The Bee Dungeon

“What about this?”

Belissar had spent the night brainstorming what he could do to improve the Tower’s defenses. It was now morning, and he was in the farmhouse along with the soldier bee that had helped him weave linen. The soldier crawled along the table towards a stick Belissar had placed on it and tried to pick it up with her mandibles. Her wings buzzed softly as she started a slow dance. Belissar let out a sigh.

“No good, huh?”

Belissar’s first idea was a simple one. If it was too dangerous and took too long for him to approach the Pit Traps with a torch, then why not let the soldier bees carry the torch instead? They could fly with it overhead and drop it into the pit from above, even if there was another shade around to interfere. It was low risk and, well, even if Belissar didn’t want to accept it, the bees were willing to fly into danger if they had to.

He was running into some issues, however. Soldier bees may have been gigantic for bees, but they were still fairly small in the grand scheme of things, so a full-sized torch was out of the question. What was worse was the lack of grasping appendages. Their legs were designed mainly for walking, so they were limited to their mandibles. That meant the torch had to be thin enough to be held within the soldier bee’s jaws, as well as light enough to be carried without excessive imbalance during flight.

But on the flip side, the torch couldn’t be too small, either. The smaller the torch, the longer it would take to start a fire in the Pit Traps. A flame that was too small might even be extinguished as it fell from the sky or when it landed. Likewise, a small torch wouldn’t last very long and so would have to be used quickly after being lit. That could lead to a situation like before, when Belissar couldn’t get the torch to the pit before the shades escaped. And finally, if the torch was too small the bee itself could get burned by it, which would prevent its use entirely.

So, Belissar and the soldier bee were experimenting with different stick sizes to find the right balance, but they hadn’t found a suitable one just yet.

It was then that Belissar was interrupted by another challenger message. He turned his Tower sight to the entrance and found the bear people had returned. This time, the old woman and her group had stayed home, and it was just the big guy and his warriors. His name was Metsaitti, or something, if Belissar recalled correctly.

Niobee flew in front of him as he stopped.

Belissar shook his head.

“It’s just the bear people again, but I’m going to keep an eye on them for a bit. You girls can take a break for now, too.”

“Ok!”

Niobee zoomed out the window. The soldier bee gave a salute and followed after her. Belissar figured he probably didn’t need to watch the bear people but, well, he still wasn’t used to them, so wanted to observe a bit more closely.

The group acted the same as before and began sweeping through the meadow. As earlier, remnants appeared every now and again and were handled by the group, while they kept a sharp lookout for the Pit Traps.

Something changed, however, when they came across a certain flower. The bear folk all froze in place. The spearman nudged the spearwoman with his elbow.

“Hey, are my eyes tricking me, or is that a mana flower?”

She slowly nodded.

“For once, they’re not.”

The spearman began to grin and step forward. But Metsaitti held out his hand and blocked the spearman from going any further. The young man frowned.

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“What gives, Metsaitti? I was going to share credit, you know!”

Metsaitti shook his head and then pointed at the flower.

“Look more closely and tell me what you see.”

The spearman raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

“I’m guessing you mean besides the glowing and priceless flower?”

The spearwoman rolled her eyes.

“Obviously. He means the bees, you idiot.”

The mana flower in question had a small swarm of bees around it, each waiting their turn to gather from it. The spearman shrugged.

“So? They’re just bees.”

Metsaitti stepped in front and looked the young man in the eyes.

“The Sacred Den Master has been incredibly generous to us. He has allowed us to settle in his land and visit his Den all without cost, or submission. In return, he has given us one condition. Just one. Don’t hurt his bees. Do you plan to be the one to earn his fury and lose us our new home?” ṛᴀℕօBÈṧ

The young man glanced away.

“W-Well, how about we just...wave them off? As long as we don’t hurt them, right?”

Metsaitti narrowed his eyes.

“And how would you feel if someone stole your food? It’s all fine because they didn’t hurt you, right?”

The spearman threw up his hands.

“Fine! We’ll leave the priceless treasure alone for a couple of bees!”

Metsaitti nodded and patted him on the shoulder.

“Patience. This den is still young, so it’s not strange its resources are all claimed by its denizens for now. Hopefully, we’ll have many more chances to visit in the future, perhaps we’ll find a bit more then.”

And so, the group carried on. Belissar nodded with his arms crossed and told the soldier bees gathered nearby they could return to training. Belissar may have been confused regarding the bear people overall, but the one thing he was absolutely clear on was that no one was allowed to harm his bees. So, it was a good thing their leader had a good head on his shoulders. Belissar took a deep breath to calm himself down.

He then rubbed his chin as he thought over the bear man’s words. So, they expected to find stuff in his Tower? On the one hand, Belissar wondered why that would be the case? Why would he let them just take stuff from his dungeon, even if he had the resources?

On the other hand, they technically were helping out already. They were helping to purify the Hunger and earning Belissar DP in the process. And then there was the question of why the Tower had options for resources and rest zones in the first place. Perhaps...he was supposed to offer them stuff in exchange?

He wasn’t sure at all. He knew the Tower Lords didn’t exactly offer up their resources but had already decided he wasn’t going to follow their example. The bees would just tell him whatever he decided and he already knew the bear people’s opinions, so there wasn’t anyone else he could ask.

So, instead, he left the farmhouse and walked towards the Shrine of Bees at the end of the Apiary, taking with him some extra honeycomb. He had been offering daily tribute to the Shrine, seeing as he owed the God of Bees a great deal, and had already done so today, but figured he wouldn’t come empty handed when he had a request.

He placed the honeycomb inside the chest and then looked up at the statue of the god.

“Um, sorry to ask this of you, but I could use some guidance. Am I...supposed to make stuff for those people to find? Do you have a preference on what I should do?”

The Shrine of Bees glowed with soft, warm light, but otherwise did not respond. Belissar sighed.

“So, you want me to decide?”

The Shrine continued to glow. Belissar took a deep breath, and then rose to his feet. Well, if the God of Bees said as much, he would just have to figure something out himself. But at the very least, her approval to do as he thought best at least gave him a little more confidence in his own opinion.

He figured he would test things out. He added another node of healing herbs close to the entrance and let the bees know to clear the way if the bear people approached that one. Belissar figured the bear people would appreciate some extra medicine, and a single healing herb node wasn’t too expensive. On the other hand, mana flowers were quite precious to his bees, so he wasn’t going to hand those out for free. Maybe if the bear people wanted to trade or something. But for now, he’d stick to healing herbs and see how it went.

Fortunately, the group hadn’t made it to the end of the meadow where the mana flower nodes were, so they weren’t aware that the single mana flowers here and there were only a drop in the bucket. So, hopefully they’d be content with the herbs.

Belissar then looked them over, for something caught his eye. He noticed the packs the bears wore and smacked his own forehead. He had immediately found a solution to his earlier conundrum.

If the bees were having trouble carrying something, then why not use ropes and straps? Isn’t that how people carry things?

With confirmation that the bear folk weren’t going to hurt his bees, Belissar didn’t feel the need to watch them as closely anymore, so he got to work. He got some of the processed flax from his store and started to weave a cord.

Well, at the very least, the bear people were reminding him of what people could do...

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