Core had no idea what to expect from this notification but the fact that it said unknown and nearby gave him a bad feeling.

Unknown things were kind of scary as Core knew. He felt it as well whenever an unknown invader entered the dungeon. The unknown thing being nearby gave him a bit of hope that it wouldn't enter his dungeon and just go about its way.

But there was still the chance it would enter, so he treated it like a normal invasion notification and set his sight on his entrance.

The rain outside had stopped and the sky was clearing up letting through the sunlight. Core held his sight there for a few minutes and the mountain didn't shake like before. Still, Core wasn't feeling better about it and he hoped the red box would quickly tell him that the unknown had left. And then the light turned to darkness as something blocked out the sun. Core switched to his dungeon sight and saw a massive golden-colored eyeball surrounded by large scales peering inside.

One part of Core was relieved that such a big creature wouldn't possibly be able to enter his dungeon. The other part was terrified that the creature might rip apart the entire mountain instead.

The giant eyeball withdrew and a large snout became visible stopping when huge nostril was visible. The air inside the dungeon got sucked out as the creature inhaled deeply. Hot air came rushing back inside as it then exhaled the same air and then the large snout retracted itself as well. Silence followed for a couple of minutes after that and Core hoped that would be the end of his interaction with the unknown creature.

Then another figure had appeared before his dungeon entrance and peered inside. The face of the creature obscured by a robe the same colored eyes shining brightly The figure was slightly taller than his entrance and then started to shrink its size down to fit inside his entrance and walked in.

Warning: has entered the dungeon!

Core was at a loss about what to do about the invader. This wasn't an opponent that he had confidence in he could defeat. Would this be the end of his short time as a dungeon?

The invader looked at his walls and tunnel contemplating, at one point he even tapped the wall with its finger a few times. Slowly the invader made its way forward through the tunnel. The fact that the tunnel only split off to the side seemed to give it pause, its golden eyes lit up looking at the other two walls expecting to find something. The light of its eyes subsided and it started walking again through the tunnel.

It stopped again at the caved-in tunnel and with the lit-up golden eyes, it inspected the shallow tunnel intently. Core wondered if he should have snake strike out from the rubble towards the invader but he decided against it and had the snake coil up behind the rubble instead. Snake was more used to sneaking up then having a direct confrontation anyway. Perhaps if he didn't attack the invader it would let him live by not draining all of his life-force.

And just like that, the invader walked on again.

Core wasn't even surprised that spiders passive didn't activate, the invader clearly had the ability to see everything that was hidden within his dungeon. The surprising thing was that it kneeled down right in front of the spider and poked the ground but the spider kept hiding.

The invader once again poked at the ground and that time two pincers bit down on the extended finger giving in to its nature to defend the dungeon.

The invader stood back up with the spider still attached to its finger. Effortlessly the invader pulled the spider from its finger since the spider's attack hadn't even penetrated the invader's skin and placed it back down on the ground. Core had immediately willed the spider to crawl back into its hiding place.

The invader seemed to be assumed by the spider's actions and let out a chuckle that shook the mountain. Somewhat surprised of the effect its action had the invader adjusted its posture and again walked deeper inside the dungeon.

With slow steps and its golden eyes darting all over the place the invader kept walking deeper and deeper and then found itself with a choice of two paths. After weighing its options for the moment the invader took the path in front and was summarily surprised with a dead end. The invader shrugged and walked back to the split in the tunnel picking the other available option. This soon ended with another split in the road, a much lower chuckle was heard as to not again shake the mountain

Picking to walk on ahead the invader turned the corner at the end of the tunnel was its eyes became illuminated again as it spotted the wolf in the dark. Wolf kept its gaze on the intruder but by Core's will didn't attack the invader. The invader walked into another dead-end tunnel and tracked back the way it came.

Core hoped the tunnel would dissuade the invader somewhat but the invader didn't seem to care for the inconvenience from walking into the dead-ends. But now the only option left to follow was the correct path. Lizard snapped out at the invader as it tried to walk past the tunnel it occupied but in a more territorial way and not an actual attack aimed at the invader. It walked over to the lizard and simple pat it on the head before resuming the casual stroll through the dungeon.

The last obstacles in the invader path were the two pitfall traps which hardly seemed enough to even wound the invader of his dungeon. It stepped one the trapdoor which sprung open but the invader was suspended in the air above the trap walking forward as if walking on solid ground. The second trap was passed in the same way and then the invader walked right up to his core suspended on the pedestal.

The invader walked around his core looking intently with its bright golden eyes. It stepped up and placed a hand on him but nothing seemed to happen. Core didn't feel pain or his lifeforce being drained but the power radiating from the hand penetrated deep into his core. Suddenly a small spike of pain shot through his core and then the invader stepped back.

"Greetings little Core my name is Khorzanthalax" the invader spoke with a heavy voice not fitting the shape standing in front of him.

"Do not be alarmed, I'm not here to kill you or even drain your life-force. I'm an old dragon and I was merely curious when I picked up on the scent of a dungeon when I was flying over these mountains."

Core was relieved hearing the dragon's statement that his life was not in danger but how could he talk to the dragon?

Silence hung in the air for a minute after that.

"Ah, right you've probably never spoken to another being before besides perhaps your defenders. You can speak to me in a similar way but instead of directing it to the defender simply direct it to myself."

Core took a moment to think over what the dragon meant to tell him. He send his thoughts to his lizard to practice it a few time to get a feel for what he subconsciously was doing.

"He... Hello ?" He send out his thought to the dragon.

"Wonderful effort little core. Now let us have a conversation if you're willing."

Not willing to offend the dragon even after it told him we wouldn't be hurt Core agreed to the dragon's wishes to have a conversation.

"Lets us go over the basics first then, I've spotted four defenders and two traps so you're a level three dungeon I assume?"

"Actually" Core started nervously, "I just became a level four dungeon."

"Hmm, a level four you say. Did you get the Monster den to unlock then?"

"Yes, I've just unlocked it but I didn't have enough mana to put in into the dungeon yet. I've also not yet decide where to place it yet."

"A valid point. Young dungeons do have to be thoughtful of where they spend their mana when building out their dungeon."

"I noticed for different species of defenders but they all belonged to the Undead archetype, do you have unlocked other archetypes yet?"

"The only other one I've unlocked is the pulling from the Lizardman archetype" Feeling somewhat embraced that the dragon seemed to expect he should have unlocked more archetypes.

"Well, the Nothern Speartip mountain range is pretty far from the sentient populous and does contain a somewhat scattered and varied population so you'll unlock more of them in the future no doubt." The sentence somewhere between a statement and an encouragement.

"That little labyrinth of yours was a nice surprise, young dungeons hardly ever come across that option and instead make a very long tunnel with the odd room here and there."

"So little core what are your plans for the future, how will you build your dungeon?"

It was a question that Core had asked himself a few times already what were his plans. He wanted to grow that's for sure but so far a lot of events happened after one another. Every level gave him more and different options to add to his dungeon and the lack of mana was a concern for now after he had built the, what Khorzanthalax called, labyrinth. The fact it was a recognized build the dragon recognized meant Core was onto something great with his dungeon plans which gave him confidence.

"Well, my first plan is to build the Monster den to protect me. Then I have some plans to advance the labyrinth using the Assets tool. It's more of a concept for now as I have planned out a larger version of it in the Dungeon tool already."

"I'm still learning a lot from System so I take everything as it comes with each level up giving me more options to grow"

It was an honest answer, Core really had no big plans other than his direct plans.

"A bigger labyrinth you say, interesting. Would you mind showing it to me?"

Having no issue with showing his design Core accepted and Khorzanthalax stood up walked towards him again. Core once again felled the power emanating from the dragon's touch.

"To show me your design open your Dungeon tool and then transmit the image like when you talk to me.

Core took the advice and did just that, Intently staring at his design he heard the dragon mumble something but through his concentration, he didn't hear the word, or perhaps it was in a language he didn't understand like the pudlings. The powerful feeling from the hand grew bigger and Core felt as if the power tried to enter his core. It wasn't painful but it was an unpleasant feeling. "Accept" the voice demanded more than asked and, still scared of the dragon, Core let the power flow. His labyrinth glowed with a bright light and then settled back to its usual appearance as if nothing had changed.

"A little gift from me to you, for when you build the labyrinth."

After that moment Core curiosity took over, he just had to know "Uhm Khorzanthalax how do you know so much about dungeons?'"

The dragon seemed to contemplate his options and words before speaking out.

"Well, your system won't tell you about it until you unlock the ability but you can have other beings, besides your defenders and yourself, live inside of your dungeon. The ambient mana you spread can be used to feed and grow such beings but it will be a long time before you'll produce the needed amounts ambient mana."

"And that's how I know because I've lived in such dungeons in the past. Dungeons are an interest of mine and I've asked them many questions while living off their ambient mana while protecting their cores. Mine's an old soul so I doubt I can call you home but perhaps if we both live long enough."

"You're still young with plenty of room to grow and I have sated my curiosity for now so I'll take my leave and let you be. Would you mind if visit you again in the future?"

It was an odd question. Clearly, the dragon had the power to just walk in to come and talk to him but he asked for his permission for future visits.

"Yes, I don't mind if you visit me again."

has been accepted as a dungeon guest. While considered as a guest, the dungeon's defenders will not attack the guest, traps will not be triggered by the guest, and the core can't be damaged by the guest. Guest status can be removed by either the guest or the core.

When a guest removes the guest status they are unable to enter the dungeon for 24 hours, if they are inside the dungeon they will be teleported outside of the dungeon.

That wasn't what Core expected to happen, it seems Khorzanthalax's dungeon knowledge gave him some interesting insights on how to influence Core's dungeon and systems.

It seemed like Khorzanthalax got the same notification as he seemed to read the air before turning around and walking towards the tunnel connected to the core room. But then paused a moment before turning around again.

"Little core, how about we make a little deal. I have a certain item that could benefit from being inside of your dungeon for a while. If you allow me to leave it in your care I'll grant you an archetype creature as well as a minor method to solve your low mana issue."

The dragon Khorzanthalax has asked you to take care of his item.

The item will absorb 5% of your life-force every 24 hours.

The duration of the quest will be determined by the growth rate of the core. The more powerful the core's life-force the less time it will take for the quest to be completed. Instant rewards:

Defender essence. Completion rewards:

Unknown Will you accept the quest given to you by Khorzanthalax?

Yes / No

Core's confusion rose by the new notification window, he'd definitely ask System about this quest thing when they were alone again.

Core looked over the quest again before accepting the offer. He'd lose 5% of his life-force every day but his health regeneration was higher than the amount he'd lose so there wasn't really a downside to the dragon's quest. The offer to give him a defender archetype was also a huge boon for him. He thought about it a moment more and selected to accept the quest.

"Excellent." The dragon exclaimed and pulled what to Core looked like a smooth dark oval rock from his robe.

"Now, the egg will drain your life-force on its own so you don't have to worry about it yourself" he said out loud while he walked back over to the pillar on which Core rested.

With ease, he thrust his fingers inside of the pillar and scooped out some of the material and place the egg inside of it. With the egg secured in place he smeared the scooped out material back onto the pillar hiding it from sight.

"When the egg drains your life-force it will be replaced by an equal amount of mana so make sure you don't waste it."

"Now for your archetype, I can give you two options, they are both very degraded specimen and you'll need to level and evolve them yourself but you'll receive the complete archetype so you don't have to obtain the evolution experience for it.

You can choose between the and the essence.

Core didn't know what either of those archetypes did or meant and he doubted the dragon would tell him before he made his choice. So he based his decision on the one constant factor that he knew and that was that guards fought invaders so he picked the essence.

"Goodbye little core, take good care to grown big and strong."With that, the dragon said his goodbye to the Core and lef a trail of dust slip from its fingers onto the dungeon floor. Small flakes of the dust were already being absorbed by the dungeon. And with a blink, the dragon was gone from his core room and standing just outside of his dungeon. He waved his hand at the entrance and simply walked away out of view.

Core fixed his gaze on the pile of dust that was still being absorbed by the dungeon and at the rate that the pile was decreasing it would be a while before it was fully absorbed.