A few more days passed and the hole that Glacien created was already over fifty meters deep. She was dead set on finding something there. It seemed like a waste of time, but I didn’t mind since I was busy with something else.

  “It works, but the consumption of energy is really bad.”

  A small platform was floating in front of me. It was essentially just a board with some helixes around that made the whole thing float to some extent. Thanks to the meditation amulets, I could make something like this now. However, with the current level of my skill, the amulets could only make something like that float for one second every five seconds.

  I needed to put a lot more amulets, but they would only work like that if they were made with magic ores, otherwise, they wouldn’t store the energy. I also needed to find a way to store it and keep it flowing around the whole structure in order to increase efficiency.

  “Well, it is just the first prototype, so it can’t be helped.”

  I decided to take a break to give Alissandra her breakfast, and I frowned when I saw her moving her arms and then trying to leave her basket. It looked like she had grown a lot and she was at that age where she wanted to move more. That was good, since it showed that she was healthy despite the circumstances. However, it was a bit worrisome since it showed that soon enough, I would have to keep my eyes on her most of the time to keep her safe.

  The surroundings weren’t one of the most safe places for a kid, either. I didn’t know when she would be able to fly, but even so, she wouldn’t be free from the dangers of falling from high altitudes.

  “I will have to be pretty strict with her… there are some kids that grow to be well behaved and still full of energy, but she is a harpy, so things can be a bit more complicated.”

  Harpies grow into violent beings due to a combination of their predatory instincts and their deep-rooted connection to freedom. As creatures with powerful wings and a high-energy lifestyle, they inherit traits akin to birds of prey, aggressiveness, territoriality, and a competitive nature necessary for survival in harsh environments. Their need for independence drives them to resist authority or confinement, reacting explosively when their autonomy is threatened. This free-spirited nature leaves them lacking the patience and social structures that could control their natural impulses, leading to an aggressive and combative disposition.

  Additionally, harpies culture and environment reinforce these tendencies. In hostile habitats, violence becomes a survival tool, whether for hunting or defending territory. Harpy societies emphasize independence from a young age, discouraging nurturing bonds and fostering a survival of the fittest mentality. This lack of structured guidance, combined with the fearlessness granted by their ability to fly and escape danger, can force recklessness. Over time, their environment and instincts coalesce into a personality that views aggression as both a means of self-expression and a necessity for survival.

  I decided to help Alissandra get used to stay sitting on her basket and she soon began to grab the borders and tap on them. It didn’t seem like she liked those things surrounding her like barriers.

  I grabbed some pieces of fur from my magic bag and then put them on the ground and put her above them. She soon began to move her arms energetically while laughing.

  “I guess her nature as a harpy is starting to show off… I can’t stop that completely, but I can’t let her grow like the other harpies. She was already being hunted by them for unknown reasons and she doesn’t need to be hunted by those who aren’t harpies either.”

  This will be hard. It is easier to raise a kid with two parents sharing the load. One can be more stern and the other can be more caring. A single one of them taking both roles is possible, but it is taxing. The chances of raising someone overly spoiled are much higher.

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  “Awooo!”

  While I was thinking about that, I heard Glacien making a bit of noise. It looked like she reached her goal… I worried if she would drag out the skeleton of some monster from that hole, but soon she came out empty-handed, but in a good mood. Her tail was moving like a fan and since she was quite big, she actually made some wind move.

  “Let’s see what you found, girl.”

  I put Alissandra on my arms and then went to check the hole. It was quite deep, but there was a gentle slope on it that led us to the end of the tunnel. Although it was a bit dark here, I was able to soon see a stone monument or some part of it that Glacien had dug out. It certainly looked like the entrance of a dungeon…

  “How did you sense this so deep underground, huh?”

  Glacien looked proud of her achievement. As I looked at the stone monument partially buried in the earth, I couldn’t help but wonder about the nature of dungeons and labyrinths. Could they truly last forever? Their magic seemed lasting, but it felt hard to believe that anything, even something as powerful as a dungeon, could persist without ending at some point. Would there come a point where they simply stopped functioning, whether due to the depletion of their magical essence or the gradual decay of the forces sustaining them? It was a thought that I couldn’t put away, though I’d never heard of a dungeon stopping to work entirely.

  This one, however, felt different. If its entrance had been hidden until now, it might be one of those rare dungeons still in the process of expanding. Such dungeons kept their true form concealed until the right moment, their entrances gradually revealing themselves as the structure grew stronger and more complex. If that were the case, then this discovery wasn’t a relic of the past but a glimpse into something still forming, still alive in its own way.

  “Is this a dungeon? Awoo two times to confirm it, just to be sure.”

  “Awoo! Awoo!”

  “Is that so… Well, we have to hide our base and this entrance? You can dig tomorrow, just rest for today while I start making the camouflage walls.”

  They will have to be quite large to cover what I wanted. I couldn’t use monsters fur either since it wouldn’t have enough enchantment slots for that effect and self repair either.

  While I started working, Alissandra tried to grab my tools nearby, but they were too heavy for her. I kept the sharp ones always in my magic bag, just to be sure. I guessed that she was at the age where she wanted some toys, but I couldn’t work with that kind of stuff. Everything I had was made of magic metal or monster parts and she was at the age where kids explore the world by licking things, as weird as that sounded. I guess I could make a ball for her… if it was tanned well enough, it would be durable as well as perfectly clean.

  “Giving you a ball at your age… I wonder if you would grow up to say that the ball is your friend as well as a certain protagonist.”

  In the end, it took only one night to finish all the walls. Adding the self repair function wasn’t possible since they didn’t come with that many enchantment slots, so for a while I will have to fix the damage myself.

  I checked the outside and confirmed that the camouflage was perfect. The walls made the whole thing transparent. Even from a close range with someone with eyes as good as mine, one would have to work really hard to find any sort of signs that there was something off here.

  Glacien soon resumed her digging and then I continued working on expanding the base. Unless I wanted to raise Alissandra like a barbarian, I needed to show how people properly lived. I made some chairs, a table, and other parts that would make life more convenient like a bath, toilet that sent all the piss and shit down the mountain through a hole. I didn’t feel bad about that because that kind of stuff can make the land become fertile… perhaps not piss.

  Once again, the day slipped by faster than I expected. As the evening settled in, I decided to check on Glacien’s progress. She had made an impressive progress. The entrance of the dungeon now had a small opening, just large enough to offer a glimpse of what was beyond. True to her intelligence, Glacien had focused her efforts on uncovering the surrounding area of the entrance, revealing intricate carvings that hinted at the dungeon’s nature.

  As I studied the exposed artwork, I found myself frowning and holding my chin, processing the imagery. The carvings showed a massive swarm of ants, all kneeling in submission before a towering queen. The queen, regal and menacing, was sitting on a throne constructed entirely of dragon bones, exuding an air of dominance and power. The sight was unnerving, both for the scale of the implied danger and for the strange, almost ceremonial reverence the ants showed to their queen. This was no ordinary dungeon; it carried the aura of something ancient, calculated, and potentially catastrophic.

  “Not very subtle… I had never seen a drawing like this one.”

  The drawings at the entrance of a dungeon usually showed their nature. Showing the monsters inside and the final guardian and their might… I never heard of one that showed a species of monster showing their dominance over others.