Drip drip... drip
The clouds I produced provided a great deal of humidity and it was starting to noticeably effect the Core chamber. The walls were slick with moisture and it was starting to build up and drip off of the little stalactites on my ceiling. I had to do something about clearing the remains of the battle. The remains specifically. I had the bones transferred to one of the pits out of the way to the left of the entrance and then covered them with its tattered moss poncho.
The torch I moved to the back of my room with the hammer. Both it and the hammers handle were made using some sort of braided woody vine and sealed with a green resin. The chard bulb at the end of the torch seemed to be made of a slightly gummier form of the same resin. My Domain wouldn't break down the component of them. It just came back with Torch and Stone Hammer(enhanced) respectively and it would probably take a more invasive investigation to get any more information.
On the topic of information, I needed more of it. I couldn't just wait for my neighbor to come to me.I gave them a bit of time to rest because the battle took a lot out of them. My best guess is that fighting and using skills took a lot out of them but also that otherwise the build up of fatigue was very gradual an I hadn't noticed how much my first monster needed the rest after being awake and working construction for two straight days.
After a bit I decided I would keep my wounded hare in reserve while sending the other two out. I reached a crossroad fairly quickly and straight ahead felt like the fastest way to vitapygmys. So I sent one left and the other right. There was a dead end to the right. On the left was also dead end but It had turned a bit before stopping at a collapsed section of tunnel.
Continuing on the hare followed the tunnel as it sloped slightly downward, away from my Core room, dragging a bubble of my domain with them. At the bottom they hit a T-junction. The left path seemed thicker with Life Affinity mana then the right but I was getting that feeling from both sides. This whole place was enemy territory it seemed. Thankfully my monsters dragged a little bubble of my Domain with them wherever they went but it was less helpful once they left an area. Checking back at the dead ends I felt fuzzy, like my domain was too little butter spread across dry toast.
I split them up to cover ground faster and and after a short bit I realized my monsters were slowing down. I could see perfectly fine hanging around the little personal bubble of Domain they dragged with them wherever they went but my dire hare had excellent night vision but that still needed at least some light to see by. I briefly considered trying to figure out how to light the torch but decided the darkness was in my favor and they could do well enough on primarily sound and smell and could prompt them to respond to anything I saw in my domain as needed.
The hare on the right side path found a long corridor with a slight incline that ended in another T-junction which quickly revealed a pair of dead ends. On returning to the main corridor it located two downward sloping collapsed nubs before turning up another right side incline. All in all not much of note, but I did notice that by spreading my Domain through the halls I was in effect overwriting the life flavored Domain as I went.
Much the same was happening for the hare on the left, Left hand side had inclined an path that branched off into dead ends. Just as I was about to lose interest and maybe turn my attention to something else we found something familiar. A large domed room much like my own with a pool of water at the center. This one however was missing the floating orb.
I quickly had my hare spread my domain over the entire room and by the time it was done its compatriot also located a similar chamber. I encouraged my monsters to keep searching as I had yet to see any signs of life so Lucitsss didn't seem to have an active presence here. If their Domain worked like mine then they certainly knew that I was here. I spurred my hare on the left onward ignoring for now the side corridors while the one on the right secured the new chamber. I was starting to see a pattern emerging and was rewarded for my efforts by a third domed chamber.
Congratulations Achievement become
Cartographer [https://i.imgur.com/F03t1vs.png]
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Cartographer
Ok, I'm collecting a lot of these. I need to check what they all do since the first one had an effect and I had since found two more.
Achievements Effect Monster Become [https://i.imgur.com/FZSz3pa.png] Option of Variant monster to a population to provide Leadership bonuses to nearby monsters of the same type. Let Battle Be Joined [https://i.imgur.com/75CTvxY.png] Option of Combat related chambers and chamber upgrades Cartographer [https://i.imgur.com/F03t1vs.png] Option of an editable mapping tool
"Sweet a map!" And upon opening it my heart sank. It needed to be manually edited. I wasn't the best of artists to begin with and drawing this map off of the vague sense my Domain gave me didn't provide locational data or a clear image of what part of my domain was in relation to any other part. On the bright side, if this was how my adversary felt their domain, they may not know my exact location. It was like that game where someone drew something on your back and you had to replicate it from sensation. I got a mostly workable local area before turning back to the task at hand.
Map bad map [https://i.imgur.com/EFxpWc1.png]
Continuing on I decided to forgo securing the rooms and just keep mapping out the tunnels. Finding two more chambers on the right but other then that nothing more than bare empty dark corridors. On the left I slowed my progress as patches of blue-gray moss and eventually the slight glimmer of torchlight could be seen. It seemed to be a ways off so I urged my hare to duck down the nearest inclined path but at the end instead of a dark empty chamber was a fence cordoning off a torch lit field.
My monster dropped low and locked its ears in a forward position instead of the oscillating search pattern it had been using before. I settled my mote of perception on my monsters head in hopes that I could better pick out what it was focusing on when I discovered a new fantastic use for my ever useful bunnies. When this close I could hear the vibrations collected by the long fan canoe shaped ears as if it was a parabolic microphone.
What I heard was a cacophony of gentle cooing. Focusing on the location it was coming from I could see a number of small round green lumps. One of which had fallen into the central pool that it couldn't seem to get out. The agitated group of lumps had drawn the attention of a vitapygmy which had been sitting at the far end of the chamber. It had a slender build and carried with it a long staff made of the same twisted vines I had seen before but otherwise was much the same as the other I had encountered. It approached the pool gently shooing the nearby lumps away from its feet and reaching in to extract the unfortunate cooing soul. It raised the squirming green lump up to eye level grinned at it and placed it down with the rest. They then gave it a gentle pat before heading back to its apparent post at the rear of the chamber.
As the distressed cooing started to die down I lost it entirely and it was replaced by footsteps. The hare had snapped its ears around in response to something that I hadn't noticed but immediately recognized. My too thin butter layer was getting swept away by Life affinity domain. It was another vitapygmy. I had my hare dodge into a nearby branch to hide hoping I could loop around the approaching patrol spotted and waited for it to pass.
The vitapygmy came into view holding a torch in one hand and a staff in the other. This one appeared to be female but I could be mistaken since the poncho was not a very form fitting piece of clothing. It simply carried on past my hidden hare and up to the field. They did not seem to be especially on guard or in a state of military mobilization. It looked like a vitapygmy on its way to work. Which was odd because they should know I killed one of them earlier today.
In any case I needed to finish the left sides scouting mission and get them away from enemy territory as quickly as possible. Slinking toward the torchlight revealing a fortified palisade festooned with torches and manned by a pair of stern yet bored looking vitapygmys wielding hammers. They didn't seem to be agitated or making any sort of note of vigilance. Just standing guard and being just alert enough to respond to anyone who entered the glow of the torches, but with their poor night vision they certainly couldn't see my hare from where they were. I pulled back.
My other scout had come across little of note for most of this time but just as I pulled one back this one came across a tunnel that turned right and had a steeper incline then the others. The air was fresher and light was spilling down from a source above. I was pretty sure I had found the exit. On the left wall was writing and a large arrow pointing onward away from where I had come.
I pulled back for now to put in a bit of effort shoring up my defenses while I took a moment to take in what I had learned and what it all meant.