Worrying, it seemed, had been for nothing.

While my kobold was very small, it seemed as if the creature was as clever and smart as it had claimed. It had barely been gone long enough for me to contemplate the far wall in my attempts to puzzle out how to build an alcove before it returned, breathless with excitement and furiously wagging its tail.

While the tunnel leading away from Mama and Papa Badger’s little den had been made tall enough that my kobold could easily stand on tiptoe and not quite touch the ceiling with its claws, the entrance tunnel was smaller. That soft yellow belly almost touched the ground as it wiggled its way inside, several things clutched in its arms and held to its chest.

“Core,” It whispered softly. “You are much the lucky, Core. Dungeon is in much favourable place, will make job very easy.” My kobold squeaked out, blunt nose nearly against the dirt as if it were speaking directly to me.

In a strange way it almost tickled. The breath fanned against the tendrils that made up my bulk, all a part of the floor that it crouched against.

“Perfect. The faster this gets done, the better. I don’t want to wake the badgers, and I don’t want you hurt. So finish as fast as you can, okay?” My kobold nodded frantically and I allowed myself to glow again, though it couldn’t be seen from where my kobold was. “Now, show me what you’ve brought me. Hey! Don’t trip over yourself!”

My kobold straightened back up, shaking its head as if it hadn’t taken any damage at all despite how hard its lower jaw had smacked against the ground, and scrambled towards the doorway that branched off the smaller tunnel.

Its tail thumped softly against the ground as it began to set short branches and twigs into the space, not below where the tunnel lowered, but above into the smaller space between floor and ceiling. “There are many many trees nearby, and many many grasses. Off in distance I saw cows, and sheep too. Will make great for the food, yes? But later, much later, after Core is safely behind door.”

As it spoke, words falling against each other in a soft rush like the distant whistling of those creatures that sung outside my tunnels, my kobold lay stick over stick carefully, stacking them up. I watched with interest as it did so, contemplating how this would work out. I had the basic idea in my head of what I wanted, but I wasn’t sure how it would work.

How much like a door did it need to be like before it would be considered a door and I would gain the skill? Did it need to open and close, or did it just need to block off the hole? I couldn’t be sure, so I could only hope that I would find out soon enough and that things would work more in my favour. I hadn’t thought that I was very lucky, and yet my kobold seemed to have a different opinion.

I was feeling pretty hopeful, though, as I watched the small stack rise.

“I will bring more, I will be quick fast, and then Core can eat some of the twigs next time. Yes?” I replied to the affirmative and my kobold seemed to smile at that, mouth opening slightly as the paler edges around its mouth curled.

Practically wiggling with excitement my kobold left the dungeon again, back into the great unknown, and I let my tendrils squirm over the pile of wood that had been left.

[Wood] Lvl. ??

HP: ???/???

MP: ???/???

Status: Immobile

There went [Appraisal], being as helpful as always… When are you going to level up and become useful, [Appraisal]? I know it’s wood! I know it’s not moving! Tell me something I don’t know already! Useless skill…

Oh!

I was so busy telling my kobold what I wanted that I completely forgot to use [Appraisal] on it! Sure I knew I wouldn’t learn much from doing so, but maybe that bit of newness would help out with leveling up [Appraisal], and then it could actually be of use to me. The fact it could read some things and not others was seriously annoying, and I had so many questions about my situation.

Patience. I needed patience. I could work on leveling that later when my kobold got back, for now I needed to focus on what I could actually do.

Mixed into the pile of wood were little bugs, ants and aphids [Appraisal] oh so helpfully informed me in its usual not actually really all that helpful way. They were small and weak enough that I was able to easily slurp them right off the branches and twigs without even the slightest bit of resistance. They tasted different from other bugs I had eaten so far in my short life, with the aphids being sweet and the ants having an odd sour but nutty kind of flavour.

Best part? They weren’t cold and slimy as they went down

Satisfied with my snack I returned my attention to the wall above where my core was currently sitting. I had told my kobold that I would make a place for my core to be sat, and I intended to keep my word. I didn’t know too much about myself yet, but it seemed that I was the kind of dungeon core that liked to keep my word.

Yes. I was an honest sort who enjoyed hard work, hated being lazy, kept my word, and was absolutely not obsessed with cute things. Not even a little bit.

So far I had tried digging down into things, and digging upwards into the same things, but I had yet to try picking a random place somewhere in the middle and burrowing out little nooks. It felt a little weird somehow, not wrong but not quite right either. I picked a place a bit higher up, far above where it seemed like the badgers could reach but easily where my kobold would be able to place me.

The dirt was firm, but it pulled away easily enough, falling away as if I were simply burrowing into a new place. I stretched my way forward, scooping out so that the top sloped in at an angle and the bottom was flatt and smooth. Small pebbles and rocks of dark stone were revealed as I dug, and I scooped them away to eat later as I set up a hole big enough for me to sit back into but not get lost. I dug a little divot into it so that I wouldn’t roll off the shelf and crack against the floor, and with that I was done.

I decided to check my stats to see how much had changed since adding in the new room.

Nameless [Dungeon Core] Lvl. 1

Title: None

HP: 10/10

MP: 48/50

Size: 8 M

Points: 33

Mobs:

Kobold 1/5

Skills:

[Appraisal] Lvl. 1 [Tunneling] Lvl. 2 [Room Building] Lvl. 1

[Mana Absorption]

So it seemed like eating new things had given me points, and another room had given me some more mana storage to work with, same as from where Mama Badger had dug out a room. Judging from my stat set up it seemed like I was practically built to store mana, which made sense considering that was what I used to move and what I ate. It sounded like a large amount, but considering how much I burned through just building and how slow it built back up it probably wasn’t as large as it seemed.

It was satisfying to see that I had doubled in size yet again, and such a nice solid number at that as well. It caused my core to glow brightly, rosy light turning the dark room flush and red. It almost looked like something that would be delicious to eat…

I gobbled up my bits of stone quickly in an effort to satisfy my growing hunger, but it was nowhere near as pleasing as the bugs had been. There was just something about eating something living that was so much more satisfying…

If I gave it the slightest bit of thought then it was probably obvious why that was: living things had mana in excess, and dirt and stone didn’t really seem to have that much at all. Honestly, other than the fancier rocks that I had yet to [Appraise], dirt and stone didn’t have enough mana in it to replenish what I used up digging.

Speaking of digging… With Mama and Papa Badger turning my entrance and my first room into their own home for their babies, whenever those were born, I really needed to focus on building myself a separate entrance that my kobold could use safely. I didn’t want to risk running off the badger family after all, not when they were a free source of infinite mana, and I didn’t want to risk them killing off my kobold.

Not only was I feeling oddly attached to the scaly little thing, probably because I made it, but I would have to build way more before I could get another monster that could leave the dungeon to gather things for me.

Both situations were ones I wanted to avoid at all costs. Which meant I was betting everything on getting this door situation handled.

I needed to conserve mana enough to make the door if things didn’t quite go right, fingers that I didn’t have crossed that I had enough points to purchase a [Door Building] skill if my plan didn’t work out, if that skill even existed to begin with. I was trying not to think about it too hard in case Inner Voice decided to get ahead of themselves and purchase it for me or something.

A tickling sensation near the entrance drew my attention from the far wall before I could begin to contemplate digging into it and what direction I would even head off into. My kobold, it seemed, had returned again. It had taken a bit longer but at least I knew that my favourite little green lizard was safe.

A burnt orange snout peeked in first, sniffing at the air, before my kobold wriggled inside with arms full of branches. These were a bit thicker than before, and a lot more numerous, enough to fill up my kobold’s arms completely. It seemed to be struggling a bit to wiggle low to the ground towards the hole in the wall while still keeping hold on the leafy pieces of wood trying to overflow from its arms.

I was happy to see my kobold return safe and sound, and with plenty of wood to work into the door. I couldn’t help my cheerful greeting. “Welcome back! You found lots of wood this time! Thanks for your hard work!”

Praise seemed to be a good thing because that thick tail began to wag quickly, swishing from side to side as my kobold rocked slightly, mouth open in a wide and happy looking expression as it crouched down near the hold.

“I am much happy to hear Core happy,” It practically purred, high pitched voice softly rumbly at the bottom of it. “Not many kobolds have such nice leaders. I like that you are the nice.”

That was curious. Kobolds didn’t normally have nice leaders? Was that something to do with other dungeon cores, or something to do with the dragons that had been mentioned earlier? I thought about that a bit as I watched my kobold begin to unload the branches and carefully stack them on top of the ones that were already sitting there. They used dark claws to rearrange things so that the lighter branches were sitting on the heavier ones.

“Do kobolds not normally have nice leaders?”

My kobold paused for a brief moment, head tipping, and then continued stacking branches. “I’m am not the sure, actually… I was just hatched, yes? But I feel like maybe… Maybe other kobolds not the lucky, no no. Not so much the lucky. Other kobolds…” They tilted their head sharply and I could see how hard they were thinking. “Other kobolds obey the strong, like dragons. Do their dirty work. Not praised like Core praises. No no.”

Dirty work… Somehow I got the feeling that my kobold didn’t mean physically dirty work, not like what I was having them do. No… They meant something worse, awful, and possibly far more dangerous than what they were doing at the moment.

I watched their surprisingly dexterous hands, tipped with claws as they were, stacking up branches. After a moment I made my decision.

“If you see any other kobolds out there… Can you ask them if they would like to come live here with you and me?” They grew still, large eyes huge and pupils eating up all the bright yellow colour. “It doesn’t sit right with me, that’s all. I’m the kind of dungeon core that believes hard work should be rewarded and praised.”

They were quiet for a moment longer, and then with a sniffing sound they returned to stacking wood with a nod, tail lightly thumping the ground. “Yes… Yes, I will do this for Core. Core might be small, might be weak, but Core is a very good dungeon.”

I began to glow again, hidden away in my dark tunnels, pleased by the praise that was being heaped onto me by my precious kobold.

“Hey, we’re two peas in the pod, remember? We’re both small, both weak, but we’re both very clever and tricky and we’re stronger together.”

The thumping grew that much faster, though still soft enough that it only sent Mama and Papa Badger shifting in their sleep. Mouth opened in a wide and happy smile, my kobold nodded. “Yes. We are the stronger together.”

We both seemed to be pretty happy about the whole situation now, and I watched with pleasure as they finished the new stack and stood up. “There. If you want please eat the leaves and… Maybe… Maybe if you want…If I do good job could you maybe give me a name?” They asked, almost shy, head ducked down as they rubbed their claws against each other.

A name? Really? I didn’t even have a name yet! Did they really not have a name? Just in case I gave a quick [Appraise].

Nameless [Kobold] Lvl. 1

Title: None

HP: 4/5

SP: 8/10

MP: 5/5

Oh… Oh wow…

Not only did my kobold not have a name, but they were so much weaker than even I was. Suddenly I was very aware of just how delicate they really were. No wonder kobolds apparently liked to stay together! If I were that weak I would be terrified of going anywhere alone! How very brave my precious kobold was to risk death and injury like that!

No name, no title, weaker than even I was…

“I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll come up with a name for you, and I’ll give it to you after you finish building the door,” That really set their tail to wagging, “But! You have to come up with a name for me in exchange. Deal?”

My kobold began to nod rapidly, little ear ridges flopping about and their pupils blown wide with excitement. They clasped hands over their mouth, clearly too happy to trust themselves not to be loud. It really made me happy to see it, beyond happy, really. If I could make my little monster so happy with just a name? Why would I not give them one?

They spun a little circle, the thick pads on the bottom of their feet lightly stamping the ground, and without giving me a proper answer they scurried for the entrance with their body wiggling back and forth as they ran on all four legs.

I could pretty much assume they had taken me up on the offer.

I would have to figure out a name for them while I got to work on digging out a new tunnel leading towards open air. The leaves and bugs on the branches I could save to eat later, after I had used up a good chunk of mana. I didn’t want to go filling myself up too much and wasting mana after all.

A name… I had a feeling, based on Mama and Papa Badger, that I might not be the best at names…