Dungeon Life

Chapter Thirty-Four: Fighting Boredom

Man, ascension takes a while. Theres a little progress bar under his portrait in the snake den, but it doesnt give a percent or anything. From the slow rate of filling, though, itll probably take a few days before hes done doing whatever ascension does.

At least I have a vague idea why hes ascending. Hes finally earned himself a title: Conduit. All I can think is that its because he was how I got Neverrests mana. Itd make sense that itd do something to the noodle. That was a lot of energy being moved.

I havent had too much else to do, though. Yvonne is on her sojourn to the guild to return the stuff she borrowed and renew her membership. I told my spiders to go ahead and make her a set of silk clothes and a hammock/bed thing for her in the secret base, too.

I also make sure they stay quiet. Aranya has been up way past her bed time, and is sleeping soundly in the secret base. Im pretty sure she gave my core a little prayer of thanks or something before going to sleep, too. I wish I could tell her she doesnt need to do anything like that, but I get the feeling she wouldnt really listen, even if I could.

Im actually kinda bored. I dont have the mana right now to start any actual projects. Delvers have been slowly trickling back in around the house, but its nothing like it was before dealing with Neverrest.

I poke around my various things, just kinda letting my mind wander, until I notice something strange with the rat spawner. Its well and truly taken over the basement, and I even have a few dozen ratlings wandering around doing their things. I was wondering if I could upgrade the spawner further, and it looks like the answer is complicated.

Rat Spawner: Max Level!

Enclave Available: 1/1

Upon investigation, it asks me to designate an area for an Enclave. I mean, I had been considering moving the ratlings over to the crypt complex. Seems theres a ton of room over there, and if they get to digging, there will be even more. Itll take a fair pile of mana, but not as much as I would have expected. Itll be basically everything I have at the moment but why not? If another Neverrest attacked or something, I wouldnt have the mana to mount a decent defense right now anyway, and mana sitting there is mana not doing any work.

I designate the furthest part of the crypt complex for my ratlings. It might have been a barracks or something when Neverrest was using it, but it should be plenty of space for my ratlings to have an Enclave, whatever that actually means. The space itself doesnt change at all when I spend the mana, but all my ratlings sprout a progress bar.

Advancing

Looks like that will take a while, too. The ratlings are already acting a bit differently, though. Pretty much all of them head to the warehouse and grab wood and tools, and head for their new Enclave. A couple even grab a few larger spiders to bring, which the spiders dont seem to object to.

Once at the new Enclave, they first start cleaning up, removing the rotten and decaying bunks. At first, they just pile them outside the area, but a few start taking long trips to the forge to use the things as fuel. Theyll probably make terrible fuel, but its better than just letting them sit around and rot.

While a few see to the rotten old bits, most of the others see to getting their Enclave started. Crude wooden tools are gnawed into shape, and then used to make larger things. Looks like theyre making a crude wheelbarrow, or a couple, looks like. The first is commandeered by the ones clearing out the trash to more easily get stuff to the smelter.

The next one is trundled up to the graveyard surface, and Grim points them towards a spot near one of the outer walls. At first, I think they are somehow trying to escape, but they actually just want some dirt. I suppose that large box down there will be for growing some kind of crop. Probably mushrooms.

Other ones work on making a few cages for the spiders, weaving their silk into a simple lattice to spread over framed boxes. The spiders dont seem to mind, especially since the ratlings keep feeding them mice and roaches. No taming bar appears, though, which is kinda strange.

Come nightfall, they have about six caged spiders, most of the trash has been burned in the furnace, and their mushroom bed looks about half filled with dirt. They havent tried to make any beds or anything yet, and more or less just get comfortable in a big pile to sleep. From the progress on the bars, theyll need about a week to finish this.

Oddly enough, Ive had a few more ratlings spawn, but they dont have progress bars, and dont seem to have any interest in the Enclave. Even more strange: looking at them and the ones in the Enclave, I can already see some differences.