The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 215: Blooming Bee-cisions

Now that the choice of bee monsters was settled, Belissar quickly moved on to the next one before he could regret his decisions.

Please select a perk:

- Concentrated Nectar (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Rapid Bloom (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Enhanced Seed Dispersal (Rarity: Uncommon)

Belissar smiled. Just from the names, he had high hopes for some of these perks.

Concentrated Nectar

- Small increase to nectar nutrients and mana content

- Small increase to potency of all compounds produced by flowers, including alchemical reagents and toxins

The First of the Fifth immediately began fidgeting, much to Belissar’s amusement. He gave her a warm smile.

“Sounds like this would be good for honey, huh?”

She immediately burst into a flying dance.

“Yes! Would! Amazing, incredible!”

Belissar chuckled. The flower perks were starting off strong. Not only was this perk perfect for honey-making, it would also improve toxic flowers…several of which Belissar had recently received. It helped the bees and flowers both.

There were still two more perks to review, though, so Belissar set it aside for now.

Rapid Bloom

- Small increase in flowering plant growth rate

- Small increase in flower growth and bloom speed

- Small decrease in requirements for plants to flower

Belissar was about to gloss over this one, as unlike the first it didn’t directly impact the bees. But he realized that was an error as he thought over it again. After all, this perk meant more flowers, more quickly. More flowers meant more nectar, so it was indeed helpful to the bees. Not to mention it would directly assist the gardeners in spreading his existing flowers around…as well as any new ones he received from the Circle or Tarwantrad’s flower nursery. It would also help with cross-pollination and acquiring even more types of flowers. In that regard, this one had as much to recommend it as the first. It just depended on if they preferred better nectar from existing flowers, or more flowers overall in terms of both numbers and diversity.

He turned and found the Apiary bees dancing off with one another on those very priorities. The First of the Fifth was stumbling about in circles.

“Better nectar…could concentrate and improve mana density…but…more flowers…new nectar types…could experiment and cross-pollinate for better nectar…”Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Belissar smiled as he shrugged. Guess he’d have to give them a bit more time to decide which one they liked more. That is, assuming the last one didn’t end up supplanting them both…

Enhanced Seed Dispersal

- Small increase to effectiveness of all seed dispersal methods. Flying seeds fly further, sticky seeds stick longer, etc.

- Small increase to likelihood seeds will land in a suitable location and germinate. Small increase to seeds’ ability to adjust course towards suitable locations. Seeds that do not actively move may gain a small ability to do so.

- Features and monsters that use seeds for other purposes also receive small increases in effectiveness to those purposes.

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Belissar took a moment to think about this one before making any judgements. In the end, though, he shook his head. The benefits of this one weren’t as clear to him. Seed dispersal was nice for more flowers, but he already had the gardeners to spread the seeds to ideal locations. There wasn’t much need for the seeds to do so themselves.

That left the last part about seeds being used for other purposes. However, Belissar just wasn’t sure what those other purposes were. He assumed that Flower monsters or maybe Flower traps could probably do something with the seeds, like how Sticky Honey Traps used honey as a weapon, but he didn’t currently have any such monsters or features. The Venomous Slime Rose seemed to be focused more on thorny vines.

He turned to look at Tarwantrad.

“Any advice? Are there any flowers that use seeds for other purposes, or something?”

Tarwantrad giggled and nodded.

“Oh, yes there are. There are seeds that heal, there are seeds that harm. Some flowers launch seeds as projectiles. Some plant the seeds on the enemy to spread roots right into their bodies. Some seeds explode, others grow larger than you would expect.”

She then turned thoughtful and rubbed her chin.

“For you, however…I did not recall seeing any flowers that do such things. Perhaps the gravity flowers could do so one day from your description of them? Otherwise, this would be a perk for the future, should you expand your flower-based defenses. I might have recommended it were you a new Flower dungeon, but since you already have well-established Bee defenses and those gardeners, one of the other two would probably be more useful to you. As for them…I think they both have a strong case for your tower, so it would come down to you and your defenders’ preferences.”

Belissar thanked her and smiled. The Flower expert apparently agreed with his own assessment, so there was no reason to doubt. He turned to the bees.

“So, which do you all prefer? More flowers, or better nectar and poison?”

The Apiary’s dance off intensified, while even the battle meadow queens started to dance among themselves. The Firstborn then danced a single question to the First of the Fourth.

“How about Frelis? Blessed by Queen of All Flowers, so should know flowers. What think?”

The First of the Fourth danced a salute and sent word with her mana. Since the Bee Barracks was nearby, it didn’t take long for Frelis to arrive. All the queens ceased dancing and turned to her as the First of the Fourth explained the situation. Frelis wilted under the attention and stumbled over her dance.

“Think…flowers growing well. Say Nature mana rising. Will grow lots, gardeners help. Better nectar makes flowers stronger. More gardeners to help…”

She then drooped as all the queens remained still, watching her.

Until Beero broke the silence by flying over and brushing Frelis’s antennae. With the spell broken, the First of the Fifth began to dance out her thoughts.

“Honey production already growing. If nectar grows even better…will have amazing amount of honey. Will be able to raise lots of gardeners, as many as need. Will be able to raise more queens, evolve more bees. Maybe even…evolve queens?”

All the queens turned to the Fourth of the Seventh, who was circling around the group while calling all the options amazing and incredible. The First of the Fifth and the Firstborn turned to look to one another and saluted as one before turning to Belissar.

“Agree with Frelis!”

Belissar smiled.

“So do I. Thank you all.”

Concentrated Nectar selected.

With the choices handled, Belissar dismissed most of the queens. He did, however, keep the room leader queens to discuss the new missions from the gods.

“So, we have two new missions from the God of Bees. First, she wants a monster bee queen to join Tarwantrad’s dungeon.”

Tarwantrad began to make high-pitched noises while Belissar glanced at the First of the Fifth.

“Are any queens ready to raise daughters that they would be willing to send to a new dungeon? They…would lose contact with us, I think, but Tarwantrad will take good care of them.”

Tarwantrad rushed up and nodded as rapidly as she could.

“Yes! I promise! I will bring you my own bees and many flowers too!”

The First of the Fifth saluted immediately.

“As King commands! Will raise new queens right away! Claim new flowers for hive of hives!”

Belissar stood there blinking for a second. He had thought it would take some convincing, but the First of the Fifth was more enthusiastic about the idea than he expected. Well, if the bees didn’t complain, neither would he. As much as he was worried about sending bees away, he knew he could trust Tarwantrad to take care of them, and the God of Bees herself wished for this. There was no longer any reason to delay.

And that brought him to the next order of business.

“Thank you, First of the Fifth. Next, the God of Bees wants a bee queen to be blessed by the God of Fire…”

He was about to turn and ask the Third of the Sixth, given that she was already training in fire stuff with Chief Rohsuak, but he found her already dancing to Chief Rohsuak.

“Queen of All Fire…karnuq queen follows?”

Chief Rohsuak smiled and nodded.

“Yes.”

The Third of the Sixth then turned to Belissar.

“King and Queen of All Bees want bee to join Hive of All Fire?”

Belissar slowly nodded.

“Yes…”

He was going to clarify that only if the bee in question wanted to do so, but the Third of the Sixth began dancing first.

“I can?”

Belissar paused for a second but smiled once he processed the question.

“Of course. I’d be grateful if you did.”

The Third of the Sixth immediately began zipping about, heating up the area.

“Ok! Will!”

She then began zipping around Chief Rohsuak.

“Can teach how to join Hive of All Fire?!”

Chief Rohsuak chuckled before letting sparks light in her eyes.

“It would be my pleasure.”

Belissar couldn’t help but grin. He had been a bit worried about asking the Third of the Sixth to do this…but she clearly wanted it herself. Now that he knew that, Belissar would be happy to help her achieve it.

It had been a long day of surprises and worries, but it had all worked out in the end. And his Tower and his bees would be all the better for it…