《The Living Dungeon》


 The Dryad

    The Dryad was getting old, he had wandered the world for milenia seen the wonders of life from the tundra forests of the snowy north where animals strugled to eeke out a living to the scorching deserts where more life lived underground than above it. It had seen civilizations rise and fall and mountains turn to plains.


    The Dryad had decided to follow the natural cycle and move on to the next life, to alow its body to become food for the planet and other life to take its place. The Dryad was bound to one of the oldest forests on the planet and knew that with its death the forest would be seriously affected likley rendering the forest infertile for hundreds of years. so the dryad devised a method with all of its experience to untether its self from the forest and take the magical backlash upon itself leaving the forest whole. As the Dryad released its tether to its forest it had one last moment to think over its life and think happily of what the next life would bring


    As the tether released the Dryad felt its consciousness separate from its body. Suddenly it was floating in complete darkness no sense of time or where it was. but there was a vague feeling almost instinct like it was floating towards a distant destination.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    as it was floating all it had to do was look around. It realized that it wasn''t really looking it was more like sensing and the farther the distance the less clear things were. the first things it noticed was that there were things in the darkness, they were all sorts of colors the most common were red, brown, blue and white, but there were other colors some that felt more like impressions than colors.


    As the pull towards the destination got stronger it started to see more and more of these "wisps" and gradually realized that these were the souls of other creatures. It then became curious about its own soul and looked at itself. It was stunned it realized that its soul was over twice the size of the other souls around it and was radiating a vivifying green that pulsed with life.


    Eventually there grew to be more and more souls clouding within its sight all giving off their unique colors, and the Dryads soul thought that they looked like an aurora borealis from its old world bustling with colors in continuous trails.


    Suddenly right in front of the the Dryad''s soul there was a violent rupture and the soul was torn from its path to the distant destination. It was jostled and slammed, its soul straining and starting to tear the pain overwhelming until the souls consciousness fell away.

 The Sapling

    The Soul slowly returned to conciousness, it found itself in a small cave. Barely a pocket of air in the rock. It couldnt be more than a meter in size.


    The soul looked at itself and realized it was small sapling, barely ten centimeters in height. Slightly luminous it was giving off faint flickers of green light.


    As it looked around at its suroundings the sapling realized that its sight was the same as when it was a soul. It could see anything within a meter of its body.


    All of a sudden the sapling heard a "ding" and then a blue screen popped up in front of it


    <table border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>


    "Welcome to the System .


    Scanning new Dungeon mana signature.


    Scanning Dungeon mana attributes.


    Scanning souls memory.


    Incorporating previous memories and skills.


    System booting up


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The sapling was surprised it had never seen anything like it in its long life. As it was looking at it it heard another "ding" in its head


    <table border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td>Species: Dungeon</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>Name: ???</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Age: 1 dayUnauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Mana: 1/10


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    levels: 1


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Titles:


    Ecological balancer: One who balances the eco systems


    Forest keeper: one who has kept a forest gowing and prospering


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td>


    Dungeon points: 0


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As the sapling thought over what the box meant, yet another popped up


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 45.1789%">Select starting races (select up to 2)</td>


    <td style="width: 45.3169%"> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 45.1789%">


    Animal


    (Common)


    </td>


    <td style="width: 45.3169%">


    Goblin


    (Common


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 45.1789%">


    Plant


    (Common)


    </td>


    <td style="width: 45.3169%">


    Skeleton


    (Common)


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 45.1789%">


    Kobold


    (Uncommon)


    </td>


    <td style="width: 45.3169%">


    Elemental


    (Rare)


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As it looked over the box it looked at the information provided and narrowed down its choices to three


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 95.0413%">


    ANIMAL:


    Dungeons that chose "Animals" as a starting race receive a small list of creature to choose from, and will be able to choose from more options as their knowlege of animals grow. Suitable for a variety of ecosystems


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 95.0413%">


    PLANT:


    Dungeons that chose "Plant" as a starting race receive a small list of plants to choose from, and will be able to choose from more options as their knowlege of plants grow. Suitable for a variety of ecosystems


    </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 95.0413%">


    ELEMENTAL:


    Dungeons that choose elemental are able to summon elementals that match the mana atunement of the dungeon. Elementals are able to fight using thoes atributes or help the dungeon with diferent tasks


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    As the sapling thought over its choices and its experience from its last life, and decided to choose Plants and Animals.

 Traits

    After the Sapling chose Plants and Animals another screen popped up.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 95.0413%">"Please select starting traits. Traits can have a number of efects on the dungeon both good or bad. Please choose carefully</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Dungeon Traits (Choose 2)</td>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%"> </td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Dungeon law''s</td>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Dungeon instances</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Monster manipulation </td>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Puzzle Rooms</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Dungeon ecosystem</td>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Monster Wisdom</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Monster loyalty </td>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Enhanced traps</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%"> </td>


    <td style="width: 23.7603%">Select</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    The Sapling carefully looked over the options presented to it. It immediately decided against a few of the options. Enhanced traps, Puzzle rooms both seemed usles to it and was not what it wanted.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Carefully looking through the other options, the Sapling decided that it must have Dungeon ecosystem, it was in line with what it wanted to create.


    Looking over the last few choices the Sapling decided to choose Monster manipulation.


    As soon as it pressed select information came flooding into its mind almost making it loose lose consciousness. Information about what it was and the creatures it chose. Things it had never realized were suddenly clear. The way animals functioned and how to create and modify them. That ecosystems are not just the large parts, the seasons the amimals, but the smaller parts the bugs in the ground and the cycles of water keeping the forest neutrient rich.


    All these concepts and more were pouring in, but there were also other things. New instincts that the sapling didn''t have before. Instincts to grow, to expland and to learn.