The Bee Dungeon
Chapter 19: Gotta Bee Diligent!

After gathering the flowers, Belissar returned to his woodworking. He did think about searching the forest for more flowers, or maybe trying to absorb other plants like bushes and trees, but ultimately decided to prioritize the beehouse construction. He figured the bees would let him know if they found a flower they really liked and moving bushes, much less trees, into the Tower seemed...difficult. Besides, this was a mission tasked to him by the God of Bees herself, so he figured he should focus on it if there were no other pressing matters.

He had cut some planks and set them out to dry. Now, all he had to do was wait six months to a year.

Belissar paused, and then sighed. At home they had stocks of wood to work with, but since he was starting from scratch there wasn’t much he could do but wait if he wanted quality wood to work with. Well, in his village people couldn’t always wait for the best of things, so he also knew how to build with freshly cut wood, so he didn’t have to wait for fully dried planks. But...this was a mission from a god! How could he accept any cut corners?!

Well...he was already going to cut some corners, since all he had was an axe, a saw, and his knife. He didn’t have all the tools a true woodworker might use at the moment, after all, so some of the details and finish might be a bit rough by necessity. And, well, the God of Bees had accepted his mess of a prayer for the “Pray at the Shrine” mission. In fact...he could argue the God of Bees had accepted cut corners by blessing some peasant beekeeper instead of a chosen Tower Lord.

Belissar thought for a moment before he stood up and went to grab his axe and saw. Yeah, he had no idea what quality of a job was acceptable for this mission...but there was no sense sitting around for six months doing nothing. He figured he’d make one now with green wood, and if it wasn’t acceptable then he’d wait for fully dried planks. Worst came to worst, he’d have an extra beehouse, which might be a bit rough around the edges but would still be a roof over his bees’ heads.

Belissar then tilted his head as he wondered if it would rain in his Tower. There was a sky with a sun, there was also night and day, so maybe? And what about seasons, was winter coming?

Flower Meadow Upgrades

- Randomized Weather (Cost: 100 DP)

- Weather Control (Cost: 1000 DP)

Belissar nodded. Of course, there were upgrades for those he didn’t know about. At this point, it just made sense. Well, at least he knew something he could use the DP on now.

DP: 2

He pursed his lip. Yes. The DP he was currently getting at a rate of one per day. Well, he could randomize the weather before the planks finished drying, at least? And it’d only take over a year and a half to get seasons! Less than three years if he wanted to control the weather, apparently!

He decided he was fine with things as they were. Who wouldn’t want a nice and sunny Flower Meadow with a pleasant breeze? Why would he want a winter anyways? His bees would have to go and hibernate...maybe, if monster bees still had to do that.

...in any case, Belissar decided he would save the DP for something else. After all, who knew what else he might need it for?

DP Shop

- Extra Room Feature Choice (Cost: 1000 DP)

- Extra Monster Choice (Cost: 3000 DP)

- Extra Room Choice (Cost: 3000 DP)

- Extra Perk Choice (Cost: 10000 DP)

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- Additional Room Slot (Cost: 5000 DP)

- Boost Maximum Mana (Cost: 5000 DP)

...now Belissar did, apparently. And apparently 100 DP was really cheap? He had a feeling the one DP per day may not be what other Tower Lords relied on. But well, he’d worry about that when he figured out how to actually get any more. Ongoing purification...didn’t sound like something he was ready for if it was anything like the initial purification. Remnants and challengers were still terms he didn’t know about. And at the discretion of his patron...meant that he should keep focusing on the mission assigned to him by the God of Bees.

Remnant: A portion of corruption condensed into corporeal form. Allows challengers to assist in ongoing purification.

Challenger: A being independent from the dungeon with enough intelligence to acknowledge the patron god.

...and now Belissar technically knew what those terms meant. Not that the descriptions made him any less confused. Condensed corruption so that challengers could assist with purification? Um, ok? And beings with enough intelligence to acknowledge the patron god...did that mean people? Then why didn’t it just say that? Maybe that’s supposed to be the Tower Guard specifically? After all, peasants weren’t supposed to be capable of entering a Tower without defiling it so there should be some sort of distinguishing feature...right?

And then there was Belissar, who had not only entered a Tower but taken command of it without being smote by the gods. He...wasn’t sure if his Tower was defiled or not but it seemed to still work fine as far as he could tell. If a god was blessing it than surely it should be fine?

In any case, the information still didn’t really answer Belissar’s original question of how to get more DP, so he put it aside as he originally intended and moved on to his task. He left the Tower and headed towards the tree line, figuring that he may as well take some wood from outside so that his bees could use all his trees for their hives. And who knows, maybe the Tower would absorb the tree?

So, he went to work and began chopping at the tree...

Absorb Pinecone? Samples: 0/100

It turned out the Tower didn’t absorb the wood itself, but could absorb the pinecones from the tree he cut. Maybe because he only brought part of the tree instead of the whole thing? Well, it was nice to know he could just carry pinecones instead. Even uprooting an entire tree intact was beyond Belissar, much less carrying it on his own.

It would, however, take a lot of samples to produce any results. Belissar decided he’d absorb them here and there but wouldn’t go out of his way for the moment. The Flower Field and Apiary couldn’t have that many trees to begin with, so switching up the tree types wasn’t all that impactful. Maybe if the bees found one with flowers they liked he’d work at it a bit more diligently.

Belissar instead busied himself by carrying pieces of wood across the Flower Field and to the Apiary, almost dumping them on the ground as he arrived by the farmhouse. He rubbed his aching arms as he looked at the pile of wood on the ground...and thought about the larger pile of wood still out in the forest. He grimaced.

For a brief moment, he wondered what might have been if he had chosen a human-sized defending monster. But he quickly banished those thoughts. He was doing this for the bees, and they deserved his best. He certainly wouldn’t fault them for being unable to help with his current task.

So, he told himself as he dragged his feet back out towards the Flower Meadow and the exit to the Tower.

It took a couple more trips to get all the wood inside, after which Belissar stumbled into the farmhouse and collapsed on the bed, trying to ignore his burning muscles...

Belissar woke up the next morning and stretched his arms. He smiled as once again, he had made a full recovery. Sometimes, this Tower business wasn’t half bad. He had a quick breakfast of honeycomb before stepping outside.

He blinked at the sight before him.

One of the monster bee queens hovered in the air before him...only she had somehow grown significantly larger, now the size of a hand and a half. And hovering in the air behind her was half a dozen monster bee soldiers, hand-sized bees with solid-looking chitin and stingers like small daggers. Once Belissar stepped outside, the queen made a motion, and then the soldier bees performed a salute dance, all moving in sync. The queen bee joined them in the motion, and then they all hovered motionless before Belissar.

“King!”

Niobee flew over and greeted him as well.

“Niobee, this is...the soldier bees?”

The little bee flew around happily.

“Yes! Hive now has soldiers! Will fight for King next time!”

Belissar furrowed his brow at that but looked over the monster bee soldiers. He imagined the shade from the Hunger attacking again...only this time, it wasn’t tiny bees flying to their deaths. This time, he imagined the bees before him, their large stingers plunging into the shade’s side. He imagined a swarm of bees like that meeting the monster as it arrived.

The shade was still terrifying to Belissar, and he couldn’t help but think of the fallen hives when he thought of it. But with the bees before him now...it didn’t seem so unthinkable that they could face such a monster directly.

He smiled.

“Well done. I think we’ll be much better prepared if we have to fight again.”

The queen bee buzzed and made another salute, the soldier bees following suit.