Level 5 Mana Pool 30 Mana Regeneration 15/hour Dungeon Points 14

By the time the adventurer’s team was spotted, I had done quite a lot renovating the first floor. I leveled up another 3 times, and boosted my mana regen to 15 per hour. I’ve made the first floor into quite a comfortable little home for my creatures. It’s filled with grass and herbs and trees. The most dangerous thing here is tripping over your own two feet. I’ve added snakes and birds and rodents. None will be particularly useful for defending against adventurers, but that’s alright for now. They will evolve sooner or later.

Speaking of evolution, Saeri told me that all living things, including people, absorb a part of the mana of anything they kill or help kill. In addition in the dungeon I can help by infusing mana into a creature too. That said, the fact that elves, beastmen, and many other races are all evolutions of humans surprised me. It seems that when they are 12, they have a whole year to decide upon a race and absorb mana from the environment. If they absorb a lot of mana, they gain a lot of power. However, they also gain what are called ‘compulsions’. The desire of dragons to collect gold for example. Of course staying human is fine too. It’s one of the more common races since everyone knows about humans and they don’t get compulsions either. Saeri turned 12 not too long before we met so she still has most of the year left to decide. Either way, hopefully she’ll choose something mostly human so that her compulsions aren’t too strong. She can always evolve further by me helping her gather mana. Well, for now I’ve heard her talk about herself from before we met and also told her what was to be done next.

Turns out Saeri’s pretty knowledgeable. I dont think all kids are like that. I guess she was always a indoorsy reading type. Currently, Saeri spends most of the day indoors. She’ll need to until my plan can take place. Luckily with my level ups giving me 10 points per level, I bought Dungeon Lighting for 10 DP. The dungeon’s living area for us has been expanded too. With a little practice, I could make most necessities out of the materials that has been gathered. Saeri’s gotten real close with the cat I summoned to protect her and the core. She wanted to name the sleek little black thing Flashpaws, after the white pads below her foot. I of course accepted, but it turned into a bigger deal that I thought. Apparently naming a creature activates soul binding and binds it to me, increases their stats a little, and more importantly completes it’s soul. At least, that’s what the system told me, when it told me that I had named a creature for the first time.

Saeri requested that I bind her to the dungeon when she knew. I guess she still can’t let go of the whole serving me thing. I mean, I do concede and bind her. She was persistent and it doesn’t seem like there’s any downsides. It’s not like she won’t be able to go outside. The only difference seems to be that she grew a monster core, just like everything I summon. I presume I have one too, but I can’t really tell. We only knew she grew one because it was a bit painful and we could feel the lump in her sternum. Ah, for the record it was a medical examination ok? There was no other meaning to feeling her chest ok?

Oh, and Dungeon Lighting helped me learn how to turn ambient mana to create light. I haven’t managed it with my human form yet, but at least with my dungeon it’s basically constantly casting light magic. Turns out Saeri is actually knows some magic and is pondering an artisan or magician race for her evolution. It’ll take some time but she should be able to teach me magic eventually.

Well, even if I don’t have anything too special, those adventurers will still have a hard time getting any further. Hehe. I am so looking forward to finally meeting more people.

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[ ___ ] Hey Fravit, Look! We can finally see the dungeon.

[Fravit] Calm down Pyria. We are here for a job you know.

My companion is always so energetic. It’s no wonder she needs someone to actually pay attention.

[Pyria] Sure sure. But it’s gotta be more interesting than sitting on a carriage all day. We didn’t even get attacked by any monsters.

[Fravit] If all travellers got attacked we wouldn’t have a nation anymore. There’s standing bounties on anyone with strong harmful compulsions or anyone strong enough to cause real trouble anyways. Besides, not many people are both strong and stupid enough to catch the attention of the adventurers guild.

[Pyria] Yeah yeah I know. For a tank you sure like avoiding fights.

[Fravit] It’s because I’m a tank that I like avoiding fights. I’m the one getting hit after all. For an elf you sure are blood thirsty and impatient.

[Pyria] Hey, I am not. I just like adventures. Sitting on a carriage is boring. And being an elf has nothing to do with it. Now can we go in yet?

[Fravit] Yeah yeah. I’m sure the villagers are waiting for our report anyways.

[Pyria] Yay!

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[Pyria] Boring. This is boring! All there are is grass and rabbits and probably some wild cats attracted by the rabbits. Where are the monsters! The traps!

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[Fravit] Now now. There’s plenty of herbs that can be used for medicine and potions. The villagers will be happy at least.

[Pyria] Yeah but the person assigned to take over the area from the chief won’t be happy. Not much earnings from just herbs. Besides, this is boring. What kind of adventurer would come here. Calling this a G- ranked dungeon is already being too generous.

[Fravit] This dungeon will grow before the administrator from the capital gets here. It’ll probably take him another 2 weeks after we return to give our reports. Well it is unusually safe. You could characterize most of the things in here as just normal creatures without much mana.

[Pyria] They aren’t even trying to hurt us. Ugh. Whatever let’s just hurry up and see if we can find the core.

[Fravit] It shouldn’t be so hard. There has been a few offshoot rooms, but the path forward is just this straight path.

[Pyria] Well it’s better than a maze I suppose. Hah. And? It looks like we’re in the last room but what’s with that door? There wasn’t anything like that before now.

Hm. It’s a pretty morbid looking door. It’s more or less covered with layers and layers of bones.

[Fravit] Maybe this dungeon isn’t as daft and defenseless as we thought.

[ ___ ] Oh dear. We can’t have people thinking that now can we?

[Fravit] Shit. Who’s there?

I fix my stance and raise my shield in the direction the voice came from. I can tell Pyria dashed back behind me and has her daggers ready.

[Eita] Pardon me. My name is Eita, the master of this humble little dungeon.

Where I swear was only a wall before now stands a lady in a pure white dress giving us a curtsey. Her demeanor is only serving to put us more on edge.

[Fravit] A human? Are you from the village? Noone is suppose to enter the dungeon until the guild representatives have inspected it.

[Eita] Hah. Really? It’s like you didn’t listen to me at all. Why don’t you talk some sense into your friend there knife ears?

I glance back and notice Pyria is tensed, like a bow ready to fire. It would be unexpected for anything in such a new dungeon to put her on such high alert unless...

[Pyria] Sorry Fravy. Better keep your eye on her. She doesn’t seem particularly strong, but the dungeon’s mana is reacting to her in a strange way. Plus behind her. A sealed entrance that we missed? That’s probably the same type of hallway dungeons use to create ambushes.

[Fravit] She’s with the dungeon then? That’s odd. I ain’t never heard of a human as a dungeon master… Young dungeons aren’t even supposed to be sentient yet.

[Eita] Well aren’t you fortunate. You’ve discovered something new. I’m sure the guild would reward you for this won’t it?

[Fravit] Yes I suppose so… If we make it out of here of course.

[Eita] Oh yes. You two can stop being so tense. I have no intention of harming you two, so long as you do not go past that door. Behind the bone door leads the path to my core. I shall assume anyone who enters wishes to do me harm.

[Fravit] That’s not going to last lady. The villagers might be ok with just a bit of herbs but the adventurers will come and they’ll want to push further for fortune and glory.

[Eita] Of course. And I shall be glad to provide it, when I’m able. Soon I shall begin work on the second floor. It will be less safe than this floor. And the floors past it will have dangers and treasures as well. I only ask that nobody enters any bone doors they find.

[Fravit] And if we listen you’ll promise a reasonable reward for the risk huh.

[Pyria] That’s not good enough. You’ll have to listen to some of our requests as well. We need to be able to talk to you.

[Eita] Demands already huh. Very well. Take this cat with you. Do treat it well. It shall deliver messages to me if you attach it to his collar. Do let it run around and such. I’m sure you’ll find it if you need to.

Two identical, short haired, sandy yellow cat sauntered down the hallway behind the mysterious lady. The only difference between them seemed to be the dark brown fur running up their legs. I had my doubts about whether it would get anywhere in a timely fashion without being carried. Or without us begging it.

[Eita] His name is Azizi. He will be going with you so that you may deliver letters to me. Her name is Aziza, and she will be staying with me in case I need to send you letters. Do treat them as you would me. They will be the ones carrying my word after all.

[Eita] Now then. I hope you can deliver a message for me. To the people of the village, I shall be making a visit in two weeks. The village chief is to be there. The villagers are welcome to spectate. I shall speak to them and how they respond will help determine how this dungeon will grow from now on. That is all. I shall be taking my leave now. You may do as you like, but my warning about the door still stands. Good day.

The dungeon master walks back through the tunnel with one of the cats and the stone door slides back into place. Without knowing it was there, I’d be hard pressed to pick it out.

Pyria finally relaxed a bit and starts examining the hidden door.

[Pyria] Yup. This is a dungeon only trap door alright. Pretty well made, to look just like the surrounding cave wall.

[Fravit] What about the other door. Should we push forward?

[Pyria] I don’t know that we want to get on her bad side yet. She might not develop in a way that's helpful. But I suppose no harm in checking it out.

I tug the door open. It was heavy, but unlocked. The only thing to grab onto was bone though. God knows what it belonged to before this. When the door was opened, we could hear the sound of a waterfall. No, it would be more accurate to say we couldn’t hear anything except the sound of a waterfall. It was deafening. It’s surprising how much the door dampened the noise.

Pyria, despite being focused on speed and daggers, was still an elf. She was at least competent enough to know a basic light spell.

[Pyria] [Lux]

A small ball of light flew down into the darkness. A series of steps and a giant waterfall. Nothing more. Nothing behind the waterfall. No stairs beneath the waterfall. Just a drop.

[Fravit] No. We are not going down there. We are not prepared for that. Hell, even with preparations I might still drown or fall to my death or whatever with all this heavy armor on. Who knows what she set up under this.

[Pyria] As much as I hate to admit it… I don’t think we’ll make it back out if we went in. Let’s go back. We’ve got a hell of a report to give.

The sandy cat jumped on Pyria’s head.

[Pyria] HAH. And the stupid messenger cat. Right. Gods this did not turn out the way I had hoped.

[Fravit] Well. At least you can’t say it wasn’t interesting.

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Haah. I can finally let out a sigh of relief. It’d have been dangerous if they decided to go down. Hell, if they had a good water mage I suspect they could have done it pretty easily. After all, there are no real traps set up down there yet. The only thing between them and the real core was the large amounts of water pushing down, forcing anything in it’s way onto the jagged spikes below. Good thing the river was large and deep. Well, right now it’s just me manually opening and closing a door connected to the river though. It’d be for the best not to let anyone know where my water is coming from after all, even if I could just make more myself.

[Eita] Hm. And I was trying to convert their weapons to mana. It looked like their personal mana was interfering with my mana control. I guess I’d have to wait for people to leave the room. Their personal mana seems to diffuse into the air and mingle with mine. That said, it does mean once they get far enough, bits of mana will be left behind for me to absorb.

Ah. Shoot. I forgot to ask them about adventurers. Oh well. There will be time for that in the future. At least I got to make a dramatic entrance and exit.