After accepting the prompt to exit the Dungeon, I suddenly found myself in the middle of the street near the entrance. Then out of nowhere my family members all showed up around me.

  Every single one of us on our ass, and every single one of us wearing clothes that were burned in multiple places.

  The notifications came next.

  Rewards Granted!

  1100XP Granted!

  Top Contributor of Floor One Awarded!

  10x Snakeskin Leather

  5x Snake Fibers

  1x Snakebite Dagger

  150x Coins

  Then without warning, everything that I was awarded appeared on the ground around me. It wasn’t just me either. My family members received similar rewards as well. I was about to call out to them but then I heard something like a door opening and my head snapped in that direction.

  There was row of houses lined up behind us, and the front door of one of them just opened as someone slowly stepped out.

  “Pack up quickly.”

  “What’s wrong?” Asked Aunt Renee with some tension after hearing the seriousness of my voice.

  Does that mean they didn’t hear the door being opened?

  “We have visitors.”

  It was plural because the first person who stepped out wasn’t alone. Three people had walked out of the house and were now watching us from their front porch.

  Now I didn’t think they were looking to rob us or anything like that, but I would rather take away the idea of it and lessen the chance they made that type of choice if I could.

  Plus it would be easier to move around if needed if we weren’t focused on packing.

  Thankfully it seemed my Aunt and Uncles agreed as they all took one look at our new spectators and began packing what was on the floor into what was left of our bags.

  Well their bags were intact for the most part, but mine had burned a good amount.

  If this were a party of strangers then I’d be a bit worried about getting my things home. But instead I was a bit more worried about the people watching us…two men one woman.

  And there it is…one of the men started jogging over here…

  But he looked more worried than anything else. By the time he reached us, my family had finished packing up and we were all standing now as the man approached.

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  “You all came out of that place right? Did you see anyone else in there? Two men? About my height?”

  He rattled off a couple questions quickly and…I think I see what’s happening here.

  “No, unfortunately we didn’t meet anyone else inside. It was just us.”

  I watched as his expression went from one of worry to one of deep sadness in matter of seconds.

  “So they probably aren’t coming back…”

  He muttered that softly, before going quiet, and just when the silence was about to become awkward, he looked up at me.

  “What’s inside? How did you all make it out?”

  I saw no problem answering these questions.

  “It’s a Dungeon and there’s a whole bunch of snakes in there. We managed to make it out by killing the first boss. Though I don’t recommend going in there without weapons and some decent levels on you.”

  We then talked for a bit about what else he could expect to find in the Dungeon and how we managed to beat it. He was still clearly sad about the loss of the two people who went inside the Dungeon, but at least he was trying to move forward.

  Eventually he gave his thanks for answering all of his questions and then he ran back over to the house.

  I’m not sure if he was actually planning on trying the Dungeon, but I hope the information I gave him would help out.

  The one thing I didn’t tell him was that there was a chance the people he was looking for were further in the Dungeon on the second floor. Honestly I doubted it, and I don’t like the idea of giving someone empty hope like that.

  It will just hurt more in the end.

  Though I couldn’t help but wonder about the possibility of the Dungeon being different for everyone that entered.

  Not like a whole new Dungeon with different environments and what not, but an entirely different instance of the same Dungeon.

  I’ve been in two now, and each time the people I entered with showed up with me.

  But what if someone showed up 30 minutes later and tried to enter.

  Would it lock them out? Would they show up in the same Dungeon as us if it didn’t? Or would it possibly allow them to enter, but in a different instance where they would fight their own snakes and follow their own progression.

  I kept wondering about it the whole way home, and it wasn’t until we made it back that my focus finally shifted to something else.

  More people.

  But this time it was around 10 of them, and they were in our compound. Grandpa and a couple of the other family members were standing in a group talking to them.

  Then once Grandpa noticed us walking up, he motioned the group to move to the side and he practically broke out into a jog towards us.

  “Everyone! Glad you all made it back safe and sound! Though…y’all look a bit rough.”

  I’m sure we did.

  A few moments later myself along with Uncle Robert and Uncle Terrance were sitting in the theater with my dad. Aunt Renee decided that freshening up was more important than hearing about the people outside.

  Can’t say I blamed her.

  Anyway, dad was giving us the run down.

  “Well to keep it simple, they are here for help. At first they were just stopping by to ask for supplies, but once they noticed the state of the compound, they were now asking to stay.”

  “Stay where? Here? On the property?”

  Uncle Terrance seemed almost offended that they would ask that.

  “Yes. Right here on the property.”

  “And what’s the old man going to do? There’s no way he says yes to that right? Those are our houses out there.”

  Uncle Robert did indeed have a smaller house on the compound with his wife Aunt Abigail and their family. I highly doubted he wanted strangers living in it.

  “Well in 9/10 of situations, he indeed would probably agree with you, but this is not a normal situation now is it. It would be better for us in the long run to have more support on the compound.

  “We don’t want to be pushing people away when there are literal aliens on the planet trying to kill us all. This isn’t country vs country…it’s Earth vs them. Or at least that’s what the old man said.”

  Both of my uncles looked as if they wanted to argue the point a bit more, but they clearly couldn’t come up with another argument. Eventually they both kind of gave up before looking at each other and reaching what seems to be a silent agreement.

  “Fine, but we’re putting them in Lenny’s house. He’s too hurt to walk over there anyway.”

  “Sure, but I’m not telling Lenny the news. So figure that out.”

  Dad then left to go back outside, and I followed after him, only I was going to freshen up and not back outside. I feel like if I lingered any longer then they would’ve tried to force me to tell Uncle Lenny he was about to lose his house.

  Didn’t seem like the kind of task I wanted.

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