Chapter 435 - Bee-hold New Blooms

Belissar and Tarwantrad stared at the seed. Finnakynne, meanwhile, looked at her hands, then stomped on the air.

“Why didn’t I get demigod powers like that?! What gives?!”

Tarwantrad snapped out of her haze and began muttering to herself while rubbing her chin.

“It’s probably the Heart of the Forest, the bumbledryad is ultimately an avatar for it. And they’re supposed to be able to restore the Great Forest to the world, so they’d have to be able to regrow the plants within it. That means…Belstablom might be a magical repository for every plant lost when the Great Forest fell…”

Belissar glanced at Belstablom. The bumbledryad stopped flying loops around him, landed on his head next to Niobee, grabbed onto his hair and then stopped moving. Her awareness seemed to fade within the hive of hives.

“…I guess she’s sleepy after that, so we’ll have to ask her later.”

Tarwantrad blinked and then made a warm smile. Belissar turned his attention to the new seed. He reached down to pick it up, but caught himself and pulled back.

“Ah…if this is the soul-draining thing, then I shouldn’t touch it, right?”

Tarwantrad shook her head. Belissar furrowed his brow.

“So…how should I grow it, then? Do we feed it rabbits or deer or something?”

Tarwantrad rubbed her chin.

“That’s an option, deers might work. It does want mana, though, so purely mundane creatures might not be sufficient. A heavy concentration of Nature mana could likely substitute…”

Tarwantrad considered something for a moment before turning to Belissar.

“Belissar, would you allow me to grow this one for you? My dungeon focuses on Nature mana and also has prey for my own carnivorous plant monsters, so I should be able to feed it without issue. I’ll bring it back to you once it’s fully grown, or I can cultivate them so you can absorb and unlock them as features.”

Belissar nodded with a smile.

“Thanks Tarwantrad, that would be a big a help.”

Tarwantrad beamed.

“I’m the one who should thank you!”

Tarwantrad then took out a set of gloves with ward patterns sewn into them and a similarly decorated pouch. She gently picked up the seed and put it into the pouch. It tried to stick to her gloves, but a flash of the wards managed to detach it.

With that, the choice of room features became easy. While there was some temptation for a random resource flower, the heartseeker cholla would fit perfectly in the sparkling desert’s trap field. Tarwantrad confirmed the Great Forest did not extend into desert regions, so it was unlikely Belstablom could make a seed for it either.

But before Belissar confirmed the choices, there was still one more reward to go.

Please select a perk:

- Explosive Flowers (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Alluring Scents (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Rapid Bloom (Rarity: Uncommon)

The perks were all uncommon this time, but Belissar didn’t miss the gleam in Tarwantrad and Chief Rohsuak’s eyes at the name of the first perk…

Explosive Flowers

- Increase in the explosive force of all explosions caused by flowering plants.

- Small increase in the explosive force of all explosives made with ingredients from flowering plants.

- Small increase in the launch velocity of seeds dispersed via explosive force.

Chief Rohsuak chuckled.

“Juosiutik would be pleased. And I think we’ve seen the value of such things over recent battles.”

Belissar had to give her that. Combusting orchids had proved immensely valuable against both the recent purification and Starami’s forces. Making them stronger was certainly appealing…and now they had the nightshade summoners’ wasps and the Second Third of the First’s undead to help deliver them. The first perk might be the winner already.

But Belissar would at least check on the others first.

Alluring Scents

- All trap flowers gain a pleasant scent that lures hostiles towards them.

- All flowers are more effective at appealing to pollinators through scent.

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- Small increase to the effectiveness of all flower abilities based on smell.

- Small increase to the potency of aromatic compounds found in flowers.

This one was a bit underwhelming at first. None of Belissar’s flowers used smell-based abilities as far as he knewand Juosiutik had focused her alchemy on explosives and poisons lately. Appealing the pollinators interested Belissar at first…but his bees had no trouble finding the flowers in the Tower and the gardeners were helping make sure that every flower got at least some visitors. There was no real need to make the flowers more attractive to the bees than they already were.

So that left the part about trap flowers luring hostiles. That one…actually had more promise, once Belissar thought about it. A major weakness of trap flowers up until now was that there was that shades could end up going around them, avoiding the trap entirely. The trap flowers luring the shades in would solve that problem.

But…so would overgrown trap flower fields, by simply covering entire rooms in trap flowers. It felt a bit unnecessary to lure shades to traps when the traps were already everywhere and unavoidable in the first place. This perk might have helped in the past…but now it would only be useful in rooms that Belissar didn’t have a trap field.

The last perk was a repeat, but Belissar read it again just for the reminder.

Rapid Bloom

- Small increase in flowering plant growth rate

- Small increase in flower growth and bloom speed

- Small decrease in requirements for plants to flower

Like before, this one wasn’t bad. More flowers growing and blooming more quickly was always a good thing. Well, the overgrown trap field also gave a buff to flower growth rate…but only for trap flowers. The bees foraged a lot more from resource flowers than traps, so this perk would still benefit the flowers that needed it most. Plus, if it worked with the overgrown trap field, wouldn’t that make the trap flowers grow even faster?

Belissar checked in with Tarwantrad and Finnakynne, but the perks were fairly straightforward, so he wasn’t really missing anything. They did mention that the aromatic and smell-based part of the Alluring Scents might work for beeswax candles with the right flowers, but ultimately agreed that Belissar’s current defenses used explosives more than scents.

Belissar then turned it over to the hive of hives. The bees were mostly in favor of Rapid Bloom, to no one’s great surprise. More flowers was simply more appealing to them than anything else.

For once, Belissar did not immediately select the hive of hive’s choice. The bees’ priority was more flowers, but most of them did not interact directly with explosives. Only the First of the Fifth’s Third Daughter, who helped Juosiutik with her alchemy, showed any serious interest, the Firstborn and the bee army acknowledged the power of the explosives but didn’t know what went into them. Belissar decided to at least consider whether the explosives perk might be more valuable to the defense than the bees thought.

Until the hive of hives consulted Frelis and the gardeners for their opinions on flowers. The gardeners raised up a crucial point Belissar had not considered: more and faster blooming flowers would mean more volatile orchids for Juosiutik to work with. The problem with the latest purification had not been the power of her bombs…it had been the size of her stockpile, which itself was limited by the number of volatile orchids. Since Rapid Bloom would apply to volatile orchids as well as any other flower, Belissar wasn’t deciding between explosives or flowers. He was deciding between more explosives or stronger explosives, either of which would help his defenses.

And then Belissar remembered that the explosive wards Beero and the hive of the fallen made wouldn’t benefit from the perk at all. He smiled to himself. As usual, the bees had gotten it right.

Belissar thus made his choices.

Chimeric Cuckoo Bee spawner now available!

Heartseeker Ironthorn Cholla now available!

Rapid Bloom selected!

The bees began their customary “Amazing, incredible!” and “King is best king!” dances. Belissar laughed, sharing in their joy for a moment before moving to implement their decisions.

“Ok then, are we ready for a chimeric cuckoo bee spawner? Or do you need time to prepare?”

The bees’ celebratory dances slowed dramatically. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter waved her antennae around and made them a glow a bit before replying.

For once, she did not immediately dance a salute.

“King…sorry, can have one day? If hive of hives works together, can raise lots of workers, then will be able give new bee a hive.”

Belissar immediately smiled to reassure her.

“Of course! I know it’s asking a lot for you to take care of these bees, so we won’t spawn them until you’re ready. Take your time and do whatever you need to.”

That got the First Daughter resuming the celebratory dance.

“King is best king!”

Belissar resisted the urge to shake his head, he was about to unleash parasites on the hive of hives after all. But he knew apologizing wouldn’t work, so he turned his attention to something the bees might find more pleasant.

“Then, how about we plant the new flowers first?”

That got all the bees celebrating again. Belissar and company made their way over to the Sparkling Desert. Fortunately, the sun had set at this point, so the crystalspine cacti weren’t shooting beams everywhere at the moment…mostly. They were still apparently absorbing some light from the moon.

But it was safe enough for everyone to peek in while Belissar adjusted the overgrown trap flower field.

Overgrown Trap Field (Sparkling Desert)

Current Flowers:

- Crystal Spine Cactus

Additional Options:

- Heartseeker Ironthorn Cholla (Additional 40 mana upkeep due to rarity [20 due to suitable environment])

- Thorny Rose (Additional 5 mana upkeep due to unsuitable environment)

Belissar paused at the price, but reviewed the Overgrown Trap Field and found it did mention that epic flowers and above would cost more mana. Still, it was much cheaper than trying to place cholla nodes everywhere at eighty mana each, so Belissar accepted the cost and enabled the new flowers.

New cacti began to sprout from the sand amidst the crystalspine cacti, in some cases pushing them aside. Belissar tilted his head, as the cacti did not appear as he expected. The new cacti were more shrub-like, with thin stems and lots of branching parts, but their most notable feature was their…fuzz. At this distance, they appeared fuzzy, as if covered in hair, almost like a bee. They almost looked cute, hardly like the dangerous trap that the Tower had described.

Belissar turned to Tarwantrad with a puzzled look.

“Are those the ones? They…don’t look that dangerous.”

Tarwantrad just gave him a smile.

“Look closer, Belissar. That fuzz is the spines.”

Belissar did as she suggested, switching over to his Tower sight to get a closer look through the dark. Once he did, he indeed discovered that the ‘fuzz’ was actually countless, sharp-looking spines. The cacti were just covered in so many of them it was hard to distinguish any individual thorn.

“Ah…”

Tarwantrad giggled.

“I wouldn’t recommend petting them.”

Belissar decided he would not.