Chapter 39: Prosperi-Bee

    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.

    “What’s the matter?”

    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.

    “Hm?”

    And then he smiled.

    “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.

    “Hm, looks like healing herbs. The chief will be pleased.”

    The spearwoman narrowed her eyes.

    “This...definitely wasn’t here when we arrived.”

    Metsaitti smirked.

    “No. No, it was not.”

    He stood up and turned to face the group.

    “Something to keep in mind about Sacred Dens. The master can see and hear everything that goes on in one. He probably heard our earlier conversation and adjusted things accordingly.”

    He made eye-contact with the spearman who wanted to take the mana flower.

    “He’s been very cooperative thus far, but do remember that this is his home, and his domain. We are guests, and he WILL know if we act otherwise.”

    The spearman gulped and glanced around while Metsaitti turned and looked toward the sky.

    “Thank you, Den Master.”

    He shrugged...and then started to grin.

    For he had an idea.

    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.

    His rationale was to use them to help with the fire pit strategy. But he realized a problem with that as he watched the bear people avoid the Pit Traps. If an invader managed not to fall into any of the Pit Traps, then the Sticky Honey Traps didn’t do anything either. This had borne out in the minor+ purification as well, when only the shade that fell into the pit got hit with the mad honey.

    So, it might make sense for Belissar to place some honey traps beyond those at the bottom of the pits.

    The only downside would be it may take more honey from the Apiary to support those traps, especially if he wanted to use mad honey. Now that he was aware the bees were carrying honey to them, he noticed that a few of the Apiary hives were producing less honey than normal. Well, they were still producing far more than he could consume, but it did mean he should pay attention to how many honey traps he made.

    In the end, he decided that rather than making some new traps, he would move some of them out from pits that were further off the beaten path, the ones less likely to catch a shade in the first place. His bees also needed the honey to grow their hives and to make new bee types, so he didn’t want to overburden them with the traps. The honey traps, while helpful, still were only a minor hindrance to the shades. The bees were what would finish the job.

    In the end, between more bees, and more anything else, Belissar’s choice was obvious.