The Bee Dungeon

With a new plan set out, Belissar decided that his next move would be an expansion purification. He needed either an extra floor or room slot for the planned mini-volcano room, and more options might provide either a Fire-type room or additional Fire-type features to add to the room. Additionally, Chief Rohsuak let him know she had received additional blessings from the God of Fire and had grown stronger than she was during the emergency purification. She claimed she was not back in her prime, but launching another fire attack like she did wouldn’t be an issue, particularly if Belissar fed her more mana honeycomb.

That went a long way to reassuring Belissar, but he decided to wait on two more conditions. First, he wanted to give the Flower Meadow queens a chance to raise some lancers. Next, he wanted to test Beero and the wounded lightning soldiers’ attacks, and ensure they could be evacuated safely afterwards. He figured that those two new attacks, along with the reassurance that Chief Rohsuak could assist them again, should be enough to handle another expansion purification.

Additionally, now that the Apiary queens were delivering honey to the Flower Meadow the number of Maddening soldiers and sprayers was rising. The digging queen’s hive was just about stable, so she’d be able to start contributing some honey as well. He might start seeing some sort of digging soldier soon, which would allow the soldier bee army to attack within the Dirt Tunnels. The bumblebees as well continued growing their hives. The third floor Flower Meadow was now filled with bumblebees happily at work…and the bumblebee queens had now started to grow larger.

The First of the Fifth’s hive was hard at work cross-pollinating the other plants as well. Maybe he’d see a mana flower variant of the sleepy chamomile soon? The other plants too, though since they hadn’t resulted in new bee types Belissar wasn’t sure if a more magical variant would either. He’d just have to wait and see.

Still, all of that would take time, so upon consulting with the bees and Chief Rohsuak they decided lancers and a successful lightning attack would be sufficient to proceed. Anything else that occurred in that time would be a bonus.

And it may not be that long at all. The Orchard hive had already finished prototypes of woven slings, and the soldier bee army was now practicing moving the wounded soldiers around. Belissar still wouldn’t risk it against a faster shade, but if they got some sort of turtle variant they could test out the attack as soon as today.

And indeed, when he triggered the daily purification…the moment came. This time, a small turtle shade appeared, about height of his thighs instead of his head. Belissar considered the soldier bees’ training from earlier today and hesitantly gave his permission. Today, they would see how Beero and company’s lightning would fare…

Beero’s antennae twitched as the wind blew past her, causing her remaining pair of wings to flutter. The soldiers holding her up released some calming pheromones and mana, causing her antennae to droop a bit.

She had mixed feelings right now as she swayed about in the air, held only by woven stems that wobbled about. On the one leg, having her sisters carry her was…not the most comfortable of situations. It was a stark reminder of her current helplessness, of all that she had lost and could no longer do. And the fact that she had to take two of her sisters out of the fight, tasked with carrying her about like a piece of pollen, was…less than ideal. She would have never have proposed it had the King not ordered it himself.