icalos
patreon
BD - Chapter 323 - Bee-ing Helpful!
🕑 Added 2025-09-25 20:05:01 +0000 UTCBelissar tilted his head at Finnakynne’s question. What should she do in response to receiving a blessing from the God of Bees? The answer seemed obvious to him.
“Celebrate? It’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
Finnakynne opened her mouth but froze before she said anything. She furrowed her brow.
“Huh…that’s right…huh…”
Belissar frowned.
“Are you ok? You…don’t seem happy about it.”
Finnakynne sighed and started to drift down. She landed on the ground and wrapped her arms around herself.
“No, I’m happy. I’d be happy if the bees and their god accept me…it’s just…do they really? Is it really ok? Can I…really help the bees? I was born the demigod of mischief and the daughter of the pixie queen…and I wasn’t even good at that, to be honest. Will I really help? Or will I fail? Will I just hurt you all, like I have everyone I ever met? Like I was raised my whole life to do…I’m not even sure how to do, well, anything else…”
But as she spoke, Finnakynne was again tackled by the bumblebee soldier. Belissar couldn’t help a smile.
“The bumblebees seem to think you’re helping plenty. So do I, you risked your life to protect the Tower and the bees, you’ve helped the bumblebees forage their flowers, and now you’ve helped me build this room. You’ve been nothing but helpful to me. The God of Bees seems to agree.”
Finnakynne looked up at Belissar with wide eyes for a moment before the bumblebee resumed grooming her and she began giggling. When the bumblebee finally finished, Finnakynne continued laughing for a bit longer, rubbed the bumblebee’s fuzz, and then took a deep breath.
“A-Are you sure? How do you know I’m not just doing this to get your honey? My mother dearest is only nice to you because you’re her door to the land of mortals and your honey is really good. Henilett, Captain Karpakynne, the Royal Pixie Guard…they all do it for the honey and for the nexus door. How am I any different, Beely? How do you know I’m not just tricking you?”
Belissar tilted his head for a moment, but then his eyes widened and he started to chuckle. Finnakynne raised an eyebrow but Belissar just pointed to the bee next to her.
“Finnakynne, you’ve been helping the bumblebees. The bumblebees don’t make honey, at least not enough to give away. If you just wanted honey, you really should have gone to live with the First of the Fifth instead.”
Finnakynne froze and her eyes widened. Belissar smiled.
“And now that I’m thinking about it…a lot of people have tricked me. The Tower Lords lied to me my entire life and about everything, they let my parents die and burned my village because of those lies. Speaking of my old village, they used to use every reason they could think of to take my mead and rarely gave me anything in return. And both the Tower Lords and the villagers always claimed it was for my own good, as if they were helping me. You, on the other hand? Everyone warned me you were going to trick me, you yourself included. And yet…everything you’ve done has helped me and my bees, and you haven’t taken anything from me in return. You haven’t even asked for any honey since the first time we met.”
Finnakynne blinked a few times and then flushed.
“Ok, even if I’m trying to be different…that’s really embarrassing as a pixie, not to mention a demigod of mischief! How did I forget to get the honey?! Ugh! What am I even doing?!”
She groaned for a bit before stopping herself. She took a deep breath and let out a sigh.
“Ok, then…”
Then, she looked up at Belissar…and smiled back. Not the smile she usually wore, the same one Henilett always had, the one that reminded him of the village chief whenever he had come to take Belissar’s mead. This smile was more like how Tarwantrad smiled when he showed her the bees, or Chief Rohsuak’s when he accepted the karnuq as his sworn defenders.
“Ok. I…I’ll believe you, then, Beely. And you too, Bumbly, and your god. If you all believe I’ll help…then…I’ll do my best to be a good bumble helper.”
Belissar’s own smile grew while the bumblebee soldier began zipping around the pixie.
“The bumbles already like having you around, Finnakynne, and so do I. You’re doing great.”
Finnakynne didn’t respond but her smile did get a bit bigger. Belissar then rubbed his chin.
“Speaking of honey…we should have a celebration for the morning’s purification and for completing the room. Oh, and for your blessing too!”
Finnakynne grinned and her wings began beating again, lifting her back into the air.
“I second that idea!”
***
Belissar gathered his whole Tower in the battle meadow for a celebration banquet. He brought out as much mead as he had that wasn’t intended for the gods, while the karnuq shared their latest round of rabbit dishes. The First of the Fifth even had enough swirled honey to share at the banquet table, while the Third of the Fourth had started brewing tea with her hive and could help prepare enough tea for everyone.
Belissar also offered another batch of mead to the God of Bees to thank her for all the blessings and rewards today. The karnuq followed in his example…and several more of them received full blessings. It seemed the God of Bees was quite pleased with his Tower’s work today. The bees made some offerings of their own as well and while they didn’t receive blessings in the same manner as the karnuq, the Shrine of Bees did glow a few times as certain queens made their visits. Belissar caught the hive of hives talking about donating swirled honey to the Third of the Third and Fourth of the Fifth, so it seemed there might be some more queen evolutions on the horizon.
As the banquet wound on, Chief Rohsuak walked over to him.
“Tower Keeper, may I have a quick word before your council gathers?”
Belissar nodded.
“Of course.”
Chief Rohsuak smiled.
“Thank you. I’m happy to inform you we’ve finished our preparations for a memorial for our fallen. Would you like to discuss the timing for that at the council?”
Belissar felt a slight pang at that but nodded all the same. The karnuq had decided to carve their own pillar before they held the memorial, doing as Belissar had done for his bees in the beginning. Belissar had offered to help but Chief Rohsuak had explained it was something the karnuq needed to do themselves, so he had left them to it.
It would be a sad moment, but Belissar knew it was important.
“Of course, we can do it whenever you’re ready. Niobee, can you ask a bee to remind me to bring it up?”
“Ok!”
Chief Rohsuak bowed her head while Niobee danced.
“Thank you, Tower Keeper. This…will mean a lot for us. Even the process of carving our memorial was…a more difficult process than I expected. But a necessary one. I am most grateful to you for proposing this.”
Belissar just smiled as best he could and nodded back. It wasn’t really a topic he wanted to dwell on much either…but if he could the help the karnuq, then he was glad.
Shortly after, Belissar gathered together with his council. He grinned, for they had much to discuss tonight.
“So…the karnuq are ready for their memorial, so we should plan to hold that soon. Besides that, we have another new room ready, several rewards from the God of Bees, and we have a lot of DP saved too, so we should figure out what to do with it.”
Tarwantrad also piped up.
“Ah, Belissar, we hadn’t reported it yet but the sigmaka agreed to meet with the Compact’s delegation. They requested to meet in your Tower, so you should also decide if you’re willing to host the meeting or not.”
Belissar kept grinning.
“That’s good news too! Yes, I’d be happy to help with that, so we should also discuss that tonight too. Everyone ready to begin?”
The bees replied with a synchronized salute dance that created a small gust. His other Tower defenders performed their own salutes while their fair folk allies grinned. Without further ado, Belissar began.
They decided to hold the karnuq memorial the next day, since Belissar would need at least a day anyways to arrange the meeting between the sigmaka and karnuq and make all his own preparations to host them. The karnuq would inform the sigmaka, while Wardmaster Varilold would inform the Compact.
With that settled, Belissar moved onto the new room. He had ignored it long enough already, so figured he should take a look before they opened up the rewards from the God of Bees.
A room is about to shift natures.
Muddy Seabed is now available.
Change Dirt Tunnels (2F) to Muddy Seabed? Please reduce Water-attribute mana and features and rebuild tunnels to restore room to original nature.
He took a look at the experimental Dirt Tunnels…or rather, what was left of it. As the Tower message had stated, the tunnels were gone. All the dirt had turned to mud, all the walls and roofs had collapsed, and now all of the mud had gathered into one solid mass at the bottom of the room, while water filled the remainder of the room above.
Belissar blinked for a moment before shrugging and confirming the change. The change was more dramatic than he had expected, but that just meant new rooms to work with, a greater success if anything.
The mana and the room rearranged itself. The amount of mud shrank down while the water grew to fill in the space, until the room was mostly filled with water save for the muddy floor. Belissar brought up the Tower’s description of the room and read it out loud for everyone.
Muddy Seabed
Type: Water, Ground, Field
Innate Features: None
Mana upkeep: 5
Description: An ocean floor comprised primarily of mud. A fully aquatic, saltwater environment excellent for Water type monsters and features. The muddy bottom has more nutrients available than pure sand and is a suitable environment for Ground type monsters and feature, provided they are adapted to a marine environment.
The Third of the Eighth perked up at that, the swimming bee’s wings speeding up at having another water room to explore. Tarwantrad’s eyes lit up as well.
“Belissar, Belissar! Is there sunlight in the room? If not, can you adjust the depth of the room until the sunlight reaches the bottom? If you could, this would be a perfect room to grow seagrass and try to make that recovery grass room!”
Belissar furrowed his brow. There was no sunlight in the room at present, so Belissar tried as Tarwantrad said and thought about changing the depth of the room.
Adjust room depth?
Apparently, Belissar could do just that. He tried changing the depth, apparently it was already at its lowest limit so he could only bring it up. As he did, the room started to brighten, until eventually he could start to see the sun shining down. He kept it up until the sunlight illuminated the muddy bottom as well.
This, however, had a side effect. Water had initially stopped pouring into the room from the door to the Abyssal Trench after Belissar had converted the room to a Muddy Seabed. But, as he lifted the depth of the room, the water started pouring in again despite the fact that the Muddy Seabed was already full, creating an increasingly powerful stream of water coming from the door.
Belissar wasn’t sure if that was good or bad but decided to just reapply the environmental seal now that the experiment was over…
Belissar paused. Something about that stuck in his mind. Environmental seals…and room experiments…
Tarwantrad looked at him with concern.
“Is something wrong, Belissar?”
He shook his head.
“No, it worked, there’s sunlight now. But…”
He explained what had happened with the door to the Abyssal Trench.
“…for some reason, environmental seals and room experiments is sticking out to me. Do you know anything about those?”
Tarwantrad nodded her head.
“Ah, yes, those are very helpful when you’re trying to make new rooms. They’re especially important when you want to keep water or heat or something from leaking between rooms. Did you have a room like that, maybe that’s why you’re thinking about it?”
Belissar’s eyes widened.
“Ah! The cold room!”
Belissar threw his Tower sight over at the Flower Meadow with the cold mana flowers, specifically at the doors leading in and out of the room. And, lo and behold, the Tower confirmed his fears.
Apply environmental seal to room entrance?
Belissar stiffened.
“Tarwantrad…if I was trying to make a cold room…and I never applied environmental seals to the doors because I didn’t know they existed…would all the cold have leaked out instead of changing the room?”
Tarwantrad also stiffened.
“That…sounds unfortunately plausible, yes. I’m…sorry I never told you about those, I wasn’t aware you weren’t aware of them…”
Belissar groaned. But he shook his head and pressed onward, it was not the first time he had encountered a critical gap in his knowledge and he doubted it would be the last.
“Well, at least we know now. Hopefully we’ll get a cold room sooner now…and we have a new Water room too! Actually, I should probably put those seals on the lava rooms too, huh?”
Belissar quickly applied environmental seals around all the Lava Fields and the Bogs too for good measure. There was more to do with the new rooms as well, the water stone node was redundant now and he should have probably checked on how the mana flowers were doing after being submerged. But, for now, he just asked a bee to remind him later, that was something he could check on himself. The council should stay focused on things that needed the council to decide.
Such as the rewards choices from the God of Bees.
Author’s Note:
Yay! Bumble helper is now officially bumble helper! Amazing, incredible! Now she can help the bees even more!
Thanks William Clark for the idea, by the way! The idea of bumble helper getting the blessing of the bumble helper was way too amazing and incredible not to use.
And now, with that brief interlude about some muddy place out of the way and fundamental Tower mechanics nobody ever told best dungeon master, we can proceed to the rewards from the God of Bees! Amazing, incredible!
Anyways!
Can Finnakynne truly become a good bumble helper? Will the new experimental rooms produce good places for bees? What rewards will best dungeon master get this time? Tune in next time, to find out!
Comments
Coleman
Even if she is a bit awkward Finn was never a bumbling helper. Her sincerity has been a wonderful part of the story. With new rooms and revelations the future is looking bright.
Fernando Oliveira
Thanks for the chapter, loved it. Glad to see Finnakynne get successful reassurance. Lol. Do the environmental seals cost anything? I can't remember if they do. Definitely see how that would be a thing people can miss tho. Wonder if we can ask our bee Oracle for a tower manual? Lol at least a list of abilities?
