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Crystalized Rubber
Chapter 8: It All Hinges On This.

Chapter 8: It All Hinges On This.

David always thought that having different points of view is important, but due to handling sensitive information most of his life, he could rarely afford another person's opinion, as such, he developed a trick to help him.

Doubts Of Intent - ‘Fog, remind me why primitives used flint for tools?’

Through hard training and a little bit of talent, David managed to have multiple points of view. Now, combined with his ability to literally split his mind, the ability was only magnified.

Foggy Memories - ‘Due to it being easier to make sharp than stone ones due to it chipping.’

DOI - ‘That’s right. Now here’s the question Lay, do we have any problems shaping stone?’

Labor Layabout - ‘No…’

Despite the fact that he was questioning himself, David still felt both uncomfortable and exasperated.

DOI - ‘Then WHY did we make flint tools.’

FM - ‘That’s probably something I can explain. We just didn’t remember their existence until we already had some tools.’

DOI - ‘...Fine, you win. You're off the hook this time, La- What the hell are you doing?’

When Doubts focused back on Labor, he was already doing something else, namely telling bunnies what branches were and how far they could go to get them.

LL - ‘Well, we need wood to finish these, don’t we? Plus, wood is useful overall. Maybe we can grow a tree!’

DOI - ‘Screw this, I’ll go watch after the kits while their parents are gone…’

Done with himself, Doubts retreated to the garden slash rabbit den that was only accessible through the small burrows and tunnels interspersed around the rooms, mentally greeting the Gardener and asking if he needed any help.

Despite the winter only recently starting, it was hard for David. The world was so white that he could no longer relax by watching the landscape, being basically blinded any time he tried. So, to alleviate his boredom, he split himself into many distinct personalities, each with their own job and an entourage of personal copies.

Quickly running through all current thoughts, paying special attention to Lay, he decided to continue his personal hobby. With the help of Fog, he slowly and meticulously recreated the night sky, segment per room.

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New Construct Unlocked!

Tree (G)

1 Mana Cost, 0,3/hr Mana Upkeep

A sickly plant, It’s a wonder it’s standing.

As soon as David got the notification, he planted the trees all around the dungeon, and also wondered how the leafy plant was standing.

Slowly, as the deadline came close, more rabbits returned. Some had branches in their teeth, others were simply hungry or cold. As the time ticked over and the sun hid itself, he shrugged at the one missing rabbit, concluding that it drowned in a river or something and closed up the entrance, only leaving a small round opening in case the rabbit came back.

As the rabbits stumbled through the familiar dark, one of them bumped into one of the “Trees” causing it to tilt, fail to support its own weight, and snap, causing the rabbits to freeze up due to the noise. A quick pulse of reassurance caused them all to relax, and continue on their merry way.

David, in the meantime, quickly gave all the trees a support structure consisting of a thin magic stone spiral around the stem, as calling them trunks would be an embarrassment.

Initially, David was confused why the rabbits stumbled around the cave, but after he looked at it with his human eyesight, he not only understood why, but also noticed that his core gave off a warm orange glow, reminding him of the sun itself, and according to the grass in his room, reminding it as well.

As the days wore on, he kept sending out his rabbits farther and farther, which quickly netted him an F in trees, resulting in both his leafy tree getting better, and also getting a prickly tree that was also promptly added to his dungeon.

The dungeon itself was now bigger, being a zigzag of ten perfectly square rooms leading to a rounded core room. David didn’t want to use so much mana to move the doors if he ever needed it, so he started experimenting.

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As the snowstorm wore on for the seventh day, David continued trying to improve the doors, moving the shape, making them hollow, even summoning a tiny amount of water under them to help them move, but nothing felt right.

That is, until he connected it to the wall. He wasn’t sure what he was doing, but the activity in some of his memories told him to be on the right path. He tried making recesses, tilting the wall’s weight so it leans on a wall, connecting them with a rod, until finally, David made a circle stick out of the wall, and put another circle from the door into it, putting part of the door’s weight on the hinge.

Hinge… that’s right, that’s what it was. The hinge allowed the door to make less contact with the floor and scrape less, making it easier to open. And so, with all free shards working on hinges, soon two designs emerged.

One was just a normal door hinge, if a bit big due to the door’s weight, the other utilized a shard to add blood into a hinge when it is being operated, making it a little slippery and easier to open, and then taking it away.

Both designs were promptly combined and added to every door except the one to the core room using the blueprint menu, just in time for the storm to end, and David to start sending expeditions once again.

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Eldun was familiar with both the beasts and their numbers when it came to his home turf of the star ravine, so the new beast didn’t slip past him. At first, he thought they were horn-rabbits, but catching one revealed that it wasn’t even a monster.

The rabbits themselves appearing wasn't anything strange, but the fact that it was in winter was concerning. The only thing that could cause rabbits to move during winter was a powerful monster, and so after notifying the village, he went to investigate.

As the days wore on, he noticed strange behavior, the rabbits always appeared near morning, dug random holes, and ran away with tiny branches in their mouths, and even if a rabbit didn’t find anything, they all ran away when the sun touched the horizon.

Having never heard of such behavior before, Eldun was intrigued, and decided not to return to the settlement for the storm, instead hunting some wildlife, and even two rabbits, and preparing to hunker down for even a month with backup jerky.

After thirteen days of blizzard, Eldun was concerned that the rabbits disappeared, but after three days of hiding, he finally found one. Following the bunnies day after day, barely making any progress through the waist deep snow on the steep hill, he noticed tracks both to the left and right of the one he was following.

As he moved, more and more tracks appeared, until he saw them all converge on a cliff face.

As he approached, he noticed something weird. While the entire cliff face was half covered in snow, one spot stood out, clear of it. One spot of clearly cut but rough stone with a hole in the middle.