The spider demon lady escorted Kaia and Me further into their camp. The other little imps and spider demon ladies parted for her and all eyed me warily. As I got a better look at these ‘people’ I realized they looked as weary as I felt. I glanced at the new arrivals that came through the portal. Steam rolled off their bodies as they stumbled through the portal, many were wounded, a spider demon lady was missing an arm and a wraith floated over and quickly began healing her. She collapsed into the arms of another spider lady who dragged her away from the arrival platform.

Lord Shubin watched my gaze with careful consideration as I approached. Then my attention was locked on the giant red demon that crouched before me. He rose to his full height as I entered the area claimed as an impromptu command center. He stood nearly four meters tall if you didn’t count his massive black horns. If you included those he’d be just over five meters. His eyes were set deep beneath a massive brow. The sclera were black and the iris was a golden yellow. He had coal black hair and a beard that framed a square jaw set with yellowed normal looking teeth.

He wore no armor, and why would he? He was so heavily muscled that even the cords in his neck appeared as steel. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. Each hand ended in three massive fingers and a thumb. His legs were like tree trunks and ended in black cloven hooves. I analyzed him and my heart sank, there was just no way if this turned into a fight that I would win. Lord Shubin, Lvl 38 Scion of the Long Night, Leader of the Last Horde of Grox-Hoob, Saviour of His People, etc., etc., etc.

After he finished sizing me up he spoke with a deep baritone voice that echoed in my bones “You have seen battle. Recently.”

I looked at my torn and blood stained clothes and nodded, “I have. It looks like your people have as well.” I spoke in a far steadier voice than I felt. That buzzing in my head told me I needed to stand my ground here, but I also needed to keep my mouth in check.

“We have. For many days we have fought waiting for the portal to open. We have lost many.”

I consumed his words and carefully picked my next. “What are your intentions here?”

I felt like an ant asking a god why the sun rises and sets as he considered me with a surprisingly gentle gaze. He knows he can crush me where I stand. “I intend to form a settlement here. I hadn’t determined the location. I sent out scouts in several directions.”

“Let me guess, the ones that went over there” I pointed at the now smashed and burning white apartments that formerly stood behind mine “were attacked and killed?”

He took a heavy step forward and I forced myself not to flinch. “Yes. You know of this? Do you represent them?”

“I got the gist of the story, I don’t represent that group, and only marginally represent the group where I live, though I feel like that is quickly changing.”

Shubin cocked his head at my last statement “We sent an unarmed emissary, the male and female mage killed her.”

“I heard.” I knew better than to say more. I had nothing to say. Drill Sergeant always said there are no excuses, only responsibility.

His muscles clenched and anger was building in his posture. “I don’t spend the life of my people needlessly.” He said and turned his back to me. Shit, he’s winding up to flatten me right here.

“What can I say? People are assholes.” FUCK! Why did I say that!?!? I am so fucking dead. I braced for an attack that didn’t come. Instead the giant looked over his shoulder and waited, so I continued carefully. “Look, I can’t replace your people. I’m not going to make excuses either. I wasn’t here, though I do feel slightly responsible for my people as a whole.”

“I don’t understand why they attacked us without provocation.” He turned back to me now with a sad weariness in his eyes. He doesn’t want to fight, he just wants to find a place for his people. The little noise in the back of my head buzzed that this was the direction this conversation needed to go so I pressed.

“Have you been able to connect to our communications networks?”

“No, we hadn’t tried yet, I’ve been occupied with trying to get as many of my people to safety as I can. Why does this matter?” Irritation flashed on his face, I stepped forward and held up my hands to hopefully stall him from getting angry again.

“Veep, send him the information on Earth religious demons and a few examples from popular culture.”

His eyes glazed as he received the information, then he refocused on me and his mouth hung slightly open. Then a booming laughter that sounded like it could flatten a building echoed from his lips. He laughed for a long moment then knelt in front of me, one hand in the dirt, he brought his face close to mine, his horns flanked either side of Kaia and me. The coyote licked her chops nervously but didn’t move. “I understand now I think. They thought we were demons from your myths.”

“They did.” I affirmed.

He extended an arm length finger towards me “Let us properly greet each other, I am known as Lord Shubin.”

I extended my fist against his extended finger in the world's most awkward fist bump and held it there. “I am Karl, nice to meet you.”

“Come Karl, and join me at my table and we can discuss further our intentions and our needs.”

Oh thank god! I promise if this keeps going this well I will stop being such an asshole! I joined him at his table which was surprisingly not 10 feet high. We discussed the circumstances leading up to them coming to Earth. His peoples had been in decline from dungeon attacks for nearly three centuries. His was the last of the “Great Hordes of Grox-Hoob” and as it stood he was the last member of his particular race. He led his people even though he knew he was the very last of his kind. I exchanged more information about Earth and its many cultures with him and he thanked me as more and more of his people appeared beaten and battered through the portal. Then it came down to the brass tacks, so to speak. It turned out most of his people were skilled artisans and they needed someplace with materials they could shape and a location they could defend from monster incursions. An idea came to mind when I heard this. I happen to know a guy who knows a guy who has a dungeon he doesn’t want to manage with a rare resource vein in it.

“So that’s the summary of what I am looking for Karl. A defensible land with access to mineral and ore resources so we can do what we do best.” He explained.

“I might know of a place, though I don’t know if I want to give it up so easily.” I said slyly and his brow rose in excited interest.Once he turned off murder and slaughter mode he was a pretty likeable guy. Still terrifying if you didn’t know better.

“What is it you need, Karl? If it is within reason we would give it.”

“Veep, send him the location of the dungeon.” I waited while he examined the map, “You see, I just came back from claiming the dungeon there.” Then I produced the bag of ore I snagged while there and tossed across the table to him. Several of the black rocks tumbled out and he called one of the spider ladies over who examined it. She looked at me with a gleam in her eye and turned back to having a quiet conversation with him. I took the time to send a message for my party to stand down and return to the apartment complex and waited while they talked.

Shubin finally returned his attention to me. “What is it you want of us? You have gained a great boon, I assume it was not easily achieved.”

“You would be correct in that last, I saw shit in there I never want to see again. But the bottom line is I don’t have the time nor the desire to manage a dungeon, and I seem to be the only one thus far to not destroy it when I completed it. I need to get over to my place, see what’s left, and establish my settlement. Then I need to go about securing the rest of Winslow” I waved my hand at the horizon where the tell tale signs of burning buildings caused the quickly darkening night sky to glow orange at the edges.

“You take a huge responsibility onto your small shoulders, Karl, I assume you’d like us to manage the dungeon and it’s resources.” I nodded with a smile, he looked at his advisor who was still greedily fondling the bag of ore, she spoke something to him and he shook his head, she pressed respectfully and he turned back to me “We will do it, though we want to be 50/50 partners when it comes to the ore extraction.”

I gave him a long look then delivered my counter offer. “No.” He started to speak again and I cut him off. “No, I want you to take the 70 percent share. We killed your people, I don’t know how it could have been avoided, but we did, on top of that you will be doing me a great service managing this dungeon.”

Shubin looked at me in astonishment. “I thank you Karl, this is more than we could have hoped for.”

“Oh yeah, I’d also like to be able to send my people to train in the dungeon, I’d like the difficulty set so they can train up to Level 25 in it. Does that sound doable?”

He brought a massive hand to scratch his equally massive black beard in a moment of thought “You said the first room was empty and the second was where the ore was?” I nodded, “Yes, I think we can make that happen, with our guidance the dungeon will grow and we can add new floors that scale for leveling. It is what we should have done on Grox-Hoob.”

We discussed the details more and Kaia decided there was no longer a threat to our lives and dozed in front of the bonfire at the end of the table. I startled when I felt a hand press gently into my shoulder then smiled “Has my savage warrior now proven to be a shrewd diplomat?” Junipher’s musical voice drifted in from behind me.

Shubin smiled and greeted the plant woman “Indeed he has. Is this your woman, Karl?”

“Not exactl-” I began to protest before Junipher cut in.

“Yes” She smiled sweetly at me, “He just hasn’t accepted it yet.” And her lovely green arm wrapped around my waist as she sat beside me.

“HO HO HO! You let me know when Karl realizes he’s already lost this battle.”

I smiled and thought to myself WE’VE BARELY FINALIZED OUR DEAL AND SHUBIN IS ALREADY SELLING ME OUT!!!

“We were just finalizing the details on the management of the dungeon.” Shubin continued.

“I’m satisfied, Veep, let’s do this.”

“Copy! One dungeon management contract coming up.”

You have entered into a system contract for management the following Dungeon Cores owned by one Karl Brunett, sole owner and proprietor of the Clear Creek Kobold Dungeon, with one Lord Shubin as designated manager. Karl Brunett will receive 30% benefit from said Dungeon, Lord Shubin will receive 70% benefit from said dungeon.

SELECT HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

ACCEPT CONTRACT? (YES/NO)

I happily chose YES and was notified when Shubin carefully examined the finalized document and accepted it as well.

Lord Shubin beamed at me with a large yellow toothed smile “I would pat you on the back but I don’t want to kill you before your lovely woman has had the opportunity to claim you!” I looked sharply in fear at Junipher and Shubin bellowed a throaty laugh. Junipher simply smiled and leaned her head against my shoulder while gripping my arm tightly. I guess the woman is latching on to the one that makes her feel safe.

“Well, thank you for that, I guess, and good luck. How long will the portal stay open? I was kinda thinking about placing my settlement down on this field somewhere. I don’t want to disrupt your immigration.”

“Ah, it will stay active for another 3 days I believe. Though I don’t know how many more will safely arrive. Claiming the ground for your settlement will not disrupt the process though. And it may be good for any stragglers to arrive in a friendly and safe location.” He said with a small bit of sadness in his voice.

“I’ll make sure that my people know to direct any stragglers to you. I would however suggest that you stay around the dungeon and only come to my settlement until I can get the word out that you aren’t… hostile.” I smiled at him and he nodded his agreement. Then the big man lumbered off into the darkness with his retinue. The spider lady with the painted nails stole a glance back at me and shot me a wink. I couldn’t pull a decent piece of ass for the last 10 years and all of a sudden I’ve got everything with tits coming at me! I looked at Junipher who was still on my shoulder and she gave me a smirk. I shook my head and walked with her towards the apartment.

“The locals aren’t very receptive to you, are they? She looked at me and the smile drooped a bit. Then it grew wide again.

“No, but I don’t care about them.”

Will have to fix that at some point. I stopped at a spat about 200 meters from the portal and maybe 50 meters from my apartment. Dick and Carly stood on the roof and Alyssa and Johnny came to join us with Brother Coyote and Lulu close behind.

“Alright, Veep, link everyone that will be affected into this little conference call, but mute them.”

“Done!” The little AI assistant bobbed in my vision with barely contained anticipation.

“If you can hear my voice, know that the most important thing right now is that I have obtained the settlement cores from the goblin encampment and the kobold dungeon. I tell you this because in the next moments I plan to activate them and claim everything in one square kilometer as mine and establish a safe zone. You are hearing this because you are currently in that area. When I activate the settlement core several things will happen all at once.” I paused for effect. “First, according to my Virtual Private Assistant, a settlement kiosk will be created at the center of my settlement. This will enable you to purchase various things I won’t go into right now from the system directly using any Universal Mana Credits you have earned over the last two days. You can also sell loot gained here.”

I let my audience digest the first bit of information and watched a real time transcript of what the roughly 150 local residents that were within my area were saying to my announcement. I didn’t really care what they thought, but it was still good to know.

“Secondly, all structures in the area will be broken down for raw material and converted to settlement points so we can rebuild, with the aid of the system, living quarters and more importantly for our immediate needs, walls. This construction will encompass the aforementioned area. Initial construction will be the administration center, which is required by the system for the settlement management, and one bunkhouse that can provide facilities for 50 residents. The wall with towers and gates will be next.” I didn’t mention that I was also allocating funds to build the coyotes a stable and barn to keep them out of the weather as needed.

The running transcript exploded with comments. I glanced at them and shrugged. The world just got real hard, you don’t get shit for free anymore. In fact… “The world changed overnight. Many of you have lost loved ones. Many of you have preyed on the weakness of others. Know this, you can choose to join the settlement and be a productive member, or you can choose to go your own way, either way I don’t care. The world just got real hard, and you don’t get free shit anymore.”

“Alright Veep, do it.”

“OK!” I swear nothing phases that thing.

Confirm activation of settlement core on this location? (Yes/No)

Yes, of course.