Harvest Dungeon 4 Chapter 4 - Protection

Vanessa was quickly picking all the pods she could reach one by one. I ran past her and swung the sicile at the trunk. A normal sicile wouldn't be able to handle a tree trunk, but I already knew it wasn't normal and it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. Besides after seeing the mini bed I had another idea.

The trunk cut like soft b.u.t.ter but didn't fall over. I reached up and touched the trunk then looked back at the storage bin. "Store." I said aloud hoping it would work. If the sicile, hoe, and watering can were magical why not the storage bin?

Nothing happened for a moment then to my delight the trunk, its branches and all the leaves and pods shrank down into a mini tree which then flew through the air and landed in the storage bin. Feeling elated I placed my hand on the stump and repeated the process. The stump and all its roots shrank down and flew over to the storage bin leaving a large hole in my dirt tile. As I said earlier every part of the plant was useful.

With the Neglism stored in my storage I gave Vanessa an impish grin as she stared at me in shock holding an arm full of the pods, then headed back into the shack. "Set the pods in the sale bin." I told her before going through the door. For some reason I felt rather proud of myself.

When Vanessa followed me in she had a serious look on her face. "How did you know about that feature?" she asked me.

"Guessed." I replied honestly. "The other tools are special and large objects can be shrunk down to fit into the bins." I said then nodded at the bed as I reached for the crystal.

[Level Up marker awarded.]

[Eight Neglism pods placed in sale bin.]

I decided to sell each of the eight pods for forty iron coins doubling what I had available. Then I looked at the first notice to appear. "What is the level up marker?" I asked.

"It does what you are guessing. They could just give you a silver coin but they want to ensure you use it to level." Vanessa replied moving to sit on the edge of the bed.

As attractive as she was I could ignore her most of the time, until she sat on my bed. As I thought about it I realized what it meant when she said she was stuck here too.

"Why are you here?" I asked her again.

Vanessa sighed. "Do we need to have this conversation now?" she asked. "Even if we removed the Neglism from your field it doesn't mean that the guys who show up won't cause us problems."

"Then how do we protect ourselves? And why didn't I have any protection before this?" I asked.

"Huh?" Vanessa asked confused then glared angrily as she got off the bed and walked over to my side. Being that close I could smell her, it was a pleasant aroma, something like honey and apricots. She touched the crystal bringing up the main screen then scrolled down to looking at all of the locked options. She frowned seeing all the grayed out options. "Use the level up marker. They did say they would reset the system with the level up." she told me.

I had no reason to refuse. I couldn't stay as I was. I selected the screen that indicated the Level up marker and used it. The crystal flashed brightly for a moment then my screens disappeared. A second later the crystal's glow disappeared for a split second only to reappear even brighter.

[System reset.]

[Dungeon Core(Repurposed) Level 2

Dungeon Master Jason

Dungeon Guide Vanessa

Dungeon Size 9 tiles

Funds 37 Bronze 80 Iron

Available options

Crop Store

General Store

Dungeon Expansions

Guardians

Minions]

"This is what your screen should have looked like when you arrived, except the level, and the funds. Now select the guardian option." she told me.

"Can't you?" I asked. She seemed to know more and was clearly able to use the crystal, why was I even needed here?"

"No can do. I can access the menu and the logs, but any purchases or changes to the dungeon are out of my control." she explained.

"You keep calling it a dungeon. What does that mean?" I asked. "While it is a prison I don't think it looks much like a dungeon."

"It's not a prison, the barrier is there for your own protection. We aren't the only ones here. There are plenty of other people, monsters, and beasts out there." she replied.

"Monsters?" I asked skeptically.

"You just grew a plant that ate negative emotions and are going to be skeptical of monsters?"

"You have a point." I replied grudgingly.

[Available Guardian slots: 2

Available Guardians:

Earth Golem 50 Bronze

Stone Golem 1 Iron]

Vanessa groaned. "One of each. It's better than nothing." she said.

"Why not two Stone Golems?" I asked, they were twice the price so they should be the better model.

"They aren't the same type of golem. Each excel at different things. The earth golem can attack using the ground beneath its enemies feet. The stone golem can conjure up stones to throw at its enemies." she replied. "With them and the newbie barrier we should be fine."

"Newbie barrier?" I asked.

"The barrier keeping you in here. It will only stick around until something strong enough to break it shows up or you reach level five." she replied.

I frowned, "How much will that cost?" I asked aloud wondering how much longer I will have to wait before I could get out of here.

"Not the dungeon, you." Vanessa told me.

I stared at her like she was an idiot. I didn't have levels.

Vanessa sighed then cradled her head in her hands. "I will murder him. I swear if I ever get my hands on him it will be done slowly, agonizingly slowly." she muttered to herself. "You didn't have any kind of tutorial did you?" she asked looking up at me.

I shook my head. "Kind of a figure it out yourself kind of thing." I replied.

"Then you did even better than I could have hoped for." she said then sighed again. She seemed to like to sigh.

"Later, we can talk about it all later. Defense first then talk." she told me then looked at the screen again. "Bring up the guardians."

I wasn't a fan of her bossy att.i.tude, and in truth our 'dire' situation could only be confirmed by her, but it was better to be safe than sorry. So I did what I was told.

[Earth Golem Level 1 Upgradeable]

[Stone Golem Level 1 Upgradeable]

Without her telling me to I selected the upgrade screen both looked the same. I could increase their ma.s.s, density, responsiveness, and energy. All for a price. Though there were limits to how much upgrading could be done. At level one each could only be upgraded once. Going with Vanessa's suggestion I upgraded the energy of the earth golem and the responsiveness of the stone golem.

"Couldn't we get more guardians?" I asked.

"Nope, it's just like the upgrades, we can have one guardian per level. Besides they aren't small and take up a lot of s.p.a.ce. If we had too many you wouldn't have anywhere to grow the crops."

I had way too many questions. I hoped tonight would come soon.

Grabbing my hand she pulled me towards the door. I stared at our hands as I was pulled along. Of course I had held hands with a woman before, I had been with my ex for three years. We were even living together. However my ex's hand had never felt so warm and soft.

Outside I was able to see my new guardians. Vanessa was right they were pretty big. The earth golem stood twelve feet tall while the stone golem was fifteen. Both were nearly as broad as they were tall. Shaped roughly like humans they stood completely still on two of my empty tiles taking up nearly the entire s.p.a.ce. Looking around I realized that with the level up I might have gained three tiles, but the golems took up two and the last had a building constructed on it. The new tiles expanded from the house side of the six tiles so the new building was next to my shack instead of on the other side of my tool shed.

"Oh good, I was afraid that wouldn't show up." Vanessa said looking at the new building. "We can merge and upgrade them later."

I had no idea what she was talking about.

Looking at the s.p.a.ce were the Neglism had disappeared from, the hole the stump had left behind had disappeared just as thoroughly as the waste I left behind the tool shed since I arrived. Now only a flat tile ready to be worked was there.

I looked at Vanessa only to see her gazing out at the gra.s.sland that surrounded my farm.

I followed her lead. I didn't see anything initially, but I had stared out at the same field many times during the first couple days I had been here. There wasn't much else to do between planting and harvesting. After a few moments I noticed a something that hadn't been there before. Staring at it constantly I realized it was a dirt mound that rose just above the gra.s.s. As the gra.s.s stood three feet tall it was a large pile of dirt. Even more interesting was the fact that the pile of dirt seemed to be moving. I nudged Vanessa and pointed to the mound of dirt.

She stared at it for several moments before snorting. "It's a slime." she told me.

"Seriously?" I asked. I was far more used to the idea of the comical blue slimes from video games. However I kept a watch on the slime and when it reached the border of my farm it pressed against the barrier that kept me in. Doing so let me see that it wasn't really a mound of dirt but a dark brown slime full of dirt, more like a moving mound of mud. However as calm as Vanessa was about it the slime was over three feet tall and just as wide. Before I could even consider panicking a large rock went over my head and landed on the mud slime causing it to splash like any other puddle of mud would. While the stone was able to pa.s.s through the barrier with no trouble, none of the mud puddles came inside the barrier. Several earth spike rose up in the larger puddles then nothing. After a few moments the earth in front of my feet shifted and a small glowing brown gem a half inch in diameter appeared.

"Slime core, it's the only valuable loot those things have." Vanessa said.

"Gather the slime and spread it on that tile." I ordered the earth golem indicating one of the dirt tiles. "It makes a good fertilizer." I told Vanessa. Who blinked at me in surprise.

"It mentions it in the instructions for the blue dandelions. I just thought it was the brand name of a fertilizer rather than an actual monster." I told her before she could ask. Then bent down and grabbed the slime core.

"A man who reads the instructions? Is the world about to end?" Vanessa commented with a smile.

"Come on, time is money, I need to replant the fields if I can't leave, and then some food would be good." I told Vanessa heading for the door to the shack.

I still didn't want to be here, but the company of a beautiful woman did make it more bearable. If what I suspected was true, I might not even want to leave.