The Bee Dungeon
Chapter 291: Dangerous New Bee-velopments

Once Belissar had finished appreciating the room, he considered it as the Tower Keeper, and how he would utilize it. He now noticed a slight force on his body, the room seemed to be pulling him towards the edge of the plateau. The force was less than the mana around him might suggest, which he assumed was his Tower Keeper immunity at work. He glanced up at Niobee.

“Niobee, what do you think? Is this room safe for the bees?”

Niobee took off from his head and flew around for a bit. Belissar noticed she wobbled here and there, whenever she passed a either heavy concentration or particularly violent stream of mana. She flew back and landed on his head then made her report.

“King! Bees can, but hard to fly. Uncomfortable to make hive. First of the Fifth’s Sixth Daughter probably can, others would need help.”

Belissar nodded, having expected as much.

“Got it. In that case, let’s ask her to start exploring the room. We can either move her hive here or leave it where it is and just make a shortcut, whichever is more comfortable for her, so let her know to figure out what’s best for her. We’ll wait for her hive to get used to the room before we try to make a battle version or anything.”

“Ok!”

With that, Belissar finished up the room. He placed a shortcut to the Orchard as with every room for easy access, then checked out the available flowers. Most of the flowers were available, and the gravilions were cheaper here due to it being a suitable environment for them. Belissar had hoped that would be the case, so he was quite pleased as he added a gravilion node to the room along with a standard mana flower node. Soaring beeblossom was cheaper as well, but Belissar held off on those for now. He wanted the Sixth Daughter to explore the room before he added extra wind to it. No sense making the room even more difficult to fly in.

With the Floating Isles as ready as he could make it for now, he moved on to the Perpetual Mana Storm. Given that this feature was clearly dangerous, Belissar planned to add a new room to hold it. The only question was, what kind of room would be best for the storm?

Belissar had no idea so he went through his rooms one by one and brought up the room feature menu to see if he could add a mana storm to them.

Available Room Features for Dirt Tunnels:

- Perpetual Mana Storm (Mana Upkeep: 100, 200 due to unsuitable environment, Limit: 1 per room)

That…was quite expensive. Even more expensive than the mithril nodes he hadn’t made yet, and over half his remaining available mana after everything reserved by the Floating Isles. He decided that he would not place the storm in a Dirt Tunnels for now, even though he was curious how there could be a storm underground.

He found that the mana storm was available in every room, but almost all his rooms were deemed unsuitable and so had the two-hundred mana cost. There were only two exceptions: the Fairy Groves and the newly constructed Floating Isles. Belissar guessed that was because those rooms held noticeably more mana within them than any of the other rooms. It…would make sense that a mana storm would require, well, mana.

He briefly considered a Floating Isles for the mana storm as he could only imagine how hard it would be for shades to get past a room with no solid ground and a big storm…but in the end he chose a Fairy Grove. The mana storm would already be dangerous enough for his bees as it was so he didn’t want them to have to deal with the new kind of room on top of it.

“Hey Niobee, I’m going to add a new Fairy Grove and then put the mana storm there. Could you let everyone know not to go into the new room?”

“Ok!”

Belissar smiled and thanked Niobee, then got to work. He added the room to the new and still empty seventh floor, figuring he could move that entire floor to the defense area later on. Then, he added the storm…with only a single wince as he watched his available mana drop dramatically. But he immediately diverted his attention elsewhere, for it was time to see what an epic room feature would look like.

He kept his Tower sight on the center of the new Fairy Grove. At first, nothing changed. But on closer inspection Belissar noticed a shift in the flow of mana in the room. The fairy circles around the room began to vibrate before dimming. Belissar blinked as the circles seemed to calm down…until he noticed waves of mana surging towards the center of the room from each of the circles. The waves crashed together and a burst of rainbow mana illuminated the trees in the center. Some trees caught fire, others froze solid, some began growing rapidly while others withered and decayed.

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Soon, a new clearing had formed around the twisting vortex that appeared like a new fairy circle. Only, this one kept growing…and growing…and growing. Not only in size, but also in intensity and violence as the flashes of mana grew bright enough to make Belissar instinctively shield his eyes. The vortex continued lashing out as it grew, wreaking random and mystical havoc on all the nearby trees. One tree exploded, another turned into a pile of bread, another stood up and walked away on its roots like they were legs.

At this point, the flow of mana halted, then reversed. Mana now surged out of the vortex at the center and back across the room. Rainbow colored clouds randomly pulsing with light began to spread up above the forest canopy as the mana rushed back into the fairy circles. Each circle burst into violent motion once the mana crashed into it, then began inflicting the same kind of magical havoc as the big vortex. Before long, the entire room descended into chaos.

Belissar watched this all with pursed lips and decided that, for now, no bees, or anyone else for that matter, would venture into the new room. Maybe he’d let a shade or a Tower Lord try it if they wanted, but otherwise, he didn’t think it was worth sending even Niobee there, since chances were she’d just get hurt. He had no idea how anything could live in such a place given what was happening to the poor trees…though, as he watched more closely, he noticed there were also trees spontaneously sprouting and then rapidly growing within minutes, enough to replace all the ones being destroyed. The mana storm’s description did mention a need to adapt…though he still wasn’t going to let any bees near it for the time being.

Still, that in itself was useful. A room this dangerous even to itself would hopefully prove a difficult obstacle to any invaders. Belissar contented himself with having a new defense for now and then turned his attention to other things.

In addition to the rewards from the purification, he had two boons from the Circle he hadn’t dealt with yet. He absorbed the tea plants and vampire roses from the two dungeon masters he and Tarwantrad had visited, then set about planting them. The tea plants were simple, as a plant for herbal infusions they weren’t particularly dangerous or costly. The only complication was that apparently they were some kind of tree, given that Belissar could add them to the Apiary, the Orchards or the Fairy Groves but not any of the Flower Meadows. He shrugged and added some to the Apiary for the bees to forage from and then to the karnuq’s Orchard to see if they liked it.

The vampire roses, on the other hand, might need a bit more consideration.

Vampire Rose

- Type: Blood, Nature, Trap, Resource

- Mana Upkeep: 15 per node, 7 to enable in compatible rooms

- Description: A rose that grew in blood-soaked soil and was mutated by mana. The vampire rose supplements its diet with the blood of animals and has developed new ways of acquiring it. Its thorns, laced with Blood mana and anticoagulant compounds, not only draw blood easily but will actively suck up blood from any creature they stab into.

The vampire rose creates a blood-like substance as its sap, which is close enough to the real thing to sustain blood-drinking creatures and to use as a substitute in alchemical and magical processes. It can create this substance even in the absence of blood, though it requires a greater supply of mana, water, and other nutrients to do so.

These would be absolutely perfect for the bloodsucking bees. They were, however, dangerous to larger living things like the rabbits, or the karnuq and spiderkin that hunted them. Maybe even to soldier bees and other large monster bee types.

Belissar, thus, started off by sending a message to Chief Rohsuak, the First Spiderkin Queen, and any karnuq currently hunting that he was about to add a hazard to the hunting room. Fortunately, the spiderkin were all with Chief Rohsuak to start their training today, so it was just the karnuq hunters he had to worry about for now.

Belissar then made his way to the hunting room and the butcher and bloodsucking hives within. He had to admit a slight chill went down his spine when the butcher and bloodsucking bees all started happily zipping about around him, but their joy also put a smile on his face so he got over it.

“Here, I have a new flower for the bloodsucking bees. I think you’ll really like it.”

The bloodsucking queens began a “King is best king!” dance at that. Belissar chuckled and watched them for perhaps slightly longer than usual, before steeling himself for the task at hand. He made his way over to the…butchery area, where the butcher and bloodsucking bees disassembled the prey. As disturbing as it was watching bees climb into the eyes of dead rabbits, this happened to be the most blood-soaked soil in the Tower. Belissar asked the bees to clear a spot in the center of the area, then added a vampire rose node as quickly as he could.

Black and twisted vines curled up out of the ground, covered in serrated and barbed thorns with a red shine to them. Blood red rose flowers budded and bloomed above, dripping with red fluids. One of the rabbit corpses was left too close to the node and the vines curled around it. The thorns stabbed and ripped into the corpse, blood seeping from the wounds before flowing into the thorns as if being sucked up.

And the bloodsucking worker bees immediately began to hover around the roses and buzz. The bloodsucking queens accelerated their happy dance.

“Amazing, incredible! King is best king!”

Belissar just managed to return them a genuine, only slightly cramped smile.