POBee 120.1 - Bee-focus Your Efforts!

POBee 120.1 - Bee-focus Your Efforts!

Down in the Underway, just past the rot cap field in a tunnel with no light, two pairs of eyes lit up in the dark, barely reflecting the faintest hints of light. A soft voice drifted on the air, a faint whisp that would not be heard over the rustling of the stink bugs in the field beyond.

“Are you certain this is the place?”

“Positive.”

“And you’re certain you saw people here? Not just another cave bear, right?”

There was a low growl.

“You think I would mistake an entire hunting band? That I’d just make that up? They were here. That’s a fact. Look, the stink bug numbers still haven’t recovered.”

The first voice gained volume, letting a sigh pierce the quiet.

“So? A cave bear could’ve done that too. And it’s been days and we haven’t seen any sign of anything but stink bugs here.”

The second voice hissed.

“And we won’t if you keep yapping! Quiet down before we’re discovered...”

But both voices were cut off in that moment. Neither could miss the surge of mana flowing past them, causing both eyes to tremble for a bit. The second voice spoke first.

“T-That was...?”

The first voice replied, tone now fully serious and with no hint of their earlier annoyance.

“There’s no mistaking it. That’s a purification wave. And that means there’s a Sacred Den in the area now. Let’s go, we need to report this right away.”

“Ok, what can do now? More lancers? More soldiers?”

But the Firstborn danced the negative.

“Not this time.”

And then Firstborn began to lay some new worker eggs...and then gathered together her oldest and most experienced foragers, who crawled into glowing cells packed with honey. Her daughter saluted and followed suit with her own workers.

The Firstborn had originally planned to raise more lancers...but had changed her mind. The mana of the realm did more than strengthen her muscles, it had carried knowledge that one of the latest bee types had been improved. A bee type that she had thought intended for the Apiary queens, a worker evolution focused on foraging rather than fighting. Something that would help the Bee Barracks as well but would require them to cease raising soldiers while their limited foragers took the time to evolve. So, something the Flower Meadow queens had not gotten around to yet.

But now the Firstborn had decided to adjust her priorities. The honey to evolve a single lancer could not only evolve several gardeners; the remainder could also serve as a stockpile that would cover the hive while its most productive foragers rested in their cells. Taking this step now would improve their honey production, not only allowing them to afford more lancers and other soldier types, but to have the extra honey necessary if and when the King provided them with new options. While the hive of hives would support one another, it was not good to rely solely on the Apiary whenever they needed more honey.

Additionally, this new bee not only improved foraging, they would also improve the health of the flowers themselves...and would now work to spread the flowers as well. New mana flowers were obviously useful to improve honey production, but that was not the Firstborn’s only thought. If she considered herself as part of the greater hive of hives, the soldier bee army as just one part of the King’s design, then she should consider her surroundings as well, and the King’s other efforts to defend the hive of hives. The great chasms and fire sticks, the underground tunnels that bought time, and the honey sprayers could all be considered part of the army in that manner.

And then...there were the plants. On the palisade outside of the Bee Barracks grew vine covered in sharp thorns. Further on in the Flower Meadow was a flower her foragers didn’t like to gather from. They said it disrupted their flight and was difficult to approach. One moment, it would randomly make them heavier, forcing them to fly with all their might not to crash into the ground. The next, it would make them even lighter than usual, causing them fly above and beyond their target. It was therefore not very popular among the Flower Meadow’s foragers, despite its high mana-density.

But what if those effects applied to the enemy as well? What if the new bees not only improved foraging, but spread those two types of flowers across the Meadow? In that regard, there might be more ways for the Flower Meadow army to fight, ways they could start fighting right now, before the enemy ever arrived.

And what if they combined those efforts with the soldiers they sent to help the King? Could they one day build a wall of their own, maybe one extending across the entire length of the Flower Meadow? And then, perhaps, spread the thorny roses across the entire thing, so that no enemy could advance along the ground without tearing down tree-trunk like stakes while thorns ripped into them? With countless of those other flowers to randomly make everything heavier or lighter, disrupting the flight of any enemy trying to pass over the barrier? All the while sprayers could attack safely from behind and above the walls, while lancers adjusted their aim with leisure? If the wall held the enemy back well enough, maybe Beero and her squad could get involved as well.

Well, those ideas were distant and vague, but they informed the Firstborn of an important point. There was more the Flower Meadow could do than just practicing dives to prepare for the next battle.

It was for these reasons the Firstborn made the call to raise gardeners instead of more lancers. The King would expand the army’s options when he felt they needed more, and they had a lancer squad ready, once the wounded had recovered. So, she felt their goal in the immediate future...should be to prepare, and to join themselves ever more with the hive of hives. Not just with their fellow Flower Meadow queens, but with those of the Orchard and the Apiary. With the King’s flowers and traps and constructions. Maybe even with the karnuq as well, for while the bees kept an eye on them the Firstborn had noted their willingness to defend the King’s realm.

And everything within the realm, be it bee, flower, or even the land itself, would fight for the King.