Crap, living things need food and water. Crepe? Bah, trying to keep up with the memetic rubric she speaks in is such a pain.

Well, at least it’s easy enough to get her some water. Little energy, a touch of pressure, minor circle along the pipe to purify and provide some minor healing effects and… bingo. Dungeon spring. Even remembered to put a lip around the fountain.

“Um… where’s the drain? I don’t wanna drown.”

“Why do you living things need so much air?!”

Crap, did I just vocalize that?

“Well, fish don’t, but rabbit girls do. Thanks for the water though, I know you’re doing your best. Just put in a way for the water to go down so it doesn’t overflow the tub, and make sure the universe doesn’t go down the hooole.”

Why did she… ah. Another memetic slip. Probably a very good thing her mother worked hard to prevent someone else being exposed to a massive surge of cosmic energy in-utero. One of these is annoying enough, even when you can cross-reference what she’s saying with the proper database. Can’t imagine how hard it was to deal with her in her own world, where none of it would have made any sense at all.

Anyway… food. Food. Would be easy enough, except…

ERROR: Unable to generate organic matter.

Reasons:

*Insufficient source materials.

*No templates found.

*Insufficient energy source.

*Dungeon unguided; all growth functions locked.

Well… how to explain this to the rabbit girl currently trapped in a hemispherical chamber about a hundred meters underground? Not quite sure… oh.

“Uh, Guiying? I’m getting a 404 error on food creation, and we’re a long way off from the nearest MacDonnell’s.”

“Oh. Well, gimme the exact error message. Maybe we can figure something out?”

I did, and she sat and thought about it.

“Can’t do anything about not having anything in the fridge and an empty cookbook. Might be able to upgrade your reactor though. Know how to summon… no, wait. Can’t bring in anything living, and I don’t wanna get too close to the fairy. Guess I’ll have to do for that part. Right! Time to touch the brain!”

Wait, what?

Guiying came over, and reached her hand toward the small ruby that served as the core of my being. No. Nononononoonono…

Entity Guiying Tuzi (Species: Lepus Sapiens) is offering to contract as your guiding force. Rejection of this contract will annihilate invasive entity.

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Her hand was getting closer, and I panicked, pressing the button marked “Okay” in my sensory interface. I didn’t wanna kill the girl!

Contract established. Mutual annihilation averted. Guiying Tuzi (L. Sapiens) is now contracted dungeon guide for Rhys (G. Loci Minor). Life forces now synchronized, starting tutorial.

Wait… tutorial? What? Hold up, hitting “Cancel” would’ve killed us both?!

Welcome to the wonderful world of dungeon management! As this is, inevitably, your first time, let us start by providing you with some free gifts!

Suddenly, an interface popped up in my vision, with all sorts of things I was completely unable to understand.

First, let’s provide your dungeon guide with some food. They’ll be your advisor and companion for the entirety of your mutual existence, so be sure to treat them well! To feed them, please select “Create.”

A floating arrow bounced over a highlighted option, and I got the sense that I wouldn’t be able to do anything else until I selected it. So I followed along. Turned out I now had a moderate selection of cooked dishes I could create, and a resource called “Organic Matter” that could be converted into all sorts of things. I couldn’t create anything that was truly alive, but a plate of something called “curry rice (extra spicy)” was easy, and Guiying seemed to take to it with gusto. I also had a small selection of drinks referred to as “tea,” and opened the menu to the selections, then got a temperature choice when I picked one.

Apparently Guiying rather favors a cold barley tea, and thanked me for it.

A few other steps had me setting up waste disposal for Guiying, with everything that went into it being cycled back into my resources, minus a small amount. Entropy was a constant, after all.

And this concludes the basic tutorial! For more help, please consult your Dungeon Guide. Have fun, and best of luck!

And suddenly, the interface shut down. I could call it up at any time, but I was back to my own base senses, such as they were, and nothing was being forced on me.

Wait, if I wanted more help I had to ask Guiying? She had no idea what I was doing either!

“Mmm, thanks for lunch Rhys! But is this little room all you have?”

It was, and I was feeling a bit annoyed that I hadn’t been given more advice.

“Your influence goes all the way out to the surface, right?”

Influence? What?

“I was managing a download while I ate. Your influence is basically the part of our surroundings that is, for lack of a better term, you. Mostly the solid stuff because liquids and gasses move around too much for you to be part of them. Extends in a sphere from your core a set distance, though this distance will expand with time and energy. Since you made a couple air holes to keep the bunny from dying in the box, you can reach out to wherever the sky is. Right?”

I could, but I felt like it was a bad idea to do that. Not sure why.

“Well, a true entrance breach is inadvisable until we can develop a layout and plan some starter mobs. I just want an apartment of my own. Tired of sharing everything, no offense.”

Right. She was a member of a ridiculously massive family, and a touch neglected even as a favorite. Hand-me-downs and shared space were just part of her life.

Fortunately, I had some idea of how to develop space now, and the system had given me templates for things she was used to and things she liked. In no time, she had a studio apartment off my core chamber, with an attached bath and small kitchen. It wasn’t exactly what she’d come from, but our contract had us reading into each others’ minds a bit now, and this image came to me from something called a “manga.” She didn’t know what that was either, but she liked the look of the space and made it into her mental dream home.

The squeal she made would’ve shattered other forms of crystal from the resonance, and she immediately thanked me profusely.

“Even a kotatsu! Not that we need one down here, but it’s the aesthetic that matters.”

Such a strange girl. Well, we were stuck with each other pretty much permanently now, barring very specific events, so I’d just have to get used to her.

“Right. Gimme a bit to sort out my stats, then we’ll talk mob types.”

Mob? When did she develop ideas about organized crime?