Chapter 74 - 56: Venomous Hive and Others
Chapter 74: Chapter 56: Venomous Hive and Others
[Name]: Highly Poisonous Beehive
[Category]: Natural Multi-purpose Building (Recruitment/Specialty Product)
[Grade]: Excellent (Blue)
[Description]: Can recruit Highly Poisonous Bees. Highly Poisonous Bees are born with the Resonance ability. Highly Poisonous Bees will gather nectar and brew it into delicious honey.
[Recruitable]: Highly Poisonous Bee x1000
[Recruitment Cost]: 10 Food, 10 Gold Coins
[Summon?]
[This building is compatible with your territory’s attributes. For a cost of 10,000 Gold Coins, it can be converted into a Highly Poisonous Beehive building blueprint.]
The hive’s stats were decent. Compared to the undead Recruitment Offices, this hive couldn’t be dismantled, nor would it yield any building fragments.
However, it wasn’t just a Recruitment Office; it was also a resource building that could produce specialty products.
Specialty products were valuable. The specialty products in the Lord’s Tournament all came with special effects.
Moreover, specialty products could be sold directly on the market, where the tournament organizers would buy them back.
Of course, doing that would be a significant loss. Most specialty products were in high demand, and lords would rush to buy them at a premium.
After reviewing the hive’s stats, Lin Yu immediately recruited 1,000 Highly Poisonous Bees and scooped out a good amount of honey from the hive.
Lin Yu dipped his finger in and took a lick.
"Mmm~ Delicious! So sweet!"
The honey tasted incredible. It was very sweet with a unique texture. It was like a jelly overall, but when he bit into it, it dissolved in his mouth like a slushie.
The honey was also high in energy. After eating it, a warm current spread from his stomach, and Lin Yu felt his own energy reserves increase slightly.
After spending a few Gold Coins, Lin Yu appraised the honey’s information.
[Name]: Grassland Honey
[Description]: Honey created by Highly Poisonous Bees from the nectar of grassland flowers. It contains a small amount of energy.
[Effect]: Restores a certain amount of energy. Natural energy regeneration speed +10% for 1 hour.
’This is great!’ Lin Yu’s eyes lit up when he saw the stats. Increased energy regeneration speed was something everyone needed.
Then, Lin Yu turned his attention to the newly recruited Highly Poisonous Bees.
[Name]: Highly Poisonous Bee
[Grade]: Excellent (Blue)
[Level]: 10
[Attack]: 225
[Speed]: 315
[Defense]: 75
[Health]: 225
[Skills]: Poisonous Stinger, Honey Brewing
[Talent]: Resonance
[Poisonous Stinger]: The tail stinger of the Highly Poisonous Bee contains a potent toxin that applies a paralyzing poison to its target, dealing 10% of its Attack as damage per second for 5 seconds.
The paralysis effect can stack. Every 10 stacks increase the target’s paralysis duration by 1 second. Cooldown: 5 seconds. (Can apply paralysis once every 5 seconds.)
[Honey Brewing]: When there are no enemies, Highly Poisonous Bees will gather nectar to produce honey. The honey’s properties will vary depending on the properties of the flowers.
[Resonance]: For every 1,000 kin nearby, all kin gain a 10% stat boost. This effect can stack.
"They’re... acceptable, I guess."
Lin Yu smacked his lips. The stats of the Highly Poisonous Bees were much weaker than the soldiers in his territory, even weaker than the White Bone Skeletons.
However, the two skills of the Highly Poisonous Bee were quite good: one for control, one for producing specialty products. Their talent was similar to the Resonance of the White Bone Skeletons, just with a higher threshold.
’They’re a decent production unit,’ he thought.
"Everyone, come over here," Lin Yu called the Elemental Druids over to the beehive.
"Come, come, everyone try a little honey. Let’s see how good its recovery effect is."
The Elemental Druids had just cast Magic, expending a lot of energy, so it was the perfect time to test the honey’s restorative effects.
"It works! I feel like half my Spiritual Energy has been restored."
"It seems to keep restoring energy over time. I feel like my energy is regenerating faster."
...
The Elemental Druids gave it a unanimous thumbs-up. Lin Yu then had Phantom try some honey, and Phantom also gave it a glowing review ("Delicious!").
Seeing that the honey had everyone’s approval, Lin Yu spent Ten Thousand Gold Coins to turn the Highly Poisonous Beehive into a building blueprint, preparing to take it back to his territory to build.
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Next, the group continued toward their other objectives.
Along the way, they cleared out another Half-beastman Camp, a wolf’s den, a snake’s nest, and a horse pasture.
The Half-beastman Camp was a Superior-grade Recruitment Office, capable of recruiting Superior-grade Half-beastmen.
The wolf’s den was a Superior-grade Recruitment Office that could recruit Superior-grade Grassland Wolves.
The snake’s nest was an Excellent-grade Recruitment Office that could recruit Excellent-grade Grassland Five-Step Snakes.
The venom of the Grassland Five-Step Snake was extremely potent and even possessed a hint of rule-based properties.
This venom was called Five-step Snake Poison. After being bitten, the victim would fall into a coma after taking five steps, lose 10% of their maximum health per second for 5 seconds, and the effect had a 5-minute cooldown (the poison can only be applied once every 5 minutes, and does not stack).
While clearing the snake’s nest, a few novice Sharp Claw Druids were accidentally bitten. They reflexively jumped away and immediately fell into a coma.
It made Lin Yu think they were about to fail at the last minute.
The horse pasture was a Superior-grade Recruitment Office/Resource building, something of a freebie. The Druids cast a buff on themselves to befriend animals and directly pacified the 100-plus wild grassland horses inside.
Finally, after clearing out the guards, Lin Yu recruited Grassland Wolves, grassland vipers, and wild grassland horses from the wolf’s den, snake’s nest, and horse pasture.
He didn’t recruit the Half-beastmen. For one, they were a bit ugly; for another, their grade was too low; and for a third, their alignment didn’t match.
In addition, Lin Yu spent eleven thousand Gold Coins to convert the snake’s nest and the stables into building blueprints to take with him.
He left the Half-beastman Camp and the wolf’s den untouched. Since they couldn’t be dismantled, Lin Yu decided to leave them as training grounds for new recruits.
-----------------
After trekking through the tall grass for several hours, they arrived at their final destination.
A crypt, hidden by the tall grass.
The group had just approached the crypt when a pack of porcupines scurried out.
Upon seeing Lin Yu’s party, they attacked without a moment’s hesitation.
They turned their backs to the group, the quills on their backs stood on end, and then launched out at an incredible speed.
Fewer than 100 porcupines, each instantly firing a hundred-odd sharp quills, created a scene like an army of thousands.
The Elemental Druids didn’t have time to use their joint casting to create a large shield.
The lead Shape-shifting Druid let out a roar, instantly transforming into a brown bear and other tank-like forms. Channeling their individual Protective Magic, they rose up on their hind legs to block the quills from harming their companions behind them.
The quills flew in swiftly and slammed into these tanks.
"AWOOO—AWOOO~"
The quills had excellent penetration, completely bypassing the tanks’ magical protections and armor, and burying themselves deep in their bodies.
The tanks grimaced in pain, howling incessantly.
"Attack!" Kirkland, seeing this, quickly gave the order.
The Elemental Druids immediately aimed their Magic at the now-bald porcupines that had just fired their quills. A barrage of spells like Fireball and Wind Blade followed.
Just then, another 50 or so burly porcupines emerged from the crypt.
These porcupines were even stronger, with imposing, muscular bodies, and they walked upright.
The quills on their backs were much shorter than those of the previous porcupines, as if they had devolved.
Facing the incoming Magic, they showed no fear, simply turning around to expose their backs, which were covered in short quills.
