Minutes had passed by since I had created the newest addition to my ever-growing family of foxes and I was still busy welcoming it into my dungeon. Contrary to the brown clay used by the potterer in Abervale, the fox had a creamy white color instead, looking exactly like the pottery the elven traders used to store some of their perishable goods in.

The fox was soft to the touch, with each of my touches leaving imprints on its slightly wet body. Luckily, those would disappear within moments, allowing me to pet the monster and even play a little around, like giving it a weird hairdo. Nothing of this seemed to hurt the fox, on the contrary, it seemed to enjoy my attention a lot.

As for the future of this truly fearsome monster, I already had a few ideas. During its creation, I imagined it slowing down delvers by pelting them with balls of soft, sticky clay which would accumulate on their armor and clothes, thus encumbering them quite a bit. This didn’t need much strength, but large mana reserves to be effective. Other than that, the fox could build traps that could catch his opponent off guard, allowing other, stronger foxes to take advantage. Outside of combat, the fox could still turn the dungeon a lot more colorful by using its clay creation magic in interesting ways. This would work best in a room catered to its needs, but that still had to wait for a while. As for now, it would need to make do with what it had here. There was still the option of bringing it to the future town, but there were only the three obsidian foxes living there and little variety otherwise. Thus, it would quickly get bored.

Thinking about the town, I couldn’t help but sigh, as I had spent way too much time and mana today only to achieve nothing. I had tried building a halfway decent home for me and Myra to live in, but, looking back at it, I had been rather naive about the whole thing due to me believing that I knew enough about houses to construct one just by having grown up under a proper roof. Myra hadn’t been the least impressed with my attempts. When I created a wooden house out of nothing, she pointed out it would likely fall apart within days or weeks, creating a dangerous trap. This prompted me to do the same with stone walls instead but that, too, wasn’t enough, as the roof looked shabby and the doors didn’t fit well either. Also, there was no proper flooring, no window shutters nor a roofed porch that would protect you from rain. And given that I wanted this town to be green and colorful, a few hours of rain here and there were to be expected.

In the end, we had tried dozens of variations–each single one flawed in some way or another–before I finally gave up, promising Myra I would think of a better solution or at least find someone who knew what he was doing. Instead of houses, I had built a big lake and a giant statue instead which depicted Cilia and, after her silent encouragement, myself as well, making it look like a bigger and much more detailed version of what could be found in the prayer hall. This, at least, had worked perfectly with the help of only my core, causing even Myra to be impressed.

The sound of approaching footsteps tore me out of my thoughts. Myra had returned without the stolen items, meaning she had finished her task in some way or another. I was just about to ask her about how it went, when a green board appeared right in front of me, blocking my view. This, naturally, took my full attention, as it had been quite a while since Cilia had given me any quest. Curiously, however, it didn’t seem it was her that had sent it.

『Quest 16: Thank You

Task: Reach out your hands, close your eyes, and try not to think about a red fox running over a flowery meadow

Reward: A comb

Greetings, Kiomi. I want to use this chance to express my deep gratitude for you saving my daughter and giving her new hope. Thanks to you, she is doing a lot better now and is ready to start anew. For this, I owe you.
As we both have her well-being in our mind, I hope you forgive me for changing the Blessing of the Second Spring she has rewarded you with. Instead of requiring Cilia’s strength and thus slowing her recovery, delvers will from now on have to pay for the blessing with their mana instead.

Thank you for giving her a second chance.

-Omos』

Shivers ran over my body as I read through the whole quest line by line, realizing more and more just who had sent me this divine quest. It was already unexpected for me to receive one from anybody else but Cilia, as receiving a deity’s attention was very rare to begin with, but Omos? The father of all gods? I was just a normal girl!

Sadly, I was given no chance to take a breather as a second green board soon appeared, showing me the changed blessing.

「Blessing of the Second Spring

Applies or strengthens the Mark of Spring on delvers at the cost of their mana. This mark will appear as a growing flower on their foreheads which will blossom once it has received enough mana. While in full bloom, receiving a fatal injury within the dungeon will consume the mark, teleporting the wearer’s body to safety and reviving it. This process heavily weakens the individual and applies the Mark of Cilia onto them if not already active. The Mark of Spring will wear off after a few days of not being strengthened.」

The changes Omos had made were rather good. Not only would it indeed force delvers to pay the cost of the blessing, which would help Cilia a lot, it also allowed them to pay it in rates should their mana pools be too small. In exchange, it was no longer required to renew the blessing with each visit, for better or for worse.

“Kiomi?” Myra pulled me out of my thoughts. “Is anything wrong?”

It took me a moment to find the words, but then I openly revealed that Omos had not only changed the blessing delvers would receive but had also just given me a divine quest just to thank and update me. Needless to say, this surprised Myra quite a bit, but she happily accepted my explanation with a nod.

Proofing my claim was pretty easy to begin with. I simply reached out my hands and closed my eyes, ignoring her confusion. I then tried to think about anything else but a red fox running over a flowery meadow. Just a tree, a rabbit, or a house, everything but that fox.

I almost immediately failed. No matter how hard I tried, I soon saw a fox running over a lush meadow that had countless colorful flowers decorating it. The fox had red fur, just like the Omos had told me to avoid thinking about, with a white tip on its long, fluffy tail and black ones on its ears. The fox was rapidly chasing after a floating dish that had bite-sized chunks of meat piled up high on it, but with each jump and dash, the magical dish seemed to dodge, narrowly avoiding the fox from grabbing a single bite.

Something softly landed on my hands, breaking my concentration. The fox was immediately gone, leaving me confused and, honestly, slightly disappointed as well. I opened my eyes, trying to see what had happened, only to be greeted by a comb made from pure white metal that had a rainbow-colored aura surrounding it. I didn’t recognize the thing, but even I knew it was highly valuable, as a single glance in Myra’s direction revealed. She was the closest person to an expert I knew, and, given that she was staring at the comb open-mouthed and wide-eyed, I could only assume it was something far too precious for me to own. A new green board appeared before I could ask her what got her so speechless. It was much smaller than any I had ever seen before, containing nothing but a single line, but I couldn’t help but feel pranked somehow.

『Well, you certainly tried.』

I made the answer disappear with a chuckle, only for a new board to appear, this time slightly bigger. It seemed a lot more helpful as well, as it perfectly described just what I was holding in my hands.

「Divinite Groomer (S)
A comb made from pure divinite. It is heavily enchanted to serve only its owner and temporarily improve hair and fur using ambient mana.
- Indestructible by mortal means
- Is bound to Kiomi, its rightful owner
- Cannot be moved by mortals unless being allowed to do so by its rightful owner
- Cannot be moved by mortals when further away than five meters from its rightful owner
- Will use ambient mana to improve the volume of hair and fur
- Will use ambient mana to improve the softness of hair and fur
- Will use ambient mana to release knots
- Will use ambient mana to repair damage to hair and fur」

Shivers ran down my back as I realized just how precious this item was. It was literally a divine artifact, something you would only find in a few important temples, stored away safely and only ever shown to those deemed worthy. There were stories about champions using weapons that had divinite worked into them, and every single one of these turned out to be strong enough to defeat even fallen dragons. For a comb to be crafted out of this holy metal? Just a comb? Nobody would be able to believe their eyes if they saw it!

Myra was even more bewitched by the existence of the item. Even when I had long overcome my surprise and fascination, she was still staring at the item resting on my palms. It was only when I lowered my hands that there was a sudden movement. Myra reached out for the comb, only to be unable to remove it from my hand no matter how hard she tried. Realizing that it was useless, she instead stared at it even closer and touched the item from time to time as if to check whether or not it was really there. I couldn’t help but laugh about her antics.

Soon, I was already explaining to her what the item’s effects were, one by one, before handing her the item for closer inspection. And it was certainly needed, as another quest already tried to grasp for my attention. Once again, it wasn’t Cilia who had given it to me, but yet another deity I had seemingly no connection to.

『Quest 17: Taxes

Task: Wait six days or build a room belonging to a second floor

Rewards:
- Unlocks Blessing of the Hunt
- Unlocks Door Enchantments

Hey there! I want to give you a heads-up since Cilia didn’t know about it: You will soon no longer gain mana from visitors unless they die, as it has almost been a month since delvers visited your dungeon for the first time. As such, you should prepare to at least tax anyone who comes to challenge your dungeon–and only those. For this, simply build doors for each of your floors that can be enchanted later on. You have mithril, don't you? Just use that–It is great for enchanting! But be aware that only one door per floor may be enchanted to tax mana at any given time.

The blessing of the hunt will allow enchanted doors to recognize those worthy of stepping through them. Only after winning against a boss will delvers be allowed to try the next hardest floor. The blessing will make sure of that!
Anyways! You have six days at most, so hurry up! I’m looking forward to seeing what you will do with all of this…

-Diona』

This… was rather worrying. Diona was the Goddess of the Hunt and oversaw both adventurers and dungeons, so she obviously knew best about what had to be done to my dungeon. But for her to ask that I no longer gain any mana from those who come to pray? That was practically all of them!
The daily prayers of Aspen and the others alone were already giving me more than I could reasonably spend, so it was likely something was wrong, but if the prayers no longer gave me a thing, my mana gain would drop to nothing! This was especially true since my first floor already seemed to be too hard for the adventurers living in Abervale.

I had several choices in how to deal with this issue. First, I could make my first floor much weaker, removing or rehousing most of the foxes just to entice weaker delvers to give me their mana. But this would essentially mean that I either needed to steal the foxes’ homes, which was already bad enough, or I would be forced to straight up desummon them, which was a horrible thought.

The next option was to simply wait and hope for the best. Within months stronger delvers would find their way to my dungeon, thus allowing me to gain a stable income once again. But would it really be good to just forsake those men and women outside? And the whole town of Abervale? Going by their numbers, they would surely be worth more than a party or two of more experienced delvers, if only I could cater to their needs!

As such, there was a third option, which clearly stood out: I could simply make the new floor weaker than my existing one, turning it into the new first floor instead. Going by my instincts as a dungeon, going deeper into the ground meant harder floors, so digging above my volcano-themed floor would mean the dungeon should recognize it as a weaker floor–at least that is what I believed. And even if it didn’t, I could simply enchant the door for the new, weaker floor before my existing one, forcing it to become the one delvers would face first. This idea would not only allow most if not all of the men and women outside to give me mana, but it would also allow me to give homes for the weaker foxes that did not exactly fit into my volcano theme, the new Clay Fox being the prime example.

Of course, this idea wasn’t without its downsides, as creating a weaker floor at this time would mean that it would be harder to defend my core as I couldn’t surround myself with even stronger foxes without digging a deeper floor. But how would I be able to summon those foxes to begin with, if I gained basically no mana? No, with a weaker floor, I would surely grow faster, allowing me to create a third, far more protective floor within a reasonable time.

I nodded to myself, having made my decision. It would require a lot of work to prepare for the change Diona had warned me about, but I still had a few day’s worth of easy mana ahead of me.

A new, third divine quest suddenly grasped my attention, then a fourth one, making me feel rather overwhelmed in all honesty. Was it another deity? Two of them?! What had I done to be the focus of all of their attention?! Were all of them talking about me?! What happens if I do anything wrong?! With all of this flooding my head, I couldn’t help but grow restless. Still, I had to read and do the quests knowing who had sent them. I had no choice…

『Quest 18: Don’t Worry

Task: Finish Diona’s Quest

Reward: Unlocks Red Fox

Don’t worry! My family just barged in and kinda turned things upside down. But they only want what is best for me, so please forgive them for making things harder for you. I am rooting for you!』

Reading this, I couldn’t help but feel relieved. Even though the quest didn’t say so, I somehow knew that this one was given to me by Cilia. This was already more than enough to calm me down again. But she wasn’t done just yet, as the second board revealed.

『Quest 19: A Step Forward!

Task: Build a room belonging to a second floor

Rewards:
- Tear of the Fox Goddess
- Enchants your Dungeon Core to connect it to Cilia, Light of Life’s realm

Enchanting your core would mean we can talk whenever you want to. You just have to touch it and think of me! No need to get all sleepy~』

My tail began wagging almost immediately. Praying to Cilia had always come with a risk to me, as it made me sleep for hours, which left delvers enough time to find me. Given somebody had tried to put a slave collar on me in the past, the idea of remaining defenseless for that long was naturally rather uncomfortable to me.

Building the new statue had made this less of an issue, as delvers would need to fight their way through the whole dungeon in order to find me, but I didn’t know how long it was before an experienced party of delvers could overwhelm even Myra and the Flash Foxes.

There was still the chance of me building a shrine just for me and Myra to use, but while that would work right now and maybe for a few weeks more, there would be far more delvers in the future and me not being able to respond to any urgent matters would be quite bad. As such, having a direct connection to Cilia that didn’t involve me passing out was quite welcome to say the least. I could still pray to her when I felt safe, so during the night when delvers wouldn’t usually come due to the much higher risk involved.

Myra, my last line of defense and the by far strongest being that could be found in my dungeon was still busy exploring the comb with all of her senses–taste apparently included–when I finally found the chance to pay attention to her again.

“Why are you nibbling on the comb?”

She looked at me like a spooked deer, apparently only now realizing what exactly she was doing, before slowly cleaning the item with the help of her clothes. She then gave it back to me, albeit visibly reluctant to do so, her face blushed in shame.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at seeing her like this, but I quickly composed myself. Instead, I explained what Diona had told me, before revealing that Cilia, too, had given me not one, but two quests at once. Naturally, I told her everything I needed to do, which all could be boiled down to creating a new floor–which was exactly what I wanted to do anyway.

Myra and I talked a bit about my plans for the new floor before we made our way back to the core room for some much-needed rest. This whole day had been deeply exhausting to me, and even though the sun was still high in the sky, I soon found myself crawling back in my den, lying down in my nest and hugging my core. Myra was already back exploring every single nook and cranny of the divine artifact, looking far too energetic doing so. She wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon. I, however, already found my eyelids growing heavier and heavier…

~ ~ ~

A wave of warmth washed through my body, gently waking me up. I raised up, curious to find out what Cilia had to tell me, but the green board that greeted me wasn’t sent to me by her. Instead, just another deity was trying to get to know me, literally, this time.

『Quest 20:

Task: Within the next 10 minutes, pray to Zaleria, Goddess of the Forests

Rewards:
- Become closer to your mother
- A delicious treat

Hurry up! I am waiting~』

Panic quickly took hold of me. Zaleria? The Goddess of the Forests and guardian deity of the elves? What did she want from me?! I knew Cilia was family to her, Shael had been very open about that, but I saw no reason for her to want to talk to me–especially not on such a short notice.

I quickly crawled out of my burrow, past Myra, who was now sleeping with the comb at her side, close to her chest and guarded by her four tails. Once outside, I realized the sun had already set. It wasn’t too dark, as the sky was still lit up in reds and oranges, but I obviously needed to hurry up, as I had nothing to light my way.

As I had rarely visited the temple, I didn’t know exactly how Zaleria looked, so I couldn’t simply build a statue to honor her. So instead, I walked up to the giant statue I had built of Cilia, hoping she would assist me in reaching Zaleria somehow.

With how dark it already was, I almost walked straight into the lake I had dug the day, but I still somehow made it to the statue without getting myself drenched in the process. Once I had knelt down in front of Cilia’s and my image, I closed my eyes and thought about Zaleria and everything I knew about the goddess. I certainly did not know any formal prayer people would send to her specifically, but if she was anything like Cilia, she surely wouldn’t mind me being more direct. So after praising her for her deeds, I thanked her for taking care of Cilia and the chance to let us grow closer. Doing this was seemingly enough, as a sudden sleepiness soon took hold of me, forcing me onto the soft, flowery meadow I had grown.

The next thing I knew, I was already staring at Zaleria, or at least a white-haired elven lady I assumed was the goddess. I didn’t remember much of the statue in the temple, but I surely recognized her dress, as she wore nothing but dark green leaves that seemed to cling to her shapely body. The goddess was sitting on an oversized flower blossom and had a white-furred pet resting on her lap, with her hand gently stroking its back. Though its head was buried under its many tails, I somehow recognized the sleeping animal as a fox, though it was only about as large as my Water Foxes despite its many tails.

“I have been waiting,” Zaleria whispered, seemingly careful not to wake up her pet. “Come closer.”

It was only now that I realized my surroundings were rather familiar to me. Instead of a lush forest with densely grown undergrowth, something I would expect to see in Zaleria’s heavenly realm, I found myself in the same pavilion I already knew. It even had the same clothes hanging to all of its sides, blocking the view of whatever was outside.

“Where am I?” I asked, despite knowing the answer.
“In Cilia’s realm,” Zaleria answered matter of factly, before using her free hand to point to the fluffy pet in her care. “You probably do not know her like this~”
“Cilia?!”

Zaleria smiled, before ushering me to come closer. When I then walked up to her, she reached out her hand, apparently wanting me to grab it. I hesitated for a bit, not knowing what she was about to do, but given her relationship with my mother, it couldn’t possibly be anything bad. So, after boosting my courage, I took her hand.

The goddess smiled, before causing a golden light to surround our hands. It grew in intensity, more and more, until it looked like a miniature sun, only to then be absorbed into my flesh soon thereafter.

I freed my hand, spooked by her magic, but it was already too late. A wave of heat now crawled up my arm, doing something to me. Soon, my arm began to softly glow, and it didn’t stop at that. Zaleria’s magic slowly conquered my whole body, doing whatever it wanted as it turned me into some kind of foxkin-shaped magic lamp over the span of a minute. The shine was even intense enough to be visible through my clothes!

By now, I would already be panicking, if it wasn’t for the goddess trying her best to calm me down with her gentle voice. She told me it was fine, and this was just the reward I had been promised and would not harm me in any way, but that still didn’t explain a single thing.

It was only after a while that my body stopped glowing, the light slowly fading out over the course of minutes. But… nothing had changed?

“You should be the same as her now,” Zaleria said with a knowing smile.
“The same as her?”
“Think about becoming a fox,” she suggested. “You should be able to do it.”
“A fox…”

Zaleria simply looked at me, silently asking me to follow her words. Naturally, I hesitated, not knowing what this would do to me, but once again I encouraged myself with the fact that she didn’t mean ill will. So, I thought about becoming a fox.

A golden light almost immediately surrounded me and, before I knew it, I was already looking up to Zaleria, who was still sitting on her flower. The goddess easily towered over me, spooking me once again and likely fluffing up my tail. But she didn’t move. Instead, she gave me all the time I needed to get used to the fact that I had just turned into an animal–a red-furred fox with a white tip on its fluffy tail.

After a minute or so, Zaleria held out her hand again, as close to the ground as she could, before, with the help of a tiny cloud of golden mana, summoning three small cubes into her hand. They looked like some kind of food, like chicken that had been fried in oil or butter, though the color was strange, with a creamy white poking out from where the oil had failed to color it in oranges and browns. Some kind of seasoning sauce had been sprinkled over the treats, with each single one featuring a different color. But the smell, by the gods, the smell–it was heavenly.

Zaleria certainly had my full attention now as I couldn’t help but stare at the obviously very delicious, yet foreign treats. Before I knew it, I was already walking up to her, more than shaky on my foreign legs and paws. Still, I managed to reach her hand, and with one last cautious approach, snatched one of the fried cubes out of her hand.

Shivers ran over my body as the unexpected flavors conquered my tongue. The outside of the cube had a certain spiciness to it, reminding me of pepper, though it was far more fruity than the powder that I knew. Also, it was also somehow sweet, making for a rather unexpected combination of flavors. The treat itself was soft and easy to chew, and although it has a less intense flavor once chewed, it still made for a precious experience.

A loud purr could be heard coming from me now, but I didn’t let that hinder me. Instead, I now reached out for the next treat, having wolfed down the first one in a matter of seconds. The second dice was glazed in a black sauce that added a certain saltiness to the dish. It tasted savory and there was even the tiniest hint of sweetness to it, but it still was too foreign to me to really enjoy it as much as the first one I had tried.

In the end, neither of the two could compare to the third option, which I now tried. This one, too, was slightly salty, though that taste was overcome by the sweetness of honey which made a rather unexpected combination together with the intense aroma of the dish being fried in oil. A soothing aroma spread as I chewed on the treat, intensifying the rumbling sound that came from my chest even more.

Zaleria was seemingly more than satisfied with my reaction. She lured me a little closer, which I happily allowed, before then using some kind of magic as a cloud of green mana grew out of her hand. Before I knew it, the ground under me was shaking and I was slowly lifted up, a big, dark blue flower blossom having grown right under my feet. The center of the blossom was pure white and as soft as a pillow, causing my paws to sink into it. It was even big enough to make me comfortable, which was seemingly exactly what the goddess had in mind.

I looked up at her, curious what she was about to do next, but when she then pulled forth a white comb much like the one that had enchanted Myra, I suddenly realized just what I was doing right now. I had not only let myself be turned into a fox, she had even tried to tame me like a wild animal! Had I really just let myself be turned into her pet?!

Zaleria chuckled at my sudden realization, but it was already too late. I had walked right into her trap…

 

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