I woke up and the alarm cock was staring at me. I missed alarm clocks as they displayed time.

“Good morning mister Rooster, can you tell me how late it is?”

The fruits I had gotten still seemed fresh so it mustn’t have been long.

A taste test revealed that they were relatively fresh. Did I, do it? Did I wake up the next morning?

“Mister Rooster, did you already make noise or do you have to yet make noise?”

The alarm cock ignored me and did chicken things. These birds are only good for one thing; waking rabbits up at the correct time. I didn’t even know that chickens lived in the jungle but these seem to differ greatly from their Kaledonian forms. These looked more like pheasants and were way bigger.

I got up, made [Ice Mirrors] and started braining my hair.

An ear-deafening ‘cuckle doodle doo’ rang through my ears and head after my 17th failed braiding attempt. I gave up, made myself presentable and left my room.

Still as dark as ever but some light was coming from above. My room was on the first floor so it was the most well-lit floor of the burrow.

I visited Juvia and had a long chat. I brought up the ideas of making real alarm clocks and stop relying on alarm cocks. They would have to dig up oscillating crystals and some electromagical programming for that though and none of us knew where they could be found in the jungle or anyone who was well versed in electromagic.

The human natives used sundials but those don't work in dark burrows for obvious reasons. I can read the stars but that doesn’t work when I’m inside or when its day time. We need something that works inside and isn’t a chicken.

“Hmm, what about those spires? You told us that it had similarities to ancient technology or something. Would they have clocks?”

“Uhh, that is actually a good question but the scientists on Kaledon can hardly figure out the writings and technology so it might have clocks but we might not recognize it a s such, forget even copying it...I’m still curious though!”

Despite my curiosity, I still had to wait back until the rabbits had returned from their scouting surveys and had gathered the ingredients to make special drinks to keep me awake and focused.

Juvia and I had many chats about what the spires might contain and their workings. She was also curious about the world outside of Nesher and I told her about Kaledon.

A month flew by like that and barrels of juice and drinks got carried into my room.

“I’ve heard you’ve kept awake all this time! Good job!” Wren patted my shoulder and instructed the rabbits to be careful else they would have to personally get the ingredients and replace the spilled drinks.

“What did the reports say about the spires?”

“Hmm, well it does seem that the surrounding mana gets absorbed and converted. It won’t cause problems now but it certainly will in the future. Also, some spires have...activated.”

“Activated? Activated what? Haven’t they been active all this time?”

A barrel crashed to the floor and dark pink liquid flowed out of it. The room started to smell more earthy than it already did.

“Hey you! Give me the spire report! You...what did I say about spilling? Go back to the mushroom cave, and you are being put on duty to retrieve a Carrot room. You 2, clean up his mess. Unbelievable these guys... Sorry about that Azu, they are becoming a bit sloppy. I will tell you when the report arrives.”

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The sloppy rabbits didn’t object and seemed to have accepted their punishment. I felt a bit bad for them but there was nothing I could do for them.

Wren told me about some ingredients they gathered. The most troublesome were certain energizing mushrooms which they extract from the Mushroom cave. It sounded innocent but the more Wren described it, the more it sounded like a nightmare.

Enormous flying spiders? Toxic mushroom monsters? Sentient black mold? Man and rabbit-eating giant centipedes? No thanks! And that’s discounting the hordes of fairies that get met on the way there.

But Wren reminded me that whatever I might find in the spires might be worse and she’s right. The report came in and the active spires were sending out strange objects and the rabbits are undecided if they are objects or living things. My curiosity combatted against my fear and won out.

“When can I go?! What secrets do these spires have, how will it shatter our view on magic and technology?!”

I got up and made battle preparations which involved stuffing my dimensional pocket with as many fruits and snacks I could find.

“We want to give you a team but we’re unsure what the correct size will be. Will you be flying? At how much of an advantage or disadvantage would we have against those new encounters? I don’t want to make the team too big but too small would also create problems.”

I thought over it. I won’t be able to use [Meteor] and other attacks with a wide range. I had been alone for the majority of my life so I haven’t put much effort in skills that were compatible with teamplay. [Tsunami], [Meteor], [Mistflower Field] and other kills came to mind.

“I know it sounds like a bad idea to go with low numbers but...Just 1 skilled rabbit would do. In a group too big, they would be more likely to get hit by me than any adversaries. The day shift was rough on me as I had to either warn everyone and still carefully control my skills or be highly inefficient and shoot down fairies one by one.”

“Understandable. My daughter enjoyed working with you so she will join you unless you have any issues with that.”

“That’s fine. I have yet to thank her for getting us through the Carrot room retrieval.”

“Well, you will hear about my daughter tonight. Let’s hope you’re still awake when she visits you.” Wren smiled which quickly disappeared as another rabbit dropped a barrel.

“Right, I need to make a squad of rabbits that enjoy spelunking in the Mushroom cave.”

Wren’s aura changed. It went from a ‘strong leader’ aura to a ‘menacing dictator’ aura. The sloppy rabbits cowered in a corner as she started to chew them out.

The rest of my day was spent, tinkering on skills to make them more teammate friendly. I had [Meteor Slap] so [Meteor] wasn’t necessary but...there is a beauty to bringing down a flaming ball to crush and destroy your opponents. Something a [Meteor Slap] can’t emulate.

“Boo!”

I fell off my bed as a blonde woman with rabbit ears suddenly appeared in my field of vision and caused me to fall off my chair.

“Hey! That’s not nice!”

“Haha! Sorry! I expected you to be asleep but you might as well have been. I’ve been calling out to you but you didn’t respond.”

I crawled back up and looked Mishelly in her eyes. “Hey, about that time with the Carrot room. Thank you.”

Mishelly cocked her head. “Thank me for what? We did our jobs, there’s no need for a thank you.”

She helped me up and inspected the strange barrels that were filling up my room.

“Oh, I need to bring some with me to stay awake and focused!” I sucked some barrels and cups into my dimensional pocket.

There were 3 drinks. One for focus, another one to stay awake, and the last one was for...beauty? Aww, how considerate of them!

I’m not sure what exactly they mean with that but it’s the thought that counts.

I gulped down a cup of each. They didn’t taste good but they didn’t taste bad either.

“So are you ready to go out?! I can’t wait to beat up strange things!” Mishelly started shadowboxing and kicking.

“Uhh, it’s a bit late don’t you think? Won’t we get into trouble with the increased fairy activity during the night?”

“Oh not if we’re fast! Even the fairies stay clear from the spires! Mostly....”

“Uhhm, isn’t that a bad thing? If those terrible creatures stay away from the spires, doesn’t that mean that the spires are worse than the fairies?”

“Naah! They must be some fairy-repellent device!”

Would something so convenient exist? And my assessment and Mishelly’s assessment are not mutually exclusive, the spires could be fairy-repellent because they’re that dangerous. We would be trading the threat of fairies for some unknown threat.

All I can hope is that I’m wrong and that the towers are harmless. Life has to give me a break some time, right? Right?

“Very well, let’s leave after I’ve braided my hair.”

Mishelly made snoring sounds. “We don’t have forever! Well. we do but that doesn’t mean we should take forever!”

Mishelly lifted me up and dashed off.

This whole situation feels familiar...