Over the course of the coming few weeks, progress on the land behind the house has been quite nice, but that is nothing compared to the speed with which Denova’s new shop is progressing. They have yet to finish clearing the whole area, but they've already begun to build on it.

Kline’s steady income of xp has left us in a pretty good spot, so much so I was able to buy all available skills and spells for Belinda, Roxy and Myself. I guess I am going to have to go out and get some combat experience because most of the combat based skills are still locked for me.

We did end up having a birthday party for the entire household. I added Sofia, Katie, and Lylah to Belinda’s necklace, and improved the old pieces on it, with things such as changing Roxy’s gem to diamond to reflect how she doesn't has a favored element anymore.

None of the other gifts where very elaborate, but everyone had a good time so that was the important part.

Belinda has been making use of the [Gate] spell to make trips to the capital several times a week, to work on things concerning the wedding. Originally it was quite a shock to people there, but since she is a hero now they accepted it rather quickly.

Lilah and Lylah want to work on the dungeon, but I used all the extra xp on skills and spells, so it hasn’t left them with much to work with, but since we already acquire everything we could, from now on I’m letting them use half while I expand further into Tobes with the rest.

Much to Belinda’s dismay, Scylla and Kline got married without much of a ceremony. Scylla didn’t even want a wedding dress, and although Belinda tried awfully hard to throw them an actual wedding, they kept insisting about not wanting that kind of fuss thrown for them.

Eventually Belinda caved in, and the local Faron priest officiated the ceremony in the house's ballroom with just the girls and myself as witnesses and guests. They also refused to take longer than a week for their honeymoon. They just piggybacked with Belinda in one of her trips to the capital, stayed there for a week, and returned.

Sofia has gotten her adventurer’s training course up and running now, she hasn’t had much luck with people taking an interest in it, but she has managed to get a few of the younger adventurer’s to start going there.

By the time Scylla and Kline returned from their honeymoon, the area behind our house had already been cleared, and construction had begun on the girl's new houses. Denova’s new store, however, is already up and running, with normal employees instead of slaves, as per the agreement Denova made with Belinda.

The store itself is actually quite impressive. Denova quickly formed a contract with the blacksmith, and now the blacksmith sells only through her. Belinda was worried at first, but Katie likes the change because the gold from the contract allowed them to start expanding the forge, and they can focus solely on making things, without worrying about the customers.

I am a little worried about Denova’s store accepting more orders then Katie and the blacksmith can handle, but their deal seems to be working well so far, so for now I will leave it be.

Katie has also been spending quite a bit of time with the young apprentice at the blacksmith shop. They don’t appear to be dating, but I think they are more than just coworkers. Not that it matters, as I think it is fine either way as long as she still takes care of her duties to the dungeon.

Dyson sent someone to have me make another ageless ring, which was enough extra xp include all of Tobes into the secondary dungeon. My xp consumption has gone up... considerably.

After hitting 240/day, it began charging by the hour, and right now it’s all the way up to 25/hour. I would worry if it wasn't for Kline's contribution, but if we keep growing at this rate, soon his xp isn’t going to be enough.

The dungeon expansions have drawn in more and more adventurers, so Denova quickly took the opportunity to start construction of another inn, at least 3 times the size as the current one. Pretty soon, Denova will have more businesses ventures in town than Belinda does, but we still receive xp from it so I guess it doesn’t matter.

Every item in Denova’s impressive inventory has also been added to those available to the dungeon as well, so as long as their materials weren't better than steel, we became able to pretty much summon any type of armor or weapon imaginable.

That restriction did not last long, however, as Denova’s best contribution to the dungeon yet came in the form of a small amount of raw dwarven ore, which she acquired in hopes Katie could make a dagger out of it. She, of course, was able to make the dagger, but the important bit is that now we can summon items made from dwarven ore if we want to.

Because of the dungeon's continuous growth, an Adventurer's Guild representative came to re-assess the dungeon, and removed the beginners label from it. That brought in a B-ranked group that finally managed to get past the silver slimes, discovering the dragonkin further down.

Lilah and Lylah only let one of them make it out of the dungeon to report what happened. I am a little worried of what will happen, now that members of a B-ranked party lost their lives in the dungeon.

Belinda has continued to make quite a bit of plans regarding the wedding, and as summer draws to a close I receive a message.

Dungeon Core #400 Elder Dyson has requested a meeting with you on this day at noon. A representative will be sent to collect you before the appointed time. Refusal to attend is acceptable, but future assistance from the Elders may be refused.

The only reason I could think Dyson would send me an official message like that, would be related to the training of new dungeon cores. That meeting should have taken place a few months ago though, but I don’t know what other reason could there be.

The biggest problem if Dyson does want me to train another core this year, is that my wedding is scheduled to be in what would be the last week of the training of new cores. With the last bit of preparations and the wedding itself, I doubt I could be of assistance.

I inform Belinda about the meeting, and after I get everything squared away, I wait for the Dyson's representative. I decide that if it is Speedy this time I am just going to attempt to teleport myself, because I really don’t like that kind of travel.

However oddly enough it is Madam Erin who walks through my door.

“What a surprise. I was not expecting you.”

Madam Erin: “I would imagine not, now if you don’t mind we are a bit late. You have expanded your dungeon so much I had trouble finding a place to teleport into.”

“Well sorry about that.”

I get up and follow Madam Erin. We quickly make our way through town and make our way into the forest. After a short while we arrive at a tree that has the runes on it. This tree is quite a bit smaller than the ones she used in the past.

Madam Erin quickly draws a rune into the frame, and the emptiness appears. With the tree being so much smaller Madam Erin literally has to squeeze through it, and even I had to turn to pass through. We arrive in the familiar hallway of the place I usually meet with the elders.

“I thought we would be going to Dyson’s dungeon.”

Madam Erin: “He wasn’t comfortable with my presence in the depths of his dungeon, so we are meeting here.”

We don’t head to the meeting area, but instead stop at the rest area instead. I am surprised yet again when we enter and only Dyson is in the room. After motioning for me to sit across him, Madam Erin takes a seat on a small couch a few feet away filling the entire thing.

Dyson: “I see the confused look, but worry not we are just here to discuss the birth of the new dungeon cores this year.”

Madam Erin: “There will be only three new cores born this year. Dyson has chosen a unique way to handle things this year.”

Dyson: “Yes, and even though the other elders promised to let me do the job they gave me, they still wanted another elder to train at least one of the new cores so they could see firsthand the new training techniques, and Madam Erin was the one selected.”

“I am sorry, but I am getting married at the end of next month, and I am not sure I would be able to focus enough attention onto training a new dungeon core.”

Dyson: “As your boss monster has sent me an invitation, I am well aware, but I am not sure who I am willing to trust with the new training methods quite yet, so I was left with little choice. I do however have a plan.”

I fear that this might lead to more of a headache then when I was training Inari last year…

Dyson: “I plan on the three of us working very closely with the new cores this year. Madam Erin and I have already agreed on assisting you with your core’s training, and taking over for that final week you will be unavailable.”

“Even still… There are quite a few items to attend to just before the wedding as well.”

Madam Erin: “When he said working closely, he meant we will be training the cores together this year in hopes that working together we will be able to help refine your training method. That means if you do need to bow out for a few hours or an entire day to attend to something, you can. Dyson and I will still be there to take care of things.”

“Has that been done before?”

Madam Erin: “Well, not exactly. There have been instances where two or more cores being trained by a single dungeon, and they have worked together. Like that pair Lucille trained the year you were born, but to say multiple dungeon cores training new cores together, I would say this is a first.”

“If that is the case, why even involve me at all? I have told Dyson everything.”

Dyson: “Well there is the chance that your method of training will only work because of your unique dungeon, so we have decided to have two of the dungeon cores be born to you, while Madam Erin will birth the third.”

Madam Erin: “Dyson wanted you to birth all three, but I made the suggestion to birth one just to be sure. After all if the training method will only work for your new cores that would be quite problematic. At least this way we will be able to be sure, and even if it doesn’t work we will at least get 2 more of the advanced dungeon cores.”

“I see…”

Madam Erin: “That, and the fact two of the new cores will be women and Dyson is still in hopes of having a divine being dungeon being born. He is still fuming about the first divine-type core to be born was a beastkin.”

After Madam Erin says that however she smirks and I receive a message from her. “But of course we both know your Inari, wasn’t the first divine dungeon, don’t we?”

I wasn’t really hiding the fact I was a divine being, truth be told I didn’t even know until I got my adventurers ID, but Madam Erin is treating it like a highly guarded secret, so I guess I will just let it go like that.

Dyson: “Well it was a shame that such a thing was wasted on a beastkin.”

Madam Erin: “I assure you that beastkin or not, Dungeon Core #245 Inari, is one hell of a dungeon. In just under a year she has made so much progress in Shima that I believe we could feel confident in suggesting Shima to new cores in a few years.”

“Belinda and I talk to her at least once a week, but she won’t mention anything about how things are going there. Based on Dungeon Core Information she is doing well, but I am glad to hear it directly from an elder as well.”

Madam Erin: “Quite so, but back to the topic at hand.”

Dyson: “Indeed. You will have dungeon core #344, and #443, while Madam Erin will be responsible for birthing core #615, and as Madam Erin said #344 and #443 will both be female, while #615 will be male.”

Madam Erin: “We have also decided to handle their xp differently. If all three are capable of following the new training method then we will combine the xp for their training. Training them together that way will give them quite the advantage.”

Dyson: “Your boss monster has a good hold on the adventurer’s guild there in your town, so once Madam Erin’s core is born she will bring it to meet with us in your town to collect their adventurer IDs, and begin their training.”

“You plan to train all three in my dungeon?”

Dyson: “Your dungeon has the widest verity of monsters of any dungeon, and with Two-eighty-seven’s adventurer training I thought that would be a good way to start them off.”

Madam Erin: “I am all for leveling the new cores up quickly through the new method, but I am still skeptical of training them like adventurers. Dyson however does make a valid point that if they know the ins and outs of being an adventurer it will help them defend their own dungeon from adventurers, so we have agreed to give it a shot.”

Dyson: “I believe that is all for now. Madam Erin and I look forward to working with you next month. She and I still have some important things to discuss, so I am sure you are capable now of making your own way home?”

Madam Erin looks a little confused, but I can quickly see her eyes jolt to what I am sure is some kind of message, and after that she nods. I am a little curious, but I say my goodbyes and then use [Gate] to head back to my office.

It takes a while to smooth things over with Belinda after filling her in, but in the end she just says. “I figured as much as soon as my father gave us the date, but 2 cores this time…?”

After I tell Sofia about Dyson’s plan to use her “adventurer school” she becomes quite excited and even starts planning a unique course just for the new cores.

Over the course of the next month things really begin to get rather busy, Belinda has begun to spend almost every day at the capital working on matters concerning the wedding, and we are even forced to meet with people that have begun to arrive for the event from as far away as Merretta and Adra.

Things in the dungeon have gotten pretty intense as well as we have had several more B-ranked adventurer groups enter the dungeon. One has made several attempts, each time reaching a little deeper into the bottom floor.

It has been enough that Lilah and Lylah decided to spend most of our stored xp to begin placing lesser dragonkin rifts. Even with Katie making the gear for them as quickly as possible, saving a considerable amount of xp, each rift still costs us close to 15,000xp.

Katie is also making us quite a few items from dwarven metal. We haven’t introduced them into the dungeon yet, but at least when we want to we will be able to summon more. Working the dwarven metal, however, is quite time consuming, and the ore itself has a heavy xp cost, even in its raw form, so we have started pretty small and are slowly working our way up.

With the quickly increasing xp consumption, I have begun to catch up with the girls again, reaching level 19 just the other day. I do fear though that my consumption may be growing a bit too quickly. With the B-rank group that has taken to the dungeon the last week and a half, Kline, and the entirety of Tobes, however, I am getting close to 10,000xp per day.

The xp however is quickly going back out as fast as it comes in, though, with the group heading down into the depths several times a week, Lilah and Lylah are going to focus on that part of the dungeon for a while. All the new elemental rooms already have rifts, so it looks like a good time to focus on the main part of the dungeon.

The rest of Tobes hasn’t slowed down its growth either. You wouldn’t even recognize it as the same town from the time I arrived just under 3 short years ago. The capital has commissioned an expansion of the road between the two, to help with the increased trade.

The items from the dungeon have been growing in popularity, to the point they are being exported to markets far and wide outside the kingdom. There have been several permission requests from Heroes to enter the dungeon, but so far Belinda’s father has turned them all down, even the ones that insure the safety of the dungeon itself.

Logan has begun pressuring Belinda into allowing troops to train within the dungeon. Belinda has managed to convince him the dungeon can’t handle that many people going in and out of it all the time, but once Lilah and Lylah have the depths of the dungeon secured, I will give it deeper thought.

Kline has been a big benefit helping out around the office, and the adventurer’s guild. Even as Scylla’s husband, he understand there are things Scylla can’t discuss about us, but I don’t know how much longer we are going to keep our secret from him.

If we did tell Kline I don’t know if he would be able to keep if from Logan or not. I am sure we could trust Logan but I don’t know about the rest of Belinda’s family. I am sure we can handle anything Gowen could throw at us at this point, but I would hate to have Belinda or Scylla go through what Madam Erin did.

We decide it would be best to at least get completely done with the wedding before we make any further decisions about it.

Just like that the month is over, and with Dyson’s arrival with the second stone bench for the dungeon cores we begin preparing for their birth. This time when we all gather in the ballroom with the two stone benches in the center of the floor, we have several different sized outfits for the new cores just in case…

We are however caught off guard yet again, because once the light fades the “Molds” that are the new dungeon cores completely cover the benches. We thought of having normal clothing to smaller clothing on hand, but we didn’t expect the new cores to be this large. As the stone-like shell begins to crumble, revealing the cores underneath, they both happen to be young women similar to Roc.

As the two tall bird women sit up on their benches and begin to open their eyes I can hear Dyson curse quite loudly from the back.

While Roc's bird side hails from a golden eagle, these two seem made from far more exotic stuff, with large decorative plumes near the back of their heads. Their features appear to be identical, but while one has vibrant blue-colored plumage, the other has fiery bright, red-colored feathers. Like in Roc's case, their bodies are human-shaped, but their heads, hands and feet are bird-like, though rather than sharp talons, their claws are much smaller, and the overall impression is very different from Roc's bird of prey feel, and more like that of an exotic, colorful singing bird.

The clothing we summoned is too small, but Belinda quickly takes two robes, at least covering them somewhat. After each of them thanks Belinda with sweet song-like voices, Belinda accesses [Menu] to find them some more suitable clothes.

After a sigh, Dyson says: “I am Elder Dyson, and although you were summoned by Two-Twelve, we are going to be completing your training quite differently.”

After I approve of Belinda's request for a red and blue sets of clothing, similar to what I first summoned for Roc, she hands them over to our new arrivals. These have a little more coverage and are meant for female avians, of course.

The girls thank Belinda again, but still have a confused look on their faces at Dyson’s comment.

“Belinda here will take you to get dressed, and we will explain further after that.”

They stand and lightly bow, trying to maintain a bit of modesty due to the overly short robes. After Belinda leads them out of the room Dyson sighs again.

Dyson: “More beastkin… I do have to say you manage to summon the most unique dungeon cores possible, yet still manage to disappoint.”

“I always found humans to be so adaptable. Even when I summoned my first monster of that particular race, the humans quickly adapted, but for a dungeon core others refer to as human, you seem to hold a lot of bias against anything non-human. What exactly do you have against beastkin?”

Dyson: “I don’t have anything against them as a race. I just don’t care to have one in my bedchamber.”

“I find it rather troubling that your first thought for a new core is about whether it meets your bedchamber standards or not.”

Dyson: “What can I say I like the small pleasures in life.”

After a few minutes Dyson informs me of the arrival of Madam Erin, so while Belinda takes care of the two avians we head outside to meet with Madam Erin.

When Madam Erin arrives she has man following closely behind her, and although I would say he is short and kind of thin, I guess standing next to Madam Erin would make anyone look that way. When they get closer, I realize he and I share quite a few physical similarities.

Since I was born in Madam Erin’s dungeon, my appearance is most likely due that, but does that mean I am actually Madam Erin’s preferred type…? That makes me wonder about all those times in the past when she's made sexual passes at me and I dismissed them as jokes.

Madam Erin pushes the new core forward while saying. “This here is dungeon core #615 Var.” The young man looks at Dyson and myself rather nervously.

Dyson: “I am Elder Dyson, and this here is Dungeon core #212, we will be using his dungeon for your training this month.”

Madam Erin: “By Dyson’s apparent disappointment I assume your cores didn’t result in a divine being?”

“So far they just appear to be beastkin, but at least they are 3rd tier beastkin.”

Madam Erin: “Third tier?” –She says with a confused expression, and by Dyson’s reaction it looks like I said something odd.-

“Yes… They are avians like Roc. When I summoned him my [Menu] referred to him as a 3rd tier beastkin, but they are treated like their own individual race in terms of summoning.”

Madam Erin: “I knew your Roc was a beastkin that has never been seen before, but I have never heard anything about 3rd tier beastkin before. With your unique way of summoning monsters, does that mean you can summon different kinds of 3rd tier beastkin now?”

“Like I said, it treats it like its own race, so it just calls them avians, and I can summon a random bird sub-species, but not any other 3rd tier beastkin.”

Madam Erin: “We have been looking at divine beings as an evolved form of humans, then the same should be said for a divine beastkin, but if your avians are 3rd tier, what are the divine beastkin?”

“I am not exactly sure how it works.”

We head back to the house to find Belinda has the two avians dressed and ready to go now. Both of the Avians are wearing clothes that match the color of their feathers. Their clothing is barely more than swimwear, with an appearance closer to that of a long strip of soft fabric, tied in various places to form clothing.

Madam Erin moves forward and introduces herself to the two avians, and for the first time I see someone that meets her eye to eye. Then Dyson explains the situation to the three new cores. They appear confused at first and ask several questions, but after we get that squared away we decide to head next door to acquire their adventurer IDs.

Entering the adventurer’s guild with Madam Erin, Dyson, and the two avian has caused quite of a stir as the adventurers begin to whisper to one another. Belinda completes Var’s adventurer ID and it appears his came out normal enough.

Adventurer #122,273 [Var] Base: Tobes

Race: Human Gender: Male

Rank: D Level: 1

Class: Dungeoneer Favored Element: Earth

Commissions Complete: 0

Dungeon Crystals Destroyed: 0

After looking over his ID I realize something… I still haven’t given the Avians a name, but Belinda has already begun processing the red avian’s ID.

Adventurer #122,274 [Dawn] Base: Tobes

Race: Avian Gender: Female

Rank: D Level: 1

Class: Mage Favored Element: Fire

Commissions Complete: 0

Dungeon Crystals Destroyed: 0

Oh I guess Belinda already took care of their names. She named this one Dawn, if she named the other one Dusk, I would be a little disappointed however.

Adventurer #122,275 [Twilight] Base: Tobes

Race: Avian Gender: Female

Rank: D Level: 1

Class: Mage Favored Element: Water

Commissions Complete: 0

Dungeon Crystals Destroyed: 0

…Twilight… Oh well I guess they can rename themselves once they finish with their training. I am a little disappointed they both appear normal enough, otherwise. Both with just a standard Mage class and a favored element, so I almost feel like I let them down.

After the new cores have their IDs we all then depart, heading back to the house.

Madam Erin: “Alright, we should be ready to begin their training. Do you have a room prepared in your dungeon for the training?”

“Yes, I set one up just for this.”

To be on the safe side I use [Gate] to take the six of us into a large, empty, perfectly square room that I had prepared the day before. The only thing in the room other than us, is a large double door on the far side.

Dyson: “This should work.”

“Alright, we need to summon some equipment for the new cores, and then we can start.”

Madam Erin: “I am still not convinced this is going to work, so let’s start off small.” –She presents me with a small xp bead.-

I add the bead to my inventory adding the ability to summon 5,000xp beads to my dungeon and I then break it down adding the 5,000xp to my total.

“Alright we will start with Var, I am not familiar with the dungeoneer class so what kind of equipment do you require?”

After an odd look from Var, Dyson clears his throat and says. “I believe he means what kind of equipment would you prefer?”

Var: “Any light to medium armor should do, along with a thin blade and perhaps a buckler or small shield for the added protection.”

I will get Katie to start working on some items for them, but for now I summon a normal steel sword, buckler, and chainmail armor. I give them their own unique design while keeping their quality.

Var: “Thanks. This should work nicely for now.”

“Alright, now Dawn and Twilight… You both hold the mage class, so what can I get for you?”

With a song like voice Twilight says. “Whatever Papa thinks is best.”

Papa… We aren’t going to go through this again are we? I can already see Dyson and Madam Erin both have smirks on their faces. I try to ignore them while bringing up [Menu] again, and searching for equipment for both avian and mages.

This actually narrows the results down quite a bit. For some reason normal rods and mage staves are unavailable. Only the battle-staff, and the bladed combat staff are available for weapons. For now I do the same as I did for Var when summoning Dawn a simple battle-staff.

Dawn: “Thanks papa.”

Twilight: “You’re not going to give me the same thing are you?”

“Well you are a mage as well, so why not?”

Twilight: “At least give me something I can stab someone with…”

“Alright, fine…”

I haven’t summoned a bladed combat staff other than Inari’s so I honestly don’t know what a normal one looks like. It is quite a bit higher xp cost, but we are still doing well so far so I go ahead and summon a bladed combat staff for Dawn.

Once I summon the staff it looks rather plain… It looks nothing like the staff Inari had. This one looks more like a slightly curved battle-staff with sharp ends is all.

Twilight: “Not exactly what I had in mind, but it’s acceptable.”

Unfortunately it doesn’t appear there is any armor available to them, so I guess we will have to take it easy on them for a while.

Dyson: “Alright, now that everyone is ready, we can begin.”