The Bee Dungeon
POBee 293.1 - Bee-wildered Assistance

Niobee watched over King as he slept and used the night to check on her body. She found that she didn’t need to sleep as much these days, the Tower’s mana kept her in peak condition and she didn’t seem to accumulate fatigue. Only when she especially exerted herself would she need to undergo torpor, and even then she remained partially conscious of the Tower. So, instead, she kept watch over King during the nights.

In this case, she used the opportunity to manage her body’s changes. Every time the King expanded his realm, the mana wanted to make her grow too. She stopped it, though, because she wouldn’t fit on King’s head if she grew any bigger, and then she wouldn’t be able to protect him from aerial attack. So, instead, she used the mana to change her body while maintaining its size. She made her antennae fuzzier and more sensitive to mana like a communer’s while she remodeled her chitin and internals to match a battlecaster’s capacity to store and manipulate it. With each such change, she found she could feel the hive of hives more closely and even the beastkin and humans that bound themselves to King’s defense.

She was pleased, she’d be able to work for King even better now! And she’d begin soon after King awoke. After reporting to him everything happening in the hive of hives he needed to know, Niobee searched through the Tower for things she could help with. Everyone was working hard to help King and grow stronger, so she would as well. Not least of all because of the fair folk. They had helped King and the hive of hives so Niobee didn’t consider them enemies, but they were still not part of the hive of hives. She wouldn’t feel comfortable unless the hive of hives was strong enough to protect King from them, just in case, so the bees needed to keep growing.

With her new abilities, she could see the hive of hives better than ever and soon identified places she could help.

“King…want to go help hive of hives. Is ok?”

She was loathe to leave King undefended, but he was staying in the Tower today so Niobee would still be able to watch him. King, amazing and incredible as he was, gave her permission immediately. So, she sent a dance to the queens to let them know she was going to help, then flew off as quickly as she could, intending to finish her business and return to her post as soon as possible.

First, she stopped by the First of the Fifth’s Sixth Daughter’s hive. All the gravity bees and honey within pulled on her and made her wobble, but since the Tower’s mana mixed with theirs it bent around her and let her pass. The Sixth Daughter came out to greet her.

“Conduit…”

Niobee wasted no time getting to business.

With her improved mana sensitivity, Niobee could feel the hive of hives’ mana even better now. So well, in fact, that she could vaguely sense the state of the different queens from anywhere in the hive, and realized the Sixth Daughter was feeling bad. This confused Niobee, the Sixth Daughter had just been assigned an entire new room by King, so she figured something must be wrong.

The Sixth Daughter apparently felt even more bad after Niobee asked her question. She danced very slowly as she responded.

“It’s…just, King and hive of hives counting on, but not sure if can do. Haven’t done anything yet…”

Ah, Niobee knew the answer to this one!

“It’s ok! Just do!”

If the Sixth Daughter just did it, then she wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to do it!

The Sixth Daughter, strangely, still felt bad.

“But…what if can’t? What if can’t do what King wants?”

Niobee knew the answer to this one too!

“It’s ok! If can’t, then do something else! King and hive of hives found something for even drone to do, will find something for queen and hive!”

Even drones, who Niobee previously thought were useless parasites consuming the honey until her queen mother allowed the workers to kick them out, were apparently useful! And King realized! He was amazing and incredible, Niobee never would’ve figured that one out!

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

The Sixth Daughter still felt bad, but not as bad as before, and she managed to give a salute.

“Ok, will try…”

Niobee flew down and brushed her antennae, filling the Sixth Daughter with more mana in the process.

“Ok! Let know if need help! Hive of hives will always help!”

The Sixth Daughter managed to get to work and sent her workers to explore the new room after that, so Niobee was free to approach her next task! A task that…she wasn’t sure she knew the answer to.

Helping drones.

Niobee arrived at the hive of the fallen and found a small swarm of drones and communers waiting for her. She had identified a problem: the hive of hives had stopped raising new queens and hives! This was because the Fourth of the Seventh’s drone had evolved into a dronecaster, which apparently wouldn’t die when mating with a new queen. And since King felt bad when any bees died, even drones, the hive of hives immediately halted all mating now that they knew there was a way to do it without drones dying.

But that meant that no new hives could be established until the drones had evolved. The First Dronecaster managed it, but only after spending a long time working with Beero and learning how to cast spells with her. It would take way too long for Beero to repeat that process with each and every drone, so the hive of hives was exploring alternative ways that drones might evolve.

And now, it was up to Niobee to try and help the drones do things.

“Hi, drones and communers! King said there’s kind of bee that helps hive by dancing with mana! Niobee knows how to help hive by dancing with mana, so will teach!”

King had wanted those monster bee dancers but had picked other bees at the time. But from how he described them, it sounded like they did what Niobee did when she wanted to help the hive of hives with the Tower’s mana. So, Niobee should be able to teach! Drones and communers could already dance with their hives’ mana, so she figured they should be able to learn! And if they did, maybe the drones would evolve! Then King would get new bees, hive of hives would be able to raise new hives without making King feel bad, and drones would be less useless! Everyone would feel good!

And all she had to do was teach drones how to do things. Well, more things. She did admit First Dronecaster was very good at being helpful to the hive of hives and had figured out ways to help by himself. So maybe, just maybe, she was too harsh on the drones. Maybe. Then again, how many drones had just sat around eating honey before the First Dronecaster figured out how to work?

She’d decide after seeing if all these other drones could learn too…

The Sixth Daughter lay against the ground after the Conduit departed. Apparently, she had gotten so worried even the Conduit had noticed and intervened. That was bad, she must be delaying the hive of hives if the Conduit needed to check on her.

But she shook herself and buzzed her wings. The Conduit was right. Whether or not she could complete the task ahead of her, she had no choice but to try and do it. So, she decided to throw herself fully at the task.

Initially, she had sent out workers to carefully explore the new room. But now, she abandoned caution and flew there herself, much to the dismay of her workers. The Seventh Daughter built moving hives by herself. The Fourth of the Seventh and the First Daughter had moved to their new room together when they first left the Apiary. She could not achieve anything for the hive of hives if she could not muster the same courage.

And so, she flew to the new room and burst through the entrance, even as she felt her workers try to pull her back with their mana. But her mana was stronger and so she pushed through…and promptly halted. She looked at the new room with her own eyes, felt it with her own antennae.

It was…beautiful.

Swirls of gravity mana immediately began to pull on her, but they were aimless and undirected. All she had to do was pulse her mana lightly and it stopped, hanging around her. She gave it a little push and it pulled on her once more, only now obeying her command.

In the Apiary she called home, she and her hive had to create every bit of gravity mana they wanted to use. But here? Here the air was packed with all the gravity mana she could ever need. She didn’t even need to beat her wings to fly through the room, all she had to do was give the gravity mana around her a slight push and she could move anyway she wished. Her workers caught up and balled protectively around her, but she found she could still move as easily as ever. She just wrapped the gravity mana around the entire ball and she could move them all as easily as herself.

She took them to the gravilion flowers her workers had reported previously. She ordered her workers to forage from them and watched as they floated down to the flowers. The gravilions’ mana blended into the flows of the room, so, unlike in the rest of the Tower, the workers had no need use their own mana to approach. They just glided along, directing the room’s mana to pull them right to the flowers, and then to help them pull the pollen and nectar to themselves.

This room…was perfect. Her hive would thrive here like never before. They could fly as they pleased with barely an effort and gather from the flowers like the bumble helper did with her magical powers. And…she realized they might be capable of even more than that. They were not just moving through the mana of the room…they were directing it. The mana wrapped around all those flying boulders and islands as well…could her hive move those too? Could they, perhaps, drop rocks on an invader like the Third of the Third’s construction bees had…only much, much bigger ones?

If so…then perhaps her hive could contribute to the hive of hives after all. Could fulfill King and queen mother’s expectations of her. Could do something after all.

The Conduit had been right. All she had to do…was try. She soon began to dance, issuing orders to her children faster than she ever had before. They now had a lot of work to do…and the Sixth Daughter couldn’t be more excited.