Krys POV
Vito's caravan has really grown into something of note.
The group as a whole didn't leave until well into the afternoon since the local elites decided to tag along, thus preparations needed to be arranged as luggage was packed, servants were selected to join, and a small squad of soldiers was tasked as escorts to follow along with the caravan as added security.
The current plan was that the caravan would travel as far as they could before setting up camp for the night, and then the next day they would just cross through the next village without stopping for long and setting up camp one more time on the road to the capital. From there they would likely arrive in the capital before lunch. If all goes well at least.
Of the elites joining the caravan, the mayor, his wife, and their children decided to all come along due to some sort of meeting in the Capital. Puh'ma was also allowed to join the group, though Tul'mi decided to stay behind to figuratively and literally hold the fort in the Lucfan family's place with Aspen serving as her support.
Beyond the elite entourage, Krys was vaguely surprised to see that they'd also be transporting some prisoners to the capital. It was the two foreign scouts he had heard about during breakfast, supposedly they'll be brought before a council of elites or something to be interrogated in front of everyone using undetermined means.
Whatever was gonna happen to them, Krys had a good feeling it wasn't going to be pleasant at all.
So all in all aside from the two carts they had started with, one more carriage for the elite will be added to the line, followed by a carriage for the servants, along with a chuckwagon with food and supplies for the trip, a small cart with a cage for the prisoners, and last but not least the eight soldiers on warbling swifts who will ride along with the caravan.
Krys, for his part, was in the cart he had been in before with the adventurers. Zax was the one driving today while Riley rode with Lostrill in the following cart, letting him drive as she scribbled something down in some kind of journal.
Sera was currently using Krys' tail as a pillow, napping away the first leg of the journey while Ren was playing a game of chess against Cecil using that enchanted board; though he could tell that the game wasn't really the focus as Cecil kept getting distracted by explaining some sort of fundamentals about magic and Ren was more than happy to listen to him ramble. Krys himself could barely understand the conversation altogether, though if Ren was getting something out of all that then more power to her.
Looking around the cart, he noticed Rantz and Lily were also sleeping the afternoon away; the duo sitting mostly upright while leaning into each other as they slowly swayed while the caravan rolled along.
Krys wasn't all too sure where Basmori was, even Freyli was somewhere else as far as he could tell; though Legosi was out amongst the warbler-riding soldiers as he decided to help out with securing the area while the group traveled.
Looking back down along the line of carts and carriages, Krys spotted Wither sitting with the servants with a new plague doctor who showed up at some point in the day. From what Boss Vito had mentioned, the new one was a woman called Fester. Meanwhile, Blight had remained back in Lucfan's Rest with another new plague doctor, a man named Demise.
Krys wasn't sure where they had come from, but he had learned that the Boss had many more people working for him than he initially realized. To think even the Thieves Guild had nothing on him when they tried to look him up the other day. All that power and that many subordinates all over the place... Just where did he come from?
Speaking of the boss, the last Krys saw of him, he had gotten in the back of the cart Lostrill and Riley were driving; saying something about needing to meditate and asking not to be disturbed unless something serious happens.
Regardless, with this many people around the caravan, there really wasn't all that much for Krys to do, so he opted to take a page out of Sera's plans for the day and leaned back against the cart's walls, just shutting his eyes as he listened to Cecil and Ren talk and slowly coasting off to sleep.
Vitmori POV
In a blink, I find myself back in my core chamber. the warm green glow of the core filling the room as I feel my senses practically explode with the information of all the activity within my bubble. It was easy to forget just how much information I was able to easily process in general as a dungeon core when compared to the limited senses of my avatar.
Feeling things out all over again, I began roaming my bubble of influence and checking in on things where I could.
Moving down to the smithy first, it was actually empty, much to my surprise. The forge itself still radiated heat, but as far as I can tell it looks like nobody's been here for a few hours at least. Poking around a little more, I did spot a long and wrapped-up bundle that looked to be a spear. However, given that Trisha wasn't here, it wouldn't be right for me to just take the spear without giving her the chance to show it off to me.
Leaving the smithy behind, I poked around the training room briefly to find that it was also empty, which made sense I suppose. The sinners had already left before I did and Dread was set on training with the spitter wolves while I was on my way out.
Heading further down my mountain, I made my way into the four greenhouse rooms and they were just bustling with activity as a dozen or so borats slithered around the place. Tending to the crops as they methodically checked each and every growing sprout or flowering vines and bushels. There weren't much by way of weeds or even pests considering the rather isolated nature of the greenhouse, but they still managed to find things to do.
I even spotted a few of the borats just meditating among the crops, imitating Oururu as they sat in coils while biting their tails; circulating their mana through their small bodies before sending that mana into the soil and crops around them. I didn't spot Frisby anywhere in the greenhouse rooms, though I suppose she could just be busy elsewhere.
Leaving the borats to their gardening, I headed further down my rather unused mountain and made my way into the spitter wolf den. In the entry chamber, I spotted the 'shooting range' from before though the layout of the targets had been rearranged since then.
A few wolves were milling about here and there, seemingly resting or relaxing while others were bringing in kills in the form of rodents like the rabbits or those oversized blue mantises. While I knew that wolves didn't need to eat to survive, quite a few of them felt the need to eat to fuel up because... Oh! They're not showing signs yet, but most of the female wolves are pregnant.
The wolves themselves seemed to be aware of the pregnancies among their number, I suppose between their inborn instincts as well as their heightened awareness from their near sapience, they're bound to notice the changes in their own bodies as well as the others around them. Surprisingly enough, only around half of the females are pregnant, and this seems to be a conscious decision among them as they plan for the future and control their own population without any real outside guidance.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Looking around, I spotted Garm among the wolves who had been resting and I could tell she was also pregnant and had gotten physically bigger and stronger than when I had last seen her. She wasn't quite as big as Legosi, but she was a close second and distinctly bigger than the rest of the spitter wolves. With my avatar as a guide for height, Legosi, while on all fours, would reach up to just below my elbows. The spitter wolves in general only reach up to around my hips for the most part, though now Garm seems to be somewhere in the middle; now distinct enough to stand out amongst her subordinates while still being somewhat smaller than Legosi himself.
I could tell that most of the activity around the den had already been discussed earlier in the day and the general air around the den showed that there wasn't much to be concerned about. However, I do wonder how long ago the wolves as a pack had 'gotten busy' since at the very least I didn't see any signs that they were 'trying for pups' before I had left. Then again, I had been pretty busy doing my own thing for the most part and I wasn't actively paying attention to the wolves and their activities.
Regardless, I let sleeping wolves lie and allowed Garm to maintain her rest while I made my way below my mountain. Going past the smithy and workshop, I ended up at the recreation of my old home and spotted Isaak and Joli training in the ring I had created in the middle of the road.
The training in question looked... Well, it looked brutal, at least at first glance. Isaak just stood in the middle of the ring, stripped of his armor and only wearing his pants as he held his arms outstretched to the point that they were level with his shoulders.
While standing there, Joli would lash out at him with two whips made entirely of water that repeatedly struck him as the water cracked and swooshed about around him. She made sure not to strike the same place twice, distributing the apparent beating rather evenly across the young man's body.
As I looked closer, I could see that the water whips were being repelled as they made contact with Isaak's body, a thin and almost vague magical barrier helping protect him against the attacks that Joli was bringing down against him.
This must be that stoneskin, or perhaps barkskin defense that Reonim had told me about.
The training itself went on for another twenty minutes while I helped myself to studying how Joli and Isaak used their mana, watching how it flowed around their bodies as they used it to manifest the water whips and defend against said whips.
With the training over and done with for the time being, Isaak immediately settled down on the ground, sitting with his legs crossed and lowering his head to start meditating and recovering his now exhausted manaheart. At the same time, Joli was hopping the stone fencing to leave the training ring and make her way to the building they had been working out of.
It was at that point I decided to make myself known, mentally reaching out and poking Joli to at least try and warn her that she wasn't alone while I conjured a small ball of green light. 'Hey there Joli, that was some intense-looking training just now for Isaak, is that how you were trained?' I asked pleasantly enough.
I was trained using relatively rough methods when I was even younger than Isaak and implemented a similar training regimen for those I was in charge of. I was curious if this was perhaps the norm of this world or if this was something special.
Joli, for her part, still jumped at the sudden 'appearance' of my voice in her mind as she instinctively looked over her shoulder before spotting the green ball of light and sighing to herself before offering me a smile. "Oh hey Vitmori, I didn't know you were around." She mentioned at first before taking a moment to consider what I had asked her. "And yeah, that's pretty much how I was trained, though usually, a second trainer is attacking from behind to help hone the apprentice's spatial awareness; that way they can learn to react to attacks they can't see coming." She explained rather dutifully with a small smile on her face.
Making her way into the small building, she approached a small collection of bags and crates in the corner of the main room and began digging through them before procuring a bag of what looked to be a simple trail mix and a dense-looking piece of bread. On the other end of the room was a single drake that slept rather soundly with the three eggs nestled safely between their wing and body, along with a generous amount of dried grass and some blankets that made up the veritable nesting area they had set up. "So what brings you by? Weren't you in the middle of traveling to the Hegemony capital? How is that going?" She asked pleasantly enough while eagerly fishing for information beyond the mountain and this cave.
‘I’d say it’s going pretty well, I’ve managed to ingratiate myself with some of the local elite and they’ve decided to help me out with my investigation. I’m currently pretending to meditate in the back of a cart and decided to just check in on things around here.’ I explained as I had my ball of light follow her back out of the stone building as she grabbed a couple waterskins before going to rejoin Isaak.
“You’re traveling with a whole caravan? How’d you manage that?” She asked while setting the foodstuffs down on the stone bench that was along the sidewalk.
‘Oh, I earned the favor of the Mining Guild’s Guildmaster in Sunspot Keep, though I’d rather not get into that just yet since there was something I wanted to do first.' I mentioned simply as my ball of light flits away from her, heading further up the road as I look for the center of the massive room.
It was around then that Isaak had decided to pipe up, having watched Joli hold a one sided conversation before seeing my ball of light go around the stone neighborhood. "Vitmori's back? Did something happen?" He asked while speaking in a somewhat normal voice, apparently no longer needing to whisper as he got to his feet.
"I'm not sure." Joli said as she passed him a chunk of hard bread while grabbing a palmful of trail mix.
The duo watched on as I poured out some stone into the middle of the room and began to shape a thick stone obelisk that was about ten feet tall. Suitably simple yet ominous.
"Now what is he doing?" Isaak asked as he looked at Joli before taking a bite of the hard bread and easily chewing on it despite the audible crunching that was sounding out.
"How am I supposed to know?" Joli replied with a glance before looking over at the ball of light as she approached the obelisk. "Hey Vitmori, what are you up to?"
I couldn't help but smile to myself as I polished the faces of the obelisk with my magic, making sure the edges are nice and pristine before reaching out to the two of them and speaking up. 'I'm making a spawner, I had an idea while I was reading a book about dungeons yesterday and wanted to see if I was right.'
"You can just make a spawner? Just like that?" Joli asked with a surprised incredulousness about her as she looked the obelisk over again with new appreciation, though Isaak wasn't sure what to make of anything as he approached.
'Well I don't know how easy it is for a regular dungeon, but I had help from Reyvyre and Rita in learning how they worked after we dream walked Orwis.' I explained while drawing out the necessary runes.
"Is that a big deal?" Isaak asked while tapping his knuckle against the stone obelisk.
Joli had to actually think on that as she brought her hand to her chin while watching the runes be etched into the stone. "Well... I'm not sure. An adolescent dungeon generally has a couple of main spawners where their scions emerge from with a few minor spawners around their territory for distributing monsters more easily. I'm no expert, but I do have experience with shattering spawners. They look more like natural formations, usually growing out of a wall or from the ground... Then again, the only experience I have with spawners are from murderous meat grinders... Maybe they look different with different kinds of dungeons?" She considered while walking around the obelisk spawner. "What are you going to do with this spawner, Vitmori? Are you gonna make a new kind of monster or something?"
'Not exactly no, I'm actually unable to do that yet since I only just spawned something new just over a week ago. There's apparently a cooldown period or a prerequisite I need to meet before I can do that again.' I mentioned as I etched out the last of the runes.
Joli wasn't sure what to say in the face of that, though Isaak piped up as he looked up to my ball of light. "So what are you doing?"
'Well, I read how murderous dungeons tend to have an excessive amount of undead in their service, and how they're likely using the bodies of those who tried to crack them. Well if other dungeons can use undead so readily, then the undead can likely respawn, right?' I asked almost rhetorically as I double checked my rune work.
"Based on past experience... Yeah, that sounds about right." Joli readily responded with a slow nod.
'Well, if that's the case, then if I attune my zombies to a spawner, they should be able to respawn too.' I said before pulling out the black skinned leaper from my storage, startling Joli as she suddenly took a few steps back while her hand quickly fell to the hilt of her blade, though seeing as the leaper didn't do anything or even acknowledge her, she made the attempt to relax while watching it closely.
I silently commanded the leaper to run their mana through the obelisk while I did the same, activating the spawner as a glowing crack formed on the obelisk. 'And there we go!' I say, unable to contain my own excitement at the success. 'Well, now it's time for the test...' I considered for a moment while looking at the leaper before turning my attention to Joli. 'Joli, do you mind killing my zombie? I need to make sure this works.' I explained before looking at the leaper. 'Sorry about this.'
The leaper just gave a little shrug before looking at Joli with their expressionless face, all while Joli just looked more than a little uncertain about this. "Are you sure? Um... Very well then." She said as she drew her blade, stepping up to the leaper while holding her blade at the ready.
In the next moment Joli slashed out at the leaper, cleanly taking off its head as they dropped like a sack of bricks, its head landing with a squishy, dull thump on the stone beside it.
I could feel a shift in the air as the mana traveled up to my core before being redistributed back down into the spawner. The respawn didn't happen right away, though while we watched and waited, I noticed the leaper's corpse start to fade into nothing, almost disintegrating into dust until all that was left were the blood stains.
Joli for her part didn't look all that surprised by the event, so I suppose that was meant to happen. After another few minutes or so a clawed hand suddenly reached as the leaper grabbed at the edge of the crack before pulling itself out, still wearing the ruined clothes it had before and looking no worse for wear.
'Interesting! So it retains the equipment it had on it as well...' I commented to Joli and Isaak for no other reason than to give a mental voice to my observations.
"Fascinating..." Joli finally said, as she looked over the leaper curiously. "You really just made a spawner, just like that... Well, congrats on the success, Vitmori. Was there anything else you were wanting to do while you were here?" She asked while looking over at my ball of light.
'Well aside from attuning the rest of my zombies, not much else.' I said while I started pulling out the other zombies I've freshly made since last night.
"The rest?" Isaak asked after a moment, though he soon found himself going quiet as he watched the horde of one hundred and fifty two zombies slowly pour out of thin air.