“We already have most of the money and the charity fair is going to get the rest. We don’t need your help, grandpa Thinker.” Said Callan Perry. The adventurers who spoke for little Theanore had gotten to him with the good news just this morning. With 76000 coins, they now only needed to make the sale of enchanted items and the fair, and they were all set.

“Surely, you don’t have the full amount. I can…” But grandpa Thinker was cut off by the chief editor.

“I am not convinced that the little girl would like to be funded by you, even partially. Please leave,” grandpa Thinker took his coin sack and exited the publishing house. His head hung low as he went through the streets. People were giving him a wide berth; afraid they would get on the bad list if they hindered his progress.

How has it come to this? Was the quill right to keep putting him on the bad list? Adventurers died in his continent. His creatures were quick to rebel when the opportunity has presented itself to them.

When grandpa Thinker woke up in this world, he was Albert Thinker. That name had given him only ridicule back home because of Albert Einstein. He was mocked every time he didn’t live up to his namesake. So, he became a hard worker, constantly trying to impress.

When a truck went off the road and hit him head-on, he was transported here. On this planet, so like Earth and so unlike it at the same time. He had thought he was on a new galaxy in the first couple of days, for the planets and stars he knew from Earth simply weren’t there. This planet even had two moons.

Everything had been fine the first couple of days. He lived as a farmer, not caring he was a dungeon core. Then the adventurers had come. They had ransacked his crops, searching for loot, and had even thrown the crystal that kept him alive to the ground. They had thought it is an empty core. A trinket. If one could reach his core room, one could see the spider web of cracks on the crystal.

Grandpa Thinker had a scar from those cracks. One spanning over his chest. A clear warning that if he doesn’t begin to listen to his system and begin to add new floors and monsters to his dungeon, the next time someone throws his crystal down it would shatter.

He could still remember the first dead adventurer in his dungeon. It was from the same group that had nearly broken his crystal. The healer. The woman had used a deadly technique to heal all of her party members at the expense of her life.

They had left her corpse behind, and the dungeon absorbed the flesh for the mana. Grandpa Thinker still wore her ring around his finger. A little something so he could always remember that it was either him or the adventurers, no matter how noble each side was.

But Theanore was different. As far as he knew, she had a level 500 barrier around her forest and a level 90 ghost aura for a final defense. The two cats and the rest of the livestock didn’t count. Neither did the plants.

The day the little nymph would need to take a human’s life was far away. For as long as the mage that put the barrier lived, there won’t be a need for a defense. No life-or-death situations. Grandpa Thinker envied the little girl.

But he was also glad she could keep her innocence for at least another 50 years. More, if the mage lived longer. But the mage was an adventurer. Eventually, some peasant would place a tempting death trap for the party without knowing it, and then little Theanore would be down to the ghost aura.

No! He couldn’t let that happen. He pulled out the list of dungeons he had denounced and scratched out Theanore’s name. Then he looked at the sack by his side.

With the 100000 coins, he could make a new barrier. One that will regenerate its mana. A dungeon to protect a dungeon, so to speak. A true dungeon core that will be attacked instead of Theanore.

Or he could buy a barrier stone of infinity with the money. He had enough for five. He could anchor the stones to Theanore, and they will hold and take one-third of her mana per day to operate.

A steep price, especially with her enchantment business. But this was the safest thing grandpa Thinker could offer the girl. Unlike most dungeons, she didn’t expand her cave inward. She expanded it out into the forest. If this kept up, the whole forest of fireflies would become her property without anyone knowing.

Well, apart from grandpa Thinker himself, but he was not going to tell. Not even to Theanore. Going to the mana stone shop, he bought five mana stones of infinity, and he headed to the forest of fireflies.

His footsteps were silenced, and he left no trace behind. The barrier tried to keep him out, but he had been there already. He knew where the dungeon began and ended.

Placing the stones on the edges of the forest, he made sure to hide them well so no one, not even Theanore, could find them. Then he activated the stones. He felt them slowly powering up and crushing the old barrier in their wake.

With a smile, he teleported back to Alerion. He had no intention to brag about what he had done. Going back to his sitting-room, he saw the quill do a little jig. Then with a flourish, it scratched out all the years' grandpa Thinker had to serve on the bad list and underlined the question mark.

“You think I will have second thoughts?” Asked grandpa Thinker his companion. The quill underlined the question mark once more.

“I guess I deserve it. There is one more thing I can do for Theanore. How would you like to be a human again and accompany me to a charity fair, old friend?”

The quill was enveloped by a bright white light and in its place, a kind grandmother appeared.

“And here I thought we were too old for dates,” she said with a wink.