Eliza rolled her eyes. “I can’t pay that.”

“Then you can’t meet the boss, I’m afraid it’s quite simple.” Jeffrey smiled.

“Fine. Whatever. Where did you all come from, then? Why are you here? How are you created?" Eliza asked.

“I live down that way.” Jeffrey pointed down towards a distant hallway on the other side of the pit. “Oh, careful. Watch your step here.” He pointed down at a hole in the metal walkway they were on as he made an extravagant gesture of stepping over it.

“Not where do you live, where did you come from? Where were you before here?” Eliza asked.

“Where were you before you were here?” Jeffrey asked.

“Don’t play these games. Where did you come from?” Eliza asked.

“I’m afraid I can’t quite understand, then. I came from my home, down there.” Jeffrey pointed back towards the distant hallway again. “Perhaps more recently, I came from the boss’ room. Which is down there.” Jeffrey pointed towards the far back of the pit.

Eliza groaned. “I mean the dungeon. All of you. You goblins, where did you come from? How did you get here, on Abyllan?”

Jeffrey chuckled. “I really don’t understand, I’m afraid. We live here.”

“I feel like I’m going to go insane. The dungeons. They’re created, and creatures fill them. Where do these creatures — you, come from?” Eliza explained.

“Ah. I wouldn’t know. Fascinating thing though, isn’t it?” Jeffrey laughed.

“Do you know anything?" Eliza asked.

Jeffrey sighed. “Look, ma’am. You tried to force your way into our facility, our home, despite pushback from us.” He pointed at Zoe. “She at least had the decency to try and negotiate a tour, which is the only reason you’re not being removed by force right now. I don’t know what you expected to find down here, or what your purpose to coming down here was. Most want to pick a fight with us, but you want answers? To what?

“To some mystery about how dungeons work? Why would I know this? Why would anybody know anything about this? This is the way the world works, lady. You come to our dungeons and give us mana, we welcome you to our dungeons and take your mana. Why do you give us the mana? Why did you come to visit the hot springs when you could just as well create ones for yourself?

“You wanted a tour of our facility, and I will give you one. But don’t expect us to be the answer to all of your problems. You aren’t the first person to come here, you won’t be the last. If the information you want isn’t already available, you’re not going to get it from us.” Jeffrey said, leading them down another metal hallway embedded in the wall.

“I’m sorry. I have a fascination with the system, which you are a part of. You really don’t know where you come from, then? How you got here?" Eliza asked.

“I do not.” Jeffrey answered.

“Do you know anybody who would, then?" Eliza asked.

“Perhaps the boss.” Jeffrey said.

“And only she can meet the boss?" Eliza pointed at Zoe.

“Correct.” Jeffrey answered.

“I’ll ask, later.” Zoe said.

“And you’ll tell me what he tells you?" Eliza asked.

“Probably. I mean I don’t know, maybe there’s some mental restriction on some information that forces me to not be able to, or something.” Zoe said.

“Are there any restrictions on you? Are there things you can’t do? Do you have levels and classes for yourself as well?" Eliza asked Jeffrey.

“Restrictions, hmm. I wouldn’t say there are. We’re our own people here, living our lives to the best of our ability. The system assists us in ways it doesn’t for you, but we have no control over how it does. Or at least, I don’t.” Jeffrey said.

“But you have classes, and skills? Just the same as us?" Eliza asked.

“I suppose.” Jeffrey answered.

“What classes do you have?" Eliza asked.

“What classes do you have?" Jeffrey shot back.

“If I tell you, will you tell me yours?” Eliza asked.

“I suppose that’s fair.” Jeffrey said.

“Abyllian, Elemental Archmage, Runic Master, Librarian, Mystic Champion.” Eliza rattled off.

“Goblin, Scholar, Swordsman.” Jeffrey answered.

“That’s it?” Eliza asked.

“That’s it.” Jeffrey answered.

“Huh. And you can just share that with us?” Eliza asked.

“As I’ve said, I’m not sure what you expected to find down here. But we aren’t mindless automatons. Maybe if you find another dungeon, you’ll find something more in line with what you thought. But here at the springs, we’re just a people. We live here, and we work up top. That’s all we are. The system throws its wrench into everything, as it always likes to do, but we just live here.” Jeffrey said.

“Told you.” Lila said with a bright smile.

Zoe chuckled. The tour was proving to be both much more interesting, and far more boring than she’d expected it to be. She’d thought there would be tunnels with pipes that had mana running through them, directed to wherever it needed to go. Heating for the springs, water generation for the springs. Off to large spheres like the one she’d used to rip the mana away to the system, so it could be spent funding the rewards for other nearby dungeons.

But this was just a strange underground city filled with rather friendly and adorable goblins. Zoe smiled at one of the goblins running by, clutching a piece of paper to its chest as thought it were a family heirloom passed down through the generations.

It was disappointing in some ways, to see how mundane the dungeon truly seemed to be in its underbelly. At least thus far, Zoe looked forward to meeting the boss quite a bit and hoped that it would have more answers for her questions.

But on the other hand, the fact that it was so mundane was itself so fascinating for Zoe. Did every goblin here know about the springs above, about humans? Many ran past the group, and most gave them a bit of a wary look as they did but was that because it was unusual to see humans down here, or because they’d never seen something that wasn’t a goblin before?

Did the system create all of these goblins, this entire sprawling undercity? Or did it already exist in some other place, on another planet or in some other dimension somewhere, and it was just ripped away to be placed here on Abyllan?

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Flester’s Might seemed modelled after Flester, though with so many tiny, odd differences. Was that because the system created Flester in the vision it had of what Flester was and made mistakes? Or was that because Flester’s Might was just how Flester existed in some other dimension somewhere?

If Zoe were a fire elemental instead of a human, would she have been welcomed into Flester’s Might with open arms? Would she have seen the Springs of Gir in such a positive light in that case?

What was the difference between ruin dungeons and productive dungeons, then? Were they the same thing, and productive dungeons just happened to align with what the people in the area enjoyed? Just a lucky coincidence? Or did the system know what people would appreciate, and create something that would fit in better?

“Why don’t you trade then? Could you leave the dungeon, if you wanted to?" Eliza asked.

“I’ve not known any who have tried. Nor would I recommend anybody do so.” Jeffrey said.

“Is that some kind of mental magic, stopping you from wanting to leave?” Eliza asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Jeffrey said.

“Then we find out. When we’re done with this tour, you come with us. You leave the dungeon. Just walk around the outskirts, see if you even can. Maybe you don’t even know how the dungeon is manipulating you into doing its bidding.” Eliza said.

“I would rather not.” Jeffrey said.

“Then it is manipulating you.” Eliza said.

“I see no evidence of such a claim.” Jeffrey responded.

“Then you can come with us when we leave, and you’ll know for sure.” Eliza said.

“I will not.” Jeffrey responded.

“Fascinating.” Eliza said. “You’re not even aware of it.”

“Aware of what?” Jeffrey asked.

“How the dungeon is manipulating you. How old are you?" Eliza asked.

“I am forty six.” Jeffrey answered.

“And how were you born?" Eliza asked.

“Ah, here we are.” Jeffrey gestured to one of the doors in the metal wall and opened it. On the other side was a small city sized room with tall ceilings that cast bright, warm light on the rows of crops and several animals that grazed in the wide open fields.

Hundreds of goblins worked in the fields, harvesting crops and herding the cattle. Animals that Zoe couldn’t recognize, some kind of mix between goats and ferrets, or an alpaca that was stretched and squished a bit.

“How were you born?" Eliza asked.

“This is one of our farms, it makes food primarily for us. The kujub are quite the delicacy to us, but you humans have shown quite an aversion to the meat so we stopped selling it in our restaurants some number of years ago.” Jeffrey explained.

“How were you born?" Eliza asked again.

“I don’t think he’s going to answer, Eliza.” Zoe said. “And it’s getting annoying, to be honest.”

“Not going to answer what?" Jeffrey asked.

“See?" Zoe shrugged.

“Fascinating. Why don’t people like the, kujub did you say?" Eliza asked.

“Too furry, I believe. I can’t understand it, I find them delicious personally.” Jeffrey said.

“I’d love to try some, if we could?" Zoe asked.

“Of course! We’ll make our next stop lunch, then.” Jeffrey said.

“What are the crops?” Eliza asked.

“Brul. Food for the kujub, mostly.” Jeffrey answered.

“And how do you light everything like that?” Zoe asked.

“With the lights.” Jeffrey pointed to the ceiling.

“And how were they made?” Zoe asked.

Jeffrey shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. Alright! Next stop, lunch.”

Zoe, Eliza and Lila looked at each other, then shrugged and followed Jeffrey as he led them back into the monotonous metal hallway and further away from the pit. A few minutes later, they stopped at another identical looking door and entered what looked to be a small, roughshod café. Some metal tables were scattered around the room with a large fire pit set into the far wall with a couple of goblins sitting on the floor next to it eating from bowls of soup.

The two goblins shot up when Jeffrey entered. “Sir!”

“We’re here for lunch. We would like some kujub, please.” Jeffrey said.

“Sir!” The two goblins shouted and opened a nearby metal cabinet, pulling a few small steaks from it that were each covered in what looked like white mold.

One of the goblins placed a metal grate above the fire while the other put the four moldy steaks onto the griddle. The sizzled as they touched the hot metal, letting off a rather rancid smell that made Zoe’s nose twitch.

“You sure that’s safe to eat? It smells rancid.” Zoe asked.

“And looks rancid, too.” Lila said.

Jeffrey licked his lips as he sat down at one of the tables. “It’s delicious.”

Zoe shrugged and sat down next to him. “Well if you say so. Just don’t be too offended if I don’t like it.”

Eliza sat down without saying a word, and Zoe felt some disgust radiating off her through her Vampyric Empathy.

Lila gagged and stepped outside. “I think I’ll pass, but thank you.”

Jeffrey laughed. “Like I said, humans didn’t enjoy it.”

“Yeah.” Zoe said, trying not to gag on the rather terrible smell that was lambasting her nose. Pungent, and so acidic she wondered if she’d need to heal her nose hairs after the ordeal.

“This is terrible.” Eliza said. “Outright offensive. You eat this?"

Jeffrey laughed. “More than eat it, I find it positively delightful.”

Zoe bided her time as the steaks sizzled away on the hot grill, until they were brought to the table. The steaks looked no better cooked than they did raw. The flesh beneath was seared well, with a beautiful golden crust that dripped with the rendered fat.

A beautiful piece of meat, prepared by a masterful cook, so long as Zoe ignored the fuzzy white mold that covered the surface. Small black blemishes were scattered across the fur where the heat scorched the tips of the fur.

But what interested Zoe most was how the underlying flesh looked. From a distance she couldn’t see beneath the fur very well and it almost looked as though it just hadn’t been prepared properly, with the dense fur coat still left on the skin.

Up close, she could see much better and the meat had been skinned. The furry mold that covered the meat wasn’t the animal’s fur, but something else that was stuck to the actual meat itself. How did they get the skin off the meat, without removing the layer of muscle fur stuck to the underlying muscle as well?

The smell was intense from up close, and Zoe struggled not to gag as Jeffrey dug into his slice of moldy meat with passion. Bits of grease dripped down his chin, which his long red tongue shot out to catch.

“Alright, well. When in rome, right?" Zoe said as she sliced off the smallest piece of meat she could manage and brought it to her mouth.

The texture was offensive. The small strands of fur were stiff and poked her tongue and cheeks as she chewed on it. But even that was forgettable compared to the wretched flavour that overwhelmed her as she bit into it. By far the most pungent thing she’d ever tasted, like somebody tried to make kombucha out of an already rotted pork chop.

Zoe chewed the meat and swallowed it, smiling to Eliza who was sitting across from her watching with a careful eye. “It’s not bad.”

“Really?” Eliza asked, eyeing the steak that sat in front of her.

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t think I’ll finish it all but it wasn’t that bad, really. You should try it, it was interesting.” Zoe said.

Eliza sliced off a tiny piece for herself and placed it in her mouth. Almost at the same moment she gagged, reaching for her napkin and spitting it out. “Eugh. That’s horrible.”

Zoe laughed.