The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 124: A New Round of New-Bees

Chapter 124: A New Round of New-Bees

The Fourth of the Eighth stood in front of a cell in her hive. The cell was crackling, with tiny-lightnings occasionally crossing the wax cover and zapping any bee that got too close. It was not particularly popular among her workers, but the Fourth of the Eighth couldn’t take her eyes off of it.

The honey made by the soldiers was…strange. It looked like honey, acted like honey, and tasted like honey. By all accounts, it was honey. And yet…there was something ephemeral about it. Quite literally. On her first attempts to store it, she found the honey evaporated away if left alone for too long. Mana compromised far more of its structure than mana honey made by the normal process, and so would unravel over time.

It was a problem, as the honey needed to last long enough for an egg to hatch and a larva to morph into full adult worker. The Fourth of the Eighth had to conduct numerous experiments to get it to work. Adding more mana to the honey extended its lifespan but with diminishing returns, and adding too much would only accelerate its decomposition. Mixing it with regular honey just diluted them both until the lightning honey faded away. Eventually, she had her workers consume it outright and reprocess it. This managed to produce a stable honey with some amount of tiny lightnings, but in far lower quantities than the original lightning honey. It was also unpleasant for her workers, many of whom continued to tremble even after finishing the process.

But it had succeeded, and, with time and effort, they had managed to accumulate enough to fill a worker cell. The very cell she now watched with every moment she had to spare.

Had it been enough? Had they provided enough honey for a worker to grow? Had they maintained enough of the lightning to change the worker? Would the egg and the larva survive growing in such honey? Would any of these efforts have any payoff?

She did not know. She couldn’t, until the brood growing with this cell finally stirred…or failed to. It had already spent longer under its cap than a normal worker, causing the Fourth of the Eighth to pace around. She knew from speaking with some of the other queens that bees raised on special honeys took longer to grow, but she could not help but worry. Just when would this worker…

She paused. She thought…she saw the cap shift a bit. But she fluttered her wings and then groomed her antennae. She had been deceived before, but every previous time it had simply been a trick of the light, the shadow of a passing worker.

Until she saw it again.

Her eyes instantly locked to the spot in question. There, she saw cracks form in the wax cover as it bulged out slightly.

She nearly leapt to tear open the cap herself, had her workers not beat her to the punch. They ignored the tiny lightnings jumping to their hairs as they chewed open the cap, freeing the bee within.

And then, out crawled a new, healthy, fully-formed worker. A worker whose yellow hairs seemed a bit brighter, whose wings shimmered with dancing yellow lights, and who had tiny lightning jump between her antennae.

The Fourth of the Eighth slowly crawled to the new worker, who began a salute dance. The Fourth of the Eighth brushed the worker with her antennae, getting a tiny zap from the lightning in the process, pulling her from her shock.

This…was a new worker. A special worker, raised on special honey. Her special worker, a member of her own hive.

They had done it.

A moment later, she broke out into a happy dance of her own.

The First of the Fifth watched her communers give their report dances. So, the Fourth of the Eighth had apparently raised a new kind of worker with help from the wounded soldiers? With honey that came not from any extant flower in the King’s realm but with the lightning that Beero and her comrades commanded?

That was impressive. Even the First of the Fifth had not considered such a method…and may not have attempted it even if she had. The lack of supporting flowers would hamper scaling up a hive based on such honey. But…now that the Fourth of the Eighth had successfully raised a new type of worker who presumably would be able to produce new types of honey with normal mana flower nectar…it might just be possible.

She would have to reconsider her evaluation of the Fourth of the Eighth. She had considered giving the lastborn a bit of assistance to bring her up to par with the others, now that she had gone and created a new type of bee all on her own the First of the Fifth would accelerate those plans. A new type of bee needed as much support as needed to spread.

More immediately, there would now be three new bee types to present to the King today, in addition to the two standing before her now. The First of the Fifth instructed the communers to send word to the Fourth of the Eighth, inviting her to join the First of the Fifth in greeting the King…

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Belissar made his way over to the First of the Fifth’s hive, hearing there were new bee types to see. The First of the Fifth was waiting for him there, along with another queen. After happily greeting him, she danced towards the other queen.

“This is Fourth of the Eighth, also has new bee to show.”

The other queen flew unsteadily as she greeted him. Belissar gave her a smile.

“Great work, I can’t wait to see the new one.”

The Fourth of the Eighth nearly dropped from the air, causing Belissar to reach his hand out. She landed on his hand…then quickly buzzed her wings and took off as quickly as she could. Belissar just shook his head and chuckled.

“It’s alright.”

He held out his other hand to the First of the Fifth as well. She nearly dropped out of the air too, but managed to catch herself. Then she slowly and gingerly hovered forward until she very slowly came to rest in his hand. His smile grew.

“Let’s see the new bees then?”

The First of the Fifth saluted, then turned to face her bees and danced for them to come forward. The first was a worker bee with purple hair. Beyond that, she seemed normal at first glance. At least, until Belissar focused on her more closely.

Gravity Monster Bee Worker

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Average

Magic: Minimal+

Defense: Minimal+

Resistance: Minimal+

Special: Minor

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Minor Gravity Manipulation, Sacrificial Strike, Brood Offspring

Description: A monster bee worker raised on honey infused with Gravity attribute mana. Can generate small gravitational fields, which it generally uses to carry more nectar and pollen, as well as modifying its own honey and wax.

Belissar tilted his head. He vaguely knew from the gravilion flower that gravity had something to do with making things lighter and heavier, but that was still the extent of his knowledge. Therefore…he didn’t really know what this bee could do, and the description didn’t really help him figure it out. Something about carrying more nectar and pollen…so maybe the bee would make the nectar and pollen it carried lighter?

Well, he’d keep an eye on it and watch it in action. Maybe that would shed some light on what gravity actually was. But either way, it was a new bee, which alone was enough to make Belissar happy.

So, it was great that there were two more! The next worker bee was light blue and black, and glowing slightly, with smooth and solid-looking chitin. Her chitin was also oozing drops of liquid, and she was carrying a small ball of honey with her front two legs.

Slime Bee Worker

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Average

Magic: Minor

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Minor

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Slime Core, Sacrificial Strike, Brood Offspring

Description: A monster bee that acts as a slime core. Will surround itself in a type of slime-honey to act as a slime body. Even if the slime body is destroyed, the slime bee will survive and reform if its bee core escapes. This one is a worker, using its slime body to help gather nectar and pollen, and to harden into wax.

Belissar’s eyes widened slightly. So that was where all the slime flower nectar had gone…and boy had it paid off. Now, instead of slimes formed by the flower, he had a bee that could make a slime around itself!

…well, Belissar didn’t really know enough about slimes to know what the difference was, but he figured he’d like a bee slime better. And it was nice to know that his Tower would still have slimes of a sort even if the bees gathering prevented the slime flower from ever accumulating enough nectar. He was very much curious to see the slime bee in action.

Finally, the Fourth of the Eighth managed to eke out a dance and the final worker came forward. The First of the Fifth danced as well.

“This one raised by Fourth of the Eighth.”

The Fourth of the Eighth quickly began tapping out a dance.

“W-With help! F-From soldiers!”

And looking at this next bee, Belissar had a guess as to which soldiers helped.

Shocking Monster Bee Worker

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Average

Magic: Minimal+

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minimal+

Special: Minor

Notable Skills: Shocking Poison Sting, Lightning Resistance, Sacrificial Strike, Brood Offspring

Description: A monster bee worker raised on honey infused with Lightning attribute mana. Lightning infuses both its body and its venom, boosting both its ability to gather pollen and to defend itself. Stings will cause minor electric shocks.

“So, I’m guessing Beero and her friends helped you with this one?”

“Y-Yes!”

Belissar nodded and smiled.

“Great work you both. I’m excited to see how they work.”

Belissar chuckled as the two queens and their three workers took off and began zipping “King best king!” dances. Then he rubbed his chin.

The gravity and slime bees were somewhat expected, as that was Belissar’s hope with the special flowers in the first place. The shocking bee was not, for there were, as of yet, no lightning flowers in the Tower.

And yet, here the bee was, which must have evolved with honey created by Beero and the others through magic. Which caused Belissar to realize something big.

He didn’t need to wait for new flowers to raise new bees. If he had a way to create special honey types without a flower, they could then raise new bees. He looked down at his hand and formed a honeycomb pattern out of his mana.

All he had to do, then, was figure out how to make new kinds of honey types…