Doyle pauses for a moment before continuing. ‘Though speaking of a dungeon town that brings up a question I have had at the back of my mind. Is there anyway to see what is around me? As it is, we are quite restricted by only being able to see through my portal.’

Ally recognizes that he is just trying to change the topic to cheer her up but it is a legitimate question. So legitimate in fact that there is a tutorial pop up for her to read. After glancing over it she nods to herself, ‘so once again, you're different. Most dungeons have more sense of their area because they actually are there. A dungeon in a tree can see from any part of the tree for instance.’

‘You, however don’t technically control any territory on earth. Your portal is just an opening that things can pass through to get into your dungeon. This is both easy and hard to deal with. Wait long enough and you will be able to form more portals and control them. That is a way off though so your only current option is to spread your territory out into the world a little. Just the vaguest film over your portal will do. However, that will make it much harder and possibly painful if you ever have to move or adjust this specific portal.’

‘An analogy is you only opened the door, not stepped through it. What I am suggesting is like poking your finger through. Given time you can pull your finger back in with you then close the door. However, in an emergency you might just find your finger slammed in the door, maybe even losing said finger.’

Doyle’s core cringes, ‘eugh, well that’s a pleasant thought. Still, it isn’t like I can do anything with the portal at the moment so I might as well look.’ He focuses on the portal and feels around. The divide between his and not his is much starker than even when his territory was still stuck in his core room.

With some effort though Doyle can just barely expand his territory through the portal and his world opens up. He goes from being like a horse with blinders on to a full spherical view. Below him the grass grows to just below his portal. The forest to the left sweeps around coming behind him right up to the small rise he is on. Next to the more hills climb higher until you start to question if they should instead be called mountains but never quite reaching that point. To the right of the one town he can now see a stream or small river is flowing.

By that river a much smaller group of people has gathered around a rough dock. Likely built in the last week. Doyle can’t quite make out if there is a boat there or not but he assumes there either is or will be soon. ‘Well, that’s quite the view’, and he turns back to Ally.

‘Why yes I’m sure it is’, and she glares at him, ‘how about you give me a look? I know you got lost in it there but the waiting wore thin ten minutes ago.’

Doyle’s core sinks down, ‘Ooh augh, sorry?’ And Doyle opens up a number of screens to show the full panoramic view.

Ally rolls her eyes, ‘you better be mister. This is a lovely view and it would be a shame to keep it all to yourself. Though back to business I am glad they have a river. Though I would be careful about those guys gathered at the dock. To have people starving despite being right next to such prime fishing real estate means it was locked down hard. Those people gathered there are probably the remaining thugs.’

‘I doubt they have a leader anymore. Mobs don’t tend to stop until they put those types down. Especially when in a town that size there has to be at least a few people with some form of tracking skill. My guess is those are the opportunistic types who joined just for the benefits while keeping a packed bag under their bed to leave at a moment's notice. Likely the lot of them will leave for greener pastures now that the towns are being burned down.’

‘If most of the thugs are leeches than those guys are the rats. The ship is sinking and so off they go. Though no matter how much I hate their type these specific rats are probably good for us. Until now those two towns have probably been separated from the world at large. After all it is hard to control a population that thinks they have a choice. Now though with those guys heading... Oh and there’s a ship taking off so that just proves it.’

‘Anyway, as I was saying, with them leaving others will hear about this place and of course us. Word of mouth will be an important factor for us until someone gets one of the many mass communication methods up and running. Your world was tech based so likely some magitech communicator. Magic makes radio waves a little uncertain for communication but someone always finds a way around that’

Doyle wobbles back and forth, ‘fair enough. Though I think the bigger group is now heading our way. The last group through was weak but I have to assume not everyone is. What can I do to prevent being bum rushed by a ton of people at once?’

Ally shrugs, ‘rules, rules, and more rules. Later on you will have better options but the biggest thing protecting you at the moment is that the system punishes people for killing newborn dungeons. My advice is to put in a rule where the more adventurers involved in killing a monster the lower a chance there is for loot to drop. Don’t make it too low though. Just enough that it is noticeable.’

Doyle tilts to the side as he thinks about it for a moment. ‘That is a decent rule though I probably have to set the invader count. Wouldn’t want someone to bring a ton of people in with them and killing them only to reap the rewards. If I understand how the loot system works the more energy, the monsters get the more likely it so that would be a valid tactic.’

Ally’s eyes open wide, ‘oh yeah, that is a good catch there and it would work. You won’t be able to completely stop abuse like that as someone could just run the dungeon after a sacrificial team enters and dies. Maybe just have rewards be held for the day and release them the next at a random time.’

Doyle nods, ‘that would work better. We can probably revisit this at a later date when we have more options. For now, though that should be good enough. Then again, I bet once the dungeon is bigger that sort of thing won’t be as noticeable. Anyway, our visitors are almost here so let’s focus on them for the moment.’ Both him and Ally turn to watch the displays.

A ragged group of about a hundred people can be seen just a stone's throw away now. Most people have burnt clothes or soot on them and a few are nursing serious injuries. Overall, the only part of the group that looks fine are the small contingent of children who nonetheless look quite dour.

As they get closer to the portal, a few of the adults stay back with the kids while the rest cautiously approach with a variety of items which if generous could be described as clubs. Only a few carry actual weapons. They surround the portal and wait. After a good ten minutes though most of the group relaxes and head off to the children leaving only about ten.

Of those ten, seven of them take up guard positions around the edge while the remaining three enter the dungeon. They kill the first goat quickly enough, leaving behind a decent chunk of meat. As if it has lifted a burden from their shoulders the three start to laugh. They grab the meat and leave.

Outside when the three reappear with meat cheers ring out. People start to cry from joy and exhaustion, many of them collapsing to the soft grass unable to hold themselves up. The person who took point on entering the dungeon lifts up the meat and shouts out, “Jim spoke the truth! This dungeon can feed us! Beyond that we met a goat, one of its monsters, right in the first room. The dungeon has restocked itself and do you know what that means? That means no one is left from those horrible gangs! WE ARE FREE!”

The whole crowd yells out as one and afterwards a silence falls over them. More and more people end up on the ground until only the ten strongest remain standing. The leader, for that must be who he is nods to the others before turning back to the people. “Rest! We will take care of guard duty for tonight. Tomorrow though be ready for some hard work. Both towns have been reduced to ashes along with half of our numbers. Some of us will have to stomach going back to bury the dead.”

“The rest? Well, we need to build a new town, a new hope! From what I managed to learn in the tutorial, dungeons are an excellent place to build around. Never having to worry about food or water is an important part of modern life. We had that stripped away by the apocalypse but now we can take it back!”

There is some more cheering but for the most part people don’t have the energy left to do anything except sleep. The ten heroes of the town split into two groups, one stays by the dungeon portal and the other splits off to guard the group as a whole.

Back in the dungeon Ally is clapping, ‘Bravo! Bravo! An excellent speech sir. Doyle, that is exactly the man this group needs. It doesn’t matter if he turns out to be just as evil as whoever had been in charge back in the towns. His ability to raise them up will work wonders for our dungeon. I bet within the next couple days they will have some temporary homes set up and after that start cycling people through the dungeon.’

‘I just hope they don’t send any kids in. Awkward when that happens. While places without a system that wouldn’t change anything unless you cared to do something about it. Under almost one hundred percent of the systems out there, including this one, children get a few nice protections and dungeons are a part of it. They drag one of those brats in here and we will feel the need to protect it. Especially from horrible adults who don’t realize what a bad idea it is to bring children into dungeons.’

‘You’re an awakened sentient so we can probably pawn the kid off onto one of those ten hero types out there at least. Non-sentient dungeons just bring the child to their core and an automatic response teleports them to the nearest authority set up to take care of such things. Normally not too much of a problem but I doubt anywhere on earth has such a place yet.’

‘Would be pretty hard on the kid to be suddenly whisked away to another world and leave us in a pickle. Few people know exactly what happens as overall we try to make sure people aren’t using dungeons as a safe place to dump children so the locals tend to assume the worst. After all, what would you think if anytime a kid went into the local dungeon anyone with them is viciously attacked and the kid never seen again.’

Doyle glows darkly, ‘I would think the dungeon liked to eat kids. Is there any kind of thing in place to circumvent that instinct? Taking the kids is all well and good if some crazy parents thinks they are going to power level the child but entirely another thing if a town gets pushed into the dungeon by raiders.’

Ally grimaces, ‘you’re it? Honestly, some of the unawakened dungeons are worse at thinking than a good calculator.’

Doyle sighs, ‘Well hopefully they aren’t idiots... Yeah that isn’t going to happen. Here’s to hoping they aren’t that brand of idiot. Though I guess the question now is when they will next enter.’

Akhier

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