The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 355 - Overnight Bee-cisions

Belissar decided not to dwell too deeply on the fate of the Tower Guards he had been watching.

“They...didn’t make it past the mana storm.”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter danced a salute and passed along the news. Belissar turned his attention back to the Hall of Purification and Starami’s camp just outside of his Tower. Starami returned to his tent, while no Tower Guards or monsters moved to prepare further assaults. Belissar kept watching them for another hour before the alliance leaders concluded another assault was not immediately imminent.

As such, Belissar moved quickly to make his decisions on the remaining rewards from the God of Light. He turned to the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter.

“How are you, First of the Fifth’s First Daughter? Are you tired? You’ve been working all day.”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter spun around happily.

“Ok! Ate lots of honey, so fine!”

Belissar could tell through the hivelink that she was not just saying that, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter seemed no less energetic compared to the start of the day. And now that he was paying attention, Belissar noticed that he wasn’t feeling particularly tired either. He thanked the gods again for his Tower abilities.

“Ok, let’s consider the choices then. Ah, but if any of the queens are sleeping, please let them rest for now.”

“Ok!”

Tarwantrad and Tamosmed weren’t present this time, staying on standby in their assigned positions for the battle, but Belissar could always contact them with communer bees for their input. Belissar also noticed that none of the fair folk seemed particularly tired either.

And so, Belissar looked to the last two rewards of the current batch, both room feature choices:

Please select a room feature:

- Miracle Lighthouse (Rarity: Epic, Type: Light, Recovery, Structure)

- Scrying Sphere (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Magic)

- Dancing Mirror (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Magic, Trap)

Belissar was particularly excited about the first choice on the list.

Miracle Lighthouse

Type: Light, Recovery, Structure

Mana Upkeep: 100 (90 with Blessing of Light)

Description: A mystical lighthouse that not only shows the way to safety, but pulls those in danger upon it. Whenever an ally takes a mortal wound while illuminated by the lighthouse, they have a chance to be immediately transported to the lighthouse with their condition stabilized. The lighthouse also boosts healing, especially of critical wounds, within its walls, though note that no further allies can be saved if the lighthouse is fully occupied. The lighthouse also retains its original function and helps allies within view of it retain their sense of location, particularly against magical disorienting effects.

It took all Belissar had not to select the lighthouse immediately. A feature that could save his bees from otherwise certain death? What could be better than that?

Still, he did his absolute best not to let his desire show as he asked the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter for the hive of hive’s opinion.

“Amazing, incredible! Save lots of bees!”

Belissar smiled...but the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter wasn’t done dancing.

“Firstborn wonders if works with death blow, bees about to die killed shades with stronger stings?”

Belissar paused...and then furrowed his brow. That...was a good question, and a good point. A big aspect of bee monsters Belissar had largely been ignoring was that they were strongest just before death, when they would sacrifice everything to deal the most powerful blow that they could. This lighthouse might save an individual bee from death...but if doing so prevented that bee from striking a Death Blow to a shade, the shade might go on to deal more damage overall. He might even end up losing more bees as a result!

He wanted to ask Velebee, but it seemed she had begun to rest. Belissar debated whether or not to wake her up, but the God of Bees apparently made the choice for him. Back in her hive, Velebee’s antennae glowed and she stirred once more.

“Hive-Builder, Queen of All Bees says talked with Queen of All Light, will make it so lighthouse lets bees sting before saving. Says bees take longer to heal if sting first.”

Belissar grinned.

“Thank you, Velebee! And please thank the God of Bees and God of Light for me!”

So, not only would the lighthouse not interfere with Death Blows...it could even save a bee after she dealt one! That alone was nearly enough that Belissar chose the feature on the spot. He could let the bees sting as they pleased without dying!

Well, the lighthouse description did say there was only a chance of doing so, not a guarantee, so they couldn’t abandon all caution. Additionally, the God of Bees did mention the bees would take longer to heal if they were saved from a Death Blow. How much longer, Belissar didn’t know...but it was probably a lot longer if the God of Bees felt the need to mention it.

Belissar was still mostly convinced this feature was absolutely worth it, but he did want to at least check the other two first. He could always ask the God of Light for them if he really wanted one or both of them, after all.

Scrying Sphere

Type: Light, Magic

Mana Upkeep: 20 (18 with Blessing of Light)

Description: A magical focus to bend and gather light, allowing the user to see things far and wide. The range and scope of its power depends on the skill of the user and the mana utilized. It is said that a true master can even send their sight through both space...and time.

Belissar shrugged. Well, that was neat, but with the hive of hives he could already pretty much see anything he needed to around his Tower, not to mention his Tower sight letting him see anything inside. He guessed it might be useful to see what was going on in the Conclave...though, at the moment, the hive of hives was still in contact with the bees they sent with General Rippotis.

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter also didn’t notice anything particularly noteworthy from the bees’ perspective. He asked Tarwantrad and Tamosmed just in case he was missing something.

He was. Apparently, clairvoyance was its own entire artform within general magic. It could be used as Belissar was imagining, to check on specific places or people, but it could also be used in a more...mystical manner. Like with the nexus gates, clairvoyance spells could be allowed to choose their own targets, and in doing so may end up showing the user something crucial that they didn’t know they needed to know. They could do things like ask the spell to show them their most dangerous enemy...and have it reveal that an ally was about to betray them, as an example.

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Or it could end up showing the user something they misinterpreted that led to them self-destructing, there were apparently many, many warning stories about that sort of thing. But, Tarwantrad did point out that this was a dungeon feature created with the power of the gods. Perhaps, as the Towers had made a nexus gate safe, they might help shield Belissar from the worst outcomes of clairvoyance spells. If that was the case, then it could be a powerful tool.

That would require him, though, to learn clairvoyance spells first...something he could theoretically do if the fair folk agreed to teach him. Belissar...decided to consider that a question for the future. It certainly was not a priority over the miracle lighthouse.

And that left one.

Dancing Mirror

Type: Light, Magic, Trap

Mana Upkeep: 30 (27 with Blessing of Light)

Description: A mirror that captures images and then brings them to life. Once an image is stored, the mirror can create a phantasm and send it out to fight intruders. The phantasms replicate the abilities of their subjects, but are quite fragile if struck, particularly by magic. Once the mirror creates a phantasm, it loses the stored image and must capture a new one.

That one...did have promise, when Belissar thought about it. It was a bit hard to wrap his head around what exactly this mirror did...but it sounded like it summoned things to fight? Maybe something like his spell-bees, or the nightshade summoners and their wasps?

That would be helpful...but he and the summoners could already do something like that, at least with bees and wasps. Maybe the mirrors could summon other things...but they would still just be nice to have as far as Belissar was concerned. Maybe it would be worth asking the God of Light for...but was it worth not having a miracle lighthouse for the next battle?

Belissar decided the answer was no. He checked in with the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, but the bees didn’t have any better grasp of what the mirrors did than he did. But the value of the lighthouse was apparent to both him and them, so they were ultimately in agreement.

Miracle Lighthouse now available!

Belissar smiled once again.

“Thank you, God of Light, for this, and for all the bees it’s going to save.”

Belissar proceeded to immediately place a Miracle Lighthouse in the battle Fairy Grove, where the bee army and his allies waited to confront any enemies that made it past the Abyssal Trench. A tower of pure white stone rose above the canopy of the Fairy Grove, holding a gigantic glowing crystal at its top. The crystal illuminated the forest below with soft, warm light, yellow-orange rays finding their way between the leaves to shine down on the underbrush.

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter sent out word of the new feature while Belissar informed Wardmaster Varilold. While she was surprised at the sudden change to the battlefield, she very much agreed its effects were worth any necessary adjustments and thanked him for implementing it.

After that, Belissar addressed the final choice.

Please select a room feature:

- Mirror Dome (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Magic, Trap)

- Mirror Wall (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Trap, Structure)

- Crystalspine Cactus (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Nature, Trap, Resource)

Belissar already had a favorite candidate but dutifully went through each choice in turn.

Mirror Dome

Type: Light, Magic, Trap

Mana Upkeep: 20 (18 with Blessing of Light)

Description: A partial dome of reflective surfaces surrounding an empty light crystal. The surfaces reflect and amplify light which the light crysal absorbs and then can use to perform light based attacks. Best utilized with Light spellcasters that can direct the attacks.

Well, more traps with direct attacks would be useful, but Belissar still didn’t have many, if any, Light spellcasters. He wasn’t sure if the shining bees counted yet, and the hive of the fallen didn’t know any Light spells at the moment. He guessed it would improve in the future between his bees growing, he and Tarwantrad cross-pollinating the star core flowers, and as the light dragon grew up, but all of that would take time.

The next feature could prove more immediately useful.

Mirror Wall

Type: Light, Trap, Structure

Mana Upkeep: Varies based on size of wall

Description: An enchantment that covers a wall in a reflective surface. This surface can reflect attacks back at anything that tries to destroy it. It works best on magical attacks, but even physical attackers may find themselves countered by their reflections. Note that the wall can still take damage in this process and that the strength of the reflections is limited by the strength and material of the wall itself.

May be applied to existing walls and structures.

This one was more straightforward and easier to envision. Belissar could just apply it to barricades or maybe beehouses to help protect them from harm. That said, the enchantment didn’t directly help the bees that much, seeing as they hadn’t made much use of walls in previous battles. The next feature, on the other hand...

Crystalspine Cactus

Type: Light, Nature, Trap, Resource

Mana upkeep: 50 (45 with Blessing of Light)

Description: A mana cactus adapted to environments of constant, excess light. They incorporate mana-conductive minerals into their spines, forming them into crystalline structures. These spines accumulate, concentrate, and emit excess mana and light as piercing beams that both address the excess while also protecting the cactus from herbivores. The rate of this phenomenon depends on the amount and intensity of light in the environment.

If a forager can get past the spines, crystalspine fruit is an excellent source of Light mana, while the fruit’s skin, along with the cactus’ spines and husks can be processed into light and mana-conductive materials. The spines may burst into light and fragments if harvested while full of mana.

Any feature that could provide flowers for his bees was immediately a strong contender and the crystalspine cactus was no exception. The description mentioned fruits and the preview showed flowers on the plant that looked more like some sort of spiky crystal to Belissar. Not to mention, it also had a means of directly attacking the enemy, making it easily superior to the mirror domes in Belissar’s opinion.

The only caveat was that Tarwantrad mentioned cacti generally grew in deserts and had a hard time in forests, so this one might have been better suited for the desert room. She did remind Belissar, though, that the Circle said they would help him develop a mirage desert if he wanted...and if all else fails, he had the universal floriculture pots. If the cacti counted as a flowering plant, but they did have flowers so Belissar didn’t see why they wouldn’t.

With that in mind, Belissar and his council made the choice fairly quickly.

Crystalspine Cactus now available!

And with that, Belissar had received all of his first round of rewards from the God of Light, with plenty more coming from all the missions he had received. Now all he had to do was defeat the Tower Lord besieging his Tower, so that his bees would be free to explore the new flowers...

***

Starami spent much of the night pouring through the Tome of Subjugations, the record of every foe the Conclave had encountered, searching for various explanations for what he had seen. Unfortunately, he was caught between a rock and a hard place. Traditional Grand Subjugation doctrine would recommend a siege when facing an opponent so heavily entrenched with room-based defenses, a purification could simply corrupt the problem room or else force the rogue to face him in open battle. But that meant hanging back and giving the fey all the time they needed to work their magic, not to mention challenging a necromancer to a war of attrition. The fey had truly put him in a tricky spot.

And it was that thought that made Starami realize his mistake. He had been trying to defeat the fey in a battle of wits. He had been trying to outsmart them, to see through all of their tricks and traps and to decipher their intentions. He had been playing it safe, trying to minimize his losses and gain a victory with minimal expenditure, as if he were competing with rival Tower Lords for position within the Conclave. All that had allowed the fey to wrap him up in their schemes and have him questioning his every move.

And so, as the sun began to rise, Starami came up with a new plan. He stood before a small handful of Tower Guard, a group of five.

“Move out. Destroy everything in your path.”

The Tower Guards grinned and then marched into the Tower. The oldest of his Tower Guards, those with the greatest blessings and the most experience, those who could be called dragons in human form.

Starami was not a fey. He was a Tower Lord of Dragons, a man who commanded the most powerful individual creatures in the world, blessed by the god who represented pure, domineering power. It was time he acted like the dragon he was.

He would not bother trying to see through the fey’s tricks or figure out an efficient way to deal with them. He would crush them with raw, overwhelming power. It was time to stop holding back, it was time to stop cowering and calling it wisdom. It was time to meet the challenge head on and crush it under heel.

It was time to show the fey just who they were dealing with.