Soon enough the Elf awoke and alerted one of my Carriers that he was getting hungry and thirsty.

While he said he could conjure water for himself, he wouldn't be able to do the same for food, and annoyingly, because I had no food in the vault for him, I had two choices.

Let him starve, or hunt something down for him to eat.

Of course, I wasn't going to have him starve, meaning, I'd have to find or catch something for him to eat, which, could be quite dangerous.

Surrounding the vault is a desert, and something green...would be quite the eye-catcher.

All it would take is one random guy scavenging or traveling through the desert for my whole existence to become endangered even further than it already was.

So, I got to thinking.

Should l I just wait until night to hunt for some food with a Carrier or let the Elf leave on his own?

Hmm...I do have a Spore Carrier Runt in the vault, basically a spore carrier of a child, making a Carrier that is much smaller and faster than its counterparts.

I have very few Runts, only three, with one in the vault and two at the Camp in Zion.

Leading him to somewhere I could write, I informed him that I would allow him to leave the vault and hunt for something he could eat, of course, I didn't inform him that I'd be having a Runt follow him.

Consider it a test of loyalty, the first of many.

Plus, I wanted to see what he would do, if he did anything bad or that would threaten me, I'd simply kill him.

Though thinking about the surrounding area did make me think about my particular neighbors hiding away on a Pre-War Resort at the top of the Mountain that the Vault was built into.

I wonder, how would the Supermutants and Night Kin react to my presence?

If there's anyone I would have the easiest time befriending, it would probably be them, after all, they are outcasts of society, treated less than dirt, and typically shot on sight like the more aggressive of their kin.

Pushing that thought behind me, I focused, watching as the Elf climbed up the stairs to the top floor of the vault where he was met with the large steel door of the vault that was cracked open and covered in vines.

"Are you sure, Spirit? I have no problem with traveling with your avatars," The Elf asked.

I simply nodded through the Carrier but decided to give him a warning.

'Don't lower your guard. Danger can be found in every corner, even the very ground beneath you and the open sky above you can house dangers that can be fatal.'

"I see, thank you for the warning, Spirit, I shall be back as quick as I can with the game."

Nodding, I watched as he moved the vines out of the way and walked out of the vault.

Giving it a few minutes, I waited and waited before finally leaving with the Runt.

It wasn't hard keeping track of him, but when I did catch up with him, I made sure to keep my distance.

Although I couldn't see that well with the Runt, I was able to see the glowing white orb in his hands and the invisible path he was seemingly following.

To my surprise, it didn't take long for him to find his first prey.

A pack of wild mongrels mutated dogs that have slowly devolved to become rabid and much weaker than their previous selves, having trouble even taking down a single human by themselves.

They've lost all of their fur, were malnourished, and had bright pink flesh.

It took only a single firebolt to take one Mongrel down, and the rest scattered.

Walking forward, the Elf grabbed onto the hind legs of the mongrel and began dragging it back toward the Vault.

Well...that was a bit disappointing.

I was hoping he'd face a more challenging foe, he barely had to put in any effort.

It didn't take long for him to get back to the Vault, where he used his magic to cook the Mongrel before eating his fill, and leaving what was left to the Myconoids who seemed to rapidly decompose the corpse with a variety of insects and fungi.

Speaking of which, the Myconoids were slowly transforming the cavern at the bottom of the vault into a paradise of plants and fungi.

Though, unfortunately, I couldn't really identify any of the fungi they were growing, however, I had no doubt that they would be profitable, especially due to our location being in the Mojave Wasteland not far from New Vegas and food being probably somewhat expensive here.

While things were calm there, I focused over on my Zion Colony and got to work.

Using my mostly useless Carrier that had most of its body destroyed by a plasma mine, I had it dragged near to the Yao Gui den and quickly left with my other Carriers.

With the trap now set in place, all I had to do was wait for a Yao Gui to approach.

I was using the Carrier as a trap, a trap in which I'd try to infect a Yao Gui with my spores.

Not only would it be a test of if I could infect other organisms, but also a test to see just how much I could control the infection process.

Sure, I'd be more than likely sacrificing the Spore Carrier, but at its current state, and with no way to heal it, the thing was useless.

So, why not use it?

It took a few hours, but since I was having the Carrier constantly moving, a Yao Gui eventually got curious and decided to investigate.

I had no idea how many Yao Gui have hidden away in the den, but I knew it at least had to be in the double digits.

As the approaching Yao Gui slowly sniffed and approached the wiggling Carrier, I waited until I felt it was close enough, I had the Carrier lunge at the Yao Gui, and finally activated one of my skills for the very first time, Infect.

[-1,000 Energy]

I could see what looked to be a cloud of green gas get coughed out of the lungs of the Carrier and into the Yao Gui's face, causing it to whimper and roar in discomfort before it decided to stomp onto the Carrier, destroying it.

[Succsessful Infection, T-Minus 29 Days, 23 Hours, and 59 Minutes until complete infection]

[-100 Energy Capacity]

Oh? Was my capacity tied with the Carriers?

I guess that made sense.

For the first couple of hours, I didn't notice any difference, but eventually, I did feel the connection with the Spores in the Yao Gui I infected.

However, the connection was so faint, I was surprised I even felt it.

For now, I'd have to wait for the Spore count inside the Yao Gui to increase before I could start running my experiments.

I also wondered if the Yao Gui would somehow spread the spores to its kin inside the den, but I hoped it wouldn't, otherwise the two tribes would notice their disappearances, especially the Sorrows who had their 'rites' that involved hunting the mutated bears to fashion their gauntlets.

Speaking of which, I added another quest to my list, making the number four, for now.

The quest was of course called 'Master of Zion' and involved me gaining control of the entire valley.

While that happened and the Yao Gui left the area, I had a spore carrier drag the corpse back to the camp to prevent any other incidental infections to the native organisms.

With few things left to do for the day, I simply interacted with the Myconoids, wanting to learn everything about the plants and fungi they were growing.

Some I had heard of before, while others were completely foreign to me.

I learned their uses, requirements, and how long it took for each of them to grow.

For example, there existed a type of fungi that grew on corpses that the Elder called a 'Corpse Flower' that soaked up the disgusting scent and let out a nice floral scent instead.

And there even existed a mushroom that grew on the bark of a dead tree that tasted like bacon.

However, the Mushroom's texture was awful for its taste.

Perhaps the Myconoids would prove useful, at least when it came to earning caps, the currency of the Wasteland.