I am unsure if I will be able to get what I want across to my prospective inhabitants, but maybe my goodwill will be enough to encourage them to stay at least.

The oldest beast-kin walks around inspecting what I have done and what I am continuing to do.

Her hands touch the floor and walls confirming that it is definitely a harder and smoother surface aside from the spot where I have tilled the soil for the herbs to grow and the malleable clay section underneath the deer hide that would undoubtedly make for a more comfortable sleeping surface.

She places the stack of wood next to the entrance opposite of the side of where she had put everything she and she placed the bulging cloth sack next to the canteen with herbs.

Then she proceeded to the edge of what I had smoothed out and placed her hand on the area that I hadn’t done yet, so I decided that I would focus on that particular area more to speed it up there and watched her reactions as I did so.

She went wide eyed as the rough surface beneath her hand smoothed out as some parts were lowered and other parts raised until all the roughness was completely gone.

In my amusement and excitement I decided to make just that spot around her hand turn to soft and smooth clay and then molded her hand print into the gently curving wall.

Her sudden exclamation as she suddenly began looking around and calling out to me was definitely well worth it.

Beast-kin girl, “Hello! Umm, are you this dungeon? Can you understand me?”

Unable to respond verbally to her questions I do the one thing that I can do and what seems to work, I make a soft lump of clay rise right beneath her feet and reviving another reaction much to my delight as joy fills me for the first time since my awakening.

Beast-kin girl, “Ah! Oh okay I think you can! Are you trying to help us?”

I don’t know what else to do to make my response to her be known as a yes except to repeat what I had done before so I retract the lump of clay and then I do the same as before making it form again underneath her feet.

She quirks her head in thought before she starts making further inquiries.

Beast-kin girl, “Um, I guess that’s another yes? Hmm, in that case what would no be?”

I thought of what I should do for that indicator and decided to go with a stone spike with the tip rounded off rather than sharp as as I don’t want to harm her and scare her off but it should be something that I can create more emphasis on when I need to later so I see it as fitting for it to be a spike.

As I retract the clay and replace it with the little spike I watch her as she almost away awkwardly and then she examines it more closely.

Her siblings seem to have woken up from all the sound she has made but aside from looking around and waiting for their sister to explain what is going on, they stay quiet and they seem to notice that things are a little different than when they had fallen asleep.

She is quick on that uptake as well.

The oldest beast-kin girl, “Ah sorry for waking you guys up. You won’t believe this, but I think that this cave is a dungeon and it seems like it is going to help us, aren’t you?”

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I repeat the clay lump equivalent of yes under her feet to respond, and she smiles and informs her siblings.

The older beast-kin girl, “The dungeon says yes, oh umm, the dungeon can respond yes by forming a lump of clay on the floor or walls, and no seems to be making a small stalagmite which it seems to try making its response form in contact with the person the response is for.”

The younger siblings look a little confused but it seems like they are more tired than concerned, as the youngest yawns and rubs her eyes before curling back up to go back to sleep.

The older beast-kin girl, “hold on, don’t go back to sleep yet! I went out forging so make sure you eat something first.”

She goes over to show them the cloth sack that she had filled with local wild fruits, nuts, and berries before she prepared a wet cloth to wash both of their faces and hands at which the brother takes the cloth himself to wash himself rather then letting her do it like earlier.

The beast-kin brother, “I can do it myself!”

The sister laughed and left him to it as she spread out the food and handed them the canteen with herbs.

The older beast-kin sister, “I put some herbs in this canteen to help our recovery so make sure the both of you drink what you can and eat what is there. I have to get more firewood before it gets dark and I also need to hide the entrance from sight as well as find a way to disperse the smoke without giving away our location. Tomorrow I will have to sneak back into the village and get some more supplies so I will be gone most of the day but I will make sure to collect some more food and water for you guys to have while I am gone.”

The youngest beast-kin girl, “Sis I don’t want you to go back to the place with those bad meanies! But I miss mommy and daddy, will they come back here with you if we stay here and be good and quiet?”

The sisters face contorts uncomfortably and she kneels down to hold her sisters little hands.

The older beast-kin girl, “I am sorry, I don’t know what our parents are planning on doing or the other villagers for that matter, all I know is that right now most of the adults are trying to pretend to do what those bandits are wanting them to while trying to get as many of us to sneak away like we did today. So our parents are most likely going to keep farming in the fields and forging in the forest near the village, and since I have found a good place for us to stay safe at I will be sneaking back and forth to retrieve as much as I can before we get caught. I am sure that most of the other families are doing something similar to escape without getting caught.”

The little sister looks really sad and wipes her face, she doesn’t look happy with the answer she got but she doesn’t complain, she just nods sadly and starts munching on the food in tiny little bites.

The brother looks concerned but makes his own declaration to possibly lighten the mood.

The beast-kin brother, “Don’t worry I will watch the place while you are gone and I can gather some firewood nearby when Misty takes a nap! Just let mom and dad know where we are and bring back whatever you can, I will help out with what I can!”

Her awkward smile before saying to do your best to her brother and heading back outside had me questioning their situation as it seems more complicated than I expected.

I don’t really understand what is going on but I do understand what she needs to get done and what I can help with like hiding the entrance.

I stop expanding the smoothed out area and instead I start focusing on expanding myself around the entrance area, taking over the terrain above it and then going through my plant options for something suitable to help block the view inside.

Since there’s already a large tree nearby my entrance I can probably plant some underbrush type of bushes along the slope and I could plant some hanging vines over the entrance itself.

I also took the time to start the claiming process on some of the plants I came across during my expansion, granted as I am now running really low on energy and more importantly mana, I am going to have to leave it for later.

The only sign of my little expansion is the few places that I had to till the soil for me to seed the plants where I want them to grow, but since I don’t have the mana or energy to enhance their growth rate it will take some time for my efforts to show results.

I also took a few moments and liberties as I absorbed a few different nuts and berries that made contact with the dungeon floor and I also absorbed some of the food scraps that the siblings put aside like a couple of small apple cores.

This netting me a little bit of biomass as well as some new plants for my dungeon plant database.