A long sigh of relief passed my lips as I watched the group disappear back into the tunnel they had come from. They were finally gone, having finished all of their business and leaving me with all of the mess they had caused. It would take me some time to shake off the memory of how wrong it had felt having those men and women touch my core. It was as if their hands had been touching my own body instead, sending painful sparks of energy deep into my skin. And while they certainly meant no ill will, I still couldn’t help but feel betrayed by the fact that nobody had warned me about this. Sure, they had no way of knowing, but after what I had experienced, I desperately wanted my core to be as safe as possible, possibly hidden away in a place where nobody would ever go.

There was the rule that my core had to be accessible by mortal means, meaning I couldn’t possibly have it enshrined in thick layers of orichalcum. Doing so would likely also hinder my core from regenerating mana, but that was still a theory that needed testing. With the little knowledge I had on this topic, I could at least tell that a dungeon’s leyline was its most reliable source of strength and essential for both keeping monsters nourished and bringing them back to life once they were defeated. Encasing my core would at least steal more than two hundred mana away from me, day by day, and possibly render me unable to gain mana from those who visited my dungeon as well.

No, the sole solution I had was relying on stronger and ever stronger monsters, and dangerous traps or challenging puzzles I had no access to yet. Still, before I could do that, I had to finish this floor and create a new one that allowed those outside to delve with relative safety, thus making them far more willing to challenge my dungeon. This would leave me more vulnerable to stronger adventurers for the time being, but would in turn allow me to grow at a much more rapid pace compared to what I could now expect.

As the minutes passed by, I realized that worrying about this matter right now would do little to help me. I would need to ask Myra for some advice once she had the exploration party outside and we had some peace and quiet, or wait until the evening to pray to Cilia instead, who would surely know about some ways to soothe my fears and fix all the little issues my dungeon had.

With nothing better to do until then, I decided to bypass the exploring party using my much faster network of tunnels. Creating a new fox was just the right thing to do to get my mind onto something else. And if anything else failed, it would at least give me a new friend, so I couldn’t help but look forward to it.

Within minutes, I had already reached my former core room, now little more than a messy storage and sleeping place. I would need to improve on this soon, as Myra would likely prefer the materials to be stored away in a more orderly fashion, but I would need to wait to ask her for her preferences so as not to do the same work twice. And, quite honestly, moving all of these materials looked like quite a hassle, meaning I should have done a better job when creating them in the first place.

Sighing deeply, I pushed the matter to my future self to deal with and instead made my way to the unassuming tunnel that led to the volcano room. Making my way through the darkness once more, I soon found myself at the mithril door guarding the entrance. I pushed the bar securing it to the side, before opening the door only to be blinded by the bright sunlight that was awaiting me at its other side.

It took a while for my eyes to get adapted, making me once again wish I had some options for lighting up the place, but that had to wait for later as well. And maybe, just maybe, the men had already brought such a convenient material or plant to my prayer room in the meantime. Given the church could somewhat splurge on money, they surely had brought a few magical lights with them. This left only one question: would they give me one to experiment with? I would have to ask Myra to talk to them, and maybe have her set up another trade.

Making my way over the bridge, I soon reached the volcano island, where I was greeted by quite a few earth foxes. Having the time to spare, I petted and scratched them all, much to their enjoyment, before making my way over the meadow, past the volcano’s slope, and towards the Vulpine Circle that awaited me on its small half-island, where it was solely guarded by two trees and the way-too-curious water foxes that had already gathered nearby. It was more than obvious they knew what was going to happen, so with a chuckle, I greeted them all, before selecting two of them to participate in the ritual.

The lucky foxes eagerly accepted their part. They let themself be led onto a pedestal each, where they sat down without any further explanation, their tails all the while wagging from side to side. I then made my way onto a third pedestal, knelt down, and closed my eyes to imagine a new fox coming into existence.

It was only now that I got to thinking just what I wanted this new fox to be. With regular water foxes being in charge of both physical and mental healing, there was little need for more supportive magic coming from the next water fox in line. If anything, I really needed help managing the dungeon right now, thus a highly intelligent fox that would be happy to complete even complex tasks and maybe even coordinate other foxes was required. And if it could help me with the logistic side of things, such as finally getting some sort of loot system going, that would be all the better. Of course, having all of these strengths would mean that it would need to have a certain weakness to keep things fair to delvers. And as I had all intention to make this fox a non-combatant helper, I only gave it some basic water magic to defend itself, simple blades of water that couldn’t really injure armored delvers but would help keep them at bay while the fox would make its escape. There was no need for all of my foxes to fight till the very end, after all.

Having made all of these decisions, I now thought about how I could realize them all. A network of water channels could be used by the new water foxes to transport valuable goods to wherever they were needed, with the foxes living in the rooms then being tasked to store them away, but that came at the issue of the foxes being required to be strong enough to carry these very items all the way, once again pushing the limits of what would be deemed acceptable by the dungeon rules.

A sudden idea popped into my mind, one that would allow me to bypass the issue almost entirely. If the new foxes used a boat of some sort to carry their load, they would in no way be required to swim or dive all their way through the tunnel while carrying potentially heavy or unwieldy items with them. Instead, they would only need to load and unload their boats, which shouldn’t require too much strength and endurance in comparison.

As for how these boats would come into existence? I would obviously be required to build them by myself or possibly with Myra’s help. And as there is no way I would get a decent wind blowing in the new tunnels, it would be perfect if the foxes had long tails they could use to propel the boats themselves. And if they used boats, to begin with, even tiny ones, why not make them look that way as well? I would need to create a sewing needle and use some leather, but other than that, I had everything I needed!

I couldn’t help but grin as I made my final decision. The new fox would be as big as the regular water foxes but have far longer tails. Its body would be lighter in color, indicating rough waters and currents to be hidden within it, with some swirls being visible even from the outside. As for the eyes, they would feature deeper shades of blue, making them easily stand out. The same would go for the ears and its nose, with the former being additionally filled with rough, white water to make them more visibly appealing.

It took me a minute to get the image just right, but when I did, a cold shiver assaulted me, indicating that I was rapidly losing mana due to the magic ritual beginning its work. The feeling lasted for a few moments, before suddenly stopping. I was utterly drained by now, but even before I opened my eyes, I already knew the ritual had been a success. There were too many excited yelps and giggling to be heard, as all of the water foxes seemed to storm out of their wet homes to join in on the merriment. And indeed, when I opened my eyes, I was greeted with utter chaos. Foxes were jumping about, letting their excitement be heard, while others were busy sniffing at their new mate, who was doing the same. Some of the foxes even gave the newcomer small gifts, all of them berries gathered nearby, which the fox in question happily accepted.

A small, green board now appeared in front of me, showing me that my imagination had been enough to get the point across, even affecting the name of my new creature.

「You have created a Pirate Fox!」

Naturally, I was more than happy with the result. So after standing up and patting my clothes down, I promised the new fox that I would soon gift it a boat to use, which it answered with a few loud barks, before going back to munch on its berries. Even the regular water foxes seemed to be excited about this news, as they had probably by now grown bored about watching the same two types of fish all the time. A little bit more variety in their life would certainly go a long way in making them happier.

With my mana emptied out and the foxes busy, I could only wait for Myra to finish guiding the exploration party outside. It had taken them several hours to reach the last room, so while the way back would be faster due to them already having finished their work, I couldn’t imagine it being done anytime soon. So, with a sigh, I waited for the time to pass by, using my slow mana regeneration to instead craft the foxes their promised boat.

It took several minutes before my mana increased by a single point, thus allowing me to sit down at the lake’s shore, closing my eyes, and imagine a simple boat to come into existence, one that was just the right size for a Pirate Fox to use. It would have no sail, for obvious reasons, but would likely be able to hold the weight of even a full barrel, should need be.

The water foxes were eager to test just this out, with three of them soon sitting down in the boat each with their tail wagging and spraying around droplets of water while yelping at their new friend to drive them around. Luckily for them, the Pirate Fox was just about as eager to do this as they were, so soon enough, they were already making their way over the lake, with a whole school of water foxes frolicking about all around them. I could only hope they wouldn’t sink it on its maiden voyage with all their eagerness. But given that they controlled the very element they were now traveling on, emptying a boat out should be very much within their capabilities.

Soon, my mana ticked once again, and I decided to use it to give the foxes a little something to play with other than the boat, something that was desperately needed to complete the image I was going for. So, after kneeling down one last time and closing my eyes, I imagined eye patches to pop into existence, more than enough for every single fox to receive one. Each item was made using beige leather and came with a fox’s head branded on it. While I didn’t know how this material would hold up if worn by water monsters, I could still exchange them from time to time if need be.

A low rumble could soon be heard as the items in question grew out of the ground. I opened my eyes, ready to greet them, only to be left in shock, mouth wide open, because of the sheer number of eye patches waiting just in front of me. It was a pile that easily topped over me, now that I was still kneeling on the ground. There were easily hundreds of eye patches ready to be used, if not thousands, far more than I had bargained for.

Slightly panicking over the sheer amount of accessories, I hollered over the foxes before handing them out one by one. Naturally, this did little to shrink the pile, meaning I had to carry the rest of them to the storage room or simply leave them be for some random delver to be confused about.

At least the foxes were happy about their gifts. They needed a few minutes to find a way to put them on, but they soon found a neat little trick to do so by simply letting the accessories sink into their bodies and transporting them to their head that way. They didn’t quite know about the concept of the eye patches covering one of their eyes, instead, they wore the leather pieces on the side of their head or even over their noses, only held by the straps that were still buried halfway into their bodies, but they looked way too precious for me to point out this flaw.

Satisfied with their new toy, the foxes soon made their way back to their boat, pushing it back deeper into the lake for the Pirate Fox to ship them around. And I, with nothing better to do, gathered as many of the eyepatches as I could and made my way back to the storage room.

It was on the sixth or seventh trip carrying the accessories that I met the exploration group, who were just making their way through the volcano room. The party looked absolutely drenched, which meant they had likely jumped into one of the geyser room's pools in order to save some time on their way back. Given how high up those stones were, I couldn’t help but be impressed by this feat, as I was slightly afraid of heights myself. At least I did not see it in me to jump into a pond from that high up without being absolutely sure about the pond’s size, depth, and possible inhabitants.

Myra was the first one to notice me. She ran over to me to see just what I was doing, but upon noticing what I was carrying, she could only stare at me in confusion.

“Just- what are you doing there?!”
“I- I may have overdone things a little,” I heard myself answer.
“Overdone things?! What are you going to do with that many eye patches?!”
“I will carry them to the storage room.”
“We have a storage room?!”

It was only now that the rest of the group arrived at our side, curious as to what we were talking about. When they saw all of the fox-branded eye patches in my arms, they, too, were visibly surprised and confused. Only Sarah seemed to be rather interested in the items, as she stared at them, closing her eyes one by one to probably make use of her magic.

“Do… you want some,” I couldn’t help but ask.
Sarah happily accepted my offer. She reached out for the pile in my hands, and carefully selected one of the seemingly identical items, before examining it a little closer. Soon later, she nodded, clearly satisfied with the accessory, and even tried wearing it then and there. It took her a few tries to get it right, but she soon had her right eye covered and, going by the smile on her face, was more than happy about the result.

The other members of the group hesitated for a bit, before accepting one of the accessories each. They would have limited use for it, but maybe it could serve them as a souvenir of some sort.

With that matter dealt with, I quickly made my way back to the storage room, leaving the group behind. They surely still had questions left to ask, but I wasn’t quite ready to tell them that I had overdone things while trying to create a pirate crew of water foxes, especially not since I only knew of the whole eye-patches-thing because of a children’s book I had read many years ago. So I simply continued with my work, carrying more and more loads of leather accessories to my former core room.

I had cleared about half of the pile when a green board suddenly appeared in front of me, informing me that the group had indeed made its way outside in one piece. Only, the numbers didn’t quite add up.

「Escaped Adventurers: 15
Revived Adventurers: 0
Killed Adventurers: 0
Received 0 Dungeon Points
Gained 980 Mana」

It took me a moment to realize the board had added the men who had carried my new goods into the prayer room. And, as if to confirm this theory, a second board soon popped up, replacing the old one. On it, there were dozens of items listed, some of which I had never heard of before. Not only were there a few new metals to be seen, but also monster materials, fabrics, and even animal glue, which Myra would surely find a use for. There were also new plants and even trees to choose from, among a wide variety of food.

Naturally, I couldn’t wait to summon them all! So, with a wagging tail and a big smile, I made my way back to the storage room to wait for Myra to arrive. She would be in for a surprise!

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Catnip

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