I get panzer to gather the kids up in the living room and more or less form a circle. The kids seem nervous which is to be expected being herded around by a rat the size of a small dog. Once the kids are all in position and have quoted down I have my little buddy nudge the one I’ve chosen in the middle. It’s not like this ceremony is necessary but I thought the kids would like to know who the voice is so this was the best I could think of on the fly short of having a rat scratch out some poorly spelled words to try to explain.

As the small elvish girl slowly walks toward the center of the circle I notice Tommy gets visibly nervous, so I have panzer put his paw an his foot. Focusing on the girl, Tiara I remember hearing Tommy call her, I see the same notice of ‘make voice’ and I accept. My mana bar disappears yet again, man does this happen a lot or am I just short on mana nowadays?

“Does what happen a lot” Tiara asks the air. Oh she can actually hear me! Good!

Tommy seems confused “you got us all together just to talk to Tiara?” He asks looking toward the basement. No actually I needed you all together so I can have her explain that she is now my voice, I will always be able to talk to her and her to me.

Tiara seems to perk up at that, maybe she likes the responsibility? “The dungeon says I’ll be his voice from now on, we’ll always be able to talk to each other!”

Calm down girly, there’s a bad side to this for you too. That seems to have scared her. It’s not horrible honestly, you just won’t be able to get as strong as the other kids. I had chosen you to be the person to implement what I need done but in exchange you won’t be going out to hunt monsters much.

That almost seemed to make her sad, don’t worry though, I’m sure you’ll still be plenty strong, and besides everyone needs a good strategist!

“Are you okay?” Tommy interjects putting a hand on Tiara’s shoulder.

“Yeah, the dungeon just told me that I had to sacrifice my strength to be his voice”

“YOU WHAT?!” Tommy started stomping toward the basement.

“No! It’s not like that! I mean I just won’t be able to get as strong as you all will, I’ll still be able to defend myself!” My new voice seemed a bit panicky but I can’t blame her, her older brother looked pissed “besides I’m sure he’ll protect me! I mean I am his only voice after all” Tommy stopped at that comment.

“I guess you have a point there,” glaring at the door, “one hair on her gets hurt and I’m blaming you!”

Kind of unfair but I can’t say much in my defense. I didn’t even ask her if she wanted to be my voice. Also I’m not much into being called ‘the dungeon’ I don’t really remember having a name before, hmm. Let’s go with dad. I don’t think anyone besides these kids will be doing anything in my “dungeon” anytime soon and I do feel like a sort of step father type role now. “So you want us to call you dad?” Tiara asks.

Oh crap I forgot you can hear me! That’s a little embarrassing but for now yeah, just call me dad. I’d blush if I still had a face, but Tiara seemed to like it. While she goes off, presumably to tell the others about my new name, I decide to send a few spiders out of the house to get a lay of the land. As they leave I get a notification ‘four spiders on expedition’ well that’s neat. I guess we need to get down to business for real this time, while the spider bros outside explore, we need to level up a bit.

• • • • •

It’s been a week since I named Tiara as my voice and I have to say, the little girl is doing a great job. Anytime I need something done she relays the information to the people best suited to the task. She knows the kids better than I do so I trust her judgement, seeing as Tommy hasn’t said anything against the people she’s choosing to do certain tasks it seems spot on.

I’ve been able to level up my rats and spiders a few times and I think it’s about time for me to expand again. According to my spider scouts, I’m on a very large plot of land just outside of a town. The kids tell me it’s called Seroxia. The people there don’t seem to be rich by any reasonable standard which kind of explains why the orphanage was abandoned. Nobody with any real money to help support the kids.

Am I a bad dungeon for being a little happy the kids were abandoned? I mean I don’t like the hardships they had to go through, but if they weren’t left alone out here I wouldn’t have been able to meet them or have them as residents. Don’t look at me like that! I do want the best for them, that’s why I’ve focused on letting them level using me. I’ve gotten a large amount of mana from their fights with my rats and spiders but most of the kids are now leve four, the original trio I fought of Tommy, Sara, and James are already level six!

I search around to find my voice, ah there you are Tiara I need to- oh, did someone just knock on the front door?

“Hello?” A male voice called out, “I’m here to inspect the dungeon.”

Tommy and Tiara share a look and both look over to me as if waiting for my order. Do you know how dungeons are treated here? Like do they get subjugated, are they treated like a place to get resources? “Not a clue, but we have one other dungeon that’s near Seroxia that they keep open.” Tiara answered me. Well I suppose we shouldn’t keep the poor guy waiting. He’s just doing his job.

Tiara explains what I said to Tommy and they both go to answer the door. Behind the front door stands a juman with a long sword and a clipboard? “There’s a dungeon here right? I was told there was one, so you know where it is?” Tiara smiled at the man “of course I do, we’re in it right now”