“It’s a bit cold, and gravity is more like back on Abyllan in there so watch your step.” Zoe said as she walked into the snow surrounding the dungeon, prepared for the sudden surge of weight that would come back to her body.

Eliza nodded and stepped forward, stumbling a bit but managing to catch herself before she fell. “Wow. That is very abrupt.”

“It is, yeah. It’s Foizo, but on the moon. In almost every sense, minus the people.” Zoe said.

“Huh. Fascinating.” Eliza looked at the walls and the dozens of little rotund crystals walking along them. There seemed to be more than Zoe remembered, but maybe she just showed up when their happened to be more patrols on this side of the walls?

“Lets go find Greg. He’s probably at my home, or well the replica of my home, anyway.” Zoe grabbed Eliza’s hand and Cosmic Stepped them towards her cave. “You can breathe in the dungeon by the way, even without my help. But the air is really really cold, just a heads up.”

“I’ll be fine.” Eliza waved her hand.

Zoe nodded and dismissed the warmer air surrounding them, letting the bite of the cold Foizo on the Moon air sting their lungs. Eliza stuck up her nose at the pain, and Zoe felt a surge of mana flood out into the area directly around her head as her expression let up.

“This is fine.” Eliza said. “Where’s your dungeon boss, I’d love to meet him.”

“Should be in here.” Zoe Cosmic Stepped the two of them into the kitchen of her replica home on the moon. “Greg!” She called out. “Greg?"

Zoe walked through the home, similar enough to her own but lacking the lived in qualities that made it feel like her own. The scratches left on the walls and floors from the cats playing, the little blemishes from when they put the carpets down or when Emma was first learning how to attach the wood to the frames behind.

“Huh.” Zoe hummed when she finished walking down the hallway, looking through all the rooms with her sphere of perception. “Greg must be at the mana sphere thing I made, I guess.” She held out her hand.

Eliza grabbed it and Zoe teleported them up the hill to the small platform she made when they razed the town to the ground. Greg was standing next to the large sphere, with two other crystalline forms standing next to him, about a head shorter than he was. Both identified as level two hundred fifty dark blue Frost’s Workers. Mana surged from both of them, flooding into the crystal ball Zoe had created.

“Hey Greg, this is Eliza. She’s a friend, treat her well.” Zoe said.

“Yes ma’am.” Greg responded.

“Progress on the tasks I gave you?" Zoe asked.

“Yes ma’am. These two have been instrumental in powering the dungeon, and we have found animals for food. At present, we are working on expanding the fields for crops.” Greg answered.

“And any visitors?” Zoe asked.

“Yes ma’am, one.” Greg answered.

“Wait, what?” Zoe asked.

“Yes ma’am, one.” Greg answered.

“No, no. There was a visitor? Who?" Zoe asked.

“We failed to communicate, but we had one lifeform attack Foizo on the Moon.” Greg answered.

“Are you okay? What happened?" Zoe asked, feeling a surge of panic rise within her.

“The dungeon was destroyed, and the lifeform left.” Greg answered.

“It’s a dungeon, Zoe. Somebody cleared it.” Eliza said.

“Right. I just. This is the moon. I didn’t think anybody would be here. They killed you, Greg?" Zoe asked.

“Yes ma’am.” Greg responded.

“How capable are you, anyway?" Zoe asked.

“I am very capable, ma’am.” Greg answered.

“How strong was the attacker?" Zoe asked. ”Did you have to fight back or were you just stomped out?“

“I’m not sure, ma’am.” Greg answered.

“Why are you not sure?" Zoe asked.

“The fight took several minutes, ma’am. But I can’t say whether that was because of my resistance or their interest in the dungeon, ma’am.” Greg responded, his body as motionless as it always was aside from the subtle vibrations in the cracks on his head.

“What did the invader look like?" Eliza asked.

Greg shuddered.

“You can answer her. Treat her like you would me, Greg.” Zoe said.

“Yes ma’am.” Greg said. “The invader looked like you two. Human? It wore shining metal armour and wielded a long blade that shone with golden light.”

“Could you identify it?” Zoe asked.

“No ma’am.” Greg said.

“Too high level, or can you not identify things?” Zoe asked.

“I’m incapable of identifying creatures.” Greg answered.

“Fascinating.” Eliza said. “It sounds like somebody from Abyllan noticed the dungeon and came here to check it out, then?"

“Maybe?" Zoe agreed. ”It makes more sense than some other creature wandering onto the moon in the past few days, anyway. Well thank you, Greg. You say you found animals here?“

“Yes ma’am.” Greg said.

“Show us. I want to see them.” Zoe said.

Greg nodded and began to drift down the hill. Zoe and Eliza followed along after him as he floated through the streets — which were also much more populated than she remembered, to a single storied building with two Frost’s Guards stationed outside the front door.

One of the guards opened the door and Greg floated inside, followed by Zoe and Eliza. Inside was a single long room, with a translucent blue wall a few feet past the entrance. The floors were a solid gray stone and covered in patches of loose dirt tossed about.

Greg walked in, and through the translucent blue wall. Zoe walked up and touched it, feeling her hand pass through it with a noticeable chill. She stepped through it and shivered as the blue barrier ripped the heat out of her. Eliza followed afterwards, with mana rushing across her body.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“These are the animals we’ve found.” Greg gestured around in the room.

“What?” Zoe asked. “Where?"

“These.” Greg pointed one of his stubby arms towards the ground. “I’m not sure if they will be sufficient, but they are the best we have found.”

Zoe looked where he was pointing and saw one of the loose patches of dirt, with thousands of tiny black specks walking along the ridges and crawling into the crevices.

Eliza laughed. “No these aren’t food.”

“Well hold on, they could be. How big do they get?” Zoe asked.

“These are the ones we have found, ma’am.” Greg answered, gesturing to the piles of dirt around them.

“See if you can feed them a specific diet or something that helps them get bigger. Maybe they’ll get large enough to matter. If you can’t get them bigger then they’re not really going to be useful. You want something, like...” Zoe stretched her arms out, trying to approximate the size of a large pig or small cow. “Thisish big? Big enough that when it’s cooked, you can actually bite it. But don’t be cruel to the animals if you find them. Try to be kind.”

“You really have to tell them everything, don’t you?” Eliza asked.

“I do, yeah. They’re not stupid, but they also don’t seem to be informed, if that makes sense?" Zoe asked.

“It does. It’s fascinating to see. I feel like I’m watching you build a factory or something, rather than a dungeon. It’s strange.” Eliza said.

“It feels strange. Uh, I don’t really have anything else to do here for a while though so what do you wanna do?” Zoe asked.

“Well I would have asked to be the first to clear your dungeon, but it seems somebody else got that opportunity first, already.” Eliza said.

“Oh, shoot. I should have let Joe get that feat while we were here, now that you mention it.” Zoe said.

Eliza chuckled. "How’d you make it, anyway? I assume you used the Frost rock you showed me?"

“I did, yes. Greg, did you make a warm inn yet for us to relax in?" Zoe asked.

“We are working on it, ma’am.” Greg said.

“Alright, we’ll head back to the cave and sit there then. You get back to whatever you were working on before.” Zoe said.

“Yes ma’am.” Greg answered, and drifted off back down the street towards the platform on the hill.

Zoe grabbed Eliza’s hand and Cosmic Stepped them back into the kitchen in her replicated home.

“So, tell me everything. How’d the dungeon come to be? What did you get out of it? I want to know everything. Can you replicate the process? Could we make another dungeon if we wanted to?” Eliza pestered her with questions.

Zoe laughed, and explained the whole process to Eliza. Starting with the annoyance with the royals and their secrecy, then how she enchanted the rock and left it on the moon. The many additional enchantments she tossed into the same hole to help the process along, and the process of naming the dungeon.

“What does the feat do, exactly?" Eliza asked.

“I’m not sure, really. Just lets me control dungeons assigned to me, maybe? Some middleman between me and the dungeon?" Zoe suggested.

“But you can’t tell if it’s doing anything?" Eliza asked.

“Not really, no. It doesn’t feel like anything and I can’t tell if it’s doing anything. I could try enchanting something with it and see if that has a noticeable effect.” Zoe said.

Eliza nodded. “Do that.”

Zoe summoned one of the many elemental gems she kept on hand in her storage and enchanted it with Dungeonmaster. She inspected the brown gem and pulsed mana into it to see if it would react in some way, but it did nothing.

“Anything?” Eliza asked.

Zoe shook her head. “No, but I want to try something else.”

Zoe ripped apart the enchantment in the gem and flooded it with mana again, enchanting it with both Dungeonmaster and Foizo on the Moon, then she used Enchantment Bestowal on the gem and handed it to Eliza. “Here, I enchanted this with the feat and the skill then used Enchantment Bestowal on it. Hold it and see what it does to you.”

Eliza grabbed the gem, and her eyes widened as soon as Zoe’s finger stopped touching the gem. “Oh, I see. Interesting. Can you do the same thing without the feat, I’m curious what it will do.” She placed the gem down on the table.

Zoe summoned another brown gem and enchanted it with just the skill, cast Enchantment Bestowal on it and handed it to Eliza. Eliza took the gem and nodded. “I thought so.” She said.

“What?" Zoe asked.

“When I hold this gem,” Eliza put down the gem with just the skill and picked up the other, “the system gives me a message. But with just the other one, there’s no message.”

“What’s the message say?" Zoe asked.

“It tells me I am a co-owner of the dungeon.” Eliza said.

“Oh. Wow. That’s neat. And it goes away when you put the gem down?" Zoe asked.

“It does. This one has no message.” Eliza put down the gem and picked up the one with just the skill. “Should I try using it anyway?”

Zoe nodded, and watched as mana rushed around Eliza and vanished into space.

“Did it work for you?" Zoe asked.

“I’m not sure. I tried to make the table pink, but nothing seemed to happen. The mana I tried to spend still vanished, though.” Eliza said as she switched the gems again. “Here, I’ll try with the other one.”

Mana flooded out from Eliza, merging with the ambient mana in the room and flooding into the table. In a brief flash of colour, the table shifted from the somewhat red hue that it already was, to a bright pink colour.

“Okay,” Eliza said. “It seems that with just the skill, you can feed the dungeon mana. But with the feat and the skill, you can direct the mana in the dungeon. Fascinating. How far away does the skill work? If you use it on Abyllan, what does it do?”

“The mana just vanished when I used it on Abyllan, though I only tried the one time. Maybe if I directed it, it would do something different.” Zoe said.

“Interesting. Do you mind if I stay here for a while?” Eliza asked.

“I don’t, but I was planning to head back soon, will you be alright by yourself?" Zoe asked.

Eliza nodded. “That’s fine, I’ll be alright.”

“What if that person who destroyed the dungeon shows up again? If they could kill Greg, then no offense but I don’t think you’d survive either. And unlike Greg, you won’t be recreated by the dungeon.” Zoe said.

“Greg’s a dungeon monster. I’m human. I’ve never been attacked by somebody else in a dungeon before, and I don’t intend to begin now.” Eliza said.

“Mmmm…” Zoe hummed.

“Honestly, I’ll be fine. And if I’m not, then that’s the risk that I take. To be a part of a friendly dungeon, to research, hands on like this, I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.” Eliza said.

“Alright.” Zoe agreed. “I kinda thought you’d wanna stay, even before I brought you here. But knowing that somebody else has been here just makes it seem so much more dangerous. Stay safe. Will you be alright getting back?”

Eliza chuckled. “In a pinch. Come check on me again in a few weeks?”

Zoe nodded. “Sure. I’ll try using my skill back on Abyllan too, let me know if you notice anything happening when I come pick you up.”

“I’ll tell you everything I find out. Thank you, Zoe. This is an incredible opportunity for me and I can’t stress enough how grateful I am for it. Can you let Lila know that I’ll be gone for a bit when you get back?" Eliza asked.

“Then I guess I’ll be going. I kinda wanna visit the capital, maybe. Finally. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while though, so who knows what will end up distracting me this time.” Zoe chuckled. “I’d really like to find a higher level dungeon though so I can get my sixth class finally. You know of any?”

“This one.” Eliza laughed. “You could kill Greg here.”

Zoe rose an eyebrow. “I’m not killing my own dungeon. They’re friendly, that feels wrong.”

Eliza shrugged. “To each their own. The dungeon remakes them and they hardly seem bothered by having been killed once already. Some of the nobles in Korna have some higher level dungeons if you have any connections. Flester’s Might is pretty high level. Maybe go down into those valleys and see what you can find.”

“Maybe. I do know at least one noble in Korna, maybe I’ll go ask them. Thanks.” Zoe said.

“Anytime, thank you again for letting me use your dungeon.” Eliza bowed her head.