Chapter 174: Flower Bee-wards

Chapter 174: Flower Bee-wards

The gardener quickly put extraneous thoughts aside and focused. Now that she had a flower that might suit her purposes, she needed to ensure it grew healthy and strong. The plant was requesting additional water and her own mana agreed with that assessment. Now she needed to figure out the best way to bring it more.

But as she pondered, the shoot itself began to move. It dug itself out of the ground, revealing a bulbous, slight glowing section at the very bottom of the stem. Its roots slithered out from the ground and began to writhe and grasp like particularly uncoordinated legs. The plant continued to wave its leaves in her direction.

Well, if the plant could remove itself from the ground, then the task was simple. The gardener wrapped the plant in her legs and took off. The plant’s leaves and roots began writhing about as they rose into the air, but her grip on it was firm. Eventually it wrapped its little roots around her legs as best it could as she flew them both towards the nearest pond.

Belissar’s mind finally caught up enough for him to begin acknowledging the messages in his face.

A new monster has been born!

Venomous Slime Rose is now available!

Venomous Slime Rose

Vitality: Below Average

Strength: Below Average

Speed: Minor

Magic: Below Average

Defense: Minor

Resistance: Minor

Special: Below Average

Notable Skills: Vine Whip, Venomous Thorns, Aqua Regeneration, Fluid Absorption

Spawner Upkeep: 5 (10 with Blessing of Bees)

Description: This rose has a bonded slime core mixing its slime with its sap, granting it mobility, intention, and an improved ability to absorb fluids. It aggressively seeks out fluids to fuel its growth and will defend itself with its thorn-tipped vines. It is surprisingly difficult to kill, as any part of its body sans its core may be regrown so long as it has access to sufficient fluids or nutrients.

This variant also fills its thorns with a dangerous toxin on account of the eclectic mix of pollen from hazardous species it was raised on.

Belissar glanced around a bit with his Tower sight before realizing he honestly had no idea where to look. The thorny rose he planted by the Bee Barracks still appeared the same, so the bees must have planted this one somewhere else.

“Hey Niobee, looks like one of the gardeners raised a monster flower of some kind? Could you check and find out which one and where they are?”

“Ok! Will!”

Belissar took a deep breath as Niobee flew off to dance with the other bees. He was certainly curious about the new monster and wanted to see it for himself. He also wanted to confirm it was a Tower monster and so not dangerous to the bees and the karnuq. But all of that would have to wait, for the new monster notification was only the first of the messages.

Mission: Spawn or evolve one Flower attribute monster with the help of bees completed!

Reward: One Flower-type room feature choice.

The God of Flowers offers a minor blessing.

A non-patron god, the God of Flowers, offers her blessing! The God of Flowers will be added to the Shrine in some rooms. Accept?

That monster was apparently sufficient for the God of Flower’s mission, who now also wanted to become his patron. That choice...was quite straightforward and even eased Belissar’s overwhelmed mind a bit. The God of Flowers was a perfect patron for a Tower full of bees and Belissar already knew the God of Bees approved, so he had no reason to hesitate.

Metsaitti’s eyes widened while Chief Rohsuak smiled, and the bees began a celebratory dance. Belissar chuckled as finally, finally, he opened up the rewards.

Select a room feature:

- Bee Balm (Rarity: Common, Type: Flower, Bee, Resource)

-Bursting Death Camus (Rarity: Uncommon, Type: Flower, Poison, Trap)

- Clover (Rarity: Common, Type: Nature, Flower)

It took a great deal of self-control not to select the option with bee in the name, but Belissar figured he should at least read the descriptions.

Bee Balm

- Type: Flower, Bee

- Mana Upkeep: 1 per node, 0 to enable in compatible rooms

- Description: A flowering plant beloved by pollinators. Its bright colors and strong production of sugar-rich nectar attracts attention, particularly from bees. It has some minor medicinal and culinary uses as well.

The description did not assist with his self-control. A flower that was specifically good for bees, that produced a lot of sugar-rich nectar? Belissar had just invested in honeypots to boost honey production, this flower could apparently assist with that at practically zero cost. The First of the Fifth was already starting to fly in circles.

Only by the promise of an uncommon option did Belissar move on to the next one.

Bursting Death Camus

- Type: Flower, Poison, Trap

- Mana Upkeep: 10 per node, 5 to enable in compatible rooms

- Description: Every part of this flower is poisonous, from its leaves and its stems to its seeds and flowers, filled with a highly-stable toxin that is not easily degraded. Even pollinators beware as even the flower’s nectar and pollen are toxic, and only specialized toxin-resistant species can forage from it.

This particular variant has been evolved by mana and will release a cloud of toxic pollen when disturbed, making it a dangerous trap within seemingly innocuous flower patches.

Belissar frowned and crossed his arms. More traps were good, necessary even. A deadly, toxic flower would fit well within his Tower. But...apparently this flower was toxic even to pollinators, such as his bees. That alone gave him pause, for what was the point of a flower his bees couldn’t forage from?

Still, a poisonous flower such as this could very improve the battle meadow’s defenses. And the description didn’t say that no pollinators could forage from it, so maybe there was a type of bee that could? They could gather from the poisonous herbs without issue, and the First of the Fifth’s Third Daughter had recently raised an antidote bee. If they could utilize this flower, he imagined the bees raised on it would be quite useful for the bee army. Worst came to worst, even if the bees couldn’t use this flower, Juosiutik probably could. Though, she did already have access to the death cap mushrooms, so perhaps that was redundant.

It was something to think about. For now, there was one more option to check, though this one seemed quite mundane.

Clover

- Type: Nature, Flower

- Mana Upkeep: 1 per node, 0 to enable in compatible rooms

- Description: A short-lived flowering plant that grows freely. Edible as is and a good source of nectar for pollinators, but its main benefit is that it improves soil quality, boosting the growth of other nearby plants.

And it was...but that didn’t mean he could discard it. The humble clover wouldn’t poison shades and probably wouldn’t result in new monster bee types...but apparently it improved soil quality. Boosting the growth of other plants, now that was a benefit worth considering.

Belissar rubbed his chin. He thought this choice would be easy...but apparently it would not.

And he hadn’t even checked the cross-perk yet.