Back at the camp Louie had made a separate dome and linked the two of them by a short tunnel before making a kind of attic and creating a cistern in there to gravity feed the showers he wanted to make. The inside of the cistern he lined with a layer of the Firestone gathered from the termite mound, and removing taps and showerheads from his inventory he connected them to the cistern with stone pipes for showers. Although his Mana Construction was leveling up nicely he didn't have it high enough to construct small intricate things like the inner workings of taps.

He also created a swimming pool/roman style bath, sculpting its floor with the same infused stone as the cistern, but placed a dividing wall running through the middle of the bathroom and bath since bathing suits weren't high on their list of priority items.

After everything was done Louie used his 'Engraving for Dummies' book to engrave a purify Rune in the side of the bath with his engraving pen, hoping to test it out after everybody was done using the bath.

Those with Water> spells filled both the cistern and bath while Derek infused the Firestone with his fire mana, heating the water for a nice steaming shower and relaxing bath.

"Damn this is nice, that sculpture of yours is a miracle but nothing beats a nice relaxing bath." Everybody agreed with Sher.

After they spend more than an hour relaxing in the bath and everybody was done Louie tested the purifying rune by infusing it with mana.

A pulse ran through the water and what looked like smog particles drifted up from the surface to dissipate in the air, leaving the water crystal clear.

Leon shook his head. "Damn that's nice, I can think of a million ways that we can use that rune."

"Yes, me too. Engrave it on the inside of a barrel and you would never have to worry about cholera." Louie said.

"Yea, I wonder if that would work in sewers?" Sher asked, thinking of the sewer system in Starter Town which had turned into a Slime experience farm.

"Hmm, we will have to experiment and see," Louie said as he removed the engraving pen and filled it with mana dust.

He slowly started carving instructions into the bathroom wall, on how to imbue the cistern and bath as well as powering the rune, for future travelers who might use the rest spot as well as the bathhouse.

He linked the instructions with the light rune and used Improvise to turn it into a magic neon sign as he did for the metal shop back in Worcester.

Sher and Leon shook their heads in appreciation for the instructions as they left the bathroom to start sorting the loot from the battle with the termites.

Leon placed his chest with the loot from the funnel trap on the table and opened it.

Louie looked inside the chest, "Nice loot." He smiled at Leon.

He looked back in the chest and could see a BB just like his inventory with a grid of sixteen by sixteen sq, and above each one was a little tab that showed the amount of loot stacked in the sq. The first showed 99/99 mandibles. There were two hundred and fifty-six inventory slots, most of them were full.

The frozen termite bodies that will later be used for harvesting took up most of the space, some of the big soldier termites filled as much as eight sq but stacked up to thirty bodies. The smaller workers only took up three sq on top of each other and stacked fifty each.

"How many termites were in the valley?" He asked as he looked over the chest inventory.

"About a thousand, a quarter of that was Soldiers. Dan pulled trains of between thirty and fifty. We looted them all before we froze and stored the bodies."

"Good, half of all the loot will be going to the crafters that can use it, the rest will be divided between everybody else, to be sold to a vendor or crafter as you see fit, not that anybody can complain of a lack of coin after finishing the quest and all the other coin we made on this trip."

"The tablet says that there is a vendor close by where Paarl should be, we must just find it."

There were a lot of smiles at the thought of another dungeon.

Louie has not shared his BB of the Proto Dungeon core with everybody, but he has decided to share it with Leon later since he will run STC, and if everything works out as he hoped then the headquarters of STC will be situated in Paarl.

Louie analyzed the termite carapaces.

"Well, the carapaces are crap since termites are mostly squishy, but at least it's fireproof."

Shadow was immediately interested as well as the guards, who asked if Micheal will make them some light armor and he agreed by taking their share of the carapaces from the termite since the flexibility will come in handy in making soft but sturdy fireproof armor.

Deidre was interested in the wings from the Alatese, saying she could use them to create cloaks, and Francine and Derek each wanted the crystals from the Queen as well as some of the mandibles to see if they couldn't use them in crafting weapons and jewelry.

Derek also received the Beast Core from the fire Queen to feed to Ember in the hope that he would unlock some more fire abilities.

Sher wanted and got the fire gland from the Queen and a couple of kilos of the meat as well as some of the intestines that the system showed had alchemical properties in the hope that she and Danny would be able to see if they could use it in any potions.

The rest of the mandibles and fire glands as well as the raw meat and the cores that came from some of the Alates were divided between everybody to use as they saw fit.

The roast meat that they got from the final battle in the queen cavern had a smoky quality and texture that looked and tasted more like lobster than ordinary meat, some of them were skeptical at first but Louie knew from the internet that some African tribes found termites very tasteful and went out of their way to harvest the alates when they leave the mounds.

The roast meat was given to Micheal to store in his bracelets and into Sher's Lunchbox.

The potions went to Leon to be given out when needed.

After Louie restored their armor and damaged clothes, everybody went to bed.

It was just after two in the morning, according to Louie's system clock when he was woken by Sean.

"Louie, you should come to the fire, the pets have caught someone, something is fishy."

He wiped the sleep from his eyes as he stumbled out of the tent and through the front door of the dome towards the fire.

There were two people wrapped in spider silk laying next to the fire, one, the male was struggling and trying to shout through his gag when he saw them approaching the fire.

Louie walked up to them and prodded the closest person with his boot till he . . she rolled over onto her back.

She was young, maybe sixteen if he was not mistaken, her skin was the color of mat black coal, but her hair, from what he saw of her eyebrows and the soft fuzz on her exposed skin, was blond, more like a platinum blond nearly silver.

He looked over at the male and saw that they had the same skin and hair but not the same facial features.

He moved over and removed the gag from the man's mouth, upon which he started cursing and threatening them for interfering with the Clan's business and demanding that they release him and his captive immediately or face the wrath of their Chief.

From listening to his ranting Louie concluded that she was the daughter of the old Chief of their Clan and that he was sent to bring her back after she ran away.

Louie ignored the guy and turned back to the girl and removed the spilk bindings from the girl by touching the cocoon-like webbing and willing it into his inventory. He noticed that her arms and legs were still bound by rope, so he removed the bonds by cutting through them with his bowie.

He called Sher over as he noticed some strange deformity to her legs. By now most of the grownups and teens were standing around the fire and strangers, only leaving the kids still inside the dome.

Sher used and saw that the girl's feet were bound up against her legs making her heels the only part that would touch the ground.

"Is this natural?" Louie asked, he doubted that this kind of deformity was natural but he had heard and seen stranger things since the pulse.

Mainey, who came over when she saw Sher using her spell on the unconscious girl, shook her head after seeing the scan.

"Your spell is so much better than mine," she pointed at some bones. "See here, the Achilles tendon, as well as the post lat malleolus, post talofibular, and calcaneofibular ligaments, have all been cut before the feet were bonded up to the legs. There is no way that this is natural or self-inflicted, this was done so she couldn't walk or run away."

Louie turned to the bound man that was brought in with the girl. "Did you do this to her?"

The struggling man spits in Louies' direction while glaring at him with hate-filled eyes. Eyes that shone like cats' eyes when it reflected the firelight.

"This has nothing to do with you, Outsiders, let us go, this is Clan business."

Louie lifted the ropes that he had cut from the girl. "Clan business?" He moved in closer to the struggling man as the temperature around the fire dropped. "Is this 'Clan' of yours in the business of tying girls up and kidnapping them after mutilating them to ensure they can't run away?"

"Fuck you, she belongs to the Chief!"

Louie heard a commotion behind him and saw that the girl was awake, he saw the hate in her eyes as she looked at the bound man, he noticed that they had the same kind of glowing eyes.

"Never!" She spits in the direction of the man and he goes into a frenzy trying to reach her.

"Bitch! I will teach. . . "

He shut his mouth and froze as his eyes got big when what looked like a big gun appeared in Louie's hand which he placed against the man's forehead. Small streamers of cold fog slowly flowed out of the barrel and down his face.

Louie looked back at the girl, "You are from the same 'Clan'?"

She nodded.

"You can tell me everything about this 'Clan' that I need to know?"

She nodded again.

"Good." She gasped as he pulled the trigger.

He touched the body with his boot and stored it in his inventory. He had found that he could store anything in his inventory just by willing it so while touching it with any part of his body, not just his hands.

His Boltgun disappeared back into his inventory as he leaned towards the girl.

"Tell me about yourself and this . . Clan Chief of yours?"

"Wait." Sher interrupted them. "We must first see if we can fix her feet. I want the caravan over there." She indicated a spot next to the door where she wanted Louie to place the caravan that they were going to use as a clinic.

The girl looked at her mutilated feet with tears in her eyes. "You can fix them?"

Kotcge carried her into the caravan and closed the door as he came out.

Louie told them all to go back to sleep and that he will take over guard duty while he waited for them, and that he thought the girl would have to rest for the rest of the night before answering any of his questions.

When the sun came up Louie was busy making breakfast,

He made pancakes stuffed with lobster filling but the main ingredient was the termite meat instead of lobster, he had thought of trying to use the red mushrooms that grew in the termite mound and he got as loot, but although they were edible they were a bit too spicey to be included in the recipe.

For the filling he used.

Nutmeg: from his Worcester loot; Freshly-grated, to taste. Swiss cheese: also from Worcester; Grated, to taste. 2 tb Flour: also from Worcester. 1/4 c Heavy cream: from the Husse loot. Salt; to taste: 'hmm, might become a problem finding later'. 1/4 c Swiss cheese; Grated, again Worcester. 2 c lobster stock; or fish stock, made from boiling some meat. 6 tb Lobster butter; again using some roasted termite meat. 1 c Dry white wine from the Dungeon vendor. 2 tb Fresh chives; harvested in the forest.

This was a recipe he used himself in the past, now he just modified and multiplied it by ten to make sure there was enough for everybody.

He was glad to see the girl, wearing a pair of ordinary dark sunglasses, with a plate of food and when he asked Sher about the glasses, she told him that the girl's name was Shira, and her Clan is nocturnal dwellers.

When he raised an eyebrow at her statement she lightly punched him on his arm. "Not like vampires, their eyes are just very sensitive to light and they have 20/20 , have you used on her?"

He shook his head, "I wasn't thinking of vampires, in the games, there is a race of dark-skinned light-haired elves that live underground and were ruled by the women of their race, they were mostly portrayed as evil and worshiped a dark spider goddess. Remember those half-spider half-human golems we fought in the Dungeon?" She nodded. "Those were Driders, they are usually their elite forces."

They both looked at Shira where she was sitting with the other teens absentmindedly stroking the hard Carapace of Blue, Naomi's little spider.

"They were known as Drow."

He used

Name: Shira Oktober

Race: (Nighthunter Level 4 )

Class: Hunter/?????

Sub-classes: Rogue

Titles: *******

He concentrated on the name Nighthunter.

Nighthunter

The Nighthunter Clan are one of the groups of humans that were slightly altered just after being integrated into the System to better survive their environment, they live mostly underground and hunt their prey during the night.

Louie shared the BB with Sher and Leon who joined them while they were talking about Shira

"Hmm, just what the world needs, Drow. Damn."

Louie slapped him on the shoulder.

"Not Drow, Nighthunters, and if we can establish good relations with them then we might steer them down the right path."

"Good luck with that, you heard what that asshole said, he was taking her to his Chief, it sounds like they are pretty far down the dark path already."

Louie shook his head, "maybe not, it's only been a couple of weeks since the pulse, let's see if we can bend the tree while it's still young."

They cleaned and stored their plates before walking over to the Drow-like young girl.

"Sorry guys, we would like to talk to Shira."

The teens and the kids got up and moved till they stood behind Shira while the grown-ups all took seats around to hear her story.

"Hi Shira, I'm Louie, this is Sher and Leon, the rest are our friends. We are a trading company going to Paarl. I'm glad to see that Sher and Mainey could heal your feet, can you tell us who that guy was and why he did that to you, and about your Clan."

She looked uncertain at first but then started telling them about her clan.

"We were having a braai when the light came and the earthquakes, later the monsters, some things that looked like giant rats, came and we were cut off from the buildings. They came out of the sewers and holes in the ground between the houses. We retreated into the open-pit mine. There was an enclosed yard with some heavy machinery down there and we held our own. We used some of the tarpaulins and made some shelters. When we could get a break we did some looting and scavenging. Two days later it got worse when there was a new kind of dog monster that showed up and we had to retreat into a tunnel in the side of the old pit mine that they had dug a couple of years ago and were being used for storage. It wasn't deep but it had only one entrance so we barricaded the place and started going out at night to hunt the monsters and strip the houses of anything useful bringing it back to the tunnel. Over the next couple of weeks, things started to change, two of us unlocked and improved the space till it was livable, but we all changed till we looked like we do now. It has gotten so bad that we can't go out during the day, the sun is too bright and hurts our eyes. One of the kids jokingly said that we are night hunters and the name stuck."

"Tell us more about this Chief," Louie asked.

"The new Clan's chief is my uncle, a vicious, lazy degenerate. The only good thing he ever did in his whole sorry life was getting my fathers' CV in the top ten for a position as a tipper driver when the job became available." She looked at those sitting around the fire. "My father had the best qualifications but he wasn't working for the mine at the time. They were mostly looking internally, but my father called in a debt that my uncle owed him. All he had to do was get the CV in and my father believed that his qualifications would do the rest, and it did, he got the job. That was ten years ago. Over the years my father got the whole family to work there, don't get me wrong, you had to be qualified to do the job, my father didn't like wastrels, but if you were family and you were willing and able to do the job then he would find a way to get you in. What made the brickworks so desirable was the kampongs."

"Kompong? What is a Kompong?" Trish asked before shrinking back behind Jack. From the look on her face that she hadn't meant to ask the question aloud.

"It's housing, during the apartheid the single men lived in compounds at the mines and it was later called kampongs by those that lived there. It wasn't a nice place to live sweetie." She told Trish. "It was mostly for single men and crime was king there, but the family men started to improve the housing at the mine, with the help from my father and the go-ahead from the old mine owner. It wasn't home but it was nice after they did some renovating and enlargements and most of our family worked and lived there. My uncle didn't like it, because after all the years he was still only the janitor while my father became the overall pit boss. The night of the blue light we were having a party, doing a spitbraai and drinking mague that has been specially made. . '' They laughed.

"Jip like my dad's pineapple beer, we regularly got wasted on that." Derek chimed in.

"After the light, we were all sitting around the fire discussing the messages that we all got when my dad went to relieve himself behind one of the buildings. There was an 'accident' and he was killed when one of the support walls collapsed on him." She sniffed and wiped a tear from her eyes before she resumed her story.

"It was suspicious that my uncle just happened to be talking to him when it happened. After we moved into the tunnel and barricaded and improved it, he started to throw his weight around but everybody just laughed at him. Then about a week ago it all changed, suddenly the hunters started to follow his orders and they called him chief. I could see that some of them hated it but they still kept their mouths shut and did what he said."

Louie received a message from Deidre.

'Louie, Do you think that he found out that he can make slaves and enslaved the young hunters? Deidre.'

'Deidre, yea, I think so, it will complicate things a bit, if we go in there then we must make sure to take him alive, he sounds like the kind of guy that would hide behind the women. Louie'

Shira, was a bit shocked about the way that Louie had looked at the hunter and the way that he had killed him without blinking, but she had a feeling that if anybody were able to help the clan then this group would, she told them everything they wanted to know.

Louie listened till she stopped talking.

"So you have no objection if we remove this Chief?" She shook her head.

"Ok, from what you told us this holding of your clan is on the other side of Paarl, so I suggest that we keep our plan the way it is, we go to Paarl, establish a base there and then work from there."

She started to look panicky.

"What's wrong?"

"You are going into Paarl?"

"Yes, is that a problem?"

Shira looked at Sher

"We don't go there, those in the camps don't like those that are different."

Sher leaned towards her. "Different? What do you mean by different?"

She looked at Sher, "Different like us, different skin, hair, eyes."

"What's wrong with my skin and hair?" A confused Sher asked.

They all looked at Sher.

He leaned in to have a closer look and realized that her brown mocha skin color has slowly changed and what he had at first thought was stretch marks peeking from under her cuirass, actually look alot like the striations of tree bark and he also noticed that the green he had seen at the roots of her hair was more prominent now.

"Huh, Sher, it looks like being Gaea's Druid is slowly changing your outer appearance."

"What!" She took a small hand mirror out of her inventory and studied her face and hair in the mirror.

"Damn, I didn't notice." She looked around and the others just shrugged.

"We didn't notice either, not that it bothers us any," Kotche said.

"Yea, We don't mind having a sexy Druid with us." Sher blushed at Leon.

Shira just looked at them with big eyes. "In Paarl, they call us inhuman. I heard that they hunt and kill our kind." Louie leaned back, "then they are fucking idiots, nobody hurt my family, and Sher is my family."

Shira shivered as she felt the chill in his voice and saw the darkness radiating from his eyes.

"You can travel with us till we can go and visit your clan. Nobody will hurt you while you travel with us, they will have to go through us to get to you and we are no pushovers."

"Damn right." Kotche agreed.

They sat and discussed the situation in Paarl and what Shira knew about it for another hour before they packed up and got ready to tackle the last couple of kilometers of their journey.

Caravan members

Lewis (Louie) Poren: Leader: Darkness: pet (BOB) Leon Koen: Metal(2IC) pet (Seera: Black Widow) Sheralee Van de Merve: Life(Healer) pet (Ansi: Queen spider) Mainey Fish: Light(Medic, indentured) pet (Stitch: Orb Weaver spider) Celia Malan: Life (Merchant) pet (Jon: Goliath birdeater) Naomi Malan: (underage) pet (Blue: small jumping spider) Trish and David: (Orphans) Diedre Viljoen: water (Tailor, indentured) pet (Sisy: Weaver spider) Francine Viljoen: Air(Jeweller, indentured) pet (Bling: fantasy Crystal spider) Micheal Nasser: Nature(Leathersmith)pet (Rover: Huntsman spider) Derek Samuels: Fire(Novice Blacksmith) pet (Ember: fantasy fire spider) Kotche: Earth (Soldier) pet (Stomp, brown widow spider) Counsellor: Air (Wedge, spear)pet (Wolfie: wolf spider ) Christian Else: Water(Water mage) pet (Rob: blue Tarantula) Shadow: Fire(Scout) pet (Selina: Assassin spider) Jackson Pollok: Air (Warrior) pet (Zephyr: Wolf spider) Debbie Poerstamper: Earth (Warrior) pet (Bar: big Spiny Orb-weaver) Witney: Air (Warrior, guard,) pet (Ula: Tarantula) Sean: Air (Air mage, guard,) pet (Sweep: Tarantula) Barry: Fire(Warrior, guard,) pet (Papi: Tarantula) Garth: Water(Ranger, guard,) pet (Eeak: Weaver)

Scouts:

Dan: Barberian?

Jenna: Firebrand

Danny: Chemist

Jack: underage rogue (system locked)

Apollo:?

Artimus:?

Status

Name:

Lewis (Louie) Poren

Race:

Human (Male) Lvl 12 " 450,660/819,200" = Lvl 13

Class:

Seeker (5) (25%).

Sub-classes:

(exterminator) (3%)

Titles:

Jack Black Brodifacoum, Trailblazer, Liberator. OFS (One Finger Salute) Dungeon pioneer David Selfish ?????

Affinity:

Darkness 0.001%

Affiliation:

N/A

Statistics

Health points (HP):

540

strength + constitution times level

Mana Points (MP):

504

Intelligence + willpower times level

Stamina (SP):

660

agility + constitution + willpower times level

Critical Hit Chance:

4%

Attributes

Strength:

23

Agility:

18

Constitution:

22

Perception:

21

Intelligence:

27

Willpower:

15

Charisma:

7

Luck:

5

Free attribute points:

0

Skills

Skill

Level

Progression

Wu shu:

5

95/100

Improvised weaponry:

T1: 2

05/100

Glacial Rage:

6

30/100

Meditation:

5

95/100

Regeneration:

T1: 0

25/100

Mana Manipulation:

9

80/100

Survival:

9

85/100

Cooking:

0

15/100

Restoration:

T1: 1

55/100

Social Sharing

1

55/100

Harvesting:

7

25/100

Herb Lore:

2

40/100

Whittling:

0

00/100

Pain resistance:

T1: 0

00/100

Poison resistance:

3

42/100

Cat`s eye:

7

55/100

Senses:

5

35/100

Armourer:

5

95/100

System Minimap:

5

85/100

Cartography:

3

95/100

Public speaking:

5

25/100

Spell Transformation: *

2

10/100

Backstab:

0

00/100

Skewer:

0

00/100

Scholer:

0

00/100

Learning:

#

#

Quick study:

#

#

Know-how:

#

#

Class Skill Proficiencies

Skill

Level

Progression

Investigation:

6

35/100

Tracking:

4

55/100

Intuition:

T1: 2

35/100

Analyse:

T1: 7

80/100

Lore:

2

10/100

Monster Expert:

4

25/100

?????

0

00/100

Spells

Spell

Level

Progression

Activation

Improvise:

T1: 1

35/100

Touch

Mana Construction:

T3: 3

25/100

Cast

Structural Modification

0

00/100

Touch

Liquefaction:

T1: 5

20/100

Cast

Earth Sense:

T1: 4

35/100

Touch

Weapon Schematics:

T1: 2

80/100

Touch

Vampiric:

0

00/100

Cast

Darkorb

0

00/100

Cast

Transfusion:

0

00/100

Touch

Electrocute:

0

30/100

Cast

Suffocate:

0

15/100

Cast

Waterboard:

1

85/100

Cast

Cauterise:

4

65/100

Touch

Shadow Step:

0

15/100

Cast

Fear:

0

20/100

Cast

Concussion Blast:

0

00/100

Cast

????

0

00/100