There were too many revelations here for Levi to immediately deal with them all.

‘Your’ dungeon.

Dungeon soul.

Dungeons weren’t just randomized monster factories, but had actual souls?

The dungeon would be his… what did that mean? What did a human-owned dungeon even look like? What use would it be?

5000 mana wasn’t really that much. If Levi did nothing else, he could fully charge it in less than a day. But should he?

He still hadn't decided when he returned to Gordon and Laurence. Gordon was looking over the small pile of treasure while Laurence continued casting his spell as fast as his mana could regenerate, scribbling notes in between.

That, at least, made Levi smile a bit. He had the same kind of drive and obsessive energy as Theo. If anyone could figure out how to subvert the system to use as a replacement internet, it would be him.

It did make him wonder for a moment, if he could track down Theo or some of the others sometime. Sure, they wouldn't know him, but at least he'd know he could trust them. Unfortunately, things like surnames and details hadn't survived the years since then. He'd probably recognize them if he saw them, even years younger, but he couldn't visit every Theo in the country hoping to stumble on the right one.

The end of the world had a way of condensing people together who in normal circumstances never would have met. He couldn't even remember where they'd met in the end, let alone where they had come from before then. None of it had been relevant to their circumstances at the time, and none of them had any reason to expect that they'd have a second chance at this all.

Levi was the butterfly, and it was his job to direct the coming hurricane. Even if he had no clue how.

He stared down at the Dungeon Seed in his hand, and slowly infused it with mana. The transfer was clean and perfect, the saturation increasing at the exact same rate his own mana ticked down. No loss, none burned off in the air, not even a faint glow. The inner light of the Dungeon Seed was faint and could be mistaken for a trick of the light if you weren't looking for it.

He filled it to 50, then stopped.

"You found it?" Gordon asked. "Can I see?"

Levi passed it over, turning his attention to the normal items they'd received. One mana restorative and two stamina, two Destruction tokens, another sheath, and another weather stone.

"You get to grow your own custom dungeon, how does that work? Can you plant them in a ring to protect your land from invasion? Is that how you...?" He glanced at Laurence, who they'd not informed about Levi being from the future, and trailed off.

Levi shook his head. "No, I've never heard of a dungeon like this. If someone found one like it before, it didn't last long enough for me to hear about it."

"So we don't know what it'll do?"

"No clue."

Laurence noticed them staring at the sparkly glowing rock and came over to see what it was. "Dude! You get your own dungeon? No wonder you were in such a hurry. Do you get to set up the rooms however you want? Can you choose your monsters? Set traps?"

"I'm not sure."

"Can I help?" He put a hand on the crystal. It took him a while of silent concentration before he successfully transferred the mana, but after a minute the saturation ticked up by another 7.

"I bet we can get this filled by the end of the day," Laurence said eagerly. He was already scribbling notes, sketching out the shape and size of the Dungeon Seed as he measured it with his pencil. "I can't wait to see it in action."

"If we have to put it anywhere, it won't be here," Levi said. If it was going to be a training area, he'd save it for Peter, once he'd reunited with his family. And if it was going to be a fortress, he'd give it to Irene.

"You don't want to test it out as soon as possible?" Laurence asked, seemingly incredulous that anyone could be so uncurious.

"We can fill it with mana, but I won't be deploying it until I'm sure I know where I want it."

Laurence sighed, but nodded. "The reluctant dungeon keeper."

"Are we going to leave, or hang around here?" Gordon picked up the sheath and one of each type of restorative. "If you've got what you came for, we can head home now."

"We have to wait for Charles!" Laurence protested. "He stole our stuff. If he's going to try to steal our dungeon too, we should be here waiting for him."

Levi put the Destruction tokens and weather stone in his pouch. "If he comes along and finds that the dungeon is already active and has the plus designation, he'll know it's an ambush, and just leave. If we wait outside, he'll see us."

Gremlin Two poked Levi's leg.

Levi looked down at him, as he gestured wildly. Skarm joined in, nodding and squeaking.

"Two can hide near the dungeon and keep an eye out," Levi translated as best he could. "Skarm can wait just inside to send word back with Centoo if he comes close. We can catch him easily if--"

Becca pushed her head against his side, rubbing up against his leg as she stalked past with her head held high, then lay down half curled around Gremlin Two.

"Becca can catch him with no trouble," Levi amended. "So you two will keep a lookout, Skarm will relay the message back to us, while Becca will pin him down so he doesn't run away?"

Becca yawned and rested her head against Two's foot. Two and Skarm nodded.

"Then that's our plan. If he doesn't show up in a few days, we'll assume he gave up on the search and move on." But even as he said it, Levi wondered if it was worth the time. He wanted to be moving, he'd lingered too long over this thing as it was.

"You don't need the framework any more?" Laurence asked.

Levi shrugged. "I'm sure it would do something useful, but I'm satisfied with the Dungeon Seed. If we run into him again in the future, we can reclaim it from him then. But if we never see him again, I won't be disappointed."

"I would!" Laurence exclaimed. "He robbed us!"

"Man, calm down," Gordon said. "You are taking this way too seriously. Nothing he took is irreplaceable. At the rate we're clearing dungeons, we'll have more than what he took in a week."

"It's the principle of the thing! You can't just let him get away with theft."

Levi shook his head. "Honestly, if it helps him reach a level of strength where he can fight to defend the earth in the future, I don't begrudge him any of it. I wish he'd been more mature about it. I don't understand his mindset, but it's obvious he's a fighter to the core. If he can find some use for the framework, it's not worth chasing him across the country for. If he comes to us, then yeah, I'll take what I'm owed. If not, it's not worth getting upset about."

"You're taking this very lightly for someone who went to so much effort to set up the trade in the first place," Laurence grumbled.

"I thought it would be another Seed Fragment. It turns out to have been something unrelated, so it doesn't matter."

Laurence flipped idly through his notes, more as a thing to do with his hands than out of any actual interest. "It really gets my goat that my own guild leader would be such a double-crossing scumbag! Even if you're willing to forgive and move on, it'll forever be a stain on the honor of the Doom Raiders. I knew we weren't on the same page about everything, but I never imagined he was such a greedy bastard. And Doug! I thought we were friends. I can't just let it go." His voice grew progressively more aggressive as he went on, ending in almost a snarl.

"That's exactly what you need to do. You focus on being the best wizard you can be. Leave dealing with Charles and Doug to us."

Levi hoped to avoid anyone getting killed, and got the distinct impression that Laurence might not think things through clearly enough to be sensible.

This group had been killing monsters like it was a game. Laurence and Charles very well might get in a fight to the death against one another, not realizing how much different it was to kill a fellow human instead of a mana-formed creature that dissolves in a minute and respawns the next day.

"He's my guild leader."

Gordon glanced between them, picking up on the look in Levi's eyes. "Not any longer. He broke up with you quite decisively. He's our problem now."

"Our problem,” Laurence insisted. “I'm not going to run off on you, we're in this together now."

"Then you have to promise to let me handle it." Levi made direct eye contact with Laurence and held it, ensuring the younger man understood how serious he was. "You can back me up, but don't do anything to escalate things. If it comes to a confrontation, I will handle it."

Laurence looked like he was going to protest for a moment, then sighed and looked away. "Okay. I get it. I'll try to control myself."