Marty had turned his attention to his store of seeds. Thanks o them he now had some rosemary growing against one of the walls of his cave and a small bed of strawberries was flourishing against one of the other walls.
He was startled when a sleeping fairy materialized in his cave. She seemed very young and she was lying on some obnoxious sickly looking grey moss. He absorbed it with distaste and examined it. It was just wrong, so he poked at it and compared it to his memories of mosses he had seen on Earth.
He found it surprisingly easy to fix the moss. He grew a thick bed of healthy looking non-glowing green moss under his guest. He was happy with the success of his experiment, so he added some tiny white flowers to the moss.
After assuring himself that his guest was simply sleeping he went back to examining his rosebush. Cautiously he attempted to create another. This time it was far easier and by the time his guest woke he had a nice set of flowerbeds with winding gravel paths winding between them. The largest flowerbed surrounded his core.
Rosita woke and stretched. Her eyes flew open when her nose fetched her the scent of roses. She looked round in confusion at the strange cave. It was smaller than the room of the young dungeon core she had been assigned to nursemaid. This cave was brightly lit by a sunstone and it was full of rosebushes. She stared at the green glowing dungeon core.
« Hello, and welcome little one, » it said.
“H—Hello, where am I. What happened?”
« I rejected the Imp the system assigned me. She was completely impossible. Not long after she vanished you appeared. My name is Martin Delnegro. You can call me Marty. »
Rosita’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Then unable to resist she darted here and there exploring the cave and sniffing the flowers. “Oh, I’m so lucky, you are aware,” she said as she flitted around. “Do you want to bond with me? I’m Rosita. I love your roses, and the red berries are sooo yummy!”
Marty could feel his heart melting at the little fairy’s obvious admiration and delight with his cave.
« Maybe, I think so. I know I have to bond with a companion, and your name is a good omen. But I must warn you that I’m in no hurry to open my dungeon. I want to be ready before allowing outsiders to find me... Actually I’d rather never open but ... something tells me that isn’t possible. »
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Rosita just smiled widely and nodded her head. “Yes! Oh yes! Please.”
« So be it. » Marty sighed to himself; he really didn’t want to hurt this young fairy. « How do we do this? »
Rosita’s wings buzzed excitedly, “Look inside your core, in your centre. You should find a, a dormant spell. You activate it by offering to bond with me, ... yes just like that. Yes I accept.”
Ting – « Done. I now pronounce you Dungeon and Fairy. Congratulations. »
Ting – « Please confirm your two Affinities, Nature and Mind? »
Rosita did a quick loop in the air as she exclaimed, “Oh Wow! Two affinities, YAY!”
Marty chuckled at her antics before accepting Nature and Mind.
Ting – « Please select what guardians you wish, a list is available. »
« Normal creatures, you know animals and bugs, » suggested Marty.
Ting – « Done. Dungeon core Martin “Marty” Delnegro, Level 1, Primary affinity: Nature, secondary affinity: Mind. Guardians: Beasts. »
* * *
Marty worked slowly, he opened up a tunnel to the north and opened up another cavern-like room. He attached another sunstone to the roof, and filled it with flowers and bushes. Once he was satisfied he created two corridors, one heading east and the other west. Two more caverns were carved out and populated with plants. Then he headed south. Two months later he was well on his way to surrounding his core chamber with five other caverns, and he had carved out a carefully concealed apartment for Rosita.
All the caves he had created to date contained assorted insects, and all of them had at least one nest of hornets. In the back of his core chamber he had two large beehives.
The one other thing Marty did during this time was to feed a constant stream of mana to his first of his rose bushes. He enjoyed the way it flourished, growing up and around his core concealing it/him from sight. He noticed something growing in his rosebush. It almost looked like something was gathering up the greater part of the mana he had been feeding it and struggling to be born. Marty called this to Rosita’s attention and she was fascinated.
Marty and Rosita linked and fed the bush some of their combined mana. They soon stopped when they felt that the poor thing was more than full.
Marty carved himself a new chamber to the south of his core chamber and linked it to the two caverns he had previously finished. He was feeling happier now six caverns surrounded his heart chamber. He sensed that he was coming to an end of the rooms he could create. So Marty settled down to plan and watch his fairy and his gardens.
* * *
Marty was glad to discover that the trap infested three dimensional maze he created to the south and west of his cluster of caverns did not count as a room. So he created another to the south and east of his caves.