I woke up sinking into my bed. The uneven level of support was unpleasant and made my back ache. I rubbed my eyes and looked over. Lia was curled up next to me, snoring softly. I rubbed my eyes and looked over. Lia was curled up. Next to me. Snoring softly. Hoping to wake her up, I nudged her. She resisted the attempts mumbling to herself. I looked around and scratched my head. At the door of my room was Slime. It stood silently. Watching. Normally its metal surface has a sheen to it, a glisten, a shine, but it was dark and coarse like a matte finish. Slime didn’t say anything; its presence spoke for it. I gulped and doubled my efforts to wake up Lia.

The elf rouse from her slumber, wrangling in the covers. Exasperated, I gasped at her, “Why are you in my bed?”

Lia yawned, stretching on the bed casually with no regard to the slime. She laid on her side and propped up her head on her hand. “To sleep of course. You never made me a room or a bed – I wasn’t going to sleep on some dirt floor.”

I dragged my hand across my face. I knew I forgot something. “Well, could you kindly get off my bed then?”

The bed shook and Li pounced. In an instant, she pinned me to the bed, my head between both of her hands. Her warm breath fell on me. With a cold stare disappointment was written on her face. She didn’t say a word. Her weight kept me down and her body hung over pressing into me. I felt trapped like a mouse in a corner.

“W-what are you going?” I asked.

“I want to talk,” she said. Her long black hair danced and shifted on me as she spoke. “Care to explain the skeletons?”

My body went frigid, “Skeletons…?”

Lia scowled, “Don’t be coy. The three skeletons, you made them from the people from my village, right? When were you planning on telling me?”

“Oh…um…” I tried to look around, but the only thing I could see was her hair or her face. Fidgeting beneath her, I replied, “I wanted to tell you as soon as possible, but...”

“But, what?”

“… I didn’t know how to bring it up.” I signed, “Sorry. I did it without thinking how you would feel. I turned their bodies into skeletons because we needed the manpower for protection and to test my abilities.” She didn’t say anything. Not even the slime did anything – it watched, a deviation from its normal antics. “Um… are you mad?”

Lia giggled to herself, a smile creeping through. “Yes.” The humor was gone in a flash. “I’m mad that you are always hiding things.”

“You aren’t mad at me for using your people…?”

“No, I’m a little frustrated at that as well…” Lia paused and took a deep breath, “When the attack happened it was…” She shook her head. “I can’t do anything about it now. My friends, my family, my feelings, there is nothing I can do but move on.” She raised up one hand and wagged her finger, “But, I can do something about you hiding everything. You’ve been reluctant to share information since the beginning. I hate that. It’s not helpful. It’s dangerous. It’s not honest. It hurts those who put trust in you.”

I laid underneath her and took the verbal beating. Her words stung, but she was right. “I understand,” I said, “I’m sorry and I’ll try my best to avoid withholding things in the future.”

A smile broke out on her face, “Good! Glad we got that settled.”

“Now, um, would you mind getting off of me?”

Her smile turned into a sly grin and she said, “Is there something wrong? Most guys would be head over heels to have a young, cute elf girl like me on top of them…” The slime who said or did nothing emitted a murderous aura. It was mad. Very mad.

Flustered, I stammered, “Well, I mean, uh, we don’t have time to play around!”

Lia giggled, there was a spring to her voice, an uneasy sweetness, “Well, even so, you aren’t going anywhere unless I say so!” She took a finger and ran it down my chest, tracing over the black markings and lines that ran over them.

The girl was having fun messing with me. The devious smile told it all. So I shot back, “Who said I can’t go anywhere?” I flicked on my newly acquired phasing ability. Lia with a gasp tumbled through me onto the bed while I passed through her and got up.

“What was that?” She exclaimed in utter confusion.

“Oh, you know, just practicing my new skills. I used a little mana to give me a little more strength.” I left out that I had used practically all my mana and the entire reserves I had to gain this power. “I still can’t use it that much – it drains mana way too fast – but being able to go through things in any capacity is more than useful.”

Lia sat up on the bed and pouted, “Now that’s not fair at all. How am I supposed to mess with you if you can just go through me?”

I shrugged and smiled, “That’s up to you to figure out. Now I have to get back to work on shaping the dungeon. There is a lot that needs to be done…”

Lia got up and stretched out her limbs again, “Yeah, and I guess it’s about time for me to go out and do my job as well.”

“Oh, well, I’ll see you off then.”

She covered a yawn with her hand, “Don’t worry about it. I have to prepare and you have to get to work.” Without another word, she shuffled to the door. I finally noticed what she was wearing: a singular, long, baggy shirt.

I was about to yell at her to put some clothes on, but Slime said as she got next to it, What do you think you are trying to do dressed like that?

“What do you mean?” She innocently asked. “I was just trying to sleep in something comfortable, is there something wrong with that?” With the slime right below her on the side, she raised her arms up and stretched as hard as she could. Her long shirt rode up and she had a sinister smile. It stretched up higher and higher, and I swallowed hard. I didn’t know if she was even wearing anything underneath it, and her coy posture meant she knew what she was doing.

Before my mind was driven insane by the pure animosity oozing out of the slime next to the seductive scheming of Lia Slime said, Didn’t you say you had to go prepare? Go leave? Finally complete your mission?

She slouched and the tension released. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” She walked past the slime and left, but not before giving both Slime and me her patented grin.

I just woke up and was already tired. The bed was so warm and enticing, but there was work to be done. Slime was staring right at me. “So, Slime,” I laughed nervously, “What are you doing down here?”

Slime shot a tendril at me and I phased through it, making it crash into the wall behind me. I came for you.. And then the slime also left leaving me alone with a hole in the wall.

I got ready and left my room ready to get back to work. But before I began churning through my mana to continue the dungeon alteration, I stopped by Gil’s room to see how he was doing. I knocked once. There was no answer. I knocked twice and the door popped open, creaking in.

Gil was dressed only in his boxers standing in the middle of the room. Tal the zombie was lying down on his bed stripped of all of his armor. The lanky mage panicked, “H-hector, what are you doing here?”

I tensed my throat and began closing the door, “Sorry, am I interrupting something?”

“No, no, no, no, no, it’s now what you think – I was just studying Tal all night and It was getting stuffy and uncomfortable in my clothes so I thought I could just take them off for now so I can work in peace because I didn’t think you or anyone else would be coming by and seeing me like this and did you knock anyways?”

“Yes. I knocked twice.”

“Oh. Well, come on in then.”

I stepped in and looked around. Gil had asked me for a bed and a desk and that was it. He brought his own bag of books and scrolls and ink and pen. Much of it was scattered all over the shoddily constructed desk I made for him out of mana. “Before I started the day’s work I thought I would just see how you are doing.”

“How am I doing?” Gil spread out his arms, “I’m doing amazing! I wish you had invited me to come over sooner because getting to watch and study monsters without the threat of being eaten is an opportunity beyond compare.”

I chuckled, “You were certainly afraid to death of them at the start.”

“Of course I was! But I got used to it. Besides, research and advancement is the one thing that will make me get over my fears. Eventually.”

Leaning up against the wall, I asked, “So, what have you learned so far?”

Gil’s eyes twinkled and I think I might have made a mistake. “What haven’t I learned would be a better question!” He strolled up to Tal and said, “Would you kindly stand up for me my friend?” Tal did as he was asked. Gil presented the zombie’s body and said, “Normally when people die their bodies fall apart. It’s called decay. Tal as a dead person should be experiencing the same thing, but it isn’t. We all know that zombie bodies don’t decay and it’s probably due to mana keeping it together, but I have figured out what exactly is happening!” He went over to his desk and rummaged through his notes and papers, “First, it is important to note that bodily functions have ceased. Tal doesn’t really breathe, his heart doesn’t beat, that sort of thing. Through deep examination of its muscle tissues and fibers I have concluded that Tal as a body is continually decaying just as any other body might. However, the mana input into Tal is actually being used to reverse the decay process such that the body is staying in the zero-sum situation. In other words, the mana is being consistently consumed and turned around into a process that regenerates the body to counter the effects of decay.”

“What are the implications of that then?”

He shrugged, “Don’t know. Didn’t get that far. But I guess if that the mana is being used to repair the body in terms of decay, the same process can be applied to any other wounds it may receive, making the zombie an especially durable long-term monster as it can repair itself over and over.”

“Now that is interesting.” I would have to jot that down in my notes later. It seemed to be a key advantage it had over the skeletons. “Say, Gil, there are also some skeletons I have down below digging a tunnel. If you want, you can look into them and study as well because learning things like what you are figuring out with Tal can be very helpful.”

A grin grew on the lanky mage’s face, “Certainly. And I ask if you do go off and create any more monsters or creatures please let me know. I want to be there for the process and be able to begin my research immediately.”

“Sounds just perfect to me. I’m going to start on my work then. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Will do.”

I left Gil to his science and trekked up on to the first floor. Most of my work was done; the foundation was laid solidly. I left the entrance out to the world untouched, keeping its stony and cave like features to deter attention. Inside however, I set up a series of three rooms.

The first room was immediately after the dungeon entrance. It was a large and spacious one that went off to either side. This area I left open with the intention of filling it with utility facilities: guard posts, storage rooms, basic housing. The second entrance was an archway that led into a tall narrow hallway. To the right was a dead end, a pathway I wanted for it to lead up into the tower structure that can let me look over the entire forest area. To the left was the current and main pathway down into the dungeon. One more archway led into a large circular room. That was to be for the deep pit down into the dungeon.

Today I worked on molding the tower out of the large stone hill my dungeon found itself in. I wasn’t going to finish it out as a tower in the middle of a forest would be suspicious. I would get it close and when the time came I would make a push to finish it.

As the dark lines radiating from my chest lit up and the hints of miasma began to pour out, I went to work down the right path, carving out my road up through the spiral. Soon I would have to worry about more than construction and building. Soon I would have to worry about monsters and creatures for defense. No one else had responded to my letters which troubled me. I sent only a few to my close friends, many of which I went to school with my entire life. They were capable people like warriors and adventures and merchants now. Capable, smart, resourceful, and some of them were important as well. If they ignored my message, that was fine, but if they acted against me, that would be extremely troubling.

I would love to trust my friends, but I could not bring myself to do so, especially if it meant risking my life, Gil’s, Lia’s, the slime’s, and everything else. I needed to get stronger, improve my skills, work on that phasing ability and see if I can get more things like that. If not through my own power, I need to create vassals, monsters and beings that can act rationally and fight. How long I had till people came to survey and claim the land was unknown. So as I worked on the dungeon I wondered to myself. What could I add to the dungeon? What monsters could I create?