The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 364 - Making Bee-cisions on Your Own!

Belissar decided to try General Rippotis’ advice right away. He took a tray of mana honey and headed over to the Aurora Forest. The sun itself was hard to see through the rainbow aurora overhead, but it did make the forest even brighter than usual. Belissar began to stir up his mana as he walked through the trees, imagining a whole hive of bees buzzing. His mana responded as he hoped and buzzed like a swarm about to attack. In fact, Niobee began to buzz herself in response.

“King, need sting something?”

Belissar laughed and shook his head.

“No, just want to show our dragon what we can do.”

Niobee stopped buzzing and settled back onto his head.

“Ok!”

Belissar soon arrived and found the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter delivering honey to the dragon as well. After greeting her, Belissar stepped towards the dragon. This time, the hatchling didn’t growl when either Belissar or the bees approached, allowing them both to place the honey right in front of him. Belissar lifted an eyebrow.

“Are you getting along with the bees now?”

The dragon rumbled softly. The monster bee knights were resting on the hatchling’s back, crawling off now to partake of their own honey meals. The dragon began lapping up his own honey side by side with the knights. Belissar couldn’t help but smile.

“Good, keep it up.”

The dragon responded with another soft rumble before continuing his meal. Belissar was satisfied with how the hatchling was acting now, so he left both dragon and bee to their breakfast, turning to the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter instead.

“Since you’re here, want to help me decide on our latest rewards?”

The monster bee empress happily danced about.

“Ok!”

Belissar smiled and then began to evaluate the latest choices, knowing the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter would relay them all to the hive of hives without disrupting their work.

He had one room choice each from the God of Light and God of Air, along with a common monster choice from the God of Light. He started with the common monster choice, since he had a feeling that one would be easy.

Please select a monster:

- Guardian Angel Bee Queen (Rarity: Epic, Type: Bee, Light, Recovery)

- Monster Digger Bee (Rarity: Common, Type: Bee, Ground)

- Monster Mason Bee (Rarity: Common, Type: Bee, Ground)

It was as Belissar expected, so he needed little consideration to make this particular choice.

Guardian Angel Bee Queen spawner now available!

Belissar smiled.

“We got the guardian angel bees after all. I’ll set up a spawner as soon as we’re done with the other choices, ok?”

Niobee and the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter both happily danced about.

“King is best king!”

“Amazing, incredible! Will bring honey for new bees!”

Belissar thanked the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter for offering to bring honey, then dove into the next choice. A room choice from the God of Light, this one without a rarity, so she had picked all the options herself. Belissar couldn’t wait to see what she offered this time...

Please select a room:

- Dragonvein Lightspire Desert (Rarity: Epic, Type: Light, Magic, Field, Resource)

- Mirage Desert (Rarity: Rare, Type: Illusion, Field)

- Sparkling Desert (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Field)

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Belissar tilted his head at first. He somewhat expected that the dragonvein lightspire desert might appear again...but hadn’t expected to see the mirage desert. An option he had seen a while back...

Mirage Desert

- Type: Illusion, Field

- Innate Features: Desire Haze, Shifting Sands, Mirage Sand

- Mana Upkeep: 50

- Description: A desert formed from the erosion of mana-rich minerals. Sandy dunes blow away and reform, reconfiguring the room to move trails and landmarks at random. The desires of travelers leak into the ambient mana, forming into distant illusions that further pull invaders off course. If the desire and mana density are both high enough, these illusions may even have partial physical form.

A particularly good environment for monsters that rely on illusions and for traps. Additionally, the mirage desert has all the characteristics of a normal desert: zero humidity, dramatic shifts between extreme temperatures, abrasive and powerful winds, and shifting sands, so makes a suitable home for desert monsters as well.

At first, Belissar wondered why the God of Light would offer that one, a room that wasn’t particularly light-related. But as he pondered, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter had already started to dance.

“Amazing, incredible! All good for new flower?”

Belissar’s eyes widened. That was right, he had selected the crystalspine cactus as one of his room feature choices from the God of Light’s earlier rewards, a plant that Tarwantrad mentioned wanted to grow in deserts. So...the God of Light had now gone and given him his choice of different desert types such that he’d have a good place to plant the cacti no matter what he picked.

Belissar smiled at the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter.

“That’s right, good job noticing that! Now...which of these deserts is the best?”

There was still one they hadn’t seen before, so Belissar began reading its description.

Sparkling Desert

- Type: Light, Field

- Innate Features: Light Crystal Sand

- Mana Upkeep: 30 (27 with Blessing of Light)

- Description: A desert formed from the erosion of light crystals. The sand reflects the light of the sun, creating a bright and blistering environment of heat and light. Unprepared travelers may find themselves blinded and burned under the scorching sun.

The sparkling desert amplifies the characteristics of a normal desert: zero humidity, dramatic shifts between extreme temperatures, abrasive and powerful winds, and shifting sands. It provides an excellent home for light monsters and desert monsters, provided they have adapted to the harsher environment.

At first, Belissar wondered why he’d pick one of the others when the dragonvein room was available. He reread the dragonvein lightspire desert’s description...which reminded him that said room was dangerous. He had selected the aurora forest over it because it would have been more dangerous for his bees and even for flowers besides the new star core ones. So, if he selected that desert, nothing but maybe the cacti could survive in it for long. It might be difficult for his bees to forage from them in that case...but it would make for a stronger defense on its own. The abyssal trench was already helping a lot even though no bee could enter it yet.

Belissar also remembered Tarwantrad’s warning regarding the dragonvein volcano: that too many powerful rooms of one type might cause his dungeon to start shifting away from his primary patron. He already had the aurora forest, so it might be dangerous to take a second dragonvein light room unless he added more bee rooms first. Plus...he still had to make a dragonvein volcano room, now that he thought of it. Urubran...probably wouldn’t be happy he had gone and made the Aurora Forest when he hadn’t made the volcano yet. He definitely wouldn’t be happy if Belissar made a second light room...he only had enough mana for one more dragonvein room at the moment...

And that gave Belissar an idea of the God of Light’s intentions. The other two rooms were less powerful than the dragonvein lightspire desert...but perhaps that was the point. If Belissar selected one of those, he could afford to place it immediately without spending too much mana or adding too much Light attribute to his Tower. He could start growing the cacti right away, giving his bees a new source of Light-type flowers to forage from...which the new Light-type guardian angel bees might greatly appreciate.

Belissar wasn’t making the choice alone, though, so he turned to the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter.

“What does the hive of hives think?”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter had already finished asking them, so immediately replied.

“Amazing, incredible! Big Light mana desert amazing, incredible, but dangerous? First of the Second asks if mirage desert like Fairy Grove, make invaders lost? Second of the Seventh excited for both Light mana deserts! Said small Light mana desert might be good for raising more shining bees!”

Belissar rubbed his chin for a second, but then his eyes suddenly widened.

“Hm, good points...ah, wait! We can probably get two! Finnakynne already gave us mirage flowers, so if we plant a bunch of them in a sparkling desert, maybe we can get a mirage desert too!”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter zipped around at maximum speed.

“Amazing, incredible! King is best king!”

Belissar wanted to shake his head and point out how long it took him to remember that, but he also enjoyed seeing the queen dancing so happily, so instead he just smiled. He also made his decision.

“Ok, in that case...I think we take the sparkling desert and try to make a mirage desert ourself. The lightspire desert would be nice but...it’s dangerous and we already have other dragonvein rooms to deal with first.”

“Ok!”

Belissar briefly considered if he should check with the Circle and his other council members before making the decision...but he felt that this was the right choice even without their advice. Besides, he didn’t know how long it would be before Starami tried another assault, so he wanted to start making the new spawner and rooms as soon as he could. And in the end...Tarwantrad had once advised him that it wasn’t necessarily about whether any given choice was right or wrong, but how well his Tower could use it. He knew his bees would be able to use the room he was going to pick, so he didn’t hesitate any longer.

Sparkling Desert now available!

Belissar smiled, wondering how the bees would like the new room and the cacti he could grow in it...and also wondering what his advisors would think of his choice when they finished up whatever it was they were doing right now.

Nenavann was having a busy morning in the nexus door room. First, he and Signatory Curuhaxa had to advise Hesfalle on remaining calm during battle, no matter how intoxicating the mana of death and battle could be to a dusk elf...though, apparently, losing all her newly raised undead had sobered her up well enough. Then, he and Wardmaster Varilold had to...give some suggestions to Tarwantrad on methods for dealing with powerful enemies that had more acceptable levels of collateral damage.

And yet, the toughest talk would still be ahead. Nenavann couldn’t help a sigh as he stepped out of the tent he had spoken to Tarwantrad in, preparing himself to make his way out of Belissar’s Tower and find the next person he needed to speak with.

Nenavann and Forgemaster Ughlarer hadn’t spoken directly to each other since the whole situation with Belissar and the nexus door began and Nenavann didn’t imagine the forgemaster would be happy to see him. But...Nenavann himself was losing patience with the man. The war had begun, the enemy was camped in Belissar’s own Tower, all the Compact and the Circle had mobilized and yet, he had just learned that the forgemaster had urgently called Tamosmed back to the Compact this morning. There might be a lull in the fighting today, but if the forgemaster was obstructing Tamosmed from helping Belissar now, of all times, Nenavann was fully prepared to invoke his authority as the signatory of the Circle, authority that would allow him to command all dungeon masters during a threat to the Compact. No matter what grudges it may earn him from the forgemaster.

Nenavann was not, however, prepared to find Forgemaster Ughlarer waiting for him just outside the tent, his brow furrowed but his face not in a scowl for once.

“Nenavann...we need to talk.”