The broken dungeon core

The early morning sunlight woke Luna and her siblings and they went out for awhile, returning with filled canteens, a sack filled with food they had foraged and a bunch of firewood.

They had apparently eaten while they were foraging and the sack they filled was for the two youngest to share while she is away to inform their parents about their location as well as to bring back more supplies.

Luna used a stick to gather the still warm coals from last night into the center of the fire space and pushing the ashes to the outer ring of the fire creating a buffer, then she started putting a small amount of wood over the coals and some dry grass to catch fire.

Luna gets the fire to about one third of the size of last nights fire before she turns to her brother and informs him that is the size he should build it up to whenever the fire starts going out.

She only takes one canteen with her and leaves everything else behind with her siblings.

The day passes almost unbelievably eventless as they behaved well and stayed quiet all day, aside from the brother taking care of his sister, the fire and occasionally going outside to lookout for whatever he was supposed to be looking out for, they did nothing worth noting.

It gets dark well before Luna returns carrying a larger backpack than before as well as a satchel that are both overly stuffed.

She looks haggard and she has more cuts and scratches than before, although her brother runs out to help her with her luggage she all but flopped down on the deer hide after she dropped off her burden.

Although the salveaid next to their sleeping spot has just started to sprout I decided to move one of the grown salveaid plants from my core room to her side for her to be able to harvest what she needs for her wounds.

Luna damps a cloth and wipes herself down before she harvests a few salveaid leaves which she chews on before smearing the juices over her injuries and she swallows the rest down with a mouthful of water from her canteen.

She pulls out another deer hide and blankets from one of the bags and then she pulls out a few clothes for her siblings, at which time I noticed that she was wearing a different set of clothes herself.

Although she was wearing a very similar dress and apron combination they were slightly different colors and the shape was slightly different with more of a squared neck line rather then the rounded one that she wore when she had left, and although both dresses were mostly brown this one is lighter and the apron has a bit of green that is closer to blue than the lighter green one from before.

They build up the fire before going to sleep on a now double layer of deer hide bedding and the extra blanket on top making it look to be more comfortable than before.

Luna fell asleep even faster than her siblings with how exhausted she must have been, I can only assume that she must have rushed there and back.

Luna wound up sleeping in past daybreak and her brother ended up taking care of their sister Misty, making sure to give her food and keeping her quiet until Luna woke up.

Luna started telling them what she found out while she visited the village, from what she saw to what her parents told her, and to what she did while there to play her part of deceiving the bandits, all the while taking things from the bags and setting things up in an attempt to organize their possessions.

While she spoke about the farms and the harvest that is starting to be brought in to be made into preserves for the winter, she pulled out a large pot a skillet and other cookware that she put next to the fire along with some fresh vegetables that were stored inside the pot.

While she spoke of how their parents were doing well with sticking out in the fields most of the day and sneaking out to forge in claim that Luna had gathered it during the day, as the bandits were collecting food every day, she gathered up the clothes placing the clean ones on the deer hide bed along the wall where they lay their heads and she gathers the dirty clothes into the satchel that she had emptied.

She continued informing them about while she was in the village she had to take her turn catering to the bandits in the tavern which they had all but completely over run as only the bandits were getting served there now much like the village inn and the village leaders house, as she gathered some tools that she brought and she organized them alongside the wall on the same side of their bedding.

She had a small shovel, a pair of scissors, a dust pan and brush, a small wooden box that had unknown contents and a hammer and box of nails all lined up.

Luna gathered the empty backpacks and stuffed them in the satchel with the dirty clothes as she planned to use them for another supply trip that she will be taking tomorrow.

Their parents will be joining them after the harvest and winter preparation is done but until then they plan to do tasks that will make the village seem like it is still active which is why they want to use the dirty laundry for the usual wash and display it on the clothesline so that the children disappearance will not be noticed or to be assumed as just being kept indoors away from the bandits sight since a few have already made it known that they don’t like children running around.

Some of the other villagers that went out to find good camping locations were successful and one group managed to find a friendly village two days travel through the woods that is willing to take in the more vulnerable villagers and their direct family, partly to fill some of their vacant houses and their inn but since they don’t have enough room for everyone the rest will be distributed to the camps that successfully prepare for the winter in time.

Upon hearing this I decided that I should start seriously expanding my dungeon interior, so I started burrowing my dungeon flesh into the surrounding earth, particularly to either side of my core room.

Once I discovered that there was plenty of room for me to establish another dungeon room I started carving it out by absorbing the various earthen materials and having it connect to the original dungeon cave and since I was in control of the process this time around I was able to make the surfaces smooth from the beginning rather than having to go back and redo it like I was doing with my first room.

I used up more than half of my energy to create the new dungeon room but it definitely felt like it was much easier to do than I thought it would be but after smoothing out the area from the space I just created to the place I had previously stopped my smoothing process at I was able to notice that it required less energy than it would have prior.

Could I be getting more benefits from the mana transfer and the core repair process than what is being mentioned, since my energy status doesn’t give me a unit or actual amount rather it only gives me a percentage equivalent being 100% is full energy and 0% is completely out of energy which means that I can’t do anything until it refills.

I have been particularly trying to keep my energy level above 10% as going below that makes it harder to do things as well as making it harder to think or observe things clearly.

Luna seems to notice me connecting the smoothed path to the edge of the area that I had made them the first time, which prompted her to go explore what I had just done.

She noticed the new arched entrance to the new area between two patches of tilled soil that have just started showing signs of plants sprouting up one being a blueberry bush and the other being wild strawberries since they were both called berries I thought it might be suiting even though one grows on a bush and the other grows closer to the ground.

I also made sure to make the entrance more accommodating for her so she doesn’t have to crawl through it, even giving a little extra height in case her parents are taller than she is.

She guides herself through the arched tunnel and into the new room, her hand on the wall as she follows it around and I go ahead and make the room connect to my core room so by the time she makes a circuit around letting her know that it is about the same size as the first cave room of my dungeon, she would then notice the glow from my core filtering into the new room.

I don’t quite make the path to my core room as accessible as I still desired to restrict access to my core room so it’s still a crawl space but it is nice and smooth with a softer clay floor path, which she seems to appreciate as she follows it to my core room.

She sees that I have planted more mana grass since the last time she was here but little else has changed, so while she was in here I decided to show her my process of filling in the original crawl space that connects to slowly adding new dirt and stone from the surface of the walls, floor and ceiling until the was completely filled in.

Luna seems to have some understanding that I want to remain in the deepest part of my dungeon but that I can’t move my core yet so my actions don’t seem to be taken with hostility much to my relief.

Luna, “Looks like you have been busy, did you make the new room for us?”

I responded with a yes where she smiles at the little lump of clay rising beneath her hand.

Luna, “And the new crawl space is a lot nicer, but I want to ask does it have a be so narrow or is it for a particular reason?”

I responded with a no with a little stalagmite pressing against her hand and then followed it with a yes lump of clay replacing it, and letting her come up with her own conclusions.

Luna makes her own guesses which I decided to go along with.

Luna, “I heard that most dungeon core’s are usually in the deepest part of the dungeon and that they are usually very difficult to get to, in order to protect themselves, is that what you are wanting to do?”

I respond with another yes only to hear her laugh a little bit before she then calls out the contradictions.

Luna, “But you know making the crawl space have a hard and rough texture would be a better deterrent than making it out of soft clay right?”

I responded with a yes followed by poking her knees letting her know that I did it for her, although I can’t really tell her that it is so that it’s easier for her to get to me for the mana transfer, granted it seems letting her come up with her own assumptions is better for both of us as she seems to have become happier after my response.

She happily placed her hand gently on my broken core and initiated the mana transfer herself without my need of setting up the request like the first time.

filling the mana flow from her into myself was exhilarating and I quickly dumped all but five mana into repairing my core.

[Mana condensing process initiated, partially successful. Mana absorption efficiency improved to 19%, mana storage improvements detected, current mana storage is 5/195(500). Data storage has repaired new plant and monster schematics. Monster spawning is still inaccessible due to mana related errors. Plant spawning is still inaccessible due to mana related errors. Monster breeding options are available, breeder requirements have not been fully obtained, more mana required, more biomass resources required, more energy required for use.]

The improvements are always greatly appreciated, and seeing new features getting repaired and getting unlocked is exciting as well as feeling more pain fading away with each mana transfer and mana condensing session, which I have am thinking it has a minimum amount of mana required for it to happen but since I haven’t had as much time to save up mana I didn’t improve by the same amount as last time, but every little bit helps and it will just make it easier to save up mana each time.

Luna looks a little tired but not nearly as much as she did the first time, and she started to head back toward the new room, but I moved a mana grass and salveaid plant right next to the crawl space to let her know to take some before she leaves.

Luna gives me a shy thanks as she collects the herbs and she heads out returning to her siblings she lets them know about the new room.