Despite feeling that way it was only in the evening hours that I could finally get to work - it was only now that I felt safe enough to carry my core all the way to the dungeon’s entrance where it was most vulnerable. When I finally made my way there, accompanied by Fren who was especially eager to see me work, I still took both the obsidian fox and the three-tailed steam fox with me, knowing they were the strongest monsters I had access to.
Naturally, I had spent all this time not waiting alone but also thinking about what exactly I was going to build. In the end, I decided not to go too big this time. Instead, I was going to create a small shrine this time, with the option to upgrade it whenever I had the mana to do so.
With my foxes and the ratkin in tow and my core in my hands, I made my way towards the entrance, once again swearing to myself to find a better way for my personal travel. It took me half an hour to reach that place, especially with all the foxes that demanded our attention waiting on the way.
Ultimately, I found myself standing in the tunnel between the outside world and my volcano room, about as close to the exit as the invisible wall allowed me to. Despite being this close to freedom, Fren did not try to make a run for it, despite easily being able to do so. Instead, she seemed much more eager to watch me do my thing.
I didn’t let her wait for long. Once I had made sure she was staying in relative safety, I created a dome-shaped room for twenty mana, before setting it to be both always sunny, warm, and day at all times. It wouldn’t do for adventurers to be unable to see the shrine perfectly, after all!
Soon enough, I was blinded by an artificial sun. It took some time to get used to it, but when I finally was, what awaited me was a room about forty meters in diameter, with its sky held up by cliff faces all around me.
After creating the room itself, I made my obsidian fox sit down and had her tails placed at her side so that it almost looked like a statue. Next, I created alcoves in the walls wherever it was needed, before sitting down and hugging my core for the next and most important step.
I took a last, long look at my obsidian fox before closing my eyes and imagining how she would look if she was really a statue. The cracks between the rocks it was made of would be gone of course, leaving a complete, dog-like shape - save for the white tips at the ends of both the three tails and the ears.
In my imagination, I made the fox close her mouth and lose two of her three tails, so that she looked even more natural and, most importantly, up for the task I intended it for. In the final step, I imagined nine of these foxes surrounding me, each sitting in its own alcove and staring at the middle of the room, where I was sitting. All of the future statues were made of pure mithril, with only the tips of the tails, the eyes, and the ears made of white marble instead, making them look the closest possible to the real deal.
I did my best imagining each and every one of the nine foxes, before, finally, I could feel the familiar wave of icy air creep over my skin - my mana was leaving me.
All in all, it took several minutes before the mana finally stopped leaving my body, minutes during which I had to perfectly imagine the foxes I was going to create. When I finally was done, I couldn’t help but collapse on my back, both my mind and most of my mana exhausted by this single task. Fren quickly ran up to check on me, but when I greeted her with a soft smile, she could only sigh before examining my work.
Surrounding me were now nine mithril foxes, all of them looking at me with pure white eyes. With their marble accents and the sun casting shadows on their bodies, they looked lifelike, almost like the obsidian fox herself, only they lacked the joints and souls to actually move their bodies.
With this task taken care of, I asked the two foxes that had accompanied me to guard the entrance instead before closing my eyes once again. This time I imagined a huge pavilion to become reality, one that would easily take over the entire middle of the room.
Soon enough a loud rumble could be heard as nine wooden pillars grew out of the ground, every single one of them five times as tall as I was. I tried my best to imagine a nine-sided roof becoming reality, with each side facing one of the nine fox statues. Before long, the mana finally stopped being drained from my body, leaving me almost utterly exhausted.
Still, I had one more thing to do, so after checking that everything was just like I wanted it to be, I created a large marble pedestal under the pavilion that had Cilia’s name and various titles written on all of its nine sides in letters made out of pure gold.
Even Fren seemed to be satisfied with my work. Once I was finished, the ratkin woman immediately set up to explore the whole pedestal with both her eyes and her hands, her small fingers tracing each of the letters one by one. It was obvious she was impressed by my creation - a fact I couldn’t help but feel proud of.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Sadly, that was all my mana spent, so I could only reluctantly sit down and chat with the ratkin instead. We mainly talked about the dungeon and its plants and monsters, as we had no other common interest other than that, and I didn’t know about Cilia all that much. Fren herself seemed somewhat reluctant to tell me more about the goddess herself, which I couldn’t quite understand since I only knew of her as a good-natured, motherly existence. But she didn’t seem to be afraid of Cilia either, which puzzled me quite a bit. Why would she not tell me what she knew? She clearly was more knowledgeable than me!
I didn’t find the chance to ask her about it, as before I could force the conversation onto that topic - which she carefully avoided - my mana had regenerated at least a bit, more than enough so for me to continue my work. So I explained to Fren what I was going to do before kneeling next to the new pedestal for the next and final steps - the arguably most important one of them all.
Having never seen Cilia myself, nor any depictions of the goddess, I had nothing to go by but her words and actions alone. So after closing my eyes, I instead imagined her exactly as the existence that had appeared to me after saving my life: a mother who was gently soothing me with gentle words and even more gentle actions.
First, I imagined a bed of furs coming into existence, taking over the entire platform. Much like the pedestal itself, I made them from white marble. It was hard to not think of their softness and the comfort they would offer, aspects the stone couldn’t hope to copy. Instead, I made it so the furs looked like they had been carefully combed into shape, not a single hair standing up.
Soon enough mana was leaving my body, causing me to shudder. The feeling lasted for half a minute at worst, before stopping once again - the furs were finished.
I kept my eyes closed, instead starting to imagine myself resting on the bed of white marble furs. It was much easier to do that, as I could see my own body every single day of my life, but I still wasn’t too used to my ears and tail. Luckily, I could still picture them clearly enough for the dungeon core to begin its work as mana soon began to leave my body.
I was using white marble again for the body itself, my clothes, however, I imagined in mithril, gold, silver, and finally copper - all the metals I had access to. This would give them some color and make the statue stand out even more.
Minutes went by as the dungeon core did its work before finally giving me some relief. The statue was half-finished!
Imagining Cilia was a much harder task as I had never seen her with my own eyes, but I had already decided what to do about her part of the statue. As she was my mother, why not use me as a base and go from there? She wouldn’t mind, right?
Not having any better idea than that, I trusted my gut feeling and went ahead with it. First, I imagined myself, only slightly taller and with a more shapely figure, one that I would hopefully acquire in the future. For the tails, I naturally went with nine, the number she had told me about, although I made them a little bit longer than my own so she looked even more heavenly.
The Cilia I imagined was kneeling right next to me, sitting on her heels with her soft tails fanning out behind her back. Her left hand was placed on my head, ready to comfort me with her gentle touches. A smile was on the face of the goddess as she looked at me with loving eyes. It was an image that perfectly grasped the motherly love she had shown me during those few precious moments.
Somewhat reluctantly I let go of the image of her petting me and went for her dress instead, going for one made out of pure silver and gold, with only the seams being colored with the mithrils dark, bluish grey. The dress accented her body well, revealing just enough of her skin so as not to appear arousing but rather motherly, openhearted, and warm. Everyone who would see her would feel envious of the me who was at her side, enjoying her love and care.
Mana slowly left my body as I was thinking of all of this. But instead of feeling cold, a gentle warmth soon embraced me, soothing me in these lonely moments. The sensation lasted for the better part of ten, maybe fifteen minutes, to then slowly fizzle out like a fire that had received no nourishment.
When I opened my eyes, it was as if my memories and imagination had come to life. Both the bed of furs and Cilia and I were three times bigger than reality, making the statue look even more otherworldly, but we still seemed lifelike even with our marble bodies. Even though the pavilion should have cast shadows on me and Cilia, our bodies, faces and even the dress were fully illuminated. It was as if the artificial sun was reaching through the wooden roof unhindered, giving my creation an even more heavenly feel to it. It was perfect…
Even Fren seemed to think so. The ratkin had found her way right next to me and was praying to the goddess with closed eyes. Not wanting to disturb her, I instead marveled at my work a few more minutes, before a green board finally forced my attention away from it. I had indeed done a well enough job at constructing my shrine.
『Quest 11: Dedication
Task Completed: Within your dungeon bounds, construct a prayer room or shrine to dedicate your dungeon to Cilia, Light of Life.
Reward: Become the Chosen Dungeon of Cilia, Light of Life
I love you…』
Before I could even read through the whole message, a warm embrace suddenly took hold of me. It enveloped my whole body even to the tips of my tails and ears. Not only myself, but even the core was experiencing something happening. I could feel it heat up as it began to shine in a vivid, green light.
When the heat finally receded after about a minute, I could feel something had happened, something really important. My body and the core still looked the same, but other than that, everything felt different. Not only my foxes, but even the dungeon walls themselves seemed more alive, more welcoming, more… whole. I couldn’t help but purr.
「You have been selected as the Chosen Dungeon of Cilia, Light of Life」
- - - - -
Map as of Chapter 14:
image [https://i.imgur.com/IdB3VW4.jpeg]