The next morning everyone woke up bright and early to face the day.  Light conversation dominated breakfast.  After all, the meeting the previous day had gone well.  If the tribesmen planted the tribe then the forest nymphs could claim the ruins as part of their domain.  When that happened it would be safe to go back to the ruined town. Merumeru, Alex, Fufi, Kaide, Bob and Martha gathered at the kitchen table together.

"I'm glad things are looking up.  Hopefully you can get your dungeon and home back in the city ruins." Martha said while clearing the table.

"Me too. Though it seems like less of a home now.  A home is supposed to be a safe place. Having our sanctuary invaded ruins that.  If it wasn't for the dungeon the I don't think I'd want to go back." Alex sagged in his chair a little.

"I'm sure it will be fine.  From what you told me about that Ki nymph she seems really wise. If she thinks they would resort to violence to get their way for everything she probably wouldn't have presented them with the option to make things right peacefully." Martha beamed as she turned on the sink to let the flowing water wash over the dirty dishes.  Apparently having plumbing really made her day.

"So, now that everyone's got some rest, what are your plans for today?" Bob asked.

"Well, now that the sun is coming out I'd like to see the dam that the beavers and Merumeru built." Alex smiled.  The little slime girl always impressed him with how much she could accomplish.

"Ru Ru Merume!" The little slime girl chirped confidently.

"Oh, one last thing." Alex gave Merumeru a look, "Did you flood the basement of the adventurer's guild?"

Merumeru nodded proudly, "Meru!" Her tone was smug.

"Looks like Ki was right about what Handverk thought was a water trap." Fufi chuckled. "Oh well."

Martha, Kaide and Bob headed out to tend to the farm.  Fufi, Alex and Merumeru headed to the beaver dam.

After a short hike to the incline that dropped down to the stream the trio of friends headed upstream until they encountered the combination-slime-and-beaver dam.  The dam consisted of fallen logs, branches and dirt.  A stone pipe stuck out of the side of the incline.  It sat under the water but not at the bottom.

Alex nodded to Merumeru in approval, "Good job Merumeru, that placement of the pipe is impressive. You know that building it on the lake floor would just get it covered up in dirt and clogged easier. "

"Merumeru is the best plumber," Fufi jumped in with her praise.

The slime girl jumped into the water and swam around happily.  She dived into the water and went into a pile of sticks and mud that was on the far end of the new lake.  When she came back two beavers had joined her.

"Hello Mister and Missus beaver." Fufi greeted the rodents.

"Um hello thank you for building this dam.  Can they understand us?" Alex said.

Merumeru shook her head but didn't stop smiling.

"Ki can speak to animals though.  Remember she is the one that asked them to build a dam here." Fufi reminded Alex.

"I suppose that would make sense for a nymph.  I only had a grow skill and a weak charm skill when I had my race changed." Alex murmured. "Hmm, I wonder."  He reached out and touched a dandelion and focused on the plant skill.  "Bloom please?"

Over the course of a minute the little flower grew a bud and then opened up to reveal a little yellow flower.

"Huh, neat." Alex grinned.

The two beavers regarded the group for a while but eventually went back into the water with a sploosh.  Merumeru standing next to the large rodents was another reminder of how small the slime girl was.  Yes, she was taller than the beavers with her toddler sized body but the furry creatures were most certainly heavier than her.

"They probably want to get to bed.  Beavers mostly are nocturnal." Fufi commented after the beavers left.

Alex carefully made his way down to the streambed.  He tried and failed not to get mud on his clothing while walking across the collection of mud and logs that made up the beaver dam.  After a short walk downstream he found what he was looking for.  There was a rock wall that was almost vertical.

"Do you think this would be a good spot to build a grotto?" Alex asked.

"I don't see why not but why would you need a grotto?" Fufi tilted her beaked head.

"Well, I was thinking maybe we could make a little grotto shrine to Luna.  We just need to tunnel an alcove into the rock.  If we put a statue and some cute decorations it could be a place people could come and ask for a class." Alex said to the slime girl and flamingo.

"Yes, but none of us are miner class." Fufi stated the obvious problem. "Also, digging out enough space of solid stone would be a lot to ask for Merumeru. It is a lot more stuff to move than digging a hole for a well."

"Yeah, I agree but I have an idea.  If I'm a magical girl that can control dolls by dancing, who says that the only thing I'm good for is fighting?  I don't even really like fighting." Alex pulled out the card for the carriage and deployed it on a flat spot next to the stream.  He pulled out Edelweiss and held her to his chest. "You know how humans can only move their wrists a little bit?  I was thinking if we changed the gearing in one of Edielwiess's arms then her hand could spin around like a drill.  Even without a miner class drilling would be a whole lot better than just swinging a pickaxe right?"

Fufi wasn't convinced, "I suppose so, but a high leveled miner can do a whole lot. You'd be surprised."

Alex sighed but didn't answer.  Some ideas are better shown.  He pulled out a different panel than the one that had the grill in it to reveal a small area with a workbench set up for clockwork dolls.  It wasn't very big but it had the tools and extra parts from the dungeon stored in cubbies. It was all very clean and well organized.  

"Hmm, she is going to need something other than her current weapon if we want to drill into stone." Alex said aloud.

"This would work best if we could find some really hard metal but perhaps some strong stone on a straight wooden pole?  Do you think you could make something like that for Edelweiss Merumeru?" Alex asked the slime girl.

She nodded and jumped up into the forest.  How such a small girl could jump so high remained a mystery.

"Do they even have the same metals in this world as mine?  Tungsten would be the best but I have no idea if that even exists here." Alex asked Fufi.

"Yes, but there are also more mystical metals as well.  They are very rare though" Fufi answered.

Alex used some tools to remove one of the doll's hands and pulled out a book with some examples until he found a schematic that had the type of gearing setup that seemed best.  After a couple hours of very delicate work the doll was back together.

Around the same time that Alex was finishing up, Merumeru came back with a pole that had a cone shaped stone on the end.

Alex took a moment to equip the new drill-tipped spear while Merumeru brought out other dolls and plushies from the carriage, setting them around facing the magical girl.  Apparently all the dungeon friends needed to be an audience for Alex's dance.

Alex psyched himself up.  When he was making dolls, dresses and other cute things he mostly didn't have an audience.  The times where he danced before were tied to fighting.  Now though, this was going to be a dance just to do something optional.  He wasn't sure how to feel about that.  Who would want to see a grizzled lumberjack dance?  However, magical girls, it seemed right for them to dance.  And dance he did, with a whirl of his pleated skirt and a floof of flowing fabric the dance brought Edelweiss to life.  Gearing whirring, she skipped up to the rock wall and her hand rotated at faster and faster speeds.  The whirring drill spear plunged into the stone and a very loud rock-on-rock grinding noise sounded out.  Alex stopped dancing and went to go pick up the doll.  While she had drilled a six inch wide, foot deep hole into the wall in a matter of seconds the stone drill bit was almost completely ground down.  Also, it was incredibly hot to the touch.

"Boo," Alex pouted, "I'm so stupid.  This is like using a circular saw to cut concrete."

"Ru ru ru" Merumeru cheered the magical girl on.

"Do you think you could make Edelweiss another one?" Alex asked the slime girl.

Merumeru nodded and hopped off into the woods again.

"Hmm, next time let's get Rose to spray water as well so the bit doesn't wear down as quickly.  Luckily there is a nice source of water nearby. Hopefully this will make it so that we can make the grotto quicker.  I'd like to get it dug out by the end of the day." Alex pulled Rose out and set her with the hose for her water gun submerged into the stream.

Merumeru returned with a long thin piece of wood that had a stone drill bit on the end after 30 minutes passed.

"Ah, perfect. Thank you" Alex said.

The second attempt went much better. Alex danced while the two dolls joined in.  Rose sprayed a stream of water into the hole Edelweiss created and grinding sounds filled the whole area.  Dust and mud filled the area.  Everyone got dirty.  Alex didn't want to loose cuteness so he danced with the feather duster out, frolicking around dusting everyone that got dirty. After an hour they had to stop.  The drill bit had eventually given out.  They had cut a doll height gap along the bottom of the rock that went around twenty feet long and two feet into the rock wall.

Merumeru took the first one and dissolved some of the rock dust into her body to create another drill on top of the mostly ground down one when a farmer called down from on top of the ridge.

"What in tarnation are you kids doing down there?" Bob shouted.

Fufi flew up to him. "We are making a grotto!"

"What?  A grotto?  Why do we need a grotto?" The farmer seemed confused by the random answer.

"Because we are trying to help Ki! We are trying to get her a class." Fufi explained with a smile.

"Oh, I see. Well, you know what? I'll give you a hand. I bet Martha would like to have a grotto too." Bob said with a grin. "I'm not much of a miner but I can use a shovel and a hammer.  I'm guessing you want to make a shrine in the grotto?  How are you going to make it good enough so someone can pray for a class?"

"That is the plan." Fufi said. "We are going to make a statue of Luna and decorate it with flowers, pearls and seashells."

"I can't help with that. Maybe Martha could. Perhaps Kaide as well though I don't know if she is good at that sort of thing so I don't want to assume." Bob said.

Fufi flew back down and landed on the carriage.

Bob headed back to get some tool and a few minutes later climbed down in a much slower manner.  

Alex changed the worn down spear with the new one.  

One of the problems they had was that Edelweiss had when in this configuration was that if she didn't have her little doll feet planted and stuck the drill into the stone instead of the drill spinning it would just spin her.  The solution to this turned out to be easy.  Alex just moved the carriage right next to the rock wall so the doll could use it like a platform.  The group continued like this the rest of the day. Bob mostly helped with moving big rocks and shoveling debris.  Though after the group figured out Rose could work like a pressure washer as well she was able to get the mud and rock dust out much easier than Bob.  By the end of the day they had a nice 20 foot by 20 foot grotto built with a large pile of rocks on either side of the opening.

Was playing around more with trying to get an AI image for Merumeru again not happy with it yet but some interesting results.