The Bee Dungeon

The First of the Fifth watched as a honeypot finished the last round of processing for the newest honey and workers started transferring the product to their cells. She followed the first worker of the bunch and crawled over to the cell once it was full. She dipped her proboscis in and took a sip before buzzing her wings.

This honey was the best she had ever produced. Twice now the King had spread the power of the Queen of All Flowers through the fields, while the gardeners reported a successful hybrid of the mana flower and the bee balm had finally bloomed. The result was a flower that produced nectar unlike anything they had ever gathered before, so full of mana and nutrients in its base form that the First of the Fifth had initially worried if it could even be processed any further. The mana bee balm then produced this nectar in such quantities that a single one could nearly supply a basic monster bee hive all on its own, if the nutrient dense nectar could be spread out enough for the number of proboscises.

The First of the Fifth had put this through her well-sorted production lines, passing it between multiple honeypots to bring its mana content to the absolute limit with a handful of breeze and burning workers coordinating to manage the drying climate with immaculate precision. The result was the sweetest, most nourishing, and most mana dense honey her hive had ever produced, over twice as much in nearly every category as the previous best.

And yet…it was not enough. That result was simply to be expected when working with such a potent nectar. It was fundamentally no different than any honey she had made before. It took no steps on the path to greater honey she now sought. She would not even begin to approach the honey of the Queen of All Bees if she remained content with this.

She began pacing in circles as she considered what to do. Her children were not at fault, they were working to the best of their abilities and their instincts and following her instructions to the step. Every aspect of her hive, from the scouting and the foraging to the production and storage were all working at maximum efficiency. Communers placed within the very same hive, at ranges where they weren’t strictly necessary, ensured there was absolutely no delay in adjusting to any problems or changing conditions.

Which meant that the answer must lie with her. An answer that Frelis and the Fourth of the Seventh had already proven abundantly clear. Her children were already working as best they could, it was the queen’s job to break the limits of their instincts and find new paths to take. She needed to get involved.

The question was how? A queen was no better suited to honey production than a worker or a honeypot, so it was not as simple as her joining one of the lines. The Firstborn had been attempting that with the soldiers’ role and had been forced to consider alternate methods when she couldn’t keep up. So, the First of the Fifth considered the Fourth of the Seventh. She had gone to join her scouts in their role, yes, but that was not all she had done. She had gone and prepared a second hive out in the Beyond for her scouts to use. She had found a way to perform the role of a queen within the role of a scout.

Perhaps that was the answer, then? She had to determine how her abilities as queen could apply to honey production beyond simply mimicking the workers and honeypots. A way that she, and only she, could elevate that process.

There was an immediate answer. For monster bees, a queen had to imbue honey with her own mana in order to create the royal jelly necessary to raise new queens. The First of the Fifth looked at the cell of honey before her. She could easily elevate the honey to royal jelly with a simple imbuement of her mana, so she instead considered how she could do more.