***** Bud’s POV, mental thread #2 *****

          “How is that possible? Metal doesn’t float!” objected Tracey.

          It’s not about whether or not the material floats, it’s about whether or not the boat and its contents weigh less than the water it pushes out of the way. Well, it looks like Zona just walked in the front door, so we’ll have to continue this conversation later tonight since you can only handle two simultaneous trains of thought right now.

          “Aren’t you going to be busy building your dungeon at that point?”

          Yes and no. Yes, I will be working on my dungeon. No, it will not require all of my concentration. I should be done digging out the rooms and hallways in another half an hour. Unfortunately, it is going to take me at least a week just to get all of the required territory claimed. Exactly how long that takes depends heavily upon how much power I’m able to get out of the water wheels. Until that is done, that is where all of my available mana is going. When building something, just as in war, one of the most important things is securing your source of supply.

          “Which means claiming all of the territory that you can claim now, and then working on the actual contents of the dungeon.”

          Precisely.

          “Heya Boss Man,” said Zona as everyone else followed her into the room, “We’re here! What do you have to talk to us about?”

          First off, I think we need to all be on the same page about what has happened so far, so let’s start with a summary of events from each of us excluding the kobolds since they didn’t do much of anything today. Broohn, you start. For various reasons, I’ll go last.

          It took us about twenty minutes for both of them to give their summaries, ending with Zona when she showed me the map. Then I briefly told them about what I had done today, from waking up as a dungeon core, to summoning Tracey and, again, ending with the map that Zona shared with me.

          Now, the map scares me far more than even being stolen by that group of adolescent Shihoth that Broohn’s parents stole me from. Not because there is anything wrong with the map itself, but because I am fairly certain I know who built the continent. I don't know what they were building or why, but it follows a pattern they use for focusing large amounts of power. The Shihoth’s name for them is beyond human pronunciation, and their name for themselves is even worse, so I’ll just call them the Shimis. The Shihoth don’t like the Shimis because simply by existing the Shimis exacerbate an already tenuous situation that the Shihoth have.

          “Is this ‘situation’ that you are referring to the same one that resulted in the Shihoth giving us you and your escorts after my parents stole you from the adolescent Shihoth?” asked Broohn.

          Yes, it is.

          “What do you mean by that?” asked Zona. “What could possibly be worth giving us some of their newest, top of the line military and construction vessels? The Shihoth are unquestionably the top dogs in our region of space. Why would they simply give their ships away like that?”

          “I know the answer,” sighed Broohn, “but I swore an oath on my magic that I would not tell anyone who didn’t need to know, and unfortunately this does not meet the specifications the Shihoth set forth about who needs to know. What I can tell you is that they were giving us the ships in return for something that we could do for them. The fact that they asked us to do this at all means that they would trust us with far more than a few of their best ships.”

          I swore the same oaths that Broohn did, and a few more besides. However, I can say that when Broohn’s parents stole me away from the adolescent Shihoth, the adult Shihoth chasing them found a treasure beyond price: someone who they could trust to help them with their greatest secret, their greatest weakness. Having found such a treasure, they did everything in their power to make that treasure last as long as it possibly could.

          Anyway, the Shihoth don’t like the Shimis because reasons, and the Shimis don’t like the Shihoth because the Shihoth are the only ones that routinely managed to defeat them in battle. In this case, when I say that they don’t like each other, I mean that they will kill each other on sight. So much so that even before I became sentient, whenever I ran into some Shimis and confirmed that they really are Shimis, I had authorization to do whatever I deemed necessary to end contact as soon as reasonably possible.

          “Wait, the Shihoth gave you that kind of authorization back when you were just a really good computer and not even sentient?” asked Broohn.

          Yes, they did. That is part of what truly scares me. If it had been anyone other than the Shihoth, I would call them utter fools for making such a decision. Given what the Shihoth were going to allow me to do, there is clearly far more going on between them and the Shimis than what they told me about. Unfortunately, the Shihoth barely gave me enough information to identify the Shimis when I did find them, so I don’t have enough information to even guess what that something might be.

          On a more positive note, the fact that I am not detecting any of the other signs of the Shimis’ presence means that they probably aren’t here anymore. We need to be careful not to call them back here, but otherwise, I think we should be fine.

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          “We also need to be prepared for the time they come back on their own,” added Zona.

          “Wait, given the difference between humans in our world and humans in this one, what are the chances that the Shimis, or the Shihoth for that matter, are the same in both worlds?” asked Broohn. “Besides, we aren’t Shihoth. Whatever enmity there is between the Shihoth and the Shimis might not carry over to us.”

          Oh. That’s a good point. So they might not want to kill us simply for existing as if we were Shihoth.

          “Exactly. Besides, I am getting the feeling that we have quite some time before they come back, as long as we’re careful not to trip any alarms they left behind,” said Broohn. “In other words, for the most part we can worry about them later. For now, I think we should focus on getting everything set up, and only worry about the Shimis once we have the resources to do so.”

          Agreed. Whew, that’s a relief.

          “Sounds good to me,” said Tracey.

          “I have no problem with that,” said Zona.

          “Good. In that case, I have a question about the kingdom or kingdoms around us,” said Broohn. “When the Prince said that the sections on the map were called provinces, do you think he meant they were countries in their own right or were they more like the individual states back in the U.S.?”

          “It’s all one Kingdom ruled by The King or The Queen from the capital city of Chonheim, which is on the biggest island in Islandia,” replied Tracey.

          “Oh, right. I forgot we had a local with us. Is there anything else that you know about this land that you think we should know?” Zona asked.

          “Since I don’t really understand the world that you guys came from as of yet, there isn’t much I can say…” replied Tracey.

          How about the distribution of races? Are all of the races distributed evenly around the continent, or are there areas with higher concentrations? Also, do any of the races have a higher proficiency in a given element?

          “I should have thought of that,” said Tracey as she smacked herself on the forehead. “The Dwarves live in caves under the mountain line and all over the surface of Caldand, and they are the most likely to have an Earth affinity. The elves mostly live in Talens and Trebald, while having the highest chance for an air affinity. The orcs are the most likely to possess a fire affinity and live mostly in Pastu and Drybon. Finally, the highest concentration of humans is in Islandia, but they also spread out a lot more than any of the other races, meaning you’ll find humans everywhere. Also, Islandia has the most balanced distribution of races out of all the provinces since it has Chonheim.”

          “Since they live in the wettest region of Earthonia, I’m assuming the humans have the highest chance for a water affinity?” asked Broohn.

          “Yes. However, I will also note that they are also the most likely to develop affinities other than their racial norm simply because more of them live in the appropriate regions,” said Tracey.

          I think there is something else going on there as well. Based on the brief flashes of things that I saw while you were organizing your thoughts, I think that the humans’ affinity for water makes them better at adapting to other environments.

          “Huh. I never thought about it that way, but I do believe you’re correct,” replied Tracey.

          “Wait, what’s this? I thought you said you were terrible at telepathy unless someone else initiated the contact,” said Broohn.

          I am. This isn’t actually telepathy.

          “This is a private matter between the two of us,” declared Tracey.

          We won’t ask about the functions of your mating bond if you won’t ask about the functions of…

          {What shall we call this anyway?} I asked Tracey privately.

          {“How about we call it our Private Network?”} suggested Tracey. {“Wait, where did that even come from?”}

          {Sounds good to me, I should have thought of that! As for where it came from, it looks like you are starting to internalize some of the AI's method of thinking on a subconscious level. I’ll give you a better explanation later.}

          … about the functions of our Private Network. I finished without missing a beat.

          “Agreed,” chorused Broohn and Zona.

          With that out of the way, the only other question I have at the moment is just how big is the rainforest? Generally speaking, if we know the size of the forest we know the size of everything else.

          Broohn and Zona looked at each other for a few moments, somehow managing to hold a conversation with just their eyebrows, before Broohn said, “I think it’s about two-thirds the size of the Amazon jungle.”

          So it is a fairly sizeable continent then.

          “Yup. If that is all for now, I think we all need to get back to work,” said Broohn. “There is so much that has happened today that I’m finding it hard to believe that so little time has passed.”

          I know right?

          “Wait, what time is it anyway?” asked Zona.

          “Well, it was about the third hour after the sun came up when Bud summoned me, so…”

          Assuming twenty-four hour days and sunrise at about seven in the morning, that means that it is about eight o’clock in the evening.

          “Yeah, that sounds about right,” agreed Tracey.

          Just one last thing before you go. Porthos, Artemis, once you and Broohn figure out what sort of aptitudes you have, let me know so I can figure out where you will be the happiest and most effective in my dungeon.

          “Yes, Master!” they chorused. “Thank you, Master!”

          “I’m sorry that we had nothing to add to the meeting,” apologized Artemis.

          You’re fine. As I said earlier, you two aren’t even a day old yet. The fact that you can walk, talk, fight and already have an adult’s body puts you light minutes ahead of any human.

          “Thank you Master!” they chorused again before following everyone else out of my core room.

          “Light minutes?” asked Tracey.

          The distance that light travels in a minute.

          “Wait, light has a speed?”

          Yes, it does. As a side note, once I’m done explaining distance measurements in space and what a private network is, I think we need to switch gears a little now that we have the time. For obvious reasons, I’d like to focus on things that will help you to help me run my dungeon.

          “That makes sense. So you were saying that light has a speed?”