Harvest Dungeon - 49 Chapter 49

I groaned unhappily. I knew Candice fairly well. Despite not knowing she was a Slyph. Her appearance here in the dungeon might have been a complete surprise to me, but I never thought Lilian would become an issue for her. Usually Candice would be able to handle something like that with no trouble. As a very attractive and well endowed blonde woman she had more than her fair share of suitors from both genders. Including a few obsessed perverts. For her to react as she was, something extreme must have happened.

“What happened?” I asked dreading the answer yet incredibly curious as to what could cause Candice to get this angry.

Candice didn’t reply as she shifted her attention back to her food, but rather than eating it she just pushed it around her plate.

Another glance at the other girls showed them all deliberately avoiding looking in our direction. They were making a dramatic effort to remain uninvolved with the current conversation.

I wanted to continue questioning Candice or call out one of the other girls, but I didn’t. Candice would tell me in her own time. If I tried to rush her, it would be me that would regret it, maybe even worse than Lilian.

After several more tense and incredibly quiet moments Candice sighed then shoveled the rest of her food into her mouth and chewed mechanically. The joy of eating a tasty meal gone.

“She is a pervert.” Candice said after she swallowed her food.

“Yeah, though she is hardly the first to fall for you.” I replied.

Candice seemed to freeze as she looked me in the eyes for the first time since I mentioned the fairy. “That is true.” she said slowly as if thinking to herself and conceding a point she didn’t really want too.

I waited again.

Candice opened her mouth to say something then stopped and shook her head.

I was completely bewildered. I had never seen Candice like this before.

Finally unable to take it Zephirah coughed. “Do you remember how Lilian reacted the first time she saw Candice’s image, and the tirade that went with it?” Zephirah asked me.

I had to think for a moment. “The forbidden love speal?” I asked to clarify.

“That one!” Zephirah agreed. “Think that, times twenty, non-stop between each of the swarms.” she told me.

I frowned. “And?” I asked.

“What do you mean and?” Candice asked her cheeks a dark red.

“Something like that has never bothered you before. More importantly she could be silenced at any time with the agreement she made with Zephirah.” I pointed out.

Again absolute silence.

I sighed, I never wanted to be a dentist, but I imagined this was like pulling teeth.

“I can ask Selia.” I reminded Candice. It wasn’t nice, but we had things to do, and I only even remembered the floating pervert because I had some questions to ask her.

“She joined me in the shower, realized I was still a virgin, then tried to use an illusion to…..” Candice started then stopped.

My blood ran cold while a terrible icy fire began to burn in my mind. “Consume her.” I ordered in a deathly cold voice my rage reaching a peak I hadn’t even known I was capable of.

“NO!” Candice shouted pulling me from my rage.

“Huh?” I asked completely surprised and unsure what to think.

Zephirah tumbled onto the table in a fit of giggles.

Candice glared down at the sprite angrily.

“I was there and even I thought the fairy had raped you the way you said it!” Zephirah defended herself.

Candice sighed exasperated.

A look around still showed everyone avoiding eye contact but I noticed Vanessa and Firenne were having trouble holding back smiles.

“What is going on?” I asked frustrated and confused.

“It’s none of your business.” Candice finally said standing from her chair. “And if you order Selia or Vanessa to tell you….” she started then stopped and stomped off to the basement.

I turned to look at Zephirah. “Nope, not getting involved in that. Just know Lilian thought she was being helpful and didn’t take into consideration the time or place.” she told me.

What in the hell was that supposed to mean?

“And don’t ask, I am sure she will tell you eventually.” Zephirah added.

“In twenty years.” Firenne added.

That sent the girls into giggles.

I had no idea what had happened, but if they were willing to laugh about it and Candice was willing to stop me from having Zephirah consume Lilian, it couldn’t have been anything bad. Which just left embarrassing. Now I was even more curious, but I had long since learned where to draw the line when it came to Candice. Asking now while she was still riled up would only get me into more trouble than Lilian. Give her a few hours to calm down again and I should be good to go.

“Fine, I get it.” I said sitting back in my chair. I wanted to clarify some of the things I had learned, but I needed Lilian for that. With her unavailable I needed to work on another issue, or head straight out to work on the dungeons. While I wanted to get to work, especially as I had no idea when the swarm would be back. I had a lot of other things I needed to sort through too. “Zephirah, how far did the swarms get?” I asked.

“This floor. The girls were able to hold the rats at the gate.” she replied.

“What about the ice floor?” I asked. “The badgers and blue grass?”

“The badgers took a beating, I have had to resummon them between each swarm. Luckily they learned a bit from the fights so they did better each time. Gained some levels too.” Zephirah told me.

“Despite the penalty?” I asked.

“Minions don’t work the same way champions do. They aren’t as intelligent and have a level cap. If they level up before they die, they get to keep it. At least until they hit the cap, than they have to wait until we improve.” Zephirah replied.

“So it is the same badgers being resummoned over and over again?” I asked.

“What did you think we brought in new ones each time?” Zephirah asked.

“Kind of, or at least a blank slate.” I replied.

“How would that help us?” Zephirah asked. “Minions are almost always killed, there wouldn’t be any chance for improvement if we did it your way.” she scolded.

“It’s not like I knew, I just assumed we leveled them up with the gems, shards, or the dungeon upgrades.” I told her.

Zephirah frowned then sighed. “I guess that makes some sense, we haven’t had a chance to go over everything.” she admitted.

I nodded then considered our dilemma. While I wanted to work on my own strength and improve, but if the swarm could make it to this floor, now probably wasn’t the best time. Instead we needed to improve our defenses.

“As for the blue grass, the rats were too focused on reaching the portal to climb up to the plants. Then again the grass has already started putting off a lot of ice mana, so they might have just been trying to get away from the cold.” Zephirah added.

I nodded feeling a bit relieved.

“You never made the cold resistant runes for the minions.” Zephirah pointed out.

I winced, “how are the badgers doing?” I asked.

“Surprisingly, they are fine. They adjusted to the cold fairly well. Interestingly enough each time I have brought them back their ice resistance have increased.” Zephirah added.

I frowned, I remembered that concentrated amounts of mana could cause changes, but wasn’t that too fast? Then again they only gained ice resistance rather than manipulation.

“That will help, I wanted to put some traps in that pathway, and a bit extra I just learned about. First I need to know what kind of expansion are we thinking about?” I asked.

Zephirah tilted her head to the side. “With what we got from Seth I was thinking of increasing our surface area, then add two more floors.” Zephirah replied.

“Two more?” I asked.

Zephirah nodded. “That way we have a floor for neutral plants, icy, fire, and then our floor which we can deck out with traps and defense.” she replied.

I shrugged then looked at the other girls, any of you have input you like to share?” I asked.

“We will need more beasts, unless you think the bulls and chickens will be enough for the fire floor.” Firenne said.

I contemplated that for a moment, “Maybe, we are limited on room. If we expand the surface and add the fire level under the ice floor it should end up pretty large, but I doubt it will be enough room for all the cows and chickens.” I replied.

Firenne frowned. “Then where will we put my tree?” she asked.

“Can’t we make the first level the neutral plants, then the ice, then fire?” Selia asked. “We don’t have many options for neutral plants so the smallest floor should be fine for them. The special plants make more money anyways.”

“Which do you need for your work?” I asked.

“Neutral plants will be fine, I need practice extracting the essence from plants before I try and make medicine.” Selia replied.

“I thought you were already making medicine!” Elisia chimed in.

“I can, but improving my technique will help in the long run, besides the plant essence sells for more than the plants in most cases. So Jason won’t be taking a loss.” Selia replied.

“That sounds fine, but what should we use to guard the first floor?” I asked.

“A couple of serpents would work, and maybe a rat spawn point or two.” Elisia spoke up. “We could use a similar burrow system like you are using for the badgers.”

I considered it for a few moments.

“Have you checked to see if there isn’t something more useful available with your new funds?” Candice asked as she opened the door to the basement. Lilian was sitting very quietly in Candice’s shoulder.

“Ah good you brought her.” I said excitedly.

“I did.” Candice agreed.

“Did you need something explained?” Lilian asked.

“The mana hearts, each person can have only one?” I asked.

“Yes and no, there are ways around it, but each body can only hold one normally.” Lilian replied. I nodded as my mind continued to consider the idea I had.

“It might work.” Zephirah chimed in having read the idea in my mind.

I nodded, but where should I start?

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I sighed but when I glanced around again still uncertain my gaze landed on Firenne and Jesaline who was laying on the dryads lap. Both of them had strong affinities towards fire, and we had those fires still stored inside one of the black spheres.

“Did you lose focus?” Candice asked me.

“Huh?” I asked.

“Weren’t you discussing the floors and what to use on them? What about the set up?” Candice asked.

I nodded. “We were.” I agreed then pushed my own upgrade to the back burner.

“What were you thinking?” Vanessa asked curiously.

“Shhh.” Candice said to Vanessa, “If you let him get distracted nothing will get done before the next swarm arrives.”

“Ha ha.” I said dryly as I rolled my eyes. “How much were you hoping to expand the surface area?” I asked Zephirah.

“We have a four by four area now. At four silvers a tile I was thinking of spending thirty six silver to make it a five by five.” she told me.

“Why not eighty to make it a six by six?” I asked.

“We can, probably will in the future, but remaking levels is pricey.” Zephirah replied.

I nodded, even at five by five we would have a ten by ten tile area to work with on the first level, twenty by twenty tiles for the icy floor, and a forty by forty tiles for the fire floor. Doing the math in my head I realized there would be one hundred and sixty thousand square feet available for the fire floor. It was a large area, but the tree wouldn’t be able to be hidden, unless it was kept separate from the area the invaders would use. But how much space did the tree actually need?

I looked back to Firenne who was watching me intently. “Nine tiles should be enough for now.” she told me as if reading my mind.

I nodded. ‘What about the ceiling height?” I asked.

Firenne paused as she considered that. “The higher the better, but at least thirty to forty feet.” Firenne replied.

That was good, but where in the hell would we be able to fit the bulls and have enough space to grow plants?, Wait, I received thirty feet to use for each level, doubling that gave me sixty on the first floor, one hundred twenty feet on the second floor, and two hundred forty feet on the third floor that would be the fire floor. With that kind of space I needed to reconsider the concept of a level.