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BD - Chapter 309 - Flower's Bee-inforcements
🕑 Added 2025-08-20 20:05:01 +0000 UTCPlease select a monster:
- Hydra Mantrap Sprout (Rarity: Rare, Type: Flower, Nature)
- Monster Nightshade Summoner (Rarity: Rare, Type: Flower, Nature, Insect)
- Vortex Bladderwort (Rarity: Rare, Type: Flower, Nature, Water)
Tarwantrad’s eyes sparkled. Frelis began to perk up until the venomous slime rose wrapped a vine around her. Belissar launched right into the descriptions.
Hydra Mantrap Sprout
Vitality: Average
Strength: Average
Speed: Minor
Magic: Minor
Defense: Below Average
Resistance: Minimal
Special: Minor
Notable Skills: Acidic Bite, Regeneration
Spawner Upkeep: 20 (40 with Blessing of Bees)
Description: A flytrap that has absorbed enough mana to become something more. No longer content to passively wait for small insects, the hydra mantrap aggressively seeks out larger prey using its numerous biting mouths filled with corrosive acid. It possesses strong regenerative capabilities as well, able to regrow its heads if damaged, making it difficult to put down by purely physical means.
These young sprouts don’t yet have the undying resilience of the fully grown variant, but still can regrow from a surprising amount of harm. Their jaws are still perfectly capable of taking a bite out of anything foolish enough to approach them.
Belissar’s eyes widened a bit as he observed the mantrap. It was a flowering plant about half the height of a person. Its leaves were each tipped with two lobes tipped with fang-like spikes, forming what looked like a jaw dripping with green liquid. The mantrap’s roots didn’t burrow into the ground, instead acting as countless legs that the monster stood upon.
Well, this was certainly a monster flower.
Belissar turned to Tarwantrad for a more in-depth opinion and she delivered.
“Flytraps are a type of carnivorous flower, they normally wait for insects to crawl inbetween their trap leaves and then snap shut. The monster version is a more aggressive hunter, with true jaws capable of biting and tearing. Their jaws also act as their stomachs, hence the acid. Before you ask, they can but don’t normally target bees, the traps both for the mundane and monster versions are better at catching things that don’t fly. That’s why they keep their flowers far and separate from the leaves, so that pollinators can visit without endangering themselves.”
Belissar tilted his head.
“If they don’t catch flying things, why are they called flytraps?”
Tarwantrad shrugged.
“Well, it’s not like they can’t catch flying insects that land on the traps. Maybe the person who named them saw one do that.”
Belissar nodded…and then smiled. His primary concern with a very-much carnivorous flower had been alleviated. His bees wouldn’t be targeted by the hydra mantraps…provided they were careful…and could even forage from them without harm. Well, the karnuq and spiderkin and fair folk would all need to be cautious…though, that assumed he couldn’t just tell the monster flowers not to hurt them. Since these would be monsters and not passive flowers like the ones from features, maybe he didn’t have to worry at all?
Tarwantrad continued on once he refocused on her.
“As monsters…these are a direct fighting monster. They close in to bite and regrow any damage they take in the process. They’re good at that, but do be aware that is all they do. They’re slow and don’t have any special abilities or ranged attacks, I find direct flower monsters like these normally need support from others to really shine.”
She smiled up at the bees.
“In your case, though, I don’t think that would be a problem.”
Belissar rubbed his chin.
“Do you have these, then? It sounds like you know a lot about them.”
Tarwantrad grinned.
“That I do! They’re one of the ones I planted in the nursery’s monster room!”
Belissar grinned right back. Well, that largely settled the question of the first option…provided Tarwantrad didn’t already have all the options offered…
Monster Nightshade Summoner
Vitality: Small
Strength: Minimal
Speed: Minor
Magic: Above Average
Defense: Minimal
Resistance: Small
Special: Above Average
Notable Skills: Summon Wasps, Call Insect, Empower Insect
Spawner Upkeep: 30 (60 with Blessing of Bees)
Description: Some plants, including some nightshades, have the ability to attract wasps to defend them from herbivores. When such a nightshade absorbs enough mana to become something more, it often finds itself facing threats beyond what a single parasitic wasp can deal with. The monster nightshade summoner addresses this problem by combining its mana and attractive chemicals into an innate summoning magic. Monster nightshade summoners can form their mana directly into wasps to attack a predator, creating an endless swarm that never ceases until the nightshade either is killed or runs out of mana.
Additionally, they not only retain the ability to call for help from friendly insects, their mana also empowers the insects with the speed to arrive quickly and the strength to battle the nightshade’s monstrous foes. This ability can prove even stronger than their innate summoning if used when friendly monster insects are nearby.
The monster nightshade focuses all of its magical and chemical might on these abilities, consequently it has almost no defenses of its own. It even loses its toxicity since it converts its chemical products to calling insects. It will quickly succumb if directly exposed to danger.
Belissar crossed his arms as he observed the small nightshade plant. On its own, it was just a flowering plant with a vaguely humanoid shape that seemed like it could walk around…but the plant’s power wasn’t in its physical form. Wasps, huh? He wasn’t sure how to feel about wasps. On the one hand, wasps were indeed quite similar to bees as flying, stinging insects that build hives together. They even pollinated flowers like bees, attacked pests in his gardens, and could be perfectly peaceful…as long as he kept a reasonable distance from their hives. He had once even mistaken a wasp for a bee when he was young and offered it honey on his finger like he did for Niobee…the wasp had turned out as friendly as a bee in that situation.
On the other hand, wasps could and did attack bees. Belissar and Mrs. Imkomos had to adjust the size of the entrances to their beehouses after one of their hives was attacked and robbed by wasps. They knocked over wasp hives that started setting up near their apiary to encourage them to go elsewhere after that. Belissar didn’t like doing that but he liked his bees being robbed even less.
Plus, he, of course, had been personally stung by the wasps, but he had been stung by bees too so he didn’t hold that against them…too much.
But then his eyes widened as he reviewed the description more closely. The summoning part said wasps…but it also said the nightshade summoners could call…and empower…any friendly insect. He glanced over at Tarwantrad.
“Would friendly insects…include bees?”
Tarwantrad crossed her arms…though her eyes were sparking.
“I’m not sure, to be honest! I don’t actually have these or anything like them! I can’t believe I didn’t think to try and cultivate a monster flower from a wasp-summoning species!”
Tarwantrad then jumped and cleared her throat.
“Ahem…well, plants that call wasps normally do so because they want the wasp to eat a caterpillar or some other herbivore that’s bothering them…so I’m not sure if they’d specifically want to call bees.”
At that moment, Finnakynne popped back up out the bumblebee soldier’s fuzz.
“But doesn’t Beely have carnivorous bees?”
Tarwantrad blinked.
“That’s…true. Huh.”
She thought for a moment longer before nodding.
“Well, we won’t know for sure unless you pick them, but I would guess the description specifically stating insects instead of wasps should include bees of some sort. After all, what insect is friendlier to plants than bees?”
Belissar chuckled at that. If that was the case…then these monster nightshade summoners would be perfect for his Tower. Flower monsters that could empower nearby bees? That would be amazing. And even the wasp summoning…if it was like his spell-bees then it wasn’t like the wasps would hang around to bother his bees. In fact…if that was the case then they’d be able to use spell-wasps to attack in situations where the bees might otherwise take casualties. That, too, would be absolutely perfect.
The only downsides were that, ultimately, they weren’t sure if the nightshade’s powers would affect bees after all. And if they did, there was a chance it would be like the Bee-caller Pheromones perk he had seen in the past, where the empowerment would also increase the aggression of the bees, which might cause them to lose control and take more casualties. So, there were multiple ways in which the nightshade summoners might not prove to be as effective at supporting the bees as he hoped.
And even if they did…the nightshade summoners, in a way, did not do anything differently than the bee army already did. It would make them better at their jobs, but the bee army could certainly already provide a swarm of flying and stinging insects. So, the question was should he double down on what his Tower already did or try to seek out new options?
Speaking of which, he had one more option to check.
Vortex Monster Bladderwort
Vitality: Small
Strength: Minimal
Speed: Below Average
Magic: Above Average
Defense: Minimal
Resistance: Small
Special: Above Average
Notable Skills: Create Vortex, Waterjet
Spawner Upkeep: 30 (60 with Blessing of Bees)
Description: An aquatic bladderwort that has absorbed enough Water mana to become something more. The vortex monster bladderwort’s suction traps have been empowered by Water mana to create dramatically more powerful effects. Their namesake ability is to create entire whirlpools to suck their prey down into the depths. Additionally, they can now reverse the flow of water to create powerful jets, which they can use to move around with surprising bursts of speed, or to attack enemies beyond the range of their whirlpools.
The vortex monster bladderwort is a fully aquatic species and all but helpless out of the water.
At first, the vortex bladderwort looked like a branch floating underwater with flowers rising up and out of it, but Belissar did note the big pocket-like things it had around its leaves. He guessed those were the suction traps?
In any case, he looked to Tarwantrad once more. Her eyes were sparkling again.
“That’s another new one! Nenavann, you don’t have any of these, do you?”
Nenavann shook his head.
“No, they’re new to me too.”
Tarwantrad frowned.
“Ugh, that means Belissar can only pick one. Well, I think I have some bladderwort somewhere, maybe we can work on that. Maybe if we put some waterstones to make a pond and cross-pollinate it with other flowers with Water mana…”
Tarwantrad subsequently went off into the world of magical flower cultivation. Seeing that these were new, Belissar decided to evaluate them as best he could. Well, a flower monster that could create whirlpools sounded strong. Pulling shades underwater would help, especially if they were one of the fire types. The venomous slime rose already showed what a flower monster could do in the Bog, these things sounded perfect to make that room even deadlier.
Though, from the way Tarwantrad’s muttering picked up speed and the smile on her face, there might be a chance of getting these later.
“Tarwantrad? Sorry to interrupt…”
Tarwantrad jumped and then flushed.
“Ah! Sorry! Yes, so…we don’t have any of these now and it does sound like it’ll take a lot of Water mana to get a regular bladderwort to make a whirlpool, their suction pods are much much smaller than they’d need to be for that, but I do think it should be possible for us to cultivate one in time. Especially with your bees’ help, Belissar, not to mention my new gardeners.”
Belissar nodded.
“Got it. Then…what about the nightshade?”
Tarwantrad crossed her arms and tapped her chin.
“That one’s…harder to say. Monster nightshade is perfectly reasonable, I have some actually. But a monster nightshade summoner…none of my plant monsters have gone down that route.”
Tamosmed interjected for the first time.
“That’s because it’s a profession evolution. You probably can’t just raise them by cross-pollinating, Tarwantrad. It sounds like the monsters themselves would have to put the work in to learn the skill.”
Tarwantrad’s eyes widened.
“Ah, and I don’t use insect monsters for defense, so my flower monsters would never have tried to rely on them. That makes sense.”
She turned to Belissar and bowed her head apologetically.
“Sorry Belissar…but from what we can tell, it would be hard for me to raise these without first acquiring some kind of wasp monster. I think you’d have better luck trying to raise one in your Tower than I would in my dungeon…”
Belissar gave her a smile.
“It’s amazing you can already just raise these at all. Besides…that helps us make the choice, doesn’t it?”
She returned his smile. Belissar took a deep breath and then turned to his bees with a serious expression.
“Everyone…if the monster creates wasps, would that be a problem?”
The bees, as it turned out, had already discussed the issue, as the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter was ready to reply right away.
“Is fine! Bee army can handle if try to rob hives. Firstborn says if King’s monsters, then fine! Karnuq, spiderkin like things that attack hives and workers, but now part of hive of hives, so new monsters too!”
Belissar blinked at that and then made a light laugh. That was true, wasn’t it? His bees were already working with bear people and spider people. So why not wasps too?
“Ok, in that case…let’s go with the nightshade summoners and then work with Tarwantrad on the other two?”
“Ok! Whatever King chooses!”
Belissar smiled and, after checking with the karnuq, spiderkin, and humans for any additional concerns, finalized his choices.
Abyssal Trench now available!
Monster nightshade summoner now available!
Author’s Note:
New flowers! …that summon…wasps.
…wasps, huh. Should we decry them as a facsimile of the wonderful bee form that also hurts bees, or acknowledge that they are the most bee-like non-bees can get? Hm…well, if we’re summoning wasps…and they die to protect bees…then I guess we can just about allow it. Maybe we should check with the God of Bees first…
Anyways!
Is Belissar making a terrible mistake? Can the hive of hives work with…wasps? Can flower one raise the other flowers? Tune in next time, to find out!
Comments
Moon Winchester
wasp is bee that survive from dinosaur age. Wasp = Dinosaur Bee
Fernando Oliveira
Thanks for the chapter, loved it. So we've got monster summoner nightshade and the abyssal trenches. Lovely. Summoning wasps and enhancing nearby insects can be huge. Depending on how it works it might even boost ritual, imagine the fallen hive doing a dance around one of them. If there's no maddening influence then that'd be huge. If there is a aggression impulse perhaps some of the bees can train to discover which of them can resist.
