The Bee Dungeon

Chapter 362 - Bee-vine Gifts

Belissar gathered in the Aurora Forest with the Second of the Seventh, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, Sehfitis, Hirkolos and the Fourth of the Seventh. Sehfitis insisted on coming along when he heard the God of Light was involved, after which Belissar thought to invite Hirkolos as well. The Fourth of the Seventh tagged along...because she said she wanted to watch. They all gathered some offerings and then went together to the shrine at the forest’s entrance, where a shiny chest sparkled in the multi-colored light of the aurora overhead.

Sehfitis and Hirkolos’ eyes widened and Sehfitis fell to his knees.

“So...it’s true. The God of Light herself has blessed this Tower. This was the right place to be all along.”

Sehfitis lowered his head and began to pray. Meanwhile, Hirkolos knelt down.

“I...knew it. I knew the gods couldn’t have wanted us to burn down our own villages. Lord Starami and his son were wrong all along. God of Light...Tower Keeper Belissar...I’m so sorry. I swear I will do all that I can to atone now...”

Belissar...felt a bit bad about not bringing Sehfitis and Hirkolos along to the Aurora Forest when he first accepted the God of Light’s blessing and then set up the room, though he had been distracted with the ongoing battle at the time. He should probably apologize for that...and maybe talk to the humans about the recent events with Starami and the Conclave too. For now, though, Belissar held his tongue, not wanting to disturb the two’s prayers to the God of Light.

Instead, Belissar moved to make his own prayers, carrying with him three jars of mead. He placed one to the side for now and carried the other two to the God of Light’s chest. He opened up one of the jars to double check its contents.

Inside was golden mead that was positively glowing...because it actually did. Back when Belissar checked it under the roof of the farmhouse, the mead shone with its own inner light. It turned out the mass batch of mead using all kinds of honey Belissar had made before included shining honey...which had now become shining mead.

“Thank you for everything, God of Light. I couldn’t be more grateful for your help...and for siding with us over the Conclave.”

With that, Belissar placed the mead inside the chest. The chest immediately lit up so brightly Belissar had to shield his eyes.

Mission: Offer mead made with Light attribute honey to the God of Light completed!

Reward: One room choice.

Belissar smiled...though he kept his eyes shut since the chest was still glowing.

“Thank you, I hope you like it!”

Once the chest dimmed, Belissar prepared the second jar, this one of regular mana mead since he didn’t have more of the shining mead just yet. In any case, this one wasn’t for any particular mission, he just wanted to make a request to the God of Light and didn’t want to come empty handed when he did. Plus, she had done a lot for him lately, so he thought more thanks was warranted.

He placed the jar inside the chest and then prayed.

“Thank you for all the help lately and all the quests. If you don’t mind me making a request, could we get the guardian angel bees in one of the rewards?”

Belissar wasn’t going to ask for the guardian angel bees at first, seeing as how either the shining bees or the battlecasters might be able to replicate their abilities with time. The recent battle, though, had changed his mind.

Both the bees and the Tower Guard had demonstrated the immense value of mana barriers. The bees that had barrier-generating pixie armor had survived the stronger Tower Guard’s breath attack. Many of those without had not, or had only survived with heavy injuries. Even now, the Second of the Sixth’s hive still worked inside the miracle lighthouse, tending to the mortally wounded bees that the feature had saved. Even with the healing, many of those bees would not be available to fight for a while.

On the other hand, the Tower Guards had proven so dangerous because of their various mana protections. They could only pass through the Abyssal Trench at all because of their water dragon coating and the stronger Tower Guards could make dragon scales out of mana that deflected monster bee knight dives and silver elf arrows alike. The Tower Guard they had slain had proven nearly invincible until the monster bee assassin stung him and caused him to drop his mana protections. Even the regular Tower Guards could form barriers of mana around their shields, extending their protection and blocking mana-infused attacks. Hirkolos himself used the same technique, combining it with his new blessing from the God of Bees to act as a shield for the bee army.

The guardian angel bees could naturally do something similar, weaving light into a protective coat or into barriers. With how impactful such barriers had proven, Belissar decided he wanted the bees to have access to them sooner rather than later. Plus, the guardian angel bees might be able to start teaching the shining bees and battlecasters how to do it, speeding up their learning as well.

And truth be told, Belissar just really liked the idea of those bees. He’d have held off if there truly was no reason to get them...but there was.

The chest glowed once more. Belissar smiled and then stepped away from the shrine, motioning to the Second of the Seventh. The shining queen flew to the chest, her bees carrying honeycomb filled with her shining honey as her offering.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

It did not take long before the chest and the Second of the Seventh both began to glow as bright as the aurora overhead.

Mission: Help a bee receive a Blessing of Light completed!

Reward: One common monster choice.

Belissar chuckled to himself. The God of Light was truly generous, rewarding him just for accepting her reward of blessing one of his bees.

“A monster...has become a champion of light?”

Sehfitis...had a hard time processing everything that was happening. But Belissar needed his help for the next order of business, so he had to interrupt the man now.

“Are you ok? Should we do the next offering tomorrow?”

Sehfitis stared at him with trembling eyes but then shook his head and took a deep breath.

“No, we should not make the gods wait because of me. We of the Conclave have already made enough mistakes regarding them.”

Sehfitis then began to carve a ritual circle into the ground. Fortunately, the god they were trying to contact was known for a casual offering ritual, so nothing more was required. After all...air could be found everywhere, all the time.

So, as soon as the Sehfitis was finished, Belissar checked his last jar. A jar of mead made from breeze bee honey. It was full of bubbles that hissed and popped whenever Belissar opened the jar, as if the mead itself held bits of air within it. He had checked it when he went to pick up mead for the God of Light...and since the breeze mead was ready too, he decided to complete the God of Air’s mission as well.

In the meantime, Sehfitis closed his eyes and began to speak in a soft whisper...only for the ritual pattern to light up and unleash a gust of wind that nearly knocked him over.

“Ah...the God of Air...actually responded. She spoke very cleary...she very much wants you to offer her the mead as soon as possible. As you might have guessed...”

Belissar and Sehfitis both smiled at that, then Belissar placed the jar of mead down...

“Here you go. I hope...”

Belissar didn’t even finish before a cyclone rose out of the circle and engulfed the jar.

Mission: Offer mead made with Air attribute honey to the God of Air completed!

Reward: One Air-type room choice.

The God of Air offers a minor blessing.

A non-patron god, the God of Air, offers her blessing! The God of Air will be added to the Shrine in some rooms. Accept?

Belissar blinked as the cyclone forced him to step back, but then smiled and chuckled. He had already cleared adding the God of Air to the Tower with the God of Bees when he first got the mission, so he went ahead and accepted her blessing.

Minor Blessing of Air applied.

Effects:

- Air-related options slightly more frequent.

- Some special air-related options are unlocked and may now appear

- Air monster upgrades and evolutions are now slightly cheaper and easier to unlock

- All flying and wind-assisted beings and objects move slightly faster

As usual when receiving a blessing for the Tower, a surge of mana passed through the entire structure. Belissar found a new addition to the shrine of the gods in the Floating Isles room, a light wicker basket that spun around the God of Bees’ statue, apparently floating in the wind. Another such basket joined the shrine in the Hall of Purification as well.

But, this time, there was one more effect. As Belissar noticed the addition to the Hall of Purification’s shrine, he also couldn’t fail to notice the entire room was rumbling, causing all the Tower Guards stationed there to grab their weapons. A loud grinding noise filled the room and the statues of the gods began to move, except for the God of Bees who remained in her place over the room’s shrine and exit. The other statues cleared a new empty spot and then a new statue began to rise right out of the ground.

Now, a statue of a woman dancing in light, flowing robes joined the rest. Main ribbons trailed from her clothes, curved as if they were fluttering in a breeze, with a cloud or two surrounding the woman. Unlike the stern expression of the others, she had a grin on her face...but not a kind one. A predatory grin, like a wolf bearing its fangs.

There was a great commotion among the Tower Guards after the changes stopped and the room settled into place, with a new god now looking down upon the soldiers stationed below.

But Belissar ignored them for now. With this, most of his business was concluded for the night. He sent off the bees and the two human to go get some rest while they could. As for him, he had one last thing to check on. Since he was here in the Aurora Forest anyways, Belissar made his way over to the light dragon hatchling. He frowned, he was still a bit irritated that the dragon had rushed in on his own, but he had just hatched and had been injured as well, so Belissar decided to make sure he was ok first.

He found the dragon curled up in the forest...with monster bee knights resting around him. Belissar blinked at that, he thought the dragon didn’t like it when bees flew near him, but now he had bees crawling on top of him. He even had a communer bee on his head!

The dragon popped an eye open as Belissar approached. The dragon stood up to his full height and waited for Belissar to speak.

“Hey, are you ok? Were you hurt?”

The dragon huffed. The communer on his head sent a mana dance Belissar’s way.

“Queen mother said dragon hurt, scared after battle!”

Belissar blinked. The dragon was scared? He looked more closely at the big creature before him. He was standing above Belissar...but his neck was bent and his head was angled down. His eyes were glancing around rapidly. One of his arms scratched at the side of his neck, where the Tower Guard had grabbed him.

“Are you scared...”

The dragon growled...

“...of the Tower Guard?”

And then stopped as Belissar finished his sentence. The dragon...even whimpered slightly. Belissar’s eyes widened a bit. The dragon might seem big and imposing and aggressive to him...but it was a hatchling. In dragon terms, this was a newborn infant.

Belissar approached the dragon and reached out his hand. The dragon didn’t respond, letting Belissar place his hand on the dragon’s head. He started to rub it.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. It’s ok, they aren’t attacking now. You’re safe.”

The dragon...whined very softly, but did not pull away from Belissar’s touch. Belissar wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the scared little dragon...but for now, he just felt bad about letting a baby fly into a fight. So he did his best to sooth a dragon bigger than him...resolving to ask General Rippotis about raising dragons as soon as possible...

The God of Light stood completely still, staring at the jar she had just taken a sip from. After a long moment, she furrowed her brow.

“So...that is why so many of the gods are taking interest in the God of Bees’ dungeon master.”

The sheer devotion in the drink was...incredible. And she was just a new secondary patron for Belissar, though as a former citizen of the Conclave he did revere her greatly. She couldn’t help but imagine if Heigiosa were to make mead like he did, using honey from the hives that never ceased to pray and make offerings at the God of Light’s shrine...