“Battle finished, tried new method thought of by First of Second. Let captain lead battle, captain much better at leading squads than queens. Bee army will raise more captains now…”
The First of the Fifth paused her analysis of pollen and nectar from the new moving flowers as a wave of mana from the Firstborn passed through the hive-link. In addition to the mana dance itself, the message contained a set of memories from the Firstborn and the captain and soldier bees in question for any queen who wanted to delve deeper. The First of the Fifth got a firsthand view of a battle like she had never seen it before.
It…drove home how specialized her focus had been across her life. She no longer had any issue admitting that she had completely neglected the ways of battle. The Firstborn and the other army queens were much her superior in that regard. As such, she had no comment on how the battle was run, nor the Firstborn’s assertions on captains. It was curious that captains were only being fielded now as they had been available for a while, but the First of the Fifth left the make-up of the bee army to the queens that had built it.
After all, she had not given monster bee captains much thought either, having considered them a soldier evolution and thus the purview of the battle queens. But now…now she was reconsidering, thanks to the memories provided by the Firstborn. The captain had apparently not improved the bee army’s performance by fighting the shades directly. Instead, the captain had improved the bee army’s performance via focus…she did the same job leading the soldiers as the battle queens did, but was able to focus on a few squads instead of the entire hive. The Firstborn mentioned this as well as she went on to explain what the army was trying to achieve. Her hope was that captains would be able to handle the direct movements of the squads, freeing up the queens to focus on the entire battlefield.
And that was an idea that stood out to the First of the Fifth. Captains could…help watch over the hive in place of their queens? How many times had the First of the Fifth found herself overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks requiring her attention? How many experiments were on hold until she could give them the focus necessary to pull them off?
So…what if captains were not limited to battle as their soldier lineage might suggest, but could help take on tasks all around the hive? What if she managed to teach captains the way of honey?
She decided it was worth a try. The Second of the Sixth’s soldiers healed instead of fighting, the Fourth of the Seventh had even evolved a new kind of soldier in the trappers by teaching her soldiers how to weave stems. So, the First of the Fifth ordered her workers to prepare a cell and honey to evolve a monster bee captain.
She had spent much time and effort supporting the Firstborn, from providing honey for her hive to reorganizing that atrocious disaster the Firstborn had called a honey production line. But this time, perhaps, it would be the Firstborn to teach her something new. That was how the hive of hives the King desired was supposed to work, wasn’t it?
Belissar was quite pleased to see the bee army readily handle the minor purification shade, no traps needed. The bee army was apparently using the opportunity to debut captains, which Belissar was glad for. And with that, the third minor purification was handled without a fuss and with no disruption to the sigmaka challengers. The latest cooldown would end at their normal purification time, so they could go back to the stronger ones…
Belissar paused as a new thought arose in his mind. Did they…have to go back to the stronger ones? He originally never considered doing lots of minor purifications because the cooldowns would end either at night or when the sigmaka and karnuq were challenging the Tower…but the bees had just proven they could handle both cases without any major disruptions. So…was there a reason not to do a bunch of minor purifications rather than a small+?
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The one thing Belissar thought of were the rewards, he did see more features and stronger boost perks for his bees from the stronger purifications. But, he generally didn’t take those unless he saw one that was particularly enticing, because the number one thing he needed from daily purifications was more mana. So, the question was…which purifications provided more mana? Read complete version only at noᴠelfire.net
He could get thirty additional max mana from the small+ purifications or he could get ten max mana from a minor purification four times, which was…actually a bit more. Belissar’s eyes widened after his quick counting. So, if all he cared about was the mana…it actually made more sense to do the minor purifications.
Belissar thus decided he had sufficient reason to change things up to propose the idea to his defenders later that day. He spent the afternoon setting up some new jars of mead, particularly more fire and water mead should either of those gods send missions for more. Then, when the time approached for the normal daily purification, Belissar gathered together with the battle meadow queens, Chief Rohsuak and Metsaitti, the First Spiderkin Queen, the two humans, and Wardmaster Varilold and Captain Karpakynne.
“Hi everyone, so, I was wondering if we should go back to small+ purifications once a day now, or if we should keep doing lots of minor purifications? What do you prefer?”
The bees only needed to dance briefly before the Firstborn gave their response.
“King, can do lots of purifications?”
Belissar nodded, so the Firstborn continued.
“Lots of weak purifications good for trying new things.”
Belissar’s eyes widened a bit. That…was something he hadn’t thought of. But it was true, wasn’t it? The Dirt Tunnels traps were so good at defeating daily purifications that there were many options in the Tower he never got to see used until an expansion or emergency purification made it past, at which point the situation was dangerous. In fact, he had only started the minor purifications today because the flower monster had never gotten a chance to fight…and now that he had seen it in action he knew it was a good idea to add more of them. So…doing lots of the weakest purification would indeed give him and his defenders a chance to try out different options against enemies they knew they could defeat…and so prepare to change up their approach when facing much more difficult opponents.
Chief Roshuak then spoke up.
“Tower Keeper, I agree with the bees on this. If you choose to conduct many purifications, I would request that you leave one to us, so that our hunters could gain experience in real battle. Especially our younger ones…”
She made a meaningful glance in the direction of the First Spiderkin Queen that Belissar managed to catch. It was true that the spiderkin were very eager to start fighting the shades, so Belissar would have to consider letting them as soon as Chief Rohsuak said they were ready. A minor purification would be a good first step once that occurred.
Hirkolos just saluted and indicated he’d do his best to protect the Tower either way, so all of Belissar’s defenders were in agreement. He turned his attention to his fair folk allies.
Captain Karpakynne gave an enthusiastic salute.
“That sounds wonderful, Tower Keeper! More purifications means more chances to whip the guard until reasonable shape! I recommend we throw ourselves at one of them post-haste!”
Well, Belissar wouldn’t let anyone get hurt in a minor purification of all things, but he supposed he could let the pixies handle one too. If Henilett and Queen Vanieskon said it was ok, that was.
Wardmaster Varilold gave him a firm nod.
“That should be fine, Tower Keeper. We will need to coordinate if we need to set up wards around the Tower’s entrance, but I certainly do not intend to hold back your Tower’s growth.”
“I think that settles it, then. Let’s go with lots of minor purifications for now. As with today, that means there will be one now in the late afternoon, one at night, one at dawn, and one midday. I guess we should split up so not everyone needs to meet every time?”
Captain Karpakynne had a brief flash of panic.
“T-Tower Keeper…if we’re not all meeting together…then what about the banquet?”
Belissar crossed his arms.
Chief Rohsuak eyed Captain Karpakynne but made an amused smile as well.
“Well…perhaps you could hold one celebration for the whole day’s victories at the usual time, Tower Keeper? We could then meet to report how it went and discuss any matters you may wish to address.”
Belissar gave her a smile for the help.
“Ah, good idea. Let’s go with that then.”
Captain Karpakynne made no secret of her feeling on that decision…and neither did any other pixie within earshot.