The rest of the day was spent spamming the explore command for the scout and trying to help the drones dry everything out. The water level had risen up to my ankles in my bedroom and my bed was soaked. I had them take it up top to the remade house, I could light a fire and sleep up there tonight while they did repairs down here.

For some added safety while the scout was out exploring I had them build a door to the mine entrance. I was unsure if it was empty of critters or if this place had some weird cave creatures. While they spat out the petrified wood substance and slapped together a makeshift door I wondered if we could reinforce it.

Requires a carpenter table and a wood crafter.

The lack of a crafting skill in my list might be a problem. The minions shared my skill pool which meant if I didn’t have any, then they didn’t. There was a new guard minion which gave me hope there might be a crafter minion, but regardless I didn’t have access to it. Looking into the abysmally empty storage room I kicked a wet pile of ruined sheets knowing that even if we could get such a minion we couldn’t afford it.

The minions finished the makeshift door and I tried pushing it. The door rattled under my weight but held firm. I gave my workers a thumbs up, it could buy us some time if something tried to claw into our dungeon. Opening the door I saw in the mine a distant bobbing light as the scout ran around identifying veins of material we could harvest.

The minions were happy working through the extensive list of jobs so I took my soggy bed and went up top. Claiming the repaired house for the evening I loaded up the fireplace and looked around for a way to light it. I could use my new spell but with only two casts left it was better to hold onto them in case of a night attack.

On top of the fireplace was a leather bag, I checked it and found some flint and steel. Stuffing some wood chips for kindling into the fireplace I held the flint and racked my head. When I was six I had seen my grandpa use it when we were camping and I held strange foreign objects in front of me. It couldn’t be that hard.

…

I sat in front of the fireplace feeling defeated. Half an hour and I still didn’t have a fire going, worse yet there was an overcast night outside dropping the temperature rapidly. I tossed the offending objects in front of me onto the edge of the fireplace and saw the rock collide with the steel to finally produce a tiny spark that went out immediately.

“Oh come on,” I groaned. “Why can’t you just work when I need you to.”

I rubbed my temples and it looked like I better go down to the dungeon again. I sent off a command to get something ready to eat, I would have to sleep on a wet bed or the floor but it was warmer down there. I put a hand on my knee and flexed the other one. I could risk using one more spell and teach the fireplace a lesson.

A distant sound broke my concentration and I searched for the source. The wooden shutters of the window weren’t perfectly sealed and from them cold air blew into the small house. I chalked it up to the wind and turned my sight back onto the fireplace, fingers flexing at the ready.

I heard the sound again and couldn’t help but be drawn to the window. Cracking open the window I saw a bobbing light going down the edge of the stream in the woods. It wasn’t low to the ground so I didn’t think it was another of the stag hares coming for a visit. It had to be taller, man sized at least.

Another call came from the light source and I drummed my fingers on the window sill. They were too far away to make out but it had to be a person. They could be dangerous, or a lost wanderer hoping for a place to escape the chill. My moral compass told me to be a good samaritan, so I opened the window to holler for their attention.

The light rapidly approached as the stranger jogged over the barren field heading towards the house. I went to the door and smacked myself for being an idiot. I didn’t even have a weapon and I doubted my minions could do much to stop a full grown man. I looked around and found my shirt had become frayed at the bottom and I plucked off a long piece of thread.

I wrapped it up in my hand hoping it could qualify for the rope binding spell if things went poorly. The stranger knocked on the door rapidly as they struggled to breath and I opened the door. They crashed into me and I readied to sling the spell at them until I looked down.

Snowy white hair spilled out over my chest and nestled in the where two tall white ears. They flicked up as the stranger groaned from exhaustion and they struggled to rise. I helped them into the nicer of the two chairs so they could get off their feet. They rubbed their wool cloak on their face and looked up to me.

It was a young woman, looking at me with glazed over blue eyes as she huffed and tried to get air into herself. Her sun tanned skin was broken up by bandages covering her arms, knees and neck. I was afraid she was hurt as she held her stomach and she groaned looking at me desperately.

“So…hungry.” she said, weakly raised a hand towards me.

“Wait right here, I’ll grab something.” I said and slipped out of the house.

My face was hot as my body was still fighting off the memory of the demons. She was pretty in a strange exotic sort of way but I needed to help the starving woman first. I shook off any thoughts about her looks and went towards the hidden trap door. I commanded the minions to bring me up a pot full of berries and maybe even some of the hare.

The cooking command I sent earlier had just finished and they brought me a big plate filled with berries, cooked mushrooms and slightly burnt meat. Drone 1 looked at me in concern and I crouched beside him.

“Send Scout 1 up to be ready to help in case something goes bad. Also pick a trap and put it by the entrance in case we need to run down there.” I whispered.

He went back down and I saw our dwindling list of supplies drop even more to critical levels. Once I figured out what the woman was all about I could get the minions to start harvesting forest material. If she was lost like I was, maybe she could live with us for a bit and I could learn about the world from her.

I entered the house to find her still weakly groaning in the chair but now the fire was going. My bed mat and blanket were out in front of the fireplace with wisps of steam already coming off it. Behind her swishing on the floor was a long white feline tail and I saw she was trying to look at me while continuing to act feeble.

I sat down at the table across from her and nodded at the fireplace. “Thanks for lighting the fire, now if you would like to eat can you-”

“Whoa I don’t do anything like that on the first date.” she said, shooting up in her seat. “This girl has standards you know.”

I paused to blink at her and finished my sentence, “-tell me about this place.”

She looked at me like I had a second head and squinted at me. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

“I…what?” I asked, feeling my face get hot again.

“Character sheets dumbass, the old swap.” she said. She tried to snake a nimble hand towards a berry just out of sight.. “Easiest way to get to know someone.”

I flicked her a fat berry and it vanished into her mouth. I got a good look at her incisors which were more like fangs, but beyond the cat-like tail, ears and teeth she looked human. A rough around the edges tomboyish human at that. If I was more level headed I might even call her cute.

I felt my character sheet getting pulled at and a request appeared. I approved it while trying to look at hers. A second later a new pop up appeared with one line of text.

Lin, Cat beast-kin , Level 4 Street brawler rogue

She was three levels above me, which meant she was stronger. To what degree I couldn’t tell but now I knew for sure those ears weren't decoration. The tall soft ears were aimed at me carefully and from the firelight I could see a shiny silver stud in one for an earring.

I checked my experience gains so far and was surprised at my progress.

Current Experience : 120/300

Which meant I was nearly half way to levelling up again, popups had been accumulating and a quick check confirmed my first thought. I had gained lots of little experience points when I had been commanding the minions to build and the water emergency. It was good to know almost drowning underground had a silver lining to it.

“So, a lowly level one mage out in the middle of nowhere. A battlemage is kind of rare which means you can throw a punch.” The cat girl said sizing me up, “so why are you banished from town?”

She reached for the plate again and I rolled over another berry coming up with a story on the spot. “Just managed to squeeze out a level up, bought my magic talent and there must have been a mix up after getting my book because I ended up somewhere else when I woke up. Found this place abandoned and figured it was ok to get my bearings here while practising magic.”

“Ah ha, you're one of those guys that bought the talent instead of grinding it out the old fashion way. Can’t really blame you, never had the head for that wizard bogus myself. I’ll admit I’ve grabbed a few traits to make life easier too.” she said.

Another berry had appeared on her side of the table along with a mushroom. She bit into them and closed her eyes as she savoured the sweet juice. A bead of liquid ran down the corner of her mouth splattering onto the table below. Either she had poor table manners or simply didn’t care about the small mess she was making in my house.

“My sheet says Joshua but feel free to call me Josh.” I said, holding out a hand.

She reached over and swiped a handful of berries, after popping them into her mouth she shook my hand. “You can call me Lin, you can set yourself a nickname you know.”

I scoured the page and beside the spot to hide my stats I found one with a small little quill in it. After tapping it a pop up appeared and requested what I wanted to set my nickname as. I changed it to Josh and felt a bit lost, there was still so much to figure out I looked like a fool.

Knowledge : World success!

Nicknames and other false names rely on the deception skill. If an opposing party has abilities to find out the name of a creature they can do an opposing skill check, on a success they can learn your name.

+1 XP gained.

Lin absently picked at mushroom as she looked to be waiting for a reply. I scratched the back of my neck and sighed. “Sorry, did you ask something?”

“You must be what…” Lin hummed. “Mid twenties? Only hitting level one now eh?”

I slid into the chair feeling a bit defeated. She was easily my senior in rank even if she looked a bit younger than me. I might as well stop acting coy and just admit I was a bit out of my depth.

“Yeah you have me figured out pretty well. Just how bad is it if I'm still level one?” I asked.

“Honestly you're just average for city folk. Crafting and learning to upgrade your skills is a slow way to rank up. It’s why a lot of rural places have teens join up with hunters. A few beasts can squeeze out one or two levels to give you a jump. After that they barely give enough to even be worth the experience.” Lin said.

She spoke pretty bluntly about my low level but it wasn’t mean spirited. She sounded like she might give out a few handy tips and for that I gave her one of the strips of meat. Her blue eyes lit up and her mouth started to drool as her tail rose behind her. She tore into the strip and chewed the slightly burnt piece savouring the taste.

“Oh stag hares are a delicacy. They breed like rabbits but never seem to make it out of the woods without being swiped by another monster or some ranger type.” Lin said around the tough piece of meat. “Hope you kept the hide, it's worth good money.”

I tried the meat myself and it was pretty enjoyable, I was more of a medium rare kind of guy, but the minions must have cooked it with the mushrooms and something else to give it a bit of flavour. It was hard to get down and I excused myself for a moment. I ordered up two mugs and went into the storage building seeing the scout keeping a close eye on the house.

Drone 1 popped out with two mugs before vanishing back down, he was coated in dust and wood splinters with a wild look in his red eyes. I was a bit terrified to see what kind of trap he made to defend the dungeon and I went to the old pump to fill them up with fresh water.

I came back to find only a small strip of meat left on the plate, with Lin licking off her fingers. She was much more relaxed and carefree looking. Before I could even offer the mug it was gone and she downed it in one go.

“Oh that's some nice water,” she said purring happily. The cat girl pointed out the mat and asked, “So what's with that.”

“Water repairs, there was… a miscalculation on my part.” I said trying to avoid the topic.

Lin shrugged and moved onto her next round of questions. “What's your plan being here and do you mind having a guest crash with you Mr. Battlemage?”

“Right now I'm trying to learn just where the hell I am and try to learn new spells. That stag hare did a number on me and I’m not keen on being in that position again.” I said, folding my arms over my chest. I raised an eyebrow looking at my possible guest, “What’s your story?”

Lin slapped the table with her hands and looked at me keenly. “Long story short I had a good lucky streak going and I skipped town before the crooks could slug me in an alley. I’m just waiting out the heat and hoping to find one of the new dungeons popping up around here.”

My face was drained of colour and Lin was more intent on swiping the last strip of meat than looking at me so she didn’t notice my expression. I slid the plate towards her in offering for her to continue.

“Yeah, three new keepers apparently cropped up here. The experienced guys are all dealing with the old dangerous ones over the mountain so the newbies ganged up and wiped one of them. The other two are well hidden, one likes to breed beasts and send them into the woods while no one has lived long enough to know what the other is.”

That meant someone had just wiped the old keeper and knew exactly where I was. I downed my water and tried to pretend to only be half interested. I cleared my throat and prayed my voice wouldn’t crack to betray my mounting dread.

“So where was this first guy taken out and do these keepers appear a lot?” I asked.

Lin tapped her chin in thought. “Nah, they never told anyone where they got the loot. They got cocky, tried to take on a gang of thugs in the city and were never heard from again.”

Lin was more interested in looking around the house than keeping her eyes on me, so she didn’t see my immediate relief. She had an energetic spirit and I was amazed she kept that energy going even while discussing murder and violence.

Lin’s voice grew dark as she scowled. “Keepers are like an infestation honestly. Some sucker who thinks his life is over agrees to take one of the crystals, then goes mad with power trying to kidnap girls or sacrifice people.”

I gulped and nervously rubbed my hands together. I didn’t feel evil or wanted to do any horrible things, maybe it was just propaganda so thugs could take from a hard working dungeon. Honestly who was I kidding, why would a good guy hole up in a dungeon? I was deep into it now and I just had to pray no one found out what I was until I was strong enough to deter them.

“Well that does sound horrible. Let’s hope they stay away for now.” I said.

Lin laughed and got up to walk behind me. She grabbed my shoulders and I felt myself tense up. “Listen, you got to relax man, I’m here to help you out. If they show up you start slinging spells and I’ll beat them up, sounds like a deal?”

I turned and found the cat girl smiling with her hand out. I got up finding she was just a touch taller than me and I tried to grip her hand as hard as I could. “Deal.”

We had a brief exchange of strength, grabbing each other's hand as hard as we could, as we tensed up we broke out into grins. It reminded me of my old pals and a bit of competitiveness built up in me. Lin must have felt the same because neither of us backed down.

We started to circle around to gain an advantage over the other but as the seconds passed I felt myself slowly losing to the woman. In one last attempt I tried to get her to back up into the chair but she bent out of the way at the last second with surprising grace. With my attempt failed I started to shake and I was forced to one knee, conceding.

Lin wiped her brow. “Whew, you're strong for a wizard. What’s your strength and stuff?”

Instead of explaining I opened up the details of my stats and Lin whistled in admiration, she also did the same and I got a better view of what she was made of.

Lin, Cat beast-kin , Level 4 Street brawler

Strength 13

Constitution 13

Dexterity 16

Intelligence 9

Willpower 10

Charisma 12

She completely eclipsed me in terms of physical prowess but I felt a bit confident in how to gauge people now. With only one more point in strength she was just able to overpower me which meant if I could leverage some techniques and throws I might be able to still come out on top.

“Hey, not too bad for a bookworm. Let me do the heavy lifting and you can do all the fun thinking stuff.” Lin said, pulling me into a head lock and rubbing her knuckles into my hair. After giving me a new hairstyle she let go to admire her handy work. “If you step out of line just remember who can knock some sense into you.”

“Well I’d love to have someone watching my back. Guess we are adventure buddies now?” I asked.

“Just one more thing…” Lin said, backing up to an open space in the cramped room. “Show me one of your spells, I can probably dodge it easy.”

Taking out the string I looked at Lin and grinned. Holding out the string towards her I did the proper movements, coiling the rope up and throwing it underhand towards her like I was trying to throw a baseball ball.

“Rope of Binding!” I yelled.

The string glowed pink expanding into a long coil of neon pink rope. Lin was shocked and tried to evade it but the rope followed her and wove around her. It tightened like a constrictor snake until the rope started to meld together and change. We both looked at it in confusion as Lin was hoisted up into the air.

The rope attached to the ceiling and Lin’s cloak fell away. Her body was fit, well toned and helpless against the intricate knots holding her arms and legs together. Her leather jacket was held tightly against her showing off her figure while her tight pants left little to the imagination. Her butt was hoisted up right to my face as she was upside down looking at me in shock.

“I…uh…didn’t think it would do that.” I tried to explain.

“Let me down!” Lin hissed fighting against the tight bonds. “Heinekia’s fat tits we only had one dinner so far Josh!”

Knowledge : Divine Partial Success!

Heinekia is the patron goddess of nature, all beasts and beast-kin. She is responsible for maintaining the four gods and goddesses of the seasons and is worshipped all over the world by every race. Her followers typically represent her as a beautiful woman and an inspiration to artists.

“Josh let me down or I’ll kick your ass even more!” Lin roared, swinging from the ceiling.

“Sorry I got distracted by a pop up.” I apologized and tried to end the spell.

Flicking my hand at the pink rope it dumped Lin onto the floor and shot back towards my hand disappearing in a puff of smoke. The string lazily drifted into my hand and returned to my pocket just in time for me to get tackled by Lin.

She growled at me with her fangs out and readied a punch but she stopped herself at the last moment. Cursing under her breath she got off me and brushed off her coat. She blushed and turned away from me, hiding her face.

“Ok fine I’ll admit that was a pretty good trick. Useful in case we need to hold off a baddie.” she said, playing with her hair.

“That’s what I thought too, didn’t think it would do…that.” I said.

Lin punched me in the arm and grabbed the bed stuff in front of the dying fire. It was dry now and she took it to the back room throwing it on the old bed frame, then fetched her cloak for another layer.

“You coming or what?” she asked, poking her head out of the room.

I opened my mouth to ask if she meant for us to sleep in the same room, but she had already left. I cautiously followed wondering if she was planning any revenge by making me sleep on the floor. When I arrived she had started to strip and looked at me like I was the odd one.

“I hope you're not going to bed in your stinky clothes.” she said tugging on my shirt. “It’s going to be freezing tonight so unless you feel like burning all your firewood in one night time to snuggle up there wizard boy.”

“Yeah…fair point.” I said getting out of my shirt. I tried to keep my mind off the situation and distracted myself looking at the progress reports from my minions.

In the corner of my eye I saw Lin remove her jacket and underneath it all she had was bandages binding her chest. Those fell to the floor next as did her tight pants. My jaw nearly hit the floor as I saw her completely nude body, but sadly my view didn’t last long enough.

She got under the covers not paying any attention to me and blew out her lantern. I stripped down completely too and got into the bed beside her hearing it squeak in protest. The cat girl yawned and turned into my side, immediately falling asleep next to me. The rise and fall of her soft breathing reminded me how exhausted I was over the long day.

Stealing a glance under the covers I got a full view of the nude girl. Her ample breasts were pushed against me and I hated to think how tightly she had bound them to hide them. She had a well toned belly with visible abs and wide hips. As she snored one of her long legs slid onto me and she nuzzled her cheek into my chest.

Wrapping an arm around her back I stared up at the ceiling and tried to count sheep. Anything to get my mind out of the gutter. I instead turned my focus onto the pop ups and was left a bit disappointed.

Scout 1 had finished exploring the caves and found sealed off dead ends. The resources available were limited, but for now it meant we could start small and explore more later when we felt safe. I gave them a command to rest up and in the morning I would try to have some stuff for them to do.

I fell asleep soon after feeling the warm cat girl embrace me in her sleep. Her light snores mixed with purrs and I felt myself move more into her embrace. It was definitely the best thing I had gotten since coming here. Either from exhaustion or finally letting my body relax, sleep claimed me. In my mind’s eye a silver thread coiled around my waist and I was tugged into the abyss yet again.