Even though I had all the necessary tools to summon my first-ever boss monster now, it was still too early in the day for me to actually risk it. I was also about two hundred and sixty mana over my limit, meaning I had to spend quite a bit before I could even think about using the Vulpine Circle in the first place.
For now, I could only work on the other problem that had come up recently, namely the two lovers that had found their way into my core room. While I still had no idea why they were the only foxes that had formed a couple, it was likely only a matter of time before the next one popped up. This meant they would surround me from all sides, should they not have their own place by then.
“A nursery it is!”
Having made my decision, I made my way towards the wall of my core room that was closest to the dungeon’s entrance, before beginning to dig a tunnel in its direction. It took me a few dozen bends before I finally reached my desired position - after having created the longest tunnel I had so far in my dungeon. All of it I dug while being surrounded by complete darkness, with only my dungeon-given instincts leading the way toward the exit.
While building the tunnel, a sudden idea popped into my mind, one that would make defending my most important room so far a lot easier. The soon-to-become father enjoying his time back in my core room had no trouble squeezing even through tight openings, given he could transform his body into a malleable cloud of steam. So what if I had the prayer room right next to the nursery? I could have the sole connection between the two being protected by a barrier adventurers couldn’t hope to overcome while giving my foxes free entry!
Out of all my foxes so far, only the steam foxes had this ability, making them the prime candidates to protect my makeshift shrine. Hopefully, the combined forces of the three-tailed fox and Cilia herself would prove enough of a hurdle for those adventurers who knew just how valuable the metals I had used were.
With that in mind, I created a room for two hundred and fifty mana, putting me just at the threshold of being able to use the Vulpine Circle. After setting the daytime and weather in the resulting cavern to be changing and to be hot as well, I nodded satisfied. It didn’t look like much right now, but given that the newly created nursery was about a hundred meters in diameter, there was easily enough space for newborn pups to explore and play around without being in any danger from passerby adventurers. Only the very first foxes growing up in this room would have to be protected by their parents, given they, too, could squeeze into the prayer room should nobody pay attention to them.
Of course, this was all in the future. The pups were nowhere ready to be born yet, looking at the shape of their mother, and I had no idea how far in the future their birth would be in the first place. Some species of monsters led very fast lives when born outside of dungeons, such as kobolds and goblins, with their pregnancies lasting mere days or weeks at most. Others carried their offspring for years and only gave birth to them once they were strong enough to fend for their own. Then there were egg layers as well - not that I had any of those aside from the small salamanders, the fish, and the birds.
Having created the room itself, I immediately connected it with the prayer room before separating the two again with bars of pure mithril. Not a single adventurer would be able to get rid of those without carrying an entire furnace with them or bringing a high-classed red wizard. And if they did either of those, they might as well fight their way through my dungeon the intended way and save a lot of time while doing so.
Having finished the rough outline of my future nursery, I made my way back to the core room to bring over my dungeon core to use for the required detailed work. It took me a few minutes to return to the construction site, but once I had, I sat down and began working on nests for the future mothers to use.
First I closed my eyes and imagined a small, wooden house to come into existence. It took me several minutes to get a good image in my head, then my mana was finally leaving me and a cold shiver ran over my skin. I kept my eyes closed for a few moments longer, just to make sure everything was like I wanted it to be, and then I opened them to check out my finished work.
The house was large enough for both the three-tailed fox and its mate to sleep under the protection of its roof and had cute little windows for sunshine to fall through, but was otherwise quite protected from the elements. I didn’t want the newborn pups to catch a cold, after all - if that was even possible at all.
Having made one such prototype, it was much easier to create a few more of the houses of slightly varying sizes and shapes. All of them found their space in the outer radius of the room, leaving the middle of the room free for a future meadow. The foxes would certainly wish for someplace for their pups to run free and play, after all.
The surroundings of the houses themselves would be left for the future me to change to fit the fox families’ various needs. Some of them would likely become a lot hotter, others would maybe be the opposite. Then there were those that would likely need no change at all, given that some of my foxes, especially the earth foxes, were more than easy to please. But who knew what exciting new foxes I would get to meet and which of them would end up in the nursery to care for their family?
For now, I selected the house closest to the prayer room to become the steam foxes’ new home, hoping this would help them defend me from greedy or straight-up evil adventurers. To make this area more to their liking I even created a small pond and, once that was done, a single geyser to fill up the room with hot and moist air. I could only hope the small pups wouldn’t wake up from the noise of the watery explosions, but given that their parents hadn’t had any issue sleeping back in their old room, it probably was a needless worry.
Sadly, creating the lonely geyser had almost completely drained my mana, making me once again ask just what it was about them that was this expensive for me to create. Would the next ones be much cheaper again like last time? But I only needed one!
I shook my head, reluctantly using the very last points of mana to summon a few berry bushes for the surroundings of the steam foxes’ new home. They would likely love to have something sweet to chew on - a luxury their relatives at the geyser room certainly lacked.
With all my mana gone and used, I took a long last look at my work before making my way back to the steam fox couple. The room was nowhere near finished, but for now, it would have to do. And it would certainly do better than my core room!
Explaining my ideas for the new room wasn’t as hard of a task as I thought it would turn out at first. The three-tailed steam fox readily yelped and wagged its tail to each of my orders, with its smaller mate joining in for her own replies every now and then. It was only when I invited them to accompany me to their new home that something unexpected happened.
The mother-to-be didn’t follow me, but rather made her way to my nest instead, before randomly selecting one of the pelts to drag with her. It didn’t take long for her mate to get her idea and soon he helped her carry the way too heavy for her pelt back into the tunnel, five tails waving behind their backs as they vanished into the dark.
I could only sigh as I gathered six more of the furs to carry with me so that each of the homes would come with one of them waiting for future families to rest on. When I finally reached the room after minutes of stumbling my way through the darkness, the two foxes had already finished exploring their new home. There wasn’t much to see, after all, with the sole remarkable features being spread around the house they luckily selected.
After spending a few minutes sniffing at their new home - which couldn’t smell of anything but wood, given that it was entirely new - the couple happily made their way inside the wooden house, dragging their chosen fur with them.
I could only smile about how readily they had accepted my work. If they liked it now, how much would they like it in the future, when there was so much more to look at and interact with?
The next few minutes I spent carefully draping the furs in the houses so that most of their floor was covered with something soft to comfortably sleep on. Doing that much had cost me about half of my own nest, but given that I didn’t actually need that much space to sleep on, it was only a small price to pay. And maybe I would even have a bed in the future, with the furs becoming my blankets instead? I could barely wait for that to happen.
By now, I was already feeling exhausted, having both spent all of my mana and having wrecked my brains by building those houses. So I did as all good foxes do - mine did at least - and went to rest in the middle of the day. It was only when I reached my pitiful nest that I realized I had a different option to skip some time - and fix my feeling of loneliness.
A few minutes later I had already fixed my nest, making it look a lot smaller but equally comfortable compared to before. The two orbs had even gotten their very own piece of fur a few meters away, so there wasn’t any risk of me hitting them in the middle of sleeping.
With that matter dealt with, I hugged my core, closed my eyes, and prayed. There was so much I wanted to tell Cilia, so much to ask. But the most I really wanted to see her again. It had been too long…
- - -
Updated Map as of Chapter 21 [collapse]
Even though I had all the necessary tools to summon my first-ever boss monster now, it was still too early in the day for me to actually risk it. I was also about two hundred and sixty mana over my limit, meaning I had to spend quite a bit before I could even think about using the Vulpine Circle in the first place.
For now, I could only work on the other problem that had come up recently, namely the two lovers that had found their way into my core room. While I still had no idea why they were the only foxes that had formed a couple, it was likely only a matter of time before the next one popped up. This meant they would surround me from all sides, should they not have their own place by then.
“A nursery it is!”
Having made my decision, I made my way towards the wall of my core room that was closest to the dungeon’s entrance, before beginning to dig a tunnel in its direction. It took me a few dozen bends before I finally reached my desired position - after having created the longest tunnel I had so far in my dungeon. All of it I dug while being surrounded by complete darkness, with only my dungeon-given instincts leading the way toward the exit.
While building the tunnel, a sudden idea popped into my mind, one that would make defending my most important room so far a lot easier. The soon-to-become father enjoying his time back in my core room had no trouble squeezing even through tight openings, given he could transform his body into a malleable cloud of steam. So what if I had the prayer room right next to the nursery? I could have the sole connection between the two being protected by a barrier adventurers couldn’t hope to overcome while giving my foxes free entry!
Out of all my foxes so far, only the steam foxes had this ability, making them the prime candidates to protect my makeshift shrine. Hopefully, the combined forces of the three-tailed fox and Cilia herself would prove enough of a hurdle for those adventurers who knew just how valuable the metals I had used were.
With that in mind, I created a room for two hundred and fifty mana, putting me just at the threshold of being able to use the Vulpine Circle. After setting the daytime and weather in the resulting cavern to be changing and to be hot as well, I nodded satisfied. It didn’t look like much right now, but given that the newly created nursery was about a hundred meters in diameter, there was easily enough space for newborn pups to explore and play around without being in any danger from passerby adventurers. Only the very first foxes growing up in this room would have to be protected by their parents, given they, too, could squeeze into the prayer room should nobody pay attention to them.
Of course, this was all in the future. The pups were nowhere ready to be born yet, looking at the shape of their mother, and I had no idea how far in the future their birth would be in the first place. Some species of monsters led very fast lives when born outside of dungeons, such as kobolds and goblins, with their pregnancies lasting mere days or weeks at most. Others carried their offspring for years and only gave birth to them once they were strong enough to fend for their own. Then there were egg layers as well - not that I had any of those aside from the small salamanders, the fish, and the birds.
Having created the room itself, I immediately connected it with the prayer room before separating the two again with bars of pure mithril. Not a single adventurer would be able to get rid of those without carrying an entire furnace with them or bringing a high-classed red wizard. And if they did either of those, they might as well fight their way through my dungeon the intended way and save a lot of time while doing so.
Having finished the rough outline of my future nursery, I made my way back to the core room to bring over my dungeon core to use for the required detailed work. It took me a few minutes to return to the construction site, but once I had, I sat down and began working on nests for the future mothers to use.
First I closed my eyes and imagined a small, wooden house to come into existence. It took me several minutes to get a good image in my head, then my mana was finally leaving me and a cold shiver ran over my skin. I kept my eyes closed for a few moments longer, just to make sure everything was like I wanted it to be, and then I opened them to check out my finished work.
The house was large enough for both the three-tailed fox and its mate to sleep under the protection of its roof and had cute little windows for sunshine to fall through, but was otherwise quite protected from the elements. I didn’t want the newborn pups to catch a cold, after all - if that was even possible at all.
Having made one such prototype, it was much easier to create a few more of the houses of slightly varying sizes and shapes. All of them found their space in the outer radius of the room, leaving the middle of the room free for a future meadow. The foxes would certainly wish for someplace for their pups to run free and play, after all.
The surroundings of the houses themselves would be left for the future me to change to fit the fox families’ various needs. Some of them would likely become a lot hotter, others would maybe be the opposite. Then there were those that would likely need no change at all, given that some of my foxes, especially the earth foxes, were more than easy to please. But who knew what exciting new foxes I would get to meet and which of them would end up in the nursery to care for their family?
For now, I selected the house closest to the prayer room to become the steam foxes’ new home, hoping this would help them defend me from greedy or straight-up evil adventurers. To make this area more to their liking I even created a small pond and, once that was done, a single geyser to fill up the room with hot and moist air. I could only hope the small pups wouldn’t wake up from the noise of the watery explosions, but given that their parents hadn’t had any issue sleeping back in their old room, it probably was a needless worry.
Sadly, creating the lonely geyser had almost completely drained my mana, making me once again ask just what it was about them that was this expensive for me to create. Would the next ones be much cheaper again like last time? But I only needed one!
I shook my head, reluctantly using the very last points of mana to summon a few berry bushes for the surroundings of the steam foxes’ new home. They would likely love to have something sweet to chew on - a luxury their relatives at the geyser room certainly lacked.
With all my mana gone and used, I took a long last look at my work before making my way back to the steam fox couple. The room was nowhere near finished, but for now, it would have to do. And it would certainly do better than my core room!
Explaining my ideas for the new room wasn’t as hard of a task as I thought it would turn out at first. The three-tailed steam fox readily yelped and wagged its tail to each of my orders, with its smaller mate joining in for her own replies every now and then. It was only when I invited them to accompany me to their new home that something unexpected happened.
The mother-to-be didn’t follow me, but rather made her way to my nest instead, before randomly selecting one of the pelts to drag with her. It didn’t take long for her mate to get her idea and soon he helped her carry the way too heavy for her pelt back into the tunnel, five tails waving behind their backs as they vanished into the dark.
I could only sigh as I gathered six more of the furs to carry with me so that each of the homes would come with one of them waiting for future families to rest on. When I finally reached the room after minutes of stumbling my way through the darkness, the two foxes had already finished exploring their new home. There wasn’t much to see, after all, with the sole remarkable features being spread around the house they luckily selected.
After spending a few minutes sniffing at their new home - which couldn’t smell of anything but wood, given that it was entirely new - the couple happily made their way inside the wooden house, dragging their chosen fur with them.
I could only smile about how readily they had accepted my work. If they liked it now, how much would they like it in the future, when there was so much more to look at and interact with?
The next few minutes I spent carefully draping the furs in the houses so that most of their floor was covered with something soft to comfortably sleep on. Doing that much had cost me about half of my own nest, but given that I didn’t actually need that much space to sleep on, it was only a small price to pay. And maybe I would even have a bed in the future, with the furs becoming my blankets instead? I could barely wait for that to happen.
By now, I was already feeling exhausted, having both spent all of my mana and having wrecked my brains by building those houses. So I did as all good foxes do - mine did at least - and went to rest in the middle of the day. It was only when I reached my pitiful nest that I realized I had a different option to skip some time - and fix my feeling of loneliness.
A few minutes later I had already fixed my nest, making it look a lot smaller but equally comfortable compared to before. The two orbs had even gotten their very own piece of fur a few meters away, so there wasn’t any risk of me hitting them in the middle of sleeping.
With that matter dealt with, I hugged my core, closed my eyes, and prayed. There was so much I wanted to tell Cilia, so much to ask. But the most I really wanted to see her again. It had been too long…
- - -
Updated Map as of Chapter 21 [collapse]
