The Bee Dungeon
Chapter 298: Bee-siness is Booming!

The next day, Belissar was eager to place the new flowers, having had to delay the job for the purification. So, he carried out his morning routine as quickly as he could and then…

…was informed that Henilett had arrived with a message. Belissar held in a sigh as he headed on over. After all, the flowers had come from the pixies, maybe she even brought more? Belissar, therefore, considered it worthwhile to speak with her, even if he had to delay placing the new flowers. Or so he repeatedly told himself.

“Hi Henilett, how may I help you?”

Henilett responded with that smile of hers that for some reason made Belissar uneasy.

“Greetings, Tower Keeper, and thank you for meeting with me. I’ve come with a gift and a request.”

She pulled out a bundle from a satchel too small to actually hold it. Belissar thanked her as he took and unwrapped it. He smiled, speaking with Henilett was worth the delay after all. He now held a new bundle of flowers in his hand, these ones hard, shiny, and silvery-gray in color.

“It seems Cembrukare accidentally forgot one of our gifts to you. These are Metal attribute mana flowers, quite the weed haunting the mines of the fair, but I imagine may not be so undesired in your own dungeon?”

Belissar shook his head with a chuckle.

“No, we definitely want them here.”

“Wait…I thought Tamosmed was going to bring me some of these?”

Henilett let out a sigh.

“And that brings us to the request. Dungeon Master Tamosmed has been forbidden from any exchanges with you until your arbitration with Forgemaster Ughlarer is concluded. Fortunately, your dealings with Queen Vanieskon are a separate matter…but Dungeon Master Tamosmed will not be able to do anything further to support you until you attend the arbitration.”

Belissar groaned.

“So…I have to go soon, huh?”

Henilett nodded.

“That would depend on your priorities, Tower Keeper, but it would be appreciated.”

Belissar sighed.

“Well, ok then. Should I go now?”

Henilett shook her head.

“The signatories will need to be informed that you are ready to meet with them. Fortunately, arbitration between signatories is considered a priority, but it will still take some time to arrange. I predict a meeting can be arranged in the afternoon, or else tomorrow.”

Belissar nodded.

“Got it, I can do that.”

Henilett smiled and inclined her head.

“Thank you, Tower Keeper. I shall inform the Compact and then let you know when the arbitration will take place.”

Henilett quickly departed and Belissar wasted no time after before getting to work on the flowers. He had enough time to place them all now and fully intended to do so before addressing any further compact business. So, he quickly met up with Cembrukare, Juosiutik, Frelis, and a communer from the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, along with the ever present Niobee.

Base columbine was just a normal flower so Belissar went ahead and enabled it in all the Flower Meadows and Apiaries. Dancing columbine, purifying rue, and super deadly nightshade, on the other hand, were all magical flowers that would cost ten mana per node and five mana to enable in any given room. For the dancing columbine and super deadly nightshade, Belissar placed a single node each after Niobee confirmed they were safe for bees, leaving it to the gardeners to spread the flowers further. He placed the dancing columbine in the battle meadow since Cembrukare assured him it might help in a fight if an invader stumbled across it. The super deadly nightshade went into the battle bog to join the vaporous hemlock as flowers for the toxic bees.

As for the purifying rue, given its properties Belissar created two nodes for it. One, he placed in the bees’ Apiary for the bees’ exclusive use. The other he placed in the karnuq Flower Meadow so that the karnuq would have it on hand in case they needed a magical antidote. Juosiutik happily promised she would start working with the new plant right away.

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Finally came the Metal mana flowers.

Metal Mana Flower

- Type: Metal, Nature

- Mana Upkeep: 10 per node, 5 to enable in compatible rooms

- Description: A mana flower attuned to the Metal attribute. Its roots siphon metals from the ground to mix into its body and sap, rendering it hard, tough, and inedible. While the mana it contains has uses in magical crafts, the difficulty in harvesting and working with it and the unpredictable mix of metals each plant contains make it unpopular as an ingredient as well.

Like the Fire mana flowers before, the Metal mana flowers had specific environmental requirements and would cost twice as much mana anywhere else. In this case, the only compatible location for them was near a resource mineral node with a metal ore. Belissar went ahead and placed one in the Dirt Tunnels connected to the Apiary, where he had placed mineral nodes and subterranean plants for the bees. As he was warned both by the Tower’s description and by the fair folk that Metal mana flowers were considered a weed that interfered with mining, he did not place any in the karnuq Dirt Tunnels. He thus asked the First Daughter’s hive to check on the thermal mining bees and make sure the metal mana flowers were actually useful and not just getting in the way.

Henilett returned soon after that to inform him the signatories wouldn’t be available to meet with him until tomorrow, which was fine by Belissar. He wasn’t particularly looking forward to the arbitration, after all. So, he was quite happy when Frelis flew over to him, swaying back and forth before starting a hesitant dance.

“King…raised new flowers. King want to see?”

Belissar grinned as wide as he could.

“I definitely do! Please, show me, Frelis.”

Frelis began zipping around in a happy dance before flying off towards the nearest shortcut. Juosiutik smiled as well.

“I’ll accompany you too, if you don’t mind, Tower Keeper?”

Belissar happily agreed, glad to see Juosiutik cheerful once again. Cembrukare came along as well, so the whole group made their way to the Apothecary’s Hut. There, Belissar was treated to the sight of gardeners from every hive in the Tower flying in and out of the room’s shortcuts, bringing pollen from Tarwantrad’s dungeon and rubbing themselves on the flowers before carrying his Tower’s pollen the other way. Belissar grinned once again and even laughed to himself for a bit before turning his attention to Frelis and the flowers themselves.

In a far corner of the Apothecary’s Hut, placed on stony ground far away from any other plant and each other and surrounded by stone walls, were three universal pots and one regular pot. Two of the universal pots held flowers Belissar recognized from Tarwantrad’s dungeon. Belissar frowned.

“Those two…explode, right?”

Juosiutik nodded.

“Yes, we had Muuraqi help us set up some precautions. The thundering balsam and the combusting orchid, they’re both amazing! I’ve been looking into including them into our fire pots, the combusting orchids should be fairly easy but we’re still trying to figure out how to harvest the thundering balsam pods without setting them off. There’s also the issue of cultivating them in numbers…”

Juosiutik looked to Frelis, who took over.

“Thundering balsam needs to be high! Too much air near ground!”

Belissar tilted his head at that.

“Too much…air?”

Frelis danced a confirmation.

“Lots of air by ground, makes flower explode more! Less air up in sky, so don’t explode as much!”

Belissar rubbed his chin. He couldn’t even begin to understand why more or less air would make flowers explode, but he could take Frelis at her word and try to understand the implications.

“So…is that why they were up on a mountain in Tarwantrad’s dungeon?”

Frelis happily zipped about.

“Yes!”

Belissar hummed.

“Would they work in the Floating Isles, then?”

Frelis paused.

“…don’t know. Will ask First of the Fifth’s Sixth Daughter.”

Juosiutik grinned.

“Huh, the bees were working on ways around that, but it sounds like we might be able to plant these as they are? Either way, the bees came up with something new.”

Juosiutik waved to the regular pot, which had the pink flowers of the thundering balsam, but the explosive seed pods themselves were nowhere to be seen. Frelis began dancing to explain.

“Pollinated new flower with Ground mana flower! Seeds grow underground, so don’t explode because of air!”

Belissar smiled.

“Ah, so they’re safer?”

Juosiutik…averted her gaze.

“Well…they’re less likely to explode as is. But…if you pull them out of the ground…in any case, at the very least they don’t need a mountain to grow anymore, so perhaps we can find a use for them?”

Belissar nodded. He’d seen what the wardens’ explosive wards could do, so explosive flowers would certainly help with the defense. As for whether the bees could forage from them…well, he’d trust the bees to know what they could do.

Juosiutik then turned to the other two plants.

“Next would be the combusting orchids. They only grow in areas of high heat and apparently need a volcano nearby as well. You have those lava fields and the bees plan to plant more of them there, so they didn’t specifically focus on making them easier to plant. Instead…”

Frelis took over again.

“Crossed with lava lotus! Now make smoke that catches fire!”

Belissar blinked at that. He looked at the pot in question and saw a small cloud of ash hanging around it.

“Smoke…that catches fire?”

Juosiutik nodded.

“The fumes are extremely volatile…and will combust on contact with water. As far as we can tell, they’re also still toxic and corrosive. I…honestly can’t figure out how to approach them safely yet, but I just know I can do all sorts of things if I can find someway to contain them!”

Belissar crossed his arms.

“We can probably use these as is. If the pixies could do with this one what they did with the vaporous hemlock…”

Cembrukare grinned.

“The whole room would go boom! Oh, I like the way you’re thinking, Tower Keeper! We’ll make a pixie of you yet!”