The three months passed by quickly for Leon. It had been a long time since he’d read anything other than Lore books and getting to read freely from the school library had vastly increased his knowledge in practically every aspect the Guilds functions. The guild was an empire in all but name. It spanned all 14 layers of the Heavenly Spheres had quadrillions of members and billions of Dungeon Cities in its control. But they did not actually control all of the Dungeons around individual nations throughout the Heavenly Spheres held control of equally as many Dungeons and many of those nations didn’t even allow Guild personnel within their borders.

As fascinating as his three-month study into the functions of an organization comprised of more members than the entire population of planet Earth by orders of magnitude, Leon realized that he had probably just done himself a disservice by reading it all. What more could the classes really teach him? This course he was about to start was all lectures on topics that he had just read about. Not that it really mattered, but he was probably in for a boring class. He wasn’t sure how long the classes were supposed to go on, but he’d take it as an opportunity to make friends.

Entering the classroom that already had multiple people in it was a slightly new experience for him in this world. He was almost always the earliest one to arrive anywhere he went. So, when he noticed five people within the room already Leon wasn’t sure exactly how to approach his own entrance. He felt awkward for the first time in a long time as opened the door and stepped in. He had already seen the occupants of the room through his various senses. But laying eyes on people was always different than using weird esoteric senses, even if they were better than his sight.

The five occupants of the room were, unsurprisingly, not humans. One was a young female Crylanth (think ben 10 crystal aliens but more human looking and more see through). An Orcanon (Basically a were-pig). A Deep Gnome. An Ommatidia. And curiously enough, a Spriggan. Spriggans were a lot like Groot but much more solid of form. No growing wooden tentacles for them.

This particular Spriggan looked female, and her skin was had the green look and texture of a leaf from some tropical rainforest plant. She was dressed in a bright yellow dress that made her look like a flower with her red hair. She was very pretty in an alien sort of way.

The Orcanon seemed like all the others of his kind that Leon had seen over the years. standing at over seven feet tall, deep pink colored skin, not a hair on him. His build was wide and ridiculously over muscled. His feet were like those of a pig on digitigrade legs. His pig like head and snout made the man look boorish, brutish even. But Leon knew that Orcanon were known to be particularly clever despite the massive builds and seemingly aggressive mannerisms.

The Crylanth was like looking a crystal-clear diamond that was carved into a beautiful female human shape then dressed in a flowing ruby colored dress. If she had human skin and wasn’t refracting light that passed through her like a prism Leon would peg her as a supermodel. It was like looking at a sculpture.

The Deep Gnome was just a Gnome who had obsidian colored skin. nothing really special. Though Leon did not that he seemed to be on the short side barely standing in at two feet tall. And the Ommatidia was practically indistinguishable from every other red Ommatidia. Honestly the best way to tell them apart if they weren’t one of the many color variants was their smells. Each Ommatidia had their own unique smell to them that stood out. Leon would remember this one easily.

Leon had processed all of this as he opened the door and stepped through. Waving to the group who all seemed to know each other already.

“Hi!” The Crylanth exclaimed in a voice that was just as clear as her body, “I’m Cynthia. And these are John, Daisy, Chad, and Helga.” She said pointing first to the Orcanon, then the Spriggan, then the Deep Gnome, and finally the Ommatidia.

Leon smiled, “I’m Leon Crumbl. Nice to meet you all.”

Chad the Deep Gnome gave Leon a strange look for a moment before shaking his head. But Cynthia just smiled and returned the greeting. Then the group kind of just went back to whatever discussion they were having before.

“Look there were fifteen caravans that left the city the day the overflow happened. It took the guild this long to figure out who all of them were and where they’d all gone. But now I know that my cousins are actually fine and dandy living Cracked Stone Keep. You can’t imagine how relieved the family was to hear that they were still alive.” Chad said, relief obvious in his voice.

“That’s good! I heard that-“

“Excuse me are you talking about the overflow in Dungeon City #1-39928?” Leon interrupted.

Chad nodded, “Yeah family relation of mine had moved there years ago with her husband. Technically an adopted great aunt, but her children are supposed to be cousins of mine, if in a distant capacity. The family is relieved because apparently her firstborn got into the school a while back. Only reason I know is that my Mentor has friends in the investigations department, and they just got a report last night. He heard about it and figured I should let my ma and pa know so they knew where to find them.”

As Chad was speaking more people had piled into the room. But the more important thing to happen was the teacher entering. Leon could immediately feel his presence the man was an honest to gods Tier 4. Leon had not seen many of these guys wandering around the campus, but Leon was wondering why the hell someone that was so powerful was there to be their instructor.

“Quiet down all of you.” The man said in nothing more than a whisper, but that whisper reached everyone’s ears and they all shut up instantly, “I am sorry to inform you all that this class has been cancelled. Something has come up that requires all of you. Report to your Mentors immediately, there is little time to waste.”

Leon didn’t even wait for the guy to finish speaking. He Blinked out into the hallway and began trotting at pace that would get him to Malorie’s home within a few minutes.

Leon arrived at Malorie’s home and found Malorie frantically running around the place pushing everything she owned into her Bag of Holding.

“Oh good! They said that they would get you to come back here. Also, I have a letter for you.” She said, not slowing down in her complete packing of the house.

“What’s going on?”

“The Diviners branch of the guild just spotted a Dungeon being born only 756,000 miles due north from here. We need to head out right away.”

“What about this letter that you supposedly have for me?”

“I’ll give it to you once we are on the airship. You’ll have plenty of time to read it then. I also managed to get ahold of the Body Lore books for you since you asked about them. Surprisingly easy to find.” She said as she literally shoved all of her cutlery and dishes into her Bag of Holding.

Soon everything that would fit into the opening of Malorie’s Bag of Holding had been stowed away and she signaled for him to follow her. Bursting out the front door and running in a direction that Leon had never gone before.

For Malorie, the pace she set was barely even an exertion. For Leon… He was sprinting with everything he had just keep up. Occasionally teleporting to not fall behind. Sometimes Leon forgot that he was already superhuman by his old worlds standards when he was always around Tier 3 individuals who could probably go toe to toe with most of the comic book hero’s he’d loved to read about as a kid, he just didn’t feel all that powerful.

Leon and Malorie kept up their pace through the busy streets of Dungeon City #1 for a good forty-five minutes before they arrived at their destination. It was a building that reminded Leon of the Eiffel Tower. Except that there were various Guild Airships docked at different points along its side. Malorie guided them both into the base of the structure and led Leon to what he assumed was an elevator, which was confirmed as soon as the platform began to rise.

Soon they were in a waiting area very similar to an airport passenger loading area. They were not the only ones there, Leon spotted Chad, Daisy, and Cynthia alongside the individuals who must be their mentors already there. And after only an hours wait there more than a hundred people here in the waiting area.

That was when the same Tier 4 dude who had come into the classroom appeared in waiting area. Quiet literally, he must have teleported in. He cleared his throat and smiled at the gathering of people.

“For everyone who made it here in time, congratulations. This is an opportunity that comes along quite rarely. A baby Dungeon forming is one of the best times to train our youngest generation. The trip to where the Dungeon has formed will take five days. During that time, you will teach your students what they need to know about Dungeon Diving based on their individual proclivities. You old hands know the drill. You all recognize the opportunity at play here. Make your students successful. Take this opportunity and run with it. Now get aboard the ship and off with you. There is no time to dither.” The man said before vanishing as if he’d never been there.

Everyone filed aboard the ship quickly, Leon finding himself pleasantly surprised by the fact that the interior of the ship seemed more like a mansion with fully furnished rooms for everyone. Malorie led him into one of the rooms and closed the doors, her hands were shaking slightly, and Leon could hear her heart beating at a rapid pace. Then she slumped to the floor and started laughing.

“Care to share what’s going on?”

“We are about to be the founding members of a new Dungeon City Leon.” She responded shaking her head slightly, “This means that when we get there, we will be getting not only first dibs on the Dungeon. But also claims on the land that is built on… So much Leon, this means so much. Dungeon City founders don’t pay a Guild Tax on loot from the Dungeons. Any of the Dungeons. It goes on your guild card. It also means that you and the other trainees will get to experience a Dungeon as it develops. Us Mentors will not be able to go into the Dungeon until it grows to match our Tiers, but the first completion awards for everything will be worth it.”

Malorie rambled on about all kinds of different things that were all benefits of being the Founders of a new City. Mainly to Leon it seemed like getting to do this was a highly sought-after thing, that it was first come first serve, and that every one of the hundred Founders were being set up to become filthy rich. Seemed like a pretty good deal to Leon.

After a bit of a ramble from Malorie she suddenly reached into her bag and threw a folded letter to him. Leon didn’t know who would have sent him a letter, it was simply addressed to him and had no indication of who it was from.

Carefully opening the letter Leon unfolded it and felt his heart do a strange series of flips. He recognized the handwriting as his mothers.

Dear Leon,

We have missed you a great deal since your departure to school we hope that you are well and in good health. Your father and I wanted you to know that we Love you and are proud of you. I am writing this letter to you to let you know of our change of address and current circumstances as well as to let you know you also have a new baby brother, Little Jerry. Shortly after you left for school we picked up and went on a trip to participate in a celebration of your father’s uncle’s birthday in Cracked Stone Keep. The party ran a bit longer than we had anticipated, but when we were about to head back home, we learned that there had been a Dungeon Overflow. So, we have remained here at Cracked Stone Keep and have stared our business here anew. Know that this is where you are likely to find us.

With Love,

Mom and Dad

Leon did not know how to feel. He didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry and his body didn’t seem to know exactly what to do either. He ended up doing both. Elation filling him as he realized that he was now only sort of an orphan again. His parents in this world were alive and well and had even made a brother for him. It took a little while for both Malorie and Leon to settle themselves after that.

“So, what books have you read on the subject of Dungeon Diving? And have you read any about setting up a Dungeon city?” Malorie asked once they had both calmed down

Leon thought about it for a minute before listing off every book he’d read that had to do with Dungeon Diving. It was a long list. Founding a Dungeon City though was not among the titles he’d read as of yet.

“Well then it seems that I don’t really have much to teach you in regards to Delving. All you really need to know about us founding a city is that we need to conform to the standardized layout, if at all possible, if not then we only need to conform to the road, Telepad, and defensive standards. Once we have a road network, Telepad, and defensive walls set up, we will be an official Dungeon Town.” Malorie shrugged, “ya got any questions?”

“What’s so special about a newborn dungeon?”

“They give out Elixirs like 90% more frequently.”

“If what I read about drop rates of Elixirs is true that still puts the chances at less than 2%”

“Yes, and to top it all off it will only be Tier 1 Elixirs. So, they won’t be effective for anyone other than you students. Which also means that you all are getting a massive opportunity and potentially a huge leg up over everyone else out there. I know I didn’t even see my first Elixir until I was a Tier 2.”

“I read the effects of a lot of Elixirs. They seem like they are very valuable. With only fifty of us allowed to dive the Dungeon I’d assume we also have an advantage based on the number of dives we will be able to do per week?”

Malorie nodded, “Yep, a baby Dungeon can usually support ten dives a day. Meaning that we will be splitting you all into ten groups of five and giving you all one dive a day. If we are lucky the dungeon should be pushing Tier 2 by the end of the founding period. 3 years we will have this dungeon to ourselves. Meaning over a thousand dives for you trainees in a Dungeon that won’t really be able to kill you all yet. Baby dungeons don’t usually have very lethal traps or monsters for a long while. Hopefully its at least got a few floors already. Dungeons usually pick up the monsters and creatures from its environment first. Then after a while, things start mutating and changing to be more lethal. Depending on what’s in the area we might want to feed the Dungeon a few monsters to kickstart its development if it doesn’t have anything yet. The better its monsters are the more likely it is to give out Elixirs or maybe even a Relic.”

In his past life, Leon had read numerous Dungeon Core novels. They had actually been one of his favorite types of books. Malorie had just confirmed for him that monsters fed to the dungeon were the kinds that it would make. He could turn the dungeon into a Earth monster dungeon. It would be the safest way for him to make Earth creatures and not let them destroy ecosystems. This meant that he had five days to make a bunch of Earths wildlife to be ready to feed to the dungeon when they got there.

“How will the first people to enter be decided?” he asked.

“Well, that’s not really a position that you actually want to be in. Being the very first ones into a dungeon is usually a waste of time. This is a baby Dungeon; it probably won’t even have monsters in it yet. We will have to wait at least a month when we get there to let nature take its course for a bit. And probably throw in a couple of the local creatures ourselves to be sure.”

Leon listened and nodded along.

“I have a few monsters in my Utility Pocket that I can feed it. They are definitely creatures that would be perfect for a newborn dungeon.” He said when she finished.

“Do I even want to know why you are keeping monsters in your insanely overpowered storage skill? Seriously that skill is broken.” She replied.

Malorie had been extremely jealous of Leon’s Utility Pocket when he’d told her about it. Storage skills were among the most coveted skills in existence and his own skill was in a league of its own apparently.

“Having a monster as a distraction seemed like a good idea. So, I may have grabbed a few at one point or another. And they are all perfect for Tier 1, dangerous, but not overly so for those of us who have a Hero title or even just a few body enhancing skills. Are all of the other students also Heroes?”

“Indeed, they all are. The guild prioritizes leveling up and training Hero Titled individuals over almost everything else. Those with the Title simply have too much potential to not be nurtured. Obviously, anyone who naturally has Perfect affinities also falls into that category and are treated the same. But all of these students here are definitely Titled.” Malorie explained, “I’ll let the other mentors know that we brought along some creatures for the dungeon. Once we arrive just go to the entrance room, kill them, and leave them there. The Dungeon will take care of the rest… Also, I don’t really care what monsters you release as long as it’s not a Slime. Slimes tend to be… problematic.”

“No Slimes got it. Wasn’t planning on that particular one. Question though, does the dungeon need adult monsters or can it be a baby or an egg?” he asked.

“That’s actually a good question. And the answer to it is that the Dungeon really doesn’t even need the whole animal at all, and it doesn’t matter what age the thing is. It’s been noted that Dungeons start making creatures which correlate with the different kinds of leather or wool that those who die within them are wearing at the time of their death. Someone apparently went into a baby Dungeon one time with a picknick basket full of cheeses, meats, and breads and the dungeon started making wheat, various milk producing creatures and farm animals. Not really a good start but at least that Dungeon Town had plenty to eat.”

“That is all I needed to know.”

“Well with that out of the way I think I am going to go and talk to the other mentors. Have fun and introduce yourself to the other members of the expedition. They are going to be your colleges for a good long while.” She said before leaving the room.

Leon quickly settled onto his bunk and entered Meditation. The now continuous flowing streams of misty mana greeted him as always. He was happy to see that the mist was now a tiny bit thicker than had been before started this whole project. Though it was barely even noticeable, it was good to see that he was actually making progress. Focusing on the task at hand Leon brought up his Create Monster skill.

Quickly going through the lists of animals Leon went for the things that always stood out to people back on earth as dangerous or powerful. Lions were obvious. Polar bear because it was the largest land predator modern Earth had to offer. Tigers, again obvious. Elephant… Leon almost didn’t want to put that one in there but decided with peoples superhuman nature in this world it was not unreasonable to fight one. Wolf, Wolverine, Honey Badger… Gorilla. And just because he could Chihuahua. Leon was making a list in his head of the different creatures that he wanted to provide the Dungeon. He’d started with mammals. Deciding to just make them in their embryo form. It took a tiny amount of mana.

Leon made the Mammal embryos one by one within the confines of his soul. Slipping them into his utility pocket the second they manifested. That done, Leon moved on to reptiles.

Diamondback rattle snake, King Cobra, Black Mamba, Fer-de-lance, Komodo Dragon, Nile Crocodile, and just for fun the terrifying Galápagos giant tortoise.

Leon repeated the procedure but made the full eggs this time. Insects were the next on the list, but Leon decided against that. He really didn’t want to unleash mosquitos on the world. So, Leon decided that he was giving enough with that. He would feed it more in the future.

His whole creation of a bunch of wild viable versions of these creatures had eaten up a good chunk of his mana. But Leon still had quite a bit more left in the tank and he was refilling quite rapidly. With that little task out of the way Leon decided it was time to go and ‘get to know the neighbors’ as they say.

Malorie FleshShaper

Malorie could not believe her good fortune. The birth of a new dungeon within range of Dungeon City #1’s jurisdiction was a minor miracle. A minor miracle that she was thankful for being able to take advantage of. Becoming a Founder was a huge deal. It meant wealth and prestige the likes of which most people could only achieve by moving down to second or third layer of the heavenly spheres. Up here on the first layer where mana was so thin it was much more difficult to achieve anything that would produce as many gains as being a founder.

Malorie wasn’t starving for wealth or resources. She was very well off already. She wasn’t as excited about this for herself as she was about what it meant that she could do for Leon. She had had difficulty acquiring Lore books for him without raising suspicions before. But now she could lay claim on building the city library and put in requests to Dungeon City #1 without any suspicions being levied against her. Skill books, potentially even a few Elixirs for him would not be off the table.

Now Malorie was not selflessly trying to raise Leon up. Having a Mentee excel beyond the boundaries of his peers was a way for her to get herself into an instructing position on a deeper layer. Meaning that she could potentially advance farther and continue her own growth. For this all to happen she needed to nail down a few deals with the other Mentors. The library was never a major point of contention among Founders. It was always the Inn, the harvest processing, ore refining, those sorts of things that people fought over. Those things were where the real money was.

While making her rounds, chatting with the other mentors she spotted Leon chatting with a Crylanth girl. A little while later she saw him chatting with a Spriggan girl. Malorie was talking with Elered, a Goblin Mentor, about her laying claim to the city library when she spotted Leon surrounded by what she assumed was every female Mentee on the ship. They were all sitting in the lounge area drinking something and conversing happily. While off to the side Malorie spotted multiple of the male Mentees glancing over at the gathering of women surrounding her pupil with obvious jealousy.

Malorie snorted at the sight. Leon had no clue what he was getting himself into by being popular with all of the ladies.

Leon Crumbl

Leon wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Despite Leon having really never flex his social muscles ever in either life, he’d left his room and immediately ran into Cynthia. They’d gotten to talking and soon Daisy had joined them. Then it was like a cascade effect and suddenly Leon had more people around him talking than he really knew what to do with. He caught his mentor giving him a smirk from across the way but didn’t really understand why?

After talking with the crowd of ladies for nearly an hour Leon suddenly realized what was wrong. The gathering of other students with him was made up of exclusively females. And there were strange undercurrents to the conversations between them that felt almost hostile. Daisy and Cynthia seemed to be very gently but aggressively posturing towards each other. The air seemed to be charged almost like a battlefield. Women were scary in their passive aggressiveness when they didn’t have what was basically superpowers. Now Leon felt goosebumps rising on his flesh as he realized that he was sitting in the middle of women who were all being very friendly to him but were obviously pretending to get along with each other. He felt like he was at the eye of the storm.

Trying to figure out what was going on Leon’s brain started running at a million miles an hour. Until suddenly his mind all at once focused on what the real problem was.

Progenitor: This title is gained by being the only member of your variant species with the capability to reproduce. Effect: Sexually mature females who are capable of breeding with you will find you more attractive and are more likely to conceive offspring with you.

His Titles effects were doubled. Somehow, he’d become a Chick magnet. And for some odd reason Leon only felt like he’d be losing if he engaged with any of these women as anything more than being their friend. If he showed even the slightest bit more interest in one of than the others, he felt like things would end badly with this group. Though polyamory was quite normal in this world, it was more that it was normal among individual species. Not necessarily across the board. Also, Leon was damn well aware that he wasn’t ready for a relationship at all. He’d planned on simply visiting a brothel if he was ever getting too randy for his own good, but his desires were very easy to control. Whether it was because of his skills, Titles, or his Trait Leon didn’t know. But he’d been able to suppress himself easily without even a complaint from his body.

All that being said, Leon was now facing an extremely difficult challenge. How to extricate himself from a flock of females that would probably blame each other if he didn’t reciprocate some of the flirting that they were throwing at him more openly now. How to do it without hurting his own social standing among them… And how was he to make sure that the guys that were throwing dirty looks in his direction would see him as a friend and not competition.

An idea came to him as the topic of conversation turned to the new dungeon that they were about to be going to. They wanted to know what he thought about the whole thing.

“Well, I know that they are going to have us all group up into parties of five. And we are all supposed to get a dive a day until the Dungeon can handle more. I actually came out here to get to know everyone so that I could hopefully form a team that compliments each other’s strengths and covers for our weaknesses. I’d class myself as a kind of hybrid between a Rogue and an Arcane Knight Archetype. I’m very stealthy when I need to be.” He said, hoping to drive the conversation into something productive and more businesslike.

“Well, I am very much a Defender Archetype.” Cynthia said, “I’ve focused mainly on resistances and getting my regeneration as high as possible. My affinity is earth magic, so it lends itself well to that.”

“See, we should all get to know each other’s main styles and then group up based on what we want our roles to be within a five-person team.” Leon remarked.

This started a whole round of discussions that were significantly more amicable than before. Leon waved to the other guys and tried to pull them into the discussion with some success. Soon all fifty of the students aboard the ship were all gathered around the main communal area and discussing team comps, different specialties, and the like. Leon was pleased that his distraction tactic had gathered everyone together. He didn’t really care who his own team was made up of. By himself, Leon could serve as basically any role. He figured that he would end up being an off tank in gamer terms.

Once the discussions were in full swing Leon leaned on his Perception Filter skill just a little, slowly powering it up to the point that everyone around him seemed to be ignoring him. Then he activated Stealth and slipped away from the crowd. Smiling to himself as he hurriedly made his way to his shared quarters with Malorie. Introductions had gone very well.