The Bee Dungeon

Belissar glanced over at the bees, intending to ask their opinion. He found the First of the Fifth had landed on the ground. Her body was trembling, she kept beating her wings and twitching her antennae while starting and stopping the first steps of a dance. She paused when she noticed him watching her, and then began to dance with slow, deliberate steps.

“Honey?”

The other Apiary bees all burst into motion at this, zipping about as they danced their agreement. Belissar chuckled as he turned to the queens of the other floors. The Second First of the First danced a confirmation dance as well, continuing on with a bit more detail than the First of the Fifth managed.

“Bee army depends on Apiary’s honey. Want to help.”

Belissar nodded to acknowledge her resolve as Beero and the other battle meadow queens danced their agreement. Meanwhile, the Third of the Sixth had joined the Apiary queens in zipping about.

“More honey! Can give more fire honey!”

The Fourth of the Seventh…was also zipping about in a happy dance. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter danced a more subdued confirmation…though only subdued in comparison. She still danced about quite rapidly.

The bumblebees just started rapidly circling the group after the monster bees began their dance.

Belissar glanced over at Velebee before remembering he hadn’t actually explained to her what was going on here. Fortunately, Niobee was already doing so, dancing along with Velebee. Niobee flew back over to Belissar a moment later.

Belissar nodded.

“Thanks, Niobee!”

He then glanced over at Chief Rohsuak. She chuckled as she watched the bees zip about.

“Well, I do want to say that the dancers are probably stronger than you think. A good support blessing should not be underestimated. But it appears the rest of your council is decided, and I cannot disagree. Honey is central to everything the bees do, correct? It would also then be central to the God of Bees. There will be no loss focusing on that.”

Belissar rubbed his chin.

“Got it, thanks for the advice.”

He then looked up at everyone with a grin.

“Well, sounds like honeypots are a good idea. How about we check out the other choices before we make the final decision?”

“Ok! Whatever King chooses!”

The bees all danced a salute as one. Belissar smiled and laughed again as he opened the next choice. This time, he was aiming for a new room to go with the new floor.

Uncommon Room Choiceselected.

Please select a room:

-Apothecary’s Hut (Rarity: Rare, Type: Nature, Resource, Crafting)

- Swamp (Rarity: Common, Type: Nature, Water, Field)

- Large Lake (Rarity: Common, Type: Water, Field)

Belissar’s eyes widened. A rare option from an uncommon choice? He couldn’t help his anticipation as he focused on it.

Apothecary’s Hut

Type: Nature, Resource, Crafting

Innate Features: Apothecary’s Lab, Herb Garden

Mana upkeep: 20

Description: An apothecary’s hut set in a small forest. Comes with all the equipment necessary to craft potions, poisons, or anything an apothecary can concoct. The room can focus the dungeon’s mana during the process to improve results, or to allow for new recipes. It also comes with a garden well suited to growing potion components, including more exotic herbs that may have stricter growing requirements otherwise. Small size and the focus of the mana make it unsuited for growing foodstuffs in anything beyond individual quantity.

Not particularly suited for monsters, though the mystical nature of the garden and the craft can lead to unexpected results.

Well, this room had some obvious uses…and an obvious user. Belissar glanced over to find Chief Rohsuak staring at him with an unusually serious gaze.

“Tower Keeper Belissar, I feel I must warn you. If you do not end up selecting this room, do not ever mention it was an option to Juosiutik.”

Belissar gulped as he nodded. He could only imagine Juosiutik’s reaction to the room…especially if he didn’t select it.

As for the others, Swamp was a repeat option and a fairly straightforward one, though as before Belissar thought it might be a good defensive option. A shade could get stuck in the mud while the bees flew circles around it. Additionally, the trees and plant life of a swamp would provide cover for the bees should they face more shades like the spiky salamander. The human mages as well.

In fact, the more he thought about it, the more Belissar thought it would be a good idea to have some sort of wooded area as part of the defense. Right now, the bees only had the wide open Flower Meadow and Lava Field where there was no cover, or the cramped Dirt Tunnels where they couldn’t use their flight as well.

Though, he could always move the Fairy Grove or Orchard to the front if necessary, or even make another of either if he didn’t want to risk the bees living there. Additionally, both forests and swamps appeared as common options, so if he didn’t necessarily have to pick on this time. His DP was currently sitting at…

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DP: 3095

Oh. He already had enough for another room choice. So, yes. Chances were he didn’t need to use this choice if all he wanted was more trees.

And that left the last option.

Large Lake

Type: Water, Field

Innate Features: None

Mana upkeep: 5

Description: A large freshwater lake that will occupy the majority of or all of the room. A perfect environment for freshwater aquatic monsters and a significant challenge for terrestrial intruders.

It was quite simple. Just a room full of water, though from the looks of it he might be able to add some banks or small islands if he wished. But simple though it may be, it could be quite useful. He immediately thought of the fire salamander shade, would that shade have been able to swim? The last two shades were specifically protected against fire, in fact, so maybe putting a big body of water in front of them could trip the Hunger up for a purification or two. Would the Hunger be able to come up with something that could swim in both lava and water? He wasn’t sure. And there was one glaring flaw in that plan.

The bees couldn’t swim either.

Unless he got some sort of water bee? The First of the Fifth did report that the water lilies would likely cross-pollinate soon, so that might actually be possible fairly soon. Still, the bees were only now raising soldiers to fight in the Dirt Tunnels and Lava Field. Did he want to add yet another room the Hunger could walk, or maybe swim, through uncontested?

He turned to the bees again. The First of the Fifth danced first once more.

“Apothecary Hut…helps dangerous one?”

The edge of Belissar’s mouth curled up at the bees’ nickname for Juosiutik. He saw Chief Rohsuak try not to grin. Metsaitti blinked for a second before stifling a laugh of his own.

“Yes, very much so.”

The First of the Fifth’s dance picked up speed.

“Dangerous one helped raise new bees. Should help if can.”

Belissar nodded at that. Juosiutik had provided many new flowers and mushrooms for the Tower, helped the bees raise a new type, and was the first karnuq blessed by the God of Bees as well. He felt helping her with her craft could definitely be a good idea.

He only hesitated because if he selected both monster bee honeypots and the apothecary’s hut, then he’d be devoting both the new room and new monster choice to options that wouldn’t help directly in battle…just after a shade has caused numerous casualties. He would probably need to spend his DP on a more battle related choice in that case. Even if he was trying to pick up the pace, he didn’t want the bees or the karnuq to face the next new shade type without at least some reinforcements.

Though, maybe more and better honey and whatever potions Juosiutik could brew with this room might provide solutions for that he wasn’t anticipating?

In any case, there was at least one more choice to go through before making the final decision.

Please select a perk:

- Armored Lancers (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Fire Duration Boost (Minor) (Rarity: Common)

- Bee Hybridization (Rarity: Uncommon)

The very first perk had the Second First of the First and the battle meadow queens perking up. Belissar himself smiled as he opened it up. It sound like exactly what they needed.

Armored Lancers

Description: Lancer type bees grow thicker, tougher, and harder chitin for a boost in defense, especially when diving. May slightly reduce agility.

And it was. Had the lancers had the defense to just brush off the latest shade’s spines, they could have ended the fight with their first dive. A straightforward and powerful boost.

Belissar was tempted to take it immediately but continued reading the rest for the sake of thoroughness.

Fire Duration Boost (Minor)

Description: A minor boost to the duration of fires past what their fuel supply would indicate.

Belissar couldn’t help but shrug. Fire was great and all but he hadn’t run into a situation where a fire went out before it finished burning a shade, so this one just didn’t seem that necessary. He could see Chief Rohsuak smiling knowingly at him, so he supposed he may not realize what the ultimate benefits this sort of perk could provide.

Still, this was a bee tower with some fire, not a fire tower with some bees, so Belissar moved onto the last one.

Bee Hybridization

Description: Improves the rate of bee hybridization, both when mating and when raising new bee types within a hive. Slightly decreases the resources and time required for queens to raise bees of a different variety than their own. Slightly decreases the resources and time required for queens to raise evolved bees.

Belissar fell silent. He thought that armored lancers was the clear winner of this bunch…until he read this perk. One of the main draws of honeypots was that they’d help the bees raise new types. This perk would do so even more directly. And then there was the “when mating” part. Did that mean that new queens could change if they mated with drones from a different type of hive?

But the biggest surprise, the one that made this perk a possible match for armored lancers was the last part. Decreasing the resources and time for queens to raise evolved bees…which would mean both lancers and battlecasters. If the soldier bee army had two squads of lancers, couldn’t they have just had them dive from different directions, so that if one was forced away the other could still land? Or what if Beero had two squads of battlecasters? Well, the shade did have that all-directions attack…but what if they had the second squad of battlecasters or lancers waiting to attack right after that, before its spines regrew? That also could have ended the fight far more quickly…and without requiring the lancers to survive a hit head-on.

Additionally, weren’t communers and gardeners also evolved? Sprayers too, right? So, while armored lancers would make one type of bee better at their job, this perk would allow for more of every type of bee. It would help with everything.

This would be a harder choice than he thought. He furrowed his brow as he rubbed his chin for a bit before checking with the bees on their thoughts.

Belissar glanced over and found the First of the Fifth once again fidgeting and beating her wings. He couldn’t help a light laugh. He had a feeling he knew what her opinion was. Surprisingly, the Second First of the First and the battle meadow queens had fallen silent this time. He had expected them to push for the lancers but apparently they were as conflicted as he was?

Meanwhile, Chief Rohsuak rubbed her chin, nodded to herself, and then spoke up.

“Tower Keeper, forgive me for interrupting but…I wish to inform you that if you are concerned specifically about the protection of your defenders that we have some ideas on that front. With the clay you’ve made for us, we are planning to expand our metallurgy efforts in earnest…and while we have not discussed it yet, I plan to devote the clan’s efforts to improving our armor after the latest battle. I just wanted to inform you so you can take our plans into account with your own.”

Belissar tilted his head but nodded.

“Oh, ok. Got it…”

At first, he wasn’t sure why Chief Rohsuak had brought that up now…but it took only a moment of thought to realize the answer. The karnuq would improve their armor…and begin forging metal as well. If the karnuq had been outfitted with metal armor, then the hunters likely would not have been incapacitated by the shade’s spine attack. They could have held the shade’s attention and attacked it in earnest.

Or…an armored karnuq with a metal shield could be the one to block the spines while Beero and her squad finished their cast.

So, if he was going to get armored karnuq…maybe he didn’t need armored lancers right this moment? And in that case, maybe it would be better to focus all the choices on new bee types, with options that would help all the bees?

Belissar nodded again, this time with a smile.

“I see, thank you for letting me know.”

Chief Rohsuak inclined her head.

“Of course, Tower Keeper.”

And with that, Belissar made his choice. He already knew what the bees desired. He already knew what the God of Bees desired. He already knew what he desired. All he needed to know was that he was not dooming his bees to unnecessary death by doing so…and with the karnuq’s help, he wouldn’t. There was no longer any reason to hesitate.

Monster Bee Honeypot now available. Monster bee queens may now spawn monster bee honeypots.

Apothecary’s Hut is now available.

Bee Hybridization is now available.

He couldn’t wait to see the bees that would grow from all this.

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