Chapter 32: Chapter 30: Dungeons, Dragons, and DP

“So, think that sounds about right?” Kali asked, spinning her chair so she was facing Lilith.

“Yeah, I think that’s good.” Lilith replied. It had taken some back and forth, but she had finally gotten to a point where she felt like she wouldn’t be, essentially, creating a slave. “What now?”

“Now, you go take a nap…again.” Kali said. “While that’s happening, I’ll create the new Parallel and get Carmen’s permission. Shouldn’t take longer than an hour or so.”

“Alright.” Lilith replied. “Wanna do it here, or…?”

“Yeah, just lie down on the bed, we’ll have this done in a jiffy.” Kali said.

I’ll excuse myself and continue my work with mama. Mae said. Just inform me when my input is required to make the new Parallel.

Kali nodded. “Will do.”

Lilith got out of the chair she was sitting in and walked over to Kali’s bed, where she laid down and got comfortable. Though, at this point…it really didn’t feel like it was just Kali’s bed. Somehow, circumstances always seemed to end up with Lilith taking a nap there, or just getting tired while hanging out with Kali and falling asleep, where she would stay for the night. For some reason, it just felt…natural to do so, there were none of the inhibitions she would normally feel about falling asleep on someone else’s bed.

And more than once she had awoken to a sleeping Kali clinging to her tightly, a look of unbridled happiness on her face as she did. Kali had always explained it away as ‘instincts’, which Lilith couldn’t help but feel wasn’t totally the case, but she wasn’t about to question her on it. Kali knew a lot better than she did, and she never complained about how her room had, in essence, become Lilith’s as well, so Lilith wasn’t going to interrogate her on it.

“You ready?” Kali asked, wheeling her chair over to the side of the bed.

“Yeah.” Lilith replied. “Feel free to start whenever.”

“Perfect.” Kali said, and then everything faded, Lilith losing consciousness as Kali’s spell took hold.

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The new Parallel opened her eyes…no, that was the wrong term? Her eyes were already open, since she was currently inhabiting the main body, so it was more like she…came into awareness? Whatever the term, she quickly created a new avatar, hopping into that and giving the assembled people a look.

“Call me Nuwa.” She said. “I’m rather looking forward to getting started on the dungeon, so let’s get this show on the road.”

Lilith blinked. “Are you sure you don’t want a bit more time to…orient yourself first?”

Nuwa shook her head. “No need. May I remind you that I remember everything you do, save for the last…however long it took you to accept me as a new Parallel? I would really like to get started on this as soon as possible, I’m sure every second of production is going to count.”

“I’m…not so sure, but that’s fine, I suppose.” Lilith replied. “Where are we going?”

 “I’ve got a whole room set up for it.” Kali said. “Follow me, I’ll explain on the way.” She took the group out of the room and began leading them down a series of hallways. “So, your dungeon is actually going to mostly be in an entirely separate plane.” She explained. “This one is just too restrictive when it comes to expansion.

“So, I picked up one of the dime-a-dozen planes no one really wants. There’s only some plant life and a few types of small animals, and it’s no more than…probably two hundred miles wide. Those have a tendency to pop up pretty often and there’s not enough demand for there to be conflict over them like there is over larger planes.”

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“Conflict?” Lilith asked.

“Ah, right, haven’t told you about that yet. Um…we’ll get into it more later, and there are all sorts of complicated rules we’ve made for ourselves, but the long and the short of it is that planes sort of…just pop into existence out in the ether, and Administrators have to fight over who gets what. Then, the winner gets to choose what happens with the plane. Usually that’s just adding it to their universe, so people don’t run into resource depletion issues, but occasionally they get gifted, like Haven was.”

She stopped in front of a door and messed around with the handle for a bit. “Sorry, locked this in case Raphael got inquisitive and started poking around.” She said. “This should only take a moment.” A couple of second later, there was a click and the door opened. “So, this is where we’re going to keep the core. And by that, I mean Nuwa’s avatar. So, there’s gonna be a pedestal of sorts, just go sit on that and we’ll be able to start.”

Nuwa nodded, and walked into the room. Sure enough, there was a large pedestal in the center of the room, made out of some sort of stone. It was large, intricately carved, and any semblance of seriousness to it was obliterated by the large heart with “K + L forever” inside of it that had been carved into the front.

“Kali.” Nuwa said flatly. “What is this?”

Kali laughed nervously, face growing red. “Oh, I…forgot about that. Carmen had just given me a kiss and I was way excited so I…yeah. I’ll get rid of that later, for now we’ll…just pretend it’s not there, I guess.”

Nuwa sighed, but climbed onto the pedestal anyway. As far as she was concerned, it wasn’t her problem that Kali clearly had some sort of crush on Lilith. She was just going to bury herself in the management of the dungeon, and then she wouldn’t have to deal with anything social. Hopefully. She’d probably still deal with it by proxy thanks to the whole sense-sharing thing, but she didn’t have to put in the mental effort to respond.

“So, where’s this other dimension or whatever?” Nuwa asked. “We’re not in it now, right?”

“Yeah.” Kali replied. “After you establish the dungeon, I’m going to open a permanent portal to it. I want this here, so you have an easy way to come back to this plane without my help, though. You’ll get a teleport that brings you to the room your core is in once Lilith becomes the dungeon master.”

“Cool, I guess. How do I make this dungeon?”

“So, in a moment here I’m going to sever the connection between the two of you.” Kali said. “Once that’s done, just concentrate on making a dungeon and a window will pop up. Confirm and it’s done. Do it fast, though, since severing the two of you as completely as I can is really going to be hard on Nuwa. Oh, and I’m going to be sponsoring your dungeon, which will make your purchases cheaper, but it also means I technically get naming rights. So…what do you want it to be named?”

“Umm…” Lilith said, frowning. “I don’t know.”

“The Hall of Judgement.” Nuwa said immediately.

“Isn’t that…a little edgy?” Lilith asked. “You sure? I mean, this is your thing so I’m willing to go with whatever, just making sure.”

“Positive.” Nuwa replied. “A little edge never hurt anyone, and if we get visitors, we need them to know what they’re getting into.”

“The Hall of Judgement it is, then.” Kali said. “Once the dungeon’s made, Lilith will just need to touch the core, in this case Nuwa’s avatar, and then she’ll be able to become the dungeon master. Once that’s done, I’ll be able to reconnect you two and then we can really get started. Ready?”

Nuwa and Lilith nodded, and there was a sudden…disconnect. Nuwa felt weak, like she had just finished running a marathon, and the feeling was starting to get worse. She quickly focused on making the dungeon and, sure enough, a window popped up.

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