It only occurred to him later that this particular meeting could have gone in a very different way if cultivators had been to this dungeon before them. That wasn’t the case, which was why it hadn’t occurred to him at the time, but they had a tendency to attack on sight. If they had done that with the dwarves, they likely would not have been open to speaking with them, no matter how peaceful they generally were.

  Thankfully, that hadn’t been the case, and everything went more or less as he had thought they would.

  Which meant they weren’t immediately attacked. Talking to them was still a problem though. Last time they had gotten around that particular problem with Aura because they were her people and naturally spoke the same language.

  “Can Aura talk with them?” Angie asked, uncertainly after they had been trying to communicate with the dwarves unsuccessfully for a minute. “I mean, you mentioned that she spoke with you before she became your beast companion, right? That must mean her way of communicating is special in some way and transcends language barriers.”

  Nate blinked in stupefied amazement before palming his face with a slow nod. “Yeah, you’re right. Aura, if you would, please?”

  Aura made sure to include them all in the conversation as she began talking to them. “I was wondering how long it was going to take before you remembered I could do that.”

  “You forgot your telepathy worked that way as well, didn’t you?” He asked with a grin.

  “Shut up,” She focused on the dwarves who had come ever closer during the time they had been trying to figure things out.

  Nate had the camera screen pulled up for their location, and the subtitles activated. He was able to keep up with what the dwarves were saying. They were confused as to what the tall ones were saying and were curious as to whether they should attack them.

  Luckily, for all involved, the group was holding their weapons loosely at their side instead of at the ready.

  Before they could decide on the matter, Aura began to talk to them in her own special way. The original method she had used when she first met Nate involved a lot of images and very few actual words. That had changed when she joined with the dungeon and became his companion beast. At that point, she had become more familiar with the human language.

  Now, she was discovering that the researched languages had also had some effect on her telepathy as well. She wasn’t as fluent in the language as she was in the human languages, but it was better than just conversing with images alone.

  While she talked to the dwarves, Nate would translate what they were saying for the other two. It led to a slightly confusing situation as they could understand what Aura was saying while the dwarves were being translated by Nate using a method which they didn’t understand.

  After a few moments, the dwarves had relaxed some more and were fully engaged in the conversation they were having with Aura.

  Nate was personally disappointed that they didn’t have a Scottish accent of any sort. They did have an accent, but with them speaking an entirely different language, it was hard to tell exactly what it was.

  The dwarves only had a few simple requirements for a peaceful coexistence. Namely, no mining in their area. Don’t attack them and let them know if they found any shinies. In return for following those rules, the group would be allowed to pass through the area with a single guard by their side.

  Nate and Aura agreed to that term on the condition that as soon as they left their territory, the guard would also stay behind.

  Oddly enough, despite being the first meeting between their races, at least in that dungeon, it ended up being completely peaceful. However, as they were leaving, Aura did make sure to mention to the other dwarves that they should not expect other humans to be so reasonable or peaceful. Especially, as without her or Nate, they would not be able to converse or understand each other.

  It was a warning that they seemed to take seriously as the mood became serious behind them as they walked away.

  “They were nice,” Angie said, looking back. “This dungeon is out of the way; do you really think other cultivators will come here?”

  “Who can say but giving them the warning can’t hurt,” Nate told her, leading the way.

  This section of the dungeon was almost entirely made up of dirt and stone mining tunnels instead of the normal dungeon brick. As such, the tunnels and resulting rooms were more irregular than those he created.

  Aura kept up a conversation with their chaperone as they walked through the tunnels. A while later, they nodded their heads to the diminutive man, thanking him for escorting them through the dwarven territory. Aura also made sure to let the man know that they would be returning at some point, though it would be several hours yet, at a minimum.

  He thanked them for the update and then turned around, leaving them alone.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Alright, where are we going?” Lindsay asked as Nate took the lead once more.

  The camera screens that only he could see revealed utterly clear passages, save for a couple of golems all the way to the core.

  “I find myself rather curious of the same thing,” Angie admitted as they jogged through the tunnels that gradually turned back into dungeon corridors. “You obviously had some sort of plan when you brought us here. But I’m not understanding it just yet. Although I did enjoy meeting the dwarves, I didn’t think there were inhabitants on the other side of the dimensional portals who were friendly. Aura notwithstanding.” She corrected herself hurriedly.

  “It’s fine. I’m not exactly normal among my people, as you saw months ago. It was only when the community outside the dungeon was created that they began to calm down and become more normal again. Honestly, I think the dimensional zones and the portals mess with everyone’s minds and emotions to some extent.” Aura said as they ran past a few dozing golems.

  “Is that true?” Lindsay wondered. “Then what about these golems and the dwarves? Why aren’t they being affected?”

  “They probably still are,” Nate told her, slowing as they entered the room with the Dungeon Core at last. “We don’t know what their base level of aggression of niceness is. These dwarves might seem nice to us, but in their society, they could have been unforgivably rude or something.” He shrugged. “Either way, we don’t know. It’s just an idea she and I have tossed around a few times. Something to help explain everything.”

  Angie looked around the room as they came to a halt. “I take it we’ve reached wherever you wanted to take us?”

  “Almost,” He told her with a wink. “Now, let’s see how this will work. When I work in here with my avatar, the entire dungeon shuts down. Normally, I would do this from outside the dungeon, so that doesn’t happen.”

  While he pulled up the construction menu, Aura began telling the other two what this place was.

  He had come up with a few different options when he had initially come up with this plan. The first of which was having Angie and Lindsay touch the Dungeon Core. Hopefully, something would happen when they did that. Assuming nothing did, then the second and absolutely foolproof option was to simply have them provide input on the creation of the traps.

  Using that method, they would go room by room, creating traps as the two desired. In that way, they would be able to see for sure what it was he had been doing with the dungeons.

  Regardless of which option they ended up using, at least they would then be in on the secret, and would also know how serious it was.

  The wall began to shift, and the lights inside the dungeon dimmed, while those inside the room itself vanished entirely. If there had been any traps in the dungeon, they would have shut down as well.

  “Uh, Nate?” Lindsay called out. “Was that supposed to happen?”

  “I told you the dungeon shuts down when I do this in my avatar form. Don’t worry though, it’ll be done in just a few moments.”

  Sure enough, as soon as the wall finished moving, the lights inside the room came back on. Looking back, Nate spotted Lindsay wrapped tightly around Aura while Angie had her own hands buried in the kitsune’s fur. He chuckled and rolled his eyes at their antics.

  Aura’s long snout and expressive eyes were those of a long-suffering individual. She had grown somewhat used to how affectionate Lindsay could be, but it was still too much at times.

  “Now, come on, let’s enter the new room. I don’t want to leave it open longer than needed.” Nate told them while keeping an eye on his camera screens to monitor the surroundings. The dwarves had reacted the strongest to the dimming of the lights, but their curiosity didn’t extend beyond their desire to keep mining for more gems.

  Inside the Dungeon Core room, Nate had them put their hands on the core itself. As they did so, a new screen appeared before him.

  ‘Potential partners detected. One Angelica Marie Chrighton and one Lindsay Light Travers current members of the dungeon owners party have placed their hands upon the Dungeon Core. Would you like to grant them access to the system and bring them into the fold as partners on the same level as Aura?’

  ‘YES/NO’

  He took a startled step back at the message, his eyes flicking between it and everyone else.

  This was not something that he had ever considered possible before that moment. There had been no hints that he could expand his core dungeon party in this way. Sure, he could get more companion beasts, if he ever found any that wanted to join him, but human partners… The thought had never crossed his mind, and Aura had certainly never mentioned it.

  “Did you know this was possible Aura?” He asked in a slightly strangled voice.

  She shook her head. “I only received the equivalent of the user’s manual, not the entire user's guide. I was meant to help you make informed decisions and give you enough information to figure things out on your own. Not take those choices away from you by knowing too much, which is what would have happened if I knew how everything worked.”

  “Uh, either of you feel like clueing us in here?” Lindsay asked, trying unsuccessfully to pull her hand away from the Dungeon Core.

  “It’s asking me if I want to do something I didn’t even know was a possibility. Something that affects the two of you; but would frankly be a lot of help.” He rubbed the back of his head as he thought of the best way to ask them before deciding to simply blurt out the offer. “How would the two of you like to become partners in all of this with me?”

  ““Huh?”” They both asked, not understanding.

  Aura sighed. “What he is trying to say, badly, I might add, is that apparently there is a function that would allow you both to become like me. You would be able to modify the dungeons, see the information on all of them, and likely enter them in some fashion. Though we might have to figure out how it would work with you two. I enter through Nate’s core, using it as a portal. He uses an avatar. Whether that is because I am his animal companion or some other factor, I couldn’t even begin to say.”

  Silence filled the space for several moments as the girls thought over the offer. Slowly, they began to nod, smiles slowly blossoming over their faces.

  “Yeah, I accept, let’s do this,” Angie said first, followed closely by Lindsay, whose hand was gripping her friend’s tightly.

  “Agreed. Make us your partners in this thing. I can’t wait to see just what you have been keeping from us all these months.”

  With those affirming words, he selected ‘YES’. Both girls’ eyes rolled to the back of their heads, and the energy in the shared pool began to rapidly sink. Twin glows took shape around the wrists of the hands holding onto the Dungeon Core. Over the course of the next minute, two sleek wrist computers took shape on their arms.

  They were slimmer and more streamlined than his own, and while there was no weight to it, he was a little jealous of the design. By the time they were finished, the shared resource pool was dangerously low on energy.

  https://www.amazon.com/author/joshuakern

  https://joshuakernbooks.com/