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[A Quiet Island, Day 8, Evening]

I feel a bit nervous about letting Alectryon fight while she's in this “battle mode”. She was already pretty evenly matched before, and I don't want the delvers to die either… they need to be able to go tell others about me. Alectryon snaps her jaws angrily as some of my thoughts leak over our connection, not wanting her fight to end. But if these delvers die, we won't be able to get any more. She huffs and reabsorbs her expelled mana, poking around in the dirt a bit before plopping herself down in the middle of the room, pouting.

I'm sorry Alectryon, but first impressions are very important. I know it's frustrating. I form that robed figure I made before over by the door leading to the loot room, drawing Miss Witch’s attention again. I open the doors and let the mana figure dissipate. The room quiets a bit before Miss Witch retracts her blades and goes back over to the group. Tank sheaths his sword too, walking back alongside her. There's a brief discussion between all the humans before they walk through the door, the two lights illuminating the room disappearing and plunging it back into darkness.

I send another apology through my link to Alectryon, and shift my view over to the loot room. Inside lies the cloth I prepared for them and Johmmy's satchel. Johmmy rushes forward to get his satchel back and picks it up, but as he does something falls out. I don't even know how, but the ant that stole his satchel is inside it now. It falls out with a clatter, dragging a half empty bottle of red fluid with it, and scutters away into one of the smaller tunnels nearby, taking the bottle with it. I'm gonna have to have a talk with them later.

It looks like Miss Witch is interested in the cloth as she grabs the bolt of cloth and unwraps it a bit, rubbing the cloth between her fingers and taking a closer look. It looks like she likes it, so I think I can just let them leave. I'll get back to working on the second floor now. I still need to finish it and given my recent acquisition of knowledge regarding magic, I have a few new ideas.

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[A Quiet Island, Day 8, Late Evening]

As the party walks out of the dungeon, they meet no resistance. Today's events run back through Anya’s mind as she tries to wrap her head around them. There was a strange robed figure who led them to the dungeon, the dungeon was peaceful and the monsters didn't attack them, the one fight they had would've killed them if that strange ant hadn't mysteriously given up, and to top that, the dungeon had a prize waiting for them at the end!

The only dungeons that have rewards for delvers are controlled dungeons! Every other dungeon's loot is the raw materials found within them! The whole situation only brings more questions the more she thinks about it, so Anya takes a deep breath to calm herself before looking around again. The ever present fog of mana hasn't lifted while they were in the dungeon, and since Anya was the only one able to see at night without a light, she'd have to lead them back to the ship. The thing is…

“Anya?” Eva asked. “Do you remember the way we came here?” Anya turned her head away, clearly trying to dodge the question.

Harold pulled out the mana compass he had in his bag at her silence, as quick on the uptake as always. He opened the cover and saw the spinning needle, his eyes widening. He hadn't bothered to check the compass before they left, thinking that it'd be normal because he always made sure to maintain it. Surely the one the captain was using was malfunctioning because it was broken or something. Apparently not though. Something about this island screwed with mana compasses.

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“Hey Anya, the mana compass is broken. D’you know anything about that?” Anya sighed and turned to Harold. “Yeah, there's a weird mana storm up on the mountain.”

“Mana storm?”

“That's what I'm calling it. Have you ever seen one of those wind spells some of the higher rank guild members can cast? The ones that make giant whirlwinds? It looks like one of those, but bigger and made of mana.”

As she's speaking, Harold glances down at the face of the compass again and notices something. The needle is doing something different. It's spinning slower on one side and faster on the other. He turns the compass and it continues turning slowly when it points in a specific direction. “Hold on. There's something up with the compass again.”

He starts walking around, and the compass continues “pointing” in one direction by slowing down when the needle points that way. “I think it still works. Just not properly.” He looked up at the rest of the group, his eyes briefly making contact with everyone else's. “Maybe it just has a lot of interference.”

With a murmur of agreement from the rest of the group, they all follow Harold as he starts walking into the forest towards wherever the compass is pointing. As they continue walking through the dense jungle, the light dims as the sun sets slowly over the horizon, making them speed up for fear of getting caught in the dark. It's not like they couldn't defend themselves, but sleeping in the jungle isn't very comfortable.

Harold notices the compass lingering more and more in the direction they're walking and speeding up when it's pointing away, until it gets to the point where it's just waving back and forth. As they get further and further from the dungeon, the ground eventually shifts to a rocky dirt and the trees thin out, until it completely changes into a dark gray obsidian sand as they walk out onto a beach.

“Hey, at least we can follow the edge of the island back to the boat.” Eva shrugs, the sand crunching beneath her boots.

Anya, though, isn't as enthusiastic. Her sight isn't blinded by the darkness, so she sees the massive stone head embedded in the sand, shining like a beacon into the dark. As her eyes lock onto it a tendril of mana shoots out from it and into her head. If any of the group were looking back at her, they'd see Anya stop and go limp, her eyes flicking back and forth, dimly glowing with a purple light, and her mouth hanging open. But it ends before any of them turn around. Anya shakes her head in confusion and places a palm to her temple, before looking up to the rest of the group again.

“Hey guys, I just remembered where we landed. Let's go.” Anya feels oddly rushed, wanting to leave quickly as she briskly walks down the beach. But she feels like she's forgotten something.

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[A Quiet Island, Day 8, Early Early Morning]

Well that's unfair! How come Sentinel can interact with the humans but I can't! Harrumph! Well whatever. The humans return to their camp a bit more tired than usual, and just when dinner was getting finished. I hope they sleep well. And leave a five star review on google maps. That'd be nice. Either way, I have most of the second level cut out by now. It's a bit more well made compared to the first floor, mostly because I'm not in a rush right now. I forbade the ants from digging over here, because this level is going to have a few special things.

The first is that it's another maze. It's a bit smaller than the first, only 4 acres, but the maze is more complicated and cramped than the first. The second is that I'll only have one enemy, a humanoid figure made from rods that will wander the maze and automatically run towards any delvers. I created an enchantment that covered the whole maze with a field that limits the distance light can go before dying out. You'll only be able to see in a radius of about five feet, and any light you bring won't help with that. While I'm at it, I might as well make something to tell me when people enter the dungeon.

I'm not sure how it should attack, but I'm thinking of making it flood the victim's body with that condensed mana Miss Witch introduced to me, but I'll also make it easy to fend off with attacks. I tried making a wooden frame this time and growing a thin layer of Silkshroom over it like with Sentinel, but it hasn't formed a core yet, even though I saturated it with mana. The wood came back to life though, and appears to have formed a mutualistic relationship with the Silkshroom filaments.

Wait. Did I ever make sure that the Silkshroom cloth was dead? Maybe it'll die from lack of nutrition at some point. I also need to find a place to grow it instead of just speed growing samples from Sentinel. I think I'll put that on the third floor. I have an idea for that one too. But I'll have to finish the second floor first. I don't bother with a boss room, instead placing two pedestals on opposite sides of the maze, one of which will open the exit door once a figurine left on the other is moved to it.

Suddenly, I receive a pulse of mana from the enchantment I placed on the front door. Looks like someone’s visiting! But isn't it still too soon for the day to start? I look outside and the moon's out. It looks to be about three in the morning. I move my view down to the entrance and see a group of four sailors gathered around the front door, holding a variety of shortswords and cutlasses. One of them even has a gun for some reason! I don't think they're here for a good reason though. These sailors don't exactly seem like upstanding citizens.

Well, if they try anything I'll have a good excuse to make it clear that I let the survey team in on purpose.