Ralia groaned and buried her face into the soft fabric in her hands. Why do I smell a human male? She slowly rose and stretched. The morning light felt good on her tail, and she took comfort in the morning chill. She looked around, but she didn’t recognize the room. Ralia scratched her neck and touched the collar around her neck. That’s right. I’m alone…Memories of last night returned and she looked around. The hero was nowhere to be found.

“What have I done?” Ralia hugged her tail tight, “How could I have shown such weakness in front of a human, and a hero at that.” She remembered crying into Nathaniel’s chest. The pain caused by the collar, and her own loneliness breaking her resolve. What’s worse, she remembered his warmth as he comforted her. “I don’t know what to do,”

Ralia took a deep breath, and the husky scent of a male invaded her nostrils. She sniffed around and found the smell coming from her tail. She growled in frustration as she threw her tail away and tore at her hair. Her face became unnaturally warm. He better be grateful! Ralia turned to the other side of the bed but found no one there. The only sign that Nathaniel was there was the wrinkled shirt in her hands.

Ralia picked up the shirt and stepped into the common room. Nathaniel sat on the sofa reading while eating breakfast. Another plate sat on the table. He was fully dressed in a pair of leather pants, and a basic brown shirt and leather vest. His worn boots had an unnatural shine.

“Sleep well,” Nathaniel said. He coughed nervously and turned away, blushing heavily, “Could you put some clothes on,”

Ralia smiled. My body makes him nervous, good. She stood there for a few moments, enjoying the human squirming in front of her.

“As you command,” Ralia put on his shirt. It strained against her chest, and she had to pull it hard to get it to cover her hips.

“Did you have to use my shirt?”

Ralia’s smile widened, “You told me to get dressed, so I did,” she said sitting down next to him.

Nathaniel sighed and tried to ignore her exposed thighs, “You’re enjoying this too much,”

“Consider this revenge for last night,” Ralia said looking away, “It’s unbecoming to show weakness, especially to a human.” She plucked a slice of bacon from the plate. An awkward silence fell between them as Ralia continued eating. “Are you not going to say anything?”

“About you sneaking into my bed naked,”

“About me trying to kill you,” Ralia cleared her throat and looked at him, “Don’t humans punish their slaves when they misbehave.”

Nathaniel chuckled, “It’s too easy,” he said, which caused Ralia to look at him confused. After a few deep breaths, he closed the book and looked at her, “No, I’m not going to punish you.”

“Why not?” she licked her fingers and grabbed another piece.

“Because I understand why you did it,” Nathaniel smiled, “Besides, seeing you cry last night is enough punishment don’t you think?” Ralia growled and turned away, trying to hide her flushed face, “But I think it’s important that we understand each other’s abilities. Mind if I look at you stats?” Ralia nodded. Nathaniel opened his companion menu and pulled up Ralia’s stats.

Ralia: (Health 450/450) (Mana 150/150)

• Class: Slave (Dragon Knight: Locked) Lv. 31

• Stats: (locked)

o Strength: 95

o Dexterity: 80

o Constitution: 100

o Intelligence: 35 (Max)

o Wisdom: 40 (Max)

o Charisma: 60 (Max)

• Talents:

o Chivalry (Advanced)

 Loyal knight

o Polearm Master (Advanced)

 Lancer

• Skills:

o Polearm (Spear) Lv. 55

o Polearm (Halberd) Lv. 45

o Shield Lv. 50

o Heavy Armor Lv. 60

“Your level is thirty-one, impressive,” Nathaniel said looking through her stats, “But why are some of your stats locked?”

“It’s because of the collar,” Ralia said with a sigh, “You humans don’t like it when monsters run wild.”

“Can I unlock them? I can!”

[Master has unlocked your stat. Class: Dragon Knight restored.]

Ralia looked at Nathaniel with wide eyes. “Dragon Knight, is that a class unique to your kind?”

“I-it is,” Ralia said still shocked, “My mother bestowed the class onto me a few days before our home was attacked.”

“How did she do that?”

“Through the dungeon core,”

Nathaniel simply stared at her, “Are you serious?” Ralia nodded, “I need you to tell me everything thing she could do with her core.”

“Mother could do many things,” Ralia said, “She used it to build us facilities to take care of our needs. She used it to manage our skill levels and bestow special classes to her favorite children. She even used it to increase or decrease our ranking.”

“Dungeon cores can change a person’s rank,” Nathaniel held his head, “These people are idiots,” he said, “Thanks for telling me about this.”

“Your…welcome,”

Nathaniel smiled politely, “Go put some clothes on.

The servants finished loading the last of the goods into the cart. Inside were four bars of Adamantium, three bars of Mithril, and two orichalcum. A trunk filled with magical tomes, and books on crafting magical items, and a crate filled with alchemical reagents, and valuable cloth.

“Are you sure about the cart?” Nathaniel said looking at Porman.

“Of course,” Porman said with a large smile, “I see this as an investment into our fruitful partnership. I’m constantly on the road since I must visit my trade houses in each city. Not to mention, I need to spend time with my other wives. So, it’s more beneficial for you to bring your products here.”

“How…many wives do you have?” Nathaniel said quickly looking to Cymella who stood behind Porman.

“I have a wife in Gilbrant's seven major cities, so, eight,” Porman said, “Rumand is special since this is where I started out.”

“I’m sure you’ll understand soon,” Cymella said with a smirk, “It’s important for capable men to have capable women at their side.” Nathaniel chuckled, “If there’s anything you need, please feel free to call.” Her eyes glistened mischievously.

“You should watch out for her master,” Ralia said from the bench, “I think she wants to devour you.”

“I do,”

Nathaniel cleared his throat and climbed onto the bench, “I’ll see you all next month then,” he said trying to ignore Cymella’s smile, “Until then,” he cracked the whip to urge the drebin forward.

“Until we meet again!”

Nathaniel gently guided the drebin through the streets and beyond the gates. The guards gave him a quick nod as the cart pulled onto the dirt road leading back to Treante. Nathaniel took a deep breath, enjoying the strong pine scent.

“I’m glad we’re leaving that place,” Ralia said stretching, “It was suffocating.”

“Oh, care to elaborate,”

“Those women wouldn’t leave me alone,” Ralia said with a heavy sigh, “Each night they demanded that I wash myself with their strange soap. Care to explain why it smells like food?”

“It’s to attract men,” Nathaniel said, “’The best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’ as they said back in my world, and I think they have a similar saying here. Truthfully though, men like women who smell nice.”

“But it covers the pheromones,” Ralia said with a cocked eyebrow, “How are you supposed to know when a woman wants to mate?”

“For me, [Intuition] will tell me,”

Ralia gasped, “You have [Intuition],”

“I do. I’d show you my stats, but I don’t know how.”

“You just have to desire it, and I’ll be able to see.” Nathaniel brought up his menu and it suddenly appeared in front of Ralia. Her eyes narrowed as she read through it.

Nathaniel Light: (Health: 300/300) (Mana: 80/80)

• Class: Inventor Lv. 43

• Stats:

o Strength: 45 (Max)

o Dexterity: 50 (Max)

o Constitution: 75

o Intelligence: 205

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

o Wisdom: 85 (Max)

o Charisma: 30 (Max)

• Talents+

o Innovation (Legendary)

 Creative Genius

 Crafter’s eye

o Intuition (Legendary)

 Crafter’s Intuition

• Skills

o Cooking Lv. 19

o Blacksmithing Lv. 52

o Armor smithing Lv. 43

o Alchemy Lv. 20

o Smelting Lv. 54

o Weapon smithing Lv. 31

o Runesmith Lv. 54

o Leatherwork Lv. 32

o Masonry Lv. 17

o Carpentry Lv. 24

o Sewing Lv. 32

o Arcana: 13

o Single-handed (sword) Lv. 9

o Shield Lv. 9

o Bow craft Lv. 14

o Fletching Lv. 13

o Trap making Lv. Lv. 14

Her glare made Nathaniel sweat, “You are level forty-one.”

“I am,” Nathaniel said, “I leveled up right before my trip. I wasn’t expecting to need twenty skill levels to level up.”

“The skill requirement doubles with each breaker level,” Ralia said, “But still, you’ll have an easier time getting to higher levels than me.” She sighed heavily, “My talents only boost polearm skills.”

“How many polearm skills are there?”

“You have spear, halberd, staff, and glaive, so four,” Ralia’s shoulder slumped, “Mastery of those skills end at level one hundred-fifty because not many choose to learn those skills, so new martial techniques are hardly developed.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s more weapons than those,” Nathaniel said trying to rack his brain, “And if not, I’ll create new ones,” he smiled at her, “Don’t worry Ralia, I see to it that you get to level one hundred.”

Ralia turned away, “Don’t be a fool, I’ll never get that high.”

They continued down the road in silence. The winter chill still hung around despite the sun being at its peak, and the wilderness around them was quiet. Ralia’s tail thumped against the wagon, and she turned back to him.

“Why did you say that?”

“Because I’m going to reach level one hundred,” Nathaniel said with a soft smile, “But even if I reach it, I’ll never be more than a crafter. I need someone I can trust to compensate for my weakness.”

“Don’t you mean control,” Ralia fingered her collar.

“Frankly…I hate that I gave in so easily,” Nathaniel’s eyes turned cold, “But Pomran was right. This is a different world, and I need to be rational,” Ralia gave him a strange look, “It wasn’t until I had to fend for myself, did I realize how fortunate I was back home. What would you think of a society in which food was thrown away in abundance, where people camped in the wilderness for fun, or where you didn’t need to walk to get to places?”

“Such a place doesn’t exist,” Ralia said with a smirk, “But if it did, then it would be a land in which the streets are paved with gold and buildings made of diamonds.”

“We didn’t have streets of gold, but most people were wealthy, more than they realized,” Nathaniel said with a sad smile, “Having to watch people sell themselves just to live makes me realize how easy my life was. I wonder if the other heroes realized this?”

“Then why not get the heroes to support you?” Ralia said.

“Because I don’t trust the Champion and Ranger,” Nathaniel laughed, “And from what I’ve heard, they’re just as bad now as when we first arrived,” he gave her a warm smile, “I think I can trust you. If anything, you’re earnest, and I like how loyal you are to Ysa’Meera. It’s a trait I’ve come to cherish a lot lately.”

Ralia huffed, “Mother was worth it,” she gave Nathaniel a sad look, “Did…someone betray you?”

“Yes,” Nathaniel’s eyes dulled, “He abandoned me when I needed him most, but my friends came to save me. Only for them to end up dying.”

Ralia frowned, “If you are alive because of their deaths, then you should honor them by living every day to the fullest,”

“I plan to, but I can’t do it alone. Will you help me Ralia?” Nathaniel said, “And in return, I’ll help you kick the Champion’s ass.”

Before she could answer, a tree fell onto the road in front of them. The drebin panicked and Nathaniel held the reins tightly to get the beast under control. Finally, it calmed down, but five men stepped out from the wilderness. Four wielded rusted short swords and a fifth wielded a bow.

“Get down from the wagon,” the largest man said, “Except for you lass. You’re coming with us.”

Nathaniel reached behind him and grabbed a sword and shield, “Sorry gentlemen, but I can’t do that,” he said jumping down. He turned to Ralia, “I think I can handle this.”

“Got ourselves a hero,” the bandits laughed, “Kill him.”

The archer shot an arrow at Nathaniel, but he ducked behind his shield. The arrow struck the metal and fell to the ground, but a rune on the shield glowed, and three bolts of lightning shot out and struck the archer and two other bandits. They fell to the ground with smoke rising from their bodies. The bandits gawked at the bodies, and Nathaniel charged forward and struck at the bandit leader.

The leader blocked the attack, “What the fuck! Where’d you get that shield?”

“Not telling.” Nathaniel said, striking again.

Ralia stared in awe. Three bandits laid dead after Nathaniel’s shield struck them with lightning. Mother, what happened? She saw, but she couldn’t believe it, and now Nathaniel was fighting against two other bandits.

Nathaniel went in for a strike, but staggered as he tripped over a rock. One of the bandits took advantage and stabbed Nathaniel. Thankfully, it didn’t result in a deep cut, and Nathaniel was able to recover. I see what he means. Ralia tapped her lower lip. A bandit went in for a strike, but Nathaniel raised his shield. The bandit flinched and backed off. He’s able to fend off the two of them thanks to that shield. Otherwise, they’d have killed him already. The wagon shook, and Ralia felt cold metal against her neck.

“Not so fast,” the bandit whispered pressing his knife against her neck. His other hand groped at her right breast, “You may be a monster, but I admit, you have a great body.”

Ralia growled and slammed her tail up hard. The bandit screamed, and she threw him off the wagon. She felt something warm run down her neck, and her fingers came back red when she touched it.

“Filthy human,” Ralia said jumping down and kicking him, “No one’s allowed to touch me without my permission!”

“Ralia!” someone grabbed her shoulder, and she turned to claw their face. She stopped when she noticed it was Nathaniel, “It’s over.” She noticed the other two bandits lying in pools of their own blood.

Ralia continued kicking the bandit, “This filth touched me!” she said, “He needs to learn his place.”

Nathaniel pulled her away and approached the bandit. The bandit raised his hand, pleading, but Nathaniel brought the blade down piercing his neck. Nathaniel cleaned off the blood, and then pulled out a health potion from his pocket.

“Drink this,” he said handing her the vial, “This will tend to that wound.”

Ralia downed the potion and felt the pain in her neck subside. She ran a finger over the wound. There was no trace of a scar.

“You should drink one too,” Ralia said when she noticed the many cuts across his body.

“That was my only one,” Nathaniel said, “I should have some bandages to treat these cuts though.”

“Fool, if you only had one then you should have drunk it,” Ralia’s tail slapped the ground kicking up dust, “My wound was barely a cut.”

Nathaniel laughed, “You’re probably right, but I saw you were hurt and decided to give it to you.”

Ralia turned around and growled. Damn human, what is he thinking?

“Ralia,”

“What,” her face was feeling unnaturally warm.

“Your tail…” All the heat drained from her face, and she quickly turned around. Her tail had wrapped around Nathaniel’s waist, and her movements caused the two of them to press together, “Are you alright?”

“Sorry,” Ralia was unable to look at him, “It…has a mind of its own.”

Thanks to the bandit attack, it was pretty much nighttime when they entered Treante.

“There’s someplace I want to stop by first,” Nathaniel said urging the wagon through the village, “After that, we can go home.”

“Home…it’s been a long time since I’ve had one,” Ralia said twirling her hair. She growled and her tail thumped hard against the wagon.

“Are you alright?”

Ralia’s tail thumped the wagon again, “Just fine.” Get a hold of yourself!

Ralia kept sneaking glances at Nathaniel. Her emotions made her inside twist uncomfortably. He’s one of the heroes. He’ll have to work with them in the future, and I’ll never forgive them for killing Mother. But…he did put my well-being first. The wagon came to a stop.

“We’re here,” Nathaniel jumped off the wagon.

Ralia looked around in confusion. They were sitting at the bottom of the mountains next to the cave entrance. Ralia jumped down herself and joined Nathaniel but growled when a group of strange creatures flew out of the cave. They looked like octopi with lightning striking in their glass heads.

Nathaniel placed a hand on her shoulder, “It’s all right,” he said, “They’re friendly.”

“What are they?”

Nathaniel gestured for her to follow, “My minions,”

Ralia stared at the creatures as she followed Nathaniel. Lanterns properly lit the tunnel. It’s wooden supports made it look closer to mine, that is, until they came to a set of thick metals doors with a red glass hemisphere sitting above it. The doors slid open, and light flooded into the tunnel.

It’s like they stepped into another world. The walls were made of pristine metal with bright white lights running along the floor and ceiling. Ralia’s tail shot straight up as a group of flying metal balls gathered around them. She clung tightly to Nathaniel and let out a deep growl.

“There’s nothing to fear,” Nathaniel patted her hand. Ralia buried her face into his back. What’s wrong with me? “That’s enough Seneschal, she’s with me.” The orbs chirped in response then flew off.

“More of your minions?” Ralia said, her left hand held her tail tightly.

“They are,” Nathaniel said, continuing down the hallway, “They’re designed to defend the dungeon.”

“Dungeon!”

They stepped up to another set of doors that immediately opened. The room was massive. Walls fifteen feet tall made of the same metal as the hallway. Metal counters with strange glowing lights were placed around the room, and at its center was the largest dungeon core Ralia had ever seen. It’s bigger than Mother's!

“I apologize for scaring our guest,” a voice echoed throughout the room causing Ralia to tighten her grip on Nathaniel. “No need to be afraid ma’am. Master Nathaniel has designated you as a guest.”

“Where are you,” Ralia said looking around, “What are you?”

“I’m master Nathaniel's dungeon assistant,” it said, “You may address me as Seneschal.”

“I-I’m Ralia,” she said prying herself off Nathaniel, “He purchased me in Rumand.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Lady Ralia,” Seneschal said, “Should I add lady Ralia as an administrator?”

“What would that do?” Nathaniel said.

“It’ll give Lady Ralia limited authority over the dungeon,” Seneschal said, “She wouldn’t have the ability to create new facilities but can spawn new minions and control existing ones and can use lower-level dungeon master abilities.”

“Do it,”

[Congratulations, you have been made an administrator.]

Dungeon Master Menu

Dungeon Core Lv. 21 (Energy: 450/900)

• Functions

o Warp (Lv.2)

o Advanced Minion control (Lv. 5)

o Dungeon Assistant (Lv. 10)

o Dungeon energy control (Lv. 15)

o Minor Core Extraction (Lv. 20)

• Minions (100/240)

• Domain

“Level…twenty-one,” Ralia gawked, “How?”

“I’ve been periodically feeding the core resources,” Nathaniel said, “This ‘Minor Core Extraction’ is new.”

“I rescanned the area and found a gold resource node about twenty feet up in the mountain,” Seneschal said, “It was quite large, and I was able to use it to level up the core twice while you were away. It’ll allow us to spend core levels to extract cores of similar levels.”

“So, if I extracted a level two core, then the main core would drop to nineteen?”

“Exactly,”

Nathaniel scratched his chin, “Seneschal, do the robots have ranks?”

“Yes sir,” Seneschal said pulling up a menu, “Here you can see the level, ranks, and skills of all minions.”

“What would it cost to raise their rank?”

Seneschal was silent for a moment, “It looks like it would cost levels to increase a minion’s rank. Would you like me to do that?”

“Not right now,” Nathaniel said turning to Ralia, “Do you want to see the rest of the dungeon?”

“Sure,”

She followed Nathaniel through a set of doors and down the hall until they came to a large chamber. Forges, smelters, looms, and other crafting stations were organized in this room. More of those strange robots manned the stations. They stood about six feet tall with six arms, four on the back and two at their side, and four legs that reminded her of a spider. Various tools were attached to the hands on the arms on their backs. Their triangular heads had six glowing eyes. They remind me of the kuroban.

“This is the fabrication bay,” Nathaniel said, “The fabricator bots convert raw resources into materials that I use for my inventions.”

“Is that all they do?”

“A few fabricators make the products I sell to Porman, but they’ll be instrumental for the future.”

Nathaniel led her down the hall. It turned to the left while a door with red paint stood in front of them. The door opened and another robot came through it.

“That’s an extractor. It mines the raw resources.”

He turned down the hall and came to another door. This was the largest room Ralia had seen. Strange metal cocoons hung from the ceiling. Ralia flinched when they started moving along the ceiling, and one cocoon separated from the others. The cocoon moved along metal bars to the wall and slid down the wall until it reached the floor. The cocoon opened with a strange hiss, and a large robot with a single eye stepped out.

“This is the robot maintenance bay,” Nathaniel said with a smile, “This is where the robots come for repairs and to recharge. That big robot is a guardian. They’re responsible for taking out the bigger threats to the dungeon. I think I’ll test advancing ranks on them.”

“How many of them are there?”

“We have five,” Nathaniel said leading her down the hall, “I decided not to summon more since they take up two minion slots.” He stopped by a small door, “This is my personal workshop. This is where I work on my projects, I don’t want others to know about.”

They turned down another hallway and came to a large set of thick metal doors with a strange glass panel on the side. Nathaniel touched the panel and the thick doors opened enough for them to walk through. Large shelves were evenly spaced and filled with large metal crates. An extractor, with a basket full of gold ore, pulled down a crate and opened it. It was filled to the brim with gold ore. Ralia stared at the gold, breathing heavily.

“This is the vault,” Nathaniel chuckled, “All our materials are stockpiled here for use.” He tapped Ralia’s shoulder and pulled her back. They followed the hallway back to the core room. “What do you think?”

The battle within Ralia ended. A twinge of guilt gripped her as she smiled at Nathaniel. Forgive me Mother. Ralia sidled up to him, “I think I’ll do well here, Master.”