The broken dungeon core

12 days since awakening and the first visitors finally arrived, and they also happened to be one of the special races!

Three raccoon beats-kin arrived, two females and one male the oldest female being seventeen years old, the male being twelve years old and the youngest female being eight.

All of them look worn and dirty, some minor injuries are visible along their arms and legs and other places where they have exposed skin.

It’s possible they were injured while they had traveled through the woods, as there are plenty of plants that can cut or prick someone just by coming into contact with them.

They must have traveled quite a distance as they are all exhausted and are quick to sit down on a deer hide that the oldest pulled from her bag.

She takes some time passing a canteen to her younger siblings for them to drink and then damping a cloth and wiping them down to get the worst of the dirt off before letting them settle down and covering them with a blanket and having them share the bag to rest their heads on.

Once they settled down and started making sleeping breaths she started examining the dungeon cave.

It didn’t take her long in her exploration to notice that the cave was unusual, as its too clean and there are no claw marks from an animal digging.

There also isn’t any scent of any creatures inhabiting the cave, in fact it smells particularly clean and completely free of the musty smell that should have been present inside such a place.

She soon discovered the little crawl space that leads to the little core room and is shocked by what she found.

The glow from the broken dungeon core revealing the mana grass and salveaid.

Dungeon cores are very valuable, but that’s only if you have the ability to keep it and avoid it getting stolen by someone stronger.

Dungeon cores can be used to generate mana in an area or they can be used like giant mana stones and if that wasn’t enough already then their ability to spawn plants and monsters that can be harvested for their various materials also makes them quite valuable.

The resources from within dungeons have a tendency to be of higher quality than the same ones that are found elsewhere, making them a treasure trove for craftsmen of all kinds.

She looks around with concern, possibly looking for monsters and then relaxing when she finds no signs of any monsters in the area.

She examines the core briefly before harvesting some of the mana grass and salveaid then returning to her siblings.

She takes the herbs and chews some of them together making them mix into a bitter pulp that she then takes and smears over her siblings cuts, scratches and scrapes and using the rest on the worst of her own wounds.

She takes the remaining herbs and rips them up by hand and puts them in one of the canteens that had the most water remaining and she sets it beside her brother.

While she pulls a small cloth sack from the larger bag that is serving as a pillow, she checks up on her siblings once more before she heads out with the cloth sack and the empty canteen.

From my observation I don’t think they are likely to harm me or my core, granted my only real option for self defense if they did would have been nothing more than dropping the cave ceiling onto them.

Luckily for me it looks like there is some things that I can do to try and foster a good relationship with them.

I want to try offering them some of what they are in need of in hopes that they might be willing to become my inhabitants.

First is the healing herbs that I can grow for them to use on their injuries and second is to provide them a more accommodating shelter

With full energy and the small savings of mana and the remaining biomass there should be plenty that I can do to win some favor.

I started with softening the ground where the two smaller beat-kin are sleeping and growing some salveaid in a bundle right next to their sleeping space, just keeping it up against the wall and out of the way so they don’t ruin it on accident.

Then smoothing the surface of the ground as well at the curving of the walls and ceiling of the cave, maybe I should raise the hight of the dungeon cave?

It takes longer to finish than I originally thought it would, as before I got even half of what i wanted to get done, the oldest beast-kin returned with her canteen refilled, the cloth sack stuffed and an arm full of dry wood.

She is quick to take notice of the changes, as soon as she had stepped inside the dungeon cave.

She becomes alert and takes note of the smoother area from the entrance to the spot where she had put her younger siblings to sleep.

She watches intensely as I slowly continue expanding the radius of the smoothed out surface area and I catch her looking back at the patch of freshly tilted earth next to the wall and dear hide mat.

I attempt to inform her that I planted some salveaid there only to discover that I don’t seem to be able to speak with her….. I think this may end up being more difficult than I had originally planned.

Since I can’t communicate with her, how am I supposed to request her to become my inhabitant!?!