The woman in charge of the group sneered as she took in Nina and Niall’s cultivation realms compared to that of her group. “And what makes you think we’re going to listen to a couple of cultivators lower than us?”

Niall ground his teeth, his grip on the tonfas tightening. “You are visiting our lands. At least show some respect for how we do things here. I didn’t realize the cities nearby no longer recognized natural springs as safe spaces.”

The woman scoffed. “That is an old mentality that has been dying out for ages. Earth is our world. Why should we give them any safe spaces at all?”

“Because if we do, then they will return the favor!” Nina snarled, waving at the pond behind her. “Do you think this sort of scene happens by accident? No, all parties involved have to be careful not to disrupt it. What you are trying to do is going to ruin that.”

“And?” The woman returned simply. “As you pointed out, we’re visitors, nothing more. What do we care about if something happens here? If anything, this is the best place for us to find out what would happen. It will suck for you, but that is a price everyone else will gladly pay for this information.”

Nina’s eyes hardened as her lips set in a firm line. The arm holding the odd metal bowstring taut had begun to shake under the constant strain of having it ready. She needed to make a decision soon before her arm and the fingers holding the bowstring did it for her.

“Turn around and leave. You all came out here for the structure around the portal in the dimensional zone. Stick to your original goal, and don’t get distracted.” She said as calmly as she could, a line of sweat beginning to bead its way down the side of her head.

Another cultivator came up behind her and put his hand firmly on her shoulder. “Come on, Jean. She’s right, we came out here for a reason. Quit messing with the locals. We are not going to destroy a natural spring.”

She jerked away and rounded on her companion. “We came out here to earn money! And I wasn’t joking when I mentioned that it was a price others would gladly pay for. Before we left, I was approached and given a whole list of items like this.”

Niall took a single step forward and held out one of his hands, the other remaining on a tonfa. “May I see this list, please?”

The woman hesitated for several moments before finally reaching into the inner breast pocket of her armor.

Niall took it from her and felt his brows rise in surprise as he read the list, she handed him. Each item that had been scrawled out was a potential landmine of trouble for the city nearest it. At the same time, he could also see the reasoning behind most of them. The desire to finally know what would happen if something messed with the environment that had been created in the dimensional zones.

That didn’t mean he condoned it, only that he could somewhat understand the appeal.

He took a photo of the list with his phone and then handed it back to her. “I would ask that you not do any of these, however, I also understand that we are not in a position to negotiate.”

Nate shook his head, more content than ever before in his decision to strengthen the traps against the cultivators. It made no sense to him why these cultivators would be coming from other cities anyway. Sure, he had included a few treasure chests, but the amount of money they could make simply by going out on an expedition wasn’t small.

What really drove them to explore such a dangerous place? He suddenly had to know.

“Why are you heading to the structure in the first place?” Nate asked them. Speaking up for the first time. “You can’t be doing this because of money. You would make more by doing expeditions. What is driving you all to explore that place?”

“Exactly that. We get to explore it. There is plenty about this world we still don’t understand, but this structure… it is something completely new. The call to explore it, and learn its secrets, is felt by all who want to be more than simple cultivators.”

Nate could feel the passion in her voice as she spoke. It was something that he hadn’t accounted for, that he hadn’t even thought about before that moment. The drive to explore was something natural for humans, and it was one he had completely dismissed. They weren’t flocking to the dungeon because of the treasure chests, though that probably helped, no it was because they were unknown. The dungeons were something new, and foreign. They were the proverbial siren call to the sailors suffering from heatstroke.

It was little wonder that they would jump into the water, regardless of whether or not they could swim.

The three watched the other group leave, while the beasts and animals of the natural spring slowly went back to normal.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“That is going to be a problem for us, isn’t it?” Nina asked, pointing to her husband’s phone.

“I would like to say no, but I can’t do that. It’s possible that the bulk of the groups will have a conscience like this one. They would have kept her from doing anything. However, it only takes one group to cause a mess. Let’s start heading back to the rig. I want to see if we can get in contact with the city and let them know about this.”

The radio signals out here could be spotty at the best of times, and it was impossible to keep a repeater tower in operation for more than a few days. Each truck was supposed to set up an antenna for that purpose when they parked. It was just a small one on the roof of their rig. Unfortunately, a lot of people forgot to do it much of the time.

They drained power continually, and it was one more step in an already involved process.

Regardless, he had to try. It was either that or take the truck back onto the road and head back until he could. Luckily, they weren’t super deep into the dimensional zone, which meant their chances of reaching the city with fewer low-power signal repeaters were greater.

With that decided, they continued with their previous plan to circle back to the truck and trailer. Only now, they were moving with more speed and determination than before.

A few minutes out from the spring, they came across another rabbit. Only for it to be shot through the head by Nina before Nate could even get his crossbow into position.

“Sorry,” She told him, with a slight shrug. “But we’re on a time crunch right now. You’ll have to get your practice in later.”

Niall carved out the core and then carried the body to her for storage in the bracelet, while they continued on. That happened an additional four times over the course of their hike back to the subdivision. They had seven bodies to store in the trailer by that point. Which his parents considered a good starting point. As long as they kept the speed of the fans low, they wouldn’t run into the problem they had the week before.

Back at the truck, Niall hurried into the driver’s seat and started up the electronics.

Nate watched as an antenna around two feet in length flipped up into position from where it had been lying flat against the roof. Apparently, his parents were some of the people who forgot to set it up after they were in position.

The dimensional zones messed with the wireless signals and robbed them of their strength. On his Old Earth, even without repeaters, the signal from a small base station radio like the one in the truck should have been able to easily reach twenty-five to forty miles at least. He had never messed around with them, but some of the nurses who had taken care of him over the years had. Everything he knew was secondhand knowledge.

Either way, he was fairly certain that before the radio inside the truck would have had minimal difficulty reaching the city from their current distance. Now, it required all the help it could get and then some.

While his father was dealing with that, they went into the trailer and laid out the bodies they had hunted earlier. It would be several hours yet before they began to release the smell that would attract the rest of the beasts to them.

Plenty of time, in other words, to wash their hands and have a decent meal.

While they were waiting for the bodies to do their thing, Nate stepped to the side to practice with the crossbow and his mother went to talk to his father.

Discreetly, Nate also sent off a message to Aura. ‘Where are you?’

Not exactly anything original, but he wanted to know when to expect her.

‘On my way. I’m outside the dungeon now. It took a bit to get past all the cultivators that were setting up camp outside the place.’ She returned a moment later.

He felt his brows raise in surprise at that one. He hadn’t realized that there were so many cultivators coming to explore the dungeon. The first dungeon definitely needed its Core raised to Level 3 soon. Upgrading the Dungeon Core to Level 2 had given it a certain level of autonomy and just overall ability. He hadn’t needed to micromanage the place nearly as much afterward. His hope was that the theme would hold true going forward as well.

He did not want to micromanage the traps against all the cultivators. That just sounded exhausting.

The current Dungeon Core could make minor modifications to the traps, which generally made them better, but that was it. Creating new traps was outside its capabilities at the moment. Perhaps not in time though, if he reached the right level, whatever that was.

While those thoughts were running through his mind, he was taking careful aim and practicing with the crossbow. He had a tendency to jerk on his shots, as he anticipated the harsh recoil from the bow. Other than that, his aim wasn’t too bad. He simply needed practice and to get rid of a bad habit he had developed in the last few hours.

When his parents joined him a half-hour later, their annoyed expressions said everything he needed to know.

“They already knew about the list, didn’t they?” He guessed, coming back from picking up all his practice bolts. Many of which were showing dulled tips or damaged fletchings.

They nodded tiredly. “A few other groups have already reported in about them. A delegation, if you want to call it that, is being sent to each of the cities involved for an explanation.” Niall cracked his neck and stared up at the cloudless sky. “As if they will get an honest answer.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about all of this,” Nate said after a moment. “As long as we can hold on for this initial period and make sure they don’t do anything stupid. Some news should be trickling our way soon that changes things.”

Nina narrowed her eyes at Nate suspiciously. “You know something, don’t you?”

Nate nodded and gave them a small grin. “I’ll explain later. Something has to happen first.” Or rather, someone had to make an appearance first.

Aura was hoping to join up with them sometime that night. Assuming nothing went wrong, and that she wasn’t delayed. He would tell them the addendum to the earlier story he had concocted then.

“Hmm, alright,” She agreed after a moment, deciding to trust him.

“Do we need to do anything else while we wait for those bodies to do their thing?” He asked, looking around the place.

“Nope, since it’s just us three this time, we can all just sleep in the back of the truck. It’ll be more comfortable than sleeping in a tent. Trust us on that one,” Niall replied, looking around. “Wait, no, I take that back. We still need to set up all the lights and put a fire together. After that, make sure to take a nap if you can. Night, as you saw last time, is when they really get active.”