Before he had a chance to ask Bossy anything, the morning brought one more surprise. As he reset the spike snares and pit traps to empty, default cubes, a barrage of blue notices exploded in his mind.

Your Monster Has Leveled Up!

Your Monster Has Leveled Up!

Your Monster Has Leveled Up!

All seven of the remaining first level golems had leveled up, and the menu offered to give them each a mining specialization. His best guess was that none of them could level up until he repaired or removed any damage in the level, or maybe any damage in the whole dungeon? It was impossible to tell with just one, unfinished level.

He accepted the specialization for each of them except Smittee and Johnny 5. Someone had to keep their hands, even if they were more like stone mittens. The big, three fingered hands of the golems reminded him that he needed to find some way to take notes. With all of his questions, and the idea that would have to wait, he was afraid of missing something. Not to mention that he now had a whole dungeon full of minions and monsters to keep straight. He felt like a kindergarten teacher on the first day of class.

First there was Bossy, the Boss Cow, and her retinue of spectral panther kittens, Fluff, Socks and Boo.

Also in the boss room under the brightening rose and gold light of a false morning stood Big John and the other mining golems. He named the five remaining mining golems, DeWalt, Milwaukee, Caterpillar, Komatsu, and Dwayne. They each looked identical to Big John.

Smittee the smith and Johnny 5 the foreman stood in the Lunar Forge, and Bashful still stood in the entrance crack in the first cavern, looking out of place with his hammer and pick.

Sluice had grown bored after Stew deleted his pit, and was wandering. From the confusing impressions in Sluice's frothy mind, the stone slime seemed to be taking his pet monster core on a, very slow, tour of the dungeon.

"It seems you've been quite industrious in the wee hours." Bossy said, snapping him back to the boss room. "I like the new approach, not so square and close."

Through her eyes, he could see that the boss room now looked like a secluded paddock, surrounded by stone walls. He poked around a bit in the menus then switched back to her view to find that he could set the "Natural Lighting" option to apply to the walls too. They vanished, replaced with an unobstructed view of the forest and grasses outside to the west and south. The northern wall, toward the hillside, was still visible as a dungeon wall, and the section to the east where the golems stood was raw dirt and stone.

"Even better. This seems to be a true view of the outside, so we can now see trouble coming." She munched thoughtfully. "Well, most trouble."

"Speaking of trouble. Things have been happening so fast, I've barely had a chance to ask you some important questions, and I haven't listened well enough when you've tried to offer advice. Sorry."

"Accepted. One makes allowances for children."

"I'm not a child! I lived a whole other life before this one…" He stopped. Embarrassed. If he was trying to impress her with his maturity, this wasn't it. "No. I am new to this world. I see what you mean." Besides, he hadn't been all that great at adulting in his first life. He found himself randomly missing his Mario socks, popcorn, food in general. He was so lost in reverie he missed Bossy's response.

"...only remain unnoticed for a short time," she said.

Sluice wasn't the only one wandering, he realized. "Sorry, I was distracted by some memories. Could you repeat what you just said?"

"I said that you have some time to grow and become stronger, but that you can only remain unnoticed for a short time, especially if you find a way to grow your mana like other dungeons."

"About that." He told her everything he had learned over the evening.

For once, Bossy stopped chewing. She looked toward the treeline and flicked her tail. "We had better work quickly then."

"You said I should be hard to find with so little mana. How much mana is too much, and how did Lassie find me?"

"The paladin found me, not you. She was drawn by her quest. They could feel I was near and were searching the area, but they didn't notice you until you sent the golems out into the glade." She returned to grazing. "As for how much mana is too much, it depends. Do you want to try to stay small and hide, hoping to avoid trouble, or do you want to grow and prepare and be ready for whatever may come. I can help you, but it has to be your choice."

Hiding forever didn't seem like a great idea, but just trying to grow and drawing every threat in the area before he even knew what he was doing seemed like an even worse idea. "I just don't know enough about this world to make a decision. I saw from the sky last night that this world is somehow like mine, but there are so many differences that I don't know where to start asking questions. There's no magic in my world, no dungeons or golems or slimes. Cows exist but they don't talk and wolves aren't made out of iron."

"Well most cows don't talk here either and most wolves aren't made out of iron, if that helps."

"I guess my first question is where are we? Are we ten minutes from some big town full of adventurers armed to the teeth or out in the wilderness? Are there other dungeons near? Do most dungeons talk like I do? That's more than one question, but let's start with that."

"I wasn't sure where your dungeon lies until I saw the stars last night, and had a better look at the forest this morning. I believe you are in the foothills of the Alpen mountain range near a place known as Cloudtop Pass. There are ruins of an ancient great dungeon there called the Altar Of The Hungry Flame, but no living dungeons nearby."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"What about towns, people, roads?"

"There will be farming villages to the west and south. A disused but substantial road passes to the west of here leading south to the city of Surus's Rest. It is one day's travel from here on the western bank of the Rhenus. Surus's Rest is also just a memory of what it was centuries ago when it was called Flame's Leap and served as the launching point for expeditions to the great dungeon."

"What about dungeons? Are they like me? Aware, I mean?"

"The Palatine Dungeon is said to be very talkative, but it claims to have existed in one form or another since before people first settled the Seven Hills."

"Ok." He tried to imagine what the world out there might be like. It sounded pretty organized, developed, and there was something else that gave him a cold feeling in the pit of his missing stomach, but he couldn't quite place it. "I think we'll have to do both, stay hidden as long as we can, but build-up carefully so we can protect ourselves or have something to trade. Something you said makes me think there might be a way. Maybe we can convince people this dungeon is just a ruin like that Hungry Flame place?"

"Possibly. I may have some suggestions toward a ruse, but first, you will need a skeleton."

"A skeleton?" He really didn't like the idea of the undead. He hated zombie movies and jump scares. Could he stand to have some creepy bunch of bones crawling around inside him?

"At least one, maybe more. I'm shocked you don't have skeletons already, frankly."

Then again. Slimes were pretty creepy too if you only ever saw The Blob, and Sluice had been all right, ignoring the ravening devourer incident. He couldn't hold it against Sluice when he had been just as bad himself. "One skeleton, coming up."

He opened the monster menu and created a skeleton. It appeared directly in front of Bossy.

Skeleton - Level 1

11:26

Mana Cost - Free

Mana 10/10

Mana Regeneration 1/hr

Health 5/5

Agility 5

Strength 4

Constitution 5

Actions: 1

Action Recharge: 1/day

Special Ability: Create Loot

Spells:

- Darkness (1 mana) - Creates an area of persistent darkness, 3 meters, 1 hour duration.

- Novice Enchantment (1 mana) - Enhances one loot item with a random improvement.

- Magic Missive (5 mana) - Delivers a message to one target. Target must be in line of sight or soul bonded. Missives cannot be blocked.

Enhanced Room Customization Unlocked - Sinister Decor

The kittens jumped to attention and the wolves leapt to their feet and sprinted to stand between Bossy and the new monster. Apparently everyone took skeletons very seriously.

The skeleton ignored all of them and looked up at the nearly noonday sun. It was a human-looking skeleton of about average height. Its bones were yellowed and stained. The bones looked solid with no cracks, and none were missing that he recognized.

It stared into the bright image of the sun for a dangerously long time, but then, there were no eyes in its sockets, just glowing purple embers. It finally looked back down and made a refined bow to Bossy as if it was asking her to dance. "I'll take it."

"Take what?" Stew asked.

"The contract. I do rather like the decor, none of that dreary crypt aesthetic one sees so much of since that foolishness at Luxor."

"Careful," Bossy said.

The skeleton nodded. "My apologies. I must say, I haven't seen a System quite like this, fascinating." He seemed to concentrate for a moment. "A gray core? That is also new to me." He chuckled. "And nothing is new to me."

Another word Stew recognized, sort of. "Wait, what was this about Luxor?"

"Beautiful temple until an upstart necromancer remodeled and just ruined the place. Tacky." He gestured to Bossy. "I'm sure you would agree?"

"That much we can agree on." Bossy rocked her head and changed the subject. "It sounds like you have experience in dungeons?"

Stew wasn't quite so ready to move on. "Wait. I mean, you mentioned Luxor, that name sounds familiar, is that a big black pyramid, with a light on top?"

Both the skeleton and Bossy paused for just long enough to make the silence a little uncomfortable, then Bossy said, "No. Even the necromancer had more taste than that."

The skeleton didn't even dignify the question with an answer. "I have had considerable experience serving in some of the better dungeons."

Bossy stared, unimpressed. "Yet you are still first level. Name two dungeons where you've served."

"I was skeleton number seventeen in the Tomb Of The Blood Prince, and I served for over one hundred years as a hidden skeleton in the second rank beneath the mulch in the Grasping Forest." He cocked his head and leaned in as if sharing a secret. "I was behind the pyracantha bush."

"So you've served in two dungeons which were famously completely overrun, and you've somehow seen no combat at all."

"Not true, Bright Lady!" The skeleton placed a hand against his chest. "I saw two gnolls and a wereboar adventurer have a very nasty confrontation just thirty meters from where I hid beneath the pyracantha."

"Fortunately, we won't need your prowess as a warrior, at least right now." Privately to Stew, she said, "I think we can make do. Go ahead and offer the contract. We can talk through my ideas as he gets started."

He offered the contract, and the skeleton accepted it. A little too quickly, Stew thought. He named the skeleton "Cecil" because he sounded like a Cecil. I wonder if I can get him a top hat and monocle somewhere?

The wolves and kittens seemed satisfied.

Bossy asked Stew to create three more Mana Glass Repositories and two more Ore Bins. He brought Johnny 5 back to start generating actions. He also brought Bashful back to the rock face and delegated Big John to set them to mining stone. He could see he really needed another foreman, so he sent Dwayne to the Lunar Forge to manage Smittee. It left him with only four miners, but that was less important than delegating all of the micromanaging so he could listen to Bossy.

"Dungeons and dungeon levels need a theme, a logical progression, a reason to be, all of which have been sorely lacking in the current design." The wolves waited attentively as Bossy described each of the rooms in the previous attempt at a level and why they failed.

Lassie and Rin Tin Tin shared a sidelong look that wasn't lost on Stew.

Bossy went on to describe the new features provided by Moonglow to catch Cecil up with the rest. "And we can take advantage of the Moonglow rooms and features to create some misdirection as well." She nodded toward Cecil. "We will need you to play the traitor in room five."

"My specialty," he said.

"I'm sure." She snorted.

Stew had to admit the plan sounded good. He felt a growing excitement at the activity and the increasing stores of mana and stone, but he had learned so much about his new world in such a short time that he felt like he might have missed something vitally important. Also he forgot to ask about elves. That would have to wait until later though, because he now had enough materials to start on Bossy's new level design, and the moon was starting to rise outside.