The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 367 - Amateurs Study Tactics, Bees Study Logistics!

Starami glared down at his mages as the sun rose. Or so he assumed given that the fog that still refused to clear had lightened up just a tad. It is not as if anyone had slept, so no one really knew what time it was at this point.

“Well...?”

The mages struggled to meet his gaze...or keep their eyes open at all.

“My lord...the detection barrier is supposed to be as loud and sensitive as possible, especially since we are searching for the fey. You instructed us not to let a single thing through...”

Starami growled, silencing the mages.

“I know what I said and I know how barriers work! I’m asking you what you’re going to do about it!”

The mages glanced at one another, but none dared to speak up. Starami growled once more, this time letting smoke waft from his mouth.

“You know what? I don’t care about the specifics. Just fix it! You have until tonight or so help me none of you will sleep again!”

The mages made their pitiful supplications but Starami did not have the patience to pay them any more attention. His entire army was on edge, not one of them having slept last night. A blessed Tower Guard could be sustained by mana, it was true, but they had not only spent the night awake but on guard, expecting an imminent attack the entire time.

The current detection barrier was designed and refined over the Conclave’s countless battles with the shades and the beastkin, mostly spiderkin. Both of those foes were aggressive and relentless, they would begin a massacre if they got into a camp unopposed, so any approach needed to be dealt with in force. And neither of those foes had ever attempted to intentionally trigger the barrier without conducting an actual attack. The beastkin did make use of feints and diversions...but always to set up a flanking attack elsewhere. Until today, if the detection barrier triggered, the whole camp needed to be ready to fight immediately.

The fey had other ideas, apparently. His mages needed to come up with a new barrier design unlike any they had been trained for...in a single day.

Starami took a deep breath and calmed himself. Soon, he narrowed his eyes. If anything, the fact that the fey had started to assault his camp, if in an unusual manner, helped him to focus past his current frustrations. Thanks to them, he now had something he could do besides sit here and maintain the siege. He turned to one of his commanders.

“Get the scouts and kobold wranglers ready. I want a full sweep of the area. The fey are either hiding out in the woods or have external shortcuts. I want them found and contained.”

The commander frowned.

“It shall be done, my lord. If you would permit me to speak...”

Starami just raised an eyebrow as his permission.

“...the fey have trapped the woods, right? And what of the necromancer? We will give them many more corpses if we send the kobolds out in force...”

Starami scoffed.

“That is what the kobolds are for. Kobold zombies will be far easier to deal with than a repeat of last night...and won’t be stealing supplies to boot. I will send the dragon and the wyvern riders to patrol overhead, that should discourage the fey from interfering directly. As for the woods...chop them down. Expand our clearing and remove the fey’s hiding places.”

The commander gave his salute and went out to execute his orders. Starami ignored him and sat back in thought. That should buy the mages some time to work on the barrier...and gave him a path forward. Even if he could not assault the Tower until his elites recovered, he could still sweep the exterior. He could attempt to flush the fey out and engage them with the full might he had available, which should be far more to his advantage than the situation in the Tower had been. He did still have a dragon, after all...

Belissar awoke and went through his morning routine, eating honey, making offerings to the gods, and checking on the bees. After finishing with the bees, he also checked on the light dragon hatchling, finding him happily munching on honeycomb and some fresh meat courtesy of the butcher bees. After his breakfast, the dragon flew off with the monster bee knights to go find the Firstborn, so Belissar left him to her.

Around that time, Belissar received word of some new business that required his attention.

A monster has evolved!

Monster Bee Minister is now available!

Belissar smiled. The first of the evolving bees had emerged from her cell, the Fourth of the Seventh’s First Communer...or rather, the Fourth of the Seventh’s First Minister. Belissar turned his Tower sight over to the Fourth of the Seventh’s part of the Beecity. There he found the Fourth of the Seventh zipping around in an “AMAZING, INCREDIBLE!” dance with a new bee on her back. The First Minister was now the size of a monster bee queen, though she lacked the enlarged abdomen of a queen. Instead, she had extra fuzzy antennae and a body that nearly glowed with mana. Additionally, she had the features of the nomadic bees, such as larger wings and eyes. Belissar checked on her details.

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Nomadic Monster Bee Minister

Vitality: Minor

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Above Average

Magic: Small

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minor+

Special: Above Average

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Death Blow, Brood Offspring, Brood Link, Command Brood, Hive Edict

Evolves From: Monster Bee Communer

Description: A monster bee queen can see all that her children do, but there are limits to the attention of a single mind. When a hive grows too large for a queen to manage on her own, she may raise a monster bee minister. Monster bee ministers possess a queen’s ability to sense and command the hive, naturally exerting the same authority on their siblings as her mother. They are also notably more flexible and independent than the usual brood offspring, able to evaluate situations and make decisions on their own. She also retains the abilities of a communer, now stronger thanks to her greater mana reserves. She does not gain any direct combat capabilities beyond that of a standard worker and so should be kept from harm.

The monster bee minister can not only organize the hive, but empower it. She is blessed with the same mana reserves as an evolved queen but does not need to spend it on producing offspring, allowing her to focus it on the hive. This takes the form of hive edicts, where the monster be minister focuses on one aspect of the hive and them empowers all her kin in its pursuit. The more focused the aspect designated, the more powerful the effect.

In addition to existing communers evolving, some monster bee workers may be born as ministers, though this only occurs in hives of sufficient size and resources to support them. Note that monster bee ministers may not be spawned directly as they require an existing hive to function.

This one is a nomadic monster bee variant. In addition to the nomadic monster bee characteristics enabling long-distance travel, the nomadic monster bee minister’s mana is especially suitable for empowering travel, scouting, and quick hive setup, as well as Air-type mana from her breeze bee lineage. Her hive edicts focusing on these aspects and types will have greater effect.

Belissar grinned. A new kind of worker bee! One that, if he was interpreting this right, would make their entire hive better! He could only imagine the hive of hives would be quite happy with that.

He was just walking over to the Beecity to congratulate the new monster bee minister when a second message arrived.

A monster has evolved!

Fortifying Monster Bee Queen is now available!

The Third of the Third had just finished evolving as well! She, like the other evolved queens, had grown significantly in size. Additionally, she now much larger mandibles on her face and hooks along the sides and ends of her legs. Her chitin had thickened as well, while her wings seemed to have grown a little smaller, though still large enough for her to fly without issue.

Fortifying Monster Bee Queen

Vitality: Below Average

Strength: Below Average

Speed: Below Average

Magic: Small+

Defense: Small

Resistance: Small

Special: Above Average

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Brood Mother, Command Offspring, Excavate Material, Bind Material, Manipulate Material, Levy Workforce

Spawner Upkeep: 40 (20 with Blessing of Bees)

Evolves From: Monster Bee Queen

Description: An evolved Ground-attributed monster bee that focuses on building impregnable hives. The fortifying monster bee can produce a modified type of propolis that can be mixed with other kinds of materials and then hardened into a solid piece, allowing them to rapidly build tough and enduring structures to protect their hives. The properties of this propolis-mix material can be altered based on the materials used and by the mana imbued within, allowing the bees to adjust it according to their needs. To support her building, the fortifying monster bee has larger mandibles that can excavate a wide variety of materials, grasping hooks on her legs to help her carry materials back home, and shorter wings that can beat rapidly in enclosed spaces to quickly dry the propolis mixes.

This one is a queen who can raise of hive of fortifying monster bees. As the leader of the hive, she can envision the shape and properties of the structure she desires for the hive and easily give all of her children specific instructions on how to build it. Additionally, she has some ability to draft other species to assist with construction and temporarily include them in her hive, though this depends on their willingness and their similarity to monster bees.

As an evolved monster bee queen, the fortifying monster bee queen also has a superior ability to raise evolved bee types and can lay monster bee types in her evolution lineage in addition to fortifying monster bees. If the area around her is rich in materials her workers struggle to gather, she may also develop the ability to raise appropriate monster bee types to assist.

Belissar was quite pleased with this one as well. The Third of the Third had long been assisting him and the karnuq with building structures, now she had become a kind of bee specialized for the task. He couldn’t wait to see what kind of hives she could build now with her new abilities. He picked up his pace, he now had two evolved bees to congratulate!

But just a moment later, Belissar stopped dead in his tracks. A huge wave of mana surged through his entire Tower, not unlike when one of the gods blessed it. He immediately directed his attention back towards its source and his eyes opened as wide as they could go.

In the bumblebee meadow, as new bumblebee queens were emerging out of the bumblebee nests...the Heart of the Forest had just bloomed.