Toby held the shallow-breathing body in his large, golem hands and watched two of the cat people that were moving in his direction. It would not take long before they arrived, but a lot flashed in front of Toby’s eyes. His expectations, plans and fears and some parts of the intense fight he had just went through. If he really wanted to do this, he had to hold the reins tight in his hands.

A leader of a guild could not just do stuff and see what happens right?

There were a few crucial questions to consider.

First, he decided not to reveal his hand as a dungeon for safety reasons. No one needed to know he was a dungeon and Sivian had no way to recognize him. If it went bad, he would keep his dungeon core intact that way. However, he would need to keep himself stationary somehow, but finding an excuse should not not be difficult.

Second, he needed a guild hall or some place he would regularly go to také out his “stored“ rewards from. Simply put, a place that would become an interface between Toby the dungeon and Toby the guild leader.

Wait, but how would he prevent thieves and other shady characters from finding out he actually was not storing anything anywhere?

“Sivian, stay with me!“ Toby’s mind had been torn away from his convoluted plans and schemes by a black-tailed person that slapped Sivian’s cheek lightly. He was a . . . . a catman?

Why not? Well, it sounded like some superhero transgender villain.

“A catkin would be a better word!“ Toby found a better term for the duo of humanoid creatures in front of him. They got rid of the part of her clothing that was in the way and began to tend to the large wound, the one with white fur following his every movement, clearly suspicious of his motives.

Toby was careful not to make sudden movements, but their little staredown had been interupted by Sivian that began hyperventilating for some reason and the white-furred catkin had to give her his full attention, as he was probably the one with the most knowledge about stitching people up. Toby had no idea what the two were doing with her, his first aid skills being almost non-existent, because he used to suffer from nausea when watching any kind of instructions on first aid at school.

He had gotten rid of the nausea with his transformation, but his empty head was emty still, at least in the department of first aid.

At some point, they ordered him to lay her down and were calmed down to some extent when he obediently placed her on the spot next to a rubble that had probably been a well.

Unfortunately, Toby did not need a degree in medicine to see that her condition was not good, at this point she looked like she was about to fall unconscious. Both catkin began to move around her with greater urgency in their gestures and the black one that was called Shingu began to yell something at his counterpart.

Toby realized that the two would not be able to save her.

“Impossible.“ Toby mumbled, his words an incomprehensible sound of two rocks sctratching against each other.

“DO SOMETHING!“ Toby was not the only one in shock, as the black furred catkin yelled at his comrade that was just kneeling there motionless.

“There is nothing to be done here, the wound is too deep. She will not make it.“ He answered and his words hit Toby hard, making him oblivious to further agitated questions of Shingu.

He lost again, pathetic and weak. Why was he even trying to do something? Would it not be better to simply give up and die rather than to live in such an ugly world?

In this moment of silence, Toby felt that his next action would decide his future path, like a little stone that could choose which avalanche to set off.

“No, a war is lost only when the last soldier decides to stop fighting or dies.“ Toby grabbed the dying corpse of Sivian, looking at her blood-stained white face, marked with rivulets of freshly dried blood.

“Come Sivian, become a part of my strength and there will come a time when I will change the fate of everyone who have died unjustly.“ Toby activated his skill, as he had just acquired the last missing resource for yet another [Auxiliary Adamantit Dungeon War Core], a soul.

“With the infinite time I have been given, I will forge a destiny for the both of you, for everyone and if endless power is needed to do so, then I will acquire that power!“ Toby rumbled, lost in the moment.

“If absolute knowledge is needed to bring who I have lost back to my side, I have time aplenty to gather it from all corners of the cosmos.“ He outstretched his hand and a metallic finger began to write into the dirt.

“If great skill is necessary, I shall hone my abilities for millennia!“ He was not a human anymore but a dungeon, a power not to be taken lightly. He had to be one, for all other paths were paved with insanity.

* * * *

“See, and you kept spewing nonsense about my youth and hormons, but we are better off than back there in their stinking refugee camps.“ Shingu kept teasing his companion, who was sitting next to him with a piece of roasted meat in hand.

“Lucky brat.“ He grumbled before bitting off a piece.

The few golems that had been around still wandered about, probably doing something that golems usually do, Shingu had no idea. The important part was that they were not hostile to them and were not too friendly to local predators, leaving the pair of catkin with both meat and a relatively secure place to stay.

He looked at the ground, two words that had been written by one of the golems were fading there, the sand that made them being slowly blown away by the gentle breeze.

WAIT HERE

As simple as that.

“What do you think?“ He nodded in the direction most of the golems disappeared, expecting some insight from his much more experienced companion.

“Who knows? We can only wait and see. At least we will be reported as killed in action for sure.“ Fulgwan finished his meat, answering with his mouth full, not bothered by any sort of manners.

* * * *

“After some reconstruction, this place should do.“ Toby stood in the middle of some kind of a church and watched as the other golems worked their magic to tear some of its inner walls down, connecting its interior with the houses next to it. He decided to turn the place into his base of surface operations, but observing the main hall taking shape, he liked the result less and less.

“That is just awful, it looks like a synagogue of a religious cult that is two seconds away from bonkrupcy. I need something representative of my future influence.“ Toby walked outside and instructed the golems to abandon the project, moving the whole endeavour to the large square outside, where they began building from a scratch.

The most magnificent buildings in Toby’s mind were the pictures of gothic cathedrals, thus he decided to emulate their magnificent looks. He watched with a smile his minions at work, the awe inspiring structure rising up at a staggering pace in front of his eyes, Toby had to thank his luck that his golems were able to use earth magic with expertise other creatures could only stare at with envy. He decided to také the Reims Cathedral as a template, of course he had to make it bigger right? Much bigger!

The only problem was that he remembered mainly the front with the two pronounced square towers, it was not his fault that the pictures displayed mainly the front section!

“No matter, we will deal with that detail my fellow workers.“ When he knew just the front, then everywhere would become the front. Toby decided to build the cathedral as a symmetrical cross, the whole structure’s shape would look like the flag of Switzerland from above. Why not?

Maybe their wealth would rub off of him by doing that!

Well, hardly but one can have his dreams right? He ordered to merge the four identical front sections of the structure into a square central tower in the cross’ centre, but when his minions had finally finished the whole magnificence, he noticed two issues at hand.

The first was that the whole structure looked like an orgy of mathematics and symmetry, there was no meaning in it! Toby looked at the two towers of the cathedral before him and did not have to think for long about how to make it right. He ordered a statue of Niskai to be placed on top of the left tower and a statue of Aisus on the right, it felt like the act gave the whole cathedral the purpose that it had lacked.

Thus, he ended up with the four pairs of towers, having a pair of statues looking at each other on top of them, with the central tower being not as high as the front towers, but slightly mroe bulky with its top flat, devoid of any decorations.

Toby looked at the huge spectacular structure and almost had to wipe a soily tear off his face. When had he become this sentimental?

Anyways, his base of operation had been build, but his smile froze on his earthy face for a second.

Yes, the second problem was that he was not able to make glass, meaning there were no windows.

“Bah! Who needs windows?“ Toby waved his arm haughtily.

Toby’s earth elementals naturally had no need for light, how would they have moved deep underground otherwise? The others would have to deal with it or bring candles, because he refused to have simple holes for light in his cathedral. Maybe he would be able to make glass somehow later, but he was unable to do it yet as it was not a priority.

“A shire of The Earthmother!“ Toby heard a shout from behind and turned around in panic. He saw the two catkin kneeling in front of him, they had swiftly determined the owner of the newly built cathedral.

“It was too quick, The Earthmother is still strong even when all magic wavered!“ This was bad, even the black furred catkin had a religious look in his eyes. Weren’t teenagers supposed to be rebellious? Toby guessed the speed at which the structure had been built really could be attributes to a god’s miracle, but man! The Earthmother? Like hell he would leave his name like that!

But right when Toby readied himself to write something nasty to cast away the wrong, gender-distorting title, he spotted another group of creatures in the distance that were kneeling in front of a different front, shouting excitedly.

“The Earthmother will save us! Please guide us, oh great goddess of the earth!“ Toby cursed in his mind, regretting that he had made many fronts, now he was being besieged on all sides! Still, it was partially his own fault, he was doing miracles using earth golems, so in their eyes he had to be an earth-related diety.

Yes, they were adamantite golems, but it hardly mattered to the religious mob that began slowly forming around the cathedral.

“The Earthmother will protect those who believe, the disaster was just a great purge, a test of our faith!“ In moments, there rose up some that felt that they had it in them to become prophets of the newly discovered goddess.

“White furr?! I thought you were the experienced, collected guy!“ Toby could not believe how fast everything kept happening. It was like he had watered a dried up grass when he had erected the cathedral, the ruins that had appeared devoid of life up until now, were slowly producing all the survivors that had been hiding under the rubbles of buildings and in dark corners.

“I saw it happen, The Earthmother had beaten back the cursed king! She erected a grand shrine in her name! She is a benevolent mother of all of us!“

“Ugh. . “ Toby staggered, the last proclamation almost giving him a heart attack.

“Look, that has to be Aisus and Niskai, the symbols of fertility!“ What, WHAT?! They were supposed to be elven statues! How could they know them? Toby’s brain could not process what was happening, it could not be just a simple coincidence!

“She is right! It is really The Earthmother!“ Wait, the deities were elven and he knew from Irwen that elves had closer ties with the demons of the demon world than they liked to admit. Could it be that this was actually the place where the two deities originated from?

Toby looked up at the smiling statue of Aisus he had just created, he felt betrayed, the statue looked like it was mocking him with its smile.

“See what you have done you prick?“ Toby grumbled, addressing the statue. He looked around, there were dozens of people already, kneeling on the ground with more still on their way, the created huge landmark attracting their attention.

“It cannot be helped, it seems like I am The Earthmother now.“ Toby sighed, his dreams of the adventurer’s guild melting like a cheap icecream.