5 Taking Shape

"Core, it's finally time to work! show me the offers on plant type monsters ya'old rust bucket." Yelled Adriano in front of three befuddled goblins and a tired bunny.

"Core?" after five minutes of nothing happening, Adriano realized that calling Core an old rust bucket might have been not an ideal choice. "Sorry Core, I was just excited, I'll buy you a pedestal to add some flair to your room, ok? so just show me the offers on plant monsters, especially dryads."

With a sincere tone and some bargaining, Adriano managed to convince Core to finally work. A blue window appeared listing the cheapest options on the market, on top, with a highlight, appeared exactly what he was looking for.

[Senior Dryad (level 17) (status: critically injured): An old dryad from the Pantaleo world. Obtained after a proficuous raid on the world's surface. Her conditions severely impair her fighting capabilities, however, her garden tending skills are still top notch. Base price: 5000 credits.

Seller: Anonymus.]

"Ok Core, buy this one, we will also need seeds, a lot of different seeds, buy a jungle type seed mix. remember to add rare and expensive kinds to the mix, like medical and alchemical ones." Giving his orders Adriano took a deep breath and then extended his right hand, a hologram appeared around it.

Suddenly the world started shaking, the walls of the goblin camp cracked, and like an egg finally hatching, when they opened up they revealed a giant world just outside. A humongous still expanding world.

With every wave of his hand, a wall would be pushed further away, or the ceiling would raise a few meters more. The goblins stared jaw-slacked at the scene, never would they have imagined that one day they would be serving a living god.

Finally satisfied with an approximate extension of 40 square km and a height of 400 meters, Adriano started impressing deep gashes on the ground, creating a subtle web of valleys of varying depth and wideness.

Done with that either he walked towards his room which had been uncovered due to the expansion of the dungeon, the only traces indicating there was once a room there were the smooth floor and pieces of furniture. Adriano approached the desk littered with high-quality equipment and strapped a few pieces to his body.

"Core, have you finished with the task I gave you?" Adriano asked with a hint of excitement.

[Your purchase has been successful, 17.345 credits have been removed from your account. Would you like to retrieve the items now?] an absolute astronomical figure of money was instantly expended, Adriano could feel his virtual wallet bleeding, however, he composed himself and muttered a low "yes, please.".

First, what would look like an exquisite wicker representation of a woman appeared, however, it was no representation. The living being in front of Adriano was a dryad, a creature made up of woven rattan like plants with a pulsing heart placed in her chest.

The dryad in front of him was completely naked, and one could ask himself, do plants even need clothes? however, seeing her figure anyone would answer, they look perfect even without. The only flaw in the dryad was her legs had been cut off and two charred like stump remained in place. Whoever did that, knew that plant forms of life weakness was fire, as any charred part would no longer grow back.

Adriano put up his bravest front and greeted the dryad. "Hello there," the dryad finally realized there was someone behind her, turning around her liane-like hair whipped the air with a 'swish' sound. "sorry, didn't mean to spook you." In all response, he got an angry stare.

"You might be wondering where we are," he continued, waving to the wasteland around them, Core's light being the only source of light it managed to reveal less than a hundred feet of space, beyond that it was total darkness. "This here is my dungeon, I call it the sanctuary. After escaping a life of servitude and living under a tyranny, I decided to create a world where everybody would be able to live in freedom." the dryads eyes softened a little, but they still contained suspicion.

"that's why I've summoned you here, I need your help in creating this world." Adriano's voice became softer, "I know it must have been hard on you," his eyes stopped for a moment on her legs which made something akin to sap drip down her eyes. "however, here you'll be safe, I'll personally protect you and assure you that what happened to you will never happen to anyone else in here." he extended his hand for the finishing blow, "so, will you help me?".

His face emitted an air of radiance and trustworthiness. The dryad's hand almost unconsciously moved towards him before suddenly jerking back. And for the first time, she opened her mouth, her voice mellow and smooth as water flowing in a creek. "How would I be able to help you, I can't fight and I can't even grow plants here, without seeds or water." Adriano merely smirked at her words and raised his left hand to the sky.

Rain suddenly started pouring down in big droplets, all over the dungeon rain appeared, following Adriano's gashed in the ground and creating rivers. then after whispering something to the air, a mountain of seeds appeared next to them. It wasn't an overstatement or exaggeration calling it a mountain, its height easily exceeded the 80 meters, all of this made of seeds mostly smaller than peanuts.

The dryad eyes popped open in shock, from what Adriano could see she didn't really have eyes, mostly two eye sockets filled with some kind of vibrant green light. "but, what about sunlight..." her last defense crumbled when Adriano took a disc-shaped mirror and threw it in the air.

The disk flew higher and higher by his own force while expanding, soon it covered the whole roof of the cavern and with a snap of Adriano's finger, it activated. Suddenly the dungeon was covered in light. The sky had turned violet with white clouds, and beyond it, a sun had appeared.

"that little disk is a window on a star, from now on until the end of days we will never lack sunlight. And if you ever get bored of the perpetual day..." With another snap of his finger, the sun disappeared and a starry field replaced the ceiling.

At that moment he could imagine what was going through the dryad's mind, absolute shock. After a life in a forest, away from everything else, she had suddenly been kidnapped and then her rescuer had shown her the power to turn the night into day and the day into night with a snap of his finger. "allow me..." she said opening her chest. Adriano could see her heart, a beautiful egg-like shape glowing in green light with hundreds of frail tendrils extending out of it. "to serve you." she finally muttered out.

For a dryad, to show her heart it meant dedicating their life to someone else. Had Adriano been another dryad, he would have done the same, and then by making the two heart come in touch, they would have generated new life.

"No, no one is here to serve, we are here to work together." With his last bullshit, he had finally thoroughly won the Dryad. After flashing a big smile, the dryad immediately went to work planting the seeds, each of the unique 3.450 varieties of seeds went into the ground one by one. according to the dryad whose name Adriano had forgotten to ask, it would take her a week to finish planting and growing all the seeds.

Thus Adriano decided to temporarily close the dungeon. The portals all around the cosmos that led to him suddenly closed. He had only one non-insured dryad, he could not allow her to die.

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Three weeks later.

A radiant jungle now covered the once desert dungeon. trees and plants of every size littered two-thirds of the dungeon and every moment new ones would pop out the ground. Under the Dryad's watchful eye and powers, some of the plants had even started to hybridize.

But not only plants occupied the dungeon, tired of waiting for the jungle to flourish just by the hands of a single dryad, Adriano had also started buying varieties of herbivores to help in spreading seeds around.

Then when the herbivores started breeding at a faster pace, again, thanks to the dryad's powers, just with their sheer numbers they were becoming a real threat to the vegetation, so Adriano had to bring in the carnivores as well.

Right now wherever you watched life would occupy 99% of your view. Snakes would coil around the trees, waiting for birds of rainbow plumage to land. rabbits would hop happily, unaware of agile beasts following them from the shadows. Bunnies weren't really a necessary choice, however, Adriano didn't want Xiao Bai to feel alone anymore, so he bought one single normal female bunny. Now white rabbits littered the jungle. Which seeing how cute they were, he considered as a victory.

"Core, it's time, reopen the dungeon. Look for highly populated areas, it's time to show the universe what we have been working on."