As she sat there waiting for everyone to get back she realized that she had not actually tried to leave her area of influence. She knew that at least the children could leave her domain since well, they were obviously not here. Kim looked around to see if they were stuck somewhere. But she could not see them. So by process of elimination that would mean that they had left her domain to carry out her orders. "All right then..." She said quietly to herself and walked up to the 'border' that she could feel surrounding her territory. She tentatively stretched out a toe towards the barrier. Kim had no clue if she would lose the toe, be blocked, or pass through. So if the worst option came to pass, better to lose something small then something more important.

Kim took a few deep breaths before she finally stuck her toe outside of the barrier. Nothing happened. She felt a slight resistance but that was about it. Her toe was still there. She had not received any popups from the world either, so she was pretty sure that there would be no problems with her leaving her domain. Slowly an entire foot was extended, then her slender leg, then finally she took the leap of faith and fully walked outside of her domain. This was different than what she had been doing before. Before she had walked around in areas she had created, intent on claiming them. But now she had just walked outside, no intent on claiming or expanding her domain. And it had worked, perfectly in fact.

She felt around for her dungeon. She could still feel it in the back of her mind. But it was not like before where she felt it all around her. It was more like she was drawn, or guided towards the dungeon, still feeling the connection but it was not embracing her like a gentle hug like it had done before when she was within it's domain. She reached out towards it, and she could feel it once again become a part of her. She tried to picture placing a room like she had been able to before, and she could feel that it would indeed work. The feeling was a weird one though as it was like seeing something, feeling something, that was part of you, but it had been detached, yet you could still feel it with your senses. Like a phantom limb, but not really still. It wasn't missing, it was still a part of her, but it was detached. She wondered if this was how a skeleton felt if it lost its arm.

Slowly she turned back around and walked back into her domain. Her domain as it were stretched out so that the river just outside of her dungeon was included and stretched out about five meters in each direction from the entrance. She guessed that she had unintentionally, but fortunately included the area outside of her entrance when she had claimed this spot as the location of her dungeon. She could feel that she could expand her dungeon, and domain outside of this area, claiming more space before people actually entered her halls. With this she was glad that she had created living areas in the dungeon that she had already claimed. This probably meant that she could theoretically expand her dungeon at least across the river or perhaps create more entrances and it would count as her dungeon still. She had no idea how the whole, floor and dungeon building system worked, but at least it gave her some form of hope to create decoys or perhaps a town for people depending on how the dungeon collected mana. With that in mind she decided on taking another look at her menu.

Personal status Dungeon status Mana: Error, mana calculation faulty Mana: 500 out of 500 Health: 150 out of 150 Core integrity: 10 out of 10 Level: 1 Level: 1 Strength: C Creatures under control: 4 Dexterity: C Creature types: 2 Constitution: D Traps: None Intelligence: B Trap types: None Wisdom: D Rooms: 4 Charisma: C Dungeon traits: 0 out of 3 Equipment: None Items: None Status effects: None Intruders: None

Kim frowned at her status. A letter told her jack shit. What's the average? Does it start at A and climb to Z? Or perhaps the reverse? Does it start at F and go to SSS as she's seen in a few novels? It was absurd really. Like, what the hell system? It was useless. However, a few things gave her hope in her status. The number of abilities, the amount of traits she could select. There was one thing though that she was slightly worried about. The error on her personal mana. While she thought she knew the reason for such an error. She did not use mana after all, or at least it wasn't magic, unless the world classified it as such. But it seemed like the world did not. Otherwise, why would it give her an error? As if the world was listening a blue box appeared in her vision after a few seconds.

As per request, an explanation of the attribute system follows. A person is ranked from F, failure, to A, apex. The ranks are as follows. Failure, Disappointing, Common, Better, Apex. An untrained person is D, someone who is worse, F, the average in the world is C. A seasoned warrior would be B, while the best in the world are A. For example an F in Intelligence would be considered, intellectually challenged, while an A would be the smartest 5% in the world. For a rating of A to be awarded, you need to be considered in the top 5% in the category, while an F would be the worst 10%.

Kim blinked a few times before contemplating the information that she had been given. It made sense in a way she guessed. A bell curve for everyone's attributes. That meant that she was considered the average in the world when it came to her abilities. She did consider herself pretty smart though, and was granted a B, while granted a D in wisdom. She wasn't sure if it was due to her age and had not yet acquired enough wisdom of age yet. But it did say average. Did that mean average for her race? Or the average in the world? She would assume that it was for the entire world. That could mean that a lot of people were quite old, or just that the world did not think that she learned enough from her experiences. She clicked on traits next, then into available traits.

Chosen traits Available traits Traits available, more unlocks at higher levels. 0 out of 3 Traits chosen Creature loyalty Biosphere Puzzle traps Dungeon laws Dungeon helper Dungeon instances Advanced traps Advanced items Advanced critters Advanced materials Advanced treasures Advanced plants Improved creature attributes Advanced creature abilities

Her first two choices were no-brainer to her. Creature loyalty was a must because she could summon sentient creatures, even her normal critters and if she gained stubborn or rowdy creatures later it would make sure that she could keep them in line. The second was improved creature attributes. They were her first and probably last line of defence, before she would have to put herself in danger at least. She was also wondering if she herself would be buffed by this choice. The third option was a bit harder though. Abilities could be hit-and-miss. Would they gain similar abilities to herself? Would they gain magic? Or was it more like, abilities to find water, construct things? She wasn't very sure, so she hoped that she could find out more info about it. But the information she was given was not much more than her own speculations on the matter.

She was pretty confident that she could create a functioning biodome or biosphere, given enough time at least. Same with the advanced items, traps, materials and such. She could probably acquire them from somewhere else or construct them by herself or at least imagine how they would work and perhaps the dungeon would recognize her efforts like it had with the room before. Then a dungeon helper would help out a lot in her development. Dungeon laws were given the limited information that abilities gave. In the lines of; you can set laws that invaders has to follow to progress. Were there no limits? Was she restricted to a certain number? Similar with instances. It was too hard to put a finger on what it actually did. What were the limits. The information she was given left a lot to the imagination. Could she set the law that invaders may not kill a single defender while the defenders aim to kill?

Kim closed her eyes and chose the helper, along with creature loyalty and improved creature attributes. It did say that she would be given more options as she gained levels. Hopefully, most likely, that meant that she would unlock more trait points later on. Shortly after a light began gathering in front of her, a shape taking form inside of it.

Traits chosen and applied. All creatures had their attributes randomly improved by one fraction. Creatures will now do anything and everything commanded without question. A dungeon helper summoned based on core's mind.

Kim did not like that last part. The summoned based on core's mind. That part she really did not like. So far the things that had been summoned and due to her nature and stuff had been based on her character, not really Kim herself. She was honestly afraid that it would summon that one person in her character's life. Just because of what that would mean. Especially if she would get more and more integrated into her own personality. Kim sighed deeply, taking a few deep breaths while waiting for the light to vanish and in its place stood a young woman. "Gods damn it..." She could not decide if all of her worrying about it made it happen or if she could not do anything about it.

The young woman in front of Kim was short, no taller than 159 cm in height. Her long blonde hair flowed down her back, coming to an end at the small of her back. It was slightly curly, but well brushed and maintained, straightening out the further it went from her scalp. Expressive, green eyes looked up at Kim. Her thin lips curving upwards into a sweet smile. Kim's eyes travelled across the pale skin of the young woman, taking in the pleasant view. But Kim could not help but smile wryly at the situation. "Hello Lilly. I kinda expected this to happen when I selected helper."

Lilly smiled brightly and launched herself into Kim's arms, wrapping herself around Kim's waist with her legs. "Hello lover. Or well, at least the appearance of my lover." She said and let go. "And yes, I've been granted all the knowledge that you'll need to start up and make a successful dungeon. I'm at your disposal. While I know that you're not her, I can't help but feel the attraction towards you all the same." Lilly said and winked.

"You know, that she is also the reason for your torment right? Because you recognized the appearance with the horns, with the wings, which means it's after she revealed her nature to you. After everything that happened and that she did to you." Kim looked sad as she spoke. It was her character after all. She knew all about their circumstances and what had happened to them all. Suddenly a finger got placed on her lips.

"Shhh... I know all about it. But I loved what she was, before that, after, my mind was locked. I could not feel any bad things during it. You know that, you wrote it. Oh, don't look so shocked. I know what you know. I am your helper after all. At least I know the things that you wrote about me, and that you are the author of my life. Kinda like a god." She said and giggled. "I also know everything you might need to know about how to manage your dungeon, as I said before. And I'll try to ignore my feelings for the persona that you inhabit." The smile was back on her lips as she finished speaking.

"Anyway, let's go through your abilities shall we?" Kim nodded to that and opened up her menu again and clicked on the abilities tab and it displayed both hers and the dungeon's.

Errors present. Merging abilities, revaluating abilities to fit scale. Dungeon abilities Description Expansion of dungeon

The ability to expand the dungeon through the creation of rooms, hallways, paths and the like. This ability also stretches to the takeover of territory that are adjacent to the dungeon's domain. The use of this ability destroys, assimilates and creates the desired design that's been selected. However, this ability can only create pre-existing blueprints and not create from scratch.

Create and destroy

The ability to create and destroy items, objects or material. When creating, you can either select from a list of blueprints and already created or constructed things listed in its respective menu. This ability can also be used to create entirely new things but the design has to be specified. Same goes for the destruction aspect of this ability.

Assimilation

The ability to assimilate any material, item or object, along with any biomass or other non-living thing that enters the dungeon. Assimilating any object, item, material or biomass will add said thing to the blueprint roster. The more units of the same kind assimilated, the less mana it'll take to make said thing.

Summoning life The ability to summon living things. Be it simple bacteria and moss, to the complexity of the monsters and creatures available. The ability is limited to summoning things that has been absorbed or purchased through the menu system. Shape and sculpture The ability to shape and sculpture existing things to fit the dungeon's purpose. Instead of relying sole on the ability to create, this ability lets the dungeon mould things to the purpose that the dungeon wishes. Be it to shape a rock to sphere, or make intricate art. Personal abilities Description Psionics: A/C

The ability to alter reality with the power of the mind. Mostly associated with the ability to move items, communicate telepathically, read minds. But also with being able to see into the future and get glimpses of what's to come. Added intelligence is also attributed to the sheer power of the mind and will of the user to manifest the powers. Theoretically the powers of the Psion are unlimited in scope, but takes lifetimes to master. And only the ones who gather enough understanding of the universe can hope to use it to it's fullest.

Psychic: A/C

Similar to psionics, the Psychic can channel the power of the mind to commune with the spirits and immaterial. While psionics are the physical manifestation of the powers of the mind, the psychic powers manifest in the spiritual realm.

Weapon usage: D

The ability to use weapons in any capacity. The usage of weapons are split into subcategories based on the weapons themselves, then further split into the individual weapon. Only weapon listed, longsword.

Well then, those were some interesting abilities indeed. Kim took mental notes about her abilities. Not really that she had to, she could just call up the menu and take a look if she needed to. But it felt nice not to overly rely on the menu system and instead remember everything that she could. And at least from her experiences with the system so far she could probably make up her own abilities or discover new ones as time went on. It did feel like her potential was unlimited, and the body she was in was eternal, at least as far as she knew, so time should technically not be an issue. The real issue however was securing herself from any potential pursuers. Hopefully they had not been able to track her through the air or at least would take some time to arrive. In that time given she was hoping to create enough dungeon for them to give up on her and instead focus on the dungeon itself.

Kim looked at Lilly and smiled softly. "I think our first order of business would be waiting for the children to get back and then work on constructing the dungeon based on what they've found in the area. I'll take a more in-depth look at what I can summon and create at that time. They should be back soon after all."