“Do either of you want to handle this community?” Nate asked that night.

  Dungeon number twelve, the goblin dungeon, had been fully conquered during the day. It would now be the third dungeon with a community. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be a mistake, and the mental effects of the community would actually have an effect on the goblins.

  They weren’t as bad as in some stories he had read, but they were still murderous little things. If the mental influence of the community could change them, then he would have more confidence of it helping even worse races.

  However, this was the third community. He and Aura had each done one, so he thought that they might want the chance to work on its design.

  “What would a community for goblins even look like?” Angie asked.

  He shrugged. “Start with the walls and a single large building that can be used as a meeting house. Then wait a while and once they have begun to change and become more intelligent… or at least coherent, you can ask them what they need.”

  A thoughtful look crossed her face. “Yeah, alright, it sounds like an interesting task, and it isn’t as though I have to actually meet any of them in person.”

  Lindsay, who was looking increasingly frazzled, looked betrayed that her friend had taken the chance from her. It was nearly nine o’clock at night, and Mika had been talking to her non-stop.

  Angie stuck her tongue out at her and winked.

  Lindsay flicked an apple seed at her and kept petting Mika. The worst part was that the little weasel’s voice was inside her head, so she couldn’t even wear earbuds to block out the noise.

  “There will be another two finished in a couple of days,” Nate told her, sliding his notepad across the table to her. “You can design the community for either of those if you want.”

  Honestly, there wasn’t much to do in the beginning using their current method. All they were doing at the moment was making the protective wall and a single building to serve as the meeting house. Then they could decorate the walls with images of a kitsune and the inhabitants of the dungeon.

  In the case of Angie’s community, a kitsune decorated the wall in varying motifs of standing above the goblins. Sometimes the goblins would be standing beneath the kitsune, other times, kneeling at her feet. There were a dozen or more different varieties to be seen.

  She was having fun decorating the walls and continuing with the theme of Aura being the community’s mascot.

  In the meantime, Lindsay was going through the latest information Nate had gathered. “One of the new dungeons was destroyed?”

  He nodded. “Yup, I never even got to do anything but the basics with it.”

  She frowned, the hand that was petting Mika, stilling. “Can we make another one there?”

  “Of course, but it won’t do us much good if it just gets destroyed again. It also counts as a loss if that happens. A destroyed Dungeon Core is one less that we can make in the future.”

  A single finger began tapping at Mika’s back as the young woman thought. “Hmm, sounds like we should avoid making another one there then for now, at least until we know more about how it was destroyed.”

  He agreed, sliding his laptop back in front of himself. While he could now use his new meditation method, he wanted to continue working on it and making it better.

  “Are any of you interested in doing a dungeon run tonight?” Lindsay asked as she began working on the new dungeons. “With the themes Nate has selected for these new ones, once I get a few traps going, they shouldn’t be too hard.” She maneuvered through her menu and stopped to show them. “Take this, for instance. The wendigos in Alaska are supposed to be highly afraid of fire. That means that we’ll be able to steer them wherever we want, even without regular traps.”

  Nate leaned back and listened to her. She was right. They could line the walls with sconces that used fire or something similar. If they were truly as scared of fire as they believed, then the monsters wouldn’t even dare to get close to whatever they used.

  Guiding them wherever they wanted should be easy at that point, and then they could either fight them personally or use proper traps to finish them off.

  Angie glanced up from where she was fiddling with the decorations on the wall surrounding the community. “I wouldn’t mind getting some exercise for an hour or two, especially if it is as easy as you make it sound. Besides, I’d also like to see if Mika can now enter the dungeons with us.”

  At the mention of her beloved animal companion, Lindsay gave the weasel a few quick, tired scratches. “We redid the ceremony earlier with Aura’s help, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Mika is now properly registered in my Sub-DCD as an animal slash beast companion, whereas before it had her listed in parentheses and as just an animal companion.”

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  “Sounds good. How about you finish getting the traps and everything else set up for us? I’ll make us dinner, and then we can go in.” Nate volunteered, standing up, foregoing his desire to work on his meditation method for the time being. Doing a dungeon run would be more beneficial in the short term than banging his head against the wall that was his new method. He had gotten it to the point where it worked, but every small improvement required hours of revisions and tests using binding ties.

  A short while later, Nate presented everyone with a noodle and kielbasa sausage concoction covered in a cheese sauce. His eyes were dancing with glee while the girls glared at him.

  In the short time Mika had been with them, they had discovered something about the little weasel. She loved cheese, but she was also VERY lactose intolerant. In a short while, her bum and stomach would be capable of releasing a gas potent enough to kill the wendigos on their own. That she would then be creating for hours on end. Their tiny bedroom was going to become a toxic wasteland that night.

  “Nate, I hate you!” Angie hissed, pointing her fork at him. “You are a very, very bad man, and I hope you don’t get a single good drop tonight.” With that declaration, she speared a piece of sausage and brought it to her mouth, glaring harder at him. “Is good.” She muttered in annoyance.

  Lindsay barely caught the weasel, who was the cause of their upcoming problems, as she dove for the pot. “No, Mika, remember your table manners.”

  “Table manners don’t exist when there is cheese and meat; don’t forget the meat, but mainly the CHEESE!” Her little paws were scrabbling at the air, desperately attempting to reach the food.

  Chuckling at the show, Nate promptly finished dishing out the portions and sat down with them.

  “I think I’ll sleep on the roof tonight,” Aura tells the group calmly, her tongue wrapping around a noodle and sucking it into her mouth.

  ***

  Inside the dungeon, they found the atmosphere of the place completely different from normal. The large sconces that lined the walls were flickering with fire, making the rooms and corridors even brighter than normal. They also created shadows that didn’t normally exist, creating an effect that Nate hadn’t even thought about until that moment.

  It was vaguely spooky, altering the flickering shadows and making the place seem alive. If they didn’t have their cameras and maps, then their group would have also been unsettled and jumping at the shadows they glimpsed from the edge of their vision.

  “This is different,” Aura commented, studying the Core room they had appeared in, and then turning to her own cameras. “The wendigos don’t seem to like the flames in the slightest. They’re all sticking to the middle of the rooms, not even willing to get close to the torches.”

  Lindsay snorted and flicked a nearby sconce and its torch. “This little thing? I didn’t expect them to be so effective. Honestly, I was thinking I would need to change the size of torches, or what they were entirely, a few times, before getting these sorts of results.”

  If the original torches worked, then so much the better. It just meant that the wendigos were either more scared of fire than they had estimated or were even weaker to it than they had guessed. Either worked, though one option was obviously better than the other. If they were merely scared, then it was something that they might overcome at the wrong time.

  With that thought in mind, she made a note to make the torches larger, just in case.

  “Should we start hunting?” Angie asked, making a quick check of her gear.

  Nate pulled out his crossbow and quiver of bolts, making sure a few were attached to the holder on the crossbow as well. There were a few different methods he could use to attack the wendigos, but maintaining his distance was the best bet, as they were fast monsters. On top of that, he was attempting to bring up the level of his ‘Point Break’ energy skill. At the moment, the attack skill was at its third modification and was getting close to either evolving or becoming ‘Point Break^2’.

  If it became Point Break Squared, then it would gain the explosion effect on impact sometimes. Later evolutions would either increase the frequency or allow him to control when the explosion occurred. On the other hand, if the skill evolved into something more personalized, then anything was possible.

  Against the wendigos, explosions would be good. That was actually true for most things. However, personalized skills were generally better in the long run. Not always, just generally. It wasn’t unheard of to get dud evolutions.

  Ever since it had been brought to their attention, the party had been attempting to integrate more skills into the fights. It was harder than it sounded due to simple logistics. When fighting alone, you didn’t have to worry about where your partners were and friendly fire. That wasn’t the case when using skills in a party.

  It was why they had been unconsciously holding back up till that point. Sure, they had still used them every once in a while, but those times were the exception, instead of the norm.

  As a party, they had gotten pretty good at knowing where the other members were and were now ready to add this layer of complexity to their fighting mechanics. It may have been easier if they had done so from the beginning, but that wasn’t how things had worked out.

  Mika’s presence and unpredictability added a factor that they would need to work around as well. They needed to learn what the weasel could bring to a fight, and if she was capable of helping them win a fight.

  If nothing else, Mika could serve as a great distraction to their enemies. She was fast and annoying… err, talkative as all get out. It was just a matter of discovering what else she could do. However, this particular dungeon might not be the best dungeon to test and push all her abilities to their limits.

  Charging his crossbow, Nate slipped a long bolt with a barbed hunting tip into place. The tip of the bolt hung out over the end of the barrel, allowing him to use the unusual tip.

  The others were all ready, with Aura specifically looking unworried since she could create fire if the need arose.

  They checked each other over and then left the room after ensuring they were prepared. They weren’t expecting this dungeon run to be difficult, not with how afraid of fire the wendigos seemed to be. Instead, they were looking to get Mika some experience against easy monsters and also farm items.

  No matter how many herbs they had, they could always use more, though their main goal was, of course, the rainbow orbs.

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