Chapter 49: Bee-musing Choices

    The next day, as Belissar woke up, he looked around for Niobee. He frowned when he didn’t see her, then paused as he saw a soldier bee hanging around his bed. He rubbed his eyes as the soldier bee shook herself and began to fly before him.

    “King!”

    His eyes widened as he caught sight of her antenna and remembered what had happened the night before. He then smiled.

    “Good morning, Niobee.”

    Right, Niobee had grown dramatically. He had wondered about that at first, but put it aside to treat the wounded, honor the fallen, and then celebrate the victory. But now that he thought about it, he guessed it made sense. Niobee was listed as the Conduit and connected more deeply to the Tower than any of the other bees, Belissar guessed, so perhaps she would grow as the Tower did? Well, in any case, Belissar figured it was a good thing and so moved on to the next order of business.

    Taking stock of the Tower’s growth.

    The Tower had grown another floor to become a two-story structure. It now achieved the bare minimum to be called a tower in the first place, though it was still shorter than the surrounding trees. Belissar thought for a moment if he should keep calling it a tower at all, especially since he refused to call himself a Tower Lord. The bear people called it a “Sacred Den” while the Tower’s own letters referred to it as a dungeon. But, at the same time, Belissar thought “Tower of the Gods” was still an appropriate name given the role of the God of Bees in all of this. He shrugged and moved on as he rose from the bed and grabbed some honeycomb to eat.

    He had bigger things than the name to think about.

    Dungeon Status:

    Patron: God of Bees

    Floors: 1 (Rooms: 2/2), 2 (Rooms: 0/2)

    Mana: 0/300

    DP: 664

    Available Monster Types: Monster Queen Bee, Monster Bee Soldier

    Available Room Types: Flower Meadow, Apiary

    Available Room Features: Basic Pit Trap, Sticky Honey Trap, Basic Resource Plants, Bee Memorial (Limit Reached)

    Core Corruption: 0%

    Dungeon Master: Belissar

    Dungeon Conduit: Niobee

    Perks: Blessing of Bees, Bee Breeder, Monster Bee Soldier Strength Boost (Minimal), Monster Bee Soldier Speed Boost (Minimal)

    Current Missions: Help ten challengers receive full blessings

    One perk selection, two random reward choices available

    And now for the moment of truth. Belissar opened up the new rewards from the latest purification.

    Please select a perk:

    - Monster Bee Soldier Defense Boost (Small) (Rarity: Common)

    - Cross-Pollination (Rarity: Uncommon)

    - Boosted Beehouses (Rarity: Uncommon)

    The soldier bee defense boost was pretty straightforward, so Belissar focused on the other two perks.

    The point was, Belissar guessed a new room would offer more options than a room feature. Not to mention that with the Resource Plants room feature, a new room might offer new flower types for his bees. It just seemed an altogether better choice to him. And if the next reward selection was the same, he could always just pick room feature then.

    After he looked over the new choices, he guessed.

    Orchard

    Type: Nature, Resource

    Innate Features: Fruit Trees

    Mana upkeep: 10

    Description: A farm dedicated to fruit-bearing trees. Decent for Nature type monsters and features. Excellent for resource production.

    Orchards were a natural companion for apiaries, at least outside of Towers. Belissar figured that wouldn’t be much different here. An Orchard would presumably come with fruit-bearing trees...which of course, meant more flowers that his bees could gather from. Additionally, they would provide more resources that he could trade with the bear people.

    ...assuming the fruit produced wasn’t also some sort of magical treasure, that was.

    On the other hand, though, an Orchard may not assist all that much with the defense. Belissar didn’t know how dense the trees would be, but he guessed they wouldn’t be as tightly packed as in a forest. So, would it offer anything more than the Flower Meadow or Apiary in that aspect?

    Hedge Maze

    Type: Nature, Labyrinth

    Innate Features: None

    Mana upkeep: 5

    Description: A maze made of tall and dense hedges. Beware of ambush by root and branch. Excellent for Nature-type monsters and features.

    A maze made of tall bushes would be an excellent battleground for his bees. They could hide within the branches, or fly over the maze to attack at will. And, depending on what sort of bushes the hedges were, maybe the maze would even produce flowers the bees could gather from.

    But such an environment had downsides as well. If the roof of the maze was open to his bees, then maybe it might be open to a flying shade as well, in which case the Hedge Maze wouldn’t be much better than the rooms he already had. And, even considering a ground-based shade, a tight and restricted maze might work against his bees, like when the wolf shades in a Pit Trap used the close environment to defend themselves.

    Although, thinking of the Pit Trap, would it be possible to set the entire hedge on fire? That could be a powerful defense if so, though it would mean none of his bees could set up their hives there. It was something to consider, at least.

    Dirt Tunnels

    Type: Ground, Labyrinth

    Innate Features: None

    Mana upkeep: 5

    Description: A network of tunnels dug directly into the ground. Soft walls mean new tunnels may be dug by defenders and invaders alike, and that plants and fungus may take root with ease. Excellent environment for Ground type monsters and features.

    Finally, there were the dirt tunnels he had seen before. These didn’t have many special features, but did have two notable advantages over all the other options. One was that they were underground, with no open sky. While that would work against his bees if they faced ground-based enemies, it would help them immensely against another flying shade that could outrun them in the air.

    The other advantage was that the bear people had come from underground and brought with them crops and even flowers they had gathered there. At the present moment, Belissar couldn’t use any of them as he had no place to put them, but that might change with this room. Likewise, if he were to acquire some monsters that could operate in the Dirt Tunnels, they could also scout the tunnels the bear people came from. His current bees couldn’t see well enough in the dark to venture down there at the moment.

    Of course, that meant they would also have trouble fighting in the Dirt Tunnels should he choose that option. He would be all but forced to acquire a new monster type if he wanted to make use of that environment...which might come back to bite him if the next reward choice didn’t include monsters.

    And that meant it was time to pick the next reward.