Harvest Dungeon

Zephirah continued to glare at me for another moment then shook her head. "We are a bit tighter than I thought we would be. One champion wasn"t bad, but the price increased for the second. I don"t even want to think what the third is going to cost." she grumbled to me.

I frowned but kept my comments to myself. I wasn"t sure why she wanted to waste a champion slot on Vanessa, while she was a gemini, she seemed like an ordinary, combat ineffective girl if I had ever seen one. Yet, given the way Zephirah"s emotions were raging when I offered Vanessa an out, the whole champion thing was done just for her.

I let my mind broadcast my thoughts to Zephirah as I thought it all out, hoping she would enlighten me a bit, but she seemed to be distracted as she scrolled a tiny blue screen in front of her.

I thought something rather unflattering about her, but she didn"t notice. With a smirk, I realized that while she could read my mind, she needed to concentrate on it to do it. It explained a little bit, and gave me some peace of mind. I was getting used to the idea that she could read my surface thoughts, but that didn"t mean I had to like it. Hopefully, I would be able to learn how to block her from reading my thoughts when I wanted too. I was sure I only needed practice, but that required time, which seemed to have become a luxury I was quickly running out of.

"Fine, what about the expansion?" I asked the sprite.

"That is still a go, I set the energy for that aside before I started." Zephirah replied.

"What about the crops we just gathered?" I asked.

"What about them?" Zephirah asked.

I finally was able to give the sprite the look that said "really you can"t figure this out?" It felt awesome, until I realized she hadn"t understood.

"Oh I understand, you just can"t do "the look"." Zephirah replied. "You looked more constipated than anything."

I frowned trying to imagine how I must have looked, Zephirah"s snort followed by Lilian and Vanessa"s laughter were enough to make me realize Zephirah had played me again.

"Whatever." I groaned irritated. "We can sell the crops and use that energy for buying minions from the older dungeons. You already said the type of energy was the same, so we don"t need to convert it."

"Yes, but I doubt it will be much help." Zephirah replied.

"Even the enchanted stuff?" I asked.

Zephirah stared at me for a moment then began to furiously scroll through her screen before she stopped and started to laugh. "Perfect!" she cheered.

"What?" I asked. "One of those old dungeons put out a request for enchanted blue dandelions?" I guessed.

"Yeah." Zephirah replied. "And they are willing to exchange for energy or minions."
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I nodded, I wasn"t so sure why she was so excited, were the options we had available bad? Wouldn"t the serpent gem let us make snakes? With the Arctic Blanket Charm they should be fine on a cold floor. If I understood things correctly we should be able to make some of the mice and slimes that we had been defeating to add some variety. Maybe even use the mice to feed the snakes, if they needed to eat. Did they need to eat? s.h.i.t. Did I need to create an ecosystem?

"Yes, that would be the best, but unlikely with the size of our dungeon." Zephirah told me.

I sighed. That made things more complicated.

"You know, it is really hard to follow only one side of the conversation." Lilian commented.

"Candice." I said watching the little fairy. I was kind of curious as to how bad she had it for my sister.

Even from a distance I could see the little fairy"s eyes unfocused then she started to drool a little.

I prayed the two never met. I had no idea if my sister could handle the little fairy"s obsession, and I had the feeling she would easily become a stalker. Kind of ruined the whole beautiful, kind, and maybe a bit gullible fairy image that Disney had imparted on me. I regretted the lose.

"They aren"t all as bad as she is." Zephirah told me.

"Really?" I asked curiously. I was sure Zephirah had issues with the whole fairy race.

"She"s pretty mild compared to the rest." Zephirah replied confirming my suspicions.

Zephirah snorted. "Wait until you meet one that turns that obsession on you." Zephirah told me.

Glancing at Lilian I felt a chill down my spine. She was reacting like that to an image of my sister created by a shape shifting man. How would she react to the real thing? What if she was disappointed with the real thing? Neither were pleasant thoughts.

"Let"s get back on track." Zephirah told me.

"Don"t forget the dandelion roots haven"t been harvested." Vanessa spoke up.

I had forgotten about those.

"The old one just wants the bloom and leaves. We can make the trade then go harvest the roots." Zephirah told us.

"Does the order matter?" Vanessa asked the question I was thinking myself.

"These kinds of transfers take some time." Zephirah replied. "By the time we finish harvesting the roots, the minion"s energy print should have arrived. Then we can expand and reorganize."

I nodded, "Guess it was too much to think it happened instantly." I mumbled. "I bet that can be upgraded. Right?" I asked.

"Yep, it would take one upgrade to make it instant on this world, but the price isn"t worth the convenience yet." Zephriah agreed.

"What about the company?" I asked, those transactions were instant.

"A part of the orbs functions, the cost is significantly reduced by limiting the transactions to only them." Zephirah replied.

I nodded, "So what do we want? Or what is available?" I asked.

Zephirah glanced at her screen for a second tapped it a couple times before replying. "For the number of blooms and leaves we have available, we have three choices; badger, porcupine, and weasel."

"What? No wolves, foxes, bears, tigers, ...?" I asked before Zephirah cut me off.

"We don"t have enough energy or crops to trade for those." Zephirah replied. "Besides, like the mice you have already seen, these are giant sized." Don"t look down on them just because they aren"t the focus of your fantasy novels." she retorted.

I grunted. "Fine, I have heard badgers are pretty nasty in a scuffle." I told her.

"Weasels are good too." Zephirah replied.

"What about the porcupines? The quills on a giant porcupine would be like spears." Vanessa spoke up.

"It would." I agreed. "But it is a defensive aspect, or does that change on the giant size?" I asked looking to Zephirah.

"No, the giant size, is just that. If they were to evolve into a magic beasts, even the lowest grade, they would be able to use them offensively, but even then it would still be a defensive beast in comparison to others." Zephirah replied.

I frowned, seemed like there was another explanation I was in need of.

"Later." Zephirah told me mentally. "We don"t have access to any magic beasts yet so it doesn"t matter."

"What about the serpent gem?" I thought in return.

"Our energy is too low to create serpents, we could only get giant snakes out of it." Zephirah replied. "No I am not explaining that yet either. Just think that it creates a system like the champion units and leave at that for now." she added.

I glared at the sprite for a while refusing to give in this time. She had already explained some about the minions, guardians, and champions, yet I couldn"t figure out where the serpent gem fit into the equation. Since they could grow into something powerful didn"t that make them champions, or was it relative to our own level making them like guardians?"

"They seem to be arguing again." Vanessa sighed watching our silent glaring contest.

"It would be better if they just did it out loud." Lilian commented.

"What if they are arguing about you? Whether she should consume you because he finds your obsession with his sister annoying?" the cobra spoke up from the orb.

Lilian shivered then remained silent as she contemplated that.

"Don"t worry, he doesn"t seem the type." Vanessa tried to rea.s.sure the fairy.

"She already ate a wisp." the cobra replied.

"She was trying to kill us." Vanessa replied then glared at the cobra"s...o...b.. "as were you."

The cobra didn"t reply.

Zephirah and I noticed the conversation around us but refused to give in to the other.

"Fine, the serpent gem doesn"t fall into any of the other categories." Zephirah explained. "It"s why we are so lucky to get one so early. The champions we made took up the guardian slots for my third level so we can"t make more until we create the third floor. The serpent gem is literally that, its own gem, it isn"t an upgrade or expansion of my core, it will have its own levels and beasts. While subservient to me they won"t strain my core. Plus since it is focused solely on serpents, the level and upgrade costs are cheaper than what I would have to use to achieve the same for our minions, guardians, or champions." she finally explained.

"So a specialty unit?" I thought.

"That isn"t a bad way to think about it." Zephirah agreed mentally.

"You do realize your explanation just creates more questions." I told her mentally.

"Tough." she replied to me aloud.

"Done?" Vanessa asked.

"Yeah." I replied with a sigh.

"Did you decide?" Vanessa asked.

"Badgers will work." Zephirah replied.

"Great, now what?" I asked the sprite.

A screen appeared in front of me asking if the exchange of the enchanted blue dandelion blooms and leaves for the badger"s energy print and fifty silver in energy.

"I know what the company would give us for the enchanted dandelions, this is a better deal." Zephirah told me mentally when I hesitated.

Taking her at her word I agreed to the transaction.

"Alright now we can harvest those roots, is there anyone asking for enchanted roots we can make a deal with?" I asked Zephirah as I headed for the door.

"No, but there is a general offer for enchanted plants, but we would probably get more energy from the company than we would from them." Zephirah replied.

"Do it anyways, I don"t want to try and explain where the rest of the plants went." I told her.

"Didn"t think of that. Fine, the loss shouldn"t be much anyways." Zephirah told agreed.

"What of my serpent gem?" the cobra asked from the orb. I lost count of how many times it had asked.

"Do you have a name?" I asked, thinking of it as the cobra was getting old, let alone I didn"t want to guess at its gender, or ask.

"Setholis." the cobra replied.

"Let"s just call you Seth." Zephirah replied. "He is male". she added to me mentally before continuing aloud. "As for your gem, it will take a while to synchronize it to my shard. So we will do it after we are done with everything else."

"Is it hard to do?" I asked curiously.

"Not hard, just time consuming, I have to revert back to shard form while I am doing it." she said then gave me a smirk. "It would actually be the best time to have a little fun." she told me then glanced over at Vanessa suggestively. "I will be busy concentrating on the gem, so a long hot shower, would go unnoticed by me." she added spelling it out loud and clear.

"Not worried a long hot shower would cook the Seth and Lilian?" I asked with a grin.

Zephirah snorted. "Privacy might become an issue in the future." she agreed with me. "Besides, boiled fairy doesn"t sound bad right about now."

A chirping sound was the only indication that Lilian had heard her comment.