Aura’s turn went exactly as the rest of them expected, as she steamrolled right over her opponent. It wasn’t even a contest in any form. The five-tailed kitsune had always been the strongest member of the group in regard to cultivation, and physically, that was true as well.

  She used an energy skill from her fourth tail and diced the beast into ribbons. One sky-blue scythe made of wind after another cut through the rokurokubi, shredding and killing it near instantly.

  Before the group even had the chance to stop walking, the fight was already over, and they could continue moving on.

  They continued out of the room into the corridor, and then into the room beyond, where they waited for the Japanese cultivators to join them. Sitting down, they spread out a blanket and prepared to have a late-night picnic. Well, for them it was late in the night, this area of the world, however, was many time zones ahead of them.

  Nate couldn’t remember the exact number for where they were at in the US at the moment. But he was fairly sure that the sun was still up here, even if it had begun to sink toward the horizon.

  A few moments later, they were sitting down, eating, and talking about the direction their trip was taking. The maps they had collected at their last two stops had filled in the gaps their older maps had possessed. The maps they had brought from Colorado had been useful for the states closest to them. As they got farther away, to locations that they didn’t actively trade with, the information on their maps had gotten worse.

  Towns and cities had been abandoned, destroyed, or moved to another location where they could better protect vital infrastructure.

  Years of separation and little communication had left the map of active cities completely changed.

  Aura was lounging to the side, her ears twitching as she watched her personal screen and waited for the cultivators to arrive. Even little Mika was being unnaturally quiet at the moment.

  Nate and the others may have been acting like they were utterly relaxed, but that was only because they couldn’t truly die while inside the dungeon. Still, it was mainly an act. They were tense and scared of all the things that could go wrong. These cultivators were completely unknown to them, and they could react in any number of ways.

  In some ways, little was riding on this encounter, and in others, it would decide how they progressed moving forward.

  “They’re coming,” Aura revealed.

  Sure enough, a few seconds later, the group of Japanese cultivators cautiously approached the room and peeked inside.

  Nate waved at them, a small finger sandwich in his hand. “Come on in, grab a seat.” He told the new group.

  A burst of rapid-fire Japanese echoed back at them. The cultivators were clearly confused at their presence, and trying to decide if they were real people, or some sort of monster.

  “Well, that’s just rude,” Angie muttered, her eyes on her screen reading the subtitles to their conversation. “I’ll have you know I’m too pretty to be a monster. Linds might be a little orcish, but Aura is nothing but cute and fluffy, and Mika is practically a danger noodle. As for Nate, well, yeah…”

  Lindsay and Nathan both tossed pieces of food at her while chuckling. “Hey, why am I suddenly an orc? Just because I use a large weapon?”

  “And what’s wrong with me?” Nate protested.

  The Japanese cultivators continued their chattering as they peeked inside the room again and slowly stepped inside. One of them took the lead and gradually approached the picnic blanket. The rest of the cultivators held back several steps, close enough to react in case something happened, but far enough to be clear if they truly were monsters.

  “Are you ready, Aura?” Nate asked, not looking at her.

  They might not be able to truly die inside the dungeons, but pain still hurt, and there were a lot of other things that could be done to them, especially the girls. He was playing this very carefully.

  “I am,” Was the reply.

  As had become the norm for them in these situations, she would be acting as translator for them.

  “Hello, we are the managers of this and all the other dungeons that have been appearing.” As those words left his mouth, Nate suddenly wished they had prepared masks for this little meeting.

  Aura telepathically relayed the message, and then they waited for the Japanese to react.

  The reaction from them was rather hilarious to see, as they were so confused. They were looking around to see who had spoken and put the voice in their heads.

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  These cultivators were each dressed as samurai and were fairly arrogant.

  They just needed to read the subtitles of their ongoing conversation to understand the depths to which their arrogance extended.

  “I think you two should leave, go get some sleep,” Nate told Angie and Lindsay. “Besides, maybe watching you and Mika vanish will force them to take this more seriously. I can’t say as I like their attitudes though.”

  The two girls glanced at the subtitles on their screens and subtly nodded. Mika hopped off from her place atop Aura and scurried to Lindsay. Angie touched his hand, and with a tap of the screen on her wrist, sank into his body and vanished. Lindsay and Mika followed a second later. They had returned to the RV and were now safe.

  The Japanese cultivators did not take their vanishing like that particularly well and began shouting angrily, their weapons drawn.

  Aura snorted and flicked her second tail. A wave of deep glacial ice instantly spread across the floor and trapped their feet. The temperature of the room dropped by a dozen degrees, and the cultivators hacked at the incredibly hard ice with their different weapons.

  Nate was used to a Japanese culture that had been affected by Western culture and the rest of the world. Instead, this version of Japan was still a very rigid country in its way of thinking when the dimensional zones had appeared. The respect they had for people not of their clan or country was complicated.

  They would tell others that they were a people built around respect, and that was true, to an extent. However, people seemed to forget that respect first needed to be earned.

  The air inside the room thickened with tension, and the sound of teeth grinding. Nate’s eyes flickered between the Japanese cultivators, the frozen floor beneath them, and Aura. She lay lazily on the floor, not even having bothered to move anything more than a single tail, which still radiated an icy aura that chilled the room.

  The cultivators, their weapons raised, hacked at the ice with fury, their faces tight with disbelief and anger.

  Nate kept his composure, though beneath the cool exterior, his anger surged. A part of him had expected this, but that didn’t make it any easier to accept. This was supposed to be the first contact of sorts, a chance to explain things. Yet, this was not going how he wanted.

  Aura yawned, her five tails twitching in slight agitation as she continued to watch them and their reactions with her own sense of detachment. It was clear she wasn’t impressed with their disrespect or attitude, but she wouldn’t overreact unless necessary. She hadn’t even exerted herself in the slightest to trap them, though the cultivators continued to struggle with the ice.

  As one of the samurai cultivators growled in frustration and swung his katana down in a savage arc, the blade clanged off the ice, barely managing to chip it. Another of the cultivators, more methodical in his approach, moved forward to strike at the ice with a quick series of slashes, only to be thwarted by the frozen trap. His face twisted in frustration. The others were starting to realize the futility of their attacks.

  “You should stop wasting your energy,” Aura’s voice entered their minds, icy yet serene. She flicked her second tail again, and a sharp burst of air rushed through the room, carrying with it a freezing wind that swirled around the cultivators’ legs, further locking them in place as it crawled past their calves and up to their knees.

  The lead cultivator, his brow furrowed in concentration, motioned to his companions. He stopped trying to break the ice and instead narrowed his eyes first at Aura and then at Nate. “Who are you? You’re not from here, are you?” His voice, though laced with suspicion, had a certain authority to it.

  Nate stepped forward slightly, raising a hand. “I already told you who we are, and where we’re from doesn’t matter. We reacted the way we did because of the conversation you were having. We’re not your enemies, but we’re not your friends either.” He said firmly, though his tone was measured. “We’re here to explain a few things, nothing more. You can trust us, or you can keep fighting. But if you keep fighting, you’ll regret it.”

  There was a silence that stretched, each second drawing out the tension.

  The cultivator considered Nate’s words, his eyes moving between him and Aura. Then, with a swift motion, he sheathed his sword back into its sheath and gave a subtle nod. The others hesitated, their weapons still raised but not as aggressively. They were ready to attack the ice holding them hostage again at the slightest provocation.

  Nate exhaled, barely audible, and nodded to Aura. Her eyes flickered, and the ice started to recede, melting away beneath her influence. It dropped away from their knees and sank back down to their ankles, where it stopped. She was willing to let them have some more freedom, but she didn’t trust them enough to actually free them.

  The air gradually warmed again, though the chill lingered. This first meeting had not started on a particularly good note.

  “Fine,” The lead cultivator said, his tone still wary. “We will listen. But if you are lying-” Before he could say anything more, Aura’s tail twitched, and the ice began to creep back up their legs.

  “I think you forget your positions, and what we are here to do,” Nate told them in exasperation. He was just about done with this conversation and these people.

  The entire group began to shiver as the cold engulfing their legs began to seep into their bodies.

  Aura let them shiver for a minute before flicking her second tail and dismissing all of the ice as she took a step forward. “I trust you’ll listen carefully,” She told them, her voice cold but not unkind. “We’re not here to fight, simply to explain a few things. However, we can just leave things as they are and let you live on in ignorance.”

  There was a pause, then the lead cultivator raised an eyebrow and sighed. “Fine, explain.”

  Nate sat back down on the blanket and patted the floor. “Then grab a seat. This will take a few minutes to cover everything.”

  The conversation did indeed take several minutes. During which Nate covered the basic purpose of the dungeons and what would happen after that purpose had been filled. The closure of the portals and the creation of the communities.

  As he continued to speak, explaining everything to them, the expressions on their faces slowly changed. Despite what they had already seen with the girls vanishing, believing him was more than they could handle.

  After he finished speaking, he waited for Aura to finish translating, and then the two shook their heads and decided to leave. They had given it a shot, but in the end, it hadn’t mattered. These people weren’t willing to listen. Sure, it might be hard to believe, but they had already demonstrated something far beyond what normal cultivators were capable of.

  It had been worth a try, but it wasn’t really needed. Getting the cultivators on the side of the dungeon and involved would have been useful and helpful, but nothing more. With a shake of his head, he tapped his wrist computer and exited his avatar. Aura was a second behind him.

  Thank you to all the people who have taken the time to rate the story and to my latest Patrons! I have other stories up on my Patreon, including my current WIPs. Which are now Created G.H.O.S.T. System(My Cyberpunk story), WetWorks2, plus The Restaurateur and His Daughter and DungeonFall. :)

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