Out of all of our trials with getting our brewing operation started, I hadn’t expected the taste test to be our greatest trial.

We changed things up for the second batch, adding in a number of mogo berries to our preexisting recipe to try and sweeten the mixture. Libra had been hesitant to give this new attempt a taste even despite my insistence that the addition would help reduce the bitterness.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to help nearly enough, the boiled mash of berries apparently serving better as a food dye than a flavoring agent. Sweet, but I can only assume it’s the kind of subdued sweetness found in plants that haven’t been specifically bred for it.

For the third batch, we tried to make a syrup by just simmering the berries in water and evaporating as much of the moisture as we could, but even that proved fruitless—making a useable volume of syrup took far too many berries for it to be viable with our current set-up. Using it for this purpose would leave us with none for food and only a token amount of product to compensate. I’d either need to drastically expand our farming operation, or barely use any syrup at all.

Even then, the third batch was only ‘tolerable’ according to my taste testers. Libra refused to take another sip, so I had to drag Ephi in instead. She wasn’t a fan of it either.

I can’t even begin to troubleshoot it, frustratingly enough. Are they just naturally predisposed to not like tea? Am I using low-quality leaves? Was I brewing it improperly? I couldn’t even check it myself. Hell, it could very well be that there wasn’t anything wrong with it at all from a human perspective, not that I could confirm without a test subject.

Really, I was mostly just amazed by my ability to stumble from obstacles that would have been trivial if I were still a human. Omniscience over a limited area and manipulation of matter itself were all at my disposal with a simple thought—yet I still found myself limited by things as simple as lacking a tongue.

At the very least, I could work towards upping our supply of mogo berries for now. We planted a few new bushes in the greenhouse, though it would be a while before they could produce any useable amount.

The greenhouse itself is in better shape thanks to Libra’s efforts, as well. Despite all of my work to bring in heat and sunlight to the space, winter is an unyielding, never-resting opponent. For a while now, a portion of my day is set aside to clear snow off of the greenhouse’s dome, and even then the difference in temperature between the inside and the outside has left the crystal panes permanently fogged up with condensation. Having our own personal source of sunlight would be the fix for most of this, and thanks to Libra’s second level with Sunlight Orb she’s been able to keep it conjured for roughly eight hours at a time, give or take an hour or two.

We’ve had no issues with two casts of the spell daily: once when Libra first awakens, and again once the first spell sputters out. The plants have been doing just fine, even when I allowed snow to accumulate on the dome enough to blot out the sun for a test run, carefully monitoring them for any issues. I wasn’t willing to commit fully to a longer-term test that might risk damaging our only food supply, though.

So the only thing keeping me from closing up the dome entirely was the starfont—and moving that outside wouldn’t be simple, as I doubted it would be effective if it were to freeze out there.

Once winter subsided, we could figure out an external solution—for now, if I had to pick between continuing to harvest liquid moonlight and being able to conceal our presence entirely, it wasn’t really much of a choice to make.

Though sealing off my beautiful dome still stung a bit.

Lining the lattice of beams between the crystalline panes with rows of moonstone to brighten up the room some, I began the tedious process of constructing a stone shell over top of the dome, enclosing it beneath a mound of earth over a process that took most of the night. Once the foundation was complete, I began to pile on soil in an attempt to make it look a bit more natural, turning it into an uneven, bare hill.

The mound being entirely barren would have stood out quite a bit to any passersby… if the entire thing wasn’t immediately buried beneath two feet of snow that very night as a vicious blizzard swept in from the sea.

Like a falling curtain, our little fortress was shrouded beyond even what my senses could peer through. A ‘storm of the century’, I might have called it in another life.

A thousand, thousand eyes spread across my surface meant nothing when the snow fell so thick it could bury someone alive.

The brave manamites staffing the boiler room performed to the best of their abilities, but despite that I was certain the interior temperature had to have dropped significantly. The sun rising changed little, obscured by sultry gray clouds that cast the entire land in a dusky shadow.

When Libra awoke, my first task for her was to conjure a second star, even if it left her a bit more drained than usual; we couldn’t risk losing our crops to a sudden drop in the temperature when our food stores were already stretched thin. Comically, Ephi has taken to wearing her padded armor around as if it’s a warm coat, which… well, wasn’t entirely a bad idea. The clinking of the metal plates as she scurried around was a bit silly, though.

If we’d only had some warmer materials like wool or furs, maybe I could have made the two some proper winterwear—or attempted to, at least. Maybe not the furs, on second thought—that probably wouldn’t go over too well with them. I frequently had to remind myself that they were adapted for this environment. It was cold, sure, but they were built for it.

With the material that we did have, I weaved together a few blankets though they weren’t exactly luxurious or thick enough to stave off too much of the cold. I couldn’t help but feel that I was just being overly-cautious, but ultimately overpreparation seemed like a wiser path to take.

The mood around the dungeon was quiet through the morning, with most of the natural sounds of our valley blotted out by the omnipresent howling of the wind muffled behind layers of stone and earth. With all of the exits swallowed up by snow, there was little chance of any outside activities taking place. I watched in mild amusement as Ephi ran a few laps around the perimeter of the greenhouse as ‘exercise’.

“You know I made the gym specifically for this, right?”, I teased the mouse as she circled the room.

“Gym’s cold,” she replied, her disdain emanating over our connection, “This is the warmest room in the entire dungeon.” Motioning to the steamy air rising from the aqueducts with a wave of her head, she never once stopped her morning jog.

“I guess that’s a fair point,” I admitted, “Hopefully we’ll get a more proper heating system by next winter. I’ll have to experiment with it a bit, but I’d like to boost the capacity of the heating system quite a bit at some point. Maybe individually heat each room, that kind of thing. Anything to make the place more comfortable.”

That actually seemed to give Ephi pause for the moment as she slowed to a stop, lifting her head up. She stood silent for a moment before speaking up again.

“Boss, are you cold?”, she asked.

“I—no, I’m not. I can’t feel temperature at all,” I reassured her, a bit taken aback by the genuine concern in her tone, “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m just bricks cursed with sentimentality. I’m just watching out for my two star employees; wouldn’t want you both to have to work and sleep in the cold, I know how awful that can be. And, since I can’t exactly offer you a cup of hot cocoa and a warm coat, I just have to engineer an entire temperature control system instead. Easy enough.”

“Oh. So you’re just doing it for us, then?”, she said, seemingly reassured by my answer, “I’m relieved that you’re not suffering. I felt awful having only just thought of it. But what is ‘hot cocoa’?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me. I’ve yet to feel anything even close to pain since I ended up like this—except that last ascension making me feel like someone stuck a whisk in my brain and stirred. Hot cocoa? It’s a bit like tea—y’know, a hot drink, but it’s a lot sweeter and very rich. It’s great on cold days like this one to get something warm in your belly.”

“If it’s like tea, I’m not sure I want it,” she winced.

“Only in that they’re both hot! It’s an entirely different taste.”

“Hm. Well, maybe I could try it sometime, then.”

“Don’t get your hopes up on that one,” I did my best to let her down gently, “The plant I’d need to make it only grows in really warm places. Even if something similar exists on this world, I really doubt we’ll find any around here, much less actually be able to easily cultivate it. The fact that we can even grow tea here is already spitting in the face of mother nature enough.”

“Oh. That’s a shame. You really ought to stop getting me excited for things I’ll never get to try, Boss,” she prodded playfully.

It really was a bit of a shame, though. With our current restraints of being a static map element and a duo of magical forest critters, we were already so limited on what we could do and where we could go. When combined with the technological level we’d witnessed from our neighbors though, it was clear that obtaining a regional commodity like chocolate was simply off the table.

Hell, most of the big money-making luxuries I could think of from my homeworld were typically from warmer parts of the world. Cash crops like tobacco or cacao. Spices like cinnamon or pepper. Still, even if I was lucky enough to have been ‘born’ in a place like that, there would likely be just as many challenges, just different flavors. We just had to get creative with what we had available to us.

And, at the moment, what we had in largest supply was ‘time’. Home was safe, clean, and at the point where we could sustain ourselves comfortably, at least for a time. We were concealed from sight thanks to the blizzard, snowed in to the point that going outside wasn’t just pointless, but potentially suicidal. The military camp wouldn’t be doing much in this weather, nor would the monster faction we’d had a run-in with.

Something productive that we could do indoors… teaching?

Suddenly, it was as if I could feel my own soul grinning. Yeah, that seemed like it could be terribly fun indeed.

Calling out to both of my minions, I gave them each a simple message: “Once you’re caught up on your duties, come to the core room. I’ve got something I want you to do today.”

By this point, constructing static objects was as simple as breathing for myself. Making what I needed only took a few minutes and not even all of my attention, which was terrific because it meant that I could focus primarily on watching Ephi and Libra both try to puzzle out exactly what they were looking at.

A wall made of smooth, featureless stone sat in front of them, with my core behind it. Directly across from this wall sat two identical set-ups of items. Two bowls, each filled with small, cylindrical tokens made of wood. Two mats of different sizes made from folding up the blankets I’d made for them.

The rat didn’t waste much time before familiarizing herself, scurrying over to one of the bowls and leaning over the side, examining the coin-sized chips with intent. Libra, on the other hand, simply made her way to the larger of the two mats and sat at attention as if waiting for further orders.

“I’ve already told both of you quite a bit about my plans to try to open a line of trade with the humans,” I started, both of my new pupils giving unsure nods in response, “And I just wanted to reiterate how important both of you are going to be in this. I genuinely would not stand a chance at accomplishing this without you two.”

Ephi seemed to take on a smug but pleased expression from this—and I realized a moment later that I had apparently spent enough time with nothing but animal companionship that I could judge the emotions of a rat based solely on facial expression.

“But, if we’re going to be actively dealing with humans, then both of you are going to need some kind of education. Ideally I’d like you both to be able to do basic math at the very least, but if we can get you both familiar with reading as well, that’ll be all the better.”

I started simply, having the manamites carve the slate I’d summoned up to write out every number from zero to nine, adding a single recessed dot below the one, then two dots below the two, repeating this for the whole lot. Explaining what the digits represented, I had them follow along by retrieving the wooden chips from their bowls.

There wasn’t any part of me that was expecting this task to be easy, but it started off auspiciously enough. Both of them managed to gain a rudimentary grasp on the digits within an hour, to the point that I was able to remove the ‘dots’ beneath the digits entirely and they still identified them correctly… most of the time, anyways.

“I do not like the one and the seven,” Libra remarked, eyes narrowing towards the pile of mock-coins in front of herself as she recounted them, “They are too similar. Could we use a different symbol for one of them?”

Ephi nodded vigorously, despite never having gotten the two mixed up yet.

“A… a different symbol?”, I paused, reexamining the board, “Oh. That’s my mistake. Most people just write a one as a single vertical line, but in some cases you might see it like this, with a tick at the top. In that case, yeah I can admit it looks a bit like a seven. A seven will have a longer, horizontal line at the top than a one.”

“I see. I still do not like those two.”

“We can’t swap out the number ‘one’ for a different one.”

We ended the day’s study shortly after, and I took some time to inscribe the sequence of digits from zero to nine in a few places throughout the dungeon so they would see them more often. Learning by exposure or something like that.

The next day was more of the same, though I started to add in some single digit addition, not quite pushing the boundaries to double digits yet. Having a physical object there to represent the values certainly seemed like it was a decent educational aid, though even that wasn’t enough to keep either of them focused for too long. Libra seemed far more interested in the prospect than Ephi was, but all that meant was that her attention lasted for two hours instead of one.

It might take a few weeks, but at the rate they were going I figured they’d be capable of reliably handling small amounts of cash all on their own soon enough. Considering that the world seemed medieval in many aspects, that would put them at a ‘commoner’ level hopefully, which would be good enough for the small amounts of trade we’d be doing at first. If they really managed to hone their skills enough, long-distance trading trips beyond our little slice of the world might even be possible once we worked out the rest of the issues.

We had plenty of time for it, at least. The storm raged on outside our sheltered den buried into the earth, howling like some great, swirling hunter in the dark. Measuring the days would have been difficult, but I could rely on my own mana regeneration to count the time. We were six days into being snowed in when something finally changed.

I could only barely sense it at first, a twinkle of light visible through the snowy blackness near the furthest reaches of my consciousness, and a din of sound almost like people shouting over the winds. My focus raced down the tunnels to investigate it, shifting all of my mental resources to where our expedition base was, nestled into the hills above the winding old road. Far below, I could see the flickering of a procession of lantern lights, unable to see much more in the inky darkness. Ephilia raced over at my urging, carefully peeking out to investigate further.

Through her eyes, we saw it. A pair of covered wagons, pulled by thick-haired beasts of burden. Marching in lockstep with the turning of the wheels was a contingent of fighters, armor trimmed with furs and heavy leather packs hanging from their shoulders. Perhaps a dozen of them in total, though there was no telling who or what was inside the carts from our position. At the tip of this spear punching through the vast snowdrift covering the road was a soldier in similar garment to the others, though armed differently. In his hands he clutched a metal rod that glowed as if it had just been pulled from a furnace. He waved it to his left, then his right, and back again, in a way that almost reminded me of someone combing a beach with a metal detector.

Only in this case, this staff seemed to be instantly sublimating the snow into steam wherever it was waved, clearing the road for the rest of the convoy to follow.

Magic stick. Got it.

Examining the soldiers offered a little insight into them, but not much.

CARAVAN GUARDSMAN LVL: 5 NAME: "Ollin"

Skills:

[Enhanced Vitality I]

[Enhanced Strength II]

[Swordplay I]

[Axeplay I]

[Bodyguard I]

HP: 31 / 31 CATEGORY: Humanoid MP: 0 / 0 SPECIES: Human SP: 12 / 18 SIZE: Medium XP: ?? GENDER: ♂ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 12 11 9 5 5 5

A sellsword employed as a caravan guard. Well-equipped and disciplined, but poorly-organized as a group.

“A trade caravan, huh? Can’t imagine why they’re travelling when it’s this bad out,” I remarked to Ephi, “Must be urgent to not bother waiting for the storm to pass.”

I earned a nod in response—the rat seemed far too focused on peering at whatever these travelers were doing to pay me much mind.

“Still, it’s a bit odd that it’s taken us this long to see anyone really using this road at all. Must not be a very profitable route. Or maybe there’s a better road somewhere further inland?”

Another nod.

“Did you see something unusual down there, or what? You’re zoning out on me,” I prodded.

She snapped out of it at this, heading back inside and starting to remove her armor from herself. “I’m going to see what’s in their cart,” she responded matter-of-factly.

“You’re what—look, you got away with that once with a wagon that wasn’t moving and wasn’t being actively guarded. It’s freezing cold out on top of that. Now isn’t the time for it—maybe we can hit them on their return trip or something.”

She sighed, already trotting her way back out of the tunnel. “I’ve been stuck inside for days now. I’ll be quick, I just want to feel like I’m accomplishing something instead of sitting inside. Just a peek.”

By the time I’d tried to figure out whether I should blockade the exit or not, she was already gone, making her way up behind the caravan along the still-damp road where they’d cleared the snow.

“…You could have at least kept the armor on. You’d have been warmer that way, and I doubt it would make any difference with them hearing you with how strong the wind is,” I grumbled to her. Her stubbornness had a tendency of helping more often than not, but I still couldn’t help but feel uneasy about such a risk. It wasn’t like there was a leash I could tug to pull her back or anything.

Some deeply-buried part of my mind chimed in helpfully to remind me that [Core Egocide] existed. I promptly shoved it back down. No. Not a chance.

Ephi was larger now than during her first heist, but also faster and generally more skilled, so I wasn’t quite sure on whether she’d have an easier time or not. The guards seemed to be focused more on keeping an eye into the distance for any sort of ambushes, so something low to the ground and unassuming like a (particularly-large) rat would be difficult to see as long as her movements didn’t register in their peripherals.

Their choice of armor was an advantage on our end, luckily. Their standard issue seemed to include a barbute to protect their head, and the cold weather added a cloth hood pulled over top. This would restrict their field of vision quite a bit.

I watched through her eyes as she hugged the snowbank, darting up until she was one good lunge away from being able to nip at the heels of the guard furthest to the back-right. Lantern held in his hand, he turned his gaze towards the side of the road, peering up suspiciously at the looming wall of the cliff, allowing Ephi the chance to scurry to the side, vanishing underneath the wagon. Unable to use the wheels to climb this time, she did her best to match pace with the cart, allowing herself to slip just a bit behind it before leaping upwards and scrambling onto the back of the wagon.

Her little legs kicked and flailed, scratching for footholds in the wood before she finally managed to tug herself up and over, hurriedly slipping into the covered insides of the cart.

Her padded foot tapped down, and she stopped in her tracks.

We’d both noticed it. Whatever she had just stepped on didn’t sound like wood.

It didn’t move in response to her presence, only barely even registering as alive at all thanks to the slow rise and fall of its chest. A person.

And Ephi had just hopped right onto his thigh.

The only thing that had stopped me from immediately urging Ephi to leave was the fact that a blindfold covered his dirty, weathered face.

GRIZZLED HUMAN MERCENARY LVL: 6 NAME: "Tilero"

Skills:

[Enhanced Vitality II]

[Enhanced Strength II]

[Enhanced Dexterity I]

[Swordplay II]

[Savage Defense]

[Rupture Armor]

HP: 5 / 35 CATEGORY: Humanoid MP: 2 / 2 SPECIES: Human SP: 4 / 26 SIZE: Medium XP: ?? GENDER: ♂ STR VIT DEX INT WIS PER 12 14 10 7 6 4

A human hailing from the city of Boltha. Highly-proficient with the sword, but lacking in all other aspects. Suffering from extensive but non life-threatening injuries.

The parts of his body that weren’t covered by his clothing were covered in welts and bruises, and the right side of his face in particular looked so swollen and discolored that it called to mind the image of a severe allergic reaction, as if he’d stuffed a fistful of bees into his mouth.

It was pretty clear he’d just taken the beating of a lifetime, though.

Ephi didn’t spend much more time lingering on him, hopping off and deeper into the cart to look around more once her initial fright from the shock of running into a person wore off. Deeming the situation safe, she explored further while I tried to bite my tongue and not distract her from what she was doing. As much as I didn’t want her to be there right now, she knew her own capabilities. I’d just have to trust her to stay out of harm’s way.

The rest of the cart was only sparsely filled with barrels, sealed too tight for Ephi to have any chance of peeking inside without something to act as a prybar. They weren’t labelled either.

“I’m going to check the other cart, too,” she explained, cautiously making her way to hop back out, “They might have money in there.”

“Look, I get that I’m not going to talk you out of doing what you want at this point, but this clearly isn’t just a trade caravan. Traders don’t carry people beaten within an inch of their lives and tied up like this. Maybe they’re slavers or bounty hunters or who knows what else. Dangerous people. If things get iffy at all, you run. And don’t just nod.”

“Fine. I’ll be careful. Don’t worry too much,” she replied, making her way back across the tied-up man’s lap.

“…Hey uh, one last thing. You remember that time you smacked that crazy-looking bug out of the tree? The one that I told you was from another dungeon? I think this is the guy you knocked it onto. Same name. I can’t remember what his stats were exactly, but this guy seems like he fits the bill.”

It had taken me a moment to remember, but I’d only seen a small number of people in my time here. His armor was gone, instead covered in common clothing, his trousers black from grime below the knee, and he was clearly unarmed as well. Whatever had gotten him into this situation was beyond my knowledge, but it seemed like he was in dire trouble.

She glanced up at him for a moment, unsure what to do with this information.

“Do you want me to help him?”, she asked.

“It feels a bit wrong to leave him like this, but it’s… admittedly also not really our business. Hard to say. For all we know, the guy might even be a criminal being brought to town for trial or something,” I remarked offhandedly.

A lie. He was from Boltha, to the south. Why would they be taking him north? Either way, freeing him would put us at risk. Even from an altruistic standpoint, what would he do? Run off into the cold without any supplies or shelter? He’d be dead within a few hours, assuming he didn’t just catch an arrow in the back or get recaptured. I wasn’t sure Ephi would react to knowing that, but I couldn’t chance her taking any further risks.

A raspy, sputtering croak of a cough came from the tied-up man.

“…Well, we can undo his bindings, at least. We did screw him over once already. Just be quick and if he starts moving, don’t stick around.”