After chewing for a few seconds it took a big gulp. After waiting for something it started to jump around and do something that might have been a dance. Calming down, it started to eat some more before climbing a tree and sleeping there. After some moments it started to snore loudly. Not seeing the stick on its body, I quickly looked around and found it lying near a berry bush. I tried to eat the stick but found myself unable to. I tried to identify it but found a slight resistance that quickly broke through.

> Broken metal-capped wooden cane

It didn't tell me what type of wood or metal was used, so that meant that I didn't have the patterns for those. Not wanting the goblin to retrieve it when I woke up, I manipulated the soil to swallow it. I checked the goblin again and found it fast asleep. Just as I was about to return to my experiments, I felt my rift shift slightly; it felt like someone was pushing my hand with a finger; I could stop the shifting if I wanted easily. But I didn't as the power that was behind this felt very familiar.

I went up to the rift to see what was happening. It felt like the rift was stretching to a far-off point. After some minutes, the rift stabilised, and a 2-meter tall figure walked through. The figure was a black humanoid with thin appendages. It had a sleek, curved, triangular head. It had vires going through its skin and bones, I couldn't even see its face behind a black mask. Before I could identify the black figure a big ball of fire floated through. Seeing the ball of fire the black figure nodded and stepped to the side, the ball of fire following it. Then the rift started to wobble a bit and Lily quickly zipped through. Behind her, the rift collapsed into its prior shape.

Now that the ball of fire was here, I noticed that everything was dark, and the only source of light was the ball of fire and the dim glow of the rift. “Hey, Dungeon! Come to the rift! My friends are here!“ Lily excited told me through our link. I chuckled a bit and told her I was already there. She then turned towards the other two who came with her, whom I guessed were her friends. “Ok! The ball of fire is Ember and the android is Zeta. Android means a humanoid body made by people which then can be controlled and moved.“

Then she spoke to the others and said, “I used up all of my mana to get all three of us here, so just wait a bit for me to regain my mana, and I will take us to my base.“ She then took out a bottle filled with bluish-purple liquid in it. She opened the cap and floated above the mouth of the bottle, and then thin streams of mist started to rise out of it and into her.

“You should appoint us as Guests before some random creature wants a piece of us.“ Ember said in a deep feminine voice. Lily looked up from the bottle and said, “Sorry! Forgot about that! By my authority as the Dungeon Assistant, I announce you as Guests to this Dungeon.“

I immediately got a notification.

> Ember and Zeta have been acknowledged as Guests. Both parties, the Hosts (Unnamed Dungeon, Lily) and Guests (Ember, Zeta), are bound by Guest Rites.

Oh! Now they were our guests! I saw white 'Guest' started to float on top of their heads. I thought that the guest sign should have been green so I tried to will it. After a bit of resistance, the colour holds. “What does that do?“ I asked Lily, who had taken a sixth of the liquid into her.

“Now they cannot hurt us, break our things or steal things without a big repercussion. We also cannot do those things to them. And it also helps your creatures and traps know not to hurt them.“ Interesting! I saw that now some grass was reaching up towards Ember, but as it got close, the grass started to wilt, and the grass retracted. I also got a nudge from the hive mind, asking for permission to offer Zeta its bond. I thought for a bit and permitted it, as they were Lily's friends, and some kind of magic was binding us.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Lily, a dungeon creature just offered me a chance to bond to it. From what I see on the notification, it has a hive-type class. Can you tell me what that is about?“ Zeta asked in a monotonous robotic voice. Lily was just about to put the cap on the bottle after absorbing about 20℅ of the bottle. “Huh? Wait a moment. I will ask him.“ She quickly capped the bottle before putting it back in her storage; then she asked me through our link. “Why did it try to bond with him?“

I also asked the hive mind why it suddenly wanted to bond with him. It told me that it wanted to know more about them as they didn't seem to be plants or the bugs that came from the beyond. And they were also on friendly terms, so it wanted to know. I was a bit surprised and happy that the hive mind wanted to learn about more things. “The hive mind was curious about them so it wanted to bond with them to know more.“

Lily bobbed a little at that explanation then suddenly went still for a few moments. Then she shouted out, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'IT WAS CURIOUS'? ARE YOUR MONSTERS THINKING FOR THEMSELVES?“

“Yes?…” I was a bit confused by those words as all of my creations capable of independent thinking were doing just that: the animated plants and the slimes. Lily then seemed stumped for a bit. The other two also seemed surprised as the ball of flames was sputtering a bit, but I couldn't get a good read on Zeta. “Okay let's get to the underground base before Ember burns down the clearing in the following excitement.“ She then opened a portal to the spacial beacon, or at least tried to, as the beacon was powerless at the moment. I quickly went to the beacon and recharged it. And the portal opened up.

Ember quickly zipped through then Zeta followed at a sedated pace. Then Lily followed through before closing it. Ember's flame suddenly surged out and she then calmed down. “I told you not to startle me like that! With such a juicy piece of knowledge nonetheless! What would have happened if I couldn't control my flames in time?! I would have broken the Rite!“

Lily dropped slightly and timidly replied, “Sorry, I was super surprised when I heard that the dungeon's creatures could do more than just react to stimuli. You know that low-level dungeons are meant to have almost brain-dead creatures.“

Ember puffed up a little, “It's ok. I was just surprised, you know I don't handle those kinds of things well. So what is this about not brainless creatures? Did the dungeon not tell the creature to bond with Z? And seriously, tell him to pick a name already! It's weird to say things like that!“

“Yeah, I hadn't brought the Naming up but let's concentrate one thing at a time. So let's talk about the sentient creatures first. Have you spawned something other than plants?“

I knew the question was pointed towards me so I answered, “Yes, I summoned some slimes and was experimenting with them before you guys arrived!“ Lily was about to say something but Ember interjected, “Can you speak out loud? I also want to hear the interesting news!“ That gave me a bit of pause, as that was a pretty good suggestion.

I thought about how to do that and remembered the chip of the illusion spell crystal we had used to figure out the floor plan. I tried just casting the spell with the intent of saying 'Hello'; the spell worked as I saw motes of pinkish mana form a small pattern and a monotonous emotionless voice said 'Hello', then I noticed the motes dim but still held the pattern. I was excited to be able to speak again but my excitement cracked when the motes ignited again and said hello. I tried to see if I could change it, but I couldn't, as it still said hello at two-second intervals. I cancelled the spell by scattering the motes away, then I used 10 mana to summon a small sliver of the pinkish illusion spell crystal. I linked to it and tried to make it say hello again. This time, the voice was more natural; I felt like I had heard this voice before but stopped myself from thinking about it more.

I tried again with a full sentence, “Hello, Ember and Zeta! Good to meet you!“ I was giddy with this success. Now that I focused back on the trio again, I saw that the clear slime I had set free had wandered into the room, and all three were looming over it as it looked around. Hearing the voice they had turned to the crystal sitting on the floor.