anything. However…he had the Dirt Tunnels now, and he already had an entrance leading underground, just one that was far too large. So, instead, he added a new cavern to the tunnels, one that was about the size of a beehouse’s interior, as close to the top of the Dirt Tunnels room as he could place it. He then tried to make a small, monster bumblebee-sized entrance between it and the Flower Meadow.

He managed to succeed. The bumblebee queen paused as the ground began to stir and glow next to her, opening up into a hole in the ground. She crawled over to it and peered inside, then climbed down. Belissar watched with his Tower sight as she crawled down into the cavern, checking out the space.

A moment later, she crawled out, and began to fly around in a circle again.

Mission: Create a home for bumblebees completed!

Reward: One common room feature choice.

Belissar smiled at the queen zipping around him.

“I’m glad you like it.”

As the queen completed her flight and crawled back into the hole, Belissar opened up the room feature choice, because he had an inkling of where this was going…

Select Room Feature:

- Basic Resource Plants (Rarity: Common, Type: Nature, Resource)

- Bee Nest (Rarity: Common, Type: Bee, Monster Nest)

- Thorned Roses (Rarity: Common, Type: Nature, Trap)

And, as he expected, the God of Bees had intervened. Belissar obediently selected the option both he and the God of Bees wanted.

Bee Nest

- Type: Bee, Monster Nest

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

- Description: A hive for bee types that prefer more rugged and freeform colonies. Boosts the growth of any bees living inside of it.

Belissar had exactly one mana remaining, so he went ahead and tried to apply the new feature to the cavern. Mana infused the floor, walls, and ceiling of the cavern and little grooves and divots appeared for cells to go into. Small little wax pots like the one in the monster bumblebee queen spawner began to grow on their own.

Belissar grinned as the bumblebee queen paused, and then began running around her new home.

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