Chapter 16: Upgrading the castle and some more exploring is in order
When she awoke again feeling even more exhausted after her weird dream which she couldn't remember that well. Xhemile went downstairs after confirming that she only slept three hours, her body apparently doesn't need that much rest. After walking in to the living space, she saw that is now pretty cramped in there from her fifteen subjects. She also saw with great joy that she had enough mudbricks to upgrade her castle.
[Castle upgrade to Rank 2?] [Yes/No]
[Cost:
600 units of mudbricks
300 units of wood
100 earth crystals]
She pressed the yes button, and immediately ran outside the castle to avoid the light it started to emit as it expanded. After ten minutes of constant eye assault due to the light it finally dimmed and at last, gave free the sight of her upgraded castle. The castle now had a larger front door, as well as now four-square shaped corner towers as previously only one. The walls of the castle were inscribed and decorated with letters of an unknown language as well as the towers. Overall, the castle now had an even more square shape with only the corner towers being a little wider and allowing archers to shoot enemies directly hiding on the walls. The castle inside also had now more room and better infrastructure, like a kitchen and dining hall, a small armory, a bigger lord's room, more rooms for her subjects to sleep in and a small treasury. Xhemile was content with the current size of the castle, but it wouldn't be enough for the future. For future development she made herself a note on a piece of leather with some dog blood. The current list has the points marked to grow her castle as well as herself and her subjects. Xhemile also walked toward the main hall in which, in the middle, now was the summoning circle. She pulled up the system at the summoning circle.
[Do you want to upgrade the summoning circle to Rank 2?] [Yes/No]
[Cost:
300 units of stone.
50 earth crystals.]
Xhemile breathed a heavy sigh and confirmed it. The circle then started to glow brightly and after tens of seconds it dimmed again revealing its new form. The summoning circle now was again double the size, spanning 6 meters on the wider and 4 meters on the shorter diameter. Yes, the circle now wasn’t a circle anymore, but more on the oval side.
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[Summoning circle Rank 2
Summons 10 subjects of the Karomama Tribe. Chance to obtain Rank 1 subject even more increased. Chance to obtain a Rank 2 and higher subject increased slightly.] [Cooldown 8:31]
Xhemile was content with the upgrade, it allows her to summon even stronger subjects now. She also noted that the cooldown exactly ended when a new day starts, meaning 0:00 am. She also traded 200 units of meat for 100 units of cloth. Now Kira can craft something. I should tell Kira to first make some leather drinking bags, then she could start to craft some leather armor with Neeth, oh also some backpacks would be good. After thinking for a bit, Xhemile told Kira to start crafting the drinking bags, enough so every subject can have one and a few crude backpacks. Luckily, Kira and Neeth were very fast with the crafting of these Items, they concentrated to only make some bags for the scouting party, Xhemile was trying to organize, as well as a few backpacks. They said, it would be ok, when they started to craft the other things, while the others were out scouting more. Now a team consisting of Xhemile, Marwa, Nanu, Nour, Njoud and six other subjects was formed. Marwa was of great help to Xhemile, providing her with enough help so she can learn to command people. When they finally started to gather and leave the protection area of her castle, they were equipped with 1 leather drinking bag each containing 2 liters of water, bone spears for everyone as well as one bone knife for every member, they also had five crude backpacks with them. After leaving the zone of the castle they entered the seemingly endless desert again, this time scouting further than the first time. They encountered a few desert dogs but none of these was very problematic and they easily dispatched them. They soon started to walk a bigger circle around Xhemile’s castle. During this time, they found a small stone valley with a cave in the middle of it. Marwa’s suspicion was immediately at the highest level and turned to speak to Xhemile.
“My lady, this cave is suspicious, it is too evenly formed to be of natural origin.”
“Yes, it is indeed to smooth to be a natural cave.”: Xhemile agreed.
“But what do you think it is, Marwa?”: Nour asked cautious.
“Well smooth caves are an indicator that this cave is man or monster made. It can't be manmade as natural resources as iron are too dangerous to excavate in this region. Monster made is also not very plausible as which monster in the desert would claw itself through hard rock to build a hidey hole. This only leaves one thing of magical origin left.”: Marwa explained.
“Is it what I think it is?”: Nour asked.
“A dungeon.”: Xhemile and Marwa said simultaneously. Marwa looked proud over to Xhemile as if to praise her for her deducing action.
“It can't be a dungeon, if it was that, shouldn't we feel more mana in the surroundings?”: Nanu said suddenly.
“But not a dead dungeon.”: Marwa said calmly. Everyone looked questioningly at her. Marwa sighed and started to explain in more detail.
“A dungeon doesn't disappear if it is dead or abandoned. The caves and rooms it constructs stays there until it collapses or a new dungeon appears in the surrounding. In the latter case the new dungeon fills the entire system with newly formed rock made of similar materials as its surrounding materials. No dungeon wants to be conquered from a cave made by its predecessor.”
“Do you think we can find something to loot in there?”: Xhemile asked.
Marwa looked with a wicked grin at her lady.
“Yes.”