Emil Great Rat had finally found his way back to town. He thought he had been completely lost, but the return trip had simply ended up taking three more days than the trip to the Dungeon had taken. The nights had been cold as Emil had both been unable to properly raise the tent and had had a hard time starting each fire. Sometimes he had even been unable to get it started. And as he had no idea on how to hunt or what plants were edible - only knowing that some were deadly - he had been forced to eat one of the horses.

The other one didn't like seeing that.

Looking back, he probably shouldn't have killed the horse where the other could see it. It had gotten quite rebellious after that.

The meat had filled Emil's stomach, but hadn't tasted good. He didn't know how to properly prepare the dead horse for cooking, and he was more used to stealing already cooked food or food that could be eaten raw than cooking for himself.

The meat had also gone bad earlier, but Emil had eaten slightly rotten food often enough that he didn't think much of it.

I need some proper food. Emil thought to himself as he entered town. I could take some from old baker lady. She never notices me. He was about to turn the horse in the right direction before realizing why that might not work this time. Right! The horse! She might not notice me when I'm by myself, but she will definitely notice the horse! It can't hide the way I can!

I guess I have to hide the horse first. Somewhere safe, so no one else can take it.

What about the 'church' stable? The 'church' was really just a repurposed farmhouse which came with a stable.

Still. The roof had no holes and the place had several beds, so Emil prefered it over living on the street. And the boss had been good at providing him tasty food.

I can use the Communication Orb in there to tell boss's boss that boss is dead, while I'm here. Then he can send someone else to bring me tasty food. Having decided on his course of action, Emil turned the horse in the direction of the 'church'.

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The Monk and his unicorn Familiar left after finishing the tour of my Dungeon and getting warned of being careful of telling others about me.

The Tribe and I went back to our routine. The merchants were expected to arrive before the elves did, but the Tribe wasn't completely sure it would happen that way. The elves had likely had a Communication Orb with them, and it would make sense if they had then ordered for backup to come with a Dungeon Core Cage before they even left. If they had, the elves could arrive at any time by now.

As such, the Tribe had organized a constant watch, mostly consisting of bonded creatures. At day it was those that could fly which watched from the air. At night it was creatures with night vision, which guarded the Tribe. This consisted of one each of the smoke tiger, and lava leopard species, as well as two púcas and two elemental fire foxes. To avoid having any creature become too tired, beastkins would join the watch as well, though to a lesser degree.

7 days had passed since the Hero and Familiar had been by. Not a lot of interesting things had happened during the week, however. Mostly befriended creatures tiering up, some of which evolved. Nalir had, for example, befriended a púca who had quickly gotten a tier up and become a 'karmic shapeshifter'. The appropriately named Shadow could now turn into all animals and of all colors. He just prefered black.

The 8th Floor was finished, and the Tribe had had no problems with it. While making the Floor, its wolf Pack had gotten an Achievement for including at least 4 members connected to different elements, which gave a bonus to all use of mana in the pack.

The two Alphas of the Pack had gotten the 'Alpha' Achievement, giving 0.5 points to Strength and Toughness for each additional member of the Pack rounded up. As the Pack consisted of 5 wolves in total that gave a bonus of 2 points to each of the two Ability Scores for the two Alphas. The equivalent of two level ups.

The elemental wolves had a chance of dropping a weak wand of their element, while the magma lindwyrms could drop a piece of magma proof armor.

With the new creatures came new loot drops. The flameborn dragons of the Floor had a chance to drop a small leather pouch full of the flammable gel the dragon was covered in. Though, as momma was a part of a puzzle, she instead had a chance of dropping a magic necklace I had named "Momma's Love". The necklace had a chain of iron links with a little crystal figurine in it. The figurine was of the flameborn dragon momma nuzzling her egg. The necklace was meant to be given to children, who would be teleported to their nearest parent or guardian when in danger. The necklace would then 'break' by turning into mana particles.

After finishing the 8th Floor, I dug out the 9th and started on the puzzles intended for the end of the Floor. I felt it might take me some time to figure out how to make them work as I intended.

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Pod left his crew to follow the wolf boy - who had reminded them that his name was Tuzzik -, so he could greet Chief Nerok. Before the two left Skau had taken the time to observe the young boy. He had seemed happy to see the merchant caravan but not so much, that he could be described as desperately happy. Not like something terrible had happened and outside aid was needed.

Good. They must have realized the truth and accepted the necessity.

With a quick nod to herself, the young giantess went back to unpacking the goods they expected to trade with the Tribe.

Some minutes later, her father, Hotheus, came to help her with her task. "Excited to see the inside of a peaceful Dungeon, sweetheart?" Her father asked as they moved crates to where Nuktar and Dokric were building the stand, where the goods would be displayed. Skau had already brought them the first crate with pieces for the stand. The vulpinekin and felinekin had done this task often and could set it up quite quickly, despite the stand's size and many pieces.

"Sure. If someone hasn't already shattered the Core for being an abnormality." Skau replied carefully.

Her father rolled his eyes, while gently shaking his head. "You're really pessimistic, when it comes to the survival of Dungeons, you know." The tanned giant said with a smile. "Always assuming someone is gonna come and kill it."

"And often someone does." His fair-skinned daughter responded. Skau had taken after her mother when it came to looks, but had inherited her father's interests and hobbies.

Or… at least that's what her father thought.

Hotheus got a thoughtful look on his face. "Hmm… that cult has been rather active around here."

"What are the plans for the day?" Skau asked, quickly changing the topic. The two placed the crates down next to where the two beastkin were working on the stand.

"Offload beasts. Build stand. Pass the Tribe’s new inspection. Caleb and Nuktar guard goods, while rest walk through Dungeon. Learn rarity and worth of various Dungeon loot. Set up stand. Profit." Dokric replied. The older felinekin prefered to get to the point as quickly as possible and didn't like to use fancy words. Or many words, if it could be avoided. This made him excellent at pressing a price up or down as needed, but terrible at selling a product the customer couldn't recognize. As such, Dokric was typically in charge of selling stuff with obvious uses, such as food, cloth, kitchenware, decorations and the like.

Hotheus looked at his daughter with a raised eyebrow and a smirk as he asked the felinkin: "So, the Dungeon hasn't been declared an abnormality and had its Core shattered?"

"Of course not!" Dokric clearly thought Hotheus an idiot for asking.

Skau didn't notice her father giving her a look, clearly saying "I told you so!".

She was too busy wondering what had gone wrong.

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Hotheus was born in the Kingdom of Pallens. Pallens had giant Royalty and most of its population were giants. With its almost subtropical climate it could sometimes get really hot, something Hotheus wasn't a fan of. So, as soon as he was 14 years, and thus of age, he left to find a better place to live.

The fact that he didn't have a good relationship with his parents and his two 'brilliant' older siblings, didn't have anything to do with it.

None whatsoever.

On his travels he visited many, more mildly tempered, places. The Large Petty Kingdom of Jætteheim was one of those places. However, as it was located in the cold end of what could be considered a temperate climate, it was almost too cold instead. It had been here, he met Dundjra.

Oh Dundjra!

Dundjra had loved her community and had spent most of her days helping around the Small Town.

Hotheus couldn't help but fall in love with her!

After a short, but intense, half a year courtship, the two had gotten married. While Hotheus had been raised to expect a much longer courtship than that, he saw no reason to deny his lover a courtship following the traditions of her people.

Barely a year later, their beautiful baby girl was born.

Skau was only 4 when the Small Town got inflicted by an unknown disease. They had had no prior experience with this particular disease and most, who had caught it, died within a week. When outside aid finally arrived, it was already too late for Dundjra.

When spring arrived, Hotheus had packed up and went to look for a new home for him and his daughter.

But then came a new problem. Skau loved to travel.

Not because she liked adventures, but because she loved nature and traveling meant she got to see it often.

Nature was not as abundant in civilization.

Fortunately, Hotheus found some traveling merchants, who could use a bit of muscle and didn't mind having an 8-year-old with them.

As Skau got older, she slowly got more chores to do as they traveled, and when she turned 14, she decided to stay with the caravan.

Hotheus tried to hide what a relief it was, that she hadn't done the same thing he had, when he turned 14.

Luckily, her hippogriff phase didn't last long. Hotheus thought to himself as he helped his daughter unburden the three arthropleura. Said phase had started shortly after her 14th birthday. She had stated that as an adult, she could take care of the creature herself.

But unlike these beasts,- Hotheus gave the nearest arthropleura a couple of claps along with a smile. -hippogriffs eat a lot of un-rotten meat. The giant huffed to himself. Much more expensive than simply giving someone our leftovers to supplement what they can forage in the forest floor themselves. Much easier, much cheaper.

Having finished offloading the arthropleura, Hotheus started focusing on his surroundings again. What did Dokric say was next on the agenda? The arthropleura have been unburdened, Nuktar and Dokric took care of the stand… Right! The Tribe has come up with an inspection, which we have to pass before they will let us trade with them!

“Ready for this ‘special’ inspection, Tuzzik mentioned?” Hotheus asked his daughter as they sat down to wait for someone to come by. Whether it was another member of their caravan or whoever was meant to inspect their goods didn’t really matter. They couldn’t leave the goods unguarded anyway, so they couldn’t go get the inspector themselves.

“Sure. Can’t be worse than in Laumur.” Skau replied with a shrug.

“True!” He gave a laugh. Laumur was known for the laumur cake and had a very thorough inspection protocol for those exiting the Small City. They didn’t want anyone to leave with their secret recipe. Or even a piece of the cake! You had to eat it inside the Small City! Crazy people!

They didn’t have to wait long before Podon and the Chief showed up alongside an elder rhinokin man and a familiar creature.

Is that the Boss?! How did it get out of the Dungeon?! Hotheus took a deep breath to try and calm himself down. Remember: The monsters of this Dungeon are friendly!

Just as the giant father had had that thought, the monster locked its eyes on Skau. It then roared like a dragon while it reared like a horse, only for it to charge towards his daughter as if to prove his former thought wrong.

Naturally, Hotheus used the time, it took the beast to near them, to push Skau behind him while activating all his Buff Skills. The monster had for some reason decided to attack, and Hotheus knew he didn't have enough time to get something he could use as a shield. He didn't even have enough time to put his arms in front of himself to protect his own body.

For now he was simply his daughter's meat shield.

Hotheus had never been happier for having the Body Enhancer Class.