The next day, Belissar made a quick stop to the Slime Flower, since it had been on his mind. He rubbed his chin as he looked it over. Try as he might, he couldn’t find any slimes either nearby or throughout his Tower.

“Does it need more time? Or…”

He noticed a worker bee land on the flower…and then pulled up the Slime Flower’s description once more.

Slime Flower

- Type: Slime, Nature, Trap, Spawner

- Mana Upkeep: 20 per node (40 due to Blessing of Bees), 10 (20 due to Blessing of Bees) to enable in compatible rooms

- Description: A flower that concentrates its mana into thickening its sap, which will spill out and engulf any creature that damages it. This effect extends partially to its nectar as well, which if left to pool in sufficient quantities may eventually condense into a slime core. The slime will then carry the flower’s seeds along with it as it begins to move, spreading the seeds around while also hunting nearby pests, further protecting the flower.

He confirmed that the description mentioned slimes spawning…if the flower’s nectar was left to pool in sufficient quantities. So, if the bees were consistently gathering that nectar…maybe slimes would never spawn?

Belissar briefly considered whether he should ask the bees to hold off and test the theory before shaking his head. At the end of the day, the bees were the priority. If they wanted to gather this flower’s nectar in quantities that prevented slimes from spawning, then that is what they would do. Belissar was curious about the slimes and how the flower worked, but not so curious that he’d interrupt the bees’ work to find out.

With that out of the way for now, he turned to his goal for the day: building the fire room. He walked over to the Third of the Sixth’s hive. The queen flew up and out of the hole where her hive was before he even arrived, zipping around him. Belissar chuckled.

“Ready to make your new home?”

Her happy dance increased in intensity, creating little sparks of flame all around him as her temperature spiked. Belissar smiled and then lead the dancing queen to the core room. He wanted the Third of the Sixth’s input on the new room and recalled that the core could show the image of a new room before he placed it.

Belissar himself blinked a few times as he stepped into the core room. He hadn’t been there since realizing his Tower sight could do the same thing as the core, so he hadn’t noticed that there had been some changes. First of all, the room had grown dramatically in size, now four times larger than it originally had been. The core was still held up by a statue of a bee, but both the core and the statue had grown. The core used to be about the size of his head and the statue about the height of his chest. Now, the core was twice the size and the statue reached up to his neck, holding the core at eye level. One of the bee statue’s legs now also held a lit candle.

The walls had seen the most dramatic change. They were still made of honeycomb dripping honey, but the honeycomb was no longer a single color. Different colored cells joined together to form images all along the walls, displaying the different types of bees he had in his Tower. He even saw some images of the karnuq, including one covered in flames, one mixing a large pot, and one crouching and holding a large stinger.

It took Belissar a moment before he shrugged. He guessed the core room reflected the current Tower? That made sense. In any case, he had a job to do. He turned to Niobee.

“Can you let the other queens know the Tower’s about to change like we discussed last night?”

“Ok!”

In addition to the new room, Belissar would need to rearrange some of the other rooms. He figured he’d put the new fire room on the First Floor, between the Dirt Tunnels and the Flower Meadow. He’d put the new floor as the second floor of the Tower so the Orchard could go there and still stay connected to the Flower Meadow. The current second floor holding the karnuq would become the third floor, while the current third floor with the Apiary and bumblebees would become the fourth floor.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The view of the Tower’s room and floors as a whole appeared within the core. Belissar moved about the existing rooms as planned, then placed the new room in its place. The view zoomed in on the new room, displaying what it would look like for him and the Third of the Sixth.

A field of black rock stretched out before them, broken up by bright red rivers. A small hill pushed up in the center and lava flowed out of it into the rivers. Lava oozed and solidified into new rock along the backs of the river, while elsewhere seemingly solid rock cracked open so that lava could pour out. The air across the entire room shimmered from the heat. The field was not entirely flat, either. There were dips and small ridges and outcroppings. Some of these outcroppings had alcoves. The room’s borders were marked by particularly tall cliffs.

Belissar tested what he could adjust, finding he could move the lava hill at the center, change the course of the rivers, and move some of the outcroppings, ridges, and alcoves. He nodded and turned to the Third of the Sixth as he pointed at the image.

“Ok, so I think we put the entrance and exit to the room on either side of the right wall, so that the shades will move through there, and then we put an alcove for your hive on the opposite side. How does that sound?”

The Third of the Sixth responded with a nearly unintelligible “King best King!” dance. Belissar shook his head with a smile as he set up a large ridge near the left wall, building a large alcove into it that faced the left wall and so away from the rest of the room.

“Ok, ok. Um, do you have any suggestions? How would you like your hive’s alcove to look?”

In this case, the Third of the Sixth mostly just continued praising him. She did mention, as part of her praise, how the rivers looked nice and warm and how that made him the best, so Belissar went ahead and moved one of the rivers so it would pass in front of the alcove’s entrance.

From then on, he tried to adjust the room as best he knew for defense. He made as big a river of lava as he could stretching across the room from left to right, and made as many lava rivers as he could. He made the ground move up and down with as many ridges and outcroppings in the way as he could. He placed the parts where lava just oozed out of rocks right along the path in the space in between the rivers.

And then, he reached out to Niobee.

“Is everyone ready for the changes?”

“Ready!”

Once she replied, he confirmed and placed the room. The core began to glow and the Tower’s mana surged as it applied his changes to the room. The image within the core seemed to grow more solid, he could almost feel the heat of the room.

And now that the room was placed came the final touch.

Compatible feature detected. Swap Lava Source to Mini-Volcano?

Belissar went ahead and confirmed, turning the hill at the center of the room into a mini-volcano. The hill began to rumble and smoke and ash began to belch out of its center as the flow of lava grew a bit more rapid.

Belissar waited for the volcano to launch its boulders. He wanted to see if the ridge and alcove would hold up to the volcano before he moved the Third of the Sixth’s hive there, to ensure that they’d be safe. Otherwise, he’d just have to place them in an adjacent room. However, the volcano didn’t seem to want to erupt just yet. He frowned and brought up the description.

Mini-Volcano

Type: Fire, Ground, Trap

Mana Upkeep: 50

Description: A small volcano just peeking out of the ground. Will launch burning rocks in the direction of invaders. May also emit ash clouds and slowly flowing lava.

Belissar frowned. So…it would launch in the direction of invaders? And not just randomly everywhere? That was convenient in general…but could be a problem for the current test. Would he have to wait until a purification? And then lead a shade to the alcove?

As he focused in, a new message arrived.

Launch boulders for a one-time cost of ten mana?

“Ah, that’s convenient…or is it?”

At first, that seemed an immediate solution to Belissar’s worries…until he saw the mana cost. Paying mana for a one-time test didn’t seem like a good idea…although the message did say one time. Would he get the mana back then?

Unfortunately, no new messages appeared in response to Belissar’s questions, so he’d either have to test it himself or just wait for a purification. He decided that ten mana, less than a minor+ purification reward, was an acceptable price to find out what the Tower meant. So, he went ahead and confirmed.

Currently available mana: 9(19)/770

A large circle made of red light appeared on the ground in the lava field, and Belissar found he could move it. Was this where the boulders were going to land? Belissar hoped so, then moved the circle to center on the alcove and thought about boulders launching.

“Um, here?”

The volcano then erupted. Belissar, even safe in the core room, couldn’t help but stumble back as a blast of smoke and light shot from the mini-volcano, shaking the lava field. Rocks the size of Belissar’s torso covered in bright flames shot into the sky, with long tails of smoke trailing behind them. They arced through the air, flames burning bright as they started descending on the ground.

They hit the ridge with a crash, shattering and spreading flames and puddles of lava across the black and rocky ground.

And, most importantly, the ridge held with no particular damage. A few scattered pebbles and rocks fell over the edge and in front of the alcove but did not enter the alcove proper. A hive built inside would be safe.

Belissar stared at it for a bit before he started to grin. It seems this plan was coming together after all.