Carl reached a slightly awakened state.

His eyes opened, and he looked around.

"Hi, Carl!" said the core, still resting on his shoulder. "Hope you slept well, partner!"

He yawned. "Yeah, pretty…" He yawned again and moved his arms to stretch, sending something clattering to the floor. In his pre-coffee haze, he squinted as he eyed the surrounding area. There was something on the ground next to his chair.

"I told Vol you were awake, and she wanted to know if you wanted some coffee," the core relayed.

"That'd be pretty awesome right now," Carl said, feeling a sense of formless terror within him subside at the knowledge that he'd absolutely have coffee in the very near future.

"Fuuuck, Carl, making dungeons is so much fun!" Vol exclaimed.

"Keep it down," Carl grumbled as he caught onto a vague idea in his mostly-asleep brain. He pointed up to where his daughter was probably still sleeping.

"Oh. Uh, right. Sorry." Vol started to pace, seeming distracted by her thoughts as she sipped from a mug. "I thought it was gonna be boring after a little while when I found out they couldn't make water, but then I realized I could just bring water or whatever else I needed…

"I was wrong," said the core. "Vol is highly skilled in the ways of dungeon creation."

"I can't believe I get to just stand around and watch people try to finish the fucking thing," Vol said, giggling a little.

"Yes, isn't it fun?" asked the core, also beginning to giggle.

"Uh…"

Vol's giggles intensified, and the core mirrored her. "That one man—no idea what the fuck he was trying to say to me—but when he started trying to climb that spike wall Saxum made to avoid the lava—"

The core cackled. "He was so filthy!"

"Coffee?" Carl asked as he leaned over the edge of the chair to grab whatever he'd knocked to the ground. He pulled the object back up but was immediately distracted.

"Oh, oh, Carl, watch this," said Vol, seeming to recall that he was there. She pointed with a sense of gravitas at the empty space next to his chair. "Table," she intoned.

A block of stone rose up out of the ground until it reached the height of his armrest.

"Great, Saxum," said Vol, nodding with satisfaction.

"Core."

Carl tried to understand what was happening, but his coffee urge was still rising along with a new sense of panic that maybe coffee wasn't as near as he'd thought. "Coffee?" he asked again, his eyes fixed on the mug she was holding.

"Right, right," Vol said. She reached into the air in front of her and pulled out a second steaming mug. "Here."

Carl sighed with relief as he lifted the mug to his mouth. A moment later, he set the empty cup on the newly-formed table. "Thanks," he said, feeling like today was finally a day that was getting started the right way.

"You didn't have, uh…anything specific you wanted to do with the dungeon, right, Carl?" Vol asked.

"Not really?"

"Okay, because it's…" She turned to face the other way, and he noticed that the pinkish core was resting on her shoulder. "Well, it's getting good is what I'm trying to say. Really good."

The core giggled suddenly. "That one was the best one yet!"

"Fuck, I'm missing more?" Vol said, slapping a hand to her forehead. "I thought there was a break! Get me back there n—"

She was gone before she could finish speaking.

"So you're getting along, I take it," Carl commented.

"Yes, you were correct in your assessment, Carl," said the core, sounding immensely pleased. "She is very skilled. She's also capable of completing any room we construct, which means we'll never be breaking any rules!"

He chuckled. Almost forgot for a second how much this thing loves its rules. Sounds like Vol's got a handle on dealing with 'em though. After another moment he stretched again before turning to the object in his hand. What the heck are these? He turned them over in his hands. Are they…sunglasses?

They certainly seemed to be just that, if a bit more primitive than what he was used to. The frame was made from fired ceramic, with darkened glass affixed to the bottom of it. The stems had no ability to bend, but…

Carl put the sunglasses on, finding them to be a perfect fit for his head. The stems wrapped around the backs of his ears a little more snugly than he was used to, but the precise length caused them to act as hooks that he imagined would prevent the glasses from flying off if he was thrown across the city again. The lenses weren't overly dark, but they still managed to reduce the incoming light by a noticeable amount.

He took the sunglasses off and studied them. The glass was attached to the frame without any signs of adhesive or even a groove where they looked to be slotted in. Are these magic sunglasses? The idea of it caused a grin to break out. "Core, where'd these come from?"

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"The tr—Mina brought them down last night."

Wow. He twirled the glasses by one stem, feeling the same sort of Dad Moment that he got when Sammy or Bobby got or made him something extra cool for his birthday or a holiday. That's so sweet of her. Even with everything she's been through, when she's having a tough time, she still… He felt himself getting a little choked up at the thoughtfulness behind the gesture. What a great kid.

----------------------------------------

"How many?"

"Our dungeon has killed over three thousand humans," the core said proudly.

"I guess that's pretty good?" Carl scratched at his beard. "I mean, do I get anything for that? Like, some kinda achievement or something?" People are really throwing themselves at this thing over and over it sounds like.

"You gain a small amount of power from the souls absorbed by the dungeon," the core said in its lore-y way, letting him know he was getting XP. "Vol has said that the humans she's seen are all very weak, so that might not amount to much."

"Eh, not really a big deal anyway, is it. Not trying to level up or anything." Though being able to just sit around and get levels from people trying to complete my dungeon would be a little funny. Probably be leveling like crazy if I was still level one.

He adjusted his position in his chair. "Hm. Kinda wish I could go fishing. Not gonna leave Mina alone though." Wonder if there's some way I could make some kinda lake in the dungeon to fish out of for times like this.

"Vol has requested that I inform you she's willing to return you to the dungeon from anywhere if a problem arises with the t—Mina."

Carl frowned as he considered it. "But how would she know?"

"I'll tell her, Carl. You can always count on me!"

Hm. Core's been pretty reliable overall, hasn't it. And it's all just programming, so I gotta imagine it's just made to do whatever I want. As for Mina… Already checked on her a couple times this morning, and she's sacked out hard. Must've been up late crying with how red her face is. He felt a slight pain in his chest as he recalled the blonde girl's sad sleeping expression when he'd gone up to see how she was doing. Wish she'd talk to me a bit. Whatever's going on seems pretty serious. He sighed. I'll give her one more day or so of moping around. Two whole days is a lot of moping.

Thus resolved, Carl stood up. "Alright, I'm gonna trust you, core. But if she starts—"

"I'll tell Vol the instant anything happens to the treasure," said the core. It hopped off his shoulder and rolled over to a spot in front of the stairs. "We'll protect everything, Carl."

"I'm counting on you, partner," Carl said, making… Well, he was gonna make eye contact, but the core didn't really have eyes, so he settled for just continuing to look at the core. His Dad Sense wasn't sending him any alarms, so he knew everything was on the up and up.

He turned towards the exit and took a few steps forward, glancing over at the doll, which was still just sitting against the wall where she'd been for over a day now. Kinda creepy. Maybe I should put her away? He grimaced at the thought. Nah, can't do it. She's got Annie's face, and it'd be too weird to put her away like an item. He took another step forward.

"I'm coming too," the core said as he reached the door.

Carl looked down at his left shoulder, spotting the black marble that had once again taken up its spot there. "I thought you were gonna stay here and watch Mina?"

"I can do both," the core replied. "And Vol said to take me along in case she wanted to talk to you."

"Whatever, but I thought you couldn't leave the dungeon."

"I'm not leaving. You're my partner, so anywhere you are is part of the dungeon."

"Is that really how it works?"

"Y-yes, of course it is!"

Carl rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh." He pushed open the door and walked out.

The rays of the suns burned down on him immediately, and he slipped on his brown, clay sunglasses, feeling like he was probably the greatest gamer who had ever lived at that moment. Yeah, now we're talking. He looked around the city for the first time without having to squint, and it was amazing.

"Where are we going?" the core asked.

"Heard there was a pond in D-three, so I'm gonna head that way." Carl turned right and set off towards D-four.

"Vol has told me that it's on the north end of the central part of the district, past the park. She recommends jumping but also says not to land on your…face."

Guessing there's at least one f-bomb omitted there. Kinda amazed the core's not giving her a hard time over it, but she's pretty likable, so maybe she won it over. This is a neat system. Sort of like having an in-game GPS. Still wish there was a map or something I could pull up, but this is definitely an improvement.

He walked at a reasonable pace across D-five and into D-four, where he almost immediately encountered the bizarre phenomenon of a group of children rolling on the ground down the street away from him. That's…weird. He observed them for a short while. They were around ten or twelve in number and were rolling southwards, disrupting any number of cars and people who were forced to either move aside or stop moving while the child-logs continued to roll by.

Carl shook his head in amazement. Gotta wonder how that sort of thing started. Is it really fun to be doing that somehow? He didn't think much more about it and instead resumed his journey.

The core remained mostly quiet along the way other than occasionally giggling and cackling.

At least the core hasn't changed from what I remembered. Nice having at least one super game-y thing nearby to keep reminding me I'm in a game. Too realistic sometimes. Easy to forget.

Upon reaching D-three, he turned north, knowing that his workshop was on the south-central side of the fifth district and he needed to compensate. He walked past a park, which seemed to be undergoing some manner of repairs. Looks like one of those gladiating jerks probably ruined this. Gamers have no consideration sometimes. Just a bunch of old people trying to do some gardening, and here comes some guy trying to get his XP per hour maxed out who can't be bothered to run around all these sculpted hedges. He shook his head. Kinda sad that didn't change since I stopped playing games, but I also can't really imagine it changing.

Carl continued on for a while until the core-based GPS told him to turn left. He wandered along a narrow path between a bunch of trees and whatever other green stuff was way too overgrown and needed to be cut back, but it wasn't like he was gonna mess with it in case someone was trying to grow it out before they pruned it to make some kinda awesome design or something. He was considerate like that, even if it inconvenienced him to some small degree like it was doing right now, when he had to turn sideways and shimmy between this branch and this other tree—ah, shoot, the branch broke off—but he was still gonna do his best to try and preserve whatever was going on here—oops, another branch broke—out of consideration for the fact that he was basically a tourist here.

"Vol says you turned left too early, and that was the old, untended path to the pond," said the core when he'd just about reached the end of the stupid freaking overgrown path through the—Okay, fine, enough was enough.

Carl batted his hand with some amount of force, shattering the thick branch in front of himself and causing sawdust to fly out as part of it turned to powder. He waved his arm back and forth now as he progressed, putting to work his ten million Strength, which was absolutely not just average or whatever Vol had said. It was ten freaking million Strength! Look at how he was destroying all these trees and vines! A mighty flick of his finger and a whole tree trunk turned to powder! People were seriously stronger than this?!

There was just no way that kinda thing was possible.