The broken dungeon core

Rocky takes charge in the morning, heating up the soup, serving it up, and even cleaning the dishes before putting them onto the new dungeon shelf I made.

He doesn’t go to wake his sister and instead he takes Misty with himself to gather some more vines from the location where Luna had shown them before.

They return with a big heaping pile of vines for Misty to get started with removing the leaves and making baskets with, while Rocky heads out to gather more firewood.

They go about the day much like they usually do going from one task to another only stopping to eat or rest as needed.

It isn’t until about midday that Luna finally wakes up, she stayed laying there awake in her bed for a while before she got up and wiped herself down making sure she cleaned herself well enough to get rid of the sweat and slimy residue.

I felt a little regretful that I couldn’t really help her out but I did what I could to assist such as moving one of the canteens of water to her room so she didn’t have to leave to get it herself, which she was very appreciative of.

She changed into new clothes and bundled up the dirty clothes and bedding, her face gaining a little pink on her cheeks and her fluffy ears lowered and her tail swishing slightly under her dress skirt.

She goes to wash the laundry and is caught in the first room by her brother who grinned mischievously as the knowing look in his eyes made Luna freeze in her tracks and her fur fluff while her face went red all the way down her neck.

Rocky, “Don’t worry Misty slept through it so you don’t have to give her the talk. On another note it looks like it will rain soon so you might be able to just wait for it instead of having to take the wash to the river and back.

Also the dungeon made us some shelves so we would like to know how are you wanting to organize the kitchen supplies?”

Luna looks both grateful and conflicted about what was said and then she put the laundry down near the entrance before going over to the shelves and taking on the new task.

Luna, “Well, let’s see here, I think we should have the heavy metal cookware on the middle shelf so that we don’t have to stoop down for them or to have to reach up and risk dropping them since they are going to be the ones that we have to use the most often.

The baskets of food can be kept above the middle shelf since you are tall enough for retrieve them without much risk of dropping them.

The jars of preserved food can go on the very bottom shelf since we won’t be needing them anytime soon, and the wooden cookware and dishes can go above that since they are lighter than the metal stuff it shouldn’t be a problem even with the frequency of use.

The baskets of food that needs to be used up sooner will go onto the middle shelf with the metal cookware so even Misty can reach it and to be a reminder to cook with them first to avoid the food spoiling before we can get to it.

Also the food that needs to be cooked before it can be eaten will be closer to the fire same as the pot and skillet, while the food that can be eaten as is will be further away from the fireplace.”

Luna organized everything as she spoke and as the floor space was cleared I slowly moved the shelf into place against the wall and fused them together making it sturdier and saving space at the same time.

Luna looks Happily at the tidied area and then looks over at the fireplace with some thought her hand on her chin and her ears cocked before she seemed to finalize what she wanted to have done with it.

Luna, “Let’s fix up the fireplace while we are working on the kitchen area. Could you raise the fireplace on a platform about this high, now make give it a little raised edge about as wide and tall as the width of my palm. Now let’s hollow out a bit of space under it that can be used to dry wood as well as help spread the heat into the room more, since it’s starting to get colder we need to start thinking about how to keep the place warmer so we don’t end up freezing.”

She seems satisfied with my handy work as her tail swings back and forth happily under her dress.

Luna, “Once Misty finishes some more baskets let’s go through the food and separate things out a little more and make sure we move whatever is needed to be eaten soon to the respective baskets for cooking and eating raw.

Misty do you think you can handle going through the food every couple of days to remove anything that spoils and keeping up with what needs to be eaten soon?”

Misty, “I think I can handle that, since once we have plenty of baskets I can use more of my time to do that.”

Rocky, “Oh, yeah sis I want to let you know that if tomorrows weather is clear enough then I plan on going to grab the supplies, and see how our parents are doing.

I don’t think we should let anyone know that you are still around and I think we should keep the dungeon a secret, at least until it’s fully recovered and big enough to fight off any invaders that might want to steal its core…”

Luna, “I agree, I only told our parents about the dungeon to keep them informed but I don’t think they really believed me.

Also I think you should stay away from the girls that go to the tavern, I don’t think some of them will keep quiet, some of them are gossipers and I think a couple of the girls that are choosing to spend their time with the bandits might have gotten too close with them for my taste.”

I see a look of disgust on her face as she informs her brother of some of her suspicions.

Rocky, “I am not surprised, I know a few of them who were sleeping around just from overhearing some of the guys talking, that Piper girl even slept with one of my friends who had only just turned thirteen at the time as well as old Boris who has children older than you!

and she’s not the only loose girl in the village either, granted none with as wide of a striking range as Piper, some only sleep with guys who have something they want, others stick with the best looking guys, and some only want to be with guy with better social connections or standing.

They really are the worst!”

Luna, “I agree, I have already heard about a few of them even before the bandit problem started, you wouldn’t believe how much gossip women talk about while they are sewing, also I think it’s Felicia who is sleeping around for status, as I have heard she’s slept with all the the village head’s boys, even sleeping with the twins at the same time which is why she got caught in the first place.

And now I think she has shacked up with the bandits leader, she was there when I was attacked and she never said anything to get them to stop.”

I take note of the names mentioned in case those unpleasant people come as I don’t plan on welcoming them.

Luna and Rocky were going to continue their conversation when the patter of rain started and they went outside to get the laundry done.

I was a little disgruntled as the rain made it even harder to see outside of my dungeon but as the rain poured down and soaked into the ground I started actually accumulating units of water!

It is the first time it has rained since I was first woken, and although I have cleaned up a few spills this is the first time I’ve accumulated enough to create a unit of the stuff, so now I have a new resource to use.

I don’t really know how much water is one unit so I decided to use the little room that has been left empty and I raised the floor of the entrance to it about halfway just in case and I harden the floor making it curve down in the center like a bowl before I decided to put a single unit of water in the room only to find out that one unit of water is just a little more than what would fit in the pot they use for soup.

I want to let Luna know but I can’t contact her while she’s out of my dungeon, so I decided to try taking some ground outside.

I carefully expanded outside and I go ahead and make a visible path as I proceed so Luna can see where I am progressing to, while I absorb the water from its surface as I go.

I look forward seeing her reaction as I headed in the direction I had seen them take the laundry, I find them with the laundry draped over some lower hanging branches that have lots of space to hang the clothes where they would avoid getting snagged by the wood.

They rub the cloth against itself in all sorts of ways before moving onto the next item of laundry until they seem to have finished and started to collect the clothes and bedding that have been weighed down by the water content that they have accumulated.

Luna notices my path and steps onto it as she heads back to my dungeon and I become excited to show her what I can do now!

When she returns she requests me to make a few beams going along the wall in the first room about a foot away from the wall for her to hang the laundry on and then she tries to squeeze the water out. I decided to try helping and I have a section of the wall and ceiling clamp around the animal hide and absorbing all the water I can before releasing it.

Luna walks over to the animal hide and checks it, feeling it all over before she is satisfied with her inspection.

Luna, “It is still a little damp but it is almost dry, thanks for helping us out. Now that clothes will dry a lot faster we shouldn’t have to worry about the clothes going sour or trying to figure out how to warm them by the fire without leaving someone to keep an eye on it and prevent them getting burned while drying.”

I then get Luna’s attention and show her what I have done and what I can do now, she follows my lead of bumps on the ground and she sees the little partial wall I made in the entrance of the second small room and then she takes a while to notice the water in the dark room.

Luna, “You can make water now!?”

I responded with a no, the stalagmite pressed gently against the bottom of her foot so as to not hurt her but still enough to make my attempt to correct her mistaken impression.

Luna, “Okay so you’re not making it yourself so are you gathering it from the rain outside?”

I excitedly respond with a yes, letting the clay form up under her foot.

She thinks for a moment before she makes some suggestions for an ongoing project.

Luna, “If you are able to absorb water then maybe we could make an aquifer and a possible fish farm if we can get some aquatic plants and fish to get it started.

We can also have indoor baths if we can heat the water up enough to avoid getting too cold then we could even stay clean throughout the winter without having to boil a pot of water and have rag baths.

This is going to be great, I can already see a lot of potential uses you could make out of this new ability and resource, so for now why not expand out and try absorbing what you can while it is still raining.