BD - Chapter 348 - Bee-cieve the Blessings of Light!

Since Starami might resume his attack at any moment, Belissar and his council got right to business.

First of all, after checking in with the God of Bees through Velebee, Belissar accepted the God of Light’s blessing. A wave of light and mana surged through his dungeon, while a chest made of white wood and polished metal that shone in the sun appeared in the Memorial Flower Meadow’s shrine.

Medium Blessing of Light applied.

Effects:

- Light-related options appear with a medium increase in frequency.

- Additional special light-related options are unlocked and may now appear

- Light monster upgrades and evolutions have a medium reduction in resource cost and unlock difficulty

- Small boost to the stats of Light-type features and monsters

- Small increase in the effectiveness of all Light-type abilities

- Mana upkeep of Light-type rooms, features, and monsters reduced by one-tenth

Belissar smiled…and even teared up a bit.

“A shrine to make offerings to the God of Light herself, not to mention her own blessing. Mrs. Imkomos would have been so happy…”

Belissar quickly wiped his eyes and refocused, as they had a lot of choices to make and not a lot of time to do it. Belissar decided to open up all the choices first before going into each one in detail. Curiously, none of the choices this time had a rarity.

Please select a monster:

- Monster Sunflower Caster (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Nature, Magic)

- Light Dragon Hatchling (Rarity: Epic, Type: Light, Dragon)

- Guardian Angel Bee Queen (Rarity: Epic, Type: Bee, Light, Recovery)

Even though he was short on time, Belissar had to pause for a second. All of the choices were glowing with bright, yellow-white light. It seemed the God of Light had simply chosen all of the choices outright.

He desperately wanted to see what those guardian angel bees were like, but he knew that he needed to consider all of the choices before deciding on any one, so he forced himself to open the rest first.

Please select a room:

- Dragonvein Lightspire Desert (Rarity: Epic, Type: Light, Magic, Field, Resource)

- Hall of Purifying Light (Rarity: Epic, Type: Light, Dungeon)

- Dragonvein Aurora Forest (Rarity: Epic, Type: Light, Nature, Magic, Field, Resource)

Belissar had to pause yet again. Three epic rooms?! Two of which were more of the dragonvein rooms Urubran had made such a commotion about? But this time rooms that seemed significantly more friendly to flowering plant life?

If anything, that made Belissar all the more curious about the one room that wasn’t a dragonvein, but was still epic nonetheless. It took great will for him to move on to the next choices.

Please select a room feature:

- Miracle Lighthouse (Rarity: Epic, Type: Light, Recovery, Structure)

- Scrying Sphere (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Magic)

- Dancing Mirror (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Magic, Trap)

Please select a room feature:

- Star Core Flower (Rarity: Epic, Type: Light, Nature, Magic, Resource)

- Shining Yew Tree (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Nature, Resource)

- Lightseeker Sunflower (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Nature, Resource)

Please select a room feature:

- Mirror Dome (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Magic, Trap)

- Mirror Wall (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Trap, Structure)

- Crystalspine Cactus (Rarity: Rare, Type: Light, Nature, Trap, Resource)

“B-Belissar…”

Tarwantrad had started bouncing after he read the name Star Core Flower, so Belissar had a feeling he knew what she wanted to say. He smiled at her for now.

“I just need to read the perks and then we can start deciding.”

Tarwantrad closed her mouth but continued bouncing as silently as she could. Belissar decided not to keep her waiting long.

Please select a perk:

- Mana Photosynthesizing (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Photosynthetic Regeneration (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Energizing Light (Rarity: Uncommon)

Please select a perk:

- Revealing Light (Rarity: Rare)

- Piercing Light (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Blinding Light (Rarity: Uncommon)

Please select a perk:

- Bountiful Photosynthesis (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Nurturing Photosynthesis (Rarity: Uncommon)

- Empowering Photosynthesis (Rarity: Uncommon)

Belissar grinned.

“Ok! Let’s see what those monsters are like!”

Monster Sunflower Caster

Vitality: Below Average

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Minor

Magic: Above Average

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Average

Special: Above Average

Notable Skills: Light Absorption, Light Charging, Light Magic, Nature Magic

Spawner Upkeep: 30 (54 with Blessing of Bees and Blessing of Light)

Description: A monster sunflower that not only absorbs light and mana to grow and move, but that also learned to manipulate mana outright. The monster sunflower caster has an innate ability to weave Light and Nature spells to attack its enemies and assist its allies, though it struggles to learn magic of other elements. It is strongest when exposed to light, especially the light of the sun, as it can not only absorb light to quickly regenerate its mana, but charge and store light to empower its spells beyond their normal limits.

The First of the Fifth’s First Daughter lit up as the hive of hives bombarded her with mana dances. Belissar grinned as he listened in.

“New flower?”

“Caster…flower like Beero and hive of fallen?”

“Amazing, incredible! Can ask flower how use light!”

“If has light, good for Second of the Seventh?”

“Would be! Amazing, incredible!”

As expected, the bees were quite excited about a new monster flower. After all, a monster flower was a flower that already possessed enough mana to start moving around, making it a great option for the bees to forage from and cross-pollinate with others. That it could cast magic and fight itself was a bonus, but certainly a welcome one. Belissar just had once question, so he glanced over at Tarwantrad. She smiled and shook her head.

“I don’t have that one!”

Belissar smiled. Well, he guessed that if the God of Light was picking the choices, she could easily select one Tarwantrad hadn’t raised yet. This flower would be a new monster for both their dungeons, then. A perfect choice that fit with their dungeons and their plans.

Perhaps unlike the next option.

True Light Dragon Hatchling

Vitality: Above Average

Strength: Above Average

Speed: Average

Magic: Above Average

Defense: Above Average

Resistance: Above Average

Special: Average

Notable Skills: Young Light Dragonbreath, Young Dragonscales, Young Dragonclaw, Light Absorption

Spawner Upkeep: 200 (360 with Blessing of Bees and Blessing of Light)

Description: A newly hatched Light-attribute dragon. Despite its youth, inexperience, and high mana cost, a true dragon hatchling is already a formidable combatant. Still, the real value of the hatchling lies in its potential: with patience and suitable investment of mana and resources they may one day grow to become true dragons.

These ones are Light-attribute, able to use Light breath attacks and to coat their claws and scales in Light mana. They can also absorb light and Light mana to strengthen themselves and to recover from wounds and exhaustion. An environment rich in Light mana is necessary for their growth.

The bees’ dances died down. A single dance from the Fourth of the Seventh expressed the entire hive of hives’ opinion.

“Dragon? What that? Is new? Want to see!”

Belissar explained for them.

“You know the big creature General Rippotis rode on? That one’s a dragon.”

“Amazing, incredible! Big, strong, made lots of fire!”

The Third of the Sixth’s dance filled the hive-link. The Firstborn then joined in.

“Could be strong new member of hive of hives.”

Belissar shook his head.

“Well, these ones would be a lot smaller then General Rippotis’. They could grow that big eventually, but it would take a lot of time and a lot of mana. A…lot of mana…”

And that, there, was the problem. Sure, Belissar found dragons as impressive as anyone else and would love to have some guarding his bees and his Tower…but for three-hundred and sixty mana per spawner? That was more expensive than the Dragonvein Volcano room!

Tamosmed then interjected.

“It may not be as bad as you think, Belissar. The God of Light also offered you two options on Light attribute Dragonvein rooms, didn’t she? Either of those would be the perfect environment to raise Light dragons, so you’d probably get a discount on the spawners if you placed them there. Plus, you’d be able to grow them well in those rooms, particularly if you made and fed them Light attribute honey.”

Belissar blinked.

“Oh, that’s a good point.”

Tarwantrad poked Tamosmed in the side.

“And then Belissar would have spare dragonscales to share with you, right?”

Tamosmed knocked her hand away with a grunt.

“And? That’s good for him, too. I’m sure you’d love to see your karnuq and golems protected by dragonscale armor, right, Belissar?”

Belissar imagined that for a moment and then started to grin.

“Yes, I would.”

But there was one thing Belissar wanted to see even more right now: the next monster on the list.

Guardian Angel Bee Queen

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Average

Magic: Average

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Above Average

Notable Skills: Light Cloak, Angel Honey, Brood Mother, Command Offspring

Description: An angel bee that has accumulated enough Light mana to become something more. Like her mundane cousins, the guardian angel bee likes to make its home among sapient settlements, where it tends to avoid contact with other species. This shy bee uses its natural command of Light mana to further hide itself and its nest from view, living unseen in the holes and spaces within sapient homes. However, if its host home comes under threat, the guardian angel bees may attempt to protect it, extending their light cloak to hide individuals or even the entire structure, or creating Light barriers should stealth fail, though they lack the stingers and offensive capabilities to defeat a threat outright. Additionally, their honey absorbs nourishing Light mana, becoming a potion capable of healing wounds and cleansing ailments. They may share some in an emergency to save a resident of their home structure.

This one is a queen, capable of building a hive of guardian angel bees.

Now these ones had Belissar grinning from ear to ear by the time he finished the description. Bees! Magical bees! Magical bees that lived in people’s houses and protected them! He loved everything about these bees.

He then turned his attention to the hivelink to see what his own bees thought of them…

“Second of Seventh, can do that?”

“…right now, can’t. But never tried. Maybe can learn?”

“Bumble helper can! Hid trapper during battle with spiderkin! Second of Seventh ask her teach?”

“Will!”

“Can help hive of fallen get light too?”

“Don’t know, but will try!”

Belissar blinked. That…was right, wasn’t it? He already had the Light attribute shining bees. They hadn’t hid themselves with Light mana or anything…but Finnakynne had. It was possible she could teach them. Or maybe they could help Beero and the hive of the fallen learn Light magic and then she could learn to do something similar? Then there was the angel honey…but the Second of the Sixth’s healing honey was already similar, right?

Belissar smiled. Maybe…he already had his own guardian angel bees right here.

Still, this was a new species of bee entirely, so they still might offer something the shining monster bees didn’t. The guardian angel bee queens had the brood mother skill, so presumably they’d get access to the different types of soldier bees, along with gardeners, honeypots, and the other brood offspring evolutions. The stingless bee sprayers, after all, were much different than their monster bee counterparts, spraying wax and propolis from their heads instead of venom from their abdomens. Whose to say what the guardian angel bee evolutions would look like, or what might happen if they let guardian angel bees forage from all the different kinds of flowers in the Tower?

This was going to be a hard choice…and that was just the monsters…

Author’s Note:

BEEEEEEEESSSSSSS! And a bunch of silly non-bee stuff, but mostly bees! Which are, by the way, already a real bee. It’s official, folks, bees are angels!

…ok, I guess Light stuff isn’t the most silly, given that light is necessary for flowers which are necessary for bees. And there are some flowers too. You know, I’m starting to think the God of Light might not be too silly after all…

Anyways!

What will best dungeon master choose from these options? Will we finally get more bees? Will the God of Light be declared not silly? Tune in next time, to find out!