Chapter 96: Unexpected Bee-nefits

Chapter 96: Unexpected Bee-nefits

Belissar turned his attention to the karnuq hunter group, which was just beginning their descent into the tunnels below. The digging bee surprisingly couldn’t see that far beyond the lights the karnuq carried with them, making Belissar wonder how she would operate underground without such assistance. His question was answered, though, when the bee flew off of Metsaitti’s shoulder and landed on the ground. The moment she touched the ground, a small little pulse of mana shot out from her. Information on the surroundings came streaming back to her, and she could feel the vibrations of all the karnuq moving around her as well. It seemed the digging bees didn’t intend to rely on sight in the first place. After the pulse came back to her, she flew back to Metsaitti’s shoulder. She continued to land and send out pulses at regular intervals, building a steady map of the tunnel they were traversing.

But at that moment, something drew Belissar’s attention away from the hunting group.

New plant detected. Fire Mana Flower is now available.

Belissar’s vision blurred as he whipped his Tower sight around and quickly found the culprit. A new flower had bloomed in the middle of the flame radish node in the Apiary. It was like a mana flower but with a stalk that was a shifting shades of yellow, orange, and red, with bright red petals. The mana surrounding it was not a subtle, slowly pulsing glow like the mana flower or ground mana flower’s, but rather a flickering light that illuminated the flame radish flowers around it. The air around it grew slightly hazy.

Belissar’s eyes widened and then he grinned. He knew Cross-Pollination was working its magic, but this was the first time it produced a flower so different the Tower classified it as separate. And what a flower it was. Belissar could practically feel the heat emanating from it...until he realized that with his Tower senses he actually could feel it if he wanted to.

It felt like it was burning him so he decided to stick with vision alone.

In any case, it seemed like a flower that was practically on fire. And while he could sense the regular mana flowers and Ground mana flowers both held as much mana as this one...there was something impressive about it. The mana and Ground mana flowers, for all the power held within them, didn’t truly appear that different from regular flowers beyond the occasional glow. The Fire mana flower, on the other hand, was very clearly magical even to Belissar’s barely trained eyes.

He grinned as he opened up the menu...

Available Resource Plants for Apiary:

-Fire Mana Flower (10 per node, 20 due to unsuitable environment)

He pursed his lips as he immediately calmed down. Right, he had somewhat forgotten how expensive Ground Mana Flowers were when placed anywhere save the Dirt Tunnels. And well, he didn’t exactly have some sort of fire tunnels at the moment. So, if he wanted to make a Fire Mana Flower node, he’d have to shell out a lot of mana.

And right now he had a grand total of zero available...

Because displayed before his eyes were numbers he did not expect to see.

DP: 3015

His jaw hung open. He...had enough DP to afford another choice from the DP shop?! Already?!

When he finally snapped out of his daze he realized something. He turned his gaze to the second floor. The karnuq were going about their day as usual. A group of four karnuq strolled through the Orchard, picking apples off the trees. As they returned to their camp, they stopped by the Shrine of Bees, dropping off some apples and speaking a few words.

Gained 16 DP.

Small messages like that had been constantly passing through his vision ever since the karnuq moved in. He had eventually started to tune them out. They were notably smaller than the DP gained from the hunting group or the original gathering group, so Belissar hadn’t considered them important. He had even thought that his DP income had dropped since the hunter had temporarily stopped fighting remnants.

Apparently, he was wrong. What he had not considered was that there were many more karnuq in his Tower than before. The gathering group and hunters ranged from single digits to low double digits. Now there was a camp of over a hundred. Since the karnuq just stopped by the Shrine of Bees individually as they went about their days, it wasn’t all at once like before. But if he added them all up...wouldn’t it be a lot more?

Apparently, yes. Yes, it was. Belissar could afford a new room, new monster, or new room feature right now.

Belissar considered what he should pick. Or well, he’d confer with Niobee, the queens, and Chief Rohsuak after today’s purification but he figured he should also think about it a bit on his own. As far as Belissar was concerned...a new room would probably be ideal, if only for the chance to get something fire related for the new flower.

But on the other hand, he had currently filled up his available room slots for all three floors, so any more would require either removing an existing room or expanding again. And he wasn’t certain he was ready for another expansion purification just yet. His Tower’s defenses hadn’t changed all that much since the last time...save for the addition of the karnuq, which to be fair was a pretty notable addition. But the bees were still the same as before, as the newest bee types hadn’t started appearing in significant numbers. The communers would help the bee army fight, but didn’t add much in in terms of direct fighting power, while the bumblebee queens were just starting to build their colonies. On those lines, maybe a new bee type would be a better choice? If he got another option like the monster bee bladers, he could then conduct an expansion with more confidence, which would give him more choices to boot.

Or...he could go with room features. They were perhaps less impressive but he could afford three of them, so there was a greater chance of getting something useful. On the one hand, it seemed like Pit Traps were less and less useful as new shades appeared that could avoid them. But on the other hand, Pit Traps had proven very useful considering they were a mere common option that cost only a single point of mana to upkeep. What would an uncommon or rare trap be capable of? Additionally, room features accounted for the basic resource nodes, which were perhaps the most important part of his dungeon. It was what allowed the bees to grow and the karnuq to move in. Maybe there would be more than just basic resource plants out there that could really help his Tower grow with the bees it already had?

Belissar continued to ponder it as he went about his day...