Dungeon Life

Chapter One-Hundred Fifty-Four

With Tarls latest inspection out of the way and him certainly writing some kind of report about it, Im back to working on making my new expansion actually be something useful. I still need to get my enclave in there, and theres a fair couple upgrades to do to get access to it.

Im already seeing some activity in the tubes, which is encouraging. My ratkin are in the middle of a small mining and gathering expedition. Theyre all pretty happy, talking about how it gives them vague memories of when they were still my ratlings and would do this sort of thing for me.

The two new metals seem to be pretty tough to mine, too. I think theyre only going to be able to manage about a wheelbarrows worth of each before they head home. They have a much easier time gathering the coal and coke, their eyes alight with the possibilities that the fuels will open up.

Especially since theyve discovered something that I probably should have mentioned to them when I first made some limestone nodes. The rock has more uses than just in making concrete. Which is progressing very well now, too. I think my scions have a mix they like, but I can see Coda working to make something else, too: cinder blocks. I have no idea what theyre actually made of, but they must be made of something similar to concrete, right? Theyre clearly molded instead of carved. My bat scion is toying with molds and new mixes now, too, and I think he wants to make the idea of the lighthouse become a reality with cinder blocks and concrete.

But to come back to limestones uses, its also used in smelting as a flux stone. I dont know if it reacts with impurities and grabs them for easier skimming, or if it acts as an oxygen barrier to keep the metals strong. What I do know is that they saw Slash baking some limestone and wanted to see what would happen if they added some to the ore when they smelt, and they were able to get more ingots than usual.

Im looking forward to seeing what they can produce with not only coke but also flux. Will they be able to make better steel? More steel? Both? I get the feeling theyll need the flux and coke to process the mythril and orichalcum, but I dont really have advice for them for it. My ratkin are smart, and experienced in the forges and smelters, so Im not worried. Maybe a little anxious to get to see what the new metals actually do, but not worried.

I am a little worried about how bare the tubes feel right now, though. Definitely need more stuff in there. I upgrade the earth elemental spawner so it will make more, and send the extra stalacsprites and rockslides to help populate them, deciding to stick with the rocks and magma theme in there. Miners are probably going to be the main delvers, so Im not against letting them use their picks as effective weapons in the tubes.

Theyll still need some answer to the ants, after all. I wouldnt imagine a heavy pick would be very good for dealing with a bunch of them. While the cinder ants are generally about the same size as Queen, theyre still pretty small to try using something like that.

I also need to upgrade them if I want to get this enclave any time soon. No rush, but I do want to get the enclave placed before I get too settled in how I want the tubes. Wouldnt want to have everything working how I want it, only to realize I need to delete a bunch of stuff to make room for the ant enclave. A quick check of my mana shows that Im in no danger of running low, so I go ahead and upgrade the cinder ants.

The new ants are immediately different from the cinders. For starters, while the cinders act like the spawner access points are their homes and build hills over them, the new ants immediately have a nuptial flight and disperse through the tubes. Theyre also a fair bit bigger than the cinders. The cinders are about pinkie sized, but the new ones are closer to a hands length from end to end.

Theyre also called crucible ants, and its not difficult to see why. They prefer nesting near my various metal nodes, so I sprinkle in a few more. They dont seem specifically drawn to the new ones, and look to happily settle near the pure iron and copper nodes. I even decide to put in a gold node pretty far into the tubes. From Tarls reaction, it might not be interesting compared to the orichalcum or mythril, but I still want to be careful with it.

The crucible ants all settle fairly close to a node or two, and start making their hills. While they mostly seem to dig into the tunnels for it, they also send workers to the nodes to nibble at the material there, and start making the hills out of metal! The ants themselves seem to act like little anty crucibles, which is pretty cool. I wonder if they can alloy things, too, so I drop in a few more nodes to experiment, mostly a tin node near a copper one to see if theyll make bronze.

I spend some time enjoying them just doing ant things, before I return my focus to improving the tubes. For the moment, theres only one thing else I want to do with them, and thats upgrade the wyrm spawner a little. Im not ready for whatever the next tier of wyrm is, but I would like a few more around. Having some more will give Nova the freedom to explore around a bit and see more than just her starting biome.

My newest scion helps organize the wyrms to ensure the elementals hardly get inside before they get eaten, which is fine by me. Theyre probably drawn to the fancy new metal nodes, and I dont want the weird little blobs to get away with my cool stuff. With that problem mostly solved, shes free to explore a bit, and I watch her as she wanders.

She doesnt go into Violet, though she does give her territory a curious look before continuing. I think shed rather get a bit more familiar with my territory before she tries to figure out someone new, even if theyre my protege.

Or she really wants to see the surface, because after her curious looking, she makes her way there. She doesnt take any shortcuts to get there, and I wonder if she doesnt like not being surrounded by rock. Im pretty sure she can move just fine on a surface but yeah, probably a lot faster when shes swimming through it.

She causes a bit of a stir when she pokes her head up through the grass, charring whats nearest her but not starting a fire, thankfully. She curiously watches the grass wilt and blacken, but the ramifications dont seem to sink in until she looks a bit further and sees just how much grass there is on the surface. She may be young, but she can guess that a fire up here would probably be bad for all the people moving around, not to mention the destruction it would wreak on the manor and maze.

While shes just looking around, one of my regulars notices her, and decides to investigate. Hes a catkin named Berdol, and usually he escorts various gatherers around. He also usually doesnt pay my scions any mind, happy to do his work and leave them to theirs. I guess curiosity finally got the best of the cat with my new scion.

Nova spots him and sinks down a little in the ground, giving a soft, nervous rumble as she clacks her mandibles in uncertainty. He just gives her a smile as he gets near.

Well, youre new. I guess Seaside Forges hunch is right, then, he says casually as he stops a couple feet from her. Nova just sinks a little more, before he speaks again.

Im not going to try to hurt you, dont worry. I dont think I could, even if I wanted to, which I dont. Could you help me? I have a quest to scout Thedeims newest expansion, but I dont know where it is. He speaks gently to her, seeming to recognize her shyness.

Nova just stares at him for a few seconds before sinking fully beneath the ground. For his part, Berdol doesnt look too upset, and just shrugs. He smiles as he sees her peek above the ground near the side of the manor, though not close enough to harm it any. He strides towards her with confidence.

Thank you! Ill be happy to fight whatever Thedeim wants me to on the way, too. I just have no idea where to start. As he gets near, she dips beneath the surface, and an electric dire rat rounds the corner. He draws two long daggers, and levitates two more hiltless blades as he prepares to fight.

I prepare to watch, and wonder about his floating weapons. Im pretty sure he has metal affinity, but I still dont know what that actually means. Is it magnetism? Is it actually just metals? Ive seen him fight before, but never paid it too much attention. While a new affinity can be interesting, I have a lot on my plate already with figuring them out. But if hes going to potentially be a friend to my new scion, well, Id like to know more about him.

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