Chapter 381: Blessed Bee the Keeper |
Belissar arrived at the First Bumblebee Queen’s nest, only for a massive wave of chitin and fuzz to burst from the entrance.
“Beely! Look, look!”
Finnakynne laughed as she rode on top of the First Bumblebee Queen’s head. The First Bumblebee Queen zipped around Belissar several times. She appeared to be flying slower, yet with her large body she managed the loops even faster than normal, before diving straight towards Belissar. Belissar laughed as the big bumblebee queen nearly knocked him off his feet, petting her hairs alongside Finnakynne.
“This is amazing, you’re amazing.”
The First Bumblebee Queen felt like a bright light of pure happiness within the hive link. Belissar and Finnakynne both glanced at each other, grinned, and started laughing as they pet the giant bumblebee once more.
“So, anything she needs? Anything I can do to help?”
Finnakynne giggled and shook her head, then pointed up to the sky behind Belissar.
“Nope! That’s not all you need to see, Beely!”
Belissar turned in the direction Finnakynne was pointing and found a light hovering over the flowers. The divine bumbledryad queen was leisurely flying over the flowers with two glowing pollen packs filling the pollen baskets of her hind legs. Glowing pollen drifted from her legs like golden, green, and lavender stars. When a piece of the glowing pollen landed on one of the giant flowers in the room, an aura of light briefly surrounded it and then it grew a bit right before Belissar’s eyes.
Finnakynne waved her hands around.
“A bee forest with giant flowers! It’s going to be amazing, Beely!”
Belissar smiled and whole-heartedly agreed.
Next, Belissar made his way over to Velebee’s hive. The beehouse was still glowing, in fact, its glow had only grown brighter. Belissar quickly realized why, the worker bees flying in and out of the hive had all started to glow like the sacred honeybee queen herself.
And speaking of the queen, Velebee flew out of the hive as he approached. Belissar tilted his head, there was something different in the way Velebee flew. Her wings still beat as usual but in a more steady and regular pattern, carrying her in an unusually straight line. She moved swiftly yet effortlessly, slowly yet quickly, as if she was gliding through the air. As before, her eyes seemed to carry greater depths as he peered into them, as if they could see worlds that he could not.
“Hive-Builder Belissar, happy to see!”
Belissar blinked. If he wasn’t mistaken…that was the very first time any of his bees used his name. Not even Niobee did. He was so surprised at hearing her say his name that it took him a second to realize he was hearing Velebee. She was dancing around like normal, but he could also hear her voice right in his ears, distinct from the Tower’s usual translations or the hivelink connection. Velebee could now talk, apparently.
But he shook off both surprises and smiled. The important part was that one of his bees was happy.
“Happy to see you too, Velebee. Looks like the evolution went well?”
Velebee began zipping around.
“Did! Workers didn’t kill! Got stronger instead! Amazing, incredible!”
Belissar’s smile grew. The strange feeling he had disappeared as he confirmed Velebee was still the same bee from before.
“Can talk more with Queen of All Bees, she says Belissar best dungeon master!”
Belissar’s chest felt warm. He could even imagine a giant bee like the God of Bees’ statues zipping around in a happy dance.
“And she’s the best patron, I couldn’t be happier she’s given me her blessing.”
Velebee replied that the God of Bees repeated her dance in response. Belissar considered continuing the back and forth praise, but he did have a question to ask.
“Could I ask about your evolution? I don’t see it in the Tower monster options and the Tower’s description is a little shorter than usual.”
Velebee’s antennae lit up and she danced around before replying.
“Queen of All Bees says sacred bees not monster bees, not from dungeon! Says evolved because was oracle, so had Queen of All Bees’ power! Also says should stay with Hive-Builder Belissar!”
Belissar nodded right away.
“Of course, I’ll always take care of you, Velebee.”
Velebee zipped around in a happy dance.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Hive-Builder Belissar best hive builder!”
Once Belissar finished checking up on Velebee, he turned his attention to the other messages he had received. He started with the new perk:
Keeper of the Sacred Bees
- So long as sacred bees dwell within the dungeon, all your bees shall be empowered, in accordance with the reverence shown the God of Bees.
- So long as sacred bees fly through the fields, pollen shall fly and honey shall flow, in accordance with the reverence shown the God of Bees.
- So long as sacred bees remain happy and safe, no follower of Bees shall lift their stinger against you.
- If the sacred bees are happy, they may bestow blessings on those who earn their favor.
This perk was…strange. At the very least, it was worded differently than Belissar was used to. But from what it sounded like…if he took care of Velebee and honored the God of Bees, she’d help the rest of his bees? If so, then the perk was great, because he was going to do those things regardless.
Lastly…apparently Velebee evolving had strengthened the Blessing of Bees? Belissar brought it up to find out what had changed…
Greater Blessing of Bees
- Bee-related options vastly more frequent.
- Bee-related option rarity significantly increased. Bee-related options may jump in rarity with increased frequency.
- Special bee-related options are unlocked and may now appear with increased frequency
- Bee monster upgrades and evolutions are now cheaper and easier to unlock
- Bee monster mana upkeep reduced
- All bee monsters receive a major boost to all stats.
- All honey production and potency is increased.
- Non-bee options significantly less frequent
- Non-bee option rarity decreased
- Some non-bee options have been restricted and will no longer appear
- Non-bee monster mana upkeep increased
Belissar rubbed his nose.
“Niobee, do you remember the first Blessing of Bees?”
“Do!”
To Belissar’s surprise, however, Niobee did not start dancing, but instead stirred up her mana. The Tower message shifted and brought up the original Blessing of Bees for Belissar to compare.
Blessing of Bees
- Bee-related options significantly more frequent.
- Bee-related option rarity increased
- Special bee-related options are unlocked and may now appear
- Bee monster upgrades and evolutions are now cheaper and easier to unlock
- Bee monster mana upkeep reduced
- All bee monsters receive a medium boost to all stats
- Non-bee options significantly less frequent
- Non-bee option rarity decreased
- Some non-bee options have been restricted and will no longer appear
- Non-bee monster mana upkeep increased
Belissar brushed Niobee’s back.
“Thanks Niobee!”
He hadn’t realized she could do that, but guessed it had something to do with her being the Conduit. Either way, Belissar was able to check what had changed. It seemed he’d be getting even more and rarer bee options from now on. His bees would also be stronger than ever, and would now get a boost to their honey from the blessing as well.
Belissar would be all smiles for the rest of the day. His bees were growing better than ever and he still had some mission rewards to help them grow even more…
As Belissar was checking on the bees, Chief Rohsuak took her place at the meeting between the allies. Duchess Bereginna had joined King Turuhave as part of the silver elf contingent today and glanced over at Chief Rohsuak’s direction before looking around.
“Chief Rohsuak, may I ask if Tower Keeper Belissar will be joining us today?”
Chief Rohsuak shook her head.
“He had to attend to Tower matters today, in his first and foremost role as Tower Keeper.”
Chief Rohsuak expected a barb, but instead Duchess Bereginna just sat back with a frown on her face.
“That is…as it should be. It is unfortunate, but that is indeed his more important duty.”
Chief Rohsuak raised an eyebrow, but said no more. The meeting soon began afterwards. The group went through the various arms, armor, and monster corpses and split them up. Chief Rohsuak pushed for Belissar to receive as much as possible despite taking all the prisoners…and had more success than she expected. The Compact’s representatives were acting unusually submissive today.
The black elves could be explained: Forgemaster Ughlarer had not come today, instead letting Tamosmed speak for the black elves, who was a stalwart ally of their Tower. But the silver elves, having been one of the most vocal groups in every negotiation Chief Rohsuak participated in prior, were strangely quiet today.
Chief Rohsuak began to pull in her own requests. She had a growing suspicion as to why everyone was acting so generous today, so she did not want to get caught up in it.
After all, the biggest prize of all was about to come up. Loremaster Anyadre looked to a scroll recording the agenda.
“Now then, let us discuss the true dragon corpse. Representative Henilett has submitted a motion that we handle it separately from the other items. Representative Henilett, what is your proposal?”
The pixie grinned.
“When a dragon is slain, the bounty traditionally goes to the dragon slayers, does it not? I submit that us representatives have no claim to it and that it should not factor into our negotiations. Rather, the claim belongs to the heroes who brought it down.”
Chief Rohsuak suspected that this was the moment the Compact representatives had been waiting for. A true dragon’s corpse was more valuable than almost any other item they had recovered. It would make sense that the Compact would act generously with those in order to secure a portion of the true dragon.
Henilett’s proposal, however, was firmly in Belissar’s favor, seeing as it was one of his bees and a pixie who had brought it down. Chief Rohsuak thus said nothing, waiting to see what objections the other representatives of the Compact would raise…
Tamosmed just nodded.
“I’m fine with that, as long as we apply the same logic to the swordsman defeated by the Sword Saint. We’re not getting that sword back from him in any case, so best we make it official.”
The other representatives of the Compact turned their eyes to the silver elf representatives, waiting to see what they would say…
King Turuhave…also nodded his head.
“So is the tradition of dragon slayers. The silver elves shall acknowledge their achievement and their claim.”
Now Chief Rohsuak was raising an eyebrow. Today was not going how she anticipated…but not unpleasantly at all. However, it would remain to be seen if the representatives had another ask for her or Belissar that she had yet to predict…