Once they finally got out of the dungeon, they made their way over to the Dungeon Management Office, where they reported the dungeon break. The attendant gave Andrew a disapproving look, but just like Quinn said, that was it. No one yelled or got angry, it was just recorded and they were sent on their way. They were also told that unlike everyone else, their reservations would not be transferred to the new dungeon. Once they arrived back home, Quinn fell into the couch with a groan, before glancing at Andrew. "I hope you at least leveled up from that."

Andrew blinked. "Huh?"

"Breaking a dungeon core gives you about the same amount of experience as running it does." Quinn explained in a tired tone. She knew uplifts weren't supposed to know anything, but the amount of basic knowledge she'd had to explain today was exhausting.

Andrew opened up his status.

[Race: Essence Changeling - 2

Class: Essence Master - 10

Strength: 44

Agility: 37

Will: 41

Intellect: 35

Energy: 55

Sensitivity: 459

Class Skill - Insightful Self Examination: 23

Class Skill - Swift Step: 16

Class Skill - Precise Navigation: 17

Skill Points: 0

Attribute Points: 45]

"I did!" He exclaimed happily, before freezing as he saw the amount of attribute points he had available. "Uh… is there anything that makes the first level up special?" Andrew asked hesitantly.

Quinn gave him a weird look. "No? Why?"

"Because for some reason I have forty-five attribute points to spend and I don't know why." He muttered, searching through the rest of his status, looking for some kind of answer. He didn't have any extra forms, so he moved onto his traits and…

[Living Dungeon: You have gained the Essence of a dungeon, becoming a dungeon yourself. For ten Energy per level of instance desired, create a single dungeon instance. Number of instances at one time equal to race level. Instance area equal to Intellect in kilometers squared, verticality equal to Intellect in meters. Dungeon creatures created based on Essence absorbed. Number of creatures created in a random distribution between Will and Will times two. Personal rank doubled.]

"Did you say you have forty-five attribute points to distribute?!?" Quinn asked in disbelief, sitting up straight.

"Yeah." Andrew frowned as he read through the Living Dungeon description one more time, trying to process what he was seeing. He could create dungeons? Or at least dungeon instances… and it doubled his personal rank?!? Which put him at eight and explained the amount of attribute points, but… "Damn it, I'm never going to level up." Andrew groaned.

"No, no, no, explain!" Quinn jumped up. "Are you seriously suggesting you somehow managed to reach rank eight!?!"

"Well, not really. I'm still technically rank four, but I have a new trait that doubles my rank… shit, does that mean if I hit rank five I'll be rank ten?!?" Andrew complained.

"Do not act like this is a bad thing!" Quinn exclaimed. "Do you know how many people would kill to have a trait that doubles their rank?!? I'm tempted to throttle you myself!"

"But… my experience." Andrew retorted in a defeated tone.

"Drew, your life span just increased to thirty-two hundred years! Even if it takes you a couple centuries to get to level hundred, you'll be fine!" Quinn snapped at him, before freezing. "Fuck, the Raiders are going to want to get their hands on you. You'll be as strong as a level hundred rank three at level… forty-five! By the time you're level hundred, you could go toe to toe with people in their two hundreds! You could wipe out entire tribes all on your own!"

"No!" Andrew exclaimed, causing Quinn to freeze, giving him a wide-eyed look at the vehement denial. Andrew flushed. "Sorry, just- no. I'm not joining the Raiders." Even if what the monstrous races did was horrible, Andrew couldn't condone the wholesale slaughter of people who were just trying to survive. Plus, if this Essence Master Class did what he thought it would, maybe he'd be able to find a third option. One that didn't involve killing anyone.

"Okay, no Raiders." Quinn accepted with a shrug. "Seriously though, how the fuck did you manage to get a trait that doubles your rank?!?"

"Uh… I think I got it from destroying the dungeon." Andrew explained, sounding a little embarrassed. "I got a new trait called Living Dungeon which doubles my rank and lets me create dungeon instances, and the only other thing I did was kill a bunch of rats, which unless rats are a lot scarier than I previously thought, wouldn't give me a trait like that."

Quinn just stared at him for a moment, before letting out a weird noise as she pressed her hands together like she was praying, her hands shaking as she pressed them against her lips. "Please, please tell me you're joking." She pleaded. "Please tell me you did not just say you have the ability to create dungeons! Please tell me I just had some sort of strange auditory hallucination and you said literally anything else!"

"It isn't that bad, is it?" Andrew replied hesitantly. "I mean, it isn't that hard to make dungeons, right? You just said that a few hours ago."

"Drew, if you're a level two, rank eight dungeon, that means you make level two, rank eight creatures! And it will only get worse as you level up!" Quinn exclaimed. "People would cross realms to get to you!"

"Oh, I see your problem." Andrew let out a relieved breath, shaking his head. "No, that isn't how it works. Any time I create a dungeon instance, I have to spend ten Energy per level to make it. And I can only create creatures I have the Essence of, so… like rank three, max." Andrew paused. "Though a dungeon full of leaping terrors would be… well, terrifying."

Quinn paused, before letting out a relieved breath. "Okay, that's- that's better. Still, a rank three-" She paused. "Wait, you're rank four."

"Well, yeah, but that's only my elf form." Andrew shrugged. "You can't have elves in a dungeon."

Quinn gave him a look. "You can absolutely have elves in a dungeon. You can have anything in a dungeon. Usually sapient races don't start popping up until a dungeon is over level hundred, but it does happen. If your dungeon is based on your Essences… then elves could absolutely appear."

Andrew blinked. "Dungeons… seriously?!? That's- That's kinda fucked up, isn't it? Like, don't you have to kill the creatures in a dungeon or it breaks and spills everything out? How does that work when they're intelligent?!?"

Quinn shrugged. "The same way it works as when they aren't."

Andrew grimaced. "But- they're people! You can't just kill them like some sort of- of- of beast!"

"No, they're dungeon creatures." Quinn retorted, shaking her head. "Just as aggressive and violent as any other. Their intelligence just makes them more dangerous. Unless you manage to subdue and bind them, all you can do is kill them."

"Subdue and bind?" Andrew asked, confused.

"Remember what I said about making things in the dungeons real?" Quinn replied. "Well, you can do that with dungeon creatures as well, including the intelligent ones. And unless you bind them, all you've done is release a hyper aggressive creature to wreak havoc upon the world. By binding them, they become dependent on you, making them loyal and obedient."

Andrew gave her an incredulous look. "And people do this to people?!?"

Quinn's expression twisted. "It's frowned upon, but yes. Dungeon creatures, even if they're sapient, aren't considered 'real', so they don't have any rights. Certain groups even make a business out of capturing dungeon sentients and selling them to the monstrous races."

Andrew stared at the ground with an expression of sheer disgust. "This bothers me on a level I cannot even begin to express." He was caught between the urge to throw up and the urge to beat the living shit out of someone for allowing something so cruel to go on. What the fuck was wrong with this world?!? It was like it was angry at people and just wanted them to suffer! Andrew paused. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but there was some seriously fucked up shit going on here. Freaking monstrous races and dungeon-bound slaves, for fucks sake! Just… ew!

Quinn shook her head. "Okay, this isn't important right now."

"It feels pretty damn important to me!" Andrew retorted. "If I'm going to have elves popping up in the dungeons I create, just for them to either be slaughtered or enslaved, then I don't want any part in it! That's just- cruel!"

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

Quinn sighed. "That's my point! If anyone finds out that you can create dungeons full of isolated, weak elves, they're going to want to use you! Sapient races always appear in high-level dungeons, which are huge in the first place, and they usually appear as some sort of nation or army, which means capturing them is hard. At least, for most people, and anyone who's strong enough to do it easily wouldn't be interested. But level one elves? In a small dungeon? That's like free money falling from the sky! There are people who would do anything to have access to something like that."

"Well too bad for them, because it's not happening." Andrew retorted, crossing his arms defiantly. There was no way he'd let himself become some sort of slave farm!

"Then we need to keep your ability quiet!" Quinn insisted. "There are too many ways that people can take advantage of it, take advantage of you. Even if someone just captured you to churn out personal dungeons for them…"

Andrew frowned for a moment, before sighing and nodding. "I'll just forget about it then. Too much trouble, not enough benefit."

Quinn paused. "Now hold on." She stopped him. "Yes, this ability can be… troublesome, but it's troublesome because it's useful! Think about it. If you keep increasing your Energy, you can make higher and higher level dungeons, which means you never have to stop leveling! You will always have a dungeon on your level to delve! You could be the most powerful person in the world!" She explained, sounding excited.

"Okay…" Andrew nodded slowly. "But why? What would be the point?"

Quinn blinked. "The point? Being powerful is the point!"

Andrew frowned. "Eh? Power for power's sake is pretty pointless. Unless there's something I need power to protect or to stop or to change or something, I really just don't see the point. There are things I want to do, but they don't hinge on power, per se… more on skill? It's ability I'm lacking, not strength."

Quinn frowned. "Ability is strength, though?"

"No? Like, an artist isn't necessarily strong, but they definitely have a lot of ability." Andrew countered.

"Artists are very strong." Quinn retorted. "They can create entire worlds to draw people in!"

"Sure, but I wouldn't call that strength…" Andrew frowned. "Creativity and talent, sure, but it's not going to kill anyone."

"It will absolutely kill someone!" Quinn exclaimed, giving Andrew a weird look. "Getting drawn into an Artist's painting is the same as giving them your life!"

Andrew just looked confused for a moment, before his eyes widened in realization. She wasn't talking about people who could paint, she was talking about a Class! Which, he supposed, was the same thing in this world… Maybe ability was strength in this world after all? Skills gave you stats which gave you strength… but that was because of the system, not because of the ability itself! Though, if he started an argument with 'if not for the system' he was pretty sure Quinn would just look at him like he was a crazy person. For her, the system was reality. To say something like 'without the system' would be like saying 'without gravity' for her… an interesting thought experiment, but that wasn't how the world worked, so how was it relevant?

"Okay, maybe ability is strength." Andrew finally agreed in a bitter grumble. *But only because of your stupid world's stupid system.* He added internally, not willing to completely agree that he'd made a mistake. "But my point still stands! I don't necessarily need strength, I just need the ability! The strength ability grants me is secondary."

Quinn continued to give him a weird look. "I don't know why you insist on separating them like that, but it's a simple fact that more ability means more strength and more strength means more ability. It's just- they go hand in hand. So if you want more ability, you need more strength. Which means you need to use your dungeon trait. You just need to be careful."

"I'm not using it if it means I have to kill innocent people." Andrew stated flatly. He didn't care how powerful his dungeon trait could make him, if it meant betraying his values, it was worthless to him. He wasn't going to become a monster just for power.

"It's really-" Quinn cut off as Andrew glared at her. "Fine! If it requires you to kill sapients, then fine! No using your dungeon trait! But you need to at least test it, right? Maybe you can control what creatures get created or something?"

Andrew hesitated, before nodding in agreement. "That makes sense… it's my essence after all. I should be able to determine what gets used…"

"Great!" Quinn clapped her hands excitedly. "Now we just need to figure out where to test it… we can't just have you opening up a dungeon in the middle of the city. We need somewhere safe and hidden."

Andrew raised his hands. "Don't look at me. All I know about is a random location in the Great Forest and here. And I don't think either of those are options."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Obviously not, no." She bit her lip as she considered their options. "We could find someplace in the mountains…"

"Isn't that where everyone makes their secret dungeons?" Andrew retorted, raising an eyebrow at her. "I heard about someone making a hidden dungeon out there on the news my first night here! Seems like a good way to look suspicious."

"Well there aren't many other options!" Quinn snapped back at him. "It's all hills and plains around here! Not a lot of places to hide other than the mountains."

Andrew frowned. He didn't really know the area, but he believed her. "What if we made some kind of underground cave? It doesn't need to be big, just big enough for us and the dungeon."

"And how would you suggest we do that?" Quinn raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you have an Earth affinity? A digging skill? Anything that would let you make something like that? I know I don't."

Andrew paused. "I have the Plant affinity?" He offered tentatively.

"Unless you have enough Energy to make some treants to dig for us, that isn't going to help." Quinn shook her head.

Andrew frowned. "Could we do it in a dungeon?"

Quinn began to shake her head, before pausing and frowning thoughtfully. "I- don't know. Maybe? Creating an expanded space within an expanded space seems… dangerous, but space is infinitely differentiable, so it shouldn't be a problem? Or everything would explode as the space destabilizes… but that should just bump us out of the dungeon. And maybe cause another dungeon break… which would mean a fine this time."

"Is it worth the risk?" Andrew asked.

"If we try it in an unpopular level five dungeon? Maybe. Probably. It'd definitely cut into my savings, and people would get a little suspicious if we killed two dungeons in a row, but that's all manageable." Quinn nodded as she thought everything through. "We would need to clear the dungeon first, which isn't going to help either of us, since you need to kill…" She blinked for a moment, before taking out her phone and tapping at it for a moment, before letting out a low whistle. "One point two five million tier one level fives to level up! Damn that's impressive."

Andrew scowled. "This doesn't make me feel better."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "That number gets cut it half for every level higher you go, so you'd only need to kill six hundred and twelve thousand, five hundred level sixes, the three hundred thousandish level sevens, hundred and fiftyish thousand level eights, seventy five thousand level nines… the number goes down quick is what I'm saying. Plus you can divide all that by ten for each tier up. Really, it isn't that bad."

"Except I'm not sure I can fight anything over level ten!" Andrew retorted.

"That just means you need to spend more time working on your Class." Quinn replied. "Once you get it to level twenty-five, you should be able to take on level twenties which…" She pulled out her phone again. "You'd only need to kill about thirty-nine! Easy. Or, since you can make tier three's…" She focused on her phone again. "Two eighteens! Or three seventeens, because it was more like one point five eighteens, but you can't really do partial kills, you know? Then six sixteens, twelve fifteens, twenty-four fourteens, forty-eight thirteens, and so on. I think you could kill a hundred twelves with a level twenty-five Class easy!"

"Except getting to level twenty-five could take me years." Andrew countered.

"And you have millenia to live." Quinn rolled her eyes. "Three years is like a month to you. Probably less, since getting to rank five isn't that hard. Particularly for someone who got all her skills to tier four on her first try." Quinn shook her head, getting exasperated as she tried to wrap her mind around all the advantages Drew had. What right did she have to complain about anything?!? "Are you seriously going to get pissy over the equivalent of a month?"

Andrew grimaced. "Well when you put it that way…"

Quinn let out an irritated growl as she glared at Andrew. "Look, I get that you're new to all this, and you don't have the experience to truly put everything in perspective, but if you keep complaining about the things you are unbelievably lucky to have, I'm going to start hurting you."

Andrew gave her a look, before sighing and nodding. The thing was, he did get it. All these advantages were amazing. For someone else. For him? The extra stats and Classes were nice, but not really necessary. The lifespan was useless. Not that he was sure he couldn't die, but even if he did, his aura would just reset him. If it could reset a bullet to the head, it could reset whatever aging could do to him. All he'd lose were levels. What he needed to be able to do was bounce back quickly, not avoid death, so all these things that added time, making it more and more difficult for him to bounce back after death… it was just annoying.

Quinn shook her head. Why could Drew not simply accept how lucky she was? Why was she so obsessed with the amount of time it'd take her to level up? Once she got past a certain level, she'd practically sprint past everyone else! As her stat bonus built up, she'd be able to fight higher and higher level creatures, leveling faster and faster! The urge to throttle the woman surged yet again before Quinn forced it down. She'd learn eventually. She let out a sigh. "Okay, for now, we need to get you a status blocker. Hiding your trait is pointless if some rando off the street can just peek at your status and see it."

Andrew paused. "Is that common?"

Quinn shrugged. "Eh? Not very. And those who can generally don't abuse it, but still, best to be careful, right?"

"Huh… Well, I already have a trait to disguise my status, so we can skip that." Andrew shrugged. He activated False Status, removing Living Dungeon from his trait list, before pausing and removing his goblin traits and race as well. Thinking about it further, he removed False Status too, because changing your status while letting people know you could change your status seemed like a good way for people to suspect you'd changed your status. Finally, he took the four off the beginning of his Sensitivity stat, because why not, before confirming everything. "There, done."

Quinn gave him an odd look. "So you're one of those changelings, huh?"

Andrew paused. "What do you mean?"

"Infiltrators." Quinn replied with a sigh. "It's- people don't like the idea of shapeshifters walking around, pretending to be something they aren't. It makes them nervous. Too many scary stories about friends starting to act strange all of the sudden, only for it to be revealed that they'd been replaced by a changeling serial killer." Quinn's expression twisted bitterly. "Low hanging fruit, as far as horror stories go, but that just makes it easier for them to worm their way into people's subconscious." She shook her head. "You know what, you don't need a lesson on bigotry between the noble races. Come on, let's find a dungeon to test things out in." She got up, starting to get ready, before checking the time. "On second thought, let's do that tomorrow… What do you want for dinner?"