I went down the stairs and out of the thicket area. When I left the dungeon, I turned and looked back. Except for the entrance, there was no visible change. That being said, I couldn’t pass through the area. Whereas before I could have pushed passed the vines, it was like I was running into a wall. The same was true down toward the cliff.

“This could prove to be a bother after all.” I muttered as I turned toward the river.

I hiked toward where I knew Blink to be. As I got closer, I heard talking and could pick out Kasidy’s voice as it cut across the river’s sound. I pushed through the bushes to the riverbank.

Kasidy was in the process of standing up from washing her dress. As she turned, she saw me and screeched. Dropped her dress yelped again, and jumped into the water. Then she yelled again as her whole body went into the cold mountain river.

I was stunned. For one, I don’t think I ever would have jumped into the river like she did. I also was trying to figure out her plan. It didn’t make sense that she would be down here right now since she knew I was getting her new clothes.

I started to head closer to the river when she yelled at me. “Don’t come closer, you oogler!”

I laughed. I was in a good mood today. “What’s there to ogle? You’re still wearing clothes!”

Kasidy now shivering and trying to hide in the cold water yelled back, “You were watching me in my dressing gown!”

I shook my head. “I was coming out to give you the clothing I told you I would get. I had no idea you were here washing.”

Kasidy yelled back. “Go away! I need to get out of the cold water!”

“Well here’s your bag and gear. The tree house you tried to steal from me got gobbled up by the dungeon. It’s safe enough if you don’t go down the boardwalks.”

I dropped the two bags on the ground, turned, and walked away. I chuckled a bit as I thought of the mess that had been in the tree house. It would all be gone now that it was a dungeon. Then I smiled. This is a messed-up dungeon arrangement. I have to go into the new dungeon to get to the other dungeon.

I passed into the thicket and then went to the door heading down, only to find that it was gone. I pulled up my dungeon sense, but all I could get it to do was tell me that I was in the middle of a dungeon. Then I tried to use the active of the dungeon sense to see if there was anything being hidden from me.

I mulled over the problem. I could climb down the cliff and go in through the exit, which wouldn’t be too bad. It wasn’t something that I wanted to do every day, but it also shouldn’t kill me. The other option I had was that I could try to move the dungeon that was up here so that it wouldn’t cover that one section.

I headed up the tree house’s steps. I had a dungeon heart I needed to get to. I got up to the top and then jumped into the funnel. It was like a giant playground tube slide. But it didn’t curve till right at the end. When it did, I went flying out and slammed into the bed in the dungeon master’s quarters.

I smiled a little as I rubbed my back, “Could have been worse, and now it’s time to work.”

I grabbed the dungeon heart and started to work on moving it. Since the other dungeon came right up underneath it, the dungeon had made a fake layer of grass and turned it into a magical floor. I just stripped that away so that the two entrances had access to each other. I felt the heart I was working with getting a little upset.

“That’s odd I didn’t think that you had emotions.” I whispered.

Next, I moved a safe room entrance to the very top of the tree house. It would make the second floor of the dungeon harder, having its safe room coming off the safe space and not right before the stairs. But I wasn’t sure I cared about that right now. I just needed to make sure that I could do it.

I walked from the master’s room into the thicket dungeon’s first-floor safe room. “Dave, I need a drink!”

“I got one for you coming up. Just have a seat and tell me what’s bugging you.”

I plopped down onto the stool and grabbed my ale, “Dave, the problem is I don’t feel super happy about leaving this poor girl behind and taking her is a pile of complications.”

Dave picked up his glass and started cleaning. “Okay so why don’t you want to leave her behind?”

“Well part of me isn’t sure I am coming back this way. So I would be leaving some random girl hanging around near the Shrines and she doesn’t follow the Sisters.”

He nodded and then motioned for me to keep going.

“The other part is that she was sent by the god that summoned me to this place to help out. I don’t know why he wanted me here but he thought I could use some help and so sent her along.”

I took a pull from my tankard and then thought for a few moments. “I don’t want to take her because it would be much easier for me to travel quickly with Blink and create thickets and dungeons where I needed to. If I take her with me, I still have to do the work of the Sisters in making the path back here.”

Dave gave me a slight smile, “So she will impede your work for the Sisters, or you will have to reveal your powers to another?”

I nodded, and he laughed and said. “So why are you even thinking about taking her? You are going to move slower, and she doesn’t seem to be able to help you. Cut your losses and move on. Leave the girl to follow her own god where she wants to go. It’s not like you owe him anything, right?”

I gave a dry little laugh. “Well, I don’t feel like I owe any of the gods much that I haven’t already done. This cat though he did something for me that the Sisters didn’t do and now can’t do.”

Dave raised one eyebrow, “And what’s that?”

“He brought me here. Even as messed up as this place is with beasts trying to kill me a goblins that eat people. It is a million times less soul crushing then call center work.”

Dave nodded. “So it has nothing to do with Kasidy being a looker?”

I hated Dave right then. As soon as he asked that, the only thing that was on my mind was what she looked like in her wet dressing gown. Surface thoughts meant that when Dave started to chuckle, it was because of where my brain went. It’s like the whole “don’t think about the pink elephant in the room” thing.

Dave asked again, “So taking her with you has nothing to do with her being pleasant on the eyes?”

I sighed, “Dave you know as well as I do I have some sort of Bond with Lannah which the more I look at it the more I think it is marriage. Beside that I had already agreed to take her with me before seeing her at the river. I just feel bad about leaving her here. I don’t know how she would get by. But even if she did it would be mean. I would be worried that she would just follow me.”

Dave sat down his never-clean glass and asked, “So what are you going to do?”

“I honestly don’t know. I am asking Sam tonight about how to claim land, and then I was thinking about asking the Shamans about limited bonds or contracts or something. I don’t fully feel like I should just trust anyone and everyone. Though I tend to.”

Dave started to wipe down the magically clean bar top. “So you are thinking about officially claiming this area. That will bring some changes I am sure. I can’t tell you about them since they have nothing to do with the dungeon directly. As far as limited bonds and contracts those are going to be harder for you. Once again can’t say much.”

Dave stopped wiping the bar and chuckled. “Now tell me what you mean about trusting people?”

I sighed. “So I know that I am a mess. The thing is I trust everyone when I first meet them to be truthful and upright. I expect people to treat me well and I try to treat everyone else well. However, I also know that all people will fail me and turn on me at least in some small way. So I plan for that betrayal. If Lannah hadn’t upped the stakes to that of my life I would have already told Kasidy everything. After all we in this mess together.”

Dave poured me another tankard, “So because of the warning from Lannah not to trust people, you aren’t trusting Kasidy, but you still want to because that is normal for you.”

I took another sip. “Yeah that’s about the long of it. If I hadn’t been told of the dangers of letting people know that I was a level zero then yeah I would just tell her and we would be on our way.”

“Well she already thinks that you are a Hero or a Champion and you have already told her that you made the thicket which she had already given credit to her god for making. So I think you should be fine making more of them.”

I mulled over my ale for a bit, thinking about this. Yes, she knew I made the thicket but not how. So if I kept making them, I needed to do it in such a way that she didn’t know about The Necklace of Cores. I needed to find out what the travel and communication parts of the dungeon did. It might change my plans fully.

I stood up and drained my tankard. “Okay Dave first things first. I need to learn what I just unlocked with the dungeons after that I need to make travel plans but you’re right she already knows I can. Just not how I can make the thickets.”

* * *