The Bee Dungeon-Chapter 270: King-Bee Colla-Bee-ration

The next day, Belissar left the Apiary farmhouse to make his rounds through the Tower. He only took a few steps, however, before he saw something new. His jaw hung open.

“This…is…”

Outside of the First of the Fifth’s bee apartment stood a new beeswax golem, with the First of the Fifth’s Fourth Daughter happily dancing on top of it. And this one was much different from the Seventh Daughter’s. The slime bee’s golem had appeared much like the previews the Tower showed Belissar when he first selected the golems: a humanoid shape with rough or simple features, if any. The Fourth Daughter’s, on the other hand, was far more detailed…

In fact, if Belissar wasn’t mistaken…it was modeled after him. He hadn’t checked his face in a while but it definitely resembled him more than Hirkolos, Sehfitis, or any of the karnuq, sigmaka, or fair folk. The tunic and pants were the same shape as the ones he was wearing now, down to the stitches and patches.

Belissar blinked.

“You finished the golem. Is this…me?”

The Fourth Daughter zipped around.

“Yes!”

Belissar felt his face heat up…especially as Niobee began zipping around and proclaiming it amazing and incredible.

“I…see…”

He felt…weird seeing a wax statue of himself attempting a salute dance. He shook his head, though. His own feelings weren’t important here, the Fourth Daughter completing another golem was, and if making it look like him made the bees happy then he couldn’t complain. He forced a smile onto his face.

“Great work.”

Belissar was then treated to the sight of a statue of himself attempting a happy dance along with the Fourth Daughter. The sight was so surreal that he eventually started laughing. The more he thought about it, the more he came to term with being the golem’s model. He wouldn’t mind watching himself fight to defend the bees.

He gave her a smile that wasn’t forced this time.

“Could you show me how you created the core?”

Previously, the Fourth of the Seventh and Fourth of the Fifth had set out to scout the area around the Tower, both above and below ground. The forest around the Tower continued to the south while up north opened up into small farms and the occasional village, most of which were in ruins. The karnuq, since they were holding back from the Underway now, decided to send a scout party to comb the ruins for anything useful.

The Fourth of the Fifth established a mini-hive in the Underway in the meantime. Her digging bees were now keeping an eye on the nearby tunnels, especially the cavern the spiderkin had occupied. They were slowly expanding to the tunnels beyond that, but were moving extra carefully on Belissar’s request, as they did not have either the karnuq or the rest of the bee army to help them if they encountered anything hostile.

And now, later in the day, the Fourth of the Seventh returned to the Tower. Belissar moved to greet her at the entrance with a smile.

“Hi there, Fourth of the Seventh. Great work as always, I’m glad you returned safely.”

As usual, the Fourth of the Seventh responded by rapidly flying circles that devolved to the point the Tower could only translate them as a vague but intense sense of joy. Belissar chuckled as he waited for her to calm down.

“I think we can finish your golem now, we just need your help.”

The Fourth of the Seventh immediately resumed the circles.

“Amazing, incredible! King is best king!”

Belissar continued laughing as he walked with her to the Orchard grove and the inert bee-shaped golem. The First of the Fifth’s Fourth and Seventh Daughters were waiting there at his request, while the First Daughter and the communer came to greet the Fourth of the Seventh. After much happy dancing, they all gathered around the golem. Belissar held out his hand and created a spell drone.

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“Ok, so, I haven’t figured out how to make a core myself yet…but the Fourth Daughter has, and I learned how to make spell drones. Would it be possible to let the Fourth of the Seventh use my mana to form the core?”

The bees stared at him for a moment. The Fourth of the Seventh danced uncharacteristically slowly.

“Use…King’s…mana? With drone?”

Belissar nodded…and the Fourth of the Seventh immediately shot into the sky.

“AMAZING! INCREDIBLE! KING IS BEST KING!”

Belissar shook his head with a smile before turning his attention to the Fourth and Seventh Daughters for their opinion…but they were just staring at him without moving. He glanced over at the First Daughter, who was stumbling out a dance step by step.

“Fourth of Seventh…and King…joining hives…amazing…incredible…”

“Ah…”

Belissar’s eyes widened a bit as he realized that offering to mix his mana with the bees was a much bigger deal to them than he thought. He probably should have realized that beforehand…but, well, he still would have offered to do it anyways.

In any case, there was nothing to do but wait for the bees to calm down and come to their senses. Niobee helped, flying to each of them to brush their antennae. The First Daughter called out her communers while the Fourth and Seventh Daughters discussed golem core formation with the Fourth of the Seventh. Soon, they were ready.

Belissar smiled at them.

“Ready?”

All the bees danced the affirmative. Belissar had his spell drone fly to the Fourth of the Seventh and channeled his mana through it. The First Daughter helped instruct him, apparently she had spent more time watching the drones bind different hives together than nearly any other queen, so she was a great help. She also had her communers dance like they did at the meetings to assist, along with the Fourth of the Seventh’s own communer.

Belissar’s spell drone gently reached out its mana to the Fourth of the Seventh’s…

“Queen combining mana with King! Amazing! Incredible! King is best king, Queen is best queen!”

“Tree has new flower! Need to tell Queen! Amazing! Incredible!”

“Karnuq picking up stick? Why? Is dead, no flowers. Need find out why, tell Queen!”

Belissar nearly staggered back as thousands of dances filled his head and the vision of thousands of eyes filled his sight. He had seen through the eyes of bees before with his Tower sight...but never an entire hive at once, and so his normal senses were overwhelmed. He quickly shut his eyes and focused on his Tower senses and the pain receded. With a moment to breathe, he realized he was hearing and seeing the Fourth of the Seventh’s hive…her entire hive.

He had successfully connected his mana to hers.

The Fourth of the Seventh, meanwhile, ceased her dancing…and even her flying, drifting down to land gently on the ground. She took careful, soft steps.

“Can see…what King sees…amazing…incredible…”

Both Belissar and the Fourth of the Seventh just basked in the connection for a bit. It took a while before they could move on to the actual task…

And then, the First Daughter helped them add the Fourth and Seventh Daughters to the mix. After giving them a reasonable amount of time to bask in the connection, they finally got to work on finishing the golem. Belissar’s spell drone and the three queens all climbed inside the big wax bee and reached out into the mana within the wax. The Fourth and Seventh Daughters then showed them how to move and condense their mana while hardening a chunk of the wax to form the structure of the core. As Belissar had hoped, the process was not dissimilar to honey swirling, while for the Fourth of the Seventh it resembled laying eggs. With the Fourth and Seventh Daughter’s guidance, they were able to form a glowing hexagon within the golem.

Belissar felt his mana flow through the golem, much like when he was casting a spell. The Fourth of the Seventh’s was still flowing alongside his as well and she wasted no time trying to move it.

The golem’s leg moved. Its wings swung up and down and it crawled about it a circle. Then, a moment later, the golem began spinning around in a happy dance, mimicking the much faster dance of the Fourth of the Seventh inside.

“AMAZING! INCREDIBLE! KING IS BEST KING!”

Belissar grinned.

“You all are amazing. I hope you enjoy the golem.”

Meanwhile, the First Daughter stood completely still as she stared at both Belissar and the golem…

A while later, the First Daughter stumbled onto the top of her hive. Today had been…overwhelming. The Fourth of the Seventh had joined hives with the King. The First Daughter had facilitated it herself…and so participated in the link. The King truly did see the world differently from them, in more ways than one. Not only was his physical sight completely alien to them, he could see without his eyes at all. It was…humbling.

But even that was not why she stumbled now. No, she had noticed something the others hadn’t, overwhelmed by the connection with the King as they were. She’d have missed it with them, but she had to keep focus in order to maintain the link and so had no choice but to stay more cognizant.

And the entire hive of hives needed to know what she had seen. So, once again, she danced to the communers and sent her mana across the hive of hives.

“First of the Fifth’s First Daughter? Something happen? Need army?”

“First Daughter, everything ok?! Why connecting now?!”

“HI FIRST DAUGHTER!”

The First Daughter danced immediately, for nothing could delay this news.

“Hi, urgent news. King can make spell drones. Can connect hives to King, think works same as normal drones.”

The connection went silent…and then the entire hive of hives burst into chaotic dancing.