Chapter 3: They’re Too Cute!! & Hard at Work
"Alright, let’s think. Now that the chat’s calmed down."
Freya said it, but the messages were still scrolling past nervously at the corner of her vision.
"First off, I’ve got my confirmation on Lucas. The notification said ’in under 2 hours,’ which means it was the same global time for everyone."
So Lucas really did have a skill tied to time acceleration. Maybe useless to know, but she filed it away in a corner of her mind anyway. You never knew.
"Mistress? Shall I go looking for a vein this time?"
Freya thought for a moment before answering.
"No. For now, the best move is to map out the area around the dungeon. And hide our entrance while we’re at it."
"My summons can handle the surroundings. As for the entrance, I’ll lay an illusion over it... though I’m afraid I can only manage the lower-tier ones."
"That’s fine, it’ll do for now. What we want to avoid is some random guy stumbling onto our location and running off to tell the others."
She nodded, and at those words, three little birds materialized between them. Familiars, which Aria sent straight toward the surface. She followed after them and vanished into the corridor.
"And alone again!"
That left a good twenty hours to burn through. At loose ends, Freya let herself drift along with the group chat, flinching now and then at some scornful message aimed her way.
When Aria came back, they set out together this time, hunting for a vein. They eventually turned one up, barely a five-minute walk from the dungeon.
She took the opportunity, while she was at it, to build a proper network of tunnels branching out from the entrance, alongside Aria. A labyrinth so twisted that even she couldn’t have found her way out without the demon’s mental map.
The work was strangely pleasant. Aria would part the rock with a wave of her hand, Freya would pick the branches, the dead ends, the false exits, and little by little their maze took shape beneath their hands. The demon never once complained. She carried out every idea, even the most convoluted, with the same diligent seriousness, as if her mistress’s slightest whim were a sacred command.
"Say, this oracle thing... does it worry you?" Freya asked between two corridors, mostly to fill the silence.
"Not in the slightest, mistress." The answer came calm, almost offhand. "As long as your heart stays hidden, we have all the time in the world. There’s nothing serious about it, nothing worth fretting over."
Freya nodded, reassured, and tucked the remark away in a corner of her mind without giving it much more thought.
The hours slipped by like that.
And finally, it was time.
"Alright, it’s time! The real beginning, at last!!" Practically bursting with excitement, Freya could barely contain herself.
She took a deep breath. "System, I want to summon two Mycofox Workers."
[ Summon x2 Mycofox Worker for 10 mana points? ]
"Yes."
Then they appeared before Aria and Freya.
Two little balls of gray-blue fluff, no bigger than kittens, standing clumsily on paws too big for them. Atop their heads, a glowing mushroom cap gave off a soft bluish light, pulsing in time with their breathing. Two pairs of big round eyes blinked up at her.
"Kyu?" one chirped, tilting its head.
The nearest one took a step toward her, tripped over its own paws, and caught itself at the last second, its little glowing cap flickering from blue to green for the space of a heartbeat, as if betrayed by its own surprise. The other, more curious, was already sniffing at the air around it, nose twitching, hunting for who-knew-what.
Freya stared at them, frozen. Something cracked inside her.
A single word came to her mind.
"... Cute! They’re way too cute!!"
Caught between the joy of her first summon that owed nothing to her skill and everything else besides, she rushed over to the foxes, scooped them up at arm’s length, cuddled them, scratched behind their ears.
"Kyuu! Kyukyu!" they squeaked, wriggling, clearly delighted to have been summoned under such conditions.
Then Aria.
"Hmm... hmm. Mistress, there’s no time to waste on mere foxes. The situation is dire, because of the oracle."
"Yeah, you’re right," Freya said, setting one of the two back down.
But in her head, she was thinking something else entirely. Barely a few hour ago, while we were building the labyrinth, she swore up and down it was nothing serious. And now, all of a sudden... that’s just jealousy, isn’t it?
Oh well. It was almost cute. As cute as it was unhinged. She let it slide and gave her order to the two foxes.
"Build me a room for the Dungeon Farm, and another for the Servants’ Quarters, please."
"Kyu!" They nodded and got to work. About an hour later, both rooms were ready.
"Great job, you two!!" she said, giving them a scratch.
"Kyuuun ~"
She noticed Aria pouting, so she decided to give her a task.
"Could you take one of them to the vein so it can dig out the space for the mine, please?"
The demon dipped into a curtsy, then headed off with one fox toward the mine.
"Alright, here we go." Freya approached the first freshly dug room. "System, I want a Dungeon Farm here."
[ Create a Dungeon Farm for 35 mana points? ]
"Yes."
It appeared before her as if by magic. A small plot of dark, fertile soil enclosed in stone, where glowing sprouts were already pushing through the ground, nourished not by sunlight but by the mana saturating the air around it.
"It’s beautiful."
But she was already off, hurrying down a carved stairway to reach the next spot, laid out lower, deeper down.
"System, I want the Servants’ Quarters here."
[ Create the Servants’ Quarters for 30 mana points? ]
"Yes."
And it appeared. A small, cozy alcove, lined with soft moss and nests hollowed straight into the rock, bathed in dim light.
Then she turned to the fox, took it into her arms.
"This is where you’ll live now." She headed back up toward the farm. "And this is where you’ll work full-time, little one. Promise I’ll try not to overwork you all too much."
"Kyu... kyuun!"
She set it down at its new post, then made her way toward the mine, where Aria and the other fox were waiting.
Once she reached the vein, she waited a few more minutes, letting the fox finish preparing the building’s plot.
Meanwhile, Aria taught her a bit more about that famous ore.
"Mithrite, mistress. A magical ore, much talked about but rarely found in a workable vein, which is what makes it precious. It conducts mana far better than any ordinary metal, making it a prime material for enchantment and forging equipment. A very fine find for a dungeon as young as yours."
When the Mycofox was done, Freya went to thank it, and that’s when she realized something: they didn’t have names. She’d give them some later, once she’d thought of what.
"Set up a mine here."
[ Create a mine for 30 mana points? ]
"Yes!"
Then the mine appeared. A gallery carved into the rock around the vein, threads of mithrite surfacing along the walls and casting their muted blue glow through the gloom, a cart and a few crude tools already waiting near the entrance.
"This is where you’ll work now," she told the little fox.
It seemed thrilled with its new post, already trotting over to get to work.
"Kyu!"
But before she could witness the first extraction, Aria called out to her.
"Mistress. According to my familiars, there’s a forest all around us. On one side, it runs up against a mountain. On the other... a small human village."
Freya cut her off, delighted by the news.
"Oooh ~ a human village! That could mean future cooperation between them and us. What do you think?"
Aria seemed to hesitate, then answered.
"The problem is that the village is under attack by raiders as we speak."
Freya thought for a few moments, then made her call.
"We’re going. No time to waste!"
But Aria, clearly, didn’t share the sentiment.
"This could put you in danger. Worse: it could leave the heart undefended, open to the first attacker to come along. Or expose you to the world."
Ah. So that’s why she hesitated to tell me.
"Aria... it’s not out of compassion that I’m deciding this. That village is essential to us. For information, for trade, for everything. We have a duty to keep them alive."
She still didn’t seem convinced, but didn’t dare defy her mistress any further.
So Freya took her hand. Aria froze, stunned, her cheeks flushing far redder than a simple touch should have warranted.
"Besides, you’re here! If things go south, I can count on you. You’ll just have to kill them all for me, okay?"
A mix of embarrassment and eagerness crossed her face.
"Yes... yes, mistress!"
And so the two of them set off toward the village bordering the dungeon.
The tunnel sloped gently upward, and as they climbed the final stretch, the air began to change. Cooler, sharper, laced with scents Freya hadn’t smelled since she’d arrived in this world. Damp earth, resin, something green and alive.
Then the stone illusion parted before them, and the outside swallowed her whole.
A forest as far as the eye could see, dark trunks streaked by the fading light, and high above, a sky she’d only imagined until now. She stopped for a moment, breath caught in her throat. So this is what the outside is like. She who had known nothing but the stone and gloom of her dungeon heart now stood before an entire world, vast, immense, indifferent.
But the moment was brief. Over there, between the trees, a thin column of smoke rose toward the sky. And now and then, the wind carried echoes her way. Screams.
Freya clenched her fists.
"Aria. Let’s pick up the pace."
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