The wolf pack lay scattered. Only Trixie remains upright. Injured and bleeding she snarls at her opponent the Golem. The match up inside the dungeon's Coliseum is definitely not in the Wolf's favour.

As they're inside the mountain in the original Coliseum, the only spectators are those waiting to take their turn and the Ringmaster himself. Wearing a velvet jacket the colour of blood with golden buttons running up the middle, a dust-covered top hat sits on top of Ringmaster Randall's head as he watches on in amusement from the best seat in the house.

Not that anyone is able to distinguish how he's feeling. Randall, who was originally summoned as an Assassin, doesn't seem to have a normal human head. Instead, it is shaped like the moon and a black circle originating at its center spirals outward.

Even though the participants are unable to gauge the Ringmaster's reaction, the fight goes on regardless. Absorbing the ambient mana around her, Trixie's wounds begin to close as the Golem marches towards her. Meeting its prey, it throws a heavy punch in the Wolf's direction.

Just before the blow can hit, Trixie leaps out of its reach. Not missing an opportunity, she jumps back in and bites down hard on the arm of the Golem. The overwhelming force of the Alpha's jaw strength clamping down on its arms begins to slowly crush the appendage. Not letting it continue, the Golem shakes itself free and aims another attack at the Alpha.

Escaping to a safe distance as she holds the speed advantage, Trixie let's out a howl. The Golem follows its target picking up motion with each step until it is running full speed toward the Alpha. Trixie evades the unnaturally-fast iron creation, but it circles around and is once again upon her. Swinging and thrashing the Golem is relentless in its attacks.

Even with her speed advantage, Trixie finds it hard to avoid the onslaught of attacks. Some catch her, opening old wounds and others create fresh ones every time they make contact.

The Golem raises both hands above its head. Ready to crush the Alpha and seal her defeat in the Coliseum, she howls weakly one last time.

As the Golem's hands come down, its body is suddenly covered in a pack of leaping wolves and they crash to the floor beside Trixie. Not missing her chance, the Alpha dives on the Iron Golem and bites down hard onto his metal head. A few shakes later and she rips it free of the body.

Randall the Ringmaster stands up and claps his hands, signalling the end of the match. Even wearing a pair of white gloves, the sound still echoes out across the Colliseum.

"Excellent!" He shouts, even though there's no mouth on the moon. "Truly excellent. Well done, Trixie." Appearing in the ring, the Ringmaster strokes the Alpha wolf and checks her stats in the process.

"Very, very nice. One more level and you'll be able to evolve. Your skills have grown nicely too. Swift foot, Crushing Fang and Command have all grown five levels each." Behind Randall the separated pieces of Trixie's opponent begin to pull themselves back together. "Next time I'll have to increase the difficulty."

He teleports back to his box and sits in his seat as the wolf pack leaves the Coliseum. The Acolytes who were watching anxiously are next up against the now-rebuilt Golem. They slowly make their way into the ring as the Ringmaster reaches for his cane.

A white gem sits on top of a thin, black stick that ends in a sharp point. The weapon/walking stick, however, is nowhere to be seen. "Hmm. I swear I left it right here."

Dungeon Stories Volume 2

How about that! Just when you think shit is about to get dire, it turns into a mountain of gold. Not literally, but with my own fully-fledged Categoriser, not to mention Katrina and her new pal Anon, I'm making serious waves right now.

I'm pretty sure that Katrina has my back and after what she went through, Light and Dropper are her literal saviours. There's no reason she would ever want to hurt them or betray them even. Anon, I haven't really had a chance to talk to yet, but I'm sure he will follow Katrina's lead. I mean, he is already doing it, so that's not a problem.

It's Simon that's the wild card. He was shining rather brightly after he accepted my contract and I have no idea what he might end up advancing to. For now, it's nothing serious as my menu lists him at level 27. It's when he eventually reaches rank 40 that we're going to have problems. I'm not even sure if a Categoriser has ever risen that far?

Under my breath, I secretly thank the magical Lord residing inside the Bale of Fortune before reading over the skill description for Divinities Creation.

Apparently I can use it as much and as often as I want now without restriction. That's ridiculously amazing I might add.

When I whooped out a ton of gold in front of Simon, he almost collapsed from over excitement. And with the expression that was plastered across his face, I knew he was hooked. Although, I still can't believe it was that easy to recruit myself a Categoriser without any issues. Even though they are a dungeon's sworn enemy and all.

Money sure does talk all languages.

With Simon, Katrina and Anon, I should easily be able to dissuade any other Categorisers from attacking my dungeon in Varona and hopefully without any issues too. And if I can get even more on my books then I'll have nothing to worry about. My dungeon will have the largest numbers of Categorisers on the planet.

The thought relaxes me as what would have been my greatest enemies have now become my assets.

Deciding to take a moment to enjoy my bright-looking future, I teleport to my tower. Taking in the city below basking in the setting sun, I still can't believe that all this came about through my own efforts.

Hovering above my futon, that has more stuffed animals around and on it than anything else, I smile happily to myself.

Being the boss is the best. There's no one to tell you to stop slacking.

Didn't you just come down from your tower not too long ago?

Damn it, Me.

Cut me some slack will you. The Hay Bale actually evolving near enough took everything I had. I needed a break after that happened, but then the Categoriser showed up, didn't he? Then we had to go through the contracting and... I just want to take a moment to rest, Me.

Can't a woman relax in peace without her partner calling her out on it for once?

Me teleports to the tower and flops down on my Royal Futon.

"What the hell, man? It's bad enough that I can't enjoy the comfort of the damn thing myself, but I don't need you rubbing it in my face!" Glaring at Me, he returns my furious glare with a cheesy smile.

"I'm only doing what you told me to, Abi. Eating, drinking... Relaxing," His grin grows bigger.

"Don't push it or I'll knock your ass out of that body!" I playfully punch Me, knowing nothing will come from it. Yet somehow, I actually knock his system-created being out of his body which then collapses to the ground an empty husk.

"Me!?" Panicking, I scream out after my partner. "Me!" He doesn't have a soul form and I instantly begin to worry that I've just killed my friend.

What the hell, Abi!

"Thank the Gods. I'm sorry, Me. I didn't mean to do that. I'm really sorry. Not that it's my fault. When has something like that ever happened before! That was absolutely an accident." Hearing his voice eases my mind and conscience.

It's hard to believe it was an accident after you just told me what was going to happen.

"Don't be like that, Me. Look," I transfer him back to the lifeless body on the floor and smile at him as he stands up. "See. Good as new. We also know that you can leave and return to your body now. I was still curious about that to be honest. I wonder if it will work for me?"

"A Dungeon Core with a body?" Me laughs. He settles down and looks at his hands. He turns them over and carefully watches his own fingers move. "You are indeed a very strange... person, Abi."

"Not as strange as you, buddy. You were cleaning Mimics." At my statement, we both begin to laugh.

"Quite. That was a pointless endeavour. They just drool. Constantly! Two Mimics later and Colin was filthy again, so I gave up. Defeated by drool. How pitiful."

"Don't worry about it, Me. It's just what they do. It gets absorbed eventually with everything else, so don't worry about it. There are bigger problems than saliva."

"Quite. Like spending points before they go to waste."

"They don't go to waste. They level up Overstock so even if I don't spend them, it's all good. Even if I don't continue to grow, surely I'm at a level now where my income is sufficient enough to let me laze around for a few months, right?" Me looks at me as though I spouting blasphemous nonsense.

"Come on, Me. I know the reason you were created was to help me grow, but you need to cut me some slack on the spend, spend, spend routine. You know better than I do that no one else is pulling in the numbers that I am. Hell, I'm probably taking in more than a hundred Dungeon Cores combined at this point. Sure, some of it was luck, but we're still rolling in DP and will be as long as everyone stays happy. The city will grow slowly and so will my income, so just... chill out. You did your job well and I will probably have a million new questions by tomorrow, so for tonight let's just relax. Let's get Ali to cook up a meal and go to the Sanctuary to eat with everyone. What do you think?"

"I... I do like the sound of Ali's cooking. Although, something inside is still urging me to make you spend points, but I will suppress it for tonight. Eating together is the best." I can't help but laugh at the honest comment of my partner.

"You're not wrong, Me. It is the best."

A few hours later and the first floor of my dungeon is bustling with activity. I don't know how Ali manages to cater for hundreds of people on such short notice, but she does it every time without fail and to standards that exceed expectations no less. She truly deserves the title Gourmet.

Me is sitting with Katrina and Anon. The third and latest Categoriser stands behind them in a state of disbelief. He's watching the sky as Harpies, Bats and a few other different species fly past while throwing short and sneaky glances in Veris' direction.

Not knowing the hurricane that he's unknowingly about to walk into, I feel sorry for Simon and appear beside the man. My appearance doesn't go unnoticed and he even jumps in fright, making my own heart jump in glee.

"Hi." I can't help but laugh whenever I catch people off guard and it always works best with new faces.

"Please don't do that. I almost had a heart attack. You know, I can't believe you control all of these monsters. It's... Nothing like I've read. I mean, I've seen some of these creatures before, but never like this. It truly is something else." His eyes dart to Veris before returning to me, hoping to go unnoticed.

"I'm not blind, you know? In fact, I'm more intuitive than you think and I'll tell you right now, Veris... is a wild one. She will break you and... I don't think you'll ever be ready for that. I could be wrong. Doubt I am though, but it's just friendly advice nonetheless. Anyway, enjoy your night, Simon. Make sure to try some of Ali's food. I've heard it's amazing." I float back over to Me and hover next to him as Simon turns red. He must feel like I have just read his mind. Although sometimes men make it too easy to know what they're thinking.

Trying to muster up the courage to introduce himself to the resident nymphomaniac, Simon fails epically and returns to take a seat next to me. In comparison, however, it could be called the right move. He wouldn't be the same man after spending ten minutes alone with Veris.

"When we were at your tower earlier, I noticed Eddie wasn't there. Did you move him somewhere?" Me asks me and everyone else looks blank at his statement.

"Who's Eddie?" and "What tower?" Are the questions asked. "Eddie the Teddy, or so she named it," is the answer Me gives in response.

"What!?" At Me's question I disappear in a flash, only to return ten seconds later furious as hell. My hands are shaking in anger and everyone quietens down around me as they turn to look my way. The scarlett hue of the Dungeon Mist begins to rise from the ground and begins to cover everything in sight.

Just as I'm about to lose control, I stop. The mist hangs in the air like a cloak of blood.

I can feel him.

I can feel Eddie!