A piece of paper was taken off the board and replaced by a newly pinned parchment. Someone behind Wilona sighed and she whipped her head back to grin mischievously at the dumbfounded crow staring at her with eyes that looked deader than they normally were.

  "And you've replaced my idea of creating a graveyard, why?" Rottie said with exhaustion. He had been scared of brainstorming with Wilona and it seems that his fears were completely correct. "We have someone from Nythfyr coming, a school for Necromancers mind you, which means that we can turn this place into a hub for the undead."

  "That won't work at all!" Wilona defended with a shake of her head. Seriously, not only is turning the bog into a graveyard a bad idea, it's also ugly! Wilona didn't want to live next to some grave, and she also didn't want to deal with a bunch of zombies when visiting the town.

  "Why wouldn't it?" Rottie asked, his slight animosity gone and replaced by genuine curiosity. "A graveyard is a good idea since that's how I mainly feed. Wouldn't it make sense for a core that produces undead to promote the production of it?"

  "Okay, okay, first off—your opinion doesn't matter here." The incredulous crow squawked loudly and looked around as if asking his non-existent peers 'are you seeing this?' but since they're both alone, he looked like a madman. "The people's opinion does, and I don't know about you, but like, no sane human would want to sit around this place!"

  "What do you mean?"

  Wilona stepped forward and poked the crow on the chest with her stick. "Do you want to attract a bunch of criminals huh? Or people who don't mind living with zombies? Or do you want to turn this place prosperous and get the best demographic available? Huh? Do you want a large group to feed off of?"

  "Of course I do," Rottie answered without question. No sane dungeon core would let themselves remain stagnant by not increasing the population surrounding their dungeon. "But what does me allowing necromancers and the undead to roam freely have to do with anything?"

  "It has to do with everything! No one wants to see their loved ones walking around! Jesus fucking Christ you're gonna traumatize people!" Wilona clicked her tongue and shook her head. "So here's my suggestion: you know how you can feed off of rotting things or just decomposing organic trash in general?"

  "Yes?" Rottie tilted his head. "One of my plans is to form a compost pit near my core if that's what you're referring to."

  "Wrong, we're gonna make a petting zoo and a carnival," Wilona grinned. Her expression faltered when Rottie didn't reply and just stared at her in confusion. Does he not know what a carnival is? "You know, a place where people can have fun and another one where kids can pet cute animals?"

  The crow blinked. Once. Twice. His mouth opened but no sound came out, not even a tiny squawk of disbelief. Eventually, he screamed, "WHAT?!"

  "Dude, calm down," Wilona rubbed her ears. "Trust me on this, it's gonna be great!"

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  "Why did you even suggest that?" Rottie ignored what she said and went all in with asking her about such a stupid suggestion. "A place where people can have fun? How are they gonna die? With old age?"

  "Calm down!" Wilona laughed—she couldn't hold it in any longer. Her idea to make the surrounding bog a carnival was purely out of whimsy but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense! Like, it makes sense. Clearly.

  "I'm not gonna calm down unless you give me a good reason for why you chose to turn my dungeon into a place where people have fun rather than die."

  "Then give me a moment to explain it?" What the fuck was Rottie even saying? Like, he was the one who didn't give her a chance to talk here.

  "Fine, you have a few moments to explain it to me, otherwise we're gonna go back to thinking up ideas on what we should turn the bog into."

  "Yeah sure. Whatever." Wilona rolled her eyes. If her pitch fails, she can always suggest to Rottie to just go all in with Nythfyr and turn this place into a school. That or he makes a hospital or something, where people can rest—maybe a mental asylum? One of those things.

  Wilona walked up to the board and slapped on the parchment which had her idea written down on it. "You know how you can feed off of decomposing matter?" The crow nodded. "The carnival is going to be producing a lot of trash. Like, a lot. Fuzz can grow containers made out of mushroom or maybe we can have, like, stuff made out of ent bark for the ultra rich. We throw those out, you feed."

  "And the dead?"

  "There's no dead people—ah. No. I'm explaining right now." Wilona held her hand up and stopped Rottie from going on a rant before she could explain it fully. "Nythfyr is coming, you can probably get the dead people from there and I also heard they dabble with the living so like, you're obviously not going to be lacking in souls any time soon."

  Now calm, Rottie nodded, urging her to keep going. "I'm listening. Your carnival idea is going to ensure that no one is going to mind the necromancy going on next door?"

  "Yes!" Wilona confirmed with an excited nod. "And maybe if they can create something like, a uh... ghost dog or something they can put it in the petting zoo for the kids to have fun with."

  "To make parents and other people be more amicable to the presence of the undead! Some of them might even like the experience and think about joining Nythfyr! That is ingenious!"

  "Yep! Of course!" She did not think of that at all but hey, if it works, it works. And if her ideas are good, then maybe... "What if we also make a part of the local Nythfyr branch into a haunted house?"

  "A haunted house?"

  "You know, a place where people can go into and then, like, get scared?"

  "Isn't that counterintuitive?" Hey, at least Rottie isn't outright against it this time around. "You gave out multiple ideas which would make other people get used to the fact that undead are everywhere here and then you want to make a building where they get scared of them?"

  "We'll advertise it as, like, a place to have fun and that no one dies in. We'll regulate it so that people with heart problems are not allowed and we'll have one guy screaming about how the haunted house is for fun rather than for fear. I'm sure there's a conman out there somewhere willing to do that," Wilona explained. "Maybe we can even hire a few shills to spread rumors about how girls like it when a man is protecting them from danger and like, it makes them fall in love?"

  "That can work..." Rottie muttered. He didn't sound confident though.

  "Like, we can add something about how guys showing bravery will make girls like them even more and the haunted house is the perfect place for that since no one dies." Wilona tilted her head. "Makes sense doesn't it?"

  "It does, yes." She blinked. Huh. She never thought she'd ever get this far. Rottie looked at her. "And may I ask how we could realistically implement these around the bog?"

  "With a lot of labor?"

  "That's a given. I have enough undead to build a dungeon, we don't need to worry about such a thing for the time being." Rottie shook his head. "I'm asking how we will manage it. I'm sure it requires a lot of micromanaging, yes? We are effectively talking about... a few hundred meters worth of land being used as an area where people have fun? And assuming this gets popular, there will be a lot of visiting individuals so we need a way to regulate it."

  "I don't know." Wilona shook her head. "Honestly, most of what you said went over my head. Like, I'm just pitching ideas here, I don't know shit when it comes to managing people and land."

  "I assumed this was the case," the crow sighed. "Well, no matter. You and I will brainstorm how we will do it. I'll most likely hire living humans to manage a few things which leaves us to discussing their payment."

  "Can't you just, like, give them items or something?"

  "Absolutely not!" The crow squawked. He flapped his wings. "Do you think I'm willing to give out rewards like they are water? No. If we want to pay them, they're gonna have to be content with earning money and not dungeon items, otherwise it will not only weaken me, but also stir tension within the citizens and the working class since easily accessible dungeon items will make them greedy."

  "Yep, got it." Wilona nodded, and she wasn't kidding—she now understands that she doesn't need to worry about managing the carnival since Rottie is so good at it already.