I made my way into the dungeon master’s room and popped open the readme file. It was time to get the last two bits of info. I opened up the communication tab, and the lights started to flicker around me. My mind got crammed full once again with a ton of information.

At Dungeon Master II, the masters had shown at least a willingness to expand. Tied with the requirements to be loyal to one of the Sisters, it meant that the masters were given more access. The communication would let me access the general proprieties of any of my dungeons. It would also give me a warning anytime someone came within 50 feet of the dungeon core.

The other thing that communication did was it would let me talk with the other dungeon masters of claimed dungeons. Not all of them right now. But if I went to a dungeon and it was claimed, I could speak to them. If they responded, then we would have established a connection via the dungeon communications and could use that magic to send messages back and forth.

It wasn’t live like a phone call, but at least it wasn’t letters either. I would be able to record a message using all senses and send it to the other dungeon master. They could do the same. I am sure that at some point, someone had sent angry and unpleasant messages, but I wasn’t worried. I was just happy that I might be able to find others that had used dungeons before.

Then it was a day of me crafting in the safe room, waiting on my brain to reset. I needed everything as quickly as I could since I was ready to leave. Well, mostly ready to go. I still had to figure out if the Transportation would fix this whole problem for me or do nothing. I couldn’t see much of an in-between.

I stepped out of the safe room to get the last of the info loaded into my brain. I understood that I could have done it all in a single go if I had a higher INT, but I was kind of glad for the breather between everything.

Transportation was both what I wanted and not truly what I wanted. It would move me and those connected to me from one dungeon to another that I had been to. It had a twenty-four-hour cool down on the sending dungeon, and that dungeon had to be level 10 or higher to be able to send.

Which meant that right now, neither of my dungeons could send me to another dungeon. What was nice was it didn’t have to be my dungeon that I was sent to. It just had to be a dungeon that I had been to. If the dungeon had a transportation circle, then I would arrive on the circle if active. If not, it would be the top-level safe room.

For my own dungeons, I could appear anywhere inside of them that I wanted. So if I were to use dungeon transportation from Cloudia to here, I could appear in my dungeon master quarters. If I didn’t own Cloudia, then I could go from here to there but not the other way.

I started my way up to see Kasidy. “I wonder if the Cloudia dungeon has been claimed.”

When I got up top, Kasidy was still not back in the thicket, so I headed out. As soon as I passed out of the dungeon, I saw her looking worried at the entrance. She was standing there in the new dungeon-made traveling dress, and she looked much better than before. It was kind of amazing seeing how she was now dressed like one of the peasant extras from any 1980s medieval movie. The dress had almost no form to it and was cinched up with a rope belt and turned the whole thing into a bag.

“So why are you just standing out here?” I asked.

Kasidy huffed. “Dungeons are dangerous to people who are low leveled like me. If I went in I might get killed. I don’t know how you expect me to rest in there tonight. Can I go to your place?”

I laughed. I mean, it was terrible. I shouldn’t have laughed, but it almost sounded like a bad pickup line. I knew what she was asking, and she had no way to link that to Earth culture, so there was no way she knew what she said. But it was funny. I shouldn’t have laughed, however, because it made her mad.

“Why are you laughing! It’s true I’m not powerful enough to just go into a dungeon like you. So I figured that it would be easier just to let me sleep down near your tent.”

“No, I would have to take you all the way through the dungeon to get to yurt. Or you would have to climb down 80 feet of rock.”

She went white and shook her head no. “I can do ladders but I can’t climb. I fell out of a tree when I was 7 and out of a barn loft when I was 9. Then there was the time that I was climbing on a carriage and fell off the back when the horse startled. I tried climbing down a wall covered in ivy and that didn’t work well either. My dad had to carry me three miles to see a healer.”

I tried not to blast her. “So if you have problems climbing why were you in the tree house?”

She smiled with that perfected waitress smile. “Oh that was fine there were steps. It’s not the hight but climbing.”

“Fine whatever, look the dungeon is the safest place to be to over night. I will show you where you should be and where you shouldn’t be and then you will be fine.”

I turned and walked back into the dungeon. After waiting around five minutes, I went back out. She was still standing there looking at the entrance. I stared at her and waived.

“Kasidy! What is going on why didn’t you follow me?”

“Still scared. Truly the stories that I have heard in the taverns about the monsters in those things and how dungeon eat people. Not sure I can go in there.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. “Blink! Come over here and help Kasidy into the dungeon.”

Blink, who this whole time had been splashing in the water, came skipping over. “What dos you needs, Daddy?”

I looked at Blink with a good bit of suspicion. “We need to get Kasidy to understand that the dungeon is safe and so she can go in with us.”

Blink gave me her little lizard smile and reached out and took Kasidy’s hand. Then she looked back at me and winked. She threw her whole weight into pulling Kasidy, but the lady didn’t move.

Kasidy started to pull back. “There is nothing that will get me to go in there!”

Blink suddenly let go of Kasidy’s hand and stumbled back. “Mommy help!”

Then Blink when through the entrance into the dungeon. Kasidy jumped forward after her. I just stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what all had just happened. I was sure that Blink was messing with me, but I wasn’t sure if Kasidy figured that out.

I grabbed up Kasidy’s two bags and stepped back in. Kasidy was right there with her arms wrapped around Blink. She was looking this way or that way, afraid she would miss something.

I cleared my throat, “Got your bags here!”

Kasidy jumped and screamed and turned toward me. “Don’t sneak up on people like that!”

I gave a bit of a belly laugh, “Look Kasidy, you are safe here. Don’t worry.”

“No we are not safe! Dungeons eat people there is nothing that they do better than make monsters and eat people!”

I tried not to laugh at Blink, who was currently in a crushing hug. “Put Blink down. No sense in holding on to her if you are afraid.”

Kasidy snapped back, “She is just a little girl! She needs to be protected!”

“Look the first room of the dungeon is always a safe space. No monsters will come in and get you as long as you don’t leave the first room. Once you leave it the space is no longer safe.”

I spun around, pointing, “This whole space is safe! Up in the tree house is safe. I will show you the place not to cross and you will be fine.”

By this point, Blink, who I was going to have a fight with later, was squirming to get out of Kasidy’s arms. I started to chuckle as she was trying to climb over her shoulder like a cat would do. Kasidy had her hand on Blink’s head, holding her close, and was switching between saying shush and glaring daggers at me.

I sighed. “Let Blink go she want’s down and I don’t want her to hurt you getting down.”

Kasidy took a big breath, and right as she did, Blink pushed off and turned. She slid right out of Kasidy’s grip and then vanished. Kasidy was stunned for just a moment and then saw me smiling.

She came right at me with one finger out! “What did you do with Blink!”

“Not a thing! She is around here some place I am sure of that!”

“Was that even her that I was holding? Did something in here eat her?”

I shook my head. “You have to be one of the most excitable women I have ever met. And you worked in food service?”

“I am not excitable and I don’t know what you mean about food services! Does Blink already think of me as her mom?”

“No Blink doesn’t think of you as her Mom!”

Blink sent over the bond to me. “I likes her can she bes moms?”

* * *