The next morning, she woke up feeling guilty sleeping in the bigger room. This was Dobin's house. She was his guest so she moved the stuff around. She and Caser would sleep in the smaller room. The trunks she brought that would need to go in her house were in the middle of the living room. They didn't want to carry them upstairs just to move them again so they were just stacked up as a divider between the dining area and the living area. Lana unpacked Dobin's clothes into the drawers underneath the bed. These were taller models so there were two rows of drawers, three in each row. Some call this style a captain bed. It precluded the need for a dresser. A closet area would be needed which she didn't think about in her design so she would need to buy wardrobes. The problem would be the smaller room had no room for a closet or a wardrobe. She would just omit it there.
Lana quickly got breakfast cooking after settling Dobin's room. She then put the food in her bag into the refrigerator. All the seasoning in this bag went into one of the cabinets. This turned the bag into just an ordinary bag that she placed in Dobin's room upstairs. She placed his food on the table waiting for him. She went out to see if he was visible and figured he must be in the other house which he was. She told him food was up and she was going to get rid of more dumping bait beasts and set up some more houses for the day.
Instead of just going on a dumping bait hunt, she planned to get rid of the ones she needed to so she could put up a house. These would have a closet in the master bedroom as well and would be standard in all future models after she inspected the work in the first house she tried it on. Placing the two newer houses would be interesting because she needed to make sure the holes were not in the living area or the yard area. After this, rest would be needed again,
She found Dobin setting up the other house and told him her plans and that breakfast was ready for him. She and Caser then headed out once she let Max out. House three ended up being a few feet further out than she wanted but it still reached so the branches were intertwined between two and three. Number four was a foot closer but now they had a line of houses. She went back to the market and purchased 15 steel posts, hooks, and art supplies and wooden placards. She needed to rest but could make signs while she did so. Each house got a sign, even the ones not built yet. She would bring the relevant sign with her when she put it up just to make that portion faster for future houses.
When she was done placing the signs, she put a light crystal in all the remaining hangers she had. She put a house number on them, made a small parachute and dropped them down each hole so Dobin would know where he was if he decided to explore. She was hoping he would on one hand but on the other, he was down there just the two of them. She was worried about what kind of creatures could be down there based on the experience Quinn and his team had.
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The first hole Dobin and Max went down was the one near his own house. He was hoping it would be a prime area to put in a ramp and it was. There were crystals in this area and bones, decayed flesh of beasts he was unable to identify. He asked Max to keep a lookout while he explored the cavern a bit more.
The hole they came down was near the wall but not right next to it. The area was rounded and had an opening on the right and left if he were to put his back to the hole. There was some light coming in from above but not much. He had taken a light crystal with him to help with visibility. He decided instead of lowering the carts down, he'd work on the ramp using all his MC until it was done. To make it work where the slope was gradual enough, he had to start from an opening. Since he saw the dalki settlement on that map, even though Lana said not to worry about it, he decided to put the ramp on the right side because the settlement was to the left.
Dobin had the ramp half built when he realized he heard something. There had been faint echoes but he expected that because the dumping baits were still alive and there were holes in their own shelter that sounds from Lana's work would echo down. Max was looking in the other direction but his ears picked it up as well and he spun around. He called out too late "Dobin!"
What Max saw was a black animal was an elongated snout. The fur was matted and tangled. Its tail was as long as its body. The ears resembled a rabbit in length but a mouse in shape. Just like a few other beasts on this planet, it had roots around its legs which it promptly used to ensnare Dobin who had his back to the beast when it entered the area. It then attacked Dobin faster than he or Max could react. Everything about this beast screamed darkness. Dobin tried to get out an earth attack but even with his light stone, he wasn't exactly sure where the beast was. It blended in too well with the darkness all around. Max named this beast a shadow wolf. He had his armor on but didn't know if it would be enough. It was only intermediate level.
The beast came in with a bite attack against Dobin's foot. Max on the other hand, while not a combat familiar, his one attack was lightning. He didn't know if it would be strong enough against the beasts here since this place was far different than other planets so far. He put all his power into his attack and struck the beast on the head. The lightning fried the beast and released Dobin from the roots but he was hurting. Not only did the bite hurt but the lightning traveled a bit along the roots. He didn't get the full brunt of the attack for which he was thankful.
The good news was it was only an advanced tier beast. The bad news was the fur on its feet allowed it to walk quietly so it could sneak up on its victims. Dobin extracted the crystal and Max took him back to the surface while notifying Lana through their link.
Lana met them at the hole and desummoned Max. His attack used a lot of energy. He needed rest. She helped Dobin into his house and he described everything while she healed him. She nodded. "So the answer right now is to just put a grate over everything within the shelter. I will look down the holes I dropped light down and see if there is any water. When Max is recovered enough, he can hold you while you finish the ramp. No more going all the way down until we have a team here to protect you and help you."
Dobin smiled and nodded, already feeling better. He just didn't want her to wear herself out. She looked exhausted.
"Ugh," she sighed. "Setting this thing up is boring in so many ways. It's exciting in that we are finally getting this going but so many details. I don't want a lot of entrances. The one outside yours needs to be an entrance. The ones around the other houses need grates. I'm going ten houses down on this row for now. We don't know how far across we are going yet. I was already planning on alpha numeric numbering. The rows are letters so I'm creating row A. Yours is the first so you live in 1A. What I was thinking is we could post an alphanumeric post with a hook below that number for people to hang their names on. What do you think?"
Dobin smiled, "I like it."
In killing the required dumping baits , Lana had uncovered a couple rocky outcroppings. Dobin decided to use this rock to create the grates. He took that rock and used the cart to move it. Soon, all the holes in the shelter had grates except the one that Lana found water in when she looked down them all. That got a well structure. It was the hole between houses 2A and 3A.