A couple of days passed. Belissar continued to watch the karnuq as they swept through the way they came. His eyes widened as he saw the mushrooms and the moss…and later the battle against the wolf-moles. The Underway was far more alive than Belissar had expected.
The hunting group was now making their way back with their spoils. Belissar went to welcome them back along with Chief Rohsuak and the other karnuq…before remembering that the first floor dirt tunnels hadn’t been there when they left. He hastily swapped the Tower’s entrance back to the first floor Flower Meadow so they wouldn’t have to travel through the Dirt Tunnels maze.
Belissar wondered if there was an easier way to do that. Maybe there was some sort of room feature that would work? But well, despite now having enough DP again for another room feature choice, Belissar was still staying away from those for the time being.
The hunting group arrived on the second floor to cheers. Meanwhile, the digging bee flew off of Metsaitti’s shoulder, performing a salute dance in the air in front of Belissar. He smiled back at her.
“Welcome back, and great work.”
Her salute dance only sped up. Belissar held out his hand. She paused for a second before landing on it. He then formed a bit of honey on his hand for her.
“Here, you must be hungry.”
The worker bee stared up at him for a moment before gingerly starting to drink. In the meantime, Metsaitti walked up to Belissar, along with Tyghak and one of the other young hunters. They were carrying a wolf-mole corpse.
“Sacred Den Master, thank you for sending your bee with us. She was incredibly helpful.”
Belissar smiled and nodded.
“I’m, um, just glad everyone’s ok. Thank you for taking care of her.”
Metsaitti nodded and then motioned to the two young hunters. They heaved with a grunt and place the wolf-mole corpse in front of Belissar. His eyes widened as he saw the sheer size of the corpse splayed out in front of him. They were…a lot bigger than they had seemed through the karnuq’s eyes.
“We’d like to offer this to you, Sacred Den Master, if it pleases you.”
Belissar slowly nodded.
“Ah, yeah. That’s…great?”
The question was what exactly he was going to do with…
Absorb wolf-mole corpse? Current samples: 0/1
Belissar’s eyes slowly grew as wide as they could. He could…absorb animals? He thought about it for a second and then realized…why wouldn’t he be able to absorb animals? The Tower never specifically stated what he could or couldn’t absorb.
He shrugged and did just that.
Sufficient samples gathered. Wolf-Mole Spawner is now available.
He just stared at the message for a bit. He expected something like that would happen when absorbing a living thing, but it was still a bit of a shock to have gained a completely new monster spawner just like that.
Place Wolf-Mole Spawner? Upkeep: 20 mana (40 due to Blessing of Bees)
Belissar’s face slowly fell as he looked over the message several times, particularly the numbers at the end.
Forty. Forty mana for one spawner? He hadn’t noticed since he didn’t have any non-bee monsters before this, but the Blessing of Bees had that downside as well, didn’t it? He technically had enough mana for that, but he could afford several monster bee queen or monster bumblebee queen spawners for that same price. He didn’t even want to try and figure out how many mana flower nodes he could place for that much mana. And that was just for the spawner alone. What would wolf-moles need to eat? What would they need to make their homes? Belissar had no idea but he’d imagine they’d need a bit more than a flower and a wooden box. This could end up very expensive indeed.
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In any case, Belissar thanked the karnuq once more, and then left back for the third floor, thinking as he did. The wolf-mole was certainly an impressive sight…but how strong was it really? The karnuq hunters, who were already sworn to defend the Tower, had no issue dealing with them from what Belissar saw. In that regard, they did not seem worth the immense cost it would take to spawn them. Not to mention that they would receive no benefit from any of his Tower’s current perks.
They did have some value in that they were very large, adding some much needed bulk to his defenses. Likewise, they were optimized for digging and operating underground and would suit the Dirt Tunnels well. But…Belissar had the bumblebees who could grow to an admittedly uncertain size and the digging bees who were now also optimized for subterranean environments. So…would the wolf-mole add something that the bees couldn’t do themselves? Enough to justify such a heavy commitment of mana?
Maybe the karnuq could hunt them as a source of meat but…if the wolf-moles were like the monster bees and Belissar could communicate with them, would he be comfortable letting them be hunted? He shook his head. No, no he wouldn’t.
So, all in all, he couldn’t really think of a reason that justified the forty-mana upkeep. Especially not when he arrived back at the Apiary and the First of the Fifth’s workers signaled for his attention. He followed them to one of the hives, the one the digging worker had come from. The First of the Fifth was waiting for him there, along with the hive’s queen. A queen who had grown squatter and turned a dull shade of brown.
Digging Monster Bee Queen
Vitality: Minimal+
Strength: Minimal+
Speed: Below Average+
Magic: Minor
Defense: Minimal+
Resistance: Minimal
Special: Above Average
Notable Skills: Dig, Poison Sting, Brood Mother, Command Offspring
Description: A monster bee queen raised or evolved on Ground mana honey. Lays digging variant offspring by default. Builds a subterranean hive.
Belissar grinned. Well, now he definitely wouldn’t need wolf-moles for digging. He was going to have a whole colony of digging bees to handle that task.
Then he paused and rubbed his chin as he read the last line of the description.
“Would you like to move to the Dirt Tunnels? I can try to build you a new beehouse.”
The queen froze, and then began a rapid salute dance. Belissar nodded.
“Got it, let’s talk about what you need.”
Niobee came to assist and they discussed what a digging monster bee hive should look like before moving to the third floor’s Dirt Tunnels. They came to the large cavern that opened up into the Apiary, where Belissar had placed most of the resource plant nodes for easy access. On the wall of this cavern, Belissar hollowed out a smaller cavern around the size of one of his beehouses. It turned out that the digging bee queen was now most comfortable when surrounded by dirt rather than wood, so Belissar had very little to do regarding the structure of the hive. All he ended up building was a single wooden wall to cover the entrance. However, the queen did still find his honeycomb frames useful, so he filled the cavern with those instead.
Belissar crossed his arms and hummed. It wasn’t exactly a fancy beehouse. But, it was what made this queen happy, and that was the important thing. He turned to the queen.
“How do you like it?”
“Amazing! Incredible! King is best king!”
He chuckled at the expected response.
“Well, let me know if there’s anything we can do to improve it.”
“Ok!”
With that, Belissar tried to see if this beehouse would count as Beehive feature. And, funnily enough, it did. The structure didn’t change at all when Belissar applied the feature, but he could sense the mana flowing through the frames, so it seemed to work. The digging bee then happily left to begin moving her hive into their new home. It seemed that soon he would have digging bees in abundance…and Ground mana honey. He would give the queen a bit of time to get settled and convert her hive to the new type, and then arrange for deliveries of the honey to the first floor queens.
He could only imagine what a digging soldier bee would look like. Maybe he’d end up getting “wolf-moles” of his own even without the spawner. And either way, the bee army would soon be able to take the fight to the Dirt Tunnels.
The only question was should he wait for that before conducting the next expansion purification? He had long had enough mana to do so. Between the karnuq, the first floor Dirt Tunnels, the extra defenses they had added to the first floor Flower Meadow, and the boost the communers were having on the soldier bee army, Belissar felt reasonably confident they could handle what the next purification could throw at them. On the other hand, digging soldier bees could be worth waiting for, now that he had a digging queen. Plus, the bumblebee hives were growing by the day, so maybe they’d be able to contribute as well if he gave them a bit of time.
However, it turned out that Belissar would not have to make a decision at all, as he suddenly began to shiver. His eyes went wide and quivered as a message passed across his eyes.
Warning! Corruption levels surging! Emergency purification required!