Maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I should have gotten myself some smaller spiders or snakes. Or some other creature you would expect to find in a normal dungeon. But I don’t think any of those creatures would scare those dwarfs away. No. I need something different.

I need to be smarter than the old dungeon. And now, I'm fully invested in this creature. It’s either all or nothing now.

I tremble inside, not ready to see my efforts all go to waste. I do not know how I would start from zero.

So, impatiently I wait, biting my imaginary nails and counting minutes.

But then I figure while I wait, why not do something useful? Get my mind of things, a sort of thing. Besides, it’s not like I even know this place. So, I better roam around the dungeon and try to get to know it.

It’s a good-sized place and it takes me more than half an hour to slowly go through it all.

Three more big caves and half a dozen smaller ones are scattered deeper in the mountains. The big ones are about the size of the one I landed in, and I'm just figuring out how I'm going to stuff them with all sorts of creatures eventually that will be able to do for me whatever it needs to make money.

All of them feel the same, depressingly empty of anything other than stale air and darkness.

Then the tunnel winds up, getting smaller and smaller till it abruptly ends.

I go back to the entrance and find there is actually a passage leading down. The dungeon has two floors! If the upper floor is dark and depressing, one underneath is off the charts.

When you go down there, you realize it’s a proper dungeon all right. The tunnel opens up to a big cave, about twenty meters in each direction.

On the far side, there are rows of holding cells with iron bars and heavy locking doors, huge iron keys hanging in some of them. Spooky as hell. I counted more than twenty of them. Could keep more than a hundred people in there with enough room to spare for a hundred dwarfs more.

I look for torturing utensils and apparatuses, but, to my conscious relief and maybe subconscious disappointment, I find none. What I find very strange is that as gross as the whole place is, my feet feel different there. The ground is different, more firm.

Examining it closer, I see and feel the swabs of black granite covering most of the floor. It’s hard and my fingers can’t go through it. That is strange, but it’s good to know. I finally can walk around there normally and decide that I will keep this as my quarter. Maybe make a little space for me right at the entrance, bed, light stand, rocking chair, and everything.

I go once more to check the Great Front Hall and the huge hole there that is supposed to be my entrance gate. Swabs of broken white stone lay around as if this is some ancient Roman or Greek ruin.

“What has happened here? “ I ask myself, wondering what kind of power could just knock it all out.

I see parts of rock blackened by smoke, figure maybe they used fire and water to heat it and cool it very fast, maybe cracking it like that. Clearly, it was a place of a great battle. That seems very obvious. But, I find no human or any other kind of bones. The ground has already dried up and I see some torches and pieces of dwarf clothing lying scattered around, probably washed away by the water a few hours ago.

The sun shines through the opening and it feels great to see it. Such a small thing yet means so much to me now. The high noon is over and the day is drifting slowly into a peaceful afternoon.

I look outside and again admire nature. The air feels so fresh. The sky is so blue. Well, not all nature. Nothing grows around the entrance or on the side of the dungeon. The whole area is just skinned down of trees and plants and soil, so nothing but darkened rocks and boulders. Looks very naked, crude, and rude.

So, I stare for a long time at the tree lines that are more than a hundred yards away, thinking if the dwarfs are still there, if I need to worry about them right now. Maybe they defrosted by now and are cunning some other kind of mischief and stupidity. Hard to say. They did not seem like the forfeiting, forgetting, or forgiving type.

“SAMS, is it done yet?” I ask for the hundred first time.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

[The completion of Model 23434VEl Young is 98 percent…

The estimated time of completion is 5 minutes.]

I sigh and decide to go and wait for the creature inside the Core, no matter what it is, figuring if the Constructor did not blow by now, what are the chances it will happen now?

I decide not to ask SAMS about that.

But the Constructor seems to have stabilized. There is no smoke in there and no steam either. What I actually see is a cocoon attached to the side of the Constructor. It shines with a strange reddish glow.

Yet, ten seconds before the process is finished, I get a message.

[Update: Malfunction]

“What??”

Such is my luck.

[The Constructor is Unable to finish the targeted design.

Choose: Finish the Process or Abandon the Process]

“Abandoning the process? That’s even an option? I put everything I have into this?!? No freaking way!”

[Please state the desired option.]

“Just finish the damn process, SAMS, no matter what!” I say and hold my breath, certain the monstrosity I have not even seen in my nightmares is to come out.

Well, but then, what is the worst that can happen? I’m already a ghost. It can’t freakin’ hurt me. Besides, I’m uploading an Operating System so I would be able to control it, right?

Right??

“Has the Operating System already been installed, SAMS?”

[Negative

The Operating System will start installing once you approve of the finished product]

Well, I guess that makes sense, so we don’t waste the Operating System and 500 coins, but…

“How long, SAMS? How long till it’s finished?”

I see the reddish glow of a cocoon change slowly, losing its burning color, and slowly changing to a celestial bluish tone. Then the bright light suddenly hits it, and the surprising flash blinds me.

[Update:

The Constructor has finished.

Would you like the Constructor to disintegrate the cocoon skin?]

I think about that only for a second, nervous but eager to see. It’s not like you get to create a living being every day.

Then I think I bite my nail and say in a timid voice, “Yes.”

The cocoon skin melts away and, holding my breath, I look at the first of my creations.

“Damn, you will not be able to scare anyone,” I mutter, looking at what probably must be the cutest animal I ever saw. It looks way better than in the image, and when it looks at me with its big, gleaming eyes, I can only sigh.

At first sight, I do not see anything wrong with it. It just looks perfect, so I ask, “Please, explain, what happened with the malfunction?”

[The Constructor reports insufficient Bio Material to construct the targeted design. It needed an extra unit of energy to compensate for the lack of Bio Material inside your Inventory.]

“So, what, now I’m out of energy?”

[Correct, your updated LIC Energy is at zero.]

I do not care. Sincerely. The thing is so cute. So, I got only a baby. Even better. I can educate it right. It won’t be able to lift 200-plus pounds. But we’ll work on that one step at a time.

But, in sincerity, it’s not the size of a baby. It comes above my knee. And it stands on two feet. It just has the baby face. I can live with that.

The funniest part is that it is looking straight at me. Unsure, insecure, still looking at me just like… my baby daughter and my baby son. When they held my finger in the hospital, grabbed it hard as if that’s all they ever needed in the whole wide world. When I kissed their forehead for the very first time. Makes me all soft and fuzzy inside. Feel like tears are coming down my face, no matter what SAMS says I can or cannot do.

[Would you like to modify the Operating System before it is installed?]

“Sure,” I say and take my eyes off my creation to look at the options.

[General

Personalization

Skills

Attributes

Inventory

Other]

It’s all straightforward, so, I look at the Personalization,

[Personalization

Submissions to Creator 1-100 (50 by Default)

Loyalty 1-100 (70 by Default)

Creativity 1-100 (40 by Default)

Working Ethics 1-100 (40 by Default)

Language Option - Disabled

Please note: as your bonding with your subject increases, more options will become available.]

This is so cool I can almost mold his personality here, to the point of course. I think about it a little and decide to max out 'Submission to Creator' and Loyalty at 100. That limits its Creativity to 20 only, but what the hell. We’ll get one that will become an artist later. If they are this cute, I’ll get a whole bunch of them! A whole truckload of them! I’ll spend all my money on them. Really.

I also select the Language option so the little bugger won’t need to spend a whole year trying to say ‘momma’. Or ‘pappa’.

But anyway, I look at it and smile, and the little cute bugger smiles back at me! Incredible! If this is how mothers might feel when they give birth, no wonder they can forget about all the pain and decide to have another one.

The feeling is just incredible. And I did not even have to go into labor.

But, now, it’s here. And… it is a male, and it looks like a sweetest little creature I ever saw. Yeah, it definitely will need some clothes. Some shorts, maybe overalls, like those Ewoks. That seems very fitting.

And now, now, I have to name it. What is the cutest name, the one I was not permitted to give my son? Don’t need to think about it. Ollie. But this... Little fella is just too damn cute just to have a normal name.

No. It has to be something like…

"I name you Oollie. With that 'Oo' coming down and then 'llie' just jumping back up."

I say his name a few times, and it seems fitting. "You are so damn cute you deserve the right name. Now, can you speak to me?"

It can speak. But he's making noises I just can not understand.

It says,"Bugga, bigga, bugga, mumbbu… iggya, digga, da."

What the hell? That’s not English. Or Japanese either. I am pretty certain it’s not French or Spanglish. What it is… It’s freaking Monkey-Ewokish.