It’s been a few days since then. Mort had come up with a few ideas but they were all denied by Rosanne. Eventually he decided that he’d had enough, that he wouldn’t be able to do anything if the wolves were always above them. So he decided that if the wolves wouldn’t move, why not move themselves.

So he decided to try, not telling Rosanne as he knew that she would never agree. He started with trying to make a small room around them. It was slow work as he had to push the dirt, compressing it, away from the gem, everywhere except for directly beneath them.

It took about three hours to make a small cubic meter room. It was square just for looks. It was a dark room with a slight glow coming from the gem, placed on a dirt pedestal in the centre of the room.

Unfortunately, it was that moment Rosanne decided to check up on him.

“What the hell are you doing! I told you to tell me if you had any ideas, not mess around and try to get us found!” She was furious at him. She had been through a lot recently so she had been under a lot of stress. So with Mort doing something without telling her, she used that as an outlet.

“You almost got us killed last time you did something on your own, we’re lucky that we haven’t been found and yet you’re moving things around and probably alerting everything in a few miles! We don’t need you living up to your name!”

Mort felt wronged. He’d only been trying help. From this feeling, stemmed anger.

“I was only trying to help! You would always say no to my ideas no matter what they were! Not even letting me try! You haven’t even given me a proper reason for it!”

As they were both very angry, the Dungeon Qi was becoming chaotic. The closer to the gem, the denser the dungeon Qi is, and the greater the connection they have with it. Eventually it got to be too much. They caused an explosion.

The energy in close proximity to them was getting too chaotic so the power needed to go somewhere. So, it went to the area with the least resistance. They blew a hole through the roof and opened an entrance to the outside world.

(Wolves pov)

The wolves had just been resting peacefully when suddenly, a loud rumbling and a giant “BOOM!” happened underneath a large rock next to the Alpha’s resting place. When this happened, the wolves thought they were under attack so they all grouped up and went to the location of the sound. But upon reaching the newly formed hole, what they saw was a small, cracked, gem laying on the ground. It was radiating a familiar energy but strangely enough they felt no desire to consume the gem so as to advance in power. In fact, they felt like protecting it, like it was something above them, something for them to listen to, something akin a god to them.

This was because they had been infected with the Dungeon Qi. They had slowly absorbed it and so the gem, the source of the Dungeon Qi, was higher in the hierarchy then them. It was the master while they were the loyal slaves.

When the leader of the wolves saw the gem, it decided to go down and show its respect to the gem. But when it jumped down to greet it, the wolf heard a voice in its mind.

“STOP! Don’t come any closer!” The voice was obviously panicked, but it sounded slightly childish.

The wolf stopped immediately. It felt confused. Why would their master feel so panicked?

When the wolf stopped, it felt through its connection with the gem that the voice was confused. It felt like it could almost hear whispering on the edge of its mind. There were two different voices, one was the childish voice from before while the other was a more mature and feminine voice. After a few minutes of that muttering, the childlike voice spoke.

“Um, please go back until I call you again. Oh, and please don’t let any others in either.” The childish voice sounded rather nervous. Like it wasn’t sure of what it was doing. This confused the wolf but it decided to do what it said.

It left and guarded the hole to make sure that nothing else could make it in.

(Mort’s pov)

“It, it actually listened to me. Hey Rosanne, why did that wolf listen to me?” Mort softly asked Rosanne, thinking that she might blow up at him again.

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“I, I don’t know. That’s the first time I’ve seen anything like that. I mean, there are some clans and sects that specialise in controlling beasts and insects, but they usually have to raise them through certain methods! I’ve never heard of anyone able to control something that they meet for the first time. It just doesn’t make sense! Haaa… I suppose that nothing has made sense recently either. I should just get used to it.” Rosanne felt resigned to the fact that nothing would make sense for her for a long time.

“Well, I suppose that for now we should just leave it be for now and get back to figuring out what to do. As long as the Wolves listen to you then we should be safe for now, but still, be careful around them. They are still beasts and we should look very enticing to them. Beasts aren’t that smart and they usually follow their desires.” Rosanne warned Mort, still feeling uneasy about the whole thing.

And so, for the next few days Rosanne went back to gathering energy and thinking of what to do about their situation.

Meanwhile Mort decided to try and communicate with the Wolves. He spent almost all his time trying to form a connection with them. At first it was difficult to connect with them as this was a completely new experience, but gradually the connection grew stronger and clearer.

Normally if a being was absorbing the Dungeon Qi, it would slowly form a connection with the source, and the longer time exposed, the stronger the connection, but as Mort was spending time and attention on the Wolves, the connection rapidly grew stronger to the point that he could feel the connection he had with them even without fully focusing on it. It wasn’t as close a connection as he had with Rosanne, and would probably never be but it was powerful enough that without outside interference, the bond would be almost impossible to break at their current level of power.

About a week after the incident exposing them to the Wolves, Mort was communicating with the one he talks to the most, the Alpha. It couldn’t be considered talking with as the Wolves were not smart enough to form words, but they could convey intentions. They were ordinary wolves for the most part, not Cultivating Beast. Not yet at least.

“We might be leaving eventually. That’s all Rosanne seems to be thinking about recently, a way to leave without being found out. You guys wouldn’t stop us would you. I mean, why can’t we just stay right here. You guys wouldn’t hurt us, in fact I get the feeling that you would even protect us… That’s it! We can just stay here and have you protect us!” Mort exclaimed.

“This way we won’t need to leave and we can have something to protect us. This is a great idea, just let me tell Rosanne. I’ll do my best to convince her. I can do it!” Mort was ecstatic with the idea. He had grown to like the Wolves during the time he had spent with the them.

The alpha on the other hand had been confused this entire time on who Rosanne was, as she never communicated with the wolves and did her own thing.

Mort rushed his consciousness back to the gem and started to excitedly shout.

“Rosanne, Rosanne. I have an idea! I know what we can do!”

“Oh no, I have a bad feeling about this. Well, fire away, let’s hear it.” Rosanne didn’t have much faith in Mort’s ideas, especially after the last few incidents.

“We can just stay here! We can just stay here and have the Wolves protect us! This way we don’t need to leave and we will have someone else who will listen to us and protect us.”

Rosanne felt like she had heard wrong. Have the Wolves protect them? Did Mort have something wrong with his head? It was a preposterous idea.

“Are you just trying to get us killed? What would ever give you such a stupid idea? Have the Wolves protect us? Have you gone out of your mind?”

“What’s so wrong with that?” Mort really couldn’t see what was so wrong with his idea.

“Umm, hello. They are beasts who would try and eat us in a heartbeat if they could. They won’t protect us.”

“But they haven’t tried to eat us once in all the time that they’ve known that we’re here. And they listen to what I say. Without complaining and finding non-existent problems with it, unlike some people.” Mort said pointedly, feeling a little tired with Rosanne’s attitude.

“So, just because they haven’t tried to yet doesn’t mean that they won’t, and just because they listen to you doesn’t mean that you can control them.”

“Why don’t you just give them a chance, what’s wrong with that. Remember when we first met the Wolves for the first time? The Alpha jumped down and started walking toward us, and when I asked it to stop and leave, it did.”

“They. Are. Beasts! They cannot be trusted.” Rosanne was feeling indignant. Why couldn’t Mort understand such a simple thing?

“Then give me one proper reason why the Wolves can’t be trusted. A good PROPER reason.”

“They… Uhhh.. Um… Well…” Rosanne tried to think of a reason other than ‘They are beasts’ to give Mort. “They, they, they… Fine, I don’t have a proper reason. But every time Humans and Beasts meet they try and kill each other.”

“But you said that there are people who can control Beasts, and we’re not human, remember?”

“But… Fine, we can give it a try, BUT, the first time they try anything against us is the last time we see them, OK?” Rosanne was reluctant at first, but gave in, in the end.

“Yes, you won’t regret it.”

“I already am…”

Mort was very excited with this new development. He rushed back to the alpha to tell him the news.

“I did it! I did it! We’re staying here!” Mort was almost shouting this. If he had a body he be practically jumping up and down with joy.

The alpha was happy that its master would be staying with them, though still confused about this Rosanne person. He felt especially touched that Mort was so excited about staying with them.