Nate checked on the second dungeon when he first entered his avatar that night. The blighted elves were still maintaining their board in the portal room. The one they used to record all the details about the dungeon.

It had taken them a bit, but they had eventually begun to adapt strategies to the traps that were still active.

A few days earlier, he probably would have switched up the traps a little on them. Just to keep everything working at full efficiency. Now, he had other things on his mind, like the cultivators he was occasionally seeing peek through the dungeon entrance.

They had officially found the second dungeon.

It didn’t seem as though they had made any moves to enter the dungeon itself, not yet at least, thankfully. His energy reserves were getting better with the latest research improvements. Still, he wasn’t quite ready to activate more of the traps again.

He wanted more of a buffer before he risked something like that. Having the entire dungeon shut down had been an eye-opening experience.

At least the blighted elves were strong enough on their own to hold the cultivators back. Especially with the numbers that he was now seeing inside the dungeon.

Nate monitored everything for a few more minutes before switching over to the first dungeon. The timer that marked when the dungeon would finish taking control of the portal blinked into being alongside the various resource counters. It was a terrible countdown timer in his opinion as it would randomly skip seconds the system decided were unneeded.

In other words, the longer the countdown went on uninterrupted, the faster it counted. As long as nothing came through the portal, then he would have complete control of it in under three days. In all likelihood, considering how it continued to speed up, maybe even less.

Turning his attention away from the portal, he focused on the rest of the first floor of the dungeon. The cultivators that had been trying to invade and destroy the place before had finally pulled out. There were now only two of them sitting in a corridor near the exit room.

The rest had all left.

He pulled up the event log that the Dungeon Core had begun creating for him when it reached Level 3. It was an interesting little function that allowed him to quickly skim through and read what he would have otherwise missed. In this case, it was the cultivators leaving due to accumulated damage, and the risk involved in the operation.

At least it seemed as though they figured out that the place was a dungeon.

Looking through the logs, it was immediately apparent to him that the Dungeon Core could hear whatever people were saying while they were inside its walls. It bugged him that all he could do was watch, but not listen.

Regardless, it seemed as though the major cultivator concern had been dealt with for the moment. The Level 3 upgrade had made the interior of the dungeon too difficult for them to easily damage and largely solved it on its own.

Switching his view to the second floor, he went through the few minor adjustments the Dungeon Core had made throughout the day. It hadn’t created traps or anything of that nature. What it had done was a little more diabolical. It had aimed at the beast’s comfort level. The temperature on the entire level had been raised. Corridors had been made thinner, doors between rooms turned into jigsaw puzzle pieces, and small spikes added to the floor where they walked.

Everything they did now added some layer of discomfort to their lives. It made them hot, sweaty, and irritable. Which in turn made their minds tired and easily distracted during key moments when they fought.

The heat would still affect Nate and Aura, but they would still be going in fresh compared to the others. It was a tactic that he wholeheartedly approved of.

He would have to see about using it again later on in other dungeons. He switched the camera back to the two cultivators near the exit and screamed in frustration. They were talking. He could see their mouths moving, and yet still he could hear nothing.

Nate pulled up the event log after a moment and simply used that to read along with a slight delay. It was then that an idea occurred to him. He might not be able to hear them for whatever reason. However, now that the Dungeon Core was capable of transcribing what they were saying, couldn’t it give him subtitles?

It took him some finagling to get it working right as the Dungeon Core needed to work with the camera views inside his wrist computer. Which it directly created a fork of once the system understood what he was trying to do. Once all of that was done and in place though, subtitles promptly began appearing at the bottom of the camera view whenever they were speaking.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Next, he just needed to test if it worked in the second dungeon or if it would only be limited to the first dungeon because of the upgraded Core.

Either way, he now had a way of actively seeing what people were saying inside his dungeon. It was a little late, now that nearly all of the cultivators had decided to abandon their mission. Something that he was still incensed about.

After everything they had done in the area, destroying safe havens, and creating a monstrous beast wave on the city, they had simply left the dungeon behind.

Nate read along with their conversation for a few minutes to see if they would say anything interesting.

Aura had been using the access she had to the dungeon system to watch the two that were left as well.

Deciding they had seen enough, they headed down to the second floor and got to work. It was a gradual thing, but they had started to notice a change in the beasts’ day after day. A light had started to go out in their eyes, as though the thing that drove them obsessively onward had begun to fade.

Nate had a few thoughts on the matter, but he didn’t want to say anything, not until he was sure. Some things were better kept to yourself where they couldn’t harm anyone if you were wrong.

However, for the moment at least, they were still more than willing to continue throwing themselves at Nate’s kukris as he practiced throughout the night.

***

Anna, along with Lindsay’s brother Landon, had returned to the Chrighton estate sometime in the middle of the night.

Aura had made the mistake of plodding around in plain view as she and Nate went to get breakfast. It was promptly discovered that Lindsay wasn’t the only one who liked cute, fluffy animals. Anna was the only one to discover her extra tails, though, at least for the moment.

“Ugh, really? What is with you people, and just glomping onto her like your life depends on it?” Nate complained as Anna looked up at him questioningly. Her hand was currently latched onto a tail hidden behind Aura’s illusions. “Don’t look at me like that. Don’t you know that it's rude to grab someone’s tail?”

Surprisingly, Anna dropped it and released Aura, who promptly hid behind Nate’s legs.

“Right, sorry about that. Lost my head for a second there.” She tilted her head as she stood. “I didn’t know you had a beast companion, especially one who is so… special.”

“It’s a fairly recent thing. She found me during the expedition this last weekend,” Which was entirely true, in a sense. “As for her being special, please keep that to yourself. No one but myself and my parents know that she is anything more than what she appears.”

She nodded readily. “I can do that. It’s bad manners to pry into other people’s beast companions too much, anyway. They often evolve in ways that they wouldn’t have otherwise, making their original races somewhat meaningless.”

He glanced down at Aura, wondering if that was even possible for her race. What would a kitsune evolve into? Wasn’t it already at the top of the evolutionary ladder? He shook his head, dispelling the distracting thoughts for the moment. They would find out eventually, or not, either was fine. It was up to Aura either way.

“We were just about to get some breakfast. Have you eaten yet?” He offered.

“Sure, I think the cook is already awake.”

Nate blinked, his foot halting in midair. “Right, totally forgot about that. I won’t even need to make it myself. That’ll take some getting used to.” Usually, it was either his mother or himself cooking breakfast. “Did you and Landon learn anything interesting while you were out and about yesterday?”

Her face darkened. “We did actually, though it certainly isn’t good news. It concerns some friends of yours, in fact. Do the family names Turner and Peterson mean anything to you?”

Nate unconsciously kicked out his leg to make sure his knee was still working. “I’m guessing you know they do, but you missed one.”

She shook her head once as they entered the dining room. “No, the Pritchley’s haven’t done anything. In fact, they have been actively participating in the defense of the city. Those two families, however, fled the city yesterday. They disregarded their status and just left. It’s fine for others to leave if they can, but not people in their position. They hold actual power and authority in the city, and now their absence has created a vacuum that will create ripples.”

In other words, things were only about to get worse.

There was already some food set out on the table for people to eat as needed.

Nate filled a plate for himself and a second for Aura. “Can you show me on a map where both of their houses are?” He asked as he sat down, an idea coming into being.

She nodded slowly. “What are you thinking?”

“Just that they owe me, and I’m sure they didn’t have time to take everything when they fled. I’m sure there are plenty of supplies and other goodies still left in the place.”

Anna coughed, turning her head to the side as pieces of egg found their way sprayed through her nose.

“Eww, that’s disgusting,” Nate scooted his plate away from her.

“Ugh, egg in my nose, that smells so weird,” She complained. “Anyway, yes, I know where they both live. That’s actually a pretty good idea.”

Now that Nate had gotten a taste of emptying people’s houses into his storage, he wanted to grab as much as he could while he had the chance. It would help his family get ahead wherever they ended up when this was all over. Otherwise, they, like so many others, would be stuck starting from nothing all over again.

His parents had just started their company, and he wasn’t going to let them fail now. Not if he could help them in any case.

A short time later, a procession of three trucks left the Chrighton estate. Anna was leading the group while Landon was taking up the rear. Lindsay was driving the middle truck, with Angela and Nate in it. The girl’s parents had been hesitant at first to let them leave the property, but had eventually agreed under the condition they brought others.

It was an easy choice to make, and now they were on the road heading to the first of the houses.

Unlike the day before, the roads weren’t nearly as packed with cars and crazy drivers. There were still a few out and about, but most had figured out they couldn’t leave and eventually returned home. The city was still surrounded by beasts. There was no escaping them just yet. All their clogging the roadways accomplished was making it harder for those who needed to reach the wall to get there.

The wall would either fall in its entirety, or the beasts would die. With the city surrounded as it was, there would be no escape for most of them.