Qualtys rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He still felt the fatigue of the dreamscape linger in his body. He slowly got up and gathered his gear before he made his way over to the center of the Monster den. Per usual Shield and Spear stood in their spots. A lot had happened in the dreamscape, and this was the first thing he wanted to test out.

"Shield, get over here."

The pudling slowly turned around and faced Qualtys before he made his way over to him.

'Excellent! They'll finally follow my commands outside of battle. I wonder how far I can take it with my command, Well, more accurately what are the limits fo the type of commands they can follow,'

What followed for the next hour was Qualtys testing out that limit.

"Stand on your left leg."

"Stand on your right leg."

"Hop in place."

"Sidestep left, sidestep right."

"Circle around me."

"Sidestep right, attack me one time."

Satisfied, for now, with the commands he could give to Shield, he switched from verbal commands to mental commands. While the commands didn't change, the time it took for Shield to execute the commands was considerably faster.

Qualtys decided to take it to the next level and also called Spear over to participate. While he didn't expect different results, he still had Spear perform the exact same commands.

He told Spear to turn his weapon around so the but was facing the front. He did the same and had Spear attack him. Spear didn't even hesitate before launching a barrage of attacks. He blocked or deflected most of the attacks but not all of them. He was relieved he had the foresight to have spear use the blunt end of the weapon.

The next test was more directly controlling Spear. Shield got the simple command to defend himself while Spear attacked. The command test was a success, but having to continually control Spear was just as mentally taxing as when he fought himself.

He wanted to test one more thing before stopping for the day. Shield and Spear once again squared off. This time tried to control both their actions. The exercise was over very quickly. Qualtys now understood why the message said they would fight on their own. The mental tax to control every aspect of both pudlings was way too high.

He ordered the defenders to resume their normal actions and then retreated back to his wall for some actual sleep.

Of course, he didn't get to sleep for very long.

Warning: An invader has entered the dungeon!

Qualtys looked around the Monster den. With his new command ability he could use different tactics, but the room was a wide-open space with nothing but water. He'd need to ask Core about this soon. The core would surely be able to make changes to the Monster den.

They assumed a loose formation near the tunnel, but far enough away to adapt to the invader that would soon enter the den. The invader splashed through the watery tunnel before the bulking frame of a Mountain Cat burst forth from the tunnel. It let out a challenging roar to intimidated its opponents, but fear was no longer an emotion they had. They would either killed the invader or died trying.

With only one giant angry cat to fight they quickly assumed a triangle formation. Shield upfront with Spear on the right and himself on the left. The mountain met their charge head-on and lunged towards Shield. While the pudling had a higher strength stat, the sheer bulk of the cat knocked him to the ground. His shield blocked the cat's right paw but his right shoulder was pinned down by the other paw. The movement he still had in his arm was used to swing the club around and keep the cat's fangs away from his head, neck, and torso.

If Shield had been alone the cat would have easily won the fight, but luckily for him, he had back-up.

Both spear wielders circled the cat and stabbed at its flanks. Both hit their mark, but Qualtys one-handed spear brought him close to the cat. Out of reflex, the cat swiped its right paw at Qualtys. The attack was easily blocked by his shield. This also meant the previous prey was able to move as well. The cat was slammed under its jaw by the shield that previously blocked the paw.

The combined prodding of the spear forced the cat back, freeing up Shield to rejoin the fight. It didn't take long for the three of them to finish off the Mountain Cat. On equal footing, strength in numbers would always come out on top.

Mountain Cat [ Lesser ] level 2 has been killed by [ Spear ]. Experience gained: 30.

Current experience 49 / 55.

Core´s mind had still to settle in after the dreamscape experience. Part of his mind had been drawn into the dream space while another part of him remained inside of the dungeon. The two halves melded together again when he came out and that took a while to adjust to.

He learned a great deal from the experience. Mostly he was happy to have seen the outside world, but he loved his dungeon more. His connection to the ones called Spear and Shield still remained, but a part of that feeling was also gone after transferring their control to Qualtys. He could feel that the pudling was happy with the transfer over their new connection.

Some of the questions the pudling had asked him were still in the back of his mind. He wondered about the same things. What would happen if the pudling died? While he hoped to never see it happen and that his dungeon would stop every invader that visited his dungeon, he had already lost a number of defenders which caused no problem but none had a soul.

The fight was clearly in favor of his defenders and he'd soon again be flooded by the notifications. While he liked looking at the progress he and his defenders were making a lot of the information was redundant.

"Hey System, can I alter my notification windows?"

Processing request ... .

A new function has been added to the menu. You can use this menu to alter the notifications to your specifications.

"Thank you, System."

He quickly opened the new menu and was greeted with a lot of options. It would take him a while to go over all the options, but luckily he could recall any previously received notification and see how his adjustments affected the notifications. The first option he used was to consolidate all the notifications from team battles into one notification. He'd go over the other options at a later time because someone was trying to grab his attention.

"Hello, Core? Are you there?" The voice of Qualtys resounded in his mind.

"I'm here, do you need anything?"

"Uhm, yes. I was wondering if you had a moment of time to talk about adjusting the Monster den?"

'What would you like to do to the Monster den?"

"Well, it's just a large open space. We could use a few places to hide or retreat to like some stone pillars. We also spoke about adding some huts. Is that within your power?"

"The pillars aren't a problem. Where would you like me to place them?"

Qualtys thought about it for a moment. He walked over to a spot and pointed. He was about to speak out, but instead of simply saying "Here" he send out the image in his mind. The visual thought was a bit odd to Core. He'd never gained a mental image before. He was always the one sending them out to his defenders. The image was very clear and precise so Core placed it exactly where the pudling wanted it and to Qualtys 's surprise it even had the same shape and design as the one he had envisioned. The power of the Core was truly amazing. Core placed 3 more pillars of rock making it look like the pillars were holding up the ceiling.

Shaping the earth wasn't a problem for the Core. For all the other changes he had to rely on his Dungeon Asset tool and that was only filled with the initial items he got when unlocking the feature. No sooner had he thought about the tool and how he wanted to add the item his pudling requested to the list did he receive a notification.

Special feature detected.

Would you like to spend 20 Dungeon Points to expend your Dungeon Assets tool with items from the memory of a soul creature?

Yes / No.

Gaining the Dungeon Points wasn't too hard. He gained ten when leveling up and each kill was worth at least one point. Plus he had nothing else to spend his points on currently so he chose Yes.

The first that happened was that his Dungeon tool gained a new tab simply called Qualtys. He selected that tab and it was slowly being filled with a lot of the items Core had seen in the dreamscape. Different water plants, hut building parts, simple fortifications, a few normal plants, and even a fishing spot populated the list. Core was very happy having spent the points on all these features.

While the pudling has shown him where to place the pillars the next step was all his own work. He expanded a part of the back if the Monster den to created an alcove. The Alcove was still filled with water but this was the low water version. On top of this alcove, he build two simple huts just like the pudling had requested. In the top right corner next to the alcove he placed the fishing spot. The fish would automatically respawn over time if caught. He randomly placed some water plants and reed around the den.

Qualtys's eyes grew wider every time the Core placed a new item inside the Monster Den. He felt that the power of Core seemed to be limitless. The first thing he inspected was the fishing pond. The water was deeper than the rest of the room and filled with plenty of fish for him to catch. The huts were roughly the same as the one he had woken up in.

He felt to his knees and profusely thanked the dungeon core. While the Monster den stayed almost the same size his world had grown by miles.

Core basked in the praise of his defender. Being proud of himself was a good feeling, but others giving you the same feeling was even better.

But with that proud feeling another feeling was rising as well. and accompanying the feeling was the faint sound of tapping. The tapping sound seemed to be vibrating through the entire dungeon and was getting louder the longer it went on.