Harmonic bees were curious monsters. Weighing two pounds and with the body size of a small dog, these insects were individually weak. A bee would lose to a rabbit or a rat unless it could strike first. No, the harmonic bees' greatest strength came from working in large numbers. They had four traits that exploited that characteristic.
They had a venomous stinger but the venom was weak. It caused a minuscule amount of damage over time and a tiny debuff to agility from its paralytical properties. The duration, however, was a few minutes. The strong point of the venom was its stacking trait. The same bee couldn't stack her own venom but getting stung by several bees would add a stack on both debuffs, increase the duration slightly and reset the debuff timer.
Grendel always wondered why they were called bees if their stinger didn't detach upon a successful attack. A harmonic bee could sting several times without running out of venom. He used to say they should be called hornets but the system was adamant that they were bees.
Another property of the harmonic bees was their combined teamwork. A bee would receive a minor stat bonus, a tiny percentile of the nearby bee's stats. The third gave them great resilience. Bees shared damage with nearby bees. The amount shared never dropped below 1 HP though. Hit one bee in the swarm for 14 HP of damage, you'd cause 1 HP to fourteen bees.
One would think the way to kill the bees was to overpower them with AOE attacks and they would be right. However, the fourth trait was their biggest defense and annoyance. Harmony. Harmonic bees got their name from their ability to synchronize the buzzing of their wings to produce beautiful melodic harmonies. This buzzing created a field that dispersed magical energies and spells near them. The very AOE spells that would be their doom were the most affected.
Veteran adventurers should be wary of harmonic bee swarms. The huge ones, numbering thousands of bees are a death sentence.
A silver lining on the bees' tendency to act in clusters was that they shared Exp with all other bees. This slows down their leveling significantly.
Excerpt from the Bootleg Guild's Monster Manual.
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Even though she sent word beforehand that she was coming with the bees, Helen got exactly the reaction to her swarm she was expecting, but it was still annoying.
"Monster Attack!" Someone shout.
Before the bees got off her face, Helen was already hearing the bowstrings let loose their deadly payload.
"[Piercing Shot]!" Someone growled.
"[Piercing Shot]!" Someone roared.
The bees buzzed and took off. She felt the pang of pain from two deaths. Once she could see, two people were running around with a deadly swarm, black with yellow stripes, buzzing around them. Their screams were real.
"EVERYONE HOLD YOUR GROUND!" Mercy's voice was commanding, especially inside her own [Guild Field]. "These are tame monsters."
Helen fought against the collective will of the swarm and the bees retreated, hovering above the street in an angry swarm, humming a dread song that threatened death.
The two beast-kin adventurers were down on the ground, bleeding and swelling from all the stings they took. She knew they were alive because she didn't get any Exp notification from their deaths.
"Take them to Alvus' clinic," the Viscountess ordered. "He has the antidote to the harmonic bee venom. They won't die but let that be their punishment. As for the rest of you, weren't you warned beforehand that I'd be arriving with my bees?"
The scared adventurers nodded. Even though Mirfield revolted, some adventurers from strawford still arrived every now and then. The brave frontier to the south and east into the Dragon Valley were too enticing for the adventurers to be left alone. Even though they could only go south now, the monster population of the Valley was now exclusive for the denizens of Willow Hill. Even though she visited the guild every now and then, Helen couldn't keep up with all the new faces.
'I'm not Marcy,' she thought.
It was late. Dusk would soon follow and even though the City Core illuminated the streets, it was time to call it a day. She couldn't yet, though. Helen went around the city, looking for somewhere she could let her bees spend the night to build a hive tomorrow.
She knew just the place. The lot where her house was before Grendel moved it to the hilltop. She waved a hand and using raw Earth magic, created a stone pillar three meters tall. She expanded the top of the pillar in a roughly egg-like shape and let holes all around with room inside for the six hundred bees.
Five hundred, ninety-eight.
Such was the fate of a bee.
Helen learned one valuable lesson from the two dead bees. The archer that shot both bees down used a Skill called [Piercing Shot] from a previously-unknown beast-kin job called [Sharpshooter]. Previously-unknown for them, that is. That Skill allowed the shot to bypass any and all defenses, subtracting the damage directly from the target's HP pool. It ignored even the harmonic bee's damage-sharing power.
Even though her bees were reinforced by her tamer skills and [Queen Bee]'s title. Harmonic bees got 0.1% of the surrounding bees' stats per Skill level from their [Bee Stat Sharing] Skill. Most had it at levels three to five. But that skill included Helen's stats as well, because of her title.
'If it only were easy to level up these bees,' She mused.
But alas, they were weak as paper individually and Exp becomes dust once it's shared over hundreds of individuals. She'd better invest in leveling Caramel, Emory, and Mittens. The bright side of the bees was how cheap they were. She could slot one hundred and twenty-eight bees in a single tamer slot, and Caramel with her drones was laying dozens of eggs every day.
'Lucky Girl', Helen bit her thumb.
She wanted her monster babies yesterday.
With all the bees settled in the stone formation, she tapped Mittens. "Keep the bees safe, okay? Try not to hurt whoever comes too much and call me if something happens. Can you do that for me?"
Mittens chittered, annoyed, and nodded. She knew why he was annoyed. The city had almost zero magic density and his monstrous core was complaining. The tamer bond eased a bit of the unease as he was fed MP through it, but it was still annoying. To un-tame monsters is was as if they would dry out and die. That was the only reason humanity still existed.
'As if we didn't have enough problems with the monsters and demons. Can our species really spare the resources to fight one another? The monsters under Grendel were friendlier to one another than most humans. That's why I'm switching sides. Stupid, petty humans.'
Walking at night with her brooding thoughts, the Viscountess made her way home and slept on a lonely bed made for three.
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Helen's first task in the morning was to check the City Core's energy levels at the 'hero fountain'. She tasked Emory with the job of going to the northern fields and fetching a frillbush berry.
She couldn't bear to look at her statue but it was the only way to look at Beowulf's face. Grendel's human disguise. She touched one of the crystals and poured out all her MP for half an hour. The bees' stamina regeneration was too low to donate enough energy to register them as citizens over one night so she was donating energy on their behalf. But a little times six hundred was still something. After another hour there, the bees were all registered. Since she was viewing the control panel's floating window, she saw the population of Mirfield more than double.
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'The field should reach well into the forest now,' She bet.
Helen dismissed the screen and went back to where her bees were.
"
She glanced over her shoulder. Her evolved rat-familiar was already running back with a branch of frillbush.
"I'll get you a new queen bee. For now, build up the hive. You'll have enough to work with soon."
The honey would surely help with the food situation.
A buzz and the sparkle of glitter denounced an expected arrival.
"Tehe! What a big stone... hive. Or rattle. I have NO idea! Hey. Hello there, Helen. I'm ba-ack!" Petal flew around her head and finally settled on her shoulder. "I scouted the evil humans. Oh, yes. I did. Big, angry, and magical. They lobbed some fireballs at me, you know? They had the GALL to throw magic at me. I almost lavabombed them."
That wasn't a bad idea. She couldn't risk Petal's safety. She was born from one of Grendel's Skills, but she was also an intelligent and living creature. Grendel could create a new fairy, probably, but it wouldn't be Petal anymore.
"You did right, silly fairy. Do not engage them. We can't risk you, you know?" She answered, imitating the tiny and sometimes annoying critter.
"YAY! I got praised! Praise me more! More!"
Petal kissed her and proceeded to swirl around, dumping a ton of some glittering dust on Helen. She brushed it aside. It was an illusion.
"Yes. What would I do without you? So, ready to work?"
"Okie Dokie Bonkie!" Did she move her stretched hand over her brow, in some sort of... salute?
Emory arrived and Helen used the berries and more blood to cover the whole lot in frillbush bushes. The bees merrily went on the offensive to gather the nectar and pollen from the flowers. Honey would be one food source for the city during the siege. Now onto the second food source and shelter.
Helen: Tancred, are you on the surface?
Tancred: Nope. I'm chilling in the core room and messing with my dungeon's settings. I have two floors ready and Zahariel, Sepal, and Marcy are here helping me charge the core.
Helen: Good. How is the energy for the spawns?
Tancred: It says we are at sixty percent of the required energy. We need more MP and ST to power the first spawns.
Helen: Can you meet us on the first floor? Petal, Mittens and I are going there to help charge.
Cloude: I'm doing nothing at the guard barracks. I can go too if you want.
Helen: Perfect. The more the merrier. Could you please go to the guild to help us, Cloude?
Cloude: Your wish is my command, Milady!
Helen: 😠Enough with the milady thing!
Cloude: Seriously, how do you do that?
She knew she held the position and some deference was expected, but she was really annoyed that her own party members did that to her. Cloude did that on purpose to tease her. She was sure of it.
Helen took the fairy and the Knight Mantis and went to the guild. The current holder of the Shining Blade and guard captain and part-time douchebag was there. She swallowed her annoyance and smiled at him.
"Hi, Cloude. Thanks for coming!"
"I just don't want to be left out." He answered and smiled back. His eyes showed it was an honest one.
"Good. We are transferring there soon," Helen replied and looked around searching for a receptionist. "Imayne, can I ask you a few things?"
The quiet librarian slash receptionist approached with a faint smile, "Sure, Viscountess. Anything!"
"Have you ever heard of the [Magic Training I] skill?"
She closed her eyes for a moment and then answered.
"Yes, of course. It is a skill that can only be obtained through focused effort. It gives 1 magic and 1 base MP per level. It also cannot be raised using SP, only through hard effort and training. The official stance of the mainstream guild is to avoid this and just use the time to grind more levels in magic-using jobs. One can get tenfold the amount of magic stat through leveling at the same time. There are also similar skills both for prowess and stamina, but they are even harder to train."
"But why the 'one' in its name? It makes the skill sound like it is part of a chain."
"I guess it is true. Maybe that skill can be upgraded after reaching level 10, just like the magic schools. I'd have to research the library later for more info. Come back tomorrow, please."
By library, she meant her unique skill. Imayne could read books at ten times the speed during her dreams. So every day she spent eighty hours reading. And she only needed to browse the book, flip a few pages, to get a copy forever in her head.
Soren approached them, "Are you going 'there'?" She wiggled her hairy eyebrows and blinked her big round brown eyes, very excited.
Helen smiled. She knew Soren had a thing for Grendel, but so long the girl kept her pumpkin panties on, she wouldn't do anything.
"I guess we are, Soren. Do you want to come with us?"
The squirrel girl became ecstatic and did a series of small hops. "Yes! Please!" She cooed with her tail swishing behind her.
Imayne brought the beast-kin back to the real world, "Soren, you have a lot of work left! We are swamped with the new arrivals!" Her furry ears dropped.
"Let her go, Imayne. My sister and I will cover for her," Phaelyn the silver-haired elf stepped forward to defend Soren. Helen didn't see signs of affection from him toward Soren but deep respect.
"We will all cover senior Soren's share of the work. Let her go!" Allaire the lynx-kin also joined Phaelin. The other receptionists that were rescued by Grendel nodded together.
Imayne's shoulders slumped and she pushed her glasses up. "Well, I think it is fine. I really don't want a sad Soren. You can go."
Helen saw a golden opportunity. Soren was a master dismantler, "Soren, you can come, but I want one service from you. I'll pay the standard guild rate, okay?"
The reaction from the squirrel-kin girl was so hyper even Petal found it exaggerated. "Anything to see that marvel!" And she was hooked. She didn't even ask what service it was.
The group went to the private room that was being temporarily used as a dungeon teleport field and popped to the first floor of Tancred's maze after paying the required amount of MP as energy. The size of the huge room impressed Helen. It was at least fifty feet tall, too wide and long to measure, and the massive striped pillars with round bevels gave it a solemn ambiance.
The dungeon master was already there to greet them. The minotaur was huge. At least thirty feet tall. Soren and Cloude were on the defensive.
Tancred smiled, showing rows of yellowed teeth, "Welcome, friends. Stay at ease. Come, let's go to the core room. Hold my hand."
They grasped the huge fingers. Helen thought they could all sit on his palm. Without any warning, they found themselves in the core room. Sepal, Marcy, and Zahariel were sitting on cushions and meditating. Sepal's cushions were Marcy's breasts, but Helen knew firsthand that it was a very comfortable place to rest.
The fairy clone flew around and deposited more cushions out of nowhere. All of them except Mittens took one and everyone touched the runed quartz cube that was the Dungeon Core. They poured their MP and SP, meditating to recover more.
Several hours later, Tancred declared the end of the charging session. "This is fine. I can do the spawns for two floors now. Once the monsters spawn, they will keep cycling energy back to the core. Bro said it should take ten to fifteen days for the monster to 'pay themselves off' or whatever he meant."
Helen found endearing how Tancred addressed Grendel. The two monsters seemed really like brothers. She felt a pang of pain for all the torture the minotaur had to endure after he was tamed and controlled by the demon wranglers.
But Helen didn't have one or two weeks to wait for the monsters to recharge the core.
"We will come tomorrow at noon and at night to charge it again. I'm sorry but we can't afford more idle time. We need to open the dungeon for hunting at most in two days."
"No problem. I'll earn a little Exp from the kills, so it is fine as long as I have the energy to respawn them."
Good. So far everything was coming together.
"Tancred, do you need to stay here for the spawns to happen?"
"No," He knocked affectionately on the core. "This baby does everything automatically once it has its orders. I could plan a hundred floors in advance and it would slowly dig away."
"Good. I have a job for you tonight. Something only you can do."
"What is it?"
"I need you to cut a lot of trees. A really large amount of trees. There are too many trees around town, and they will be used by the attackers to make all sorts of things we won't like. Siege weapons, stakes, a wooden fort, more weapons, ladders, rams, or even just burn them upwind to choke us."
Tancred eyed a huge ornate ax leaning on one corner of the featureless stone room. "Yeah, let's do it! I've been cramped in this core room for too long and staring at these stone walls can be disturbing sometimes. The glowing crystal is nice but gets old soon. Let's hack some forest."
"We should make it a contest between you and Mittens. Let's see... Whoever wins is the top monster."
"Second top. I agree. Sir Mittens?" The minotaur spoke with deference to the real top monster. The Mantis Knight nodded.
Soren butted in. "Can we take a tour through the two floors that are already dug?"
"I don't see why not," The minotaur dungeon master answered.
"I'll need both fairies and their item boxes. And Soren, we are returning you to the guild, but I'll call in your service soon. Let's go. Sepal, can you take Tancred to the north field without stirring attention?" The fairy clone nodded. The magic puppets had an intellect and a rudimentary personality, but they wouldn't speak on their own unless needed.
Cloude entered the conversation, "I will remove the guards from the north wall and station them patrolling the north district instead. There shouldn't be anyone in the fields, so you can hack away. I'll also warn them to not mind the falling trees noises."
Marcy and Zahariel also stood up and the fairies moved the cushions to a corner of the core room.
"We are going back after our tour," Helen declared.
Marcy stretched and grinned. "Tomorrow will be a busy day! I want to nail some rabbits after so long."
"Yeah, that is very funny! We hunted, like, a lot of rabbits yesterday!" Petal ran off her mouth.
"Oh, is that so? How many rabbits did you guys hunt, Petal?" The huntress snarked back.
"Two hundred eighty-five!" She showed a lot of fingers as if they meant any number and smiled.
Marcy makes an evil grin, "That much fun? I guess I found what I'll be doing tomorrow. Hunting spies is really boring."
Helen thought the hired adventurers were out of a job.