Exploring the dungeon involved long stretches of boredom interspersed with short bursts of intense combat. Greg managed to handle it by focusing on getting really good at spotting traps and disarming them, kinda like doing a bunch of puzzles. On the other hand, Thomas and Andrew were drained by the end of the day, mentally at least. They had to keep on constant lookout for the naga, and with all the vegetation in the way, they had to actually focus to pick out the naga, otherwise everything just sort of blended together into a big blob of aura and energy. It was actually easier to find them when they were in their tunnels. Of course, the naga were still large presences, so it wasn't that hard to pick them out from all the plants, but keeping that level of focus all day still wasn't easy, particularly when the majority of the time there was nothing to see.

"This quest is going to be harder to pull off than I thought." Thomas grumbled as he rubbed his temples, feeling the urge to go to sleep despite having already spent the points to resolve his exhaustion. He just wanted to let his mind rest for a few hours.

"You're actually trying to pull that off?" Winston asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "You know it could be months before we reach the core, right?"

Thomas shrugged. "Eh? All it's going to cost me is a few points a day. If it gets me something like Chris's bow, or Greg's gloves, it'll be worth it, so why not?"

Winston blinked. "Points?"

Thomas froze, before letting out a sigh. "Damn it, I pulled a Chris."

Andrew patted him on the shoulder. "It happens. At least you didn't pull a Thomas."

Thomas glared at him. "Yeah, thanks." He grumbled, before turning back to Winston. "Anyway, I can survive indefinitely without food, drink, or sleep for a minor cost, so this quest should be easy for me. I just forgot to account for mental exhaustion, but that's still more of an annoyance than an actual problem."

Winston blinked. "Huh… that's- shit, you guys were made for this dungeon, weren't you?"

"What do you mean?" Andrew asked, cocking his head.

"Well, this dungeon offers quests that are essentially suicidal, so that no one in their right mind would actually try to complete them. It's a way some dungeons try to hoard resources so they can level up, though more often than not it leads to a break instead. Dungeons always have to toe that line between giving away resources to pull people in, and building up their own so they get stronger. Too much giving away and they stagnate. Too much hoarding and they break. Anyway, the point is, the rewards for a quest always match the difficulty in accomplishing it. A quest to kill a single mob might net you a bit of experience, while a quest to kill a thousand might get you a unique item or even a summon. So with this dungeon handing out suicidal quests that you guys are uniquely built to pull off, you getting high-end rewards for comparatively little effort." Winston paused. "Honestly, I'm a little jealous."

"Envious." Chris corrected.

Thomas flicked a rock at him. "Stop being pedantic."

"I'll stop being pedantic when people stop being wrong." Chris retorted. "Language is hard enough on its own without people messing it up all the time."

"Finally someone who gets it!" Val exclaimed. "What's the point in learning a language if not to properly communicate with it?"

"In my experience? Jokes and sexual innuendo." Greg chuckled. "Plus confusing people by using big words. Oh, and cursing! Man, I love cursing."

"Now that's a language I can get behind!" Kara snickered.

"I'd like to speak the language of your behind." Greg shot back with a wink.

Several groans echoed out from around the camp. Andrew glared at Greg. "First off, that was horrible. Secondly, I'm telling Gloria."

Greg coughed awkwardly, turning to Kara. "Just to be clear, that was just a joke and I would never cheat on my amazing girlfriend who I… Well, we aren't quite at love yet, but she's still very special to me." He then turned to Andrew. "And you better tell her I said that, too."

"You want me to tell her you don't love her?" Andrew cocked an eyebrow at him with a slight grin. "Seems kinda rude, but alright."

Greg raised a warning finger at him. "Listen here you little shit, I'm not afraid to send your ass back to level one again."

Andrew snorted. "I'd like to see you try."

"Honestly, so would I…" Thomas muttered. "Though considering both of your healing abilities, I'm not sure it'd really go anywhere. I don't think either of you have the power to instantly kill the other."

Greg glared at him. "Stop ruining my threats with logic, or I'll eat you." He paused. "Oh, language is also good for threats."

"Alright, if you all are done, we should be getting to sleep." Frank announced. "We'll keep the usual watch schedule, five two hour shifts. One of us per shift, plus whoever you guys want to add."

"Or you could just leave it to us." Thomas shrugged. "I can't sleep because of that quest anyway, so I should be able to take care of it."

"I can leave a few fairies around too." Greg added.

"I suppose I could add a few portal points around." Chris muttered.

"Or we could all just sleep in Chris's world and forget about it?" Andrew offered.

"Nah, too isolated." Greg shook his head. "We need to leave room for things to happen, not just hide away in Chris's world all the time."

"Greg, we're in a dungeon." Andrew frowned at him. "The only thing that could possibly happen is getting ambushed by some naga! I'm okay with avoiding that."

Thomas glanced at Greg. "He has a point."

"I suppose…" Greg muttered. "Eh, fine."

"So, everyone's sleeping in my world?" Chris asked, Greg and the others nodding. "Alright, I'll get some rooms ready."

Frank blinked. "Hold on, what just happened?"

"I saved you from sleeping on the ground." Andrew replied. "You're welcome."

*

As everyone went to bed, Frank's party hardly believing just how luxurious their rooms were, Chris turned his focus to the naga they'd captured, taking a deep breath as he prepared for the mother of all headaches. The naga had been curiously exploring the strange place she's found herself when she froze as the pressure descended on her, resisting fiercely! Chris grimaced as he struggled to force her to connect to his world, his headache building as the naga struggled more and more. A full fifteen minutes later Chris collapsed with a groan, feeling like his eyes were trying to escape from his skull. "Fuck that was hard." Chris groaned, scowling as he disappeared, reappearing before the naga.

[Die!] The naga cried, swiping at him before a sheet of white covered her, freezing her in place.

Chris frowned as he considered what to do with the naga. Despite his best efforts, she hadn't broken under his pressure, leaving him with some difficult choices. The first was obviously just to give up. He could simply leave her in his world, let Frank's party kill her, or even set her loose in the world. Dungeon mobs were hyper aggressive, but he could get her some friends and leave them in some isolated area to calm down and develop their own little culture. Actually, if he was going to do that, he might as well let it happen in his world… Anyway, his other option was to use alternate methods to get her to connect to his world. Maybe he could have one of the others talk to her for him? Try and convince her of the benefits and all that. If that didn't work… well, there was always torture.

Chris shook his head. Could he actually resort to torture though? It worked with T'ka, but… it left her different. She was too loyal afterwards, Chris becoming her sole focus. As useful as it was, breaking someone like that seemed a bit too close to being an asshole. Additionally, T'ka was weak. This naga wasn't. Even if he did torture her into accepting the connection, there was a decent chance she'd be able to break free like Alexander, which would mean he'd have put her through all that crap for nothing, leaving her absolutely pissed at him. Or terrified. Or both. Either way, not a great result.

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Chris sighed, releasing the naga to stumble back away from him as he created a small little house for her, along with some food and water. "You can stay here. Not that you understand me…" Chris frowned as the naga glared at him. "Eh, you'll figure it out." He shrugged, disappearing as he moved back to the others.

The naga blinked, looking around in confusion, wondering what was up with that strange pressure and that stranger man, pausing as she noticed the house. This had been a strange day.

*

"Okay, it's official. I never want to leave this dungeon." Kara muttered as she chewed her breakfast, graciously provided by Chris before they set out again. "If you could just make this shit, why were we eating rations yesterday!"

Chris shrugged. "You guys just started handing things out, and I didn't argue. Plus, while mass isn't as precious as energy, I still don't like to just give it away. But you did get that naga in here… but I didn't manage to get her connected to the world… eh, whatever." He rubbed his temple, his head still aching quite a bit.

"You didn't get her connected?" Thomas frowned.

"No, her… whatever is too strong." Chris sighed. "We could try to convince her, but I doubt that would go anywhere since she's a dungeon mob and aggression is her default state. I could also attempt torture, but I doubt that would end well, no matter what the result. So I essentially just have a naga living here now. But at least she isn't trying to dig her way into the center of a planet, so that's nice."

Val blinked. "Is- is that a concern?"

Chris cocked his head. "Not particularly? It's just kind of annoying, because I have to be constantly aware of some dude punching rocks and I don't want to be aware of some dude punching rocks. But I'd also rather not have been aware of what Frank and Kara got up to last night, but that's the price I pay for world ownership."

Frank choked on his drink. "Wait, what?!?"

"Wow, Chris, I never took you for a voyeur~" Kara giggled.

Chris rolled his eyes. "When you're in here, I have little choice in the matter. Anytime anyone does anything, I know."

"That's why I jack it in the jungle." Greg chuckled.

"I appreciate that." Chris nodded.

"Wait, you've been masturbating out there?!?" Val asked incredulously.

"No, I was just joking." Greg sighed, shaking his head. "Y'all need a better sense of humor."

"Maybe you need better jokes." Andrew retorted.

"Can we get back to the whole 'Chris watched me have sex' thing?" Frank interjected. "I understand if you couldn't help it, but you could have at least warned us!"

"Why do you care?" Chris cocked his head. "I'm the one who had to watch it."

"I don't want someone watching me have sex!" Frank exclaimed.

"Yeah! He wants to be the one watching!" Kara smacked the table for emphasis. "You know, if anyone is interested." She added, shooting a few of the soldiers a wink.

Frank pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kara, not the time!" He groaned.

"She does have a point, Frank." Val commented. "You're hardly in a position to comment on sexual indecency."

"Hey, if you've ever been involved with a sexual deviant, you know the importance of consent!" Frank retorted. "Unless you want to end up in jail, you can't just do shit to people, you gotta make sure everyone involved is on board. And I am not on board for people watching me have sex!"

"He gets performance anxiety." Kara sighed. "Goes all floppy down there."

"Kara!" Frank groaned, burying his face in his hands.

Greg gave Kara an evaluating look. "You and I should hang out more." He held up a hand as Andrew opened his mouth. "As friends!" He added, eliciting a snicker from Andrew.

"You know, I could talk to this Gloria and see if we could come to an… arrangement~" Kara purred, shooting him a wink.

Greg coughed. "Ah, no, that would be a bad idea, for many, many reasons."

"Boo." Kara pouted.

"Moving on!" Frank growled insistently. "We should get going. This dungeon isn't going to clear itself."

"Oh, before we go, does anyone else have any quests to complete?" Thomas interjected. "You know, so we don't fuck it up or something."

Allison raised her hand. "I have a quest to reach the core without using armor or any protection spells or abilities."

A soldier raised his hand as well. "I- have to reach the core without seeing a naga."

"Okay, good to know." Thomas nodded. Both of those definitely could be fucked up if they weren't careful.

"Should we blind him?" Chris cocked his head, the soldier going pale.

"Why would you go straight to blinding?!?" Andrew exclaimed. "Just give him a blindfold!"

Chris shrugged. "Blindfolds slip. Blindness is infallible."

The soldier gulped. "I- I'm okay with the blindfold."

"Fine, but don't complain to me if you lose the quest because of it." Chris shrugged.

"Hold on a second here." Greg interjected. "Whether he fails the quest or not isn't just about him. Chris, can you or can you not recreate the items provided by the dungeon?"

Chris paused, before pulling out the bow he'd received and analyzing it. The biggest factor was whether the effect of the bow was due to energy structure or energy type. His World turned the energy into either experience or pure Energy, but he couldn't freely switch it into different types. In order to do that, he'd need to convert the Energy through one of his subordinates with the appropriate Affinity, but that was limited by their regeneration rate. Chris's expression twisted as the bow was composed of both, different energy types weaved together in a complex structure. "It's possible, but I wouldn't be able to mass produce them, at least not at the moment. It deals with energy types, and I only have so much of any one type."

Greg nodded. "But you can make more."

Chris shrugged. "Of course. I can make anything as long as I have the right resources and a blueprint."

"So if he gets a good item, that's something that could strengthen all of us, not just him. Which means whether or not he succeeds impacts the entire group. Since that is the case, we should do as much as we can to reduce the possibility of failure, shouldn't we?" Greg explained.

"We are not blinding a man just so we can get a stupid item!" Andrew retorted.

"I'm not saying we should!" Greg replied. "However, a blindfold is still too risky. So what I'm thinking is I use my smoke to take away his eyes, but-" He held up a hand to forestall Andrew's objection. "-I also give him the scorpocroc's sonar vision. That way, he won't see, but he could still 'see'. Best of both worlds!"

Andrew paused. "Okay, that could work." He nodded.

Greg turned to the soldier. "You up for it?"

The soldier hesitated. "Will- will it hurt?"

Greg cocked his head. "I don't think so… but I've actually never transformed anyone other than myself, so I can't be sure." He shrugged. "It doesn't hurt me though, so you should be good?"

"O-okay then." The soldier nodded and Greg grinned.

"Great! Just hold still for a bit." Greg brough out some smoke, sending it into the soldier, slowly spreading it through the resistance of his Energy. It took a few minutes, but once he was done, he quickly made the adjustments. "Okay, how's that?"

The soldier clicked his new mandibles a few times. "Whoa, that's freaky." He muttered, before quickly standing up straight at attention. "It's working, sir."

"Outstanding." Greg chuckled, before turning to Allison who eyed him cautiously in return. "As for you… you can't use armor, spells, or abilities, but I could give you scales or chitin instead?"

Allison grimaced at the idea. "I think I'm simply going to focus on avoiding the naga entirely, as we have so far. I put greater trust in Chris's ability to pull me out of danger than any armor you could concoct for me."

Greg paused. "Well, that's completely fair." He turned to Marcus. "Just make sure you don't do that shield thing for her, okay?"

Marcus rolled his eyes. "I'll be sure to ignore all of you to the best of my abilities."

"Perfect!" Greg chuckled. "Then let's get back to it. Lots of dungeon, so little time."

"Right people, let's go!" Frank added, shooting Greg a look. He was the one who gave the orders, damn it!

"Let's see if we can pick up a few more naga today." Chris suggested as he opened a portal back to the dungeon. "The other one can't exactly join us, and it seems cruel to just leave her all alone." He paused. "Though that could be a method of convincing her to connect to the world… worked for Dyrdek."

Val gave him a weird look. "You're a strange man, do you know that?"

Chris sighed. "No one lets me forget."