"Are you sure you're okay?" Kalvin asked Irie as she massaged her temples, her headache unabated even once they got back to town.

"I'm fine, it should be better once I get some sleep and let my body heal. We have a report to go make first though."

"I can do that by myself, you should get some rest first. Do you want me to get you any medicine for it?"

Irie knew that he was trying to earn her favor, even possibly using that to try leverage a date out of her.

"There is no need, it is only a minor inconvenience. The company has sponsored me for the past six months, I must at least do my part."

Kalvin didn't offer again as they both entered the Silver Wheel Investments, the company which paid their wage and provided them with spiritual fruits and opportunities in return for them doing anything the company needed them to. Anything they obtained while under employment also counted as the companies, and any form of hiding goods was considered theft and punishable by the dungeon city's law should it be discovered.

"Where are the rest?" A male company liaison asked as he ushered them into a room.

"Dead."

The liaison merely nodded in response and made a record of it on his notes.

"We need to do a breakdown of everything you encountered."

Kalvin and Irie took turns answering the liason's questions, describing what little they had seen of the dungeon's structure, enemy types, the elf, and suspected dungeon lord, who was inside the dungeon, as well as a step by step recounting of the battle.

"This is troubling…" The liaison sighed and run his fingers through his hair.

Irie also pinched her brow and added, "Surely it can't be as bad as you're imagining. This is only speculation."

"This is based on Kalvin's observation as well as my estimate. If the dungeon lord has not summoned any creatures at all, it is most likely because they can't. Even if the summoning functions are the only flaws in the core and it is a C Grade core, to be missing such a major function will devalue the core so greatly that it may not even be worth 10 percent of what it should be."

"So, what does this mean for us…"

"Regardless, the company still has a vested interest in acquiring the dungeon core. However, our investment in this venture will be significantly reduced. We may even decide to broker certain information on the core should the losses exceed the estimated profit."

"I see. Well, I'm getting paid either way, so just tell me what you need me to do."

The meeting soon came to and end and the liaison departed with the information for the company managers to hold more meetings and deliberate over.

~~~~~

Irie had her own apartment, a two bedroom place on some middle class level of the city. There were six spacious apartments in this small tudor building, two on each floor.

She slowly stripped off and jumped in the shower, the brimstone gem shard embedded in an array heating up the water as it passed through a copper pipe.

She massaged her temples while resting her head against the wall of the shower. The hot water didn't even last ten minutes before the brimstone gem shard ran out of energy and begun to get colder and colder.

Looking closer at the gem shard, she could even see a thin blue line extending from the gem shard into the array, which seemed to light up with life when in use. That line gradually got thinner and thinner over time though, looking like it would eventually snap.

"Urgh, this is the worst. I bought a new shard just last month, and its internal structure is already worn down. Their quality are getting lower and lower," She complained to herself as she hurriedly turned off the water and got out of the shower.

A new brimstone gem shard would cost anywhere up to five gold depending on the purity. Placing it in the embedded silver catalyst array would cause it to heat up the water which passed through, while the array had an absorption component which would absorb ambient mana to recharge the shard when the water was shut off.

A decent quality shard would store enough energy to provide an hour of hot water, which would slowly decline until it could no longer store mana. The usage of mana inevitably wore down its internal structure, a type of aetherical wear and tear.

About a hundred years ago, there was a technology breakthrough in which it was discovered how to artificially reinvigorate their internal structure, although its quality and lifespan was never comparable to the original product.

This was revolutionary as it increased the use of a depletable product, but it also enabled shady merchants to pass off cheap products as the genuine articles, and nobody would be aware of it until long after they made the purchase.

Irie stood in front of the mirror and examined her body. Her hair clung to her unblemished skin, while her large breasts stood firm as if constantly defying gravity.

She squinted a bit before weighing her breasts in her hand and pinching the flab around her waist.

"Have I put on weight?"

Tossing the thought aside, as if refusing to consider an answer, she finished drying herself and climbed into her bed still nude. It was summer so the temperature was considerably high, even during the night.

There were homes with thermal regulating arrays installed, but they were the upper class homes and even if Irie could afford one after selling her current one, it was still very expensive and she considered it the be an extravagance for greater than she needed. This is not even taking into consideration the increased maintenance costs of a higher grade of living.

As she was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, the headache seemed to melt and fade away like a morning mist, like it had all been a lie.

"I like your home," A voice suddenly spoke in her mind.Irie immediately sat up in bed, her eyes wide open in alertness. She didn't even register that the bed sheet fell down and exposed her large breasts and milky stomach. In the face of dire circumstances, dignity was the last thing she would be concerned with.

"Who's there?" She spoke aloud in no direction in particular, her mind currently running through various scenarios for surviving a potential assassination.

She knew the voice sounded inside her mind, but she immediately concluded that it was the effect of some skill to hide the user's whereabouts.

"How do you know I am here?"

"What do you want? I can give you information on the latest recruitment, but I know very little regarding the matter."

Even in the face of potential death, she lied with a straight face that could fool even an experienced interrogator.

"Oh, you are very good at deception! Next time though, try to fake emotions to match. Panic, maybe fear, false bravado… that last one is a good choice actually. But no, I merely wanted to have a brief talk with you."

Unaffected by her lie being exposed, she didn't hesitate for a moment and responded, "Why don't you show yourself first? It takes a lot of courage to break the law inside of a dungeon city. Duke Ashburn, the dungeon lord, will know immediately should there be a death here."

"Do you wish to know where I'm hiding?"

"Do you dare show yourself?"

"Very well, look down."

Irie followed the voice's instructions and looked down, which was both a top view of her large full breasts with pink button like nipples, while below that was her lap still covered by the bedsheet. Even though she followed the instructions, she still kept the surrounding room in the corner of her eye, trying to spot any movement.

"I'm under the sheet."

"…"

"What? You don't believe me?"

"Are you… an exotic race…?"

"Perhaps to you, I am. I consider myself to be normal."

Irie lowered the sheet and exposed her smooth legs, her thick thighs pressed up against one another. While considering the possibility that the voice was some strange tiny exotic species, like a pixie, she scanned the bed, but didn't see anything.

"I'm under your legs."

With her nerves highly taut, she parted her legs and spread them to the side to expose underneath them. For all the tension she was feeling, all that was revealed were two things.

The first her vagina, covered with a thin mat of short, curly black pubic hairs that didn't hide the bare earth of her secret garden at all. A meaty mons pubis, in which a slight pink hue could be seen around the edge of the lips, was clearly visible.

The second thing that could be seen… was an empty bed.

"You have to look closer."

Irie bent her waist and looked closer almost instinctively, her breast swaying slightly as she leant down. Despite looking for a finger sized leprechaun or some other esoteric lifeform, there was simply nothing there.

"Ah, such a beautiful sight. Become mine~"

Realizing she had been fooled, Irie angrily shut her legs and pulled the sheet up, glaring at the room around her to spot an enemy.

"You tricked me! Did you get a good enough look?"

"Don't be so mad, you even lied to me before about not knowing any information about the dungeon. I saw and heard your entire meeting with that liaison of your company, you know."

"That's impossible! How could you possibly know that?! There definitely wasn't anyone else inside the room. Even if I didn't notice, there are others in the company who would… unless…"

"It looks like you have guessed correctly. I'm not just putting my voice in your head, I AM in your head."

"This… is…"

"Allow me to clear up your doubts. Not only am I in your head, I am also a dungeon. The same one your party attacked… Ah, I mean your company's party, but being pedantic over the correct terminology is really irrelevant by this point."

"Anyway, I normally can't enter a person as the slightest bit of resistance makes it impossible. But… it turns out that while you were poisoned and unconscious, your resistance was a big fat zero, null, void… defenceless. It was a bit of a rush job, so not perfect, but I have corrected things now. I am a part of you, and there is nothing you can do to change that."

"…I just need to kill you."

"I immediately stand corrected! Now I want you even more~""I will report this matter to the company, city lord, and maybe even the temple. If they know what you are capable of, they will immediately make a move on you. You heard the meeting, right? You are expected to at best be a heavily flawed C Grade core worth little."

"But you are clearly more than that. This ability of yours, your intelligence… you are definitely outside the standard ranking. Once either of the three parties know that you are a S Grade core, possibly even SS Grade, they will immediately invest everything in capturing you. Are you stupid?"

"Oh, of course not. After all, you will never tell them about this."

"Why are you so sure on that?"

Irie had regained her confidence now that she knew who, or what, the voice belonged to and could analyse the situation better. With the variables known, she immediately came up with plans and counter plans for how to deal with the situation.

"Well, I could simply kill you with the piece of myself in your head before you tell them, couldn't I?"

"…"

"Just kidding~ I don't hold that power. Tell me, were you frightened? I know you were, I could feel the spike of fear, you know."

Irie truly had a panic spite, yet the so-called dungeon immediately ousted his threat which could have held sway. She still remained heavily befuddled by the thought process of this dungeon.

"Why would you immediately reveal your threat as being harmless. You truly are stupid, aren't you?"

"Because it doesn't matter~"

"Why?"

"Even if you told them, you have no evidence. They won't be able to find me inside of you, I have fully fused with your mind. Second, if they were to come with such a force, I would immediately surrender and cooperate with them under the condition that they give me your severed head~"

"…"

"I'm willing to bet that I'm infinitely more valuable than you are if that is the situation."

Any plans Irie had of exposing the dungeon immediately were thrown out. Any conquered dungeon core could be controlled by a dungeon lord to execute its functions, but thought and analysis ability were sealed away within the cores themselves. A normal dungeon was basically a simple self-sustaining system though, so this usually didn't matter.

If the dungeon demanded her head as the bargaining tool for full cooperation on its part, she had no doubt her head would be severed that same day. Forget about escaping from potentially the kingdom itself, how far could she possibly run in ten minutes, for that is all the time it would take for her head to say goodbye to her body for good.

"…What do you want?"

"Simple… I want you~"

"I refuse."

"You don't have a choice as I have already claimed you as mine. Don't worry, I look after my things. I will give you lots of benefits, one of which you've already been enjoying, have you not?"

"What benefit is that?"

"The ability to see and sense mana. That comes from me, and is an inadvertent gift of when I attach myself to someone."

"…Like that elf. I noticed she seemed to dodge immediately before I would cast any spells, as well as dodging attacks originating from the ground as if she had foresight. I see, she was able to see the mana."

"More proficient than you could. But you will be able to get to that point."

"What is it that you are expecting from me? You know I will have you removed, right?"

"Why are you trying to escape from me? You are already my thing; it is a natural cause of events."

"…"

"As my thing, you are required to follow what you are told to do."

"I refuse."

"What? Why?"

Irie was completely dumbfounded by this line of thought. She couldn't fathom how the dungeon had come to this conclusion, but it definitely had a few screws loose.

"Sigh, I won't ask my things to do anything that will get them killed, I will protect you well."

"I don't need your protection."

"I will also make you stronger."

"…"

"For now, I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

"Can you look down some more? I can't see it if you don't look at it, after all."