The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 50: Bee-fuddled

Please select a reward:

- Common Perk Choice

- Uncommon Room Feature Choice (At least one uncommon or better option)

- Uncommon Monster Choice (At least one uncommon or better option)

So, it turned out the second round of choices wouldn’t be the same after all. That was fortunate in this case, since this set included monsters. Or Belissar could go with the feature choice. But Belissar was pretty certain of his choice this time. Traps were powerful in the right circumstance but weren’t particularly flexible. At the end of the day, it would be his bees facing the enemy when all else failed.

Please select a monster:

- Monster Bee Captain (Rarity: Uncommon, Type: Bee)

- Monster Bee Sprayer (Rarity: Uncommon, Type: Bee)

- Monster Mason Bee (Rarity: Common, Type: Bee, Ground)

Belissar couldn’t help but groan. Unfortunately, monster digger bees did not appear this time. If they had, he could have selected them to go with Dirt Tunnels, as well as to scout the tunnel used by the bear people. But he was not so fortunate and had now learned the choices would not necessarily repeat themselves. He could not make plans based on something he had seen before.

Which meant he now needed to make plans based on a bunch of new choices.

Monster Bee Captain

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minor

Speed: Average

Magic: Minor

Defense: Minor

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Minor

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Death Blow, Brood Offspring, Brood Commander

Evolves From: Monster Bee Soldier

Description: A monster bee soldier specialized in command. More intelligent than normal and able to command and buff squads of soldier bees. Not much stronger than a normal soldier, but a key part in improving the sophistication and coordination of the hive. In addition to existing monster bee soldiers evolving, a few monster bee soldiers may be born as captains.

Monster Bee Sprayer

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Average

Magic: Minor

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Small

Notable Skills: Toxic Spray, Death Burst, Brood Offspring

Evolves From: Monster Bee Soldier

Description: This monster bee soldier has evolved a deadlier venom that can affect a target through exterior contact. It has replaced its stinger with a pore capable of spraying its venom at range, making it dangerous at a distance. It gives up some of its strength, bulk, and its stinger in exchange. In addition to existing monster bee soldiers evolving, a few monster bee soldiers may be born as sprayers.

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Monster Mason Bee

Vitality: Minimal+

Strength: Minimal+

Speed: Average

Magic: Minimal

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Minimal

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Mud Pack

Spawner Upkeep: 1

Description: A mason bee that has accumulated enough Ground mana to become something more. Capable of forming mud and other chewable materials into basic structures.

Belissar frowned and rubbed his chin. Maybe the mason bees would be able to see in the dark? They also mentioned Ground mana like the digger bees did. The problem being that Belissar wasn’t sure of that. Additionally, the mason bees were regular bee-sized and were not a brood offspring that the monster bee queens could lay eggs for.

The captains and the sprayers, on the other hand, would improve his existing hives and give them new options. The bees had already shown how much they could improve with training, so how much might they improve if they had dedicated leaders? Or how powerful would the army become with sprayers that could attack from a distance? A dangerous shade like the first big wolf or the lightning bird might be a lot easier to handle if they could poison it without ever putting a bee in danger.

But, neither of those options would be any more capable of operating in the Dirt Tunnels as his current bees. If he was going to go with one of those, he would need to rethink selecting Dirt Tunnels, as he would have no bee specialized for that environment. And he would have no new ways of gathering information about his surroundings. He could feel the Hunger at the edge of the expanded purified territory, so it seemed he hadn’t made contact with any other Towers above ground, but there was still the underground path to deal with. Just how exactly was he supposed to figure out what was down there now...

Belissar froze. He had an idea. A simple, straightforward idea. An idea so simple and straightforward he had to wonder why exactly it had taken until now to think of it.

Why didn’t he just ask the bear people? The people who had already traveled through that very tunnel he was worried about?

He took a deep breath as he felt his heart begin to pound. No, he knew why he hadn’t thought of it. Because up until now, he hadn’t trusted them. How could he? The number of people he had ever trusted could be counted on one hand, and all three of them were dead. Every other person he had ever met had either deceived him, stolen from him, hurt him, or ignored him entirely. He had no desire to rely on anyone other than his bees.

But now, he had no choice. If he wanted to know what was beyond the influence of his Tower, if he wanted to know exactly how close the closest Tower Lord was, he had no options but to ask the bear people, wait for the next monster choice, or hope that mason bees could operate underground. And, if he put aside his beating heart and thought about it, it was a better idea to ask the bear people regardless. Better to find out how worried he should be and then choose his next monster, rather than the other way around.

He took another deep breath. He didn’t want to ask these people anything more than he had to...but if he thought about it, they had been different from the villagers and the Tower Lords. They had agreed to his requests. They had not touched his bees. And Chief Rohsuak had taught him magic, even.

He held out his hand and his mana coalesced in the air, forming the honeycomb pattern and then a floating sphere of honey.

Chief Rohsuak had not lied to him. It was thanks to her instructions that he gained this ability. It was thanks to her that he managed to save the wounded soldiers.

Belissar felt his heart beat calm after that. He took one last deep breath and let the tension leave his body while he exhaled. He owed Chief Rohsuak some honeycomb and mana flowers just as payment for the training. He owed her more when he considered that she had saved the life of his bees with her teachings. He was still wary...but he felt he could trust her with a question like this. After all, the bear people were living here now, too. It would make sense for them to warn him of any impending danger, right?

Belissar got up with a grunt and started to gather some honeycomb and flowers. It was time to do what he should have done a while ago.

Unfortunately for Belissar, Chief Rohsuak had specifically agreed not to come to his Tower for the next few days. That had made sense when Belissar had originally planned to expand his Tower before resuming the magic lessons, but now he needed to speak with her before expanding his Tower. So, he had no choice but to go to her.

So, he gathered up his things and made his way out of the Tower. Niobee followed, along with a good bunch of the soldier bees. He did feel a lot better when they came with him.

He traveled towards the bear people’s camp, along the small trail they had cut when visiting his Tower. Soon, he arrived and found the bear people making camp. They were setting up their tents and getting a fire started. Belissar tilted his head at that, since he thought they had done all this the first day they arrived.

Belissar’s own arrival had not gone unnoticed. The bear folk began to back away, eyeing the monster bees hovering overhead. A few of them even grabbed weapons. Belissar nearly backed away at that. Fortunately for both parties, Chief Rohsuak made her appearance and gave him a smile.

“Sacred Den Master, it is good to see you. Congratulations on your victory.”

Belissar raised an eyebrow. But then he realized she probably noticed the Hunger being pushed back and determined he had succeeded that way, so he nodded.

“Thank you.”

Her smile grew.

“Of course. Now, how may we help you? It’s an honor that you’ve come all this way to visit us.”

Belissar held up a sack.

“I owe you. And, uh, I have some questions, if you don’t mind.”

Chief Rohsuak’s eyes widened just a bit before her smile recovered.

“I see. Why don’t we find a comfortable spot to sit?”

Belissar nodded. Chief Rohsuak gave some instructions and the other bear people returned to their business, putting away their weapons as well. Chief Rohsuak then walked out alone and pointed to the edge of the clearing. Over there were a couple of tree stumps where the bear folk had recently cleared some of the trees. Belissar followed her and the two sat down.