Belissar went ahead and created some of the new options in the karnuq’s Dirt Tunnels. In the Dirt Tunnels he could place the mineral nodes on the floor, walls, or even roof if he wanted to. As per Chief Rohsuak’s request, he placed it on the walls of the cavern closest to the karnuq’s settlement in the second floor Flower Meadow for easy access. He also placed a glow cap nodes around…which were quite expensive at five mana a piece. He frowned at that.
Glowing mushrooms were certainly interesting but was that really worth as much mana as a mana flower node? Or was there something to them he didn’t know? Juosiutik mentioned something about a purifying effect so maybe? There did seem to be higher concentration of mana around them than the regular plants, though not as much as any of the mana flower types, so maybe they weren’t entirely normal mushrooms?
Unfortunately, it turned out the other two options, the subterranean death caps and the shadow vines were also five mana a piece. This was going to be an expensive day. But he wouldn’t even have these options if not for the karnuq so there was nothing for it.
The shadow vines and death cap were placed in a small cavern off to the side of a tunnel deeper in, where they’d be less accessible. Chief Rohsuak didn’t want anyone but Juosiutik handling them.
After that, Belissar and the karnuq both thanked each other and Belissar left the second floor. He grinned. Three new plants and mushrooms for his bees would be quite the boon.
That is, until he checked his mana.
Mana: 18/590
He grimaced as he scratched out some math in the dirt. He could barely afford one each of the mushrooms and shadow vine. And then there were the minerals. He wanted to at least offer salt to his bees, in case they needed that, but he wasn’t certain on the others. Could his bees even interact with iron or copper? There did seem to be some mana flowing through the silver, but would that matter to the bees? Well, he wouldn’t be able to afford it today anyways.
And then there were the other two options: the thorned roses and lotus flowers. They were, perhaps, less impressive than super deadly mushrooms or blinding vines, but they were guaranteed to have flowers and so guaranteed to be useful to the bees, unlike all these other options. Belissar groaned and rubbed his chin.
He shrugged and turned to Niobee.
“Hey Niobee, can the bees do anything with rocks? Like, stone and iron and stuff?”
Niobee hovered in front of him, swaying side to side before slowly beginning to dance.
“…sorry, not sure.”
Belissar shook his head and gave her a smile.
“It’s fine, I didn’t think so. Just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss something, and that helps me decide, so thanks.”
Well, if Niobee didn’t know, then there was no reason for Belissar to continue pondering about it. He went ahead and tried to create a lotus flower node, moving it over the pond he placed in the Apiary. The node, which was red everywhere else, turned back to a transparent blue. Belissar let out a sigh of relief and confirmed the placement.
Then he moved on to the Thorned Roses. He figured he would place these by the Bee Barracks for some extra protection in addition to the flowers. He brought up the option and a transparent bush appeared at the center of his sight. But as he moved them near the palisades he and the karnuq had recently built, the roses changed. Instead of a bush, they turned into climbers wrapping around the wooden spikes rising from the ground. Belissar blinked for a moment, before smiling. That seemed like a good option, as it would hamper anyone trying to climb over or through the barricade. He went ahead and confirmed.
Mana: 13/590
His mana was quickly dwindling, but he continued on. He added a glow cap node to the third floor Dirt Tunnels for the bees to harvest. And then, he paused. He turned to Niobee. His face scrunched up as pain shot through his chest.
“King? King ok?”
Belissar took a deep breath and shut his eyes for a moment.
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“Niobee…would you mind testing a dangerous mushroom for me?”
It killed him to put Niobee, of all bees, in harm’s way. But, logically speaking, she was the bee who could come back from death, so it was either her or potentially watch a bee die unnecessarily if it turned out the death caps were toxic to them as well. So, he had no choice.
Niobee, of course, responded immediately.
“Ok! Will!”
Belissar sighed once more and then nodded.
“Ok, let’s move to the Dirt Tunnels then.”
A short while later and Belissar had a subterranean death cap node in the third floor Dirt Tunnels. For something of its name, the death caps were incredibly innocuous in their appearance. A plain white mushroom that Belissar wouldn’t think twice of if he didn’t know what they were. Or if he couldn’t feel the slightly higher concentration of mana swirling through them.
He gulped as he watched Niobee land on the caps. He wanted to shut his eyes but he kept watching. It was the least he could do since Niobee was risking herself for him.
Niobee crawled over the cap until she found some liquid oozing out of the cap. She stuck her proboscis into it and drank. Belissar held his breath.
Niobee paused and retracted her proboscis. Her wings buzzed and then she started to pace around. Belissar’s eyes widened.
“Niobee? Are you ok?!”
Niobee quickly began to dance.
“Fine! Not hurt! Just…”
Her dance slowed down greatly.
“…tastes bad.”
Belissar exhaled his breath.
“As long as you’re ok. How about we go get some honey to wash out the taste?”
“…ok.”
Well, he didn’t want his bees to have to drink bad-tasting mushrooms, but at least they wouldn’t be seriously harmed by doing so, so he left the mushroom node as it was. If the bees decided they just didn’t want to touch them, then maybe he’d get rid of them.
For now, Niobee definitely deserved something nice.
After retreating to the Apiary’s farmhouse and pulling out some regular mana honeycomb for Niobee, Belissar considered what to do next.
Mana: 3/590
So, he didn’t have enough left to make a shadow vine node just yet. He was ok with that, though. From what Juosiutik said, these ones hated light, which most of his bees needed to actually see. His bees would need to raise more digging workers before they’d be able to harvest the shadow vines in any case, assuming they could in the first place.
Belissar thus decided to create a salt node in the third floor Dirt Tunnels. He wasn’t sure if the bees needed it, but he’d let them check it out at the very least. None of the other minerals really made sense to offer to them, as far as he knew. Maybe digging bees could dig them up…but what would they actually do with the ores afterwards?
In any case, he was down to a single mana until the next purification. He decided to spent the rest of the day practicing his magic. Now that he had a combat spell, he felt it would be a good idea to learn how to defend himself.
At least, that was the plan until Niobee began to fly in front of him.
“King…soldier doing something dangerous. Is ok?”
Belissar’s eyes widened.
“Wait, what?!”
----------------------------------------
Belissar practically ran down to the first floor Flower Meadow, coming to the memorial. There, he found all of the wounded soldiers gathered around the very first. One of them had crawled forward while the first wounded soldier gathered her mana.
However, they all paused as they saw him approach, and began to salute.
“Yes, hi, thanks. Um, can I ask what you’re doing?”
The first wounded soldier began to dance.
“Giving lightning!”
Belissar blinked.
“Giving…lightning?”
The wounded soldier saluted.
“Got lightining from enemy, when King helped! Giving lightning now!”
Belissar’s mind slowly turned as he processed that statement, and thought back to when he had saved this particular soldier. His eyes went as wide as they could go.
“Wait, are you going to blast her with lighting?!”
The soldier confirmed.
“Yes!”
Belissar groaned and was about to shut it down. But…he hesitated. Something about the soldier’s complete lack of hesitation gave him pause. He grimaced but he held his tongue, turning to Niobee instead.
“Niobee…what do you think?”
Niobee flew slowly but did not hesitate.
“Bees want to be useful. Soldiers want to fight. Can’t right now, but maybe can with lightning?”
Belissar rubbed his chin. He…honestly hadn’t thought much about these soldiers. He just wanted every bee to survive if they could…but what happened afterwards? The soldiers who had lost wings couldn’t fly anymore, and a soldier bee who couldn’t fly couldn’t participate in a battle. They would be killed immediately as they wouldn’t be able to dodge a shade’s attacks.
But what then? Belissar hadn’t seen any soldiers gather nectar from flowers and wasn’t certain if they even could. He hadn’t seen them making wax or cells and they were too big to tend to the brood. They could help carry things…but the inability to fly meant these ones couldn’t. So…what, exactly, could these soldiers actually do?
He the answer in a normal hive…nothing. A bee that crippled would likely have been exiled by a normal hive. It was his own intervention that kept these bees around and fed. But then he just, sort of, left them hanging around the memorial, didn’t he?
So, was it any surprise they took matters into their own legs? And would it be right for him to stop them?
He continued to grimace, but slowly nodded.
“Ok, but, let’s get some medicinal honey first. I’m going to go grab a tray…Niobee, could you see if…um…the medicinal one is the Second of the Sixth, right?”
“Yes!”
Belissar nodded again.
“Good, ok, can you see if the Second of the Sixth could send some workers to help?”
“Ok!”
Belissar turned back to the wounded soldiers.
“Just wait for us to get back, ok? Let’s stay as safe as possible.”
The wounded soldier bees all saluted as one. Belissar nodded, then turned to walk away, sighing once he was out of sight.
He just really hoped it would go well.