Chapter 45: Chapter 45
The bear team had finished up for the day and were making their way back to the entrance when one of the archers suddenly stopped, staring off to the side. Metsaitti brought the rest to a stop and turned to face him.
The archer pointed towards one of the trees.
“Might be my imagination but...was the grass glowing by that tree before?”
Metsaitti turned and looked in the direction indicated.
“I think we’re in luck. Come on, let’s check it out.”
The group made their way over and found a small patch of herbs, several of which were glowing. Metsaitti stepped forward and reached for one of the glowing ones and it practically pulled itself out of the ground and into his hand.
And then he heard the chime.
New mission received: Help ten challengers receive full blessings.
Belissar smiled. At this point, he was wondering if the God of Bees was reading his thoughts. Well, she was a god so that was probably true. He nodded his head.
Belissar thought a bit about what that would mean. First of all, the mission said “full blessings.” That implied that whatever mana or blessing the challengers had received thus far wasn’t a full blessing. Which made sense to Belissar, as he certainly hadn’t seen any of the superhuman deeds the Tower Guard were reported to be capable of.
The unarmed challengers had offered tribute and been blessed in turn, save the one who apparently tried to offer something someone else had made. Meanwhile, the armed challengers went and fought Remnant shades, then got blessed. They had repeated this process the next day, and then the blessing increased when they gathered herbs too.
Belissar figured that they needed multiple blessings to get the full one, and that they had to do something for the God of Bees to receive that blessing. That something appeared to include offering tribute, or helping Belissar with the purification.
Belissar frowned a bit at this. The one thing that worried him was the guy who offered something that he hadn’t made himself. And mostly because...Belissar had also offered honeycomb that he hadn’t made himself. Unless...it counted because it was from his dungeon?
...in any case, the God of Bees had accepted it without complaint or smiting. Belissar figured he would at least try to include something he had done by hand whenever he could, though.
But otherwise...to help the bear people get their blessings, Belissar should help them do things. He should help the unarmed folk make more tribute, and he should give the armed ones...more to do? More to gather?
He shrugged...and then started to grin.
A wonderful, not at all selfish, idea.
He made another textile node, next to the healing herb node by the entrance.
Well, if the bear people happened to gather some flax, they could process it into linen to offer as tribute, right?
And if they happened to thus have some cloth Belissar could then trade for without having to make it himself by hand...well, Belissar wouldn’t turn them down!
Beyond that, Belissar wasn’t fully sure what else to do. He wasn’t certain about adding a poison flower node. What if the bear people thought it was medicine and ended up poisoning themselves? Well, he could always just tell them, but then he’d have to talk to them again.
And when he remembered his awkward gathering of their tribute and farewell...he didn’t particularly look forward to speaking with them again.
He could send the bees...but he wasn’t sure anyone but he could actually understand them. Even he hadn’t known what Niobee was saying prior to him becoming a dungeon master.
Besides that...there wasn’t a whole lot to do in the Tower besides walk around looking for Remnants and flowers to gather. There was the Apiary, but Belissar wasn’t comfortable letting them snoop around in there. That was where many of his bees made their home, after all. And while they could probably gather honeycomb from the hives like they could harvest the resource plants...Belissar didn’t like the idea of them reaching into his bees’ homes.
Ultimately, he decided honeycomb would be something they would have to trade for.
So, in the end, the only answer was the same thing Belissar had already set out to do. He needed to expand and grow and gain more options. So, he needed to keep performing purifications, growing his mana, and gathering DP.
He still had some time before the purification cooldown was ready, so he could continue work on his cord for the torches. He could also review his defenses some more. Watching the bear folk walk around had given Belissar another thought, after all.
Which was that putting Sticky Honey Traps only at the bottom of Pit Traps may not be ideal.