Dominik focused on his original body, and realized he’d still left several corpses uneaten. Some of the lesser demons were starting to fall apart faster than even the troglodytes. He began eating the rest of the latter, but some of the lesser demons didn’t look too appealing, even for his tasteless maw.

Some of the demons had clearly been altered by the previous dungeon core, but it had been done crudely. Just adding tentacles and mouths all over, seemingly in random places over the body. Hardly the best way to improve something.

Obviously you should focus on the strengths of the base and improve that, and try to make up for or get rid of the weaknesses. No wonder they were falling apart so fast, if anything they were overall worse than their original form, or at the very least less stable.

Thankfully the surviving troglodytes seemed unaltered. He focused on them again, and tried looking through their eyes, without using his own sight to improve the view. They were very nearsighted, and even then, it wasn’t very clear. The sensitivity to light wasn’t great either.

He focused his efforts on improving their eyesight, and doing away with their oversensitivity to light, while making sure to do it slowly, so as not to cause them any pain.

He had the troglodytes take away the rotting corpses of the lesser demons, to be fed to the grubs and the spiders. The grubs will eat the demons, and the troglodytes will eat the grubs. The circle of life.

Soon the morning light had come, time passing faster as he administered his dungeon. After all of the corpses were taken care of, he left his main body to rest and grow while he returned his consciousness to his avatar.

He walked toward the village leisurely, as if he were just someone taking a walk through the forest in the morning. There were already people up and about working. He received glances, and “Good Mornings.” Which he returned. Otherwise, he just wandered around and observed. It seemed like his creation was as well made as he thought.

Soon he came upon a man doing manual labor, who’d limped over to a bench to rest. Already working up a sweat in the cold morning. Since the man was resting, he thought he’d ask him a few questions.

“Hello fellow man.” Said Dominik. “Could I ask you a few questions about this area?” The man looked at him strangely for a while, then he smiled and replied. “Oh sure, I don’t mind. I’m in no rush to get back to work. Could use a bit of an excuse not to get back to work right away. Where are you from stranger?”

Dominik hadn’t been prepared for this question, but the answer came quickly. “I’m from the mountains.” He said as he pointed toward the mountains he just came from. “I live there.”

“Oh.” Said the man. “Don’t get many folk from the mountains, must be hard living up there.”

“Yes.” Dominik replied. “But we make due, right now I just make sure everyone’s well fed and healthy.”

“Oh.: The man said again. “You some kinda lord or healer or somethin?”

Dominik smiled and said. “Yes, I am their ruler in a sense, and I am the only healer as far as I know. Do you want me to heal your leg? I healed a bird’s leg just yesterday, it’s no problem.”

The man looked hopeful. “It’d sure make things a lot easier, but I don’t have much money. That’s why I never went to the big town down south, that and I couldn’t really make the trip.”

“I don’t need money for something simple like that. But could you tell me where to find the town?” Dominik knelt down and healed the man’s leg, it only took a few seconds. Then he stood and listened to the man’s explanation of where to find the town, and places of interest in the general area.

The mountains were to the west, and the town was therefore just to the east of the mountain. It would likely be a longer trip than getting to the small village, but if he ran straight there from the dungeon, he should be able to get there in just a day or two. He’d considered searching the dungeon’s treasure room for a compass, but he’d like to make sure he had one.

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“Do you know where I could get a compass? I think I might’ve lost mine.”

“That’s all you need?” The man asked. “Shoot you can have mine, it’s the least I can do. Now that I can work properly again it’ll be no problem gettin myself another one. Not that I really need one anyway.” Dominik followed the man back to his house, and was given a compass as thanks for being healed. He tucked the compass away, and as he set out, the man asked him one final question.

“Who are you?”

Dominik thought for a second. He’d already told the man he was a ruler in the mountain, and a healer. Is there more he needed to know?

“I’m a human.”

“Right.” said the man, laughing. “But what’s your name stranger? It’d be nice to know in case we ever need to go lookin for a healer up in the mountains.”

“I’m Dominik.”

He’d learned, or perhaps remembered, a lot from his encounter in the small village. Now instead of introducing himself as a human, he knew to introduce himself as Dominik the human, a much more specific thing.

“Well mister Dominik, don’t suppose you have time to meet with the mayor of this fine town? We’ve been getting some attacks recently, and I think maybe you could help us with it, I’m sure he’d be willing to pay you a bit too if you’re interested.”

This could be a good opportunity to find some new creatures to bring into the dungeon. “I’d like to hear more about it. Take me to your mayor. I think I can help.”

The man brought him to a somewhat large house, at least compared to the rest of the houses. Another pudgier man in slightly nicer clothes welcomed them in and they sat around a large table near a fireplace.

“So, what can I do for you today?” The mayor asked, looking back and forth between the man, as he wasn’t quite sure of who he was asking the question to.

“Well.” The other man began. “This here is Dominik, he’s a holy man, healed my leg in no time at all. I think he might be able to help with that witch that’s been causing trouble.”

“Ah, the dark elf.” Said the mayor, leaning back and relaxing, seemingly glad to have a solution to this problem.

“A dark elf?” Dominik asked. “Where?”

The mayor sat up again and began his speech. “Well, she should be somewhere in the general area, she came by about a month ago to trade for supplies. It’s not often you see a dark elf around human civilization, especially not a friendly one. We were worried she might be a scout that came ahead of a group meant to enslave us, but it seems the truth isn’t much better.”

He continued. “She’s come by about every week or so since then to trade for supplies. But ever since her first appearance, we’ve been getting attacked. Small demons with horrible tentacles growing out of them have looted our village.”

Oh, that sounds a bit like it might’ve been from the dungeon. “Succubi have drained the energy from men, leaving them unable to work for days.” He was pretty sure he’d seen female demons with hooves, quite possibly succubi.

“All sorts of terrible things have been happening. We have no one who could stand against such a powerful witch, so we tried appeasing her. Our merchants might have been a bit unfair with the first deal, and we thought she might be punishing us.”

The mayor took a deep breath then continued. “But we’ve been practically giving away supplies the past three weeks. Only the past few days have been peaceful.” Yeah, that would be when Dominik took over the dungeon core. “And we fear she may be planning one final attack to destroy the village. Please, if you can, please stop her. I’ll pay what I can for this village’s protection.”

Dominik couldn’t help thinking this was partially his fault, despite knowing he wasn’t even in charge of the dungeon at the time, and despite knowing he hadn’t summoned any demons himself. He was glad at least, that no dark elf had been burned at the stake for no reason.

“I’m not sure it’s necessarily the dark elf who’s to blame for this.” Dominik said, trying to diffuse the situation. “It could just be a coincidence. Maybe sometimes demons just wander around you know? In fact, there were some demons in the mountains, and I helped kill them too. Maybe that’s why you’ve been getting less attacks the last few days.”

The mayor’s eyes went wide. “You’ve already killed the demons? But what if she summons more? Please at least speak to her and see for yourself if she’s innocent. Perhaps, if there is another source for the demons, you can find it? We can’t weather many more attacks, we’ll need the rest of our crops for the winter.”

“I’ll go look for her. And I’ll search the forest for any more demons too. If the dark elf woman returns, don’t attack her, just ask her to stay until I return, I’ll speak to her. In fact, has she really been coming every week?”

“Yes sir.” The mayor replied. “She should be back again today or tomorrow if she continues on some sort of schedule. Though I can’t be sure if she’ll bother coming this week, with so many supplies.”

“Well, I’ll stay near the village and keep an eye out for her. If she doesn’t come in the next day or two, then I’ll look further out. And if any demons are still around, I should be able to find them and kill them. You can all rest easy for now.”