Jack's POV

  Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! …..

  "Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop…" I clutched my head with both of my hands and squeezed my eyes shut.

  What the hell? I asked myself as pin drop silence followed.

  I opened my eyes slowly, and I saw it.

  I saw what they call the status screen.

  It was green, unlike what I had imagined it to be from the bits and pieces I had caught about its appearance being blue. Plus, it wasn't translucent. It was opaque like a thin black film right in front of me, with a green border, and it had all red texts with exclamation marks.

  I let out a low huff, and when I looked up everyone was staring at me.

  But before I could say or do anything.

  "Ahem…" Came Jensen's voice, and all of us looked towards the main door, which was to my left. He had taken the appearance of an old man once again and had that warm smile on his face. But he wasn't standing in smugness. Mr. Tuma had pinned him to the floor with a knee placed on his back and had his arm twisted.

  "Wait, wait, wait…" I said, before he could hurt Jensen for real. "He is a friend…" I said to Mr. Tuma and everyone who was around.

  But no one dropped their guard. Dad had formed a defensive arch around mom and Kara. He also had one of his bronze circular shields pulled out, and my mom was ready to cast her debuff right behind him. And Kara had but a small fireball ready at the tip of her wand's red crystal.

  "What's going on out there?" asked Mrs. Tuma from the kitchen.

  "I can explain," I said to all of them while lowering my hands. "But if Mrs. Tuma comes through that door…"

  I didn't have to remind them of what she was capable of, and everyone calmed down.

  "The money I earned," I addressed my parents first. "It was thanks to him." I looked at Jensen, still pinned to the floor. "He was the one who saved me." I eyed Mr. Tuma next, and he eased up on Jensen a little.

  "Why the System is calling you as a dungeon lord?" asked my sister who despite being the strongest in the room, was protected by my parents as they stood in front of her now. I could but see her wand from the gap in between them.

  "Because he killed the dungeon lord," said Jensen, sounding like a vice old man. "I was there," he said. "I saw it happen. I can call on the System oath if you want," he said.

  Mr. Tuma let go of him when Jensen said that last bit. System oath from what I had read and gathered, was two people involving the System in their dispute. When that happens, nothing is hidden from the System. Through the interface, it would track everything and expose not just your levels and skills to the other person. But also all your transactions.

  It's mostly used in civil disputes, but it can very well be used to settle scores among individuals as well. You can initiate one on one fight to the death. Or make contracts until certain conditions are fulfilled. The system will hold both parties until the contract is completed. I had heard about it when Kara and mom were invited to join a party on the lower floor.

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  "Is it really you?" asked my dad, and I snapped out of my thoughts. "Did you really kill a dungeon lord?" he asked, while lowering his shield.

  I nodded while eyeing my family.

  Kara lowered her wand, and my mom lowered her hands. We still stood facing each other. But it no longer looked like they were alarmed.

  "How?" asked my dad.

  I eyed Jensen for a heartbeat, who was now standing next to Mr.Tuma. And then I told them everything we had been up to for the last forty eight hours. But I didn't reveal that Jensen was here to clear the dungeon or the manner in which I killed the previous dungeon lord. I made it look more like me being lucky and it being an accident. I could tell that despite me being seventeen, my mom still saw me as her little kid. And I didn't want that thing to change by telling her I killed someone in cold blood. Not now. Not ever.

  Jensen chimed in from time to time. Not to back up my claims. But to boast about his capabilities. There were no ten feet goblins as he had claimed. Nor did he fight a bear either which he described as some ferocious beast to gain access to those flowers. One of which he was holding in his hand that very second to make a point.

  Once everything was said, he looked like he wanted us to be in awe of him. But what he had just done had backfired big time. He just hadn't realized it yet.

  "I need to talk to your son, alone," said Jensen, while smelling the flower and standing with his one hand at his waist.

  The moment he said that, my mom, not only grabbed me by my arm. But yanked me close to her. "No," she said. There was a rage in her eyes that I hadn't seen even when she and dad used to fight. This was something more primal. My mom, a healer by class, was soft spoken. But in that moment, she looked like she could bite off Jensen's head.

  The green color screen popped up right in front of me without me calling for it.

  Ping!

  Notice: Dungeon's funds are critically low!!!

  Total system shutdown in seventeen days!

  Would you like to destroy floor one to extend the dungeon function by another three months?

  Yes/No

  I said no, without thinking twice. And the screen disappeared. I blinked at that. It hadn't even asked for my confirmation. It just went ahead with the first thing I said.

  Ping!

  Notice: Dungeon's funds are critically low!!!

  Preventive measures are in progress to maintain dungeon functions for a month…

  "Jensen," I said, my heart picked up a pace while reading the text on the screen that popped up again.

  "What?" he asked, dropping his smug act in front of the others.

  "I think we have a problem," I said.

  Ping!

  Reducing the safe zones by twenty-five percent to maintain normal functions of the dungeon. In three, two, one…

  In a heartbeat, not only did the whole inn shake, but hundreds of panicked screams rose in unison from across the street. Mrs. Tuma rushed out of the kitchen, and Mr. Tuma was by her side in a blink of an eye. And just as we, as a family, huddled together. Mr. and Mrs. Tuma held each other.

  The shaking stopped.

  Ping!

  Normal functions restored, time remaining before another preventive measure is taken:

  Twenty nine days, twenty three hours, and fifty nine minutes.

  "What the hell was that?" asked Jensen, while he hid under one of the tables unlike us.

  "The dungeon system," I said, while reading the screen. "It reduced the safe zone size by twenty five percent."

  I looked at my family as we were standing all huddled together with Kara in the middle, and dad had raised his shield over his head to protect us.

  "You know what this means?" asked Mrs. Tuma to me. She was to our left, standing with Mr.Tuma with a shield raised over their head as well. "Mr. Dungeon Lord," she added.

  My eyes widened at her.

  "The walls aren't that thick here," she said with a small smile, which faded quickly. Not because I had stopped everyone from panicking by taking her name. But because of what I had just said to them about the safe zones reducing by twenty five percent.

  Mr. Tuma, slammed his giant six feet tall golden shield next to them. And the sharp tip of it went right through the floor. I looked at my parents, and even they looked worried sick.

  "The dungeon council," said my dad, while reading the puzzled look on my face. "The other factions now have a golden opportunity to push for the culling of human population as the resources for our existence have been reduced by twenty five percent."

  "I… I…" I stammered while reading the prompt again on the screen.

  Did I just mess up big time by not letting the dungeon system destroy the first floor? I asked myself.

  *****