The dungeon boss monsters and I continue training up until the point in which the new dungeon core will be born, and all of the girl’s levels have seems to even out, and all are at different stages of level 25. Even with all of them gaining levels I have only gained one more due to the use of the ring.

The xp we acquired should have been quite nice, but it seems things are going pretty poorly in the dungeon and even though we have started to replace some of the monsters in the elemental wings with rifts we are taking too much damage.

We even lost two more of the mythril swords leaving only the ones in the griffon and dragon rooms. I fear now that they are the only two left. Several groups are going to band together to take out the griffon and dragon to get to them…

The adventurers have also discovered that there is one of the elemental orbs at the end of each wing and have already figured out they cannot be removed from the dungeon. Several groups have begun pressing on the main dungeon trying to find out the use for the orbs.

They have even finally passed the dragonkin and have entered the floor with the large dial. Luckily the group that progressed to that floor got trapped behind a door when they spent too much time inside and ended up losing their lives, so the floor remains undiscovered.

Madam Erin has discovered the group of my monsters training in her dungeon and like Belinda said she didn’t seem to have a problem with it. They haven’t been making very much progress with the rules and popularity of Madam Erin’s dungeon, but Bandy’s group, and Poppy’s group have even provided a few new useful skills for the dungeon.

I woke up this morning quite tired, as I spent most of the night fiddling around making a couple more [Ring of Second Life]s after Dyson delivered the xp for the new dungeon core and the bonus I asked for, yesterday evening.

I even snuck off to test them out. One turned out exactly like the one I have so I didn’t mess with it as it will be the one I will give Inari to make Belinda happy. Another one turned out as [Ring of Fake Life]. That said it had an extra effect but it didn’t appear until after I tested it.

[Ring of Fake Life] A ring that grants the wearer a single fake identity for as long as the ring is worn. Through exceptional craftsmanship the ring grants an added effect. The fake identity created by the ring is that of Mayor Two-Twelve Gowen of the city of Tobes and grants the wearer some of his talents as a hero. Wearer receives the skill Heroic (Rank 4) as long as they wear the ring.

Needless to say the ring doesn’t help me a bit, but if I ever need a doppelganger it might come in handy so I ended up storing it and set a restriction that only I can remove it just in case one of the girls has any strange ideas… Mainly Zoey…

A third ring resulted in [Ring of Many Faces] and it allows the user to change the identity every time the ring is put on but for some reason it doesn’t work in granting me any xp when I killed something. It had an added effect granting +25 agility to the wearer as well which makes the enchantment [Agile] available to the dungeon.

I am not sure how it works I used the same enchantment for the [Ring of Second Life] as the [Ring of Many Faces] so I am unclear why one would work while the other won’t. Maybe because you can change the identity every time you put on the ring the enchantment is somehow weaker?

You can mold a monster or item’s appearance and even a monster’s personality by focusing hard enough when you summon it so I tried one final ring while focusing on my reflection in a mirror and on what I wanted the ring to do.

The results said it will be a [Ring of Second Identity] but when I accepted, with only a 5% chance I ended up with a critical success, which made it a [Ring of Second Soul] instead.

[Ring of Second Soul] A ring that contains a human soul. Although non-sentient or capable of action on its own, once equipped the soul will meld with the wearer of the ring and the wearer can choose to take on any or all traits of the soul that resides in the ring. Through exceptional craftsmanship the ring has the added effect of allowing the wear to temporarily free the soul from within the ring to act independently filling in its missing traits with that of the wearer. Although the freed soul is non-sentient it can act under complex orders and even speak. If the soul returns to the ring before the duration expires the wearer will be granted the experiences of the soul while it was freed. To free the soul the wearer must focus their magic granting the freed soul 1 minute duration for every 100 magic expelled. If the freed soul is dealt a fatal blow it will lose form and return to the ring, but if the wearer is dealt a fatal blow the wearer can switch places with the freed soul. The wearer will then permanently take on the form of the freed soul.

That was the ring that kept me up most of the night testing and playing with it. I even accidently expended to much magic leaving me to have to wait for it to recover before I could return home. Depending on what traits from the ring I take when equipping it determines if it works the way I want it to or not.

The soul stored in the ring isn’t very strong and it isn’t very appealing either, but by just taking its race as a human is enough for me to acquire xp. It also has the added effect of not changing my Dungeon Core Information page, but once Inari starts to use the ring I am supposed to give her the elders will find out anyway.

Belinda: “You came to bed awfully late last night… You’re not running around on me are you?” –She says jokingly.-

“After getting the xp from Dyson I was experimenting with rings, so I could give one to Inari like you made me promise.”

Belinda: “Well did you have any luck?”

“I think so, I made one that was just like the one I was using, Inari should be able to use it like I was doing it, but I also made one that I think will work better for us as well.”

Belinda: “Well good…It’s getting pretty late already, you might want to get dressed unless you want to welcome the new core into our home looking like that.”

“Well it’s only fair. She isn’t going to have any clothes on when she is born either.”

Belinda throws my clothes at me. “None of the girls want to see you flapping around like that!”

“I was actually under the impression that a few of them might…”

Belinda: “It’s bad enough a few of them spying on us with [Menu] before you blocked it. That is as much of a peep show they are going to get!”

I continue to tease Belinda while getting ready and actually get her to blush, but we really do start to run out of time so we hurry downstairs for the arrival of the new dungeon core. I don’t know what it is normally like to welcome in a new core, but for us apparently it’s a family affair as almost everyone except Azami and 1 of the bunnies is present. Even through the objection of Scylla and Aria, Kline and Doug are here as well.

“Lilah, where is Lylah?”

Lilah: “Someone had to stay behind to keep a close eye on the dungeon, and Lylah drew the short straw, so Lila and Lilah get to watch the new core be born!”

“Well don’t leave her by herself for too long. It’s a busy part of the day for only one of you bunnies to be trying to keep track of everything…”

Lilah & Lila: “Yes master!~”

“Doug, Kline… You sure you two want to be here for this?”

Kline: “After Scylla explained it to me I really became interested in watching the birth of a new dungeon.”

Doug: “Same here.”

Zoey quickly makes her way over and says. “Did they tell you she will be born to Two-Twelve’s deepest desires? You want to make a bet on what the results will be?”

Doug: “Is that really true? But wouldn’t that mean Miss Inari we met a few weeks ago was…”

For some reason he looks to Aria and is a little worried.

“That’s not exactly accurate… Their appearance and personality is molded by the dungeon they are born in, but to say they take the shape of their deepest desires is pushing it. I have quite a few beastkin in my dungeon so it stands to reason Inari was born a beastkin.”

Zoey: “So it’s a coincidence that Belinda made you stop hanging around with a certain fox beastkin at the brothel and then the first dungeon core you trained just happened to be a fox beastkin?”

“That’s not fair, I can’t even remember something from that time to defend myself.”

Belinda: “You don’t really think Inari was a fox beastkin because of Cassandra… Over a year past between when he was visiting with her and Inari’s birth…”

Zoey: “10 gold on a cat beastkin! Any takers?”

Roxy hits Zoey on the shoulder. “Zoey! That was uncalled for…”

“It’s alright Roxy… I have made peace with it. I can’t just throw away the feelings I had for Listel even if they were artificial, but even for what little I have remembered I now know what I share with Belinda is by far greater than anything I had with Listel.”

Belinda has tears in her eyes as she takes my hand. “Two-Twelve…”

“That being said… All this talk about Listel and bringing everything back up again… I hope it’s not a cat…”

Zoey: “20 gold! 20 gold on it being a cat beastkin!”

Belinda: “Maybe the new core will look like me and prove you all wrong!”

Roxy: “No offense Belinda… But he has you so it doesn’t need to be a hidden desire. A deep or hidden desire is going to be something he doesn’t or can’t have.”

Belinda: “What about Dawn and Twilight? You are saying that he secretly wants something like that?”

“Nothing about it is exact. There are plenty of cores that have new cores born to them that are of things they loath for the same reason. Just like when you focus when summoning a monster it’s the same for a new core but instead of your active thoughts it’s more like your subconscious what gives it its form instead.”

Zoey: “Maybe he just wanted to eat some chicken when they were born then…”

I sigh and prepare for the birth of the new core… The more I hope it’s not a cat beastkin for Belinda’s sake the more I know it’s fresh in my mind so I try to just clear my head. Every time I think I about have my head clear something pops into my head and I am quickly fighting to clear it again.

Trying to think of nothing isn’t working so instead I just try to think of as many women as I possibly can… Maybe if I just flood my mind with all kinds of different women it will better my chances… It actually seem to be working, but when I think that of course it draws me back to the thing I am trying not to think about, and unfortunately at that exact moment is when the light fills the room and a figure appears on the stone bench…

I catch my heart in my throat and swallow it back down breathing a sigh of relief… Even though she is still a blank stone she has human like ears not animal ears… The stone starts to break, and crumble away. Kline and Doug quickly begin to blush and turn their heads.

I am just so relieved she isn’t a beastkin I am just standing there like an idiot while she sits up on the bench. She is quite tall, probably even taller than Belinda but has very petite breasts and pale skin. Her hair is quite short and a soft maple brown color.

Belinda grabs the robe I was holding and covers the girl with it she then stands to secure it looking around the room. When she stands I notice she is indeed taller than Belinda even equal or a bit taller than I am. She does have one trait the instantly reminds me of Listel… A pair of beautiful emerald green eyes.

“I’m sorry… I’m Two-Twelve, and I will be training you for the next month.”

Dungeon Core #135: “Thanks…”

Belinda: “Here… Why don’t we go get you some proper clothes on and then pick up from there alright?”

After Belinda leads her from the room I notice the look on Zoey’s face… Her mouth is agape as she looks like someone just stabbed her in the gut.

“You ok Zoey?”

Zoey: “Now I know for sure… Boss you are broken. Not only was she human but she has little breasts… I’m disappointed in you…”

Roxy: “Hey!”

“Doug, Kline… Was it what you were expecting?”

Kline: “I honestly don’t know what I was expecting, but that definitely was not it.”

Doug: “Are they always naked like that…?”

“Well you weren’t born with clothes on, right?”

Doug: “Of course not… But does that mean all the kobolds and stuff in your dungeon…”

“No that is different. I guess their base clothing is part of their summoning process. You can even summon them with armor and equipment already on as well. I don’t know why you would want to, but you probably could make them be naked when you summoned them though.”

Scylla: “She was quite attractive…”

Scylla’s comment seemed to be a que for Kline, but he apparently failed because when he starts to blush again she seems to puff her cheeks.

Aria: “Doug you were staring too much!”

Doug: “I couldn’t help it I haven’t seen anything like her before.”

I am by no means an expert, but even I know that was a poor choice of words to use, and watching Aria’s face scrunch up I was right.

Roxy: “Don’t take it out on them to hard.”

Zoey: “Yea there wasn’t even anything to see… Boss is slipping…”

Roxy: “You know you can be in the dog house as well if you want to keep it up.”

Zoey: “No thanks! So whatcha going to name her boss?”

“I didn’t even think of that… I guess it doesn’t matter she can change it when her training is over.”

Roxy: “Inari, Dawn, and Twilight all kept their names though, so maybe you should let Belinda choose again?”

“That’s probably a good idea…”

Sofia: “What are you talking about? Belinda will have her named and have her calling Two-Twelve daddy before they return.”

I don’t know what is worse the insinuation of it or the fact everyone else seems to agree… She isn’t far off however because when Belinda and Dungeon Core #135 return she says.

Dungeon Core #135: “Papa, what do you think?” –She says spinning in a circle. While the rest of the room snickers and giggles…-

The outfit Belinda put her is quite nice it looks like a really short frilly dress but she is wearing tight pair of pants along with it, the neck of the outfit is wide and it has no sleeves drawing your attention to her shoulders and collarbone. Even the colors are quite bright making is prefect for a stroll through town to draw the eyes of the local men, but not really the kind of thing that is going to help with her training.

“It looks lovely… I guess we should come up with a name for you.”

Dungeon Core #135: “If it’s ok with you Mama wants to call me Maeve.”

“Maeve it is then.”

Maeve: “Mama said you would get me some gear so we can begin my training, but we should probably go get me an adventurers ID first, is that right?”

“Alright, Lilah and Lila you better get back to work, before Lylah gets to backed up, we have lost enough non-rift monsters lately.”

Both bunnies run up each grabbing on of Maeve’s hands.

Both: “We will see you soon!~”

They then transfer from the room. After introducing themselves to Maeve everyone else begins to clear out as well, Belinda, Maeve and I then head next door to the adventurer’s guild.

Receptionist: “Even after losing your memories, you are still helping those in need? You really are quite special.”

“It’s not that big of a deal.”

Receptionist: “Well I hope you are well enough soon to take back over as mayor. No offense Belinda, your sister is very good at what she does, but her attitude leaves much to be desired. She made Bell run down here 3 times the other day having us completely remake a form because she didn’t like our handwriting.”

Belinda: “Even if Two-Twelve is unable to retake his position Mindy is only temporary so it shouldn’t be much longer now.”

Receptionist: “That’s what we have been telling ourselves for months now…”

While the receptionist was busy talking about Mindy, Belinda quickly set up an adventurer’s ID for Maeve.

Receptionist: “Oh I’m so sorry, here I was too busy complaining to do my job…”

Belinda: “It’s alright, it has been a while since I made an ID I wouldn’t want to forget how now, would I?”

I take Maeve to the commission board taking a few of the simple commissions while Maeve shows me her ID.

Adventurer #105,135 [Maeve] Base: Tobes

Race: Divine Being Gender: Female

Rank: D Level: 1

Class: Blademancer Favored Element: Wind

Commissions Complete: 0

Dungeon Crystals Destroyed: 0

“What are the odds, you got your dungeon core number in your adventurer ID number… Although your race is going to be quite problematic…”

Maeve: “I don’t understand it’s the same as yours Papa…”

“Elder Dyson has been waiting for 3 years for one of the female dungeon cores to be born as a Divine Being, so if I was you I would really try hard in keeping it from him as long as possible.”

Maeve: “If it would please one of the Elders shouldn’t I use it to my advantage?”

“Well in Dyson’s case it’s not the type of pleasing you would want to do…”

Maeve: “I see… You’re right that isn’t ideal, but if he makes it worth it then maybe an agreement can be made.”

“I wouldn’t let Belinda hear you talk that way…”

Maeve: “I take that to mean she is serious about the whole Papa and Mama thing?”

“The first core I trained apparently started that and I guess its Belinda’s way in dealing with it.”

Maeve: “Well “Papa’s” dungeon is quite unique, so again it might benefit me to keep it up for her sake.”

“I don’t want you to force yourself… I would rather you be yourself so I know if I can trust you or not.”

Maeve: “I will keep that in mind.”

We then have Maeve accept a few of the commissions and Belinda finishes her conversation with the receptionist and we return to the house.

“Alright, next is your equipment. I assume blademancer would be pretty much any time of bladed weapon?”

Maeve: “I would prefer a long to extra-long thin blade if it isn’t too much trouble.”

“Right now I can make you pretty much any standard thin, blade but if you want something special Azami my elven crafter would probably be a good choice, she could probably have something ready for you by the end of your training.”

I start with a rapier, dwarven wouldn’t really work well with a rapier, the best I can make it from then is dark steel. I will have Azami begin working on a really good one, so I don’t put too much effort into it focusing on just making it longer than usual.

No use raising the quality either so the result is a [Ever-sharp Dark Steel Rapier] the swords length is easily that of a great-sword, but with its thickness it should be able to be wielded one handed albeit a little awkwardly.

“Will this work?”

Maeve: “Excellent, if you do ask your elf to make one by hand I would ask for it a bit longer though.”

“Really…? I was worried it was to long as it was.”

Maeve: “Elven material would make it lighter so I could easily still use it proficiently.”

“Alright then, I will let her know. What about armor?”

Maeve: “Anything with good mobility.”

“My dwarf and elf are collaborating on something that might be just what you are looking for if it turns out I will let you have it, until then let’s start with the elven armor that served as its base.”

Azami makes the items purely out of magic so there isn’t even any material cost, but I quickly find that summoning them from the dungeon is quite expensive. It doesn’t look near as good as the one I gave Katie to work with that Azami made, but if the one Katie is altering works out it won’t matter.

The armor is halfway between a chainmail and the scale-mail I wear but where mine has the scales it has chainmail, and where mine has plates it has the scale like pieces. Even with the low quality of it because I my skill it still results with the agile enchantment, which should help a little.

“The one Katie is now working with started as a better quality of this armor, but she is going to mix in some of her skill to give it a bit more protection. I will check to see how her progress is coming with it this evening.”

Maeve: “I am a little skeptical that adding a dwarven touch to armor like this would do more harm than good.”

“Well both of the girls are excellent crafters, so I am sure it will work out. Now we will start your dungeon so you can equip your gear and learn all the skills available to you.”

Maeve: “I was under the impression that new cores didn’t train that way anymore… I thought it was you were the one to change it.”

“With my monsters I have noticed the problems of raising the rank of low level skills at higher levels is quite the pain, and I have a bit of a solution to that problem as well.”

I connect a training dungeon to the bottom floor of the dungeon. Even if she could fight the trolls at the bottom there she would still have to return to the top and go through the elemental wings before reaching my crystal so I am not worried. I then hand her the training crystal and transfer us into her training dungeon.

She places her crystal and then appears to be going through several screens, and at the same time a screen appears to me

Dungeon Core #135 [Maeve]’s crystal has been placed. 10,000xp will be supplied for the dungeon core’s training.

It looks like I can change the amount before accepting so I say.

“Don’t worry about monsters or anything right now. To learn all available skills and spells currently available to you how much xp would it cost?”

Maeve spends the next few minutes going through her [Menu] then says. “It looks like the total would be 185,500xp…”

I upgrade the amount supplied to her to 200,000xp and then accept. That was actually a bit more then I was expecting she must have a wide verity available to her, this is going to cut into how high of a level we can get her to though.

“Buy them all.”

Maeve: “But that is almost all of the xp we get for my training…”

“Well it looks like I still have the room set up from last year, and the rifts are still there so we should be able to piggyback off the xp spent last year for their training.”

Maeve looks a little hesitant but she closes her eyes at taps in front of her.

“Now hold on to the rest of the xp, and we can now begin your training.”

I wait for her to use [Menu] to equip her armor and then I transfer us to the training room that was set up last year. I pull the cuff I got from my time with Listel from inventory and hand it to Maeve.

“Put that on, I will activate it, and we will see if that lets you train as a normal adventurer.”

She looks at it curiously but does as she is asked. I activate it without changing her appearance. She then draws her sword and I have the slimes from the rift in the other room begin to pour through the door. Staring at her adventurer ID I find it is blank, but when I check Arngrim’s ID it shows level 1 and in less than a minute she gains her first level. I then know this is going to work out fine.

I sit back and then just watch while she swiftly deals with the slimes. Maeve is very light on her feet, and even though she just started out her speed is easily as quick as any of my boss monsters except Zoey. She doesn’t use many spells, but she uses quite a few weapon abilities, and even some hand to hand abilities.

Being by herself is making her progress quite slow however and even after reaching midafternoon there is still a massive amount of rift monsters available in the next room. The advantage of her not using much magic is she doesn’t tire and practically battles non-stop all day long.

The few times she does stop to rest are short and far in-between. What I find odd is this is only the second year all dungeon cores are trained this way, yet the knowledge Maeve was born with she seems to be like this is the natural way of it…

By the time we start winding down Maeve hasn’t made as much progress as I had hoped, but after throwing a few random other monsters her way other than the slimes she has reached level 10 by the time I decide to call it for the evening.

Maeve: “If you give me a few more minutes I can keep going at least a few more hours.”

“That is alright, if we don’t head back soon Belinda will gripe at me.”

Maeve: “But my training is important!”

“With the monsters available and the xp remaining you will reach a limit in which you can gain far before you training ends.”

I then disable the cuff and it appears quite a few screens appear before her.

“Any new skills?”

Maeve: “A few, should I take them as well?”

“If you have enough xp left go head… I didn’t think to ask what kind of monsters you had available.”

Maeve: “Just the typical for a wind dungeon core, the non-elemental monsters, and low to medium tier wind monsters.”

“Maybe to increase you training speed we should have you summon your boss monster in the morning. You should unlock the ability to summon a second one shortly after all.”

Maeve: “As of right now I will probably end up with some kind of Fae-folk as a boss monster, which may hinder me down the line a bit depending if it’s on the fairy side or the pixie side of the evolutionary line.”

“Is there really that much difference between the two?”

Maeve: “Is there much difference between a giant lizard and a dragon? If it follows the fairy evolutionary line it will end as an Oberon or Titania depending if it’s male or female. But if it follows the pixie line I will eventually be able to unlock elves.”

“You got far more knowledge about it then I do…”

Maeve: “Well wind is my specialty.”

“Well apparently I don’t have a specialty. I think I learned more about dungeons after I lost my memories then I knew before…”

Maeve: “Power is only as strong if you have the knowledge to wield it. I guess that is your trade off, you got more power than any other dungeon core, but the lack of knowledge was the price. You can always learn knowledge pretty easily though, but power is far harder to come by so I still think you are better off than the rest of us.”

“Sometimes I wonder…”

Maeve: “Not only that but your lack of traditional dungeon core knowledge is what led to the developments of our current training system, and not only that but you have seemed to take the one drawback of it and throw that out the window as well with that cuff of yours.”

“And yet someone barely 12 hours old is already lecturing me…”

Maeve: “In any case the strongest monster I can summon currently is a fairy, so let’s at least wait till the next tier unlocks before I summon my boss monster for a better chance to get a pixie.”

“I might just have an idea then.”

After finishing up with the things in the dungeon I then transfer us back to the house in Tobes.