The mine was in surprisingly good shape. The entrance they had walked into was clear of danger. There were even glass panes in the wooden shack protecting the mine entrance.

Lucas, Brandy, and Ralph were sitting on the ground, resting up against the walls of the shack as Rose filled them in.

DKP wasn’t revealed to me until after you entered the dungeon. I am not entirely sure, but it appears that you can trade DKP to me for valuable or rare items. Any loot that I have the system generate for you will cost DKP before the system allows you to use it. Anything I can make via the Nanoforge isn’t affected, but anything made using the System nanobots is. I can make the rest of minions anything I want, but Freelancers require DKP to purchase good loot. I can give you basic stuff, but nothing above an uncommon grade. Unless of course, it was sitting in my storehouse before I became the Dungeon Master. Then I can freely pass it out.

I think what I can hand out is based on what level I’ve reached in the Dungeon Loot Tree. I suspect if I were to buy down a few tiers in that tree, that I would be able to pass out better loot without a DKP cost.

“Why the heck even add another system to pass out dungeon kill points as an additional currency…. It’s just another layer on top of the already complicated system!” ranted Lucas.

It does do one very nice thing for me. It would prevent people from enslaving newly born dungeons. And I am a newly born dungeon. If I can’t give them items unless they pay in DKP, why bother enslaving the dungeon. A free dungeon with its bosses is better for farming drops and better for me personally.

Nodding their heads, the rest of the team agreed with Rose.

“I guess that’s a good point, Rose,” conceded Lucas. Quickly changing tropics, Lucas asks, “Who meets the dungeon’s suggested level?”

Ralph spoke up first, “I don’t. I’m a level 2 Defender.”

“Neither do I,” followed Brandy. “I’m a level 3 Lightbearer.”

“I do meet the suggested level, but not in Magus. Only in Rogue, which I am not really using anymore,” replied Lucas. “How is Lightbearer different from Magus?”

“It forsakes the other schools of magic to focus on bonuses to healing and light affinity.”

“I guess that’s a good class for a healer then,” smiled Lucas.

Interrupting Rose said, You should be fine in there Lucas. You cleared my dungeon after all.

“That was challenging, but not impossible, I didn’t even see a recommended level.”

That’s because you didn’t come in the front door. The dungeon totally had a minimum level before I took over. The recommended level at the time was also level 5. My guess is most nearby dungeons are level 5. Dungeons will probably be a higher level in some areas though, so don’t get too complacent.

Ralph spoke up, “Ms. Rose has got the right of it Lucas. We are a low-level zone. It’s why we have such trouble keeping heroes registered to our Hero guild. It takes a long time to climb in the advanced tiers, but Beginner 1 to 5 does not take much time at all.”

Phew. Good. I was totally dancing around the word Zone. Lucas, this is a low-level zone. Eventually, we will need you to venture to higher-level zones to earn EXP faster. But I bet if we start defending Esfield, the system is smart enough to start raising the level of the area, so we had better be careful how we do this. We don’t want to cause the zone to be higher level than the villagers. None-the-less, we can deal with all of that later. For now, let's get this dungeon cleared.

With the words from Rose, Lucas, Ralph, and Brandy all got up and opened the door into the next chamber of the dungeon. The room was empty, but there were a further four doors that opened up off of this room as well as two alcoves, one on either side of the doors. The first door was labeled with a picture of ore chunks that were colored grey & copper. The second door was labeled with pictures of ore chunks that were colored like gold & silver. The third door the image looked like Confetti, but that couldn’t be right. The fourth door and the alcoves were unlabeled.

The room they were in was clearly set up as the living quarters for whoever was working the mine. Peeking his head into the alcove, Lucas called out, “We’ve got a barracks on this side. Ralph, can you check the other side?”

Hollering back at Lucas, Ralph responded, “This side is not a barracks. This side looks to be a smelting area. Possibly with an area off of the smelting furnace for cooking as well.”

Brandy spoke up, “The unlabeled door is locked. However, It’s getting late tonight, are we sure we want to challenge the dungeon before we rest. Since the is a barracks, we can set up Rose’s robots to guard the four doors and have a good nights sleep.”

“I like that plan Brandy. Let’s do it,” said Ralph.

“OK Guys. Grab a bunk, and let's get started in the morning. Rose, can you set your bots to guard the door?” asked Lucas.

I’m on it. Before you go to sleep, Lucas, we need to talk.

“Alright, Rose. Brandy, Ralph, you guys can go ahead and pick bunks. I will go talk to Rose over in the smelter area so you can get some sleep.”

Heading over to the Smelting Area, Lucas plopped down into one of the chairs in the area that looked like it had previously served as an eating area and then questioned Rose. “OK, Rose, what do you want.”

Actually, nothing, I just want to give Ralph and Brandy a few minutes alone. You saw how Brandy reacted after Ralph nearly sacrificed himself to save her. She nearly killed herself through mana exhaustion saving him. I am just doing a bit of matchmaking. Just give them a few minutes to talk. Then you can head back over.

Although while I’ve got you, I guess I do have a couple of questions. I know I promised to work towards the EXP penalty removal. But I really think I need to pick up Avatar and Remote Avatar first. There are a lot of other items that can and will eventually be useful, but ultimately, the ability to have me as the Physical ruler of the Commons as opposed to the Dungeon Master of a dungeon is likely going to have a long-term effect on our survivability. While I personally want to be a normal person again, with all the options that entails, I also promised to get rid of the EXP penalty as soon as possible.

“I thought you said you had nothing to talk about,” ribbed Lucas. “In all fairness, I think you are right. The ability to say this person is in charge versus this crystal is in charge is going to have a large impact on The Commons. It pre-empts a lot of potential issues, so even though I am not happy with it, I guess I say go with that.”

I will also have to pick up wolves as an official minion race if I want to get full use out of them.

“Do that after you fix my EXP,” growled Lucas. “Your Robots seem well enough equipped to handle a lot of the mobs in the area, maybe you should have them farm those while we are in here. I have a feeling this mine isn’t going to be as quick as I’d like it to be. You also probably got some biomass from the loot bags. Have you made any cats yet? We could probably use a few to scout.”

Nope, you can’t have any of my cats, yet. They are too young to go off exploring right now. I’ve got them hunting around The Commons for any leftover critters, and then I am going to let them outside to start hunting down anything they can clear. But they are all level 1 still. I expect I will lose most of them when they go off fighting in the forest. Hopefully not. But I am hoping those I get back will have either leveled up enough times or given me enough EXP that I can level them up. Even their deaths will give me EXP I can use to level up other dungeon cats. And provided I recover the body, I don’t really lose anything since I get their EXP if they die...

“Have you thought about an arena and having your cats just battle each other to earn EXP so you can level them up?” asked Lucas.

I hadn’t, but it is actually a pretty good idea. It would be a controlled situation. Do it until I can get each cat to maybe level 3, then send them off hunting in the woods so they can see more than just one type of enemy…

“I’d send someone to talk to Joe. Maybe we can set up an arena in the town and sell tickets. It might be a good way to earn some money,” suggested Lucas.

I’ll send Sarah over. If we can get enough attention, we may even start to draw folks from the capital to see the fights.

“Which would be a very good thing for Esfield. They might even be able to draw heroes back to fight in this arena.”

I guess we had more to talk about than I thought. I think I’ve bought them enough time. I suppose I can let you go to sleep now.

Irreverently, Lucas responded, “Why, thank you, Rose. Glad to know that I’ve been dismissed.”

Giggling at his response, Rose followed up and said We do have one more thing to talk about when you get back here. I am going to wait until you get back here, though. I’m not sure I want to distract you while you are in the mine.

“Well, that’s just not fair. Do you want to give me any hints?”

Nope. I don’t. But I will anyway so you don’t think on it all night trying to figure it out. Some of our new residents still have family in slavery. We probably need to figure out something we can do about that.

“Yes, we do. I’ll take care of it when I see Joe next. Goodnight Rose, and thanks for letting me know.”

Sleep tight Lucas.

Walking back over to the area that they were considering the barracks, Lucas saw that Ralph and Brandy were deep in conversation. Rather than interrupting them, Lucas grabbed his camping supplies and quickly left the room unnoticed.

Lucas headed back to the room by the entrance and grabbed a spot on the floor and was out.