The Bee Dungeon
Chapter 39: Prosperi-Bee

The bear team had finished up for the day and were making their way back to the entrance when one of the archers suddenly stopped, staring off to the side. Metsaitti brought the rest to a stop and turned to face him.

“What’s the matter?”

The archer pointed towards one of the trees.

“Might be my imagination but...was the grass glowing by that tree before?”

Metsaitti turned and looked in the direction indicated.

“Hm?”

And then he smiled.

“I think we’re in luck. Come on, let’s check it out.”

The group made their way over and found a small patch of herbs, several of which were glowing. Metsaitti stepped forward and reached for one of the glowing ones and it practically pulled itself out of the ground and into his hand.

“Hm, looks like healing herbs. The chief will be pleased.”

The spearwoman narrowed her eyes.

“This...definitely wasn’t here when we arrived.”

Metsaitti smirked.

“No. No, it was not.”

He stood up and turned to face the group.

“Something to keep in mind about Sacred Dens. The master can see and hear everything that goes on in one. He probably heard our earlier conversation and adjusted things accordingly.”

He made eye-contact with the spearman who wanted to take the mana flower.

“He’s been very cooperative thus far, but do remember that this is his home, and his domain. We are guests, and he WILL know if we act otherwise.”

The spearman gulped and glanced around while Metsaitti turned and looked toward the sky.

“Thank you, Den Master.”

Belissar was still working on the cord and regretting sending his soldier bee helper off when the message came in.

Challenger blessed.

Gained 12 DP.

Belissar turned his attention and found the bear group back at the entrance, praying at the Shrine of Bees one by one. He received the DP messages, replaceing all of them granting one or two more DP than before. Even Metsaitti gave two instead of one! In total, Belissar received fifty DP from the blessing, plus the five from the shades they had hunted.

He checked the healing herb node he had placed and found they had gathered the glowing herbs for the day from it. He rubbed his chin.

So, he hadn’t received any messages or anything when they had gathered from it, but they did give him more DP at the Shrine than last time. Belissar thought a bit about why that was. If it were directly related to the healing herbs, then he probably would have gotten the DP when they gathered it. At the same time though, that was the only thing that Belissar could tell had changed between yesterday and today.

His sight settled on the Shrine of Bees and his eyes widened a bit. He got the DP specifically when they prayed at the Shrine and when the God of Bees blessed them in turn. So maybe it had something to do with that. Something like they had done more in the God of Bees’ Tower...or maybe they were just more grateful when praying this time?

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Belissar nodded to himself. It appeared this was worthwhile after all. More DP was always helpful, and the bees could still gather nectar from the plants before they were harvested.

And above all, this seemed to be related to the God of Bees. She was his patron who had given him a powerful blessing and both guidance and rewards via her missions. Belissar was ever grateful to her, so if this brought some benefit to her Shrine, then Belissar was all for it.

And then he heard the chime.

New mission received: Help ten challengers receive full blessings.

Belissar smiled. At this point, he was wondering if the God of Bees was reading his thoughts. Well, she was a god so that was probably true. He nodded his head.

“I’ll do my best.”

Belissar thought a bit about what that would mean. First of all, the mission said “full blessings.” That implied that whatever mana or blessing the challengers had received thus far wasn’t a full blessing. Which made sense to Belissar, as he certainly hadn’t seen any of the superhuman deeds the Tower Guard were reported to be capable of.

The unarmed challengers had offered tribute and been blessed in turn, save the one who apparently tried to offer something someone else had made. Meanwhile, the armed challengers went and fought Remnant shades, then got blessed. They had repeated this process the next day, and then the blessing increased when they gathered herbs too.

Belissar figured that they needed multiple blessings to get the full one, and that they had to do something for the God of Bees to receive that blessing. That something appeared to include offering tribute, or helping Belissar with the purification.

Belissar frowned a bit at this. The one thing that worried him was the guy who offered something that he hadn’t made himself. And mostly because...Belissar had also offered honeycomb that he hadn’t made himself. Unless...it counted because it was from his dungeon?

...in any case, the God of Bees had accepted it without complaint or smiting. Belissar figured he would at least try to include something he had done by hand whenever he could, though.

But otherwise...to help the bear people get their blessings, Belissar should help them do things. He should help the unarmed folk make more tribute, and he should give the armed ones...more to do? More to gather?

He shrugged...and then started to grin.

For he had an idea.

A wonderful, not at all selfish, idea.

He made another textile node, next to the healing herb node by the entrance.

Well, if the bear people happened to gather some flax, they could process it into linen to offer as tribute, right?

And if they happened to thus have some cloth Belissar could then trade for without having to make it himself by hand...well, Belissar wouldn’t turn them down!

Beyond that, Belissar wasn’t fully sure what else to do. He wasn’t certain about adding a poison flower node. What if the bear people thought it was medicine and ended up poisoning themselves? Well, he could always just tell them, but then he’d have to talk to them again.

And when he remembered his awkward gathering of their tribute and farewell...he didn’t particularly look forward to speaking with them again.

He could send the bees...but he wasn’t sure anyone but he could actually understand them. Even he hadn’t known what Niobee was saying prior to him becoming a dungeon master.

Besides that...there wasn’t a whole lot to do in the Tower besides walk around looking for Remnants and flowers to gather. There was the Apiary, but Belissar wasn’t comfortable letting them snoop around in there. That was where many of his bees made their home, after all. And while they could probably gather honeycomb from the hives like they could harvest the resource plants...Belissar didn’t like the idea of them reaching into his bees’ homes.

Ultimately, he decided honeycomb would be something they would have to trade for.

So, in the end, the only answer was the same thing Belissar had already set out to do. He needed to expand and grow and gain more options. So, he needed to keep performing purifications, growing his mana, and gathering DP.

He still had some time before the purification cooldown was ready, so he could continue work on his cord for the torches. He could also review his defenses some more. Watching the bear folk walk around had given Belissar another thought, after all.

Which was that putting Sticky Honey Traps only at the bottom of Pit Traps may not be ideal.

His rationale was to use them to help with the fire pit strategy. But he realized a problem with that as he watched the bear people avoid the Pit Traps. If an invader managed not to fall into any of the Pit Traps, then the Sticky Honey Traps didn’t do anything either. This had borne out in the minor+ purification as well, when only the shade that fell into the pit got hit with the mad honey.

So, it might make sense for Belissar to place some honey traps beyond those at the bottom of the pits.

The only downside would be it may take more honey from the Apiary to support those traps, especially if he wanted to use mad honey. Now that he was aware the bees were carrying honey to them, he noticed that a few of the Apiary hives were producing less honey than normal. Well, they were still producing far more than he could consume, but it did mean he should pay attention to how many honey traps he made.

In the end, he decided that rather than making some new traps, he would move some of them out from pits that were further off the beaten path, the ones less likely to catch a shade in the first place. His bees also needed the honey to grow their hives and to make new bee types, so he didn’t want to overburden them with the traps. The honey traps, while helpful, still were only a minor hindrance to the shades. The bees were what would finish the job.

In the end, between more bees, and more anything else, Belissar’s choice was obvious.