Chapter 10 - Fucking Bees
Tutorial World #336: Day 1
Feeling the same strange pressure come and dissipate again as he was transported to a new area, Doc found himself in a small clearing of the Dark Glade. The clearing was circular and about the size of a medium-sized house. Several large tree stumps were scattered around in the clearing and large branches hung from the trees still growing on the sides of the clearing. Vibrant flowers bloomed along the clearing floor, thriving in the area with extra sunlight.
The second level of the Dungeon is a Wave Challenge. Your party must survive five different waves of monsters. Each wave will be more difficult than the last. Creatures will spawn in the darkness of the glade and then travel into the clearing and attack. You must survive the waves for longer and longer periods. There will be fifteen minutes between each wave. The first wave will begin in five minutes and last for five minutes. Survive all five waves to move to the third level of the Dungeon.
Doc took a deep breath. “This seems like an exponential leap from having to just make potions on the first level. This might be much more along your expertise, Grizz.”
The ursarachnid cub looked at Doc, teeth bared in what was, Doc was hoping, a grin. I am totally ready to get some exercise. Grizz extended his claws and shadow-punched the air. I wonder how difficult the first wave will be. Wanna do a little more battle planning like we did last time? It seemed to give us an edge in the fight against the chinchillycorns.
“Well, we don’t know what type of creatures we will be facing, so there isn’t too much focused prep that we do. Maybe we put down one of your web traps and put it at our backs as a form of protection. Since the monsters could be coming from all directions, that could help keep the enemies from completely surrounding us. It is too bad we only have five minutes. We could really use a wall of some sort”
The inkling of a plan began budding in Doc’s mind. He pulled out his card case and the summoning card for Brrrt. He looked back over the chinchillycorn’s abilities and smiled. The Ice Pillar ability could be a way to create a physical barrier behind their backs. Having the chinchillycorn out would also help with the fight as it was a pretty vicious beast with its ice horn.
The only problem with relying on Brrrt was that there was a limit to how long he could have the horned monster out. Five consecutive battles with 15 minutes in between each meant that unless they were extremely lucky with the length of each wave, Brrrt wouldn’t last through the entirety unless he was unsummoned during the breaks. That seemed like the best option considering Brrrt would be able to recover. They might not even need Brrrt for the first or second wave. And with that thought, Doc was back to square one and not sure how best to prepare for the first wave.
“We don’t have enough information to gauge how to properly prepare. I say your web trap idea is the best though, but let's use two, one in each corner behind us. If the traps are sprung, they will last all day and make the ground behind us almost impossible to traverse. If the creatures are small enough, we can just toss them onto the web!”
Grizz nodded in agreement. Sounds like a plan. Where should we make our stand? We don’t want to be close to the edge of the clearing in case some climbers jump out of trees. That means that the middle of the clearing is best.
“That’s what I was thinking as well. Let’s also put our backs to the sun or whatever represents the sun for this Dungeon.” Doc had looked into the sky and seen a bright light starting to hang low over the western trees. “If we don’t have to deal with the light in our eyes but our enemies do, that is just one more thing in our favor.”
Not wanting to waste any more of their precious time, Grizz sprinted forward to place the two traps, saying a little prayer to the spider bear gods that the monsters were not flyers. Grizz was also hoping that the first and second waves would be easy enough for the two of them to handle by themselves. He wasn’t afraid of a good fight, but he knew just as much as Doc that Brrrt might have to play a key role deeper into this challenge.
While Grizz was setting up the traps to the western corners of the clearing, Doc was pulling out one of the flasks from the previous level of the Dungeon. Casting Weak Acid Splash, he was able to fill the medium-sized container about halfway. Casting a second time, the flask was filled to the brim with the strong acidic solution. Taking out ten test tubes, he filled each of those with the acid and placed a cork on each. He placed his impromptu acid vials in his inventory to grab when he needed them. This gave him another ranged option that he could use judiciously. The flask was still filled about a third of the way, and so, unsure of what was coming first, he set the flask down on a nearby stump. If he needed it, it was within reach.
He was hoping that rationing the acid into these test tubes would allow him to save some mana throughout the battle. He wouldn’t have time to make another batch of the mana potions, and he had only been able to make five of the earlier vials. If they could get a few good kills in this first wave, he could buy some more characteristic points in Intelligence and Wisdom to help with mana depletion.
Grizz stalked back over to his companion on his spider legs, getting mentally and physically ready as the five minutes of preparation time had come to an end. An out-of-place ringing reverberated through the Dark Glade’s trees and they knew that the first wave had begun.
Doc and Grizz looked toward the trees at the edge of the clearing and waited to see what their first foes would look like and how they might attack. At first, nothing was happening. Neither of them heard any crashes through the trees. There were no flashes of fur or scales to indicate their lives were in danger. Considering Grizz’s tremor sense, this was pretty unsettling. It indicated that the monsters were not on the ground.
After fifteen seconds of waiting, the first signs of the invasion began. A deep hum started blaring all around them. Straining his eyes to look into the depths of the trees surrounding the clearing, Doc could see a weird cloud-like blob moving around in the air around the trees.
“Well it doesn’t look like we got lucky this time,” Doc said to Grizz who was at his back.
Grizz had seen the same floating cloud-like structures himself but was most concerned about the buzzing noise. Inside each floating structure in the trees, there seemed to be individual objects that would range a few feet from the main cloud and then return. A memory tickled Grizz’s mind from a camping trip from Doc’s childhood. When he was eleven or twelve, Doc had wanted to explore a bit of the surrounding woods and so had wandered away from the main camp without telling his parents. After about half an hour of hiking through the dense foliage of the forest, he began hearing a buzzing noise. Up ahead of him had been a bee hive that was larger than his preteen frame. Being the brazen and heartless child that he was at the time, Doc had looked around for something to throw at the hive. Finding a large stone off to his side, he had wound up like the eleven-year-old little league pitcher that he was and sent that stone flying into the middle of that hive. Fleeing toward the campground as fast as his young legs could carry him, he had barely survived. The bees had chased him for almost a quarter of a mile as he stumbled through the tough terrain of the forest. He had been stung twenty-three times and had learned the lesson that nature would chew you up and spit you out if it wasn’t respected.
Remember that time you were on the camping trip with your family? Grizz asked. I think we are in the same situation but this time, we don’t have a campground half a mile away to run to.
“I was thinking the exact same thing bud. I fucking hate bees!”
Just as Doc responded with his hatred of the six-legged monsters, the first swarm entered the clearing and he paled with a bit of fear. The collection of insects that made up the buzzing cloud were massive six-inch terrors. Their heads were a burnt ochre and triangular with sharp mandibles protruding. All three segments of the flying fiends were covered sequentially in vertical stripes of orange and black hairs. The insect screamed danger and Doc used identify on one to see exactly how much shit they were in.
You have identified: Murder Bee
HP: 9/9
MP: 10/10
Common
The Murder Bee is an evolved version of the Killer Bee in retaliation for Earth creating Murder Hornets that destroy bee colonies. These bees took the ambient mana entering Earth’s atmosphere and grew to monstrous sizes. Murder Hornets are now quaking in their little insect boots. Just like you should be. Murder Bees have 4 cm long stingers that release a fire-based poison. If left alone and you are stung enough, the poison can cook your insides. Can you smell what the Murder Bee is cooking? It’s you if you are stung.
“Dear Lord God!” Doc exclaimed. He wasn’t sure why the system had given him so much information on these devil bees, but his internal anxiety was rocketing upwards. “Do not let them sting you! Nasty poison.”
Grizz looked back at Doc incredulously. Grizz was not inclined to let anything touch him. He was ready to do what bears did best. Get that honey! Grizz was much more prepared for a swarm than Doc. His thick hair could help shield him from the obnoxious murder bees and he had 12 different limbs to help swat them out of the air. The first swarm of bees came toward Grizz and he started batting at the closest bugs. Using his two hind bear legs and two spider legs to hold up his weight, he started swiping his front claws and remaining spider legs at the large bees. The swarm was comprised of about fifteen of the large bees and they were not very agile in the air due to their larger size. He had cut the swarm down to half-strength in under twenty seconds. Three of the bees had swooped past Grizz’s flailing limbs and landed on the ursarachnid’s back. Wanting to avoid the incoming stings, he collapsed his legs and rolled to his back on the ground and then popped back up in a ready stance for the rest of the bees in the swarm. The insects might have been lucky to get through to his back, but his quick reflexes and strong instincts allowed him to remain unharmed. A nasty film of bug guts was spread on his back where the three bees had been crushed by the roll.
Looking back at the four remaining bees in front of him, Grizz saw one that was twice as big as the others that had stayed back from the fight. It was glowing a crimson and had pushed its stinger out into a ready position. Grizz, wanting to be able to focus on the glowing monstrosity, quickly swatted down the other three bees with his claws. His remaining legs reached back behind him and started pulling silk from his spinnerets, creating a small web. He was hoping to catch this bee to be another summon just like the chinchillycorn. Just then, there was a flash from the monstrous bee as it rocketed forward toward Grizz’s face. He had just enough time to move his head to the side as the bee slammed its stinger into his shoulder, pumping the fire poison into the wound. Due to Grizz’s dense fur coat, the stinger only partially penetrated the skin. Unfortunately for Grizz, that was all that the bee needed to release the payload of poison. Grizz let out a deep grunt of pain, feeling the burning push through his veins. The bee slipped its smooth stinger back into its body and prepared to jump off to continue its fight elsewhere when a large black paw came crashing down, quickly compressing its exoskeleton until its insides burst through. Grizz flung the insect juices from his paws in disgust. Sadly, there would be no Murder Bee summon.
Grizz’s swarm was down, but he could feel the poison starting to create havoc internally. It felt like a wildfire was spreading from where the stinger had entered his shoulder. It burned so much that Grizz swore he could see a curl of smoke rising from the wound. With his extremely high health pool, Grizz wasn’t concerned that he would die from the one attack, but it did not feel great. He hoped that his body would be able to filter out the poison quickly. Based on what he had seen from the attack’s details, it looked like the poison would only last for twenty seconds, but it was going to be a painful twenty seconds, losing 4 HP/second. He looked over at Doc to see if his master had faired better.
Despite not having an abundance of appendages to crush the bees with, Doc had managed to whittle his swarm down relatively quickly using his stored acid. Not knowing if the acid was strong enough to hurt the exoskeleton of the bees, he had taken the flask with the remaining acid in it and slung the liquid toward the swarm. The acid had spread out and hit three-quarters of the bees. The exoskeleton of the bees had been considered armor, so the acid did significantly more damage after impact than Doc had expected. The impacted bees had dropped immediately to the ground, writhing in pain. Their wings and legs sloughed off as the acid did its work and the acid quickly ate through the rest of the bee’s insides, killing each one within its five-second duration
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This left Doc with only three more of the immense bees that had managed to not be in the flight path of the deadly acidic spray. As they prepared for their attacks, Doc reached into his inventory and grabbed his knife. He took a stance with the blade in front of his face as some protection and waited for the bees to come. They did not make him wait long, as they all extended their stingers in his direction and started their flight toward the human. Doc couldn’t deflect all three at the same time, so when the bees were about half a meter away, he dived toward and under them. The bees whizzed over his head missing their mark and they all turned around. Doc had rolled after hitting the ground to help propel himself back upwards and swung his knife at the closest bee. The bee was not quick enough to dodge and was bisected. Doc briefly watched the two halves of the bee fall to the ground and then readied himself for the next attacks of the remaining two.
The brief distraction of the falling bee bits almost cost Doc his life as when he looked at the other two, they were a mere half-foot away and closing quickly. Doc’s hand swung up in the most classic reaction of a bee flying in your face. The backhand connected to the closest bee, causing it to go speeding away, falling to the ground in a daze. Doc’s head had rocketed back to avoid contact with the stinger of the other bee and he felt the furry body of the bee brush the tip of his nose as it flew past. Gasping at the realization of his almost painful mistake, he refocused on the remaining enemy.
The bee turned quickly and aimed at its target. The drone would protect the hive at all costs and this trespasser would feel the pain. In its rage and sole focus on Doc, the bee did not see the small web that was pushed on him until it was too late. The bee was trapped by the web. It angrily stabbed its stinger in all directions, hoping that it would come into contact with something.
“Nicely done, good sir!” Doc said to Grizz as he continued to look around the clearing. No more swarms were coming into the clearing, but there was one bee left unaccounted for after he had backhanded it to oblivion. “Do you happen to know where the bee that I pimp-smacked went?”
Grizz chuffed in laughter, visualizing what pimp-smacking a bee might have looked like. He could sense some light buzzing and scratching noises a couple of feet to Doc’s left. Look over there. It seems pissed based on its movements, but I don’t think it can start flying again.
Doc walked in the direction that Grizz had indicated and found the wounded murder bee writhing on the ground. Despite its wings buzzing desperately, it could not take flight after Doc’s attack. Taking a deep, satisfying breath, Doc picked his shoe-covered foot up and slammed it down on the six-inch-long monster. A satisfying crunch emanated from under his foot as the bee was crushed.
“I fucking hate bees,” Doc said, shaking his head. Ever since that camping trip, every time he saw a bee, Doc got anxiety sweats as he remembered every sting. He would never forgive bees. It didn’t matter that bees were awesome and helped pollinate the plants of the world or that he had deserved getting stung for throwing a rock at the hive in the first place. Sometimes hatred didn’t need to make sense.
Doc walked back over to Grizz and the trapped bee, shaking his fist at the buzzing prisoner. “If I didn’t have the quest to tame monsters, you wouldn’t be worth it!” He pointed his hand toward the bee to make a connection as he had with both the chinchillycorn and the grinkled ape. Doc wasn’t sure if he wanted the bee as a summon, but after thinking about its description one more time, he knew it was a smart move. He couldn’t let his hatred of bees affect future growth. He began the casting and felt the same understanding form between him and the bee that he had felt with Brrrt. The taming was successful and he had a new companion to help him with future fights!
Congratulations! You have successfully tamed a Common ranked Murder Bee. Check your Summon Card Carrying Case for more information about your tamed monster.
You have completed the first wave. Since you defeated all of the monsters before the five-minute time limit, the extra 2 minutes and 8 seconds have been added to the fifteen-minute rest period.
Being able to complete the wave quickly seemed to be the way to go. They would have more time to prepare for the next wave and recover more lost health or mana. Doc was about to reach for the card case to check his new summon out when he looked over at Grizz and saw smoke coming from Grizz’s shoulder.
“What in the hell happened to you!” Doc exclaimed rushing over to his summon. Getting a closer look, he could feel the heat radiating out from the inside of the puncture wound. The fur around the hole was almost all gone and the hairs that remained were curled up as if a small fire had been lit there. The distinct odor of burnt hair floated up from the wound as well. Doc looked at Grizz, waiting for an explanation.
I got stung. Grizz stated simply
“Yeah, I can see that man. How bad is it? Do you need one of the antidotes? How much health have you lost?” The rapid-fire questions flew from Doc’s mouth one after another. This was the first time that he had seen Grizz get truly injured in a fight. He had gotten hit in the battle with the chinchillycorns but this wound seemed much more grievous.
Oh, it isn’t so bad. I lost like twenty health from the actual sting and another eighty or so from the fire poison. You were right, by the way. That is a nasty poison. The poison has run its course now, though. Did you fight any that were glowing red?
“No I didn’t run into any that were glowing,” Doc said, still a little wary of how much health Grizz had lost. “But I got most of mine with acid before they got too close. Can’t believe that worked by the way. They all just turned into tiny little bug puddles.”
There was one bee that was twice as big as the others and it was the one that did this. Maybe it was a queen?
“You didn’t catch that one? That sounds way better than a normal Murder Bee!” Doc said in feint exasperation.
I’m sorry, Grizz deadpanned. I was trying not to scream in agony and my paw just happened to accidentally squish the monster that had just stabbed me with its terrifyingly long stinger.
“Yeah, man, I told you to not get stung. If you just listen to me, all of your life’s problems will disappear.”
Grizz snorted in response, settling down to rest awhile to regenerate some of the lost health. Why don’t you see if you can loot the bees, starting with this one? Grizz nudged over the carcass of the larger bee.
“That’s not a terrible idea, but I can’t spend too much of my mana on looting all the bees. There are like thirty and each cast costs thirteen mana. Speaking of mana, I need to check to see how much XP we got. Might have gotten enough to start building up some of my stats. Sorting through the notifications of the battle, he found the XP gains from the small battle.
You have gained 107 Experience Points from defeating 30 Common ranked Murder Bees and 1 Uncommon ranked Murder Bee Queen
“Hell yeah!” Doc exclaimed. “We just racked up over 100 XP. Oh, and you were right. Looks like killed a queen. At least one of us did.”
Nice! Grizz cheered back. I have a feeling the queen is gonna give us something nice!
Knowing that he was going to use most of the XP to build up his stats, Doc went ahead and used his loot spell on the queen’s dead body. This time, instead of the cool blue light that the chinchillycorn bodies had turned into, the bee’s body gave off the reddish-orange of a camping fire. When the light dissipated, there was a foil card pack with Murder Bee Queen written on the front underneath the terrifying picture of the queen herself. The menacing-looking bee was glowing a crimson red and had the huge stinger protruding from its abdomen, waiting to strike.
Doc opened the pack up and found two cards, one having the green outline of uncommon and the other was the royal blue of sporadic. His luck had pulled through again! The green outlined card depicted a picture of a honeycomb. Doc was sure that meant that if he conjured the item out of the card, then he would get some of the honey that was made at the hive. He wasn’t ready to deal with sticky honey yet but was sure it would go great with cooking in the future. He was most excited to see what the sporadic card was.
Pulling the blue-rimmed card close to his eyes, the picture of the card was different. It had movement just like the sporadic card that he had gotten from the chinchillycorns, but this one also had a small picture of a rolled-up scroll in the top right corner. The moving picture was of the queen hovering on the left side of the card. It would begin to light up and then in a flash, speed to the other side of the card. The picture would reset and start replaying the action again. Completely baffled what the card was, he showed it to Grizz.
I have no clue either, Grizz said unhelpfully. Whatever it is, if we can’t use it, we will just store it in your inventory. Might as well go ahead and conjure it.
Not having a better idea, Doc went ahead and pressed the conjure button on the card. The card began the morphing process of forming the pictured item. First, the card rolled up on itself, making a cigarette-sized cylinder. The card then grew in size and changed from the stiff structure of the card to the consistency of parchment. The card completed its conjuration by forming a blood-red wax seal across the edge of the parchment. On the seal, MBQ was written. The tail of the Q was sharp and pointy as if it was the bee’s stinger. Doc wasted no time identifying the scroll.
You have identified: Scroll of Burning Blitz Strike
Sporadic
This scroll teaches the reader Burning Blitz Strike. By focusing the mana in the body of the user, the muscles are energized. The user of this attack can increase their speed and strength for one devastating blow.
1. Increases attack speed by 250% for one attack
2. Increases damage by 300% for one attack
This attack requires time to build up the required power, but a successful strike could end the fight. Cost: 25 MP Cast Time: 5 seconds Duration: One attack Cooldown: 10 minutes
“Holy shit, Grizz, get your furry butt over here,” Doc said excitedly.
Grizz got up from his resting spot and Doc handed him the scroll, telling him what it was. “You don’t have a use for your MP yet, and honestly, you would make better use of this attack than I would, considering you have claws and are stronger than I am.”
Grizz’s eyes were wide open in excitement after the scroll was described to him. Taking one of his claws, Grizz delicately broke the wax seal and unrolled the scroll to read its contents and learn the awesome new attack. The scroll and Grizz’s eyes lit up with the same burning fire color that the queen had dissipated into earlier. The light between the scroll and Grizz intensified as information was imprinted on Grizz’s mind. He learned how to channel the surrounding ambient mana into his body and how to light an inner fire in his muscles with that mana to produce this devastating attack. After half a minute, the glow of the parchment died down and Grizz’s eyes returned to normal.
“Know how to kill things better now?” Doc jokingly asked.
You are joking, but actually yes. That scroll showed me how to use mana in ways you and I haven’t thought about before. I don’t necessarily know how to make new attacks with this information yet, but I feel like if we can get more items like this, we could learn how to make our own attacks and spells. It could even help you with your alchemy probably.
Doc’s eyes widened in shock and he bit his lip thinking about all the possibilities. “We should look out for more loot like this then!” This was huge information to have. This new world was surpassing his wildest dreams. He wondered if there was a skill for creating magic or attacks. He would have to wait and see what kinds of options were available later, though. Right now he had to continue to prepare for more waves of monsters. To do that, he needed some more stats!
Doc pulled up his status screen and looked at his remaining XP and each of his characteristics. With 126 XP he could buy twenty-five stat points. He didn’t want to use all of the XP, wanting to make sure he could buy one or two Skill upgrades at the end of the dungeon, but he also knew that if Murder Bees were the first wave, he would need all the help he could get. Wincing a bit internally and hoping that he would be able to get enough XP later, Doc bought all the characteristic points he could.
Doc knew that he was going to need more MP for the future waves. He had already blown through half of his MP before and after the small skirmish with the bees, so he added eight points to intelligence and seven points to wisdom. This brought them up to twenty and fifteen respectively. His MP bar increased to 200 maximum points and he could see the bar filling up almost twice as fast as it was before. Weirdly, despite the stats being called intelligence and wisdom, he didn’t feel any smarter or wiser. He shrugged and moved on with his last ten characteristic points.
Knowing that HP was always important, he dropped four points into his vitality. This brought his HP Bar even with his MP bar at two hundred apiece. Doc had also enjoyed the increased dexterity that the Chinchillycorn meat had given him earlier. Having better control of his body and how fast he could move seemed like it would be very important moving forward. Doc added four points to dexterity bringing it to thirteen. The bees had been very small and weak, so he hadn’t needed to be strong to kill them, but there was going to be a time when he needed to be stronger and hit harder. Doc put the last two points into his strength stat, bringing it up to sixteen.
Adding points to these physical stats was different than the mental ones. He could feel his body become stronger, more hale, and faster as the different stats saw increases. He was exponentially more dangerous than he was before. He was now ready to face the next challenge.
“Do you know how much t-” Doc started to ask Grizz but was cut off by the ringing that indicated the next wave was about to begin. This wave started very differently than the last as a large crash sounded near the Northern edge of the clearing. And then another crash sounded to the South. And then another to the West. Doc and Grizz looked at each other, put their backs to one another, and prayed that the new increases in their fighting capabilities would be enough.