Hungry Max walked through the cavern. The satchel was nearly as big as him. His fingers didn’t have the strength to undo the strap. Either the buckle was caught, or the leather at the buckle was too tight. Hungry Max couldn’t tell. As a result, he walked through the caverns and the satchel dragged on the ground. The bag wasn’t exactly heavy, but Hungry Max was just a small creature and dealing with the dragging bag, or alternately a bunched strap added just that much more he’d need to worry about. The cavern creatures weren’t monsters, most would simply ignore Hungry Max as he went on his way. There were creatures that were more dangerous than others, however. The cavern centipedes were prone to defending their territory, and they tended to group together. The poison would kill, if there were enough bites. He didn’t know enough about the centipedes to drop his caution as he walked in the darkness. The jangling of the objects in the bag seemed to chase off many of the small creatures that lived in the caves. 

It didn’t take too long for Max to find the comforting red pulsing of Vera’s core. He saw the large centipedes before he had entered into Vera’s territory. Their glistening carapaces looked as though they were as wet as the surrounding rocks. They stood still, their bodies extended to their full length. Had Hungry Max not sensed their friendly disposition he had no doubt in his mind that he would have fled and attempted to find a new tall friend in the village above. It was an entertaining thought, but he could never betray Vera. Everything he did was to help her.

He felt her warmth envelop him once he entered the territory. She was currently busy, she hadn’t said ‘hello handsome boy’ or any of the other greetings she would repeat in her sing-song voice. Hungry Max decided to inspect the large centipedes. He felt an instant connection with them. They certainly were supposed to be friendly. He tapped lightly on the head of the closest one. The carapace was smooth and cool to the touch. It felt just as it looked. He moved his face close to the carapace and gave it an experimental lick. He didn’t taste anything, but the smooth texture of the carapace and the fact it was a friend spurred him on. He held the head of the centipede and started to groom the myriapod.

“EWW! Max! That’s disgusting!” Vera cried.

The myriapod didn’t move. It had no reaction to Hungry Max’s friendly gesture.

“I have something for you, tall friend!” Hungry Max said between licks.

“Please don’t lick the centipedes, Max,” admonished Vera “That’s gross!”

He gave the centipede a few extra licks to show that he would stop licking it when he was ready. Once he was satisfied, Hungry Max opened the bag and pulled out each of the items. The first to be pulled out were a hand full of coins each gold, silver and copper. The coins had a variety of faces and designs, the only similarity between each was that the edges were rigid. The second item was a block of rotting wood. The third was a rusty door hinge with screws. There had been a sock, with holes, and a sock without holes. The last three items were a rusted dagger, a rusty short sword and then a strip of questionable looking dried meat. Once Hungry Max had cleared the bag he let it fall to the floor. He looked at the items spread out on the floor expectantly.

“Where did you get this stuff, Max?” asked Vera.

“A friend,” he impatiently added, “Take them!”

The items started to melt into the ground. The laughing man had explained the process of how a dungeon absorbs items and the various rules that governed a dungeon’s existence. He had told Hungry Max each and every uncomfortable detail of dungeons just to prepare him for his role. The laughing man had done so much for Hungry Max. He hadn’t questioned it at the time, but there had been questions that arose when Hungry Max had started searching for Vera. He wanted to know more. He was small, but he still had to keep her safe.

“Hey, Max, what exactly are you?” Vera asked as she absorbed the various items.

Max didn’t answer. He had heard the question, but it wasn’t important. What was important was that Vera learn how to construct items and objects for her dungeon. He was quite pleased with the speed at which she had started to construct rooms and monsters for the dungeon. She only needed a little more basic information before he’d be satisfied with his work. There was a lot he could tell her, but with the basics covered she would have a high chance at surviving her discovery. Vera continued to question Hungry Max, but he ignored her. He watched the items intently until even the satchel dissolved into nothingness.

“Good job, tall friend!” Max said.

“Max are you a gremlin?” Vera asked.

Max waved his hand dismissively, “I’m a dungeon fairy.”

“Don’t fairies have wings?”

“It’s a title.”

Vera was silent.

“Can you see titles now?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Vera replied.

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 Hungry Max waited for a follow-up question, but none came. His tall friend must be looking through things only she could see. He waited for a little, to give her time to understand the new information before he spoke again.

“Tall friend, can you summon some items?”

She took a moment before she could reply.

“I can, do you need something?”

Hungry Max took a moment to answer. He was quite confident in her abilities, but he wanted to test a couple of things first.

—

Vera waited for Max to answer. She was a little annoyed with him being so quiet and ignoring her questions, but he was still her cat. She couldn’t imagine a cat who actually paid attention to someone talking to them.

“Can you make that bag and the food?” he asked.

The menu for summoning items was new. Despite this it hadn’t taken her long to find the items in the menu. There hadn’t been many other entries. A wireframe appeared for the satchel. It hadn’t been made for his tiny body and was a bit ill fitted, so she made some adjustments to make it more comfortable. She was annoyed with the over shoulder strap and decided to make it a backpack instead. It really hadn’t taken much work to convert the satchel into a backpack.

“Oh! That’s very good” Max said with surprise.

He slipped the small backpack over his shoulders. He gave it a few tugs and twisted testing the straps. His tail twitched a moment.

“You’re really far better at this than I expected!”

“Thank you!” said Vera.

She started to make the meat next. A single strip dropped on the ground next to Max. He picked it up and gave it a sniff. He looked at it for a moment before he gave it a small bite.

“Oh,” he said, his tail started to droop.

“Oh? What’s that mean?” asked Vera.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing,” Max replied, “Can you make more than one at a time?”

Vera could sense Max’s disappointment. She looked at the information for the meat.

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“Uh, one moment.” Vera replied.

She wondered if the meat’s description was something that came from the actual item, or if it was just conjecture on her part. There had to be something else that she could do to make it palatable for her friend. She didn’t really know if spices helped make things tastier for cats so she decided to look for a different kind of meat. Maybe there was a way to use meat from a creature that she could summon? She looked through the creature menu. There were countless insects which she ignored, until she found a suitable entry.

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She started a partial creature summon with a catfish. It wasn’t much of a leap to convert the partial summon into a variation of the dried meat. The questionable meat entry in her item menu disappeared. It had been replaced with a food category sub menu. Vera found both the entries for the questionable meat and the dried albino catfish inside the sub menu. 

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Max stood by patiently waiting. He had put the strip of meat that he had nibbled upon into his backpack. Vera created a strip of dried albino catfish and dropped it on the ground near Max. The white meat had surprised him for a moment, and his tail twitched twice in excitement. He took a bite and his eyes grew wide. The rest of the meat disappeared in short order.

“That’s really good!”

“I’m glad!” Vera exclaimed. 

She checked the entry for the dried albino catfish to see if any of the description had changed. There was a new line at the bottom.

<<”That’s really good!” - Max>>

Vera decided to see if she could summon multiple items at a time. She was only able to pull one strip of the dried catfish from her menu at a time. She was able to create them quickly, but summoning them at the same time was currently out of her skills. Max didn’t appear to be disappointed in her lack of skill, however. He stuffed the new strips of dried catfish into his backpack. Vera decided to try creating a new item, but with multiple instances of the dried albino catfish. She found that she was able to do that with a modified version of a strap that she had used for creating Max’s new backpack. The bundle of dried catfish was also stuffed into the backpack.

“Can you make a door now?” he asked.

Vera checked her menus. There were no entries for doors, but after she had created the dried catfish, she now found the ability to modify an item. She selected it. She started to work with the rotted wood and modified it’s dimensions, growing it in both its length and width until it became roughly door shaped. She added on the rusty hinges. The screws were rusted to the initial hinge Vera absorbed so they counted as one item. Vera finalized the door by adding straps from the satchel as a door handle to both sides of the door. She saved the entry and set about using the door on the doorway she had carved into the wall. She had to carve screw holes into the rock wall itself to keep the door secure, but when she finished she was met with success. Max tried the door. The hinges were rusty, but it moved once given enough force.  The brittle wood was an issue, but Vera was confident that with better base materials she could only improve.

“This is a door!” Max said with glee.

Even though the door towered over Max, he was quite able to reach the strap acting as the door handle. He grunted with effort as he pulled to open it. The door’s hinges squeaked in protest and with a jolt it swung open. Max then started to push the door closed. The hinges again squealed in protest but Max was able to shut it tight. He repeated the process and each time the door moved the hinges seemed to give a better range of movement. The wood around the hinges still seemed to keep its strength, most of the rot seemed to be along the outer edges of the door. If Vera had tried to construct the door with slats of the rotted wood, she felt as though the door would have been a lot less sturdy. It was a good idea to make the door out of a singular piece of wood. 

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” said Max under his breath.

“Max, is there any way I can make these centipedes move?”

Max had been absorbed with opening and closing the door and continued to do so, ignoring Vera.

“Max!”

He stopped for a moment to listen to Vera.

“Is there a way I can make these centipedes move by themselves?”

Max swung the door closed.

“There is.”

Max pulled the door open.

“Oh, Jesus Christ! Max! Stop!”