The Bee Dungeon

Side Story 18.1 - The Firstborn

Back in one of the hives in the Flower Meadow, a monster bee queen watched as her workers processed the new honey. She was the Firstborn of the Second Dynasty of the First Spawner, the first of her line. The first guardian of the gate to the Beyond. Her children finished their work, leaving a cell full of glistening honey. Honey that occasionally shimmered with a subtle glow, a golden light lost in the yellow colors of the wax and the bees all around it.

The queen felt the warmth of mana stir within the cell, resonating with the mana inside of her. She felt a heat grow within her torso.

It was time.

She and her siblings from her spawner were the only ones to bear the title of the Second Dynasty. But every bee of the dungeon knew the reason why. Back when she was born, she thought she was the first of the King’s defenders...but she was quickly dissuaded of that notion. She felt the bond with her King moments after her birth. Her King was a being beyond mere bees, with depths of emotion and existence she couldn’t yet fully comprehend. She was nearly overwhelmed by the sensations of that moment. But there were two things she could understand.

Loss. And a desire to protect.

The Conduit had later explained to them what had happened. An entire dynasty of queens had lived before them. They spread across the King’s fields and formed their civilization upon his generosity. They grew their colonies in grand constructions formed by the King’s own hands. They were the first to offer their tribute to the King.

And then, the invader came.

And the armies of the First Dynasty rose to meet it, led by the Conduit herself.

But...they failed.

The armies of the First Dynasty had fallen in droves. They gave their lives in the multitudes as was their duty, but it was not enough. The invader had torn through them all the same, and laid waste to their civilization. The mighty structures the King had forged, the pillars upon which the hives were built were crushed in the jaws of the enemy. The queens themselves had fallen, leading the last of their armies in a final, desperate stand.

It was not enough.

Only the King and the Conduit had survived, and the Conduit only by her bond to the dungeon and the King. And in the aftermath, the King had changed. No longer did he build the hives by his own hand. No longer did he use his wisdom for prosperity and shelter. No longer did he leave the defense to the queens.

The bees had proven too weak to do as he required, and so the King himself was forced to intervene.

At first, the Firstborn of the Second Dynasty had been pleased to serve as her King had commanded. She devoted her workers to the tasks he commanded, though she understood not the meaning behind them. She sent her workers to aid her siblings and those of the other spawners, gifting resources to what would have been rival hives under any other circumstances. She had her workers carry the stems of the flowers instead of the nectar. She had constructed a hive that was not a hive, leaving empty cells deep within the ground. She had not understood these things, but she saw the intensity and the drive of her King as he worked. She heard from the Conduit that he had devised a grand plan, and she was honored to have been a part of it, even as she drilled her hive with the lessons of the first battle.

And then, the day arrived. The invader returned, and the Second Dynasty would be put to the test. Or so the Firstborn thought.

The King’s wisdom was revealed. The invader was lured into a trap. The empty hive the Second Dynasty had built was set ablaze, and the invader joined the ashes. The battle was won without the loss of a single hive, and only token casualties amongst the assembled armies.

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And the Firstborn’s heart burned.

The King himself had stood before the invader, placing his own life before its jaws. He had not permitted them to fight. Nay, he had forbade them from doing so. The Firstborn did not lead her army into battle, only permitted to contribute a token diversion from her scouts.

As the invader burned within the flames, the Firstborn realized the truth. The Second Dynasty was no better than the First. They, too, had failed.

The King did not trust them to fight the invader. He could not. The Conduit spoke of the sheer casualties the First Dynasty had experienced, all in vain. The Firstborn herself had felt the deep pain of the King at those losses. He resolved to avoid the needless death and destruction of the First Invasion. He turned his hand to war; his wisdom, his plans, and his grand constructions were devoted to the delivery of death.

All because they were too weak to defend their King and his realm. No, they could not even defend themselves. Their King risked himself to protect them. He who should have been the last to face danger.

The Firstborn would not let it stand. Her entire hive redoubled its efforts. All of her children devoted themselves to their work even more than before. Her scouts flew into the Beyond, past the sight and protection of their King in search of new lands and resources.

She thought they had found a shining treasure, a worthy tribute to offer to the King. But once again, he had demonstrated his power and his charity. He did not take the sweetest of flowers for his own but spread them across his lands. And he offered them to her, freely.

His generosity knew no bounds, but she could not help but feel disappointed. Once again, she had failed to be of use to her King, who continued to sacrifice for the sake of those who should protect him.

But now...that was about to change.

She dunked her head into the cell before her and drank deeply. The warmth of mana filled her body and set it ablaze. For the first time since her birth, she had more mana than could be spent on the laying of her brood. Monster bees required mana to birth and even more mana to grow; the small amounts of mana they received from mundane honey and their own bodies were barely enough to sustain the colony’s growth. But now, thanks to the King’s generosity, they had more than enough. That mana began to fill her body, and push against her chitin. She buzzed as she began to glow with light.

A few minutes later the light died down and a new queen stepped forward, several times the size she was before. She drank more of the mana honey to fill her reserves, and then strode over to a new section of the hive. One with cells far larger than before.

The King had not rejected them entirely. The Firstborn had felt as his power stirred within them, changing them. She saw visions of mighty warriors, giants bred for battle who stood tall and strong among all of bee-kind. Soldiers with lances long and sharp, clad in armor so thick even the deadly hornet could not pierce it.

Warriors of the kind who could face much larger enemies directly. Who could defeat the invader without sacrificing their entire civilization in the process. Who would not require the protection of the very King they were born to defend.

She knew then that her King still believed in them. That he had seen beyond their present weakness. She understood now his generosity, for it would take far more mana to birth these children than the Firstborn had ever possessed. With the mundane flowers, she would have had to cut an entire generation of workers to store up the power for even one of these giants. Even her hive, the most developed and numerous of all, could not accept such an interruption in its present state. It would have taken a long time before she was established enough to do so.

But now that her King had granted them access to nectar overflowing with mana, she had power in abundance. She herself had advanced to a new stage and grown beyond the limits of her mundane ancestors. Her body produced ten times as much mana as before and she would scarcely require external nutrients to expand the ranks of her children. She could lay dozens of worker eggs at a time and still devote all of the honey they produced to grow and sustain them.

And most importantly, a giant egg packed with mana would be no great burden to her now.

She came to a large cell even as the workers lined the sides with mana honey. And then she began to lay her army. The first true army amongst any dynasty of her King’s dungeon. And with them, her hive would prove its might to the King. They would take up their role as the dungeon’s defenders. They would defend the King and all that belonged to him. They would be weak and helpless no longer.

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