Slowly circulating energy in my body, I begin to pay attention to the small amount of energy entering my veins. After finding one absorption point, I slightly increase the speed of my circulating energy while also splitting off a small amount of said energy to block that point.
Opening my eyes to check the comm, 5 hours, closing just one absorption point took me 5 hours to do. Getting up, he goes to the slightly squashed and barely germinated plant seeds and begins to plant them about 10"in deep in the soil as that is the safe estimate for most vegetables. Although the potato plants are easy to identify and plant accordingly the rest he can do mid ground and hope come out well.
Although no sunlight the energy used to grow will instead be from energy in the environment, while they don't look as green and growing in a place with corruption could have unknown effects he was going to see how well it goes.
After having worked 14 hours straight, exhaustion began to set in but he couldn't sleep knowing that monsters were nearby and there number ever increasing. the only reason he hadn't been attacked earlier is because the slime saw him as a hard to catch prey.
But if he laid down and the slime found him he would be in big trouble, not only that but the slime would target his plants and soil in order to speed up reproduction. Slimes reproduce using energy, although they can speed up by absorbing creatures they are skittish and hesitant to provoke others if there is a small amount.
But if he was to sleep it would see him as vulnerable and wouldn't hesitate to attack him, if that happened he would be dead before he even knew what killed him. Not only that but the crops he is attempting to grow will be targeted by the slimes, slimes can't consume bones or each others remains that meant the only alternative food other than the dungeon energy was his garden.
Defenses, that was the only solution, but what can he use to keep a gelatinous monster that can change its body out of a place without a near air tight building.
As he contemplates this he starts heading to the water source nearby to bring water back for the plants, after filling up his pots and pans with water he puts them in his comm space and heads back. After returning he sees nearby is a slime not at his farm but slowly coming towards his cave non the less, sighing he begins to water the crops and hopes him being there will act as a deterrent for it to come much closer.
Taking out his pans of water he begins to slowly pour some over the garden, after watering the plants he turns to check on the slime. Gone. Surprised he checks around the cave to see if it was lurking, nothing, not even a small noise from it.
Although they don't provoke they usually linger around any place with any potentially easy to obtain food so in case the food is left alone they can come in quickly, eat, and leave before the threat comes back. But this one had run away, not even to go get others as there would be noise if it had.
Why had the biggest scavenger of the dungeons run away, sure he was here but he had no fear factor to him or the first slime he met wouldn't have just sat there doing nothing but would have runaway instead.
Is there something here that scared it off? But if so it wouldn't have gotten close in the first place, and noise does nothing to scare them off so him doing things wasn't the difference.
The only difference between before and after he got here was the amount of water in the area but slimes can be near rivers, Can't they? 'thinking about it I've only ever heard of slime out breaks during dry seasons, even there tunnels appear more frequently then.'
So are they scared of water? The only way to know is to test the theory and see if they runaway when he throws water at them. Returning to the stream nearby to collect more water he begins to trek through the dungeon looking for slimes, although he has come across 2 slimes there is no guaranteed that those slimes weren't the same slime and therefore the only slime nearby was potentially scared away.
After about 30 minutes of walking in this dungeon the tall tale sound of a plop got me coming towards it's direction. There around the corner like the little stalkers they are is another slime, approaching it causes fear to go through me but if I want to be able to rest without constant risk of being eaten alive I need to know.
After getting 20ft away from the slime I reach into my comm space, get out a pot with water and approach some more. At 10ft away I raise up the pot and slosh as much water as possible at the slime, in seconds the slime begins to show severe distress and panic and after about 2 minutes after it begins to fall apart.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Staring at the puddle of what use to be a near indestructible creature, many emotions flood through me relief, joy, disbelief, and most importantly hope.
Rushing back to my garden I begin to plan how to connect the small river nearby to my current room, as all I need is to have large amounts of water to keep myself safe and slimes as far away from myself and my garden as possible.
Returning back I immediately begin to work on how to carve this water path way out, because although there is a small stream it is exactly that, a small stream with little ability to produce more than a few mouthfuls of water ever few minutes. Just filling up those pans took him 2 hours and that was 3 single person camping cooking pots.
First see if I can't widen the stream entry way to make it so more water gushes in from the area, if it does then there is most likely a reservoir nearby and there is no need to worry about it running out, if not the it is potentially run off from heavy ran and will appear unfrequently and therefore will be unreliable for such a thing.
Going to the water outlet he begins to shovel out dirt around the small spigot silently praying that more water would flow through. After about five minutes of digging he is suddenly splashed with water stepping back quickly there pouring out was a steady stream of water similar to a tap turned half way open.
Hurrying so as to not loose to much to the ground below he start digging under were the water pours from.
Bit by bit he made a small 5ft by 5ft puddle full of water, next step is to begin connecting this small puddle to his cave but it wouldn't be easy as with limited sleep and waning strength due to over exertion the fatigue of the constant up and down has caused his mind and body to be near collapse.
Although cultivating can replace sleep for a while as it rejuvenates the body he can only go so long without sleep due to the mental strain caused by his current situation. Getting water into pots he begins to return to his cave for sleep.
After arriving he makes a small moat in front of his cave entrance and pours the water in, although it is a small amount it should last until he wakes up. Crawling into his sleeping bag he closes his eyes and dozes off.
----------------------------------------
P.O.V Izel (2nd oldest and first born girl old Aadi's family)
It's been 2 days since my brother disappeared and only now is the police looking for him, although me and my sibling attempted to report his disappearance they said if are parents weren't worried then they weren't either and that we we're blowing it out of proportion.
However after him not showing up to school or work for 2 days the school alerted our parents to the fact that if he did not turn up soon they would begin investigating them and if found negligent me and my siblings would be removed and they would lose government aide.
Panicked they went to the police to report that he hadn't shown up for 2 days and that this was not normal for him. After the police looked into the events that transpired however and only one certainty became known.
My brother has disappeared with the tunnel that had appeared at the farm.
Horror donned on me as I realize that he is most likely dead, no one has ever returned from a tunnel disappearance. My brother is neither the strongest nor smartest and to be stuck wherever it is tunnels go for someone with not even an F-grade energy is nothing short of certain death, closing my eyes as I sit the report given by my parents when they returned home from the police down on the table the only thought going through my head is 'why did the hunters not properly check for missing people in the tunnel.'
Of course she knew they couldn't be held accountable after all there is no way of knowing if her brother had died before they got there and his body already decomposed by the slimes but it didn't make accepting it any easier.
Unable to do anything but continue on living how she always has a new determination enters her, stronger, she needed to be stronger, no not just her, all of them had to put in more work on cultivating.
Although the cores are given free by the government you can also use circulation to absorb more energy at night and forgo sleep for a period of time. She needed to do more and this was the only way to do that, getting up she heads for the bedroom prepared to give the horrifying new to the younger one, both about their missing brother and about what those over the age of five were going to start doing when bed time came.
----------------------------------------
P.O.V Aadi
Waking up he can feel the tightness in his muscles and the sweat and dirt caked to his body from the past 2 days of work, getting up he heads for the water outlet he made earlier to clean off. Taking off his clothes he puts them under the water to clean as much off before sitting them on the camping tarp he took out of his comm space.
After that he began to wash as much grime off his body as possible using only water and his hands, although the water was cold it helped soothe his muscles, somewhat dulling their ache.
Finishing washing up he sat on the tarp naked and began to meditate again, giving his clothes time to dry alongside himself while also giving energy to his muscles so as to help further their recovery. With previous experience closing the absorption hole this time took only 4 hours, despite no longer having to worry about the slimes it didn't mean that something else can't happen.
He couldn't help but feel fortunate that he disappeared with a slime tunnel as although he has no energy there is an easy way to protect himself against them, so although he won't be hunting them he can still make a perfectly safe area for himself.
Putting on his now dry clothes he once more puts water in his pots and returns to the garden to sprinkle it on to the crops. After that he returns to the water area and sets out to begin the arduous task of digging a small river out of the cave through the caverns and back to his cave.