“Stay low and don’t let them see you,” I urged, immediately wishing that we’d managed to get her another level to get access to the next rank of [Core Link]. If we had, I could have seen through her eyes and…

…What was I thinking? I could just force a level up and dip into my mana reserve a bit. I had to see this.

“…As opposed to?”, she chimed back, “Staying low is just how I move around.”

“You know what I mean! I’m going to try and level you up so I can see for myself, no idea if this is going to work or not with how far away you are.”

Ascending certainly didn’t work at range, anyways.

CORE-TOUCHED MOUSE (RUNT) Force Level-Up Cost: 15 MP

Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Level: 3

Cost: 30 MP

-OUT OF RANGE

Great. I had no idea why that had any right being different, but questions like that for times that weren't one of the most critical moments in my short life in this world.

I dropped my mana, quickly tossing a point into getting her [Core Link II] and leaving her other skill point untouched for now. We could spend it once things were calm.

⬘ Core Link II ⬘ A reinforced aetheric tether between this monster employee and its lord. This link has a much greater clarity, allowing for sensory data to be transmitted and received in addition to being able to carry tone with messages. Obfuscation slightly boosts resistance to psionic eavesdropping.

TYPE:

Passive

CATEGORY:

Core

“Done and done, taking a look now,” I cheered, trying to figure out how to properly interface with the link for a few moments before it kicked on.

It was uncanny at first, a sensation that didn’t sit right with my head. This was pretty absurd since I already had a few thousand ‘eyes’ in my walls. What difference did two more make?

The answer was “enough”. While I could describe my own sight as a singular awareness, like simply having perfect knowledge of anything happening around or within my creation, this was different—like growing an eye on the back of my head, if I were still human. My spatial awareness didn’t feel right with how distant it was from the rest of my body, which was made worse by the fact that she had the reins and I was merely a viewer.

She was standing on a bluff, about twenty feet of a sheer drop downward toward the road below. The road itself was strangely constructed, not winding or sloping nearly as much as I would have expected given the terrain of the area, instead cutting through the earth and only occasionally taking a slight turn to adjust as needed. It was constructed by large paving flagstones, cut into almost-perfect squares, stretching on into the distance.

And that made no sense at all. That was an unfathomable amount of work to put into a road way out in the wilderness, the kind of thing better suited for a city throughway or noble plaza. This wasn’t a dirt path, or even constructed of something easier to obtain like gravel or timber. Hell, it barely even looked like it was being upkept, with wiry lines of wild grasses and dandelions sprouting up between the cracks.

On the opposite edge of the road was a small deforested clearing, with what seemed to be a temporary campsite set up within it, with a horse, a wagon, and an unlit campfire.

Magic, maybe? I couldn’t imagine what purpose anyone would have for wasting so much labor crafting these flagstones and hauling them out here. If it wasn’t built with magic, then I had no clue.

But regardless, there were people. At least three of them, from what I could see.

Actual people.

How long had it even been since I’d seen another human? It felt like an eternity. A part of me begged to be let free to run down there and introduce myself, completely oblivious to the reality of the situation. A closer look couldn’t hurt, though.

“Hey. Do you think you could get in closer? Maybe find a way down, circle around the treeline and see if we can get more information or eavesdrop?”

“You have a strange definition of ‘staying low’, boss,” she chided, though I could tell she was curious too in her own way. She began the process of delicately hopping her way down the rock wall, from outcropping to outcropping, scurrying down its height at an impressive speed before darting across the road and into the underbrush.

They were speaking. I could hear them.

“—less we find a way to turn well-wishes into purses of gold, I don’t see how that’s going to help our case at all,” a gruff voice rumbled, still out of sight as my companion tried to find a safe place to observe from.

“I wasn’t trying to!”, a shrill one shot back, “Everything happened so fast! There wasn’t anything I could do.”

“Actually, there was one thing you could have done: how about not going into a panic and screaming like a banshee, waking up the entire goblin nest that I was actively trying to sneak through just because a bug landed on your shoulder,” a third person retorted back, already sounding like they were fed up.

“It was a pretty big bug, to be fair to the lass,” the first one said.

“It was a trained venomous millipede! You saw that thing, it had war paint on it! Of course I was going to scream!”

Ah. Well, whoever these people were, they were a hot mess.

Turning my attention back towards my partner, I gave her a mental nudge. “Hey, not gonna pressure you into it or anything, but do you think you’d be capable of getting into that wagon? Humans like to keep their good stuff in those. Maybe we could, uh… y’know.”

“Oh. Yeah, I know. Might as well, they seem pretty distracted. I wonder what they’re yelling about?”, she gave a quick nod, something I got an odd amount of amusement from considering how recently we’d gotten [Core Link II]. Was this a habit? Did she do this even when I wasn’t watching her?

“Sounds like they were trying to raid a monster nest or something and the high-pitched one nearly got them caught. Probably not too close nearby if they feel safe enough to camp here, so we should be fine.”

She paused mid-stride, asking, “Wait, you can understand them?”

Oh. Well that was odd, then. “You can’t?”, I questioned.

“No.”

“Weird. Well, we can try and look into if it’s possible to get you a skill for it. If not, I’ll just need to teach you. You’re a smart one, you’ll pick it up quick.”

A swell of happy feelings came through our link, so at least she appreciated the compliment.

Getting into the wagon wasn’t much trouble for her—while there weren’t any trees close by, the ground foliage was thick enough she was able to slide right on over to it and clamber up the spokes of the wheel, navigating towards the rear of the covered wagon and hopping on into it.

The insides were pretty sparse, and from in here I could spot a number of rips in the canvas roof of the wagon—arrow holes?

“Dig around a bit. See if you can find a coin purse, a chest, anything like that.”

“You got it, boss,” she replied back, rubbing her front paws together in approval of the scheme as she began to inspect the various satchels, knapsacks, and small boxes. Their contents were mixed, seeming to be personal effects along with a number of tools and weapons, vividly-colored drinks in ornate glass phials that bubbled and roiled when she accidentally bumped into them, and various other odds and ends. Broadening her search, she hopped up into a crate and leaped into a partially-open rucksack, rustling through it as she searched for the jackpot for us.

And then we spotted it: a cloth coin purse, tied together with leather straps. She nudged it a few times with a paw, confirming its weight. This was it.

Money.

“That’s the stuff, yes!”, I practically howled in excitement, giddiness rising up from deep inside of me, “We’ve just gotta find a way to get it back home.”

“Too heavy. Would be too slow, even if I could.”

She wasn’t wrong, but it still took the wind out of my sails a bit. We’d have to take some of it at least, whatever she could carry. “Start with the bag,” I guided, keeping an ear on the conversation to try and keep watch as best as I could for her, “See if you can chew a way in, maybe through the straps or the bottom.”

The work was slow and arduous as she peeled away shred after shred of fabric, slowly widening a hole in the side of the pouch as the familiar glint of pewter caught my eye. All the while, the argument outside continued, though each passing moment made my nerves feel shakier.

Once she had a slit torn in the sack, she reached inside and did her best to extricate a single coin.

Now to get it home without being spotted. It was well past midday at this point. She wouldn’t be able to walk with it held by her paws—the coin was a bit over an inch in diameter and fairly-heavy if it was anything like the one I had at home. Her paws were far more suited for walking, climbing, and grasping small things. This would be a challenge.

She waddled over to the edge of the cart, chucking the coin off of the side and into the thick foliage down below. I half-expected her to jump down after it when she circled back around, grabbing another coin and repeating the process.

"Don't risk any more--they're starting to move around out there, I think getting ready to light the campfire," I urged. She gave a look back at the pouch, freezing for a moment as she deliberated on whether or not to take the risk. Shaking her head, she stopped herself and hurried to the edge herself, hopping down onto teh wheel and scurrying into the tall grass.

Hidden from sight, she began hastily wheeling one of the coins into the space beneath a thorny bush. The other one, she took for herself.

“Can you carry it with your mouth?”, I suggested, already impressed by her quick thinking.

This was it—our big break. Even just one other coin was a huge addition if we could pull this off, but she still had to navigate home with it. At the very least, she had a decent sense of direction. While she couldn’t make her way back up the bluff she’d descended to get to the road, she was able to find a less steep part a short distance down the road, hurrying off and into the woods to make her way home.

Not wanting to distract her, I tried to keep quiet the rest of the time it took for her to lug it back.

While she began the trek back to the vault, I continued my work on the aqueduct, finishing the ‘exit’ of it; rather than connecting it back towards the river, I’d simply given up and routed it to the cliffside instead, where the water would burst forth from the rock wall like a subterranean river.

Once we had water, anyways. That was the next step I had in mind.

The layout I had in mind was simple enough. The aqueduct would feed into a small reservoir I’d hollowed out and reinforced with stone. As the reservoir filled, any excess would spill over the top and into a channel leading to the main drainage pipe I’d constructed below myself, which would prevent any flooding or overflowing.

Actually using the water was simple enough: I set up some pipes throughout the base, constructing them out of hardened, smooth stone, and used my gains from [Mechanical Engineering I] to build some simple valves to use wherever I needed them. Then, new drains positioned strategically on my floors would serve to help any of that flow into the drainage pipe as well.

Foolproof.

Probably.

I didn’t know enough about water pressure to confirm my suspicions without water to test it with. Really, it was nearly done—I just needed to extend the passageway out to the stream and test to make sure it all worked. Oh, and also add any of the mechanisms I’d need along the way.

Still, it didn’t take long before the sun was hanging low in the sky and I was beginning to get nervous. I checked in on the mouse, giving her a prod. “Hey, are you gonna be home in time to beat sunset?”

“Not entirely sure. The sun sets fast, but my legs move slow. It is an unwieldy burden to carry,” she responded, already seeming tired.

“If it helps, you could find a safe place to hide it overnight and go back for it in the morning”

“No—I will make it. The strength you provided has been a great help.”

“Okay, well… don’t work yourself too hard. We’ve got time, another day won’t hurt.” While we’d only known each other for a short while, we had grown closer in that time. I had no desire to see her injured or exhausted.

“You have time. I do not, though I appreciate your sentiments.”

Urgh, yeah. I couldn’t really argue with that. Her candle was burning too fast for us to just ignore and play it safe. “I’m working on it. We’ve still got a skill point left to use, and that level up means you should be good for another ascension once I have the mana for it.”

“I do not wish to pressure you, only to urge you to keep it in the front of your mind,” she replied, darting across a fallen log as quickly as she could, the coin hanging heavily from her jaws, “I will leave the ‘skills’ and ‘ascension’ to you, as I do not understand them well.”

“I’m fine with guiding your growth, but I don’t think you should just surrender any say you have in it like that. It’s your life.”

Hopping across a short gap onto the stump belonging to the felled tree, she bounced right off and into the grass, nearly about to reply back when something moved. Something alive.

There was no noise at all, simply a sense of wrongness. A flash from a shadow passing overhead too great to simply be that of the trees above. Something was close, and it had only been betrayed by the low angle of the sun as it sunk over the horizon casting its shadow too far. She didn’t dare look back. I didn’t blame her.

“Run, get the hell out of there! Drop the coin if you have to!”, I shouted over our link, seeing the shadow of her pursuer passing across the ground in front of her as she darted between the trees, refusing to let go of her treasure.

She didn’t reply. She didn’t need to, though. I could practically feel her heart racing, her eyes wide as she put her all into putting as much distance as she could between herself and the predator whose eyes were set upon her.

In a flash, it dove downwards, crashing into the layer of leafy detritus covering the forest floor, talons narrowly grazing the mouse’s belly as she tossed herself to the side, scrambling to pick the coin up as she righted herself and kept on running. But I’d gotten a good look at it.

BOREAL SWOOPING OWL LVL: 3 NAME: undefined

Skills:

[Tracking I]

[Ambush Tactics I]

[Acrobatic Flight I]

HP: 32 / 32 CATEGORY: Beast MP: 0 / 0 SPECIES: Great Owl SP: 11 / 13 SIZE: Small XP: ?? GENDER: ♀ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 4 4 4 5 6 8

A nocturnal bird of prey that ambushes prey with blinding plunges from the skies. Its black feathers provide excellent camoflauge against animals with low-light vision at night.

Its dark eyes stared at her curiously as it recovered from its fumbled catch, taking a few steps after her before its wings spread yet again, flapping downwards as it took to the skies. She hadn’t given it a moment to recover before taking off again, a testament to her focus and courage.

Then, between the trees in the fading light of sunset, I saw myself through her eyes, and her through my own. She was close, maybe another sixty feet away.

If she managed to juke the owl’s next dive, she’d make it. That was a nasty ‘if’ though, and at the pace she was going the owl would most certainly get at least this one last dive in.

Decisive action was needed, either on her part or mine.

CORE-TOUCHED MOUSE (RUNT) LVL: 3 NAME: undefined

Traits:

[Forged Sapience]

Skills:

[Scavenge]

[Festering Bite]

[Core Link II]

[Core Bond I]

[Enhanced Vitality I]

[Enhanced Strength I]

HP: 6 / 6 CATEGORY: Monster

Employee MP: 0 / 0 SPECIES: Field Mouse SP: 0 / 5 SIZE: Minuscule XP: 0% GENDER: ♀ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 2 3 5 5 3 7

A small, juvenile field rodent under the auric influence of a dungeon core. Possesses enhanced mental acuity and judgement. Force Level-Up Cost: 30 MP Criteria for Next Ascension Tier:

Level: 3

Cost: 30 MP

No time to think it through or develop a better plan. I wasn’t going to take a risk with my little friend’s life. She closed the distance as well as she could—the periscope was in sight. Shoving hesitation aside, I reached out to her and activated [Core Bond], selecting to restore her stamina as fast as I could manage.

Instantly, her SP shot right up to full at the cost of my mana, a burst of energy rushing through her little veins. Restored, she surged forwards, her gait bursting into a sprinting gallop as she accelerated, practically diving into the periscope tunnel as she vanished within it. A blink of an eye later, the owl crashed down, its talons sinking into the bare earth as it bent down, peering into the helix-shaped tunnel.

She was already long gone—it would go hungry tonight, and good goddamned riddance.

Still shaking from residual adrenaline, she emerged from the tunnel a minute later, still maintaining her death grip on the coin.

“You greedy little rat, you had me worried,” I sighed in relief, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

She nodded, placing the coin on the stone floor and sitting for a moment. “It was nothing,” she replied, so tired that even her inner monologue sounded winded, “I just thought I could use the exercise. N-now, I think I’m going to go lay down.”

Even with the boost I’d given her to her stamina, I didn’t blame her for being tuckered out. Something I’d planned around.

“Ah, about that… take a look in your room.”

She slunk onwards, crawling up the gently-sloped tube and into the hollow I’d constructed for her room. Her path stopped in the center of the room, looking at where her bed had once been.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I made some improvements to this place while practicing with one of my new skills today.”

“…What am I looking at?”, she asked with concern.

“That,” I shot back, “That is the pinnacle of relaxation technology: a hammock. It’s all yours. Rest easy, you definitely earned it today.”

I did my best to keep things covert as I sealed up the grates in the roof with stone for the night. I didn’t want her worrying about it.

It took several hours for the owl to finally get discouraged and leave, going from raking its claws against the soil and rock to sitting perched in a nearby tree, screeching and hooting the entire time.

And I spent the night making sure she didn’t hear a whisper of it, swaying gently in the hammock I’d woven for her.