Chapter 74: Step 74 to Greatness: An Egg Must Be Cooked In Lava
The card Hannah gave him was a new one as well. However, it wasn’t red but black and borderless. If not for his system, Adrian didn’t think he would even be able to read what was written on it.
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Name: Underground Cave
Type: Expansion Card
Rarity: N/A
Biome: Earth
Affected area: 49 m × 49 m
Restriction: Can only be used in existing settlements/shelters.
Description: Upon activation, the ground within the affected radius cracks open and begins reshaping itself to reveal a desolate, underground space which can be used for multiple things.
The entrance to the cave requires a 4x4 square meter area. The rest of it will be underground.
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Essentially, it was a card that could have been used to support the salt quarry if they did not have an existing cave structure. Even the restriction was light. One just had to use it inside a shelter or a settlement.
If Adrian had gotten the cave expansion card before, he would have used it to make a second base or a safe house, in case their settlement was overrun with monsters or enemies.
However, now he only had one use for it.
Time to bake the egg, hehe.
As excited as he was, he wasn’t going to place it randomly. There were things he needed to consider, such as the location of the compost pit, the lake, the farmland, and so on.
If he were just creating a cave, then he could have put it anywhere. But since he would add the lava ridge to it, he had to make sure the warmth from the lava ridge wouldn’t ruin the existing structures, as he couldn’t move them.
With all that in mind, the only space available for the cave was next to the arrow tower. Since it was an automated structure, it wouldn’t mind a little bit of heat.
"A small area, here you go," Adrian said, using the card on the edge of the southeast side of the fence.
However, unlike with other buildings, the moment Adrian used the card, it didn’t disappear. Instead, a massive holographic structure appeared before him.
Whenever he moved the card, the entire structure moved under the forest floor. It was like one of those shelter-building games, like Clash, where it would show if the area was available for building or not.
Since the entrance was already inside the fence and it was the only way of accessing the cave, Adrian put the entirety of the cave outside the fence, leaving the settlement unaffected by the new structure.
The earth began to quake violently as soon as Adrian confirmed the placement. When that happened, everyone stopped doing what they were doing and rushed towards the source of all troubles, a.k.a. towards Adrian.
"What’s happening!?" Amika cried, holding her Huginn as she rushed out of the longhouse.
"Nothing! Don’t worry about it," Adrian yelled back, waving everyone to go back inside.
Despite his words, the ground continued to tremble for nearly a minute before things finally settled.
When the dust cleared, a small set of stone stairs had appeared, leading down into complete darkness. The entrance was modest, just wide enough for two people to climb down at once.
"What is this?" Amiya asked, peeking into the darkness.
"Male... what is this?" Nixa chimed in. For the first time, she was worried about his antics.
It wasn’t because of what he did, but because of their own superstitions. In their belief, the earth only trembled so loudly when the gods were unhappy with something.
Seeing the hole in front of Adrian made them feel like he had done something to anger the gods, which was a big no-no for them.
"Don’t touch this," Adrian said, rushing over to the fire pit.
Once there, he took a few sticks that Nixa had brought for repairs, wrapped some tattered boar hide on them before coating them all with chicken fat. Just like that, several torches were ready to use.
He lit one of them, then carried the rest over to the cave entrance. Once there, he handed out the torches to Sera, Hannah, and Mika and gestured to them to follow him.
With the torch in hand, he climbed down the stairs. Every few steps, the tunnel seemed to widen until they were standing on flat, rocky ground.
A gush of cool wind almost knocked the flames out. As the flames flickered, Adrian got a better look at what the cave actually looked like.
"Damn... this place is a lot bigger than I imagined," Adrian said, only for his voice to echo back. "We can fit multiple settlements in here..."
For a moment, Adrian’s mind faltered. To turn such a big area into a volcanic biome felt like a waste. Just the thought of how many structures he could make there made his heart ache.
However, the egg was important, and so was clearing his inventory. He couldn’t go around with it in his inventory.
In the end, he used the lava ridge in there, leaving some area next to the staircase. Just in case he got another card to expand the cave later.
As he used the card, a blinding light covered the dark cave.
The next moment, the entire cave began to transform. The rocky ground cracked open in several places as streams of molten lava started flowing through newly formed channels.
The temperature rose rapidly, turning the cool wind into a dry heatwave. At the same time, glowing orange cracks spread across the floor and walls, and spread through most of the cave like veins, illuminating the massive underground space.
Next, small pools of lava formed in low areas, with the lava bubbling and popping with intense heat. Unlike the walls and the ground, the ceiling remained mostly intact, but a faint red light now filled the cave.
Adrian put out the torch as the heat in the cave was unbearable, and he did not want another heat source in his face. Surprisingly, the lava only flowed through the designated area and did not melt the rest of the cave, as Adrian was worried about.
It wasn’t just that. Although the air felt hot, the floor under them was perfectly cool, as if unaffected by the lava flowing at some distance away.
Despite the heat and the ’waste’ space, Adrian looked pleased because the cave looked beautiful.
"It would be the perfect forge if we got our hands on some metal and a blacksmith, haha," he chuckled.
With everything prepared, Adrian summoned the egg out of his inventory again. However, this time he didn’t need to ’place’ it as the egg automatically settled on the rocky ground next to one of the smaller lava pools.
At the same time, a series of notifications appeared before him.
[Hatching Process Initiated!]
[The egg requires nourishment to produce a strong creature.]
[Feed the egg blood or high-quality organic materials to speed up growth and improve the hatched creature’s potential.]
[Current potential: ☆☆☆☆☆]
Adrian stared at the notification with a wide smile until he re-read the part about feeding the egg. That’s when his smile faltered.
"The egg eats blood..." he mumbled, the corners of his lips twitching. "I’ve been wasting so much blood... other than the one bottle of chicken, which I threw away while clearing the inventory for the chest."