“Well, that could have gone better,” Nina muttered as she collapsed onto the couch with her arm over her eyes.

Her husband flopped down next to her with a sigh of relief. “At least it’s over. The next one we do will only be the two of us during the week, and then Nate as well come the weekend.”

“Speaking of our son,” She moved her arm so she could glare at him as he tried to sneak away. “I have a couple of questions for you. Like where you learned to fight like that, and where this mysterious crossbow came from. What is going on, Nate?”

He dragged himself away from the stairs he had gotten so close to escaping on and sat down across from his parents. He needed to tell them something, but he hadn’t worked out what that was yet. So, he decided to simply spitball something and hope it made sense.

“Do you remember when George came over and he found those injuries inside my body?” They both nodded silently. “Those injuries happened because of a dream I had been having where I was attacked. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s real. I’ve been able to train inside those dreams, and even get items.”

Discreetly, he poked at his wrist computer and retrieved the crossbow, along with some herbs. He hoped they would assume he was playing around with the bracelet he was wearing on the same arm.

They inhaled sharply in surprise and leaned forward. Their eyes moved from his wrist to the items in his lap and back again.

“Nate, do you have any idea what this means?” His father asked.

“Not really, no, that’s part of why I never told either of you. I know that spatial storage items are beyond rare here, though. I admit the biggest reason I didn’t tell you is I didn’t want to. I mean come on, mom, dad, I just barely told you I wasn’t the same son you knew. There is only so much weirdness a person can drop on people before they turn him into a lab-rat.

“I have loved having you both back in my life again, but I know this world is different from the one I am familiar with. I don’t mean to doubt either of you, it’s just… I really don’t want to learn where your breaking points are either. If word got out that I could occasionally get items from my dreams…“ He shook his head.

“Oh sweetie,” Nina burst off the couch with Niall only a beat behind her. “We don’t want to make you worry about those things. Yes, we are sad that we lost our Nathan. However, make no mistake, we love you just as much as we did him. I know the entire situation is confusing, but you are our son, always and forever. I believe a piece of us belonged to your original parents, and a piece of you belonged to our Nate. Call it threads tying some greater soul together or something else entirely, but it can’t just be coincidence.”

Niall swept them all into a long hug before eventually separating to discreetly wipe his eyes. “I’m sure you have another secret or two, and that’s fine. Keep them. I think your mother and I already have an idea of what they might entail in part after this. Just make sure you stay safe.”

He put his hand on his son’s chest where his core was located and sighed. “I hope George is right about the backup core helping you upgrade this thing. Now, let’s check out this crossbow.”

Nate passed the crossbow to his dad and the herbs to his mother. He hadn’t tried out the crossbow yet, but the storage function had automatically identified the herbs. They were one of the main ingredients in the creation of minor healing potions.

While Nina was looking the herbs over, Niall was inspecting the crossbow.

“What kind of crossbow is this?” His dad asked at last.

He shrugged and took it back from him. “I don’t know, I haven’t used it yet. I just barely got it the other night, and the requirements for what I can use in the dreams are a bit weird.” Nate ran his fingers along the entire weapon and plucked at the taught string.

The bow string vibrated like what someone would expect on a guitar or a violin, not on a relaxed crossbow.

He held it up to his cheek, checking for comfort, and slowly nodded in appreciation. It was as he was lowering it that his index finger closest to the trigger rubbed against a circular indent. The rail of the crossbow took on a soft glow as the bows were stretched into position, readying it for use. At the same time, he felt some of the qi from his body leave. It wasn’t a lot, but if he was in the middle of a beast wave, it would quickly build up.

His father whistled softly. “Now that is a neat trick. It looks like you’ll still need bolts, but at least you don’t have to worry about cocking the crossbow yourself.”

“It takes a little bit of qi to do it, but as long as we’re not in a beast wave, it should be manageable. I haven’t seen or heard of anyone else using weapons with enchantments or whatever you want to call this before though.”

Nina finally passed the herbs back to her son with a frown. “That’s because they don’t exist around here. The bigger cities, with portals that have humanoid inhabitants, supposedly have developed a few items over the years. None of them have made their way down here yet. Hiding that storage bracelet was a very smart move for the same reason, and those herbs look as though they were just picked.”

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She sighed and began massaging her eyes. “I’m not going to tell you not to use the crossbow, but at least find some way to hide that glow it did. And definitely keep hiding your storage bracelet. We can come up with a story if need be, when people learn about the crossbow. Doing the same for the bracelet would be next to impossible.”

He agreed readily. That had already been on the list of things to do when he first saw the glow. It would be hard to remain hidden or sneak around if your weapon was glowing every time you used it. Some paint or possibly a dark bandage wrapped around it would work. He would need to experiment with it later to make sure whatever he ended up using didn’t interfere with the bolts going down the rail.

Nate stored the herbs and the crossbow and hugged his parents. “Thanks for being understanding. I just don’t want to do anything that would risk losing you two again. I guess I might be overcompensating a bit.”

“Just a bit,” His father muttered with a snort. “But we’re not going anywhere. You don’t have to worry about that.”

Nate prayed that was the truth this time.

He pulled away and yawned. “Alright, well, I’m going to head upstairs for a nap. I’ve already finished all my homework for the weekend, so there aren’t any worries there either.”

Once he was safely hidden away in his room, he pulled out all the information he had gathered on the dimensional zones. He had been making a list of possible sites for the second dungeon for a while. The time had finally come to select one of them and start designing the dungeon.

He wanted to go into this second one better prepared than he had the first one. Whether or not that was possible depended on the site he chose and the information available on it.

More than anything else, he was determined to choose a dimensional zone that was useful to him. However, it also needed to not be too strong. Unfortunately, nearly all of the humanoids had higher realms than the beasts he had been dealing with. At his current pace of improvement, he might need to wait until the third or even fourth dungeon before approaching one of them.

There were dozens of portals that he had collected information on, and yet none of them fit his requirements. Since that was the case, he instead switched to humanoids that he could understand.

When he had originally started designing the first dungeon, he had simply thrown every basic trap he could think of at it. He hadn’t known what would work and what wouldn’t. Beasts reacted differently than humans and had different senses.

If the new dungeon had humanoids that he could somewhat understand, that would make his job easier. It still wouldn’t be perfect, but he would at least have an idea this time of what would work against them. Unless he chose a weird species, and there were some odd ones out there, make no mistake. Thankfully, his research had revealed a few things about those ones.

They all had a few common similarities and may even come from the same world. No one could say for certain without going through the portals themselves.

Unlike the dimensional zones that contained beast portals, the humanoid ones always contained only one species. That meant if it was goblins, then that was all you were going to see. There would be no ogres or orcs popping through unexpectedly. You would still see the stronger variants of goblins, but it would always be goblins.

All other portals and dimensional zones contained a variety of whatever came through. Beasts, elementals, golems, the occasional drake, or once mythical monster.

The point was, if he selected the right dimensional zone, then he might be able to create the traps in a way that would still help him. He already knew the average cultivation realm for humanoid beings was far above his. Even the goblins could wipe the floor with him at the moment, though that had more to do with their numbers than actual strength.

That meant his kukris wouldn’t do a thing to them if it came down to a fight. The gun might do something. He honestly wasn’t sure about that one. That left him with getting materials the same way he had when he first started out.

By tricking them into the traps.

With that decided, he went over the list again. He removed everything that was above the seventh realm of ‘Foundation Purity’ and started from there. Not that he thought he had a chance against anything that strong, but he had to start somewhere.

He also struck the goblins, orcs, and ogres off the list. While it was true that they did occasionally carry items, it wasn’t often, and they were always of a low quality.

It was becoming increasingly apparent to him that this second dungeon was going to be very different from his first one. He had operated that one with the goal of suppressing the beasts. This dungeon, he was creating with the goal of farming items and getting stronger.

He knew he needed to start working on closing, or at least suppressing, the portals. That was still the eventual goal. Nothing had changed in that regard. All he was doing was prioritizing his safety and personal strength for the moment.

With any luck, he would also be able to find some items for his parents as well. He wasn’t only doing this for himself; he wanted to ensure they would be safe in the future. It might be painting a target on their backs if others learned about what they had. Until then, they would be safer.

That was a future occurrence they would have to deal with when, and if, it happened. In the meantime, they would simply be careful in what they let people they didn’t trust see.

Nate slowly went down the list and matched each of the remaining portals with the appropriate zones on his map. After doing that, he was immediately able to cross off a couple more, as they were simply too close to cities.

There was no need to create another situation like he had with the first dungeon. Though, in all honesty, he knew that was going to happen, regardless. If he hadn’t already known, then the footage from the news had already shown him that this world had satellites. They might have been somewhat limited in function compared to his original Earth, but they had them.

As soon as the dungeon appeared, someone was going to know about it. There was no doubt about that.

Finally, after doing some more research on the various locations, he selected a spot.

It was a dimensional zone in what would have once been Missouri, a state fairly distant from his own. The inhabitants were known as ‘Blighted Elves’. They were strong, and they carried items. More importantly, they had started to take over the area in recent years.

The locals hadn’t been able to keep up with the numbers coming through or their strength.

It was the perfect spot for him to help out, even if it might be too late already. Plus, with how many of the elves it sounded like there were in the area, it seemed like he wouldn’t have to worry about cultivators coming into the dungeon. Only more of the elves coming inside to check out the place.

It was exactly what he had been looking for.