Harvest Dungeon 21 Chapter 21 - There Is Another Option

"Ummm, no I don't think so?" Vanessa replied uncertainly. "I am not completely sure though. He always freaked me out on the few occasions he was around. I heard from some of the others that he is bis.e.xual, but prefers young lesbian girls."

"That has to be a real surprise for them." I commented shaking my head.

"How so? Isn't it the best of both worlds?" Lilian asked.

I shook my head. Not for me it wasn't. I'd be p.i.s.sed to find that under the skirt. "I am really starting to question your tastes." I commented.

"How? You know nothing about me?" Lilian asked tilting her head as she looked at me a curious expression on her face.

"She's right." Vanessa pointed out.

"And I find myself wanting to know less and less about her every moment." I replied.

"Don't be so judgemental." Vanessa told me.

"No, be more so, I can eat the fairy if she is annoying you." Zephiria spoke up.

"I'll be quiet." Lilian chirped hurriedly.

Vanessa frowned but didn't say anything, obviously she wasn't pleased with me.

With a groan, I got up off the bed and moved to the orb to look at the crops available to me. I needed to see if any of the ones available could handle the cold from the blue gra.s.s. I didn't want to plant winter vine around the blue gra.s.s in case it wasn't cold enough for it to develop properly. As the information on the plant wasn't specific on how cold it needed to be for the plant to mature I was leary of experimenting and wasting the money. A plant that put off heat would have been welcome, and probably existed, in fact the red gra.s.s that used to be available seemed to have that feature.

My mind raced in an almost chaotic fas.h.i.+on as I tried to think of a solution to the issue I was having with the crops.

"Is it even necessary to find a new crop right now?" Zephira asked.

"They will expect me to plant new crops." I replied.

"Didn't you just give them a valid excuse? They can't see how you planted the crops, or how many tiles are being affected. In fact if you want to save the other plants you should erect a wall, the blue gra.s.s isn't fully grown yet. It might get worse and hurt even more plants." Zephirah told me.

I paused as I considered that, she might be right, I glanced at the time and calculated from when I planted everything. I had another six or so hours before the blue gra.s.s was mature.

"Also did you consider the fact that the winter vine has a three day growing time? Are you going to leave the blue gra.s.s up the whole time? Harvesting it will remove the source of cold and could stunt the growth of the vine." Zephirah added.

"When did you know so much?" I asked.

"Not my first rodeo." Zephirah reminded me. "I am the dungeon, I get to see everything that happens inside it, even when the control orb is working properly."

I nodded. It probably wasn't her first time working with these plants. "Do you have any suggestions?" I asked.

"Work on the plants later, we need to expand the dungeon and to do that you need to understand what is different now that we are an official couple.

Lilian snorted then quickly covered her mouth.

I sighed. "Anything to add?" I asked the fairy.

She shook her head a look of fear on her face. I glanced at Vanessa to see her clenching her jaws and avoiding my gaze.

"You can talk Lilian, just keep your admiration of my sister to yourself." I told the fairy.

"That was what was bothering you?" Zephirah asked me curiously.

I shrugged. "Yeah. I don't care if she likes my sister, but the rest…" I said then stopped feeling uncomfortable just remembering her rant. Despite how attractive she was, I had never thought of Candice in that fas.h.i.+on, until Lilian's little rant. I really didn't need those mental images in my head.

"And here I was thinking you were h.o.m.ophobic." Zephirah commented.

"No you weren't." I replied.

"No I wasn't, but Vanessa obviously was." she pointed out.

I groaned. "Can we get on with the upgrade and other information I need?" I asked wanting to get away from this subject.

"Don't you think it would be a good idea to rea.s.sure your girlfriend, fiance, or whatever you want to call her?" Zephirah asked with a smirk.

"Don't you want to get to work so we are defended?" I retorted.

"Just thinking long term." Zephriah replied.

I glanced around seeing Vanessa watching me closely, Lilian was staring off into s.p.a.ce while drooling a bit, I had a bad feeling she was imagining something perverted about Candice. Then again as long as she kept it to herself it should be fine right?

I looked back to Vanessa meeting her gaze. "I am not bis.e.xual, at all, had a few guys in college hit on me, I didn't like it. If others like it it's fine. Knowing the fake Candice is a male is going to creep me out when he gives me that hungry l.u.s.t filled gaze he thinks Candice must use on me." I said then s.h.i.+vered at the thought.

Vanessa nodded in thought. "And your thoughts on women together?" Vanessa asked.

"Same as most men." I replied with a shrug. "The idea is hot, partic.i.p.ating would be better."

Vanessa seemed to relax which made me wonder about her own interests. She flirted with me plenty so I wasn't worried she was a girls only kind of girl.

I shook my head to clear it. I didn't need to get onto that train of thought. Vanessa by herself was already distracting enough, Vanessa with other women... No I had work I needed to get done!

"So?" I asked Zephirah as I tried to concentrate on work.

Zephirah gave me mischievous smirk but didn't comment. I got the feeling she wanted to get the work done too, despite how much fun teasing me would be.

"Alright. I told you earlier that the control orb caused a lot of my power to be wasted so the company had more control over you." she told me.

I nodded.

"Well what that means is our dungeon is supposed to be larger than it is. How should I explain?" she said to herself looking thoughtful.

"You have a budget for a month of groceries, but they have been wasting half of it on junk food." I offered.

Zephirah tilted her head then nodded. "Sure that can work. The point is now that we aren't wasting all that energy on control we can use it to increase the size of our territory." she told me.

"Territory?" I asked.

"The s.p.a.ce on the surface level that is under our direct control." Zephirah told me.

"How much larger are we talking?" I asked.

'Wellllll…." Zephirah said then hesitated. "Before we talk about that, we should discuss the other changes." she told me.

"And those are?" I asked.

"One of the orbs functions was to split my mana pool into two parts, one was the mana you could access, which was from the energy you get from the currency, while the other pool is the energy a dungeon usually gathers from the ambient mana and kills. Some of the second pool is used for upkeep, but besides that you had no access to that energy." she told me.

I frowned as I let that sink in for a minute. So now we have one pool that we can use, which includes ambient mana, mana from currency, and the mana absorbed from the beasts my golems kill?" I asked to be certain.

"Yep." Zephirah replied happily.

"What about absorbing mana from other things, like the enchanted blue gra.s.s?" I asked.

"I can, Vanessa was right though, the energy from the currency we would get for selling it would be better. We would get more for it than if we absorb it as is." Zephirah replied.

I nodded. "Is that the reason you lied to me about needing the company?" I asked her.

Zephirah froze in the air. Oddly enough despite the fact that her wings stopped moving she didn't fall down.

"What do you mean husband?" she asked me warily.

"You know exactly what I mean." I replied fully aware that she could read my mind and what I was thinking.

"I don't." Vanessa spoke up.

"Zephirah told me we couldn't cut ties with the company because we needed them, especially for food." I explained.

"Don't you?" Vanessa asked.

"Do the other dungeon masters rely on a company to supply them food while in the trial?" I asked in return.

Vanessa frowned and didn't reply.

'Plus the item for Vanessa didn't come from the company, did it?' I asked Zephirah mentally.
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Zephirah mentally winced. 'No.' she replied mentally then sighed.

"No, we don't technically need the company now. Though to be fair, I wasn't lying when I said that we did need the company as I didn't have access to the alternative yet." Zephirah grudgingly admitted.

"So why are we keeping contact with them?" I asked.

Zephirah was silent for a moment, I could feel that her mind was in a flurry. I found it interesting that I couldn't read her mind, but I was able to tell when she was panicked or giving something a lot of thought.

"It's the currency." Zephirah finally admitted. "It is another sustainable source of mana for growth." She told me. "And access to items that the dungeon network isn't willing to supply."

"Dungeon network?" I asked.

Zephirah nodded. "It is a communication network that connects all the various cores. We can communicate and a.s.sist each other through it. Upgrades, which the company has already provided me, allow us to trade with each other. Several of the older dungeons offer services to the younger dungeons in the trial, for a price. Food, and other things, can be acquired through them, but they are expensive, the companies network is cheaper." she told me. "Plus the items the company will make available to us later will be useful and impossible to get from the other dungeons." she added.

"Like what?" I asked.

"The plants." Zephirah replied.

"Huh?" I asked confused, "Isn't the company already offering us plants?"

"Yes, but not the good ones. They have much better more expensive plants that they would like us to grow, but even the seeds for them are expensive, so they won't offer them to us until they know we can handle them without killing the plants. Didn't you just lose a bunch of silver shamrock? They can't afford for you to make that kind of mistake with these plants." Zephirah told me.

"Is it the plants you want, or the currency from selling them?" I asked.

"Both." Zephirah said with a wicked grin. "The company has been missing out on one of the greatest features of a dungeon because the control orb can't access that part of my ability. Not with its limited access."

"Get on with it." I said tiredly. Did she really have to drag this out?

"Energy to material conversion!" Zephirah yelled at me irritably. "If I have a sample of something I can directly make more of it. Just like the golems."

"But you were able to make the golems." I pointed out "and what about the items you were exposed to with my predecessors?" I asked.

Zephirah frowned unhappily. "The golems are standard issue and the orb includes those for defensive purposes. I mean new materials. The orb blocks me from getting samples, I am not sure why, and even if it hadn't, all my material blueprints get erased when I am bonded to a new master. Don't ask me why or how, I don't know. The multiple masters thing wasn't ever supposed to happen, how the orb lets it work I still have no idea. Whoever made them must have been a genius." she told me a bit of admiration showing as she looked at the orb where it floated.

"Alright, fine, no shortcuts, but you still want access to the plants?" I asked.

Zephirah nodded. "Of course. Think about it. How much use will the blue gra.s.s be if we use it to chill an entire floor, then add cold type guardians that aren't affected by the cold? If we do it right an entire floor can be made into an arctic wasteland without even putting the plants into danger. Plus the red gra.s.s, is the opposite, it puts off a lot of heat, both plants create optimal circ.u.mstances for more expensive plants, and creates extreme conditions that we can use to protect ourselves." she told me. "And those aren't even all the plants that the company has that we could use to alter our dungeon floors. Let alone the energy we will get from the coins we will make when we harvest the plants!"

I nodded as what she said sank into my mind. "And those aren't available from the older dungeons?" I asked.

"Most aren't, and the ones that are, are priced higher as it should only be a one time purchase." she replied then smiled. "Add those special environments to your Mana Lord, and we stand a real chance at surviving in this trial!" Zephirah continued.

I frowned, I had forgotten about the trial, and its difficulty level. Perhaps it was about time to figure out what all of that meant, but first. "What about the expansion?" I asked.

"Oh yeah. Well with how much energy is in the pool, and the ambient mana conversion to maintain it, we should be able to expand our territory to thirty six tiles." she informed me happily, "and the wisp pushed me up to level three, so we can add another floor."