Belissar placed the feature in question, adjusting it to his liking. He then tried to place more monster bee queen spawners, and found it worked, placing a bunch more.

Mana: 14/100

He could place another three, for four total before he ran out of mana. He then rearranged some of the trees and made a few hills, before letting go of the core. There was nothing left he knew how to do with the core that could help...so it was time to go to work with his hands.

Initial Purification attempt in 2 days, 22 hours, and 38 minutes...

He walked outside just as the other three monster bee queens crawled out of their spawners. They flew in front of Belissar as he walked into the field, with the first queen and the conduit bee joining them.

“King, have command?”

He felt a sharp pain in his chest. He had gotten his friend killed, dying to save him, and yet still she asked him that. He took a deep breath and nodded his head.

“Yes, I have an idea. I...know I’m not worthy of this tower, and you paid the price for it. You might still pay the price for it. But...I’m going to try my best to protect you now. But I will need your help, all of you, to pull it off. I’m sorry but...will you help me?”

The conduit bee flew around rapidly.

“Of course! King lead, worker help!”

The queen bees danced their agreement. Belissar took a deep breath.

“Ok. Let’s get to work then.”

“Ok!”

And so, he did. The queen bees flew off to start their hives, and the conduit bee went to help them. Meanwhile, Belissar hunched over and moved through the field, picking as many dandelions as he could as he made his way over to the nearest tree. Once there, he began picking up sticks as well. He needed as many as he could find...

Initial Purification attempt in 2 days, 5 hours, and 17 minutes...

Belissar continued working through the night. He thought he would be exhausted, but the warmth from the core and the Tower filled him whenever he thought he was getting tired. So, he was able to continue working with neither food nor sleep. Still, with the sun setting, it would be hard to do much. If only he could see in the dark...

The moment he thought that his vision seemed to light up. The field was still as dark as ever but Belissar could somehow see it. Or rather...it felt like his vision was still dark but he somehow knew what was happening in the room. As he thought that, his vision seemed to float away from his body. He blinked.

Apparently, he could see anything happening in the room, even when he wasn’t touching the core.

“Well, that’s convenient. Yet another thing I wish I had known before...”

He shook his head and went back to work tying some dandelion stems into a cord. It seemed he could work through the night after all...

Initial Purification attempt in 1 days, 23 hours, and 45 minutes...

Belissar watched as the first round of worker bees hatched and got to work. A third of them flew to and from their hives, a third of them flew to greet the new queens from the spawners and help them get set up, and a third of them flew towards the gate to the Hunger, carrying dried out dandelion stems Belissar had picked yesterday. Belissar focused on one of them.

Monster Bee Worker

Vitality: Minimal

Strength: Minimal

Speed: Average

Magic: Minimal

Defense: Minimal

Resistance: Minimal

Special: Minimal

Notable Skills: Poison Sting, Sacrificial Strike, Brood Offspring

Description: Largely similar to a mundane honeybee, though the mana flowing through it improves the toxicity of its venom. Can be dangerous in numbers to the unprepared, but generally not meant for combat. Will be spawned by monster bee queens if available.

Belissar nodded. The monster bee workers were about what he expected from what he saw earlier, and barely different from normal bees. He wondered what made them “monsters” then? He wondered if he had made the wrong choice. Should he have chosen something else?

But he shook his head. A Tower Lord might have, but a Belissar was a humble beekeeper. Maybe bees weren’t the right choice, but at the very least they were something he knew. He didn’t think he would have come up with his idea if he had slimes or clockwork puppets or whatever else.

That is, assuming his idea would work...

He bent down as he thought, picking more stems. Bees came to grab them from him and lay them out in the sun to dry. The bees could carry the stems to and fro, but they had trouble cutting them, so it was up to Belissar to pick as many as he could. They had their jobs, and he had his.

Initial Purification attempt in 1 day, 0 hours, and 22 minutes...

“Hunger take you!”

Yet another cord snapped as Belissar tried to pull his fire bow back and forth. He had gathered enough material and the bees were still hard at work, so now he was testing things to make sure he could pull it off.

It...wasn’t going particularly well, and he had only a day left to go. But he didn’t have his flint with him and making a firebow with twigs and dandelion cords...wasn’t proving to be easy. He had managed to saw through some of the thinner branches of the trees to get something a little more substantial than a twig, but the dandelion cords kept snapping.

A real Tower Lord would have known some magic, or else had an artifact prepared to do this. But a real Tower Lord probably wouldn’t need to start a fire like this either. Belissar sighed and shook his head.

“Guess I have no choice.”

He grabbed the hem of his tunic and stretched it out. Then he took his knife and cut off a strip from the bottom. Hopefully it would hold up better to the task than tied dandelion stems did.

His entire plan depended on it, and time was ticking...

Initial Purification attempt in 15 minutes...

The conduit bee buzzed and zipped around Belissar’s head.

“King, sure?”

Belissar nodded.

“For the hundredth time, yes.”

The bee picked up speed.

“But! Worker job to fight! King, queen stay in hive! Stay safe!”

Belissar shook his head as he walked towards the gate. He held a branch with strips from his tunic wrapped around the top. A fire burned at the top of his makeshift torch.

It was burning down the branch faster than he’d like. He could only hope he timed it right...

“Not this time. I watched all of you die once because I’m unworthy. I’m not going to let that happen again.”

The buzzing intensified.

“Worker job to fight! Worker job to die for hive! King must live!”

Additional bees flew around him, buzzing and dancing their agreement. But Belissar continued walking forward until he reached the gate to the hunger. Two hills rose to either side of it with a small flat path between them. Trees spread out along the path. Belissar had wanted two rows lining the path, but the maximum limit on the trees meant it was far sparser than he had hoped. Which is why he was standing before the gate himself.

“If everything goes well, no one will die at all, except that monster. You’ve done your part, this is mine.”

The conduit bee flew unsteadily before him.

“But...but...”

Belissar smiled at her.

“You’ve saved my life twice now. It’s my turn to save yours.”

The bee picked up a bit of speed.

“But...worker came back?”

Belissar paused for a second but shook his head. That...was true, at least for the conduit bee, but it didn’t change his mind.

“...I’m not going to let it take anything else. Now, fall back. Please.”

The bee buzzed a bit more before slowly flying back. The bees...weren’t happy about this. Large clouds of them buzzed behind him, hovering at the exact distance he told them to stay at. Belissar sighed. He knew he was probably being foolish. The bees most likely could do this job, or at least part of it. And it was true that this was their normal role. Worker bees not only risked their lives, they killed themselves to protect the hive. They ripped their bodies apart just to deal a small sting to any would-be invaders. As long as the queens remained, they could replace the losses, and the conduit bee herself apparently could come back from the dead.

But an image of bees dropping from the sky as a black cloud passed over them flashed before Belissar’s eyes. It may have been foolish but...he didn’t want to see them die like that again. So here he was, a mere peasant preparing to face the Hunger...

Initial Purification attempt in 5 minutes...

Belissar took a deep breath as he arrived at his position in front of the gate, trying to slow his beating heart. He talked up a big game, but now, when he was here, waiting for that monster to approach...he couldn’t help but have second thoughts. The mere idea of facing down the shade again sent a shiver down his spine. Sweat already drenched his body, and he couldn’t help but gulp.

But he calmed himself. He had already died once, or at least come very close to it. Everyone in his life who knew him was already gone, save for the bee flying behind him. His life...had very little meaning. He was the weird guy nobody cared about, with nothing he wanted to achieve but to take care of his bees and improve his mead recipe.

The bees were different. They lived selflessly, and with purpose. They would give their lives for each other, and now for him as well, without hesitation. They deserved to live, and to carry on their work. They did not deserve to be slaughtered.

Belissar wanted to protect them. He needed to protect them. He needed to prove that he had some value. That his life had been worth them saving, even if just a little.

So, he calmed his beating heart and his trembling hand as he fixed his eye on the gate...

Initial Purification attempt in 1 minute...