The fervent lizardman held the blueprint like a baby.

“You’re sure? I can absorb it now?” Rick asked.

“Yes-s-s,” Yosk hissed excitedly. “I triple-checked it. I even added extra private rooms for meetings or… things that require privacy,” Yosk chuckled to himself.

If Rick could wince, he would, “Good job, Yosk. I’m sure the Challengers will appreciate some privacy after being watched by countless people.”

“Thank you,” Yosk said with his chin held high. “I think the eggs will hatch soon. I’m going to watch them and think of names.”

“Sounds good,” Rick said and absorbed the blueprint into his registry. And just like that, he knew exactly how to build the place. Yosk had been incredibly detailed. The place even had elaborate ventilation and sewage systems in place, ensuring that no foul smells lingered within the building. Once outside into the open air of the floor, the smells would passively be replaced with fresh air that was natural to his dungeon.

The problem was, that this place was huge. Between the small houses and soon-to-be hotel, he’d need to grow the floor before beginning construction.

Rick hadn’t even greeted Atrono yet who was now measuring some of the empty area in the Auxiliary Room. “How was the trip, Atrono?” Rick asked.

The centaur’s purple tail twitched in surprise. Not only was he wearing a large backpack, but he had huge saddlebags draped over the horse portion of his body. “Being disassembled and reassembled into another universe leaves one a bit… scatter-brained. I’m having trouble finding the space for my home,” Atrono said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah, I’m having a similar problem. I’m putting a tavern in the Aux Room as well, so I’ll need to expand the room. How are you going to build your home?” Rick asked.

The centaur perked up at the mention of a tavern, and pulled out a bronze sphere from one of his saddlebags, “This device will build the home for me. They’re quite expensive, but worth it if you’re moving to a new world for any extended period of time.”

“How does it work?” Rick asked.

“High leveled Builders partner with either dungeons or Enchanters to load these spheres with everything needed to erect a structure. I simply put the sphere in the exact center of where I want the structure to go. The surrounding area will need to be empty of any other buildings or obstacles — but if you notice the button right here,” Atrono pointed at a thumb-sized button on the bronze sphere, “Once I press that, I’ll have a minute to clear the area myself, and the building will erect.”

Rick’s blueprint suddenly felt less impressive. “That’s pretty neat. Are you saying that I can create those spheres as well?”

Atrono shrugged, “If you want to. The only dungeons that do it regularly are the ones who have failed to gain an audience or are bored. I imagine that you’ll have plenty to do other than fill building sphere demands.”

“Fair enough,” Rick said. He was still curious to see what Atrono’s house would look like so he decided to burn the accumulated trash on the first floor and expand both the Aux Room and Luca’s floor. “I’m going to expand this area, so get settled or take a look around. Once it’s large enough, feel free to toss your house in.”

“Thank you, Rick,” Atrono said with a small bow.

Rick immediately entered his usual trance of burning and expanding. With everything going on, this calmed him, much like meditating would have when he was human. He knew that soon Gus would ask him to make fuel, weapons, and other things that he needed to power his military. Not only that, his dungeon would need an overhaul which Atrono would help him with. And on top of all of those things, he would still need Challengers to come in and fall victim to his machinations on his floors to power his growth.

While he was in a trance, his domain appeared to move in slow motion. His mind worked faster than he could have ever imagined when he entered this state. The walls of Luca’s floor and the Auxiliary Room pumped further away from each other. Eventually, the veritable mountain of trash dwindled to a small pile.

During his prior trances, time had advanced fairly normally. This time, he must have desperately needed to blow off steam. Accompanied by the growth, there was a wave of relief that washed over him. It was as if a mounting pressure within his core had been released and dispersed within the larger areas.

Even with this quick progress, the 2nd floor had a long way to go to fit the kaiju. Thankfully, he had plenty of time for that.

The Auxiliary Room, on the other hand, was still much smaller than the Challenge Floors, but it was large enough to fit a small neighborhood inside, which was perfect for what Rick wanted to do.

Before Atrono could react or put his building sphere down, Rick quickly paved a small dirt road around the existing hobbit houses and extended them from one end of the floor to the other.

“Well done, Rick. Perhaps you aren’t so helpless after all,” Atrono joked. “May I?” The centaur held the sphere up and arched an eyebrow.

“Yes, but do it on one of the ends. I want the tavern in the middle,” Rick said.

“Sensible,” the centaur said and trotted toward the west end of the floor.

Curious, Rick watched Atrono before building his tavern. The centaur seemed to have found his bearings and took measured paces, perhaps trying to find the best spot to place the sphere. He prodded the ground with a hoof and appeared to be satisfied. Carefully, Atrono bent down and placed the sphere in the spot before pressing the button. The centaur then turned abruptly and galloped away as if he had just dropped a grenade.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Is your house actually going to be so big that you won’t be able to get out of the way in a minute?” Rick asked.

Atrono panted and skidded to a halt, looking embarrassed. “It’s modest, but it’s certainly bigger than one of those huts you made,” he said, flicking his eyes toward the hobbit houses.

“Hey, that’s the best I could do at the time,” Rick said.

A few moments later the sphere made a whistling sound, much like a tea kettle. The button popped off and materials began to escape out of it. At first, they appeared to be small, lego-sized, pieces of wood. The materials then grew rapidly and snapped through the air before finding the place they would settle. This continued for about five minutes, making a cacophony throughout the Auxiliary Room.

Penny whined at the noise and put a paw over her head.

Rick watched the spectacle with a mixture of awe and envy. Finally, the last planks of wood snapped together. Rick noticed that there hadn’t been a single nail, but the materials were bound together by some unseen force. He probed the essence that bound the materials and couldn’t identify it. It was obviously magic of some sort, but nothing that he could comprehend at the moment.

“I’m not sure what I thought your house would look like. But seriously — what the fuck is that?” Rick asked.

The base of the house was a typical square structure made of wood. There was a large door that made Rick think of a double-car garage door. That was all fine and normal. But then after that, the building rose at least four stories high in an odd spiral. The top then had a circular balcony that extended far beyond what Rick thought was physically possible. When Rick took in a wider view, the building reminded him of a mushroom sculpted by someone who had eaten a handful themselves.

Atrono frowned, “It suits me. I couldn’t even fit in those tiny mud huts you have over there.”

There was no point for Rick to keep disparaging Atrono’s gaudy home. “Alright, whatever. I’m going to make the tavern, but based on your house, it’s not going to be very centaur-friendly.”

“They never are,” Atrono said with a shrug.

Rick double-checked his registry to ensure that he had all of the required materials to build the tavern. Yosk wasn’t advanced enough to know of any complicated materials or how to use them. What he drew up was simple, yet functional. In the center of the Aux Room, Rick began to produce the building.

Unlike Atrono’s building sphere, Rick’s process was much smoother. The only danger was the rapidly draining Energy, which he made sure to keep topping off from the remaining trash and the pond. In just a few moments, the tavern was complete.

“Well done, Rick,” Atrono whispered.

“Couldn’t have done it without Yosk. He made the blueprints. Brilliant work, Yosk!” Rick shouted to the lizardman who flicked his tongue proudly.

From the outside, the tavern looked more like a large Old Western building. The outside was surrounded by a wood plank walkway. Rick imagined putting a few small tables or rocking chairs outside for the people who would inevitably crave a smoke while they drank.

If you walked in, you’d find yourself in a large open space with a bar to your left that stretched the entire length of the wall. Yosk was kind enough to design tables and chairs with the same wooden material that filled the space. The tables weren’t crammed too close together and on the far end, there was a stage. To the right of the stage was a set of stairs that led to more seating and a smaller bar on a balcony that surrounded the room.

The VIP rooms were tucked in a hallway behind the stage, and to top it all off, there were small rooms for people to rent and sleep in if they had a little too much to drink.

Rick was excited to show Jimmy and Grady the tavern and planned to let them name it. Below the bar, there was also a cellar. Rick put large bricks of ice inside and stocked it with beer. He’d have to ask the guys to find him some better alcohol to put in there or see if anything was interesting from the System Shop.

Sadly, he’d have to wait for who knows how long until either one of them showed up. Rick chuckled realizing that Atrono would be plenty of entertainment as he watched the centaur gasp and stare slack-jawed at Penny and the kaiju egg.

“Did you have this earlier? How did I miss that?” Atrono muttered.

“Yep. Don’t get too close though unless you want to lose a hoof to Penny,” Rick said.

“This changes everything,” the centaur sputtered. “I need to get the word out about this immediately. The Kaiju Battle Order will shower you with gifts. They’ll — they’ll send their kaiju masters here to fight,” Atrono looked ready to blow a gasket.

“Whoa, calm down skippy. We aren’t telling anyone shit,” Rick said. “I was told that if the egg got into the wrong hands, we’d have major problems.”

“Yes, it would cause problems, but whoever told you that is a moron,” Atrono snapped. “If we tell the Kaiju Battle Order, they’ll do whatever they can to protect and nurture it. Including giving you a proper defensive array to put around it instead of relying on a single low-level egg guardian.”

“Interesting. How exactly do you contact them?” Rick asked. He was curious since the portals didn’t open for quite some time. The invaders that were already planted here must have some way. If Atrono used the same or a similar method, he could feed that information to Gus to take out their modes of communication.

Atrono pulled a tablet from his satchel and held it up for Rick to see, “These are given to graduates of my former academy for this very reason. They’re prohibitively expensive and are soulbound once accepted, so I’m the only one able to use it once it’s soulbound. Even if you, a dungeon, were to absorb it or try to read what was on it, it’d all be gibberish.”

“Huh, neat. Although, it worries me about what sort of information you could be sending out for a profit,” Rick said.

Atrono shook his head quickly, “No, Rick. I’m invested in making this place better. There’s no way I would try to screw that up, especially after getting off on the wrong hoof.”

“Fair enough. No point in being paranoid anyway, “Rick said. “How do these people or beings send me stuff? Is it like how you appeared?” Rick asked.

“Partially. They will put something up in the Dungeon Shop and lock it so that only you can buy it. They will then make sure to slap your name on it so that the item is easy to find,” Atrono explained.

“Beautiful. Send the message to these Kaiju fighter guys, then,” Rick said.

“Kaiju Battle Order,” Atrono corrected and tapped the screen of his tablet. “An-n-n-d done,” he said. Within seconds, Atrono’s screen lit up, “Oh yeah, they’re very interested. Quick, check the Shop and filter for your name.”

Rick did just as the centaur suggested and he was hit with a wave of surprise. A list of items appeared with his name on it. All of which would be incredibly useful and likely expensive.