Megumi stared up at the giant walls that spanned the entire width of the ravine leading up the mountain pathway. Ballistae were affixed to gigantic watch towers and she could see soldiers patrolling the walls. A large iron gate stood before them and four guards blocked the way. "Purpose of visit and how long do you plan to stay?" the guard asked in a deadpan voice that screamed he was bored as hell. 

"Poro-kun and Megu are just travelers. We're just passing through. We want to see the sights of the capital city. We're also taking this girl to her aunt who lives here in Rivean."

The man eyed them for a moment. Megu hopes that the wanted poster hasn't spread this far yet! 

"Very well. You can go ahead," he looked directly at Poro-tan. "Don't cause any trouble in the city, understand? We have low tolerance for such things here."

Poro-tan nodded and the man waved to a guard on the other side who used a mechanism to lift the heavy gate. Once Megumi's group was on the other side and clear of the guards she stopped and knelt down next to the little girl. "Where does your aunt live? Do you remember?"

"In the marketplace! Auntie owns a cafe. The Golden Neko," Tara replied.

Megumi knew how hard the girl was trying to stay upbeat despite losing her mother. After they killed the bandits, Megumi had asked about the girl's father. Apparently he had been killed by the same bandits just after she had been born. Megumi was definitely no hero, but she was glad that she had exterminated those vermin. Villains like those who merely existed to prey upon the helpless were nothing like her. She had higher goals in mind.

The city was much grander than Bridgeport or any of the small towns she had called home for the last several years. The buildings were all created from stone and they were crammed together just like the ones down in Oleander. The city was built with defense in mind. A river ran through the center of town that came down from the peaks of the tallest mountain providing water and the city was built upon terraces, each with their own walls and checkpoints. 

After passing through two more residential sections of the city they crossed a large bridge that ran across the river. She looked off the edge of the bridge and saw that the bed of the river was covered in sharp rocks that pointed upwards. Even the water source was a defensive mechanism. It was no surprise that this city had never fallen to siege in the wars of the past. 

Once across and through yet another checkpoint, they finally reached the market district. It was a typical market with hawkers selling various trinkets on blankets as they walked past. Megumi bought herself and Tara some cheap matching bracelets so that the girl would have something to remember her by. Just to keep up appearances of course! It's not like she actually cared for the little girl or anything. Really! 

Several minutes later they found The Golden Neko on the corner of two intersecting main streets. A flag flapped in front of the building with a golden cat holding a cake in outstretched arms. A mascot character stood outside in a fuzzy suit dancing around, beckoning people to come inside. Now this is Megu's kind of restaurant! It's so cute! They made their way over to the building and went inside.

The place was bustling and full of patrons. Several waitresses wearing fake cat ears ran around carrying dishes. There was a counter with stools in front if it at the back of the large room. A display case stood behind that counter with a dozen delicious looking cakes in it. 

"Auntie!" Tara yelled as she saw a woman come out from the kitchen. The woman was probably in her early thirties and had short brown hair. She, like the other workers, had two cat ears attached to the top of her head. She sat down the plates she had been holding and ran over to Tara, scooping her up in a warm embrace.

"Tara! I didn't know you were coming to visit! Where's your mom?" 

The girl's mood sank upon hearing her mom mentioned and she began to cry. Megumi explained the situation to the woman who thanked them for doing all they did. "Thank you for bringing her here. I will keep her safe." She held Tara tightly in her arms. "You two are heroes for finally bringing justice to those bandits. You'll always have meals on the house here for as long as I live. Thank you!" she was crying.

Megumi shifted anxiously. Megu doesn't want to be a hero! Heroes are worthless. Free food is always good though. So Megu will let it slide, just this once! They sat and talked with the woman, Eileen, for a hour or so while eating some of the most delicious cakes that Megumi had ever tasted, and then they stood up to leave. 

"Megu-chan! Don't leave!"

Megumi bent down and patted the girl on the head like she used to do to her sister. "Megu will be around. I'll come visit, don't worry." She smiled and waved goodbye as they left the cafe. Megu has a dungeon to create! 

"Poro-tan, we are going to need to leave the city and head further up the road a ways. Megu needs to find a good place to plant the core. It will be a level 1 core again so we will need to feed and protect the dungeon."

"I can't believe you made me try every one of those damned cakes! There wasn't anything spicy on that whole menu. I swear, you need to just let me go find my own food to eat."

"That wouldn't be as fun. Now quit whining and let's get a move on! Megu wants to get this done today."

After an hour or so of travelling they arrived in a good spot for the dungeon. Megumi had Poro-tan kill any monsters they found and had him carry their corpses along the journey. They had found a few types of weak monsters that she could use to seed the dungeon with. Megumi intended to feed the dungeon strong adventurers to help it level and grow stronger as soon as possible. 

A small trail led off towards the mountains that appeared to be used by animals seeking water from a nearby mountain lake. She walked over to a large cliff face that ran near the edge of the lake and pulled out the dungeon core. It pulsed faintly in her hand and she held it out against the rock. A prompt appeared. 

Megumi selected yes and the core pulsed as brightly as the sun. She had to avert her gaze and felt the orb slide away from her fingertips and sink into the stone. The ground began to quake around her and she struggled to maintain her balance. Several minutes of rumbling later, a simple stone archway formed in front of her leading into a eerily lit room. 

Excitedly, she ran inside the room and looked around. The stone walls were marbled with veins of quartz and cobalt that gave the room some color. The dungeon had used the natural resources around it to form the interior of its own volition. She and Poro-tan walked around the empty place and found that the new dungeon consisted of merely 8 circular rooms that were linked together in a straightforward fashion. "Well... this isn't very great, is it Poro-tan?" She couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice. 

In Northpost the dungeon was somewhat formed as a crude labyrinth and featured two floors as well as a giant boss room. It would take barely any effort at all for even a low leveled adventurer to walk straight through this place and take her core. She paced around the room with the pedestal the core stood upon for a moment and then placed her hand on the orb. A status screen appeared. 

Megumi focused on the rooms section of the menu and another window appeared before her.

There wasn't a lot she could do here without any monsters yet, but she did assign herself and Poro-tan as friendly users. The monsters wouldn't attack them in the dungeon unless they attacked first. It was time to give this place some monsters. "Poro-kun, drop the dead monsters on the floor."

He gave her an insolent look, he hadn't been happy being forced to place corpses into his bag. A moment later four monster corpses were laid out on the floor. She didn't get what he was whining about anyway, it wasn't like the magical space inside the thing could get dirty or something. Over the next few minutes they watched as the dungeon absorbed the corpses of the dead monsters. The bestiary interface updated immediately and showed her four monsters: blue slime, niern, mountain rat, scarlet viper. If only Megu had been able to grab the corpse of that giant version of the little snake that we fought on the way up here. Maybe I can grow strong ones in the dungeon.

The niern looked like a large lizard with a series of blue and green mushrooms growing on its back. It had tried to incapacitate her pawn by shooting out spores. A beast like that one would be useful in the dungeon. The slime and mountain rats, however were pretty pitiful. She had to work with what she had though. She decided that the first order of business would be to re-arrange the dungeon into a better layout. She opened the administration window again and chose Organize Rooms. This was the first time she encountered something that cost Dungeon Points, or DP for short. Changing the layout of the dungeon would require 100 DP, nearly all that was available. 

Megumi didn't see any other choice in the matter and paid the cost. A window appeared and allowed her to move things around and reshape them with her mind. Several minutes later the dungeon was organized into a more interesting shape. There were a series of three rooms off the entrance. One of the rooms was a dead end, while the one to the right led off in a chain of five rooms. The room where she stood, with the dungeon core, she hid behind a wall with a secret entrance. The room before it would be the boss room. The whole place shook around them and she had the odd sensation that the room she was in was literally moving into place. It was like the dungeon itself was alive beneath her feet.

It isn't much, but it will have to do until Megu can level this dungeon up. Nobody knew exactly how, but dungeons generated gemstones, coins, and even rare magical items at higher their levels. Adventurers could come and test their might against a place in hopes of good loot drops. Dungeons were truly a gift from the gods. These were the reasons that dungeons were national treasures. Higher level dungeons were heavily guarded and typically owned by royal families. 

Next, she chose to seed loot and the dungeon ate away some coins she offered up: A 100 GP coin, a 50 GP coin, a 25 GP coin, and 25 single GP coins. Somehow it could now literally generate money and would drop coins randomly when monsters were slain. Everything was going smoothly so far.

She assigned monsters to spawn in the various rooms of the place and had it so that weaker monsters spawned near the first rooms, while the nierns and scarlet vipers spawned near the boss room. She assigned a scarlet viper as the boss of dungeon for now. She gained the option of enhancing the boss monster with 40 DP, so she did. Spawning monsters took DP, which would regenerate at a rate of 10 per hour. Right now she didn't even have enough DP to spawn all the monsters, so all that she could do was wait.

"Poro-tan, we'll be staying in this room from now on. We're going to have to protect the core until the dungeon gets stronger. It's hidden but someone could steal Megu's core easily if they looked around enough. Unpack the bag."

Several minutes later the room with the dungeon core was decorated to her tastes and she had the tent set up in the corner of the room with all her stuffed animals and blankets. Megu just needs to be patient and with time she will be strong enough to leave this place and go after her real goal. She lay down in her tent while Poro-tan kept watch and she took out her only real treasure,a worn children's book, and ran her fingers lightly over the cover before tucking it under her pillow and going to sleep.