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Chapter 29: Interview

Luné Alpenglow

Luné mentally smiles as she watches the adventurers walk in the direction of the safe zone. She decides to give them a few very easy encounters, despite them being clearly on the level of the Royal Knights the Prince had brought with him. Speaking of, she can see them beginning to head down the path, leaving Priestess Jordan to do what she does best, tend to those of lesser fortune. She looks back to the adventurers and gives them their next hurdle, a pack of wolves, before looking away to tend to more shaping and editing of the terrain.

Looking into the caves below, she starts thinking of where she should put the ores, while shaping the stone into more caves, or into stone brick rooms. As she watches it, she sees more Wolf fur being added to the stockpile. She expends 150 mana creating, and then upgrading a Barracks. Then she does the same again, making more spaces for at least four of the new arrivals, total, to sleep more comfortably. She returns her attention to the adventurers, and gives them more wolves to fight, before shaping another room. Once she had the wolf furs she needed, she built one more barracks, bringing her mana back down to 145, after all of the kills by the Adventurers are factored in, excluding the kills while the mana was full.. Taking a look at the mana she smiles as her math was correct, and she can see the total was indeed 145. She does not have enough furs to making another Level 2 Barracks, so she instead continues to shape the caves to her liking, while moving monsters around to act as encounters.

She finally decides to return the town area itself, and begins flattening areas for construction, startling a small group of the new arrivals as she does, she reaches out to apologize, but remember that they are not her denizens yet. She frowns and leaves it at that for now. She decides to go greet the adventurers when they arrive, after all they are the first to ever fight her monsters in this prepared and structured way. That and she needs to apologize to those three she scared. She sits up, and starts heading to the exit of the house, letting Codex take over again. Exiting the house, she sees many of the new arrivals look over at her, curiosity or wariness in many of their eyes, while some seem excited. Most have changed into the proper clothes Zeuz and Imai had brought, while some chose to stay in rags. Luné simply smiled warmly, and began walking.

She first went to talk with the group she had startled, and explained the situation to them. Once she had apologized, and been told she had nothing to apologize for, she went on her way, standing near the entrance to wait for the adventurers. Kaede and Cloud were first to arrive, and Luné grinned happily at seeing them, “Welcome back, you two.” Kaede smiles at her, while Cloud picks up the pace and gets into a stance behind Luné, clearly happy to just be there. Kaede speaks, “Found the spot I plan to set up in. Mind if I take some resources over there?” Luné nods, as she says, “I can just have them appear there. How much do you need?” Kaede begins to think to herself, but then speaks, “I don’t quite know. All I know is that I’m going to need a good bit of logs, lots of planks, and definitely a healthy amount of normal stones for the foundation. No need for manpower though, since I can just magic everything into place.”

Luné smiles warmly as she says, “You’re in luck, I just excavated a lot of stone in the caves. Do you want them to stay as stones, or do you want them to be bricks?” Kaede shakes her head, “Bricks, definitely. Though, I’d rather have a specific kind of stone that was used for the base of the Schola. I doubt you have it though, since it is made in high mana concentration areas.” Luné smiles widely, “We definitely have that then. This place used to have a Legendary class of ambient mana. There’s definitely some at the very least.” Kaede blinks, then puts a finger on her cheek as she thinks. Then she speaks, bringing her hands back down to their normal spots, “I can definitely look at some samples, but are you willing to quarry a large area for it?” Luné nods in response, then speaks, “Absolutely. I could even use it as a training yard, or an encounter area. Maybe get a new Boss Monster and place them in the center as a test of strength, or-” She cuts herself off, getting an idea, then she grins wider and spouts it out, “A full area that connects into the caves! A quarry that intersects with an old and forgotten tomb, inside of which the fearsome Lich King reigns!”

Kaede smiles at her enthusiasm, then speaks in a playful tone, “I think I have heard this story before.” She then becomes a bit more serious, as she states, “I’ll happily help train whatever monster you want to have as that ‘Lich King’. A Lich requires powerful magic after all.” Luné nods in response, and then says, “It will have to wait though, we need to do the quarry, get your stones, then add the scenery to the quarry and tomb area. But before that, I want to welcome the adventurers that came here.” Kaede nods in response, and then says, “I’ll be just past the wall then, if they seem hostile, just say my name.” Luné answers with an affirming and excited nod, letting Kaede pass by her and into the town area.

Looking at Cloud, Luné speaks with a warm smile, “How are you feeling, Cloud?” Cloud simply looks back, and Luné can see the wolf smile. Luné smiles wider, and then speaks, “That’s good.” She applies the age-old technique of pets, seeing Cloud sit and start panting from glee. Luné smiles wider, and continues her wait. She looks back at the direction the adventurers are coming from, as she hears the sounds of plants being moved. She stops patting Cloud, who stands up, becoming alert again. The two exit the brush, and she sees them, both wearing hoods and cloaks that cover most of their being. One thing she can see easily however, is the mandibles over the man’s mouth. The woman on the other hand, had nothing showing from underneath her hood. Luné speaks, “Welcome to the safe zone! Here you will not find any encounters, just like on the path.” She points down the path, back towards the road.

The two look at each other, and begin to put away their weapons. They approach, mostly silent, until halfway to Luné, when the woman speaks, “This is the Dungeon Codex, right?” Luné nods in response, then speaks, “I am Luné Alpenglow, Dungeon Core of Codex.” Both look confused, but the man starts to look excited, as he exclaims, “Dungeon Core!? Such a great idea! A Hero becomes the core of a dungeon!” He begins running over, as his hood tries to escape his head. Nearing her, Cloud begins to growl, and his hood falls off, revealing fluffy antennae, extremely pale skin, and strange large brown eyes. He begins to pull out his journal, and speaks, “How did you become a Dungeon Core, Miss-” He pauses, then quickly speaks, “I’m terribly sorry, I’m horrible with names, until I start repeating them. Even then I might still forget. I won’t forget your face though!” The woman approaches a bit quicker when she hears Cloud’s growling. Luné is confused and startled by his approach and appearance. She didn’t even know what he was.

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The woman has to jump as she pulls his hood back over his head, covering his strangeness, as she speaks, “Sorry about him, he gets too excited when an idea flashes through his head, or he hears something interesting to him.” The man looks at her, startled by her moving his hood, then he speaks, “Hey! I’m not that bad! I can be serious when it matters! I just don’t like losing possible ideas. There’s this one that I lost for a bit, but remembered on our way to the Dungeon, I wrote it down, remember?” The woman speaks again, “Like I said, too excited.” Luné places a hand on Cloud to calm her, knowing the situation isn’t dangerous, as she responds, “It's fine. I just wasn’t expecting him to rush over, and Cloud here didn’t like that at all.” The man freezes, then steps in front of the wolf, as the woman answers, “I didn’t either, but if I knew what you were going to say, I would have held him still.” The man speaks to Cloud, as he stares directly into her eyes, “I am terribly sorry for worrying you, oh great Cloud.” Cloud just huffs at him, glaring still, but no longer growling since Luné placed her hand on Cloud’s side.

Luné speaks, a question of her own forming on her tongue immediately, “What are you?” The man looks up, and then smiles in a grin, his mandibles drawing back at the same time, “I’m an Insecta. We’re extremely rare on the surface, and the surface born Insecta are even more rare, so I’m a genuine artifact if you want to call it that.” The woman speaks, frowning, “Don’t let him fool you, he may be rare, but he’s still an idiot.” The Insecta folds his arms and holds up his head, looking at the sky, “Hey, I may be an idiot, but I am a great writer. Or at least I try to be.” The woman chuckles at that, a smile returning to her face, then she speaks, “Anyway, you introduced yourself, we should introduce ourselves. I am Clove, and this is Chase Carolis.” Chase does a playful bow, before standing up fully again, letting them speak instead of himself, as he begins writing in his journal again. Clove looks at Luné, who asks a question, “If he is an Insecta, then what are you? Are you also an Insecta, or are you something else?” Clove begins to frown, as she responds, “I would rather keep that a secret for now. If we get to know each other better, I may tell.”

Luné nods in response, then speaks, “Well, I won’t push it then, please enjoy your time in the safe zone. When you want to leave or come back, you can use the path. If you feel like training at any time, we will always be happy to have you come by. The dungeon is open for everyone to train in.” Chase speaks, “Hey, there’s a bunch of Beastmen here. Is there a reason for that? Are they from that slave ring that you and the town guard destroyed a week or so ago?” Luné shakes her head, responding quickly, “No, they’re from the city of Homrhi, in the Dwarven Federation.” Both adventurers look at her like she’s crazy, and Luné begins trying to defend what she said, but realizes how dumb it sounds. Homrhi is an extremely far distance, and unless she has access to teleportation, it would be impossible for them all to get here at such a fast pace, and without being noticed by Woodshade at that. Kaede speaks up from behind the wall, “That’s my doing.” She steps back around, and does a curt bow, “Simple teleportation magic. Short, sweet, easy. They were slaves in Homrhi, which I freed with guile and spells.”

Chase begins to think on this, then states, “Interesting, teleportation magic used by a Beastman. And a Nekomimi at that, rather than a Kitsune.” He begins writing in his journal again. Clove speaks in a serious tone, “I’m going to need to write a report when we get back to town, so that the Guild can have a proper idea of what to expect here, if you don’t mind, can I interview you, Miss Alpenglow?” Luné nods in response, “Please do. Would you like to sit somewhere, or is it fine here?” Clove answers with a shake of her head as she pulls out a journal, and then she says the words, “Here is fine. My first question is what are your intentions as a Dungeon?” Luné smiles warmly and answers instantly, “I’m hoping to create a place for people to train. I need to find a way to ensure no one dies though, because I’m just a person, so I can’t account for every possibility.” Clove nods silently as she writes it down, then speaks, “Seeing as you are a core, do you intend to take over the entire forest?” Luné shakes her head, “Absolutely not. Firstly, that would take too much mana. Secondly, that would be way too much land to manage. Thirdly, I just want to build up my area into a place for training, like I said already. Too much land would make it harder and harder over time to make interesting challenges and areas.”

Clove marks down her answer, then asks, “How protective of your territory will you be?” Luné tilts her head, then asks, “Have I not shown how territorial we are? We allowed you in to train, and before that we kept to ourselves, only sending out groups to trade or defend the Town. I would say we are not very territorial, and instead have a sense of justice in place of it.” Clove marks down the answer, then asks, “Then what is your ‘sense of justice’? Where does your interference start and end?” Luné thinks for a second, before answering, “It starts with wrong being done to those we consider on our side. For example, if someone were to hurt Cloud for no reason while she was on a diplomatic mission, then we’d seek revenge. I think the most we will likely do is help the Town when needed, and hunt slavers or bandits.” Clove raises an eyebrow at that, and writes it down, before asking, “Why slavers or bandits only?” Luné answers quickly, “Well, it's not just slavers and bandits, but anyone doing wrong, and are not being judged by their home or someone above them. But the main reason I say slavers or bandits is because they are the most common, and some of the worst.”

Clove asks one final question, “What monsters are in this forest?” Luné answers entirely, including adding the monsters underground, which surprised Clove. The only ones she keeps out of the answer are the Reaper circling above and Hammerer. Clove closes her journal once she writes that down, and speaks, “I will believe you entirely. You helped the town when it needed it, you’ve helped people in need, and you even told me about monsters we had no clue about.” Luné smiles warmly, before speaking, “I’m glad to be of help.” Clove nods in response, before turning around and speaking, “Chase, let's get going.” Chase frowns and his mandibles click together slightly. He follows his companion, as he waves goodbye, speaking loudly and happily despite clearly not wanting to leave yet, “Have a good day!” Luné smiles happily, waving to them as they leave. As Chase looks forward, they can see him pulling out his journal as he speaks loudly and happily. Kaede pulls Luné’s attention away from the loud and boisterous Insecta, “Shall we get started?” Luné looks over and nods, answering with a smile, “Let me go rejoin Codex.”