Aurora

There was a click as I pushed the hidden door away. My life as Kaga was a pain in the ass, but it did come with some benefits. Other than the obvious bonus of getting information on Maxwell and his faction, I was able to socialize with other players and learn some gaming tricks. It had been nearly two years the last time I played when I logged in to take a break. The game had changed a lot since I played last.

When it came to such things, however, Maxwell was as much of a noob as I was. At least he had recruited the Jade Collective who were all veteran players. In the sense that they had been playing longer than a few days. The thought of veteran players brought to mind a few of the players I had knew when I played before.

It would be hard to call them friends. More like acquaintances really. Sadly, I had no way of knowing if they were in the game or not. My friends list had been reset by whatever error had turned me into a dungeon. I vaguely remembered that I had been in a guild, but I had no idea if I had been kicked while I was inactive or if it had been reset as well.

Checking my house to make sure that no one had snooped on me took only a few seconds. I barely had anything of note here. It just looked like a messy woman who didn’t care about appearances lived here. The wire on the door was also still secured.

Undoing the trap, I made my way out. The town was active even as night was falling. There were enough NPCs now that the town felt lived in. The NPCs had been advanced even before the Aliens took over so I had no idea if they had changed, but from what I could tell they all had proper lives, backstories, passions, goals, and more. It felt like I was looking at a regular human, or well, elf when I studied them closely.

When I finished wandering for a while, I made my way over to the command center. The Keep at the edge of the mountain range. Maxwell had made it during the Goblin invasion to keep people from bothering him at his manor. I nodded to the guards then made my way inside. I found Maxwell as well as the others eating in the dining hall. I took a plate from one of the servers then took a seat and listened to the conversation.

“That’s what she said, Max. She’ll keep south if you head north,” Rowena said in between bites of food.

Maxwell was silent for a moment before he nodded. “I had already planned to expand north. I just wished I had heard this before my trip today.”

“Why’s that?” Rowena asked curiously. “The Black Tail city is a far amount of distance from here.” I made note of the city. Any place that might have a large concentration of players was dangerous. Players killing players was one thing, but it would be worse for me. The players would actively get harder to fight against if they managed to take my core.

“I didn’t mention it before, but I think I found an elf settlement. It was roughly three hundred kilometers from here.” Three hundred kilometers would be difficult to reach for me. Nature’s Grotto expanded my range more to east after all. I shook my head. There was no reason for me to reach it. They weren’t my enemy… at least not yet. I chuckled to myself.

“Elves… You’re a dark elf. That might get messy,” Razz remarked from his group of goblins.

Maxwell nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.” He reached over and gripped Rowena’s shoulder. “I had planned to ask you to check it out for me when I took you to Black Tail.”

“Sure,” Rowena replied excitedly. “Let’s just hope we don’t make another enemy. There’s another… problem or issue with your elven settlement.”

“What’s that?” Maxwell asked with a curious expression.

“I spoke with your favorite neighbor. Aurora seems to have cooled off some, but she wants you to expand north while she expands south.” Good. I was wondering when she would relay that message. I turned to see how Maxwell would take it.

“North, huh. I don’t see a problem with that, but how does she plan to expand as a dungeon?” He asked.

Rowena shrugged. “Sorry. Our chat didn’t go into the finer details.”

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Silence filled the air as Maxwell digested the info.

“A city visit! If you could take us with you, that would be much appreciated,” Razz exclaimed, breaking the ice that was filling the air.

“Us as well,” Sasha from the Jade Collective pitched in. “We’ve leveled up more than I expected during our stay. We need to visit a Master or trainer soon.”

Maxwell looked around at the group then gave a sigh. “I guess I can play taxi for a day.” He suddenly looked over to me. “What about you, Kaga? Want to come along?”

“Not on your life!” I covered my mouth with my hand. “Just the thought of so many teleports.”

Maxwell rubbed his head awkwardly. “I thought as much, but I wanted to ask just in case.”

“I will say that I appreciate the offer.” I looked over to Razz. “I heard you found a dungeon?”

Razz pounded his fist on the table. “I guess word travels fast. That’s right. We got owned too,” he huffed angrily.

I stabbed a fork into my meat. “Are you going to try again?”

Razz took a long time to think it over. “If you and Maxwell were involved, we’d probably manage. The enemies rely on sneak tactics. A good scout is almost required. Plus, you can never go wrong with a teleporting master.”

“Good. I was getting tired of Nature’s Grotto,” I said then dug into my food.

“Since Kaga doesn’t want to go to the city, let’s hit up the new dungeon then take our trip,” Rowena said. I nodded my thanks to her.

“Sounds fine to me,” Maxwell said looking to the others.

“I’m down for another try!” Razz shouted along with cheers from group.

“We would like a try, so count us in,” Sasha said after looking around her group. I was starting to feel alone, being the only one without a backing. If I remembered correctly, a player could start an NPC mercenary band. It might not be anything near what a lord can do, but it was something to think about in case I needed some more hands around this city.

The next morning, I was standing with the others about to teleport to the new dungeon. I tried my best, but I was having a hard time not glaring at Maxwell as he prepared to jump. He gave me an awkward smile. “Don’t blame me. You’re the only one it bothers.”

“Then it sounds like you’re doing it to me on purpose,” I shot back. I knew perfectly well why it bothered me, but I wasn’t about to tell him. I’d rather not get hunted today.

“Well… Here we go,” Maxwell said before placing his hand on Rowena’s shoulder. With us all touching hands, the spell took us all to his desired location. Sure enough, my link to the homunculus body twisted as it snapped to my body’s new location. Thankfully, I was prepared for it and was able to handle the wave of nausea that assaulted me.

“I present to you, the Lake Ruin Dungeon!” Razz shouted grandly gesturing at the ruin in front of us. The name was very… on the nose. It was a ruin on an island at the center of the lake. It looked like the designer of this lovely place had little creativity leftover.

“Yay,” I said dryly.

We waited for a few minutes while Maxwell recovered his mana. A jump of nearly thirty people over a hundred and fifty kilometers took a fair amount of mana to achieve. Since my job was to scout, that’s exactly what I did. I checked out the entrance of the dungeon while we waited. Of course, I already had the layout of the dungeon thanks to Count Drac. A notification flashed in front of my vision as I stepped on the threshold.

--

Lake Ruin Dungeon of Drowned Memories.

--

“I don’t see any traps!” I called out to the group. “Though, I think mister Razz can tell you himself that there is an ambush a few dozen meters in.”

Razz and his group looked embarrassed but nodded. The goblins players really have bad luck with dungeons. They suffered a horrible defeat at my hands as well. The group of players was ready to move in. Since I didn’t care to let the ambush happen naturally, I sent a bullet filled with a fire ball into the pool near the entrance.

With an explosion of water and steam, four creatures that appeared to be fish turned into men burst from the water wielding daggers. The group was ready for them with the tanks blocking their charge with shields to the face of the fishmen. With their advantage taken from them, the Drowns as the game called them were reduced to fish paste in seconds by the barrage of spells.

“I can’t believe we lost to these things,” Razz hissed angerly as he kicked one of the corpses.

Maxwell placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I wouldn’t think too much about that. From what I could tell, they were restraint to physical attacks and weak to magical. Look,” Maxwell pointed to a cut. It was from one of the tank’s weapons. It had barely managed to penetrate the scales. “I don’t think Tip is that weak,” He remarked referring to the goblin tank.

The brutish goblin that looked almost human cracked a fist against his chest. “I make sure to keep my sword nice and sharp too!” Tip added, his voice odd coming from a goblin face.

I ignored the group and headed further into the dungeon. According to the map I got from Count Drac, there should be a hidden lever in the first room that would reveal a treasure chest. I examined the indicated wall making a show of it, then pulled on the candle holder. It jerked then a wall slid open revealing a treasure. After I checked it, I found a few dozen gold coins and some other materials.

“Jackpot,” I said to the others. I had little use for most of the items. If I took the materials to my dungeon, I would be able to recreate them with mana, but once I took the core here, I should be able to create them anyway, so no reason to try and claim them here and now.

“Nice work!” Maxwell said. He passed out the gold getting to just about one coin a person.