POBee 387.1 - Bee-fficient Growth? |
The Fourth of the Fifth spun around in her hive, carving a circular trail into the dirt floor.
Named! King had named her assassin! Vinoi the Dragonslayer had long been the Fourth of the Fifth’s greatest contribution to the hive of hives, but now the King considered those contributions on par with Beero and the Hive of the Fallen, or Frelis and the flowers that could fight!
Vinoi had truly done more than the Fourth of the Fifth ever could have imagined. She had brought down a hive-burning lizard so powerful even the fair ones feared it. She had evolved into an entirely new type of bee, contributing a new bee not only to the Fourth of the Fifth’s hive but to the entire hive of hives’ instincts. She had become one of if not the deadliest bees in the bee army.
The Fourth of the Fifth’s decisions had been well and truly validated. She had wanted to leave scouting the Beyond to the Fourth of the Seventh, even helping the Fourth of the Seventh evolve the tunneling nomadic bees that replaced her own digging bees. She had then focused on raising a larger army, hoping to contribute to the hive of hives’ defenses. Only for King to remove the Digging Tunnels from its place at the Tower’s entrance when the hive burners came. They were a foe too powerful for the Fourth of the Fifth’s hive to face alone.
But not for Vinoi. Vinoi proved what the bees of her hive could achieve. She proved the Fourth of the Fifth was right to focus on her hive’s stinging abilities over their scouting.
There was, however, a new problem for her to address, once she ceased her celebratory dance. The mana in her hive was growing unstable…and that was, unfortunately, also thanks to Vinoi. Vinoi had grown powerful. So powerful, in fact, that her mana now surpassed even her queen mother’s. Some of the hive’s mana was now drawn to her instead of to the Fourth of the Fifth.
Unfortunately, Vinoi was not a queen, a communer, or a drone, so she could not take the mana flowing towards her and pass it back to the hive. Instead, the mana bounced off hers and crashed back into the hive, creating turbulent waves. Worse still, Vinoi also had a new type of mana that did not come from the hive or the Fourth of the Fifth. This mana was…uncooperative and aggressive. It pushed back on the mana of the hive coming its way, worsening the turbulence.
If the Fourth of the Fifth didn’t do something about this, the turbulence would soon start to impact the hive’s operations. Communication would grow harder and she’d need more communers to stay in contact with her hive. The turbulence would disturb honey processing, forcing the workers to expend more mana or else let the honey’s quality suffer. If the turbulence continued to grow, the Fourth of the Fifth might even need drones just to smooth out the mana of her own hive!
No, that could not come to pass, the Fourth of the Fifth needed to address the issue now. There were two solutions she knew of. One would be to force Vinoi to leave and take distance from the hive…but the Fourth of the Fifth would never do that. Vinoi was the pride of her hive, the hive would adapt to her, not the other way around.
The Fourth of the Fifth thus began to send a dance to the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, requesting additional honey. If the Fourth of the Fifth wanted to keep Vinoi in her hive, then she needed to evolve. She was close enough to it as is, with the growth of Vinoi and her hive, she felt she just needed a little push from powerful honey and she’d be able to manage it.
The army queens gathered in their section of the Beecity at the Firstborn’s request. Things were busy now, the bee army needed to replenish losses, handle the purifications that King had resumed, keep watch over the surviving hive burners, work on joining their hive mana, and train to apply the lessons of the latest battle. And yet, the Firstborn felt it crucial that the army queens discuss the most recent news. Once every queen had arrived, the Firstborn launched into her dance.
“Fourth of the Fifth evolved new kind of bee. Giantkillers amazing, incredible, but have problem. Don’t have enough honey evolve, any army hive does?”
As the Firstborn feared, all of the army queens stood still, none of them danced an affirmative reply. None of them had the spare resources to evolve a giantkiller.
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The Firstborn dreaded her next dance, but the steps had to be taken.
“…think bee army has problem. Can’t raise new bees. Not enough hive mana evolve immortals. Not enough honey evolve giantkillers. Barely enough honey evolve assassins, only First of the Second able evolve. Barely able evolve glaivers, new butcher bees have more than us. If King gives even more bees…won’t be able use.”
The First of the Fourth’s antennae twitched.
“But…can ask First of the Fifth for more honey?”
The Firstborn danced a negative.
“Already receiving lots and lots of honey. First of the Fifth needs grow own hive too and help entire hive of hives evolve new bees. Can’t use all of First of the Fifth’s honey. Queens’ job to manage hive, manage honey. Army queens need find solution.”
The army queens all stood still, pondering the problem. The Firstborn herself wasn’t sure what to do. All her own honey allocation had gone to raising a squad of monster bee knights, she didn’t have anything to spare on a giantkiller. Her hive mana was also weak, she barely kept any honey reserves and only made a fraction of the honey that she used on her own, while most of her bees were soldiers that spent most of their day away from the hive. There was just very few sources of mana around to boost the ambient mana of her hive. At this rate, she would likely never be able to afford an immortal on her own, nor a giantkiller.
And she was even better off than many of her fellow army queens. She, at least, had evolved herself and so had become a powerful source of mana for her hive, and as the oldest queen she had a decent set of workers. Many of the other army queens had even less hive mana than she did and less workers and honey. The Firstborn did not have a solution to these issues at present…but that was why she gathered the queens. She fully believed that the hive of hives would find a way even if she could not.
And, just as she had hoped, one of the queens started to dance. The ever-reliable First of the Second stepped carefully.
“Think might know why.”
The Firstborn resisted a happy dance to praise the hive of hives and instead focused all of her attention on the First of the Second.
“All army queens trying to evolve all types of bees. All army queens raise soldiers, sprayers, lancers, archers. All army queens trying to make own army.”
The First of the Fourth’s antennae twitched again.
“Yes? But, army needs all bees?”
The First of the Second was undeterred, her steps picking up speed as she danced through the problem.
“Army needs…but hives don’t? Army fighting together, drones and communers let queens command other hives’ bees. First of the Fifth’s First Daughter wants make entire hive of hives into joint hive. If can, then hives can use other hives bees. One queen raise lancers, one queen raise archers, one queen raise assassins, then all use as one army. Hive of hives already doing, Apiary bees make honey but no soldiers, army queens make soldiers but not enough honey, hive of hives has enough honey and enough soldiers if hives share.”
The Firstborn burst out into a max speed dance.
“That it! First of Second, amazing, incredible! First of Second’s ideas best ideas! If one queen makes one type of bee, then will always have enough honey for bee type! If get new bee types, can tell one queen to raise instead of all! Amazing, incredible!”
The rest of the army queens were soon caught up into the Firstborn’s dance. The First of the Second shrank on herself, but managed to start a new dance nonetheless.
“Thanks but…didn’t solve hive mana issue, yet.”
The Firstborn, however, didn’t lose any speed as she danced her reply.
“Hive of hives solves too! If make joint hive with all hives in Beecity, will get more mana! Hive of the fallen above Beecity too, can also join!”
Another of the army queens also joined in.
“If only need raise one bee type instead of all, then can use more honey raise workers. More workers make more honey, then have more hive mana and can take less honey from First of Fifth!”
The First of the Second’s antennae twitched.
“Would…work? Would make whole hive more efficient!”
The Firstborn resumed her happy dance.
“Exactly! Whole bee army more efficient, whole hive of hives more efficient! Amazing, incredible!”
The army queens quickly agreed to the plan and launched into a discussion of which queens should raise each type of combat bee, which then led them to consider how many of each type of bee they wanted in the army overall. And the Firstborn was overjoyed throughout the entire dance, the hive of hives had once again pulled through. The bee army would soon be more powerful and more efficient than ever before.
The divine bumbledryad queen finished pollinating another flower, making it grow bigger. Her queen mother was growing bigger, so the flowers needed to grow big too. King had asked her flower to make the other flowers big and strong as well, so she’d make them as big and strong as she could! It made her happy, it made her flower happy, it made her queen mother happy, and it made King happy!
But she was doing more than just making the flowers grow bigger. Every time she pollinated a flower, it connected to her own, joining her flower’s hive. And with each flower that joined her flower’s hive, she and her flower got more mana and her flower grew bigger. It made her flower happy, so she was happy too!
And now she had so much mana that she flew back to her flower. Her body melted right into the flower, joining their mana together once again. Her flower was happy to have her back and she was happy to be back, here where she belonged.
And she was also happy because now she had enough mana to do her job as queen! So, she took her mana and started to create little eggs of mana inside of her flower. Soon, they’d hatch into bumbledryad workers! Then, they could help her pollinate more flowers and make her flower’s hive even bigger!
And that would make her, her flower, and everyone happy.