“Good morning Rose,” said Lucas as he stretched

Good Morning Lucas. How did you sleep?

“Honestly pretty well. I probably should have eaten first, but eh. I can be up early to eat.” Pausing, Lucas continued. “Rose… do we have a bathroom? Maybe someplace where you can’t see me?”

I took the liberty of going ahead and repairing a restroom with the Nanobots. It doesn’t have flushing water… yet. But if you get some time to run a pump along with a garden hose out to the River, I can start filling the Potable water tanks and we can add running water. Although I guess we are going to want to add wastewater treatment at some point too. I will run out of places to put the waste otherwise. And unfortunately for you, I can see everywhere within the dungeon. That’s one of the things that happened when you released that massive blast. I guess you could put something over the camera in the bathroom…

Sighing, Lucas noticed the new room she was referring to. Digging through the desk, he managed to find some post-it notes. Grabbing the Post-it notes, Lucas placed them carefully over the tiny cameras in each of the corners.

Giggling, Rose said, You missed one.

“Where?”

Above the door frame.

Sighing, Lucas grabbed a chair. Placing the Post-it note over the lens, he asks “Am I good now Rose?”

I guess. But I can’t see anything in the bathroom now.

“Perfect.”

“Alright Rose, can I get an update on what you got done while I was sleeping?” asked Lucas.

The flames seemed to have burned out on the roof. The energy flow generated by the solar panels, from the fire, tapered out at around 5 AM. We are back up to 100 MW/hr. in storage. The sun isn’t high in the sky yet, but just clearing the canopy over the panels has raised our generation capacity compared to this time yesterday. Even without the extra energy coming in from the flames, we are going to have a net surplus for the day. Not a large one, but more than a couple kW/hrs.

There are still a lot of panels not providing any energy. There is also a wide variation in the output from the panels that are generating energy. You are going to have to get up on the roof and do an inspection on the panels to figure out what the problem is. There are no panels that are outputting anything close to their theoretical max output.

As far as the number of squirrels still on the roof… I have no idea. I haven’t seen any on the camera by the ladder, but then, I do not have 360-degree coverage of the outside of the building.

Regarding my progress in building, the Nanobots finished the reinforced door between the cave on level six with the river and the base. They finished the Restroom conversion into a proper bathroom with a shower and running the pipes down to the non-potable water. As soon as we get a little more power flowing, I can have the Nanoforge make some clay pipes and a pump. If you haven't already run a hose by then, we can pump in water from the river to provide running water. The structural integrity on the rest of the base is hovering somewhere around 55%. The Repair bots have been busy, and when the Nanobots weren’t working on those two items, I had them help with the structure.

The downside is I have used up most of the materials I had available for repairs. All those piles of broken concrete are gone. Along with most of the dirt. To continue to increase the integrity of the base, I will need access to water and limestone. I suspect both of those can be found in the cave off level 6. Other materials could be used for repairs, like iron or steel reinforcement. But I don’t have a lot of that either, and I want to save it for any repairs we need on the solar panels. I think that completes my activity from last night.

“Did you happen to harvest any of the Rat Meat for storage? I may need it for food down the line.”

Yes, as the Dungeon Bots swarmed around the base, I had them clean up the dead rats and goblins. The Rat meat is stored in your suspended animation tank. I didn’t have enough space for it in my suspension chamber down here. I ended up using quite a bit of the bone from the bodies as a base for some cement to patch up some of the holes. Everything else was broken into its constituent elements and dumped into the resource bins, which are also fully organized now.

Ironically, we have almost no materials outside of the rare materials. I have neodymium, cerium, gold, silver, platinum, and a host of other minor elements, but all our wood, steel, iron, copper, and plastic is in use somewhere. The wood on the top of the base is probably not usable after going through the fire. I’d advise converting that into charcoal if you get bored. Whenever you find a nearby settlement, they will probably be willing to pay for it so their blacksmith can use it.

“Suggested next step?” questioned Lucas.

Get on the roof, clear out the squirrels that we can guess will be present. Then start clearing out the dirt. That should get my energy regeneration to a decent place. You have crafting Nanobot access. Is there any way you can use your System Nanobots for restoration work? Your other choice is to visit the town and try and get some labor to help you. We don’t have any idea what the town uses as money, so you will have to barter.

Thinking for a moment, Lucas responded “Maybe on the crafting Nanobots? I don’t know if I will have to erase a preset spell or if I will be able to command them. If I had a fully functional solar panel, I could probably cast cleanse on it and provided all the material is present, it will all get put back together again. But I am going to take this one step at a time. Let's see what’s on the roof before we move forward.”

As Lucas is picking up his things to head to the roof, Rose says Don’t forget your scanner. You can stick it over the edge again, and I can tell you the lay of the land before you get up there.

“I know you can see me. You know the scanner is in my hand.”

I know, but I didn’t want you to forget to use it. I am not entirely comfortable sending you into combat where I can’t help you in any way shape or form...

In response, Lucas gently says, “Eventually I am going to have to go somewhere without you. As it is, you are tied down to this dungeon.” To follow up on that Lucas then says,” I almost forgot, I got a notification last night when I mentioned getting a higher affinity with the System.”

System Message As a level one user who has shown interest in growing more powerful, the System has granted you a unique quest.

Raise your System affinity to 25%, the minimum for Level 2 User rights to be granted.

Unaffiliated System Nanobots are available 13.2 miles North-North-West. (39.357, -86.033)

Unaffiliated System nanobots available 28 miles North (39.578, -85.810) Rewards: Level 2 User; +10 Attribute points; Unlock System nanobot crafting

“I need to complete a quest to craft with my System Nanobots the way you craft with your Dungeon Nanobots,” said Lucas after reading the white screen. “The system gave me a pretty awesome quest. It points me to two different locations where I can pick up additional System Nanobots and unlock Nanobot crafting.”

Please say that you are not going to run off and try and pick those up until after we’ve repaired the base power supply the rest of the way.

Tenderly, Lucas responds, “I promise, I’m not going to leave until after we’ve repaired the base. The locations I need to travel to are way outside of the range of the Comlink. I promised I would not leave you alone. And if I can help it, I won’t. I will eventually have to complete this quest. The rewards are too high not to, but hopefully, I can have relays installed along my route, find a better Comlink design, or find some people to stay with you.”

Turning, Lucas proceeded to walk to the exit to the base in silence. “Rose, please open the door and close it behind me.” As the door opened, Lucas slipped outside.