The broken dungeon core

The light outside is fading away by the time the oldest of the beast-kin returned with both arms full of wood she doesn’t seem to have noticed the little bit of work done to the area I had expanded into while she was gone.

Granted none of the plants have sprouted above the soil I planted them in and the tilled soil outside would be hard to notice in the fading light.

I didn’t have much energy left so the rest of the smoothing process will have to wait for now and as for some of the new plants that I have acquired I will get some of them started growing in little patches along the wall opposite of where they have set up.

I left some space between each of the plants to prevent crowding them and to leave some space for my future expansions, since I can’t move my core, I think I should instead create some rooms to either side and then choose one to connect to my core room so that I can close my original tunnel that connects to my first dungeon room.

My thoughts run back to the older beast-kin as she has piled up the wood and she strikes a flint stone repeatedly until she manages to light a fire.

She adds on small twigs to the flame slowly and as it grows she increases the size of the wood pieces that she adds until it’s stable enough to avoid it going out.

She grabbed up some of the branches that still had leaves on them and she stabbed them into the ground right outside the dungeon entrance to disperse the firelight and smoke.

She went back outside and climbed on top of the hillside that I reside in and she used another stick to dig down above the fire making a hole which I assisted in connecting and smoothing it out once I understood what she wanted to do.

She placed the remaining leafy branches to scatter the smoke as it escapes from the hole in the ground before she returns.

She inspects the inside and sees that some of the smoke is still gathering in the cave rather then escaping through the hole so she started to carve a dome above the fire but as if remembering about me she stopped and instead made a request of me.

The older beast-kin girl, “ Um, would you mind helping me make it so the shape of the cave ceiling domes over the fire so the smoke will go outside instead of filling the cave, please….”

I wait until she finished asking me before I got to work, starting at the hole I started doming it and widening the bace of the hole until the smoke started clearing out properly.

The younger siblings both watched in awe as I finished the request before the last of the daylight disappeared from view.

The older beast-kin girl, “Um, thanks again for helping us out.”

They finished off the rest of the food and cleaned themselves up before they all piled onto the deer hide and covered themselves up to go to sleep.

The two older siblings were on either side of the youngest one they had called Misty, whilst the oldest faced the dungeon entrance to keep an eye out and the two younger siblings were facing each other.

The younger siblings fell asleep after awhile, then the oldest seemed to want to talk quietly with me, while she placed her hands on the dungeon floor.

The older beast-kin girl, “I really appreciate that you are willing to let us stay here in the first place, not to mention all the other things that you have done for us. But I want to know why would you be willing to help us?”

I can’t talk to her with words so I try making a small round stone with a fragile shell on a little stone plier under it about the size of her hand right beside her hand before making that little portion of floor shake and the piled fall over making the little stone break as an explanation of what happened to me.

I followed that up with raising a small stalagmite (as she had called it before)and poking one of her cuts, in hopes that she could put the two together and figure out that since we are both injured and in need of each others help.

She winced when I had poked her where she hadn’t expected, but she looked like she had suddenly understood.

The older beast-kin girl, “Oh! Your core is broken, so you are hurt, and you saw we were hurt too and helped us…? Is that right?”

It being close enough I decided to respond with a yes, raising a small lump of clay under her hand. (It is smaller than the lumps of clay I had used to respond earlier)

She smiles faintly as her eyebrows wrinkle with concern.

The older beast-kin girl, “I don’t know what I can do to help your core recover. Do you have some way of letting me know what you need?”

I come up with the idea of absorbing one of my mana grass plants and then making it rise out of the ground in front of her to see it in the firelight.

Her ears quirk as she examined the plant and responded once she identified what it was.

The older beast-kin girl, “Mana grass?…..no wait you are able to grow mana grass so do you mean that you need mana?”

I had started to respond no to her first comment but quickly turned it to a yes when she figured it out correctly.

The older beast-kin girl, “I thought dungeons were supposed to make a lot of mana, I guess something must have gone wrong with you when you were broken.”

I responded with a yes again to her comment and I see a sad look on her face as she wraps her hand around the lump of clay I used to respond.

I feel a little excitement about her reaction for some reason but it doesn’t seem to last. As she asks me another question.

The beast-kin girl, “If you need mana, then is there a way for me to help?”

Knowing that I need her to become my inhabitant and offer me a mana transfer which would require having her interact with my core, I do the best I can to convey that by making the fake broken core move under her hand so she would be lightly touching it.

She notices it easily and responds immediately.

The older beast-kin girl, “You need me to touch your core!? Should I go do that now?”

I responded with a yes and she started slipping out from under the blanket without waking her siblings and she crawled over to my core room quietly.

I started to panic but forced myself to calm down since although I am terrified that she might accidentally make the damage to my core worse than it already is, I also know that if this goes well then I could very well be on my way to recovery much sooner than I could have hoped for.

She slowed down as she approached my broken core, its turquoise glow looking lovely on her fur and tanned skin.

Without further inquiries she tentatively places her hand gently on my core.

A notice pops up!

[Possible inhabitant detected! Would you like to offer Luna Coon a position as an inhabitant!]

[Yes/No]

Yes!

Luna almost snatched her hand back as she seemed to have gotten her end of the notification.

Luna, “Yes I accept.”

[Congratulations! You have successfully gained an inhabitant, would you like to promote them to a dungeon manager?]

[Yes/No]

Yes I do!

Luna received another notice.

Luna, “Ah! Yes….?”

[Congratulations! You have gained a dungeon manager! You are in need of repair, mana is insufficient, would you like to request a mana transfer from your dungeon manager?]

[Yes/No]

Yes! This is what I have been looking forward to!

Luna gazed into my core and a moment later I feel a warm tingling sensation spreading across my core starting from where her hand is making contact with me.

[Using remaining mana with offered mana transfer to condense current liquified mana into a jelled state……moderate success achieved! Stability has improved. Mana absorption efficiency improved, current mana absorption efficiency rate is 15%. Mana storage improvement detected, current mana storage status 0/175(500).]

It feels amazing, I have never felt so good, sure I am still hurting but it isn’t nearly as bad as before and although I still have a long way to go simply improving my mana absorption and storage will help speed things up in my recovery process.

The mana transfer made my core glow more brightly during the process of the transaction as well as during the mana condensing, which got me a real nice reaction from Luna.

Her eye practically sparkled with my glow before I dimmed back down to normal granted it is my new normal as I am ever so slightly brighter than I had been and I can only assume that it is due to being broken and the recovering process.

She looks very happy but she also appears to have become more tired than before, like using mana seems to tire her out similarly to when I over use my energy. Although I also feel a little drained from all of my mana getting used up for my repairs, I don’t seem to be effected like she is.

Since it only cost stamina to manipulate the stone and dirt in my dungeon I smoothed out a path from my core room back to her sleeping spot and I watched her fall asleep shortly after she covered herself back up with the little bit of the remaining blanket reserved for her use.

As the night passed uneventfully afterwards I just watched my energy and mana refill slowly, and as daylight started to peak in I find that my mana refilled about 5 points over the remainder of the night!

I will be able to continue planting the cheeper types of plants that might be useful but I think I will save most of it for the next mana transfer session.