Honey Trap

He woke stiff and groggily the next morning, the early morning light coming through the uncovered window reassured him he'd had plenty of rest, a bath woke him up and he found himself excited for the day ahead, less so for the same casserole he'd been eating these last few days.

A spark of inspiration and 1 silver later he was enjoying this world's version of bread rolls, using them to chase up the last of his casserole.

Preparing his inventory he packed weapons, water, food, fire starters, every storage container he could find, his mana potion, his pouch and after giving up 4 more silver to the store another mana potion, 2 health potions and a large mason jar with a wax cork lid.

"Now is not the time to be cheap, I've got a couple of level ups riding on today, I need to be prepared"

Looking to the forest he considered the last trip he'd taken there and went to check on his Palskry cuttings; he found them growing surprisingly well.

"They're a way off giving me any berries but things seem to grow fast here, hopefully it means people will be able to become self-sufficient within a couple of months after the convergence if they know about it."

Seeing how well they were doing he resolved to pick up a few more to get started while he was in that area and headed out.

He'd been thinking more and more about the allotments and the colony buildings. It was clear now that butchering animals through the beachhead was inefficient and the cost of food in the store was not reflective of its value, they would need to think carefully about how to use the resources they brought back. The others would be much weaker than him and stay that way for a long time, if he remained the only viable hunter they wouldn't be able to be so wasteful when there were more mouths to feed.

"I'll buy some allotments first and use these cuttings, we can live off berries for a while if we have to but I think Tom will have some good ideas about this"

Tom had said he'd research primitive societies and told him at length about the basic roles in a tribal village, he'd be a safe pair of hands.

As Daniel got closer to the forest edge he found himself much less afraid of the goblins than he had been, the things he'd survived made them seem much pettier in his mind and, although he was cautious, he was not too worried about entering the tree line.

"If they hold sway here then at least it must mean nothing bigger and scarier is waiting for me"

As he took some cuttings from a bush he heard the scuffling sound he remembered, a moment later another giant rat burst from the neighbouring bush and had barely started its screech of anger when it was pierced by a lazy stab from Daniels spear.

"I thought they were quicker? Thank you agility!"

He wondered idly how he would look to other people moving with this speed and power.

"70% faster than the average human, I could get an Olympic medal when I head back"

Absorbing the rat into his storage space he moved on, the trees were much thicker here than in the boar forest and brambles and bushes crowded between them. He remembered the goblins hiding in them previously and oriented himself, always listening for their hidden whistles.

Using his map he angled himself to be in line with the honey marker and pressed forward, he found tracks as he moved and saw signs of life, he recognised deer tracks, wolf prints, some signs of goblins too. He was surprised when he saw his first squirrel, he looked at it expecting it to grow a stinger or breath fire at him or something but it seemed perfectly ordinary from this distance. As it scuttled away into the tree he considered hunting it for the fur but couldn't be bothered, besides, he didn't much want to punish the thing for being so ordinary, at this point it was a relief to see.

When he heard the first whistle he froze, it was distant and so were the responses, he didn't know what they'd found but it clearly wasn't him, he continued and could tell the whistles were coming from further and further away as he walked, they sounded to true north while he continued heading north east with only 500m to go.

As he got closer he realised how close he was getting to the eastern edge of the forest, he knew it was close to where the forest wrapped around the first mountain but he hadn't been able to tell by the map how close it was.

Remembering the Dwarven cave he began to worry what kind of honey this actually was; as he began to resign himself to the idea of fighting some kind of cave bee with tentacles and teeth he heard a buzzing close by.

A perfectly ordinary bee was floating along beside him and there was another ahead; at 50 metres the mountain side was towering above him, there were no gentle introductory foothills here, just a clear rock face with spiny bushes and ferns clinging to every available space.

Almost every available space.

"Of course"

About 60 metres above the ground flat sprawling beehives clung against the rock, thick amber honey could be seen seeping out of them staining the cliff wall below. As he arrived below them he could see the swarms of bees and hear the constant drone of them leaving and returning.

"I'm pretty sure I could take that fall with my health pool and endurance but I'd rather not find out, is there another way?"

Exploring around him he found no way up but did collect some more dry grass and tinder. He'd seen a similar scene on a nature documentary before and knew some people made their living by gathering honey from the same situation.

"I don't think they had much better equipment but I'm still not exactly excited for this"

He'd brought a stone pickaxe in his storage space just in case but wasn't sure it would work for this, still, his stats should make it workable, after tying a rope around himself, the pick axe and his iron spear he started up the sheer cliff face. After a couple of metres he tried the pick, it more chipped the wall than stuck into it but he soon found the areas that were susceptible and continued up. His iron spear was better suited for sticking into the rock but less wieldy so he had to switch between the two as he climbed.

As ridiculous as his progress would have looked from below it was still definite and constant progress and before long he was within 5 metres of the hives.

There was a slight ledge here and he used it as the opportunity to prepare what he had planned to be doing on ground level originally.

His large copper plate was wedged in to the rock in line with the hive above, he then built a tinder heavy fire on it and used his flame to light it, as the smoke billowed up he continued to add more dry grass and leaves to make as much smoke as possible, dousing certain bits in water to make as much white smoke as he could.

As hoped the smoke continued to rise around this side of the hive and the bees became docile or flew away altogether; after another 10 minutes he loaded it up further and started his climb up, a torch appearing from his storage once he got closer. He made sure to hold the torch close to the hive and gave the hive a gentle tap with his pick before moving any closer. The drone of the bees was much quieter here than it had been and they seemed not to respond to his probing.

Making it up to the ledge the hives were built into he secured himself with his spear wedged deep into the rock and took out his first bowl and his iron wood axe.

As he gently chipped away at the hive honey oozed from the gap and before long a chunk of the outer layer fell away revealing rich golden honeycomb shining before him oozing honey. It was difficult work and he was less certain than before about surviving the fall but he managed to pry large lumps out and store them within his different containers which he returned to his inventory.

The cups and milk jug were used to gather purely the free running honey and as soon as one of these was filled to the brim he heard the mission completion announcement.

[Quest objective complete: Collect the Honey]

Once all his containers were full of honey and the soft honeycomb, including the casserole dish he'd used the colony storage to clean earlier and his new large mason jar, he looked down to figure out how best to move back to his fire ledge. The smoke was still steadily drifting up and he had plenty of time to achieve it but it would be delicate work.

While planning his route he saw a dark shape moving below, investigating the fallen pieces of hive.