Leon

“Next up we have the Frost Forge,” Aidan says as we walk through the crowded streets of the city. “They’ve reported a problem with workers recently. Up till now we’ve had plenty of workers to do all of the menial labor and management for the Dwarves while they forge, but ever since the recent increase in adventurers, they’ve seen a drastic need for more labor.”

“I understand,” I state while looking around at the rushing adventurers and merchants around us. “The new adventurers brought with them more work but no new labor to do it. Is that it?”

Aidan nods his head next to me without taking his eyes off of the clipboard in his hands, barely managing to not walk into anyone in the process. “Yes, sir. So they’ve-”

The man is suddenly cut off as the sky turns red.

I jerk around to look in the direction of the dungeon, meanwhile chaos begins to rise from around us. Merchants panicking and rushing back to their stalls, adventurers drawing their weapons and beginning to head towards the dungeon as a powerful aura envelops us all from it, and regular workers getting trampled by both sides.

The aura I can’t help but notice has a powerful feeling of blood and violence to it. To the point that I can smell it all the way from here, even though I’m on the other side of the lake from the dungeon.

“To the dungeon!” I shout at Aidan before running off in the direction of the dungeon. And as I’m running, I take note of the reverent looks the Vampires in the city that I pass by are sending towards the dungeon. To the degree that many of them are even bowing or prostrating themselves.

That can’t be good.

I continue running until I make it to the crowd that’s begun forming in front of the dungeon. But after pushing my way through the crowd I find the dungeon doors now locked. Then a sudden torrent of blood rushes out from the cracks in the doors before turning into a mist and entering the air, just for everything to suddenly return to normal. No blood. No red skies. No powerful aura. No nothing.

Just a bunch of adventurers standing in a confused mass in front of the doors.

Although one group does stand out rather obviously. All of the Vampires here are all prostrating themselves in the direction of the door. Even the Prince, who was supposed to have already left the city.

I narrow my eyes at the Prince for a second before walking over to him and waiting for a minute. Until he gets up from his prostrated position a few minutes later.

Because while I’m not sure what exactly is going on, I think I can guess it accurately enough. Considering the prostration.

They didn’t even prostrate themselves when an Emperor appeared, so whoever that was it had to have been either a Demi-God, or… a God.

Just the idea of possibly having had a God enter the city grounds sends a shiver down my spine.

There are thousands of God Tier beings in the world, but the number of people who can say that they’ve seen them all can be counted only amongst the Lord and above Tiers.

“Thank you for waiting, Sir Leon,” the Prince says after getting up and turning to me. “As you may have guessed, we were just honored with the presence of the esteemed God of Blood.”

I stiffen up slightly at that while gasps run throughout everyone within hearing distance. But the Prince doesn’t stop there and says, “Just feeling his Domain of Blood… it’s always incredible,” with a look of awe on his face directed towards the dungeon, where the aura was originating.

“Domain?” I ask after a few seconds, confused as to what it means.

The Prince snaps out of his awe and focuses on me again as he explains, “A domain is something only a God can have. Think of it as their bound element spreading out of their body and binding itself to their surroundings, changing reality itself and giving it new aspects.”

My jaw drops at that, but the Prince just looks up at the sky and continues, “The full details of it aren’t open to us mortals, but that’s a generalized explanation for it.”

A Prince just called himself a mortal. That’s just… never thought I’d be hearing a Prince speak so lowly of himself.

I purse my lips, unsure of if I should ask about why the God was here. After all, he’s a God. So, would the Prince take offense to me asking about the God’s business? Or… what?

Seemingly noticing my internal struggle, the Prince waves away his subordinates, who all quickly begin to depart, and says, “The Progenitor’s business is not for you to know. But I will put your mind at ease by saying that he was here out of goodwill for Dungeon Core Fenrir.” The Vampire then turns around and begins following after his subordinates without another word.

A God… was visiting Fenrir?

Just… what is that Dungeon Core, anyways?

One week later

I let out a groan with my head held in my hands above my desk.

Why did the dungeon have to be of a unique element? Why couldn’t it have just been a normal dungeon, albeit with some level of higher intelligence? Why, oh why, does it have to cause me so much paperwork?

My office door suddenly bursts open, making me jerk my head up to look at whoever entered, just to find Aidan there panting heavily.

“Leon! The dungeon has finally opened its doors again!” he shouts without a moment’s hesitation.

I shoot up from my chair before reaching over and grabbing my weapons’ sheaths, affixing them to my waist, and rushing out to my balcony. But right as I’m about to open the balcony doors, I hear my assistant say something that stops me completely in my tracks.

“And the dungeon’s Avatar is at the doors!”