[Eita] Ka ka ka. Welcome heroes! Congratulations for making it this far. However this is as far as you go.

There is no more rooms for them to explore besides my last lines of defense kill rooms after all. I let them into the dungeon only door that I control to let them bypass all the real defensive rooms and to the room I prepared at the top of the cliff. It’s a simple round room I’ve set up with tables and chairs to be used for meetings.

Still, I’ve always wanted to say such a classic line. I’m glad I finally got to say it.

[Eita] Well, come on then. Get in here. No use crowding around the door staring.

Hearing this, the group slowly stopped crowding around the door and entered.

First the old lady, Kanva; bent over, brown rough skin, gnarled hands, thick greying vines for hair. Like her skin, her clothing appeared tough but very weathered. Up close she had more wrinkles and furrows than I had expected. Her staff however is very much green and lively looking.

Next, the earth lizardkin, Kesia; Tall, strong, and pulling Vance. Unlike Kanva, she was wearing only a skirt and belt with various tools attached. Hard rocky looking scales covered parts parts of her, with soft looking tan skin peeking out between. Even the ornament at the end of her braided hair seemed to be rock, or at least very heavy. Dragging behind her was a thick scaly tail with what was basically a rock at the end of it.

Then the vespid, Vance; Short and somewhat reluctant. Light skin with bands of black irregularly on his body. His transparent, long, wings fully extended behind him was taller than he is. Unlike the other two, he is clothed in bright and well cared for leather and cloth. They had holes cut especially for his wings and two buglike legs coming out of his back. Two antennae were poking out of his messy hair, swinging this way and that. In his belt was a shiny rapier.

Hm. Sharp and fast weapon for soft targets, blunt tail damage for armored targets, and a mage. If it wasn’t for the obvious difference in strength, I’d say they had a pretty good party.

Lastly my Saeri enters. Still playing the role of a good secretary and assistant. Despite how young she is and how adorable she looks, she’s actually behaving pretty professionally. That said, I don’t know if she’s just killing her feelings or if she’s truly apathetic.

[Eita] Well then. Come on sit down. I’m sure you guys want to talk a bit. It’s about lunch time as well. I’ve taken the liberty of absorbing your lunches and recreating them here. I’ve also used the various ingredients to make some lovely new things, just as fresh and delicious. Now sit down and help yourselves ok?

[Kesia] Oh! They do look good. There’s even some metal chips!

[Eita] Well I did happen to notice you eating some. I’m not sure if you actually eat those for a meal though so I only made a bit.

[Kesia] Earth lizardkins are tough so we can pretty much eat anything. Metals have a nice texture so they’re nice as a snack.

Kesia smiles and sure enough there were more teeth than I normally would have seen.

[Keseia] What I eat also helps when I want to grow more scales. I can peel most of them off for bathing or bed, so it’s important to get some rocks and metals in my diet.

[Eita] I see. Well I’m glad I decided to make some anyways. Like I said, help yourself. I worked hard on making these dishes after all.

And work hard I did. Just because I could reproduce things doesn’t mean I don’t have to take time to figure out what goes well together. Not to mention using all the new food means I have to actually cook a sample first before just using my dungeon powers. Summoning raw grains wouldn’t do me any good after all.

Kesia quickly sat down on the chair nearest to the metal chips and started eating. Next to her sat Vance. Across from me was Kanva. And lastly Saeri sat next to me.

[Vance] This food… it’s safe right?

[Saeri] Of course. If we wanted to kill you we wouldn’t have invited you in like this. Besides, I am going to eat a bit too so you can be sure it won’t harm my body.

[Vance] Well if you’re going to have some too…

[Kesia] Oh don’t be so uptight. It wouldn’t even be your first time being poisoned.

[Vance] Hey! I’ve gotten better ok. Those were all when I was just learning.

[Eita] Come on now. Nothing is poisoned and I did work hard putting this together with all the new ingredients from your lunch. Ms Kesia’s sandwiches have been reproduced of course, but also let me make nice bread bowls for the rabbit stew and some beef, presumably, steaks. Your noodles have let me make quite a few sauces for them, including the classic tomato sauce. Of course Ms Kanva’s rice balls have allowed me to make fried rice and simple rice cakes. The fruits, salads, and sweets are all made from local ingredients. So the only way these would be poisoned is if you had brought poisoned food to begin with.

[Saeri] Let’s not waste Eita’s hard work. We don’t usually even eat this well.

[Vance] Well…. Alright.

Despite the mumbling everyone did seem to enjoy the meal. Or, in Kanva’s case, didn’t complain about it. We even got some chit chat going. Progress.

[Kesia] So, munch munch we missed your speech in town since we live in the forest gulp nom but are you really crunch crunch willing to listen to the town and make stuff we need?

[Vance] Geez. Don’t talk while you’re eating.

[Kesia] I can’t slurp help it. This stuff is good. Of course your normal food is good too, but this is like super good.

[Vance] Hey. I can’t spend that much time working on food when we have things to do you know. Well. This food is delicious though. You usually wouldn’t have anyone serving such a variety unless it’s a special occasion or a restaurant at the capital. Anyways. She’s right. Are you really going to work for the town?

[Eita] Hm? For the town? I don’t know that I’ve ever said I would do that.

[Vance] Wha- So you

[Eita] Calm down calm down. I never said I’d work FOR the town. That doesn’t mean we can’t have a mutually beneficial relationship. You saw that I’ve prepared plenty of room for the town to collect materials from. From herbs to food to metals. I did it all because I wanted the town to work with me. A sign of good will for what’s to come.

[Vance] Then why would you start having levels where the people could get hurt and possibly die?

[Eita] You’d hardly die from that last level. I haven’t even made any dangerous ones for the public yet. But that said, I can’t just hang out and meet people and work like you guys right? Even if I learned various skills, would you have me leave my core undefended? If I were to stop producing materials would various governments and greedy selfish people leave me alone? If I were to produce everything free and at no risk then would you have your chefs and farmers and guards work for free as well? It’s simply a matter of my own safety as well as a way for people to earn their ‘free’ stuff.

[Vance] I… I guess you’re not wrong. But I still don’t like the thought of the town folks putting themselves at risk.

[Eita] Hm. Think of it this way. If I don’t just give out everything for free, then adventurers will have to come. If adventurers come, then you have people who will need to buy food, new clothes, repairing weapons, and all of that. Even if they don’t put themselves at risk, the fact that the challenge is here means more people coming in from outside of town and bringing in money, business, and their expertise. For example, the town getting more blacksmiths that otherwise wouldn’t have come here.

[Vance] Hah. Yeah. I can accept that I suppose.

[Saeri] It’s not like they aren’t warned. Any injuries and deaths would be their own fault.

[Vance] You!

[Kesia] Now now Vance. Calm down. It’s still lunchtime.

Seeing Kesia pat Vance on the head, I also give Saeri a pat.

[Eita] No need to aggravate things. Let’s keep it to a nice friendly lunch ok?

[Saeri] Hehe. Ok.

[Eita] Hm. Now I guess it’s my turn for questions. Let’s see. This might be a good question for our resident dryad here. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Isn’t the ecosystem around here a little strange?

Kanva who has been quite quiet up until now gave me a glare.

[Kanva] … How so?

Ho ho. Now that’s a reaction worth pursuing.

[Eita] My kitties and I have actually covered quite a bit of ground you know. But the animals here are mostly just that, animals. Very few have evolved into what you would call monsters, those with access to mana and magic.

[Kanva] Hmph. What would you know about how often animals evolve.

[Eita] Now I suppose this could be a coincidence. It might be that very few animals naturally evolve. But the presence of an adventurers guild and the various stories I’ve heard from Saeri seem a little odd. Why have a whole guild around something that rarely even occurs outside of dungeons. Of course the humans always being able to evolve seems a little odd too, but let’s just attribute that to the magic of ‘gods’ shall we?

[Kanva] … What’s your point?

[Eita] On top of all that, there aren’t actually very many animals here. And the distribution is strange. The largest animals we’ve seen is a small herd of antelopes, only one of which was evolved. Aside from that, mostly rabbits and birds. It seems strange that there are so many prey species here without any predators. And yet even without predators, it doesn’t seem like the prey species has grown out of control. I simply thought that was a little odd.

[Kanva] … Haah. The short answer is that everything will be fine.

[Eita] And the long answer?

[Kanva] It’s a long story.

[Eita] We have time.

[Kesia] Oh I love having storytime with sweets

[Vance] You just love the sweets don’t you?

[Kesia] Even though you’ve had more of the sweet jam and used almost all the sap sauce….

[Vance] T-that has nothing to do with it. It just went with the food I was having. That’s all.

[Kanva] If only you two would have as much energy when it came to studying and work.

[Vance][Kesia] Sorry….