“Careful with those tools, now. I don’t want any injuries on my watch.”
Barry supervised the work, blueprint in hand, his booming voice rallying the workers. Once the supporting infrastructure was built, we directed our efforts towards the next task: excavation. The kobolds had begun digging what would become the entrance, according to our blueprints. They used shovels produced from the <Dungeon Management Tool> to dig out blocks of soil, applied generous amounts of the coagulant to them, and carried out the now-solid blocks.
“Man, at times like these, you can really see the difference between games and reality.”
The team consisted of two kobolds digging, one applying coagulant to the blocks, and ten hauling blocks away. Although their cubic shape made them easy to transport, they weren’t exactly light. The blocks measured about ten centimeters to a side. Humans and kobolds could carry one or two by hand, and even with a carrying rack, the most they could carry was about five. The giants and ogres could handle two or three times that, but fitting them in the tight confines of the excavation site had proved impossible. The dwarves and kobolds hauled the blocks just out of the dig, and the giants and ogres carried larger loads of them off to a second site further away.
“Heave-ho! Heave-ho!”
Ann stuck out like a sore thumb, walking along happily with a rack on her back piled high with just as many blocks as the giants were carrying. She had almost twenty of them stacked up on the rack, and she was so small, it looked almost like the rack was moving along by itself. The villagers would see her and smile, chattering about how a girl who worked every day in the Great Dark Lord’s labyrinth really must be something special, but something about it felt off to me. Jenny stood dumbfounded, her mouth hanging open, when she came by to bring cups of water to the workers. Now that was more the reaction I’d expected.
“Oof.” I set down a barrel of coagulant in a corner of the workshop, having just hauled it up from the bottom of the ravine. I’d found myself in the enviable position of carrying them all to the construction site.
“Bring up the wood, boys, we’re reinforcing these walls!”
Man, that sure looked like fun, working together like that. Not that I was jealous or anything. Carrying barrels is my favorite!
In half a day, they’d finished a set of stairs leading down to what would become the labyrinth’s first floor. The area above the staircase was left open to make it easier to work through the rest of the excavation and construction on that floor.
“It’s coming along nicely, Boss. That coagu-whatsit of yours is amazing, let me tell you. Makes carrying out all the soil we dig up much easier. We’re thirty meters down, and the sun isn’t even set.”
As evening approached, Barry and I looked over the day’s progress. Down in the deeps, it was mainly the kobolds working, with their good night vision. Just then, a pair of them with matching fur patterns appeared at the top of the stairs with a load of blocks, which they set down for the giants to carry away. Perhaps the two were brothers. The ogre tasked with hauling blocks away from the entrance went into action.
“Barry, what’s the status of the tools?”
“We’ve got more than enough left. I’m still a little weirded out by these perfect blocks and rods, but those shovels and pickaxes work like a charm. Besides that, we’ve got more than enough wheelbarrows, and more magic potions than we could use up in a lifetime of injuries. I’d get smacked upside the head if one of my builder buddies heard me complaining about anything here.”
“Glad to hear it. When the girls and I finish bringing up all the barrels, there won’t be much left for me to do, but I still want you to come and get me right away if anything happens. Got it?”
“Of course, of course. Keeping you up to date is part of the job, my boy.”
I’d wanted to help out with the actual digging as well, but the agreement we’d come to was that I was only to help with bedrock, or anything the villagers would have a hard time with. I’d wanted to work alongside everyone, but I was a limited resource and had to put my abilities to use only where they were really needed.
“Make sure you show up at mealtime. Eating out of the same pot and sitting around the same fire goes a long way.”
Nice. I wouldn’t even have to cook today.