Kai's dungeon now had a third floor. He proudly wandered around them, feeling like he suddenly owned a giant mansion. There was so much space and so much potential here. Unfortunately, he had no better idea about what to do with it than he did the second floor, which also remained unfilled. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He had grand visions of iron maidens and an Indiana Jones-style rolling boulder and cursed treasure that had him giggling and rubbing his hands together. But he wasn’t quite at that level yet.

  The architectural menu had bestowed only one new item after levelling up: spiked pit traps. The basic pit trap was a rectangular stone pit deep enough to hurt or kill if you fell into it and too deep to easily climb out of. Spiked pit traps were the same but with simple spears of wood at the bottom. He upgraded the one on the first floor, which didn’t seem to disturb Slimy or Pondscum at all. They were still working on that one body. It was still going to be a while. And now he had a second body. That was going to stink the place up. He needed more slimes, fast. He used the system to move the second corpse in the pit with the slimes.

  But what about the rest of the dungeon? He had multiple empty rooms now, but the system wasn’t giving him new traps or features yet. Either he was expected to stick with pit traps and bear traps, or he was expected to fill the space on his own using his own creativity and ingenuity. Neither of those terms had ever been applied to Kai before, but he was going to need to figure out what they meant as quickly as he could if he wanted to keep making progress. Someone else might just wait for monsters to naturally move in and fill the empty spaces on their own, building natural lairs. But that could take years, and he didn’t want to waste the time.

  He’d have to be proactive. That, at least, was one thing he knew he could actually do. He just wished that there was a better way than personally getting people to chase him into the dungeon. The stress was probably taking years off his too-short life.

  He had a bit more gear now, looted from the hunter: bow and arrows, hatchet, knife. All of it was entirely useless to him because it was all too big. Also, who needed to carry a knife when he already had claws? The clothing was too large. It was camo though, so maybe he could make a tent of it or something if he needed to in the forest. He’d gotten his first coins! A few coppers and two silver. He put them all in the chest on the first floor, along with a wish for more to soon follow. The best part of the haul was the light-up stone. He could see pretty well in the dark without it, but this could be useful. He figured out the runic switch pretty fast. He hoped the light would last a long time, but it probably had limited juice.

  So, as before, he ventured outside into the open world for ideas and explored. There was plenty of wood in the forest. He could try building structures to make the dungeon look like it had once had a purpose. Maybe he could make one floor look like a monk’s retreat with housing and bedding and stuff. Or he could build a few small shacks on one floor and pretend it was a deserted village of long-dead mole people. One room could be turned into a slime breeding room. All he’d have to do is keep hauling dead vegetation down to feed them. He didn’t know how they multiplied or how long that took, though.

  Maybe there were some other creatures he could turn into pets. He hadn’t seen much wildlife yet. He doubted he could convince the wyvern to take up residence below ground. It would be a short conversation. He’d get about two words out before the thing ate Kai. Then Kai would become wyvern crap, and his dreams of becoming human again would be long gone. The same would likely happen if he tried getting that owl-bear to chase him into the dungeon. He needed something more his level.

  He’d already explored in the direction of the road. He’d discovered the pond. He’d gone in a different direction to discover the hunter. He was slowly getting an idea of the dungeon’s above-ground surroundings. So he picked yet a new area to search. He kept his eyes peeled and turned his head back and forth so that his big ears could pick up distant sounds like a mobile satellite dish. That’s how he picked up faint sounds that sounded like murmuring.

  He traced the odd noises to a particularly dense copse of trees and underbrush. Not wanting to just push his way into that mess and end up in trouble with whatever was hiding in there, he elected to climb a tree to get a better view. He picked one on the edge of the copse and climbed slowly so there was less chance of being noticed by anything inside the brush.

  Reaching a point a couple of meters off the ground, he peered around the tree trunk he was hugging, claws digging into the bark.

  Beyond the tall grass and bushes, an oval had been dug out of the ground in the dirt. It wasn’t deep and only a few paces long. Inside were the sorriest-looking creatures that Kai had ever seen, all piled together like they were huddling for warmth. The creatures were about the same size as Kai. They had the heads of small dragons but with whip-thin lizard-like bodies and no wings. Their scales covered the rainbow, although each figure was dominated by one color. Kai plumbed his extensive video game knowledge and guessed that maybe these were kobolds. He wasn’t quite sure because he got gnolls and kobolds confused all the time. At the moment, he figured gnolls were the humanoid hyena people.

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  The group looked beat up. He could see visible scratches and wounds on many. They wore very little clothing, but what he saw was torn and sometimes bloody. A lot of the creatures were extremely small, and Kai guessed they were kids. The group had the look of exhausted refugees.

  Kobolds are typically low-level starter monsters in video games. Newbies are meant to carve through them in the beginning to quickly level up. No one gives much thought to kobolds other than how they’re an easy source of early XP. You murder the crap out of them. Then, when you’re off and running as a higher-level character, you immediately forget they exist. Cooler monsters await.

  Kai was probably as guilty of that carelessness as anyone. To be fair, it’s how the games were designed. Designers weren’t trying to create empathy; they were busy satisfying the twisted human desire to kill lots of stuff. However, looking down at these sorry things, Kai couldn’t help but feel for them. He watched an adult cuddle a child to their chest, and the child snuggle and whimper in return. He watched as the largest kobold patrolled the edge of the dugout with a wooden spear, half its attention on the surrounding bush as they watched for danger and half on those being protected. They patted a shoulder here and whispered what were probably words of encouragement there.

  These weren’t simple-minded beasts. Taking the time to study them, Kai saw them as living beings, as people who probably shared a lot in common with him or any human. Rather than lead them into the dungeon to feed it XP, Kai’s first thought was that maybe he could offer them sanctuary there. They were small, and he had plenty of room. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea.

  Excited, he slid down the tree trunk to the ground. He felt free to make as much noise as he did while plowing through the edge of the copse toward the dugout. Best to give them warning that he was coming so he didn’t surprise them. He called out in a friendly tone, “Hello!” He ducked around a bush and shoved aside a thick stand of grasses, seeing the dugout area coming into view. “Hello there! I—urk!” He sharply pulled up, the tip of a spear at his neck. He looked past the whittled wooden point, down the shaft, and to the creature holding the weapon.

  It was the kobold that had been on guard duty. The rest of the kobolds had woken and risen, gathering frightened children into their arms, everyone worriedly poised to flee at a word. The guard stared at Kai with narrowed eyes. One wrong move, and that spear was going to go right through Kai.

  Kai held up his hands. One hand made a V sign. “Peace?”

  The guard barked at him, “Go away!” He had a long, thin snout, kind of like an alligator’s, and when he bared his many teeth, they looked sharp. His scales were such a dark red that they were almost brown. A crude bandage covered one eye. He wore a loincloth with splashes of blood on it. A gash on one arm had crusted over, but otherwise, looked pretty fresh. Despite the fact that he stood the same height as Kai, the kobold held that spear with precision and seemed plenty dangerous.

  Kai glanced at all the scared faces behind the guard. Yeah, these guys were in bad shape. “Hey, uh, I don’t know what you guys have been through, but—“

  The kobold jabbed at him, forcing Kai to back up a step. “Go away!”

  “I’m trying to help. I—“

  “Go!” Another jab that sent Kai back another step so that he was fully in the brush again.

  “Ok! Ok, I’m going. Cheese.” Kai turned and walked away from the dugout. He was disappointed he’d failed to connect with them. Their harsh reaction hurt a little, but he also knew they were scared and being protective, so he tried not to take it personally.

  He walked out of the copse of trees and was just about to step out of a thicker stand of grasses and bush when movement caught his eye. Remembering that he was potential prey, he instantly hit the ground, beware of other creatures. When nothing came hunting him, he slowly poked his head up higher and peered in the direction his attention had been caught.

  Two human adventurers quietly snuck towards the copse. From the poor state of their gear, they looked like rookies. The warrior had a gray quilted tunic over leather pants, a small wooden buckler, and a cheap dirk, which looked like a short sword or long knife with no hilt. The other guy was obviously a rogue, going try-hard for the whole ninja aesthetic. It was the middle of the morning, and he was traipsing through the bright green forest in a black ninja outfit. He even had a black scarf over his face, though it must have been warm in this weather. He carried a dagger in each hand, seemingly intent on being a dual-wielder.

  Both adventurers were entirely focused on the copse that Kai had just been about to exit. They both had big, eager grins on their young faces. From their intensity, it seemed clear that they were either hunting the kobolds and knew exactly where they were or were just prepared to attack whatever was hidden in the trees.

  Kai’s instinct was to warn the kobolds. That was weird because Kai considered himself human still, no matter what his body looked like, and the adventurers were human, too. You might think he’d relate to the humans instead. But something about their murderous glee angered him, while the sad state of the vulnerable kobolds triggered a compassion he’d never known he possessed.

  Basically, screw those murder-hobos. He was rooting for the mini-dragons.

  But what could he possibly do about it? He needed to think fast. Unfortunately, thinking was not Kai’s strong suit. He was coming up blank, and those guys were about to enter the copse.

  It's Friday of the 3rd week. Just a reminder that there are no chapters out next week while I'm on break.

  Here's a wiki link.