BD - Chapter 61 - A Fier-Bee Trade (Patreon)

An embarrassed Juosiutik returned a bit later, shuffling into the Tower as she realized she had left Belissar and all of her gear behind without a word. But she also returned with a small clay pot with a bunch of fire roots.

“Um, hi. S-Sorry about that, I, um, got a bit excited. I-I got permission from the chief, though! I can trade this for some of the honey!”

Belissar smiled and was about to agree when he had a thought and tilted his head.

“Wait, I thought Chief Rohsuak said you didn’t have anything worth trading for my stuff?”

Juosiutik nodded.

“She mentioned that and, well, she’s right. Fire roots are useful for starting fires and a bit of potion making, but that’s pretty much it. You, um, definitely can’t eat them and now that we have access to firewood we won’t need them as much. Mana flowers are way more useful and can do all sorts of things in the right hands. And mana honey...well I’ve never dealt with it before but if you can eat it safely that alone would make it incredible. It’s practically a potion on its own, and who knows what we might be able to do with it. But, um, if you’re ok with it and really want the fire roots, maybe it’s ok? If you want, you could count it as part of the payment for the teaching?”

Belissar blinked, and then started to rub his chin. This was...weird. He’d always had people telling him how crappy his stuff was and how it was barely worth what they were giving him in exchange. He had never had people telling him his stuff was too valuable, so he didn’t really know how to address the situation. Eventually he shrugged.

Well, they weren’t going to deceive him by telling him his stuff was too valuable, right? Besides, he already knew the fire root would be useful and he had mana honey trays galore thanks to the Apiary, so as far as he was concerned it was a valuable trade. Heck, he still had another room slot so he could always add a second Apiary if he felt he needed more.

So, he nodded his head.

“Um, as long as there’s at least five or more, I’m fine with that. Is one honey tray enough?”

Juosiutik nearly leapt at him.

“YES!”

Belissar took a step back.

“Um, right, well, I’ll go get that, then.”

Juosiutik nodded as fast as she could.

“I’ll be waiting!”

Belissar went back to his stockpile in the Apiary and came back to make the exchange. Juosiutik nearly ran out of the Tower again before Belissar reminded her of her stuff on the ground. She, with a flushed face, rushed to pack it all back up before running out again. Belissar shrugged.

“Guess the lesson’s over for today?”

Instead, he looked inside the pot, where a dozen fire roots rested. He picked one up and smiled.

Absorb Flame Radish Root? Samples 0/10

He frowned a bit. The message had appeared as he had hoped, though the sample number was twice as big as he thought. But he shrugged.

“Thank goodness she gave me a dozen...”

He went ahead and absorbed the necessary number.

Flame Radish Root absorbed.

Sufficient samples gathered. Flame Radish now available.

Current applications: Flower Meadow, Apiary*. (*=Resource Node only)

Belissar blinked and then began to smile. He had been steeling himself for the fire root...or flame radish, apparently, to not be available in any of his rooms like all those cave plants. It was something the bear people found underground, right, so surely it would have needed a similar environment. At the very least, he didn’t think something fire related would go with flowers or fruit trees.

But apparently it did. He guessed the rest of the flame radish must grow above ground and make flowers? He shrugged again.

“Guess we’ll find out!”

Not only were the fire roots useful in and of themselves, but if they had flowers too...then that meant his bees could gather from them as well! All in all, he didn’t really know what Chief Rohsuak was talking about. In his opinion, this was an excellent trade!

But first, he figured he should carefully store the pot with the remaining two fire roots somewhere nice, safe, non-flammable, and far away from any mana honey...

***

Belissar ended up putting the pot in the Apiary campfire pit. It was surrounded by dirt and far from any hives, so it was the safest place for something that could combust. He figured, as well, that he wouldn’t need to start fires there specifically, both due to having flame roots now as well as the fact that the Apiary was now far away from where the fires would be needed.

And just in time, as the cooldown on the minor purification was just coming to an end. Belissar had informed the bees of the fast cooldown yesterday and the soldier bee army was already getting ready. Belissar considered using the fire roots now. He grabbed his knife and took out one the remaining roots, cutting off a small piece. He then walked to the nearest fire pit that was set up with honey and kindling and tossed the piece inside...and ran away the moment he did.

But, contrary to his expectations, there was not a gigantic spout of flame from the pit, just a bit of smoke that gradually increased. He started creeping towards it before remembering his Tower sight and took a look from a safe distance.

The flame root piece had caught fire and was lighting the rest of the pit’s fuel, but not as dramatically as Juosiutik’s pot. Belissar rubbed his chin at that.

Maybe it was because the honey in the potion had come directly from his mana? Or maybe the age of the mana honey, this pit had been set up a while ago. Did mana honey lose its mana overtime? That...was actually something he should figure out.

In any case, he had confirmed the fire root would light the pits about as well as a torch, though not as dramatically as he had expected. He considered trying it out sometime...but he wasn’t sure if it was safest for the bees to carry. It seemed safe enough for him to handle, but maybe he should make some sort of bag for them to carry it instead? That would take time though. He shrugged and figured he would use the regular method today, and experiment when he had more time.

There had already been one accidental fire today, after all, and he had recently become aware of just how flammable his Tower might be...

***

The First of the Second lined up her forces, utilizing the same formation as the Firstborn had the day before. She was swaying in the air, moving this way and that. One part of the reserve formation seemed a little low, so she ordered them to gain altitude. Another part was too far forward, so she pulled them back. But then they flew too far back and she had to send them forward again. She spent the next half hour making constant minor adjustments to the formation.

She couldn’t help it. This was her first time facing a foe directly and she had not been confident in taking command in the first place. And now, there was no more time to prepare.

The enemy had arrived.

She trembled in the air. The enemy appeared far larger and more vicious than she remembered. But she gave the command. She knew that her army and the armies of her fellow queens had dealt with such foes before, and with ease. It was only she who was unprepared for this.

Despite her misgivings, her soldiers immediately leapt into action, executing her plan. A squad of her bees dove down and stung the shade, catching its attention, and then slowly flew away from it. It chased after them and then fell right into the first pit trap.

She had kept things simple and proceeded with one of the older plans. She did not feel ready to command the battle directly as the Firstborn had. Her hive, and all the hives of the Flower Meadow, had taken casualties recently. They had recovered, but it had taken a notable expenditure of their honey reserves to do so, and the First of the Second had thought they were supposed to be stockpiling for a new generation of queens. As such, she felt that casualties today would be unacceptable, and so she would not risk them on experimental commands unless she was fully confident in success. And, due to her own unpreparedness, she was not.

Fortunately, though, the plans of the King were proven and effective. The shade was trapped in the pit. She gave the command to the soldier bees from the Apiary that were carrying one of the King’s fire sticks and they made the run. Their aim was true and the pit went up in flames, taking the shade with it.

The queen nearly fell from the sky in relief as she realized the battle was one, and her day of command was finally over.

***

Relief that had now faded, as she slowly flew towards her hive. The celebrations had been...nice. She would admit she enjoyed the praise of the Firstborn as she was extolled for her innovations in command. But now came the consequences of the day. Now, she had to see what had become of her hive in her absence. She steeled herself and stepped inside.

She found her workers gathered into sections, with a single worker at the head of each. The single workers motioned and then the whole hive saluted as one. She nearly took a step back.

The workers then began to report. The efficiency drop had not been nearly as bad as she feared, and this had been due to the aid of the Fourth of the Seventh’s workers. They had explained to her hive a system by which the workers could carry on their duties in their queen’s absence with minimal loss in efficiency...one that closely resembled the system she herself had implemented for the army. It was quite simple, in retrospect. Simply tasking a few of the workers with identifying inefficiencies and keeping things running would result in only the loss of those worker’s efforts, instead of wider issues that would impact the hive as a whole.

Her workers then stood still before her, their antenna drooping as they awaited her verdict. And she danced...her approval. In fact, she could not be more proud of them. They had done for her hive what she had done for the army, and done so without the need for her to instruct it. They had kept the hive running and avoided what she feared. They had done what she would have wanted them to, all on their own.

The workers began to dance happily...and the First of the Second could not help but join them. She had feared today would be a day of disaster...but thanks to both her efforts and those of her workers, it had become a day of triumph.

Author’s Notes:

The results are in! Well, there are less votes than on the first poll but the trend so far indicates that you would prefer the original naming scheme. That’s convenient for me in any case since that’s also what Royal Road picked for themselves, so we can standardize back on the original. And if we end up with an unwieldy multi-gen character name down the line, we’ll deal with that when we come to it!

Executive decision that I’m not going to go back and change the patreon chapters, since you’ll be able to just read the Royal Road versions if you want to reread with the original naming scheme, but from this chapter on we’ll go back.

And just to be clear since she was introduced after the name change, First of the Second = Queen 1-1 of the Second. I don’t plan for her to be as major a character as the other queens though, so should be fine even if you’re confused.

...although history has shown that it’s the characters I plan to do the least with that often choose to become major characters. NSLICE-00P didn’t even exist until almost halfway through the Faceless Minion...

...u-um, look there’s fire flowers! God of Fire second chance? Fire honey? Is that a thing? I mean, we’ve kinda already been using the honey as fire honey so sure?

Anyways!

What will the flame radish flowers be like? What will Belissar and his bees do with these new resources? Will the First of the Second remain a minor character? Tune in next time, to find out!