33 – Homestead

Though the three—four, now—of them hadn’t scratched the surface of what the Magma Lakes Dungeon offered, it had still be a payday for the neophyte adventuring squad. They emerged from the dungeon with a smattering of magical equipments, potions, and knick knacks, and more than that, a nearly full bag of copper.

The last might not be impressive to an adventurer of renown—or even half-renown—but to Ari, a level four (yes, four; she had leveled up, but contemplating over her newest lewd skill would come later) it was a greatly appreciated windfall.

The party of four ventured forward, away from the soon-to-be-busy dungeon (the news would spread fast, and Ari’s unimpeded ransacking would be a one-time thing) and toward nowhere in particular. Like usual, they each walked with a wobble. Ari’s entire body was an aching, satisfied mess, and if she had to guess, each of her teammates felt the same.

“So,” Ari said after a few minutes crunching across the forest. “Like usual, good work, everyone. We did better than I’d hoped.”

A collection of grunts and mumbles of acknowledgment. Ari felt the half-hearted response in her soul; she was all kinds of exhausted, too.

“We’ve got a few things to talk about, though. Future plans.”

Nobody replied, but Ari guessed there wasn’t much for them to say. The Menagerie’s future was up to Ari, in their eyes. Like usual, the deference each of her party members showed disoriented her. She didn’t want to be these girls’ owner. But that was the role she’d been slotted into.

“Silvy,” Ari said. “You have a worker type class, right?”

“[Colony Constructor],” she said.

Ah. She knows how to check. Good. Her Menagerie had shown a perplexing variance in their knowledge of the fundamental aspects of life—class, level, skills. Lori, for one, had needed to have nearly everything explained to her. Maybe that had been because she was level one when Ari had [Charmed] her. Claire had been slightly less clueless, but had still needed some explanations. She didn’t know where Silvana fell, but she knew how to check her class without Ari spelling it out. That boded well for other information, too.

“Do you know what that entails?” Ari asked.

Silvana glanced sideways at her, then back forward, her brow furrowing. “Huh. Building stuff. I don’t know.”

“What kind of stuff?” Classes weren’t a science, but one could often listen to their gut instincts. Ari had done so for a few of her skills. Plus, they weren’t too complicated. One could extrapolate from the class name and given skills what their future might look like.

“Colonies?” Silvana shrugged.

“A home for us?”

She pursed her lips. “Uh, yeah, sure. And other things.”

“Like what?”

“Not just structures. Tools? Furniture? I think.” She frowned. “How do I know what furniture is? Being this way is weird.”

Ari could bet. Having been a giant insect crawling around inside a dungeon, the transition to semi-human—and insertion of alien knowledge, apparently, like what ‘furniture’ was—must be disorienting to say the least.

Ari had been reeling for the past week because of receiving a weird class, but her Menagerie members had been introduced to a new life. They were the ones handling a much stranger transition, and better than Ari was, even.

But as for what Silvana had revealed—it was what Ari had hoped to hear. Silvana’s race type, ‘worker ant’, had suggested some sort of non-combat class, but an ability to construct a home was precisely what she’d wanted. Furniture, tools, and the potential for more was the cherry on top.

“What would you need?” Ari asked.

“Time, mostly. If we’re talking about digging out a basic colony—bulk of the work’ll be clearing space. But yeah, for more’n that, resources. Of various sorts.” She shrugged. “Or time to gather those resources.”

“One of my friends was a hive architect,” Claire said brightly, piping into the conversation. “It’s a super valuable job. We’re really lucky to have you on the team.”

Silvana paused, glancing at Claire. She cleared her throat, then turned back forward. There was a hint of coloring on her cheeks.

She shrugged with a forced nonchalance. “Well, uh. Thanks. I’m glad to be here.”

Ari stifled a grin. Apparently Ari wasn’t the only one weak to Claire’s eager innocence and big, yellow eyes. Someone might have a crush. Ari only barely stopped herself from teasing Silvana over the blush. She was still too new to the group.

“Lori and Claire’ve been hanging out in the wilderness,” Ari said. “I was getting worried for them. A real place to stay will do wonders for us, I think. Especially as the Menagerie grows.”

“Menagerie?” Claire asked.

Ari paused, then half-grimaced, half-flushed. Ah, shoot. “Sorry. It’s how the skill phrases it.”

“Sorry?” Claire didn’t seem to understand why Ari was embarrassed.

Which, again, for the hundredth time, of course she didn’t. Ari might view the term as dehumanizing—like she was collecting a zoo—but her party members clearly didn’t care. And the skill was somewhat correct. These girls were a colorful collection of majestic creatures, and they did perceive Ari as their owner.

She steered away from the topic, though. It still didn’t sit quite right. “We’ll need somewhere to set up.”

“I don’t see a point,” Lori sniffed. “I can sleep in the trees. I don’t need a ‘home’.”

“Well, if nothing else but to have a place to store items,” Ari pointed out, which gave Lori pause.

“I suppose.”

“But a place to stay would be nice, anyway. A roof over your head, a bed, a shower. I can bring materials from town.” The shower, obviously, would require some specialty equipment Silvana couldn’t acquire by her lonesome. Water-conjuring runes and fuel crystals, which wouldn’t be crazy expensive, but not cheap, either. It was a good thing they’d raked in a decent profit today.

“Town,” Silvana mused. “I know what that is. It’s weird having all these … memories?” She shook her head, as if it’d been the wrong word. “Ideas. In my head, all of a sudden.”

“You get used to it,” Claire said.

“You can just ignore them,” Lori said, taking a similar, but opposite stance. “All that matters is leveling, anyway.”

“What skills do you have?” Ari asked. “If you’re comfortable telling?”

“[Improvise], [Tunnel], and [Blueprint],” Silvana said.

Those sounded useful—like exactly what they’d need to start a home-base.

“Okay,” Ari said. “Awesome. I have an idea for where to set up, if you two don’t care? It’s close to the Hive,” she added for Claire’s sake. While Claire had willingly joined up with them, she’d mentioned wanting to visit and help the Hive when possible. She might not have the hulking insect-body her sisters and brothers had, but they still recognized and were friendly with each other.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Lori said. “As long as there’s proper hunting grounds.”

Ari nodded. “It does.” Close to several hunting zones, near the Hive, and Molehill—not many places fit the description, but Ari had an idea.