Rottie talked a lot about how the local humans managed to ruin their town because of their incompetence but like, he's not any different, is he? Wilona eyed the crow perched atop the head of her staff. Should she mention this to the core? It feels like she shouldn't.

  "Hey Rottie?" Wilona decided to do it. If she were to be friends with the dungeon core of this bog, then they needed to be honest with each other.

  The crow looked at her with bloodshot eyes, its beak opened and it cawed with a rotten tongue. The call sounded like something that could only be made by a man on his deathbed. Wilona chuckled.

  "Right, you can't talk anymore." She sighed. The crow's body rotted far quicker than she expected. Like, how long has Rottie been holding onto this thing for it to get to that state? Or maybe he found it somewhere around here, already rotting. Who knows.

  "You know that your place sucks, right?" Wilona decided to be honest. She didn't want to mince her thoughts on the matter, so she said what came to mind, even if her words ended up being brutal. "Like, there isn't anything here but a stupid tree on top of that little island. I'm guessing that's you?"

  The crow nodded.

  "Right, so it is you then. And what? The moat? Bog? Sandpit? I'm guessing this place must have some kind of defense mechanism for you to just stand there in the open for everyone to see, but like, even if this thing is quicksand, don't you think that it's better if you, I don't know, build walls?"

  The crow tilted his head. It opened its beak again only to caw in frustration. It jerked its head towards the tree and flew. Wilona understood what he meant for the first part, so she followed after the corvid. Rottie could talk to her again once they got close to the tree—or himself—and the first thing he said was to rebuke Wilona's claim.

  "I have praetorians around here," said the core. A branch moved, and Wilona realized he was pointing behind her. She turned around and yep, there's a bunch of giant skeletons standing behind her. And by a bunch, she meant that there's at least three.

  "What are they? Ogre corpses?" She knew that skull shape, even with all its lacking fat and facial muscles. "Where the hell did you find those?"

  "Around here," Rottie answered casually. "Regardless, with my praetorians and army, and the lacking manpower of the local towns and villages, I am confident that I can fight anyone who comes into my domain."

  "Yeah, no." Wilona shook her head. "And, like, not to offend you or anything, but I'm, like, enough to take you out."

  "No offense taken," Rottie took the comment in stride. Which meant that under all that tough bark, the guy also had a heart of steel. "And it's not that I don't agree with what you said, but I believe that some fortifications might be needed around my core. What do you suggest?"

  "Awww, you totally agreed, didn't you?" Wilona teased. Why did he have to add that part? She wouldn't have known he was playing cool otherwise!

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "I do not." Rottie pushed.

  "Okay, okay. You don't." Wilona relented, mainly because she didn't want to spend a few hours going back and forth teasing the tree. She didn't have that much time to waste. "You asked what you should do, right?"

  Wilona eyed the surrounding area. The island that Rottie grew on was quite small, only big enough to fit another person alongside the tree that acted as the core's body, but the surrounding moat—or sand pit—was a large donut surrounding the island. It was at least 14 feet long on all sides, which meant that there's potential there for defenses. They should start with that. And then work their way outward. Maybe a maze too? That sounded neat.

  But then things can just come from above and attack...

  "Say, can people sense that you're a core?" Wilona turned to the tree.

  "No, not as far as I'm aware. Dungeon cores are often hard to recognize unless they outright state it," explained Rottie. What he said was good enough to make Wilona come up with a few ideas, and she nodded.

  "You've thought of something?"

  "It's risky, but... like, you know how dungeons usually have areas for rest?" She didn't know if this is the case in this world truly, but she's played a bit of video games in the past and, like, those places do exist. Chances are, if the nature of cores is what she assumed it is, then they would also place resting places in their labyrinths.

  "Yes? Where are you going with this?"

  "You see; what if you turn this place into a resting area?" Wilona checked to see the core's reaction, but he only went silent.

  "I am not convinced, but I'm willing to be. Elaborate. I want the full picture of what you've come up with."

  "Okay, okay—so, you can turn this place into both a death trap and a resting area, at least until you can hide properly. We put fake floors that can easily collapse on top of the quicksand, then a roof over that, and some supplies in between those, and we'll... no one would be smart enough to think that a tree next to the resting area is actually the dungeon core, right?"

  "Hm. That sounds ideal, but then that would break one of the common rules we dungeons operate under; no trickery."

  "Ah." So there is a type of rule that controls them? Wilona was now kind of intrigued. "There's something like that? Who told you?"

  "My adviser. He's gone now, I'm afraid. He went away after he finished telling me everything I needed to know about being a dungeon core to help some other newborn core."

  "And what? Did he also tell you to attack the town?"

  "Simply? Yes." Rottie confirmed. Which was pretty fucked up in its own right. Seriously? The things teaching new dungeon cores are asking them to attack human towns? Who the hell thought that was a good idea?

  "Okay, enough about that," Wilona shook her head. It was probably pointless to ask why their advisers asked them to kill towns. Chances are, it probably had something to do with their growth. "Let's say that you need to grow, and to do that, you need to attack a human town. Since you haven't done that yet, what can you do right now?"

  "You don't need to go into hypotheticals. What you said is accurate." Rottie's words basically proved Wilona's theories right. "My answer to that would be... merely summoning low-level creatures that can only fight. I can change the terrain and build traps like you said, but my choices are fairly limited as we speak."

  "So manual labor then?" Wilona suggested. That didn't seem like a bad idea to her, but she didn't know if Rottie would agree to it. "You can build a house while I work to disguise your tree? People will have a hard time deciding which tree to attack if, like, there's an entire forest around it."

  "You can grow plants?" asked Rottie.

  "Eh, I'm sure I'll figure it out." Wilona grinned. "I can't really promise that I'll do it now though, but I will eventually!" She knew she had spells that involved messing with plant life, so there's a decent chance she can make trees forcefully grow. "I'll have to ask someone about it, and if they or me can't find an answer, then I'll send an ent here to work in my place."

  "Thank you, I'll wait for your help." Rottie sounded like he trusted her, but she wasn't sure. Maybe he's just being optimistic. Wilona knew that she had to help him no matter what though because she got a new quest related to it.

  [New Quest! - Dungeon Fortifications!]

  [Quest Type: Influence]

  [Rewards: Potion’s and You!]

  ["You have made a new friend, good for you! And now that you’ve promised to not only help the local town, but also the dungeon core, you are tasked with giving the latter help in fortifying the surrounding area around his core!"]

  It’s good that she’s been getting quests again, really. She’s not sure what she can do with another book, but maybe there’s, like, a recipe for improved bath bombs in it? That didn’t sound all bad. And well, magical potions sound like something her friends would be into.

  Wilona closed her system and looked at Rottie.

  "I’m gonna fly off and head home for now—wait, I’ll tell the town that the storms should stop coming, so can you promise me you won’t send one out tonight? I know you said you’re trying to weaken them, but I’m pretty sure it’s better if you work together with them. I’ll tell them to not attack you, too."

  "I’ll do that."

  "Thanks!" Wilona grinned and hopped onto her staff. Guess she’s gonna bring back good news!