I transferred to my dungeon so I can speak with Elexia, and many of her admirers make a sour face and disperse as I arrive. She just finished feeding Cambion and is gently rocking him to sleep when she greets me.
Albeit the simple elegance of her long silk dress does nothing to hide the sensual curves in her body, one cannot but appreciate the peaceful grace of a mother doting on her child, and even her blatantly inhuman traits, ranging from her black and gold eyes to her wings or horns do nothing to dispel the aura of alluring beauty that seems to surround her as naturally as air.
I am perfectly aware of the magical allure that succubi give off at all times, but even so, I can't help but feel guilty of something whenever I catch myself looking at her for a few moments too long. I mean, I am usually able to ignore most succubus charms, but Elexia is the furthest-evolved form of succubus I have ever met, and I've always had quite the difficult time suppressing myself around her. Just thinking about how potent the allure of further evolved succubus must be is quite worrying.
I clear my throat and shake my head to try and clear my mind, which amuses her and brings a smile to her face, which in turn makes it just that much harder to keep my composure. Finally, I take a deep breath and begin explaining to her the reason for this talk.
Elexia: “I have spoken at length to Miss Ceres, about my wish to salvage what is left of mother's work, but that is all it was just wishful thinking. The logistics of such an endeavor would be maddening. Dungeons a fraction of Mother's size at its time of collapse would take decades to rebuild, and when you take the reset into account, and with most of the locals abandoning Emeraldline, it would take even longer than it took Mother to build it in the first place.”
“Are you saying that you are not interested in becoming a dungeon core, then?”
Elexia looks to be quite troubled as she is thinking about it. She then says. “That isn't what I'm saying at all... It's just... What exactly is it you are offering?”
“I just received a sizable amount of XP to help in the reconstruction of Tobes, so I have a lot of work ahead of me. And Inari needs to go back to Shima so she can resume dealing with the corrupt dungeons, least the Shima gods think she is not holding up her part. Ceres is dealing with more than anyone person should be able to, and I am sure Dyson is busy as well. What I'm trying to say is, that we can go over everything with you, but only if you are serious about it.”
Elexia: “I am interested, but may need some help.”
“What exactly do you have in mind?”
Elexia: “My daughters, and the other descendants of Mother's dungeon. We haven't been able to see them since Mother's sacrifice, but I've kept in touch with them via communication parchment. I know this would mean Dyson discovering their existence, but if I had their help, and was able to acquire XP from their presence in the dungeon. Then I could surely stand a chance of making my wish more than just a wish.”
“Even for Dyson, that is no small feat. We are talking about several hundred if not thousands of creatures that would need to be teleported. Are you sure they would even be willing to leave the protection of the cave and be exposed to the world?”
Elexia: “1,342 miscellaneous creatures and humanoids, to be exact. And if it was to rebuild Mother's legacy, every single one of them would all give their lives without question, so I have no doubt they will jump at the opportunity to help me do so.”
“I could set up a gateway between your dungeon and the cave. It may take a few days for everyone to get through, but even at level 1, many of the creatures there have a higher than average magic pool than most humans, so as they go through, you'd have that many more people powering the gateway.”
Elexia: “Oh! With a way to go back and forth, we'd have access to the resources in the cave. There are many ores and gems that surface humanoids find valuable, and we could use them for trade. Not only could I rebuild Mother's dungeon, but maybe even expand on Emeraldline as well.”
“Building the gateway would be simple, but the XP cost of doing so would be a problem. Even a single gateway would cost ten times the amount of XP I was willing to part with just to assist a new dungeon core.”
Elexia: “Most of the gateway cost is in the magic stones, is that right? If I provide the magic stones, would you build the gateway for me?”
“I could try easily enough, but without using [Menu] to summon the stones with the runes already in them, I don't know if I am skilled enough to carve the runes well enough for it all to work...”
Elexia: “Not every magic stone requires a rune stone on it though. I could summon an archway with the magic stones embedded on it, could I not?”
“That would take a pretty massive magic stone.”
Elexia: “I will never say this again, but Mother was starting to get quite paranoid before the end, especially after Cambion was born. She is no longer with us though, so I guess she was right and not paranoid at all, unfortunately. The point is, to ensure Cambion and I would be taken care of in the event something happened to her, she had me start gathering a sizable war chest, and in it, there are more than one magic stone large enough to suffice.”
“The gateways can be used to travel either direction, but they can only be activated from the side with the magic stone on it, so you need someone to reopen it for your return trip, or risk becoming trapped.”
Elexia: “I'll keep that in mind.”
“It appears you have made up your mind about becoming a dungeon core.”
Elexia: “If you agree to make the gateway for me, then yes, I would be willing to become a dungeon core.”
“There are some stipulations to it, but you already talked about trading ore and gems with the locals, so I am sure it won't be too much of a problem.”
Elexia then stands to offer me her hand to transfer her down to meet with the other Elders. I don't have to physically take someone's hand to transfer that someone around within my dungeon, but I have used the gesture as an acknowledgment of consent from the locals I transfer around the dungeon ever since coming out as a dungeon core.
The moment I take Elexia's hand, however, I instantly regret it, as just that bit of physical contact is enough for my body to react in a way I'm sure wouldn't make Belinda happy at all. Unless it was in reaction to her, of course.
Belinda obviously understands the power of a succubus's charm by now, but that doesn't mean she is comfortable with its effect on me, and that is why we try to Celes be the one interacting with Elexia whenever possible, but that wouldn't work this time around.
I transfer both of us to the meeting room, and quickly release Elexia's hand. Her kind and understanding smile causes me to spin away from her and let out a deep sigh.
Elexia: “You know, I don't think your princess appreciates how lucky she is. Most men's thoughts and will turn into so much pink mush at the mere sight of me, but yours fly to her even while we are in touch.”
“More like flee than fly... but I'm the lucky one. It's because of her that I manage to resist.”
Elexia: “Even some women can't resist. Like your dungeon's very own dog beastkin young woman, the pretty one. But it was somewhat surprising that her partner, the wolf beastkin with the scar, seemed to resist me just fine.”
“Holding me to the same standards as Zoey isn't much...”
Elexia's sweet, crystal-clear chuckle causes my knees to go weak, but thankfully I don't need to worry about it for much longer, as Ceres transfers back in on her side of the room. She quickly makes her way across the room and gently rubs Cambion's cheek, then quickly apologizes to Elexia.
Elexia: “You don't have to apologize every time you see me. I told you I don't hold you responsible for what happened with Mother.”
Ceres: “If I was quicker or stronger, we wouldn't have lost Madam Erin...”
Elexia: “You were already working with borrowed power as it was. After what could have happened, we should count ourselves lucky you were there when you were. Mother might have sacrificed her life, but if it wasn't for you, there would have been nothing left for Mother to sacrifice her life for.”
Ceres: “Thank you, but I still can't help but feel responsible.”
“Now that you are here, I'll be going to inform Inari about Elexia's decision, then we just need to wait for Dyson's return.”
After leaving Elexia and Ceres, I transfer to the lake just outside the dungeon, where Belinda is helping some of the locals with laundry. Inari is far too well dressed to be sloshing around in the water so she is leaning up against boulder next to the lake, playing with Rory.
I don't know if she realizes it or not, but that is no boulder. Rather, it is the large crab monster, having saved the lake from filling in with the dirt from Ceres's blast. Quite a few locals are washing their clothes here as well, so I am sure they would be even more shocked to learn just how close they are to a monster of that crab's size.
I probably should move it back to the dungeon, but at this point, it is safer to leave it there, at least until I start working on Tobes. Everyone in the dungeon has been coming down to the lake, so it might make them anxious if what they thought was a huge boulder disappears all of a sudden.
“Sorry Belinda, but it looks like I'm going to have to steal your baby sitter.”
Belinda steps out of the water and casts a [Clean] spell on herself, but it just doesn't have quite the same effect as it did in the past. She is at least dry now, so she goes to thank Inari and pick up Rory.
Belinda: “You be careful in that corrupt dungeon. I wish there was something we could do to help.”
Inari: “This corrupt dungeon is pretty straight forward. With the reset, it may take some time to build everyone's levels back up enough to take it, but I don't see any complications. Unless Daddy resets the world again or something.” -She says, then laughs.-
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“I'm sure I'm going to have my hands full with Tobes for a while, so you don't have to worry about me.”
Inari: “We'll see...” -She says then kisses Rory on the forehead and Bellinda on the cheek.-
After kissing Belinda and Rory each one more time, Inari and I transfer back down to Ceres and Elexia. Dyson has returned in my absence, and it appears our arrival has interrupted a heated argument between Elexia and Desiree.
After a few seconds pass. However, it seems their argument hasn't ended. Succubi are capable of reading thoughts and emotions, so it appears most of the argument was never with spoken words, to begin with. They both look quite angry, Angela looks worried, and Dyson doesn't look too happy either, finally stomping his foot and saying. “Enough!”
Dyson's reaction seems to startle both Angela and Desiree, and Desiree seems to drop whatever conversation was going on in her head as she steps back returning to Dyson's side. Elexia, on the other hand, doesn't seem startled at all, though she does take a step back.
Elexia: “Fine.” -She says to Desiree while ignoring Dyson's actions.- “I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Dyson was a dungeon core born under Mother's guidance, but so was Two-Twelve... And you were summoned by Two-Twelve, correct?” -She then turns her attention to me.- “My, my, you are proving more and more interesting by the day.”
“I'm not sure I want to know... But now that we are all here, perhaps we should get to the business at hand?”
Elexia takes another step back away from Dyson while tenderly stroking Cambion's head in his sleep. Then she smiles, but it doesn't elicit the same kind of reaction from my body as it usually does. It still fills me with unease, but instead of arousal it is more like a chill ran down my spine.
Desiree takes Dyson's arm and whispers in his ear, he nods and then says. “Very well.” -He then turns to Elexia and continues.- “I take it you know what it is we expect from you as a dungeon core?”
Elexia: “I was able to read the expectations from Two-Twelve, and I don't foresee it being a problem. I would like to add however, that Cambion is the only thing I have left of Mother, so in the event of anyone trying to harm him, I won't care about your rules. Be it mortals, dungeon cores, or the deities themselves trying to do him ill, I will hunt them down with no quarter.” -The violent intent as she says so sends another chill down my spine.-
“I can understand your desire to protect your child, but if something like that were to happen I would ask that you at least let us know.”
We then go over a few more details about making Elexia a dungeon core, and I don't know if she is answering truthfully or just telling us what we want to hear after poking around in our heads, but by the time we are done, Elexia is shaping up into a pretty beneficial addition to the dungeon cores.
Once everyone agrees, I open my [Justicar Menu] and bring up the option to add another dungeon core. We aren't quite sure what to expect since it wasn't exactly a straightforward process with Ceres, and after the reset, it is about anyone's guess on how exactly this is going to work.
So far, there don't appear to be any issues. I chose the option, then targeted Elexia to become a dungeon core, and confirmed the justicar point cost, we are now just waiting for Elexia to read and confirm the screen that appeared to her.
The anticipation of it all is making me a bit nervous, and even though I thought we were pretty straight forward with Elexia, she has quite the troubles look as she reads and re-reads the message before her.
“Is everything alright?” - I ask Elexia
My comment seems to startle her, and she looks up from the screen with a faint smile, but even though it is forced and even a little painful, it still fills me with warmth.
Elexia: “The message I received almost felt like... I'm sorry, never mind.” -She says trying to change the subject by pressing accept on the screen in front of her.-
As soon as she confirms on the screen before her, it disappears and an egg-shaped orb roughly the size of a head replaces the screen before her, then comes to rest in her's hand. The orb itself is pitch black, and even though most dungeon crystals, regardless of gem or color, are still translucent, Elexia's crystal is so opaque that even as it pulses from its core with a red light, the darkness of the orb seems to absorb it, almost preventing it from escaping.
Elexia has accepted the conditions set by the council of dungeon core elders to become a dungeon core. She has received a crystal, and once it is placed, her dungeon will be formed and she will then become a dungeon core.
My justicar points have been reduced by 20, but even with the point cost of trading XP with Inari, we still have 34 points remaining. Now that we know for sure that creating a dungeon core in this manner is still possible, we could still create at least one more, but I would like to make sure we can receive more justicar points first.
“[Menu] said that you will become a dungeon core as soon as you place your crystal. Does that mean there is no time limit for it?”
Elexia: “That seems to be the case, but if it's the same to you, I would like to begin as soon as possible.”
“I don't see a problem with that, but it may take a few days before I'm able to set that gateway up for you.”
Elexia: “I understand.”
Dyson: “I believe that covers everything we needed to for today, so I'll deliver Elexia to Madam Erin's old dungeon on my way out.”
Then I ask if anyone has any further business they'd like to mention, but we wrap up the meeting after everyone passes on it. It doesn't take long for Elexia to gather her things and leave with Dyson after a thank you and a smile that made me weak in the knees.
Ceres says she has things to take care of as well, so she heads back to her dungeon, leaving me alone with Inari. It is still pretty early in the day, but she too has a lot of matters to attend to before leaving for the corrupt dungeon, so we have a quick lunch with Belinda and Rory.
The locals are still rather wary of me, but it seems they are also quite curious about Inari's brief return. First Elexia and then Inari. It sure looks like beauty goes a long way.
We finish our meal, then see Inari off before I return to the tavern-like area we set up within the dungeon, and gather everyone's attention.
“Some of you may have noticed we had a few visitors today. A meeting was held with several dungeon cores including Ceres and me to aid in the reconstruction of Tobes. I was provided the necessary means to rebuild at least a portion of Tobes.”
At first, only a small few of the locals were paying any attention to me as I spoke, but now I seem to have everyone's attention, so I continue.
“After careful consideration and planning, as well as going through all the options available to me through [Menu], I have concluded that individual housing would be far too costly to attempt all at once. Instead, I am going to construct several large structures known as apartment buildings to serve as housing.”
I wait to see what kind of reaction the locals seem to be having, and for now they seem more confused than upset, so I keep going.
“These apartment buildings will be constructed on the far side of town next to Ceres's university, so that once we begin constructing individual residences, the apartments can be repurposed for those coming to study there. Now, let me assure those of you who owned your own homes before the destruction of the town. you will hold priority as we begin building individual homes. But this will at least allow you to have some measure of privacy in the meanwhile, plus these structures come with plumbing and central heating, which may prove a pleasant surprise to those of you unfamiliar with them, as well as a spacious bathhouse in the basement, plus the first floor apartments can also work as shops, and there will be a spacious plaza between both buildings, with a fountain and shrubbery around the whole thing. I hope this will be a sign of things to come down the path of cooperation between normal citizens and dungeons.”
The unknown doesn't sit well with a lot of people, and that will only make this next part even harder...
“After the temporary housings (apartment buildings) are built, I will begin rebuilding the business district, guilds, and public city buildings. I know some of these buildings are not what many of you consider high priority, but I assure you they are vital. As things stand, the XP you provide my dungeon with through your presence is barely enough to cover the food and supplies you are already receiving, so we need to reestablish commerce as soon as possible to raise everyone's living standards.”
Quite a few people seem skeptical about my statement, but it isn't any worse than they were looking at me before, so I decide to wrap it up so I can begin the work.
“I'm going to begin working on the apartment buildings soon, and will send word when I am done, so please refrain from heading down into Tobes until then, to prevent any complications. If you can spread the word among the other residents staying here in the dungeon, I will send someone to the university to inform them as well.”
I then ask several of the town's craftsmen to gather and discuss the finer details about some of the shops. The discussion goes pretty awkwardly at first, and it takes a lot more time than I expected, but I think I finally got the information I need.
I thank the craftsmen and transfer to the dungeon core room to get started. I send a few of the bunnies out to spread the message about the rebuilding of Tobes, and finally get to work.
The buildings should be pretty straight forward, so I begin underground. The way sewage was handled in Tobes before was pretty basic, and the smell during the summer months tended to get rather strong in some parts of town. I did what I could in the past, but it would have been rather suspicious if I just made all the sewage disappear. Now, though, that is not a problem. I set up a network of pipes coming from the apartment buildings, one leading to a massive tank deep underground, and set it so that it will empty itself on a regular schedule, thus sparing the nearby lake from having to absorb our waste.
Another issue was the water. With no rivers running through Tobes, the faucets at our house were far from common, and most of the citizens' water had to be drawn from wells, and setting those up without drawing anyone's suspicions was a difficult task in and of itself. Now though, I can use the dungeon to set a large, affluent spring high up in the mountains, then it flows underground to a large reservoir next to the town but still high on the mountainside, and the weight of the water itself will be more than enough to fave running water 'climb up' into every apartment's bathroom and kitchen.
Creating an underground lake to act as reservoir, and the rivers leading to it from the spring is not exactly cheap, though, and so between them, the sewers, the septic tank, the basement bathroom, and the plaza fountain and sprinklers, I am already looking at well over a million XP before getting started on the buildings themselves.
As promised, I start on the apartment buildings next. I begin at the very end of my dungeon, right where it butts up against Ceres's dungeon. I change entire sections of the ground in the area, shifting from dirt to granite, creating two massive foundations, and the stone-paved streets leading up to them.
I start with 8 buildings in sets of 4, but each is easily the size of a small castle. They are built like over-sized inns, with the bottom floors reserved for diners, food shops, warehouses, various stores, and taverns. The six floors above consist solely of living quarters, with the second and third floors being rows of 'apartments' each equal in size to a good inn's bedroom.
The fourth and fifth floor's apartments are a bit larger, having more than one bedroom, as well as a small bathroom and a room that can double as a kitchen and dining room, while the top floor's apartments are easily the equal to the hunting cottages that used to make up the old part of Tobes.
Each massive building has almost a hundred apartments, and if you put individuals in the small rooms, couples in the medium-sized ones, and families in the large ones, you are looking at about 400 people on each apartment building. Remembering Belinda's attention to detail when our home was being built, I add inexpensive little touches of decoration, such as wood dust covers at the bottom of each wall, bronze lever faucets, white stone toilets and showers, engraved handrails on the stairs, mosaic pictures on the floor of the large basement bath, and large griffon and lion heads to spout hot water into it.
It is then that I realize I don't need to do this much work for every apartment building. I only need to go through it once with as much attention to detail as I can, then all I need to do is set the first one as a template default for [Menu] to reproduce as often as I need.
This, I start paying real attention, adding balconies with curved and polished wooden handrails, plant pots, window lids, and every single thing I could remember from my and Belinda's home that wasn't expensive enough to matter. It doesn't matter if the materials are cheap anyway, since as parts of the dungeon, all of these are indestructible after all.
With that in mind, each apartment building costs just over half a million XP, so I used up half the XP I was given and could now house about a fifth of the total of Tobes's residents before its fall. Maybe I should have skipped the shrubbery?
I don't exactly have an exact headcount now, but with how many we lost in the battle, and how many chose not to return afterward, we should be able to make it work. Now that the housing is taken care of, I can get started with the market district.
Following the main road into Tobes, I change more of the dungeon floor into granite to make a long and wide central road, leading from the entrance of town at the university, all the way to the trail leading up into the dungeon. There, I will build the businesses and city works buildings along its edge.
Taking the advice I got from the craftsmen, I change up some of my previous plans on the shops, but it hardly raised their cost. I even summoned some basic materials or goods to get the shops started, and thanks to making them conjoined into a massive singular marketplace. I still completed all of them at just under 1.5 million XP.
I move a little further along the road, and spend another 250,000 XP on the new city hall, having left a sizable space between it and the new market. It can probably be used as a town square, I guess. Anyway, even though the new city hall doesn't contain the adventurer's guild this time, it is easily twice the size of the old one, even if the market dwarfs it with ease.
I haven't even started on the guild buildings yet, but with the reset I don't know how things are going to play out concerning the guilds, so for now, I am going to hold off. I also left out Denova's properties, because I am sure out of anyone she will have the most to say about how those should be built.
Well, even if Denova's properties reached a million XP I would still have just over a million left for emergencies. I double-check everything, to make sure I did not forget anything, and then let out a deep sigh before confirming the changes in [Menu].
I watch my XP plummet by close to 8 million as the screens displaying Tobes show the buildings appear like a solidifying mirage. Even though that was a massive expenditure, the buildings barely cover one side of the new Main Street in Tobes, and even though some of the apartment buildings are built on each side of the road, it is still only half the street, with large gaps between sections. The actual houses should be cheaper to build, but even still I can't imagine what the total XP cost of completely rebuilding Tobes is going to be like.
Even though I asked everyone to stay indoors while working on the town, it seems the appearance of the buildings hasn't gone unnoticed by the locals at the university. The apartment buildings dwarf even Ceres's university buildings, so it isn't really surprising that they noticed them appear, but they have already thrown caution to the wind and ventured outside.
Ceres heads them off, letting them stay outside, but making sure they don't pass over from her dungeon onto mine. I'm done anyway so I gather a few of the bunnies and ask them to start moving the people from inside the dungeon into town. Then I transfer down to the edge of my dungeon, so we can start setting people up in the temporary housing.
It takes the rest of the day and somewhat into the night, even with everyone bound to the dungeon helping out, to finally get everyone squared away, and even though some of the individuals are having to share apartments. There is at least a fair deal more privacy than there was in the dungeon or Ceres's buildings.
As midnight hits we are finally slowing down and taking a break in one of the new apartment buildings dining areas when I receive the start of a new day's message. My XP consumption has greatly surpassed what I am receiving from the locals, so we'll be in trouble if we don't re-establish commerce in Tobes soon.
It is as Belinda and myself start preparing for bed that another [Menu] message appears, but even though it is every bit a [Menu] message, the words on it manage to fill me with about equal parts confusion and excitement.
The succubus Elexia has successfully formed a dungeon and is now Dungeon Core [Elexia]. For protecting the integrity of [Menu] through selecting new Dungeon Core Elders and creating a new dungeon core, the justicar points used in the creation of Dungeon Core [Elexia] have been refunded.
Furthermore, until a time that the number of dungeon cores has been replenished, the cost of future dungeon cores has been reduced by 10 justicar points, and their cost will be refunded after 1 year of successfully maintaining their dungeons without harming the integrity of [Menu].
Keep up the good work, pup.