Chapter 7: The Same Hands
[ 187/500 ]
Yes, those were her mana points, all right. Freya felt rich in that moment, genuinely rich. Enough to accelerate her whole dungeon’s growth in one fell swoop.
First things first, she needed labor for her upcoming projects. So she summoned three more Mycofox Workers, which cost her fifteen mana points for all three.
And she made sure, of course, to cuddle the newcomers between a few "Kyuuu ~."
Her mana dropped back to 172. Exactly what she’d earned from the bandits.
"Thank you, from the bottom of my heart."
Then she turned to the three little workers.
"Could you dig me out a room for the Guard Hall, please?"
"Kyuuu ~," they answered in chorus, and set to work at once, laying out the space one floor below the rest of the installations, like the Servants’ Quarters. When they’d finished, she gave them their next task.
"Now, dig me a network of tunnels sized for you, linking all the dungeon’s installations together. I’ll let you handle it however works best!"
They complied without a single squeak of protest.
It was the project closest to her heart for now. The advantage of the Mycofoxes, beyond their adorable little faces, was precisely their small size: they could slip through narrow passages connecting every corner of the dungeon, a whole underground network to themselves. A way to move far faster from one installation to another, and above all, in complete safety should an attack ever strike. One day, those tunnels might even serve the Mycofox Soldiers, a hidden map to move around and pop up where no one expected them.
Speaking of which, it was high time she summoned those.
"System, I’d like to summon five Mycofox Soldiers."
[ Summon x5 Mycofox Soldier for 50 mana points? ]
Fifty points in one go, that stung. But the Guard Hall’s description was clear: these creatures would grow stronger the more they trained. Better to get started as soon as possible. And it would come in handy if she ever had to leave the dungeon again, like for the village. Next time, she couldn’t rely solely on the luck of no one finding the entrance, nor on Aria’s illusion to cover her.
"Yes."
And they appeared.
Five little balls of fur, similar to the workers, but built more sturdily, their coats bristling rather than downy, their fangs a touch longer. Where the workers had big round curious eyes, these ones were already furrowing their little brows, wary, almost annoyed at having been dragged out of the void. Their mushroom caps, darker, flushed red at the slightest mood.
"Kyuu!" the first one barked, as if to say it wasn’t fooled.
"Kyuu! Kyuuu!" another chimed in, paws planted firmly in the ground.
"Aaaah..." Freya melted on the spot. "They’re too cute!"
They were just like the others, only grumpier, crankier, and that made them ten times more endearing. She scratched each one despite their sulky growls, and only rose once she’d had her fill of their little grumbling cries.
Then she took them to where the workers had prepared the Guard Hall’s site.
"System, I’d like the Guard Hall here, please."
[ Create a Guard Hall for 30 mana points? ]
"Yes."
And it appeared. A vast, low chamber carved from the rock, its walls now lined with training dummies of a strange sort, figures of straw and wood, jointed, that moved on their own, shifting, dodging, striking at empty air like faceless opponents. Just the thing to toughen up the little soldiers, day after day.
She turned back to the five Mycofox Soldiers.
"Train well, little soldiers of my future grand army," she said, eyes dreamy.
"Kyuu! Kyuu!" they answered in chorus, before darting off to train without delay.
What hard workers, these Mycofoxes. Workers or soldiers, not one of them ever balked at the task. She headed back up to the Heart floor and thought about what came next. The Upgrades category came back to mind, the one she hadn’t rechecked in a while, even though she met its conditions by now.
And she saw it. The one she wanted, absolutely.
[ Building Upgrades — Level 1 -> Level 2 — Cost: 100 mana ]
She glanced at her own reserve. [ 92/500 ]
Ughhh... I’m eight short. Eight!
Then she remembered she still had a little stock of mana on legs.
"Ariaaaaa!!! Bring me the bandit!!" she shouted.
A few seconds later, the demon came running, dragging the chief by the arm. The man’s body was covered in fine, methodical cuts; he had not a single fingernail left, and his swollen face struggled to stay conscious.
"This one?" Aria asked.
"No, the other one, please. This one must still have things to teach us."
At those words, the chief’s face turned to panic. He’d thought he’d glimpsed his way out, and it had just been ripped away before his eyes.
"Please... please, I beg you..."
He went on screaming like that as Aria hauled him off, his cries fading further and further down the corridors, sinking into the depths of the dungeon, until Freya could no longer hear them at all.
Then the demon reappeared, the other man in the same wretched state as the captain.
"Same thing, undress him, please."
Aria complied, and the man’s naked body slumped onto the stone. Freya approached, picking up a sword abandoned on the ground as she went. The cheerful girl from earlier was gone. She still hadn’t swallowed what this one had said. What he’d have done to her, to her, if Aria hadn’t been there, in this world, at her side.
A man like this deserves nothing but death.
She pressed the tip of the blade to his throat. The man froze, a strangled sound at the back of his larynx, and she drove the steel in. Slowly. Inch by inch, feeling the resistance of the flesh give way under the pressure, until the point came out the other side. A gurgle rose, thick, wet. Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth, and his hands rose to the blade with no strength to grip it.
She didn’t look away. Not for a second. She watched the life leave the man’s gaze entirely, until nothing remained behind his pupils.
"Good." She pulled the sword out with a sharp motion and let it drop to the ground. "Put him in the Heart, please."
Aria complied, a shiver in her voice.
"You were magnificent, mistress. It gave me goosebumps. I’d love so much for you to look at me that way, someday. You could even—"
"That’s enough, Aria." Her voice stayed calm, level. "Go see to the chief. I’ll be waiting for your report."
The demon bowed and moved off without another word.
Meanwhile, the notifications appeared before Freya.
[ Absorbing 1 human corpse. ]
[ Calculating amount of mana harvested... ]
[ The Dungeon Heart has absorbed 13 mana points. ]
And there’s the price of a man. A man I just killed, with my own hands.
She lowered her eyes to her palms, searching for something. Anything. But there was nothing. Not a flicker of remorse, not an ounce of panic, not the slightest tremble. Nothing at all.
It’s better this way, after all.
She closed her hand, as if to shut the question away, and turned her attention back to what had driven her to all this. The corpse’s 13 points had just topped off her reserve, and now she had enough for what she’d been coveting from the start.
"System. Upgrade Building Upgrades to level 2, please."
[ Spend 100 mana points to raise Building Upgrades to level 2? ]
"Yes."
Then the notifications scrolled past before her.
[ You have unlocked two new buildings! ]
[ Research Center — Level 1 (0/1) — Cost: 60 mana ]
Allows research into building upgrades. Requires a Mycofox Researcher. Consumes 2 mana points per day.
[ Forge — Level 1 (0/1) — Cost: 60 mana ]
Allows forging tools, weapons, and armor for the dungeon. Requires a Mycofox Smith. Consumes 1 mana point per day.
[ Building count increased! ]
[ Dungeon Farm: limit raised to 2 buildings. ]
[ Mine: limit raised to 2 buildings. ]
Freya sighed. Once again, the system gave her nothing for free. To unlock new Mycofoxes, she’d have to go through the Summon Upgrades, another tier, another cost. Nothing was ever free with this damn system.
But at least it set her next objectives clearly.
Priority number one: build a second mine. It was free yield, or close to it, and it would let her stockpile ore, part of which would later serve the smith. And above all, she needed to raise her mana income before installing the Forge and the Research Center. Both consumed a bit more each day, and she refused to cripple her production for buildings she couldn’t yet fully exploit.
She glanced at her reserve.
[ 10/500 ]
Five points scraped together in the past hour, on top of the five she had left. Still far from the thirty she needed for the mine.
The thought of calling Aria for the chief’s body crossed her mind. But she wasn’t even certain it would net her the twenty missing points, even if he must hold more than an ordinary bandit. She also considered the mithrite. All of it could have filled the gap, but in that case, she’d have had to call back a Mycofox to prepare the mine’s site, on a vein she hadn’t even located yet. Hypothesis upon hypothesis.
And besides, rushing things had its price. Sacrificing the chief now meant possibly losing information he hadn’t yet given up.
As for the mithrite, using it as mere mana fuel when a forge was on the horizon would be a waste. She wanted to check with the villagers first about the true value of that ore. Depending on its price on the human market, selling it might bring in far more than a few mana points. And forged into a magic weapon, if her future forge was capable of it, its value could climb even higher.
In short, too many unknowns, and not enough mana to afford wasting anything.
So, with all these hypotheses in mind, she made the only sensible decision: wait. Simply wait, and keep herself busy as best she could for these four hours.
Honestly. She slumped against the wall of the Heart. I hate waiting around doing nothing.
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