I noticed that I didn’t get a popup saying that I had conquered the dungeon or anything like that. I had been waiting for some confirmation that I was victorious. I guess I hadn’t exactly tamed this guy, and I hadn’t gotten my hands on his true dungeon lore. In that respect, I hadn’t succeeded. I had still grown used to some kind of clear reward. I had won the war, but there was no sign saying it ended, so wasn’t it still going on?

As I was looking for it, an awkward silence had grown between everyone. The cloaked man that had been waiting after I took the fake orb he offered started to grow impatient.

“Are you going to leave yet?” He demanded.

No one else got these physical announcements as I did. So, even if I explained what I had been waiting for, they wouldn’t understand it. I let out an awkward cough.

“I still need to use your passage.”

“Out of the question!” He cried out.

I frowned, and the girls behind me adjusted themselves causing him to stiffen. “I already defeated you.”

He raised his sleeves. “It’s not that! It’ll just take days for you to get through, and having a knife to my throat for that long, I won’t accept it. When a rival dungeon master is in your dungeon, you feel continuing pressure from them until they leave. Just entering another person’s dungeon without being invited is considered a threat! This is why I reacted in the way I did.”

I looked over at Elaya, who nodded in confirmation that everything he said was the truth. I wish I had known this. I had to come up with some kind of way to mask my dungeon master side. Otherwise, this could cause issues down the line. I didn’t plan to quit going into dungeons, but what would happen if I entered a great dungeon and they took it as a threat? Even this guy could be difficult to handle. I couldn’t even fathom the power behind a great dungeon’s dungeon master.  I liked it better when I was a Dungeon Builder who had none of the responsibilities of being a master. I had all of the benefits and none of the responsibilities.

“Ah… well, I still need to get into Dioshin. Once I’ve been there, I wouldn’t have to use this passage again.”

“I can take you to the other side!” He declared.

I coughed. “I’d need to remain with my group. They’ll be waking up soon.”

We discussed things for a small amount more and finally came to a decision. Only about an hour later, the group started waking up. The men who had fallen asleep on watch and failed to get anyone else up were reprimanded by the lead adventurer.

“We got a full day ahead of us- huh?” The dwarf glanced down the hallway to see an elevator. “This is…”

“Isn’t that the elevator on the Dioshin side? We’re there already?” Pait frowned, rubbing his back. “Are you saying we didn’t need to sleep for the night, and we could have just been out of here and sleeping in a soft bed?”

The dwarf was flummoxed as the party set out to go. I kept my mouth shut. I was pretty tired, having not slept the previous night, but I had a body that could go without sleep a few nights if needed.