The day started just like any other as Luna comes to give me a transfer of mana and I condense all of her and my own mana to repair my core.

This time it didn’t take several times to build up enough mana to create a layer of liquified mana and I was able to start filling in some of the deeper gaps left behind from the chunks that broke off.

Luna notices the new development and we were able to share the moment before she had to go eat and send her brother off.

She repeated what she believed to be the most important for her brother to remember and she walked out with him as she decided to go check her traps along the way and back.

She returned with a quail not too long afterwards and she started plucking its feathers which she gathered on a cloth and after she finished she washed them both before she put the feathers under the fireplace to dry and she gutted them bird before giving it a final wash.

Unlike the rabbits and frogs from the times before she didn’t remove the meat from the bones and instead she started stuffing it full of vegetables to the point that it looked like it would just rip right open, then she made a request.

Luna, “Would you mind letting me use some of your clay to cover the quail up with?”

I eagerly go ahead and cover the quail with clay for her rather than giving her the normal reply as I don’t normally have as many ways to assist with the cooking process aside from getting rid of the scraps or inedible bits, but with this I can do a little more than usual.

Luna smiles at me actively assisting her and so she has me move it into the fireplace and cover it with the hot ashes for it to be left cooking until dinner tonight.

In the meantime Luna and I have started working on a way I can assist with adding water to the pot, as so far I have over flowed it multiple times and I have been trying to come up with a way to catch a unit of water and then pour the right amount into the pot some it’s lead to a container on top of the shelf with a slough that can be raised on the container for less water to flow through it down to the pot or lowered to have more water flow into the pot, and I made a mark at the point where the overflow would happen to avoid making it spill.

Luna goes out again and returns with a lot of vines and she starts teaching her little sister, how to weave a mat from the vines and they work on it together until it got big enough to cover the dungeon entrance from the inside.

They are quite proud of their work and I made a couple hooks in the wall to hold it in place and another one to hook it on when it is rolled up out of the way.

So now there is my vines on the outside and the woven vine mat on the inside to help keep the place warm and hidden.

Apparently they plan to make more for each of the doorways to help with maintaining heat as well as allowing them privacy.

They make one more for Luna’s room rather then for between the two large rooms as they still need the light from the fireplace to see well enough.

Before I knew it, it was already time for Luna to head out to meet her brother so she grabbed an apple from the eat first basket and left.

Only Misty remained and she went about checking the food and moving what needed to be used sooner to the two cook first and eat first baskets before she went to making one more basket from the last of the vines.

I decided that I should plant some more dungeon plants that provide light to help brighten their living environment, the question is should I go ahead and invest in the fire fern for the heat needs of winter or should I stick with the glow moss that’s cheaper?

It seems like it would take about the same amount of time to grow it to maturity and they both can be split after they mature… I wish I could ask Luna what she needs but thinking about how much time and effort she is putting into preparing for winter and how much she seems to be prioritizing for and warmth maybe saving up for the fire fern is better, and I might just be wanting to avoid using up so much mana.

I decided I should stop procrastinating due to the mana situation and I till up some soil next to the wash room to plant the fire fern once I have enough mana to do so.

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I have decided to reserve some mana per transfer until I have enough to get the fire fern planted as I still want to prioritize repairing my core for all the obvious reasons.

I have also had to slow down on my surface expansion as it seems to be putting a bit of strain on my dungeon flesh to be so far away from my core even though I have prioritized expanding into the areas where Luna and her siblings go most frequently I feel like I have made less progress than I think I have.

I was thinking about making another room for each of her siblings as well but I might have to wait on that for now, at least until I get more leeway for expanding other wise I will have to give up some of the land that I had expanded into earlier.

Luna and her brother returned with a couple of bags, one being the second backpack from before and the other one being a large sack with a drawstring wrapped around its opening to tie it shut.

Luna has the drawstring sack while Rocky has the backpack that makes him look small, and the exhaustion is clearly visible on his face.

They put the stuff down and Luna gives him some berries to snack on while he drinks a canteen with salveaid in the water.

After giving him a while to recover they started discussing what happened at the supply pick up and what happened while they were away.

Rocky, “So I got there well enough, there was only a couple spots that got washed out but they weren’t too big.

Also, Rufus was the one on watch at the barn, and he had some news alright, Felicia is pregnant and it’s most likely belongs to one of the bandits, so a lot of people are not happy about that especially since one of the other girls was raped not long after they had failed to rape you.

Apparently they have been having to keep her sedated and under watch now because she seems to have gone crazy, he didn’t go into the details of who it was or how she went crazy so we will find out more later if we catch Beatrice on the next trip since she’s likely to know more.

Also some folks are not too happy about you not coming back to help out because apparently mom let someone people know that you survived but don’t want to come back and someone ended up letting the bandits know so now they are mad about one of their girls get away, and are taking it out on other people as if you were their possession that got stolen from them.

Now mom is having to work in the tavern and the other girls are isolating from her to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

I decided that was probably the best time to bring up not needing as much food stock and that they can send it to whoever needs it more, making it as a token to help mom get treated better might be a better option than claiming that we are doing well enough that we already have plenty.

You know how some people are if they want to be mean they might be doing it to get something out of it and it is better to give up what you don’t need rather than letting it be known that you have plenty otherwise they will take the plenty and leave you in need… or something like that I forgot exactly how that proverb was said.

Also there’s some winter furs and clothing in this batch as well as mom’s sewing kit and a note from our parents too!”

Luna, takes out the note to read and just summarizes its contents.

Luna, “Looks like mom and dad plan on leaving the village earlier and are going to give away whatever they don’t have brought here so they want us to do a trip every day until they join us on the way back.

Dad is planning to help the Barkley’s camp in the woods down the mountain from here to keep us in contact with them through the winter, and we will have to take in the undecided people who won’t fit in the other camps.

So we will need to prepare for their arrival soon.

Also most of the vulnerable villagers have already been evacuated to the friendly village and the rest of their family members will sneak out when the snow first comes so the snow can cover their tracks.

I will say it I am not that happy about them sending people to us when nobody else has come to help us out with the preparations.

But I figured that would happen as I never thought those two camps would be enough for everybody to fit even if some families were going to that other village, so I figured that we would have to expand our own camp and one of the reasons why I wanted to get everything organized while getting the preparations done as fast as possible, and why I want to make some areas off limits but I might need to reassess how to go about it.”

Luna looks frustrated but she quickly comes up with some ideas for what we should do.

Luna, “I’m thinking about getting the dungeon to make the second room have dividers in it or shrink it to make it act like a central hub with branching rooms maybe move the wash room towards the core room in the space that the second room is currently and fill in a tunnel to the core room.

This room will be used as a common room for storing firewood and making and eating food, so we will have to make some other space for crafting supplies or materials, should we try widening the hallway to accommodate a strip of workspace or should we just make a small space between the branches of the common space and the family rooms.

What do you think you can do before they get here?”

I think that I will need to give up some of the outside but I raise an outline of my dungeon on the table and I proceed to make some changes in the design, showing that I think I will do.

closing that one tunnel is a must and making another room in front of Luna’s for her family and the washroom will be in front of where my tunnel was, then I make four more sleeping rooms and I widen the hallway and make a small room to either side and I stop there as I don’t want to promise anything that I am uncertain about getting to in time.

Luna, “Looks like we will do fine if that’s the case.”

Well I better start moving things around and although I will keep my path towards the river and will have to give up the section of forest over time as I will likely need to to make some of my interior expansions.