The expansion of the dungeon took several more days, not because Riley and Alexos were slow, but because they found a few holes in the security system that let the dungeon get to the rest of the campus beyond the dormitory. For a brief time, Riley was excited by this revelation since the dungeon was able to get outside, they should have been able to escape, but upon attempting to Alexos crashed into more of the security system that covered the areas between the campus buildings and triggered the alarm again.
Mrs. Nathstein and Professor Francis inspected where the dungeon set off the alarm, both with confused looks on their faces.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Nathstein murmured. “The alarm doesn’t go off just randomly.”
“Well, it did have that alarm from a few days ago that you went to investigate,” Francis replied. “Both times there was nothing there.”
“It can’t be related to that,” Nathstein said almost to herself. “Riley still hasn’t been back to classes, despite finals being this week.”
“Speaking of,” Francis said as they walked away. “We need to get in touch with her folks. Tell them that their straight A’s student is about to fail all her classes unless they can get her back.”
The Riley that could see this conversation happening couldn’t hear the rest of it, as the two of them walked out of the current range of the Dungeon and were talking in hushed voices.
After that incident, the Dungeon was as extended as it could possibly go. It covered all the classroom buildings, all the labs, all the dormitories, and could get somewhat into a parking lot or two, but the net over campus halted any further movement.
By the time they were done, most of the final exams for the semester were over. Students started to leave the dormitory. Another Professor, Verte, came to Riley’s room. With a master key, Verte entered.
“Still hasn’t returned,” Verte said, her tone obviously annoyed. “Nathstein was right, she is quite the rude student, making her professor come get her stuff.”
Verte created a magic circle in the middle of the room, which was then activated, pulling all of Riley’s items left in the dorm towards it. Several of the desk drawers were opened by this, and the magic spell tried to pull Riley and Alexos towards it, but Riley quickly conjured a magical adhesive that had been used during one of her College classes to hold the drawer with the Dungeon Core closed, and to keep the core from moving she applied some of it to the core as well so that they wouldn’t trigger the alarm by moving and dropping their disguise.
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After the spell had grabbed everything it could, Verte then formed a second magic circle above the first one, and they both vanished, taking all of the stuff with them. Verte looked around the room, satisfied with her handiwork, and left.
“Alexos was right to name Riley as a lifesaver,” Alexos suddenly quipped. “That was a beautiful material that Riley used to hold the Dungeon Core in place. Alexos would have failed on its own without that quick thinking.”
“I didn’t know that I could do that either,” Riley admitted. “I realized we were in danger with that spell, but I don’t even know the composition of that adhesive, as it was conjured by magic the last time I saw it. With just a thought to what we needed it suddenly appeared.”
Alexos and Riley both sat in silence for awhile after that, but neither of them could figure out how Riley had made something she didn’t know the makeup of. They put that issue aside for the time, as they needed to figure out their next move.
Professor Verte had just cleaned out the room, but as this was just the winter break, and classes would start soon for the students, Riley worried about someone else getting her old room since the other version of her was obviously not coming back, and had flunked out for the semester since she missed all the finals.
That was part of the reason why Riley had asked for the avatar that became Rioros. Since they had access to the entire campus inside the security net, Riley noticed something important. In a secluded area on campus, there was a locked room. Inside that room, was the computers that have all the student files on them. Most importantly for Rioros, the door was sealed shut with magic, but despite having access to it, there was no technological security in there. Whoever designed the security failed to put any cameras in the room, assuming that the magic would keep out most intruders.
Rioros was not most intruders.
The Dungeon had already entered the room and engulfed the entire volume of it. With a simple thought, Riley manifested Rioros into the room, and puppeteering the avatar for the first time, had it use the computer to register Rioros as a new student for the upcoming semester. She then placed Rioros’s dorm room as the dorm room that the Dungeon Core currently sat in, then signed Rioros up for enough classes that would make Rioros appear to just be an average student, though Riley did weigh the options to figure out which classes would be the most interesting for her and Alexos to assist with filling in gaps of their knowledge, and to put Rioros into classes that Riley’s old friends were in so that she could maybe reconnect with them despite the unfamiliar situation.
After completing her mission, Riley removed Rioros from the secure room by simply making her vanish. The Avatar would be used again when needed, but it was best to conserve the Dungeon’s energy when possible. As far as Riley could tell, nothing they had just done triggered any alert, so she considered it a successful heist on her part.
In the basement of the dorm, in a place no one has been for a long time, something peculiar suddenly happened. A hole in reality formed, then just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished. In its place, was a tiny little slime. It wiggled for a moment, then started hopping, trying to find a way out of the basement. What little light was down there reflected off of its blue surface in a beautiful way.