I wake up the next morning with the comforting scent filling me. Unfortunately even though the scent is comforting it is also a reminder that Listel is gone… As I starts to get out of bed there is a soft knock at the door.

“Yes?”

Belinda: “I invited everyone over for breakfast this morning, I just wanted to see if you wanted to join us.”

I use [Menu] to equip my things… That is one thing I am not going to miss is having to equip my gear by hand. I do however take my helmet off holding it under my arm as I answer the door.

Belinda: “Oh… I see you have your things ready.”

“I understand you unbound a few of the monsters so I understand their need to eat, so perhaps we can discuss our plan of action?”

Belinda: “Well my sister already left, but my brother and his slave are downstairs. Maybe you will at least join us for a cup of coffee? Two-Twelve really loved his coffee in the morning.”

“I can appreciate what you are trying to do, but I would really like to focus on the task, maybe I can take the few that aren’t required to eat and get started?”

Belinda: “If that is what you order we will do it, but I ask you to please let them finish breakfast first. It has been so long since we have been all together again, and if we are going to go after a dungeon core capable of what Laura is we might not get many more chances.”

“Very well… I well then get started on securing the dungeon.”

Belinda looks a little disappointed but she nods and heads back downstairs. I then transfer to the dungeon core room. I decide to look over the dungeon in more detail and I notice there isn’t even a single monster in the dungeon that is not from a rift. At least we don’t have to worry about running out of monsters.

I might have been a bit hasty in my view of the dungeon. Even though it is quite small there are several non-connected wings that give me an idea. Using the elemental theme they have going on I add one more floor to each elemental wing.

I add one small room with a rift similar to what they had in the last room but double the amount of creatures in it. I then add a final large room behind that one. In the large room I fill it with the toughest type of creatures from the designated element that is available to summon. I don’t know how well this is going to work so I hold on from using rifts for now.

While the fire, water, and shadow rooms have one large creature and a group of smaller ones, it’s the earth and wind room where I am able to push to the limit. At 50,000xp a piece I put a small earth dragon in the earth room and a griffon in the wind room. I wasn’t impressed by the giant grab, and at the same price as the dragon and griffon I decide to hold off on it.

The room is about the same size as the one I fought the small earth dragon in so he should have no problems, but the griffon I am not too sure about with the confines of the room limiting some of his ability.

I understand that I used to be Two-Twelve but it seems more like I just took his place, he did have some helpful dungeon type skills which I use to make a locking mechanism that requires 5 large orbs matching the color of an element. I then store the orbs on the inventory of the boss like monsters for each elemental wing.

I then move on to the primary part of the dungeon. From the back of the room where I was fighting the dragonkin and king slimes the day before I add another floor below. I add a decent size room at the base of the stairs and fill the center of the room with a large circular marble slab.

I use another locking mechanism attaching it to a large arm in the center of the circle. Now it looks like one of them fancy time telling devices that run on magic that I saw in Utharia. I then put a door along the room at what would be each hour interval.

Now when the arm mechanism is facing one of the doors that door is unlocked while the rest remain locked. The large arm moves automatically every hour, but it can be moved manually as well. If adventurers spend too much time in the side rooms they will be stuck until the arm makes it back around 12 hours later.

I put a decent sized room at each 1, 5, 7, and 11 o’clock doors, and a hallway attaching a similar room to the hours 2, 4, 8, 10. With 12 o’clock being the stairs that only leaves 3, 6, and 9, and there is only enough space at 3 and 9 for a small room each.

From 6 o’clock I put a long hallway connecting it to an extra-large room. I then fill the odd number rooms with an orc brute, orc mystic combination of rifts, and fill the even numbered room with rifts of lesser ogres.

The rifts of orcs at 6 o’clock are also double in size then the rest. The orcs also appear to be the last in the evolutionary chain of goblins that allows the use of standard equipment so I outfit them all in dark steel gear.

For the ogres I give them large two handed weapons that they wield single-handedly. From the 1 o’clock room I add another small room that I put a rift of 2 normal ogres giving them some of the dark steel weapons as well. From the 2 o’clock room, the room I add is slightly larger, so double up on the ogres to a 4 count rift.

From a small room attached to 4 o’clock and another from 8 o’clock I spend a massive amount of xp to put a rift of an ogre lord in each. I then mirror what I did off the 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock rooms for 10 o’clock and 11 o’clock

I have to add another floor because I add a stairwell to both the 3 o’clock room and the 9 o’clock room attaching a long hallway and then coming back up for one more set of rooms at the furthest east and west points.

I decide to bump up the difficulty of the monsters in those rooms placing a group of 5 trolls, but with their cost I decide to hold off on rifts for now.

I create one more locking mechanism with three simple keys giving one to each group of trolls and the double sized lesser ogre group at the 6 o’clock room. I add another set of stairs in both the 5 o’clock and 7 o’clock rooms then with a pair of L shaped hallways I join them to a large central room.

I then add more ogre rifts to the 4 hallways on the bottom floor and in the large central room I add an ogre rift along with an ogre lord. Using the locking mechanism with the three keys I add another room that contains 2 trolls and a troll brute.

Attaching one last room to the back, and inside I finally add the mechanism that uses the elemental orbs. Once the five orbs are placed it will lead to the next stairwell, but I realized I have already used 1 million xp so I just move the core to be in the small area behind the locking mechanism.

The keys from the previous mechanism and the elemental orbs are made in a way that they return to their starting location if someone tries to take them from the dungeon. That means any group of adventurers not only has reach the 5th sub-level acquire the 3 keys to open the door on the 6th sub-level, but they also have to acquire the elemental orbs from the bottom of each elemental wing all without leaving the dungeon, that easily makes this small dungeon seem almost 5 times the size.

When I finally pull myself from [Menu] I notice I have three sets of eyes on me with a mix of astonishment and worry.

“Lilah, Lylah, and Lila was it? Well what do you think?”

Lilah: “Master used over 1 million of the xp…”

Lila: “That may be a massive amount of xp master used, but I even have a griffon at the end of my wind wing.”

Lylah: “Oh yea?! Lila might have gotten a griffon in her wind room but I got a dragon… A dragon in my earth room!”

Lilah: “Lilah always wanted a dragon… Sister trade Lilah the shadow wing for the earth wing!”

Lylah: “No way! Besides Lilah has orcs, ogres, and even trolls in the primary wing now to play with.”

Lilah: “But adventurers haven’t even made it through the dragonkin, so it will be forever till Lilah can play with them…”

“What do each of you focus on different areas or what?”

Lylah: “I take care of the high traffic fire and earth wings. While Lila takes care of the water and wind wings.”

Lilah: “But the main path is the most important so Lilah focuses on it, not many adventurers progress to far there though so she also takes care of the shadow wing. If there is a B-Ranked adventurer group in the main wing, Lylah and Lila will split the shadow room so Lilah can focus extra hard.”

“I see… So I guess everyone is done with breakfast now, so I better get started in seeing what everyone can do. Also be careful of them boss rooms for the elemental wings as they aren’t rift monsters.”

The girls nod and I transfer back down to the house. I had the plan to go down to at least the 10th sub-level, but the xp was consumed way to fast… Now if Two-Twelve’s girls are a disappointment there isn’t much I can do.

Belinda: “Oh your back, we have been waiting quite a while on you.”

“I’m sorry, I got a little wrapped up in it.”

Belinda: “That is ok we haven’t been able to just sit and chat in so long it was nice.”

I follow Belinda into the living room where everyone is sitting around.

“Good morning everyone, I am sorry about the misunderstanding yesterday evening.”

Zoey: “Don’t worry boss, everyone gets that impression the first time they see us all with you. We should have realized after you lost your memory you would think the same thing.”

“Belinda gave me a pretty good rundown on everyone yesterday, but I think I would still like to go around the room to introduce myself to everyone.”

Scylla: “That’s a good idea, who knows it might help jog your memory.”

I start to my left, which is the long green haired elf Azami.

Azami: “Hi, I’m Azami. I’m and elf, or at least I used to be, but not any more I became a Divine Elf after joining the dungeon. We haven’t met before, unless you count yesterday evening then we have most definitely have met before.”

“I see.”

Azami: “I am also your primary boss monster, of course Belinda is in charge so you might call her the primary boss monster, but my magic is excellent and exceeds Belinda’s so I am the primary boss monster.

I bring up her status page in [Menu] but her level only says 4… if she is the primary boss monster at level 4 we are in a lot more trouble than I thought… It says she is a hero though so maybe that’s how she got her decent ability scores, but I wonder how she was able to accomplish that and still only be level 4.

“I don’t understand, how can you be only level 4 and be my primary boss monster, and a hero at that?”

Belinda: “Oh, I’m sorry, that has to do with the nature of your unique boss monsters, and their abilities even increase even though their number is reduced back to level 1. The same thing happened when you took me and Roxy as dungeon monsters as well. Before she joined the dungeon Azami was level 35.”

“In other words the level isn’t important just focus on the abilities?”

Belinda: “I am sure for Azami its going to be quite beneficial, but for Roxy and I we were both pretty low level when we joined the dungeon, so with the exception of the skills we learned though the dungeon we are pretty close to normal people of our level.”

“Well that’s somewhat unfortunate…”

Belinda: “Well we have never worried about things like level to much before, because the dungeon was always safe because of the Gowen protection order, but with the war, and the fact you want to start a fight with a high level dungeon core…”

“Well your inability is why I am able to stand here like I am now.”

Belinda: “You’re right, we need to try harder…”

“I actually didn’t mean it that way…Anyway moving on.”

The next girl is the short dwarf girl, the most bland of the group but still attractive in her own right. I bring up her status as feel somewhat disappointed… She has already achieved level 21 and her only available ability scores are strength, agility, endurance, and blacksmithing… Not even any weapons, and not a single score is over the 200 mark…

She does have an ability that allows the use of her blacksmithing score for her weapon arts, but still under 200 won’t be much help…

“You’re Katie, right? You mainly just make weapons and armor for us then?”

Katie: “Well I have traveled with Belinda when she goes training, but if you really are planning on attacking Laura, it would probably be for the best, if I just help the dungeon by making some weapons and armor for the other monsters…”

“Well on that front it appears some of the monsters I summoned today are unable to wear conventional armor, so maybe you would be able to help out with that?”

Katie: “I would love to be able to help anyway I can.”

Next up is the cow beastkin, bringing up her status page is even worse… none of her abilities even pass 130 as she is level 19, her skills will increase in rank after she levels but even looking at them it doesn’t seem like that is going to help much… Apparently I am showing my disappointment or she already knows, but her ears are hanging pretty low.

“Bell, right?”

Bell: “Yes… I have stuck by the mayor since he took office, so though my combat abilities are lacking I am sure I can more than make up for it by assisting the dungeon in the mayor’s office…”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

Next up is the only other human other than Belinda, or I guess she is the only human. Her status is not much better than the rest even if she is level 22, but at least her defensive ability manages to break the 200 mark if only by a few points.

Sofia: “It’s Sofia, and you are being too hard on the girls, we all have trained hard for the dungeon. You may be some fancy hero now, but our abilities are the typical for adventures at our level, and unless we start taking out some dungeons that is not likely to change.”

“You actually sound proud to being so weak…”

Sofia: “I am confident in my abilities matched to just about anyone my own level. Dyson summoned me as a gift to Two-Twelve because he saw something special in him, but now you don’t seem more to me than the typical jack-ass dungeon core that Dyson has been trying to put an end too.”

“You definitely speak your mind that is for sure, so what is it you are contributing to the dungeon now?”

Sofia: “I am running the adventurer’s training courses downtown.”

“That seems counter-productive to protecting the dungeon doesn’t it?”

Sofia: “The entire town is inside the dungeon, as long as they are sleeping in the town the dungeon is gaining the xp, if I can hold them a few weeks there, it’s far better than them looting the dungeon and running. Besides I am instilling in the new adventurers a respect to the dungeons. Since I started my courses we have seen a noticeable improvement in the vandalism inside the dungeon from the breaking of objects that would cost xp to replace, so yes I am contributing my part to the dungeon.”

Next is the pregnant salamander beastkin. I know she can’t really be of help at the moment, and she is no longer bound to the dungeon so I can’t look at her status page anymore.

“Scylla, Belinda told me you are helping with the mayor duties and such, so just keep it up.”

Scylla: “Thanks master… I know I can’t be much help in combat, but my husband Kline is a seasoned adventurer as well, we told him about the dungeon after your disappearance and he has sort of made peace with it. I am sure if you wanted I could ask him to help…”

“That is ok, without being bound to the dungeon he would do more harm than good, but thanks anyway…”

Next is the wolf beastkin that is one of the dungeon boss monsters. Looking at her status is somewhat of a relief… it isn’t nothing to great but she is rather well rounded, and being only level 19 with so many skills once she levels they will go up considerably. Belinda said I could use the dungeon’s xp to give the boss monsters skills so I might want to see about getting her as many as possible before she levels again to help that much more.

“With a few more skills you could become quite promising.”

Roxy: “Thanks, I can never thank you enough for what you have done for me, so if I can be any help I would be glad to do it.”

The only one left is the dog beastkin and Belinda, and even though she is no longer bound before I say anything she she quickly stops me.

Zoey: “Wait boss, before you say anything… Belinda unbound me from the dungeon because she was afraid something might happen to you, but I really want to be able to get back into helping again. Especially if you are going to be fighting with us, so please before you write me off can you see if adding me back to the dungeon will result in me becoming one of your special boss monsters.”

“You don’t know if it will or not?”

Zoey: “Well not really, nobody has been able to figure out exactly what your special boss monsters are, but you seem to be able to make one by adding a boss monster to your dungeon when a normal dungeon would have the ability to summon a new boss monster. You should at least have one more in you, but since I was summoned by the dungeon I don’t know if it will work or not. Please at least give it a shot. If nothing else it will be a learning experience just to find out, and I will at least be bound to the dungeon again.”

“I don’t know all the others are around level 20 so that would be quite expensive to add you back to the dungeon for nothing if it doesn’t work.”

Zoey: “Not for nothing boss, I promise, even if I don’t become one of your special boss monsters I promise as long as you will have Roxy and me I’ll do whatever you ask.”

“Well the truth is even if Belinda is as good as Roxy and Azami, we could use the extra special boss monster, so it might be worth the risk. What do you think Belinda?”

Belinda: “You’re asking me?”

“Well I am sure Two-Twelve wouldn’t have married you if he couldn’t confide in you, so you would be the one that would have the best idea what he would have wanted.”

Belinda’s eyes get a little watery as she says. “Thanks… If you want to know what Two-Twelve would have done I would say he would do it. He would do anything for his girls even if it caused him inconvenience, so something that could benefit him as well he wouldn’t hesitate.”

“Alright, as long as you are about the level as the others it should be alright, but I already spent most of the xp this morning so it might be a bit tight…”

I open [Menu] to try to see if it will allow me to make Zoey a boss monster, her cost is close to 100,000xp so that does seem in line to her being around level 20, but if this doesn’t work it’s going to take quite a toll on what I can teach the other boss monsters.

“Well here goes nothing…”

Once I accept, Zoey is raised in the air surrounded by light. When the light fades the naked beastkin woman is place gently back on her feet. From what I was told Roxy was a normal beastkin before becoming a Divine Beastkin, and even with quite a bit less fur then a feral beastkin she had most the other traits of a feral beastkin. Given the fact of Zoey’s appearance it must have worked…

Everything about her is just… More… Her once sandy blond hair is now waist long and so golden it looks wheat ready to harvest blowing in a breeze. Her large pointed ears at not double the size but it is definitely a noticeable difference all the fur on her body is the same golden yellow as her hair and her tail is at least twice a bushy.

I can’t be certain about before but her body seems far more toned and muscular then in appeared before though her clothes. The nails on her hands and feet seem to have elongated further and even her face seems to have elongated some. It just seems everything about her is one step closer canine then it was before.

She quickly checks herself out seeming quite happy with herself. She runs her hands across her abs, squeezes her own ass and even her breasts.

Zoey: “They feel great… Roxy feel this! –She says shoving her breasts toward her.- “You to boss!” –She says turning to shake her bare backside at me.-

I slowly start to reach forward when I hear Belinda says. “Hey!”

“I was just going to feel her tail…”

Zoey: “Boss is a pervert! Boss is a pervert!”

I access [Menu] while Zoey keeps doing her best to jiggle in front of me. After I reequip her clothing she stands back up and leans in to Roxy.

Zoey: “What do you say we let boss join us later to help break in the new body?”

Roxy: “Zoey, that’s enough, after everything he has been though the last few days I am sure he doesn’t want to hear your shenanigans, but” –She then leans in whispering in Zoey’s ear. Whatever Zoey heard seems to please her greatly…-

“Roxy, you two really do seem to understand each other perfectly.”

Roxy: “Don’t get me wrong I love Zoey, but as far as books go she is as easy to read as a picture book.”

Zoey: “But it definitely doesn’t belong in the kids section!”

“…Anyway… I am sure you all have things you need to get back too, so I think if I could borrow Roxy, Zoey, Azami, and Belinda, the rest of you can do your own thing.”

Scylla: “Alright master, if you need anything from Kline or myself, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Bell: “And I hope you are up to taking back over as mayor soon, so Belinda’s sister can go back home.”

Sofia: “Speaking of Gowen children, Belinda’s brother is done with his training course, but he asked for my assistance with something today during breakfast, so I better make sure he stays out of trouble.”

Katie: “Later, you know where to fine me.”

Belinda: “Alright, what’s next?”

“Well we don’t have much xp left after the dungeon, and Zoey, but I am going to try to teach us all the skills I possibly can. After seeing were that puts us. Then we can decide our next course of action.”

I go through [Menu] adding skills to everyone, and Zoey of course needs the most, but most of them available that she lacks are also very cheap, and Azami has quite a few available to her as well. I have a few that are quite costly that I can’t afford but I try to at least even everyone out on what we got.

Zoey: “This is great boss… I feel so much stronger than before.”

Azami: “I may be mistaken, but are such skills really necessary for a mage such as myself? Some of them don’t pertain to magic at all. ”

“There is no such thing as to much. Even as a mage being able to dodge or take a hit is important. I am actually quite surprised. Roxy and Belinda seemed to have most of the available skills already. By the way you were talking I thought Two-Twelve wouldn’t have done that.”

Belinda: “That goes along with the keeping us safe even at his own disadvantage. We don’t gain skills the normal way being the special monsters, so he always seemed to spend most of the xp we brought home from training right back onto us.”

“Well I am glad he did, it seems like it is really going to help.”

Roxy: “So you said we will come up with a plan now right? You don’t plan to go after Laura immediately do you?”

“Unfortunately I know all too well that I am currently no match for her, but that’s why I am going to train you all up and then maybe we could have a shot, without the cuff I am sure I have completely returned to being a dungeon core, so I won’t be able to level with you, but the more xp we bring back the larger I can make the dungeon so I can level faster.”

Zoey: “Then why don’t you just put the cuff back on while we go training boss?”

Roxy: “I am sure it isn’t as simple as all that Zoey…”

“Well true the collar was bound completely to Listel, but the cuff… It was activated by a command…”

Zoey: “Wouldn’t hurt to try then would it?”

“Well the collar was what did all the damage while the cuff was just the appearance and abilities, so if I can’t take it back off the worse that could happen is I permanently get stuck with Arngrim’s face.”

Zoey: “That depends was he ugly?”

Roxy: “Zoey!” –She slaps Zoey’s stomach with the back of her hand, but with Zoey’s new abs she rubs her hand afterwards.-

I try to find the cuff in the dungeon inventory and then take it out. I then put it on my wrist and try to activate it like Listel did but can’t.

“Well maybe it’s got to be someone else, Belinda you try it.”

When she repeats the process I did this time the cuff links together, shines, and the seam disappears.

“Well it looks like it worked that time… My voice didn’t seem to change back, so how do I look?”

Zoey: “It didn’t change.”

“But it looks like it worked… Maybe it has something to do with the fact Belinda activated it? Lets try to disable it to make sure we can.”

After telling her how Listel disabled it, Belinda repeats the process and the cuff disconnects.

“Now the question is if it actually worked while connected…”

Zoey: “I got an idea!” –She quickly activates the cuff while it’s still on my wrist.-

My chest quickly begins to feel pain as if feels like it’s being crushed by the armor, but that’s far from the worst from it… Something else seems to disappear as well.

Zoey: “Boss you make a cute girl!”

Belinda: “Zoey! Change him back!”

Zoey pouts then disables the cuff and I become whole again…

“That was…”

Zoey: “Hey boss can I borrow that thing I want to give something a try!”

This time its Belinda that scolds Zoey as Roxy actually seems to be giving it serious thought…

“Alright then... I got one more idea.”

I reach in my belt patch pulling Arngrim’s ID and it is still blank, I then ask Belinda to activate the cuff again this time watching the ID while she does.

Adventurer #183,257 [Two-Twelve] Base: Uthaira

Race: Divine Being Gender: Male

Rank: D Level: 30

Class: Hexamage Favored Element: N/A

Commissions Complete: 1 Dungeon Crystals Destroyed: 4

It’s not exactly the same… My name and race still haven’t changed like it did last time.

“Does Two-Twelve have an adventurer’s ID?”

Belinda: “You should, but it was probably on you when you were taken so if you don’t still have it, it may be gone till we make another.”

“I was just going to see if it was blank like this one turns when the cuff is deactivated. Well we will put the testing on hold for now till we are ready to go train, but that might prove useful if we can figure it out.”

Zoey: “Then if you’re not going to use it right now can I borrow it?”

“We don’t even know if it would be safe to put on someone else, I don’t want to risk anything more until we can get a better idea what we are dealing with.”

Zoey: “Aww…”

“Back to the topic at hand, did Two-Twelve have any enemies that it would be possible for us to take out for our training?”

Belinda: “I don’t know about taking out… But Madam Erin always allows us to train in her dungeon. Although if we do get the cuff figured out that might be a secret we don’t want her to find out about.”

“Did Two-Twelve really have no enemies…?”

Roxy: “You were very likeable…”

Belinda: “You always had a habit of bringing the best out in people, and after you told me with what happened with Listel I am sure you are still share that trait with Two-Twelve. I would be willing to bet that is why Listel did what she did.”

“I don’t know I am sure she was just alone for so long that anyone was better than nothing.”

Roxy: “Two-Twelve was always humble and oblivious to the effect he had on others as well.”

“This isn’t helping our training… What about the war could we fight in it to train?”

Belinda: “So far it has been at a stalemate as none of Longolia’s troops have been able to get past the border very far…”

Roxy: “What about Lilah’s original dungeon?”

Belinda: “But we don’t know anything about it…”

Roxy: “She summons monsters to turn them into slaves, and buys slaves to turn them into xp, how much worse could you get?”

“Is she close?”

Belinda: “You managed to narrow it down to a small part of Duscae, but we don’t have any idea how strong she is.”

Roxy: “Then what about asking Dyson, I am sure he has a list...”

Belinda: “That’s not a bad idea he was the one that pointed us to the dungeon that I got my hero title from.”

“Alright, I will send him a message and see if he will meet with me.”