Captain Dom-aella knocked on the ambassador’s door.

“Enter!”

The captain entered and bowed. “We should be in sight of the islands soon, is there anything you wish us to do?”

“Nothing beyond ensuring that the empire’s ensign is flying over the ambassadorial flag.”

“Sir!” snapped out Captain Dom-aella and left the cabin closing the door as she left.

* * *

Mary watched as the obvious warship entered her newly expanded domain and determined that it was most likely on a diplomatic mission. When the ship broke out the ensign on the Luvarian Empire over a diplomatic flag she knew she had to prepare for visitors. So considering it was in her domain she did some spying to confirm appearances.

« Trish we got visitors comin’, an embassy from the Luvarian Empire. »

« Drina, go tell Danilus Oakborn that an embassy from the Luvarian Empire will be arriving at Silverton tomorrow early, probably just after dawn. Then tell Rafael Twiceborn and mayor Jaasoon Sunhigh. And your parents that you will of course be representin’ me to the Emperor’s third cousin the ambassador. »

Alesandrinna the Voice did her assigned rounds in the temple fort sowing consternation in her wake and then visited Silverton where she left satisfaction.

Viriaathos and Rhondaa smiled as their daughter called to them. “Mary asked me to tell you that I will be representing her to the ambassador who is the Emperor’s third cousin tomorrow.”

Rhondaa regarded her daughter standing there in her bare feet dressed in a damp swimming costume under a stained beach robe. She felt faint as she tried to remember what Drina had in her wardrobe.

“Which Emperor dear heart?” asked Viriaathos.

“The Emperor of the Luvarian Empire,” replied Drina with satisfaction.

“When tomorrow?” asked her mother.

“Dawn.”

Rhondaa grabbed her daughter and headed for their rooms followed by Viriaathos who was also feeling stunned. The Luvarian Empire was one of the more powerful states in the South.

A bewildered Drina found herself being ordered to bathe and wash her hair while her frantic mother dug out long unused dresses for her daughter to wear.

* * *

A small lightly dressed cat ‘folk male strolled into Copper Town a few hours after midnight, his fur was sandy coloured and his ears were large and alert. His long tail had two dark rings and a black tip.

Finding everything closed he shrugged and settled down outside the Adventurer’s Guild, where he seemed to fade from sight, to await some sign of life grumbling to himself about the unnatural habits of humans and their ilk who liked being out during the day.

One hour after dawn Abriman and Reeva were heading into the guild when a small catman seemed to materialize from the shadows by the door of the guild not more than two meters from them.

“Morning Paladin, Mother wants you tell your master that if all the other dungeons he wanted her to free have links to Earth she will be pissed. She says to tell your master to tell her where the ones without links are.” Then Shadow grinned showing his fangs as he faded into the shadows once again leaving a final message behind him. “I’ll be at the Grey Goose sleepin’ the day away.”

Reeva shivered, a shadow mage here in Copper Town, “who is his mother and why does she think she can give orders to a god.”

Abriman stared at the spot the catman had vanished from, “unless I’m mistaken Mother is Mary Silvestre the Blue Lagoon Dungeon. And she can give Hel-Arlizzy because...” Abriman paused as his god whispered in his mind, “... because she is Occidon’s consort.”

Reeva stared in disbelief at Abriman, “A – a dungeon is the Earthshaker’s consort?”

“Apparently. Hel-Arlizzy just told me that. Remember that hell dungeon we visited with a guide. Well that’s her work.” Abriman snorted, “I’m told that that was her attempt at a starter dungeon. Please excuse me I have an urgent message for Shadow.”

“Shadow?”

“The sand cat, sorry the cat man, Blue Lagoon’s messenger,” and with a nod Abriman strode towards the Grey Goose hoping to catch Shadow before he settled down for the day.

Reeva watched her friend walk away and turned to enter the guild she had to report the presence of an accomplished shadow mage.

* * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

Rachel Daniels kept opening her tiny ice tunnel as her new body kept sliding down it. Several times she stopped for a rest while her energy regenerated oh so slowly. Finally she sensed something, she latched onto it and striped it of its energy and for the first time since arriving in this icy wasteland she was able to think. She examined what had just happened and was aghast. She had killed a self aware being, thing, a sword that had screamed in rage and fear as she stripped it of its life.

After some time, though she had no way of knowing how much time passed while she wept internally she once more took interest in her surroundings. She was about fifty meters above the scoured rocky surface of a ruined city, just the cellars and sewers remained. The buildings had all been ground away by the ice. There was more than a kilometre of ice over her – her core? Yes her core or body as it now was.

« Congratulations Ms Daniels on your rebirth as a dungeon core. Are you ready to initiate your Dungeon Start Up Sequence? »

« Where am I and who are you? »

« You are under the Southern ice cap on Parthia. I we are the System. Now are you ready to initiate your Dungeon Start Up Sequence? »

« yes »

« Ms Daniels please choose your primary Monster Type. And please be aware that you will be restricted by this choice until you accumulate sufficient manna and experience to gain further advances. »

« Lesser Undead— »

« Minor Ice Demons— »

« Your Suggestion— » « penguins? »

« ... Penguins it is. »

« Be aware that a companion will be found for you but this may take awhile due to your current location. »

Rachel scoured the area for more magical items and stripped some of the unaware ones of their magic while absorbing all the others she found for later. Then she summoned an Adélies Penguin and had it pick her up and they proceeded slowly north as Rachel opened an ice tunnel for them to move somewhere where there was life to be had. Instinctively Rachel knew she needed other living things to prosper.

* * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

“Mary, are you sure that you want to do this?” asked Mike Silvestre of his daughter.

Mary tried to find a comfortable position in the cramped aircraft seating, glaring at her knees jammed up against the back of the sear to her front and sighed. “If I don’t do it someone else will and they’ll bug me until they find that other. At least this way I’ll get somethin’ for the aggravation.”

Mike snorted, “something you say, lots of money you mean.”

“Money’s easy daddy, need some favours maybe,” she glanced at her fathers dubious expression and grinned. She showed her father her open hand then held it palm up in front of his face and concentrated. A twelve millimetre pearl materialized on it and she placed in her father’s breast pocket. “See?”

Mike reached into the pocket of his shirt and examined the pearl carefully. “How?”

“Pearls are easy, diamonds an’ rubies an’ the like are harder ‘cause they’re not linked to the ocean. Money’s not a problem except that I have to justify it. Gotta keep the authorities happy. So I kinda like natural pearls, an’ I can give them interestin’ sheens.”

“But why are you agreeing to this enchanting if you don’t need money?”

“This will be money that can be traced and justified papa. Then I bet they will figure how to detect ‘em soon enough. I can.”

Mary squirmed in her seat once again and sighed. ‘Yeah, an’ I’ve already updated Jeep so that detect spell won’t work on him.’

On arrival at Honolulu the Silvestres left the plane and headed to where their transport to Pearl was waiting. They got a restricted tour and had a meeting where the terms they sought for Mary’s help were agreed without a complaint.

The drone was easy, the two enchantments were swiftly applied though Mary deliberately applied them slowly stretching out the spellcasting. Mary eyed the frigate dubiously, she knew she could do it easily enough but she didn’t want to use that new improved manna her other self had gifted her with.

‘Nothin’ I signed says I can’t make these things in my dungeon, maybe in the future when I can afford ‘em. No chance of usin’ ‘em on Parthia. Nobody’s got the skills needed to man the thing.’

Mary squared her shoulders and spent the next few hours enchanting the frigate after claiming it. The final thing she did was releasing her claim after checking that she had a viable template for the old fully armed frigate. Then she implied that she was tired and asked to return to their hotel for the day.

Sunday saw her back talking with numerous officers and men of the Navy’s technical branch. Several had seen the tests the navy had carried out on the drone while Mary was occupied with the Frigate. And preliminary tests on that had so far been positive so there were many willing to try to become enchanters. By the end of the day there were three new enchanters that had learned as much as Mary could teach them at their level. Also they had been introduced to the System and shown the relevant options.

The Silvestres took the evening flight home and Mary fumed anew at the discomfort of the accommodations. Then again she suspected she had grown again.