Chapter 12: A Mistake

Today I need to head out and gather roots again. Before I set out though, I use up my mana shaping a single stone tablet. I'm not very happy that this is all I can accomplish with my mana total, but it'll have to do. I'm out of meat, so I eat a generous helping of roots instead, and start making my way to the surface. It's been quite a while since I was outside, so I go and check my bucket. To my surprise it's almost full. There must have been quite the amount of rain since I was out last. I think I should probably bring it back inside and store it in my room if it's already this full, it should be plenty of water for if I need it again.

So, before I go get roots, I begin hauling the bucket down into the cave. It's heavy enough that I need to take breaks every so often as I carry it down, but not too much that I can't handle. As I round the final corner, I can see the crystalline light begin to light the walls and floor. I'm pretty tired from hauling this, but it's just a little further, so I'll just power through it.

Suddenly, one of my legs slips. I fall forwards with the weight of the bucket. Fuck. I hear a cracking noise, and I lose grip on the bucket, and the water begins running deeper into the cave. Shit. Although I'm startled, I'm not that badly harmed, just a little bruised up. What did I slip on though? I roll over and look down at my feet.

Fuck. I was worried about this, but I put it off. With the bucket covering my lower field of view, I didn't really notice, but I'd walked into where a bunch of the soot and charcoal dust was settled from the bonfire I used to crack those rocks.

Suddenly I hear a hissing sound from further down in the cave. I look towards it, and I see my campfire flickering. Oh no. I made the campfire where the goblins had made it. Which was central to the cave. The rounded cave. It's literally the lowest point in the path down. Which means the entire bucket's water is rushing towards it.

I get up and try to make it to the fire before it's completely out. Half of it is already out by the time I'm on my feet fully. I make a mad dash for the campfire, but when I reach it, it's too late. What was left burning has collapsed down, into a mix of wet ash, and the fire is out. Goddamnit. It took so long to start that fire. I've been so careful to make sure it doesn't go out accidentally, then I cause an accident, and it goes out.

I toss a half burned stick as hard as I can deeper into the cave. I'm pissed off. I knew that there were spots that might be slick. I got careless. I spent so long making my room into a modern style place that I completely forgot that I'm still surviving out here and was careless. As much as I'd like to sit and mope, I'm out of mana, almost out of wood, and almost out of food. I need to go get food. Although I'm now even less looking forward to eating those roots than before, since they're going to be raw now.

As pissed off as I am, harvesting these plants is at least therapeutic. Having gathered what I needed, I go back in the cave, this time being extra careful where I step. After all, now there are probably even more slick spots after where the water spilled. I take all my roots to my room, and store them. Then I go and get my broken bucket, and take it back to the surface. Once there, I fix where it broke using some of my mana which recharged while I was picking the roots, and set it back in its hidden away spot.

I make a mental note to either build the fire somewhere else, or properly raise a stone wall around it so water won't put it out like it did. Maybe I should look into trying to figure out where exactly my room is relative to this mountain. If I could build a chimney of sorts, then that could work. I suppose I could also just open the chimney up into the cave proper, and just run a slightly diagonal tunnel alongside the entrance to my room. Well, I'll try to figure out relative direction while carrying wood back into the cave over the next few loads.

Unfortunately, the darkness mixed with the uneven nature of the cave has left me completely confused as to where exactly this cavern is relative to the outside. Despite the multiple trips of hauling wood back down here, I can't quite figure out where I am. All I know is that it's downhill inside pretty much the whole way.

Given that I have no idea where this cavern is, I guess I'll try to make the fire via a chimney going back into the cavern from my sub cave. I do have a plan for it though. I'll first start by making a tunnel at an angle just low enough I can crawl through to tunnel back into the main cavern, trying to keep it going as vertical as I can while still making it out into the cavern, so that hopefully smoke will go that way. Once I've got the tunnel done, I'll build the area for the fire in the room where the tunnel is.

As I start tunneling, I realize that it's going to take a while. I can only reasonably carry a few crystals with me at a time, so I have to constantly retreat out of the tunnel to do so. As for the process of tunneling itself, I turn a large portion of the rock into small spheres that roll back through the tunnel to the room, and then compress the gaps in the rock to make the edges of the tunnel out of the less porous rock. I debated leaving it porous so the smoke might dissipate into it, but if I do that, it'll end up saturated anyway, and cleaning the tunnel out would be much harder. When I finally make it to the other side, I'm going to smooth everything on my way back down to try to discourage smoke deposition as much as I can.

That said, I haven't even made it to the point where I'm fully in the tunnel today, I spent most of the day outside carrying things back into the cave, so I'll get a fresh start on this tomorrow.

---

I start today off by eating some raw roots, which I'm not happy about. I already got used to eating them cooked, so going back to the uncooked way of eating frustrates me, but it also motivates me to keep working on the chimney tunnel. It's not the most enjoyable work, but at the very least I can see the progress happening. One issue I've run into is all the little marbles of stone that I've been making have started to scatter on the floor of the room. When I'm done with the project, I should really make an effort to remove them. I don't want to trip again. While I work though, it shouldn't be much of a problem, since I'm not really carrying anything of concern. I'll be the only one getting hurt if I fall.

While tunneling, I actually come across a small bubble in the wall that has some crystals embedded in it. I had wondered if I'd run into any more crystals buried in the rock, but it seems like they maybe only form in these gaps in the rock. Or maybe part of the gap forming process forms the crystals? Well, it's way beyond my current capabilities to figure that out, so for now I'll just keep tunneling. Although I'll be taking these few crystals with me, and be reshaping this bubble in the rock to continue the tunnel.

When I finish up for the day, I'm probably a little over halfway complete, if I had to guess. If I'm lucky, I'll finish tomorrow. For tonight though, I just lay back in bed, and check my stats before I fall asleep.

<EPIC IMP>
Level: 45
HP: 296/296

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MP: 75/75
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Stone Shaping

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