I decided to start my renovations from my first room as I expanded a section in the wall and I added a couple new shelves to help declutter the other cooking shelves that have become over burdened with all the many foods and cookware that everyone has compiled.

Next, I moved onto the hallway and the two rooms there.

I add more planters along the hallway since there was room to do so without hindering traffic and I raised the hallway ceiling by a heads worth before I moved onto the rooms.

One room had a single man in it, who seems to be one of the people who would fill positions as he does hunting, foraging, as well as farming and handiwork.

The man is pretty large as he’s a mixed human of unknown origins, so the already limited amount of space in the rooms is a tight fit, but it is made even more so by his tools and the accumulated materials he has collected.

Making it the primary priority for expansion, I elongated the rooms doorway as I scooted the room deeper into the rock wall and then I make it into an entranceway for his gear.

I add hooks to hang his weapons on and I make a space where he could prep hides so he can stop doing that in his sleeping space.

Then I follow that up with expanding his sleeping room raising the ceiling and widening the interior while giving him a larger section of clay for him to lay on.

I even gave him some space to one side of his bedding to put his backpack and a clothing chest that Tammy will probably make in the future.

I almost got concerned about walking the fellow while I was working on everything but he simply rolled over and readjusted, clearly taking advantage of the new room available to him.

Next is the room on the other side of the hallway, the resident of the room is the hunter Greg.

Although he isn’t as large as the other guy, he is still crowded in his room with all his stuff in the same place he sleeps.

I expand it out similarly but without the need for extra headspace, just adding a entryway and giving him some room along the side of his bedding.

I lengthen the hallway and move everything from the second room onwards back to allow me to keep the walls thick despite the expansion I had just done, granted I left my core room alone and simply curved the tunnel between my core room and Luna’s.

I start going through the other bundled rooms and I expand their entryways and I adjust the spacing for now as I don’t have much energy left after scooting everything back.

All in all, I have probably expanded two to three times the original size of my first room on top of moving everything around.

I decided to continue expanding towards the river as I continued from where I had left off slowly expanding bit by bit.

I have discovered that I have less strain expanding closer to the bulk of my dungeon so thickening the path I take over somehow reduces the strain but I still find myself reaching my limits.

I have managed to get three times the distance that I used to be able to see from the entrance to my dungeon by the time the sunlight arrived and the people started to wake up.

I realized that I might have let my dungeon instincts ruin the plan for being a little more subtle in the renovations….

I can’t seem to get rid of the itch to expand more as if I were on the verge of a breakthrough that I am impatient to have.

I know I have to do something about this and I can’t help but feel frustrated at not knowing exactly what to do to get the fix for it.

I decided that I would only do nightly renovations where everyone else has access and I would work on the isolated areas during the day.

I might also have a put my outdoor exploration on hold until I accomplish whatever I need to do to calm down.

The noise from the other villagers wakes everyone up aside from Rita who’s been isolated in a closed room I have branched off from Rimmy’s room which is only opened up enough to periodically give her food and let some fresh air in there.

While no one seems to have noticed the general movements of their respective rooms they did indeed notice the additional space in rooms and the addition of new entryways as well as the new shelves.

Everyone seems surprised but not all in a bad way, granted that doesn’t stop Luna from giving me a talking to while her father and brother try to help settle the situation positively.

Apparently having everyone checking their belongings to make sure nothing was missing and also inspecting the changes to make sure nothing harmful was done managed to calm people down.

Luna, “I thought you were going to be subtle? Yet you,… you realize people would notice suddenly having an entryway that they never had before right?”

I shamefully respond with two small lumps of clay and watch as Luna puts her hand over her face and mumbles something under her breath before she wipes her face.

Luna, “Okay, I realize you haven’t ever really been subtle with any of your remodeling or expansions aside from when you were unable to do so in the first place.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

So let’s just say you can’t really be subtle when it comes to expanding yourself, should I write that up as being a dungeon thing?”

I perk up at her sharp observation and I give her a lump of clay which got me an exasperated sigh!

Luna, “Well if that’s the case I guess it can’t be helped, we will let people make some of their own decisions about the situation and then we will talk to them and get them incorporated as inhabitants as soon as possible.

Dad said that he believes Greg is likely to join us and that was even before you just upgraded his room, so I think I will try approaching him today to see if he would be willing to become a dungeon inhabitant.”

Luna looks like she is a little frustrated but she adapted to the situation and she moves forward with new plans.

Luna, “Well you started the mess so I want your help to fix it!

Lets also test to see if you can register someone as a dungeon inhabitant through your dungeon flesh.

Since we aught to do some things here and there too convince them just be ready to do something if I tell you to.”

She headed out to the public kitchen where most everyone was still gathered and conversing about the changes that happened overnight.

Luna is soon caught up in the conversation.

Daisy, “Ah there’s Luna! Luna dearie, over here.

Would you mind telling us what this place was like when you first found it?”

Luna, “Well this room was half its current size, and there wasn’t anything here, it was just a rough cave that could have been used by bears.

Except that there wasn’t any signs of animals around here and the cave was to clean smelling.

If that wasn’t enough by the time I returned from gathering some food and water, it had smoothed out much of its surfaces and made soft clay under the deer hide my siblings were sleeping on.”

Teri Woofer, the mother of Rocky’s friends, speaks questioningly.

Teri, “I don’t recall being told about that, but I can see no one would have believed it unless they saw it themselves…

Luna would you mind sharing what you know about this place, I don’t think it’s bad since all the changes seem to have been beneficial for everyone, but I am a bit antsy without knowing.”

Luna, “Well, I am glad that you noticed, I had in fact reported that it is a dungeon that’s willing to help us.

But as you mentioned, no one believed me when I said it, and here we are now.”

Daisy, “That is quite hard to believe honestly, but it has been helpful and I don’t feel any hostility that you would usually find in most dungeons.”

Luna, “I think that may be because the dungeon is seeing us as prospective inhabitants of it, since it doesn’t have any monsters yet.

In fact I registered as an inhabitant and it saved me from being raped by the bandits, by teleporting me to its core room.”

Greg, “Oh really, so was it renovating to butter us up, so we would become its inhabitants?

So what even does it get out of us inhabiting it?”

Luna, “Well, it doesn’t have monsters so it’s probably wanting a replacement for the lack of them.

And in my case I have been giving it my mana for it to repair its core, and I have also been given a position as its dungeon manager.”

Tina, “Dungeon manager? So wait a minute does that mean you changed your job from forger to dungeon manager?”

Luna, “No, I haven’t lost my forger job, rather I have gained an additional position of a sort.”

Harvey Woofer, “Do these additional positions have benefits like how jobs help you advance your skills in that area?

Luna, “Yes actually, although we are still figuring things out you can gain improvement of skills as well as stats and in some cases you can gain dungeon loot that is supposed to scale up with the level of the dungeon.”

Coaley, “So there additional benefits to having a dungeon job on top of our original jobs, and it doesn’t seem like there is any real downside.”

Luna, “I think the biggest thing is that the dungeon jobs seem to have more benefits when they lineup with the dungeon ether by using its materials and facilities or by protecting it and retrieving things that might help it, such as new plants for it to absorb and replant.”

Dave(the big odd job’s guy), “Makes sense, dungeons are technically living organisms, it’s just that they have a symbiotic relationship with monsters in order to survive and function properly.

So, if we are replacing the monsters, then shouldn’t it expect the same from us as it would from the monsters it would have spawned?”

Luna, “I think it would rely on our help to protect itself if it were to be attacked, but if we are living here, wouldn’t we protect it anyways?”

Tom, “You have got a good point there, we would be protecting it simply because we will be protecting ourselves, so it wanting us to stay actually has benefits for it”

Jasper(single young adult farmer), “Both sides benefit so why not just cooperate?”

Samson(an apprentice builder), “I heard that dungeons will use monsters and captured females to breed monsters and even rare cases even males can be used too!

Is that something we should be concerned about if we stay here?”

Luna, “I can let you know that this dungeon doesn’t have that functionality yet and it has given me the ability to place it when it does become available.

I have decided that I will try having a relationship with the dungeon, since it saved me at the risk of its core collapsing and many other things that make me feel like it could work out.

So when it’s recovered enough I will let everyone know before I have its breeder placed in the dungeon and I will be its first.

Anyone who’s worried about it can wait until after it finishes with me to make further decisions if necessary.”

Tom, “And by what do you mean, wait until it’s done with you to make our decisions?

Are you saying that we should let you go get raped and impregnated with monsters, before deciding on what?

Moving out?

Where do we go from here?”

Luna, “I don’t think it will just start attacking people out of the blue, and it won’t be rape because I am willing to do it!

It’s already done more for me than any suitor has by a long shot, and in all honesty I trust it to protect me more than any man from the village!

I don’t think anyone would have to leave but by then I would think that the other village camps would be able to take some people in with some food resources if anyone wanted to leave.”

Tina, “Luna, dear I have no intention of being intolerant of your own personal decisions of your partner but we simply don’t want to put anyone at risk of getting raped by the dungeon, especially my daughter!

She has been through enough already and I can’t have her suffer another mishap like that.

So I request that you hold off until we can move out safely before you open a possible can of worms.”

Luna, “I don’t mind waiting and as I said, I will be letting everyone know beforehand just in case to avoid any potential accidents.

I don’t want anyone to be put in a bad situation so I would wait until everyone is ready to leave or wait and see how it goes, depending upon what everyone decides to do.”

The chatter rises and falls throughout the conversation and various people make their voices heard, some taking turns and others taking over each other.

The back and forth continues for a long while as Luna ends up bombarded with questions and comments of most of the people present and she answers them as well as she can.

I occasionally make little signs of my approval or disagreement under Luna’s foot which she was able to respond to adjusting her response in a way that might qualify as her speaking for me.

Granted I didn’t have much opinion about many things and I just left most of it to Luna’s judgment.

Near the end, I wound up having to create and move things around to show that I am able to understand people and that I am willing to do as I am asked.

I was able to get a lot of interest from everything that I did and although no one had become a dungeon inhabitant today I have a good feeling that someone’s sure to request to become one eventually.