When Lili and I got to the dining hall we found all of the others there as well. Asuna was sitting at the table, which was now big enough to seat six people, with Maria and Ed. Dia was actually in the kitchen area and cooking while Asuna was eating a hearty western style breakfast.

Dia looked over at us and smiled. "I've got some more breakfast cooking if you want it, it'll be ready soon, so just sit down, alright?"

"Sure," I said, bemused. The last time I had interacted with Dia it was the capture ritual. And now, what was probably close to a full day later, she was cheerfully cooking for me. It didn't add up in my head, even factoring in the capture ritual.

But I was hungrier than I was curious so I decided to wait for a bit before I started to get to know her better. Lili and I joined the others at the table. Asuna was the only one eating, and she was focused on her plate. Maria and Ed, however, were watching us with knowing grins.

"So the two love birds finally join us, huh?" Ed said. "Sounded like you two were having a lot of fun. I had to hold Maria here back from interrupting you."

"I wasn't going to interrupt, I was just gonna watch!" Maria insisted, sounding a little exasperated, like she had repeated herself a few times. "And maybe record it. A girl's first time is a momentous occasion that should be archived!"

"Recorded?" Lili asked as she sat down. She looked a little wary of the topic of conversation, despite her earlier enthusiasm.

"Oh boy, we're gonna have to teach her all kinds of tech things, aren't we?" Maria said.

"That'll be your job," I said. "Her and Dia. We've got enough examples here to show her." I turned to Lili. "For now, think of it as a magic item that allows you to capture a moment as a flat moving picture. Actually, let me just show you."

I pulled out my Company Smart Device and opened the camera app before pointing it at her and hitting record. "Say hi, Lili."

She tilted her head. "Hi?"

I stopped the recording and then hit play on it before showing it to her. Both of our voices played back and her eyes widened as she saw the video. "This… this is amazing!" she said in delight. "Imagine the kind of information gathering that would be possible with it!"

"Oh you're going to go crazy as soon as we visit a world with internet," Maria said in amusement.

"I'm still waiting for that internet thing myself," Ed commented.

Lili's thoughts came to a halt as she looked between the phone and Maria. "Wait… you wanted to use this to capture Lili and Morgan earlier?" A red flush creeped up her cheeks. "No! No way! Lili won't allow it!"

"Aww, come on, it's fun!" Maria said. She reached across the table, having to almost entirely lay on it to reach, and snatched the phone out of my hands. "I've got a bunch of footage of me and Morgan going at it. We didn't have much else to do at the start."

"Lili doesn't want to see!"

"Oh yes you do, I can tell. Here, this one is our first time."

"Lili doesn't… oh. Wow."

My attention was pulled from the two of them by Dia placing a plate of food in front of me. "Here you go, some breakfast. You worked hard yesterday, so I made sure to include a lot of hearty foods." On my plate was toast, scrambled eggs, and sausage. A basic but filling western breakfast, just like Asuna had.

She placed a plate in front of Lili too, who took note of it and absently started picking at it as her eyes remained glued on the lurid scenes that Maria was showing her. Ed was also watching with a bit of interest and amusement.

"Why don't you sit down with us Dia?" I said, catching Dia's attention from where it was starting to drift towards the footage that Maria was playing. "I wanna talk with you for a bit."

She smiled warmly at me. "I would love to. Just let me clean up a bit first, okay?" She turned and headed back for the kitchen before I could reply.

I shrugged and focused on eating while I waited for her to clean up, finally appeasing my hungry stomach. Asuna, in the meantime, finished her food, which she had been scarfing down ever since Lili and I had arrived, and stood up to leave.

"Asuna, could you stick around for a bit?" I said, catching her before she could flee. "We've got some business to take care of in a bit concerning the rewards from our dungeon delving and the future of our own dungeon. You'll want to be there, I presume." I smiled at her.

She glared at me, but it didn't have much heat in it. "Fine," she replied with a sigh before sitting back down.

A few minutes later Dia came back and sat down next to me. "Hello!" she said. "What did you want to talk about?"

"You, mostly," I admitted. "I grabbed you because you're cute and a goddess, but I admit, I don't actually know much about you."

"Isn't it normal to not know much about someone who you've never met?" Her tone seemed genuine and curious.

"Did the others not explain the multiverse thing to you?"

"Oh. They did, yes. So I guess it's not very normal for you, is it?"

"Depends. It's not like I know every person from every world. Just the important ones from the worlds that I like."

"I see. I guess I wouldn't count as very important then?" She smiled. "Oh, don't worry, that was very much my intention when I came down from Heaven. I wanted to experience a nice and laid back life with my children. So I'm not offended that you did not know me."

Her words gave me the opening I needed. "And how do you feel now? Being pulled away from that laid back life?"

She placed a finger on her chin and thought about it. "Hmm. I guess it depends?"

"On what?"

"The others were telling me that you are making a sort of dungeon. I think that's very interesting. Mortals are always coming up with interesting ideas. But they also mentioned that they would be fighting in that dungeon, and so would you. And since I can use my godly powers now, that you might make me fight as well. I'm not sure that I would like that."

"Oh, don't worry. You won't be doing any fighting whatsoever. Not unless things go horribly horribly wrong."

The stone table shook as Asuna's head slammed down on it. We all immediately looked at her as she groaned and then fell silent.

"Something wrong, Asuna?" I asked in amusement.

"..." she lifted her head up, expression flat. "No. I should have known better, that's all."

"Don't worry, you'll get used to things sooner or later."

She groaned again. "That's what I'm afraid of."

I grinned and then turned back to Dia, who had been watching our byplay with a sort of detached interest. "Anyway, you don't need to worry about that. I'll be putting you in charge of our home area. You're way too strong of a boss for our level of Dungeon anyway, it would be boring."

"I see. In that case, then I don't have any problems."

I raised an eyebrow. "None? I kidnapped and raped you and you don't have any problems?" I wasn't normally so direct in calling myself out, but part of me suspected she was putting on an act, to rebel after getting in my good graces. But if she was acting, she was damn good at it.

"I suppose I'll miss my children," she admitted, referring not to her literal children but the people she had adopted into her Familia by giving them a Falna. "But I think they'll be fine by themselves. They didn't need me to run the cafe. Oh, but they'll be worried sick, won't they? Oh well."

"We can invite them here, sooner or later, if you want," I offered. "I mean, I don't particularly want them, but we'll need more cooks sooner or later."

"Oh, no, I think they'll be happier back home. Thank you for the offer though."

"...are you an idiot?" Asuna cut in as she looked at Dia with disgust.

"I don't believe so," Dia replied, utterly unphased. "Though my children often asked me that. I do tend to just go along with things, I suppose. But I think helping you run a dungeon will be fun!" She beamed at me and Asuna and it felt so genuine that I couldn't bring myself to truly believe she was acting. She was just weirdly chill.

That wasn't enough for Asuna though. "And the rape?!"

She blushed and smiled. "That was a very eye opening experience, and nothing like I imagined it would be. I do wish the circumstances had been a bit more romantic though. You're not supposed to start with advanced fetishes like that, I think."

Asuna gaped at her, and honestly, I didn't blame her. Though, now that I was convinced that she wasn't acting, my own reaction was amusement. I had really lucked out in picking a relatively unknown goddess. Dia was fun.

"Did you read that in one of your porn magazines?" I asked with a grin.

She stiffened slightly. "O-one of my what?" she asked, averting her eyes. That confirmed it. She was a terrible liar.

"Remember how I compelled you to come to the sewers?" I started to explain. "Well, to do that, we needed to use a spell that required an item connected to you. Lili snuck into your house to find something, and that something was your very well read porn magazine."

Dia's cheeks grew red. "Oh. I see. That's… very embarrassing." She was squirming in her chair. "I'm not a pervert though, I swear. I was just… curious."

"There's nothing wrong with looking at porn and masturbating," I assured her. Dia blushed harder, and even Asuna blushed a little, which was surprising. You would have thought that being exposed to far more explicit things so much would have made her a bit more immune.

"I know that," Dia replied. "But embarrassing things are still embarrassing."

I smiled at her. In my head, she had gone from a confusing mystery to a wonderful new toy. One that I was looking forward to playing with. I wondered how much I could corrupt her. "Well, don't worry, when I get a chance I'll give you the same proper introduction that I just gave Lili earlier."

She was still blushing, but she looked up at me and smiled. "I would like that."

Asuna buried her face in her hands. "Why am I the only normal one?" she despaired.

I ignored her. "Speaking of which, Asuna, Lili, and I need our Falna updated. And then we can get started on the Dungeon."

"I can do that," Dia said, looking relieved that we were no longer talking about her porn habits. "Who should I start with?"

"Lili," I said, catching her attention from where she was still watching videos that Maria was showing her. "Let's get Soma's mark off of your back."

She perked up before standing and walking to our side of the table. "Can you even do that?"

"You're mine, not Soma's," I said. "I can do whatever I want. Dia, just update it like she's already yours."

"Okay!" Dia agreed easily, turning to Lili. "Could you remove your shirt, please?"

Lili eyed us nervously. She had put the large t-shirt back on, but was also wearing a pair of shorts instead of leaving her legs bare. But she turned to face away from Dia, and the rest of us, before pulling her shirt off and exposing her back.

Well, I could see one of her boobs since I was close enough and to the side a bit. But I was the only one. She noticed me looking and smiled at me, though she was still blushing a bit.

On her back was a large tattoo that took up most of the small amount of space there. It was black and white and relatively simple, not having much detail or shading, and it featured a goblet framed by a crescent moon. It was Soma's symbol, both wine and the moon being things he was strongly associated with. It was surrounded by runes that I couldn't read, not yet at least, that described Lili's actual Status.

Dia pricked her finger with a small flash of light and a single drop of blood welled up on it. She gently smeared it across Lili's back before using both of her hands to massage it into her skin. It ignored most physical laws and spread easily, thinning out and becoming more transparent as it sank into her, turning black instead of red.

The black lines of Soma's Falna were washed away, as if Dia was rubbing it off, revealing a different, albeit somewhat similar, symbol. Once again, the center of it was a goblet, but this one was of a different design. It was thicker and more stout. And rather than a moon, it was framed by two feathery wings and was resting on a fluffy cloud.

"Oh, so that did work," Dia said, sounding pleased. "Let's see… Sorry, I didn't look before I updated it so I don't know how much you grew. Did you already have this Artel Assist skill and the Cinder Ella magic?"

"Lili did," she said. "Lili remembers her stats, just write her new ones for her."

After pestering Maria for my phone back so I could pull some paper out of the Pocket Space, which was actually now linked to our storage room in the Stoneblock thanks to the personal space upgrades I had purchased, Dia was able to write down Lili's stats so she could put her shirt back on and check them.

"Fifty points?!" Lili's eyes bugged out as she looked at the paper. "Lili's stats grew by almost fifty points just from one day in the dungeon?! Lili would have considered herself lucky to grow by ten points even after a hard day like that!"

I grinned. "Welcome to the winner's club. Between Blessed Talent and some of the other Talents I'm sharing, your growth should be much faster than what you're used to."

"Lili didn't think it would be this effective." She was still staring at the paper that Dia had handed her. Then she looked up and glanced at me and Asuna. "If Lili grew by this much… how much did the two of you grow?"

"Well, let's find out," I said as I pulled off my own shirt. "My turn next!"

Dia repeated the Falna update process on me. I could have done it myself through the company app, but I enjoyed the skinship of the more traditional method. Dia's dainty fingers digging into my back felt nice.

Lili peeked over Dia's shoulder as she wrote the status down. "You were at zero, right?" she asked.

"Yep," I said as I put my shirt back on. "New Falna and all that. Why, what is it now?"

"One hundred," she said, dumbfounded. "You grew by more than a hundred points."

I looked down at the stats. My magic had risen the most, by over fifty points. After that was Agility and Dexterity, which had risen by around thirty and twenty respectively. But my Strength and Defense had only risen by two and one. They were all still "I" rank, the lowest letter rank, but those only increased every one hundred points per stat.

It was a level of growth that blew any other Falna bearer's growth out of the water. Well, except for Bell, but he was the protagonist and apparently his hax were even stronger than mine. Still, it was very very respectable.

"Still no Skills though, huh?" I mused, admittedly a little disappointed.

"Not yet," Dia confirmed.

Lili pat me on the arm consolingly. "Not having any Skills this early is very normal. Lili worked as a supporter for months before she got Artel Assist," she explained, referring to her skill that improved her abilities when she was carrying heavy loads.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I've got my magic anyway." Which didn't show up on my status, I noticed. I had suspected that would be the case. Falna seemed to add to what was already there, instead of trying to control and quantify everything you already were. Or else my stats would have started out much higher than zero. Asuna probably would have started as a level 2 or 3 if that was the case.

And speaking of which. "Your turn Asuna," I said, turning to the girl in question. "Get that top off."

She sighed and turned around so I couldn't see her chest before pulling up her shirt. She didn't take it off entirely though. She pulled it over her head but she kept her arms in their sleeves so her chest was still largely covered even as her back was exposed.

I didn't mind. Asuna's back was pretty sexy as well.

Dia updated her Falna, which she already had. But, as it updated, it appeared. Lines of text in those runes that I couldn't read that weren't there before, nestled above the left wing.

"Oh! Congratulations Asuna, you've developed a Skill!" Dia congratulated her.

"Really?" Despite her generally dour mood, she actually sounded a little excited. "What is it?"

Dia leaned in closer to Asuna's back. "It says… Aero Mana. It increases your attack power the faster you are running." She leaned back. "My Familia wasn't a combat one so I didn't study the common combat skills, so I'm not sure if that one is rare or not."

"It sounds vaguely familiar to me, but rare or not, it's very fitting for Asuna the Flash," I mused. I was a little jealous, but her accomplishments were mine because she was mine so it was whatever.

"It would have been useful against the Goliath," Asuna said as she put her shirt back on properly. I caught half a glimpse of her side boob as she did, but it was just a flash before it was once again covered. Somehow that was even more erotic.

"It's because you fought the Goliath without it that you got the Skill," Lili said. "You managed to pierce its tough skin without it, which is a difficult feat for a weapon of your quality. The skill is a reflection of your accomplishments."

"And so are the stats," I said as I looked down at the paper that Dia had made for Asuna. "You grew even more than I did."

Asuna's growth was similar to mine, but was about fifty points higher overall, half again of what I gained. Her Agility and Dexterity grew the most, which wasn't surprising, followed by her Defense, Magic, and Strength. I assumed that her Sword Skills counted as magical, because she hadn't used any of her spells.

"Well, congrats on the growth Asuna, at this rate you'll hit Level 2 in no time," Ed said.

"You two got Falna as well, right?" I asked Ed and Maria.

"Yep, but we haven't really done anything since then," Maria answered.

"We'll have to start doing daily training. Ed, you're in charge of training Lili."

"Uhh, sure, I don't mind. But why me?"

"Because she's small and you have the most experience here fighting people larger than yourself."

"Oi! Who the hell are you calling a shrimp?!"

"You."

Ed glared at me for a moment and then slumped and sighed. "Dammit, I can't get angry at you when you're even shorter than I am. Why'd you have to go and call me short though? I've been enjoying being the second tallest one here."

"Third tallest now I'm pretty sure," I said.

"Wait, what?" Ed looked at Lili before dismissing her and turning to Dia, who just looked back with a vacant smile. "Dia. Stand up."

"Okay?" Dia got to her feet as Ed stomped over to her. Ed then placed her hand above her head and then moved it toward Dia. Ed's hand brushed over the top of Dia's hair.

Ed turned back to me with a grin. "See? I'm a centimeter taller!"

But I just grinned and looked down at her feet. "And how thick are the soles on those boots?" I asked. Ed was in her full default outfit, boots included, while Dia was wearing an extremely thin pair of sandals.

"Two or three centimeters, right?" I continued as I looked back up with a grin. "Why don't you take those off and we can compare your true heights."

Ed was sweating. "No- no, but… shoes count!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" I turned to Dia. "You know, I think I've got a pair of pumps stashed in our clothes pile somewhere that should fit you that I think would look lovely on you."

"Hold on, that's not fair!" Ed protested. Maria and Lili laughed while Dia smiled, amused. I even spotted Asuna cracking a smile as well, though she hid it quickly.

Ed grumbled but knew that she had lost, so she sat back down and changed the subject. "What am I training Lili in anyway?"

"Lili already knows how to fight," Lili added. "She isn't as strong as other adventurers, but Lili can protect herself."

"Ed's a pretty good fighter as well, even without a Falna. If you can push her to her limits, then great, you'll both benefit from some training. But, to answer your question, I want you to have at least a basic foundation of close quarters combat skill. Because I'm going to turn you into our spy."

I knew Lili developed some skill as a strategist and commander later in the series, but that was her heroic path. I was pushing her down the villainous path that she had already started on, and I wanted to expand on the shapeshifting magic and manipulation skills she already had.

"Just like I had you steal Dia's porn, I need you to be our thief. The one who can operate in the shadows unseen. Or, using your magic, can blend in with any crowd and trick people. Arcane Links will be a constant need for us and you will be the one that needs to get them for us. And inside the dungeon…" I grinned. "Well, you'll be the scared little girl who accidentally wandered in and got stuck and you need the hero group to save them. Only for you to stab them in the back or lead them into a trap. How does that sound?"

Lili grinned. "Lili happily accepts this new role! She will train hard."

I had almost missed it earlier, but now that my mind wasn't distracted by confusing feelings I recalled spotting a flash of the Master-Servant Contract collar appearing on her neck when she had hugged me, and it was definitely blue instead of green, meaning it had increased once again.

Which put Maria at the highest at green, Ed and Lili at one level below that at blue, and Asuna one level below them at indigo. And Dia…

"Alright, we've got a lot of things to do today," I said. "Maria, tonight we'll do the Master-Servant Contract on Dia, finally get her added. But before that, there's something far more important we need to do. Collect our rewards from our mission and turn this place into an actual Dungeon."

Ed and Maria perked up with excitement, Lili and Dia looked interested, and even Asuna gave me her focus. I navigated to the missions screen where our dungeon delving mission was marked as completed, just waiting for me to collect the rewards. I did so without any hesitation.

There was a ripple in space in the air in front of me which manifested into an icy blue orb made of glass or crystal. It was floating in the air and a moment after it appeared I felt it click into my brain as a connection was established.

I blinked as my mind was filled with a flood of information that was somehow not overwhelming. "Huh," I mused out loud. "So this is a Dungeon Core." I willed it closer to me, my psychic bond to it allowing me to control it.

"So that's what you use to make the Dungeon?" Maria asked as she sidled up next to me and looked at it closer. "It's very pretty."

"Make, control, modify, and more," I said. "It just dumped the user manual for it in my head. A lot of what it can do is locked right now, but there's still quite a bit we can do. But the first thing I need to do is actually turn this from a personal world and into a Dungeon by designating Floors."

I stood up while still holding the Core. A flex of my will activated it and the room we were in was added to the current Floor, the orb flashing with a white light as it did so.

"Floors?" Ed asked as she and the other stood up as well.

"Arbitrary designations of boundaries that separate one section of the Dungeon from another," I explained as I walked into the central room of our living area. I added it to the current Floor as well before moving to the storage room. "Sort of the foundation of the Dungeon. All the functions require a Floor to be used on, and it's what separates a Dungeon from the normal Stoneblock."

"And that's what you're doing right now?" Lili asked as the Core flashed again.

I turned around and started toward the bedroom. "That's right. Normally this isn't how it would work. You could create the space in a different way, and you'd get a Dungeon Core much later. But the Stoneblock doesn't play well with the typical Dungeon creation rules, so this is how it works for us."

I added the bedroom with a flash of light and then smiled. "There we go. Our living area has been turned into a Dungeon Floor now!" I mentally marked it as complete and the Core recognized the space as a Floor. Which didn't actually change anything, but it did let me start actually making challenges.

"Wait, hold on, does that mean people will invade here?" Maria asked, concerned.

"Only if we create a gateway to this Floor," I said. "Or if they get past the throne room. Don't worry, it's a Floor, but not all Floors have to be places where fighting happens. In fact, there are a number of non-combat features that we can make use of. Like this." I turned to Dia. "You're in charge of our home, so I'm going to Devote you to this Floor."

Dia tilted her head. "Okay?"

"What does that mean?" Ed asked.

"It basically means she's assigned to it. In doing so, she'll provide a sort of metaphysical power or currency called Devotion Points, or DP for short."

Maria raised her hand. "Is this like that DPS thing you mentioned the other week?"

"No."

"So it's the sex one?"

"Sadly, also no."

She lowered her hand and slumped her shoulders. "Aww."

"Don't worry, the Dungeon will provide us plenty of lewd opportunities," I reassured her. "But no, DP is basically the fuel for the Dungeon. We can't use any of the features without providing DP."

"Do I have to do anything in particular?" Dia asked.

"Not really. Oh, but if you leave, the stuff that your DP provides stops functioning. Thankfully it just enters a sort of stasis rather than just being destroyed entirely, at least at first, but we can't be gone from the Stoneblock for more than 24 hours anyway, so it won't ever get to the point where it's breaking down. But it does mean that we can't have a fully functional Floor while the portal is open. Not until we get more people anyway. But you won't be leaving the Stoneblock anyway Dia, so you're a safe investment into our living space."

"I see. Is it dangerous through the portal?"

"It can be, which is why you'll be staying here. If we lose you, we lose our Falna, and that would be a massive pain in the ass for no real benefit." I enjoyed taking risks, but that was in the gambling sense where I had a chance to earn something from it, even if that 'something' was just entertainment. There was no benefit to allowing Dia to step one foot out of the Stoneblock, except perhaps morale. But morale was easily raised through other means.

"I understand. I will gladly provide you with plenty of DP."

Maria snickered. "You'll need a strap-on for that, I think."

Dia tilted her head. "A strap-on?"

"Oh I have so much to catch you up on! Porn magazines are just the start of the wide wonderful world of porn paraphernalia."

"Education later, Dungeon set up now," I said, getting them back on track. "Dia, just place your hand on the Core for me. That'll connect you."

I floated the orb over to her and she gently placed her palm on it. There was another flash of light, a softer one, and new information entered my mind. I could mentally keep track of the DP that she offered, which was quite a bit due to her being a T7.

"Hmm. I thought it would feel strange to be connected to a Dungeon, but it isn't," Dia mused. "I am connected though. I can feel it."

"Good. Now, before we start installing some upgrades, let's take care of the biggest upgrade first," I said as I floated the Core back to me. "For reaching all the way to Rivira, we earned ourselves a free unique Dungeon Theme. It's not a full theme, but it still has most of the features of one."

The main differences were that it didn't count as having purchased the Dungeon Theme perk and that it didn't come with any of the bundled talents and defenses that Themes normally came with.

"Okay, well, what can it do?" Ed asked.

"This!" I said as I flexed my will and applied the "Orario Dungeon" Theme to the floor I had just made.

A ripple spread from the Core, and as it washed over the ceiling, walls, and floor, they changed. The simple gray stone of the walls was replaced with more natural looking formations of brown stone. The floor shifted from stone to dirt with grass that sprouted beneath our feet. And the ceiling was covered with blue crystals that shone with light.

"Woah!" Maria said, lifting up her foot in shock. "I wasn't expecting grass."

"It looks like Rivira," Lili noted as she looked around.

"That is exactly what it is modeled after," I said. "The Orario Dungeon theme comes with a few different flavors. We can mix and match them, but modeling our home after the safe zone seemed appropriate. And now with a Theme and some DP, we can start getting into the fun stuff."

With a flex of my will, one of the empty corners of the room shifted. The ground indented, forming a hole about a meter deep at its lowest point. Another hole opened in the wall above it and water started pouring from it, creating a waterfall that filled the pool.

"Now we have an actual bath! Sorta. It's still pretty nature themed, but the water is clean and it filters through so it's perfectly fine to use it as a bath."

It was technically considered a trap, and it cost a couple of DP, but it was a worthwhile investment and was more useful than it was dangerous. Though I supposed that someone could still drown in it if they were an idiot. But that was true of any bath.

Maria walked over to it and stuck her hand in the still filling pool of water. "Hmm. It's kind of lukewarm. Not cold but not really bathwater hot either."

I shrugged. "That's the best I can do right now. We can look into ways of changing it later."

Ed was looking around with a frown. "I can't say I like the rock walls much," she admitted. "But the ceiling crystals… are those going to shine all the time?"

"If they're like the Rivira crystals, then no, they will follow a sort of pseudo day-night cycle," Lili explained.

"Correct. And unlike Rivira, these ones are actually synced up to our time, so a full 24 hour cycle that will match whatever worlds we end up on. Assuming those worlds also have a 24 hour cycle."

"Do some worlds not?" Lili asked in surprise.

"It's rare, but different length days are not unheard of."

"Honestly it's weird that 24 hour days are so common," Ed commented. "That requires a very specific rotation speed of the planet."

"It's just one of the quirks of the omniverse, I guess," I said with a shrug. "I wouldn't worry about it too much."

"This is what the town of Rivira looks like?" Dia asked as she looked around as well. "It's quite nice. I didn't know that something like this could exist within the Dungeon."

"The next thing that we can do that'll be useful for us is this." I chose another blank spot of wall and focused on it, shifting some of the DP offered by Dia into it. As the DP slotted into place, which was the only way I could describe the mental feedback I got from it, the patch of wall darkened in color.

"Uhh… you changed the color of the wall?" Ed asked in confusion.

I rolled my eyes. "No, I generated loot on the wall. So long as it matches the Theme, and follows some other rules, we can create infinite sources of loot. That part of the wall is shifting into a magical ore known as mythril. It'll take some time before it's ready to be collected, and it has to grow back between harvests, but it should serve as an infinite source of it."

"Magical metal, huh?" Ed mused. "I wouldn't mind studying that."

"Please do, this is our best way to get some equipment upgrades. I guess you'll probably need a workshop or something though." I frowned. "We don't have any floor space budget left. Maybe take over a corner of the storage room or something?"

Ed shrugged. "Sure, that works. I don't need much space. Transmutation replaces the need for most tools. Mostly I just need a way to organize my notes."

"We'll need to get you a laptop or something. Digital notes are better than pen and paper."

"I don't know what that means but I'm excited to find out."

"What else can you do?" Maria asked, excited.

"One more thing that I'll show off in a bit. But before that, there's one thing I want to buy." I turned back to the Catalog app and made another purchase. Mentally, I felt one of the options that was unavailable become unlocked.

I found a third patch of available wall, which we had plenty of because we hadn't done any decorating and had limited furnishings, and once more willed some DP into it. This time it was more than a pinch and was instead fully half of all of the DP that Dia offered.

Three rectangular sections of the wall, each one about two meters tall and a meter wide, shifted from brown stone to translucent white crystal. It was milky and partially see through, but not enough to see all the way through.

"Another magical material?" Ed asked as she examined it.

"Nope. This is our Lifeline," I explained. "As I reassured Asuna before, I want adventurers to challenge you, to even defeat you as they make their way through my dungeon. But I don't want to throw you away. This is how I manage that. Whenever someone who is Devoted to the Dungeon takes enough damage to defeat or kill them, while actually in the Dungeon, they will be teleported back here and placed in stasis, where they can be healed."

"Ooh, that's really cool!" Maria exclaimed. "But why do they look like that?"

I shrugged. "Their appearance is based on the Theme, so I guess the idea is that you'll bust out of them like the Orario Dungeon monsters do when they spawn?"

"What's to stop us from being defeated, immediately healed, and then running back to the fight?" Asuna asked all of a sudden. She was staring at the crystal coffins, for that was what they looked like to me, and I could see the gears turning in her head.

"You're stuck in them for a full 24 hours, even if you're healed before then," I explained. "I can shorten that timer, but it doubles the DP cost, or triples it if I want to lower it even further. And its base cost is already half of the 100 DP that Dia here offers."

Asuna nodded slowly, absorbing that information. "And if more than three of us are defeated in that time frame?"

"Doesn't matter, they'll still be recalled and put in stasis, even if there isn't any room. The description for how that works can basically be summed up as 'don't worry about it'."

"Hmm," Asuna thought. "I guess this does make me a lot less wary."

"It's just like a game, just like ALO," I said with a grin. "The consequences have been managed and there's nothing to worry about, so just have fun with it!"

She gave me a flat stare. "Unless you lose and they find their way into here."

"Unless that happens, yes. But it won't, so it's fine."

"Uh huh." She didn't sound convinced.

I spotted a flash of light and all of us looked over to see Ed with her hands against the wall, the sparks of transmutation fading away. A chunk of the wall had been changed to a brick pattern, albeit still of the same brown stone.

"Huh," Ed said. "It's the same."

"The same as what?" I asked.

"The wall. It looks different, but it's the same as the weird stone that the wall was made of before. Its appearance changed, but not its physical make up." She frowned. "Which doesn't make any sense, but it does at the same time. Just not in a scientific way."

"The furniture didn't change though," Maria pointed out, indicating the dresser made of the same gray compressed stone that all of our furniture was made of.

Out of curiosity, I used the Dungeon Core and tried to apply the Dungeon Theme to the dresser. Another invisible wave rippled out from the Core and when it washed over the dresser, the dresser changed to look like it was made of rough wood.

Ed, without me needing to prompt her, walked over to it and used her transmutation on it as well. The design changed as it grew wider and shorter. "Yep, same stone as well, despite its appearance." She ran her non-robotic hand over it. "And its texture too. Freaky."

"We'll have to decorate more later," I said. "See what options we have. Right now only I can use the Core it seems, but later I can get a perk that will let me assign Bosses to the Floors and you'll be able to change your own floor. Unfortunately that will have to wait until we get some more Credits."

Between capturing Lili and Dia, I had gotten a whopping 96 Credits. But I had just spent 50 of those on the Lifeline upgrade, and I still had a 10 Credit loan I needed to pay back, leaving me with 36. And 25 of those were already marked for another upgrade to the dungeon, so really I only had nine Credits.

But still, between those and my final mission reward, I had everything I needed for a fully functional Dungeon.

"Let's go to my throne room, I'll show you the final thing we can do," I said. I led them to my throne room and, with another flash of the Dungeon Core, made the room its own Floor and Devoted myself to it.

I could feel a connection to the room, and I could feel my DP twice over, once from the Contractor perspective and once as the one providing it. But Dia was right, it didn't feel particularly strange.

"Are you going to change this room as well?" Maria asked as she watched me.

"No, I prefer the aesthetic that Ed came up with," I answered her. "Maybe if I get a theme that suits me better in the future, but this is fine for now. I just wanted to show off one thing."

I was officially recognized as a Tier 5, at least by the measurements that mattered to the Dungeon Core, which provided me with 20 DP. It wasn't much, unfortunately. I looked over at Maria. "I'm adding you to this Floor as well," I said as I offered her the orb.

She placed her hand on it and I felt her DP add itself to mine as she was connected to the Floor. Together we provided 40 DP, which still wasn't enough for anything good, but it was enough for my purposes. I immediately invested all of it into a single feature. A Spawning Pit.

What appeared wasn't a literal pit. Instead, nestled behind the throne, a wooden box grew from the ground. It was roughly the same size as the crystal Lifeline coffins, large enough to house a standard human. But it wasn't just a simple box. It was carved like an antique piece of Western furniture, with designs of curving lines and sharp points that were vaguely flower-like.

The front of it, facing away from the throne, was a door without a handle. Shortly after it formed, that door shook before opening, and a mannequin stumbled out of it. It looked more like a wooden puppet in truth, or one of those figures that artists used as a reference for specific poses. It was made of wood held together by metal joints, each segment of its body just as flexible, if not more so, than its human counterpart.

It was also vaguely feminine with a swell of breasts and an hourglass figure, though those features were muted, with less detail than even a doll. And the face was blank as well, lacking any features as all. I could have made it closer to human, and fuckable even, but unlike my retinue, these mannequins were entirely disposable, and I didn't want to send something I had fucked to its death.

I made a mental note to maybe invest some DP in making a single fuckable one later. Dia had some DP to spare. Fucking my dungeon monsters was a low priority though when I had so many actual waifus to choose from. I hadn't even fucked Dia outside of the capture ritual yet! But the curiosity of a novel experience did catch my interest and was something I wanted to try sooner or later.

I banished those thoughts from my head and turned to the others as the mannequin stepped up next to me. "This is my first Dungeon Monster!" I declared. "It is simple and not very strong, but the Spawning Pit will produce almost thirty of these in just a week! The perfect fodder for slowing people down while I pepper them from behind. Especially if I can figure out some kind of buff spell for them." I hadn't seen any in my perusal of the Tome of the Night Sky, but there was a good chance I would be able to find a spell like that somewhere.

"I can also arm them as well," I continued. "Some nice armor on these guys will turn them into fantastic tanks."

"I guess I better figure out how to use that mythril then," Ed said. "But once I do, making some armor for them should be pretty easy."

"Lili doesn't think you should make armor out of mythril," she said. "Mythril is used for channeling magic. Orichalcum would be better, if possible."

"Yeah, that was on the list of loot we could generate," I said, recalling it. "We'll do that then."

Dia stepped up to the mannequin and quite casually cupped its face with her hand before running it down its chest. "Oh my, so this is what a monster is like? Is it intelligent?"

"It's smart enough to follow orders, but not really sapient," I said. "Mannequin, do a little dance for us."

It nodded, its movements just a little jittery. Dia backed away as it started dancing, and it only took me a few moments to recognize the dance it was doing as the one from the opening to Lucky Star.

It clicked immediately that, due to my psychic link to the Core, it was drawing a dance routine from my mind in order to better follow my orders. And there wasn't a dance I knew better than that one.

"Haha, okay, you can stop now!" I said immediately in a panic. It immediately stopped dancing and resumed a neutral stance.

I didn't want to remember those embarrassing days spent in my room, learning the dance step by step, recording myself so I could make sure I was doing it right. That piece of my past needed to remain buried at all costs.

Unfortunately, in my haste, I wasn't very subtle about my panic and the others were giving me strange looks. Well, all of them except Dia, who just seemed delighted by the dancing mannequin and sad that it had stopped. Judging from their faces, I didn't think any of them had recognized it, but Maria's look was a little too knowing for my tastes.

"Anyway, yeah, Spawning Pits," I changed the subject. "This is how we get the fodder for our Floors. We can even use them on Dia's Floor to make servants to take care of menial tasks. They're not very strong, not without paying a lot of DP, but we can make them in large numbers given some time."

The Spawning Pit perk was the reward we got for defeating the Goliath. It was normally a fairly expensive perk, so getting it for 'free' was quite nice. The trip to Orario had been one of our most profitable yet if you added the value of the mission rewards.

"Now, let's set up the rest of the Dungeon, which you'll be in charge of Asuna," I continued. "Because the time for waiting has ended, and now we'll be preparing. One week. That's when we'll open a gateway to one of the worlds we've been to and invite our first challengers in."

"And we'll kill them?" Lili asked.

"Defeat and capture," I corrected. "The men will be sold into slavery, and the women will be kept and turned into allies."

Lili thought about that for a moment. "I suppose that's fine too." Asuna side-eyed the pallum with clear worry, but there was also a sense of resignation.

"Where are we opening the gateway to?" Maria asked.

"I want our first challengers to be special, not just some random people we lured in," I said. "Which rules out Orario, most of the named and important characters would kick our ass." I glanced at Asuna. "And well… we're not doing Asuna's homeworld. Not yet." She stiffened and narrowed her eyes at me, clearly trying to figure out what my plan was. I smiled and winked at her before turning back to Maria. "Which really leaves only one option."

"We're going to open a gateway to Halkeginia and lure Louise and her friends in."

Shifty's SubscribeStar: subscribestar com / shifty-s-fiction

Shifty's Discord Server: discord .gg/aWJrmhf4Hy

AN: I couldn't find any translations of Danmachi Rhapsodia, where Dia is from, so I had to come up with my own interpretation of her character based on the vague description that the wiki had that says she's gentle, caring, and an older sister kind of character. Then I took that and I looked at all of the official art of her I could find(less than a dozen images) and tried to guess based on her expression in them. And in all of them, she had this gentle and caring smile.

In my mind, she became a sort of… airhead, I guess. Not an idiot, but most concerns and problems just wash right off of her, and she's eternally chill, relaxed, and cheerful. Her sense of 'normal' is skewed(even for a Greek goddess) and she's very accepting of her current situation. She's someone who is unfamiliar with the concept of worrying, basically. I hope that came across well, but I suspect it's the kind of characterization that will only become clear after a long series of interactions with her. Just know that her being captured didn't change her personality much, if at all.

So, Falna. Don't expect to see the hard numbers of those. I'm keeping track of them but most of the time you guys will only get vague indicators, maybe some letter ranks. Anyway, the high growth is mostly because of Blessed Talent, though Athletic, Martial, and Soul Talents also contribute a bit. They're not Bell levels of growth, but they're damn good. Granted, the other part of it is that they really did push themselves. Which is what makes the Falna so great. Good growth requires genuine effort, which will encourage them to do riskier and harder plays.

And finally… the Dungeon! So, as I've mentioned a couple times, Dungeons have been reworked while I was writing this fic. Which is a good thing, because it was badly needed and I had to come up with my own custom rules to flesh it out a bit. They're called Strongholds now, which is appropriate for their intended play style, but it doesn't quite match the Dungeon vibe that I'm going for here and I don't wanna retcon and start calling them Strongholds, so I'm going to keep calling it a Dungeon. I'm still using a modified ruleset, but it's based on the Strongholds and I've changed relatively little. Mostly I've taken things out because of the Stoneblock stuff and just worked a few fun things in.

Specifically, the Lifeline feature is the biggest change I've made. And the most cheat-like one too. I had some ideas about third-party methods of recreating it, but they all either require waifus in worlds I don't plan on visiting soon or weren't reliable enough, and I didn't want to wait that long to open the Dungeon. Warranty Plan is no good either, because it's too slow. If Asuna was defeated, which she needs to be if Morgan is to ever get a chance at playing the big bad villain, going 60-90 days without her basically means she's been written out of the story considering the pace I usually write at. If I want a story where adventurers actually stand a chance, then something like this is required. I'll link the rules in the QQ thread or you can find it on my discord, but I'll also explain things as they come up, as I've done here in this chapter.