Chapter 65: Chapter 65

Belissar felt the mana of the Tower surge once more as his changes went into action. He could feel a new room grow in the corner of his mind. He could have checked it immediately with the tower sight, but decided to hold off. Instead, he stepped out of the core room and turned to Niobee with a smile.

“Shall we check it out?”

Belissar walked over through the Apiary with Niobee following along. He could see his bees stirring, the workers pausing on their flowers as the Tower’s mana passed through them. He smiled as he thought of them discovering the newest room.

Belissar reached the end of the Apiary and stepped through the entrance. He entered into a room made of yellow wax arranged in hexagonal patterns. The room was empty save for an entrance opening to a stairway. Belissar could only see a couple of steps before it curved around a corner. He glanced around, shrugging when he found nothing of interest, and then made his way to the stairs.

When he stepped onto the first step his vision blurred. He had the distinct feeling of falling, and then a moment later found himself exiting into another empty wax room. He frowned.

He glanced around the room, again finding nothing of note. He wondered if he had somehow gotten turned around until he glanced at the room’s exit. He could see a slightly blurry image of a field filled with trees.

The Fourth of the Seventh paused as she felt the King’s mana flow through her. Something had happened, she knew that the King had just performed great and wonderous deeds. She knew because the mana imprinted new knowledge onto her instincts. New foraging instincts that encouraged workers to visit different types of flowers within a single trip. A new type of soldier, one that could fight in a completely different manner than any other type of bee.

And…something else. Something had changed about the world around her, though she knew not what. She could not help but take a short walk to the entrance of her hive. She moved her antenna about in the air, trying to see if she could see, feel, or smell anything different. 𝔯ᴀ₦ՕꞖĘŚ

Well, she didn’t notice anything, but she did get to see the King and the Conduit walk by her home.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t figure out anything else and her workers wanted her back inside the hive. Since she didn’t know what had changed, she had no specific reason to refuse, and so went back as her foragers began their next trip to the Flower Meadow.

Not even a minute later and her foragers rushed back into the entrance of the hive and began a frantic dance. The Fourth of the Seventh noticed the disturbance in her hive and rushed over to find out what had happened.

She froze as the workers spread their news.

The Flower Meadow…had disappeared? When the workers passed through the normal entrance, they found an entirely different environment.

The Fourth of the Seventh began to tremble. She now knew what she had sensed. The King had reshaped the world! He had built an entirely new land in between the Flower Meadow and the Apiary! That was where he and the Conduit were going earlier!

The Fourth of the Seventh nearly flew out of the hive immediately, but her instincts held her in check. Instead, she began to dance and brush her antenna against the surrounding workers, giving them her commands. A third of the foragers who normally visited the Flower Meadow would stay in the Apiary today, and focus on keeping up honey production by gathering from the flowers around her hive. The rest would head into the new lands and scout them out. Surely the King had not removed the Flower Meadow entirely, so the Fourth of the Seventh figured there must be a new route to get there, her foragers just needed to find it. Finally, she told them to speak with the Conduit if they had the chance, to discover the King’s purposes with this new land.

Her workers stopped their frantic dances as their queen gave her speculations and orders. Now that they knew how to respond, they immediately began organizing themselves as she had said. Before long, workers began flying out to the new lands. The Fourth of the Seventh couldn’t help but dance about as she watched them leave.

What wonders would they find? What new lands had the King created? What sort of grand design was he building this time? The Fourth of the Seventh couldn’t wait to find out!

While Belissar and Niobee were sharing the apple, he heard buzzing. He turned back and noticed worker bees flying from the entrance to the second floor and the Apiary. He hummed for a moment.

He considered whether he should add some spawners to the Orchard or not. They would spawn new queens to fill up the new room very quickly…but since he had much more time than he originally thought, was that necessary? One of the queens had moved her hive already, so maybe some of them might want to check out the Orchard? Or they could raise some new queens to populate the room.

Belissar nodded to himself and decided he would wait and see on the spawners. Instead, he checked what he could do with traps and basic resource nodes.

Available Resource Plants for Orchard:

-Apple Tree (Mana Upkeep: 1 per tree, upkeep reduced due to room)

-Basic Wood Tree (Mana Upkeep: 3 per tree)