“I didn’t expect you to be a big brute,” Aseri said. “I don’t have a shirt, now. Can’t repair it, either, not until the loom’s up and running.”

“Guess you’ll have to walk around topless.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

Logan smiled, and pulled her closer. “You can have mine, of course.” It wouldn’t fit well, but it would preserve her modesty.

“Oh, now the gentleman’s back,” she said mockingly.

“You didn’t seem to mind.”

“Oh, believe me, I didn’t. I’m just surprised.”

“That you’d have that effect on me? You’re not very observant. You drive me crazy.”

She paused, and, nestled into him as she was, he couldn’t see her blush. But he knew it was happening. “Yeah, well. Shut up. Don’t say gross stuff like that, it’s embarrassing.”

“Should I have pulled out?”

“We’ll be fine,” she said. “Pregnancy is rare. Really rare, for monsters. And honestly, only something very successful dungeons have to worry about. The first few months are the most dangerous by far.” She nuzzled into him, digging in closer. He returned the action, squeezing her. “Guess you wouldn’t know that, Mister Other-Worlder.”

“I wouldn’t,” he agreed.

“You know, you don’t seem spawn-crazy.”

“Spawn-crazy?”

She paused. “Infinite rebirth gets to us all, here and there. Infinity is a long time.”

“Oh,” he said. “Well. It’s because I’m not. Crazy, I mean.”

She was quiet for a while. “I believe you, but …”

“You also don’t. That’s fine. I’m not offended. If I were you, I wouldn’t believe me either.”

More silence.

“That’s what I mean. Crazy people don’t talk like that.”

He shrugged.

They lay together, enjoying each other’s warmth. 

Finally, she sighed. “We should get back to it. That was fun, but work never ends. Not this early into the game.”

“A few more minutes,” he said.

She didn’t protest.

===

Four thousand mana. 

It took an embarrassing amount of time for them to remember why they’d … done what they had … but once they did, and Logan checked the core’s mana, both of them were flabbergasted.

“Fifteen minute’s effort for four thousand mana,” Aseri said. “And it’s not miserable to do.”

“Wow,” Logan said. “Not miserable, huh? I’ll add that to the resume.”

“Resume?”

He paused. Sheesh, where do I even start with that? Too much explanation required. “Never mind.” He wasn’t actually worried about whether Aseri had had fun. Her reactions hadn’t left much to be concerned about. And she definitely didn’t seem the type to fake it. If anything, the other way—to feign disapproval, or nonchalance, even if she was having fun.

“So,” he said. “Giving them classes. Does it matter who gets what?”

“I’m sure some would be better at each task than others, but there’s no way to tell.” She shrugged. “Just pick at random.”

There were fifteen goblins. Nine female, six male, and Logan didn’t know whether that was statistical deviation or the core’s intervention. All fifteen were working away at excavating stone. There was something satisfying about seeing the process underway; the coordinated efforts of a growing civilization, for a certain sense of the word.

He followed Aseri’s instructions literally. They were standing in the core room, and the next goblin to enter was the one he beckoned over. She obeyed instantly, dropping the wheelbarrow and jogging to him.

He was briefly taken aback at the instant deference, though he really shouldn’t have been.

This goblin was taller, and thinner, than most of the others. She was almost completely flat up top, but had wide hips, like the rest of the women. Her hair was a glossy black, and messy, falling over her eyes, which she brushed out of the way as she waited for his command. 

A few inappropriate thoughts flickered into his head, but he didn’t think he’d be comfortable … well, becoming intimate with his grunts. The power dynamic to name one, though that didn’t make complete sense, seeing how Aseri was in a similar position. The lack of intelligence, he admitted to himself. The goblin women might be attractive, but their lack of sovereignty concerned him.

Not until they can talk, at least, he amended to himself. A ‘yes’ would go miles to alleviating his concerns. Or a ‘no’, ten times more so. A refusal would be the best thing he could hear, because it meant they weren’t conceding to his every request. It gave a ‘yes’ credibility.

“You’re the new blacksmith,” he told the goblin. She only came up to his bellybutton, which he couldn’t help but note. The perfect height for—he cut himself off. The core’s influence might be getting to him. “I’ve set up the construction template over there. Start building it.”

The goblin, on receiving her new task, beelined to the location he’d allocated for the smithy, a corner of the core room he’d had carved out in preparation. 

Another goblin—one of the males—came jogging down the tunnel, quickly taking the other’s place hauling the wheelbarrow.

Logan was, again, impressed at the smoothness of transition. The goblins organized themselves telepathically. Or, not technically, since it wasn’t communication through themselves, but rather the core—presumably—which fed them updated commands to execute the tasks he had laid out.

He watched with interest as the goblin went about constructing the smithing station. He could have done so himself, and faster, but Aseri had told him it was best he got used to using the grunts for everything besides crucial actions. As the dungeon grew, his attention would need to be focused on only the most important tasks at any given moment; he didn’t have time to help grunts accomplish mundane expansion of the dungeon.

The smithing station took shape in front of his eyes, pink strands of mana streaming from the core to flesh out a forge, anvil, a set of smithing tools, and more. Since he had authorized the construction, the goblin was able to call on mana to complete it.

“Loom, next,” Aseri said. “We’re making good progress. Good thing we have that … alternative method to gathering mana. Real convenient stuff.”

“Convenient,” he said dryly. “That’s one word for it.”

===

With five teams of three goblins each working to expand the dungeon, the labyrinth was taking shape faster than he could have expected.

The soul obelisk was the next pocket-space to be uncovered. A twelve-foot tower of obsidian, with ancient runes carved up and down its length, with a pyramidal cap, it struck an impressive figure. Unfortunately, unlike with the spawning pool and the research altar, there was little to do besides link to it.

“Are there more of … you, out there?” Logan asked. He hadn’t broached Aseri’s strange entrapment in the pocket-space, yet, because his attention had been torn in a hundred ways. But it was odd. She’d just … been trapped in a tiny enclave underground. 

“Me? As in, more Named?” 

Logan had learned by now that ‘Named’ came with a capital ‘N’. A title, and one with gravitas. “Yeah.”

“No,” she said. “A dungeon’s first Named spawns close to the core, but only one. Can you imagine? If there was more, further out? If the dungeon wasn’t efficient—which many aren’t—then they could be waiting …” She snorted. “A long time. Might starve to death, honestly. Some dungeons, and their Avatars, are …” she wrinkled her nose, not completing the thought.

“Then how do we get more Named?”

‘Get’ felt like a weird word to use. Like they weren’t people, but objects. Tools to be leveraged to accomplish some end. Logan didn’t ever want to start considering his staff members in that way. But the verbiage had been the natural way to discuss it.

“Few ways,” Aseri said. “Spawning pools, conquering other dungeons and binding their Named, taking in monsters from topside, —”

“There’s monsters topside?”

“Of course. Dungeons aren’t the only way for adventurers to level up.”

“Stop ‘of coursing’ me. How many times do we need to go through this?”

“A human born from another planet, yeah, yeah,” Aseri said dismissively, waving her hand. They had reverted to an odd sort of irreverence about his situation, Aseri not quite believing him, and Logan not withdrawing the claim. In the end, it didn’t matter. “But yeah. Monsters are topside too. Once we break through the surface, a powerful one might track us down and offer to serve as a floor boss.”

“Track us down how?”

“The higher tier a dungeon is, the more it … radiates? Dunno. Other dungeons can find dungeons. It’s not just random digging until they find something. Same for powerful monsters, topside—they can seek us out.”

“I don’t sense anything,” Logan said. “Does that mean there’s no other cores, nearby?”

“Maybe you have to advance in a tier, to sense nearby dungeons.” She shrugged. “Or not. How would I know? I guess it’s some sort of good news you can’t feel anything. But I doubt it’ll last.”

“Dungeon wars are common?”

“Dungeons aren’t rare,” she said. “I’ll leave it at that.”

Fair enough. 

“We’ve unlocked everything we need to,” Aseri said. “Obelisk is functional—that’s the most important by far. Means we can break through to the surface. We’ll want to set up a few traps, some encounter rooms, and a boss room … but yeah. We’re ready to open up. You still trying to go early?”

“You think it’s best?”

Aseri bit her lip, giving it thought. “There’s no way to excel without risk,” she finally said, “and comparing the potential reward of opening early to most other risky paths to fast advancement … yeah, I do.”

“Then let’s do it. I trust you.”

She nodded.

“Let’s do it.”