《I'm Going To Be A Mega Dungeon (Discontinued, but wait, an update!)》


 Chapter 1 - Beginnings

    I wake up and feel nothing.


    I panic at first, as anyone would, before eventually calming down. The first thing I expected when I woke up this morning was to be in bed. The second thing I expected was that I would begrudgingly drag myself out of it and get dressed. The former requires that I have a bed in which to lie. The latter requires I have a body to drag out of bed. In my current predicament, it appears I have neither of those things.


    Once I stop metaphorically hyperventilating, I try to assess my situation.


    I can¡¯t see or hear or feel anything either, but at the same time I am simply aware of my surroundings. The area in which I exist appears roughly circular with a diameter of about 10 feet, and is made of cold gray stone. I focus on a small rock, and find it clearer in my mind¡¯s eye. I spend a while looking around before something peculiar catches my notice. In the center of this small chamber, lying on the uneven rocky ground, is a small spherical object about the size of a marble. Now, when I say spherical I mean perfectly spherical. Nothing natural is shaped like this. It''s almost unnervingly perfect. Upon focusing on the small object, I find myself met with a strange feeling. The kind of sense of self one gets when looking at their reflection in a mirror. The marble is a soft somewhat icy blue, with streaks of gray running through it. It glows softly with a dim light.


    Looking at myself, it dawns on me. After reading so many stories about it online, it couldn¡¯t possibly be anything else. I probably died. It doesn¡¯t matter how. I just hope my family is handling it alright. But I died, and now I am this marble. I am probably a dungeon. As the reality of the situation becomes clear to me, I notice something else.


    I don¡¯t know how I missed it before, but all around there are sparkling motes of light floating in the air. They don¡¯t look physical, but it isn¡¯t as if I can actually reach out and touch them to find out¡­ Actually maybe I can.


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    I focus my mind on the space, pouring my effort into it. There is some kind of energy there. These strange particles seem to be charged in a way. I focus on them, and after what feels like hours, they begin to move. A slow movement at first, slightly shifting, moving towards me, towards my core. As they move, they begin to speed up, until eventually the first one makes contact with my core. It''s a rush, like pure energy is flowing into me. That must be what it actually is. If I am in some kind of fantasy world, and I am some kind of dungeon, then this is probably mana or whatever this world¡¯s equivalent of mana is. As I focus, and draw the mana around me into my core I can feel the energy sitting within me waiting to be used.


    Once I have absorbed all the mana I can sense within the chamber, I turn my attention elsewhere. I begin to try and find some way in or out of here. The chamber does have an opening, and I focus on it. It seems to be a pathway through the rock that extends more than 25 feet away from the chamber. I say at least 20, because at a certain point my focus becomes fuzzy. It gets worse the further away from my core I look, like a camera out of focus. 30 feet away from my core seems to be the limit of my observation range. Past the edge of my range, I can vaguely sense rushing water. There is some mana in the tunnel too, which I begin to pull back towards my core.


    As I wait for the mana to reach my core, my mind wanders. Mana isn¡¯t some ever-present force of the universe. It exists in set areas and has form, and at least to me it is somewhat tangible. There are a few possibilities. The first is that mana is a limited resource. This seems unlikely, just based on what I know about fantasy worlds from the books I have read, games I have played, and the shows I have watched. The second possibility is that mana simply appears occasionally, spontaneously deciding to exist. The third possibility is that certain actions cause mana to appear, rather than it being random and spontaneous. A fourth possibility is that mana both generates itself randomly and that certain actions can cause its generation, or maybe just influence the rate of random generation. If there are ways to force mana generation, and assuming mana is crucial to my continued existence, there may be a way for me to make my life easier. The same goes for certain actions or conditions influencing mana generation.


    Enough thinking about mana. I don¡¯t know its properties or even what it¡¯s useful for. The best course of action is to find out what I can do with it. Also, until something somehow proves me wrong, I will run on the assumption that if my core is destroyed I die - rather than me needing a constant stream of mana to stay alive, seeing as how when I woke up I didn¡¯t have any.


    With that said, it''s time to experiment.

 Chapter 2 - Experimenting with Mana

    In all the media I have consumed, dungeons can, without fail, manipulate their surroundings. My first experiment aimed to test that. I also wanted to see if mana played a role in my ability to manipulate terrain, assuming I could.


    I bring my focus to the edge of the chamber with the exit pathway. I focus on the walls of the chamber, pouring my intent into them.


    After a moment, I can feel the mana within my core begin to work. The roughly spherical chamber¡¯s wall begins to flatten out, and my mana begins to drain.


    This is a test, so I have to keep going. Once the wall is flat, I work the others, working to change the chamber from a sphere to a cube.


    Halfway through the process, the mana I had acted on in the passageway reaches my core, slightly speeding up the process. But before I can finish smoothing out the wall furthest from the entrance, I feel my mana run out.


    So mana definitely has a use, at least one that is. I can use it to manipulate terrain. The question remains, if I really need mana to do that, or if it just speeds the process up.


    After some gargantuan effort, and what felt like 3 hours, I can confirm that I do not not in fact strictly require mana to shape terrain. It does, however, greatly improve the efficiency with which I can sculpt the earth if I use mana.


    But really, the mental effort required was enormous. I can only hope that the more I do this the better I will become.


    Anyway, with my now cubic chamber, 10 feet across on each side, I simply wait. I can¡¯t do more experiments with mana unless I have mana, and I lost track of myself and used it all on changing the room.


    As I wait, and look about my room, I notice that there is actually some mana here. This is rather odd, considering I had been sure to gather it all from my central chamber. As if to confirm my hypothesis, another particle of mana spontaneously appears in the corner of the room. I guess mana really does just start to exist. Now I just need to figure out if I can influence that generation somehow, and if there are actions that can cause it to occur.


    As I wait, more particles slowly appear. As much as a slow crawl as it is, the rate seems to be 2 per hour in this chamber.


    Time for another experiment. I draw a few particles into my core, and begin to work the passageway. This time, however, I explicitly will the mana within my core not to act. To my surprise, it doesn¡¯t. This is good. This means I can dig without using mana, even if I have some to spare.


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    I will the passageway to open further, molding it into a rectangular shape. It ends up 4 feet across the bottom and 7 feet high, bigger than the doors in my old world were, but I don¡¯t know what kinds of races live here and they might be bigger than humans.


    As I work the tunnel to the appropriate width, I realize that I can go further than before. Setting aside working the tunnel, I focus on its end.


    Past the mouth of the tunnel, which I suppose is also the mouth of the cave, is a waterfall. This is why I could vaguely sense water before. The entrance to my dungeon is tucked away behind a waterfall.


    Were I still a human, this is totally the kind of thing I would hide somewhere in, like, a DnD campaign. Caves behind waterfalls are a huge trope, so I feel right at home here.


    I finish opening up the entrance. This is rather fun, actually. Everything comes out pretty much how I see it in my mind¡¯s eye when I begin digging. It''s like 3D modeling, but I can¡¯t make mistakes and it''s all very easy - actually scratch that this is nothing like 3D modeling.


    Speaking of my improved area of observation, I focus back on my core. Definitely bigger. About 50% bigger. An influx of mana must increase the size of the core, which is probably linked to, among other things, my observation range.


    On an unrelated note, it is time for another experiment. I know that mana serves a purpose as fuel for my actions, or at least for an empowered version of them. Though there are likely things I will be completely unable to do without mana, that I just don¡¯t know I can even do yet.


    I still don¡¯t know how mana particles interact with one another, if they do at all. I need to know this so I can think about how to optimize my mana gathering efficiency.


    There are a few particles of mana in the hallway now, and some in my chamber. It has been about 2 hours since I last gathered them. As I focus on the mana particles to begin pulling them in, I notice something I did not notice before. Rather than being stationary, the particles are slowly, and I do mean extremely slowly, moving towards my core of their own accord. It seems that my core has a kind of natural attraction to the mana around it. I am certain that I would have noticed the movement of mana prior to my acting upon it earlier.


    The only conclusion in my mind is that this is also related to the change in size of my core. As the size of my core grows larger, mana nearby is further attracted to it. Chances are, the range at which my core passively draws in mana is also related to its size. Either the range or the strength of attraction, or both, when my core was its base size must have been so insignificant that I didn¡¯t notice it.


    My core is pulling in mana by itself now, and given that mana seems to promote core growth, this is likely to get out of hand quickly once it takes off. There may be people or other entities that may notice if mana in a larger area is being pulled into my core, and come looking for me.


    I need to prepare while I still have the peace and quiet to do so.

 Chapter 3 - Dungeons First Door

    The first order of business is moving my core. With my running assumption being that if the core breaks I die, I really don¡¯t want it so close to the entrance.


    I focus on the wall opposite from the entrance, and begin to carve another passageway. This is going to take a bit of time. 10 feet long, 4 feet across, 7 feet tall, through solid rock. As a sort of experiment, once I have begun to dig, I focus intently, and pull my consciousness away from the action. After a minute, I look back to see it still being done.


    Perfect. I can multitask.


    I turn my attention back to the entrance of the dungeon. I really can¡¯t just leave this open, but something tells me that fully obstructing it would be a bad idea for future mana flow, working under the assumption that my core won¡¯t be able to drag mana through however many feet of rock is above me.


    I am going to go out on a limb, and try something.


    I will a portion of the wall to break away from the rock cleanly. After a moment, and some mana expenditures, I have a half foot thick stone slab, tucked seamlessly into the wall. It is a bit wider than the passageway, to leave some of the slab in the wall once I close it. I carve channels above and below the door to allow mana to pass through.


    Once I have the slab separate from the wall, I begin to attempt to push some of my mana into it. I force the arcane particles into the rock, and then force my intent upon it. I give it motion. I give it rules. It is exhausting, but I feel like if it works it will be worth it. This should roughly be an enchantment, at least that is what you might call it in a fantasy book. It might have a different name here.


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    I sort of step back, pull my focus a bit further away, to admire my own work. As I do, the enchantment on the slab kicks in. The slab begins to slide out of its position in the wall, across the passageway. My first magic door has been completed.


    The enchantment is fairly simple. The slab, now a door, can move on its own side to side a limited amount. It has an open state and a closed state. It will open upon my command, and close after a set duration unless told to remain open for longer.


    Once my dungeon was properly defended, I would put in place a way to actually open the door without my direct input. Maybe some kind of system that prevents multiple parties from being inside the dungeon at once? Who knows. I will cross that bridge when I get to it.


    As I finish the arduous work of enchanting the door, the new tunnel finishing digging itself, and I bring my focus to the end of the tunnel, to the new room I want to create.


    I set in my mind, plans to carve out a room identical in size to the first room. I allow mana to flow into the actions to speed it up, and once again pull my mind from it. This would be how I do things from now on, it only made sense.


    As I did all this renovation, I could feel my skill with manipulating my surroundings increasing. More proficiency, more speed. At least that was what I hoped. It seemed to ring true, as the next room finished a bit faster than I figured it would.


    Now onto the actual defenses, the traps. I wasn¡¯t sure how to get monsters yet so traps would have to do. I didn¡¯t particularly want anyone to die, but I have to defend my core, and a dungeon without risks isn¡¯t any fun. The people who go into dungeons for a living probably understand they might die at any turn.


    It was at this point that I felt something enter my range, distracting me from thinking of what lethal implements I could hide in the walls or floor. I rapidly shift my focus to it, and find a small bird perched beside the waterfall.


    This might be useful.

 Chapter 4 - A Little Birdie Told Me

    I brought my focus upon the small bird, perched on a rock beside the waterfall. It was just barely within my range.


    I had never seen a bird like this before. It had a red crest on the top of its head, almost like a tuft of hair. It had a black body, and rather fluffy white underbelly. The human instincts in me thought it was adorable, and wanted very badly to pet it though I knew very well that I could not.


    The bird seemed completely unaware that I was observing it. I assume that would be true of most creatures, and probably most sentient beings as well.


    Then I tried something. I reached out to it with my mind, focusing on the bird more than simply observing it.


    It was a strange feeling, hard to describe without a body. In fact I imagine this feeling would be essentially impossible for a physically bound entity to understand. I connected with the bird, which let out a surprised chirp and ruffled its feathers.


    It only took a few seconds, and the bird was mine, though at the cost of a small but not insignificant amount of mana. I could sense, not robbed of free will, but certainly bound to my service. After a moment it turned its head, cocking it to the side and looking at where I would have been were my point of observation a physical object. It chirped a few times.


    I could feel the bird vaguely, as though it was sort of an extension of myself. I impaired intent onto it as I was by now used to doing.


    The bird hopped from its perch and glided around the waterfall, looking curiously at my stone door, which I opened for it. It hopped its way inside, making its way to my core in the first chamber.


    Upon reaching within a foot of my core, it slowly approached, there was respect in its movements. Not something I expected to see from an animal that I figured wasn¡¯t sentient. And to be reasonable, it probably wasn¡¯t, and likely still isn¡¯t. It gently nuzzled against my core briefly with its head. My nonexistent heart melted.


    At my command, the bird moved away from my core. I focused on it more, and found my word blur. In a moment, I was looking at my core through the eyes of the bird.


    This. This would most definitely be useful. I had the bird leave my range of observation, with instructions to return briefly. To my surprise, I found I could still command the bird even once it had left my range. I could also view the world as it whenever I pleased.


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    I used the bird to survey my surroundings.


    The entrance to my dungeon sat above a small lake, behind a 50 foot tall waterfall. The area is densely forested for as far as the bird can see. It is unlikely I will be seeing any humans for a while.


    That is good. It gives me more time to build and prepare. On the other hand, it may lead to misconceptions about me, the dungeon itself. No matter, I shall deal with it when it becomes necessary.


    I shift my focus away from the bird after setting it to patrol the area and gather some small plants, and of course make sure he cares for his own needs.


    My new friend needs a name. I shall give him one when he returns.


    I contemplate and gather mana as I wait for my new friend to return. I turn my focus to the door. I reach into its enchantment, and will it to change. It takes a while, but I make the door open automatically for those under my command. I can, of course, disable this function at will.


    When I realize the bird has returned, I am lost in thought. A chirp brings my mind back to the present. There are a number of seeds, and flowers, and weeds scattered on the floor before my core.


    Then I try something new. I attempt to speak.


    Nothing happens.


    I try again.


    Then again.


    On the third try, I feel a strange pressure fill the room. Pressure evidently created by me. The bird stiffens up briefly before relaxing.


    ¡°You. Little bird.¡± I address the animal. It looks at the core in awe, and I see understanding in its eye. I don¡¯t hear my voice aloud. It must be a psychic thing. This feels very different than simply imparting my intent, much more important.


    ¡°On this day I give you a name. One befitting your deeds. One befitting your future.¡± I don¡¯t mean to sound so mystical and important but it sort of just happens. ¡°I name you Scout.¡±. As I voice this decision, I feel my mana drain away, moving towards the bird.


    I really should have seen that coming.


    I watch mana coalesce and dance around the bird, becoming one with it. In a moment, the bird is gone, and something new remains. The same bird, but changed radically. My connection to it seems empowered, and the bird - Scout - looks far more formidable.


    Scout now stands 3 feet tall, the red tuft of feathers on his head curved back, his feathers a slick deep black, his underbelly still white and slightly puffy. He doesn¡¯t chirp, he caws. He spreads his wings and caws. His wings look 7 feet across. Impressive for a bird who was the size of a pigeon moments ago.


    He makes a bowing gesture, clearly now more intelligent. I can practically feel the loyalty radiating from him. I can also feel my core grow, now twice the size it was when I first awoke.


    Scout stands from his bow and leaves my chamber, soaring around the waterfall once the stone door passes for him.


    I turn my attention to the plants. Though I had no more mana left, I certainly had plans.

 Chapter 5 - Magic Plants, Magic Storage, Magic Growth

    I could feel the presence of Scout, even though he had left my area. I could generally feel his location and direction if I tried to focus on him. But right now I had different things to think about.


    I turned my focus to the plants lying about. I could sense some amount of mana within them. Living things must draw it in like my core, though likely less efficiently and with less capacity for storage.


    I focused on one of the flowers, and ripped the mana from it. Several of the small particles were pulled from the surface of the flower. I absorbed them into my core. It was already dying by this point, but I was curious if removing the mana from a fully living creature would have some kind of negative effect.


    Planting flowers and other flora within the dungeon likely wouldn¡¯t help mana gain efficiency, as I would probably pull harder on the mana than the plants preventing them from gathering any in the first place.


    Either way, it might spruce the place up. But I needed to try something else first. There has been a lot of trying stuff lately.


    I focused on some weeds. I reached deep within them. I could sense their purpose and their form. I could change it.


    The first thing I did was change the weeds to feed on mana instead of on light, water, and nutrients from the soil. Constantly tending to their nutritional needs wouldn¡¯t be practical. After that, I changed their purpose. From simple weeds, to vines. These vines would bear fruit, a small orange berry. If all goes according to my desire, these berries would have a very minor healing effect when consumed. The plants themselves would wither if taken from my dungeon.


    I turned my attention to the chambers of my dungeon, and finally decided to move my core. I shifted the earth beneath me, moving me slowly into the next chamber. With my new increase in size, I could still perceive the water falling outside of my entrance.


    The first chamber needed some work. The floor was smoothed and shaped into tiles, with a circular pattern in the center. The circular tile pattern surrounded a flat stone circle. I may do something with that later. Into the unoccupied walls, I carved spherical indents, and I drew the walls out, forming bowls half sunk into the walls. I gave the bowls plenty of room in the wall above them, a nice arched indentation.


    These bowls, I set about enchanting. I willed them to create and hold flame, flame that would burn as long as the enchantment held. The fire would behave normally outside of the bowls, however. I also enchanted the bowls to activate when someone enters the room, and deactivate when everyone leaves it. I wasn¡¯t about to set someone on fire, with fire they couldn¡¯t put out, even if it was an accident. Well, at least not yet. It wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea if I need to take more drastic security measures. For now, I will leave that idea on the shelf.


    While contemplating what to do with the plants now in my possession, a thought occurs to me. The earth that I get rid of has to go somewhere, and earth that I place has to come from somewhere.


    Chances are, I have some kind of extra dimensional storage, or inventory, that terrain I carve away gets stored in. The question is if I can add and remove things outside of modifying terrain.


    I find myself utterly out of mana, but decide to try anyway. With extreme effort, focusing on the plants, they simply vanish before me - disappearing into nothing. I search within myself, and find I have knowledge of the amount and types of earth I have carved away, as well as the plants I just absorbed.


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    With some more effort, I manage to return one of the plants to the physical world at a different location, before taking it back into my inventory.


    Useful.


    What isn¡¯t useful, though, is that I still have no mana and would rather not drain the plants.


    If plants have mana, it would be reasonable to assume animals do as well. They probably have more actually.


    I send Scout orders to bring me some critters. Also, this would tell me if mana exited the body immediately on death, if it took time, or if it didn''t happen naturally at all.


    Shortly thereafter, Scout enters my chamber. Fitting I had him hunt for me, considering he now looks like a bird of prey. He drops some small rodents before my core.


    They are most definitely dead, but their mana has been drained. I focus on Scout. He has more than when I last saw him.


    Interesting.


    When a creature is slain, its mana, or at least part of it, is transferred or absorbed by the killer. This is likely a way in which creatures, and probably people too, can grow in power over their lives.


    I order Scout to bring me a live specimen. Another thought has entered my mind.


    By the time Scout returns, I have absorbed a small bit of mana that has randomly generated in my vicinity. He has the squirming rodent in his beak. I command him to kill it, and he does.


    This time, I watch as part of the creature¡¯s mana is drawn to Scout, about a quarter. The rest is immediately drawn towards my core.


    This brings to mind the types of interactions a dungeon has with people, who probably possess much more mana than small wild animals.


    Assuming most dungeons have monsters, and that the ratio of mana absorbed by the killer versus by the dungeon remains the same, then people probably adventure within dungeons to gain mana and therefore increase their power - ¡°leveling up¡± as I might call it. The risk of course, is death. In which case, whichever dungeon monster killed the adventurer keeps a quarter of its mana, with the dungeon taking the rest.


    Returning mana from a monster, assuming there is some way for me to create them - perhaps in a way similar or identical to my creation, or rather evolution, of Scout, means that a dungeon can recycle mana to some extent before needing an injection to maintain decent levels of mana. That would be from its monsters slaying adventurers, and passive mana income.


    There still may be ways for me to gain substantial amounts of mana without killing people, though.


    A few ideas come to mind. Perhaps the collection of resources from a dungeon provides mana, either less than, equal, or greater to the amount of mana the dungeon used to create or maintain the resource. That would encourage more passive dungeons, and would also enforce a sort of delicate symbiosis between people and dungeons in terms of mana. In fact, it may be the case that the only way, or at least only efficient way, to gain mana for people is to get it through going into dungeons.


    Or perhaps as I grow, the amount of mana that spontaneously generates within my vicinity will increase. Or perhaps I could figure out some kind of enchantment to draw in mana from further away or perhaps even create it myself. Though that kind of infinite mana loop is probably about as impossible as perpetual motion machines were in my old world. Any god with common sense, or decently respectable natural laws wouldn¡¯t allow that to happen.


    Until I can test my theories revolving around human dungeon interaction, I can rely on Scout bringing me sources of mana.


    I would really, really, rather not kill people as a primary mana source. But the idea that there should be risk and reward keeps coming back to my mind.


    I can¡¯t seem to fully shake the idea that it would be ok for at least some people to die.


    After all, what good dungeon isn¡¯t at least a little dangerous?

 Chapter 6 - Ambitions and Expansion

    As Scout brings me more mana though ethically dubious though necessary means, I consider what to do next.


    I had by now, long since come to terms with my situation. I don''t mind much anyway. This seems more interesting than my old life.


    I suppose that settles it.


    If I was a dungeon, then I would be the greatest dungeon.


    I would put each and every other dungeon in this world to shame.


    That is my ambition.


    I am going to live this life to the fullest. I am going to be a mega dungeon.


    With a newfound sense of purpose in my heart, no, in my core, I set about planning.


    There would most definitely be risk, but there would be reward too. I would start with whatever kinds of magic plants I could conjure up and figure out more stuff once I had the ability to do so.


    I would have puzzles, monsters, traps, and bosses. I don¡¯t even know how to do half that stuff yet, but you best believe I am going to figure it out.


    I focus back to the first chamber. It didn¡¯t need to have anything dangerous in it. But I did want to do something at least. I created two more enchanted doors. One at the entrance and exit to the first room. The entry way door would open in conjunction with the door blocking the actual entrance to my dungeon. I raised the central circular tile in the floor up into a pillar - 2 and a half feet tall and 8 inches across - and carved a circle into it. I could modify this later, perhaps to change the difficulty of the floors based on party size, assuming adventurers even grouped up like that, but for now it would act as a key.


    When the circle atop the pillar was touched the circle would glow a gentle blue, like my core, and after a moment the door would open, remaining open for 2 minutes or until everyone in the room had passed through it.


    As I worked, I found the ease with which I did increased. Either the effect of practice or of an increased core size.


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    At the end of the hallway connecting the first and second chambers I placed another door, to open in conjunction with the door before it and to close once the hallway had been vacated. I didn¡¯t want to accidentally split any groups of people.


    In the second chamber, I brought forth the magic healing berry vines from my inventory. I should really name these. Hmn.


    Lesser Life Fruit.


    That should do. I sense something changing within the plant as I name it. I focus on the plant, and I am left with a sense of it. This seems a sort of appraisal. It is most definitely called a ¡°Lesser Life Fruit¡± now, and there is some information about its minor restorative properties as well.


    Given the two examples of actively naming things that I have, it seems a given name, at least one from a dungeon, holds great power. I should keep that in mind.


    I create two light sources in the walls, identical to those in the first chamber, beside the door leading into this one. I also have the life fruit take root in the walls. I don¡¯t want more than a few berries ever being harvestable at once from this room.


    A taste of the treasure that will lie further within.


    Now, my grand plan for this first floor.


    It will be a series of connected cubic rooms. I am going to try and see if I can create traps using my enchantments, and place them in the rooms as well. Each room will be connected to the last by an enchanted door. Once a room has been ¡°cleared¡± or ¡°passed¡±, a door to another room will open.


    With the general idea of this first challenge in mind, I begin to dig. I carve out three new doors, one on each unoccupied wall, behind them I begin to carve chambers identical in size.


    I set my mind on autopilot, carving out new rooms until I have a 5 room by 5 room grid, each room connected to its adjacent neighbors.


    Once each room is created, I weave a great enchantment. It seems like a more fun idea than letting people explore whichever rooms they want too anyway.


    Each time this challenge begins, the enchantment will create a random pathway from the first room to the last room. The pathway could be a straight line, it could take someone through almost every room, or anywhere in between. The idea is that the path is random and different each time. The enchantment is extremely complex and draining but with my new mana income from Scout I manage to pull it off, just barely.


    I place some lesser life fruit around throughout the rooms, as a small reward. I make sure to give each room some light sources and decorations, fitting the general aesthetic I have created so far.


    As a finishing touch, I make channels around each door to ensure proper mana flow once I move my core deeper into the dungeon.


    But before I start trying to make traps, I want to give something else a try.


    I have a hunch about getting myself some monsters.

 Chapter 7 - The Issue With Monstrous Size

    Realistically speaking, I had probably already created a monster already. It stands to reason that a normal creature empowered by mana, from a dungeon or otherwise, would be considered a monster. That would mean that Scout was my first monster.


    The only issue with Scout, is I only have one of him. I need something with a stable and numerous population that I could use as basic monsters.


    Insects come to mind. If the mutations pass down, then I only need a few of a kind to start up a population. If the mutations don¡¯t pass down, then perhaps I could set up some kind of enchantment to automate the process.


    In either case, I would need to have Scout bring me some test subjects.


    The DM inside me tells me spiders are a good catch-all type of monster. Depending on how much I can control how they change, I can make a myriad of different monsters from the same base creature.


    I carve out a 20 foot by 20 foot room, 10 feet high, beside the first chamber in the dungeon. I carve a pathway between the room and one of the rooms in the grid of rooms, the one directly left of the first accessible room. I will use this new chamber as a testing ground. I create doors flush with the wall so that no normal person would ever notice there was anything there.


    With the room complete, I have Scout go fetch me some spiders. He returns shortly with a fairly large but very mundane looking spider in a talon. He deposits it before my core and I focus on it. I repeat the process which I used to bind Scout to my service.


    The spider is mine.


    Now the question remains, how much can I change?


    If my work with the plants was any indication, I would be able to change a lot.


    I open the hidden door and have the spider move into the new chamber before I begin to work.


    The changes to Scout weren¡¯t intentional, they were simply a result of me naming him. I am sure that I could go back and change Scout if I wanted but there was really no need too at the moment. These changes, however, would be meticulous.


    I started by scaling her up. From a body length of about half a foot, to one of three feet long, legs and fangs included. That was definitely draining. I focused on her exoskeleton next. I increased resistance to damage and made it tougher, a veritable suit of armor. I focused on her fangs next, increasing the potency of her venom. I also increased her general strength, reaction time, and speed.


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    When it was done, I was utterly drained and also - somehow - not horrified at the creature I had created. This thing is straight out of a horror movie. I suppose there is some comfort in knowing I can control it with a thought.


    I should probably name you too. Once I have a bit more mana that is.


    There were also two more modifications I wanted to try.


    To that end, I set the spider about the same task as Scout - supplementing my mana income.


    Scout and the spider both exited the dungeon and set about hunting. I made sure to also tell the spider to get enough food for herself before bringing stuff back for me, I didn¡¯t want my new creation to starve in the name of mana generation after all.


    I knew Scout could fly fast, and I assumed the spider would be too, but seeing the spider accelerate down the hallway was quite frightening - the sheer burst of speed it was capable of was immense.


    After a while, I get a strange feeling from Scout. I shift my focus, and look through his eyes. He seems to have seen something near the edge of the forest and is flying to investigate.


    A small village, with people going about their daily routines in the streets. It¡¯s far enough away from the dungeon that I probably won¡¯t have to worry about an errant hunter from it stumbling upon me but I can never be too careful.


    I order Scout away from the village, and hold my hopes that no one saw the abnormally sized bird.


    A few hours pass, and with an increased influx of mana from two monsters, I feel fuller than ever.


    It¡¯s time to try my final modifications to the spider.


    I figure keeping a steady population of spiders would be easier if I could just have one print smaller versions of itself - so that¡¯s what I set out to do.


    The mana drain is a lot higher than before, I suppose changing a creature¡¯s method of reproduction is a lot more extreme of a change than making basically a bigger version of itself. I also try to limit what actually comes out, they won¡¯t be as big or strong as her - which should mean more of them can exist at a time. I also allow her to spawn children at will, or as fast as her body will physically let her. It doesn¡¯t seem like I can make her survive on just mana like I did the plant, though.


    Now I suppose all that was left was to name her.


    ¡°You, henceforth, are Mogala.¡± I stated. My mana swirled around the spider. I watched as she grew even further. Her exoskeleton developed spines and hardened even more. Mogala was a name I had given to a giant spider who lived in a mountain in a D&D campaign I once ran, I felt it was fitting.


    Mogala¡¯s body was now 7 feet long, more than twice the size I had manually made her. This would be a problem.


    This would be a massive problem. A problem as big as the spider that was now stuck inside the chamber, and far too large to explore any of my dungeon.


    Since I don¡¯t know what effects making her smaller again would have, assuming it was possible, I would need to remodel the entire damn dungeon!


    I suppose it''s for the best. I wasn''t too happy with how the original design turned out anyway...

 Chapter 8 - A New Perspective

    Somewhere near the edge of a forest¡­


    A young man with a bow and quiver across his back looked to the sky. He squinted. ¡°That''s bizarre,¡± he said after a moment.


    ¡°What¡¯s bizarre?¡± a young boy beside him asked. The boy also had a bow and quiver. They were hunters.


    ¡°That bird, see it?¡± the man pointed to a very large bird flying in the distance. Too large. ¡°That definitely isn¡¯t a normal bird. Might be a monster. Too far away to shoot¡± the man explained to the boy, his son. He continued, ¡°If we¡¯re in the forest and you see that thing, let me know and take cover under a log or whatever you can¡±. He put his hand on the boy¡¯s shoulder, who nodded.


    The pair were about to go out and hunt, but now they needed to tell the village elder about this. A new monster in the forest was rare. Monster parts fetched a high price, to the right buyer, and the village could use some more coin after a poor harvest.


    The two headed back towards the village. It was a small place, but to them it was home. They headed right to the largest building and knocked on the door.


    ¡°Elder, we must speak with the elder¡± the man said, and the door was opened by another man.


    ¡°Ah! Elmis, pleasure to see you. The elder should be able to talk right now, especially since judging by the tone of your voice something is wrong¡± the man noted, allowing them inside. ¡°Not wrong, per say, but Kel and I saw something out of the ordinary. We had to come back immediately to share the word.¡±


    Quickly, a meeting with the elder is called. They crowd around a table and an older man joins them. He sits down gingerly and smiles. ¡°Kel, Elmis, what can I do for you both?¡± the older man asked.


    ¡°Elder, as we were about to leave to hunt, we saw a great bird in the sky. I believe it to be a monster¡± Elmis stated firmly. This brought a mixed reaction from the older man, who stroked his beard thoughtfully. Elmis continued, ¡°We didn¡¯t see any others like it, but we can¡¯t rule out the possibility that they exist.¡±.


    The elder nodded before speaking ¡°A bird-like monster? What were its colorations, if you could see any¡± he asks, clearly interested.


    Kel pipes up. ¡°I could see them!¡± he states excitedly. ¡°It was black, mostly! It had a white underbelly, and I think some red on top of its head but it was hard to tell.¡± He says, before quieting down. Elmis smiles and nods, ¡°It is as my son says. It actually looked rather like a monstrous version of one of the birds native to the woods¡­¡± as he speaks, he begins to trail off, becoming silent. This silence fills the room, deafening - a realization dawning on him.


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    ¡°If it was in fact a monstrous version of a native species, then we have a bigger problem¡± the elder states. ¡°Something happened, or is happening, within the forest that caused the creature to absorb excess mana. And it may not be the only creature affected.¡± he paused, ¡°There is a chance that this was caused by a dungeon¡­¡± he added before continuing, ¡°Or by some other event, potentially even one caused by people.¡±.


    ¡°A dungeon? This close? I would have noticed something.¡± Elmis says immediately. The elder counters, ¡°You may not have. Even with your abilities, dungeon entrances can be difficult to spot. Some even take great care in hiding them.¡± he continued after a pause, ¡°Also, if a dungeon does exist within or near the forest, there is no telling just how far away it is - since the monster you saw was a bird.¡±. The elder takes a breath. ¡°We should run with the assumption that there is a dungeon somewhere in the woods. Until we find it, take great care while hunting. I will let the villagers know of this development.¡± the elder took another moment ¡°Elmis. I trust in your ability. If you would like, you have my blessing to search for the dungeon''s entrance - but not to enter it.¡± the elder finishes. He waves his hand ¡°If you are careful, you should still be able to take Kel out hunting.¡±.


    After some parting words, Elmis and Kel excuse themselves. Elmis¡¯s thoughts racing.


    It had been forever since he had seen a dungeon.


    He wasn¡¯t necessarily looking forward to seeing one again either.


    He shakes his head, and gestures to his son. ¡°Kel. Go home to your mother.¡± he says after a moment. His son nods, knowing there is no sense in arguing to come.


    Elmis sets out from the village alone. He won¡¯t risk his son¡¯s safety - even a bit.


    He would find a quarry, and then he would find the dungeon.


    To Elmis, time always flew by on the hunt. Before he knew it, he had taken down two deer. These could feed the village for a day or two. He set about carrying them back to the village. He would spend the rest of the day, he decided, looking for the dungeon.


    As intended, he spent the rest of the day looking. Alas, he found nothing. No signs of monster activity, or anything. Nothing within 5 whole miles of the village. Figures it would be further away. The question was how much further. He took a moment to think.


    If it was close enough to find in a day, or even in a few, he probably would have noticed it already. Assuming the dungeon was further away than the bird was, that would mean the dungeon was at least 30 miles away from the village, probably more.


    He sighed to himself as he walked back to the village, the sun setting in the distance.


    He would find that dungeon, even if he needed help doing it.

 Chapter 9 - Redesigning and Expanding

    Within the dungeon¡­


    Redesigning, if I wanted to do it with any modicum of speed, would cost a lot of mana - more than I feel I have access to, with Mogala trapped within the dungeon and unable to hunt for me.


    The first step, then, would be to free her.


    I focused on the entrance to the dungeon, widening it in all directions. I made it 8 feet across and 12 feet tall. I scrapped the old door, and created a new one - a two piece door instead of one.


    I merged the first chamber with Mogala¡¯s hidden one, to allow her to exit. She was able to just narrowly squeeze her way out of the dungeon.


    As I made these drastic changes, I could almost feel my core grow. Practice makes perfect I suppose.


    I erased the hidden chamber, filling it with stone, and began to expand the first. I created a 30 foot by 30 foot room, 20 feet tall.


    The grid of rooms, I fused together and shrunk slightly - creating an expansive 50 foot by 50 foot square room. I raised the ceiling to match. I had to move it backwards slightly by opening one end while closing the other to make room for the now larger first chamber though.


    I was now out of mana. I patiently waited, and thought about what I would do.


    I would have Mogala act as a spawner, creating spiders to populate the floor. According to what Scout saw, I had more than enough room to work in terms of digging further into the rock and even out to the sides.


    Some kind of labyrinth should work. Mogala could either wander it, or exist in a separate hidden chamber from which she sent her children. I could decide that later. As I waited, I did some small and slow, given the lack of mana, detailing of the walls and entrance.


    Scout and Mogala brought me more mana as I worked, but I wasn¡¯t going to use it on the details of my dungeon. I could save that for once I have more mana to work with.


    I wanted to place puzzles within the dungeon, that I knew for sure. The question was, what kinds of puzzles would I place?


    If the first floor is to be an expanse of passageways, then perhaps something that both requires and rewards exploring it in its entirety. Maybe a series of statues across the labyrinth¡¯s edges - each requiring to be activated in some way. I could even make that the only way into the next floor.


    Hmn. It isn¡¯t a bad idea, actually.


    In the center of the new large second chamber, I raised a circular portion of stone from the floor. It was 5 feet across, and stood 3 feet higher than the floor.


    Around the raised stone platform, I marked where I would place the stairs to the next floor. Once the puzzle was completed, the floor around the circle would lower and retract, revealing a set of stairs spiraling downwards leading to the second floor.


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    Atop the circle, in three points I placed hemisphere indents, placed where the tips of a triangle inscribed within the stone would be. In the center of the stone, I placed a flame holding bowl, like I had done before but larger, to give some light to the room.


    The challenge of the first floor would be thus.


    Find the three keys within the labyrinth , and bring them back to this room. When the keys were placed within the stone, the stairs would open.


    I brought forth small stone spheres from rock I had previously carved away. I polished them and made sure they could fit within the indents. I placed an enchantment upon the door into the room. It wouldn¡¯t open if someone tried to take the keys out of the dungeon.


    With the main room complete, and a steady stream of mana coming from Scout and Mogala, I set about building the labyrinth. I dug outwards from the door, placing a large door in each wall. These would open once everyone had entered this primary room.


    It felt like days that I spent building the labyrinth. I felt my proficiency increase as I worked, the task becoming ever faster. The passageways in the labyrinth were larger than the main doorway and other passages, each 12 feet across and 15 feet tall, to allow Mogala to move about more easily. She was a more stubby spider when she was just an animal - some kind of tarantula and not one of those kinds with ridiculously long legs, and I was thankful for that since it meant she could fit in these hallways with her current size.


    Once the labyrinth was complete, I created statues upon raised circular sections, in rooms of their own. Each one held one of the spherical keys in their hands, kelt down offering the key to whomever found the statue.


    Now it was time to figure out traps. I found a random hallway and focused on it. Into the walls, I created spears - nearly flush with the wall in fact - that, thanks to an enchantment, would extend rapidly shortly after a creature moved in front of them. I gave them a delay because instant death traps weren¡¯t that fun, and I also gave them a cooldown period between activations. I made sure they didn¡¯t trigger on my own creatures, and only on those who intruded.


    In a different hallway, I created a similar type of trap but in the floor instead of in the walls. I scattered these traps throughout the labyrinth.


    I also scattered some of the lesser life fruit throughout it, taking root within the walls. I spent some time decorating as well.


    It was time to enchant the keys. I enchanted them with a fairly complex magic. The keys were in a way, drawn to the statues. When that portion of the enchantment was triggered, the keys would begin to roll back towards the statues, and jump back into their rightful places. It would be triggered by the actual key function. After the keys had been used, and after everyone had left the dungeon - they would return to their rightful places. I also hollowed them out to make them a bit lighter, and made them much more difficult to break.


    As a final layer of difficulty, the keys would broadcast their location to creatures on the first floor - meaning that every spider there, Mogala included, would have a general sense of where the key bearer was.


    I envisioned the first floor playing out as such, a party of adventurers would brave the labyrinth, maybe avoiding spiders or maybe fighting them - and find the keys waiting. They would take them, either one at a time or all at once depending on if they split up, back to the main chamber, while fighting through enemies who were now actively able to locate them.


    Of course, as long as they didn¡¯t try and leave with the keys - the entrance would open whenever they wanted to leave if they decided to give up early.


    I let out a satisfied sigh and examined my work. I didn¡¯t know how long it had taken - but it must have been a while. The labyrinth was roughly 500 feet by 500 feet in size.


    As I stepped back into reality from the rush of my work, I looked back to my core, resting in the second chamber. It was much larger now, and I could see the mana being drawn to it.


    The increased mana income that came with size in addition to the mana from Scout and Mogala made this whole ordeal much easier.


    With that said, I called Mogala back to begin patrolling the corridors of the labyrinth.


    It was time to start on the second floor.

 Chapter 10 - The Dungeon Revealed

    In the forest¡­


    A few days after Elmis had spotted the first monster, he found another.


    This one was much worse.


    He was probably 45 miles away from the village when he encountered it.


    It was a great spider. It stalked through the undergrowth while he watched, holding his breath from a branch. Its chitin shone like metal armor in the moonlight. Its very presence made every part of his body scream danger.


    This wasn¡¯t like the bird monster. This thing was specifically designed to kill. If he tried to hunt it he would die, he was certain of that.


    He wasn¡¯t sure if it just hadn¡¯t noticed him or if it had ignored him in favor of easier prey - but he felt he was lucky to get away with his life.


    It didn¡¯t look like it could fly, so chances are it wouldn¡¯t be coming closer to the village. He doubted even with everyone working together that they could bring it down.


    It had been a bit over 2 weeks since he first saw the spider. Even with the danger at hand, he was still determined to find the dungeon. He was being even more careful though.


    Based on the places it went, he had narrowed down the general area where the dungeon could be - but he still wasn¡¯t sure where exactly it was. After all, it was far too dangerous to follow the spider closely.


    About 2 days ago, the spider had stopped showing up.


    Elmis walked closer to the edge of the river. He could hear the calming sounds of the waterfall upstream. As he knelt to drink from the river, he froze. A shadow passed by overhead.


    The bird monster. He whipped his head to see the creature flying up river, towards the waterfall.


    Elmis gulped, and slowly stood up.


    If the bird was going towards the dungeon, following it might mean encountering the spider again. A battle he wouldn¡¯t be able to win.


    He had to trust in his speed to get him out if it came to that.


    He began to follow the river upstream.


    He walked for a while before coming up to the cliff with the waterfall. He saw the bird emerge from behind the fall, and perch on a tree.


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    It was looking at him. Directly at him.


    There was a degree of knowing in its eyes. An intelligence not seen among normal monsters.


    He had found it. 50 damn miles away from the village, he had found it.


    The dungeon must be behind that waterfall. Immediately, he turned and bolted away from it. His body propelling him through the trees at inhuman speed.


    This was big.


    The dungeon wasn¡¯t close enough to the village to cause direct harm, but it was close enough that it might be possible to capitalize on its existence. He had to tell the elder.


    <hr>


    ¡­In the dungeon¡­


    I got a strange feeling from Scout and shifted to his sight. I saw a human moving extremely fast away from the dungeon. That outfit, and the bow¡­


    Mogala had noticed a human a while ago while she was hunting.


    This was too far from the closest village for a random hunting trip. He must have been expressly looking for me.


    With my position revealed, who knows how long I had until someone else came trying to either loot or destroy me.


    I had to expedite excavation of the second floor.


    Luckily for me, my new size found me with plenty of mana to do just that with.


    But first, I should give Scout a makeover.


    I focus on him, perched in a tree near the waterfall. I wonder if I can change him from there.


    No. Doesn¡¯t seem like I can. He is outside of my observation radius after all. I call him into it, and presto.


    With him sitting by the waterfall, I begin to work.


    I make Scout even bigger. Doubling his size, up to 6 feet long from beak tip to tail feathers, with a wingspan of 14 feet. He has done a lot for me, and I need to make sure nothing bad happens to him.


    I make his beak and talons sharper. I improve his eyesight, and further boost his speed. I also increase his physical power a lot.


    What I''m left with, is one mean looking bird.


    ¡°You have served me well thus far. I have changed you in an effort to ensure nothing happens to you, as humans discover this place.¡± I pause, ¡°Continue to play your role as my eyes, as my sentinel, and do be safe.¡± I finish. Scout lets out a mighty caw before taking off with a powerful beat of his new wings.


    I feel him rapidly leave my radius, before turning my focus back to the second floor.


    I begin to dig downwards around the pillar in the middle of the second chamber. I go down a fair bit, before opening into a 20 by 20 foot room around the pillar. I begin to create airs around it, spiraling up to the chamber above.


    At the top of the staircase, I begin to create a retractable number of stones that cover the staircase until the keys are placed in their spots. I also put some mana vents within the stone platform, nicely hidden among the designs.


    I take a moment to glance back at Mogala.


    I find her surrounded by several small spiders, miniature versions of herself. I would smile if I could.


    I have one of them come into the chamber and pick up my core, moving it further down, into the beginning of the second level.


    It was time to start planning what I would put here.

 Chapter 11 - The Second Floor

    A new floor held so many possibilities.


    The only problem was that I wasn¡¯t sure what to do.


    I knew I would keep up the kind of, abandoned ancient temple vibe I had going, at least for a while - but that was about it.


    I suppose sticking to that theme, I would make floor two, at least partially, a sort of inner area. Once adventurers get past the labyrinth, they would be allowed access to the ¡°temple''s¡± inner region - or at least the first inner region.


    This would be a space of offering and ritual, I decided. At least, that would be the theme of the puzzles and aesthetic.


    The first step was a grand entrance.


    On the wall of the stair room, I began to carve a massive door, 20 feet tall, 12 feet wide. Two thick stone slabs that would separate for the door mechanism itself - a larger version of the doors I had elsewhere.


    Past the grand door, I created a large room. Another 50 foot by 50 foot chamber.


    It was much easier this time, with the increased mana gain from my size - and the experience carving away the earth that I had amassed.


    At the far end of the room, I raised a semicircular section of floor upon which I would place some kind of altar. I created pillars along a path leading to it, and created fire holding bowls on top of the pillars to provide light to the room.


    What would this altar do exactly, though?


    I wanted the altar to be some kind of puzzle, or thing that adventurers can interact with.


    The theme of this floor was sort of an offering space, so I suppose I could play with that.


    The altar could be a place for offerings.


    The offerings would be to me, of course - who else could they be for anyway - so I would need them to be offerings I could use. Offerings of mana came to mind.


    I set about enchanting the altar.


    When something with mana, a creature or object, was laid upon the altar the enchantment would activate. Any mana within the subject, the enchantment would attempt to rip out, and set on a course towards my core. I spent a frankly ludicrous amount of mana on this enchantment, making sure it was powerful enough for my liking.


    I tested the new enchantment by enchanting some small rocks with basic stuff, and infusing some others with small amounts of mana - and instructing one of Mogala¡¯s spiders to move them to the altar one by one.


    For the mana infused rocks, the mana was simply pulled out of them.


    The effect on the enchanted rocks however, was much more interesting.


    Enchantments are, as I understand them, basically mana given purpose. When the enchanted rocks were placed upon the altar, it deconstructed the enchantments upon them - breaking them down into the mana used to create them.


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    I wonder, though, if this would work on any enchantment, or if there was some threshold of either power of the enchantment, skill of the enchanter, or something else, that would prevent my enchantment from working.


    No matter, I had basically created a disenchantment altar that would feed the mana it released to me - so I was pretty happy.


    I attempted to make the purpose of the altar vaguely clear, with the general shape and design of the altar itself. It seemed, to me, fairly obvious that something was supposed to be placed on it.


    I was satisfied with the altar for now, and could link its activation to something later.


    I created doorways on either side of the altar room, and began to carve out rooms.


    To the left, a 30 foot by 30 foot room with a tall ceiling. In its center, a large raised circular section with a pool in its center.


    I could fill it with water by making pipes and enchanting them to push water along, but I wanted to try something.


    I waited until I had some more mana, and then poured my focus into an enchantment.


    It was mentally torture, but I had to see if I could do it.


    When I was done, I felt as though I was going to black out, if I even could - but I was left with something truly phenomenal.


    Inspired by my ability to carve earth away in one place and place it in another, this enchantment moved things from one place to another. In this case, water.


    With my dungeon enhanced spatial awareness, I was able to craft an enchantment to teleport water from the river my waterfall feeds, into the pool. It would teleport water whenever the pool wasn''t full, until it was full.


    I placed lesser life fruit around the pool, and on the walls - the vines spreading and giving the room a more lively look.


    I turned my attention to the other side of the altar room, across from the entrance to the pool chamber. The pool chamber would essentially serve as a rest room, with some life fruit rewards. The chamber across from it would serve as the entrance to the second floor of the dungeon proper.


    I would create more spacious floors and rooms further down, and once I had both more range and mana to work with. For now, though, I would stick to a similar design to the first floor.


    I began to carve out another labyrinth, though this one would be more sinister than the first.


    I created an expansive maze with multiple pathways, and larger rooms dispersed throughout it.


    I wove enchantments into the walls, in a myriad of locations. For each group that attempted to traverse the maze, its layout would shift. Door would close, creating dead ends, and new paths would open. Dead ends would be visually indistinguishable from an unchanged passage.


    I made sure, and then made sure again, that the maze would always have a pathway that worked.


    I would have spiders roam the second floor¡¯s labyrinth, and in fact I decided to relocate Mogala to the second floor as well. I placed traps like in the first floor as well.


    Weaponizing the flame creating enchantment I devised earlier came to mind.


    In the tunnels I created flame traps. Like the spikes I had previously created there would be a slight delay to allow for reaction. Once they triggered, they would create a jet of flame in whichever direction the trap faced. Like the spikes, as well, they were triggered by proximity. Of course, I placed normal spike traps through it as well, I wasn¡¯t about to abandon my first trap design.


    I focused on the rooms I had created dotted throughout the maze. These would be places without traps, where people could rest a bit. I didn¡¯t forbid the wandering spiders from going into the rooms though, I couldn¡¯t make it too easy.


    At the very end of the maze, I created a larger room. This chamber would serve as the entrance to the next floor, eventually¡­


    I had one of the spiders move my core through the maze, to the end chamber. I had gotten bigger.


    I seemed to be roughly the size of a baseball, now.


    Progress feels good.

 Chapter 12 - The City of Roforid

    In the village¡­


    Elmis had sprinted as fast as he could back to the village. His mind raced as the forest blurred past him.


    He had explained what he found to the elder, the suspected location of the dungeon¡¯s entrance.


    Previously, he had told the elder of the new spider monster, which went about as well as he had thought it would. The elder was very disturbed by the strength Elmis claimed the monster seemed to have.


    Even with this knowledge, the elder was wary about sending anyone into the dungeon, at least from the village.


    Elmis was the strongest fighter the village had to offer, after all, and he wasn¡¯t confident in his own ability to deal with the spider that was somewhere inside that dungeon - rather, he was confident he wouldn¡¯t be able to deal with it.


    Instead, the elder thought Elmis should travel to the nearest adventurer''s guild, and put a request in there.


    However, the nearest guild was in the nearest city, which wasn¡¯t very near the village at all. It would take a few days to get there and another few days to return - then they would have to wait for an adventuring party to take the quest and arrive at the village.


    At least Elmis could take his son this time. So they packed their things, and prepared to set out for the city of Roforid.


    They departed before the sun dipped below the horizon.


    Including time for resting, making camp by the side of the road, it took about 3 days to reach the city. The journey was largely uneventful.


    It was the evening when they arrived. The city walls towered over them,  20 feet tall and constructed of a mix of wood and stone.


    They were stopped at the city gate by a pair of men from the town guard.


    ¡°I have come from a village, 3 days from here,¡± Elmis explained to the guardsmen, ¡°We need help from the adventurer¡¯s guild.¡±


    After a brief conversation the guards allowed the pair to pass into the city.


    It was a nice place, but the village was more to Elmis¡¯s liking. There are too many people here. Not enough wildlands. Not enough prey to hunt. Kel however, seemed to be enjoying it immensely. He looked around at the buildings with wide eyes. This was the first time Kel had been in a large city like this. Elmis smiled down at his son.


    Were they not on an urgent errand, he would have loved to take Kel around the city. But they were, and so he hurried along to the adventurer''s guild near the center of town.


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    The guild was a large building. Stone columns lined the front entrance. They headed inside the main hall, a sort of dining area - a built in tavern. Elmis walked past the groups of people, the parties of adventurers, towards the back of the room and towards the quest board and the guild¡¯s receptionist.


    As he approached, an elf looked up from his desk, ¡°Good evening. I haven''t seen you before. I take it you are from outside of town?¡± the elf asked.


    Elmis nodded, ¡°A small village, Lindin.¡± The elf nodded. Figures a guild receptionist would know where it was. ¡°I need help. My village needs help.¡± Elmis said urgently. The elf raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± the elf inquired, taking out a notebook to write some stuff down, dipping a white quill in an inkwell.


    ¡°A dungeon. A dungeon appeared in the woods by my village. The creatures I saw were¡­ they were dangerous¡­ very dangerous.¡± Elmis said quietly.


    The elfs eyes widened. He immediately stood up, ¡°Come with me. You need to speak with this branch¡¯s guildmaster.¡± the elf stated. The elf gestured for Elmis to follow, and walked out from behind the desk, heading to a set of stairs to the side. Elmis nodded, and quickly followed - Kel close behind.


    The guildmaster¡¯s office was large, but not overly so. A large man sat behind a large desk, examining papers. He glanced up when Elmis, Kel, and the receptionist entered his office unannounced. Normally he would be upset, but he trusted his clerk. This must be important.


    The man stood up, an abnormally tall human, standing at 7 feet tall. He had black hair, and a scar over one of his eyes. He wore a simple tunic, but Elmis could see the muscular form under it. This man, the guildmaster, was strong - no doubt. ¡°I am Evan. The guildmaster of this guild branch.¡± the man, Evan, said gruffly. He extended his hand forward, and shook hands with Elmis. ¡°This must be important, Laed never barges in unannounced¡­¡± the man glances at the receptionist. ¡°Please, sit. Tell me what the issue is.¡±


    Elmis sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk, and Kel sat beside him. Evan sat back down, and Laed remained standing. ¡°There¡­ is a dungeon¡­ which I discovered near my village - Lindin,¡± Elmis began, ¡°It started with a bird monster - what looked like a monstrous version of a common bird. It was big. A spider was next, even bigger than the bird and monstrous in the same manner. That spider¡­¡± Elmis shivers and Evan raises an eyebrow, ¡°Could have killed me, easily.¡±


    ¡°Interesting¡­ you seem a competent fellow. I see it in your eyes, in your frame.¡± Evan said, ¡°A monster that dangerous warrants investigation by itself, much less if there is a new dungeon involved. Please, continue.¡±


    ¡°It took me a long time, but I did eventually find the entrance to the dungeon. It''s behind a waterfall, I believe. I am not foolish enough to go and check and verify by myself, but the bird was perched nearby it - and it was even bigger than last time. The spider was nowhere to be seen, I assume it was inside the dungeon.¡± Elmis explained.


    Evan nodded as Elmis spoke. Kel watched the pair in silence, looking back and forth between his father and the large man. This was a serious discussion, and Kel knew better than to interrupt.


    ¡°That is highly concerning. I will organize a team to investigate the dungeon immediately. It may take a day or two to gather them. I will provide a room for you to stay in at the guild, I will need you to lead my team to the dungeon itself.¡± Evan said. He nodded to Laed, who left the room. ¡°A new dungeon isn¡¯t some trivial concern. This will be taken care of by the guild, at no expense to you or your village.¡±


    Elmis smiled, ¡°Thank you, guildmaster,¡± and bowed his head. Kel did the same. Evan smiled as well.


    After a discussion of further details, Elmis and Kel were taken to their room.


    In a few days time, they would have a team with them at the dungeon.


    Just a few days¡­

 Update!

    Hello everyone.


    Sorry for the radio silence. If anyone was worried, don''t be - everything is fine. I just got busy, changing majors at college, and just doing life stuff.


    Once I had more free time on my hands, time to continue writing, I realized something. I don''t like the way I wrote this story - but I do love the concept. And so, I am decided some time ago to re-write the story differently, in a new way.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Once that fiction is up, I will put out another update linking to it, and some time after that, I will delete this fiction. It will have the same name as this fiction, think of it as the spiritual twin of this work.


    To everyone who has remained following this work despite such a period of inaction, I think you dearly - it means a lot. I hope you will enjoy what I have in store.


    Best,


    Xetoe