He didn’t have much time to think about it before pressing the button to accept her as a member of his dungeon. She was now a protected individual, no longer having to worry about defending herself from the dangers of an evil swamp. A red glitter, much like the golden evolution dust, appeared all around Addison before a red square appeared on the back of her hand. It was pretty clear that this was meant to symbolize his protection over her. He needed to work on a better symbol, since a red square was far too simplistic for him.

“I-is this a yes?” She asked nervously touching over the mark on the back of her hand as she tried to understand what exactly it meant. She could feel that there was no ink or dye to this, as if the skin on her hand had always been this crimson color. Though it didn’t feel foreboding, but more… like a pleasant warmth was surrounding her.

“It indeed is a yes. You can stay here as long as you like. I’ll make sure that you are as safe as can be here.” He said with a smile as he looked at her, the box appearing along with her name above her head. Though under her name was a blue colored [Protected] under it. It seemed that the system was going to keep him aware of any unique statuses within his dungeon. Though if someone could ask to be protected, did that mean someone could also ask to become part of the dungeon proper?

He was about to go into that line of thought more before Addison spoke up again, facing the door with a blush on her cheeks. “I-I am so sorry for being rude! I am Addison Cloudwatch Von Zinglemeyer, and thank you for allowing me into your home.” She said as she grabbed the edges of her dirty dress, giving a firm curtsy as she showed her manners. He wondered if she was a nobleman’s daughter, it would explain her intelligence and manners.

“It is an honor to meet you, Addison Cloudwatch Von Zinglemeyer. I am the dungeon, Red.” He said with grandiosity in his voice as he did a spin of the wrist while bowing in front of her. Though he blinked, realizing that he had not actually stood in front of the bed… just appeared where he wanted to be. The box appeared and this time it was in a gothic font to show the proper noble greeting that he was giving. He gave a small chuckle as he looked at her, though frowned as a new symbol appeared next to her name.

The symbol of a haunch of meat appeared on her name, looking like the symbol for hunger in most video games. The girl seemed to waver where she was standing, having been giggling at his gothic box. She sat down into the chair, holding her stomach and seeming to be rather pained by something. “Red… Do you have anything that I can eat? I am really hungry.” She muttered, the positivity she seemingly had having disappeared with the empty stomach making itself known. Red was about to answer before he felt a pull from his substantial mana reserve. Suddenly with a slight clatter, a bowl of warm stew with potatoes, beef, carrot, and spices appeared on the table. Next to it was a tall drink of water along with some crackers and a spoon. The entire meal had appeared from the ether, but Red recognized it within a moment.

“Eat up, this meal is good for when you’re not feeling the best. It’ll fill you up and help you rest.” He said, the box appearing as the small half-breed took up the spoon and gave it a testing try. She beamed with joy, clearly having never tasted a soup made with such love and care before. She began to eat it heartily, dunking crackers as she washed the food down with the crystal clean water. Red didn’t say anything as he watched her, letting the crawdads and fairies go about their business in the room clearing away flies.

He didn’t mean to stare, but hoped that the subject of the staring would mean there would be no ill-will if his invisible ghostly projection was somehow noticed. He was staring at the bowl of stew, wondering how he had managed to create the exact recipe that his mother had always made. She would make it for him whenever he had a bad day, since it helped warm the body and soothe the soul. The system had to have used that memory to create it, a perfect dish for the situation.

While he was stuck contemplating that, he found that the girl was already done and yawning as the hunger symbol changed to a trio of the letter Z next to her name. “Why don’t you get some sleep, Addison? I will make sure nothing happens to you.” Red said softly as he looked around the room, considering a few things and wondering what his next course of action could be. He knew that as a dungeon he would need to expand, especially with how generous the system was from absorbing that ghoul. He wondered if all evil things gave especially good mana, which would encourage dungeons to do good.
“I think that’s a good idea. Thank you, Red.” She said with a yawn as she got into the thing that could barely be called a bed. He would be fixing that once she was asleep, needing to take this place from slum to high-end for the sake of making sure that she wasn’t going to get sick. The number one rule of making sure that a child survived in a medieval world was to make sure that they didn’t get sick.

He rolled his shoulders as he thought about what to do to make this place better. As he opened up the menu to start shopping around for upgrades, a new window appeared over it.

Threshold for Expansion met!

Upgrade: Awareness around Dungeon - 50 Mana

or

Expand: Expand Dungeon by [1 Room] - 20 Mana 1 hour

Red considered the options for a long moment, wondering which would be the best for him and his new charge. If he expanded, then he would have a whole extra room to dedicate protection for Addison, while her bedroom and his core would be in the second room. On the other hand, if he upgraded his awareness, he could easily see the threats coming. He held out his hands and mentally weighed the two options, thinking about it for a long moment before giving out an exasperated sigh.

“Just because you see a boulder coming doesn’t mean you can stop it. Though if you have the means to stop the boulder, it doesn’t necessarily matter how soon you see it.” He said to himself before selecting the expand option, the button depressing in the field before another box appeared with an error message.

Error! No labor unit found!

Please select unit for position of [Labor Minion]

The system asked this before giving him a list option that showed all seven of his remaining crawdads and the unnamed fairy. It seemed that the system required a minion that would do the physical work of making new rooms and hallways for his dungeon. For a second he wondered why his repairs hadn’t required the labor minion, but as his eyes shifted to the right of the list, he realized why. It took fifteen mana to be able to assign a creature into being a labor minion, which most likely meant any construction work that was less than fifteen didn’t require such a creature.

“Well… I can either select one of the crawdads or my little plant fairy.” He muttered before the glowing green ball of light floated over to him. She looked about the same as Lotus, but with her skin green and her hair more of a blue color. She seemed to be making the motions of shyly walking up to him while flying. It was incredible that their wings were able to move in such a contained way that it almost looked like she was levitating on invisible boxes.

“What? Are you wanting to become a worker? It might change you a lot.” He offered as he looked at the fairy who met his eyes. She seemed a little more calm than her sister, and it was clear that she was more bashful as well. She seemed to think about it for a long moment, looking at the ground before giving a gentle nod. She seemed pretty confident about it, or as much as she was willing to show on her sleeve. He decided not to resist, since she had voluntarily offered herself up as tribute to the change.

“Alright. Stand on the desk so that way if you fall over, there won’t be a chance of you hitting your head.” He asked as he waved her over to the table, letting her sit down on the edge and dangle her feet. He looked at her before poking the button labeled ‘Fairy - Plant’ on the menu. She began to glow brightly, without the golden sparkles that the names had induced. The mana poured from him just as it did with every purchase, encasing her in a small cocoon. He watched as the magic began to harden from a cherry color to dried blood. For a long moment he wondered if this was a good idea. That thought was compounded as he realized that the orb was starting to crack and shake with light pouring out of it.

At least he didn’t have to walk a few miles to get this egg to hatch, small miracles.