Chapter 420 - Bee-ceive Epic Flowers!

And so the purification commenced. The Second Third of the First discovered her workers could raise rabbits her hive had slain earlier, so began sending more and more rabbit zombies into the corrupted room. The butcher bees offered her deer corpses…but it was found that they lacked sufficient death mana and could not be raised. The Second Third of the First stuck to rabbits for now, though once she had evolved some more of her soldiers she would send them to hunt a deer with the butcher bees.

As for Belissar, it seemed this purification would not be wrapped up in a single day, so he eventually left for dinner, then convened with his Tower’s council afterwards. They had already received a reward for defeating the shade from Tarwantrad’s dungeon, so they met to discuss that now…as well as fill in everyone in the Tower on what was going on.

Like Finnakynne, who had, of course, been with the bumblebees when this purification began. She stared at Belissar and blinked.

“Beely…we’re cut off from the land of the fair? The nexus door is gone? Isn’t that…really, REALLY bad?”

Belissar nodded.

“Yeah, but the God of Light promised she’d restore the nexus door after the purification, so once we clear that it should be fine.”

Finnakynne frowned, but then shrugged.

“I’d be worried about a trick, but to be honest I don’t know much about the God of Light, so I’ll just hope you’re right about that, Beely. Well then, you said we have new bees?”

Belissar shook his head, smiling at the same time.

“New flowers this time.”

Finnakynne smiled back.

“Well, the bees will be happy with that! So will Tarwantrad…once we’re done chewing her out for letting that shade attack you, that is.”

Finnakynne went off muttering to herself, so Belissar decided to get started and opened up the reward choice.

Please select a room feature:

- Random Epic Resource Plant (Rarity: Epic, Type: Random, Nature, Resource)

- Overgrown Trap Flower Field (Rarity: Epic, Type: Nature, Trap)

- Witch’s Bouquet Vase (Rarity: Epic, Type: Flower, Magic, Trap, Support)

The bees all began to zip around, making Belissar grin. Part of him considered waiting for Tarwantrad before deciding on the flower reward…but he didn’t know how long it would take to clear the purification. The bees’ happy dances pushed away his last misgivings, he had no intention of making them wait for epic flowers. And so, he began reviewing the choices.

The first was the option to receive an epic resource plant…which would mean gaining another flower on par with the star core flower he had received from the God of Light. A reward that would make the bees very happy…though not without risk. The star core flower, in particular, had strict cultivation requirements, needing a room of endless, magical light to grow. Belissar could only grow it because he had also received the Dragonvein Aurora Forest…itself a rare and expensive room. With the epic resource plant being random and unknown, there was no guarantee Belissar would have appropriate rooms to grow it in…and no guarantee he would be able to receive or develop such rooms anytime soon.

On that count, the other two options could at least be reviewed in detail beforehand.

Overgrown Trap Flower Field

Type: Nature, Trap

Mana Upkeep: 100

Description: A zone where almost any flowering plant considered as a Trap may be grown freely, until such plants choke the ground. The field is large enough to cover an entire room, or an even larger area if multiple rooms have been joined together. Powerful Nature mana flows through the field, allowing all the trap plants within to not only spread rapidly, but to regrow incredibly quickly when damaged. This effect can apply to naturally grown plants or those grown by other room features within the zone, though they may need to compete with the field’s own plants.

Some restrictions do apply. The conditions in the room where the field is placed must be at least tolerable for the desired plants, or else additional mana upkeep will be required to grow them. Additional mana upkeep will be required for plants of epic or greater rarity. Trees and plants larger than a bush will be outcompeted by smaller plants and will require additional mana upkeep, separate room features, or manual tending to grow within the field. Monster plants cannot spawned by the field. They can take advantage of the field to grow or regrow quickly, but must compete with the other flowers in the field to do so.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Room full of dangerous flowers? AMAZING, INCREDIBLE!”

More than one queen performed that dance…and Belissar could only agree. Thus far, trap flowers had been hit and miss for his Tower. Some, like the vaporous hemlock, were used to great effect in the Bog. Others, like the thorny roses, had never actually met a shade. A noticeable problem was…a single node of trap flowers was small and immobile, so if a shade didn’t happen to pass by it, it wouldn’t achieve anything. Indeed, the vaporous hemlock had only been useful because the Royal Pixie Guard had used their magic to spread the hemlock’s toxic mist beyond its normal range…

But to add more such flowers required either Belissar to add many more features, which would be costly in terms of mana, or for the gardener bees to plant them. The gardener bees were working on that, notably, that was how Frelis had eventually evolved the first venomous slime rose. But, the gardener bees had a lot of jobs to do these days. Every trap flower they planted was a mana flower they didn’t, or a new flower from Tarwantrad’s dungeon, or a new cross-pollination experiment.

This feature would solve all those problems in one fell swoop. Belissar could fill entire rooms with trap flowers. Vaporous hemlock could fill the entire Bog without the pixies’ help, lava lotuses could spread across the Lava Fields, thorny roses could fill an entire Flower Meadow. Or…Belissar could recreate the wall of combusting orchids Tarwantrad had used against the Tower Lords…but with an entire room of explosive flowers…

That seemed incredibly powerful…and, best of all, trap flowers were still flowers, so the bees would have many, many more flowers to forage from, many of which might be magical.

Well, the feature was still expensive in terms of mana. It was cheaper than covering an entire room in individual trap flower features, but not so cheap he could add one to every single room. And it was still only for traps, rather than monsters…which meant the defenses provided by the fields would still only work if an enemy actually entered the room in question. The current purification and the siege by Starami both demonstrated that not all enemies would do so.

But well, none of those caveats dampened the spirits of the bees as they considered entire rooms covered in flowers…so neither did they dampen Belissar’s. The final feature now faced great competition…

Witch’s Bouquet Vase

Type: Flower, Magic, Trap, Support

Mana Upkeep: 30

Description: A vase for flower arrangements that has been enchanted by great magic. The vase imposes the language of flowers upon reality itself and so creates a wide range of mystic effects depending on the flowers placed within it, as well as their arrangement. The vase has two general methods of use. The first is a passive hex that hinders enemies and assists allies in an area around the vase. This method does not use up the flowers placed within the vase, magically sustaining them for as long as desired. The second method is more active: the vase will use up the flowers placed within it for more powerful and immediate effects, such as direct attacks or powerful curses.

Rarer and more powerful flowers generally result in more powerful and esoteric effects. Individuals with access to Flower magic, Nature magic, or hexes may utilize the vase to assist in their spellcasting.

This one had Belissar tilting his head, while the bees were twitching their antennae as well. It had something to do with magic, but the feature description didn’t say exactly what the feature did.

Frelis, however, started to dance suddenly.

“Oh, is for Flower magic! Like Queen of All Flowers’ power! Amazing, incredible!”

That led to an “Amazing, incredible!” dance spreading throughout the bees. Belissar smiled, then turned to Finnakynne.

“Do you know anything about this feature? I get that it’s used for magic and I’m guessing that’s strong?”

Finnakynne placed a finger on her chin for a moment.

“So, flower-based witchery? It’s a more…laborious form of magic with lots of ingredients and physical aids and cackling and stuff. Mother dearest did teach me some hexes and curses, said they’re good for mischief, though it’s more a dusk elf specialty. It’s powerful, but it can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Well, all magic can be dangerous, but when Urubran throws a fireball around he knows what’s going to happen and what the danger actually is. Witchery can have…unexpected outcomes.”

Belissar frowned.

“It’s dangerous, then?”

Finnakynne crossed her arms and hummed.

“…maybe? It’s a dungeon feature, so it’ll probably err on the side of helpful…but it’d probably be a good idea to have help. I know a bit, the dusk elves know more…come to think of it, I think Aratodel knows something about magical flower arranging. I don’t recall, I…may or may not have tuned him out and messed with his tea the last time he started talking about it to me. He, uh, still doesn’t talk to me…I need to apologize to him too, come to think of it…”

Belissar considered all that…then shrugged and turned to the bees. Since Tarwantrad wasn’t around, he’d give the decision over to the hive of hives.

“So, we can get a powerful new flower, though we might not be able to grow it yet, we could get a field that could grow entire rooms of flowers we already have, though only dangerous ones, or we could get something that lets us do magic with flowers, though we probably need to ask the fair folk to teach us about it first. What do you all think?”

The bees duly began to dance within the hivelink.

“Powerful flower good! Can forage, can cross-pollinate!”

“If can grow, might not?”

“Lots of flowers, amazing, incredible!”

“Can fight with flowers too!”

“Flower magic good too? Frelis wanted learn, teach hive of fallen?”

“That good, but need ask fair ones?”

“If fair ones already know, can ask teach? Can ask bumble helper?”

“Bumble helper amazing, incredible! Always helps!”

“If bumble helper can teach, then don’t need vase? More flowers instead?”

“Can use lots of flowers fight! Protect King and hive of hives AND raise more bees! Amazing, incredible!”

A wave of dances passed through the hive of hives as the queens began to build a consensus. Belissar glanced at Finnakynne, who made a complicated expression.

“Beely, I’m getting a strange sense that the bees think too highly of me. Is it just me? They, um, know I only know a little bit about witchery, right?”

Belissar made a helpless smile and shook his head.

“It’s not just you. I’ve felt that same sense since this Tower appeared…”

Both of them traded sympathetic expressions as the bees concluded their dance. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter gave the verdict.

“King! Hive of hives thinks more flowers best!”

Belissar smiled at her.

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

Overgrown Trap Flower Field now available!