The inn came up fast. Magework quickened construction almost faster than modern machinery would have, and every process, from stone cutting to dirtwork, framing to roofing, only took a couple of weeks. So now, looking down from my home the inn looked completely finished. I guessed there would be more interior work to be done, but wagons coming from town had passed by carrying furniture, casks, bottles, linens, and all sorts of other bits and bobs suitable for the function of the inn.

During its construction I had approved a few other little businesses to spring up; an armorsmith, an alchemist, and a bowyer being the more interesting ones. Apparently dungeon divers- the ones who returned anyway, tended to be quite wealthy. And with them able to kill and collect bounties on monsters while the dungeon was yet to be found, Sanctuary land made quite the investment for related business.

I flipped open my mailbox and pulled a few pieces of parchment. I had asked that anyone having letters, documents, or anything else of the like deposit it in my still present mailbox.

Building request, invoice, ooh, something from Caro?

I brought the papers inside and up to my study. Having an actual reason to use the old wooden desk was nice, but I was starting to run out of places to put the papers I was sent. Most documents were frankly useless, but I still liked to keep good accounting. I was also running out of safe space to store my large collection of coins. Every business I’d approved had paid a rent and a materials fee up front, so the little pistol safe I’d repurposed into a bank was quickly running out of room.

The first thing I cared to read was the letter from Caro.

Sir Cutter,

Recently the guard has arrested members of a dungeon worshiping cult from the north. They killed themselves before they could be interrogated, so our intelligence is limited. We’re keeping our eyes out for more, but beware of anyone who seems to be of foul magic.

Apologies for the worrisome note, but your safety is of the utmost concern.

Good luck,

-Lady Caro

She was right, the note was quite worrisome.

What loon would worship a dungeon? Don't they just kill everything?

I shook my head. Another letter I opened was from Renee, she promised good food, booze, and music at a date of my choosing, with Arin included.

My territory had nearly reached the bottom of the valley, so I knew that Arin wouldn’t be prevented from going. I also thought it would be wise to get her some clothes for the event rather than just her normal robe.

I flipped through the rest of the mail and put it into organized stacks, before heading off in search of Arin.

The nymph was working the fields. In the weeks since she’d taken up the task, Arin had put magic into the plants equaling the house’s gain rate so as not to deplete its capacity. The result was rows upon rows of lush coffee plants.

“You’re doing a magnificent job, my dear Arin.” I bowed dramatically when I saw her.

“It’s been fun!” She responded.

“I’m happy to hear that. Perhaps for your work I could get you some new clothes? Renee invited us to the grand opening of her inn, and I see that as good an excuse as any to get you a gift.”

“...” Arin thought for a moment, “That’d be nice, but I can’t go to town.”

“I’ll hire a tailor to come this way.” I smiled, “You wouldn’t even have to leave home.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“Happily.” I nodded.

“Then… yes. Yes I’d like that very much.”

“Consider them on the way.”

She smiled joyously.

“In the meantime, I just received a rather concerning letter from Lady Caro. She said that they’ve arrested some dungeon worshippers, and to be wary of people with foul magic. With everything else we’ve seen, I was thinking it a good idea to wall off my and some of the surrounding area, maybe make some more ents as deterrents as well. Any ideas?”

“Well, it would make sense to increase security.” She nodded, “And privacy. If we’re to have more people live around here, and also for the sake of dungeon defense as well.”

“Wood would be easier, but I’d rather build it of stone.” I said, “I can hire those earth mages before they leave for the capital.”

“That would be the best plan, but what about entrances?”

“Hm… Probably hire someone to make them too. I’ll ask about it at the inn opening.”

Arin agreed to that, and I set about writing for a tailor. Most of the messages that made it to my mailbox were delivered by courier, so return messages were also possible. I’d address this one to Beneber, Lady Caro’s steward, as he’d offer to help. I also wondered if it’d be possible to get a secretary or the like. That felt like something that would be useful, going forward.

It felt as though progress so far was rather slow going regarding dungeon matters, but frankly, based on how my territory worked it really did feel like something that would scale exponentially. Right now I was still in what I’d say was the early game, the type of dungeon I was facing wasn’t even known yet.

Should I be more ambitious? I don’t know, this is all… out of my comfort zone, to be sure. I sighed.

If I wanted to do more, the place to start would likely be the core book.

I retrieved the neglected but useful item from my home and flipped through it, settling on the map of my current domain. The boundary line was still good and far from where the inn was, but I guessed that it would be there in less than a week or two. Trees were very helpful for increasing the rate of territory expansion.

The bird’s eye map was useful for planning where I’d want the wall to go, and visualizing it was quite easy, especially as the line I was thinking about appeared in the book as I imagined it.

Wait, if I can pull groundwater, could I do the same with stone? A thought popped into mind. I flipped quickly into the magical option page.

Build Wall:

Dirt: 2000

Wood: 1500

Stone: 3000

“Well there we go.” I said aloud. “Interesting that wood is cheaper than dirt…”

Checking my total magical capacity, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was upwards of six thousand, though not quite full due to Arin using some to grow plants. The recovery was less so increased from formerly, currently sitting at about three hundred and fifty an hour. Not bad at all.

With that, it seemed that making big purchases- like the stone wall- would be easier than having multiple ents or many more nymphs. Not that I really needed the latter, Arin was plenty.

I decided to just go ahead and build the stone wall, because it was what we talked about anyways. After focusing on the option, I felt the magic around me lessen, as well as that inside my own “battery.”

I rushed outside and sure enough, around the bottom of my hill, a good twelve feet outside where the final coffee plants grew, was an eight foot tall cobblestone wall. I jogged down to the barrier to get a closer look, but was mildly disappointed.

Though it was surely stone, and about four feet thick upon my climbing it, the stone wall was pretty loosely packed. It seemed that pulling rock out of the ground didn’t include mortar, and it was left feeling rather flimsy. The lack of tightness in the stones also allowed even my spindly self to climb it with relative ease. The wall surely checked the privacy box, but safe it was not.

“Wow!” Arin called behind me, “How’d you do that?”

“The book.” I said, “but it’s not that safe. I imagine even one of the gobins could get over it pretty easily.”

“Still impressive.” The pretty nymph nodded, seeming quite happy about the whole thing.

“Perhaps…” I said absentmindedly, flipping through the core book again. Perhaps I could make it better.

Every time I came up with an idea, a similar option came up on the actions page. It really was helpful for figuring more out about the book- especially since I hadn’t paid it the attention I should have, but actually making a plan was a bit difficult.

The idea I finally settled on was encasing the wall in tree matter. None of the things I could come up with for adding mortar were particularly cost effective, so pulling the thing together with trees would be the next best option. Or maybe I just decided that way because I knew Arin would like it.

It took most of my remaining magical energy, but upon my decision roots began to snake up the sides of the stone wall, slithering through gaps in the rocks and out the other side, binding them together. To make it difficult to climb, the outside of the wall was so tightly woven that it essentially became a wooden wall, while the inside was allowed to remain the loose combination of stones and roots. The top of the wall started to sprout swathes of greenery, creating what was essentially shrubbery barbed wire.

While I admired the process, my knees began to give out. I’d apparently taxed my magic too much. The ground rose up to meet me quickly, and I found myself lying somewhat uncomfortably in the grass.

“Thomas!” Arin came to my side.

“I’m… alright.” I blinked. The dazed feeling of no magic wasn’t painful, but thinking was a challenge.

“Don’t get that low on magic, it’s dangerous.” She scolded, helping me sit up against the new and strengthened wall.

“I’ll… keep that in mind.” I sighed.

“Are you alright? Did you get hurt when you fell down?” She changed tones.

“I’m fine.” I shook my head, feeling like a child, “Just winded. I think I’ll sit here another minute or two…”

Arin nodded and sat next to me. My tired self was thankful for the company.

“Oh… we’ll have to put in gates as well…” I sighed, “Slipped my mind.”

“Recover first, we’ll do that later.” She gave me a pat on the knee. “It’s a nice day anyway, may as well spend some time out here.”

“I’ll feel lazy.” I complained, “I haven't been worrying about the dungeon like I probably should.”

“I disagree.” Arin nudged me, “You’ve been expanding your territory nicely. It only makes sense for it to go slow in the beginning. You’ll be wishing for this when it’s growing hundreds and hundreds of feet per day. Managing all that will be tiring.”

“If you say so.” I shrugged, not saying anything else.

The dungeon felt like something I was putting off, even if I knew I wasn’t. It hadn’t even been found, but still the feeling of responsibility wouldn’t leave. Actually doing something- building the wall- reminded me of that fact.

I sat by Arin and recovered for a while longer, getting up and heading back inside when I felt ready to. The trip up the stairs left me slightly nauseous, but after a nap I was back to normal. My magic still wasn’t full, but it was enough to add two gates to the wall, those taking significantly less energy than the entire thing due to their comparatively small scale. After that I did more research on dungeons and the world in general, just doing my best to know what I was doing.

To that end, I set aside a quick checklist of stuff I needed to personally take care of. The main priority was properly planning the settlement that would spring up on my land, as that was something I’d be responsible for. According to the book Land Policy and Law Regarding Magical Situations, I had the ability to dictate just about everything in my territory, so long as it was in between my domain and the dungeon, and wasn’t within a certain mileage from already existing towns or highways. Fortunately for me, everything from Livartown south, save for a few small villages, was just wild. It would be finicky if I was in a spot surrounded by civilization, but I was pretty much on the frontier.

With that, I needed to write out laws and what not. I was no lawyer however, so I planned to hire out that job to someone more qualified. With some of my own additions of course.

So, I wrote out a letter asking Caro to help me find someone qualified, and sealed it with my own seal. I wanted to at least have someone working on that before any building other than the inn was finished.

A subtle tug in the corner of my mind pulled me from my letter. The feeling was unlike anything I’d felt before, but I knew it to be foul. Very foul.

The feeling also came with a direction. East. The river, the end of my territory. I went into my study, grabbed my Browning Auto Five and a couple of fistfulls of shells, both buckshot and slugs, and hurried downstairs.

The humpback shotgun felt reassuring in my arms as I exited the wall’s new gate. The place the foul feeling emanated from was probably a hundred or so yards away now, and a nervous sweat stained my collar the closer I got.

I moved slowly as the sounds of the river filled my ears. Though something was wrong enough to reach my brain, I had no idea what it actually was, and that made it all the worse.

I was only a few feet from the banks of the river when I saw it. There, half submerged in the water, was a legless, ruined body. His leather armor was torn and tattered, and half of his cheek was gone, showing his teeth through the hole. Beyond that, his eyes were open and tracking me.

“Jesus!” I breathed, no one in that condition should be alive.

I slung my shotgun and started to wade down into the river to help. I reached down my arm, but pulled it back in a flash when the almost-corpse swiped at me with a knife.

“The hell? I’m trying to help you, friend.” I said as I took a step back. The mutilated man in the water didn’t respond, nor did his facial expression change. The only thing moving about him were his eyes and his arm, still trying to poke me with the knife.

What’s going on? My instincts are screaming that this guy’s bad news, but I don’t want to let him die…

“Tom!” I heard a shout behind me. “Step back!”

It was Arin.

“There’s a dude here! He’s- uh… I think he’s dying.” I gave my diagnosis.

“He’s corrupted, be careful!” She made it to the bank at a jog. “They must’ve found the dungeon.”

“Did they now?” I asked. A pit formed inside my stomach.

“He looks like someone from around here. My guess is that their scouting party got ambushed, this guy died, and got tainted by the dungeon magic.”

“And the river carried him here.” I finished. I wasn’t sure what corruption meant, but if it was what made him want to stab me it couldn’t be good.

“It seems so.” Arin nodded.

“Is there any way we can save him?” I asked. The fellow- even if he wasn’t corrupted- looked quite worse for wear.

“At this point, no.” She sighed. “There’s no life left in him at all.”

“So… what should we do?” I asked.

“Killing him would be the wise choice.” The nymph said solemnly. “He’s already dead, really.”

“I see.” I nodded.

After thinking for a moment, I decided I didn’t want to obliterate him with a twelve gauge shotgun, and asked Arin to run to the house to grab my .22. Since he was formerly an adventurer, it also made sense to keep the body intact as much as we were able.

“This one, right?” Arin asked me as she passed off the rifle. The wood stocked Ruger had served me well in my youth as my first gun, and was a holder of many fond memories of mine. I guessed that this use however, wouldn’t go down in my mind as the best shot I’d ever taken with the weapon.

I chambered a round and took aim at the still slowly moving corpse, and put one shot right between his eyes. The dungeon-corrupted man shuddered and fell still.

“At least he wasn’t too hard to kill.” I frowned. If the dungeon was found, that meant I needed to step up my game. And fast. “Let’s go get someone from the Inn group to take a look at him. Surely there’s someone who will recognize him if he passed through there.”

Arin agreed, and we collected Baum so I wouldn’t have to carry the corpse. Heading into the future town I decided it best to not carry a long gun, so I armed myself with my revolver and started down the hill.

As soon as we crossed the territory line down the way, I heard someone ahead shouting my name.

“Tom! They found the Dungeon!” Renee yelled from a horse.

I laughed dryly.

“We figured.” I said, “This fellow was ‘corrupted.’ Tried to stab me when I went to help him.” I gestured towards the body.

“Gods! That’s the missing scout!” Renee gasped, seeing the individual in Baums arms.

There’s our answer then. They found the dungeon.