[Who’s Home?] – See a visual indicator of your current number of minions compared to your maximum cap allowed.

“Great, we get more space to work with.”

After checking the new perk, which just showed “4 / 8 minions” above the indicator for my Essence Pool, I tried to force my essence outward, to expand the border of my Settlement.

“Well, that’s disappointing. We gained half a metre…”

“I could build more houses,” I replied.

“No, that would be a waste of resources. While it may seem like it now, this forest is not an endless supply of wood and stone. Sooner-or-later you will run out and have to send your gatherers further away. You want to have a robust Settlement by then. I’ve seen Dungeon Cores focus too heavily on expanding their caves and too little on traps and creatures, granted, we aren’t talking about the same thing exactly, but you’d be better off focusing on actually fulfilling the requirements for advancing to a Hamlet. Currently we just have a house and miscellaneous crafting stations, we don’t even have a plot of land to farm…”

“I’d forgotten about that.”

“That’s why I’m here. To keep you on track.”

“What happened to the Cores that expanded too fast?”

“They died early more often than not.”

“Oh…”

“Yep. Death is a common end to most cores, but their life-expectancy is usually close to a century, with the right management. Once they pass about fifty years though, they are generally expected to last a few centuries, the expectancy is just held back by the many cores that perish early.”

“Not all cores die though?”

“A handful ascend every-so-often. They become minor deities or Sluagh, aka. ‘Guiding Fairies’, like me.”

“So you were a Core once?” I asked, fascinated.

“That’s right. Two-thousand-seven-hundred-and-forty-two years ago.”

“You’re really old.”

“In the corporate world of Deathheim’s Sluagh, I am but a middle-manager. Once we’re promoted to the rank of Knights, we get a lot more freedom and benefits. Currently, I only get about two weeks’ vacation between training cores. And that’s only if they evolve at least once…”

“Two weeks? Even though helping cores can take centuries? That’s awful!”

“Hey, at least I get vacation. Lady Light’s employees only get a single day, even their upper management. Lord Deathheim has far more compassion, but his PR team is understaffed, hence why he gets such a bad rep.”

I didn’t get all the jargon, but sort of got the gist of it. “He does have ‘death’ in his name.”

“He actually dislikes Death, thinks the guy’s an asshole, which, given his relation to Fate, is no big surprise. My Lord cares about life, which is why his servants gain the ability to imbue their cores with the ability to raise the dead and prolong life through vampirism and lichdom.”

“Why can’t I raise the dead, if you’re my fairy?”

“Well, little Toad, you’re what we in the business call: ‘an outlier’. But, maybe, down the line, you’ll be able to. I skimmed ahead a bit and it seems you get the ability to make Wizards.”

“I hate wizards,” I replied. “One of them turned my fifth cousin once-removed into a whomen.”

“Gross.”

“That’s what I said!”

“Anyway, let’s get back on track. According to the evolution checklist, we have to finish at least two houses, a barn, and a farming plot. Additionally we need to have at least ten minions and have harvested crops once. Given our limited space, and the fact that we can’t just tear down this huge tree in the middle of it without damaging your core, I will place a few blueprints for you, so you can see the optimal placements.”

Before I could express my surprise at his ability to actually help me build, the land surrounding the tree suddenly became filled with blueprints, their ghostly outlines waving back-and-forth with an unseen wind.

“I took the liberty of suggesting some new locations for your current structures, so you should have your builder move those first.”

“We can move them?”

“Yep. It comes in handy and lets you redesign the layout of your demesne when inspiration strikes.”

“I thought you were only able to give advice, not actually help me with building.”

“Due to my rank as Squire-Lord, I am able to provide you with unparalleled guidance, including optimisation of layout. I will be able to do far more impressive tricks if you manage to evolve a few times, but baby-steps first.”

“Babies don’t walk, they swim.”

“Eh… sure. That’s definitely what I meant.”

I put the Builder to work moving the house so that it stood nearer the trunk of my tree, as well as arranging all the crafting stations in a central location, rather than up against the side of the house, this would make it easier to access them for multiple minions at once, rather than just one at a time.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You’re really good at this,” I remarked, after seeing the brilliance in this change to our farm’s layout.

“I know.”

“So, what next?”

“Make a Farming Plot where I indicated.”

Unlike the firepit and workbench, the Farming Plot was in a category named ‘Agriculture’ and was the only currently-available option.

“More things will unlock as you harvest certain items and build new buildings, not just when you unlock perks or evolve. You should also have the option to tell which structures you already have and how many more you are allowed to make.”

“My Workbench has an ‘∞’ next to its number?”

“That means there is no upper limit, but that’s also because you don’t gain anything from building multiples of them. Buildings like the ‘House’ currently have a limit of two, but that will increase when you evolve.”

“So my plan of mass-producing houses wouldn’t have worked anyway…”

“This does seem a lot less open-ended than how it is for a Dungeon Core, but I think it’s more to compensate for the many requirements. Fret not though, the limits are only for the first few stages of your Core’s evolution, then you can make your suburban dream come true.”

After placing the farming plot, nothing happened. It had simply made a ghostly square on the ground, but no outline of any structure. I tried to send my Builder over to initiate its construction, but he simply stood there, looking confused and scratching his bald rubbery head.

Then another System message appear:

Congratulations! For constructing your first Farming Plot, you unlocked the ability to craft tools to work the soil! Get those grubby fingers dirty!

>Items>Tools

—Stone Rake (Workbench)—

Grants Tilling skill and increases minion Farming XP by 10%

Required Materials: Wood & Stone

—Stone Shovel (Workbench)—

Grants Digging skill and increases minion Farming XP by 10%

Required Materials: Wood & Stone

—Stone Trowel (Workbench)—

Grants Sowing-and-Planting skill and increases minion Farming XP by 10%

Required Materials: Wood & Stone

Just like the other tools, I could use simple sticks and stones to make the new tools, and I quickly made one of each from the leftover materials that hadn’t been used on making the house. As soon as the Builder had finished making one of each, the Forager returned with a bundle of plant material.

“Oooh, now we can make clothes!”

“Finally.”

After dumping his harvested materials, the Forager left to find more. Among the plant fibres were also some colourful red berries, a few white-blue flowers, and nettles.

“Before you use all of the foraged plants for making yarn, have your builder set aside a bit of each plant, so we can use them to grow more with our farmland.”

“We can do that??”

“That’s what farms are for…”

“Oh.”

“What did you think the farm was for?”

“I don’t know. I was sort of just going with the flow. I’ve never even seen most of these things before, so how was I supposed to know?”

“Sometimes I forget that you were an amphibian before this.”

“I’m still a toad! In my heart!”

“You don’t have a heart…”

“In my core then!”

“Whatever,” Imu replied, brushing me off. “Alright. Make another minion, while your Builder makes yarn for the clothes.”

A fresh face, which was identical to the four of his brethren, emerged from inside the new house, his smooth rubbery head glistening like a newly-spawned newt.

“I name thee, Farmer!”

The Farmer enthusiastically grabbed the rake and started running along the demarcated farming plot with the teeth of the tool, the grass shredding and the soil becoming revealed. While he did that, the Builder was turning the Foraged plants into yarn by placing them on the workbench and waving his hands frantically.

“Isn’t this whole thing really inconsistent?” I asked the chubby Myling, who was sitting on-top of the loom with the Encyclopaedia open in his hands.

“If there’s one consistent thing with the System it’s its lack of consistency,” he replied, without even looking at what the Builder was doing. “Sometimes things are over-complicated and hyper-detailed, and, other times, they’re like that,” he said, pointing at the Builder, eyes still locked on the pages of his book.

The lack of details was probably what bothered me with the Builder, but it was hard to argue with his results, as he took messy plants and turned them into bundles of hair-like strings, just by waving his hands around. While he worked in his infuriating way, I watched the Farmer continue his mad dash up-and-down the field, making perfect furrows in the up-turned soil.

After both the Farmer and Builder eventually finished, the Harvesters had made two more return trips with fresh materials: the Woodchopper learning that it was faster to take big trees and halve them after chopping them down, before running them back; and the Stone-picker learning to settle for breaking big stones in smaller chunks.

“They’re getting smarter!”

“That is the manifestation of their experience with Harvesting. To make them more efficient, we should craft them baskets or something similar, that way they can carry more.”

“Have you seen the Forager?”

“I thought you noticed.”

“What?”

“He died. You went down to four minions about five minutes ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell me!?”

“Why didn’t you notice?” Imu replied sharply.

Annoyed, but knowing that the Fairy was right in blaming me, I summoned another whomen, who, like the Farmer, emerged from inside the house. Instead of having the Builder craft another Sickle, I sent the new Forager out to locate the body of his predecessor.

“Huh.”

“What?” I asked.

“I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Really?”

“It’s not usually something you have to worry about when you’re a Dungeon Core, given the fact that your minions can’t leave your demesne.”

I set the Builder to work constructing ‘Simple Pants’ for all my workers, using the yarn he had made from the plants. He moved over to the loom and got to work, Imu leaving his spot atop it to go perch on the corner of the workbench instead.

“Do you want me to build you a chair?” I asked.

“I’ll make do for now.”

“Just say the word, and I’ll chair you up.” I marked a pause. “So, what now?”

“Have the Farmer grab the trowel and plants, then seed the ground, keeping each crop separate from the others.”

With the stone trowel in hand, the Farmer became a magician like the Builder, turning freshly-picked plants into identical seeds that fell into the furrows made with the rake. Moments after landing in the soil, the seeds all took root and started sprouting, visibly growing.

“This makes no sense.”

“Be glad it isn’t realistic, otherwise we’d have to wait for ages, and most probably this wouldn’t even work.”

“How long before they’re done growing?”

“A few hours, I’d say.”

Remembering I still had to build another house for the checklist Imu mentioned, I summoned another minion, who once again emerged from the house near my tree.

“That’s weird.”

“What is?”

“My minion count is still five.”

“Your Forager died again, that’s why.”

“Frog-it!”

“Maybe stop sending your minions back to his corpse for a bit. It’s probably just a bear or something.”

“Oh no! Now it’s down to four.”

I watched in horror as my minion counter went down to three, and then, as if to confirm my worst fears, honking came from the distant forest, sounding more sinister than before.

“Ah, turd,” Imu said.