Red looked around the room and found that it had changed slightly since Addison had been living in it for the past week or two. The bed was always a mess since the girl preferred to sit on it rather than the chair that was in the corner. There were a number of games stacked high in the corner that either his system made or Ivy carved out for the two of them. Either way he was certain each game had been played at least twice by this point. That was part of the reason why he was here, to help the young girl get out of the room and have a more genuine experience.

“Hello, Addison. I’m sorry if I scared you with the warning I gave earlier today. Things got a bit out of hand.” He said to her, watching as his text box appeared in front of her. He would love to be able to speak with her directly, rather than just continue on with the text boxes that couldn’t convey his emotion or intention nearly as well. There was some hope in his heart that with the expansion of his dungeon, he would eventually be able to gain a way of speaking with guests.

“Oh! Hello Red, it’s alright. I’m glad that everything turned out good.” She offered with an honest smile as she looked at the box before looking around again. To her, the walls and ceiling were more of what she needed to be looking at than any individual point. She would be looking at the core, but the sphere had been taken by Ivy all the way to the back most room. Red was growing fast, and already he was going beyond that of an ordinary dungeon his age. She didn’t know much, but she did understand that a dungeon usually neared its first boss after a year of being delved. Red was alive for a week and he was almost done with his first floor.

“Yeah, everything turned out pretty good. I have one room left on this floor, and then I am going to be a proper dungeon. But, I owe all of that to you.” Red smiled as he sat down on the bed next to her, knowing that she couldn’t even tell he was there. He wondered if this was how ghosts felt, trying to be kind and caring only for the person you were watching over not be able to meet your gaze. If there weren't systems in place to help dungeons, he was rather certain he would have gone a bit crazy being unable to talk to anyone.

“Me? But all i've been doing is wasting your mana on food and distracting your minions.” She said with a frown as she sat up on the bed, watching as the text box disappeared.

“Are you kidding? You are the only reason that I could grow as fast as I have. You make way more mana than you consume. Besides, having something to protect always makes someone better.” He chuckled, though frowned slightly when his chuckle was actually recorded down onto the text box as well. He hoped that wouldn’t make the statement seem less genuine.

A small flush came to Addison’s cheeks as she read the text, finding it sweet that he wanted to protect her and that she had actually been of help to him. She had been worried that her constant meals and distracting the fairies would have been a problem for him. “I am glad… b-but if you ever need to conserve your energy, then I can go down to one meal a day. That’s what I had back when I was with the church.” She offered, hoping that she could be of more service to him.

Red raised a brow at that, actually not very happy with the idea that Addison had gone without meals. She was a growing girl, and that meant she needed to be eating at least a healthy amount to get big and strong. “It will never come down to that, Addy. You still have a lot of growing to do, and that means you need to eat. So no skipping meals.” He spoke firmly, the text in his box becoming bolded with his last statement.

Addison seemed to deflate at the fact that her offer was refused, clearly wanting to be of some kind of service to him. “I want to help. You’ve given me new friends and a safe place to stay. Is there anything that I can do?” She asked with a small sniffle, acting like she was actually about to cry if she couldn’t help him.

Red’s eyes went wide, having not expected the girl to be upset he didn’t have something for her to do. ‘Uh… I have an idea! I am adding more things to the garden, and I just can’t decide what it is that I need. How about I let you look at my list of critters, and then pick one or two that you might want.” He offered with a nervous smile as he looked at her, hoping that this would be enough to keep.

She sniffled some and wiped away what was a forming tear before looking at his suggestion. She thought about it for a long moment before giving a nod, seeming to like the idea. “Okay, I can do that.” She agreed, waiting for the options to appear in front of her so that she could make the decision.

“System, display list of purchasable critters to Addison Cloudwatch.” He asked the system, watching as the list appeared and Addison began to read through it. He sat there on the edge of the bed, waiting what felt like twenty minutes before she finally spoke up.

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“I think the best for the garden would be the bees and the worms.” She beamed as she poked the two options on the list. She seemed rather confident with the choice that she had made for the dungeon.

“Makes sense, a garden needs bees and worms to keep it functioning. A very practical decision, Addy.” He mused as he opened up the critter menu and bought the Honey Bee, and the Weirding Worm. He looked over to the little half angel, seeing her squirming where she sat with some excitement.

“Would you like to see me summon them?” He chuckled as he stood from the bed, watching her quickly scramble out before heading to the door.

“Yes! Yes yes yes! I want to see!” She cheered happily as she went through the door, quickly leaving Red in the dust as she rushed through the bathroom and towards the garden. He was glad to see that she was so excited, the girl needing some positive adrenaline in her life for a change. He appeared next to her as she got to the garden, watching as she found a ring of rocks that were meant to resemble stonehenge but at the same time be a nice picnic table.

Red opened his Spawner menu and frowned at what he found within it. The Weirding Worm spawner cost a whopping one thousand mana in order to be made. It was far outside of his price range, and there was no way he would be buying it any time soon just to get some colorful worms spawning regularly. After that was decided, he found that there was no sign of a Honey Bee spawner anywhere in the list. He remained silent, trying to ensure that Addison didn’t get a text box filled with his confusion, before he went to the critter menu.

He selected the Honey Bee first, tapping it once with his finger to see what would happen. To his surprise, a pop-up appeared where he had been expecting a bee. He hoped that it would shed some light on the situation.

Special Requirements: Honey Bee

1. The selected creature cannot have a spawner created for it, as the creature requires making its own spawner.

2. The selected creature requires at least two units to be spawned on the initial spawning.

Note: Any creature can create its own spawner if given the time and resources for it.

The most confusing thing about the notification was the note that was tacked on at the end. He understood the requirements easily enough, but it seemed like his system was starting to give him tooltips to help him along. He wasn’t sure if this was the system getting better at helping, or if it was that the system was seeing him as more and more inept. At any rate, it meant that he could spawn both bugs and get them to make their own spawners.

“Alright, Addy. Here come the bees.” Red said with a smile as he selected that there be five spawned at once. He figured that if they were going to build their own hive, the new queen deserved at least a few extra workers. He watched as the red mana flowed off of himself and coalesced into five small dots of light. It wasn’t much considering the fact that each bee was only worth one point to spawn, and it had an interesting effect. Addison was able to see the mana begin to appear and change into something physical.

Within moments five little buzzing bees were sitting there on the table, running legs over their fuzzy bodies. Red noted the fact that the small insects were covered in dark red and yellow stripes rather than the classic black. “Oh by the gods above they are so cute! Look at these little things!” Addison said with a smile as she leaned in and gently stroked a finger over the biggest bee of all, which no doubt was going to be the queen of the hive.

“They are very cute! Not to mention the fact that it’s because of you that they exist.” He chimed to her as he watched the trio of bees. “You five, go on and make a hive.” He ordered them, knowing that the only reason they were still around was that they didn’t have a command to work off of. He watched as they all came off of the table before buzzing around Addison’s head in a playful way, before the lot flew off with the Queen in the lead of it all.

“Now the weird worms!” Addison clapped as she got excited to see what would come about from that selection. She was an inquisitive girl with a lot of passion when she got to do things. Red needed to start spending more time with her, since she deserved to be treated kindly and know a stable home environment.

“Of course.” He nodded as he scrolled through his menu to the Weirding Worms, a frown manifesting as he saw something interesting with the selection.

Spawn: Weirding Worm - Cost -10

He had never seen something with a negative cost on it before, having only ever known the critters to cost something for their creation. “Well, maybe this means I get mana for spawning them?” He muttered before he clicked the button five times, the confusion only deepening as he in fact did get ten mana for each of the strange worms that flopped onto the table. They were glittering and multicolored like a bunch of gummy worms tossed from the bag. They began to writhe on the table before each raised half of its body towards the sky.

Weird Weird World

We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.

A weird thing has been brought into the dungeon! The Weird table will now be rolled to add a random effect to the room!