“I’m just trying to make you grow up. So far you haven’t had one of your Fae die but it will happen eventually. You can’t get so attached to them that you try to keep them safe all the time. The creatures you summon only live to ensure that you survive. Maybe forcing you to not summoning them until they were summoned with names was a mistake? It seems to have made you not treat them like what they truly are.

I’m sorry if it sounds bad, but your Fae dying isn’t a bad thing. It’s normal. Do you think adventurers will just walk around in your dungeon and let your Fae attack them? All of them will slaughter everything they can inside a dungeon in the pursuit of going deeper and deeper.

You’re lucky that you were born in a region that’s far removed from anyone that could recognize you for what you are. It has let you grow up in peace. I know you want to mention the aurochs as something to prove you haven’t been safe here but that’s nothing compared to even a small group of adventurers.

You’ve been given a chance to grow far removed from the chaos caused by other sentients. You’re so lucky and you don’t even realize it. You’re even lucky I was the one that got your request for help when you were born. I’m sure most others would just end up spreading news about your birth the moment they got the request and then you would be in a fight to survive relying not on yourself or your creatures but on dumb luck in the hope that no one would kill you before you could defend yourself.

I know you’re feeling weak now but imagine if a large group of people came, people that could murder Tier 1 creatures like they weren’t even there and all you had to defend yourself was a hallway with a pitfall and four fairies. Imagine that they had gotten the idea that killing a Dungeon Core could be used for something silly like making the one that killed it a god or something? You would be dead before you even knew what was happening.

Instead, here you are. On your second floor. Protected by over a hundred creatures and, if you hadn’t been so caught up in your statue, many traps. Still unknown and able to grow stronger before anything like that can happen.”

The longer Lilly talked the more my anger subsided. I was still upset at her for treating my Fae like they didn’t matter but I could reluctantly tell she was right. If something strong came for the sole purpose of killing me I doubted that I could stop them right now. Trying to imagine stopping something like that back before I even had a boss on my first floor would be even more impossible.

Maybe I had been lucky I was here by myself and that Lilly had been the one to come to my aid that day? I knew so little of the world outside my dungeon after all. There were still a few questions I had to ask though.

“If I’m so far from anyone. Why do I need your help? Maybe no one will ever discover me and I can just grow slowly and make my own decisions. I expanded to this floor and got my Tier 2 Fae without your help after all. I might not make perfect decisions but I can take care of myself. Besides, maybe I’ll never be discovered? I could just be unknown all my life as I grow and explore life at my own pace. Without you telling me what abilities to get or how to make my own dungeon.”

“Little pebble, for your sake I truly wish that were possible. Sadly, it’s not. I’m sure you’ve already noticed the local wildlife starting to notice you. As you expand deeper and deeper your attraction will likewise radiate outwards further. Eventually you will be noticed by someone sensitive enough to mana. They will send people to investigate and find where you are. After that it would be all over. They would report that they found an unknown dungeon and people will come to you and slaughter your Fae to eventually reach your core. After that your fate would be in their hands. If you lived or died would no longer be up to you.”

“And how does you helping me change that?”

“With me helping you we can at least try to guide the people that come here to act according to terms you decide on. We can influence how they see your dungeon. Not as just a place to go deeper and deeper until they reach the core in pursuit of power and gear.

No, we’ll make them feel like heroes defending the innocent and maybe even saving the world while they’re at it. Together we can create a story in your dungeon to make you able to tell those greedy and without morals from those that simply wish to help and explore you.

Those that wish you no harm, you can leave be since your life won’t be in danger even if they reach your core. While those that wish harm upon you, can be led to their demise.”

I had to admit it, it sounded good. Being able to tell those that wanted to kill me from those that didn’t certainly sounded appealing. The only one I had met that wasn’t summoned by myself was Lilly so I needed her help to create a story that would let me tell them apart. If I tried it, I was sure to fail miserable at it.

“Nice of you to finally acknowledge that you need me even if you don’t say it. Now, I seem to remember telling you last time I was here to do some things I still see haven’t been done.”

“What? I’ve been so busy on my second floor I haven’t had time for anything else.”

“I’m sure you have, but too busy to summon Tier 1 Fallen Fae to replace the others on your first floor? Too busy to even evolve those Fae that you like so much to Tier 2? Too busy to even experiment with new forms of traps?”

Okay, when she listed all the things like that it sure seemed a bit careless of me. Especially the part about making my Fae evolve. If I didn’t want them to die, they should be as strong as I can make them after all.

Maybe spending my time adjusting the height of my rooms and scattering rocks isn’t the most effective way to spend my time at the moment? I should try to do better. I should start by evolving those that can into Tier 2. I send out a summon for all those able to, to gather in my room.

53 of my 84 Fae end up arriving. So maybe I really should’ve evolved them sooner. At least I took comfort that my intention to help more of them be able to evolve by rotating the guards in the first room of my dungeon had paid off. Even Lilly seemed impressed that so many had come when called.

I navigated my menu and selected the ‘Evolve’ option in the ‘Life’ part of the menu.

53 Tier 1 'Young Fae' can evolve at this moment.

Evolve all/Evolve specific individual

I’m not sure how much it will cost me to evolve one of them so I might as well select them all. If I don’t have the mana, I’ll just have to spend some extra time to evolve them individually.

Evolving all creatures able to will cost 265 mana.

Proceed? Yes/No

That was cheaper than I thought it would be. A Tier 2 Fae cost 50 mana to summon. Even with the cost of evolving it’s only 30 mana each for these Fae. I saved over 1000 mana by evolving so many of my Tier 1’s.

“Yes, it’s cheaper to evolve them little pebble, but they have to stay alive long enough to be able to. If adventurers keep killing them before they got the experience needed you wouldn’t have a single Fae to evolve.”

Lilly was right. How lucky it was that I didn’t have to deal with people killing them.

The process to evolve my Fae was fascinating to me. After my mana left me it formed around each of them like a cocoon of light. It only lasted a few seconds and then the cocoons shattered to pieces and in its place were 53 Tier 2 ‘Adult Fae’ standing.