The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 25: Bee Resourceful!

Basic Resource Plants selected.

Belissar didn’t have much trouble with this decision. Hidden Wax Traps just weren’t impactful enough, especially since the monster bee soldiers were able to handle shades on their own. Beehives were more tempting but weren’t a priority at the moment. He already had plenty of honey production at present, honeycomb was beginning to accumulate in the farmhouse’s storage jars, even. The slight boost in brood growth would have been useful but the Flower Meadow hives had already developed to the point of producing monster bee soldiers, while the Apiary already had a bunch of beehouses. More beehouses just meant more of what he already had.

All in all, Belissar figured that the extra and possibly new resources from Basic Resource Plants would be the most beneficial to both him and the bees. More resources would increase the things Belissar could make and thus expand his contributions to the Tower. More plants meant more flowers and more nectar for the bees to gather, which might end up necessary before expanding the hives in any case. The donation of honey from the Apiary hives to the Flower Meadow ones implied there had been a shortfall, after all. He had been worried about that, but fortunately the Flower Meadow queens were birthing more workers now, so hopefully that wouldn't be an issue going forward.

With his choice made, Belissar focused on the Flower Meadow. As he did, he noticed several spots shining across the field. He focused on those and found they were the mana flowers.

Compatible plant: Mana Flower. Upgrade to resource plant node?

Mana Upkeep: 5 per Mana Flower node

Belissar nearly confirmed immediately. The bees loved those flowers, and Niobee had informed him the flowers had been crucial for the development of the Flower Meadow hives. But he figured he should hold on, at least until he checked out what other nodes he could do. After all, each Mana Flower node cost more upkeep than enabling mana flowers for the entire field, and the same amount as the Flower Meadow itself, so it wasn’t the cheapest thing he could do. He double checked his available mana:

Mana: 69/200

Enabling mana flowers for the Flower Meadow and adding the two soldier bee spawners in the Apiary had cut it a bit. He certainly had enough to add some Mana Flower nodes, but he could find himself out of free mana if he spent it haphazardly. So, he took a look to see what other resource nodes he could add...

- Basic Healing Herbs (Mana Upkeep: 3 per node)

- Basic Poisonous Flowers (Mana Upkeep: 3 per node)

- Basic Textile Flowers (Mana Upkeep: 3 per node)

- Mana Flower (Mana Upkeep: 5 per node)

Belissar smiled. It turned out resource plants not only had one, but nearly all of the different resources he had guessed, plus a few more. He could gain access to both medicine and textiles with the right nodes. Poisonous flowers also made sense, since quite a few common flowers could be toxic. Belissar wasn’t as versed in the ways of poison, nor did he have any of the tools necessary to handle and process it, but if he did manage to figure something out the flowers could represent another weapon to use against the Hunger. Presuming poison actually worked on them but the bee stings seemed to hurt the shades, so Belissar figured it may be worth a shot. Worse came to worse, poisonous flowers were still flowers, and Belissar had observed bees gathering nectar from them the same as any other in the past.

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And that was only for the Flower Meadow...

Available Resource Plants for Apiary:

- Basic Healing Herbs (Mana Upkeep: 3 per node)

- Basic Poisonous Flowers (Mana Upkeep: 3 per node)

- Mana Flower (Mana Upkeep: 5 per node)

Belissar tilted his head at that. Seemed there wasn’t anything new for the Apiary. Less options, even, as textile flowers weren’t available there. But he just shrugged. It...made sense that a Flower Meadow would have more plant options than an Apiary, he supposed. Bees seemed to like most flowering plants, after all, so perhaps there wasn’t anything particularly unique to the Apiary itself?

But it was no matter, for the Flower Meadow options were more than enough. All in all, this had been an excellent purchase. Now he just needed to figure out how many of each node he wanted.

Belissar decided he would test one of each node in both of the rooms. He also enabled mana flowers for the Apiary, leaving him with forty one mana remaining when it was all said and done. He figured the bees of both rooms would appreciate extra flowers, and doubling up on healing herbs and poisonous flowers could prove useful if he needed medicine or poison stockpiles in the future. He was fine with one textile node for now, since he was the only person in the Tower who could actually make use of it at present.

He placed the nodes in both rooms around the hives and the spawners so the bees would have quick trips to each. He then watched with interest as circles of light began to glow on the ground, followed by new plants going from brand new shoots to fully budded flowers in seconds. His eyes went wide he watched the display of the Tower’s power once again. It was still an incredible thing to see.

Belissar walked out of the farmhouse over to the Apiary nodes. He stood and stared as he saw the small patches of flowers that had just grown out of nothing, for it was even more impressive when viewed from the ground with his own eyes.

The mana flower node was particularly impressive. A lone mana flower was a subtle thing that blended in with the flowers around it, but it was different when a bunch of them gathered together. Their subtle glow blended together, creating little shimmers of light like the twinkling stars in the sky, or like the sun reflecting off a flowing river. Belissar walked over to the node and could feel the warmth of mana suffuse the area around it. The Apiary bees swarmed around the node, yet remained at a distance from it. Belissar smiled at the sight.

“Go ahead, I made it for you all.”

The bees buzzed and danced in gratitude before swarming over the flowers. Belissar chuckled and left them to it as he looked over the other two nodes. The healing herb node was more leafy green; Belissar felt it could be easily overlooked with all the flowers around it. Meanwhile the poisonous flower node was bright and colorful. Both contained a few different species, including some Belissar didn’t immediately recognize. He nodded in approval and walked over to the healing herb node.

He noticed some of the herbs seemed to be glowing slightly, and he reached out to touch them. He only touched them lightly, but they pulled out of the soil with hardly any effort, almost removing themselves. Belissar glanced at the herb now in his hand and rubbed his chin. The Apiary beehives also pushed honeycomb out where it would be easily harvested, even before they had bees or the beehouse trays, so Belissar guessed this was similar.

“Well, that’s convenient. Should help with the textiles, I hope.”

He wasn’t looking forward to trying to process and weave fabric completely by hand, after all. In any case, he left the non-glowing herbs for the bees, nodding at them so they wouldn’t hesitate to visit the new flowers, before making his way to the Flower Meadow. He smirked slightly to himself as he thought that the bees were probably waiting for him there too.

His smirk only grew as he stepped into the Flower Meadow and found the bees hovering around the new nodes here as well, waiting for him. He shook his head and chuckled as he walked over to them and gave them permission to gather. He chuckled some more as he watched them swarm over the new flowers. It turned out monster bees were the most polite people he had ever known.

In any case, he made his way to the textile plant node. He found a bunch of flax flowers there, several of which were glowing. He went ahead and harvested them...and sighed. The plants pulled off all as one piece...which meant it was up to Belissar and his bare handful of tools to process them into useful fibers. He shook his head. He supposed it was technically better this way, as the seeds and other parts of the plants could be useful as well, but this was a job he never particularly enjoyed.

Still, he would enjoy having an undamaged tunic, so he set about harvesting what he could before taking them back to the Apiary. The sooner he got started, the sooner he’d get it over with.

Still, he couldn’t help but grin as he walked past the other nodes and saw clouds of bees flying to and from the new flowers. He supposed he should take on the new work as enthusiastically as they did...