Chapter 10: The MAN CAVE

Back in real life, I made a quick run to the gym for my usual swim and then rushed back home to do some research up on baby tigers. After many different searches I had managed to compile quite bit of information.

Firstly, Victoria was right about being able to wean Azure at her current age from milk to meat, although it could be stretched an additional month since she was currently about 2 months old. The packages of meat that she had provided for us had been cut up into little pieces, or minced as the term was. From research, it said that tigers ate about 5% of their weight daily and preferred the meat of horses. “Hmmm, I wonder where I can get horse meat.” I muttered to myself

Continuing to read I learned that they needed additional calcium in their diet to promote healthy growth. At least working in Victoria’s Apothecary shop gave me access to lots of different supplemental materials like powdered bones.

Grooming apparently took a major precedence upon the interaction between mother and cubs. ‘How was I supposed to do that? Maybe a wet washcloth or something?’ Still there was much more to learn.

What really caught my interest was the growth rate of tigers. Apparently Azure should be about 17 lbs. or 7.5 Kgs. at her current age. That sounded about right. Unfortunately even after extensive searching, I couldn’t find anything consistent about how fast she should grow after the first 11 weeks or almost 3 months of age.

I did come across one extremely concerning factor in my reading. It said that when raising a tiger cub ,it is highly suggested to pair them with a domestic play partner, like a large dog. “Crud, I barely have time for the tiger, how am I supposed to get a dog?” I muttered in dismay.

In any case, armed with additional knowledge, I entered the capsule to start the new day.

* * * * *

I woke up to the sensation of someone tugging on my hair and the occasional needle being lightly jabbed into my scalp. Blindly reaching up with my hands I encountered the furry body of my new companion. Azure apparently had gotten tired of waiting for me to wake up and had taken matters into her own hands.

“Grrrrr.” I made a low snarling sound which then caused Azure to jump down from my head to peer into my eyes with excitement. Then she swiped at my nose with her left forepaw. “Hahaha.” I couldn’t help but laugh as I began lightly attacking her back, dodging and blocking her paws, which she thankfully kept sheathed at the moment.

*snicker* I heard the noise come from the back doorway that opened up to my room. Victoria stood there with a blissful expression watching the antics of Azure and I as we played this new game. In her hand was a spatula that I assumed meant she was in the middle of cooking. Sure enough, as I finally managed to wrestle my way out of bed with Azure pouncing on me at every occasion did I get up to follow Victoria into the kitchen.

On the floor, beside the already set table lay a bowl of milk with chunks of meat in it. ‘Well that went along with what the research said.’ I thought to myself. Settling down myself to eat breakfast, the smells of sizzling meat and fresh biscuits was mouthwatering. Too soon, it was all gone and it was time to face the day.

I had to admit, that though I hadn’t taken the time to go out and gather herbs lately and hadn’t done much work in the apothecary, Victoria hadn’t made any move to show any displeasure at my company and the added work necessary to feed and give room for me. I felt immensely grateful to her for it, but I began to wonder how I could ever repay her for the kindness. Well one thing for sure was to make it so that the man she wanted to marry would no longer have any more reservations about asking for her hand in marriage. So that meant doing more work on the Man Cave today.

Gathering all the supplies I felt would be necessary, I gathered up Azure into her lap hammock and set out to the falls.

Once there, all that remained of the violent encounter with the Reaper was a black patch on the ground where I had defeated it. I assumed that considering how much Kade had been excited about the claw, he should have some use for the rest of the body. With how much he was helping me, I didn’t begrudge him the extra bonus.

After making sure that the small area was indeed safe and free from anything that might hurt Azure, I set her down to let her explore the surroundings as I set to work on the ever growing cave.

Chipping and working away with incredible speed I moved cartful after cartful of broken stone to dump into the water. No longer did I save every bit that I cut out from the inside of the cave, but every rare once in a while I would find a largish piece of ore or some other material that felt unique, which I would then set aside outside of the cave for later study.

Having started at about 8:45 in the morning, it was already about 11:00 and I had managed to finish up an inner room that was about 14X12 feet in dimensions or a little over 3.5X4 meters. Having the opportunity to check up on Azure each time I carted out a pile of stone, I also gave her some meat snacks to enjoy at certain intervals, while I took breaks from the tiring work. Although it was tiring, never in my life would I have thought it possible to make this kind of progress that I had managed to make so far.

After eating, Azure had gone back to playfully “attacking” the water that came from my meditation waterfall. “Haha, Well we’ll see how long you enjoy that.” I said as I returned back to work. Stepping inside and making my way to the inner room, I took in the view of what I had done. The ceiling was about 7 inches above my head which gave a slightly claustrophobic feeling, but after being the one to personally shore up the stability with my own compression technique and adding in a few pillars of compressed stone I felt that safety wouldn’t be a problem.

Now that the room itself was created, I felt that since I didn’t know what kind of stuff Monroe was wanting to store I should create a variety of spaces for items. My primary focus was on shelf space. Marking marks on the walls where I wanted to cut into the top portion while leaving behind the bottom to create a series of waist high counter tops I once again brought the pickaxe to bare.

Coming out again at the point that the sun said it was close to midday, I heard the noise of something big coming down the pathway I took to get to this alcove.

Instantly on the alert, I rushed over to Azure who had taken to napping beside the grave of her mother to quickly but gently pick her up. Then stepping over to the far side of the pathway I moved to see what was coming our way.

“Phew” I sighed with relief to see who it was. Kade seemed to be pulling a rather large cart behind him with what looked like the massive door he had been working on to install at the front of the cave. Seeing me there looking at him, he raised a hand in greeting before once again pulling the massive cart down the somewhat unstable pathway.

Now that the feared danger was over, I let go of Azure to let her do what she wanted. Instead of wandering off like she had before, she stayed in my lap where I was sitting down to relax and wait for Kade to reach our little area. “Well I guess the cat is out of the bag, literally.” I said as I gazed down at Azure.

Finally, after reaching our smallish landing area Kade set his cart in the resting position to more fully face me. “Is that a White Tiger?!” He asked me. “Yep.” I replied. With a grunt and a nod of his head as if it was to be expected of me, he turned back to mentally gauge the door and the cave entrance.

‘Ah Kade, a man of few words.’ I thought to myself as I chuckled inside. Setting down Azure who seemed to want to stay with me as she followed close behind, I approached Kade as he began lifting the massive door from the cart to lean it against the wall perpendicular to the doorway. He then pulled out what looked like 2 pairs of different lengths of metal. Placing a bottom one first on the floor of the cave entrance, he then placed the two longer ones upon it. It looked like he was building the exterior frame first.

Suffice it to say, he had several other things within that cart that I had no idea how he planned to use it all. Once all 4 length of metal were in place, he pulled out a hammer and sharpened pins. Placing one of the pins into premade holes in the frame he began pounding them in. At that, I had to stop him.

“Kade, I think I can make this part easier.” Taking the pin from him in my right hand, I then touched the wall with my left. Pressing the pin into the hole in the frame, I mentally commanded the stone to create a hole for the pin to go deeper, securing the frame to the stone frame itself. Doing this with each of the panels and pins, I had them all securely in place in very little time. Just shaking his head Kade went back to the cart.

With my help, we both managed to get the door into place and then he began pounding the pins into the matched up hinges into place. This had to be done from the inside since he wanted the door to open inward. Then, he pulled out what looked like two brackets that could be attached to the inside of the door at about midlevel.

As I realized what he was creating, my eyes shot up in surprise. This was turning more into a Cliffside fortress than a Man Cave. The way the door was set up was that it would be able to open into the inside and then be blocked from the inside with a cross bar, making it very sturdy indeed. As he worked on the inside, I began molding the stone over the metal frame from the outside. Nothing short of a massive hammer strike or someone with my ability would be able to tear that frame from the stone. It also gave the added benefit of making it hard to see against the stone wall.

After finishing up inside, Kade came out to invite me in. “Can you do the same think that you did before with the pins?” He asked me. Holding up the cross bar I saw what he wanted me to do. The bar was longer than the frame itself, meaning it would need to fit into the sides of the cave entrance. With great care I molded the walls where the cross bar would fit and reinforced the strength of the stone many times over so that it would not give in easily if tested. The thick metal bar itself would bend and break long before the walls of the cave gave in. While there I also molded the stone around the majority of the frame while leaving space for the cross bar to fit flush against the door.

Finally the work was done and I had to admit, it was one hell of a hefty set up. Kade of course wanted a short tour of the cave since it had changed a bit since he had been there the day before. Gaping in amazement at the size of it and the included counters he just one again shook his head before speaking. “Well it looks done enough to me, so whenever you go talk to Monroe, then please tell him of my interest in coming to visit on occasion.”

Promising him I would, he then gathered up his supplies and took off up the trail to return to the city. With that portion done, I really had to admit that Kade was right in it being ready for Monroe to see it. Although I fully intended to create more passages and rooms within it. Its original purpose was fulfilled.

Before returning to give Monroe the news I still had to practice my water manipulation under the waterfall. Once again setting up the firewood and starter material I took off my shirt and shoes to then sit beneath the freezing torrent.

Everything seemed to contract and try to pull into the center of my body as I forced myself to sit and stay there. As my focus went to using my water manipulation skills to keep the water away from my nose and mouth, I then began to reach my senses outward to encompass the entirety of the waterfall. With a quiet expletive I felt something crawl up beside me almost causing me to jump. Looking down I saw Azure huddled beneath the falls right next to me. She looked completely and utterly miserable with her fur plastered to her body, and she seemed unable to stand up against the crushing flow of the water.

In panic, I pulled her to my chest and stepped out of the rushing water. Hurrying over to the unlit wood, I fumbled out the flint and steel to strike it to life. As I was doing this, Azure jumped from my hands seemingly giving a sneeze and began to wander right back to the falls to begin forcing her way to the middle of the flow. “What the Hell?!” I called out to her as she resolutely remained beneath the falls.

Quickly rewrapping the flint and steel to lay it beside the still unlit wood pile, I hurriedly joined Azure beneath the falls. Seeing her great misery, I knew I had nothing to complain about. Extending my water manipulation, I pushed the water that fell against her nose to flow in a different direction. Sitting right next to her I could feel her shivering with the cold. Placing my left hand on her, I began to send healing energy into her frail body seeking to keep the cold at bay.

The healing energy that I was able to use was nothing like what I had managed when healing Lynette. This was more like a trickle of warmth compared to the bonfire that healed her after her traumatic experience. This must be what the description of my healing skill meant by my needing to be in the right circumstances in order to use miracle like healing. Desperation, adrenaline, physical contact, and mostly the raging inferno of emotions that I felt at that time had been what led to Lynette being healed like that.

Here under the falls I knew that I could simply pull Azure out from under the water and place her by the fire to warm her up, so I knew that she was not in immediate danger. So as it happened, we just sat there under the falls, suffering the onslaught of chilling water and heavy pressure while I focused both on keeping the water out of our airways and on providing a constant flow of gentle and warming healing energy going into Azure. With the additional use of my skills, I had to keep a better awareness on both of our bodies to make sure neither of us overextended ourselves. Because of that, I cut short the normal amount of time I spent under the falls as I then pulled both of us out to start the fire.

Azure lay in a miserable pile beside the fire as my shaking hands finally got it started. I don’t think it would have been possible for her to have lit it in her current state. Grabbing my shirt from where I left it, I gathered Azure up into my lap. Together we sat in front of the fire as I began to wipe her down with the fabric of my shirt. Slowly both of our shivering seemed to fade away as I had begun to use my aura to more quickly fill us both with heat coming from the fire. Small blue flames slowly began to emit from Azures fur which did not burn me or surprisingly my clothing either. With a brief test I gently lifted her up to place her against the ground to my left where she continued to burn. After a few seconds I brought her back to my lap where she settled down. Sure enough, the ground held scorch marks but my pants that she was laying on didn’t have a single singed mark. Shaking my head at this wonder, I had to assume that I incorporated my clothing with my identity somehow, and that her flames caused no damage to me.

Out of curiosity, I reached a bare hand towards the fire in front of us. That got hot very quickly in which I quickly withdrew it before it began to singe. Azure watched me as I did that and promptly jumped from my lap to then carelessly walk into the flames. In horror I was about to pull her out no matter the damage done to me, but then I noticed she didn’t seem to be in any pain. Stretching her legs amidst the burning logs she then seemed to somehow increase the blue flames being emitted by her body. Soon enough the entire fire turned into a series of blue flames.

Turning to look at me, she seemed to be expecting something. Now this I had to test out. Reaching my hand forward once again I got closer and closer to the flames. Though the heat still wafted out ward in a pleasant warming sensation, my hand did not burn although it was now fully immersed in the flames. “Damn! That is Awesome!” I exclaimed while reaching out with both hands to play with the blue fire. Seeming content with her accomplishment Azure settled down to relax as I continued my experimentation of the fire. . .

Finally I decided it was time to go back to the city to find Monroe. As I stood up to gather my supplies for the trek back, Azure stepped out of the burning pile of wood, which instantly became much smaller and turned into the regular orange and red flames. “Haha, you are just too cool.” I muttered to her while ruffling her furry head.

* * *

With her back in the hammock, we both waited patiently in the audience chamber of the counsel hall. Monroe along with the other elders were just finishing up dealing with the petitions of the gathered crowd. Finally as they began to file out, I ran up to the slightly raised stage this time not being stopped by the guards. “Monroe,” I called out. “It’s finished.”

A puzzled expression filled his face for a moment before realization dawned on him. “Really?!” He exclaimed. I nodded my head in answer. “Well what are we waiting for, let’s go.” He proclaimed with excitement.

I ruefully shook my head as I led him out of the counsel halls to make our way to the falls. “I have heard many interesting things about you lately, particularly from Kade.” He exclaimed, breaking the silence. “Really?” I enquired. Seeing as Kade had been asking me to talk to Monroe about the Man Cave I had assumed that they didn’t speak often.

“Yes, he said that you have become quite accomplished. Among discovering a new method to refine ore, he said that you were a key component in killing a Reaper.” He paused at that point as if expecting an explanation.

With Monroe, I had no reason to hold anything back, so I gave him the entire unabridged version as we made our way to the falls. By the time we had made it to the bend in the smaller more uneven pathway below the observation area I had finished telling my story. Turning to the right, we came face to face with the new door to his Man Cave.

“Oh.” That was all Monroe said as he took in the entrance. Leading the way, I pushed open the door and left it open to let in the light from the outside. With the somewhat dimmer lighting from the doorway, Monroe could still see the entirety of the single room. *Whistle* “You did all of this?” He asked me while running his hands over the smooth stone shelves I had created. “Everything but the door, which Kade did most of.” I replied.

I watched as Monroe pulled himself up onto the stone shelf and seemed to be thinking of something that slowly brought a smile to his face. “This . . . is . . . Perfect! Hahaha!” He screamed out loud while laughing. Turning back to me with glee that totally did not match the wrinkles on his face he opened his mouth to speak.

“Do you suppose you could create more rooms than just this one?” He enquired. With a nod I replied. “Absolutely, I would need something to produce clean light though, since torches would create too much smoke. In addition, I have two things I’d like to ask you. One, is if I could create a passage and room for myself as well, and two, Kade would like with your permission, to visit every once in a while.

With a wave of his hand as if to say those things were inconsequential, Monroe replied. “Of course, of course, you two did the work, so you can use it as well. What you have created here has made it possible for me to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now.” He paused for a moment as if thinking how best to broach a specific topic.

Finally he spoke with repressed excitement. “I’ve been holding onto a Fire Drake egg for a while, which has been slowly incubating, but I had no place to keep and raise it for myself. Until now!” He said with a smile. I stared at him for a moment slack jawed as he seemed to be off somewhere in his mind making many plans for this baby drake of his.

Coming back to the present he looked expectantly at me. “Um Sure . . . yeah . . . yeah I can make a nest for your drake.” I finally proclaimed. “Excellent!” He said as he jumped down from the stone shelf. “Other than the passage and the room itself, you’ll need just a few additional things to create a nest. . .”

Interestingly, I learned that I needed to gather several low quality Fire Stones of which conveniently enough could be found if one were to dig down into a hot spring. Looks like I had a second reason to go visit the hot springs and face the fire slimes. Both to stock up on Fire Slime Cores and gather Fire Stones.

“. . . So basically, if you do this for me, then I will not just train you, but I will set you on the path to becoming one of the best fighters I have had the pleasure of coming across.”

*ting*

A Quest!

In completion of the task set forth by Monroe to create a safe place for his mementos, due to your unique choice of location and the fine craftsmanship by which you have accomplished this task, you have been given an opportunity no one else has been granted before. Monroe has tasked you with adapting his man cave to be able to accommodate the hatching and raising of his Fire Drake. Rank ETerms of Failure:Difficult to fail, unless irreparable damage occurs to the Drake egg. No time limit is set. However, to fully take advantage of his offer, it is suggested that you complete this task as quickly and as efficiently as possible.Consequences:Reduced intimacy and feelings of resentment from Monroe. Will result in less than pleasant circumstances as he fulfills his previous promise of training you.Rewards for Success:You will be privileged to be *uniquely* trained under one of the few known Martial Artist Masters in the world. It is highly suggested that you Not go spreading his location nor his identity to others.

“It’s a deal!” I replied. “Um just as a precaution, can you hold onto the Drake egg until I finish its lair?”

Monroe pondered that for a moment. “Okay, but only until the wedding. After that, I’ll have to move it into here. Well, now that everything is settled. I need to go tell Victoria the good news!” He exclaimed while running out of the cave.

“Hahahaha,” I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as I watched Old Puppy love fill the air. As I began thinking about what to do, I figured I’d probably need the advice of an expert to learn what I need to know about the hot springs.

With my equipment in tow I headed back to the city. After dropping everything off, except Azure, I made my way to Kade’s Blacksmith shop.

“Kade, good news.” I said. He looked up from the grinding of an axe he was working on with a raised eyebrow before I continued speaking. “Monroe says that yes, you can visit his Man Cave whenever.” A smile lit his face, but before he could say anything, I had more to say. “I was wondering if you had any information on the hot spring in the area.”

Needless to say, he actually had lots of information, and once I told him what I needed to acquire, he pulled out a couple of bags which he claimed to be heat resistant for holding fire element materials. This surprised me, but I was glad to accept the loan. What truly surprised me though, was that the hot spring that I was looking for, actually lay just above the cliff that I had built the cave into.

Remembering the times I had looked up, it seemed pretty high. Confirming it with Kade, he said it was about 50 meters or as I added up the height close to 16 stories high. ‘Damn!’ I thought to myself. Unfortunately he agreed with the information I had gained from Victoria in saying that it was very dangerous to get there the normal ways. For someone like me, he wouldn’t suggest it. However, there was another option. Going into his shop, he pulled out what looked like a weird harness of sorts with a bunch of rope and a bag of metal spikes with almost closed circles at the end. He said I needed all of this to get up the cliff side.

Before handing it all to me he asked me a question. “I take it this means you are going to be busy tomorrow?” I winced inside realizing he was right. “Um . . . if that’s okay with you. “Yeah, no problem, it’ll give me time to get more raw ore. Hah, you have no idea how much money you are saving me in processing costs.”

Then he proceeded to show me how to use everything.

* * * * *

The next morning almost didn’t come quickly enough as I suited up and gathered what I felt I would need. Thankfully this time I managed to wake up before Azure had gotten all restless. With everything ready to go, I almost missed how Victoria seemed to be just as excited about my leaving as I was to leave for the morning. ‘Hmm probably had plans with Monroe?’ I thought to myself.

Once at the cliff face next to the cave with only the bare necessities, and Azure now in a hammock at my back, I stared up into the tall heights. Again I wanted to leave Azure in a safe place, but she wouldn’t have it. I’d either have her claws digging into my pant leg as I ascended the cliff side or more conveniently in her hammock.

Oh and I forgot to mention, Victoria had actually upgraded the hammock by creating something that fit much more snugly and that would be more comfortable for Azure. It could be rotated to lay in front of me and on my back. It fit quite well on top of my backpack with all of our essentials.

Even with all the gear I had on loan from Kade, if I didn’t have my earth shaping ability, then I never would have risked this climb. Bending down, I placed a hand against the stony cliff side. Within easy foot reach, I manipulated the stone into an easily usable foot hold, moving up and over a bit I did it again. Then finally I reached up to hand level and did the same. Stepping into those holes and grasping the firm stone I continued this method of manipulating and climbing. Every once in a while I’d place a metal spike into the malleable stone and secure a very long rope to me and it. I don’t know how I was climbing so well and quickly even with the perfect hand holds. I guess cave digging really does strengthen the body in a hurry.

By close to 9 am and with several brief rests, we made it to the top. Gazing about me at the expansive plateau while sitting a safe distance from the edge, Azure was searching about excitedly as she explored the new area. The wind blew gently even as we could hear the great rustling of water as it plunged over the edge forming the renowned Niagara Falls. Off in the distance I could see what looked like strange reddish blobs that seemed to occasionally move from one spot to another.

‘Okayyyy?’ I thought to myself. This is finally starting to feel like an actual RPG with the weirdness of those creatures. Finally getting up face the new challenge, I went to pick up Azure, but this time she opted to keep on the ground as we headed towards the smaller flow of hot spring water that fed into the rushing waters of the Niagara River. As we got closer I could see that the reddish clear blobs had a solid sphere inside of them that was larger than the cores I was told to get. “Hmm maybe they are inside that sphere?” I questioned to myself.

As I was thinking this and mentally forming a plan to lure a single slime away from the group, Azure just ran into the midst of them plunging into the slime nearest to me. “Azure! No!” With fear I began running towards her, not caring for what the other slimes might do at our joined presence. As I quickly pulled the pickaxe from my back to try to break apart the slime encasing Azure, I realized that one I was too late, and two, I wasn’t really needed.

As soon as she had bounded into the slime, she had with a single move grasped the red nucleus and bit down on it. With that single bite, the remaining slime just fell apart. “What the . . . . ?” I just watched in curious silence as she continued to chew on the nucleus and then the subsequent core on the inside. “Awwe, I needed that.” I said with a morose tone. Oh well, her kill, her food.

Interestingly enough, the surrounding slimes paid no attention whatsoever to the quick demise of their fellow slime. They just continued oozing about on their merry way. Seeing her ease and success at killing that first slime, I decided to follow her example and picked out a single slime. Slamming down the pickaxe I missed hitting the nucleus by a few centimeters. Then as I tried to raise the pick for another swing, I realized that the damn thing wouldn’t let go of it. In quick succession the slime flowed up the broad head of the weapon, up the haft, and before I thought to drop the thing, it began flowing up my arm, encompassing my right hand. “Oh hell no!” I cried out as it neared my shoulder.

Azure seemed to notice my distress as she finished chewing on her third slime nucleus. Jumping into the slime that was steadily encompassing my body she promptly bit into the core at which all the slime just collapsed into a pile of pinkish water. It had been mere seconds away from covering my face.

Okay, time to rethink my approach I thought. Maybe I need to do more of what Azure was doing, by just diving right in no matter what happened and use my own body as the weapon to kill the damn slime. Reaching downward to the ground, I infused my hands with a stone covering in which I gave myself long, sharp, stone nails with which to grab the slimes with. If all else fails, then the creature I’ve been protecting up till now, can just come to My rescue.

Leaving my pack and pickaxe behind, I dove into the nearest slime with my hands aimed for its centralized nucleus. Holding my breath, I simply grasped around till I had grabbed ahold of the hand sized red sphere and crushed it with my stone enhanced nails and hand. Instantly I could breathe again.

Wow, that was easy enough. Pulling open the nucleus revealed the solid red core that I was looking for. The slime itself felt like being in a warm bath while the core gave off a bit more heat, that made it uncomfortable to handle for long, but it wasn’t going to burn me anytime soon. Still, I hurriedly placed it into one of the heat resistant bags that Kade had provided me with and I set out to attack the next slime.

This continued on till we had eradicated every slime we could find in the area. I had long since given up on keeping track of how many slime cores Azure had eaten, but she seemed to have finally grown full and was just killing the slimes instead. All in all I had gathered 32 slime cores of which I had personally killed 12. It is a sad day when a cub makes more kills than a full grown adult.

I guess the internet didn’t have all the information on eating habits or attacking abilities of tigers. But of course they didn’t have anything on mythological White Tigers in RPG games either. Picking back up the pickaxe, together Azure and I approached the area where the hot spring welled up from the ground. Even as we watched, what looked like red slime slowly began coming up through the flowing water until all of it materialized forming a regular weak fire slime like the ones we had killed before. Having already rid myself of my stone nails, I watched as Azure promptly jumped in and killed the newly ‘birthed?’ slime.

Okay, so that is a good thing that I hadn’t killed the entire slime population. I had been worrying a little up to that point that Victoria would be royally pissed off me for that after all her lessons on not taking all of the plants when gathering materials in the wild.

Reaching my hand forward I touched the water bubbling from the ground only to quickly pull back. “That is Hot!” I cursed as I began opening my pack to get the burn salve. I’m glad I thought to bring that. Looking around me I decided that digging down at the point of the wellspring to get Fire Stone was not an option. That meant I’d need to take a more lateral approach.

Finding a relatively stony place next to the bubbling spring, I placed my hands against it to see what I could sense within its depths. There was certainly some heat down there but no water flowed that far out from the stream. In addition I thought I felt several points of what seemed similar to the feel of Earth stone yet a little different. I then began the digging.

Throughout this time Azure was playfully splashing around in the scorching hot spring water as if it was nothing. Shaking my head at this, I continued on hacking away at the rocks. It was a bit different from digging away at the walls where the stone would just fall away when it had been broken up. Now I had to actually reach down and pick it up before throwing it to the side a short distance away. It was a pain.

Widening the hole to be about 2 meters in circumference I continued to press my hands against the slowly warming surface to create fissures in the rock to which I then would break up with the pickaxe. Drenched in sweat that had more to do with the heat from the spring then that hard work of the day, I took a break to eat. Calling Azure over to offer her some meat, she promptly ignored the meat and tackled me instead. “hahaha, okay, I guess all those slime cores filled you up huh?” Tackling her back while being careful to not crush her with my greater weight we had some fun beside the rushing water. Soon enough I went back to work knowing that to have a chance at getting what I needed before the day was over, I’d have to hurry.

It soon became quite hard to maneuver the pickaxe in the small confines of the hole I was digging so much so that I decided to set it down and try something different. Getting back down into the hole which was about 1.5 meters deep now, I crouched down and pressed my hands against the uncomfortably warm stone. Closing my eyes, I mentally sent out my awareness into the stone in the direction of the spring. Coming across one of those familiar feeling Stones from before, I imagined it being encompassed by a hard shell of the surrounding stone which I then began slowly pulling towards me through the earth that encompassed it. After a couple of minutes during which I had to take a break to cool down my hands from the very warm stone I managed to bring it to the surface where I was at. *tink* With a light tone it fell to the ground. Reaching down to pick it up, I realized it was quite a bit hotter than the stone it came from. Carefully wrapping it in my shirt, I climbed out of the hole to take a look at it.

Taking the time to quickly touch it in which I partially burnt my finger, I caused the surrounding shell to crack and break away. What was revealed was a lightly glowing red rock that provided a steady heat. Interestingly it seemed to be of a higher quality than the Earth Stone I had found before. This seemed to be closer to a low – average quality Fire Stone. Well if that is the case then I don’t need to get as many of these at I would have thought.

Going back down into the hole, I spent a good 3 hours pulling stone after stone to me. Of course several breaks were needed as well as several applications of the burn unguent but I ended up with a good sized pile by the end. By the time I had decided I had enough, the sun was three quarters the way across the sky. Bagging the loot that I had acquired I packed everything up and after securing that last passenger to her hammock and my back, I went down the cliff side to the cave area far below.

I will admit, going back down is a whole lot scarier than going up. If it weren’t for the several spikes that I had securing the rope near to the top area of the sheer cliff then I would have gone a lot slower when descending.

Once back at the bottom where I felt like kissing the ground, I went inside the cave and dropped off the bag of Fire Stone. Interestingly it actually produced a good amount of light that I could see by to work with later on. With the day’s work done, I headed back to the apothecary shop to both replace the used Slime Cores and to get a good night’s sleep for tomorrow.

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Current time in game about 9:30 pm of the 9th of October. Day 39 in game time. 60% pain level. Real Life May 31th about 1:10 pm.

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Alright One more Chapter and I should be done with the main aspect of the Man Cave/Drake Nest. There will still be some unique additions and cosmetic changes as the story progresses, as Jade leaves the city and comes back for brief visits, but for the most part talking about the cave should be done. Also just as a note, the Drake is going to be Monroe's pet, not Jade's.

By the way, thanks to all those that wished me a happy birthday. It turned out great. Hope you enjoy this latest chapter. Also if you want to promote it, please share it with your friends. Thanks!

Detailed Comments and/or Donations are greatly welcome in helping the work to progress. I'll still write as much as I can (about the same rate as before), but Donations may increase the amount of time I can write. Also it's an easy way to show you appreciate the work I do. Thank you. :)

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