The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 172: Growth and Bee-volution

A couple of days passed. After handling maddening honey with no major ill-effects, Belissar tried every honey he had access to. Burning honey was the spiciest thing he had ever eaten but it hadn’t burned him like it had Metsaitti, so he managed to create burning spell-bees as well, along with sedating spell-bees and ground spell-bees that could “fly” through the ground. The Fourth of the Eighth even gave him a tray of shocking honey, which created all sorts of wonderful static shocks in his mouth. But he came out of it with yellow lightning spell-bees zipping around, ready to zap an intruder like Beero’s lightning stings.

And Belissar was not the only one growing over those days…

***

Chief Rohsuak watched as Metsaitti took a stance with a spare spear, one formed from the bones of an Underway animal. In front of him, another hunter hoisted a new creation, a huge vaguely rectangular slab of iron. It was crude, uneven, and rough around the edges, little more than a mostly flat hunk of metal with a handle looped through two holes drilled through it.

Toivenaq, the karnuq smith who once tried to offer his grandfather’s work at the Shrine of Bees, winced as he saw his handiwork on the field. Chief Rohsuak shook her head, then patted the boy on the shoulder and gave him a smile.

“It is only your first attempt, you will grow with time. For now, watch and see what you have accomplished already.”

The boy nodded, though she could tell her words hadn’t gotten through. She let out a quiet sigh, for it couldn’t be helped. Toivenaq’s family had been among those they had lost and since they couldn’t do much blacksmithing on the move, he hadn’t had the chance to fully learn his parents’ craft. A story far too common for the karnuq.

So, he was starting from scratch. Chief Rohsuak had lent a hand, helping fire the bricks needed to construct the forge and then starting and modulating the fire as necessary for these first attempts. While she would normally prefer for the karnuq not to depend on her powers, the situation was somewhat urgent. The latest battle had proven that the karnuq’s arms and armor were no longer sufficient for their needs. A nomadic hunter carrying all their possessions on their back had strict restrictions as to the weight and size of their gear, and could simply run away from any threat they weren’t equipped to handle. The sworn defender of a Tower, on the other hand, could not turn from the fight.

So, she volunteered to help this time and rush new armor into production. Well, it was all Toivenaq could do in such a short time to just process the ore into something of an iron slab. Now, it was time to see if that would be enough.

Metsaitti lunged forward and thrust his spear. The tip struck the iron with a clang…and bounced off. The bone chipped. The iron did not.

Chief Rohsuak gave Toivenaq another smile.

“See? It may not be what you wished to make, but a slab of iron is still quite the improvement over our current shields. It is what we need, and will suffice while you hone your craft.”

Toivenaq gave another slow nod, but this time she could see a spark light in his eyes. He would be fine.

And if his work panned out, so would the hunters when the next big purification came around…

***

The First of the Fifth stood on top of one of her trays, looking down at her hive working below. Rows upon rows of honey production lines stood before the gaps between the trays, workers blowing bubbles as the foragers brought them more nectar and pollen. But now, now there was a substantial gap in the rows, where single honeypots took the place of entire production lines, blowing multiple bubbles on their abdomens all at once.

Overall honey production was already up by nearly thirty percent compared to previously, with no drop in quality. In fact, quality had steadily risen across the board, and the First of the Fifth was now delivering King-quality honey to the other hives as her supplies had outgrown the King’s daily tribute. More and more honeypots evolved each day as well, by the end of the week she’d see a fifty percent increase, while honeypots would start to fill in the mixed-nectar lines from the cross-pollinating foragers.

She looked out towards the output section, where her Second Daughter was prepping deliveries for the other hives. Workers tied the Fourth of the Seventh’s harnesses to soldiers so that they could carry entire trays at once if necessary. Today, though, they were carrying smaller loads, each lifting a smaller chunk of honeycomb. Yet, their deliveries were no less precious…and would be far more impactful.

Honey from a cross-pollinated water lily. A new flax flower cross-pollinated for the first time. Honey from a vine that grew in dark tunnels that blinded whoever drank it. A honey-equivalent made from the juice of a mushroom that glowed bright, grown from a rotting mana flower.

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Thanks to the honeypots, she had enough mana-dense honey from each for a queen to evolve. She had met with the hive of hives and the King, together they had determined which of the queens would undertake evolutions. Her Second Daughter now sent out her soldiers to deliver the honey to the chosen queens. With any luck, the hive of hives would have a new round of queens to mass produce the new honey types…and the bees that would result.

Satisfied that all was well on that front, the First of the Fifth flew over to her experimental zone. There, she turned her attention to four special cells, isolated from the others.

One was from some sort of cold flower that had sprouted in the Fairy Grove. The First of the Fifth already knew this honey could be used to raise new bee types, as evidenced by the workers with frosty mist condensing around their wings who were now filling more cells with the honey. Like with the burning honey, this honey lowered the temperature of the overall hive, and she had just about reached the amount where anymore would have detrimental effects on the whole. Still, the Third of the Sixth had successfully evolved with burning honey, so there was no reason another queen couldn't do the same with this one.

The hive of hives had chosen not to for a simple reason: after evolving, the Third of the Sixth found the temperature of the Apiary uncomfortable, and only flourished after moving to the new Lava Field. The cold flower could apparently sprout and bloom in the Fairy Grove, but the room as a whole stayed at a similar climate to the Apiary and Flower Meadow. As such, there was currently no place in the King's realm that would suit the bees that evolved on this honey. Until such a place appeared or was created by the King, no queen would commit her whole hive to this evolution. So, for now, the First of the Fifth would keep the honey from this flower for use in other experiments.

A trickier one was from the Underworld Phlox. The mana it gave off was…uncomfortable. It made her feel cold in a way even the cold mana flower had not, like the very life was being sucked from her bodies. The medicinal workers she had tending the brood also confirmed that it was bad for the health of the brood, and so insisted it be isolated away from the nurseries. The First of the Fifth was currently at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it. Her instincts warned her that it would be dangerous for a queen to submerge herself in the amount required for an evolution. That, along with the brood tenders’ warnings, prevented her from trying to lay an egg in it. She would not sacrifice a potential queen’s life on such a risky experiment until she knew more about what she was dealing with.

The other two were more familiar. There was one cell filled to the brim with honey from the gravilion flower, with numerous gravity workers clinging to the edges of the cell and beating their wings. Their wings glowed with purple mana, causing the air to distort around them in the opposite direction to the distortions caused by the honey itself, preventing it from affecting the hive around it. The other cell oozed and pulsed as the slime flower honey within moved with almost a mind of its own. A slime of honey surrounded the cell in turn, with several slime bee workers combining their bodies to contain the cell and keep its honey in motion. The honey had a concerning tendency to try and condense down into some sort of core if it were not kept from doing so.

Neither of these honeys felt as dangerous as that of the Underworld Phlox, but each came with their own unique challenges. Challenges that required numerous workers of their own type to deal with, and that grew more difficult to handle as the amount of honey in one place increased. Even the First of the Fifth hadn’t felt confident in gathering queen evolving amount of the honey until the honeypots were able to increase the average mana-density and so decrease the amount of honey necessary.

As such, the hive of hives decided not to give this honey to any of the existing queens. The First of the Fifth crawled over first to the honey cell. She laid an egg directly into the body of one of the slime workers, who carried the egg into the cell. The slime workers then slowed down the circulation ever so slightly, allowing it to condense on the egg at just the right level not to harm it. The First of the Fifth then made her way to the gravity cell, her gravity workers doing their best to the mitigate the gravitational fields pulling her this way and that. She managed to resist the increasing pull on her body long enough to lay an egg in the center, which the gravity workers then worked to ensure would not be crushed or torn apart.

The hive of hives agreed that it would best to raise new queens directly on these honeys, so that they would be born with the characteristics necessary to handle them right from the start.

The First of the Fifth took one final look at the Underworld Flox cell before returning to her business. She’d find a way to use that honey, but not today. The hive of hives would be welcoming plenty of new queens soon enough.

***

The Fourth of the Seventh’s second daughter buzzed and spun in circles. Her new hive was finally completed, and now she was able to move into the new room. It wasn’t the Beyond like her queen mother, but she knew her hive wasn’t big enough for that yet. Her other queen mother had made sure she knew that, and that she needed to raise a big and strong hive before she could scout beyond the Realm of the King.

But that was ok! The King’s Realm had plenty to explore even within its halls. Like this room, the Fairy Grove! It was a room that wanted to be explored but also didn’t! It pulled and drew bees deeper inside, but never wanted them to go where they wanted to go. It wanted them to loop and turn and end up in new corners they hadn’t seen before.

It was amazing! Every time her workers came back they had new stories for her about a new part of the room they hadn’t even intended to visit! They came back with nectar from a different flower than they had wanted to gather from, the room leading to them to a different one of the many flowers the gardeners had planted with each foraging trip.

And now, she was living here! She would have so many stories to share with her queen mother the next time she returned. She knew it!

So, for now, it was time to go to work, and make sure her hive grew as big and strong as her other queen mother taught her! She began to lay her eggs as quickly as possible, hoping to finish up before the next round of foragers returned so she could listen to their reports in detail. As such, she didn’t notice the wave of multi-colored mana drifting through her hive, and wrapping around some of the newly laid eggs…