The next day, Belissar made his way over to shortcut Orchard, carrying a peculiar beehouse he made after observing the carpenter bees for a bit. He set it down by the monster carpenter bee spawner, right amidst the apple trees. Rather than a box filled with trays, this one was just a solid block of wood with legs. Belissar had drilled a bunch of holes into the block, most about the size of the carpenter bees but he made some larger by varying degrees in case the carpenter bees grew. Since he saw the carpenter bees branching their tunnels with his Tower sight, he made sure to leave enough space between the holes for side tunnels.
Curious carpenter bees hovered around him as he placed the block down. He motioned them to the box.
One of the carpenter bees flew over to the block and stuck her head into one of the holes. She pulled it out, spun around, and then backed into the tunnel, her head barely poking out. Belissar smiled as other carpenter bees began to check out the house and still others just zipped around him in rapid circles.
“Glad you like it, but it’s not done yet.”
Belissar didn’t recall ever hearing of carpenter bees making honey so he tried to turn the carpenter home into a bee nest rather than a beehouse feature.
Compatible feature detected. Upgrade Bee Nest to Belissar’s Nest Block? Cost: 5 DP
Belissar smiled and saw no reason to refuse. The carpenter bee home glowed slightly as mana settled into its walls.
Belissar’s Nest Block
He then paused and tilted his head.
“Huh, I wonder what kind of mead the God of Flowers likes?”
He had a quest to send mead to his other two patrons, so he couldn’t help but think of his third.
The God of Flowers wishes to offer you a quest. Accept?
Apparently, she appreciated the consideration. Belissar nodded to accept.
New mission received: Make and offer meads made of honey sourced from five different flower types.
Belissar smiled and nodded. Well, that answered that.
“Got it. Well, that’s four, so we’ll need at least one more, huh. Ah, how about the digging hives honey?”
He hummed to himself as he set about prepping another jar of mead with the dense and earthy honey from the Ground mana flowers.
Meanwhile, the Firstborn was currently zipping between trees. She wanted to buzz her wings and surge ahead, but she forced herself to hold her pace to that of the colorful worker ahead of her. ŗ𝐀Ɲổ𝖇Ɛ𝘴
She reminded herself once again that the bee army had not failed this time. Thanks to Beero and the bumblebees, they had managed to bring down the latest invader, though at a heavier cost than she had wanted. There was no shame in the hive of hives’ latest victory. And though the King had gone and ended an invader by his own magic yesterday, she knew that this was not indicative of his trust in them. The Conduit had made sure she understood the King’s intentions, that he was simply working to grow his magic and testing what it could do.
She knew that in her head, but her heart could not help but buzz at the thought that the King might one day enter the battle. But she tried to set her sight forward. Instead of despairing over potential failures, she resolved to build up the army as much as she could.