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The ladies froze as Hector knocked on the door.

After exchanging a few questioning glances at each other, Iris headed over to answer the door while the other two moved to hide out of sight in the kitchen.

The old woman peeked through the peephole and then opened the door. "Hiya Hector. What up?"

The relatively younger man took a deep breath. “I know about the dungeon Iris, and I think we should talk.”

The old woman started to speak but her neighbor just shook his head. Iris sighed. "Let's go for a walk Hector." She turned for a moment to look back toward the kitchen. "Finish cleaning up girls, I got this."

Then she stepped outside and headed down off her porch, her neighbor following along behind her. She turned when they got down to the paved footpath that ran along the houses in the neighborhood. My scouts moved so I could listen in to the conversation through them. “So what do you think you know.”

Hector grimaced and looked off into the distance. "I know you have one of those dungeons in your basement, I know that the only other one that has been found killed children, and creatures no one has ever seen before are running around in the street at night.'

He looked Iris in the eye. "I know I don't want anyone getting hurt. Not you. Not the boy from down the street, or the girl who has been coming to your house every day."

He shrugged a little. “Now tell me why you are risking this.”

Iris looked at him for a moment and then nodded. "Its name is Tark and he's gotten me up to third level. I've been able to add two points to a health score.'

She set one of her hands to her back. "I don't hurt from just sleeping anymore. I'm going to live long enough to see my niece finish growing up and start her life. And if this dungeon kills me, at least I'll get to go out fighting rather than dying in my own filth in a nursing home with everything I've ever earned going to pay for the neglect care."

Hector started to speak, but the old woman held her hand up to stop him. “Molly will become a better healer and get to save more lives. Ernesto… well, I’m not sure what he wants. But whatever he’s getting out of this will keep him from breaking into old people’s houses and risk going to jail for pocket change.”

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The neighbor nodded silently after Iris finished then look up at her again. "But what if it puts others in danger? Those creatures broke into a house and killed an animal in the street. I’ve seen the news reports. People who wrote stories about these creatures almost always depict them as feeding on death. Who knows what else it will kill?”

Well, a lot of rats. A whole lot of them. As well as some other wild animals, but no pets. Not even a cat, but I hope he doesn't hold that against me.

Iris began to pace. "The world is getting more magic every day Hector. I think the dungeons are something that was always going to happen. But Tark isn't the dungeon, he's something else…"

She stopped to look at him again. “Someone else. Someone I think was sent here to train people to deal with things like killer dungeons. If you get someone official to get involved they might end up killing someone we need. Someone that can help with everything that has been happening to the world since we got the first announcement.”

Huh. I guess that is why Clement sent me here. I thought it was just to build a good dungeon to challenge adventurers. But I guess it was also about making sure the people of Earth could see dungeons as opportunities rather than just death traps. But surely there are other souls dungeon mastering out there? Clement can’t just be counting on me to do all the heavy lifting.

Maybe going public would be the best thing to help people. But if they isolate the dungeon, destroy it. Then Alelan’s girl won’t be coming here anymore, and without a dungeon to level her up, my wife will be even more reluctant to leave her behind to be with me.

...The world can handle itself. I choose my own.

Hector was huffing a bit while he tried to figure out the right thing to do. Iris surprisingly shut her mouth and let him decide what to do on his own. He finally nodded. "You tell it. Tell it if I see any more of its creatures outside. I will do something. Someone who can do something about it, will.”

Then he glanced at the house. “And tell it I already have made the arrangements for calls to be made by others, if anything should happen to me...”

Dam Hector. You planned for the worst. I should have kept better track of what you were up to.

I guess my minions would have to limit themselves to working underground. And I was going to have to hope for more items to identify in order to get new stuff.

Or look more into this Amazon internet. I do have a copy of Iris’s credit card after all.

The old woman hesitated for a moment. "Did you want in on this? To level up."

Her neighbor’s eyes went wide and he stepped back frantically waving his hands back and forth in front of him. “Oh hell no. I saw those lizards bite and stab that owl, and I saw the big one's eyes when it stared me down. I don’t want nothing to do with any of that.”

He gave her a wry grin. “I am happy with being a level one Druid with a plant enhancement ability. I don’t want to spend weeks getting hurt just to be able to turn into a chipmunk or something. Thanks, but no thanks Iris.”

With that, they went their separate ways and Iris headed inside to reassure the young women their dungeon grinding wasn’t about to come to an end.

The boy headed home or wherever he went in the afternoon and the three women headed out for dinner.

That night Alelan informed me that another boy had been watching the conversation between Iris and Hector.

“The kid had two shadows.”

A dark one. Not the most powerful of invaders. But one of the most pernicious. They got into their host’s head and twisted their thoughts to get them to cause trouble for other people. Then they pushed them into doing worse things, lying and manipulating to twist people up. They never put their hosts in danger, they just ruined the lives of the others around them.

I formed an image of the other local boy in the neighborhood. My wife nodded. “Yes. That’s him.”

It looked like Ernesto’s partner in crime was out to get me. Now I had to wonder just how long he had been infected, and if my presence was what had brought the Dark one here.