I ran and ran, traversing the dense woodland in the middle of the dark with great haste.

The dungeon was quite far indeed, and I was so conscious of it since it was so eerie around here and with me constantly stumbling because of the darkness. If not for the half-moon and countless stars up in the sky and the leftover beast repellent I saved, I wouldn’t dare go all alone. Well, not exactly alone, though.

Accompanied by the sounds of nighttime creatures as well as the buzzing of leading insects, I continued forward with constant fuss. My phone and power bank ran out of juice, so I couldn’t charge my phone and used it as a flashlight… and, despite the support my set provided, my muscles were aching from prolonged running. Ahh! I wanna go home and sleep…

I reached the clearing of the ravine and the camp that had been set up above by Rowan and his henchmen at last. Fortunately, I could access the dungeon menu from this far away, meaning I was within the dungeon’s area.

Teleporting straight into the Artificial Realm, my line of sight instantly changed from the dark forest to a big, exquisite garden.

Standing not far from me while looking at the flowers was a teenage girl in her sixteen or seventeen with waist-long, silvery lilac hair and a flawless face. She had porcelain-white, delicate skin that was like a doll. With such a flawless figure out of this world, she was none other than Lorelei — someone that I hadn’t met for the past two weeks. Upon noticing my arrival, Lorelei turned to look at me like she was waiting for me.

“You’re late, you know? What gall to leave me here alone for so long—?”

Seeing Lorelei chattering in the flesh made me recall the dream last night. Out of impulse, I strode closer while still in suspense and wrapped her in my arms.

“Thank goodness, you’re fine.”

“M-My… Vincent, what are you doing? I know that you cannot help it, but you can vent your lust later. We have more pressing matters to do… b-but I guess if—”

I instantaneously released my arms and tore her off me, cutting the line she was about to speak. “Ahem. No, that was never my intention. But am glad that you’re safe. I don't want anything to happen to you because bad things will happen to me.”

No kidding, she might be the prettiest of all, but she was still a Dungeon Core. Not once had such a thought ever crossed my mind.

“…Well, whatever…” She appeared unbothered, but it felt like there was something more to that sentence.

“Anyways,” I said, “I noticed that the dungeon is progressing without a hitch. Good job.”

“Thank you. The pleasure is all mine.” Lorelei puffed her chest out, a trace of a smile on her outwardly emotionless face. “Come, let’s sit there.” She beckoned me to sit on a nearby bench.

Once I made myself comfortable on the bench and put my backpack down, I went ahead and asked, “So, who’s invading our dungeon? Is it a weird man with a mask?”

“A man with a mask? Who the heck is that? No. Here, look.” She opened the Dungeon Map and displayed the scene not far inside from the mouth of the ravine cave.

While waiting, I asked, “Lorelei, I’ve got one curious question: Were you able to contact me even without the new Contact function?”

Lorelei, sitting right next to me, answered, “Why, yes… According to the World Will, what dungeons can normally do is transmit voice telepathically to the ones they are connected to within a certain radius — it’s something that I just came to be aware of very recently.”

“A certain radius? How far exactly?”

“I’m not sure. I think it’s possible to reach a hundred or so kilometers. But the Contact function comes with several additional features and is not one-way communication. You can check it yourself for more clarity.”

“Interesting.” Intrigued, I went for the Contact function.

Within did make me cross my arms in intense observation; after all, it had similar features to how any modern messaging application functioned. Though only Lorelei was available, it had a contact list and even a private messaging area. However, from what I saw, unless I was in the dungeon, I couldn’t make a call with anyone else and could only be at the receiving end, but at least it wouldn’t be a total one-sided communication since I could talk back.

Umm… with this I can conclude that my Vocation improves and enhances abilities rather than creating new ones into what is best suited for a human like me most. As expected of an interface… My thinking was interrupted by Lorelei’s sudden action; she wedged her shoulder against mine.

“Vincent, this is the intruder I was talking about.”

In return, I glanced at her screen which depicted a certain secluded corner near the ravine cave. Surprise, surprise, the invader wasn’t some guy with a mask or even an arrogant person with an army of slaves… it was just an unconscious girl, a beastkin girl to be exact…

Beastkin was a subspecies of beastmen, those that were called so had bodies and faces like that of humans but with animal features depending on their species — there were some among the homeless people in the alley. And looking at her characteristic, she was probably either a wolf or a fox beastkin, though it was probably the latter looking at her yellow, fluffy but unkempt tail.

“See.” She pointed at the girl and added, “This is the intruder that has invaded us. There were three more, but I had disposed of them because they were threatening to go inside.”

“That aside… More importantly…! Why did you let her lay on the entrance without doing anything?” Were the three more like her too, or…?

“Why should I? She poses no threat to me, so I let the passive CP income continue so we can get more out of her.” No… That’s not what I meant.

I frowned upon hearing her comment; she might be able to have sympathy for living beings, but she was in no way empathetic. Still, I must hear her side of the story first before playing judge.

“Mind filling me in with all the things that had happened while I was gone?”

“Uh-huh. So…”

Long story short, she was just doing what she usually did for the past two weeks: expanding the dungeon, luring creatures nearby, killing them for CP, and such. And just a few hours ago, there was an invader — the girl — who accidentally stumbled into the ravine while being chased by three individuals. Despite falling into the depths as I did back then, she was still able to rise to her feet and run deeper to hide, but alas, the three chasing her also followed suit into the dungeon.

“In the end, I killed them with the golems while they were in a panic over the landmine traps, thus annihilating them in one fell swoop. You can see the recording of it in the menu if you don’t believe me.”

“I see… Forgive me for misjudging you… Still, we should transport her here from there… Well, I mean, she’s injured so badly that she fainted! She’s literally dying there…”

“Why? Are you intending on saving her? Wouldn’t squishing her dry before killing her be the best course of action?”

From the dungeon’s standpoint, what she said made a lot of sense, but even that wouldn’t be the most “efficient way” to do this. Even on my end, getting rid of invaders to minimize the chance of information spreading out would be better for now, so I couldn’t help but agree to some extent.

But! BUT!!

My conscience wouldn’t allow me to simply turn a blind eye and ignore this happening. Just thinking about abandoning her to her fate would be too cruel. I mean, how would I sleep at night knowing I’d let her die like this? I’d toss and turn, imagining all the ways I could have — should have — saved her.

Therefore, I let the piling urge inside me explode and said, “Listen, as long as we don’t turn her into a minion (brainwashing), she will always generate free CP for us. Just imagine months, years… The minuscule amount we get now won’t compare.”

I didn’t know what I was spouting, but there was something within me that told me to save her, or I would regret it for life. And so I did.

Lorelei exhaled, appearing to have seen through me. “I understand. Though you don’t have to make up excuses, I will do what I can do to help you, you know. But I can’t teleport her here without manually moving her as she’s not part of the dungeon.”

“Alright, leave it to me.”

That said, I opened a portal at an arm’s length from her, put my hands inside, and dragged her here; I did that as carefully and gently as possible, in fear of injuring her further. I was sure of one thing: If someone were to see this from outside, it would be like two hands suddenly surfaced from a black circle. Horrifying.

Once she was completely inside the Artificial Realm, I was taken aback by her condition — it was way worse than expected. She wore dirty, tattered sleeveless clothing and was covered with bruises, scratches, and whip marks, and most of all, she was missing her right ear, cut haphazardly by a dull blade or something. Plus, wrapped around her neck was some kind of conspicuous metal collar, seemingly a slave collar. Oof… so she’s a slave. Human— No, beastman trafficking.

Slavery existed in this world. I became aware of that when I saw a rich adventurer make an adventurer party full of strong slaves, and since slaves were possessions of their masters, he got all the spoils in all his adventures. But she looked at most thirteen… and was abused to the brink of death at that…

“Such… such cruelty.” I cast {Cleanse} on her to remove all the dirt and blood covering her body and told Lorelei to bring her to the mansion to be treated with potions and bandages, to which she reluctantly agreed after some bribing.

She must have a dark story to be turned into a slave at such an age… What really happened to her? I sighed in despondence and shook my head.

I would get nowhere by doing this, so I opened the recording Lorelei had mentioned previously. The content was pretty much as she had described, but I got to see the pursuers in more detail, and from their appearances, they were humans, slave hunters.

This was something that I heard while I was in the city, there was a place called Carnage Wasteland located northwest of the kingdom where beastmen lived, and most beastmen slaves came from there. Being a beastkin, she would be popular and fetch a high price in the kingdom, and thus her fate — such cruelty of this world.

Putting this whole thing at the back of my mind, being alone on the bench, I opened the Dungeon Management to see the progress of the expansion. Right now, there was a total of 3,354 CP; it wasn’t a grand amount but wasn’t small either, yet severely lacking as a fund to convert the humongous second floor into a part of the dungeon.

“That’s weird… There should be more CP, right? Was Lorelei slacking off when I was gone? No, it’s more likely that she spent it on food, after all.” I was sure that I had instructed her to lure any stray animals, hybrids, and monsters that came across the dungeon… There should be at least a thousand more.

“What do you mean by that? You’re so rude!” Lorelei’s snarky voice suddenly appeared as she stood next to me, crossing her arms. “It’s your fault that we only have that much left. You see, converting the land to your location expended at least 1,000 CP.”

“What?! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“You didn’t ask.”

“…”

Welp, you lose some, you gain some. At present, what was most imperative was to accomplish our long-planned agenda: to turn the second floor into a huge labyrinth.

Currently, the second floor had a length and width of fifty meters respectively with a five-meter ceiling. If I wanted to make them part of the dungeon, without changing its terrain and layout, it would cost 12,500 CP — more than four times our current reserve.

“We are dirt-poor…” I felt like my heart was crying.

“And whose fault do you think it is?” said Lorelei in her ever-flat tone.

“Guh! Just get off my back, will you? We should think of a way to mitigate this issue together.”

“That is for the best.”

And thus, we spent the rest of the time brainstorming an idea to resolve this issue.