Chapter Ninety-Four - Dance Dance Beevolution

Chapter Ninety-Four - Dance Dance Beevolution

Chapter Ninety-Four - Dance Dance Beevolution

So, I waggled as we climbed off the cart. It had taken a couple of hours to travel across the entire hive, crossing junctions and tunnels and all sorts of strange underground caverns along the way. It was surprising just how extensive the hive was. You girls like flowers, huh?

Ooo, girl, you have got no idea how much we love flowers. Henrihock wiggled back. Cant farm them inside the hive, so we sniff them out. We make the best honey.

So cool, I said out loud. I shifted my hips and started to dance a reply back. How do you find all your flowers? We have a mission to find all the best flowers in the region.

Henrihock made jazz-hands. We have maps. Here, Im sure Queen Bee wouldnt mind. The big bee reached into her little satchel and pulled out a small square-folded map that she gave to me.

Whaa, I said as I looked over a detailed chart of the region, complete with marks for the entrances to the hive ways and little scribbles that showed where different sorts of flowers were. It was made of a strange, waxy sort of paper, like the mache that normal beehives were made of. Thank you! I jigged.

I was still poring over the map, Amaryllis snooping over my shoulder, when we exited the hive ways and found ourselves in a little forest. There were plenty of trees around, though there was some room between each, and lots of bushes and fallen branches made the area look hard to travel.

Henrihock spun around, wings beating so hard it made the air thrum. Here we are, love. If you keep on moving that way for a little while youll find that human hive youre looking for.

I grinned from ear to ear and jumped over to Henrihock to give her a big hug. She was just as fuzzy as she looked. Thank you, I twerked, tears in my eyes. You were the best bees Ive ever met.

The other bee girls thrummed their wings too. They looked a little jealous of the attention Henrihock had received, so I gave them hugs too.

Stay safe love, dont let them nasty wood bears go after you, you hear? Henrihock waggled.

I wont, I balleted sadly. Thank you again!

We were waved off, Amaryllis taking the lead to push through the underbrush in a mostly northwestern-ish heading.

Awa, Awen said. That was... interesting.

Amaryllis sighed and crossed her arms. It was acceptable, she said.

I stared at the back of her head for a bit, then hummed. Why are you in a bad mood? We got to make friends and have fun.

Im not in a bad mood, Amaryllis said like someone who was in a bad mood. I think she might have sensed that I was staring because she grumbled something. I just felt rather... useless back there.

But nothing bad happened, I said. I guess your best skills didnt come into play. There was nothing to zap, and no one to be condescending to, not unless you learned how to dance-talk a little.

I refuse to learn how to speak such a primitive... language.

I felt a smile tugging at my lips, but suppressed it for the moment. Thats fair. Dont worry, Im sure the next bit of our adventure will have plenty of things that you can zap into submission.

Harrumph, Amaryllis harrumphed.

What about you, Awen? Did you feel useless? I dont want my friends to feel like third wheels, its not nice.

Awa, no, no more than usual, Awen said.

I pulled Awen into a side hug for a bit before I had to let go on account of the terrain. So! Do you have any clue where we are? I asked.

Awa, I thought of that! Awen said. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small purse that was filed with glassy sand. I, ah, took some from the valley with the dungeon.

Then start there, Amaryllis said. Imbue it with your mana while turning your mana into glass aspect. Then try to sculpt the sand into something simple. A ball, perhaps?

I think I can do that, Awen said.

I tapped my chin, then dove into my backpack until I found my copy of A Guide to Manipulating the Essence that was tucked at the bottom of all my other stuff. The book had taken a bit of a beating at the bottom of my pack, but it was still fine.

I skimmed ahead, looking for anything about mana sculpting and the like. There was an entire chapter about it towards the end of the book, but the instructions looked like they built off of a bunch of previous lessons and I couldnt really get it.

Here, I told Awen as I handed her the book opened to what I hoped was the right page. That might help.

Awa! Thank you!

Awen set the book on her lap and started reading it while a small glowing ball of magic formed in her hands and started to slowly shift colours. Awen might not have gotten all that many opportunities to work with her original class, but I couldnt imagine her not receiving plenty of training in the use of basic magics.

I was almost envious... okay, I was definitely envious.

But that just meant that I had to practice more myself! Amaryllis! I need to get even better at magic. Teach me!

Amaryllis sighed and made a back-up sort of gesture. Go over there and start practicing your manakinesis. Try to figure out an aspect other than cleaning while youre at it.

Um. Like fire? I asked.

Thats... a possibility. Perhaps water aspect. Hitting a foe with cleaning magic does very little. Water aspect can at least impart some physical force at higher concentrations. She grinned. Also, youre less likely to light the forest aflame.

Alright! I said before bouncing down the hill a little. There was a particularly large rock with a nice flat top to one side, maybe a meter and a half across and nearly even. I hopped onto it, made sure it was stable, then paused as I realized that I wasnt actually sure how to start.

Pushing mana out of my body along with motions seemed to trigger physical manakinesis, at least a little, so I started with that. Smooth twirls that had cleaning magic flowing after my hands like streamers, kicks that fired off weak blasts, and finally little punches that sent balls of cleaning magic racing ahead.

That was fairly easy, and it felt right. But switching from cleaning magic to something else would be tricky, an entire level of difficulty added atop of what I could already do.

I grinned. I had never really been the sort of girl to chase after challenges like that, but it was a whole lot of fun to play with new magics.

An hour or so passed with me focused on a pool of my own magic while I tried to think watery thoughts. When I would start to grow tired Id try some new things. Kicking with bursts of magic felt right, so did firing a blast of cleaning magic on a jump.

In the end, just as the sun finally set and the only light around was our little campfire, I was rewarded with not one, but two new prompts from Mister Menu.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Physical Manakinesis skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank E is a Free Rank!

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Dancing skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank D is a Free Rank!

Oi, moron! Come back over here or Im giving you middle watch! Amaryllis called over.

Coming! I said.