Jack kept his hand on his side where his ribs were hurting, though he knew that it wouldn't make any difference. Maybe he could give himself emotional support. 'Emotional support rat, where are you? Come do your jaw-ob!' But no rat came running. Why would it?

Instead, Jack went back inside the smith's house, and the rats scurried away from him again. 'Yeah, you can tell I'm here, can't you? At least I'm not insane now. Or more insane.' He chased after another rat, which jumped into a hole in the side of the wall. But these walls weren't double, weren't filled with insulation, and didn't have room to hide inside. They just went directly outdoors. Jack went out the front door just as he had entered it, and walked around the grassy, muddy yard, and saw the rat that had escaped.

There was some slimy something near it, so Jack didn't really care when the rodent ran back through the hole again. He found something new. He rubbed his side pointlessly. 'Store', he said. Very nearby, he saw something that was wet-looking in a different way, but the same color as the grasses, both alive and dead. A frog! 'Store', Jack said as he touched it. He didn't get a resistance message. The frog, just as its eggs had, began to disappear, and a slight breeze that didn't affect the blades of grass blew towards the Core room.

'See, THIS is fun. Not THIS', he said, nodding towards his left hand nursing the wound that was actually down the street.

[Room dimensions altered by external forces.]

[Maximum mana and mana generation decreasing to compensate.]

'What the shit! Okay well I don't know the specifics of all that jazz, but still no! I don't play this kind of game! Let me learn the rules first before you do this kind of crap! Spawn monster!' Nothing happened.

'Spawn frog! Spawn a frog right over where that guy is standing so it falls on his face!'

[Research for 'frog' incomplete.]

'Sell room!'

[Dungeons cannot sell Core room.]

[Dungeons cannnot sell rooms that would give it two or more separate dungeon territories.]

'Well then sell- okay actually, I can sell that room. The room that used to be a general store! Sell it!'

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[Automatically relocating resources to Research room.]

[Research room not designated.]

[Resources temporarily deposited in Core Room.]

'That's the room that's being attacked!'

[Temporary Research room of insufficient size to store Construction: Wooden Floor]

[Temporary Research room of insufficient size to store Construction: Shitty Wooden Wall]

'I didn't want it there anyway, but thanks for letting me know the research room has to be really big!'

[Please designate location for unstored Constructions.]

[Room sold.]

----------------------------------

Leldro was in the middle of his sentence when the building across the street from the old church collapsed. Being so close to it, it was a thundrous crash of wood cracking and the roof itself shattering.

"The dungeon is attacking!", he thought to himself. "I don't know what power that was, but it aimed its own magics poorly and hit the wrong target. I had better pray harder if I'm to- no. That's what the dungeon wants me to do. It wants me to tire myself out so it can do whatever it wants."

Instead of continuing, the faithful went back to the only rock he had found so he could eat and drink and rest before he continued his good works.

----------------------------------

[Mana overload. Please spend mana.]

[Please designate location for unstored Constructions.]

[Core room dimensions altered by external forces.]

[Maximum mana and mana generation decreasing to compensate.]

He felt a similar wake-up to the one he felt before, but he was already paying attention and quite emotional as he was already. 'Buy a room over there! The other side of the smith! I want to get away from that guy! Head for the hills!'

[Please designate location for unstored Constructions.]

He felt a wave of relief wash over him, and even better, the pressure in his ribs was gone, replaced by a much more mild soreness. But the Core room was still damaged, and that guy was probably still there. Who knows when he'd start up again.

'While I have the time, I better move my Core. Will the chest move too? My stuff? You know what? Doesn't matter. I'll just think of this as a new game. Just hit reset. If I get to keep what I found, awesome. If not... No. No. Screw it.' He went to the church, walked over to the thwomp hole, jumped down and grabbed the Core that was hidden down there.

[Move Core?]

'Yes! It's going over here. Lemme show you.'

[Select new location for Core.]

He started walking to the new room he didn't look at yet, and changed his mind. 'You're going to take forever, aren't you? Furniture has to walk, I guess.'

Instead of throwing the Core into the mud in between tufts of greenery, he went back into the smith's house and knelt next to the straw that the rats seemed to be so interested in. Maybe it was their nest.

'Okay so no, I can't put you under or in there. Fine, the corner.' The rats, just as before, seemed to react to him standing there, some running a small way away, some hiding in the straw.

[Core Relocation in progress. Time to relocate: 6 hours.]