“This dungeon needs to be destroyed.” I said after coming to my decision.

“Eh? But we worked so hard to capture it!” Celeste complained.

“Although I am the Dungeon Master at the moment, Calypso has the dungeon core. In short, while this dungeon seems like a strength, it has a terrible weakness.” I sighed. “Even if I had complete control of the dungeon, it wouldn’t be very useful to us.”

“How so?” Terra asked.

The Bandits in this dungeon are only mobs. They’re limited, and can only perhaps go a days ride away from any entrance this dungeon offers. That means, when it comes to the war effort up north, we won’t be able to use them. Furthermore, after dealing with Lord Reign, we may need to end up dealing with the Demon Lord Aberis as well. He was powerful enough that it took the combination of three heroes to defeat him last time. I can’t imagine he’s any weaker now. Simply put, this dungeon and the Bandits within do not give us an advantage.”

“Furthermore, without the core, this dungeon won’t be able to be maintained. I can already feel it weakening now.”

“Not necessarily.” Astria broke in. “You have the dungeon you created. You could spare some energy from it to keep this one fed. It’d be possible to create a connection between them, and feed this one like a mother feeds a baby in its womb.”

As she said this, she gave Salicia a coy look.

“Hmm?” The other woman asked, seemingly not knowing what they were talking about.

“It just seems like a shame to throw out all of this.” Terra sighed.

Of everyone present, other than Elaya and Astria who had traveled here using some powerful magic, Terra was probably the one who understood the potential battle strength of a dungeon the most. She had used her will and strength to create a prison that restrained the clockwork dragon for years. She had also had some kind of crazy idea about a mobile dungeon. I wondered how such a thing could work, but when I asked for details, she’d blush and insist that it just did.

However, there were limits to what you could do with an existing dungeon. The difference between a Dungeon Builder and a Dungeon Master is that a Dungeon Builder could define every step of the dungeon process, molding it to their will. A Dungeon Master could only influence. If a dungeon was a tree, then a master would be someone with shears, capable of pruning, and thus influence the shape of the tree, but only to an extent. A builder could guide the entire growth of the tree. The only limitation was what seed it started with.

In that case, the seed would be the curse, the core that was composed of the negative emotions and feelings that allowed the dungeon to grow in the first place. As a builder, I was able to create a seed on my own. For most dungeons, the seed was created spontaneously, and there was no control over the ultimate shape it would take.

“We don’t necessarily need to throw the entire thing out,” Elaya spoke up, catching everyone’s eye.

“Hmm?” I glanced in her direction, raising an eyebrow. “How so?”

“With the lore gone, it’s true that this place will slowly fall apart. The miasma will disperse and this dungeon will desiccate and break.” As Astria brightened, Elaya held up a finger. “You could maintain it by using some of the strength of your other dungeon, but rather than being more powerful, it’ll only force you to divide your power between two locations. Unless we recover the core, it will always be a weakness.

“However, there is another option. Since you’re the Dungeon Master, you can break down all the Bandits into miasma, and then clear out all of the miasma and send it to our other dungeon. Not only will you gain the templates, memories, and experience, but your dungeon will rapidly grow too.”