The Bee Dungeon
Chapter 288: Bee Flammable?

Belissar started evaluating the choices by reading out the perk descriptions for everyone.

Flammable Nonflammables

- Fires started by the dungeon or dungeon defenders can burn any material as fuel.

- Fire attacks and fire effects from the dungeon or dungeon defenders can negate fire resistance and immunity. The degree to which resistance is negated depends on the strength of the God of Fire’s blessing on the attacker compared to the strength of the resistance effect, but any attacks will always do some, if minimal, damage.

- Fires started by the dungeon or dungeon defenders can convert mana to Fire attribute. Speed and degree of conversion depends on the density of the mana converted, if the mana converted possesses an attribute, and the compatibility of any attributes with Fire.

Belissar smiled, for this perk seemed like an immediate solution to a common problem. Ever since Chief Rohsuak burned the first turtle shade, every single shade sent against them was immune to fire, greatly decreasing the effectiveness of the Lava Field and the burning bees. This perk would allow those defenses to harm those kinds of shades despite their immunity.

But then Belissar thought about it more and frowned.

“Wait…by any material, does it mean stuff like the stone beehouses we made for the burning bees? Or the dirt firebreaks we use in the battle meadow? Can we still put out fires with water and stuff?”

Chief Rohsuak had an amused smirk.

“Ah, you’ve realized what most of us fire disciples find out the hard way. You are right to be concerned, Tower Keeper, with a blessing such as that you’ll indeed find many common fireproofing and firefighting methods are no longer effective. I have personally set fire to metal and stone and even water.”

Belissar grimaced.

“Then…how would we stop a fire? How would the burning bees even build a hive?”

Chief Rohsuak kept her smile, however.

“There are a couple ways. Firstly, the fire may be able to burn everything, but it does not burn everything equally. Previously fireproof materials will still take greater and hotter flames to set ablaze and will burn more slowly even when they catch fire, so they still have value in buying you time to react. The fires still require air to breathe, so they can still be smothered if you want to put them out. But, above all, when a disciple of fire’s blessing has grown powerful enough to burn the unburnable, they must transition from fighting fires to directing them.”

She held up one hand and created a flame, then sent it flying ahead, drawing a trail of fire through the air. She waved her other hand to the side and the trail diverted, curving around until it formed a circle.

“As the blessing of Fire also affords control over flames, you can learn to keep the fires from burning things you don’t want them to. Should you wish to take this perk, I believe the Third of the Sixth and her hive should be able to learn this.”

The Third of the Sixth immediately danced a salute.

“Will try!”

Belissar slowly nodded to indicate understanding, though he still felt apprehensive.

“Still, does that mean they’d have to be controlling any fires all the time? What about their hives and all the honey there? What about the fires we use for cooking or light? It…seems dangerous, especially with all the mana honey we have everywhere…”

Chief Rohsuak’s expression fell.

“Those…are excellent points, I’m afraid. That, unfortunately, is the risk of embracing fire. It is volatile and difficult to control by its very nature. That goes doubly so for a dungeon not fully devoted to it…I apologize, Tower Keeper. I can only speak from the perspective of a personal blessing. I cannot say how a perk affecting the whole dungeon will work.”

Tarwantrad smiled.

“But perhaps I can…or rather, I can tell you what Urubran’s told me when I wondered the same thing about his dungeon. He said that the key point is that you can also get fire resistance from the God of Fire as well as fire resistance piercing effects like this. And when you have both, they stem from the same source and the same power, so your own resistance can balance your own flames.”

Belissar hummed.

“So, the Fire-Resistant Bees perk we have should protect the bees at least…but what about, well, everything else?”

Tarwantrad made an apologetic expression.

“I would suspect that it would be as you fear, since the God of Fire’s power does not flow through the entirety of your dungeon like it does in Urubran's. He, uh, also mentioned he’s had to take a lot of fire resistance perks…”

Chief Rohsuak had a thoughtful expression as she spoke up.

“Tower Keeper, you should also consider that you have disciples of fire among your defenders. We have our own blessings from the God of Fire that we can develop as individuals. It would be possible for us to develop a power such as this on our own, I myself already have.”

Belissar’s eyes widened.

“Ah, so we can still do something like this even if I don’t take the perk for the whole Tower?”

Tarwantrad answered instead.

“Yes, the Circle even warns that powerful perks like this one are something you need to build your entire dungeon around, so it can be risky to take one from a secondary patron. If you just want to add a bit of variety to your dungeon, then cultivating individual defenders and rooms with secondary attributes can be a safer option.”

Belissar nodded…then shrugged.

“Well, we can discuss it more once we’ve seen the other two.”

Everyone agreed with that so Belissar read the next one.

Natural Incense

- When burned, all flowers imbue the resulting smoke with any compounds or mana attributes they possess, passing on their special characteristics to the smoke. Flowers already capable of this have such effects strengthened.

- This effect can apply to both beneficial compounds and harmful toxins.

- Flower materials processed into burnable products have their effects strengthened.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

So, this one was a cross-perk between the God of Fire and God of Flowers, it seemed. Belissar didn’t need to try particularly hard to imagine how he might use this one. The ant-shades had dealt with the vaporous hemlock by burning it. The toxic flowers would have claimed even more intruders if they could continue releasing their toxins as they burned. Or…maybe he could add flowers to the toxic beeswax candles to make the smoke even deadlier? And, well, Juosiutik would obviously be happy about that last line.

But…he couldn’t help but think it didn’t seem as powerful as the previous perk. The vaporous hemlock already released toxic mist and the beeswax candles already made toxic smoke, this perk would just add more of the same. That wasn’t a bad thing, it made a plan that had worked out quite well this time even better and it was far less risky than the first perk, but Belissar had to wonder how it would compare to the next perk.

Venom-Poison Mixtures

- Bee venoms and flower poisons enhance one another when mixed together, allowing for the creation of deadlier toxins. Potions and poisons that use both bee venom and flower poison as ingredients have their effects strengthened.

- This effect also occurs within the body when bee venom is applied to a target already affected by flower poison and vice versa, increasing the damage and effects of both toxins.

- This effect also strengthens such mixtures used for beneficial effects, such as potions and medicines. Mixtures that would not have been toxic previously will not be made toxic by this perk.

Belissar and Tarwantrad couldn’t help but grin at each other. Bees and flowers working together truly did make for a potent combination. Chief Rohsuak let out a chuckle.

“Well, I know which one Juosiutik would like best.”

But Tarwantrad shook her head.

“Oh, not just that. Belissar, every room you have uses poisons, right? So…this perk strengthens everything! If you put one of those toxic candles next to vaporous hemlock, it works. If you combine the lava lotus Urubran gave you with burning bee stings, it works! If your alchemist makes a combination poison to coat the karnuq’s weapons in, it works! You have flowers everywhere and you have bees everywhere, whether in your Fire room, your Water room, your Flower room, or even a future Death room! This…this is amazing!”

Tarwantrad suddenly stopped, however, as Finnakynne dove on top of her head.

“Yes yes, you like flowers. We know, Tarwantrad. But don’t try to force what you want on Beely just because it’s really exciting to you. He has more than bees and flowers to consider, you know? The bees he got from you don’t even have stingers, you know!”

Finnakynne then made a helpless grin as she turned towards Belissar.

“Well, she’s not wrong though that this perk is great for you. It definitely gets at the core of your dungeon. And…if I’m…um…h-honest, I’m a bit worried about that whole fire perk. I…um…had a thought where we convinced you to take that one and then lots of things caught on fire.”

Her face fell.

“It…just made me feel sad. So…I, uh, don’t want to tell you what to pick or anything but…um…be careful if you pick that one, ok?”

Finnakynne then flew away to hide in the fuzz of the nearest bumblebee queen. Belissar blinked, then turned to the rest of the fair folk.

“Any advice?”

Wardmaster Varilold shook her head.

“The Circle knows dungeons, so covered what I’d say already. Besides, Tower Keeper, you have survived out here in conditions none of us have faced thus far. I’ll adjust the wards to whatever you decide, I have wards for fire, smoke, and toxins alike.”

Captain Karpakynne’s expression suddenly turned serious.

“That’s right, Tower Keeper. My queen instructed me to learn from you, not the other way around. I can advise you on individual traps and tricks, but you are the one leading this campaign. Please, show us how you decide things.”

With a mental shrug, Belissar decided to do as they said. So, to show them his methods, he went and turned to the bees.

“What do you all think?”

At this point, the queens had accepted that he would ask their opinions. A grand dance-off had been underway while Belissar was talking to the fair folk, so the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter was ready to relay the overall results when he asked.

“King! Hive of hives thinks third perk best! Third of the Sixth likes first but can try learn from karnuq queen. All other queens agree on third! Will make bee army stronger, and queen mother says she can try to sting honey!”

Belissar paused at that last part. He hadn’t even considered that all the harmful honeys were already made with flower poisons. And didn’t the bees that made them also mix their own venom into it, since they could make poisonous honey from harmless nectars? If that was the case…maybe all the poisonous honeys would already benefit from the perk! Even if not, the First of the Fifth would surely find a way to mix bee venom with the honey.

Belissar smiled at the bees.

“Excellent points, thanks everyone. Now, before we make the final decision, what about the other choices? I’m thinking we take the rare room for the first option, but what about the second? We can get more rooms, choose from a list of new bees, or get an epic room feature.”

The first choice proved to be straightforward when Belissar took another look at it. He got plenty of mana from the daily purifications…and, come to think of it, since the difficulty of this expansion had gone up he’d probably be able to select tougher daily purifications for even more mana now, so max mana seemed like a waste. It was between a rare room choice or three random common room features. But…he could get three room choices from the DP store for the same price as a single room choice…but choices purchased from the DP store were not guaranteed any specific rarity. That didn’t matter for the three random room features, since they were also not guaranteed anything better than common. It very much did matter for the rare room choice.

So, Belissar just queried the council on the second choice. A rare bee, a room slot, or an epic feature was a much harder choice. As before, room slots could be purchased from the DP store while purchased monster or feature choices were certainly not guaranteed to be rare or epic. But…a room slot was one of the more expensive purchases, so it was at least worth considering.

Tarwantrad furrowed her brow and spoke up first.

“Belissar…how many room slots have you purchased from the DP store?”

Belissar answered.

“Just one so far.”

Tarwantrad smiled.

“Well, in that case, you can probably go with one of the choices. Those do get more expensive the more you buy, but if you haven’t purchased many yet then you don’t need to prioritize them now.”

Belissar nodded.

“Got it, what do you think about rare monster choice and random epic room feature?”

Tarwantrad hummed to herself for a second.

“Well…epic choices are normally powerful but…they can also be highly niche or situational, or come with high costs or special requirements to make them work. That can be especially problematic with random choices…you might be saddled with something that you can’t actually use when you get it. Just ask Finnakynne about that…”

Belissar heard Finnakynne angrily shout “Daddy!” from within the bumblebee fuzz. He reflected and found that matched his own experiences. Of the epics he had seen…broodmothers were amazing at expanding the hives but they did not directly participate in battle and they could only be raised by well-established hives. They wouldn’t have helped the Tower much if he had them early on. As for bloodsucking bee queens, he had already gone and passed on them once because he didn’t have any animals for them to feed on at the time. And then there were the berserkers…powerful and resilient combat bees that indeed would have been useful…but that didn’t fit the way his bees currently fought.

It was indeed a risk…but it could go the other way, too. Broodmothers had been perfect for the hives when they were offered. And berserkers…a big, strong, ferocious, and undying bee might have done well against the wasps, given how well the Firstborn and her monster bee knights had fared.

Tarwantrad echoed that with a shrug.

“There’s no doubt epic options are powerful, though, if you happen to get something that works with your dungeon. And now that you have full access to the Compact and the Circle…we might be able to help you out if it’s something you can’t use right away. Or maybe it’ll be something you can trade to one of us for something better for you. It’s…honestly just really hard to decide with these random ones. I guess the question is…can you afford the risk right now?”

Belissar considered that as he turned to the bees. The First Daughter’s antennae twitched about.

“King…have question. Epic feature…means special flower?”

Belissar sighed.

“That’s the problem, we don’t know. It could be, but it also could be something else entirely.”

The First Daughter thanked him and glowed once more. A minute later, she gave the hive of hives’ verdict.

“Whatever King chooses! More bees, more flowers both good! If something else, know King will know how to use!”

Belissar chuckled at that. The bees really thought too highly of him. Well, he guess he’d have to try and live up to their expectations, starting by making this choice himself.

“I think…we take the epic choice, see what we get, then decide on the room and perk.”

Tarwantrad’s reminder about getting help from the Circle and Compact settled the question for Belissar. It had been Tarwantrad giving him rabbits that let him raise butchers and bloodsucking bees, after all, so he hoped they’d be able to help again with whatever he got. Tarwantrad nodded with a smile, raising no objections to his decision. Nobody else did, either, while the bees were calling him best king as they always did. Belissar ended up smiling. He still felt apprehensive whenever he had to make choices like this…but now, he knew his bees, his defenders, and his allies would all help him make it work.

Random epic room feature selected.

Perpetual Mana Storm is now available!