Azotreh was sitting almost alone in the dark room. They'd turned the light generated by the presence of the dungeon nexus to nothing, so this room could be better for their advancement. Fewer distractions would assist in the cleansing of their body, even as they turned the cleansed material into more energy.
[You have drawn the attention of The Black Ichor through your actions and connection to the astral plane.]
{The Black Ichor has issued a task!}
{Produce no impurities when you next increase in grade (0/1)}
The notification of the new task filled their vision. Even attempting to close their eyes and shut it out, the system recreated it within their mind's eye, though this new window was made from dripping black fluid rather than clean blue light.
They pushed the system window down before returning to their own goal. It wasn't as if they weren't going to complete the task anyway. They could still feel the impurities–even in smaller quantities–hovering in their body. They were slimy and uncomfortable, and projected a curious feeling of rage despite not having a mind of their own.
It was becoming harder to find and break them down as their quantities lessened. Their Bodily Purity poten had climbed back to 98% over the course of several hours. Ruby remained within Azotreh, but was projecting her own aura through them. The aura conduit title had a low ongoing cost to both sides, measured only in willpower. She didn't have the boosted regeneration rates of the dungeon nexus, but willpower was still the quickest resource to recover.
She was trying to ignite the air outside of their body through her aura alone. As Azotreh was spending most of their time focused within, the movements of her aura didn't distract as they would have if Azotreh had pushed their own aura out.
Mukurric was starting to get worried about Azotreh. The training room was dark, and while Azotreh had recovered, they had been focused for nearly four hours now. No child should have the attention span for something like that, let alone sitting in the dark like they were.
Atu had told Mukurric that the bound fox spirit, Ruby, was impatient by nature as well. Yet she hadn't made an appearance beyond attempting to manipulate her aura in a way Mukurric vaguely recognized as a form of spellcraft. The fox's aura couldn't form the sigils of power without long specialized training, but she apparently didn't care.
While Mukurric had been checking in on Azotreh once every few hours, tamping down her aura enough to be utterly unnoticed by either, and found no problems, she was still worried. Even she didn't have the patience to do what Azotreh was doing until she was at least a hundred times their age. As a pup, she had little patience for any kind of training. She regretted some of that time now, but the past was unchanging.
She instead turned to Kurdan, "Can you figure out what they're doing? I've never seen an ability that allows for the cleansing of impurities without simply pushing them free prematurely."
Kurdan nodded, "I can probably figure something out. I'm not an expert on abilities or whatever this child is involved with, but I should be able to get something."
Mukurric nodded before once again dropping into the woolen couch Dur had created. Why a woman specializing in the power of her body would learn wool magic was beyond the ancient dragon, but it did at least stop her from being forced to sit on the floor. She was endlessly grateful to the peculiar orc for that.
The cold consciousness was guided in its further actions by Nicholas. While the homes it built were standardized for each of the rabbit-kin based on memories it barely understood of something called an "apartment complex," the realm beyond was anything but.
After Nicholas used one of the two new slime champions to get some water for the dungeon, he had the cold consciousness carve thin channels through the stone and create five waterfalls. One over the entrance to the room from the one above, and four more equally spaced around the grand dome.
He'd also controlled that same slime champion to gather some soil from the surface. The nodes it could create were apparently filled with the concept of twilight, allowing the very soil to slightly glow in the dungeon.
Nicholas was confused by the lack of something called bacteria in the soil, as he assumed they'd get some kind of spawning condition for it. Strangely, after he complained to the cold consciousness, something did change.
[You can now create twilight nitrogenous bacteria.]
The things called bacteria cost essentially nothing to maintain, with the default spawn quantity being a million and costing one unit of mana per spawned million bacteria. The things were too small even for the keen perception of the dungeon nexus. They were also considered monsters, which seemed to confuse Nicholas all over again.
But the cold consciousness didn't know about plants or fungi being monsters. All it knew was that some things would be monsters, and some would be nodes.
Even more strangely, after Nicholas spawned a million of the bacteria and commanded them to move into the dome room, the nexus began to receive more messages.
[One of your dungeon monsters, Twilight Nitrogenous Bacterium, has created offspring. Offspring is not of the monster archetype due to its simplicity.]
[Offspring automatically transitioned to denizen status. Due to simplicity of denizen, rewards have been reduced. +0.01DX]
Even earning one DX for every hundred bacteria was apparently a good thing, according to Nicholas. Apparently, bacteria existed in such huge numbers that counting them was practically impossible.
Even more curiously, when the nexus began to implement the other ideas, such as some grass and a large tree in the center of the room, the node costs were lowered by the presence of the bacteria. It was complex to the extreme compared to what its instincts told it.
It also forgot exactly when it became capable of manipulating the ground directly again with the rabbit-kin still in the dungeon, since that was impossible before, but it wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Or whatever Nicholas had said.
Azotreh remained in the dark for an additional two days, seemingly without rest. Atu didn't seem worried, but the three were getting restless. Anthei, the humanoid ant woman, had even emerged from the depths again to apologize for her previous actions to whichever powerful entity owned the space. Azotreh didn't emerge from their odd dark space, and when Mukurric directed Anthei to apologize to them, a wall suddenly emerged from the ground to block off the entrance. They clearly did not want to be distracted from whatever they were doing.
So, the odd quintet sat and attempted to find some way to pass the time. They were sent to train Azotreh, but without an Azotreh to train, they had no real options.
Atu left once every hour or so to check on her people. She clearly cared more for Azotreh than she did for those she shared a species with, and only went to check on them every hour because Azotreh was spawning rats every minute. Two rats each time. When the rats were looted, they dropped meat.
The rabbit-kin didn't actually need to eat the meat of the rats, since most of them carried enough rations for months in their inventories. But it was better not to drain their own resources if some is being supplied.
Some of the rabbit-kin children had even begun to create crude necklaces and the like out of the rat teeth and claws. All monsters dropped some miscellaneous items, though their quantity was seemingly random. Atu had once looted a bear monster early in her life, and her looting ability had produced more than two hundred bear claws despite the bear only having nine legs.
But as they waited, nearing the end of the second day, Azotreh's aura pulsed brightly, pushing through the wall.
While the entire dungeon held some of Azotreh's aura, the difference between their actual aura and that projected by the arcane might of the dungeon was clear to anyone who trained, including the five sitting in a room.
They had discovered that Kurdan had a proper set of cards, letting the group play some variation of poker. The twelve suits and tarot cards made the game more interesting rather than less so.
While Atu finally had a worried look, and neither Dur nor Kurdan had anything but confusion on their faces, Anthei and Mukurric looked at each other. Visibly startled, the pair stood, and Anthei used her four arms to create a basic ritual circle for stone tunneling. Fueled by the dragon's avatar's arcane might, the stone was easily pushed aside despite the best efforts of the dungeon.
Azotreh was glowing brightly as the white light of something suffused them. Their eyes were wide, but they didn't seem to be in pain. Instead, they looked at the wall blankly, not even noticing the two powerful beastkin standing in the door.
{You have performed a great act of diligence in housing 92 homeless rabbit-kin within a grand singular structure. While that which granted the quest is not entirely happy with the execution, it is truly the results that matter.}
{You have completed task: A Great Act of Diligence. Reward: Blessing of Azrael (Ruby)}
[Blessing of Azrael (R): Unlocks diligence abilities, grants the ability: Diligence]
[Diligence (1) - Common Ability, Improvement, Passive]
[Time requirements for all actions improve results. Actions taken in pursuit of a larger goal will allow you to advance towards that goal regardless of relevance.]
[Grants +1 concentration to will poten per level.]
[You have been granted 1 epic system boon!]
The notifications pushed their way into Azotreh's stream of consciousness. They were a bit confusing. The blessing of Azrael? Azotreh didn't know who or what that was.
Even stranger were the radiant waves of white light emerging from their body. Beelzebub had granted not one, but two blessings to Azotreh. Neither had produced such a lightshow.
At the very least, their new diligence ability would assist in their current task. Apparently, the ability would allow them to achieve greater results with time. It would definitely be useful in completing both the tasks for Beelzebub and the Black Ichor, since both were time-intensive processes.
They were shaken from their thoughts by Mukurric. The walls suddenly illuminated with the dungeon's ambient glow as their meditative state was broken.
"What happened? You received a blessing, right?" She asked, her voice trembling slightly.
"Yes?" Azotreh replied.
"And from whom did you receive this blessing?" Anthei asked.
"Someone called Azrael. Seems important."
The two shared a look, neither familiar with the name. It wasn't one they knew of a god from the central continent. The blessing also created far more of a fuss than any blessing either of the pair had received, and both had a rather expansive collection.
"What did the blessing give you?"
"An ability called Diligence."
Anthei looked even more confused. She'd never heard of such a power, but she was still relatively young. She looked to Mukurric for answers. Even in this limited avatar, the diamond-rank dragon definitely knew a lot that Anthei didn't.
"Can you show us the description?" Mukurric asked, then shook her own head, "Of course you can't. That's only a function acquired at ruby rank."
Now it was Azotreh's turn to look surprised. System functions were unlocked at a higher rank? They had never heard of such a thing. Mukurric didn't explain, and Anthei looked rather disapproving.
Mukurric reached out and picked up Azotreh.
"Then I guess we have to get you back to training then…" She murmured before wrapping Azotreh in a bubble of her arcane power. The ability to turn into a puddle of slime was certainly unhelpful for carrying someone around.
The rabbit-kin had begun to explore their new home. The ambient lighting of the walls had been disabled, only allowing the artificial light of the dungeon to emerge from the ceiling. In the middle of the room was a suddenly grown and enormous oak tree. Its bark carried a slight purple color and poisoned anything that touched it. Its leaves, green with thin purple veins, made a canopy on the roof of the cavern, letting through thin streams of the dungeon's light. It made the entire room feel more like the surface, under its eternal twilight.
Thin streams carried water from five large waterfalls to the tree in the center, using channels carved between chunks of earth covered in dim purple grass to reach the tree. It gave the entire room the faint sound of a river moving, rather than the overwhelming sounds of the waterfalls.
Between the waterfalls were tall holes in the wall. Without any glass, the windows weren't complete. The windows allowed the homes to see the dome created through the power of the dungeon and let in the scent of the grass and water.
The empty holes led into multiple rooms, each branching from a central one near the waterfall. The rabbit-kin, who had mostly lived in two-room homes, found the space large and slightly intimidating as their guide, a slime, shifted to appear more like a towering pale rabbit-kin, told them these were their new homes.
Even as the homes were intimidating, the rabbit-kin could at least openly be grateful for receiving a new place to call home after the evacuation of their former village. They had nowhere to go anymore, anywhere but here. But Nicholas promised that this place would continue to change and grow as the dungeon did.
The rabbit-kin, on the whole, looked forward to the future of their people.