With a sigh, he turned his attention away from the hardheaded demoness, who refused to correct her mistaken form of address. He wasn’t a girl, so the correct term was master not mistress. Unfortunately, she seemed to think otherwise.

As he turned his attention toward her, Dewari focused on him. “Out of curiosity, why is she naked?”

Dewari giggled, “Easy, it’s called summoning, but in reality she was more or less just born. The only difference is that she has the mature body of an adult.” She paused, snapped her fingers and a second demon girl appeared. She was just as cute as the first, but she was not identical. The second one, like the first, was entirely naked as well. 

“When you summon a monster, your mana does two things. First it calls forth a suitable soul through a process supervised by us gods, and the second thing it does is create a vessel. In other words a living body, the only thing you actually summon is the soul.”

He frowned. “I’m summoning souls? From where?”

“From us, dungeons get their souls from the gods. As for where we get them, one of our jobs is to cleanse souls, and provide them with new lives. It’s part of the cycle of reincarnation, but that is getting off topic. Our main topic was summoning. Sticking to that, I presume you noticed that your demon had a list of attributes not listed on her status.”

“I did, I tried to change them, but I could not.”

“Well of course you couldn’t. Those can be modified by incorporating traits into your summon. By increasing your demon’s mana pool, you effectively gave her a minor trait that gives her a little bit of extra mana. For a mage that is quite good, since more mana means she can cast larger spells, and last longer in battle. It’s a good trait for a mage. Now why don’t you inspect the demon I summoned for you?”

He complied, and glanced over the status of the demon. It was the same level, and also a mage. However she had a little less mana. “She seems mostly the same, but has less mana.”

“Don’t focus on her status, inquire about her traits.”

With a sigh, he followed the instruction, and a new box popped up. This one listed traits, but she only had one. He inspected it.

Lesser Potent Mana: Your mana is a bit denser, and more potent than normal. Reduces the cost of spells by ten percent, and increases their effect by ten percent.

“Potent Mana is a good trait for a mage, as it helps their stamina, and boosts the potency of spells. The lesser version isn’t much, but it can make a difference. You can add traits to your demons when you summon them. Which will make them stronger, and you can modify those attributes. The only other way they normally change is with level. Like everything else those attributes are a measure of ability, in this case relative to the race you are summoning.”

“I guess that explains why they were listed as C. I guess that means she is average for the race?”

“Exactly, for the most part you can ignore attributes. Rather, instead it’s best to focus on Skills and Traits. As they matter far more than attributes. Another thing you need to know is that traits can evolve with level, but not all of them. Traits can also evolve when your monster evolves, which for your current monsters will be level twenty”

“I see. So does that mean my demon will be weak, since I didn’t give her a trait?”

“No, remember AE can be used to enhance monsters, and not just during the summoning process. You can spend some on her later to unlock new traits or bolster her skills, or you can simply let her grow on her own. As her skill will grow with time, and as she levels there is a chance she will acquire a trait or two of her own.”

“She can?”

“Naturally, traits come in three types. Acquired, Inherent, and Racial. Racial traits are possessed by all members of a race, while Inherent traits are unique to certain individuals or bloodlines. Since Inherent traits can be passed on to one’s children, they are often called bloodline traits. As for Acquired traits, those are traits someone can gain upon meeting a requisite condition, or conditions. Now the Potent Mana trait that I gave the demon I summoned, is an acquirable trait. Your demon can gain it, since she already meets one of the conditions which is to have at least one magic skill of initiate level with a grade of at least E.  The other is simply a matter of time to fulfill.”

He noted that down. It seemed there was a lot to keep in mind about summoning, and his monsters. Then he remembered something from those fictions, “What about naming, does that have any effect on my monsters?”

“Nope! I know where you got the idea, but it’s kind of ridiculous. Do note that your monsters are generally happier if they are named. So I would still recommend that you name them. Right now you have two, which is honestly nothing. Go ahead, and name them, and then summon a few more. I would recommend you summon at least twenty demons in total.”

He nodded and got to work. Thankfully he had leveled already, and it was easier to summon than it would have been the first time around. He ended up summoning a mix of demon girls, and beastkin demons. As it turned out the beastkin demons came in two archetypes, catgirls, and wolfgirls. Since both beastkin demon archetypes had natural weapons he didn’t need to provide them with weapons.

The moment he was done summoning demons, she taught him how to use mana to make equipment. She also told him that he could unlock new beastkin archetypes in the store. 

Dewari smiled, “Good job. Now you can assign your demons to guard certain rooms, or allow them to assign themselves. It’s up to you.”

He nodded, he was kinda feeling good about the floor. He had monsters, he had a few traps. Nothing complicated, a few pitfalls, and a couple of rockfalls. The dead end room had one placed at the entrance, and set to block it off, for example. Dewari had suggested that, and even recommended putting a treasure chest in the room. It was there, but currently empty. Apparently chests were always empty until a party opened them. Once opened they would generate suitable loot. “So does that mean I am almost ready to open my dungeon?”

“Just about.” She snapped her fingers, and produced a few books, “Here these are items I highly recommend reading. The first one is a book on evolution, the next is one on dungeon building, and the third deals mainly with monsters. You can find even more on these topics in the dungeon store. The store has an extensive section for books, I highly recommend you check them out. As there are some really useful gems in there.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Suddenly a blue box popped in his vision. Telling him that he had cleared the quest, and with it came three more levels bringing him to a level of eight. He checked his status. 

“I’m going to leave, and I suggest you do some reading before you actually start work on that second floor. You can go ahead, and select that dragon girl as your free boss, but I would recommend waiting until you have more to spend on her first. Bosses are your most important monsters, the stronger they are the better.”

“That doesn’t sound free.”

“Well both the floor, and the boss are free in the sense that you do not have to spend DP on them. You still need to spend the mana on them, and I’m no longer going to be providing you with mana, since you now have the basics down.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“Oh, yes you need a name. Hmm,” she looked thoughtful, “Misaki, that will do. It’s just perfect for you.”

He frowned, “Wait! That’s a girl’s name!”

Unfortunately she was already gone. A quick check of his status showed that his name slot had been filled in. 

He was officially stuck with a girl’s name. He wasn’t a girl. For a moment or two, he simply stared. Idly he recalled that he had access to an avatar now, but he didn’t quite feel like checking it out. Instead, he glanced at the books, and then thought about that boss monster. He really wanted to create his very own dragon girl. Yeah, Dragon girl first, avatar later. He could at least get to work planning her out, while waiting for his resources to replenish. He didn’t have to summon her the moment he was done planning her status.

The Elf girl pushed herself up, and looked around. She was in a clearing, but it wasn’t the same one she had been in a moment ago. All around her she saw grass, and trees. A small stream ran to her right, coming down from a hill. There were a few small hills in the area, and one larger one with a pair of heavy stone doors built into the side, and a low wall positioned around the center. Stone steps ran up to a small platform directly in front of the door.

A cool breeze brushed over her bare skin. Making her suddenly rather aware that she was in her underwear. She looked around, and found her mage staff lying on the ground nearby. She crouched to grab it, and when she stood she was suddenly aware of a presence. She turned and was greeted with the sight of a taller woman. The other woman was entirely naked with a figure that could only have been sculpted, it was a work of art. She felt her heart beat a little faster, and tried to ignore the growing damp spot in her panties.

“Good morning, my dear. Did you sleep well?”

Reiko blinked, “Where am I? Who are you, and where are my clothes?”

“Right now? We are on the border shared by the Elven Kingdom of Stormwind, the Elven Kingdom of Bluewood, the Dwarven Kingdom of Ironbarrow, the Rosewood Empire, and the Theocracy of Salmi. As for who I am, I am Dewari the Dark Goddess of Lust and Fertility.”

Just as she was registering the fact that she was in the borderlands she heard the name of the person before her, and suddenly her clothes were no longer on her mind. The blood drained from her face, and she gripped her staff until her knuckles turned white. Placing the weapon firmly between her and the Dark Goddess before her. As if the weapon would provide her some form of protection. It would not, she knew that, but it didn’t stop her. “Stay back!”

The goddess gave her a look. “That is no way to treat your new patron.”

She gave the goddess a look in return, “Lies, you’re no patron of mine! Leave me be!”

The goddess sighed, “Perhaps you should check your notifications.”

With those words, a box suddenly expanded in her vision. Without her focusing on the blinking in the corner of her vision.

She blinked, this was a lie. It had to be. There was no way that was possible, she would remember something as silly as being anointed a priestess apparent. That required going through a ritual of some sort, and she was certain she hadn’t gone through any rituals. Then the whole bit about angering Yiran also seemed like some big joke. She hadn’t done anything. The last thing she did was pray to Yiran, and ask him to guide her home, and punish those that had slighted her. Nothing to be angry about.

Dewari spoke, “I’m afraid that prayer is the problem. He called you a spoiled mortal in need of discipline and humility.”

Reiko glared, “I am not spoiled! I was merely asking for him to correct everything that went wrong. I’m a princess!...”

Dewari let her go on for a few minutes, and then sighed, “It seems he wasn’t all that wrong. Tell you what, see those doors over there?”

Reiko nodded, “Yeah what about them.” 

“They lead into a young dungeon, if you can clear her first floor, I’ll release you from my Patronage, and if you fail I’ll bind you into service of the dungeon.”

Reiko cursed, and then said, “This is a lie. I can’t possibly be in the service of some...”

She was cut off, as Dewari’s eye twitched, “You’re quite the rude one. I was going to be nice, but I guess not. It seems you really do need some humility. I’m afraid the option to leave my service is no longer on the table. Perhaps next time we meet you will be more respectful of gods?”

With that Dewari vanished, and an awful blue box appeared in her vision.