Timothy landed on the shores. Considering how big the reef was, he knew that its edge was just a couple hundred meters away from the shores, thus it was easily accessible. He could get back to the reef whenever he wanted to, but for now, he wanted to focus on the shores here, and what he came out of the water for.

  Since the dragons had insisted on following them all the way to the main universe, they now needed a den, or, an appropriate spot that they could call their home. They couldn't live in the waters, because neither their scales nor their lungs were equipped for it. If they floated in the sea for too long, the salt within the water would chip their scales away, it was dangerous, so it was crystal clear that they weren't supposed to live there, regardless of their reptilian ancestry!

  “Will a bony den do ya? Do you feel comfortable resting on bones?” He asked.

  Billy the dragonfly nodded in response. They had grown accustomed to dens made out of bones, so even if the bones were too hard to sit on, they still felt comfortable to be near a place that they could consider their home! That was what a den was all about, after all, and they didn’t have to spend every beating moment in there either, as it was just enough to have a structure that they could call their home! The symbolic factor was what mattered to them the most, so they didn’t care about physical comfort all that much.

  Anyway, Timothy started building a den for them, and he started off using the old bones of some dead fish that he pulled out from the sand. The tiny skeleton had been three feet below the ground, and today, it was to be turned into a den!

  Timothy put the Bone Multiplier ability to use for this matter, and it was how he found this skeleton to begin with. This ability, amongst other things, allowed him to replicate, or multiply bones, as the name suggested. He could then shape those artificial bones upon his will, and this was how he had created numerous dens in the past! In his head, it was a simple process.

  Initially he wanted to explode a living seagull, and use its skeleton, but he stopped himself from doing so. His fear towards seagulls was nothing short of irrational now, and he wanted to put an end to it, which was why he didn't bother the seagulls.

  Anyway, he started his little project about fifty meters away from the waters, where there was a thin, slithering line that separated the grass from the sand. This was the best spot to build a structure on, because he both avoided the structural instability that the sand could inflict, and he would also help the dragon avoid any unnecessary attention. He didn't know if there were any human towns or villages nearby, and internally, he hoped that there weren’t any, because from what he could recall, humans were not known to co-exist with dragons! He hoped for the best.

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  The den he ended up building was simple, but beautiful. He set up three large sections, and these sections were divided by these sets of large bones, which bent forward like the shell of a clam. Within these clam-like structures, there were these platforms that would keep the dragons three-feet above the sand, thus granting them freedom from all the bugs and the free-roaming crabs underneath them!

  Once he finished the den, the system cited that he had spent twenty-thousand dark mana points as a result. It was expensive, but after all, he did build a seven meter tall, and twelve meter wide den out of a single, tiny, fish skeleton! He had pushed several hundred kilos of artificial bones against the ground. He wasn't worried about the points he just spent, especially since these bones could stand up to three months now, without being fed any dark mana, so it meant that the points were a worthy investment. It was a decent exchange, as he had grown to be quite powerful.

  Regarding details about the den, the tallest bones faced towards the sea, so the wind may bother the dragons sometimes, especially now since they were at the end of summer, but he could always make adjustments to the building. It wasn't set to stone!

  “I'm gonna stuff them in Purpureus Mundi sooner or later,” He thought, “For now, this den will do. It's good enough for them.”

  Purpureus Mundi, if it didn't have any challenges, was the ideal place to keep pets, or undead slaves in, because he could control how time flowed there, or at least, he could control at what timeline the portal would throw them in, once crossed. On the occasion where he re-opened the portal that led to Purpureus Mundi, he could just tilt the portal a bit, and thus, reverse the flow of time.

  The slaves would come out of the portal all brand new, as if they spent just a few minutes in there. At least, that was what he hoped. Timothy believed that this was possible solely because time moved differently in this universe, compared to the needle universe of Purpureus Mundi, though, despite his high IQ, he was yet to understand the science behind it properly!

  However, Purpureus Mundi wasn't fit to welcome dragons right now, because it was stuck within a prehistoric time period for the moment, and he didn't know how to fix that yet. The needle universe was full of water, so it was less than ideal for dragons to live in. The dragons had to live here on the shores up until he figured things out.

  Anyway, after he set up the den, he hopped on to Billy’s back, and they hit the sky together! The dragons had only been flying for a few hours today, so they weren’t exactly tired. Billy hit the sky without so much of a struggle.

  Timothy wanted to figure out if these lands had any human towns, villages, or even cities, because after all, it would mean that those humans would be really close to his reef, if they actually lived close by, in a thirty mile radius. He figured that Genta would do a lot of weird things in the reef, things that would make the reef more noticeable, so he wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t get raided by any ambitious, humanoid adventurers who would eventually notice the reef’s weird features.

  Furthermore, he was really eager to explore the lands here, in the main universe, as he could explore it under much better circumstances today! He had craved to do so for an eternity now!