“What’s that mean?" Emma asked.

“That he grew up in Foizo?” Zoe asked.

Emma nodded.

“It means that the system made Greg think that he grew up in Foizo. Hey, Greg. You don’t know what a theme dungeon is, right?” Zoe asked.

Greg shook his crystalline head. “No, ma’am.”

“Do you know if there are any kinds of dungeons? Any set states I can tell you to run it in? Any premade schematics for it to use? Anything like that?" Zoe asked.

“We do whatever you ask, ma’am.” Greg responded.

“So the system doesn’t give you any instructions besides that, then?” Zoe asked.

“We do whatever you ask, ma’am.” Greg responded.

“I am asking you to tell me whatever the system has told you.” Zoe said.

Greg didn’t respond.

“Stupid system.” Zoe sighed.

Joe chuckled. “What kind of dungeon do you want it to be, then?”

“I dunno. I didn’t think that far. It would be cool to have a dungeon this high level just so I can get some more levels finally, but slaughtering these guys when I know they’re sentient and answer to me just feels extremely unethical. Do you mind being killed?” Zoe asked Greg.

“We do whatever you ask, ma’am.” Greg responded.

Zoe pursed her lips. “If people came here, and killed all of the little crystal guys out there, and then came here and fought you in here, would you come back? Would you remember it? Would you feel anything about it?"

“I’ve never been killed, ma’am.” Greg responded.

“Would you be upset if you were? Would you respawn, if you did get killed?” Zoe asked.

“We do whatever-” Greg started to say.

Zoe waved her hand. “Yeah, yeah. I get it. Don’t say that anymore, it’s annoying.”

Greg nodded.

“If it’s like any other dungeon, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t be, then I guess they’d respawn, probably.” Emma suggested. "Still would feel weird killing creatures I’ve spoken too, though.“

“Would you be hostile to anybody who showed up, if they weren’t with me?” Zoe asked Greg.

The thin crack along Greg’s head where his mouth would be shuddered for a moment before he responded. “If you wished, ma’am.”

“And if I didn’t wish, then you wouldn’t be?" Zoe asked.

“If you wished, ma’am.” Greg responded.

“This is just the same thing but different. Can you give better responses? Can you think for yourself, make decisions, ideas, that kind of thing?” Zoe asked.

“I am fully capable of making decisions, ma’am. Foizo on the Moon can be run autonomously without your intervention.” Greg responded.

“Good, then give better responses.” Zoe said.

“What’s your skill do?” Joe asked. “Now that we’re actually here, maybe you’ll see something.”

“Good point.” Zoe agreed. “Do you know what my Foizo on the Moon skill does?"

Greg shook his head.

Zoe nodded and pushed mana into her skill, directing it towards the garden outside, picturing the one outside of her home on Abyllan. The ambient mana rushed in to join hers as it left her body and the garden almost seemed to melt as the mana seeped into it. The trees and leaves coalesced into one big puddle of colour that rushed out to form the garden she was used to seeing outside of her house.

“Seems like it lets me control the dungeon, at least to an extent?” Zoe shrugged. “Seems neat.”

“What did you do?” Emma asked.

“I made the garden look like ours back home, instead of whatever that was supposed to be.” Zoe said.

Emma poked her head through space and looked at the garden outside then returned to the kitchen. “Huh. That’s neat. What else can you do? Do you think you could change the levels of the creatures here?”

“I can try.” Zoe said, as she pushed more mana into the skill, imagining the creature’s levels dropping down to about fifty. The mana rushed out of her and then vanished through minute rifts in space, but nothing seemed to change. Greg was still the same level.

Zoe Cosmic Stepped out to the city proper and looked at the creatures wandering through the town, but none of them had their levels changed either. She Cosmic Stepped back into the kitchen and shook her head.

“Doesn’t look like I can change their level, at least.” Zoe said. “But I can change the shape. Or the design, at least? To an extent.”

“What do you think levels will do for it?” Joe asked.

“Nothing?" Zoe suggested. ”Or maybe let me command it from further away?“

“Okay, so you can redesign the dungeon, and you can tell Greg here how to run it. What do you wanna do with it then?" Emma asked.

“I have no idea. I didn’t think I’d ever get here, especially not so soon.” Zoe said.

“Well then first, Greg needs a much cooler boss arena. If people are going to come here to fight, or just to raise some drama, then it needs to be a lot more intimidating than this is.” Emma said.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“What does Greg want?” Joe asked.

“What do you want, Greg? Do you want a grand arena to fight in, or a comfortable home to live in? I’m not sure I’ll be here all that much to be honest so you should tell me before we leave.” Zoe said.

“You’re not going to be here much?" Emma asked.

“Why would I be?” Zoe asked.

“Cause it’s your own dungeon?” Emma lifted her arms and shook her head in an astonished gesture.

“Yeah, but like, I dunno. It’s really, really cool, don’t get me wrong. But I think that for the most part I’m going to give Greg here a list of things to do and then occasionally come check in whenever I have an idea of something to try. The moon is still really far away from home, after all.” Zoe answered.

“You could just live here now.” Emma said.

“By myself?" Zoe asked.

“With Greg.” Emma pointed.

Zoe rolled her eyes. “What do you want, Greg. Is there anything that would make your life easier, or more comfortable while I’m not here?”

“I am perfectly content.” Greg answered.

“We could just burn it.” Joe suggested.

“Burn it?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah.” Joe laughed. “It’s Foizo, but it’s not Foizo. You’ve never had invasive thoughts of just… burning it all? Of course, we could never do anything like that back home because people live there. They need their homes and businesses. But this is just a replica, and the dungeon will fix any damage we do. We could just… let loose a little.”

“I love it.” Emma said. “Let’s burn Foizo down.”

Zoe laughed. “Would the dungeon repair any damages we do to it?” She asked Greg.

“As long as mana permits.” Greg answered.

“Ah. Well I can provide the mana then, so sure. Let’s go burn it down. First we’ll make an evacuation zone so none of the little crystal people get hurt in the fire.” Zoe said.

Zoe teleported the group outside and pushed mana into her Foizo on the Moon skill to clear out an area up near the top of the hill of any trees or grass, then had Greg bring all of the creatures up to the small platform she made. There was a little over a hundred of them — most of which Frost’s Guards that she’d already seen, but a few were Frost’s Children and notably lower level. Though, even at their much lower level they were still a mix of dark red and dark blue at around level two hundred.

When all the creatures were evacuated Zoe, Emma and Joe grinned and ran through the city throwing large balls of fire at everything they passed. Trees and buildings went up in flames, with massive plumes of smoke rising above the city. The walls were pummelled and smashed, bricks torn out as the gates fell, sending clouds of snow up to mix in with the smoke.

It was only a few minutes of wanton destruction, but it was cathartic in so many ways, to let out all of her frustrations on something without any fear of the repercussions. They met back up on the hill and collapsed, staring out at the smouldering mess they left behind.

The dungeon struggled to mend the damage as it fought back against the flames, but it did seem to be winning. The fire was pushed back to the walls and eventually put out completely. The smoke dissipated into the moon’s atmosphere. Or, just space, she imagined.

First to be repaired were the walls surrounding the gates. The bricks were pulled back in, and the damaged bricks were repaired with a flood of mana from the dungeon’s noticeably less dense ambient mana. Then the mana moved to the burnt buildings, ripping up the fallen rubble and charred remnants to build them back up.

Zoe and the others watched the scene as they laid back on comfortable earthen chairs Zoe had summoned.

“That was fun.” Emma said.

“It was.” Joe agreed. “It’s good to get some of those frustrations out sometimes. Burning that council building down felt so much better than I thought it would.”

Zoe laughed. “You don’t like it?"

“It’s gaudy, and overdone. And the table. That stupid table is so much bigger than it needs to be. It deserved to be burned.” Joe laughed.

“Well, as fun as it was, I don’t think I want the purpose of this place to be stress relief for us. It’s too far away, frankly.” Zoe said. “But it was fun.”

“I thrashed our home so bad.” Emma laughed.

“Can you speed up the repairs?” Joe asked.

Zoe shrugged and pushed mana into her skill and watched as the process sped up, at least near to them. The trees sprouted leaves and toppled branches dissolved away. The darkened stumps lightened as the scorch marks vanished, and wood grew back up to fill in the small forest on the hill.

In about twenty minutes, the city was repaired. Not a speck of ash out of place, not a sign of the destruction remaining, aside from some ash and snow that settled outside the dungeon’s boundary on the moon’s surface.

“I should bring Eliza out here, probably.” Zoe said.

“You should. And soon. She’ll probably be upset if you don’t tell her for a few years.” Emma said.

“Probably.” Zoe agreed. “Hey Greg, you can send everybody back to whatever they were doing before.”

Greg nodded, and the swarm of small crystalline forms wandered back down the hill to spread out in the city. Some wandered through the streets, others found their way back into the buildings where they belonged, for some reason. The vast majority ended up either in the walls or on the walls, patrolling along the edge of the city.

“You’re going to run a productive dungeon, Greg.” Zoe said. “You’ll have to research some suitable means of acquiring food for, well I dunno. Humans, I guess. I don’t know what else would be visiting you. Keep track of that. I want a list of everybody who visits this place every time I come. Get their names if you can, and species if possible. Be friendly and courteous to visitors, and try to make at least one inn that isn’t freezing cold for people who don’t like it. Which will probably be most people, really.”

“Yes ma’am.” Greg responded.

“Just be nice to anybody who comes. Be friendly. But if they attack you, defend yourselves. Try not to kill people, but if they leave you no choice then I guess there’s no other way about it. And see if you can find some way to get animals here, too. Some ryz would be nice, but whatever you can find that isn’t sentient would probably be okay, really.” Zoe turned to Joe and Emma. “Anything else?"

“Find some way to harvest mana and store it, maybe?” Emma suggested. “So if anything happens, the dungeon can repair itself better next time.”

“Good point. Try to find some way to store mana, if you can. Actually, hold on.” Zoe pushed mana into her skill to try and form a similar orb as the one she used in the Springs of Gir. A mundane crystalline sphere, similar to the creatures that populated the dungeon appeared on the top of the hill where they were standing.

Zoe flooded mana into the sphere and enchanted it with Enchanting, Meditation and Foizo on the Moon. “Here, Greg. Put your mana into this and try to make it store the mana, or something. Can you do that?"

Greg pressed one of his stubby blue arms into the sphere and Zoe felt a massive surge of mana rush into the sphere, with tiny blips of space ripping the mana out of Zoe’s sight.

“Can you feel what it’s doing?" Zoe asked.

“It’s being sent to the dungeon, ma’am.” Greg answered.

“Good. Fill this with as much mana as you can, then. See if one of your minions has good mana regeneration or something and get them to keep dumping mana into this.” Zoe said.

“Yes ma’am.” Greg said.

“Anything else you two can think of before we go back home?” Zoe asked.

“I think it would be good to have them try to heat up the streets at least.” Joe said.

“Sure. Try and make the streets a little warmer if possible. They can still be cold, we can still have snow. But less of this deathly cold, if possible.” Zoe said.

“Yes ma’am.” Greg said.

“Good. Then I think that’s all. I’ll leave you to your own devices and be back in a bit with another friend who will probably want to pester you with a lot of questions. She might just stick around for a bit too, honestly.” Zoe said. “I wonder if I can appoint her as some kind of dungeon minion somehow. She might enjoy that for a bit.”

Emma chuckled. “She probably would, yeah.”

“So home then? I imagine Kenzie and Sue are getting worried at this point.” Joe said.

“Home we go.” Zoe held out her hands for her friends to grab, and mana swirled around them to wrap them in warm earthen suits and block out the sun’s radiation as Zoe Cosmic Stepped them back into space and towards the distant floating brownish rock they called home.