Belissar made his way to the karnuq and Metsaitti came out to meet him.

“Hello, Sacred Den Master. I apologize, but Chief Rohsuak is currently resting. I could take you to her if you wish.”

Belissar shook his head.

“No, I would rather not bother her right now. I just wanted to ask if you have any masons. I’m, uh, hoping to build a stone beehouse.”

Metsaitti crossed his arms and rubbed his chin before shaking his head.

“I am sorry, Sacred Den Master, but we have not built much out of stone in recent memory. We do know how to dig and mine, however, so we could assist you with gathering the materials at the very least.”

Belissar furrowed his brow before slowly nodding.

“Ah, yeah, that would help. I, um, need to figure out what I’m going to build first, though.”

Metsaitti gave him a small smile.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. That home you built for them at the entrance was impressive enough.”

Belissar rubbed the back of his head.

“Oh, um, thanks? Um, could I come visit your Dirt Tunnels and maybe get some help with the stone node? I at least want to see what the stone looks like.”

Metsaitti saluted by striking his chest with his fist.

“Of course, Sacred Den Master, I’ll see to it at once.”

A short bit later and Belissar had traveled to the second floor Dirt Tunnels with a couple of the karnuq, coming before the stone node he had placed in one of the Dirt Tunnels’ walls. It took the form of a rough wall of stone breaking up the dirt, with a few spots slightly glowing. One of the karnuq stepped forward and placed his hand on the stone, flaring his mana. Cracks began to appear in the stone, forming a rectangle around the glowing area.

Then the stone began to pull itself out of the wall. The karnuq jumped back with a curse as a rectangular block moved out of the wall and dropped onto the floor. The block was the size of Belissar. All of them stared at it with wide eyes.

“Um, do you know how to make these…smaller?”

Metsaitti slowly nodded his head.

“Muuraqi here can use that same technique to break it up. He doesn’t have the most mana though, so it will take time.”

Belissar rubbed his chin.

“If I give him mana honey, would that help?”

Metsaitti’s eyes widened further but he nodded.

“That’s most generous of you, Sacred Den Master, but yes, it would speed up the process. As you’ve seen, however, there are risks to using more mana than your body normally handles, so there will be a limit.”

Belissar stared at the block for a second.

“Um, by the way, was that some sort of Ground mana?”

Metsaitti turned to Muuraqi who nodded.

“Yes, Sacred Den Master, sir. I learned a bit from my father, before he passed.”

Belissar frowned at that, though the light still went off in his head.

“In that case, I might be able to help as well…”

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Belissar checked on the digging queen. Her hive was still transitioning over to digging bees, however. She had some digging workers already available, but Belissar did not want to split her efforts until her new hive was fully established.

“Later though, For now…could you cut it about this big?”

Muuraqi saluted and started getting to work. Metsaitti then asked Belissar.

“Would you like us to help you move it as well?”

Belissar nodded.

“Yes, that would help.”

Muuraqi and the karnuq worked together. Muuraqi used Ground mana to create some cracks in the stone outlining the size Belissar wanted. The other karnuq who had accompanied the group then began to break apart the stone with more conventional tools, such as pickaxes, hammers, and chisels. With their strength, the task was completed relatively quickly. The karnuq then lifted the stone and the group set off.

Belissar guided them to the Apiary, right next to the hive of the Third of the Sixth, the queen with the most burning workers. Belissar then created a cavern in the Dirt Tunnels that opened right up into the Apiary, a large hole in the ground with a gentle slope on one side for the karnuq to walk down. He then, like with the nests for the bumblebees and the digging queen, created an alcove in one of the walls. He asked the karnuq to carry the stone down into the hole and place it over the entrance of the alcove.

He figured that, since neither he nor the karnuq had much experience with stonework, that he’d keep things simple. A hive in the ground should be relatively resistant to fire, and then all they’d need was a stone for the entrance. Although, Belissar did want to try and make some frames for the honeycomb. Which…he probably should have installed…before installing the big stone door. His face scrunched up and he glanced away.

“Um, I’m sorry but…could you set the door to the side for now? I remembered there’s a bit more work to be done.”

Fortunately, the karnuq didn’t mind. It did make Belissar hesitate to ask them for the next parts, though. He went ahead and added a basic stone node right there so they, at least, wouldn’t have to travel all the way back to the second floor. This time, Muuraqi made the rectangle much thinner when gathering the stone, resulting in a long and thin block that was nearly a plate. He then attempted to crack out a frame-sized section, and then to crack out the center to leave a hollow rectangular frame.

It…wasn’t exactly, pretty, but it worked. It was noticeably heavy, however. Still, Belissar and the karnuq got it standing upright within the alcove, though Belissar dreaded the thought of having to gather and haul one of them every day. Still, he didn’t have any other fireproof material to work with, so they carried on until the alcove was full of frames. At that point, they placed the door back and the karnuq managed to drill an entrance hole for the bees. Belissar adjusted the dirt walls around the door until the fit was perfect.

He then tried to apply a beehive feature.

Variation unlocked. Belissar’s Beehouse and Beehives may now use stone as a material.

Belissar exhaled his breath as the Tower’s mana began to flow through the dirt and the stone. He then turned to the karnuq with a smile.

“It worked, thank you all for you help.”

Muuraqi glanced around a bit before saluting.

“I-It’s our honor, Sacred Den Master.”

Belissar frowned a bit at that. The villagers had always told him he should be honored to help them whenever they forced him to do work…and gave him little or nothing in return.

“No, I should give you something. Would mana honey do, or is there something else you want?”

The karnuqs’ eyes widened and they began to mumble, but Metsaitti stepped in with a smile.

“That would be great, Sacred Den Master. Thank you for your generosity.”

Belissar shook his head.

“It’s not really generosity when you just did a bunch of work for me, and the bees.”

With that, he gathered some mana honeycomb trays from his stock and distributed them to the karnuq present. He also gave Metsaitti a medicinal mana honeycomb tray for Chief Rohsuak. Once they were off, Belissar walked over to the Third of the Sixth’s hive. The queen had been watching the construction outside her home with great interest. Belissar smiled at her.

“How do you like it? I figured we should make something fireproof for you now, so that you can have your burning bees work there while you and the rest of your workers stay here, until you can all evolve?”

The Third of the Sixth immediately began to fly around Belissar, performing an aerial dance as fast as she could.

“Amazing! Incredible! King is best king!”

Belissar could only laugh at that.

“Ok, let me move the flowers over, too.”

He took the flame radish node and moved it down into the new cavern, right outside the stone beehouse. Not only would this make it easier for the burning bees to forage, but it would also keep the hot flowers separated from the rest of the Apiary. After seeing what Chief Rohsuak’s attack did the Flower Meadow, Belissar decided there was so such thing as too many fire safety precautions. This would also give him a good place for a Fire mana flower node, once the Third of the Sixth evolved.

“There you go! Let me know if there’s anything else you need, or any other way we can help you evolve.”

The Third of the Sixth just continued her celebration dance while Belissar chuckled, even as her burning workers began to explore the new hive and started to add their fireproof wax to the stone frames. It seemed now that nothing would stop her from evolving soon…