Two days passed as I worked on my dungeon, taking long rests and entertaining my foxes whenever I had no mana to do anything worthwhile. The number of geysers in my room quickly grew to the dozens, with all new ones being cheaper than the first for some reason I couldn’t quite grasp. They still cost fifteen mana a piece, more than enough to hurt losing, especially when compared with the benefits a new fox was giving me, but in the end I did indeed satisfy the fox that had been watching me all this time. All that was needed now were a few nice holes in the ground - next to the ponds and the geysers - and my quest would be finished!
A few minutes later I had completed this last job, finally giving me the long-awaited green board with its white lettering.
『Quest 8: An Oasis for Foxes
Task: Build a fitting environment and shelter for each single one of your monsters
Reward: Unlocks various food monsters for your foxes to hunt and play with
Nice touches on your new room. I really like it. How about we make it feel a little more special?』
I stared at the board for about a minute, asking myself what Cilia was speaking of, only to then be greeted by a new board that quickly replaced the older one:
『Quest 9: Quite A Challenge
Task: Transform a room into a special challenge for adventurers. This can be achieved through special obstacles, traps, puzzles, or other innovative mechanisms.
Reward: Unlocks an artifact for the Vulpine Circle
Remember the rules and don’t overdo it~』
I wasn't sure what to think about this task. I had never worked with traps and mechanisms in my dungeon, and this didn't seem like the right time to start. And puzzles? I didn't even know how to create them! Only obstacles seemed comparatively simple and understandable, but special ones? I needed to think about it.
It took me a few minutes to come up with an idea that seemed feasible and fitting for my dungeon. It was more of a theory or experiment, but if successful, it would easily fulfill the quest!
Minutes after making my decision I had already begun creating dozens of stone pillars of varying heights, sometimes placed more, sometimes less distant from each other in winding lines that spiraled around the entire room starting from the pavilion. Adventurers would have to jump from one pillar to the next to reach the next room, all the while avoiding the fountains of boiling water I had built the pillars around.
This alone was still not enough to meet Cilia's challenge. But I wasn't done yet; no, I was just getting started!
A moment later, I had already begun removing the pillars from below, leaving only floating boulders. And indeed, soon countless stones floated around my pavilion. They remained motionless, even when I jumped up and down on one of them as a test.
A feeling of satisfaction filled me as I now walked through the room. The jumps alone would surely pose a great challenge to any intruder, but my fox would also be waiting to knock any careless adventurer off the platforms! Cilia was also pleased with my work and soon rewarded me for completing the quest:
『Quest 10: Traps and Puzzles
Task Completed: Transform a room into a special challenge for adventurers. This can be achieved through special obstacles, traps, puzzles, or other innovative means.
Reward: Choose an artifact for the Vulpine Circle
I knew you could do it. Keep it up!』
No sooner had I finished reading that a window opened, showing me a list of artifacts from which I could choose.
「Available Artifacts:
Ruby Orb
Replaces a Fire Fox once. Costs no mana to use. Only one orb may be used at a time.
Tiger Eye Orb
Replaces an Earth Fox once. Costs no mana to use. Only one orb may be used at a time.
Sapphire Orb
Replaces a Water Fox once. Costs no mana to use. Only one orb may be used at a time.
Opal Orb x2
Replaces a random fox once. May only select unlocked one-tailed foxes. Costs no mana to use. Only one orb may be used at a time.」
I couldn’t help but stare at the white writing in disbelief. For all I knew, the Vulpine Circle followed fixed rules, namely:
- Only two foxes may be used;
- My mana couldn’t be above my maximum mana;
- it would cost fifty mana per tail of the foxes participating;
- the ritual would fail if the elements or foxes do not work well together;
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- the resulting foxes will have tails numbering the combined numbers of tails participating;
and, finally:
- using the same combinations will result in the same foxes.
The crystal orbs seemed to overrule this seemingly carefully balanced setting, as they allowed me to combine a two-tailed fox and one of the artifacts into a three-tailed fox, something I wouldn’t yet have access to with my meager limit of one hundred mana.
This obviously meant I would be stupid not to choose one of my two-tailed options to begin with as I could make several two-tailed foxes any day now. But which combination would I use? I only had two kinds of foxes that fit the requirements right now, the recently homed steam fox and one of the lava foxes waiting in the volcano.
I tried to imagine the possible results of the combinations, but no matter how much I thought about it, steam was really giving me trouble. There was watery steam which didn’t make any sense as well as fire and steam which gave hot steam? Wasn't the steam already hot? Only earth and steam seemed to match, which would hopefully give me a geyser fox. But should I really risk getting no fox at all?
No, that was a stupid idea. If anything, my lavafox seemed to be a safer choice. It would likely give me rock when cooled down with water or a volcano when combined with earth. Only for the fire element I couldn’t find a possible result. Maybe an eruption? I couldn’t say for sure.
And then there was the chance to get two foxes for the prize of one in the shape of the opal orbs. Even if an eruption fox wasn’t a thing, there was still a theoretical chance to get two three-tailed foxes!
I spend a moment thinking about it before deciding to at least give the two orbs a try. Should I mess up, I could always try again when Cilia gives me another artifact orb in the future! Maybe she would even give me a quest to somehow increase my mana to a hundred and fifty so I could unlock all the available foxes myself.
Once I had selected my prize, a thick mist of mana appeared with my nearby core as its center. The magic began swirling around it, faster and ever faster, before slowly condensing into two white crystal balls the size of my core. Both of the artifacts were shining in all colors of the rainbow when the room’s sun fell on them.
More than happy with my reward I carried the two opal orbs into the pavilion, hiding them both under a few of the furs. Right now I lacked the mana to do anything worthwhile with the artifacts and it would take quite a few hours for this to change, hours I wasn’t willing to sit here and do nothing.
Of course, I was more than a little dissatisfied with my lack of resources, but the only thing I could possibly do right now was relocate my core to a much better location: at the end of my new challenge.
I first built a ramp up to the last of the stones, created a platform against the rooms’ wall and, once I had done that, dug one mana deep into the rock. At the end of my tunnel, fifteen meters deep, I started digging a room. The next few hours I rested, dug, and rested again, always working at the limit of my mana. At the end of all that stood a room that had cost me a total of fifty points of mana and was just big enough to not feel cramped.
After moving the nest, the orbs, and the core to their new home and setting the room to always be sunny and the daytime to be changing, I instead made my way back to my volcano room. A new quest had popped up during my work, one that would make my dungeon feel even more like home.
It demanded nothing of me but to plant three fruit trees and would reward me with all fruit trees growing blessed fruits from then on out. I had stared at the board in confusion, having never heard of real blessed fruits in the first place. They only existed in legends and tales!
Of course, Cilia's blessing was real. I could see it on every blade of grass, every flower, and every tree surrounding me. Unfortunately, I knew too little about the goddess to say exactly what her blessing would do to these plants, but I knew that this time the changes would extend beyond just an additional splash of color.
With a sigh, I walked over to the elm tree to give a new task to one of the earth foxes having its dens between the elm’s roots. I found the monster itself peacefully sleeping under the tree’s shadow - it didn't even hear me approach. Only when I sat down next to it and gently stroked its fur did the fox wake up. It looked at me with a questioning gaze.
"Can you get me some fruits?" I asked. "From trees. You know what trees are, right?"
It was a silly question. From what I knew, foxes were highly intelligent and much smarter than dogs. I couldn't say if that was because they were monsters or naturally so, but they had understood every word I had said to them so far. Only their responses were still a bit unclear to me, as I clearly had more than a little trouble interpreting their high barks and giggles.
The fox didn't care about my thoughts. It slowly got up, shook its earthy fur, sending a cloud of dust in the air, and walked toward the exit, visibly pleased to have found a more exciting task than just taking a nap. I couldn't have been happier to have it.
~ ~ ~
Time slowly went by as I waited for the fox to return from its journey. I didn’t think much of it at first as I didn’t know all too much about the forest outside of my new home, but when minutes of waiting turned into hours, I really began to worry. Normally, my foxes were quick and efficient in their gathering, and I had hardly any concerns when it was outside the dungeon for a short time. But the longer its absence lasted, the more restless I became. Were there really no fruit trees nearby? Had something happened to it? Surely, there were dangerous animals in the forest outside the dungeon that could harm it!
My heart beat faster and faster as I imagined the possible dangers my faithful fox could be exposed to out in the woods. Although it was a monster, it wasn't invulnerable, and the thought of it being injured or worse sent a cold shiver down my spine.
After an hour had passed, I had had enough and made my way towards the exit of the room - the tunnel that separated me from the outside world. Soon enough I stumbled through its darkness, always hoping to soon hear the excited barking of my fox. But there was nothing, nothing but an invisible wall that prevented me from actually leaving my dungeon. I was trapped.
A deep feeling of despair spread through me. My dungeon had become something of a safe haven for me, a place where I would protect myself from my father and his questionable plans. Now, however, I wanted nothing more than to leave.
Naturally, I tried exploring the barrier with my hands, hoping it might be an illusion or just a temporary obstacle, but the wall felt real, cold, and unyielding, both at its center and in the space connecting it to the tunnel’s rocky walls.
Discouraged, I let my gaze wander into the distance, towards the dense forest I could make out in the distance. It was silent now and only the distant rustling of leaves and the occasional screech of birds still reached my ears, not a trace to be heard from my earth fox.
Suddenly, without any warning, a deep feeling of sadness and loss overcame me. Before I knew it I had already fallen on my knees, tears in my eyes. Something terrible had happened...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Updated Map as of Chapter 10:
image [https://i.imgur.com/nEPkYNM.jpeg]