Arriving back at the castle, we landed by the entrance.

"Alright, Talon. Now that the urgent shit is taken care of, let's start the next part. The elves don't know where their dungeon is anymore. I want us to find it. Chaos's last letter seemed to imply that the gods have to give something to the people that claim a reset dungeon. Based on how tailored our rewards have been, let's hope that assumption holds up.

"This world seems obsessed with things divisible by five or ten. Besides the weeks in a month, pretty much everything is like that. If elves could only get to level 22, then it's probably a ten floor dungeon based on our five floor Tutorial Dungeon letting us get to level 16-ish. If we rush it, it could probably take a few days max.

"Even if it's a small dungeon, I don't want anyone else to get access to it, as unlikely as that would be. I'm not sure if I can relinquish the dungeon master title to someone else, but this world and the [system] seems to like approving weird things when two parties have consent. I'm banking on that, at least. 

"I want whatever rewards we can get easily before we attack the Empire. We're here already and can knock it out quickly, so no reason not to. Let's look around the castle and try to find anything that looks like it could be a collapsed or blocked entrance. I looked from the sky before, but all the damn trees kept me from seeing anything. You good to help?

"Pii!"

What a good hippogryph. We started circling around the castle. After a few hours and not finding anything, we stopped when we got to the courtyard wall. There wasn't even any sign of a basement or trap door. I thought it'd be behind the castle like the Tutorial Dungeon. You would think having something you want to protect would be near your largest defense. I doubt the elves of old would've just left it in the open… Wait. Fucking wait… Didn't they say all elves came to the city to level before they went on their walkabout? I wouldn't want to try to manage that. Could they have… I swear. If it's there…

"Talon, we're trying something else. Let's get in the air. I want to find the perimeter of the wall. At least in a few spots."

"Pii."

Getting on, we fly around and spot lump lines that were probably the wall. Going higher to see the entire thing, I look for the center. Telling Talon to fly down to the center of the city within the walls, we land.

If the elves treated the dungeon as some coming of age thing, it would be a center of their culture. They would've probably grown their city around it, and by extension, their walls. Looking around, we found a large pile of rubble about forty meters off from the center.

"This is probably our best bet. Help me clear this first, girl."

"Pii!"

Just like her training with Navi, I created a fire and she swirled it with air magic. After a few minutes, we had burned all the plants and trees on the pile of rubble. This damn place is so humid there really isn't much risk of a forest fire. That's probably why the humans didn't just burn it down. We may have to cut the trees later, but for now, this at least lets us work. I honestly never thought Talon would use the pyro fairy's teachings as much as she has these past few days.

Using magic, hands, and claws, we move rubble from the area, digging down into the pile that has the area of a small house. After an hour of this, I heard a crash.

"Pii!"

"What'd you find, girl?"

Going over to Talon, I see a chunk of rubble she was standing by had collapsed into a hole. Digging out enough for us to fit inside, we go down into the hole. I create a flame for Talon to see by. She sees alright with star and moon light, so it isn't big. Just enough to help her eyes. It doesn't take long for us to find something.

"Fuck yes! Good work, Talon!" I squeeze an arm around her feathery neck and ruffle her feathers.

"Pii!" Yeah, be as smug as you want right now, you damn horse-bird. You deserve it.

In front of us was a door very familiar to me. A big ass iron door to a dungeon. Without further ado, I opened it and we walked in. I wasn't sure if a monster could enter a dungeon, but hey, I didn't see why not.

"Let's go rush this fucking thing, girl."

"Pii!"

On the other side, we see a forest,  but more forest-like and less jungle-like. Because of trees and a defined path, Talon can't fly, but she's still part horse so we jog along the path. Then I see my first monster from the elven dungeon. 

Giant Caterpillar - level 1

Yep, about what I expected for this Viridian Forest wannabe of a floor. We just jog by, kicking it as we go. At the level this is compared to us, the core isn't worth even picking up compared to the time it would take. Like a millionaire on his way to an important meeting walking by a penny on the ground, we continue on at a fast pace. Eventually, we reach the boss door and enter the room.

"Pii!"

The monster dies with a rock bullet from a hippogryph. I didn't even get a chance to appraise it, but like the yellow cocoon and green half-moon chrysalis monsters we killed on the jog here, this giant bee thing with stinger arms just looked like copyright infringement.

Going through the door, we enter the second floor. It's a maze! At least it's low level, so it's pretty tiny and we get through in less than an hour, killing the goblins along the way. Entering the weird rest area/in-between room after boss doors, we decide to call it a night. I fall asleep leaning against Talon, as has become a habit, after checking on my girls at home.

Waking up, eating, and entering the third floor, we see a very small settlement in front of us. Looking closer, I see goblins inside of the wooden wall, which looks like a stiff breeze could break it.

I quirked an eyebrow. "Goblin extermination? You ready for a Navi firestorm?"

"Pii!"

We really have used this trick more than I ever thought we would. Call me racist, or… monsterist? But I don't give a fuck about goblins. The trolls were much more human and maybe I've just grown callous over a decade. Anywhoozle, after a few minutes, the settlement and inhabitants are burned and we see the wooden door unlock. Walking through and killing the boss goblins, we move on.

Floor four is a cave system. Similar monsters to the Tutorial Dungeon floor three, we clear it without an issue. Floor five was an open-world floor.

"Let's fly up and look for the door."

"Pii."

I don't even saddle her. We aren't going far or needing to maneuver. A short flight around and we spot the door. Bypassing whatever monsters are here. Killing the level 14 squirear, a fucking squirrel bear, we move on to floor six. 

We're on the shore of a lake. There's an island we can see with the boss door there. Between us are a bunch of pillars poking a few inches out of the water that we can go across. What the fuck is this? MXC, Takeshi's Castle, or Wipeout? Ain't nobody got time for that.

A short flight later and we kill the lake crocodile. Again, I'm calling fucking BS on the misnomer. That was an alligator, not a crocodile. 

Moving on to floor seven, we stop for lunch in the personal resting room. Afterwards, we ran through the maze in front of us. A few traps triggered on me while jogging in front, but what the fuck is a wooden spike trap or shabby dart going to do? Indiana Jones would kill for this fucking armor. Floor eight was another forest. This time infested with gremlins. The Slenderman-looking fuckers were still easy to kill. Wind blades were most effective, as we could take out small groups at once. 

Floor nine was a desert. They have deserts here? I haven't seen or heard of one. Whatever. Another open-world. Probably some sand scorpions, snakes, or Tremors bullshit. Not our problem. We flew around and found the door. Then there was a level 20 sand worm. Yup. Seems about right. I just take out Seren, stab it, and channel a water jet that cuts through the other side. Pivoting my blade, I cut halfway through the worm with teeth and it falls over, bleeding out. Doing the same to fully bisect it, I wipe off my blade as it dissolves, leaving a worm tooth dagger and core. Grabbing them since I'm right here, we enter floor ten. 

Floor ten is a gauntlet floor. Which was still worthless. A pair of fucking stabby-stab mantis also showed up during the waves, which I may or may not have cut off all of their appendages and wings before stabbing them over and over with the worm tooth dagger until they slowly died. It's not like I had a grudge against all death mantis for nearly killing me or something. Nope. Killing the groups of other monsters, including some armored orks, the boss comes out.

Lesser Biclops - level 21

The fuck? That's just a big person! Fucking calling it a 'biclops?' It has two eyes and everything! It's just a large bald and muscular man with shark teeth. 

"Pii!"

While I was wanting to hit whoever came up with some of these stupid names, Talon kills it with a rock bullet to the face... Well then... Being over level and having a flying mount sure makes dungeons easier. As everything dissolves, I grab all the cores and drops. Maybe I'll just give these all to Zahra. They're pretty worthless to me at this level. If it isn't at least the level of a dragonid, it isn't really worth it. Even dragonid cores don't do much anymore. Maybe we should just grind by killing the dragon for a while. Snowball our OP-ness to the max this world allows. Just like how money is easier to get when you already have a lot. After picking everything up, we walk to the door to the core room.

"Ready, Talon? Good job today, by the way. This was a pretty quick run thanks to you."

"Pii!"

Walking through to the core room, we see the core on its pedestal, an empty room, and two letters on the ground. One says 'Read me first!' in English with cutsie rounded bubble letters complete with a heart over the 'i' so I kind of have to choose it. Picking it up, I read it aloud since I really don't know if Talon can read or not.

Dalia! I wasn't expecting to be able to send you a letter so soon! 

Good job on the clear in record time! As a bonus to your reward for setting the new course record, we're giving you the second letter!

It's full of enchanter jargon and examples, but in the hands of a master of enchanting, could help them learn to use a core as a power source! Know that it isn't a completely unlimited resource. The more draw it has, the longer it takes to recharge. That's power draw from, say, tunnel lights and vents, creating monsters, environments, and all that jazz.

Navi was getting pretty close anyway. Maybe just a year of R & D. So, this really isn't that big of a gift. Then again, this is only a ten floor dungeon, so Bob's your uncle. 

Now for your prize! It can't be anything super good, thus, instead of items or the like, you'll receive information! Not world changing info, but balanced with the better-than-it-should-have-been letter. All stuff you would find out, but maybe help you sleep better at… night? Day? What are you now, by the way? Are you nocturnal or diurnal? Oh! I know! You're Dalia-urnal! 

So here's the scoop! Your little church act worked! They're packing up to march north! In fact, it worked almost better than you thought! Some groups or families are going to flee deeper into the forest. Between both groups, you'll have around one thousand five hundred elves coming to live with you! ETA for group two is about three months. They'll move slower with pull carts, families, and more items. 

Effectively, that's the entire remaining population! The one stuck leading the group is also not a bad person, and can be trustworthy. Think accountant-cum-commander. Because I know you would always question them, I'll tell you. All the remaining elves are sincere about joining you. Some are still torn on the whole, 'which gods are real,' thing, but your act did a good job in tilting their faith scale. Or at the very least that the Empire will kill them.

Also, your acting is totally on the level of those live action colored-suit wearing hero/villain shows! I almost died from laughing at that! The best part was that you beat them over the head with dropped info about you, but they never really caught on that they were purposeful hints and thought it was their idea to go to you begging for help!  There were a handful that had some questions, but when everyone else was saying otherwise, they never voiced them and just convinced themselves of the narrative.

I laughed so, so, so, hard at all of this! Order's feeling a bit down and disappointed at how clueless so many of the elves are these days. Fighting each other secluded in the forest with no outside stimulation has pretty much dumbed them down as a society. Like, fall of the Roman Empire, societal collapse and regression level dumbed down. Their skills, magic, intellect, all down the pooper. Exposing them to the world again will be just what they need!

That's about all I can give you for a clear like this. Stuff you could figure out sooner or later, but just nudging it to you sooner. Only other thing would be you can transfer Dungeon Master titles. Old people will do that, such as the human emperors to their successors. Just both drop blood on the core and state the honest desire to transfer it and to receive it. It's awkward when it isn't honest and doesn't transfer! Hahaha! If a dungeon master dies and doesn't have a successor or they also die, BTW, everyone gets kicked out for a full dungeon reset. :P

Now for Talon! Talon, the hippogryph, congratulations on being the first monster in history to clear a dungeon! That's amazing! Nobody has ever had the labia big enough to bring their own monster to a dungeon with them. What we can give you will be pretty darn good for an achievement like this!

Here's what you get. We're giving you the ability to communicate understandable words using the fairy communication skill! I know they tried to put you on the network when you were little, and all they heard was 'pii,' but now, when you get back home, have a fairy add you and you can talk! Be sure to tell them everything you want to!

Congrats to both of you again. Like I said, this is the max we can do for you. Also, Dalia. Thanksies for taking up the 'side quest' to save the elves, and not just killing them all! As simple and easy as that would be, not even we saw how manipulative a solution you would come up with! Yet, we have to admit how well it all worked! For a mortal, you're pretty darn good at that! 

Because your gear is so OP, you'll probably only get info from dungeon clears, but you know more than most how valuable that info can be! Bigger the dungeon, more juicy the deets. Also, I punched Order in the face for you! Bloody nose and all. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for not hating me!

Well, that's it! Bis zum nächsten Mal!

That's actually not too bad. Talon's reward is pretty awesome. Probably dialed down from a fully psychic skill or something for her because of the dungeon size. My info is also pretty good, especially the letter. That'll be great to hook into the core, and if it saves Navi some time, then she can focus on other things.

"Congratulations, Talon. I can't wait to actually hear you. I know Anastasia will love it too."

"Pii!"

Yup. She's super excited, but I still have a bit of a problem now. Looking at the time, it was late afternoon. Well, I'll get this out of the way first. Walking up to the core, I cut my hand and drop some blood.

Title acquired - Dungeon Master (Elven Dungeon)

Now that that's done, time for the announcements.

(Marquis Whitewater, do you have a moment?) I asked telepathically.

(Your Majesty? Of course. What can I do?)

(You remember how I said almost two hundred elves were coming to Midnight?)

(Certainly. We have already started clearing space to begin housing.)

(Well, funny story. Almost the entire remaining population will join us… so instead of two hundred, we need to prepare for fifteen hundred…)

After a pause, I hear him sigh mentally. (...As full of surprises as ever, I see…)

(two hundred will arrive in under two months, estimated, and the remaining in three months.)

(Your Majesty, I request additional help from the fairies. Both the tunnel and the church have progressed faster than expected. Should bricks for the church be made only at night, construction could still progress.)

He always rebounds pretty quick. (I'll talk to them about moving focus. I'll also work with Navi on a possible housing solution and have her tell the carpenters the plan. I doubt we'll be able to house them all immediately.)

(I look forward to a viable solution to tripling our population. Our current food supplies will be strained if not outright depleted,) he adds.

(Then all of the grain and vegetables from the western fields will be reallocated to our people. The elves are also decent hunters and can maneuver in forests much more dense than what's around us. We could have them form teams to go deeper for game that can be placed in a pouch. Keep the animals inside the wall as a final resort to turn to in case we do run critically low.)

(That… May be enough. I'm not sure if you planned for something like this, but having that as a fallback in place will save us from a potential crisis for our citizens.)

Nope, I just liked animals, but it works. (Then I'll contact the others next and we will begin moving forward.)

(Take care, Your Majesty.) 

This will be quite a change. Three quarters of our population being new refugees, and being from both factions of a civil war… Wait… If they aren't fighting anymore, why the hell am I taking all of them in?! Can't they all just stay here!? Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck! I didn't think this would work that well! I just wanted to end this stupid conflict, but I can't tell either group to just stay at this point! Dammit! They wouldn't have a decent leader if they all stayed, and would probably do this same shit again. If they stayed in two groups, neither would fucking reconcile. Well, fucking fine. Whatever. Until Zahra can become a queen and gain the full support of the elves, I'll just fucking play mediator. 

(James, do you have a moment?) I asked.

(Yes, Your Majesty.)

(The elves that will be coming to us have increased from the two hundred I told you about to include an additional thirteen hundred. It will be both sides of a centuries old civil war, so I suspect there may be some potential for conflict.)

He sighed as well. These two humans seem to be in sync. (... Do you have any more surprises for me, Your Majesty?)

(Not today, James.)

(Then I will begin to create a possible security plan. It will be sparse, though. This is just asking for trouble.)

(It is. Keep up the good work, James.)

(Thank you, Your Majesty.) 

Am I going to be putting cats and dogs together? Is this going to be a potential Korea peninsula?

(Navi, I could use your help.) I asked.

(You run into a super elf or something? Elves have mobile suits you can't handle?)

(Nothing like that. So, remember how I told you I was attacking the main group of separatist elves?)

(Yeah, you were going all incognito. It fail or something?) she asked.

(No, it worked. Almost too well. Now we have thirteen hundred additional elves coming to live with us. They'll be a month behind, but Elden needs you, Lala, Tsuki, and Carmen to help clear an area for them and begin prep for housing.)

(What the heck type of souvenir is that! What are you, the Pied Piper for elves?! Did you bust out a free candy sign? And aren't those sides at war?)

(Well, they were, but now the reason for the war is gone, and so it technically ended? I guess in the elven civil war, the vampires won. I mean, it only took a few days of manipulation, deception, assassination, and frontal assault. The separatist elves are total bandwagoners. It's actually pretty ridiculous.)

Navi sighed as well. (This just sounds like it's going to be an absolute mess. So, what? You want houses for them all? That isn't going to happen in time, Vamps.)

(No, not for them all. Both sides are refugees and are going to eventually leave. Or at least the majority of the elves will leave. I hope... Anyway, the two hundred in the first group are technically the ones we are publicly supporting. Midnight is assisting the young princess to learn the skills to lead her people.

(These other thirteen hundred elves are just straight up refugees, looking for asylum after losing a civil war. My thoughts are split though. Effectively, their civil war is over and we want them to reconcile. We can either split both groups and inadvertently make an us-vs-them situation in town or we can put them together and hope they don't kill each other,) I said, not liking either option.

(Hmm… Well, the ultimate goal is reconciliation,) Navi said. (If we treat this like two fighting children, you could always be the mom with a big ass wooden spoon telling them to hug and make up. As long as they're more scared of you than they are mad at each other, they should play nice for a while.)

(If we do that, we'll need a show of force as well as eventually having something to bring them together. A joint project or common enemy.)

(Well, they do have the Empire. You could try to work something out within your plan to include the elves.)

(Fuck, that'll be so annoying. Adding more variables will just increase the chances of something going wrong. What about the show of force? You like being dramatic. Think you can come up with something big we can do?)

(You know it! I already have a couple ideas. I'll just put this enchantment research on hold.)

(About that. So I kind-of sort-of rediscovered the Elven Dungeon and nabbed its core for us. It was only ten floors so Talon and I just rushed through.)

(Hahaha! You stole their dungeon?! That's so bad-butt! Hahaha!)

(Well, for rewards I got the info the separatist elves are coming and their de facto leader is trustworthy. Talon got the ability to be placed on the fairy communication network and be understandable.)

(That's so cool! I can't wait to hear Talon! Yours seems pretty lackluster though.)

(Well, I got another part. A letter from Chaos that has technobabble and examples of hooking into dungeon cores as a power sour—)

(Mine!) she cut me off. (You give that letter to me immediately, Dalia Midnight!)

(You know I will. She wrote that you were only a year or so away from getting it, so sorry for cheating a bit.)

(I'm a fairy! Who cares about cheats or hints? We're the ultimate rule benders!)

That's the truth. I continued, (Anyway, your research is on hold. We need housing solutions for refugees.)

(Hmm… Well, with what we currently have, if it needs to be quick and dirty, we could do longhouses with thatch roofs. Not elegant, but we can even do a mud brick mix to fill gaps in the walls.)

(That could work. We could just do rows of identical structures. They can just all live in groups. As long as each has a water faucet and toilet, they should be good.)

(That's going to put a lot of use on our water tower. I'll make a second specifically for these. Maybe even a third. I'll have to check the added draw.)

(Good idea. If you can make the roofing out of wood, too, I think it would be better than thatch. It may take a bit more time and resources, but one angry elf with a torch could kill a family if they wanted. We also don't want this area to turn into a slum, so keep construction sturdy with plenty of space.)

(That's a good point. Thinking deviously as ever, Vamps!)

(After we have solutions to everything and they're settled, we can potentially use the raw wood and mud brick walls as a filler and create a thin layer of stone on both sides. Then divide the insides like dorm rooms or small apartments for future people. That way we don't just trash them when the elves eventually leave.)

(Good idea!) she said. (Even if we keep some as a longhouse layout, if we spruce 'em up like that, I'm sure some human families are going to grow big enough to want one.)

(So you think this could be doable?) I asked.

(With me and my girls? We'll have something built by the time you get here! At least for the first group.)

(You're the best, Navi. Tell Elden what you need.)

(You know it!)

Hopefully with that settled, we can have a quick infrastructure in place. Still plenty of details to work out, but this is a start. Having groups share a building, toilet, and faucet should definitely help cut down on construction time. Still no way to finish everything, so maybe we can put all of the elves to work. Call it payback for helping and even add it to a reparations list for the civil war ending. I'll have to think about all of that.

This still seems like something that's going to be fucking annoying.