Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Belissar took a deep breath. He could do this. He slew a monster of the Hunger! He was chosen by a god, even! He was a Tower Lord now, one of the pinnacles of humanity that guided the course of civilization!

So, he definitely couldn’t be afraid of looking at the next choice! Maybe it would even help him make all his other choices!

Such was Belissar’s hope and prayer...

Please select a perk:

- Bee Specialist (Rarity: Common)

- Bee Breeder (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Enhanced Toxins (Rarity: Common)

Having no idea what any of that meant from first glance, Belissar looked over each option in turn.

Still...it didn’t feel bad to have someone who believed in him. He only hoped he could live up to that trust.

He then rubbed his chin and hummed. Well, he still didn’t know much about being a Tower Lord, and he didn’t know what the right choices here were. He was but a humble beekeeper. But...that was apparently why his friend wanted him in charge...and his patron was the God of Bees. Maybe he should just focus on what he knew?

After all, he figured out how to fight the Hunger when thinking as a farmer and a beekeeper. Maybe he should forget being a good Tower Lord, and just go with his gut? Well, in any case, making some choice was better than none. Hopefully. Maybe. There wasn’t another countdown for a purification at the moment, but Belissar couldn’t be certain if or when another would appear. And the one thing he knew is that he’d certainly like to have more to fight it with than a field of dandelions.

Belissar sighed and stood up, and then looked at the conduit bee again. He made a small smile.

“I think I’m ready to choose. Thanks for your help.”

“Worker always help King!”

Belissar paused at that. It seemed there was something important he had forgotten in all this chaos.

“You know, I never got your name.”

The bee paused, and then danced slowly.

Belissar frowned. He guessed...the bees didn’t have names for themselves?

“No name, huh. In that case, why don’t I give you one?”

The bee just stared at Belissar as he thought.

“How about...Niobee?”

Conduit Unnamed Bee is now named Niobee.

Belissar smiled as he watched Niobee dance about, before returning to his task. He took a deep breath, and then opened the windows, making his choices as they came to him.

Monster bee soldier spawner now available. Monster bee queens may now spawn monster bee soldiers.

Belissar would love to keep his bees from harm, never letting them fight again...but that simply wasn’t reasonable. He was no fighter and had no confidence he could continue to protect the bees with his own hands. Equally as important, it was in the bees’ own nature to protect their hives, and Belissar couldn’t stop them from doing so forever. He had chosen them as the defenders of the Tower, after all. So, the next best thing he could do was make sure they could fight effectively, so that the next time he would not need to watch the hives destroyed and the colonies fall from the sky en masse.

As such, he went with the monster bee soldiers. Dedicated warrior bees might be capable of taking on an enemy on their own...and at the very least should do better than the workers who were practically normal bees. The soldiers would fight and the workers would gather, as was their intended roles.

And with that in mind...

Apiary is now available.

The monster bee soldier description stated the queens could spawn them once their hives were more developed...so Belissar hoped an Apiary would help them reach that stage more quickly. And, if it didn’t, he could still benefit from the honey it produced...

Sticky Honey Trap is now available.

Mana Upkeep: 3 (1 if honey provided)

Description: Spreads sticky honey onto a target or area, hindering target’s mobility. Upkeep reduced if dungeon has a source of honey. Effects may vary with type of honey.

With this, he would have a way to weaponize the honey more directly. That would allow his worker bees to contribute to the defense by doing what they did best, the Apiary’s honeycomb production as well. Perhaps if he could combine this trap and the pit trap, he could repeat his fire pit strategy without needing three days of setup.

The note about effects varying with the type of honey was also interesting. Could his bees make more than just regular honey? Would different types of bees make different types of honey, then? The old beekeeper had told him stories as a child about fire bees that could make spicy honey or ice bees that could survive in the winter and made honey as cool as snow. Up till now he had thought they were just stories...but with a Tower of the Gods, who knew what was possible?

Belissar even smiled. He was starting to look forward to the next monster choice...

And finally, to round it all off...

Bee Breeder selected.

This was the hardest of the choices. All of them were helpful to his bees and he still didn’t know enough to know which was more important. But at the end of the day, the strength of bees was their numbers. Bees worked together, living in colonies of thousands acting as one single being. They could drive away animals thousands of times their size by swarming as a group. So, Belissar figured the more bees, the better.