The Bee Dungeon

“Chief, we found something. Partiokinik figured we should ask you to check it out.”

Chief Rohsuak raised an eyebrow at the scout’s report. The clan had more hunters than just Metsaitti and the group he took into the Sacred Den. However, most of the hunters were currently guarding the camp, keeping an eye on the Underway entrance, or else scouting out their new home. Metsaitti took only the youngest bunch, those with the greatest potential for growth…and whose absence would hinder the clan least. It seems that now, those scouts had found something.

She slowly rose to her feet and nodded.

“Lead the way.”

And so she made her way through the forest, along a small trail the hunters had cut. It was slow going; the hunters had cut as little as they could to minimize signs of their presence, so she constantly had to push branches out of her way. She could feel scratches accumulating here and there.

And yet…she was all smiles. Few remained who remembered it but Chief Rohsuak was not always one for calm leadership from behind. It was rare that she had the opportunity to leave her duties and brave the unknown. Though, a dull ache in her knees reminded her of why she generally restrained herself.

Still, for all the little aches and pains she couldn’t help but beam as she came out into a small clearing where crumbling stone ruins stood. She could still feel the thrum of mana lurking within the humble walls. She dropped her smile and turned to the hunters.

“You were wise to call me, this place is magic. Please, do not approach or touch anything.”

The hunters nodded and spread out to keep watch. Chief Rohsuak slowly made her way towards the ruins, stretching her senses to keep track of the mana. Her caution mostly seemed unnecessary as she made it to the ruins’ walls without incident. The mana, while apparent, was quite faint, and she couldn’t detect any particular pattern to its flow.

She heaved a sigh, closing her eyes for a moment. Memories came to her unbidden. In the days of her youth, her clan possessed great wisdom. Masters of the mystic arts who were far more attuned to the flows of mana than she, or keepers of lore that might connect what she saw to ancient tales. She was neither. She was really only good at fighting and surviving.

And because of that, she was all they had left.

In the end, Chief Rohsuak couldn’t glean any insights into the ruins. She had seen similar ruins and similar markings to those that had nearly faded, but she had no means by which to decipher them. All she could say was that these ruins covered quite the area, and the fact that most of them still held some mana was a testament to skill in the mystic arts. Whatever people had built them once lived across the entirety of her clan’s journey and could weave extremely enduring enchantments. But in most of the ruins, including these, those enchantments had faded long past use or recognition. Those that weren’t…tended to be dangerous.

She walked back to the hunters. They looked at her expectantly, but she shook her head.

“Nothing of note, though we should still be cautious about the mana. Keep an eye on this place but do not approach. Let’s let sleeping bears lie.”

The next day Belissar made some trades with the bear people, giving up his portion of the harvest for some leather and pottery. Juosiutik apologized and asked to delay the lessons, as she wanted to see how her recipes would work with the dungeon ingredients before teaching them to him. Belissar agreed to that since it would let him focus on the beehouses.

And so, the week went on. Belissar continued working on the Flower Meadow beehouse. He was making steady progress on the frame when he realized he had a problem.

How exactly was he going to make the roof?

It was a bit of an oversight. Putting aside the question of getting the beams up to the top, he would also need to manipulate the beams to slot them into the grooves he carved, since he didn’t have nails or anything similar. He might be able to build some sort of stair case that he could drag a beam up, but then lifting that beam by himself for the slotting would be…difficult.

He was frowning and rubbing his chin when Niobee started to dance in front of him.

“King, ok?”

Belissar grunted.

“Yeah, I’m just trying to figure out how to lift this stuff up there.”

Niobee paused before dancing.

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“Bees help?”

Belissar smiled and reached out to brush her head.

“Thanks for the offer, but this might be a bit heavy for you.”

Niobee shook a bit at his touch…and then suddenly flew off. Belissar tilted his head at that.

“Was it something I said? Or should I not have touched her head why she was flying?”

It turned out it was none of those things. Belissar heard the buzzing before he saw it. The entire soldier bee army was now flying towards him, with Niobee at the lead.

“King! Bees help! If all help, can lift?”

Belissar stared with eyes wide open.

“Oh. Um, maybe?”

Belissar walked over to one of the intended roof beams. He crouched down and lifted one side of it off the ground.

“Ok, can you girls come and see if you can lift it?”

The soldiers bee army saluted as one and then swarmed over him. Countless soldier bees hovered next to the beam, hooking their hind legs under the bottom. Once assembled, they all began beating their wings as one. Belissar kept a hold on the beam to keep it from falling…but he needn’t have worried. The beam began to lift out of his hands.

“Nice, let me get the other side.”

He lifted the other end off the ground so the bees could get a grip on the entire beam and level it out. Soon, they were lifting it into the air. Belissar stared at the sight for a moment.

“That…is amazing.”

He shook his head and then walked over to the frame, where two vertical beams stood upright.

“Ok, can you girls bring it over here? We need to bring it to the top of these two.”

The bees did as asked. It took a bit of finagling to get the beam into the grooves, but the smaller bees were even more capable of small adjustments than a person would be, and so they got it in.

Belissar then realized he would still need to get up there to add the stabilizing wax. He knew he could ask the bees for help with that too but as far as he knew he would need worker bees rather than soldiers for that task. Asking the soldier bees cut down on their training, but that wasn’t too worrying since they could handle purifications no problem. Asking the worker bees, on the other hand, would cut down on honey production for the hives, so Belissar wanted to avoid that if possible.

As such, he was about to start building a staircase or a ladder when he suddenly had an idea. He got the beams up there with the help of his bees, perhaps like a dungeon master might. So…perhaps there were other ways his dungeon master abilities might help here? In fact, he realized there was a very easy way they could do so.

He switched to Tower sight and located one of his trees, selecting it. He moved the transparent image right next to the beehouse in progress and confirmed. He watched as light began to cover the tree and then move to the new location. A moment later, the tree was now standing in front of him…and right next to the newly installed beams.

He grabbed onto the branches and within moments found himself next to the beams, close enough to work his magic. He smiled to himself.

Being a dungeon master wasn’t half bad, at times.

All hostiles defeated. Purification successful.

Belissar smiled. Another day, another victory without sacrifice. Between the sprayers and the bees’ growing skill, minor+ purifications were handled with ease. The purifications were now swapping between single birds or double wolves at random but nothing else at the moment, and the bees had perfected their strategies for each case.

And, of course, a week of successful purifications meant a week of rewards.

Minor+ Purification completed! Please select a reward:

- +75 DP

- +15 Max Mana

- Small Pond (Rarity: Common, Type: Water)

Belissar’s smile widened at that. Today bore unexpected fruit. For the first time of all the options he had seen, something water related was offered. Belissar went ahead and selected the option.

It was a bit more expensive than the usual feature at five mana, but he could add one to any of his rooms. But that was not a problem considering the Tower’s current state:

Dungeon Status:

Floors: 1 (Rooms: 2/2), 2 (Rooms: 1/2)

Mana: 79/395

DP: 1695

Available Monster Types: Monster Bee Queen, Monster Bee Soldier, Monster Bee Sprayer

Available Room Types: Flower Meadow, Apiary, Orchard

Available Room Features: Pit Trap, Sticky Honey Trap, Basic Resource Plants, Beehive, Bee Memorial (Limit Reached)

Dungeon Perks: Bee Breeder, Cross-Pollination, Monster Bee Soldier Strength Boost (Minimal), Monster Bee Soldier Speed Boost (Minimal), Monster Bee Worker Speed Boost (Miminal+), Monster Bee Queen Mana Boost (Minimal+)

Core Corruption: 0%

Dungeon Master: Belissar

Dungeon Conduit: Niobee

Patron: God of Bees

Blessing: Blessing of Bees

Current Missions: Help ten challengers receive full blessings, House all bees

His mana had taken a significant dip due to all the new plant nodes. He had made several of the new plants plus two flax nodes for the bears, then one of each new plant node for both the Flower Meadow and the Apiary queens to gather from. But with daily minor+ purifications offering fifteen mana each, he had been able to recover a bit. He did spend two of the rewards on particularly enticing boosts for his bees, but he was still in a good spot with an additional sixty total mana.

Belissar went ahead and added one to each of his rooms, one by the Flower Meadow beehouse, one by the Orchard grove, and one by the Apiary farmhouse. The Flower Meadow and Orchard ponds were set up for fighting fires near the hives.

The Apiary farmhouse, on the other hand, was set up for easy access from the farmhouse. Belissar now had access to water, and he had acquired water-tight pottery from the bear people. That meant he could now practice that basic potion Juosiutik had taught him.

And…more than that…Belissar could attempt to resume his mead-making. And with all the ingredients available in the Tower, he had countless potential recipes he could try.

He grinned as wide as he could.

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