SS - Chapter 32 - Scattered Seeds

“Hup! Hup hup hup. Hup… hup hup,” Alex, the little head maid, said before nodding, satisfied with her explanation.

She’d been speaking, and pantomiming, for the last two minutes trying to explain why she and the other maids had collapsed the dungeon. Unfortunately, since it was late in the day and we wanted to get back before we completely lost the light, we’d been walking back during the explanation and I’d only managed to grasp about five percent of the explanation.

I glanced back at Selena, hoping that she’d managed to get more of the explanation, but she just shrugged.

“I have no idea what you’re trying to say,” I sighed, which caused Alex to wilt slightly. I patted the head maid on the head. “Just wait until we get back, then we’ll sit down and see if we can figure out your explanation.”

She nodded, then skipped ahead to help the rest of her squad carry one of the hydra heads.

“I’m surprised you’re taking it so easy on the maids after what they did,” Deirdre whispered. “I thought you were going to kill them back at the dungeon.”

“I seriously considered it when I saw the dungeon collapse. If we’d been just a little bit slower it would have come down on our heads,” I grumbled.

“So what changed your mind?” Camille asked.

“When I took a step back, I realized that they might have intentionally destroyed the dungeon, they didn’t intend to hurt us at all. They couldn’t. Despite their… colorful personalities, they’re just constructs, and as far as I know there’s only one reason for a construct to act without orders....”

“And what is that?” Selena asked.

“When there’s a threat to the Kingdom's existence, or the Sovereign stone itself,” I explained. “I’ve never seen it happen myself, but there have been instances where a kingdom’s constructs descend upon a rebellion, or apex class monster, without prompting.” 

I stared at the group of happy little maids as they bounced along, carrying their spoils from the dungeon over their heads.

“I have no idea how a dungeon could possibly be considered a threat to the kingdom though, especially one which had already been destroyed.”

“Maybe it has something to do with the dungeon surge?” Camille suggested. 

“I guess it’s possible, but we’d already neutralized the dungeon, why would it need to be destroyed? It doesn’t make sense,” I muttered. 

“Well, it does seem like the maid wants to explain herself,” Deirdre said. “You just need to figure out how to translate what she wants to say.”

“Sure, no problem. It’s not like I had problems understanding her when she uttered simple phrases, figuring out that five minute explanation shouldn’t be difficult,” I grumbled.

Even though it didn’t take us long to get back to the camp clearing, it was getting seriously dark by the time we arrived. It looked like most of the workers had already returned to the village, so the entire place was fairly desolate.

Instead of heading straight back to the village I paused, and glanced at the horizon.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to make it back before dark. We could attempt that road in the dark, but since it hasn’t been fully leveled yet, the trip could be a little treacherous. I’d hate it if someone went down to a twisted ankle after we all walked away from the dungeon without any injuries,” I said.

“Just because everyone walked away from there without injuries, doesn’t mean we didn’t take any,” Deirdre muttered.

I shot the woman a dirty look. “Do you want to heal a bunch of leg injuries in the dark?”

“Not really, I just thought I’d point it out,” she sniffed.

“Anyways, I suggest we stay here tonight. Unless anyone has any objections, or has a reason you need to get back to the village tonight.”

I glanced between my companions, looking for any objections and when I didn’t see any I turned towards one of the newly built log buildings. I’d only managed to make it about halfway to the building before Alex ran over.

“Hup?” she asked, pointing towards the road.

“It’s too dark to take the road right now, we’re going to stay here tonight,” I told her.

The little maid frowned, and shook her head. She clasped her hands together, then cried ‘Hup!’ and spreading them out slightly, and creating a rough box shape with her fingers. I just stared at her blankly.

She sighed, and repeated the motion. I continued to stare.

Selena stepped closer and leaned towards me. 

“I think she wants you to open your system window,” she whispered.

“Oh… really? I don’t know why she’d want that, but okay… System,” I mumbled.

As soon as the window appeared Alex wandered underneath and started pointing at something on the screen. She was so short that even when her arm was fully extended I couldn’t tell what she was pointing at, so I sighed, lowered the screen, and sat on the ground so we could both see whatever it was that was so important.

Following her instructions I swapped over to the domain tab, then raised an eyebrow as the little maid started digging around in her apron. It took her a few seconds to find what she was looking for, pulling out an oddly shaped pebble and shoving it into my hand.

I accepted the rock, and after turning it over in my hand a couple times and not finding anything interesting about it, I looked back at the maid. 

“Hup!” she declared, miming pressing the rock into my system window, and when I didn’t move she repeated the motion, several times. 

Since I didn’t understand what she was doing, but understanding that she believed it was important, I indulged her and pressed the rock against my system window.

I didn’t expect anything to happen, yet as soon as the stone touched the window it was quickly covered by a green light, the same color as my system, before being absorbed into the window. As soon as that happened I quickly yanked my hand back, and stared at the window in shock.

The words on the screen flickered a couple times, then the entire system window collapsed down, and when it expanded it was an inch or two larger. There was now a small notification message in the middle of the window.

Dungeon Destroyed - Surge prevented +20 magic added to max supply.

Dungeon seed absorbed - Analysis in progress. Results in: 6 days 12 hours 1 minutes.

Additional reward - Additional domain upgrades unlocked.

It took me a couple seconds for me to go over everything on the window, and close down the notification. The domain window had changed slightly.

Magic Available (40/120) [See current drains] [Display on all panels]

Citadel Upgrades [See Options]

Infrastructure Upgrades [See Options]

Magical Constructions [See Options]

Magical Boons [See Options]

Resource Boosts [See Options]

Personal Boons [See Options]

Constructs [See Options]

“Did that shiny rock really cause your system to update?” Camille asked. I jumped slightly, because she was standing mere inches away and I hadn’t noticed her creep up. That wasn’t really a huge surprise though, I’d been heavily distracted after all.

“Apparently…” I muttered. “The system called it a dungeon seed?”

“I can see that, there’s a new tab,” Camille replied, pointing at the top of my system.

I tapped on the new tab [Seeds] which caused the display to swap to a new display. There wasn’t much there, just the following line:

Irythan Dungeon Seed - Analysis in Progress - Time remaining 6 days 12 hours 0 minutes.

“Very useful,” I muttered. “I guess we’ll have to wait until it finishes to figure out what that’s about.”

Quickly switching back to the Domain tab I tapped on the new Infrastructure Upgrade option. The following options popped up:

Magic Available (40/120) [See current drains] [Display on all panels]
Upgrade and maintain roads 

• Dirt Paths (Upgrade Requires 20 magic - Maintenance requires 3 magic) [Construct]

• Dirt Roads (Upgrade Requires 30 magic - Maintenance requires 5 magic) [Construct]

• Cobble Roads (Upgrade requires 50 magic - Maintenance requires 10 magic) [Construct]

Construct and maintain lighting

• Capital Only (Upgrade Requires 20 magic - Maintenance requires 3 magic) [Construct]

• Major Settlements (Upgrade Requires 30 magic - Maintenance requires 5 magic) [Construct]

• Major Settlements and Highways (Upgrade requires 50 magic - Maintenance requires 10 magic) [Construct]

Construct Aqueduct (Price depending on location and scale) [See More]

Construct Sewer System (Price depends on location and scale) [See More]

“More optimization,” I grumbled. “I find it a little suspicious that my system, and the Stone, seem to be providing me with exactly what I want, just when I want it.”

“Well, you are bound to it. It would be strange if it didn’t adapt to you occasionally,” Camille said.

“Yeah yeah yeah, this is all super interesting, and I’m sure it has deep repercussions for the kingdom, but I feel like you should be focusing on something else right now,” Deirdre announced, drawing my attention and reminding me that I was still with the rest of the party.

The healer crossed her arms and wandered closer, her eyes narrowed as she looked Alex up and down. “Not even an hour ago she almost dropped a dungeon on us, and now she’s presented you with something called a ‘Dungeon seed.’ Doesn’t anyone else find that suspicious?”

I waved my system window away, and glanced over at the little maid, who was standing just a couple feet away, smiling happily. 

“That’s a good point. Let’s get inside before we completely lose the light,” I said, pushing myself to my feet and staring down at Alex. “Once we settle in, it’s time to get some answers”