The next few days were somewhat busy. I was exhausted from leaving the dungeon for so long, but I was determined to stay awake until the miner reached the sand area we had received from the parmadillo dungeon. I was curious if we could get an oasis like the other one had, or if the strange cacti would grow in my dungeon as well. During that time I had everyone get acquainted with Alec. The other spiders seemed to like him but Ella passed out from shock when he snuck up on her. Elton could care less about him and just ignored everyone in search of dinner.
“Mining has been completed,” Daisy said to my delight. I ran over to the forest room as fast as I could.
“It's done. Let's go.” I said as Ella looked around startled by my speedy entrance. She jumped up and followed me down the freshly cut path. The path was longer than I was used to in the caves but the path was cut wide making the travel easy. After a minute of walking, we exited the cave into a large hot expanse. I shaded my eyes again, disgruntled against the heat. I will never like this room.
It was very similar to the parmadillo dungeon; hot, dry, and sandy. Everything I hated. Ella and I walked up a close dune and looked around. The room was about twice the size of the forest room and completely filled with sand.
“I was hoping for an oasis,” Ella said sadly. I nodded feeling a little cheated. The walls around the room were completely covered in stone with the ceiling open up to a wide bright sun. It was odd how even though the walls were around 40 feet tall, they seemed to blend seamlessly with the ceiling.
“I know I already asked but what is the ceiling?”
“The ceiling is a dense interdimensional space that is simulating sunlight.” Daisy’s voice echoed in my head. I saw Ella look at me for a second before turning away. She had gotten used to me talking out loud to no one.
“So if I climbed up the wall I would feel the ceiling?”
“Yes.”
“Could I climb on it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Interdimensional space does not have the same properties as solid matter. While you can not pass through it, you also can't cling to it.”
“So it's basically magic.” I got no reply. I took her silence as an ‘if that's how you want to think of it then sure.’
“Hey, there are Cactuses,” Ella said pointing at the same bulb-like cacti that were in the other dungeon.
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“Ah, food for Elton. Speaking of which, can you lead him this way?” She nodded and took off back to the cave. I took one last look around and headed back as well. “I don't think I'll come back to this room if I can help it.”
After about 10 minutes of waiting, I saw Ella coming down the hall leading a food-motivated Elton. I stepped out of the way as he followed her into the new room. She let him eat the food she had led him in with and he munched down happily. For about 10 breaths he just chewed with a dumb expression on his face. He jumped and looked around excitedly.
“Took him long enough” I signed and watched as he sniffed the sand and moved further into the room. My jaw hit the floor as the big oaf leaned back for a second before diving into the sand. He burrowed into the sand and disappeared in seconds. It was the fastest I had ever seen Elton move. “I knew they would hide under the sand but damn.” He popped up way too far in the distance for how long he was under and took a huge bite of a cactus before diving back under. It was insane how fast he could move. That’s it. I'm going to bed. I was far too tired to deal with the idea that this beast of a creature could practically swim in the sand. I turned away shaking my head heading toward the cave entrance.
I left Ella in the room, she had called Elton back to her and was giving him a big hug chatting about his new home. I let out a sigh of relief as I walked into the cave, and into the darkness. The temperature seemed to drop more than a few degrees within a few inches of entering the cave. I placed my hand on the wall looking at the miner's job. The walls were cold and had obvious signs of being smoothed out by their chiseled arms.
“You know, it seems like the miners are getting better at carving these tunnels,” I said out loud. The tunnels around the throne room were much rougher with stones jutting out at some areas. “Through repeated actions, the miners have gained the experience needed to perform at a higher level.” I didn't expect Daisy to respond to my statement.
“Makes sense. Did they rank up at all?” I closed one eye having a screen popped up. Two of the three miners had ranked up one level. “So they can gain ranks through repeated motions.” I used my mind to scroll down on the list of spiders until I saw the cleaner spider.
Name: Cleaner 1
I still hate myself.
Job: Cleaner
Rank: 13
“13! Is this even legal?”
“The cleaner spider has little to no attack power, but constantly performs their job while cleaning the dungeon each day.”
“And that alone has caused her to increase 4 levels?”
“Yes.”
“This seems like a cheat but I’ll allow it.” I quickly scrolled down the screen until I came to the bottom. The last two spots were dedicated to Ella and Elton.
Name: Ella (Elf)
Job: Archer/ gardener
Rank: 2
Name: Elton (parmadillo)
Job:
Rank:
“Awe. Elton doesn't have a job or rank?” I got no answer from Daisy. It made sense. He was kind of useless. I opened my eye and started walking down the hallway. “Have the miners block the entrance to the desert room to keep Elton in place. Have them make a small room halfway down the hallway and use the stone from that to block the entrance. The tanks can help with the heavy lifting if needed.” About halfway down the tunnel, they came scuttling along the ceiling past me and I could hear the thundering stomps of the tanks further down.
“Please make sure it gets done right,” I said to Daisy. I was so exhausted at this point that I didn't even care what happened. I settled down on my throne a little while later and crashed immediately.