A Return.

Gina thought there would be some special journey or feeling heading back to her dungeon, but it wasn't anything like that. One second the three of them were standing in the vehicle, in Quinn's case sleeping in some sheets, and the next they were standing in the empty apartment, scattered pizza boxes littering the area and empty beer cans littering the area.

With a loud sigh Heather dropped Quinn onto the floor and started looking around the apartment disappointment clear across her face, "Really? This is where she left you? She knows that we don't allow any dungeons in majorly populated areas! It's no wonder you awakened so easily, I'd be shocked if you didn't."

"Why? Wouldn't you want the dungeons close to people?" Gina asked her, gently placing the orb on the counter.

Heather just let out an even louder sigh, "It's the opposite, you want them as far away from intelligent life as possible. Among other things Dungeons create monsters, at the same time they only show up when the apocalypse starts happening. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the populous of the planet blames the dungeons and try to exterminate them, thinking it will restore their world to the "natural" order. When they do succeed in destroying a dungeon it starts to overload the other dungeons with mana resulting in monster waves, this causes them to hate dungeons even more in an endless loop of death and destruction which usually leads to the planet's death."

The thought of that constant cycle worried Gina, "Can't we just leave the area and find somewhere else to plant the dungeon?" She had already begun digging through the room and even in the short time had found several items of note, from a few car keys and phones to a wallet, she also found a box in the fridge and had begun eating the leftover sausage and pepperoni.

Heather pulled Gina to the window, opened it and tried to force her hand outside it, but it was stopped by the same ritual wall as before, "We lock all dungeon masters to their location until the dungeon is created, that way they don't run off and get themselves killed. If I had known about this, we could have gotten it taken down back at the awakening center, but now we're stuck here."

Giving it some thought the only thing Gina could think was that it would be slightly annoying later on, once dungeons all over revealed themselves, "Is it that much of an issue? Sure, we'll face some difficulties, but we have almost a year's head start, we should be more than capable against anyone by then, plus I doubt anyone would notice if we keep my dungeon hidden."

Heather paced around in silence for a few minutes, trying to think of just how to explain the issue, "Whenever a dungeon awakens it sucks in a large amount of mana, it causes everyone in the vicinity to immediately go through the adaptation process, just how many people do you think are in this building?"

It now dawned onto Gina what the problem was, the apartment complex they were in easily had a few hundred occupants, let alone the pets, possible pests, and others that could just be walking nearby, almost three fourths of them would either mutate into monsters or die immediately, while the rest would be fleeing for their lives having gained mana. They didn't have a chance of not being noticed and would face dozens of monsters even before the troops came in, "What do we do?"

"We move ahead with the awakening, we need the extra time to get a head start on defenses, otherwise we'll assuredly be killed rather than possibly."

It occurred to Gina that she had no clue on how to actually awaken her dungeon, "How do I awaken my dungeon again?"

Heather took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, and placed the orb on Gina's lap, "Repeat the keyword that brought us here, your dungeon will awaken and absorb the building into it. From there… "

It was a tense decision for Gina, she could awaken the dungeon, but from what Heather was saying it would result in them immediately being discovered and could easily result in their deaths if they weren't careful, but it was her only choice, if she waited, she'd likely face even worse disasters if she waited.

The forty percent that would turn into monsters would commence a slaughter of the very least dozens if not more, while Gina hated the thought of fighting, she couldn't just leave the few alive left to that, even if she was the cause of it, "We'll try to save everyone we can. If we can prove that we can be reasoned with rather than only being a threat, maybe they'll try to help us."

Heather agreed immediately with the choice, even with the dangers, the potential for allies far outweighed them. Checking the phones Gina found they decided to delay the awakening of her dungeon until tomorrow. It was a Sunday Night, and Gina could hear the hustle and bustle from the other apartments, from children happily playing to couples arguing. If they awakened the dungeon now there would be far too many monsters for them to handle.

At the same time the events of the last day were getting to be too much for Gina, from constant physical tests, a lengthy lovemaking session, and the constant input of new information was all getting to be a bit much for her, "Heather, could you bring the bed back out? I want to go to sleep."

Shaking her head and getting a slight embarrassed look she answered back, "I won't actually have access to anything until you awaken your dungeon, my strength will also be sealed to your level, we can't even use mana now as there's nothing for us to draw from."

It was Gina's turn to let out a big sigh, "Why is everything so complicated?"

"Well, in the past they gave far better treatment to the newly awakened, but it resulted in a catastrophe. In one world a dungeon master abused his strong helpers and forced them to kill off other dungeons to give himself greater power, it resulted in the world's total destruction. At that point fairness was added into the awakening rewards, that way no one dungeon would be able to easily destroy the others."

Gina let out the final sigh of the day, wiping off crumbs from one of the blankets she laid on the floor to try and rest. Even with her exhaustion it was hard to sleep with her new hearing, she could hear dozens of tv shows going on, footsteps from both above and below her, and the constant hum of lights and water, but eventually sleep came to her. 

When she awoke, she found Heather already relaxing in the kitchen, messing with one of the phones, while Quinn who was already up had showered. Unfortunately for her since they hadn't awakened the dungeon she was in her stained doctor's robes.

They had a small breakfast of pizza as it was still the only option available, while explaining everything that had happened to the doctor.

The conversation had eventually turned into Gina's for saving the humans still in the building, and it wasn't much, "Since I'm the only one with a weapon of the three of us, the plan will be for me to go and… incapacitate any monster I find while saving as many of the survivors I can." The thought of killing anything was still a bit much to Gina, but she couldn't just let innocent people die, especially when it was her fault they would be in danger. "I want you two to stay back and defend the dungeon core, help me if you can, but the core takes priority." The both of them firmly nodding in agreement.

Gina flexed her claws, they were her only shot at getting through this hurdle, and while she wished she tested them more it was all the three of them had in terms of weaponry. Giving it some quick thought, she realized how woefully prepared she was for this, she had never been in actual fights before, some drunken brawls in college, but nothing of this level. It would be her first true test of whether or not she could adapt to this new world.

Doing some light stretches to prepare for the upcoming brawl, she grasped the door handle and taking a deep breath she repeated the phrase, "Lilith's Palace."

At that moment the core started floating, small sparks jutting off of it in a dazzling display of light as the windows and doors rattled from the force. The lights shut off, the power being cut from the area as the core spun around going faster and faster creating winds that almost knocked Gina to her knees, while it tossed around everything else in the room.

Right when it stopped Gina flung open the door and stepped out, greeted not by the midday sun, but a blackened sky. Walls of darkness had encased the apartment building, stopping at its fenced perimeter.