Nate calmed everyone down as they tensed at the sudden noise. This was not what they had been expecting. They had been expecting more Aura’s weird image-based telepathy and less African safari.

  For now, everything they were saying didn’t have any impact on the reason why they had come here. They were still in the pre-meeting, getting-to-know-one-another phase of everything. This was her time to shine, and not an area where they mattered in the slightest.

  As a kitsune, Aura was recognized as royalty, even if they didn’t recognize her personally. Just being able to speak with her was blowing all of their minds. This was not something that they thought they would have the chance to ever do. Especially not after what their elders had done on their world to the royal family.

  Many of the kitsunes had been eliminated, though there were rumors that some escaped through other portals. Until that moment, they hadn’t believed the claims. The royal family was strong, but they had been against everyone who had become dissatisfied with them.

  The odds simply weren’t in their favor.

  Yet now they were seeing one of them standing in front of them. It made them question the validity of those rumors anew.

  It took a while as the gathered beasts had plenty of questions for her, but eventually, the conversation turned to the nature of the walled community. It was a subject that she was even more qualified to educate them on than Nate was. Her connection to the Dungeon Core, and through it the wrist computer, had thoroughly filled her mind with all the needed information.

  Unfortunately, for Nate, and to a lesser extent her, it had simply happened after he had made the selection. He had still made the right choice, but knowing it all beforehand would have prevented him from doing so blindly.

  Her revelations brought some discontent among the stronger beasts, simply because the choice was being taken from them. Due to the forced nature of their enhanced mental status, they were unable to even leave and come back again without suffering some consequences.

  After they got their initial complaints out of their system, they started to calm down and were once more willing to listen to her. With those interruptions over, she finally began to outline what the true purpose of the community was.

  Unlike those currently in the meeting building with them right then, the rest of the beasts could leave the walls normally. Since they hadn’t had their minds forcefully elevated and were going through the process in the way it was intended, they could leave the walls for a few hours at a time without regressing. Even then, the only downside of regressing, as long as they still came back to the community, was that the process would take longer to complete.

  She continued with her yips and snarls and mentioned the different buildings that could be built within the walls.

  Most of the beasts looked away from her in embarrassment when she mentioned paths, their versions of jobs. Prior to coming to Earth, many of them had been too young to even think about pursuing a path in life.

  There were a couple of them who stood out and asked if they could request the buildings for their vocations be constructed.

  The first was a large snake, who identified itself as a journeyman healer and wanted a clinic constructed. The next was a koala sort of creature that was an a apothecarist, trained under her parents. The last was a leopard with three whip tails that said it had once been training to be an alchemist. It would like to start the process once again and since it was among the buildings she had mentioned, requested one be built.

  There were likely more among the other beasts, but they would have to wait to find out until a later time. Intelligence came with cultivation for beasts that weren’t the kitsunes. However, that didn’t mean they couldn’t be trained before then. It was simply more inefficient was all, but it could still be done. Which is why those who did possess some knowledge were typically from families that practiced a certain path.

  Nate and Aura made note of each request, only to then pause as a thought occurred to them at the same time. What would they do about future requests? Was she going to need to leave the dungeon regularly to speak with them?

  “The board outside the portal in the second dungeon,” Nate breathed out in near silence, hoping she would understand.

  She did.

  “There will be a board placed in front of this building that you can write on. When someone has a need for a new building, have them write the path and the type of building down. Implements of your various trades, unfortunately, will most likely be up to you to either create or procure through trade.”

  The conversation continued with the humans behind her, -with the exception of Nate- looking utterly lost as they were unable to follow along in the slightest. Finally, as everything was drawing to a close, one of the beasts in the rafters asked a question more important than the rest.

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  “How are we to respond if the humans attack us?”

  “As you would normally,” Aura replied without even needing to think about it. “The area inside the walls should be a safe place. However, not all humans will agree with that. They are just like us in that regard. If someone is outside the walls and is attacked, they are free to defend themselves. Be prepared to defend their actions should they make it back. The humans are oddly pack-like when one of their own gets attacked by something not human.”

  Nate had never thought of it in those terms before, but he couldn’t say she was wrong either. The way humans acted was rather pack-like at times.

  A short time later, the group was leaving the building behind. Everyone was practically vibrating with barely held-back questions. However, they knew better than to ask any of them just yet. They needed to get past the group of foreign cultivators first.

  The space within the walls had become packed with beasts during their time inside the meeting hall. There was a thin space left for them to walk to the opening in the walls, and that was it. Everywhere else had become packed with beasts. In many of the places, they were even lying on top of each other, doubling up on what should have been a single space.

  Everyone could merely shake their heads at the unbelievable sight.

  Nate now knew that the pulse of the energy had called the beasts in the area back to this location. Still, seeing them all acting like this was beyond his wildest expectations.

  The group was stopped outside the walls by the other group of cultivators who had been waiting for them.

  There were still plenty of beasts who hadn’t managed to fit inside the walls. Some were sticking close to the place, while most others had already begun to wander off. The effects of the earlier call, already beginning to wear off.

  “What happened in there? What is this place?” One of the cultivators demanded imperiously.

  “And who are you to demand anything of us?” Aden snarled at the man. “Do you really think that we don’t know what you did? You destroyed who knows how many natural treasure spots and safe locations all to create an artificial beast wave. Well, congratulations, you did! And you destroyed our city in the process. Do you even have any idea how many people your little stunt has killed?”

  “We had orders,” Another began weakly.

  “There are always orders. Unless you’re military, you don’t have to follow them.” Lindsay’s father told them wearily.

  The team looked away from them in shame. They were simply cultivators, professional hunters, the same as Nate’s parents. The orders had been admittedly questionable, at the same time, they had been promised a new sort of adventure. It was selfish of them, but many hunters were also thrill-seekers, and that described them to a ‘T’.

  They hadn’t thought about the consequences at the time. It was stupid of them, but it was also human. Only that they had the opportunity to do something that they had never done before. There had been a few groups, such as the one Nate and his parents had run into before, that hadn’t participated in the extra activities. Not that it had mattered much in the end.

  The back and forth continued for another minute, before Nate stepped forward and simply told them.

  With just that explanation, the group understood how deeply they were screwed. This dimensional zone primarily belonged to the city they had just had a hand in destroying. There was no way they or their city would be given access to whatever wonders this beast community might bring forth.

  The cultivators clenched their fists tight enough to draw blood and fell to their knees. “Please, we’ll do what we can to encourage our city, and the others involved in this plan, to provide aid in rebuilding your home. Just please, don’t cut us off from this new resource.”

  “If only you had been this forward-thinking before,” Aden told them with a sigh. He squinted at Nate, who shrugged, and Aura who bobbled her head from side to side.

  They weren’t going to micromanage the community. It was an extension of the dungeon, so they maintained some control over it, but they wouldn’t be acting as managers or anything. As for Aura, as far as anyone else was concerned, she was just someone who had acted as a translator and had once held a high position in the beast’s society. Nothing more.

  Although she had reapplied her illusion before exiting the meeting building.

  “I think we can come to an agreement on a case-by-case basis.” He said at last. “If nothing else, my family owns a merchant business. Perhaps we can do something through that.”

  A few minutes later, they were back on the trail and hurrying back to the RV. They had a limited window in which they could run all out without fear of being attacked by anything, and they intended to use it. The beasts that had wandered away from the walls were beginning to grow more restless by the minute.

  They were still roughly a half-hour away from the vehicle when the first attack came from the side.

  It was a flying squirrel that Lindsay smashed to the ground with her halberd. The spike on the opposite side of the axe-blade pierced cleanly through the beast.

  Since the time for secrets was over, Nina stored the body in her bracelet with a grin to the others and they continued on.

  After that, the attacks began to happen more frequently. They were no longer caused by the deep-seated rage from before that had destroyed the city. Instead, they had returned to a more, if slightly agitated normal.

  There was a previously unseen benefit from them killing all the beasts they had while defending the city. The average tier of each area had fallen drastically. Most of the beasts that weren’t tethered to the community in some way were only one realm, maybe one and a half if they were lucky above ‘Core Creation’.

  That meant they were plenty strong enough for the kids to push themselves, but without facing significant danger at the same time. Just Nate alone was able to dispatch most beasts of that level by himself. Their own realms might still have been mortal, however, the way humans counted their realms differed from that of invading species.

  The named ‘Core Creation’ realm was the third realm for humans. Even though they actually created their cores during the initial mortal realm. Both realms were still part of the first stage. It had led to some confusion in the beginning and still did to that day on occasion. However, since all the differences belonged within the first stage, people eventually decided to just ignore it.

  Regardless, despite being mortal realm cultivators, the three had cores of their own. Which meant that they had access to more strength and energy than a true mortal, along with their energy skills.

  By the time they made it back to the RV, it was evening and all three of the kids had fought several times.

  The adults, interestingly enough, still looked completely fresh and hadn’t so much as touched their weapons the entire way back.

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