Ammonite has been discovered by the builder ants. It can be used to make jewelry to trade. Would you like to absorb it despite that? Yes/No?

“No.” Said both Marinus and Theanore at the same time. They had agreed that when Theanore’s father returns, they will give him some gold and whatever else their ants found. That way, they will get more for the same value.

Your ants can make simple seashell ammonite necklaces. Would you like to put them to work? You have twenty empty seed bags to turn into thread. Yes/No?

“Yes, go ahead, system.” Said Theanore, and more ants rushed towards the storage room. The rest of her seeds had become moldy and were ruined. She couldn’t plant any more plants.

“We have to get more things to trade for more wealth. Maybe already made products? You grew twenty more deep wheat plants, right? Can you make flour yet?” Asked Marinus, but Theanore shook her head.

“I already planted them in the tunnel. I would need a new tunnel for deep wheat soon. Or maybe the ants could make a cavern?”

You will begin digging into the mountain to which the grotto is connected. Would you like to do so? Yes/No?

“Yes, make a big cavern. As big as a gigantic field,” said Theanore, and then more ants went into the direction of the deep wheat tunnel. She had ten anthills in total. Of them, one was loyal to Marinus, but the other ants sometimes helped his anthill too.

Marinus suddenly got excited, and he dived towards the tunnel. He needed to feed the Eelacondas. Catching some bait fish as he went, he placed them in a bag that Theanore had given him. He filled the bag and went to the Eelaconda nest.

The parent Eelacondas were happy to see him, and he fed them all the bait fish. Thereafter, he checked on the Mundyd nest to see little fish swimming around it. They have hatched!

He saw that they have eaten the seaweed. He looked around for the grown-up Mundyd and found that they were on the seafloor, barely alive.

“Oh, you are from the species that died once their young hatched? Didn’t you eat while they were still eggs, either?”

A Mundyd let out a bubble and Marinus bowed down his head. He grabbed the nearest Mundyd. Theanore had to cook the Mundyd before they died naturally. The Mundyd was an enormous fish. At one meter, Marinus barely managed to get it through the tunnel.

When he dumped it near the pool, it tried to slip down again, but Marinus pushed it to the ground.

“What is that, Mari?” Asked Theanore, and Marinus patted the already dead Mundyd.

“That is a Mundyd. Give me a knife so I can clean it. I’ll get the rest of the Mundyd here too. They hatched their young, and now they are dying.”

“Poor fish.” Said Theanore, petting the head of the Mundyd. She rushed out of the pool area and went to the sack with kitchenware her father had left her on one of his trips. She took out a big butcher’s knife and rushed back to Marinus.

“Here, Mari. I’ll go feed the chickens,” she said. She preferred not to see the cleaning of the fish.

Rushing out to the chicken tunnel, she scrunched up her nose. It smelled bad in there, even though the ants cleaned the tunnel regularly. The ants had put some stone to make a door. So that the chickens couldn’t go into the rest of the grotto.

They had the habit of eating everything green they could see. They had even tried to take from her apple tree, but the murder muffins had conquered their fear of Barry the rooster. Furthermore, they had charged at the hens.

The chase that ensured warmed Theanore’s heart. Even if the murder muffins had done it in defense of the catnip, they had still defended her apple tree. She had given them extra fish that day.

Taking out the mix of deep wheat grain, pumpkin, and cabbage from the pot, she threw it for the chicken to eat. They descended on the feast and ate greedily, some of them even pecking at Theanore’s feet.

She fed them five times a day, and even then, it wasn’t enough. Because of all the food, the chickens had all been upgraded into Fatty Slowpokes. Theanore hoped that she could upgrade some of their chicks into the Colorful Egg Specter.

In one of her books, left by her father, she had read that the nobles of the Empire liked to wear a colorful feather in their hats. She wanted to be a lady too!

When the mix was done and eaten, Theanore went to wash her hands in a bucket of fresh water she kept by the chicken coop. The watering hole had been enlarged into a large spring so that Theanore could bathe in it. She found that her hair itched less if she washed in freshwater. She still liked to swim with Marinus, thou.

Furthermore, she then washed the pot and threw the water in the stone watering bowl for the chickens. They already picked leftover pumpkins from the water. They weren’t bad, her Fatty Slowpokes. Just gluttonous.

Going back to the pool area, she saw puddles of blood dripping into the saltwater. Gulping, she went and collected the already cut-up pieces of fish and placed them in the pot.

Achievement unlocked: To see beyond one’s morals.

Theanore the nymph has accepted that death is a part of a life fully now. As such, she no longer feels guilty about eating meat. As such, she is granted an ice room to store the excess meat of the Mundyd.

“Thank you, system. But I would still try to eat as little meat as I can,” said the nymph. She placed the pot down and went to explore the tunnels of her grotto. She was curious as to what this ice thing was.