Arthur groaned as the light fell through his window, he looked outside and saw that it was just after dawn. It was way too early to be doing anything but he had promised that he’d go dungeon diving with Vance after his parents left. It still seemed weird to him how normal the two older nobles were, he supposed it made sense if Vance behaved like a more or less normal person then his parents would too. It still threw him off a few times though when he’d start calling them Mr. or Mrs. Storm then mildly freak out when he remembered he forgot a noble’s title. Fortunately, the two Storms thought the whole thing was hilarious, and always said it was fine when he messed up.

Honestly, the two of them seemed like great parents, for the most part, but it made him miss his father. He felt a sharp pain in his chest that he shoved down, as he struggled to get out of his warm and soft bed. Back in his village, he’d been one of the earliest risers, always out checking snares or making breakfast. However, a few months of sleeping in had completely ruined that, any time closer to dawn than noon was just too early.

He managed to get dressed while half awake and stumbled his way down to the kitchens of the guild hall. Fortunately for him as the apprentice of the guild master he didn’t have to pay for food here. He chuckled a little as he remembered Silas’ expression when Kira had pointed out to him that not only was he now the lord of the dungeon, but he was also the permanent guild master for the area. His master had gone as white as a sheet, then started cursing like a sailor and writing letters as fast as possible. Half of them seemed to be going to the same guild master somewhere in the south, practically begging to be relieved of his position.

At this point, he doubted anyone was coming to take over as guild master, but he didn’t want to say that to Silas. That was a quick way to get thrown into a freezing pool of water, or snow. The old man had been experimenting with more combined affinities recently, one of those being ice. He really did not want to get tossed into a snow pile as he’d been threatened with a few times. He’d never really liked the cold, to begin with, maybe that had something to do with his fire affinity? He stopped and thought about it on his way out of the guild hall. Probably just a coincidence to be honest, if everyone who got cold easily had a fire affinity, there’d be a lot more fire mages running around. Not that he was technically a fire mage yet, he still only had the one trick and all.

Looking around the corner of a building he saw a familiar figure retreating down the alley. “Celia, hey wait up for a second.” The girl stopped and turned around, not quite scowling at him, which might be progress. The rogue was rather prickly at the best of times, and judging from the bags under her eyes, she was not a morning person either. “Once the Storms leave Vance and I were going to go into the dungeon again would you like to come?” The taciturn chakra user had been coming with them most of the time when they’d started returning to the dungeon.

“No thanks, I’ve got a quest that I already accepted for today, maybe another time.” Unfortunately, it seemed like she wouldn’t be coming with them today.

“Well that’s too bad, we’d have loved to have you along. Now I suppose we’ll have to get someone else to fill in. Maybe Vance knows a few other knight trainees who could come.” As he chattered to basically himself, he could see Celia start to relax fractionally as they made their way to the outskirts of town.

“He probably does, he trains with them every day it seems like.” Arthur raised an eyebrow surprised she was talking.

“Yep hopefully, you’re right, but how did you know that? Has the sneaky rogue been keeping tabs on us?” He immediately regretted his choice of words as she shot him a glare.

“Maybe, or maybe I just wanted to make sure my potential party wasn’t the type to stab me in the back where no one would find me.” Well, at least it was nice that she was still thinking about joining their party. They could use a permanent third person.

“Well, sorry about that. I just thought it was funny.” Especially given the fact that she was so terrible at tracking and scouting. She’d been getting better at it but it was still really apparent that she’d spent more time in cities than outside of them.

Celia grunted noncommittal as they rounded a corner and Vance and his family came into view. “I’m going to leave you here then, don’t get eaten by a goblin or something in the dungeon I guess.” She commented while eyeing, Sophia Storm lazing around. To be fair the overpowered rogue hadn’t made any more apprentice offers but Celia still seemed nervous around her.

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” He said dryly. “Have fun with your quest and maybe will catch you next time we go into the dungeon right?” He hoped that’d she’d come along next time at least.

She looks at him blankly for a second before responding. “Right sorry, yes usually I’m not that busy, it's just that today was a bad time.” She shuffled her feet slightly and he smiled encouragingly.

“Don’t worry bout it. We all have lives, and it's not like we scheduled this delve in advance, it's all very last minute.” She nodded and waved as he walked up to the Storms. “See you later Celia.” As Vance turned to greet them Celia slipped away between the houses.

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Celia snuck her way around another house and sighed to herself. There was no real reason she needed to be lurking like this, but she couldn’t shake old habits. She also did not want to be involved in the Storm’s departure Kira and the noble that had tried to kill Vance were going along as well. She’d miss Kira, she hadn’t gotten much time to get to know her but she seemed like a good person.

The young rogue grabbed breakfast from the marketplace before continuing towards the adventurer society building. She had said that she had a quest so she better go pick something up. With slight regret, she looked over the various missions to kill wolves or goblins. It was all tier-one stuff, there’d be no levels for her today. Oh well, she liked Vance and Arthur well enough, but she still wasn’t quite sure about the whole permanent party stuff. It might be better than solo delving, especially with how often Vance got delve slots. She sighed again and shook herself, she needed to remember even nice nobles were still nobles.

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Valens waited impatiently as Magnus slowly stirred to wakefulness. He had questions for the drake, but he’d been asleep so long the core was almost finished with the twenty-fourth floor. Granted he had been working on it for a bit already, but still, it felt fast to him. Hopefully, he was getting to the point where floors of this tier started coming faster and faster. Until he’d tier up again, get another ridiculous size increase, and then be really slow again. At least he’d get a new boss out of that situation though. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do for his next set of floors either. He might change the theme early at floor twenty-six but he hadn’t quite decided yet.

Either way, he still wanted to get some actual architecture advice from the lazy lizard before he started trying to build something again. Seriously it had been almost painful getting the pathetic huts put together, he had had fun with it too though. Which was very weird and made him want to get good at building things properly. The part that he disliked the most was not being able to figure out why the roof had been falling apart on him. He had much larger caverns throughout his dungeon and those didn’t fall over. There had to be a good explanation, and unfortunately, the memories he had from Magnus were incredibly vague. Just concepts like architecture and engineering without any real practical applications for those things.

He watched in annoyance as the drake sighed and turned over falling deeper into sleep. Maybe he shouldn’t have made that bed so comfortable, he resisted the urge to fill the massive pillow with pointy rocks. When Magnus hadn’t started stirring again, the exasperated core went back to expanding his floor.

While he worked his mind wandered back to the issue of building. His main problem was that no one was ever going to bring a book on buildings into a dungeon. What would be the point? He continued to expand outwards grumbling to himself the whole while until he sensed Magnus finally started to get up.

The drake yawned widely his cavernous mouth showing an impressive collection of fangs. Well good morning then, how was your little nap? The little nap that had lasted at least an entire day if his estimates were right.

Hey Valens, I slept well thanks for asking. Magnus stretched languidly his massive scaly bulk rising as he walked around the room. Do you need something though? You’re seldom paying attention when I wake up unless you want something.

Well yes. He felt slightly guilty about badgering his friend. But I also wanted to tell you about that group that got attacked by other humans. They’re back, and other than them it's mostly been adventurers who’ve been here before. There is a steady stream of new faces though so that’s good.

And why is that good Valens? The drake smiled toothily guessing where this is going.

Most of the stupid ones have been weeded out of the current adventurer population. This way we’ll get to see a few more interesting humans fight.

You just want to see how the idiots will die don’t you?

The core gasped as if affronted. What a horrible thing to imply Magnus. Maybe I just want to see the stupid ones suffer a little bit and get humiliated.

You also want that free boost of experience too though don’t you?

Maybe, not going to lie that’s a great perk as well. The core grinned like a cat with a bird. If the humans didn’t want to be hunted then they shouldn’t come into a dungeon, or they could try being less tasty. Besides, it's not like I’m being unfair or targeting specific groups.

The drake shrugged. Fair enough, I guess you’re just acting like a little bit of sped-up natural selection. He and the core chuckled darkly at that. Well anyway, what’s the real reason you wanted to talk to me?

I wanted to ask if you had any architecture or engineering books. I built some huts around the floor and they were a little terrible, so I want to learn how humans and the like build stuff. That way I can make better buildings.

Well, I guess we’re a little out of luck then right now. Magnus said matter of factly.

Why?

I have no books on architecture at all and only a few references to engineering.

Seriously.

Yep.

You’re an ancient drake and you never picked up any books on building? Come on Magnus. The core was a little bit exasperated.

I don’t need buildings, so I did see the point.

You know what fair enough. It's going to take me forever to figure out construction properly if I don’t have any books though.

I can get you one eventually. In the meantime though, maybe you should stick to making fake ruins, and maybe some large-scale landscaping. The drake was always happy to give suggestions and Valens reluctantly agreed.

I suppose that’s fine for now, but I want those books eventually. Magnus nodded his head in understanding and started experimenting with his magic. Valens on the other hand went back to building his dungeon, and definitely not sulking about his lack of knowledge.