Chapter 72

Chapter 72: The Grateful Honeybee Queen

Ria's Aura and Ruina's flame magic erupted.

Seven high-grade Harpies were either incinerated or cleaved apart by the sword.

'I already knew Ria was strong, but Ruina's magic is ferocious too.'

It looked even more powerful than an S-Rank Hunter using a flame-type skill.

Before long, one Harpy that had been lucky enough to escape the range of Ria's and Ruina's attacks began to flee.

I launched my sub-weapon dagger along with three steel balls at the fleeing Harpy.

The dagger pierced its torso, and the steel balls shredded its wings, sending it plummeting.

With that, all nine high-grade Harpies that had been attacking the Great Honeybees were dealt with.

Just then—

BUZZ BUZZ!!

Some twenty enormous bees flew in from above.

They were three times the size of regular Great Honeybees.

Ria looked at them and said,

"Those must be Great Honeybee soldiers."

"Are they different from regular Great Honeybees?"

"Yeah, they're elite combat units that guard the Great Honeybees and the queen. They're probably around mid-grade monster level."

They were definitely different.

The regular Great Honeybees had no mandibles, but the soldiers possessed fearsome jaws.

"The soldiers must have come to help after the Great Honeybees sent a danger signal through pheromones."

"It seems so."

The Great Honeybees then flew toward the Honeybee soldiers.

They appeared to be communicating.

Then, both the Great Honeybees and the soldiers vanished into the jungle forest.

They must have conveyed that we were not the attackers.

"They're gone......"

Only we remained in the flower field.

"Lady Ria, should we follow them?"

"Before that, let's collect the magic stones from the Harpies."

Right—magic stones had to be collected.

We had taken down nine high-grade Harpies.

That meant 135 million won earned.

'As expected, the deeper outer zones of the Fourth Floor have higher monster populations.'

The deep reaches of the northern Snowfield Zone had also had denser populations the farther in we had gone.

"Let's head in the direction the Honeybees went."

We left the flower field and resumed our trek.

Once again, Bell was our guide.

'A Divine Beast is a Divine Beast.'

She found optimal paths with uncanny precision.

Thanks to Bell, we navigated the harsh jungle with ease.

After about five minutes of travel—

A sweet honey scent tickled my nose.

'That honey smell is intense.'

It was not merely rich—it carried a refreshing quality, as if clearing one's senses.

The fragrance alone told me the honey was exceptionally premium.

"Judging by how strong the honey scent is, we must be close."

"Yeah, and I can sense monsters surrounding us from every direction."

"We should be careful. I'll cast a shield."

Ruina cast a Shield Spell.

Moments later—

BUZZZZZ!

Great Honeybees swarmed toward us in massive numbers.

The harsh buzzing was loud enough to hurt.

There were far too many.

If the numbers had been small, I could have smoked them out to harvest the honey.

Or subdued them first, then harvested.

But this was far too many.

Several hundred at the very least.

On top of that, there seemed to be around thirty Honeybee soldiers at mid-grade monster level.

"Ria, this seems a bit dangerous."

"Yeah, there are way more than I expected. You and I are strong enough to be fine, but Bell might be at some risk."

That was true. No matter how Bell was a Divine Beast-class monster, she was still a pup.

Barely at the lowest-grade to low-grade monster level.

"If it comes to a fight, I'll watch over Bell as much as I can. Bell, stay right by my side."

"Woof!"

I hoped it would not come to a fight.

No matter how they were classified as monsters, honeybees were honeybees—living creatures beneficial to nature.

Moreover, Great Honeybees were essentially non-aggressive monsters, and we were the ones trespassing on their territory.

During the standoff—

BUZZ BUZZ!

The Honeybees parted, and through the gap emerged a Honeybee with a crown-like pattern on its head.

It was as large as a Honeybee soldier, and ornately decorated.

Looking at it, Ria said,

"That's the Honeybee Queen."

"The queen? That one is the queen bee?"

"Yes."

Honeybee soldiers gathered protectively around the queen.

Like a knight order guarding their sovereign.

The queen then emitted a threatening beat of her wings.

BUZZ BUZZ! BUZZ-BUZZ!

As if warning us.

As if saying, 'Go back!'

'The Honeybee Queen doesn't seem interested in fighting either.'

Could she know that we had saved the Great Honeybees from the high-grade Harpies?

Or perhaps she sensed how strong we were and was trying to avoid combat.

Either way, she clearly wanted us to leave.

'No intent to fight, then.'

I turned around and spoke to Ria and Ruina.

"Ria, Ruina. Put down your sword and staff."

"Okay."

Ria trusted me and immediately lowered her sword.

Ruina, however, hesitated.

"Is that not dangerous?"

"It'll be fine. If things turn dangerous, grab it right away. For now, let's put them down."

"Mm, understood."

Once both of them had set down their weapons, I faced the Honeybee Queen and raised both palms to chest height.

A gesture indicating I had no intent to fight.

"We just came because we wanted a little bit of honey."

When I spoke, the Honeybee Queen's antennae twitched.

As if trying to read my intention.

"I don't plan on taking it for free. Hmm......"

I opened Acresia and pulled out a glass jar of Applecherry jam and fresh Applecherry fruit.

"How about a trade?"

The instant I produced them, the wingbeats of every Honeybee—including the queen—grew frantic.

But it did not seem like a threatening buzzing.

If anything, it seemed like excitement.

The Honeybee Queen descended from the air and landed on the ground.

Then she began crawling slowly toward me.

"You like the Applecherry?"

I opened the Applecherry and the Applecherry jam lid and set them on the ground.

The Honeybee Queen approached but was stopped by Ruina's shield.

"Ruina, drop the shield too."

"But—"

"Please."

"Understood."

The shield dissolved.

The Honeybee Queen approached the Applecherry and sank her mandibles into it.

She began sucking out the juices greedily.

"She seems to like it."

I pulled out two more Applecherries and set them on the ground.

The Honeybee Queen then signaled the Honeybee soldiers with a wingbeat. Several soldiers, about forty-five centimeters in size, clutched the Applecherries and Applecherry jam with their legs and flew off to carry them away.

"She's agreed to the deal?"

BUZZ!

She fluttered her wings as if in affirmation.

All the Honeybees dispersed except for a few soldier guards.

It seemed they had dropped their guard around us.

The Honeybee Queen then grasped the Applecherry she had been eating with her legs and took to the air.

She flew slowly.

"She's going slowly, so it looks like she wants us to follow."

"It does. Let's go."

We followed the Honeybee Queen.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

But then—

WHOOOM!

When we reached a massive tree the size of a house—

A sound like an approaching helicopter filled the air, and monster bees the size of a human torso flew in and began slaughtering the Great Honeybees with their enormous mandibles.

Not just the Great Honeybees—even the Honeybee soldiers were helplessly bisected.

Then the monster hornets seized the Applecherries I had given.

"Hornet monsters......"

Their heads were black rather than yellow like a giant hornet's, but their overall shape closely resembled one.

One hornet monster spotted the Honeybee Queen and flew straight toward her.

A Honeybee soldier stepped in to block, but it did not look capable of holding off the hornet monster.

That was when Ria stepped forward.

SWISH—!

With a lightning-fast charge and drawing strike, she split the massive hornet monster in half midair, sending its halves crashing to the ground.

Then—

CLATTER!

A high-grade magic stone tumbled out of the bisected hornet monster.

'It was a high-grade monster.'

Even while splitting the hornet monster in two, Ria had angled her cut to avoid damaging the high-grade magic stone.

When one fell, four more hornet monsters dove toward Ria.

But those hornet monsters met the same fate as the first.

Peace returned to the Great Honeybee territory.

'The life of a honeybee truly is never easy, whether inside or outside the Rift.'

Barely any time had passed since the Harpy attack, and now they had been attacked by hornet monsters—the natural enemy of bees.

A good idea struck me while we were extracting magic stones from the hornets.

"What if we clear out the nearby hornet monster nest?"

"Us?"

"Yeah. That would earn even more trust from the Great Honeybees, don't you think?"

"Maybe. But how would we find the hornets' base?"

"We have Bell."

"Woof?"

Bell tilted her head.

"Bell, can you locate their base? Track the scent, or use Presence Detection to find where high-grade monsters are clustered."

"Woof!"

Bell puffed up proudly, as if it were nothing.

She sniffed the dead hornet monster.

Then closed both eyes.

She was probably focusing her Presence Detection.

Before long, Bell locked onto a direction.

"Woof!"

Once Bell had set the direction, I spoke to the Honeybee Queen.

"We'll come back after clearing out the hornets."

She obviously could not understand my words.

Still, the Honeybee Queen seemed reasonably intelligent.

She had understood that I meant no harm and that I wanted to barter.

She had understood...... right?

In any case, we set off to eliminate the hornet nest.

***

After about twenty minutes of walking, hornet monsters began appearing one by one.

"Unlike the Great Honeybees, there's no need to show mercy. Kill every one we see."

"Got it."

"Yes."

Their large size made them easy targets for my steel ball releases.

Picking them off one by one as we advanced, we spotted a massive hornet nest built atop a house-sized tree.

'With the Great Honeybees, I gave them time to surround us because my goal was to avoid killing honeybees if possible. With the hornet monsters, there's no reason to give them time to mass up.'

Before the hornets could pour out—

"I'll burn the tree whole."

Ruina cast her spell from a distance.

An Ancient Language magic circle was etched beneath the tree, and then—

BOOM! WHOOSH!

A massive pillar of fire erupted with a thunderous roar, engulfing and incinerating the tree.

Scorched hornet monsters crawled out from between the branches.

Their numbers were far smaller compared to the honeybees.

And with their wings singed, they could barely fly.

Ria and I easily hunted down the crippled hornet monsters.

Before long, an individual presumed to be the queen hornet monster emerged from the burning tree.

It was the size of a person.

'If the regular hornet monsters are high-grade, the queen should be around highest-grade.'

However, anything short of Transcendent-Grade posed no serious threat.

The queen hornet monster was swiftly taken down by Ria's and my combined assault.

With that, the hornet nest was completely eradicated.

'Twenty-two high-grade magic stones and one highest-grade magic stone.'

A jackpot.

We had removed a threat harmful to the Great Honeybees.

And earned money doing it. Two birds with one stone.

'Just from today's hunting alone, I earned over 400 million won in magic stones......'

Normally, even with hunting, a haul this large was unheard of.

But today we had taken out both a Harpy flock and a hornet monster colony.

A true hunting lottery.

After extracting and collecting the magic stones—

Ria severed the queen hornet monster's head and handed it to me.

"We need to show the Honeybee Queen that we eliminated her natural enemy."

"Good thinking."

I stored the head in Acresia.

We then headed back to where the Honeybees' home was located.

Even as we entered their territory, the Great Honeybees showed no wariness toward us.

The Great Honeybees' home was a tree, much like the hornet monsters'.

A house-sized tree resembling a giant sequoia—the largest tree species in the world.

The difference was that the hornet monsters had built a massive nest among the branches, while the smaller Great Honeybees lived inside the tree itself.

BUZZ BUZZ!

When we arrived at the base of the tree, the Honeybee Queen emerged from a hole in the trunk and descended before us.

I pulled the enormous severed head of the queen hornet monster from Acresia and set it on the ground.

"I eliminated your natural enemy."

BUZZ BUZZ!

The queen beat her wings fiercely.

She seemed extremely excited.

"I cleared out your predators and gave you Applecherries. In return, I'd like to trade for honey."

I pulled out a honey pot to make my meaning clear—this was what I wanted. At the same time, I produced two empty honey pots.

Meaning: fill both.

The queen seemed to understand and dispatched Honeybee soldiers to carry the empty pots away.

"And could I also get some of the royal jelly that you eat?"

She could not understand me.

There was no way to explain it.

While I was struggling to communicate, the Honeybee soldier that had taken the pots returned carrying honeycomb—apparently having cut a section from the hive with its mandibles—with honey still inside.

"Smarter than I expected."

But I had given them two pots, and only one came back with honey.

A moment later.

Another Honeybee soldier set down a yellow-filled comb that looked as though it contained custard cream.

"This is......"

Royal jelly.

Even without understanding my words, the queen had brought something precious of her own accord.

A Honeybee Queen who understood the principle of reciprocity.

I touched the pot containing the royal jelly with trembling hands.

 

[Great Honeybee Royal Jelly]
[Taste & Rarity: S-Rank]

An S-Rank rarity, no less.

What kind of effect would a dish made with this produce?

My heart began pounding with anticipation.