Building a Community

The next morning, the kobolds were up bright and early and ready to work. They seemed to be a very industrious group. Whatever their tragedies and losses, now that they had a place to build a new home, they were very enthusiastic about making the most of it as soon as possible. Perhaps it was an attitude that they’d been born with, but perhaps it was a way of life that was the result of living in the wild in the middle of the food chain. You had to make the most of the opportunities that came your way to give yourself the best chances of surviving and thriving.

Barely after sunrise, they came to the door of the Admin Room and woke Kai up.

Rush’s mother, whose name was Yellow Flower, bounced up and down on her toes in front of an excited little group of older kobolds, and Rush stood in the doorway next to her. Right behind her was the very old kobold who’d been so moved to see the mine; they introduced him as Rocky.

Hearing that name, Kai pumped his fist in the air and called out, “Yo, Adrien!”

They all stared at him in confusion.

Blushing, he pulled his arm down. “Sorry. Never mind.” Cultural references would probably land better with people of the same culture. Also when they weren’t from decades earlier.

Yellow Flower nudged Rush, who grumbled something back, only to have her nudge harder.

Kai looked back and forth between mother and son. “Something wrong?”

Rush looked at Yellow Flowers, then nodded toward Kai. When she nervously tried to shove him like she wanted him to speak, he nodded again. “Say!”

Shy, Yellow Flower batted him on the shoulder.

Rush sighed.

Kai asked, “What?”

“She want me to speak. Me be leader. I say no. I am hunter. Warrior. She speak. She be leader.”

“Oh. You guys don’t have a speaker for the group?”

“Old leader die.” He elbowed his mother. “She lead.”

Although Yellow Flowers did not seem skilled at the common language (if that’s what it was), she did understand enough to look sheepish as she rapidly shook her head. She tried to step behind her son and push him forward, but he easily slid to the side.

Kai could relate. Being in control of the dungeon was super weird for him, especially with others now living in it. He did not feel qualified at all to have this kind of responsibility. But while he seemed to be the only one who could control the dungeon, the kobolds were a group. He looked at the half dozen faces. “What about a council? Like, three or five people who make decisions together. Vote on things.”

Rush cocked his head. “Vote?”

“Uh, yeah. You know, if we have a group of five people, and everyone says what they want. Maybe three people want to eat apples and two want to eat oranges. Three is bigger than two, so that decision wins. The group eats apples.”

Rush took a moment to assimilate the words in his head until he thought he understood, then nodded and turned to the others. He spoke in their language.

Kai watched as the group debated. Yellow Flowers again tried to push Rush into being the leader, but he again flat-out refused. Two of the elders, including Rocky, seemed to really like the idea. After some chatter, Yellow Flowers came around, and the group seemed to reach consensus. They chatted some more, then seemed to take a vote, saying what were probably names. Rush didn’t participate, but the vote seemed to be five to one in favour of making Yellow Flowers the speaker. She fidgeted and wrung her claws, her tail swishing and curling around her, a nervous, awkward smile fixed in place.

Rush nodded once. “Group vote. Mother speaker for kobolds.”

Yellow Flower gathered herself, visibly trying to be brave. She pointed up. “Go. Tree. Mm…” She waved her hands and then looked at her son.

Rush looked away in consideration, then recalled the word, “Grass.”

She copied him, “Grass.” Then she mimed a coming motion.

Kai guessed, “You guys want to go outside and bring down grass and wood and stuff to build with?”

Yellow Flower smiled. “Yes!”

The members of the new council collectively patted her on the back, smiling and praising her.

Yellow Flowers blushed.

Kai laughed. “Of course. This is your home too.” He thought about it for a few seconds. “We should probably try to be environmentally responsible about it though. I don’t know how you guys do things, but…” It took some minutes to convey the idea of only taking so much grass or wood from any one place so they weren’t clear-cutting a swath around the dungeon entrance. Also, they wanted to keep the back exit secret. Rush translated some but also encouraged his mother to try to learn and use more Common. To her credit, Yellow Flowers did put in real effort. She might have been shy, but she gave it her best.

Kai had set aside Floors 2 and 3 for the kobolds, so they had five public and five private rooms now. The mine would take up one public room, and they’d probably need at both public ones next to it for processing and building things. It would be their heavy work area. They seemed inclined to make the public Floor 2 rooms for hand crafts and food prep. The private rooms would all be used for sleeping and resting.

It would take time to build proper furniture and stuff. For now, they made oval-shaped beds out of grass and thin green branches woven into frames. They looked a lot like dog beds. They wove baskets out of the same and worked in teams to carry down a couple of fallen trees and dead branches they would probably use for building materials later.

Hopefully, as the dungeon levelled up, it would provide for more tools or ready-made items, but for now, the new stone weapons worked, and the kobolds were more than happy to build things themselves. In fact, given how happy they all looked working together, talking and shaping their shared home, Kai wondered if perhaps this was better than just handing them a bunch of system-made furniture.

Sure, maybe the system could make perfectly engineered and crafted beds and shelving and whatever. But right now, these folks were also building trust and community. The tasks gave them purpose and a sense of accomplishment. He watched as one kobold fashioned a little flower onto a basket while another worked a ring of fresh leaves into the frame of a bed, giving their things personality and color that were a product of their individual tastes and design choices. They seemed quite proud of their work and happy with the results.

It looked like so much fun that Kai couldn’t help but join in as one of them. The kobolds were quite pleased for the chance to show him how to build his own bed frame, and Kai recruited the help of one of the little toddler kobolds to help pick fresh grass and haul it down into the dungeon. Spotting this world’s version of clover, which had double layers of leaves, and came in both blue and green, he picked a four-leaf clover, which were quite common here, and tucked it into a corner of the bed frame.

When he stood over his very crude bed, it was obvious that this was a very far cry from the nice, space-age, memory-foam mattress and factory-made bed he’d had on Earth. It was even inferior to the sleeping bag and bedroll he used for camping. And yet, he looked at it and grinned, quite pleased. The grass was still a little prickly, though, even on his new gremlin skin, which was tougher than the human skin he’d once had.

“Better find a way to make or steal some sheets and pillows.”

He readily doled out everything he’d collected in his inventory so far in case it proved useful. The kobolds were delighted at the bloody clothing. They washed it with water from the cisterns and tore it into rags for bedding. The weapons the adventurers had carried were actually more useful as tools at the moment.

Kai did his best to introduce himself to everyone and then try to remember everyone’s name, but knew he’d forget unless he practiced. At one point, as they all worked, Kai asked Rush, “How do you tell the boys and girls apart?” For the life of him, he had no idea what differentiated the kobolds, and their names were no help there.

“Smell.”

“Uh, maybe only kobolds can do that. I don’t smell anything.”

Rush explained as he helped carry a fallen log down to Floor 3, “Men bigger. Women pale chest and belly. Men pale chest. Men have spikes.”

“Spikes?” Kai looked around, and the answer was suddenly obvious. “Aaah! You mean horns. Only males have horns.”

“Mm. Yes.”

Rush, two of the other males, and one female also went out to collect food. They readily proved far more experienced at it than Kai, coming back with a large bat as big as Kai that they’d pulled out of a hole in a tree, acorns and berries collected in a basket, some mice they’d dug up, and some edible tubers.

Rush gagged at the sight of the tubers. “Bleh. Like meat. Not those. Eat like dirt.”

None of the kobolds were particularly excited about any of the non-meat options. While it seemed they could and did eat such things, they were primarily carnivores.

Rocky and a couple of the others were eager to test out the mine. Kai was too, but found that the system wouldn’t let him do it. He could pick up a pickaxe, but when he hit the wall of stone marked as the mine, it did nothing, not even leaving a scratch. Only kobolds could mine. Whether that changed in the future to include other residents remained to be seen.

Kai was thrilled to see something great come out of all that hard work and communal effort. The system noted the high level of happiness of the creatures and residents. While the owl bear was apparently still in a dark and angry mood, the slimes were ecstatic and the kobolds on their way to feeling the same. The dungeon recognized that by levelling up!

Dungeon Level 6

He stood in the Admin Room and did a little dance. “Woo! That means we can level up just by building and developing the dungeon. We don’t necessarily need people to…die in it. That’s awesome.” He was so relieved. While he had no guilt about the jerks who’d died so far, he wasn’t bloodthirsty. Those people had gotten their just desserts. If more of those types came through and perished, so be it. The world would be a better place without selfish jerks who went around hurting others. But if they could gain experience just from making a good and happy home as well, that was even better.

The fact that the system worked this way reinforced Kai’s feeling that he shouldn’t be the only one deciding the dungeon’s fate. He decided to sit the kobolds down and explain. That night, after eating dinner with them, politely declining the human meat they were still enjoying, he gathered Rush, Yellow Flower, and the other adults around.

It was somewhat complicated to explain the concept of the dungeon, experience, and how it needed to grow, but the kobolds were from this world and familiar with the idea of magic. He and Rush were able to explain that building the dungeon was like growing muscles or crafting a house; you put effort in, and it got bigger. The more the dungeon grew, the more benefits it would hopefully provide, including even more safety.

The kobolds found the idea curious but seemed fine with it.

But then Kai felt the need to share the negative part. He cleared his throat. “Here’s the thing. I kind of…traded for the dungeon. So someone gave me the dungeon, but now I have to give something back: gold. I have one month, er, one moon cycle to give them 1000 gold.”

One of the elder kobolds understood the concept of money, although she had no idea of value, and the group talked amongst themselves as they shared that understanding. The mood, which had been quite high most of the day, then curious when he explained the nature of the dungeon, now turned wary.

Yellow Flower absently fiddled with a long blade of grass that had fallen on the floor while basket weaving earlier. She struggled with the lack of words and an onset of worry. “No gold, what?”

Kai apologetically shrugged. “I don’t know. If I can’t pay, I think they will take the dungeon away.”

Rush frowned. “And us?”

“I don’t know. They might force you to leave. Or they might keep the dungeon here and open, but they could change things so you’re not happy here. I have no idea. I’m sorry.”

“Why ask us here?” He was asking why had Kai invited them to live here in such a situation.

“I’m sorry. I had no idea. I only learned this yesterday.”

Rush explained, and the others grew more uncertain and worried.

Kai felt like an ass. It had been such a great day, and here he was ruining it for everyone. Maybe he should have waited until the next day so they could at least have had one full good day without having to worry about the future. These were good people; they deserved that.

Yellow Flower spread her hands and gave him a questioning look. “Now what?”

Kai took a deep breath. “Well, I need to find a way to pay. I need to get money. Maybe we can dig some valuable metal or something in the mine. Or maybe we can get some more adventurers in here, and if they have money or items, we can take them and sell them.”

Rocky frowned in confusion. “Sell?”

“Trade. Like maybe if we had something to trade, we could trade with the elves or humans or something.”

Rush snorted, and some of the others looked horrified.

Yellow Flower shuddered. “Humans?”

Kai held up his hands. “I know. Some are not nice. But I speak their language. I understand them.” After all, he used to be human. “If I find the right one, I think we can trade. In fact,” he looked at Rush, “I met two boys the other day. They were hunting near here. Maybe we can try to get close to their village? If I can talk to them or others, I think there’s a chance. We just need something to trade them.”

Rush looked highly skeptical. “They kill.”

“I’m not asking you or any of the others to talk to the humans. Just me. But maybe you could help me find them? I think I’ll just get lost in the forest on my own. Also, maybe we can all come up with something to trade? Something humans want?”

“What humans want? Death. And?”

“Meat? Fish? Maybe certain plants? Like those tubers or mushrooms? Anything that’s food. Uh, you said you traded with the elves, right? But the elves and humans don’t trade with each other?”

“No. Hate.”

“Ok. So what if we traded with the elves, then traded their items to the humans? If they won’t trade with each other, maybe we can be the middle person.”