Chapter 40: Chapter 40

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.

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.

“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.”

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.