Adam stared at the beetle's nook. It poked its head from it and Adam snatched it.

“Come on, buddy, time for you to evolve,” Adam poured all his mana into the beetle and dropped it down. It didn't grow, as he had expected, rather, it stared up at him with something akin to intelligence in its dark orbs. 

“Do you need to sleep it off, buddy?” Adam picked up the beetle again and placed it in its nook. “I will see you tomorrow.”

Adam made to slither away, but he heard the rustling of leaves that was brought about not by his tail, but by tiny feet. He turned around. The beetle was staring up at him.

The black insect took Adam's silence as an invitation to climb over the Naga's tail and to slowly get on the teen's shoulder. Adam stared at the beetle, and he reached out a hand to touch its back. He found that the shell was hard to the touch. Too hard for it to be normal.

“Is that all my 101 mana points did? Give you a harder shell?” The beetle shook its entire body and Adam blinked.

“Can you understand me?” The dung beetle jumped in place. Adam began slithering to the entrance of the cave in excitement. Wait until Constantine found out about this. A  beetle that could understand speech!

“Tine! Tine! Come see what I did,” Adam called, but no one answered him. He slithered to the edge of his dungeon grounds and stopped. Constantine had gone home. To make the frenzy potion and do what he did when he wasn't with Adam. Adam bowed his head.

Occasionally, he tended to forget that Constantine could go out and about. That he had a life outside of Adam's. With a shrug, Adam turned to the beetle. He petted it and slowly slithered back inside.

He got back to the fertilizer pile and placed the dung beetle down.

“Now, I don't like this,” Adam pointed at the heap of dung on the ground. “But you do, and so do my plants. I will supply you with tons of the stuff, if you make more of your balls and cart them around the dungeon. But not on the walkways, ok, buddy?”

The beetle jumped up and down again and began to make dung balls. When the entire pile was converted into balls, the dung beetle began pushing one of the outermost balls around, and it dumped it next to a parsley patch.

Adam clapped, and the beetle returned to the pile, taking another ball. That process was repeated until there were no more balls. Adam took out his hoe and began burring the balls. This was much easier and cleaner than his former method of fertilizing. Only one ball was left, and the beetle went and buried itself in it. 

“Sleep tight, buddy,” said Adam. He would need to think of a name for the beetle. But, for now, buddy would suffice. The dungeon core considered summoning more beetles for another death match, but that would endanger buddy. No, he would not throw his mobs in the meat grinder aimlessly. Outside animals and beings would have to suffice.

However, for that to be possible, Adam had to convince Constantine to lift the barrier, and that won't be an easy fit. Still, he was confident that he could do it. Once he proved to the necromancer that he was not a child anymore.

With a loss for what to do and out of mana, Adam went and submerged himself in the hot pool. He laid on the bottom, being able to breathe under the water just fine, and he drifted off.

Adam was woken up by soft murmurs from above the water. He poked his head up and found a healer woman, if her robes were anything to go by.

“My, I thought you were a corpse,” she said with a smile. “That necromancer chased me here, but I turned the barrier inside out. You don't mind me camping here until he leaves, do you?”

“The necromancer is my friend,” said Adam. Sure, he had thought about things dying in his dungeon. But now that he was confronted with such a meek looking woman, he found that he couldn't bring her to harm. 

“Oh? Can you explain to him, that I just came to see the garden, then? It is such a lovely place. And things are already lush and green, despite it being March,” Adam preened at the praise.

“The secret is the mana infused water that I use for drop watering. I have pipes crisscrossing the entire dungeon grounds,” the healer clapped her hands.

“You are a dungeon core? How old are you? I haven't heard of any ancient dungeons in these parts,” Adam greened. This woman was nice. Maybe he could talk Constantine into letting her stay for a while?

“I am fifteen,” he said, and the woman went and pinched his cheeks.

“You are a munchkin still. I am so glad that you have a protector that can summon undead dragons,” Adam smiled. Yes, he would be lost without Constantine. But then the first part of her sentence registered to him, and he frowned.

“What do you mean, a munchkin? Naga are considered adults at five, and I am fifteen!” the woman snickered and patted him on the head. His long, wet, dark hair was then petted, and the woman got a determined look on her face.

“Munchkin, you have a father figure, but you need a mother. I have decided. We will speak with the necromancer, and you will convince him to let me stay. My name is Agatha, by the way,” Adam nodded and extended his hand the same way that Constantine had thought him.

“Adam. Nice to meet you, Agatha,” Agatha reached out her hand and Adam was just about to shake it when she tutted.

“You are supposed to kiss the back of it. Adam, how are you going to ever get a girlfriend if you don't know how to treat a lady?” Was Agatha right? Was the novel he had read not a good portrait of how people treated their beloveds? Could it be that this was the reason Constantine had brushed him aside?

“Teach me how to make people fall in love with me, and I will make sure you have all the herbs you need!” Exclaimed Adam, and his hair was petted again.