Fenrir

"This is amazing Leon!" a young-looking man in what looks like his late teens to early twenties exclaims as he and the other five people standing in the first floor of my dungeon stare at the glowing stone in front of him. Or, to be more specific, at the vague status above it showing my name and Tier.

Dawn's color goes slightly darker at the sight of the orb before I tell her, "Calm down, we already knew that they could vaguely identify us."

Her color stops darkening, but it doesn't return to her usual light blue with a tinge of black as she says, "I know, but it's still annoying."

I turn my attention back to the intruders as Leon answers with a cheerful grin on his face, "That it is, Aidan. This development should help us a lot!"

Oh? Well, I guess it makes sense. From what Dawn has told me at least.

A Tier 2 dungeon would be a very beneficial aspect for a city to have. Especially if what Dawn mentioned before about the majority of Cultivators being either Tier 2 or Tier 3 is true.

My core darkens slightly as I begin to ponder something, only to brighten up again as I come to a decision.

"Dawn, I'm going to do it," I tell her before immediately having a slab raise from the floor in the first room. After that, I inscribe upon the slab a greeting.

Hello City Lord, I would like to open communications with you.

And you alone.

Dawn looks surprised for a second as her flame turns yellow before it goes back to normal and she focuses on the intruders without saying a word. Meanwhile, the intruders themselves jumped back the moment the slab began raising itself from the ground.

"What the hell?!" the man the Hybrid called Aidan shouts as he jumps back slightly in his surprise. The other intruders have similar reactions as well, except to lesser extents.

The Hybrid - on the other hand - just reads the slab before both of his eyebrows raise in surprise under his helmet. He then turns to the other intruders and says, "Get out."

Each of them follow his order without complaint, with only Aidan glancing back at him a few times as he leaves, closing the dungeon entrance behind him.

After he makes sure there isn't anyone listening, Leon turns back to the slab and says out loud, "Alright. What would you like to talk about?"

I turn my attention towards Dawn for a second before focusing on him again as I send my thoughts to him. 'Now that I'm Tier 2, I was wanting to come to a bit of an agreement with you, Hybrid.'

The Hybrid's head jerks backwards slightly at my term of endearment before he leans forwards again and says, "I guess it would make sense that a Dungeon Core would be able to tell what I am. That said, what sort of agreement do you want to come to? I can give you materials, but Wolfdenn is still only a newer Dungeon City, so we might not have what you need."

Hmm, he's certainly straight and to the point.

Works for me.

'I have no need for those materials. What I need is information.' I send to him before glancing at my status as I continue. 'Since I want more people to enter my dungeon, and you are going to likely be getting a new influx of people arriving at your city up above thanks to my advancement, I was thinking that we should come to an agreement in regards to this. You will tell me whenever there is another influx of people, or if there are just too many people in comparison to my instances, and I will try to create a new instance to accommodate the new people.'

The Hybrid appears surprised for a second before he lowers his head and starts scratching his chin in thought.

'Would this agreement work for you?' I ask him, despite knowing there really isn't any downsides to it for either of us. Especially since it isn't a binding agreement like a contract or anything. 'Of course, I won't be able to create a new instance just because you asked for me to, but doing it this way will let me know about when I should focus on making a new one.'

I glance at Dawn again as Leon continues to think it over and find her not even paying attention to my discussion with the City Lord anymore. Instead, she is floating around Fang, once again adoring over him.

Did she get bored? If so, then I wouldn't blame her. This agreement isn't really all that groundbreaking or anything of the sort.

Not to mention-

"It does work for me," the Hybrid suddenly states, drawing my attention back over to him from Dawn. "How would you like to give you the information?"

'It doesn't matter to me how we do it.' I send to him. 'As long as it's done.'

The Hybrid nods his head in agreement with my statement before focusing on the slab again as he asks, "If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been able to initiate conversations like this?"

This question makes my core pulse slightly, catching Dawn's attention as she focuses on our conversation again.

I stare at the man for a few seconds before asking, 'Does it matter?'

Leon stares at the slab for several seconds in silence until he finally shakes his head and says, "No, I guess not. That said, if you don't mind, would you be open to some trade deals? Or possibly coming to other agreements with the city of Wolfdenn?"

I glance at Dawn before muttering to her, "He let that go awfully quickly..."

Dawn bobs up and down without a word as I turn back to look at the intruder.

'That would be doable,' I answer him after a few seconds of thought. 'But not right now. There is something else that I must take care of.'

I catch him grinning slightly at my answer before the grin vanishes and he gives the slab a bow - which looks a little bit awkward from my point of view. Seeing as I'm not the slab.

He then says, "If that's the case, then I bid you a good evening, Dungeon Core."

After that, he turns around and leaves my dungeon.