The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 167: To Bee, or to Bee, Which Shall it Bee?

“AMAZING! INCREDIBLE! KING IS BEST KING!”

The First of the Fifth immediately began zipping around Belissar at maximum speed once he announced the choices. The rest of the monster bee queens soon followed suit, while the bumblebee queens tackled him and began grooming him all over. Belissar laughed and petted the bumblebees in response.

“I’m glad you all like it.”

He heard Chief Rohsuak chuckle to the side.

“They aren’t the only one. I suspect Juosiutik will have much the same reaction once she’s informed.”

Belissar smiled at that.

A moment later, he furrowed his brow.

“Ah, actually, there’s one more choice to make before you go, everyone.”

It took another moment for the bees to calm down, but soon all of them gave Belissar their full attention. He had nearly forgotten but he had the DP for another choice and realized it would be best to make that choice now.

At first, Belissar thought it’d be best to buy a new room. The Swamp had got him thinking and at this point he really wanted a room where his bees could both fly and have cover. But he realized that there was no need to purchase a new room for specifically that purpose. He could simply place a new Orchard or a new Fairy Grove to achieve that same effect. Indeed, it might be smarter to use a Fairy Grove rather than a new type of room so that any malicious effects the fairy circles might have could be turned on the shades.

There were still reasons to buy more rooms. Even with an Apothecary and another Orchard or Fairy Grove, the new fifth floor would have a room slot open. And then there was the lake idea of adding a room that would challenge the Hunger in a different manner than the Lava Field and force it to adapt to wildly different conditions. But still, there was no specific and urgent need for another room, at least not pressing enough to grab one without considering the other options.

Additionally, Bee Hybridization promised not only to speed up the birth of new bee types his bees already planned to raise, it promised to unlock even more new bees when existing bees mated with one another. And that meant that unlocking more bees would have a compounding effect.

On the other hand, mating only really applied to queens and drones, and so far the only variations on those had come from flowers rather than monster choices…although, Belissar now recalled that he had options for new queen types. So, perhaps there was as much argument for a new monster as for a new room.

And when in doubt, Belissar asked the bees.

“So, we can either get a new room, a new bee, or more room features. What do you all think we should get?”

The First of the Fifth was not vibrating in place this time, and let the others dance first this time. The bees were mostly split between new bees and new room features, most of them didn’t seem to consider new rooms in this case. Chief Rohsuak indicated the karnuq didn’t have any pressing needs their current resources couldn’t cover, so Belissar decided to go with a new bee.

Extra monster choice purchased. One monster choice now available.

Please select a monster:

- Monster Digger Bee (Rarity: Common, Type: Bee, Ground)

- Monster Giant Resin Bee (Rarity: Uncommon, Type: Bee, Nature)

- Monster Carpenter Bee (Rarity: Common, Type: Bee, Nature)

Belissar frowned just a bit before shaking his head. No bee queens, and if he wasn’t mistaken no monster bee types period this time. But, well, he was trying to build a Tower for all bees, and the bumblebees had certainly proved themselves useful. He would not discount any bee without giving it a look.

Though, monster digger bees only took a brief look to discount in the end. He already had digging monster bees, a monster bee type that could do the same thing as digger bees in larger hives. Maybe digger bees had something to them that would set them apart in time, but in the short term they wouldn’t provide anything his Tower didn’t already have.

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Which meant it was time to review the only new choice of this batch:

Monster Giant Resin Bee

Vitality: Average

Strength: Average

Speed: Below Average

Magic: Minimal

Defense: Average

Resistance: Minor

Special: Minimal

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Resin Ball, Bite

Spawner Upkeep: 20 (10 with Blessing of Bees)

Description: A giant resin bee, the largest of mundane bees, that has gathered enough mana to become something more. Its size, already impressive for bees, has been unlocked by mana to unknown heights. When threatened, the resin balls it gathers for its nest may be thrown.

Note that it nests in burrows and tunnels bored into trees but is not capable of boring on its own. May require a wood-boring species to nest and reproduce, as well as trees large enough to match its size.

This one was certainly a monster of a bee. A black bee with massive, almost beetle-like jaws with a white stripe on its back. The bee would apparently be born the size of a soldier bee and would only grow from there, matching or eclipsing even the bumblebee soldiers. Its jaws could be used for lifting, or apparently throwing, while its stinger started approaching lancer territory by sheer size alone.

And yet, this bee had some notable downsides. It apparently couldn’t construct its own nests without assistance…and Belissar had neither a wood-boring bee nor any trees he thought would be large enough to house these things when fully grown. If he went with this option he’d likely be limited the ones born from the spawners for the foreseeable future, unless they were willing to nest in underground tunnels instead.

And that left carpenter bees. Which…might just be a very solid choice in the end. He knew now from the previous monster choice that carpenter bees could evolve into lumber bees. He wasn’t sure if they could do so without him selecting a choice…but Beero had just gone from a soldier to a battlecaster on her own so perhaps it was possible. And if it was, Bee Hybridization might be able to help with that.

Even if not, just having a bee capable of cutting through wood would be useful in and of itself. The soldier bee army already had squads helping the karnuq out with construction, if there were bees who could cut the wood then the bees might be capable of building wooden structures all on their own. And perhaps, if the option appeared again, they’d be able to prepare burrows for the giant resin bees.

Well, the choice wasn’t perfect. Belissar had really been hoping for a combat option to help the bee army with future purifications. Neither the digger bees nor the carpenter bees could do that unless they evolved into some new kind of bee. The giant resin bees might be able to by sheer size alone, but his Tower as it was couldn’t really support them, and he wasn’t sure the amount born from the spawners would provide enough of an impact.

He turned the question to the others but since none of these were monster bee types the queens didn’t really have much of an opinion. The Second First of the First was slightly curious about the giant resin bees and the carpenter bees but didn’t express a strong preference. Chief Rohsuak and Metsaitti, on the other hand, both deferred to Belissar in matters of bees, so it was up to him to make a decision.

He took a deep breath as he made his choice.

Monster Carpenter Bee spawner now available.

In the end, both giant resin bees and carpenter bees were useful, though not in the way he wanted for this choice. So the choice came down to this: he realized he couldn’t make those giant resin bees happy with the resources available to his Tower. And if they weren’t happy, neither he nor the God of Bees would be happy. So he went with the bee he knew he could provide for.

“Thank you, everyone, that’s it for today. I’ll see you for the purification later.”

The queens saluted and dispersed for the day, as well as Metsaitti. Niobee hung around as usual while Chief Rohsuak remained to help with placing the new room. Belissar moved the Apiary and the rooms on its floor up to the fifth floor, keeping them by the core, and then placed an Apothecary’s Hut, this time on the empty slot of the Orchard floor, on the far side from the shortcut wall and the Fairy Grove. He, ah, didn’t think Juosiutik’s work and the Fairy Grove would mix particularly well.

Then, he linked up the new Apothecary’s Hut to the karnuq floor’s Flower Meadow. He tried moving the shortcut entrance away from the walls so it would be more convenient for the karnuq. He found that not only could he move the entrance onto the ground, but when he reached one of the karnuq structures the shortcut entrance could jump onto the walls.

He then had a thought and quickly sent a word to Juosiutik.

“Hey, Juosiutik, sorry to interrupt but I want to place a shortcut to a new room in your house. Could Chief Rohsuak and I come over to figure out where exactly to put it.”

“Tower Keeper! Yes, of course! Whatever you need!”

Belissar nodded at that and blinked away the new rooms in his vision for a moment before turning to Chief Rohsuak. He made a grin at her.

“I figure we should ask Juosiutik where we should put the door to her new room. We probably shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

Chief Rohsuak smiled back and shook her head.

“No, we should not.”