The Illicitous Dungeon

Chapter 38: To Bee, Or Not To Bee

Styx began mining out all the walls in the initial dungeon maze in plans of his next improvement to the dungeon's visuals with his latest achievements.

Beforehand, it was long passages and intersections, with the main passageway being a giant 10 meter wide bridge above a slowly flowing river fed from an underground waterway.

At some point, freshwater fish had also started living inside of it too and their population were quickly growing without any natural predators, but were soon going to be facing a food shortage as the amount entering through the waterway was miniscule.

The walls had giant ornate pillars at regular intervals and on corners with mayan and Aztec designs carved into them. The walls in between the pillars were carved to look like large stone bricks with a tall banner running along them with carvings and designs with different stone materials like ardonite and oltrite, another new stone he found deeper in the earth with a greenish color to it.

The carvings were all of eldritch creatures and devils, feasting and preying upon humans and consuming their souls. When viewing them all, they even told somewhat of a story in the battle of light against the darkness, a creation Styx considered his own masterpiece.

At other areas of the dungeon, there were separate areas for production, research, training and living quarters. They were somewhat artistic with their own appeal, but Styx knew he could do better.

Now, the waterway below the bridge was being lowered by nearly ten meters, while the walls were hollowed out and creating giant cavity where he was planning on creating a second level with grassy fields of flowers and trees once he could adapt saplings to grow in the dungeon. Wooden bridges would extend over the waterways, connecting each piece to one another.

The original stone pillars that were apart of the walls now became goliath octagonal carved pillars holding up the ceiling, connecting between the floor and ceiling as a natural part of the dungeon.

The eldritch and demon carvings from the wall were also to be transferred and even made in more detail along the ceiling of the dungeon. The original oil lanterns were also replaced with hidden light arrays, creating a plethora of blue light balls floating just off the walls and support pillars.

So far, Styx had only begun work on one small section of the dungeon as ten miners crawled over the walls and ate away at the stone under his control. It was an enormous undertaking and was expected to take several months of continuous effort as he seemed to be forever underhanded.

Styx currently needed a far greater understanding of magic and magic arrays. There were schools which taught public knowledge on this, but Styx wasn't capable of applying for one, while the elves were also too old to attend school.

The only option was to hire a private tutor for one of them so Styx could learn the knowledge through them, but this was also far too expensive.

He instead intended to purchase as many magic books as he could afford and use high super computer like processing ability to analyse all the knowledge contained within them.

The introductory book of magic arrays Therina purchased last time was fully analysed by him. Inside were five complete and functional magic arrays, which were:

[

Light Array

Chill Array

Heat Array

Movement Array

Mana Infusion Array

]

The light array was the only one which had a natural mana absorption component as the ambient mana wasn't enough to power the others. They were also the most basic designs and had no advanced or specific control functions.

They were essentially the equivalent of a kids science experiment kit, except for showing how arrays work.

The other arrays in the book were not complete products, but still contained knowledge on other aspects of arrays. They still functioned, but did not produce any actual effect.

These arrays in particular relied on what was called Hornheim Magic System. Each magic system had its own ruleset it was based off of, each different yet sometimes sharing similarities in some aspects.

The book also introduced the endless research project to reach the root of magic and produce and Grand Unified Theory of Magic which would connect all the magic systems together, but that had eluded magic researchers across the infinite world for eons and was speculated to not even exist.

~~~~~

Elena and Therina were currently out in the forest on a mission for Styx. They also had four stonerats with them who were assigned the task of dragging a large cart for transport.

On the cart were several of the dungeon's new flowers in makeshift pots, but they wouldn't live for long as they were cut off from the mana supply of the earth. They were sufficient for their purpose though.

"How are we going to do this?" Elena asked nervously as they stealthily passed a group of normal forest wolves.

"Easy, just take the nest and walk back with it," Therina carelessly smiled and laughed in response. "Have faith in Styx, he knows what is best."

"You have a little too fanatical, I think."

Therina gave the dark elf a smile that set off danger signals in her head.

The tree elf stared deeply into her eyes and said, "Styx is both our saviour and protector, don't you think you are being a little too casual?"

Elena broke out in a cold sweat from all the danger signals her body was sending her. She could see mana and was far more responsive to external sources after Styx's grooming, so she knew that Therina was teetering on the brink of deciding to "educate" her.

"No-no-no, of course not," The dark elf relented and waved her arms in denial.

'She looks normal, but she's definitely crazy,' She helplessly thought to herself.

"But aren't you worried the bees will sting us?" She cautiously questioned.

"Of course not, Styx provided us with full coverage leather armor of course."

"But you said you knew of a location where a blood crystal bee nest resided. Those aren't normal bees, they are a herd type monster, and this leather armor won't protect us"

"All you have to do is push mana out of your mana network and into your body and you can strengthen it. You may get stung a few times, but you will be able to resist it. You will also get a poison resistance skill too."

"I can't do that yet."

"Then make sure you don't die."

"Can't we just get normal bees?"

"No."

"Styx, can we please just get normal bees!? I'll die, seriously!"

Elena resorted to her final measure of calling for Styx, the only person, or dungeon, that Therina would listen to. He was ever present, so he naturally would hear anything they said.

"I'm interested in these blood crystal bees, I know you are capable of doing it."

Seeing her final hopes dashed, Elena's mood was deflated as she mindlessly followed Therina whom wasn't exactly sure of where there bee's nest was as she only heard hearsay when she was in her former village and never ventured out herself at the time.

The two headed deeper into the Abyssal Forest where the true forbidden zone started. As they got closer, neither of the two noticed the presence of a bored gaze focusing on them from the heart of the forest.

~~~~~

"They're just up ahead," Therina whispered as she hid among the tree branches with Elena.

"Wuuu" Elena whined in despair as she watched the bees buzzing around the area, secretly hoping the bees wouldn't spot them and decide to attack.

Blood crystal bees were almost as big as a finger each and were a vivid red and black color. Their stingers were an entire inch long and one could tell how sinister they were just by looking at them.

These bees were just like any other bee in which they harvested pollen from flowers, except they were also carnivorous as they would use the blood of monsters, animals and humans alike in making what is known as blood honey, their main food source. They could also eat raw meat, but they wouldn't do that unless absolutely necessary as it was unpleasant to them.

Blood honey was an exotic product that while it was possible to be consumed, had far greater value as an alchemical product.

Upon learning about this item, Styx instantly became fixated on it and he wouldn't accept the two girls bringing back any other bees.

"Just don't aggravate them," Therina said with a serious expression as despite her nonchalance towards bringing the bees back, she was fully aware of how dangerous an enraged swarm could be.

"They are monsters, so they hold at least some level of intelligence. We merely need to make a trade with them and bring our relation closer. If we can then get them back to the dungeon, Styx can handle it from there."

Therina took the lead as she took out on of the mutated mana rich flowers and approached the nest, ready to flee at any moment should they become enraged.

The bees quickly noticed her, even though she had Concealment active. Her skill is nowhere near the level of being able to avoid the inspection of thousands of bees after all.

They rapidly buzzed in warning and prepared to attack when Therina placed the flower on the ground and stepped back. Seeing this, several bees approached the flower and inspected it, soon sending out a signal of elation to other bees and reducing some of the hostility the elf was receiving.

It didn't change the fact that she was still considered a typical food for the bees.

The flower wasn't enough to satisfy them for long, so she had Elena come forward with the cart full of various flowers, who jumped away in a panic when a cloud of bees swarmed over the carriage.

The stonerats weren't spared either, as many bees attacked and rapidly drained them of all blood through their stingers, the rat's stone-like hide unable to stop the sharp stingers in the least. They quickly dropped to the ground as dried up and withered husks.

"They are smart, but also not so smart," Therina giggled to herself as she snuck up on the crimson almost gem like hive.

The hive was at least three meters tall, and enveloped a tree for a support structure. With her mana sight, she quickly located the queen's location, which was communicating with the worker and guard bees with vibrations of mana.

Her curved hunting knife flashed and a circular hole was cut out of the wall of the hive. Therina then jabbed her hand in almost blindly and grabbed the queen.

The mana in the area rapidly fluctuated as the queen sent panic signals to all the bees in the area, informing them she was under attack. Buzzing noises drowned out all sounds of the forest as the bees went berserk.

Several of the royal guard bees were the first to respond and stung Therina's arm as it was pulling the queen out of the hive, their stingers going through the leather and even her mana reinforced skin.

Therina felt the pain of poison being injected into her and winced, but she was resolute with her action and successfully captured the queen. She controlled the mana in her mana network to fight against the damage on her arm, including pushing the poison out before it could affect her body.

There was still some poison which made it through, but it was within an acceptable miniscule amount.

"What the hell are you doing!!?" Elena cried out in fear and shock as Therina appeared beside her with an entire swarm of angry bees behind her.

"The nest was too big to carry, so we have to improvise," She answered as a matter of fact, the two of them immediately running back toward the dungeon.

The queen was enraged and struggled in Therina's grasp, but it wasn't a fighter nor particularly strong and the elf held it in a way in which it couldn't sting her. Instead, the queen constantly sent out signals for rescue, causing the enraged bee swarm to constantly be on their tails.

Thankfully, Therina was in her home environment among the forest, while Elena was at least equally as dextrous, so the managed to run through it as fast as they would an open plain.

The nest was a three hour walk from the dungeon into the depths of the forest, but they managed to run it back in half an hour.

The bees didn't seem to tire at all, and only got more relentless the longer they chased. The flooded into the dungeon shortly behind the elves and followed them the entire way to the underground plantation area where Styx's experiments in mutating plants took place.

Inside the enormous excavated underground room, Therina and Elena threw the bee into the middle of it before escaping out the side of an emergency exit which close behind them.

The enraged cloud of bees followed in barely moments later and swarmed around the now free queen protectively, not realizing the entrance to the room was sealed off as well.

The queen angrily had the bees patrol the area and look for the victims once she was no longer disoriented and found themselves sealed inside the room, further enraging her. The bees attacked the walls with their stingers, punching small holes all over it, but it seemed to be a futile effort.

Styx watched all of this from his omnipresent perspective and was deeply interested in the bees, as well as how the queen bee communicated through mana fluctuations. She couldn't see mana, as she would have noticed his tendrils entering the room if she could, but she could instinctively control it.

The bees were all around <Lv. 12> and while not overly strong individually, a swarm of them could even kill a Third Step ranker, a strength Styx deeply desired.

He extended his mana tendril to the queen and tried to enter her, but she violently fought back. She felt like she was under attack and commanded her hive to protect her, but there were no visible enemies.

~~~~~

After a stand off that lasted several hours, the queen eventually tired out due to exhaustion and hunger and couldn't resist the mana tendrils anymore, which quickly invaded her body and filled up her miniscule, yet complex, mana network.

The queen blood crystal bee felt extremely strange at the sensation.

She felt like the contact was very comforting and intimate, and wondered why she fought it so hard before.

Styx's thoughts entered her mind, and she could understand them, but not at the level of an advanced species as her thought capabilities weren't that strong.

Due to this, Styx invaded her mind and communicated via emotions and images with words supplementing his thoughts. The queen responded with her own emotions and occasional images which Styx had difficulty comprehending due to their abstract nature.

Eventually they came to an agreement, which was half a surrender by the queen as it was currently in a helpless position.

The queen would live in the dungeon, and the bees would be forbidden from attacking or harming the dungeon's residents unless provoked first. They would also focus on pollenating and spreading the flowers, which the queen was more than excited to do, and would also defend the dungeon from intruders.

Styx would also provide them with the blood from any monsters or animals hunted before they are turned into biomass and also do his best to meet any demands that the bees had.

For now, he opened the room back up while having several miners dig a tunnel from the ceiling out to the cliff face where his dungeon was situated, allowing them direct passage in and out of their new residence of the dungeon.

~~~~~

Therina and Elena returned to the experimental crop room later on and it turned out that the queen bee could hold a grudge.

A horde of royal guard blood crystal bees flew out of the still being built new hive and circled the pair. A bunch of them landed on the shoulders and head of the two shocked elves, one being an especially terrified Elena. The rest of the group hovered around them menacingly with their stingers poised to strike.

"They won't attack us, right?!" Elena called out in a panic.

"You're good," Styx immediately replied, not offering any consolation.