The next few days were taken up with a diverse set of goals. I started to try and open up a dialogue with the vitapygmy. It took some time to get them out of their own territory and it nearly came to blows a few times but they didn't seem to be a very war like people. Ever time we would have an encounter I would get combat reports that were simply labeled as a Draw which didn't seem to provide any sort of gain or loss.
It was becoming more and more clear that I was operating outside of the systems intentions by not killing my neighbors but that was fine by me. It wasn't like I asked to come here and kicking an old man while he was down was a bit outside my comfort zone. I thought about maybe letting them use the Grange and Alter rooms while supervised. Maybe I could learn a bit more about how they worked.
While the game of charades was playing out between my dire hare and the vitapygmy I was trying to think of ways to help Luciantisss. a part of me felt that maybe just putting them out of their misery might be the best option. Another part wondered if I could learn how to improve my own situation as a diffused consciousness trapped inside a floating crystal ball. It took me a bit to work out that the representation of the stele inside their inner space and could work like an anchor, just like I had used myself before, was most likely connected to the fact that it was enchanted through the use of a Life Mana Pearl. They could grab onto the roots in their inner space which likely represented the tree that was holding their core together but could only hold on for a short time. This was likely because they weren't entirely Life Affinity just as my hare were part Animal Affinity.
Through this I was checking over the vitapygmy whenever they would enter my Domain. for the most part they were level one and had a random assortment of skin tones while one was level two and had a green shin and foot on their left side and had seemingly received a promotion since they were wielding one of those stone hammers. The other hammer wielding Vitapygmy was a grizzled sort covered with scars that could easily be confused for body art since beside coloration the vitapygmy did not scar. He never, not even for a moment, would let the Priestess out of his sight when in my territory. which was only mildly silly since she was level seven.
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After the first couple days had passed my stocks of Mist-walker Dire Hare were full and on the third there seemed to be an invigorating pulse of mana that flowed through all my monsters. It felt as if without a full allotment the monsters were leaking mana to support their own existence and once they hit six it plugged whatever gap was there and in response were half again as strong as they had been. I could almost feel the up welling of strength myself and got a little excited. I let my hare run a little wild thudding their way through the tunnels and kicking at the dig site wall of my future Sand Pit. All around making a glorious mess.
This was not met with a happy expression from the veteran pygmy and looks of worry from the others. In way of apology I presented them with thirteen of my silver coins. I was able to get a clear look at their surface as they were placed out on the dais in the Altar room. They had a Mist-walker dire hare on on side and a castle in the clouds on the other. They cautiously accepted them and disappeared back into their territory.
I was worried I might have to cull some of their number since I really didn't want to have to deal with an empowered set of vitapygmy. My fears were almost confirmed when they arived the next day looking hale and intense. The veteran was still as diligent as ever but there was a more relaxed air about the rest of them as they presented myself and my hare with a basket filled to the brim with vegetables and dried vitaberry. They arrayed themselves around the Altar but this time there was no blood letting only a simple chanting about Luciantisss shining their light on those present. At its conclusion a pulse of healing energies swirled around the room in a subtle breeze that would have been unnoticeable without being a dungeon core or having access to life spellwork. It also probably would be noticed if you had some minor hurt like a bruised elbow or sore tooth as the energies remedied the source of the pain.
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I decided to lead the vitapygmy on a guided tour of what I had done to the dungeon. The Priestess ventured out with an honor guard of both hammer equipped vitapygmy. I had an equal set of my own monsters accompanying them lead by my volpertinger who kept using minor bits of spellwork to give the appearance of other guards moving just out of sight.
They were overjoyed when they entered the Grange to find the fleshborn progenitors scooting around unharmed. They lit the standing torches that had gone out with an application of Caramelized Life Mana and the flame from their own torches. At the sound of a splash the Priestess' guard leapt to defend his charge from something that was moving in the Mana Well.
It turned out to be the pair of Lesser Vigor Crab that I had accidentally kidnapped claws splayed out in a defensive posture. They were thriving in my Enriched Water and were now nearly twice the size they had been before which was most clear since the vitapygmy were wearing the coins I had given them as charms on a bracelet. It was also clear why they were being so defensive since the underbelly of one of the two was protecting a clutch of slightly glowing roe.
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A thought about building up the entrance with the stone I was collecting struck me. After I'd used about half of it all I had to show for my effort was a meter high dry stone wall just around the surface entrance. Even then that had been a chore to complete without opposable thumbs. I could probobly get everything to move faster if I could somehow get the vitapygmy involved in the work but I wasn't so sure how smart an idea that was.
I spent some time ruminating on what to do next, I could try to use the fleshborn and a Life Mana Pearl to try and see if I could make a better anchor for Luciantsss. The vitapygmy presented me a number of Life Mana pearls after I showed them the dig site and tried to explain through pantomime what I was intending.which they told me they would "feed the roots of the tree of shelter" or something to that regard.
I was getting pretty good at understanding their language but they seemed to talk in a looping prose that was always referencing the cycles of life. things like "The soil holds the water so the tree can drink" would be a common start to a formal acknowledgement of something by the Priestess and that whatever the tree provided would clear up what they were talking about, be it shade, or shelter, or fruit, or wood. The lesser vitapygmy would simplify these statements to a ridiculous degree and just say things like "Soil water tree dirt" and it was up to the listener to work out what they were talking about but I was slowly building the proper context required to make sense of it all.
That said, my hare couldn't speak so I was suddenly very aware that any dialogue would be mostly one way unless I let them into my Core room. This caused some consternation when a pair of the vitapygmy equipped with stone picks wandered down to the dig site one day and helped out a bit with the work. I was at first annoyed because I had to keep an eye on more places at once then I was used to but it didn't seem to be much of a problem.
The addition of tool using hands and the fact that the vitapygmy didn't seem to tire at all sped up progress significantly and soon I had the room pretty much the way I wanted it. I now needed to decide what type of mana I would use for the room. I didn't know what special bonuses I would gain depending on what I used. I just knew that Cloud and Life would yield vastly different results.