My first battle had almost ended in a catastrophe; there was no other way to view it. If my earth foxes hadn't deflected the attacks of the three men with their very own flesh and my water foxes hadn’t healed them over and over again, we wouldn't have lasted more than a few minutes. And who knows what would have happened to me if I hadn't created the two-tailed lava fox with the Vulpine Circle! There were so many things three angry men with a slave collar could do, and it wasn't the least pleasant to think about those things.
Then there was the matter of... him, who had made sure to thoroughly burn all bridges still connecting us. It hurt so much knowing that all these years he was planning on getting rid of me, of abusing me for his research or any other goal he might have. I had trusted him with every fiber of my being only to be cast aside like a mere tool - twice.
With a long sigh, I swore to myself there wouldn't be a third time. Cilia was my family now, the only family I needed. She had shown me what real love feels like and gave me company and a new home, albeit one I had to build myself. What more did I need? If I felt lonely, I could just pray to her and she would answer! I wouldn't have to wait in a lab for days to finally be noticed for real. I could just make myself comfortable and she would be sure to listen to my worries!
With a soft smile on my lips, I hugged my core, knowing it was the closest thing to a physical connection I had to the goddess. It was only now that I really noticed the small green board rewarding me for protecting myself. It floated in front of my face, partly obscuring my view of the remaining foxes, which were still busy licking each other's wounds.
「Slain Adventurers: 2
Escaped Adventurers: 1
Received 360 Dungeon Points
Gained 3790 Mana
Unlocked: Mithril
Unlocked: Wyvern Scales」
I couldn't help but sigh. Taking the life of the two had rewarded me with mana worth more than two weeks, mana that I would probably use to kill even more adventurers, all just to save my own skin. But was my life really worth so many strangers' lives?
A part of me said 'Yes, it is,' but the much larger part of me wasn't so sure if that was the right way of life for me. At least the lizardman had nearly enslaved me; it was only fair that I fought back with all I had, but who could say if my next victims were innocent? Who could say they weren't just a group of friends looking for an adventure?
Another sigh escaped my lips as I left the matter to my future self. There was too much to do. Of course, I didn't let this feeling mislead me; instead, I checked my mana, which still stood at a respectable three thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, far above my limit of just one hundred. Since I didn't want to waste a single point of it, I quickly began to spend it all.
First I hugged my core and summoned both medium and tall grass and all the flowers I had available, costing me a total of four hundred and ten mana.
Before I knew it, I was surrounded by a dense mana mist that quickly spread throughout the room, only to then be absorbed by the ground. Soon green leaves and flowers of all colors began to sprout from the dirt all over my room, first slowly, then faster and faster.
All the plants bore traces of Cilia's blessing, whether it was their leaves that looked like green fox tails, flowers that grew in the red or orange colors of a fox instead of the usual pink and yellow hues, or entire blossoms that changed their shape to resemble a fox head more than an ordinary plant. Strangely, all these plants didn't look bad or unusual. If anything, it seemed as if they had always wanted to be that way.
It took only a few minutes until I was finally greeted by what I could only describe as a flower meadow. It was nowhere near the image I had in my mind, but for now, I was more than satisfied with the result of my work. However, I had more to do. My mana was still far above the threshold, which meant I was actively wasting my chance to do something meaningful with it if I didn't hurry.
Not wanting to miss a single point of mana, I quickly went to work. First I carried over my core towards the walls surrounding me. I then dug my future lake surrounding the blooming meadow, making sure that it was slowly getting deeper the further you went towards the walls. My every action was being watched by the twelve foxes who were more than eager for some changes in the boring landscape to take place. When I then slowly filled the hole with water by simply thinking about doing such, three of them began barking in glee, before immediately jumping into the fresh blue, their watery tails waving behind their backs.
For a few moments I just stood there watching the water foxes explore their new home, then I thought better of it and instead continued with my work. This time I moved my core and the nest next to the Vulpine Circle, needing the space to work with. For some reason I could not just tell the dungeon core to move itself, instead, I had to carry it over myself. The same went for the furs I had received from Cilia. All in all, moving my bedding alone took about a quarter of an hour, precious time I had wasted.
With a sigh, I went to my next course of action which was creating the volcano itself. I obviously made it cone-shaped while making sure it hadn’t too steep of an incline. I still wanted to walk up to its peak comfortably myself, after all.
Creating the mountain itself was quite the work, as I couldn’t just tell the dungeon to do it, having a very specific image in mind. So I spent the larger part of an hour creating furrows and ridges all along my cone. Two especially big furrows I created on two sides of my mountain, both of them being future rivers of lava.
As my next course of action, I flattened the top of my mountain and created a deep hole in it, once again making sure to make it look as natural as possible. Obviously, I hadn’t been to a volcano myself so I couldn’t compare it to a real one, but I had seen images featuring them, most of them showing a constant fight of the various elements surrounding the fiery mountain. All of them had looked impressive, to say the least. I couldn't wait to create such a masterwork myself!
After filling the volcano with enough lava to make it overspill from its two intended lava rivers, I stumbled upon a major flaw in my design: I had yet to find a way to make the lava flow eternally. Sending a quick question to my dungeon core fixed the issue, it did cost me two hundred mana, however, which was a steep price compared to the cost of a fox. But within minutes of requesting the feature, the lava began slowly spilling into the provided furrows, creating a mesmerizing river of fiery heat. The molten rock would soon flow to the end of the cracks to then be absorbed back by the dungeon and spit out again as a never-ending circle of liquid fire.
After finishing my volcano and marveling at its beauty for a few more moments, I took a glance at my remaining mana, which still sat at a respectable one thousand nine hundred and forty-one. I already knew what to do with it, having had all of the time in the world to think about it while shaping my volcano.
Without hesitation, I climbed down my artificial fire mountain and carried my core to the wall farthest from the entrance, next to the Vulpine Circle. I swam over to the cave wall and through the new lake, pushing the core along, and dug two mana points deep into the rock. As soon as I had done that, I used another thousand mana to create a second dome-shaped cave. The result was a room about hundred and sixty meters in diameter - if I could measure accurately with my steps alone - and about half as high.
After creating the room itself, I set its daytime to be changing and the temperature to the required level of 'hot', already having an idea in my head about what the future of this chamber would look like.
By now I was both mentally and physically exhausted by my work. A quick glance at my mana revealed that it still sat at slightly under two hundred points, though, so I could only reluctantly leave my core at the new core room and make my way back to the volcano room instead. Once I had climbed up the volcano's peak, I summoned four more lava foxes to live in its crater, finally bringing me to the magical threshold of one hundred points of mana - the ritual of the Vulpine Circle could begin!
But which foxes should participate? All of my elemental foxes had proven themselves, some more than others. I owed a lot to the lava fox especially. Without it, I wouldn't even be able to consider such decisions. It should definitely be part of my new fox! Sadly, my base mana was limited to a hundred, and using it would require me to have at least a hundred and fifty base mana instead. So I could only use the fire fox again, knowing that it would provide me with even more offensive capabilities. Only the second element left me puzzled.
Should I take another fire fox and hope for the best? It would certainly give a lot more damage to my little army of foxes, but the fox would still have its glaring weakness of being unable to get healed by the water fox. If anything, getting splashed by it would make my dual-fire fox evaporate!
It took me a moment to realize this was the perfect solution: vapor. Why not make water be one part of the fox, thus most likely fixing this weakness once and for all? This had to be it!
Decisively, I lured one of the water foxes back out of the lake and made it sit on one of the pedestals. For the second position, I made a quick trip up the volcano and invited one of the fire foxes who were already busy trying to dig dens. Once they both had found their places, I knelt down on a third pedestal, closed my eyes, and thought of the fox of my dreams.
A vivid image soon appeared in my mind's eye. It showed a cloud of vapor that had a semi-translucent body with a soft, golden hue hidden deep inside of it. The two-tailed creature was glowing faintly, making it look like a moonlit fog. Two aquamarine eyes watched me out of the cloud, both of them glowing with vigor.
Having perfected the image in my head, my mana soon began seeping from my body, leaving me feeling urged for warmth; but knowing that I would soon receive it in the shape of a very cuddly fox helped me get over my discomfort quite quickly.
Before long my two participating foxes started to bark in glee, indicating the ritual had indeed worked. And when I opened my eyes, a precious little creature was already hovering towards me, its two tails spreading hot vapor as they wagged.
「You have created a Steam Fox!」A board revealed the fox's name to me.
Within a few moments, I had already begun petting the fox, which was easier said than done given its barely touchable body, before leading it towards its new home, the new core room. Once I had shown the fox the barren place that would soon enough be a better place, I went back and gathered my things, namely Cilia’s nest.
Actually transporting the items was easier said than done, as I had to traverse the lake with each round I took. Still, I could only promise to myself to fix this issue first thing in the morning and go for a swim now.
It took me a dozen rounds through the lake and about an hour to carry my nest, which I had somehow managed to keep dry, into the future core room; but once I had finished my work, I felt much safer. Just being further away from the entrance had this effect on me, probably due to my dungeon instincts demanding that I hide as deep into the mountain as I possibly could.
The final step in the move was to create a shelter for my nest to keep it dry in case the weather turned rainy later on. Sadly, I had no wood to work with, despite desperately wanting to use it for both a roof above my head and bridges to walk over.
Reluctantly, I returned to my main room, called for one of the nearby water foxes, and selected it as a gatherer before telling it to fetch me a stick. Seconds later it was already on its way, only its tails wagging above the surface of the lake as it made its way through the water. It was such a precious sight.
When the fox returned after about a quarter of an hour, it looked somewhat exhausted, going by how slow its ever-changing water seemed to flow now. It still dutifully dropped its bounty, a thin stick with a bunch of chewing marks on it, right in front of my feet before trotting off to play with its waiting mates again. Its efforts were rewarded before it even reached the group of frolicking foxes.
「Unlocked: Wood」
With a satisfied nod, I returned to the future core room and began my work, having decided on building a beautiful pavilion for the core to be housed in.
Creating the thing was the most challenging task I had ever faced as a dungeon. I couldn't simply say 'summon pavilion,' nor did just thinking about such a structure help. Only when I embraced my core and imagined the pavilion as vividly as possible did six wooden pillars slowly grow out of the ground. I let them rise until they were about two meters high and then imagined a roof covered with wooden shingles on all six sides. Almost done, I added fences to five sides of the building, just so that I had something to lean against.
The entire construction and the final preparation of my nest had cost me the rest of my mana and about an hour of my time, but I was more than satisfied with the result. The rain could come, I was ready...
My worst Creation yet: The Steam Fox [collapse] Somewhat majestic AI Steam Fox [collapse] Updated Map as of Chapter 8 [collapse]
My first battle had almost ended in a catastrophe; there was no other way to view it. If my earth foxes hadn't deflected the attacks of the three men with their very own flesh and my water foxes hadn’t healed them over and over again, we wouldn't have lasted more than a few minutes. And who knows what would have happened to me if I hadn't created the two-tailed lava fox with the Vulpine Circle! There were so many things three angry men with a slave collar could do, and it wasn't the least pleasant to think about those things.
Then there was the matter of... him, who had made sure to thoroughly burn all bridges still connecting us. It hurt so much knowing that all these years he was planning on getting rid of me, of abusing me for his research or any other goal he might have. I had trusted him with every fiber of my being only to be cast aside like a mere tool - twice.
With a long sigh, I swore to myself there wouldn't be a third time. Cilia was my family now, the only family I needed. She had shown me what real love feels like and gave me company and a new home, albeit one I had to build myself. What more did I need? If I felt lonely, I could just pray to her and she would answer! I wouldn't have to wait in a lab for days to finally be noticed for real. I could just make myself comfortable and she would be sure to listen to my worries!
With a soft smile on my lips, I hugged my core, knowing it was the closest thing to a physical connection I had to the goddess. It was only now that I really noticed the small green board rewarding me for protecting myself. It floated in front of my face, partly obscuring my view of the remaining foxes, which were still busy licking each other's wounds.
「Slain Adventurers: 2
Escaped Adventurers: 1
Received 360 Dungeon Points
Gained 3790 Mana
Unlocked: Mithril
Unlocked: Wyvern Scales」
I couldn't help but sigh. Taking the life of the two had rewarded me with mana worth more than two weeks, mana that I would probably use to kill even more adventurers, all just to save my own skin. But was my life really worth so many strangers' lives?
A part of me said 'Yes, it is,' but the much larger part of me wasn't so sure if that was the right way of life for me. At least the lizardman had nearly enslaved me; it was only fair that I fought back with all I had, but who could say if my next victims were innocent? Who could say they weren't just a group of friends looking for an adventure?
Another sigh escaped my lips as I left the matter to my future self. There was too much to do. Of course, I didn't let this feeling mislead me; instead, I checked my mana, which still stood at a respectable three thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, far above my limit of just one hundred. Since I didn't want to waste a single point of it, I quickly began to spend it all.
First I hugged my core and summoned both medium and tall grass and all the flowers I had available, costing me a total of four hundred and ten mana.
Before I knew it, I was surrounded by a dense mana mist that quickly spread throughout the room, only to then be absorbed by the ground. Soon green leaves and flowers of all colors began to sprout from the dirt all over my room, first slowly, then faster and faster.
All the plants bore traces of Cilia's blessing, whether it was their leaves that looked like green fox tails, flowers that grew in the red or orange colors of a fox instead of the usual pink and yellow hues, or entire blossoms that changed their shape to resemble a fox head more than an ordinary plant. Strangely, all these plants didn't look bad or unusual. If anything, it seemed as if they had always wanted to be that way.
It took only a few minutes until I was finally greeted by what I could only describe as a flower meadow. It was nowhere near the image I had in my mind, but for now, I was more than satisfied with the result of my work. However, I had more to do. My mana was still far above the threshold, which meant I was actively wasting my chance to do something meaningful with it if I didn't hurry.
Not wanting to miss a single point of mana, I quickly went to work. First I carried over my core towards the walls surrounding me. I then dug my future lake surrounding the blooming meadow, making sure that it was slowly getting deeper the further you went towards the walls. My every action was being watched by the twelve foxes who were more than eager for some changes in the boring landscape to take place. When I then slowly filled the hole with water by simply thinking about doing such, three of them began barking in glee, before immediately jumping into the fresh blue, their watery tails waving behind their backs.
For a few moments I just stood there watching the water foxes explore their new home, then I thought better of it and instead continued with my work. This time I moved my core and the nest next to the Vulpine Circle, needing the space to work with. For some reason I could not just tell the dungeon core to move itself, instead, I had to carry it over myself. The same went for the furs I had received from Cilia. All in all, moving my bedding alone took about a quarter of an hour, precious time I had wasted.
With a sigh, I went to my next course of action which was creating the volcano itself. I obviously made it cone-shaped while making sure it hadn’t too steep of an incline. I still wanted to walk up to its peak comfortably myself, after all.
Creating the mountain itself was quite the work, as I couldn’t just tell the dungeon to do it, having a very specific image in mind. So I spent the larger part of an hour creating furrows and ridges all along my cone. Two especially big furrows I created on two sides of my mountain, both of them being future rivers of lava.
As my next course of action, I flattened the top of my mountain and created a deep hole in it, once again making sure to make it look as natural as possible. Obviously, I hadn’t been to a volcano myself so I couldn’t compare it to a real one, but I had seen images featuring them, most of them showing a constant fight of the various elements surrounding the fiery mountain. All of them had looked impressive, to say the least. I couldn't wait to create such a masterwork myself!
After filling the volcano with enough lava to make it overspill from its two intended lava rivers, I stumbled upon a major flaw in my design: I had yet to find a way to make the lava flow eternally. Sending a quick question to my dungeon core fixed the issue, it did cost me two hundred mana, however, which was a steep price compared to the cost of a fox. But within minutes of requesting the feature, the lava began slowly spilling into the provided furrows, creating a mesmerizing river of fiery heat. The molten rock would soon flow to the end of the cracks to then be absorbed back by the dungeon and spit out again as a never-ending circle of liquid fire.
After finishing my volcano and marveling at its beauty for a few more moments, I took a glance at my remaining mana, which still sat at a respectable one thousand nine hundred and forty-one. I already knew what to do with it, having had all of the time in the world to think about it while shaping my volcano.
Without hesitation, I climbed down my artificial fire mountain and carried my core to the wall farthest from the entrance, next to the Vulpine Circle. I swam over to the cave wall and through the new lake, pushing the core along, and dug two mana points deep into the rock. As soon as I had done that, I used another thousand mana to create a second dome-shaped cave. The result was a room about hundred and sixty meters in diameter - if I could measure accurately with my steps alone - and about half as high.
After creating the room itself, I set its daytime to be changing and the temperature to the required level of 'hot', already having an idea in my head about what the future of this chamber would look like.
By now I was both mentally and physically exhausted by my work. A quick glance at my mana revealed that it still sat at slightly under two hundred points, though, so I could only reluctantly leave my core at the new core room and make my way back to the volcano room instead. Once I had climbed up the volcano's peak, I summoned four more lava foxes to live in its crater, finally bringing me to the magical threshold of one hundred points of mana - the ritual of the Vulpine Circle could begin!
But which foxes should participate? All of my elemental foxes had proven themselves, some more than others. I owed a lot to the lava fox especially. Without it, I wouldn't even be able to consider such decisions. It should definitely be part of my new fox! Sadly, my base mana was limited to a hundred, and using it would require me to have at least a hundred and fifty base mana instead. So I could only use the fire fox again, knowing that it would provide me with even more offensive capabilities. Only the second element left me puzzled.
Should I take another fire fox and hope for the best? It would certainly give a lot more damage to my little army of foxes, but the fox would still have its glaring weakness of being unable to get healed by the water fox. If anything, getting splashed by it would make my dual-fire fox evaporate!
It took me a moment to realize this was the perfect solution: vapor. Why not make water be one part of the fox, thus most likely fixing this weakness once and for all? This had to be it!
Decisively, I lured one of the water foxes back out of the lake and made it sit on one of the pedestals. For the second position, I made a quick trip up the volcano and invited one of the fire foxes who were already busy trying to dig dens. Once they both had found their places, I knelt down on a third pedestal, closed my eyes, and thought of the fox of my dreams.
A vivid image soon appeared in my mind's eye. It showed a cloud of vapor that had a semi-translucent body with a soft, golden hue hidden deep inside of it. The two-tailed creature was glowing faintly, making it look like a moonlit fog. Two aquamarine eyes watched me out of the cloud, both of them glowing with vigor.
Having perfected the image in my head, my mana soon began seeping from my body, leaving me feeling urged for warmth; but knowing that I would soon receive it in the shape of a very cuddly fox helped me get over my discomfort quite quickly.
Before long my two participating foxes started to bark in glee, indicating the ritual had indeed worked. And when I opened my eyes, a precious little creature was already hovering towards me, its two tails spreading hot vapor as they wagged.
「You have created a Steam Fox!」A board revealed the fox's name to me.
Within a few moments, I had already begun petting the fox, which was easier said than done given its barely touchable body, before leading it towards its new home, the new core room. Once I had shown the fox the barren place that would soon enough be a better place, I went back and gathered my things, namely Cilia’s nest.
Actually transporting the items was easier said than done, as I had to traverse the lake with each round I took. Still, I could only promise to myself to fix this issue first thing in the morning and go for a swim now.
It took me a dozen rounds through the lake and about an hour to carry my nest, which I had somehow managed to keep dry, into the future core room; but once I had finished my work, I felt much safer. Just being further away from the entrance had this effect on me, probably due to my dungeon instincts demanding that I hide as deep into the mountain as I possibly could.
The final step in the move was to create a shelter for my nest to keep it dry in case the weather turned rainy later on. Sadly, I had no wood to work with, despite desperately wanting to use it for both a roof above my head and bridges to walk over.
Reluctantly, I returned to my main room, called for one of the nearby water foxes, and selected it as a gatherer before telling it to fetch me a stick. Seconds later it was already on its way, only its tails wagging above the surface of the lake as it made its way through the water. It was such a precious sight.
When the fox returned after about a quarter of an hour, it looked somewhat exhausted, going by how slow its ever-changing water seemed to flow now. It still dutifully dropped its bounty, a thin stick with a bunch of chewing marks on it, right in front of my feet before trotting off to play with its waiting mates again. Its efforts were rewarded before it even reached the group of frolicking foxes.
「Unlocked: Wood」
With a satisfied nod, I returned to the future core room and began my work, having decided on building a beautiful pavilion for the core to be housed in.
Creating the thing was the most challenging task I had ever faced as a dungeon. I couldn't simply say 'summon pavilion,' nor did just thinking about such a structure help. Only when I embraced my core and imagined the pavilion as vividly as possible did six wooden pillars slowly grow out of the ground. I let them rise until they were about two meters high and then imagined a roof covered with wooden shingles on all six sides. Almost done, I added fences to five sides of the building, just so that I had something to lean against.
The entire construction and the final preparation of my nest had cost me the rest of my mana and about an hour of my time, but I was more than satisfied with the result. The rain could come, I was ready...
My worst Creation yet: The Steam Fox [collapse] Somewhat majestic AI Steam Fox [collapse] Updated Map as of Chapter 8 [collapse]
