The Bee Dungeon

POBee 368.1 - Exploring New Capabili-Bees

The Fourth of the Seventh’s First Minister spent a while after her evolution dancing with her queen mother. Her queen mother and empress mother were both incredibly happy with her evolution and the King himself had come to congratulate her personally. She had now joined the likes of Beero and Frelis, soldiers and workers who had done enough for King to address them apart from their queens.

Eventually, though, a huge wave of mana surged through the King’s realm, one that called to every bee with the pheromones of the Queen of All Bees. Her queen mother, of course, immediately zipped off to go find the source and see what had happened.

Which was ideal for the First Minister, because she specifically wanted to test her new abilities when her queen mother was away, to see if she could truly act in place of her queen. So, once the Fourth of the Seventh had flown away, she extended her mana and her awareness out towards her sisters...

She found she could see...everything. She could see through the eyes of her sister workers...all at the same time. She could see through the hive as a worker and a communer too...but back then she was limited. She could only see through one of her sisters at a time and only when specifically focusing on them. As a communer she could send and receive dances, but she was more passing on the hive’s mana to and thro than perceiving it herself.

Now, she could perceive her queen mother’s entire hive at once, as well as her empress mother’s hive that joined with it. She turned her attention to the honey production lines. The workers were flying into the hive, then dancing with a communer who told them which line to join.

The First Minister...looked through the eyes of the workers coming in, feeling the pollen on their legs, tasting the nectar they had gathered...and immediately sent them a mana dance telling them exactly which line was processing the nectar of the flowers they had visited. The workers paused...then danced a happy salute and made their way to the lines without stopping.

The First Minister herself began a happy dance. They could finally do it! The Fourth of the Seventh’s workers could finally build a honey production line as efficient as the First of the Fifth’s! Their empress mother had taught them the First of the Fifth’s methods, but they never managed to work as efficiently as the First of the Fifth or her daughters did.

The First of the Fifth’s methods were premised on the assumption that the queen was always present within her hive and turning her attention to the honey production lines, using her connection to her children to sort out issues before they happened. But since the Fourth of the Seventh was often out scouting, her workers had to figure it out themselves. The foragers couldn’t know ahead of time which line was processing which flower and so had to stop to ask a communer to check, and the communer had to ask each line what it was making one at a time to find out. A forager wouldn’t know if she had accidentally stumbled into the wrong line and unintentionally mixed the honeys. If foragers tried to enter and leave the hive at the same time and got in each other’s way, they had to sort out who would go first themselves. All issues their empress mother’s hive didn’t experience because their queen would know all of this at a glance and could solve it at once. And their empress mother...was now empress mother of the entire hive of hives. She could no longer pay such close attention to their honey production lines...if anything, she was leaving it to the First Minister, which prior to her evolution meant her empress mother’s part of the hive actually began declining in efficiency...

But now...the First Minister could see it like her queen mother and empress mother could. She could sort the lines before the foragers even arrived. She could notice any mistakes or inefficiencies occurring and help her sisters sort it out...though she let some of the unintentional mixing continue because her queen mother liked tasting new honey mixes. She could do the job her queen mother could!

Which meant her queen mother was now as free to go and scout as she wanted. Broodmothers could raise new bees in her stead and now the First Minister could watch her hive. The Fourth of the Seventh’s workers could now truly run their hive in their queen mother’s stead.

But the First Minister wasn’t done. New instincts whispered to her, telling her the honey production could be even better. Her antennae flicked...she had strayed away from her instincts before her evolution, but back then it felt like trying to hold back a flood, everything felt wrong the more she strayed from what a normal worker would do. Now...her instincts felt more like a suggestion, one that she could decline at will.

For now, though, she gave into her instincts and followed their instructions. She sent out her mana into the hive, watching as it latched onto her sisters. Her mana wrapped around the foragers, helping their wings to beat faster and their senses to grow sharper, letting them find and reach the best flowers more quickly. In the production line, workers and honeypots absorbed her mana, using it to process honey more quickly and imbue it with more mana than ever before. The First Minister watched as her sisters’ honey production picked up, moving at a faster pace than they had ever been able to achieve even after becoming nomadic bees, all with the same smoothness and efficiency as their joint-sisters from their empress mother. Her mana even extended to her joint-sisters through the close connection between their hives, empowering them as well.

The First Minister spun around happily once again. With this, she and her sisters could cast aside any last reservations they had about their queen mother’s scouting. There would no longer be any downsides, anything to hold her back. They could let her fulfill her dreams without any lingering guilt.

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And that made this the best evolution the First Minister could have ever asked for.

The Third of the Third finished up her happy dance after King’s congratulations. Truly, she had proven her efforts were worthwhile after all. Her construction squads had been able to help King build the hives where the fair ones and the skunk-King things had agreed to protect King’s realm. Then...she had been able to contribute to the battle after all, in a way no other army queen could. It had been her construction squads who day after day had worked to lift heavy things that could replicate the Hive-Burner’s big rock attack.

Then both the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter and the Queen of All Bees acknowledged her achievement and helped her to evolve. The Queen of All Bees even showed her that she had qualified to become another monster bee empress, one that could even command other bee species. Or she could have focused on the big rock attacks, becoming a queen whose hive would rain boulders from the skies to crush all who would threaten them.

But she declined these without hesitation. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter was already the monster bee empress the hive of hives needed, the Third of the Third had coordinated bees from different hives but always with a specialized purpose and a smaller scale. The big rock attack was great, but apparently the Hive-Burner had done it through the Queen of All Fire’s power, rather than by lifting rocks. The Third of the Sixth would work to replicate that attack in full one day.

So, no. The Third of the Third held to her purpose and pursued the task that started her on this path to begin with. The Conduit’s queen mother had called King the Hive-Builder, the Third of the Third would be the bee to follow in that path.

The King’s congratulations after she had finished evolving had been the final step in the dance. If she had any doubts remaining, they were well and truly gone now.

So, the Third of the Third got to work. She could feel every bee in the construction squad as if they were her own children now, from the digging workers of the Fourth of the Fifth, to the carpenter, lumber, and bumblebees she had recruited with her honey. She would be able to coordinate them like never before, to either build hives or lift rocks as the hive of hives required.

But she did not reach out to them right away. Her body had changed and she wanted to understand fully what she could do first. And many of those changes enabled an ability she wasn’t sure about yet, but her instincts hinted to her that it would be crucial for her moving forward.

So, instead of reaching out to her construction squads, showing the army her new ability to coordinate rock attacks, or planning out new hives...the Third of the Third crawled down her hive tray in the Beecity to the ground. She cleared away a bit of the wax on the floor to expose the dirt below, took some dirt into her mandibles, and began to chew.

She mixed wax and propolis into the dirt as her instincts suggested, then began to cycle her mana through it. As the mana moved through, wax and propolis stuck to pieces of dirt and then stuck pieces of dirt to each to form bigger clumps. The dirt absorbed the propolis and grew sticky, the wax absorbed the dirt and became hard and crumbly. The Third of the Third mixed more propolis in and became smoother and more fluid, she mixed more wax in and it became softer, she picked up more dirt and it became crumbly once more.

She chewed and cycled her mana over and over until her instincts whispered that it was ready. With no particular ideas just yet, she formed the mix until a basic comb cell, then spun around and began to beat her wings.

In the meantime, a massive surge of mana washed over her and she noted part of it as the Queen of All Bees’. But she remained focused on her task, she knew King and the hive of hives would investigate and that they would call her if she were needed. She had her role now and she would see it fulfilled.

Eventually, she felt that she had fanned the comb enough and she turned to see the honey of her labor.

She saw a comb the same color as the dirt...but no longer crumbly. No, it was a single piece, solid and firm. She tapped it with her antennae and her legs...it had become hard like stone...like the palaces King built for the burning bees.

Her wings fluttered and she began to spin around in a happy dance. Now...she understood. The Fourth of the Seventh’s evolution made her a better scout. The First of the Fifth’s evolution enabled her to make better honey. The Firstborn’s evolution gave her better stings.

But none of their evolutions made better wax or propolis...until now. The Third of the Third would not simply assemble materials into better hives. From now on, she would make the materials themselves better and thus build greater hives than were ever possible before.

She immediately picked up more dirt and began to chew. She had picked the right evolution...now, she needed to determine the extent of what she could do...and then she would build hives worthy of the Hive-Builder’s bees.

The First Bumblebee Queen zipped around in a big loop, flying as fast as she could over and over.

Her daughters and her sisters’ daughters had all hatched healthy and strong, so she was happy!

King and lots of little sisters had come to visit, so she was happy!

King made a bunch of new nests for all their daughters, so she was happy!

Her soldier daughter and bumble helper were excited, so she was happy!

Her soldier daughters and bumble helper had helped sting an enemy and save a new sister, so she was happy!

The Queen of All Bees and the Queen of All Flowers and the Queen of All Trees and Forests liked one of her daughters, so she was happy!

The flowers were growing bigger and better than ever, so she was happy!

One of her daughters said one of the flowers, the one that was making all the others grow, was now also her daughter, so she was happy!

The First Bumblebee Queen had a lot to be happy about, so she kept flying around in happy circles for as long as she could. Then she returned to her nest and looked through the wax pots until she found the ones holding the new honey the little sisters had given her.

Now that her daughters had all hatched, she could drink some of the honey herself!

It was really good, so she was happy! After drinking it she started to feel sleepy, though, so she didn’t run or fly around in more circles. Instead, she made a big wax pot and climbed inside of it.

She was sleepier than she had ever been before, but she felt like it would be a good sleep, so her last thought before she curled up was that she was happy.