Inari couldn’t help but feel pleased with himself. A couple of weeks since the party of adventurers arrived he finally reached the top of the mountain! Parties of adventurers would arrive at various times during the day to challenge the dungeon, quite a few were frustrated at the silver chests not yet being refilled. They should learn soon that the chests are empty when they are left open, as they are stuck in an open position until they are refilled. When Inari first completed the design and had it tested, he received a new title ‘Tinkerer,’ likely for how much he overthought how to make a chest that he didn’t need to pay attention to. He also set a list of items for the spawn rate for the chests. He had some trouble figuring out how to separate the silver chests from the spawn pool the normal chests had, but Inari felt that the convenience was worth it.

Currently he just has a long tunnel with a few breaks turning sideways occasionally aimed upwards. Inari knew he’d need to do something with those places, all with the intention of preventing anyone who discovers the pathway up from reaching the Kitsune village. Inari already had the power to utilize magical illusions to create fake walls, thus no longer needing his Kitsune to project the illusion. With the true length of the dungeon currently, Inari was certain that his next breakthrough was near. What he needed was more time to focus on increasing the dungeons size instead of creating monsters for adventurers to battle.This lead to his next time saving idea.

Inari took the concept from the chests, spawning items without his direct control, as the base of his next creation.The difference that truly separated the normal chests from the silver ones was the density of the mana he used in their creation. What that means is that a normal chest is a slight bit more durable that a chest that was purely made of wood. For the silver chest, it’s durability was tweaked and increased, which allowed Inari to give them a separate list of spawn items. Inari changed the spawn system from creating something in a chest to placing a spawned creature in a targeted room. Inari thus created a Crystal system that would hold different levels of mana density and set spawning rates for the creatures that have appeared in his dungeon so far, excluding Kitsune of course.

With the dungeon running itself, Inari could continue working on an earlier idea he had for a new set of chests. It was something that would likely increase the traffic to his dungeon so he’d need to check all the chests and crystals every once in a while to ensure it was all working correctly, plus he’d need to limit the chests that would appear even more. The common variety would increase along with the floor space, and silver chests might have increases after a set amount of floors. This new type would appear on every fifth floor, where a boss would spawn. He’d also set it to teleport around the dungeon. This also meant he had a lot of work to figure out how to make his idea a reality, but given that he still hasn’t built a third floor for the adventurers, he still had plenty of time to figure everything out.

There was something more important to him now though. There is now a village close to his dungeon, filled with people. The people being the equivalent to a wealth of knowledge walking right up to his front door. The only problem is that he can’t directly learn for himself. Inari wasn’t too worried about that as he had reliable servants known as Kitsune! Plus they all looked like children at right now so there isn’t much worry of them being suspected as spies. Inari wasn’t so foolish as to believe that just because they are Kitsune, his servants were infallible, so he decided to send his oldest and most powerful Kitsune to investigate. Even if she is discovered, she should have more than enough power to escape with ease. After giving her instructions on what she should look to learn as well as funds for her infiltration, she was off.

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Alright! TIme to show Master how great I can be! Thought Yuna as she walked right past the guards standing by the entrance of the village. Due to signs of orcs in the area, the village rushed a wall and even now there are still some tents around replacing houses in some places. As for why the guard didn’t question why Yuna was outside the village was due to the Kitsune’s illusionary powers. Although they are weaker when she hides her tails. Plus with Yuna’s sensory abilities, she’d be able to detect anyone who’d be able to see through her illusion through sheer power long before she entered the village.

This was the first time Inari gave her a mission to accomplish. He’d usually send out the weaker Kitsune to scout because he might need her protection. Now he had a massive tower-like climb to stall adventurers while he could also utilize a number of monsters and traps to stop them along with his final defence of the Kitsune. Fully protected, she could go out and accomplish Inari’s will. And as the oldest, as well as being named, she had the best chance at success here!

Her main objective was to learn as much as possible. In all honesty it was an easy mission. But given the fact that little to no information actually exists for Inari to know that, he chose the cautious approach. He’d be more confident making plans for his dungeon after being aware of the thoughts on his dungeon as well as its relation to other dungeons. Learning the general level of power that rested in the village was also good, it would allow better preparation against any potential threats that live right next to him.

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Yuna simply wandered around looking at buildings and people. There were many humans about. It left her glad she was using her human form like Inari recommended. A human child with great ability is more likely to be seen as someone to train instead of as some monster or enemy is what Inari told her when she asked. As she wandered, she smelt something delicious! Following her nose, she found a stall that held meat on sticks. Inari said she souldn’t just take things she sees, and that if someone is there with it, she should ask about it first. Although she felt worried, Inari assured her that she would be fine, so she mustered her courage and went to talk with the man standing behind the stall.

Yuna dropped her Illusion as she approached the stall. She looked up at the man there and asked, “Can I have one?” The man looked to her and said with a smile, “sure, their a copper each, but since it is your first time here, I’ll give you an extra.” Yuna was very excited to hear that! She pulled a coin from the sash of her Kimono, the one Inari told her was copper, and passed it to the man. While the man wondered about the clothes the little girl was wearing, as well as how a coin didn’t just fall out of the bottom of the sash, he didn’t question it and accepted the coin. He passed her two skewers and pocketed the coin. Yuna went on her merry way as she vanished back into the crowds, almost as though she wasn’t there at all.

As she walked, Yuna started feeling something wrong? She wasn’t sure what it was, but it wasn’t something that she liked. Although it felt wrong, it didn’t feel like a power that an enemy could use, but just something generally disturbing in the area. Inari did say to learn as much as she could, and with that in mind, she went to investigate the source of this feeling.The area she ended up was surrounded by tents.

A man was exiting the tent Yuna was heading to. He turned to into the tent and Yuna heard him say, “and don’t worry, I will be back soon.” He then turned and headed away to wherever he was planning to go. After he left, Yuna went into the tent. The interior of the tent had two long mats to sleep on, both with a pillow and blanket. Filling one of the mats was a young girl with black splotches on her skin that appeared to be very weak. Yuna was certain that she was the source of the disturbance she was searching for.

Once more dropping out of her concealment, Yuna approaches the girl and asks, “why do you have black spots?” The girl’s eyes open wide as she sees a stranger in her tent. “W-w-why are you here?” the girl asks with a weak and shaky voice. Yuna tilts her head a little and responds with, “I felt something strange here. So I came to investigate.” With tears forming at her eyes, the girl begs, “Please don’t tell anyone about this! Please please Please! They will kick my me and my brother out of the village! Please don’t say anything! Please!”

Yuna felt very conflicted. She’s never had anything asked of her like this, and she knew she would tell Inari. “I’m sorry but a I have to tell ma--, um, my father about this.” Yuna informed while feeling a great amount of guilt. The girl began to full out cry and whimpered out, “...please..” Yuna really didn’t like seeing the girl in front of her cry. But she also knew she had to tell Inari about this. Thinking really hard on how to shop the girl from crying, she finally has an idea!

“Would it be fine if I got rid of the black spots?” Yuna asked hopefully. Once more, the girls eyes widened and she seemed to be shaking. Finally she spoke, “y-you can get r-rid of them…?” Yuna nodded her head and asked, “do you want me to?” The girl nodded and thus Yuna released her tails and ears. She heard the girl whisperer, “beastkin?” Yuna then produced a flame above her hand. Taking a moment to focus, the flame’s color changed to a bright blue. She then moved the flame towards the girl.

At first the girl stared at the flame in wonder as it appeared and changed color. When it came towards her however, she felt fear. She closed her eyes and waited for the burning feeling to come. Instead, she felt a warm sensation all around her and she slowly opened her eyes. She saw that there were blue flames wrapped around her and her resting place, yet nothing seemed to be burning. After a moment she realized that she was wrong, something was burning away. As she looked at her arms, she could visibly see the splotches of blackness fade away. She was unable to truly believe what was happening. It felt miraculous! Shortly after the blackness was completely burned away, the flames also vanished.

When the girl looked over to Yuna, she noticed that Yuna had a troubled expression. “Please don’t tell anyone about this” she was asked, to which she quickly replied with, “okay. My name is Lilianna, what is yours?” Yuan replied, “My name is Yuna.” Lilianna smiled and asked, “Would you be my friend Yuna?” To which Yuna nodded yes. They spent some time talking with each other befor Yuna finally left after leaving Lilianna the second meat skewer.

Name Inari Rank e Health 500 Health Recovery 25 Mana 500 Mana Recovery 250/300 Titles Creator of Kitsune, Molder of Souls, Friend of Fae, Tinkerer