I was evidently sharing this cave system with another core so I needed to figure out what was my best course of action going forward. It was odd that the vitapygmys weren't marching out to attack me right away especially since, with the four that I saw, they clearly outnumbered me. Maybe they just didn't see me as a threat.
This would hopefully work in my favor giving me more time to prepare my defenses and work out what my options were. My dire hare were fast and sneaky as well as physicly more imposing then my opponent. The former was being under utilized while being restricted to a single long corridor and the latter didn't mean much if they had a full allotment of six Core bound monsters with leadership. They also clearly had more chambers then I did on top of being able to increase their military ability with equipment.
On that last note I had one of my monsters take up the hammer in its mouth and give it a few practice swings. It was an unbalanced, mildly embarrassing, and inexpert show. Armed in such a way also precluded the use of its jaws to bite which was a mode of attack that it was naturally capable of using in a skilled manner so I abandoned the effort of arming them for now. Beyond that any further exploration into what made the hammer "enhanced" would take a rather destructive mode of investigation.
I kept an eye on the tunnels between myself and the presumed other core eyeing my spells. There wasn't enough information to clearly understand their functionality and testing one would clear out a third of my ability to respond do a sudden change in the situation. One thing that I could work on right away that would cost me nothing was in the dead end tunnels. They all appeared to be cave ins of one form or another and might link together if my squiggly map wasn't too far off of reality.
I set to work clearing the blockage on the left hand dead end in hopes of breaking through to the neighboring large chamber. I had two of my hare go at it from both sides. Progress was fairly quick as they would clear out a section of stone then follow that up with a series of kicks to back the walls tight before clearing some more. They were surprisingly efficient excavators.
My wounded one I sent to investigate the chamber itself more closely feeling confident I would notice a threat in time to call them all back to my core if the need arose. Its shoulder had regained much of its movement with the few hours of rest it had but the misty fur was thin and thready. This was probably the result of a bruise or light swelling in the area.
The chamber itself was unchanged and the pool at its center merely pinged as Water to the senses of my Domain. I had my hare dive in to see there was anything possibly left behind by previous inhabitants. After several dives I concluded that there wasn't anything to find as the action had coated the entire depression with my Domain. I left them to patrol the room for a bit since it looked like doing that slightly increased the density of the Domain I spread in the area.
----------------------------------------
After a few hours my digging team reconnected. I now had an option in the case of an attack approaching through my tunnel to quickly send a few hare around behind and flank them. I could also send the other hare around the tunnels. I had a feeling that this thickening of my Domain had something to do with creating more chambers but the windows were annoyingly unclear on how to do it. Beyond digging them myself I didn't know what was the exact trigger that decided if a room was a chamber or not. The window itself just taunted me with that note of pending with do explanation.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
In any case with my hare freed up and patrolling the tunnels I made sure to check out the chalk arrow near the caves entrance. It had writing that I couldn't read but I was able to work out what it was probably saying by the little doodle of what was probably an en-ponchoed vitapygmy wielding a hammer next to the words. I sent the hare a little farther down the tunnel and got the distinct impression that the main tunnel was curving back toward itself and that if I continued on I would eventually encounter that fortified section I had encountered from the other side.
On its way back I noticed that my clock was indicating that it was about at turn of day as I had been calling it and with the amount of light pouring down through the entrance it would suggest that it was in fact near midday outside. Mana churned and swirled and I had a fourth pearl and hare. Then I got a new achievement!
Congratulations Achievement become
Well Thief [https://i.imgur.com/kU9kRpn.png]
Well Thief
Achievements Effect Well Theif [https://i.imgur.com/kU9kRpn.png] Option to store Mana Pearls outside of your Core Room
Wait Thief? What did I steal?
Chambers Bonus Core (1 Prime Shell) Core Bound Monster: Mist-walker Dire Hare(4/6 No leadership) Null (Mana Well) None (Mana Pearls stored:0 ) Pending...
Oh I stole a Chamber. It looked like I could spend a mana pearl to convert it into a room with a bonus in a similar way that I confirmed my Mana Affinity in the first place. Most likely what type of mana would effect whatever bonus the room provided. Of course it didn't tell me what they did outright, but at least the short descriptions weren't to hard to work out
Chamber become Describe Trove Treasure Habitation Houses Sand Pit Combat
I would have loved to break down all these new things at my not-fingertips only things started happening all at once shortly after the turn of day. A group of four Vitapygmies, three with staves and one with a hammer, began cautiously moving through the main tunnel. Their movement clearly indicated that they had realized that Harpahp was dead and were not happy about it. At the same time my Hare near the entrance went into stealth mode pointing its ears up the entry tunnel and even I could see a large humanoid shadow looming there, his hand braced against the side wall.
The man, a human man, bedecked in armor with a round shield on his back and a spear in his hand looked down into the cave and let out a grunt and shouted to someone still further beyond the entrance. "Hrm. So is there any reason to not just go down in there right now and be done with it?"