I was in a contemplative mood. It kind of was hard not to be when we got back to the hut. We had completed the dungeon, which was great, but I had a longing for more of it. The treasure chests did something to my brain, and that worried me. On top of that, I was still stuck in the same 5-mile radius as before.

It was also challenging to get back. While the orcs likely thought we were dead being sent into the dungeon, they were still out in force. The area was crawling with gremlins, and with Blink, as her little girl form, we had to sneak back. The tunnel was still closed off, but there were tracks nearby that made me think they had found the opening.

We weren’t safe anymore now that there was a tunnel to the outside. Which meant that I needed to either move on or secure the tunnel better. The way things were now, my hut was a trap for me. I couldn’t really head downstream because of the river, and if the gremlins found me, they would get me on the ledge.

Sure I had the dungeon pedestal and could deploy it, which was great, but I had wasted just about three days I could have been securing the way to the shrine. It was three more days later for my leaving to head south to find Lannah. Also, it was much heavier than I thought it would be. It would be hard to move it without some sort of cart for more than a day.

Add on to all of that, I was still frankly mad at the reward I got for finishing the dungeon with Blink. I had two categories they could give me a prize from. Either I could get a skill book or a potion that would raise my experience to 50% of my next level. They had other things that I could have gotten, but they were level restricted and so I couldn’t get them. Cool changes like what Blink got were because she was the first to do the dungeon, and she did it solo.

I only got a title of Dungeoneer which would be great if I leveled. It gave one additional stat point in Vitality for every Class level and 1 in Wisdom for every 5 on my secondary class. Free stats was always something nice except that I couldn’t use them.

I likely would have taken the skill book if I had been given a chance to look through all the skills, but once I heard my options, I was down to just 60 seconds. I knew that once I started to level, the potion would help and so I figured that I would keep it for some later date.

Which led me back to why I was in a contemplative mood. I moved the dungeon because I thought that it could be helpful when we got back to people. Having a dungeon that I controlled could have made it so that I was set for money. I wasn’t sure how I would do it, but I was thinking in those ways. Even a place that I could go to train that others didn’t know about would have been great.

Now, however, I was looking at deploying the dungeon at the start of the tunnel. It would make it so that the passage was secured and so I wouldn’t need to do other things with it, and I could get moving. I just would be leaving the most significant prize I could have behind while traveling a few days away.

Blink was already asleep in the hut, and so it was just me trying to figure out what to do. I knew what I would do; I just needed to talk myself into it. If I put the dungeon at the tunnel, then the tunnel approach would be covered, and I could sleep again knowing that I was at least mostly safe.

I got up from the fire and moved the dungeon into the tunnel. I opened up the interface and selected it to claim control of the tunnel. As it opened and took control, more options opened up to me. I could choose who the dungeon would force to fight and who it wouldn’t. The dark ones the dungeon would always fight as that was the way of the dungeon, but I was able to change the settings to let the faithful of Order and Chaos through.

Once it had grown to claim the other end of the tunnel, I got the pop-up that I was waiting for.

You have secured the way for the Faithful.

Travel restrictions have been lifted.

Blink and I would be heading out the next day with my traveling restrictions lifted. While I would love to have had the chance to get my food stores replenished, it was time to move. I wanted to catch up to Lannah and learn to read.

I still had about three hours before sunset, so I got my equipment ready. First, I needed to put cores in everything that I had just gotten. So I imbued my earring, the shield, and the magical spear. Then for the spear and earring, I dropped cores into them. I knew that I wasn’t going to get a world’s first for the spear, but I was surprised when the earring wasn’t.

I had gotten so used to getting the world’s firsts on the small things that it made me pause in everything I was doing. The earring could only level two levels but doubled the magical resistance that I got at the start. The spear picked up a poison jet attack that would let me send the mist forward by 4 feet. Not far, but it changed how the weapon could be used.

The shield I was able to make much better-using runes. I drew the same runes that I used for the armor into the back of the shield. I wanted to add more health to myself; if I was wearing a shield, that meant I was okay with being close enough to need to use it. While the shield wasn’t large, it was large enough that I could secure the three potions I had cored to the back of it.

That was a whole different project that I attached to the shield after it was made. The strap I used reduced force going to it and secured the bottles in place. While I only had three right now, I made it so that I could secure six total. The leather vial holder was a world’s first and so would keep leveling, which made me happy.

I was excited about the throwing spikes. While I was okay with thrown-weapons, they were just another tool for me. In this case, it was a chance to get a little more ranged damage. So to start with, I carved them like the arrows. If I was going to use a thrown weapon, I didn’t want to lose it forever. Then I added different rune elements to four of them. I put in Fire, Ice, Stone, and Rot for the elements. The last one I did with the runes I had on the dagger. I wanted a way that I could pause someone for a second.

That night I slept, and for the first time that I could remember, I didn’t dream. Things were more or less back to normal. Blink was sleeping with her huge lizard head on my chest, and the birds were singing out of the hut. Overall, everything was going great.

I took one last look around my ledge. It was agreeable; I had water, a garden, and the ability to fish. This place had been good to me. I picked up many skills and figured out at least a good portion of the interface here. While I would miss it, I was glad this was over, and a new part of my new life was going to begin.

Blink and I packed up and had breakfast. I had just enough food to make it two days which should be plenty enough to get me where I needed to go. Lannah had been traveling for around 5 days, and while they marched them at night as well as the day, they still were moving as a group and so moving at the speed of the slowest.

To think, if that yellow jacket’s nest hadn’t been in the way, I would have gone right down to the city when I first got here. But, as it was, I turned northwest and followed the river upstream because I didn’t want to deal with the giant bugs.

“Blink, you ready? I asked as I picked up my external frame pack.

“Yess” I got across the link and watched as Blink started her slow walk to the tunnel.

I looked around one last time. The things I was leaving I would do without. Most of the tools I had made would be left behind, as well as many weapons that had been replaced recently. Of course, I would miss having the hut, but that was just something that I would deal with.

My pack had all of my lighter tools and things that I could take with me. As well as the two days of food and my sleeping fur was tied on top. I had my armor on, and my bow was on my back along with the quiver. Neither one of them would be fast to get to, but I was bringing them to hunt with not to fight. I had the spear in my right hand, and I headed to the dungeon. As I stepped into the tunnel, I got a pop-up that pissed me off to no end.

The dark one’s minions are around.

Obscure the location of the Shrine