Harvest Dungeon 7 Chapter 7 - Set Up

I stared at the grid display of my dungeon, specifically the new lower floor. It was a six by six grid with two s.p.a.ces in the lower left corner already in use by the shack and bathroom. The lower right corner contained the floor access to the surface. While in the dungeon configuration I had several options that I could use for each of the tiles. There weren't a lot of them but they were all a flat rate of 20 bronze per tile. I also had access to tile soil reconfigurations for different crops, those could cost a bit more depending on the extremity of the change. I considered walls to create a dungeon like experience, some pits for traps, and there was a two by two grid s.p.a.ce called the arena that would change on its own to maximize the strengths of the guardians or minions I a.s.signed to it.

I wasn't sure the best way to set up the dungeon. I could trust everything to the protection of the two golems on the surface level, and farm all the available tiles down here. I learned that once I summoned the guardians for the new floor, I didn't have to leave them on that floor.

As I didn't have any new guardians I summoned another rock and earth golem and upgraded them like I had the previous ones all for three iron coins. With those bought I shifted the stone golem to the surface and then moved the floor access to the center tile, then moved the tool shed tile beside my shack on the lower level. All the tiles besides the one with the mud slime were changed into arena tiles. The two by two grid only meant I had to use a minimum of four tiles, the shape and total number weren't limited to the two by two shape. In total I changed seven tiles into arena tiles. The tile with the mud slime would be planted as shifting the mud slime would be too difficult to be worth it. As I was curious to know how much the slime helped I planned to plant blue dandelion there as I was already familiar with what it normally looked like when harvested, and it had the shortest growth time of the crops available to me.

I had the last earth golem set beside my floor access on the lower floor. If something was able to get past the golems on the surface I hoped they had been injured enough that the earth golem would be able to finish them off. Was it a good defense plan? Probably not, but it was what I had to work with.

With those decisions made I decided it would be best to decide what I was going to plant. Shifting out of the dungeon configuration I opened the crop shop. I only had six crops available but I needed to know more about them to be able to plant them.

The silver shamrock wasn't that different from the blue dandelion, it just took longer to grow. The profit for the shamrock was also a lot better despite needing twice as long to grow as the dandelions. It also grew in the same kind of soil so I knew I would plant some of that. The amber mint was a bush, unlike the shamrock and the dandelion I could get several sellable portions from each bush instead of just the one plant. It explained why the sale price was so much lower than the buy price. According to the harvest information I could get between ten to fifteen harvests per bush, at sixty bronze per sale, it was a lot of money even with the three day grow time. Even if I only got ten per bush I would gain nearly a silver in profits. It needed more fertile soil to grow in, which would cost me an additional three iron per tile but the change would be permanent. I could grow the amber mint in the same tiles multiple times without having to pay for the tile improvement again.

It was the other crops that I was the most curious about. As with the blue gra.s.s which I was partly familiar with the winter vine needed colder climates. While I could change the soil making it more fertile, I didn't have the ability to make it cold. However, whoever was choosing my crops seemed to account for that. Blue gra.s.s was the hardiest of the crops, and didn't need the cold, it needed to have the reduced light that came with colder climates. I could manage that with my tile reconfiguration. More importantly the blue gra.s.s had a warning about the cold it put off as it grew.

Winter vine needed the cold, not just reduced light. It also produced two harvestable products, its leaves and a few ice roots. The number of ice roots were dependent on the amount of cold in its area. The ice roots could be sold or used as a source of cold, which was exactly what the white ice rose needed. It had to be planted with or very close to a source of ice or cold energy. Given that I didn't have any of that I couldn't grow white ice roses yet.

With that in my mind I went back to the dungeon configuration to plan out where I would put my crops. As I wasn't sure how cold the blue gra.s.s would make my dungeon I decided to just experiment with it and plant more of the normal type of crops. I chose the ten tiles above my shack and changed them to a more fertilized tile that would work for the amber mint. I also chose a three by three area where I dimmed the light for the cold crops. As it didn't change the soil composition it only cost twenty bronze per tile for tile configurations. With that set, I left the dungeon configuration and returned to the crop shop. There I bought the seeds I needed. Ten packs of amber mint, eight packs for silver shamrock, five blue dandelion, eight blue gra.s.s, and one winter vine.

"All done?" Vanessa asked making me jump. I had been so focused on what I was doing that I actually forgot she was there.

I looked over at the raven haired beauty, I had to pause as I admired her incredible figure and angelic features. All the irritation I had been feeling about being stuck here was gone. Yes the Neglism had absorbed all the negative emotions in me, but put face to face with the woman who kidnapped me and finding out that I couldn't leave had created some new ones. That was all gone.

I have no idea why, but I was starting to like being here. I didn't have a lot, or any control over my life at the moment, but that could change, and I was really enjoying having control over the dungeon. It was just a start, but I liked it a lot more than I had the life I had before.

With that realization I didn't resent Vanessa or even her unnamed mystery company as much. I was also happy I would still get to interact with Candice, though I knew that came with its own set of downsides and risks. As I couldn't control it I would just accept the good parts of it while keeping an eye out for trouble.

"Like what you see?" she asked me with a mischievous grin.

"Isn't that the point?" I asked in reply as I stood up and stretched. I had just spent nearly forty seven iron coins to change and shift everything around, buy the seeds, and prepare my defenses. I still had minions I could buy, but I would put that off for now.

Outside of the shack I saw the lower level for the first time. There was light despite the fact that I could see the stone ceiling above. Like the surface level the light seemed to just exist with no obvious source. It was incredibly annoying not understanding how that worked. I would have to ask Vanessa about that later. As I had designated in the configuration the lower floor was just a large cavern with a stone ceiling and walls. I noticed that the stone that made up the ceiling and walls was the same gray stone that made up the stone golem. Outside of that it was the same as the upper level, a bunch of dirt tiles. The ten tiles in front and to the left of me were a darker brown than the other tiles. Those were the more fertile tiles for the amber mint.

With some resolve I headed for the storage shed to grab the hoe and get to work. Even if the hoe was magical cutting down the amount of work I needed to do. It didn't change the fact that I had fifty two tiles I needed to plant. That would take time and effort.

Vanessa followed me around helping out by carrying the extra seeds and watering can as I setup each tile for the crop it was to receive, used the hoe to prep the soil, planted the seeds, then used the hoe again to cover the seeds back up.

The hoe allowed me to skip a lot of steps and made it easier on me as I didn't need to learn how deep each seed needed to be planted so they would properly germinate. I was still stiff and sore by the time I finished in the lower level. The cold crop tiles were pretty dim though it didn't make sense to me as the light changed the moment I stepped onto the tile. There was something weird about this place. Then again there was nowhere on Earth that I could grow a crop to maturity in twelve hours. The times for all my crops didn't make sense. Then again neither did my dungeon or my magic tools. Maybe this place really was a game, or a world where the laws of nature I had grown up with didn't hold sway. No matter what it was I had no way to leave so I just kept chugging on. I headed towards the floor access which was a shimmering portal in a circular stone reminding me of a stargate. Made me wonder why they didn't just us stairs, then I remembered the spatial expansion. While taking up the same amount of s.p.a.ce as the one above, this level was in some kind of s.p.a.ce pocket or something like that. So of course the portal was a better choice than stairs.

I eyed my earth golem for a moment then stepped into the portal.

Back on the surface level I relaxed a bit. There might not be a sun, moon, or stars, but the view made me feel less trapped. I considered moving the shack back up to the surface level for the view but dismissed it. There was danger here, it was better to be safe than sorry.

I quickly worked the single tile up here that I intended to plant. The soil was different wetter almost slimy. I ignored it and planted the dandelion seeds as I intended then watered the tile. Only a quarter of the water I needed to water a dandelion tile flowed out before stopping. Seems the mud slime fertilizer decreased my need to water the crop.

With all the crops finally planted it was time for a shower, clean clothes, and a hot meal. That alone lifted his spirits. Yet I stayed on the surface level for a while gazing out at the sea of gra.s.s that surrounded my farm. I wanted to know what else was out there. More mud slimes would be useful too.

A soft rustle in the long gra.s.s caused Vanessa and I to look behind us only to see a beast head peering at us from behind the newbie shield. It took me a moment to realize that it was an enormous mouse, or at least that was what I thought it was, the ears were too big, and the head too short for a rat. But the fact that it was nearly three feet tall made the difference between a rat and mouse irrelevant. The mouse was a light brown in color with dark brown eyes.

We stared at each other for several moments before the mouse screeched at us angrily baring its teeth. As soon as it got aggressive two large stone landed on its head smashing it into the ground. The mouse squeaked pitifully obviously hurt by the sudden attack. It shrugged the attack off though and shifted around a bit to stand up. Earth rose up around the four limbs of the mouse catching it in place. Then another volley of stones smashed into the mouse's head. This time the damage was more than it could take. It fell back to the ground blood running down its head.

Yet even after four boulder strikes the mouse continued to breath. I bit my lower lip then ran for the edge of my farm and struck out with the hoe. The hoe pa.s.sed through the barrier smoothly hitting the head of the mouse.

I had no idea what the hoe would do, but nothing at all was not what I expected. Hitting the mouse was like hitting rock. It looked soft and cuddly but it was a lot tougher than it looked.

Earth flowed up into the mouse's mouth and suffocated it. It didn't look like a pleasant way to die.

As soon as the mouse died the earth around the mouse corpse shifted to bring the mouse inside my barrier. The hoe might have been allowed outside as it was an attack like the stone, but I was sure I still wasn't allowed out.

The mouse was pretty big, not quite as big as I thought it was, but still a whole lot bigger than I had ever seen a mouse get. It was only two feet tall at the shoulder and three feet long without the tail. I was surprised it was able to take such a beating.

I reached out to touch the mouse's fur out of curiosity, but before I could touch it I felt an energy flow through my body.

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Level Up

Level Up

Current Level: 3

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Seems like I do have levels.