Chapter 13: The Deal with the Bees

"What the-"

Da Xia stared in shock at the swarm of bees that was surrounding the flower pot that she had placed in the front yard just a few moments ago.

It was not exactly a flower pot, to be honest. She had found a broken earthen pot in the kitchen when they were cleaning the place the previous day. Not knowing what to do with a broken pot, she ended up using her creative skills to use it as a flowerpot and she planted a Purple Spirit grass in it. Who knew that it would attract the swarm of bees?

Their buzzing was making her head spin as she tried to calm herself down. She definitely was not expecting to witness such a sight so early in the morning.

It was nearly half-past eight o'clock in the morning and she was the only one in the house. When she woke up around an hour ago, both of her husbands were nowhere to be found. Not knowing what she was supposed to do, she decided to wait for them to return from wherever they had disappeared.

She was currently trying to clean up the house when she found the queen bee's family waiting for her in the courtyard.

[Master, congratulations! I just checked, around twelve or thirteen bees have two spirit circles while around thirty of them have one spirit circle. The rest are also cultivating to get spirit circles!]

The kitty cub notified her in a cheerful tone, making a frown appear on her face as she stared at the bees that were creating a loud buzz.

[Why are you congratulating me? As far as I can see, it's time for me to run for my life. These bees won't be letting me off for kidnapping their queen.]

Da Xia said to the kitty in a sorrow-filled voice as she imagined herself getting attacked by the swarm in front of her eyes. The thought sent shivers running down her spine and not in a good way.

[Master, can you stop talking nonsense? These bees are not here to attack you but rather to sign a contract with you. I'm the one who has called them over here.]

The kitty responded with a sigh at the end which emphasized exactly how bored it was from the constant stupidity of its Master.

[Wait a minute! You have called them here? and that too for signing a contract?] Da Xia repeated the kitty's words but in a questioning tone as she stared at the bees with a frown decorating her face.

[Yes, master. I've spent the entire last night negotiating with the Queen bee and we finally came to a deal. She and her family will sign a blood contract with you and will stay here to provide seventy-five percent of their honey every season and in return, you will have to help each of them increase one level of spirit circle within a year. The one who failed in completing their part of the deal will have to face judgment and compensate the other party for their loss.]

The kitty explained in its usual cheerful tone and Da Xia listened in silence as she tried to wrap her mind around the so-called deal.

[How can I possibly help them to increase their spirit circles? I can't even cultivate, how am I supposed to help others with that?] Da Xia asked the kitty as she frowned at the irony of the situation.

[Master, all you need to do is collect enough prowess points to buy the spirit-gathering elixir from the system's store. Once the bees have tasted the elixir, all of them would be able to increase one level of spirit circle within a day of cultivation.] The kitty answered her question immediately.

A small smile appeared on Da Xia's lips as she realized that the deal wasn't as hard to accomplish as she thought.

[That sounds like a good deal to me now. But I did not know that there's a store in the system and also, how many prowess points will I need to buy the tonic?] She bombarded the kitty with her questions and eagerly waited for the response.

[Hehe...! There's indeed a store in the system where you can buy things by exchanging prowess points. Maybe it slipped my mind before so I forgot to tell you about it.] The kitty answered in a sheepish tone.

For a moment, Da Xia was ready to make a firey remark but at the last moment, she changed her mind and just hummed in response and waited for the kitty to continue.

Seeing that its Master did not complain, the kitty cleared its throat before it answered the second question with chills running down its body.

[As for the prowess points - to get all the bees a spirit circle, including the Queen, you will need around 200,000 prowess points]

As soon as Da Xia heard '200,000', she felt her heart stopping for a second before it resumed beating but at a very rapid speed.

"200,000 prowess points?" she shouted out loudly as she stared at the swarm of the bees still hovering over the Purple Spirit Grass that she had planted in the flower pot.

It had been nearly five days since she came to this world and she had barely earned only ten prowess points. According to her ability, won't it take her years or maybe her entire life to collect 200,000 prowess points?

[Master, don't worry too much about the issue of the prowess points. Some tasks can help you to get 200,000 prowess points just by completing them and you have an entire year to make yourself strong enough to complete those tasks.] The kitty tried to calm down its Master who was looking too pale for her own good.

Da Xia let out a sigh as she heard the kitty's words. Looked like the deal was not really too hard to complete...!