CHAPTER 27: SCOUTING REPORT

The other Workers, unlike Larry, had actually gotten things done during Toy’s expedition. There was even one who’d ranked up in building!

♥︎♥︎♥︎

Name: [Marvel]

True Title: —

Worker Level: [0]

Loyalty: [100/100]

Traits: [Emergent Builder] [Nascent Miner]

♥︎♥︎♥︎

The wall blocking the main entrance from view into the rest of the alcove was nearly complete. It was still weak and thin, but that could be fixed over time. All that mattered was that one couldn’t see the direct path to the core room from the entrance looking in.

While the cloth streamers could hide the visibility of the path behind them, they did the opposite in terms of camouflage. If someone witnessed them, it would be practically announcing this place was no typical cave, but something’s home... something’s dungeon.

The next task would be to make the wall near the entrance look natural and not flat, in order to sell the effect of it being a natural cave. However, that could also wait until at least tomorrow.

’This wall was a great idea...’

Especially now that he learned just how close the surface was, only fifty or so paces up a slight incline from where the black wall once stood. One curious person would have been all it would have taken to discover him.

Vale looked at the goblin before him and asked:

"Uhh... You alright?"

Toy seemed beyond nervous as she stood in the middle of the alcove, being stared at by every inhabitant of the Dungeon of Lust.

Despite how she acted when being charmed, Toy seemed to be quite reticent. In fact, she’d been very shy and scared when alone with Vale before he talked with her.

Whether she truly warmed up to him or his Trait was at work, he didn’t know; what he did know was that Toy hadn’t warmed up to the imps at all...

She still seemed horrified at the tiny fiends that were staring at her while leisurely continuing their transport of stone to the wall, floating to the roof via their wings, and placing the material before drifting back down.

Vale added:

"Do you want to go into the—"

"Mhm! Mhm!"

Toy cut Vale off and began furiously shaking her head up and down, and giving a muffled screech of acceptance while jumping away from a Worker who’d absentmindedly almost smashed into her.

Sizzy, who’d just walked in, rolled its eyes and began to help the other imps as the three walked back and into the debaucherous room where Salome and Vale had just come from. As they walked, Vale gave the Worker, Crow, an order to stand guard and alert them if an intruder came in.

As they got closer, they could easily hear the echoes of a rock being slammed into the ground by a particularly frustrated Worker.

Salome still stood in the hallway so that she could see into the hub room, but she was still well within earshot in the echoey chambers of the cavern.

Toy was in the dungeon within a dungeon, taking deep breaths and calming herself down while adjusting the strips of cloth tied around her bust and waist. When she finally finished whatever anxiety-calming ritual that was, she began her report.

"Our location... we’re near the bottom of a ravine."

Vale studied Toy’s plump green cheeks as he repeated the small goblin.

"A ravine?"

"Yes, it seems the entrance is at the bottom of a vast ravine. Well, almost the bottom. The true bottom is a little lower, but there’s a massive river flowing there."

Vale smiled with every word the little goblin spoke.

Ravines, canyons, valleys, any sort of unnatural-looking natural indent in the Earth, were typically uninhabited by humans for the premise that they were indefensible and inhospitable.

Not only would it be hard to defend a place that permanently ceded the high ground, but food would become a real issue in no time. Well, it would depend on how easily accessible flat land is and how fertile such land would be — but such a fortune wasn’t typically the case.

Then there was also the river...

It served more than just being the probable cause for this landform...

While Vale had yet to see anything for himself, Toy had said both the river was massive and the canyon was vast. If his mental image was correct, things were looking pretty dandy for him.

"This is amazing! We can collect some alluvium, and once Larry gets its shit together, we can make proper items! Not to mention a water source! And we should be safe from being discovered!"

Toy looked happy at Vale’s excited remarks, but also a little perplexed for some reason...

"Who’s Larry? And what the hell is alluvi-wuh?"

’Oh...’

Vale almost let out a laugh as he heard a resounding cracking of stone followed by the snarl of a frustrated imp cascading down the halls from the nearby core room.

"Never mind about the incompetent. And alluvium isn’t something you need to concern yourself with... What’s important is what else did you find?"

Toy blushed a little for some reason, then spoke:

"There’s a lot of foliage near the bottom of the ravine and the side of the cliffs incline steepens out as it nears the top... As for animals, there seemed to be a few small ones running around. But nothing of what I saw looked dangerous."

Vale’s wide grin grew.

’This is amazing!’

While in the future the position of his dungeon could become a detriment, as of right now, it was a real boon! He’d have to see the scene for himself to understand it wholly. Though it appeared they were in a safe location.

Well, as long as more corrupted beasts didn’t show up.

At least Sloth had taken care of that threat for now. Hopefully, she was diligent enough to clear out the area of their presence...

’I didn’t jinx myself, right?’

Sloth and diligence didn’t typically go together after all...

’Anyways... ’

While maybe this information provided by Toy wasn’t revolutionary and could probably be gleaned from a glance at the maw of the cave, it was her journey itself that was more of a hope for Vale.

The fact that she returned alive and completely unharmed was much more telling than if one of them had taken a little peek outside and saw the same perspective.

The medium itself was the message.

Hopefully, Toy didn’t pick up on that little fact, though.

"Great job, Toy..."

As Toy listened to Vale’s praise, the red tint on her cheeks only began to darken as she rubbed the back of her hand and looked away.

’What’s wrong with her?’

Vale listened as a cacophony of footsteps led away. He snapped his gaze to where Salome was and found she’d disappeared somewhere into the main room.

’Where’s she going? She didn’t even ask a question or give any input?’

Toy clamored while fidgeting even more.

"I- uh..."

’Oh right...’

"I assume you want your reward?"

Toy’s face flushed with a bashful glee as she rubbed her thighs together.

"Y-yes."