As I finish carving out the little section, that I am tentatively calling my vault, into the earth and setting up my guards for it I take stock of all that is in it. A sample of gold, copper, and iron are all the metals I have my hands on, and they are ores not full ingots or coins. Aside from that are my more reliable sets of gems, and most of them are a type of quartz. I figured as much considering I had amethyst on hand already but the conformation is nice to have. Among them are quartz, rose quartz, and citrine, giving a good early variaty, and importantly with the normal quartz, a way to make more types. Along with that I got my hands on some onyx which is going to be helpful decoration wise but is not really that special all things considered, though maybe valuable. The prize of my little vault is a chunk of emerald, uncut and unrefined it still stands the most valuable thing I have on hand.
With my abilities it shouldn’t be the hardest to grow the crystals but the main thing I am running into in that regard is space. If I want crystals in any amount greater then just samples I am going to need a dedicated space for that, but doing so would mean a lot less time working on my defenses and creatures. This sword is looking less double edged and more one long blade I am holding with no hilt or anything. I am going to be cutting myself no matter what here and I need to figure out how to cut myself as little as possible. Taking a moment I recenter myself and consider everything as it stands with these developments. Putting it all together it all comes down to talking with the adventurers again to clarify things and get an idea of what I can get away with as rewards.
Speaking of, something just pinged my attention at the edge of my territory, a bit before the treeline. So I snap my focus there and take a gander, and what I am met with is not who I was expecting. It wasn’t Ava’s group or the guild master, it was a new group, and boy where they interesting. The most normal of the three was still interesting, sitting about three feet tall and packing what appeared to be all manor of gizmos and doodads. The other two where far more interesting. The biggest of the three by shear height is what I would calmly describe as a fucking minotaur. Standing maybe ten feet at full height but slouched to a reasonable eight and some change. He carried a shield bigger then my doors with one hand and the other is holding a pillar, and I am not exaggerating cause it looks like he pulled a column out of the ground to beat someone with it.
If the minotaur was surprising then the last one damn near would have made me pass out if I still had a normal body. I don’t know what term to run with but the four that come to mind are lamia, gorgon, medusa, and naga. Of them I think I am gonna stick if naga as it feels right mentally and will help me file this away later without having to overthink it again. They appeared to be holding a staff with a cloak held over the upper part of the body, the human like part, and they where holding what appeared to be a medallion in one hand while speaking. I couldn’t quite tell as easy as the other two what they where since the minotaur was certainly a warrior of some variety and the shorter person, gnome maybe? Certainly screamed inventor. As the group moved into my actual area of influence and out of the trees I could finally make out what the naga was saying, and my nonexistent heart skipped a beat.
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“may the light protect us from those who would bring us low.” and as they spoke a golden aura settled around the three.
This didn’t bode well since that meant that these three could be with that church that is after my life. Right now I really didn’t have much in terms of defense from anyone of sufficient skill to even consider killing a dungeon. I do want to give them the benefit of the doubt since they don’t seem like the same group that came to get me earlier.
“So what do we know about dungeon?” The gnome speaks as she moves, her focus mainly on a small metal orb she is poking with tools.
“Not much aside from general monsters” The naga hisses out, either my universal translation is able to cut out drawn out Ses, or more likely that is not something this snake person deals with.
“undead, primarily skeletons, shouldn’t be too hard” The minotaur almost seems disappointed by that. Sorry bud, can’t give much of a challenge if all I have are bones and dirt.
Maybe I should have added in some shades at this point but looking at the naga, if they are a priest of this light I doubt they would have lasted. Honestly this feels like it is going to be a wash from second one but I can’t really stop them from coming in and trouncing my mobs. The only saving grace is that with the skills I have gotten recently the destruction of the skeletons shouldn’t be permanent. Fingers crossed with a priest walking, er, slithering around. This will definitly be a crush through of my current dungeon but at the least I don’t have any loot sitting around right now, so they won’t be getting anything unfairly. The inventor looks up and around, her eyes narrowing, she is about to speak when the minotaur stops dead tilting his head to the side.
“That wasn’t in the report” he gestures with his massive head towards the beginnings of my keep, which they all really should have noticed sooner but I guess it could just look like random ruins from afar.
“No it wasn’t” The naga agrees clearly In thought about this, “should we head back? It could mean greater danger”
“however reasonable that is we came this far, and getting the first real delve into a new dungeon mean a lot.” the inventor notes to her allies though she clearly is more tense then she letting on.
“That’s irresponsible to the utmost degree” the naga speaks up, but there is a twinge of a smile on their face, more poking fun at a friend then chastising them.
“hmmm, the more we report the better off we are” the minotaur seems to get over his trepidation at the idea of either status or money. I doubt I can give much of either but it is good to know what he is after.
With all three ready they turn to my graveyard and push forward, I can already get a sense that this will be annoying for one of us. But there is a hint at the back of my mind, a hint similar to my boon from of the scales but different. Something says that this will be different and that it will end up rather well for me in the end. I wonder what that could mean.
