The Bee Dungeon

Belissar thought the Firstborn would head back to her hive after swearing the oath, but instead she hovered before him.

“King, want anoint champion? Need King watch, can?”

Belissar smiled and nodded at her.

“That sounds great, go ahead.”

Belissar stood by as the Firstborn called up Beero. His smile grew, Beero certainly deserved any recognition they could bestow on her. Beero and the Firstborn then flew over and hovered before Belissar at chest level, with Beero hovering a bit below the Firstborn. The Firstborn began a dance.

“Swear by Queen of Bees to serve and protect King and hive of hives?”

Beero immediately began a salute dance.

“Do!”

She turned to Belissar.

Belissar nodded without hesitation.

“Of course.”

The Firstborn hovered closer. The Shrine of Bees once more began to glow with golden light and the Firstborn’s antennae lit up with the same color. She tapped her antennae against Beero’s head.

“Then, anoint.”

Beero’s whole body began to shine, remaining lit for half a minute. Once the glow faded, Beero’s chitin seemed shinier, like polished metal. The occasional glow of mana around her antennae now had a golden undertone. Belissar focused in on her. Most of her status was similar to before, but there was new section on her description.

Anointed Monster Bee Battlecaster

Description: This monster bee soldier has learned to manipulate its mana externally as well as to convert its attributes, the two foundational skills of magic, and so is able to learn and cast spells. While its mana reserves and spells are not that impressive individually, it has an innate ability to group cast with other Bee-type monsters, making it exceedingly dangerous in numbers. Evolved from a soldier, this bee is particularly focused on combat-related spells and retains some of its previous physical capabilities as well. In addition to existing monster bee soldiers evolving, monster bee soldiers may now be raised as battlecasters, though this requires notably more resources from the hive.

This battlecaster has been anointed with Belissar as her liege and the God of Bees as witness. Receives boosts to all stats, especially Magic and Speed, in proportion to her devotion. All spell effects are boosted by the God of Bees’ power in proportion to her devotion. Gains improved coordination when group casting with other bees, or beings casting Bee-type spells.

Belissar reached out his hand for Beero to land on and brushed her back.

“Thank you, Beero. You’ve always done everything you could to protect the Tower, I’m really glad we have you.”

Belissar held in his chuckle as Beero attempted a “King best king!” dance but stumbled about as she stepped too quickly. He kept brushing her for a bit before returning his attention to the Firstborn, smiling at her too.

“You too, Firstborn.”

Belissar brushed the two bees for a bit. The Firstborn apparently couldn’t anoint another bee today, so the bees returned to their hives afterwards, while Belissar headed back to the Orchard to check on the Fourth of the Seventh’s golem. The Fourth of the Seventh’s hive had finished the remaining work and the golem was now structurally complete. They could now move on to creating the core and bringing the golem to life.

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Belissar hummed for a second before turning to the Fourth of the Seventh, who was currently flying loops in the air.

“I’d like to try and make the core myself, is that ok?”

The Fourth of the Seventh transitioned to an aerial “King best king!” dance without slowing down at all. Belissar chuckled to himself at the expected response before glancing up at Niobee on his head.

“Niobee, could you see if the First of the Fifth’s Fourth or Seventh Daughters are busy? I’ll probably need one of them to teach me how to make a core.”

“Ok!”

It turned out both the Fourth and the Seventh Daughter were free…or just willing to drop what they were doing for Belissar’s request. That did make him feel bad about asking them, but he did need their help. He wanted to at least help make the core, since this golem was a gift from him for the Fourth of the Seventh, but he hadn’t received the instincts to do so like the bees. He probably also could have asked Tamosmed…but the black elf hadn’t stopped by today for some reason.

It didn’t take long for the two queens to arrive. The Seventh Daughter’s golem stood before him, the Seventh Daughter dancing within a bubble of honey slime held up in the golem’s hands.

“Is like laying egg, but with wax!”

Belissar furrowed his brow. The Seventh’s Daughter’s explanation was enthusiastic…but it did not particularly help him.

“I see…and if you can’t lay eggs?”

The Seventh Daughter paused, her antennae twitching about.

“But…King can lay eggs?”

Belissar shook his head.

“I can’t actually.”

The Seventh Daughter’s surrounding slime drooped a bit.

“But…then how King raised queen mother? And spell bees?”

Belissar opened his mouth but paused.

“That’s…a good point actually. Let me show you the spell.”

The queen spawners were one thing but the spell bees did climb out of the honeycomb mana pattern, not unlike actual bees. Belissar could not say for certain that there wasn’t some sort of spell egg involved in the process. So, he cast his spell, forming the honeycomb pattern in front of the two bees so they could watch a spell bee emerge.

“How is that? Is that similar to how you lay eggs?”

The Fourth and Seventh Daughter turned towards each other and began dancing. After a bit, the Fourth Daughter turned back towards Belissar.

“Different. King…doesn’t lay egg? Just makes bee?”

Belissar rubbed his chin as he considered that. That was true, wasn’t it? He was making the spell bees directly out of mana, they were crawling out of the honeycomb pattern but weren’t being formed there. He wondered if that would make any difference?

He formed the honeycomb pattern again but this time tried to form an egg instead of a fully grown spell bee. He had been imagining his mana as a swarm of bees buzzing around, but this time he tried to imagine a queen among them laying an egg into one of the cells of the honeycomb pattern.

A little glowing egg appeared in one of the cells which then capped over. Nothing happened after that and the mana appeared to be sitting still. Belissar, unsure of what to do, tried imagining a bee hatching from the cell. That seemed to do the trick, as a spell bee burst out of the cell.

Belissar tilted his head. The spell bee didn’t seem any different from before, but the spell felt a bit easier if he wasn’t imagining things. He’d have to test it out later, but for now he turned to the two queens.

“How was that?”

Both of them began a rapid dance.

“Is like!”

“Just need form into wax egg and spread mana!”

Belissar smiled and attempted to do just that. Meanwhile, Niobee began to glow slightly as she described the King’s innovative spells to a certain battlecaster…

Belissar groaned as his head pounded. It turned out that forming a wax egg, as the Seventh Daughter described it, was much more complicated than it sounded. He could condense his mana into a spell bee egg easily enough. He could condense his mana into wax directly, including into egg shapes. He could have the spell bees build an egg out of wax. None of that was particularly difficult for him now.

But none of them were the “wax egg” the Seventh Daughter meant. Her wax, in some way, shape, or form, wasn’t just wax. Her mana continued to flow through it and she could control it directly. Belissar guessed it had something to do with her making it out of her honey slime?

In contrast, when Belissar or the Fourth Daughter made wax, whether via magic or normal bee process, it was merely an inert material. They could imbue it with mana to some extent, but they could not control the wax itself.

After three hours of unsuccessful attempts, Belissar was beginning to think he’d have to learn how to make honey slime first. That or wait for the Fourth Daughter to finish her golem first, she had finished the structure a while back but was still in the process of imbuing mana and creating the core. Belissar wasn’t sure he could pull off her method, though, given that she had countless workers imbuing mana into the golem over long periods of time. He’d run out of mana in minutes, maybe seconds trying to replicate that…

Of course, at the end of the day, the problem might just be that Belissar was not a bee, and may not be able to use the methods that they did. Tamosmed and the black elves made golems, though, so there surely was a way that would work for him. He might just have to resign himself to waiting for Tamosmed’s next visit. In any case, Belissar was out of mana at this point, so he was going to call it for the day.

But at that moment, mana began to blare in his head, pulling his attention out of the Tower. He followed the connection to one of the karnuq groups hunting in Underway today and gasped.

The karnuq were under attack…by arrows.