When things started to settle down after Hecate’s attack on my dungeon we decided to pay a visit to all of the girls to see how they are doing, and after Sorin stayed behind at Maeve’s dungeon we continued onto Dawn and Twilight’s dungeons.

We wanted to speak with Inari in detail about things we might be able to do in our own dungeon to help Tobes in some degree like she is doing with her village, so we decided to pay her a visit last. It is already pretty late in the afternoon in Shima when we arrive, but that means it’s going to be really late when we return.

After we spend a bit of time checking on how Inari has been fairing it is already clear that her dungeon has surpassed my own. I doubt it would still withstand an attack by the likes of someone like Hecate, but so far it seems like I am the oldest dungeon core that can enter her dungeon.

Other than her sentient beastkin, not a single monster in her dungeon has ever seen combat, all of her xp comes from the villagers and endless supply of Oni outside her dungeon.

Belinda: “So how are things going with the villagers?”

Inari: “They have been content so far, but pretty soon they are going to need some more space.”

“How are your secondary dungeons fairing?”

Inari: “I haven’t really grown them much leaving them just as temples to Inari, but Kenta’s dungeon on the coast is doing pretty good under [Inari’s Providence]. I was sad to hear that no new cores are going to be born after I already set up that second one in preparation for them, but maybe your daughter would like to set her dungeon in Shima and let Big Sis Inari protect her.”

“With the dangers of Shima I don’t know if I would be comfortable with that, but I am sure that will be quite a few years before she is old enough to start a dungeon if she ages like a normal human.”

Inari: “So you still don’t know how any of that is going to work? I mean I guess that is better than Mama swelling up till she pops out a full size person.”

Belinda: “Don’t say that, not even as a joke!”

“That would be quite bad… We are hoping it is going to work like a monster born in the dungeon and grow normally until reaching the age of maturity, but we don’t really know for certain.”

Inari: “You know it is going to be a girl, so have you given any thought on what you are going to name her?”

Belinda: “Yes Two-Twelve has been giving it a great deal of thought.” –She says in a sarcastic manner.-

“You know I might have missed my chance, but I honestly have given it thought.”

Belinda: “You have?” –She says surprised.- “What have you come up with so far?”

“Humans usually look to their family for names right? Like Logan, so after reading a bit about your heritage I thought maybe we could name he after your grandmother.”

Belinda: “I don’t like my mother much less hers, why would I want to name our child after her?”

“Not your mother’s side… Your father’s”

Belinda: “Yes because naming my daughter Belinda Gowen would be great…”

Inari laughs.

“I didn’t know you were named after her… I will give it some more thought.”

Belinda: “You were going to name our child after my grandmother and didn’t even know what her name was? Don’t worry baby, we won’t let daddy give you any weird names.” –She says rubbing her stomach.-

“It was just something I was going to mention…”

Inari: “You said you found out she will be a dungeon core as well right? Do you know what Dungeon Core # she will have?”

“No clue, we don’t know if she will be given it at birth, or if we will have to assign it like a failed dungeon core that gets another chance.”

Inari: “I thought once you had your number that was it, didn’t Dyson have to wait for his number to become available again to become a dungeon core?”

“Apparently that was just the elder’s way of having him get rid of a problem dungeon core… We managed to give Hecate, Maric’s number when we let her become a dungeon core again.”

Inari: “After her attacking you like that I can’t believe you still let her become a dungeon core.”

“Well it was due to a misunderstanding, and she wasn’t really the one behind it.”

Inari: “Still giving someone that strong a dungeon after what she did just seems reckless.”

“Letting her start her dungeon might be enough to make her an ally. Besides if we turned her down she would just be out loose on the world with that strength while still holding a grudge.”

Inari: “You could have killed her, but you are too soft Daddy. One of these days it’s going to come back and bite you.”

“I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing in her position, so I would like to think if it did happen that way, I would have someone willing to give me a second chance as well.”

Belinda: “So where is Takeshi? He usually never leaves your side.”

Inari: “We heard rumors of another one of those corrupt dungeons, so him and some of the others are out checking it out, but with the situation Daddy was going through Takeshi thought it would be best for me to keep an eye on the dungeon just in case.”

Belinda: “Well I hope it’s not too dangerous!”

Inari: “Oh I explicitly made sure they knew if that discovered it was indeed another one of those dungeons they are too high tail it back here. With this ring Daddy gave me I was able to gain quite a few levels, but I have achieved about all I can off of the Oni, so I could really use another one of those dungeons to give me quite the edge.”

“What about your plans for covering the capital with [Inari’s Providence]?”

Inari: “That’s another reason we could use the xp, I want to build at least 15 million xp before I perform and undertaking like that, but so far I only have 1/3 of that. It might also cost a lot of xp, but I am thinking of setting a small [Inari’s Providence] up around the corrupt dungeon if it indeed is one, and then gather xp off it for as long as possible.”

Belinda: “Just be careful alright?”

Inari: “We don’t plan on taking any chances. You know I love your visits, but I can tell Daddy has been itching to ask me something, and it is already starting to get late.”

Belinda: “Well I would really like to use that big hot spring of yours before we go, but you are right, so do you mind if I use it while you finish up?”

Inari: “Go right ahead.”

Belinda then gives me a kiss, gives Inari a hug, and then heads out of the room.

Inari: “What’s this all about?”

“Not that big of a deal really, there are a few rumors going around in Tobes making some of the residents uneasy because of the attack that happened in my dungeon, so we were thinking maybe you could give some pointers on adding a few things to the dungeon to benefit the town more.”

Inari: “With Daddy’s dungeon that is pretty hard, you can’t summon ore right? Have you tried to add a piece of raw ore to you dungeon inventory?”

“Well I could summon the ore, but not the veins, so I guess I could add a bunch of chests and fill them with ore for the humans to collect, but that would get pretty costly pretty quickly.”

Inari: “What about growing crops?”

“They won’t grow without sunlight, and I can’t summon that artificial sunlight like you did here. I thought about making some rifts of livestock, but that would be quite hard to set up in a way that the humans would accept.”

Inari: “Oh I am sure a lot of the villagers here would kill for some livestock. They lost all of theirs when the village fell, and they have been going off of scraps from wild game when they are lucky enough to come across it ever since. We can get small quantities from the port, but that is very very expensive.”

“Well it might not work for me, but I could always summon you some livestock, it might take a while to be able to produce them yourself, but far less time than most monsters would.”

Inari: “That would be a tremendous help. I just wish I could do the same for you…”

“I am sure Belinda is going to take quite a while, so with a bit of luck maybe we can come up with something by the time she finishes…”

Inari: “I got plenty of room if you want to stay the night.”

I laugh. “Maybe if we can find a way to take a chunk of your ceiling home, or a vein of ore, we could take part of the hot spring to learn how to copy it as well.”

Inari: “But then mommy wouldn’t visit me as much anymore!”

We both laugh and then Inari seems to be thinking for a moment. “Well I might not be able to do anything about the artificial sunlight, but… “

Inari then accesses [Menu] and after a few seconds a large boulder appears in the middle of the room crushing the small table between us and even causing considerable damage to the floor. She quickly looks around.

Inari: “Opps… Don’t tell the others about that. I will fix it in a moment and they won’t know the difference.”

Inari then accesses [Menu] again the stone begins to grow in size but it looks different. It looks double the size as it was before, but I can see flakes of ore through the new parts of the stone.

Inari: “I have to add the ore deposits onto stone, but it looked like a small rock worked. It may not be large enough to give you any useable amount of ore, but if you teleport this back to your dungeon maybe you can at least be able to make your own veins of ore then.”

“Is it just iron?”

Inari: “Yes I just wanted to see if it works, but if it does we can make a few more for you as well. Unfortunately they are non-renewing versions of them, because like rifts it would be unable to be removed from my dungeon if it was.”

I use [Gate] setting the portal directly below the stone so it falls though into one of the sealed off rooms in the unused section of the soldiers training area. I pass through the portal as well to receive a message.

New Dungeon Texture Available

Iron Ore Texture* Cost 10xp cost per 100 Cubic feet

* This kind of texture must be placed attached to a preexisting natural styled texture. It will produce a finite amount of destructible material matching the texture it was attached to along with a finite amount of the ore in which is purchased.

After closing the message I then quickly pass back through the portal to see Inari using [Menu] to replace the flooring of her house and the table that got broken.

Inari: “Did it work?”

“I don’t know if it is any different then what you can make but I received the Iron Ore Texture, so it at least worked somewhat.”

Inari: “That’s good, let’s get you a few more types, but I think we should do the rest of this in the yard, so we don’t break anything else…”

By the time it is all said and done I have quite a few of the large oddly shaped boulders sitting around in my dungeon, but I now have access to several different types of ores and even a few gemstone deposits in which I could add to my dungeon now.

Inari: “I don’t know of a way to be able to get you the type that slowly replenishes itself, but that should at least get you started.”

“It might be quite costly for me to have to use them this way, so I guess I should just throw a few into my dungeon and test to see if it brings any added benefits to my dungeon before making any kind of mine.”

Inari: “Alright let me make a room real quick and we can then put the animals in there until I can start making use of them.” –She says accessing [Menu] one last time.- “Alright I got a room set up, it’s not accessible from the outside so that should prevent any sounds carrying and accidently being heard by the villagers.”

Inari then takes my arm and transfers us within her dungeon. I don’t know how much xp she just spent but she did it without blinking an eye, and the resulting room is mind numbing… The only reason I know we are deep underground is because it is late enough the sun has set outside so the roof over head is just putting off a low amount of light.

The room cost itself would have been high, but compared to my labyrinth it isn’t that surprising, what is surprising is everything else in this room. There is a large grass meadow complete with a small creek running through that even has an arched bridge over the top of it.

There are several buildings each massive in size that are different types of barns, and other buildings for housing animals. Off to the far side there is a row of decent looking Shima style houses in which the small creek runs right next to.

“This is something else…”

Inari: “It should work at least for now… I am sure there are probably things I missed, but I was in a bit of a hurry. It will be a while till the villagers will get to see it, so maybe I can finish it out before they do.”

“I am starting to get really afraid of what you could accomplish if you had the mind to…”

Inari: “Then you better start getting me my animals!” –She says jokingly with her face scrunched up.-

I use [Gate] to return to my dungeon and open [Menu] narrowing the results in the monster screen to just animals.

Cow, chickens, goats, pigs, ducks, sheep, turkeys, and several types of fish they are all really low on cost so I summon five or six a piece of each one of them sending them through the portal. I don’t think horses or donkeys are really used for their meat so I leave them out, but one more animal catching my eye and I summon a pair.

With a smirk on my face I step back though the portal carrying the last two animals and Inari seems rather pleased grabbing the last remaining fish flopping about on the ground dropping it into the creek, and then she sees what is in my arms.

Inari: “And just want do you plan on doing with those things.”

“What they are good eating, or at least I hear, and they breed really quickly so you could probably introduce them far sooner than the other animals.” –I say setting them down in the grass.-

Inari: “Don’t set them down! I don’t want those things touching my dungeon!”

“Really now… What is it you have against rabbits anyway?”

Inari: “They are vile and disgusting little things and they should all die!”

“Well you are doing this for a food supply for the village so that is sort of the end goal. Besides I thought foxes were supposed to like eating rabbits?”

Inari: “Haha very funny Daddy… Look there they go already trying to take over my dungeon!”

“That’s good the sooner they reproduce the sooner you can summon them yourself and then use them for their meat.”

Inari walks over grabbing them both by the ears picking them up and looking them in the eyes. “Don’t think you have won, I will be sure to be the one that eats you myself!” –She then takes them to a cage and tosses them in it shutting the door and latching it.-

Inari then casts [Clean] on herself and then rejoins me. “Well aside from those things, I think this will do quite nicely.”

“Well it might take a while before you can produce more on your own, but maybe your villagers will appreciate it the day you can.”

Inari: “I can guarantee it, and I will even let you and mommy come to the party that I am sure they will throw the first time we get to butcher one of the cows…”

Inari then transfers us back to her house and we return to the seating area. “Well the ore wasn’t a good solution, but it was a start, and I don’t even know how to start to teach you how to use the artificial lighting, but you said you were thinking about putting livestock in your own dungeon?”

“Processing something like one of those rabbits, or even maybe a chicken wouldn’t be so bad I think, but an entire pig or cow? I think that would be too much for the adventurers. When we were training in Exeter I seen a few commissions that were for adventurers that could do exactly that, but I don’t think that is the norm.”

Inari: “So what where you planning on doing?”

I then tell Inari about the plan I told Belinda with the demi-human village and about using the soldiers to keep an eye on them.

Inari: “I am a dungeon core, and I don’t even think I would trust meat that a dungeon monster is offering me… I don’t see why you don’t just make a few rooms and turn the animals loose in them.”

She then seems to think about it for a few more moments.

Inari: “Sure the adventurers might not be able to butcher animals properly, but then either the adventurers will learn, or others that can will hire adventurers to take them into the dungeon to harvest the animals.”

“That is an option, but I want to someday find a way for humans to communicate with the dungeon letting them once and for all know we are intelligent, and we are just trying to survive like they are…”

Inari: “Daddy, bridging the gap between dungeons and humans is going to take more than a few cows…”

“I know that, but we have to start somewhere.”

Inari: “What if the demi-humans don’t come from the dungeon?”

“That might get the villagers used to demi-humans but I don’t know how it would help the dungeon.”

Inari: “Hear me out… You summon your low-intelligence demi-humans, and have them get spotted making their way to the dungeon. Once they don’t return the townsfolk might get curious about their fate and find them living peacefully inside the dungeon.”

“If I did it that way they wouldn’t know that they didn’t come from the dungeon to begin with and might think the dungeon is starting to send monsters out.”

Inari: “That could still work, because the humans might panic at first but once the soldiers investigate and find them moving in they could watch them for as long as they want before determining they aren’t a threat to the town.”

“I think that would probably work… Well, I better go check on Belinda, she has been in there for a long time, and you are probably ready to go to bed yourself.”

Inari: “Like I said Daddy, you are more than welcome to stay the night, but it might indeed be a good idea to go check on Mommy…”

I say goodnight to Inari and then head to the hot spring to check on Belinda. She still seems to be enjoying herself quite a bit.

“You stay in there any longer and you are going to cook our poor child…”

Belinda: “Good, you are done. Did you manage to get things worked out?”

“For the most part. We should probably head home, it is already really late now.”

Belinda: “Not until you join me!~”

I can’t say that I wouldn’t enjoy it, but I am ready to go home after traveling all day… She finally manages to talk me into joining her, and after a short bath we finally head back home, and go to sleep in the wee hours of the morning.

Dyson PoV

I haven’t been completely slacking off since my return to my own dungeon, but I just don’t have any more leads to follow. The fact Dungeon Core #634 was involved actually made me have to take a step back and look at this in a completely different manner.

After Sandra departed I felt a big burden leave my shoulders, and even without quickly refilling my entourage I am not in as big of a rush. Not that I haven’t kept myself occupied with a few women, I believe when I do refill my entourage I am going to put much more emphasis in quality over quantity.

I am no longer going to deny beastkin women from my entourage, but they are going to have to meet my new standard of being at least a 4 along with the others I choose. I would say that would still be impossible for any beastkin woman to achieve, but I have noticed even though no beastkin could qualify as anything higher than a 2 in the past on my trip to the slave paddock I seen a few that could pass as a 3.

I guess my encounter with Sandra was enough for the ears and tail to not be a total turn off for me, but if they wish to join my entourage they are going to have to be something truly special. One person that could produce such a beastkin is Two-Twelve, but he has never been too keen on trading one for such a manner, and I am not sure I even want him to know I am back yet.

I guess if the father is out of the question maybe some of it rubbed off on the daughters. I open [Observation] and decide to look in on Two-Twelve’s newest trainee Dungeon Core #135 [Maeve]. She appears to have gained access to elves and has quite a few that are up to the standards I have come to expect from Two-Twelve, but with Elves stature they are only good in limited situations.

There is something else that catches my eye however. It is male, and she only has one, so perhaps it is her boss monster, but if she can produce more of these angel like beings I would definitely like to my hands on one.

I decide with nothing else going on I have got to know, so I send he a message in hopes that she will meet with me. The response I receive back is very quick and energetic, but why wouldn’t it be? An elder wishing to trade with a dungeon core barely a year old would have been unheard of before Two-Twelve’s time.

I prepare several xp beads in preparation for negotiations and then prepare to teleport to her dungeon. Under normal circumstances teleporting to another’s dungeon is as simple as looking in on them with [Observation], but with #135’s dungeon it makes things a bit different.

If I don’t know her exact current location I could wind up teleporting to the wrong place quite easily, so after making sure I have a firm grasp on her location I teleport and arrive in an open meadow with the long grass blowing in the breeze.

The ruined village that was on her dungeon the last time I was here is in the distance, so it looks like she has expanded the surface area by quite a lot. There are several small trees here, there, and yonder, and each one seems to be used as foundations for tent like dwellings typical of the common elves.

I meet with Maeve in one of the ruined buildings which might usually be quite the insult, but with aesthetics of being able to look over the meadow with the blowing breeze, and moss growing on the ruined structure it is quite surreal and refreshing.

“This is quite the place you have here.”

Maeve: “I am sorry I don’t have anything better to offer Elder Dyson, but please have a seat.”

The chairs are actually quite comfortable in comparison to what you would expect in a ruined building, and she even seems quite nervous in my presence. Which in itself is quite the attractive feature, but with her meager breasts and tall lanky body, I am still a bit disappointed the first female Divine Being only turned out as a solid 3.

“Well let’s get right down to business, you see I have recently downsized my collection of women to adorn my throne room with, and in an effort to refill their ranks I was hoping we could come to an arrangement.”

This seems to make Maeve even more nervous, but brings a fist to her chest and says. “I understand… Papa said something like this was bound to happen, and I admit after a year I thought perhaps he was exaggerating, but I assure you if that is what you are after it is going to cost you a great deal.”

“He anticipated something like this did he?” –I say while stroking my chin.- “I have come to think of Two-Twelve as a confidant, and as close to a friend as I have, but I feel something like this would be something he might try to discourage, so it may be in our best interest to keep this matter solely between us.”

Maeve doesn’t seem any less nervous but she seems to be getting quite excited as well as she puffs out her meager chest and says. “Oh of course, it definitely should be something we could never tell papa about.”

She seems to think she has me over a barrel with me not wanting Two-Twelve to find out about our exchange, so perhaps I should work my way to a woman like that flying man, and make it sound like I want one of the elves instead. When I mention the price being unreasonable then perhaps I can get a better deal on what I actually want.

“The quality of your elves are what I have come to expect from Two-Twelve, so I am glad you managed to inherent that from him.”

Maeve looks taken aback a bit. “Elves? I received them in a trade with Papa, I should have unlocked them by now, but maybe because my dungeon lacks a large enough forest I haven’t been able to, but you’re not here to talk about elves.”

Shit, she knew from the beginning what I as after, I guess I should expect nothing less from Two-Twelve’s daughter.

“Fine, then you can do it exactly as I say?

Maeve: “If the price is right, I will do my best.”

She seems to not be giving me a starting price to see where I stand… Sentient elves are roughly 2000 to 3000xp depending on your favored element and a flying humanoid would probably be at least double that. So I will start the bid at 10,000xp and she where she goes from there.

“Alright, if I get just what I want then how about 10,000xp?”

This seems to anger her a great deal as she jumps to her feet. “10,000xp! What do you take me for!?”

“Fine then you give me a number and we can go from there.”

Maeve: “I have heard some of the deals you made with Papa, so even starting at 1 million should easily be possible for you.”

“I wouldn’t pay 1 million for my entire entourage much less a single member of it.”

Maeve: “Well you never have had one of these in your entourage!”

“You might be right there, and at the price I never will, I might be willing to go as high as 50,000xp but that is it.”

Maeve:” I might not be built like Mama, or other monsters of Papa’s, but I am at least worth 10 times that, and what are the odds you are going to find another Divine Being?”

“Wait, what…? I’m not here for you, but you know… “ –I say while sizing her up.- “It is good to know where you stand.”

Maeve’s face quickly turns to that of shock, and then embarrassment. “I’m going to kill Papa the next time I see him!” –She then turns and punches one of the ruined walls.- “He said with me being a Divine Being… Aww!” –She screams red faced and punches the wall again.-

After a minute Maeve manages to calm herself back down and then says. “Wait, then what are you here for…?”

“That flying man, I wanted to trade you for a woman of the same race.”

Maeve: “Sorin…? He was a gift from Papa as well, I want to get quite a few more from him, but I still owe him for the elves.”

“Two-Twelve summoned that…? Damnit… Wait, you said he was willing to trade with you, but you just owed him for the elves?”

Maeve nods sitting in the chair across from me running hands roughly through her hair still quite embarrassed about the situation, while saying under her breath. “Stupid… Stupid.”

“Well then I might have just the idea for both of us to get what we want.”