I had some clean-up to do after the fight. There were literally hundreds if not thousands of bodies littering my yard and I had to dispose them somehow.
“Hey Sarah, do you get some power when dead bodies dissolve in your dungeon?”
The dungeon core looked at me and grinned, “With this body count you can give me enough power to let me build 5 to 6 levels down. Maybe I could also create some strong ore deposits your people could mine even if I'm not so thrilled about this part.”
“Why? Does it give you any problems?”
She ticked against her head, “It somehow feels annoying when somebody hammers away against your walls. Like a slight headache.”
“Oh, that shouldn't be a problem now with Markus as your master. He will take this part away from you and as a city core he shouldn't feel this kind of pain anyway.”
I watched the former goddess suspicious, “You know an amazing lot about my existence as a core even after losing your memories?”
The former goddess grinned, “You know, it's amazing what things are still here after my fall. I was sure that most of my memories would be lost, but there is more than I thought possible and this will give me a solid start for my future career.”
It would have sounded normal if there wasn't this strange manic grin on her face that made me somewhat uneasy.
'Marcus, I know I haven't spoken this way before with you. That's a core exclusive channel if get the meaning, but I think that Tiria has some screws loose. I don't remember her this lively.'
Hey I have another voice in my mind! If I wouldn't have recognized Sarah's voice I could have opened my personal mind café with all the voices coming in and out my poor self. Hopefully my other mind shards didn't develop their own voices. That would be somewhat schizophrenic. And I was quite sure that there wasn't a psychotherapist out there for crazy cores, but it could be a lucrative profession or a deadly one.
'Give the girl some leeway. Living as a goddess had to have some constraints, I think. So let her get off some steam and if she's still nuts after that we will have to get her down somehow.'
Sarah nodded slightly at me, 'Yeah, and thank you for saving me. You seem to be a good guy comparing you to some of the people I had to deal with in my life.' she stopped for a moment and added, 'So what now, Master? Back to base building?'
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
I spoke to the gathered people with the discussion between Sarah and myself having only taken moments, “Okay guys. I have to clean this place now and get back to building. It would help tremendously if the humans could stay tonight inside my domain to collect some mana and Sarah building. By the way we will have to find a good place for your entrance. You will have to start some dozens meters down because I need some place for the waste disposal under the city.”
Sarah nodded, “That should be a no-brainer. You can dump most of the garbage in my dungeon and I will summon some slimes to clean the water and use the rest for my growth. This way we get the best out of it.'
“There will be no killing of people going down in your dungeon to train, right?” Torben added.
The dungeon lady waved the question away, “You have my promise. All damage will be non-lethal. If someone gets knocked out, it will be painful but not deadly. With Marcus giving me all necessary mana my primal urges as a dungeon core will be satisfied. Thinking about it, this is somewhat freeing and I could see some other cores trying to become your underlings too.”
She threw me a thoughtful gaze and Tiria threw in, “He will have to grow much stronger than now. You will take most of the underground space for yourself so another dungeon is momentarily out of question but later on, when Marcus reaches the metropolis or even state status there could be dozens of dungeons in his domain.”
“I fear that future. All the people that want their piece of me at the same time. I will need more mind shards for administration and city guardians.”
Torben and the others humans looked grinning at me, “I'm sure that there will be more than enough candidates for the job available. The humans want their piece of the job too and other races that take residence in your domain will also, I think.”
I sighed, “I get it, next position of a guardian will be a human. Find a suitable guy or girl with some wits between his ears and some humour. I will take a shot at him or her but be reminded that the person will have to be loyal to me and nobody else. As a city core I promise anyone in my domain that respects the rules fair judgement. Oh before I forget, the prime rule is to not do things to others you don't want to be done to yourself. If you kill somebody don't be surprised if I or my guardians come looking for your head, understood?”
All around the people sobered up suddenly when they heard my words. The all nodded without any comments.
“So let's get started with the show. If there are any wounded around ,take them inside the walls. I have a spell to heal them faster and without getting any scars.” The humans didn't look happy, “Hey, don't give me this look. Scars may offer a nice start for a bragging story but the aren't as funny when you get older.”
With that I began to assign my shard minds with gathering the corpses and all of the loot. Sarah will have to absorb a mass of goblins. Can a dungeon get constipation?
With all the people in my domain my mana surged up like crazy, especially with the two avatars that went down to the river to find a nice place for 'talking'. Yeah, sure.
The humans rounded up any goblins that somehow got overlooked which made Sarah crying out suddenly, “Stop it, catch them and kill them later in my dungeon for god's sake!”
The humans gazed irritated at the elves who just shrugged and got some rope for bonding the green pests. Then they knocked the small monsters on the heads with something hard and dragged them to the place Sarah showed them.
'You have to give me permission for building my dungeon, you know!'
I wasn't sure if getting a female dungeon core was such a smart idea. She seems demanding.
I gave my permission and seconds later a kind of cave entrance began to grow around the place.
'A Cave? Seriously, that's the best you can do? I expected something more grand. A mausoleum or such a thing.' I sent her.
'There's always a critique around! I have to start with something and that's the most mana efficient thing for beginner dungeons. So give me some slack and send me more mana, boss. The gal here has some work to do.' She grinned, the damn bitch, SHE GRINNED.
That's so unfair. At the moment I need her services, but I will get back at her. She knew it, I knew it and she gave a shit about it. Damn women.