That’s just wrong! You can’t go and call a bird a swallow if it’s actually a swiftlet, my inner ornithologist is outraged!

These little birds fly around gobbling up aerofauna as well as scavenging for fruits, seeds, etc. Unfortunately, unlike the species I’m familiar with from Earth, they don’t make their nests from saliva, but instead build traditional nests out of twigs and the like within the gills of the fungus trees.

And speaking of which, I now have an ID for my primary fungiwood source. The yellow growths certainly resemble mushrooms, but the key difference here is that the the bulk of the organism’s mass is in the fruiting body, not the mycelium. I imagine that’s an evolutionary product of their dependence on arcanasynthesis. Still, they do network to some extent, forming clusters of “trees” which belong to a single individual.

The cave drifter is perhaps the most interesting of the trio of organisms I’ve shared here. They are, as you may recall, the floating aerial jellyfish I witnessed when I’d first breached the cavern. Numerous sizes are represented in their population; ranging from 10 to 60 cm in diameter. Initially, I’d figured they were employing some sort of magic shenanigans to levitate, however now I can clearly see I was mistaken. In reality, their “skin” is extremely thin, and they are exceptionally lightweight. The jellyfish’s enclosed bells are filled with buoyant hydrogen gas which enables flight.

And that is simply incredible. There’s nothing like this on Earth. I can’t rule out magic just yet, however from what I can tell, cave drifters have a natural means of either extracting or synthesizing hydrogen. I’ll need to closely study their diets in order to solve the mystery of their hydrogen source.

If they end up providing a plentiful and scalable supply of hydrogen gas, I’ll have many more options in the future. Flammable gasses are very useful.

While I was creating my super helpers, (who are developing nicely, by the way) Wes delivered the rope I’d asked for to the same location where I had first collected my purchases.

Now that I have some time on my hands, I can put the new stone block supply chain through its paces. My merchant acquaintance provided me with several kilometers of hemp rope, though not continuous, so I effortlessly tie the separate pieces together with a double fisherman’s knot. I’ve never tied one of those before, but at some point I must’ve seen a diagram. Let me tell you, life as a dungeon core does have its perks. The first of many being that I wasn’t faced with oblivion upon my death but, well, that wouldn’t be exclusive to dungeon cores, would it?

Would it…? I would’ve probably heard about it by now if reincarnation was a common occurrence. I’ll keep my ears peeled for any mention of “the afterlife.”

I really need to get my hands on some hemp plants, it is an unbelievably versatile fibrous crop used in the production of paper, rope, (duh) textiles, oils, and more! I’ll ask Weston for some seeds soon.

Punching a hole in the spool drum on my gear reduction, I thread one end of the rope through and tie a knot around the end. Measuring out a 1-kilometer length of rope from there, I make a cut and tie off of the fresh end to keep it from fraying. Next I fasten it to the large wagon and admire my handiwork.

Small.

It’s so small! Now that I have giant cave centipedes and super helpers, my sense of scale has once more been skewed. Of course, as long as I continue to improve and expand, old designs will be rapidly outmoded. It’s only natural, so I’ll just have to get over it and keep moving forward. And to be honest, I’m not upset, I genuinely enjoy the process.

As long as I don’t spend more than a couple hours a day excavating, the current wagon system should be able to handle the volume of stone.

The Caverknights are slated to arrive in Sevit in just a few more days, once they’re stationed, I presume the “upper,” or “first” subterrane, the Lyrian’s name for the cluster of caves just beneath the planet’s surface, will be opened to the public. I want to have a collection of stone blocks ready for Wes to pick up as soon as he can, therefore I start mining now.

As I don’t have any ongoing excavation projects, I decide to begin excavating a miscellaneous room near my core’s hideout, I’m sure I’ll find a use for it later. With finesse, I slice into the overgrown-with-moss rhyolite walls while making sure I maintain precision. After all, there’s no point in setting a standard if I don’t conform to it.

The shafts pointing outwards from the sides of each normal wagon allow 12 dungeon helpers to push on both sides, with the front 4 responsible for steering as well. Loading 12 15x15x30 cm blocks in a 2x2x3 block configuration. I send the first cart off. I felt comfortable stacking this set 3 blocks high because there isn’t any rough terrain or steep slopes between my current location and the large wagon. Indeed, I’ve already gone through the effort of flattening a road for the normal carts to traverse.

The large ants industriously haul the cart to its waypoint. While they’re on their way, I make a few adjustments to the organic steering “script” I’d created as I notice minor flaws.

I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that the ants follow my orders so precisely. On the one hand, it makes them predictable and simplifies debugging, but on the other, they’re not adaptable while under a compulsion. Ants may not be the best test subjects for this; but I wonder if there’s a way to achieve a middle ground between following orders and adhering to natural behaviors.

Watching the ants maneuver the laden vehicle through the lush corridors of my dungeon is quite the sight. I could really get used to this. To keep the path clear of organic debris, I created a janitorial dungeon helper crew whose job is to remove obstacles such as weeds, moss, corpses, etc. Arriving at the large wagon’s ‘station,’ the ants carefully wheel the manual wagon up onto the larger vehicle’s bed. Once it’s loaded with 10 wagons, the wheelhouse operators should automatically take action and reel the payload over to the human’s mine.

…

It doesn’t take any longer than an hour to fully load up the large wagon. I’m sure I’ll make faster progress once I develop a muscle (Mana?) memory for cutting CMUs to the proper size. Though even now, my mining speed has slightly increased. Not having to cut everything to a pebble’s size really shaves a lot of time off the process. As soon as the ants who were pushing the tenth cart disembarked, the wheel-pushers started driving the gear train from a kilometer away.

With little delay, the thick rope was pulled taught and the encumbered wagon began to trundle down it’s designated path. Swinging over to the far end, I check up on the basic mechanism while it’s in operation. The thick fungiwood cogs produce a satisfying deep tumbling sound as they turn. The gear train and its casing is extremely robust, really, it has to be, wooden gears aren’t known for their ability to handle powerful torques. Or well, they are known, but not in a good way. Heh.

After a little while of waiting, the large wagon arrives, and the dungeon helpers stop driving the push-wheel without trouble. As I unload my first batch of stone blocks into the airlock’s center, I realize I’ve made a minor oversight. As my blocks are rectangular prisms, masons seeking to lay my blocks in arrangements with flush edges while still maintaining alternating brickwork will need to make use of half blocks from time to time. Now, cleanly cutting such hefty solid stone blocks is no easy feat for anyone who’s not a glorious dungeon core such as myself. I’m sure Wes will have no trouble procuring some extra coin from the sale of 15x15x15 cm half-blocks and it takes almost no extra effort on my part to make them a reality!

--------------------

Fifteen older men clad in white robes casually chatted amongst themselves and mingled with each other. The prestigious chambermen were meeting in Griffith Lambert’s mansion in Rendum, one of the Lyrian low-capitals and the seat of the Rendum Chamber. An outsider would immediately recognize the men’s ease with each other’s presence; indeed, the atmosphere was decidedly jovial.

Though they often expressed opposing interest, it was well known amongst civilian circles that the Rendum Chambermen were tightly knit and highly cooperative. This could be partially attributed to the ties forged by their families when they’d first settled the land persisting over the last couple generations.

Griffith’s hemicyclic Assembly Hall was one of the many preferred meeting places of the other 14 chambermen. Griffith himself wasn’t exactly a fan of this arrangement, but he never voiced his thoughts on the matter. As the province of Rendum is relatively new to the Lyrian Empire, the local chamber’s numbers had yet to swell to a size which would justify the creation of an official meeting chamber. Of course, the 15 men didn’t much mind, if anything it left them each with more individual influence.

Taking a seat in a high-backed leather chair, Griffith raised his voice and spoke out over the crowd, “Attention everybody, it’s time to begin the meeting,” he said simply.

Parting from their discussions, half of the chambermen followed Griffith’s example and took their seats while the other half remained standing. It was no bother, the Rendum Chamber wasn’t old enough yet to find itself bogged down by superfluous customs. No one here was haughty enough to take issue with the laid-back atmosphere.

Continuing, Griffith Lambert said, “As you’re no doubt aware, we’re meeting here today to discuss our next course of action with respect to the colonization of Sevit. Would you speak Elkin?”

Elkin Hran, the youngest and unquestionably the most enthusiastic and invested in Sevit’s progress, stood up from his chair and addresses the crowd, “I call on each of you to focus your efforts on the new settlement. One century ago the city of Sorson was founded on the second Lyrian mana well. In that brief window of time, they have grown to dominate, second only to Lyria! The chambermen who saw that endeavor through have, and continue to, reap rewards a thousand times greater than their costs.”

He took a breath and made eye contact with everyone in the room before proceeding, “Now we find ourselves in the same position as those titans once did. We would be fools to not strike while the iron is still hot; I motion for the Rendum Chamber to relocate to Sevit. Only by focusing every resource on the development of this heaven-sent mana well can we rise to prominence!”

Without hesitation, the gathered men supplied their ‘Ayes’ or ‘Nays.’ They’d known of Elkin’s bold proposal in advance.

Six ‘ayes’ and nine ‘Nays’ were counted.

The chambermen couldn’t go their separate ways, especially since they were already so few for the size of the region over which they governed.

The chamber would remain in Rendum.

With aplomb, Elkin retook his seat and briefly made eye contact with Declan Campbell. He hadn’t expected it to go any other way, so he did his best to set up his ally.

Predictably, Declan rose and cleared his throat before the assemblage and announced his counterproposal, “For many of you, relocating to a frontier so soon is simply impractical. That said, we can still secure each of our family’s future prosperity by sending our successors to represent us while we take care of our broader duties here. The benefits are threefold: Our chosen successors will gain experience and learn what it means to govern. The, dare I say, soon-to-be city of Sevit will be provided with much needed administration and guidance. And, of course, our families will establish themselves in the new region. I have no doubt there will come a time when we do decide to relocate this chamber, doing so will be easier with our feet already in the door. You all know what it means to settle the nation’s third mana well; logic dictates we act now. What say you?”

The robed men unanimously assented. To say ‘nay’ would be to forfeit their family’s future standing. No one present was delusional enough to dismiss the significance of a new mana well.

Before moving on to the next topic of discussion, Griffith said to his guests, “Our successors should travel to Sevit together. Furthermore, I fear we may need to fight to defend our latest acquisition. The Capital Chamber has sent word of elven movements along the outskirts of Merival Wood and the imperial army is marching to quell the aggression as we speak. I find it possible that the conflict may force other threats out of the woodworks. It would be naïve of us to assume we and the Isolens are the only entities colonizing the land cleared by the Upheaval Project. Let us discuss allocating additional forces.”