The Bee Dungeon

The Third of the Sixth zipped off and curled up in a cell within her hive after the choice was made. The rest of the day after that was uneventful and the daily purification was handled without issue. It was not long before Belissar found himself before his council once more. While he still figured he’d wait on buying any more options from the DP store…a reward from the God of Bees herself was too tempting to delay.

“Hi everyone, we have another monster choice from the God of Bees.”

The bees burst out into “Amazing, incredible!” dances while the karnuq and human chuckled. Belissar smiled and waited a bit before motioning to them that he was about to begin.

Please select a monster (*One or more options upgraded by Blessing of Bees):

- Monster Bee Harpooner (Rarity: Rare, Type: Bee)

- Monster Bee Broodmother (Rarity: Epic, Type: Bee)

- Monster Bee Bombardier (Rarity: Rare, Type: Bee)

Belissar had to take a moment. All rares and even an epic this time. He had a good feeling about this one. Still, he resisted the urge to open up the descriptions immediately and turned to look at his bees.

“Think about what you want and what would help the hive of hives most, I want to know what you all think.”

With that addressed, he could finally begin.

Monster Bee Harpooner

Vitality: Below Average

Strength: Small+

Speed: Average

Magic: Minimal+

Defense: Average

Resistance: Below Average

Special: Minimal+

Notable Skills: Poison Thrust, Solidify Chitin, Continuous Envenomation, Death Envenomation, Brood Offspring

Evolves From: Monster Bee Soldier, Monster Bee Lancer

Spawner Upkeep: 40 (20 with Blessing of Bees)

Description: A monster bee lancer evolution. This lancer emphasizes the honeybee’s barbed stinger, taking it to the next level. Its barbed stinger stabs deep and is not easily removed, while its enhanced venom sac will continuously produce and pump venom into its target for as long as the stinger remains embedded. The monster bee harpooner can then strengthen its chitin to ensure it can survive counterattacks for as long as possible, though it cannot move while doing so. If this proves insufficient, the stinger and venom sac will continue pumping venom even after the harpooner’s death.

If monster bee queens are available, some monster bee soldiers may be born as harpooners in addition to existing soldiers and lancers evolving, though this requires notably more resources from the hive.

Belissar turned to watch the bees. As this was a combat option, the battle meadow bees took the lead on the conversation. The First of the Second began with a summary.

“Lancers stick on enemy, poison lots. Can’t retreat though?”

The First of the Fourth danced the negative.

“Is fine! Hard for lancers to retreat anyway!”

The Firstborn danced her agreement.

“Is true. If enemy lives, maybe better to keep attacking? Kill enemy, then retreat?”

Belissar blinked at that, as it was a good point he hadn’t considered. He had been worried about these harpooners getting hurt since they couldn’t pull away once they dove…but honestly, the lancers couldn’t either. It was usually fine since they killed anything they struck so far…but if they encountered a foe that couldn’t be killed by a single lancer strike, then perhaps it was actually safer to make sure the foe died rather than for the lancers to try and pull themselves out. Once again, Belissar felt grateful that the bees were sharing their opinions now.

The conversation wore down, so Belissar moved onto the next option. The epic option. He couldn’t help a smile as he opened it up.

Monster Bee Broodmother

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Average

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Magic: Minimal

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Above Average

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Brood Mother, Brood Offspring

Description: A monster bee worker evolution allowing workers to assist with reproduction in large monster bee hives. These worker variants have evolved into pseudo-queens, fully capable of laying viable offspring like their mothers. As they lack the connective mana and command abilities of a true queen, they cannot form a hive of their own, but any offspring they raise instead remain a part of their queen’s hive. This does, however, make them cheaper to raise than true queens and they do not need to mate with drones, so they can be used for rapid expansion, or to help maintain a hive whose queen has evolved additional capabilities beyond reproduction.

In addition to existing workers evolving, some monster bee workers may be born as broodmothers, though this only occurs in hives of sufficient size and resources to support the offspring of multiple egg layers.

The First of the Fifth stood up from her resting place as Belissar read out the description. She clearly was trying to hold back given how her leg kept stepping and then withdrawing, until her First Daughter landed by her.

“Queen mother, can share what think?”

At her First Daughter’s prompting, the First of the Fifth began to dance.

“Amazing, incredible! Can expand hives quickly and whenever want! Like having many queens in one hive!”

The Firstborn danced her agreement.

“Is like hive of hives.”

The First of the Second stopped her own agreement dance at that.

“But…is like hive of hives. Hive of hives already does with joint hives?”

It was the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter who replied.

“Not exactly. Is not hives working together, is more children for same hive. Not different if multiple queens stay in hive together. Is different if queen wants to leave, do something else.”

She didn’t mention the Fourth of the Seventh specifically, but she didn’t need to, as the Fourth of the Seventh herself took a break from the happy aerial dance she was continuously flying to dive down and join the conversation.

“Oh! Like me! So if want scout, can raise broodmother so hive can keep laying eggs! Amazing, incredible!”

The Firstborn soon joined her.

“Or if want to fight…”

The First of the Fifth danced her agreement as well.

“Or use mana to make new honey. Also different from joint hive for evolved hives. If joint hive wants raise more evolved bees, more queens need evolve. But if have brood mothers…one evolved queen can expand hive on own. Especially if cheaper than daughter queens…”

The bees all paused at that. The Fourth of the Fifth resumed dancing first.

“So…could raise lots more digging bees on own…”

The Second of the Sixth began to agree.

“Or medicinal bees, take care of all injured next big battle.”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter then flew to the center of the group to dance.

“Or…queen mother could raise honeyswirlers until has enough new honey for entire hive of hives.”

Every bee once again stopped dancing at that. Each of them knew that the swirled honey was something new, something that could be immensely beneficial to their own hives. If the First of the Fifth could provide enough for all of them, even without any other bee evolving into a honeyswirler?

The Firstborn eventually danced what they all began to think.

“Amazing…incredible…”

Belissar nodded along, tending to agree. He, too, hadn’t been sure what the difference between raising brood mothers and forming joint hives would be. But…given that queens that evolved, whether from special flowers or from their own deeds, could lay offspring of their own evolution…then having brood mothers would allow any single evolved bee type to rapidly expand. The one swimming hive might be able to fill the Bog or any other Water room he made. The Third of the Sixth and Fourth of the Fifth could fill the Lava Field or Dirt Tunnels all on their own. And if the First of the Fifth could start rapidly scaling up the honeyswirler hive…well, the whole situation with the pixies would require a lot of swirled honey very soon, not to mention that swirled honey could then evolve other bees…

There was one more option to consider, however, and conversation seemed to have ended on this one, so Belissar moved on.

Monster Bee Bombadier

Vitality: Minimal+

Strength: Minor

Speed: Average+

Magic: Small

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Below Average

Notable Skills: Volatile Spray, Refilling Sacs, Death Burst, Brood Offspring

Evolves From: Monster Bee Sprayer

Description: This monster bee sprayer has developed an even more volatile spray, one so volatile its component compounds have to be produced and stored in separate sacs. When combined, the resulting product is expelled at even more rapid speeds than the original sprayer’s attack, coating the target area in caustic chemicals. Said chemicals also burn at high temperatures and leave toxic fumes in the basic monster bee bombadier’s mixture, though these effects and others may vary for different monster bee types.

As the separate sacs reduces the overall amount of spray the bombadiers can store, they have developed the ability to speed up spray replenishment using mana, and so can quickly refill their compound sacs so long as they have sufficient mana.

In addition to existing monster bee sprayers evolving, a few monster bee soldiers may be born as bombadiers, though this requires notably more resources from the hive.

The bees waited for the Firstborn or one of the other battle meadow queens to begin the conversation. The Firstborn eventually took the lead.

“Is strong. Stronger sprayer, more spray, can burn along with poison?”

The First of the Fifth’s Third Daughter then slowly hovered forward, with the First Daughter’s prompting.

“…think dangerous one can already make, though?”

The Firstborn considered this.

“Is…true? Dangerous one makes burning things.”

The Third Daughter danced a negative.

“Not just burning, exploding!”

The First of the Second interjected.

“But, bees can’t use? If have bombadiers, have bees that can use?”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter replied.

“Maybe can. Dangerous one uses special rocks and pollen baskets to carry, gives to other karnuq. If karnuq can carry…soldiers and bumblebees can carry?”

The Firstborn danced a confirmation.

“Like Apiary soldiers carry King’s fire sticks?”

The Third of the Third joined in.

“Bumblebee soldiers carry trees, so should.”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter then danced the big question.

“So, which is better for hive of hives? How about…all queens make choice and dance at once? Like scouts when swarming?”

The queens assented to this and then the dancing began. The queens danced amongst one another, each trying to convince those around her to join her dance, their mana clashing and mixing along with their physical dances. Those whose dances were weak and hesitant soon began to follow those whose dances were assertive and eager, until soon entire groups of queens were dancing as one. These groups then repeated the process with each other, until soon a single dance emerged that overtook all others.

Belissar smiled.

“So, this is your decision?”

The bees replied as one.

“Yes!”

Belissar nodded.

“Well done, I agree with that choice.”

He chuckled as the bees broke out into the “King is best king!” dance and selected their choice.

Monster Bee Broodmother now available! Monster Bee Workers may now evolve into Monster Bee Broodmothers!