Chapter 441 - Mischievously Named Bee-wards

Belissar made some plans to return to Lord Aratodel’s dungeon with a beehouse and some monster bee gardeners, then took his leave. Tarwantrad…had not been released by then, but the bees knew the way home so Belissar was able to return without issue.

Belissar was thus left to consider a challenge for the God of Flowers on his own, if only because Finnakynne was working with the bumblebees and Belissar didn’t want to disturb them. For the moment, he would plan a challenge more similar to Tarwantrad’s than Lord Aratodel’s, if only because he did not have hedge mazes or any knowledge of Flower magic just yet. Though, he wouldn’t be able to make his flower rooms as dangerous as Tarwantrad’s yet, both because he didn’t have as many dangerous plants and also because he still didn’t want challengers to fight and hurt his own monsters. Perhaps one day the gardeners he had visiting Tarwantrad’s dungeon could plant some monster flowers to fulfill that role, but he’d have to design the challenge without them in the short term.

The idea he settled on was to make a room with resource flower nodes that would be protected via traps, using as many trap plants as he had available. Challengers would be rewarded for braving the dangerous flowers with opportunities to forage rare and valuable ones. Additionally, Belissar would station some bees by the shrine to the room along with some flower pots. If the challengers didn’t want to keep the flowers themselves, they could try to offer them to the bees, who would exchange them for honey if they liked the flowers. That would also encourage the challengers to keep the flowers whole and in good condition so that the bees could still forage from them.

Belissar considered getting started right away, but he also wanted to redesign his dungeon in general now that he knew he could make entire rooms inaccessible to the Hunger. That, however, would have to wait for the evening council so that he could give everyone forewarning. He hoped the God of Flowers wouldn’t mind the short delay…

The God of Flowers would like to offer you a mission. Accept?

Belissar blinked but then smiled. He did want to do something for the God of Flowers, so a direct mission was even better. He quickly checked in with Velebee and got the God of Bees’ approval, then accepted the mission.

New mission received: Gift a jar of mead and a tray of honey to the Oracle of Flowers, on behalf of the God of Flowers.

Belissar went silent. That…was probably a good idea and might just help Tarwantrad, so he had no problem with it. He set about gathering the requested gifts immediately…until he realized he had no idea where the Oracle of Flowers currently was or where she lived. So, instead, he asked the wardens to send word to her on his behalf, inviting her to his Tower or requesting a place to meet if she’d prefer that.

Before long, his defenders completed the evening purification and the celebration dinner came to a close. Belissar gathered his council once more and brought up his latest completed mission.

Mission: Spawn, raise, or evolve a cuckoo-type Bee monster of rarity Rare or greater completed!

Reward: One rare Bee-type perk choice

Please select a perk:

- Bee-fender’s Shield (Rarity: Rare)

- Infiltrator’s Work Drive (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Disorienting Buzzing (Rarity: Rare)

Belissar couldn’t help but smile at the name of the first perk…and his smile only grew as he read its description.

Bee-fender’s Shield

- Non-bee monsters, sworn defenders, and challengers and certain hybrid bee monsters gain a small boost to vitality, defense, and resistance while fighting alongside. This boost increases to medium while blocking attacks from hitting bees.

- Non-bee monsters, sworn defenders, and challengers and certain hybrid bee monsters with defensive skills or spells may apply these spells to nearby bees at a reduced mana cost, even if said abilities are normally only self-targeted. Non-bee monsters, sworn defenders, and challengers and certain hybrid bee monsters will gain an additional medium boost to defense and resistance while doing so.

Belissar was pleased. Belissar was very, very pleased. This was a perk designed specifically to protect his bees and to reward everyone else for protecting them too. Hirkolos, who already had the Blessing of the Bee-fender, would benefit immensely from the perk, as would Finnakynne whenever she was protecting the bumbles. And not only them…this perk would help the karnuq, the light dragon, the fair folk…everyone and everything in his Tower save the bees themselves would become tougher and better shields for the bees.

The bees seemed to agree, judging by how they were all zipping around in a happy dance, led by the Firstborn…

“Amazing, incredible! Will help fight with nice one and dragon!”

The bumblebees were all zipping around Finnakynne. Frelis started to dance…before turning and looking in direction her flower was buried and calming down. The other gardeners, though, picked up for her.

“Amazing, incredible! Will help fight with flowers!”

Belissar was tempted to take the perk then and there, but he knew it would be silly to do so without checking the others, so he moved on to the next.

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Infiltrator’s Work Drive

- Hives infiltrated by cuckoo bees gain a small boost to productivity. This boost further increases for all bees enthralled by a cuckoo bee queen variant.

- Cuckoo bees may exhort nearby workers to work harder, gaining an additional small boost to productivity at the cost of worker exhaustion.

The hive of hives immediately calmed down. The First of the Fifth though, turned to look at the two chimeric cuckoo queens.

“Will help chimeric queens’ hives?”

First Chimeric Queen…turned to look at him instead.

“Whatever Great Essence-Weaver plans.”

Belissar tried to put on a smile, though it ended up strained despite his best efforts. A boost to productivity was nice…the parts about enthralling and worker exhaustion less so. Still, even though she was only born yesterday, First Chimeric Queen seemed to be trying her best to follow his commands and adapt to the hive of hives, so Belissar didn’t want to make her feel bad by disparaging a perk designed for her species.

“It could be helpful if the worker exhaustion could be managed. We’ll have to consider along with the other perks, though, and decide which is most helpful for the Tower as a whole.”

The entire hive of hives danced a salute, First Chimeric Queen included. Belissar did start to feel a bit better about the perk, now that he considered it. If the hive of hives could prevent the workers from getting too exhausted, then the productivity boost might be worth it. It might even become a way for the cuckoo bees to help with honey production, something they apparently weren’t supposed to be capable of. Belissar decided that, at the very least, he would give the perk due consideration…though his heart still whispered that Bee-fender’s Shield was better.

There was one more perk though, so Belissar continued.

Disorienting Buzzing

- Bee-type monsters may imbue their buzzing with mana, causing it to become disorienting and disturbing to hostile creatures. Affected targets will have trouble focusing and maintaining balance. Affected targets may fail to cast spells or employ skills successfully.

- Buzzing attacks of all types and Sound-type attacks utilized by Bee-type monsters or via Bee-type skills and magic gain a small boost to effectiveness and will apply the disorientation in addition to their own effects.

For a brief moment, Belissar regretted not taking the sky-splitter bees, as this perk seemed perfect for them. As it was, he didn’t have any Sound-type bees at the moment and his bees hadn’t used any ‘buzzing’ attacks that he could recall. But on the other hand, he wouldn’t have this perk choice had he skipped over the chimeric cuckoo bees, so he put the what-if’s out of his mind and tried to consider what this perk would do for his Tower as it was.

Disorienting enemies was always nice, it was largely what the maddening honey traps did. With this perk, any enemy near his bees would suffer a similar effect, and Belissar was particularly interested in making enemy spells and skills fail. How many bees would have been saved if even one of Starami’s Tower Guards had failed a fire breath?

Plus, now that his bees knew about sky-splitters and Sound-type bees, he had no doubt one of them would pursue those kinds of evolutions in the future. This perk would make them all the better, should they succeed.

But that was for the future. Would the perk help the Tower sufficiently before then, especially compared to the other two?

As usual, Belissar first turned it over to the bees.

“What do you all think?”

The First of the Fifth danced first.

“More honey good? If workers work harder for chimeric cuckoo queens, then don’t need give as many?”

The Second of the Sixth interrupted with a dance of her own.

“But exhausts workers, so would have to watch. Workers might need rest more or will get hurt, make King sad.”

All the bees save the two chimeric cuckoo queens buzzed at that…and those two quickly starting buzzing just to fit in. The First of the Fifth danced no longer, letting the issue settle. Instead, the Firstborn started a dance of her own.

“Bee-fender’s Shield helps karnuq, dragon, King’s allies. Helps them whenever fight by hive of hives, helps them protect hive of hives. Makes all things in King’s realm join hive of hives, fight better.”

The queens started to join along in the Firstborn’s dance. First Bumblebee Queen then crashed through the meeting, other bees having to fly out of the way of the bee that was now taller than Belissar! She had one of her soldiers held gently between her mandibles…and on that soldier’s back was a bewildered Finnakynne. First Bumblebee Queen then began rapidly tapping Finnakynne with her antennae, then began pointing towards Chief Rohsuak, First Spiderkin Queen, and Hirkolos and Sehfitis. The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter decided to interpret her movements into a dance.

“First Bumblebee Queen saying…all King-things become like bumble helper?”

The First Daughter seemed to have interpreted correctly, given that First Bumblebee Queen immediately began zipping around the entire meeting, all while still holding Bumbly and Finnakynne in her mandibles. A wave of agreement dances passed through the hive of hives.

“All bumble helpers, all nice ones…amazing, incredible!”

Belissar smiled as it was clear the hive of hives had made a decision…but Belissar did not confirm the choice just yet. This was, after all, a perk that would not affect the bees themselves. Belissar therefore turned his attention to the other denizens of his Tower, Chief Rohsuak, Hirkolos, Sehfitis, and First Spiderkin Queen.

“What do you all think? It sounds like it’ll help you…but only if you put yourself in danger on behalf of the bees.”

Hirkolos immediately saluted.

“It would be my honor, Tower Keeper!”

Belissar smiled again and then turned his attention to Chief Rohsuak…only to find First Spiderkin Queen dancing and waving her hands around in front of him.

“Me! Me! I want fight with hive of hives!”

Belissar was about to refuse as usual, but before he could Chief Rohsuak cleared her throat.

“Actually, Tower Keeper, I’ve been meaning to speak with you about that. The spiderkin children having been training hard, I think they’re about ready for a first hunt. Perhaps a minor purification or some remnants, especially if they’re accompanied by myself and your bees?”

Belissar blinked and glanced over at the chief. She just gave him a smile and a nod, so he turned his attention back to the First Spiderkin Queen. She was staring up at him with hopeful eyes…and with Chief Rohsuak’s approval, Belissar found himself lacking reasons to refuse.

“Just one of the weak ones, ok?”

First Spiderkin Queen grinned and threw her hands up in the air.

“YES! Will fight with karnuq queen and hive of hives! Amazing, incredible!”

Belissar couldn’t help a smile. He glanced up at Chief Rohsuak.

“Well, if they’re going to fight, then we should help keep them safe, right?”

Chief Rohsuak nodded. With all his council in agreement, Belissar made his choice.

Bee-fender’s Shield selected.

Up in the God of Bees’ realm, the God of Mischief was still hanging around. The God of Bees danced with her antennae twitching.

“So, should put ‘bee’ in choice names like bee-fender? Should make bee puns?”

The God of Mischief nodded with a huge grin on his face.

“Yes! Absolutely! You should even go back and rename all the ones that haven’t been selected yet. Beely will love it, trust me!”

The God of Bees began a happy dance. After all, Belissar had indeed smiled when he saw ‘Bee-fender.’

“Ok! If best dungeon master likes, then will do!”

The God of Mischief began cackling as the God of Bees danced. The God of Bees was too busy with her happy dance to notice.