The Lord of Ishda seems rather pleased to see us as we enter the reception room in his manor, led by his guards.

There's a woman seated beside him who I'm assuming is his daughter Estelle. The once damsel in distress and a cause of worry for the aging Lord. They're both wearing smiles until Noir and Gren walk in behind the triplets, at which point scowls replace their previous mask.

They may have been smiling, but I know full well the Lord must be shitting his pants now that I've arrived after we killed the King. I'm not just the savior of his daughter anymore, now I'm probably the most dangerous person in our region if not the whole of Tira. I've never been, or even met anyone who's traveled to Cair so I have no idea what levels they boast over there.

If it's anything like here though, I've got world domination in the bag. I doubt it will be that easy, but if King Aldus was the strongest human on the planet then there's nothing to worry about.

"Why are they here!? Lord Aldor asks. Clearly upset to see the traitorous guard Gren, but even more upset with Noir's presence. In fact the redhead Assassin has the full force of the Lord's glare.

Did he cause that much damage?

"I was informed after he left how many mansions, storehouses and other buildings he destroyed, after he had left. I had considered sending you the bill seeing as it ran high into the hundreds of thousands, but with what you did for my daughter I considered us even. Now you're back, however, I'm beginning to feel as though some monetary compensation might not be a bad idea seeing as how you are actually here and in person no less."

Lord Aldor studies me, his eyes darting up and down my body. If I was so flattered that he basically just called me a big deal, I might have taken offense to his prying gaze. Instead, I let it slide and waited for the question I knew was coming.

"You are a Dungeon Core yet... there you sit. As though you could be anyone else. A regular person." That one caused me to frown slightly, but I wasn't a regular person and I was slowly coming to terms with that fact now more than ever. "For what reason have you come here today."

There it is.

"Well, I believe it's your lucky day even if I do say so myself. I take it you've heard about the king?" I ask knowing full well he has. There were merchants in my city that were shuffled into the dungeon alongside my citizens for their own safety. They had departed for Ishda not long after the war and celebrations had finished.

Lord Aldor nods and I continue. "Good. In that case, you know that I'm currently the strongest person on our continent. That said, it's not like I want to rule the world as management on that level would be ridiculous. Instead, I intend to purchase the planet itself and clean it up so to say. That doesn't mean mass murder before you start getting any crazy ideas. Believe it or not, I was once a human like you. I died tragically and became a dungeon is about as far as I'm going to go into it, but yeah. Process that for a second."

The Lord cycles through a range of different faces, none lasting more than a second until he finally settles on befuddled. Unable to speak for himself, Estelle takes the opportunity to speak in her father's stead.

"I... I believe you. Why else would you send someone to rescue me? It makes sense that you would want to help us if you were once a human." Smiling as she speaks, the Lord's daughter can't help but look around for own savior.

That was easy. Not that I wanted it to go any differently, but she's wrong with her reasoning. I wanted good future relations with people in power. I suppose it's still a human ideal, but not the one she suspected me of having.

"Yeah, sure. Anyway with what I said, I've already started purchasing the land beneath your city. That lets me move wherever I want, whenever I want and it doesn't just go for me. My entire family can travel that way and we can appear anywhere in the blink of an eye. Hence how I'm here today."

"You're... purchasing my city?" Lord Aldor seems to not be able to move past that part of my sentence.

"Not in the monetary way you're thinking of. It's more like I'm purchasing the planet and your city just so happens to be built on top of it. That said, I'm also going to give you a shit load of gold for some of the properties Noir destroyed because I want to use them whilst I'm here."

"You're buying the planet? How can you do that?" Lord Aldor is having trouble and is not following this conversation very well.

"That's irrelevant at the minute, but let's just say it's a special dungeon trait. I won't be staying for long after I've built what I came to build, but I'll be back in a few weeks to sort out any corruption in your city. As it stands, I'm still quite full on people from Tune."

"Full?" The Lord's face pales and I realise the error in communication.

"Not like that. Didn't I tell you before that I don't eat people?"

"No. I do not believe you did. Although, I was asking for a lot at the time. I could have misheard you or just forgotten entirely. Not to mention my guard didn't really have my back," he glares at Gren once more.

"Speaking of, Gren's soul has returned to neutral and he truly regrets his actions. He works for the city guard in Varona now and wanted to be here so that he could give you an apology in person."

Stepping forward, Gren bows to the Lord he once served. "My Lord. I am deeply sorry for what I did. My actions were fuelled by greed and power. However, that is not an excuse for my actions and was only the reason behind my motives. I do not expect your forgiveness as I will never be worthy of it. All I wanted was for you to know how much I regret my decisions."

The Lord's ex guard moves back to Noir and faces the ground. After doing what he came to do, Gren releases a sigh of relief. Lord Aldor doesn't respond to him and instead turns back to me. "So, what do you want with me?"

"Honestly? I was just being courteous. Plus, I can summon gold out of thin air so I thought you'd like to see that." That perked his interest and cheered him up. "Other than that not much else will change. You'll still be in charge of the city so long as you keep doing a good job obviously. As I made my way here I noticed your city is very well managed. There aren't half as many homeless people as I had expected to see. That said, you still have a problem with some of them sleeping rough for whatever reasons. I'll supply you with enough food to feed all your homeless and more while also creating a more stable food source in Ishda.

I'll staff any orphanages you have and might even create a few of my own, your city is bigger than the others after all. I'll also be creating some homes for a few people that will be staying here in the noble district and I'll rebuild the homes for your citizens too. Homelessness and food shortages are m the first problems I've been fixing on my way around." Souls are secondary because reformation takes time.

Lord Aldor pinches the bridge of his nose. That was a lot of information I've just dumped in his lap. Before he can think too deeply into my noble intentions, I decide to make his day and a bar of gold materialises in the air before clanging loudly on the floor. Every human in the reception room went wide eyed, even Estelle who seemed to have lost interest after realising Dropper wasn't with us was now drooling over the source of many a man's death.

Summoning nine more bars of gold which also clanged against the ground in a cacophony of noise, Lord Aldor's eyes were bulging at the sight. Using Creation each bar cost 100DP so for all ten it was roughly the same price as one plot of land. It was nothing.

The one human trait that I'm glad never stuck with me was the urge for gold. I wanted the shiny material as badly as the next woman when I was still human. As a Dungeon Core though, I have absolutely no need for money and the points that I do spend replenish themselves on a daily basis. That alone has probably skewered my concept of money a little, but it seems like it's for the better so I don't mind.

"So you're going to feed the hungry and shelter the poor, effectively micromanaging the smaller problems that lay beneath the day to day bustle of the city's economy. And the gold is a bribe of sorts? To stay quiet about you being a Dungeon?" Lord Aldor asks, his eyes don't leave the bars on the floor.

"That's about the gist of it for now. Except the gold isn't a bribe. I can't go around bribing people if I'm trying to make Tironia a better place. The gold... is more like a salary. Everyone gets paid for working, right?" The Lord nods along although that wasn't technically true and we both know it. I was just trying to be clever with my words.

Lord's do make a nice living, but they don't get paid by those above to do their job. Their income comes from taxing the people that work in their not only their own city but those cities that make up their land. Usually a portion of that profit flows upwards in tax to the King. With the man in charge out of commission, I'm deeming taxes and tributes unnecessary from this point on though as they don't help my overall goal in any way. Unless they come in cute-stuffed cuddly sizes at which I'll happily accept donations.

"From here on, the smaller cities and towns around Ishda won't be sending any gold your way. Instead they'll be using it to help their cities grow. On the flip side, you also don't have to send anything to the king as he's... yeah. I will also be paying your personal wages in gold which I'll drop off at the start of the month. Your city generates more than enough points to do so unless you don't think it's enough?"

Lord Aldor shakes his head, but doesn't speak. It's safe to say this day is going the way he expected it to. At least he's a shitload richer though. That usual placates most people, right?

"That's about everything I think. Oh. Don't forget, I'll be back once I've finished cleaning the corruption from Tune. At which point, I'll make a start on the souls in Ishda. Everyone needs to start coming together. We're a species rather than a bunch of power-hungry individuals and it's about time we realised." Still silently nodding along, I'm glad he understands. It makes life go so much smoother when we're all on the same wavelength.

"Clara," I called for the Noble Vampire with pink eyes that I had already put in charge of their click. Appearing in the room from seemingly nowhere, she scans the room before bowing in my direction. Her presence in the room causes the guards knees to go weak. Not from an aura of power or any type of skill. No. Every man in the reception room, Lord Aldor included, was shocked at the beautiful woman's appearance.

I felt a little jelly if I'm being honest. Where were my fluttering hearts and drooling doofus'. I was pretty too, right? Fuck it, we'll just say they're too overwhelmed because I'm a Dungeon Core is all. That's got to be it.

"This is Clara. If you need me for anything she can contact me at any time. She's going to be staying here with her sisters in the noble quarters."

I don't think Lord Aldor heard a single word I said after Clara had arrived and I left feeling less satisfied than I thought I would, but at least Estelle heard me.

Another city, another problem. Why would I expect anything else? Although, there's got to be at least one village, town or city out there that doesn't need my help. The perfect place. A haven.

Pfft. Keep dreaming, Abi. Keep dreaming.