That's better. The kids look much less like medieval peasants and more like, well, medieval servants but it's a start. I think I did the best I could with what I had, though they could use something. I point my staff at each of them, repairing any holes or poorly redone stitching. Refitting Aulos' pants so they aren't so baggy and fashioning a new belt from the shaved boar leather with the last of my iron for a belt buckle. I then summon some pink and yellow flowers from the garden. extracting the color, I use it to re-dye Lyre's dress, making it once again vibrantly beautiful. Lastly, I give them both a bit of a haircut. I'm no stylist but I try to do a simple modern style, and it looks pretty good. Their silver hair are both just under shoulder length with a slightly shorter front to frame their faces. They look almost like twins now if not for the age difference.
They both examine themselves and each other excitedly before hugging my stone legs and yelling their thanks. I kneel down and pull them in for a proper hug before releasing them to dig into the pie. I tell them to save me a slice and start on another pie for dessert. I take a couple of those weird fruits and mix in what kinda tastes like cinnamon and some normal nutmeg. I make the crust the same way as the other one but put a bit more decoration into the top, making some hearts and stars for ventilation.
While I wait for that to brown, I grab a slice of the meat pie and give it a taste. It's perfectly seasoned and tender while not being too gamey and I savor every bite. It feels really nice being able to just be here physically, to hold a fork and talk normally with people again. I really missed it. I take the steaming pie out of the oven, my stone fingers impervious to the heat, and replace the empty pie plate on the table. The kids are almost ravenous to eat it but I keep them at bay long enough for it to no longer be mouth scorchingly hot and snag a slice before this one disappears too.
I start feeling sluggish before I take a bite of the pie and perk up again. I must be getting low on mana so I let my animals know that they can go back to eating their prey and I give Salem a bowl of the bone broth which he happily drinks.
Winter must be well underway since it's already about midday. I have the kids go out and collect mushrooms nearby just so they have something to do while I get some work done. I leave my stone form in the basement to save mana and pop down to the sub basement. I decide to continue digging down to mine for more materials so I continue the spiral staircase, forming three new rooms, each below the last before hitting the barrier denoting the border of my domain.
I've got plenty of materials now, looking over my stone pile, I filter out everything that isn't stone. I've got a good amount of iron ore like before but there's also about a few pounds of copper and a little bit of silver and gold, as well as some nice gemstones. It seems the deeper I go the more rare materials there are but I'm limited by the size of my domain. The barrier does seem to be expanding at a pretty constant rate as I collect mana so I should be able to keep expanding down soon. For now I'll dig outwards where there are some veins of iron and copper. On each level I make a few more small rooms following seemingly random directions where the materials are most prevalent and by the end I have a very nice stockpile of materials.
I guess it's time to build something new, I can't just leave all this stone here. The pile is even taller than before.
I look over my entire domain since it's substantially bigger now. I decide to use some of what I've learned to make the most of my mana, so I pick a spot about fifty feet from my cottage and start to put together a stone building. I make the foundation about three feet below ground so the entire thing is partially sunken. Giving it an older look and a lower profile. I make the building mostly round with three large chimneys. For the door, I make a few steps to get down to the base and make a large arch for the doorway. Inside, i make a brick oven, an open hearth with a large iron cauldron, and a stone cooktop, stocking all three with firewood. I also use some iron to make a few kitchen knives and spatulas then carve some other cooking utensils from wood. This should be good for cooking everything that my animals bring in before they eat it, to get the most mana possible out of it all. I don't have the time to cook all day (especially when I'm already cooking for two kids who eat half their body weight every day) so I need a chef, and I have just the animal in mind to run a kitchen.
"Alright, Giovanni. Have a look around your kitchen, and meet your sous chefs" I say to the raccoon before me. Gesturing to the three other raccoons and the kitchen as a whole.
"Yeah it's great, boss. But where's the grub?" The chubby raccoon asks.
A flutter of feathers swoops into the kitchen, dropping a fat, brightly colored bird onto a nearby prep table. "Right there!" I exclaim.
Giovanni gets to work, plucking the feathers, dropping them into a stone vessel labeled 'useful' and throwing the guts, head and feet into another, labeled 'trash' his nimble fingers glide the knife like butter, cleanly removing the flesh without a bit of waste. He's a lot better than I expected. Maybe I'll have him cook for everyone but he'll probably be too busy cooking for mana so I won't try to push him too hard. For now I leave him and his helpers to their work and enjoy the sudden uptick in mana generation.
I still want to use up the rest of this stone, so I decide to have a bit of fun and make things a little prettier. First up, I use some to make decorative arches and overhangs on the cottage. Breaking up the blocky silhouette in favor of a more refined look, while keeping its rustic charm. Next, I think a gazebo would fit nicely in a little space about thirty feet to the right of the cottage. I build up the foundation so there's two steps to climb, and make the typical large arches to hold up a roof made in the same style as the cottage and tower roofs. I also put some effort into making a couple stone benches as comfortable as possible.
This place is really starting to look like a home. I walk back to the cabin door, laying stepping stones as I walk. I phase through the door and see that the kids are waiting excitedly with a basket of mushrooms so I summon my stone form just outside and open the door. They excitedly show me all the mushrooms they found, and I silently use my mana to find any poisonous ones while I congratulate them. There's just one mushroom that has poison so I grab it and ask them what it is. They both immediately tell me not to eat it so I guess they did know its dangerous, especially after they call it a dead man's cap. I tell them they did a good job and set aside the mushroom on the shelf I've designated as poison. The sun is just beginning to set, casting golden rays over the cottage, and the kids seem exhausted from their foraging session. So I give them each a bowl of broth with what were meant to be noodles but became more like wontons and put them to bed, which they accept without complaint.
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"The mana signature is getting stronger, make sure you're all prepared. This is an un-delved dungeon, there's no map, no monster count, and no guarantee of safety." Captain Vailaar ordered, holding up his scrying orb for us all to see the massive mana signature which can only mean a new dungeon.
Why did this thing have to form at the end of autumn? A week later and it could wait till spring, but no. I have to march out here with a bunch of sweaty knights in case one of them falls on their own sword or eats a poisonous herb or scrapes a knee or something. I never should have become a healer, more work than a battlemage with none of the respect.
I lean on my staff while the captain rambles on about the same things he has a million times before. My eyes wander to a large hawk perched in a tree about a dozen yards in the direction we're going. The hawk looks me right in the eyes for a moment with an almost human gaze before turning and flying off. I wonder…
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I'm glad I have Acci, otherwise I wouldn't have seen the small group of armed and armored soldiers, and that hot elf mage. I start preparing for contact. Firstly I move my core to the lowest room in the sub basement, and add a few locking doors and trapdoors in the path down. The kids are feeling sick so I carry them down to rest near my core so they can hide. Everything here seems so empty, so I add some walls in a few rooms to block the straight view forward, and form ten stone golems which I arm with iron spears. Both the golems and their spears are a bit rushed and unpolished but they'll have to do. Lastly, right before the core room, I dig a deep pit. I don't want to hurt anyone too bad so I leave it at that and pop outside with my stone form.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Outside, I wish I had thought to build a wall but now there's no time. I lock the front door and call all the animals back to defend the cottage. The hawks arrive quickly and perch on the tower roof, and the raccoons run out of the kitchen with their kitchen knives and spatulas, and scale the trees on the front of the cottage where the soldiers will approach from. The wolves arrive last, coming up the back of the cottage and hiding there at my order just as the armed elves approach. I try to stay confident as they approach me, and call out to them.
"Who are you?" I yell, most seem surprised when I speak except for the larger elf leading them who speaks up in turn.
"Dungeon is speech capable with pseudo avatar. Intentional tampering is possible. Proceed with caution." He states in a monotone voice as a younger looking elf scribbles in a book.
"I don't want to hurt you, just tell me what you want!" I try again, growing more worried. but the soldiers just continue their march. The elf mage casts some kind of spell just before they enter my domain and the leader continues his descriptions of me and the cottage. I hold my ground as they approach and point my staff defensively, giving them one last "stop there!" Before I do anything drastic. The leader raises a hand and the soldiers stop. He faces me and speaks.
"Dungeon, as property of his majesty the king, you are to be mapped and mined. Will you comply?
"Uh I think the fuck not? And I'm no one's property." I retort.
"Dungeon is non compliant, continue with normal protocol." The cold man continues. As he steps forward, I urge mana into my staff to push them back, but the moment I release my attack, the man taps a symbol on his armor, which glows blue. And all my mana that I channeled is forced back at me, shattering my stone body to fragments. And forcing my ethereal form backwards into the cottage. I manage to force myself to a stop and pop back outside where I'm met with a horrible scene. The hawks swoop down to claw at the soldiers and my heart sinks as they are immediately shot through with pinpoint accurate arrows.
The raccoons drop from the trees on top of the soldiers, getting a few good cuts, but ultimately being cut down by their swords. Finally the wolves split into two groups, each rounding the cottage in different directions to flank the elves, as the wolves charge, they're assaulted by a barrage of arrows from just two archers, moving with inhuman speed. As each wolf falls before making it within feet of the group, Shadow charges forward, taking two arrows to the side, the stoic wolf continues on, taking a clean bite through the lead elfs leg, straight through his plate armor. The elf releases an agonizing scream before rearing back his sword and stabbing clean through the brave wolf's head.
"Healer!" The man orders, and the elf mage steps up from the back, circling her ruby tipped staff around the man's wound. The bleeding stops and the flesh melds itself, leaving no trace of Shadow's final deed.
"Why couldn't we have tried to discu-" the mage begins, but is cut off by the man ordering her back into formation.
I begin to hyperventilate as the brigade breaks down my cottage door, splintering wood and knocking over furniture. The soldiers grab spices from shelves and pocket gems. "Dungeon entrance appears to be an old homestead, nothing of use. Continue down" The leader breaks open the trapdoor with ease and descends the ladder. his armor deflecting blows from my golems spears. I pour more mana into them, making them bigger, their spears thicker and sharper. It's no use though, as the man slices cleanly through their stone necks, his sword glowing that same blue hue. They fall one after another to this single mans attacks as he proceeds closer and closer to my core, all along continuing his clinical description of my home.
"Dungeons floors appear barren, likely new additions. Small veins of iron present in walls at even this shallow depth."
The man, no. monster, continues cutting down golems and animals faster than I can make them, the few minor injuries he suffers are quickly healed by the mage. They search the well room before continuing their descent. The closer they get to my core, the more afraid I become, and the more mana I burn through, the harder it is to slow them down. Eventually, I have to start burning through the food I stored for winter just to keep going. I shift rock to make walls, but the armored menace just blasts through them without pause.
They reach the core room in no time at all, the lead elf kicking down the door near effortlessly. As they enter one by one through the small opening, I wait until the mage is above the pit and open a hole in the thin stone that covers it, she hits the bottom before she knows she's even fallen and I silently slide the cover closed above her. With their healer gone, I may be able to wear this beast down.
"Ore veins are much richer at a slightly lower depth. core is now visible, very small." The elf notices Aulos and Lyre laying behind the pedestal which my core rests on, unconscious. "Two captives, urchin children. Appear to be suffering from dungeon sickness. Healer!" The man shouts. When the mage doesn't approach, he turns to find her, which is when I set my plan to action. I don't have time to think now about what dungeon sickness might be but I'm sure I can fix it once I get these intruders out of my home and away from my kids.
Salem hops up from his hiding place behind the pedestal and grabs my core, darting to a crack in the wall across the room. I force stone to fall in a wall, dividing the room in two, one with the soldiers, one with the kids. Using almost all my remaining mana, I simultaneously force the stone above the soldiers to heat until it begins dripping molten rock, force spikes to shoot from the ground, and make one final golem with a sword and shield. Many of the soldiers start to break formation as the leader silently looks forward before turning and marching directly out the way they came.
"Dungeon has been mapped and appraised. One casualty. Regroup at Evenwall outpost." And the monster leaves as if it were nothing. I drop to my knees and pant for a moment before dropping the wall and looking back to the kids, they look much paler than they had a moment ago. I try to use my mana to find what's wrong but I can see nothing. Reluctantly, I pull the now quivering elf mage from the pit and say in no uncertain terms "help them and you live."
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The elfs mumbling incantations do nothing to ease my worry. I wish I knew what she was doing but I dare not risk her failing her spell just to answer me. As she finally ends her spell with a wave of her staff, the white flakes of mana stop falling from them, and I realize that none of the soldiers had anything come off of them. I wish I had known that I was hurting them, maybe I could've stopped it sooner. Even as the mage continues her healing, I feel as though I've failed the children I tried to protect. In more ways than one. I was completely helpless in that fight, if you could even call it that. If those people wanted to kill me or them, they could have.
I leave my last golem to watch over the children and my captive while I pop back up to the surface. I'm still incredibly nervous about the kids, but I need to take stock and rebuild my defenses. The bodies of my animals have melted away, but Acci, Giovanni, and Shadow each left behind a sort of spectral ghost, laying in their final positions, it costs less than it originally did to resummon Acci but I'm flat out of mana and stone tired, when she flies off in search of food. I drag myself back down to the core room where I start openly crying when I see the kids eyes flutter open, I've never been so glad to see them and I wish I could hug them both
Once the kids are stable, I have my golem bring them upstairs. He's too heavy to climb the ladder, so I have to use some of my very small mana reserve that Acci has been working overtime to build up, to lift them up and tuck them into bed to regain their energy. a bit more mana goes to fix the door so they wont catch a cold, and I pop back to the core room where Salem is looking down at the mage with barely contained anger. I took away her staff when I put the kids to bed and put her back in the pit. I leave her down there for now so I can start repairing the cottage, and begin fortifications. First, I seal my core into the crack in the wall to hide it, and I pop back to the surface to survey the damage.
Thankfully those barbarians didn't trample my garden. I walk over to Mush and comfort the cowering fungus, coaxing them into continuing their planting so I can regrow my mana supply. I then pop over to the ghostly form of Giovanni, he's comparatively small so he shouldn't take as much mana as Shadow will. I feel really bad not bringing him back right now, looking at the wolf's lifeless outline makes me tear up a bit but it push through. He'll be back as soon as I can afford it. Weaving mana into Giovanni, it takes a bit less than it did originally but it's still a significant dent in my limited supply.
"Uurgg, I feel like I slept on a concrete slab. Alright, back to the hungry customers I guess." He collects the metal utensils up from around him and heads back to the kitchen. The efficiency increase is well worth the cost to bring him back as I've already got that mana back in a few minutes.
My old stone form was turned basically into dust where I stood. regardless, I twirl my staff, bringing the gravel up and reforming the statue. I summon some iron from the basement and form it into an exact replica, adding tons of mass and strength. It'd take more mana to use so it'll just be for fighting, but it should stand up to a lot more. Next up I start on that wall. I raise stone from underground, the soil sinking as the rock is pulled from beneath it, forming a thick wall with big spikes as i walk around the perimeter of the cottage, with a gap at the front where i build a sturdy iron gate with wide, jutting spikes to gore anyone who runs into or tries to climb it.
This won't be enough on its own to stop those soldiers. I'll need to learn more about my powers and theirs if I want to stand a chance. Luckily I have access to information on both. Walking back into the cottage, I return upset furniture and organize everything to how it was. I pick up the book I found in the wellroom with my bookmark still half way through. Some of those vague warnings make a lot more sense now, like 'never stay in a dungeon for more than a night'. I also learn that when I extract mana from food, and use it, its released into the world for wizards and mages to use. It's only at the very end where it says to have a mana shield to protect from dungeon sickness, why would that not be before 'types of fruit associated with dungeon mana'?
I've also learned that while dungeons can make many rare materials, weaker dungeons are often stripped out completely and mined, due to their incredibly high mineral density. I'm not letting that happen here. Now, time to question my 'guest'.
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The stone woman dropped onto the pit I've been stuck in since I healed those kids and stopped their mana drain. Her beautiful eyes look pretty upset, and I can hear that in her voice when she talks.
"Who do you work for?" She asks in a demanding tone.
"Uh I guess that would be 'the high king' but I'm probably out of a job now that I'm going to die here."
"You won't die here, and why did you say 'high king' like that?"
"Because I don't like the guy. He only came into power after the plague hit, we didn't have royalty before that and we didn't need it. All he does is steal from commoners who can't do anything about it."
"So why do you work for him?"
"Why else? To survive. I've been on my own for a while and this is the only job that pays well anymore."
She ponders a moment before responding. "What if I made you an offer you literally couldn't refuse?"