The Bee Dungeon

Belissar sighed as he checked the first set of flax he had prepped. Retting was slow going given the lack of water in his Tower. There was some dew in the morning, and the flowers were clearly getting water from somewhere, but there were no bodies of water he could leave the flax in. Drying them afterwards would likewise take a while since the only thing he could do was leave it out in the sun.

So, the first set he had prepped wasn't ready for further processing yet. Which meant...his task today would be prepping more batches. Yet another day of picking apart the stems and leaves and seeds by hand.

Belissar heaved another sigh.

But there was nothing for it. The textile plant node produced more flax each day. And since Belissar would prefer not to wait for this entire process every time he needed fabric, he needed to at least build up a decent stockpile. So, he had no choice but to keep at it.

He couldn't help but wonder if other Tower Lords went through all this.

But fortunately for Belissar, something was about to change.

Ongoing purification limit reached. Minor purification required.

Minor purification attempt in 3 days...

It wasn't exactly a week since the last time, but close enough apparently. Belissar smiled and leapt up...before frowning and shaking his head. Right, a purification attempt meant a battle, and meant more of his bees would likely perish. It was not a happy thing. That he would have to put aside his flax work to prepare for the coming fight was a small silver lining, but he'd rather do flax work the rest of his life than see his bees come to harm.

But, well, he didn't have that choice so he'd just have to put aside his other tasks and focus on keeping the Tower safe.

Belissar went around checking the various defenses. He prepped the Pit Trap closest to the gate with wood and kindling. He had not done so last time to give the soldier bees their chance to fight, but now that they had proven they could do so there was no reason not to use every tool at his disposal. He prepped a campfire site by the front and stuck some extra torches into the ground around it.

He was going to upgrade the Sticky Honey Traps with more mad mana honey...but he found his bees had already started doing that. It turned out they could ferry the honey directly to the traps and had started doing so after they saw him upgrade the first one. And here Belissar wondered why they hadn't produced many mad honey trays since then.

So, after that...his task was largely complete. Belissar crossed his arms and hummed.

The soldier bee army continued to train, and their numbers had even grown since last time. Not as dramatically, it turned out the Flower Meadow queens had cut workers and run into problems as a result, so they dialed it back a bit, but still the army was even stronger than it had been last purification. In all honesty, Belissar was pretty sure they'd be able to handle it without issue.

The Pit Traps by the Flower Meadow hives and the Apiary entrance were already stocked and ready. Belissar could prep more of them but the others were scattered about the Flower Meadow at random. Belissar could certainly stock them with kindling and wood, but building a campfire next to each was of questionable benefit. After all, Belissar couldn't light and manage more than one or two fires at a time and didn't want to risk burning the field down by leaving one unattended.

He could work on the entrance fence...but that still wasn't going well, and Belissar didn't think he could make meaningful progress on it in the next three days. He nodded to himself.

Yep. Nothing he could think of would make a significant difference in the next three days. If the bees could handle a shade right in the entrance, then nothing further in felt that important.

Belissar shook his head and then got to work gathering kindling and firewood. Even if prepping the other Pit Traps wasn't that helpful, it was something, and it was better to have them ready than not.

Besides, it beat another day of picking apart flax...

Minor purification attempt in 2 days, 1 hour, and 12 minutes...

Filling up the rest of the Pit Traps took Belissar all of...one day. He crossed his arms, tapped his foot, and hummed before sighing. Yep, there wasn't much left for him to do at this stage. So, he guessed he would have to just work on flax again for the next two days. It...felt wrong to do something else with an attack incoming. He wondered if there was anything he could do about that...

Begin minor purification immediately?

Belissar shook his head to deny the question, then smiled. Looks like the countdown was a maximum time, not a minimum. And so Belissar...did nothing. He returned to the farmhouse and resumed work on the flax.

His preparations might be done, but his bees still had more they could do. Each day meant another day of training for the soldier bees, and so reduced the chance they would be caught by the shade. Each day meant more soldier bees born, and so a greater advantage for the army. Belissar may have wanted to get it over with for himself, but he would not deny his bees any advantage he could grant them. He was not the one who had to fight the shade, after all.

So, he put aside his restlessness and tried his best to focus on his task as he waited for the countdown to finish...

Two days later, Belissar once again stood by a roaring flame next to the Apiary entrance, holding a torch in his hand. The soldier bees assembled in the sky above the gateway, waiting as the last few minutes passed.

Minor purification attempt commencing.

Another shade formed again, this one the same size as the minor purification before it. And once again, a squad of soldier bees dove down and stung it, all of them hitting their mark. The shade roared and snapped at them as predicted, but again the soldier bees flew just out of its reach.

But this time, no second wave came.

Instead, the first squad paced their retreat, flying just outside the range of the shade's tail and jaws. The shade snarled and ran after them, pouncing and whipping its tail around to try and catch the bees buzzing around it. But the four soldiers dodged and weaved together, passing each other by in different directions and confusing the shade's aim. Still, the storm of fang and claw and sharp tail meant the single squad couldn't launch any attacks of their own, giving up ground as they were forced to retreat back.

And that was exactly the plan.

Suddenly the shade yelped as the ground vanished beneath it. It fell into the Pit Trap with a crash, and then sticky honey with a slightly purple tint sprayed all over it from a nozzle in the wall. Belissar smirked.

He wanted to test the effectiveness of the Pit Trap and Sticky Honey Trap combo, so he asked the bees to adjust their strategy this time. The bees were tasked with luring the shade onto the nearest trap...and they had succeeded. The rest of the soldier bees now sprung into action and began hovering around the pit. Belissar himself lit the torch in his hand and began walking forward.

Even as the monster was collecting itself, another squad of bees dove down into the pit and stung its back. The shade roared and swiped its tail at them...but the honey stuck it to the ground. It only took a moment for the shade to break its tail free, but that moment was more than enough for the bees to have escaped.

The tail strike was slow as well, weighed down by the honey and kindling stuck to it. So, the next squad of bees had little issue evading and striking their mark was well. The shade thrashed about but it couldn't reach the honey stuck to its sides.

So, it took a deep breath instead.

The next squad of bees prepared to scatter before noticing the walls of the Pit Trap all around them. They had no choice but to fly straight up at maximum speed as a cloud of black mist filled the Pit Trap. Belissar frowned.

That was...not something he or the bees had thought of. The confined space was working against them now. The bees couldn't approach as long as the black mist was present.

But that was fine.

The black mist began to wobble as the shade began to stagger and sway. Belissar figured that was the mad mana honey getting to work. Between the height of the pit, the intoxication of the mad honey, and the extra weight of honey and kindling stuck all over, the shade wasn't climbing out of the pit anytime soon. In fact, it wasn't even trying, perhaps realizing that the bees couldn't attack it down there.

What it did not account for was Belissar arriving at the pit and tossing his torch inside, lighting the whole trap up.

All hostiles defeated. Purification successful.

Belissar smiled as the words appeared before his eyes. Another shade handled, and this time with zero bee casualties. Exactly as planned.

He was starting to get the hang of this Tower Lord business.