The Bee Dungeon

Belissar and Niobee asked the new bees about what sort of homes they would like. The magnetic monster bee queen was fine in the Beecity for now, though she would be sending scouts to places with resource mineral nodes once she had some. The inky and mist queen each got a new beehouse on account of the ink and mist their bodies released, the inky queen’s was placed in a dark part of the bees’ Dirt Tunnels while the mist queen’s went into the bees’ Bog. The muddy queen would eventually like a home in the Bog as well, but she would need to build up her hive in order to dig into the mud and create a space for it. For now, she would live with the digging bees.

Before he got started, Belissar turned to the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter.

“Those are all the new bees? Did the slime bees and thermal mining bees have any daughters?”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter danced at a measured pace.

“Only new bees this time. Drones reported since lived, said some queens’ mana too weak. Couldn’t blend, said might if stronger. Also didn’t try all queens and drones, wanted some queens stay same. Need more swimming bees, digging bees, toxic bees, others. Stronger queens, like Fourth of the Seventh, also didn’t raise evolved daughters, since takes more honey and mana. Raised breeze bees instead of nomadic.”

Belissar nodded in agreement.

“That makes sense, we mostly only had one queen of each type, so getting more is a good idea. We also kind of skipped breeze bees, didn’t we, so I think that was a good call.”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter danced a quick “King is best king!” in thanks, but then her dance slowed to a crawl.

“Did have slime bees and thermal mining bees try…but failed. Drone said mana didn’t mix well, didn’t change queens’ bodies.”

Belissar furrowed his brow. Maybe not every pair of bee types could make a hybrid? Tamosmed would be disappointed, though. He was very much looking forward to metal slime bees…

“Hm, that’s too bad. Any ideas why it didn’t work?”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter’s antennae drooped, but she continued dancing.

“Sorry. Asked queen mother, said Seventh Sister hatched different from others. Slime honey did something, changed egg. Think need try something else to evolve slime bee.”

Belissar forced a smile on his face.

“Well, thank you, the drones, and the new queens for trying. We’ll have to try another way then, maybe the slime queens can evolve themselves later. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, for both them and any other queens that didn’t evolve.”

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter danced a salute.

“Will! King is best king!”

At that point, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter returned to her duties, while Belissar quickly assembled the new beehouses. And just in the nick of time, for he had just received a lot of guests today…

***

Now that Belissar had reorganized his defense rooms, he sent word to the sigmaka that they could resume challenging and a group of them arrived to do just that. But today, they were not alone. Today, they found themselves face to face with elven warriors, also preparing for battle.

Today, the Silver Host would challenge the dungeon.

The sigmaka went first while the silver elves prepared. A squad of silver elf warriors double checked their weapons and armor, making sure not a strap was out of place, then gathered in formation. In the center, one of their number held a jar and a shield to protect it. The squad marched to the entrance of the Tower in perfect sync. The leader glanced back to address the warriors.

“Remember, nothing touches the tea but the bees.”

Every silver elf warrior saluted as one. The leader then turned and the whole group marched into the Tower, beginning their challenge in Belissar’s Dirt Tunnels. The silver elf warriors, each already slightly superior to the average Tower Guard, cut through the remnant shades like a hot knife through butter. As fair folk, they were highly attuned to mana and could sense Belissar’s traps before they triggered. Each silver elf warrior also had some skill in magic and so the squad had plenty of methods to deal with traps. Ground magic could create bridges across pit traps, while Air barriers protected them from sticky honey sprays. The silver elves flew through the tunnels, catching and passing the surprised sigmaka.

With their senses, they easily noticed the maddening smoke of the tunnel filled with hidden beeswax candles and created a dome of Air magic to keep the smoke away. When Ground magic wards sealed off a tunnel that started filling with maddening honey, the silver elves simply deactivated the wards and escaped with ease.

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They made it to the end of the Dirt Tunnels in record time, where soldier bees waited by a beehouse placed for challenger offerings. The silver elf in their center stepped forward, not a speck of dirt on the jar he carried. He bowed his head towards the bee as he placed the jar before the beehouse and opened it up.

“The finest floral tea I have brewed, for the pleasure of you and your hive.”

One of soldier bees landed on the lip of the jar and took a sip, then spun around in a happy dance.

“Amazing, incredible! Thanks!”

The soldier bees then lifted the jar and took it away and the silver elves made their way to the Shrine of Bees and made offerings to Tower’s patron god. While none of them received full blessings that day, all of them gained a bit of mana for their efforts. It seemed the God of Bees was pleased.

***

While the silver elves conducted their challenge, Belissar gathered in the nexus door room with his guests. Nenavann, Tarwantrad, Urubran, Tamosmed, Hesfalle, Lomedys, and Lord Aratodel had all come to visit his Tower at once. Finnakynne declined and stayed with the bumbles, but she had arranged for another pixie to come in her place. Her name was Remfalla, and she was main caretaker of Finnakynne’s dungeon whenever the princess was away…which was always.

Today, it would be Belissar’s turn to teach the Circle, specifically on raising challengers. For this lesson, he had also brought along Sehfitis, Hirkolos, the former captain Auschias, Chief Rohsuak, Metsaitti, and the First Spiderkin Queen. Everyone in his Tower who had either been a challenger or who had knowledge of them.

They started off by watching the sigmaka and silver elves face the first room of his Tower, courtesy of Wardmaster Varilold’s clairvoyance wards, while Sehfitis and Auschias gave an overview of Conclave Tower Guard doctrine, with Sehfitis translating for the human who was no longer a sworn defender.

“The remnants provide some challenge and a first taste of fighting the Hunger, but they should not be the only danger. A Tower Guard must undergo a trial of the gods to earn a blessing, the Tower Lord will send dangerous challenges their way to weed out those who are unworthy. We would fight remnants, we would fight each other, we would even fight dragonkin if our Tower Lord managed to raise some…though, in hindsight, perhaps Starami used monster spawners for those…”

Auschias’ expression fell. Sehfitis took over for him.

“As you can see, though, Tower Keeper Belissar has a different approach, yet the challengers are blessed all the same. Personally, I believe that it is less about weeding out the unworthy and more about creating a challenge that suits the Tower’s patron god. The former lord Starami followed the God of Dragons, who values individual strength. It was appropriate for such a Tower to test challengers’ strength and to disregard those that failed. The God of Bees, on the other hand, appears to prioritize cooperation and foraging. Tower Keeper Belissar, therefore, forces challengers to work together and deliver resources to the bees. Even if the challengers have the individual strength to move forward on their own, they will receive no blessing if they fail to protect the delivery.”

Nenavann nodded thoughtfully.

“So, we do not need make our dungeons more dangerous necessarily, just guide challengers towards the behaviors our patrons prefer?”

Lomedys began cackling. Hesfalle held her head.

“…he’s going to make his dungeon dangerous anyways.”

Meanwhile, Urubran turned to Chief Rohsuak with a grin.

“How about you? What sort of challenge did you face?”

Chief Rohsuak chuckled.

“Well, the Inferno Empress certainly enjoyed making things dangerous. Her favorite thing to do was tell would-be challengers to climb to the top of a volcano room. Most would not survive the heat and the fumes. But those that she favored would be rescued and given trials much like the humans’ Tower Guards.”

Urubran raised an eyebrow.

“And were you one of the favored?”

Chief Rohsuak grinned.

“No. I found I liked the heat and managed to make it to the top. I heard she made the room even hotter after that, apparently it wasn’t supposed to be possible.”

Urubran smiled and both the disciples of Fire shared a laugh. Meanwhile, Nenavann turned to the First Spiderkin Queen.

“And what of the spiderkin?”

First Spiderkin Queen smiled and waved her hands around as she began speaking.

“Spiderkin fight! Go to God’s Nest and have to survive inside! Fight lots, kill lots, eat lots!”

Nenavann sighed.

“Well…I suppose that was to be expected. Are the fights different for different gods?”

First Spiderkin Queen nodded.

“Yes! Fight beasts, fight with webs, fight in dark, fight when hot, fight when cold, fight in forest, fight in tunnels, fight in desert…”

The First Spiderkin Queen spent a while relaying all sorts of fights various spiderkin fought inside their God’s Nests. The fair folk glanced at each other. Tamosmed crossed his arms and grunted.

“Maybe the fighting part’s important after all. Even Belissar’s challengers fight somewhat.”

Nenavann frowned, but then a moment later his eyes opened wide.

“Ah…because dungeons in the land of mortals don’t operate through wards. They have to fight the Hunger directly…so they need more defenders.”

Chief Rohsuak, however, shook her head.

“It’s true that most challengers aim to become warriors, but it’s not the only way to get a blessing. Skilled craftsmen of all sorts can earn a blessing by making offerings of their work. But they can do so right at the entrance, they have no need to brave the challenges of the Tower itself.”

Sehfitis nodded.

“The same goes for the Conclave as well. Even the former lord Starami had servants blessed by his Tower, even though they did not display the strength the God of Dragons respects.”

At this point, the silver elves had finished their challenge. Belissar rubbed his chin.

“That…seemed kind of easy for them. I might need to make it harder, huh…”

The pixie, Remfalla, flew up to his shoulder and giggled.

“That’s because your traps weren’t designed with fair folk in mind! I can help you come with some traps that will humble those haughty elves, Tower Keeper! That is, if you might have something to…sweeten the deal.”

Belissar nodded.

“Sure, thanks. We can discuss it after the lesson?”

Remfalla blinked and then grinned.

“Yes!”

The group started to get into more detail, asking the beastkin and former Tower Guards specifics on their challenges and training methods, while brainstorming appropriate challenges for their own dungeons. Belissar felt himself smiling as things went along.

The Circle had taught him much, so it felt good to offer something back. And…it was nice to see everyone, human, beastkin, and fair folk, all getting along.

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