It took me a while to convince the scout I was alright and that he could show me what he wanted. The scout brought me to the smallest house and took me inside. The roof had a few holes and the floor needed repairs but inside was still some usable furniture. An empty bed frame, table and two squeaky chairs were the only signs someone had lived here once. Lastly there was a well made iron stove that hadn’t rusted out and a stone chimney leading to a nice brick fireplace.

10 stone, 5 wood and 1 metal are required to restore this building's integrity.

Accepting the request I sat down with the scout and soon a drone showed up. It did the weird thing of unhinging its jaw and power blasting material onto the damaged walls. It was unsettling still, even after seeing them do this several times. Looking out the window we had a clear sight all the way to the woods and roughly where the water system was hooked up to the stream.

After the drone finished I got an idea and headed outside, looking at the small building and imagining a ladder going up to a small flat platform on the room with short half walls and a roof. It had a pretty low cost of ten wood and I set the drone to work. It ran back to the dungeon and returned with scraps of usable wood. After power blasting material onto the wall it then stuck the wood scraps onto the wall to make the ladder. It took about half an hour but by the end we had a makeshift observation tower that looked like it could at least stand a storm.

Builder increased to rank III!

New recipes unlocked, basic dungeon life rooms and traps.

+5 XP gained.

Shrine to Ishaka can be constructed!

Required for a quest.

Feeling a bit curious how easy it would be, I checked the build list for the shrine. I nearly fainted on the spot and my two minions helped me inside to take a seat. I wiped my brow as I did a double take.

Shrine requires…

Bathing room (not made)

Mess hall (made)

Keeper bedroom (made)

Empty bedroom of moderate value (not made)

Training room (not made)

Armoury (not made)

Shrine room (not made)

Current cost of all items is, 500 wood, 250 stone, 50 metal, 150 gold worth of items.

That was expensive, took more items than I could even store and best of all reminded me I had no money. I would need to triple the size of my dungeon just to accommodate one priestess, and that was me low balling my estimation. It was a quest after all and meant it could be on the back burner, but it made me question the value of it.

What would I gain out of allowing a tall, strong and hungry demon to walk around my dungeon. My body tried to answer that as a bruised part of me made me wince. At least Vixa offered to hang out and I felt interested in her. She was the first person I met in this place and seemed genuinely kind. I made a mental note that the shrine would be worth it. I was willing to trade having to deal with potentially one horny demon in exchange for a sweet one.

“Oh right, the water pipes!” I rubbed my head and set off the command to fix it.

Drone 1 has a request, add new water pipes to bring water into the dungeon.

Drone 1 was shaping up to be an excellent manager and I approved the request. The queue of construction was rapidly growing but the drones had no complaints and seemed happy to build. They always seemed to smile more after vomiting building material, which I still couldn’t get over as I shuddered.

I left the happy scout to hang out on his new platform, waving as I passed him. I went down below and inspected the new work. Things were going amazingly well with the new room and the makeshift doors they had built. The drones had moved onto the stairs which was a godsend since when I walked on the slope it felt like I could lose my footing any time.

Drone 1 moved past me and went up the slope to start burrowing into the wall. I walked up beside him and looked at the menus to see he was trying to get to the closest water pipe. I could see he was trying to make a straight shot at the mess hall if he could manage it. Which meant it would save our limited resources and I would feel less bad about the drones constantly doing bucket runs just for my sake.

As his claws ripped up the stone wall I saw it had a different texture than the normal rock and a slight rumble shook the floor. We looked at each other as I had a sneaking suspicion on what was happening.

“Oh shit, everyone run!” I yelled.

Pausing all the orders I commanded the drones outside but I was too late. The rock beside us was made of rebuilt material, a hold over from the last dungeon maker. The wall broke as a wave of water crashed into us sending us down into the dungeon on a fast slip and slide adventure. We crashed into the other drones and were sent sprawling onto the ground.

I helped them back up and tried to trudge up the slope, but it was too slick from the fast pouring water and I slid back into the main room. The uneven floor was a slight saving grace as the water level was pooling around the entrance instead of spilling into the other rooms of the dungeon.

The scout sensing something amiss tried to run down to help us but before I could tell him to save himself he slipped on the water and fell down too. I picked him up and returned his wet hat patting him on the shoulder, he had his heart in the right place.

I looked up at the incoming water and ideas ran in my head. We could tunnel straight up and save ourselves but that meant abandoning our work and that wasn’t going to fly. We needed to get up there for them to fix the wall but it was pouring in too fast and we would be up to our knees in water if we tunnelled up beside the slope.

Drone 1 tugged on my sleeve and a new request appeared. He wanted to dig a tunnel in a straight path to make room for more water on the lower level. It would buy us the time we needed to get up and repair the breach. I had my doubts and I shook my head.

“If we are too slow you might drown!” I cried.

Drone 1 stood tall and saluted us, the water was rising up over the top of my shoes and I knew it was time to ride or die. I approved the request and Drone 1 went beside the entrance and started to dig. His hands moved in a flurry and the rocks vanished into his mouth as he tore through the earth, dropping the water level as it had a new path to follow.

My own idea popped into my head and I sent commands to Drone 2 and 3. The minions ran into storage and filled my bag with bricks, taking time to put some into their gullets. The scout tossed his hat and stick aside then hopped onto my back using his lower arms to grab onto me while he kept the top two free. The drones grabbed my arms with their lower arms and legs wrapping around them to hold on tight. I struggled towards the entrance fighting against the current and weight then set to work my plan.

I swung my right arm forward and Drone 3 started to dig at the wall, as his claws made contact the command was cancelled and his claws were stuck fast into the wall. I grinned, thankful my little gamble paid off and readied myself for the next step. Drone 3 held onto me for dear life as we used him as an anchor point to step forward and I moved Drone 2 into position. Repeating the process we had another anchor point.

Scout 1 with his higher strength stretched as far as he could manage towards the ceiling. Using his head and arms to brace against the tunnel walls he gave me positive pressure while I attempted to take a step forward. At the same time I issued the dig command to Drone 3 and threw my arm forward again.

It was a bit awkward and I messed up the timing, sending us all back down the watery slope. Quickly I adapted to the timing and we became a wet red and black fuzzy ball as we marched up the slope. Issue a dig command, moving my arm while step forwards and cancelling the command. I repeated the steps again and again, it was slow going and we only covered a half step for the first few tries. When I gained enough confidence we went fast going the length of my entire stride.

When we reached the top and the geyser of water was beating into my chest, I heard a snap and froze. The name tag on my chest was torn off as the safety pin broke under the water pressure, it spun in the air and vanished somewhere down below. The minions rapidly issued me requests as water was directly pouring onto Drone 2 and 3. Gritting my teeth I continued knowing we couldn’t afford the same fate.

As we finally reached the top I moved to the side with the exit and got out of the water and set the minions down. Drone 2 looked ill so Scout 1 and Drone 3 moved to the breach. Standing on Scout 1 shoulders Drone 3 blasted the hole with a cement like substance that instantly hardened and became rock. Each second he used the material I saw our stone levels drop to worrying low levels.

Drone 2 unhinged his jaw and a torrent of water came out until he was empty. He scraped at the walls and took the bricks from me, shovelling them all into his mouth. He ran outside to go up top, to dig down and repair the pipes from there. Drone 3 stood at the ready, to blast more cement onto the wall if it needed reinforcement.

Tense moments passed and the sound of rushing water died down and we were left with only the sound of my pounding heart and dripping water below. I wasn’t sure if Drone 2 was safe but I watched our stone resources keep going down. 10…9…8…7…6…5 units remaining.

Water pipe breach repaired, minion returning to dungeon.

I ran down the slope, sliding down the slick stones and held out a hand to snatch a glowing light off the wall. I crashed into the waist high water and half swam into the new tunnel Drone 1 made. Red warnings filled the bottom of my screen but I paid them no heed as I went down the low tunnel. I had to crouch moving along as the water was up to my nose and I saw ahead floating on the water Drone 1.

When I got close I held my breath fearful for what I might find. He was exhausted and panting while atop a rock, even in desperate condition he tried to rise to finish his task. He weakly pointed to an old repaired wall and sent a request. Sending out my foot I kicked the wall and sent rock chucks flying around. I kicked again and again until my foot broke the thin wall and water rushed out making a wet sloshing sound.

The water left the dungeon and we were left with a moment of blissful silence. I held up the glowing light and was confused. Drone 1 had broken into some old storage room made with stone shelves carved into the walls giving plenty of storage space. The purpose of the half finished room eluded me until I looked at the hole I made.

My other drones gathered to claw down the remaining bits of walls while Scout 1 and I helped Drone 1 onto his feet. When the wall was cleared we entered the massive open space that spread out before us. The small town above finally made a bit more sense.

A small natural cave network has been discovered and added to the dungeon, exploration tasks added to scouts. Metals have been discovered. Iron and copper processing has been added.

Minion Management increased to rank III!

You can now give more commands and control more minions.

Guard minion unlocked!

+5 XP gained.