Zack went over his dungeon one more time, just to make sure everything was ready for Dungeon Inc's grand reopening. Since the showdown with Archmage Cornelius Snow a week prior, the dungeon had been in a state of borderline non-existence. In order to defeat the incredibly powerful aetherologist, Zack had accidentally destroyed the entire structure. The once proud, if dilapidated, mall-turned-dungeon had been rendered to little more than a hole in the ground.

This had presented Zack with a unique opportunity, one that he was keen to capitalize on. Namely, he didn't have to rebuild the dungeon to be exactly as it was before. Instead, he took advantage of the vast surplus of aether—unstable magical energy—left behind in Snow's wake to build the dungeon to his exact specifications, suiting his every needs.

The rooms were larger than they used to be, and now contained a greater variety of monsters and challenges. Zack even managed to arrange the rooms in a more interesting way. Before, they were divided into independent wings with no connection to one another. Finishing one wing meant that a customer's time in the dungeon was essentially wasted. Now, Zack had arranged them so that finishing one wing allowed the delver to either go down a floor or proceed to the next wing, depending on the kind of challenge they desired. It was all thanks to the new additions that came with integrating two new cores.

"How's our portal network looking, Glitch?" Zack asked, prodding the portal core.

"We-we-we're good and r-r-ready," Glitch stammered, their two voices stuttering over each other. Unlike Zack, who was a wholy independent dungeon core, Glitch was formed when two broken shards of other cores were fused together with electrum. This gave their crystal heart a purple and yellow appearance, even as the two cores fused together properly. Equally unlike Zack, Glitch was a portal core. This meant that their influence was limited to their portal network, rather than a building or open space.

In demonstration of their preparation, Glitch activated the first of many portal arches strewn about the dungeon. This one was at the end of the meadow—the first room—and could serve multiple functions. It could allow guests to bypass a level they previously completed, or proceed immediately to the next floor of that level should they so desire.

Curiously, Zack conjured a wisp—a ball of tangled mana fibers—and sent it through the portal. The wisp reappeared, no worse for wear, back in the lobby of the dungeon. They had tested the portals thoroughly to make sure they worked, and while Glitch could only open one portal at a time, this was a sacrifice they were willing to make in the name of having that functionality.

As the wisp appeared through the arch, it drew the attention of several kobolds standing at attention throughout the room. Despite the opportunity to fully rebuild the dungeon to his exact desired specifications, Zack had decided it would be more prudent to keep some relics of the familiar. As such, his lobby was almost an exact replica of the original space, from the tile floor to the prize counter at the end. The only realy change was a new station on the right side, opposite from Greg and Ember's armoury station.

Iris the library core normally wanted nothing more than to hoard her knowledge, however there was a small matter of getting new knowledge that bothered her. Like Zack, she was able to see a person's stats and levels, but unlike Zack she posessed the unique power to translate information from one state into another. Coupled with her ability to essentially memorize anything she learned instantly, she was one of the new key additions to the dungeon.

"Alright, Iris. Glitch is ready, now it's your turn," Zack said to her. He didn't need to speak aloud, but he did so anyway for the benefit of everyone else in the dungeon. Techically he had no method of actual spoken communication, but he could vibrate the mana in either his wisps or his core itself to generate sound. Both Glitch and Iris were capable of the same.

It was a necessary act, too. While Glitch's influence existed in the space between space, Iris was like Zack. She needed her own space in order to properly use her abilities. Using some clever trickery, they were able to give her a vast library directly under the lobby—an entire space where Zack's influence couldn't touch. Her station, however, needed to be a part of that. Unfortunately, this meant that Zack couldn't communicate mentally with her. In their short time knowing one another, Zack became painfully aware of Iris' claustrophobia, and was doing everything in his power to ensure she remained happy and comfortable. Since their influences couldn't interact, it meant they needed to communicate in other ways. Vocal communication proved to be the easiest.

"Printing now," Iris declared. Unlike Zack, they had decided to build her station more like an ATM. Technically there was a wisp inside it, but they both agreed it would be prudent to conceal the existence of multiple cores in the dungeon as much as possible. As such, information flashed across the screen, and then a paper card was ejected from the machine's slot.

There was technically a lot more theatrics involved with the machine. There was a pad on which a person could place their hand, and some buttons for getting more detailed information—such as a detailed list of a person's spells. None of them were really necessary, and were more for show. The only real mechanism was from the printer slot, which ejected the cards after Iris spawned them.

Zack called one of the kobolds over and commanded them to extract the card from the machine. The diminutive reptile had waxy green skin that looked like it belonged more to a plant than a living creature, and amber yellow eyes. Jean-Claude was one of Zack's favourite mobs, and the one he considered his majordomo. If anyone came to the dungeon seeking Zack, they had to talk to Jean-Claude first.

Jean-Claude peered at the card, then held it out for Zack to read.

[Status]

[Name: Zack]

[Core type: Dungeon]

[Level: 18]

[Integrity: 112%]

[Mana: 115/120]

Zack dissolved the card, noting in approval that it was written as intended. The goal of including Iris was to help people become more acquainted with their status, something that typically only people with status tattoos were aware of. In his short experience as a dungeon, though, Zack had learned that people had levels beyond those that were earned by adventuring. In fact, adventuring wasn't even necessary to the process.

"I think we're just about ready to start reopening to the public," Zack declared, flitting his wisp around the lobby until he came upon the only two people who he hadn't created: a werewolf and an orc.

Chandra was sitting at the front desk, her lupine paws propped up on its surface while she scrolled through her phone. The werewolf looked up as Zack flew over to her, and casually took her feet off the table. "All good here," she said, setting her phone face-down on the wood.

Greg was normally over in the forge with Ember the draconid, but since they had yet to actually open up to the public, he was sitting on one of the benches in the lobby. He was a wall of a man, nearly as wide as two humans standing side, with forest green skin. "Ready when you are," he declared, nodding.

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Zack quietly observed both of them for a moment. He hadn't ever apologized for the way he acted when they didn't want to help him rescue hostage cores, but neither had they. It was just one of those little things in their relationship that they would have to overlook, at least for now. Zack was dangerously low on people he could trust, and at least both Chandra and Greg had a vested interest in keeping him safe.

"Then, I guess the last thing to do is to test the dungeon's new layout," Zack declared, bobbing his wisp in place. "For that, we should probably wait for Alex and Sal to come back."

Greg and Chandra nodded to one another and rose from their seats to prepare for their delve into the dungeon's depths. Greg had a duffelbag at his feet, inside had his armor and weapons of choice. He alternated which weapons he prefered to use, and it looked like today he'd be using his oversized katana. It wasn't the longest weapon Zack had ever seen, but it was definitely a lot wider than most other swords. In Greg's, hands, though, it looked perfectly proportional.

In addition to his weapons, Greg also pulled on his armour. It was made of heavy metal scales, allowing it to resist multiple damage types. On a normal person—even a normal orc—it would be too heavy to use effectively. Greg was stronger than the average person, though, and so he had no trouble moving about with weighty gear. The scales rattled as he tugged them on, and then pulled on a pair of matching vambraces.

Chandra, meanwhile, started donning armour that Greg and Ember had specially designed for her to use. As a werewolf, she relied on her physical body more than others. In a traditional party, hers was the role of physical damage dealer. She could get up close to enemies and attack them with tooth and claw. This typically put her in danger of getting hurt, though, so the armour was designed to help shore up her weaknesses. It was light and focused more on protecting her centre than her limbs—her werewolf recovery allowed her to heal from non-fatal wounds with ease. With Zack's assistance, the leather jack was also enchanted to resist piercing and cutting attacks.

By the time both were ready to begin, Chandra's ears were twitching. Zack took that as a sign that a car was pulling up, and focused on his dungeon sense. Given the sheer size of his dungeon, he had started relying on it more and more. He could theoretically observe the entire layout simultaneously, but he found that it was a bit too much information for him to process. Instead, his dungeon sense allowed him to be keenly aware of what was happening in his dungeon at any time without having to overloard his senses.

Sure enough, a car was rolling up to the dungeon's parking lot, and seated within it were two familiar people. The first one to step out was a tall and lanky elf with burnished copper hair and piercing green eyes. Salazar Gonzales, bronze rank adventurer and one of the highest levelled members of their little group. He didn't technically work for the dungeon, but was instead acting as their liason to the local adventuring guild. He was already dressed in light leather armour and had twin daggers sheathed at his side.

The second person to step out of the vehicle had to hop to reach the ground, and looked like he would be more at home in the dungeon itself. Alex hadn't always been a fiery orange kobold, but dying at the hands of Archmage Cornelius Snow had forced Zack's hand. Unlike Salazar, Alex was dressed in loose cloth armour that hung around his skinny reptillian limbs. He even carried a wand at his hip. He wasn't wearing a proper robe, and instead wore a pair of equally loose shorts that drooped past his knees, but it was still clear to any observer that he was a caster-type in armour better suited to mobility than defense.

"Hey guys," Sal said, waving in greeting to the group as he stepped through the dungeon's automatic doors. "I take it today is finally the day?"

"Zack says all that's left to do is test it," Greg explained, strapping shin guards on over his jeans.

As Alex stepped into the dungeon, Chandra ran up to him and gave him the customary pat on the head that all kobolds received in greeting. Alex had given up on trying to stop her, and even leaned into the touch with a wag of his tail. "We finished training a bit early today, so that's some lucky timing," he explained, drawing his wand. On a normal person, the foot-long piece of wood topped with a gem would look small. On Alex's three-foot tall form, though, it bordered more on a short staff.

"And that's still going good for you, right?" Zack asked, worry clear in his tone. He lowered his wisp, putting it closer to Alex's eye level.

Alex nodded. "They have me training with the goblin coaches, and it's working out well enough. I'm also attending lectures on caster tactics. I'll admit, I'm not as fond of this as I am a sword…" Alex raised his rod in demonstration and waved it around. "But I can't exactly hold a sword anymore, so some concessions had to be made."

"I'm sure you could do it if you tried," Greg assured him.

"No, he did try. Watch," Sal explained. He drew one of his daggers from its sheath and handed it to Alex, handle first. The little kobold took the weapon and nearly dropped it. Alex shook as he struggled to hold it up, only for Sal to pluck it from his fingers once more.

"Yeah, turns out getting turned into a kobold meant I lost a lot of physical strength. It's extra bad, because I wasn't the strongest person on the planet to begin with. We're working on fixing that, but for now it's caster weapons only for me," Alex chuckled, twirling his rod.

"In that case, I think we're all ready to go?" Chandra asked, checking the straps of her jack one last time. "Will Archie be joining us in our run today?"

"Ah, no," Zack said, chuckling at the mention of Chandra's paramour. "Archie's a bit busy managing his floor right now. He won't let me in to see it until it's done."

Chandra frowned. "And that… Is stopping you?" She asked, genuine confusion in her tone.

Zack flinched but didn't argue with her. In the past, he was really bad about giving Archie privacy or control of his own floor. He was trying to be better about it, though, especially since he now had several other cores living inside him. It felt wrong not to give them privacy, or let them control their space. Since he was going that far for Iris and Glitch, it was only fair he did the same for Archie.

"You're welcome to try running the meadow's second floor, but I doubt Archie will appreciate it," Zack explained. "Instead, why don't you try running the manor's second floor? I made some changes to the puzzle so it should be a lot more straightforward now."

"Wouldn't that mean we need to beat the spider warren?" Greg asked.

"Nope. I did away with the spider warren completely," Zack laughed. "It just wasn't… fitting the vibe, you know?"

Chandra shuddered and hugged herself at the mention of it. "I know."

Alex pat Chandra reassuringly on the thigh and smiled up at her. The werewolf's fear of spiders had been all too apparent last time she attempted to run it.

"There is, however, a forest between the manor and the meadow now. I think you'll find it does a great job serving as an intermediate challenge between the two wings, and it even has its own boss mob!" Zack explained excitedly. "Oops, spoilers. Anyway, if we're all ready to go…?"

Salazar raised a hand to stop the others. "What about a healer? Are Medibolds still present throughout the dungeon?"

Medibolds were Zack's dedicated healer mobs. They were his attempt to ensure the safety of his customers as long as they ran his dungeon. In case of emergencies, Medibolds were under orders to rescue customers and heal their wounds. Despite his best efforts, though, they weren't the most effective healers available. That was something he wanted to continue exploring, but for now their limited capabilities were a problem.

"We've still got Medibolds in reserve for emergencies," Zack confirmed. "They've even got emergency portal keys. Glitch will prioritize those over the others, in case a delver needs immediate medical attention. We still need to get a proper healer in here, though."

Salazar nodded. "Okay. What about potions?"

"Oh yeah, I got those in spades. Want some?"

Zack had Jean-Claude and one of the other kobolds—Bob, who looked more like a giant action figure—carry in a massive cart of potions. He included healing potions of all kinds, as well as mana potions for both Alex and Salazar.

"I'm not sure if I have those quite right yet," Zack explained, as the two caster-oriented members of the group studied the strange blue potions curiously. "I'm experimenting with making mana and stamina potions, since those seem to be areas that most people are ignoring. Ideally there shouldn't be any problem, since it's literally just liquid mana in a bottle, but let me know if they don't work."

Salazar nodded and pocketed his bottle, while Alex shoved his into a satchel hanging from his shoulder. It blended in so well with his outfit that Zack hadn't even noticed it.

Finally fully equipped for their adventure, there was only one more thing left to do.

"Remember to have fun, everyone!" Zack called, as the four testers marched towards the portal arch at the end of the lobby. Glitch didn't even need a command, they simply opened the swirling gate and revealed the idyllic grassy range on the other side.

Alex shot Zack a thumb's up as the other's stepped through, then followed his friends to the other side. The portal shut behind them, leaving nothing but an empty archway in its wake.

Their run had truly begun.