Metsaitti stopped the group as he noticed the shade.
“Get ready everyone. Pitkäsik will take the first shot, but we all need to be prepared if it doesn’t go down.”
The four following him nodded. The two spear-wielders took up positions by their leader, while the other two knocked arrows on their bows. One of them pulled back the bowstring as they took aim at the shade.
The arrow flew and struck the small shade in the side. It snarled and then rushed towards the group, barking as loud as it could. The archer fumbled her next arrow and dropped it to the ground, missing her chance for a follow-up shot. Metsaitti called out to the nearest spearman.
“Keisaq!”
The spearman gulped but hefted his weapon and stabbed forward as the shade leapt at them. His spear caught the beast right in the jaw. Metsaitti and the spearwoman also stabbed into the shade’s side a moment later.
It then vanished in a cloud of dispersing black mist.
Meanwhile, Belissar exhaled his breath as he watched through his Tower sight. He let the Flower Meadow queens know the situation had been handled for now. And then...words appeared before his eyes.
1 DP gained for Remnant defeat.
Belissar blinked at the message. So...that tiny shade was a remnant? And...he got DP when the bear people defeated one?
Belissar rubbed his chin and fell silent as he considered that...
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Belissar watched as Metsaitti led the group around the Flower Meadow for a bit. Additional remnants formed here and there, but the bear folk handled them without issue. In particular, Metsaitti had each of the four under his command deal the opening attack to a remnant in turn, allowing them to handle it solo if they were able to do so. After some time had passed, he returned to the entrance. Chief Rohsuak smiled at the group.
“It appears you were successful?”
Metsaitti nodded.
“We had a few close calls, but we managed. It seems the Den Master is fond of pit traps.”
Chief Rohsuak chuckled at that. Metsaitti led the group up to the Shrine of Bees, and each of them prayed at it in turn. Belissar felt the Tower’s mana flow once again, receiving another ten DP each for the four. Metsaitti rounded it off, only granting one DP himself.
The group then prepared to leave. Just before they headed out, Chief Rohsuak had them turn towards the Flower Meadow and incline their heads.
“Thanks to you both, Sacred Den Master, and Goddess of Bees.”
And with that, they departed, leaving Belissar alone with his bees...and his thoughts. He sat back his chair and let out a low hum. His mind raced with the events of the day and all the various things he had learned in the process.
Meanwhile, his ears buzzed with the sound of wings. He held up his hand by reflex as Niobee flew around him and landed on his finger.
“King, ok?”
He looked down at her, and then made a small smile. He rose from his chair and stepped over to the jars full of honeycomb. He scraped off a bit of honey with a finger on his other hand and held it up for Niobee. She flew over to his other finger and began to drink the honey off of it. Belissar’s smile grew as she did.
It had been a while since he had done this, ever since Niobee became intelligent...or more accurately ever since he had discovered that she was intelligent. So perhaps he didn’t actually need to coax her onto his finger with honey...but that didn’t mean he should just stop. If anything, he should be treating her better now, knowing she could and did return his friendship.
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“I...have a lot on my mind after all this. Would you mind if we talked, like we used to?”
Niobee buzzed about rapidly.
“Niobee always listen!”
Belissar smiled at that and began to talk. He poured out all that was on his mind about Tower Lords and lies, as well as his confusion over the latest revelations and what they would mean for his Tower and the bees that lived inside of it. Niobee sat on his finger, watching him intently throughout it all.
“So, what?! I did all of that, I watched everyone I care about die, I took crap from the village day after day and now I find out the Tower Lords lied all along? It...”
Belissar blinked as he finally realized what he was feeling. His eyes narrowed.
“...it makes me really angry, if I’m honest.”
Niobee’s wings buzzed loudly, and she extended her stinger as she began a dance at a furious pace.
“Others, bad! Niobee saw! Invade King’s hive, steal honey! But King have workers now! We stop!”
Belissar watched...and couldn’t help but relax a bit.
“Yes, thank you for everything, Niobee. I know you and the other girls have my back now. I guess...things will be very different from now on.”
“Yes!”
He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it.
“Ok, that brings us to the new people...what do you think of them?”
“These, ok! Help King, give stuff!”
Belissar chuckled at that. That...pretty much matched his own impression of the situation. To be fair, the bear people could have any sort of intentions long-term, but as far as both he and Niobee could tell they seemed beneficial.
And that seemed to have been confirmed by the Tower itself. Apparently, “challengers” like them were a significant source of DP. Or rather, maybe they were the main source of it? Belissar had received over a week’s worth of DP just from a single bear person praying and offering tribute at the Shrine of Bees. And there had been more than one of them...in total, he had earned eighty-one DP from their prayers and tribute. Even a minor purification didn’t reward that much.
And then there was the situation with the remnants. Belissar had thought about that and re-read the descriptions of challengers and remnants and thought he had an idea of what was going on. The description specifically said remnants allowed challengers to assist with ongoing purification...so Belissar guessed that the remnants were like, a mini purification. A tiny bit of the Hunger that seemed to gather when people entered his dungeon that they could defeat instead of his bees. He even received DP when they did...perhaps that was the “assist with ongoing purification” part? All in all, they had purified five more of the shades, bringing his DP total for the day up to eight-six.
That was almost three months’ worth, or almost two minor purification rewards. It seemed having people around was very helpful indeed.
But...what was their reason for helping him to such an extent? Surely, they had to have gotten something out of this? Belissar figured it had to do with the mana in the Shrine of Bees...and if he recalled the messages during the prayers mentioned the challengers got blessed? If it was something like the Blessing of Bees...but the blessing’s effects only seemed useful for a dungeon master, so Belissar wasn’t sure...
His eyes widened as his mind turned back to the Tower Lords...and specifically the Tower Guards. The servants of the lords who were said to have been blessed by the gods, and capable of great and heroic feats. He had previously been under the impression that it was something innate to the Tower Guard themselves...but if that wasn’t true for the Tower Lords then maybe it wasn’t true for the Tower Guard either? What if it was, again, something they gained from the Tower itself...or from the patron god of those towers?
In other words...did he just create Tower Guards? Only...that weren’t working for him? Or were they working for him and he just didn’t notice?
Belissar shook his head. Well, he’d have to watch those bear people that received the blessing and determine if they could perform great deeds like the Tower Guard were rumored to. And if so...well, Belissar didn’t exactly know what he’d do. Should he offer them a job? Demand they help protect the Tower? Just ignore them and be happy with the DP?
He decided he’d figure that part out later, if the blessing from the Shrine indeed worked the way he was guessing.
All in all, the point was that these people were acting polite towards him and actively benefiting him with their visits, and the God of Bees seemed to approve of their presence as well. So...there was no need for Belissar to do anything about them or keep them out of the Tower or anything like that, although he would keep an eye on their visits if only because of the remnants that appeared around them. Maybe he could even offer to trade some honey for more goods if he needed them.
But...Belissar realized there was something that had changed as the result of all of this. A very simple yet easily overlooked implication of this whole chain of events.
And that was that the bear people had traveled through the Hunger. Or underneath it, as the case was. Belissar had been under the impression that the Hunger seeped into the ground and reached into the skies as well, but maybe there was a limit to that? Or maybe there were Towers underground as well?
The exact reason aside, the point was that he was not alone anymore. And if the bear people could reach him...then others could as well. Others that might not be as polite as they were.
Others like the Tower Lords.
And that...was something Belissar would now need to consider...