Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!

| There is no need to be concerned about the contents of blood to water ratios of the lake; simply remove the corpses, and the ambient Energia generated by the naturally forming Energia Crystals will filter it |

Right as he was about to give up and start smashing the ice, the AN reappeared in his line of sight, yet he was left in his brain-dead state a second time today.

| Melt the ice, keep the bugs, leave the lake as it is |

'Ah, okay then, thanks for the help! Keep up the good work! Shrugging his shoulders, Aoni couldn't help but compliment his Attribute notice for giving it to him in simple and easily understandable terms, and went ahead with what he read.

Working in tandem with Nyria, the two spread out on the edge of the lake and set to work, breaking the ice back down to its base components in sectors.

Meanwhile, Glacia ran to and fro, gathering up anything that ended up bobbing on the water's surface.

Like this, after an hour or so, the lake was corpse-free and back to its watery origins, only this time around, it had a faint gross yellow hue to it.

---

"Great work, you two; how bout we take a break for lunch real quick." Clapping his hands and not forgetting to give some affection in the form of head pats or beak scratches, Aoni stated triumphantly.

After all, the cave was officially cleaned up, and the lake was left to acclimate back to the way nature intended.

"GAOOOO!!!"

{'Food, Food Food FOOD!'} His words were met with a hyper cheer from the bouncing floof as she then spun in circles and did a little butt wiggle dance, leaving Aoni practically in tears from laughing so hard and Nyria giggling.

---

Lunch today was rather simple, with some good old-fashioned sandwiches. Well, realistically, the only part of the meal from Terra was the bread and cheese, but the meat was thinly sliced chimera meat.

Even so, it was a hit with the floof and birb, as Aoni had been saving this wonderous meal for a special occasion due to his limited bread and cheese supplies.

Mind you, no normal person could put away five full loaves of bread in one sitting, but between the three of them, it was rather standard.

---

After a hearty meal, with bellies full, Aoni left Glacia to take her post-lunch nap, also known as letting her return to camp to rest, and began walking around the cleaned Cavern with Nyria nearby.

In short, the two of them were basically surveying the land and trying to figure out where to place things.

"First and foremost, we need to close up every entrance to the cavern apart from the one we normally use." Walking at a leisurely pace while cupping his chin, Aoni stated, triggering a back-and-forth conversation between himself and Nyria.

{'But what about the main one, brother? Won't monsters just end up coming through there as well?'} Nyria asked while glancing around the cave and easily locating every tunnel apart from the one her Lord spoke about.

"Well, I have an idea about that; originally, I was gonna build a gate like the one we have up at the fort; however, after I went back and picked up some supplies, I got my hands on a means to get around that issue."

Swiping his hand at the air and opening his inventory, Aoni pulled out a fist-sized stone embossed with an intricate runic script unlike any he'd had before.

"This here is a Node of Array Creation," pausing and noticing the confused look in his birb's eyes, Aoni began explaining its use and purpose.

"So this rock here is pretty powerful; when activated, it lets me choose the type of design I want to use, such as a barrier or even something to defend ourselves with, but none of the other options are as good as one in particular."

"A Teleportation Array. Come down for a second," motioning for Nyria to join him on the ground, Aoni picked up three small rocks and used them as an example.

"Okay, so these two bigger rocks represent the two points set up by a Teleportation Array. The plan is to set one up down here and one up in the cave inside of the fort. Then all we have to do is use a few Energia crystals…" Placing both rocks some distance apart, Aoni took the third, tapped it against one of the rocks, and moved it over to the other.

"And it will move us from one point to the other, getting rid of the need for any way to come and go through a tunnel into the open."

{'So it's like flying instead of walking?'} Tilting her head to the side, Nyria asked, not really getting the logic behind such a thing as Teleportation.

"Not really; it uses special magic to move us invisibly from one place to another super fast. Think of it like this: you are standing in one place, close your eyes, and when you open them, you are far away in a different place; that's what Teleportation is."

{'OHHH, that's super cool Brother,'}

"Yeah, it will probably make us dizzy until we get used to it, but there's a bit of an issue with using this method, and that's the fact we need to make sure both points are properly guarded."

"If not, then anyone can come and go or, even worse, destroy the teleportation bays."

---

With his plan laid out for Nyria, Aoni moved from one exit to the next, sealing them with his Node stones, which, surprisingly, proved to be a relatively quick process compared to what he'd done underwater.

The reason was that all of these exits were small, measuring perhaps a little over a hundred feet long, with the only exception being the one he normally used to enter the cavern. Shortly after starting, there was only a single way to access the place he would soon be calling home.

'Only 13 Nodes left, well, 12 if I include getting rid of the main entrance…' Aoni thought while walking away from the last exit down on lake level.

'Now here's where the real fun starts, building my village from the ground up!'