Fenrir

A few minutes ago

“If you’re going to forget anything I’ve said till now, at least make sure to remember these three things,” Dawn says while floating in circles around my head as we stand in front of the sealed off doors of my dungeon. “Do not offend anyone at Tier 6 or above, do not side solely with any of the factions outside, and please do not remain outside of the dungeon for more than a day.” Dawn stops floating in front of my head. “Okay?”

I nod my avatar’s head, which still feels a little weird, but I’ve pretty much got the body’s movements down thanks to moving around with it for the past week.

“Don’t worry. I heard you the first ten times,” I tell her, feeling a little bit impatient to leave the dungeon. And very much wishing that she would just stop talking to let me do so.

I sense Dawn mentally pouting somehow as her flame begins to glow a reddish pink color before she says, “I still wish you wouldn’t leave the dungeon like this.”

With the patience that I’ve learned from my years of life as a Dungeon Core, I tell her, “I have to know what’s outside of the dungeon. Not only if I’m gonna expand upwards at some point, but also just to have a change of pace for once. You yourself-”

Dawn cuts me off at this point by saying, “Yeah, yeah, I know. It doesn’t make me worry any less. Especially since I have to stay behind to watch the dungeon while you’re gone.”

I bob my large wolf head up and down at that before a wolfish grin stretches across my face. Which still feels weird to think, considering I didn’t have a face just a week ago.

Of course, along with my desire to see more of the outside world, there are actual practical reasons for me to leave the dungeon. Such as seeing which species are above ground, which Gods might have a hand in the city above, what the overall laws are, and to make some connections with the people above. Because connections – as I’ve learned from the annoying Princess and the Vampires – are very nice to have.

“Alright, let’s go!” I exclaim in a giddy tone of voice that makes Dawn turn greenish yellow in amusement right before I unseal the entrance and push my way through, into the sunlight of the outside world.

Or rather, into the darkness of a closed off area surrounded by walls with the only area for sunlight to come in being the lack of a ceiling.

I look around, but don’t manage to find anyone inside this portion. Just another couple doors at the center of the wall directly across from my dungeon entrance.

Well that was anticlimactic.

I walk up to the door, allowing the dungeon doors behind me to close thanks to a small amount of prodding to my separated consciousness, before I grab the doorknob with my jaws and open the door. Crushing the doorknob in the process.

Eh. Not my problem.

My actions attract the attention of the two guards standing on the other side of the door who immediately begin to panic, shakily raising their spears to face me. But neither of them stand like that for long. Not after one of the Vampire Emperors shows up, picks them up with some rope of blood, tells them to get the city lord, and literally flings them towards a large manor I can see sitting on a hill nearby.

Okay, not what I was expecting to see when I left my dungeon for the first time.

“Congratulations on your Dungeon Avatar, Fenrir,” the Vampire Emperor says with a smile on his face, completely ignoring the large number of people beginning to head towards us. “I would like to welcome you to the surface.”

I nod my head towards the Vampire and answer, “Thank you,” before looking around at the faces of the many people around us. Which now that I think about it, feels weird to say. Since I’m used to referring to everyone as intruders.

But not everyone up here is an intruder. There are plenty of merchants and other people here too that have never been in my dungeon before, making intruder not a very good term to call them.

It is rather obvious which ones enter my dungeon, even without counting the auras I feel from some of them designating them as cultivators. Considering the terrified looks I see on several of their faces at the sight of me.

Out of curiosity, I peek out from my core at the area around me, since from what Dawn mentioned, my avatar can also act as a bit of an extension to my core’s territory when I’m outside of the dungeon but nearby it. But only in the area immediately surrounding me. And I still can’t interfere with anything when people are too close.

What I find is the sight of dozens of people, very quickly nearing a hundred – which is the most non-dungeon entities I’ve ever seen in one place at one time before – gathering around a large, three meter long wolf. The wolf – me – has eyes as black as the night sky above us all, letting out black flames made up of void energy, along with seemingly ethereal fur billowing in the wing around me and black claws.

I nod my head in appreciation of the sight before focusing entirely on my avatar again right when I sense a couple familiar auras getting close by. And when I turn to look at them, I find myself staring at some of the members of the city lord’s party.

Interesting.

I go back to looking at the crowd to find that many of the surrounding people seem to have heard the Vampire Emperor’s words and are spreading it around. That I’m the dungeon core.

Good to know that Dawn was right. That leaving the dungeon isn’t an uncommon thing the moment a dungeon gets their avatar.

Part of it is because it leads to less misunderstandings if people see you and know that you’re the dungeon core. After all, wouldn’t want someone trying to attack me because they think I’m Spawn or a monster from my dungeon that got out.

My thoughts come to a halt when the sight of someone jumping out of the balcony of the nearing manor catches my eye.

Looks like the city lord is coming now.