Louie scratched BOB behind his ear as he laid beside him, they were laying on his new favourite spot, the flat roof of the southern guard tower overlooking what used to be King's safe zone.

The power of the orb had caused some kind of effect that sucked the whole of Kings' building into something like a black hole leaving behind nothing but a crater, even clearing out the spiders that were underneath the building, after Shadow went in to check.

'Damn it's nice to just lay back and relax for a while, I should make some time to go down in the hole and see what's down there. This was the site of an event, there might be some epic loot there. Make some time for myself. Leon has everything in hand, the builders will be putting up one mini-fort a day, people are learning skills and the guards are there to protect the regular citizens, everybody is training and can at least hold or use a weapon and the caravans are finally done. All I need now is a cold beer.'

Louie smiled at his thoughts.

He had gone over to the STC corner of the marketplace yesterday and after grinding his for the whole of the afternoon, he had used the spell on the caravans last night.

He had found that if he was holding a mana crystal in his hands while channelling the spell through them, he could spare himself a lot of pain and mana fatigue, like a wizard using a staff or a witch using a wand to channel or power level their spells.

The caravans had come out really nice. A mixture of wild west pioneer and gipsy with a touch of steampunk thrown into the blend.

For some reason, the insides were a bit bigger than the outside, only about half again as big as it should be, but nobody is complaining about the extra space.

Celia had decided that the first run back to StarterTown would be without using the fast travel ability of the road. She wanted to see what the cost was and how everything would work out since not everybody would be able to afford the coin in paying the tolls for fast-travel.

The sight of Jon pulling Celia's caravan around the marketplace for a test run had garnered a lot of attention, it's not every day that you see a giant mechanical tarantula pulling a fantasy merchant's wagon around.

Everybody was rushing to place orders for items from the dungeon store as word had spread that the first trading convoy was leaving in a couple of days

There was also a group of anglers and their families and friends that wanted to go settle the Riverhold, as Sher called the bridge and docks where they had fought the Crockfish, and they meant to travel with the caravan.

'Damn, I have to find that damn Dungeon, it must be hidden inside some basement.'

They had gone through the place marked as the centre of the spot indicated by the vendor tab to be the location of the dungeon vendor but they had found no indication of a dungeon.

After thinking about the problem, they had come to the conclusion that the dungeon must be deep underground, and since the Tab indicated the location of the vendor and not the start of the dungeon, the entrance to the dungeon could be anywhere in the ruins, it could even be outside of Paarl.

The kicker of the situation is that nobody knows anything about how the Tabs worked or about the dimension where the dungeons are situated. They dont know whether the signal of the vendor could be read through the dungeon walls or if it could only escape through the entrance. If it can only come through the entrance then the dungeon entrance should be inside the centre of the circle somewhere, but if the Tab is able to read the vendors' location through the walls of the dungeon then the entrance could be anywhere in or around Paarl, depending on how big and what kind of dungeon they were looking at.

He had tried using his but other than finding more basements and stormwater lines he had found no indication of a dungeon, he didn't even know if his would pick up on the energy of the dungeon entrance except if there were a physical structure, like the big gates to the Huguenot Tunnel Dungeon.

*sigh* 'I just hope somebody finds the entrance.'

He looked over at BOB just as a stray beam of sunshine was reflected from one of the windows in the Druid house, hitting his metallic scales.

He frowned as he noticed what looked like really small patterns and swirls of a slightly different colour etched into each scale.

'Huh?'

Louie rubbed his hand over the lines but felt nothing and as he leaned in closer he noticed that it wasn't lines but rows and rows of really small runes and as he pulled back he saw that it covered BOB's whole body.

'Strange, I never noticed this, is this because BOB was a Dungeon spawned? Or is this about the change after taking the power of the Orb? I must check out one of the spiders to see if they got the same markings.'

BOB has gone through changes since he had bonded to Louies, where before he had the body type of a massive pitbull mixed with a porcupine, now he is more streamlined like a Cane Corso, that is if you mix a Cane Corso with a lion and give it fine metallic dragon scales instead of skin and it ends up the height of a mini cooper.

He stood up as more of the sun hit the top of the Tree, BOB shrunk down in size as he joined him before they jumped from the roof of the tower to one of the balconies, nearly scaring the shit out of one of the guards.

"... Sorry Sir, I didn't know you were up on the roof."

Louie placed his hand on the still shaken guard's shoulder. Trying to reassure him.

He saw that the guard on the other balcony had his crossbow aimed at him, so he knew that at least they were not asleep.

"No problem, just taking a break, it's nice up there, have a nice day."

First, they went to the tavern for a hearty breakfast before Louie went to the Hall for the weekly meeting of the council.

He was first to arrive just as one of the builders stepped out of the Hall after working on the table.

Louie walked up and looked at the table in front of him.

The top of the table is a 3D miniature stone mockup of Paarl that was crafted using earth magic. The miniature shows all of Paarl clearly, except the tree, which was represented by a ghostly image hovering over the table, along with all the walls and defences that are currently built. One of the builders will come in every morning or evening and update the table with the structures that were built the previous day, it also shows the ground that was cleared.

Two of the guards that had been working with the builders had unlocked some interesting skills and were taking over fixing the roads in and around the Tree, one had unlocked an AOE spell to deconstruct the asphalt into grit and make it level, while the other had unlocked a Skill to bond it back together again.

Together they can only do a twenty-metre section of road before they went into Mana Exhaustion, but their skills will improve, and they were jokingly talking about starting their own road working company.

'Everything's coming along nicely, it's time I take a step back, let them run Paarl, and see about my own training.'

Louie took out and looked at the old map that showed Paarl from before the pulse, he was looking for a specific farm.

Arnold had told him about a retired Recce and where he should be found, although he was reclusive and didn't like people much, he was known to be a master in unarmed combat and most weapons, especially knives.

He figured that If anybody can train him or even just teach him some moves, then it would be Gilmer Madntyre.

Arnold did warn him that Gilmer was very protective of his family and won't just allow anybody near his compound, but also said that he value anybody willing to put his life on the line to protect those he loved, he won't teach just anybody that wants to learn how to fight for selfish reasons.

He found the place on the old map and copied the location into his interface minimap. According to Arnold the house used to be a farm originally and the town had expanded around it and over the years the town had bought up most of the property till only the main house and a piece of the land, the size of two city blocks, was left, which he had turned into an armed compound.

Of course, the new government had loved him for that.

Arnold told him about how the mayor had sent the police to confiscate his guns but couldn't find anything, and for weeks had set up audio surveillance on his compound only to hear cartoon songs the whole time, Gilmer had three granddaughters who loved Barnie.

Just then the members of the council started to enter the Hall. Time for the council meeting.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

*****

After the meeting, Louie took Gerard aside and told him about the mini cooper mimic and its core that he had in his inventory.

Gerard grew very excited and practically started drooling, he explained about his thoughts for a battlesuit that he has been thinking of building but couldn't figure out how to power something like that and he would be very interested in taking the mini apart and seeing how it works.

Louie explained that magitech vehicles would be great but it's a low priority since people with higher stats should be able to move faster than old-world vehicles, but if he could build a smaller magitech motor, something that can power a mill to grind wheat or corn, than that would help the people out tremendously.

He removed the Mini and the core to give Gerard, he made sure to emphasise the importance of not placing the core back under the hood of the mimic.

The last thing they needed was a mini size mimic loose in a town full of people.

The mini drew a lot of attention but it was made perfectly clear to the bystanders that working vehicles would be a long way off.

Louie knew that it would take a while for Gerard to start making working magitech since he figured that Gerard will need and together with runecrafting and his tinker skills to build magitech equipment.

He had forgotten that not everybody has his huge inventory, but Gerard solved the problem of moving the mini by ordering one of his apprentices to get behind the wheel while they push the mini back to his workshop.

It was only later that he heard that the apprentice had unlocked after the ride, he said it was the most harrowing ride he had ever had, it was like IT was in the seat behind him, whispering in his ear about wanting to swallow him whole. Louie meant to ask who IT was but decided against knowing after he heard them talking about killer clowns, he hated clowns.

He meant to set out and see if he could find this compound of Gilmer, but he was intercepted before he could take two steps outside the doo where he ran into Shira "hi Louie, I heard you were worried about all the kids in town."

Louie had not had much time to check up on her, after everything that had happened since they got to Paarl. But he had been keeping light tabs on her and the others that had joined them on their trek from Starter Town, just to know that they were safe.

"Morning Shira, how are the two of you doing?" Somehow, somewhere she had bonded with a giant leopard that she had named Khan, and he and BOB gave each other the stink eye, BOB still remembers their first encounter with the giant cats on their way to The Fort.

*Cough* She looked slightly embarrassed, as much as someone that looks like a Dark elf from fantasy novels, could look bashful.

"Morning, we are fine thanks, how are you?"

Smiling Louie replied, "I'm well thanks, I hear that you've been keeping yourself busy? I haven't seen much of you in the last couple of days."

"Yea, I'm keeping busy, I'm helping defend the shelter."

"Shelter?"

"Yes, it was a place of safety for abused women and children. It's on the outskirts of town, but it's near a cemetery, they have an undead problem there, mostly skeletons."

There was a hiss from Khan as BOB grew to his original size and looked down on the suddenly submissive cat that laid down on the ground. Louie reached out a hand and placed it against the shoulder of the giant size BOB.

"Behave yourself BOB." He looked back at Shira. "They need to move into town."

"I suggested it but Mother is bound to the shelter, if she moves away then she will lose all her perks and at the moment those perks are all that's keeping them safe." She took a deep breath while bending and stroking Khans' head. "I told her about you guys and she asked if you can come to talk to her, maybe you can help with something."

"Mother?"

"Yes, … well, it's her class, not her name, but everybody just calls her Mother now. She runs what used to be a safe house for women and children."

She stood back up after making sure Khan was ok.

"The other night I found some women scavenging for baby products and helped them fight off a couple of rats. They told me about the shelter and I have been helping out with supplying them with food and stuff for the babies since then."

"Babies?"

"Yes, there are a couple of babies, there are altogether sixteen women and their kids, the kids are between three and thirteen years old, that doesn't include the babies. I have been scavenging for nappies and baby stuff but things are deteriorating faster than I thought, looks like the disposable stuff are first to go."

Suddenly Louie received a BB.

Save the Mother (Quest)

You have heard about a Mother and her dependents that require assistance, get them all into a safe environment to ensure the future success of your outpost.

Save the people of the shelter.:

Reward: Small blueprint

Failure: Dependant on the level of the failure.

Y/N

He imeadiatly ecepted the quest, they could always do with more blueprints.

"I hope you find that dungeon soon. I want to see if the vendor doesn't sell some kind of magical nappies or ..." she stopped talking as she saw Louie's eyes lighten up.

"What? Why are you smiling?"

"I might have just the thing for them, I made something a while ago and I'm sure I can do it again. Wait, let me see if I can find the BB."

She recognized the far-off look that people get when they browse through their inventory or check their notifications.

"Aah here it is, I will share it with you."

She read through the BB that appeared in front of her eyes.

Osanyin's Underwrap

This self-repairing and self-cleaning underwear will keep your privates dry and clean and also offers comfort. This underwear has a plethora of benefits - including preventing any microbe or bacteria from accumulating and festering in and around the genitalia. Which also helps in preventing any bad odour and itchiness. It also allows the skin to breathe and helps to absorb the moisture, sweat, or discharge better than any other underwear. ”

"Damn, this is exactly what they will need, where did you find it? Wait, you said you made this? Can you make more?"

Louie scratched the back of his head, "well cotton nappies are just basically small cotton squares and I got a lot of cotton towels from that Truworths we cleared and we got some useful baby products and items from Baby Gear Unlimited, but sadly most was utterly destroyed beyond the ability of my skill."

She shook her head. "I Don't think that would be a problem, most baby items sold by baby stores were luxury items. I think Mother would be most grateful for the nappies if you could make more."

"Yea that shouldn't be a problem, if there aren't enough cotton towels, I heard that there was a linen store called Whitehouse in Southern Paarl, maybe we should go have a look at what we can find there."

After looking through his inventory he found that he had over forty cotton towels of different shapes, sizes, and colours. Enough for a start at making nappies for a couple of babies.

"We got enough here to start, let's go see if we can find some tailors to cut and sew it into nappies to take to the shelter, if it's not enough then we can go to that Whitehouse place to see what we can find there."

They took all the cotton towels to the market section where the tailors had put up shop and to no surprise they found Diedre there helping out a group of women that, surprisingly, included three men who wanted to become tailors.

After explaining what they wanted, Diedre and her helpers, some who had already unlocked one or another kind of tailoring skill and some who were still trying to unlock the skill, took them and together with the spider silk (spilk) they cut the towels to size and stitch the edges to make nappies.

One of the women even copied a small picture of a crawling baby on each after telling them about the embroidering skill she had unlocked.

They found Sher in her caravan trying to improve her herbalism skill, by using her knowledge of aromatherapy, and after hearing that they were making nappies for a bunch of babies, she offered to help and to go with them when they went to the shelter, to check on the babies and all the other inhabitants' health.

She used her and cast it on a stack of the nappies while Louie used at the same time.

When the light faded there were twenty folded packs of three nappies each on the table.

Woolbabies Wrappings.

Get back to basics with baby in these eco-friendly self-cleaning cotton nappies that can also be used as burp towels. These wrappings have many benefits - including preventing any microbes or bacteria from accumulating and festering in and around the babies genitalia. Which also helps in preventing any bad odour and itchiness. It also allows the skin to breathe and helps to absorb moisture, preventing nappy rash.

The pack features a diagram of 3 ways to fold a nappy.

These wrappings are designed with a special looped pile for better absorbency and comfort.

One size fits all.

Recommended to change and wash these articles at least once every 48 hours.

They were ecstatic with the end result.

Preparations were made for the short journey which was only supposed to be Louie, BOB, Shira and Sher, but after Arnold heard about it, he insisted that they take another team of five 'adventurers' with them as backup, or training as he called it.

After hearing from Shira that most of the skeletons were only level three, Arnold had also wanted to send some of the new trainees with them to fight the low-level mobs so they could learn how to work as a team while under pressure, but Louie had dissuaded him, by stating that they would first check the situation out before sending some rookies in to farm the skellies.

Louie made sure that everybody knew that they were going to be fighting skeletons and other undead. He ensured that everybody had blunt weapons since everybody that played an RPG game with skeletons before knows that pointy weapons are practically useless against skeletons, hammers and maces are the way to go.

They set out for the shelter and Louie noticed that it was in the same direction as the compound where Gilmer was supposed to be.

Thinking about the rookies in their matching armour, that he saw when they did the barracks walkthrough, even though it was just prepulse brown overalls with hardened pieces of leather stitched in strategic places, with shields and spears, reminded Louie that he would have to sit down and craft himself another set of armour, not to mention a weapon or two, he still had a crapload of weapons in his inventory after his Dark Puppet had cleared the upper floors of King's building, but his personal weapons were gone.

He lost his ninjato on the wall with the beastwave and his naginata and bone mace were destroyed fighting the scorpion, while Drake, his gunsword, was somewhere in the lobby of Kings' building, wherever that is now.

He had a suspicion that he would miss having his mace, there was no better weapon for fighting skeletons than a mace, but the sledgehammer his puppet looted in the building would have to do till he finds or something better, luckily his strength was enough that the weight was practically non-existent