Belissar cleared his throat and the dancing soon died down. Every bee fixed their eyes on him and he smiled.
“Thank you, everyone. I think I have a good idea on what to do now. Feel free to head back to whatever you were doing...or you can stay if you want. Whatever you feel like.”
A thunderous buzzing accompanied the joint salute of all the queens, and then they began to return to their hives. One of them tried to stay but was dragged away by her workers. Belissar chuckled and then rubbed his chin one more time as he started to walk back to the Apiary, and then to the core room.
At first, he was largely committed to the idea of Dirt Tunnels. Neither the Hedge Maze nor the Orchard seemed like it would help against the flying shade, while the Dirt Tunnels undoubtedly would. But now, his conversations with Chief Rohsuak and the queens had changed his perspective.
The queens had much to say. Some asked for more flowers, others asked for stronger soldiers, others still for beehouses. But none of them asked for more traps, or terrain that would restrict the shades. Belissar had realized at that point that he had been focusing mostly on the latest shade and how to defeat it.
But was that the right way to go about things? Which was more important: defeating shades, or supporting his bees? Again, Belissar remembered that he had defeated the first shade as a beekeeper, not as a Tower Lord or Dungeon Master or Sacred Den Master or whatever else.
Perhaps defeating shades would have been the correct priority if the Tower Lords were coming for him. However, he had confirmed with Chief Rohsuak that the Tower Lords were nowhere nearby. He would have plenty of time to prepare for them if he ever met one again at all.
And in that regard, promoting the growth of his bees was the top priority. It was the soldier bee army that ultimately dealt with the shades. It was the honey traps that had caught the flying shade in the end. It was the God of Bees that blessed his tower.
Besides, thinking about the latest shade might prove to be a trap. In fact, it already had. The reason this shade dealt as much damage as it did was that Belissar’s tower was over-prepared for the shades that came before it. There was no guarantee that the next shade would be anything like either the wolf-shades or the bird-shade, so making choices solely to defeat the flying shade might not help at all against the next foe.
So, Belissar changed his line of thinking. He decided that rather than trying to restrict the shades, he would choose whatever would help his bees the most. His bees growing stronger and more versatile would give them more options the next time a shade surprised them.
And...it would make him, the bees, and maybe even the God of Bees happy.
With that in mind, Belissar made his first choice.
Orchard is now available!
The Orchard did the most for his bees. It gave them more flowers to gather from and more trees to make hives on. What’s more, Belissar guessed that Resource Plant nodes would do something different in the Orchard than it would in the Flower Meadow or the Apiary. An Orchard would probably have trees rather than flowers, right?
Still, while the nectar from fruit trees would allow for different types of honey, he didn’t imagine it would be different enough to result in new kinds of bees like the healing herbs or poison flowers had. But that was why he made his next choice.
Cross-Pollination selected.
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This perk was a bit of a risk, but Belissar felt it was worth it. More flower types meant more options for his bees, and this perk would grant that. And if the Orchard unlocked new plant types entirely, then it would combine nicely with this perk.
Plus, the bear people had given him underground crops that he couldn’t utilize at the moment. He thought of taking Dirt Tunnels for that purpose, but there would be the issue of his bees actually gathering from the plants if he didn’t have an underground-specialized bee. So, he figured he’d go with the Orchard that his bees would definitely be able to use and try to figure something else out for the new plants. Maybe they could grow at the bottom of a Pit Trap, or he could try to dig a hole? If so, then maybe Cross-Pollination might work between the underground plants and the regular flowers and give him something his bees could gather from above ground.
Of course, none of those options helped the bees fight directly, which informed Belissar’s last choice.
Monster Bee Sprayer now available. Monster Soldier Bees may now evolve into Monster Bee Sprayers. Some Monster Bee Soldiers will now spawn as Monster Bee Sprayers.
Mason Bees would give him a new type of bee separate from the queens that would not be directly useful in combat, so he ruled that out. Of the remaining two, he figured sprayers were the better option. Sprayers gave the soldier bee army entirely new options for attack while captains just seemed to make them better at what they already did. Besides, in Belissar’s admittedly inexperienced opinion, his bees were already pretty smart. They seemed to adjust their strategies and formations after each battle already, so as far as Belissar knew it seemed like they were already doing what captains were supposed to do. In any case, the sprayers definitely did something his current soldier bees could not and would help with foes his soldiers couldn’t get close to.
With his choices selected, Belissar could now get to work rearranging his tower. The first thing he did was remove most of the traps he had placed before the expansion purification. He even cut down on the number of traps from before then. He originally had nineteen Pit Trap and Sticky Honey Trap combos placed around the Flower Meadow and the Apiary, but that had proven to be excessive. He decided to cut it down to an even ten, with an additional five Sticky Honey Traps placed above ground.
All that brought his current mana total to one hundred forty-nine out of three hundred available for his new rooms. Now that he had a second floor, he could place another two rooms. Belissar had arrived back in the core room at this stage, so he placed his hand upon the core and got right to it.
First things first, he would place an Orchard. He wanted to see exactly how the new room functioned and what options it might unlock for him, especially with the new perk. He would determine what to do with the fourth available room after that.
Once again, a map of his whole tower appeared within the core, and a transparent image of an Orchard appeared, now floating above the Apiary. A door formed on the edge of the Apiary, leading to a large staircase that connected to the new room. Belissar found he could also move the Orchard down, which automatically made the Apiary move up above it.
He rubbed his chin as he considered how he should rearrange his rooms. He nodded as he moved the Orchard in between the Flower Meadow and the Apiary, moving the Apiary up to the second floor. He figured the Apiary should be the furthest back because he wanted to keep the beehouses and beehives there safe. The queens there focused on honey production and had less soldiers available in any case. He also hoped that the Orchard, by its very definition, would have more trees than the other two rooms. That could be useful for setting up defenses, since the trees would provide obstacles for ground-based shades. Maybe he could use them to make a walled path to a Pit Trap like he originally wanted to do in the Flower Meadow?
Belissar thought about putting the Orchard first for that reason, but the ultimate purpose of the Orchard was to give his bees fruit trees to gather from, so he didn’t want to move it too far away from the Apiary. Although, the Memorial, which was becoming the gathering place for his tower, was in the Flower Meadow, so maybe it would make sense to keep that in the middle? Besides, there were already hives in the Flower Meadow, so if they had to retreat to the Orchard those hives would be left vulnerable if the Flower Meadow came first...
Belissar began to rub his chin and groan a bit. And here he thought he had finished making difficult choices already.
Belissar thought and he thought and he thought some more until he grew tired of thinking and just put the Orchard in the middle. He could always move the rooms later if he wanted, so he just put it somewhere and would deal with it later if it didn’t work. He made no adjustments to the location of the entrance and exit, leaving them in the center of the front and back walls, and then confirmed the changes...