Chapter 77: Sneaky Bee-livery

Chapter 77: Sneaky Bee-livery

All hostiles defeated. Purification successful.

Minor+ Purification completed! Please select a reward:

- +75 DP

- +15 Max Mana

- Monster Bee Sprayer Resistance Boost (Minimal+)

The bees finished up the day’s purification with ease. Belissar then considered the rewards. Normally he’d just default to more mana unless there was an especially enticing perk or feature, since at this point he already had enough mana for the next expansion purification. More mana was always helpful and he’d get a head start on the expansion after the next one, but it also felt a bit...unnecessary.

So, he took a moment to consider the other options. Seventy-five DP would help him reach his DP shop goal sooner...but it was less than what the karnuq were giving him at this point, so was it really worth a full purification reward? On the other hand, a boost for his bees was always welcome. He wasn’t entirely sure what resistance did...

Resistance: Governs the entity’s ability to resist magic, negative statuses, and non-physical effects.

That was helpful. So, resistance was like defense, but for magic? Well, that decided it then.

Monster Bee Sprayer Resistance Boost (Minimal+) selected.

Monster Bee Sprayers receive a slight boost to Resistance!

So far, the most dangerous attacks to his bees were magical. Well, he wasn’t entirely sure about that, but he assumed that the bird-shade’s lightning and the wolf-shade’s mist were some sort of magical attack. It was absolutely worth a reward choice to shore up his bees’ defenses against such dangers.

And more generally, Belissar figured he’d focus on perks and features while he waited, unless he specifically needed more mana. It was a good opportunity to boost the strength of his bees in preparation for the fight to come.

With that settled, Belissar celebrated the bees’ victory and then made his way back to the Apiary farmhouse. Before anything else, he took one of the jars he had received from the karnuq and took it out to the pond, filling it partially. He then made his way back into the farmhouse and walked over to the big jars holding the extra honeycomb trays he had accumulated from the Apiary bees’ daily production. He poured the honey from one of the trays into the jar, then swirled it about to mix it up.

Yes, it was time to get started on the mead-making again. For now though, he was keeping it basic with just mana honey and water. Since the honey was notably different from what he was used to, he wanted to get a baseline before he iterated on any of his previous recipes.

Now that that was done, he thought a bit on possible challenges for the karnuq before heading off to bed...

He took a tray of mana honeycomb and walked off towards the Flower Meadow. He soon arrived at his destination, off to the center of one of the side walls away from either entrance or the Bee Barracks. There, he placed the honeycomb down out in the open.

He then surrounded the honeycomb with Pit Traps.

Well, it was a simple idea, but bees flew to get their honey, right? So, if he surrounded some honey with Pit Traps, it would be hard for normal people to get it unless they could fly like bees, right?

...the idea sounded better last night, before Belissar had actually implemented it. But he shrugged and left it there. He guessed he’d at least see if it worked as a ‘challenge’ and if not he’d adjust it later.

He then paused and rubbed his chin. The challenge did give him an idea, though. His bee magic so far let him make honey like a bee and make wax like a bee. Presumably, it would do bee-ish things in general.

So...wouldn’t it be possible to fly like a bee using his magic?

Belissar stirred up his mana and sent it out of his body, thinking about bee wings and buzzing about in the air. A honeycomb pattern of light began to form around his back...but it quickly began to slow down before finishing even a single hexagon. Belissar began to grunt and groan as the mana grew harder and harder to move.

Then, suddenly, he gasped and lurched forward. The mana suddenly stopped flowing out of his body. The light shuddered and then dispersed in a bright flash of light. He fell to the ground, his face covered in sweat and his head pounding.

“Ugh, ok, guess wings are too hard for now.”

It seemed he wouldn’t be joining the bees in the skies anytime soon. A moment later, Niobee came rushing over to him with medicinal bees in tow. And since the sun was only beginning to rise, Belissar decided to take a moment before resuming the rest of his day...

Belissar spent the next day learning potions with Juosiutik, building another beehouse, and watching the next purification. He got a minimum+ Vitality boost for his soldier bees this time.

He went to bed, but woke up before the sun rose. He apparently could just...decide how long to sleep and the Tower mana would wake him up. That was incredibly convenient. He then gathered together some healing herb mana honey and mad mana honey and turned his attention towards the entrance.

He thought about it and realized he could help the sneaky karnuq. She was giving him a treasure considered priceless by both the karnuq and his bees, so it would absolutely be appropriate to give her some mana honey in exchange, or so he thought. He wasn’t sure what she was doing or where she was getting the flowers, but he figured healing herb honey would always be valuable for its medicinal properties. Mad mana honey, on the other hand, could help if she was doing something dangerous. She said something about power and that was just about the strongest weapon he had that he could share, in any case.

So, he made his way to the Flower Meadow and then waited. And waited. And waited...

Eventually the sun rose and Belissar frowned. He guessed she wasn’t coming tonight, then? Belissar shrugged and took the honeycomb back. The flowers were supposed to be rare, after all, so maybe it would take her a bit to find one? He guessed he would just have to wait until the next time she came by, then...