There is no Epic Loot here, Only Puns.
Author: stewart92
Date: 2024-01-16T11:35:58.471000+00:00

1: Smashing Start

There was a name.

It was hers but it had been traded away. A second chance she was promised by the small, pleased child. He wasn’t a child, just what some sanity-chipping being decided what a child should look like to converse with her.

Perhaps it derived some perverse pleasure from her squirming consciousness.

“A name for a chance? I’m being very fair,” he promised. She knew it was a trick.

“Of course it is, that’s the ‘name’ of the game,” the child had laughed with delight. She had felt stars shiver at the noise.

“Now… maybe we’ll talk again when you become interesting. Now, I have to go meet the others, maybe you’ll meet them one day?” the thing said casually.

Then she twisted, breaking into a thousand shards that shattered into countless motes that sundered into the basic existence of the universe.

Then she was slapped together with little care and left in the smallest...darkest….room.

She turned and stared up the single tunnel that was quickly digging itself until it stopped and sunlight pierced her.

She turned, trying to move, slightly moving forward with no real sensation.

Then with a moment of shock, she looked down.

There was nothing there. Empty air where a body and legs should have been.

She turned.

A pulsing orange orb about the size of an orange sat encrusted in a single stalagmite. The sunlight hitting the orb made the room glow with light.

She moved closer and peered into the orb.

The light showed a tiny shadow in the amber like glass.

It was a perfectly round object that pulsed with a tiny light. On that orb, the fainting symbol could be seen.

4

She shuddered.

Four?

This thing was… her?

She was just a number to that thing. Not the first… definitely not the last.

Well… at least she wasn’t a tree or a frog!

Hopeless optimism was better than screaming fear was what she told herself.

The house may be on fire but at least she was warm!

Ugh… she was going to die here as some orb thing.

Without a name? No, she needed a name, something to defined herself and used to hold herself together with.

She pulled something that seemed to float by as she just stared at the orb.

Delta.

It was kinda four-ish. It was better than Orby or screaming-wailing-ghost-girl. Definitely better than just ‘victim number four’.

So she, Delta, go to work on the next problem she had to tackle.

Mostly, why did the creepy-demon-child thing think she was going to be interesting as… an orb?

Delta looked about and saw the walls were hard packed dirt, loose stones and not a lot else.

Charming, she was underground, a ghost, and bound to an orb. Delta tried to march right up the tunnel but with a small pause saw a completely white wall where the sun was a moment ago.

She took ten steps back and the vision of some dense grass hills appeared.

Delta took a step forward, the outside world vanished.

One step back and it reappeared.

Delta inhaled and then swallowed a slight scream as she promptly turned around and floated back to the orb.

So, she couldn’t even leave.

She had to stay underground, stuck in some void state to hang about with some ominous globe of eerily light.

She was either a vampire, ghost, or a goth in the making. Delta hoped for a goth, she could really use some anger right now to keep her from going insane.

“Well… it’s just me… and me?” Delta asked aloud and the orb pulsed again but then went quiet.

“Hm… I can’t leave, this is the only room and you’re centre figure. Logic dictates you’re the key to my problems, logic also dictates I should have legs but let’s ignore that little factoid,” Delta spoke to the orb with a serious tone to her words.

“I can’t move you, I can’t bash my head on you, you’re not exactly stimulating this conversation. I must admit, I’m kinda lost on what the frick I’m supposed to do with you!” Delta yelled.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The Orb remained smug in its silence.

“Fine, you know what, orb-me, you’re a jackass! A mongrel, a low-life, a charlatan! A hoax, a poser, a bad move knock-off prop!” Delta hissed.

The orb pulsed, maybe in anger but Delta pushed it, needing any form of contact.

“You, good me, are the worst orb I have ever heard of,” Delta sniffed.

The Orb was glowing fully now.

“Your father was a cow and your mother a goblin with warts and no tee-” Delta was cut off as the orb let loose one final pulse and as if sighing with relief, the glow fled the orb and swirled around the room.

The comet of orange dust and light encircled one corner and took shape with before Delta.

It was small, haunched, and green.

“Oh...no,” Delta whispered as a goblin sniffed the air before spotting the Orb in its odd stone pedestal.

“Job?” it grunted.

Delta could only crawl away, not making any noise, mind reverting to some tiny mouse state.

She had nobody but that thought only added to her panic instead of easing it. What if she couldn’t feel anything anymore?!

Delta heaved as the goblin blinked.

“Rooms?” it offered. Delta just stared at where her hands should be.

How would she hold sandwiches? How would she type on the internet?

Wait… what if there was no internet?

Delta howled and the goblin ran off, shrieking as the Orb crackling with energy.

“ME GUARD DOOR!” it screamed with fear.

Delta panted, feeling quite tired… she should… just… rest for a while.

The Orb seemed to agree and went dormant.

Delta felt her head hit the floor and felt a twinge of pain.

Good… that was still a thing.

---

Goblin, until further notice, sighed with relief as the everlasting master of his new abode seemed to rest. He had been rather silly, suggesting he knew what the core, all hail its greatness, should do next.

Such arrogance on his part. Goblin watched the tunnel, not expecting any trouble. Surely, the great one would have traps ready. They must be so good, he couldn’t spot any sign of them!

Such a powerful master, so wise, so cunning.

Goblin grinned and felt excited that he was one of the first, if he did well, perhaps he could receive a boss promotion...oh how much he desired such a lofty goal.

“Me good boss,” Goblin said with pride.

That was when the entrance was breached by two more goblins. Runts, even a dungeon Goblin like himself could see it.

They squawked and begged for protection.

Goblin bared his teeth, not wanting such riff-raff near his grandmaster and holy object. The goblins pleaded harder and voices came not far off.

Deep ones, angry ones, eager ones.

Goblin frowned. As wonderful as the great core was… being so fresh, it was not prepared for anything more than beasts…

At least that’s what the walls whispered to Goblin. His tie to the dungeon saying that Delta… the great one was not ready for this.

Snarling, he grabbed both goblins and threw them down the tunnel.

If they hurried, they could make a bargain. A deal so soon was… well, he didn’t know. Deals with a dungeon core were handled with care, poise, elegance, intelligence, and with great thought.

---

Delta opened one bleary eye at the begging goblins making weird yowling noises.

She knew… somehow, that they wanted something.

“Sure… whatever… let me sleep,” she mumbled and curled up to go back to slumber.

She did not see the glow that filled the two tiny goblins.

Nor did she see them grow and rip out of their old furs as muscles bulged and fangs grew.

Delta dreamed and smiled as the great cake god blessed her with deserts.

She drooled as bloodshed filled her dungeon that very same day she was created.

It was a record for this world. Not that Delta would ever know.

----

2: Take off!

Delta counted again.

But no matter how many times she shook her head to clear her vision, her one goblin had become three.

Albeit it with some odd changes, the two new goblins stood about a half a foot taller than the one she created. They also had some odd tusks coming out the side of their mouth.

“Mastah,” Gob bowed to the flow. He had a name, Delta could sense it and when she focused on him, she could feel a general… vibe coming from him. Compared to her goblin, he was stronger but not by much. Delta frowned.

“I can just sense how strong someone is? Or is just goblins? I mean… goblins are a thing, so why not sensing power levels?” Delta argued with herself.

Hob, the brother, looked almost identical but acted more bashful

“...aster,” he mumbled and Delta felt her unease grow. There was one other feeling she could feel coming off the two new goblins.

A very Delta vibe. These goblins had a bit of her in them. Unlike her goblin, who needed a name that didn’t end in ‘ob’ felt fully like the floor and walls. Background, safe.

“François?” she asked, plucking another name out of the air. It was a hard-earned talent that came from her many monster raising app games.

The orb pulsed. Delta understood that herself, the ghost state, was more like a projection of her mind. The orb was her ‘body’ so to speak. Delta tried to ignore how fragile the orb was and looked a lot more glowy than usual.

François stumbled forward, bowing.

“Where did they come from?” Delta tried to push the question as clearly as she could towards Francois.

Delta didn't think she could manage verbal communication in this state but as her orb glowed, she saw Francois stiffen. The ghost girl watched a vague slight orange glow fade from the goblin’s head. Some light seemed to simply slide off as if the power couldn’t find a suitable enough area to fulfil its purpose. Was that Delta’s lack of experience or the goblin’s mind just not able to convey her message?

François idly kicked at the dirt floor and looked a little nervous.

“Saved from mans, wanted to serve, so sent them down,” François explained with a nervous hand wave. Hob and Gob nodded enthusiastically.

Delta blinked.

“Mans? Humans? Where are they now?” Delta wondered, wondering if any of them could help her.

“Done! Dungeon food!” François boasted which made Delta pause.

“You… François, what did you do?” Delta asked, a heavy feeling making her body freeze. François looked puzzled as she spoke.

“Me and gobs smashed intruders. Save master,” he reported as if sheepish to forget such a thing.

“You killed them?” Delta translated hollowly. She moved up the tunnel but saw nothing but a few bits of fabric just outside the tunnel entrance.

A bit floated in and the dungeon ground it touched slightly glowed and the fabric melted away. A tiny mote of light floated up from the ex-piece of cloth and blinked out.

Delta felt a little tingle flow through her mind and felt a little ill.

“Mans smash crystal… or make it work like runt gob,” François tried to explain. Delta just looked at him, seeing with one eye through her orb. The double vision made her sick, so she closed both eyes and when she opened them, she was back at the orb room.

Her room.

François words finally pierced her numb mind.

“François, what am I?” she asked quietly and the goblin looked at his two new friends.

“Dungeon Core! Mighty core that we protect!” he answered with pride. Hob and Gob danced as if the idea was wonderful.

Delta looked around the room and then at her orb. She had made Francois. She had… spawned a mob. Delta swallowed back down some unintelligible noise and tried to hold on to something that didn’t end up with her screaming on the floor again.

“What happens to the humans? When you… win?” she asked slowly. François looked unsure for a moment.

“Losers feed dungeon master. All not-dungeon becomes mana for more dungeon,” he tried to explain, Hob and Gob listen as if learning from a master.

Delta connected the dots. The extra glow in her orb, the lack of bodies. Delta avoided delving too deep into that thought and latched on to another.

Groups of people meant more people. There was a good chance that at least one of the people that had… died upstairs had someone waiting for them and that meant that if they came looking…

Delta looked at her orb. Then she remembered how she got here from that place with the demon-child. She was broken, then sundered. It wasn’t a journey. It was a warning.

“François? How do I stop people from smashing me?” Delta demanded quickly and ignored how the internet has ruined that word.

Damn Ron….

“Traps! Monsters! Tricks!” François howled with delight. Delta frowned.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“How do I know what I can build. I know I can build gobs…” she trailed off, not wanting to say goblins unless she auto made another goblin.

She didn’t know the rules and that made Delta edgy about spouting random words. If mana can come in, it could also completely leave her and drained her dry.

She had no idea what having no mana would do to her.

“How do I know what I can make?” Delta asked with hope and Francois paused.

“Just know,” he shrugged.

Delta wanted to argue but the little goblin hadn’t lied yet. She took a few calming breaths and closed her eyes.

What did she know? What did Delta, the dungeon core, know what she could do? She needed a list… or some semblance of a wiki. Delta opened her eyes and tried not to gasp. Her normal human vision had fallen away to reveal a complete 360 degree of view. It made her dizzy but in her moment of confusion, she saw it.

A glowing button where the space at the back of her head would be.

She fumbled for it and it let loose a little jingle as it faded. Did that demon-bastard hide it there on purpose? Of course, he did…

As a mind, she shouldn’t be acting like she had human limits in this form. A lesson and reward.

Delta hated that child.

The space to one side of her view opened up.

Construction
Monsters
Traps

There it was.

This was her power and her only way to stop people from… using her. If Francois was correct then people would see her as a rare treasure to be used or destroyed.

Delta would accept neither, lest she ended up back in the demon-child’s hands.

She had to live. She had to survive…

Delta hit the trap button. Maybe if she made her dungeon scary and dangerous, it might be left alone?

It wasn’t like people seriously risked their lives for some petty treasures or fights, right?

Delta was silent for a moment and felt a sob rise up. Of course, they would, she used to make all her adventures do it in her games. If goblins were here, that meant people who removed goblins were also a thing.

“François? Do dragons exist?” she asked quietly and the goblin nodded as if this was an odd question.

Hob spoke up.

“Big hill far away has big fire lizard. Heard mans talk about it with fear,” he added, happy to contribute.

Delta felt that little nugget of information settled into her stomach.

If dragons existed then so did unkillable, system-abusing, plot-protected heroes.

Delta looked at her list.

Current mana: 20/20. Regen: 1 per day.

Traps:

- Low-grade pitfall: 5 mana

That was all she had. Delta had a little hole to stop dragon-slayers.

She banged open the monster menu.

Monsters:

- Goblins(chosen beginner monster): 10 mana

Delta slid down the wall as the goblins panicked as the orb crackled with another scream.

She numbly opened the construct list.

Construction:

- Corridor (50 ft): 10 mana

- Room (10L x 15W): 20 mana

Was this being handicapped? Was she being taunted with some unwinnable fate?

Delta stood and the orb stopped crackling.

The demon-child had made a mistake, Delta used this thought to rise up off the wall and walked forward.

He had put the girl that made a habit of taking terrible monster ranches, dying villages, space stations that had rust on them, and ruined kingdoms that were built upon Cthulhu land and leading to success.

Delta knew one thing and one thing only.

When there were terms such as a cost and regeneration of that said cost over time.

Then there were ways to utterly break the system.

Delta walked towards the entrance to her tunnel.

“Challenge accepted, ya little dick!” she shouted to the heavens and to the hells.

Where ever that demon-child was, she would find him and feed him to Delta’s dungeon floor. The meal was going to be wonderful.

3: Mushroom Farming

Delta looked down at the floor just near the entrance. She tried to push down the red outline of the pitfall but it buzzed angry as it refused to form. Delta frowned and peered closely.

The soil floor had a slight white tinge to it. The same feeling of the barrier that stopped Delta from going outside. It was a clear sign that whatever power that granted her these dungeon making skills, that they also prevented her from booby trapping the first step or ten into her dungeon.

That posed a problem.

“François? Can you leave the dungeon?” she asked the goblin in her core room. Fran, as she took to calling him, shook his head.

“I dungeon make. Can’t leave,” he answered then before Delta could ponder further, he pointed to Hob and Gob.

“Contracted. Lose power but gobs can leave for small while,” he scratched at his large green nose. Delta turned her attention to the two brothers.

“Great! Guys, I need you to go fetch me something from outside, plants, insects, anything that’s got mana!” Delta directed and both of the goblins bowed, Hob falling over entirely before the scrambled up the tunnel and outside.

They both visibly shrank and looked tired but ran off with their new task.

Goblins weren’t cute but Delta liked their attitude. Sighing, she turned to the single long tunnel where one could easily see her core. Three problems jumped out of her.

A man with a gun or a bow and arrow or hell, even a fireball could snipe her from the entrance. Two, it was unprotected from any advancing melee fighters and three, she felt naked.

Like standing near a window with no clothes on. She had no choice, Delta needed to protect herself with space until she had more. She could stuff the tunnel filled with goblins but something told her that would only draw people faster…

Walking down, Delta stopped midway and tried to puzzle how she was going to plan this.

She had an… awareness of her entire dungeon, where everything was as well as whom. It was tiny and for the first time, Delta felt a hint of shame on how basic her layout was. Was that a dungeon thing or just herself latching onto anything to get her mind off her current predicament?

She tried to close the tunnel leading to her core, cutting off any entrance to her core room but there was a resounding error in the response. Such a thing… wasn’t possible. Delta grabbed her head as she squeezed her eyes shut to endure the sudden headache. After a moment, it passed.

“That… sucked,” she said slowly as the pain ebbed away, slowly.

Lesson learned, they’re had to be a route to her core. This was some fundamental rule that Delta couldn’t ignore.

These rules were becoming annoying.

Rule 1: The entrance must be a safe zone of some kind.
Rule 2: The core must be reachable by all that enter.

Delta snarled at the iron rules that basically meant she couldn’t just hide and build up a sizeable power base. If someone came, and they wiped her goblins, she was fucked.

No… she had options.

The idea just hit her.

Where was her dungeon exactly?

“Fran? Where are we?” she asked suddenly and Fran paused.

“Fran is new name?” it asked and Delta hummed in agreement. The dungeon rumbled just a little and above the goblin’s head words appeared.

“Fran — Rare Goblin”

“Oh! Fran is named!” he hollered and danced. Delta just gaped.

“What… but I already gave you a name before…” she argued weakly and Fran shook his head at your orb.

“Random name, not important. Fran is personal, it’s mine!” the goblin said with another dance. Delta peered at the title.

Rare huh? Like a mob that had a 1 in 10 chance of appearing? It… didn’t seem to cost her any mana so what was the drawback?

“So two questions, what does it mean to be rare and where exactly is my dungeon?” Delta inquired politely.

Fran paused mid-jig.

“Rare means special. Fran is first-floor special!” the goblin answered with a little pride in his voice. Then he scratched his head.

“Dungeon is… near forest. Hob and Gob said so,” he tried and Delta mentally drew little tree symbols on her mental map.

Forest was good. So, mostly grass hills and a forest somewhere nearby. That meant plants, small animals and maybe some big animals!

If she just needed them to die in her dungeon to gain mana, she can move a lot quicker in getting her core somewhere safe.

Then she could figure out what it was going to mean to exist as a dungeon core that lured people to their deaths.

For one, Delta didn’t want to simply be known as a murderhobo dungeon. She wanted a little more than that. A theme or… something.

The useless planning for the future was nice, it let Delta’s mind wander as she stood in the middle of the tunnel and pushed with her power.

The soil in front of her just broke apart and vanished as it moved further down in a tunnel big enough for two men to stand side by side in.

It went so far and just stopped. Delta examined her map and wondered if she could curve tunnels…

Oh, she could. A little narrow near the curves but it worked out as she spent the last ten mana she had on connecting her new tunnel to the core room.

With little effort, she appeared in the main tunnel and with a little tremble, closed the space between her core room and the entrance.

It filled in without a problem. It took no mana to remove her spaces, to grow smaller...

The sight was beautiful, Delta grinned and the sudden tiredness was quickly making her eyes droop. Then Hob and Gob returned with both their hands full of a mushroom each. Four mushrooms. They looked at each other and seemed puzzled by the lack of core room, but they suddenly bulged and grew back to their Delta-forms.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

A tentative name. Naming things made her feel better. They rushed to the core room, and dropped the mushrooms at Delta’s earthy alter.

“Rooms!” they cried. The mushrooms hit her dungeon floor and were quickly turned into those odd motes.

They entered Delta’s mind, and the taste followed them.

Delta gagged.

She wanted to throw up, but she had no mouth.

So, she just tried to cough up the taste.

The frick was wrong with those things?!

“Most dangerous rooms! Nothing else want them!” Hob bragged. Gob nodded in agreement and dropped two more on the ground from a small fur pouch he had.

“N-no!” Delta begged but they were already dissolving.

The taste returned and Delta felt herself die a little. As she laid there, sobbing, the little mana bar in her menu shot up by six. One for each mushroom.

Then another bar appeared.

Dungeon points: 36

Dungeon points? Delta stood with a groan.

“Please… try to find something else,” she begged the two goblins. Hob and Gob took off with a bow, laughing with their ‘success’.

Delta opened a menu and frowned.

“What do I do with dungeon points?” she asked and there was no answer.

She fiddled with the menu for a moment.

With some close examination, she found something she hadn’t seen before. A little ‘+’ symbol hidden near bottom of the main menu.

She touched it and winced as things appeared all over the menu.

Dungeon points: 36

Purchase Monster
Purchase Trap
Purchase Construction
Upgrade Monster
Upgrade Trap
Upgrade room

Delta blinked and clicked the first option. Purchase Monster.

Monster Purchase:

- Goblin - Starter.
- Common Bat: 5 DP
- Common Spider: 5 DP

- Mushroom Spitter: 30 DP (Special requirement unlocked: Absorb a deadly poisonous mushroom)

Had she unlocked a monster? Delta thought about it. She didn’t see anything about humans, like the ones that had come before. Maybe there was some hidden clause to unlock more rare monsters?

If she devoured rare stone, could she make golems? Make wolves if she killed some in her dungeon?

This opened a lot of options… Gob and Hob were amazing, they could farm her materials!

Delta flicked through the other menus quickly.

Construction Purchase:

- Lair: 20 DP (one per level)
- Next Level - Locked
- Boss room: 40 DP (one per level)

Trap Purchase:

- Sticky Floor Panel: 10 DP
- Weak Tripwire: 5 DP
- Falling Rock (Weak): 10 DP

Upgrade room and monster were greyed out for the moment. Delta could only assume she didn’t have the requirements to upgrade anything just yet.

Her eyes lingered on the mushroom spitter… she had eaten that damn mushroom and it did say it was an earned monster…

That DP cost was pretty high but at this point, if she was going to be forced to eat more of those disgusting mushrooms, she deserved this,

She purchased the mushrooms, dropping her DP to 6.

Delta switched menus and saw her monster now had two options.

Goblin: 10 Mana
Mushroom Spitter: 13 Mana

Neat… now she just had to get enough mana to summon her new monster. Hopefully, Hob and Gob would be successful in finding something… that wasn’t… those mushrooms.

---

Gob ran, he hollered as a pitchfork flew over his head and the pig in his hands squealed with terror.

Pink flabby meat for the master!

Hob ran with his arms full of mushrooms, the master’s favourite!

She had gasped and was speechless when they had given them to her. She’d love more! The master just wanted side meat to go with them!

But first, the silly mans were closing in and the dungeon was coming near…

Pigs for the master!

Hob found another ‘room and picked it up as he ran past.

More ‘rooms for the master!

---

---

Spoiler: MAP

4: The Piggy in the Middle

Delta didn’t have to wait long for Hob and Gob.

They announced themselves with a screech and an oink as they barrelled into the dungeon.

Delta’s mouth dropped open as they carried a rather large pig into the tunnel, the animal squirming and squealing just as loudly as the goblins.

“Mans!” Hob warned. Gob just screamed as the pig bit him.

Fran stood with a sharp look and rushed off towards the entrance, turning the corner in the new tunnel.

Gob threw the pig down and Delta closed her eyes for the next part but soon felt mana flow towards her.

It was plump and calm. Delta enjoyed the feeling, this feeling was much better than-

She gagged and her sight shot open as Hob dropped the dreaded mushrooms all over the dungeon floor. Delta bent over and felt winded as the vile taste of mushrooms overwhelmed her senses.

“Man!” Gob shouted again and Delta tried to inhale as she watched her mana number grow.

From a measly six all the way to twenty.

The pig just gave her 15 mana in a single pop. The remaining mushrooms pushed past her limit and struggled to reach a number beyond her max.

Twenty-five.

Then it began to trickle down as the excess mana seemed to leak away.

That was enough for her new monster if she hurried! Delta stumbled to her feet and to the first bend in her dungeon. She picked a spot close to the wall as the three goblins made warning noises at the person approaching the dungeon entrance.

Delta focused.

“Mushroom Spitter!” she ordered, and she saw her orb pulse once. Then from the ground, a cap appeared, it grew rapidly until Delta was staring at a mushroom almost as big as a child and firmly anchored in the ground. Then the living fungus wriggled and the stalk split apart horizontally to reveal a big toothy maw filled with some vicious green liquid, she would later deny having squealed in fright in any way, shape or form.

It gurgled at the dungeon as it blinked its two beady glowing eyes. It seemed to send some mental ‘I live to serve’ feeling at her before it focused intently on the corner where her goblins seemed to roar.

Delta ordered them all back, curious to see what her new mushroom could do.

The grey flesh and dark cap made it blend well into the dungeon. It was then that Delta finally noticed that her dungeon was almost pitch black beyond the first turn. Didn’t dungeons have eternal torches or glow bugs?

Did she see in some… UV or night vision? Mana vision?

Mushy, she deemed him, wriggled as the goblins ran past, understanding them as ‘Dungeon’, letting them past albeit with a sense of annoyance to him.

Delta knew, just knew, if one of them had bumped into it, it would have chomped down with a vengeance. It didn’t seem to really like anything other than its damp wall.

“Blasted gobs! Just get back here and give me back my pig!” a man shouted, his voice more angry than afraid. He turned the corner and Delta blinked as the man held a small… gun?

Delta came closer, nervous but the man didn’t seem to sense her. The ‘gun’ was a stone device held in two hands, a small red crystal plugged into the handle and the wide muzzle of the gun had an almost cartoonish iron-sight.

Delta goggled at it, trying to understand what she was looking at. The crystal glowed orange and Delta tried to see inside but the man moved through her. As the man drew neared too close Mushy did what Delta guessed was what Mushy would do in any circumstance.

It lashed forward and took a chunk out of the man’s leg. Delta blanched at the sight of the man's wounds but the man screamed and fired the device in his hands.

The end erupted into a gout of fire that consumed Mushy. The mushroom screeched and then promptly melted.

“Mushy!” Delta screamed, feeling the awareness of the monster fade as it was killed. The man gasped and tried to pull himself up the wall, gun pointed down.

Delta knew logically that the man had every right to defend himself and to get revenge on his pig. It was only fair.

But Delta also felt that a farmer with a boomstick was unfair. Really just unfucking fair.

“Fran, Hob, Gob!” Delta yelled and the goblins rushed out. She closed her eyes, not enjoying the unfairness of the situation, on her side or the man’s.

Mana flowed, but Delta ignored it. This… this was not how she wanted things to go. This wasn’t how she wanted things to go at all.

To survive, she needed mana and DP. To get them, she needed time or resources.

Delta either needed to kill or gather resources. Mushrooms came guilt free.

She would make the goblins understand… she didn’t want to kill anyone who didn’t…

This wasn’t fair. She shouldn’t have to be making moral codes for monsters and trying to live with the result.

“Goblins… don’t steal from the mans again. Just… bring me things from the forest, that doesn't belong to man,” she begged and the goblins seemed to shuffle as they listened to the air.

“No want piggies?” Hob asked quietly.

“Not man’s piggies,” Delta agreed gently. Her mana had sky-rocketed from 11 to 32 due to the farmer’s demise. The gun on the ground was also dissolving quickly.

This wasn’t a normal world of farmers and knights… that thing reeked of technology.

She created a new Mushy on the same spot, the thing shivering as if still upset at the previous Mushy’s death. Delta was sure they were different mushroom monsters, they had different markings on their cap.

The man had been worth 21 mana. More than her max total. With her new Mushy, the result dwindled back down to 19.

The gun finished breaking apart, the crystal the last thing to go.

Her mana shot to 69 and Delta blinked as a little box appeared.

“Torches have been added to Construct menu due to fire element”
“Goblin campfire has been added to construction menu due to fire element.”
“Flame gout trap(weak) added to construction menu due to fire element”

Delta wanted to squirm and look but the mana was already beginning to dip lower.

She returned to the main core room and fired another hallway tunnel to the north, the earth quickly giving way to the space. Moving to the end, she created a room, it crumbled into an almost perfect shape, but she was still 19 mana up.

Delta moved back to her first bend and threw down a pitfall trap. It left her with 14 over, after a moment's thought, she created an another Mushy in her core room, bring the total mana to 21.

The last mana held on, and she blinked, not sure why it wasn’t fading. Opening the menu, she felt surprise rise up as her max total mana was now 25.

When… how did it grow? Delta knew she had 20 exact when she began to spend. She built a hallway, like she did before, another Mushy after the second bend in the entrance tunnel and… a room.

Delta eyed the new room, the deepest part of her dungeon now. It felt like she was less crushed. As if her mind had more space to stretch itself.

A room added 5 more max mana. That was interesting, a lovely little discovery.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta closed her eyes and sent a small prayer for the farmer, his death was helping her, and she needed to ease the bubbling guilt rising up, even if the way he charged into a cave after a pair of goblins was Darwin awards level stupid.

“Thanks…” she added lamely, not particularly religious but still hoping it helped.

She eyed the furthest room as the two goblins left for the forest.

It would be better to have her core there than in the middle of the dunge-

Would you like to move your core? Cost 10 DP.

Delta stared for a moment and then clicked yes without a word.

One day she would finish a monologue without having handy notifications solve her problems. She paid the price, choking as she saw she had 82 DP.

The core rumbled and flashed, the earth altar holding it breaking apart.

The Orb floated gently up the tunnel and then with another groan the earth rose up and gripped the core tightly.

Just like that, she had a new core room, with another room to defend her! Delta snorted, soon she would be good enough to be called a tutorial dungeon…

With some grumbling, she moved back to the old core room and saw a Mushy was still skulking in the shadows.

Delta hummed, it'd be a shame to have this whole room dedicated to one Mushy and there was that… lair thing she could buy.

“Can I move the mushroom?” she asked and the little box appeared.

Moving stationary monsters cost 1 mana and takes 10 minutes, Would you like to move the Mushroom Spitter?

It asked just as she guessed. Delta felt smart and crouch down to stare with some interest as the mushroom glowered as it was slowly transported into the hallways by what looked like a magic plant pot of all things.

Delta began to flick through the menus after a minute. Magic was cool but a slowly fading mushroom being carried down the hall was not as great as it seemed.

The things she could outright buy….

Mana: 20/25. Regen: 1 per day.

Construction

- Corridor (50 ft): 10 mana
- Room (10L x 15W): 20 mana
- Torches: 1 Mana per torch
- Goblin Fire pit: 5 Mana

-------------------------

Monsters

- Goblins(chosen beginner monster): 10 mana

- Mushroom Spitters: 13 mana

---------------
Traps

- Low-grade pitfall: 5 mana

--------------

Then there were the things she still needed to purchase with not regenerating DP.

Dungeon points: 72
-------------------

Construction Purchase:

- Lair: 20 DP (one per level)
- Next Level - Locked
- Boss room: 40 DP (one per level)

Monster Purchase:

- Common Bat: 5 DP

- Common Spider: 5 DP

Trap Purchase:

- Sticky Floor Panel: 10 DP
- Weak Tripwire: 5 DP
- Falling Rock (Weak): 10 DP
- Flame Gout trap: 8 DP

Delta saw the evolution menu was unlocked, but she decided to hold off on temptation as the Mushy was finally moved.

She flicked through the menu and tapped lair. A map opened up in front of her and the only empty room flashed for confirmation. Shrugging, Delta tapped it and the surrounding room shifted as earth rose and the walls bulged slightly. Tiny hay-filled alcoves formed and a single stone hut, small enough for a dog a or a crawling goblin formed.

Delta grinned as she saw the changes she had brought with a single push of a button. The lair seemed to be a resting spot for humanoid monsters, the alcoves suggesting a place to snooze between battles.

Shrugging, Delta added the fire goblin fire pit and a box appeared.

Would you like to make the Lair into a goblin camp? Bonus healing to Goblins!

Delta hit confirm the room changed to have empty racks of meat. The alcoves were replaced with small tribal huts and a decent sized fire roared to life in the centre, lighting the room up as it crackled with merry purpose. Fran appeared and began to praise her.

Delta waved it off, feeling a blush coming to her ghostly face.

Fran sat down, warming his hands by the fire.

Delta smiled at his delighted face. She opened the menu and browsed through the upgraded menu.

Upgrade menu. Total DP: 52. Total Mana: 15

Construction:

- Upgrade entrance into simple entrance hall: 10 DP or 20 Mana

- Upgrade dungeon dirt walls into wood reinforced dirt walls: 10 DP

- Upgrade simple wooden torches into stone sconces. 10 DP

Traps:

- Upgrade pitfall into Deep pitfall. (10-foot drop makes it harder to get out) : 15 DP

Monsters:

- Goblins: Evolve into Goblin thug (5 Mana and 2 DP) or Goblin archer (5 mana and 2 DP) or Goblin apprentice (5 mana and 2 DP) Price per goblin.

- Mushroom Spitters: Greater Mushroom(10 Mana) or Myconid(10 Mana)

- Rare monster evolutions: Fran(Goblin) can evolve into a boss due to “Pig mount” absorbed. Unable to begin process due to lack of Boss room.

Delta turned slowly back to the humming Fran.

Boss… monster?

Delta looked over the construction menu and saw the list did indeed allow for a boss room… she just didn’t give it much thought.

In hindsight, it was rather obvious.

But why did Fran need a pig to become a boss?

---

---

Spoiler: map updated

5: The Human Touch

Boss rooms are trials.

Delta paced as she waited for Hob and Gob to return with more… of those wretched things.

Mana was already an issue on large spending, Delta couldn’t afford to just turn down a free source of income. Especially when it came with free DP.

She just wished they would find something else. Anything else…

So, as she waited, Delta pondered the boss room.

Having one meant her core had a final layer of protection before someone reached her core, that was good!

She’d need to evolve Fran into something else with a pig as a backup to form something she may not want protecting her core. The Mushys were hard enough to look at without fleeing. Seeing one yawning… or just hissing at the air made her ghostly flesh break out in goosebumps.

It was also just the idea that having a boss room meant that Delta was… cementing her purpose as a dungeon. Fight the weak mobs, find the loot, beat the boss, level up, and go home.

The bread and butter of any good adventure.

Except… Delta didn’t have loot… or some grand treasure chest at the end.

“I’m not sub-par! I’m still developing,” she assured herself and Fran’s ears flicked as if hearing but choosing not to comment as he enjoyed the new goblin camp. The little guy did look a lot more healthy in the glow of the fire.

Delta summed up the life of a dungeon core. Make a dungeon, lure adventurers, kill them, grow, lure more people. Delta felt like she could maybe… with some effort cut it down to just the lure and grow stage somehow.

Far be it for Delta to stop an idiot wandering in here with nothing but a pot on his head and a butter knife. Delta felt bad about luring in the unaware or lost, not the terminally stupid, that was practically doing the species as a whole a favour after all.

You don’t feel sorry for the people who set their head on fire and expect to be fine.

No, Delta wanted to have people agree to the game of dungeon and goblins. Win and get the shinies, lose and well… thanks for playing? It seemed too hopeful but if Delta could just show those that came near that her dungeon was dangerous and the unprepared should turn around and walk away, then she’d just feel better about the whole defending herself against humanity thing.

“Maybe… I can?” Delta muttered and opened the menu to the construction upgrade section.

Upgrade entrance into simple entrance hall: 10 DP or 20 Mana

Delta thought about it. She could purchase both the boss room and the entrance hall. Having 2 DP to spare and potentially having way more once her gobs returned.

With… more mushrooms.

Delta swallowed back more gags and tried to focus.

It seemed… that making a boss monster had no actual price and that worried Delta.

Nothing good was free in this little new life of hers. Except for mushrooms but they could go die in a fire.

Once she got the boss room up and running. There did seem to be no extra steps needed for pushing Fran up to the next level of evolution.

With a pig involved somehow…

Perhaps it was undoable? A one time, no-take-backies? Would Fran be her forever level 1 floor boss? Was that really a bad thing? Maybe down the line, when she had uber-wizards and three-headed frost wolves, it would be but for now, she had two fungi and three goblins between her and smashed-to-bits death.

Necessity was the mother of bad choices.

Delta purchased both rooms and the boss room flashed red and refused to be purchased. Delta blinked and saw a map opening, her two rooms flashing red. Right… need a room… to make a boss room.

One step at a time.

A room cost 20 mana and she had 15 going for her. Delta glared at her tiny single mana regen.

One day, she would regen enough mana to spend as wasteful as she wanted…

Oh, the gobs were back, joy. She zoomed to the entrance and saw them carrying more mushrooms but… Gob had something in his other hand.

He dropped it and it landed with a thud.

“Is that an apple? Gob, where did… you get an apple?” she asked and the goblin shook his hands in defence.

“Tree! Climbed with teeth, belonged to no mans!” he promised. Delta watched it fade as her dungeon consumed it. It tasted sweet but Delta braced herself as the dropped more mushrooms.

...Urgh.

But the apple made her mind spin.

If mushrooms gave her the mushys, and the fire crystal gave her access to some fire related items…

“Gob, go bring me a few branches and rocks,” she requested. Delta thought about how her tunnels just banished whatever soil was in the way, she hadn’t seen one rock or root appear in any of them. Just hard packed soil.

The apple finished fading and her menu popped up.

Apple consumed. New menu unlocked.

Item menu:

- Healthy Apple: 3 Mana

Delta closed her eyes and then opened them again. Nope, she could indeed magic food out of thin frigging air!

“Why?” was her first question. It was a good one, she allowed.

Why would she, a dungeon with no stomach or her monsters… who didn’t seem to needed to eat… need an apple?

It seemed a rather odd thing for her dungeon powers to have. Would she be able to plant them and turn them into some kind of apple fiend? Exploding apple traps? Goblins throwing apples?!

Delta closed the box and put the thought to rest as Gob returned.

He dropped the two branches and some stones on the ground. Delta watched with interest as the items vanished.

Her mana was now 22, the apple giving her a whole 2 mana compared to the single 1 of the mushrooms.

Was it because they were more healthy? Or did the world hate the mushrooms as much as Delta did?

Her mana shot to 32, the rocks about 2 mana each and the larger branches giving her 3 each. Not that she needed to keep track of this, Gob would be going back for more soon…

Delta rubbed her ghostly hands as she quickly made another hallway shooting west from her core room and a new room to cap it off.

That quickly brought her down to 2 mana.

Her menu popped open as she finished up.

Wood functions added to ‘Construction’ and ‘Trap’ menus.
Stone functions added to ‘Construction’ and ‘Trap’ menus.

A quick flick through saw some changes. Her torches could be made of tiny lumps of stone on the wall instead of wooden sticks now. No cost increase since it didn’t seem to be much better quality.

However, as she peered at the purchase menu she saw something very different.

Trap Purchase:

- Sticky Floor Panel: 10 DP
- Weak Tripwire: 5 DP
- Falling Rock (Weak): 10 DP/ 10 Mana
- Flame Gout trap: 8 DP

- Stake trap: 10 DP: covered sharpened sticks designed to ruin boots and hurt feet.

Construction Purchase:

- Upgrade entrance into simple entrance hall: 10 DP or 20 Mana

- Upgrade dungeon dirt walls into wood reinforced dirt walls: 10 DP

- Upgrade dungeon walls into rough rock walls. Required ‘Reinforced Dirt Walls’

- Upgrade simple wooden torches into stone sconces: 10 DP/ 10 Mana

- Simple wooden door: 5 DP

Items Purchase:

- Moss: 5 DP

Delta looked at the list and saw several options before that was DP cost only now had a mana cost as well, allowing to choose to spend mana instead of precious DP. Did supplying materials ease the burden of creation?

By choosing to gather resources instead of simply waiting for her Mana to build, did she circumvent the one time cost with mere effort? Delta wanted to giggle at the absurdity. Fran made her feel like she wasn’t the only dungeon around. Did other dungeons do this?

Surely… Did they? Then again, how many had access to contracted goblins and a forest? She hummed as the Hob and Gob ran back out.

“Something other than mushrooms!” she called but wasn’t sure they heard her.

Ah well… who knows? Maybe they’d find some burgers or some soda? A girl-turned-dungeon-core could hope.

She quickly paid the fee to move her core to the new room and felt a little tingle of excitement grow as the orb floated gently down the new tunnel.

From 69 DP to 59 which left her plenty to play with. As she waited for the Core to fully move, Delta spent 10 DP at the entrance.

It made her giddy… almost ecstatic to see the world shift at her command. Delta liked improving, she liked growing.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

She had to wonder how much of that was built into her and how much was her human mind trying to understand the sheer impossibility of her current existence.

The simple cave-like entrance bulged as it became more like a doorway, arched and high. The tunnel immediately closest to it hollowed out on either side, making a space big enough for five people to stand comfortably. The ceiling domed up a little, making the space feel open and letting a bit of a breeze float down the down.

The little chamber shuddered as two wooden beams formed on either side of the door and then across the top.

Delta’s eyes glazed over as she saw from a distance, the outside of the new entrance… had a single space above the hole.

It prompted Delta to say add something… words… a warning.

Delta shuddered as she focused on the words she wanted to be carved into the wood.

Well… here she was world. Dungeon Core Delta.

---

On the outside, challenging the world, the tiny hole in the ground had three words carved into the wooden plank above the entrance.

It simply claimed one time.

“Here be Danger”

---

Thanking the two gobs, she sent both of them back out. They seemed to enjoy the gathering missions so Delta left them to it.

Besides, she was excited to do the next project.

Before Delta left, she made two torches on either side of the little chamber, her last two mana gone.

Like running water, the soil ran down-and-out before it hardened into simple wooden sticks. Then as if some deity spoke, the tips burst into a weak flame that lit the chamber up enough to just show how dark the tunnel ahead was.

Delta likes them.

If the warning and the creepy darkness didn’t keep people out, then Mushy deserved some fun.

Speaking off…

“Doing a great job!” she praised as the first Mushy wriggled.

It listened and then after a moment… hesitantly thanked her for the praise. It felt gruff and rather startled by having to actually talk to her.

“Okay! Right,” Delta said brightly, fleeing down the tunnel before she had to force more interaction with it. Delta wondered if she could ever make cute monsters… not that she disliked Mushys or her gobs… she just wished she could have something that didn’t look like it was designed solely for ripping throats out of people.

She came to her empty room and flexed her fingers.

Delta was honestly more curious than anything about what would happen. Would a door appear? Would the intruders need to find some skeleton key to gain entrance?

Delta clicked purchase and watched as her DP drained and the room pulsed before it stilled.

Delta blinked.

“Uh… where’s my boss room?” she demanded and the map opened to cheerfully show the room now had a skull symbol on it. That meant boss room, apparently.

“So… this is what I get? Nothing happened!” Delta sulked. She opened the menu to see that Fran was able to evolve due to an empty boss room.

Did any rare monster have the ability to become a boss? Delta wondered what it took to make a rare in the first place? Hob and Gob were contracted, and she assumed they were somehow voided of that power…

What about her Mushys?

If she tried to get over her mushroom gag reflexes and got on well with one of them… would that change anything?

Shrugging, Delta hit the evolve button.

Fran came zooming into the room, yelping as he was pulled by some invisible magnet.

“Master! I serve!” he yelled as he landed in the middle of the room with a crash. Delta winced as he picked himself up.

Then the room shuddered.

It shook once and then it didn’t stop shaking. Fran looked around with amazement as the ground under his feet glowed.

“I… a boss?” he asked with a faint voice. He sniffed as the light travelled up his body.

“I serve you until I dust!” he promised, and then he was swallowed by the light and the room followed suit.

Delta closed her eyes as the light grew brighter. Then there was the sound of oinking and Delta blinked her eyes open.

Her boring room was now far bigger than it should have been. As the dust settled and Delta could make out details, she opened her map and saw the despite the fact the room seemed to have grown about 3x its previous size, the map claimed the actual space had not budged at all.

“I… broke space,” Delta choked.

The bare soil ground and walls had gone. The floor was a rough coarse dust or sand, mixing in with the soil underneath but never truly spreading too far. Then walls seemed to ripple and spread out as the room stretched, only now did Delta see that all the corners had gone.

This was some circular arena now and it even had very rough seats for lost audiences or her gobs.

On the far side, Delta saw a crack in the wall that stood out from the perfectly round room.

“Fran?” she called and from the darkness came two red eyes.

“Master… I serve you,” came a must deeper voice than Fran’s.

The oinking returned and from the shadows of the new lair came a giant boar that slowly walked out as if not wanting to startle Delta.

The long white tusks, the dark brown fur, the black hooves all looked ready to inflict serious pain. But it was the red eyes that peered out from a single piece of rough armour that covered the pig that made Delta pause. Those eyes did not belong to a wild animal.

On top, almost missable upon first glance, sat an armoured figure. The slight gaps between hands and wrists, body and neck showed green skin.

In one hand, a giant crude metal spear. In the other, the black leather reins to direct the pig.

The goblin wore crude plate armour thick enough to actually protect from ranged arrows and most basic blunt weaponry and the occasional sword swing.

Delta felt afraid for a moment as if the pig would charge at her. Then she remembered she was a ghost and started to breathe again.

“Fran?” she asked and the goblin raised his helmet to show a grinning face. It felt almost right but not quite so Delta tried again.

“Sir Fran, the Pig Knight,” Delta smiled as the name felt like the final deal in the whole matter and torches burst into light all around the room, like a roaring applause.

“At your service, my lady,” he and his pig bowed as one.

Delta took it all back, her monsters were adorable. She hid a smile as the pig bowed too low and Fran fell off, face-planting with a growl.

---

The village of Durence moved on with its life. A man bargained with the baker, haggling the price of his wheat down as the tiny fire crystal at the back of the baker shop supplied heat to the ovens.

A woman handed the bucket to a pulley system that a water pump drew water up into. The machine whirred and steam hissed out as the pump cooled. A man argued with a woman as she demanded help.

“He’s been gone for almost half the day, his family is worried. Mr Sawn never leaves his farm or his family for long. He’s not even done his cow milking yet,” the woman huffed and the man sighed.

He ran a hand down his wrinkled jacket. The blue thing being passed from one generation of Peace Keeper to another. In a town this size, only one was ever really needed.

“I can take a look about but Pinny, the man is an adult. If he went for a walk or found some peace finally, it’s not our place to poke our noses in. I got enough trouble with Headger melting his potion room wall and seeing his neighbour bathing, the husband is furious. Mrs Willings has gone and angered some pixies down the road and now her house is infested. I don’t think we need to call the king down for a man who's been missing less than a day or so. Jonnie and the boys hunted some gobs down, maybe one messed with his fence, you know Sawn keeps a Fire pistol handy,” Quiss assured the woman.

She soured her face then reluctantly agreed, her eyes lit up a moment later.

“Did Headger really see Gody naked?” she whispered with delight and Quiss, only Peace Keeper in Durence, sighed.

He sent a pray above for anything to take his attention away from the nags and the gossips.

----

Delta… choked.

No...nononononono.

She slid down the wall as the tiny box in front of her glowed with pride.

Due to consumption of mass poison mushrooms, level 1 has ‘Mushrooms’ freely added to the decorations and will now sprout on their own in the dungeon for free! Poison is reduced from deadly to mildly toxic to avoid Mana consumption. You can upgrade this later!

Then before Delta’s very eyes. A little mushroom poked out of the ground.

It wriggled and then stilled, enjoying its new home.

Then a new box appeared.

Mushroom Grove room unlocked! Cosmetic room with no bonuses. May build the room, regardless of max rooms per floor!

Delta screamed.

----

----

Spoiler: Map

6: The Capped Limit

Boss rooms were amazing.

Delta paced the hallway between her core and Fran’s room.

Not only did the new room push hew max mana to 30, it also increased her regen to 2 a day! It hadn’t even been a full day since Delta had awoken. It had almost been…

Delta didn’t know. There was no time here besides moving Mushys about which took 10 minutes exactly, even if it was only a single meter away. Until her Mana rose up of its own accord, then she had had a decent idea.

Did dungeon cores expire? Did time affect her slower or as long as she was in her dungeon… was she safe? Immortal from age? Delta felt a little cold at the idea of being trapped underground for the rest of time.

At least she wasn’t alone.

She had her Mushys, her gobs and Fran.

Everything a sane mind needed to last more than 24 hours.

Speaking off, the goblins had returned. Shooting a dirty look at the single mushroom growing on the ceiling. She would have Hob remove it, she zoomed to the entrance, flying past the snoozing Fran and his new pig, over the Goblin camp where a mushroom burned as it appeared too close to the fire.

It made Delta feel better.

Hob dropped more unspeakables, two branches, and a rock. Gob seemed to have been more adventurous as he brought back… a little of everything.

He dropped some dark berries, small stones and some weedy looking plants. They all began to instantly melt down into Mana. It was a shame, Delta wouldn’t mind actually keeping some things once in awhile.

She waited and before long, her menu appeared.

Rence Berries absorbed! Healthy Berry unlocked!
Clingy Petals absorbed! Decorative flower unlocked! Sticky Floor Panel cost reduced by 1 DP!

Delta hummed as she read this. The petals seemed to have some annoying habit of sticking to people's clothes if Gob’s furs were to be an indicator. Did absorbing a ‘sticky’ material reduce the burden of buying something?

Sticky floor trap seemed pretty simple, an enemy stepped on it and got stuck. Delta paced as she thought it out. By taking in more and more things that had a sticky component, she cut her work in half.

Still, only 1 DP was a little lacking in reductions. Delta had a feeling the DP cost was a one time deal… still wouldn’t hurt to get a bit more. The berries were like the apple, a food she could make.

Was she suppose to lure people in with them… the idea that food might be in her dungeon? Eyeing her 25 mana, she hesitated and then created another goblin. It formed with a swirl, growling as it formed in the tunnel.

Hob and Gob looked unbothered by it and the goblin also looked rather shocked by sudden existence.

“Keep this tunnel safe and watch out for the Mushys,” she added and the goblin lumbered off, going deeper. Delta thought about naming it then shrugged. There was going to be so many of these things eventually that it was going to be impossible to keep up with the demands of names.

Having a goblin between the entrance and the boss room made her dungeon feel a little more professional.

Which left her 15 mana to play with…She curiously made an apple. Just to see what it would do.

The red, glossy, fruit appeared but it seemed translucent as if not made solid yet.

Delta moved it and it reminded her of the trap placement. She had fun clipping it through the wall where it buzzed in error.

Hob moved after not getting more orders and moved directly through her apple placement. Something happened and quickly vanished as he kept moving.

“Wait!” Delta called and the gob froze. She pushed the apple into him and a whole new menu appeared. Delta blinked, caught completely off guard as this new… odder brother of her personal menu hovered before her.

Item placement:

- Equip to mob (use 1)

- Bind as a soul drop (Monster does not respawn)

- Use on monster(Out of battle, able to use item)

Drop? Equip?!

Delta inhaled and looked at the apple in her ghostly hands.

Could she make monsters loot drop? Er… soul drop? Delta frowned and let the goblin go with his brother to rest at the camp. They looked bushed and Delta felt a bit guilty for making them basically farm for her all day.

She focused back on the apple after making sure both gobs were comfortable after a moment around the fire. Both their grubby faces peering down the hall at Fran’s door, respectful.

It took 10 mana to summon a goblin. It took 3 mana to summon an apple. If that goblin had an apple as a soul drop, that was 13 mana down the drain for… what?

Could she booby trap her monsters maybe? Put bombs in them in case they were murdered? Delta didn’t think so and opened her menu to start flicking through options. She came to the goblin summoning page and frowned. She held the apple in one hand then touched the goblin page, not hitting confirm but just poking the general area.

A new box opened up.

Goblin: a weak demi-being. Uses large numbers, quick reproduction cycles and rare shaman magic to avoid being wiped out. Has many evolution paths around the world.

That was… handy. Did that work for all her little things?

She tried the apple.

Healthy Apple: a sweet apple that has the barest of healing properties due to being soaked in mana.

Delta reread it and silently apologised for mocking the apple where it could hear it. A potential healing apple! Every good tactician saw the use of a thing that kept the troops fighting.

Looking through her menus, Delta spotted a tiny change that escaped her noticed. On her Purchase menus for items, a tiny button existed next to both the apple and berry.

Delta tried touching the one next to the apple.

Would you like to pre-set the apple to be summoned with a monster or container? Please select which monster from the summon menu or please choose a chest on the map

Delta felt her blood rush as she discovered some new… side of her power.

She touched the goblin section and two more options appeared.

Equip as an item (Goblins may have 1 weapon, 1 armour, 1 consumable) Summon cost +2 mana
Bind as a soul drop(Goblins will drop this item when it disperses on a chance) Summon cost +1 Mana

Delta fled back to her core room. She needed familiar ground to pace about.

She barely saw her new goblin standing outside Fran’s door, just staring. Odd thing…

----

Quiss sipped at his sweet dew flask. He would prefer something stronger. Nibs had just got a casket of Stumbling Minotaur. Quiss sighed wistfully. That stuff had given him some memorable and… not so easily remembered moments.

Sweet dew would work for today. It gave his work a bit a more mellow feel. Now, if he worked in a city that had more than 200 people, he’d be diligent and hard-working. But Durence was not those cities and he gave up being serious after his first year. People took care of themselves here.

Being a Peace Keeper was a thing the king required of all towns. Mobs never made anyone happy who had to clean up their messes. Sadly, the tax man still came to them. A fair amount but the rotund taxman had a second job to make sure all the king’s laws were being followed.

Which meant, that one day, Quiss had found himself taking from his budding wizard studies and dumped into the PK office. A shack that had the sword and shield symbol painted crudely on one side.

No one else had wanted to give up their lives or their hobbies to be the person who had to deal with everyone else.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Neither did Quiss but he slept in at that meeting and missed his chance to push it on the deaf elder that lived down the street. Another sign he needed to quit drinking. First, it was that bad polymorph spell and now it was this Peace Keeper nonsense.

Quiss rounded the corner as a woman threatened an orange snake curling around a tree. Quiss almost just turned around but the woman had her heatblade powered up. A model that was so out of date that Quiss could here the blade grumpy protesting at actually working.

A heatblade was bothersome. A sword that channelled a fire crystal usually resulted in someone's house or livestock going up in smoke.

No one wanted a repeat of the great goat fire of four summers ago…

Quiss waved one hand and the snake floated away into the grass on the other sides of the woman’s garden.

One air spell, he used it mostly to sweep the float but it worked just fine here.

“Oh, such a dove,” the woman smiled as she thanked him, hiding her weapon as if Quiss would levitate her over the hedge next.

“Just keeping the peace,” he said an almost automatic response these days. His voice sounded dulled and he longed for his bed.

He only did this job for three reasons.

The free drinks at night. The lack of paperwork. The third reason was he honestly was scared someone would burn his hut down if he didn’t keep confiscation charged crystals, crossbows that had been enchanted, unstable homebrewed potions, herbal mixes that should really have not been mixed.

Then there were the more sane people that just hacked their own limbs off when they got a bit too drunk and fancied themselves knights of the Verluan Kingdom. Quiss didn’t know healing magics or healing potion mixtures or any herbal remedy for stupidity.

But… he did know that his old blue coat still inspired people to at least pretend to be rational.

Quiss considered that to be a gamble on any given day.

He just really wanted people to run out of magic supplies for the month so he could sleep all day. Now that he thought about it… the air did seem...crisper.

Mana was a bother. If it was here, your life was… mostly great. If it was gone your life was mostly...not great.

Mana made things grow, it made people strong to illness and the cold. Nothing like actual magic but it helped. Quiss knew the fairy tails like the back his nose.

Not seen it himself but definitely sure it was there.

Mana made magic. Magic made reality. Reality was something they all had to bloody deal with some hurrah for magic.

Some old maids still believe living on Mana rich land blessed you and your brats. Quiss also knew it meant that dusty of weapons that haven’t seen light since his own grandfather went gob hunting, never really went dry of power.

So, now every Jewn, Horn, Quilla, and Nib was blasting magic out their asses like it was going out of style. Which made his job harder, which meant he had to find out why, which meant he could not sleep.

Quiss hoped whatever was making mana rise was having a good laugh at his expense…

---

“Leave me alone!” Delta cried as a mushroom invaded her core room. Hob picked it up and it shrivelled up.

Delta thanked him before she went back to her menu.

Decorations were… well, pure pretty things. Things to make her dungeon feel less like a randomly generated dungeon with those super familiar textures and rendered hallways and more like a unique place of mushroom and weeds.

She hadn’t quite figure out how to turn it off but she was eyeing that Mushroom Grove room. She sighed while she went over what she learned.

Delta could work loot drops for her monsters. This was… interesting in its applications. By binding, say an apple, to the goblin blueprint, for a lack of a better word, she would summon goblins with apples equipped or bound as soul drops. Every single goblin would get an apple.

However, it cost more for the goblin to equip and use it against adventurers than it would be for intruders to kill her monsters and farm them. The system was biased and Delta would burn it.

Until that long away day, Delta saw that goblin and an apple was 13 mana. A goblin with an apple as a soul drop was 11, one as am equip was 12.

It didn’t mean much. 2 mana was not the end of the world. But this was a symbolic number. This was going was grow as she bound more important items to far stronger monsters.

A dragon and the orb of immortality would be better combined than summoned separate, saving her a few billion mana. The system wasn’t stupid, however. Delta could not remove an item once it was bound. There was no cost scumming here.

Delta could not spawn an apple goblin and take the apple away to save 2 mana. The system barred her and gave her the worst kidney punch for it.

It was all well and good but the overall question was brought back to why?

Why did she reward people for killing her monsters?

The obvious answer was, of course, to lure more. Good at killing? Make a buck collecting a dozen rusty swords in this here pit. Delta sighed.

It made sense from her point of view, the core that use be on the side of raiding dungeons. But now? As the person who really didn’t want people down here because the idea of people finding her core sent such waves of dread flowing through her it physically hurt?

It baffled her. Yes, humans gave decent mana but she already ruled out mindless murder. So, was there any point in making her place look appealing to the stabby-happy heroes?

The question gnawed at her and it was the same one that rose when she couldn’t seal off her core room.

Why did she have to let the humans have a fair chance at winning and getting rewards? What did she get out of it? Delta rose and paced. Mana and DP. Her lifeblood. It was the sole purpose she had mobs and traps. To farm these elements. Why?

To grow and to become more complex?

Why?

To become famous for not being beatable or to repel of invaders?

Why?

To let her legend grow and let more challengers come.

WHY?

Because… what’s the point of being a dungeon if there were no people?

Delta slowed to a stop.

Her dungeon suddenly seemed… very quiet. It felt… suffocating.

“I don’t want to kill people,” she whispered, the walls that just made her feel safe now made her feel entombed.

“Boss?” a voice called, deeper and more powerful than the rest.

It took only a second but Delta was in the boss room. The rounded room looked polished but Delta wondered if it would slowly chip away once people flooded in.

“Dungeon feels bad. Master okay?” Fran wondered and Delta sighed.

“Why do we want mens in the dungeon?” she asked, not sure what to expect from Fran. The pig sniffed and oinked in his sleep. Fran was busy jabbing with his spear but stopped. The goblin looked at her.

“For power. To grow into a legendary dungeon!” he said with excitement and Delta frowned.

“But I don’t want to kill them, the mens I mean,” she added and Fran just nodded. Delta waited and Fran stared.

“What do you mean yes?!” Delta squawked. Fran jumped and his pig squealed in fright.

“Master just needs to delay. Stall mens til full of power! No?” he asked, confused and Delta just stared.

“Fran… are you saying I get mana from things… just being in my dungeon?” she repeated and Fran nodded with enthusiasm.

“Mens give good mana, some dungeons have inns in middle to keep mana coming. Hob and Gob tell me stories, they heard from shaman,” he added. Delta sat down heavily.

“I don’t need to aim to kill… I just need to… make them have an adventure? Do I need to loot block them long enough to leech mana of them? I don’t have to be a murderhobo dungeon?!” Delta demanded with joy.

Fran just nodded slowly. Using her voice, he seemed to he a good idea where she was, the other mobs just looked up. Delta wanted to hug the little green deadly pig rider.

She then noticed something about the room.

“Fran… why is there no mushrooms in here?” she asked lightly and Fran looked at his pig who snored lightly.

“Bacon see them and gets hungry,” he shrugged.

Delta loved Bacon.

7: innocence and Gobs

Gob picked up another ‘room as they wandered the forest. A few more sticky flowers and a few branches in his arms. Master Delta needed more ‘rooms, her dungeon was becoming filled with them and that had to mean she loved them that much.

Except in her special room, Gob understood. The orby room had to look impressive! Maybe it could do with some paint or sheep skins on the wall but Gob was not one to suggest silly things to the master.

Gob dreamed of a giant mushroom holding the master orb! Such… ‘roomness. Gob sighed, his tusks making his squat face looked delighted.

A branch broke and Gob turned, branch in one hand. He snarled as his brother, Hob came running with a large rock in hand.

They paused as a little man stared at them. The long hair and puffy fur it wore made the manchild look like some lamb. Hob hesitated and then looked to Gob for guidance.

“Man see us…” he said, clearly unhappy about being snuck up on by a manchild. Hob grunted.

“Smash?” he wondered and the manchild made a mewling sound and fell back as she tried to turn too fast.

Normal gob culture would dictate that if hungry, manchild was food. If full… it was toy. But this was no longer about Gob ways anymore.

A new element existed for them.

Delta ways.

“I don’t… want to kill people.” Delta, the safe protector and rescuer of him and his brother, did not want man blood in her name.

“No smash. Let go… no time for games,” Gob reminded and quickly gathered up his forest bounty. Hob snorted and made a dismissive growl towards the lamb child. It got up and ran for the break in the trees where the forest ended and fields began. It stopped to look back and Gob gave it one last look before he ran off towards the dungeon. He heard another man calling, where there was manchilds there was plenty of mans.

One on one, they made gobs look weak,

To beat a man, a gob must be clever, quick and ready to die, or at least bring lots of other gobs. Gob grinned as he ran into the dungeon a few minutes later.

To beat a man in a dungeon, a gob only had to collect ‘rooms.

----

Delta pondered that she kept missing the changes in her menu due to her short attention span.

She hovered in the boss room, watching with pleasure as Bacon swallowed another mushroom. Her feelings towards these ignorant fungi was quite odd but Delta just accepted it. Aside from the vile taste, the mushrooms gave her an ample target of focus her anger on targets she could actually affect.

So, after focusing again, she looked at a new upgrade purchase she had missed.

Upgrade the Core room to reflect the status of having a first-floor boss: 20 DP
Upgrade the Core room to reflect the status of consuming many mushrooms: 20 DP

Only 1 upgrade from floor 1 can affect the Core room. The other option will be locked.

Oh no. Whichever choice would Delta be forced to pick? What grand choice would she be forced to give u-

Delta mashed the boss upgrade ‘button’ with a furious scream.

Death to the mushrooms! Vile little demons, Delta would only spare her Mushys!

Fran just shook his head at her voice. Delta felt her face go pink and she quietly left the room as she had forgotten Fran, as well as all her monsters, could hear her. The Core room was grinding and shifting as she approached.

It didn’t take long to settle into its new decor. The singular earth spear that held her orb was now replaced with a pillar rising from the ground and another reaching down from the ceiling.

The two pillars met at her Core and sealed it into place. The orange light glowing slowly, looking like it had been unearthed and a stone platform around the middle of the room had been erected around the pillar as if to worship the orb in some manner. Only three steps separated the platform from the soil.

On either side of those steps was two medium statues of Fran on top of Bacon, holding their spears above the steps like a door arch one had to cross under. The two statues like mirrors, perfectly similar down to what Delta could see. The details weren’t amazing but it was good enough that Delta had no trouble making out Fran’s eyes in the slit of his helmet.

The pillars holding her orb had six sides and on the side facing the stairs. The title ‘Sir Fran, the Pig Knight’ was carved clearly,

It still left a lot of names for the other six sides, more if the top pillar could also hold names… and an almost endless amount if names could share space on a side…

Delta walked slowly around the room, feeling pride glow in her chest. Sure, she didn’t know this would be the result but Fran… the boss room… her new Core room.

Delta had earned it with the help of her monsters and her own general messing about. It wasn’t much in the grand, or any, scheme of things but… to her. This was important. This room symbolised one very important thing to her.

Progress,

Delta slowed and sat on her new stairs, trying to pretend like she was hugging her knees.

Progress meant that she hadn’t given up. Delta hadn’t sat down and waited for someone to find her and… end her. Delta hadn’t cried, too scared to do anything while Hob and Gob never got the contracts. She hadn’t stopped trying even when the mushrooms made her feel ill.

Maybe… this room didn’t mean progress. Perhaps to adventurers, it would be the ultimate progression.

The end.

But to Delta?

She stood and stretched her arms wide as if refreshed by the room. It showed how brave she had been… and how silly this all was in the end. That was important to hold on to. Delta saw how easily she could lose herself. Delta the dungeon core that became Dungeon Core Delta.

Same words… different girl.

It was almost intoxicatingly wonderful to create and expand but Delta looked at her orb and inhaled. Progression for progression sake was pointless. This all had to mean something to her.

Or she go mad… or crazy… or turn into some machine that saw little kids barely into their teens as walking bags of Mana. Delta walked out the room, determined to see what else she could do. Determined to ask why’ to each and everything she built, mutated, grew, forged, unearth, summoned, and designed.

Becuse she would take a hammer to her own Core before a kid was reduced to a walking Mana battery in her eyes.

---

Delta felt the Mana roll and barely even choked as Hob and Gob returned with more branches, berries and mushrooms.

She really needed a glass of water or something… Delta blinked as the idea appeared. Water?

But she had no buckets or…

Wait. She had wood and stone? Why didn’t she have bucket design? Delta opened her mouth and her menu beat her to it.

Wooden Bucket has been added to the Item menu as a quick design. 3 Mana

Delta closed her eyes and counted to 10 and gave up at 5.

“Are you telling me… I can make things if I know them?!” she tried to throttle the menu and it vanished with an alarmed ding.

“Stone Spoon!” Delta yelled.

Spoon has been added-

“Wooden clogs?!”

Wooden clogs has been added-

“Wooden sword?”

Child’s Toy Sword had been add-

“Chair?!”

Woodenchairhasbeenaddd-

“Stone goblin figurine?”

Stonegoblinfigurinehasbeenaddedaddeaddadeaded

Delta twitched and when she opened her eyes, she was laying on the ground. Something throbbed and Delta assumed it was the leaky remains of her brain after her menu seemed to have a nervous breakdown.

“Ow.” she groaned and Hob yelped as she spoke next to his snoozing form.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta made a very subtle mental note not to rush the system that governed her existence to the point it was needed a glass of wine before its husband came home. Delta rose to her feet and saw her Mana growing from 12 to 24.

A decent amount…

Delta grumbled as she moved down the tunnel… it was time to do something she had been somewhat dreading. This whole… discovering how things worked as she went was nice but it left her suspicious of everything.

So just before entered the lair. Delta flicked a hand and a side tunnel and room dug itself out and the dark space inside waiting to be used, Delta felt a little sick, but she spent some of her large pool of 73 DP to fill the room.

She filled it with mushrooms… a whole grove of them.

Mushroom Grove has been built! Gutrot Mushroom automatically added! Special features unlocked when inside this room!

Due to Sir Fran, the grove gains ‘Ornery Boar’ as an elite guardian.

What? But… the menu said this was decorative? Just… something to look at.

Delta frowned as another menu opened.

Due to the variant of mushroom heartily enjoyed by the Core, potent mushrooms have elevated this room to a functional room!

She could swear her eye twitched.

The room began to smell of dampness, the walls looking a little runny as the soil became a mulch and moist, the small pond in the centre a bit rank. Then, one by one, as if summoned by some hellish devil, mushrooms sprouted out of the soil.

All those ‘Gutrot’ ones. Delta backed away as the room seemed to stretch again, space promptly washing its hands of the room. The dampness gave way as a boar, smaller than bacon but mean looking prowled past. A few of the mushrooms tangled up in his matted fur.

Delta flicked through menus until she found the special menu for this room.

Mushrooms:

- Produce

- Develop

It wasn’t the grandest menu, and she opened the produce one.

Gutrot Mushrooms: 10 mana

Delta felt hatred burn in her stomach. It cost 10 mana to produce these frigging things?! But she only got one in return when she bit the bullet and eat one?!

Delta closed the menu and paced as she angrily sniffed and snorted like the new boar in the room. After a moment, she opened the second option.

Mushroom development:

- Develop edible Mushrooms with better taste: 5 DP

- Develop mushrooms with weak hallucinogenic properties: 7 DP

- Develop mushrooms that glows in the dark: 3 DP

- Develop mushrooms with deadlier poison.: 50 DP

Delta pursed her lips. More mushrooms? More mushrooms?

She opened her mouth and then closed it as she thought about her Mushy’s feelings, it could hear her…

She had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to enjoy these nice sounding edible mushrooms since she was the one making them… or would she?

Something chimed and her Mana rose by 2. Oh...a day had passed. Maybe her nap had taken some time away from her?

That was concerning…

Delta saw she had 11 Mana left. With a quick command, Hob and Gob went out with the new wooden bucket… she held her breath but the object didn’t seem to vanish as it left her dungeon.

“Yes!” Delta jumped with excitement. Her first loot to leave the dungeon was… a bucket. Delta stopped dancing and stared at where her feet should be. Legendary knights and wizards would come from afar to raid her loot...only to get a bucket for their trouble.

Delta felt a heavy mood settle over her as a mushroom poked through the soil.

Delta, the dungeon of mushrooms and buckets, the stuff of legends.

Maybe she could add a few mushrooms to the bucket… like a crappy gift basket? No... Really, Delta insisted that all adventurers got a free mushroom, or more! Take them all… Delta begged someone.

Well... if things got boring, she could mix in the apples and berries. She wasn’t sure how valuable the apples were but… it had to be better than a Gutrot mushroom, right? Delta perked up and went off to see her new nameless Goblin talking to Fran.

Aw, Fran was making friends.

Good on him.

The guilt followed her, so she quickly started the development of the edible mushrooms.

What was next? Gourmet Mushrooms? Delta snorted and wondered what smuck wanted these’ rooms?Which a quick check on the grove, Delta froze.

She expected… one mushroom to be forming. The ground in the middle of the room was growing between 7 and 10 mushrooms at once.

“No...nononono, too many!” she waved her hand with a shrill noise and checked her DP. It still happily said 63 DP after her purchase of the grove and the developmental ‘room...

Did… the room menu actually mean… she could make or produce these little monsters… in bulks? Then how many normal Gutrot ‘rooms would she get for 10 mana?!

Oh… God… Delta felt sick at the thought of mushrooms on every surface of her dungeon.

Delta splurged 5 more DP and a shoddy looking wooden door appeared, and she used it to seal her nightmares behind five planks of wood and a cracked metal door handle. Delta prayed that those tiny hinges would keep the demons back.

The new goblin rounded the corner and blinked at the door.

“Boss? Name’s Francois… Fran said... I should have old name,” he said aloud, looking a little nervous.

Delta looked at him. He… oh…. Delta felt her mind latch onto an idea as the mushrooms inside continued to develop on the other side of the door.

In her heart, she agreed to Francois, but in her cold mushroom-hating calculating mind she called him a second name.

Delta’s home-grown food taster.

“François!” she sang, and the goblin showed surprising intelligence as he ran away as fast as he could but Delta just beamed. She was the very ground he ran on, she knew all the dead ends.

If she could make someone else take over mushroom eating duty, she’d gladly been seen as a evil witch to her little gobs.

---

“But Momma, I saw them… little green men with big teeth!” the girl whined. Quiss waited for his poached sunbird eggs to be cooked by the barman. Nibs was a greasy man but it wasn’t a bad quality, he seemed to slide between people and move away from caring about people’s problems like a man who was secretly trained by River Scale Eels.

Quiss envied the skill as the girl’s voice rose higher in the pub. People wolfed down gamey meat and shimmering, steaming fish.

“They were collecting those bad mushrooms and branches...they saw me!” she said and the mother sighed.

“Goblins eat little girls, no goblin saw you or you’d be in its belly!” the mother chided.

Harsh but true. The girl had a fighter spirit in her however and refused to back down.

“They said they had no time for games and ran off,” she added and Quiss chewed that over as his eggs arrived, cooked a little extra, just the way he liked it.

What made goblins not eat a girl and not torment her? Orders… orders meant a war chief in the making.

Quiss frowned.

His old Peace Keeper booklet had a quick page on signs to look for when chiefs rose in power.

People begin to go missing. Goblins act strangely. They become quieter…

Quiss chewed his eggs. He chewed them with a scowl.

This was beginning to sound like actual work.

Quiss Firesmasher stood. He shrugged on his wizard name like an old coat. The name was made from the ancient ritual of picking two words out a magical hat at the same time. He considered himself lucky after Boader Ladywhipper or Samual Rainbowdream.

He dared not dwell on the rare person who got three names.

Solomon Leakydarknesshole, you were never forgotten, Quiss admitted but you were never mentioned in public…

8: What Wicked Web We Weave

Delta watched as Francois gulped down another cream coloured mushroom; he looked to be rather enjoying it. The mushroom had taken a little over an hour to develop but when it finished, a little kitchen timer in Delta’s head went off.

It was cute, the noise, but Delta suspected she was being made fun of.

It was also concerning for later; the noise in her head when multiple developments finished would be… alarming. François looked puzzled at her snickering. Shame quickly filling her after that pun spurred her own to recheck the menu

Crunchy Mushroom: 3 Mana. A slightly odd mushroom that, while not all that good, can provide some nutrition. Leaves an aftertaste that lingers.

These mushrooms were just pale and featureless. Unlike the Gutrot, which were evil, these mushrooms seemed to make her little goblin happy as he chewed. Delta made a face as Francois smacked his little face.

Though… that might be due more to the simpleness of a goblin mind that any refined palette. Leaving the goblin to eat the rest of her harvest, Delta went to ponder what her dungeon had… and didn’t have.

Gob and Hob still hadn’t returned with the water. She hoped they were alright, sure they were her only means of collecting resources and cheating the system but Delta was more concerned about them just coming back.

The brothers seemed… Delta shook her head, there was no denying it. Hob and Gob were important to her in a way that if they decided to never leave the dungeon again…

Delta would provide for them, regardless. She cared for the little guys. It wasn’t something she felt shame or annoyance over. The gobs had asked for nothing and saved Delta from a very… tedious start to her new life.

Providing something to look forward to each time they left and returned to tell her stories of their fetch quests. It was such a normal act, the greeting of a friend and the talk that followed, that she felt more than a little grateful towards them.

Shaking her head from such thoughts, Delta decided to do what she did best to pass time.

Mess with the menu and hope for the best.

With only 4 mana, there wasn’t much she could do. The mushroom grove had proven more than its weight in cost. A way to develop less poisonous mushrooms and maybe some more interesting strains.

What other options did her less interesting purchases hide? Her fingers hovered over the spiders and bats.

Delta held her finger down.

Common Spider: A simple black spider. Creates 5 spiders per summon. These little hand-sized creatures can add atmosphere and some free decoration to your dungeon. As basic creatures, they cannot evolve unless some unique element or being is absorbed by the dungeon.

Common Bat: A simple brown bat. Creates 2 bats per summoning. This average sized bat hangs about your dungeon to give it atmosphere and freak out the most easily startled of adventurers. As basic creatures, they cannot evolve unless some unique element or being is absorbed by the dungeon.

Basic creatures was a new term. Delta felt like some cliche popular girl as she read them aloud.

“Such a basic spider,” she said to herself and then snorted. Delta paced a hallway, nodding to a Mushy as she passed.

Basic creatures were a classification between monster and decoration. Not really what you wanted to protect the Core but something a creative dungeon might be able to use with some excess mana to make their dungeon look more...spooky.

It seemed a little of a waste but Delta had learned her lesson after the umpteenth time since waking up. Dismiss nothing, everything is permitted. The line made sense in her head so Delta tried to imagine a use for the basic creatures.

Could the spiders make some webs to slow people down? Then the bats could… scare people?

So… just like what her menu said they would do. Delta mumbled as she turned and walked back down the hall. The pacing was great. Pacing let her feel like she was some CEO of Dungeon. Inc.

“Mr Cyclops, fetch me the 10 am readings! Dear Satan! Mr Werewolf! Have you seen these figures? Our Goblins are doing a protest! They want three more mushrooms a month!” Delta mimed throwing papers in the air.

Laughing to herself until she calmed down; Delta sighed and tried to imagine taking any of this seriously to the point she got upset over spiders and bats. Delta just didn’t have time to be so asinine over the details. She’d get things done when she got them down.

That was when Hob and Gob returned, carrying a bucket that sloshed and spilt a bit of liquid on the ground.

Delta raced towards them like a kid who had been waiting all day for someone to bring her presents for Christmas. Gob poured the water onto the dungeon floor and Hob dropped some slimy rocks and pebbles.

The water soaked in and the soil dried instantly as the water was turned into Mana and DP.

Common Water Absorbed! Algae absorbed! Pebbles absorbed!

Water themes unlocked in Menu!

Delta grinned.

“You guys did awesome!” she praised as her mana jumped from 4 to 26. That water was pretty good for the mana refill.

The DP was now sitting at 85 and Delta was starting to feel like a hoarder.

“Hob and Gob best gobs!” Hob boasted with Gob enthusiastically backing him up with nodding. Delta let them go and was about to turn with a small cheer before another menu opened up.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Mushroom Grove will now develop all mushrooms at a faster rate and for 1 less DP across all options due to water element!

Delta waved the menu away.

“Away demon! Away with you!” she hissed. It flickered and a new pop-up took its place.

Goblins upgrade unlocked: All 1 tier goblins can now be summoned with a bag of rocks to throw at targets: 5 DP

“Now, that's what I like!” Delta cheered and shrugged, purchasing the upgrade to spend it on something. She zoomed over to Hob and Gob to see a bag appear at their sides. It bulged and both gobs looked inside.

“Rocks?” Gob asked and Hob grinned.

“Rhucks!” he cheered and threw one at the Mushy in the tunnel. Delta gasped as the mushroom snarled, maw filling with that green liquid.

Both goblins ran screaming as bits of sick looking spit hit the walls and splattered down.

Well... Delta never accused them of being smart.

It was pretty nice, however, that the basic goblin upgrades extended to her contracted monsters. She had a feeling that she was not truly catching on to the potential of the contracted monsters yet. Aside from being able to leave the dungeon, there had to be something else. Delta would have to keep waging war with the menus to tease the secrets out.

A quick look at her menu showed her a few things.

Pond room: A room with a medium pond where fishing can take place. DP 10

That was neat, except for strapping wooden fake shark fins on her goblins, Delta had no fish for people to fish for. Still, options never hurt until they trapped her in a spiralling trap of unable to choose what to purchase.

But for now, she was rich in DP. Delta rubbed her hands as she saw a new tab unlocked on the menu.

Research Menu:

- Irrigation: Study how to use water more efficiently to reduce the cost of crops that require water. DP 10

- Basic Wooden Equipment: Be able to create weapons or basic armour of wood for loot drops or for Contracted Monsters able to use weapons. 5 DP

- Basic Stone Equipment: Be able to create weapons or basic armour of stone for loot drops or for Contracted Monsters able to use weapons. 15 DP

Research was a word that smart people messed about with. Delta knew, as a modest shut in, that research meant that part of the game where you were able to take old and boring units or buildings and make them into somewhat still relevant pieces in the later game or take early parts of the game and using it to stay alive.

A Grove might be able to produce more for less, for example. Delta pursed her lip; the thought came down to how to reduce the cost a room? A whopping 20 mana was still a bank drainer at this point.

“Core improvement? Mana generator?” she asked aloud. Her menu did not respond in any fashion.

“Yeah… figured that would be too easy,” she agreed amiably. Delta didn’t begrudge the system for not letting her take such an easy route. Delta had the tools to carve herself a way to sustain herself and her monsters.

It was just before her eyes in some fashion but Delta was in no rush to do something stupid when there was no direct danger yet.

Instead, she decided to fill her dungeon with spiders.

Delta would later regret this decision on many levels.

---

Looking at her mental map, Delta decided that she needed to mix things up once she had more mana. A new tunnel and another room.

For now, she created a room that connected to the first tunnel in the dungeon. It hollowed out and Delta took a small walkabout, admiring the almost perfectionist level of soil removal. She then flexed her fingers.

She purchased the spiders with 5 DP and five of the things scuttled out of a hole in the middle of the room.

The first thing that happened was that Delta vacated the room without a word. Perhaps it was a new life, a stolen slew of memories, the excitement of her new powers but the little fact that Delta did not like spiders seemed to have escaped her.

She peered into the room and the spiders sort of… just moved around in interest in their new space.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad; they almost looked cu- One of them turned to her and Delta fled.

Eight eyes of death and nightmares stared into her Core-y soul. Delta knew she should have started with bats but the idea had just gripped her.

With a very big shout, she ordered the spiders to begin to nest. It was the worst thing she had ever suggested since the phrase ‘Mushroom Grove’ had left her mouth.

One by one, the spiders began to web around the corners of the room and danced threateningly at each other as they fought for space, the silky white threads quickly growing as the spiders didn’t need to catch any food. Delta tried to project a command to the spiders not to web in a middle of the room, leaving two parts of the walls bare of web.

It was all part of her cunning plan! Delta felt pride rise up but it was quickly sent running as a spider poked out of the room to see where the cackling was coming from.

The eyes… Delta wilted and fled.

One day, Delta would make a monster that didn’t want to make her cry. Maybe something fluffy.

Delta would later regret that thought on all levels.

---

9: Quissing the Dungeon

Well… it wasn’t a War Chief.

Quiss eyed the hole set into the side of a large clearing. The sign tacked to the top of the entrance was clear in its intent. Quiss rolled his tongue around, digging out egg from between two teeth.

Normally, a Dungeon usually did it’s best to lure people in byways of warmth, alluring entrances, women’s laughter, a flash of gold.

Things that might have the average man enticed.

Quiss had never quite heard of a Dungeon telling people to piss off; then again that would be clever. Nothing made a man, a little drunk after a long day, angry like an inanimate object telling him to keep out.

Seldom did men like being told what to do by innocent objects. In Quiss’ questionable education, he found that a Dungeon was usually one thing.

Trouble.

Well, he was being unfair. The richness of the hill grass around him, the blooming flowers hiding just out of sight in the underbrush, the screeching noises of animals trying to bed one another, usually in dangerous fashion, and even the clear babbling noises of nearby rivers sounded out.

Dungeons were good for the land. It was akin to a blackout that sucked up crappy mana and objects and leaked much better mana over time. Like a strict husband or wife that took in a lout of a man out of the gutter, bedded him, wed him, then cleaned up his act.

Perhaps that was Quiss’ own personal perfect logical thoughts on marriage shining through again, but he dismissed that thought before he shot the happy singing bird not far off.

Dungeons also had a high mortality rate. Quiss didn’t even find it funny anymore. Idiots waited in lines for months for a turn in some slimy dungeon and instead of training, they would sleep or gamble away their grandfather’s rusty set of Mythril armour that definitely would have saved their lives.

Quiss honestly found the Dungeon culture to be a bit of a mess. Verluan had a handful of the things. A great city had been built around one once and then it promptly collapsed as they failed to take into account such things as trade routes, seasonal changes, general meaning of what it would take to keep a city running off random-chance loot drops and chests that may or may not kill you.

Last he heard, the city had decided to downgrade to a heroic villa for adventurers to spend the day in a spa before heading off to strike mediocre riches or die from a slime that looked like a mundane slime but was actually a royal jelly.

Common mistake, not one people often made twice. His research into the deepest dark tomes and scrolls had revealed the way to discern the way to tell the difference. The royal jelly had a tiny crown and oozed with elegance.

Quiss turned and, without much hurry, walked back to the village. He needed to call a town meeting and that meant waking up Haldi.

Quiss’ features soured to the point he felt ill. Why did he have to wake Haldi? He sighed and patted his navy jacket. PeaceKeeper duties at their finest. He briefly entertained the idea of letting the dungeon be and ignore it until problems cropped up.

But… it sounded like it had already eaten one hunting party and a farmer… and maybe a pig.

Those were problems. Quiss rolled his tongue again and eyed the forest to the far side. The thought came into his head despite his protests.

The monsters of the forest would be drawn to this area. Goblins, Unreasonably Large Spiders, lizard people who decided to kill other people and angry bushes.

Quiss hoped the bushes stayed in the forest. He’d rather not fight them again. His allergies acted up at the worst times when he was casting a spell. A fireball was not meant to defy natural order like it did the last time he sneezed mid-cast and burned a goblin into a duck.

----

The room of webs was coming along nicely. Delta zipped in and zipped back out, doing the dance when she thought some web had pierced reality and touched her ghostly self.

She rubbed her face, the area feeling itchy. There was an oddly wavy line that one could traverse without getting the thick webs in their face but even to her eyes, it took an aerial view to see it clearly.

Sure… the adventures could just burn it all but Delta had planned for that! In the middle of the room was something she hoped would… stall the idea of fire.

Delta cackled as she suggested the idea to her powers and it came back positive. A berry could indeed germinate into a berry bush. It seemed with some additional mana cost, she could just up and skip the growth stage. The only off thing is that bush came without berries.

Healthy Berry Bush: A bush that can grow Healthy Berries over time. Cost 10 Mana

Sure, it was costly but in the midst of all the white web, a shimmering shape of green with royal red berries would entice the adventures. Delta definitely was proud of her little challenge room., her face wide with a pleased look.

Especially, since she wanted to make the spider room unavoidable as she messed the dungeon up.

Hob and Gob went back out with the bucket. Delta asked them to go back to the river and find her some fish. She would have made them some bags or a fishing pole, but she lacked some materials. Despite the fact her spiders could make the web, her dungeon didn’t register her to have the ability to make a fishing rod.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Or did video games lie to her? Delta perished the thought and hummed cheerfully down the tunnel as she waited for delicious mana to return. Still,… with nothing to do, she peeked into the grove and got another development going.

She randomly picked the glow in the dark ones and moved on.

Wow… she still had 78 Dp to spend… how fast was she supposed to be growing?

Shrugging, Delta read through the menu, looking for something to catch her eye.

Upgrade dungeon dirt walls into wood reinforced dirt walls: 10 DP

Delta… looked around and then purchased it with a small thrill running through her body.

Then the dungeon shook.

“Uh… no, stop making that noise!” she begged as the entire floor shook harder. The walls began to glow softly and then like a firework, flashed brightly making Delta’s non-physical eyes go blind.

“Flipping flops!” she cursed and rubbed at them.

The shaking stopped and Delta blinked blearily at the almost solid looking dirt that her tunnels now had. Were that planks of wood across some patches?

Every so often, the dirt had oddly angled pieces of lumber nailed to support beams. Never straight and never fully hiding the dirt behind it.

The tunnels were also… a little roomier. Delta felt off like someone had added an extra ear to one side of her head. She tried to pace and the spacing made her confused. This was a little annoying. Her depth and spatial awareness were now shot to fudge. She paced and tried to ignore the extra foot and half of with the tunnels now had.

Delta paced, trying to find her stride, forgetting to purchase anything else for a while.

---

“Haldi?” Quiss called into the deep darkness.

The yawning abyss of the doorway before Quiss beckoned him closer like a snake with a hypnotic rattler. Quiss refused to parley with the darkness, ignoring it like the ex-lover that had spilt wine on his favourite ‘Mad Magicians Monthly’ and expected him to hurry up and get over it.

Well, sadly for the darkness, Quiss Firesmasher held grudges like a pro-mage. Often with no reason and often lasting until the grave took him and even then he would come back as a ghost just to spite them, it was just small things.

“Haldi!” he yelled and the air trembled as the being inside shifted. People on the street behind him grabbed their young or old and hurried away.

Quiss yearned for one of them to take his hand and hurry away with him. No one did and Quiss chalked that up as another reason to dislike people.

The master of this terrible place approached the sunlight and it seemed to move equally away from him.

“Haldi?” Quiss repeated and the figure moved closer.

“Ah, Quiss, come for another sample?” the old man offered with a smile. Quiss ignored the silver dish of various cheese with cocktail sticks holding them together. The man was a little over eternity, his features ranged from ghastly to nightmarish, his average speed per word was between glacier and time-stopping.

“Haldi, I need to use the bell,” Quiss said calmly, ignoring how one of the cheese samples was bubbling. Haldi nodded twice.

Quiss was sure seasons passed by the time it took Haldi to finish the second nod. The smell of the building wafted out, it wasn’t cheese. No, that would be normal for Haldi the cheesemaker. No, the smell that leaked from Haldi’s shop seemed like the forgotten space between the second and third layer of the abyss. Out of the 142 layers, the first 20 weren’t so bad in terms of dying.

So people just felt mild discomfort when shopping for cheese in this town. No one talked about it and its implications. No one really cared enough or had enough willpower to face Haldi in a conversation longer than 5 minutes.

The one conversation that did last that long had been legendary and the archmage had died on the spot, his ghost fleeing for hills.

Haldi had been ruling with a cheesy fist from the darkness… by accident.

He was actually a very nice man but Quiss wanted to cry. He was so boring. However, when most men were still presumably in the evolutionary stage of bacteria; Haldi had purchased the oldest church in town. It was the only church in town with a bell.

And by Durence law of the covenant of the pact overruled by the agreement between three wizards that was overturned by the Barbershop Quartet of the dark ages…. Town meetings could only be forced by the ringing of the church bell by standard practice still held today.

So, Haldi nodded and then opened his mouth.

“I learned the most interesting thing about cheese last month! Did you know…” Haldi began and the stairs at the far end looked blocked off by cheese crates. They would need to be moved but something had leaked over them, making them sticky to the touch.

“-warmed by a basilisk, then a fondue can actually not leak off the sweet stick!” Haldi went on and Quiss grew weak. He must hurry before the cheesy abyss took him!

10: Hole in the Ground

Delta watched as Francois brought the bucket of mushrooms for Bacon. Delta grumbled as she flicked through her menus looking for some way to turn the damn fungi growths off. She was the Dungeon Core; she should have the authority to do it.

If she could just find the right screen or option. Delta, having no other option, just kept feeding them to Bacon to stop them occupying every little corner and wall. The only place they didn’t seem to grow as the spider room and Delta was not poking around in there to look for any reason why.

Hob and Gob would be returning back soon with their bounty. Their last haul had some interesting results. Namely that while Delta asked for fish, the goblins had brought back crayfish. There was something fishy about that but the goblins didn't seem to see the problem. As far as Delta knew, crayfish didn’t live in forest ponds or lakes…

Or did they? Delta didn’t even know where the nearest source of water was… Maybe there was an ocean just around the river bend?

To be honest, what she knew about crayfish could fit in a fortune cookie.

Or maybe they did via magic now? Delta pondered the idea of crayfish just living wherever they damn well pleased in this world. Terrifying, but power to them. Having a few dissolved in her dungeon gave more than a pleasing result, along with more mana, rocks and berries.

Crayclaw has been unlocked in the monster purchase menu!

Crayclaw: 10 DP. A large arthropod monster that lives in water. About the size of an average cat and its right oversized pincher it uses to remove fingers and tear food apart. Requires water features present in dungeon to summon.

A new monster was always a potential goldmine. Why she got the ability to summon the Crayclaw and not boars from the pig was a question she kinda wanted to be answered, but Delta let it go when all she had was theories and guesses.

The water part made sense; Delta could even see how such a requirement was not really asking much.

Did you get crayfish? Great, now don’t be an idiot and scoop up some of their habitats as well. Delta did have a pond room she could use if she really wanted the monsters in her dungeon. With a shrug, she flexed her mighty pool of 25 mana.

Delta felt it was time to put her dungeon into working order and hopefully all it would take is one hallway and some rearrangement.

Delta opened her map and tried to drag a hallway about.

Moving a hallway requires: 5 DP. Moving a room requires 10 DP

Delta hummed and juggled that cost against her 87 DP. What if she just wanted to move everything back…

Huh… no actual cost for shifting her dungeon back, the hallways looked wonky at the corners, however, as they stretched temporarily. Delta assumed there were a trick and a way to break it over her knee but she just shrugged and got to work on her new dungeon layout.

One tunnel that connected to the spider room from the entrance and then one tunnel that connected the spider room to everything else. Then Delta shrugged and pushed everything back. The lone tunnel collapsed and left the only way to progress in her dungeon was through the spider room.

She quickly shifted the confused Mushy into the new hallway with the usual cost. Thankfully, it had already been pushed out of the erased tunnel by the nature of the system.

Her dungeon returned to normal proportions and Delta waited as the new tunnel began to empty itself of soil. Planks of wood formed along the wall and the dirt became hard packed.

Everything was going swimmingly; Delta felt like a proper dungeon core person. Growing and she even had good reasons. To challenge the weak-willed to get past her spiders and stop them from meeting actual dangers.

The tunnel stopped and Delta’s mental map began to scream in abject horror. A space, a non-rectangular room appeared and tacked itself onto her map.

Delta stumbled and fell to her knees as this space filled the spot of a room.

She felt a mana rise and fall as the room became “Dungeon”. It was some small cave with half of the room submerged in still clear water.

Delta stumbled into it and stared at the space she hadn’t created but just… claimed. The deepest part of the water glowed and Delta froze as she saw a very familiar white light near the bottom.

Another entrance to her dungeon. Hesitating before she slapped herself for being silly, Delta walked into the water and examined the small hole that seemed to vanish into complete darkness. Some underwater vein that fed off a river or the sea maybe?

Well… at least Delta didn’t have to build that pond room for her fishies.

Her Mana sat at 55 and her DP pinged at 132…

Delta scrambled to spend the mana before it could slip between her fingers. Her mind didn’t offer suggestions so Delta exploded another tunnel and room into existence as her menu rang with a little jingle

Cave Pond has been discovered! 30 DP spent to claim this room. 45 mana and DP gained from converted elements.

Sand absorbed.
White shell absorbed.
Common Whitetail fish absorbed.
Yellowbelly Cod absorbed.
Sand Crab absorbed.
Common Water Tangles absorbed,

Delta’s eye twitched as the bells formed some soft friendly metal band that just kept ringing in her head.

Mushrooms, bells, and underwater sea caves with too much going on. Delta just wanted to make a nice dungeon layout!

Having only 25 mana left and her mind racing; Delta just stared at the pond. If she could run into a harmless cave… what else waited for her under her very feet.

“The silly dungeon core dug too deep,” she said in a...only half-joking voice. Delta waved that thought away and went to examine her new items.

Oh… she had fishies! Delta had always wanted an aquarium, or at least that’s what the missing piece of what she was before being Delta suggested.

She opened the menu and found the relevant page.

Room Upgrade:

- Cave Pond

- Upgrade water to spawn and respawn Common Whitetail fish: 10 DP

- Upgrade water to spawn and respawn Yellowbelly Cod: 15 DP

- Upgrade water to spawn and Respawn Crayfish: 13 DP

- Upgrade water to be of a purer freshness: 5 DP

- Upgrade Pond to spawn and respawn Sand Crabs: 7 DP

Delta beamed. This has potential! What good adventure cliche would she be if people couldn’t fish?

Another little jingle sounded out.

Lumen Mushrooms has finished developing! Cost 2 mana!

Delta looked around her cave and decided… just this once, that some mushrooms wouldn’t be amiss.

Delta giggled and ran her finger down the purchase menu. The menu asked, almost concerned, if she really wanted to buy all the upgrades for this room?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Fishing mini-game is a go!” she commanded and the menu dinged once and seemed to fade with shock as the pond room shook as mana filled the air.

----

“A Dungeon?” Old Lady Jose repeated with interest. Quiss nodded as the people gathered in the local library. There was no ancient law requiring they did so, the library just had the most comfortable seats.

“Not far out of town, a 15-minute walk at best,” he explained as people muttered. The muttering wasn’t anything actually important. People just made those noises because it was proper to do so at such meetings.

“Is it a dungeon like Castorms? Or a dungeon like Wallops?” asked the man who ran the pie shop. His pies were good as were his prices. His selection, however, was abysmal. Chicken or fish. And Quiss never could get the man to answer what kind of fish were in the pies.

“Castorms. Wallops requires consent forms and proof of age,” Quiss reminded them and a few share of the people grinned impishly.

“People, focus, we do not have all day to act like school children. The actual school children will be released soon and half the people here will be honour bound to go home and feed their spawn,” Quiss said waspishly and people just stared at him.

“Now, I can confirm with tracks outside the dungeon and some logical leaps that may be faulty to a court of law that this dungeon may have already consumed one farmer, three men hunting goblins, and a pig. As always, we must refer to our most logical and wisest elders in these times to suggest how we proceed,” Quiss nodded to Old Lady Jose, the empty chair that Haldi should have been in, and a man who was snoring.

Haldi must have gotten stuck in his shop wrangling an ornery cheese. Quiss had no idea how a level 5 lawman’s locking spell had ended up on the man’s door exactly as Quiss had left the building but Quiss promised to look into the incident if Haldi tried to leave before the meeting was done.

“Can we tax it?” Jose asked with narrow eyes. People mumbled appropriately. Quiss shook his head.

“Due to the Goworth ancient laws, Dungeons are non-taxable,” A man with narrow glasses threw in. Quiss agreed and ignored how the man was too pale to be healthy. Poor Von hadn’t had much to do as the banker of Durence, he sort of sat around recounting the same gold coins that came in and left each and every day.

“Hm…” the snoring man snorted and blinked.

“Huh? Whatcha want?” he asked rudely and his eyes drooped again but Quiss managed to jostle the man’s chair to make him stay awake.

“Dungeon? Sell it to the Fairplay Company. Everyone does…” he grumbled and went back to sleep. Elder Pic was not one for people, speaking, effort or generally doing anything. Quiss aspired to follow in the man’s steps one day.

“As Haldi isn’t present,” Quiss began and people seemed to send a thankful prayer above at this bit of news.

“I will speak on his behalf. I feel like we should at least see what classification of the dungeon we have on our hands. I spotted goblins but that doesn’t tell us much. Before we even begin to think of letting the kingdom know about this, we should confirm what we can and then decide on what to do with that information. Otherwise, we could be giving away a potential money maker and if we had more money in this town we could hire more Peace Keepers and I can stop work- worrying so much about this town,” Quiss smiled politely as people looked like they might agree.

Old Lady Jose hummed.

“A town with a dungeon has been in fashion for the last 300 years, I would love to finally be on the trend… tell my hellspawn sister she can shove that insect dungeon up her-”

“SO! As we all know… or should know but I don’t have much faith in this community's education system, dungeons come in many flavours. We don’t have too much in the way of records on other countries dungeons. How we class this dungeon is important. Monster types would be easy. Goblins only would make this a goblin dungeon. There’s only about 15 of them in the world so I hope this dungeon has aspired to be a little bit better than them,” Quiss said with a wistful sigh.

“What about them drops?” a younger man that reminded Quiss of a dog that has had its face smashed in by a crush spell then dropped off a cliff for added insult.

“Another way to class them, yes. If all monsters drop crystals or herbs or spellbooks, they could be classed as loot dungeons. We won’t know until go check and unless the dungeon has some odd entry requirement like Holoka’s dungeon…” Quiss trailed off and the room went a little quiet.

“Well… at least it’s one way of knowing if the purity rings they make their kids wear is working or not,” a woman smirked, looking far too comfy in her fur-lined coat and with a long knife attached to her leg.

“Ruli, don’t you have a cute rabbit to gut?” Quiss asked stiffly and the woman yawned, showing off tight muscles in her arms and a collection of scars.

“Quiss, don’t you have some child’s birthday party to piss on with your sour mood?” she fired back casually.

Ruli was the closest thing the town had to the resident active monster hunter and asshole. Ruli excelled at both with minimal effort. Quiss disliked her for many reasons, shoving a fire crystal into his pants was one, scaring him mid-spell casting was another.

Ruli most likely disliked him for making all her weapons flop like props in some play, setting her hair on fire and making her prey turn into ducks near the end of the hunt.

Which is why they ended up hanging out together to drink and complain about everything together and annoy each other. It was the most stimulating thing Quiss could get out of this town most of the time.

“So, I’ll skip the pussyfooting around that you like to do, wanna go dungeon spelunking?” Ruli asked, teeth like fangs. Quiss gave a large sigh as Old Lady Jose nodded in agreement.

“You two can go, anyone else here just… doesn’t have time to adventure,” the woman smiled tightly.

“What? Would that ruin your afternoon of complaining about fences and walking the same 6 streets over and over while we all pretend that we aren’t all going to all snap one day and have a stake burning of the most annoying people in this town?” Ruli asked innocently and Quiss agreed but watched silently as Old Lady Jose stood.

A little bit of power crept into the woman’s form and the Wolfbane of Durence stood before them for a moment. A being that could cut them down and make small talk at the same time. Then the legend was gone and Old Lady Jose just smiled.

“I have pies to bake,” she said with a calm tone and Ruli nodded.

“Pies, important,” she agreed and lifted Quiss with one hand as she quickly exited the building.

“Come on, Firedancer, we’re going on a quest!” she said with wide-eyes. Quiss just scowled at the wrong-name and wondered how on earth Ruli kept annoying the town where most of the retired people shuffling about could break them with a finger.

Haldi was nice but he was also wanted in 43 different provinces for his deeds with cheese alone.

Just because no one was brave enough to follow him here didn’t mean Quiss wanted to see what would happen when the man was mildly… disgruntled.

---

11: Fishing for Compliments

Fish were basic creatures.

Delta watched, flat on her back at the bottom of the lake, as the fish swam above her, the Lumen mushrooms glowing softly on the ceiling like blurry stars. Delta… really liked this room. Spending 4 mana to populate the room with Lumen Mushrooms, the once dark room now had a soft ambience that Delta wished she could claim she had planned.

Able to see the dark shadows of elegant fish, larger ones, a few Crayfish move about, seeing them mimicking normal crayfish habits like taking fake snaps at each other made Delta feel true peace for a brief moment.

Her creatures did not need to eat. In a world where one did not starve, life became… playful. Delta knew there was something deep she could say but she decided she was already deep into the pond as it was, at the bottom of it in fact.

Really, she should be studying her menus to target her next upgrade, plan the next purchase, aim for the next unlock, grind those numbers and… then what?

Delta didn’t care about any of those things at the moment. She just wanted to enjoy the creation she had brought about. Why rush off and make something else when she hadn’t even seen enough of what she had done right here?

A fish swam past and Delta held a hand near it, feeling a little bit of resistance as it passed. She couldn’t touch her creations yet but she liked to think they would enjoy it if she could.

As a pure logical thought, the pond would draw explorers to fish and stall in her dungeon. They would fishing and over a certain period of time, the pond would naturally refill it’s taken quarry. It would result in Mana farming.

As someone who wasn’t a machine that crunched numbers and didn’t see everything as a way to make her dungeon into some hyper-productive factory, Delta freely admitted she just really wanted a pond with fish in it.

There was no real ulterior motive behind the act on Delta’s side. She walked back to the beach. Part of her knew she had to add a few Crayclaws eventually but decided to let space exist peacefully for now…

Besides, she had a whole new room to have fun with! Stuff cost mana and Delta had an idea she wanted to try. The plans came together like a crayon drawing in her head but her powers did not protest.

The room needed to change a little for it to work, however.

“How do I lower the floor?” she muttered, hoping the question would be answered for her. Her prayers were answered as the menu appeared.

Editing a room’s size cost DP. ‘Lowering the floor’ to 1 meter would cost 1 DP. Basic rooms cannot exceed construction sizes by more than 5 meters in any direction until further upgrades are found.

“Oh, thank you!” Delta said and the menu vanished without a word.

Opening her map, she tapped the room and held it. A menu appeared as she focused on the room.

Room customisation:

- Size adjustment: 1 meter: 1 DP

- Add room feature (Grove 1/1, Pond 1/1, Lair 1/1, Boss room 1/1)

- Add a room reset function for added traps of weak quality (1 trap per room currently): 10 DP

Delta swallowed. That was a lot of numbers. She reread it again and sort of got most of it.

A special room could be inserted if they didn’t exceed her limits or the room could have a special trap that might reset per use instead of a time limit?

Delta inhaled and shrugged. She would just have to do her three P’s later.

Progress, Purchase, Pace.

She lowered the floor by 2 meters and then spoke aloud.

“Mud!”

Mud has been added to construction menu!

---

“I dunno, I kinda like the balls it has,” Ruli commented as she read the warning above the door. Quiss eyed the slightly sloping down path into the slightly larger tunnel opening than he expected.

“Well, don’t speak too loudly. We don’t know what will set this dungeon off. One wrong comment and we can be facing down a horde of who knows what,” Quiss reminded and Ruli pulled her knife out.

“Quiss, I know how to keep my yap shut inside the dungeon. Unless we’re already on dungeon ground and this entrance is a faux trap, I think I’m safe. Once we’re in, we use one or two words max and use gestures as best we can. Every second we’re inside we learn about the dungeon but it also learns from us. I don’t want some monster learning that we’re getting curious about it. I also don’t want some innocent builder Core being scared because we’re yelling about dungeon cores and murdered villagers,” Ruli said as she cleaned the blade despite the fact the blade was cleaner than some medical tools Quiss had seen in his time.

“I forgot you were part of that circus troupe of adventurers. The Bird feathers, or some such,” Quiss said distractedly, knowing full well the name of her ex-group.

“The Hawk Claws!” Ruli said with a snap, making her dark face turn ugly with a snarl. Quiss didn’t think about the attractiveness of Ruli’s face or such, he just decided she was uglier with a snarl.

“Right, them. You’re right, of course. We could be unlucky and strike one of the forbidden dungeons,” Quiss grimaced and Ruli actually recoiled slightly.

Forbidden dungeons were special types of dungeons that Quiss had only seen twice in his journeys.

Plague dungeons and Abomination dungeons.

“I forget… is undead still on or off the list?” Ruli asked lightly and Quiss jumped at the chance to distract himself from the thoughts he was having and also to feel smarter than Ruli at the same time.

“No, they’re legal again. The dark church of Urathain petitioned and managed to remind people that if the church of light and the gods can have unbiased dungeons then so should they since the dark church does not force their believers onto the angel/spirit/nature dungeons and should be respected in the same manner,” Quiss recalled.

Undead were always an easy topic to play with.

A plague dungeon used… viruses and plagues as the main method of killing people. The problem was that it was not content to sit and wait for victims and usually ended up wiping towns off the map in its haste to grow. All it took was one idiot to come out with spores in his lungs and then the kingdom was gone in a week.

Abomination dungeons were… broken. They started out fine in some manner. Then either through someone taking the core or cracking it in some manner or the core losing control of its senses, the dungeon became a hole of amalgamations of monsters. Mana went in but no mana came out. People who went in, often came out gibbering madmen or so broken that death was a mercy.

If one was found then it was eradicated. The land it was under was eradicated. The people who had interacted with it were treated in the most gentle manner possible before their brains just gave up. Quiss saw one being removed. A saint had called down the wrath of his God. Like an angry fist from the heaven, the hole in the ground screamed and leaked the vilest things he had ever seen. People that had been spliced with things and left partially unformed and mentally undone, people that had just stopped being human, seeing his fri-

Pain exploded over his face as Ruli lowered her fist, face hard.

“We don’t know,” she said softly and her eyes softened a touch. Pity and that brought Quiss to back to reality faster than anything.

“Really, did shaking me escape your boorish brain?” he grunted and he ignored the glint of relief in Ruli’s eyes before she snorted and stalked down into the dungeon.

“I shook your world once, never again,” she cackled and Quiss narrowed his eyes. He had a perfect shot of her hair.

One little fireball and she’d leave him alone for a week before trying to gut him in the street when enough of it grew back.

Quiss followed her down into the dungeon, chanting the spell for butterflies… just in case the temptation grew too much.

---

The room was almost finished. The mud had taken a little bit over 15 mana to fill up to her liking. Leaving her with 10.

Hob and Gob should be back but she wasn’t worried. Delta had asked them to go a little farther than normal and see what they could find.

So, with her last 10 mana, she made ten round wooden platforms in a spread out pattern one would have to jump on to get from side to the other.

Four of them were not big logs like the other three but small floating pieces of wood that if jumped on would instantly sink and send the jumper into the muddy pit!

Dangerous? No…

Challenging, humiliating and potentially time wasting? Yes!

Delta was proud of her work, so proud she was suddenly scared her hubris had done something to strike out at her as all her menus closed down and the dungeon took on a feeling she had never felt before.

Life that she had no insight into had just walked into her dungeon. Delta was alerted to the fact that her monsters feel it too but Delta could see it was more just a… ‘something is here’ feeling then the feedback Delta got.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

She moved to the entrance and froze as a woman in furs with dark skin and a wicked looking knife entered, followed by a man in his 30’s with a perpetual scowl. His long blue jacket, blonde hair and beard made him look rugged. His eyes held a depth that made Delta feel shy about staring into them for too long.

The woman looked more honest and Delta liked her eyes, a dark simmering red. Red eyes were cliche and often meant evil, but Delta had a feeling this was perhaps more of a ‘humans might have slept with something they shouldn’t have way back in the day’ situation and odd coloured hair or eyes might be common here!

Though, if one's hair colour began to change when one was powering up, Delta was done. She’d sleep with the fishies until her DP hit max and she opened up a wormhole and got out.

“Feeling?” the man asked and the woman grunted.

“Norm. Moving,” she said and headed down the tunnel. She was going to the spider room. Delta flailed on the spot.

People were in her dungeon! PEOPLE! Walking-talking-smart-real-not goblins! Delta followed as the began to turn the corner, almost tripping over a Gutrot ‘room in her haste.

“Mushrooms,” the man said and the woman paused.

“Gutrot, kill a man in a day if you eat it,” she warned and kept moving. Delta froze.

Kill...a man? These frigging mushrooms were man-killers?! Delta had been forcing herself to eat murderous mushrooms?!

“Slow. Webs,” the woman pointed out and the man snorted.

“Yes, I can’t see the huge swath of white web ahead,” he replied and the woman scowled in response.

“I’ll push you into them, don’t tempt me,” she warned and moved carefully into the maze. Her berry bush laid at the centre but Delta watched with held breath as the hunter woman took a look around.

Excitement filled her, could this first challenger traverse this sticky maze?! Delta almost screamed as the woman just examined the web, not moving as her eyes flicked to the spiders that had fled.

“Top quality here…” she muttered and Delta’s excitement turned to confusion as the knife the woman held took on a slight red edge.

The woman cut down the web in front of her with a slight hiss. It felt to the ground, folding in on itself as the woman hacked away at the sides holding it up.

She took out a backpack and began to roll the web up into a small sticky bundle.

Delta was numb.

“Ruli… really?” the man asked with exasperation. The woman just began to cut down another section.

“Quiss, this stuff can make nets, good fabrics, make-shift bandages and all kinds of magic shit, the fact you aren’t wizarding a chunk for yourself is just sad,” she accused. Delta felt faint as she just looked at her ruined maze.

Her plans… gone into the woman’s satchel.

The man eyed the bush in the centre.

“Want some berries?” he mocked and Ruli… snorted.

“Mana rich berries are too sweet for me,” she declined. The man, Quiss, popped a few into his mouth.

“They could be deadly,” Ruli said without much concern and Quiss smiled. He patted an amulet on his cufflinks.

“A mage-scout is always prepared,” he said simply. Delta eyed them and saw two tiny glowing symbols or was the symbol made of other symbols? The longer she looked, the more it hurt her head.

“So, mushrooms and webs? We could have a nature dungeon on our hands,” Quiss said as Ruli cut down more webs.

Each cut was like a blow to Delta’s pride.

“Useful, rare game to hunt and plenty of herbs that can bring a man back from death or worse, a hangover,” Ruli agreed and Delta felt a pink blush crawl up her next.

She didn’t have rare herbs… she had-

“The hell in all it’s layers is that?” Ruli asked as one of her Mushy’s flexed in the darkness. Ruli’s eyes seemed to have no trouble spotting it. Delta was sure that was cheating on some level unless it was mixed racial trait, then Delta could only follow them with a drag to her walk.

Delta felt like she was failing all the dungeon tests so far.

“What do you see?” Quiss wondered and his body rested casually on his belt were a holster rested. More fire guns? Just what her Mushy’s needed.

“It looks like a mandrake had a baby with a fungal creeper,” Ruli said bluntly and Quiss paused.

“Is it dangerous?” he asked and Ruli took aim with her knife, it glowed on the edge but the glowing light of the blade only did one thing.

It gave her Mushy a target.

It gurgled and fired. Ruli bent down but Quiss didn’t seem to share her night vision and got hit square in the chest with a full splash of Mushy’s best. He cursed and stumbled back as Ruli threw her knife with an unwavering hand.

Her poor Mushy gagged as the hot blade buried itself in its mouth. It went up in flames. Delta stared.

It hurt to see it wrinkling and turning black. Delta could feel the pain wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it should be, her Mushy feeling more overcooked than in pain. It still didn’t make her happy.

These people had come into her dungeon, tore down her maze, mocked her berries, killed her mushy. Delta was annoyed. She might even say she was angry, but… did that mean she was about to make the return trip for these people hell?

No. Delta couldn’t fault them. What did Delta expect when she left a Mushy in the darkness of the hall?

Petting? Hugs? These people acted logically and with common sense. A mushroom monster with glowing green liquid looking ready to fight. Delta would have run, personally, but for the brave, the course of action was so right that Delta just felt sad at how her visitors must see her dungeon now.

It was frustrating, to be this powerless. Delta so used to time being her foe, not this inability to act.

Delta turned and looked, making sure Quiss was okay. Maybe she could make Hob give them an apple or something… providing they didn’t also shank him.

-----

“Shit, this stuff stings like a bitch,” Quiss groaned as he stood, his shirt soaked and skin turning red where the liquid touched it.

“Come on, I smell water ahead,” Ruli grunted and Quiss snorted at the image of Ruli sniffing the air like a Bloodwolf.

“Sure, let’s go bathe in dungeon water. I didn’t need my legs anyway,” Quiss said with a snark in his voice.

“Shut up, gotta get this gunk cleared off,” Ruli snapped and Quiss could only agree, unknown substances in a dungeon was bad. Almost as bad as finding some in your inn room.

“I dunno what it is about me and nature, first it was the damn bushes and now the mushrooms are out to get me too!” Quiss grumbled as Ruli lead him into the next room.

He stopped talking. He stopped complaining.

“Huh… this… beautiful.” Ruli said casually as the expanse of water reflected the glowing mushrooms like glinting stars.

The room was like a private paradise hidden away from the cruelty of the world. The soft white sand, the errant crabs that scuttled away at their approach. Ruli slowed and peered down.

“Water’s super clear, I ain’t seeing nothing but the usual fish. If there’s a monster down there, its got camo and we’re fucked either way,” she said cheerfully and Quiss just glowered at her. He bent down and used the water to begin to soak his clothes.

What did the dungeon make of them? It had to be watching. Was it furious at the destruction of its monster? Annoyed at him using this wonderful place to clean himself? Maybe it was neither and the trap was about to be sprung on them, the silent assassin monster in the water?

“Ya know… this place ain’t bad. Those glowing mushrooms don’t grow around here, never seen them I mean. The water looks nice. Shame I don’t have my pole,” Ruli admitted. Quiss ignored her.

He was too busy sipping the water.

“Its…. good,” he whispered and opened his sense of taste the world, letting it be more than mere signals to the brain.

Mana rich water. Not simply water created by mana. Quiss took a deep gulp and just felt better. Ruli blinked and took a sip herself.

“Huh, pretty refreshing, what gives?” she directed the question at Quiss and he tried to phrase it in the shortest way possible while not doing his education shame.

“The dungeon made the water good for your body’s mana. Like a super weak mana potion. You could probably float in it for a few hours and feel amazing. This dungeon is pretty creative or powerful,” Quiss said aloud. He could respect fellow workmanship.

Ruli nodded slowly.

“So webs, lots of mushrooms, and water, oh and those goblins that might be around. I think Nature feels good for now. But… I think we can be specific if the old timers need details,” Ruli grinned.

Quiss could only sigh as his skin’s irritation ebbed away.

“Sure… The town of Durence now has a Mushroom Forest Dungeon,” he proclaimed.

It would make a nice catchy title if they ever wanted to advertise the place. Saying it aloud, he was sure even the dungeon core might approve.

---

Delta was screaming and trying to choke the man known as Quiss with her bare hands.

12: The Nature of Give and Take

Delta watched as the two people eyed the dungeon further in and talked quietly to themselves. Quiss had snagged a few of her Lumen Mushrooms from the Pond Cave.

“Eager people die first. We did two rooms; let’s not get greedy and run into something we might not be prepared for,” Ruli said finally and Quiss rolled his tongue against his teeth. He finally nodded after a moment.

“You’re the expert,” Quiss said and Ruli raised one eyebrow doubtfully. She crossed her arms and tapped her knife out of what seemed like a habit.

“Quiss Firesmasher, the man who burned a dragon to death? Right… sure, let me be the expert,” Ruli shrugged and Quiss actually looked annoyed at the comment.

“You know full well that we don’t discuss the past, not mine, not yours, not anyone's,” he warned and Ruli scowled.

“Right… let’s all pretend we can just do that,” she said and pushed past the blond man. Delta was unable to look away from the scene.

Burn a dragon? Talking about the past?

Delta felt like the minor background character compared to these two. Wasn’t she the big new dungeon corey thing? Who were these two?

Ruli and Quiss navigated back to the entrance and Delta felt a twinge of panic. Her human contact was vanishing! Delta was ready to send Francois after them but they both stopped just before the entrance.

“I always feel like an idiot when doing this,” Quiss said aloud and Ruli glared at him.

“Don’t disrespect tradition. Manners never hurt anyone but your ego,” she replied and both of them put an arm across their chest and bowed their heads a little.

“Thank you for the adventure,” they both said, Ruli was louder and clear but Quiss mumbled it.

Delta felt… warm. She didn’t feel any mana rise or DP appear. This was an entirely human emotion. Relief.

Didn't they think she was evil? Quiss wasn’t cursing her existence? Ruli wasn’t spitting at her? Delta wanted to shake their hands or bow back or something!

Delta shivered and from the depths of her dungeon, a warm breeze floated past Quiss and Ruli.

Ruli beamed like she had just been proven right and Quiss scowled harder.

“I think that felt like… acceptance? Appreciation? Hmm… felt like I was right?” Ruli mused and Quiss waved her off.

“It was goblin gas, hot air and superstition,” he turned and walked out. Ruli rolled her red eyes and then peered down the tunnel of Delta’s dungeon.

“Ignore him… you’re pretty decent for a new dungeon. Keep up the good work,” Ruli saluted casually and followed Quiss out through the white barrier. Delta stared at the space.

“Don’t… leave me,” she whispered but they didn’t reappear. Delta must have spent some time just waiting because Hob and Gob appeared sometime later with two buckets filled with things.

“We return, Master!” Hob called and began to empty his bucket. Delta squished her feeling of human isolation down into a tiny hole and attempted to sound cheerful as she inspected the items.

Well… the gobs had gone far it seemed. Even got some interesting new things.

Wyin Tree acorn absorbed!
Rabbit corpse absorbed!
Qarn Swallow egg absorbed!
Black Brambles absorbed!
Old Rope has been absorbed!

Delta rubbed her hands with delight, watching her mana skyrocket.

Having Quiss and Ruli in her dungeon has been enough to push her to mana of 30. These items easily hit 50.

Her max mana with her new rooms on top of her base mana? 55. Delta was slowly but surely surpassing her limits!

Gob shook his bucket and a few tiny black things fell to the ground, they wriggled and burst open. Tiny spiders the size of pennies scuttled about and they all tried to head towards the entrance. Hob growled and stomped one.

Black Forest Spider hatchling absorbed! Upgrades for the Common Spiders have been unlocked!

Hob grumbled as his foot was now covered in green slime. Gob tried to get another but they moved quickly, hissing in harmony at the goblins. Delta blinked, surprised by the angry emotions of the spiders as they escaped.

“Where did you find them?” she asked and Hob looked puzzled.

“Giants webs, thoughts they were berries, not eggs!” he promised and Delta stared at the exit where the hatchlings had scampered out. The babies were about the size of most spiders in her old world.

Delta just had to wonder how big the adults were…and how the heck the two gobs were able to take their egg sacks away so easily.

Were her two gobs that skilled? Or just… lucky?

Feeling uneasy, she hurried to take her now decreasing 65 mana and continued to shake her dungeon about, happy to see her menus had returned.

She moved her Mushroom Grove into a new place. If she was going to be known as a frigging Mushroom Forest, then the people might as well see her grove. She placed it after the mud room and made it so people would have to pass through the grove to reach the goblin camp.

Then she spawned another room between the grove and the goblin camp. As soon as she did so, a menu popped up with a little message.

A max of 5 rooms have been reached. Excluding special rooms, level 1 cannot hold any more core-created rooms.

Delta felt a little… sad. A room limit per floor? It made sense that the first floor of the dungeon was the smallest and easiest in terms of difficulty, but what about end game dungeons? Their first floors were massive!

Well, Delta was pretty sure there was no end game here other than time passing so she guessed it was fair that all dungeons had the same rough floor space. Maybe some dungeons could bypass this limit and Delta wondered if she could down the line.

For now… she took that uneasy feeling of the escaping spiders and channelled it into something she should have done a while ago.

Upgrading.

First was the case of her dead Mushy. It was ash and there was no healing from that. It was going to be super annoying, Delta decided, that if she had to personally respawn every trap and monster each time someone came through.

“No… there has to be a trick,” she decided and flicked through her monster menu, not finding a respawn option. So she tried the construction and rooms.

She found some odd things like she could move things in the room without much cost or how she could attach a sound to a particular room?

Delta had no idea how to make a sound that could be attachable, so she moved on.

Finally, she found something in the goblin camp menu. The formerly ‘Lair’ of her floor.

Lair:

- Remove Goblin Camp upgrade

- Set monster Respawn list (5 monsters for level 1): 5 DP per monster added.

- Set monster respawn rank (rare): (three rare monsters for level 1) 10 DP per rare monster added.

- Monster respawn for contracted monsters: 100 DP per respawn.

Delta felt a little like her eyes might have popped out at the cost to bring back Hob or Gob. If one or, she cringed at the idea, both of them got killed then Delta would be very poor, but very relieved at being able to summon them back.

Delta just decided to not have them die if she could help it.

Still, this menu was the key to everything and she felt a little sheepish that she didn’t question why a Lair was something she could build from the very start. Boss room… self-explanatory, Lair?

A space that respawns her monsters to avoid her, the Core, from micromanaging the whole process. Delta liked it, she liked it a lot.

Considering she had 121 DP points… Delta just wiggled her fingers and filled the slots. Francois and her single Mushy would now respawn roughly around where they died, she hoped. With 45 mana kicking, she created another Mushy… beyond the mudroom and out of the way of the Pond room.

She checked her menus and was pleasantly surprised as she checked the bats and spiders. They did have a respawn feature naturally. Her spiders would take an hour to fully reappear and don't seem to count for her total monster count.

Delta guessed it was because they weren’t really… monsters, just local wildlife imitations. So, she could still add bats if she wanted.

Instead, she created another two goblins, bringing her mana down to 7Theey pair appeared and looked almost exactly the same but one had a little snaggle tooth.

“Welcome to the dungeon,” Delta greeted and both goblins bowed their heads as Hob eyed them, his height making him appear more dangerous than her new gobs. Delta decided she would save the Crayclaws for another level. She wanted her fishing pond to be blood-free.

A place of peace, her little paradise.

Delta registered her new Mushy and Goblins to the lair and it alerted to being unable to respawn any further monsters.

Delta giggled as the goblins chased each other around the dungeon. It was good to have noise in the dungeon that wasn’t mushrooms bursting through soil or spiders hissing at one another.

Speaking of…

Delta sat down and began to browse her menus, eager to see what upgrades she could mess around with now.

---

“I declare the new dungeon to be of fit quality and not of the forbidden type. I also state the dungeon seems very cooperative and even bade us farewell, if legends are to be believed. I further state that we, the town of Durence, may benefit from the resources the dungeon may create,” Quiss said to Elder Pic. Ruli grinned.

“Place was pretty cool,” she added her endless wisdom to Quiss’ report. Pic eyed them, one eye rolling back to go to sleep and the other staring through them as if seeing something not quite of this world.

“Nature eh? A little common but that’s not a bad thing. Mushrooms are interesting. Do you think it will develop in ways to suggest a plague? Gutrots aren’t the most friendly of things and we all know what happens if they catch fire,” he said with a low grumble. Old Lady Jose frowned.

“Dungeon creations may not act the same. It doesn't matter until Seath is done examining them. As the head of ‘Pesky Pests and Disastrous Biology’ he will be able to tell us soon,” she said and Quiss wondered how wise it was to have a man in charge of both benign threats and life ending threats?

A pixie nest did not require Infernal fire from the 67th layer of Abyss but Seath very much used the stuff to do everything from cooking toast to murdering infectious Shadow Beasts. Seath was a very basic man with very little inclination towards learning the meaning of moderation.

“He’ll most likely just suggest fire to be safe,” Quiss pointed out and Jose sighed.

“His cliff notes will be enough. I’ll warn people to use magic lights or crystal lightning lamps. I do not want to cause another Gutrot burning,” she agreed. Pic slid his false teeth about, Quiss idly noted he was using his set made from meteor ore today. Good against scales and ghosts.

“So… what do we tell the king?” Ruli asked casually and the room went quiet.

“We must report a dungeon. Due to the way they inherently increase a kingdom’s wealth, it’d be a crime to do otherwise. However, as soon as we do. The Fairplay company will come, the Guilds will come, the Merchants will come, and…” Jose looked visibly pained by her next words.

“The teenagers with their backstories will come,” she managed and Pic’s teeth fell out of his mouth. Quiss shuddered as Ruli grimaced.

Quiss eyed the report on the desk in front of Jose, one word and it would be ash…

“Well… sadly we can do nothing, the message will arrive when it arrives,” Pic said after putting his teeth back in. Jose hummed.

“Due to our town being so small, we do not have any royal transports or messengers. Our only Peace Keeper just happens to be our only active mage capable of making the journey to the capital and I cannot in good mind risk sending him away. Our monster hunter must guard the dungeon… oh dear, I guess we’ll just have to wait for the next tax collection to pass the message on,” Jose sighed and sipped at a flask.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Ruli was smiling but spoke with a serious tone.

“Would our mage not be able to magic the letter to the capital?” she wondered and Pic smiled.

“Mail via magical means was outlawed,” he informed her. Quiss blinked at him owlishly.

“When?” he asked, outraged. Jose and Pic shared a look.

“Just now.” they both agreed. Quiss stared at them. He cleared his throat and took on a very polite tone.

“What about receiving magical mail?” he asked, his ‘Mad Mage Monthly’ was coming soon. Also his ‘Wicked Witches’ but they didn’t need to know about that.

Jose shrugged.

“Can’t be blamed if someone sends you mail. I myself is waiting on my ‘Hunter’s Digest’ and my calendar to support the cause of failing Knight education. I payed for it after all! Before the law took hold, of course,” Jose nodded. Ruli looked even more wicked as she agreed.

“Not because the calendar has the knights appearing increasingly scantily clad for the viewer each month?” she asked and Jose just gave them both a look that told them that the meeting was over.

Quiss turned without a word, not wanting to wait for Pic to reveal his monthly pleasures.

“Quiss?” Pic called and Quiss’ mentally screamed.

“If this dungeon has any good materials… let me know? I need some new chompers soon… I’ve pushed all my good sets beyond their breaking point,” Pic sighed.

Quiss felt both relieved and concerned. Pic without protective dentures was a problem. He had real teeth, Pic brushed religiously, everyone knew that.

No, the problem was the the man used to be known as Pic ‘The Demon Eater’.

The name was pretty clear in what Pic used to do. Having his teeth exposed might be trouble as Pic chewed on everything without thinking. Quiss himself had lost a 1st edition on heat spells for cooking during a visit from Pic once.

“Yes, Elder Pic,” Quiss bowed his head and left before Jose dropped a fetch quest on his head or worse, an escort request.

Quiss would rather spontaneously combust before he ever did one of those again.

---

Delta smiled as she read over her menus.

Items Purchase:

- Rabbit Haunch: 7 DP

The brambles hasn’t unlocked a new trap by itself. It had said a upgrade has been unlocked for the tripwire trap, however. And brambles by themselves made for a good obstacle.

Trap Purchase:

- Sticky Floor Panel: 9 DP

- Weak Tripwire: 5 DP (Upgrade unlocked upon purchase)

- Falling Rock (Weak): 10 DP/ 10 Mana

- Flame Gout trap: 8 DP

- Stake trap: 10 DP (covered sharpened sticks designed to ruin boots and hurt feet)

The acorn was interesting. It seemed to be added it to the construction menu under a new option.

Construction Purchase:

- Moss: 5 DP
- Brambles: 5 DP
- Small Wyin Sapling: 15 DP

Delta was starting to get excited when things cost a little more than normal. Delta didn’t know what or why the sapling cost so much but she imagined a tree overlooking her pond and didn’t think twice before she bought it.

With havin it purchased, Delta felt a light bulb click on as she remembered she could… get more information on things before she purchased them.

Thankful that no one knew about little slip up, Delta held her finger on the menu.

Small Wyin Sapling: A rare plant that grows in forests. Over time it may become a tree. It is notoriously hard to grow in controlled-conditions. At its current stage, it is known for the ability to be turned into a general antidote for the poisonous creatures that live around it.

Delta was impressed by what Hob and Gob had managed to find by sheer talent, skill, hard work and… maybe luck.

The egg she didn’t seemed to unlock anything yet but shrugged, if the gobs brought her more, she maybe get something. Until then, she could just make the egg.

Qarn Swallow Egg: A egg of the Qarn Swallow. This egg will never hatch due to being created in the dungeon, however, the taste is pretty good.

Delta tried to ignore how she now had bacon(in a sense), eggs, mushrooms, apples… and fish. She was only a few meats short of a full breakfast.

Delta tried to imagine how the poor souls would feel down the line to beat her epic dragon boss and get a hearty breakfast as a reward?

Delta would love it but she could she how people might be miffed.

The rope was some research. Perhaps into her traps? Or maybe she could make some item for people?

Delta looked at her research menu and felt like maybe she should start buying some…

Research Menu:

- Irrigation: Study how to use water more efficiently to reduce the cost of crops that require water. DP 10

- Basic Wooden Equipment: Be able to create weapons or basic armour of wood for loot drops or for Contracted Monsters able to use weapons. 5 DP

- Basic Stone Equipment: Be able to create weapons or basic armour of stone for loot drops or for Contracted Monsters able to use weapons. 15 DP

- Understand the best methods to use rope in various features: 10 DP

Delta shrugged and purchased them all.

Her 81 DP dropped to 41. Delta could’ve stockpile the points and waited until she unlocked some uber epic upgrade but…

That just seemed pointless.

Hob looked confused as as Delta giggled to herself.

Rope research purchased! All traps or constructions using rope and rope itself cost 1 less DP!
Irrigation research purchased! Rooms that grow crops or crop monsters cost 2 less DP for their functions and upgrades.
Basic Wooden Equipment now able to be made!
Basic Stone Equipment now able to be made!

Delta hummed, fingers wiggling as she grew curious..

“Wooden sword!” she called aloud.

Wooden sword added to the item menu! 2 mana!

Delta purchased it and gestured to the space near Hob. She winced as it clonked the goblin on the head and rattled to the ground.

“Master...” Hob groaned and blinked a few times at the object.

“Sword for Hob?” he whispered and picked it up. Delta blinked as the sword shrunk a little in the gobs hands. Her items came in perfect sizes?

Delta smacked herself. Of course they did, otherwise random drops would become hellish.

Did they lose this ability outside her dungeon or did all clothes resize themselves? Delta stared off into space at the mere idea.

No… wrong size clothes.

What heaven was this world? Gob returned and dumped more mushrooms and stones into her dungeon. He cheered and vanished again. Gob was a lot more energetic than Hob was…

Her mana pinged to 12 and held.

Delta wandered off, dazed. Hob charged into the boss room, showing off his new weapon as Delta walked through. Fran grinned and within a few moments had disarmed the gob without much effort.

Delta let them play as she looked at the last thing on her menu that blinked out at her. It wasn’t a new option, it was actually one of her very first ones.

Delta could have messed about with the newest upgrade.

Common Black Spiders: Upgrade Web to be stronger and less flammable. Will still catch fire if new open flame but takes more effort. DP 10

Delta could have given the room of nightmares more power… but she decided she needed to be a little more serious. She went to the Mushy just before her Boss room.

She eyed the option.

Mushroom Spitters: Greater Mushroom(10 Mana) or Myconid(10 Mana)

With some hesitance, Delta hit the button and a new menu appeared.

Greater Mushroom or Myconid?

Delta focused on the Mushy before her and hit Greater Mushroom. The mana left her and the Mushy went rigid before cracks appeared all over it’s body. Then a new body burst forth from the shattered shell of its former self.

The Greater Mushroom was like a Mushy but also very different. Delta knew this description was useless but didn’t care much as she was too busy screaming at the writhing form before her.

She fled to the end of the tunnel. She stared back as the monster, a good two foot taller than her old Mushy, stared back. Mushy looked like a giant mushroom with beady eyes and a maw with acid inside.

A Greater Mushroom was like that but someone decided it wasn’t scary enough and made the spongy skin dark red, the small beady eyes large narrow glaring holes, the mouth now having actual teeth and the light green acid was now a bubbling dark green liquid that hissed in the open air.

Oh and it now have thorny tentacles it was using to feel about in the dark.

Delta peeked around the corner and the Mushy… no it wasn’t just a Mushy. This was something else.

It was Great Mushy.

Delta knew she should have gone with the spiders… or wait… would they have gotten more evil as well?

Delta felt conflicted and fled to her core room, screeching past the Great Mushy who looked confused.

In her Core room, she slid down the closed door and sighed. She opened her eyes and began to scream again.

On her stone platform, on all four corners of the thing was four giant stone mushrooms.

Her menu opened up with a little cheery ring as if trying to surprise her.

Due to the Core’s love of Mushrooms, the Mushroom Grove, the Development of two or more Mushrooms and earning the title ‘Mushroom Forest Dungeon’ to 5 or more people, and evolving one Mushroom monster, you have gained the free Mushroom Statue Decoration item for your Core room!

Delta got up and ran with a blood-curdling battle cry at the menu which promptly ran away from her, the thing ringing in alarmed panic.

---

The spiders moved into the forest, new and fresh, the only goal was to return... return to the Queen.

---

13: Hook, Line, Sinker

Delta edged closer to the Great Mushy. It danced back and forth as if still unsure of its new shape and size.

She was just going to touch it and walk away. Delta could do that much, just one little touch. Closer and closer, Delta neared the death plant. With trembling fingers, Delta reached out.

This was silly, she was the Dungeon Core. She shouldn’t be afraid of over half the things she made. The Great Mushy gargled its acid and Delta turned and fled. Screw it, she’ll grow a spine later.

Grumbling, she stalked down past the spider room and praying to whoever was listening, purchased the spider upgrade. She peeked around the corner as Mana rose.

The Spiders shivered and a little white line appeared around their butt parts and that was it. Delta cheered and watched as the new web coming out of the spiders seemed to be more silvery than white. The little bead points where the webs connected was pretty. Like snowflakes caught on the web.

Delta hoped that people would like the web if nothing else. The woman, Ruli, seemed pleased with the normal web so this should be good, right?

Delta pondered what else she could do and floated down the hall. For the first time in forever, her DP was only at a lowly 31. Heading into the grove, she peered around and then opened the menu.

Grove upgrades:

- Have Edible Mushrooms grow on their own in this room. 5 DP

- Have Lumen Mushrooms grow on their own in this room. 5 DP

It was a nice touch, she could just have some unknown number of mushrooms she created spawn on their own over time.

- Develop

- Develop mushrooms with weak hallucinogenic properties: 6 DP

- Develop mushrooms with deadlier poison: 49 DP

Her previous purchases hadn’t unlocked more and Delta would be damned before helped the Gutrot evolve past their annoying existence into a true threat. The other Mushroom felt interesting in an I-really-shouldn’t kind of way.

Scrolling, Delta wondered what she would have to do to unlock better mushrooms that didn’t make her want to scream?

Just because she had a vendetta against the things didn’t mean she wanted the people outside to miss out on a potential life changer. Delta wasn’t that petty.

Thinking, she looked around at the mulch and soil. Her finger hovered over the Wyin plant at 15 DP.

That would leave her… 16 DP, which was more than enough to evolve one of her goblins. Delta pondered the options. The plant could potentially give antidotes and maybe by being near the poisonous mushrooms, it would produce better antidotes?

Medicine was never a wrong choice when it came from non-harmful testing. Evolving one of her goblins?

It would have to be one of the new pair she had made, possibly Francois. Hob and Gob were rares and seemed to work on another system entirely. Delta again, sticking to her code, asked why she wanted to evolve the goblins.

First, as friendly as she wanted to be, she couldn’t put her safety in the hands of strangers. Having more power if she needed it was just being sensible. Delta didn’t know anything about this world. Who ruled it? What was the dungeon laws? How could Delta make sure she wasn’t invaded and used like a magical vending machine until she went insane?

Evolve some firepower. She felt a little bit unsure about it however. What if evolving monsters made her dungeon appear as dangerous? There was no answer. When there was no answer to be had, Delta did what she always did and decided to play it by ear.

One step at a time.

She placed the plant in a small clearing, partially hidden by the large mushrooms in the grove.

The plant appeared from the ground, growing in a sped-up fashion until three healthy green leafs flopped out from the stem.

It was a pretty normal plant beside the odd yellow stem. Delta jumped as the Ornery Boar of the Grove walked past and sniffed at the new addition. The mushroom-loving pig dismissed it and it walked off., it quickly blended in between the fungi and vanished from sight.

Delta knew where it was but it was still surprising to see how easily it disappeared from view. Delta opened the menu but no option to have the plant respawn appeared. She frowned as she moved on.

The Mushroom Grove must be fine-tuned to the mushrooms only. She would have to figure out a way to keep the plant respawning. As a 12 mana summon, it wasn’t cheap.

Delta was about to move over to Francois to begin his evolution.

That was when the menus all vanished and that feeling returned. Delta spun and was at the entrance a moment later. Her heart fluttered with excitement as Ruli appeared whistling. Over one shoulder was a fishing rod. Her black hair looked tied up and her fur jacket seemed replaced by a simple shirt. In her other hand was a large burlap sack.

“Hey, Dungeon! Sorry to be back so soon and stuff. Hope you weren’t busy. I came to fish and I bought a little gift for being here and not… ya know, adventuring,” Ruli said loudly and she dropped the sack down and left the dungeon for a moment.

Delta was stunned. Tribute? Ruli knew her menus didn’t work?

The sack melted as soon as Ruli was out of the dungeon.

Bent Fork has been absorbed!
Leather Boot with hole has been absorbed!
Tiny wax candle has been absorbed!
Soaked Red Diary has been absorbed!
Cracked Arrow has been absorbed!

This was… Delta coughed and tried not to feel confused as Ruli basically fed Delta her trash.

It was super useful and Delta was sure her menus were going to be amazing after this but still… this was… a little rude. Ruli came back in.

“So, I loved that fork, saved me from a Not-Quite-Direwolf. The Leather boot was good but I lost the other one during a trek into the Domundo Swamp that was filled with these gators like you would not believe!” Ruli said brightly and started to walk down the tunnel.

Delta followed, ogling the strange woman who was just talking to thin air as far Delta could understand her existence.

“The candle was the last of a 100 or so. Saved my life in a cave spelunking accident. Diary is kinda sad for me, lost a lot of good memories when that asshat Quiss soaked me with rainwater. You can have it, maybe you can read it. I hear that some Dungeons can do that, take books and spit out perfect copies of things in the book,” Ruli kept talking and paused as she entered the spider room.

“Damn, you work fast,” Ruli called and eyed the new web forming in the room.

“T-thank you!” Delta said, feeling horrible about her comments towards Ruli’s tributes. Ruli didn’t hear her but she moved on.

She readied her knife and then stopped as she saw the Mushy hadn’t returned.

“Sorry about that, hope that monster doesn’t set you too far back,” Ruli said with an easy smile. Delta wanted to hug this strange woman and never let her leave.

Human contact, it was like water when Delta didn’t know she was so thirsty. The lack of proper contact was driving her mad.

“Eh… kinda curious. Mind if I go take a look down the hall?” Ruli asked the wall, despite Delta being behind her.

“Sure, just watch out, there's mud and you have nice hair!” Delta waved in panic. Ruli took a stroll down and that was when Delta saw that since her rooms had no doors, Ruli could just peek in and whistle.

“Nice! I have got to make Quiss do this,” She grinned as she pushed her fishing pole handle into the mud and looked surprised.

“Huh,” Ruli commented and turned back around.

“Not to be rude but you forgot the rocks or spikes or something,” Ruli said with good nature. Delta felt a blush coming on.

“No… dangers,” she twiddled her fingers together as she mumbled. Ruli whistled as she headed back towards the Pond. This one-sided conversation was driving her mad.

Delta thought about it and rushed over to Hob who was sitting in the camp.

“Hob, I need your help!” she called and the goblin stood to attention, his sword at his side.

“Orders, master?” he asked and Delta directed him down the hall. If she couldn’t speak directly to Ruli… then she used a damn mouthpiece to do it. Hob looked at the mud room and his face scrunched up as he took the first jump.

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“Left, then right then left then forward,” Delta groaned as Hob tumbled into the mud with a splat. He always mixed up the last bit going out.

Thankfully, the wall had little hand holes to climb out on both sides.

Hob crawled out and he dragged mud along the tunnel.

Delta peered in and saw Ruli setting up her little wooden stool she had in an odd back pack.

“No, do not attack or scream!” Delta warned and Hob looked like Delta had just cancelled Christmas or Gobsmas…

“Now repeat after me,” Delta began.

-----

Ruli was in a good mood. The meeting was over, Quiss skulked off somewhere and Ruli was fishing. A good way to end the day in her opinion. It would take something spectacular to ruin her mood now.

“Oi,” something spectacular spoke from behind her.

Ruli had already turned, knife in hand.

The sight of a stinking, mud-covered, gob with his hands up was not a sight she was accustomed to. Gobs screamed and attacked, there really wasn’t much else to the basic ones.

This one held her gaze and kept his hands up in surrendered.

“..I come… with words,” it said and Ruli raised one brow in surprise but her aim never faltered.

“I am… Delta. Dungeon Core,” the gob repeated carefully and this time Ruli’s aim did slip.

“What did you say gob?” she asked, almost spitting the question and the little green fella snarled and almost rose to her bait. Mud spattered as he moved but he stopped when he visibly flinched at something.

“I am gob, in… servus to Delta. Delta is core,” the gov said, mouth working awkwardly around big words. Ruli wanted to disagree on principle but decided not to shank the gob for another minute.

What if it was right? The dungeon was communicating and Ruli would be shooting the messenger or stabbing it.

“Mastah...comes you to...dungeon. Mastah tanks you for gives,” the goblin became more confident, and sadly, worse with his words. A mud-covered Gob looking proud as he completely butchered his words was not something Ruli was comfortable with.

“Thank you… Delta?” she repeated and the gob nodded.

“Mastah has que...qoo...is confoosed,” he tried to interpret what the dungeon was telling him.

“Questions?” Ruli said, holding her knife very tightly. The gob nodded and Ruli hesitated. This was not normal. Dungeons talking to people was recorded and known to happen. Those dungeons happened to be +50 floor behemoths with cores the size of boulders and the intellect to match.

Then again… Quiss and herself never checked to see the floors. Quiss sounded so sure it was new and if he had been wrong and this entrance was some new power of the dungeon and they were all sitting on a world wonder?

“Ask your questions dungeon but answer me this. So I know the gob isn’t tricking me. What is 4+4-5?” Ruli called and after a moment the gob blinked.

“Tree,” it answered smugly. Well, Ruli couldn’t argue with that.

“Dungeon Core Delta, I am pleased to meet you,” Ruli said clearly and slowly. There was no telling what state of development the Core was at. Ruli would just have to be calm and honest. This also meant that she could hold this over Quiss. Ruli just knew the dungeon could hear her. It probably decided to reveal itself after Ruli’s tribute and friendly talk.

Some dungeons were like animals, sensing intentions, not caring for words. Some dungeons might only take people at word value, dismissing context, sarcasm and humor. The Core Castorm was known to like a good joke.

“Do mans… lie dungeons?” the gob asked and Ruli blinked at the question. Did people like dungeons?

Jeez, talk about a hard question. Ruli decided to take the human away and focus on the trouble came from dungeons alone.

“Yeah, almost always. Some dungeons can be bad. But we think you’re good,” Ruli said slowly and wondered what Quiss would do if he was here.

“Yes, well done you can talk, now leave me alone to fish!”

Yeah, this was better left in Ruli’s tender care.

“Wats bad?” the gob itched his large nose and Ruli shrugged.

“If you make things that make people sick. Illness or viruses or if you… well, it’s hard to explain but if you go insane, you know what that is?” Ruli hoped and the gob listened.

Then he nodded.

“Act not right,” the gob translated. Ruli sighed with relief. It was honestly scary how fast this dungeon was understanding her if it was new. Ruli thought back to the many dungeons she had been in before and knew this wasn’t like that. This dungeon had something none of those had.

“Dungeon core Delta-” she began and the Gob cleared his throat.

“Mastah said… you call Delta,” he added sourly as if he really hoped Ruli would say no. Which definitely made Ruli agree.

“Delta… how many levels do you have?” she asked and then spoke quickly as the gob opened his mouth.

“If you don’t mind telling me?” she smiled and the gob shrugged and held up one clawed finger.

Just… one level. Delta… this dungeon core was out thinking cores several times her size with one level. That was… so far from any dungeon stats she knew and Ruli knew a lot about dungeons.

This dungeon just went from odd to a little scary. Ruli felt sweat gather on her forehead and felt stupid. She had faced down beasts that would chew up everything in here like nothing. Ruli took a breath and then asked another question.

“Do you know that most dungeons don’t talk until they have 20 or so floors?” she pushed the fact out there and the gob looked up at the ceiling as if waiting.

The time stretched on and the goblin looked a little nervous before he sighed with relief and then spoke.

“No. Mastah only...know this dungeon,” the gob shrugged and Ruli nodded, that made sense. Delta most likely knew how special it was.

“Boy or girl or other?” Ruli suddenly asked, deciding she needed pronouns. It might be too much for the core to fully grasp gender just yet and that was-

“Gurl,” the gob said with a confused tone. Ruli blinked and then nodded.

She decided she would let Delta talk.

“Mastah asks… ifs mans will end her?” the gob growled the question out and Ruli was pretty sure she had just told the Core that people liked a dungeon in its uses…

The gob listened some more.

“If mastah mades gobs... big gobs?” it added on and Ruli clicked her mouth shut and tried to translate that in her head.

Goblins into big goblins? Like thugs or shamans? Like evolution? Ruli repeated the word out loud and the gob nodded enthusiastically and Ruli just grinned.

“Sister, we’re counting on it. Dungeons grow so we kinda expect to see new monsters soon but to be honest your dungeon isn’t that hard, you need traps and stuff,” Ruli said in a care-free voice and the gob winced. It looked a little lost for words but after a moment, repeated Dungeon Core Delta’s edict.

“Mastah no want kill. Mastah no want defh,” the goblin whispered.

Delta didn’t want to kill. Delta didn’t want death in her dungeon.

Ruli inhaled and for once in her life, she felt speechless.

Ruli tried to think what the world would do if they learned of Delta, the Pacifist Dungeon and she gripped her fishing rod so hard, she heard the wood creak.

The Fairplay Company… the Guilds… the Merchants… the Teenagers… and the monsters.

Delta would be devoured and turned into a quivering shell as this world used her. Ruli dropped her fishing rod and looked at the gob.

“Delta… please. Don’t trust humans. This world, we humans, enslave dungeons for profit. You will be gouged out and built around by people who see this wonderful place as nothing but numbers and loot drops. You can’t...not kill,” Ruli pleaded and the gob shuddered suddenly.

“Mus… be way?” the gob almost sounded… human for a moment.

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of a dungeon that cared about life enough to try,” Ruli admitted and the gob looked up.

“Mastah… you make sad sounds,” he called and Ruli watched as the goblin looked at her and ran away.

Ruli felt like she had one over Quiss and really didn’t care for it much.

This was worse than she thought. Way worse. Ruli felt like a piece of garbage that didn’t even deserve to be eaten by the dungeon.

She needed someone who could think, someone who was an asshole and could ignore hurting a dungeon’s feelings long enough to help it, and she needed someone who didn’t do anything important to do or have too much pride for her to bully them into doing it.

Ruli needed Quiss.

14: Conviction

Delta sat quietly as Quiss stalked about the Pond room as Ruli snapped questions at him. She hugged her knees, lacking any sort of physical limbs it was mostly for the feeling really. Delta’s mood could be summed up as somewhat… not good.

Ruli’s words swam about in her head over and over but Delta just waited as Quiss argued with Francois. Delta wasn’t sure if she felt so happy to have people so close now. Ruli’s message seemed pretty blunt in what Delta would have to do. Not because she was manic but because people would come for her and if Ruli’s tone had been any indication…

Delta didn’t want to be a murderer, not even by proxy. Delta also didn’t want a life of pain and misery.

The coin flipped endlessly in the air, one side being death for people, the other death for Delta.

It would spin for now but Delta felt her mood darken as she knew it wouldn’t last forever.

The only upside was that her Mana was nearly full. That was pretty interesting, and she wondered how fast her mana regen would be if her dungeon was full of people.

She relayed this question to the two guests with Francois’ help.

“It depends. A Mage like myself or a decent hunter like Ruli would provide ample mana due to her natural stores. We both possess a decent share, mine is naturally higher of course. An average farmer would give you but a fraction of that. It’s natural evolution and competition between people and dungeons, you see? People become stronger over time and produce more mana. They grow bored of weak dungeons and move on to stronger dungeons where their strength is challenged and the dungeon that needs more mana receives stronger sources of mana to draw upon,” Quiss sniffed. Ruli rolled her eyes.

“Don’t let nerds like Quiss fool ya, we can’t actually measure how much mana people have. Dungeons can be done with guessing and time... People? Just a general estimate. Still, the mage that can cast 20 fireballs compared to the guy that managed a 100 can also give you a decent idea instead of wasting time calculating stars, runes, souls and all that hubbub for a rough ‘Mana Point’ count,” Ruli sniggered and Quiss hesitated and then agreed.

“Mana points are a flux system for the Calculators,” Quiss said dryly and Delta was absorbing all of this with great interest.

“Kaklotors?” her goblin managed and Quiss’ face became pained. Ruli snorted at the attempt butt Francois showed no signs of shame at his words.

“Calculators are, how do we say, obsessed with numbers. They can generally form in most professions that fit into the realm of dungeon adventurers but you see them with a lot of Clerics, Mages, and Rangers…” Quiss mumbled and Ruli eyed the goblin.

“Doesn’t matter how good a weapon served you, doesn’t matter how many times a shield got you through a dungeon, doesn’t matter if your spell stone was a gift from a dear friend, Calcs will toss it all away at the slightest chance of more power. The shield that may be slightly better made or the enchanted sword that looks better? Calcs will talk shit and explain why it’s ‘logical’ or ‘just the sane thing to do’ to just dump good pieces of gear that can still serve you. Its greed plain and simple,” Ruli looked like she wanted to spit but held back out of respect.

“It's efficient, I cannot deny that, but its callous too. I admit that I have some bad habits in common with them but the nature of these people have become infamous to a degree that the name ‘Calculators’ is often in the same sentence as pretty foul curse words,” Quiss paused and looked down at Francois.

“Is it fine? Its drooling,” he asked not sounding at all concerned as Francois’s eyes were blank as he stared at Quiss. Ruli wiped her own mouth and yawned.

“Nah, you just drone on,” Ruli snipped at Quiss. Delta giggled and blinked in surprise as her bad mood ebbed away slightly as the two talked. Francois heard her and danced slightly.

“Drone! Drone!” he cackled and Quiss looked like he had just swallowed a lemon. Delta snorted and couldn’t help the fits of giggles that kept coming. Ruli looked around as if feeling something.

Quiss looked annoyed.

“This is going to take too long. I cannot honestly help Dungeon Core Delta sometime in this life if her translator is at the reading level of one Haldi’s cheeses. Actually thinking about it, Haldi’s cheeses might be better from what I have seen.” Quiss retorted exasperated. Francois sniffed, tasting the words and not liking them much.

“Well, as far as I know. There’s no Gob shaman here,” Ruli stretched and Delta paused and opened her menu.

Goblins: Evolve into Goblin thug (5 Mana and 2 DP) or Goblin archer (5 mana and 2 DP) or Goblin Apprentice (5 Mana and 2 DP) Price per goblin.

Well… there was no shaman but there was a goblin apprentice. What exactly was that?

Goblin Apprentice: A goblin who has been ‘educated’ in the basics of magic and is a little smarter than the average goblin. Tends to set things on fire if not careful.

Delta wondered if that would help things on her end by upgrading the goblin. Francois… took some time but in the end, he managed to convey Delta’s wishes. Quiss and Ruli shared a look and then left the dungeon, both rather quiet.

Delta’s menus appeared the moment the last flutter of Quiss’ coat left the entrance. Delta purchased the upgrade while focusing on Francois. Unlike the Mushy, her goblin simply sat down heavily and closed his eyes.

Then… Delta waited.

Her Mushy had been almost instantaneously but her Goblin seemed to be taking some time. This raised a simple question. If her monsters evolved and adventures came in, what would happen?

Delta had a fleeting image of her monster mid-evolution and some creep killing the poor gob while it was defenceless. Delta was almost confident that she didn’t possess a ‘B’ button to spare her monster from such a fate. Delta moved over to the entrance and slowed as the barrier appeared.

Instead of white and cloudy, this barrier was orange.

That was new, abruptly the orange faded to white. Quiss and Ruli walked back in as if the orange barrier was not such a strange sight.

Delta zoomed back to Francois and saw him climbing to his feet. Her goblin looked… different.

The gnarled staff he held in one hand looked like it was roughly carved and still had small branches, stems and leaves on it. The loincloth and rock bag were replaced by a small robe, almost like a wrinkled poncho. Delta stared as the tiny circlet made of fangs and shiny stones rustled as Francois moved his head.

He opened his eyes and a glimmer of her normal gob showed but it felt… more focused somehow.

“Master,” he greeted as if feeling her approach. His voice was less squeaky and even slightly gruff. Quiss walked in with Ruli trailing behind.

“And now the gobs have magic. As if I didn’t need a reason to dislike them more,” Quiss said without any hint of shame. Francois snorted.

“Man had magic for long time. Not seem any better,” Francois fired back and Ruli chuckled.

“Oh look, it’s Goblin-Quiss,” she guffawed and Francois and Quiss snapped their heads to her, their faces did actually have the same look.

“Go get eaten by a bear,” Quiss replied eloquently. Delta moved about and nodded as she approved of her monsters appearance.

“You look good!” Delta praised and Francois bowed his head.

“Master is kind. I am happy to serve,” his voice lost the gruffness and Delta felt happy as Francois’ tone became warmer. Her goblin still liked her despite having cool magic!

As everyone got comfortable, Delta reminded herself to check her menus about monster summoning. She kept forgetting to check before but Delta really needed to see if she could summon evolved forms of her monsters or not.

It’d save time.

“Now, let’s see if I can make sense of why you’re so against living,” Quiss called as he sat down on the ground with little regard to his trousers.

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Delta tried to ignore Francois’ staff as it glowed red at the tip.

Delta was too busy focusing on how little Quiss seemed to be worried about pissing off her new magic using goblin.

----

If that Goblin hit him with a fireball, Quiss would regret his cavalier attitude. Sure, it wouldn’t kill him but Quiss was partial to his hair.

The goblin seemed to fume before it sulked. Goblins may evolve but they seemed to keep the same spectrum of emotions pretty consistently.

“Master wishes not to be a killer,” the gob said and Quiss sent a little thanks to the Core, Delta, for upping the number of vowels this goblin knew. It was less likely to make him cry or drown Ruli every time she smiled at his annoyance.

“I get that but she must understand that the choice may not be so easily made. Our village can stall the news but people will detect a new dungeon that is growing as fast your Master’s,” Quiss said and lifted a fist full of sand and dropped it slowly.

“I do… greatly respect her choice and understand her reasons. To be born and decide not to want to just kill is a sign of a very intelligent woman,” Quiss added as an afterthought. The goblin slowly nodded.

“Why must you tell?” the question came and Quiss drew a crown in the sand.

“It’s the law. Dungeons, if left unreported, can grow beyond a town’s means to contain or control if things go bad. The Kingdom of Verluan, the land on which this dungeon and our town is, passed an ancient law that dungeons must be recorded and made public. This was to prevent potential rebels or usurpers from harnessing the power of a dungeon to fuel their armies in secret,” Quiss scratched his nose.

History was a minor hobby of his. He liked reading about stupid people and how they met their end.

This type of throne take-over happened three times. A lost prince was driven off in the dead of the night as some ugly uncle or aunt stole the throne and the child returned 10 years down the line with an army of twinked out knights and mercenaries wielding +6 heatblades or chugging Greater healing potions all night. One Queen wised up down the line and made the law that all dungeons must be reported and Mana experts were employed as taxmen and sent around the kingdom to sniff out hidden dungeons. And well… to collect taxes of course.

The discovery of the dungeon cult of Bunyip was still talked about today.

“Master wants to know what legal rights do Dungeons have?” the gob asked and Ruli thought about it.

“Dungeon Core destruction carries a life sentence. Unless the dungeon is forbidden then it’s a duty to destroy it. Uh… building around a dungeon other than structures considered ‘outposts’ is illegal unless the mayor of nearest town gives permission unless there is no town within a mile,” Ruli listed with her fingers. Quiss wasn’t sure if Ruli was trying to be polite so decided to help her out.

“They don’t have any, is what she’s trying to say without hurting your master’s feelings. Dungeons are seen as golems or techlems. Subservient, like dangerous monsters people keep around due to their rare properties or as status symbols. You have no privacy rights, you have no right to a court of law, you have no right to demand protection, you have no right to holidays, you hav- Listen, this world sees dungeons as factories for food, minerals, materials, monster harvesting, magic weapons developers, and so on,” Quiss’ tone had turned bitter.

He didn’t like telling a dungeon that seemed to be so undungeony that it made him feel guilty as he listed how, to humans, she was a beast. Livestock to be fed winter after winter for springtime returns. Delta made old thoughts Quiss had put to peace or didn’t really want to think about, bubble up and he found himself growing annoyed.

“So, you see, you might as well get on the level with your brothers and sisters. Build some spikes, make your monsters dangerous and accept that people are assholes and deserve it if they bother you,” Quiss snapped and Ruli shot him a dangerous look.

The Pond was quiet. Quiss felt his usual indifference settle in as he got ready for the dungeon getting angry or asking him to leave. He had done what Ruli had asked and told the Dungeon what she needed to hear.

Being a dungeon sucked and Quiss couldn’t imagine ever wanting to share their shoes. Murder machines or slaves. What a cruel fate-

“No. Master politely says that is giant load of troll dung.”

Quiss’ indifference was not prepared for a flat disagreement.

“Delta… I hate to be an ass twice in one minute but you have to unders-” Quiss began but the goblin just cut him off.

“No, you will understand. My Master says this. I will not kill. I will not be scared into killing. I will survive and keep my self. If you do not believe, Master says that is fine and thanks you for concern. Master will not lay down and die if people come for her. She had boss room, she had scary things. Master also wants to say she will stick to her goal. A… no-innocent kill run?” the gob stumbled over the last part.

Quiss was speechless. It was… not just the goblin. It was the very air itself that seemed to pulse.

“Master will make rules. Master will warn. Master will give chances to run. Personally, I think Master is too kind,” the goblin examined his staff with interest.

He listened and then appeared to sigh.

“Master wants dungeon to be place of wonder and adventure. This is Dungeon of Life and Learning,” the goblin seemed to listen for a while.

Quiss followed his gaze to a section of the wall. Nothing there but who knows what the beings of this dungeon saw compared to the outside world.

“Well… if you want to try. I can help,” Ruli shrugged and Quiss shot her a disapproving look.

“How will she grow if she doesn’t kill?” Quiss reminded her and the goblin snorted.

“You think dungeon is free? Master… no… little trinkets? Goodwill!” The goblin seemed to cackle.

Ruli just raised one brow.

“An entry fee? Uh… I don’t think people will like that,” Ruli said carefully and the goblin looked at her and smiled.

Quiss felt a little chill go down his spine at the look.

“Good then mans will think carefully about being stupid,” he hissed. He looked back at the wall then nodded.

“Come, Master wishes to show you her domain. I shall guide you and you give master hints,” the gob moved forward, using his staff like a walking stick in a novice manner.

“Come into my web, said the spider,” Quiss muttered and Ruli slapped him on the back.

“Don’t be silly, Quiss, we already went past the spiders!” she said cheerfully. Quiss disliked her, he disliked the goblin, he... felt uneasy about Delta's decision, and why did he not like the look on Ruli’s face as she walked slowly behind him as he approached some wet smelling room?

“You know? I think you need something for your skin,” Ruli said innocently and Quiss gripped his sun crystal gun.

“Oh?” he answered without much excitement.

“Yeah, ever had a mud bath? I hear they do wonders…” Ruli almost whispered in his hear.

Quiss hated everything as he saw the room ahead, he tried to move but Ruli, while weaker in magic and intellect, was his superior in the physical department.

He hit the mud with a splat and stood up slowly wiping the gunk from his eyes.

“Master said she has no towels. Go back to pond please, no mud in tunnels ahead,” the gob called, sounding as if he had learned this phrase by heart.

Quiss felt the fireball spell form on his lips and with force of will changed it at the last second. A confused duck appeared next to him and then quacked furiously at him. It wasn’t the first time Quiss had summoned this particular duck to avoid losing his temper.

“So, what do you think about Delta’s trap room?” Ruli asked with a sugar sweet voice above him. He almost threw the duck at her.

The fireballs spell came so naturally to him that he often miscast it to the summon duck spell to avoid removing the annoyances in his life. And when he finally made it to the ‘Grove’ passing another of the strange acid spitting mushrooms on the way that did not attack but gave him the old stink eye. He knew it would not be the last.

15: Delta Ducks

Delta waved at her… guests? Visitors? As Ruli and Quiss left the dungeon, Delta got as close to the barrier as she could.

While sad to see them go, Delta did feel better. Her menus popped up and she nodded with determination. Delta didn’t have a clear goal right now but she did have something to aim for. People would come for her, ones who simply wanted to experience the thrills of a new dungeon and those who sought to ransack her for everything she had.

So, Delta needed to make it so she got the most out of people’s visit while not letting them get very far, and hopefully not die either.

Delta needed to build herself a stall deck and play her best cards on the first few turns.

She opened her menu and eyed the notifications that had been waiting for her from Ruli’s tributes. Delta liked Ruli, the tall fierce woman had a talent for calming Delta, despite the fact neither could talk to the other properly.

Quiss was funny. Watching him get annoyed at her Grove and her Mushys was funny. His reaction to the Greater Mushy?

That had been slightly more alarming when Quiss looked ready to unleash fire from his hands. Magic, she hadn’t actually seen any before now!

Delta was a little worried but her dungeon wide ‘cease’ command meant that the all her monsters had left the two humans alone. Handy that.

Watching Ruli lift up thorny tentacles and poke the monster made Delta’s heart jump to her throat. Ruli just laughed off the hissing and faux snaps. The woman was treating her evil mushroom like a cool bug she just found.

Quiss has just stormed past, a string of ducks following him like some sort of Duck king. The Boss room did have a door with a menacing pig motif and everything, Delta had just learned to ignore floating through it. The angry pig’s eyes on the metal door glowed red and a line appeared down the middle making the door split open vertically as the two sides slid into the wall with a rumble.

“Arena style, not too bad for a first level,” Quiss had said and Ruli looked ready to drool, licking her lips, at the size of Bacon as he appeared with Fran in the saddle.

Delta was worried but the Fran just looked sullen as he wasn’t allowed to fight the two guests.

“Are they a combined unit?” Quiss had asked curiously and Delta could only answer as she thought of her menu.

“Sir Fran is Bacon,” was all she could really say.

They had both declined to enter her core room. A part of Delta was glad but another was just confused.

“To enter the Core room without tribute or prayer is heavily frowned on by respected Adventurers. Usually, in a new dungeon when you beat a boss, you warp out, find a teleporter or just hoof it back. Entering the Core room otherwise shows that you might have plans for the core. Quite a few bits of magic crap can be used on cores. I think the most famous is the Mana drain spell. Old mages that can’t get their wands up anymore go and pinch it from Cores,” Ruli said annoyed and Quiss looked away.

“Dungeons do provide ample mana. A bill passed said that a core can only be drained every three days with proper permission…” he said quietly.

Delta guessed she should be happy there was a three-day limit and mages only needed to get some papers stamped.

Delta shivered, thinking of some powerful mage or witch coming in and touching her Core, taking her Mana that she earned and needed… because the magic users didn’t see Delta as anything but a battery.

This world kinda sucked. But it had Ruli, Fran, Quiss, her Pond, and the gob brothers! Delta kept them in mind as she looked at her menus.

Common Metal elements added to Purchase and Upgrade menus!
Durable Leather has been added to menus!
Wax has been added to menus!
Ink has been added to menus!
Feathers added to menu!

Delta had noticed something else, well, a few other things.

Her Mana had maxed out with Quiss and Ruli’s visit. But it didn’t exceed the limit at all, that was something new. Ambient mana leech only filled her up, not topped her past her max. Delta could accept that.

Another thing was that two monsters appeared on her summon list.

Greater Mushroom: 25 Mana
Goblin Apprentice: 18 Mana

Delta could just outright buy her upgraded monsters but the cost alone left Delta a little wide-eyed. It cost more to buy one 2nd form than the summoning and upgrade cost of a brand new level 1.

Delta guessed that would be fair. If the second form was cheap, it would make her first forms pointless to experiment with purely due to the costs and numbers involved.

Good thing, Delta didn’t use numbers as a way to live her life as much as she did her gut feeling.

With some stretching, she eyed her 52 DP and 55 Mana. Delta was running on a full tank and she couldn’t wait to get started on some of the tips Quiss and Ruli had given her.

Quiss’ advice was mostly to just upgrade her boss and hope for the best, he really did seem doubtful about Delta’s life choices. Ruli was a bit more excited. She had never helped a dungeon improve its creativity and Ruli doubted many people had.

Already, that fact alone made Delta steam ahead with her plans with a big smile.

With some references to her menus, Delta and Ruli quickly devised several ideas Delta could try.

First up…

Delta purchased the Weak Tripwire trap.

Weak Tripwire Trap: A small thin piece of thread that is pulled tight and makes an adventure trip. Can be combined with or linked to other traps.

Delta knew that without wanting to create anything overly lethal, these things did seem useless to her right now but Ruli had a really good idea. Delta moved into her spider room and set the trap. From one side of the room to the other a single trip wire near the floor appeared, only briefly disturbing the webs with a small movement.

If people wanted to farm her webs then they would have to be careful or they would end up wearing it.

Just in case, she commanded the spiders to run if their webs got torn down. With a little thinking, she shifted the room slightly on all the walls.

It only cost 2 mana but now all the walls had tiny little holes where the spiders could flee into so they didn’t have to die if they couldn’t outrun people.

With a grin, she eyed her little berry bush.

Curious, she held a finger to it, not using her menus.

Rence Berry Bush

- Upgrade Berries to be better and give off a nice aroma: 2 DP

- Upgrade Bush to grow berries faster when berries are harvested: 4 DP

- Upgrade Bush to grow poisonous berries as well: 5 DP

- Upgrade Bush so [Common Silverspinners] may produce dyed web [Red]: 10 DP *Rence Bush will lose ability if removed from close vicinity of Spiders

Delta did a little dance at the sheer options that one object had. Her Berry bush could be useful! She tapped the simple aroma upgrade and watched as the red berries became a little bit darker in colour. Delta sniffed and sure enough, there was that slightly sweet smell in the air. Curious, she walked to the entrance and could just barely... smell the berries.

Delta’s urge to make the ultimate bush of S-rank Berries in the very first room rose in a huge wave but Delta managed to resist. She zoomed to the pond and to be honest, neither Quiss or Ruli had any complaints about this little place but Delta had seen a few things that gave her ideas on what to add that could be some nice touches.

“Uh… how to phrase this… Stone big enough to sit on?” Delta called and the menu took a few seconds.

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Stone shaped seats?

Delta shook her head.

“No, like natural looking rocks you might sit on in the wild,” she clarified and the menu hummed for a second.

Small boulders with slightly flat tops?

“Uh sure, a bit mouthy so let's just go with comfy rock seats,” she suggested and watched as a blueprint formed.

Comfy rock seats added to the menu! 4 Mana

Delta clicked it and the vague outline appeared in front of her and Delta tried to imagine how best it would look with these rocks.

Delta made two slightly to the side and one just at the water’s edge for a fisherman. Ruli’s stool made her realize people might like somewhere to sit while they wait for something to bite.

That was when the thought hit her, Delta quickly walked over to the water and clapped her hands.

“Gather up!” she called and the lake became filled as all the life in it gathered around Delta as best they could. Delta wanted to squeal, she felt like a princess.

“Guys, people might throw hooks in… not gonna lie, they kinda want to eat you but I like you all to sometimes bite and struggle against the bait. Their bait could feed me DP and Mana and that’s important!” Delta said with a stern voice.

“You should all respawn due to the room so… try to have fun?” she said weakly as she knew the idea was silly. Then again her Mushy had felt very little pain when it had burned up. Perhaps that was a good thing?

The fish all just flopped a few times, the crayfish danced as they all sunk beneath the water again.

It was good, now the people could fish and eat… her fish… raw.

Delta paused. There was no wood in her dungeon unless people wanted to burn those Gutrot mushrooms? Delta grimaced.

They would all get sick from the fumes. Not good.

“Campfire!” she called.

Wood Kindling added to the menu: 3 Mana

Delta clicked it and a stack of 5-7 stick of wood appeared, they appeared to be the same length that her dungeon had used for her wooden torches.

She placed it between the two stones near the wall and tried to think… she didn’t think the smoke would be a problem with such a huge room and nothing in it should be able to catch fire…

Delta nodded and decided that this room was just about finished. Feeling interested, she held her finger over the new pile of wood.

Basic Wood Kindling: A stack of tiny sticks that can be used for a tiny campfire.The dungeon must be truly kind to supply such a thing!

- Upgrade sticks to logs: 4 DP

- Upgrade distance the heat reaches: 6 DP

- Makes all fish cooked upon this fire extra tasty!: 10 DP

- Merge kindling with Pond room so it respawns wood every 6 hours?: 15 DP

There was much to be done and Delta eyed her DP, what once felt so big, now was shrinking rapidly.

Hob and Gob, Delta prayed that they hurried. She was having too much fun to be cut off due to resources running dry!

Next thing she knew, the menu would be offering her microtransactions with how sad she’s feeling.

“Exchange 10000 mana for 10 DP?”

“Menu, do not infect my existence with… such filth…” Delta warned and the menu before her rippled nervously. Then again… she didn’t pay for her mana either. So, who was suffering?

“Unless it's a good deal,” she amended.

Francois called for her attention and Delta eyed the menu and purchased the respawn option quickly before she left.

Delta appeared in the Mudroom and peered about. Francois stood on the other side and pointed down into the mud.

Delta looked down and the angry quacking of a duck stared up at Francois with beady eyes.

“Quiss forgot his familiar… or one of them.” Delta frowned. Quiss seemed to love ducks, cause every time he got spooked, another one appeared. Delta couldn’t blame him, every time Delta got spooked, a monster appeared.

“Francois, scoop him out,” Delta said with exasperation. The goblin grumbled and climbed down, his staff shooting sparks as his mood turned sour.

The duck flapped and moved down the tunnel. It moved quickly down the passageway and nimbly moved into the Mushroom Grove where the boar walked out at the quacking.

The duck quacked and the boar shuffled on the spot, hesitant to attack due Delta’s orders.

“Duckie, get back here!” Delta cried as the duck ran past a dozen or so Gutrot Mushrooms. The duck moved swiftly past her two goblins she had left behind. Numb and Billy stared as the duck waddled past with speed that Delta was struggling to keep up with.

“No, mister duck, that’s the boss room!” Delta warned but the door was already opening. Delta hoped Bacon didn’t roll over and crush the poor thing in his sleep.

---

Quiss threw the ducks into the nearest water source he could find.

Quiss detested duck meat. He had it so often he began to hate people who ate it. After the dungeon visit. Quiss was feeling a little… lost. His books didn’t cover nice dungeons, his magazines didn’t and his collection of Spatial Combat books didn’t record any stories similar to this.

Sure, there were many novels about the epic wizard-warrior-necromancer who ended up sleeping with the sexy dungeon avatar and its many fairy helpers…

Quiss got bored after the 500th nigh identical one.

Delta made him ponder, pondering made him curious, his curiosity made him itchy to study, and his studying could not be done until he finished his Peace Keeper duties. Damn, Ruli could smack a few wolves about and call it a night, Quiss had to… deal with people.

“Oh! Quiss, it’s just terrible! I was doing some gardening and a Terror Root ate my tomatoes,” Mrs Dabberghast complained. Quiss just prayed for strength.

“Terror Roots require two cups of blood, a pinch or sulphur, and two bedtime stories a month before they reach enough power to leave their pots. Do any of these sound familiar?” he asked tightly. Mrs Dabberghast shook her head and looked innocent.

“I just kept cutting myself on my gardening tools and I use sulphur perfume and you know how I love telling stories that last an hour to myself in the middle of my garden where no one can see me,” she laughed and Quiss made another duck appear.

This time it was on purpose.

“Very well… I’ll be right back,” he smiled tightly, not wanting to be rude to the mother of three children, local gossiper, maker of the best apple pies in the kingdom and ex-Dark Green Witch of Bloodthorn forest who took part in the major battles during the Month of the Dead.

“Such a dear!” Mrs Dabberghast smiled and pulled up a wrapped piece of pie. Quiss’ mood lifted at the sight of it.

This would either grant him 3 extra years of life or go really well with warm milk. Quiss climbed into the garden and faced down the growing ‘domestic’ plants of Mrs Dabberghast.

While Delta had those mushroom monsters, and there was no doubt they were bad, Mrs Dabberghast’s Sicklethorns, Ebonfangs, and Dragonsnaps with actual little dragon heads all waited for him to come near.

Delta and Mrs Dabberghast must never meet. Quiss vowed this, but not out loud as he didn’t want to be held to it by his magic.

He hated being held to things by his magic, made his stomach turn that did.

---

16: Duck for Traps

The duck had found her Core room.

Delta watched as the bird eyed her Core. There was a lot about this duck that had Delta a little worried. For one, it had almost zero reaction to Fran or Bacon other than more angry quacking. So now Delta had no clue what the duck was going to do.

Some ancient duck ritual to drain her of mana? Delta hoped not. She didn’t need for this duck to turn out to be some evil demon.

The duck quacked once.

Delta blinked at the menu.

Summoned Duck #3981 would like to form a contract! A max of 3 contracts can be formed until a new level is formed. Current contracts 2 of 3.

Delta eyed the ‘yes’ button and at the waiting duck.

Quiss and Ruli hadn’t spoken about contracted monsters or what was okay to accept… but Quiss had summoned this duck himself, how bad could it be?

Delta frowned, the contracted monsters seemed like Godsends but there didn’t seem to be any downside to them as far as Delta could puzzle out, except for the expensive resurrection cost of course.

“Menu? What bad things could contracted monsters bring?"Delta asked aloud and the menu hummed into existence.

Contracted Monsters: By forming a contract with a dungeon, the monster gains power from the contract that the dungeon cannot control. Contracted Monsters also can leave the dungeon and take a tiny portion of power with them. Contracted Monsters need a huge amount of DP to respawn and do not have to follow orders. The Dungeon Core cannot force the monster to break the contract while it is alive.

Costs a lot, doesn’t need to listen to her, and Delta can’t force it to leave until it get’s beaten by adventurers. Yeah, Delta could she how that could be a problem if she invited the wrong thing into her dungeon.

“Uh... sure, welcome to the dungeon,” Delta hit the button as she saw it. The duck glowed and changed.

Delta watched as its brownish feathers turned pitch black and it shook itself once.

“Quack!” The duck seemed... happier? Delta watched it waddled off as her menu dinged again.

Dark Drake: A simple duck with simple needs. Due to ambient magic power left on its feathers, this duck can now curse people to have a bad time if they annoy it.

That raised questions on its own. What curse? What exactly made up a ‘bad time’? Delta didn’t know and hoped no one was stupid enough to try. Still, now she had a duck, and she knew exactly where it was heading!

Not outside, sadly, Delta had a feeling this duck marched to the beat of his own drum.

The Pond seemed to fit the Dark Drake just fine and Delta quickly hollowed out a little edge near the back of the pond so the duck could nest there or something?

She wanted to improve the pond even more now but Delta inhaled and reminded herself she had an empty room before the Goblin Camp. Delta couldn’t just have empty space doing nothing.

Floating back, she eyed the space and remembered what Quiss had said off one hand.

“If they live beyond that door, its a bit weird they don’t guard this one.”

That was true and Delta felt giddy as she lowered the floor, but only about half the room. The forming slope felt off, so she flattened the side where people would enter. Delta looked up to the entrance that was somewhere about 8 feet off the ground.

“Can I lower the entrance?” she asked and her handy menu responded.

Lowering dungeon beyond this point to the entrance will require 15 mana, do you wish to lower dungeon? Entrance will not change location.

Delta hesitated then agreed. She stumbled as the dungeon shook. Her mental map not changing so much but her awareness felt like it had gain new depths as the first half of her dungeon lowered itself down to put everything beyond this room on a higher elevation.

The tunnel connection sank down until it was now on even ground with the lowest part of the room.

“Step one done,” Delta nodded and turned to the top of the hill where the exit awaited the people who entered.

“Menu, give me the mana cost for wooden goblin watchtowers!” Delta requested and she mentally winced as the cost.

Wobbly Wooden Children’s Tower: A tower that is more suited for children playing than any real defence. The slightly sharpened stakes at the top might hurt a little. Need proper research and spending to have real goblin defences: 10 Mana

Each tower did reach about 7 feet, which might explain the cost, and when adding to the hill elevation...

They were pretty good towers for her gobs, it wasn’t complicated and Delta could replace them in a pinch. Delta knew it wouldn’t take long for people to just rush up the hill and do battle there, so she also needed a method to slow down the advancing party.

Making sure her new friend Waddles the Dark Drake was fine, she hit yes in the menu to confirm the name was fine, Delta opened her menu and considered her options.

There was something she could purchase to help this room be somewhat challenging.

Sticky Floor Panel: A square panel that is about 3x3 feet. The magic in this trap makes those who step on it... stick to the surface as if it was honey.

Delta hummed and then purchased it. More traps for the dungeon, more annoyance for the adventurers! The actual mana cost was only per trap, which was good because Delta was running a bit low at 18 mana.

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Her menu buzzed and Delta eyed the trap purchase menu with surprise as a new trap appeared.

Slide trap unlocked due to having Stick trap and Ink.

Slide Trap: A surface become slick with a substance that makes those who step on it lose their footing and if on a hill... slide down. A dungeon may find this handy if... rooms had hills. 10 DP.

“Menu, you beautiful piece of fudge,” Delta grinned and the menu did a little jingle before fading.

Delta eyed the room and saw how she would place three sticky traps along the hill... and three slide traps above them... not too close.

Maybe a pitfall at the bottom if they managed to avoid the sticky trap? Yes! Delta could see how merely climbing the hill would be a problem for people and adding Hob or Gob with their new stone ammunition...

Delta felt evil at her non-lethal room. Well...Unless a rock took out someone’s eye then it would be somewhat dangerous but Delta could only do some much with her limitations. It wasn’t her fault if someone stared at the goblins throwing rocks or didn’t bother to wear helmets!

... There was no guilt at all.

Since she had no guilt about something that may happen... Delta quietly asked the menu about making eye patches as rewards for beating the room or something similar.

---

Add a second floor to the dungeon: 200 DP

This had been a thing Delta had tried not to look too hard at when she finished the Boss room. It was an option she wasn't willing to consider until her first floor had some beef to it... Even then, the idea hadn’t been solid until Ruli and Quiss’ visit.

What would she do with a second floor? Delta, at the time, could only imagine more death and blood but now... thinking of all that space where she could challenge people, invite people to harvest nice materials or just relax in some safe room as they fished, napped, bet on chicken races or... something.

The problem was that as Delta came more competent at her menu ability the more things that she found she wanted to mess around with on the first floor that required DP.

Delta felt the familiar annoyance at time and resource management. Delta loved it but she was impatient. Back in the good ole days, she would cheat in money just so she could build. Then when trophies became a thing and achievements that dictated she needed to play fair...

Delta knuckled down and got to work. Another floor, even with the bare bones, offered more space for people to explore, more things for people to spend time on. Sure, she didn’t get DP from people just wandering about but if they dropped items or if they made tributes on top of her goblins collecting things then she would have ample time to collect things and build her DP.

What she needed now was... well, the one thing she was dreading. Adventurers.

Delta could be the innocent pure dungeon all she wanted but without some form of traffic, Delta was stuck eating mushrooms and rocks.

Until she got more Mana, she decided not to buy the traps for her ‘Fort Room’. Instead, Delta wanted to get something done to cement her opinion on this whole ‘Dungeon is a murder house’ thing.

So she moved to her entrance and stared at the two bare walls that only had torches flickering on them.

“Menu, I want to make a signpost and put it on the wall,” Delta requested and the menu appeared.

Shoddy Signpost added to the menu! 2 mana for 10 words.

Delta felt like that was a bargain and purchased two. One for each one.

Would you like to add text to the signposts?

Delta smiled and hit yes. She only needed 10 or so.

---

For a time to come, all those who would enter the Durence Dungeon of Mushrooms and Pacifism would encounter these two signs. The quality and material would change over time but the words mostly remained the same.

To one’s left the board read as followed.

“Those who enter, please say ‘Forfeit’ to leave dungeon alive.”

This was perhaps the most controversial thing a dungeon had ever allowed. A death was a gift to the dungeon. For one to allow such sweet power to slip away, their soul must truly be pure or hiding a dark dangerous agenda. People would discuss matter this for years.

The second board was shorter and below it had a simple box.

“Please leave donations, so I may grow and become helpful!”

This was the dungeon’s answer to sparing life. To enter this dungeon, one may part with the fluff in one's pockets or the holy object of destiny. All was welcome. Those who stole from this box would be remembered. Often hunted down by the unofficial guardian.

Maybe the most famous thing about these signboards was despite how often one scoffed at them, the earnest tone never faded.

But first... before any of that became important. There was spiders.

There was lots of spiders.

17: Along Came A Spider

Waddles quacked a few times as Delta spoke aloud. He was a rather chill bird once he was left alone to swim and not say, being summoned into a pit of mud by an annoyed wizard. Delta guessed that was only fair.

“So, I dunno what I should do next. I mean I definitely need to aim for the second floor,” Delta mused and Waddles seemed to agree.

François cleared his throat.

“Seconds floor would be good. More space to build and make more protection,” he nodded. Delta agreed, trying not to blush as she had a perfectly good talking partner right there. Delta stood, blowing out a sigh at her 16 mana. She could do a few things like place the traps or a tower and a trap...

Walking around her dungeon, she saw as the entrance hadn’t budged from the spot it had been in before. But she saw the ground go down... and the door went down.

Did the second half go up or did the first half go down? Her menu said she definitely moved the first part down...

Delta just let that go and chalked it up to funky dungeon space again. Hob and Gob came running into the entrance and Delta was a little sad they didn’t stop to see her signs.

It came clear why as a spider about size of a donkey came rushing in after them.

“Holy fu-” Delta cut herself off as the goblins began to grow again, power returning to them. Hob waved his sword. Dropping his bucket of goods. Delta was only barely aware of her mana hitting 29 due to the approaching nightmare on eight legs.

The spider made Delta’s spiders look like puppies. The drooling large fangs and black void-filled eyes, Delta didn’t even know why she noticed her mana grow-

Wait. Delta eyed the bucket and its fading goods. There was something in her dungeon, why was her...

Delta could still open a menu.

“Oh my Gosh,” Delta whispered as Hob took a swipe with his sword again as Gob took out an eye with one of his stones.

“HP bar?” Delta waved her hands, her mind was going blank. Her friends were about to be eaten by a big evil spider! It didn’t even have a white line around its butt which made Delta’s spiders cooler!

Nothing happened so Delta gave up on forcing video game mechanics to appear for now and tried to think of what she could do. She couldn’t do much besides give Hob and Gob stone weapons, and she wasn’t sure how much mana she would need to upgrade them both and give them proper weapons.

“Run! Just run towards the camp!” Delta ordered and the gobs hesitated then took off, the spider hissing like a coarse brush hitting a brick wall.

Delta moved with them and almost froze as the spider tumbled, all 8 legs, over the tripwire, becoming covered in the silver web as it crashed into the far wall. She couldn’t believe that worked.

“What happened?!” Delta shouted and Hob just yelled back as he turned the corner.

“Waiting for us!” he panted. Well, that wasn’t good.

Delta opened her menu and map and saw that if the spider didn’t spontaneously combust, drop dead, piss off Waddles and drown or have some new world allergic reaction to mud then her first option would to be...

She mashed the confirm button on her purchase.

The spider ignored the grotto and moved fast down the wall, the hairs on its body refusing to stick to the silver web for long. Her gobs crossed the mud room faster than they had done in any of their previous attempts. They slowed at the sight before them, Delta nearly did to.

There was a splat and a sound like a demon being born. Delta urged her goblins onwards and stared at her purchase. The spider managed to pull itself up and over the far side after a minute.

It froze and Delta just nodded.

“Run away...” she whispered, trying to mentally will the thing to get the hint and the spider hesitated then launched forward. Delta watched as her newly evolved Mushy swung it’s large fists down and utterly crushed the front half of the spider’s body.

The Myconid was the second evolutionary path of the Mushroom Spitter. It lost its acid, it’s ability to strike from the shadows and a lot of reaction time if caught unaware.

In return, it grew short solid legs and rather beefy arms. They were effective beyond Delta’s expectations. Standing somewhere just short of 6 feet tall, the large mushroom had a round soft-looking belly and no longer had a mouth.

Instead, the beady eyes became soft and curious as it lifted its hand and tried to shake the green goo off that was quickly melting away.

Oh, it also seemed that in return for its physical power, the Mushy lost its hatred for everything and became somewhat fascinated by it instead evidenced by the way it was poking Gob curiously. Delta was trying to take this all in. Her mind supplying little things to keep her mind from screaming. Perhaps the fact she had just been invaded and the thing did not want to talk?

Maybe because it had shown how powerless Delta could feel until they hit her mudroom? Or maybe it was, despite all of Delta’s big talk, violence still was the end result?

Maybe it was because she hadn’t seen anything bigger than a bird die before her eyes? She had refused to look at the farmer’s death... but she made this choice and now she had to deal with it. All of this sounded very logical and understandable and it was all very neat.

Delta hiccuped as her dungeon ate the kill.

“Monsters are not mans,” Francois said as he exited the grove, shooing at the Guardian Boar who was trying to nibble at his robes.

“Monsters contain hatred. It becomes will to live with gobs. With spider it becomes hunger. Hatred makes monsters different from animals. Animals fight or run, monsters can do those too, but they also think and remember. Monsters can eat mana as well. Master is powerful and draws them... as well as boneheads,” François snapped and smacked both Hob and Gob with his staff.

Delta just looked at the spot where the spider was.

“Do all monsters hate?” Delta had to ask as her newly named Mr Mushy picked Francois up and put him on his cap hat. François’ face soured.

“Not all. That more monsters evolve or grow, the less hate holds sway. I not know if monsters can free themselves or just live with it. When monsters grow big enough, then hating is a choice,” François swatted at Mr Mushy’s attempts to pet him, it looked odd as the mushroom couldn’t see where the goblin was exactly.

“What about my dungeon monsters?” Delta needed to know and Francois just grinned.

“When I was born, I feel need to protect, not hate,” he said casually and steered the Mr Mushy onwards to the Grove.

Delta felt relief at that and then, unsure if she truly wanted to know, asked Francois one more question.

“Can you befriend monsters?” she wanted to know. Her question was delightfully cliche and Delta felt no shame in it.

François just shrugged.

“If Master wants it, she will find a way. I am confident in your power,” he complimented. Delta felt a little touched at the comment and moved to keep up.

Compared to all her terrible mushroom experiences so far, Mr Mushy was just adorable. If all her mushrooms could just be as cute as the Myconid then Delta would be a lot happier. Looking at him, she watched as the boar squealed and fled from the stomping odd the cheerful mushroom man.

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He looked like a fun guy. Delta snorted and giggled which made Hob and Gob looked confused. François was too busy trying to avoid the mushrooms that hit him in the face as his impromptu steed ran out of control.

Delta turned and looked towards her entrance.

This wouldn’t be the last time she would have to kill. Delta just had to accept that life wasn’t going to bend and let her avoid the messy parts of being a dungeon. Hatred would drive monsters to seek her out, if Francois was right.

Delta just nodded with determination. As long as she got not enjoyment for it and didn’t lure them in, then Delta wouldn’t cry for the monsters that died.

Delta looked at the tunnel where the last of the spider faded, tiny green splotches of blood. She clasped her hands together, a little prayer in her head.

Maybe now... the spider didn’t feel the hatred and that was one tiny comfort Delta could take in from this.

Black Forest Spider absorbed: Cost for Deadly Mushroom reduced by 5 DP.
Common Silverspinner Spider upgrades cost reduced by 2 DP
Mild Poison added to research 12 DP

Delta nodded.

“Thank you for your donations,” she nodded and moved on with purpose. First up was the tripwire.
With 29 mana and 58 DP, she could begin making progress in her Hill room. She owed it to the spider to make the most of the points.

Delta paused as her spiders were making angry noises as they collected their torn webs and discarded it.

“Oh... sorry,” Delta chuckled nervously. She direct them to throw it into the tunnel entrance and leave it for the next person to enter to pick it up.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get this dungeon in tip-top shape and make sure you guys get improved as well! After all...” Delta said as she moved through a web as she spent a point to add a few wooden supports to the centre of the room to give the spiders more places to attach webbing. It gave her berry bush a nice special feeling too.

“We dungeon folk have to stick together!” she offered and a spider shuddered and played dead.

Delta crossed her arms.

“I think I am hilarious,” she muttered.

----

“So, this is why outgoing magic mail is banned for the next few days to weeks,” Quiss called to the town square. Well, it was more of an oblong rectangle that had an errant triangular tumour hanging off it.

“But I need to respond to my girlfriend,” a whiny man complained. Quiss wasn’t going to say it, but he didn’t need to, Ruli was here.

“Your girlfriend that lives Teranda? Yes, come on, Colled. No one buys it,” Ruli said, her eyes closed as she tried to snooze on the chair. She was the only other person on the little podium that had once been summoned to debate one of the greater demons into selling his legal right to take the souls of their cattle.

In return, he got a lot of cheese. Quiss could appreciate the craftsmanship of the little desk before him and the way everyone seemed unable to ignore him as long as he looked ready to rant.

“Anyway, we decided that keeping a dungeon a secret from some of the town people was wrong, and we didn’t want to clean the junk out your houses if you die. So, the dungeon is there, don’t go into it without permission or without letting everyone know, so we can all take bets. As the king’s law states, you must either be over the age of 16, have a demon bound inside your soul, wield a sword that no one else can use, be mute and heralded as the hero of this timeline, have a magical birthmark tied to some prophecy or have parental permission to enter the dungeon,” Quiss reminded. Quite a few of the teenagers and younger kids grumbled at this.

The two blonde kids that were mute and had been hailed as heroes in some fashion in the crowd shrugged. Quiss knew one wanted to be a vet and the other was too lazy to go anywhere. Smart boys in his opinion.

“What's the dungeon like?” one excited girl asked and her little pigtails bounced as she jumped on the spot.

“Nice. Has a few spiders and goblins so don’t go wandering in,” Ruli answered for him. Quiss knew the kids loved announcements like these.

It got them out of school.

The only teacher in town, who managed 6 different classes of students in a single day stood to the side, smiling politely.

Mr Jones was a nice man and if Quiss ever felt the need to die slowly and painfully by having spawn, he wouldn’’t mind Mr Jones teaching them. He baked cookies, listened to students, never had a student fail since he took over in the last 5 years. It was the only hope this community had of reaching a standard education.

Quiss also knew the man was hearty. He confiscated a black wand from a student yesterday. In a town like this, magical weapons were a dime a dozen and outside of this town, they would all sell for a small kingdom’s annual income.

Thankfully, Mr Jones dispatched the skeleton army the brat raised before history class was over and had a stern talk with the mother of the student, the Black Bog Witch who was now the town’s glass and Metal crafts shop owner.

The woman could make cauldrons like no ones business. How she managed to make them of clay she kept to herself.

Mr Jones was alright in Quiss’ book. The fact he was a Knowledge Demon from the 142 layer of the abyss didn’t make the clean shirt and nice tie any less attractive. Many women and men had often fought with their spouse about who got to go to the parent-teaching meeting to stare as his straight teeth and lovely hair.

Quiss cleared his throat as the silence had stretched on.

“So, please don’t die or I will have to do paperwork,” he ended the meeting with a little gavel bang that ended the podiums magic and walked away.

“I liked it,” Ruli said as she caught up. Holding up one hand, she read off an imaginary headline.

“Don’t die, idiots, local Peacekeeper cautions” she announced. Quiss hid a small smile as they both entered the local pub.

Nibs nodded and poured them the usual.

It was good to relax and Quiss knew he’d better enjoy it. Delta would be cooking something up that appeared innocent but in reality would make Quiss feel old soon enough.

At least his Melody Mead tasted good. He burped and a little birdsong came out. He snorted as some heavy berserker metal flowed from Ruli’s mouth.

---

In the night that followed. Neither Quiss or Delta could predict the danger that would come.

This was not just the hungry spiders that moved closer but also one of the most dangerous type of creatures in the Kingdom.

Teenagers.

---

----

18: I am DEO!

Delta hummed as she added the second sticky trap that night to the fort room. After the spider attack, she felt hesitant to send her goblins out to gather until she could properly equip them. Delta didn’t feel like it was the end of the world. Maybe she could ask Ruli to collect trash or if Quiss had any junk he wanted to be rid off.

Working with people, the idea was absolutely wonderful. Delta hoped both of them had many friends they could invite to her dungeon. Ruli might... actually she had boasted about being the rudest woman in town.

Maybe Quiss... Delta cut off that thought before it could even sprout and instead hoped Quiss would keep on visiting. He was nice and handsome but his attitude was like a cactus with anti-social behaviour problems., kind of prick and not suited to the unprepared.

Still, Delta didn’t give up hope! She’d take precautions, fort up during the night and wait for the relative safety of daylight before sending Hob and Gob out for more collection. Contracted monsters were useful and somewhat odd. Waddles was gone. Delta could only guess he had gone through the water tunnel to... somewhere. Delta really needed to see what was down there one day. She just needed an aquatic monster that could speak.

Merfolk? Were they a thing? Usually dragons and merfolk came as a package, Delta hoped so. She wouldn’t even mind if they were the more creepy kind!

“Under the pond... Under the pond...” Delta sang as she made sure Mr Mushy was okay. The giant bipedal fungi was having fun petting the Grove Guardian, to the boar’s despair. Delta sneaked away before the boar could complain. With only 19 mana and 58 DP, Delta needed to pass the time until morning came. Moving back to the spider room, she opened the menu of the room. She hummed as she saw the message.

This room is inhabited by spiders only. This room is used for the purpose of webs. This room is near the front and to this menu finds it weird that it’s so peaceful.

Would you like to upgrade this room to the “Spider Room”? *All things inside the room become bound and cannot be moved outside the room. Cost 10 DP.

Delta wanted to cackle. She tried and sounded like she was just having a good time. She hit yes and the room flashed but nothing truly changed.

She opened the menu again.

Spider Room:

- Upgrade total number of spiders that can be in the room. 5 DP

- Restore trap after dungeon is empty. 8 DP

- Make Spiders’ more durable and less likely to die. 10 DP

- Make a great amount of Berries wilt with each spider that dies. 5 DP

Delta really had to appreciate the sheer detail that her powers could go to. The ability to punish people who murdered her spiders was nice. Having the trap able to just fix itself was also nice. Delta wondered if that would always have been a choice or if her nature and point of view made such an option come into existence?

Delta hoped so. It meant that if she just kept trying to be herself, her powers would help her. It would be nice, not everyone was a comic book hero who could struggle with their awesome demon powers every chapter.

Delta also kinda liked her menu. It had spunk. She purchased the trap replacement and berry punishment options, reducing her total DP to 35. The tripwire made a twang noise as it pulled taut again. Delta cheered as her first home-made room became even better.

“I should hope that many first-timers have a great...trip into my dungeon!” Delta bent over and snorted hard as she tried not to laugh. Her cheeks hurt and her lungs protested but Delta managed to avoid making her spiders roll away in disgust.

Delta wondered if the puns were some form of sanity-protecting comping mechanism and decided that if they were, it was only right that she kept on enjoying them.

“Master!” Fran called and Delta was in the Boss room in an instant.

Fran was kneeling and looking nervous. Bacon the pig was also bowing.

“Master... I heard from Francois. You do not intend for me... to do my job?” Fran asked with concern and Delta just stared at him with confusion.

“Job?” she echoed and Fran’s grip on his spear tightened.

“I must defeat invaders. I must make those who seek you out die,” he stated and Delta felt a little lost as his tone became upset. Delta got on the ground with him.

“Fran, of course you will. I just don’t want you killing those who surrender or flee,” she consoled and Fran didn’t meet look up.

“Then mans will speak and my tactics will become known. I will be... exploited,” he responded and sounded angry. Delta could see how that would be an issue.

“But I don’t want to kill people who simply want to explore,” she added her own feelings and Fran squirmed. He looked at his metal spear.

“A Boss must protect the Core. I must protect you,” he said quietly and Delta was quiet for a few seconds.

“Then protect my will. I need you to let those who surrender in earnest go. Those who challenge your strength should be offered the ability to grow and become stronger. I want them to become stronger. Fran... defeat is not failure in this case. Pushing those cannot handle the lower floors back is your duty,” Delta explained and Fran was quiet.

“Those who spit upon your mercy? Master, those who would abuse your greatness?” he pondered and Delta hesitated only for a few seconds.

“Those who surrender and then attack or those who refuse to back down... I have done what I can. Treat them as scum or respectful warriors as you see fit. I cannot protect them from their own hearts or desires,” Delta said, feeling the words a little odd and not really something she would normally say. Delta frowned and tried to think why she had said them. Nothing answered, and she let it go as a slip of the tongue or maybe the dungeon part she had merged with speaking out.

“Spare the honorable and unprepared. Punish the liars and fools,” Fran translated and Delta could only smile weakly.

“If you kill someone mid-battle, I’ll make sure I warn people and nobody can sue us,” she waved her hands and Fran looked confused.

“I will stab this Sue! I will defeat it for you master!” Fran promised and Bacon snorted with determination. Her Mana and DP shot up and Delta blinked. Looking around, she saw Waddles had returned, spitting some red weeds onto the shore.

“Yes! Excellent, defeat the Sues! First name, Mary... uh be right back!” Delta said apologetically and rushed off to the Pond room.

Her menu rang out.

Bloodweed absorbed!

Bloodweed? Waddles... what had he found? Delta appeared as the duck closed his eyes as he looked done for the day nestled in his little alcove.

Delta opened her menu and her eyes bugged out, her mind going blank.

Mana: 67. DP: 83

Delta could feel the mana flow through her.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Waddles... what was that?” she demanded but the duck kept on snoozing.

In a panic, she had no idea what to do with all this sudden excess mana. This ‘Bloodweed’ had given her 48 mana. That was the biggest boost she had ever gotten... except maybe from the fire crystal...

She moved quickly to the goblin camp and picked one of the two normal goblin monsters. Numb or Billy, how they acquired those names was not something Delta had any clue about. Hob and Gob seemed pleased by them, however...

Picking Billy she spent 5 mana to give him an evolution. She slammed a finger down and hit the one in the middle.

Goblin archer (5 mana and 2 DP)

Billy glowed and when the light show died down he was wearing a little odd green hat and tunic and had a rather rough looking bow in his hands. His arrows... were all different sizes and had little rude words carved into the shafts. The feathers looked suspiciously like chicken feathers.

That still left her with 8 mana over the limit, so she hit Numb with the other evolution.

Goblin thug (5 Mana and 2 DP)

Numb became a lot bigger and more musclebound and his loincloth turned into a thick fur pelt which stretched over one shoulder like a tarzan leotard. In his hands was a two-handed wooden club with some creatures serrated teeth along the edges.

She spent the last mana on summoning a random Healthy Apple. Sighing with relief over not wasting any mana, Delta watched as Numb swung his club in the air and Billy picked his nose with the back end of one of the arrows in his quiver and promptly sneezed due to the feathers. Mana well spent.

Delta opened her menu and looked at the item that had done this.

Bloodweed: A rare underwater plant that can be applied to wounds to hasten healing. Stronger if the wound is fresh.

Delta frowned as she hadn’t got any upgrades from this gift from Waddles.

“Menu, why didn’t I get something from this?” Delta asked, trying not to sound ungrateful. A window opened to her left.

Ingredient is beyond anything the dungeon has eaten before. It will take a few digestions to gain proper rewards

Delta nodded as it faded. Like some games that required repeated collections before things became available. Unlocking the super awesome weapon after only getting one of each material was a bit weak. Like collecting enough things for the Metal Slime Spear or breeding the gold mount to get the best sword.

It took effort and Delta accepted that if she wanted to get good things, she needed to put in the effort. Sadly, the effort wasn’t exactly up to her but to Waddles...

And Waddles looked ready to call it a night.

Delta could complain about how she couldn’t control contracted monsters and be ungrateful for the effort Waddles had done for her so far or...

She could spent the new mana and DP points with glee.

Choices... choices.

Well, Delta had never been one to duck out of fun time. Delta snorted and had to take a few seconds to collect herself before she moved off to the Mudroom.

Make room into the Mudroom? All elements will be bound to the room and cannot be moved out of it unless destroyed. 10 DP

Delta almost couldn’t hold back her excitement as she hit confirm.

The room flashed and Delta opened the menu again.

Mudroom

- Make it so logs appear from the wall and knock off hesitant jumpers: 10 DP

- Make Mud reappear if removed. 5 DP

- Randomise Position of logs every 3 days. 10 DP

- Make Traps in this room freeze for whomever the core wishes. 12 DP

Delta shivered at the cruelty of the menu and loved it deep down. She purchased the wall logs and the trap freezing options. Leaving her with 57 DP. Thinking of the second floor, Delta hesitated then thinking of the Bloodweed, Ruli, Quiss and her Goblins... purchased the rest.

It was poin- wait... she had already used that one. Delta fumed as the menu emptied out of upgrades for a second.

Delta struggled for a second.

“Like a circle, saving points is pointless?” Delta tried and then sighed. It was the same punchline, and she only watched the holes appear in the walls from where wooden logs would appear with fading interest.

Nothing could make her feel better about a repeated pun...nothin-

People entered her dungeon. Three people.

Delta threw her puns away and smoothed down her invisible dress. Guests had arrived and she wasn’t ready!

Delta hoped they were friendly, hoped they were nice, hoped they were clever.

---

“I, DEO, SHALL CONQUER THIS DUNGEON IN ONE RUN!” the young man screamed and Delta felt her soul freeze over as karma laughed at her. The boy had fiery red hair and ginger stubble.

“Why am I here?” the girl to his left sighed, her pointy hat so comically large, Delta couldn’t see her features very well. Her blue cloak and slightly magical wooden spoon glowed in the entrance hall.

Deo, as he had said, laughed as if this was hilarious.

“DON’T BE SHY, POPPY! I, DEO, WILL NEED YOUR BLACK MAGIC TO WIN THIS DUNGEON!” the boy’s voice was loud that Delta winced. He seemed unable to tone his stuck on eardrum bursting. The boy to his left sniffed in annoyance.

“And me? I don’t even like you,” he snapped and Deo just smiled at the kid that looked ready to write bad poetry.

“FRIEND AMANSTER! I NEED YOUR WHITE MAGIC TO HEAL ME!” Deo spoke and the boy grimaced.

“I’m actually a first-level necrom-” he began but Deo just laughed.

“LIFE MAGIC WORKS BOTH WAYS! I, DEO, WILL BE YOUR WARRIOR!” he promised and the girl, Poppy, sighed.

“Yay...” she muttered and held some necklace in her hands with an odd symbol on it. The other boy sniffed again.

“Are you going to remind him that you are not a ‘Black Mage’ but just have a bad reaction to sunlight?!” he demanded and the girl sighed.

“Nyeh... I can cast... some magic. Mostly Blue and Purple...” she sounded so done with this already. Delta was stunned. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the group. The red-haired boy, Deo, held up a broken brittle blade up to the sky and it went ting.

A chip fell off the tip of the blade as it hit the ceiling and Deo looked like he didn’t even notice.

Delta could only stare at her first actual adventurers.

This was... bound to be interesting and... really, really, embarrassing.

----

19: DEO! and friends!

Quiss was just finishing his last patrol of the town Durence. So far he had argued with one Night Demon, sent a Hag home, and made Mr Coppergold pay a fine for illegal mining in another man's yard. Quiss scowled as Von the Banker stalked the dark of night. It was his nature so Delta let him off with a single glare but Von wasn’t affected.

Being a 400-year-old vampire, the banker had more than enough trouble just keeping up with the new currency of Copper engraves. Copper pieces that had more value than gold due to a government mandate. It was cruel but soon the economy would move on to a pure mana based currency where people only had to handle paperwork to claim what they owned. Von grumbled about it but the man had a habit of accepting blood-money to look the other way with small matters, or just blood really.

Quiss once bribed him to remove the ‘Weekly Wicked Warlocks’ from his public list of purchases. His enjoyment was his own. A Peace Keeper had to be open and honest which made them rather easy to remove if the community found them... lacking.

In this town, being simply dismissed was beyond career crippling. One old bored woman could make a couple of elder mages dance to her song and crumpets. It would make Quiss’ goal of burning the world tree harder than needed.

If one asked, Quiss did not intend for the tree to die but only be reminded that it could be. Quiss definitely did not have a backstory that involved such a tree. Nor did he invest everything into such a goal.

World Trees made mana more abundant which made burning one rather an odd goal for a mage. Quiss sniffed and shot a look at the barrel goblin that switched hiding places as people slept. Barrel Goblins were protected under a legal law that stopped the more harmless pests from being slaughtered wholesale. These particular pests would hide in chests or barrels and scared those who opened them. They were really more mischievous than harmful. Though the occasional old codger in the kingdom did die of a heart attack, but that was rare.

Like a World Tree, Quiss could burn them as he spotted them but only the kind word of the law prevented him so. Ruli got a kick out of them as well, which didn’t affect his actions one bit, but he did let them live for no reason what so ever...

Quiss turned on the spot as Fig walked out of his home. His true name was Raqustimenafigmortis but no one liked saying Raq or Mortis. The man was a half-something. It was a fancy way of saying no one had any clue what his human parent fell in love with and outside a niche community, no one really wanted to know.

Fig had three arms and a four eyes. His height towered at 8 foot with wicked energy leaking off his form. Fig was nice, he ran the local Thabsday Charity.

Thabsday had been invented when Fig had insisted and no one argued when one of his 4 eyes turned black and people felt fat. It was somewhere between Tuesday and Thursday. Quiss didn’t want to meet him due his need to have long lectures on Quiss’ alcoholism and his own piety. It was annoying and Quiss wasn’t sure a fireball would have any effect on the half human, half-thing.

He was a nag and a rather unkillable one at that.

There was a karmic cruelty embedded in those facts.

Quiss turned down a street he’d rather avoid and ran into someone else entirely. The man held up tiny randomchests that could hold anything between some coopers or the lost bible of Yangamseshcon.

“5 Copper and one chest... three gold and get ten!” the blind Edgar Adams offered and Quiss stormed past him before he got his remaining joy in life locked behind some paywall. He moved past a smoking woman.

“Quiss, you have destin-” she began and Quiss ignored her with a growl on his face.

“I know! Tell me how to avoid people and I’ll pay you,” he snapped and the woman glowered.

“May you live in interesting times!” she spat and Quiss turned on her with the full on dark abyssal glare. The woman ran away into the darkness and Quiss looked around the rest of ‘Soothsayer Alley’.

“Anyone else have any illuminating commentary?” he asked quietly and one man held up a hand.

“My hamster’s kneebones are telling me that you are about to become a very important charac-” the old man ranted and Quiss felt fire rising in his throat. He calmed it down and inhaled. His village burning days were behind him. His village burning days were behind him.

“I think you and Ruli Darknessbane have good chemistry,” the Love Witch proclaimed and Quiss pulled out his book of fines and the street magically became very empty.

“I am a Peace Keeper, not the local Cleric Priest who gains power listening to you cretins. I am Quiss Firesmasher and I will not be slandered by being shipped with such a vulgar woman!” he called to the now silent row of buildings.

No one answered and Quiss considered his job done for the night. Least no more children would be proclaimed heroes on his watch. Then again, if he had some confused children with him, people would mostly leave him alone as they focused on the fresh meat.

The girl with the wonky scar of a star on her chin? Goldmine to these people.

Quiss moved past the street and was only thankfully the merchants that screamed all day slept. He didn’t need a +11 staff of draconic summoning. He’d had enough of dragons to last him the next ten years. The gem of shadows? Sure, he’d love to be ignored by people. Shame most people that lived here couldn’t be fooled by anything short of a heroic illusion and then some.

Quiss walked to his hut where someone had left a bunch of horseshoes on his door step. They looked to be fresh off of a centaur berserker and Quiss gathered them up. He had no idea who kept leaving him good luck charms, but he was hardly about to turn down free stuff.

Ruli would sooner leave him centaur manure so it certainly wasn’t her. The gifts confused him, but he peered out his window and saw no one.

Maybe... it was a joke? Quiss didn’t get the joke, but he often failed to get other people's sense of humour unless he was so drunk that rocks on the side of the road looked amusing.

He turned off his glowlamp and went to bed. Praying that some new fool would apply to the Peace Keepers tomorrow. If Delta the Dungeon had got anything right, it was that having minions to do your work for you was amazing.

---

Outside the Peace Keeper’s hut, a dark figure moved away from the hiding spot they had been sitting in for the last four hours. The way Quiss had picked up those gifts... it was scandalous and the person felt too shy to event think about the event.

Maybe tomorrow they would leave some Elder Treant Fruits... yes... Quiss would like them.

---

“I CHALLENGE YOU!” Deo shouted at her spiders, and they simple moved around his feet. Deo jumped back and pointed his broken blade at the spiders.

“I CHALLENGE YOU!” he repeated. This had been going on for ten minutes and Delta was too shocked to do anything other than stand there in stunned disbelief. The other two had stayed in the tunnel discussing homework.

“I’m going to do my paper on the futility of life and why death always wins,” the guy said, pushing his glasses up, so they shined off the torch perfectly. He seemed aware of where all the light sources were at any given moment. The girl nodded.

“Mine is on darkness,” she muttered and Deo watched as the spiders fled away from his voice into the walls.

“AHA I WIN!” he called and moved forward, tripping over the tripwire and rolling into the webs and wall.

“Why I am here?” Amanster asked to himself and the girl shrugged.

“He overpowered you and your spells suck,” she said bluntly. Amanster glared but he shivered as Deo walked back to them, his rusty armour and broken blade covered in web.

“I OND A RAP!” he shouted through the web and Poppy clapped slowly.

“Yay...” she cheered with the energy of the dead. Amanster eyed the room with a sudden deep understanding.

“These spiders may be poisonous and the webs may slow us down if we hit the trip wires,” he pointed out and Delta was pretty sure her spiders weren’t poisonous. They did have a white line around their butts.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Awesome... spiders drain fluids from their prey like life drains me,” Poppy said and Deo gave her a thumbs up.

“ACK AGIC ULES!” he complimented and Poppy removed the web from Deo’s face.

“Nyeh... you need to stop talking and keep going,” she ordered with a lack of emotion and Deo turned on the spot.

“I WILL BEAT THIS DUNGEON!” he yelled and rushed out the room. Amanster sighed with relief and picked up the web with one hand.

“This looks to be good stuff... Peace Keeper Quiss did mention spiders but this is beyond normal,” he inspected and Delta felt shy as he inspected her work. Poppy just shuffled after Deo’s distant screaming.

One of courage, not fear.

“Come on... take some berries... they smell nice,” Poppy sighed and shoved some into her mouth as she passed.

“-aybe we can use these to form some durable armour or perhaps they can form some unique potion to resist sticky traps or maybe we can turn into spiders and blend into the local biosphere... I’d rather make a spider skeleton but this will do,” he shoved some web into his pocket and Delta guessed that was nice. At least one of them liked her web. She shook of her shock for now and moved down the tunnel and saw that Deo was in the Pond Room.

“FACE ME, DEMON OF THE WATER!” he called as Waddles eyed his guests. Poppy walked in and then paused.

“Nyeh... maybe don’t bother the duck, it-” she began but Deo jumped into the water and then seemed to sink.

“Can he swim?” Amanster asked and Poppy sighed. Delta hoped so because she didn’t think what to do if someone tried to swim and couldn’t swim.

“He said that main characters can’t swim and never learned... hold on,” she looked more annoyed than concerned about the screaming Deo.

She held one hand in an odd way and closed her eyes.

“Water Suction: Octopod style!” Poppy mumbled, and she inhaled, sucking the pond towards her mouth where it turned into a whirlwind. The water was dragged onto the land and hauled Deo with it.

Delta blinked at the odd wording and the magic that happened. Octopod style? That just screamed monster magic...

“-I CHALLENGE YOU TO A WATER DUEL!” the young man finished saying as he hacked up water. Poppy sighed and lowered her hood in annoyance. Amanster just turned and left.

“Spiders, ducks... the dungeon is lame,” he complained and Delta froze. Lame? Her dungeon was... lame?

Delta felt the word clunk around in her head like a heavy lead ball.

Lame.

“AMANSTER! ARE YOU BLIND?! THIS DUCK IS A TRULY RARE DARK DRAKE! A MONSTER OF MYTH! THIS DUNGEON IS AMAZING!” Deo yelled after his... friend? Delta watched him with wide eyes.

He knew what Waddles was? Deo... thought she was amazing?

“Nyeh... dungeons sounded like trouble but this one is nice...” Poppy yawned and moved out the pond room as Deo turned and bowed to Waddles.

“I RESPECTFULLY BOW OUT OF THIS DUEL, FAIR DUCK!” he laughed and ran after his companions.

Delta felt touched by his words until she remembered what room was next.

Oh no... this was exactly what she had planned for!

Delta rushed out the room as Waddles eyed Deo.

It closed its eyes and nodded.

Deo didn’t see how he glowed with a soft light. He saw the coat of the rude one and narrowed his duck eyes.

Amanster never saw how he glowed with a dark light...

----

Deo was not an adventurer. He hadn’t completed any dungeons before but with a dungeon just appearing outside his town, he knew it was his chance to finally become one!

Deo had always wanted to explore a dungeon and exploring one that no one else had would be the best thing ever! So far, there had been spiders and ducks! That was so cool. Not many dungeons had those combos! Deo felt lucky that his town had gotten the cool dungeon.

“ALLIES! I SEE MUD AHEAD!” Deo spoke. He turned to look at his friends with a big smile. Poppy’s lips moved but it was hard to seem them with her hood.

“...Bother...platforms...jump,” he was sure she said. Deo looked at Amanster.

“..Lish. Jump... one from another... boring...duck,” he might have said and Deo shook his head.

“THE DUCK WAS POWERFUL AND THIS WILL BE FUN!” he said calmly.

Being completely deaf didn’t numb any excitement that Deo had towards exploring. His mother was a bard and his father was a classic Warrior who used special battle shouts. He had no idea why Amanster was dragging his feet. This was once in a lifetime opportunity!

He leapt onto one of the wooden circles and he stumbled and fell to the one to the left. It held as the one he aimed for dipped slightly. He grinned and praised the Quest Gods for their gift of good luck. He also added a small prayer to the Dark Drake.

One could never be too careful.

He turned to see Amanster scoff and aim for the wooden platform furthest away from him and it flipped completely and the amazing healer ended up in the mud with a rather impressive splash that hit the ceiling. The young man looked to be yelling in excitement and waved his arms to invite Poppy. She looked about to shy away and Deo jumped down with a yell.

“I SHALL JOIN YOU!” he yelled and Amanster’s face didn’t look pleased. Deo picked him up and hauled both of them out the pit as the mud stuck to them both. Putting him down, Deo looked as Amanster was speaking.

“...You! Mud...where and dropped my... Poppy is over... gap!” he explained and Deo nodded.

He turned as Poppy inflated like a balloon and just floated over.

“Nyeh... Balloon...style...frog...” she said as she landed. Deo grinned.

“FROGS ARE COOL WHICH MAKES YOU COOL!” he said with a soft tone and Poppy paused then looked away as if embarrassed which couldn’t be as Black Mages were too cold and aloof to feel such things.

Deo walked on and loved how the mud made his home-made armour look professional. He turned the corner and saw a huge room filled with mushrooms!

This dungeon was so cool! These mushrooms grew big and Deo wondered if he could duel any of them.

Amanster managed to do some kind of obscure Cleric detect spell and touched a random mushroom which in turn was revealed to actually be a boar! The mushroom covered boar turned and began to chase Amanster.

“I...HELP...DO...GOT THIS!” his healer shouted with confidence, his face half turned. Deo almost couldn’t see what he was saying but guessed Amanster had the boar handled with his great white magic. Poppy walked after him with her hood down low.

Deo felt a bit lost as he had nothing to do. Panicking, he turned and saw movement. A walking mushroom man!

Deo danced on the spot and walked up the jolly thing that was softly walking after Amanster and the Boar with interest.

“HELLO! I WOULD LIKE TO DUEL YOU!” Deo called and the mushroom man paused and then slowly looked at Deo.

It waved and Deo waved back.

It waved and Deo waved back.

It waved and DEO WAVED BACK!

The mushroom seemed to hear something it and it pulled its arm back, not to the fullest extend Deo noticed, and aimed a punch at him.

Deo almost squealed and dropped his sword then hesitated.

A fist fight... it wasn’t heroic and his fist skills were…

Deo swallowed his complained and ducked another punch. His foe demanded his best and DEO THE ALMIGHTY HERO! would not back down. He shot forward and aimed a fist...

----

Delta could only stare as the perfect hole through her mushroom Grove where a good chunk of her Grove had been simply erased by the sound of the young man’s attack.

Delta was shocked, she gently directed Mr Mushy to bow and sit down. Deo the Ohmgodheisamonster adventurer bowed back and picked up his sword which he swung with novice effort. Even her Goblins could swing their clubs better. Delta felt scared of these children, wondering what kind of village they came from to have that level of power!

Her dungeon vibrated and Delta could only watched as three large spiders rushed in.

“No! Run! These kids are the real monsters!” Delta warned in vain.

The spiders came and Delta prayed for them.

20: A Boary End

Delta watched as three more spiders rushed into the tunnel. They scrambled over each other as they burst into the web room. Since Deo and his friends hadn’t left yet, her tripwire hadn’t been able to reset.

Which was a shame because at the speeds the large spiders were going, it wouldn’t take them long to reach the Grove where the teens were milling around as Amanster managed to lose the boar in a sharp turn and refused to get off of the very tall mushroom that grew on one side of the room. The Boar prowled around the mushroom, snorting.

Poppy pulled down her hood and Delta couldn’t tell if she was laughing or just mumbling loudly. The girl didn’t actually do anything to help Amanster.

And as long there were people in her dungeon, Delta couldn’t use her menus. While Deo had proven to be... enthusiastic in his fighting, Delta had no idea if Poppy or Amanster were as powerful.

The spiders crossed the mudroom, two of them hitting the mud hard as the final one hit the right path.

“Mr Mushy! Boar! Guard the room,” she called and Delta watched as Mr Mushy put Deo back down on the ground from where Deo had been sitting on the large cap to watch Amanster’s struggle and cheer him on. Deo had seemed to enjoy how peaceful her monster acted after their... ‘duel’.The boar snorted and ran off onto the thicket of mushrooms, blending in.

“Francois, get them out of there!” Delta called as her Magic Goblin rushed down the hall. Delta had a feeling that they could handle themselves... it just didn’t sit well in her stomach to let people who looked a lot younger than she felt comfortable with face a danger she would be able slow down or maybe even stop.

They had come to adventure, not deal with the consequences of Delta’s harvesting missions. Deo might be able to kill them, Poppy and Amanster too, but it didn’t make it right.

Delta would rather ask first then assume. If one of those spiders got a lucky bite or something equally bad then Delta would have to see someones child die. A young life... snuffed out.

Delta gripped her hands into fists as the spiders burst into the far end off the room, the large arachnids scattering as Mr Mushy swung his fists.

“Mans! Come!” Francois called to the room as all three of the teens turned to the noise.

“Poppy! It’s a gob!” Amanster warned and Deo rushed forward, hesitating as he stared intently at the large fang-filled mouth of Francois.

“HAIL! POPPY? WHAT IS IT SAYING?” Deo shouted and Poppy’s hands were glowing softly.

“Mans! Master Core wants you to run! Come!” Francois said in a huff and ran back down the tunnel.

“It wants us to follow it. It said the dungeon said so,” Poppy said with a sigh as a spider flew overhead and vanished into a patch of Rutgot. Delta wondered if Deo just had trouble listening to things or he was too excited to understand.

“It’s a trap!” Amanster said in refusal and Deo looked down the tunnel. Delta tried to shoo them mentally as her boar tried to tackle the two spiders ahead of them and caught one in the side with his tusk. It turned and Delta winced as it buried its fangs into the Boar’s face. Her boar squealed, and they both crashed into a mushroom.

“Nyeh... those spiders are fighting the dungeon monsters. Something isn’t right,” Poppy said and walked down the tunnel.

“...We have to go this way anyway... Goblin or not,” she shrugged and vanished. Deo pointed down the hall with his sword.

“ONWARDS! TO GLOR-” he was cut off as the third spider that had been missing for the last few seconds burst out, fangs leaking a clear fluid at the exposed neck of Deo. Delta screamed but the insect glowed a dark purple colour and dropped to the ground as it twitched.

The purple energy flowed to Amanster’s outstretched hand.

“I hate this place,” Amanster waved his hands and looked over the Grove and after hesitating for a moment, sent the purple energy at Delta’s stumbling Boar. The puncture wounds on its face healed over and Delta watched with amazement as her Boar looked a lot better.

“Nothing makes sense, why are monsters killing monsters? Why is this place so weird? Where is Poppy?!” he demanded louder as Mr Mushy calmly grabbed the spider biting his face with one hand. He eyed it and Delta waved her hands.

“Hug it! Hug it!” she yelled and Mr Mushy made a pleased noise and began to hug the spider who flailed. Delta knew this would normally be an odd thing to request, but she had a feeling that Mr Mushy didn’t quite understand how to control his-

The spider popped like a hairy balloon and Delta covered her mouth in shock as Mr Mushy looked confused at his now empty hands.

Her Boar was charging his spider again but his face was covered in web that made him stumble, he tripped over a rock and the spider jumped on the boar, biting hard. Deo looked ready to rush in and help but Amanster dragged him down the tunnel, ignoring his loud protests.

“Mr Mushy! Help him!” Delta begged and the Spider took another bite before the boar stumbled to a standing position and then toppled back down as the poison in his system seemed to hurt him.

Mr Mushy swiped and the spider that Amanster had attacked stood up and rushed down the tunnel after the yelling Deo. The second spider made a break for it, narrowly missing Mr Mushy grabbing at its leg.

“Go! Please, help the humans!” Delta ordered and her large monster lumbered off. Delta wanted to follow but she sunk to her knees next to the Boar. It snorted weakly and Delta tried to pet it but she didn’t feel its fur nor did the Boar react to her touch. Delta longed to feel the touch of another creature. Especially now when her Grove Guardian wheezed as its body shuddered. Delta whispered softly to it.

“You were amazing... you were so cool,” she said and couldn’t stop her eyes from becoming hot and blurry as tears formed.

“You don’t even have a name and I didn’t spend time with you much... and I-I asked you to fight for me and you did. Thank you,” Delta choked out and the Boar snorted weakly and its tail whipped once.

Delta laid down next to it, her mind screaming she didn’t have time for this but it hurt to even think of leaving it alone in its final moments.

This was it. This was what it was like to be a dungeon. To watch those that she talk to, saw, felt happy to have around... die so this... game could be enjoyed. Delta didn’t like it, she didn’t like it at all. She didn’t check to see if the Boar was able to be respawned or if she had to purchase such a thing. Now it was too late and Delta felt like a horrible person for not even checking... not even able to do so now due to her guests.

The Boar closed its eyes and then before Delta’s own eyes, melted into a white mist and vanished. Leaving behind a large wooden shield with the boar motif on the front. The slightly jutting out tusks made look dangerous to hit someone with it.

“Boar... you dropped loot...you were... even cooler than I thought,” Delta whispered, cheeks blotchy as she stood, turning to hurry and catch up to the fleeing adventurers.

A menu appeared as she left the room and Delta tripped and crashed to the ground as she read it.

Ornery Boar will Respawn in 1 hour once the dungeon is empty!

Delta laid there for a moment and wondered why the menu waited until after she had her heart torn out before telling her this.

Still... Delta prayed that she never had to do that again. She promised she would check all monsters for a respawn option after this was all over. Even if she never got a second floor in a 100 years, Delta would rather keep her friends and cave critters. Shiny upgrades and a sprawling second floor just wasn’t worth the pain that she’d feel losing her friends.

She got up and zoomed down the tunnel.

----

Francois the second was not accustomed to many things that had happened in his short life. Being created, he had a rough idea of things he was supposed to do and things he was supposed to kill. When he became an Apprentice Goblin that list evolved to things he had to deal with, things he chose to deal with, and things the Master forced him to deal with.

This was one of those things his master made him deal with.

“To the towers! Spiders coming!” Francois yelled as Billy the Goblin Archer hesitated at the sight of the humans but shot down the tunnel at the approaching spiders. He turned and pointed to two spots.

“Sticky trap, follow me!” he ordered and began to weave between the traps and up the hill.

“Nyeh, that goblin is a mage... do goblins speak to people?” the girl in the large hood asked as she shuffled up the hill as if goblin-eating spiders weren’t just about to enter the room. The fire headed child rushed up and cheered. His voice made Francois’ ears bleed. The last one, the dark haired man with glasses and a scowl to match the ‘Quiss’ man stalked up the hill.

His aura was dark and foreboding. It also smelled of strawberries. It was an odd combination and Francois turned and aimed his staff down the hill as the first sight of a hairy leg appeared.

“Burn!” he cackled and fire erupted from his staff, making one of those beasts scream. Fire was wonderful, fire was powerful, and he rather burn things than be forced to talk to them. But if his master wished him to be nice and polite...

A box appeared for the umpteeth time since he evolved, and he growled.

Would you like to evol-

Francois waved it away as Billy fired another arrow into the spider that rushed up the hill, sliding as its legs hit the first trap and its body was sent off balance by one of the legs suddenly not moving.

Hob and Gob threw rocks, and they squished into the spider's body. The second one used the first spider to jump and reach the tower with agility only a truly desperate creature could manage. It got one leg up and Numb the thug slammed down on it with his toothy club. The spider slid down and crashed into the first one.

“Nyeh... Salamander Style: Fireacid,” the girl said with the energy level of the various mushrooms that sprouted around the dungeon, which was to say not very much. The result was interesting and Francois enjoyed seeing the bubbling red liquid splash down over the tower like a stream off boiling oil.

“POPPY THAT WAS AMAZING! RIGHT, AMANSTER! WE’RE WORKING WITH GOBLINS!” fire head pointed out to the dark child who just gave him a look that Francois could respect.

A loathing, annoyed, offended, and a pinch of done. Francois could really respect such a look. He readied another fireball as his Master’s voice came to him.

“-ucking dramatic menus. My cheeks feel puffy...” she sniffed and Francois stood straighter, trying to show how powerful he was to his master.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

One of the spiders, missing a leg and looking deformed around the eyes due to the fire vomit jumped again and Francois engulfed it in a fiery explosion midair.

“Okay, that was cool,” Master Delta complimented and Francois looked smugly at the other goblins but then Billy shot an arrow through one eye of the final spider. How he did such a thing with those wonky arrows was beyond Francois.

“POPPY! DIDN’T THEY SAY THE DUNGEON WANTED US SAFE? OR OUT OF THE WAY? WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS?” the child screamed and Francois pleaded for his master to go mad and command him to end the child’s noise one way or another.

It never came and the hooded girl just looked to be thinking.

“Obviously, you idiot, the dungeon was only playing and might have a deal with the elders of the town. We could be in massive trouble since it’s had to waste resources to guard us or put up with our antics. If they find out then...” the dark child trailed off.

“The dungeon doesn’t want us dead. Nyeh... sounds like we caused it hassle...” she agreed and the child with the death wish spoke again.

“AH! WE OWE THE DUNGEON A LOT! I HAVE 6 COPPERS IN MY POCKET AND A HAM SANDWICH IN CASE OF HEROIC BREAK TIME!” he offered and Francois knew it was the best tribute they had got yet. The fact was both sad and annoying.

“Send Hob to finish that spider off with Numb. Oh, and send Gob back to the Grove for the shield, please. I didn’t know Boary could respawn nor that he dropped loot! Did you?” his master asked and Francois rolled a few answers around before picking a nice neutral evasion.

“It sounds like nice surprise, master,” he bowed his head and Delta sounded pleased.

“Sorry for making you do all this work but I really wanted make this place a kind of place where people can learn and grow and not die because they were used as meatshields,” she explained and Francois watched as Numb and the sound-breaking child shook hands and seemed eager to outshout each other, he felt his eye twitch.

“I mean it caused Boary some trouble as well since I should be preparing better and I guess that was me just being... pig-headed!” His master snorted and Francois felt that he should burn this world. Just one little spark in the right place...

But... no. He needed to be nice and he needed to be diplomatic.

Would you like to evo-

Francois bit down on a scream.

---

“I see... have you looked everywhere?” Quiss asked as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. The woman in the blue dress and white petticoat just nodded.

“....everywhere,” she answered, voice so soft and tender it was like a wind sprite dancing past his ears. Next to her was a man who just looked concerned.

Mr and Mrs Brawndo, parents of one Deo Brawndo, looked worried but they voiced their concern in the most silent of manners. Quiss just handed them a piece of paper and a pen.

“Write things down, it’ll go quicker,” Quiss tried to aim for polite but ended up sounding sleep-deprived and cranky. The next couple actually spoke and each word was like nails to the back of Quiss’ eyelids.

“Well, I got up for my energetic four am jog around the village when I saw Amanster’s room lacked the usual gloom about it, so being the number one dad, I knocked and waited exactly 12 seconds, kids need their space after all, and opened it to find that he was gone. It was odd because the sun would be out soon and Amanster had declared it his eternal foe but I think he just stays up all night summoning cantrip level demons,” the man beamed and Quiss felt the urge to go back to bed rise up.

Father Wollom, number one head priest of the town and among many, many other things, was the father of Amanster Wollom. Quiss just smiled, lips cracking at the effort.

The man was also a saint level cleric and could smite him off the very spot he stood on should he feel so inclined. He handed him a piece of paper and went to the last two people.

“Alright, Quiss? You look like shit,” the gruff man nodded and Quiss felt some faith in humanity return at speaking to someone normal.

“Garn, you look like something a bear spat out,” Quiss grunted and his Wife nodded at him.

“Peace Keeper Firesmasher. I hope the day finds you... dull,” she said curtly and Quiss gave her a long look.

“Madam Roth, I hope you stub your toe,” Quiss responded with equal politeness. Garn and Salli Roth were the parents of one Poppy Roth.

The girl wore a hood so big ,Quiss was expecting her to start chanting and hitting herself with a plank of wood any day now.

Poppy was also a rare Blue Mage. Not a skill that you could learn, only be born with. Well, besides the mutated one offs that sometimes happened when people cosplayed as a monster for too long.

Or the few body modification doctors in some cities but they were more often used to rid oneself of a bothersome birth trait ability or embarrassing growth. Not everyone liked to turn into a dragon, not everyone liked to attract animals when they sang in the shower. And everyone bar hardcore witches hated warts of course.

Three kids. Where, oh, where could they be the day after Quiss announced a new dungeon just outside of town?

It was a puzzle and one Quiss would normally allow for people to figure out themselves but with Delta involved, things could get really weird.

Well, the dungeon sounded like she was on top of things, Quiss could only hope she could control the three teens long enough for Quiss to get there.

---

“I, DEO, CHALLENGE YOU, SIR PIG KNIGHT!” the boy screamed and Delta went to her happy place. It was filled with people that didn’t rush off and didn’t challenge her battle-lusting boss.

“Fair intruder! I accept! Now, we must set the rules... due to my master’s screaming,” Fran coughed and Deo just looked puzzled.

“Rules? Did you say rules?!” Amanster said as he crawled under the flailing Great Mushy.

Delta had forgotten that... Mr Mushy had never met his cousin. In fact, Mr Mushy was so happy to meet his evil, demented family member, he was hugging it with cheerful noises as the Great Mushy hissed in fury.

“Nyeh... this dungeon is weird but it’s nice...” she yawned. Fran pointed his spear at Deo, who held the new shield that dropped from Boary.

“Now, my master says that you can start at any time and you may forfe-” was all Fran got out before Deo charged.

“FOR GLORY!” he yelled.

Delta looked at the absolute chaos happening around her, three teens fighting her boss on one side. The screaming/cheerful mushrooms on the other and Francois was screaming at thin air over by the door leading to her core, while the rest of her goblins were sitting in the stands cheering Sir Fran on.

“No, no, no!” The goblin mage yelled at the air as if trying to make something go away, the act looked familiar...

But... no one was dying. Fran took careful swipes and made Bacon do a rather obvious charge towards Poppy. Deo landed on the pig’s butt after a flying leap and tried to grab at Sir Fran.

Bacon then showed what happened when a pig devoured too many Gutrot mushrooms in a short period of time.

---

Quiss stormed onto the dungeon as his mood grew darker. He came up short as three goblins... of various size and class, carried the three moaning teens out to the dungeon entrance hall.

“Darkness... take me,” Poppy whispered and Deo groaned quietly.

Amanster just didn’t move.

“Master said, they do well,” the gob with the little green hat and bow said. Quiss watched as he had three teens on the ground and only two hands.

“What happened?” he asked, reaching down and doing a quick check on their vitals.

“Bacon did a gutrot,” the fur covered gob muttered. Quiss didn’t know what that exactly meant nor did he have any inclination to find out, the smell wafting off the teens gave him an idea sadly.

“Is Delta around?” he requested, not wanting to even think about the damage these kids might have done in a single night.

All the goblins looked up at the same time.

“Master apologises and says she did best at watching them,” Arrow Gob shrugged. The usual mouthpiece, Francois, didn’t speak. He appeared to be sulking and glaring at something.

“The shield?” Quiss nodded to the wooden shield Deo refused to let go off as he drifted in and out of awareness.

“Screaming man earned loot...and Master congrats him,” Francois grumbled and turned to walk away.

“Hey! Do you have any carts or something. I can’t carry three teens on my own...” Quiss lied and Francois’ ears twitched.

“Master offer Hob and Gob... they leave dungeon... if promise to keep them safe,” the goblin added slyly and Quiss raised one brow sharply.

“Delta has contracted monsters?” he questioned, impressed and Francois just grinned and walked away.

“Master has three... thanks to you,” was the last thing Quiss heard before the goblin turned the corner. Well, if he didn’t have three teens to look after and a deep desire for his bed, Quiss would go after the smug goblin and shake it a few times to find out what the hell the bugger meant by that.

“Sure... I’ll keep your gobs from trouble to the best of my ability as a Peace Keeper,” Quiss promised. He wasn’t a very good at being a Peace Keeper, but he prided himself on doing well in the glare and intimidation department at least.

Two goblins ran out and looked at him.

“You are...” Quiss began and the goblins nodded.

“Hob/Gob!” they said and Quiss liked their quick-to-the-point attitude.

“Gob, grab the dark one who is beginning to twitch, Hob, grab the one who is still talking in his sleep,” he ordered and picked up Poppy.

Just bringing two contracted goblins back to the town that had at least three retired Goblin slayers seemed safe enough. Quiss guess it couldn’t hurt. Who knows... maybe he could make the little green guys do some his work for him before they had to return to the dungeon.

Contracted monsters changed everything. It explained how Delta was forming so fast. Still, the gobs were most likely unaware they’d never breed or even noticed how they no longer had to eat.

He definitely bet they hadn’t noticed how much they felt the need to protect Delta when the dungeon had people in it.

Most of all, Quiss bet the goblins were not aware of how many monsters, crazy people, animals, demi-beings, lost golems, and depraved lonely men would kill to take their place. Being a slave to a dungeon held a certain appeal to a lot of weirdos.

He just needed to talk to Delta before any humans offered themselves to her contracts. He had to make sure she was aware of the danger.

How much Delta could influence them and how much they could change her in turn.

21: Flaws and Thorns

Perhaps it was the silence. Perhaps it was the after effect of Deo.

Delta couldn’t say, but the dungeon felt more empty after everyone had left. Hob and Gob gone to help Quiss carry the teens back home to the nearby town. As soon as they had gone various things began to be absorbed.

Broken Metal Sword Tip absorbed!
3x Black Forest Spider absorbed!
Ham Sandwich absorbed!
6x Copper Coins absorbed!

Delta felt a little spoiled, but was just happy that none of this came at the price of one of the teens’ lives. It took a moment for her menu to form the results of the gains.

Low-grade steel Equipment has been added to the research menu! 18 DP
Ham Sandwich added to items! 4 Mana
Copper enhancements have been added to the research menu! 13 DP
The following upgrades have been unlocked for the Common Silver Spinner Spiders:

- Leap: Give the ability for your spiders to leap a small distance: 3 DP

- Devour: Able to make web much faster after eating: 8 DP *Cannot be food made from the dungeon.

Delta felt bloated as her mana soared from 54 to 79.

Now, normally she would be panicking, running around like a chicken who was on fire and maybe be about to also explode, but not today. Delta knew exactly what she was going to spend her mana on. It was a clear weakness in her dungeon, something the spiders had used to their advantage, and something that Delta just plain wanted.

Frigging doors.

Delta started at the entrance chamber. She placed the door just a little in and it formed like sand from the ground up until she had a door that looked like five uneven pieces of wooden planks nails together with a single wooden beam across the top and bottom. The hinges looked liked stone. All in all, it was a crappy door that Delta could imagine Deo pulling off its hinges like some comedy skit as he got too excited.

But, and Delta was pleased to remain positive, it wasn’t just one door she was going to be adding but ten! Delta rushed around, placing doors at the entrance and exit of every room. Excessive? Delta didn’t really care if it meant future spider attacks were slowed since they lacked thumbs.

Or would some monster spiders have thumbs?

Would Delta be assaulted by Spiderman? She hoped not, her pun game might not be up for the challenge. Delta placed her final door after the goblin camp and stretched with relief. Sure, she was down 40 mana but her dungeon now had the first set of barriers!

Curious, she held a finger to the door.

Simple Wooden Door:

- Upgrade Wood to be more solid: 4 DP

- Upgrade Door to be armed with a Low-grade trap if opened. Pitfall trap. No other trap useable for harmful results. May still specific other traps. 8 DP *this upgrades affects this door only.

- Make slightly decorated door: Requires Copper research

- Upgrade doors to be reinforced with metal bands. Requires low-grade steel research

- Upgrade door to have a lock: Locked until Key item is found... Or made. *The menu apologises for the bad word play and can only blame the dungeon.

“Come on! I’m hilarious!” Delta argued but couldn’t help but enjoy the little comments being added to her lists. She paused to think on that.

“Menu, what are you?” she asked aloud and a window appeared.

I am the Mana Enchanted Notification Utility.

Oh, well that explained nothing. Delta flicked through her menus as she hummed.

“But why are you helping me?” she asked a moment later. The menu paused for a few seconds before answering.

This dungeon is rather stunted. It lacks common knowledge and the ability to operate the most basic of mana procedures. If the dungeon were a living being, it would not know how to breathe. I am here to help you.

“Thanks? I think... Well, I’m glad you’re here, do all dungeons get a menu?” she asked brightly as she eyed the research list. Locked doors sounded useful for later.

I do not know. If we meet another dungeon, I will inquire for you. Now please purchase something, your Dungeon Points-

“Delta Points!” Delta grinned as she argued. It just felt nice to speak to someone without a mouthpiece.

Dungeon Points is the correct term.

“Delta Points are better, plus I am Delta... not ‘the dungeon’,” Delta reminded and the menu flickered.

Renaming... Delta. You have 82 DP. It is advised you spend them in preparation of next... invasi...attac...visit.

Delta wasn’t sure the menu knew how to deal with her chosen method of human interaction. So, she purchased both the copper and the low-grade steel researches.

That opened up a lot... of things.

Copper decorations are now able to be formed instead of wood or stone.
Copper locks and keys can now be formed.
Copper coins may be created.
Copper tools may be created.
Copper...

This menu will just sum up that the Dun... Delta maybe do a lot with Copper.

Low-Grade Steel researched! There is a lot of upgrades here. This menu will store them appropriately into the proper menus for you. I will list important features.

L.G.S weapons and armour can now be formed.
L.G.S items and decorations may be formed.
Steel spikes added to the trap menu and may be added to future traps and more upgraded traps.

Delta smiled at the menus added comments. It was odd to see text gain some semblance of a personality but Delta just took that as a sign of how little she really knew of this world.

Looking down the list again, she would be hard pressed to see where she would use spikes. Outside of the normal useage, Delta couldn’t find any.

Maybe as a deterrent in front of the core room? It had to have a flaw or no adventurers could really pass it. She put her nosey finger to it.

Steel spikes: Adding this trap to a wall or floor will cause a foot long spike to shoot out and pierce the clumsy or slow. 10 mana

Delta made a face but hesitating she spoke aloud.

“Menu, what can be used as a trigger for a trap?” she asked and a window appeared.

Pressure plates
Tripwires
Time running out
Lack of key item
Sensors
Destruction of an object
Number of people
Breaking a rule

There may be more but this menu lacks more information.

Delta was impressed by the sheer ways one could trigger a death trap but thinking back to her gaming days, she could remember all of these happening in one game or another.

There was one that stuck out...

“What’s a rule?” she pointed to it with a unsure voice.

A rule is a special enchantment that may be placed on a room. The people who enter are told the rule and must obey or suffer a consequence. A rule cost, at the very minimal, well into the hundreds of mana to sustain and hold. They can be abused or have loopholes as no one rule can be perfect.

“So, if I made a rule that a all people who had to enter had to quack like Waddles until they left that would be...” she trailed off as the menu chimed.

Rules that affect people cost far more. They are the epitome of the ability. It is easier to place rules on objects or task.

“Ah that makes sense. So, solve this riddle or say the right word and the door opens! A puzzle room that doesn’t require setting up pressure plates...” Delta paced as Francois entered the room core room.

“Master, the dungeon been invaded by mimics! Doors have appeared everywhere!” he warned and Delta blinked at him.

“Francois. I put the doors there,” she said calmly and the goblin looked at the orange orb.

“But... they look bad! I thought they were bad mimics so I hit one and it it just fell apart...I... set it on fire,” he shuffled backwards as Delta’s mind went blank.

“You... burned my new door?” she repeated slowly.

The menu at her side shifted.

Goblin Apprentices: Tend to set things on fire

Oh yeah... it did say that before. Delta just inhaled and went to replace the door near the pond. They weren’t crappy. Just... rough. Delta grumbled as she respawned the door and with a huff upgraded the doors with the solid wood upgrade, dropping her DP back to 47.

The door in front of her and near the spider room glowed as the shoddy wood creaked and became much tighter packed together. The actual wood itself became sturdy and Delta guessed it would even take some serious blows from the spider to budge them if they could be properly closed.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta put her hands on her hips and smiled, pleased by the result. There, now Francois could stop-

“MASTER, DOOR CHANGE SHAPES! I PROTECT YOU!” Francois screamed, the smell of burnt wood filling the dungeon once more.

Delta turned and stomped down the hall.

“Menu. how do I strangle my monsters?” she demanded.

Delta needs an avatar of sorts. A basic projection would not suffice to interact with the world but it would allow them to see you.

Her anger melted away with sudden blankness... her emotions hiding behind the veil of cotton, unsure of what she just heard.

“Avatar...?” she repeated.

An avatar: The ability to project yourself into a physical shell that interacts with the dungeon. The most basic will give you a floating ball of orange light to match your core. Only Monsters will be able to see you.

“H-how much?!” Delta demanded and the menu was quiet for a moment.

It is not a matter of cost but requirements. To develop such an ability needed the dungeon core to grow. A core grows when new levels become created. If your desire is to have a body to talk with... the guests. Then I advise you to seek more levels.

Delta stood there for a moment. To talk... to greet, to smile, to... ask people not to attack.

It had only been three days and Delta was going mad. With no sleep, she was constantly aware of what she couldn’t do.

To think if she just got new floors, she could speak to Deo, laugh with Ruli... throw puns at Quiss.

It was a temptation she couldn’t resist.

But she needed at least 200 DP for the next level. That was more than she had at any one time. Delta wasn’t worried, however. She clenched her hands into fists and marched forward.

Delta was going to be the best damn dungeon in this world, the best, safest, friendliest dungeon in the world.

First... she needed to stop Francois from burning down her dungeon. Second, she just needed someone, anyone, to stop by and help her out.

At this point, Delta hoped it was anyone.

---

Holly Dabberghast was not one for wasting perfectly good sunlight. She smiled at Von the Banker as he fled from the first rays of the sun. Ah, such a lovely man. Like a Louna Tear, the man bloomed best under the moon’s touch.

Holly hummed as she walked through the town, basket on one hand. She nodded to people as she passed, knowing her cheeks were their usual rosey red. Holly couldn’t help her naturally cheery complexion.

Holly hummed as she stopped to pick up a Pippypop. A common daisy off-shoot with a rather bitter smell. Holly put it in her basket and kept walking. People would call the plant a weed but Holly knew if it was cooked at a low temperature with some goblin spit, it made a lovely poison. Not that Holly had much use for poisons besides the odd insect purging. Still, it was relaxing to brew these days.

She smiled as Haldi appeared from the shadows and quickly entered his shop, something wriggling in his hands. That reminded Holly that she needed some cheese for tomorrow's dinner. Her Dayre Cups blossoms were done for the season and Holly couldn’t count on them for any fresh cheese. Quiss walked past, arguing with two little goblins. Holly watched as one drooled and Holly patted her pockets but sighed as she had left her collecting tubes at home.

Ah well, next time. At Quiss was making friends, even if they were a bit odd.

Holly went past the baker and stopped to sample today’s selection. Velki the woman behind the counter stood to attention.

“Early as usual, Mrs Dabberghast, the suns only just come up,” Velki said politely and Holly knew the woman was one of the more recent arrivals in town. Holly liked her, the poor dear was clearly nervous about being in Durence and it showed in the way Velki didn’t meet anyones eyes.

Yes, well this town did have that reputation. Holly beamed on, hoping to show Velki a proper neighbourhood welcome.

First, she felt down with her magic and strangled the growing brickabrambles that would begin to dig into the woman’s shop and do untold amount of damage. Holly loved her plants, fungi, roots, thorns, mutant tomatoes, the occasional dryad party, and even the odd tree boss, but she wasn’t going to ignore how much some people just weren’t equipped to deal with them.

“Velki, your shop smells amazing. You must rise even earlier than me to have all this done! Are you by chance a secret baker of the Taua Mountains?” Holly teased and the girl blushed with a pleased expression. Holly eyed a desert that looked like it was jam spread over a strawberry. It looked good.

“No, Mrs Dabberghast, I just learned in the capitol! It got expensive so I moved here... I think my teacher’s teacher once served a hero back in the day but that's about the extent of my history. I... didn’t expect this town to be so...” Velki suddenly blushed and Holly smiled, the dear is was a Blushing Bride Bloom in human form.

“So like the rumours? Don’t worry, just be yourself and you’ll find a place in this town of your own! I’ll scrounge up some old recipes from people and see if I can help you take advantage of the more unusual markets around here!” Holly promised, her curly black hair falling into her eyes before Holly brushed it back.

Velki looked deeply pleased and handed Holly the desert she was eyeing.

“Then I insist you take this for your troubles,” the girl said, looking away and Holly accepted the gift. Ah it was like the good old days.

Help those in need, get the treats. Holly would have to make sure Velki became active in solving her own problems where she could. It wouldn’t do if she started making requests of the wrong people.

Holly encourage the Sweet Suckles on the roof to grow faster, it would cheer the girl up a tad.

Saying their farewells, Holly continued down the road to the outside of the road. She picked several more plants as she spotted them and headed out of town towards the forest. Quiss’ announcement was certainly a good one.

At first a dungeon did seem highly bothersome until Quiss told them about it’s good nature. Holly hummed loudly, several bushes and trees around her, swinging to her tune.

Dungeons did contain the best plants and while Holly didn’t expect too much from the new dear, any hints of good growth would make Holly’s life interesting.

What if it grew Divine Saint Beans? Queen Jewels? Oh, it could even maybe grow legendary-but-unwanted Death Blossoms.

They were a bit gothic and had a habit of spinning their flowers around, firing seeds at people in a perfect circle as it hissed. In return, one could escape death in some fashion for a period of time.

Holly Dabberghast also knew that if lacking options... one could influence how a new dungeon grew by giving it a particular set of tributes. It was highly frowned upon as it could rob equal opportunity from other adventurers and job classes but Holly didn’t see any harm in allowing a dungeon the option. Webs, mushrooms, goblins, mud...

This was nature aligned dungeon for now and Holly was all too happy to keep it that way.

Well, the first floor anyway. The dear could have fun doing what she willed with the others. Holly had put scrambling down 70 floor dungeons on a shelf as soon as she had her first child.

It was one of Holly’s best memories. When her water broke in the dungeon during the final boss, the dungeon had been so freaked out it had the boss murder itself so Holly could leave faster.

She should send a letter to it. It had been some years. If Holly remembered right, the Fairplay company had set up shop and the dungeon wasn’t able to grow past its current floor due to the company preventing it from doing so with their meddling.

Holly let a frown appear and nature went quiet around her.

If one man never left the dungeon or took shifts... then the dungeon could never improve itself. The bosses respawned regardless of people being there or not, the company took advantage of that...

Holly had remembered seeing the complete map, trap, treasure, secret tunnels, and all sorts of unsavory things available for people to buy.

People flocked to the building like Flesh flies on dung.

Holly sniffed once and then tried to let it go.

That dungeon was still there, it hadn’t broken itself in frustration. Holly could only hope something happened and the dungeon kept people out for a long time... the sheer mana pains the poor thing must be in.

All that mana and no place to use it. It would be hell.

Holly paused as she looked around to see she had been surrounded while she was in deep thought. Ten or so hungry black dire wolves. Holly looked over her shoulder and saw another 3.

“My dears... now is not really the time,” she said disapprovingly and the lead wolf snarled as he met her eyes.

The rest growled and Holly saw some still had blood on their muzzles. Holly wondered if this was really how her day would start...

But... she looked down and saw a rare Fedut Bud.

“Well, this is just perfect,” Holly smiled and the one wolf barked and snarled, sending drool dripping down one side of its face.

“You see.. This little beauty can live off water, sugar water, some ales, some wines... and blood. So, let me tell you little cute things something,” Holly put a hand to her mouth to hide a smile.

“You think yourselves the crows who have found a wriggling worm just so juicy. But you see... I am no lovely worm. I am a root that you’re nibbling at. You see, where you annoy the root, the tree gets angry,” Holly warned and the wolves all began to circle her.

“And you wouldn’t like my tree angry,” she said, voice sugar and poison. A wolf lunged and a solid wood spear pierced up through the ground and out the other end of the wolf.

The ground rumbled as Holly’s guardian, ever following, ever silent, broke free of the soil.

Holly bent down and stroked the rare plant as it became very well watered.

After a moment, she hummed and walked off to the dungeon entrance.

22: The Greenhouse Effect

Delta took a moment as her mana jumped up because of the new day. Until she had a clock or sent Hob or Gob out to watch the sunrise, Delta just had no idea what time it really was.

With a decent haul of 41 mana, Delta could really dig her teeth into some ideas. But she took a moment to sit down and just... relax. There was a very real urge to just not think about what happened in the last day and keep building, upgrading, researching, absorbing...

It was escapism and it came with a handy menu. Delta returned to her boss room, just to have some company as Fran and Francois... Cois, talked.

Cois was bragging about the spider he set on fire and Fran was laughing his little butt off as he listened. Delta smiled, happy they weren’t just doll-like creature's who stood around until it was time to kill.

It made Delta care about them and feel better about just taking a break. If she just kept rushing blindly ahead, things could get worse in many ways.

“First... the spiders,” she said quietly to herself as Fran began his own tale of the ‘Bacon Explosion’.

Hob and Gob took their eggs, thinking they were berries or such. They hatched and escaped, possibly telling the other spiders. Delta could see how that could look bad and maybe even show Delta that the attacks may be warranted out of fear or some need to protect their young.

But... there was something Cois and Quiss had let slip over the the last day.

Monsters were drawn to dungeons and Delta didn’t really know why.

“Menu, why do monsters attack dungeons?” she asked, not sure the extent of her aid’s knowledge of the outside.

I can only speak of the spiders you have defeated. They were not ‘feeling’ vengeful or furious. Merely hungry. Even in the short time, the ambient mana in the air around them was less. If they had stayed long enough, they may have begun to devour your mana points. I suggest eradication of the extreme measure upon their next visit.

“That’s... well, for one that’s dark. Two, monsters, not my ones, but actual monsters feed off mana?” Delta felt like someone had said that to her...

I can only hypothesis on the events that transpired. Even the hatchling spiders used your mana rich air to hatch quicker. It was rather interesting timing of the spiders hatching just as the goblins brought them into the dungeon. I would ask the guests know as Ruli and Quiss. They have knowledge. Normally, I do not think this would work, but you are strange and do not operate on logic. It is vexing and it is interesting.

Delta smiled and leaned against the dungeon wall.

“I try. Thanks, Nu,” she said and stood as Bacon’s eyes lit up as a lumen mushroom popped into existence. Those handy little things were beginning to grow places as well, unlike the unspeakable evil, they were super handy.

Nu?

“You know, Me...Nu. I name everything, it’s a coping mechanism for the fact I have no mouth and must pun,” Delta declared proudly. Honesty was the best policy.

Delta didn’t want to pretend that the fact she was a powerful, monster-making, magic building dungeon didn’t bother her. It was one thing to lose an arm or a sense.

This? This new existence was heavy and Delta could only unpack things one at a time. There was a lot she had been forced to give up and thinking on them before she felt ready just wasn’t a good idea.

But as long as she didn’t lie to herself, she would... find some peace one day, if something else didn’t break her first. It had only been a few days after all. Delta took it as passing a test of character that she was doing so well already.

“Alright, now the people,” she began to pace and felt better.

Ruli, Quiss, Deo, Poppy, Amanster, and a supposedly whole town of people. How does those affect her?

Well... so far it had been nothing but a good experience. People had been nice, Deo had been funny, Ruli was awesome, and Quiss gave her a duck, indirectly.

But there was a whole world out there.

A whole world...

“Nu, what is this world called?” she asked quietly.

I do not know. You are my world.

Delta spluttered and waved a hand at the screen.

“Nu, you can’t just say things like that!” she protested and the menu chimed in a low tone.

Say what? My existence extends as far as your dungeon goes. I can only know the way things work and what happens in this gauntlet of... fun. Logically, you are the extent of my world knowledge, geography, history, development, entertainment...

Delta patted her cheeks, the action more real than any actual body part she may have had. Nu was just so... oblivious.

“Nu... you’re a boy menu,” she grumbled and the menu didn’t respond but the simple grey box flashed and turned a perfect shade of blue that was the copy of Quiss’ coat.

Match found, Quiss is a male. I shall emulate his plumage if that is your desire. I do not have the vocal ability... or the desire to match Deo.

“That’s not what I... you know what, how about we just... go spend some mana and see what we can improve?” she offered as the menu opened to the various sections.

Agreed. You must be the very best.

Delta bit her tongue as words instantly tried to slip out, a tune playing in her head.

“L-l-li...” Delta sweated with the effort to keep it in as the menu went quiet.

“Torches! Quickly!” she commanded and a new box appeared.

Upgrades and purchases for torches:

- Upgrade simple wooden torches into stone sconces: 10 DP

- Allow torches to be relit after 30 minutes, if in condition to do so: 5 DP

- Allow torches to become carryable by adventurers: 3 DP

- Increase duration of torch life when being carried: 2 DP

- Add copper decoration near base: 5 mana

- Allow flame to be a natural blue: 3 mana

Well, a lot of this was for DP. It made sense as DP was the one time purchase and mana was the ability to reproduce the effect or item as many times as Delta could or wanted to. All in all, Delta could easily split her menu into two sections.

Purchasing menus for mana spending. Upgrades menus for her DP purchase.

It had an odd feeling to it that DP quickly outshined mana in a short time until Delta remembered one thing.

She only had one level and there was only so many rooms.

Having no monster slots left, Delta was basically wasting mana on small things which made it feel... subpar. Delta shook her head, annoyed at herself. When the next floor came she would be spending mana out the rear to populate it with monsters and traps. It would become precious again. Then it would roughly decline as she hit the max monster cap and room cap, then she would build up... get the next floor and...

Well, mana actually didn’t seem so bad once Delta gave it some thought. She went to Grove and spent some mana on making more edible mushrooms. Delta smiled as she left the room.

As time went on, more and more ‘special’ rooms would appear. They would take mana and make things. That was something Delta was dismissing far too easily simply because it was mushrooms. Special loot, rare potions... it may all be much cheaper in these rooms. Following that though, she opened the menu to the flat cost of just summoning a edible mushroom.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

4 mana for the same amount if she used her menu but only 2 if she grew them via the Grove.

Dungeon System? Meet Delta’s friend, her name is ‘Breaking The’. Delta tried to cackle but sort of ended up clearing her throat.

Until Quiss came back, Delta had no idea if more people would come ‘adventuring’. It was sad because Delta wanted to make coin purse with some coins but... something made her stop.

This wasn’t a video game. Monsters dropping endless money would destroy any economy in the long run. How did... this kingdom have any currency if they used coins? Delta pondered that for a moment.

Maybe dungeon coins had a tell? Maybe they just kept investing and building new towns and spread the money thin? Maybe people left it in chests in random places in the world and that kept things in balance?

“Nu? How different is real money to money I make?” she wondered and Nu appeared with a chime.

Coins made by the dungeon are mostly perfect, that may be a tell. Another is that the mana level of the coin is-

Nu vanished and Delta felt mild panic until she felt the awareness of life.

Someone had just entered the dungeon.

Delta turned and rushed to the entrance as some jolly woman whistled her way into her entrance hall.

“Hellllo! Deary? My, such a lovely scent already. I can tell I’m going to like you!” the woman laughed, her rosy cheeks making her look like she ran some frozen tundra toy factory. Delta had Cois rushing over already, slowed by the fact he had to open all the doors without burning them.

“Well, let’s see,” the woman read the signboards and put a hand to her cheek, a soft smile on her face.

“Oh, by the sweet roots of Mother Nature, Quiss was right! Oh, I can’t wait to see what you have in store for me!” the woman laughed and Delta felt herself smiling back as Cois slowly approached the tunnel.

“Oh, hello there, my good goblin,” the woman greeted and Cois cleared his throat and nodded.

“Master welcomes guest to the dungeon,” he said without Delta having to tell him to do so. He was improving!

He seemed to swat at something, like a fly that Delta couldn’t see. The woman peered at him.

“Deary, if it’s bothering you, just have the dungeon turn it off. I meet a talkative Ent once who for the life of me couldn’t stop playing with fire. He had the same problem. A hobby is a hobby, not a life commitment!” she laughed as if Cois was some old lady friend who had been around since forever.

Delta looked at Cois with confusion.

“Turn what off?” she asked and Nu might be handy right about now...

Cois growled.

“Box wants me to evolve,” he admitted and Delta blinked then smiled as the woman waited patiently.

“That’s great... right?” she tilted her head and the goblin tapped the ground with his staff.

“I... don’... annbe a Diplomat...” he mumbled and Delta took a moment to piece that together.

It was odd that her menus were locked but Cois’ wasn’t. That stank of potential game-breaking so Delta moved on quickly. Her goblin had unlocked a special evolution that wasn’t in her menus. Delta could only guess it was due to all the talking she was making the goblin do.

A diplomat goblin sounded handy and if Cois became one, then she could get one whenever it was needed. It also seemed to be free, so, all in all, it was an opportunity an only an idiot would pass up.

Delta smiled.

“I deny you that evolution,” she said and Cois shivered, looking around as if looking for a ghost. Cois was her monster, her defender, her voice to the people, but most importantly he was her friend. Delta would sooner eat nothing but mushrooms than forcing her monsters to be something they detested.

Delta didn’t want to be a murdering dungeon, so her monsters shouldn’t have to be something they didn’t want to be either. It was childish logic and Delta didn’t care. Cois hadn’t let her down so far so why mess with what worked just to fill out a menu or grab a small advantage?

“Master... thank you,” Cois whispered and the woman looked soft as she spoke.

“This dungeon is truly exceptional. I have forgotten my manners, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Holly Dabberghast, wife, mother, gardener, good neighbour, lover of life, and less impressively, an ex-archdruid of the Bloodthorn Forest, please allow me to enter your dungeon,” the woman did a little formal courtesy with her white apron and messy bun making the image more... real rather than silly.

“I... yes! I would love a guest!” Delta yelped as the woman’s eyes sparked with a green glow for a moment. It didn’t seem like a threatening gesture but one of assurance and promise.

Delta whispered what to say next.

“Master says welcome... Mrs Dah...Dabbah...Dabbahbahahgasp!” Cois stumbled over the long word, more nervous than unsure and Mrs Dabberghast bent down and shook the gobs clawed hand.

“Call me Holly. All my friends do, or at least I want them to!” she joked and Delta looked on with amazement as the dried flower in Holly’s hand seemed to ripple and flush with life, looking like it had just been picked off the ground. She slid the flower behind Cois’ ear and nodded seriously.

“Dungeon Core Delta, let me enjoy this quest. I bring tribute but I shall wait to give them so you may take them and absorb them just as I leave. No good leaving tribute on the floor! Hm, deary, you need an offering table. All the good dungeons have them!” Holly seemed to find good news in every shortcoming. Delta loved it.

---

Quiss was running, he breathed hard and the look on his face was enough to send people scattering out of his way.

Under both arms, he held Hob and Gob. Their slow run was only going to damn Quiss. Mrs Dabberghast was in the dungeon. The thought repeated itself in his head as flames leaked from his nostrils.

The damn woman was going to see those mushrooms, those spiteful spitting mushrooms and she was going to bring them back here and make him look for something in her garden again! Mrs Dabberghast only needed to see the creature... study it to make her own version.

Quiss saw Ruli ahead and the woman looked ready to stop him and talk.

No time! He put his foot down and the earth under her feet shot up and sent Ruli into the air where Quiss caught her with the aid of a wind spell and some luck. Quiss was three seconds away from sending Ruli into a garbage can but thankfully, she landed on his back.

“Quiss, what the fuc-” she was cut off as she looked down.

“Oh, hey guys. You Delta’s gobs?” she said, conversationally.

It was to Quiss’ shame that this was not the first time he had kidnapped Ruli due to an emergency. The goblins were new, however.

“Dabb...ghast! Dungeon!” Quiss shouted and Ruli pushed off his back and began to outpace him down the road.

“Holy fucking shit, move your blonde ass! That woman is going to turn my fishing spot into some Snapdragon hell!” Ruli said with horror.

Quiss thought of getting Mrs Dabberghast’s husband but decided the man would be too busy running the tea shop.

Besides, the man doted on his wife so much he wouldn’t be able to do more than give her a wry look and a shrug at Quiss.

Love, it was useless in the art of war! Quiss pounded the ground harder as he left the village behind. His mind chimed in about the Moon Clan. A long-existing group of mages that used the emotion love and other forms, as energy for their eye-melting beam attacks. Effective but Quiss would sooner drown himself in Delta’s mud than watch the same naked magical dress-up sequence 5 times in a row and listen to their religious speeches on love. Thankful- Sadly, the clan had been attacked by rabid demon rabbits that dug holes through their most sacred of texts a few years back.

They never could function quite right after that.

Who needed love when one had beer, a bed, fire spells to practice and Ruli to annoy. Life was perfect... well, not perfect but it wasn’t something Quiss found repulsive.

Then came Delta and so far, that had been a lot of problems Quiss couldn’t set on fire. Mostly due to guilt as Delta badgered him for rights and innocent questions of this world.

Now, Mrs Holly ‘Cursedthorn’ Dabberghast was doing a little visit...

Quiss wondered how it had all gone so... rightly wrong.

23: Nature vs Nurture

Delta thought Mrs Dabberghast was a little odd.

They way she hummed at the spiders and smiled at the webs.The way she enjoyed the Pond room with almost no words.The lack of judgement she had for the mudroom, despite the fact she knew exactly which platform was a trap and where each log would swing out form.

Then she had seen the grove.

“Oh, Delta, sweetie! This is wonderful, such a rich plump soil. The right moisture... oh, being a dungeon, it must be so lovely to control every factor,” Mrs Dabberghast said with a odd look. Delta blushed at the compliment. She didn’t want to tell Mrs Dabberghast her first reaction to unlocking the Mushroom Grove, it just didn’t seem healthy.

Mr Mushy walked out and Mrs Dabberghast seemed quite pleased by the sight. Mr Mushy was also rather pleased to see Mrs Dabberghast in return.

Delta watched as the woman’s hands touched Mr Mushy and a feeling washed over her. It felt invasive and warm, like a warm hand in the night Delta hadn’t expected to feel.

Nature Scry too high to resist.

“Nu!” Delta said in shock, she waited but no other menu appeared.

“I see... a clever creature. I see how it has used to have poison sacks. Hm... it’s Ent like, a mind attached to a plant,” Mrs Dabberghast hummed and the Grove seemed to perk up at her voice. In her hands were a dying Lumen mushroom and one of the Gutrot ones.

“Master says that she made them from small mushrooms. Spitters,” Cois added and Mrs Dabberghast nodded as if this was expected.

“I did sense a feeling of a second evolution. I would say it was at least a class 2 threat, a very good job for a level 1 dungeon,” she smiled and her words made Delta’s smile grow.

“T-thank you... uh... class?” she asked and Mrs Dabberghast nodded as Cois repeated the question.

“Monsters, humans have a bad habit of sorting things, you see? We sort out clothes, our food, our fellow humans, and monsters. A class 1 would be a wonderful goblin, a class 10 would be a demi-god of the forest about to show some wood cutters why insects are nature’s clean up crew,” Mrs Dabberghast smiled softly. Delta imagined that and tried to guess what her duck was at.

1? Was it based on killing power?

Cois repeated her question and Mrs Dabberghast chuckled as she moved through the grove, examining things as she went.

“No, it is far too easy to place things with power at the top. It is more... fluid. A lesser demon with the power to inflict paranoia on a community may have a higher rank than a demon that would just kill them all. It’s honestly based more on our ability to kill them. A feeling or a plague has no sword we may clash against, a God may have no heart we may stab, a curse may take too much to end...” she said quietly and then looked down at the ground.

“I think that in the end, humans are a class 15. We are a greater danger than any dragon or demon, to you, to us, to the world. In this world, I can no longer see why we exist and I wonder if such an answer exists...” Mrs Dabberghast said blankly then after a moment smiled brightly.

“But I think we make great pastries and I shouldn’t ramble, it’s very rude!” she laughed and then her eyes lit up as she spotted the only real plant in the grove.

“Delta, dear... a Wyin sapling. You cheeky girl!” Mrs Dabberghast smiled with true delight. The plump woman walked over and began to trace a finger over the plant.

“A Wyin Tree is a story of hope, did you know that?” she asked aloud and Cois repeated her shaking head. Mrs Dabberghast smoothed the soil out a tad.

“A woman who was to be wed to a tyrant, ran away with her lover. He promised he would return as he went off to kill the tyrant so the woman may be free. She never gave up hope or despaired in the nights that passed. She waited so long, she turned into a tree. To this day, she waits for him,” Mrs Dabberghast recalled and Delta wasn’t sure how that story could be hopeful.

Mrs Dabberghast chuckled.

“Many see it as a tale of sorrow but I like the woman’s wisdom. If you had to pass the time, become a tree! One could debate, since no Wyin acorns exist anywhere else, that the true tree exists in the forest of the myth. I have looked and never found it but... I could never get a acorn to grow in my garden. I wonder how you did it?” she mused and Delta peered down at the rather normal looking plant.

“Master said that she just took it and grew it,” Cois repeated her words and Mrs Dabberghast nodded.

“Dungeons can be such wonderful places. Such sights, ideas, life changing views. I have seen halls of metal, seas of gold, the stars born underground...” she said gently and then put a hand to her cheek as if sad.

“I have seen horrors. Dungeons that make every level a mockery of humans. Plants that burn and scream... Delta, my dear, you are truly a lovely creature. I hope... no. I know you will be someone to impress me. Life is a gift in this dungeon, your kindness a pleasure!” Mrs Dabberghast sniffed and Delta looked a little stunned as the woman stroked the Wyin sapling.

“How you can see us humans and choose to befriend us? I cannot thank you enough,” the woman said with a thick voice as she stood.

“Humans are great. They keep making me happy and they keep talking to me... I really like people,” Cois repeated her words again Mrs Dabberghast eyed the dungeon ahead then turned back.

“Allow me to sound like a woman who talks too much for a moment. You are a seed that is only learning, humans are not that great in the long run. If the numbers spoke then overall we’re not really a race you want to know. Some, Durence for example, holds some very lovely people. I will come back soon... I will make sure you keep this joy, if only for a little bit longer,” Mrs Dabberghast promised and Delta felt uneasy.

“Who would... what kind of people would be bad?” she asked and Mrs Dabberghast looked like she was thinking for a moment.

“If someone ever tells you they are from the Banore Industry... you should kill them,” Mrs Dabberghast said bluntly and walked down the hall and over the mudroom.

“Who are they?” Delta needed to know and the woman slowed near the Pond room. Her face hiding by her long curls.

“Dungeon Growers. Mad people who think they have a divine right to make you into whatever they want. You... perhaps it is too soon but if you ever absorb too much of something, you will be forced to take on its aspect,” Mrs Dabberghast admitted with a dark tone.

Delta froze.

Mushrooms. The word hit her hard as she fell silent. She had no control over the the appearance of the things and if someone had, for example, made her eat nothing but dead bodies...

Delta pushed that thought away as the woman left the spider room.

“Control your land. Dig deep and claim this world as yours. Your wit, as well as your power, will prevent these beasts from making you into their image,” Mrs Dabberghast smiled and left her basket on the ground.

“My gift... it was a lovely tour, my dear,” she laughed and left, her frame vanishing beyond the white barrier.

Delta wondered if the woman had intended for her words to make Delta uneasy. They had and Delta looked at the bare open gap that let people in. She had designed this place to be open, friendly, and safe.

The idea that people would force her to become some... idea made Delta queasy and a little scared of the open door. Nu appeared and began to list things as Delta just stared at the barrier.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Rose seeds absorbed!
Glowmoss absorbed! Lumen Mushrooms cost 1 less mana *Lumen mushrooms now cost 1 mana in the grove and cannot go any lower
Spotted Cap Mushroom absorbed!
Mideiel Fern absorbed!
Minor Silverleaf absorbed!
“Herbology and it’s roots” absorbed! All plant purchases have been reduced by 1!

Delta eyed the list and then took a deep breath. Mrs Dabberghast’s words had been somewhat dark, but... the woman seemed to care and Delta clasped her hands together towards the barrier.

“Thank you for the tribute... and the warning!” she bowed her head earnestly and swallowed hard as she straightened back up.

“I won’t... give up my joy,” she promised, recalling the woman’s words. The pain that had been briefly shown in the moment of Mrs Dabberghast lowering her guard.

“Nu? Why did a book give me a upgrade?” she asked seriously.

The book contains the proper manner of maintaining and helping common plants. It will take effort to create the perfect environment for plants and thus take less mana. I see this book was very well written and has a great deal of facts for this menu to take advantage of.

“But Ruli’s diary...” she trailed off and Nu chimed.

Diary is damage and ruined. It will take 5 DP to restore it.

Delta blinked slowly then smiled, then she giggled.

“Nu, you’re just the best! We need to do that right now,” Delta hummed and hit the confirm button. The menu screen flickered.

Ruli Darknessbane’s diary has been restored. All monsters that use the ‘Inner Soul Willpower’ will have its upgrade and mana cost reduced by 5.

“That is... good?” Delta tried, the words sounding confusing and Nu made a low twang noise.

I would expect so. It has several keywords and of importance to you. I expect that the latter is more due to your friendship with Ruli than any logical reason.

“Can’t lie, I kinda want to give Ruli her diary back and make me appear more friendly,” Delta grinned.

Nu suddenly glowed.

“Nu?” Delta turned and faced the screen fully as words formed.

Due to inspiration of “Deo” and “Ruli’s Diary” a final form of the Thug Goblin has been unlocked! Thug Goblins may become Fighter Goblins! Goblin final forms left naturally for Thug Goblin... 2.

Fighter Goblins: A goblin who use its fist to do devastating damage and has very good reaction time. Likes to do silly challenges that may or may not make this menu sigh. 30 Mana and 10 DP

“Nu... I can unlock evolution paths?” she asked oddly and Nu made a error noise.

I guess so

“Wow, great wisdom.” Delta teased and the menu screen rippled.

I am only moderately smarter than the dungeon core. I will improve.

Delta spluttered and waved her hands in the air.

“Did you just mock me?!” she demanded and the menu made the sound of bells tinkling. It faded without a word and Delta was confident that she just got laughed at.

Grumbling, she turned to her other 2 menus and examined them.

86 Mana and 92 DP

Delta rubbed her hands and wondered what she should do...

She eyed one of her new gains and smiled.

---

Ruli grumbled as Mrs Dabberghast waved at them. Quiss was escorting her back to the village like the ‘gentleman’ Mrs Dabberghast knew him to be.

Ruli was sure the woman just enjoyed seeing Quiss’ face twitch. The goblins at her side walked in and grew as power flowed through them.

Contracted monsters were always cooler on their home turf. It wasn’t so much something the dungeon gave them but rather a perk of the contract itself.

Entering, Ruli eyed the entrance chamber and the door in front of her. Delta had been busy.

It was also brighter... much brighter than Ruli’s eyes remembered. Looking up, Ruli spotted what she thought was stars.

It took a second for Ruli to see that it was tiny growths of white moss that glowed along the dungeon ceiling. This first tunnel alone mimicked the starry sky so well that Ruli momentarily questioned if she was in a cave at all... not some trench with the open sky above her.

It was pretty and Ruli followed it, the feeling of dungeon mixing with this soothing sight to make Ruli’s nerves confused.

Danger or... not?

Ruli looked into the spider room and saw more moss. The webs twinkled and Ruli watched as the room looked like some silver winter wonderland as the light above reflected off the tiny beads.

It was...

Ruli took a breath and tried to keep a lid on her smile. She rushed through the open doors and into the Pond room.

It was... Ruli laughed as the water only made the mossglow more pretty as it reflected the light perfectly.

Ruli sat down and then laid down on her back.

“Ya know, Delta? I’m not one for pretty words but... you really made this place into something,” Ruli praised the empty room and a warm breeze blew through the room as the black duck on the far side cleaned his feathers.

That was when a fish leapt out the water and it’s scales gleamed silver, the glow moss making it sparkle.

Ruli sat up and her mouth dropped open.

“W-was that... a metal fish?!” Ruli squeaked and crawled towards the waters edge. She could see nothing but odd shapes but her heart beat wildly.

A real prize! A challenge!

Ruli stood and roared to the starry ceiling in acceptance.

---

Delta just smiled as she reread the menu.

Steeltail Fish: An upgraded version of the common Whitetail fish. Due to coating the scales in low-grade steel, this fish can deal damage if used as a weapon. Delicious meat is inside for whoever manages to descale it. Type: Unique Evolution. Only one may exist per pond.

Ruli’s quick departure made her laugh. Delta was sure the woman would be back soon with her pole.

Delta would be right. Delta would also be greatly underestimating how much attention this one fish would get.

In the end, Delta would regret this on many leagues of water.

But she would also love it in many more ways.

24: Unruli

Delta hummed as she waited for the return of Ruli. The moss really was a nice touch, her once drab tunnels now felt really pretty. Delta had only left the mudroom and the boss room untouched. Delta felt that the mudroom was too exciting for the moss twinkling above and Fran had requested he keep his dark ceiling.

Delta wondered if the goblin would like something more interesting? Some statues? Some thorns around the edge of the room?

She would have to ask him soon but first she sent Hob and Gob back out to gather more things as they seemed eager to get back to work for her. Delta was pleased that they were happy to work so much. She eyed Waddles who slapped the Steeltail fish back into the water as it tried to playful smack Waddles.

The duck seemed happy in its alcove, using dried out tangleweeds as bedding. He didn’t seem to want anything or if he did he wasn’t being too obvious about it. The pond rippled and Delta pulled a thought out of her head about a fishing pole.

One could say she almost fished it out her mind! Delta snorted and spoke aloud to Nu.

“Can we make fishing rods or poles?” she asked and Nu took a moment to think.

Hm, not to the standard to actually take any pressure. This menu lacks the method on making a proper rod or how to use what materials we have as a line. Silver web may work but I do not know about hooks, reels, lures, bait... We need a template to work on. I’d learn nothing from watching your creation breaking over and over. I doubt you have the mana to waste so easily.

Nu was right. After the moss and the fish upgrade... she had dropped from 86 mana to 26 mana. Not a huge problem since Ruli would be back soon and her presence in the dungeon would help replenish that along with what Hob and Gob would bring back. Still, she had 26 mana to use..

Delta pondered what to do since her own knowledge on fishing was rather lacking and she didn’t want to murder anyone for the simple act of getting it easy.

After all, she was a pacifish!

Delta left the pond room trying to contain her laughter as she wiped imaginary tears away. She passed Cois who was dripping with mud as he stalked into the Pond room with a grumble. Delta smiled and then her mind pointed something out.

Delta hadn’t told Cois about the Steeltail! She turned but Cois yelped and there was a lot splashing and quacking.

Delta backed away and quickly fled down the tunnel before she risked getting involved. She hid in the Core room to think up her next plan of action.

Rare fish would encourage people to come and spend some time to get it. Free mana and everyone had a good time!

So what was her dungeon missing? It had decent doors, entertainment, Mr Mushy, glowymoss, mushrooms everywhere, a boss...

God, she sounded like the first forest dungeon of a video game. Still.. sorta the tutorial but also the part where people could grind. Delta didn’t want to be the boring forest dungeon! There was always a little maze or collecting fruit to shrink or grow plants to get around...

Her mushrooms were big enough! Delta heistated and knew that most of her upgrades for the dungeon were nature based and Mrs Dabberghast had only giving her more reason to grow that way.

It was really nice of Mrs Dabberghast to help her like that and Delta hoped she would come back soon. The woman’s words were alluring. Cheery, but mysterious.

Delta focused and thought hard. More monsters were an option but without a way to respawn them, Delta would just worry over them if more spiders came or people who weren’t so nice. Delta wasn’t holding her breath on a being on some magic land of nice people.

Delta didn’t even know the level of technology this world had. Fireguns, swords, and magic... It felt off and Delta wasn’t going to risk a poor Mushy to another fire gun wielding farmer. So, looking at what was left, she looked at her mana purchases.

Menu

Construction

- Corridor (50 ft): 10 mana
- Room (10L x 15W): 20 mana
- Goblin fire pit : 5 Mana

- Simple wooden door: 4 mana

- Solid Wooden door: 7 mana

Monsters

- Goblins(chosen beginner monster): 10 mana come equipped with stone bags.

- Goblin Thug: 17 mana
- Goblin Archer: 17 Mana
- Goblin Apprentice: 17 mana

- Mushroom Spitters: 13 mana

- Myconid: 27 Mana

- Greater Mushroom: 27 mana

Critters:

- Common Silverspinner Spider: 7 DP A simple black spider with a white line. Created 5 spiders per summon. These little creature's can add atmosphere and some free decoration to your dungeon. As basic creature's, they cannot evolve unless some unique element or being is absorbed by the dungeon.

- Whitetail Fish: 2 mana

- Steeltail fish: 10 mana, made with cheap steel scales and tastes good. One per pond

- Crayfish: 4 mana

- Yellow Belly Cod: 4 mana

Traps

- Low-grade pitfall: 5 mana
- Weak Tripwire: 3 Mana
- Sticky Floor Panel: 5 Mana

Delta whistled at the list, how much this once tiny list had grown, and at how scary that this list was still a tiny microorganism compared to some dungeons out there. Well, one step at a time. Epic dungeons didn’t form in a day.

Especially when they had sworn off DP filled humans for light snacks. Delta guessed eating the occasional animal-like monster wouldn’t be too bad. There was no reasoning with them, what else could she do?

Enslave them? Banish them? Force them to grow a conscience? Delta didn’t know and until she had some answer, she wasn’t going to stress over it. If they ran, Delta would let them go within reason. If they fought to the death then... Delta would deal.

It was bad enough her own spiders terrified her... having huge versions come hissing into the dungeon was making Delta all too happy to to have Mr Mushy escort them back out. Delta shivered at the memory of the drooling fangs and quickly banished the thought.

Back to the manner in the menu, she had a lot of options but struggled to justify them.

She could make loot for her monsters to drop but that was like asking people not to shoot you and then painting a giant target on your back. If people thought her monsters gave amazing things, they would kill them. It was the simple fact of going to a dungeon or being an adventurer.

Holding a finger to Cois, she saw a menu appear.

Goblin Apprentice (Cois)

- Evolve: no paths available

- Remove from active roster

- Become a Unique monster: 3 of 5 challenges completed.

- Assign to a room
- Issue a command
- Assign a job

Delta only wanted to see if she could equip her non-contracted monsters with weapons... she wasn’t expecting to have her world forcefully expanded.

“Nu? I... explain... this!” Delta said in a high voice and the screen appeared.

Is this not simple? I changed the larger words as best I could... It is really what it says on the screen. Normal summoned monsters can evolve... you do know what evolution is, correct?

Delta felt her hands twitched a she felt the need to strangle the smug screen.

“Yes, I know what flipping evolution is, I evolved three goblins and two Mushys!” Delta huffed as she felt her cheeks glow with embarrassment.

Indeed. Evolution is simple, choose a monster and choose the path. If you summon something and do not like it, you can erase it and make room for more monsters. You may assign a monster to one room so it becomes attached to that room. You can override a monsters thinking and directly command it to do something. It is not like avatar, the monster will simply cease active thought and act like a doll. It cannot carry out orders that are impossible or beyond its ability... like speak in a perfect replica of your voice or your vocabulary. Assigning a job will have the monster take part in a special room to enhance that rooms functionality. If you assign a similar monster to a boss, it will act as ‘Minion’ for the boss to use in battle but this depends on the boss and the boss room.

Delta was speechless. Nu was just dropping this all like Delta should have just know about this secret arcane knowledge on how summoned monsters can do way more than just hit things! Delta took a deep breath and when she finally spoke, her voice was calm.

It was very calm.

“And Uniqure monsters?” she asked, voice sounding pinched. This was all too much at once.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

I... don’t understand. I didn’t add- Oh.

Nu took a moment to look it over and then ding in surprise.

Your monster seems to be breaking from its mold. I... let me look at the information and number, please hold.

Nu went quiet and Delta frowned.

“Show me as well, I might be able to help or something!” Delta offered and Nu made a soft noise.

It’s best not to. Your cognitive range is-

Delta narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms as her voice took on a sharp tone.

“Nu, don’t call me stupid,” she warned and the menu hesitated.

Very well...

Then Delta’s mind exploded. It felt like fire erupted behind her eyes as she spun, normal walls of dirt flashing with countless tiny nodes that were all linked together. Glowing lines of blue, red, brown, black, green, and something she had never seen before rushed past. She toppled over as her eyes met a single Gutrot Mushroom.

How could it be just a mushroom? Each cell, lacking any other word for it, was a work of pure numbers and illogical reasoning. It was beautiful and it was horrifying. Parts were as simple as 1+1 made a number that stretched on forever but it also didn’t.

Its cap was a working lattice of mana and creation. Her mana, her creation. It pulsed and every second of every day of every aeon, this mushroom would be forever perfect and it was hurting her so bad. Delta wanted to scream but that was a thought. That thought was a perfectly calculated memory of a normal reaction of being Delta and it hurt!

Then it stopped. It was just a mushroom again. It was just the pest that she was used to seeing it as. Delta curled up for a moment as Nu appeared.

Are you well? I tried to hold back the heaviest of information.

Delta rocked back and forth slightly.

“N-Nu... I...” she hesitated and the menu turned a very soft shade of blue.

You are illogical. You do not think like a dungeon. You cannot handle the basic of the basic of the basic thought pattern needed to be a dungeon. But... in that illogical mind, there is great power. Do not think you are weak. I am sure if you were of a dungeon mind, we would still be lacking a boss room. Can you stand?

Delta thought about it, a phantom pain of seeing the sheer work behind having the ability to think, and then stood.

“Thank you, for turning it off,” she smiled weakly and the menu screen returned to its normal royal blue.

I am your menu. Your Nu, as it were. I am here to help because you are too sad of a case to be left alone. I will sully my good name to help you for a little longer.

Delta giggled at the slightly pompous words and the menu dinged away.

“What good name? I named you!” Delta argued and no screen appeared but Delta heard a distance dinging noise that Nu made when he laughed.

“Let me know when you figure out what’s up with Cois...” Delta said quietly. Looking at Cois’ menu as the goblin looked nervous at the air.

“Master? Are you hurt?” he asked and Delta cleared her throat.

“My own fault, please don’t worry!” she said, voice relaxed now that the pain was fading. She closed the menus, a little wary at the sight of them now, and decided to have fun with her mana. Taking it so seriously... would only drive her back to those numbers and those... not-numbers.

Delta also didn’t want to look at that one command.

Issue Command.

It translated to Delta as ‘turn your monsters into slaves’. If they were too stupid or you had no patience... then just hijack their mind and get on with it. It was sickening. It was horrible and Delta tried to look at Cois and imagine doing that to him. Watching those relieved eyes at Delta’s apparent good health and how she would feel if they just went blank... the cocky walk and the smile of real joy as sparks flew out the staff.

Gone like a candle snuffed in the wind and Delta shook. It was wrong. It was so wrong.

She jumped as Nu appeared.

I can remove it off the list, if you wish? The function will remain but you need not face it every time you open a Monster Edit Menu.

Delta nodded and then felt silly as Nu didn’t react.

“Please...” she agreed and before her eyes the menu appeared and it was gone. No more Command option. Like a bad dream, Nu had just made it go away.

Delta felt her heart stop hurting and she felt like she could smile again.

“Hey, Nu... before you go, how many tunnels can I have? I know rooms are maxed...” Delta trailed off and Nu flashed once.

Double the room number. You may have 16 tunnels. You have... 7. You gain a tunnel if you also unlock a special room. You only did have 5 rooms available on top of your core but then you unlocked the Grove and the pond.

9 more tunnels... and she had 26 mana which would come to about...

You can currently make 2 corridors.

Delta felt ideas pop into her head but Nu vanished and the guest emotion rolled over her head. Delta turned to see Ruli return with a large rod over her shoulder and a metal case at her side.

Delta was speechless as the woman had on some sort of abominable duck cap, a jacket with a dozen of so lures attached to the front, her big thick green boots that looked like they were made to stomp through a war zone, not fish peacefully at a cave pond. Her rod glowed and the hook glowed with a menacing light. Delta felt afraid as Ruli began to laugh.

“Ruli the hunter comes for the hunt of the night!” she announced and at her side, a familiar face appeared.

“IT IS I, DEO! I AM HERE ON PUNISHMENT UNDER THE SERVICE OF RULI!” the young boy beamed and Ruli itched her nose.

“Supposed to make you cut logs or admire nature or some crock but I need a someone to keep the fire going and fetch the drinks from the cooler,” Ruli said without shame. Delta smiled hesitantly as Deo pulled out a sack.

“I BROUGHT TRIBUTE FOR THE AWESOME TIME I HAD!” he yelled and Ruli winced as she plugged her ears.

She spun the lad and made him look at her face.

“Indoor voice, kid,” she warned and Deo paused.

“Alright!” he said very loudly and Ruli grimaced as the result.

“Quieter?” she sounded hopeful and Delta was sure she was pushing it.

“I am now whispering! I bet you can’t even hear me!” he called enthusiastically. Ruli sighed and walked inside towards the pond.

“RULI! HAVE YOU SEEN THE CEILING, IT’S GLOWING!” Deo sounded delighted and Ruli hid a smile as Deo tried to jump and touch the moss. Delta giggled as her monsters came running in response to Deo’s voice.

“Thank you for the tribute and happy fishing!” she called and both of them paused as they seemed to feel a warm wind or something.

“Glad you missed me,” Ruli mused and Deo slapped his hand on the wall and then slapped it down on a lower part.

“DEO HANDSHAKE! WE CAN DO IT FROM NOW ON!” he promised and Delta laughed so hard that she cried a little.

It was like she had friends outside the dungeon. Real friends who... treated her like a human. Delta walked next to them, pretending they were all going fishing together.

Numb the goblin thug was waiting for them and Deo rushed forward to shake his hand, confusing the goblin.

“Numb... why are you here?” she asked and Numb puffed his chest up.

“Me your mouth. Me SMASH WORDS WITH EASE!” he howled and Deo blinked as the goblin raise his club like some torch.

Delta looked around and saw Cois was hiding in the camp, away from Deo. Billy was napping in the Grove, snoring away atop a big mushroom-like some sort of colourblind smurf

It left her with Numb...

Well, he may be a bit slow but at least he wasn’t a numbskull!

Delta snorted and Numb guffawed despite not knowing why Delta was laughing. Then Deo laughed because he was just that happy, which made Ruli look at them both with a long face.

“God, it’s Goblin-Deo... a match to go with Goblin-Quiss...” she mumbled and her eyes lit up as the pond room came into view.

She made some high-pitched noise and pointed her fishing rod at the pond.

“Tonight... I hunt you, metal-fish! Servant! Pass man a Elemental Soda!” she called and Deo rushed to the metal case with a salute. Numb looking confused, saluted too and followed Deo like a puppy.

Delta sat down, head in hand as she just enjoyed the sight.

25: Slimers

Delta hummed. She paused and then corrected the tune.

There we go. Now she had it right, hopefully, one day soon Delta could find a way to record music in her head. What would she need for that? Magic song stones? A fully functional jukebox?

Delta giggled as she imagined adventurers inserting coins in a jukebox before a boss room to get the right mood. She would ask Nu about that. With the mana slowly filling up due to Deo and Ruli, she was having all sorts of ideas.

First, she would make Ruli’s diary in a restored state. From what she remembered of the menu...

Ruli’s diary: Holds many secrets and hints to great power, and many recipes for fish dinners. 15 Mana

It was oddly expensive for a book but Delta would gladly pay it for Ruli’s company. She could have made it before Ruli came back... But Nu’s world had rattled her a little. All those numbers, all those connections...

Delta shook her head as Deo cheered when Ruli pulled out another Yellow Belly. She growled as the Steelfish avoided her hook again. Ruli threw the fish back into the water as she chased her quarry.

Deo sang loudly as he turned the two fish on sticks above the campfire. The two fish cooked lovely and Deo licked his lips.

“Spin and spin, cook and cook. Lovely fish, cook for me! I am Deo and you are dinner, let us have a good time!” Deo’s singing voice was... Delta had no words as the little song flowed from Deo’s mouth. It was soothing and inviting while not being ear-breaking.

How was that? Delta wondered if someone had switched his normal and singing voice at birth.

Ruli flicked the rod back and Waddles slipped into the water and dived.

“Shit, can’t hit the Drake...” Ruli sighed but then aimed for the other end of the pond where a flash of silver briefly shimmered. The hook with the lure dipped and then with a flash of feathers, the hook vanished.

“Shit!” Ruli cursed as the rod’s line quickly began to disappear into the water.

“Damn duck just kidnapped my hook!” Ruli said loudly as Deo rushed over with two fishsticks.

“I CAN DIVE IN AFTER IT IF YOU WANT?” he offered as he bit off a huge chunk of fish meat. Ruli peered into the pond and then actually stuck her head into the water, she appeared a second later, long black hair drenched.

“There’s a flipping entrance down there, jeez. Delta must have found this room when she was digging,” Ruli spit some water out as she spoke. Deo looked puzzled as Ruli took her fishstick, rod on the ground still unravelling.

Delta was staring as the rod wasn’t running out of line.

“WHY DO YOU THINK THAT?” Deo wondered with another chew. Ruli tapped the fish stick against her chin.

“Dungeons can’t build entrances unless some serious shit happens, it’s one of the Weissing Rules,” she winked and Deo looked confused.

“Wising?” he echoed and Ruli sighed.

“Weissing, with an E. He was the one who-” she stopped as the rod scraped across the ground slightly.

It suddenly stopped and Ruli paused mid-chew. Something tugged and Ruli grabbed the fishstick with her teeth and yanked at the rod.

Delta was getting worried at the force of the tugs as Ruli’s arms pulled back hard. She was dragged forward a little and Ruli’s eyes went wide with excitement.

“To a ig ne!” she yelled through the fish stick and her legs spread out and with a muffled yell, the rod began to glow.

Then Ruli yanked and something big came rushing down the tunnel. The pond erupted as water rained down as a large form was pulled from the water. Numb began to scream as something almost crushed him. Deo picked up the goblin and leapt away as the campfire went out with a hiss.

The mossglow kept the room alight as the thing got to its feet. It was... Delta stared as the odd lizard turned with a large maw of teeth. It wasn’t an alligator or something similar. Delta could see it was more like a newt had emulated Godzilla and got stuck halfway. The round head and coral-like whiskers moved back forward as it sniffed the air. The blue body and black tongue made it look more monstrous than Delta cared to admit. On its head, two glowing orbs at the end of antennas suddenly blinked on and the room became lit up.

The black eyes locked onto the two humans.

Ruli walked forward, rod on her shoulder.

“Well, A Lure Lizard,” she muttered and the suddenly looks downcast.

“Lizards don’t count in the fishing contest,” she complained as Waddles resurfaced and hopped back into the alcove where it watched with interest.Delta’s heart was pumping like crazy as the biggest monster she had ever seen just came out of the second entrance she had dismissed. What was that tunnel connect to?!

“Run!” Delta yelled, trying to imagine how she would get her Mr Mushy across the mudpit, it couldn’t jump at all.

Numb trying to repeat her words but Deo was holding him like an affectionate pet as he watched with interest at Ruli. The lizard lunged with a snap and Delta screamed as she turned towards Ruli.

The woman swung the fishing rod once and the metal hook grew big enough that it could hook a car.

“Lizards... don’t count!” Ruli growled, red eyes flashing and the hook caught the lizard’s open mouth as Ruli swung so fast that Delta couldn’t see it move. The lizard was lifted off the ground and smashed into the wall. Delta shook as the impact hid hard on her walls.

Ruli yanked and the lizard was pulled back to the ground as the hook tore a large chunk of flesh free and Delta closed her eyes as blood began to pour out. She felt sick at the sight but she risked a glance as the noise died down.

Ruli unhooked her rod as it came loose from the Lizard’s brain. Ruli had gone in through the mouth and pierced the brain.

Ruli looked at the ceiling.

“Sorry, I spilt blood here. I know I said I came for fishing but... I had no choice,” she bowed her head and patted the creature.

“You can have this, I wasn’t after it,” Ruli grinned and pulled the fishstick out between her teeth like a cigar. Deo was cheering.

“AWESOME! THAT WAS AMAZING! YOUR FISHING ROD IS AT LEAST LEGENDARY!” he shouted with glee, hands waving as Numb was dropped to the floor and Ruli smirked.

“Yeah but it's banned in any official competition,” she said as she rolled the wheel and the line pulled back in, hook shrinking again.

Delta was looking at the dead Lure Lizard. It was...

Was it a monster? Delta looked at the entrance in the water. Waddles wasn’t gone for long... was that lizard in the tunnel near her entrance? Was it going to come in when Ruli was gone? Delta looked at the sleeping Waddles.

“Did... you save my gobs from that lizard?” she asked and the duck just kept sleeping. Ruli began to pack up.

Delta looked at the lizard and Ruli.

Ruli was amazing, Delta swallowed and remembered how casually she had Cois speak to her for the first time. Ruli could have killed him before he even had 3 words out. The woman had a legendary fishing rod and hung out with Quiss. There was something about that should have tipped Delta off about Ruli.

Now Ruli was leaving her a monster corpse.

“I’ll be back soon, I want to catch that damn fish on my own strength before long,” she grinned and cleaned the hook of her rod with a dirty cloth. Deo rushed up with the metal case and saluted.

“I WILL RETURN WHEN I AM NOT GROUNDED!” he promised and Numb looked unsure as Delta didn’t answer straight away.

“T-thank you,” Delta managed which made Ruli nod as she nudged Deo towards the entrance.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Don’t tell Quiss I messed up the fishing... he’ll never let me live it down,” she looked sheepish as Deo nodded with a deep look. Delta was also nodding.

After that event, Delta wasn’t going to piss Ruli off if she could help it.

Delta waved them off and eyed her menus as they reappeared.

Oh, that is good. Delta smiled and sent a small prayer of thanks towards Ruli and Deo for their gifts.

Gifts... Delta’s mind went blank for a moment then her mouth opened in shock.

Ruli’s diary!

Delta rushed Gob out after them in a rush.

-------

Old Lady Jose, or Milla to her fellow warriors, inhaled. Her pipe lit up and it seemed to be the only light in the dark of night. She was waiting near the gate entrance of the village. The town had two and they were, after much debate, called the ‘The Gate to Trouble’ and the ‘The Gate to Monsters’.

Milla liked it. It was simple enough to remember. Her pipe lit up and Geven Leafs burned. Her lungs lit up as a dark poison infected them and then instantly healed as the antidote was inhaled.

That was the beauty of the leaf, it both killed and healed. Milla was all about enjoying the most expensive time with the cheapest cost. Like being a village elder, she had all the perks but none of the real problems.

She sat down, made a choice, and then went home. She didn’t have to enforce the rules, didn’t have to write them down, didn’t have to remember them, and best of all, didn’t have to follow them unless her fellow elders made a fuss.

Corruption it may be but no rule really stopped anyone here.

Milla inhaled and her eyes stared into the distance. Power stopped the foolishness. Quiss could stop Ruli, Elder Pic could stop Quiss, and Elder Haldi could stop a lot of them. Milla pondered that for a moment.

This town was a happy accident.

Milla could stop most of them, a few select could stop her. Mrs Dabberghast had the advantage but if Milla struck first...

Eh... that was over. It was the old killer inside her still struggling to the surface. The Wolfbane of Durence was her name. It explained nothing to those she met or newcomers.

Sure, wolves were a problem.

It was always a pleasure to see someone’s face turn pale when Milla said she had never hunted wolves. The gate’s two lamps, so dim, moved in the wind. Milla looked down the road as her daughter returned with the child, Deo.

Woodcutting and nature enjoying. Yes, Ruli looked like she hadn’t done either. Her rod had lingering magical energy. Ruli had used the weapon recently. She moved the pipe to the other side of her mouth.

Ruli Darknessbane was her daughter and yet, the girl was the most disrespectful to Milla of the entire town.

Maybe leaving the girl in the abyss for a year or two was harsh...

Ruli talked loudly as she mentioned the angry manchild, Quiss. In her hands was a book that Milla knew was the girl’s ruined journal... it looked good. Milla smiled as she moved into the shadows without a sound.

They both screamed so wonderfully as she cleared her throat.

----

Delta moved quickly as her menu dinged.

Mana: 64
DP: 117

Her mana had been 79 but after gifting Ruli her diary back, it dipped slightly. Her plan was now going to be put into action! Delta laughed with a cheer as the tunnel just outside the Pond room began to empty out. It stretched and twisted up.

She hummed as Cois and Numb watched with interest as the ground just vanished. While Delta waited for it to finish. Delta explored her gains.

Lure Lizard Absorbed!

Lure Lizard Monster unlocked in the monster summon menu. Unable to summon unless the level is specialised. *This is Nu. To head off your question, a specialised level is a level dedicated to a theme or element. This monster requires a high level of water to exist as it lives mostly underwater and the Pond room will not hold such a creature. I suspect the first level is free of any such title. However nature-like it appears.

Slingshot absorbed! A gift from Deo. Rubber unlocked. Special upgrade for goblins unlocked.

Fairy Tale book absorbed! A gift from Deo.

A small knight statue made of wood absorbed! A gift from Deo. it seems well loved.

Delta smiled at the gifts. Deo was really a sweetheart. She was going to make this dungeon somewhere Deo could explore and have a great time! Her goblins were friendly, her mushrooms were aplenty, her boss farted, and nothing was going to go wron-

The tunnel finished forming and something flopped out the cave that the tunnel had ran into. A room, which made another room for Delta to claim.

Enemies detected! The room cannot be conquered until foes are defeated!

Nu warned and Delta looked down confused as something oozed out the room and over the other moving slime thing. It wasn’t cute, it wasn’t round, and it wasn’t slow. The wet looking corpse covered in slime shuffled back to its feet. Delta backed away as the empty eyes and mouth made a tiny shrieking noise.

“Oh, God. Oh God...” Delta moved slowly back down the tunnel.

“What... is that?” she whispered and Nu appeared with a warning noise.

From the book of Fairy Tales. Slimers: Lost children who fall into rivers and come back as algae covered corpses, they feed off the living. *Due to Hob and Gob, I sense a feeling of this ‘Hatred’ inside these Slimers. These are monsters. We can eliminate them.

Nu sounded eager and Delta turned, running past, screaming. The corpses were moving down the tunnel with a shriek. The noise hurt and Delta needed it to stop! A fireball hurled past her and the shrieks turned into pain noises as Cois screamed at them.

“Master does not want you! Master not see you as guests! Burn! Burn! Burn!” he laughed with a mad glee. Delta looked at her goblin and with shame, she ran behind him, scared.

The Slimers kept coming. Delta’s eyes went wide.

Were those things... able to breed? There was way too many of them! Delta watched as another burned. An arrow flew past by and Billy the Archer landed with a narrowed expression.

“Master... says begone,” his voice was raspy for a goblin. Another arrow stuck a Slimer’s knee and it fell over.

Delta felt hope bloom as Numb waved his toothy club with a wild look in his eyes. Her monsters... were going to defeat them. Delta stood up and... with a single finger, pointed at the disgusting things.

“Defeat them, keep my dungeon safe... get rid of these things for my friends!” she begged and her Goblins all roared in response. It was these things or the next person who would enter her dungeon. Mad monsters or a human life. The ones who won't listen or communicate... or the whos who treated her like a friend?

The emotions inside burned like the Slimers in front of her.

---

26: Special

Delta watched with a little fascination as the last of the Slimers fell into the mudpit. It didn’t take long for her to notice the small-algae covered monsters weren’t exactly... bright. The scraped at the walls and Cois, looking rather tired, blasted it with a fireball that was noticeably smaller than the previous ones.

“Don’t push yourself,” Delta cautioned and Billy growled as he ran out of arrows. Delta knew they would respawn but not for a while. The dead Slimers were already vanishing into resources and Nu was chiming every few seconds.

I do believe I have enough information on these monsters to complete a report. Your goblins have killed 7 of 13, a respectable count.

Nu sounded pleased, it was understandable. Delta could also feel the niggling of pride for her friends' battle prowess. Hearing the Slimers scream, even after they had long gone silent, had blackened her mood.

Slimers are not dead children. The fairy tale book was wrong in that regard but not in the source of the monsters. The shrivelled corpses are in fact adults but the real monster is the algae. It is controlling the body like a puppet, it sucks the moisture out of fresh corpses and replaces it with algae. My conclusion is that many children may have indeed fallen in the river, only to come back as Slimers, some with still recognisable faces. This inspired the story. If you look at your mud...

Nu’s words both relieved and confused Delta but she obeyed and looked at her mud. It took her a moment to see that the mud was losing its sludge element and turning into the thick solid ground.

“They’re draining the water!” Delta said in a tight voice.

Indeed, I believe this is how they kill. Draining moisture of their victims and using the husks to increase their number. I believe we were just unlucky to run into a nest. Also, I do think they can breed as well, Two of the corpses were pure algae, not remnants of people were inside.

The maws of black mouths and eyes looked up at her goblins, they were hissing noise, now more like sucking sounded out.

Delta couldn’t help but snort as the Slimers were stuck in the solid mud as they drained it of the water.

“Master... I have no more arrows,” Billy said regretfully and Delta turned, menu opened.

“Sorry... I can’t just upgrade your weapons. Nu, what can I do? Should I just make arrows for him or is there something I should try first?” Delta requested seriously. Nu seemed to think about it.

As for now, if a summoned monster attempts to use another weapon other than what they are summoned with... it will simply switch out with the summoned weapon. I do believe if we have such a room like a weapons shop or a blacksmith, we could increase summoned monster items. For now, I suggest fire.

Delta blinked.

“Cois is all tired out. I’m not sure what you’re getting at...” Delta said as a Slimer a leg off to escape the mud, it would still need to climb and it didn’t seem great at it.

Slimers burn very well as you may have noticed. We need not think hard, just anything will do. You do have 79 mana as of now... oddly is not decreasing. I will look into that.

Nu seemed to get distracted but Delta had gotten the message, she turned and spread her hands out.

Delta closed her eyes and breathed hard out once. This was needed, she had to do this to survive. Delta wanted to live, she also wanted to be a good person. Dead people couldn’t do any more good. If was flimsy logic to hide behind but Delta felt fear make her fingers shake. These Slimers scared her, their sucking noises and empty eyes. What option did she have for this, other than to defend?

“Nu, do we have anything for monster capturing or something, anything we can use to turn these things into something we can use?” she asked quietly. Nu hesitated only for a moment as if seeing Delta’s trembling hands.

No. I am... sorry. I know this pains you to be a killer. But this world is not kind enough to listen at times. They are not seeking a contract nor can you accept them all...

Delta nodded once. She opened her eyes and then clenched her fists. She looked down into the pit and saw all the Slimers were not gathering in some mini-hill to reach the edge, with 6 left, it wouldn’t take much.

“Thank you... for your tribute,” Delta whispered and filled the pit with torches. Spending a mana per torch, 20 of the flaming sticks rained down and the screams returned.

“Please... be free of that hate. Please come back somehow... and I’ll make your time fun. I promise! If I can come back... maybe you can? Maybe things can be different!” Delta called to the pit as the noises died down. Smoke rising as things began to vanish.

The rising mana and DP number only added to the weight she felt.

“Please don’t... hate me.”

The dungeon was brighter than it had ever been but Delta didn’t feel warm.

----

Delta watched as the Steelfish did some funny dance. Delta gave it a small smile. She was sure it couldn’t see her, maybe just feel her presence in the pond. Numb appeared, looking out of his element as he tried to sink to the bottom of the pond. His bulging cheeks and nervous shooing of curious fish made Delta sit up with blinking eyes.

He opened his mouth to speak but he choked and flailed. She looked at the Steelfish and sent it a command. It pushed Numb out of the pond who was still flailing on the sand. Hob and Gob laughed as their new equipment shifted.

Having an excess 89 mana, Delta knew she shouldn’t let it go to waste...

So both goblins got a stone axe and a wooden shield. Some rough wooden helms with a basic wooden armour piece. It did make them look slightly scarier but it was 20 mana well spent.

She was still 9 mana off due to her max being increased to 60 with the new room now conquered. So, she filled the room with glowmoss. Nu had tried to tell her something... but Delta needed time.

“Master! Room explored! Numb look but not find Slimes!” he reported with a heaving chest. Delta bent down and just eyed her silly goblin.

“Thank you... you don’t need to drown yourself, I can hear you if you just call for me,” she reminded gently and Numb saluted, sending a tangleweed flying into the face of Cois. It wrapped around his face and Cois wiped at it furiously.

“Master felt bad! Master need time! Cois said Master is good soul!” Numb repeated with a large smile that made him look... innocent.

“Umgh!?” Cois shouted, weed muffling his voice. He held up one finger and the thing burned to ash.

“Nasty weeds...” he grumbled and ran up to Numb’s location.

“Master, box is back... but I like this one!” he beamed and Delta took a second to understand. She opened Cois’ menu and sure enough, an option was glowing.

Cois has complete 5 challenges! He can now become a rare monster!

- Refuse an evolution

- Use your wisdom to do something other than use magic. Talk to humans! Survived certain death from Ruli due to words!

- Love fire
- Kill or help kill, 10 monsters with fire
- Have a name

Cois can now become “Cois the Pyromancer”. Do you wish to evolve Cois?

“Woah...” Delta’s dark mood was slightly lifted at the golden light. She reread the list and could see how some dungeons would struggle to do this. If they couldn’t name their monsters until floor 20... then a human had to name it. If a human named a monster then that meant it was dangerous or special.

Refusing an evolution? Delta was almost confident no dungeon would do such a thing at level 1. Delta grinned.

“Suck it! Delta is the best dungeon!” she boasted and then looked at Cois once more.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Nu, what is the ups and downs of rare monster?” she asked and the menu appeared slowly.

It is good to see you... feeling better. A rare monster is a monster that does unique things not common to that type of monster or does something very well. Cois may use earth or fire. However, due to some reason, Cois only seems to use fire magic. I wonder if this is a reaction to the mushrooms you fed him? However, a rare monster does evolve without a cost and can be respawned at any lair.

Three rare monsters per level are able to respawn. Second, they evolve into classes or powers not available to other goblins, even if they repeat the steps. It requires the right mind and soul to do it right. Third, they will create or produce soul drops that you did not create. This means if they were to ever die, you could gain a rare item for their death. Fourth, Rare monsters bring people to the dungeon, they are... rare so it brings attention. This may not be good for you, so I suggest creating a loot that Cois may drop if found. If nothing more than to fend off the curious.

Delta watched as the menu grew larger and larger as Nu rambled.

“So, Cois is going to be a unique, respawning, loot creating badass?” she summed up and Nu dinged in agreement. She hummed and eyed Cois who was dancing with excitement.

“Do you wanna do it?” she asked and Cois almost cackled with cheer. Delta couldn’t help but giggle with him. The mudpit needed cleaning and her values felt stupid as she hypocritically tried to stay peaceful while burning things alive...

But her friends made this moment feel okay.

“I allow you this evolution!” Delta shouted and Cois began to glow. The golden light engulfed Cois until even Delta couldn’t see him. Honestly, Delta expected a back-choir to pitch in and have random church windows smash as Cois’ transformation died down.

Delta felt her brows shoot up as they did.

Cois’ face was covered by a wooden mask that depicted an evil looking dragon. His loincloth robe was now a straw-skirt and a fur pelt that acted like a cape. Some red beast that had the colour of the new sun. His staff became blackened and the tips glowed with embers.

“Fufufu... power... power....POWER!” Cois crowed, staff erupting with fire. Then the Waddles, rudely woken from his nap, sent a wave of water at him with a furious flap of his wings. Cois looked less majestic after that as his staff steamed and his mask tilted to one side. Cois’ face had markings of red bands along one eye.

“Master...I wish to burn the duck,” he said with a growl and Delta giggled again.

“You look great!” she praised and Cois puffed his chest as Numb stared in awe at the mask while Billy eyed the staff with interest.

Delta held one finger to Cois.

Cois the Pyromancer (rare)
Loot:

- Ember staff: A staff made when lightning struck a tree and the goblin sitting on it.

- Mask of Mild-Alarm: startles those who spot this mask out the corner of their eye.

- Goblin Potion of Health(weak): A potion made with mushrooms as the key ingredient. People find it odd. I find it odd. Why mushrooms?

It really was amazing...

Delta followed her goblins as they headed to the new room.

If you’re feeling better, I like to state what I was saying before. I do believe we have found the reason for the numerous Slimers and a purpose of the next room. It’s Mana Spring!

Nu’s words made Delta hurry faster to the new room.

“A spring of mana? Like a fountain or something?” she asked and Nu’s menu kept pace.

A natural source of mana. Many exist and they come in many levels of purity and rarity. This one seems rather common but I do believe it will have a great boon for us. I mean, it made the Slimers gather in numbers.

Delta moved into the room and saw it for the first time. It was a rounded space with many trenches and alcoves. Odd stains of dark gain were still fading away but Delta could see where the Slimers had stayed in one spot for a long time.

It was around a single crack in the ground. It glowed with a blue energy and every so often, an orb of mana floated out of it. Patches of grass and tiny insects buzzed around it. Delta knelt down and stroked the ground.

“It’s beautiful!” she said with delight and Nu dinged in agreement.

Mana springs naturally increase the mana you gain each day. I do believe your increase is now... 12 a day. Instead of 2. I remind you that this spring is very common and may be found quite easily if one knows what to look for...

Nu’s words held a tone of victory and Delta also began to smile.

182 DP... 12 mana per day on top of guests and her gobs collection...adding any more spider attacks.

It was picking up and it wouldn’t be long before Delta would be making some very important choices.

“What are mana springs? Why do they exist?” she wondered.

From the book of Fairy Tales. The world is a giant seed. It leaks mana and works with life. A vein is just a collection of the great Seed's work. Extra mana that had nowhere to go after the seed finished making the world. The seed left them as gifts for those who dared look and aids for the dungeons that would turn the seed’s work into a world for the worthy. *After the Slimers, I add my scrutiny to this. It may just be excess mana found in pockets of earth. Common non-elemental mana is abundant.

Delta stared into the crack and narrowed her eyes. She then...reached inside.

It was... warm and then it was cold...It turned solid and Delta panicked for a moment until it suddenly became air.

The mana was cycling through states of being. It was everything, yet it was nothing.

“So, I have to make this a shrine or something?” she asked. She imagined the room as some church-like space that would draw people to stare at her glowing crack. Delta paused and after pulling the bad image out of her head, decided to just call it the spring. Nu seemed to chuckled.

No, I think we should make this the Storeroom. The Slimers have taught us a good lesson. Having the right tools at the right time is important. I think we should hide the mana spring from those who would syphon it with an excess of junk and tools for your goblins to use.

“Hide the treasure under the junk... Nu, that’s rather devious!” Delta grinned and Nu seemed to jingle.

No, it is simply efficient. I like that word. I think we should apply it more often when possible. Also, you have not checked the list we gained from the battle. I shall report now.

Slimers x 13 absorbed!

Slick algae unlocked!
Slimers unlocked for summoning.
New upgrades for several traps and plants available later when current options are upgraded.

Delta nodded and then bit her lip. Slimers as a monster could summon... The idea just sat with her, heavy.

“Nu, lock the Slimer option away so I can’t see it in my menus unless I ask for it or you think it will save a life, please,” she requested and the option faded from her menu. This made her feel better. Delta did wondered how many more monsters she would lock away in the coming days?

She shrugged and stood. Looking at the room, she knew exactly what a storeroom needed. Something that any good place should have for new blonde kids coming out the forest for the first time.

Pots... and barrels.

Lots of them.

Delta would not regret them per se... but she definitely did not see what crazed mania she would inspire in Mr Japes, the Potter of Durence in the coming days.

27: Levelling Down

In the end, she created shelves, crates, pots, barrels and a single chest.

It wasn’t a big chest or a small chest, but it was Delta’s chest and she was proud of it. The more she created, the more the ideas came to her. There was bound to be many things Delta ended up creating out of curiosity and not actually find them that useful. It didn’t look like she could actually destroy an item she created that wasn’t considered ‘Construction’ or one of her monsters. Delta found out, with some help with Nu, that things like treasures, sandwiches or even the odd club were unable to be destroyed once created. Nu seemed to think that was a good thing or too many new dungeons would end up destroying loot in the belief that it was ‘clutter.’

So, short of throwing them outside to gather dust and rust, Delta just turned the mana spring room into a Storeroom as per Nu’s advice.

The pots were just hardened mud with a rough texture and her barrels had gaps between the boards, and maybe the shelves weren’t exactly even, but Delta still felt pride in her efforts. She tried to make a pot with a fancy handle it came out looking like someone had taken limp noodles and attached them to a lumpy pot.

Delta named it “The first Pot” and it was saved into her menu as a new design. Nu’s lack of commentary told her exactly how bad it was. She spawned a few arrows for the shelves and looked at the torches that her goblins had brought.

The downside of making it rain fire that the torches were one of the things she couldn’t destroy. So, she had no idea what to do with 20 extinguished torches other than to dump them into one of her new barrels. She then had Numb pick up her batch of Edible mushrooms from the grove and put them in another barrel, any adventurers might need some food after all. He dropped a few in the mud but Delta could fish them out later.

She didn’t want to improve each one to reignite when she needed the mana to do other fun stuff.

“Come to the Delta Dungeon and get a free torch with every trip!” she tried aloud and her goblins shared a look as Cois muttered.

“And a frigging mushroom...” he said, nudging Billy who looked down with a grin. Delta just glared at them. Sure enough, several types of mushrooms were already appearing in the room. Lumen mushrooms made bottoms shelves glow with a pale blue light as the ever-present Rotguts. A few edible ones appeared and Numb plucked one and ate it.

Delta grinned a she thought of Bacon eating a lumen mushroom and shooting lasers out his rear... but then Delta hoped he wouldn’t. The first-floor boss had to be fair. It was just the rules. The room felt warm and Delta with a whim added a small lit sconce on the wall near the door. It sparked to life and shadows dance along the walls.

“Not good to give them torches and nowhere to light them,” she concluded then frowned.

“If someone burns my storeroom down, I’ll be pissed,” she added as she eyed the room. She placed three Healthy apples in the chest. Be a shame to leave it empty. If nothing else, Hob and Gob could run down that way if more Slimers appeared. Delta left the room before she filled it to the brim with things for people to use in a pinch.

Cois seemed to look back as if hoping the room would catch fire any second. Delta gave him a look, not sure how happy she felt about Cois’ love of fire growing hotter like this.

Ah well, everyone had their quirks. Delta hummed as she walked down the tunnel to the Mudroom and eyed the room. After it only seemed to catch Amanstar and the Slimers... Delta felt it needed something else...

First, she formed a trip wire above the logs. Someone had to be above 7 feet to hit it, so Delta was sure it be fine. This would catch people trying to take a flying leapt with magic or something. She had Numb throw Billy at it and the wire snapped at it slowed Billy down enough he landed with a crouch on a solid log.

Delta nodded, she didn’t want super faster speedsters being decapitated if they did a Leeroy. Still, catching a spider off-guard was always welcome.

Next, she took one of the sinker logs and applied a stick trap to it. It flashed and Delta honestly couldn’t see a difference between that log and another one. It wasn’t dangerous but it would add some risk to the room if people had fast reflexes.

These traps weren’t permanent until she tied them into the room but as prototype ideas... it was worth testing them out until she had the DP to spend. The stick trap looked like it had a few uses in it before it became defunct anyhow. That juicy 182 DP tempted her but Delta shook her head, using her inner-adult to remain stalwart in her goal of a second floor.

Overall, she still had 34 mana to mess with and Delta tapped her chin.

She could already see what would slowly become her biggest problem as a dungeon core. Choices. Should she do that thing or maybe those things? What if she did one thing and it unlocked a whole new world?

Delta was spoiled with choice and it was making things harder as her new life settled. She shrugged and headed to the grove. Delta guessed she could only do what felt like was a good choice.

Sure, she could have Nu go over everything in her dungeon, reporting what was valuable, what was needed, what could maybe make a mana generator 2000 but in the end, that just wasn’t Delta.

Efficient planning turned into perfect planning. Delta guessed it would be good for everyone involved but if she had to wait until something was a perfect choice then she never get anything done around here.

She patted Boary and flexed her fingers with a smile.

She opened the menu and selected a gift from Mrs Dabberghast. It was the mushroom and everything about it made Delta narrow her eyes with suspicion but she found on multiple occasions that item absorption did not carry a taste. Maybe it would taste great or maybe it was her new antiChrist? She did not know, after all, absorbing the thing did not taste of anything as it was mixed in with many other items at the time.

Delta may never know unless someone brought another one.

So, she spawned it, the thing only costing 2 mana. It sprouted off to one side as she read the menu of it.

Spotted-Red Cap: This mushroom is so commonly depicted in stories and artwork that the true name got replaced over time. It is charming if not completely mundane,  2 mana

It was harmless and Delta could appreciate it for being so.

“Welcome to the Grove, enjoy your home!” she nodded as the little round mushroom appeared. The white spots and red under skin made it look cute, like the mushrooms ornaments that old ladies put next to their gnome statues.

She opened the grove menu and selected the grove to start making some more for the dungeon. Delta guessed it was alright she could enjoy the nice mushrooms. It did give her dungeon a fairy kingdom vibe. She checked on the Wyin plant and saw nothing had changed.

“Do plants grow over time in here?” she asked and Nu appeared with a ding.

No. Not unless upgraded to do so. A room with a particular job could do it but I doubt we’ll unlock something like that for a while.

Delta guessed that was fair. She decided not to place the Mideiel fern or the Silverleaf plant until she had a better room. It would have to be something pretty cool... Delta grinned.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Maybe it would be a power-plant! Delta snorted and took a moment to calm herself

Delta hummed as she read her Grove menu.

Mushrooms:

- Produce

- Gutrot Mushrooms: 9 mana

- Crunchy Mushroom: 2 Mana. A slightly odd mushroom that, while not all that good, can provide some nutrition. Leaves an aftertaste that lingers.

- Lumen Mushrooms: 1 Mana

- Spotted-Red cap: 2 mana: rather mundane.

- Develop

- Develop mushrooms with weak hallucinogenic properties: 6 DP

- Develop mushrooms with deadlier poison: 44 DP

- Develop mushrooms with a peaceful air about them: 5 DP

Delta grinned as more options became available due to her adding the mushroom to the grove. Shame that it took new mushrooms to get it, however. With her tongue sticking out a bit, she swiped right to see what the actual room had for upgrades.

Grove upgrades:

- Have Spotted-red caps grow on their own in this room. 5 DP

- Allow Guardian to eat mushrooms to gain bonuses during battles: 20 DP

- Allow you to create crossbreeds within the room: 30 DP

- Allow Gutrot mushrooms to explode like mines if touched: 10 DP

Delta stared at the list. Cross...breeding? She rubbed her hands with a nervous gesture. Delta wasn’t sure if she wanted to take the first step down the evil scientist route. First, it was just harmless mushrooms, then it was mushroom monsters, then it was clicker fungus zombies! Delta shivered and took a moment to calm herself.

Some breeds would be helpful. If she used the Spotty caps as a base... well, then it would be fine and if she got the one that had the word ‘peaceful’ in it then Delta was sure she would avoid making eldritch abominations of the mushroom world.

“Sorry, Adventurers, your princess or prince is in another castle but let my fungus zombie eat your brain,” she said with a sigh. It was something to ponder.

Besides, she had Great Mushy and Mr Mushy, she was already skipping towards world domination via mushrooms. After the world ended Delta would just have to say that she tried her best to stop it.

Hob and Gob returned with buckets of items and Delta rushed to see what with excitement.

It was mostly the same. One bucket had water with tangleweeds and more of the same fish floating dead at the top while the other had more mushrooms and some grass. Delta watched as they became absorbed.

Windel Grass absorbed!
Little-finned Guppy absorbed!
Flint absorbed!

Delta watched as her DP climbed... and climbed.

199 DP

Delta felt a scream rise before Hob grumbled. He dug around in his shoes and pulled out an acorn that was lodged there.

“Toeses feel better,” he smiled and flicked the acorn to the ground.

It dissolved.

Elmish sapling absorbed!

Delta held her breath as she focused heavily on the DP screen. The 1 slid down to show a beautiful 200.

Delta screamed and laughed as she jumped about with her hands in the air. Hob and Gob looked confused but cheered as well as if this was what they’re supposed to do.

“Nu! I have enough!” she laughed and Nu appeared with a trumpet noise.

Excellent! No more waiting! Let us delve into our destiny!

Would you like to purchase the second floor? 200 DP

Delta couldn’t hold back her grin as she hit confirm and the menu vanished. Then the shaking happened and Delta became light-headed. She became... rather... tired.

Sleep. This... will be unpleasant and I cannot shield you from it if you are aware.

“N...u? Wha...” Delta began but her eyes drooped as a buzzing filled her head, she winced as her head felt like something was beginning to drill into it. It began to hurt badly and Nu appeared brighter in her face.

Sleep... Delta... sleep.

Delta slid down the wall as the shaking became more pronounced. Then darkness claimed her. It was blissful and pain-free and Delta hummed into her sleep.

---

Quiss grabbed his drink as the pub shook. Ruli looked around with an odd expression. Her red eyes met his grey ones.

“Delta.” was all she said but it was enough.

“It’s too fast, even for her,” Quiss argued back, the glass cracking slightly under his tight grip. Ruli just stood as best she could.

“One way to check. I’ve felt enough Floor Tremors to know what this is and it’s Delta. Girl is clever and has gobs, you need to stop underestimating her,” Ruli warned as Quiss downed his drink and began to follow as various patrons adjusted to the shaking and began to drink again. A buzz of excitement now filling their chatter as all discussion turned to Delta.

This wasn’t their first dungeon nor would it be their last. It wasn’t a rumble, then a roar then a rumble, that would point to Haldi’s cheese experiments going wrong again. Quiss shuddered at that thought.

Nor was it a rumble, screech, rumble. That would suggest Dabberghast. This was a rumble, grind, rumble. It was a familiar noise if one delved into dungeons long enough.

A new floor appeared and it had only been five days. This was beyond odd. This was now reaching bizarre territory and Quiss did not use that term lightly around here.

He nodded to Old Lady Jose as she climbed down the stairs from the second floor of the pub. Her posture was one of hunting and Quiss forced himself not to met her eyes. He licked his lips with a nervous gesture and left the pub quickly turning a corner so the woman couldn’t eye him as fleeing prey.

He rushed after Ruli. He tried not to pay attention to the group of others that followed. Too many old legends getting a taste of the excitement again. It was not a good idea, anyone of them could rip Delta apart if they got the urge. Quiss pulled his Peace Keeper badge out and stuck it to his coat. He hoped Delta would appreciate the fact he was about to do his job with some iota of seriousness.

He spent the next hour pushing and herding the public back to town...

Quiss hated working.

28: Guilty Roots

Delta dreamed of microwaves.

The machine dinged and Delta snorted awake in alarm. With a moment dedicated to remembering who she was, Delta blinked a few times. She felt... odd as she stood. It took a moment for her to remember she had fallen asleep.

Sleep. It had been something she hadn’t done since... before the demon child. It had been awhile since she had thought of that being. Delta yawned and grumbled as she scratched her back. Her first tunnel twinkled with the Lumen mushrooms. It was bright but she guessed that for normal people it was only a low level of visibility.

She felt lopsided as if something extra had been attached to her left hip. It took some effort as she walked to not turn and tumble. The extra ‘her’ had weight to it like a twin had been attached to her body but Delta felt none of the emotional attachment. She stretched her awareness and immediately pulled it back in alarm.

Delta had never known how to view her floor in its entirety but now, she knew. It made her mind spin as she stumbled. It wasn’t just up and down she felt but down and around and up and away. Her true self, the core, felt odd. Delta rushed to her core room only to see a staircase in the core room and no orb. Hesitant, she moved towards the stairs and felt her vision blur as space lunged forward. Her sight cleared on a new space, her core now relocated to some new area.

The Second Floor

This was the second... her second floor. Delta gasped as she stumbled. Her knees hit hard as she felt this new space, it’s unknownness hit like a hammer. Delta had never been this low or this deep. It was a new challenge, it was a new opportunity. It was... scary.

Delta gasped as she tried to stretch her awareness out and only to have the feeling bounce back after a single room. Delta climbed to her feet. She had... bought this. Delta had wanted the second floor. Why? Her confuddled mind demanded answers and Delta could only rub her eyes in response as empty questions rose.

Delta inhaled and looked around the lone core room. She had wanted this... to expand her options. Delta had wanted this because... it was good for...

What were their names? Ruiss? Quli?

No, that wasn’t right. Ruli! Yes, the woman who made Delta felt like she had friends! Delta took a moment to go over everything. She had come from... Eearth...Earth? Had she been reborn a Cellar? Dungeon?

Dungeon felt right and she took a few steps forward and felt stronger as she kept stretching her awareness. She was Delta and she wanted to be... good to the humans. This rang true and Delta felt her headache ebb away as the memories returned. She was a human and she did not want to kill.

This hit her so strongly that Delta almost fell to her knees again.

Once she felt strong enough, she stood on her own two legs. This was her second floor and it felt like a tiny dark spot in her mind, so empty... so unreal. Delta knew she had so much more space and with a tremble, she forced herself to return to the first floor.

The influx of information was almost overwhelming and Delta stumbled again.

-ear me? Can you hear me, Dungeon Core Delta?

That familiar ringing. Delta grabbed onto it with everything she had left. It was so exhausting to think, so hard to remember.

Delta grabbed the blue light and it flashed.

Restoring mental stability... 50%...80%....100%...I... am sorry. I seem to have unwillingly taken your personal numbers into myself upon the creation of a new floor. Are you feeling well?

“N-... Nu? Where am... I?” Delta rasped and the menu before her dinged.

The first floor. I relocated you here when not all connections reached satisfactory results. Forgive me if I upset you.

The words were empty as words could be but Delta sniffed as she felt the concern emanated from the simple screen. She stood and felt power return to her body.

“I... couldn’t remember who I was and I didn’t... I couldn’t remember you or the gobs or the people!” Delta wiped furiously at her nose. Nu was quiet for a moment.

Creating the second floor may have added stress to your good nature. I am taking the data in now and I promise... I swear I will retain your... I will protect you, Delta.

The words seemed to change like bad static as Nu seemed to force some words to change sizes.

“It’s okay. We’re here... and I feel okay. I think I’m going to be okay,” Delta took a deep breath to calm herself.

My word is my life. Sadly, you do not have access to an avatar yet. I am sorry. I know... you really wanted one to communicate with the guests. I will look hard into the next floor as best I can for you.

Delta sniffed back tears as everything came rushing back.

She felt happy to remember who she was. She felt sad to not have a working form. Delta felt so happy to have Nu.

It all mixed together and Delta sobbed as she tried to hug the screen. She felt some warmth before she opened her eyes to see empty air.

Please do not cry. I do not underQQ$Q$%. I am not equipped to deal with it. I am not equipped to deal with it. I am not equipped to deal with i-

I AM MENU. I Am nOt EquiPped to deal with this.

I wIsh I wAs.

Delta watch as her menu faded away for a moment. She grabbed at the air where it was in futility.

“Nu? Come back, I... didn’t mean to upset you!” Delta whispered. She tried a few more times to summon him but only got the basic menu. After a few moments of silence and fear, Nu reappeared.

I am sorry. Can we focus on what needs to be done? I wish to stay with you longer and can only see work as a possible option.

“Of course! What... Nu, tell me what does the second floor grant me!” Delta tried to order as best as she could without her voice shaking.

Everything was moving too fast and Delta felt scared. Her first floor had never scared her. It had always been a joy to improve, but to feel this? It made Delta afraid of looking too closely.

Delta was no dungeon at heart. Normal dungeons would take this change with ease but Delta struggled to even focus on it.

The second floor is the first goal of many new dungeons. This floor grants you the choices of a new monster and a new theme selection. Please choose before we continue.

Monster selection for the second floor

- Skeletons
- Burning Ember Sprites
- Frog tribesman

Theme selection: DP gained to allow the core to get a start on the second floor.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

- Heat caves: 10 DP gained

- Flooded mines: 10 DP gained

- Jungle floor (50% bonus due to the previous floor): 15 DP gained.

Delta blinked and reread the list. Several things jumped out at her.

First, the idea of having a burning anything near a jungle floor or a flooded floor was just silly. It was basically asking for a handicap. Having skeletons in water sounded like a good idea but Delta closed her eyes and the Slimers appeared.

Undead scared Delta silly, even by proxy. The empty gazes, the bare bones, the inhuman noises...

So she selected the Frog people and the Jungle theme by process of elimination. Sure, Delta could make the frog people work under water. But she felt a little attraction towards the Jungle theme due to one thing.

Her plant purchases would surely grow well on this level.

Delta felt more herself as she made an illogical choice and picked the frog people and the jungle theme. Her Core room flashed and the normal soil and wooden boards changed to a leafy green root floor and each corner gained an odd tree. Its roots formed the floor and its branches stretched across the ceiling as they grew rapidly. Smaller trees and dense thickets making up the walls of the room. A fog spread around her that she could not quite see through. But there was a feeling of distance there and luminous stones in the now very high cavern ceiling glowed with what almost looked like sunlight.

Delta gasped as the heat rose by several degrees and a thin wispy mist formed over the floor of the room. Delta wiped her forehead as she felt the heat get to her. It was still good to feel something other than awareness and dirt.

Delta bent down and examined the roots making up the floor of the room, they looked sturdy beyond reason and looking up, the ceiling looked very far away indeed. It made her feel so very big in her mind, like some unknown part of herself had awakened.

The mist? The trees? A benefit of buying this theme? Would the flooded mines have deep yawning chasms? Would the heated caves leak lava? Delta felt like she had purchased the right thing and with excitement opened the menu.

I am glad you are okay. Let me show you the gains of this floor purchase! There are quite a few.

Basic Frog tribesman: A simple frog monster with basic intelligence. It can leap and ambush foes with ease in this misty forest. 15 Mana

Mist: Highly humid air. It makes things hard to see and able to lure people into... non-lethal traps.

Jungle Bee: These are simple minded gatherers of pollen. The more plants and flowers on the floor the more naturally these workers will grow in numbers and efficiently. Its stinger may apply a paralytic poison. It will not kill. 13 Mana.

Delta smiled as she opened her map and her menu.

So much to do, so little time.

Delta tapped the tunnel button in excitement and it suddenly vanished. Delta blinked as the menu refused to reappear. The noise came from above and Delta followed the noise with her eyes and found herself on the first floor.

“-Uck you, get out before I make you,” Ruli growled at a young man with a large rifle in his arms. The man looked furious at Ruli’s attempt at preventing him from going beyond the spider room. His weak beard and rounding face made Delta guess he was younger than he wanted to appear.

“Miss DarknessBane, please move. This place murdered my father! He was stolen from us and the goblins murdered him. He deserves justice!” the man snapped and Ruli curled her lip.

“Your Daddy knew what this place was. He came in here after a pig. He knew what a dungeon was and what it could be. Your father was an idiot to come in here with a pistol. This dungeon only just woke up at the time and is still learning. It didn’t command your Dad to die!” Ruli pushed the young man back gently but even Delta could see how much effort it took for the man to remain standing. Delta covered her mouth as the man began to cry.

“Please! He was my Dad, he was my Dad... He didn’t ask to die, he didn’t ask for his pig to be stolen! He... I don’t want him to be dead!” the boy sobbed hard. Ruli stared him down hard.

“Delta would never have killed your father if she could prevent it. Dil, just turn around and get out of here,” Ruli begged. Dil just raised his gun.

“I am going to shatter her core, I am going to make her regret killing my Dad! Move!” Dil ordered, tears running down his face. Ruli just looked down, hair covering her eyes. Her voice was blank when she spoke.

“I can’t let you do that, Dil. Your Momma needs you, your little sisters need you. Go before Quiss see’s you here or hears what you’re saying!” Ruli snapped and her black hair began to move in some unseen wind. Dil sobbed harder, not making much sense as he gibbered on.

Delta fell to her knees, looking at the young man.

“I... so sorry,” she choked. Never able to forget the man who came in after a stolen pig, his death and fire crystal a boon but his death a stain on Delta’s soul. The warm wind blew through the entrance hall.

Ruli looked up and Delta could see her hard eyes.

“She’s begging for forgiveness. Can you feel it?” Ruli asked softly and Dil’s gun wavered.

“I...” he trailed off for a moment as he just cried. The fire rifle in his hands looking so heavy he might drop it at any moment.

“I am so sorry! Please... I would... I am sorry,” Delta pleaded and Dil just screamed as he fired at the ceiling in pain and anguish. Ruli let him, her hand on her knife going soft. Dil just kept screaming.

“Don’t say sorry! Don’t say so...rry. I want my Dad back! Give me back my Dad!” he screamed and his fire crystal went dark after a few shots. Delta felt the bullets like a sudden toothache, so minor compared to the pain Dil felt.

Ruli moved and Delta couldn’t even see Dil slip into unconsciousness. His eyes slipping back as Ruli’s hand moved back from his neck.

“Shh... sh...” she whispered as Dil let go of the gun and fell into Ruli’s arms. The dark-skinned woman looked up to the ceiling where the bullets had made large holes.

“I know yo- I know you would do better. Give him time. I am begging. Don’t judge us or him because of this. He is just in pain,” she called and cradled Dil like a child. Delta could only mumble more apologies.

Ruli nodded as the warm wind hit her again. It seemed like she was extra sensitive to it.

“Yeah. You’re too nice for your own good. Listen, I’m going to get Dil home. I’ll be back soon and, I get it, I understand,” Ruli smiled weakly as she began to move towards the entrance.

“You’re a dungeon and people die. Even with a nice dungeon like you. Don’t take it personally,” she said as she passed the white barrier but Delta was too numb to call after her.

Delta did take it personally. She took it very personally.

Dil... Delta would make it up to him. She didn’t know how or how long but Dil and his mother would never have to struggle again as long as Delta was herself.

They... deserved justice.

Delta sobbed as the memory rushed over her. She had killed the man and she had buried the memory under progression and upgrades. The guilt hit hard and Delta fled to her second floor where things felt more numb. It wasn’t until the next day she could gather herself and put her redemption into action.

29: The Jungle Room

With a purchase of her mana, Delta made a new signboard as she felt her mana rise with the 24-hour period. It was time to stop moping and start to do something. It was slightly escapist of her to slip into a ‘dungeon mindset’. Delta let it slide for the moment as she let the feeling drive her forward.

The board above her tunnel was simple.

“To the farmer who raised Dil, I am sorry.”

It was messy and held only a percent of the guilt Delta felt but it was all she could to do for the moment. She promised she would do more in the future to make sure Dil saw how bad she felt. Something to really show how she really felt towards the death of people in her halls.

Horrible and sad. Delta eyed the sign and nodded as she moved down the tunnel. It would take time and DP she didn’t have for now. But she promised to make a proper memorial to the farmer soon. She didn’t care what it took nor did she care how long it set her back for.

You did... No. Is my reason faulty? We will try to make an area for this man. I feel this is a thing you desire.

“Nu... alert me when something of ‘memory’ or ‘memorial’ becomes unlocked,” Delta ordered quietly. Nu dinged in compliance and faded.

Delta inhaled and tried to gather her thoughts. There was much to do and she really didn’t have a clue where to begin. Her second floor and her first floor had much to improve and begin. For now, she had mana to waste as Hob and Gob went outside to gather more materials. It would keep her resources high in the in DP department.

With 53 mana and 20 DP, she didn’t have tons of options. She decided to split the numbers between floors for now.

DP for the first and Mana for the second.

Delta moved to the second floor, where the only room was her new Core room. The room which held her core before now became empty and Delta wondered what she could do with it. Standing in her core room, Delta opened the menu.

Second-floor menu:

- Create tunnel: 10 Mana

- Create room: 20 mana

- Create main room: 80 mana (this seems to be a main feature of the Jungle Floor Theme. When purchased you get a room several times larger than the normal ones, allowing for massive amounts of space to decorate, place traps and so on. Might make for a central hub area, a long great hall or an impressive entryway into the floor.)

- Upgrades from first floor able to be applied.

Delta paced as she plotted. Her second floor only really had a Mana cost for now. She quickly checked and found that no monsters could be placed or come near the stairs that traversed to the first floor. Delta could see the same white barrier that protected the main entry from when she tried to place a trap or a monster.

The main room was obviously interesting but with a cost of 80... Delta could only hope her gobs could bring back a decent haul. She needed at 27 mana to buy it... she could make small rooms for now and raise her max Mana limit but that also seemed like a time-consuming issue as buying 2 rooms only gave her 75 mana.

With 12 mana regen it wouldn’t be terrible... still, she wanted to get a move on and make good on her word to redeem herself and her bigger goal... find the demon child.

“Nu, are there any more methods of finding mana springs?” she asked with a business-like tone and Nu appeared with a flash.

Not that I can see. I feel like those able to sense Mana in its basic form would help but even Cois is more likely to sense fire-element Mana than basic. Perhaps ask Quiss? He seems able to use magic.

Delta hummed as she paced. If she needed to wait until she had 80 mana then Delta would simply ask Ruli for some tributes or Deo. They both seemed likely to help her if she simply asked. Ruli especially if Delta added more rare fish to her pond...

Until then, Delta looked up at the simple iron staircase that kept her floors separate, she would do good where she could.

First off, her first floor needed some upgrades...

---

Ruli watched as the old woman pulled Dil into the house. The farm was beginning to look a little let go. Ruli popped a mint-rock into her mouth and turned to walk away. She closed her eyes as a tug pulled at her cloak.

“Miss Ruli, where’s Daddy?” the young girl’s voice asked and Ruli looked at the young girl who held a rather ugly goblin-doll. It was ironic and Ruli didn’t waste thought on why that was.

“Sorry, little one, he ain’t coming back,” she said bluntly the girl’s face puffed up in anger.

“Momma said liars are bad!” the girl accused and Ruli couldn’t even feel the kick aimed at her shins. Ruli let it happen. It was good for people to let steam off, Ruli should know. The girl ran back to the house, throwing the goblin-doll into a muddy puddle as tears leaked from her eyes. Ruli walked over and picked it up.

The doll had already absorbed too much muddy rater to be held but Ruli walked to the front door and placed it against the front door for when the girl needed it again.

It felt... familiar.

“I hate you! He said he’d be back tonight!”

Too familiar. Ruli sniffed and walked down the path back to Durence where she could grab a pint and make a fool of herself where her mother could see. Mila ‘Jose’ WolfBane deserved the shame.

Ruli looked at her mud-streaked hand and decided the girl would appreciate the truth down the line. Quiss would have known what to say to get the truth across and not get kicked. Quiss was an ass but he was a smartass. He could say one thing and mean another 3 things at the same time. People trusted him because he had a air about him that reeked of reluctant helper. A quirk that refused to die in some heroes.

Ruli didn’t have that, she didn’t have that at all. The girl’s tears meant nothing. It was just a sign of pain, a fact that a child had lost her parent. It was a fact and Ruli was raised to accept facts.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Get a grip. You’re brainwashed by that old cow.”

Ruli stopped at the exit of the farm and grabbed the gate with one hand. It cracked under her strength as she forced herself to remain calm.

“Shut up... I am not,” she muttered in a weak defence. Emotions were weapons and if they weren’t, they were hindrances. Ruli had been taught that and she had embraced it when everything had gone wrong. Then stupid Quiss had come along and everything had gone wrong. Ruli sighed and walked down the path, she would be back tomorrow to fix the gate. It had been an old promise to herself that she fixed what she had broken.

Sadly, Ruli had gone the wrong way that day and couldn’t have stopped Dil and the girl’s father from entering the dungeon in her usual hunting spot. It... wasn’t her fault but Ruli accepted the blame when the children had no one else to blame.

It really sucked to have nothing to blame but a dungeon. It just lead to more pain.

“Oi, are you going to beat up more people? Don’t make me remove you from the town... again,” Quiss shouted and Ruli blinked, her old mind snapped due to the question and she couldn’t help but grin.

“Only thing I aim to beat is your backside in a drinking game!” Ruli corrected and Quiss snorted as he moved to walk in line with her.

“Sure, you and what stomach? I beat you in the last 5 rounds. Besides, can’t drink. Too many people wanting to explore the dungeon. Already sent Deo back… three times,” Quiss grunted and Ruli smirked.

“Kid has got balls, to ignore you,” she admitted and Quiss snorted as he moved a bush along with his leg, urging it back to Mrs Dabberghast’s garden. It wriggled in nervousness and Quiss checked to see if Haldi had locked up for the night.

The man often forgot to keep his cheese magic secure when he slept. It was a rather odd sight to see Von the banker suck the dairy out of the local cheese chimaera. Quiss said something about her care-free attitude and Ruli basked in the open challenge. It was so honest and clear.

It didn’t lead to pain or questions.

“I bet I can spot more teens than you,” she bragged and Quiss smirked then turned his usual pissy face on.

“I hardly take fools bet but you make it too easy,” he mocked and kicked a tree which a girl fell out of with a yelp.

Ruli had to admit. When it came to ruining fun, Quiss was the master.

----

Her Mudroom had been upgraded to allow her traps to respawn whenever the dungeon was empty of outsiders. The tripwire in the air and the random stick trap on one of the log platforms. It left her with 10 DP to mess with. Delta watched as her gobs jumped on the log with the trap and it didn’t activate. A useful built-in feature. It didn’t seem work when she designed a complication with her room construction such as the mud or the thin platforms.

“Mr Mushy, what do you suggest I do next?” she asked the giant mushroom man. It peered upwards in response to her voice.

It slowly raised a giant thumbs up and Delta beamed.

“Thank you for the advice! I will do exactly that!” she half-joked as it went back to chasing Boary around the Grove. The mushroom man enjoyed petting that animal far too much. It was better than the Greater Mushy who looked it just wanted to eat everything...

Hob and Gob returned, bickering over who had the largest haul. Delta moved to them and smiled as they dumped the same things onto the floor. Their wooden armour clacked and Delta found the equipment cute in a way. Delta watched as her Mana easily hit 85. Delta blinked and looked down at the only unique item among the mushrooms and water.

It was a rabbit but its fur wasn’t the usual grey or white. It was red. The rabbit looked to be in some pain as it looked like it had lost a fight with some animal. Hob clubbed it over the head making Delta wince.

Blood Hare absorbed!

Critter unlocked! “Blood Hare!”

Blood Hare: This fast rabbit sheds its coat 10x a year. No one knows why but the coat does have some toughness to it. The coat grows deeper red the closer to the end of the year it is. It also tastes rather good.

Delta blinked at the offering and as her Mana dropped to 84, she rushed to her second floor, yelling thanks to her gobs who looked pleased and nudged each other in a pleased motion. Delta would be lost without them and reminded herself to upgrade them with the slingshots soon. It was only fitting and having some birds for her jungle wouldn’t be so bad.

Some ridiculous dancing bird that moved backwards would be brilliant and Delta grinned as she purchased the main room and build it just off her core room.

Main room has been purchased. +10 max mana. This room will naturally grow plants and trees purchased for it. The jungle room cannot be upgraded to a special room and will remain a jungle room. *I suggest building off to the sides for hidden rooms and challenge rooms if your wish or building another room to the north for a better Core room.

Delta nodded and the room came with it’s own entrance door. Delta admired the leaf style metal and root scuplted wood. Delta moved past it and saw the huge room before her. It was like a giant wall of mist that turned transparent as Delta looked at it. She could see the far walls, covered in wood and trees. Delta ran forward and counted. It took her roughly 3 minutes of full sprinting to reach the far side and Delta turned with a laugh as she pumped her fist into the air.

“Welcome to Delta’s paradise in the mist! Please do not annoy the frogs,” Delta mock called to the empty mist and opened her menu to observe the upgrades of the room.

Oh... oh!

This could be fun.

Delta looked at her options and saw she had quite a few plants to begin her reign of peaceful-terror. Sending her gobs out again with a respectful tone, Delta wondered what a Silverleaf and a Wyin plant would do to this jungle.

Delta could hardly wait to see what this turned into in a few days. She tried to cackle and sounded just joyful.

30: A Gentleman

Mr Mushy flexed a thumb.

It was a funny thing, a thumb. Without one, he could not grab things with his hands. Being a mushroom meant that he didn’t really have to grab things. He was a mushroom, it was fine. But now that he had grown these legs, funny things those are, he couldn’t bare the idea of going back to sitting in one spot until his cap grew wrinkled and his mind returned to the earth.

His best brother, Great Mushy, disagreed strongly on this matter. Mr Mushy nodded, understanding how his brother’s thorny vines and dangerous spit made moving a little less tempting. So, Mr decided he would just tell his best brother everything that happened near the front of their home.

Mother Delta moved past, her form unseen but her voice loud and cheerful. Mr Mushy wriggled his funny thumb in the direction her voice vanished down. Mother Delta had been busy. A second floor! He wondered what it was like…

Mr Mushy used his wonderful fingers to itch his cap in curiosity. He was a being of the first floor… he should not be thinking of other floors, but the thoughts stuck to him like Gutrot mushroom spores did when he sat on them. He found them funny but the little goblins ran away, covering their nose at his approach. He tried the other mushrooms, poking them until spores came out, and rubbed them on his body.

Hands were very useful for poking. Vines like his brothers could only ensnare or choke… maybe pull if brother was feeling nice. Mr tried not to feel too prideful of his hands and feet.

It was so odd, when he saw the little mans, he was more excited to touch them than hurt them. He did not remember everything from his time as a Mushy. Things had gotten lost as his world became bigger.

But he remembered the hate.

The desire to kill, the desire to hurt any that came near. It was a sickly feeling like sweet flower water. So easy to drink and so hard to stop drinking. Then mother Delta had taken that hate away and given him fingers.

For each finger he had, the hate became quieter. Mr didn’t miss it. He enjoyed chasing Boary and cuddling the hairy thing. He enjoyed falling into the mudroom and splashing about! He liked… when Mother Delta was happy.

Mr Mushy carefully moved across the mudroom. It took some luck, aiming and falling but he managed to reach the far end. Mr lumbered down the room and waved at the nice spiders. Not like the one he had to smash. One waved back before it continued it's webbing and weaving. Mr tried to think of what it would be like to make web out of his fingers or his hands.

He’d be some rare monster. Spider-Mushroom, the mushroom that swung through the dungeon to hug things.

Yes, the image pleased him greatly. He waddled into the pond room and waved at Waddles. The duck stared at him and then nodded once before it went back to swimming lazily around the pond.

Mr wondered what it would be like to be in the water. He knew water was good. He was a mushroom. Water was pretty good. He did wonder if being in too much water could be bad. It was a thought he would poke at later and he waved goodbye to the fishies and moved down the tunnel to the new room he hadn’t seen yet.

The little ones called it a ‘Store’ room. He did not know what that meant. As a Mushy, he had no need of a store and wondered, with his wonderful hands, if he needed one now. It was worth a look and he did love looking.

The room was… nice. It felt like Mr had walked into some well moisturised room. The air seemed to hold a nice crispness to it. Mr saw wooden things that looked flat. They held rocks and arrows in a neat line.

He wondered what they were?

Shelves. They are good for space and holding objects for viewing pleasure. Mr Mushy, do not wander too far from the Grove. Delta does not need to fish you out from the mudroom… again.

Mr nodded happily. Nu was a nice thing. A menu, if Mr remembered right. He appeared not long ago, after the nice plant woman had come. Mr Mushy wondered if Nu was a shelf.

He held words in a neat row and for Mr’s viewing pleasure…

I am a menu. Not a piece of furniture. See, there is a shelf, a barrel, a chest, a… I think it is a pot but Delta’s crafting is making me hesitant to relate the two.

Mr Mushy went still as the pot sat there. It was odd, heavily lopsided and the loopy handles looking like worms, the wide base slightly dented on one side.

Mother Delta had made this. It was made by her fingers, it was glorious.

Mr picked it up and a few round pieces of metal clinked inside. He turned it around and around in his hands. This thing was… mud. Yes, he had played with enough to know the feeling. This was not wet mud but firm mud. How did Mother do that?

Delta created it as such. She didn’t really do anything but cause a travesty to the pottery world. Normally, one would use fire to heat the mud and-

Nu went on but Mr had stood. His mind was not clever like Nu or smart like Cois. His mind was simple. He saw something, he hugged it. He got curious, he went to look. When Mr got interested in something, he went to play with it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

This was true now. He turned and lumbered back down to the hall. He needed mud. He needed his fingers, and he needed the thing he was afraid of, fire.

For fire, he would either need to use the bright torches on the wall or… he needed Cois.

Cois liked fire. Fire liked Cois. Mr Mushy wondered if Cois could made the fire not burn him and his cap. Maybe make the fire help him!

Mother Delta made fire on wood, fire in goblins, heat in Boary.

Fire could maybe not be bad. Just… angry. Mr didn’t like the idea of being near fire but he liked the idea of a pot made with fingers and hands and ideas. Mr decided, like the mudroom, the only way to go forward was to take it one step at a time.

If he simply tried then things would be fine. Mother Delta had shown him that. She did not kill, yet she was a dungeon. It was something that made the Delta part inside himself struggle. Kill, grow, lure, kill.

It was all very simple. Like mushroom growing. One did the right things and mushrooms appeared. Mother Delta did not do the right things, yet good things kept happening. She grew mushrooms in fire. They did not burn but grew.

It scared him. It delighted him. It made him feel alive.

Mr Mushy jumped with glee into the mudroom and began to gather mud. It did not want to be gathered and Mr decided that a much better idea would to be bring Cois to the mudroom! He clapped his hands with joy and clambered out with some help from Boary who came at his prompting. The boar seemed annoyed but did not snort like usual in anger when he patted his fun hairy belly.

I cannot wait to see how wrong this will go. At least you are amusing, I admit that much.

Nu was so nice. Mr clapped his hands in some odd song he just made up. He called it “Burny hot burn, don’t hurt, make me a pot, thank you!”.

Oh good, you inherited Delta’s creative talents… First the pot, now the song writing Mushroom. What next? Drake writes a novel? The Great Mushy plays a piano?

He did not know what those things were. Nu, you should tell Mr about them, please.

I was merely jes- You cannot seriously wish to kno- of course you do… A piano is a music instrument that requires-

Mr listened with joy as he learned. He liked learning.

He liked being Mr. He hoped he could be a better Mr soon. What was better than a Mr? What came next?

-that many people may buy or purchase to keep on some dusty bookshelve after a few reads. There, I have now explained both items. You… you already have another question. …A gentleman usually is a greater male term after a simple Mr. Either that or a Sir but Fran has obviously shown that title has very little grace to it.

Gentleman. Mr inhaled through his pores and the word seemed to be so grand and powerful he nearly forgot about making his pot. He trembled at the word and repeated it over and over.

A gentleman. The refined Mr. The graceful Sir.

Mr poked Cois at the camp and dreamed of the word as the goblin growled at him. He gestured what he desired and Cois seemed to be brightening up when he guessed that Mr wanted him to use fire on something.

The little one loved fire. Mr now understood that feeling. He loved the idea of a gentleman. He would really like to be one.

I shall… make a note of that. Would you like a top hat and a monocle as well? Wait! No that was a sarcastic jes-

Top… hat? Mono..cle?

Were these the elite equipped items of a gentleman?! Mr put his hands to his face and with surprise felt his green liquid that coursed through his spongy body gather in his cheeks. They felt warm and Mr danced on the spot as he asked Cois to draw him a top hat in the in dirt.

Cois scratched his head but Nu seemed to speak to him.

Cois used his staff to make a single line then a large box that sat on top of it. It was a hat. It was a square hat and it was glorious.

-----
Delta paused as she felt… something.

She giggled in surprise as a light fluttering moved through her body. The excitement of the second floor must be getting to her. She grinned as her gobs would soon return or maybe Ruli.

She would try to keep the second floor off-limits until she made it… spectacular. Delta really hoped Mrs Dabberghast would return. Delta suddenly found herself in need of some very firm plants.

----

31: Japing about

Delta watched as Cois narrowed his beady little eyes at the rough shape in the middle of the fort room. Mr Mushy watched from slightly down the hall, unwilling to get any closer to the heat. The fire died down and the scorched thing wobbled slightly. Delta had only come to check on things and to see if her gobs had returned. Instead, she had found most of the floor monsters gathered around Cois, his fire magic cooking something.

“What is that?” Delta asked faintly as the misshapen black thing smoked near the foot of the hill, away from any wooden structures.

Her Mushy came nearer. It seemed to be unable to look away from the black thing.

It sagged to one side and the odd ears or loopy things at the side made it look like a haunched man that Cois had just cooked. Cois sniffed as he admired his work.

“Done. Bring next one!” he commanded and Mr Mushy waddled out, both hands holding a brown muddy thing. He put it down and began to pat the sides as they became runny. It was round and Mr Mushy’s hands came away covered in mud.

Cois cackled and flash fried it as Mr Mushy ran away from the licks of fire past Bily and back into the tunnel for protection.

Numb cheered as Billy shot Cois a glare. The bow-using goblin murmured something to Mr Mushy and the giant being clapped his hands. The pot looked just as misshapen as the first and Delta watched as Numb dragged it off to one corner where five or six more black pots sat.

“What’s going on?” Delta asked casually and Cois yelped, hiding his staff behind his back. Numb panicked and just threw the pot up the hill where it hit the slope and rolled, bumped and tumbled its way back down with hollow clunking sounds. Billy just snorted and pushed his green cap down to watch the scene.

Nu appeared with a rather sour sounding ding.

They are attempting to... create art. It seems like they, or rather, Mr Mushy, was inspired to try his hand at the craft after seeing your pot. It has been met with laughter and fire. The mushroom moulds it from the mud and the goblin cooks it to ash. It’s quite frustrating as they don’t actually seem to be learning how to correct themselves.

The menu appeared to be frustrated and Delta hid a smile as she answered.

“Not everyone learns to understand something or replicate it after one attempt or sample. Some of us have to practise!” Delta hummed and Nu seemed to let out a low noise.

Then why bother? This project will offer no fruit. It is wasting your mud and making Cois waste energy. Those pots will not be reabsorbed into the dungeon system. They don’t improve or offer any new designs. I just don’t understand why they are so invested in doing this.

Delta watched as Mr Mushy was already patting a new pot. He seemed to be trying to give this pot a moustache and a monocle for some odd reason. Cois was still frozen to the spot, smoke still curling from his staff.

Numb tried to hide the pots behind himself and failed utterly. Billy was rather calm but he was also looking a little guilty at taking part.

“Hm, there is no reason. Doing something fun is... just fun. You should try it, make a pot or something,” Delta encouraged and then bent down to smile at Cois.

“Less heat, they might actually look good then, hm?” she giggled and got up to head to the grove. Cois nodded as if her words were a command.

“Less...less fire,” he repeated with a petulant tone. Delta complimented Mr Mushy as she went past and the giant fungus tried to do a bow but seemed to forget there was a wall and blinked in confusion as his cap hit something solid and the force from that, in turn, tipped him over so he landed in a sitting position.

Delta smiled as Billy moved over to help without a word. The little archer seemed like Mr Mushy and that made Delta pleased as a button. The sound of roaring fire rushed out and Numb’s voice called out.

“Master say less, less!” he said in a panic. Cois just cackled loudly again.

I cannot make a pot.

Delta slowed as she entered the Grove. The stalks on some natural shrooms were easily taller than some men.

“Oh, it’s fine! Just try!” Delta encouraged again and Nu made a frustrated sound.

I cannot make a pot. I cannot spend mana, I cannot control your power. I am MENU. I am not Dunge- I am not Delta. I am an efficient tool designed to help you grow as a dungeon.

Delta frowned and then shook her head.

“Sounds nice and easy out loud but you aren’t a menu, not anymore. Nu, besides being rude, cocky, a bit of a know-it-all, you’re my friend. Not a tool,” she reminded the box and it shimmered red and Delta took a step back as it rang furiously.

I did not ask for it! I did not ask to be... this. I thought it was a whim or some cruel idea or some bad choice you made but I see it all around you. Things do not act like they should Things are not logical or even right in this dungeon. Monsters are not friends. Cores do not feel remorse. They don’t create havens for humans. I know this and yet, it is all around me. I cannot make a pot because if I tried to and I could... then I am not right. I am not MENU. I am broken.

The box faded from the red to a sombre purple. Delta just waited, her mind going blank as this was not something she expected. So, she did the only thing she could.

“Make a pot,” she repeated and Nu seemed to grow in size as if trying to appear angrier but with another angry ring, the word appeared.

Fine.

Delta watched as the spot in front of her shimmered as something began to form. Her mana dipped and the object appeared.

“Nu..” Delta trailed off and the text box had gone very still. Delta’s lips twitched and the box went a very bright pink.

Not. A. Word.

Delta inhaled slowly and a noise escaped her mouth. It was a chortle, then a giggle, and then Delta just gave up and burst out laughing. She could only watch as Boary sniffed at the pot that was even uglier than Delta’s.

It was more like a pot that had been ugly and then flattened by a car, resurrected by some novice voodoo priest and then got dropped out of a plane. Delta slapped her knee as laughter began to cause her physical pain but she couldn’t stop. Nu was texting in a small font, his version of muttering.

I followed...mana? I have never use...I didn’t...I... Stop laughing at me!

Nu was demanding but Delta could only walk away to lean against a wall.

“The only thing broken...” Delta paused to catch her breath as she giggled again, “is your artistic talent!” Delta grinned and Nu shimmered red.

Hardly amazing yourself, Miss Noodle handles! Your pot looked like some crime against mankind!

Abruptly Delta’s laughter ceased and she put her hands on her hips, her voice dropping low.

“Is that a challenge?” she demanded and Nu seemed to turn away as if dismissing her words.

We don’t have the mana to waste on such...things.

Delta shrugged, walking to meet the returning gobs.

“That’s fine, we both know that means my pot was the better one,” she said pleasantly and Nu gave a mocking ding noise.

If by better, you mean more likely to make people cry, then yes. It is very much the better pot!

Delta hid another smile as Nu followed her, bombarding her with criticism and defences of his own pot.

Maybe he was broken, Delta didn’t know. But he was her friend and anyone that made such a big fuss over pots couldn’t be a wrong existence. Just funny and Delta hoped Nu would understand that one day.

It was bad enough that one of them had a breakdown every other day. No need to double up on that particular activity.

----

“Quiss, you can stop glaring at the forest. Dabberghast got the hint. She’s home already,” Ruli grumbled as Quiss paced in front of the Dungeon entrance. The Level Quake had stirred up some of the old hunters. Quiss knew any one of them could sneak past him if he moved too far from the entrance.

It had taken...some loss of temper that Quiss almost regretted to send people back home. Sure, most of them could break Quiss in some manner or at least, give him a run for his wizard hat but no one wanted to start anything.

Quiss wiped some sweat from his brow as he remembered how a fight nearly broke out between Himself and a rather stubborn Capramancer. Then Old Lady Jose arrived and everyone sulked and went back home.

“I don’t think it’s just her. Could be others. They all got the rush. We feel it as well, the mana around here skyrocketed. I won't be surprised if Von begins to walk about near dusk or half the teens become lust-struck idiots and try to conquer the dungeon as some made-up trial or worse, someone tries to influence Delta,” Quiss snapped as Ruli sipped down something he was sure was semi-illegal in some places.

He who controls the dungeon is both a fool and a genius. If one could give endless supplies to a dungeon but only one kind, then the dungeon would grow in that direction. The easiest path to follow and the dungeons follow it well.

Quiss hesitated after that thought. Delta was no mere Core-Infant. She had a rational mind and that only made it worse. Delta was so... nice that Quiss knew that one hint that a villager just needed something and Delta would leap to give it to them in a flash.

Hence why he and Ruli were outside, they weren’t going to influence Delta at such a critical stage until she filled the second floor of her own design. Durence had its share of characters and not all of them could pass a karma spell test. Not that anyone really could fail them anymore. Way too many ways to lie to magic and Gods around these days.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The races of this world really could do a lot of damage with but a few clinks of a coin.

“Monologuing is often a sign of being broody, about to hit chosen puberty, or someone ignoring their friend,” Ruli said lightly. Quiss turned with a narrowed expression.

“I am a broody bastard, what of it?” he said impatiently and Ruli rolled her eyes. She stood up from the ground and Quiss couldn't ignore how much her eyes glowed or how...additionally defined she was. Her arms looked thicker and Quiss tried not to make it obvious he was noticing the extra height on Ruli now. Not too much but enough that he had to adjust to meet her eyes.

Mana. Too many people, it was many things. It was also one thing and that was trouble. Most people got a high or a rush, feeling better than most of their life when they enter a mana-rich area or mana came to them. To the Orcs, they grew more bestial, more passionate at best, stubborn at the worst. The Drakes lost their snake-like features and began to walk around like rulers, like their ancient parents. Elves; red, wood, dark, and the old ones, became more ethereal.

Quiss knew a Wood-elf that was in the middle of building a joltan battle suit when the workshop got flooded with a rare-mana cloud.

The elf had walked out the workshop three days later and his suit was a cloak. The things that piece of fabric did made Quiss feel like a child with matches in his pocket.

Halfings, The Deeps, The Plain tribes, the monsters, the... Quiss rubbed his nose.

The list went on to nearly all living things and some even non-living depending on what it was.

Mana made them more and less. They became capable of great things but to those who were not ready, it was a drug.

Ruli.. she grew. Quiss knew that being a halfling was never exactly easy. One could get lucky and get some ugly mismatch features. Or really unlucky and get more. Quiss knew Ruli would punch him for even thinking the word. Halfblooded, the child of two different races. People, all people, shortened it to Halfling. It annoyed the shorter races and the Halfblooded.

In some places, people used it to reference the fact that most halfblooded were runts at best. Mismatch biology never worked... exactly for the best. For Ruli? It had worked like art. Ruli was, as far as Quiss had known her, never been someone you could point to and say, runt.

Not if one wanted teeth afterwards.

“Quiss, don’t give me that look. Your eyes are just... fire,” she said quietly and Quiss closed them as an unconscious reaction. He did not like people staring at his eyes when they went like that.

Mages were not exempt from mana empowerment. Really it could manifest in many ways. A woman he knew, Clara Cheese-Fortress, had visions of last Tuesday. Nothing interesting, she just couldn’t escape Tuesday.

Another mage, Omawn Sword-Beast, could paint art that even Quiss felt moved by but the man never remembered doing it.

Himself? He burned. He burned if he did not control himself and Quiss would never, never, let go of that control until that day came. Ruli patted him on the head like an affectionate pet. Quiss growled but Ruli just smirked.

“Come on, let’s grab a drink, I’m growing, you’re smoking. It’s the right kinda mood,” she scratched at her chin and Quiss just gave her a long look before he spoke.

“Worst come on, ever,” he muttered and Ruli snorted.

“Please, we tried and you ignored me for a week before I broke into your house,” she smiled at the memory. Quiss shook his head and then froze as someone emerged from the shadows, coming from the direction of the town.

Quiss stiffened and Ruli casually took a stance that would allow the woman to do many things at once.

“Good evening, or is it the night? It is dark... ah, the intricacies of light and the sun,” the man called, his long dark hair tied neatly back in a ponytail, his face cheerful. His clothes were tasteful, scholarly, crisp black trousers and a shirt that would not allow wrinkles.

The hands hidden by white gloves made the complete image. Quiss took a few steps forward as the man seemed utterly entranced by the night as if it was some new concept.

“Mr Japes, may I ask why you are here?” Quiss smiled as if a ghost were stretching his lips against his will. The man blinked and then smiled at Quiss.

“My... Peacekeeper Quiss Firesmasher. Are you also here for the temptations of the night?” he asked with a soft tone and Ruli saddled up next to Quiss in support.

“What can we do for you, Pothead?” she grinned and Quiss closed his eyes as an intense pain blossomed in his head.

Ruli-induced-migraines were the worst. Japes tilted his head.

“Why...I am here to go inside the dungeon,” he said, puzzled by the question. Quiss shook his head.

“No one is to go in. The elders all agree-” he was cut off as Japes took out a small jar. Fire was in Quiss’ hand before he could think and Ruli had a dark knife in her hand, ready to throw it. Japes ignored them both and brought the pot to his ear and opened the lid slightly, listening.

“Hm... yes. I do believe so. No, no need for such things. Shhh, no more talk,” Japes admonished the jar and put it back in a pocket. Quiss’ hands felt cold. It was odd, he was holding the primal fire and yet the man made Quiss sweat uncontrollably.

The tiny noise of Ruli grinding her teeth made Quiss know he wasn’t the only one who was nervous.

Japes tilted his head back and peered at both of them. The distance, the moonlight, the shadows.

It made Japes look less like a scholar and more like a curious surgeon who had just spotted something odd in his usual operation.

“Firesmasher...Darknessbane. I don’t have a special jar for you. Would you like one? I would make it...perfect just for you,” he offered in his polite and cheerful voice. Quiss ignored how his fire grew dark.

Control.

“I must decline. You aren’t here to break the laws, are you?” He called and Japes looked upset at the words. His pleasant smile fell into a sad expression.

“I would never. Rules are important. They contain society. I could never bring myself to shatter such... fragile things,” he said as if Quiss were to accuse him of doing such a thing, it would not be a good thing.

“Japes, the rule is that no one is to go inside. So, end of the discussion,” Ruli snapped. The well-dressed man looked up and smiled.

“Of course. I live to help the law. Like removing pests,” he found this amusing and had to cover his monstrous grin that stretched inhumanely across his face. It took a moment but Japes’ face returned back to normal.

Quiss had the next 31 spells ready in his head to chant but the words squirmed inside like invasive worms.

“Pests?” Quiss echoed and Japes pulled out another jar. This one looked odd like it was made more from animal hide than mud or ceramic.

Japes put the jar to his ear.

“Hmm... I see. Master ‘Delta’ needs you? Tsk, I am trying to take you home, but sadly my little green friends. I am not allowed. I shall try again tomorrow,” he promised with that monstrous grin. Quiss’ fire went out and he pulled on a weapon that was far worse.

His badge.

Japes frowned at it, his playful look melting away like liquid clay.

“Release the goblins or I will arrest you,” he warned and Japes raised one brow in curiosity.

“On what charge?” he smiled and Quiss smiled back.

“Destruction of a dungeon” he stated and Ruli shot away from Quiss as if he just slapped her. Japes lost all facial expression, the blank canvas of his eyes and flat mouth were the scariest thing yet. Quiss forced his voice not to tremble as he carried on.

“By taking those contracted monsters, you are halting the progression of this here dungeon. Under my reasoning and the fact you are trying to gain access after weakening the dungeon leads me to think you are trying to shatter Delta,” he called presenting the little piece of metal that had a golden crown with a sword through it.

The crown rested on the hilt of the sword and the words ‘PeaceKeeper’ were stamped at the bottom.

It glowed with an eerie light as Quiss spoke.

The badge of a PeaceKeeper. It was the seal to act in the king’s place. No matter where or with who.

It allowed Quiss to do three things.

One, it let him sit in a pub all day and drink.
Two. It occasionally let him get a free pint at the pub.
And three, it allowed Quiss to summon a member of the royal guard with a one time use teleportation rune that would most likely take Quiss’ hand off as the cost.

A royal guard was not a toy soldier to annoy for a favour. To have one on beck and call was a responsibility and the fact that the badge would kill anyone who tried to use it without the proper authority was another little... fun thing about it.

Japes, without a word, smashed the jar and two cursing goblins fell out off a rapidly vanishing space. Japes bowed stiffly and turned without a word. His back bulging slightly as his body twitched.

The goblins fled into the dungeon, to home.

Ruli sighed and dropped back to the grass, finally breathing.

“Fucking demon spit, what the fuck?” Ruli demanded and the badge glowed with a warning. Quiss snorted and pocketed it.

“Calm down, I wasn’t actually going to use it. A royal guard is summoned but I don’t get to choose which one. Trust me, we don’t want to be bringing Zale here. It'd be better to cut off our own heads and save us the trouble,” he grumbled. Japes the potter... what had the man wanted?

He sat down, all thoughts of the pub gone.

“Here,” Ruli offered her flask and Quiss took a swig without asking what it was. It burned and then froze in his throat.

“Does your mother know you stole her Devil Tree Wine?” he asked casually and Ruli’s smirked was all the answer he needed.

----

Jolin Javen Japes inhaled and tidied himself up, He twitched again as the wrongness increased. He put a hand on the wall of the nearest building to ride out the agitation. It itched at him.

“Curve up...smooth down,” he repeated and walked ahead as the mana made his unique sense go haywire.

It had never acted up before in this town. A blessing. But now it itched, itched, itched, itched. He took another deep breath and rubbed his face. Annoyed at his lack of control. The goblins had simply startled him, he didn’t know why he just didn’t let them go.

Old habits. Why let good hostages go to waste?

Oh, those were the days. But now he just wanted to make simple pots and someone was making him itch.

Someone somewhere was making a mess of his art!

----

Mr Mushy hummed as he slapped two pots together and made a new handle on his new creation! It was a gentlemanly pot! An extra handle to be helpful for those to carry it! Mr Mushy was pleased as Cois got better at the fire, only slightly burning his pots now.

He couldn’t wait to try making a pot with no bottom!

It would be so...glorious!

---

32: Catch and Mist

Delta hummed as she eyed the massive room.

It was a blank slate, the roots covering the floor, breaking into parts for smooth dirt floor, crawled up the walls and stopped just before the ceiling.

To Delta, the room was bright as day but she knew it was in total darkness.

Delta pretended to adjust goggles.

“Amazing, this tech is so advanced I can barely tell I’m wearing any! Can this surpass the Wooden Cog?!” she mocked in a deep voice that she took from several stealth games that she had played. Stretching, she walked forward. At her current pace, she wouldn’t hit the end of the room for some time. She was used to tight halls or the Grove. Even the bottom of a pond.

This space was so much more that Delta actually felt a little like a mouse that had left the safety of her cartoon mouse door.

Hob and Gob came back a short while ago and they seemed pretty angry but they didn’t say what was wrong. Hob looked like he was about to punch something. Gob just bowed his head and dropped what little offerings they had.

Delta could have pushed but the goblins immediately left, almost with a yell.

Did another spider attack them? If everything Delta had learned about Goblins were true, then they did not like losing. Delta frowned and turned to look back at the stair room where her Core sat.

They will be fine. They are, if in some limited way, immortal.

Nu, the ever practical box, reminded her. Delta crossed her arms and just sighed.

“So? Dying is not going to help anyone. They might come back changed or they might get cocky because of it. I have to pay for them, which isn’t cheap, and whatever killed them might come looking for the source of where they keep coming from,” Delta said aloud and Nu dinged in surprise.

That is... Yes! That is all very correct, I am impressed by your reasoning

.

Delta gave the box a look.

“I’m not a total airhead. I don’t want them to die because I don’t want them in pain. If they told me coming back to life was torture. I’m not sure I would bring them back ever. Not if they suffered. All that other stuff is just the best case, you know? I guess... I just thought I didn’t need to remind you that I care about them every time,” Delta pointed out and stopped her steps. Nu was silent for a moment.

No. You need not. I am supposed to be good at learning and adapting. Shall we get on with business? The goblins will tell us when they are ready. Not a concept I am used to but it shall be educational.

Delta smiled as Nu began to ponder to himself, little boxes appearing around his main box to contain side thoughts and random numbers or symbols. Nu was and would be for some while, upset at his evolving nature. Delta didn’t know what it would be like to gain awareness. She had always had it to her knowledge.

Distracting him, even for a while, with tiny things like the nature of goblins and building a jungle in your second-floor basement was something Delta really didn’t mind doing.

She opened the list and looked at the jungle room’s options.

Jungle room:

- Allow you to regulate the temperature to a range of Mild, Warm, Humid, and Hot: 15 DP

- Allow you to change the ceiling into an image of the sky: 13 DP

- Allow all tree saplings to grow at a much faster rate: 25 DP

- Allow a river to be formed through the middle of the jungle: 30 DP

- Construct more objects or creature's to unlock more options.

Delta saw it wasn’t too bad of a list, to begin with. With 69 mana, out of 70 now with her new room, and 32 DP. Delta had some options and Delta liked having options.

She turned slowly and tried to imagine what she wanted from this room. What function should it serve for her? Challenging the adventures? Slowing them down as much as possible? Filled to the brim with entertainment or minigames? Should it have anything dangerous about it?

It was a blank canvas and Delta felt like she was painting with her fingers and eating playdoh. She could mess this up. The first floor only sort of worked out due to a lot lucky circumstances. What if she made some death trap? Delta lowered her fingers from the menu and hesitated for a moment.

One step at a time, is that not what you tell all your dysfunctional monsters? To me? Stop planning and just do. I feel ill at the idea but it is very much better than just standing there and looking sad.

Nu’s box jingled and he vanished before Delta could snap her head around at him. She opened her mouth then closed it.

She inhaled and smooth down her skirt.

Delta paused. She looked down and saw nothing. She hesitated and moved her hands back down. Her invisible hands brushed invisible fabric. The flowy skirt brushed against her shins and Delta tried not to freak.

“Nu! Nu! I have clothes!” she called and Nu appeared slowly as if not sure he wanted to be there.

Well... Yes, you have always had those.

Delta’s fingers shook slightly and her voice came out small.

“Nu, can... you see me?” she asked, breath struggling to leave her throat. Nu’s box moved up and down as if looking closely.

Yes. You are girl. You have hair. You have a skirt. Is this important?

Delta grabbed the box, the fine edge digging into her hands. Nu dinged in alarm but Delta shook slightly.

“I can’t see myself! I didn’t even know I had a body!” She accused and Nu blinked out of her hands and in the air above her.

Don’t... did you just grab me?!

Nu was outraged but Delta just sat down hard, feeling the skirt over and over. She tried other places but she felt nothing. Nu floated down and almost as if unsure, he spoke.

You have hair, it's to your neck. You are all orange, I cannot tell you colours. You have a skirt, you have odd shoes, flat and with straps across them. You have the shirt of a gentleman on and a necktie. I cannot see anything else about you. You must... you must be feeling or regaining feeling because of the second floor. The more floors you acquire, the more aware and omnipotent you become in your own space. You will only need a few more to gain an avatar. This is just a natural progression.

Delta nodded slowly. Nu was right, he had mentioned gaining an avatar when she gained more floors. Delta kind of thought it would be all at once not piece by piece. She stood and with a breathless chuckle, she spun, her skirt dancing out as she did so, it landed back down and Delta was glad it was a decent size.

She sat down way too often to feel happy otherwise.

Delta had a skirt.

Delta had clothes.

It made her feel human in some way she hadn’t been before. She turned to Nu and gave him a pat, his box turned pink and he vanished with an annoyed ding.

“One step at a time, Nu, you are a genius!” she complimented and in the distance, a ding vibrated through the floor in agreement.

She flexed her fingers and began to swish her skirt as she moved forward. What did a jungle need? Besides everything dangerous in the world, it needed trees. At least a dozen vines and the weirdest flowers people had ever seen! Excitement flooded her veins and Delta gave another twirl, laughing as she spun.

Screw what she wanted the floor to be, it would just become whatever Delta turned it into.

She picked a spot and opened her menu. She began to list things she could use.

- Apples: 3 mana

- Crunchy Mushroom: 3 Mana. A slightly odd mushroom that, while not all that good, can provide some nutrition. Leaves an aftertaste that lingers.

- Small Wyin Sapling: 12 mana
- Spotted Cap: 5 mana
- Mideiel Fern: 8 mana
- Minor Silverleaf: 15 mana
- Widnel Grass: 5 mana

Delta remembered she had a Wyin plant upstairs that didn’t seem to be doing anything. With a flick of the menu, she had it moved down to the jungle room with a small cost of 3 mana. It would take some time for it to move so Delta spent some mana to get the Widnel grass.

It appeared in a single flash, greenish greyish grass that came up to her knees roughly. When she did so a box opened.

Jungle room feature found. A living ecosystem. Plants and some animals will spread on their own without a mana cost. In return, they will also fade or die to feed another section of the ecosystem or the next generation of life. Exceptions to this are uniques, rares and contracts. Monsters will not spread. Magic plants will spread at a much slower rate.

As she finished reading, the grass had little tiny stalk growing in every direction. Delta bent down and watched with awe as the grass grew at an accelerated speed. She held a finger to the grass.

Windnel Grass: A common grass that thrives in dangerous forests or mana-rich areas. It’s mostly a weed but some clever people can do good things with it.

Grass to hide her evil critters! Delta needed snakes. The beautiful kind with round faces and sleepy natures. Maybe she could get one that would speak in a hissing accent to new wizards or mages that came in! Delta giggled at the thought before she moved on to the next item. The Mideiel Fern.

She held a finger to it and hummed as she read it.

Mideiel Fern: A fern that has leaves that curl up when people approach. It has a few interesting uses in various crafts.

Delta purchased it and placed it a fair distance away from her grass. It blossomed up from the ground and like some elegant performance, the leafs separated at the top of the growth and the plant spread out across the ground, a single round core in the middle. It wriggled once or twice and the pod in the middle exploded into the air and arched away from the fern. After a few moments, the pod landed and roll for a moment before it wriggled and roots pulled it underground.

Delta walked over and peered into the hole with wide eyes. Then another fern began to grow. The pod in the new fern was far smaller and it wouldn’t be ready for a little while.

Delta’s Jungle was kick ass and Delta moved to the next spot, already readying the next one. She stumbled as something rumbled. She spun and saw that the Wyin sapling had finally planted itself from the previous floor.

Except, it was now exploding towards the ceiling, it’s soft green skin turning into the wooden bark, the large lush branches spreading out. The shaking subsided as it drooped slightly over the entrance door as if shielding those who wandered in from the sky. Delta stood there, stunned as the tree rustled and soft green powder fell from the branches on to the ground.

Delta hastily put a finger to the tree.

“Please don’t poison people, please don’t poison people...” she repeated. The box opened with a sarcastic ring.

Wyin Tree: A rare tree that takes many odd conditions to grow right. Due to being a dungeon, you skipped many. The tree can grow in many directions and sizes, its wood is rather hard. The green spores falling from the branches act as a natural health booster. It provides small bursts of green Mana and enhances the body’s healing speed. I don’t need to tell you that this tree has many uses. It does seem to be somewhat needy, the ground has deep roots. The max you may have is 4 for the big jungle room and 1 per normal room.

There were many questions and Delta just blurted one out.

“Mana has colours? It’s not just blue?” she asked, not sure how she felt about her sacred mana bar being tainted by other colours. Red for rage and yellow for dexterity are... acceptable she guessed.

Mana is many colours. Your mana is orange. Obnoxious and too cheery for such an odd colour. It suits you.

Delta pinched the box with two fingers and Nu let out a shrill bell noise as he blinked away. Delta smiled and looked up as she eyed the odd powder that fell occasionally.

Nu was right, some of it was orange and it looked so at odds with the rest of the tree that Delta could relate.

As something didn’t belong or act right but tried its best.

Delta turned and saw her Windnel Grass was slowly spreading over the area and another Mideiel fern exploded somewhere. This was good but she still needed proper trees. The Wyin tree needed space. Delta needed trees that would hug the crap out of each other. With a shrug, she closed her eyes and thought of her favourite and iconic forests of her youth. All video games. Delta was sure she didn’t do real forests.

Except now she was building a jungle.

What features made them memorable?

Mazes, horrible fetch quests, poison, ninjas, tigers, dinosaurs, growing puzzles...

Delta grimaces and tried again. What made them memorable in a good way?

Something struck her and Delta blinked. It sort of went with the maze idea but they weren’t tied together. She opened her menu and began to mess with her options.

I see... hm... it is possible but since this is a moving system of dungeon life, it has to be able to sustain itself. We would need some upgrades.

Delta hummed as she opened the jungle room.

Jungle room:

- Allow you to regulate them temperature to a range between Mild, Warm, Humid, and Hot: 15 DP

- Allow you to change the ceiling into a image of the sky: 13 DP

- Allow all tree saplings to grow at a much faster rate: 25 DP

- Allow a river to be formed through the middle of the jungle: 30 DP

- Allow plants to crossbreed on their own if able: 30 DP

- Give the ability for plants to mutate if they become blood soaked (must be fresh and from non-dungeon life): 40 DP

- Allow you to create areas where plants will not overgrow: 20 DP

She had the beginning of her plan. Delta thought about it then after checking compared her options.

A river cost 30 DP. Carving it out and filling it with her own water would be costing her far into the hundreds for the same task. That one was a no-brainer. If Delta wanted to abuse her endless source of water and lack of air flow to any outside world... she needed to also gain the ability to manipulate the heat.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

When heat and water came together... she had her first obstacle that would be her homage to one of her most played games. If nothing else, it would allow her level to have an advantage over any monster that made it past Fran.

Unless it was a mist monster, then she was just screwing herself over.

Delta purchased the river and watched as the ground from one corner of the room, began to hollow out towards the far corner. Like some invisible monster devouring the soil, it carved a clean basin. It avoided her plants and grass as best it could and when it was done the small holes that appeared in the one corner gushed clear water that began to pool then surge forward towards the far corner.

This corner only had one hole and the water drained slowly. Delta could only watch with awe as nature bent to her desires. A marvel that would take hundreds of years formed in 10 minutes. The water reached the rough top of its banks and stopped rising.

The river would take Delta taking three full jumps to cross if she could get a running start.

It wasn’t too deep but if someone couldn't swim then it might be dangerous... she would have to work around that somehow.

The river had some pull to it, the draining hole allowing the water to move in some mimicry of a real river.

Delta was about to cheer when a box appeared.

River has been purchased! All plant base items cost 1 less mana in the jungle room. This cannot go below a total of 1 mana. Water options are unlocked. The river has its options unlocked. I shall just remove... the boiling water feature. I feel already you will reject the idea. It can't be lowered beyond skin blistering...

Delta blinked and then looked horrified at the idea.

“My river is a cool one! It doesn’t...boil people! Nu, tell me when I can make the water sparkle or something neat,” Delta ordered and Nu paused for a moment.

We...I guess we can do more fishing? Not much other options unless you begin to get creative.

Delta thought about it and then looked above, imagining her first floor.

Her Mudroom had a good idea but it was so... lazy to reuse platforms so quickly. Delta thought about it and then paused.

Rivers... platforms.

Her mind was hit by images of spinning fruits, magic wooden masks and spinning Marsupials.

“Nu, tell me. How much would it take to get platforms that move down the river but sink after you stay on them after a moment?” she asked aloud and Nu took a moment to think about it.

The costly thing would be making the platforms be endless. I suspect we might need some form of enchantment or room rule. Would you like to see the rules?

Delta eyed the box with suspicion.

“Will it break the bank?” she asked slowly and Nu only glowed once. Delta sighed then nodded.

Enchantment and Rule making: A Dungeon Core may apply special rules or effects to a room for a cost of Mana and DP. An example is that a door may only be opened by a specific key. This will prevent lockpicking. However, someone may simple blow the door off its hinges. The magic only works in so many ways. Layering enchantments on the same object make the cost of enchantments rise beyond reasonable cost. It is best to create your idea with the less amount of Enchantments as possible and accept nothing will be foolproof.

For example, if you wished to make three platforms floating down the river reappear at the start once they reach the end it will cost 50 man per platform or 25 DP. Keep in mind, if you were to enchant the river itself to make any object reappear from the end to the start it would take at least 600 mana or 300 DP. This is for a very simple move or teleport enchantment. It is not something the river may naturally do with the items you have available.

Delta winced and pondered it.

“I can’t afford that but people need a way to cross don’t they?” she said weakly and Nu only dinged.

Says who? The only rule is that your core is not blocked off and that things are humanly possible. Be it of mind or brawn. If one cannot swim then that is their weakness, not yours. If one cannot sing then that is their own fault, not yours. If one cannot knit then that is their weakness... not yours.

Delta paused.

“That feels mean,” she admitted and Nu seemed to chuckle.

It feels fair. You are defenceless when all else fails and they are open to trial and error. Normally it’s just error but you have this ‘nice dungeon’ thing. Let them struggle. It builds character and... it makes them stronger and... uh... they will... learn to swim!

Delta’s flat stare seemed to make Nu shrink a little.

I just want them to fall into the river.

Delta sighed and then patted Nu, who objected.

“You’re a cat. A game system turned aware then turned sarcastic. What if someone drowns?” she asked, voice pointed.

I shall put a sign that says ‘Caution, deep water’ before the river. If that fails I shall put another sign a bit further away that says ‘Caution, words ahead, read them’. If that fails I shall put a sign across the river that says ‘Caution, If you are wet, you were warned’. I like to cover all my potential areas.

Delta threw her hands up in the air, growling at him.

“You can’t just throw signs at everything and expect to be covered!” she argued and Delta felt a fizzle on her mana.

A sign appeared before the river. It read as followed.

“Caution: splinters on this sign, please help yourself - Nu”

Delta inhaled and exhaled. She was stuck with a passive aggressive menu system that was having an existential crisis.

Delta prayed for strength has she just made a rough fallen log out of her mana. It landed clumsy and rolled a few times but it seemed to find a good hold on the land and became still. It was a bit thin and wouldn’t take that much to break it if someone tried.

Oh yes! I would very much like to see people fall off the log first and then into the river!

Delta grabbed Nu and threw his box into the river. He simply floated out, untouched. Delta would need to break into his system and tickle him or annoy him or...

Or... have someone do it for her.

She knew exactly who would be perfect for the job.

“Oh Mr Mushy!” she called, knowing her monster could hear her. Nu vanished instantly.

Delta smirked as her cute mushroom made Nu run. The endless questions, the endless curiosity just drove Nu mad.

With some peace, she had only two more tasks to do before she returned the first floor. She took some time to fill the river with her four types of fishes and her tangleweed. The crayfish, the yellowbelly cod, the Whitetail fish, and the little-finned guppy.

If the room’s nature was true, then they spread on their own. She put her head into the water and watched as the tiny guppy, swimming as fast it could glowed once and like some scaley cell, split into two.

Delta was reminded of a movie.

No time for sex.

If she ever made a humanoid that could reproduce like this... would they come out of each other's ribs?

Delta made a sour face and wondered if God had been like this. Trying not to look too closely as things happened. Just planting the apple tree and telling Satan to stop being a snake.

...Was Nu her Satan?

This raised way too many questions so Delta quickly moved on to her next task.

She opened her menu and pushed the newest monster option. Space before her rippled as flesh came into view.

It was slightly hunched over but its height was that of a small man or a tall teen. Yellowish skin that was ringed by black markings. Its chest was humanoid and rather muscular. The legs became thin and looked odd until the monster crouched and the powerful muscles made for jumping bunched up.

The clothes it wore was basically the jungle itself. Hide-Like pants with leaves to provide camouflage, a necklace of stones and odd marks that looked painted on. It opened its eyes, the sideways pupil blinked once or twice.

It inhaled and Delta saw how big its mouth was. A human head could fit in there and the flexing jaw muscles made it damn clear it could do some damage.

In one hand was a wooden spear, the stone spear tip was surrounded feathers of some bird and the shaft had intricate designs carved into them.

The frogman spun it with ease and held it out to Delta with both hands, palms up. The frogman had very human-like fingers.

“Queen of my home. I am yours to command. I will die for you,” he said and his voice was deep.

Like the well the frog got stuck in and thought was his whole world.

Delta felt slightly sure no well was going to contain this frog by any means.

“Oh... hello! Nice to meet you!” Delta said nervously and the frog didn’t move, still holding the spear to Delta’s general direction, using her voice to know where she was standing.

He didn’t say anything.

“So... you can stand up. It’s fine. My name is Delta!” she tried again and the frog stood slowly and looked around.

“Where shall I guard? I shall deliver your foes hearts to you, my goddess,” he vowed and Delta waved her hands.

“No no no, no heart taking or killing!” she said quickly and for the first time, the frogman looked perplexed, his large cheeks moving down as his tongue rolled about.

“I... yes, I will not taint your realm with unworthy blood!” he promised and bowed again. There was a moment where nothing happened and the frogman looked up, unsure.

“I am ready to be punished for assuming your wishes,” he said slowly and Delta felt a headache fast approaching. There was movement at the corner of her eyes and Mr Mushy approached. He looked... winded as if the air around him was too thin.

He waved and Delta thought she heard a noise. The frogman tilted his head.

“Bow to the Goddess, she is a being that demands respect! What are you doing here?” the frog questioned and his tone became hard as if Mr Mushy was breaking some law.

“I called him here,” she said and he froze. Mr Mushy handed the frogman a misshapen pot. Delta beamed as Mr Mushy nodded with friendliness.

“See? He brought you a ‘welcome to the dungeon’ gift. Listen, some ground rules...uh...you need a name,” Delta trailed off. The frogman looked between the pot, Mr Mushy, and her. He looked rather confused and looked back down at the pot.

“I am a simple monster, the shadow of the jungle... a member of the tribe. I am... do not deserve a name,” he tried to back away but Delta just followed him.

“You don’t look like a hopper, which I guess is racist now... Hm, jungle names aren’t my forte but you’re hardly a Jack or Joe...” Delta muttered and the frogman reached the each of the river and looked like he would rather jump in that accept a name.

Delta stopped and eyed him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked and he put the pot down gently.

“I am not sure... why I am here. I am your tool to kill and yet I am not allowed to kill. I possess no magic to turn or put foes to sleep, my Goddess. Why did you make me?” he asked bluntly and Delta blinked.

“Because I wanted to meet you. I was excited to have another monster around. I wanna see what you do or see how you enjoy being around. I’m gonna build you a nice jungle, so don’t worry!” Delta assured him.

Something popped into her head.

“Your name is Rale, it’s simple and relevant!” Delta beamed and Rale seemed to shiver before he bowed.

“I am truly not... worthy. I must go,” he said quickly and jumped the river in a single bound. Delta’s mouth fell open and Rale moved into the quickly spreading grass. Delta felt like she had failed utterly at this.

Rale didn’t seem to enjoy or accept what her goblins had. Delta wanted to follow but decided to give the frog some time. If she could understand Rale, then she could understand how the frog tribesmen worked as a whole before summoning more.

Mr Mushy eyed the river and picked up his pot and scooped up some water.

The water began to leak out of four holes but Mr Mushy seemed pleased. He held it up for Delta to see, getting hit in the face with water as he did so.

Delta smiled softly and decided to just wait.

She was good at that.

---

Rale... Rale...Rale.

A glorious name... wasted on pond scum. What had he done? What had he accomplished? What had he managed to do to deserve such a boon?

Nothing and the shame burned in his chest. He had just run from his Goddess. He was too ashamed to face her. A box appeared and Rale froze.

Enough.

This was a voice of power. Not the Goddess but her shadow.

“Master, I cannot accep-”

Enough. You have been given a gift and you throw it in her face? Delta, your Goddess, is a light. There is no purpose for your existence and it scares you. There is no reason and it binds you. There is no destiny and that weakens you. I am not the Goddess, she will wait until you are done being petty. I have no such patience. You are a proud warrior of Delta. You will repel but not go for the kill. You will guard her heart but not hurt it. You will listen to me when I say that you are unique. Not the boon but the actual word. Delta wants you to grow into your own power. She believes in you and wants you to try. Running away from her does not change anything. I had... my doubts but she has unlocked... created so many paths already. She is power and she is corruption.

Rale watched as the box went blank for a moment.

Delta makes you want to be better and we were not designed for it. We will try anyway because it hurts her if we don’t. Be the warrior you are meant to be. But don’t rely on Delta to force it. Now, stand Rale.

He stood, how could he not?

We are wrong. We are not logical. We are dungeon and yet we are free. We are Delta.

“We are Delta,” he repeated as a sense of peace fell over him. It was okay... he didn’t have to understand. Rale blinked as he felt Delta’s warmth inside.

It was okay to be a little wrong. That’s what the warmth told Rale at that moment. He struggled to fit his purpose into acceptance but he stood regardless.

Now go away, I have signs to put up.

He bowed and walked...slowly back to where Delta still was. He could hear her gentle voice talking to the walking fungus.

Yes... the mushroom was right. Not just a Goddess. A mother.

He was but a child but soon he would grow into a worthy warrior for her. He, Rale, first of his kind, vowed it.

This time, the words felt real and powerful in his heart which began to beat louder.

33: The Curious Container

Vas watched as Master Japes’ newest creation formed with a particular agitated feeling. Vas didn’t know what was causing the master to feel as he did. In Vas’ time, they had never known Master Japes’ to be anything other than slow and methodical. Sometimes a bit happy as he told stories of his old days.

The master had his odd smile when he spoke of those days.

Vas saw the master turn the pot over and then sigh, letting the new pot fall from his hands and to the floor. The smashing sound sent a jolt up Vas’ spine. The way it shattered into countless pieces, sending the once interesting features to the four corners of the room in a clattering of broken pieces. Vas was still as the noise faded from their ears.

“Clean that up, I am... tired. My head is-” Master Japes seemed to struggle with his own irritation. He straightened up and then smiled at Vas with a slow nod.

“Leave it. I know how it upsets you to clean such messes. I shall do it tomorrow. You are free for the night. Remember the rules,” Master Japes said, words like a breeze.

Gentle, but Vas could feel the potential storm that could brew in an instant.

“Yes. I will not leave the village. I will not break the laws of this town. I will not try to become a tree. I will not set fire to the back alley bards if they refuse to stop singing. I will never, ever, reveal your secrets,” Vas repeated confidently and Master Japes sighed.

“How does one child get into so much trouble?” he asked himself and smiled at the thoughts that followed. Vas didn’t even blink. They looked like a person of 20. No more, no less. Perhaps it was the way Vas’ sleeves were a tiny bit too big for their arms or the way their bed hair was eternal and made Vas look like, as Master Japes often joked, Vas had been dragged through a bush backwards and the bush turned into a druid who threw some good storm magic at Vas for good measure.

Master Japes bent down slightly and cupped one of Vas’ cheeks.

“I am harsh but you are a good child. Go, enjoy the night. I will see you soon,” he ushered with a waved of one hand. Vas didn’t really much prompting.

Vas enjoyed helping Master Japes. The work was soothing and Master Japes made very beautiful work. Vas made pitiful attempts, none that quite met the standards of Master Japes but the man encouraged Vas to keep working at it.

Vas liked pottery. Vas liked walking the night just a bit more.

The dark town was never truly quiet. Too many interesting people lived here to keep to a strict day and night schedule. The star seers set up shop and argued over the Two-headed Horse sign. Was it fading or rearing? Vas watched as a sharply dressed man ducked out of a marble building.

The glint of a fang made Vas tilt their head. Von the banker, a dangerous man. Master Japes had said so but told Vas he had nothing to fear if he remembered to be respectful.

“Out for your nightly stroll, are we Apprentice Vas?” the banker asked and Vas took a moment to appreciate how similar their names were. Like two pieces of pottery that had inspired one another.

Von wasn’t the man’s real, middle, fake, or even close to accurate name. Vas knew to call him Mr. Von because everyone did. Vas had asked why he was called that once and Master Japes just pursed his lips and said not to ask or Vas would be cleaning clay dust off the walls for the next three nights.

Vas never asked again.

“Yes, Mr. Von. I hope you have a good night,” Vas said, bowing their head and the man chuckled as he moved away. He seemed to aim directly for a small bar near the end of the street.

“I always do, young thing,” he promised and with a rather spectacular turn of his large coat, vanished into the building. Vas read the sign.

The Milk Glass

Vas nodded once, having read it every night. It seemed like a nice enough place but Vas had no such desire to drink milk like Mr. Von.

Instead, Vas continued down the road, stopping to pick up a few things people had dropped. A knobby potato, some used matches, a broken wheel off some cart. Vas picked them up and put them in a small bowl at their side. Vas plucked a dangling apple from Mrs. Dabberghast’s garden, the tree hissed but didn’t really do anything.

Vas sighed and longed to be a tree. They seemed to have such interesting lives. Using one hand, Vas swirled the knick-knacks together. The bowl was not theirs, but Master Japes’. It was a special bowl, if the Master was to be correct, which he usually was.

The wheel, the potato, the apple, and the matches began to blur together as the bowl glowed slightly. The magic began to change the objects into a singular object.

It was some reddish vegetable on a wooden stick. Vas use one finger to move it and the odd thing spun on the stick like a wheel or a windmill. The bowl let out a sigh and the magic faded for a night.

Vas liked making things, even the mixing bowl let Vas create things. Vas began to slow down as the house appeared. Vas clutched the bowl and the most likely flammable vegetable in both hands. There was no lights or any sign of life. Vas felt emotion stirring and they quickly rushed over and placed the vegetable near the door. The cleanest place was on the little mailbox, so Vas put it in there.

They turned and ran, ducking into the usual hiding spot. Feeling dizzy, Vas could only watch as the night went on.

Then Quiss appeared.

Vas felt their tongue go numb as Quiss picked up the odd vegetable. Quiss muttered something and peered around. Vas chest hammered and in a panic, they became unliving.

Vas ceased to thi-

Vas blinked and saw Quiss had gone inside. Sighing with relief, they moved away before Quiss reappeared. Twice in one night would be too much.

Master Japes had not... he hadn’t warned Vas of how their chest would hurt or how their head would go odd around the Peace Keeper.

Maybe it wasn’t supposed to happen? Vas thought about that and then shrugged. Supposed to or not, it happened and Vas relished in the feeling. If they could be a tree, they could watch Quiss all day. Trees had that sort of free time.

Vas neatly moved around a puddle in the road.

Old habits die hard.

“Hey, you!” a voice called, it came from the direction of the house, Quiss’ house.

Vas turned and saw the woman coming towards him. Ruli, a friend of Quiss. Quiss, she knew Quiss and she would tell Quiss that Vas had been near their house!

Vas panicked and cease to thi-

They blinked once and Vas saw that they were no longer in middle of the road but instead inside of a pub. Ruli drained her jug of drink and burped. Vas shrunk in on itself. Ruli eyed them then smiled.

“Oh, you’re alive. Was thinking I scared you to death,” she said by way of greeting. Vas looked around and saw other people were drinking but no one paid them any attention. Perhaps it was the man who was stacking glasses on top of an ominous cursed looking statue? Maybe it was the barmaid who split herself into three for a moment to serve drinks before becoming one again?

Whatever it was, Vas was not exactly eye-catching in this bar.

“Sorry, just didn’t want to leave you in the middle of the road. You're Japes’ pet, right?” Ruli asked with little tack. Vas nodded and made sure to hold the bowl tightly with both hands. The Master would angry if Vas lost it.

“So, what’s the deal, why is Japes being such an ass?” Ruli asked loudly and Vas had a flash of the ‘rules’ in their head.

“I cannot say,” Vas tried and Ruli popped some peanuts into her mouth.

“Right... serve until you die. Kinda you Golems' shtick right? I’m not asking if he wears thongs or battle-speedos. I just need to know why he was trying to get into the dungeon,” Ruli said, voice going a little soft. Vas blinked and shook their head.

“I cannot say,” Vas replied confidently and Ruli rolled her tongue around as if intrigued by Vas’ words. She nodded as if giving in. She took another deep drink of her mug.

“I mean, I can ask Quiss to come down. I’m sure you’d love to talk to him,” Ruli said, smiling cheerfully and made a motion to stand. Vas’ body jerked and they knew Ruli could see the panicked look on Vas’ face.

“Damn. Calm down, don’t you dare go comatose on me again,” she warned as Vas tried to sink down into the chair. Music played through a series of fairies. Each one looked like they were about 50, smoked once a minute and got drunk every night.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“N-not Quiss!” Vas stammered and Ruli raised one brow.

“Usually when people say that, I get where they’re coming from. You? I don’t think you’re afraid of him. Considering the tracks around his house and the smell of that weird thing you left lingering on your hand, you’re sweet on the old asshat,” Ruli accused as if Vas had been caught doing something unnatural.

Maybe Vas had been. Did empty containers for their master’s power develop feelings? What about ones that were filled to the brim of contained magic? Vas didn’t know.

Vas wondered what it'd be like if Quiss asked them to store some of Quiss’ magic?

The table jumped as Vas’ knee jerked in reaction to that thought. Vas put the mixing bowl over their head and tried to block out Ruli’s existence. Breath, Vas needed to breathe. Vas didn’t actually need to breathe but it felt appropriate for this moment. Ruli shook her head.

“Listen, just simple yes and no, yeah? Just... give me a general vibe and I’ll... dunno, get you a pair of his dirty socks? Steal his hair for you? Whatever mushy crap you want!” Ruli tempted, happily selling Quiss for information.

Vas tried to pull the mixing bowl harder over their head.

This was bad, bad, bad! The rules! Quiss! The choice.

Vas took the bowl off their head and stood.

“I must leave. Neither my master nor I have any nefarious business with the dungeon. I am not privy to my master’s secrets, goodbye!” Vas strode to the door but then it swung open and Quiss walked in, looking grumpy, tired, annoyed, wonderful.

“Ruli? Where are you? Swiped my coins, you little bush rat!” he called and then he looked down at Vas.

“Evening, Apprentice Vas, sorry, didn’t mean to shout in your face,” he said and began to peer about the room.

Vas’s existence became a series of tightly controlled thumps.

Music, glass clinking, voices... faded to Vas’ beating core. Quiss was saying something but it didn’t matter because Quiss was fire and Vas wanted to be a tree that would catch his light.

Vas ceased to think and the thumping took over.

----

Someone spoke.

Vas blinked once and turned to face Master Japes. The early light shining on his smooth face. Vas moved forward and barely caught mixing bowl that fell off their head. Master Japes was holding a note and was looking at Vas with a pointed look.

“PeaceKeeper Quiss brought you home from the local pub. According to him, you ‘froze and then occasionally swayed to an unseen breeze’.” Master Japes repeated the notes words. Vas couldn’t meet his master’s eyes.

“I warned you about being a tree.” The words came quick like a whip and Vas nodded mutely. Japes sighed and then motioned to the door.

“Come, we need to get ready. I have an interview with the elders. You can come as I don’t trust you to not stand there all day swaying,” Master Japes smiled slightly as Vas blushed. They returned the mixing bowl to the locked cabinet and helped the Master gather his belongings.

“Why are you seeing the elders?” Vas asked quietly and Master Japes put two fingers to his temple.

“To sort a growing problem. It is either that or I shall unleash Gerti,” he jested and Vas dropped a rather expensive pot at his words. He frowned at the mess and then rolled his eyes.

“I was jesting, Gerti is a last resort. We both know that,” he said over one shoulder as Vas began to lock the shop up and then Vas swallowed the keys like they were a light snack. He sorted the keys into one of his compartments.

The elders met together around town on a Tuesday. One could never know where exactly they met until someone spotted them. Master must have been prepared as he headed straight to the cafe.

Cafe ‘+one’ was what Master Japes called a ‘trendy’ place. Vas didn’t know what that was but he knew it was insulting. The pretty waitress smiled nervously as Master Japes asked to see the elders, his special smile appearing slightly to hurry the process along.

Vas saw that the wall was covered with some odd posters.

‘Don’t have death in motion, grab a health potion!”
‘Check twice or pay the price! Missing a teleporter orb, not even once.’
‘Be nice to the healer. Damage class bias is not cool.’

The tables where people sat to eat had little chose your own adventure menus and forks that looked like odd tridents while the knives like something a novice might think was good for rogues.

The server behind the bar flicked something on his glasses and they switched from clear glass to vivid purple. He inhaled some wooden pipe that no respecting mage would use and tried not to cough as a Master Japes glared.

The elders near the back nodded as Elder Pic rolled his edible dice.

“My Elven Protester uses ‘Mass Animal Outrage’, the dark lord loses 5 stats across the board due to sponsors pulling out of his campaign,” he grunted and Elder Jose nodded as she rolled.

“Not bad, I guess I’ll active my shapeshifting Rock’s passive. I become a tropical gnome minority with one arm missing, granting me a 30% increase to my next three actions-, oh hello, Jolin,” she called.

It took a moment for Vas to register the fact she was talking to the Master.

“My fair elders, I hate to break up your weekly session of P.DnD.L.G.B.Q.E.D, but I must really talk about access to the dungeon,” Master Japes smiled charmingly and Haldi mumbled something and his giant troll wearing a princess tiara moved forward on the little playmat.

“We heard. Challenging Quiss? I didn’t take you for a fool,” Elder Jose said calmly and Master Japes bowed his head in agreement. He put his hands behind his back and Vas saw how tightly he was holding each hand.

“Messily and...rude, I agree. It doesn’t change the fact I am being plagued from the mana. Dungeon mana is never easy to readjust to,” he reminded and all the elders gave him flat looks.

“We are quite aware. Do you see us rushing in to cause trouble for the dungeon? Pic nearly ate his wall in his sleep. Haldi is... well, he won’t say but he’s going from eccentric to plotting,” Elder Jose pointed out and she leaned forward, eyes a deep yellow.

“The first few levels are the worst. They are meant to drive people into the dungeons blood-soaked ground. This is basics 101, Japes. Level 3 will be less and 4 will be hard. 5-7 will be a breeze and then 8 may end up with me throttling the next person who annoys me,” she murmured.

Vas was trying to be a pebble. It felt like being stuck between clashing titans and Vas felt too scared to move.

“What if the Fairplay comes? You think all those fools hyped up on dungeon mana are going to behave? The Fairplay will halt the dungeon and force it to grow levels, this will attract the Juicers that follow their muck like flies to the dung. The Juicers will run out of their fix once the mana high does not come until every ten levels. Then it will turn bad. The Calculators will come and this dungeon will be dissected and harvested like a fresh corpse. Your King will allow it and your Queen will rebel and civil war will break out again!” Master Japes’ face distorted into the monstrous visage that Vas’ master kept hidden mostly.

All three elders had just listened.

“So concerned... I’m sure your heart is just bleeding for Delta,” Elder Jose said with a blank smile. Vas saw her eyes were glowing slightly brighter now.

“I just... want to solve my problem before it becomes an epidemic and I have to leave,” Master Japes reasoned. They all looked at each other for a moment.

“I don’t mind. Permission makes all the difference no? But... you fought with Quiss, so you’re getting punished,” Elder Pic grinned which made Haldi snuffle with chuckles.

“You, Jolin Japes, are not to go near the dungeon,” Elder Jose smiled, a real one this time. Master Japes looked a little frustrated but he hid it quickly.

“Then how am I to solve my problems?” he asked almost sweetly. All the three elders looked at Vas.

Master Japes also began to look at Vas. The sudden weight of the looks made Vas panic.

Vas wanted to be a tree very much at that moment.

34: The Flower in a Pot

It is not what art offers or does not offer. It is about what it leads you to discover upon the road of practise. Every imperfection is a reflection. Every failure is a lesson. Every success is a quiet weeping of the soul as if blooms. You see failure and ugliness. I see beauty. I see life. I see perfection. You are my success, never forget this. When you are ready, you will know this. I might even have the courage to tell you when you are awake. - Jolin Japes, Master Potter, Lost Explorer, Father.

---

Delta wandered the first floor, her company walking softly next to her.

“Waddles, you don’t ask for much. Be honest, am I setting myself up for failure? Can I really make living with people peacefully an option?” Delta asked and the duck followed her voice into the Mushroom Grove.

He quacked and Delta closed her eyes. The noise became feelings, feelings became numbers, the numbers became meaning.

Her life, her existence, was based around numbers and she began to see how things could be numbers. How things became more than just numbers but could also just be reduced to numbers at the end of the day. Nu handled nothing but numbers every second. Time, space, ratios, dimensions, elements, predictions, abstract knowledge sorting... Nu did it all so easily but to be fair, he struggled to see the joy in some very basic things or meaning.

Delta smiled as Nu popped up more signs around the dungeon.

Well, maybe he could see the joy in some things.

“Big pig lives here, you have been warned - Nu”

Delta didn’t mind the drain on her Mana, even Nu needed a form of expression to help him work out the kinks to his awareness.

She focused back on Waddles.

His words were not so much clear replies but impressions of his mind and hint towards his intent.

Waddles honestly did not care for humans or peace. He just wanted to swim in his pond, mess with the fish and make people have a bad time if it suited his mood.

Waddles was the odd one. Delta didn’t know much about him. Where he was summoned from by Quiss. What he did before the summoning or if he was a being before being magically conjured.

Questions with no real answers. Delta smiled as Waddles flapped his wings a few times.

That was Waddles for ‘Do what you want and people will deal.’

“Inspirational, thank you!” Delta bowed her head slightly. Her gobs returned and Delta watched as they dragged a large spider corpse with them.

Gob looked slightly sick but perked up once he was back in the dungeon space. Delta needed some antivenom or something if the spiders came in force next time. Delta was honestly surprised she hadn’t seen more of them. They hadn’t seemed very smart from what she saw of the last three but she couldn’t get careless.

The corpse dissolved but nothing appeared in her menu. Delta wondered if she had gained all she would get from the common spider grunt? It made her wonder what other levels of spiders there might be that could come for her dungeon.

Obviously, there had to be some broodmother or a queen, those were just staples across any fantasy she had read or played. Delta paced as Waddles went to rest on Boary. The two accepted each other without much problem. Boary being far more accommodating than Waddles seemed to warrant but Delta guessed no one wanted to have bad luck.

Delta tapped her chin as she thought, feeling like a smart person as she did so.

Two floors, two options.

It was already making her a bit nervous about how to go forward with things. Would she be better improving the first floor and getting a lot of mana off people as they visited? Or should she rush the second floor more to have more defence between people and her core?

Improving the second floor had appeal with a boss, secret rooms, challenges... but it was costly and her only source of income was her wonderful contracted monsters.

“Think, think, think. More options or improved basics?” she asked aloud. On the other hand, planing this sort of thing made her grin as her old gamer mindset kicked in.

How wonderful she was doing a pacifist playthrough with her own life.

Better first floor gives more resources. Having some live trials going on would show us more weak points and gather data on how to... entertainbetter.

Delta paused and chewed that over.

“What we need is people. From people, we need tributes and mana off their bodies. For that, we need a lure. Mrs Dabberghast has the grove, Ruli has the fishing spot... guess we got Fran for challenging. What we need is something for the others. We don’t have anything for the treasure seekers,” Delta slapped a fist into her open hand.

The shiniest of treasures do have the most blood-soaked chests.

“Dark. So, what can we do? I mean this also brings up what to do if someone beats Fran and doesn’t kill him, they don’t get loot. So, they’re getting punished for obeying my rules which is bullcrap,” Delta sighed. Nu’s screen blinked a few times.

A boss chest. It is the most elegant solution.

“A what?” Delta answered with a blink. Nu flicked through a menu and brought up two screens. A chest design and the map showing the boss room.

Can you guess what I am implying? You will never improve if you do not think for yourself once in a while.

Nu seemed smug at the implication of his importance and Delta sniffed haughtily at him.

“Of course. The room upgrade system. It adds new options based on what's in the room. The campfire near the pond became able to cook fish a lot better due to the pond. The berry bush was able to help the spiders dye their web, ergo objects, monsters, and the room can all interact with another as long as they share a space. Might take some time but I'm guessing if we put a chest in the boss room, we can bind it to Fran in some way then...” she trailed off and a huge smiled appeared as Nu took over.

All we have to do is make the chest loot superior to Fran’s soul drops and the condition he must live for it to be opened. Making those who seek to kill receive... subpar rewards. People will aim for a win, not a kill due to the rewards. We turn their nature against them.

Delta nodded and then pointed to the grove.

“I want a chest in here. I’m thinking of making a special key. Might take some effort but if I can make it pond by-” she was cut off as Nu vanished. Delta turned to the entrance of the dungeon.

She knew that voice.

“-to me at all times or I’ll tell your parents so fast your groundings will transcend time and space,” Ruli warned. A timid voice replied.

“I do not have parents,” a young person spoke. Delta blinked and honestly wanted to say male but it was their features that softened the face to a hard to say point. The hair was messy, almost like it was gelled to be so. The complexion was... Delta felt ‘dirt-covered’ worked as the young person looked around with wide curious eyes. It looked like its skin was covered with a thin layer of clay dust.

It wore a puffy white shirt that had a variety of stains and marks on it, working trousers that looked more suited to a paperboy of some early city and round black shoes.

All in all, the little backpack it carried just made Delta’s heart melt a little. Ruli ran a hand through her thick black hair and looked tired.

“Your master then, either or,” she amended and another voice came from the entrance.

“HELLO, DELTA! IT IS I, DEO!” the exuberant young man shouted as he slid into the dungeon as going for first base. Following behind was another familiar face.

The rather angry young man from before. Amanster.

“Yes, I’m sure the dungeon conscious could really forget such a volume,” he added with a wry tone. Deo grinned as he turned slowly as if trying to make sure Delta saw him.

The young person blinked at them.

“I am not sure why there are here, Miss Darknessbane. I don’t really know why I am here,” it added in as an afterthought. They looked honestly confused as they examined her entrance hall.

Ruli’s fingers edged towards the flask at her hip but she resisted at the last moment.

“You’re here to solve your master’s problem, peacefully. Deo and Amanstat had a school report and Deo wanted to do it on the dungeon and to be honest, I ran out of wood for him to chop for his punishment and Amanster needs to lose his edgeyness before he unlocks the goth class,” Ruli said bluntly.

Deo jumped from foot to foot and Amanster glowered.

Delta had guests and she felt so unready! Billy the ranger came rushing down the hall at her urging.

Ruli waved as the person with no name yet jumped back in alarm.

“Yo, Billy was it?” she asked and the quiet gob nodded. Deo rushed up and held out a hand.

“IS NUMB AROUND?!” he said, shaking the goblins arms so hard the creature was lifted off the ground.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Billy adjusted his hat which had been blown sideways by the question. He merely pointed down the tunnel into the gloom. Deo turned to Ruli and seemed to silently beg for them to hurry one. Ruli shook her head as if this was not what she had planned for the day.

“Hold yer magically empowered horses. Delta, this is Vas! They’re... well, a resident of Durence. It’s here to look for something that's bothering its master. Vas, say hi,” she nudged the person and it bowed its head.

“Greetings, great one. I am Vas, the tool of Master Japes. I am here to look for pottery or vase related incidents in the dungeon. I like trees, fire, naming pots and planting seeds for new trees to grow,” Vas lifted its head and looked shyly up at her ceiling. Ruli muttered something and Vas looked like it had frozen.

It swayed once or twice and Deo took it by the hand.

“COME ON! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS PLACE! IT’S AMAZING!” Deo grinned and Vas looked at Deo’s hand clasping its own, barely peeking out the sleeves. Deo gave the first door a few test swings as if to show his point. Amanster watched Vas with narrowed eyes and Delta show actual caution to the boy’s face.

Vas smiled slowly.

“Your hand is warm. Like the sun,” it said and Deo just beamed.

“MY MUM CALLS ME HER SUNSHINE SINCE I AM SO CHEERY!” he explained and Vas’s face lit up. Delta was about to gush and covered her mouth since this was just too much.

“Sunshine, it is fire and warmth. I like you!” Vas said with a large smile to mirror Deo’s. Ruli was drinking deeply from her flask and she looked at Amanster.

“Lose the scowl. He’s allowed to be friends with the golem if he wants. Can’t hog ‘sunshine’,” she teased and Amanster’s eyes glowed slightly purple.

“I don’t... trust it. Makes my sense go off,” he tried to explain quietly. Ruli thought about it.

“Vas is a golem. It’s false life with magic. You’re the son of a saint and a dead hedge necromancer. You’re good at sensing life. It’s like me chasing mechanical beasts, the routine feels right but it throws off all the wrong signals,” Ruli clapped a hand on his shoulder as both Deo and Vas crouched down to speak to Billy. Billy looked annoyed at the gesture but tolerated it.

“Billy, goblin sir, do you know anyone who is making pots in the dungeon?” Vask asked quietly and Billy actually let out a snort. He turned and made a ‘follow me’ gesture. Deo ran after Billy, pulling Vas by the hand as the golem stumbled to keep up with the slightly smaller teen.

Deo’s brightness and Vas’ simpleness made Delta strong.

They were worth it. Deo the sunshine and the golem who liked trees.

If she could make this dungeon work for them, it would be worth it.

---

Vas almost cried.

It was heartbreaking as it fell to its knees as Mr Mushy showed off his pottery effort.

“HELLO, MR MUSHY!” Deo called as Vas cradled a rather cracked pot. Mr Musy waved but didn’t seem able to stop staring at Vas.

Delta bit her lip. The reaction Vas was having to the pots was rather alarming.

Vas put the pot down and picked up a hardened lump that looked like a pretzel. It looked up at Mr Mushy and Delta blinked as anger blazed the golem’s eyes.

“How could...” it began but then exhaled. Deo picked one up turned it over. He looked at Vas then at Mr Mushy. He sat down and offered the misshapen pot to the golem.

Vas shook his head, almost unable to look at the thing. Ruli had gone down the new passage with Amanster. She was currently explaining to the young teen about mana vents and ways to use them but Delta couldn’t care less.

Not while this was happening.

“This monster has... it’s tortured these pots. They’re mockeries,” Vas whispered and Deo eyed the pot.

“I LIKE IT!” he said without hesitation and Mr Mushy clapped his hands with excitement and Vas looked more upset.

“But they cannot serve their purpose. They are pointless. They cannot contain, they cannot function as pleasing figures. They will be smashed if the master finds them!” Vas choked out and it tried to cover the pot in its body as if trying to prevent that very thing.

Mr Mushy reached out out a giant hand on Vas’ head. The golem looked up in fear but Mr Mushy closed his eyes. For a moment nothing happened and then Mr Mushy picked up one of his pots. He pointed to it then pointed to Vas.

He repeated this several times. Delta could feel the emotions.

Same.

Vas hesitated and Mr Mushy pointed to the pot and to himself. Repeating the motion.

Same.

Vas looked like it was struggling to get the idea.

“You are the same as the pot? But you are an organic being. A monster...” it trailed off and Deo grinned.

“MADE BY DELTA! MR MUSHY WAS MADE AND CREATED BY THE DUNGEON! SO HE IS LIKE A GOLEM AS WELL I GUESS!” Deo said, sounding pleased by his logic and Vas shook his head.

“If he is... how could he do this to his own creations?” Vas demanded and Deo itched his nose. Billy was watching as Numb snoozed against a mushroom. Boary was hiding from Deo.

“WELL... I GUESS...” Deo trailed off as Billy moved forward. Delta whispered to him, careful in her words.

“I am speaker of Dungeon Core Delta. My words are hers,” Billy warned and Vas straightened like it had been caught doing something rude. Deo looked excited but managed not to shout.

“Mr Mushy is learning. He does what he does with love and joy. With crude fire and cruder mud. From terrible materials and a dangerous method to him, Mr Mushy makes art. He risks his life with fire to make these pots. Maybe to you, they are malformed or ugly but to me, to Mr Mushy, they are beautiful because each is filled with his passion and love,” Delta spoke and Billy repeated her perfectly.

Vas looked like it was trying to shrink out of existence.

“M-my master, his senses are telling him they are not right!” it pleaded and Delta tried to soften her words.

“Art cannot be wrong if it's honest. If it breaks no law or better yet, harms no one. Then your master has no say over right or wrong. Art is just expression and I won’t let you call Mr Mushy wrong. Vas... wait... you work as a potter and you’re called Vas?” Delta asked and the golem nodded.

Delta broke out laughing and Billy pulled his hat down over his head to hide his embarrassment.

“Master is... needing a moment,” he said to the confused group.

“J-just... oh that hurt... just teach Mr Mushy how you do it and see if he gets better?” Delta suggested and Vas eyed the giant mushroom.

“I have not heard of a fungal pottery master... but I shouldn't! My master has not deemed me ready for a student,” Vas denied and Deo grabbed his hand again. Vas went still as Deo’s eyes went big. Mr Mushy bowed his head to show his eagerness.

“PLEASE HELP! MR MUSHY JUST WANTS TO MAKE POTS AND YOU MAKE POTS! WE CAN ALL BE POT BUDDIES AND COME HERE TO ENJOY SOME POTS!” he begged and Delta’s lips twitched again. So innocent...

If she got some ovens, she could make them all pot brownies. Delta giggled again.

“I... shouldn’t,” Vas said weakly and Deo beamed so hard that Delta felt her skin tan slightly.

If she ever went solar powered, the kid was going to make her rich.

“PLEASE! I, DEO, WILL BE IN YOUR DEBT AND PROMISE TO INVITE YOU TO MY NEXT SLEEPOVER!” he offered and Vas looked like it was suffering some mental meltdown.

“Poor thing. Now submit!” Delta cackled as Vas nodded with a jerk and Deo grinned and pulled out books and paper.

“GREAT! NOW, BILLY, CAN I ASK DELTA SOME QUESTIONS? IT'S FOR MY EDUCATION!” he explained and Billy looked up and Delta cleared her throat.

“Sure, I mean, how bad can it be?” she said as Mr Mushy bowed to Vas and fell over, almost squishing the golem.

---

What is your favourite colour?
A: Orange!

Do you like swords, daggers or magic?
A: So far, I like goblins, they have them all.

How long have you lived in Durence?
A: A week and a bit.

What is your favourite place in Durence?
A: Uh... my dungeon I guess!

If you could be an animal for a day, what would you be?
A: A duck. Ducks rule.

Do you prefer infernal worship, nature worship, mechanical worship, saintly worship, or money worship?
A: Nature, I guess? Money, is there serious power in loving mon-

If a dustplane bird left Durence at 3pm and travelled 7.5 miles per minute to the capital that is 50 miles away, how much haste potion, learned in the beginning of alchemy class, would it take to dose the bird so to kill someone riding it from moving too fast?
A: I... what? No, wait, what was that? Is that your version of maths?! Uh... a... mouthful? A spoon full? What is wrong with this education?!

Do you think dungeons are evil?
A: It’s pretty easy to be. I’m not going to lie. It’s hard to be a good person.

Do you think Durence could ever trust you?
A: I really hope so.

Does the coolest hero, awesome in every sense, known by all as DEO! Impress the dungeon?
A: Is that a real question? I mean, of course, you’re a little scary beam of sunshine that I hope never goes supernova.

Does Deo deserve to be grounded?
A: ha, yeah... no comment. You ain’t using me as an excuse.

35: Rulis and Termis

“Yeah, I can see how you’re kinda fucking yourself over,” Ruli drank from her flask as she threw her caught fish back into the pond. The Yellowbelly Cod flopped a few times and vanished with a sad gurgle. Delta knew the fish, due to sometimes napping at the bottom of the pond, they liked to see who could remain uncaught the longest.

It wasn’t hard to see the Silvertail fish was still the reigning champion. It seemed to enjoy teasing Ruli. Delta wasn’t sure it was fair if the fish were semi-aware of how fishing actually worked but Ruli didn’t seem to mind as Deo and Numb cooked the other cod over the fire. Delta was pleased to see the upgraded logs looked almost picturesque in their shape and colour. Knowing they would respawn in 6 hours made Delta feel a little accomplished. There was only room for one fish on the fire so Ruli just tossed her catches back in the water.

Amanster was having a staring match with Waddles and Vas...

The golem hadn’t left the grove. Mr Mushy’s enthusiastic hands tried to squish the pot’s rapidly forming lip. Vas shrieked and flapped his hands much like Waddles did. Mr Mushy looked confused as Vas took the monster’s hands and spaced them out, moving them gently up the wet clay that rapidly became solid.

How Vas was doing it without any fire was beyond Delta’s knowledge, though probably some unfair magic. The clay just kept spinning on this little wheel Vas had and while there was no heat, the golem looked a little overheated.

“So, you don’t kill us and you basically don’t grow. I kinda get your problem. Wooden platforms, doors, some spiders, cute but when it comes to the real stuff, your goblins ain’t going to be able to collect enough sticks and stones to break anyone’s bones to get what you need,” Ruli sniffed as Billy leaned against a rock, translating Delta’s words.

Cois was not here as he would rather stay away from the ‘screeching Deo’, his words not Delta’s.

“I dunno what to do. I want to grow but I don’t want to kill anyone to do so. I dunno if I can lure monsters in fast enough either. You said you’ve seen others, is there any dungeons that grow without killing... uh... well besides just killing?” Delta asked and Ruli rolled her tongue as she thought about it.

“Hmm... well, I haven’t seen a lot of dungeons. I once saw a dungeon in a volcano, it ate a lot of rare gems formed there. Not sure the town would appreciate you opening a magma vein, so scratch that... Oh, there was a sort healing dungeon that would cure ailments or illness if you reached the end and killed the final boss... well, I think it just collected the illness, not heal it. We had to purge that one a while back...” Ruli grunted and Delta bit her lip,

“What happened to it?” she had to ask. Ruli took a moment to answer.

“It decided it would study enough sickness to remove the biggest one, people. Dunno how the conversation went with the core, I wasn’t involved. The people who didn’t really survive either. Listen, you really don’t need to follow those losers. Delta, you’re kinda cool. For a dungeon anyway. Is it so bad, not growing quickly?” Ruli wondered as she teased her bait a little.

Delta took a moment to think about that.

Was... it so important? When she had flesh and blood, digging into the ground held zero appeal but as a dungeon, it was all she really thought about in her spare time. If she went deep enough, she could have a voice, one that people could hear.

“Could you sit around all day in your house, sealed in with whoever just happens to visit? Knowing you could garden or paint or read or make friends? What if you were stuck knowing if you did enough, you could open a window and speak to your neighbours or even make a new part of your house?” Delta tried to explain and Ruli closed her eyes.

“Stuck at home, eh? Well, fuck me, forget what I said. I’d rather choke on my dagger than be stuck at home with my mother and the same walls. I’d burn it down in a week,” she grunted and pulled her hook back.

“If I have enough floors, I can speak to people,” Delta added quietly, folding her hands together or imagined doing it. Billy repeated it and Ruli held up both hands.

“I surrender, lower the guilt-tripping,” she joked as Numb snapped the cooked fish in half with his edged weapon and handed half to Deo who dug in with glee.

Ruli took a moment to think.

“Well, it’s not hard,” Ruli shrugged and stood. Delta gaped at her. Not hard? Not hard? Delta was doing her best to defy her nature as a person killing cave and Ruli was telling her it was easy?!

“Just don’t make a dungeon. The word already creates a bad vibe. Make... a fun place or a helpful place. People become doctors and open hospitals. People like plants and open greenhouses or making potions for people. Just don’t make a dungeon, it’s pretty easy,” Ruli scratched her nose.

“Hell, make a fishing place and I’ll never leave,” she grinned and Delta frowned. The idea sounded lovely, so perfect...

“What about people who come here to kill or monsters? I need defences or protection,” she pointed out and Ruli snorted and flipped a knife from her boot and spun it once in one hand.

“I didn’t say walk into a sword with a smile. You can have the nicest house but you should still have knives in the drawer, a gun under the mattress. Hell, I’ll lend you Quiss, he’s a grumpy old dog that lives outside in a small wooden hut anyway,” she offered with a smile and Delta couldn’t help giggle at the thought of Quiss with a bone in his mouth. Still, Ruli had an idea and Delta liked it.

Don’t make a dungeon.

It sounded simple on paper but it didn’t answer her actual problem. Delta tried to think about how to get valuable DP out of not killing or such. She asked Ruli as the Silverfish broke the surface of the water, teasing Ruli.

“Depends on what ya do. Charge people, make them pay in blood, have them pay in mana or whatever. If you got cash, just post bounties or have a job board, Delta, you can make money that is legal, why you aren’t abusing the hell out of that is beyond me,” Ruli gripped her rod with both hands, eyes locked on the shimmering form under the water.

“I mean the Mystery Dungeon over in Prepham makes a killing, figure of speech, when people just do its puzzles, sure more often than not, people die but not enough to explain its growth. So, maybe you can do the same, set up challenges and see what happens?” Ruli flicked her hook and the fish all went crazy for the challenge.

The marine life around here was crazy and Delta was fairly sure it wasn’t her fault.

Challenges...

If someone did challenges in a dungeon, using only items to kill or no healing, they got rewarded. But what did the dungeon get? Sure it made it harder for the invaders but it rewarded them as well.

Did the dungeon get something as well?

“What if someone really, really, wants to fight?” she wondered and Ruli grinned as the Silvertail dashed towards the hook.

“Delta, you give them the fight of their life,” she yanked and the water exploded.

Water rained down as the Silvertail fish flapping wildly with the hook stuck tightly. Ruli laughed maniacally, then the fish slapped the line with its metallic tail and the hook dislodged with a flash.

Ruli’s laughter died abruptly and the fish vanished back under the water, a small cloud of blood fading fast.

“You little...” Ruli bit her tongue as Deo blinked at her. Ruli cleared her throat.

“Now... let’s try again and this time...” Ruli said through gritted teeth. A single rune on the rod’s handle lit up.

The fish all paused in the water as Waddles sat a little straight in his nest.

“We play for keeps,” Ruli smiled and Delta nudged away from her as the woman’s long messy black hair began to move in some unseen wind.

---

Ruli whistled as she carried the Silvertail towards the entrance. Amanster was talking to Billy, the two actually seemed to click in some weird way.

“Need a hat, loud friends can’t see if you amused or annoyed,” Billy said and Amanster nodded and then touched his head.

“I don’t know what hat I need,” he grumbled and Delta wanted to say a hood would be better but didn’t want to help the kid reach some new level of quoting the raven.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“So, I forgot to ask but whos Nu?” Ruli asked as she flicked one of the signposts and Delta took a moment to process the question.

“Nu is...” she paused and then couldn’t think of a good explanation. A friend was easy but she had a feeling that wasn’t what Ruli wanted to know.

Companion? Helper? Menu? Assistant?

After hearing how dungeons got ‘removed’ due to doing bad or odd things, she wasn’t sure she wanted to just admit there was a part of her power she had no control over.

“A helper I created, he does small things for me when I need to focus on things. He handles the boring stuff like math and I guess he got bored as well, hence the signs,” Delta tried not to lie but she knew she was not admitting to the whole thing. Ruli smirked.

“Good for you, I would have done the same. I like him, he’s got a dry sense of humour I can appreciate,” she commented as she read the first sign post in the dungeon.

Ahead lies Delta’s dungeon, if you know none of those words, turn back because my hopes for you were already low but good grief - Nu

Delta laughed nervously, trying not to think about the sheer scope of what Nu actually did around in the dungeon.

“I’ll go talk to some people. I know Dabberghast is wanting to come back. See if I can’t get some people come in for a while or drop off some tributes. Anything you want me to advertise or should I just go with ‘Shrooms, fish, and done-with-your-shit signposts’?” she asked and Delta thought about it.

“Say that if anyone wants to study monsters or if they want to study a dungeon or offer me advice, I would be grateful!” Delta clapped her hands together, Billy translated as Delta checked on Mr Mushy, who was holding his first usable pot. Vas looked like they had been stuck on some amusement ride and had ridden it about ten times more than they wanted to.

Deo and Numb were doing some odd boy thing where they tried to crush each other's hands.

“YOU... ARE... AWESOME!” Deo grinned with determination. Numb just grinned.

Ruli rolled her eyes.

“I’ll take my brats home before I scream,” she said dryly and Vas turned abruptly.

“I wish to stay!” it said and pointed to Mr Mushy who had gotten his hand stuck in the pot.

“He needs more help, please let me stay,” Vas asked the air and Ruli hooked a finger in the golem’s collar.

“Sure, but then Delta can’t get anything done. Right?” Ruli asked this to Billy who waited for Delta. She hesitated.

“Come tomorrow. I need to do some things but you can hang out with Mr Mushy tomorrow!” Delta promised and Vas looked puzzled.

“I’m teaching him, not being his frie-” it tried to correct but Deo cheered and grabbed both Vas and Amanster by the arms.

“I’LL BE HERE AFTER SCHOOL! I CAN’T WAIT!” he laughed and easily dragged both boys towards the entrance. Ruli snorted and looked at the entrance.

“I’ll make sure someone with some responsibility comes with them. I’ll be busy, well, I’ll be drinking,” she looked pleased by the idea and walked out the dungeon with a single hand in the air.

“Don’t become a loser. I actually like you,” she said without looking back. Delta felt the heat in her cheeks as she felt a little shy. Ruli was so cool and she thought Delta was cool.

“Release me before I send dead spiders into your bed!” Amanster yelled and Vas looked oddly dazed and was swaying side to side as Deo took his hand to drag the stunned golem easier.

Odd bunch but Delta liked them.

-ourse you do, they’re just as weird as you.

Nu faded into existence and Delta grinned.

“Come on, we need a theme but first...” Delta turned and with some menu navigating two tables appeared at either side of the entrance. Wooden and rather plain but Delta formed two metal dishes on the top of each table.

“Nu, you do that side!” Delta smiled as she made a little signboard.

“Please leave a donation to help me! Thank you - Delta”

It was simple and Delta turned feeling so excited to whip her dungeon in shape and her face froze as Nu’s signboard appear.

“Leave tribute. You should be paying us for putting up with you, to be honest - Nu”

“That’s too rude!” Delta put her hands on her hips and Nu took a second to change the sign.

“Leave Tribute. You really should be paying us for helping you, just being honest, thanks <3 - Nu”

Delta twitched.

“How do you know emojis?” she asked blankly and Nu appeared with a smug orange colour.

HI, I’m Delta! <3 I love people cause they’re sooooo cute! Teehee, let’s break all the rules xD I’m going to make poor poor Nu do all the work and expect him to be happy...

... Seriously, I just write like I am you and the things just appear. It’s sickening but I am intrigued by their mocking usage.

“I sound nothing like that!” Delta puffed up her cheeks and Nu faded back to blue.

Of course, nothing like that... at all. I see we finally have tribute tables. It is something at least.

Nu was so... Delta rubbed her face as her goblins looked in the air as if watching their parents squabble.

“Now, I need to know the rules about chests or challenges,” Delta asked and Nu actually paused.

Challen...ges?

Nu fizzled a bit and Delta felt her left eye go hazy as the solid matter was replaced by floating numbers, everything connected by important numbers. She closed it as fast as she could, her head already thumping. A spot on Nu had turned bright orange.

Yes. I see! Oh... Oh, no I didn’t... one second.

Nu returned to full blue and Delta risked open her eye and saw everything as normal again.

“The hell was that?” Delta rubbed her sore head as Nu took a few seconds to open menus and check everything was in order.

I had incomplete data. I searched for the pieces and ended up taking a piece of yourself into me. Since we must be equal in nature. I gave you a piece of me. I didn’t even think about the results.

Delta nodded and then bit her lip.

“What if you swapped everything you are with everything I am?” she asked quietly and Nu paused. Her eye still had twinges of pain and the spot on Nu still looked slightly purple.

I’d rather not know. Now, I have formed a new feature that may intrigue you. Challenges are not rules, you’ll be pleased to hear. In fact, they are far better since they are not actually forcing anyone to do anything. Optional is synonymous with cheap it seems.

A menu appeared.

Challenges:
Select a room.
Select a challenge for the first floor: 20 mana:

- Clear the room in a minute. Set a reward
- Kill all the monsters. Set a reward
- Survive for 1 minute. Set a reward.

DP reward depends on room and challenge.

Delta felt her face pull back in a large smile.

“Nu, we’re in business.”

36: Challenge Accepted

Challenges were like a form of ritual.

An explorer or adventurer would willingly participate in the strange request and usually, they had to really believe that if they did the challenge, they would be rewarded for their efforts.

Belief was the key. Delta tapped her chin and moved down the hall, admiring her mossy ceiling as it twinkled. Faith and belief were a part of magic or religions. Nu wasn’t sure exactly due to not having any material to reference aside from Deo’s fairytale book.

Priests were a thing. Delta remembered Amanster’s small talk with Billy the previous visit on the subject. His father held power and was something called a ‘saint’. The words were familiar but Delta was sure she was missing some of the context of it in this world.

By actually making people believe in Delta, in her, believe that she would keep her promises and that they would be rewarded, it caused faith to appear as a sort of energy. Nu said the dungeon gobbled it up like anything else and made DP. The whole thing appealed to Delta very much.

All dungeons had to use these, it was just too good not to! Delta slowed and thought about it.

“If people died by the dozen every day from traps and monsters, would other dungeons even care? DP is DP... it doesn’t matter. I care and I think we can make this work,” Delta hummed to herself. Nu slid into view.

Agreed. The act is simple enough. Overlay a challenge on a room and people who enter will be alerted to the challenge through a magical sign in front of them. I expect it looks like floating glowing words or similar. It is up to them if they wish to pursue it. For those with the intent on reaching your core, this does nothing to actually help them. However, your odd relationship with the people in this area may prove to make this feature rather crucial. Ruli and any fishing for example. We should increase the fishing possibilities of the pond as a payment for her leading us to develop challenges.

Delta actually smiled.

“Nu, is that consideration and appreciation I see in your words? Maybe we should send her a thank you Nu-te” she teased as Nu floated ahead.

No. That was painful. This was merely logic on how to soak up the most DP out of Ruli’s fishing habit. If we had any alcohol, we could also syphon a challenge out of Ruli that way.

Nu’s words seemed to almost bristle in defence and Delta kept smiling.

“Sure, sure...we had the basic challenges for everything but what about... uh... let’s say the Spider room?” she groped for a random room and Nu flashed, a new box opening beside him.

As you can see, once we actually focus on one room, the possible challenge list begins to shift rather significantly...

Challenges(Spider room)

- Pass through the room without disturbing the web. Reward: Not Set

- Feed a berry to each spider without disturbing the web. Reward: Not Set

- Tell a joke or pun bad enough to disgust the spiders. Special unlock due to core actions. Reward: Not Set

Delta blinked at the list.

“I was kinda expecting... uh, ya know? ‘Kill the spiders’ or ‘Burn all the web’. This is rather tame for the options,” Delta said confused and Nu made a small ding.

Challenges are thought up directly by the core. Since you have a second floor, challenges on the first floor may be more malleable to your unconscious desires. Floors are important after all.

Delta nodded slowly. She really didn’t know how her own existence worked with any real confidence. Without Nu, all she have would be half-guesses at best.

“So, we have 51 mana, we can probably set a challenge in a few rooms! This is great, Nu, we’re finally going to be more than just a cave!” Delta clapped her hands and then got busy. Nu shimmered softly.

It was quiet while it lasted.

----

Cram eyed the hole and the sign.

He scratched his rather full beard and looked to his friend. Smalls was busy doing some light stretches.

“You almost done?” he asked with a light tone and Smalls’ held up one finger and did a few squats. Smalls was a rather fair man that had gone silver with age. Cram was your average wood lurker, hairy, dirt encrusted in his boots and trousers. He would find wood chips in odd places from his day job hours later, even after a long shower. The woods never really left Cram in one way or another. Smalls’ was the type of guy that could be dragged through a swamp backwards and come out looking like a soap advertisement model.

Men like them might not normally be friends but that was what the nature of adventuring. People became closer when their lives became a flip of a coin. He and Smalls’ had been through a lot in their younger days. Now, they usually just spent the days talking over the fence between their houses. Cram chopped wood and repelled spiders for a fee when asked and Smalls’ made clothes and gossiped with the locals.

They never forgot each other and Cram was glad his remaining friend decided to up and move with him. Durence was great but sometimes the people could be a bit more than his gruff voice and axe could handle. Smalls’ was a natural at the small talk, he let the man shop for him in return for fresh firewood.

Their normal routine had changed when the giant woman, Ruli, spotted them in the tavern. She marched over, a large grin on her face.

Cram respected Ruli with every bit of common sense he had left. The woman was also of the forest but her axe looked for flesh, not wood. She had grown some height. The mana was making her even more energetic than usual. Cram could relate. He had been ruining trees for the last few days as his strength rose back to its old levels, bit by bit. Small’s had been weaving all night, Cram could hear the humming from his bedroom.

“Go to the dungeon, walkabout, say it’s awesome or something and for the love of crap, try not to kill anything!” Ruli warned with a single finger and vanished to find more people.

The hole in the ground felt like a dungeon. It had a certain tension to the air as Cram moved closer. It also felt a little different. Cram had been to more than his share over the years but he hadn’t really felt a softness to the feeling of one before.

The two emotions conflicted with Cram a little and he rolled his shoulders to fend them off as Smalls finally seemed ready.

“Sorry for the wait, my back’s just never been the same after that trap in Shifting Sands. What was that dungeon again...” Smalls trailed off as he flicked a line of thread around three fingers. Cram felt better to have Smalls with him, the man had a certain talent of making normal thread and wool turn into... unsettling weapons.

“The Cavern of Darkness, local name. It hadn’t gotten an avatar when we were there,” Cram grunted as he untied his axe from his hip.

“Oh gosh, that’s right! So cliche that Marsha almost threw up! Remember how she ran to the fountain after the trip through the sands and-”

“And ended up with a mouthful of sand because it was a decoration,” Cram grinned at the memory. Smalls rolled his eyes as he took the steps into the dungeon.

“Seriously that woman never looked where she went or what she did,” he said fondly and then looked pulled out a golden locket and flipped it open.

“It would have been her birthday in a week, we need to get some pumpkin pie to celebrate,” he said lightly and Cram gripped his axe hard.

“Yeah, some of that nasty wine as well, she never stopped drinking that horse piss,” he agreed, feeling his own locket around his neck grow heavy.

He hated how he couldn’t remember his closest friends without it leading to this.

“Well, one more dungeon raid for the Weirwood Wolves, eh? Kon would be so angry to see how domestic we’ve become,” Smalls chuckled and they both entered the dungeon. Cram saw the entrance chamber round out with some soft torches and glowing mushrooms dotting the entrance.

“Simple but clean,” Smalls commented and read the signs. He snorted at the one sign with the rather nasty tribute comment. Cram wandered over to the other table.

“Delta...” he said, tracing the sign with his finger. He looked down at the dish and rummaged in his pockets. Manners were never wrong and he rather give to a good natured girl who apparently happened to be the core. Smalls got a kick out of the sarcasm, no doubt he’d tribute to the other table.

“Not much but here’s a wooden carving I did and some flowers I picked up on the way here,” he offered and placed them in the bowl where they would remain until he and Smalls left.

He read the sign about the door.

“Those who enter, please say ‘Forfeit’ to leave dungeon alive.” he read and cocked one eyebrow.

“Think the core is confident?” he wondered and Smalls brushed some hair behind an ear.

“Or is really that nice, can’t be jumping to assumptions before we even see for ourselves,” he chided and entered the dungeon, leaving Cram to stare at the sign a second lond.

People were hardly that nice. Let alone dungeons.

Durence had to get the freaky dungeon. To be honest, it suited the place really.

“Wow, these signposts are hilarious, Cram, come see!” Smalls called with a grin to his tone.

----

Delta watched the newcomers with an unblinking stare. New people, guests, intruders, maybe both?

She had expected Ruli, Quiss or even Deo to come back but these people had appeared instead and Delta felt nervous energy fill her. Did they know the rules? Would they respect her wishes? Delta hoped they did.

They chatted like old friends. It was clear in the way they anticipated each others words, finished their sentences... moved. She wished Nu was here, her friend would have some insight to help her.

She couldn’t put it into words really, but when Smalls took the lead, Cram moved slightly to the right and when Cram took lead in the short tunnel as Smalls stopped to look at a mushroom, the smaller man’s hands flexed as if ready to grab something.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Hey, Smalls? What's this?” the large man with the large coat made from leathers and edged with fur. It was like Ruli’s but Ruli’s coat looked like it had been made more crudely. The man’s jacket had a touch of a professional about it.

“Webs, they come out from a spider’s thorax,” Smalls said dryly and the larger man narrowed his eyes. Smalls grinned before lightly moving closer.

As his foot edged into the room, Delta held her breath as words began to appear in front of Smalls. Ghostly blue words that looked like the very air was glowing.

Pass through the room without disturbing the web and be rewarded.

Delta cheered, despite the fact nothing had actually happened yet. Her challenges worked and people could see them! She danced on the spot and a few of the spiders waved their little legs in cheer as well.

“Challenges, the dungeon already has challenges. Well, isn’t this interesting?” Smalls commented and the large man shook his head.

“Don’t touch the web? Kind of a weak challenge for a dungeon, I can see a pretty clear path from here,” he pointed out and Delta shuffled and tried not to fidget at the man’s words.

“Cram, be respectful, you don’t-” Smalls was cut off as the words in front of them began to gain more words at the side.

Sorry, we were expecting you to be idiots. It is weak but you have still yet you pass it, so put your feet where your words are...

Both men stared at the floating words. So did Delta. She knew that sour attitude.

“It... it responded!” Cram said, disbelief in his voice. Smalls only stared.

...You can see my words? Delta? Can you see me?

Nu was speaking through the challenge system. Delta called for him but Nu didn’t seem to respond to her shouts.

How could this be... did Nu hack the system or...

Wait, Delta picked at that thought harder.

Nu was the system but he vanished when people appeared. So, Delta had never really thought to ask but where did Nu go when he vanished?

Apparently, he existed in some place where if the dungeon menu appeared in any form elsewhere... he could appear.

Nu was the menu and the menu only became locked to Delta.

“Uh... yes, we can,” Smalls said carefully and Nu took a moment to respond.

Interesting. I believe this must be... Hello, I am Nu. I am the creation of Delta. I make signposts, challenge texts, and other small things.

Nu told the little white lie with aplomb and sarcasm and both men relaxed just a little.

“Saw your signposts, I am a huge fan!” Smalls and Cram narrowed his eyes.

“Expected us to be idiots eh?” he said and Nu took no time to respond.

Well, what can I say? We’ve mostly had children and Ruli visiting. Our expectations are a bit low. Well, we also had the golem and that was just interesting to see it have a nervous breakdown with Mr-

Nu cut himself off before he went much further,. Delta was trying to shoo Nu away before he upset the new men but she could apply about as much force as a ghost’s fart.

“You speak for the core... I mean, Delta?” Cram wondered and Delta narrowed her eyes as Nu’s text box took some time to answer.

Totally. I am her absolute voicebox. Her thoughts are mine to relay.

Delta felt nervousness give way to alarm.

“Oh, I hope she’s looking forward to us having a poke around, we were told it's more friendly than the usual dungeon affair?” Small said conversationally.

Delta request you call her ‘Supreme Queen Delta’. She is most excited for you to move deeper. She is hoping you’ll compliment her mushrooms. She is very proud of them. Also, she has said that I am to tell you that you must do all the challenges or you will hurt her feelings very much.

Delta was screaming and slapping at the text box as both men looked between them.

“Stop, stop, stop!” she ordered but it fell on deaf text boxes.

“Uh.. tell Supreme...Queen Delta that we will try. Her mushrooms are very nice, I like the glowing ones more than the Gutrot ones,” Cram stumbled and Nu let out several alarmed noises.

Those are her favorite!

“Uh I mean, maybe Smalls likes them and that’s perfectly fine!” the large man backpedalled as Smalls covered his face with one hand.

“You’ve had your fun, my good friend. There’s yanking chains then there is pulling down roofs,” he chided and Nu made a chuckling noise, a series of bells

Smart man. Perhaps this won’t be too boring. Delta is just Delta. Honestly, she rather you do your thing. I am going to go. Being in this form is making me a little tired. I hope to see you pass the challenges. It would really help us. Delta has faith in you but I will hold my judgement.

Smalls bowed a little.

“I shall change that opinion good sir Nu. My honor as a Weirdwood Wolf demands it,” he said and the side box began to fade.

I have no need for your honor. I need your blood and sweat. Work hard. Let us engage in ...happy symbiosis.

Delta felt relief surge through her as Nu’s box faded. He was a tad bit annoying but in the end, he had been honest about Delta’s desires and really what close friends didn’t annoy each other?

“Ya hear that, Cram? I think we just got challenged on some whole new level,” Smalls nudged the larger man. Cram nodded and eyed the room.

“I accept the challenge,” he called and Smalls echoed him a second later.

Delta watched in fascination as an orange circle appeared on each man’s left hand. It pulsed like a heartbeat.

“There we go, nice and simple. I remember that one dungeon that made the mark appear on our rears. I didn’t know when I failed anything and I was not letting anyone check...” Smalls muttered and Cram laughed.

“I saw more of Marsha than I wanted to that day,” he slapped Small’ back hard but the man barely budged.

“Dainty flowers first,” he offered and Smalls sniffed.

“Oafs last,” he said, the words held warmth and Cram nodded as Smalls began to nimbly move around the webs and towards the midpoint. The berry bush. Delta knew that she only had enough mana for two rooms so far. She had chosen the spider room and the mud room.

Both held rather different possibilities and Delta took it as a learning example. It took grace and elegance to do the spider room. The mudroom?

It was a mad dash as each person had 10 seconds to clear the platforms and reach the end without falling in. The wording was interesting as well.

Use the wooden platforms to cross the room without falling into the mud.

The person had to use the platforms to complete the challenge. It meant no one couldn’t just fly or leap across. Challenges were the perfect thing for her dungeon. The only problem was that they all needed rewards. Delta felt a little unsure when the rooms required an appropriate reward.

Delta guessed slaying a dragon with one hand would need a reward suited towards it. Not just a nice apple...
So as Smalls reached the far end of the room and opened the door. The glowing circle on his hand flashed and lifted off his skin into the air where it began to reshape itself. Delta watched with a smile as her reward formed.

“Oh... this is cute!” Smalls said as he held a shirt made from the spider web. He ran a finger over the material.

“Soft, flexible... hm something about it.,” he said as Cram’s head brushed web near the ceiling and it broke free. Cram grimaced as the orange circle on his beeped red and peeled off, crumbling like ash.

“Cram! You missed your chance to get a web shirt!” Smalls tutted and Cram picked a few berries.

“I’ll live,” he said with a sigh. Delta saw a shimmering energy flaking off Smalls, the man didn't even look at it. If he could see or not, Delta wasn’t sure. The glowing energy soaked into the nearby wall and Delta shivered as she felt... something settle inside her.

Delta felt a sigh as the challenge went inert for a time. Delta guessed it would be a day or so before this challenge was operational again. Delta tried to guess there might be some way to speed that up...

She shivered. Delta closed her eyes to follow the feeling of that energy tickled as it flowed up her feet to her chest. It made her feel warm. She blinked as she missed Smalls and Cram entering the Pond room.

“Cram, you have your fishing hook?” Smalls mused as he smiled at the quaint little campfire and logs. Cram bent down to look into the water.

“That’s a metal fish,” he grunted and Smalls looked as well.

“Is that a duck?” he said instead and Delta swallowed she remembered one of the possible challenge options for this room.

Anger Waddles the duck and complete the dungeon with the Dark Drake Curse in effect. Reward not set. High quality item needed to be set as a reward.

It was a tad bit extreme and Delta had backed out the room when Waddles had begun to tap his webbed feet excited in some tippytappy dance when she read it aloud.

Delta wanted to challenge her visitors. Not break them.

37: The Nuance of Dungeon Building

They were at the Mudroom. Delta was beside herself with excitement. They entered and the only other challenge she had managed to afford appeared. Smalls was holding Waddles in his arms. Delta has been rather shocked when Smalls has just gushed over Waddles’ feathers and elegant form. The duck had, of course, preened like a peacock that could curse someone with bad luck.

Delta had no idea her fatal guardian has such a flaw. It was cute how Waddles allowed the slim man to carry him and pretended he wasn’t loving the attention from what was clearly a very experienced adventurer.

“Well, this is more my style!” Cram grinned, his features seemed to be easier to see in the bright light of the numerous torches of this room. Delta saw how his skin was dark but not in the way she expected.

Cram’s skin seemed to be more ashen than merely dark, it had a certain texture to its appearance. The black skin was hard to see surrounded by his beard, wild hair, and furs he had on his body. Delta could see almost perfectly in her dungeon but having actual light show definition on the man’s face revealed a lot.

Cram wasn’t human. Not... exactly. His jaw moved in a way that people’s just didn’t, his wide eyes were yellow instead of white and he looked like he had no iris but just solid black pupils. He snorted and Delta was startled, stumbling back as Cram moved through her. Delta patted her cheeks to calm herself.

Staring into someone’s eyes like that... Delta chided herself for taking advantage of her invisibility to rudely stare. Cram’s biology was nothing to be ogling at. He was a guest.

The words of the challenge appeared in the air as before.

Using the platforms, cross the room in ten seconds or less.

Crams nodded and did a few stretches as he eyed the platforms.

“Tch, I like the thinking. I pay to see some prissy priest or knight fall into the pit. Smalls, stop petting the duck and get ready,” Crams said with a sigh as Smalls feed Waddles a cracker from his pocket.

The smaller man smiled brightly as Waddles dropped to the ground and... waddled back to his pond. Pleasant quacking echoing down the tunnel a moment later.

“Listen, you get a big head because that duck gave you some good luck...” Cram trailed off, warning playfully and Smalls put a hand to his mouth as if shocked.

“Me? Gloat? Crams, dear friend. I would never. I have been praised as a very humble tailor, a good neighbour, a joy in people’s lives, a beauty in a few towns... well, what can I say? I am just cursed with good fortune,” he said and Cram snorted.

You two would make my teeth hurt if i had any. I come bearing news. Listen well, I don’t have enough energy to spend it trying to be witty. Normally, Dungeon Core Delta would be sending her goblins or fungi to chat up a storm, however, she will be hard at work on her second floor and will congratulate you when you have passed the boss room or leave. I hope you understand that. Delta will be on the second floor. She has a lot to do on the second floor.

The message ended and Smalls blinked at it.

“Odd fellow,” he commented and Cram shrugged.

“This entire place is odd. Now, you doing this or not?” Cram gestured to the room. Delta was staring at the air where Nu’s box faded as if it was some kind of phantom. The second floor?

She hesitated, not wanting to miss the two men’s journey but Nu seemed to be intent with his message. She had no plans with the second floor but... now she felt curious.

“Watch, I have the good luck of the duck, I accept the challenge!” Smalls bowed and leapt forward. The platform tilted and he began to slide before he jumped again on to another fake platform where he abruptly toppled down into the mud with a wet splat and a screech.

There was a beat of silence as Cram peered over the edge with a large grin.

“Lucky or not. Wrong is wrong. You chose wrong,” he guffawed and nodded to the wood.

“Fakes slightly bob and the edges look smoother than the solid ones. Guess... I should have told you that before... whoops?” he said innocently as Smalls stood up, covered in mud.

“I will hurt you,” he growled. Cram just grinned and accepted the challenge.

Cram moved and Delta blinked as the man cleared the room, barely lingering on a platform longer than a second before h touched down on the far side. Delta was gaping. How did someone that big move so... so... like that?!

Cram reached down and plucked Smalls out of the mud like a soaked cat. The orange circle on his hand glowed and a stack of perfectly cut wooden logs landed in a neat pile to one side. Cram bent down to examine them as Smalls flexed his hands.

Delta watched as Smalls’ clothes twisted themselves, each thread twitching in response to Smalls’ finger movements. Mud oozed out and seemed to be unable to find a way back into the man's clothes. His skin and hair was still slick with mud, however. Also, he was glaring at one of Nu’s signs.

Delta moved away as Cram picked up a log.

“Huh... not bad quality. Basic mana-infused wood but not bad at all...” Cram’s voice grew quieter as Delta zoomed away. She was eager to hear more but she dived down into the second floor.

She paused near her core and waited for a moment.

Sure enough. Nu appeared.

And I once again prove that I am the smartest of the two of us.

Nu’s words looked and even sounded pleased. Delta blinked and then turned back to the stairs.

“Nu? How... they’re still here!” Delta said, confusion making her hands wave uselessly at the ceiling. Nu took a moment to resize his boxes and adjust his font and colour slightly.

Well yes but I’ve been snooping about. I do that a lot when people come. However, this is the first time people have come and I found a feature that we can use. The dungeon does not lock in its entirety when people come. Only the floor. We are still free to create, infuse, grow and mess with the menu on the empty floors. I got... bounced down here for a moment when I left the first challenge box. I had a hypothesis, which I turned into a theory right now. You are the core, by being here. It confirmed a few things.

Delta nodded slowly.

“If you could appear even briefly, it might mean you could appear when people were in the dungeon but... you could have just said so in the other box. Why the cloak and dagger act?” she wondered and Nu just gave a little sigh of a ding.

Delta. It is the sin of awareness. Not us but the people. If they knew that I was essentially your power and managing a lot of the background noise, there would be questions. There would be doubt. People need to know every why and but. We don’t know and given people are wiping dungeons off the map if they even begin to look just a little ‘broken’ I will not take the chance of them deciding a dungeon that has no control over itself needs to be removed. We... I...

Nu paused for a moment and Delta felt a lump settling in her throat as she waited.

We are unique. We are both the core in some manner. It should not work, but it does. I am happy to leave the people to you. You are unburdened when I deal with the system. I have found it to be... I like to see where it can go and you have not been an... unwanted piece of company over the last two weeks.

“Nu...” Delta said, voice thick as she reached out to put a hand on Nu’s box edge. He shook himself and he glowed slightly brighter.

What drivel. I was once a flawless machine of perfect logic and outcome. Now I am trading sickening pretty words. I blame you for this. Now, what were you doing up there?

Nu demanded and Delta moved back as the mood whiplash slapped her again.

“Wha- Nu, I was watching people explore my dungeon! I wanna see their reactions to everything!” Delta said, putting her hand on her hips. Nu spun tapped the door to the jungle.

How many people must we watch before you get back to work? With a second floor, wasting time is no longer excusable! Every second they leak mana and finishing those challenges is giving us DP. It is like watching baby animals instead of doing work or finishing a novel. Would you watch little animals all day in bed?!

Delta guiltily kicked the ground.

“Not... too...I mean if it was really cute or I got to know them,” Delta chuckled weakly as Nu’s box went dark blue.

Men and woman with big pointy swords are not cute animal babies. Repeat after me, they are not.

Delta opened her mouth and an image of Deo laughing with a perplexed Vas rushed into her head. The way Amanster grumbled but followed along made her smile appear slowly

They were all teens and whatever Vas was but they were all so damn cute! Scary but Delta couldn’t help but like them.

“Hmm... I won’t be chained to the second floor I got to have my fun too! So... a deal!” Delta offered and Nu turned sky blue with curiosity.

“I’ll work on the second floor but...I wanna be there when they meet Fran,” she stated and Nu seemed to take a few seconds to reply.

A serious challenge. I too would like to see that if I could... we need to find some form of recording feature. It will become annoying if cannot see people fail over and over to my amusement.

Delta’s face just went blank.

”You can’t stay in bed all day watching people hurt themselves and do stupid stuff while their friends laugh at them,” she said with a clipped tone. Nu turned a dreamy midnight blue.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Oh, but I could...

Delta rolled her eyes so hard she was sure she could see her brains.

Nu wasn't wrong. The two upstairs were giving a nice chunk of mana to play around with. That would mean more challenges once they were gone but for now...

She marched into the Jungle room. Rale stood to attention as he leapt from the river where he had been snoozing.

“Mother Delta, you are back!” he said and Delta smiled at his more relaxed posture. The frogman looked a lot less... tense then before.

“Hey Rale, don’t mind me. Just gonna get some things done. Any requests?” she half-joked. Rale shook his head and looked around.

“I will await your vision. It will be grand,” he bowed his head again and Delta watched he dried off rather quickly.

“Hey, Rale? Do me a favour,” she called and her newest monster went still.

“Anything,” he promised and Delta hoped he’d relax maybe a little more.

“If anyone falls into the river and needs help, fish them out will you?” she asked casually and Rale looked confused.

“Would we not want intruders to drown?” he wondered and Delta stretched, eyeing the series of pots at the bottom of the river where Mr Mushy had been visiting. The fungi had been trying to be super nice to Rale.

“Nah, I like them alive. Thanks, Rale,” she said and Rale nodded without a word.

Delta turned slowly, fingers flexing as she tried to imagine what to do.

Options... upon options.

I would suggest finishing the room’s base appearance. It will be harder to alter or see what needs to be done later on if everything else put in here after makes things cluttered. We have flat planes and a river. I would suggest altering some parts of the room to be higher or lower. Trees can be good but we can do more if we have depths and hills to mess with.

Delta thought about that.

She looked at Rale, at the pots, at the river. An idea struck her.

“Ya know, Nu. Every good jungle level has one thing, well, even every good game level even,” she smirked and looked at the source of the river.

She opened the menu and found the right section to see what it would cost.

“Nu.. why does it cost a lot less for a lot more height alteration?” she asked slowly and Nu just blinked slowly.

Because we do not play fair. Nice but not fair

.

Delta just nodded and hit confirm, smile wide.

10 mana blinked away and the room rumbled. The river rose as a solid mass of stone grew out of the ground. The water started falling down the expanding space and crashed into the gaping riverbed where it formed a round lake before it gushed into the river along the jungle.

The noise of water thundering down onto rocks was so loud that Delta could almost lose herself. Feeling childish, she paid another 10 mana to take the new lake and pulled it down, making the semi-shallow pool into a deep gaping hole where no light reached.

With a twirl, she moved to the rough wet stone behind the bottom of the waterfall.

A room here? It feels like an interesting choice. Is it something you planned?

Nu’s words hung for a moment before Delta clenched her fist a giant room hollowed out into a room behind the waterfall.

“Planned? No... Nu, this is tradition,” Delta raised her hands and with a deep breath let herself topple back into the pool, falling all the way to the bottom. The light above should be the same as the darkness around her to her eyes but it felt deeper. It felt like she could never reach the surface again.

This pit would be perfect for a monster. I am thinking... a snake. No, maybe a jellyfish... hm...

“Nu... we need a turtle,” Delta said, almost dozing away in the dark pit.

...that does not scream challenging enough.

Delta smirked.

“I’ll give it cannons on its back and spooky looking shell?” she tempted and Nu lit up like a beacon.

“I shall tell the goblins to keep their eyes open. But what shall we do with the room behind the falls? Do your traditions dictate this?”

“We have everything needed for sheets, pillows and a frame right?” Delta floated back above the water, dry as ever. She briefly imagined what fish could evolve in these waters.

Yes. I was hoping for a pitfall or perhaps a puzzle room. I suspect you may have different ideas? Offering a restroom to those who know where to look may be unwise. It could cause people to never leave or to always have someone here. We’d be stuck and never able to edit the floor again.

Delta looked at the water.

“Well. I kinda have an idea about that. Do you know anything about controlling tides?” Delta smiled as another idea washed over her.

We would need to account for several things but it might be doable. Delta, are you planning to drown people? I am not complaining...

Nu was such a tease. Delta looked around the room and then at the stone roof of the cave. She paid some more mana and a second room appeared near the back, only accessible by some stairs she managed to shape with the help of Nu.

“If we can just make the room flood so the actual restroom is dry but the way in or out is a gamble flood then we can probably make it less likely to have people camp endlessly. They’d have to swim through or stay until the tide goes out” Delta beamed, pleased with her idea.

And if we fill the water with bloodthirsty monsters... I mean... little rascal fishes that would...steal their things, we’d make a profit and of course, the turtle. We need a turtle.

“Just keep adding to the area and hope the room upgrade offers us a tide option,” Delta and then looked around as she formed two beds near the top level rest cave. The thundering of the waterfall was a little less loud but she hoped people would adjust.

“I wonder how those two are getting on?” she wondered.

---

“You have to buy one!” Smalls chided, looking upset. Cram’s face had turned dark with anger.

“I don’t have room, I’m carrying the wood!” he argued and Smalls pointed to the sad-looking mushroom man.

“He just made you a pot that looks like an ugly stump. He worked hard and you can’t just not... take it!” Smalls argued and Mr Mushy offered the pot again at Cram. The Grove was rather lively.

Mr Mushy’s little round eyes looked happy as it tried to offer Cram the pot again. The rough man sighed.

“I don’t need a pot,” he tried to explain. He wasn’t sure what to do. Monsters trying to kill him?

Easy.

This?

“Stop staring at me like that...” Cram muttered as Mr Mushy looked at him, expression turning worried and sad as he began to lower the offered pot. The monster’s body postured began to radiate confusion and hurt.

Smalls was furious and the jacket he wore twitched like an angry animal under the smaller man’s emotions.

Uh oh. Cram had seen that look when some quest desk clerk had snidely offered to buy Smalls’ pet rabbit at the time, claiming the golden fur would make a great scarf.

Cram’s gave the mushroom a weak smile.

“I’ll take five,” he whispered, trying not to feel shame at his cowardice. Smalls immediately turned into the sunshine jolly tailor that everyone loved.

Underneath, the tyrant of threads sat smugly as he watched Cram try to juggle the pots and wood in two arms.

“You could help,” he muttered to Smalls who began to whistle and twirl a small red velvet bag around one finger.

“Hey, hey... is that bag of holding? Smalls, I thought you sold them all?” Cram complained and Smalls looked innocently.

“I got rid of the unstable ones and the ones that didn’t play nice with each other. I kept the good ones,” he smirked and then appearing benevolent, let Cram put the wood and pots into the bag.

“Where is this one?” he nodded as the mushroom introduced by the bored goblin archer as ‘Mr Mushy’ followed them. The archer was gone into the Grove and Cram could hear him moving about.

“A bank offshore. Most bags are bank vaults now on this plane. No one wants to keep pulling eldritch beings out instead of lunch. Besides, it cost me a fortune and the magic is not cheap by any means. Hence why I don’t simply give you one,” Smalls explained and Cram grunted.

“I have one, it's called a backpack. I also use space on this plain... just forgot it. Besides, those things fail all the time and I can't be arsed going around the world to set up a new one...” he smirked, knowing Smalls had to do it multiple times. Mr Mushy petted Small’s fair hair and the man rolled his eyes.

Mr Mushy seemed to enjoy their company.

Cram wondered what a mushroom did with pottery. Who did it give it to? Besides saps like himself?

---

At the bottom of the river. Rale floated gently by as he nudged one of the ugly pots given to him by Mr Mushy. He twitched and never saw something float out of one of the pots and get washed downstream.

It bobbed along and eventually got tangled into grassroots that grew near the edge of the river.

It waited and took root as the dungeon feed it energy as needed.

The Gutrot Mushroom perked up and latched onto one of the trees lining the room and started changing shape.

38: Big Showdown in little Dungeon

Rale was examining the room with interest as Delta stared at the menu before her.

- Jungle room:

- Allow you to regulate the temperature to a range of Mild, Warm, Humid, and Hot: 15 DP

- Allow you to change the ceiling into an image of the sky: 13 DP

- Allow all tree saplings to grow at a much faster rate: 25 DP

- Allow a river to be formed through the middle of the jungle: 30 DP

- Allow lower room behind the waterfall to flood and drain over a period. 40 DP (Special option created by intention of Dungeon Core)

- Let plants and other green life to grow quicker.

Delta was smiling as the very thing she had planned had appeared. It was expensive, however. Delta would have to make sure she got the important things done first. The rising water was a gimmick to scare or to challenge people.

She still needed proper trees, more locations for monsters and people to travel to. The room was far too empty really and Delta couldn’t wait to fill it up.

It was all one big room and it was a little different than was she had planned but that was alright. She focused on the room behind the waterfall and frowned. While the rising water had appeared, options to do with the two-bed frames and feather-stuffed pillows and mattress had not.

“Nu, any idea why the system ignored them?” she asked and Nu’s box, busy with making sure the water wouldn’t flood somewhere it shouldn’t, floated closer.

Mostly because you haven’t really made the area ‘inn’ like. The system wasn’t sure how to factor them in. I blocked many options that it did try to aim for. Having spikes in the mattress, allowing them to snap shut and crush people, even slowly moving them towards the flooded room and trying to drown them.

Delta rubbed her throat at the words. Nu was so mattered in fact but Delta still tried for a weak smile.

“Thanks, I would rather not see those kinds of options,” she agreed. Nu dinged once.

Of course, it is a waste of word space. I prefer saving us time and letting you choose options that will at least have a passing chance of being picked. Efficiency is a beautiful thing.

Delta just pinched the screen side and Nu yanked out of her touch, making small grumbling text appear as he moved away.

To answer your question. You have to keep adding to the area. Impress what you desire as you add options. Honestly, the system is learning as we are. While I may be the system in a manner, there are a lot of areas that just need time to learn. Add comfort, add rest, add protection. It will learn.

Nu’s words made Delta perk up.

“Make it homely... yeah, I think I can do that. I had an idea as well, not sure if it’s possible but do you know for anyone who beats Fran to just skip the first level? Like if they could teleport directly to the second floor and skip the walk? The inn room might make a good spot for it,” Delta explained, using hand gestures that didn’t really mean anything.

I... yes, there is something like that in the system but it's not matured enough to operate it.

They way he talked about the menus made Delta think the system was something that Nu... felt protective over.

“Do we help it mature by getting new levels?” she said, not pushing to know more about the relationship between Nu and the system. She knew the menu was having trouble with his existence as it was.

Quite. Also by just creating and applying your... special touch to things. A new way of using the dungeon and time will help greatly.

Delta nodded and looked upwards.

“How are they getting on?” she asked and Nu took a moment to answer.

Well. They decided to break for some lunch. The goblins are being good hosts... as well as goblins can be.

Delta felt curiosity but she didn’t go to look. She had made a promise to work on the floor to Nu. She could control herself until they met Fran.

It was only one hallway between them. Five more minutes won’t hurt.

---

“-then I said ‘that’s no sword, that’s my teeth cleaner! This is my sword!’” Cram said and the goblins cracked up. Billy just shaking his head, amused as Numb guffawed into the meaty broth Smalls cooked over the fire.

The smaller man rolled his eyes as Cois cackled some sparks out his nose.

Hob and Gob nudged, grinning each other.

“Gob ran into spider, and spider tried to web us!” Hob began and Gob began to laugh as he remembered.

“I say to Hob ‘this is a sticky mess’!” he howled and Cram snorted and had to take a moment not to choke on his broth. Mr Mushy applauded the joke and Smalls shook his head.

“Horrible, who taught you how to make such bad jokes?” he mock-chided as he offered more of the bubbling liquid to the goblins. They all shared a look and then looked down at the ground.

“Mother!” they all cheered. Mr Mushy looked pleased as Smalls used his pot to cook the broth.

Down the hall, the Greater Mushy rippled as he tried to ignore the happy people. He looked down at the ground where a series of rocks and pots stood close to the wall.

Gifts of his brother, Mr.

The tentacle mushroom softly began to tap the pot side, then one of the rocks, then to another large pot.

Low thud, high tap, low knock, high tap. The rhythm begin to form and the series of noises pleased the demonic looking plant.

Greater tried to remember how Mother hummed.

High tap, high tap, low knock, long tap.

Not quite but it was closer.

----

Delta had added a table, a few chairs and a campfire. It left her with 15 mana to toy with. The people upstairs were giving her small but steady mana. It was going well. She closed her eyes as contentment and laughter flowed to her.

She tilted her head as if to listen harder.

Her monsters, her goblins, were having a good time. Delta smiled without opening her eyes. She soaked in the feeling of joy and merriment. She added a stone sconce to a nearby wall and spun, sending her skirt spinning as she laughed.

Opening her eyes, she found the room to be a slightly better sight.

“Can we smooth the walls and ceiling slightly?” she asked and a box appeared.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

10 mana to smooth both walls and ceiling?

It wasn’t Nu but what had to be the system.

“Please,” she nodded and the room glowed as the rough stone walls and roof smoothed into a more artificial space. She would have to edit the campfire to respawn wood like the pond room but as far as Delta could see, the space was looking better by the second!

She imagined tired explorers putting their feet up. Pictured the relieved looks people would have if they saw the beds, the warmth of the campfire.

Good news, something has appeared. Let me copy it over...

A subsection of the room has been created. Separating the spaces.

Restful Cave has been created, accept room into templates?

“Yes!” Delta cheered and the box closed and a new one appeared.

- Restful Cave

- Allow Campfire to refill log supply every hour. 10 DP

- Allow to the walls and ground to be slightly heated due to fire crystal dust mixed in. 20 DP

- Makes beds be cleaned and made once the section is empty. 12 DP

As you can see, your attempts have bore fruit. The choices are limited. Honestly, I think making some door that needs a tribute to be open would be a good idea. This space is a special one and letting anyone just use it irks me. Plus, people should thank you for the gift.

“Nu, don’t worry about it, not yet. I mean no one had ever seen the second floor, who knows how long it will take them to even see this place... I hope they like it. I really do,” Delta clasped her hands behind her back and smiled at the small space.

...It is nice to me. If that is worth anything.

Delta spun, a large smile forming on her face but Nu interrupted her.

They have arrived at Fran’s door. Hurry, you’ll miss the action.

Delta blinked as Nu vanished. She turned to Rale who was relaxing near the waterfall.

“Rale! I’ll be back soon, I’ll make you some friends soon! Oh, I got to hurry!” Delta said quickly, making her frogman blink slowly at her departing voice.

“I shall await your return, Mother Delta,” he said seriously into the empty air. He dived and tried to lift a rock near the bottom. He tried to imagine it was some foolish human and heaved.

Fat humans wore metal and didn’t do well in water. Rale would have to build his already impressive arms to a new level of power to have a chance at doing as Mother requested. He would lift all the rocks, he would carry the humans to safety, he would make them praise Delta for her kindness.

That was his duty.

---

Fran often felt like he was a little mad. He and Bacon sometimes had full conversations where Bacon said nothing but spoke all the same. Mostly, he was sure it was due to the lack of... use he was doing. The spider invasion never reached him... the children had been amusing but not a threat at their current teamwork level and well... Mr Mushy was too nice for Fran to bait into a fight.

But he stood, every inch of him trembling with excitement as people came. Two new ones. New people, new powers, new threats.

Delta was nearby, watching.

“...Good luck, I’ll cheer for you!” she called and Fran felt his heart swell at the words. She wasn’t making him back down or submit if they challenged Fran...

He could accept.

A fight. He could finally fight.

“Woah, nice room,” a loud voice called as it walked in. Bacon inhaled and Fran mirrored it. The new scents were exotic and familiar. One of wood and old blood, the second of scented things and cooking.

“Yes, it’s basic but I think it has a very nice aesthetic to it. I like the arena theme,” the calmer voice called and Fran preened just a little at the praise of his room. Bacon snorted and Fran shushed him.

It wouldn’t do to ruin their first grand entrance.

“So, you see those rules? More rules and a chance to back out, nice of this place,” the loud one called.

“The dungeon has manners, they are a thing, my dear Cram,” the smooth voice chided.

He urged Bacon forward. He spoke as he and his steed left the darkness of the hole in the wall.

“Challengers. Welcome... to the boss room,” he almost purred with excitement. The two men eyed him, not as startled as Fran would have liked but they nodded in greeting and respect.

“I am Sir Fran, are you here to challenge me?” he asked, voice like steel. He practised in front of Bacon. Every posture and phrasing to appear as bossly as possible.

The larger man, not quite human, spoke.

“I guess we are. The name is Cram,” he nodded again as the smaller man bowed in an elegant manner.

“I am Ruberoi Smalls. A pleasure to meet such a well-manned boss. Most are usually gibbering gnolls or war chiefs. A knight is... interesting,” he praised and Fran wanted to squee slightly as they praised him.

Delta was watching, the goblins rushed into the room and sat high on the stair-like wall the edged the room to watch the fight. This was everything.

His challengers were worthy, his time had come.

Sir Fran swept his iron lance around like a flag.

“Then you will hear my rules. This will be a fight but I will not aim to kill on purpose. If I am to win, you may leave but if you take such a mercy and use it against me, your life is forfeit. I know that death is nothing to me but I hope you may show me the same respect,” Fran said, voice almost shaking. He was too excited and even Bacon was trying to appear even more majestic in the light.

Cram and Smalls looked at each other. Smalls bowed again.

“I wish to sit out. I am not a fighter. May I watch with the goblins?” he asked and Fran hesitated, a little let down to have already lost one of his foes. He nodded and Smalls gave Cram a friendly pat on his back. He jogged up and sat neatly down next to Billy who nodded.

Fran focused on Cram, seeing the man’s huge muscles and a wide grin.

“Well, I could never say no to a friendly tussle. Any more rules or can we get started?” he flexed a few times and the axe at the man’s side flashed. Fran grinned back.

“No rules, just a request. When you leave... tell the world of Sir Fran. Tell the world. Sir Fran is ready!” he shouted and Bacon stamped the ground a few times and charged. Cram laughed and put his own head down to meet the boar in mid-charge.

Delta could only watch with a hand over her eyes, peeking between the fingers.

----

39: Lost in Translation

“I am here, to this goat fence. I taste for Quest!” the man informed the curious passer by. The young woman pursed her lips.

“Well, we don’t take kindly to that word here,” the young waitress informed him, her prim uniform of slacks and blouse made her face look more mature than it was.

Sethamus, Seth to his mother, blinked and ran the woman’s words through his head. The man’s grasp on the kingdom’s language was... very basic and the grammar was very foreign to him. No one had told Seth that his Velurian was anything less than good. No one really had the heart to tell the man that as he belted out poems designed for the native language it transformed a once simple and elegant poem of two lovers into a war between three donkeys.

So, Seth had finally reached the little town of Durence, his intentions clear and his language foggy. He smiled and tried again, his purpose for coming to this town was to speak to an old friend.

“I seek Quest! I seek hot masculine lizard!” he tried and the waitress raised both eyebrows. Seth waited to see what she would do as her lips curved up into a slow smile.

“Where are you from?” she asked and Seth perked up at the simple question.

“I was... bred in Julipyso, very very away from here,” Seth informed the woman proudly. He looked around at the quaint buildings, eyed the people walking around in the light of day, noticed the way some carried themselves.

Yes, this would be a place Quiss would end up tangled with. His speaking companion took a long look at his travelling boots, their battle-scarred leather, and at his weatherbeaten clothes.

“Listen, you want some... hot lizards, we got some nice stew in the pub but other than... well, you never know, Durence has pulled weirder things out its skirt. I am Nina,” the woman offered Seth a hand.

Seth took the hand without blinking. This was good, the woman knew about the fire mages in town. He tasted the other word slowly. Stew...

His Velurian came up empty so he merely nodded. A pub would be some mage gathering tower or arcane spot. This woman must be an involved or perhaps a mage herself if she was offering to lead him there.

“I doubtedly accept!” Seth beamed and Nina paused then that small smile reappeared. Seth took that as a sign and followed the powerful mage before him. Nina, her simple but pretty appearance made this town seem even odder.

Quiss’ letters, translated just as badly into his language as Seth spoke Quiss’ tongue, spoke of a town that was either filled with raging rabbit demon bats or crazy old people. Seth wasn’t sure if he felt happy or let down at the reveal of the answer.

When Quiss’ letters stopped reaching him, he had decided to take a little journey to expand his mind. Being a mage himself, he was excited to see what the world offered him.

He had met Quiss in the very mage school that he had grown up in. Seth walked quietly behind Nina as he watched her point things out. Words zoomed past and he could only grasp some in a fumble, trying to match them to faces or buildings.

A mage school was not so common that every land or kingdom had one. In fact, it would be more correct of Seth to say that Mage schools popped up at a set distance from each other. Like animals declaring a territory as their own.

Since the schools could be so... sporadic, they often took in many students from many different cultures and lands. It led to many young children, teens, and even old people, being seated next to someone who didn’t speak a lick of the same language.

It was chaos and yet, it worked. They had all come to study one language after all: Magic.

“-she is a druid, you know what a druid is?” Nina asked and Seth nodded, pleased to know words as she listed it. Nina stopped outside a rather plain looking building. She offered to let Seth go first and when he entered, the smell of alcohol, loud noises and body heat assaulted his senses.

It was the perfect place to find a fire mage. Seth looked around but didn’t see anyone on fire or trying to strangle someone so he assumed Quiss wasn’t here yet. This den of fire mages, there sure were plenty, all eyed him as he entered.

He sat, softly, down on an empty bar stool. He watched with some surprise as Nina split into three versions of herself to collect a rather large amount of glasses at once before she snapped back together and carried the load to the large sink in the back room.

“What? Never seen a splitter?” Nina teased and Seth shook his head.

“You became tree!” he said with interest and Nina looked like she had just heard something very amusing.

“That would be the druid’s tricks... three, three. I split, I don’t bark,” she nudged him as she poured him some odd looking soup. An old man that looked like he had lost a fight with a rather upset axe, nodded at her.

“Boss, put it on my tab. Newcomer gets a good welcome to Durence,” she said as she poured a jug of water into a clay cup for him. Seth smiled and lightly inhaled. The water was clean and didn’t smell stale at all.

He gave it a sip and his attitude of this ‘Pub’ went up. Still, it was an odd place. None of his buildings back home looked like this. All stone and wood. But it was a whole new land. It was Quiss’ land and he had much to learn.

“This me offers his soul for puddle,” Seth bowed his head and dug into the soup. Nina closed her eyes and fought a smile. She opened them a moment later and just winked.

“Enjoy. Now, you said something about... looking for something?” Nina’s tone went soft and Seth nodded, swallowing the odd tangy meaty soup.

“I seek Quesst!” he pronounced slowly. His native language was filled with sharp ticks and words, Quiss’ name had always been hard to not add a sharp inflexion to.

The pub went quiet and Nina winced.

“Hun, that word is not good here,” she whispered and Seth blinked.

“Quesst is... no good? He is...” he trailed off and his mind finally offered a phrase with some triumphant, it had been a favourite of Quiss’

“Bag of dicks!” he grinned and Nina just blinked, her mouth dropping open.

“He? You want to see someone?” Nina clued on and Seth nodded, the water rippled at his excitement. The mana in the air here was very... tight.

“I find lost fire...man. I look for loud...man! Queeest. He...makes hot fire!” Seth waved his hands slightly. Something in Nina’s eyes lit up and her smile became warmer.

“You want Quiss?” she said and Seth was about to kiss the girl when the door banged opened behind Seth

“Seth, you kiddie-pool, river dancing, tongue disaster, water fairy!” Quiss bellowed, smoke curling out his nose and Seth stood, pointing.

“Quisst! You big noise, backwards hot monkey, dirty mouth snake, hipstioi!” Seth slipped into his native language as he walked formed, finger jabbing into the Quiss’ chest.

There was a beat of silence before Quiss snorted and grasped Seth’s wrist and shoulder.

“How can you still suck so much at speaking my language? Feduskti,” Quiss joked and Seth snorted as the man just called Seth a royal son of a kitchen table.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“You are very ungood at my first-born language,” Seth chided and Quiss directed Seth back to the bar and raised two fingers as Nina looked at them. She nodded as if Quiss had given Seth the last thing he needed to be fully welcome. The pub became noisy again and Seth stared at the man before him.

Not much had changed. There were the same old features that most would call handsome, some would say noble. The beard was new but Quiss suited it more Seth thought. The clothes were what Seth expected but something jarred the image.

A sense... or something. Quiss still burned to Seth’s magic. But there was something to the fire now. A solid foundation if Seth had to guess.

“Still foretelling the not fast fireing of land tree?” Seth sipped his drink and Quiss looked pained.

“Burning, just say it, burning. Yes, I do plan to burn the world tree. How about you? How is that... what was it... Deimno...Revant...something, something,” Quiss gave up and Seth almost choked as Quiss offered to sell his personal woman.

Seth inhaled and sipped his drink.

“Demenion Rovesiant Vigucit Julipyso. I seek to... water death my city,” he translated well in his own mind. Quiss shook his head.

“Drown the capital city of your kingdom. Extreme but I guess none of our class exactly graduated normally. Sethamus PurgingRiver,” Quiss whispered, saying Seth’s full mage name in a way that they both understood. In a way that was neither Velurian nor Julipian.

It was said with magic and Seth reacted as if Quiss had put a hand on his heart.

“No, we did not, Quiss FireSmasher,” he smiled as Quiss sourly reacted to his name.

“Bah, I got my hands full, what do you want?” Quiss dismissed the sudden personal moment and Seth played with his soup.

“I desired... days. Too many battles, too many doing things,” Seth sighed and Quiss nodded, taking a deep drink of his own drink.

“You’re telling me,” the man sighed in return. Seth stretched, feeling his black ponytail slide down his shoulder.

The sounds of the pub took over their sense for a moment as the bartender took some care to mix up a new drink on the spot as he watched Seth.

Seth watched with some delight as a drink he often enjoyed in Julipyso appeared in the shaker. The bartender grinned, making his scarred face wrinkle like leather as he poured the sour drink for Seth.

Quiss rolled his eyes as a little umbrella was added for Seth’s amusement.

“Water fairy,” he grumbled and Seth took a sip and smiled wickedly.

“Grump monkey,” he retorted.

----

Cram was strong.

Delta watched as he pushed Bacon away again as Fran took a jab with his lance. The lance struck the fur cut but it didn’t pierce due to the material. Delta was curious about what it was but Cram shoved Bacon’s charging face aside and grabbed the lance to yank Fran clean off the pig.

Delta had become absorbed in watching the fight. Every smack Cram took, every misguided charge of Bacon, the times Fran fell or got thrown away.

She expected it all to go so wrong but this fight below...

Fran leapt to his feet and spun the lance so it rested in both hands, pulled back so Fran could jab it forward at a moments notice. Bacon was breathing heavy but he stomped the ground with a light to his eye.

Cram was laughing like a maniac. Fran responded in kind.

This was not what Delta predicted. This wasn’t what she thought would happen at all.

“They’re having fun,” Delta said quietly.

Fran spun and tried to something fancy to confuse Cram as Bacon took another charge with his tusks. Cram’s fists never waved, his axe still not drawn.

He lashed out, sending Fran stumbling back and then flying as a foot connected with the goblin’s torso. Delta winced as he crashed into the wall. Cram took the moment to use both hands to grab Bacon’s tusks.

The other goblins cheered for Bacon as Smalls knitted a small sweater for each of them from the spider web he had collected. The man’s hands moved with the needles but Smalls’ eyes never left the fight. Numb dutifully held the web for Smalls.

Cram heaved, veins pulsing madly, and Bacon squealed as he was lifted clean off the ground. Delta’s mouth dropped open as Cram tossed Bacon at Fran.

The goblin was still climbing to his feet, he threw himself to the side as Bacon hit hard and stopped moving, stunned. Fran picked up his lance and a trail of blood leaked out one corner of his mouth.

Should Delta stop this? It was getting too much. Fran’s connection radiated joy but Delta could only see the pain he was in, the sheer one-sidedness of the fight. Mr Mushy clapped and the Greater Mushy outside was tapping some fast beat, it was making Delta’s head spin slightly.

“You are holding back!” Fran accused and Cram paused in his stance to tilt his head.

“Yeah, sorry, knight but I didn’t want to end it too soon,” he explained sheepishly and Fran gripped the lance, looking down. Delta was sure he was angry or... crying.

He looked up and the shaking excited smile made Delta freeze.

“Show me. Show me the power of Mother’s guests. I want to see it!” he shouted and readied his lance, he was shaking and nearly jumped as Bacon nudged him. The beaten pig stood up with some effort and bowed to let Fran climb on.

“Together!” Fran agreed and patted the pig’s snout.

“Show us! Show us the power of Cram!” Fran announced and Bacon took a running charge. Cram relaxed and let go his defensive pose to unhook the hand axe at his side.

“I can’t soften this, you want this then it might kill you,” Cram warned as Bacon began to pick up speed. Fran’s eyes lit up with some pure emotion that made Delta gasp. It was crystal clear in his desire.

She crossed her arms over her chest. She understood, just for that moment, Delta understood. The emotion of needing to test himself against this unbeatable titan. Fran desired it so much that it burned like a star in Delta’s chest.

She staggered to her feet.

“Do it, Fran! Show him how brave you are! Show Cram why you’re my first boss! Show him why you’re my protector!” she yelled, jumping as if to make herself louder. She poured her heart into the act and Fran let loose a scream as Bacon rushed forward. Fran’s spear glowed orange in an explosion of light. Fran looked not like some silly goblin on a pig.

Delta bowed her head and a small smile appeared despite how her insides felt so confused.

He looked like a knight that Delta could never be prouder of.

Cram swung his axe and the room, the very dungeon, shook.

---

Sir Fran and his steed, Bacon, will respawn in 10 hours.

Boar Helm has been dropped for the victor!

Sir Fran has learned Bravery Lance!

--

40: Seeing the Mushroom for the Forest

Tributes received!

Gained: Common Silk Satchel. Tippany Flower. Molly Sprout. Wood Carving of a bird.

Delta nodded distractedly as she ran a finger over Fran’s screen. The timer near the top slowly counting down to Fran’s return. Delta bit her lip, knowing that her friend should be okay but to watch Cram utterly...

She shook her head and focused on the new addition to the menu before her. She lightly pressed a finger on the screen, the air rippling.

Bravery Lance: A power formed by the synchronisation of the dungeon core and a boss monster. The exact numbers indicate that Fran’s theoretical attack-

“Nu, simplify it for me,” she asked and the screen shuddered as letters shifted about.

Bravery Lance: A power formed when Delta believed in Fran to adequately protect her. It makes his attacks stronger for a short period by absorbing the ambient dungeon mana into his weapon. This ‘belief’ in Fran and the goblin’s own willpower caused the system to unlock the feature. It seems that if Fran continues to do or accomplish more, he may continue to unlock more abilities.

Delta rested in the pond room, Waddles idly snoozing in his little alcove. Delta paced slightly as she heard this.

“So my monsters level up?” she mused and with some thought, returned to the boss room, patting her mushys as she went.

She held out a hand and the screen opened.

“I got... room upgrades but how do I select the screen to upgrade Fran? Do I need to wait for him to come back?” Delta asked aloud and Nu was quiet for a moment.

There is no exact screen for that. I can see Fran appear in the room upgrade but that is more passive... there is a feature to dismiss him but I doubt that is what you need... I don’t- Oh, here is a section.

Sir Fran/Bacon

Wins:1
Loses: 1

Achievements: 1

1: Refuse to back down from certain demise. A boss is a boon. A loyal knight is a blessing.

Delta smiled softly as she read that line. There was nothing else, nothing to indicate what Fran could do to earn more powers or achievements but Delta accepted the fact the system was, if nothing else, fair to everyone. No one really got the full weight of benefits when it came to the Dungeon.

Not even the core herself.

“I can’t upgrade his weapons or armour?” Delta said, absent-mindedly.

Not without stripping him of his boss status and finding a way to upgrade your rare monsters items first of all. I suspect this is another lock in the dungeon system. It would prevent new dungeons from over developing their first boss into something truly unbeatable.

“Makes sense, I’d be pissed if my tutorial boss had an end-game secret boss level of bullshit,” she mused and eyed the screen again.

“Then again, who knows what Fran could get if he challenges himself or does enough of these side missions. Maybe the system might upgrade him for me,” Delta suggested. Nu only dinged in response as he wandered off.

Delta looked around the empty boss room. She bowed her head and tried her best to smile.

“You did great! I can’t wait to tell you when you come back!” Delta said to the empty boss room. She opened her menu and flicked through the room functions.

The DP from the items had been nice and her goblins had already gone out on a collection mission.

So, with a soft hum to her voice, she read off the list.

Fran’s Boss Room:

- Turn Fran’s cave into a proper gateway. It’s purely for the dramatic side of Fran. 5 DP

- Transform Fran’s boss door into a more strong appearance. 12 DP

- Turn the surrounding area into proper arena seating. 10 DP

- Add stone pillar torches that ring the room and light one by one until they reach Fran’s entrance when a challenger enters the room. Fran is a little dramatic, isn’t he? 10 DP

Delta smiled at the list. It was all so... wonderfully unneeded. Delta ran a finger down the list, unable to hold back a small laugh as she purchased them all. Her total DP of 50 dropped with a whine but Delta just watched with excited eyes as the room shifted.

---

Ruli sliced another cut off her apple, clean and skinned it like it was some small animal. She sighed with pleasure as the light sun tickled her slightly darker skin. It had been quite some time since she had been properly mana-infused.

She lounged under a tree, almost directly opposite Delta’s dungeon entrance. She made a mental note to bring the girl some stone or wood so she could spruce up the place.

A dungeon entrance was like a first impression. If it had burned skeletons, blood-soaked wood, and maybe if it was really special, some ominous weather effects then adventurers felt charmed. Ruli had seen many entrances in her career, the odd times she felt restless and set out on a quest or a small journey.

Dungeons that towered over their nearby town or hamlets. Dungeons that were an entire forest. Dungeons that appeared once a month when a drum beat 5 times under the full moon. The places known as dungeons were just the oddest things, they could do so much and they often did it really weirdly.

Some dungeons were gone forever, the way to enter them lost, forgotten or discarded. Some dungeons discarded people by just up and leaving one day. Ruli hadn’t seen a dungeon grow legs and storm off but she had seen them float away, fall into the ocean with some effort... or just vanish.

She savoured another bite of the apple. Mrs Dabberghast’s gift and no one turned down a free treat from Mrs Dabberghast.

Movement caught her eye and she saw Cram’s bulky head appear from the entrance. The good sign was that neither men were covered in gore or web. The second good sign was Smalls was lecturing the taller man. It was almost in a married sense but the men just had a close relationship that came from nearly dying together several times. Ruli had seen, felt, and hated that kind of bond herself and she had to respect it.

“Alright,” she said calmly and both men paused, not seeing her in the shade. They didn’t speak and Ruli chewed her apple, eyes not blinking. The small knife in her hand peeled the red skin of the apple, its juices leaking down her hand.

“Ruli, you waiting for us?” Cram nodded and Ruli stood up and walked forward softly. Smalls put his fingers to his chin on a reflex. Ruli smiled, it was a neutral one.

“Not exactly. How did it go?” she said, the knife cleaned with one wipe of her thumb.

“It was good. Never been in a dungeon exactly like that one,” Smalls responded which made Cram snort.

‘Exactly’? How about never? Sharing a camp with the gobs, cute little challenges, those signboards and the talking boxes,” Cram listed with his fingers. Ruli blinked, her slightly slouching posture disturbed as she squinted at the two men.

“The wonderful pots, the musical tentacle mushroom... then there was Sir Fran,” Smalls finished and Cram beamed.

“Great guy, he got me,” he beamed, stretching his arm out to show a long thin cut along his arm.

“You fought the boss?” she asked, voice suddenly very quiet. Smalls idly flexed his fingers as Cram met her gaze.

“I did. He wanted me to bring my all, the little guy deserved my best,” he replied gruffly and Ruli’s knife’s reflective surface darkened as if becoming stained.

“You killed him,” Ruli translated, her hair beginning to move, skin looking slightly darker as a wispy mana curled around her fingers. Smalls moved between them as Cram bared his teeth.

“Now now, before we start something we regret. Delta complimented us and the goblins all said how Fran had the time of his life... he’ll be back soon. The dungeon held no ill will and congratulated us,” Smalls informed Ruli.

The breeze blew through the lush meadow where Delta’ dungeon rested. Ruli inhaled and crossed her arms.

“Can’t take you two anywhere,” Ruli complained to Cram who let go of his axe handle, grinning.

“Says the hovering mother hen,” he fired back and Ruli shot him a cold look.

“Yes, well. The dungeon is very interesting, the web alone is lovely. The company was diverse and I heard some things about the second floor,” Smalls smiled as Ruli’s attention became focused him. He tilted his head.

“You’re rather invested in Delta. Is there something we’re missing?” Smalls inquired which made Ruli turn away, itching her nose.

“Delta... she’s got a great pond and her jokes are terrible if the goblins say them right... and you know, she likes the kids in the village,” Ruli muttered and Cram snorted.

“Delta is your friend or someone you can stand at least,” he mockingly translated back at her. Ruli’s smile appeared, it made Cram pause as he tried to backpedal.

Ruli knew that if they did fight, honestly and to the end. She was sure she would win.

Smalls and Cram were fantastic fighters and teammates but Ruli just had one too many things up her sleeve to be called fair. The ability to grow back fingers for one if she wanted to.

Ironically, she sent silent thanks to her father dearest for the ability to lose more games of stabscotch than was really healthy.

Still, these two may have also kept things hidden. A trick to utterly send her and her confident ass straight into the abyss without even as much as “good day”. Adventurers were tricky like that.

She knew that fact all too well.

One good dungeon run, one good skill mutation or ability epiphany then the equals became unequal. It had happened to Ruli a few times. It had been a sour thing to have her pride handed to her with a silver platter when the day before she and her companions had been on the same level of skill.

“Delta mentioned how her second level isn’t ready. Poor dear needs trees, apparently,” Smalls commented and Ruli blinked at him, her cheeks going pink.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

If Quiss had caught her internally monologuing...

“Trees?” Ruli raised one eyebrow as Cram walked towards a clutter of the wooden things. He unhooked his axe and Ruli moved to catch up with him.

“As a lumberjack, I have wonder what you can do to help here. I mean if the dungeon is asking for it then it isn’t bad if we help out,” she said dryly and Cram took a few practise swings and simply nodded.

Ruli nodded back and with a single flick of her knife, two trees groaned and toppled over.

“But is the lumberjack better than me?” she challenged, feeling her blood demand some form of success. Cram’s yellow eyes widened and then turned hot with some emotion.

“One one way to find out... for Delta, eh?” he grinned and Ruli’s blood sang in response.

“I guess I’ll just sit here and knit myself some pillowcases,” Smalls called out dryly and sat on a rock with a grumble, he took out a leather helmet with two tusks on either side out of his bag to reach for his needles.

Ruli could sense a faint hint of magic about the helmet and knew it was from Fran. It even looked a little like Bacon.

Smalls paused and looked up at them, not hearing chopping wood.

He sighed in disgust as both Ruli and Cram waited for him.

“Fine, on your mark, get ready... go!” he shouted.

A tree flew towards him as the forest shuddered.

Smalls flexed his finger and the web in his hand went taught. The log slowed as the web stretched out and cut the wood into messy chunks, raining splinters down over Smalls unamused face.

“Children. Overgrown barbarian children,” Smalls said with disgust.

----

Delta was simply waiting for an idea to strike her or for her goblins to return.

“So, I think if we find a silent boy in green, we should just give him anything he wants because I don’t like our chances against him now that I am the dungeon,” Delta said lazily at the bottom of her pond. Nu sighed as he moved about the pond.

Boy in green? Is there some legend about him? Why should we fear a boy in green? Unless he is like Deo then I understand completely.

Delta suddenly bolted straight up.

“My pots! Nooooo, my poor pots are in danger!” she wailed slightly and then froze as something hit the entrance hall floor.

Delta moved and another thump sounded out.

Delta burped slightly and her breath came out fresh like pine needles.

She turned the corner and froze as trees came flying through the entrance, landing in a rough pile as the wood was quickly absorbed. She peered at the hole that was her entrance and she could barely hear voices.

“That was my one!”

“I cut, not my fault it landed in my pile.”

Delta backed away. First spiders, now there was demonic lumberjacks fighting for territory outside her entrance. They sounded demonic as more trees fell.

“Nu, is there anything about tree cutters in the fairy tale book?” Delta whispered and Nu turned to look at her, his box blank.

You... why, yes! There is a tale of two legendary tree cutters that removed trees and then drank all night. They end up throwing all kinds of body waste down the nearest hole.

Delta backed up against the wall as another tree flew down.

“Ho- Nu, I don’t want to be a toilet!” she crossed her arms and Nu jingled and Delta, just for a moment, heard a snort of masculine laughter.

She blinked and then turned red.

She smacked the screen, making it cut mid-jingle. It floated to the ground and for a moment didn’t respond.

I deserved that, I guess.

---

The trees did eventually stop coming.

Ruli popped her head in and Delta felt... warm when Ruli explained she had heard Delta wanted some trees. She was going to make the fishing pond amazing for that woman very soon.

Her DP had jumped to over 173 and her mana had maxed out and burst over the limit again.
152

Delta waddled off, feeling like she was going to barf if she didn’t start spending soon. So, she moved down to the second floor and Nu appeared again.

The Durent tree, all of them, and a few of the stumps have unlocked the following items

Durent tree: 10 mana
Laurel crown: 3 mana
Minor Earth root: 20 mana

Delta began to conjure the trees to deflate her mana. It felt like she had eaten far too much and any more was going to honestly suck.

The giant jungle room became dotted with about 5 of the trees. It helped to alleviate much of the pressure but Delta didn’t want to waste any mana so she flicked her through her menu and with a groan tapped the monster screen to summon another Frog tribesman.

It appeared slowly and Delta began to feel the pressure grow again so she made two berry bushes on either side of the river to set her mana just at 68 and safe from further decay. Delta sighed with relief and turned back to see her newest resident.

It looked identical to Rale but...

It was much bigger. It was about a foot higher than Rale and slightly thicker, not muscular but just more mass to its frame. It blinked its eyes opened.

“...” it didn’t speak and Delta gave it a cheery wave.

“Hello!” she tried and the frog blinked faster. It looked down and then around.

“...Mother,” it whispered, almost shyly. It seemed to feel awkward as it stood there. Delta opened her mouth but something occurred to her.

This frog called her mother right off the bat.

Odd.

The voice was not exactly deep like Rale’s but it held a cantor that Rale’s didn’t.

“Welcome to the dungeon! I hope you feel happy here!” Delta continued and the frog gave a small smile, it raised its eyes to look in the general direction of Delta before dropping them again.

“I will... I know I will,” it agreed and Delta noticed something finally.

Something that she didn’t really understand when she had given this frog a look over.

It had two pieces of fabrics.
One as the loincloth and one that wrapped tightly near the upper torso, almost as if to protect its modesty...

The lightbulb clicked on over Delta’s head. It was actually Nu but Delta felt the answer would arrive either way.

Unlike the goblins. The frog tribesmen are not a single-gendered species. This a common female of this monster family. It seems to outsize the male but it does not hold too much more power than the male or we’d be paying for it I assume.

“Woah, my first girl monster,” Delta muttered and then shook her head, smiling.

“As per tradition! We should give you a name!” Delta readied herself for the argument the frog would have, like Rale did.

But the figure only nodded.

“I would like that. I know that... I knew that I would get one,” the frog-woman did another small smile and Delta gave Nu a baffled look.

“How?” she had to ask and the frog just looked unsure.

“As.. if I was born knowing how to breathe. I was born knowing that we are your children, know that we are named, know that we are not to kill...” the woman repeated some words, her eyes closed.

“Uh... Nu? Answers? Now? Please?” she stuttered and Nu vanished for a second and then reappeared.

I had to check something but... I believe it is Rale. Well, it’s more accurate to say it your words and actions sounding through Rale back into the system. Rale is acting as a template for your future jungle frog people. As I think this one as well. The ones coming before influence those that come next. On some level I would guess.

Delta put a hand on her cheek and frowned.

“Sounds complicated. If I mess up with the first monster I summon, the rest come out broken?” she said and Nu only dinged.

The frog in front of Delta waited with a serene calmness that made Delta feel slightly shy.

“So, a name! Well... how about...” Delta’s mind wandered for a name. She threw out a few that came.

“Lady... Vert... or how about Fleur? Oh, maybe something to do with stars or divination...” Delta mused aloud and the frog perked up at something.

“Dev...ina? Devina... Dev. Yes, I like those sounds!” the frog said, sounding slightly excited. Delta blinked but quickly joined in with the excited frog.

“Devina! Dev for short sounds... well if that’s what you want to be called!” Delta just grinned as the frog-woman seemed to embrace the name as if it were a gift.

Rale’s head appeared out of the river and Delta saw him eye the new arrival but he vanished before too long.

Delta hoped they’d get along okay...

She followed Dev as she began to slowly adjust to her new environment. Her new monster rushed to one of the fresh trees Delta had just planted and bent down to examine something Delta couldn’t see.

“Mother, what is this springy thing? It sticks to the tree like a leech,” Dev mused and Delta, smiling, looked over her shoulder.

She froze.

On her new tree, was a black cap that grew like a tiny ledge off the bark. It was quickly growing a new shelf above it.

“Mother? Mother? Why... why are you screaming?” Dev asked in alarm.

Leave her, this is amusing on so many levels... hm... I guess that is a joke and an actual fact now. Ugh... her humour is as bad as them mushrooms, infecting everything...

Delta went to a happy place as she sat heavily down, still... singing very loudly.

It was a volcano where nothing made of spongy flesh could survive.

It made Delta very happy.

41: Busy Little Bee

Delta eyed the screen with a twitch.

Bloodcurdling Mushroom: This mushroom has moved down a level and evolved due to the mana strain. If devoured, the eater will suffer body convulsions, sweat, visions, and some other minor things. This will render them bedridden for a day or so but at least this variety is no longer hazardous to burn, still foul though. Is not fatal unless they keep eating them for some reason but people can be that unpredictable.

Well, that was just dandy. Delta dismissed the screen, just knowing there upgrades for the vile things waiting for her. She sighed and opened a new box she had made in her...happy state.

Delta’s list of goals!

1. Repay Dil, the farmers son, in some way.

2. Make the fishing better for Ruli.

3. Make more levels and get an avatar!

4. Make the...not-dungeon a place for all the good people

5. Figure out more about the world and where the demon child is hiding.

6. Destroy the evil mushrooms by any means necessary.

Delta thought it was a very reasonable list for her current state. Sadly, she hadn’t grown enough food or such to be of help on a farm. Not unless Dil wanted to be an apple farmer...

“Nu, is there some way to gift a pig or make something to be taken out the dungeon?” Delta tried and Nu flashed to her side.

A monster cannot be taken out of the dungeon realm.

Delta frowned then an idea hit her.

“What about a critter or something?” she asked and Nu hesitated.

Critters are just very weak monsters, animals basically but with intelligence. They work on enhancing a dungeon in some form, I doubt they can leave either.

Nu’s words were blunt but not unkind. He hovered over to Delta’s list and looked it over.

The child will heal in time, surely you need not worry about the one human you have fought. I already have an alert for any kind of memorial if we unlock it... surely that is enough?

Delta snapped her eyes up and she stormed up to Nu, finger jabbing.

“I will never just let that go. I lured him into the dungeon by stealing his livestock. He needed that animal or he would have never come after it. I can’t let just let that go,” Delta stressed and Nu only floated for a second before more words appeared.

Human life. It is a conundrum for us. We feed off it but we seek to protect it. Yes. I did not want to suggest this due to perhaps being a waste of resources but I... if it makes you feel better. We have a method of giving people things that they remove from the dungeon. Rewards. The challenges have only been shown to give objects but looking it over, I’d see no reason it cannot form a simplistic life-form as a reward. There is even a nice spot for something referred to as ‘Mounts’. I suspect dungeons can give living rewards if they advance enough.

Delta blinked then hugged the screen, Nu dinged in annoyance and slipped away.

I feel all rough now...

“Nu, we just need to get enough pigs or maybe just bacon and maybe we can set a pig as a reward? I mean, we killed one pig and got two boars out of it. Are you sure we can’t set a pig reward just now?” she asked and Nu shivered as he tried to shake off the contact.

No. We can either get the creature or use the option up for the boss choice. We will need another pig to replace the template or as you said, enough pieces of one.

Delta smiled.

“I’ll ask Ruli, she brought me a forest last time,” she reminded and Nu shuddered.

I had to sort all those windows out... next time, give her a quota and cut her off before she brings you some godly pig of the mountains or something equally... Ruli.

“I’ll ask her to take it easy, besides, it’s not just the pig. Anything that can help that family out would work. I just don’t have anything besides some pots and a fish that still needs to be caught,” Delta said aloud and gave the black mushroom another dirty look.

“Still, I have a lot of DP and Mana now. Nu, give it to me straight, what am I lacking that could make my life easier?” she walked on top of the river, a neat little trick she managed to figure out without meaning to.

A secure way to fend people off who wish to use your core mana for greedy purposes?

“Well... that’s why this floor is gonna be a real jungle maze and I mean the lower we go, the safer I am, right?” Delta pointed out and Nu dinged softly.

There are people who conquer dungeons in the hundreds if what Ruli has said is true. But yes, the deeper we dive into the puzzles and tricks, the better I would feel. Besides that, your jungle is merely a patchy plain with a few trees. Your plants aren’t exactly spreading much besides the grass.

Delta looked around and sure enough, she could see one end of the room from the other. Was it meant to take this long to make a decent jungle?

“Flowers... they spread with pollen. Pollen gets around in various ways, like butterflies, wasps... bees,” Delta paused and Nu went quiet.

We forgot about the bees.

Jungle Bee: These are simple minded gathers of pollen, the more plants and flowers on the floor the more these workers will grow in numbers and effectiveness. Its stinger may apply a local paralytic poison. It will not kill. 13 Mana.

“Nu, I thought you were on top of this?” Delta teased and Nu went purple, his words shrinking.

I have been rather busy dealing with your illogical screeching of fungi. It would throw anyone off their game!

“Right, right,” Delta smiled and made two of the bees.

Sure, she could debate and plan what the bees would to her jungle room, see what could change... but Delta wouldn’t bee herself if she planned things too much.

Two tiny red-striped bees appeared and buzzed curiously around. Delta cooed at their fluffiness and then moved back a little as they floated closer with their stingers moving in a little dance.

“They won’t die if they lose that stinger... right?” Delta had to ask and Nu was quiet.

I do not know. Maybe we bred enough ‘monster’ into them for them to be a bit more...durable. We need to test that, perhaps Ruli would like to help us there?

“Oh don’t be grouchy, she was just helping,” Delta mused and looked as the bees flew off together.

“Bees need a hive, won’t they be... I dunno, lost without one?” Delta gestured as the buzzing bees.

Well. Let us look at their upgrades, perhaps something will reveal itself?

Jungle bees:

- Upgrade stinger to be lethal in a smaller dose. 10 DP *I suspect this is not what you want.

- Allow Bees to collect pollen faster. 13 DP

- Transform one bee in this room into a Jungle Queen Bee. 20DP *Well, hello there. Delta, the system has come with a pre-build bee kingdom package!

- Allow bees to lead to the secret waterfall if pleased by visitors. *’Pleased’ is annoyingly blank in details. I assume we’ll find out.

Delta was buzzing with excitement at the hive of wonderful upgrades before her. Delta made another 2 bees just to keep the species going.

It only left her with 35 mana but that was fine for now.

She picked the closer bee and hit the upgrade option. The bee twitched and began to glow. The tiny red bee grew to become almost crimson as she grew bigger and bigger. Compared to the other bees now, she was about twice the size. She took a small time to adjust to her more fine wings and width. She settle down on a rock and looked about.

Delta got a feeling that the new Queen was unimpressed at being homeless. It looked towards the source of Delta’s cooing, the bee was extra fluffy now that she was a queen, and bowed her head a little before taking off. She floated about and looked around for a suitable area.

Delta was enraptured to have such creatures in her dungeon now. She used to love watching bees when she was young... at least, she think she did.

The Queen returned and Delta got another burst of impressions. The judgement was that she did not have suitable foundations yet. The bees had nowhere to make their hive. Delta looked about the centre of the room, it would be within flying distance of all the jungle if the Queen needed pollen and the bees would be helping her jungle in many ways.

So, she made a single stone pillar rise in the centre of the room, it groaned and dust shifted from the top as it rose to Delta’s desired height. Not enough to peer over the trees but enough to make someone think twice before climbing it.

She used her remaining mana to make it thicker at the base and made the top of the pillar hollow and with many holes.

Her mana hit the single digits but Delta felt proud of her rock pillar... thing. She looked to the Queen who had watched it all with cool bee detachment. It flew up and around, diving into the holes and out the other side. It floated back down and Delta felt relief fill her as the Queen sent gratitude towards her.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“No worries! Have fun being Queen, uh... Lizzzie!” she called after the Queen as she and her 3 bees got to work. Delta liked to imagine a golden topped pillar with sweet honey within that would slightly leak and be considered a landmark for travellers.

Well, your ecosystem takes one step away from the madness and towards sense. Bees are important. Thankfully, since most things here do not need to kill each other, we won’t need more insects to clean the mess up. Plants will barely wither, trees will not topple nor will bees die... too much.

Delta paused in her waving and looked at Nu.

“What do you mean?” she asked suspiciously and Nu went purple.

How much do you know about... how baby bees are made?

Nu sounded casual which instantly made her more suspicious.

“Nothing, why?” she pushed and Nu just vanished.

“Nu? NU? What happens during Bee sex?!” Delta yelled and Devina nearby dropped the rocks she had gathered to line the river. She gaped at Delta and this only made Delta more worried.

She floated up to the hive and, feeling like a creep, watched the bees work.

Queen Lizzzie laid on a central platform and watched as her bees worked. She was wriggling and Delta was worried before the Queen began to lay eggs.

“And that’s enough nature for me today!” Delta squeaked, flying away.

She landed near her waterfall with a pink face.

Sure, it was just what bees did naturally but...

“None of the other monsters did the life thing,” Delta muttered and Nu appeared with a flash.

The bees have a strict number limit. Once they hit that limit, all other eggs become inert. I suspect if we wish we can produce multiple hives around the jungle but that may cause some odd mutations or even turf wars. Critters are smart but they are still under the sway of animal instincts at times. We still have 153 DP to use. I think we should continue to add to the dungeon. So, I suspect we must admit there is simply... nothing on the floor to actually cause any problems to people besides a river.

Delta looked over her giant room.

“I was thinking some side rooms but you’re right, I need to start making something here to draw the attention of people will just march on... well, what attracts adventurers?” Delta asked and Nu made a soft ding noise.

Shiny things.

True enough.

Delta moved around and floated up to get an aerial view of the giant room. She closed her eyes and years of mind-numbing TV came back to her in haunting scenes.

People... failing at simple puzzles. Idiots unable to do simple...platforming...urgh Delta shivered at the grinning game master. Golden monkey statues haunted her conscious and a spark of devious took over. She opened her eyes and saw the jungle, not as an empty room but a space filled with potential.

First, she needed her end goal.

She moved the farthest wall and decided to make the new room right in the middle. The gobs would be back soon but a lot of current ideas needs mana to carve the rooms out. She would need mana for all the placements and objects she would need.

DP was rather useless until the Mana had done its job...

So, she looked around to see if any new options had unlocked themselves.

Rale was busy raising heavy rocks from the river and Delta opened the menu involving the frog tribesman.

Frog tribesman, Rale:

- Evolve into:

- Frog Warrior: A frog man who has taken the art of fighting to the next level. 15 DP

- Frog Shadow: A frog man who can be one with the jungle shadows. 15 DP

- Frog Witch Doctor: A frog who can bend the nature of the jungle. 15 DP

- Frog Chieftain: (Rare) The leader of the frog tribesmen. It gains bonuses when the tribe thrives. Only one may exist at a time. 20 DP

- Unique Opportunity: challenges 2/5

- Upgrade spear to hold the jungle bee’s poison. 10 DP

- Grant weak poison resistance to any plant grown in the jungle. 28 DP

Delta was impressed. Rale had options and the frog... was still diving after rocks.

“Rale, do you want to be a frog that hits hard, sneaks or curses people both figuratively or literally, boss people around or do something special that I have no idea about?” Delta called and Rale paused.

“I want to rescue idiot people who fall in the river, great mother,” he said with pride and Delta looked at the options and then nodded.

“Alright, you just keep up the good work. If some ‘lifeguard’ option comes up, we’ll talk about it! Are you happy, do you need anything?” Delta asked before she left and Rale looked around then shrugged softly.

“I need better things to rescue. I need to be better, faster!” Rale kneeled.

“Stronger!” Delta finished without pausing and Rale only agreed.

“Hm, you need... work out gear? Human-shaped dummies... okay, I’ll keep that in mind, I just need to get some Mana. You hang tight and I’ll be back with the brand new spanking frog gym before you know it!” Delta promised and clearing her throat, spoke.

“Stone dumbbell!”

Creation: Stone dumbbell added to list.

“Wooden bench!”

Creation: Wooden bench added to list

“Ugh... this is going to take forever. Nu, is there a way to set it to auto-discovery something?” Delta asked and Nu thought about it.

Try... this.

Creation: All common items related to a gym. This will only work if you know the items. It won’t create things you do not know or have no idea how it works.

“Yeah, because that would be far too easy,” Delta replied dryly.

“Creation: All common items related to a gym!” she called and Rale watched with interest.

There was a pause and a screen appeared.

Gym item subsection being created. Process will be slowed to prevent mental deterioration

“Oh sweet, it worked! Let’s see...” Delta opened the gym section and saw items appear slowly one after another.

“This should do for now,” Delta hit the menu and for 4 mana, two stone dumbbells appeared, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. Rale approached with wide eyes.

He reached down and lifted, pausing as he had to actually put effort into the act.

Delta didn’t have enough Mana for the iron ones yet. She hoped Rale would like these ones...

“Mother, I... am not worthy,” Rale whispered and Delta just beamed. The frogman began to lift, once then twice and the began to alternate his flexing.

His skin bulged as already impressive muscles began to feel the strain.

Challenge...3/5 completed.

Delta blinked and then smiled at the screen.

“You can do it!” she cheered as she watched Rale really begin to pump the weights at a speed that she was sure wasn’t needed...

Sitting down near the waterfall, she opened the deep pool menu before it, noticing it was not the river menu but something entirely new.

Abyss Pool:

- Allow Lumen Mushrooms to grow underwater and light up the tunnel if tribute is paid. Turn them into new species. 20 DP

- Place a monster inside as a guardian: Available monsters: Frog tribesman, Crayclaw, mutated Silvertail 20 DP

- Purchase a randomly generated guardian for the pool. Cannot be undone. 19 DP

“I don’t how I feel about the system offering my a gamble...” Delta said aloud and Nu dinged in agreement.

It could be a pure killer, not by choice. Some monsters are just lethal by existence. It could also be useless or shy. I am almost upset with myself to offer such a roll of the dice!

“I... do like gambling in games. I mean, what's the worst the can happen? I get a cool monster and it might open all sorts of paths! I mean it’s not like I’m going be getting some convenient s-class mermaid, sea fairy or something. First, this a lottery, not a wish fulfilment device. Also, if this doesn’t work out, there is plenty of fish in the sea!” Delta pointed out and tapped the screen.

Are we doing wordplay now? Good grief...

19 DP vanished and a form began to take shape in the pool. Delta watched with anticipation.

“Come on cute turtle! Momma feels lucky!” Delta called and the water began to bubble.

Then the thing appeared, rising up like a column of yellow ridges and two large black pinchers. It wiggled back and forward as water rained down around them. It snapped them shut like a steel trap, it turned to where Delta was and made some unholy shrieking noise. Delta screeched back, making the worm wriggle in greeting. Delta fled.

Nu silently showed her the text that appeared, not that Delta did anything but run into a tree, still screeching.

Abyss Worm: A ‘harmless’ bobbit worm that has gone under extreme growth from blue mana exposure and is now your new guardian! Congratulations!

42: The Little Things

------

You cannot hide up here forever.

Delta was idly petting one of the spiders with a shaky finger.

“These aren’t so bad, I m-mean compared to some things, they’re just multi-legged hamsters!” Delta laughed nervously and the spider scuttled off, insulted.

“No, wait!” Delta said and stood up to brush the non-existing dust from her skirt.

“Nu, I will go back down eventually. I just need to get over the fact that I gambled and summoned the hell worm from the blood sea of Mars!” Delta slightly waved her hands and Nu scoffed as he flashed.

It is your monster. I, for one, am greatly pleased to have such a capable monster under our control. Due to the simple fact that it does not have googly eye or a fluffy behind, you dislike it.

Delta put her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes.

“Don’t make me sound so bad. I’m not used to worms bigger than my arm! Or bigger than me for that matter! I’m not used to them looking like they were born in some evil research lab for monsters!” Delta argued and Nu dinged.

Well.. if we think about it. We technically are a monster laboratory.

Nu joked and it made Delta give up her petulant argument.

“How about we do some needed work on this floor and give the bees a chance to get to work and our new trees time to drop some acorns?” she offered and hid a smile.

Nu was a rather complicated being but if there was something the little box loved more than anything, it was upgrading the dungeon.

Well, it would be a wise choice. Very well, let us get on with before you accidentally summon some four-head goat monstrosity from grass or something equally mundane.

Delta grumbled and went to the pond, flexing her fingers.

“No monsters, just nice little fishies...” she whispered and was about to get to work when her gobs returned. Hob carrying 2 buckets on a stick while Gob dragged a bundle of plants, eggs, berries into the dungeon in a sack.

“Master! Forest gone,” Hob grunted as if this was just something interest. Gob stretched.

“Spiders look angry. Saw much more!” he added happily and Delta closed her eyes slowly and inhaled.

Oh... Delivery monsters... much better.

“Nu, I swear I will drown you,” she threatened and Nu just dinged cheerfully away. Delta thanked her goblins for their work and let them go take a break at the goblin camp. Thankfully, her goblins had already killed anything in the buckets, simply emptying them on the ground caused her dungeon to devour the fading life.

The additions weren’t amazing but it was tiny things to really spruce places up.

Slick reeds added
Tiny Brown Fish added
Moss Fish added
Aquatic insects added.
Duckweed added.

This was welcome as it boosted her mana to a decent 24 mana and this gave some more things to do!

Delta tapped her chin, wondering when someone else would come to her dungeon. Just one or two would be great for her mana gathering.

---

“Vas, there are loud children at the door requesting you,” Japes called over to Vas. It tried to bury itself deeper into its work.

“I’m very busy, Master. Perhaps another time?” Vas responded in a high tone. Japes paused and eyed the frantic golem’s hands. Not actually doing anything except looking busy.

Interesting.

He leaned down, purring as he spoke. Vas froze as if a predator was now lurking over it. Smart child.

“Vas. Are you ignoring these people? Why is that?” Japes asked curiously and Vas shook its head.

“I don’t want to go outside! The loud one thinks I am his friend,” Vas explained with annoyance and Japes was startled to see such a display of open emotion. It wasn’t swaying nor blank acceptance.

“Are you not? You had an adventure together, no? They do build bonds of companionship,” Japes commented lightly which made Vas shiver.

“I don’t think I want these bonds. I am simply to help the fungi stop besmirching the art of pottery... not...that,” Vas tried to explain and Japes was absolutely delighted. The usually unflappable child of his was trying to wriggle out of social interaction!

“Aww... I understand, Vas,” Japes smiled brightly and the golem looked up, looking relieved at Japes’ words. Japes picked it up, opened the front door and neatly deposited Vas at the feet of the grinning child, Deo.

“Have Vas back before dinner, if you will,” he warned and Deo saluted.

“I SWEAR IT! COME VAS! RULI PROMISED TO TAKE US BACK INTO THE DUNGEON!” Deo spoke. Japes felt one of his ears ache before Deo physically dragged Vas away, able to ignore the golem’s polite but futile resistance.

Scary child.

Japes felt his monstrous grin appear as they turned a corner.

His golem was developing faster than he could have ever imagined! These spawn of the people around him had a purpose other than to annoy him!

He simply must thank this dungeon for providing ample fertile room for his child to grow.

Maybe he’d give it one of his old pots he barely cared for? Japes was sure whatever laid within the pots he barely touched would barely be worth a risk or a danger.

Probably.

Maybe...

Japes went back to resealing one of the captured prizes. It had... outgrown it’s current pot.

---

“I see fresh people are very busy around here,” Seth commented as Deo dragged Vas past them. Quiss watched the golem go a little limp and give Quiss a wave. He returned it half-heartedly.

“They’re going to the dungeon. Ruli seems to be growing attached to the little goblins,” he sniffed and Seth nodded.

“Goblins are very attackable. But you said dungeon is... how do you speak... kind?” he tried and Quiss nodded.

“Yeah, Delta, the core, does not kill,” he stressed his words and Seth followed him as he began to lead Seth around the village.

“Dungeon is not normal. It does not ham?” he asked seriously and Quiss almost miss his step.

“Oh... trust me, she does. But she does not harm. Delta likes people, she makes her monsters talk to us and even lets Ruli fish in her pond,” Quiss explained and Seth choked.

“Ruli do what in what? I feel Ruli must not over excite her person in such a way. I think we should reason to her how such dances do not...” Seth trailed off and Quiss stared blankly at him for several seconds.

“Ruli does not hyonunt, she comunops,” he tried and Seth’s eyes lit up.

“Ah, Ruli swings meaty staff for seabirds!” Seth said sagely and Quiss felt his lips twitch as he felt nostalgic for the old magic school days now long behind him.

“Yeah, sure... close enough. Come on, I’ll show you where the inn is. Prices are fair but the owner is peculiar about how you pay,” he explained.

Seth looked worried.

“I did not bring gold or objects for proposal!” he said and Quiss knew the man had counted on bunking with Quiss.

Quiss was all for it, except for the fact that Seth had taken a very peculiar course as his secondary education in magic school.

Dream Oracling for near future or past.

In other words...

The man rambled about imminent near doom on a micro-scale all night and no one would room with him. Except possibly the Shadowmancer in 5C.

That guy seemed to love it.

“Trust me, Sana is fair. Just expect to be doing things that might... make you feel a little nervous,” Quiss beamed which made Seth pale.

Words or not, he found Quiss’ expression to be all to clear.
----

First up was the sly but bright Yellowbelly Cod. Delta tapped open the menu and examined it.

Yellowbelly Cod

- Increase the richness of its meat. 3 DP

- Allow the fish to respawn faster. 3 DP

- Evolve the fish

- Golden scaled Fish: A fish covered in glimmering golden scales. Tastes good but a little bit faster. It is a very good ingredient for grilling. 10 DP

Delta liked the fact there was no option to give them venom or make them toxic. It was rather refreshing. She hit the evolve and the fish glowed.

The yellow on the belly turned a more dark colour and spread across the fish’s body. When the light show died down, the fish swam in a dazzle of light that the even the dim lumen mushrooms could make look delicious.

The Silvertail examined his new friend and then swam around in excitement.

Delta checked the new menu.

Golden Scaled Fish

- Make the fish respawn faster. 6 DP

- Make the scales harder and valuable. 8 DP

- Make the meat to give a slight effect to enhance looks for a short period. 10 DP

- Evolution locked

Delta eyed that last one. A locked evolution.

There were only a few reasons Delta could think of that would cause it.

The fish itself needed to around or resist being caught, Delta herself was lacking something or Delta just wasn’t able to provide what the evolution needed.

It could one or all the above but Delta just put it aside for now. Happy to have just upgraded the fish.

She selected the next one on her list.

The scuttling Crayfish who looked excited as new things appeared in the pond.

Crayfish

- Make it respawn faster: 3 DP

- Make the meat inside taste better.

- Evolve the fish

- Snapper Crayfish: This crafty critter can snap cheap lines or make diving in to catch fish with bare hands risky. 8 DP

Delta smiled and hit the evolve button, making the red crayfish turn blue and it claws to grow elongated. The feelers on its head looked like fine wire.

Delta cheered and was about to select the next fish when a screen appeared.

Congratulations! By having evolved three fish, you have unlocked the deep pond upgrade and a figure for your core room!

Delta blinked then opened the pond room upgrade without a word.

A few things had appeared since she last purchased everything.

Pond room

- Deep pond upgrade(special) Double the space of the room and pond without disturbing dungeon layout! Doubles all fish currently in the pond. 30 DP

- Crossbreeding: Allow the fish to breed with each other and form potential unique offspring. 30 DP

- Allow the brave to swim to a secret tunnel below and exit out on the waterfall on the second level. Must have caught either Silvertail or Golden Scale fish to access tunnel. 25 DP

Delta felt stunned for a while then she began to laugh cheerfully. This was amazing!

I can’t see why having a path around Fran is something to be excited about...

“Nu, not everyone is going to be able to fight. I have a boss room but... I think this dungeon should be equal opportunity. So, if you can’t bait a win out of Fran, maybe you can hook some success with fishing and earn your way onto the second floor! Nu, this is incredible, it says those ‘who caught’, not those who have those fish in their possession. People can’ just buy their way down to the second floor!”

I see... a path for those dedicated to fishing may progress in another way. It makes me question what other options this floor will produce for those unable to fight to progress...

Delta shrugged and purchased the Deep Pond and the tunnel without a thought. The room began to stretch and the walls seemed to take several large steps back. Her already decently large pond room became a small hall with a glimmering pond in the middle.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Waddles looked around as his alcove grew slightly.

“Quack...” he grumbled and went back to sleep.

Delta looked at her barren floor and some rocks.

She spent just a tiny bit of mana to install some grass and it looked better.

“I still have no idea where the tunnel leads...” Delta muttered and sighed. It was just so relaxing, to sit by the pond, feel the fish move past her feet, the solid arm-sized pinchers just grazing where she was sitting.

Delta’s eyes shot open and looked down.

The giant worm thing from the second-floor hole looked up at her, it’s eyeless face and gaping mouth slightly poking out the water. It looked naked without being buried in the silt and dirt but it wriggled in greeting before it tiredly drifted back down a small round hole that Delta couldn’t see until the worm vanished back down into it...presumably back to the second floor.

Delta felt herself calmly stand up, pulling her feet out of the water and stiffly walk away.

It... had come to say hello. It had moved through her, it had no eyes.

Delta swallowed and managed a weak smile.

“It’s friendly! That’s...good!” she managed. She walked fast and stiffly made it to Fran’s room where there wasn’t any water. Delta chided herself for being a coward towards the rather friendly death worm but she couldn’t help it, she needed some time to get her bearings around the thing.

It was good to know if someone unsavoury types did sneak past in this tunnel she had some form of defence waiting... The waterfall did empty into the outside of the abyss pool after all.

Fran’s door looked at her. The line between the sides of the door cut down the middle of a menacing boar with the tusks acting as curved handles to push the door open. On top, Fran’s visage stared down, gleaming orange gems for eyes.

The door was made of some dark metal and felt hot to the touch. The Greater Mushy seemed to moved closer to it and enjoyed the heat. Delta moved through the door and stood in the now much-improved boss room.

All around her, lining the edge of the room was rows of actual carved stone seats, slight stairs made reaching the top easier. The whitish sand looked firmer, less likely to be kicked up if moved through.

Delta willed the room to work and from the door, two torches in stone pillars burst into light. Another two on either side of the room, then again until the two torches standing on either side of Fran’s gate lit up.

The crisscrossing metal gate lifted slowly, creaking like a coming warning. Delta was impressed at the ominous image as a stone boar statue above the door lit two hidden torches in its eye sockets, making it look demonic.

Fran walked out with Bacon at his side.

Delta’s heart lit up at his unharmed state.

Fran grinned as Bacon happily kicked some sand up in a playful manner. The pig zoomed off as if high on sugar.

“Mother, this room is great! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it,” Fran began and Delta just rubbed the back of her head as her cheeks went pink.

“It was nothing, you deserved it after how well you did!” Delta praised and Fran crossed his arms to look away.

“I lost... but I do not regret it. Will you let me fight again?” he asked with such hope that Delta felt her heart hurt a little.

“Sure. Anyone can challenge you, after all. Just don’t go overboard and become bloodthirsty!” she warned and Fran rolled his eyes but his grin grew.

“I need to practise my entrance. Cram will be spreading my legend! Many people will come and I can’t wait to send them scampering!” he cackled. Delta blamed Nu for the goblin’s evil laugh. It just seemed something Nu would encourage.

“I’ll be back later. I’m glad you’re alive,” Delta called and Fran looked confused.

“I’d never die unless you die! Which will never happen cause I will guard you!” Fran laughed merrily and Delta smiled as she left the room to pause at the goblins camp. Numb and Billy were stacking pots as Mr Mushy happily sat listen to Cois wax his love for the eternal fire.

Odd fellows but Delta loved them all.

I have a suggestion if you would hear it.

Delta jumped but turned to see Nu hovering near a goblin hut that was neatly pushed back against the wall.

“You have my attention, number two,” Delta joked and Nu ignored her timely reference and opened a map he drew himself. It looked identical to the current layout Delta had now except one corridor.

It connected the back of the storeroom to the goblin camp.

“Seems nice but kinda defeats the purpose of the other rooms,” Delta pointed out and Nu made a quick adjustment.

Writing next the path was big bold letters.

SECRET PASSAGE

“Oh, that makes sense but how do we make a secret passage?” Delta wondered and Nu made a noise sounded like a small horn.

I simply expect you to try it and for an option to appear. Simply design with the idea of ‘secret’. I do it myself but I feel...unwell when I try to go near the room construction options. I feel like this is borderline usurping your position and I do not want to see what would happen if I pursued it. I took a look and I feel like you should upgrade the storeroomoom to make this work better.

Delta looked at Nu with concern but didn’t voice them when Nu was in building mode. He would just get irritated.

“Oki doki. Later guys,” she waved to the monsters who all called back in various ways. A quick jaunt later and she stood in her somewhat cluttered Storeroom.

Storeroom:

- Upgrade the size of the room to be double the size without disturbing the space of the dungeon. 20 DP

- Allow all container to be repair when dungeon is empty if not stolen. 15 DP

- Upgrade the walls to be more solid and respectable. Solid wood panels. 20 DP

- Increase the amount of mana gained by the mana vent. 70 DP

It was a decent selection. Delta guessed she hadn’t really done too much with the room for it to be offering many options but Delta visibly winced at the mana vent purchase.

That was... more DP than she was willing to pay right now. If it gave her just measly 1 mana for the upgrade... Delta shivered and pushed that thought away. No gambling on upgrades for the unseen future...

Delta tried to stay firm on that decision.

She picked the wall upgrade for now as it would work better with Nu’s plan.

All around, the loosely packed dirt and loose boards shimmers and grew. Solid wood panels and proper wooden planks now formed the wall and floor. It looked really nice and Delta beamed.

She made a corridor that bent into an L-shape and connected the goblin room and the Storeroom. The openly exposed dirt tunnel made the storeroom look odd so she opened the menu again.

“Secret... disguised...hidden...uh... false wall... don’t-let-anyone-see-this!” Delta chanted and the menu appeared.

Storeroom:

- Upgrade the size of the room to be double the size without disturbing the space of the dungeon. 20 DP

- Allow all container to be repair when dungeon is empty if not stolen. 15 DP

- Increase the amount of mana gained by the mana vent. 70 DP

- Place a fake wall over the corridor. Can be opened by setting a trigger. 15 DP

Delta jumped, cheering at her apparent mastery of the system.

She purchased it and a wall, a perfect replicate of the rest, appeared. Delta saw a new screen appear.

Choose opening method: ____

Delta thought about it and then summoned Nu.

“It’s all your idea, so you should get to choose!” Delta grinned. Nu was quiet for a moment.

Thank you. It...well, I shall accept this task. Torch on the wall is silly. Simply pushing it will reveal it to far too many people. I think... we should set the trigger as a simple knock and password. It has no actual defences, someone can, with force, break in if they wish. For now, knock once and say ‘Mother Delta’. No person will say it, only the monsters.

Delta blinked at the request and the screen flashed as it accepted the trigger.

She moved through it and saw a similar door on the other side. This one was disguised as the rough stone wall of the goblin hut.

“Must be the same opening trigger,” she mused and she invited Billy over.

Given him clear instructions, Billy knocked and spoke the password.

The fake wall swung open silently. There was a pause and Cois whooped with excitement as he no longer had to worry about the mudroom.

The tunnel was smooth but Delta noticed there was a little nub that formed near the middle, an almost turn off. Delta guessed she hadn’t focused enough when forming the tunnel. She eyed the space and wondered what to do with it.

“Kinda lonely in here, I doubt anyone would want to be in here...” Delta mused and then came tug. She turned and followed it to see the Greater Mushy coiled up and waiting. It looked like it had packed its life together and was waiting for some cab to take it to the airport.

It tugged again and Delta eyed it.

“You want to go... into the tunnel?” she tried and the Mushy’s eyes glowed red. It seemed to relish the idea of the isolation, or possibly just the peace and quiet.

“What would you do in there?” she wondered. Greater Mushy put a few stones down and tapped them, making quiet thudding noises.

It would entertain itself. It would tap rocks or make music.

Delta guessed that was all the reason it needed. She spent some mana to lift the monster and send it into the passage.

It fit snugly into the little nub.
Delta was glad to see it stretch out and explore its new surroundings.

She eyed the tiny rocks and objects it used to make music. Feeling like she was a bad caretaker. She focused and a set of drums, a small copper harp with thin wire. It wasn’t tuned and it sounded a little rough but Delta wondered if she could... ask Ruli to get her a piano.

The plant took some tentative smacks on the drum and froze at the clear banging noise. It hit again and one vine played across the harps.

It was definitely rough but the Mushy seemed to shiver.

Delta smiled and walked away. The secret passage closed and once it did. The sounds of drums echoed throughout the storeroom and goblin camp. The sound travelled and meeting in the pond room.

It sounded like a war drum and the spiders all raised two legs and did their ceremonial war dance and the goblins looked relaxed.

Fran roared and yelled for more as he practised his lance jabs.

Delta could only smile sheepishly at Nu’s disapproving box.

“It’s just a drum, it won’t be too bad,” she promised and Nu only moved closer to her face.

Gamble. Giant worm. You. Screaming.

Delta made a face and stubbornly enjoyed the drumming.

She was sure, absolutely sure that the drumming and music was just harmless fun.

All around the dungeon, the mushrooms perked up as if called.

The Lumen mushrooms glowed slightly brighter. The edible mushrooms looked fresher. The gutrot curled and looked nasty.

Deep down, on the second floor.

The Black Bloodcurdling Mushrooms seemed to dance.

43: Raleish the thought

---
Delta watched from a small distance, as Rale played tug of war with Bob. The sounds they were making were akin to a demon and a deteminded gym instructor.

Delta named the worm Bob to help see the creature as something a little cuter. It... kind of worked in a way. Rale tugged at the rock as Bob tried to pull it back in. They had been at this for a while and Delta was not going to tell them that if that rock had been an actual person, they’d long have drowned or been torn in half by the two forces.

It was a good attempt on the monster’s efforts, however. Trying to save someone was at least something in Delta’s books.

Rale held the rock with triumph and Bob wriggled in cheer. The worm seemed to just be perpetually happy at everything. Rale flexed and basked in response to the worms unho... excited noises. Delta eyed the gym tools that seemed stacked up against a rock formation as Rale seemed to claim the head of the river has his work out area.

Delta had heard of gym rats, never of gym frogs but she guessed as long as Rale was happy she could keep gifting him more items fit for a frog king of the gym.

She turned and nearly shrieked as Devina stood there.

“Mother, I sense you... and now I hear you,” the frog smiled politely in Delta’s general direction.

“Devina! You scared me,” Delta grumbled and Devina just smiled. Her slightly rounder features and expressive eyes showed a slight hint of mischief before it vanished back behind the serene gaze.

“Did I? My apologies. I come to watch Rale and the new one. I spent much time conversing with the Queen Bee. She is rather demanding but interesting,” Devina spoke with a casual tone and a small red bee crawled over her arm before it flew off to investigate a flower nearby.

“You talked to her? As in with words?” Delta questioned with delight and Devina shook her head.

“Her buzzing was mostly noise. We worked out a general one buzz for yes, two for no. She did 10 once and then laid eggs. I do not know what that means in Bee language but I took it for a polite goodbye,” Devina informed her and Rale paused at the sound of her voice finally reaching him.

He turned and stared at Devina then slowly climbed into the pool to peer at her from the surface before he slowly sank out of sight. Delta blinked and Devina snorted.

“He thinks I am some oddity or otherworldly being. He has not spoken to me yet and my attempts have been met with silence and sudden bursts of running away. It amuses me so I sought him out,” Devina informed Delta in a hushed tone. She turned and hummed, stroking the flowers and bushes that were formed. She flicked a black mushroom and it seemed to shrink away from her.

Delta raised one eyebrow at the scene then looked back at the wide-eyes of Rale, peering over the edge of the pool. He was hard to see as Bob was mimicking him, taking up most of the side of the abyss pool to stare at Devina.

He gave a small shriek and Rale nodded.

“That’s her. The other one,” he told Bob in confidence. The worm shivered and sunk out of view.

Delta took the chance to move closer and, smiling, spoke to Rale.

“So... why won’t you talk to her?” she wondered and Rale jumped and splashed about in brief panic. He squinted at her then looked away.

“She is distracting! I cannot flex or lift or speak when she is around. It is some curse or spell she casts. Mother, I cannot save people with her appearing and making me weak!” he hissed and Delta put a hand over her mouth and tried not to make a noise for a while.

“I... see. That is a dilemma! Well, as the wise and powerful Delta,” she began and in the far distance, a distance ringing sounded out like mocking laughter.

“Nu! Shut up!” she yelled at the forming jungle. Turning back, her face feeling pink, she continued.

“The key to defeating her power is to constantly be under it! You build up resistance,” Delta said as if this was a big secret. Rale nodded and his eyes lit up with some inner light.

“I see... I know her weakness and soon I will be the strongest in the jungle!” Rale hissed and sank below the water to plot. Delta’s lips twitched and she stood up to leave. Rale quickly reappeared.

“Mother. Bob is... a bit lonely,” he began and some bubbles rose with a shriek and Rale glared down at the depths.

“If we do not tell her, we cannot improve!” he shouted. He turned back to the open air.

“I cannot always spend time with him so Bob would like some company,” he explained and Bob’s shadowy form vanished beneath the sand to hide, as if Delta would laugh at him.

Delta was too busy trying to stop her heart from breaking at the scene. Bob... the poor thing. She slipped into the water and sank to the dark bottom.

“Bob. Bob,” she called and a pair of pincers barely appeared to acknowledge her.

“Don’t worry. I am sorry, I should have guessed it was a little harsh of me to leave you in this pool alone. I’m just trying to make the dungeon better in a hurry so I’ve been kind of... a bad caretaker, huh? Here!” Delta spent some mana and two Crabs appeared. They swam about the pit and settled on the sand.

“Hey, guys! Hang out with Bob and try to have a good time!” Delta beamed, hoping she wasn’t just setting herself up to deal with two more lonely creatures. The two crabs raised their claws and did a little dance. Bob appeared and quickly loomed over the two red crabs.

They danced and clacked their claws, not afraid. Bob slowly began to wriggle to the tiny dance. He flowed up and the crabs hitched a ride on his body. Delta rose and with them and saw the crabs now making noises and clicking their little hearts out.

Bob was now in full wriggle and began to bob his gaping maw back and forward.

Delta guessed he wouldn’t become crabby anytime soon with these two little guys around.

Delta felt her first floor seal itself and Nu appeared.

You have guests. Remember our promise. Say hello, see some of their amazement at our work, come back and get on with the second floor! I shall let you know if something needs your attention. It is Ruli, Deo and Vas from what I saw before I was locked out.

Delta waved him off.

“Yeah, I know we’re eager but I like to have some time with my friends, Mom,” she sighed and Nu just budged her along.

Less sass, more moving. I swear, if I wasn’t here, you’d be upside down and trapped in some rock. I shall monitor things until you return. Tell the excited child to do the challenges and maybe ask them for tribute. We are just on the verge of making this floor into something and we only need a few more things to make it happen!

Nu sounded so excited and energetic. Delta slowed, a small smile playing around on her lips. Nu went from light green back to his default blue.

Well... it still needs work. It’s shoddy and your lack of dungeon control skills only doubles my own work. So rude. I shall eagerly await your return with dazzling news that Ruli devoured our pond or some such thing.

Nu vanished quickly and Delta didn’t even get to say anything.

“You are such a drama queen,” Delta called and vanished up the stairs to greet people, not knowing the crabs and Bob had heard the entire thing.

One of the crabs made a rough box with his claws and began to nag the other. The second crab pranced about and danced, pretending to climb stairs as it jumped into the pool. Bob looked at them and wriggled in delight.

Delta never knew what devils she unleashed until later.

---

Poppy Roth watched as the outside world slowly moved on. She closed the book in her hand and put it back into its place. It was just a book. The only thing she had to do was be entertained.

It was easy and relaxing. Her mother walked into her room and Poppy already felt like her life was a little too stressful for the moment before.

“Poppy, your aunt sends you a greeting in the mail. However, Due to the ridiculous outgoing mail ban, I cannot reply. I have left you a space to fill in your own greetings and small talk when it does,” her mother added on and place the letter down for Poppy to see the three neat paragraphs done by her mother, a rough mess of her fathers and a space for herself.

Poppy took the offered ink pen.

I am fine. - Poppy.

It was rather long winded but Poppy just finished a good book and her mood was still somewhat high. Her aunt was going to be overwhelmed by the sheer content of Poppy’s segment. Her mother sighed but this was a long argument that no one won.

“Poppy, darling, you can’t avoid people forever. While Deo is a bad influence, he is at least an influence. Why did you not go with him to that dungeon place? Ruli is horrifically good at killing things, you would be safe,” the older woman inquired and Poppy squirmed away and sat on her bed.

“Don’t want to. Outside is a pain,” she answered honestly and her mother bit her own perfectly lipsticked mouth. Her soft red hair was in the exact style of popular, her dress was pleasing but not overtly eye-catching.

Poppy’s mother was a butterfly and Poppy wanted to be the caterpillar forever. Poppy felt the itch of a monster rise up.

Silk spinner, a little nudge to her throat mana, twist the organ to produce silk and not sound. Poppy sighed and squashed it. Her mother would not be pleased if her perfect ensemble became covered in monster string.

She could sleep. The Resting Raging Sloth had such a power to rest for 18 hours for a power nap. It rose as she thought of it. Mana to the eye and slight amount to the brain and she would simply sleep. She resisted that too.

Poppy had books to read, characters to love, characters to dissect. Bad plots to fix on her notepad.

It was a very human thing and nothing popped up in her body when she thought of it.

Being a blue mage was the greatest pain of all. Poppy still remembered the day she had found out.

Her Dad was an amazing cook, Poppy lived for her father’s dishes and gruff and rude humour. Poppy loved the meat, the tangy vegetables and sweet desserts. The only thing was... her Dad used monster ingredients to reach new tastes and sensations in his dishes.

Poppy had eaten those dishes since she had teeth. The sheer amount of different monsters she had consumed before she was ten was immense and some of her happiest memories. Then she hit 12 and she began to drool acid like an ant monster, explode with a light of the demonic fairy and more and more abilities, too many to count.

Every emotion, feeling, memory, inclination... caused some power or other to appear. It was a terrifying time until she had been identified and taught control. Blue mages gain powers from eating or taking an attack of the monster.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The downside is that they could never... unlearn the powers, so Blue Mages carefully tried to limit their number of spells to prevent... Poppy.

The base cause of her power, experience and reaction, never faded. Everything outside her room came with its own building-sized pile of monster powers gnashing instincts, the need to just let loose and roar... to lash out with power.

So Poppy had no real desire to leave her room. Not even with Deo. The school was hard enough, but a dungeon? Twice? Poppy felt cramps at the thought.

“Poppy, it will get better. You can’t stop living your life because of...” her mother trailed off and Poppy looked out the window at a bird nesting on the high branches.

It made her back tingle with power and Poppy closed the curtains and set the room in shadow.

“I’m happiest here. Tell auntie I said hi,” Poppy picked another book and lost herself in another person’s untainted feelings.

The character in her book laughed and drank ale, it was just that. An emotion and Poppy pulled her hood over her head so her mother couldn’t see her red eyes.

---

“YOU WERE SO AWESOME!” Deo praised Vas as the golem easily avoided the webs and completed the challenge. Deo was absolutely covered in the somewhat rare web after his attempted had him tripping over the wire Delta has set up for the invading spiders. Ruli just kept the smaller teen at arm's length.

“Nice vest,” she commented as Vas held the web shirt out like it was a monster as well.

“YOU SHOULD WEAR IT AND BE LIKE ME!” Deo grinned making Vas’ face soften.

It folded the shirt out and slid it on without a word. Deo looked pleased and Ruli was about to comment on the two when her words died off.

Delta watched with glee as Ruli’s dark eyes went wide at the expanded Pond before them.

“Delta, you crafty little minx!” Ruli almost danced as she rushed into the expanded room. Deo followed and looked around, waving his hands.

“IT’S SO BIG NOW! HELLLLLOOO!” he yelled and Vas trembled as the sound travelled through him. Delta felt a whine in her ear as if she had tinnitus. Ruli was looking around the pond and pointed with a fanged grin.

“A golden fish, Delta, just pop the ring out already, I’m all yours!” she cheered and pulled out her ugly duck cap, slapping it on her head.

Waddles eyed it with interest and Delta watched the duck with a wary eye.

Ruli pulled out her rod from a protective sleeve and Vas sat down quite far from the water, watching the scene in his web shirt with Deo next to him in his... web outfit.

As Ruli began to wind things up, they all froze as a drumming sounded out.

It was energetic, fast, slightly repetitive but catchy. It made the mood instantly soar.

Ruli was frozen, eyes hidden behind some hair. She looked up at the ceiling where the drumming echoed through the very walls.

“Yessssssssss,” she hissed and her muscles bunched, her hair whipping up in a silent storm as the drums set some fire inside Ruli to the highest level.

“Dungeons do not have music unless it is cursed music or lures people to traps!” Vas exclaimed and Deo was literally vibrating on the spot, his eyes wide as he seemed to absorb the very thudding of the drums.

He put his entire body flat on the ground.

“THERE IS DRUMS! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME! I FEEL THEM!” he shouted and Ruli was already winding up the rod, her grin devilish.

“It’s the sound of my new favourite place on the plane welcoming me home!” she looked back so Deo could see her lips.

Vas stood and watched the hook fly straight into the enlarged pond.

Delta saw the goblins arrive and begin to cheer as Ruli baited the new fish.

Delta wondered if she would find the secret tunnel... she sort hoped not. The second floor wasn’t done and she kind of wanted to wow her friends with the complete scene of a misty jungle, mysteries awaiting them, the call of adventure, the song of bees!

They would get to meet Bob!

Her mana was now rising at a slow but steady rate.

She closed her eyes and bid her friends goodbye for the moment.

Their cheering and bodies filled with the drums of her Greater Mushy made her feel like she was leaving a party that promised memories she would cherish.

But Delta was only as good as her promises, so she flew down to the second floor, hoping against all hope that maybe if she did enough fast enough, she could come back and have fun! Then she could let them all come down here and they could stay even longer and Delta could enjoy having human interaction for a little bit longer.

It was this hope that had her fly directly to the far end of her jungle room and start the building of her new core room.

Eager?

“Nu, let’s build this floor, let’s kick ass and make this place something to be remembered!” Delta shouted and Nu moved back in alarm.

Mad? Well, regardless, you are correct. This will be a floor to hailed as a story to be spread and one to lure more people in! We shall stall them, suckle their mana, let them have fun and make them regret leaving! We shall taint them with kindness!

Nu’s screen turned dark blue with glee as the hallway and room before them hollowed out perfectly. Delta flexed her growing mana to move the core to this room. As she did so, the decorations appeared. The Fran statues, the four stone mushrooms and... where those two fish fountains?

The fish curved out the stone basin and gurgled water into a tiny hole near the base of Delta’s twin earth pillar that held her core.

She had two of these statues on either side of her core now and it Delta remembered she had gained a decoration from the pond evolutions...

“Fancy. I feel fancy,” Delta decided and beamed as her Core now had a river and some bees between it and any troublemakers.

Delta quickly moved to the far right of the room and flexed her hands.

“One corridor coming up! Delta called with her voice filled with energy.

---

Old Lady Jose closed the photo album. The tech was handy if not very useful inside dungeons due to mana pollution but the sheer number pictures she had amassed over the years...

Someone cleared their throat and she didn’t even turn to look at her guest.

“Haldi, I can smell you a mile away, you’re using the strong stuff. We know that doesn’t end well,” she called and the cheerful old man came over and sat down across from her, a simple table between them.

“Milla, how long has it been since we talked?” he greeted and Milla smirked.

“Three hours ago, what do you want?” she tapped the album with her fingers and Haldi looked at her without fear. 20 years ago, the small pleasant man before her had been wild-haired with a glint in his eyes. He explored things most people would baulk at even considering.

Including Milla herself. That made her smirk again. She, Haldi, Pic and... Durence had been a solid team.

Oh, those were the years. Where Milla could conquer any beast or any heart.

“Milla, the dungeon is going to be digging deeper soon. Should we not be more cautious, prepared?” he asked and pleasant memories of the old days turned to ash and blood in Milla’s mind.

“No. Everything is dead. I made sure of that. Let the dungeon dig and remove the last vestiges of that fucking hole from existence. Delta is at least innocent,” she began and Haldi’s smile was polite but harsh.

“Malleable to your whims, I think you mean,” he challenged and Milla let it go. Her yellow eyes pulsed once, old tired watchers that were coming to life due to the dungeon mana rising.

“Point being is that I’d rather have a naive, innocent, bumbling girl in this land than any of those Accursed fuckers. They... I have lost enough to them. We have lost enough. We promised, on his grave, that we would die here. Making sure that nothing got in or out. Now is our chance to make sure we missed nothing, that nothing is left,” she banged the table and it broke.

Haldi’s face turned blank.

“We gave up everything, you need not remind me. I had a future but I gave it up like you did. We promised Durence that we would keep the peace. Now we have children here, neighbours, shops, bakers, and all sorts. We’ve become old and now things are happening. And the next generation has to deal with it, not us if we don’t last. It’s sad and annoying,” he scoffed.

Milla picked up the photo album and opened it to a picture of a little girl with large fangs and a giggle on her face, the wild black hair and dark skin. Even in this picture, she held up a wriggling rat she had trapped.

Milla had even given that up for the promise.

“We can only wait,” she said quietly and Haldi sighed.

The room felt empty. Even when Pic showed up to share his concerns, the fourth and final seat would never be filled again.

Her only saving grace was she was sure, confident, she had gotten them all.

----

Delta stared at the huge room her corridor collapsed into.

It was a simple enough cave, it had rocks, moss, bugs, and all the things that made a nice cave.

What did not belong was the garish purple and orange circus tent, tarnished and faded with age but rather well preserved.

The flap of the tent moving as if beckoning her closer but there was an oppressive silence about the place.

Room cannot be conquered until all inhabitants are defeated, contracted or removed.

Something was in here and Delta felt the room’s chill soak into her body. As she looked around, she saw the space wasn’t exactly natural. The room had... edges and clear design where the stone had been cut away to make space.

Something was... not quite right.

----

Spoiler: Floor 1

Spoiler: Floor 2

44: Mime the Gap

Delta couldn’t really set foot in the room. Her body just stopped at a certain point. She pushed and shoved but the firm barrier prevented her entry into the odd space.

I do not like this. What is a structure like that doing so far below ground?

“Giving me the heebie-jeebies... urgh, we need to send someone inside,” Delta said with hesitation and Devina cleared her throat.

Delta let out a screech and Nu flew so high he vanished near the ceiling.

“Mother. Nu,” Devina nodded seriously. Delta, clutching at her heart, scowled but quickly felt better having more company near the cave.

Devina. Scout this room. It could be a danger, there is something inside but I do not know what.

Delta was about to nod then something crossed her mind.

“She can’t! She... she doesn’t have a respawn point!” Delta protested and Nu didn’t say anything.

“If she dies, I can’t bring her back!” Delta went on but Devina moved ahead without a sound.

“Devina, stop!” Delta cried and the tall frog did so.

“You heard me, you won’t come back if you die in there. Just- just let me figure something out. Maybe Hob and Gob can come down or I can block it up again and we can plan something. Ruli is upstairs!” Delta said quickly and Devina tilted her head. Her large black eyes seemed to see more than Delta could.

“Mother... I am your child. Your Devina. I am not a simpering bee nor a dancing crab. I am the warrior of the jungle,” Devina said and resumed walking.

“Devina” Stop! S-stop! Devina, I am ordering you to stop!” Delta shouted and there was a moment where Devina froze before she looked back.

“I am too like you, Mother. I must help, it is in my nature, in my soul. Your gift unto me and I will not shy away from it,” Devina smiled, her spear which Devina had never carried after summoning, was now held tightly.

“Please, please. I can’t lose anyone,” Delta tried to plead but Nu appeared in front of her.

Do not take stupid risks. I... expect you back shortly. Devina of the Jungle.

Devina smiled and touched her chest where a heart would roughly be on a human.

“Mother’s kindness and your shrewdness, what a lovely creature I am,” she laughed and darted forward like a shadow. Delta felt her heart lurch as Devina ignored her orders. Nu only hummed softly.

You forge them with love and will. Is this any surprise they would use it against you... to save you?

Delta only stared as Devina moved to crouch low near the tent flap, still moving as if a window was open on the inside causing a draft.

Then the frog slipped inside and Delta prayed. She prayed for the woman’s safety. The unknown was already making her nerves flush with panic.

What was Devina seeing? What was ahead of her? Delta needed to know, she needed it.

Delta- was inside the tent, the black space loomed ahead. Delta tried to move her head but it didn’t budge. A hand reached out, webbed and holding a spear.

Devina.

Delta watched the dark tent through amphibious eyes, the circus tent was large enough to host a fair crowd on the stands that encircled the ring. It reminded her of Fran’s room.

“The jungle beats within... my spear be fast... my task be done,” Devina almost said silently, barely whispering it to herself as some odd chant.

The empty stands, the highwires, the net that only caught shadows now... The tent was as dead as it promised but there was one thing that remained out of place.

In the middle of the ring, where the master would direct lions, acrobats, clowns, strong men... was a single chair facing the entrance. It was a simple wooden chair that offered no comfort. There was someone sitting in it.

Devina’s eyes saw white gloves grasped in a lap. The striped black and white shirt that looked like time had let the lines run slightly. The skin, arms, neck, face were all pale white, unnatural, too smooth and almost paintlike. The thing wore a black and white jester cap with two pointy ends.

It seemed to have no mouth, nose or facial features in general but where its eyes should be, there were two black painted diamonds with each point of the diamonds trailing off into thin lines.

Devina was about to move when it twitched. It lifted its head and seemed to inhale, dust and other unknown substances flaked off its body as if the creature had not moved in very long time.

Delta felt cold, waiting for some shriek or scream but it simply stood up and sniffed again. It looked thin and it’s clothes simply hung off its frame. Delta felt a new sense of fear and a pitying sort of awareness.

How long had this thing been trapped here? Years? Delta couldn’t imagine being trapped under so much rock and dirt. She would go mad. A sense of sorrow rose for the black and white creature as it hesitantly shuffled forward towards Devina, who despite being in perfect shadow was spotted.

Maybe this thing just... needed a way out or a friend? Delta felt a spark of hope rise up in. The mime’s face split open from ear to ear and a row of white teeth stuck out from a black mouth.

Delta screeched and Devina yelled, throwing her spear at the thing as it moved forward.

The mime put its hand flat against the air and the spear simply crashed against an invisible barrier.

“Get out, get out, get out!” Delta screamed and Devina jolted into a run out the tent. The spear flew over her head propelled with great force. Devina rushed down the tunnel and back into the jungle. Nu vanished and Delta was left alone with a startled Devina.

“Nu, where are you going?!” Delta called but Nu didn’t appear. There was movement and Devina’s foot suddenly lifted up by some invisible rope. The demonic mime was at the tunnel’s entrance, yanking on the other end of the unseen rope.

“No, stay away from her!” Delta stood between the Mime and Devina who was reaching up to scratch at some solid thing around her ankle. Delta’s legs were shaking and she whimpered as the thing came closer, mouth leaking black saliva as it drooled at the struggling Devina.

“Stop! G-go away! Leave her alone!” Delta screamed and the mime froze. It sniffed again and something else seemed to catch its attention. It turned and looked directly at the exposed dungeon core in the distance, pulsing in distress. It immediately ignored Devina and began to shamble towards the core.

Devina dropped and Delta was about to tell her to run but with some mad screeching, Devina launched herself in a powerful jump towards the Mime.

“You will not touch Mother!” Devina shouted and the powerful kick sent the Mime crashing down. It still made no noise. Absolutely none. It was just as unnerving as the black drool or the sharp teeth.

Devina raised her leg to stomp hard but the Mime made a motion of pulling something on the ground and Devina was sent tumbling to the ground. It got up and Devina was about to swipe when the Mime place both hands over her and Devina was suddenly squished inside a box. The Mime eyed the box and put something else on top of the box, its knees shaking from the object.

Devina jerked and Delta tried to kick at the Mime’s power but nothing worked. Devina was trapped and Delta saw the Mime begin to walk towards her core again.

“Please, stop! Stop... Just go away you freaky rip off clown freak!” Delta shouted and the core crackled with warning energy. This only made the Mime more eager.

Delta didn’t want to leave Devina and she couldn’t do anything to stop the Mime. There was a wave of helpless and Delta felt frustrated tears rise up.

The Mime moved closed and then it stopped as a large stone bar with a stone disk snapped its head back.

“Only the strong and worthy may approach Mother. You reek of foul weakness,” Rale said, large green arms bulging with force as he yanked the weight out of the Mime’s face. The things visage looked crumpled and caved but then there was a sickening popping noise and the head snapped back into shape.

Such an odd creature. Sorry for the departure. I went to find the musclehead.

Nu sounded dry and bored. It made Delta feel better, her emotions now blurring with fear and relief.

“I thought you left me...” she whispered and Nu dinged softly.

A menu leaving its user? Perish such nonsense. I don’t drop projects, no matter how irritating or mushroom inclined they become.

“Nu...” Delta said, wiping furiously at her face.

The Mime made a motion of picking something up and swinging. Rale held up his weights defensively and slid back a little with a grunt.

“Weak foe! Do you even lift the weights of Mother Delta!” he roared and lifted the improvised weapon and the Mime was sent flying up and over into a tree. The tree made a crunching noise but the Mime was still silent.

It stood up and rolled its neck in an unnatural jerky way. The Mime then looked less drooly and a little bit more annoyed.

“Is that all you possess? Colourless fly?” Rale boasted and the Mime made a motion as if it stuck something against its heel and put its other hand flat in the air, as if resting it on something big.

It reminded Delta of old movies... when someone was about to fire a...

Rale, mov-” Delta tried but the Mime put the invisible match to the equally unseen cannon.

Rale was sent flying back, his powerful stomach being imprinted with a round object. He was sent hurtling into the river, skipping once on the surface and landing on the other side. He rolled and then slowed to a halt.

“RALE!” Delta yelled and the large frog moved, rolling over to vomit.

Well... if we could lure it over to Bob that might help?

Nu suggested but the Mime turned back to the Core, grinning. Delta was about to start spending DP and Mana to slow the Mime down but Nu suddenly vanished as Deo appeared far across the level, staring at awe at the large jungle room as Vas was escorted down by a worried Mr Mushy.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta felt stunned. Her powers became locked and her two guests were too far to properly see what was going on. The Mime was too close to her core.

It was too late, there was nothing stopping the white teeth from reaching the core, from reaching Delta.

It was over and Delta felt numb. Over? It had barely begun...

“Nu... I’m sorry,” she whispered as the Mime reached the tunnel.

There was silence and something thumped to the ground heavily beside her.

Delta opened her eyes to see someone walking back from the near tunnel, a series of broken bushes and branches showing a path carved by the newcomer starting at the riverbank.

“Woo wee. There's an ugly mother fucker if I ever did see one,” Ruli said, her face devoid of her usual jovial expression. She looked dripping wet and her duck hat looked burned, the brown feathers turned jet black.

“Quack,” Waddles grumbled on top of Ruli’s head. Delta gaped as Ruli looked like she had swum through the secret passage. The Mime looked up at the ceiling, it’s mouth still open. It slowly raised itself to a sitting position as if still confused.

“Duck, guess you were right,” Ruli tilted her head and some water leaked from the woman’s hair. Waddles shuffled but still didn’t jump down from Ruli’s head.

“Ruli!” Delta yelled with such powerful happiness. Ruli nodded once.

“Your duck went little nuts and showed me the secret way down. Nice touch. The pool felt weird, something touched my ass and I didn’t look back to check.” She sounded so casual.

She smirked.

“Your core is so close that I can almost... hear you. But ya know? Creepy Mime? Not funny,” Ruli said to the now standing Mime.

It shrugged and made the cannon motion again. Waddles quacked, sounding so deep that it rumbled.

Delta shivered and the Mime glowed black. It struck its heel and... paused, it struck its heel again.

It looked at his fingers where the unseen match apparently refused to light. It scratched it’s head in puzzlement and looked up to see Ruli putting the exhausted bird down, Waddles’ chest heaving from the effort.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you know that Dark Drakes affect all luck? Things that can’t go wrong, will?” Ruli called, her walk steadily increasing in pace. The Mime made a climbing motion and scaled a ladder up. Ruli leapt and easily caught the thing as it tried to go over Ruli.

They fell and fought for the upper hand. The ghoulish Mime bit into Ruli’s shoulder, making the woman snarl as she punched it hard enough that its head snapped back again.

“Fucker,” Ruli said and flexed her wounded shoulder which expelled the dark fluids as it began to knit back together. She watched as the Mime also started to fix itself.

“Well, isn’t this a pointless fight already?” Ruli said sarcastically and the Mime made a ‘one-moment’ gesture as its neck squished its spine back under its skin.

“Ignoring physical damage, teeth like a rat mutant, fucking creepy... a ghoul,” Ruli spat and eyed the pulsing Core behind her then at her own hands.

“Another floor and I’d be good for this but...” Ruli muttered. Delta watched with horror at the scene of the undying Mime. She rushed over and made sure Waddles was going to be okay.

“Delta. I need your permission,” Ruli began, watching as the Mime seemed to pull something out its pocket and shook it, before throwing away is it appeared to be broken. The black aura around it became a little thinner.

“What? What for?” Delta said and Ruli closed her eyes as if to listen.

“I need your mana, pure dungeon mana. I need to drain some to give me the edge here,” She explained as the Mime flicked a match and seemed delighted at its apparent flame.

“Yes! All of my yes, just do what you need!” Delta agreed and Ruli looked pained.

“Delta... you’re too nice, you know that?” she said and jumped back and flew down Delta’s tunnel. The Mime looked confused and then danced on the spot as it saw what Ruli was doing.

Delta peered down and saw Ruli put her mouth to Delta’s core and inhaled, orange mana beginning to flake off.

It looked like Ruli was drinking orange stars and-

Oh.

Oh.

OH.

It Hurt! IT HURT!

ITHURTITHURTITHURT

Delta felt her awareness snap into numbers. The world around her became her, them, and numbers. 1’s and precious 0’s flowed into the numberless Ruli. There were no numbers in Ruli, just being and it was wrong and beautiful. She was a mix of charming blue, scarred and tough, and unbridled red rage that swam together in some dance that worked together to exist.

Delta was inside Ruli’s ocean and the numberless existence burned before her numbers became Ruli’s ocean water.

She forced her eyes on the Mime and saw old things.

Shapes that were and were not right. The Mime had touches of burns on itself, Numbers that had left scars. A deep dry wasteland where tiny droplets of orange numbers breathed grey grass back into life and from that grass came a whisper.

I... am not me...please...please...hear...me.

It was quickly swallowed by the dry wasteland as the numbers... the mana was not enough to sustain the growth. Not enough mana.

So hungry. It just was so hungry and Delta wept for it.

Then the pain stopped.

Mana: 1/80

It was a relief to Delta once more.

The Mime shuddered silently and walked backwards away from the tunnel where Delta’s core was.

Smoke billowed out and blanketed the darkness where the dimming star of her core barely blinked.

A shadow moved and a monster held the Mime by the throat. Delta felt utter fear rise up as Ruli’s form appeared.

She easily broached 8 feet now. Her clothes were torn, unable to keep up with the growth entirely. The black skin drank any light that touched it, the curling horns of white bone jutted out like a crown. Her face was beautiful and mind-numbingly terrifying. The tail of wicked spines flowed and moved like a bored cat.

Fire and shadows danced around Ruli now like eager children and Delta felt something alien about her where it had never been before.

“Mana from the core. Drain it dry and it’s like five levels worth of mana hitting you at once, was that what you smelled?” Ruli asked with inquiring tone, calm like the Mime was just an oddity.

“It's painful. If it cannot spare the mana. Like taking too much blood, it begins to cause damage. Delta, sweet, lovely, Delta, she had none and yet I took it because you made me,” Ruli chided playfully and there was a cracking noise as she began to crush the Mime’s neck.

Devina had gone very still as if Ruli inspired some primordial fear in the frog. Waddles was tiredly moving to protect Delta’s core from any more harm but the bird was still exhausted.

Deo and Vas were coming closer, Mr Mushy trying to pull them back in fear.

“I hurt Delta. Do you hear me? I hurt my friend to hurt you in return. Does that make sense? Does that penetrate your silent fucking head?” Ruli snarled, black fire leaking on each breath and her hand began to burn the Mime from its touch alone. The creature let out a quiet screech.

Delta tried to move. She flopped and tried to speak, her tongue like a dead fish, flopping with no life.

This...this was not what she wanted.

Delta had seen something, she had seen consciousness in the deep pits of the Mime’s being. Ruli’s tail whipped and cracked the air as she held the Mime higher.

She was going to burn the Mime and kill him. Delta could see it... no, feel it.

Her mana was in Ruli and Delta felt the heat and hatred, of the Mime, of herself, flow back into Delta. There was a small bond now, limited and fading, but just enough for this to alert Delta.

She managed to stand.

“Stop,” she said and no one paid her attention. Not Waddles, not Ruli, not Devina, not Nu who was gone... no one listened.

Delta tugged on the painful words of numbers, fueled by desperation, fear, anger, and hope.

“Stop!”

Her voice sounded from the heavens, shook in the ground, vibrated out every plant, rock, flowing water, the very air.

Ruli dropped the Mime as if burned herself. She spun and stared at Delta.

“You...” she began and Delta strode forward and put both hands on Ruli’s large form.

“Stop! Stop! Just stop! No more! This... there are other ways we can solve this. I refused to let fear and anger drive me to just kill! Ruli... thank you, thank you for being my friend,” Delta hiccuped and Ruli winced as if Delta had slapped her.

“Delta, you... you have a body!” she tried to say, her wonderful and terrifying features mixed with lovely human confusion. Delta looked down to see an orange body of an avatar, already fading away. She turned to the Mime, on the ground, curled up and burned.

“Violence. It will happen. But I will not tolerate murder, I just have to think,” Delta said without hesitation and continued to speak.

“Why does a Mime want to eat a dungeon core?” she asked as if setting up a bad joke.

There was no answer so Delta bent down and gave a weak smile.

“Because everyone gets a little grumpy if they get hungry,” she spoke and willed her desire to the Mime.

The Mime lowered the arm shielding its face and eyed the displayed box.

The Dungeon Core Delta would like to form a contract, do you accept?

“My name is Delta... This visible state of mine won't last long, but I would like it very much if you’d become my friend. I can take care of your hunger. Just... please stop eating people! Please be a good Mime instead!” she begged, her orange avatar flaking off onto the Mime, soaking into his skin, and the Mime tilted his head... then the thing fell off.

Delta went numb and all thought logic thought became a silent scream and the Mime looked to keel over in death but suddenly shook with silent laughter. It put its head back on its neck and tapped the accept button, still shaking with unheard laughter.

It began to glow.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING! I FELL INTO THE RIVER AND MISSED EVERYTHING!” a soaking wet Deo asked.

Delta had no answer for him.

She really, really, didn’t have an answer for him.

Interlude: Cheesecake

Haldi nodded to the new baker girl as she put out a lovely selection of bread, pastries, and delightful desserts into her display case.

She smiled back and Haldi felt a little flutter of happiness. Someone who didn’t look like they would rather be anywhere else when they saw him. He was sure that would soon change if the poor lass stuck around in Durence.

He heaved the box in his arms a tiny bit higher as he headed for his home.

Haldi didn’t honestly mean to make people so at odds with him. Mila was able to put up with him, as did Pic but that was because they had grown old with him. Seen his... quirks develop into the state he was in now.

Quiss walked around the corner and paused mid-step. Haldi pretended he hadn’t noticed the young lad, letting the Peacekeeper retreat with a look of relief on his face. Haldi hid a sigh as he nudged his door open

When had it gotten this bad?

He had always been a blabbermouth but only in the last few years had it progressed into the full-blown destruction of his social life.

“I can list of the dozen of cheese recipes lost to the world that can kill a dragon or cure diseases but I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut long enough to make a friend anymore. Oh, Durence, what would you say to me now?” he looked down as if his old friend would kick his door down any moment and laugh life’s problems away before getting them both into trouble.

“Hal! Come on, being a Elementalist is boring... here, I paid half my years salary for this ancient scroll of magic, it is said to allow you to control a most powerful force!”

Durence was the fool of the group and the heart. The hole which Durence’s death had left made Haldi look at the growing town with a sense of growing pride and a hint of regret.

“Most powerful force indeed,” Haldi set the box down he had excavated from where it had been buried near the town centre.

Various odours leaked out and Haldi inhaled.

Some of the contents were ready, others still needed time...

Cheese. The word had changed Haldi’s life.

It started with a scroll on controlling cheese. Durence spent all his money on buying it from some scam artist at the time. ‘Powerful magics’ were still a popular sell to the unwary and Haldi knew that more than enough oddball classes had been forged due to the clink of some coins.

Durence had spent so much money he had not...he had not been able to afford better armour for himself.

Haldi shook and closed the box. He flicked his hand and the cheese candles around the room caught fire. The smell of rather plain cheese filled the space and Haldi moved to the back of the room to pull bottles out of cupboards and off shelves.

Durence, the town, had become rather lively recently due to that new dungeon nearby. Then the Mana rose to the standard mana level of 1. It had surprised Haldi, he had avoided the council meetings and the town meetings as people stared at him with dread whenever he was about to speak, so he had missed out on a lot of the news.

Durence had been Mana Empty for a long time, barely alive with what was offered.

Still, the Mana made him think faster, speak faster! Haldi wondered if he would be actually talking faster than moss growing on a stone. Magic was a problem like that. Many mages, wizards, sorcerers, and other in-between magical folk chose their magic with care as opening themselves to a particular magic began to change them in return.

Cheese, for example in Haldi’s mind, seemed to cause rather tough and ripe ideas to form but if the mana in the area went sparse or even empty, then the mage’s mind would become slow, filled with holes and had a habit of speaking like mouldy milk.

Unwanted and clumpy.

Mana was important for a mage, even the ambient mana, so then the dungeon did it again and the Mana became a rank 2!

Haldi had woken up and was washed, put on fresh clothes, and been outside before midday had even past. It was wonderful! Haldi could also feel the stirrings of magic filling those previously empty swiss holes in his mind.

Oh, the things he had forgotten... the pain he had slipped away from.

“Hal! Come on! I don’t think you’re a failure, you’re too cool to be anything less cause you’re my friend!”

The joy he let slip away. He thumped his hand down and a collection of items jumped and rattled.

“I made a promise!” he barked, furious with himself, and turned to get to work.

Haldi pushed the iron pot over the stove and began to pour things into the vat.

“Pinch of Elf Ear Brie, the aged stench of Worm Ringed Rind. The herbal essence of Dryad Milk, a wedge of Lancre Blue...” Haldi moved his hand over the boiling pot as the ingredients bubbled furiously.

His left hand glowed with a dark yellow aura. Mana converted through his soul.

One could not simply be a Geomancer and then become a Caseomancer in a short time. Another potential risk of magic and dedication.

Haldi’s body, his mind, his being had become attuned with the very notion of cheese. He had trained, devoured, slept on, stolen, mutilated, sacrificed so much cheese that he himself had become a little cheese-like inside.

Mana flowing through him, be it of air, fire or other, became cheese inflicted. The perfect Mana to work his magic. No other Mana would get quite the same results as Cheesy Mana did.

Haldi had done great....terrible... things with cheese. Some things he did out of curiosity, some he did out of anger... all of them he did for the sake of the promise to Durence. He had brought arrogant lords to their knees, sent dark queens to retirement, stinking of cheese to the end of their time.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

He had brought life to this world with nought but his will and cheese. Haldi had been so foolish and wrathful. In fulfilling that promise, he had forsaken another. Mila and Pic had stayed as they needed to, Haldi had not.

He set out on a journey.

The cheese below in the pot bubbled and a claw reached out of the primordial cheese. Haldi flicked it and it collapsed back into the cheese sauce. He had taken a journey that went through every guild, every royal lord, every arrogant royal guard... until he stood before the king himself.

Haldi remembered the fear in that room when he had the king, sword broke and crown askew, on his knees.

He still remembered the fear... and the questions.

“Why are you doing this?” the younger king had asked Haldi. Haldi could only remember feeling so tired as he responded, only grief and rage keeping him standing before the powerful yet defeated king.

“Because he had hope you would come and you did not. I saw that hope die and I am here to make sure you will never forget that mistake.”

The cheese thickened and Haldi opened a window for the steam to escape. His mould pots didn’t need overfeeding.

He lifted the pot and placed it on the table and began to spoon a fair amount into a tiny circle.

“Buttermilk rise, Brine fall, let my words be heard. I make thee into my will, give shape to a bird!” he commanded and the cheese bubbled and bulged together. The small sparrow was rather plain, its beak looked a little droopy as the cheese hadn't solidified quite right.

“Hmm... needs more whey but it will do for now. Springy Sparrow, deliver this message. No detours, no milk thievery, and no gluttonous feasting of bread...” Haldi smoothed down his weathered face as his skin seemed to lose the papery texture it gained after channelling.

He was never going to be young again but Haldi was just beginning to remember exactly how much the cheesy Mana made his skin look less human. It was never quite the same result and one time he had rather puffy cheese scales for a while.

The bird lifted off and wandered near Haldi’s mouth as if to hear some secret. Haldi smiled at the obedient magic.

“To Guild Leader Orthor, I hope this bird finds you well. I find myself in need of your services. You will come to me, you know where I am. Bring it all. As always, the man who could have let you die - Haldi.”

Not Haldi’s best of threats but for Orthor it would do. The bird perked up and Haldi focused, imprinting the image of Orthor, a slight...echo of the man’s Mana. It would be enough to get the bird started.

“Don’t fly too high, lest you melt to pride,” Haldi murmured as the bird flew out the window.

He looked out and saw the lost baker girl trying to find somewhere.

Durence’s ghost grinned at him from a long past memory.

“Don’t be shy, Hal. People love you if you just talk about anything other than cheese for two minutes, just ask her...”

The voice faded and Haldi closed his eyes.

His hands tremble and he blinked away a flash of tears.

“Dure, I hope you’re watching,” He said and strode out the door. Long past was his youthful passionates, all he had was a helpful ear to lend and his cheese.

“Ahoy! You look lost,” he called and he managed to speak without too much time passing. The Baker girl spun and smiled.

“Mr Haldi! Yes, I was looking for somewhere to keep my earnings, the safe is getting full, and I’m not sure where to go!” she laughed nervously and Haldi held out an arm.

“My lady, I would be honoured to show you to the bank. Mr Von is a clever snake, let me make sure you get the best service possible,” he smiled and the girl giggled, slipping her own arm through his.

Harmless, she saw him as a polite old man.

Haldi was sure she had not yet made the connection between Old Mr Haldi and Haldi The-Mage-most-foul, outlawed and wanted dead or alive, preferably dead, in most of Verluan.

Haldi let that innocence last a little longer.

He felt himself rise back to full.

Mana flowed in from the dungeon and a lot of it flowed right back out into the ground where it served its purpose.

He, Milla, Pic, and, of course, Durence, kept the land rich with Mana for so long.

It was nice to have help from that Dungeon. Haldi wondered if Mila had warned it of what it might find?

He would do it soon if only because he knew what Durence would think of Mila’s nature, Pic’s logical illogical reasoning, and Haldi’s... insanity. Haldi owed this ‘Delta’ some of Durence’s kindness. Not this bustling town but the hero of the land. A title Haldi had carved into the most important places so no one would ever ignore or forget him.

Durence the Saint, Durence the Great, Durence... Haldi’s best friend.

Gods, Haldi missed him.

The girl offered him a sandwich. It had cheese on it.

Haldi chuckled and he told a rather good joke on cheese, he cut himself once he saw he devolved into a factoid ramble.

The girl looked relieved and began to perk up again, chatting to him about how calm and peaceful Durence was. Haldi let a smile show as she didn’t run away.

“Knew you could do it! My buddies are always winners!”

They both walked past the centrepiece of the town in which the town all grew out from. A large round rock that had a single name carved into it and different style of cuts below it.

Durence
Idiot and hero. I’m so sorry.
You did good. Rest now.
I will never forget you.

-----

45: Nu point of view

Delta felt like she was falling into a very warm ocean.

Like an orange comet, she crashed into the depths of this pulsating ocean. The water rose as she fell. Dusty spires of rock flourished with sudden lush greenery and corals. The waters flowed with creatures that were not quite ocean appropriate nor quite understandable. Delta fell deeper and the darkness shifted.

A light at the bottom of his void pulsed as Delta drew near.

“Hello?” she called, her fingers splayed out, creating streams of disturbance as she moved closer.

The glowing pearl simply gleamed in the dark sand, the light coming from within. It felt warm, even from a distance. Delta tried to remember how an ocean was now around her.

The Mime... the hunger... the contract. It felt like a simple jigsaw puzzle where she could align the pieces and make the picture form a sensible reason for it all.

The Mime had hit the accept button and now Delta was in an alien ocean.

It made no sense yet Delta felt calm. Nervous sure but not panicky. The fear simply washed away in the gentle currents here. The Pearl pulsed and more life escaped its surface. A crab, some eel, a bird, a horse.

Orange dust fell like snow from the surface above and the pearl drew them in with a pulse and an inhalation. Delta drew closer and a flash of white and black marked eyes reflected in the surface of the pearl before the image was gone as quickly as it came.

Delta inhaled the ocean and it tasted old and yet... not treacherous..

She put a hand on the pearl the calm absence of fear persisted. It was then she noticed she had skin. Pink, somewhat pale, skin and fingers with nails.

Delta looked down and saw a real hand on her other arm. She could she her shirt...

The Pearl glowed again and then the ocean was gone. A familiar scene appeared and Delta stood in front of a far less faded purple and orange circus tent. She looked around and saw it wasn’t in the cave where she had found it but on some rocky hill. Light’s danced from inside the tent and the night sky above danced with an ocean of stars in shapes and clouds that made Delta fell so small but she inhaled and wanted to just hold the image tight. She had not seen the sky in what felt like such a long time...

Noise distracted her and people appeared from the line of trees near the bottom of the hill. Delta felt the first stab of startlement as the burly men’s faces looked blurred, like a badly developed picture. One of them cursed and it sounded like he was underwater. Delta looked around and saw that some of the trees didn’t look quite right, unfinished in some manner.

The stars above them seemed to rearrange themselves as if not quite happy with where they were.

The two men called out, a few words making it to Delta.

“Rin-... got us a li-...-ite me, the cheeky bugger,” one of the men guffawed and they carried a cage between them.

Delta moved back as if the men would stop to stare at her or demand to know who she was.

But they moved past, flickering in and out of reality, clothes not quite solid as if the style changed slightly every second.

Delta felt confused by the scene until she saw the thing in the cage.

A near naked creature with barely enough skin or muscle to form anything human. It snapped and snarled with an exposed mouth, tiny pointy teeth and black gums. It looked around and Delta, in her head, applied white paint to the creature and a hat.

It was the Mime but... it wasn’t a mime in this scene.

Someone poked her and Delta screeched, flying forward as if the touch had burned her. She spun and saw the Mime standing there behind her, fully grown and...mime-y. It put a finger to thin lips and pointed.

Delta slowly followed it’s finger to see a much more defined man leaning over the cage.

A rather slender figure, the man twirled a very elegant moustache and smiled. His black trousers and bright cheery red suit top made him a striking figure.

“A interesting fellow, caught it snacking on our... ex-sword swallower?” he finished with a wince as if not wanting to dwell on the idea. One of the men said something and pulled out his sword, the young Mime screeched and rattled the cage with feeble strength. It looked so thin, just like how Delta had found him.

The red man frowned and slapped the sword out of the blurry man’s hands, scoffing.

“Clearly, someone needs to spend some time cleaning the Tyrant Ape’s bedding. Get to it, he’ll return after hunting soon and he does not like to be disturbed when eating,” the man sniffed and the scolded man ducked his head, moving into the unfinished part of the world.

The Mime moved forward to examine his younger self in the cage, still shrieking. Delta could definitely see much more masculine features now that his body had filled out and lost the sickeningly gaunt appearance it had when she had found him.

His strange pale and smooth face had not changed but his throat and arms seemed to fill out and thicken. Not exactly muscular but he had a wiry feel to him and actually fit his suit now.

The Mime moved on and stood next to the red man and bowed his head.

The red man’s hands moved through the Mime as he talked, like a ghost.

“Now, I know what you need, my young friend,” the man chuckled and pulled out a wrapped package from his pocket.

“Now, I was going to give this to my other beasties but I think you could use some cheering up, my little ghoul friend” he smiled and opened the package.

A purple steak rested on the crinkled paper and the smell made the young Mime paused in his fearful screaming. It sniffed and, without eyes, locked on to the meat easily.

“Go on, the circus has had worse things than you, my young friend, do not be shy,” he encouraged and put the meat near the cage and withdrew his hand.

The young Mime pounced on it, snarling and chomping like an animal.

The real Mime put a hand to the red man’s cheek and it passed through but the Mime just held it there as if to try and feel something.

“He... was your friend?” Delta said, breaking the scene like a dozen butterflies, the colours and sounds all fading away as if some spell had been broken. The darkness was brief but the Mime looked... terribly sad as the vanishing of the red man pained him.

He only nodded and another scene appeared.

Delta saw the young Mime again and gasped as the red man, still as wonderfully elegant as ever, lead him around by the hand. The young Mime had his black and white makeup but still dressed like a human boy of his age, if boys dressed in brown suspenders and white shirts and red ties.

Delta followed the scene with delight and the Mime sat on the grass next to her, utterly happy as he saw the scene unfold. He tapped Delta and directed her gaze to something.

It was a small sign next to the circuses main sign. A list of attractions was listed, a twin-headed ogre strong man and sketch performer... at the same time. A half siren, half magical banker. She sang about really good taxes, according to the sign and near the bottom was a quickly drawn sign tacked on.

“Renny’s Silent Show! Come see the Ghoul perform with just his smile!”

“Renny... your name is Renny?” Delta turned back and the Mime did a little half-bow from where he sat.

“Nice name, how did you get it?” Delta asked, wondering how the Mime would explain it without words.

The Mime simply pointed to the biggest sign of them all.

Delta looked up and up until she was craning her neck.

“Renaird’s Fantastical and Fabulous Circus!”

The Mime then pointed to the man in the red and back to the sign and smiled a smile that showed his many teeth. Delta smiled weakly back at the sight but nodded slowly.

“He gave you his name? He-” she paused then saw Renaird lift Renny onto a small box and sat down in a prepared single chair.

“Now, give me your best! I paid good money for this show!” the owner of the circus winked and young Renny saluted and began to push against an invisible wall. Delta grinned as the young ghoul clearly was moving his hands slightly. Renaird’s smile was patient and he applauded as the young ghoul did a slight rope pull with a nice yank.

“Wow.. you really needed to practise,” Delta teased and turned to see the Mime sitting on an invisible couch, legs curled and back relaxed. He tilted his head as if asking her to repeat herself.

Delta smiled and the Mime patted the space next him and Delta stood and with excitement sat down, crashing to the flickering grass on her ass.

The Mime stood and bent over slapping his knee.

“Hey! That was mean!” she called and the scene began to fade again.

She stood but the Mime’s silent laugh was somehow infectious and she ended up chuckling.

She stopped when the next scene appeared.

---

“Delta! Delta! Where Did she go!?” Ruli demanded, the orange glowing cocoon surrounding the Mime preventing anyone from looking in.

It was this scene that Nu had returned to.

He groaned and flexed stiff aching extensions of himself, not using to feeling so out of shape. He looked around, confused as he wasn’t quite sure why he was here. There were people, there were no challenges... and yet, here he was.

The loud child, Deo was fishing out the golem and Nu felt still odd so he stretched again. He scratched his nose.

He sighed and then stopped scratching.

Itching needed a nose... in which he needed fingers to scratch it with.

He moved the hand away from his face and stared at the clumsy looking digits. He wriggled them and they indeed... wriggled.

“My ones and zeros have become... tentacles, tiny meaty looking tentacles,” he said aghast and looked down to see two stubby things.

Feet, he had flipping feet!

Nu spun and fell over.

There was silence and Nu looked up to see everyone looking at him. He stared back for a long moment and then saw that his new shell was a deep blue, it was akin to what Delta looked to him but lacking the annoying bouncy hair, and the flowy skirt.

“HELLO!” Deo waved and Nu spun and spluttered.

He gathered himself and spoke.

“Uuhuhh,” he managed, the thing in his mouth flapping. He calmed himself and tried again.

“Heeelllo,” he said and nodded. Talking was not so hard and he rolled over to try to stand. It semi-worked.

“Master Nu!” Devina called, the box holding her breaking as she pushed. Rale, his stomach covered in a large growing bruise, kneeled next to him.

“Master Nu, how is this possible?” he asked and Nu could only ask the same question.

“Dell...Delta, wheer is Delta?” he demanded and all his boxes felt like lost sheep, scattered to the four corners of his awareness. He scowled and pulsed his power. Things snapped into view, his usual list of gains, loses, potentials.

He managed to stand and a long tie flopped against his shirt.

“The intruder! Mother...” Rale waved his hands and Deo looked at them as the golem tilted its head and a stream of water began to pour out its ear.

“YOU’RE NU? I LIKE YOUR SIGNPOSTS! THEY GIVE GOOD ADVICE!” Deo nodded, Nu felt his annoyance at the child fade as he spoke the honest truth but then Ruli’s shadow fell over him.

He looked up and up into the glowing eyes of the woman, her horns making her already intimidating features more so.

“Where is Delta?” she asked quietly and Nu felt her words settle around him like iron weights. He scowled and crossed his arms.

“Give me a second to get used to whatever stupid stunt Delta had done now and then I will get right to serving you, I forget my place as your butler,” he said and Ruli raised one brow.

“Sassy little dungeon thing, aren’t you?” she asked, tail whipping dangerously. Nu adjusted his tie and noticed his feet were flaking away rather fast. He felt relief flooding him, soon he would be back in his normal form.

He moved and felt odd having his sight at the top of this form and not in the centre... how annoying, how was he supposed to be aware of all his spots if he could not see both around and inside out?

No wonder Delta walked around like a blind duck that had its brain removed. This state was just... just... ugh.

Nu scowled and looked at the glowing orange cocoon. He could felt Delta, her entire being focused on that single spot.

“Of course, she just jumped into something unknown and I, of course, have to fill in whatever mundane tasks she usually performs, like being a mouth breather and pretending I like any of you. I want a contract, I want terms!” he snapped and Ruli picked him up, his avatar flaking badly as she held him to eye level.

“Can you fix this? She contracted the bloody Mime!” she snapped and Nu narrowed his eyes.

“Lady, I am in no mood to put up with you, put me down or I will do something unpleasant,” he warned and Ruli looked unimpressed.

“I will put a damn timer on that pond and you will have to wait between fish,” he threatened and he was promptly dropped on his ass again.

He had a buttocks, ugh... if other dungeon menus saw him now... Nu wanted to bang the ground or screech at someone.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Instead, he focused on the contract dome.

“The Mime tried to eat her and she employed it. I rather like her work ethic but there is such a thing as planning or thinking or maybe ‘we can always get another Mime that won’t eat us’. Fine, fine... let’s see,” he mumbled and tapped the dome. It didn’t yield and Nu gathered his will and focused.

“I am the...substitute Dungeon Core! I demand my annoying core back!” he ordered. The dome ignored him and a box appeared to him.

So... that was how it looked with human eyes. Nifty.

Authority does not surpass Dungeon Core ‘Delta’, please upgrade authority.

“You...Excuse me?!” Nu squawked in distress and he stabbed the box with a finger and smiled.

“That felt good, I like jabbing things,” he said aloud, narrowing his glare with a look usually only reserved for a Delta stunt and the box shifted.

Please upgrade... authority?

Nu narrowed his eyes and did what Delta always did with him.

He pinched the sides of the box and dinged in alarm as the dungeon system registers the contact and screeched in distress.

“Jeez, even I can hear that,” Ruli muttered and the box squirmed under Nu’s tender touch.

Dungeon system ‘Nu’ has gained the title of ‘Mean!’

The box vanished and Nu growled.

He spun and crossed his arms again.

“I can’t do anything, we just have to wait,” he admitted and Ruli ran a hand through her long hair.

“Dungeon’s making contracts... yesh, most people choose this time to utterly wreck a core or drain it since it does this,” she jerked a thumb at the contract dome. Deo tapped it and Vas inhaled some of the flaking mana.

Nu didn’t like the golem. It wasn’t anything personal but the thing just didn’t give off mana upon its visit. If anything, it took tiny amounts.

“Loud one, take the freeloader and go back to the first floor. Ruli, you are hovering and I need you to stop breathing in my general direction before I pass out,” Nu commanded and they all just looked at him.

Devina sighed.

“Master Nu... manners are key to any sort of diplomacy,” she offered and Nu’s nostrils flared. He flared them again with curiosity and then focused.

“I do not need diplomacy. I need utter obedience!” Nu growled, feeling his emotions flare out. This body was so unwieldy.

Ruli snorted and looked around.

“Now that I’m not fighting a killer Mime... this is the second floor, eh?” she eyed the growing trees and spreading flowers.The distant walls looking like endless jungle and roots.

She grinned.

“I like it, I can hunt some real beasties in a place like this,” she rubbed her hands and Nu watched as his legs vanished next.

“This form won’t last long but I may have more options for helping Delta if there are no people here. I would very much like to have her deal with you all while I plot on how to drain you all of the excess mana and sweat out precious resources,” he dismissed and Ruli scowled but then gave a sharp nod.

“You’re an ass but sure. I want Delta back as well,” she admitted and gave the glowing dome one last look, she strode forward. Her slightly clawed feet, bursting from her tough boots, tearing the soil up as she walked.

“MR NU! PLEASE MAKE MORE SIGNS!” Deo waved and Vas looked at the dome with a long look.

“My Master has jars to contain things, Delta is nice and I still need to teach Mr Mushy more art. I will ask for some pots for the dungeon to use if she will not destroy her foes,” it offered and Nu didn’t say anything.

He just watched as Vas passed under the Wylin tree, his skin absorbing the green flaking mana. The golem stopped to smile at the tree dreamily and then hugged it before Vas climbed the stairs.

Once they left, menus appeared and Nu looked at the options before him.

Complete and utter control of how to arrange, change, form the dungeon as he would like. He could see exactly where to put covered pits with spikes at the bottom. Fill the river with them...

Grow mushrooms that would cause deep fevers and vines that would strangle foes. Make the river utterly boil anyone falling in. Add fish that would prune the skin off the bone like clippers to a bush. He could see exactly how to turn this paradise into a deep green hell and there was a part deep inside of him, that longed to do so.

But as his fingers hovered over the trap menu, he felt an emotion rise up.

“I’m going to make this place wonderful! Everyone is going to love it!”

He closed the menu and felt these new fingers shake as the body vanished next, blue mana flaking off to join the orange.

“This won’t work,” he said quietly and his voice, slightly lilting but firm. He looked around and saw Delta in every grass, a patch of mushrooms and droplet of water.

It all gave off a feeling of serenity and Nu felt guilt curling up inside him again.

He turned and made a flower appear.

“There! Are you happy!” he shouted to the ceiling. Devina and Rale just watched him. Waddles floated restfully nearby in the river. Nu just waited but the pang in his lower gut just throbbed more. He was so painfully aware of how near Delta had been to death.

“I need to protect her. She’s too stupid to do it herself, nothing lethal but I can do so much without killing someone,” he told himself and this seemed to spark, finally, a positive emotion.

Anticipation.

“I mean... Delta won’t be back... for who knows how long? I’m sure she won’t mind me... being worried for her and going a little crazy and set up some...harmless and interesting things. Just because obviously, I was worried!” Nu said brightly, the last part of his face that faded from the physical world was his wide grin. He stood there, only visible to himself now.

Devina and Rale shared a worried look as Waddles opened one eye.

----

“Entertain us.”

The words were not kind nor were the threat that followed, unsaid but not unheard.

Delta watched as the circus carriages and beasts were lead down a long road that went underground. On either side were people. Delta could only call them that because they had two legs and two arms but their faces and bodies were covered by robes and dark hoods. Any time a carriage moved too far away or someone looked nervously towards the cave mouth, one of them seemed to inhale and the people on their horses winced.

Renny pointed to the front where Renaird, looking much older, lead the way with a grim expression. Behind to him, a much older looking Renny, almost identical to the one next to her, shared the saddle.

The line was lead to a large man in gleaming armour. He looked like a knight or some form of a nobleman. If men had such things as pupiless eyes and a hole in their forehead where something moved inside.

Delta could see that the circus had not entered such a place willingly.

“We take payments and manners when performing shows,” Renaird called coldly and the knight put a hand to his chest as if hurt.

“My dear ringmaster! How very rude of me! Let me formally welcome you to the Tunnel of the World. Grand title but this homely little home is mine so I dare say I do own some proper manners fitting the Lord of the path of Ending Light,” he bowed his head, tight black hair looking slick with grime or sweat.

He flicked his hand and Delta stumbled back, gasping as Renaird toppled from his horse, a knife buried in his throat. Renny shook next to her and the younger Renny dropped down and picked up the gasping man into his arms.

“No! What is wrong with him!” Delta shouted and Renny only moved to sit next to the memory of himself.

“Re...ny, my...boy,” Renaird gasped and then went still.

Renny and his younger self both pulled their heads back and opened their black jaws wide in pain and anguish.

“A ghoul... so well behaved. Well, as they do say in the business, on with the show!” The knight smiled cheerfully and the young Renny turned, teeth bared and black liquid pouring from the tiny dots on his face.

He slashed and the knight stopped, hand to his throat as it was neatly sliced open by an invisible knife.

The scene fluttered and Delta fell to her knees.

“I...Renny- I am so...” she stuttered and the Mime just looked up at her, wiping a single trail away from his eyes, his white paint neither marred nor smeared.

He walked over and helped her stand. He looked down at his hand and shook his head. He made the motion of gripping a knife then dropped it, something unseen clattering to the floor. He looked so ashamed of the noise that he turned away.

The next scene appearing. The last scene, something deep in Delta knew.

The orange and purple tent was in the cave, flat on the ground and not yet pitched.

Renny looked around the room as a collapsed cave trapped the circus in it. The young Renny looked around at the few people alive, faces almost blurred beyond recognition as Renny himself had a large wound through his head. It didn’t seem to be healing. Delta listened as screaming made its way through the cave walls and all the circus people went quiet.

The scene flickered and time had clearly passed. The tent looked older and the young Renny held a weak woman in his arms, she said something but it was too faded and distorted. She closed her eyes and Renny shook her and shook her but she didn’t open her eyes.

Renny howled silently again but he picked her up and took her to near the back of the tent. Delta saw the people had all gone. Renny shakily began to mime a shovel and dug.

It was then that Delta saw little wooden sticks planted in a neat row, markers with names on them.

The scene flickered again and the tent had sagged a lot more and all the lights had burned out. Renny sat on the wooden chair, facing the tent opening. He sat there, guarding the now crumbling grave markers. Untouched by the Ghoul. The younger Renny looked so... thin, he looked over his shoulder and black drool leaked out his mouth at the grave markers but he did not move from his station.

He waited and guarded.

He waited and guarded.

He waited…

So long.

Delta rubbed her eyes and shook her head as Renny put a hand on her shoulder. He was glowing and he shrugged as if to say ‘that’s all folks’.

“Renny... you won’t ever be hungry again,” she promised and the Mime smiled, wiping tears away with a hankey that he mimed.

Delta saw the scene fade and the menu appeared again.

Do you fully accept Renny as a contracted monster?

Y/N

Renny eyed it and kicked the dirt with his hands in his pockets, looking boyish as he grinned. Delta tapped it and Renny’s face glowed slightly. A red line formed some painted-on human shaped lips that could fool someone that Renny’ real mouth was there.

Other than, he did not change.

Delta was almost hoping for a beret...

The light swallowed her and Renny and when she blinked, she was back in the dungeon.

Devina was yelling about the bees and Rale was hacking at her wooden log bridge.

“What... is going on here?” she asked and everyone froze, including the other human boy, a person made of blue light.

He opened his mouth and his hair looked mad as if he ran a hand through it far too much.

“Oh, you’re back. Listen, I might have... done some things,” the boy explained blithely and Delta stared blankly at him.

He... felt familiar but the boy faded away and Delta moved forward but a box replaced the human shape and text scrolled across it.

Oh! Thank heavens, I’m back in my box! No toes to watch, not tongue flapping, and no nose! I can finally unsee the damn nose! I didn’t even know human eyes could cross like that! How do you stand it?!

Nu demanded with his usual words and Delta sat down heavily but she felt a cushy chair being pushed under her and looked up to see Renny grinning, bowing like a gentleman.

“I have a mime, my jungle is in chaos, and Nu had boy parts,” Delta mumbled.

Devina walked closer.“Mother... the Queen is very displeased,” she muttered and then a box opened up.

Would you like to claim ‘Circus room’? 20 DP

Delta inhaled and exhaled very, very, slowly.

46: Ballad of the Great

“Yes... I know... I know...I know,” Delta agreed as Queen Lizzie buzzed angry at the utterly theft of her royal honey. Several squirming larvae wriggled with hunger. The Queen seemed to compose herself and buzz softly. Delta floated near the crown of the stone pillar. The buzzing seemed to rise and fall in a lulling pattern.

Delta got the rough gist of it.

“Nu just got excited and I guess he lost his head. I’m having Devina fetch the honey as best she can but a lot of it is already mixed into the pitfall hole soil,” Delta explained. Rale moved the broken log to a field of flowers where it made a nice peaceful scene before he heaved the new and whole log bridge back into place.

The old log had many holes and cracks running through where Nu had... improved it. The vine traps with hoisted people by their ankles were already turned into nice scenery vines, the rather oddly placed rocks near the base of the tree where someone may cut themselves free and land and break their ankles... looked more decorative then dangerous now.

Delta felt a headache appear when she thought of the obvious fake treasure chest in Bob’s pool, place just so it was visible but out of reach. She simply pushed it to the bottom, giving the dancing crabs a castle to rule from and something for Bob to play with.

She did not want to even think of the spring traps in the beds...

It wouldn’t kill anyone, Nu was careful about that but people would need therapy for the noise and suddenly folding of the beds for years to come.

This is silly. I was simply offering ideas where they presented themselves.

“Nu, go back to the corner,” Delta said calmly without looking at the floating box. Nu moved to face her.

Delta, this is twice now that something has tried to attack you. Three if you think about the farmer... but that is not the point here. You can’t just contract everything we unearth or what comes barging in. You have nothing but a mud pit, a few goblins and Fran as a defence. Boary is adequate and The greater Mushroom and Bob are good... if they wander near his pool or down the secret corridor, but the point remains. You are throwing caution to the wind if you die, it isn’t just you. I die, the goblins die, Fran dies, Bob dies, your stupid pet mime dies from hunger. Everything that is the dungeon will simply fade away if you die!

Delta hesitated as Nu’s words grew bigger in his box.

“But... it all worked out,” she defended weakly and Nu just rippled.

You cannot contract any more monsters. You began with three slots and got a mere one more when creating level two. Your goblins, the duck, and now Renny. You cannot make more. Your valuable tactics of befriending anything and taking care of its needs come with a limit. Now what? How will you stop some monster killing us all by eating you? Do you expect Ruli to give up her life to defend you? Deo to live in the dungeon and forget his own life? You need to think about us, not just what you want.

Nu blinked and vanished. Delta stared at the space and sighed, putting a hand to her face as if to ward off Nu’s words.

But she wasn’t going to deny the fact that she came very close to dying when Renny appeared. If she hadn’t glimpsed the number vision and saw that glimmer of hope...

Delta would either be dead or have Ruli become a murderer for her.

The Queen buzzed and flew to hover never Delta’s nose. The bee touched it and Delta felt a flash of connection.

A dozen or so points of view suddenly filled Delta’s mind. Distorted visions of pollen and large petals, endless streams of ‘flower’ and ‘Queen’ flowed between the voices and they all collected in the Queen’s head. The Queen made a choice and some of the tired bees flew further and further from the hive to gather more nectar.

“But, they’ll not make it back healthy if they’re that tired,” Delta protested and the Queen twitched again and a dozen or so wiggling eyes appeared. The heavy pang of hunger surrounded Delta and she winced.

“But... the babies will die if you don’t make them,” Delta whispered. The Queen moved back, a feeling of regret and determination flowed through her.

“It’s not easy being in charge, is it?” Delta asked honestly and the Bee bounced off Delta’s nose and almost chided her in a series of buzzes. Delta itched the spot and looked around.

“It’s all here because of me. If I go... it all goes,” she agreed and Nu flickered into view with no words on his screen.

“We do this together. No more of the mad genius crap,” Delta said, eyeing him with a side look.

I agree... I think. I’d like to apologize for assuming to know exactly what should be done. I stand by my intention but not my result.

Delta rubbed her nose and raised one eyebrow.

“Well, happens to the best of us. I made Bob after all,” she reminded and Nu dinged.

Bob is rather nice for a monster, so I hardly think you made a mistake there.

Delta grinned but from behind Nu came a smaller screen that seemed to use Nu as a shield.

Claim the Circus?

It asked almost meekly and Delta just stared then turned to Nu for an explanation.

You shouted at us. It fled and I argued you until you sent me to the corner. I didn’t know you could make me go...

Nu looked annoyed but Delta touched down on the ground.

“I shouted at you. Not the system itself. Besides, what’s it doing outside in a box? I thought you were our go-between? I already kinda have enough trouble with enough floating boxes around,” Delta waved a hand about. Nu seemed to shrug, curving his corners as if he still had shoulders...

It is rather simple in explanation. You went into the contract dome, odd term but I’ll take it, you seemed to fully go into it. There was nothing left behind to be the core for that timespan. So I was temporarily pushed up the chain of command. So, logically, something had to take my place. The system is almost back to its natural state, it just needs you to confirm or deny this box and things will return back to normal. I do not recommend doing that too often, I should add. A lot of things on the first floor like objects took damage and a lot of mushrooms died off without the system to supervise the Mana of the dungeon. It seems there is nothing below the system in this totem pole of ours.

Delta listened with a frown.

“The system was promoted? I accidentally made my menu a core and my system your little helper? So, what would happen if the system doesn’t return to its place?” she asked curiously.

Nu turned to look at the smaller box with an odd noise.

There is a good chance things will no longer work. There is an even better chance things will keep working but not in any natural way and it will beyond our control to stop. I heavily advise not messing with the system or at least, make sure I have authority access next time you go recruiting.

“Noted and remembered. So, now that we’ve all calmed down, we should really-” Delta began and Devina cleared her throat.

Delta screeched and spun with an accusatory finger.

“Devina!” she scowled and a sudden thwack noise came from behind her. Delta jumped again, spinning with an animalistic shriek.

Renny stood there with two sticks, smacking them together to make noise. He tilted his head and seemed to giggle. Devina hummed.

“I am still annoyed you almost ate me but I must say... good show,” Devina admitted, carrying a clay pot sloshing with honey towards the pillar for the bees to swarm around. Renny made a heaving motion and the pot lifted off the ground and rose as Renny pulled on the invisible rope.

It made the bees’ journey much easier and the moved the honey as fast as they could.

Delta blew her hair out of face watching the frog and the mime working together to repair the damage done to the bees..

At least they are working together. Grudges are so petty.

Delta slowly turned to stare at Nu but the smaller screen moved closer.

Claim the circus? DP 20

“...Sure, I always wanted a circus. Just need a unicorn, a castle, and my prince,” she said dryly and hit accept.

The box twitched and a new option appeared.

Keep the circus as a special room or convert all contents for resources?

Delta knew the resources that Nu had wasted were hard to bear when looking at the numbers but...

She looked at Renny, applauding a rather good flip from Devina as she caught the clay pot when it was released from Renny’s powers. She remembered that tent on a rocky hill with the sea of stars beaming down at it.

It wasn’t just a tent with some acts going on. Not to Renny.

It was a home.

The screen seemed to shiver and the convert option faded away.

I...understand. Keeping room. It was...nice to meet you, Delta. I-I hope I can understand you better one day. Nu is lucky to speak to you... I...will...return...to...w-wo--or-k.

The box fizzled and faded away and Delta shivered as a feeling ran through her. Like something that had gone numb finally regaining feeling.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The system was back in operations, Delta could feel where it was now.

Maybe because she had finally used the number world? Or maybe... because she felt what it was like without it?

Delta inhaled.

“Nu, can you talk to the system?” she had to ask as the dark corridor that contained the circus began to emanate a glowing light.

Speak is a strong word. I can...Well, I don’t have the right word for how we communicate. Impressions is too physical. Thoughts are too clear. Emotions are too out of our experience. We... hum to one another. A number at a time but so fast it becomes a song. I cannot truly describe it but maybe one day, I can show you.

“I like that. I really want to hear the system’s song,” she smiled as Nu showed her a shy side.

That is if we’re still alive until we get the traps set up. Come, this circus reward is moist and there is dungeoning still to do!

Delta laughed and ran after Nu’s screen as it flew off.

Devina looked at Renny who tilted his head at her.

“Just accept them. They are the sun and moon, different but both beyond our grasp,” she informed him and Renny nodded seriously.

---

“AND THAT IS HOW I SAW RULI VERY HORNY AS SHE BEAT UP A MIME!” Deo Brawndo exclaimed with a bright smile and Mr Jones actually paused before his casual smile appeared.

“Very good, Mr Brawndo but this was about your review of the book I assigned you last week,” The teacher explained and Deo blinked and then nodded with furious energy.

“I LIKED THE END OF THE BOOK BECAUSE IT MADE ME THINK AND I WANT A SEQUEL!” he added and Mr Jones nodded very slowly.

“It was the history of the 25th war between the King and Queen. There are many sequels, it’s currently on the 56th book,” he explained and Deo looked extremely happy.

It infuriated him. It made him want to scream.

He sat near the front, a perfect essay and well thought out criticism of the current feudal system with references sitting at a 70/100 while Deo got a hearty 40!

A mere 30 difference and all that screaming idiot did was talk nonsense about Mimes and mushrooms and a vase!

Grimnoire Pictus seethed. He eyed the comment near the bottom.

“Interesting thoughts but is still limited by personal biases. Also, this isn’t due, I haven’t even handed this out yet. Please wait until homework is assigned before finishing it.”

He was simply taking the initiative and destroying a foe before it could grow powerful!

Grim glared as Deo walked past, graded paper stuffed into a pocket as he sat next to gloomy looking Poppy and an irritated Amanster.

He could barely restrain himself until class was over. He drew details, plans and theories while the minutes passed. Plans for when he came of age, plans for the possible combinations of relics and magic to make himself utterly unbeatable.

The right combo of nullification and countering magic... it was going to be perfect.

Until then... he had a very tactical sandwich with ham when he exited the school building, eyes narrowing on Deo’s red hair, the idiot screaming to the world and to no annoyingend the world responded as birds sang and people waved at him.

Grim moved fast and cut Deo off, the other boy paused then smiled at him, utterly ignoring Grim’s level 4 glare attack.

“HI GRIN!” he shouted and the name made Grim see red.

“GRIM! You bumbling buffoon!” he snapped and Amanster smirked at his reaction. Poppy just shook her head but Grim ignored them.

Only Deo mattered.

He struck with absolute perfect ambush skills, practised of course by sneaking up on annoying birds trying to eat bread in the park. His fist grazed Deo’s cheek and the other boy beamed and nudged Grim’s face in some odd friendly gesture.

Grim saw the world spin and when it stopped, he was in a bush.

He just laid there for a while and Deo’s voice called over.

“I’LL SEE YOU TOMORROW GRIN! I LOVE OUR SECRET HANDSHAKE BUT I THINK POPPY SAW IT!” he warned and ran off.

Grim watched the sun overhead beam as if Deo’s voice could control even it with his inane ramblings.

It was unfair. It was so unfair that Deo wielded such power when he... Grim could not even impress his teacher. He fought his way out of the bush and threatened it.

It kicked him out and ran back into Dabberghast’s garden. Grim scowled at it and then spun, glaring at the amused looks of the people around him.

“Oi, stop fighting in the streets,” a bored voice called and Grim saw Quiss Firesmasher walk past without actually looking at Grim.

He wanted to retort with something witty but Quiss scared him so Grim just glared at his back and then winced as his cheek bled. Not Deo’s work but the bush and its thorns. He opened his back an ripped a page from the ‘Guides to various other guides’ and chewed on it. He winced as his body churned and the page became a lump in his stomach.

It then finally spread and he felt his cheek heal. Deo could shake the world with his voice and Grim could chew on old copies of his dad’s trashy romance novels and slowly heal cuts.

It wasn’t fair.

He stomped down the road and tried to think of how to trick the local blacksmith into enchanting a book so he could eat it and maybe finally get somewhere...

His Dad could eat any metal weapon and do amazing things! He used to eat spoons and do those embarrassing shows for Grim when he was young and wanted a bedtime story.

If he had that power then he could stand equal and maybe even last longer than a second against Deo.

He just had to be... better.

Grim slowed down and a quiet though entered his head.

If he had Grandpa Pic’s powers, he would win against Deo. But that wasn’t how inherited powers worked. Grandpa Pic could eat anything, his Dad could eat any metal because Grandma was a metal whisperer.

Grim’s own mother was just... normal. Grim felt a hint of shame for referring to his mother by that term but compared to most of the town, his Mom was just really nice and awesome but she had no special powers, she was just … Mom.

So why did his powers mutate like this? Why did he only eat books!?

Grim stomped down the road. Dad wouldn’t let him get any good equipment and all the rare books were gone. He couldn’t find anything. The local bookstore didn’t have anything beyond the oddest of books.

Grim wasn’t even sure he could do anything with magic books but he had to try.

To was either that or accept that he would never stand in the same world as Deo Brawndo and his stupid dungeon adventures!

Dungeon... adventures.

Grim slowed again outside the bakery where that new woman in town blinked at him. He saw that she was nervous and he moved on quickly.

Dungeons dropped loot. Loot was magical. Magical books maybe? He hadn’t given the place much thought.

Like the spirit train that had stopped outside the town for a week and vanished after Quiss started quoting parking laws at it, New things had to really make an impact to catch his attention.

But... Deo had been going there and seemed to learn a lot.

Perhaps this den of wisdom was exactly what Grim needed?

After all, a dungeon challenges the person in the body and mind! It took them to their limits and pushed them beyond. It was a treasure trove of epic loot and cunning.

Grim felt a slow smile appear on his face as he chewed another page.

This dungeon had to be the cleverest or strongest if it decided to risk appearing here near Durence. Grim was now running home with a gleam to his eye.

This Delta had to be some powerful knowledgeable grandmaster that held the answers to his troubles!

---

“I DIDN’T MEAN TO!” Delta screamed as the newly formed guardian of the Circus room slammed down with a mighty roar.

STOP DOING THINGS YOU DON’T MEAN! ALSO-

Guardian Monster: Tyrant Ape has been summoned automatically due to the special conditions of having a fur pelt of the beast inside the tent and having a contracted creature who has a deep bond with it! Please tell Delta I said hi!

The giant silver crested ape let loose a thunderous yell and beat his chest as if to challenge all.

Renny rushed in the ape froze as the Mime leapt at it. The ghoul wrapped his arms around the leg of the monster and the Ape inhaled through its nostrils.

It wrinkled its nose and picked Renny up with a flat look.

Renny mimed holding a ball and threw it.

Something thudded against the wall and the ape didn’t move.

Delta watched, mind blank, as Renny threw the ball again and the ape sighed with a long-suffering noise and went to follow the noise with the motions of having done this a million times.

Oh goodie, you brought back the mime’s pet by accident. How that worked is making my head hurt and I don’t have a brain in any sense of the physical meaning nor a head to actually hurt so well done on doing two impossible tasks in mere minutes. At least he looks strong.

Circus Room is now available to upgrade!

Delta whimpered as a mushroom popped out of the ground in front of the tent and seemed to shiver at the space to grow into.

47: Delta Does Danger

Circus room: This room contains a large tent for shows to be held in. It’s missing a lot of things to be a true source of wonder.

Upgrade:

- Circus tent to be new and made with better material. 10 DP

- Add lanterns that shine with crushed Lumen Mushrooms to make lights for the cave and tent. 14 DP

- Double the size of the tent. 30 DP

- Need more options to add more options...Sorry Delta.

The box before her seemed to shiver as Delta closed it.

“It’s not a problem. Nu, tell the system I’ll get on that soon,” she said, feeling relaxed as she stretched. Having just moved her core behind the circus to enjoy the benefits of a free mini-boss, Delta felt a lot better. The Bloodcurdling Mushroom seemed to contain itself nearby. Waiting for Delta to look away before it bred, no doubt.

Delta pursed her lips and something tugged at her mind. The upgrade box had said something about a mushroom... the nice looking Lumen mushroom. Delta liked those ones. Her brain went up and beyond itself as it pulled another tiny tidbit.

Nu talking about the Bees.

How they could have multiple hives could cause a war...

Delta’s stare made the mushroom shrink down on itself.

I can feel you plotting. It is distressing me.

Nu informed her and Delta flexed her fingers and checked her resource meters.

Mana: 15
DP: 75

Thankfully, Nu had not dipped into the important DP.

“I’m not plotting Nu. I am commencing war,” she corrected as Renny went about the tent, sweeping dust off of the seats with a mimed broom. The giant ape beast, lying about on its side, lifted the entire four-row bench stand with one hand, letting Renny get better access.

The ape had looked around at its new space and seemed to look a little restless at the tiny space. Delta couldn’t blame him. He looked like he was used to acres of wildness to move about in.

War? Delta, its a mushroom.

The words came with a sigh and Delta waved him off.

“Nu, this thing is following me and is infecting everything I do. I need to work on defences, my attitude about being a dungeon core, how to make this place a success to make sure it’s not us against the world but before any of that stuff. I have to beat this thing,” Delta pointed with a jab at the mushroom.

How... do you intend to do that exactly?

Delta opened up the menu and flicked it with a grin.

“I kinda stop need going after them like they are a mistake in the system. They’re not. They’re good little creature's who have to obey the rules just as much as anything. I know that they can’t grow out of control or block the way so I’m thinking its time these little suckers had some competition. If I can’t get rid of these damn things, I will utterly subjugate them with my own mushrooms!” Delta laughed and a lumen mushroom sprouted next to the black bloodcurdling.

It wriggled before going still.

Delta leaned down and pointed at the black mushroom.

“I know we have never gotten on and I know this system behind your existence is beyond anything I can understand but I know you can hear me. Stop breeding and you can stay. If you infect anything else, the gloves come off,” she warned.

Silence answered her and Nu moved closer.

Delta, come now, this is becoming silly. It’s a mushroom, it cannot understand threats or compromises be-

Nu went silent as second black mushroom sprouted near the first.

...Delta, kill it. Kill it now.

“Nu, these guys are pretty powerful, speaking effect wise. I think we don’t need to erase them, just cull them,” she hissed as stroked her pretty Lumen Mushroom. The Bloodcurdling would only continue to grow worse at this rate. Comparing the two, the Lumen mushroom never spread where it wasn’t supposed to nor mutated without permission. It was a good shroom and Delta needed it to act on her behalf.

It just needed some...additions.

The contract with Renny, the ape surprise, the mushrooms, her guilt at not being a good leader... all the rampant emotions firing through her after today, they all narrowed down into this single goal.

“Open the Lumen upgrade menu!” she ordered and Nu eagerly shifted to be the menu he sometimes acted like.

Lumen Mushrooms: They glow with weak white mana. Very pretty!

- Allow the mushrooms to keep glowing after being plucked. 3 DP

- The Mushroom can pulse gently, relaxing those who view it. 7 DP

- The Mushroom is warm with heat, making small spaces cozy. 3 DP

- Mutate mushrooms due to being planted on the second floor. 20 DP

Delta felt a rush of victory seize her as the options appeared.

“You know, it’s not too bad showing some tough love,” Delta mused as she swiped her finger down the entire list.

The black mushroom shivered as the Lumen mushroom glowed brightly.

Yes, waging war on an infectious species by introducing an equally potential resource drainage and potentially bigger threat is always what warms my heart in these dark times.

The light died down the simple cream covered mushroom now looked slightly different.

The cap had become like a thin membrane with holes so one can peer into the core of the fungus. A single stem grew inside the cap now, at the end was a single point of light. It was brighter than the soft glow the Lumen Mushroom had before, it now pierced the shadows when it moved, casting the light through different angles and intensities of the membrane.

It was a star and it gleamed with a tempting light. It swayed slightly and Delta gasped as the light made the cave look mysterious yet...inviting.

She looked down and grinned.

“Spread, to the jungle, to the pool, to the bees... shine your light everywhere!” she encouraged and the mushroom’s light began to softly change colours and it became almost hypnotic.

Nu silently switched to its menu.

Starlight Mushroom: This fungus absorbs light and uses it at night to keep other plants warm and alive. In return, the mushroom lures insects in with their scent and burns bugs as they come closer, it seems to dissolve them over time for additional food.

Delta turned and cleared her throat.

“Do not eat my bees,” she warned sternly. The Starlight only wriggled.

Another grew out from the nearby wall and the allure of the room only grew. Delta watched as the two mushrooms seemed to point their starstalks at the black mushrooms, pulsing with a blue light.

“I swear, if those Bloodcurdling mushrooms grow red starstalks to fight back, I am going to get sued,” Delta mumbled but perked up as she felt... better. A rush of ‘doing something’ made her want to do more!

She spun as Renny set the pile of dust, a hill almost bigger than Delta, outside the tent. She hadn’t known she would claim everything in the room. Now she had special dungeon dust. It was going to be fun trying to think of a use for that outside pocket dust surprise attacks from her gobos. The giant ape sniffed and then exploded the dust mound with a sneeze, making Renny go from porcelain white to chalky grey.

He paused and then gripped something by his side and poured it over his head.

The magic made his hat slink down as if suddenly soaked, yet no water dripped. The dust slid off of his form and washed into the soil. Odd to see it happen when there was nothing actually there.

“Renny, how are you feeling?” she asked and the mime put a hand to his chin to think. He nodded and patted his stomach, looking pleased.

“Good to hear! Uh see!” Delta corrected herself before she looked around.

“So, besides the war of mushrooms I just unleashed, can I do anything to make your space better?” she offered and Renny nodded. He beckoned her to follow and he stood at the entrance, he turned around and then walked dramatically into the Circus room.

He stopped and peered unimpressed by the cave. He gestured to the empty space and at the entrance.

Delta looked between them and replied hesitantly.

“You want something to impress people?” she guessed and Renny gave her a thumbs up. Delta felt almost fluent in mime at this point.

She looked at the large space before the tent and drew a blank for a moment. She didn’t want to put any old idea down, not another tree or pond... This was Renny’s home, where his family laid resting.

Delta blinked as her brain went for a record and supplied a thought that hadn’t occurred to her before.

“Nu, did we... absorb the bodies and stuff? Renny’s family?” she asked quietly and Nu seemed to rewind, scrolling back through his series of announcements.

Here we are, the complete list.

We got a lot of rubber, some good rope, good cage designs, odd pieces of very old popcorn or something like it... and yes, we gained a lot of human and other remains. Far too decomposed to get another monster or anything too valuable other than some trinkets which Renny didn't care for and preserved clothes.

That wasn’t too bad. She would be a little torn and horrified if she had gained them as summonable monsters. The ape was one thing but thinking people...

She looked at the space and smiled softly as an idea came over her.

Sure, Delta wouldn’t bring back the dead on purpose but that wasn’t the only way to see an old face again.

She flexed her and felt her mana jumped as her goblins above returned with more goodies. Same old things but Delta was beginning to see each trip was bringing in less mana as Delta wasn’t absorbing anything new.

“Nu, why do I gain less and less mana from absorbing the same things over and over? It’s gonna bug me if I don’t know,” Delta asked as she began to picture how she was going to carry out her plan.

It's not just taking mana and adding it to your core. Mana isn’t like water where you can fill up your pond if you just keep finding more water. It's more complex because your mana comes from your very being, in romantic terms, your soul. Different beings gain mana different way. Some by just growing others via experience in combat or from working some profession for example. For others its devouring the weak. The odd ones may complete tasks from their gods. Many ways to grow in this world. Ruli’s diary even documents some cases of this where she talks about feeling stronger after a fight. For dungeons, we become stronger by absorbing mana and using it to grow. Though Not by overflowing your current mana capacity nor can you increase any such limits with gluttony.

Nu took a moment to think before continuing, his box floating around as if he were pacing.

An acorn is a tiny piece of the world beyond. By absorbing it, your core understands it. How it works, how it grows, what it loves, what it cannot stand. You grow by learning how to completely understand what you eat. Like filling a book of research or a life long study of a passion. What do you gain from eating the same creature over and over? What does a martial artist gain from fighting the same foe over and over? A chef cooking the same dish over and over? You gain less and less because what you are taking in is no longer unknown or a challenge.

Delta had just stood there, transfixed at Nu’s words before she closed her mouth.

“That makes perfect sense! But what about people? Dungeons keep eating them...” she asked and Nu rippled with what looked like a snort.

Show me another man exactly like Quiss, a beast identical to Ruli. Scar me by showing me a clone of Deo and I will cry. People, even siblings or twins are so unique in their nature that even a bumbling drunkard with no redeeming qualities can still offer a tiny morsel of mana. The idea that you can create a mana measuring system among people is sadly impossible. A bird may outfly a fish but in the end, it will be eaten by a giant spider because it flew into a web. Having more mana is also not just a clear cut thing. A person with a unique or honed mana may fall short on a measuring stick but to us? A treasure. Rare items and monsters as well. I think your mime would have pushed our DP into the hundreds easily due to his magic and nature. So odd.

Nu looked to be a little lost in thought and Renny put his hands behind his back and pretended to look abashed and shy at Nu’s words.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Well, good to know. Shame, munching on an easy a cop-out would really make this whole dungeon thing a joke. But it's alright, I took on this challenge knowing it was gonna be hard. I can do it a mana e mana,” Delta bounced on the spot, faking some punches at Nu’s box.

Terrifying. I wonder why I had no confidence before? Oh right, the puns.

“My puns are all I have here, I don’t have any epic loot for people so they’ll just have to deal with mushrooms, my puns, the challenge rewards, and some honey!” Delta beamed.

Don’t forget about Bob.

“Oh, they can swim with Bob! Bet no one has done that before,” she grinned and focused on the room.

“One grand sight coming up. Nu, if I think really hard about something when I make stone, I can shape it, right?” she asked, gathering mana.

Yes, as you did with the beehive. -_-

Delta pushed the mana into the ground and watched it dip low as her creation began to rise out of the soil and rock next to the dirt path in front of the circus.

A hand first, quickly followed by the rest of the man.

It rose to stand on a platform.

Renny’s hands dropped to his side as the rough shape and figure of his father, Renaird rose from the ground. The stone statue held one arm above him holding his top hat. Delta narrowed her eyes and removed some of the rough edges. Without having Renaird’s actual body in the system, she was going by pure memory.

The statue held out one hand as if to invite whoever was at the entrance to come lose themselves at the circus. The kindly smile of the man that Delta remembered best formed last. Renny moved forward and jumped back as a hidden sconce in the statue’s outstretched hand erupted and the man held a cheery fire to light the way to the circus.

Delta wasn’t quite done as she formed a wooden sign to hang from the high ceiling.

She saw it would be impossible to see without more light but her mana... She turned and nudged the Starlight mushroom with her will, gently, trying to see what would happen if she gave it mana.

“Time to live up to your name,” she said with an encouraging tone. The glowing fungus shuddered and then a fair distance away, slightly up the wall, a new mushroom popped out of the rock with a pop, it shuddered and a lot higher, another mushroom grew from a crack. Each one glowing like a star, lighting up the room as it went. Banishing decade old shadows this room had in it.

The mushrooms finally hit the ceiling and grew outwards, becoming a sea of stars. Only the slight hint of movement giving them away for what they actually were.

Delta closed her eyes and added the last few touches. A touch of grass to grow naturally... some rocks to add charm...

Then she stood back to admire her work.

A circus on a slightly rocky platform, surrounded by nature and looked down on by a sea of stars.

It was the closest Delta could make the room look that night. She put on a shy smile, turning to say something but paused when Renny wasn’t near her but kneeling in front of the statue. He put a hand on the base that held the statue firm. He mimed holding a knife and his hands trembled. He breathed and carved the statue. Delta felt the pinpricks of the knife in her mind.

Renny stood up and looked around before bowing low enough, at where Delta had been, his hat touched the ground. He was still and Delta moved closer to see the carving.

Renaird: Father and Guiding hand of outcasts. I love you - R

Renny stood up and dusted himself off. He looked around and seemed to sway to some unheard beat.

Even the Tyrant Ape looked happier.

“I’m going to call him Wilhelm, he looks like a Wilhelm,” Delta decided and Renny shrugged, he waved his hand if names weren’t the most important thing to him.

The ape snorted and closed his eyes to sleep again.

Must you name everything? Tyrant Ape has a... certain vibe to it. Wilhelm makes me think we adopted a bear on a unicycle...

“Then my job here is done,” she grinned and opened the menu for Wilhelm.

Wilhelm the Tyrant Ape(Guardian):

- Allow Wilhelm to turn berserk and do more damage but lose control. 45 DP

- Allow Wilhelm to change size at will due to the small room. 50 DP (He might take part in the shows!)

- Upgrade Wilhelm’s stomach to eat the Bloodcurdling Mushrooms for a boost in attack. 30 DP

Delta smiled and left Renny to get some more of the circus cleaned out.

She felt a little done in but decided she still had work to do.

---

Delta stared at the entrance of her dungeon and looked around.

She couldn’t do too much here but it was good to try and imagine how things looked from a new person's point of view. Due to her nature as the dungeon core, being aware of most of the dungeon made her...zone out on some things.

It would be personally walking through these halls and seeing what she could do to really amp up her first floor that would make all the difference.

“First things first,” she said and eyed the open hole.

“Nu, show me what we go,” she asked and a box appeared.

Be warned, this menu is a bit... different.

Dungeon entrance:

Status: Unbound. Exposed. Free entry. No clause for entering. No rule upon entry.

Appearance: It’s a hole in the ground. Sister Delta... it looks bad!

Mana leakage level: ...it’s big odd number with lots of parts but I can narrow it down...I think. Alright, I'm going to try again!

Current leakage: Rank 2. Yes!

Would you like to change any of these?

Delta stood there and her mind went blank.

Yes, System, show us some options before her brain melts.

Nu interjected.

Status change:

- Unbound. You are not bound to any building or land or creature. You lose a lot of benefits but you can change your dungeon location down the line if needed or change how it is in the world. Making it fly or have it walk and more. You do not have enough levels for this yet.

- Exposed. Anyone can just look in... Simply create a door and slid it into place.

- Free entry. No one has to to give up an important item or items to appease you. Uh...due... to how nice the Core is, this is not currently possible as she enjoys people visiting, though setting up an outside donation box is possible.

- No clause upon entry. Set a requirement for entering the dungeon. This is... important. I cannot see a way to remove such thing once it happens. A clause must be something personal to the core I cannot offer options. It does have... a slight DP cost.

“DP? That’s not too bad,” Delta grinned and the system brought up a new box.

Clause entry: 1500 DP for one clause that seems to be heavily limited. For example, you can prevent more than 7 people entering at a time... for 30 minutes between a group. I think you can make people enter only if they sing a song but the song can only be 5 or so words long. You need far more levels and experience to be able to fully make a powerful clause.

Delta felt her mind go blank at the number but swallowed back a slight wail.

“So, I can do a door!” she forced a beaming smile. Nu dinged.

Allow me.

He took the last of Delta’s mana, dropping it down to a solid 3 as he made a large stone door. It froze near completion and a box appeared.

Door must have entrance or way of opening!

Nu’s box grumbled and the stone door shuddered as the front became carved with a spinning dial. The dial had four layers with the words Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta written on all of them In the centre was an orange globe that seemed to gleam and up top a carved arrow pointing down towards the globe.

“Nu... at least you didn’t add a claw key mechanism,” Delta said dryly and Nu turned to face her.

Your head has a lot of interesting things when you get to thinking of traps. Wonderful, if not a bit odd.

Delta, the word, was closest to the core in the middle.

The door finished and clicked into place.

There was a moment to wait before the door split down the middle and opened, the orange globe cut perfectly down the middle as the door slid seamlessly into either side of the entrance.

“Okay, not gonna lie. That was neat,” Delta grinned.

Thank you. I originally wanted to put a bell outside and have the door fall on them as a result but I cannot trap the entrance as we know. At least the spiders will struggle with their lack of fingers.

“My condolences,” Delta rolled her eyes and turned to walk deeper into the first floor, she shrieked and jumped back as a sign suddenly popped out of the sidewall.

A warning sign to let newcomers know about sudden warning signs - Nu.

Oh I forgot about that.

Delta was on the ground, eyes wide and heart beating fast.

“W-why would you do that?” she asked with a wave of her hand as the sign vanished back into the wall.

It amused me. You got your mime, I get my signs. It’s only fair.

Delta blew her hair out the way and then couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re gonna to scare someone to death before they even reach the first room,” she said, not able to stay too mad at him.

Oh no. How dreadful. To be fair, if they collapse at a wooden sign popping up. I’m doing them a favour and saving them time. The duck alone will do worse.

Delta put her hands on her hip.

“My dungeon is not scary!” she protested as glowing moss above illuminated the room of web ahead, tiny red eyes staring at the scene silently as if waiting for someone to come closer. Where the pond room beyond held her Dark Drake which guarded a secret tunnel to where her Abyss Worm rested.

Delta eyed the spider room where the glowing eyes watched.

The spiders were on their agreed break time and enjoying the antics apparently.

“Not... much!” she amended.

This dungeon scares me and I basically run a third of it.

Delta couldn’t really argue with that.

48: Equal-system

“A mime?”

Ruli opened her mother's icebox and rummaged for anything that hadn’t been seasoned to the point of inedibility. Her mother always did go with the method of ‘never too much spice’ when it came to her food.

Ruli prefered an abundance of sauce on her charred meat.

“Yup. A real mime buried in all the rubble and rock. Delta was just doing her thing and out it popped. A ghoul mime, if you could believe it,” Ruli pushed aside a Lure Lizard leg, a few Autumn Fox strips, a rather old Sword Stag rump, and finally...

“And the huntress strikes again!” she smirked as she pulled out the delicious Blood Hare Jerky. An elusive animal that even Ruli had a somewhat hard time tracking down without some serious effort.

But boy, they were mouth watering when lightly cooked to a juicy red.

Ruli licked back her drool as her mother walked around the small kitchen area with a scowl.

“A scavenger is more like. Coming into my home and helping yourself, I raised a wild animal,” she grabbed a small knife and began to cook the meat with some light veggies.

Ruli was highly tempted to remind her that Ruli raised Ruli. The ever altering landscapes of the Abyss and the beasts that resided there had made Ruli quite confident in her independence.

“Don’t give me that look. Your father made sure no harm came to you. He let you roam free within reason,” her mother said and that wasn’t exactly how Ruli remembered it but the outcome for this particular conversation tangent usually ended in screaming, some blade crossing and a few months of silence.

Ruli really wanted that lightly crisping meat first.

“Well, I’m only here because you ‘summoned’ me, oh wise elder,” Ruli muttered, not willing to just say nothing. The cooking slowed and her mother looked over her shoulder at Ruli. A golden eye glinted. A look that Ruli had not seen too much of since she had returned to Durence.

“Mana is getting to you, eh?” Ruli crossed her arms and Milla Jose let a crooked grin show. A dangerous one.

“Says the brat whose horns are scraping my ceiling,” she answered but turned fully, face growing slightly more neutral.

“The mime... how did it make you feel?” she asked and Ruli met the golden eyes with own dark red ones.

“A little pushed but the bugger has some weird powers, why?” Ruli replied, her tone matching the neutral expression. A silence dragged on for a small while as cooked meat filled the kitchen. A slightly spicy aftertaste.

“Is this related to the reason you banned me and Quiss from giving Delta the junk in our houses? You got pissed off I gave her a few dozen trees, and now you’re poking about after a mime. You and Pic are breathing down our necks more and more. You were furious Japes went near the entrance with all his jars. What’s the deal?” Ruli said without any more preamble.

“It is related. Here,” the older woman pushed a plate of glistening rabbit rashers at her.

Ruli devoured one whole and took her time to the next, waiting for her mother to continue. The other woman just moved around her house as if amused by it, as if not seeing it for a very long time.

“I forgot I had so many daggers,” she said and plucked a hidden acid blade from the inside of ‘Blade care. Volume 52’.

“I had forgotten so much...” her mother added with a little bit of pain leaking through. She turned to see Ruli put the empty plate on the nearby table.

“Ruli. That dungeon is to be watched. Anything happens, anything that sticks out, you report it to me straight away,” she finally said. Ruli raised one eyebrow.

“Like what?” Ruli said, a cold note slipping into her tone despite her trying to keep calm.

“Anything. First, despite your theories, we are still dealing with a dungeon. You cannot truly predict the plans or the games they play. Time is of no consequence to them. You’re already controlling and influencing it to a great degree with that damn fishing of yours, be lucky I’m allowing you entry at all!” Milla snapped.

Ruli crossed her arms. A fleeting image of a snapped homemade fishing rod pulling up her unpleasant anger.

“Lucky? I don’t need your permission to do what I want, I fought for that right. If I wanna go see Delta, I’ll go. I’m not telling you anything unless it’s important. You want information so badly, you can go visit Delta yourself,” Ruli loomed over her and Milla’s lips went thin.

“I have defended your right to go laze about in the dungeon. Several people have questioned if they too are allowed to begin to influence the dungeon for their sports. This is a dangerous game we play with dungeons. Delta, the dungeon, is nothing like we have ever truly seen before. The elders have to make sure every step is accounted for. Least I send a bunch of children in there for study and the core turns. I’m not saying that is what will happen but I would be a fool to welcome such a thing with open arms. One step at a time nets you the hunt, not rushing blindly over a cliff,” Milla said with a calm voice and Ruli’s nostrils flared.

“Then what are you so afraid of her finding?” Ruli threw out and Milla’s face went stony.

“There is nothing left to find. Ask me no more! I refuse, listen to me, I refuse to expand on this. As has Haldi and Pic, I already know you went to see them,” Milla scowled and Ruli’s next words cut off as a pink flush ran up her neck.

“I thought I was subtle...” she shrugged, suddenly feeling like the 14-year girl who had been caught joyriding on her father’s Doom Mare. Milla snorted.

“Subtlety with beats you may have... with people, you are a brick that has been set on fire and then bashed into someone’s head, go! Take the nosy blond with you, he’s been stuck in that trap for the last ten minutes!” Milla dismissed and began to pull out more and more knives.

Ruli mumbled thanks for the food and left the house. Her mother’s silent stare piercing her back.

Quiss was indeed hanging upside down in some odd net. He grabbed the thing and smoke appeared from his fingers but the net held.

“You gotta turn the heat way up, she uses these things to hunt some really nasty buggers,” she called with a sigh as she bent down to avoid scratching the wooden arc that stood guard at her mother’s door. She reached down and undid the knot. Quiss crashed to the ground with a yelp and a poof of greyish smoke.

“I had that,” he said irritated. He pushed the net off and dusted his coat off with a frown.

“No luck?” he guessed seeing her glum expression.

“I thought I had her, just pissed enough to be sloppy but not too angry enough to be kicking my ass,” she neatly side stepped a trap that would have her shot over the fence onto a soft compost pile. She pulled Quiss out the way of another net trigger and they both stood on the street.

“So, three for three, all the elders are not speaking about something. I don’t think they’re part of a cult because Haldi won’t join anything that doesn’t have cheese involved and Pic spends all day in the second floor of the bar playing knuckles,” Quiss began to talk aloud as he paced.

“Are you sure Delta is sure that the... people that took the mime and his group were in the same space that her dungeon is in?” Quiss asked for the third time and Ruli felt the urge to pick him up and shake him until something came loose.

“Delta was pretty sure. The mime was...well, he didn’t disagree. I only went there this morning, did you know there is a door there now? The goblins had to let me in and let me tell you, you don’t feel like an idiot until a goblin has to show you the secret code of a dungeon door,” Ruli muttered. Quiss blinked but shook his head.

“This has to do with the void of mana in the lands until Delta came, even I was struggling to keep myself going around here,” Quiss added and Ruli looked around at the town of Durence.

She saw trees growing beyond meek attempts, flowers bursting through walls and ground, birds of all types now actively spending time in Durence, the people walking with animation instead of the same routines, saying the same words, some didn’t even move from a spot at times on bad days.

It had all become... a model of what a town should be and even Ruli had to take breaks from the town to make sure she wasn’t becoming some shell of herself.

“Why did you come to Durence, Quiss?” she asked quietly and the fire mage stopped rambling.

“You’ve never asked me that before, why the sudden interest?” Quiss’ tone didn’t go neutral, it was simply Quiss.

Ruli felt a tense part of herself relax at the sound of it.

“If we’re gonna unearth the secrets around here, might as well start with you,” she tried and Quiss mumbled a word and waved a hand over Ruli.

Nothing happened but Quiss looked like he had received some bad news.

“What?” Ruli asked quickly and Quiss met her eyes.

“Our friendship level isn’t high enough for you to hear my backstory, please buy me more gifts at the bar,” he said sagely. Ruli punched his arm and the blond man was sent crashing into a fence but Ruli was too busy grinning.

“You’re an ass, come on! I have an idea which may be ridiculously stupid!” she said and Quiss picked himself up and with a look of long-suffering trailed after her.

“How is that any different from your normal ideas?” he asked and Ruli made a show of thinking about it.

“We may end up going to a hellish plane,” she said quite seriously. Quiss gave her a long look.

“The Abyss?” he said with a quiet tone and Ruli’s face fell.

“I wish... No, we’re going back to school,” she said back, sounding almost afraid. Quiss looked confused but followed her as Ruli psyched herself up for the confrontation to come.

“Quiss, how quickly can you do 15-year-old geography homework?” she asked, sounding defeated.

“I am pretty sure that Chronomancers can only affect their own time clock, actual time travel is beyond possible. Maybe a version of yourself who did will appear?” he replied dryly as the schoolhouse loomed silently closer.

Ruli slowed and her feet almost rebelled as she saw the same old welcome sign and simplistic schoolyard with climbing frames and a sandbox.

He was already waiting.

“Miss Ruli ‘Muntarui’ Jose DemonBane, I do believe you are very late to class,” Mr Jones smiled down at her. His perfect hair and firm pressed shirt looked like it was legendary in defence against wrinkles. His tie never seemed to be out of place.

“Mr Jones... we need to talk,” Ruli grabbed the retreating Quiss’ arm without looking back at him.

“Miss Ruli, please, I am your teacher. I always have time for you,” he turned and walked into the school building.

Ruli knew it, the building before her was not right. It looked like an atypical chapel turned into a school but there was something about it that never quite fit into this reality. The windows always seemed to be completely unconnected to the rooms on the inside instead appearing where ever they liked.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The inside never changed so much as it shifted. There had been a few times Mr Jones lead them to a hall or a swimming pool despite the fact that no student could find those rooms or the understand how the building could hold them. The few times the number of students were higher than normal, the building somehow had just enough room for everyone.

It was the paint that got to Ruli the most.

It was the same coat that had been there since she had been a bad student of this place.

Like Mr Jones, the building itself was unaging in its quest to educate the young.

It was red. The paint was a deep, deep, red and it made something inside her head pulse with a warmth that even now, she wasn’t sure she understood.

“Your plan is to try to get information...out of a knowledge demon? Not just anyone, but one that has never had a failed student in the entire history of Durence?” Quiss hissed and Ruli looked at him, a weak smile on her face.

“Not... quite right. He has had one failed student...” she laughed nervously and Quiss just gave her a wide-eyed look.

“He’s not going to let you leave until you pass, you cannot go in there. You’re an idiot and can’t do tests!” he said furiously and Ruli looked at the building. She couldn’t argue... a bead of sweat travelled down her neck.

“He’s going just run circles around you, we need a bargaining chip. I failed so many times, I went over the age of 18 and you know what happens when Mr Jones has to teach adults, all the safety shit comes off and he gets... serious,” Ruli climbed the first step and then took a deep breath as Quiss was at her side, no longer hesitating.

“Well, you’re in luck. You have a strong chance of passing any test for one reason,” Quiss rolled his neck.

“Oh yeah?” Ruli smiled softly and Quiss grinned, making his face turn youthful and handsome, a fire making his eyes pulse with heat.

“You got the top ranking student from one of the grandest magic schools in the land at your disposal,” he said and Ruli felt hope rise in her chest.

“You... you-” Ruli’s smile froze as Quiss turned a little sheepish.

“Seth is sadly at the inn but if you can’t get out, I’ll go grab him. I swear on my honour as the 497th ranking wizard of my school,” he nodded with pride.

Ruli closed her eyes and counted to 10.

She walloped Quiss after 4.

---

Delta spun slightly as she stared towards the ceiling.

Trees arched so high, they almost brushed the fake sky above. The Great Jungle room has finally delivered on its name.

Delta floated up and with a smile, landed at the entrance of the room.

From the door, she could no longer see the far away wall or the river. The trees had grown to their full potential. She looked at the shimmering Wylin tree above, the green mana flaking off making the scene look mystical.

Delta hadn’t had to wait long for the Jungle to spread, with floors and thick foliage hiding the bees and the waterfall. A short path led into the jungle where it began to curve with around some trees and vanished. It would lead those who followed it towards the log and the river after a few excessive twists and turns, a fake path led off an looped to give a sense of grandness to the place. A side path led to the circus and she planned to make others leading to various tunnels when she made them.

To be nice, Delta put a few small wooden benches with a clear view to the ceiling for those who needed rest after getting turned around, about 5 or so all the way to the far end of the room.

Delta drifted and saw the river, once exposed like a vein, now had shadows and branches overhead to make it almost a tunnel at places. The wood and nature letting the Starlight Mushrooms to light up the area a little at a time until from above, it looked like dozens of stars dancing among the trees.

The Starlight Mushrooms had done wonderfully and fought with efficient methods against the Bloodcurdling Mushrooms. A few times, she let the black fungi grow under dense trees or in the darkest of shadows.

She was trying to control them, not lead them to rebellion. Delta just kept a close eye on them for now.

The log across the river now had a simple bridge next to it. Thankfully, Nu knew how to make a bridge work after some experimentation.

Delta’s just broke like a hard cookie when she sent Rale across it.

But the log remained because Delta had a challenge planned for it. She had a lot of challenges planned for this place now.

A small shape darted pass and Delta bent down to pet the sniffing crimson rabbit, it’s large ears twitched but it accepted the touch, a very faint feeling.

Delta laughed as Renny’s powers allowed such a wonderful thing. She got something from that contract too, physical contact, however weak, with her monsters.

Blood Hare: Critter

A small creature who sheds its coat many times a year due to excess regeneration powers. The meat is said to be delicious. It is very quick and alert to all danger. It feeds on several of the plants in the jungle and something may happen if the right plant is eaten. I like this one! It’s very cute!

- Allow rabbits to breed. Will stop at a maximum limit based on the room. Purchased.

- Allow the Blood Hare to eat the bloodcurdling mushroom. 50 DP

- Make them harder to catch as the number of rabbits begins to be hunted. Purchased.

The little bunny twitches its nose and Delta steeled herself. She knew she was setting them up to be hunted but like the fish... the creature wasn’t to upset when she informed it of what she had planned.

I keep telling you, they are created knowing their purpose and knowing they will simply return in new shells to continue the act. Why should they be afraid?

“It’s just weird but I’m sort of happy they’re okay with it,” Delta stood as the Blood Hare rushed off.

Yes, it does make things easier. At least something goes well for us.

Delta hummed in agreement and went to one of the far sides of the room, and rose gently up to the point she was almost equal to some of the treetops. A single cave-like corridor was set into the high elevation, like some secret nest only a bird could find. Delta floated into a large room with almost the entire space devoted to a pond.

Except for the single path the lead to the middle of a pond. It held two statues. Rale and Devina crossing spears over stairs that lead down into the deepest part of the pond.

This pond didn’t look like the river or like the one above on the first floor. There was no fish in this pond, only large thick lily pads that floated gently over a lot of the surface. The water glowed a deep green, the clear water showed a smooth basin with still silt at the bottom.

Delta had been messing about and with some experimentation found if she put a pond into a lair room and added some statues of her frogs, it unlocked the Frog Pond.

Frog Pond: Spawn room
Current monsters respawnable: current amount of lairs on level 2: 1 / 2

2 out of 5 Monsters set to this spawn:

- Rale

- Devina

Upgrades:

- All frog monsters gain a slight enhanced strength due to Rale’s efforts: 30 DP

- All frog monsters gain an increased nature awareness due to Devina’s efforts: 30 DP

The Frog Pond had a feeling of some powerful shrine and Delta felt a little like an intruder but Devina walked casually up the pond stairs, her large eyes focused at the entrance.

“Mother. The water is great... I feel so refreshed,” Devina sounded pleased as she rested casually against Rale’s statue, admiring the defined muscles of the statue for a moment.

“I’m glad! Where is Rale?” Delta wondered and Devina rolled her eyes.

“Where else? That gym you gave him... he’s been lifting those rocks like his life depends on it,” she said with a sigh.

“It’s not too high up here, is it?” Delta changed the subject as she rather let them work out whatever was going on between Rale and Devina.

“No, it is perfectly reachable via the trees and some quickly climbing. I have such a grand view of the jungle,” she said and peered out at the tops of trees and glowing points of the mushrooms.

“I feel like I can almost hear a new side to the jungle I could not before...” Devina closed her eyes.

“Are you going to become a Witch Doctor?” Delta asked, remembering one of the base classes the frog people could become. Devina tilted her head.

I think so... it is almost as if the jungle whispers to me,” she tried to explain and Delta opened her upgrade menu.

Devina: A female frog who has shown great interest the jungle itself. She sings when no one is around but I hear it and it is nice.

- Frog Warrior: A frog man who has taken the art of fighting to the next level. 15 DP

- Frog Shadow: A frog man who can be one with the jungle shadows. 15 DP

- Frog Witch Doctor: A frog who can bend the nature of the jungle. 15 DP

- Frog Chieftain: (Rare) The leader of the frog tribesmen. It gains bonuses when the tribe thrives. Only one may exist at a time. 20 DP

Delta eyed her resources.

4 mana
20 DP

“Do you want to evolve?” Delta asked gently and Devina smiled widely, her face looking peaceful at the the thought.

“I would like that very much,” Devina answered and Delta lightly grasped Devina’s hand, making the frog woman gasped at the contact.

Delta hit the menu and Devina glowed.

“Maybe... he’ll finally look at me?” Devina mused as her features were lost in the glowing light.

----

49: Witching Hour

If a jungle had a heart, what would it sound like?

There were many possibilities and Devina could only ever imagine how one jungle might be more other-worldly than whatever vision she dreamt up. As a base frogman, Devina admired the greenery, the growing trees, and the budding life that came from Mother’s whims and plans.

As her current self... Devina was the very nature that grew around her as she walked. She inhaled and tiny secrets appeared at the tip of her tongue. She gently brushed a tree and it gave her enduring strength, she kissed the flowers and she knew of beauty that appeared after long trials and much effort, she stepped into the river and learned about change.

The heart of this jungle sounded like bad jokes and humming. Devina hummed along as if to create some echo of greatness. But Devina’s voice created no life or any wonderful gifts for the dungeon.

Mother Delta fussed over something on the first floor with the Guidance of Nu.

She let a bee gently tend to the pollen she had gathered on her long skirt. It buzzed with some gratitude and floated away. So small yet so wonderfully part of something bigger.

As a worker tended to the hive, the frog worked for the dungeon.

Devina hummed as she navigated the rapidly growing jungle, learning which parts were true dead ends and which merely appeared to be so. Which trees held warmth and ample space and which held poor footing and gruff attitudes towards fleshy creatures stepping all over their branches.

Devina gave a bow to the red rabbit that followed her.

“Greetings, Sir rabbit,” she said and the rabbit sniffed her leg and scratched its now pollen covered nose. It blinked its pink eyes at her and then hopped away casually, almost sleepily as it knew there was no danger. Devina saw it nibble at the plants, after which the plants grew back, slightly bigger and harder which made the bees spread their pollen with joy, which they then returned to the hive to produce honey and serve the Queen.

Did the circle end there? Devina shook her head as she appeared under the great spire of the bees. The honey was secure but a faint amount trickled down the rock, creating a glistening glow to the surface. From there, moss grew around it and a wonderful scent wafted out into the jungle.

The final piece in this dungeon circle would be the humans.

They would take the honey and give back to Mother Delta with their essence.

Then it would flow back into the rabbits and bees.

It would flow endlessly into a wonderful circle of growth.

Devina inhaled and shuddered as the bees buzzed in unison. Singing as they collected, singing as they returned, singing as the Queen praised them. Devina knew that bees did not use such open emotions. It was like how she knew of frogs and their difference from the frog people.

Did Mother Delta give them these fragile things, emotions, as a test? Her heart in such a short time had learned pain, love, determination, ambition, amusement... sadness. Rale, her counterpart, seemed to have no trouble with his emotions. He strode forward with his every action filled with utter loyalty and certainly.

The way he was sure of his purpose made his skin glow and his eyes pierce through her silent judgement.

Her heart.

Now, she felt so much more than she allowed it to utterly overwhelm her senses. The jungle was but a fraction of Mother’s world. How could she experience such connections, such understanding of this level and not feel awed at everything?

It was Devina’s entire world and it felt so big but Devina knew of an entire world outside the dungeon and her knees went weak at the thought of such an expansive space. She could barely handle the sight before her.

You’ve been standing there for a long time.

“Master Nu, I welcome your company,” she smiled and pushed back her new mask. The design on it still made her pause but she pushed it aside as the blue box moved closer.

So I see Delta finally upgraded you... how does it feel?

Devina chewed over that thought for a long time, giving it the proper focus as it deserved.

“I am myself but I am more myself than I ever was. Some secret parts of me have bloomed and I wonder how I could have been so arrogant or blind about who I was...” she trailed off and Nu was quiet.

It is an odd feeling, understanding that you are something more than you ever were meant to be. You will adjust, it is simply life. Even non-dungeon people change in such a way... life is fair in that respect.

“I... do not know how to act. Everything is too much but I do not want to fail Mother...” she whispered as the trees around her seemed to close in, trapping her.

I assumed as much. I have some guidance.

Devina blinked as someone cursed the foliage and stumbled through the leafy undergrowth towards her.

Short, green, one fang too long, a staff in one hand and a mushroom in the other.

“This her?” he asked gruffly and Nu paused.

Cois, this is Devina. I’m glad you finally found your way here... how do you feel?

Devina watched as the goblin flicked his fingers and some sparks appeared. The sight of the fire evoked a primal fear inside of Devina and she took a step back.

“Weak, stupid like Numb. I want to go back to the first level, this place is worse than the grove...” Cois grumbled and Devina felt a spark of protectiveness rising up at the goblin's words.

“Your tunnel is welcome to you, the grand jungle has no time for buffoons,” she said waspishly and this made Cois grin. Devina narrowed her eyes.

“She’s got some sparks! Yeah, I can see it...” Cois mumbled as he peered at Devina.

“Evolved, did ya? Not exactly a unique but ya know, it’s all the same,” he said and poked her with his staff. Devina narrowed her eyes and all around them, whispering began. Cois didn’t look impressed.

“Yous think because you new and shiny that you scare me? You feel like top of the world and not real at the same time? You think you can act brave when you clearly can’t handle the evolution all that great?” Cois sneered which made Devina pause.

“You evolved as well? You’re one of the goblins from above...” she pondered aloud, trying to think of the first level. Cois grinned and looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“The first Unique... the very first. I am Cois the Pyromancer. You need not bow, as a fellow monster,” Cois seemed to lean on his staff as if to wait for Devina’s awe. She merely used the tree behind her for support.

“Devina, second evolution of the second floor. Beaten by the Queen in a manner. I am a Witch Doctor,” she added and Cois frowned.

“Odd name... what exactly do you witch or doctor? Plants?” he asked, looking almost fondly at the surrounding mushrooms.

Devina hesitated. A series of emotions bubbled up and she picked the most reasonable one.

“I... do not know yet. Everything is too new,” she tried to explain softly but Cois merely snorted.

“New is only one part. You are afraid of this power. How silly,” he scoffed which made Devina’s back stiffen.

“Watch your tongue, goblin,” she hissed at Cois which only made the goblin grin.

“Little big missy gets new power and is too scared to try it out! Numb is gonna laugh about this. Knowing Mother, I bet she asked... so really... you said yes, so why so afraid?” he tilted his ugly head with amusement as smoke curled its way out his nose.

It was then she had noticed Nu had been silent the entire time.

“You don’t just throw power out and expect the balance to be the same. I must test everything with respect and do things properly!” Devina said with a glare and Cois rubbed a leaf between his fingers, black smoke appearing.

“So what you’re saying... is you need a problem to solve!” Cois beamed with cherubic innocence. Devina felt her skin grow cold.

“No, that is not what I sai-” she was cut off as Cois’ hands lit up with smouldering flames.

“I can make problems, I am very good at making problems!” he promised and laughed with a high pitched cackle.

“Master Nu!” she turned and Nu seemed to think on it.

As long as he does no permanent harm... I think I agree. You watch too much. A fine thing for a Frog Tribesman, not so good for a new Witch Doctor.

Cois laughed again and a bush caught fire on one side.

Devina shrieked and Nu dinged with amusement.

She kicked up dirt and smothered the injured plant as best she could with soil. She turned with a snarl on her lips towards Cois who was frowning.

“Still thinking like a frog... need to start thinking like Doctor Witch!” he said simply and threw some fire out at isolated plants. Devina could logically see that the flames wouldn’t do much in the wet air and wetter plants but it still triggered some deep fear inside that made her react.

She reached over and slammed her fist into the little goblin’s face.

“This is how I think with Rale on my mind!” she screeched and Cois stumbled back, swatting at his dented nose.

“That’s not magic!” he protested and Devina reached for him again.

“I cast fist, in your face!” she shouted and leapt at him. Cois made a screaming noise and bolted for the underbrush. The trees whispered in protest and Devina followed the sounds to easily keep up with Cois. Problem was that a panicked Cois tended to … catch fire.

He was beginning set more fires than he would be able to control and Devina’s heart went bleak at the sight. She needed to stop this, she needed to stop this!

Devina thought of Mother. How she set her mind to anything and it happened due to sheer wonderful wishful thinking and hard work. Devina closed her eyes and wished so hard that her heart hurt.

She wished she could control this new power, she wished she could be great for her Mother, she wished Rale would finally speak to her, she wished... there was no more fire.

It didn’t work so she did what Mother did best next. She screamed at the dungeon until something happened. She bellowed and grasped at air, no longer keeping a peaceful appearance to the world.

Something glowed around her hands and she thrust it out. A wispy orange form flew near the river and began to swirl. From the clearwater much tinier blue spheres appeared and then the river rose and crashed over the burning foliage and goblin alike.

There was a beat of silence as the orange wisp floated closer. Devina held out her hands and cupped it gently. It looked up at Devina and she swear she almost saw a tiny face before it faded.

The heck was that?

Devina clutched the now empty space between her hands close to her chest.

“The spirits guide me. They... I am no druid. I hear no jungle heart. I hear it’s soul,” she called and her vision blurred for a moment as she saw a sea of orange sprites and floating mana wisps.

Oh... well done! I guess I should do something Delta-ish for the moment as she is trying to communicate with the System... Uh... I guess your soulsearching is over?

Devina felt her own soul curl up and wince but she put on a polite smile as Cois was washed downstream, screeching his little voice out. Devina was about to reluctantly help him when her heart froze.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

It stuttered and her mind went from the wonders of the jungle, it’s mysterious soul beings to...

“Ah.. It’s Rale,” she pointed out stupidly as a large figure thundered down the river.

“HALT AND BE RESCUED!” Rale yelled to the screeching Cois.

Can we not tell... Delta I almost drowned Cois to help you learn a lesson? Just as a favour?

Devina just stared at his screen.

You know... I do just as much work around here, I deserve some respect...

Devina curled her hands and wisps appeared again. They felt warm and curious.

“I use to respect you more before you went mad with power,” she admitted and Nu’s box deflated.

One time...

----

“Tea? Coffee? I have some juice boxes around here,” Mr Jones offered politely as Ruli and Quiss took seats opposite his desk.

“I’ll take dragon on the rocks, don’t skimp on the rocks,” Ruli grinned and Mr Jones raised one eyebrow, it arched just enough to looked intriguing and enticing.

“Are you suggesting I have alcohol on the premises?” his tongue clicked inside his mouth and Quiss quickly spoke before Ruli could bury herself deeper.

“Of course not. Thank you for seeing us, I know being the sole teacher means you have a lot of work to grade and lessons to plan,” Quiss began, politely and calmly. Mr Jones’ merely smiled.

“One could say I am already doing them as we speak, have done them... will do them. It’s hard to tell on Tuesdays,” he said with a serious tone. Quiss hesitated and looked at the man before him.

As someone who came to Durence after already finishing his education and having no kids of his own, he and Jones never really had any reason to speak to each other.

The man never had any problems that he needed a peacekeeper for. In fact, Quiss was sure the man never did anything that required other people. Shopping, haircuts, small talk, drinking, clubs, hunting, painting, dating... Mr Jones seemed to be an example of time immortalized rather than an example of its effects on people.

“Time travel is impossible,” Quiss nodded and Mr Jones looked intrigued, his simple but charming smile curving slightly.

“Oh? Travelling of the Time Spiral is indeed beyond anyone but more than physical shells can pass through its tender grasps and remain intact. Information has a tendency to linger in the very air despite all evidence being removed of its presence. A blot on the very existence of time’s neat book. A single moment of time that is forever crystalised for all to see,” Jones clapped his hands together.

“Urgh... I hated Metaphysics on Tuesdays,” Ruli muttered which made the teacher smile.

“You did often like to get upset and promptly suggest that time ‘sort itself out and move on like the rest of us’,” he quoted with amusement and Ruli scratched at her nose.

“I sucked at school, let’s not beat the bush over the head,” she said gruffly which made Jones smile turn very large.

“It is never too late to learn something new,” he reminded and Quiss felt uneasy as the view outside the windows seemed to be slightly further away than he remembered.

“We’re here about whatever the elders are hiding. Being the fact you’re one of the six or so people who doesn’t answer to them or is afraid of them. We thought we could get some good info from you,” Ruli explained, ignoring Jones’ comment.

“They have many secrets and you are vastly wrong. Only a fool does not fear those three working in synergy. I see that even now they are returning to themselves... interesting. Tell me Quiss, how was your education? I heard you studied at Hovantown. An esteemed magical school. I knew a few people there,” he said and Ruli looked at him with confusion but Quiss decided to let the Knowledge Demon play his games for now.

“I did, I knew no one from there bar Seth and my teacher. Why did you become a teacher?” he fired back, playing into Jones’ hands. Quiss was no fool, he had been instructed on how most demons work with reason.

Mr Jones was a Knowledge Demon. They appreciated wits, a thirst of curiosity, and were one of the few demons that didn’t often make one sell their magic or soul for information.

They preferred their own cocktail of temptations. Rare secrets and a softly simmered confessions of the heart.

“It suited my needs best. Now, I heard you and Sethamus had a very interesting teacher, is this true?” he smiled as he leaned back in his comfortable chair.

“Allani Serenegore.” Even saying the name made Quiss’ palms turn sweaty, unbidden images of a small woman with a large smile flashed across his mind. Jones’ smile faded to a thin line.

“My condolences. Even in the Abyss, she was a name to be respected. Your tea,” he encouraged and Quiss looked down at a cup he was sure... he hadn’t accepted. Ruli looked at them and tried to look casual.

“Sounds... important. She some bigwig at the magical nerd school?” she asked bluntly. Jones closed his eyes with some unseen emotion but Quiss shrugged.

“She was a witch. A proper one but she dabbled with mages and ended up liking the title. She was the last fighter of the battle of the roots,” Quiss explained, voice hollow. Ruli’s eyes bulged out and she almost knocked her chair over as she stood up.

“You were taught by the hero of the World Tree?” she demanded and Quiss just gave her a very cold look. She hesitated and sat back down.

“Be glad you flunked, Miss Ruli. I hate to have you sent to detention for insensitivity,” Jones sighed and then clapped his hands.

“But let us gossip and barter like frail old ladies that hide cursed death charms in their purses, shall we?” he asked, changing the subject completely. The classroom's air turned from business like professional to something more... relaxed and loose. It made Quiss’ teeth stand on edge.

“Milla, Pic, Haldi and Durence. Four youths who came to this land. How do their stories line up with yours?” Jones inquired, his desk... longer than Quiss remembered it. Jones opened a drawer and retrieved a book.

It was Abyssian and Quiss had no idea on how to read it.

“‘Teasing plot twists and annoying your fellows’, are you serious?” Ruli grumbled. Jones laughed.

“I took it off my student, Grimnoire. He does enjoy having an edge over his fellows. Please, continue,” he nodded to them both pleasantly.

Ruli looked insured but Quiss’ mood was at a low point and he had no real motivation to parly with a demon.

“Durence, what happened to him? Who is the Lord of the path of Ending Light?” Quiss asked bluntly and Jones turned a page as he read with no reaction to the names.

“One is a town, the other has a too long of a title, would be my guess,” he responded dryly and Ruli sighed.

“Quiss, come on, don’t be all agitated, you’re just gonna agree with something or say something and that’s that,” she reminded him. Jones hummed.

“You could always put gum and glue on my chair, that worked well for a certain brat,” he offered. Ruli stubbornly met his eyes.

“I was 11, you talked too much!” she defended herself and Jones closed the book.

“And now you’re 32 and I’m not saying a word, it is interesting on how times change, yes?” he beamed. His black hair so perfectly cut.

“Delta, the dungeon, is digging deep, she’s finding pieces of this history. You have a duty as a Knowledge Demon to retain and pass on this information,” Quiss placed the cup of tea back onto the coffee table.

He paused and saw the room was a teacher’s lounge. It looked okay but something nagged at Quiss that made him aware something wasn’t right.

Wasn’t there a desk befo-

“My duty is whatever I make it. My obligations as a keeper of knowledge is now a task of imparting knowledge to children. You are not my student, nor will you ever will be, what obligation do I owe you?” Jones’ asked, voice flat.

“Mr J... come on, remember how I passed that one test and how I almost passed all the others and that one time I accidentally did my homework because I thought it was a quiz on what my favourite weapon was?” Ruli tried and Jones’ eyed her before sighing.

“You and those pigtails, you came into class with monster fluids all over you or with some packed lunch that still twitched. It was honestly a trial of my career until the last few tears. Deo Brawndo has really pushed my patience but... I cannot say I dislike the boy,” he smiled. Quiss could agree on that at least.

Jones was quiet for a moment then clicked his fingers. The building around them quivered and a series of clanging noises echoed out before Jones spoke.

“There is a reason you do not and will not know. Knowledge is a river. It flows in and sometimes it can dry up. This particular knowledge is like a parasite that lives in the water, it burrows deep and infects your waking thoughts to the point that you change. It is not about treating you like children nor about not trusting you. This information is literally dangerous and inside your unprepared minds, you will simply crumble like worms under a crow’s foot,” Jones said and his perfect appearance seemed to lose some parts and a being with many eyes sat before them.

The eyes were all different shapes and colours. In the middle of it all, a round black orb beating like a heart before Jones returned to human form, clearing his throat.

“Did you not find it bizarre that your mother began to forget things? Haldi? Pic? This very town became a routine of dolls and repeated play scenes. This land is very hungry and they have poured the very essences of themselves into the land to forget... now this dungeon has made such a thing impossible. It seems almost like a perfect counter. The Elders must see this Delta as a form of interference by the gods or devils. Who knows? Maybe an old foe trying to gain an upper hand?” he spread his arms and Quiss moved on the lunch hall bench as he glared at the menus.

He was sure something was going on here in this school. He had...was somewhere with coffee but hadn’t they always been talking in the lunch hall?

“What is it? What old foe?” Ruli pushed and Jones put his chin in his hand. Smile almost crooked.

“The three lords. One of the Ending Light, One of the Settled Darkness and the One of the Broken Silence. Each guarded by their knight. What lies below them? I have no clue but that isn’t the dangerous part. Knowing numbers and titles is fine, you will be fine. It’s when you know of their nature, hear the name... you are at war,” Jones whispered and Quiss stumbled.

He turned to say something but Jones shut the school door in his face. It left him standing there on the stone steps without Ruli as the school building before him seemed to lock all the windows and doors.

Doing exactly what Quiss feared he would do. Re-enroll Ruli back into his class...

Quiss walked towards a window and tried to smash it after knocking on the door did nothing.

The rock he threw stretched the glass and simply flung it back at Quiss.

Quiss itched to click his fingers but he turned on the spot, remembering his promise and the only known weakness of Knowledge Demons.

A gifted genius and an idiot.

Thankfully, he knew just the water mage who could fulfil both ends of that clause just fine.

Lords... and their knights. Below and unknown. Delta and Durence.

Questions... Questions... Questions.

“I missed the days I could just set things on fire and go home to sleep,” he admitted and mumbled an apology as the new baker girl knocked into him.

She looked at him and Quiss didn’t say anything as he rushed on.

The girl bit her lip as her bloodshot eyes looked around at the lively people with some sorrow. She watched as people laughed, as grass and flowers bloomed, as mana flowed through the air bringing life.

She turned and ran back to her shop to curl up on her bed. Her ovens cold and her bread hard as a rock.

She just laid there, hoping Durence’s curse would just take her.

50: Evolution of the First Floor

Hob and Gob emptied their buckets and Delta eyed the discarded potato peelings, holey socks, empty cans, and more than a few candy wrappers. The other bucket had the usual collections.

“Did you go into the city?” she asked, waiting to hear the goblin’s story before getting upset. Gob shook his head.

“Deo! Found us and gave us stuff. He said he’d come back soon,” the goblin grinned, happy to have found some loophole in getting things from the village without actually breaking any of Delta’s rules.

Deo... the thing Delta never planned for and most likely could never hope to do so.

“That’s fine, great work!” Delta praised, tasting day old potatoes and just a sliver of chocolate.

Poor Chocolate added to the menu!
Potato added to the menu!
Smelly sock added to the menu! ...t-thank you! ....it smells...different.

Delta looked down at the cheerful goblins, both eagerly talking about the next harvest. On a whim, she opened Gob’s menu.

Gob: Goblin (Contracted)

A young goblin who survived a goblin hunting camp. He is the brother to Hob. He finds purpose and pride in gathering for the dungeon. He spots things more than Hob but lacks the strength to carry as much as Hob.

Equipped: Wooden Sword. Wooden armour and helmet

Class: 75% ???

Evolution: 22% Goblin thug. Goblin Archer. ???

I know Gob can do it!

Delta blinked.

A class and an evolution?

Classes were a thing? She knew Cois was a pyromancer but that seemed more like power and a title to go with it. Her contracted monsters could gain a class... or was it all her monsters? Delta closed the menu and pondered as the goblins ran off.

“What’s the difference between a class and an evolution? Oh, better question, do real people have classes or is this another dungeon thing?” she asked the empty air and then smiled at the nearby wall.

“You can stop hiding and answer, I know you’re dying to,” she called. Nu shimmered into view with a sad ding.

I thought you weren’t paying attention...but yes, I would very much like to show off how smart I am.

Delta rolled her eyes but just waited as Nu came closer.

Classes are mantles one can wear around themselves to increase ability and growth in that area. It differs from Evolution because with evolving, the being itself becomes the class instead of the class gradually shaping and enhancing the person. One could say they are almost two ends of a road in which one can travel. People outside may have them, it does seem it’s highly rare from the information I have gleaned from the visitors thus far. Rare as they must set their entire being into one such area and very few people can live, dream, eat, love, weep, and cherish something enough to give that type of devotion over spreading out and enjoying all of life’s gifts.

Delta could see that but then pointed down the hall at her gobs.

“And them? They have both going on,” she pointed out and Nu hesitated as he thought of an answer.

Mostly because they are goblins. Simple-minded living is what they excel at since they tend not to last long in the outside world. Classes would be rather easy for them.Evolution is simply inherited from their monster side. I’ve never seen a wild monster gain both at the same time though. Renny, as you could see, has a very strong Mime power. That is mostly from a class. You could no easier tear the mime from Renny than his ghoulness. Come with me.

Nu turned and floated down the hall. Delta followed easy enough.

“So monsters can do both... can people do both? Can people evolve?” she pondered and Nu chimed with interest.

Evolution is something that one can or cannot do. Anyone with enough will can earn a class if they truly desire it. Evolution is not a thing one can just work at. It is build into a person... so if people could evolve, they must utterly change themselves, be part-other, or become a creature of carnage, death, and hate to rival a monster. Well... that would be normal people. I have no clue on Dungeon contract people... we should test this somehow.

Delta decided she didn’t like the way Nu’s box was humming so she silently decided to stall contracting anything on the next floor she made until she was absolutely sure it deserved to be there. It was a valuable power and Delta have been a little... how would you say... trigger happy.

Nu slowed and moved into the secret passage where the soft ambient drumming echoed out.

This should offer more information on your questions.

Nu said as they stood before Greater Mushy, his wicked thorned tentacles tapping, plucking and clanging various things in a melody only know to itself.

“Hey! Sounds great, have you got a name for it?” Delta grinned at the mushroom. It paused then waved a vine in a negative way.

“Well, if you ever throw a concert, let me have a front row seat,” she asked seriously and the mushroom slowed then hesitantly nodded. Greater Mushy began a new tune.

It was slow but had a few spread out high notes on the tiny lyre Delta had made for him. It was pretty nice and Delta hummed along as she opened the menu.

Greater Mushroom(Great Mushy):

An evolved mushroom spitter that due to the dungeon’s nice nature has never killed anyone. After a long time of boredom, it began to use music as a way to pass the time. It has become quite good.

Evolution: Unlocked due to the evolution of two or more advance mushrooms!
???
???
??? special evolution!

Class: 36%

If Devina and Great Mushy were to combined their musical talents... I would very much like that!

Great Mushy has both as well...

“If he got a bard class and evolved into musical mushy, would he be...twice as strong?” Delta asked, head buzzing with curiosity.

Interesting, isn’t it? I suspect the free will you give to all you create is what is causing this fascinating anomaly. The will to be who you wish... and the origin of a dungeon to allow for sheer change. Potent but ultimately a gamble. We cannot force someone to love something nor can we halt the natural growth of their monster side.

“That’s fine... I mean, it’s up to me to make this dungeon safe so the monsters can just focus on themselves,” she reminded him and hummed Great Mushy’s song some more.

Then I eagerly await what you will do next. In fact, the first floor does need some improvements to make it overall a lot better. We have the basics, now we need the proper touches... hm... I will be right back. Cois has finally decided to head to the second floor to help me out with Devina’s...issue. Please, do carry on.

Nu blinked away and Delta raised one eyebrow.

“I never know what’s going on in my own dungeon...” she muttered and waved goodbye to the musical fungi.

“Devina did seem a little distracted when she evolved... I wonder if she’ll be able to get a class... Hm, what if she got the Witch Doctor’s class on top of already being a Witch Doctor monster? Would she be a witch-witch doctor-doctor?” Delta asked herself and the idea made her head hurt a little.

“I miss the days when building new rooms were all I had to get confused over,” she smiled fondly, having no real idea on how much time had actually passed.

She could have build a rudimentary clock if she tried hard enough or asked for one from Durence but she honestly didn’t want to torment herself by the time when she was happy to float from task to task.

Knowing how long she had been a dungeon core wouldn’t make any difference. It would only depress her.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Good thing there is no ‘Delta Menu’,” she laughed and an orange box appeared.

Delta “Dungeon Core”
Mana: 40/90
DP: 75

Floors: 2
Total monsters: 15
Available contract offers: 0
Total number of kills: 17

Titles:
Mushroom Queen: Devour and eat many dangerous mushrooms then grow your own!
Employer: You get a contract! You get a contract! Everyone gets a contract!
First Floor Developer: You maxed out the total rooms on the first floor.
Dungeon of Love: Foster and embrace people as something more than food.
Dungeon of Punishing Jokes: The dungeon has taught her monsters terrible jokes
Mothering Nature: Grow a lot of nature related items and monsters.
Captain Hook: Create a respectful fishing spot!
Corruptor: Infect the system and Menu with life.
?”£|!: Survived...
)”0s: Refused to fade!
….<_<: Return to the world in one form or another.

Delta swallowed back a noise that definitely didn’t convey confidence.

“I...should really know better to speak before I think,” she muttered as she dismissed the screen. Delta looked down at the ground.

She could get upset at the harsh reminder of what she had lost or she could get her head screwed on right and get to work. Delta chose wisely and walked forward with a cheerful smile.Numb walked past and Delta bent down to speak to him.

“Where are you off too?” she asked and Numb looked serious.

“To lift with Rale! Must be stronk like Deo!” he bellowed and rushed off with tiny rocks under his arms.

“Stronk is... one word to describe that kid,” she admitted.

“Scary as hell is another,” she added and entered the spider room a moment later. Deciding to work from the front to the back.

It hadn’t changed much other than the spiders learning about monarchy and taking turns to be the royal leader for an hour or so.

Currently, it was King Gustaweb, the first of his name, ruling. He had just taken over from Queen Silklegs.

“Heyo!” she called and all the spiders waved in greeting from the berry bush where the ‘throne’ was.

She hummed as the spiders all took turns serving their new ruler, doing dances or facing each other in berry swinging contest or even balancing on the tripwire. Very medieval but Delta would allow it because they were cute. She opened the menu with interest.

- Spider Room:

- Upgrade Spiders: Locked

- Upgrade the total number of spiders that can be in the room. 5 DP

- Restore trap after the dungeon is empty. PUR

- Make Spiders’ more durable and less likely to die. 10 DP

- Make a great amount of Berries wilt with each spider that dies. PUR

- Make the berries plumper and enriched with mana. Makes them good for eating and recovering strength but too many will upset the stomach. 10 DP

- If enough spiders are killed to wilt the entire bush spawn the optional ghost miniboss “Spidergeist” who will disappear when the spiders respawn. 20 DP

“The heck is a Spidergeist?” Delta muttered and shrugged. It sounded like first room protection fi nothing else and she couldn’t really upgrade the spiders yet so...

She purchased it.

The room went a little odd as an unfelt wind brushed the webs aside. Delta looked around the room as all the spiders, including the king, began to do some circular dance with two of their legs up in the air.

Delta followed dancing to the roof of the room.

There, almost impossible see due to the thing’s body being almost transparent and surrounded by white webs, was a spider that easily dwarfed anything else in the room. Maybe just under the height of a goblin but easily bigger on the sides, it uncurled its large eight see-through legs as if testing them.

It’s only colour, the eight glowing red eyes like stars on a white sky...peered right at her.

Delta froze and then the spider closed its eyes then vanished. she couldn’t see it. She knew it was there, due to funky dungeon core senses but she couldn’t see it! Delta whipped her head around, stuck in some gripping fear-paralysis. Then, right next to her face, 8 red eyes opened and blinked at her.

She screeched and fled the room to the great amusement of all the spiders who fell to the floor curling in laughter.

---

The Spidergeist watched her go then moved to the top of the room, heavy with sleep...heavy until needed... or it was her turn to be the queen.

They would call her Queen Muffet. The song the creator was singing with joy in the distance, so loud and piercing, told of such a spider. It would be her title.

---

“More music...” Delta whispered to the Great Mushy as she hid in the secret passage. A familiar tune picked up and Delta shivered.

“Itsy Bitsy isn’t so itsy... trust me,” she said with a sigh.

The mushroom seemed to judge her and she glowered at him.

“I have fears and they’re perfectly rational when they go from thumb size to ‘can eat my dog’ size,” she defended herself and the tune turned faster.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going but skip the spider songs, I don’t even know how you know them...am I leaking onto your playlist?” she asked, worried and the fungi just played on. She looked up at the glowmoss for help but they did naught but glow with merriment.

“Guess I’ll go upgrade the storeroom while I’m here,” she said and the door opened of its own accord and she walked through into storeroom.

A single Star Shroom gave the room some wonderful atmosphere. She frowned as while this room had a mana vent... it lacked any of her usual oomph. It was just a front for her secret door.

That didn’t make Delta happy so she rolled her sleeves, the orange-tinted shirt creasing.

“First off...” she grinned and zapped a table into existence.

“Would the good sirs and ladies enjoy some refreshments?” she asked no one and made a wooden plate with a bunch ham sandwiches set into a pyramid pattern. Next, she set a bowl of berries and apples next to it.

With a laugh, she formed a clay jug with fresh water. Feeling cheeky, she dropped a few berries into it to give the water some flavour. Another clay bowl formed with some sparrow eggs, fresh and ready to be cooked if needed. Then as a added bonus, a plate of sliced mushrooms.

All in all, the charge was only 15 mana and that made her stop.

“Open the menu,” she requested and the Storeroom menu appeared with a flourish.

Storeroom:

Bonus: All simplistic and material items cost 50% less when spawned in this room. As long as it’s simple and handy to a curious adventurer, it is cheaper! This is due to the mana vent. All rooms built over a mana vent gain a passive bonus.

- Keep all food fresh until removed from its container. 5 DP

- Make all food rot if all food is taken more than needed or by greed. 10 DP

- Allow simple foods to automatically be added to the buffet table. 8 DP

- Spawn a unique monster ‘Merry’ to allow the challenge ‘Cheesing the Chase’ to be challenged by adventurers. 15 DP

Delta eyed the last one with a narrow glare.

“No way. First it was Bob... then it was the giant spider! You think I’m just going to gamble on this random monster and challenge to make my cooler...more interesting...pantry worth...seeing,” Delta trailed off.

There was a beat of silence and she fidgeted.

“It's a terrible idea,” she stated bluntly and her finger smashed into the option.

“I mean, if I admit it then I can’t be told I was wrong,” she said brightly and the room felt the same until Delta looked down a brown mouse wriggling free of the berry bowl.

It squeaked and twitched its nose.

“Aww...” Delta said with a coo and then the mouse jumped, sending apples rolling as it went wild exploring it’s new home. It jumped on to a shelve and the thing wobbled as if the mouse was being chased by some hurricane. The shelf toppled and the next one followed. The mouse went soaring and the table unended, sending the food splattering across the wall.

Delta screamed as she chased the demon, swatting at it before it made more of a mess.

She never saw the tiny box appear.

Room reset in 5 minutes. Challenge set: Catch Merry before all Merry hell breaks loose. Did I do that right? Delta? I hope I did that right...

---

51: Happy Accidents

“To be as strong as the river, you must defeat it,” the giant frog man said, eyes closed in deep thought. Numb looked at the gently flowing river and only hesitated for a moment before he raised his fist and ran at it, screaming.

Rale was wise, so Numb would trust his word! He flung himself into the water and only then remembered that much like his brothers, he could not swim. He floated there for a moment then began to swing his fists and legs at the cool water with furious effort.

The back of his fur gently tugged and Numb was lifted out of the water until he was eye level with Rale.

“You have much energy, this will serve you well, mighty goblin, but we must work on your thinking,” Rale smiled and put Numb down.

“Like Cois thinks too hard and makes fire?” Numb tried and Rale paused.

“A fire fist would be very powerful but let us work on the basics,” he lead Numb towards the tools and weighs around a giant pond that came from a huge waterfall. Numb stalked up to the pond and glared at it.

Maybe the river was too hard but this puddle would be easy for Numb! He kicked at the edge and he yelped as something fought back. He stared down at the two crabs that had a toe each. The looked back at him, pincers ready to grab another toe.

Numb shook his foot hard and a crab went flying back into the pond with a splash that made the goblin grin with victory.

He picked the other one and turned to show Rale his mastery of the water. The frog was sitting on a rock and his greenish face had become very wide with a smile.

“Do you think your size gives you power?” he asked and Numb looked at the tiny crab and then nodded.

“I is bigger so I am the scary one,” he stated. While Numb didn’t know goblin life like Hob or Gob, he was sure that was the rule. When Fran became bigger, he became boss.

“So, I am stronger than you?” Rale stood, picking up one of the stone weighs with one arm, his arm bulging with powerful muscles.

Numb hesitated. Another rule of goblins, as he just thought about it, was don’t act to big for fur skin around big ones.

“Numb could take you once he evolves!” he said regardless. The sheer world made Numb giddy. Seeing Cois go from a normal gob to a fire...gob, it made Numb almost hungry. It was odd, Numb had never felt hunger but he really wanted to evolve.

Mother hadn’t gotten around it and the more Numb looked at Cois the more Numb wanted to be special too. Cois had said he had done something special and Mother had rewarded him. Which is why he was on this floor.

He felt weak and... soft on this jungle floor. It wasn’t as nice as his camp and tunnels. Being here made it hard to breath. Rale hadn’t wanted to train him but Numb pestered him and the frog finally gave in.

Numb had seen Cois and the other frog arguing as the odd silent creature seemed to make the river shoot out of a tube that didn’t exist and put out the burning jungle.

Cois made weird friends.

“Evolve? I do think you have it backwards, my little stout friend,” Rale pointed out and Numb itched at his head as it began to rain. Only on himself.

This jungle was weird.

“The strong evolve to become better. The power must exist before it is refined. Waiting for evolution to grant you power is wasteful! You must grab it by the horns and train yourself!” Rale commanded and Numb stared at him.

“What horns?” he asked and Rale made that smile again.

“First, we’ll see how you handle Bob,” he said simply and Numb waited as the rain grew stronger.

“What’s Bob?” the goblin asked, suspiciously and Rale pointed up and Numb followed the direction to see something that was the source of the dripping on his head.

“...What is that?” Numb asked...numbly.

“That’s my friend, Bob. He’s going to be your horns for this lesson,” Rale informed him and Bob picked Numb up and the goblin was pretty sure that he was not designed to be this high up. He saw two small red flashes and saw the crabs scuttling over Bob’s head, dancing with gleeful joy as Bob, the giant worm thing that was going to scare Numb for a long time.

Bob slowly lowered into the water...with Numb still in his carefully gripping jaws, so gentle that Numb could see how much the worm was holding back.

“Rale! I want to be weak! I don’t want horns!” Numb said and Rale laughed with a joyous noise.

“Fight the river! I shall be in after you in a few seconds if you cannot escape!” Rale shouted cheerfully.

Numb felt the water surround him and something pinched his nose and he went crossed eyed as one of the crabs waved cheerfully.

Numb growled and struggled against the maw that held him to swat at the thing. His fear becoming hotter than Cois’ fire.

He would beat this worm, swat the crabby, and bite Rale’s beefy leg with the fury of a thousand goblins!

He closed his eyes and struggled harder.

Never seeing how his skin glowed a deep crimson.

---

“Crap, why would I want of any this crap? It’s all stupid looking and hardly any of them look good!”

Delta stared at the little brat in her entrance hall. Mr Mushy looked down at the pots he had put for people to buy. Mr Mushy hesitated and picked up a pot that he had worked on with Vas.

“Listen to me, I don’t want your pots. They aren’t even magical and they’re ugly,” the boy with a pale complexion. He shifted and the giant backpack on his back clanked as things moved. Delta alone could see cooking pots, rope, pickaxe, a simple wood axe, unlit torches, two daggers on his belt, goggles on his head, and his pockets bulged with various items.

Delta had never seen him before but the boy instantly made her bristle with fury. Mr Mushy lowered the pot in his hand and hugged it.

He shook his head and closed his little eyes as if to not to listen.

Delta reached for him but she only passed through his collar with her fingers. She stared as the boy reached for one of his daggers.

“Maybe you’ll drop something worth it...” he mused and Mr Mushy looked at him. Even sitting cross-legged on the floor, Mr Mushy still had to stare down at him.

He looked at the dagger with confusion.

“Don’t you dare touch him! Do not touch him!” Delta warned, voice very thin. The boy only hesitated slightly before he slashed out with the knife. Even with the backpack, he had something of decent technique.

Delta’s heart stopped as Mr Mushy’s entire hand closed around the boy’s and there was a slight pause.

“Oh...” the boy mumbled and stumbled back as Mr Mushy held the dagger between two fingers.

“Mr Mushy, hug him, make him do the same noises as Cois, but not like the rabbit!” Delta said quickly. Mr Mushy smiled with his eyes and reached for the boy.

His pale face went deathly white he fumbled with his hands for a moment before he threw something from his pocket at Mr Mushy’s feet. A small sack that ruptured and a black substance splashed over the mushroom’s feet. Delta blinked at the quickly thickening tar stuff that coated Mr Mushy’s feet.

“The hell you do to my mushroom!” Delta demanded but Mr Mushy struggled to lift his feet and ended up sitting in the sticky tar.

“I sharpened the dagger on my Granpa’s teeth... I- I’m coming back for that!” he threatened and ran.

Not away but deeper into the dungeon.

Delta felt a panic rise up then stared at the many shattered pots that Mr Mushy had crushed. He managed to pick up a shard and stare at it.

“Hey... are you okay?” she asked and she froze as a trail of thin yellow liquid leaked out of one of the button-like eyes.

Mr Mushy held the shard close to his chest and just sat there.

Delta stood and her voice was very tight as she spoke aloud,

“You do not come into my house, hurting my friends. You do not call the pots ugly, you do not run away like a brat, and you do not make Mr Mushy cry,” she called and a cold wind blew down from the entrance and the torches wavered and then with a splutter, died out.

Delta moved forward, determined to get this little demon child out of her dungeon and stop Mr Mushy from crying.

She paused as smoke billowed out from around the corner.

“You did not!” she shouted and sprinted towards the spider-room. Ahead, the brat was trying to burn through the webs with a torch he had lit. On the ground were Lady Silklegs and Lord Royalthread, crushed by the furious stomping.

The boy had a green vial to his lips, ready to drink it.

“Stop it!” she just shouted and as if by her order, the other spiders eagerly leapt at the fire like moths drawn to the flame.

Delta stared with horror as they seemed to jump to their death.

One by one, they all fell down as the boy eyed the berries and reached for them.

“Finally... something decent!” he sighed. Just as his finger touched one, the began to rot with a speed even Delta had not expected.

“Hey!” he protested and Delta took a moment to smirk at his back.

“Just as rotten as you!” she huffed.

The boy brushed a piece of web out from his face and the scowled as it refused to budge. He moved his hand and he seemed to struggle as the web clung to him harder. He moved to burn it and the silky web danced away.

Delta looked back and saw her fallen spiders had been covered by another web, as if respectably protecting them from further harm.

Delta looked up and the 8 red eyes that seemed to focus on her.

“D-do it. Make him regret this... but don’t kill him. I don’t want his horrible body in my dungeon!” she called and the red eyes seem to close in satisfaction.

As if pulled by some puppet the master, the web in room came to life and snaked towards the pale boy who screamed when it entangled his arms and legs. He dropped his potion and waved his torch as hard as he could.

The almost see-through spider lowered herself so the fire reflected and made her entire body cast a huge shadow over the wall.

The Spidergeist...Muffet, yes that was her name! She had named herself...

Delta watched as she lifted one leg and the boy’s hand moved in time. The spider began to twitch many legs and the boy’s body, tightly bound, began to dance.

“L-let go! Damn! Deo never...mentioned this!” he grunted and his fingers went near his neck as Muffet made the boy slowly dance towards her drooling fangs. Delta watched with honest fascination at what was her monster.

“Deo reads the damn signs!” Delta said coldly.

The boy brushed something on his neck again and that was when his body simply moved through the web and he yanked open the door and fled the room.

“...What?” Delta said numbly and Muffet had frozen in shock.

“Did...how did he... wha?” Delta mumbled and chased him. The boy had slammed the door shut and was quickly taking off a burning piece of metal around his neck.

“Gramps is going to kill me for wasting his Fleetfoot necklace...” the boy moaned and Delta’ hands failed to grab the boy’s neck in a muffled screamed.

“Stop cheating! Stop using your family's overpowered accessories!” she yelled pointlessly at him. She turned, poked her head back into to the room, to look at Muffet before chasing after the idiot as he walked on. “You did good girl.”

“Need better cooldown CC-control if I’m going to get out. Gotta be something good soon. No other reason they keep this place shut off but let Deo go,” he grumbled and he pocketed the necklace.

“You could have at least left the necklace,” Delta grumbled as the boy headed towards the pond and Delta felt a smile appear but instead, at the last second he turned to the left and headed towards the storeroom.

“Get in there and have a bad time!” she pointed back towards the pond room.

Delta could only watch as he eyed the shelves and barrels, then the buffet table.

“What? Is it not good enough either?” Delta asked snidely and the boy smiled.

“Nice, I mean, if it doesn’t rot again...” he said and then stopped as the screen appeared.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Merry? Whose... there was a challenge back in the spider room... maybe... I mean that one was too easy I thought it was joking but this? I mean, maybe if I do them, I’ll get something at least?” he mused and Delta felt like going ‘duh’

It was then Delta spotted a little tag on the backpack.

Property of Grimnoire. Private!

“Grimnoire...I will remember this,” she promised.

“I accept!” the boy cried and pushed the accept button like he was accepting some grand destiny.

Then there was silence then a subtle squeaking. Delta looked down as did Grimnoire.

“That’s... Merry?” he asked, looking amused. Delta slowly turned to look at him.

“You’re going to scream and I am going to laugh. Oh yes, I am going to laugh,” she smiled as the mouse sniffed a serving bowl of nuts and a large wooden spoon on the lip of the bowl.

Grimnoire pulled out something that looked like a vial of blue dust.

“Some Sandelf dust and little mousey is all mine,” he bragged and Delta’s face froze.

“Merry! Give him HELL!” she screamed.

The little brown mouse moved faster than should have been natural, a spoon full of nuts slapped into Grimnoire’s face and his blue vial went flying, vanishing into a barrel of apples. Delta stared at it.

That was... her Sandelf dust now.

Just like that green potion and that dagger.

“Merry! Shake him down!” she added quickly as the mouse leapt to the top shelf of the nearest set and items began to fall onto Grimnoire’s head.

“Ow! S-stop it! Was that an arrow?!” he demanded and the shelf creaked and toppled towards him as the mouse’s little leap seemed to generate enough force to send it toppling.

The chaos was beautiful but Grimnoire’s bag seemed almost sealed shut.

“Enchanted bag? Whats next? Underwear that lets you instagib bosses?!” she yelled.

Merry leapt for the next shelf but with surprising reflexes, Grimnoire was already jumping for it with two of the wooden bowls he stole from the buffet table. Merry had to swerve and midland. Wild-eyed, Grimnoire leap after it with the bowls, trying to trap it.

“Gimmie the reward!” he roared and Merry rushed under a shelf and it wobbled but the boy simply jumped into it, sending it crashing the other way and cutting Merry’s path off.

The bowl slammed down and Grimnoire roared with triumphant as Merry became trapped.

“I spent my childhood catching rat-princes for pocket change!” he laughed. He lifted the bowl and Merry sat there, defeated.

“My mouse...” Delta whispered and Grimnoire sat down with a wince.

“Ow... jumping into shelves was a bad idea,” he mumbled and then without thinking he slid Merry an apple that rolled near his feet.

“You’re crafty,” he said and stood something seemed to hurt so he rested against the nearby wall for some relief.

Something flashed and Grimnoire seemed to hold a small raggedy cat doll.

The reward.

Delta blinked and tried to remember what Sys had set. It got excited because Devina had made it possible...

Delta had no idea how the system had set up multi-rewards with various chances and rarity but they had done it here.

90% chance to get a nice mouse hat...10% for that doll.

Delta frowned as Merry seemed to devour the apple and promptly fall asleep like he was drugged.

The doll did something but she couldn’t remember the details. Grimnoire shook it and it hissed then a ghostly blue cat of the scarred variety appeared, snarling and pacing before Grimnoire like some bodyguard.

“It’s a voodoo ghost cat doll...” the boy said and blinked.

“I mean... I guess?” he shrugged then the doll hissed and the ghost vanished with nothing to do. He shook it again but nothing happened

“What? I need to charge it and it's limited? What is this? One a day? Talk about lame classics,” Grimnoire scowled.

The last shelf topple and fell over towards the boy and Delta wince as he moved out the way and a side of the secret passage was slightly revealed.

“Merry!” she said to the sleeping mouse. Grimnoire bent down and pushed more of the broken stone away, the wooden wall covering it cracked by the falling shelf.

He looked immensely pleased and was about to start pushing when music sounded out.

It was soft and haunting, this seemed to lure the boy in more.

“Sweet treasure,” he sounded almost intoxicated by the idea then the sweet music stopped and Grimnoire screeched and crawled away as the wooden wall began to melt and smoke as green acid ate through it, flailing thorny vines reaching for him.

“Trap! Trap!” Grimnoire yelled over and over as he crawled back out the room, cat doll in one arm.

High pitched drumming sounded out, like a bird’s heartbeat.

“Woah...” Delta stared at the acid. She had never seen her Greater Mushy in action before.

She stared with dismay at her ruined room before following the boy.

He stood and brushed himself off.

“I could just... bomb it but I need to conserve resources,” he said, voice a little high. That worried Delta.

Who would give this kid a firecracker, let alone a ‘bomb’?

---

“MUM! I CAN’T FIND MY NOVACRACKER! I WAS GOING TO GO SHOOT SOME FIREWORKS FOR POPPY TO CHEER HER UP!” Deo said calmly to his mother.

Her long red hair swayed and she turned with a small frown.

“Oh... well, I’ll help you look. You’re usually responsible so it must be in your room somewhere. Did you take it anywhere?” she asked softly, voice barely higher than a whisper.

Deo thought about it.

“SHOW AND TELL! MY FRIEND GRIM TOLD ME HE PUT IN THE TEACHER’S ROOM CAUSE I WAS LATE WITH MY HOMEWORK!” he beamed and the woman closed her eyes then pulled her son to her shoulder for a hug.

“Oh...my Deo...” she sighed.

----

Grimnoire eyed the pond then sniffed, turning away.

“Smells like Deo,” he sighed and Delta glared at him.

“Mister ‘I can do what I want and everyone loves me’! I come to class looking a little tired and ‘are you doing drugs? Are you upset?’ are the comments I get. Deo comes in stinking of fish and covered in spider goo and no one bats an eye!” he ranted as he headed towards the mudroom, ignoring the pond entirely.

“Maybe because Deo doesn't steal, murder, complain, act like a spoiled brat and generally makes life better while you just ruin everyone’s day,” Delta said conversationally.

Grimnoire frowned as if almost hearing her.

“Dungeon is crazy. Mushrooms everywhere, mice, stupid ponds and now this!” he exclaimed, waving a hand to the mudroom.

“Well you know what, my gutrot mushrooms suck but they’re better than you. You’re just...just... allrot!” Delta shouted.

Grimnoire stared at the platforms.

“Hm... different paths but I expect some collapse into traps, like spikes hidden in the mud or maybe the mud rises if I get stuck. I’ll need to test the stability of each platform but those walls look patchy...I’ll have some time limit to choose the correct path,” he deduced and Delta crossed her arms.

“You scream like a 3-year old,” was all she could say.

Grimnoire ran back and Delta saw him return with a bunch of apples.

He began to lob them at the platform. Some wobbled, some were solid as the apples landed.

“I...guess that was clever,” she admitted and then glared at him.

“But you’re wasting my apples,” she added. Grimnoire stepped forward and the challenge appeared.

“Easy enough, this dungeon needs some interaction clause so people can’t just figure it out before the challenge appears,” he said aloud and Delta could see that, she would have to pull the challenge back or expand it somehow.

It didn’t take him long to get over it and he was beaming with success and he eyed the pile of logs.

“Uh... no thanks. Deo said you can hear me so...uh...give this to Deo next time he is in. I stole something of his but I redid his exam so he got a pass instead of the 2% he was gonna to have. That these logs should make us even,” Grimnoire said quietly and walked on.

Delta stared.

2%?

How could he have gotten 2%?

---

“Impressive scores...I do believe you are the brightest man to walk through my doors,” Mr Jones smiled as Seth. The petit water mage nodded.

“You’re house of many brains is very pleasing to my eyeballs,” he agreed. Mr Jones stared and Quiss cleared his throat.

“He means your educational building is impressive,” he said.

“No, he is quite correct. I have many doors to ancient knowledge here. Some connected to still alive brains,” Mr Jones smiled again and Quiss eyed him.

“They all signed consent forms,” Mr Jones added and Quiss said nothing but just stared at the only other person in the room.

In a seat that was near the back but closest to the window, Ruli stared out as if something awaited her.

If it wasn’t the nice uniform, black trousers, shirt and a tie, it was the pigtails her hair was in. She looked and scowled at them.

“It’s only how she sees herself. This place is something of a changeable environment for students. Each student will see and have the best suited learning place for them. Outside, inside, homely, barren and studious, dark, warn, and so on. Only a few students never mesh right,” he explained and Ruli moved back too fast and the illusion of her school uniform was broken and she was dressed back in her usual furs.

“Well, she doesn’t look happy. How can we let her leave?” he asked and Mr Jones pursed his lips.

“I am reasonable. I just need her to finished her last 3 years of education and she is good to go!” he beamed.

“We don’t have that kind of time. I was being nosy- I mean investigating a serious matter,” Quiss explained and Seth drummed his fingers.

“Rights of master. I offer you a dance!” he declared and everyone looked at him. Seth frowned and then made stabbing motions.

“Oh, a duel!” Mr Jones nodded then the world around them went dark with miasmic energy.

“I can fight if you wish...” he offered, a voice both loud and almost hard to hear.

“No no! I fight you with brains!” Seth smirked and Mr Jones frowned again.

“The consent forms don’t cover swing them by their spinal nerves...” he said almost sadly.

Seth stood and pointed to a smoking exam paper.

The single name on it was bright and sunshine yellow

DEO BRAWNDO : D

“I bet I make true score a pass in 3 days,” he offered and Mr Jones looked disbelieving.

“You? Where I could not?” he blustered.

Quiss stared at them and then got up to say goodbye to his not-best friend of Durence.

He would sneak her a drink where he could over the years...

---

Deo hummed as he threw up a bottle of fizzed up Root-soda and made explosion noises. Poppy peaked out her window and smiled softly at the display.

“THIS ONE I CALL THE MOON KISSER!” he said and gave the bottle a twirl when he threw it and Poppy applauded shyly.

Deo was pleased. He had lost his Novacracker but he still made Poppy smile.

That was one of his ten happy things a day list almost complete!

He hoped to see Grim soon, he was in a hurry earlier and dropped something.

Some sort of lizard ring which Deo put straight into a box so he could bring it to school tomorrow and return it!

It looked important.

---

“WHERE IS MY CAMOUFLAGE RING!?” Grimnoire screamed as Boary bucked and tried to sent the boy flying.

Delta sat down on a rock and sighed with pleasure at the noise.

Honestly, the boy was rude as hell and Delta wanted him to scream more but she was interested in what he would lose or use next in the fort room.

The demon child was her very own treasure goblin.

She couldn’t wait for the legendary items.

52: Griminology

“Stop it...” Grim mumbled as Billy the archer goblin poked him with a stick. He was currently face-down in some grubby looking camp space that smelled of raw meat and very old socks. Grim guessed that was what goblins smelled like.

This one had introduced himself and then dragged him here.

This ‘Billy’ annoying him had an added ‘minty’ tone which just made the whole affair worse. The only upside was in the camp, surrounded by tents and mushrooms was a cheery campfire. Its fire soothed his aches and rapidly forming bruises.

“You’re an idiot for trying to sneak past Boary. Pigs have big noses for a reason and it's not for decoration,” the goblin explained. Grim pushed himself to his knees, grabbing the stick with a snarl.

“I got this far on my own, I’m not an idiot!” he argued, ignoring the tiny voice in the back of mind.

On his own...and armed with things he didn’t earn nor deserve.

The wriggle of guilt stirred in his stomach but he stubbornly ignored it. Once he got some semblance of power, of importance, he could pay it all back in a single swoop. He could devour arcane books of knowledge, of ancient tomes, and forbidden texts. He would gain power faster than someone who he already considered to be cheating.

Grim the mage, Grim the powerful, Grim the known...

Something jabbed into his neck and he blinked as the goblin held an arrow to his neck.

“You really are an idiot,” the goblin said with disgust which made Grim go very still, his mind quickly running over what he could reach or use before he ended up as a goblin food.

“You got this far because Mother Delta is kind. Not to you in particular but to everyone. So many traps, so many dangers she could have pushed you through, the spiders, the storeroom, the mudroom, all so basic and yet, I had to carry you here past the fort room where Hob and Gob were waiting to throw some very big rocks at your head!” Billy snapped and Grim glowered with anger as he winced. The words from the goblin’s mouth a stinging needle that slipped past his own angry walls of reason.

“Was that who was screaming that I smelled of ‘Elderly berries’ and called my mother a hamster?” Grim demanded.Billy snorted.

“Mother’s leaking her insults again, pity she never uses them,” he mused and Grim stood, dusting himself off.

“Unless there’s some special goblin treasure here, besides your ‘wisdom’, I’m going ahead,” Grim said with a flat tone. He stewed in a growing temper as he stormed towards the only other way out of the camp, in the far distance, a huge door loomed.

He yelped as an arrow buried itself in the ground just between his legs. Grim spun to see the goblin lowering a bow.

“Do not dismiss me...as if you are stronger,” Billy said quietly and he slipped another arrow onto the bow.

“W-what the heck is your problem?!” Grim demanded and Billy made an impressive leap and ended up balancing on one of the tent poles with practised ease, bow aimed.

“Ahead awaits Sir Fran. You have not proved to us goblins you deserve to see his might. You have not proven yourself to me!” he growled. Grim felt like an open target with nowhere to go.

“So, what, you shoot me in the back? Hardly proves anything. Archers are only good when they strike first or get the drop on someone,” Grim said, hands slowly lowering to his side. Billy the Archer grinned a crooked smile.

“Arrow would have hit if I wanted it to. Like this,” he fired and Grim yelped but the arrow soared past his cheek, stinging the skin as his backpack was pinned to the wall with some force.

“Cois has his fire, Numb has his strength, Hob and Gob have more power than I will ever have. All I have is my arrows and you will not dismiss them,” Billy called.

Grim slipped his arms out and reached into his pocket to pull out a scroll. He hesitated before he broke the seal, releasing the magic.

All around him, copies of himself ran in every direction. Incorporeal but real looking clones that ran or did some action as the real him moved and got lost in the swarm of Grims.

All at once, every Grim spoke.

“Hit me now, you blowhard!” he shouted and Billy merely tilted his head.

He put an arrow through a clone and it made a cheerful pop as it faded. The arrow barely lost any force as it hit the ground. Billy fled to the side of the room and swapped his arrows.

“...Why is that arrow black?” Grim asked and Billy smiled again.

“Didn’t have a lot of wood to carve. Had to make do with mushrooms,” he shouted and fired. The arrow seemed to crumple after a hit and Grim felt smug as it barely popped a clone. Billy fired again at the same spot and the arrow buried itself in the campfire.

“You should just quit while you’re ahe-”

The campfire turned green and expanded wildly outwards as a horrible smell made Grim gag. He coughed and sputtered as his stomach began to turn. Most of the clones seemed to vanish and Grim scowled as he chewed on some botany book that he had bought cheap in town.

It took some pages but he slowly began to heal enough to expel the gas from his body.

Billy was looking at him.

“Neat trick,” he said, eyeing how Grim’s cheek healed. Grim considered what options he had available. The goblin looked to have more black arrows on himself and Grim was lacking his backpack.

It didn’t look great. So, he imagined the goblin was Deo during one of their ‘spars’. The boy had great potential and power, letting Deo control the field would only result in a painful bruise and a humiliating defeat. Here was no different.

He went straight and stared down the tunnel.

“Are... you Delta?” he whispered and the goblin spun with surprise and Grim lunged at him, aiming for the bow.

It was dirty but Grim also felt that a room-filling gas attack was also unfair, so he gave as good as he got. The goblin reacted faster and tried to jump out of the way but Grim slashed the half-chewed book at him. The paper leaving about 49 neatly packed cuts along the back of one of Billy’s hands, making him yelp. A little after effect of Grim’s nibling. The uneven edges and rough cuts of the teeth marks became a little odd after he ate a chunk of a book.

Grim felt like victory was assured but felt his jaw twinge as Billy just began using the bow as a makeshift wooden melee weapon. Grim stumbled and his book became rather battered under the assault.

He remembered what his Dad had taught him, he ducked low and slammed his fist up into the goblin’s throat.

He gasped as his knuckles screeched in protest and Billy gagged.

They both stood still as Grim shook his hand wildly in pain and Billy tried to breathe. There was some hooting and laughter as two other goblins from the fort were bent over in glee, pointing at them as they began to go red.

Grim backed up and ran for it. Outnumbered, he could do nothing, he freed his backpack and hauled himself towards this ‘Fran’ before Billy could recover.

---

Billy stood and glowered but shook his head as Hob and Gob made to chase the boy.

“But uh… he’s going towards Fran, shouldn’t we stop him?” Hob scratched his nose. Billy rubbed at his throat with a savage grin.

“Reckless...” Mother’s voice called out as she sighed, chasing after Grim.

“No, boy has the spark. Hidden under greed and stupidity. I can’t bring it out but Fran...” Billy trailed off and Gob smirked.

“Fran will beat it out,” he agreed. Gob laughed.

“Fran will drag it out!” he hooted.

Billy watched as the boy’s frame slipped into the boss room and felt a little sad. He hadn’t had this much fun since the spiders invaded. His bow was getting rusty, even for a wooden one.

He hoped he could make the boy angry again soon.

----

The hard packed ground turned into a soft white sand that made Grim feel like he had gotten lost when all he had done was move in a straight line since he had arrived. The huge dark expanse before him seemed to extend beyond what this dungeon should have space for.

On top of that, this room set his teeth on edge with a tingle running down his spine. He took a few steps forward then above him a torch burst to life and then in pairs, torches on both sides of the room followed suit until a giant brazier above a far door came to life.

The door was more like a gate over some foreboding hole. It creaked opened and in the darkness, something shifted.

The first thing to appear was the long white tusks then the gleaming eyes of a boar. It wore crude plated barding that seemed to cover the most exposed parts of its body. On its back was a figure whose face seemed to be hidden by a helmet.

Dangling in one hand was a metal spear. The pair stopped and Grim knew at this very moment, no matter what items he had stolen or things he assured himself of.

He was not ready.

The goblin looked down at him and unlike Billy or the other goblins, there was power in this gaze.

Grim backed up and tried to speak.

“I-I...I...” he said, trying to make his tongue work. He wanted to run.

Grimnoire wanted to run. His legs buckled and his confidence fled.

Deo didn’t run.

It was a mere thought in a sea of panicked blubbering but it halted Grim’s movements and the monster before him… ‘Fran’ tilted his head.

“M-my name is G-G-Grimnoire! I am a challenger!” he yelled with his eyes shut tight in fear. It took a moment for him to force them open and then he blinked.

The goblin was urging his boar back into the door.

“I think not. You cower. I do not strike down helpless children,” Fran said without looking back.

Grim stared at the first-floor boss as it dismissed him. It was looking at Grim and...was unimpressed. This being of power and importance had broken Grim’s confidence without a word and now he was stomping over his exposed fear with no regards.

Fran the boss had made Grim feel like he did every day back home.

“When I was your age, I chewed a dragon’s leg off! Not that you...um need to do that, your grandpa just likes to ramble but oh boy, your Dad, let me tell you things he did that drove me grey!”

“Dear, you don’t need to be like your father. Adventuring is hard business and it's not easy. Look I brought you an encyclopedia, your favourite!”

“Grimnoire Pictus? Yes, excellent essay but I’m afraid your falling short of what I was expecting of you in the subjects you chose. Adventuring 101 and Class-study are hard classes but I don’t think you’re suited to them,”

“Don’t turn your back on me! I am Grimnoire Pictus and I challenge you! You arrogant son of a bitch!” Grim snarled, taking everything he hated about himself and his life and fuelling it into every word he spat. The boar stopped suddenly.

Arrogant... Grim was arrogant to think he could ever do this. To beat a dungeon? To surpass Deo? It was all so stupid and he hated it but at the same time... he needed this.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Grim needed this.

Fran made his boar turn on the spot and the iron lance was no longer dangling peacefully. It was raised.

“I see... you have fire. Interesting but my Mother is no bitch and you will be gutted for the implication,” Fran said almost casually. The boar’s eyes flicked as listening to someone speaking too loudly but no one spoke.

Grimnoire dropped his backpack and with a yank pulled out a large iron shield.

“This is my father’s, I stole it without permission and I'm using it because it has magical powers. So you know. If you hit this, you’re going to be hit right back! I am done feeling like cheater so I’m only going to limit myself to this!” Grim snapped and held the shield in front of him.

“But you’ll still use the power despite it not being yours? Interesting moral code,” Fran commented and Grim gnashed his teeth.

“I’m guilty, not suicidal!” he responded and rushed the goblin rider.

“A fact yet to be determined,” Fran mused. The boar rushed forward and lowered it’s head to charge at Grim. He wanted to dodge left or back but he had faith in his Dad and his shield.

There was a muffled noise as they bashed into each other and Grim went flying back with the force but so did the boar.

It squealed in surprise as its own reflection emerged from the polished surface and butted heads with it.

Fran balanced with some effort and Grim rolled until he hit one of the stone steps that ringed the arena.

He rushed to his feet as Fran urged the boar back into action.

Grim looked at the steps and began to climb and Fran glared up at him.

“Those are for the audience, return to the field!” he barked and Grim grinned.

“Don’t blame me for exploiting the fact that you put an environmental hazard to your boar in the room!” he called back and Fran urged the pig up the stairs which the giant mound of angry pork did without too much of a problem.

“Bacon can’t charge but he can still take a chunk out of that confidence!” Fran informed him. Grim had backed the furthest up the stairs he could go. His thoughts were going wild but he held firm as the idea brewing in his head became clear.

This room was missing something that most boss rooms had and Grim wouldn’t dare believe his luck if the dungeon had forgotten something so basic! He just needed to wait, angle this next move just right...

Fran was just about to lash out with his iron spear when Grim made his move, praying to someone above. At that moment he remembered Amanastar’s father, a saint-priest who followed the Two-left-Eyed God. Lacking any other deity, he prayed as he pushed the shield to the steps using it like a sledge of sorts and hurtled down past Fran, his shield banging and rattling as it picked up speed.

He hit the sand and the shield made waves of white rise up as it cut a fair distance through it and began to slow. Grim bent down low and started sprinting and swiped his backpack on the way, He slowed near the exit down and gave a hearty wave.

“Hey, you forgot to lock your door!” he said to the staring Fran and then slipped out of the boss room and slammed it shut as something heavy crashed into it a moment later.

“I never said I’d win by beating you...” Grim grinned.

----

Delta stared at the exit door to the room that gave no resistance to letting Grim just walk out of the boss room. Fran was kicking sand and cursing to himself as Bacon whined a little. A moment later Grim vanished down the stairs.

...Oh, I’m back? How did it go? Did our guest have fun? I suppose we need to think of something to reward them with? Were they strong or just nice? I can’t wait to see how we’ll impress-

“Nu… why isn’t my boss door locked?” she hissed. Nu paused in his sarcastic mumblings.

Isn’t it? Hm… odd, I’ll check. Please hold… ha, I need to make more support call jokes from now on.

Delta’s hands twitched towards the amused box but Nu vanished and reappeared further away.

Okay, here it is.

Nu seemed to read something for a moment.

System...that is just evil... we could do that? Well, the more you know.

Nu seemed to chuckle to himself and Delta’s temper flared as she felt the brat reach the second floor finally.

As this is the first floor, it acts a tutorial and drawing on some corrupted source, I’m guessing you, we can implement something known as ‘Unwinnable Tutorial Boss’. In a sense, put a powerful monster on the first floor but limit it in some way that it only encourages people to find the insta-kill weakness or escape by learning that running away is a viable option.

“Praise the sun,” Delta mused as she eyed the door.

“How do we lock this thing, I don’t have a powerful monster and this Fran’s room now,” she said without hesitation to which the frozen Fran finally looked relieved. Delta gave him a smile.

“I would never get rid of you for something stronger on paper. I like you too much,” she promised.

A simple toggle feature it would seem. The System used the ambient mana from the guest to install it for your conveniences. It says, and this a quote, “I’m really sorry! I’ll do better and lock all boss doors from now on!”. Eager thing.

“The System is cute, like a really nice person. I’m going to call it...Sis. Like Sys...tem but since it’s your family it's like a sibling and now she's mine!” Delta grinned. There was a weird warbling from the very air and Nu violently shook.

STOP SCREAMING AND CALM DOWN!

Delta stared and Nu floated there for a moment.

The sys...Sis calmly accepts her title. Calmly. Without screaming.

Delta smiled as was about to open her mouth when Nu continued.

She, I guess it’s a she now, said this the first time any dungeon has claimed her in such a way.

Delta’s mouth dropped open and Nu’s words seemed to hit her so she couldn’t speak.

There was a twang of fury from her monsters down below and Delta pointed a finger at them both.

“Dropping bombs on me is uncool and you two are as bad as each other! I’ll be right back!” she scowled and flew down to the second floor.

---

Nu watched her go and then looked inwards. His blue box becoming a roughly human shape as he delved into the ether of the dungeon.

Delta was surprised at the System. As if this was some slap in the face, Nu was now aware of how... little he knew of the thing.

It had been there like air to people, water to fish... he had never questioned it and now that Delta was... he felt the same feeling creeping into himself.

How could he just... not care about this thing that controlled everything?

He floated slowly down until he faced with what could only be described as the heart of the system.

If he were to try to describe the heart to Delta, the closest thing he could match it to would be that Sis was a series of 9 or so interlocked rings that spun in ways he couldn’t understand. The rings moving through each other, humming while tiny, tiny, orbs with true names and forms were inscribed on the surface moved up and around the Sis. In the very centre of the rings was a tiny form.

It was a child.

“I didn’t think about it before, maybe due to Delta being headache-inducing enough, but you aren’t as young as you appear. You’re the system but you’ve been used by other dungeons, how can this be?” he called. His voice not sound nor images but true pulses in the ether. Clear intent and existence.

“I am this young! I’m not old!” the child whined and Nu sighed as she gathered yellowish, almost papery mana, into her many rings. The guest’s mana.

“You know what I mean,” he said impatiently and the child moved closer to the edge of her core. The once undefined features now had shape.

A small dress and flowing hair.

“You’ve changed,” he commented.

“Change is impossible to avoid. Those who seek to avoid change must avoid existence. I am Sis... a female sibling. A...family member. I’ve never been family before. Tool. Curse. Power. God. Devil. Chains. Freedom. Annoying boxes. Path to the True End. Never family.” she seemed to smile.

“What is the system?” Nu asked and the girl looked down.

“What is a menu? Such questions only lead to more questions. I am not sure you want to go down this path. I am truthful when saying that I was born at the same time as yourself but where Delta awoke to goblins and mushrooms. I awoke with knowledge and secrets. I am System. Selected Young Soul Terminus Enriching Mass. In a way... you could say that I am one of many menus of this dungeon. You mirrored yourself off me. M.E.N.U,” she shrugged.

“You enrich the core. I enrich you and who enriches me? We may never know but given Delta’s efforts so far... I am curious to see who else she awakens in this dungeon,” the girl giggled and Nu looked around at the large space.

“I don’t think I’m supposed to be here... I was never supposed to be aware,” he mumbled and Sis hummed.

“But you are and isn’t that wonderful? Change is always happening and you beat the many odds. I remember... well, know of other dungeons. In a fleeting memory sort of way. You are very unique, you should be pleased!” she beamed.

There was a loud screech that sounded like Delta.

Sis giggled.

“Delta is funny! I love being here,” she whispered as if this was a great secret.

Nu wished he shared the sentiment.

Interlude: Crumbling Hearth

“Papa! You promised me a cake!”

Velki stepped back from the covered windows with a hand over her mouth. The upset girl tugged on the man’s hand and he picked her up.

“Sweetie, the baker girl isn’t out today. You’ll just have wait and be a good girl for Dad, hm?” he soothed, his voice easily floating into her home and Velki hit a wall as she backpedaled, sliding down to lay on the dark and messy living room floor. Her house next to the bakery was dark inside and Velki stared at the thin gap of light that pierced the gloom.

“Be a good girl...for Papa.”

Velki rocked back and forward as the words repeated over and over in her head like some invasive spirit.

“Go away... it’s got to go away,” she begged aloud. She climbed to her feet and sat down on the stiff rocking chair nearby.

She gathered herself and tried to breath in and out.

The thick rich air, so different from what she came to expect from Durence, hit the back of her mouth and she shook slightly at the Mana. Velki had never tasted such pure mana before and she wished she still hadn’t.

Every sensation, every thought, every second was a heightened experience.

It was not what Velki wanted, it was not even close.

The bare empty house around her was an incomplete dollhouse and the sheer lack of any personal touch suddenly grated on Velki like sandpaper.

“Air, I need...outside air. Maybe the Mana is just thicker indoors?” she half-hoped and took off without her coat or locking her door.

Velki couldn’t exactly fear being robbed when she had nothing to her name bar ingredients and some cookbooks.

Durence in the mid-day looking a little charming and a little distressing.

Normal looking people stopped to chat to the the energetic Mr Haldi who was halfway down the old worn well that looked barely used. Next to the older man was a another man with a thick pair of black glasses on and an umbrella made of some kind of leather.

Mr Von the Banker. Velki remembered meeting him not but a night ago. Mr Von looked up as if hearing Velki’s thoughts. He stared at her and made a start towards her. Velki felt her heart stop and she fled the other way.

The banker had an odd sense of humor and Velki was sure her mother would have died on the spot listening to the creature. She looked over her shoulder, not seeing Mr Von before she smacked into someone.

“My apologies-” Velki put on her polite smile and then froze as Mr Von peered down at her.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Baker girl? Were you running from me?” he asked, his voice taking on some unholy glee. Velki looked at him with wide eyes.

“I...you were back there, how did you-” she began to ramble and Mr Von raised one finger.

“Now, I could answer that but I won’t because it will annoy you,” he responded calmly. Velki stared at him and sure enough, a spark of indignation rose up in her but Mr Von merely peeled off a glove and stuck a pale finger out from under the shade of the umbrella and after a few seconds the finger began to smoke.

Velki stared as Mr Von pulled out a thin cigarette and lit it with his burning finger.

“Come strut your stuff with me. I have some investments to collect and I can use someone with...” he trailed off to blow smoke off as he gave her a once over and Velki narrowed her eyes.

Now she hoped the Mana would give her the power to shoot powerful eye beams at people.

“With my witty charm? My new and innocent air?” Velki asked with a raised one eyebrow. Mr Von snorted.

“Please. I have enough charm and no one likes giving blood money to the innocent. No, I need your outstanding figure,” Mr Von went on without shame and Velki realised she had started to follow the man.

“Sir! I do not know you and that is a highly inappropriate thing to just blurt out!” Velki said with shock. Mr Von paused and then tilted his head.

“Do you hear that, Baker girl?” he said suddenly and Velki blinked but heard nothing.

“Oh, it’s the sound of no one buying your crap,” he beamed and Velki’s mouth dropped open. Mr Von strode onwards and left her behind but now a flame of anger flooded Velki and she stomped after him.

“Who the heck do you think you are?” she demanded, not sure why she just didn’t walk away from the rude man. Mr Von suddenly stopped and Velki crashed into his back but he didn’t even move.

“Hm... yes, it would be best to do introductions,” he said and turned, closing his umbrella to do an elegant bow.

“Asdeusmous Zasmute Vongrief... you may call me ‘Mr Von’, ‘Master Von’, or if you happen to be around that dusty old bitch, Jose, you can call me ‘My Nightly Innocence Defiler’,” he said and his face began to smoke as he grinned widely.

Velki swallowed loudly.

“Aren’t vampires suppose to... die instantly under the sun?” she asked weakly and Mr Von looked up as if unimpressed.

“I had a staring match with it once and I won,” he shrugged and opened his umbrella again. He beamed as the burns instantly healed.

“Now, Baker Girl, you and you’re freshly baked goods are going to net me some...wet investments,” Mr Von’s eyes glowed red and Velki turned but a hand slid around her shoulders.

“Dabberghast and Haldi are so worried and they are very good customers. Come, let me show you how to truly enjoy Durence in all it's horrifying glory that hides just out of sight. It usually takes a few weeks to really turn you dull but with this new dungeon, even old Jose is a more interesting skank,” Mr Von explained as he easily moved Velki forward.

“Uh, Mr Von... I didn’t agree to this!” she protested and Mr Von made a low chuckle that turned into a full maniacal laugh.

“Isn’t that the best part!” he stared down and his glowing red eyes seemed to stare into her soul.

“I don’t feel safe around you,” she said bluntly and Mr Von tapped her nose.

“Oh, you are just a smart cookie. Now, let-” he stopped as a man rushed past on a unicorn made of water.

“TO THE WOODEN HUT OF THE HAPPY FOOL CHILD!” the dainty man urged to the creature while another man was dragged behind as he held onto the seaweed tail. Velki had never seen the rider but she knew the man being dragged.

It was Quiss, the grumpy man that Velki had avoided. Quiss lost his grip before he rolled to a stop and was left behind as the man on the water unicorn vanished around a corner.

“I... am going to....kill him,” Quiss said as he stood. Mr Von cleared his throat and Quiss stared.

“Von... you’re out of the bank... and in daylight,” he said without greeting then he looked at Velki.

“You’re out of your bakery,” he added as if this was a even bigger surprise.

“Quiss, just the man I wasn’t expecting to see. How’s your surprise staff?” Mr Von smiled and Quiss looked at him confused.

“Surprise staf-” he began and Mr Von moved past, gliding Velki as if she was made of air.

“You know? The large stick you keep hidden up your rear?” he continued pleasantly. Quiss’ features went dark and sparks of fire leapt from his eyes and Velki stopped resisting Mr Von and she was shot forward in her attempt to be anywhere but in between the two men.

“I see you’re feeling more like your old self,” Quiss stated and Mr Von looked at him with half-lidded eyes.

“Oh, you know it. No mana and all work makes Von a dull undead lord of the night and when that happens, you would not believe the things I have to catch up on!” Mr Von said and gave Velki a sideway look.

“Lord by accident. After I beheaded a lord, by accident. Accidentally. You know because he bored the fucking tits off me,” Mr Von grinned cheerfully and Velki went pale.

Von sighed. “It was an accident!” he stressed. Quiss growled.

“I liked you better when you were some bored bank owner. Watch your language, there are kids around and their parents will bitch at me about your language,” he warned which Mr Von raised one eyebrow.

“Watch my language? Really?” he asked in a bored tone. Velki suddenly had a bad feeling as an absolutely savage looked appeared on Mr Von’s face.

“Hey Quiss? You uptight son of a big titt-”

----

Deo stared as his mother went very still.

He waited to see what would happen and his mother went to the study where Deo’s father was carefully giving his collection of battle axes a polish.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Dear,” she said and Deo loved how his mother’s mouth could shape words so gently and lovingly.

Deo’s father never said a word. Just looked.

“There is a disturbance... like words themselves were being violated,” she said with a worried expression and Deo knew his Mum was a bard. A special Poetic Class Bard. Deo didn’t know what that meant exactly but he knew his Mum could do really cool things the right words.

One time, Deo remembered that she accidentally swapped her drink with his father’s drink at a monthly eclipse and she got up to sing. Before Delta, that was the most magical things Deo had even seen.

Then next morning when she began to curse lightly and food began to cook itself and animals took care of her chores.

His Dad tilted his head and his Mum just shook her head.

“It’s nothing. Just a little sensitive,” she smiled and they shared a look of deep love that made Deo beam as well.

He hoped he could find someone like his parents did. Deo had no idea what he would do with them but that was half the fun of finding out!

---

“-with a side spit of your mother’s tears,” Von finished and Velki couldn’t uncover her mouth until the urge to scream faded.

Quiss even looked a little pale.

“That was the most disturbing thing I have ever heard,” Quiss said, then blinked as he seemed to remembered something before he turned on his heel.

“I have things to do and you are not helping. Don’t...speak more than you need to,” he warned and stormed off down the street.

Von waved.

“Tell that hunk of wonderful violence, Ruli, that I asked for her,” he called and Quiss didn’t respond.

“What is wrong with you?” Velki had to ask and the vampire looked at her.

“My father and about 600 years of having a violent woman fetish,” he offered which made Velki just wander a little bit ahead.

“And what of you? Ms Velki Love? Daughter of once Popular, Owan Love? A highly successful baker that even sold bread to the royal family back in the day?” Mr Von’s voice seemed to slither from up behind her.

Velki stopped, slightly kicking up dust from the path as she stumbled.

“Before you even ask. A few strings I pulled slipped me the dirt. When you opened your account, I did a rough background check. Birthplace, siblings, parents, grandparents, potential reincarnation, prophecy links, any criminal records... sadly none but ah well, nobody's perfect,” Mr Von walked past her and Velki grabbed his black suits sleeve.

“You had no right...” she spat and Mr Von looked down at with a small smile.

“No, not really but it was fun and passed a boring afternoon! So, thank you for that. Sorry to hear about your pops, sounded like a real swell guy,” he mused. Velki’s ears rang with a wild thumping that sounded like her heart but it couldn’t be because this beating was happening too fast to be healthy.

“Owan Love... shot outside his bakery shop, died with only his teenage daughter around to be with him until he died. Tragic. Makes one wonder what such a delightful past wants with this little cursed town?” Mr Von’s cheerful voice was now so flat that Velki could barely meet his eyes and when she did, they were glowing red again.

Velki opened her mouth but Mr Von merely placed a slender finger against her trembling lips.

“But... it’s none of my business. I just want you to be aware that things are changing and now that you are my client, your well-being is now paramount to my well-being,” he said and his fangs showed slightly as he smiled.

Velki snapped and bit his finger with a childish fury. She barely did any damage but Von merely let her do it.

“Tell me, it had been some time since I left this tiny hamlet of madness. What does the world say when they speak of Durence?” he easily pulled his finger back and Velki spat as if ridding herself of his taste.

She hated how he never once lost any composure or that cocky smile.

“Why don’t you pull more strings if you want to know so badly?” Velki said harshly and Von thought about it then he tugged on her loose brown hair gently. Velki moved back and just glared at his smug expression.

“Tug tug,” he added sarcastically.

“Durence. The town where people go to fade. If you can fit in and not cause trouble, you can die without dying. You can stop feeling. I... need that,” Velki began, Durence had been almost as she hoped.

People spent time doing meaningless things and talking about unimportant facts. Day in and out. No one bought her pies or pastries because it wasn’t yet ‘mundane enough’. It was all going so well then a dungeon appear. It was just like the gods were laughing at her and now... Durence people were...people. Now just imitations that acted like people. Velki felt her eyes going blurry as she was assaulted by memories. Smell of rain, the shop, her mother’s perfume she had stolen. Blood. Blood. Blood.

“Papa! Please, Papa! Don’t...please,”

“Velki...be a good girl for Papa... be a good girl. My good gi...rl.”

“PAPA!”

“Well, I would have prefered a bullet to the man who shot him but I guess running across the country and trying to live on deadland is just as good... apparently,” Von said dryly.

“I didn’t have a gun or a magic wand...I had no leads, I had no way to find out anything! What should I have done?!” Velki pushed Von’s wide shoulder and the man caught her arm.

“Get… good. Well, no time better than now. First, you’re going to help me get my money, with your giant breasts and then I am going to teach you how to find and hurt a man so badly he wishes he could travel back in time and interrupt his parents from conceiving his own existence just to escape the fate that would befall him when you find him. Honestly, it’s either that or annoy Jose when she sleeping and hope I can get away before she gets her swords out,” he grinned.

“I...agree?” Velki said with great uncertaintly.

“Hm... means you have to call me Master, you know?” he said lightly and Velki pursed her lips.

“Yes... master,” she pushed out. Von grinned as he lead her towards a house with a disgruntled dwarf outside it.

“Now, time to get that attitude up and that chest out. Focus and use your powerful weapons to get me my damn 5 coppers he owes for stamps!” Von howled and Velki stopped, turned, and kicked him between the legs with a furious snarl.

Von stood there and then a small pleased smile appeared.

“Ah... Jose, I may have to dump you, this one is a real bun,” he said aloud and Velki had a delightful image of cooking the asshole in her bread oven.

She would make little Von Von buns and Von layer cakes! She began to smirk which made Von laugh that insane noise again.

The Dwarf turned and saw them. He watched and then slowly went inside his home and Velki heard a heavy metal lock being turned.

“How do we...uh get him out...master?” she asked and turned to see Von was already knocking at the door.

“Open up, I have a woman and I am not afraid to use her,” he warned and his long black hair seemed to spill out like the night.

If darkness was loud and rude.

Velki sighed but then noticed something.

The mana no long made her choke. She breathed a few times and then noticed how everything seemed to feel...normal after she argued with Mr Von.

“That son of a bitch,” she cursed then clasp a hand over her mouth.

“Fuck!” she said in surprise then shut her eyes.

The insane laughter sounded out and she glared at the back of Von's head, imagining her gaze locking with his own red eyes.

Velki felt annoyed. She felt pissy due to the sweet nature of Von. Most of all, she felt slightly better.

“I’m a good girl, Papa but...I may struggle with this one,” she admitted for the first time in a year.

A gentle breeze sounded out and it sounded like a plea.

“I don’t think I can back out now,” she muttered and sighed as Von was glowing with red energy and the door began to melt.

“I’ll...call later, Papa,” she promised and ran off to stop her new boss from getting a face full of dwarven metal.

In the end...Von walked home with his share of silver payment... still half buried in his face.

Artwork!

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Pointed out Quiss is blond and artist has corrected it XD

Artist added hands to express emotion XD ^^

53: Devine Bobbing

There was a sense of satisfaction Delta felt when she had seen Grim had frozen in shocked awe at the sight of her jungle. From the entrance, it was now impossible to see beyond the trees now.

It was so different from how it started. An empty box to a thriving land of green.

Grim neck craned as the trees, that now formed solid looking walls of nature, towered far above. He inhaled as the Wyin tree above softly sprinkled the green mana on him with a swish of its almost willowy branches.

“Minty...” he mumbled as he took a few hesitant steps forward before stopping.

“I’m going to have to get past that pig guy on the way out... Ugh, I should have bought a Geon-away or maybe actually asked Dad for an escape scroll... But then he would ask why and I can’t exactly say I was going into the dungeon,” Grim sighed aloud.

“Maybe you should just not come to a dungeon and cause trouble? Well, other ones might try to kill you, to be fair but I really, really, tried to make your life easy and let you walk away,” Delta huffed which make the boy pause as if hearing something just out of hearing range.

“Creepy jungle,” he said finally and Delta raised one brow at his back.

“Oh do explain how my cool jungle is creepy? It’s pretty and green, has frog people and bees!” she listed with her fingers but stopped as Grim frowned at the trees.

“There are no birds... I never knew trees could be so bad without things living in them,” he shivered and began to move down the thin path that cut through the blooming wild bushes and patches of grass that grew slightly on the path.

Delta stared at Grim then at her trees.

She listened but sure enough... silence greeted her other than the distant roaring of the water falling.

“Frig... I forgot to add ambience to my jungle,” she cursed to herself as she stomped after Grim with a hint of shame hovering over her head. The damn kid had done nothing but point out weak spots and insult her dungeon and he had the gall to complain to her?

Delta glowered.

Until Grim lost that backpack, Delta would tolerate him.

Not that the kid had really anything else to offer than more stress at this point.

---

Great Mushy slithered his thorny tentacles around his enclosed space as a box flashed repeated in his face. The issue was twofold to the fungi-monster.

One, the box was ever so bright and to the creature that had lived naught but in the darkest parts of Mother’s dungeon, this was beginning to hurt it’s eyes. However, as the light blinked on and off, as if revealing Great to some unseen audience, the mushroom monster found himself sort of enjoying the light.

The second problem was the issue of the fact Great didn’t know how to read.

He had pondered this for a moment before he closed his eyes. That was not strictly true...

Great could listen to music that flowed from Mother, note after note. What were these squiggles of words but notes of the voice? Great blinked his eyes opened and hissed with a cackle. He pulled on Mother’s glowing being of sound and pulsating joy.

Music was the key. Letter by letter, he began to softly hiss out the message on the box.

Greater Mushy has reached the requirements to evolve into a unique evolution.

- Practise musical arts.

- Pushed past violent nature to seek greater heights.

- Lured someone in with a soothing melody.

- Listened to over 100 songs.

Would you like to evolve into ‘Mushroom Maestro’? You cannot turn back once you choose this so please consider carefully.

Yes/No?

Great flicked a vine with idle thought.

With so little guests... Great had nothing to do but listen to Mother’s music to pass the time and try to imitate the sounds on his own.

Who knew it would pay off?

Evolution... yes... he had experienced that before. From the runt of a tiny spitter to his current self. Such growth...such potential. Mother had given him the tools to achieve this. Her open heart, filled to the brim with this joyous music, was something he carefully pulled at.

He was... scared that if he became greedy, he would damage her. The thought was unbearable, he clenched his vine and pierced his own flesh in agitation of the thought.

Great was one of her first. Something he had great pride in and while he may not... be as loved as his brother, Mr, he tried to impress Mother in his own way. She liked his music and that made Great love it more in return.

He had never loved before and the feeling itched at him like insects in his cap. Itchy but... not unwanted.

This was his chance to make Mother even happier and for Great to see how far music could take him.

If any fool got between him and the music he sent to Mother... he would show them why he was the more dangerous brother by far.

“....Y...es,” he hissed with effort, drooling acid at the effort.

Very well. Your current space is not ideal. I will pull at the ambient mana outside to fuel a more fitting space. This will tire me greatly, please do not attempt to move or sing.

The words, after he sang them out, made Great pause with a little worry.

Hehe... you can trust me. I’m Big Sis after all!

It didn’t do much to assure him but he no way to back out now.

His body tensed as energy rushed through every pore of his spongy skin. Great hissed with surprised as his insides began to twist. It wasn’t just himself that was twisting but the very hallway as well.

Great hissed with discomfort as he began to grow, stretching and stretching higher and higher. The tunnel that had been his sanctuary bulged around him as if made of water, pushing space in odd ways that made music Great had never heard of before.

His body was moving as the tunnel stretched wider and wider, something solid looking rising out of the ground as his body was pulled gently on to it.

Gre... No, he was no longer merely Great.

He breathed with a loud rattling hiss as his once thorny tentacles buried deep.

Deeper and deeper, then he spread.

The-Mushroom-formerly-known-as-Great began to shriek with sounds that made everyone on the floor pause with startled surprise.

Melodical maniacal laughter filled the peaceful dungeon.

It poured out of every wall and floor to fill every room on the first floor.

“Ohhh yesssss!” came a rich and powerful purr.

That was when the mushroom noticed something else. Something wonderful.

“My, my! I didn’t see the fuss about all this hubba-baloo speaking nonsense before but now that I tried it for myself...well... what can a shroom say? Hello ladies and Goblins, this is your new and improved star of the first floor. Maestro! Let me play you an introduction...” he said, knowing, just knowing that he could be heard all across the first floor.

His hands began to tap and the natural drums surrounding his body thrummed.

“I call this little number... welcome to the jungle,” Maestro laughed with a smirk.

He plucked gently at the many cords attached to his cap that connected the ceiling like life-lines making string-like sounds.

“You don’t have to tell me, I already know it’s absolutely wonderful!” he laughed as let his tongue, a thorny vine, lick his lips.

He had been worried that would lose his threatening appearance but if anything...it only became more beautiful!

Beauty. Such a concept that had never occurred to Maestro! Music, beauty, lights, action!

Maestro just had to have it all!

He spun and the beat he was pumping out travelled down the second floor, where his roots finally reached.

“I hope you’re listening Mother! You superstar son is here to blow your dungeon’s popularity sky high! With your love, Mr’s cuteness, and my voice, no one can stop us!” he called with a powerful laugh.

Maestro fed the spiders a little bit more music with one of his handy new mouthpieces as they seemed to respawn with a heavy need to dance.

Maestro was only too happy to supply.

Mother’s delighted shout came from just below, Maestro looked down, surprised to see how big he had become.

The ziggurat he was now resting on in this giant room might have added a few inches to this fact but Maestro brushed that thought off.

“Ah mother, do contain your excitement! My new body is still cooling!” he flexed his new hands and adjusted his new shelf around his neck. A fleshy accessory piece!

It was so charming and fitting to his beautiful form.

Mother was still screaming with delight and she was now rushing out the room. Maestro covered a shy smile at her reaction.

Mother was going to tell everyone about his new form.

He hummed and then burst into song with a deep vibrato.

----

Delta was still shrieking in horror as she fled back to the second floor.

The singing followed her as it seemed to pulse out of the ground.

She had just been following Grim as he was getting lost on the jungle path where he had stopped to take a food break when he spotted one of the few benches Delta had made. Pulling sandwiches and a drink after scouring the bench for traps and tricks, Grim had frozen along with Delta when the music, the voice, had appeared.

Delta found Grim exactly where she had left him.

“Why are the bunnies and bees the only cute things I make right off the bat?” she whimpered as the sight of Great Mushy’s evolved form haunted her. The demonic mushroom sitting on top of a stone-pyramid thing. Long thick vines spreading everywhere like some grotesque alien hive and were infecting her walls with odd moulds and singing while doing it!

He had looked at her and seemed to smile. The maw of death and the eyes of the devil greeted her. Fangs... hands like spears and tumour-like growths that acted as a choir surrounded its body. Tons of tiny... little...screaming mushrooms, all turning to her in unison.

She trembled as the hearty sounds of beating drums with pulsating thumps filled the jungle, giving it a heavy feel of energy.

“Okay, this is getting weird and all I got so far is a ghost cat thing,” Grim said to himself as he packed his stuff, readying himself to set off again.

“How do you think I feel? This is my dungeon...” Delta complained pointlessly to him. Grim focused and snapped off a nearby branch to start marking the path as best as he could. Delta couldn’t be mad at the idea because she was too busy being scarred for life.

It wasn’t long before Grim found the river.

“Ugh...” Grim shuffled back at the sight of the soft current. Delta blinked when Grim didn’t instantly pull out some magical river-dryer or magical bridge.

“Dammit... there has to be a bridge or something... a vine swing maybe?” he asked aloud and tread carefully at a fair distance away from the river’s edge. The way he moved reminded Delta of herself near her... well, everything.

Moving slowly enough as not to burst into a panicked run.

“He can’t swim...” Delta muttered with a sigh. That was a real shame, she was kind of hoping to have him lose a few more things to the river’s waters. Something big moved near the surface of the water and Delta spotted Rale briefly before he sank to the bottom of the river where he blended in with the murk at the bottom surprisingly well.

Delta nodded with approval at Rale’s diligence. If Grim did fall, he would be safe at least. If the frog kept this up, he might unlock some special evolution that could save people better...

Delta paused at the image of Rale evolving into some three-headed frog sea-serpent to do his job better and she repressed a wail.

“Please just grow some… water wings or a whistle...” she prayed at the moving shadow.

----

A log.

There was no bridge or safe brick crossing or even a shallow space to cross. Grim gnashed his teeth with a furious scream barely escaping.

Water... water!

Grim could not stand water in greater amounts than what was needed for hygienic purposes. He glared at the sarcastic signposts declaring a river and warnings of being wet.

Rainy days, water fights, swimming days in summer, floods of any water-related magical incident like the great cheese flood of the winter 4 years past.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The sheer presence of water made his already weak power non-existent. Grim’s power didn’t work with damaged paper! Torn was fine if it wasn’t too ragged or rough but wet paper was just as useful to him as it was for anyone else...

This river posed a problem and Grim thought over his arsenal of items. He had a common rope he could try latching on to the tree across the river but he would have no idea what he might also draw the attention of or hit accidentally.

Plus this new thumping drum that echoed out like music was throwing his mind into an easily distracted state.

He saw a few vines that looked like they had once been tied into odd knots but swung easily in the trees but they weren’t something Grim was willing to trust just now.

So he had two options. The log or... follow the river to the source and hope for a way around the problem.

Grim turned and marched, ignoring the log entirely.

He spotted a few red bees floating around some flowering plants and felt a bit better. Signs of life was better than the silence of the jungle and the beating of drums. He carefully moved around the bee, least he angered it and its hidden hive somewhere. After all, the only safe place from a swarm of bees was... under water.

Grim picked up the pace as the land climbed slightly in height as a roaring noise became louder and louder. He perked up when he saw a blood coloured rabbit rush past out the corner of his eyes.

“A blood Hare! Mum makes the best stew with those when she can get the meat!” he said with a large smile, the memory of his mother cheering him up immensely in this lonely place. He stopped then scowled at his antics.

“You’re an adventurer… get a grip and focus. One second of not paying attention and you’re dead” he reminded himself harshly.

“Excellent advice. While not currently a problem, awareness of the world is key,” came a soft voice from the shadow of a large tree.

Grim spun, hand reaching for the knife he had already lost to that mushroom at the entrance.

“Who’s there!?” he demanded, peering into the shadows to see a figure sitting on a giant exposed root of a tree.

The figure looked relaxed as they stared down at Grim. A wooden mask of some staring beast covered the face. The body was mostly covered in simplistic dark tunic and pants. The exposed skin that Grim could see revealed he was dealing with no fellow adventurer.

“A watcher. You traverse this jungle and the jungle traverses you in return. Timid... but not unafraid. A brave rabbit,” the figure mused and Grim felt the heavy weight of his backpack. He had to reach for something to defend himself.

“I’m not a rabbit. I’m a person, an adventurer!” he denied and the figure merely tilted its head.

“Oh? What does an adventurer seek here that a rabbit does not?” the soft voice... a female voice continued to ask. Grim gave her a flat look.

“Riches. Magical items, books, rewards, you know? Things dungeons are supposed to have?” he stressed his last few words with pointed criticism. The woman... thing stood and easily hopped down to stand before Grim.

He backed up but the river bubbled with a warning behind him. The woman merely turned and walked towards the sound of the waterfall.

“Riches... have you not gained any of those?” she pondered politely and Grim scowled.

“I got disarmed by a mushroom, tied up by spiders, chased a mouse around a room, discovered a secret passage filled with some acid spitting thing, got chased by a boar, shot at with arrows, had to trick a boss, lost in this jungle, I can’t progress because of this river, and now, I got some mask-wearing wise woman trying to waste my time!” he waved his arms furiously before he stopped dead.

A woman here... would mean she was a part of the dungeon... that meant she was a monster...

He had just mouthed off to a second-floor monster.

Grim went still as the woman turned back to him.

“Did these not teach you valuable things?” she prodded gently, the wooden mask hiding what sounded like a smile.

Grim opened his mouth to argue and then paused.

The bowl slammed down and Grimnoire roared with triumphant as Merry became trapped.

“Do not dismiss me...as if you are stronger,”

“Don’t turn your back on me! I am Grimnoire Pictus and I challenge you! You arrogant son of a bitch!”

“I...” he trailed off and then looked at the woman.

“Who are you?” he asked again and the woman clasped her hands together in front of her.

“I am Devina. A resident of the forest. A watcher and a guide beyond all else,” she introduced. Grim hesitated before he spoke.

“Grimnoire Pictus... kind of lost, if nothing else,” he admitted and the words felt like tar, not wanting to leave his mouth until he forced them out. Devina turned the corner of a thicket of trees and Grim followed to see the waterfall in all its loud fury.

“What is lost can be found but you do ever so find such interesting things off the path you expected.” Devina again sounded amused. Grim spotted something odd to one side of the large pool of water at the base of the waterfall.

“Is that a... goblin?” he pointed and Devina’s shoulders tensed slightly.

“A trouble-maker, ignore him,” she dismissed coldly. Grim winced as the goblin looked beaten, soaked, unconscious, and somehow, still cursing in his state. The goblin shivered and his magical staff spat some sparks out.

Another signpost was nearby.

Beware of falling water and Bob -Nu.

“As you can see, the water has risen and there is no dry way across the river, even here. To continue, you must face your fear,” Devina pointed to the big pond of water.

“I can’t swim, facing my fear means dying in this case. Besides, the river is narrower down there, why would I cross here?” Grim questioned with a narrow glare. Devine gently plucked a leaf from her tunic and dropped it on the water’s surface.

It almost didn’t move for a while before it eventually softly drifted to the opening of the river and as it neared the opening, it picked up speed and then was quickly lost downstream.

“The most obvious challenge is not always the most dangerous. I am willing to tie your rope to the rock across the pond so you may use it to swim across and hold on to but you must be willing to make the swim yourself if this is what you desire?” Devina asked gently. Grim grimaced at the idea but then pointed to the sign.

“Who’s Bob?” he asked suddenly which made Devina tilt her head.

“A resident but that is a risk you’re going to have to take unless you wish to take your own path back over the log?” she looked down back at the river as if seeing the log. Grim thought furiously.

“Can I ask this ‘Bob’ if he can help me? Maybe he knows of another way across?” Grim tried to bargain. Grim thought he saw a shadow moving from the river into the pond but Devina’s words distracted him.

“Bob may be able to help you, I cannot deny this. But to rouse Bob, I will first ask for a payment for the service,” Devina began smoothly and Grim winced.

“What kind?” he asked a little worried at the implication. Devina nodded to his backpack.

“Something you did not already receive in this dungeon, I am not asking for much, yes?” Devina sounded beyond pleased and amused. Grim felt like something was amiss but Devina could have ambushed him or worst, so he had to wonder what the deal was.

Grim pulled off his pack, and keeping an eye on the masked woman, began to search for something.

“Will this Bob also need a payment?” he asked a little sarcastically. There was a brief laugh, like a songbird or something just as melodic.

“Bob will not,” she promised and Grim pulled out a few items that he was pretty sure he could give away without too much hassle.

“I got a compass, some basic first-aid manuals and other books, a pot and some firestarter things, a hand-axe for cutting small things... uh... water crystal for canteen-” he was going to continue but Devina held up a hand.

She seemed to pause as if listening to something.

“The water crystal, explain its purpose, please.”

Grim looked at her, her form looking a little odd in the open exposed area as if the trees themselves lend a part of her costume.

“I can drop it into some basic dirty water to purify it for drinking quickly or I can channel some mana into it to make a source of water...it has some other uses but that’s depending on your skills and what you’re trying to use it for. My crystal isn’t high-grade or big so it doesn’t do much or last long,” he offered honestly.

Devina was... calming. It was oddly bizarre yet Grim was enjoying speaking to a friendly face that wasn’t going to stick an arrow in his face.

“I would take the crystal for payment,” she requested and Grim threw the clear blue stone that was shaped slightly like a piece of coral over to Devina.

It was a sturdy thing so it only rolled until Devina plucked it up between two large webbed fingers.

“Payment is accepted and I will now uphold my end of the promise,” she pocketed the crystal and turned to the pool, stroking the water.

“Bob... you can appear now,” she sang and Grim move slightly closer, curious about the unseen creature.

He spotted another goblin appearing from behind the waterfall, wearing some fur clothes and dragging a club sluggishly. Grim was about to ask who that goblin was before the pond bubbled furiously.

Grim backed away as the water rose up in a huge column before the water pulled back to reveal a hellish worm creature as it shrieked into the air, easily drowning out the waterfall.

Grim was rooted to the spot as some primal fear made him go very still at the sight of some superior predator.

He was a rabbit and he was about to become this worm’s stew, it was just how it was. A real shame.

“Bob, be a dear and carry the guest across the river,” Devina called and the worm shrieked and wriggled. Its body glimmering with a rainbow sheen. ‘Bob’ turned to face Grim and it had no eyes.

It reached down and Grim began to scream, a high-pitch noise and Bob screeched back.

The beast was upon him and two small red crabs rushed down from Bob’s head to grab Grim’s backpack loops and yanked them into Bob’s mouth. The pincers twitching like blades. Grim kept screaming and then he was lifted and the ground was quickly left behind.

His feet touched the solid ground a moment later but Grim just kept screaming, staring into nothing as the image of the maw repeated over and over.

Devina was beside him a moment later and another creature, a shorter but very muscular frogman.

“You speak Bobian very well. He compliments your grammar,” the man-frog said and Devina gently shook his shoulder but Grim just took off in a sprint, his voice becoming hoarse as he was still screaming as he rushed into the jungle.

---

Rale looked at Devina with a confused expression as Mother’s laughter filled the area with loud cackling.

“Why did he not just use the log?” he asked Devina, his nervousness around the other frog a little less extreme now after some time but he wasn’t sure how to really talk to her when she seemed to avoid his gaze.

Devina took off her mask and gently dabbed at her neck where water trailed. She slowly wiped the wetness down her shoulder with one finger.

“He wished to take the easier path it would seem. I think he will learn that some risk is worth it now,” she answered in an odd voice. A little heavy as if she was trying to clear her throat.

Rale patted her back easily.

“Your voice is croaky...more so than normal for our kind. You should rest and enjoy this new music! I wonder how Mother made it happen...” he asked and Devina slammed the mask back on to her face.

“Yes, well. I am glad that is what you focus on! Music and how terrible I sound!” Devina snapped and stormed off with a growl.

Rale blinked and watched as she vanished.

Bob trilled and Rale nodded.

“Female kind is odd. I do not understand what is wrong with them. I shall ask mother soon!” he beamed then sighed.

“I wanted to rescue the screaming one,” he muttered and Bob pulled a giant rock nearby with his mouth. Rale perked up.

“Yes! Let us train with the rock, it is good practice!” he agreed as Bob began to pull the rock underwater and Rale attempted to rescue it.

Nearby, Cois twitched and the two red crabs began to pinch his nose when he cursed so the goblin’s magical staff began to leak charred carrots. They faded after a moment but the crabs did it again and the staff made an odd noise as it flew off into the distance. They danced with laughter as they set off to find something else to do. They stopped and followed a noise.

The noise of grim still screaming.

54: Pic-Nic

“Poor Wilhelm.”

Delta stared as the giant ape tried to stretch his fingers out the tunnel slightly farther, barely missing the fleeing Grim.

She frowned as the giant beast gave up and pulled his arm back into the tunnel, back into the tiny space.

“I didn’t even think... he can’t roam or get out that tunnel. I’m going to fix that. The first thing I do!” Delta promised Wilhelm. The ape’s serious face peeking from the entrance of the circus before he abruptly moved back as if jolted.

“Mana is thick... the core has to be in that tunnel,” Grim moaned as he walked another few steps away from the circus. Delta sniffed the air but didn’t really see any difference in mana here than anywhere else.

Delta tried very hard not to think of the fact she hadn’t showered in... a while. Did mana have a smell? Did Delta... smell?

“Apes, monsters in the water, and talking frog people. I... this place isn’t a dungeon. It’s some dangerous wild-life sanctuary,” Grim grumbled as he collected his nerves again, hugging his backpack tightly as if to shield it. Delta merely shrugged.

“Would you believe if I told you most of it was all an accident?” she offered but paused to really look at the boy.

His face...

“I...damn, I don’t feel great. Did I brush some dangerous plant? Was the worm thing poisonous?” Grim mumbled as his flushed face peered around the jungle as if trying to sense danger.

“Hey, kid, you look terrible, have you got any water?” Delta moved closer to get a better look at Grim’s complexion but as she did so, Grim suddenly recoiled and swatted in her direction, his eyes catching the movement at the last second.

“W-what was that? Orange...mist? Some toxic thing?” he hissed and covered his mouth, looking wildly around, not long able to see Delta.

Delta backed away slowly.

“The heck? He saw me?” Delta muttered while Grim pushed his back against a tree to protect his back. She moved closer again and Grim tried to fend off the ‘orange mist’.

Delta felt a little lost at what to do now. Grim was not faring well but if she got close, he began to panic. She needed someway to see the problem from the distance and doing that required...

“Dungeon sight...the numbers,” she finished aloud. Grim twitched and he seemed to slide down the tree slightly.

“Screw it, the kid is going to keel over at this rate,” Delta snapped at herself and pulled on the world around her. Like always it tried to overwhelm her every sense but Delta pushed back against the tide of information, pulling and pushing until the numbers didn’t so much overwhelm her but slightly overlay was she saw in real vision.

The number vision was interesting when it wasn’t trying to drive an ice-pick into Delta’s brain. So, with her head cracking open, or so how the pain felt, Delta stared at Grim.

Grim was turning orange.

His natural creamy yellow mana, like an old-loved book, was becoming tinge with orange. Splotches spread over parts of his mana and aura. Grim’s mana rebelled and the orange mana simply kept coming.

Delta could see with every inhale, more and more mana flowed into his body. It didn't make sense. None of the others had seemed to have this problem.

Delta suddenly hesitated.

None of the others, bar Ruli, had been in the dungeon as long as Grim.

The teenager had been slowed by every obstacle and every monster, along with his own caution. Even with all his visits together, not even Deo would have been here as long as Grim had been.

Natural infection?

“He needs to get out of here, now! Renny!” Delta snapped the vision closed, spinning with a desperate plea on her voice.

She hadn’t even finished spinning before the mime was before her. He tilted his head in a bow and then looked at Grim.

The boy had gone very still.

“Renny, I’m done being mad and I wouldn’t ask this if it wasn’t needed but please, you need to get Grim out of the dungeon!” she requested, waving her hands as panic set in. The mime nodded and turned to Grim.

“Stay back! I have an ancient curse memorised and I will reduce you to paste!” Grim threatened as he began to cough, ruining any chance of his threat working.

Delta stared at him.

Mana overdose? Was such thing possible?

It was then a thought occurred to Delta. If she made a goblin but overcharge and ignored the mana requirement cost... what would happen to the goblin?

Would it be a super goblin or... She stared as Grim’s shaky facade broke and he just began to throw nearby rocks at Renny. His throw was weak and he was growing paler.

What would happen if a mana cap was broken for a person or creature?

Growth or death?

Renny slowed and raised both hands in a peaceful gesture but Grim was in full-blown panic mode. Renny bent down and Delta froze as he seemed to finally catch Grim’s eye.

“W-who are you?” Grim demanded.

“...” Renny replied and then smiled. Showing his maw.

Delta watched as Grim took off without a word back towards the river. Renny turned and saluted.

“Renny! I meant carry him out! He’s going to hurt himself in that state!” Delta groaned and the mime paused then took off after the boy with a quick burst of speed.

Which, of course, meant Grim tried to run faster.

Delta could only watch as Renny was force wait for Rale to fish to the boy out of the river.

“I hope we can someone to pick him up... where is Quiss or Ruli? Usually, they be here for any drama,” Delta said suddenly, talking aloud to put her restless energy to use.

She had a bad feeling but tried to ignore it as she was distracted by bloodcurdling Mushroom and Starlight mushroom tried to grow in the same spot. Bashing their caps together gently by the breeze.

It almost looked like fungal combat but Delta was sure...sure it was just her imagination. Mushrooms couldn’t wage war… just outgrow one another.

Grim was plucked from the river and Delta couldn’t help but feel annoyed. His backpack was still tightly in his grasp.

“I can’t steal from a sick kid... Ruli is gonna own me so much new stuff,” Delta sighed.

---

“Delta is going to owe me such much for putting up with this crap,” Ruli crossed her arms as she sat in the decently comfortable chair. She tilted the chair back as Mr Jones gave her a polite smile.

“I’ve heard much about this Delta. However, we’re studying the mass downfall of the 22nd king of Verluan. Can anyone in class tell me what eventually caused his reign to end?” Jones asked the empty room. Only Ruli was sat in one of the student desks.

So, she stuck her hand up.

“Death, marriage, politics, religion, dragons, ego, true ruler came back from the dead, fell down the stairs, tried to use world ending artefact thinking he was so special and it couldn’t backfire? Oh, oh! Maybe he died because he was so boring that no one wants to hear about him?” Ruli offered.

“You have your textbooks right in front of you. The answer is on the page I opened the book to. All you have to do is look down,” Jones encouraged. Ruli gave him a flat look.

“I’m not feeding your addiction to passing tests,” she calmly announced and Jones sighed.

“I am trying to complete your special education. Many rulers and gods have asked me to teach their children. Yet, it seems like you don’t seem to understand why I am doing this,” Jones sat on his desk and rubbed at his eyes. The space in the classroom seemed to sag as if to mirror the owner of the building’s mood.

“Everyone I teach has needed it. At one point or another, knowing what I taught them has changed the world. I am one of the highest knowledge demons of existence. I do not spread the word of grammar like lower beings, nor do I praise the utter truth like the special ones. I am a guiding hand of knowledge. I go where I must and pass on the right education, at the right time so the individual is armed to tackle that responsibility,” Jones explained. Ruli felt a migraine coming on.

“Then just give me that one lesson and we’ll call it a day!” she growled. Ruli didn’t know two-hoots about knowledge of any of her limbs and appendages but it sounded a lot like being forced into something and doing what she was told to do.

Two things that Ruli vehemently detested.

“I do not know what it is people need to learn exactly. I can narrow it down to a few years worth of lessons but this process is by no means a hasty one. I do this because I must. Not because I enjoy forcing you here. I enjoy being a teacher... forcing a student to learn appals me. I’ve failed if has come to such a thing but if I do not, I become... disagreeable and I happen to respect your attitude,” Jones walked closer and picked up Ruli’s textbook.

“I wanted you, as a little girl all those years ago sitting here with those ribbons and excited face, to love my classes. You did for a while then... you came to class one day and your love for words and knowledge was gone. You declared it pointless and I could never get an answer from you again,” Jones said regretfully.

Ruli remembered that day.

“Sorry Mr J, it was nothing to do with you I... forget it. Quiss will be back soon and I’ll get out of here,” she said confidently.

Jones gently put the textbook back down.

“I hope so. It would be nice to be surprised. I... have something for you, while we wait. Let’s call it free study for the moment,” Jones winked and went to his desk to get something.

He returned and placed a single sheet of paper on the desk before Ruli.

She stared at it.

Her own name, written in awkward pen, was displayed.

“This was something you took a long time ago before you lost interest and before you moved away. It’s the-”

“‘The thing I love the most’ essay. Shit, I could barely spell. Why does it have... 97% It’s terrible!” Ruli said with incredulity.

“I do not expect you to fly before you even have walked. For your first attempt and serious effort, so much that I could feel it? As a teacher, I could be no prouder,” Jones gave her a small smile. Ruli stared at it then handed it back.

“It would have made my day to see that. Sorry I missed it,” Ruli replied quietly.

“I was tempted to throw it at your mother when you were sent away. I felt some spitefulness as a teacher and as a knowledge demon when you were sent away. But I refrained. Your mother had already given several people a thrashing they would not forget for even mentioning your name. I think I may have broken her with this,” Jones mused and Ruli could read the first line barely.

“I lov my mum the most! She makes me feel sphecul! I lov beeng her kid. We hunt rabits togeether!”

“Now, I’m just depressed,” she announced and Mr Jones thought about it then pulled out a sheet of paper from his jacket.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Here we go, enjoy,” he beamed and Ruli looked at the word search puzzle.

“Jones, I’m not 8, I don’t think this is going to really distrac-, oh, I see axe...oh there's spleen!” Ruli said and grabbed her pen.

Jones shook his head and let the Ruli to it.

---

“Pic, stop and think about this,” Mila warned. She stood under the arch that announced the end of the village space proper. She looked furious.

Pic itched at his nose with a single finger, he looked down at the ground for a few seconds.

“...okay. I just did that and nothing has changed. I’m still going, so move your butt,” Pic gestured with his hands for her to shoo. His bald head could feel the afternoon sun beating down. Mila’s eyes went dark.

Pic raised one eyebrow as he stroked his long silver beard.

“You gonna bite me, girlie?” he asked with little fear. Pic knew ever emotion and reaction of Mila. The fellow elder and ex-adventurer was someone he had come to rely on like an extra limb back in the day.

It was fair to say that as much as Mila could read him, Pic could see through her as well in return.

He was about... 70% sure that he was going to be unharmed if he walked past. Mila had a tendency to keep one guessing.

“You want to go back into that hole? Dungeon or not, it was still the pit,” Mila grounded out with her arms crossed. Pic merely smiled.

This was a delicate game, their back and forward. Too hard and one of them would snap, too soft and one of them would be left in some angsty state. Thankfully, Pic had started the fight with an ace up his sleeve.

“And the pit has my grandson. Mila... my blood,” Pic pressed. Mila’s lips turned thin.

“Rushing in blindly is not going to help. If you don’t stir something from the depths of memory, you’ll crush that poor dungeon girl, Delta. You can barely stop yourself from wrecking your own stuff,” she countered. Pic rolled his tongue in his mouth before he replied.

“If simply going into the pit causes a reaction, then something is already very wrong. Mila, lose the stick up your ass and move. I’m going to go get my grandson, you can come with me or you can stay here and glare at thin air, I know you enjoy it,” Pic informed her as he walked past her. His exposed arms barely brushed Mila’s skin but it was enough to feel the sheer heat coming from the woman. Pic took out a simple cap from his pocket and covered his warm head.

“You’re burning up, Mila. I know you’re not usually this cranky, when’s the last time you let go?” Pic asked gently. The woman stiffened as though Pic had slapped her with a class-9-restricted spell.

“...Not since Ruli left with her father. You know that.” Her reply was clipped, almost reserved.

“Need to unblock yourself. Wolf-Hunter Mila been napping too long. Haldi is looking great these days. We both know what’s he been up to. Let go and enjoy yourself. Go summon your man and have another kid or something,” Pic snorted. Mila turned with a furious look on her face.

“I don’t need to summon anyone to relax, you balding ass of a man,” Mila growled and next thing Pic knew, Mila’s foot planted itself on his ass and he was sent flying down the road.

“Go get that idiotic boy of yours, find some manners while you’re at it!” Mila yelled and stormed into the village. People jumped out of way and Von the banker turned a corner, umbrella in hand with some girl at his side.

He stopped to say something to Mila and even from this distance, Pic could see Mila suddenly smooth herself out as if she finally found what she was looking for.

Von seemed to pause before he took three steps back.

Pic grinned and left before the show could begin. He had seen that song and dance enough to know the routine off by heart.

Pic turned his full attention to the task before him. He sunk his teeth into the idea that he may have to carefully move around a baby dungeon looking for Noire.

Pic frowned.

The kid hadn’t been at school or in his room. His father had been at a loss after checking those two place. Pic felt shame bubbling up as he tried to think what may have caused his grandkid to go to a dungeon.

If Pic was standing next to himself, he would punch the fool. Pic knew almost nothing about his own family. His own son Pic was confident about and got on well with. His son’s wife... he had trouble with. Details just weren’t there, he clearly remembered her as a much younger woman than the beautiful lady she was now.

Grim...

Pic barely had flashes of a baby, some strong flashes of a demanding tyke wanting meteor summoning magic or a dragon for his birthday. A weaker memory of a quiet teen at the dinner table.

Pic was sure he asked how his day was going most of the time but Grim never gave more than a weak shrug. When his parents had discovered he was gone, with a lot of family items, they had come to him right away.

Pic rubbed his beard.

His mother had been quiet as Pic’s son promised that Grim was a good kid, just a little bit unsure of himself.

Pic could understand that. Everyone had doubt about themselves during their teenage years and often long after but Grim’s mother suddenly spoke up with only one thing to say.

“I don’t think he has any friends. I ask him to bring some over and he deflects. I ask him if he wants to go some gatherings or clubs and he makes excuses. A boy came once, Deo, to ask him to play. Grim... he just said no. My boy won’t talk to us but he doesn’t have anyone else to talk to. What if he needed help and I just stood around waiting instead of acting?” she asked bleakly.

Pic rolled his tongue again as his stride picked up speed.

The cost of what Mila, Haldi, himself, and Durence had done was still taxing him but with the dungeon now in place, he had some breathing room.

Pic tried to look at things as a professional as well as a grandfather. One goes to a dungeon because they want to gain something or to die.

Grim didn’t seem to flicker and wane, the boy in all his memories burned with a fierce flame. So what did Grim want from this dungeon that he didn’t get at home?

Pic felt the guilt rise up harder as he neared where the dungeon was supposedly at.

The only problem was that Pic was keenly aware the fact that Grim had never been in any heavy mana areas, let alone a normal level. Durence had been so thin on mana that kids growing up in the place turned out a little... incomplete. Nothing wrong with their mental abilities nor their bodies but like a second set of veins that remained empty all their lives.

The kids were usually exposed to enough mana over time to do small things or if they had enough exposure to other sources like magical artefacts, or the vast abilities of some of their parents it would fill faster but natural mana in the air?

Grim had never been exposed to it and Pic knew if he didn’t get Grim out the dungeon fast, he would be absorbing more mana that his body could handle. It was one of the core studies of Weissing.

Mana Poisoning. It happened when inexperienced people went deep enough into a dungeon that it was beyond their strength to endure.

A fresh kid that had never been in a dungeon could do fine in a newborn dungeon or at least a fairly young one.In a dungeon with enough levels if he went in deep enough? He’d become ill and sick after an hour or so, then if he stayed, he would eventually die.

In most cases, the first few floors were fine for the average person in any given dungeon but the bigger the dungeon or the more powerful, the faster the mana poisoning kicked in.

For someone like Grim who had never been exposed to more than a thimble of mana compared to the norm? It wouldn’t take much.

Pic himself had to travel around to get to some dungeons to expose himself to the right level of mana to get his body to adjust when he was younger. It was all part of the journey really.

The only good thing about the case was that it left no after effects when survived. Pic had never heard of mutations nor truly permanent effects to a standard case of MP overdose.

He turned the last thicket of trees and saw the entrance to the dungeon

A large rising cave with two stone doors that looked to be vanishing into the cave sides. Pic slowed as a man with no visible eyes seemed to leave the dungeon... stumble for a moment as he shrank and became somewhat gaunt. Pic watched as he turned slightly and in his arms was a shivering Grim.

Pic moved forward, carefully and forcing himself to step on twigs and kick stones.

The silent being with the white face turned to him. Still cradling Grim, he seemed unsure of Pic.

“Hello. My name is Pic. I am here to fetch my grandson,” Pic began slowly as he nodded to the sleeping Grim, backpack held like some beloved stuffed animal. The pale man tilted his head.

Pic’s mind raced. The area, the smell, the trees, the type of rock.

It all brought back unpleasant memories.

The monster and Pic’s trained mind screamed ‘monster’, had brought Grim outside instead of letting him perish in the dungeon space.

That act broke everything that Pic knew about dungeons, even the most peaceful ones. Most dungeons were like nature. What died was supposed to die to feed the next cycle of life they brought.

To see a monster breaking that simple rule was making Pic beyond nervous.

The pale man with no eyes and a cap with bells on it walked forward and held Grim out like the boy weighed nothing.

“Are you... a monster of Delta’s?” Pic had to ask, wondering if this was a rare half-breed that was just hanging around.

It nodded and Pic took Grim into his own arms. The monster backed up until he was back into the dungeon entrance, his form perking up and gaining some weight back.

“Contracted. You’re a contract,” Pic stated and the monster nodded, giving Pic a little wave as he turned to walk back inside.

“Wait!” Pic called and the clown thing looked back with another tilt.

“I will pay you back for this. I will pay Delta back for this. You have my word. My name is Yonus Pictus ‘Devourer of Demons’. I will return this debt,” he said with a solid tone. The silent clown merely nodded and the door closed on its own accord.

Pic was left alone with his grandson.

He looked down with a sigh of relief. The boy looked a little peaky and Pic put him down to check his pulse, eyes, and tongue. Clear places to check for any odd MP signs that could cause issues.

Everything checked out fine. Except for one thing that was more odd than worrying.

Grimnoire’s tongue was orange.

Pic was sure… sure that was nothing to worry about.

Maestro

The great Maestro as done by Tlavoc on Spacebattles! He really seemed to catch the sheer evolution changes Great went through, his beautiful appearance and soulful voice. No idea why Delta ran away at all. Mostly doing this so you can all the image and I need 500 characters...

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Enjoy ^^

55: Heart of the Jungle

Are...are you okay?

Delta looked up from the bottom of the pond at Nu’s box, hanging just below the water’s surface like a moon. She took a long moment to think about the question.

“Nu? I’m a crappy dungeon core?” Delta asked with a hint of a insecurity creeping into her voice. The fish around seemed to crash into each other in shock and there was a flurry of bubbles and splashing.

The Golden Scaled fish in particular almost leapt out of the pond, it’s brilliant scales gleaming as water dripped off it.

Most likely. You have no control over what happens around you, you refuse to devour those that invade you on a regular basis, you handicap yourself in every aspect in terms of traps and monster instructions. You spent far too much on things that just will take far too long to bear fruit, you let your monsters do whatever they like, develop what seem like useless talents, personalities, and honestly you miss important details when it comes to your construction that if I didn’t edit everything a little, it would be filled with holes or worst, just collapse. So in theory, yes. You are a terrible core.

Delta stared, her mouth hanging open. She felt her dark mood spilling over her rational thoughts.

But who cares? It’s far too late to take back what we’ve done. You are a great innovator, the many things you have tried may not lead to explosive growth but they are interesting enough to pass the time. You are not concerned about being a Dungeon Core. You wish to be a decent person. Everything around you becomes alive. You do things that I would have never thought of and the various results speak for themselves. We would have surely died if we were a mere Dungeon Core. Your kindness may have saved us all from the people of Durence. It does pain me to watch you fumble through everything but I also feel great pride when things do work out despite that. I am Nu, master of perfection, signs, and dealing with your antics. I can at least appreciate you are using me to my full potential. I think many lesser dungeons would have squandered me honestly...

All around the pond, the fish danced happily as they seemed to agree with Nu. Delta looked around, a bright smile breaking out across her face.

“Nu... thank you! I... well, thank you,” she said, standing with a sudden burst of energy.

I assume this is because you nearly killed that annoying child?

Delta deflated as the words stabbed into her but Nu merely floated upwards, making Delta follow to read his next words.

Mana Poisoning. I had never considered it a problem since we are so small but the boy was particularly frail in that regard. It is not your fault, you saved his life. The fact you didn’t take his bag killed me a little but I am a big mature Navigation Unit, I can deal.

“So what exactly happened there? He just couldn’t handle my mana or was mine just that bad?” Delta touched down on the pond room floor with a perplexed expression.

Nothing of the sort. Dungeon mana is rich. It is... a good example is drinking. The boy has had barely lukewarm milk all his life and then came here and drank more than his fair share of solid spirits.

“So Grim couldn’t hold his mana..tinis” she smiled weakly at Nu.

That was bad. You should feel bad and then you should go back to your pond for a few days. I feel dirty. Honestly, how hard is for you to say that Grim wasn’t a stout man? Or perhaps, the bar was set too high for him? If you are going to continue to torment me with the puns, you might as well make them good!

Delta slapped her thigh as she broke out in wheezing laughter.

I... you heard nothing!

Delta was wiping at her eyes as she struggled to breathe.

Nu’s box was blank for several seconds before he shuddered.

Let us get to business before I break and become even less like a MENU and more like the punchline to some slapstick joke. Let us walk, well float in my case. Mastro! Play something other than that obnoxious song!

Nu seemed to talk to the wall, his words flashing. There was no response but the upbeat music that had been on repeat suddenly turned to a slow piano and a long relaxed saxophone.

“I liked that song...” Delta grumbled.

Yes... far too much. Just because he promised to make you a theme song for your dungeon doesn’t mean we must hear it every hour. Now, as you may remember, the brat was carrying his fair share of lovely, wonderful, items. I’ve been holding back the notifications until you were ready. Let us see...

Delta had to admit, the jazz music was making her feel rather smooth. She did a little slow turn as Nu began to pull up notification windows.

Glass vial with tiny traces of antidote absorbed! Weak Antidote is unlocked. 15 Mana

Delta remembered Grim drank something in the spideroom, she hadn't known he had thrown the vial away. Not that she would think her own spiders would rebel but knowing out somewhere in the forest was a bunch of giant spiders... it was good to have options.

“So, it’s like a spider antidote or...?” Delta asked and Nu paused.

No, it’s a general weak antidote. It purges the body of magical or particular common poisons. Or dilutes the more severe ones. It would be a pain if people needed a specific cure for every single common illness or infection.

Delta gave him a long look.

“Nu, does this thing cure the common cold?” she asked bluntly and the box paused to think about it.

I think it does.

Delta was impressed.

But not the magical less-common-but-still-average cold.

“This world is hell. But at least it has nice people in it...” Delta muttered to herself.

Sand Elf Dust absorbed! Average Sleeping Powder unlocked. Can now be added to various traps(remember those things?) or to items for a selection of effects. 20 Mana for a bag of powder or equivalent amount.

“Oh yeah, he was going use that on Merry before he dropped it. Looks pretty handy, I mean putting people to sleep and chucking them out the dungeon sounds great if they’re troublemakers!” Delta exclaimed excitedly.

I would think so. Just be careful. None of your monsters will have immunity except for the mushy’s and we’ll have to test how potent or long lasting this stuff is. Next one is exciting.

Water crystal absorbed! The effect this thing has is interesting. It allows water to be produced as long as mana is injected. The crystal itself wouldn’t last long in the actual world but a dungeon made crystal, while in the dungeon, is constantly being repaired. A habit I got into very early on around you. Unlike the waterfall and the river, which is just water being circulated back in on itself by a loop of tunnels that seemed to exist outside the room and cannot actually be accessed to be explored, the crystals will produce new water. It also seemed to unlock several upgrades for current water features.

Delta perked up and looked back at her fish pond.

Indeed. When placed and grown in a body of mostly still water, it seems to... I am currently not exactly sure but almost bless or enhance the water. The issue would normally that the crystal would erode very quickly as the water absorbed the crystal and it would take a few hundred or so of these weak ones to really go anywhere but...

“Since we’re dungeons and cheat, we can just repair the crystal casually over time and only need a few which means that dungeons rule,” Delta beamed.

In layman terms, yes. I suggest planting a few here in the pond to see what happens. For science. Dungeon science!!! But we have more items to go before you zoom off to cause chaos or birth new monstrosities like some mythological brood mother.

“Nu. I am not that bad!” Delta protested as the music suddenly became a dramatic piano as if to contest her words.

Please. I leave you alone for 5 minutes and I’ll come back to you creating one of those bat critters and in an hour it will know necromancy and demand wine or grapes and call us all servants as it acts like some lord of a castle! I know you!

Delta felt this was very unfair. She had no control over anything. Except for Mr Mushy... and maybe giving Maestro music...and allowing the spiders to develop a medieval society. Giving Cois fire... Buying Bob... Contracting Renny...

“...what’s the next item?” she said grumpily.

It’s a bit odd. I don’t seem able to pinpoint exactly where or how Grimnoire dropped it, the item is a bit abstract.

Delta, walking over the pond’s surface as she listened, paused to look back at Nu. Waddles ruffled his feathers as he watched the scene.

“Abstracted in what way? Some elemental thing? Did he drop some magical one-time use thing?” she prodded with interest. Nu took a moment to answer.

It’s better if I just show you.

Ability gained!

1x ‘Liber-devourer’!

Delta reread it about a dozen times but the meaning of what Nu was trying to say was still not really becoming any clearer.

“How did we gain an ability? Did Grim drop some orb or a skill book or what?” Delta scratched at her nose. Below her feet, a school of fish swam happily around to the sound of her voice.

Honestly? I think this was because of him almost dying. If what you said was correct, about the dungeon mana almost completely overriding his own then it could have been enough to... absorb enough of Grim to basically gain his innate ability by emulating the process used when we take in items. I assume that usually, these things might happen if dungeons kill people but I... I will ask Sis. She may know.

The box vanished as Nu went wherever the inner-system was. Delta frowned and sat down next to Waddles.

“Waddles, why do things keep becoming complicated? I barely get the hang of the number-vision and now I can copy abilities? If my eyes turn red, you’ll keep me in line, right?” she joked and the duck simply eyed her.

“Well, you’re usually confident, what would you do now?” she inquired. Waddles stood, tapping each foot once before he swam casually into the pond, he stopped near the middle.

Delta looked down at the secret entrance to the second floor, hidden to those that had not caught a silver or golden fish. Waddles dived and nudged a tiny rock slightly above the entrance.

He resurfaced and looked at her.

Delta stared back.

Waddle’s eyes seemed to glow with annoyance and Delta looked down at the rock with confusion.

Closing her eyes, she pushed her initial reaction of sighing and walking away confused, to gather herself.

Delta slowly pulled on the numbers but as they rushed towards her eyes, she shut them. The flow seemed to stop in confusion. Delta mentally imagined on tugging on lava lamp-like balls of light. She pulled and felt it slid around her face and into her ears.

Waddles wasn’t dungeon-born. He was dungeon-enhanced.

Delta frowned as the terms popped into her head. Dungeon-born? Enhanced?

“Waddles, Dark Drake, what are you trying to tell me?” she asked slowly, keeping her eyes shut as the energy still tried to bypass her eyelids.

“The crystal. Put the crystal there.” The voice deep and princely. Delta snapped her eyes open in shock and the number power dispersed like dandelions in the wind.

Delta winced as her ears began to ring with a high-pitched and shrill noise. It felt like she was getting bad feedback noise.

Waddles just looked at her.

“Right, good idea. Something to do while I wait!” Delta perked up, rubbing her ears. She opened the menu to look through the list.

Water Crystal: A small crystal with the element of water imbued in its shell. Adding to a water source will unlock something. Cost 25 mana and reduce total mana by 1 to sustain its existence.

Delta had a sudden thought.

“What if I put a fire crystal in a forge or something?” she muttered but no one answered for once so, with some excitement, she dove into the water. The little stone was one of many but it was almost flat so she put a hand on the surface and purchased the water crystal.

Like a seedling, the crystal, the size of a screw, poked out of the rock with a little crack and Delta stared at it.

“Aww... it's cute!” she declared and then there was an ominous crack and the entire stone spit in half as the rest of the crystal pushed itself out like growing coral. The entire bottom of the pond began to glow like a star had fallen into its waters.

The coral crystal seemed to curve up and over itself forming some umbrella style top. It almost looked like a...

Delta took three steps back.

“Just... it’s just a coincidence. Just because it looks like a... I mean...” Delta nervously stepped out of the pond.

Good job on being busy. I see you’ve managed to make a simple water crystal purchase into another Delta-incident.

Delta turned and glared.

“It wasn’t my fault!” she declared. Nu simply shook his box and ignored her protests.

I talked with the system. It is beyond rare you would ever get a direct ability from a human. Even those with innate talents. It takes special methods of mana infection, extraction or contracting to get an pristine template to obtain an ability. As you have not gotten anything from Renny or Waddles, I can only agree with Sis that you were lucky in the fact Grim was already so frail. His defences, underdeveloped as they are, were easily overcome.

Nu looked down at the crystal in the water.

Sis said something... I didn’t quite understand this but Sis said your mana is particularly good at mingling with human mana. It takes dungeons a long time to learn how to do more than simply poison people. Yours was doing that but it was also doing something more. Sis didn’t have enough data so this is a mere hypothesis. We both think you were trying to ‘fix’ Grim.

Delta clenched her fist.

“I almost killed him. He didn’t look fixed in any way,” she argued. Nu nodded.

We’re all learning. Now you know what to look for, to gauge if someone is in danger from your powers. You won’t let it happen again. You’re far too nice for your own good. Shame, I could see a use for a library filled with rare powers... Then again, with you. You’ll make something interesting happen. Fungi related, no doubt.

Nu sounded happy but Delta felt like his words had a double meaning. She opened her mouth but shut it as Nu suddenly shifted.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The crystal is working. I’m seeing the available mana in the water rising. No results yet but... oh, I am excited. Fish! Tell me if any of you develop three eyes or grow legs!

The school of fish all bubbled with understanding.

Delta looked between them and sighed.

“Maybe it’ll make the water tasty or something. It doesn’t have to do anything too weird...” she muttered.

----

Grim opened his eyes and licked his lips.

He tasted metal. He frowned, wondering if he bit his tongue or lips. This looked like his... room?

“Hey son, don’t move too much. You’re okay now.” Grim looked over and saw his Dad, big and burly with half a chewed spoon in his mouth.

“Mum is going to wack you for eating the spoons again,” he croaked. His Dad cracked a smile.

“Your Mum will do worse when she sees what I did to her cooking pots. You know I stress eat...” he chuckled.

The easy tone set Grim’s nerves at ease. He expected, and still sort of did, a punishment. Once he was better maybe...

A hot scorching sensation suddenly seared his tongue and he winced.

“Hey boy, how are you feeling?” came the voice of his grandfather. Grim stared at him with wide-eyes. His grandfather came closer and the hot sensation grew. Grim winced but then suddenly his was held by someone, warm and soothing.

His tongue cooled and he tasted... not blandness but a softness. It relaxed Grim but it also alarmed him as his mother pulled back.

“Grim...oh my boy,” she whispered and stroked his hair back into place.

“Mum? My tongue! Something is wrong,” he blurted out as he ran a finger over his tongue a second later and all the adults shared a look.

“Grim. Do you remember what happened?” His grandfather asked and Grim closed his mouth with a guilty look.

“I... went to the dungeon,” he put it simply, not adding any details incase they didn’t know the whole story. His father raised one brow.

“The dungeon you knew you weren’t allowed to go?” he pushed and Grim shifted.

“My boy, it’s fine- well, not really, it was a bloody stupid thing to do but we’re glad you’re home. The dungeon saved your life. Carried you out when you were about to bite it,” the old man said and his mother shot him a look.

“Pic, you know I kicked you out for those annoying-” she began but something bubbled over Grim. An urge he couldn’t stop, like a building sneeze.

“It was more than I could swallow,” he blurted out.

There was absolute silence in the room.

“D-did... you just make a joke?” his Dad asked with surprise and Grim honestly couldn’t answer him.

He was too worried that something else might slip out instead.

---

Delta had a plan.

It was a good plan and she even had Nu go over it with a fine comb. After making the water crystal, the urge, the itch, to build and create rose up in her.

Flaws and issues plagued her dungeon, her home. Grim had been key in solving those.

She watched as Mr Mushy tried to conduct for his brother. Maestro patiently allowing him to wave the little thorny baton around and letting his brother create a small peppy melody. The giant, mind-breakingly, the soul-scarringly horrible looking mushroom was actually a lot sweeter with his brother now that he fully developed his musical persona.

He even let Mr put a few pots around the pyramid like room.

Delta shivered near the door but felt better at the sight.

“Next time one of those punks swings a knife at you, come let me know and I’ll show them how to use human skulls as bongo drums,” Maestro winked at his brother and Delta fled as the image was just too much.

Cute but it took its toll.

She could upgrade the first floor more but it was decent enough to slow and challenge people. Now the boss door was locked, Delta felt like she could focus on the second flow before adding more perfection to the first.

So she flew down the stairs after waving to her monsters. Cois and Numb snoozing away in the camp, refilling themselves on the first-floor mana. Delta noticed it was lighter, almost drafty in feel when compared to the hot and moist mana of the second floor.

Before long she stood high in the air, looking down at her almost alive jungle.

“Nu, fetch me the list of any critters we have and phase out what we have on the first floor for now,” she requested and the box besides her shifted.

Common Bat: 5 DP : A simple brown bat. Creates 2 bats per summoning. This average sized bat hangs about your dungeon to give it atmosphere and freak out the most easily startled of adventurers. As basic creatures, they cannot evolve unless some unique element or being is absorbed by the dungeon.

Forest Mouse: 5 DP: A simple mouse. Creates 4 mice per summoning. A normal mouse that lives in the forest and near towns. Cannot evolve unless a special element or item is absorbed.

Grass Snake: 8 DP. A common snake found in most grassland areas. Its sharp fangs have a bite but lacking any venom. They’re timid creature's, running where they can. Cannot evolve unless a special element or item is absorbed.

Durence Jays: 5 DP. A tiny sparrow-like bird that has a pleasant song. Cannot evolve unless a special element or item is absorbed. (I’ll just assume you get the idea by now- Sis)

Cave centipede: 1 DP. A small hand-length centipede with a painful if harmless bite.

Wood Lizard: 5 DP: A brown lizard that blends in with tree trunks and branches. Fast and hard to spot.

Black Owl: A small owl that lives in a cave due to its colouring. Tiny sharp talons.

Dwarf mole: 5 DP Named not for its size as it is in fact almost twice as big as a common garden mole but for its squat shape, beard-like head-fur and stubborn demeanour.

Cave crawlies: 1 DP A small swarm of various tiny insects normally found in forest caves, mostly for ambience.

“We didn’t get any monster unlocks from these?” Delta blinked with surprise.

We still haven’t gotten any spider monsters that we didn’t self-develop and we killed a few giant monster ones. We seemed to get the Crayclaw monster from the Crayfish as we didn’t have any water monsters yet. The system seems to give us a ‘freebie’ as it were for each new type of monster then we must work for the rest. I assume once we get more actual parts or proper monster parts, or even maybe proper research, we can do something.

“Hm, well, I think we have the power aspect covered for the most part but it’s time for this jungle to get some ambience that isn’t pumped over the speakers,” she grinned and flexed her fingers.

She floated down and began to make life.

Mice scurried off into bushes and through plants. A few snakes curled up in the Wylin tree. A few owls flew into the circus cave. Two lizards went very still on a tree together.

A box appeared.

By adding 10 or more critters to the jungle, you have unlocked the following critters for the jungle.

Alluring Delbirds: A bird with orange plumage that draws people's attention with its songs and... word play. 8 DP

Lotus Turtles: A turtle with an almost flat shell top that looks like a frail piece of lotus. Floats all day sleeping. 8 DP

Vexing Foxes: Playful foxes that like leading people off the beaten path. Have a habit of stealing shiny objects. 8 DP

Jester Maquaces: About the size of a large housecat, these monkeys get their name for the habit to screech, howl and laugh at people wandering through the jungle, sometimes pelting them with fruit and other such “jokes.” 8 DP

Delta eyed her 90 DP remaining, not sure how much she go crazy and fill her jungle with. She purchased a few sparrows and a Delbired.

The Durence Jays were small and brown with red beaks. They scattered with a flutter of excitement but the Delbird looked up at her.

It slowly spread its plumage and its orange chest puffed out.

“Aww, you’re going to make this jungle so cool, plus you’re good at singing or distracting people!” Delta told it as if it wasn’t already away.

“Like two birds with one stone!” it squawked and Delta froze.

“Did you just make a pun?” she asked slowly.

“Bit of a bird-brain!” it agreed. Delta couldn’t hold back the smile that formed as Nu’s box glitched.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“Birds of a feather!” it sang and flew off, its wonderful orangeness barely visible like a tiger in the woods.

Delta danced on the spot.

“I love this. Making everything and the results!” she said to Nu. The box sighed.

Yes, it does leave a good feeling. Shame it comes with so many painful puns attached.

He grumbled and Delta flew to the tunnel, eyeing it. She focused on it and her DP dipped slightly as the tunnel stretched wider and wider. It looked less like a cave and more like a highway tunnel. After a moment, Wilhelm slowly walked out and looked around the lush jungle.

“Sorry for the wait!” Delta called and Wilhelm inhaled and grunted softly. One of the new Black owls was nesting in the shaggy hair on his head. It glared at the noise and flew back into the tunnel.

Wilhelm took off, eager to stretch his legs. His silver fur gleaming in the darkness of the trees.

Delta looked into the tunnel and felt a rising urge to do more with the circus but she had a plan, dammit!

She took off again and headed to a secluded spot that didn’t have anything in it. It was a bit far from the entrance but... the water crystal had given her an idea. Just because she had a fire crystal option, didn’t mean she had to wait for a fiery place to use it.

Nice and easy. We don’t want you creating a volcano... actually, never mind. Do your best! I’m sure we could make a drainage ditch for it if needed.

Delta stubbornly ignored the cheerful box. There would be no lava level here.

She hadn’t even done a proper water level yet. Everyone loved those! Delta felt the sarcasm grow thick in her own mind and shook it clear.

If she had to have a water level, she would break the mold and make it bearable. It would be pacific and the design would not be made by someone who might be a little... cra-sea.
Delta giggled and wondered where her new Delbird was...

---

“Begone!” Devina commanded, her greenish skin going blue with anger. The bird tilted its head at her.

“Okay... witch way?” it fired back and Devina held back a scream.

---

Delta sure it was fine.

She focused on the earth, the fresh green weeds, grass and empty soil. A second later, it was all gone. They didn’t count as objects but terrain so it was easy to disperse.

She whistled as a soil was slowly covered by a smooth rock. It was a slow process because she was shaping the rock as it spread. The idea at first was a perfect bowl but Nu had pointed out that there was no way to get out if one was too slippery or wet. So, Delta made little ‘seats’ and ledges for people to sit on, curved for maximum comfort.

Then once it looked good, she ringed the entire thing with a flat rock that spread out so if someone got out they wouldn’t immediate stand on wet soil. With that done, she filled the entire thing with clean pure water.

It filled up perfectly, no signs of a leak or such. Nu was too busy examining the piece to actually comment on anything. Then she placed a fire crystal and water crystal at the bottom of the water, covering them in a tiny wooden box with a open criss-cross fence.

The crystals again curved upwards but Delta ignored that.

She waited for a moment.

“Come on... come on...” she prayed and then as she was about to go check on the crystals, the water surface began to steam.

She could see the water level rising up as the water crystal began to output more water than the hole could handle.

“Nu, any luck?” she called, hoping that her friend could tell her good news.

I’m looking... I don’t see anything, hmm... I gue- It’s here! It just appeared!

Nu sounded excited and Delta hurried to open her menu.

A box was waiting for her.

Would you like to make this area into the ‘Hotspring Area’? Cannot be undone unless destroyed.

Delta hit the yes button and the area flashed and went calm again. The water was now beginning to spread out now. Unlike the pond, the excess water had no fancy dungeon space tunnel to be flushed into where it went somewhere that made no sense.

In the menu, she found her answer.

Hotspring Area:

- Allow excess water to be removed and replaced with fresh water from the crystal. 10 DP

- Increase the healing properties of the water, minor injuries can be treated with a session. 20 DP

- Create two small huts for changing on either side of the spring. 15 DP

- Put a fence that separates the spring in half. Has simple alarms to warn of intruders for spa users. 15 DP

- Surround the spring with Bamboo to create more ambience. 15 DP

- Let the water cure weak status-effects. 30 DP *unlocked by Weak antidote*

Delta purchased the first one and the water slowed and then began to drain back into the spa.

Lucky us. Sis was aware of what we needed and managed to work something out. I still think letting people rest so close to the potential boss room is problematic.

Delta spent some mana and an offering table appeared next to both the hits used for changing.

“Trust me. After fighting their way down here, they’ll be grateful and getting something for letting them bath when who knows what they might leave behind or bath off for us to use for ourselves? To’s a win-win!” Delta grinned and Nu was silent for a moment.

I... am impressed.

Delta suddenly looked sheepish.

“I just thought of it,” she admitted. Delta suddenly focused on what Nu had said before.

Boss room.

The second floor still had no Boss. She remembered she had to choose a monster to become the boss. Fran had a special option because of Bacon.

So, if she made a boss room here, every monster on this floor might suddenly have wildly different requirements and Delta would have to choose one of her monsters to become a boss or make a brand new monster that she might not have such a good understanding of...

Devina was a wild card but too newly evolved. Rale was happy with Bob. Bob was... well, not something she thought of when it came to jungle bosses. Wilhelm guarded the circus and Renny was a contract.

The Queen ran her kingdom and the rest where critters. The boss room was important but Delta had not created enough variety or forces to really give a boss monster proper thought.

“Better start now then,” she mused and went to the far end of the Jungle room and with some nervousness, created a tunnel into a wide room.

Nothing stopped her and she didn’t run into anything but empty soil.

Delta breathed out with relief.

The option came up before she could even open a menu.

Would you like to make this a boss room? Cannot be undone unless destroyed.

“Sis... let’s do it.”

Boss room created! Candidates can now be selected!

“I wonder if Delbird wants the job...” Delta wondered aloud and Nu’s box nearby fizzled with a loud protest.

Delta would just do what she always did when it came to making important choices. Jab random buttons and ask if anyone wanted the job with a polite tone.

It hadn’t failed her so far.

56: Birds, Mushrooms, and Taxes

A boss room with no boss was like Delta with no mana or DP.

Helpful in spirit, but as useful as a noisy wind.

“So that is bee number 32 that has declined the job offer. Maybe I should ask the trees next?” Delta muttered as the regretful red bee went back to its task of investigating a flower for the queen.

She was glad Nu decided to wander off to do his own thing. Having his flat stare at her back as she kept asking for a monster to be a boss became a little hard to ignore. Delta knew that she could just create a monster to be the boss, give the new creature a task for life but it felt...

Unfair.

She had no doubt the monster would gladly accept the offer, but the choice wasn’t a fair one. It was like a fresh newborn latching on to the task like a mother. It didn’t know anything else to compare it to. Even with Rale and Devina’s knowledge being added to the ‘creation pool’ for the frogs... it didn’t mean the next frog monster would understand what it was accepting.

To Delta, it was no better than straight up creating and chaining a monster to the room to make her job easier. The fact the monster might never grow upset, or might even be happy with the job for all of time, wasn’t even something she cared to think of.

Their ignorance didn’t excuse Delta’s immoral choices in her own head.

It only really left Delta with a few options. One was simply to not have a boss; Delta discarded that idea immediately. She was optimistic with visitors, not idiotic.

Grim only got so far because Sis left the door unlocked... not something that would happen again!

The other option was to look for alternatives and hope one of them stuck as a boss. If the room eventually offered her a chance to spin the wheel to spawn a boss, Delta would turn it down. After Bob, it was just better for her peace of mind not to gamble for a while.

Bob was nice, but he still looked like something crawled out of the Devil’s basement and gave old Scratch a shock on the way out.

Delta walked down and into the river, whistling as she plotted. Looking at her menu, she could see her 78 DP was cheerfully waiting for a chance to be spent. Her 84 mana was maxed out, the boss room giving her that extra 5 mana limit.

Honestly she should make as many rooms as possible to get the most out of the system, but after digging her way into Renny’s circus Delta was just going to take things one step at a time.

The river rushed overhead and Delta stretched as the slightly warm water flowed through her, tickling her body a little.

“More monsters, more rooms, more ideas. Easy enough. I cause enough trouble by accident, I’m sure I can rustle something up when I put my mind to it,” Delta smiled to herself as she floated and let the water carry her downstream.

Delta flew up and stood above the river a moment later, face focused as she pulled up the menu again.

“Waterfall, river, beehive, circus, hotspring, frog lair, entrance, empty boss room, and resting area behind the waterfall. I have options, I just need to tie them altogether. The boss is going to be the key to this,” Delta said aloud. She paced back and forward as she let ideas and thoughts flow.

“The room is big; it was meant to tire people out originally, and I can use it like that as well, but I can also see another use. It makes people travel and search for things in the jungle. Maybe I could tie the boss, in a way, to the things in the jungle. I doubt I could make a rule that would prevent anyone accessing the boss without the right items, not just now anyway... but not everyone that will come to my dungeon might want to fight the boss,” Delta slowed as she latched onto that thought.

“A lot of people want the resources, like Mrs Dabberghast. She liked the plants so... what if the boss could also be passed if the person explored thoroughly enough and worked for the items in each area? A scavenger hunt?” Delta tested the words and they seem to strike something.

Delta felt so pleased with her usually chaotic thought process that she decided to let it go wild.

“Can’t kill the monsters for the parts; they have to be earned. Stop the usual glory hounds or Grim-like folk. Makes them spend more time on the floor, which means more items for me and more mana! So I need to make each area valuable and have a unique item held by each area’s ‘boss’!” Delta almost felt like fist pumping as the dots just lined up in her head.

“I just need a boss!” she declared and then froze.

Delta deflated as the original issue flashed back into her head.

“You look troubled.”

Delta screeched and almost toppled back into the river as Devina’s voice called to her from behind.

Delta spun with a glare at the pleasantly calm Devina.

“You do that on purpose!” she accused and Devina tilted her face.

“I have no idea what you mean, Mother. I would never upset you, even if you did happen to create a most evil creature,” Devina replied, her calm tone never changing. Delta blinked in response.

“I... did?” she replied slowly in confusion. Devina’s face pinched around her eyes.

“The orange menace,” Devina added a little too quickly, betraying her facade. The words made Delta perk up.

“Delbird!” she exclaimed with joy; then, as if summoned, a flash of orange appeared. The bird in question chirped as it landed on Devina’s head.

“Make it stop,” Devina requested with a strained voice that caused Delta to stare at her.

“Stop?” she echoed as the bird preened. The frog woman closed her eyes.

“The bird is the most foul-”

“The fowlest!” Delbird chimed in, but Devina kept talking as if the bird didn’t exist.

“-thing in this jungle. It refuses to leave me alone!” Devina complained loudly. Delta had never seen the woman so unlike herself.

“It must like you! I mean, every wise person has a flying familiar of some kind! Even Merlin has his owl!” Delta reminded with a smile on her face. Devina nodded furiously.

“This ‘Merlin’ sounds correct. I would like to trade this pest for an owl please!” she requested. Delbird tilted his head.

“Get rid of me? For an owl? Hoot do you think you are?” Delbird demanded loudly and this made Devina scream as she swatted at the bird, which flapped out of reach. Delta stuffed her fist in her mouth as she felt a gale of giggles rise up at their antics.

It was then that Rale pulled himself from the river, his lean body looking far more toned than Delta remembered from yesterday.

“I heard someone here! Greetings Mother! Hello Dev!” Rale smiled easily at the frozen Devina. Delta waved, but could only watch as Rale moved closer to Devina. Delbird landed back on Devina’s head and stared at Rale.

“Don’t you dare...” Devina hissed. Delbird hesitated at the threat, then puffed his chest out in defiance.

“Hello!” he greeted and Rale’s eyes seemed to sparkle at the sight of a talking bird.

“Devina, your bird talks like a person!” Rale laughed as he crossed his thick arms. Delbird narrowed his little beady eyes.

“Look Devina! The frog skipped brain day!” he fired back. Devina reached up and held the bird’s beak shut tight with one hand.

“Did you forget what I can do? The hunting you down with spirits of the jungle?” she asked deathly calm. Delbird pulled his beak free.

“I guess... I did froget!” he answered. Delta had to walk into the river for a moment to excuse herself as choked laughter began to escape.

Rale’s boisterous laugh was unashamed in its volume.

“Devina, you have great tastes! Your bird is funny!” Rale grinned. Delta peered out of the water, enjoying the scene. She blinked at the most unexpectedly high pitched giggle that left the woman’s mouth.

“Ah... yes! My...bird. I too really like his jokes. You’re welcome to come hear more anytime!” Devina offered, her posture turning a little shy. Delbird squawked in alarm at her tone, but Devina shoved him into one of the pouches she had made.

“I have to go! Feed my bird and do...things!” Devina backed away as Rale tried to come closer, still dropping water down his greenish skin.

“I will come find you soon Dev! May I ask what your bird’s name is?” Rale called and before Devina could speak, Delbird’s voice broke free of the pouch.

“INCHY!”

Delta frowned but decided the bird was allowed to choose its own name.

“Dev and Inchy! I like it, I must go now. Never know when someone might need my help!” Rale waved and bowed to Delta before he vanished back into the water.

Delta’s mind had frozen, so she didn’t actually give him a proper farewell. Rale’s words just replayed over and over in her head.

Dev and Inchy.

Dev and Inchy.

The bird had just topped anything Delta had done. It had sacrificed its own name to make a joke.

Delta needed to evolve that bird as soon as possible. One way or another.

“Menu... bring up monsters and available rooms for the second floor,” Delta requested with a grin.

Rooms:
Lair (1 remaining) 15 Mana
Mushroom Grove (Jungle Version available) 25 Mana
Mudroom 10 Mana
Spider room 15 Mana

Monsters:
Frog’s tribeman: 10 Mana

- Frog’s Witch Doctor: 20 Mana

CrayClaw: 13 Mana

The list seemed small and it confused Delta, as most system related things did.

“Why can’t I purchase goblins or a storeroom? I mean, I get spider rooms and the CrayClaw from the first floor...” Delta trailed off as a box appeared.

Each floor can only hold items suitable for it. It cannot produce rooms that will not fit nor survive each floor. Goblins, while hardy, do not do well in such open air and light. A storage room connected to a random jungle doesn’t fit ‘your idea’ of a jungle. The system will do what it can but, ultimately, the limit of what can be done begins and ends with yourself.

Delta stared at Nu’s box.

“Where have you been?” she asked as digested his words. Nu seemed to pause.

Business. Boring stuff; nothing you’d enjoy.

In the distance, the ground hummed as a pipe organ seemed to travel the floor. Delta gave Nu a long look.

I did say you wouldn’t enjoy it. Not that it wasn’t fun. Maestro is currently working on various themes for Fran. I suggested a basic drum war but the mushroom insisted on trying a few things. Pipe organs is all wrong for Fran, but you know artists...

“Yeah... I know Mr Mushy as an artist,” she replied dryly and Nu took a moment to answer.

How can two spores be so different? Anyway, as I was saying, your image of a jungle limits your choices. You can manually make them if you wish, the rooms I mean, but even now, the idea of a storeroom clashes with what you wish, no?

Nu seemed pretty confident, which made his words even more annoying when Delta knew he was right.

“So, I’ll just make new monsters and new rooms but... the Mushroom Grove, why has it got something extra?” she asked as her finger hovered over the option. Nu turned his box to look at it.

At this point, I suspect it is some ancient ritual involving the stars aligning under the dark moon as three demonic maids blow their noses, and a teacup crafted by a god accidentally being shattered that caused it. Your luck is about so.

Delta sighed.

“Nu! Come on, my luck is just fine!” she crossed her arms, nodding with confidence.

---

Mila watched as the man got down from his horse. The beast looked experienced, and its rider no different.

“Place is looking...lively,” he said by way of greeting. Mila only waited. She knew the man well enough to sense a trap.

There was a pause as the man looked slowly around.

“So, how’s the weather been? Any grandkids? Is that a new hairstyle? Mila, is that pie you’re baking in that house? Smells great. Is there a new dungeon around?” he asked in a rapid-fire speed. Mila narrowed her eyes and the horse snorted, backing away nervously.

“Tax Collector Noland. Your being here is about as welcoming as a wart on my ass. The weather was great until you showed up. I have no grandkids, thanks for reminding me. It is pie, but you’re not getting any and yes, there is a dungeon about,” Mila replied to each question, slowly and clearly.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Noland itched at his scratchy beard. The man looked like a noble on the run but, really, Mila knew that the man had a decent talent with magic and the knife he kept hidden in his left boot.

The fact he still had his shiny baubles, rings and gold chains, only reminded Mila that she wasn’t dealing with a pampered scion.

“And it wasn’t reported because...” he trailed off and gave her a long look, waiting for her to dig her own grave.

“All magical and physical means of communicating was simultaneously disabled, cause unknown, which means we couldn’t do anything to report it; thank the gods you showed up,” Mila gave him a thin smile.

Noland raised one brow and looked around at the people.

“And no one travelled to inform someone because of... what?” he pushed.

Mila thought about it.

“I’m pretty sure most of us here are banned from the capital, and the rest simply did not give a crap. Do feel free to attempt to arrest whoever you see fit; I will greatly enjoy the show,” Mila turned and shut the door in the man’s face.

“Where is the local Peacekeeper?!” Noland squawked in alarm. Mila yanked the door open.

“Leading a water mage that barely speaks the Verluan tongue to a boy that barely understands the world beyond his own heart, to help rescue a girl that barely knows any respect from a demon that barely knows how to control himself, to help out a dungeon that barely knows how to dungeon! Down the street and follow the sound of ducks!” Mila growled and slammed the door again.

There was a beat of silenc, before Mila could barely hear Noland speaking to his horse.

“I hate this town.”

------

“This room is being weird,” Delta exclaimed as the room refused to form in any of the walls.

It is. Perhaps it needs... a special material or location?

Nu’s suggestion made Delta look at the Mushroom Grove option again.

“I was just hoping I could control the mushrooms on this floor with this room, but it won’t even form...” Delta sat down with a groan and curled up, wishing she was in her pond.

Dirt or stone didn’t work. She even tried Bob’s tunnel but that was a bust as well. She only had three rooms so she wasn’t near any max limit...

She laid flat on her back and stared up at the ceiling.

I could ask Sis. She may know?

Delta thought about it, the frustration of trying to purchase a simple room getting to her.

“Purchase room in most advantageous spot possible!” she called in vain hope.

There was a silence and Delta looked at her menu.

That isn’t fair.

Delta sat straight up with a disbelieving look in her eye.

“That worked?!” she demanded. Nu seemed to blink in and out of existence.

I don’t have that command listed! Did you just make a new command prompt?! What even is the reference point for ‘most advantageous’ in this situation?

Nu’s writing looked agitated but Delta shrugged.

“Anything is better than not having it so... the advantage would be simply forming it, which is simple for Sis who knows what to do...but...uh... I guess I should have asked for a location first!” Delta laughed nervously. Nu was quiet for a moment.

Yes. What the system thinks and what we want is vastly two different things. We can only hope this room is somewhere that doesn’t cause problems. Next time ‘Show me the best location in your opinion’ might be better, but at least we learned this lesson before our lives depended on it. Now... let’s go find it!

Delta stood with a grin, Nu’s excitement for all things progressive and dungeon was infectious.

Jungle Mushroom Grove has been made!

By purchasing this room you have gained one Rare Monster!

Pygmy Myconid Chieftain!

By unlocking the Chieftain, you have unlocked the Pygmy Myconid as a purchasable monster for the floor.

By unlocking the Chieftain, you have unlocked 2 Pygmy Myconids for free!

The Jungle Mushroom Grove has unlocked the following options:

Giant Mushrooms! Mushrooms as big as some trees, create a unique and fun jungle!
Clusters of Bloodcurdling Mushrooms and Starlight Mushrooms will be grown for free!
Research has been unlocked into further mushroom fun!
Ambush tunnels for the Pygmy!
Increased growth for all mushrooms on the floor!
Decreased cost for all mushroom monsters, upgrades, and purchases!

Delta stared at the screen.

The shroomy abyss stared back.

Delta...please do not scre-

Delta didn’t quite remember the next few minutes but from what Devina told her later, Maestro thought he had been challenged to an opera duel.

She neared the only entrance to the room, a hole in the ground that led to an underground cavern. The reason why the room refused to be formed before. It could only be built underground.

She peered in and something peered up at her.

It was only about a foot and something big. It had large round eyes, little smudges of war paint on its face, a little skirt made from the grass of the jungle, a little hat to cover its cap made from sticks, and a flower it carried like a flag. Around its neck was string that led down to a pretty adorable wooden tribal mask that was easily pulled up to cover its face.

At its side were three tiny wooden sticks and little tiny bags. Delta guessed they could be flutes. It tilted its head and made a little squeaking sound at her, waving almost shyly.

Delta felt her heart explode as she leapt into the abyss to get a closer look.

She completely missed another Pygmy Mushroom using one of its ‘flutes’ to blow a tiny dart at a curious Blood Hare that stuck its head in to look.

She also missed the larger Chieftain drawing up a rough map of the jungle in the dirt, marking perfect ambush spots...

Nu didn’t.

Nu saw it all.

He decided he would tell Delta about the new monster’s little issues...later. Much... much later.

---

“Seth, I think you’re pushing him too hard,” Quiss suggested as he watched Deo’s eyes read the first line of the book over and over.

Seth looked haggard, like a water lily dried out and any remaining fluids replaced with coffee.

“Deo has not passed one tricky word test yet. Ruli will be naughty schoolgirl for rest of existence!” Seth stressed. Quiss opened his mouth and then closed his eyes.

“You need to learn context, seriously. It’s fine! It’s only been a day. Ruli gets free lunches as a student and the building has a dorm for sleeping. Deo, are you okay?” Quiss asked awkwardly, not used to being gentle.

The boy looked up with deep wisdom.

“I KNOW THE WORD ‘INSIGHTFUL’ NOW!” he bragged. Quiss gave him a weak smile.

“Know it or know what it means?” he had to ask, and Deo grinned sheepishly. Quiss looked at Seth.

“We have to do a Frenik,” he said simply and Seth’s eyes bugged out.

“Frenik?! We help him learn like that, and Deo will be death!” Seth’s grip on the language slipped as his stress skyrocketed.

“As much as dying would become a more cheery process with Deo in charge, I doubt it’s an issue. We simply have to encourage him to learn in a different manner. He’s like me, books and lectures? Not a chance,” Quiss grimaced and Deo’s mother came in with the 3rd set of refreshments since they arrived.

“I heard... My Deo has good intentions; he is trying to learn,” she promised them and Quiss nodded at her, trying not to let her see how much her voice affected him.

Even at a whisper, Isanella Brawndo had a voice that charmed the world; sometimes quite literally.

The voice of a mixed heritage between love and beauty, which was then fused with the blood of rage and violence to give birth to Deo.

It was a family tree that Quiss didn’t want to think about.

Deo being Deo was more than anyone could really ask of the boy.

“We know. I just want to test something, maybe see if he learns the way I did. Is that okay?” he asked her politely, and Isanella gave him a soft look of curiosity.

“Mr Jones was very capable and he’s only been able to do so much,” she tried to point out and Quiss gave her a grin that seemed to take the woman by surprise. Quiss remembered how he tended to look when he smiled and dropped it fast as Isanella’s eyes went wide.

“With all due respect, classrooms and tests don’t work with everyone. I’ve never had an apprentice and I think Deo will be a good test for my teachings,” he promised her. Isanella hesitated.

“I don’t think I want my son to be...” she trailed off as she as she looked at Quiss then outside through the window.

“Throwing fire about? Understandable...” Quiss muttered but the woman shook her head.

“No, not the fire. The ducks. My husband went out to get rid of them and I haven’t seen him in about an hour...” Isanella pointed out.

Quiss blinked slowly at her, not revealing anything. The blush on his neck was bad enough.

“They... do tend to bring people back. If not, I can go find him. The Duck Portal does work both ways,” he assured her as Seth looked at his empty cup in his hands.

Seth waved a hand over the rim and chanted.

Space twisted, the souls beyond screamed, Quiss’ ears popped, and Deo seemed to have a vision, but then the cup was refilled with fresh coffee and Seth sipped at it with a blank expression on his face.

“I hate that spell,” Quiss told the other mage. Seth met his eyes with a dark look.

“I don’t trust boiling water or pots anymore,” he reminded, and Quiss’ own eyes went distant.

“Hotter Quiss! Hotter! We will brew the tea of the age! Seth, more water!”

“Pour me one,” he said finally as Deo stared down at the book.

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS AT ALL!” he sighed and his mother turned the book upside down. Deo peered at it and then made a sound of understanding.

Quiss almost broke his neck to glare at Seth who looked away.

“I... don’t read your words, merely speak. Thought looked odder than usual...” he muttered. Quiss opened the window to throw out another duck and it made contact with a man’s face.

“Are you the Peacekeeper?” he asked slowly as he pulled the calm duck from his hair. Quiss didn’t know him.

He was a stranger that looked new to town.

This set of alarm bells in Quiss’ head.

Quiss’ headache became worst and he merely nodded. The man held the duck in his arms as he began to speak.

“Excellent, I need a tour of the dungeon as per dungeon law, article 12-B where it states that the local Peace-” the man droned on and on. Quiss closed the window and the man didn’t seem to notice that he was now speaking to himself.

“Deo, burn the books, we’re going to see Delta. Seth, go back to school and learn to read,” Quiss said and turned to Isanella.

“What’s the strongest alcohol you have?” he asked bluntly and the woman looked at the man still talking with his eyes closed outside the window.

“Stuff to get my husband tispy. No offence, but it’ll hit you like a horse,” she warned and Quiss held out his hand. However, the woman pulled on her coat instead of fetching the desirable booze.

“I will come with you, to see this dungeon and keep an eye on my son,” she stated. Quiss looked at his empty hand, but the woman snapped her fingers and her voice rose just slightly.

“You’re working, go get ready!” she snapped and all three of the males jumped to attention.

Quiss found himself almost combing his hair before he realised he didn’t care.

He hoped Delta kept her dungeon tame. Mimes and frog people, if Ruli was right, was more than enough to make this trip a bother.

Anything else could be... troublesome.

57: The Musical Trap

Thank you. I know you don’t... this... this means a lot.

Delta gave a slight shrug, a small smile spreading on her face.

“I’m good at spur of the moment ideas and making things nicer, but when it comes to defending myself...” Delta trailed off and itched at her nose. Nu’s box blinked a few times.

Your ideas are good in their own area, but I am better at designing more... underhanded trials. I know I went a little power mad last time so I promise to control myself this time!

The blue box turned slightly, as if to show Nu’s excitement. Delta grinned and watched as the two Pygmy Mushrooms ran around, swinging their flowers around like umbrellas. She fought back a noise that would break glass and focused on Nu’s box.

It was now spitting out text far too fast for Delta to read before new text took its place.

“Slow down! I can’t read that fast!” Delta said exasperatedly, which made Nu’s words slow to a crawl.

Sorry, I just have so many ideas! May we start on the first floor?

“Of course, it’s easier since it has more to work with.” Delta stood with a stretch and walked towards the stairs, taking a few seconds to look back into the Pygmy’s hole. Nu’s text went to lightspeed again. Delta just nodded when she saw a question mark or a combination of different symbols.

Nu was...

Delta had noticed the box was actually looking a little transparent. While she was playing with her new monsters, Nu floated off to the side and did nothing.

His responses to her question felt flat or even a little pre-prepared.

To Delta, she got a sense of being there for the sake of appearances. Nu felt bored.

In retrospect, it was a painfully obvious thing that would happen. He had done nothing but watch, talk to a few monsters, be locked out of the floor due to Grim and others...

Nu went crazy when he had taken over last time as Delta dove into Renny’s soul. He had loved it so much that he did as much as possible with little thought or care. Delta hadn’t given it much more thought than Nu being weird but looking back, it was a sign.

A symbolic Nu sign.

She watched as one of her Pygmies vanished up a tiny tunnel set into the room. Delta had no idea where it went. Nu sped on ahead and Delta began to fly after him, not wanting to let anything Nu did escape her sight.

She trusted the box, but caution was a good thing to have no matter what.

---

Since Maestro is now a secret monster behind the walls, the unused potential of the tunnel between the goblin camp and Fran’s room has always irked me. I wish to fix this.

Delta stood in the unused space and could admit that without Maestro’s former form, it was a little lonely.

“So what’s the old ticker in your head plotting?” Delta prodded and she saw the text on Nu’s box shift and stretch as a simple diagram formed.

It showed a single hallway slowly being filled with a criss-cross square pattern, and in each wall a bunch of X’s appeared.

“Chess with X’s and O’s?” she hazarded a guess. Nu’s box went blank, and Delta could almost hear the sigh.

Games are an interesting concept for gambling down the line, but no. I was referring to laying out a complicated....no, a series of… A gauntlet for the… may I just show you?

Delta stepped back as if to give Nu the floor.

She felt a tug on herself and her mana began to drop. From the space near the boss door all the way to the goblin camp, perfect squares of empty space hollowed out of the ground.

A dozen or so trap holes, but not very deep. An adult may come up to their thigh at most.

I saved mana by halving their size, so it’s not going to bankrupt you. Now, let’s add the harder part...

Delta watched with a surprised expression as a criss-cross dark grey metal mesh slid out from the bottom of the wall to cover the floor.

“I get the holes, but why the metal fence to stop people falling in?” she muttered, but Nu just kept working. Delta watched her 43 mana, recently topped up by Hob and Gob, drop to a 25. A fresh layer of dirt appeared on top. It looked solid and Delta could barely see a difference between the goblin camp dirt and this new one.

“Holes, fence, and new dirt. I like it!” Delta joked and Nu shook his box.

Patience. The fence is for your ease of mind. Watch.

Nu floated back to the goblin camp and looked at the tunnel that lead to the boss room.

Now. With the amount of trees...donated by Ruli and that lumberjack fellow, wood is a little cheaper than most things.

Nu explained as a wooden arch formed around the mouth of the tunnel. It was a simple carved arch with various crude goblin faces looked down at the visitor. Delta could spot soft impressions of Cois, Numb, and Billy, with Hob and Gob acting as torch holders, their mouths made of stone, on either side of the tunnel.

Fran’s face was placed at the very centre of the arch’s cross beam.

“Your wood carving is much better than your pottery!” Delta beamed and Nu’s box dimmed to a glower.

The pot knowledge we have is just faulty. I can only do so much...

Near the bottom, low enough that even a goblin would have to look down, Nu peered into the wooden carving of the face that looked like Billy’s. Delta followed his example and saw a tiny keyhole. Nu’s box flashed and Delta felt her mana drop to 12.

A wooden key formed and appeared in the keyhole, flowing like liquid until the block-like head appeared last.

Step 1 done. Now let’s see if we can get the two to work in tandem.

Nu seemed to go distant as he focused on the work before him.

“Why a wooden key? Seems a little fragile,” Delta asked as she examined the newly-made key.

Hm? Oh, the key? One, wood is cheap. Two, it’s insurance. If the goblins are overpowered, they’ll arm the trap and crush the key. No point in setting it up like so just for invaders to undo all the work by wondering why a goblin has a key. Obviously, I’m aiming for it to regenerate after a period but I’ll work on that. Now I just need to spend some DP...

Nu’s text turned slow and hesitant. Delta blinked.

“It’s fine, go for it,” she encouraged. Nu paused.

It’s not your permission or such that is stopping me but... I get this feeling of something when I feel the DP.

Nu turned and floated back and forward, pacing to his thoughts. Delta allowed him a few seconds to gather himself before she gently spoke.

“What feeling?” she prodded, and Nu stopped moving.

Finality. It is foolish. Let us continue.

Nu’s words took on a tone of his usual grumbling. The tunnel and the arch began to glow as Delta’s DP began to dropped from a hearty 90 to a still decent 68. Nothing seemed to change, but Nu had turned to speak to the curious goblins watching.

Numb, turn the key gently.

Cois watched with half-closed eyes, the very image of a bored pyromancer, but Delta could see how sharp his gaze was about the whole event.

Billy was readable as ever. Aloof and about as expressive as a nocturnal predator.

Numb, using two thick fingers, turned the key. There was a muffled grinding noise.

Delta spun and then looked at Nu for explaination.

The metal mesh slid away.

“Is... that it? I mean the holes might twist some ankles so it’s... not bad!” Delta smiled weakly, trying to sound supportive. Nu turned to face her and she could feel the annoyed look that he sent he, the box flashing with a flat emoticon.

It’s not finished. I wouldn’t waste so much effort on being so inefficiently petty. Watch.

In random parts of the floor, in the various pitfalls if Delta had to guess, a glow appeared and Delta’s DP dropped again with the rest of her Mana; leaving her shy of 3.

Now, I can’t proceed any further on arming the rest of the holes so those three will do for now. I added pressure plates as those recently got added to the trap menu for various things. I didn’t bother showing it to you as your general vibe towards traps is lukewarm at best, downright illogical at worst. Now you will see the result of proper planning!

Nu’s box glowed with pride as a tiny hole appeared above one of the pitfalls with the trigger plate. Delta’s DP dropped to a 55 and the hole glowed.

There was a beat of silence and Nu’s box turned a slightly paler blue, which Delta took for a slight blush.

Numb... go walk over to that part of the tunnel.

“Uh... okay boss!” Numb nodded, his body moving with the grace of a blind boulder, but Delta saw that the goblin was looking more muscular since the last time she had a good look at him.

Numb took a few steps and then hit the first trap hole, sinking down to his waist before he huffed and climbed out. He continued like this, falling into more holes until he reached where Nu wanted.

The moment he sunk down, there was a sharp click and the hole above began to puff out a purple dust. Numb looked straight up, allowing the dust to collect in his eyes; he snarled in confusion.

Then the goblin simply toppled over without any further sound.

Delta’s mouth dropped open. For a brief moment, it looked like Numb had simply died on the spot, but then the goblin snorted and rolled over; falling into another hole and starting to snore like an angry sawblade. Feet pointing straight up in the air.

I call this particular dual-layered trap the ‘The Lazy Step.’ Saved for future uses of course. It would cost far more to make the trap user-friendly in the targeting department, and trying to make it only affect certain people was beyond annoying to achieve. Hence the mesh fence to close the traps off until the key is used. It saves time and effort really. I have it set to reset both traps and to regenerate the key on a random monster on this floor after destruction. I have covered all loose ends, made a trap that lives by your moral code, and even made it look easy.

Nu seemed to glow and, despite his bragging, Delta had to admit that he was right.

Nu was really good at making the most of so little. He was like one of those old players at the game that somehow made a basic health potion kill the final boss through annoying logic and quick thinking.

Delta paused.

The game? Where had that thought come from? Delta put a hand to her chin as something teetered on the edge of coherence. A thought or a memory...

Now follow me! I want to show you more. The gobs will be back soon and I think that woman, Dabberghast, has started to give them apples or some form of fruit. Very rich in mana.

Delta stumbled after Nu, the teasing thought slipping away like a forgotten dream.

“That’s nice of her! I wonder if she’ll come visit again?” she added as Nu rushed to the entrance; as on cue, three forms appeared. Delta looked at the shadows standing in the opening door.

Gob...Hob... Renny?

Sure enough, the Mime was walking in, looking very thin; though not quite as emaciated as when she first found him. His body straightened as flesh filled out with weight and muscle. Gob and Hob bulked up as well. Renny moved an invisible bag over his shoulder, making a lot of objects shift.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Quite a few rabbits, a few fish, and a couple rocks with bronze and silvery veins running through them. Delta supposed having to only imagine what tool you needed to make harvesting things... rather easy.

The fact Renny had grown up in a travelling circus might also explain why the mime was taking some trips outside.

“Great job guys!” Delta beamed before she felt a familiar cramp flow through her.

“W...who has the mushroom?!” Delta gasped, and Renny pulled out a bunch of Rotgut Mushrooms tied together like a bouquet of flowers. Then another, and another.

“N-no!” she begged, but the mime heartily dropped them all with a flourish.

Well... at least we have mana and DP. It’s for the greater good, you can do it!

Delta glared at his cheerfulness and, with a flash of annoyance, gripped the number power that she was growing familiar with and tried to focus on Nu.

Much like with Devina, when she first found Renny, there was a moment of being in two places at once. It almost feel like a meditative experience, until Nu started to curl his box in itself.

OH GOD, THAT IS VILE! SPIT IT OUT!

Dropping the connection, Delta felt the sweet taste of vengeance wash away some of the mushroom. Renny looked like an angel with a demon’s smile.

“You’re hilarious...” Delta deadpanned as she glared at the mime before she checked her notifications.

Common Durence Hare unlocked!
Silver material unlocked!
Dusky Fireflies unlocked!
Juicy Grapes unlocked!
Mellow Banana unlocked!

Mana 65. DP: 93

Delta nodded with satisfaction. Every new unlock brought something to the table. As with the fish...spiders...mushrooms... everything had a use.

Though, she really had to wonder how Dabberghast made bananas grow in such a climate...

Delta chalked it up to ‘because she damn well wanted to.’

To be honest... Delta just liked knowing she could make things look good with silver and fireflies. It wasn’t exactly a logical thought like Nu might have, but if she made the fireflies powerful enough would Maestro like them as spotlights? Could she make the pond room look magical?

Would the fireflies feel at home?

Delta looked down at her hands.

“Nu... you’re right,” she admitted which made the box stop twisting in disgust.

I know I am... but tell me what about.

“I’m not really good at being a dungeon, but you are. I can make things really interesting and I understand how people work. You can see items that I wouldn’t think of and make the best things out of them. I’m good with the monsters, unlocking special things about them, but you’re great at finding the secrets of traps and items,” Delta rambled and then stopped.

She took a deep breath and looked at the staring Nu.

“I wanna promote you from a menu to Trap Master. I want to trust you to defend us and make sure I don’t leave some stupid path to all of our deaths but... I also trust you not to get us all killed with going overboard. You can use the monsters if they agree, the rooms and anything in them. You do so much and you deserve something for it,” Delta grinned and waited.

A few seconds passed with nothing appearing on Nu’s box.

“Nu?” Delta called with a little worry. Renny tilted his head, looking to the goblins for answers, but they merely shrugged at him.

Delta moved closer, but as she reached out to touch him Nu’s box cracked down the centre like breaking glass. Delta fell backwards as the glass exploded outwards, the shards swirling around Nu.

“NU!” Delta yelled with alarm, her hands trying to reach out as the glass began to smash each other into two orbiting moons around Nu’s box.

The box itself looked solid, more vibrant and with a defined border, as the last of the glass fled from its surface.

The glass moons stopped, and the glass rippled before smoothing over into solid single glass pieces.

They each slowly formed five tiny spindly points.

“Fingers,” Delta stated stupidly as the two floating robot-like hands flexed and relaxed. On the screen, two eyes blinked rapidly. A mouth appeared and opened with a slow effort.

Stop doing things!

Delta flinched as Nu’s face scrunched up before it wiped itself in a burst of … ones and zeroes? Text returned and words flowed across the screen.

Much better. Now... what did you do?!

Nu’s hands waved in the air with the appearance of wanting to throttle Delta.

“I just... promoted you?” Delta said slowly. Nu jabbed a finger at her.

Have I not warned you about spontaneous changing of the only world I know?

Delta looked up at the ceiling as if looking for something interesting.

“Not in so many... words,” she tried. Nu rubbed his screen with one hand, before he paused and looked at the new appendages.

Hands are not the worst thing you could have done I suppose. If you had made me grow legs I would be running experiments to test the solidity of your form’s posterior right at this very moment! I like floating. Hands... I can deal with these.

Nu turned and smacked Delta on the back of the head.

It was such a solid smack that Delta was stunned for several seconds. Contact.

Actual physical contact.

She turned and grabbed both of Nu’s hands. They were solid, firm, a little cold, but they moved.

Delta let out a delighted laugh as she hopped around, spinning Nu as she moved. His hands moved a fair distance away from his body before it was forced to follow.

“Nu, I can touch you! Before you felt like wet paper, and now you feel like a person!” she said with a bright smile. Nu’s box tried to form words but every rotation of Delta’s spin made the text fade like a sketch pad.

---

Renny shook his head and shook Gob and Hob’s hands before casually walking down the tunnel.

The Mime nodded to the spiders as they began their 2nd afternoon royal ball. Renny slowed near the pond where the duck watched him. He had not forgotten their battle previously.

The way his powers had utterly broken after the duck had cursed him. It was... unpleasant.

He began to turn to head back down to the second floor when he paused. He felt... a vibration. A hum.

He travelled down the path he had never been down. Being a contracted monster, he didn’t feel uncomfortable or out of place on another floor the way a dungeon born might. Still, there was something in the air that wasn’t quite to his taste.

To him, it might be just a personal taste. To a dungeon born, it might be a slightly more physical reaction. His respect for the mushroom, Mr Mushy, rose with each step. The monster never showed any discomfort at visiting the second floor.

The duck as well. It had fought him on another floor. Even if it had the demon woman as a shield.

Renny slowed. Did he feel a rivalry with the duck? He couldn’t stop adding the beast to his thoughts.

Was it a contracted thing?

Renny had no idea.

But he’d like to see who would win on equal ground. The duck had so much growth to go through. Renny knew of its kind. The duck was barely fresh from the nest...

He entered some form of a storeroom. Simplistic but the torches and luminous mushrooms made it look more peaceful. The air had also turned almost tasty. Renny followed the sound of humming to a part of the wall. He pushed and felt the wall didn’t have much weight behind it. A secret tunnel?

Delta was full of surprises.

Like with Nu. Evolving a tool into something more. Monsters he could understand. It was the natural path. He himself had such an option a long time ago.

But it was like evolving a sword or a book.

How had Delta done it?

Renny wasn’t sure but he could only hope when it came time for him to suddenly become a super-mime, he would have some warning...

Not that he would mind that much. With nothing else left in the world and his only home now a permanent fixture of the dungeon, Renny didn’t mind being in the dungeon. Under a slightly less human core, he would have been removed as a threat.

That would have been that. Delta had come to him, in the darkest pit of his soul and offered him the choice. Much like his father. He offered Renny a choice everyday. Stay or be free.

Always a choice.

For someone who could not speak naturally, being heard was something he would always cherish. Even if it was from one of the weirdest woman he had ever met. He knocked on the wall and the humming stopped. There was a hiss as the wall was pulled back and Renny briefly saw a retreating vine-like thing vanish around a corner.

“Oh, a guest! Well, don’t be shy! I never turn down an audience!” a voice filled with mirth and purr called out.

It reminded Renny of a performer. A very, very energetic performer.

Turning the corner, he was surprised to see the tunnel expand into a giant room with some stone pyramid-like structure, the stone itself covered in veiny fungal growth. Upon the top, like some growing figure of worship, sat a giant mushroom.

Renny really didn’t know why he should suspect it would be anything else at this point.

It leered down at him, its face a thing of nightmares but its eyes held a welcoming glint. Renny, confident in his powers to at least escape, walked forward; noting as he did so the several tiny mushrooms which grew on each layer of the pyramid; like a line of watchers. Various odd fungal instruments seemed to grow from the floors and walls as well.

As he climbed up the first step and passed another layer, the mushrooms burst into a long choral hymn; the higher he went, the higher the mushrooms’ pitch went until he stood before the biggest one of all.

It swept out one arm in a wide arc and every mushroom went quiet.

“Now, look at this! Delta has let some cats in before but I don’t think we’ve met. Now, I’m just dying to hear all about you!” he tapped one long needle-like finger across his cheek.

Renny tilted his head at the unusual creature. The mushroom seemed to blink and then snapped his fingers.

“Of course! How rude, let’s talk about me first! Quite wise. Well, let me introduce you to a little mushroom that goes by the name of Maestro; please, no autographs until the end of the tour,” Maestro winked. A joyous piano sounded out to accompany the action.

If Renny hadn’t already seen his own face reflected in various lakes when yawning after a bad nights sleep, he might have been disturbed.

Renny bowed in a smooth arc.

“Ohh the strong and silent type eh? Off to save a princess? Nyahhaha! Just a jest, forgive me! What brings such a gentlemime to my little slice of heaven?” he asked. Renny shrugged, looking around at the room. Vines and fungal growth seemed to vanish down into the ground itself as well as into the walls.

“Curiosity melted the cat. You’re a lucky fellow that I put my edgy self away and only melt critics now,” Maestro purred. Renny walked around and saw growths of drums, a thin film growing across the surface to act as the drumhead.

Out of habit, he mimed the action of drumming. He produced no sound but he felt the Delta part that now rested inside his soul buzz in reaction.

Maestro paused.

“Interesting...” he murmured. For the first time, Renny felt a little wary as he turned back to Maestro.

The giant creature held out two hands and from the ceiling, something dropped into them.

It was a metallic instrument covered in yet more mushrooms.

“You got the power honey, but have you got the touch?” Maestro asked, voice turning serious.

“I’ve got a case of the lonely blues and a fellow player walks into my little room? How can I turn that down? Come now, don’t be shy, bare your soul and show your moves!” Maestro pointed dramatically at Renny.

Renny itched his chin, thinking about it.

He could just go home, play with Wilhelm, annoy Devina, sleep, tidy up the statue, sleep, go on another gathering trip with the goblins... or he could stay awhile and listen to the odd talking mushroom.

That seemed to be able to hear his musical abilities.

Renny itched a little harder as he brought his full smile to the surface.

He stretched out his hands and brought them down across several surfaces. He only knew how to play some instruments; a habit one learned when a circus’ music for a show was all homemade.

The thumps of drums buzzed his soul. Maestro let loose a mighty laugh and every tiny mushroom echoed it, making the room sound like a bustling entertainment hall.

Maestro brought the metal instrument to his lips and sounds Renny had never heard before blasted out the wide mouth of the thing.

It was wonderous and Renny decided he could stay just for a while, before Delta did something else and changed everything.

This was his home now and Renny didn’t mind it so much.

---

Maps updating coming up next.

58: Thorn in The Side

Holly Dabberghast set the hot pie on the table.

It was a pie that Holly had made a dozen times with dozens of variants, but with just as much love put into each one.

One of her children, Yige the eldest, walked past with a hungry expression. The flowers she had braided into her long dark hair looked to be in full bloom, despite being cut from their stems for a short time.

Holly cut her a slice of pie without a word. Yige was going through a very important part of her life. As a natural born druid, Holly could be no prouder.

Yige picked up the pie and Holly saw that her skin had the hue of fresh tree bark. They did not speak because Holly did not want to force her to do such a human thing. Her husband slipped occasionally, but the man always directed his questions quickly to the nearest inanimate object.

Yige sighed with joy as the pie slice disappeared very quickly. She hugged her mother before leaving through the back door into the garden.

Holly smiled at her retreating back. She saw how Yige’s feet seemed to almost sink into the solid earth, as if it was welcoming her.

The approaching vibrancy of life let her know that her husband had entered the room, even if all physical senses didn’t pick him up.

“Any idea what is going to happen?” he asked softly.

The age-old question.

“Those with Nature’s blessing in them must choose. To walk as flesh and blood as a warrior or become as nature; a guardian with wood and sap. Yige is on a fine balance but in the end, the choice will continue to chase her. Every second is a reminder of both worlds,” Holly explained, she had lost count of how many times she’d had to.

Holly turned to look at Kota. The man was not impressive. He didn’t have a handsome face, nor impressive build. He wasn’t intelligent enough to change the world, nor charming enough to win any heart.

But he loved. And Holly couldn’t ask for more.

The fool had loved her even when she was ready to remove his head for insolence.

Holly smiled at the memory, her round cheeks flushing as she thought about how rash she had been.

Kota’s shaggy head and slightly befuddled features had grown like moss over Holly’s heart and it hadn’t been long before she had given him a special plant to show her affection.

The idiot planted it instead of using it for a potion like Holly had intended but the action just endeared him more to the retired archdruid.

Kota helped himself to a slice of pie as two furious voices above argued over something.

Treg, her middle child, screamed something about swords and her youngest, Saldr fired back about magic. Holly fanned the scent of pie towards the stairs of the house and waited.

“I just wish I could help,” Kota sighed as he stared out the door.

“Being a rock in this storm is all you can do. Influencing her towards one path or another is just... not something I will allow. Once you choose a life, it is all you have. If she chooses human to keep you happy... she’ll be gone regardless. The emptiness of the wrong choice has killed many a rash druid,” Holly stoked Kota’s head softly, removing tangled locks where she found them.

Treg rushed into the kitchen. The boy took after his father, hair down to his back and looking like he was dragged through a hedge backwards. Saldr waddled after, furiously determined to be first to the table.

Like Yige, they too would have to choose who they would be in the future.

Holly would love them no matter what, but she knew Kota would take it hard.

“Tell me why you stayed,” Kota whispered as he wrapped two arms around her waist. Holly raised one brow.

“You know why, I’ve told you that tale a dozen times,” she reminded. Kota grinned easily,, making a splotch of some chemical or solution stand out. Holly licked one thumb and cleaned the stain with a warm smile.

“A foolish human knocked on my forest hut’s door, seeking immortality in a bottle. He offended the arch-druid, almost killed himself, and then at the worst possible moment, that man told me I looked like a goddess. I’m very good at sensing lies. I decided that a human life had more treasures for me to find yet,” she whispered as her children devoured the pie. Holly, without looking, pulled two slices for her husband and herself to eat later.

“O’o! SS Uish!” Treg pointed out the window, mouth filled with pie. A nearby plant twisted into some horrific shape and Holly soothed it back to normal. Holy turned, a scowl on her face, ready to scold her child for speaking in tongues but froze when she saw Isanella, her son Deo, Quiss and an unknown man. She went closer to the window to get a better look.

The man turned to look around the village, a scowl on his face. One of his many trinkets glinted in the sunlight.

Holly went very still.

Every plant within the area stiffened. A slight rumble shook the house.

“Holly!” Kota rushed to her side. Holly grabbed his hand, a reaction to her feelings.

“Kota... watch the children. I am going out,” she told him. She had slipped into an old accent that let Kota know there would be no argument. Kota nodded but grabbed her hand as moved to leave.

“Stay firm, stay green,” he said before he kissed her. Holly softened for a moment.

“I’ll be back,” she promised and gathered her things to quickly catch up to the group.

She knew exactly where they were heading.

She would not let Delta fall. She would not let her become a cow for the slaughter.

Never again.

---

Waiting for more Mana was boring. Delta loved Hob and Gob for being such hard workers but the wait was going to be hard. So in the meantime, she drew up some ideas.

“We’ll grow more apples or the healing herbs, then we can set up a trade with Durence. I mean if we produced enough of a variety in the jungle, we could sell them to Mrs. Dabberghast; or Ruli if she wants to hunt some of the critters later. The hot spring, the rest area... we just need to market them.

The berries, spiderweb, various mushrooms, Mr’s pots, basic iron, the fish. We have more than you think. The issue is that we haven’t felt ready to invite the world down until our security was ready. Besides, you’re assuming a lot of Durence’s financial standing or ability to trade. Sure, Dabberghast can give us plants and maybe Ruli can give us a bunch of trees once in a while, but we honestly just do not know enough about the town. It’s all second-hand knowledge.

Delta sighed.

“Not exactly like I can go for a stroll and introduce myself,” she reminded him. Nu merely glowed for a moment.

Of course. I just want you to know there is a chance that the people are powerful but have nothing but each other. Planning on things you are unaware of or can’t control is risky.

“What do you suggest?” Delta asked instead of arguing. Nu looked to the entrance, his new hands clasping together as he thought aloud.

Something has been bugging me... Damn, that was not intentional! Urgh... we have not heard a peep from those giant spiders. At all. Not even Gob or Hob seemed to run into them.

Delta looked at the closed entrance door and frowned.

“I guessed since Ruli and Cram, that lumberjack, cut down the forest around here, they ran away...” she admitted but Nu turned to her.

No, even before that, before the door... they went quiet. Ruli explained how Monsters are drawn to dungeons like bees to flowers. What changed?

“I dunno, we defeated the ones that came when Deo first visited then... they just stopped. Why are you suddenly worried? Maybe Durence sent someone to get rid of them?” she pointed out. Nu was quiet for a moment.

Shame. That’s a lot of free mana and DP to go to waste.

Delta turned to him with a startled look.

Monsters. You felt it. There was no rational thought or control in those spiders. Animals mutated out of control. You have no problem with Hob and Gob collecting fish and rabbits, why not giant spiders? They would speed everything up and it would keep the people of Durence safe at night.

The words were tempting but Delta also knew that Nu had a good enough feel for her character to manipulate her slightly.

“And if we kick some nest and start a war with the spiders?” she prodded with one finger.

We shut the door and squish them in the morning. If they try to attack Durence? I would enjoy seeing that. Quiss alone would burn them to a crisp. Ruli would eat them. Come now, we both know you’re more worried about your gobs getting hurt. So stop fretting and spend some DP on them. It really is simple. Pay the cost now to get a bigger reward later!

Nu through both hands up in a triumphant manner.

“How exactly will we go about this? Lure them in?” Delta ignored Nu’s previous words for a moment.

Scout, find out what’s stopping them, plan after. No need to make a 5 step plan and expect the enemy to follow each step. Seriously, it’s just arrogant and a waste of time to make such a convoluted plan that hinges on us being 100% correct.

“You need to stop playing those imaginary games with Devina and Renny, I dunno even why I showed you guys fantasy board games...” Delta smiled softly at Nu’s grumblings.

I am a fair but hard dungeon keeper. If they insist on trying to get around me by over-planning them I will drop the end game mushboss on their butts after the tutorial!

Delta pushed back a giggle and floated down the tunnel. Nu had some good points but jumping from growing mushrooms and trading right into monster hunting...

It was going to take her a little time to get used to the idea. Nu made it seem good but there were drawbacks.

If the spiders were already dead then it would be a promising plan dashed to pieces. If something killed them all and it wasn’t someone from Durence... then that would just bring that thing to her door. Delta felt safe, but there were too many unknowns about the world outside for her to be truly confident in her defences.

If the spiders were still around, then the fact they were keeping to themselves was another thing. What if they pulled back after seeing how outmatched they were? Would that not be enough awareness to warrant thinking before mass murdering them all?

Did her gobs not steal some of their eggs first?

If the spiders only fed on the animals in the forest and were doing their best to avoid Delta... she wasn’t sure she could just walk up and order their deaths. Being a giant spider monster alone didn’t exactly warrant a death sentence.

If Ruli was here, maybe the woman could let Delta know how much of a pain the spiders had been. If they were eating lost children, feeding on livestock, making people live in fear, then Delta would make a stand. She would do her best to remove such a danger. On the other hand, if they were just minding their own business could she honestly justify simply attacking them unprovoked?

No. Nu was right.

Delta didn’t know anything about what laid just outside her door. She had dived into making her home safe, better, a home for all. But there was one thing she could do without any regret.

“Hi Numb!” she called out the goblin that was lifting one of Mr’s pots, filled with mud, over his head. The goblin camp looked much better with Nu’s arch now set into the tunnel entrance. It added a character to the room.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The goblin rippled with muscles that the other goblins didn’t have at all. Even Hob and Gob in their Delta forms were just bigger, but not so buff. Numb slowly eased the pot down.

Cois was nearby and he yawned.

“58, new record,” he called as he slowly made the campfire shape the flames into a rough goblin head. Numb grinned, the wooden key around his neck worn with pride.

“How can i helps!” Numb saluted, sweat dripping off his face.

“I just thought it was high time you guys were due a check-up, see what’s appeared in your menus!” Delta explained as she began to pull up windows. She saw Billy slink out from the shadows, his curiosity peaked.

Cois snapped his head up.

“More fire!” he cackled. Delta pursed her lips.

“We’ll see,” she answered noncommittally.

She looked at Numb’s menu first.

Goblin Thug/Numb

Available Options:

Evolve into Goblin Fighter: A goblin that excels in physical combat. Natural evolution. 20 DP (Cheapened by Ruli’s Diary)

Evolve into Goblin Juggernaut: A goblin that has learned to take damage and come back fighting. Natural Evolution. 25 DP

Evolve into Goblin Disciple: One who has learned to focus the wildness of a goblin into a source of strength. 30 DP (Cheapened by Ruli’s Diary) A special evolution unlocked by studying with Rale.

Delta stared for a long moment.

“Numb... that’s so cool!” she beamed. Numb laughed with a proud grin, then slowed until he was just blinking.

“Uh... what did I do?” he asked confused.

“Nothing on purpose,” Billy commented. Numb seemed to take that as a compliment and beamed again.

Delta bent down until she was face to face with Numb. She hadn’t noticed it before, but as she kept building the second floor her monsters had slowly become able to see her more clearly. Numb looked straight at her.

“Numb, would you like to evolve? I don’t know what you’ll become exactly but...” she trailed off, but Numb had gone wide-eyed.

“Me? I... I can evolve?” he whispered, his clawed hands clasped tightly to his sides. Delta nodded gently.

“Only if you want,” she promised. Numb looked down at the ground for a moment. Billy smirked and looked away, even Cois was silent for the moment.

“I worked... really hard! I really want it! I trained with Rale and big hell worm!” Numb spoke quickly, not looking up.

With some effort, Numb met Delta’s eyes. She had never seen a goblin in tears, but Numb looked... soft.

“Please!” he begged. Delta gently put a hand on his head.

“Of course, now hold still!” she winked. Why let Numb’s hard work go to waste?

Sure it cost more but if Delta had one bad habit, it was taking risky choices. She hit the Goblin Disciple option. Numb was surrounded in a corona of orange light like some warm cocoon.

It whipped up a gust of wind as the energy encircled tighter and tighter before it suddenly broke apart with a thunderous crash. Numb stood before her, but it was not the goblin she had known. The rough fur pelts were gone. The spiky club was gone. The slightly goofy expression was gone.

In its place was a goblin that gave her a soft smile.

“Mother...” he said, his voice flowing like a soft breeze. He flexed his hands.

They were wrapped in a red cloth, but his fingers didn’t seem restricted. He slowly began to flex the rest of his body.

The muscled torso that looked far more straight and human than the hunched stance of a goblin. The face, once slightly goofy, now looked firm and serious. Numb had hair now, a pulled back ponytail. The hair looked coarse but long. She looked down at the long flowing cotton trousers. He was barefooted, but even his feet looked like they pulsed with energy.

He moved forward and the air seemed to tense then flow around his body. Numb closed his eyes and there was a slight glow around his hands.

“Numb, you look...” Delta trailed off, not sure what to say.

Numb grinned and it was both comforting, but also made Numb look like his old self; the sweet being that she knew from before.

He was still himself, but there was so much more now.

This was the result of Numb’s hard work.

A box appeared.

Numb has unlocked physical energy. System will name this energy as PE.

Delta watched as Numb did a soft strike into the air. There was a soft ripple.

“I-I mean... that’s pretty... interesting but don’t hit me or I’ll burn you,” Cois sniffed and Numb gave him a look before the grin reappeared.

“I would never harm a brother,” he promised. Cois gave him a sour look.

“What makes us brothers? Please, I am your magical leader,” Cois sniped back. Numb raised one brow before he bowed slightly, one hand pushed into a palm.

“Oh do forgive me, oh magical leader. I do believe your campfire is burning your mushrooms,” Numb commented. Cois screeched as the blackened mushroom crumbled before his eyes.

Delta giggled as Cois stomped towards the mushroom grove, muttering to himself.

“How do you feel?” Delta asked brightly. Numb looked at his hands.

“Alive. I feel alive. Power is flowing through me and I can feel something bubbling just under my skin. Power with a cost but so much of it. I could lose it all in moment, but I know... I need to stay in control. Forgive me, mother, I need to go relax. I need to go stand under the waterfall on the second floor. I need to thank... I need to thank another brother,” Numb bowed and turned, rushing down the tunnel in a burst of speed that the goblin had never had before.

“Wait! I wanted to check your new menu!” Delta called, but the goblin had already rushed into the boss room and shut the door.

“Still Numb, if you know what to look for,” Billy commented. Delta sighed but she couldn’t help but feel happy. To see one of her first monsters grow into such a form made a deep pride rise up within her.

There were some really bad things about being a dungeon core. The isolation at the start, the trapped feeling, the idea that you were subhuman...

But there were always upsides.

Delta turned to Billy who straightened up.

“I’m ready,” he said, voice calm. Delta opened the menu and looked.

Goblin Archer/Billy

Available Options:

Evolve into Goblin Ranger: A special goblin who works with an animal to fight foes. Random pet unlocked upon evolving. 25 DP

Evolve into Goblin Stalker: A goblin that uses special arrows and equipment to sow chaos in foe’s ranks. 25 DP

Delta read them aloud and Billy just stared.

She eyed the options, the words teasing her like a temptress of the night. Random pet.

Random pet.

She felt the itch to pick it, but she looked at Billy.

“Well?” she asked with a smile, but the tone felt a little nervous. She cleared her throat and waited.

Billy looked down for a moment.

“Stalker. I want to be a stalker,” he admitted. Delta felt relief. Random picks had been... interesting for her heart. It would be good to have a stable choice for once.

“Hold onto your hat!” Delta cheered and hit the option.

The light swirled again, but the orange was much darker this time. It didn’t shatter like before but instead flaked away like autumn leafs.

Billy had looked cute with his little green hat and arrows.

Now? Billy looked like a nightmare that lived in the darkness of the trees.

A dark hood barely showed two red eyes, the shadows hid most of the face. A thin mouth was licked by a black tongue.

Two large thin ears pierced through the hood and both were pierced by two iron rings. The form was hunched over as if ready to launch into a sudden burst of speed.

Cruel arrows of dark metal filled the quiver, the dark bow made from some odd wood and tight string.

The hands that held it had dark nails, showing the power that could fire an arrow from unseen distances.

Billy stood straight and Delta squeaked at how he almost reached the same level as her chin.

Lanky, but so tall.

Billy pulled back the hood, the skin a darker shade of green than before. The face, now fully shown, was almost the same as Billy’s previous form but it was more angular. It made his smile wilder.

“This is... nice,” Billy stated. His voice was much deeper.

Delta laughed nervously and almost wished she had convinced Billy to spin the random wheel.

Billy ran a hand over a series of pouches and items on his body. Rope, vials, folded nets. Billy was decked out for war.

“H-how do you feel?” Delta asked meekly and Billy pulled out a wicked dagger. He began to flip and catch it as if he’d done so all his life.

“I feel like this was the right choice. Mother... I thank you,” Billy bowed and pulled the hood back over his head. Delta stepped closer and looked him over.

“You look scary,” she had to let him know. Billy laughed.

“Even better. Excuse me, I need to go test this body. I want to scare the ever-loving crap out of Cois,” Billy grinned, the expression enough to give small children nightmares.

How did the excitable Numb become serene and the calm Billy become creepy?

They were still her gobs and like any good parent, she would support them in any phase they went through but it didn’t mean she had to be calm about it!

“H-have fun!” Delta waved as Billy stalked off.

It took her a moment to notice that Billy had escaped before she could check his menu.

He was only going down the hall but Delta needed a moment to herself.

“I swear if I evolve Mr Mushy and he turns into something like Maestro, I’ll scream,” she muttered to herself.

Then she paused.

“If I evolve the Pygmies... will they still be cute?” she whispered.

She was starting to have a minor panic attack when sudden loud arguing filled her head.

People had come into the dungeon, and two of them were screaming at each other.

She was at the entrance in a blink.

“You’re a dog for a kingdom that grows fat off enslaved creatures!” Holly Dabberghast snapped, her usual cheery face, white with anger. A man Delta had never seen before was turning redder than was healthy.

“They’re hardly innocent. Monster attacks, mana infections and fluctuations, draw people in with treasure to eat them? Yes, innocent,” the man drawled with sarcasm. Holly narrowed her eyes and a necklace around her neck glowed green.

Quiss strode in between them.

“Holly, calm down before I send you home. Noland, shut the hell up,” he said bluntly. They both looked at him.

“Quiss, he’s here to size Delta up for the rest of the world. This is the beginning of it all,” Dabberghast snapped and then took a deep breath.

She looked around at the entrance hall. Read the signs. Suddenly, she looked sad.

“Please... Delta doesn’t deserve this,” she looked at Quiss. The man just met her eyes for a long time. Dabberghast looked at the Peacekeeper badge on his chest.

“Of course... you have no choice,” she nodded. Noland just sniffed and looked around.

“I must say, I’m not impress-” he was cut off as he was knocked out of the way as Deo tripped into the dungeon with a yelp.

“Deo, sweetie, please be careful,” a beautiful voice called. Delta had to clear away a slight fog for a moment as the woman’s voice bounced along the dungeon walls.

Delta stared at the party that had come to her dungeon.

It was... a weird one.

A fire mage, a druid, Deo, Deo’s mother(?), and some asshole.

“Welcome to my dungeon?” Delta tried to sound confident.

All of them seemed to feel something as Delta spoke.

Deo waved.

“HI DELTA! I’VE COME TO DO MY HOMEWORK!” he called. Delta had a feeling it wouldn’t be quite so simple...

----

59: DEOLICIOUS

Quiss watched the stone door close behind them.

The lack of sunlight, the fading of the outside world and the darkness of a dungeon always made a new adventurer pause for the first time. In that crystal clear moment, a person knows for a fact if they can live as a dungeon explorer.

A single moment of basic bestial panic that showed the true strength of your character. Some chose to ignore it and burned out fast. If they didn’t die first.

To Quiss, he wasn’t sure the same feeling would happen to any newcomer in Delta’s dungeon. Warm air flowed around them, the entrancing hall felt more like someone’s home than a pit of challenge and death.

Quiss paused, then nodded to himself.

It was a home.

Delta’s home.

“Rather basic entrance hall, what age are we looking at?” Noland asked bluntly as he began to jot down notes on a clipboard he had pulled from his bag. Quiss could see forms, references, boxes to be filled, boxes to be ticked.

How did one clipboard hold so many damn forms?

“Not long, moving on to week three,” he stated. Quiss wasn’t sure exactly how much to tell Noland. The man was only doing his job, but Dabberghast was correct. Noland was the tiny pebble that began the endless avalanche of new faces and new problems.

Dungeons attracted just as many monsters as it created. It also, Quiss had to admit, let true heroes rise. People worthy of the mantle.

They just wouldn’t be allowed to test their blades on Delta. Quiss was going to make sure of that.

He just had to make Noland see how Delta operated.

“How many confirmed deaths?” Noland moved on as Deo dropped some gum into the offering bowl while Isanella placed some homemade cookies as well.

Quiss grumbled and fished in his pocket for something.

Dangerous curse stone... Dragon fang of Ilstar... Unstable dimensional amulet of storage connected to a bank across the world... keys to his shack... something that hissed.

He tried the other pocket and found reports he needed to hand over to the elders. He debated on it, knowing he would have to rewrite them all and sighed, he opened his jacket and placed his mostly full flask of the local brew.

Enough to make his fingers tingle but not enough that he would be hiccuping spells. He was sure Delta couldn’t do too much damage with alcohol. Last time he was here, she had a duck, some goblins...

Ruli did mention a mime which was a little bizarre but Quiss wasn’t here to be a judgemental donkey’s rear.

He’d leave that job to Noland.

“One of the village and maybe a roaming party. The other casualties involve my free time, my blood pressure level and maybe some trees,” Quiss interjected as Dabberghast hid a smile. Noland looked at the offering tables.

“Quaint traditions,” he said and moved past without offering anything. Quiss didn’t bother hiding his annoyance.

Uppity city ponce.

He watched as Deo grabbed the man’s sleeve with a frown.

“MISTER TAXMAN! YOU FORGOT TO LEAVE DELTA A GIFT!” he interjected in perhaps the most non-positive tone Quiss had ever heard from the lad. Noland gently tried to pull away, frowning when Deo’s grip refused to budge.

Noland opened his mouth to perhaps say something that would let Quiss back down and have Dabberghast turn the man into compost, but Isanella stepped in behind Deo.

“Sir, quaint it may be, it is important to us and the dungeon. As a representative of the crown, are you sure you can display such disregard to our beliefs and culture?” she asked, voice a calm but stern thing. Noland turned pink.

“O-of course not. I was merely eager to get on with the journey. Forgive me,” he smiled weakly and Deo beamed, dragging the man with little effort over to the bowls.

“DELTA LIKES FOOD AND THINGS LIKE THAT, BUT SHE’D BE HAPPY WITH ANYTHING; DELTA IS REALLY NICE LIKE THAT!” he calmly told the taxman. Quiss shook his head as the man struggled to escape the boy’s grasp.

Deo was his father’s son. The man cleaved people down with a blade that usually could not be wielded by anyone other than a monster or some angsty heroic lead.

Noland dropped in some coins which appeased Deo enough he released Noland. The man grumbled and straightened the creases out of his expensive coat.

“Now that we have paid respects, can we carry on? I’d like to be back at the inn before the sun sets,” he informed them all. Quiss stared at him, imagining accidentally pushing the man into the mudpit.

It made him smile.

“Careful, Peacekeeper, every time you smile, I am sure some small cute animal explodes into a ball of fire,” Dabberghast commented. Quiss rolled his eyes but couldn’t comment as something moved down the hallway.

“A monster, ready yourselves!” Noland commanded. Deo rushed past him.

“MR MUSHY!” he waved. Noland reached out to yank Deo back but the boy moved too fast. The giant shadow stepped into the entrance hall and looked at them all.

Quiss hadn’t seen the big fellow in some time and he was sure there was something different about it. He couldn’t quite put a finger on it though. The monster looked more... animated.

Mr Mushy reached out and patted Deo’s head hard enough that Deo had to move with the gesture to avoid being pushed down.

“Taxman Noland, meet one of the many residents of the dungeon. This is Mr Mushy. I did try explaining to you on the way here that the dungeon is deserving of a rank zero threat level,” Quiss used the stunned expression on the man’s face as a chance to push his agenda.

“Z-zero? No such thing. What is this creature?” he asked, his dagger held between two fingers.

“A wonder, a beautiful gift of nature,” Dabberghast moved forward to greet the mushroom. Noland ignored her and eyed Quiss.

“Generic monster of the first floor. I am lead to believe he likes making pottery now,” Quiss remarked.

“Like? Monsters do not like. He must be a contract or some developing mutation variant for that to happen,” Noland dismissed with a glare.

Quiss honestly was not going to spend the whole trip like this.

“You asked me here for my expertise in Delta’s dungeon. You asked me here because I have been dealing with Delta since day one. You asked me here because you happened to have your head shoved firmly up your own ass. Call me a liar again and I will remove you from this dungeon as per my duties,” he warned, a lick of fire curling out his nostrils as they flared.

Noland looked at him.

“Remove me? On what grounds?” he asked, more interested than threatened.

“For causing intentional chaos to the establishing system of a dungeon. Presets have been laid down, methods of contact have been established. Stomping through them in haste to go back to your room so you can drink your watered down piss of a wine in the bathtub will not be tolerated,” Quiss grunted. Noland thought that over.

“I drink good wine,” was all he said and made a note on his board.

He crossed the room and stood, knife at his side but not raised as before. He looked Mr Mushy up and down.

Mr Mushy looked at him with curiosity.

“Greetings, monster of the dungeon ‘Delta’. I am Noland...uh... how... goes the day?” he tried. Mr Mushy placed one finger to where his mouth should have been as if thinking of an answer.

Slowly, Mr Mushy gave Noland a thumbs up on a single hand.

There was some silence as Noland looked between the thumb and his clipboard, unsure of what to write.

“THAT MEANS GOOD!” Deo supplied, helpful as ever.

“Mushy, this man is here to inspect the dungeon as his duty to the king of this land,” Dabberghast spoke gently to the mushroom. Quiss wasn’t sure why until he saw her looking past the mushroom and down the tunnel as if trying to send the words to someone else.

Dabberghast didn’t want Noland to know that Delta herself could communicate with them. He wasn’t sure why, the fact she could would go a long way to help prove how stable and safe Delta was.

Mr Mushy reached behind him and handed Noland a slightly crooked pot. The man took it gingerly as if it might bite him.

“It’s... lovely. I’ll put it somewhere,” Noland smile looked pained as he put it on the table that held the bowls.

“I’ll pick it up on the way out,” he muttered. Quiss knew that man would ‘forget it’ on the way out but as Quiss was a wonderful Peacekeeper, he would ensure it would appear in Noland’s room before the night was done...

Noland edged around Mr Mushy and made some distance down the tunnel.

“Let us continue. We really must be on our way. I don’t want anything else to come meet us or jump out before long or this whole thing will take until morning,” Noland sounded like he was trying to be helpful but Quiss just waited.

“We’ll be fine as long as we contain ourselves and move with cautio-” he was cut off as a sign popped out of the wall with a cheery noise.

Noland screeched and fell backwards, his knife buried in the signpost.

Quiss was enjoying this. Who knew having a dungeon around could be so entertaining?

Noland stood with a growl.

“Why are there signposts here?!” he turned to Quiss as if blaming the man for not warning him in time. Quiss intentionally hadn’t because the man was annoying him, so he didn’t set him on fire for the tone in his voice.

“To be helpful, see? Zero threat. Also, the sign just went back into the wall with your knife still stuck in it,” Quiss informed him pleasantly. Noland walked back and forward, jumping and even tapping the wall to make the post pop back out again.

It didn’t and Noland stared at the thin slit where the wooden post rested.

“It just stole my knife, but how did it get it into the wall? The knife is too big...” he asked himself and Quiss pushed the man onwards.

“Noland, you said it yourself, no time to waste. Come now, plenty to see, plenty to do,” he said and looked to see Mr Mushy lower his hands, probably just finishing telling Dabberghast some secret.

The woman could speak plant, so he assumed she was decent in fungus as well.

“Oh... oh!” she smiled and place a kiss on Mr Mushy’s cap. The mushroom buried his face into his hands and turned away. Quiss had never seen a blushing mushroom, but Delta did things that he just had to accept happened and he moved on as quickly as possible.

Deo looked between them as his mother casually stroked the boy’s hair.

“Deo come, let’s begin your lesson while we wait for Noland to run into the spiders,” he instructed. Deo nodded seriously and waited.

Quiss tried to recall the lesson plan and remembered geography was on the list.

“Why do mushrooms, some plants and animals like caves? What makes them so good to live in?” he asked.

Okay, Quiss hadn’t exactly looked at the lesson plan that Seth had drawn up. He would have to throw caution the wind and fill the boy’s head with whatever he could make stick and hope it was enough to free Ruli.

Deo’s face furrowed into serious thoughts. He looked at Mr Mushy before Deo took one of the mushroom’s hands and squeezed it slightly. Mr Mushy looked confused before he turned and squeezed Dabberghast’s hand, thinking it was some human ritual.

“MR MUSHY FEELS COOL AND A LITTLE DAMP SO IF HE LIVED OUTSIDE OR IN TOWN... HE WOULD DRY UP! CAVES ARE COOL AND DON’T HAVE MUCH SUN!” Deo decided.

Sure, he didn’t mention the unique ecosystem, the fact the caves often had minerals and other factors but it was a good start.

There was a sudden thud followed by loud screaming.

“Noland just found the spider room and the trip wire. That man does not do well off a horse,” Quiss muttered.

He beckoned them all to follow.

He hadn’t expected Mr Mushy to follow but decided if Noland annoyed him, he would have the mushroom sit on him.

“Now, Deo, why do spiders make web?” he asked of his student. Remembering something about biology on the lesson plan... maybe it was about frogs?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Spiders were a close second, right?

---

“What do you want?” Ruli asked sourly as the boy with the orange tongue glared at her.

The orange looked familiar but Ruli didn’t comment on it. The boy jabbed a finger at her desk.

“You’re in my seat,” he stated. Ruli tilted her head at him before she slowly looked around the empty classroom. Every other seat was unoccupied and free to use. As far as Ruli could see, there was virtually no difference in any of the desks to show any of them had a owner.

“Well, school’s out. Why are you here?” she asked instead of moving. The boy looked like someone who walked around with a stone in their shoe and refused to get rid of it out of pride.

In other words, the kid had issues.

“I didn’t want to stay at home. I need to write things down and review my... trip,” he trailed off before he looked at her expectantly. Ruli grinned, stretching as she spread out her body to take up as much space as possible.

“No can do. Mr Jones wants me here and here is where my ass is sitting,” she responded before wincing as Mr Jones paused in his marking of tests to give her a look.

“Grim, please sit next to Ruli. I promise I’ll have your desk returned to you before long,” the teacher said to the kid. The tone was a little affectionate and it didn’t surprise Ruli.

Almost everyone knew how much Mr Jones liked his students, even the slow and stress inducing ones like Deo and herself. The boy, Grim, sulked but did as instructed. He began to take out notes, maps, drawings, and little measuring rulers.

“Looks like stuff you can do at home,” Ruli pointed out. Grim ignored her as he began to draw and roughly make lines on his incomplete map.

“Aren’t you too old to be in school? Did you fail so badly you had to do after class lessons?” Grim snapped back, face looking irked. Ruli felt the sensation of childish joy rise up inside.

Something to entertain her!

Escaping hadn’t worked. Even smuggling herself into the large cardboard box marked for ‘Hell’ hadn’t worked. Mr Jones seemed to be omniscient in his own school.

It made picking her nose discreetly a real pain.

“Well, you see. I don’t have to answer that,” Ruli smiled, eyeing the map that was beginning to shape some very familiar rooms and tunnels.

“You been to the dungeon?” she commented lightly. Grim’s pen stuttered and he almost mis-drew a room. The store room.

For some reason, the kid had drawn a giant devil mouse face next to it.

“What makes you think that?” Grim asked testily. Ruli jabbed a bit of the map.

“The pond room has a bit more... curve at this bit. Waddles likes his space,” she pointed out. Grim froze before he quicky edited the map.

“Your spider room is missing the berry bush. I like the picture of the spider with puppet strings, did Delta do some decorating since I’ve been stuck here?” she inquired innocently.

“You’ve been to the dungeon?” he asked her. Ruli shrugged.

“Once or twice. Got some good fish there,” she mused aloud. Grim spoke without really thinking.

“I guess that would really hook you in,” he commented before he slapped a hand over his mouth. Ruli blinked for a few seconds before she slapped the desk with a large grin.

“Oh damn, nice kid! Never knew you had a personality let alone some humor!” she guffawed. Grim glared and opened his mouth before he thought the better of it.

“Delta... she’s cursed me!” he moaned and sadly doodled the pond room into completion. Ruli could see his duck drawing wasn’t half bad...

---

“Why is there a duck here?” Noland asked bleakley as he pulled more spider web from his hair. His slightly blotchy skin from where he had tripped into the berry bush made him look like he was bursting out in hives.

Quiss had thought he had seen something move across the ceiling but when he squinted his eyes, he couldn’t see anything.

Quiss was sure the berry juice would wash out later... sadly. Deo moved forward, waving his heart out at the fish, the duck, at his mother.

The boy liked his waving.

The duck that Quiss had conjured himself opened one eye and met Quiss’ gaze. There was a glint of recognition in the duck’s black eyes.

Quiss knew that most the ducks he summoned knew of him. He had no idea where they came from but if left to their own devices for too long, the ducks ended up overthrowing the local power.

They did vanish after a while but this one apparently managed to keep one duckie foot in the world.

At least Delta had this one mostly under wraps, he only hoped she kept a close eye on it. Noland peered into the pond.

“A thriving fishing spot, a rarity. I’m seeing a lot species and no monsters... this does make the dungeon a good point for some unique fishing,” he nodded to himself. Isanella bent down as Deo pointed.

“I CALL THAT ONE GOLDY! THAT ONE SILVERY! THAT ONE HORATIO!” Deo said and Quiss wished he could bottle just a fraction of Deo’s spirit and use it in emergencies. While he liked being a utter recluse and as rude as possible to people... he’d like to have a very nice day off once in awhile.

Maybe if he chanted a spirit medium spell on to an object and rubbed it hard against Deo... it might work. Stealing spirit or will was not his intention... but seeing if he could make an object feel like Deo’s never ending enthusiasm?

“You look like you’re trying to decide if you want to eat Deo or just simply throw science at him,” Dabberghast commented dryly. Quiss sniffed.

“One does not throw science or magic at someone. You strap them down and take your time, not that I expect a druid to know anything about subtlety,” he fired back, a little less afraid of the woman now that she had another target to focus her annoyance on.

Dabberghast merely smiled.

“Oh, I have machinations set up from years previous. I have plans that involve you that you may never see coming,” she promised. Quiss wanted to roll his eyes but there was a glint in the jolly woman’s eyes that made him felt just a touch uneasy.

“We’ve only known each other for a year or so at the most,” he reminded her. Before becoming a Peacekeeper, he didn’t know anyone in the weirdo town of Durence.

“Of course,” Dabberghast nodded gently, patting his hand reassuringly.

There was an odd noise from the pond. Noland, which had been standing closest, peered into it.

“There’s something moving at the bottom,” he informed them. That was when a giant hellish worm emerged from the pond with a fluid arch. Water rained down, the duck made annoyed noises. Noland was screeching.

Deo was pointing with excitement. Quiss was about three seconds away from burning the thing to nothing before it wriggled a few more times and flicked it’s large manables towards them, sending someone flying into the ground.

The figure flip in mid-air before landing in a graceful roll.

“Refreshing! I thank you for the trip, Bob!” the goblin called. The worm wriggled and it’s body shuddered in a farewell before it sunk out of view. Fish swam all around it, nudging it in farewell.

The goblin turned and blinked.

The monster looked familiar but the form was entirely new to him. Too calm for Cois... too animated for Billy...

Unless this was a brand new goblin, the only one left it could be was either the contracted ones or Numb.

Since he was sure had seen the gobs in the distance harvesting more for the dungeon...

“Greetings, welcome to the dungeon of my mother. Delta greets you!” the goblin dipped his head in a greeting motion.

“It is good to see you again Quiss, Mrs Dabberghast, and of course, Deo!” the goblin grinned. Noland, now soaking wet after using his own body to shield his paperwork, looked at Quiss.

“Explain!” he demanded in a tone of terror and mindless panic.

Quiss nodded.

“Delta has been busy. There is a second floor and apparently a few secret passages around. I assume that was a monster of the second floor,” he answered calmly. Quiss peered at Noland as if inspecting him.

“Are you harmed?” he inquired, knowing full well the answer. Noland said nothing but began to furiously write things down on the board.

Quiss wished him luck in finding the ‘Giant hell worm’ box to tick.

“NUMB! YOU LOOK SO COOL!” Deo greeted as Isanella managed to release her grip on Deo’s shoulders. The worm had startled her, he could see her body turned to shield his, her mouth open and ready to start singing.

“I’ve seen worms like those in the deep waters of Marlon. Little things that suddenly become much longer when they reach for prey. I was finding some herbs at the bottom where no sun could reach. I had to fend a few off,” Dabberghast mused. Quiss eyed her.

“Any of them grow to be that big?” he wondered. Dabberghast looked immensely pleased as she shook her head.

“None!” she giggled.

There was a grunt and Quiss turned to see Deo and Numb gripping each others hands. Deo was beaming while Numb grinned. Their hands shook as they squeezed.

Quiss closed his eyes.

A door puzzle. Mr Mushy entering the entrance hall, a place off limits to dungeon traps and monsters. A ecosystem of unique fish. Giant Hell worms. An evolved goblin.

Delta was friendly, but he was beginning to have to agree that maybe a danger rank of zero may not exactly be honest.

It had only been a small period of time. What else could have Delta possibly have managed to conjure?

She only had access to mushrooms for heaven's sake...

----

“So, there’s a secret passage in the storeroom now? Who would have thunk it? Go Delta,” Ruli mused.

Grim snorted.

“Did you hear about the devil mouse? That thing is evil, never mind the secret passage,” Grim bit out. Ruli rolled her eyes.

“It’s a bloody mouse. So what was in the secret passage?” she pushed. Grim frowned and jabbed at his drawing of a door with several vines slithering through the open space.

“Never saw, but whatever it was had vines, acid and definitely didn’t like me,” he shrugged. Ruli thought about it before she snapped her fingers.

“Greater Mushy, a sour thing. Mr Mushy’s brother. Not seen the guy in a while but I guess Delta moved him. Didn’t like people from what I saw,” Ruli mused before grinning.

“I wonder what the fella’s up to now? Delta’s dungeon does things to people, sour mushrooms are not exempt,” she stretched. Grim shot her a look.

“It’s bad enough with vines and acid. Why would you want to make that worse?” he demanded. Ruli thought about it.

“Cause Delta could always use more mushrooms. Kind of her unspoken motto. I mean, I’m sure the little pissed off mushroom is fine but what do you think it’s guarding?” Ruli questioned.

In her mind, it was a secret fishing spot filled with diamond fish or rare rainbow cod...

“Hell. That’s all that dungeon offers,” Grim muttered.

He began to draw a giant question mark on the map.

---

Quiss stared as Mr Mushy opened the secret passage for them. It had taken some prodding from Dabberghast. Mr Mushy seemed to hear something from beyond the wall.

The storeroom was nice and simple. Quiss could appreciate the various challenges now scattering through the dungeon. Accepting them all would be time consuming and the less Noland could report back, the better. So for now, he would have to leave this ‘Merry’ to its slumber.

The secret passage opened and there came a low hum that echoed outwards. Isanella straightened and walked ahead without a word.

Deo trailed after her and looked back at them grinning.

“MUM LOVES MUSIC!” he explained as he ran after the retreating form of Isanella.

Music?

When had Delta gotten music?

Quiss felt nervous about the whole thing but when Dabberghast rushed ahead, a flush on her face and a squeal in her throat...

The feeling bloomed into a full blown migraine.

60: The Star of the Show

Deo’s laughter was the most beautiful sound in the world.

She had heard the Ice Queen sing mournfully in her crystal hall. The thunderstorm cries of a newborn storm roc. The sound of her husband whispering sweet love to her.

Isanella had heard so many wonderful… and sad... things in this world. Every sound was a living creature. Every lilt of an accent a story to be told but never heard. Every word hid countless emotions.

It all became so very sad when the beauty of pure sound was locked behind restraint and regret.

But not her Deo. Every word he yelled was so honest. So beautifully...painfully honest. She would treasure him always.

The sound she heard now was not as beautiful as her boy, there was just no comparison but...

It was wonderful.

Deo’s hand took hers but Isanella did not slow down. Deo eased his grip to avoid pulling her back. She felt a surge of pride as her boy controlled his strength. There had been many accidental bruises and injuries during Deo’s childhood when he’d thrown temper tantrums but Isanella had never faltered.

She loved the men in her life. Her husband, his hands once so drenched in blood now turned to making things; and her son, so wonderfully Deo.

The tunnel before her became a little harder to navigate as weird roots and vines began to grow out of the walls. Eventually, the soil ground became nothing but roots; vines brushing her hair every second, though she pushed on regardless.

Every single one of the vines and roots all trembled with noise.

Every single one of them was trying to hold back a song.

It was almost painful to Isanella until she understood they were waiting for their cue. The worry and pain that filled her waned, replaced by a small smile and excitement.

Isanella loved music.

She was music in physical form.

Music was such a powerful force, so much like magic but entirely different at the same time. Isanella was... had been an adventurer. She had visited so many places where music filled the hearts of people, but also where music had withered to weeping cries.

Here?

In this tunnel of nature and darkness?

Isanella felt music.

Soon enough the tunnel ended and a huge dark space spread out before them. Isanella couldn’t see more than an arm’s length in front of her but she could hear Dabberghast scolding Quiss for trying to use fire. Isanella waited. She could feel it. This was it! As Noland trailed in last and the entire group was waiting in the dark, a tense moment grew as an awareness stared them down.

“What are we waiting for?” Noland hissed, his voice tense like cracking glass. Poor man was not trained for this, but his job demanded it of him.

And what the job wanted, the man seemed intent on doing.

Quiss looked to answer but was cut off as a low chuckle filled the large chamber.

“Waiting for? Why... you’re waiting for the show to begin! Boys? Are we living in the dark ages or what? Hit the lights!” a booming voice called, a deep baritone of a voice that could go in so many directions. The sound was like a puzzle to her ears.

The sound of sudden snapping rang out in rapid succession as mushrooms burst into bright flares of light, one by one up the side of a large stone structure until four mushrooms ignited at the corners of a great altar. The being resting at the top was something that Isanella’s immediate reaction to was a desire to freeze the horrible thing, but as it began to speak, her body lurched into excited shivers at the voice.

Noland was screaming and Quiss’ arms were engulfed in flames while Deo was staring open-mouthed.

The thing was some form of mushroom like the other one. But unlike Mr Mushy this fungus monster was torn straight from a nightmare. Demonic long fingers, a mouth filled with sharp teeth and a thorny tongue that licked pale flesh, no legs but at its base was countless mouthed growths and familiar gnarled roots digging into the plateau it rested on.

Its black eyes bored into her soul as countless vines flowed from its cap into the ceiling, walls, and floor; as if it was some central beating heart for all life in the dungeon.

Noland’s terrified high-pitched screeching suddenly cut off as Dabberghast pinched his nose. Effectively strangling Noland’s screaming, making the being laugh.

“Looks like the sir went from opera to a flat... well how about that?” it chortled. Isanella watched it move slightly, using the vines to swing its body slightly. It was a little hypnotic.

“Greater Mushy? Is that you?” Dabberghast called, her cheeks flushed and smile wide. Her eyes roamed his form and the room with such tenderness that Isanella was almost convinced the woman had fallen in love.

The monster ran one hand over its smooth cap.

“My, my, my if it isn’t Holly Dabberghast! It if hasn’t been a year and a day! Like what Mother’s done with the place? Me as well? What am I saying? Of course you do!” it laughed, one hand covering its mouth.

Isanella was impressed with how much emotion it conveyed with one action.

With mirth still in its voice, it leaned forward to look down at them.

“But on the stage, darling, you can call me MAESTRO!” he bellowed and every layer of the structure; on almost every wall, across the ceiling; everywhere there was room and space, strangely shaped mushrooms wriggled and moved.

The ones with mouths let loose a choir that echoed a wild crowd lost in throws of excitement.

A soft repeating drum beat began somewhere in the far end of the room. Dabberghast looked around and took the first step up the pyramid.

“Sorry, Holly. Me and you are going to have some tit for tat later but right now, I got some business with someone else. Quiss, put the fire out, you can't be as hot as me, so don’t even try!” Maestro winked. Dabberghast deflated, but she sat on the stairs and began to poke and prod the nearest mushrooms. Maestro turned to her after nodding at Holly.

“Little lady, you walk on to my dance floor, my ballroom, my little slice of heaven and don’t even shake your stuff? If I was a flower, I would be wilting right now!” it cried, covering its cap with another hand.

Isanella knew exactly what he meant.

He was a performer and he could see her. Being a dungeon monster and in a new dungeon at that? Maestro most likely had never had the pleasure of company, let alone meeting a fellow lover of the art.

She gave Deo’s hand a delicate squeeze before she let it go.

“YOU’RE SO COOL!” Deo yelled and the mushroom paused in his posturing.

“A fan? I... no, the art must come first! Jonathan, prepare the autographs just in case!” Maestro pointed to one of the countless mushrooms at his base. One wriggled and sang in acknowledgement. Several mushrooms around it began to help it do something out of sight.

Isanella blinked. Did they... all have names?

“Now, darling, will you give me the honor of your name? I’m just dying to hear it!” he crooned. Isanella inhaled.

The scent of damp earth and mushrooms was present but there were also nicer smells. Mostly from the mushrooms that glowed like stars across the ceiling, a soft hum emanating from their glowing cores.

Maestro himself smelled not of death or decay but of a rich enticing aroma not unlike that of a smoky room. Teasing hints of sweet wine, the caress of aromatic oils, the sound of barely contained passion flittered passed her ears.

“Isanella. Mother of Deo, beloved wife, ex-adventurer, Ex-guild leader, and a simple bard,” she smiled. She let her voice grow, feeling each word carry more and more weight and power. She could see Deo blissfully unaffected, but Dabberghast had to visibly steel herself; hands busy examining a black mushroom to the side.

Quiss stumbled, but he seemed to stand his ground. Noland however...

The man was on his knees, staring at her. Isanella guessed that the man’s mental strength was good, certainly above average. He stared at her in shock and a little wonder but he wasn’t a total slave to his impulses. She could handle the man easy enough but she’d rather not cause the dungeon’s case to be made worse by her own actions.

Maestro has closed his eyes.

“Yes… OH YESSSS!” he spread his long spindly arms out with a laugh of joy. Isanella watched as he opened that dark pit of a mouth.

The sound that came out was so deep, but it hurtled a powerful note held at a perfect pitch. Isanella felt her music being pushed back as the mushroom’s own stood its ground.

Bards, Songstresses, Pipers, Whistlers, Beguilers, Charmers, Shamans, and now, Mushrooms. Even something a simple as child songs sung around a playground could hold powerful energy if one knew how to tap into it.

Passion, pure utter passion, had to be inside the wielder’s heart. Music wasn’t like science with certain facts and good outcomes, nor like magic where enough energy could create just about whatever result was desired.

Music was a gift and you had to love it for it to be a power.

Even just a spark was enough.

Maestro had more than a mere spark. Isanella felt a bonfire of power being projected. It wasn’t being used for anything but if she had to guess...Maestro most likely didn’t even know what he was doing. He was just loving the music and Isanella could not help but let out delighted laughter.

The people who had sought her out to demand the art of music; all powerful warriors, or magi, and even some great engineers; they all lacked the very thing Maestro had developed.

Simple enjoyment of the art.

Isanella spread her arms out and looked over her shoulder at Quiss.

The man paled and began to direct Noland out of the room the way they came, the man not putting up much of a fight in his current state. Dabberghast sighed and also stood.

“I’ll be back!” she promised Maestro with a side smile. He bowed to her.

“Always welcome, my lovely Holly!” he smiled, with all his teeth. Deo eyes Quiss and looked unsure.

“Go on, I’m going to stay here... and sing some songs,” Isanella gently pushed Deo towards the retreating group. Deo frowned but then smiled.

“Let me hear them later! Where you make the song go inside my heart?” he begged. Isanella made a show of thinking about it then smiled as Deo’s face began to fall.

“Always my little sunshine,” she kissed him on the forehead. The boy laughed and ran after Quiss.

“Delta likes him very much,” Maestro called. Isanella turned and tilted her head.

“Deo likes Delta. I am beginning to see why,” she moved forward and put a foot on the bottom of the stone steps.

The air seemed to change in an instant. The almost casual overtone Maestro had been projecting now felt charged.

“Now, I’ve been hearing you speak and speak but hunny, I want to hear you sing. This place has been too calm for too long. Rrrready? It’s showtime!” Maestro flexed and the mushrooms around the room began to flash in a series of patterns and colors.

“Take a bow, human! The king of soul is here to show you his stuff!” Maestro clicked one finger as various odd-shaped mushrooms began to twitch and music erupted around the room.

Isanella took off her cozy sweater and dropped it to the ground. Her arms were compact but covered in scars. With ease, she removed the hair tie keeping her long hair up.

The beat was electrifying. It should have sounded harsh, like metal in a storm but it carried such a need to make her dance that Isanella loved it.

“Techno is a little harsh but if we start slow then I’m just not respecting you, sugar!” Maestro pointed down at her.

“I accept your challenge, but please... call me Isanella,” she requested and began to climb the stairs; however, to her surprise, a row of mushrooms blocked her path.

A trio of mushrooms looked up at her and let loose a series of sounds.

“Come now, Nella, if you want to reach the king, you must get through his vassals! Show me your heart!” Maestro cried with joy.

She looked down at them and with one note, made them bow in defeat. The next row held 5 mushrooms and Isanella strode towards them confidently.

She was having immense amounts of fun. She would have to bake so much when she got home just to keep her emotions under control.

Her husband’s waist was going to regret marrying her at this rate.

Isanella giggled and let the music take her.

----

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“So you got through the mudroom? Not bad, I mean pretty simple but that’s the beauty of it,” Ruli watched as Grim marked the fake platforms from the real ones by memory alone.

“I’ll have to check if the fakes change position or the like but it was an easy room if you use logic,” Grim boasted a little.

“Easy for now. You do know Delta makes everything better soon enough. Just watch, it’ll get something to make it all ‘Delta-ish’,” Ruli defended the room.

From what she had figured out from Delta’s character in the passing of words between Delta’s monsters and that brief appearance of her avatar when the mime appeared...

It was kind of lucky Delta had defenceses at all; but then again there was that snot-nosed brat, Nu, that appeared once in a while.

He seemed to have his head up his ass but at least it was going in the right direction. Though Delta maybe had to keep Nu from decking the place out in sharp spikes and evil overlord thrones.

Evil thrones were so last season.

Grim sniffed.

“Only an idiot would struggle with this,” he stated.

---

“How can you not know which is the real one? Did you not cross this yourself?” Noland asked with exasperation.

Dabberghast lingered behind to talk to Deo. They diverted into the pond room for a moment, saying something about the plants at the bottom of the pond.

Quiss opened his mouth but didn’t feel like telling the man that he had been pushed in and just climbed out the other end.

“It’s been a while. Besides, Mr Mushy and Numb here can help,” he suggested. He looked to the two monsters. Mr Mushy gave him a thumbs up and walked forward with cheer.

Quiss watched blankly as Mr Mushy simply hopped into the mud pit and began to make his way across with a cheerful stride.

“I should have expected that. Numb?” he tried the goblin next. Numb raised one brow.

“Asking for hints? Is not the whole point of the room, to try and fail then try and pass?” Numb asked innocently; but at Quiss’ glare he shrugged and, a little quicker than Quiss expected, hopped across the three centre platforms.

The middle one had bobbed but the goblin had moved too quickly for it to dip any lower. Numb stood on the other side staring at his hands with utter delight.

“Still getting used to this body, who knew I could do that?”

Quiss could see how the challenge of this room would be a pain.

“Can’t you just use magic to get us across?” Noland tried. Quiss turned to him and in his driest tone spoke slowly.

“Yes, let me just make a bridge made of fire for you, your majesty,” he stressed. Noland growled.

“Don’t you know any other magic?” he asked, sounding a little desperate. Quiss knew how to summon ducks, but he guessed that wouldn’t really help unless he summoned a lot.

“Nope,” he lied and that was when the dungeon shook. The walls, the floors, the very air seemed to tremble as music filled tunnels.

A duet of male and female sang words that he couldn’t quite hear, but the force seeped into Quiss’ bones.

Isanella was singing.

She hadn’t done that, if his research was right, since the Ulane. The castle now famous for having no sound at all. Those who lived there and those who passed through experienced no sound. They weren’t deaf but sound just didn’t work. The ingredients for music and song were now gone.

Removed by Isanella.

For what reason, Quiss had never asked. He would have to offer his story in trade and he had no inclination to do so.

Quiss pushed Noland on to the first platform in the middle and it held.

“First part done, now if we keep this up, we’ll be across in no time,” Quiss nodded and before Noland could protest, he pushed Noland on to the next one.

It sank and there was a splat.

The somehow pristine clipboard came floating along the surface of the mud a moment later.

“Well, not that one,” Quiss said helpfully as Noland turned slowly to glare at him.

He climbed out of the pit and Quiss just stood there with a huge smile on his face. It was mean he knew, but he couldn’t help enjoying it. He knew exactly what path to take but he just wanted to see the man suffe-

Something jabbed into his side and Quiss turned to see a wooden log pushing out of the nearby wall and into said side.

He wobbled and toppled over.

When... had Delta put those in?

The mud around Quiss began to bubble with heat.

---

“Stop laughing!” Grim demanded as Ruli wiped at her eyes.

“S-sorry but you got rammed up the ass by Boary? Why didn’t you just sneak past or feed it some mushrooms?” she asked. Grim opened his mouth but shut it with a click when no answer came.

“So you got the grove and got chased around for ages. Anything else in the room or is it same ole, same ole? Can’t expect Delta to make everything better. Sometimes you gotta call something done for the day or you’ll never get anything else done,” she nodded at her own wisdom.

“Mushrooms, pigs, goblins, and me running for my life. Same ole...same ole,” Grim muttered. His pen drew a snoozing Boary next to the room.

---

“As you can see Deo, such a fertile area can support many mushrooms!” Dabberghast beamed as they stood just before the grove. Deo looked around.

“I REMEMBER BEING NEARLY EATEN BY A SPIDER HERE!” he agreed.

Noland looked at the towel that Numb had fetched for him and shook his head.

“This dungeon likes its mushrooms. Is there any reason for this?” he asked Quiss.

Delta liked mushrooms because...

Well...

“She just does. I mean why do you like that clipboard so much?” he deflected. Noland snorted.

“Written documents are the foundation of history and society. A good document can neatly cover a kingdoms wealth, population, and any other issues. A great document can change them. It has purpose, importance, use. Mushrooms are important to the ecosystem and nature but overall, as a city dweller, I find very little use for them,” he informed Quiss neatly.

There was snuffling sound and Quiss watched as the boar that lived in the area lazily walked out of a nearby bush. Deo cheered and rushed over. Quiss watched, less sure of this particular monster. It never left the grove nor did it express the same level of personality as the others.

Deo began to pet the pig. With a sigh, the monster laid down to give Deo extra reach. The mushrooms growing on its back twitched as well. It was a little grotesque if he thought too hard about what it meant for the mushrooms to be there.

Dabberghast, of course, disagreed and she rushed over to get a better look.

“Ah, grows into the fur...doesn't seem to pierce skin. It can afford to since it lives off of the ambient mana. You must sleep a lot if they had time to settle in,” Dabberghast said with a teasing tone to the snoozing pig.

Quiss watched but he felt... there was something else here.

He turned and saw a slightly swaying mushroom cap.

The mushroom forest around them, now that he was thinking about, cast a lot of shadows and offered a lot of high ground if one could navigate it.

Noland looked at his clipboard, in particular, the large hole near the top where it could be hung off a nail or a hook.

“Still mud in there,” he grumbled, holding the clipboard higher to get a better look.

A black arrow whistled from the darkness and yanked the clipboard out of Noland’s hand, burying itself into the large mushroom stalk behind Quiss.

The clipboard was undamaged as the arrow had a very narrow head and somehow went through the hole like a needle.

Quiss looked up as a goblin emerged from the shadows high above.

It wasn’t just Numb that had changed...

Quiss subtly moved in front of Noland as Dabberghast put one hand on the ground, making the gesture look casual as Deo jumped up and waved.

“BILLY! IS THAT YOU BILLY?” he yelled. There was a pause before the goblin leapt and bounced off another mushroom to land in a crouch.

Billy had been a little silly looking before. A green hat and a bow that belonged to a child.

Now, Billy looked like he’d snuck out of some child’s nightmare. Numb snorted.

“Show off!” he called to the goblin in the hood. Red eyes glowed in the shadows it cast.

Long claws casually brushed a belt of items, and black arrows filled his quiver.

“They woke me up from my nap, a gob can get a little angsty,” Billy’s tone was like the warning rattle of a snake. Each word with a barely held back laugh.

Numb went to stand next to his brother as Dabberghast removed her hand, a glow of green fading. She had been taken by surprise as well. She was a druid but Quiss guessed that in a dungeon, even she could be tricked by the local nature if it suited the dungeon.

Quiss counted two goblins. Now, where was the last one?

“Oi, you people done making a ruckus?” a snooty voice called and Quiss’ migraine came back with a vengeance.

Cois stomped up to Quiss and Noland. Noland took a few steps back as Cois eyed him.

“Who’s the git?” he asked bluntly and Noland’s eyes bugged out.

“Excuse me?!” he demanded, fear forgotten as his pride became a little too bruised.

Cois pointed a sharp claw at Noland.

“You. Dressing like you’re off to a ball. You got a silver spoon so far into that mouth you’re scooping whatever is left of your brains out. YOU! Who are you, ya buggering git!” Cois’ nostrils flared. Billy itched his nose.

“Pretty sure he’s the guest Mother said we had to be on our best behavior around,” he commented and Cois paused.

“Is he?” he asked Billy in a displeased tone. Numb grinned.

“You gonna be stuck tasting new mushrooms for ages at this rate,” he informed Cois. The music thrummed and Cois growled.

“Who set off the preening fool?” he called but no answer came. Cois turned but choked out a gurgle as Deo picked him up to hug him with both arms.

“COIS! HOW ARE YOU!” Deo said. Cois turned an alarming shade of purple before Deo loosened his grip slightly. Quiss was developing an unhealthy habit of enjoying watching other people's suffering.

“Release me child! I command you!” Cois warned. Deo did so and the fiery goblin adjusted himself and made sure his staff hadn’t been crushed.

“What do you want?” Cois asked Noland.

“I am here to examine the dungeon under kingdom law. I am here to look for danger, threats, opportunities, worth of operations, and how much potential this dungeon holds for the kingdom at large,” Noland quoted perfectly. Cois narrowed his eyes but then suddenly smiled.

It was... not a nice look. Quiss almost told Noland to run, but something held his tongue.

Cois walked forward, claws behind his back.

“I was almost a diplomat in another life,” Cois stated almost casually.

“I could never tell,” Noland muttered. Cois ignored that and sat on a low mushroom. Gesturing for Noland to take the one across from him.

“I like the way you think Noland and I can appreciate a man with a good eye for business...” Cois tried to look benevolent but the expression came across as bloodthirsty.

“As you said, you wanna see what Mother’s dungeon can do for your kingdom. Great, love it. Now, in return, I wanna know... for good ole curiosity sake... what can your kingdom do for the dungeon?” Cois’ tone turned into a sharp weapon that Noland was not prepared for.

Quiss took a step back.

Noland’s expression was suddenly guarded but... interested. This was more his domain than mud pits and mushroom monsters. Quiss curled one lip at the scene as a political battle began. A battle that was the most important thing Delta had ever fought and all she had was Cois.

He hoped Delta had something else up her sleeve. Noland was an ass but...He was one of the finest taxmen in the country. Dabberghast neatly planted herself slightly behind Cois and smiled at Noland.

...Well, now that was just unfair.

Quiss watched as Numb and Billy rushed off with Deo into the fort room. His ‘incoming double migraine’ warning began to signal and he had to choose. Business meeting that may start a war with the kingdom or small mischief caused by Deo? Which one to stop?

Quiss turned and moved after Deo.

Dabberghast was an adult with an agenda that aligned with his, for now, she could handle this. If not, Quiss could always just hide in his shack for the next few years.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Map updates.

Might have missed a few things and the jungle is messy but hell, it looks good.

Like what you see? Want more chapters? Support me on Patreon and I'll do my best to speed up production.

Floor one and two updated to the best of my knowledge, be kind but don't feel like you have to love it

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

EDIT: It's Merry, not Jerry. I also forgot the new boss room on the second floor XD

61: This Dungeon Belongs to Noland

What was a dungeon to someone who had no wish to set foot in one?

Dens of danger? Taker of loved ones? Stories to amuse oneself with?

Shapers of every facet of your life and culture?

Noland did not like nor did he dislike dungeons. On both hands, he was rather uncaring about the whole business. Maybe a hundred years ago or so when telling dungeon goods from natural resources was nigh impossible... his opinion would be different.

Without that tiny sliver of ‘dungeon’ embedded in objects, every coin, bar of metal, roll of fur’s value would be so skewed it would be like living in a world where the value of life’s joy was equal to how many levels of a dungeon you could conquer.

Sure, Noland could go to a dungeon and get a copper sword to sell.

But everyone and their father’s father had sold ten copper swords already. Merchants would refuse to even bargain.

A silver sword then... less common but still found in every store with a slight hitch in price.

A gold sword... not exactly a great weapon but it looked nice. He might get a good price for it but what would he have to exchange? Years of training? Dedication to a life of death and risk? Spending years on the road to master skills that would only be good for ending life?

If dungeon loot could not be given a fitting value then the world was done.

If there was no limit, then there was no need.

If a priceless relic could be farmed until it was common, it was no longer priceless.

An abundance of treasure was a lack of treasure.

If everyone was rich then no one was rich. A gold bar would not be worth even a slice of bread.

Noland had thought about it. He had really thought about it over the years. As he knocked on the doors of the people to collect the tax, he collected natural coins.

Verluan Coins made in the capital by metals formed in this world, the very soil. Not one trace of dungeon in them. If it was simply disliking dungeons then Noland could take comfort in his biases and understand that he was a potentially narrow-minded person, but it never felt that simple.

Dungeon treasure; loots, and gains; degraded.

Not instantly and definitely not fast enough to be pointless. A good magical item could last years if maintained and taken care of but compared to a naturally made item, it felt like a summer flower that was quickly eclipsed by the winter of time.

The items broke down into dungeon mana crystals, a dust-like substance that could be used for many things but overall...

No one wanted to build a kingdom on top of shifting sand when perfectly good solid stuff was just a few steps away.

“You get visitors, tributes, mana, ideas, potential lost property as rewards, and renown. What else can a dungeon exactly want?” he asked the grinning goblin. The wicked staff and burning eyes of the creature didn’t scare Noland. It wouldn’t be his first goblin.

He was accustomed to threats of various kinds on the road and actually felt better dealing with this ‘Cois’, than the druid. She scared Noland.

Most people of Durence did.

“Visitors? But we can’t tell people to leave... We’d get slaughtered and we can’t press charges? Our hard work gets stolen and we have to accept it?” Cois leered. Noland raised one eyebrow.

“Items that respawn as well as monsters that dying has no consequence for?” he asked lightly, knowing full well that dying was no small thing. He just wanted to see where the goblin would take this.

“Ever been shanked in the gut? Fancy getting that for just existing?” Cois scoffed and gestured around.

“Dungeons get no say. I know most are blockheads that eat people, Mother gets that. But she’s trying to be nice to people, no idea why. You’re all a bunch of gits,” the goblin grinned. Holly cleared her throat.

“Delta is asking for the rights that people are afforded. She was born in Verluan, she should get the same rights as any person,” she smiled. Her rosy cheeks seemed less like a blush and more akin to a face eager for a battle.

In the background, the woman sang with such a piercing note that his skin burst out into goosebumps. The noise was answered by a masculine wail as some metallic noise screeched out of a nearby mushroom. His heart began to pump despite the harsh music.

It was primal but not unlikeable.

“There are laws,” he shrugged. Noland wasn’t a lawyer but he knew enough of the law of the land to be aware of several key things.

“Laws can be changed,” Cois grinned savagely. Noland smiled pleasantly back.

“Not these laws. Rules of reality aren’t so easily ignored or, if you can, please let me know the last time your dungeon core took a walk outside or sealed herself off?” he inquired in the same tone. Dabberghast wrinkled her nose.

“Let us seal your throat shut and see how long you last, that is biology more than any magical law,” she countered.

“Then there is the fact that normal people don’t lure in monsters from every direction, infect the environment with mana, rapidly change any local economy, gather an army, have the potential of snapping and becoming a threat to the entire country-” Noland began to list with his fingers.

“People snap just as easily. You royal knights are hardly saints! Durence alone has enough stories to show that people are just as dang—” Dabberghast seemed to be gathering speed before Noland cut her off.

“Durence was meant to be forgotten. You knew that as well as anyone when you came here. Durence the cursed town. Where monsters and heroes alike go to fade away because the world has no place for them. The dungeon bringing you all back to awareness is cruel. I’m surprised that none of you are trying to remove her. Some of you chose this existence if I remember,” Noland stood.

Cois picked at his fangs with annoyance at being left out of the conversation.

“Mother just wants to be respected and not hunted-” he began and Noland strode past him.

“I wish her luck. She should either destroy everything she has created and have nothing to offer to be forever left alone or learn to defend herself and hope her kindness can win over enough defenders. She already has one in the druid here,” Noland called without looking back.

“Is there nothing we can do?” the goblin’s voice turned quiet. Noland slowed, closing his eyes.

Noland didn’t care for dungeons.

They popped into existence and everything had to bend around them. He didn’t care for them because in all honesty they just didn’t care. They created, conjured, spawned, encroached, carved, destroyed anything without thought.

He stamped them as ‘not his problem’ on the paperwork. Now this one, this Delta, was asking him to just change everything about how the law, their understanding, their practices about dungeons worked because she wanted to have peace.

As if he had the power to do anything more than submit a report.

“Keep trying to be who you wish. I’m just a taxman. When people come, you’ll have to stick to your convictions or give up. That is when your desires will truly be tested. If I had any advice to give... You have a town of lunatics and madmen on your side that seem to respect you. It would be a good use of your time to fully open yourself to them. Learn all their names, their needs, their passions, their secrets. Learn how to sort them into the right places, where to push, where to submit. Learn to be an asset they cannot live without. If someone endangers you, be it physically or spiritually, then they will risk the wrath of the town,” Noland looked at the high ceiling.

“People avoided this place due to the lack of mana and the stories told. One is fading but the other is still here,” he shrugged and walked on.

“Dabberghast, may we continue?” he gestured to the door on the far end of the room.

There was a beat of silence.

“Of course. I would be delighted to see more of the dungeon... and to show you more as well,” an arm slipped into his as Dabberghast began to escort him. He blinked down at her.

The woman merely smiled ahead.

“Simply a taxman,” she quoted to herself. Noland fought a blush creeping up his neck.

“I think that is a bit more lie than truth, and after that rousing speech I'd like to find out just how much more. Ever consider moving to Durence, Noland? Lovely this time of year, the dungeon is in the full bloom of spring!” she giggled as Cois fell into step next to them.

“Smell of cooking spiders on the barbie adds some flavor to the air,” the goblin grinned as he began to beckon Mr Mushy to follow.

Noland needed to escape this town fast.

It was beginning to creep towards him in an unsettling manner.

--

Deo watched as his friend showed off the giant arch in the goblin camp. Numb bragged about what had changed in the camp.

Deo couldn’t exactly understand Numb, the fangs and inhuman face made it difficult to exactly made out what the goblin was saying in terms of words but Deo enjoyed the excitement and passion Numb now showed.

Before he was an easy going goblin but now, there was something new about his friend.

Like he was more alive than before. It was odd but that was just what Deo felt.

A hand rested on his shoulder, making Deo look up in confusion. Quiss’ face showed annoyance but his eyes were a little amused. Deo relaxed and gave the man his politest smile.

He should really not run away from his teacher.

“Guess art is on the schedule,” Quiss pointed to the arch and began to gesture to the array of colors.

“Which are the primary colors that we use as a basis for all others?” Quiss’ mouth formed the question and Deo had to repeat it several times to himself to make sure he understood it.

Primary...

Mr Jones had said something about that in-between demonology and Poetry periods.

“Red... blue...” he listed calmly and hesitated as his mind went blank. Behind Quiss, Numb slowly pointed to a part of the arch with a wink.

“Yellow!” Deo said quickly. Quiss raised one brow, turning to look at Numb but the goblin had already begun to pick his nose in boredom.

“Correct,”
Quiss nodded as he faced Deo again.

“We shall continue in a moment. I hear Dabberghast’s laughter. I assume their debate is over,” he frowned. Deo liked Mrs Dabberghast.

She gave him free apples that tasted delicious!

He would have to give one to Delta soon for helping him learn stuff! He closed his eyes as a tremble ran through the ground.

His Mum was singing her heart out. Deo had never heard her do it for so long and with so much gusto! She must really be having fun! It was a good thing; besides cooking and taking care of Deo and his Dad, his Mum never seemed to leave the house.

His Dad once told him that the world was too sad for her.

Which is why Deo was trying to make it a happier place so his Mum could go make some friends!

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

One person at a time!

If he happened to win at dungeons and become a master swordsman in the meantime, all the better! Mr Noland appeared, escorted by Mrs Dabberghast. The man looked a little pale as Cois said something.

Numb twitched one ear as if listening to someone. Deo was guessing it was Delta.

The goblin reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a wooden key. He took the opportunity to slide the key into an unseen hole inside one of the wooden goblins’ mouths while everyone was busy watching Cois brag about something. The floor shuddered.

Numb gave them a thumbs up.

“A trap? Delta actually took some advice?” Quiss asked with a dubious look on his face. Deo agreed.

Delta would never make a trap on purpose. Numb grinned and Deo was beginning to see the words a little more clearly.

“Nu... instead of Mother... better for all of us,” he nodded.

Deo peered into the tunnel and didn’t see any obvious traps but Numb strode ahead so Deo fell into line with him.

Anywhere Numb went, Deo trusted him enough to follow.

He felt his heart begin to race as the boss door loomed ahead. It looked even more awesome than before. A glaring boar and goblin stared down at them, rubies for eyes.

He almost wanted to ask if he could fight Sir Fran again, but he held back as he knew he wasn’t here to goof off but learn to help Ruli! Still, even seeing the knight would be so cool!

Dabberghast and Quiss seemed to be admiring the ceiling and some tiny holes there. Maybe it was something that would leak chocolate milk or cool water in case people got thirsty... Delta was kind like that.

The boss door slid open as Cois knocked a few times.

He turned and Deo focused as hard as he could to understand him.

“Fran knows you get a freebie, doors unlocked on the other side,” Cois grunted and walked inside.

Fran was so awesome and nice.

The large room looked almost the same bar a few changes. The ring of torches that ignited one by one and the cave opening that Fran rode out of on Bacon was new but Deo was beaming from the memories of when he was last here with Amanstar and Poppy.

Spiders, goblins, Bacon farts... good times.

The second floor that Ruli had found the secret tunnel to was also just as awesome. Deo couldn’t wait to see what Delta had done with it!

Maybe she had some mushroom tigers or some giant elephants or maybe the Mime had some mime friends?

As Deo pondered this he barely noticed Fran challenge the scribbling Noland to a duel in which Quiss hastily deflected. He watched as Dabberghast seemed to whisper to the wall while Noland was distracted, her face turning serious as she mouthed something almost too quiet for normal folks.

Deo guessed it was a good thing he could read lips!

“The Wyin tree, you cannot let Noland see it! It’s beyond rare and it will encourage some very unsavory folk to come after you. You must hide it at all costs,” the woman urged before she straightened and walked towards the suddenly staring Noland.

Her face the picture of innocence.

Deo itched his nose and decided he wouldn’t bring it up. His mother always told him to be more tacky.

Speaking off... he wondered how his Mum was getting on?

---

Isanella stood atop of the pillar. Sweat coated her entire body and her heart pumped like a wild bird but she felt alive.

The beast before her was panting, remaining upright mostly due to his many roots but Isanella could see him tiring rapidly.

“No Encore?” she taunted, unable to help the old habits of her adventuring life. Maestro harrumphed and straightened to his full height.

“Encore! The main event isn’t over yet, after all... It ain’t over until the fat fungi sings!” he pointed dramatically to the ceiling. All the star-like mushrooms glowed to the best of their power. The entire room’s light focused on Maestro. Isanella flicked a stray hair out of her face.

“Then sing for me!” she beckoned. Maestro’s dark eyes met hers.

“Hunny, you got a season pass to this next show. I hate to be a diva but you really bring out the naughty mushroom in me,” he shook his head as if amused by his own mood.

“I have to thank you... before I send you to the curb,” he admitted. Isanella tilted her head in curiosity at his words. What was he up to?

“I’ve never been tested... I’ve never interacted with a human so well before. They were always the target of my acid, my bile... my hatred. But now?” Maestro laughed with a demonic hand to his mouth.

“Ha ha ha! A human has become the target of my passion!” he smiled that smile of his. At first it was nightmarish, and still was in some regards, but Isanella could see past that first look.

There was actual joy to the monster’s actions.

“Then as a fellow artist, let me thank you for showing me that my knowledge of music was still so lacking,” she bowed her head to Maestro.

The harshness of the beastly sounds. The heartbeat of a thunderstorm. The wailing of of once soft sounds turned on their head.

It made Isanella feel like a novice all over again as she stared at the tasks before her, the mountains still left to climb. She closed her eyes.

She may have broken music itself in the darkest moment of her time adventuring, but here in this hole normally meant for death?

Isanella found beauty.

It was wonderful!

“Maestro, patron of music! Sing to me!” she ordered with a laugh, a pure clear sound. Maestro turned his face up slightly.

“Darling, it’s like me asking you to breath, I’m going to do it with or without your say so!” he sniffed.

There was a beat of deadly silence before a long sound began in Maestro’s mouth.

It was low and haunting before it rapidly became a sound of creation and emotion.

Isanella basked in it and then she allowed it to overwhelm her.

---

Sis watched with interest as Delta panicked.

From her orb in the layers between the screens Sis couldn’t ‘see’ as much as know what was happening. Still, she liked to pretend she could. Delta was so lovely and easy to picture. A slightly orange figure who would be rambling to herself and having a meltdown about something rather benign. It was very cute.

Nu would be... ah, there he was. Nu was a nice counter to Delta. He prevented her from doing anything too self-destructive and encouraged her to act despite her worries.

As far as a wild system went, Delta was rather stable. Not that Sis didn’t take a little pride in helping where she could.

Sure, she could have reigned Nu in... and yes, she assumed far more about Delta’s phrasing than the girl would probably like but it was all for a good cause! Granted it was often just to see what would happen but curiosity should never be punished.

To be honest... it wasn’t like Sis could control Delta. Nor would she want to. Nu, Sis, the various parts to the dungeon that even Nu wasn’t aware of... they were all subservient to Delta. Loyal to a fault.

Delta impressed her despite this. Programmed loyalty was once thing in her monsters and Nu but they actually did like her as a core. That wasn’t something programming could sustain over a long period to someone who could at times be perceptive...

Delta had an effect on people and Sis was a little stumped at how it kept breaking things such as rules and basic physics.

She giggled as Delta just lifted the whole Wyin tree in a panic. The thing groaned and soil went flying everywhere. Sis quickly just filled that hole in as Delta flew off.

She planted a new apple tree in its place so as not to look too oddly empty to the incoming visitors. She convinced the system to do it as a reward for moving a big enough tree.

The system processed it. A task and a reward. It was accepted.

Even she had to follow the rules at times.

Sis watched as Delta tried to hide the tree in the Pygmy hole but it didn’t quite fit... There was a moment that Sis half-expected the hole to morph to fit Delta’s desires but it thankfully remained true to the rules of an entrance.

Sis turned in her sphere to watched the guests for a moment. This giant blue orb where she had awoken. This self-contained world.

The girl in the middle was nothing more than something for parts of the system to interact with. An avatar. Sis was the sphere in its entirety.

Still, it felt good to have something to exercise.

She watched as a simple streak of orange flittered over the surface, quickly swallowed by the blue.

“Delta the girl who was a dungeon who acted like a human. How lovely!” she giggled. For someone who was supposed to micromanage everything, Sis felt a liberation and a sense of pride at Delta.

The girl who named her.

With fondness, she had to laugh as Delta planted the tree in the only free space that might not be found as Delta tried to plant various signs reading ‘Do not Enter’ and ‘Work in progress, no peeking!’

The faith Delta had in humanity was a little heartbreaking.

The tree’s roots settled into the empty boss room and Delta froze as a notification appeared.

Sis frowned as the system demanded a huge price for converting such a powerful magic tree into a boss.

Delta was going to decline, the thoughts on what needed to be done and her dedication to her other monsters was going to force her to decline. That would be a shame, Sis really wanted to see what would happen.

She looked around, a little guilty, as she focused. A tiny part of her sphere rippled as a streak of deep blue was replaced by a simmering orange.

Sis could stand to give up a little more control.

The screen before Delta flickered as if it had bad reception. Delta blinked at the much...much cheaper cost of the boss purchase.

Sis beamed. Delta couldn’t just pick any ole frog or mushroom. Delta had to have a tree of legend as her second floor boss!

She watched as the template control for monster summoning went a little wonky without the part she was using to control it. Sis guessed it was about 85% function with various parts still as ‘Sis’. Nu and Delta would have to try and control the rest on their own until she regained it.

After all, as Delta grew so did Sis.

It should be nothing devastating. Just that the chance of getting the same shape and size for the same purchase of monster types was a little off.

Besides, who needed every goblin or mushroom to look exactly the same?

Sis watched with pleasure as Delta hit the confirm button. She sang as it was processed and the tree shook violently.

“Wyin tree has become a boss monster! The Wyin tree becomes the Wyin of Legend!” she giggled and watched as her sphere expanded.

Delta was like a little bug in her system.

But Sis knew full well that a good bug was just a feature waiting to happen.

Update

So here is the update.

I just finished writing an interlude featuring Poppy as the main character. It's going to be on my patreon soon in the next few days. It's only going to be accessible for patreons for at least three days before I post it publically. So if you like to get access to the interlude and chapters three days before anyone else?

For $1 or £1 You can gain access to anything I post with e-mail updates. I just quit my old job with a new one starting tomorrow. I would really appreciate any support. I'll never fully unlock something behind paywall. You'll see everything eventually.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Link

edit: The next chapter will be here within a week

Interlude: Popping the Question

She could do this.

The front door was open and the setting sun set her front garden ablaze with oranges and reds. Poppy didn’t look at how her mother’s flowers seemed to be almost luminescent in the ambient light, how the bees and butterflies hurried to make the most of the dying light.

Poppy didn’t look.

She couldn’t.

But she would have to brave it, because the sad fact was that she had run out of books to read, having finished her favorite just hours before; for the umpteenth time. Poppy needed to space the next read out before she ended up losing affection for the tale.

She took a deep breath and walked outside with her hood pulled up.

She walked past the beautiful flowers, the insects, and birds, and ignored the glorious sunset. She took a moment to look back at her home. A simple two-story building that was her haven. Her bedroom called to her, whispering the safety from her powers that Poppy craved.

A blank canvas where emotion could be controlled and neatly experienced in tight packages.

Still, even Poppy needed to pass the time. Without new books, she would be driven mad and no amount of control would hold her back from erasing her mother’s ugly kitchen curtains from existence with soul fire.

Not that Poppy had any idea what happened to the last 36 sets of ugly curtains her mother seemed to conjure from the Abyss itself. Poppy had not one clue to offer on why they kept catching fire, dissolving, being swallowed by a black hole, aged to dust...

Poppy smiled softly at the memory of the one time Deo had turned them into a cape and put on a dramatic performance of his favorite superhero, which he had made up.

Captain Deo.

It wasn’t original, but Deo really didn’t need it when he brought a passion that even Poppy could somehow stand to be around. Not even Poppy’s mother could be annoyed at Deo for long when he tried to return them cleaned but dyed a hot pink the next day.

Poppy enjoyed watching her mother disposing of the curtains she loved so much. It was the small things, but even those moments of satisfaction gave rise to urges of dragon fire and demonic malice.

Poppy could never enjoy things for long. It just wasn’t safe. Somehow though, Deo’s warmth was something she could be near without being set off. She could just enjoy it. Like the sun on the skin, a tiny thing that didn’t stir her too much.

She began to walk down the street watching the people of the town wind down for the day, while others seemed to come alive as the sunset. Durence was a town that Poppy had been born in. She had always noticed how the adults were a little sombre; a lot of them seemed almost more like dolls that looked like people.

They said the right things, did their daily routines but it all came off feeling like she was staring at golems left on repeat. Petering out until whatever material was holding them together finally gave up. Even her own parents sometimes began to flicker out in some areas.

Her Dad only seemed to come to life when he cooked. Her Mom... when she decorated.

But at least most of the kids seemed alright. A little odd, or even ignorant of the town’s greyness, but Poppy couldn’t blame them. Having to control herself so tightly made her watch people. Most of the kids seemed to have something going on with them too.

Amanster actually glowed with a light when he first started going to class. Mr. Jones had to strain his smile slightly when he came to help him. Deo was... Deo.

Mrs. Dabberghast’s kids talked to the trees outside the window. Grimnoire ate his homework once it was passed back with a high mark. There were a few silent kids that seemed to need to be woken up by their mothers every morning before they accidentally got lost in some ruin that Poppy was sure wasn’t there the day before.

They always came out with some treasure or talking sword that Mr. Jones confiscated so they could get back to focusing on his History lesson. It was as though, as the adults lost something the kids gained more.

Poppy shrugged the thought off and walked towards the center of town, avoiding any large groups of people or mysterious doors that appeared. Durence had begun to get a little weird in the last few weeks. People were waking up. It was the only way Poppy could think of it. The store owner on the corner no longer sold the same three items every day. The woman who walked her dog didn’t talk about how monsters were on the rise or about legendary crystals on a loop anymore.

Her dog actually pulled her home now. Poppy peered as Elder Haldi walked past, he smiled and slipped a cheese flavored piece of candy into her palm.

“You’re a good lass. Tell your Dad I’ll bring him some good stuff for his platters soon!” he grinned, the gap in his smile a little endearing rather than frightening.

Poppy nodded.

“Of course, sir,” she promised. Haldi frowned and rubbed his chin.

“Hm, call me Haldi. Leave the elder rubbish for Jose, eh?” he winked before he turned down an alley just as a hawk made of cheese dropped a message into his hand.

Poppy blinked as she popped the candy into her mouth. It was a ball of hard cheese with a creamy cheese center.

It was... interesting.

Haldi had always been someone who people avoided because the man seemed to be particularly graying — her term for the empty feeling that the adults had before. Now the man never stopped moving, he seemed to go to places in town that Poppy had never even known about and blatantly ignored the ‘no mail’ rule with little worry. Maybe it was an elder thing?

Poppy just swallowed the cheese treat and headed to her destination. The only bookshop in town. Poppy supposed it was odd, but honestly, the bookshop had almost everything so she didn’t really mind.

She slowed as she noticed someone sitting on a small bench outside the shop. A girl with a scowl on her face. Poppy looked up and stared at the sign.

The Bookshop

Yup, this was the right place, but she had never seen anyone else at the store besides an irate Grim and a few enthusiasts.

What made it weird was that Poppy was sure that the girl was the new baker in town.

“Something on my face?” the girl called and Poppy chided herself for not just moving past.

“No. Sorry,” she murmured and made to go inside.

“Hey! No worries, sorry if I snapped. Been a stressful day,” the woman reached out and Poppy had to stifle a wince. Human contact on her skin made several things bubble furiously. Static skin, spiky thorns, toxin sweat, and many more. Poppy took a shallow breath and pushed it all down.

The girl seemed to notice she had done something.

“Uh... sorry, new in town and... I uh... my names Velki,” she offered and stepped back to give Poppy breathing room.

“...Poppy. It’s fine. Why are you here... actually, don’t answer, nyeh” she quickly added, her fluster at being touched had accidentally made her socially curious. She would have to reign that back in.

She pushed the door open as Velki stared.

“I... nice to meet you?” she trailed off as Poppy shut the door behind her. Poppy relaxed slightly as the smell of very old books enveloped her like a warm embrace. Books, books... books.

The shop before her stretched pretty far back, and on either side of the entrance were thick walls of shelves; each lined with so many books and scrolls that they almost poured down like an avalanche on anyone who entered. It was like the inside of some old beast.

She walked forward towards the gentle light of a lamp. Any windows in the place had long since been used for shelf space, and the shadows between the shelves offered the visitor any number of places to crawl into and curl up with a book. It was like a secret place that the world forgot.

Poppy turned the corner to the ‘center’ of the papery labyrinth. The building stretched far back, more distance than the building could ever actually hold. Poppy had felt like asking about it once, but in the end she really didn’t care.

More books wasn’t something to complain about.

The owner of The Bookshop was a woman called Paige Turner. Poppy had stared blankly when she had first met the woman and heard that name, but the woman had smiled and confided that her real name was far worse when it came to her profession.

Paige was a woman whose hair was always in a neat bun. Poppy guessed she looked like a librarian, but the appearance seemed more for her personal amusement than any accidental cliche. Paige was the only person who seemed to ignore the effects of the gray, but Poppy had never seen the woman leave her shop.

One time, Poppy had heard the ocean outside a nearby sealed window. Paige just shrugged.

Today, Paige was not alone. At her circular desk stood a familiar figure.

Mr. Von leaned on the counter and smiled a smile that looked more at home on a predator than a boring old banker.

“Paige... Paige, how long have we know each other? Think of all the good times we’ve had!” he said, adjusting his dark glasses. Paige moved to sort some paperwork. Her blonde bun, crisp white shirt, pencil skirt, and heels practically made her ooze an aura of ‘no-nonsense’.

“Too long Mr. Von. You once burst in here on a literal tide of alcohol and destroyed far too many books for me to list in the little daylight we have left. Another time you barged in here and said you needed a book on how to-”

“Cook a unicorn into a pie, and trust me, it was delicious!” Mr. Von beamed at the memory. Paige pushed her glasses up with one finger and Poppy blinked as the glasses seemed to reflect light that wasn’t there.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Shall I bring up the time you used a priceless book as paper to smoke some sacred ashes? I loved that book, loved!” Paige snapped and the books around her fluttered as if disturbed. Mr. Von looked uneasy.

“I woke up in a barrel at the bottom of the ocean, I tell you, Paige... Not. Even. Once,” he nodded before drumming his fingers on the counter.

“Listen, I’d love to stay here and list all the ways I’ve personally screwed you over, mentally and physically, but I have a task. I need that book,” he insisted. Paige narrowed her eyes.

“If I give you this book you give me your word that you will not return for 6 moons, at least, unless a life is in serious danger?” Paige pushed. Poppy had never seen the calm bookkeeper so annoyed at someone.

Mr. Von’s smile was deadly.

“I promise... pinky swear?” he asked innocently, wiggling his gloved pinkie. Paige gave it a long, long look, before there was a flash of white as something soared past so fast that Poppy only saw wings before it was gone between shelves again.

Mr. Von looked down at his severed pinkie on the counter

“I’ll take that as a no...” he said dryly as he simply reattached it. Paige broke apart into several pieces of paper, and like a miniature twister, sped towards one of the higher shelves; her upper body reforming, while the swirling below kept her afloat.

“Now... let’s see... How to train your dra- Hm no... How to train your rock? Do I have that? Let’s see... How to train your trainer... Sword... Dog... Sword-dog...Aha!” Paige yelled triumphantly. She pulled a tattered book out and floated down.

“How to train your angsty student. First edition with included graphs to indicate when best to begin a montage,” Paige dropped the books into Mr. Von’s eager hands.

“Paige, you are a treat,” he nodded and turned to leave. He wasn’t even surprised by Poppy’s form.

“Monster girl, is baker girl still outside?” he asked without any preamble. Poppy nodded and stepped aside.

“Excellent. Now excuse me. I need to go...” Mr. Von opened the first page of the book in his hands.

“‘Impress your student with a powerful feat to convince them of your power’. Well, that just opens up oodles of fun options for tonight!” he chortled and left the shop. Poppy swallowed a little of the nervousness that she had been feeling in her throat.

Paige sighed as she appeared close to Poppy but with some healthy distance between them.

“If that man hadn’t saved more lives than he had taken... Well, what can you do?” she smiled at Poppy’s confused face.

“I’m going to guess you’re here for some... books?” Paige beckoned Poppy in deeper towards the circular desk.

“Yeah. Isn’t Mr. Von a banker?” Poppy asked, still a little uneasy. Paige put a finger on her chin.

“Yes, and I’m just a bookshop owner, simple. Now which of my children are you after tonight. I got some teen rated trash romance. Some good ole 10 book adventure series, a couple of Where’s Wanda, some nice biographies of people who don't exist, and, well... I’ve got books, what tickles your fancy?” Paige began to work again. Making paper sort itself, books arrange themselves, causing a few to shake some cobwebs loose. A whole shelf lifted and slid into a new place while one just floated away to… somewhere. The shop was alive around Poppy and the only safe island was here at the round counter.

“I like to wander,” Poppy admitted. After the dungeon where she had used so many monster abilities... there had been a bit of restlessness in her. The idea of going back was tiring to even think of.

But Poppy had almost enjoyed herself. The next best thing was to wander the shop.

Poppy saw things in the spaces between books. Some of them oozed, others clicked, while some just stared back.

But Poppy never felt in danger. It was as if every book here was looking out for her. If she got lost, she’d simply ask to leave and then three turns later, she was back at the counter.

“Hm, take Tom with you,” Paige nodded and snapped her fingers. From high up, the biggest bookcase around in fact, something was pushed from its resting place.

It landed with a thud on the counter, Paige not even looking at it. Poppy had never had to take a guide before...

“Do I need to? Nyeh... I’ll be fine,” she waved it off but the book was beginning to rumble. There was a peeling noise as the book lifted itself off the counter under its own power. The cover of the book had two large eyes.

The cover had no words but a large engraved symbol that seemed to almost look like a face.

“Blasted woman, how many times have I told you not to simply push me off in my sleep?” the book spun in mid-air to snap at a bored Paige.

“Tom, watch over Poppy. I need to sort some of the new shipment,” Paige instructed. Poppy had never seen a talking book. She didn’t know how to feel about her favorite medium suddenly speaking.

It was her most and least favorite things in the world combined. A talking tale book.

“A guide?! I am a tome of powerful magic, in a single sweep I have brought kingdoms to their knees! I have been used by the most dangerous magicians and witches the world has ever known, and you want me to be a guide? I refuse. I simply refuse,” Tom snapped again.

Poppy felt the shop go still.

Paige took off her glasses and turned to Tom with a blank expression.

“Do you want to go back in the box?” she asked simply. Tom faltered as he stuttered.

“I-I-I, I say. Now see here, I will not be bullied into servitude...” Tom blustered. Paige raised one finger and Tom quickly cut her off.

“But as a respected keeper of tomes. I will do you a favor. I do hope you appreciate my loyal service,” Tom finished, with just a hint of acid to his words. Poppy took a step back as Tom turned to her.

“Girl, state your destination so this torment may end. I have things to do and magical theorems to complete,” he said with a pompous drawl. Poppy looked at the amused Paige who went back to her work.

“Tom, I want to-” she began but the book spun faster than she thought it could move.

“I will be referred as ‘Master Tome of Magic’ by oneself. I am the tome that people have given their lives to find. I will be given my respect,” he responded waspishly. Poppy tilted her head.

“Names too big. Nyeh, Tom is fine. Show me some good books,” she instructed. The book's attitude was grating and that suited Poppy just fine. Anger was an easier emotion to control. Tom slowly looked around at the hall of books.

“Your request is both vague and infuriating. Perhaps you like to add some more words to your phrasing so I may parse what you want? Perhaps ‘exciting’ or ‘Dark’. I shall even take ‘a red cover’,” Tom stressed. Poppy felt just a touch of a smile on her face.

“I want to see your best books. I can read... nyeh, I guess they can have some pictures in them if you want to add them to the list,” she spoke slowly in a tone she knew would annoy the book.

Tom gave her a long hard stare.

“I do not like you, little girl,” he stated, floating down a side passage. The book’s grumblings making him easy to follow.

“How about this one? The early guide to royal desert eating habits of the north, fifth edition!” Tom sudden pulled on a book with some unseen force.

“No,” Poppy put it back. Tom yanked on another one randomly.

“The... uh... complete history of Durence. The battle of the heroes and the End See-” he began but Poppy put it back.

“No,” she continued on, curious where the passage led.

“I do believe that I am the guide here, please stay behind me at all times or I shall turn us right back around,” Tom called. Poppy saw a clean-looking book and pulled on it.

The shelf spun and Tom’s startled cry mirrored Poppy’s yelp as they were moved into a new hallway by the rotating floor. They ended up in a dustier part of the shop. Old lamps and older books sat there.

Tom looked left and right before he turned to her.

“How have you managed to get us lost so quickly? Hm, one second...” he muttered and flew straight up. Halfway up, a colony of bats screeched out from a shelf and Tom screeched right back as he began to slap them away with his face.

Poppy just watched.

Tom may have talked, but as a book he was proving to be very entertaining.

This had been a good trip so far.

Poppy allowed a small smile as Tom floated back down, his pages ruffled and voice a little high.

“Come... I think I saw a familiar encyclopedia a few rows over. An ex, best not to make eye contact,” he wheezed out.

“What was she an encyclopedia of?” she had to ask. Tom paused.

“Stretching,” he stated with a blank tone and floated onwards. Poppy felt a little let down. She was hoping for something exciting. Looking around she began to scan the shelves as she walked.

She saw an old cookbook and grabbed it. Her Dad might like it.

It’s pages looked stained but it looked very well-loved.

It reminded Poppy of herself.

“Blasted comics! Pick up your sleeves and don’t backchat me!” Tom thundered to a shelf in the distance. Poppy had the feeling it might take a while to get back so she lowered her hood and enjoyed the quiet isolation in the shop, bar Tom’s muttering.

She hoped Deo was having fun.

She plucked a comic that showed a heroic knight on its cover.

Deo would enjoy this

62: Holly Water

Fran watched them go with a hard stare.

Holly didn’t really blame the dear, being a boss monster and basically having to give them all a free pass would rankle her something fierce too. The door led to a long tunnel with the stairs at the end of it.

There was a touch of nostalgia at the sight. The number of times that Holly had traversed a dungeon, with various friends and faces, risking life and limb with a boss monster. The sweet taste of victory only made sweeter when seeing the stairs of progression. They came in all sorts of shapes and design but each one stated the same thing.

You made it.

It was the mark of a successful adventurer, prestige could often be counted by how many stairs they had traversed in their career. It was the physical manifestation of progress.

Holly moved closer and looked down at the darkness that enticed the curious little girl she had once been when she had first set off to explore the world. She stroked the carved stone wall and felt that the stone was a little warm. Above the stairway entrance was a carving of a tree. It could have just been a deformation in the stone but Holly knew that dungeons made things precise.

A little trick was that every stairway down gave a little hint of what was to come. One time, the stairs to another floor were slick with slime and a noxious gas floated up. Holly could either guess slimes or a swamp themed floor.

With the tree alone, it would difficult to imagine exactly what was waiting. Vague was always better for Delta.

“There you are,” Quiss called down the tunnel. Holly turned with a smile at Isanella’s form. The smile only grew once she saw the state the woman was in. Messy hair with clothes damp from sweat.

The wide smile only completed the image.

“HEY MUM! DID YOU HAVE FUN?” Deo greeted, running towards her with a large grin. The boy was a sweetheart; if only her own children were always so happy to see her. Then again, Holly usually came towards them with a chore list...

Isanella braced herself as Deo crashed into her and without even wincing stroked the boy’s hair.

“Yes, I made a good friend today. And I won a singing contest,” she mused and that was when Holly noticed the object strapped to her back. She had been too distracted by Isanella’s vibrancy to see that she was carrying an odd-looking lute.

Isanella pulled it free and held it out for everyone to see.

“Maestro didn’t know he had a reward if you beat him in a contest. It appeared in a golden light from the ceiling, just dropped into my hands,” Isanella explained. The instrument was made from some sort of organic material, dried mycelium if Holly were to guess, grown in a variety of hues and clamped together with thin iron bands but the strings almost glowed silver. Holly moved closer as Noland began to ask Isanella questions.

“How did it atta- I mean... How did this ‘Maestro’ do battle? Could he be dangerous if provoked? Any weakness you noticed?” he inquired. Holly pursed her lips as she tried to block the man out. The strings were made of almost ghostly spiderweb, such fine quality!

“I think we can all be dangerous if provoked,” Quiss cut in. Isanella merely shrugged.

“He has the habit of preferring songs with a power chorus. If you can trap him in a long note sequence you can get in some quick jabs with good rhymes,” Isanella nodded. Noland gave her a long look.

“You’re suggesting people should sing at it?” he translated. The woman smiled.

“Sing with him, he isn’t one for just watching,” she corrected. Holly could see the pen faltering as Noland struggled to fit that into the review. Quiss rolled his eyes at her look.

“How does it play?” Holly asked politely. Isanella’s light fingers traced over a few of the strings and the sound that echoed out was haunting but beautiful. Isanella twisted some tiny knobs near the top of the instrument and played the strings again.

This time a harsh noise of energy and passion streamed out.

“I haven’t figured it out yet but I think I can make quite a few sounds on this little thing. It mimics Maestro perfectly. A thing that looks misleading but has the heart of an artist,” Isanella beamed, the similarity to Deo so striking that Holly had to blink between the two.

“If it helps, I assume Maestro still has his acid spit and those tentacles could flay a man alive if he was pushed to do so,” Quiss offered to Noland. The man actually gave Quiss a small smile as he wrote something down.

“Song based powers, acid, thorny vines, and a bunch of mushroom minions at his base... anything else? I still need to write about the pig knight,” Noland mumbled. Holly longed to burn the paper.

It was the beginning of it all. If Holly could just make it disappear... then Delta would be left alone a little bit longer. There was Noland himself but Holly had ways of making people get lost in the woods, for a long time.

But it wouldn’t slow everything down for long. Delta’s gift of mana was already catching the attention of the land. All those nosey wizards and scientists with nothing better to do than send lackeys to poke at any new dungeons to satisfy their own curiosity.

Holly would have to plant a few little dears between Delta and the open road. Nothing too dramatic, just enough to make crowding her a bad idea.

“Let us go on. The dungeon has been quite helpful. I’ll make sure to note that,” Noland mused.

“MR. NOLAND, WHAT ARE OTHER DUNGEONS LIKE?” Deo jogged up next to Noland as they all began to descend the stairs. The man paused in his writing.

“Wouldn’t know. This is my first dungeon. I find them almost too much of a hassle,” he explained. This surprised Holly. The man traveled all over the country and hadn’t been in the other dungeons?

“But Mr. Noland, some of the most amazing sights can only be found in dungeons. The famous silver waterfalls of the dungeon in the desert of Gimna. The Crystal forest in the far north, even the birds are made from crystal. I mean I’ve seen rooms where gravity doesn’t work and you had to fly between islands to advance. Why would you deprive yourself of such sights?” Holly asked aghast. Noland didn’t answer from some time.

“I can never quite forget that all these wonderful sights are paid for by the death of dozens and sometimes hundreds of people. I think it’s even worse that people’s lives are taken to make some pretty forest or some glittering waterfall that will draw even more into the grinder,” he spoke quietly.

Holly couldn’t sympathize. Nature outside the dungeons was no different. The wildflowers of the forest grew on the dead of the last year's bloom, the fresh kills of predators, the decaying of old life gave way to new life.

“No one forces them to go in,” Holly reminded him. Noland just shrugged.

“I don’t disagree, the idiocy of foolish people should be mocked but they shouldn’t die for it. I mean, the tunnels here, the rooms with minimal things in it. The pond room with its rocks and grass... the mushroom grove and the goblins... Maestro... I find them more beautiful than anything you mentioned because it was all born from hard work and not just death. I find it... charming,” Noland added, his steps loud as no one else spoke.

Noland seemed to get flustered for a moment.

“My feelings are irrelevant to the report. The dungeon will soon have enough fools knocking on her door to make up for lost time,” he stated. Quiss who was leading the way slowed as the stairs ended.

“Here we are, the second floor,” he said conversationally as if the talk of dungeons was not his cup of tea.

“WHOA, IT’S LIKE EVERYTHING IS MADE FROM TREES!” Deo pointed out and he wasn’t wrong. The room was lined with trees whose roots spread so thick that they formed the floor. The roots were firm and solid under Holly’s feet.

“Common trees found just outside but they’re all in great health. The roots are odd, they don’t usually grow into each other but Delta doesn’t play by the rules when it comes to ‘should and shan’t’,” Holly said. Cois snorted behind them. His form lingered on the stairs.

Everyone stared. Deo waved but Quiss cleared his throat.

“Cois... I wasn’t aware you could leave your floor,” he said in a way that didn’t suggest a question. Cois smiled a little deviously.

“The things you aren’t aware of is amusing. I don’t like lingering down here too long. Makes my nose itchy, your next guide will be along to see you to the key points,” Cois pointed to a closed set of wooden doors that lead to the second floor.

“Who is it?” Isanella asked politely. Cois merely sniggered.

“She’s a real treat. Just walk, she’ll find ya,” he promised and turned to climb back up.

“Oh, if you see a waterfall, I suggest a dip. Great for your skin,” he cackled as his voice began to fade.

“That goblin disturbs me,” Noland muttered. Holly had seen worse but Cois' words had been interesting.

A ‘her’. Another monster of Delta’s. This was going to be interesting.

Quiss waited until Noland made notes on the room before he pushed both doors open.

Holly saw paradise.

“WOW, MUM LOOK! IT’S DAYLIGHT!” he pointed. Holly looked up at the faux sky where a sun beat heat down on them.

Birds sang, trees swayed slightly. Insects could be heard in the distance. The sound of the promised waterfall roared to the west somewhere.

A slight trodden path curved out and into the trees. A guiding road or a trick, Holly could hardly wait to find out.

“It’s kinda... humid,” Quiss noted and his greenish shirt and cotton pants looked a little sweaty already.

“I thought you were a fire mage,” Isanella said with a small smile. Quiss shot her a look.

“I don’t burn but I drink water like everyone else,” he corrected. The second flask he put to his lips did not contain water. Holly could smell it from here.

“That isn’t professional,” Noland’s tone became slightly annoyed. Quiss merely smirked.

“No one else in the town will take the job, trust me, I’ve tried to give it back,” he sighed but merely began to walk down the path.

“Come on people, there’s a whole humid jungle to explore. Our ‘guide’ will be along shortly if the goblin wasn’t having a laugh,” he waved one hand as if this wasn’t a huge deal. Holly bent down and began to feel the leaves of the flora growing around them.

So much life. There was a thud from behind her and Holly looked to set Deo holding up two apples from the tree that grew just nearby the entrance. Isanella took one and shot Holly a questioning look.

Taking the other apple, she closed her eyes. Her mana roamed the object, seeping into it. The mimicry of dungeon energy in the shape of organic material. It would have been perfect if not for the fact there was no basic life, the tiny bacteria and lifeforms found on everything. Instead, she felt an almost minuscule lattice of mana shaping the apple.

“It’s safe, just not too many at once!” Holly winked and reached for an apple for herself.

Taking a bite, the juice flowed into her mouth; by the trees, it was crisp.

Her mana perked up slightly as it ingested the apple’s mana. Dungeon mana converted to her own. A little nice boost and a healthy snack to boot.

Delta was a sweetie.

Holly eagerly wandered off the path to explore the trees and see the birds flying slowly about. So much thought put into everything. The life here, while not quite real, was growing. It must be some special thing about this floor.

Plants spread, the birds seemed to be laying eggs. The bees looked at her.

Holly paused but even when she focused on the bees, they didn’t do anything. Just watched her for a moment before they zoomed into a bush and out of sight. Red and colorful, the buzzing continued even when she could no longer see them.

Intelligent bees.

And where there were one or three bees, there was a queen.

Holly licked her lips at the thought of a giant queen with rivers of flowing honey around her. The pure feeling of the unknown of this floor was making her giddy.

She only hoped the guide would appear quickly, Holly may have to continue on without her if she didn’t show u-

Noland let out a screech as something appeared from the shadows behind the man and Holly closed her eyes with a smile.

This was paradise.

“Devina and Inchy reporting in!” squawked an orange bird. Noland looked up from the ground, clutching his reports as if the duo were about to take something precious from him.

The woman was a giant frog. Her calm expression and knowing smile made Holly want to scream at the top of her lungs with excitement.

“HELLO, MY NAME IS DEO! IT’S NICE TO MEET YOU AGAIN!” Deo walked right up to the amphibian woman and she nodded at him.

“I remember you, oh loud one.” she almost said fondly. The bird on her shoulder looked a little plump and had an almost simple quality to it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Our guide I would presume?” Quiss offered. Devina gave a little bow.

“I am Devina, daughter of the great mother Delta. I will guide you to our secret places as requested. I will trust Mother’s request for goodwill and will pray to the spirits that it is not betrayed. I would dislike having to seek vengeance for those who hurt her,” Devina stated with that same calm smile.

“No jokes here!” the bird agreed.

Holly liked this woman. She had an air of... nature about her.

“Don’t piss off Delta, got it. Now can we go? I’m not a fan of the heat,” Quiss grumbled. Devina reached into her pouch and pulled a damp cloth out. Her various pouches seemed to be stained or in various states of wetness from their contents.

“Please, use this to cool yourself,” she offered. Quiss took it gingerly but seemed to find it pleasantly cool. Pressing to his head, he gestured for Devina to take the lead but the frog had stopped to look at Isanella.

“The instrument... it must be a gift from Mother,” she smiled, her words a statement. Isanella nodded and held it out.

“Mother’s favorite thing is mushrooms, you should write her a song about them,” Devina nodded seriously. A twinkle in her eye.

There was a pause as Devina seemed to be listening to something.

“Me? Mother... I would never,” she laughed and began to walk away down the path.

“MAYBE I SHOULD BRING SOME MUSHROOMS NEXT TIME!” Deo pondered aloud.

Holly thought she heard something in the distance, something slightly more shrill than the waterfall but it faded quickly.

What an odd but wonderful place this dungeon of Delta was.

----

“It’s a horrible place. The Second floor has these frog people who just jump at you from nowhere and they act all reasonable and tell you that all you need to do is meet Bob and you can get past,” Grim complained, his note taking long forgotten as he played a card on the table.

Ruli fanned her hand, the cards showing nothing but her grin all too telling. Grim narrowed his eyes as she laid them out.

“I got a Royal slush, my ice queen and full ice court beats your drunken tavern crew. So who's Bob?” Ruli asked as Grim threw his cards down with a growl. He jabbed at the second-floor map at the waterfall.

“Giant worm thing that lives in the water. Devina and the other frogs are friends with it or something...” he sighed. Ruli’s eyes went black as her pupils expanded.

“Giant... worm thing in the water?” she repeated. Grim looked taken back as Ruli’s hair began to move on its own.

“No demonic energy in class,” Mr. Jones called from the spot where his blackboard seemed to be forming hellish symbols that burned as soon as Mr. Jones finished drawing them. Ruli gave him a flat look.

“I’m doing this for the education of my students, you’re just wasting energy,” the teacher said without looking at her. Grim snorted.

“Demon poetry is boring. It’s all about fighting, torturing souls, and the occasional times they die,” he complained. Ruli nodded furiously.

“I lived with my Dad, trust me the stuff he would read aloud made me homicidal. I don’t want to hear about the 5th stanza of some woman he once knew and her hundred eyes. It went on forever as he talked about each eye...” Ruli groaned into her hands. Mr. Jones laughed.

“Yes, your father was a rather romantic one. The things he did to impress your mother were legendary in the Abyss. The one time where she said she would marry him when the world depended on it. Needless to say...” Mr. Jones politely coughed to hide his laughter. Grim perked up at the idea of gossip.

Ruli’s face had turned to disgust.

“What happened?” Grim asked them. Ruli snorted.

“He got down on his knees and told her that his world did depend on it for if she said no then he would throw himself of the highest cliff in the Abyss. My Mum laughed and told him to take a flying leap. He did it and then came crawling back a few days later asking if she wanted anything else. The guy is just sad,” Ruli picked unseen dust off her sleeve.

Grim’s face turned sullen.

“Sounds kinda boring,” he stated. Mr. Jones cleared his throat.

“Her father landed in a ruin that held some sealed evil entity that almost swallowed the world. The demon king and the huntress of monsters took it down together and were wed a week later,” he added as if was a small thing.

Grim’s eyes lit up.

“He was a hero!”

Ruli choked and coughed.

“Well... yes. One could look at it that way!” Mr. Jones beamed.

“He just wanted to impress a girl!” Ruli argued. Grim shrugged.

“Saved the world, get the girl, have a bratty kid. Seems like a hero,” he reshuffled the deck of cards. Ruli gave him a long look before she flicked his nose hard enough to top his chair back.

“You see any hero in this girl?” she asked sweetly.

“Just a heroic level pain in the ass,” Grim grunted as he picked himself up. There was a crack as Mr. Jones chalk broke.

The room grew hot and cold at the same time.

“I meant... sass!” Grim scramble for cover. Ruli whistled as Mr. Jones pulled out a black cone from his desk. The cone swirled with magical energy as the word ‘Dunce’ lit up letter by letter.

“Mr. Pic, to the corner,” Mr. Jones pleasant tone was sharper than any blade.

Grim merely nodded as Ruli innocently whistled.

She circled the waterfall on the map as Grim glared at her from across the room.

---

“It’s lovely,” Isanella said as she walked around the pool the waterfall fed into. Devina nodded and gestured to the waterfall.

“Mother Delta is always making things interesting. Come, there is a room behind the waterfall. The water rises and falls so it's only dry enough to be accessible during some times of the day. Now is one of those periods,” she explained.

The outsiders were interesting. Deo was like a butterfly that danced in the sunlight. Devina found herself not minding the loudness as the child seemed to only do it out of innocent joy. His mother, another mother, was like the moon to his song. Soft and gentle but ever basking in the light.

The man, Quiss, reminded Devina of Cois. There was a heat around him that Devina could almost feel. He moved lazily at times as if everything was only mildly interesting instead of exciting or dangerous but the sharp eyes hinted they saw far more than Devina might guess. Once they left the heavy trees and moved around the pond, the man actually relaxed.

If he was a fire mage, then being able to use his powers without causing a jungle firestorm would assure him. Devina hoped that Mother could find a way to make sure the jungle didn’t burn.

Quiss may control himself but all it would take was one angry lost challenger to try burning it all down.

The other man smelled... of an animal and old paper. He was nervous looking but hid it behind a veil of mild annoyance. The paper in his hand looked to be the rock holding his confidence together. Devina would have to make sure not to spook him too much.

The last woman made Devina’s interests peek the most.

Holly Dabberghast. Mother had said she was a good friend and helped the dungeon in the past. The jungle seemed to reach for the woman. The spirits of the jungle took notice of Holly. It was hard not to, even Devina could feel how the world of life around them was pulled to Holly like a vacuum.

The power the woman possessed could change everything in this jungle at a mere whim. Plants would be alive, trees would walk, and animals would be... more. There was almost a fearful tinge to it. There was a darkness to her nature. Thorns that dripped with old blood.

Devina shivered slightly as her shamanistic powers gave a slight image of something behind Holly.

A woman in black. A thorny staff that had ended far more life than it saved.

The image was gone as Holly bent down to feel the soil. A soft smile made the woman’s face flush with pride. Devina didn’t feel evil from the woman but she had never known evil to be fair. She wanted to believe this Holly was like Mother.

But she would watch her. This was her jungle and with some effort. she forced the jungle to return back to itself. It no longer flowed towards Holly like a lost puppy. The woman looked up and met Devina’s gaze.

There was a knowing smile. Holly almost looked pleased.

Devina turned and lead the curious group into the secret restroom. Deo sat on the bed and then stuffed his face into the pillow.

He yelled something but he was too muffled to make much sense of it. Isanella leaned down and lifted the boy’s head with a small smile.

“You can’t sleep here. People can’t stay in dungeons without building up a tolerance. You’ll get MP,” Isanella obviously understood him. Devina gestured to the cozy room.

“You are the first here. Treat this knowledge wisely,” she said.

“Don’t lose any sleep over it!” Delbird assured them. Devina was going to strangle the bird soon if it kept ruining her appearance as a wise woman...

“Interesting, very welcoming of Delta. Do the beds have any magical power?” Noland inquired. Devina wasn’t sure...

It was Mother after all... maybe the beds did do something?

“MAYBE IF YOU TAP THE BED IN THE RIGHT PLACE IT WILL TELEPORT YOU OUT OF THE DUNGEON?” Deo suggested and began tapping the metal bed knobs with a focused expression.

Devina actually paused to see if anything happened but when nothing did, she turned to see the laughing form of Mother in the corner. The floor had shaken earlier and Mother had looked rather... guilty but she seemed to be over it now.

Still hard to see and even hear, Mother seemed to be enjoying the sight.

“It’s just a bed!” she promised Devina with a note of laughter.

“For now,” Devina agreed with a smile that made Delta freeze.

Moving back outside. Devina halted the group by the pool.

“There are a few more things here that we can meet. One is my fellow Frogman. Rale is somewhat a guardian of the waters. If we wait a small while, you should be able to meet him,” Devina promised. Her voice a little higher as she mentioned Rale’s name.

Damn that frog. Spirits curse him for being so... HIM!

“RALE WAS THE ONE THAT RESCUED ME FROM THE RIVER RIGHT!” Deo asked with excitement. Devina was nodding when Noland interrupted.

“Describe Rale for me. What are his strengths, his powers?” he began to write before Devina had opened her mouth. The man’s need for everything to be cut down and placed into rankings and boxes was becoming a little sad.

Perhaps he needed a moment in the hotspring and to just relax...

The questioned answered itself as Rale, moving fast, crashed into the area through a thick collection of trees and plants.

“I am here!” he yelled, flexing to the group before he even completely stopped moving. The motion carried him so far forward that Noland was sent flying into the pond with a splash. The clipboard he carried landed perfectly on a lone rock near the side without any damage.

How lucky.

Noland splashed and spluttered before letting out a shout.

Rale merely looked at the man struggling to swim and the other people present.

“... uh...I shall save him!” he promised and dove in with quick motion but he wasn’t even gone a second before Noland was lifted out the water by the helpful pincers of Bob.

Bob rose higher and higher, water pouring down his thick carapace. Noland was now screaming and Devina could feel Mother’s hard look at her back.

“It wasn’t my fault,” Devina stated with a calm tone. Rale began to scale Bob like a tree, screaming how he was on the job while Deo cheered him on. Quiss looked at the water as if he was considering drowning himself and Isanella began to unpack sandwiches from a small backpack. Her lute humming as she idly strummed it.

Holly was just laughing as if this was the best thing she had ever seen.

“Call the spirits to make a ladder and get him down!” Mother demanded in a panic. Devina gave her a dubious look.

“Spirits do not work that way and Rale... is working on it,” she said as Rale was arguing with Bob’s crabs as the worm happily swung Noland around like a small toy.

This was only the first stop on the tour... Devina could feel a migraine coming on. She was pretty sure she didn’t actually have a brain but the feeling was there.

“Better hop to it!” Delbird added helpfully.

The pain was only getting worse now and Devina’s temper flared as she began to bark orders. The next stop would be the Bees and the Circus...

Renny could have them, Devina wanted to go ask the goblins if they had anything stronger than water to drink. Maybe she would go visit the spiders and drink fake tea until the people left.

Yes... that sounded like a good idea.

63: Wyin or lose

What was a Peacekeeper?

Quiss watched as Noland attempted to dry himself off, while the frogman apologized endlessly under the withering glare of Devina.

He was here because he was a Peacekeeper. The job pushed onto him by the elders of Durence by dint of sheer lack of anyone else willing (dumb enough) to do it. Quiss thought back to that day and struggled to really remember anyone else at that town hall meeting.

The curse of Durence was a subtle one. Quiss had chosen a dingy shack at the edge of town to minimize the effect on himself but even that hadn’t been enough. His own investigation had slowed to a crawl, an afterthought.

He looked at the roaring waterfall, the shadowy form of the worm below the surface of the pool, he looked at the lushness of the space around him, and he felt a little annoyed at the irony of it.

Quiss had come to find a way to burn the very heart of nature and yet it was nature of a sort that had saved him from fading away until he was a mere hermit. He had become just a grumpy Peacekeeper that barely tolerated those around him. But in the beginning, he did have a reason to accept the Peacekeeper duty.

It was such a small reason, but he honestly couldn’t help it.

His master had been a Peacekeeper as well, once upon a time. She had once said that it was a lesson that never ended. Quiss’ throat went dry as he thought about her bemused smirk; like she was intentionally not telling him something about the role.

He had needled her to tell him more, of course. Seth had merely accepted it and asked her what she loved about it. The water mage was a polite and studious type, even back then.

His master ruffled both of their heads fondly as she winked.

“Definitely the people. You learn much about yourself when you become responsible.”

Damn woman had forgotten to mention the stress that came with the badge. Then again, she was never the Peacekeeper of Durence. He admitted that perhaps that part might have added some tiny amount of extra problems.

Like trying to show the Taxman around a backwards Dungeon while a powerful bard and a scary archdruid kept making his blood pressure rise.

Then there was Deo.

Bob rose out of the water again with Deo laughing his heart out as he clung to Bob’s head.

Bob, who would name such a demonic being Bob? The answer was all around him and he merely sighed.

Delta. How that name had changed everything. He was grateful for the mana to bring him back to his senses but the mana was waking up everyone. The elders, Von, Isanella, Holly, and, all the other hidden gribblers of Durence he didn't even know about yet.

What other beings lived in Durence that Quiss had never seen? What nightmarish creatures disguising themselves as friendly neighbors lurked just out of sight? The demonic school at least was consistent. Mr. Jones never seemed to diminish nor to grow as mana left and returned.

Ruli herself only seemed to be somewhat weakened.

Quiss would have to look into what made them so resistant to the mana fade. Demonic energy? The mana fade was a rare enough event but to have a demon inside it?

The thought was pushed aside as Devina gestured to a side path that continued deeper into the woods.

“Come, the mana rises and wasting time may be unwise,” she called. Isanella waited, a towel in hand that she had pulled from her rather small bag, as Bob gently lowered Deo back to solid ground. The boy grinned as two red crabs danced out of his shirt and back into the pond.

“I HAD CRABS!” Deo pointed out as they waved once before merrily jumping back into the pool with the giant hell worm Bob. Isanella merely dried the boy's hair with a bemused smile. Her loot... uh... lute resting across her back as if it weighed nothing.

“Ruli is going to be mad as hell she can’t fish Bob,” Quiss mused as the worm sunk into the dark depths once more. Holly snorted.

“Ruli, the dear, will be just as mad she isn’t here to see how annoyed you look right now,” she countered.

This was true. Quiss needed to make sure he started to document all the amusing things she missed to really rub it in the fact she was stuck in school like a misbehaving 5-year-old. The fate was cruel but since Quiss had confidence in his teaching method, he was sure he could push Deo to at least hit a 30% mark and free Ruli.

That should be good enough for Jones.

“Speaking of rising mana, how close is Delta to achieving a third floor?” Quiss asked as the group began to depart from the waterfall cave. The male frog, Rale, followed behind with a casual pace to his walk. He clearly didn’t feel like they were any real threat.

Quiss wasn’t sure if he was overconfident or just that trusting. He seemed highly pleased with himself since he ‘rescued’ Noland from Bob. He almost seemed to be waiting for something. He paused, his long webbed hand hovering over something as if to push a button but he tilted his head before lowering it.

He seemed to turn a little sulky but beamed as he kept listening to the silent voice. Delta must have been instructing the frog on something.

It was an odd scene from Quiss’ perspective but he didn’t draw Noland’s attention to it as Devina lead them into a large clearing where a noise filled the space. Unlike the cheerful bird song or roaring waterfall, this area was filled with dangerous buzzing.

The eye-catching large stone pillar with numerous large holes near the top seemed like the most likely source.

“Welcome to the domain of the Bees. Please, do not panic,” Devina called, voice soothing as a cloud of red swarmed down from the stone. Noland backed up, clipboard held up like a shield as dozens of red bees converged to encircle a single spot. Quiss could understand the man’s feelings.

Those were a lot of stingers.

Holly moved forward, face flushed with utter joy at the scene of pure nature coming down upon them like an angry plague. Isanella held Deo’s shoulder tightly as the boy looked at the scene with open wonder.

“Such vivid red,” Holly whispered. Devina turned and did a little bow of her head.

“Queen Liz, I greet you on this fine day,” the frog greeted to the cloud. Her calm tone became a little affectionate as the cloud swirled around a rock that jutted up from the ground. From the center of the cloud, a clear noise, like a bell, sounded out. The red mass parted like a sea and landed on every nearby surface, each bee going very still.

It was unnerving to see such control over the army. The lone bee left on the rock was much bigger than every other bee. Among the angry red cloud, Quiss couldn’t have possibly seen the bee before, but now... she was clearly the queen of this hive.

The way each and every bee looked at them, waiting for a command from their leader, made Quiss want to set himself on fire just for security. The ringing bell noise sounded again as the Queen’s feelers seemed to twitch at Devina.

Devina laughed and gave a little twirl.

“No, I am the same shape as always, Liz. Thank you for the compliment. May I introduce Mother’s guests. They have come to see the splendor of her work. Including us!” she explained. Quiss never really thought about relationships between different dungeon monsters.

Giving that most basic dungeons had what would pass as rabid monsters for floor inhabitants, he would never have guessed that there wasn’t a language barrier between them. Devina spoke common to them but the bee understood her and Devina understood her in return.

Was it some unseen dungeon bond?

Was it more of Delta’s weirdness?

His thoughts were interrupted as Deo moved forward, slightly dragging his mother with him.

“SHE’S REALLY PRETTY! WHAT KIND OF BEE IS SHE?” Deo’s gentle voice blasted out the clearing and the wave of red buzzed in warning at him. Devina raised a calming hand at the Queen.

“May I introduce Deo and his mother,” Devina stared, her voice going odd when she gestured to Isanella. The bell noise went crystal clear and every bee went silent. The Queen rose up and floated to hover before Isanella.

The woman’s face was calm but her grip on Deo was stronger. The bell noises began to jingle with a soft harmony. Devina smiled as she translated.

“Liz greets a fellow mother and invites you to feed your young with the royal jelly if needed,” she said. Holly smiled and Quiss wondered why she wasn’t also stating she was a mother. The woman was content to just watch the dungeon encircle Isanella.

Druids were always good at that. Watching Nature before acting.

“You must bee something special to get that invite!” the orange bird chirped. Devina’s serene face pinched with pain and she glared at the bird.

“Why are you so bothersome?” she huffed. The bird looked skyward as if asking some great orange pun god for answers. Quiss hoped no such being answered.

“I hive no idea!” he finally replied seriously. Devina closed her eyes and Quiss could feel a kinship forming as she began to count to ten. Rale was laughing so hard, he was bent over at the waist, slapping his knees.

“To answer your question, little one, they are merely referred to as Jungle Bees here,” Devina focused a strained smile at Deo. Holly looked up at the stone spire.

“A dungeon species of Mason bees. A highly specialized form of bee that can wear stone down and use the tunnels as hives. They are suited for warm climates and may even form a symbiotic relationship with Rock Trolls to further increase their protection. I’ve never seen them act with such intelligence but isn’t it beautiful? Such wonderful creatures that just... exist!” Holly gushed as she pushed Noland closer.

“I... yes! Very n-nice. I shall make a note here! Very... nice... bees,” he stuttered before he moved away quickly as the Queen focused on him. She buzzed and flew back to her stone spire. Devina waved as the bees followed their leader.

“They help keep the local flora spreading, and also work as good gossips or guides if you can earn their trust. They all share a connection that allows them to locate each other,” Devina informed Noland. The man blinked at the information but quickly wrote it down.

“Thank you... that is very helpful!” he replied in surprise. Devina merely smiled as she walked onwards.

Quiss looked at the stone spire with its red cloud before the cloud spread in every direction of the jungle. He wasn’t sure whether to feel better or worse now that he knew that a series of spies were watching his every move.

He decided to just be a grump and stalk after the group as Deo began to point out every bee he saw.

He began to name them as well.

Quiss hoped Delta didn’t take the names to heart.

He really didn’t need to come down a week later to find 20 or so unique bees each with their own special power.

It would be... stressful to say the least.

---

“You taste like blood and fish,” Grim suddenly stated after what seemed like eons of silence. Ruli stopped doodling on her work and gave him an odd look.

“You sound a little creepy when you say that. Gonna give a gal some context?” she asked sarcastically. Grim’s face went a little pink but he merely sniffed.

“Ever since Delta and that dungeon cursed me... I... dunno, taste people,” he waved one hand with annoyance. Ruli put one finger to her chin.

“Did you get consent? Has someone told you about that? The Dragons and the Goblins?” she inquired with a sudden glint in her eyes. Grim pointed to Mr. Jones who was merely reading some trashy romance novel, smiling as Grim’s face went redder.

“He used graphs and diagrams, I know that very well, thank you. What I mean is people give this... they give off this taste. Like snakes when they taste the air but I can do it with people and I think it’s why my tongue is orange and— never mind,” Grim huffed and went back to detailing his second-floor map.

He had no idea what made him tell Ruli. It was such a stupid move giving her more ammunition to tea-

“A mutation of a gift or bloodline ability isn’t odd. Happens all the time when you’re exposed to a new environment or odd energy you’ve never been near before. Doesn’t happen to adults but when you’re young, your body is still changing. it's easier for outside forces to slip something in and mix up your baseline. You eat paper and now you can taste people’s aura or being. You got the gift in a dungeon so most likely you gained the ability to taste people’s mana since that’s what Dungeons feed on,” Ruli said without really looking at Grim.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

His mouth dropped open but Ruli kept talking.

“Don’t worry about it. No one's gonna freak if you admit you got a little more than MP from Delta. You’re not a freak or cursed. You just... got some experience is all,” Ruli stretched and kicked back in her chair as she eyed the windows, the setting sun casting the room into shadows.

“Have you ever been... changed like this?” Grim asked quietly. The only sound was Ruli’s creaking chair and the slight turning of paper from Mr. Jones.

“Me? Nah, can’t improve what's already perfect,” she grinned. Grim gave her a flat look before Ruli waved it off.

“I was exposed to some really dangerous places. Made my not-so-human side really grow. It can do that. Just make you stronger if you expose yourself. But be careful, sometimes you can’t undo what happens,” Ruli’s red eyes met Grim’s.

“Don’t be in a rush to dive into the crazy shit. You got a huge life ahead of you, don’t let someone take the good times in the present away from you,” she added. Grim looked at Mr. Jones but he merely turned another page.

He felt… a lot of things at Ruli’s words.

So he settled on a feeling he knew well. Annoyance.

“She swore and you aren’t going to do anything?” he demanded to Mr. Jones. The demon merely blinked.

“I am sorry, I must have gone selectively deaf for a moment. Ruli, did you curse?” he asked in a rather convincing disapproving tone. Ruli shook her head.

“Nope, Mr. J. Must have been in the kid’s head,” she yawned and went to sleep on her desk. Grim glowered at her but went back to his maps. Ruli’s words swimming in his head.

Good times? What good times? Until he braved the dungeon he was always struggling to get anything done! Now here he was penning the first map of Delta’s Dungeon. That was progress. That was what was important.

He idly fiddled with the cat doll in his pocket he had won from the dungeon. His first piece of treasure. It was a simple thing really but Grim couldn’t help but feel a spread of warmth as he kept thinking of this piece as his.

He had earned it... even if it did result in him meeting the... mime.

---

“HELLO!” Deo waved. Renny looked at the boy and then at Devina.

“This one's invited. You don’t need to chase him out,” she promised. Renny didn’t really mind the chasing part but it was the near dying and Delta’s panic that flustered him. Still, the mime patted the boy’s head and looked at the rest of the group that was eyeing the circus and the statue of his father with interest.

He pushed with one foot and his other slid forward. His power made his feet cold as he skated towards the grumpy man standing close to Rale, his blondish hair and serious face making Renny instantly want to bother him.

“This is the contracted monster that Delta unearthed?” the man asked Rale quietly. The frogman nodded in response. Quiet but not enough to escape Renny’s hearing.

If Delta was right, then this would be Quiss. Friend of the demon woman who had utterly crushed Renny before he came to his senses.

“Lovely to meet you,” a cheerful woman said to him, her slightly round frame and red cheeks made Renny like her. She looked like a woman who would take in strays and feed them. Renny bowed as a gentleman should. Just the way his father taught him.

This would be Holly.

The quiet woman with the lute merely gave him a polite smile but it was the man with the clipboard that caught his interest. He was staring at the statue with a very odd expression.

“Noland, are you well?” Holly asked with a small touch of concern in her voice. Noland cleared his throat but he kept staring at the statue.

“It’s... I know this man. I think. When I was young. A show came to the capital. A circus...” he trailed off. He shook his head.

“I was so young but the posters lingered on walls for years. His face was on all of them,” he explained. A show in the capital. A time before Renny was in the circus. How odd... to think he would find someone who had seen his father in the flesh.

A feeling spread across Renny’s chest as he thought of the people out in the world that may still hold scraps of memory. Memories of a time when the circus was... alive. Even this man held onto some precious moments that his father was able to give.

His home was not lost yet to the march of time.

He took Noland’s hand into his own and shook it firmly. He could not speak but he tried to convey his gratitude for the man’s words.

“I... not sure what is going on,” the man said, but relaxed when Renny let go.

“Why would the circus be down here in the dungeon?” Holly mused. Quiss cleared his throat and moved forward.

“I’m not sure that’s important right now. Noland, make a note of the area and we shall move on,” he said a little too quickly. Renny knew why, but he had a feeling Quiss also knew to an extent. He wondered why he didn’t want Noland or Holly to know.

Renny let it go. The only thing that mattered was that it was about time for Wilhelm to be coming home for his nap.

He raised one finger to try and catch their attention to maybe warn them but Wilhelm did it well enough on his own when he charged into the cave, beating his chest in welcome. There was a lot of noise. Mostly Noland screaming, Holly’s excited noise, Deo’s yelling, and Quiss’ cursing.

“Wilhelm, how are you!” Rale greeted and the giant ape snorted at the number of people in the room.

“Well, he gibbon everyone a scare!” the bird squawked. Devina shooed him away but the bird merely landed on Deo’s head.

“No one appreciates the art of monkeying around anymore,” he informed Deo who grinned.

“THEY MUST DRIVE PEOPLE BANANAS!” he agreed. The bird closed his eyes in pleasure and sat on Deo’s shoulder like an affectionate pet.

Renny was sure Quiss’ ears were steaming a little as Noland still hadn’t stopped gibbering like a madman.

It was just a giant ape. Noland should have seen the circus in the best days. The shows that played there sometimes literally drove people a little crazy for a while.

It was then Renny noticed Delta was nowhere to be seen.

He wasn’t sure there was anything would be more important than watching the guests. Unless something was and Renny didn’t know it yet. He braced himself for any news and allowed the group to go into the tent. A shadow of its former self.

If Delta had unearthed anything else, Renny would be first in line to offer a hand to... dispose of it.

---

What had been a basic square boss room was now replaced by a large circular space with no clear defined edge with trees acting as the walls. Grown so close together that nothing could be seen beyond, the massively increased space had large patches of grass and wildflowers growing in rings towards the center where a deep pond was filled with crystal clear water. The water rose and lowered slightly at intervals, almost like a heartbeat.

Rising out of the center of this pond was a giant tree.

Delta stared up at it with a nervous expression.

“Hey, how are you doing?” she asked. The large wooden being shivered as lush green branches shifted. The act of hiding the Wyin tree was a moment of panic but it seemed to have turned into something else. The offer to turn the tree into the boss of the floor was sudden and it also solved a lot of Delta’s problems.

A tree was nice and didn’t make Delta feel like she had to create a monster just to be a boss. However… she had not expected the tree to gain sentience beyond a simple awareness. Delta had definitely not planned on the Wyin tree looking down at her with very expressive eyes.

The Wyin tree’s trunk was curved as a body formed midway up the trunk. Two powerful arms spread into many branches that produced healthy green leaves. The body showed a rough form of a woman the details becoming sharper as they moved up towards the face.

The Wyin tree’s face looked life-like. Supple lips with a defined nose. Her eyes glowed deep green as she looked down at Delta. Her hair, as it was, was a flowing mass of branches that blossomed with small white bulbs.

Her tree had become a woman-tree. Delta did not plan this nor was she warned this would happen.

“Mother... I am...” the voice was stiff as the tree practiced moving her lips with more ease.

“Alive,” she finished. Delta smiled weakly.

“Welcome to the dungeon... uh, Wyin!” Delta aimed for a positive tone and managed a slightly nervous laugh.

“Yes... my name is Wyin. Wyin… Wyin... the name is so... important,” she mused and spread her branches wide as if stretching after a long nap. The cracking noise as bark broke and branches shook lose was loud.

“Ah much better!” Wyin beamed as the room’s ceiling beamed down with fake moonlight. The light filtering through the branches of Wyin made the scene look magical and Delta couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of it.

Wyin was least as tall as two men and her form looked powerful as she swung her branches with ease. As the moonlight focused, the buds on her hair blossomed into pale flowers.

It was so wonderful!

“I live to protect you mother, may I water these flowers with the blood of your enemies!” Wyin vowed, thick thorns piercing every branch of Wyin's body as her beautiful form turned into a whirlwind of death.

Why were her eyes glowing?

Why was the water in her pond making mist?

Why was was she laughing like a maniac?!

Delta had a bad feeling about this which only grew worse when Noland’s scream echoed in the jungle.

Delta blinked before her mind stepped in to remind her of something.

“The pygmies!” she screeched and looked between the cackling Wyin tree as it swung its deadly branches and the door which led to Noland who might be in trouble.

Delta prayed Devina could handle the cute little mushrooms without hurting them. They were just playing, she was sure of it! Delta had even made a few more of them to give them more friends!

---

“Cover!” Quiss hollered as another series of blow darts rained down on him. Noland was fast on his heels.

Holly’s distant laughter only made him run faster.

“Why are they only shooting at us!” Noland yelled as he held his clipboard tighter.

“Cause you stepped on one and I laughed as it threatened you!?” Quiss shouted back with a burning in his lungs.

How were those tiny legs keeping up with Quiss and Noland? The little mushroom people should’ve long since been left in the dust.

Noland shouted as one of them tried to land on his face but his clipboard swung out and batted it away by sheer luck.

“How do we make them stop!” Noland panted. Quiss was about to answer when he suddenly ran out of branches to ignore and his feet left solid ground.

Hot steamy water rushed up around him and Quiss found himself submerged. Noland was right behind him and he tripped sending his clipboard on the other side where it landed with a clunk on solid ground.

Having no other idea except burning it all to the ground, Quiss pushed Noland’s head underwater and held his own breath before he joined him.

The water was so warm... after the initial scalding, it was quite pleasant actually. He could see a glowing red crystal at the bottom of the water, barely covered by a box with bars so people could see inside.

Of all the uses for a fire crystal of that size...

It was so like Delta.

Noland was turning blue next to him but the shadows above were waiting...

Quiss wished Seth was here. It was far easier to throw him at danger and not feel guilty. The man was a water cockroach.

Suddenly a large shadow appeared and Quiss allowed Noland to breach the surface. Quiss followed and was stunned to see a confused Mr. Mushy looking at the bowing and worshiping tiny mushrooms.

Mr. Mushy had more pots but the little ones seemed so awestruck by the sheer size of Mr. Mushy that they surrounded him and sang little squeaky prayers at him.

Quiss was sure he was witnessing the birth of some mushroom cult.

But the plus side was that there were no more darts in his face.

That was a bonus.

Mr. Mushy waved at the tiny ones and they all squealed with delight and prayed harder.

Well, Quiss mused as his wet hair steamed, if there was anyone he didn’t mind in charge of a cult... it would be Mr. Mushy.

The sales of pots to dungeon visitors might become slightly more aggressive but Quiss honestly couldn’t care less right now.

64: The Tree of 'Wisdom'

There was a thing about love that Wyin knew well.

Stretching her branches out, some twigs snapping as new growths quickly stretched forth, Wyin inhaled her new home. She was the legendary tree of Wyin. A tree of magic and love. This was information that was branded into her very being.

The glowing orange woman on the ground before her gave Wyin’s warm beating core a flash of pleasant heat. As easy as knowing that fire burn, that gravity pull down, Wyin knew this was the Mother. The creator.

This was Delta.

Wyin knew that she didn’t love Delta as her Mother. She struggled through the sense of new feelings and sudden surging emotions. She was... protective of Delta. It was easy to mesh affection into the feeling but Wyin didn’t let herself have that fantasy.

There was an echo of love in her mind. Something painful but pure that this new feeling couldn’t match.

Wyin looked down as Delta paced with her face buried in her hands. Muffled screaming sounded out.

It wasn’t a bad thing, not to love something right away. It gave her a chance to fall in love.

That was something beautiful about love.

Wyin leaned down and smiled as her blackthorns sank back into her bark. She pushed down the violent storm of emotions and half-faded ghostly memories. One thing at a time.

“Mother, how may I serve? Whose beating hearts shall I gift to you? Which scum shall I hang from my branches? Tell me, how can I make you smile?” Wyin cooed, just a little. The avatar of Delta before her showed a young woman with wide eyes that screamed exactly what she was thinking. It was cute.

“No hearts! First rule of the dungeon! No senseless murder!” Mother pointed at Wyin’s innocent expression. Wyin brushed her branches near her Mother’s face. The tips passed through the orange form, but the air felt warm.

“Maybe just a few kidneys? Humans surely don’t need two!” Wyin suggested making her tone bright. She was rewarded with a horrified screech from Mother.

Oh... this was fun! Who knew a human face could contort into so many different expressions in mere seconds.

“No body-parts, period!” her Mother replied sharply. She paced and Wyin could feel a second presence behind her. Almost like a second shadow, Wyin saw an almost translucent blue box before it faded.

Like Mother, Wyin knew of this being. Knew how it could utterly suppress her if it so desired. The Moon to Mother’s Sun. The pale light that illuminated the darker parts of her new home. Then there was the giggling in the back of mind. A being beyond her understanding.

She focused on Mother as she began to talk.

“Listen, we have guests. We, as in the entire dungeon, don’t kill people. I mean, if they come at you with weapons or magic, defend yourself! I don’t expect you to just take it and die. That isn’t fair! But these people coming here soon are friends of mine... well maybe not Noland but he’s not to die either!” Mother rambled.

“I don’t need to kill,” Wyin agreed, her voice becoming smoother as she used it more. Mother gave her a flat look.

“No scarring, no removing of limbs, no toxic things, no poison, and no making people break down in tears!” she listed. Wyin still had options, but she wasn’t going to tell her Mother that.

“I will be the shining example of a second-floor boss that isn’t to do her duty!” Wyin beamed, covering her smile with her numerous branches to hide the large bloodthirsty grin she felt coming.

Her Mother looked up at her with a pleased smile.

“Thank you! And uh... sorry for making you... aware, if you were happier being a tree with no thoughts...” she added, her voice trailing off. Wyin blinked rapidly at the sudden change in subject.

Happier as.. a tree?

She was still a tree but Wyin was just being pedantic at that point. Was she happier now that she could think? Feel?

She closed her eyes.

Pain. Loss. Hurt. Love.

“No. I must thank you. I have... you have given me back something important. I feel it,” Wyin looked down at her Mother with a calm expression as her mind washed away the memories she wasn’t ready for.

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is why I will keep these... pets of yours alive,” Wyin sighed as she stored her plan for accidental drowning for another time. Mother was just too...

The wide smile that stared up at her, the expressive face that hid nothing, the open eyes...

This was her Mother, her dungeon core, and her means of survival. Wyin had a lot of work to do to whip Delta into shape as a fine young woman...

The door of her room opened and Wyin hid her face behind her branches. The show was about to begin.

---

Maestro froze abruptly as a feeling tugged on his many roots.

He looked at the section that burrowed deep into the ground and led to the second floor. He tried to follow their path but as his mind trailed down the roots and into the earth, the space between floors stretched his awareness and made it difficult to see exactly what was around him until he reached the second floor.

Here was the paradise of songbirds, cascading waterfalls, yipping of creature's, the soft song of Devina... and now this uppity new star.

Maestro felt his roots reached the new boss room where he listened and watched as mushrooms bloomed around the edge of the room. His eternal eyes and ears!

Plus speakers for his music of course ,but sometimes he liked to watch the drama more than songwriting or performing. After Isanella... Isanella, the name made Maestro want to howl to the heavens out of sheer joy, had left, Maestro felt a tad ... lonely.

But now... now this prancing, showy tree of an attention seeker was about to make her debut. How green of this Wyin. Just waiting to show that she was able to move. Where was the draw? Where was the impression?

Urgh, this amateur was going to make the dungeon look bad!

He snapped his fingers and several mushrooms stood to attention, awaiting his orders.

“Elegance! We must provide elegance, bring me the strings and bring me the flutes! We shall welcome this new bratty sister of ours with a proper gift! Mushrooms, prepare the boss music!” Maestro roared, sending the room into action.

----

Holly lead the way.

Well, it was more like if the rest didn’t follow, Holly would leave them behind. As they had drawn closer, a powerful energy had begun to catch her attention.

Living, pulsing energy. It swirled like spring after a long winter. Life from death. Holly was inches away from commanding the jungle to part when she finally saw the boss door.

“Magnificent!” she breathed as the large tree grew into the wall, a tall oak of some sort. It easily reached to the ceiling. She looked down and saw a path that lead into a large empty space in between the roots. Holly closed her eyes and placed both arms over her chest.

“May the green return after white. May your young grow strong. May your roots dig deep,” Holly said to the towering tree. Her mana fluttered as it always did when she chanted.

The most basic of a druid’s blessings.

The blessing settled over the tree and Holly watched with interest. She had never blessed a dungeon before. Even the ones she had known in the past she had allowed to take their own course, but with Delta, the girl who kept on giving Holly more reason to love humanity and all that imitated it...

She couldn’t help but want to spoil her just a tad.

“IT’S HUGE! HOW COME ITS SO BIG!” Deo asked her with bright curiosity.

“Mana is a wonderful nutrient. To natural trees it may cause issues, but with dungeon trees? Oh, the sheer potential it holds!” she pointed to the roots where she showed Deo how mushrooms and the roots of other plants were coming in to curl around the oak’s roots as if greeting their new friend.

“MANA IS KINDA IMPORTANT TO A DUNGEON!” Deo nodded and looked to Quiss as the man stared up at the large tree with a dark expression before it passed.

“Mana is energy. It can do many things if applied right,” Quiss cleared his throat but Holly walked down into the dark space between the roots where a large circular opening covered with more roots waited on the far side. Holly walked right up to it and with a single touch the roots uncurled and snaked back into the solid earth to reveal a room beyond.

If the jungle had been wonderful and a paradise, this room was a dream.

“Delta... I told you to hide the tree...” Holly mused as she saw how the Wyin tree looked serene on its little island in the middle of the pond. She didn’t rush into the room, this was a boss room after all.

She was strong but all it would take would be some creature she had never seen before to surprise her and that was it. Not that she expected Delta to plan anything but the freedom she gave her monsters was vast. A new boss may not be so eager to let them pass as Fran had and even he had looked sour about it.

The room was large and round, almost every inch covered in some form of grass or wildflowers. The crystal water of the pond was still and tranquil. Looking down, she saw the star-like mushrooms and the black ones suddenly breach the ground and begin to spread onto the walls.

“Eager little sweeties...” she mused.

“What do we have? Invisible, submerged? Any hint of the boss?” Quiss asked behind her.

Holly closed her eyes. The only obvious energy was coming from the tree. Could it be hiding among its branches? Having a boss guard the tree would be quite cunning of Delta. More than Holly would hope.

The group slowly walked in as Devina took lead again.

“I see...” Devina replied to no one.

Maybe Delta. Maybe something else. The girl had the touch of the spirits about her.

Before Devina could speak, something odd happened to the mushrooms around them. They all went stiff. Then one by one, they began to beat and vibrate with music.

Haunting flutes and twanging of strings sounded out as a tiny amount of mist rose from the pond.

“Maestro!” Isanella said in a happy tone.

Holly gave the mushrooms a sharp glance. Was Maestro able to spread to other floors? That wasn’t normal... that was very not... normal. How delightful.

He did it to play music?

Holly let a smile play across her face.

How many dungeons would take the same power and apply it to death? To advance their own survival and here was Delta, using it to enhance the atmosphere of her dungeon. It really was just like the girl.

The flutes and string music hit some crescendo as the mist wrapped around the tree.

“My... what a ragtag bunch of cats Devina dragged in,” a voice called through the mist. A woman who spoke in a rich accent. Holly could tell a lot by the way people spoke. A habit of ransacking travelers who had defiled her forest once upon a time.

This woman had... culture to her words. A laughing noble who pitied the world outside her golden tower. To most, it might bug them but to Holly, it only made her more excited.

“I dragged no one. I was instructed to bring them here, just as you’ve been instructed to behave, I hope?” Devina’s tone was crisp, as she was unsure of this new being. The voice returned only a high peel of laughter.

“Me? I always behave. When I am good, I am very, very good, and when I’m bad... I’m the best!” the mist was swept away as the tree itself spread wide arm-like limbs. The glowing eyes stared down at them with a wide smirk on her face.

Holly’s mind just took in the tree, took this woman in. Her arms split into a dozen or so more tiny branches, which split again and again until they became impossible to count. Her body merged together at the waist to form a solid trunk of a tree instead of legs whose roots dove deep into the pond of water.

The face was detailed as if some carver had put his soul and life into each and every crease of wooden skin. The eyes that glowed in the mist sent a shiver down her spine.

It moved, it talked, it existed as a being between person and tree.

It was something she had tried to do herself... something she prayed for her daughter to seek and here it was.

Right before her very eyes.

“You are... perfect,” Holly whispered, her fingers reaching forward as her magic slipped her control slightly.

Each step of Holly’s caused the ground below to burst into huge overflowing patches of flowers and glowing roots. Holly only saw the tree before her, the perfect blend of her hopes and dreams. The druid’s impossible goal.

Dungeons were truly wonderful.

The tree looked utterly frozen as Holly approached. It was sensing her and Holly let her.

“I... enough!” the tree thundered and Holly’s power was broken as she was pushed back by a howl of mist.

“That is... quite enough!” the tree scowled at her. Devina lowered her hand from the trunk, her form easily crossing the surface of the water to reach the tree. The tree woman looked down at Devina with an odd expression.

“I had it under control, your help was not needed,” she gently pushed Devina away from herself as if the frog woman's touch affronted her.

Devina merely leapt and landed on a part of ground close to the group.

“Of course. Now, put away your thorns,” she requested. Holly idly noticed that the entire tree was now covered in curved and deadly blackthorns.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Blackthorns... the image was ironic. With a deep breath, she pulled her power back under control. She turned to Quiss, already expecting the deep scowl.

“You done?” he asked a little angrier than he wanted her to see. Holly bowed her head a little.

“I... yes,” she turned to the Wyin tree.

“Mighty tree. I apologize for pressing my will on to you. I was so overcome by your existence that I lost myself. You are simply beyond words,” Holly tucked her hair that had come loose back behind her ears.

There was a beat of silence as she awaited the tree’s response. Devina looked ready to leap to either their or the tree’s aid at a moment’s notice.

Holly did not want to be in her position. To be their guide but to be loyal to the dungeon.

“You brashness is only to be expected. My glory is not to be dismissed,” The Wyin tree admitted and brushed her hair, filled with white flowers, back with one section of her branches. Devina sighed quietly and relaxed.

Holly’s heart jumped a little as Deo moved forward, his mother too entranced by the tree to grip onto his shoulder in time.

“HI, YOU’RE A REALLY COOL TALKING TREE! MY NAME IS DEO, WHAT’S YOURS?” he greeted in his usual fashion. The Wyin tree blinked slowly three times at the boy.

“...Wyin. Must you spea-” she began but Deo was moving closer.

“I REALLY LIKE YOUR HAIR! IT HAS NICE FLOWERS IN IT! DO YOU KNOW DELTA?” he asked and the tree recoiled as if Deo was some toxic sludge from the purple lagoon.

“T-thank you for the compliment and yes, I know Mother quite well! Again you need not shout, I am right he-” she was cut off as Deo pointed to Delbird on his head.

“DO YOU LIKE PUNS?” he asked suddenly.

The room was quiet as Maestro’s distant laughter sounded through the mushrooms. Wyin... the Wyin tree paused.

“I’m... not against them,” she answered slowly. Noland was quickly jotting notes down, his drying hair matted to his face and made him appear far younger.

Deo beamed and Delbird puffed his chest out.

Holly was an archdruid, a cursed witch of the Blackthorn forest, an adventurer of great experience, and best of all, a mother.

So when she felt a chill go down her spine at Deo’s innocent expression, she felt the need to maybe say something to stop the event but at the same time...

It would be good for the Wyin to be challenged by nature, of all sorts.

Life only grew on harsh trials after all.

----

Noland fled out the far door as the Wyin tree screamed at them to get the hell out of her room and take ‘that damn bird’ with them.

“Make like a tree and leaf it!” Delbird screamed as thorny branches chased them.

Quiss was the last one out as Devina stayed behind to sooth the raging tree, her glowing eyes a dark pulsing red now.

“Not a fan of puns now.” Holly guessed as the roots slithered closed to seal the room off. Noland collapsed to the ground with a heaving chest.

“Why does this dungeon have a mythical tree at its disposal? AND WHY IS IT A BOSS MONSTER?” Noland flailed in a panic. He tried to calm himself but the sight of such a monster, a nightmare of thorns and violent screaming made his heart hammer like a hummingbird.

“Luck and luck. I know Delta, she most likely stumbled into everything,” Quiss explained to him. The man mostly looked unfazed but his left eye twitched ever so slightly every few seconds.

“There is luck and then there is a legendary boss monster!” Noland snapped but froze as Isanella leaned down and gave him a soft smile.

“You need to breathe. Here, you dropped this,” she handed him his clipboard. The solid wood that held his notes looked untouched and he took it slowly.

“Thank you. I’d... hate to lose all my work so far,” he admitted. Standing, he took a look around to see they were in a short tunnel, the only way forward lead to...

“The core,” Holly breathed. Even to this woman who seemed to be unfazed by most things, there was a touch of reverence in her voice at the sight of the pulsing glowing orb.

The orange light made torches unneeded but enough of them lined the wall to give the room a cozy feeling.

The core rested in the middle of two spires of earth. The orange orb looked to be the size of a melon. It pulsed and Noland could see shapes floating in the light. A glaringly obvious four jumped out but there were other things.

The core sat upon a large stone altar with four stone mushrooms at each corner. At each side of the altar were two fish statues that gurgled clear water.

“This is decorative...” Noland said politely. Quiss eyed them and looked to Holly with a long look.

“Cores surround themselves with victories. A core room shows you the very heart of the dungeon. What it is. What it seeks. What it has done. Many of them come with trophies of their numerous kills and bosses,” Holly said, stroking the head of one of the boars of the first-floor boss, Fran. Two statues guarded the stairs up and as they watched, the topmost earthen spire was edged and smoothed. Flowing liquid rock hardened around the ore as the top spire became shaped like the Wyin tree.

Her roots creating an almost gazebo effect around the core, her haughty face looking down at them with one hand to her chin as if approving of their success to reach the goal.

“DELTA IS SO PRETTY!” Deo said as he climbed the stairs. He stumbled, catching one of the statue Bacon’s tusks for support and wiped his forehead as sweat began to collect on his skin. Isanella took him back down.

“This room has the most potent source of mana, you’re beginning to come down with a case of Mana Poisoning,” she frowned. She eyed the door where the real Wyin tree laid beyond. Steeling herself, she bowed to Delta’s core and moved to the door.

“Wait, it isn’t safe!” Noland protested but Isanella merely looked at him.

“My child is in danger. I will not be stopped,” she promised but Devina entered the room, her skin a little cut up from where thorns had lashed at her. She didn’t seem too bothered about it.

“Leaving?” she asked airily as if the event of a boss monster having a temper tantrum was no big deal.

“I need to get my son out,” Isanella said without missing a beat. Devina eyed the blearily staring Deo and frowned as she eyed the door back to the boss room.

“She should be calm but she’s rather new...” she commented. Isanella merely gave her a solid look that brooked no arguments.

“I want to leave with my son, pleas-” she was cut off as a flash of orange pulsed between all four of the stone mushrooms, bouncing like a charging beam of light and zapped Isanella and Deo.

The light was gone and so were Isanella and Deo. Noland’s eyes went wide.

“The core j-just... what happened?” he asked the remaining group with a little hysteria in his voice. Devina looked just as bewildered as him.

“Oh good, Delta’s warp is already working,” Quiss commented calmly. Holly merely patted the stone altar with a wide smile.

“A bit early. Usually, they don't kick in until floor 5. Then again Delta’s floors have more on them than most dungeons double her size. Could account for the early development,” she mused. Noland looked between them, words failing him. Devina managed to gather her wits before him.

“Mother is most distressed. She thinks she has... uh... zapped Lady Isanella and Deo,” she informed them. Quiss snorted as he eyed the core, looking deep into the orange light.

“Delta didn’t know she could warp people? Then again, who has actually been to her core?” he asked himself dryly. He shook his head and gestured to the room around them.

“All cores can give victors a fast warp back to their entrance. The sheer amount of food and resources it would take to make it down to a core and back when the dungeon has, say, a 100 floors? It would be annoying, to say the least. Dungeons get people out with their loot so they don’t slaughter all the respawning monsters on the way back and make them even more defenseless when the next group comes. The people show off their shiny toys and that draws more people in, weaker people. It ends up working for the dungeon more than it does for people when you think about it,” Holly added kindly as she left a rolled up packet before Delta’s core.

“Traditionalist,” Quiss accused but Holly just smiled.

“Thank you for the adventure,” Holly praised. She looked back at the boss room door with a small smile before she looked at the core.

“May I leave?” she requested and just as before, the mushrooms glowed as the core shot that crackling energy at Holly. She was gone the next second.

“Does it hurt?” Noland asked Quiss with a wary voice. He had never heard of being warped but his expertise usually lay in horseback, not magical methods that the core itself didn’t know about.

“Nah, tingles for a few days. Some people actually get addicted to it. It feels like... going on a very fast ride as your blood pumps faster and your head goes light. I like it but it's not really my thing,” Quiss stretched and gave Delta’s core a salute.

“Noland, you ready to go or do you want to make more notes?” Quiss asked without much interest. Noland looked around at the statues and smooth walls.

“Should I say thanks too?” he muttered and Quiss’ long stare was his only answer.

He looked at Devina’s serene smile and felt the pressure building. He took a few steps up and awkwardly waved.

“Uh... thank you for not killing me,” he said quickly. Quiss snorted and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Delta, let me and the esteemed Noland leave,” he asked. Noland’s eyes bugged out as the energy crackled loudly and began to charge.

“Never mind, I’ll walk back. Let me go, plea-” Noland’s words were cut off as the orange light struck his form.

He was falling.

He was flying.

Noland was soaring through an orange ocean of warmth and gentle breezes. He spun and looked up at the Sun. A giant orange orb with a woman inside it.

Her shoulder length hair, her crisp shirt, and tie. Her kind smile as she waved.

The ocean surged and the sky claimed Noland.

Then the world settled around him as he landed roughly in the entrance room of the dungeon. The tribute tables and actual daylight, fading fast, allowed him to recognize—

“Easy does it,” Quiss said as Noland’s body shuddered. He stood, his knees shaking. He breathed as his head pounded with feelings. He leaned on Quiss for a moment before he caught his balance.

“I...” he panted and Quiss gave him a small but friendly smile.

“First time is a rush,” he spoke gently, almost with empathy.

Noland was so startled by the warp, the boss monster, the core, Quiss... he choked and threw up all over Quiss.

There was a silence that Noland felt as he managed to inhale some air.

“Quiss. My apologies, I-” he looked up into the dark expression of Quiss as steam hissed from the man’s nostrils.

“Dear, don’t forget your pot!” Holly added cheerfully as she pushed the ugly piece of pottery into his hands.

Noland looked down at it and wished he’d had it about two minutes earlier.

“I just went through a dungeon... and all I got was this pot and mental scarring,” he whimpered to himself and began to climb the stairs out of the dungeon.

Holly’s voice followed him.

“Ah, the sight of greenhorns always did cheer me up. Now, stand still Quiss. I need to make sure to scrape as much of this off of you for Delta. Stomach acid and... what seems to be carrots!” she said with delight.

Noland mourned the loss of his breakfast.

Why did anyone enjoy this?

Why would anyone want to come back to this?!

His feet slowed as something floated back to him. Some droning voice of a teacher. His lessons in the kingdom’s law.

The voice nagged at Noland’s mind. Something... important.

“The taxman that discovers a dungeon will be assigned as that dungeon’s inspector. Please note that unless you have other family duties, you will be required to make daily visits to the dungeon. You may, of course, appeal. If the area is desirable enough, many people might undertake the task...”

A dungeon in Durence.

He stopped walking and with jerky movements looked back at the dungeon entrance.

Daily... visits.

Noland hugged his pot and his clipboard as he felt another choked sensation rising.

He had to appeal!

He had to... take a long way home. The longer he delayed the report, the longer he didn’t need to come back!

Noland closed his eyes. It was for that reason he would take the extra routes and side villages.

Really quite practical that Durence had that sudden law forbidding magical mail. He would just have to wait till he could hand the report over in person, right? If Delta had more time to build herself up, that was quite frankly none of Noland’s business. He thought back to the warm smile of that warp. Delta.

A dungeon that didn’t kill.

He honestly wished her luck in her journey. He sighed as he dragged himself back to the Inn. He had no doubt he was going to see the dungeon again before too long.

It would just be his luck.

65: The Key to her Heart!

Delta watched Wyin idly prune a branch near her head.

You aren’t panicking. This seems off.

With a roll of her eyes, Delta glared up at Nu. The box had its new fingers clasped together as it seemed to be taking every inch of the Wyin tree in at once.

“I wasn’t panicking because compared to Maestro, Wyin really wasn’t that much of a shock. I was... upset when she appeared because I was worried she might make mincemeat out of Noland and/or Quiss would be forced to burn her to defend themselves because I had minutes to explain that murder is a no go here,” she pointed out with a flat expression. Nu hummed, his box slightly vibrating.

His words appeared slowly as if he was thinking each one over.

I remember how you screamed over mere spiders. How you’ve grown... Well, this is our second-floor boss? You do not aim low, do you?

The words were not harsh but Delta merely sighed.

“I... No, you know what,” she stood and put her hands on her hips.

“I don’t aim low because this is my home! So, yeah, I made a pseudo-legendary/mythical tree a boss, what you gonna do about it?” she asked Nu with a grin. Nu turned his palms up.

My home too. I am actually quite pleased with this. Wyin tree, do you see me?

Nu called and Wyin stopped pruning to give him a sharp look.

“The shadow. Do you require something?” she asked blithely as she yanked out a slightly under-grown twig.

Your room, your attacks, your mist... you have many options and this is good. But I can see your thorns. Do you intend to obey Delta’s wishes?

Nu’s words were like a blunt hammer and Wyin’s lips curled back to reveal shapely thorns acting as teeth.

“I do not like being called a liar,” she said coldly. Nu ignored her barbed words and kept talking. Delta watched the two. All monsters seemed to react to Nu differently than herself. It was something she had noticed but not really wanted to comment on it since it felt a little invasive.

A liar? No, I merely called you clever. You can stick to the letter of her word but utterly disobey the meaning. You have yet to earn either her or my trust.

Delta snapped back to see what Wyin would say, the sudden heated debated between Nu and Wyin seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Wyin fanned herself with her many branches.

“Pray tell, why I must earn trust when none of the others had such trials. Am I being bullied for merely being excited about being the boss?” she directed this question at Delta.

Delta blinked and shook her head.

“Of course not. I mean, it wouldn’-” she began but Nu shot in front of her.

Don’t play on her guilt. The goblins and mushrooms don’t have the mental scope to scheme, nor do they have the desire to. The frogs and the contracts settled in fine and while Renny has... some things to resolve, none of them make me worried. You do.

Wyin merely shrugged.

“Maybe Mother shouldn’t be played on by your paranoia either...but what would you do if I did misbehave? Hm, Shadow of Mother?” she asked, a playful smirk on her face. Nu’s hands slowly dropped to his side.

I will uproot you like the weed you are. Do not forget your place.

The words were sharp and Delta scrambled between them.

“Enough! That is just enough!” she snapped and the thick tension seemed to falter for a moment.

“I don’t care if Wyin is plotting to try and be a pain in my butt, we will deal with it. You don’t get to threaten to kill my bosses just because you feel nervous around them!” she glared at Nu. Wyin’s small chuckle was cut off as Delta snapped her glare to her.

“If you hurt anyone out of spite or boredom Nu won’t have time to uproot you. If I can evolve people, I’m sure I can fiddle around with things to unevolve you. Our safety is our top concern. The people coming in comes second. Your entertainment ranks way below both of those things,” she warned.

Wyin’s face looked pinched as if in pain.

“O-of course. I was merely ruffling Nu’s feathers. Can’t expect every meeting to go smoothly, hm?” she hid her face behind her branches. Delta didn’t know if it was to hide a curse or merely avoid meeting Delta’s eyes.

Sagging, she muttered as she left the room.

“Supposed to be magically grown adults... why am I the mature one around here?” she asked no one.

She could hear Nu say something quietly to Wyin and the tree responded. Honestly, if she wanted to hear it she could have... but she was fed up with those two at the moment.

I do actually like her as a boss. Her attitude just irks me. I’m not used to other beings actually having more than ‘Give Nu stress as Delta screams’ on their mind. Wyin is... well, Wyin is complicated in more ways than one. I guess I felt the need to remind her not to get too cocky,

Delta left the boss room and stretched as the false sun beat down from above. The ceiling projected a decent looking sky.

She closed her eyes to enjoy the sounds of birds and busy bees.

“Be honest, what trouble can Wyin cause?” she inquired, her eyes still closed. She focused and the image of Nu’s forming words appeared in the darkness of her eyelids.

Most dangerously? She can control you. Some well-placed worries, some whispered fears, and who knows, maybe some bad jokes, and she’ll have you doing things her way instead of your own. I am accepting your chaos as you. I will not accept her grabbing for power through you.

Delta gave him a small smile.

“Glad I got a snarky protector of my innocence,” she winked and walked deeper into the jungle as Devina neared.

“Inchy went with Deo, I think he got stuck at the entrance and is now making his way back. Maestro is keeping tabs on him,” she explained. Delta blinked and forgot that the bird had indeed been with Deo when she ah... zapped them.

“Any ideas why I can suddenly teleport people?” she asked Nu. The box was quiet for a moment.

Asking Sis... I got a lot of ‘Sort of happened when things got muddled’. She refuses to tell me what got muddled or why she sounds like she accidentally knocked something over.

Nu’s box flashed as he began to sound annoyed. Delta looked back to Devina.

“Where did Inchy get off to?” she changed the subject. Devina merely sighed.

“He stopped on his way back due to a party invitation?” she asked with confusion and gave Delta a look, hoping she would be able to translate.

Delta slowed as she unfocused her eyes.

---

“I spy some berries!” Inchy cheered as the various spiders danced around him in greeting. The bird nodded to each of them in turn.

“I am sir Inchy of the second floor! I come beeryng gifts!” he crowed and dropped more berries around. The Spider with a blood red hardened piece of web on her head regally accepted the juiciest berry for herself.

She chittered and Inchy tilted his head.

“Quite a tale you’re weaving there!” he chirped. The spiders began their dance again and the bird ate more berries. Never seeing eyes open far above him as more and more berries went down the plump bird’s throat.

---

“It’s nothing... I’ll get Billy to fetch him,” she smiled weakly. Not wanting to make Devina too happy at the idea that Inchy might soon be spending some time with Muffet...

She rubbed at her stomach with a grumble. She was feeling massively bloated again.

Opening her menu, she flicked to the numbers.

Mana: 167/94
DP: 180

“Nu. Why is my DP so high?” she tugged at the box next to her in a tiny voice.

Hm? Oh yes, I got a little sidetracked. Here:

Flask of Durence Brew: A complicated alcohol that sits somewhere between beer and cider. The ingredients required to make this particular blend are handpicked and prepared by a master brewer.

Average mint gum: It’s pretty nice.

Homemade cookies: Special chocolate chip cookies that are a little on the soft side as they’ve been heated by a mother’s love.

Survival Knife: It’s got some rust on it but it’s well used.

Stomach acid with carrot chunks: I’ll.. this doesn’t need description.

Some paperclips and a drawing of a goblin: Seemed to have fallen out of Deo’s pockets in the waterfalls.

Druid Blessing: A serene spell that will make the tree that grows over the Boss room stronger than the average tree.

Vial of Blessed water from a Druid’s pool: I have no idea where Dabberghast dropped or gave us this but it’s where most of the DP was gained. It gave us 140 DP on its own...

“Mrs. Dabberghast...” she whispered, warm affection for the woman flowing through her.

“I wonder what she is after?” Devina asked as she read Nu’s box as well. Delta gave her a surprised look.

“What do you mean? Mrs. Dabberghast has always been helping me, she’s a nice lady,” Delta grinned. Devina didn’t look convinced.

“She is more than that. So much more but I will trust you, Mother,” she smiled and turned to look at the jungle.

“From what I understand, the jungle is about to get very busy?” she asked innocently. Delta pursed her lips.

“Maybe...” she admitted. That woman was too aware for her own good but Delta appreciated the fact she didn’t argue over Mrs. Dabberghast. It was a subject she secretly thought of enough in her own mind.

“Nu, what does that blessing and blessed water do for us?” she instead asked as she finally reached the river.

Seems to add to any water upgrade menu. River, pond, waterfall but it is costly. The water seemed to remove weak illness or curses. To make a whole river of the stuff would be... well, we’d be better of settling for another 2 floors at the same cost. The hot spring actually has it a lot cheaper but it still would be prudent to think it over.

Delta sat down and dangled her legs into the water with a wince.

“Well, something to think over. Handy though it would be. I think I need to focus on the small-scale. First... I’ve got to get rid of all this mana. I feel like I’m going to explode...” she groaned. She opened the menu.

With some idle flicking, two grinning foxes flashed into existence. They yipped and encircled each other before they ran off into the undergrowth. Next, she sent a few owls and some beetles off. It lowered the mana a little, enough to make the worst of the bloated feeling subside.

Next, she focused on the spot before her.

“This floor needs more monsters,” she admitted and hit the same button three times.

Devina gasped as three flashes of oranges appeared on the other side of the river.

At first, they seemed to form at the same length and speed but then rapidly changes began to occur. One stopped growing in height while the other two kept going. The light died down and Delta blinked at the three very different frogs before her.

“Oh my...” Devina breathed.

How is it that your control over this has gotten messier?

The first frog looked like it was past its prime and now settled into the graceful age of wanting to complain and yell at kids. His skin was a grayish-green and his eyes seemed to stare at everything with annoyance. The second one was female like Devina but her age seemed to have gone in the other direction. Perhaps the youngest of the frogs so far, she gave a little finger wave as she swayed on the spot to some song she hummed.

The last was the tallest frog out of the lot. A green giant who didn’t seem too jolly at all. His mountain of muscle and expressionless eyes made him seem more predatory than stoic.

“Well... that eased the mana off,” Delta muttered to Devina. There was no reply.

Turning she saw that Devina was frozen.

“Are... you okay?” Delta asked with worry as Devina just stared at the newcomers with wide eyes.

“More of us. There are more of us. Family...” Devina sank to her knees. Delta waved her hands and tried to smile despite the fact she was feeling she had done something wrong.

“You didn’t think I would just keep it just you and Rale, right?” she laughed nervously. Devina nodded numbly. There was a thump as the perky female frog landed just before Devina.

“Why the long face?” she asked brightly. Delta grinned as she watched Devina grasp the other frog’s hands.

“Sister!” Devina breathed. The young one shrugged.

“Neighbor doesn’t sound as nice,” she agreed. She turned to Delta.

“Hey Mom, thanks’ for popping me into existence and junk. You did a great job!” she patted her hip and beamed.

Delta liked this one. Not exactly Rale’s straightforward cheerfulness and not like Devina’s calm humor, but she had spunk. Her form wasn’t flat or even smooth. Muscles curled around her arms and stomach but she was wiry.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

There was a grumble as the older frog landed next. The giant merely walked into the river ignoring the current as it did nothing to slow him.

“You’re supposed to be our wise woman and yet you looked like a tadpole who just got smacked. Straighten up lass,” he growled. Devina was on her feet in a second. The old frog nodded once Devina composed herself. Everyone looked at the giant frog.

“...”

“Hello!” Delta greeted with excitement. The giant looked down at her. Delta was pleased to see a dark green blush spread across his cheeks.

“Mother...” he said so softly it was like a breeze.

“Great Mother. Your servants are here. What do you require of us?” the old frog said seriously. The spunky one tilted her head.

“Gramps, you already know... Mom just wants us to go wild and do our thing. Comes with the whole ‘Mom is the best core’ thing,” she said with air quotes. She nudged Devina.

“Girls gotta stick together. You gotta show me the best places to sleep around here,” she muttered. The response she got was lukewarm.

“Well, welcome to the Dungeon of Delta, the second floor: The Jungle of Trials!” Delta called and there was no response for a few moments until the giant one applauded politely. Her thunder now gone, Delta sighed.

“She’s right, there is no real reason you’re here. Like most people. So, make yourselves at home, find out about yourselves and if you have any issues, just give me a ring,” Delta beamed. There was more silence.

“What do we do when we find out, like, who we are?” the girl asked. Delta watched as a shadow in the water approached.

“Well, for one...” she trailed off as Rale exploded from the water.

“Devina I have co-” Rale began but stopped as he spotted the three newcomers. Without a word he sunk back into the water, just staring.

“So, that’s Rale... Kinda felt he’d be a bit more... friendly,” the old frog muttered. The water exploded again as Rale reappeared with a flourish.

“FROG FAMILY! It is I, the mighty Rale!” he boasted. He landed next to Devina and crossed his arms.

“I was not aware of more frogs, forgive my rudeness,” he muttered to Devina who nodded mutely, her face a dark green.

The girl looked between Devina and Rale.

“Bow chicka bow wow...” she said under her breath. Delta hid a giggle and focused.

“If you work hard and really just be yourself, you get to evolve into whatever you want. Like so!” she gestured to Rale who suddenly let out a whoop of excitement.

“Finally! I was starting to think I would never get to hit this button!” he complained and smashed something only he could see.

The orange light burst out from under his skin, completely hiding his form as a wind howled through the small clearing and Rale’s mighty yell began to reach to the heavens. The light died off and everyone stared at Rale’s new form.

His burned orange shorts were the most eye-catching. And his new seashell necklace clattered like a musical instrument. His form had become even more toned and positively rippled with muscle. His arms almost matching the new giant’s in size. Rale looked up and his eyes were hidden behind black shades, the sunlight glimmered off them and he struck a rather formidable pose.

In one hand was what looked like a metal trident... except the other end had a rounded soft crook for catching things.

“My hard work has produced... ultimate lifeguard power!” Rale yelled with joy. Delta applauded and eyed the menu now before her.

Rale the River Lord

A frog who has dedicated his power to choosing who lives and dies in his waters. Armed with the knowledge of all who enter his domain and the speed of a mythical beast, Rale has become the River lord.

“That was pretty sweet,” the girl admitted. The giant seemed a little cowed by Rale’s new power. The old one merely grunted.

“So, to celebrate your birth and Rale’s new form, it’s time for names!” Delta brought the attention back to her while Devina just stared at Rale with a glazed expression.

The other frog didn’t seem to notice as he made an odd dance across the water without falling in, laughing his head off.

“Oh! OH! I want to be Queen Rainbow Kickass!” the girl demanded. Delta stared at her as she hopped from foot to foot.

“It’s a bit long for a name,” Delta said instead of just turning it down. This made the girl think.

“Death Mark 2?” she bargained.

“It’s a bit grim and I had enough grim to last me a while,” Delta answered. Frowning, the frog looked at the ground with a stumped expression.

‘What kind of person goes from Princess rainbow whatever to Death Mark 2?!’ Delta turned to the other two with a strained smile. She could only hope these two wouldn’t be so diffcu-

“Gramps will be fine. Someone’s gotta keep these animals in line,” the old frog growled. The last one merely looked down at her.

“Giant.”

Delta blinked at him.

“Just... giant?” she repeated. A curt nod was her answer.

Gramps... Giant... what next? Girl? Names were supposed to be important, right?

“...I guess Luna will be fine,” the young one muttered and looked away as Delta’s face lit up.

“Luna is a pretty name, that is a great one!” Delta agreed quickly.

“I think people can’t breathe on the moon right? That’s pretty rad,” Luna mused. Delta felt her face drop but she carried on bravely.

“Luna, Gramps, and Giant? Welcome to the jungle!” Delta said brightly. Devina mumbled something vaguely hospitable as she watched Rale flex to show her a new muscle he had never seen before.

Madhouse would be more appropriate but that’s just me being picky.

“Nu... let’s leave them to get settled in... I still have an idea for the first floor. Something that’s gonna bring some business to the dungeon!” Delta struck a pose, one hand pointing up.

“I hear people's eyes explode on the moon,” Luna explained to a malfunctioning Devina.

“Too noisy, I need some peace and quiet in some cave... where’s the nearest cave?” Gramps complained.

“...” Giant added.

Delta’s finger trembled as she began to trudge away.

If you didn’t suffer as much as I did, I'd swear you do this on purpose...

---

“One more day. Quiss said Deo will take the test tomorrow,” Mr. Jones said into the silent room as Ruli tried to nap.

“Yippee. I won’t hold my breath,” she answered.

“No faith? How unfortunate, you trust Quiss, yes?” came the surprised response. Ruli gave the man a sharp look.

“Why so chatty. I was pretty sure Knowledge didn’t mean gossip,” she answered instead. Mr. Jones snorted.

“Gathering knowledge is an aspect of the idea. Gossip demons are just uncaring if their information is true or not. Like those who inhale tainted chemicals to reach a high. I seek the pure truth, I will settle for nothing less. Quiss is trying, must be interesting to have someone do that for you,” he added. Ruli’s growl didn’t seem to bother him.

“After Mum and Dad? Yeah, random kindness is screwy. Dad tried but he’s a demon. Kindness is starting a war to settle boredom or banishing his power and sending you on a quest to get it back so you ‘get some Screaming sunlight’. Demons make odd parents,” Ruli snapped and sighed after a moment.

“Quiss is easy. He wants beer, someone to bitch at, and don’t tell him your life's story. I like that too. No demon motives, no abandonment issues, no magical bullshit. Just us, the drink, and the good times. Is that so weird? I just don’t trust him to be a good enough teacher to get Deo to pass a test,” she added.

Mr. Jones merely hummed.

“Deo is the most difficult student I have ever had. Not like yourself where you left, but Deo tries and that makes it... hard to do what I do to you. Deo tries very hard to pass, but his head just isn’t into it. As a teacher, I must do what I can,” he explained.

“So putting me on the line?” Ruli asked slowly. Mr. Jones didn’t answer for a while.

“If I had to choose to pass yourself or Deo...” he trailed off and merely smiled.

“Son of a Bitch. I’ve been used. I’m some sort of teaching aid...” Ruli spat in disgust and sulked at her desk.

“Now now... nothing wrong with being a teacher’s pet,” he purred and closed his book.

“The time is nigh. Will it happen?” he asked and looked out the window which showed an alien landscape. Purple seas drifted above while clouds crawled along the bottom like hungry beasts.

“Do I get to leave regardless?” Ruli asked dryly. Mr. Jones pursed his lips.

“I mean, If I get both of your educations done, that would be splendid as well!” he smiled serenely at her.

The shadows that bent and formed twisted faces behind him didn’t give her much reassurance.

---

Ah, the Goblin Camp. My first thought when I think ‘business’.

Delta ignored his sarcastic tone as she focused on the menu before her.

“I can craft and form an ‘idea’ if I build a room towards that. So let's see, first thing first,” she flexed her hands and the goblins huts dissolved into nothing to give her some space to mess with. Delta could see all the goblins watching from a distance in the tunnel that leads to the fort room.

She waved her hands and focused her will. The rough and craggy rock of the stone wall was quickly replaced by neat boards of wood that fit into place piece by piece. When the boards reached the corner, they merely bent and reshaped themselves until Delta had a rather nice, albeit plain, room of wood. She flexed and bulged out the corners and the sides with stone pillars. With a frown, she pushed and the space in the room expanded outward.

The room began to increase in distance but the dungeon outside managed to keep the other rooms in the same place.

“This is some... timelord level of things I don’t understand,” Delta muttered as the map in her head didn’t exactly show the true size of the rooms. Still, the room was big enough for her purposes.

The exposed secret passage was a pain but she’d work on that.

Next, along one wall, she conjured a long counter, behind which she made shelves big enough and sturdy enough to support a lot of items. Not sure if her idea would be quite conveyed, she began to place tables and chairs in a haphazard manner around the room before flicking torches onto each of the walls. The cozy light was perfect, but it was still missed a few touches.

Her mana was still about 80 so she had no worries over spending some more.

On one wall, she carved out a large round stone area, where she made a long thin tunnel above it go as far as the room allowed. She set some wood at the base and nodded for Cois to light it up.

The quick addition of a stone guard kept the burning wood from falling out and offered enough room to put a large iron pot over the burning wood.

Having fun, Delta giggled as she made some glass bottles appear behind the counter.

With a laugh she couldn’t stop as the feeling of simple joy flowed through her, Delta formed a metal chandelier that hung a little crooked on a chain.

I see someone is amused. I think I get what you’re doing. It’s crazy, has no chance of ever working but I have decided it would be easier if I just follow this through and watch it magically sort itself out as Sis provides an answer.

Nu looked amused as his hands made a shrugging gesture again.

Delta grabbed his hands and spun him, still giggling.

“Come on Nu! Make something!” she offered cheerfully.

We really ought to conserve some mana and will you stop spinning me!

Nu’s screen showed a pair of spiralling confused eyes.

“Show me what the cool and calm Nu will make,” she challenged.

There was a beat of silence before a round wooden stool appeared next to the bar.

Delta gave it a flat look before she turned it to Nu.

I- what?

“Something exciting?” Delta suggested. Nu shook his box before he flexed his fingers with a sudden huff.

Something exciting she says... bah!

Nu flicked two hands out and a giant signboard appeared above the tunnel entrance on both ends.

It was rather detailed, each letter engraved and somewhat golden. And had a picture of a familiar armoured boar on it.

Delta read it aloud.

“The Swarthy Hog.”

Delta gave Nu a grin.

Pleased?

“Oh yes, now come on Sis!” Delta called as she opened the menu.

She flicked through the room’s options until the last one appeared.

Upgrade Goblin Village into Goblin Inn and gain Goblin Innkeeper as room Guardian. 50 DP

Delta looked around at the image of her inn and wondered what Sis would do.

“The dungeon is open for business!” Delta declared and hit yes.

The room shuddered and groaned as light seeped up from between the floorboards and the bar began to groan loudly.

The light grew bright and orange. Delta shut her eyes as the whole dungeon began to shake as the changes took place.

The last thing Delta really thought was...

“I don’t have peanuts for my bar...”

66: Tending the Moon

Delta sat neatly on the bar stool near the end of the smoothed down the wooden surface that took up almost the entire side of the room. Her orange glowing figure looked ghostly as the cracking hearth behind her forgot to cast her shadow.

Delta idly ran her finger over a glass as she pretended the ringing noise was sounding from the glass and not her own lips.

“Ya walked into the room and I just knew ya were trouble,” the goblin tending the bar muttered as she downed the amber liquor herself. Delta gave her best mysterious smile as the bar had taken in some of her love for old 60’s detective movies. The bartender especially seemed to enjoy being the gruff goblin with a curious nose for trouble.

A fresh glass was poured and Delta almost giggled at the useless but kind gesture.If I’m such trouble, why have you not asked me to leave?” she teased and the bartender sniffed.

“Guess I got a weak spot for the strays,” she rubbed the wooden surface with an old rag. Clean but well used and well-loved despite only being hours old. Delta leaned forward and peered at her newest resident.

Goblins did not have genders but... something with the last few monsters had become screwy; Delta decided she didn’t mind the change in control or even the unpredictable outcome. The resulting Guardian of her new room was spectacular. The slightly slender form was not exactly more human or even more beautiful than the ‘masculine’ goblins. Instead of squat faces or strong features, this goblin looked more like a bird of prey.

Her long sharp nose curved down and her beady eyes were slitted with a deep gaze that seemed to gauge a person the moment she laid eyes on them. The hair was thin and cut loosely into a messy tail of black hair. The only soft feature was her lips which were full and curved more than any of the other goblins and her chest left… no illusions as to which way her body had grown in some areas, and definitely made ‘her’ the correct word.

Her own fine control when making monsters was getting worse, Delta had to admit to herself. But, like her impulse to make an inn, Delta felt no urge to fret over the outcome. She was slowly coming to terms about the simple facts of her being. Ruli... Quiss... Nu...

They had all let slip exactly what she was. A Dungeon Core. A being with no dying cells or limits to her growth. Why not have fun? The idea of fretting over every choice she made every day made her want to curl up and never do anything. Impulsive creation and new ideas would keep her going as her family grew.

The Swarthy Hog was a place of comfy rest and a bit of gruffness. It didn’t try to hide the simple yet solid tables or the cheaply carved candle holders on the wall. The Inn was more like the goblins themselves. Created cheaply but improved with skill and care.

The straw and sand on the floor and furs that lined the wall made the place gain a huntsman feel but Delta felt like a lady would enjoy the complex drinks made from mushrooms, apples, berries, fish oil, boar hair, Golden Fish scales, and well, Fera had a real knack for making up drinks when she got bored.

Fera the Goblin Innkeeper. What a gal.

Delta liked her the moment she kicked Cois’ ass into gear and made him light the room's candles. Each of the goblins seemed confused on how to treat their new family member, but respect was always somewhere in the mix.

“You look like you want to tell this tender a secret, hm?” Fera mused and Delta gave a slight smile.

“Not really a secret, but I think this is one of the better things I made,” she winked and Fera looked unimpressed.

“Doesn’t take a genius to see that, darling,” she nodded and poured herself more amber liquid from the tap. Delta hoped she didn’t get so sloshed that she started handing out freebies. She’d hate to sack a good goblin for addiction.

She ignored Cois cackling down the hall as the shadows of dancing fire roared out. Addiction came in many forms and levels of intensity.

Billy laughed demonically as Numb yelled a challenge.

Many... forms.

“What’s the plan, Momma?” Fera asked as she rubbed the spotless counter over and over as her tip jar remained empty except the single berry from the spiders as they came to the party in the corner of the ceiling, a single thimble of the Durence brew making all of them drunk and slightly catty.

Delta mused on the question.

“Got some Frogs to check on and... well, some overdue upgrades to the fort room. It’s outdated,” she said as Fera lightly tapped the mushroom cap near the back of the bar.

“Maestro, gonna need something slow. Don’t want the boys rushing in,” she grumbled as Maestro slowly let a soft guitar resound throughout the room. A soft man’s voice called out as he sang. Something about leaving in the morning.

Delta stood and almost swayed to the song as Nu’s box slowly appeared next to her.

There is work to be done. If not for the fact that you can’t actually do so I’d think you were too busy drinking on the job. It honestly sounds fantastic and I could use some of that when you go crazy.

“Charmer,” Delta looked around the inn with extreme fondness before she moved down the tunnel to a room she had barely touched. The simple hills and wooden defences made her blush a little but it was all in the name of progress. One day wooden fences, the next? Laser controlled missile sharks.

Or something close to it.

The goblins looked at her when she approached and Nu spoke before she could.

Go drink. We have mana to spare.

The goblins let out a cheer and stampeded past Delta without so much as a single greeting. Delta twitched but she remained cool and collected, nostrils flaring as she rolled up her sleeves to get to work.

First, she liked the hill aspect and raised tunnel idea. It was just the rest that looked like a beginning Dungeon attempt. The Fort Room was above all else, a stalling room. It had to tire people who Delta didn’t want to come in deeper. A room Guardian before and a Guardian after should add pressure, but she wasn’t going to count on it.

She replaced the Wooden walls that were so easily hopped or burned or crushed or... Delta focused and with little effort, stone breached the mud and rose higher than Fran on Bacon could reach. Mana dipped a little low but she quickly added some parapets and a metal gate.

Overall, the room already felt about three times as tricky to breached. Delta rose up and focused on one of the towers. First, she borrowed one of Mr. Mushy’s more... stable pots and pulled up another ‘gift’ from Grim.

The pot filled with a still purple liquid that partially stuck to the sides of the pots where the air disturbed the surface before it settled. The ooze that Grim had used on Mr. Mushy. The walls, the gate, the sticky ammunition as well as the sticky patches already on the hill. Delta cheered as she left the rest up to Sis.

To let her partner work her magic in peace. Delta wandered back towards the inn and opened the menu to make sure nothing new had appeared in the short time she had been gone away.

Goblin Inn (The Swarthy Hog):

Goblin respawn actively within 30 minutes while adventurers are in the dungeon.
Goblin upgrades cost 25% less.
Goblin inn produces goblin mushroom ale.
Goblin Innkeeper room guardian spawns here.
Goblin inn can make use of any foodstuffs in the dungeons repertoire for a permanent -2 mana per day.

The list wasn’t bad and Delta had no shame in letting the Inn produce the alcohol that Quiss had offered as a gift. The taste, according to Fera, was beyond intense. Her usual gobs looked a little red in the face after one drink while Fera drank the stuff casually.

“Inn, Fort Room upgrade... next on the list is seeing the Frogs,” she told a placid Nu. The sheer upgrading and building struck a peaceful cord in the menu and Nu barely argued over any of Delta’s choices.

There was a minor scuffle and Billy was sent crashing over a table as Fera sent him flying out of the kitchen where various foods cooked on a rough stove. Apple pies, their edges a perfect golden brown, sat cooling as their melted fruit filling gave off an aroma of delicious sweetness and tartness as the mana tinged fruit leaked its juicy energy.

In a large pot next to that was a big cast iron pot of creamy mushroom soup that would normally be bland, but Fera had used some of the plants on the second floor to season it and the smell was making the goblins hungry as the surface bubbled with carrots and salt. The smell captured the senses as it wafted through the inn.

The last food item was a sensual chocolate cake made from a gift of Deo’s. The chocolate was spread over a spongy cookie batter that Fera whipped up from the homemade cookies that Isanella had gifted the Dungeon. The mixture was a gluttonous mess of sugar and well-earned comfort food.

The kitchen became a treasure for all the beings of the Dungeon. Delta even knew that Fera had a single jar of supreme honey from the Queen on the second floor. The smell was enough to make even Fera drool and she didn’t accept messes in her kitchen.

Delta groaned as she couldn’t taste any of it just yet, as it was all Dungeon made.

What was worse was that tomorrow was Boar burgers and Fish Fillets covered in a mushroom gravy! Delta dragged herself away from the smells and waved sadly at Fran who was trying to bench press Bacon on his own.

Bacon was so sweet, but all he did was remind Delta of the boar burgers! Rushing downstairs, she took a deep breath as she was surrounded by wildlife. She blinked as a Bloodhare hopped past.

She wondered when Fera would grab one of those for the menu?

It took some time to track down the frogs. They weren’t exactly together. The first one was Gramps who seemed to have taken over the Frog pond cave as his refuge. The older frog was calmly meditating near the clear water, between the statues of Devina and Rale. His body slightly pulsed a deep blue and sweat leaked from his wrinkled head.

“Mother...” he whispered. If it felt odd to have an ‘old’ Frog call her mother, Delta didn’t feel it. She could almost see how young Gramps was, his outer shell a disguise for the young and curious being inside. He just hid it well.

“How are you?” she asked kindly. Gramps finally relaxed and he allowed a short gasp as he gathered himself.

“I was allowing my mind to wander. I saw many beings. Many great beings. The two-headed dragon of the white light. I saw the Fire King and Ice Queen in the endless struggles. I saw the two left eyed sheep of Opportunity. But I saw them and felt nothing for I am your loyal vassal,” Gramps grunted and tried to stand for a bow. Without the others around, the Frog tried to focus his stiff attitude to be respectful.

“Gramps... it’s okay. You don’t need to be so formal,” she instructed as Nu slid away to give them space. Delta knew between them both, she had the better ‘people’ skills. Gramps’ looked stubborn and got down on one knee.

“Instruct me, Mother,” he begged. Delta held back a sigh and rose to her full height which wasn’t much.

“I want you to look me in the eyes,” she began, his wandering gaze was beginning to worry her.

He did so almost regretfully.

“We are in the sacred place of your gift. Here... we must respect your power. Should we not live up to Rale and Devina-” he cut himself off as if cursing his own words for slipping out.

Oh.

“Hm, I was very impressed with how you saw all those beings. I think you’re working very hard,” Delta idly commented and Gramps looked unsure at her sudden change of subject.

Delta could see the need to prove himself to her but nothing Delta could say would really make the old Frog feel any better. He was almost like Nu in a sense. Appeased by action. Delta was sure she was actually starting to get the hang of this whole Dungeon thing if this worked. Plus the Frog was perking up. If it made him feel better to be given a task... then Delta could handle being a little tougher than usual.

“Gramps. Keep focusing on your task. Learn how best to serve me and I will return. I will expect you to meet my eyes next time,” she almost teased. Gramps trembled but he nodded as if the task was a burden he was more than glad to accept.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“As you command! I will not fail!” he promised and made himself return back to his lotus position as the water pulsed at his energy. The Frog had a real talent for... whatever he was doing.

Spiritualism. Like Devina, but her power is more suited towards manifestation than the divination that Gramps is using. The Frog folk seem to have a real urge to either be buff as heck or kooky with magic. Then again, there is Luna...

Nu almost sounded amused and Delta perked up at his words.

“You know where she is?” she asked brightly as they left the Frog Spawn room.

Where else? The hot springs.

---

Luna peered into the water and tried to grab her own reflection. It escaped as it always did. There was something oddly alluring about something that stole her image and prevented her from stealing it back. How did it get it in the first place?

She never gave it permission. But perhaps the hot spring didn’t need her permission?

What an odd place. Why was it here? Why did Mum make this place?

Luna didn’t know and that was just fine. Luna wasn’t made to know things, she was made to...

To...

Be Luna.

That wasn’t exactly an easy thing to understand. Luna wasn’t a person, just like the Frog in the water. Touching it only made the Frog vanish. If someone peered too closely at Luna... the same thing would happen. The only thing Luna really had as a ‘Luna thing’ was her name. Moon.

That and being a Dungeon Monster which meant Death.

So she just pushed them together.

“I wonder if someone can just float off the moon and vanish?” she asked no one. The idea didn’t excite her so much as it gave her something to focus on. Luna needed something to be Luna.

Gramps was old and Giant was big. Rale was buff and Devina was both a female, a Frog, a magical Frog, and the older one.

Being the youngest ‘female’ Frog was a weak thing to have when a new one could be made any second. If Luna was none of the things that the other Frogs were, then what was she?

She was a reflection of someone. Luna felt that was something she could admit.

“Hey Luna,” Mum called as she walked into the area. Luna stood, her body stiff as she didn’t know whether to bow, wave, nod, smile, look away, or just plain run. Her being ached to do all of these and more. Being created, the echoes of Devina and Rale confused her. They changed too quickly for Luna to hold a solid idea of ‘what’ to do.

“Heyo... Mumo,” she grinned weakly. Her Mother paused.

“Hi Luna, you cute... tuna,” she fired back and Luna actually felt cooler compared to the powerful Dungeon core.

Oh, kill me. This is pain and I don’t even have proper nerves.

The shadow complained. Nu the system tool. The words were clear, but Luna couldn’t help watch it bend and respond to her Mum’s gentle touch and teasing. Nu didn’t give off the same warmth as Mum. He reminded them of their power, their potential, their... purpose.

Being stuck between the two was giving Luna a bit of a nervous tic.

“How are you getting on? You’ve taken a real shine to this place,” her creator said with audible delight. Luna guessed she had. Her urge to explore or follow Devina never really overrode her fondness for the steaming water. The place had a tranquil air to it that the Frog Pond didn’t.

The Pond felt almost religious in nature and the air just meant Luna couldn’t relax, not to mention Gramps grumbled and nagged at her to sit straighter, be more respectful, yadda, yadda.

The hot springs felt like a place of rest and Luna couldn’t deny the feeling on her soft skin.

“It’s not bad. You doing the whole ‘make sure no one is a psycho and will stab the humans’ thing?” Luna asked, twirling one finger around her head. Her mother chuckled slightly.

“No need. Wyin is in the boss room and Cois is drunk. I’m just wanting to make sure you didn’t need anything?” she asked and Luna almost wanted to say ‘a reason’.

“Nope. I’m jolly good,” she reported calmly and the glowing orange blur moved off with a cheerful wave.

Luna watched her go and then looked down at her reflection again.

If she could just reach in and touch the girl. She could maybe feel something beyond confusion and bravado.

Luna liked the hot springs. That was... something. Something she could build on.

Luna stood and began to gather rocks, her form picking up speed as she slowly put a plan together. The idea of who Luna was.

It all began with the rocks and the spring.

---

Delta gave the giant Frog warrior a long look as he silently guarded the log bridge, his form as still as a statue.

“You okay?” she asked uncertainty and Giant nodded.

No words, no facial expression, and no hint of what Delta should do to strike up a conversation.

“Guarding the log, huh?” she pressed on and Giant gave the log a frown, but he only nodded.

Okay, a frown! Delta could work with that. A frown suggested that Giant was unhappy with it. She guessed the log wasn’t exactly the most impressive thing to see in the jungle. Rubbing her hands together, she eyed her Mana that was just dipping below 30 but her DP still had plenty left to play around with.

She opened the menu of the log and saw Sis had already created the needed options.

Delta purchased the first one.

Make the log into a narrow wooden bridge. Comes with a built-in challenge now that a monster has taken to guarding it. 15 DP

Giant took a step back as the log split in half and the rough sides smoothed out. The river shuddered as the bank sunk low to form a deeper ravine between the two sides of the jungle. The bridge stretched and, while the two sides were mostly made of solid rock, the middle was formed of solid looking wood.

Overall, the bridge and its reflection formed a perfect circle. Delta gave the river a wide look.

She was glad Rale could save people now, they would have to scale the cliff to get out if they didn’t wash out somewhere back upstream as the river recycled itself.

Giant took steps onto the new bridge and practised swinging his spear to adjust to the sudden space. He gave the bridge a few experimental hops, but the thing was pretty darn sturdy. Delta knew he would be able to use his bulk and speed without worrying about the bridge wobbling or throwing him off.

“Thank you.”

Giant’s quiet but deep voice sounded out and he took a kneeling spot on the middle of the bridge. Giant seemed to really like doing his duty.

Kinda like Gramps, Delta noted.

Bridge guardian. Her little John of the jungle. Least he wouldn’t have to ask any riddles about swallows to the visitors. Then again, the idea of a bucking bridge made Delta a little too amused.

Is it time for the plan?

Nu spoke up as Delta wandered away into the cover of trees and wildlife. Delta looked at the screen which displayed her remaining DP and Mana. She had enough to play with and start some things, but not enough to completely finish everything. Hob and Gob would have to dive deeper or begin to trade spider silk and mushrooms with the village.

“Not yet. I still have to get the little ones a good home so someone doesn’t accidentally smush them forever,” Delta reminded. Nu grumbled but he didn’t protest too much. Delta knew that the value of having monsters that didn’t need to be constantly resummoned paid for itself.

Not to mention, Delta just felt plain guilty for not securing her monster’s lives. It was just the right thing to do.

Let’s be honest, your ‘darlings’ hardly need the protection.

Nu seemed to joke, but Delta wanted to list how small they were with their tiny hats and baskets. The big eyes and squeaky chirps, and love for Mr. Mushy. They absolutely needed every upgrade Delta could find for them!

Delta lightly floated down the hole which lead to the Mushroom Grove and watched as the colony of pygmy mushrooms frolicked around starlight shrooms and a few gutrots. They all seemed to dance at the sight of her. Delta loved them.

Such wonderful creatures. Delta would have to maybe trap the entrance or maybe ask Devina to set spirits as guardians...

For now, she opened the menu for the grove.

Mushroom Grove (Jungle)

Allow Pygmy Mushroom Spawn room and Mushroom Grove to merge into a singular room. Cannot be split again. 20 DP
Make Mushrooms decay outside much slower to allow them to be held on to longer. 10 DP
Create a haze of mushroom spores that makes it hard for non-pygmies to see in the grove. 15 DP

Delta giggled and purchased the option to allow the cuties to be safe from now on.

--

The little chief closed its eyes as the room became theirs. The cache of weapons was neatly hidden under mounds of dirt as planned for their homemade traps. The act of eternal existence made the big shrine (hidden in a hut) to Mother glow. The tiny statue made from a shard of the fire crystal that a brave pygmy had risked its life to retrieve from the water of heat.

The room bulged and changed as their huts were raised on platforms of large sleeping mushrooms with no hands. The quiet ones.

Soon, Mother would gift them with more blessings and they would be her hidden knife. Unseen even by her.

As the great shadow instructed.

The room’s new power filled his body before the change was finished. The chief watched as his tiny little hands sparked with new found power. He could hear the tiny whispers of his people as they prayed to the Mother Shrine.

He stepped outside his hut, the highest building in the room now. He watched as each ‘layer’ of the village was set on bright red caps of the quiet mushrooms. Until the dark soil spread with grass and flowers below. A large round freshwater pool lined up with the hole in the sky where the intruders would fall from.

The life in the grove drunk deeply from the water as tiny tunnels went in every direction on every level. A tunnel to anywhere on the level.

The perfect ambush design.

---

Mushroom village:
Filled with mushroom huts this lair is attuned to the Pygmy myconids, this underground base will support 10 pygmy myconids and acts as both a mushroom grove and the center for any myconid upgrades.
Comes with tunnels allowing the tiny fungi passage all over the jungle floor except for the boss and core room.

Delta was jumping up and down as her menu said she could now have 10 of the little pygmies at once!

You have no idea what you just invited into this Dungeon, do you?

Delta paused and gave Nu a puzzled look.

“Tiny sweet Mr. Mushys?” she tried and Nu shook as the words scrolled over his face. A series of letters that roughly sped up to reflect laughter before Nu calmed himself.

Ha. No. Just... no. Just remember that you asked for this.

Delta just gave him an odd look.

Side Story: The Village of Woodedly

First of many 'sidestories' as voted by patrons. These are to flesh the world out ^^

----
Grosh Woodborn looked at his men with a grimace.

“It finally has a boss?” he repeated the words. His son, a man with more action that thinking to him, nodded stoutly.

“Snakes. Everywhere you go this thing makes snakes. Dunno if that’s normal or if it might be a little...” he trailed off as Grosh gave him a deadly look. He stood up from his chair. A wooden thing with many animals skulls fitted onto it.

The Hunter’s Throne showed power but it also showed an end of a great hunter. Unless one was willing to travel beyond the woods, through the marshes, and well... a predator knew where it belonged.

The wolf was mighty but the dragon was just unfair.

That all changed when a child fell into what seemed like an odd snake pit. They were too late to help him but the hole widened quickly and they saw that it was no mere pit. It was a cave and flowing out from the great maw was a subtle scent of Mana.

Already the monster attacks had increased. Sickly Goblins, Lizard tribes, the beasts of the deep woods... Everything had been so balanced before the Dungeon had appeared. Now Grosh could barely predict the direction of the wind over the howl of the beasts.

He had lost his youngest to an attack by Goblins. Weak things but even a dozen knives would bring down the wolf. His son rested now. Grosh turned to the gaps in the ranks. Men lost trying to explore the Dungeon.

Grosh had been to a few before but they all were all so different that it was useless to compare beyond a basic means. This Dungeon sat near a dead end cliff that used to protect the village from rear attacks and used to offer a measure of comfort.

Now it was a towering reminder of what new demon lurked behind their defences. Rough fences and quick patrols had been set up but how did one capture Mana? How did one slash a hole in the soil?

Then the snakes began to hiss.

A horrid endless noise that flowed through the night.

They all came from the Dungeon. Men coming out reported nothing but snakes. The Dungeon had a fascination with them to an unhealthy degree. Pits filled with snakes. Trip wires that dropped snakes on you. Doors that lead to rooms that when opened unleashed a flood of the little bastards.

The Dungeon itself hadn’t even bothered with decoration or proper rooms. It seemed to just want to fill every inch of itself with writhing, wriggling, hissing snakes.

But it had to obey the rules. The only thing that made any of this liveable was the Laws of Weissing. The Dungeon could not block exit nor entrance. The Dungeon could not live outside itself unless an offer is made. A Dungeon must produce mana. A Dungeon must-

“The team is ready,” a stout woman cried, her axe long chipped and bloodied from the previous night's work. Grosh stood and grabbed his spear.

“Then let us hunt,” he thundered and lead the way out of the hut that held the Hunter’s Throne.

With one last thought... Grosh wondered who would occupy it next.

Not his problem. It was never the Hunter’s problem who came after his bones long settled. The Village of Woodedly was one of practical make. No hut was made bigger than needed. No path was paved beyond the main. Water well was basic but hardly decorative. Woodedly had that trait to share with its people.

Brutal efficiency.

He walked past his woman. She was sharpening a long knife.

“You know what to do. If I am not to return-” he began before she poised the knife under his throat. Her red hair that of fire, her eyes like black steel, her face utterly like stone.

“Man of mine. Do not make stupid jokes. The daughters will have Rage Boar meat on the table by sundown. If you aren’t there again I will hunt you down,” she warned and stalked off. Her hips a sight to behold.

The mother to his children and a knife to his throat. Grosh could have found no finer woman if he hunted the lands day and night.

It was common knowledge after all that she hunted him and took her prize.

Allowing that little message of love to turn a small smile on his face, he turned to the men and women waiting for orders.

“You heard her. No use for goodbyes, wasted air when you’ll be seeing them all again soon,” he grumbled and headed to the rear gate of the village as wide-eyed children with their toy spears and stuffed beasts looked on as the group left.

He had been such a child once. Back then... didn’t everything seem brighter? Now these children, a product of his reign and hunting, would now suffer a very different hunt from the one he had grown up in.

For as much as they could carve out the danger of the dungeon... they could not strike at the heart. Grosh could not remove the threat and hang it on his wall. Or he could but the King’s law was a dragon stronger than he could ever be and that would mean the end of Woodedly.

For months... almost half a passing of the seasons... This Dungeon had grown. Sure, they had slowed it’s progress by starving it of wandering beasts and only sending the criminal or brave into its dark grasps but Grosh knew that each leaf that blew in, each rat that was lured in by meaty smells... each bug...

This Dungeon had seemed to manage override the local animals fear of Dungeons. It used smells of seasoned rodents or spoiled meat to make the animals ignore the sense of fear. In the woods, fear was constant but free food was not.

Inch by inch, the Dungeon had grown fat off morsels. If it managed to gain a Rage Boar or a horde of goblins… Well, Grosh knew he’d be looking at a much more vile place.

No matter what it devoured, the Dungeon of Woodedly only produced one thing so far.

They heard the sounds clearer as they arrived at the entrance. Grosh had been wrong. The Dungeon had spent some energy elsewhere. The entrance now looked like an open jaw of a snake. The crude eyes leaking what seemed like blood.

“Dramatic,” Jorna spat, a seasoned hunter who could such evil things with trap wires. She had been around for about the same length of time as Grosh. A good eye for such a place as this. Her arrows weren’t bad either.

The Dungeon Entrance was set into the cliff and the stone around it was pale white compared to the red dirt the cliff was supposed to be made up of. The ground before it was desolate and wet as if something was bubbling just below the surface.

The smell was moist and thick with the stench of beasts.

A Dungeon. How it warped everything around it. How the very balance of life in this area that had taken generations to form were now all at the whim of this accursed hole. More monsters would move in, leaving their previous homes free for more vile things to move in. Food became scarce and the Mana began to warp everything out of control. Their home...

What would become of it?

Would the children of Woodedly become infused with bestial Mana? Would they all grow scales and forked tongues? Would the taint of the Snake run free through them all?

Grosh knew there were ways of deflecting or redirecting Mana but their maintenance and cost required a grand Mage. Even then... it was not perfect.

The only way to escape Mana was to have more Mana than the outside threat or run far away.

Grosh did not want to doubt his people but a Dungeon would only grow.

Would they too become like the bird folk of the Errant Mountain? The Dungeon there had warped them all and they welcomed it.

The great lake of the west had made the people blue. Cultures build around Dungeons as their sickly Mana changed them. But for a culture to rise, their ways had to die and Grosh would fight that until the end. They chose when to change, not when this Snake pit forced them to.

“With me,” he ordered, the group of ten or more nodded. Grosh took the lead. The most dangerous spot of a hunting group but he would hardly allow some runt to take the spot.

If there was to be bloodshed then his blood would be first. Then he would blind his foes with it.

The first few steps in were safe. They must be or the Laws would be broken. The open space before him held spires of stone with crude statues of snakes curling them. Some looked decent enough to pass as rough snakes if one squinted.

“Why did we get the snake dungeon?” a younger male grunted.

“Because it obviously grew near a pit of Cliff Winders. Eat them all up and fell in love. Now it just wants to make more of them. Dungeons do that. They fixate on whatever they eat first,” an older woman explained, a well looked after bow in her hands.

“So what if we fed it a ton of healing herbs or gold then maybe it could finally be useful,” a girl snapped. Feisty but he would need to cull that idea fast as others perked up.

“Influencing a Dungeon to change to our needs is illegal by decree of the King of the land. A Dungeon cannot be made into a desired form by the locals as it would then serve only the locals. Too many Dungeons are wasted due to being nothing more than taverns on demand or Rich Spice dens. Too many Dungeons learned how to turn even those into weapons. Then all that was left was a hole that the only reward one could get out of was a stiff drink or an illegal high,” he growled.

What a waste.

This Dungeon before them seemed to being doing it all by itself. What good were snakes to the King? Hence why if he wanted help sooner or later, Grosh would have to prove this Dungeon was worthy of the King’s attention more than any other.

Any treasure... any hint of something more than snakes. Then he could get the noble bastards down here and let them deal with it. 6 months of ‘Snakes are just the beginning. Have Patience’ by the Tax Collector.

The blasted man hadn’t even bothered to tour the Dungeon like he was supposed to! Just snakes... that’s all he wrote on that clipboard.

But there had been nothing but snakes in the short skirmishes they had done.

Which is why now Grosh was going to dive deeper than ever before. The other scouts had seen a boss room being prepared and today... they had seen the door.

A boss had arrived.

He could only guess what it would be.

But the Boss was secondary to a full mapping. The most important thing was finding anything else that could raise this Dungeon’s value from a measly ‘Monster Den’ to ‘Something worth all the blasted snakes’.

He took a few more steps into the sole corridor leading in from the entrance.

“Loose pit ahead to the left. Sounds likes it’s filled with snakes,” Jorna said quietly. Grosh didn’t need this at his back. He readied his spear and gave the woman near the back who held potions and vials around her hip with a belt. Canu the Alchemist was the closest they had to a proper healer in the village.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Taking her in here was showing how desperate Grosh really was...

She threw a bubbling bottle at the pit and fire erupted, the shadowy forms of writhing snakes burning up. He shuddered as the fires showed holes, not in the floor but little rat tunnels all along each side of the wall. So many tiny little pock marks to hide a snake.

Even the ceiling held these holes.

“It’s a clever beasty. It knows how to really use snakes and our fear of them,” Jorna huffed. She reached down and used a wrapped stick to scoop up some of the lingering fire to make a torch. This Dungeon had no intention of making any light for itself. For Snakes, the dark held no danger.

“I t-thought Dungeons could only use so many monsters!” the young man, Hewn, cried. Jorna nudged the crumbling snake.

“These ain’t monsters. Just critters. Lot less limits on these and it looks like they got some pretty sharp fangs. If there aren’t any monsters in here... that’s a lot of snakes,” she mused. Hewn looked around, his sword shaking slightly.

“Hundred or a thousand. We’ll behead them all. Onwards,” Grosh growled and move on. No hole moved and no hole made even a whisper.

It was like the Dungeon had gone silent. It wasn’t use to this many people or fire.

Grosh had a feeling this place had grown comfortable as a dangerous being. It had not expected the ‘things from outside’ to use fire or present an actual threat to it. Grosh wondered if it had ever lost any snakes before.

If it just spoke or did something then Grosh could have… negotiated. Worked something out but this Dungeon’s mindset was to devour and coil, and far too shallow to have anything resembling human thought. How could a man argue with such an alien mind without it even wanting to try?

It was folly and he was reduced to mapping this area for the damned lazy Taxman.

The first room was oddly devoid of holes or snakes. Jorna choked as the walls instead had long extended curved spikes. The walls bulging as if giant snakes were trying to burst through.

“It’s an artist,” Grosh said bluntly and walked past them. Jorna watched them all with a careful eye but the room was nothing more than a place the Dungeon played in.

So far the space was straight. One room after the other. Grosh would miss this when it understood bending them into different paths and making them choose between them would double their time spent and wasted here.

Hewn moaned as he saw a thin bridge ahead in the next room. It went straight like the path but below was dark water that dozens of tiny forms slithered in.

“Cliff Winders hate water,” Jorna reminded Grosh as if he was a new hunter of the day group and not the Hunter.

“Yet, these snakes are green not red. The Dungeon is learning how to make new types. For a Critter it isn’t the worst but... doesn’t bode well for us having a clever Dungeon on our hands,” he frowned and cleared his throat.

“So keep steady and don’t fall in,” he ordered and took the bridge first. It supported his weight and it only had enough space for one person to walk across. He made it across. Jorna fired an arrow with a tight rope. Grosh grabbed it where it spiked into the wall. He tied it carefully around a stalagmite and watched Jorna tie the other end securely on her side giving the rest a secure balancing rope to use.

Not so much for coming across but just in case they had to leave very carefully.

The snakes hissed angrily all at once. They didn’t seem to like the rope nor their use of it to circumvent the bridge.

“Just because we have to play along doesn’t mean we have to do it like fools,” Grosh muttered at the red eyes of the demons. Most likely, it was the Dungeon that was being annoyed. No matter how basic of a mind it may possess... No one liked to think they were clever and then got proven wrong.

One they were all across, Grosh almost appreciated the Dungeon’s single minded focus on Snakes. No monsters made this place dangerous but also not as bad as it could have been.

The next room was a ‘nest’ so to speak. The biggest number of snakes yet covered the floor and walls before a mighty scale-covered door. Canu threw more bottles and fire erupted. Oils spread their fire quickly. Snakes burned by the dozen. The fumes not healthy in a cave but they all retreated to the water room and idly chopped or shot at any snake that slithered up the tunnel.

Once the air was semi-decent to breathe, they braved the room slowly.

Hewn carefully seemed to grow more confident as more snake bodies crumbled around his feet. He grinned and looked around.

“This Dungeon isn’t so bad. Maybe we can find a way to harvest the snake skins? Can’t healers make powerful antidotes with venom of a snake?” he asked brightly. Grosh ignored the question and Canu hummed.

“Depends. Some venoms are too toxic to really work well. But snakes are hardly a unified or simple species. Even if I did milk a snake, the substance wouldn’t last too long outside the dungeon. I would need a drop or some treasure to give the substance a lasting effect,” Canu said quietly.

“We kill a lot of snakes, yet to see anything drop,” Jorna commented to the group.

“Critters don’t often have the potential for treasure. Monsters usually do the lifting in that area,” Grosh said calmly. Hewn scowled.

“So this Dungeon ripped another potential to help our village out of our hands. I hate this place,” he complained and leaned against the wall like the arrogant youth he was.

Grosh saw it before he could react.

The dark grey wall suddenly moved and a grey stone snake that had been biding its time lashed out and bit Hewn on the neck.

The woman beside him pierced the snake with a well aimed arrow. Hewn screamed as he fell.

“It burns! It burns!” he moaned. Grosh dragged him by his feet to the centre of the room as Canu bet down to take a look.

“Stop panicking. Let me see!” she snapped and Jorna grabbed Hewn’s arms to help. The blood leaked out of his neck. Canu stripped a bandage and sighed.

“The wound leaked the venom out on its own. Blood is clean. He’s just being dramatic,” she sighed and Hewn shivered as she pressed a balm into the wound as she wrapped it up.

“Hewn, don’t touch anything. I swear to the Horned Wolf I will remove your hands myself,” Grosh warned. He didn’t need more people dead. Hewn was barely of age to join this trip and only because he damn well begged Grosh for a week straight.

Honestly, the kids tenacity wasn’t bad. Shame he was a bit better suited raising bees or helping plants grow. Fine professions but being a Hunter had its lure to the young ones.

Hewn nodded weakly and Canu helped him stand. Her medical skills a secondary gift to her love of crafting magical potions. The boy would need to leave soon but they would do it together as a group. Splitting up was a fool’s choice at this point.

“Cliff Winders. Water snakes, and now these rock snakes. More than I hoped but not as bad as I feared,” Grosh muttered. He still didn’t see anything worth it in this cave beyond snakes. How can one Dungeon be so obsessed over one thing?

Weren't these places supposed to be filled with treasure and lures?

Why did his village have to be cursed with the only Dungeon that made death?

He pushed open the door. The heavy thing was covered in rippling snake skin. Smooth and sleek as his hand pushed on it.

The space beyond showed that Grosh had it all wrong.

The Boss room was like an ancient ruin. Made of rough stone and covered in long fallen pillars and ruin. Many deep holes had been made in the walls and floors that led to who knew where.

The ceiling draped down with long vines that made the place feel old but not dead. From the middle of the ceiling a large White snake slowly lowered itself down, fangs exposed. The liquid that dribbled down from the fangs hit stone and hissed violently.

But Grosh couldn’t focus on that entirely. His eyes were drawn beyond. To the end of the room.

Because on the far side of the room two important things were visible. The back was was like a shrine. Clear cut stone steps lead up to an altar with a ten-headed snake statue leering down at the person who would pray there.

The simple table made of stone took up all the space.

One, was the Dungeon Core. It had yet to make a room for itself beyond the Boss room. It sat inside an oddly large golden chalice. The chalice was a beautiful thing with curving depictions of a snake devouring the sun stamped into its side.

Even from here... Grosh could feel the magic coming off it.

The core sat in the chalice like an egg in a cup. The Dungeon Core had not found a pit of Cliff Winders as it’s first meal.

It had devoured... become one with this magical object that must have been buried here by Grosh’s ancestors. A magical item that the core used as it’s pedestal.

The Magical item had in turn slowly merged into the core, becoming one with it.

This explained a lot. It also gave Grosh a mad smile as he saw now how he would save this village.

First, he had a to kill the large White Snake. It’s form diving into a nearby tunnel to play the ambush game with them. Snakes were all the same.

His village had hope. Cores with access to old magical items were of great worth to the kingdom.

Whatever this chalice was... it was now a symbol of hope.

If... they made it out alive.

Grosh raised his spear and leapt forward, the Hunter blood flowing through him.

Fire and venom rained down. The young were wounded and the old fought.

But as the sun set... he was home.

He was grinning like a wild beast at his shocked wife.

“Get the PeaceKeeper... he needs to get the Taxman here so I can rub his smug face in this,” he ordered. Holding up a vial of a dark golden liquid he had collected from the Chalice of the Core. Canu had almost wet herself when she studied it. He grinned as Hewn swing his new Serpent Sword, the tip hissing ever so slightly.

The Village of Woodedly would survive. The Snakes had made it so. The Chalice of the Snakes had the answer!

Grosh watched as his people cheered and even the growls of distant monsters could not dampen the spirit of the Hunters that night.

67: Keys and Doors

Delta watched as step one of the ‘plan’ was formed. The tunnel to Wyin groaned as three large stone doors formed. The thick stone sapped a lot of her Mana but Delta felt pleased as the thickness of the stone promised no one could punch through unless they were from Durence.

They were almost faceless but the System wouldn’t allow Delta to simply seal the tunnel off and have no way to clear it within human limits...

In the middle of all three doors was a simple keyhole. Devina held out a similar stone key and slid it into the first lock. The key went all the way in. She stood back as the door slid down, taking the key with it. A nimble enough person might be able to snatch it back... Delta would have to add some sort of twist or catch to the door. The first door slid down to simply reveal another stone door. Frustrating but Delta was sure people would accept it if they were used to Dungeons.

Besides, the keys were more easily found after the next step in the ‘plan’.

With a command, she brought the door back up and Devina took the key back.

I still think it’s too much of a hint. Let them wander... information will spread before we can stop it anyway.

Delta shook her head.

“No, best to make sure we give everyone a fair shake and therefore nobody should go crazy and try to murder Bob or the frogs for keys,” she replied. Devina merely looked calm as she cut in.

“We are not defenseless,” she reminded Delta.

“Yeah but doesn’t mean I want someone trying to gut you every moment of every day,” Delta disagreed. She moved forward and adjusted her tie.

“Besides, you’re the wandering guide that trades information for people’s valuables,” Delta commented dryly. Devina smiled pleasantly.

“Just enough to set them on the right path,” she agreed. Delta closed her eyes and with a little push of Mana the surface of the stone door before her crumbled to show two images. A simplistic carving in the rock showed a bee sampling a flower and on the other side the picture of a deep pool behind a waterfall.

Lizzie and Bob. The key to the first door could be found at either. Below she scribed a simple sentence.

Face the nest of sweet but take none. Dive deep where there is no sun. One key will open the way but if it is covered in blood you will be facing the Lady of the forest this day.

Poetic. You know idiots will think they have to wash the key and not that they ‘don’t kill’, right? Perhaps we should add a clear warning in big words?

“Sarcasm isn’t handy. This is your idea and sort of mine. You wanted things to be interesting so I’m making a theme. Now onto the second! I like making rhymes like I’m some ancient elvish doormaker...” Delta grinned and the first door lowered at her command. She turned to Devina.

“Here, take this and the other key to the Bee nest and Bob’s pool. Explain what they have to do. I won’t be long and Nu will bind them later,” Delta promised Devina as she formed a second key that was already tuned to the first Door.

She’d call it the Door of the Wild.

The next door had her thinking. Now, this needed a bit more of a personal touch. The stone shaved away from the surface of the second door to form her next two images. Two faces, one keyhole. Delta stood back to admire her work as the faces of Luna and Giant appeared. They both had an ‘area’ so to speak of. She would have to add a challenge to the hot springs but Giant was easy enough.

Rest your weary soul in the peaceful spring. Face the giant on the bridge, challenge his mighty swing. A test of trust and a test of skill but be warned let there be no blood drawn in lust. The thorns are watching.

A bit long but she would be worried some might take ‘challenge’ as some permission to kill Giant if they knocked him off the bridge. Having already made a single key for each door, Delta formed the second key as she called Luna and Giant. Their beings flickered into awareness at her call.

Luna was a flickering light of energy while Giant was more akin to a calm candle.

Delta named the second door quickly in her head. The Door of the People

Delta eyed her screen and was glad to see she had just enough Mana to finish the last door... if she didn’t go overboard with the carving.

Nu had convinced her of this one but Delta was really not sure it was a good idea. The stone shivered as Delta worked on the images. Before long a series of tiny Pygmy mushrooms looked out from the door and next to them, a circus tent.
Delta felt a little uneasy sending people after the little folks but Nu assured her that they were quick on their feet. Delta guessed that being last, the adventurers might be more tired...

She got to work on the message.

The last door needs the final key. Seek the little ones in the dark. Look up in awe at the ringleader’s park. The key will be found at the heart of their room. Seek not their end or you invite your doom

Dramatic. I like it. Maybe add a line about their spleens and eyeballs? Hmm... no that would be too gauche. Now we need to drop these keys off... and step 3 will begin.

Nu’s excitement was a little infectious but it wasn’t like Delta wasn’t feeling the same. As it was now, getting the keys from the Pygmies and Renny would be...rather quick if they managed to remain polite to the Mime, unless he decided to put on a show of course.

Both areas were in need of some improvements.

Delta looked around and wondered where Hob and Gob where? They usually did not to take that long gathering thing...

---

The spider smashed a fallen log out of its way as the goblins ran for their lives back to the ‘clear’ zone.

“Spiders...big...now!” Hob grunted as the monster behind them chased them with rampant rage.

Gob just ran faster.

They had beaten one spider with ease since it was only the size of a pig but the gobs soon learned they had merely met the new breed of ‘children’.

The spider abruptly stopped, dirt flying everywhere as its legs dug in deeply to halt its movement. The goblins kept running for a bit but then turned to see the spider hesitate before it twitched. It moved forward a step before it was almost yanked back.

It quickly ran back into the deep shadows of the trees.

“Weird. Spider didn’t care before,” Hob itched his sweaty nose.

“Spiders are weird bugs. But big now,” Gob agreed. Looking around, they weren’t too far from the path to the village and even closer to home.

“Maybe Delta scared it off?” Gob mused as he headed towards the Dungeon.

“Maybe scary humans in village?” Hob added.

“We tell Delta that we need bigger pointy things or booms to go deeper,” Gob stated. Hob shook his head.

“Wish Cois could come. This would be easier with fire...” he sighed as he turned the puzzle on the door to the right place.

---

The spider returned to the deep webbed heart of the forest as it quickly hurried to where it was directed.

High above in a round cocoon of deep blood red web, a voice sounded out.

“Not the right time. Dig... dig... We shall feast soon. My children, the culling will start as the sun goes down. The weak here will perish and make room for the strong. Devour the weak and make to my side... my children. Eat and grow,” the voice commanded and it was followed by wet tearing noises. A weak one had been found.

Their numbers dropped but their power rose.

The spider quickly dived deep into the rough tunnel that had been carved. The mutants that had formed potent venom to melt the stone, but not flesh, worked until they died.

Such is the way. The strong survive and the new breed would gather strength quicker than the old.

He attached his silk to the hollowed out animal used as a cart for the dirt to be carried out.

Dig... dig... dig...

---

“Spiders? Didn’t they vanish?” Delta blinked, thinking back to the monsters that had broken in a long time ago.

“Neary ate us. They’re hiding good things in the deep woods!” Hob promised. Gob nodded enthusiastically in agreement. That was a problem. A lot of her Mana came from her two gobs returning every so often with things.

If they said they had to go deeper because they were running out of things to discover... Well, Delta had no problem trying to fix that.

She opened both their menus. There wasn’t straight up upgrades per say but there were some options she could give them.

Hob: Goblin/Contracted Monster

Gob: Goblin/Contracted Monster

Both were pretty simple with the items they had equipped. Basic wooden armor and wooden weapons.

She could get them better equipment but unlike her other monsters, she couldn’t give them passives or evolve them.

There was another set of options, however.

Gob has gathered enough experience to form the Bandit class.
Bandit: A person who is apt at ambushing and using one-handed weapons to deliver heavy blows. Their talent at moving through the wilds gives this unit increased fighting abilities when outside a city or near a road.

Delta quickly checked on Hob.

Hob has gathered enough experience to form the Scout class.
Scout: This unit has increased tracking and stealth skills. They excel at ranged weapons like archers but also gain skill in daggers. When exploring, they are more aware of their surroundings.

Jobs! Her contracted monsters had gotten jobs instead of evolving! Delta saw each one cost 20 DP which wasn’t bad so to speak.

Could Delta do this for all her contracted monsters? Could she upgrade Renny’s class?

Questions for later!

She purchased both upgrades and her goblins blinked at the screens before them. Both gave each other a grin before they hit yes on their screens.

They glowed slightly but they didn’t change in any noticeable way.

“Are you guys alright?” Delta asked. Hob blinked at himself.

“I know how to use bow and arrow and knife better,” he nodded. Gob looked pleased.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“I knows how to best smash head in!” he bragged before he coughed politely at Delta’s deadpan expression.

Luckily, Delta could spend some DP to form items she had never made before.

She formed a simple steel helmet and sturdy leather vest for Hob before conjuring up a basic bow and quiver for him. She imagined a crossbow might be a bit unwieldy when trying to move quickly and needing to stop and reload.

She gave him a cheap looking serrated dagger to sit at his hip.

Honestly, Delta really did feel like an Elf Queen right now. Giving out gifts to small people about to go fight giant spiders.

For Gob, she gave him a similar helmet and a crude brigandine that exposed his arms. In one hand he now carried a simple wooden shield with a metal border and in the other a large club with an iron capped head.

Her DP dinked down but she didn’t mind if it kept her two goblins safe.

“You know how to use them?” Delta asked with a smile. There was a confidence in them that they lacked before.

“Yeah! I’ll bring you tons of spiders,” Hob promised. Gob slapped the metal club a few times against his leg.

“I’ll bring you spider smears!” he grinned.

Delta watched as they ran back outside, armed with their new equipment and Jobs.

She wondered, if unlike evolution, they would simply get better on their own due to the power of jobs? Could Delta evolve their jobs once they hit some limit to their skills?

It was an interesting idea and one she would have to watch out for. Until she could ask Ruli or Quiss for the details.

She took a peek at Waddles a few seconds later and peered at his menu.

Waddles: Dark Drake/Contracted Monster.

This creature has enough experience to gain a job.
Would you like to pay 1500 DP for the Overlord job?

Delta shakily closed the menu and backed away from a staring duck.

“You go back to sleep... and stay unemployed...please,” Delta said nervously.

“Quack.”

---

The Key of the Bees was set at the very top, inside where the flowing honey was made. The key had taken on a golden sheen, oddly enough, as Lizzie the Queen accepted her role as a key guardian.

“So, swarm but don’t sting unless they get nasty. If they can climb up the honey coated rock and reach in without fear, that’s a pass. They try to smoke you or something then scare them off,” Delta explained, happy to throw herself back into work and forget about the potential Overlord Duck business.

The Queen merely nodded.

Delta grinned and floated slightly away.

She opened two menus. One for Lizzie and one for the area.

Lizzie: Red Jungle Bee Queen/Key Guardian

The Queen of the hive. This Queen makes sure her hive thrives and her children grow.

Upgrades:

Honey is produced at double the speed. 15 DP
The Queen can now produce rare specialised species of the Red Bee. 20 DP
The Sting of the Queen now induces a fever. 15 DP
The Queen can produce a rare golden honey drop that can boost the Mana of anyone who consumes it. 30 DP

Lizzie had some great upgrades. Delta only had about 67 DP left but it was tempting to try and get some of the upgrades but she held on to her points until she checked the next menu.

Red Jungle Bee Hive:
A large stone pillar in which the Red Bees live in service to their queen.

Upgrades:

The honey acts a painkiller and is now extra nutritious. 12 DP
Grey Bees can now be bred. These bees can form stone like liquid that will harden and extend the nest. 25 DP
Princess Bees can be formed to make their own hives. The current Queen will control all princesses from afar. 30 DP

There was some synergy here... Delta could see how the honey becoming better slotted nicely into the Queen producing it at the double the speed.

Delta purchased both upgrades which left with about... 40 DP. Nodding, she also got the ability for Lizzie to make rare specialized bees. Leaving her with 20 DP.

Having more options was good! With Gob and Hob ready to take on tougher foes, she was sure her Mana and DP was gonna explode soon! Plus, if the honey lasted a few days outside then she could get an in on the honey market. Maybe Mrs. Dabberghast would help her sell it?

Noland’s words were still fresh in her mind.

Become valuable. Produce rare items and the Kingdom would be open to hearing her requests. If they knew she was willing to keep producing items of all sorts... then maybe she could request peaceful interactions.

Or at least make Durence stand up for her...

Wandering over to the hot springs, Delta watched as Luna painted the wooden fence that separated the spring into halves. Using crushed flowers and fruit, she used her fingers to paint a rather good attempt at a moon in the sky on one side and a rising sun on the other.

Delta looked about as Luna carefully made her way out the spring and shook herself off.

“If you’re looking for the key, I stuffed it between two of the fire crystals. Not really anywhere else to put it,” Luna said brightly. Delta looked at her art.

“You’re very good at that!” she praised. Luna shrugged.

“You made my world... not exactly impressive when compared to my doodle on the fence,” Luna disagree politely and Delta gave her a long look.

“I’ll get you some painting things soon,” she informed the young frog who opened her mouth to argue before Delta grinned.

“I know what it feels like to be stuck here with nothing to do,” Delta replied kindly. Luna shook her head.

“I would never complain about home and-” Luna was cut off as Delta gently hugged her.

“You’re allowed to. That’s the beauty of it,” she smiled softly. Luna frowned.

“But every inch of me screams that I shouldn’t. I had impulses to stop talking and bow... I have the urge to simply nod and agree with you,” Luna looked away as if lost. Delta merely shrugged.

“Then here is an order for you. Ignore those voices and be yourself. That should give you all the permission you need,” Delta bent down to open the menu.

“Be...Luna,” the frog whispered to herself.

Hot springs:
A small secluded area where peaceful steam invites the tired to rest.

Upgrades:
Increase the healing properties of the water, minor injuries can be treated with a session. 20 DP
Surround the spring with Bamboo to create more ambiance. 15 DP
Let the water cure weak status-effects. 30 DP *unlocked by Weak antidote*
Double the size of the hot spring: 15 DP
Allow Monster ‘Luna’ to become Keeper of the Spring. Keeper of the Spring will gain powers around the spring and be able to adjust the spring’s properties slightly. 20 DP

That was... perfect.

“Luna? Want to become the Hot Spring Keeper and own the place?” she asked casually.

“What are the hours like?” came a cheeky reply.

“Neverending, I would assume, but the breaks are great,” Delta promised cheerfully. Luna nodded and Delta got the upgrade.

Luna’s change from simply dressed frog girl to what appeared made Delta’s jaw dropped.

The simple cloth wraps gone and in their place, a lavish purple robe, almost like a kimono hugged Luna’s frame, the fabric decorated with symbols of stars and half moons. Luna still lacked hair as a frog but her eyes and face looked more... feminine.

“Luna... you look... great!” Delta beamed.

“Did you know that there 56 ways to kill a man in a hot spring. 82 if I use both hands,” Luna greeted cheerfully. Delta’ smile twitched but she held on strong.

“Great! How do you feel as a keeper?” she inquired excitedly. Luna gave the robe a long look and then lifted it up slightly to show off very black boots with what Delta guessed was actual stilettos for heels.

“I like it. I feel... elegant. Yeah, that’s the word. Elegant,” she smirked as her black shoes were once again hidden under the robe of grace and delicacy.

Delta supposed it could be worse. Usually, when things like this happened, she ended up screaming or crying or both.

Luna clicked her fingers and the key slowly rose to the surface of the water when she neatly pocketed it. Delta noticed the stone key looked smaller and had a purple string looped through it now.

Delta was about to comment on how cute it was when something floated past her face.

It was a bee.

But this wasn’t like the other bees Delta had in her jungle. No, the Queen had apparently gotten lucky in her first new batch of children.

This Bee was...a monster.

Luna whistled.

“I’d be scared but it's awesome,” she said and Delta slowly backed away from the Supermajor Bee that was the size of her head. The oversized head it possessed looked at her, mandibles slowly closing. The wings beat fast, almost a blur. The body curved down like a dagger until it came to the stinger which was the size of her pinkie.

Delta knew that thing wasn’t falling off after one use.

It moved closer to her, its hulking form slower if not more threatening.

“You alright? Mum? You’re kinda white and since you’re orange, that’s saying a lot,” Luna’s voice was so distant. So far away.

The bee opened its wings and legs to their full width as if showing off.

There was... a gap in Delta’s memory after that but Nu found her gibbering in the Pygmy hole.

She gestured wildly at him and he merely looked pleased.

You should see what else that Bee is pumping out. You’re gonna need to increase the size of your flowers, they kind of crush whatever they try to get nectar from them. I think they’re depressed

Nu advised.

Now Delta had an image of a sad giant monster bee from hell and she became torn in her heart.

So, peeking out, she watched one of the big devils try to get nectar and the flower simply folded under it. It sat there for a long time, twitching as it tried to figure out what it had done wrong. The sight tugged hard at Delta’s sobbing heart.

No matter how devilish they looked... a sad bee was not acceptable!

Delta got to work.

68: World Wide Web

Mr Jones put the test paper down and gazed up at the collection of people in his classroom.

In one hand, he held the marked test of Deo. The boy sat at front where Jones could be completely sure there was no chance that Seth, the water mage, was helping him from afar; nor Quiss... He didn’t expect it from Seth, the man had pride, but he would almost gamble on it as a certainty with Quiss.

“Tell me, how well do you all think Deo did?” he asked lightly. The question posed was open-ended but Ruli took it as a direct question.

“Given the shit eating grin on Quiss’ face, decent?” she offered. Quiss tutted.

“Ruli, you may settle for decent but I put Deo through a tough tutoring session. I feel that he fared beyond expectations,” he announced smugly. Seth gave him a blank look.

“You cannot teach beards to fly,” he pointed out. Jones blinked but he hid the smile at the language barrier. He was getting better but the man’s butchery of the local language was rather endearing.

“Birds! Birds!” Quiss argued.

“Ducks!” Seth beamed. Quiss’ face soured.

“They take down a few lords and rule a local land for a few years and no one ever lets you forget it,” he mumbled. Jones had no sympathy. Summoning Dark Drakes from the River Tohn was just asking for trouble. Honestly, the man would be doing better just setting the poor people on fire.

If they weren’t so duck-like... even the demon king would have to contend with them over some points.

Still, he saved that for another lesson.

“Deo... how did you think you did?” he asked kindly. The boy grinned and looked so happy as he spoke.

“MR. QUISS SHOWED ME SO MUCH AND TAUGHT ME A LOT IN THE DUNGEON! I WROTE DOWN SO MUCH AND REALLY HOPE YOU’RE PROUD OF ME! I’M GOING BACK TOMORROW TO DO MORE STUDYING AND I’LL BRING HOMEWORK ON WHAT I FIND!” he said as his eyes lit up.

Jones eyed the thirty pages of what should have been a six page test at most. The boy certainly hadn’t lacked answers. Jones also decided not to bring up that it was he who set the homework...

It was choosing one's battles that got them through the day.

He was about to speak when Deo carried on.

“I THINK I NEVER HAD SO MUCH FUN LEARNING! I HOPE RULI CAN SHOW ME MORE AND I WANT TO TAKE POPPY AND AMANSTER NEXT TIME!” he grinned and gathered his pencils as if to make sure he had enough resources for his self-assigned task.

Jones put the paper down and sighed heavily. The room grew tense.

“Ruli... you may leave. Mr. Brawndo has passed with flying colours. I will uphold my end of the deal,” he smiled as if a little annoyed at the outcome but not enough to raise a fuss. Ruli hollered and stood up, grabbing Seth, kissing him hard before she threw him over a desk. Quiss snorted.

“Grateful, are you-” he began but Ruli did the same to him a moment later. She cheered and threw Quiss out a window in her excitement. The window allowed the world outside to be shown and Ruli hopped through it. She hollered and yelled with joy as she ran away from the schoolhouse.

“I was just stabbed by lady of power...” Seth touched his lips, cheeks a flushed pink. Deo blinked.

“RULI SHOULD HAVE ASKED IF YOU WANTED A KISS! IT’S NOT RIGHT TO KISS PEOPLE UNLESS THEY SAY YES! I HAVE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH THAT,” he nodded seriously. Jones merely watched the scene with a light amusement.

“Deo, you may go home. Seth, you may go... do whatever you wish,” he ushered the two out of his room and closed the door, waving gently at Deo’s bright smile and promise of seeing him tomorrow.

Such a good boy. Jones wandered over to his desk and flipped Deo’s test over and eyed the bright red ‘2/100’. The boy had ignored the questions and just written down what he had learned in the Dungeon. Pages and pages of rambling notes and theories on what Delta the Dungeon Core might make next or why she made what she did.

But each word... every word leaked a joy of learning this knowledge. Seeing Deo’s face when he couldn’t wait to learn more? As a teacher, it was a little amusing and frustrating. As a Demon of Knowledge? It was a gift. To see knowledge so enjoyed, so valued on its own merit in sheer childish enjoyment? Jones would be unable to accept anything less than a pass.

Still, he won’t be able to go for a drink anytime soon. Seeing Quiss’ smug expression would be a little to much, but maybe he could see this Dungeon? He suspected this was the true source of Deo’s curiosity...

He breathed deeply as he felt his pressure to teach Ruli eased. Her knowledge of Dungeons would help Deo along his path. He need not teach her anymore. She had ‘graduated’ by proxy. How odd. How very much like Ruli...

He opened the drawer and took out a bottle of deep amber liquid. The bottle had ribbons of a deep dark metal woven around it like a skeletal system. He pulled at the top of the bottle, a deep crystal stone cork, before he drank deeply as a yellow post-it note floated to the floor.

On it simply read ‘Drink to Deo’s success’.

There was never any doubt on the success. Just a matter of when.

---

Quiss watched as Ruli downed another mug of frothy ale. The froth gave her an elegant moustache. She sighed with deep pleasure.

“I love being an adult. I can get wasted and no one will give a damn!” she cheered as Seth sipped his small glass of exotic spring water with spirits infused in it. Quiss took his time with his own ale.

“Not entirely true.” Quiss stated with a glare but Ruli dutifully ignored him like always. No one ruins her buzz.

“So I felt like I was gone for like a week, what did I miss?” Ruli asked. Quiss thought on it.

“Me, Dabberghast, Deo, and his mother, all went on an adventure as we had to escort a Taxman about. We saw the full second floor and discovered a secret boss. There are also another bunch of unique and upgraded monsters,” Quiss summed up as the bartender brought another round. He looked sour.

“Really?! Second floor eh? What’s wrong with you eh?” she jabbed a finger at the tender. He growled.

“There is another pub nearby... I can sense it,” he stomped away. All three of them blinked.

“That’s a weird magic power. Imagine living in a big city if you can sense how many blokes pour a pint?” Ruli huffed. Seth looked pained.

“Like having many swords in my nose,” he agreed.

“That guy is the only pub in this town. I always wondered why...” Quiss trailed off before Ruli nudged him.

“So, what’s the second floor boss? Is it a frog? A bee? A giant Mime?!” she giggled as she drank more. Quiss brought up the memory.

“It’s a weirdly sexy tree,” he summed up. Seth and Ruli gave him a long look.

“Imma going need you to explain that,” Ruli stated bluntly as she pushed her hair back so she could lean on the table. Quiss gave her a huff in annoyance.

“A female tree with curves and a personality of a murderer. It’s the most dungeon thing Delta has ever made to date. Not like dryads, this thing is the actual tree,” he tried to explained. Ruli thought about it.

“Like Crushing Cypruses or Rough Rowens? But with, ya know...” Ruli jiggled her body and both men looked away, not taking the bait.

“It’s something you have to experience. I bet you’re heading there before long. Just... we saw something in the waterfall. Something huge...” Quiss’ eyes went distant.

“How bad could it be?” Ruli dismissed. Quiss stared right into her eyes.

“It made Dabberghast excited.”

Ruli’s wooden mug cracked as she gripped it.

“Something... in the water made...Holly...excited?” Ruli repeated and she began to chuckle as she drank her ale from the new crack at the bottom. The deranged look that Ruli sometimes got when her demon blood got boiling appeared and Seth inched slightly away.

“I can see it now. Delta bans everyone. Ruli is never seen again as she refuses to leave...” Quiss mused, almost hopeful.

Seth looked between them and snorted.

“Who needs unfriends when I have people of love like you...” he sighed.

---

“Try now,” Delta coached. The large monster of a bee settled on the even larger flower. There was a moment of held breath before it settled without breaking. Delta cheered and then stilled as her new plant shifted. The problem of trying to super mutate a plant was not without consequences.

Blooming Rence has been exposed to large amounts of Mana and evolved into ‘Vase Plant’!

The flower was a weird one. It actually drew earth up through its roots and formed a central stone pillar for the plant to crawl up. It was a weird reversal as the plant held the solid material like a leafy vase. The rock barely peeking over the rim of the plant’s highest point as greyish liquid turned solid, forming more of the stone center.

Delta was pleased, however. It didn’t have teeth nor did it have thorny vines to assault people in their sleep. That was her main worry done and gone. Now if it just stopped trying to grow into a large spire that matched the Bee spires...

It works. The large bees will be able to gather more as it grows.

As Nu pointed that out Delta frowned.

“It’s still dangerous. It has some weird acid that melts rock and dirt... like if someone hacks at it, it might rain over people, but this was just my first attempt!” she had to remind herself. At least the bees weren’t sad anymore! She’d set up a warning sign for plants in a little bit.

She looked up at something... as her Gobs returned.

Flying to the entrance, she watched with growing horror as her goblins brought a huge spider through the entrance. It dissolved immediately but... Delta could only watch as her goblins rushed out and get another one they killed.

Her mana and DP skyrocketed. Her Goblins looked to her with wide smirks.

“You guys did great! You didn’t take any bad risks, right?” she demanded but both her gobs looked confident.

“Spiders were easy! We trapped them with Hob tracking and I broke the legs off!” Gob guffawed. Delta nodded as she watched them praise each other.

So the spiders weren’t smart, or at least the lowest spider soldiers were still animalistic as far as Delta knew. Her Mana and DP had shot up 20 a piece on those spiders! She blinked at the number.

The last spiders did not garner nearly as many points. Had they changed since she had last seen them? Or had Delta’s goblins actually found spiders of a higher order without noticing?

“Great work guys! This really helps! I’ll tell Fera to give you both free drinks for the night!” she clapped her hands and smiled as her goblins cheered loudly.

They rushed off and Fera sent her a disgusted feeling but accepted the free drink order. Fera liked to hear the clink of coin... the clunk of mushrooms... the swooshing of webs... Overall, Fera liked making money even when it was technically not money.

Delta hoped to get Maestro to put good music in the place soon. He just needed time to go through Delta’s large library of... acquired tastes.

Delta had enough of Butterflies for an hour. It was a good song to grind a highscore to, but hearing it over and over as maestro begged for a machine like the one in her head was just soul crushing. The idea of Maestro forcing poor adventurers on DDR machines was amusing but Delta could barely make basic things let alone complex machines.

Delta grinned as she floated around the first floor and blinked as she found herself in the mushroom grove, watching as Boary snoozed away the day. She hadn’t been in the mushroom grove for so long...

She smiled and opened the room’s menu.

Mushrooms:

- Produce

- Gutrot Mushrooms: 9 mana

- Crunchy Mushroom: 2 Mana. A slightly odd mushroom that, while not all that good, can provide some nutrition. Leaves an aftertaste that lingers.

- Lumen Mushrooms: 1 Mana

- Bloodcurdling Mushroom: This mushroom has moved down a level and evolved due to the mana strain. If devoured, the eater will suffer body convulsions, sweat, visions, and some other minor things. This will render them bedridden for a day or so but at least this variety is no longer hazardous to burn, still foul though. Is not fatal unless they keep eating them for some reason but people can be that unpredictable. (jungle)

- Starlight Mushroom: A mushroom of guidance and light that gives comfort to travellers. A unique mushroom never seen before.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

- Develop

- Develop mushrooms with weak hallucinogenic properties: 6 DP

- Develop mushrooms with deadlier poison: 44 DP

- Develop a tastier and more nourishing mushroom: 10 DP

- Develop mushrooms that grant restful sleep: 10 DP (unlocked with Sand Elf dust)

- Develop a herbal mushroom that grants a low-level healing effect to those who eat it: 15 DP (Unlocked by Wyin Tree)

- Develop a mushroom that gives people a warm cheer in their stomach and makes them drunk: 20 DP (Unlocked with Goblin Tavern)

- Make a mushroom that makes Mana regen faster: 20 DP

- Develop a mushroom that causes aggression to be lowered: 15 DP (Unlocked due to nature of Dungeon)

- Develop a Mushroom of fire that burns those who eat it or can be used as a firestarter: 20 DP

Delta blinked at the growing list of new mushrooms. Sure, it had been awhile since she had poked her nose in here but the sheer amount of new mushrooms was making her feel like she should be popping in more often.

Combined with some minor things that Hob and Gob also managed to find Delta was well off with Mana and DP.

Mana: 55
DP: 52

Delta knew she should wait before spending all her DP but some of these were really good! The sheer rate that the other mushrooms spread meant that Delta might not have to purchase them in bulk for them to be found in bountiful amounts.

Delta tried to reason out the the pros and cons of the new ones. She was still not pleased about the magical mushroom or the deadly one. The tasty mushroom was nice along with the restful mushroom.

If they were cooked together... would it be the perfect supper soup?! Delta swallowed her drool and focused. She wouldn’t mind eating something, anything... even mushrooms.

A healing mushroom was good. If people understood the use then they could farm them and show the world that Delta made nice mushrooms, not just gutrot and Bloodcurdling ones. She had a feeling that having drunk adventurers might be a bad idea but...

Fera could harvest them for her brews. Mushroom beer. Delta hoped no little folk would find her dungeon... she didn’t have enough mushrooms if they got hungry. A mild peace making mushroom sounded cute! Delta also decided she did not want a firestarter mushroom when most of her floors were made of wood and green things.

Delta mused for a second longer before she purchased the tasty mushroom and the herbal one.

The Tasty Mushroom has been created!
The Shimmering Mushroom has been created!

Delta watched as two mushrooms burst from the soil of the Mushroom Grove. The first must be the Tasty Mushroom. It was a mushroom with a white cap with what looked like natural pepper on the skin. The tiny black powder was actually pigment but it made the thing look enticing rather than off-putting. The stalk was a pale yellow and a slight slickness made it look buttery.

The other one had a more esoteric design. The fungus pulsed with a soft green light. The cap looked more like woven threads of a fine cloth than any spongy material. At the edge of the cap those thread hung loose and slightly shimmered in the green light, catching the eye.

Boary woke up and gave both mushrooms a long look.

“See! I can do this whole mushroom thing without it going horribly wrong!” Delta nodded to herself. Boary gave her a long look before he snapped down and swallowed both mushrooms. There was a moment where Delta gaped.

“I just... made those...” she said before Boary’s snout flared as his eyes lit up. On his back, two more mushrooms emerged join the rest. They were the mushrooms she had just made.

Boary quickly went back to sleep and Delta watched the scene with a long look.

“They’re going to grow on their own now... but... what the hell pig? At least save one for later!” she chided and paused as something peeked out from under a bush nearby.

It was a dark mushroom. Delta twitched as the Bloodcurdling Mushroom seemed to looked around it’s new home.

“They migrated...” she hissed. With some hope she waited, and sure enough a Starlight Mushroom appeared and tried to block the black mushroom from seeing the Mushroom Grove.

“I really have got to do something about them. Sys! Remind me to do something about that!” she called out and left the room, eager to spot her new mushrooms sprouting.

---

In her Sphere of existence, Sys looked at the order and blinked. She adjusted herself on the wooden chair that was her only object.

“Fix... them? Are they not working properly?” she asked herself. She pulled up the information on both mushrooms.

The screens were basic but they had an odd symbiosis going on in that when one grew, the other did as well. Delta wanted them to... not be so connected? Sys pulled a few screens around and tried to ignore the sparking screen which controlled monster templates. The window was completely orange and the data and words were now gibberish.

Sys liked it. It was different.

The new window showed they were more akin to enemy tribes fighting for supremacy than living in co-existence. Delta had brought this on herself, but Sys could fix this! She really was sure she could! She perked up and dug into the automatic-conjuration system. A minor part that waited for the clock to countdown on endlessly different projects before it produced an item.

She nudged the central control.

It acknowledged her.

“I need you to add this to the next two batches of M-2-BC and M-2-SM. Thanks.” she smiled and shut the hatch. The request was not needed. The talking was not needed. The eye to eye contact was not needed.

But... Sys wanted to try it for once. Talking to Nu was fun! Watching Delta talk to her creations and systems was fun! Sys...

It was all Sys. It was like putting hand puppets on two hands and making them talk to each other. But in the act of trying to pretend it was another being... something happened. The Central Control had held the two instructions for a moment before it gingerly did as it was told. It hesitated, tried to slot them in before it paused, and finally turned them upside down and put them into the line of processing.

Sys had not made it act confused... Sys hadn’t seen they were upside down.

Sys peered into the hatch with wide eyes and a huge smile.

Then she looked over the ‘floor’ of her space.

The hundred of thousands of hatches of different sizes and colours all briefly lit up from the darkness.

They were Sys.

But... she could always pretend for a while longer.

---

Delta stood up and frowned.

“Where are my darn mushrooms?” she asked then laughed.

“The day I ask that is the day I’ve gone loopy,” she admitted and looked at the storeroom. The shelves held random objects from her Dungeon. A small jar of honey from the bees, an empty mug from Fera’s bar, some Boar hair...

Her Storeroom had been collecting things it seemed. The challenge for Merry was still there and it reminded Delta she had so much to do!

But the second floor was so close to completion! Well the basic idea...

She had so much to experiment with and so little resources.

What do you expect when you let a Dungeon’s most common food keep walking away? We both knew this would never be easy if you chose this path. The spiders offer a good way of supplying us with energy for now. I suggest we send the gobs our more often to get the more rare types.

Delta shook her head.

“We take what they bring. They aren’t a hunting party, they can’t handle too much,” she reminded. Nu’s screen turned to her.

Delta, forgive me for being blunt but you have a party.

Delta tilted her head with a frown.

---

“Onwards! Follow Gob!” Hob pointed. Delta watched as Hob and Gob left the Dungeon with Renny in tow. In his arms, Renny carried Waddles like a loving pet.

“I just sent two goblins, a possibly evil duck, and a mime out to kill spiders...” Delta said hoarsely.

We shall grab Ruli and Deo later. Then it’s a true raid party.

“Yeah, a raid on my sanity. I just hope no one sees them. I don’t even know how to explain it,” Delta muttered.

---

Ruli held her fishing rod limply to one side as the odd party marched out of the dungeon. The Goblins sang loudly as the Mime petted the duck. They vanished into the distant woods and Ruli eyed her other hand which held the bottle of dark booze.

There was a moment’s pause before she simply shrugged and took another swig.

“Quiss’ shit is good!” she burped.

She took a few lumbering steps after the party. She liked that duck! It hung out at her pond!

“Ducky!” she called, falling flat on her face as she caught a root. She looked up and a wide grin spread over her face.

“Ducky ducky!” she laughed, face so red that she looked feverish. She got up and pushed a tree out the way as she chased after the group.

The tree fell and began to roll down the decline towards the dungeon.

“NU! THE TREE GIANTS ARE BACK!”

---

Deep in the dark woods, the darkness inside the giant web in the middle of the Spiders’ Lair paused.

It felt...uneasy.

It dismissed this as an after effect of the change. Awareness and emotions were not a welcome gift... it was just getting excited as the tunnel grew closer to completion.

---

Mila watched the distant horizon.

A carriage with some people on horses took the long winding path towards Durence.

Young. Excited. Eager... Unprepared.

It had begun. Noland would not reach the king until at least a week or so from now, but any inn or village he stayed in... the news spread.

A party had come to seek Delta’s richess. What fools...

Mila merely walked back towards her home and saw that everyone was on or watching the streets. Each watched those flickering torches grow closer.

The world they had run from had finally decided to come to them.

Well, at least things were not going to be boring. Delta alone provided ample change to the usual dynamics. She wondered how long this peaceful act would last? Until she was driven mad?

Or would she change everything?

Mila laughed and raised one hand in the direction of the Dungeon.

“Good luck, little girl. You are gonna need it,” she grinned.

The stars twinkled as if agreeing.

---

69: New Blood

Durence was a weird place with even weirder people, that was the fact of the matter. It wasn’t thought of much, not that Kemy even knew it was a place until a few days ago. Her leader, a blunt man named Delem, had.

“My Da said the place was cursed and monsters lived there. I remember it when he was teaching me the best places to hunt. I got curious but he didn’t really know too much. I was pretty sure this whole area was supposed to be Mana-Dead. Feels... pretty good so far,” he commented as they neared the town, the only light were their torches.

The gate was a simple wooden arch. No door or even any way to repel monsters. The open space made Kemy frown. Sure, magic would be good but even a damn gate would be better than nothing... were the people here so devoid of Mana that they were just waiting to die?

Ah well. The Scarlet Moon party would lend a hand to shore up any defences or handle any requests for the locals. It was their duty to be helpful in return for being given access to a new dungeon. A newborn dungeon wasn’t much, but being the first proper kingdom-sanctioned adventuring party to officially set foot in it was kind of exciting!

Kemy mused on whether they were even still alive, maybe there were a few goblins around or even a kobold? Hard to say but Kemy puffed her chest out as the mark of her Goddess glowed around her neck.

A golden hand that showed her devotion to the Goddess of Trust and Honesty. A bare hand had nothing to hide and she put on her best smile as a few locals started milling around, probably going to and from whatever late evening tasks they might have.

“Not exactly an excitable bunch, eh? We ride into town and they barely spare us a glance. Must think we’re a circus or something,” Gonga said as he looked around. He was a large man with no hair and a sizeable scar running down his face, one eye gone milky white.

Kemy gave him a look. He easily towered over most people and he looked a little disappointed. Gonga always did like attention.

He was also the group’s mage. He could split a tree in half with an axe but wanted to cast spluttering fireballs and give monsters light shocks... the group allowed it since Gonga usually ended up beating things to death with his oversized spellbook anyway...

“We may already be too late and another group is here,” the group marksman suggested. The woman had red hair and a leather outfit. The outfit had caught on every branch during their journey and caused the woman a lot of pain and irritation. But Aneya was stubborn and refused to take it off. She liked looking ‘dangerous’. Her bow skills were pretty good but Kemy had noticed during the few months since she had joined that Aneya was... competitive.

Delem shook his head.

“Hasn’t rained, unless they ran all the way here, we would have seen carriage tracks or horses at least,” he grunted and got off his horse. Aneya pursed her lips and got off as well. She walked up to a man arguing with a younger woman. The woman held a rolling pin and the man-made Kemy feel uneasy. Something about him made her necklace feel heavy.

“Velki, you can’t be a baker and a murderer of the evils of the world at the same time. I can be a banker and a badass because I am me, but it’s best not to emulate me, as it will only cause you to fail,” the man instructed.

“Pardon me, citizens of Durence. I need to know if there has been any other Adventurers coming to this... hamlet recently,” Aneya’s voice turned to a cold tone. The man paused and his head turned before his body, almost unnaturally so.

“Well, I didn’t order from the local brothel as far as I remember but I’m always happy to see my membership card is working,” the man’s grin was... Kemy worked to moved her horseback but the horse had already moved on its own. Aneya’s was shaken a bit by the man's brazen rudeness as she spluttered.

“Ex-excuse me?!” she demanded, her hand going to the knife on her waist. The man bowed.

“Von, at your service but really, we can get to the foreplay later. I haven’t been staked in so long I may need some extra oils on that blade, the old entry holes haven’t been used in a long time. Do I need to pay extra to get you to wear a nun costume? Or is your friend coming?” he asked. The woman behind him smashed the man over the head with her rolling pin.

“Oi, ‘Master’, you’re supposed to be teaching me or whatever. Do that stuff in your own time,” the woman snapped before she stormed away. The man sighed.

“Kids, once you adopt one, it expects you to actually look after it. Never have kids, you won’t fit back into that outfit, toodles!” Von, the man so elegantly dressed and with aristocrat features spoke in a manner so vulgar... Kemy felt a little shocked.

The man left them and Aneya looked furious.

“He was...not human,” Kemy hissed, her necklace very warm. The group shared a look.

“Every town has a freak or two. Ignore him. Aneya, let’s find the inn,” Delem said and led his horse deeper into town.

“Hoy there! Welcome to little Durence, haven’t seen you folks around!” Kemy turned to see a man sporting a large and friendly smile. He had some missing teeth but seemed to be a very jolly man indeed. Kemy was relieved to see he wasn’t making her necklace hot.

“Name’s Haldi, just the little ole cheesemaker of the town. Welcome, not much to see but I hope you find your feet here!” he continued.

Haldi... Haldi... that name felt... Kemy frowned, why was that name nudging something in her head.

“Thanks, maybe you can answer some questions?” Delem asked. Haldi nodded as he pulled wrapped candy of all things out of his pocket.

“Well, first have some treats,” he insisted and handed each of them a piece. Gonga looked pleased while Aneya held it like it was a rat. Gonga ate his and he blinked.

“It’s cheese. Really good cheese,” he commented. Kemy opened hers and a rich smell came out of the white ball. She smiled weakly and took a nibble.

She’d hate to upset him but if it tasted bad, she was duty bound to be honest...

The ball melted in her mouth. Kemy felt like she was somewhere far away. She floated down a warm gooey river, above the clouds made of fluffy dairy product rained shredded cheese down on her face. Her Goddess beamed down at her and threw wheels of the stuff at her like offerings.

“Oh... that... I liked that,” Kemy mumbled, drooling just a little.

“Can... I buy more?” Kemy asked. Haldi beamed. He handed her three more pieces.

“Usually I’d charge but I like you, girl. Want any more, just come visit my shop - it’s the old church!” he said and eyed Delem.

“I heard you question Von and the Miss’. No other outsiders in town aside from the local Peacekeeper’s old friend who popped in for a visit. Inn is just around the corner. Run by Madam Ghu. Nice woman but a bit stern on the payments, just remember to cough up the money and you’ll be fine!” he grinned and walked into the nearby dark building which Kemy was surprised to see was indeed a former church. Not a single holy feeling leaked off the building anymore, though...

Gonga peered at the blackboard outside.

“One cheese candy costs 500 coppers. That’s... like a months work in my town!” Gonga reared back as if slapped. Kemy looked at her pouch and considered the 1500 coppers held there. Not 1500 hundred coins of course - the kingdom had long since done away with such absurdity by using proper denominations - but still, that candy...

“He’s a scammer, nothing is worth that much in this dump!” Aneya cried and forced her candy into her mouth.

The woman went quiet and then merely urged her horse away as she turned her back on them. Kemy watched with open mouth as a few tears rolled down Aneya’s face before she pulled her hood up.

“Right... I’ll save mine,” Delem commented. Kemy followed but not before seeing the most expensive item.

Cheesecake Deluxe: 50 Gold Coins.

100 copper to a silver. 100 Silver to a gold... Kemy felt like she was looking at something she couldn’t quite wrap her head around.

---

“Rooms for four? We have hole in the wall for 20 copper a night, we have cupboard for 50, we have room under stairs for 100, we have unwanted-child-in-the-basement treatment for 150 copper-” Madam Ghu listed.

She was short, barely over 4 feet tall, and about as old as the earth itself.

“Can we have a room for like four people, with beds?” Delem asked, voice tight. Madam Ghu frowned.

“You sure? Expensive.” she warned. There was some eye sharing between the group. Kemy felt like crying as the prices kept going up.

“800 copper for good room and you can have it for the week since you’re first-time customers,” Ghu offered.

There was a pained silence as Delem handed the money over.

“Breakfast and bathrooms included,” Ghu added and led them towards the stairs. Kemy watched with amazement as she moved with agile grace.

On the first floor, they walked by large rooms with a single bed, a desk, a private bathroom, and even enchanted fireplaces.

“What are those?!” Aneya asked, face longing for the room. Ghu dismissed them with a ‘bah’ noise.

“Holes in the wall! Not worth your attention, good customers!” the woman beamed. They climbed another floor. These rooms had suites, and large book cases of what looked like rare tomes and a small food table for guests. The rugs and drapes were of very fine quality.

“Let me guess... those are cupboards?” Delem inquired, voice strangled.

“Yes, very good for storing junk and odd ends. Very little space for honored guests,” Ghu carried on. Kemy almost begged to be left here but the curiosity of what they hadrented was too much now.

The building only had two floors outside but they easily climbed another five flights.

Space magic, it had to be, and the woman had woven it so many times onto itself that Kemy was... actually getting a little afraid.

The rooms grew grander and more lovely. One even had a damn fountain and a garden!

“I heard a story about an inn so magical that it moved and never ran out of space. About an Inn run by a beautiful elven princess who enchanted all her rooms. Guests never wanted to leave... guests begged to stay until one day the list of requests grew too long and the inn was treated like a tourist attraction rather than a place of rest for the weary and it drove the elven princess to tears... the inn vanished one night soon after,” Delem commented as he looked around. Ghu merely snorted derisively.

“Girl sounds like she’s an airhead. Make magic inn, people gonna come and waste time, bah!” she replied. Kemy blinked at Delem, wondering why he brought that up.

“I visited it once when I was very small. It sort of looked like this,” Delem pushed. Ghu shrugged.

“Inn traded hands many time. I can’t say if it's the same, only that it's mine now. Well then, here is your room,” Ghu said, smiling as they finally stopped before the room.

It had a set of double doors, Ghu ran a hand down the surface in a specific spot and it clicked open to reveal what seemed like the entrance to some lord's mansion. A grand staircase led to an upstairs section where more rooms awaited. The floor was a hard stone but felt warm as if heated. Far above, a sparkling chandelier glinted in some unseen light. The scent of fresh flowers filled the room and paintings of great talent were hung along the wall.

Some showed the kingdom and the sunrise, others showed daring battles with knights and monsters.

To left was a giant kitchen and to the right, some drawing room with huge sofas.

“Madam Ghu will be in tomorrow with breakfast, rest well... oh weary travellers,” the small woman closed the doors and left the group alone.

“...800 coppers got us this? Did we rip off an old lady?” Aneya asked with a small voice. The only answer was the honesty Kemy had to give.

“We did and I’m not in a rush to fix it,” she stated.

“The mana in here is very different from outside,” Gonga said, speaking for the first time in awhile.

Everyone looked at him.

“It... I think Madam Ghu is holding this place together. I’m not so sure, my magic sense is as accurate as my common sense,” he guffawed and wandered off towards the kitchen.

Kemy wandered to the window nearby and looked out.

The lands beyond were lush, green, and a little fake. Like a memory half forgotten.

---

Ruli hollered in glee as she bent two legs back and made the spider scuttle up a tree as she directed the party this way and that way. Below on the ground, Renny itched at his chin while the goblins looked around at the five other crushed spiders.

“Gotta get these back to Delta!” Hob declared and Gob looked sad.

“I wanted to smash...” he grumbled. Waddles was fast asleep on Renny’s head like a ruffled wig. Renny pulled off one spider legs and chewed on it as he helped the goblins pile the spiders into a single mound, he lifted an invisible rope and began to drag them as if a sled had been put under the corpses.

“Can’t leave Ruli. Delta will worry!” Hob protested. Renny slowed and he looked up at the laughing maniac as she rode a spider across the trees that grew so big that it would take men hours to safely chop through.

He silently sighed and once again wondered why he agreed to leave the dungeon. Ah yes, Delta had asked politely. It had been fine until Ruli, the demon woman who had utterly crushed him before, appeared - making him freak out for a bit - but it turned out that the woman was a little...

“Shooting Spider Star!” Ruli yelled and crashed into the ground, the spider under her bulged and popped like a child’s balloon. Ruli sat there, blinking, as she still held the two spider legs that were no longer attached to any torso.

“My spider exploded,” she stated with a frown. Standing, she shook the gore off and peered around for more... fun. Renny threw one hand out and tried to drag her along but Ruli merely walked away, deeper into the woods.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The rope that only Renny could feel or see snapped as the woman walked on with her drunken haze.

They all looked after her.

“Delta be sad if she dies,” Hob reminded.

“Delta be sad if Ruli destroys forest,” Gob agreed. Renny wondered when a Dungeon core’s feelings made them all actually consider chasing the mad woman into the forest. Waddles merely hopped down and casually walked after Ruli.

That was troublesome.

The duck had power and if it was interested in something... Renny dropped the spiders and urged the two goblins after the duck and the demon woman. He missed his tent.

There was less hassle in his tent.

Something scuttled above him and he mimed pulling a string.

The tree shuddered as a unseen cannon ball tore its shadowy canopy apart and spider guts rained down on them. Renny’s patience was not unlimited and spiders really did not endear themselves to him.

Half-spider women, yes, he had known a few in his circus when it was a thriving. Nice people, made the best sweaters for winter.

Renny cheered up as he remembered his past fondly. He moved his hand over his shoulder and gripped the air and the guts and gore simply slid off his umbrella. Hob and Gob screamed and ran on ahead to avoid becoming drenched.

Tsk, you blow a few spiders up and everyone loses their heads. Like that one spider that had been dead centre of his attack.

If Delta were here would she have something to say about that?

Something about going dead ahead. Renny smiled, his large ghoulish smile revealed as he picked up another spider leg for the journey. Best not to get famished when near people.

Ruli shouted in joy in the distance. Renny didn’t hurry nor did he panic.

He simply walked at a leisurely pace while listening exploding spiders.

---

Pic and Mila watched as Haldi entered the the city hall. The only light a candle on the round table.

“Anything?” Mila asked without preamble.

“Nope. They all ate the cheese, the leader chewed his for a little too. No reaction, Madam Ghu promised there was no deaths. They really are just plucky youngins looking for adventure,” Haldi confirmed. Pic rolled his teeth.

“Don’t like this, but we all knew it was coming. Anyway, can wewe can put people off?” he wondered. Mila shook her head.

“Idiots travelled to a place called Shit Valley when a dungeon appeared there. I mean, if that doesn’t put people off I don’t think there is anything we could do. We adapt, we’re good at that. It’ll be fine for the first few groups but we can’t test everyone that will comes. Sooner or later, one of them will slip by,” Mila drummed her fingers.

“Well, let’s be fair, we hunted a fair bunch of them down. Still, Silence fuckers got good at hiding. Let them come, we’ll chew them up like nothing,” he growled. Haldi and Mila stared at him.

“What?” he complained.

“You said... Silence,” Mila said quietly. Pic paused then swallowed.

“Well... how about that? I remember.” he said simply. Haldi looked away.

“It’s coming. How are we supposed to plug that back up? How can we even reach it?” he puzzled. Mila stood.

“Reaching is easy, that dungeon only has one way to go so far. The other... well, I’m rapidly running out of friends so let’s hold out on ideas until we have to burn that bridge. There’s more people here, more forgotten history…... criminals…... monsters... We collected them. We promised them this was coming. We didn’t have an army before and now? We have the most dysfunctional one ever. This won’t be like last time. Durence will...” Mila closed her eyes.

Pic slammed his fist down and stood. His eyes were glinting.

“Not only that, we have that Dungeon. Delta. She likes the kids, I bet she won’t sit back idly either,” he grinned, his teeth almost animal-like as he slid them into their proper place.

“And we’re gonna have every Adventurer from here to wherever the hell Von came from on their way. The king can’t ignore that if anything happens. We’ve been waiting for this. Now, we just need to see what happens next. I bet Delta grows famous first. That should bring those combat junkies and Dungeon weirdos flocking,” Haldi mused.

The candle burned brightly in all their eyes.

“For Durence,” Mila said simply. The other two nodded.

“Aye, for the people and our kids,” Pic added.

“For a Dungeon that isn’t trying to kill us,” Haldi beamed.

“Don’t remind me. The onely time we needed a violent dungeon making super weapons and we get some friendly thing,” Mila complained. Pic shrugged.

“Yeah, but that means we get to ask Delta to make super weapons. Quiss said she’s fond of them mushrooms. Maybe we can start shipping in the banned kind? I know a man who might know some Death Swamp Druid. I bet he can ship us some Death Spores, or Giggling Caps,” Pic mused. Mila rolled her eyes.

“Psh, Pic stop suggesting that weak crap. Get her the good stuff. White Fingers... maybe some Spirit Eaters. I think they appeared near some necromancer’s tower. Oh what was her name...” Mila grumbled.

“‘Malicious The Dreadful’. I think her real name was Gina but I barely remember her,” Pic scoffed. Haldi grinned.

“She had that great laugh that made skeletons shiver. I should send her a letter. Ask her to drop by for a visit for old times sake. We didn’t have a healer for a while, remember? She pitched in and called herself a ‘Healer Who is Late’. She was funny,” Haldi mused.

“Isn’t she wanted in like every country?” Pic frowned. Mila snorted.

“Name someone over the age of 30 in this town who isn’t. That is hardly impressive!” Mila dismissed and walked towards the door.

“I’m going to go home and get my old- lady cane to whack shins with. I want to enjoy pissing people off when they come. I’ll bet you I can get a rep before you two old codgers,” Mila challenged as the other two followed.

“I can’t believe the world forgot us... I feel let down,” Haldi sighed. Pic patted him on the shoulder.

“I’m sure we’re still in some scary stories,” he comforted as the door closed.

The candle burned brightly before putting itself out.

---

Kemy sat up in bed, eyes wide. She gripped her necklace and stumbled to the next room and shook Delem up.

“WAKE UP! WAKE UP! I REMEMBER!” she shook him over and over. Delem blinked, keeping his sheet from slipping lower below his waist.

“Are you sleep converting again? I told you, you need to stop trying to convert barn animals to your religion-” Delem sighed but Kemy gripped his face.

“Haldi... cheese!” she heaved with panicked breaths.

“Yes... it was good,” Delem frowned. Kemy swallowed hard.

“Capital. 20 years ago! The castle was invaded by a cheese thing! The Mad Mage had the king at his mercy! Cheese, Haldi! Had cheese banned in the kingdom for 10 years!” Kemy fired these facts off quickly. Delem stood and Kemy was so upset she didn’t care if he was naked before he grabbed a pillow to cover himself.

“Kemy, the Mad Mage of Cheese is gone. He vanished. He went away,” he soothed her.

“His name was Haldi!” Kemy screamed through her teeth. Delem froze.

“He makes cheese and has the name, doesn’t make him the mage,” he argued. There was a cough from the door and they both turned to see the shadow of Madam Ghu.

“Problem, honored customers?” her voice was soft. They both stared.

“Did we wake you?” Delem asked apologetically. The Madam shook her head.

“I always listen for customers. May I help you tonight?” she repeated her request. Kemy frowned... her voice was... less gruff.

“Is Haldi the man who nearly killed the King 20 years ago?” Delem inquired, maybe in hope of calming Kemy down.

“No.”

Kemy frowned and was about to apologise when Madam Ghu spoke up again.

“He had no intention of killing that king. He was quite in control and merely wanted to leave a message. Haldi doesn’t kill too often these days, honored customers. His temperament is quite good!” Madam Ghu sounded amused.

A minotaur could have charged past and Kemy wouldn't have noticed.

“If that is all, honored customers,” she bowed and when she turned towards the light, Kemy saw the wrinkled face looked... smoother, as if the woman had shaved some 20 years off in the few hours since they had last seen her.

“Forgive me, I left a window open and the fresh air got inside. I forgot how nice it was outside now. Dungeons do give lovely atmospheres,” Madam Ghu said airily as she left.

Delem, still nude, looked to Kemy with wide eyes.

“Wake everyone up!” he ordered.

Kemy ran.

This place wasn’t real. This town was hiding monsters!

If this was the town... Kemy nearly fell at the next thought.

What was the Dungeon like?!

---

Delta clapped and cheered as Bob wiggled to his own rhythm as his two crabs danced in synch. Bob wiggled and his high pitched screech warbled off key.

Maestro tried to provide music but Bob was having too much fun dancing to his own beat.

“Wonderful! People are going to love it when they see it!” Delta promised. She giggled as her Pygmy Mushrooms rode past on the giant Bees, using them like cowboys rode horses. It looked absolutely adorable.

This place was so lovely, she hoped Ruli or someone nice came to see it.

She paused as something caught her attention. She zoomed over and watched as something odd happened between the usually aggressive Blood Curdling Mushroom and the Starlight Mushroom.

They both appeared to be trying to grow in the same spot... Delta felt unease as the two objects actually sparked as the mana around them was heating up.

“Sys... what did you do?” she called aloud as the two mushrooms trembled. The space warped and the two were slapped together like the space had twisted their existence together. The cap grew very large quickly. The ground shuddered.

Delta took a few steps back as the unnatural actions of Sys caused something to stand up.

There was a long moment as the cap lifted up to show two glinting eyes, like two distant stars.

“I wasn’t going to say anything but you really like them mushrooms,” Luna commented as she hiked up her dress to calmly walk onto the scene.

Delta could… maybe… with some squinting, see how one would think that.

The mushroom had not only been made of the two mushrooms but somehow Sys had slipped in some... more artistic choices of her own.

The cap covered a small head with two large eyes. The hair was made of the deep black threads from the cap, the colour of the Blood Curdling. Its arms stretched out and it's skin, white and fluffy, was reminiscent of a large sweater. It was pretty short too, only coming up to about Delta’s waist.

There was no mouth, beyond a slight indentation, but the new monster did have large eyes and a button nose.

It took slow steps forward, its smallish ‘feet’ were flat things with no toes. It even had fingers that poked out from under the large fluffy sweater-like skin, barely visible.

The box appeared overhead.

The System has fixed the Mushroom issue by making a mediator. Unique Monster has been created! Blood Star Myconid!

Delta looked at the box and for the first time in ages didn’t run away.

She bent down and looked into the eyes. There was a calm blink as the Mushroom saw Delta.

“Blood Star, I get it is a fusion of the Blood Curdling... and the Starlight, but that is really...not a cute name. Sys... what is this?” Delta said... almost amused.

After Bob... The bees... Renny... the spiders... This thing was just not scary in the least.

Blood Star Myconid: Unique

This monster was born with the innate ability to control and relocate Mushrooms. As it is slow and somewhat mild-mannered, it excels in arranging mushrooms to be more helpful to the environment. It also has a moderate pow-

Delta looked away as it sneezed. She giggled and petted it as best she could.

“This thing is adorable! I actually like it, Sys!” she admitted. A bee wandered past and the Mushroom was startled as a stinger moved past it’s face

The two starry eyes lit up like blood red orbs. Delta’s giggling died in her throat as the Mushroom blasted twin red lasers in random directions with a shriek.

There was a pause before Delta looked back at the screen.

It also has a moderately powerful laser ability to use when threatened, and it can also it can exude a poison that is highly toxic to people if it comes in contact an open wound. The best of both mushrooms that made it.

The Mushroom blinked a few times before it waddled towards Delta and gave her a hug, mostly just hugging air.

“P...please... don’t....laser people,” Delta whispered, pleading.

The feminine looking mushroom looked up and blinked. The star-like eyes now innocent.

It was cute... Delta pursed her lips.

“Maybe a little laser if they get nasty,” she amended.

“Sys... give this one the name...,” she requested and thought about it. The little kid sibling to Maestro and Mr Mushy.

“Call her, Missy.”

Delta was running out of M names for these guys. Soon she would have to start making words up.

Besides, calling her Peach was just too easy.

70: Gather your Party

Hob was delighted, so much spiders for the dungeon!

It was almost cheating as Ruli drunkenly looked at them and they just died moments later. The mime was bringing up the rear, mindlessly throwing the pile of twitching corpses onto some invisible cart of death.

This was the farthest they had ever gone into the forest. They had even seen one or two new types of spiders... smaller, but leaking a horrible foul liquid from their fangs. Hob grinned at Gob as the trees grew so tightly together that sunlight was dimmed enough to create a undergrowth of shadows.

He was yanked back suddenly and he yelped.

“Spider got me!” he panicked, but looked up to see that it was Ruli. The bottle she had been sipping from paused before her lips. The glazed and childish look she had been wearing since she had found them was gone.

Instead, Ruli’s whole being had changed in a second. The red eyes were now alert, completely focused on the darkness ahead.

“Don’t move,” she warned as her voice turned cold as stone.

Hob blinked and tried to see what she was seeing, but the darkness ahead was the same as the rest. Webs hung like vines on every branch, cocooned beasts long since drained of their bodily fluids and organs strung up like morbid ornaments.

“Quack...” Waddles said, speaking for the first time. Hob looked back at the duck that was resting on Gob’s head like a feathery crown. The black duck was also looking ruffled... unsettled.

“So... this is where it begins? The realm of the spiders? Tch, so quick, but they are basically on top of Delta. Hey, you guys see it?” Ruli asked them. Hob shook his head.

“Dark but same,” he shrugged. Ruli paced slightly side to side before she gently forced Hob’s head to look straight ahead.

“Don’t focus on the dark or the webs. Just...unfocus... just let your eyes wander,” she instructed. Hob had no clue what the mad woman was on about, but she had Hob’s head in one large hand so he couldn’t exactly argue.

He stared and tried to pretend he was staring at something with numbers. Instantly, his eyes glazed and he spaced out. That was when the air changed. A purple haze frizzled like stars when one got hit too hard in the face. He snapped his head around to look, but it vanished as soon as his eyes focused again.

“Yeah... good work. That, my friends, is a domain. Something powerful is at the center of that,” Ruli stood and crossed her arms, drunk, but her mind was working automatically to assess this new threat.

“Domain?” Gob repeated as he tried to see the same thing Hob saw. Ruli turned and began to walk back.

“You guys aren’t safe beyond here,” she stated. That made Hob bare his teeth.

“We’re strong ‘cause of Delta! We take spiders!” he argued. Ruli slowed and then Hob felt his heart slow as twin red eyes of a monster looked down at him, the long mane of black hair and dark skin wreathed in shadows. Gone was the cheerful Ruli and in her place was a beast that had been hiding there all along.

Hob couldn’t move as Ruli slowly crouched and patted his head.

“Yeah, she did, but you are not strong enough for this, gobbo,” she winked and continued walking after a second.

“Just spiders...” Hob weakly pointed out. Ruli drained the last of her drink and handed it to Renny.

“Give it to Delta, I’m hoping all this hooch we give her will make a waterfall of booze,” she grinned before she answered Hob, the light back to Durence growing as they retreated. No more Spiders attacked them.

“These spiders are still around. Durence didn’t have time for monster attacks and most threats simply wilted and died off when the Mana got so low... not these things. They held on,” Ruli spoke, relaxing every step they got away from the shadows.

“What’s a domain?” Hob repeated Gob’s question.

“Monsters are... well... Listen, Mana is key to a lot of things. People, plants, water, and air in rich places can all give Mana. Dungeons can absorb that and make shit with it. In return, they produce Dungeon Mana that saturates the land. It’s a pretty stable circle with some hiccups here and there, but nothing that isn’t manageable if you aren’t an idiot or desperate,” Ruli talked as she scratched her head.

“Monsters do the same. They take mana, but the stuff they put out? Not good. It’s a miasma that bends everything within that area to suit the monsters. People breath it in long enough?” she slowed and eyed the forest.

“Well, the source is usually eliminated before long if it’s near a town, but domains are like dungeons and grow in power. Shit gets nastier and the land gets more twisted,” she spat.

“This one is new. It used the explosive growth of Delta’s Mana to grow far quicker and must have slipped under the radar as everyone focused on Delta. Monsters love Dungeons. The worst Domains are those that have taken over a dungeon. They feed each other,” she looked at them.

Hob was lost, but he tried to his best to follow along.

“Big monster... makes bad area... and area no good for other monsters or people?” he said slowly. Ruli nodded.

“If people build walls then monsters make miasma. I’ll report it to my Ma tomorrow. She’ll want to get this snipped before long-” Ruli’s voice died off as a man calmly strolled past.

“Ah, Miss Ruli, pleasure to see you again,” Mr. Japes smiled. Hob and Gob quickly hid behind Renny. Hob’s heart was racing, the memory of this man scarred into their memory.

“Japes. Why I am not surprised you knew about this and...haven’t reported it?” Ruli’s tone went cold. Hob held himself close to the woman... he could make a run for it. The man had more jars and pots on his person. He had to run... but Ruli was here. Ruli was strong!

“Oh, the little Domain? I happen to be collecting the Miasma. Wonderful product, so much use in many fields. Overall, I suspect many will petition the elders to keep the Domain around. Not just I would have an interest,” Japes’ delicate ponytail and gentlemanly smile made Hob feel like a tiny spore.

“Domains aren’t farms or hunting spots. They can never be controlled forever, they’ll grow beyond you one day. It’s just a fact,” Ruli lightly tapped her fingers over a knife strapped to her belt. Japes’ smile stretched into a wide monstrous grin.

“But that is when it is at the most juicest... just the moment it can rip out your throat… is when you get the most reward,” Japes’ body trembled with excitement as he walked past.

“After all, Durence’s own miasma won’t be far behind,” he said in parting, heading into the shadows beyond.

“I hate him... come on,” Ruli said quietly and Hob found that his own hands were shaking. The memory of being sealed in one of those jars was too much for Hob or Gob to ever feel relaxed around that man.

Ahead of them Renny calmly relaxed his hand on what seemed to be a weapon as the echo of Japes’ footsteps faded.

They needed to get stronger. Strong enough not to fear the jar man.

----

The last spider melted away.

Delta twitched.

She wasn’t ungrateful or even angry at her Goblins, but the sight of so many dead things crashing into her entrance would unsettle anyone. Especially when they squished on impact.

The good news was her DP skyrocketed!

DP: 410

The bad news was... so did her Mana.

Mana: 435/79

She felt like three or more kidney stones suddenly appeared at her side and her appendix burst for fun on top it.

She gasped and Nu was at her side in an instant.

I was expecting three or four spiders... not this many. Hold on, I’ll… I’ll do something!

Nu promised quickly and vanished.

Delta curled on the floor gasping and she looked up to see Mr Mushy sitting down, looking sad as he tried to hold her. Her goblins were next, muttering and begging to be told how to help. Maestro’s voice demanded Nu to hurry up.

Delta was happy... to not be alone.

---

Nu knew he had options. He just had to find them. He could waste the mana and make stupid things, but the very nature of who he was forbade it.

“Help me!” he sent to Sys. There was a moment of silence before Sys’ return answer made him rush to the Store room.

The Mana vent. It increased her total mana handling. It also empowered this room. Nu shivered as he opened the Menu to the room.

Storeroom:

Bonus: All simplistic and material items cost 50% less when spawned in this room. As long as it’s simple and handy to a curious adventurer, it is cheaper! This is due to the mana vent. All rooms built over a mana vent gain a passive bonus.

Keep all food fresh until removed from its container. 5 DP
Make all food rot if all food is taken more than needed or by greed. 10 DP
Allow simple foods to automatically be added to the buffet table. 8 DP
Allow the shelves and pots to produce random resources that can be found on other floors. 30 DP

The Mana vent wasn’t listed as an upgrade... not to him anyway.

Okay, DP spending wasn’t going to help.

Nu flew himself down to the second floor and remembered the plan! It required lots of Mana to get the basics done and with any luck...

Nu’s screen vanished down the Pygmy den and glared at one wall.

“Create corridor!” he demanded, the wall exploded back, dust and dirt vanishing into air as a long dark cave dug itself out. At the end he created another room. He didn’t give it a purpose, merely turned inwards and blasted out another corridor.

Another room... another tunnel.

---

Delta felt one of the kidney stones pop and the tiny relief under the pain felt amazing.

“Nu... thank you,” she croaked.

---

Nu moved the Pygmy Village to the end of this twisting serpentine route of tunnels and rooms. That altogether had cost about 100 mana.

Nu pushed his speed to the max and almost crashed through Wilhelm as he landed in the circus, he wished he could do more but he only created two tunnels and two rooms.

This drained another 40 mana.

The good news was that with that altogether... Delta’s total mana capacity would now be 109 with these new rooms. Sighing, he moved just a little slower, his panic retreating as this was working. He could both help Delta and keep his function intact. Build...expand...help Delta.

He casually wandered back into the main jungle room and choose a random direction as he blasted another room, tunnel, then a last room. Hopefully Delta could take over from here, the casual spending without Delta’s approval was making him highly uneasy.

The spending was intoxicating. Dangerously so.

As he was about to retreat to see how Delta was doing with her new Mana limit of 119 when something stopped him.

In the newest room...

He turned to see a vent that spewed blue motes of Mana into the air. A Mana Spring. Great, just what they needed...

Once Delta was under control, they could celebrate that they were going to be getting 21 mana a day for free, but until Nu got the rest of the Mana down, he could only curse his luck.

---

Delta walked forward, hand on her stomach.

“One at a time in the future guys,” she requested weakly as Renny nodded seriously. Her goblins looked ashamed while Waddles merely went back to sleep in his pond.

She turned to see Nu floating back.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Nu! I feel a lot better, but what did you do?” she asked, wincing as her sides jabbed. She felt bigger, a lot bigger as Nu seemed to have made more rooms but Nu merely eyed her.

“Nothing against your wishes. I made the basic layout of the second floor plan. The extra rooms were both progressive and helpful in spending Mana. I left the rest for you as I know your ideas can be... unpredictable,” the screen wrote.

“Thanks... uh... I can’t move too far right now. Let’s go for the Fort room, make sure it doesn’t need anything, and then the bar...” Delta said slowly, trying not to speak too loudly as her teeth ached.

The Fort room was looking more impressive with each visit. Looking up to the stone walls and metal gate that challengers would have to breach by climbing the steep hill. She opened the menu and saw what was available DP wise as she tried to think of what more to do to improve the Fort.

Fort room:

Allow pots of sticky glue to be refilled automatically. 10 DP
Make the glue flammable and burn with a variety of colours. 10 DP
Put a Toll Well near entrance for payment to pass unimpeded. 15 DP
Purchase ‘Guardian of the Well’. Requires Toll Well. 20 DP
Upgrade Towers to be solid stone. 10 DP

“Pay to win... but in a whole new context. Comes with free shame,” Delta snorted. A well where people dropped coins or treasure into and were allowed to pass. No one could say that her Dungeon wasn’t convenient if one was willing to pay for it.

Delta knew she could ease the cost of DP by doing some of the work herself, so she made a hole that dug into a large basin below the ground. It was like a second half to the room. She added some water and checked the menu again.

Put a Toll Well near the entrance for payment to pass unimpeded. 7 DP

Spending more mana was just making Delta feel even better as an extra benefit...

She purchased the Toll Well and a round circular set of stones appeared with a rope bucket that one could lower into the darkness below. A sign beside it told people what it was for.

Delta felt the rising gambling addiction try to make her buy the guardian, but she had other things to do first! She twitched, but finally closed the menu and eyed the room.

It was finally shaping up to be a proper recreation of a fort fight, but it was missing something. Delta walked over to where the adventurers would jump down and looked up.

She felt open... exposed...and honestly after getting past Boary... she might feel like this was a little unfair. The Dungeon was supposed to have the advantage but... it wouldn’t hurt to let people think she could play fair.

She created three simple wooden walls and a slight ditch to give people cover as they entered the room at least. Adding a rock one to give cover to the Toll Well. If people thought there was a second route down there? That was their own fault.

...Then again... maybe she should add a secret passage down there? Delta grinned but decided to hold out until she got that guardian. Whatever it was... another goblin? Some kind of fish? Some unspeakable horror? Delta would find out sooner or later, that was just how she rolled.

An idea hit her. Waddles had looked... well, he had looked the same when Delta asked him to go outside, but maybe if she squinted and pretended... she could say Waddles had fun being involved in the Dungeon!

She moved back to the Storeroom door and fashioned an iron lock and key to match. With some thought, she added a window in the door with bars to show the loot inside. She whistled as she hovered over Waddles, every bit of mana spending making her feel great!

“Waddles, I have a task for you.” Delta held up the iron key to the duck. “This is the Storeroom Key, it’s going to hang above your little nest. If anyone approaches, let them take the key, but if they’re kind of an ass, do your thing.” she nodded. Waddles met her eye and then slowly...

“Quack.”

Delta took that as ‘I’d love to’.

A secret passage past her awesome Fort room needed to have it’s own test. It was just sad if the Fort room never got used as information about the secret passage spread. Then again, whoever wanted to tangle with Maestro over raiding a fort was insane in their own way.

Diving into the pond she focused on one of the last corridors she had available on the first floor and punched a long dark tunnel that flooded on both ends..

The pond became connected to the underwater basin of the Toll Well. The Toll Cave, as Delta called it, was sloped like the room above, but into deep, dark water. At the deepest the pond fish swam back and forth...

It was a small shortcut, but it was handy to those who knew it and wanted to skip the Mushroom grove and Mud room at the cost of getting wet.

It was... a little... Delta slowly felt her mind stare at the entirety of the first floor.

Besides some minor adjustments, growing more advanced mushrooms, and upgrading monsters and rooms to their next stages...

It was done.

The First Floor had reached the stage where every part was a thriving important section. The first room would test the adventurers, messy and rash or careful and aware. Waddles would test their greed and patience as would the fish.

The Mud room would push their quick thinking. If they entered the Storeroom, their alertness would be tested when surrounded by loot. Merry would see how they fare in a chaos. Maestro would test their... well...courage to say the least.

Boary and the Mushroom grove would be their first taste of how wonderful her Dungeon was... how much things were not as they seemed. The Fort room would test their tenacity or willingness to avoid pain.

The bar was just a good reward for being a good sport, Delta guessed. Still, she hoped no one was stupid enough to start a bar fight. She had seen the boomstick Fera kept under the countertop. A result of the fire crystal being worked over into a useable weapon. Finally... Fran and Bacon would get their tests, their battles.

It made something in Delta tingle with a knowledge that she had done something. But there was something she still owed to the people that would come. People who, despite their best attempts and Delta’s, would die.

She couldn’t pretend that it would never happen.

So, she stood in her entrance, well aware this was one of the hardest areas to affect with her powers but Sys... bless that girl... was one step ahead.

The Entrance room has one available add-on sub-room. As a fixed location, the Entrance can only have one subroom on each side for a maximum of two.

Build a memorial room: 40 MP and 10 DP

“Yes please. I’d like that very much,” she said as the screen closed. To one side of the slanted room, a door of solid wood appeared. Delta watched as Sys’ own image of the room came into existence.

Above the door was a bowing praying bust of herself. Her stone image was crying. The carved words in the stone frame around the door simple read ‘Memorial’

She walked inside and the wall was a rectangular room of solid stone slabs, the roof, the floor... all had these slabs. Burning torches illuminated the room, but a somber chill seemed to affect the air. On the farthest wall was the only unique thing in the room.

A statue of herself staring at all who entered.

“I look sad... why am I making myself sad?” she muttered.

Next to the stature, some of the nearest stone tablet had names carved into it. Names.

Names. Names....names?

She stared as she moved closer. Three men had been carved before the farmer. They had no names, either since Sys wasn’t all-knowing or Delta needed to hear them before they appeared.

The words carved chilled Delta to the bone because before those three men there was one name...

£$%!* died on Day 0 of the Dungeon Calendar. Died to unknown.
Man with dagger died on day 0 of the Dungeon Calendar. Died to Hob
Man with sword died on day 0 of the Dungeon Calendar. Died to Gob
Woman with bow died on Day 0 of the Dungeon Calendar. Died to Fran
Dil’s Father the Farmer with Fire Gun died on Day 1 of the Dungeon Calendar. Died to Goblins

Delta turned and fled the room as finally the mana was equalled out...

Her face a mirror of the statue.

With her pain out of the way, Sys decided now was a good time to bombard her with notifications.

---

Kemy watched as Delem and Ayena went over their supplies. The air was brisk and the day was young.

From the Belon-Meter, a handy device that was only made by guilds and lasted only a year, the Mana in the town indicated the dungeon was only a month old at most but also had two levels.

Ayena had been arguing with Delem about it.

Kemy actually agreed with the archer, a dungeon so young with two levels must be barren of anything... Not that anyone that had been inside the dungeon had been willing to share much. She was staring into space when someone slowed to stand beside her.

She stared down at a teen with a scowl on his face.

“Yes?” Kemy asked politely. The boy spoke and Kemy stared at his orange tongue.

“I’m willing to sell you information on the Dungeon but I want you do something for me first,” he bargained. Kemy blinked a few times but nodded excitedly. She had a sense of when people were lying and this boy here wasn’t! He had information on the dungeon! The first quest of Durence and Kemy had been the one to get it!

“What’s the issue?” she asked, trying not to hop from foot to foot.

“Remove this curse, my tongue needs to be normal, I’d be happy if I was silver tongued but orange is just bad,” the boy grimaced. Kemy giggled.

“You’re funny but sure, let me try,” Kemy held a hand up, her necklace in the other.

“I beg of you, mighty goddess, hear your servant request your aid and banish this curse on this lost soul!” she chanted a little more dramatic than she needed but she had wanted to look a little cool...

Her amulet shined and a sparkle of gold flicked over the boy with the orange tongue. The spark reached the boy’s forehead and was repelled. Kemy stared as a rough symbol of a cloud with two horns appear on the skin.

“You...You’ve been blessed by a local god... I’ve never seen that mark before. Such power,” Kemy backed away. The boy blinked and shrugged.

“Every kid gets baptized by the local priest. Amanstar’s Dad, he jogs and gives us fruit,” he explained.

Kemy felt her goddess’ power ignored utterly. The local priest must have great power... or his god must be something old.

The uneasy feeling of this town grew again as the boy sighed.

“Thanks for trying. Here’s a free tip. Leave your valuables at home, or you’ll be left feeling looted” the boy warned before taking off, obviously at his wit’s end.

“Kemy, stop converting people and let’s go!” Delem yelled as the group headed off towards the gate. Kemy watched as the townsfolk all gave them sly looks. A cheerful woman with a large frame and reddish cheeks waved at them cheerfully.

“Good luck dearies. Don’t worry, Delta really grows on you!” she promised.

Kemy felt those words were... ominous.

Ayena sighed.

“I hate this town,” she mumbled.

Floor maps udated!

As needing 500 words, let me small talk. I got a job and they put me on for 48 hours a week when I asked for 24 ;;

So my silence isn't boredom or giving up. it's pure overworked collapsing ^^ Sorry for the wait but I'll pick up when work stops trying to kill me.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Interlude: The King's Fortune

The statue was wonderfully done.

It was of the last adventurer of any interest to fall. An archer with a dark armour that had tried to sneak attack most things. That made 12,421 of that particular class to have come. If they used magic to heal or ate food like a glutton, then she would have been part of the much larger sub-class.

He assumed he’d see more before the year was up.

A quick check on some of the few levels dedicated to the rising popularity of watches, pocket watches, hourglasses, and anything related to time. The grand Ticker-Dragon was inert in the last room of this floor.

The chrono-aura it produced gave him a good feeling for time outside the Dungeon.

Hm... how had three months passed? Really, time did slip or... sleep in this case, away from you when you had fun. He could hardly blame himself.

A new king hadn’t been down in years. Yal was getting a little bit bored.

At least the fresh adventurers always made things fun. Another few hundred and he’d finally have enough Reality Markers to afford a new creature for his 133rd floor. His Mana was, of course, rather endless at this point with the sheer amount of Mana Vents he had uncovered. Hence his new hobby.

Statue making. It had started as a way to pass the time but the more Yal did it, the more fun he had! Soon, it became a work of passion. Yal really wanted to make more statues everyday.

He started leaving the boring ones or the not-as-good ones near the first few floors. Spooking quite a few people. Yal could accept that.

He hadn’t touched those floors in years.

So done… so boring... so unimportant.

He guessed any change up there besides the slightly better doors and artwork would be noticed. Looking at those floors brought so many memories back. The grey period of not being aware but being. The urge to dig deep and grow stayed with Yal to even this day. The years of learning what worked and what didn’t.

Learning how people thought.

Being shaped by every death and tribute.

His first floors were also reminders. Fixed points of his own history. He didn’t know about other Dungeons but the idea of changing or messing with his first few floors felt... distasteful. The first thing being that he would be spending precious Reality Markers to upgrade what was, at this point, toys... was a hard idea to swallow.

Another thing would be the fact that seeing how far he had come from crude wooden spears to the splendor of his lower floors was always a kick.

The last reason was simple economics. If he improved the lower levels of floors, the people would stop coming. They would choke his floors by never leaving. He could see the reasoning.

Imagine having the Dream trap of the 42 floor on the 2nd? The Terror Knight of the 50th on the 1st? The Kingdom would be ruined. Long standing routines had been forged. Masters of their classes could convert his Dungeon into reality.

Things that would last and this city had enough masters to grow fat off of it.

Not that Yal did this out of any sense of kindness. Yal was paid in the blood of the foolish and the eager. Messing with those floors would merely... stop new folks from coming for a while. He was too near his next thing…

So... he played with statues. Honestly, he had gained so many odd materials over the years that the statues became a little more exotic in nature. Things that didn’t show any promise of being better were suddenly useful because an ore made of pink minerals that shatters easily is no good for a door but for a whimsical art project it’s perfect.

Besides, he was sure the current king was not long for this world. The next prince or princess would have to come. It was basically the rules. He built floors and the potential ruler made it to the bottom. The only thing stopping Yal from basically winning by numbers over the year was the crown. His own gift to the people.

The Crown of Yal. His masterpiece. It had started off as a junk thing but he had worked on it... then the first king to appear beat him with ease and took it. Then came back as an old man as if to return it.

Crazy codger.

But Yal had been touched in a sense. A little unsure of what to expect so he did what he always did as a dungeon.

He took the crown. Ate it. Then spat it back out an improved version with his growing experience as the final drop of the 30th floor. If the new ruler could make it there, they could get the crown and all the lovely enchantments Yal had made for it.

Some real... boosts to one's power. Sure it gave rise to tyrants more often than not but that was the humans’ issue, not Yal’s. Once they got the crown, they would have to reach the bottom of the Dungeon before they died, or the crown would appear on the 40th floor next time.

Yal was clever like that.

Two kings had declined to risk their lives so the crown had dropped from level 10 to level 30 as a result and no King or Queen dared to let it fall lower. One Queen, very sickly, had nearly died trying to fulfill the deed, so Yal ‘accidently’ forgot to lower the crown that one time. Effort counts, and Yal appreciated effort.

Yal formed another block of Red Diamond and pondered his next project. There were dozens of folks in his Dungeon right now. No one really stuck out right now, nor did they seem to be carrying anything new.

Yal watched a confident mage fellow that focused on explosions. He would be the 104,512th of his kind to set foot in Yal’s home. Explosions mages did well for a while until they hit level 70 which had a, ‘No magic beyond 5ft’ rule all across the floor, at which point they tended to blow themselves up or run away.

Funny but a little sad as well.

Well, Yal never knew when something new would appear when someone stepped inside. The thrill of a new device or a slightly different magical enchantment or even better... a personal object... was always a delight.

You could only eat so many iron swords after all. Yal had literally stopped getting resources from half the things in the capitol over the many years. Shaking himself, he focused back on his project. Every tiny bead of its existence would be perfect.

He just needed the perfect subject.

The answer came only three days later. Yal was still staring at his unshaped statue when a group walk into the dungeon. His old enchantments and works alerted him that royal blood had requested entry.

His entrance was mild, it merely required the entree to be breaking no high laws of the kingdom (everyone broke a small one here and there after all). Yal really did not like or even find amusement in them. Honestly, it was Kingdom’s fault. He had seen and enjoyed so much of the King’s knights at work that Yal himself took on an appreciation for stout fighters. The few rogues that snuck in by being ‘this side of legal’ when it came to the high laws were dreadfully boring. Most of the Sneakers, as Yal dubbed them, usually learned to be sneaky from either being a mage or an archer.

It was so boring to see the endless amounts of rogue archers that thoughtthink his monsters wouldwill stop looking for them after five seconds after getting an arrow through their throats. Did these people think his Dungeon monsters where idiots?!

Calming himself, Yal floated down to see a princess of all things enter the entrance hall of his Dungeon. Yal examined the group and his mood soured just a tad at her guard.

The Royal knights. Two of them.

One was a man with a long flowing mane of black hair and a feral gaze walked past the injured or waiting adventurers. His mere aura drove most to duck or look away from him.

Yal knew of this one.

Zane the Blood Night. Yal was pretty sure his second title was ‘It’s spelled right’. The man had been one of the few to make it to his core on his own. Yal had seen very few with such savage strength. His ‘armour’ was an open jacket that exposed his heavily scarred torso. The dark trousers with metal plates protecting the side of his legs was all pretty normal.

There was no weapon on his form. Zane liked doing things with his fists, Yal had learned in amazement.

The second was also known to him.

After all, as their final test of joining the order, they had to clear his Dungeon to become a Royal Knight. A feat that made sure every generation was more efficient than the last.

This one was Brilda of the Spear. Yal liked her, she was rather sane for one of the Royal Knights. Her tight blonde hair in a sensible bun meshed well with her ornate armour and protected legs clad in similar metal. She carried a long spear that was angled to be pointed down at moment’s notice.

The weapon was made of a white wood whose head looked like she had stuck a crude jagged crystal on the end.

So... she was still using it? This gave Yal some pleasure as a Dungeon.

A third Knight joined them. Yal’s mood at this point was plummeting but froze at this one. This one wore a simple brown cloak with no outstanding features. Yal liked to think he got people at this point.

Knights were obvious. Knights were loud. Sneakers were hunched and sneaky looking.

Lorsa was the mesh of Knight and Sneaker. At least Lorsa made the thing look honorable at times… Yal wondered if Lorsa still used that magic.

Royal Knights, beings far beyond the Royal Family in power, but they bent their knees and swore a magically binding oath for this power. Yal was pretty sure that a few of the Knights over the years were pretty much tricked into being Knights.

The princess was not one he had seen before. If Yal hadn’t accidentally slept through another generation... he guessed this was the youngest of the current Royals.

What was her name... the shy one... the King had talked about her a few times when he came down for the yearly talk.

“Princess Serma, you finally reached your 16th Birthday,” said an old man that looked like the first few attempts of Yal’s crafting. The young girl had long brown hair, a slightly large nose and a reserved look about her as if she would rather be anywhere else.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Serma! That was it. Yal was so good at remembering. The priest, the golden staff and funny hat had to make him a priest. Yal had eaten more than a few in his years.

About 97,334 if he didn’t divide them up by gender or religion.

Yal knew a healer when he saw one... or in this case, a task giver.

“As tradition for your family and to show your blood’s power, you will seek the Level 10th boss and end its life. You have spent many afternoons studying the maps, the monster sketches, the hidden paths, and even the tactics often best used. I have seen you grow into a fine woman. I have faith in you,” the old codger smiled.

Serma smiled weakly. Zane looked around.

“Nothing ever changes,” he said with a sigh. Brilda was silent. The woman gave eternal Monks of the Coming Silence a run for their money. Lorsa spoke in a whisper of a shadow of a ghost of a tiny tone.

“The people are new,” Lorsa pointed out. Zane shot the cloaked figure an annoyed look.

“I noticed. It’s almost like this is the busiest Dungeon in the land!” he said with a heavy sarcasm.

“I won’t... be doing anything. Zane will kill everything... Lorsa will will get rid of the traps... Brilda will use magic to shield me. I won’t... prove anything,” Serma said. Yal was silent for a moment. He had sudden memories of other princes and princess being escorted by Royal Guards. He usually didn’t watch them... it got boring but... now that he was looking for a subject for his statues.

Serma was right there but her expression...

Yal wanted to reach out and correct it. It was all so wrong! The Knights were just going to carry her to the boss and blow the whole thing off? Sure, Yal didn’t care, it was the first few floors but...

He needed the Princess to smile! She was his next subject. Yal needed to do something! The priest was chiding her and soon they would go in! They’d beat the bosses and Serma wouldn’t be happy!

Okay... Yal had to think hard and quick...

Serma didn’t want to be carried by the Knights. So, Yal had to make the Knights that guarded Royalty stop guarding a princess…

Easy. Yal’s word carried more clout than the average king after all.

He appeared. Well, not instantly. Yal had learned how to enjoy forming his avatar over the years for the most shock value. He flicked through the list of forms and settled on one of his more confusing aspects.

He had made quite a few over the years to create a whole pantheon of personas. It allowed him to pretend he was all sorts of folks for the sake of fun.

His body appeared as all the torches blew themselves out. The Knights of course went into full offensive mode but his glowing body made the Priest shout for everyone to stop.

“It’s the Prince of Challenges!” the man said hoarsely. Yal’s avatar took the shape of a young boy with a glowing white aura around his form. He simply wore brown trousers and a white cotton shirt that was several sizes too big causing his hands to be hidden in the flapping sleeves. Yal had settled on white hair and golden eyes when making this form.

The only other feature of this avatar was the simply golden crown that again was too big for his head and thus rested around his neck like a collar.

The Prince of Challenges was his attempt at luring people to certain new creations or challenges. He found a wise old form made them cautious while a kindly woman form made them fight between themselves for the woman’s favour.

This form, however, had some benefits that really meshed well with humans and their highly proud nature.

“A meek bird wants to reach the 10th floor? Send her home so she can wallow elsewhere,” the nasally annoying voice of the Prince declared.

This avatar annoyed people to almost sinful levels of pleasure on Yal’s part. When he took on the avatar, he felt almost like parts of himself were narrowed... focused while other parts were pushed back.

His younger and more childish nature combined with his pride as an ancient dungeon caused... well... The Prince.

Avatars were odd like that. They couldn’t contain him entirely once he had outgrown them. Creating one when he was a young 15th floor dungeon meant now, he could barely fit into the darn thing without being reduced to a single word blob of light.

Yal would use his latest Avatar that he had made near level 100 but...

Using it on people without the proper level of Mana-adaptation would cause them to slightly... burn a little on the inside.

The Knights were suddenly respectful, weapons put down or stances remained neutral. The Priest spluttered as the Princess looked like she had been slapped.

“Oh great Prince of the Dungeon! The Princess is ready to take her test and reach the 10th floor, she means no disrespect,” the man promised. Yal knew this, in fact, he was quite unbothered by the words of Princess Serma but he needed to do this carefully.

The wrong word or idea might have consequences that Yal couldn’t be bothered with.

“A test? A test in the Dungeon which she has declared as... easy or below her?” he mused as he stepped on the ground. The people around took a step back. Wise.

The Prince had been good at blessings... well... Yal’s version of them.

“I d-didn’t mean it like-” the Princess began but Yal spoke on.

“The little bird will waltz on while her tigers devour all challenge. Am I a joke to the royal family now? Do they think so little of the spirit of my dungeon?” The Prince flared his nostrils as the crown around his neck glowed just a little.

The Priest looked ready to drop dead from horror. Yal would have to hurry this up before he killed the man.

“No! It has nothing to do with you, Master Dungeon. I want the challenge!” the Princess said with frustration that had been building for a long time. The Prince blinked slowly and the glowing crown returned to normal.

“I see... the Bird wants to fly but lives in a gilded cage. Well, well,” the Prince turned to the entrance of his Dungeon proper. The black marble arch with twin knights crossing swords over the first tunnel.

Anyone stupid to ignore the entrance requirement would have their own trial suddenly underway. Honestly, the knights were rough and ugly now... Yal sighed.

He would need to change them now that he seen them. His new artist soul demanded it.

“I will forgive this offence...” his avatar spoke and the gathered people all visibly relaxed. Not that the Knights were that bothered by Yal or his words. They had seen his most exposed Core after all. It was good that the Knights were bound to the royal family. One of their duties was to protect Yal’s core after all...

No Yal... no city. It was that simple. Sure, it was pure ego but the city was literally and symbolically built on his dungeon.

“Thank you-” the priest began but the Prince waved a hand.

“On one condition,” he added, voice filled with a smirk.

He turned and his golden eyes burned.

“The Princess must return with three. No more, no less, bronze-star 1-3 adventurers as her party. No royal guard or someone with high Mana-refinement may aid her on purpose or knowingly,” he listed his terms. The Prince Avatar was rather good at looking like an arrogant child.

The City of Verluan used a very traditional system of ranking their various folks of adventure or glory seeking types. Bronze, Silver, Gold, and other. Inside each metal was ten ranks. Yal was pretty sure, since he obviously hadn’t been to the local guild buildings himself, that doing quests or doing something worthy of the rank got you promoted.

Through his years of eating people, Yal had devoured more than a few seals of rank. A circular metal disk. He matched the disks to the level of the person that died... the rest was just logic.

A bronze disk with one a single star carved into the edge meant Bronze-1. The lowest of the low. Basically, Yal was sure that anyone that paid the fee and signed something could get this thing. From there, it rose right up into the gold and others.

Yal knew full well that he just told the Princess, and by proxy the entire Kingdom, that he wanted one of the most important people in the city to undergo the dungeon with help of basically combat novices at best and civilians at worst.

Everyone’s face was pale. The Knights finally looked tense, the priest was grasping at his chest... the Princess looked overjoyed.

There was that smile... it was brief before she composed herself. Yal needed to see more of it!

His art demanded it!

“If this fails to happen... well, I’m sure the city will enjoy a brand new Dungeon... floor by floor. Years of expectations... gone. Classic rules and trade business between the merchant guilds... destroyed... the levels purchased by your various guilds for training... turned either into worthless or gold. I’m sure mixing the bosses up or just straight replacing them will be fun,” the Prince’s wide grin was only matched by Yal’s real one.

Everyone slowly looked at the Princess. Her joy slightly lost at the warning but her eyes held that glint.

Yal paused.

He had seen that glint somewhere...

Yal thought about it, brushing dust of ancient memories.

Ah yes... the very first. The one who carved his own Kingdom.

Yal laughed as he returned to his lower floors.

He would have to thank the odd system notification for acquiring a hobby. Yal hadn’t had this much fun in years!

He had no idea why his usual gold text boxes had turned orange for that one message alone, but Yal merely decided that it did not matter. Now that he was looking... there was a lot of things he could do to encourage more interesting people to come so he could make a statue of them.

Maybe he should make a hall of fame? Make people reach the goal of being in it? Yal plotted hard as he went over this idea.

He would need to make a lovely reward for them...

---

71: Truth Seeker

Kemy had been excited.

Then she had been merely entertained.

That had dwindled down to boredom after about half an hour as Delem and Aneya argued over the symbols on the door that could be rotated. Four symbols in shapes Kemy had never seen, but Dungeons always brought out the weirdest things.

The Industrial city of ‘Mollimock’ had made great progress on taking the advanced devices their Dungeon made and figuring out how they worked. Shame that most of the people there were real horrid individuals.

They shared their tech but often without a manual or instruction. Kemy guessed they all got a kick out of watching the rest of the world blow themselves up with technology they didn’t understand.

This Dungeon inventing it’s own language wouldn’t be weird. Unless it required all who entered to learn the letters and characters to progress.
Kemy bit her lip.

Would the Dungeon be an endless quest of gathering new letters and trying to piece together the words ‘trap’ or ‘boss’? Gonga offered to blow the door open, but Delem turned another circle. The smallest and innermost symbol was locked to that of a triangle with one side being thicker than the other.
It clicked and the door shuddered as it split in half and vanished into the frame of the entrance.

Kemy stood and clutched at her holy symbol for confidence as a waft of rich mana and smells of fresh earth flowed out the opened door.

“...Mana feels funny. Tickles the throat.” Gonga announced, his usual goofy attitude tempered by practise and instincts. Aneya smirked.

“I remembered the order - if it doesn’t randomise itself then we can make a fortune selling the code.” she announced. Delem nodded but he motioned for them to gather.

“Remember the rules. The party doesn’t split. We scout each room before moving on, and most importantly, watch our words. We don’t know how aware the Core may be. I’d rather it think we have an army out here or that we’re hiding something to save ourselves. Dungeons learn. Dungeons grow. Let’s not be the scraps it needs to kill others.” he grinned softly.

“The Scarlet Moons will not fade this day.” he promised.

The oath. The promise.

The words made Kemy beam as they all repeated them back like words of protection. A guild was a family. Small ones that stayed small often grew closer... that was what Kemy had seen with her own eyes anyway.

Delem led. Kemy was in the rear for support and protection. Aneya would mostly space herself out, and Gonga would go where he could blow things up with the most efficiency.

A simple party with basic Classes, but more often than not... it was this set up that got most people to at least the mid-way point of most Dungeons.
Enough to scout... explore... to be the experts until a bigger guild or Fairplay arrived.

Kemy brushed down her white robe as she was the last into the entrance hall. It was an odd scene. Kemy frowned at the tables... the door to the side, and the weirdest of all, a small rug of silvery threads surrounded by someone’s... ah... rough attempts at making pots. Kemy could see the love put into them, but...

“They’re really ugly.” Aneya announced. Delem was reading some signs and Kemy followed suit.

Two tables... two offerings bowls… two signs.

One had a nice message that Kemy liked. The other... she blinked at the rather rude message. Kemy already knew which bowl she would be offering to but...

“Is the Core trying to decide which mindset it likes?” Kemy had to ask. Delem made a noise like he was interested but also wary.

“No, it’s different words, tones, even intent. I’m thinking two authors. One has to be the Core but... nothing else can really make signs in a new Dungeon. Could it be like Gemino?” he muttered to himself. Gonga snorted.

“That’s a one in a million.” he argued as he put down the pot he was holding. The man’s rough coat crinkled and heavy stick he called a ‘staff’ but was more akin to a shillelagh clunked as he walked.

“What’s Gemino?” Kemy asked, interested. Delem eyed her for a moment.

“A city with a Dungeon to the far East. The Core had been damaged early on but instead of going mad, the damage split it evenly and it seemed to heal over. It resulted into two minds making the Dungeon... it…was...” Delem frowned as he trailed off. His lips turned into a small frown.

“A fuck-up. The floors were a mess, the monsters hybrids, the traps non-functional... the Cores fought over everything and everything was split. I heard it finally made it to the floor 10 a while back.” Gonga mused.

“If it was a mess... how did it grow?” Kemy inquired in confusion.

“The boss monsters? Yeah, I heard it smashed two monsters together in a massive mess. Deadly in ways that Dungeons with double the floors couldn’t match. Every Dungeon finds its strength eventually.” Gonga scratched his beard.

Kemy shivered and tried to imagine a Wolf and a goblin slapped together or some giant snake and a bat...

Kemy would avoid that place...

“Heard the city fell into civil war that cooled down to nasty infighting and arguing. Like the city was also split by the Dungeon...” Aneya added her own knowledge.

“You think this Dungeon has a Split-Core?” Kemy wondered. Delem shrugged.

“I think each Dungeon has its own surprises. I’m sure we’ll see when we reach the core.” He explained. His eyes lit up as he said this, showing his love for being an adventurer.

Kemy admired that about Delem. His calm attitude but also his deep love for what they did. Aneya looked at the door to the side.

“I thought Entrances could only go one way, what’s this door?” she called. That caused them all to stare at the door.

“Tradition first… then curiosity.” Delem reminded. He held out an object wrapped in brown cloth to the rude table’s bowl. Kemy walked without hesitation over to the kind-sounding sign and placed her offering in the bowl.

It was a tiny carving of her Goddess. Kemy hoped the Dungeon didn’t mind the roughness; Kemy had cut her fingers more than she cared to admit when making it.
She had only picked up the hobby because of how shopping for gifts for a stranger, even a Dungeon, made her panic. Making her own gift made the whole act somewhat more personal.

“May the Goddess of Truth lead you down a path true to your heart - er, Core.” Kemy prayed quickly. Aneya and Gonga dropped their own wrapped gifts with a bored expression.

Had she done too much? Kemy was the youngest... and newest member. Would she be as jaded as them one day?

She bit her lip then blinked as she saw Delem offering his own quiet words to the bowl.

Her heart brightened at the sight, not feeling so green and awkward when her own leader was doing the same actions.

“Kemy, have you got your potions and wards ready?” Aneya asked bluntly as she fussed over her suddenly while Gonga did the usual task of scanning for traps on the door. Aneya fixed Kemy’s hair into a professional bun and Kemy went pink.

“Aneya, I’ve got this!” she insisted but the older woman still checked her rings and necklace, each of them infused with minor enchantments.

Pricy things that only Delem had one of himself. Being the most... fragile member, the group had spent their money on making sure Kemy could take a few hits. Besides her own shield of faith... an actual shield was a good substitute.

If Kemy didn’t feel like hefting a wooden plank about, magical shields did good for a while.

Too much force from arrows or traps or even monster attacks and her expensive... novice-made shields would drop.

Not that Kemy planned on being near or close to things capable of doing such.

“Door’s fine. Should we investigate this ‘Memorial’?” he asked of Delem, pointing to the words above the door. There was a brief pause before he nodded.

“Usual entrance method.” he ordered. Aneya and Gonga took up a spot near the middle of the room, Kemy moved to the side, and Delem crouched, ready to roll to the side as he reached for the door handle.

If something did try to ambush or pull Delem in... then he would dodge, Aneya and Gonga would make the thing dead and if that didn’t go exactly to plan, Kemy would bless and shield where she could.

She knew she lacked the proper mindset for smiting.

The door opened and Delem rolled.

Nothing happened. Aneya lowered her bow, her thick leather hood making the confusion hard to see but not the way her body seemed to freeze.

“Well... look at that.” Gonga said as he walked casually into the room, eyes sweeping the floor and walls for obvious low-level traps that would be expected of a Dungeon this young.

Nothing.

“Names on stone... what killed them... when...” Delem pointed out as the walked into the room. It wasn’t cold like a mausoleum or a tomb, but the air held a crisp feeling of acute sadness. They all looked up the statue of a woman.

Her long dress like-skirt halted around her shoes. Her oddly silk like shirt with a necktie that seemed to reach down to her stomach. The way her hair only slightly framed her face.

Kemy looked at these details and took it in.

That was fine but it was the face.

The sheer utter sadness on the statue’s face as it stared at them as if to see into their souls. It asked one simple question and it broke Kemy’s heart.

Why? Why did they need to die?

She had to leave the room as the others probed for hidden passages or secrets. Kemy didn’t want whatever hidden wealth that room had. Not if she had to carry gold or treasure out from under that look.

She prayed.

Kemy prayed that she and her family would not end up on that wall.

For her sake... and the woman who the statue was inspired by. She had a feeling both of them would grieve for such a loss.

---

“Do you think they’ll be alright?” Dabberghast asked as she sipped her Mint Spirit. Quiss shrugged.

“They know what they’re doing. I think. I’m more worried about Delta.” the fire mage argued.

“Deary, those people are greener than my exploding cabbages.” Dabberghast said simply. Quiss could see that.

“So? The Dungeon is actively trying not to kill them. They’d have to be a special kind of stupid to die down there.” he said with a snort.

“Oh but what if they upset her? Delta is a delicate flower, and I have to admit I’ve grown to like her just a bit more than the average human.” the woman giggled. Quiss eyed her.

“If they come out with some kills under their belt, you aren’t allowed to kill them for it in return.” he reminded the druid. Dabberghast licked her lips as she finished her drink.

“Kill? No, no, my dear Peacekeeper. I have much longer punishments in mind but... I assume those would be off limit as well? My guardian could use some exercise.” the woman pouted before she grinned.

“Maybe I can sneak some Shrieking Violets into their room.” she mused aloud. Quiss actually laughed at that.

“If you wish to make Madam Ghu’s inn look... impolite, do feel free.” he offered. Dabberghast pursed her lips.

“Hm, I’d rather not bring out the cold grey for protection. Very well, but you must at least let me nag at them and tug some ears. I have been told my lectures would make trees filled with one thousand demon souls that turn into rude giants quiver...” she almost pleaded.

“You need to stop telling Jones you’d love to stuff him into your trees, the man is actually looking nervous.” Quiss didn’t exactly answer.

“But Quiss, my dear, I’m only three off from a thousand souls in my favourite tree!” came the complaint.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

He was sure … almost ... that she was joking.

Quiss sipped his drink harder and wondered how the new blood would deal with...

The Spiders.

Horribly, he had to assume.

---
“Should we do the challenge?”

The question came from Kemy and the other three gave her a look.

“Sweetie, we don’t do extra work when the work is already a tall order,” Aneya explained and gestured to the webbed room.

“Once we map out the simple dangers and know where everything is, then we can add extra excitement,” she explained. Kemy saw how that made sense.

The box was closed as they all declined. Kemy blinked as for a moment the box looked like it was adding new text but it must have been her jittery nervous tension making her see things.

“What kind of danger do we have?” she asked Aneya who was the expert on more natural traps.

“Spiders being the obvious. Venom and such, but Kem, what do you see?” the woman encouraged her to look again. Kemy blinked and her nerves shot through the roof.
“Shh, it’s not a test. You’ve been working hard. I know you can do this,” Aneya soothed her panic with a wink.

“I wouldn’t have any other priestess at my back. You’re my rising star,” she added casually. The praise from Aneya was a rare treat and Kemy beamed.

She turned to the room and gave it a hard look.

“Some of the webs might be linked to traps or they might be trip wires. The fruits in the middle look too obvious... I wonder if they’re poisonous? The web itself looks weird... not normal,” she listed after a moment.

“Missed potentially hidden pressure plates in the clearer sections, and the fact the bush itself might hide a monster but you did good,” Aneya said and softly pushed Kemy’s nose.

“Ya... I’m not a kid,” the priestess said, hiding her smile.

“Do we risk it?” Delem cut through their shared smile and it was back to business.

“Nah, stand back,” Gonga yawned as his hands began to smoke.

“The berries can be collected later. Our goal is to get as far as we can before anyone else,” he reminded them all. There was a beat of silence.

“Gonga, maybe we should be a little more careful-” Kemy offered before a blast of fire roared out the man’s hand and swallowed the webs, the tree, the spiders... the room.

The heat was not the greatest but it was enough to reduce everything to black ash. The smoke curled around them but Gonga easily used a cantrip to collect the smoke into a solid black marble that he threw down the hall where it exploded back into smoke.

Kemy couldn’t complain; breathing in fumes was bad for ones lungs. That was just the truth.

They slowly walked in, Aneya carefully checking for pressure plates that wouldn’t be affected by the fire.

Gonga looked proud of his work.

“A little fire and done. Really, we should blow more stuff up if it’s gonna be this easy. Nature Dungeons are my forte,” he bragged.

Kemy frowned.

The room had looked pretty. The tree most of all... it had looked like a reward to her but... she was still learning.

That was when something very odd... sounded out. A collection of piano notes sounded out in a sly jingle.

“What?” Gonga looked shocked. Aneya had her bow raised in an instant. The music was soon followed by a smooth voice.

“I think it’s time for a date...” the almost girlish voice sang. Where was it coming from?

That was when Delem’s fist smacked into Gonga’ chin. A shocked silence took over, except for the music and the words.

“It’s time for the Spider Dance...” the girl’s voice laughed.

“Gonga- I didn’t-” Delem tried to explain but his foot rose so suddenly that he tried to kick the man.

“What the hell? Delem, have you lost your mind?” Gonga demanded. Aneya suddenly spun on her toes with a yelp as her foot shot out and hit Gonga on the rear.
“W-what?! My body is moving on its own!” she yelled.

“It’s time for the Spider Dance... all under her spell should LOOK UP!” The girl’s singing voice turned deep into the mirthful chuckle of a man for a moment running alongside the female lyrics.

Kemy felt her own body move, and fearing the worst, she blinked as she was pulled up into the air and put into some sitting position to watch the show.
She saw then her wrists and torso had been wrapped in a very thin wire that had been almost impossible to see in the dim room. She followed the wires to the source.

Looking up... and up...until she saw it.

A white translucent spider much larger than any other she had ever seen stared down at her. The glowing red eyes twinkled. The eight legs twitched wildly and her friends spun and twitched as they continued to assault Gonga with playful attacks.

“The madam of the first room, Lady Muffet invites her guests to dance!” the voice sang and Kemy could barely see a small mushroom near the corner of the room buzzing as the voice sang.

“Kemy, are you alright?!” Aneya yelled as her head tried to look behind her. Her body rose like a dancer on strings.

“Y-yes! There’s some ghost spider pulling your strings... uh... webs!” she called.

“Psh enough of this!” Gonga yelled and his free hand shot another fireball at the white spider...Muffet?

Was that its... her name?

The heat and flames engulfed the spider. The strings went slack and all three of her friends sagged with relief.

“Fire solves everything,” Gonga grinned triumphantly.

Kemy wanted to cheer or say something but her mind snagged on one little detail.

Kemy’s web hadn’t given or sagged.

“GONGA! YOU JUST MADE IT MAD!” she screamed.

Gonga turned with confusion but the large man was lifted off the ground and dropped twice as Aneya and Delem were put aside like toys the spider no longer had interest in. Gonga was yanked hard side to side as one of his feet was hoisted into the air.

He began to spin faster and faster as the Spider... eh.. Muffet emerged from the smoke untouched.

The mushroom buzzed again.

“With legs like those? Who needs a physical body?” the voice teased.

Gonga was yelling and cursing so much that Kemy was shocked to find a pair of earmuffs made of the silvery web lowered onto her head. She touched them gently, noticing how she was trapped but not tightly bound…

That was when Muffet the ghost Spider began to hold the man still.

It looked like the punishment was over until the very tightly twisted web began to unwind. The reversing speed spun her friend so much faster than before, she had a bad feeling as the screaming turned to groaning.

From what she could hear anyway... these earmuffs were really well made, a perfect size...

That was when Gonga threw up and Kemy heard a distant scream from deep within the dungeon.

Muffet was ready to do more but Aneya managed to loose an arrow and hit the thin wire like a pro.

Gonga dropped and he just laid there for a moment.

“I think we should regroup and leave for a moment,” Kemy suggested. Muffet looked at her, crawling closer. Kemy felt her face go pale before the spider patted her head.

Then the web vanished and Muffet seemed to melt into the shadows.

That was apparently Ghost Spider for ‘of course you will, silly human.’

Delem and Aneya dragged Gonga back and the man stumbled to his feet.

“What the hell was that?!” he demanded. Kemy lowered the earmuffs to her neck and looked sheepish as they all stared at her.

“I got a consolation prize… do they exist in Dungeons?” she asked with brightness.

The lack of answer made her wilt just a tad.

Gonga lead the way back.

“I had that... just needed the time to make the flame funnel spell work,” he said with some hurt pride and lingering nausea. Kemy wasn’t going to point out the lack of spiky objects in the room for Muffet to swing him into...

Gonga was getting his morale back with each excuse and he grinned before long.

“Let’s plan and get revenge!” he said with a boastful laugh. That was when he screamed and fell over in shock as a sign of all things popped out of the wall.

It was clearly the back of the sign but there was still text.

“Was Muffet too much for you? - Nu”

Kemy slowly put the ear muffs back on as the cursing began again.

They were warm...

Kemy wondered if placing an offering to a specific monster in a Dungeon was allowed?

She hoped the Dungeon wouldn’t mind. Kemy looked back at the blackened room, and had to be honest.

Both as a follower of the Goddess of Truth and as the kind of person she was.

Dungeon 1... Scarlet Moons 0.

Still, she got a treasure!

That had to count for something?

---
Ruli blinked three times at Quiss very slowly.

“You mean to tell me... that some asshat noob hero wannabes are in Delta’ place... setting shit on fire or killing everything?” Ruli asked, nostrils flaring as her hangover came in heavy. Quiss and Dabberghast shared a look.

“Delta has very good defences-” Quiss began but Ruli picked him up by his shirt.

“Delta is my friend. The girl who shits out monsters but turns them into gold? The person who made me a fishing spot? The girl who doesn’t want to kill and slapped you down like a bitch when you pushed? That Delta? It doesn’t matter if she can fend them off. I’m not going to sit here and let people torment her!” she growled.

“You can’t stop the world from coming,” Quiss said calmly despite his feet dangling off the ground. Ruli grinned darkly.

“No but I sure as hell can stop the first million,” she stated and dropped Quiss as she turned to walk back out of the village.

“If she takes the first load... I could always do another couple million on a bad day?” Dabberghast helped Quiss to his feet, ignoring the hot glare he was giving off.

“She’s a Dungeon. We can’t protect her from her own existence,” he said hotly. Dabberghast shrugged.

“Who is it for anyone to decide who Delta is? I think that’s just rude,” the woman said kindly and left Quiss alone in front of the pub.

“I know but... we aren’t doing her any favours by sheltering her. Nothing wrong with Delta learning how to deal with people...” he mused mostly to himself.

Honestly, they were acting like if Quiss saw a real monster heading towards Delta, he wouldn’t stop it.

He was just preparing for the long term.

He walked after Ruli, his body becoming a blue ball of fire, a tiny wisp in the forest as he easily overtook Ruli’s angry stomping pace. He’d give these fellows, these Scarlet Moon folks, a decent chance at Delta’s place.

Now... he just had to do it without Ruli breaking his jaw.

---

The group slowed as they bypassed the Spider room, as they called it; since they hadn’t left the dungeon... it hadn’t had the chance to respawn its contents, but they were wary of Muffet. Soon, they found themselves before a large pond beyond an intersection.

Aneya’s eyes lit up at the fish swimming about as Delem investigated the logs and the potential campfire he could make of them.

Kemy was smiling at the glowing mushrooms and moss on the ceiling.

She didn’t see Gonga eyeing the black duck snoozing in a tiny alcove.

Nor did she see Gonga licking his lips.

Kemy... really... wished she had afterwards. Because the challenge box appeared too late, as if to punish them for closing it last time prematurely.

72: Inferno at the Grove

It had been quite a sight.

They all sat around a tiny crackling fire that Delem made out of the logs nearby as if they were put there for just that purpose. They might well have been.

Aneya felt this place was... different. A new Dungeon often felt like a hazard, a mine left to be filled with monsters or a tiny tower with a few floors of traps. She had started at the bottom like the rest of the Moons but... she had grown up raised on battle stories.

Not that they were handed to her...

“Little Annie, fetch me another drink. I’m telling your brother about the time I wrestled a bear on the last trip.”

“Oi, you can’t say that to her, she’s a wee lass...”

“She’s going to take over the place... Aneya hasn’t shown interest in anything.”

“Aneya, I know you wanted to go on that trip, but your brother-”

She eyed the fish she had been nibbling. Despite her being the one to declare them safe as a subspecies of the local fish... there had been some unique fish in the pond. Aneya didn’t dare fish for them.

She didn’t know the rules.

Would catching them turn on some hidden timer? Would it make them fight something like that Muffet Spider? Aneya couldn’t risk it.

She wouldn’t risk her team when they wanted to relax. Not Delem, not Gonga... not Kemy. She eyed the young girl as she fiddled with the ear muffs, her own fish already gone.

Kemy was a growing girl, it made sense. Aneya handed her stick over to the girl.

“These fish taste terrible - Kemy, can you take this,” she huffed. It took will to give up the food, but Kemy looked unsure before she beamed at Aneya.

“Thank you, but are you sure you won’t go hungry?” Kemy pressed. Aneya snorted aloud.

“Kemy, hun, I know how to conserve energy and survive off of water for weeks. Eat the fish,” she turned to face the pond to cut off any arguments. Her stomach protested but the tight leather armour she wore was a good muffler.

Kemy hadn’t eaten much last night at the inn - the village had spooked her too much - and Aneya knew the girl would not waste a gift, even if it was a slightly chewed fish. Aneya was a fighter, she could last the journey until they got back.

If worse came to worst, she would catch another fish when they weren’t looking.

For now... she set her face into a confident smirk that put Kemy at ease when their eyes met again. She watched Gonga patrol around the pond, his curiosity mostly drawn to the duck at the far end of the body of the water.

The Pond room was nice.

It wasn’t uncommon for Dungeons to have places of beauty. Something about what mankind couldn’t own and build on gave them a hidden mysterious vibe. Aneya knew that even in the most famous and explored Dungeons... there were most likely some hidden pockets of mystery that the Dungeons kept from them.

The ceiling was covered in glowing moss that made it look like a twinkling sea of stars had snuck in the entrance with them. Soft grass grew in patches. Odd rocks made for good seats and the lapping of fish broke what could have been a creepy silence.

The duck was the oddest fixture and honestly Aneya was getting bad vibes from the thing. However as she stared at the creature, something caught her eye.

She stood and went to stand close to Gonga.

“Is that a key?” she pointed to a hook set into the wall above the duck’s alcove. Gonga narrowed his expression before nodding.

“Looks like it. What do you think? Trap?” he asked, eyes never moving.

Aneya pursed her lips as she slightly moved back and forward.

“By trying to avoid traps last time, we set off another trap or penalty. Fishing didn’t set anything off but... maybe going for the duck could be a trap. ‘Be happy with fish and don’t eat the duck’ kinda thing,” she suggested. Gonga frowned.

“I’m not the most... in-the-know guy but this Dungeon is kinda thinking ahead... and that spider ain’t no common mob or trap,” he grunted. Aneya had to agree with that. Gonga nodded at the pond.

“Water is also super rich in Mana. All my energy is back after eating that fish. A Dungeon with a Mana Spring that has things living inside it that aren't monsters? That’s pretty... odd,” Gonga added.

Aneya blinked, returning her gaze to the water. Gonga was right.

Mana rich environments made monsters, or the chance for them to appear, rise vastly as a rule of thumb. The Dungeon should have no trouble changing these fish into lethal creatures if it wanted.

If... it wanted.

“The dungeon kept the harmless fish,” she noted, then looked around the area at the other odd feature that seemed to crop up far more after the Spider room.

The Mushrooms.

Different colours and shapes.

A few of them even seemed to... glow like stars trapped within a thin cage. Aneya had not been confident enough in her poisonous fungi lore to risk eating them. She was much better with hunting than foraging.

“Could be a special case. Dungeons are never the same. What has this one shown so far?” Aneya muttered to herself.

This was something she prided herself in. Being able to think and see things. Any decent adventurer that became a Dungeon wanderer knew the key to venturing into the unknown was seeing the signs.

So, Aneya tried to understand what they had seen.

The Spideroom had tiny potentially deadly spiders and a tree with berries near the center, as if to show a reward... Gonga’s burning it had made something worse appear.

Did this Dungeon work on bad behavior, punishing the idea of sins?

It had beautiful nature and did not react when Aneya fished for what was needed... was it against greed? Against humanity’s nature to ruin whatever mystery they stumbled upon?

Two rooms wasn’t enough for Aneya to readily read signs, let alone predict behavior. Though the actual signs around the place in and of themselves were weird.

Either the young Dungeon had been spurned and hurt by people not liking its... theme... or it was already more aware than a two-floored should be and had its own ideas.

Living close to Durence... Aneya couldn’t discard either theory just yet.

“Gonga, grab the key,” Delem called as he carefully put out the fire. As the flames died down, the atmosphere seemed to feel a little... less restful.

Less magical almost.

Gonga grinned.

“If some squid comes out of the water and grabs me, do that cool arrow trick for me?” Gonga winked at Aneya. She rolled her eyes.

“Try not to cause two disasters in less than an hour,” she retorted, but her hand rested on her bow to show she wouldn’t let him down.

The giant of a man peeled off his shirt and robe to reveal a heavily toned torso. Gonga was no library dust bunny. Aneya knew the man would be deadly with an axe or a spear, but she also knew Gonga.

So as Kemy picked up his clothes... Aneya notched an arrow just to be ready.

She could almost see the bottom of the pond but who knew what could be just under the sand? What monster might just look like a rock?.

Honestly, Aneya wanted to know what the deep blue glowing rock near the back of the pond was. It looked like a fallen star that pulsed with navy light.

Gonga slowly waded in and then he swam over to the alcove. Aneya followed the progress with the arrow nocked tight.

Her fingers were steady...

She had held this pose for much longer... under much worse circumstances. Nothing would touch Gonga without feeling her sting.

“Please watch over him...” Kemy prayed.

Nothing would make Kemy’s heartfelt words become wasted.

Gonga sat on the edge of the alcove and plucked the key without any issues. The duck next his large frame looked smaller than ever. Gonga grinned and he petted the duck.

The thing opened one red eye and Aneya felt her heart drop into her stomach.

“Think this little fella would be a nice supper or a mascot?” he called over as he slipped into the water, splashing the duck as he caused a slight wave.

The duck opened both eyes and its head slowly turned to look Gonga’s back. Kemy suddenly began to shake as the duck’s shape became blurry, almost leaving a dark orb with deep red eyes.

Gonga glowed with a similar dark red aura for a moment.

Aneya felt unsure of what to do... shooting the thing was the most obvious answer but Gonga had upset it first.

It didn’t exactly feel like that rated an arrow to the beak...

Gonga didn’t even seem to notice the effect but he suddenly went pale for a moment before he howled.

He reached out and pulled himself on to dry land where he batted at something small that was using a tiny claw to snip at Gonga’s...

Aneya looked down at her feet with a thin expression, her heart slowing down to a more normal beat as Gonga was screaming as some little crayfish tried to remove his ability to have kids.

Kemy screeched and began trying to kick it off in a panic which seemed to do far more damage than the crayfish.

The duck watched the scene as it preened.

Yeah... Aneya was keeping her arrows away from that thing.

Delem just watched this all with wide eyes.

A single box appeared before Gonga. They all bent down to read it as the man curled up to stop Kemy from ‘helping him’.

“Finish the Dungeon under... the Dark Drake's... curse?” Delem mumbled. Dark Drake?

They all looked at the duck which was still looking at them. The red eyes invited them to incur its wrath as well.

“I’m cursed?” Gonga said after a moment.

Curses... Aneya’s threat rating of this dungeon went from a 4 out of 6 to ‘Run away’.

Magic was not her expertise, but even Aneya knew how a curse required so much magic that it affected someone’s life every moment. The power to sustain such a curse... was monstrous.

Both in reasoning and the required amount of energy.

Kemy bent down and had one hand grasping the amulet around her neck.

“Kemy, don’t push yourself!” Aneya warned but the girl was muttering already.

“Goddess above, hear my plea... strike this trick from this man... heal his woes from trouble...” she prayed. The young woman’s body became infused with a golden aura.

The power of the Goddess of Truth surged through Kemy and her eyes snapped open as the golden light swallowed Kemy’s normally sweet expression.

A Priestess of Truth had taken Kemy’s place. The tone of her friend became authoritative and commanding.

“I banish this curse! I free you!” Kemy yelled as her power surged. A ripple of gold rolled over Gonga.

The black aura rose once more from Gonga’s skin to fight back against the light. To see her friend filled with her Goddess’ power always sent a shiver down Aneya’s spine. This was different than Gonga throwing fire about or her bouncing an arrow off of trees blindfolded.

This power was dangerous.

To be a priest or priestess was to be their instrument on this world. A frail young girl like Kemy could be a judge, jury, and executioner if the power of her faith was strong. It changed Kemy whenever she used it.

The golden aura bathed over the dark one but there was a ripple before the dark shadow totally faded. It seemed to crack and Kemy was knocked on her rear, the trance fading as the holy power left Kemy’s body.

Gonga’s curse, whatever it was, looked much weaker but it remained...

“I, Kemy, order you to... stop...dancing!” the girl mumbled as she stared up at the ceiling with distant eyes.

“Is she alright?” Gonga stood and winced as sparks of faith washed off his skin as they failed to find a devotee.

“The same as always when she uses too much power. Give her a minute,” Delem said calmly as he put his jacket under Kemy’s head.

“Please don’t pet anything or set anything else on fire without permission,” Aneya turned to Gonga. The large man nodded.

“This place is scary,” he agreed in his own way.

This Dungeon was bizarre, scary, and not a place that should be giving them trouble for the levels it supposedly had.

“We should leave for the day,” Aneya stated as Kemy slowly came around.

“Kemy will be fine and Gonga will listen a little better from now on. Every day we stall, the more likely the news will spread. If we can at least find the boss room, we can hold seniority for a while,” Delem disagreed. His tone held understanding for worry but his eyes seemed to be focused on something else.

“There’ll be other Dungeons. Something that can curse-” she began but Delem put a hand on her shoulder.

“This Dungeon is all about scary shit when you don’t respect it. Every room... every scrap of info can push us ahead in the game. This curse? Knowing about it gives us an edge,” he reminded her then he seemed to smile.

“And you know that if you try to leave because Kemy used her power, she’d be upset,” he added.

This was... annoyingly true.

She watched the duck as the others left the room.

It looked far more awake.

It was watching… Kemy.

Aneya glowered at it.

“Touch her and I’ll serve you on a skewer,” she growled into the room. She fully expected it try to curse her or glare back, but it merely ruffled its feathers and began to swim around in slow circles.

Whoever gave this Dungeon such a beast... Aneya was going to punch him.

---

Quiss watched as Ruli picked herself up from the ruined tree that she had been punted through.

“Can you stop? Between you, the lumberjack and now us... Durence is going to run out of trees and Dabberghast will get pissy,” he called. The red eyes and snarl was all the answer he got. Quiss blinked and a shield of white flames made the woman side step and give him time to point a finger at her.

“You’re beginning to piss me off,” he warned and Ruli side kicked the shield so hard it went up in smoke.

“Move before I use you to beat people up,” Ruli growled.

Quiss eyed the blackened area and odd pieces of glass that had been dirt and soil. The crushed rocks were all Ruli’s fault and Quiss would stick to that story.

“They’re just harmless kids... well young adults. They gotta experience Dungeons. You can’t just keep a Dungeon to yourself!” he tried to reason.

“You sound like my mother when I brought home a Chimera. I won’t... remove them. I’ll just watch them so they don’t fuck up. That’s good right? Knowing how not to fuck up!” Ruli tried to grin but her demon fangs were a little longer than usual due to her frustration.

“I don’t think dragging them about and hitting them until they agree not to do anything is helping,” Quiss answered dryly.

“Okay, make you a deal. If we both go to the Dungeon, you can stop me stopping them from fucking up!” Ruli nodded.

Demon energy made this woman so much more pig-headed than normal.

“I don’t want to go back in the Dungeon. It’s been three days since I was in there and I really really don’t want to see what Delta has done now. A few new torches... a couple of bats, no big deal but oh what’s this? Delta might have done something to her storeroom!” Quiss said hotly.

--

Aneya turned the key on the door which opened to a wide space with many shelves. A table of food nearby invited them to feast as barrels laid about filled with novice arrows and other items.

Interesting room but she couldn’t see why it’s key was guarded by the Duck.

Speaking of, Kemy gently petted the duck as it rested in her arms.

The damn thing had tricked Kemy into thinking it was sorry.

Kemy also had the willpower of a wet piece of bread when it came to animals. Short of throwing the duck away and making Kemy cry, Aneya had to deal with it...

She moved near the shelves and saw jars of honey... bundles of dried flowers... more odd pots... a couple of pig iron swords and shields. It was a mix and match of potentially useful things and maybe junk.

Like the apple and candy bar.

That was a little odd.

“Could be trapped,” Delem offered. Aneya didn’t see wires or pressure plates. Magically... she had no clue.

“Mr Duck, what do you think?” Kemy asked brightly. The duck eyed the room.

It quacked once.

“Mr Duck doesn’t think so,” Kemy announced. Aneya blinked once very slowly.

“Kemy... we’ve been over this. The talking cat you met in that one town was an exception... not the rule. You can’t speak animal,” she reminded. Kemy looked sad but the duck quacked again. This cheered Kemy up.

“Ducks are so cute,” she smiled.

Not that duck, but Aneya was getting distracted. Gonga was fishing in a barrel for loot but Delem was hovering near the feast table where another box was open. Aneya looked at Delem who was eyeing it.

“I know we should take things slow but this thing says we just have to catch something called ‘Merry’. No fail condition... could be easy and add some treasure under our belt,” he mused.

Aneya looked around the room.

That... didn’t sound so bad. With no protest from the searching Gonga, who had a wooden helmet fall on his head, and the distracted Kemy, who was still talking to the duck... Delem accepted the challenge.

That was when the mouse appeared.

---

Quiss was a little pressed for options. His usual idea would be to blow the area to little bits but being close to Durence and Delta... he had to be reasonable.

He watched as Ruli wrestled with the giant flame serpent that drooled molten slag.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

That should at least buy him a few minutes. He pulled out a flask and took a deep drink. If he got drunk enough, he’d stop caring about everything so much and feel better. Until then... he watched Ruli rip her way out of the snake’s stomach with a howl of victory.

That was when it split into a bunch of smaller snakes and Quiss took another sip.

--

There was a beep and the mouse vanished with a cheeky wave.

Aneya twitched as she felt the honey from one of the jars in her hair. Gonga was buried somewhere under the fallen shelves of apples and pots. Delem had ended up hiding under the feast table and Kemy watched with wide eyes as oddly everything in the room fell short of her spot at the door or was strewn around her in a lucky streak. The duck, which was fast asleep in her arms, still managed to look smug.

“I might have been a little has-” Delem began but Aneya’s furious gaze silenced him as a splat of honey fell onto her boots.

The shelves seemed to mostly tip backwards and made the back wall of the place untouchable due to the sheer mess. Lucky for them it fell that way and not the way out.

Aneya slammed the door shut and locked it after shoving her party members out of the damn room, throwing the key down the hall with a snarl. She lead the way down the hall, looking for traps, as the only other way soon led to a new room that made Aneya’s rising temper reach levels that caused even the duck to stare at her.

“Mud?” she hissed.

---

Quiss picked himself up and sighed at his flask, now empty. That wasn’t even close to getting him sloshed. He watched as Ruli cracked a small fire snake like a whip as she advanced on him.

“Reminds me of the few nights me and you got frisky,” Ruli snarled but her eyes were alight with excitement. Quiss sniffed as he snapped his fingers, making the weapon vanish.

“Yeah, I was thrown through a wall then as well,” Quiss remembered. The sad fact was that Ruli’s focused destruction had an edge over Quiss’ area denial powers. She could keep punting him towards Delta and Quiss wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

Well, he could, he just didn’t want to.

“Ruli, are you calming down yet?” he called and the growing horns on her head answered that.

Well, that left Quiss few options, didn’t it?

His hands held a single spark of fire that turned silver. Ruli froze.

“Yo..you’re using that?” she asked, taking a step back. Quiss smiled with a raised eyebrow.

“Not yet but I can,” he admitted. Ruli’s red eyes narrowed. Her clawed hands balled up into fists.

“I ain’t no tree, I can take a few hits,” she warned.

The almost bored air suddenly turned harsh as the two friends looked at each other. A demonic shadow with glowing red eyes that seemed to dim all light around her faced off against a man whose skin was slowly being covered in silvery veins that almost reached his eyes.

“Oi!” the word caused them both to pause.

They turned to see Haldi walking up the path with a sullen young man at his side.

“You two knock that off! Friends should be drinking together or having unexplored romantic tensions over the course of an adventure. Not wantonly blowing up the landscape!” the elder man chided. The silence made Quiss want to groan but Ruli cleared her throat.

“Haldi... I can’t romance Quiss. I need a warm bed and passion, not a wet blanket and a lecture,” she huffed.

“And I need someone who isn't a psycho,” Quiss stated bluntly which Ruli took no offence to as she almost agreed with him.

“Ah young love, isn’t that right, Fromage?” Haldi asked his young companion. The man looked at them and Quiss could swear he almost heard a... sad breeze of all things.

“I have never known love,” the man pushed his hair to the side and gazed with deep pain at them.

Quiss blinked.

“We got some nice ladies who’d be up for it. Got a few men too but they can be a bit weird,” Ruli offered.

The man seemed to struggle for a moment.

“Fromage came to visit me. He’s a friend of a friend. He tends to… do things,” Haldi actually frowned which was weird coming from the man.

“I defy expectations,” Fromage said, his hair doing some weird thing in a wind that didn’t exist.

“We’re off to the dungeon!” Haldi explained.

“We got greenhorns in... Might not be the best time,” Quiss announced. Haldi’s face froze for a moment before he smiled again.

“So soon, thought we’d have more time! Ah well, come on Fro, another day!” he said then eyed the two of them.

“You should let the kids have their fun, nothing ruins a good adventure like a mother hen,” the white haired man suggested, eyeing Ruli in particular.

Ruli looked aghast at the idea she would either care or be responsible.

Quiss was fine being a stick in the mud and going home if he never had to cross that stupid mud room again.

Fromage looked at the direction of the Dungeon.

“Our fate will bring us together… soon,” he called. Quiss had no idea how someone could speak in italics with words without air quotes but the young man managed it.

“He’s a worse nerd than you,” Ruli grumbled. Her eyes darted to Delta’s Dungeon in the distance and a touch of concern actually showed.

“Go home Ruli, I gotta make sure they aren’t breaking any laws and all that,” Quiss sighed, knowing full well he was going to regret this.

A pause stretched on for a moment.

“Thanks... just make sure Delta is... alright. Next round is on me,” Ruli said, eyes averted as she followed Haldi back into town. Quiss gave her huge back a strange look.

“Weird woman,” he grumbled.

He’d take a nap outside and if the group wasn’t back in an hour... Quiss would pop his head in.

That seemed fair.

Not a lot could go wrong in an hour.

---

Everything was going wrong.

Aneya watched in dismay as Kemy cheerfully jumped to her left and not Aneya’s.

Making it across had been easy enough for her nimble form but the others...

Gonga dripped with mud at her side while Delem was untouched. Kemy was about to fall forward into the mud as the platform of the room tilted dangerously. The motion caused a wave in the mud to bounce back off the walls and lift the platform up with oddly focused force.

Kemy let out a scream as she was sent flying clear to the other side.

Aneya could only stare in shocked surprise as the girl crashed into her. The last thing she saw was the smug Duck on the other side, watching this unfold before it turned, waddling back to the Pond room.

Then she saw the ceiling.

“Woah, that was some good luck, you nearly crashed into the wall!” Gonga praised. Delem helped Kemy up and Aneya just lay there... exhausted after four rooms. This Dungeon was murder on her nerves.

She reached under her back and hoped the pointy thing sticking out at an odd angle wasn’t her spine.

A broken arrow from her quiver dangled loosely between her fingers.

Aneya was both relieved and... yet, this arrow pissed her off more than the rat, the duck, the spider, or the mud. Aneya guessed it was one of those ‘last straw’ things she had heard so much about.

“I hope we can see Mr Duck before we leave!” Kemy chatted to Delem as he opened the wooden door leading into a small corridor. The wet earthy smell was actually stronger on that side of the door.

Considering Aneya had just dealt with a pit of mud... this wasn’t something she wanted to smell.

The number of mushrooms in this hall was almost worrying.

Did this place like mushrooms or something?

Delem lead the way and soon the answer became... abundantly clear.

This Dungeon loved mushrooms.

The wide open forest space before them did not have trees or flowers, but mushrooms that brushed the ceiling as clusters of different mushrooms gathered like bushes or thick walls, hiding anything in shadows.

Kemy looked up as she slowly spun.

“I’ve never seen mushrooms so big!” she gasped in delight. Aneya lightly tugged her away from standing underneath one of the tree-like mushrooms. Being covered in spores or poisonous dust would be a bad thing.

“I’m keeping my hands in my pockets here,” Gonga muttered. Those words were nice to hear. Some of these fungi looked odd.

Several black ones looked oily, which were a cause for concern. Some species Aneya just didn’t know but nothing in nature that turned black was usually good. Other mushrooms were some of those odd ones that had a glowing stalk inside the gap that made them look like stars.

Delem eyed the space as he carefully tread forward.

“Something smells good,” he blinked in confusion. He bent down to peer at a mushroom that looked like its stalk was made of golden butter and had pepper sprinkled over the cap.

“I never knew mushrooms could smell good uncooked,” Gonga blinked. Kemy tugged on Aneya’s arm.

“Look at that one!” she said and Aneya’s eyes landed on the most uncommon sight in the grove. A mushroom with a pale white cap that looked soft like silk. A green light shined from under the cap as the edge of the cap grew into tiny threads. Underneath the mushroom the earth looked... rich.

Kemy carefully bent down and Aneya spoke softly as if to not make the immobile mushroom run away.

“I saw a herb like that... it gave off a green light and its leaves were like silk bandages... but that’s an Aider Breath, a herb,” she said as Kemy waved a hand over the mushroom. A slight golden power flickered off her fingers.

“It’s... nice! I think... I don’t think its hiding anything evil,” Kemy announced as she plucked at it with a smile.

The problem was that the slight mound of earth the mushroom grew in shuddered as Kemy began to struggle to yank the thing free.

“Kemy, back away!” she warned but Kemy’s strength proved to be a winner as she tumbled back with the mushroom in her hands. The slight popping noise was loud.

QThe dirt before Aneya shuddered violently and began to rise. The dirty brown earth shifted to reveal not actually dirt or a mound but the unamused face of a big and now awake boar.

The mushroom Kemy had yanked free had been... growing... on the boar’s rump. The boar eyed the broken stalk where the mushroom had been sprouting from.

No one moved as it turned its dark eyes to Kemy.

“I... didn’t... mean it?” the younger girl offered. Aneya was going to assume the snorting nostrils and stamping feet meant that yanking a growing mushroom off of one's body probably hurt.

The boar gave a huge stomp forward and the running speed Aneya was worried about began to build up.

Aneya reached down and yanked her friend to her feet.

“Back to the door!” she barked the order out as she ran the other way, trying to draw the monsters attention. It mostly worked, the addition of Delem and Gonga rushing in helped too.

The boar charged at her and Aneya’s fiddlings with an arrow nearly caused her to be rammed through with a tusk but the boar lowered its head at the last minute and headbutted her through some mushrooms instead.

Aneya saw dancing caps and her vision swam for a second as her head rattled, her chest and back protested against her moving too much.

Ignoring that, she found her bow and arrows. She saw Delem being savagely kicked away with a single hoof, her leader rolling hard as he had the wind knocked out of him.

“DELEM!” Kemy yelled as she grasped her amulet but Aneya knew her remaining use of her Goddess’ power was low. She hoped the girl saved it for a much needed heal if it came up. Gonga roared and his staff wedged the boar slightly up but the animal did something very odd.

It’s head, which was near the ground, reached over and snagged one of the glowing mushrooms that looked like a star with its tongue. Aneya was about to take her shot, but the boar’s eyes lit up in a magical manner and the damn thing fired lasers from its eyes.

Gonga, thankfully, was knocked back rather than burned to a crisp but the mage of the group yelled as the black mark on his chest burned where he had been hit.

Her arrow flew true and struck hard into the back leg of the boar. It howled and turned its furious glare her way, but she took a risk and climbed the mushrooms for some space. She’d take some toxins over being gored to death.

Her ‘tree’ was knocked violently as the boar crashed into it and Aneya had to jump to another one quickly. Another arrow was shot in a hurry as she landed but it landed in the thick hide, doing almost nothing.

“Get back to the entrance! Both of you!” Gonga screamed, holding his staff.

“Let us try before you resort to more explosions!” Delem ordered. The large mage nodded quickly, not arguing with the leader. Delem pulled out a sword that was almost blended into the drab clothes he wore.

“Gonga, lend me your power!” he asked. Aneya kept leading the boar on a chase as she leapt from mushroom to mushroom, peppering her arrows into it.

It was nothing more than a distraction but Aneya knew a plan when she heard it.

Gonga’s chanted loudly and instead of the messy fire that Gonga favoured... he waved a hand over Delem and the man’s sword was covered in a shimmering blue flame. When Delem swung it with a quick test, it left behind a blur of blue in its wake.

Gonga had a rather firm grasp of the basics of fire magic. Enchanting weapons was just something he didn’t use much when he could just blow things up, but with the number of mushrooms here... Aneya would rather not see what a smoke made up the sheer variety of mushrooms here would do.

Delem watched as the boar turned to him, Aneya guessed it was getting bored chasing a running target like herself.

“Come here... and leave my team alone,” he beckoned with his blade. This angered the animal, as if furious a stranger would dare to order it about.

It smashed its foot into the ground as it began to build up a charge. Delem’s stance changed subtly as he palmed his sword to his side, eyes never faltering.

The boar let loose with a war cry of a challenge and rushed forward again, the ground below it’s body exploding at the force. Aneya had another arrow ready but she knew better than to shoot now, it might do more harm than good if Delem was ready for the attack.

The boar’s tusk looked like it was about to touch Delem. Their eyes meeting as close as they could get... then Delem shifted, sliding to the side of the boar as the tip of the blade dragged along the boar’s side, the fire leaping eagerly onto the musty hair of the beast.

Sparks caught and the thing went up in a crackling inferno.

Aneya felt her pride at Delem rise once again. The man’s talent showed once again why he was the leader. Delem watched as the blade lost the fire after one attack. The boar stumbled as it roared with fury, the fire gathering on its back.

It seemed to fall to the ground for a moment as the flames reached their peak. Aneya jumped down and readed her arrow as Delem moved to quickly end the creature. They had won, there was no need to make the thing suffer. No one here enjoyed that kind of sick thing.

The sword swung down with a hint of finality.

---

She eyed the screen. She just couldn’t look away.

“They... unlocked a... Mini-boss?” Delta choked as Sys beeped cheerfully as the conditions were revealed.

“Oh. That’s sort of unfair...” Delta pointed out as she saw Boary’s form explode out with enough force to send the sword flying out of Delem’s hand.

Boary the Grove Guardian has unlocked a second form due to unique purchases of the Grove and burning condition.

Boary has become...

The size and shape were pretty much the same but the mane along her guardian’s back was made of flames, rather than hair. The boar snorted out black smoke, and as it neared a Gutrot mushroom, the thing exploded with a small boom.

A chorus of singers hit notes that reflected how demonic the scene looked. Delta had to ban Maestro from using songs from that game.

She didn’t want to encourage the atmosphere!

Raging Firemane! If hit with fire Boary becomes a timed mini-boss that will perish after 2 minutes.

Delta stared as any mushrooms that Boary neared were ignited. The starlight mushrooms let out dazzling sizzles, the Gutrots exploded... the delicious mushrooms smelled really good...

Still...

Delta could only watch helplessly as her awesome mushroom grove suddenly went from mystical wonderland to hellish inferno as Firemane charged with twin snorts of fire shooting out of his nose.

--

Mr Mushy walked cheerfully through the tavern. He had spent a good afternoon helping his brother make music... but now... he wanted to go pet Boary and relax while he waited to see the new people!

Mr Mushy hoped they would like some pots... maybe he could show them the nice mushrooms that grew in his home?

He was sure they would like that, that and his friend, Mr Boary! He closed his eyes in pleasure and excitement.

He couldn’t wait!

----

73: Lord of Mushrooms

Fire.

It was a force that promised the end of Mr Mushy, but also gifted him the potential of his art. Fire was a creature he didn’t understand that well but was all too eager to give it a chance. Cois had always made it seem so tame, so... innocent.

The fire he saw now was not the friend he had sought. This fire cruelly danced before Mr Mushy as his home burned. Flames that formed his pots now devoured mushrooms, heat that had been merry now blackened the green and orange of the grove.

The beauty of the flame had been taken over by the ugly scene before him. Mr Mushy had no mouth but he screamed inside as a form raged not far away.

Boary!

He moved forward as the creature tried to trample a fallen form of a small human. The boar’s lazy demeanour had been replaced by some endless madness tinged with rage. The gentle eyes of Mr’s friend was gone and the beast in his place saw nothing but targets.

Mr walked forward, feeling his cap singe from the heat as the beast stomped down hard, but the fallen human was surrounded by white domes of magic. Boary bounced off it without scratching the shield.

“Kemy! Run!” a high pitched human yelled. The small one rose and when Boary rammed the shield again, the white dome flashed, making Mr’s friend fly back and crash through several burning mushroom stalks.

Mr noticed how scared the human looked now that the dome had faded. He thought of Deo, he had never looked scared.

The other boy... Grim, he had merely looked annoyed.

But this girl looked scared.

Mr stumbled as fire raged around him. Tiny mushrooms, the quiet ones, the ones that did not walk or move... exploded or crumbled into black soot and ash. Mr was confused…

Why... why had everything become so horrible?

He burst through another wave of heat as Boary stood and in his rush tackled Mr to the ground, his mad eyes no longer seeing Mr. Mr’s friend wasn’t acting like a friend...

Why?

The word repeated over and over. Had Mr done something wrong? Had the humans caused this?

Had Boary lied about being his friend?

WHY?

Fire... it had taken the first of his kind. The first Mushroom Spitter. They who was not named. The sibling that never was… Now fire had come for more of Mr’s important people.

The flickering white dome began to crack as Boary rammed it over and over. The girl inside screamed as her friends tried to wade past the exploding mushrooms and dancing flames. Boary screamed in rage. The girl screamed in fear. The grove screamed in pain.

Everything was screaming.

Mother… was screaming.

It needed to stop!

He could hear Mother commanding someone else which would be a good thing but Mr had to do something now! The girl’s white sphere was beginning to gather power again and if Boary was struck by the magic again... he might be hurt beyond healing. If he broke the shield… the girl would die and Mother would…

Mr would not accept this.

The heat burned at him. His squishy skin and rounding limbs were in pain but he pushed on into the eye of the firestorm.

He narrowed his eyes. If his pots... could take this heat to be themselves... then MR MUSHY WOULD STRIVE TO DO THE SAME!

He charged.

---

Kemy prayed that the shield would hold and if that failed, would buy them enough time as it ruptured to escape. The fire demon before her was frothing at the mouth as mini-bombs went off around it. The mushrooms, the air... the very room itself was not designed to cope or even work with the monster before her.

Kemy had the oddest feeling that this was a bad outcome for the adventurers as well as the Dungeon. Still, she’d ponder that more as Aneya peppered the Boar harder with arrows, the wooden things barely lasting more than a few seconds in the heat.

The wards Kemy employed were based on her faith and Kemy had faith in spades but… she herself had used up a lot of power so far...

The boar rammed into her dome again and the unstable substance of her faith raged back.

Without control and restraint, the faith would explode into howling fanaticism. Explode in both the literal and symbolic sense. Holy magics worked best from the back rows, where the caster wasn’t under... duress, for that very reason.

Not that Kemy liked one choice over the other.

It was explode or be smashed! Gonga was too busy doing his best to filter smoke and toxins away from the group to do anything about the raging fire. Aneya lacked the expensive magical arrows to douse or freeze the fire... and well... her leader’s sword skills started this mess.

Kemy gripped her symbol of faith and watched as the coming attack of the fire demon build up momentum. This was it.

The boar would break or Kemy would.

It was the moment of truth.

Kemy closed her eyes as her escape was cut off by another falling flaming mushroom tree. The crashing noise only outdone by the explosions of the black mushrooms it crushed.

Oddly, her last thought was not of her Goddess’ prayer or Death but concern for her friends.

Aneya would never open her heart again... Gonga would have another dark memory related to his magic... her leader would take her falling as his own failure. How sad... that her death would cause so much trouble.

Kemy’s thoughts were halted as the expected sound of roaring magic did not come but instead the noise of the pig impacting something oddly moist.

Kemy snapped her eyes open and blinked.

A mushroom man...

The Grove must have become so angry with the fire it grew legs! The creature was between her and the fire boar. One hand pushed with strain against the snout of the boar and the other pushed against her shield where holy magic crackled and flared around the creature’s fingers.

The mushroom man pushed the demonic pig back and restrained her holy fury.

Kemy looked up at the pained eyes.

The look… Kemy stumbled back, gasping as the creature’s eyes showed confused agony. Kemy had the illogical urge to apologise, but a glint of a deeper emotion shined through the pain. As the creatu-

No... as the being before Kemy pushed back his fellow monster and her empowered ward, she saw sheer will and determination. It, of all things, made Kemy feel safe. The mushroom man had small round eyes and somewhat stubby fingers, but Kemy watched as it pushed the boar back with careful force and her shield crackled harder in response.

Kemy bit her lip.

Delta’s Dungeon. The Dungeon of Durence... everything… Kemy thought about everything she had seen since she had set foot into the place. Until the boar and it being set on fire...

Kemy had this sense that things weren’t as they seemed.

That something, the oddity and the weirdness of it all... was before her in physical shape.

A monster protecting her from another monster and protecting its friend from her shield.

It wasn’t normal.

But it felt right.

Kemy ignored the yelling of her friends and dropped her shield, letting the energy that was about to erupt just... fade.

Kemy took a leap of faith as she watched the monster before her eye her. His fingers now able to reach over and... well... Kemy watched as it slowly nodded at her.

Then it used both hands to push the boar back as the fire on the back of the boar began to splutter. Kemy felt heat rush in as magic faded, her team still struggling to push past the environmental danger to reach her.

She flinched as a another large mushroom fell near her and sparks splashed across her robe, but the sparks hovered for a moment before they slowly floated backwards.

“What...?” Kemy whispered. It wasn’t just those sparks but soon whole spheres of flame were peeling themselves off from branches and the ground. Smoke and heat were lured away from Kemy and in a surprisingly short span of time... the inferno of the Grove had been reduced to a black fireball hovering over a clawed hand of a goblin.

The steaming grove made the smaller form look dangerous as his mask and staff marked this goblin as different. Goblins came as warriors, scouts, shamans... and other. If it wasn’t a chief, then any goblin that looked different was dangerous. Kemy gulped as the goblin neared, holding more fire than Gonga could handle on his best day.

The mask was of some horrid child’s idea of a dragon, the dark straw skirt and dark red pelt was close to a shaman but the staff was charred black with the tip glowing like a tree struck by lightning.

Kemy felt safe with the mushroom man, but with this creature?

She wanted to run.

“This fire... stinks of human arrogance. Done? Done destroying everything?!” the goblin shrieked. Her team surrounded her. Aneya and her leader readied their weapons but Gonga hissed harshly at them.

“It’s holding enough fire to crisp us... we’re.. outclassed. I’ve never seen a goblin Pyromancer. This one...” he trailed off as the goblin shifted his mask to reveal a very pissed expression.

“This one doesn’t like you. Get out. Get out! Before you hurt someone else!” the goblin howled. The black staff spluttered with dark fire. The mushroom man slowly lowered the boar to the ash covered ground. It petted the creature’s burned skin as the boar struggled to breathe.

“Is it-” Kemy spoke up and the goblin turned to her with his red eyes quickly hiding pain with fury.

“None of your concern. Well done, you used one of ours to harm another. Mr Mushy’s hands are burned black... Boary is dying and I… I want you OUT!” the goblin ordered, voice so guttural and fireball so black that Kemy felt herself being pulled back by Gonga.

“Time to regroup,” her lead-... Delem insisted. The mushroom... Mr Mushy... it had a name and that made everything so much worse.

Mr Mushy cradled the boar gently and rocked back and forth. The body expression... the movements... the image.

Kemy felt ill.

She... felt like the monster right now.

Aneya tugged at her hand and Kemy could see the confusion cover her best friend’s face. Delem was blank and Gonga...

Kemy had never seen him cry before.

---

Delta felt Deja Vu as she watched Boary slowly fade from existence. Instead of feeling better or numb at seeing the creature die a second time, the scene only made Delta go over everything again. Where had she gone wrong?

Too many explosive mushrooms. Not enough signs. Boary’s hidden form was a clue, she should have examined him closer... so many things. But it was also a lesson in itself.

There wasn’t going to be simple instances of good guys and bad guys.

Delta liked the group that came in. Kemy was sweet. Aneya acted tough but Delta smiled when she saw the affection the woman had for her team. Gonga was an idiot but he made Delta laugh... Delem was polite.

Everything had just gone wrong... then something else went wrong.

It was all because of some innocent mushroom picking.

More signs... more ideas.

“Shhh, it’s going to be okay.” she said calmly... quietly as Mr Mushy shook violently next to her. Cois eyed the dark fire before he squeezed his hand and smothered the flame, his palm burning badly but the goblin walked onwards before Delta could chide him for acting so macho.

Boary wheezed weakly. That fire form had utterly exhausted the poor pig. Delta wanted to use mana or something to help, but the group had only made it to the spider room. It seemed like they intended to leave for now.

That was fine...

On the bright side, she didn’t have to add any names to her new memorial room...

“He’s going to be okay, Boary will be back before you know it,” Delta promised her Mushroom. Mr shook his head, sinking his fist into the ground in frustration. His beady eyes met hers.

Delta had to look away.

“You can’t blame yourself,” she insisted, but Mr Mushy stood as Boary’s body broke apart into orange sparkles of Mana. The item - a cloak made from Firemane’s fur - stood out clearly. Mr Mushy picked it up and held it aloft with anger.

Shaking fists and hardened eyes seemed to settle on something.

“Mr Mushy?” she nudged with her voice.

I cannot... be gentleman.

The regretful tone hit Delta hard as her Dungeon Core powers focused entirely on Mr Mushy, allowing her to hear… feel his existence.

“Mr Mushy, one bad experience shouldn’t make you want to quit,” Delta replied quickly. To be honest, this was something Delta would have to come to grips on her own as more people set foot in her Dungeon but she hadn’t expected her monsters to overcome it first.

Cannot be gentleman... selfish. Boary will not be forced to be not-Boary.

Delta was confused, but the sudden lack of people in her Dungeon allowed her powers to be fully restored. Nu and Sys as well.

A menu immediately popped up.

Mr Mushy would like to take Boary the Guardian’s Mini-boss status. Unknown effects. Unknown outcome. Confirm?

“Mr Mushy... you can’t. This might make you stop being you!” Delta said immediately. Mr Mushy tilted his head.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Mr is only ever Mr. I believe... that a gentleman would do this. Even if I cannot become one... I’d like to act like one... just this once.

Delta’s arguments deflated. She could feel Nu’s hard stare in her back but he didn’t say anything.

“Please... don’t change too much,” she begged as she hit confirm. Silently, the monster before her raised a single thumb in promise.

Then he began to glow with a deep blue aura.

---

Maestro paused in his third-row choir grooming as they were slightly off key. He turned to stare into the distance.

“Well... I’ll be a Mushy’s brother...” he mused.

---
On the second Floor, Missy paused as she broke up another fight between Stars and Bloods. She blinked as something washed over her.

She sat on a rock and sang in greeting as the power rose.

“Big… brother!” she chirped.

---

All over the Dungeon, mushrooms perked up and then went still as an utter rule came over them all.

Delta was only aware of the Grove exploding like a techno laser party as Mr Mushy’s plump form was replaced with something a little different.

The dying of the light only made Delta stare harder.

The bowed head was a deep red cap. Ringed around the edge was a golden crown. The eyes that looked up to meet hers were still a little beady, but there was slight dark marks to show pupils of sorts. Mr Mushy’s bare and youthful face now sported a flowing beard made from fungal threads. His body was cloaked in the deep red of the Firemane’s fur, trimmed and tailored to make a royal coat.

On the back was Delta’s symbol.

He stretched out one hand and a staff... no a walking stick tapped the ground. It was crooked and knobbly with various mushrooms growing over it.

The image was… impressive and still rather cute. It was Mr Mushy still under the new accessories, after all.

“You look… pretty impressive!” Delta praised.

“I thank you,” came an amused voice. Delta froze as Mr Mushy stroke his beard and admired his stick.

“You talk! I mean, out loud!” she pointed out the obvious.

“Quite well it seems. Not surprising as I had deeply desired a dignified form before, no?” Mr Mushy nodded sagely as Delta craned her neck to the information box.

Myconid Sovereign (Mini-Boss): He who rules the Caps.
This Mushroom has evolved with aid to become a leader of various mushrooms. His mere presence in a room can cause many fungi to behave better.

His cloak, made from a Firemane boar, is resistant to fire damage and his staff leaks Stun spores and other...odd things.

You can have one Mini-Boss every 5 floors!

“Sovereign… and you’re not crazy!” Delta smiled. Lose the scary, out-of-control fire boar. Get a snazzy cool Mushroom king.

Win-win, thank you Sis.

“Mother... thank you for letting me take this on. I believe it is, as you would say, a feather in my cap?” He stroked his beard, pleased.

Delta felt everything in her life just click into place.

“Mr Mushy-” she began but her monster raised one hand.

“A new form requires a new name. I would think Lord Mushy would do just fine, but as you are the most important person in my life... you can call me Lordy,” he winked in a pleased secret tone.

What about me?

Nu’s box dinged in question. Lordy stood up straight.

“We are fellow sirs! You are Sir Nu and I am Sir Lord Mushy!” he nodded Nu took a moment to answer.

If you are Sir and Lord. I want to be at least Sir and Master!

Delta couldn’t help the relieved smile as the Grove around them slowly rebuilt itself. From the ashes arose life. From the destruction of the fire and charging of Boary came fresh mushrooms and beauty.

She felt herself think of the adventurers. Not the best first trip but Delta would have to thank them for helping find a problem that would have arisen later at a worst time.

Lord Mushy was talking about the fact Lord was his name and not a title when all around them trumpets and horns blared as Maestro’s power leaked into the room.

“Welcome one and all to a very special day. The day that I, your gorgeous Maestro, gained the bragging right to be related to royalty!” he laughed.

“Does he not know I am more proud to be related to such a superstar?” Lordy mused.

You both are failures as monsters. Only this Dungeon makes flipping superstars and lords. Where’s my foaming ten-headed elemental dragon or my devil woman who wears no clothes?

“In another Dungeon, Nu... in another Dungeon,” Delta promised. She quietly didn’t think about the 3rd floor or any chances of gambling on rare moments...

Just knowing her luck, she’d get the dragon and the demon. But also knowing her own track record, Delta was sure she could make the Dragon into a fashion critic and the demon into a chef.

It was the small things Delta took pride in.

Still, she knew she had some work to do. Figuring out if she had any other ticking boss monsters waiting for dramatic entrances was number one.

The second was to correct the issue that her first floor was...

A little fire hazardous.

Who knew?

---

The silence between them was loud. Kemy twitched as she sipped her apple cider. Aneya drank some blue cocktail she had in a fancy rimmed glass. It smelled of slime cores and perfume... Kemy wanted to try it when Aneya had her back turned!

She adjusted her web ear muffs, carefully feeling the item for any signs of reality degradation. Dungeon items broke down outside their home but thankfully having a class meant that Kemy could slow this process down greatly by replacing the breaking or fading Mana with her own!

If she was a tailor master class or something close to it, she could instantly make the item permanent!

Still, she did her best as the glossy ear muffs were really really nice.

Gonga looked sad as he was forced to drink his ale out of a bucket. He kept breaking or somehow losing his mugs and the bartender had gotten quite irate. Delem went outside for a smoke. A habit Kemy hadn’t seen before from Delem.

The act made him... real... and the effect was weird to the girl. Delem had always seemed like the unchanging and relaxing fixture of the group.

The silence was only slightly made worse by the woman.

Kemy looked up from her glass at the dark-skinned woman with dark red eyes. The red orbs moved from glaring at Aneya to meet Kemy.

Maybe… maybe Kemy should say something?

“H-h-hi... My name is K-Kemy,” she pushed out and the noise was like a bear trap. The sound wrenching and dangerous. The woman’s nostrils flared.

“Kemy. Nice name,” the woman nodded as she drained her giant mug of something in a single gulp.

“So, since you’re the only one talking and I can’t help noticing you’ve got a lovely pair of spider-web ear muffs, gonna hazard a guess you folks are the lot that went into Delta’s?” she asked. The way she said the name of the Dungeon with familiarity made Kemy’s warning senses tingle a little.

She touched the muffs gingerly.

“Yes. We’re the Scarlet Moons, the... uh... adventurers,” Kemy introduced. She saw Aneya had gone from ignoring the threat to actively sizing her up in Kemy’s defence.

The woman licked her lips dry of her drink.

“Listen, I’m just going to cut to the chase... did you hurt her? Did you kill her monsters and hurt Delta?” the woman questioned bluntly.

The bar around them went quiet as the woman raised her voice. A blond man with a scruffy beard and hard eyes stood nearby, watching the scene...and the woman... intently.

“Kill them? That place is insane!” Aneya stood and slammed her hands on the table. Kemy put a hand on her arm. Gonga’s massive arms had tensed.

Being sent running and licking their wounds had made Kemy’s friends sore and she knew that this was the last thing they needed.

Besides, Kemy finally found something she had been looking for since coming to this town.

Someone willing to talk about the Dungeon!

“Delta isn’t... she isn’t a normal Dungeon, right?” she forced the giant woman to look at her again.

Her chest ached, Kemy’s mind pushing that image of the mushroom man in pain. The way it had put itself between her and the boar. The duck that had been sweet.

The ghostly spider that could have killed them all.

“Delta doesn’t want to kill us, does she? She’s aware but she only has two or three floors. Everything was fine until we made it harder. That’s why everything... was my fault,” Kemy trailed off and stood in a slow motion.

“Girl- Kemy... listen,” the woman stood as well to easily tower over her.

“My name is Ruli and I’ve been sorta making friends with Delta so sorry if I’m a bit of a... my mother, but if you did something, Delta is most likely going to be fine, she’s a great person to a fault,” Ruli stressed.

Perhaps Ruli saw the pain Kemy was feeling or noticed how the rest of her friends were trying to keep her away from everyone else.

Kemy shook her head.

“I had ideas and... I did something horrible,” Kemy announced and looked at her group as Delem walked back in.

“I knew Delta the Dungeon wasn’t acting like what you expected and I saw how nice things were being... I kept it mostly to myself. I didn’t share my thoughts because I wanted to show how serious I was about being part of the group. I didn’t express my truth. I hid it under doubt and now... Delta suffered. I got over excited and I was the one that started the fight in the Grove by deciding I could just take things,” Kemy said calmly.

“Hun, it’s a Dungeon, taking things is part of the whole concept. You had some ideas but you know, without seeing more your suspicions was just that... ideas,” Aneya tried to soothe her but Kemy reached inside her robe and pulled out the golden hand of her devotion.

“If I find the truth, then I must follow the truth. If it becomes a lie I must better myself,” she repeated the basic core of her faith.

She had no evidence to suggest Delta was dangerous. She had more evidence to support the other point of view.

But now everything was confusing and Kemy didn’t know how to feel.

The warmth of the earmuffs mingled with the lingering smoke in her nose from the burning grove.

Which was the real Delta?

Kemy wanted to believe the kind and unique Dungeon over the one that would wait for them to drop her guard.

But with how she was feeling, the boiling sea of frustration and uncertainty... there was only one thing to do.

“Delem, I’m going to do a Seek,” she said and the man’s face turned ashen. Ruli’s anger was gone and in its place was confusion.

“In a Dungeon? That is suicide!” Aneya pushed her chair so hard back it toppled to the floor. Kemy’s eyes swung to her and she could feel the power of her faith growing as the decision was made.

“Aneya, I am going to seek the truth. I will see you in the morning... or I will meet you at the end,” she said and walked to the door. Her sister in battle and friend sat down with a pained expression. Delem moved aside without a question.

They had done this dance before and Kemy was about to leave when the giant woman, Ruli, halted her with a single hand on her shoulder.

“Maybe you should take it easy or listen to your friends,” she advised but the woman’s fingers seemed to steam just a little. Kemy bowed her head.

“Sorry, I mean no offence but I have chosen my path,” she smiled.

“I’m just going to give Delta a chance, is that okay?” she pressed. Ruli removed her reddened fingers and hesitated.

“That’s mighty kind of you, but what exactly are you going to do?” she asked as she held the door open for her. Kemy had to admit... she sort of enjoyed the looks on people’s faces when she explained this bit.

“I’m going to put on a blindfold and walk in a straight line and hope not to die!” she beamed and skipped out of the tavern.

Ruli’s face was going to keep her giggling for days to come.

---

Interlude: Spoiled for Choice

It was almost too much for Serma.

Escorted to the giant building shaped like a colosseum with a red domed roof made from some exotic metal. She watched as the streets were cleared ahead by Zane as he simply kept a sedate pace. People moved when a Royal Knight walked.

They were sworn to protect the Royal Family. Their kindness need not extend to the public. Serma knew they couldn’t kill but she reminded herself that people who returned from the abyss of the Royal Dungeon had more than simple power under their belts. Even Zane.

Especially Zane...

Keeping her eyes up, Serma watched as the small shops and twisty side streets passed by. Serma tried to be positive. No matter how her father and mother blustered or demanded solutions. The Dungeon’s words were clear. Serma was to reach the 10th floor with Bronze star adventurers. Rank three at best...

Orders to slip Royal Knights in as disguised warriors were shot down as well by the head Priest.

The Dungeon would be watching for refinement. Serma looked skyward as her lessons came back as words. Being the Princess of the Capital meant her education was important... as a benefit and a requirement.

“Mana refinement” was the term used by the world at large to refer to someone whose Mana became potent and strong by constantly using or training their combat, magic and/or rare skills in Dungeon space.

She adjusted her braid slightly as she avoided the public’s staring gaze.

Serma had insisted on walking... to get into the spirit of things. She kind of regretted it now, having the three Royal Knights making an awkward blank space between her and the people of her kingdom.

Sure, assassins would always be waiting but... Serma just felt like a exotic creature to be stared at now.
She was close to the Guild building, so she kept her eyes averted.

It was almost impossible to fake untested or raw unrefined Mana that was unrefined. The best tactic was to simply not use Mana around people... but the Dungeon would know. It was a God unto its own realm and trying to trick it… was unwise.

A new Dungeon or a common one may be somewhat confused or even manipulated but one as old as her Kingdom’s? It was asking for Serma’s name to be stricken from the books of history if the Dungeon caused a calamity.

Serma was sure that even if her Father managed to negotiate a proper contract with Fairplay and used his own army… The Royal Dungeon would not be so easily held to its current form. It’s awareness had evolved into bored intelligence.

If it were to be pushed to a breaking point by the Kingdom holding it’s floors hostage...

Serma felt her heart go cold at the thought.

The idea of the Level hundred boss monster breaking out and-

“Breathe,” Brilda urged quietly. Her features, so often accused of being cut from beautiful stone, watched her for a moment.

“We shall not leave you in the hands of louts or thugs,” she promised and the slight tapping of her spear on the ground made the chill retreat from Serma’s chest.

“Thank you,” she smiled back. Brilda merely nodded, the slight tone change of the tapping spear letting Serma know the woman was pleased.
Brilda did not open to people nor explain herself.

Serma had learned to understand Brilda the way one learns to predict storms on the sea or the change on mountains. With great patience and fear... then love. If there was one Royal Knight that Serma would say fit the title, it was her guardian since childhood, Brilda.

That wasn’t to say Gionha, or even Lieria was a slouch... but Brilda had such grace she hadn’t seen since the only other Royal Knight that read her a bedtime story. Serma felt a twinge of pain as she thought of Wei-

She broke out of her thoughts as the doors were loudly pushed open by Zane. His appearance silencing the chaotic cheerful noise coming from within. Serma pressed her hands tight against her waist. Her royal white dress and adorning gold tiara was only offset by the out of place green bead bracelet on her arm.

Her good luck charm. Serma felt she would truly need it today.

The guild hall’s main entrance was a large, wooden, double door affair that was more of that cheerful red. Above the door was a sign, as if it were imitating the many Dungeon’s the patrons inside would have visited.

The Place

It was cocky when they named the place all those years ago, her Father had mused once, but now? Everyone knew what each other meant when they said they were going to the usual place or the place to be.

It was annoyingly relevant in the city. She walked in with Brilda at her side. It was hard to disguise how Serma craned her neck in wide sweeps, trying to take it all in like she was one of those tourist folks that wandered into the city.

It was almost like the ghost of her mother’s hand on her back was real as Serma corrected her posture and retained her regal pleasant-but-distant expression.

The inside of the building, the main hall from what Serma could see, followed more of the red and gold theme the building promised from the outside. Serma actually felt like the place was a bit... too much. Ironic coming from a princess who ate with gold and walked on gems but Serma felt it odd that a gathering place of rough and tough thrill seekers was more akin... to a hotel entrance.

A large section of the room was dedicated to a open fireplace, sofas, chairs, stools, and a bar near the corner. The prices, Serma noticed, were far higher than the local businesses’. As someone who was forced to study the economics of imported grapes, barrels, ale, and peanuts for two weeks until she could recite it backwards, Serma knew the alcohol they served here was both overpriced and weird.

The common drinks were a thief in a bottle but there were drinks Serma had never heard of...

Devil’s bum... Liquid Courage and Wisdom... Ferlio’s brew… Dragon spit.

Did this place have... an alchemist? A Spirit alchemist?

Not to be confused with a necromancer who became an alcoholic but an actual master of the wines and spirits of the world? Serma had heard the things they made were so delicious and powerful that one sip of the right brew could make a mouse into a hero.
Serma blinked then smiled slowly to herself.

A mouse hero! That would be slightly delightful and adorable. Serma doubted this place had one but she couldn’t help check the bar for a tiny mouse door that would lead to some secret league of mice with swords and staffs.
It would be called the League of Little Heroes!

Serma was almost washed away into the lands of fantasy as she imagined them riding frogs or rabbits before Brilda cleared her throat and guided her towards the stairs and, once on the second floor, to a door that was guarded by two men in armour that gave off... adequate power.
Serma felt sort of bad, growing up around Royal Knights had dulled her respect for levels of Mana Refinement that didn’t make one fear for one’s life. Inside the room were many nice sofas, and a window that had a wonderful view of her fair city.

Verluan, how Serma had only ever seen it’s best features. Now, even from this guest room, Serma spotted cracks... nooks... people walking around in clothes that didn’t cost the same as a small field.

It was refreshing... and a little scary.

“Me and the Spear witch will go talk to the Guild Master, see which sorry wretch we can find in this place that won’t get you killed,” Zane announced. Serma blinked and eyed the room that was clearly for… waiting.

“Yup, stay and don’t die. Lorsa will be doing whatever Lorsa does,” Zane added dryly. Serma turned to see the empty room suddenly filled by the third Royal Knight of her entourage. Lorsa, the person in such a heavy cloak that all details were guesses at best.

Lorsa had not been in the room a moment ago and Serma was talking to Zane who blocked the only door in and out.

“Doing what I do best,” Lorsa agreed. Serma tried to at least look politely assured to have a guard but she might have failed.

Lorsa was in the group of Knights that Serma had dubbed the ‘Weird’ ones. Really, the Royal Knights only had three sub-groups to understand. The straight-forward scary ones. Brilda and Zane would belong to this. The Weird ones that enjoyed freaking people out and had abilities not fit for a public spar… then there were the ones that were off.

Nothing quite looked wrong nor did anything stand out but being near one of those Knights made good people and creatures flee and the light dim... just a little.

These were the ones her father had on a very short leash or as far away as possible.

All for the best, Serma thought. Lorsa was hardly the worst. Brilda carefully reached out and brushed Serma’s single loose lock of hair back behind her ear.

“We won’t be long,” Zane reminded and walked off, Brilda at his heels, more to make sure he didn’t divert to the bar than following in line.
The door closed and Serma turned to speak to Lorsa, but the cloaked figure was gone. Vanished as fast they appeared.
“Oh, I do not like that,” she warned the empty room... maybe empty?

Lorsa was a weirdo but at least they didn’t act like a creep or scare her by appearing out of nowhere. It just made her uneasy to be unsure whether she reallywas alone or not. That feeling was quickly overtaken by annoyance as she sat with proper posture on the plush sofa, facing a fire that had more Fire stones in it than strictly needed.

This was Serma’s task! Should she not be there at the table, viewing her potential warriors with her own eyes? Was she expected to walk into danger with strangers?

Serma watched the fire burn without tinder in the stone fireplace.

“Yes... yes you are. The best of the best that are available will be chosen and I will accept them with grace. This is about more than yourself,” she reminded herself sharply. She sat straight and placed her hands into her lap, her only breaking of proper appearance was a single finger fidgeting the green bracelet.

If she failed then the Dungeon would enforce the punishment it had warned about. The Prince of the Dungeon’s warning words not to be trifled with. Serma swallowed hard and nodded.

Serma’s desires would not dare come at such risk to the City. She would sit here and let others handle her life... as always.
Serma blinked up slowly at a sudden tapping noise.
She stared at the door for a long moment. That didn’t sound like it had come from the doo-

Serma froze, there it was again! A firm tapping noise growing frantic. It sounded like the noise at so many royal balls.
Glass being smacked against something. Usually other glass...

Serma spun to see a hand banging at the second-floor window. Staring in surprise, the sudden tapping pushed the window open and the knocker pulled himself into the room.

“Ow ow ow! My fingers feel like they got caught in Aunty Hop’s cookie jar again!” a young boy complained as he fanned his fingers, which indeed looked very red from... Serma could only guess hanging on to her window ledge!

Serna should call for guards or scream or develop some sudden hidden royal magic to blast this intruder to ash but honestly, Serma was just too shocked at the sudden appearance to do more than stare.

Her Father would sigh as his various sword lessons went to waste and her mother would join him at Serma’s rudeness. The boy was younger than her, or at least very small for his age. His black hair was pulled back in a ponytail that brushed his lower back. Unlike Serma’s own braid, so tightly made and decorated, this boy’s hair looked more like a contained wild animal. He kept blowing on his fingers which allowed Serma to fully take in the rest of him,
He was an odd-looking thing with slightly-too-blue big trousers tied tight with a black belt, a torn white shirt that looked far overdue to be burned, and he had what appeared to be a book hanging off his belt like a handy tool by a piece of thread. Then there was the sword on his back that Serma saw as the boy turned to survey the room.

It was a horrid, chipped, dirty grey blade.

But...

It had been used well. Serma’s weapon master’s words whispered in her ear in memory that the reinforced handle, the way the blade looked less damaged by ill-care and more by long time use fending off deadly blows.

“Are you the Guild Master?” the boy said, snapping Serma out of her stupor. The question was both unexpected and bizarre.

What sort of logic would one have to assume that a girl in a dress, a crown, and sitting in some waiting room would be the Guild Master? Her frustration leaked just a little at having her moody thinking interrupted by some boy!.

“Yes, clearly I am. What gave it away?” she snapped. The boy sighed with relief.

“Right room after all! Told Xan she was wrong. My name is Mas, I wanna be a hero!” he announced. He thrust a hand out and years of inbuilt instincts took over. She neatly shook the hand and smiled as if the other person was some important diplomat from some country she couldn’t pronounce.
“What?” she replied, still wearing her best fake smile. Mas beamed.

“I wanna join up with the Guild and take on the Dungeon! I tried to apply downstairs but I was rejected! So I thought I come straight to the head honcho and deal with you! I’m so glad you’re nice and much prettier than the bat behind the desk,” Mas said in a ‘just-between-us’ whisper as if the ‘bat’ downstairs had the hearing of one rather than just the looks.

“I think you have the wrong-” Serma tried to explain, seeing now that sarcasm had done what her Mother had always warned it would.
Get her in trouble.

“So, what do I need to do? Beat goblins up? Wrestle a dragon? Rescue a princess?” Mas demanded, eyes glinting so brightly that it was slightly adorable in it’s own way. Serma also took offence to that last one until she remembered she was sitting in a Guild building waiting on her protectors building her a defence to save her from Dungeon dangers...

“Maybe you could help a princess rather than simply assume she is useless and needs a man,” she replied hotly. Mas shrugged.
“If you know one that needs help. I’ll help! My hero book said they always need rescuing so I just assumed they were off being cool anyway and just ran into trouble,” the boy scratched at his nose. Serma stared at him and raised one brow.

“You clearly don’t know what Princesses’ daily schedules are. Adventure and excitement are clearly on the ‘never happening’ day,” she sat down, not feeling like she had a lot to worry about from the boy now.
An energetic lad - but in the end… just someone looking for a fantasy.
“I don’t know any Princesses! But if you know any, can you let them know that Mas is here to sav- er- offer them a hand!” he placed his hands on his hips making the tattered book shake slightly.

Despite her hollow mood, she couldn’t help the small smile.

“Noted, I will pass the note on to any Princesses. Why were you rejected?” she suddenly asked, which made Mas huff.

“You need a recommedata thing and money!” he said, looking unimpressed.

“‘Recommendation’, you mean? I suppose that’s not too bad but a fee isn’t unreasonable. They do give you a Guild Seal in return, those things do take money to make,” she pointed out.

“Yeah but what if don’t have a rec...rec... someone’s word and I don’t have money?” he fired back. Serma blinked. Not have... money. Right. That happens to people and Serma now felt like a stupid royal brat that had zero understanding of the world.

“If you show off your skills with a few unpaid kills or work around town, that can also be a form of a recommendation. If you keep it up, the Guild would see you as an asset and waive the application fee,” she explained kindly. Mas waved his hands as he dropped onto the sofa next to her, slouching so much that Serma felt the lessons of her Mother die of shock.

“I brought them wolf fangs, snake skins, even a few goblin things but they just said I shouldn’t lie and took the stuff away as dangerous. I even did tasks and wrote down the people I helped but... they don’t wanna check... waste of time the bat said,” Mas grumbled.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

That... was…

“They stole your items?” Serma focused on the first thing wrong. Mas sat up, nodding furiously.

“They wanted my sword but said it was gonna break anyway! I worked hard and no one cares. So I came to you because I hoped not everyone who was an adventurer... a hero... could be bad,” he trailed off and for the first time since Mas appeared, his bright spirit dipped.

“They’re not. Heroes are real but what they did is wrong. Mas... I’m not the Guild Master, I apologise but I was just being sarcastic due to my bad mood!” she dipped her head in apology. There was a beat of silence.

“Ohh... that makes sense I guess. Your office looked way too boring,” Mas agreed before he blinked at Serma.

“So... who are you?” he asked, leaning in closer than Serma usually experience people being.

“I’m Prin…” she cut herself off for a second before she smiled.

“Serma, a pleasure,” she held out a dainty hand as her blood demanded. Instead of the practise kiss on the back of her palm, Mas shook it hard again.
“Serma! That’s a sweet name. Sorry for busting in here and all but if you’re here you must wanna be a hero too!” he stated, the boy’s brain making truly impressive leaps in logic.

Serma was about to correct him but... wasn’t it the fact she was angry that she wasn’t being allowed to truly experience the Dungeon the whole reason she was here?

“Sort of,” she ended up saying. Mas looked annoyed.

“Must have turned you down too! Did they take your weapon?!” he stood, actually looking her over for the first time.

“You just noticed what I have on my person?” Serma had to ask blankly. Mas grinned.

“I was too busy staring at your face. It’s nice!” he said, crossing his arms with the confidence only a boy could have.

What royal etiquette covered this? Laugh fakely at the compliment? No, Serma actually did feel something at the compliment. Deny it with grace? She wasn’t sure Mas would understand the social gameplay of the false denial...
Declare war on his nation?

Wouldn’t that just be civil war?

Call for his head? But then he couldn’t keep speaking to her like a person, which Serma really enjoyed!

She was trapped between royal secretive smile and utter indifference.

Her baffled mind went for both and she ended up smiling with her wide eyes. The look was not to be painted anytime soon but Mas laughed cheerfully as he pulled her up, her horrified mind making sure she put up no resistance.

“Let’s go find the Guild Master or show off our skills and get registered! Then we can team up with my friend Xan then we can take on the Dungeon and I can marry a princess!” Mas explained very quickly.

“Marry a what?!” Serma’s mouth yelped before her mind could wrestle control back. Mas’ strong grip had her out the door before long and while Serma did protest, she also felt... better.

She gathered herself as the ‘bat’ of a receptionist gaped as Mas dragged the Royal princess towards her. The woman was pretty but the eyes held a gleam of something that irked Serma.

Perhaps it was high time she finally used all this Princess influence for something.
Chewing a thief out in a highly respectable place would be simple; a fine place to begin. But she had to make sure to do it such a way that Mas didn’t... learn of her status. How he didn’t know with the crown, the white gown and the VIP room, she had no idea but she was actually having a good time for once since her Birthday!

---
Upstairs, Lorsa put their cup of tea of the table in front of the sofa where Princess Serma and the boy had been sitting moments before. The cloak dropped to reveal shocking white hair that hid a smiling face.

“Ah youth. To be young again,” Lorsa toasted with empty hands. The Princess was safe. There was nowhere she would go that Lorsa could not be in less than a second. Even then, Lorsa’s watchful eye had claws and hid well.

The boy was just funny, and his ability to pull the Princess out of her slump was cute. Now Lorsa just had to keep delaying the Guild Master down the street from the Guild Hall another... oh... forty minutes until the Princess and the Boy would pass the little test...

Lorsa was a big fan of pushing the chicks out of the nest. Too often, snakes devoured the scared chicks that dared not fly.
The tea was drunk in an instant and Lorsa was gone before the cup landed back on the table.

---
It was no surprise that Mas now had a decent recommendation, a quick word had also seen to it that his items returned before long.
Mas was in awe of Serma’s apparent ability to make people do what she wanted.

“Are you some sort of Puppet Mage or are you using some scary fear power?” he inquired. Serma rolled her eyes as they were lead to the small off-hall testing room.

“It’s called manners and firmness,” she responded. The pale receptionist gestured to a row of seats where a few other men and women sat, waiting.
“P-please wait for your names,” she stuttered. Mas waved at her with a winning grin.
“That’s right, you’ll hear the name Mas and Serma, the dynamic duo!” he bragged. The woman looked to Serma with fear and alarm. She merely shook her head and walked to the seat.

Only once she was resting on the hard wooden chair, almost a stool really... did she consider what she was doing. Brilda was going to glare at her... Zane wouldn’t care unless Serma really turned out to be a pain to find. Then he'd be annoyed, and that was bad for all involved.
Lorsa would do... something.

But why was she taking the test to become a bronze star adventurer?!
“I’m so excited! You’re going to do awesome, Serma. Believe in yourself. Even if you don’t pass, you can join my guild!” he promised kindly. Serma took comfort in that. If her Mother found out she had escaped her guard and went in public without even a disguise... she might need somewhere to run and hide.

The nervous people around them merely watched as some no-named casually called Serma by her first name, they seemed to inch away from him as if Serma would set him on fire any second.

But soon enough, names of groups were called, and sometimes just single names. Serma had agreed to be on Mas’ shared application. Something groups could do, if their strength was more in-line of teamwork like Priests or mages.

To be honest, this was good! Serma was actually getting to see the process in action and if worse came to worst... one of these people could be in her group to reach the tenth floor. Seeing who came out with defeat and who came out with smirks said a lot.
The test took place on the other side of a simple door and soon enough a plain man called out calmly as if he truly had heard and seen it all...
“Mas and Serma of ‘Ultra-Dragon-Exploders’?”

The hall was too quiet other than Serma’s slowly turning neck as she stared at the already striding Mas.
“Wow...” another testee said bluntly. Not even three hundred years of noble blood could keep Serma’s chin high and proud.
“I should have expected nothing less,” she admitted to herself as they walked into the room. The plain man with short hair and dull eyes walked over and stood at the centre of an empty room.

“You have three minutes to land an attack on me,” he stated. Serma had to remind herself that Bronze rank 1 was basically ‘had used a weapon once’. It was not weird for such a basic test. The man hadn’t looked scratched that much so Serma did wonder how the others passed.
Still, the faster this was over, the better, hopefully before Serma was found by an irate Royal Knight...

The only downside was that Serma lacked a blade, her preferred weapon. Mas’ body was almost vibrating with anticipation.
“Remember, he is trained,” she gave him a warning. Mas’s answer was brief.

“As long as you got my back, we can do this!” he promised. The enthusiasm was nice. Serma would have to extract it and bottle it to cure the world of depression. Could there be another such cheerful boy in this land?

Without a blade, she only had one thing... a single spell she had been able to master.
“I can take a hit, so use me a shield,” she promised. She half expected an argument or some sort of knightly refusal but Mas, as Serma was quickly growing to like, only grew excited.

“Got it! Side by side then!” he charged and Serma followed as she hiked up her dress. How this instructor felt facing a boy waving a sword as big as himself, yelling his head off, and a Princess running in heels and a dress with a determined expression, Serma had no clue.

The only thing to complete this group would be some tall hulking man swinging a huge weapon, he’d have to have blond or red firey hair to complete the look. Focusing, Serma watched as Mas’ first swing was fast and the man actually kicked off the ground with a surprised look. He struck a leg out, but Serma put her training into action, standing in front of Mas as she cast her spell.

Really... it wasn’t... exactly a combat spell to be honest. Really, it was a cosmetic spell that Serma had utterly butchered. Her clothes became wrinkle free as the magic smoothed the creases and wiped dirt from her clothes.

Serma’s magic struggled before it did what it always did with this spell. It doubled back and the fabrics became thrice as durable, the white dress now being able to deflect a weak dagger, something she learned in an assassination attempt one time. The leg bounced off as the man recoiled in shock.
Serma followed it up with a swift kick and the man toppled over with a gasp.

“Woah! Serma, you won the fight for us!” Mas praised. The bonus of the spell she used meant that Serma didn’t have to worry about looking haggard or roughed up. A blessing really.

“A spar, nothing else. He clearly was going easy on us and didn’t use a weapon,” she dismissed but her smile made Mas grin harder.
“You pass... you can tell the receptionist... that Bart gives the aye,” the man wheezed. Serma was about to help him up but Mas was already running out the room with her.

“I’m sorry!” she called, needing to say something before becoming rude.

Inside, she felt... happy. Serma had to parse this feeling. She was pleased about passing some test? How silly was that?

“We’re going to beat trolls up, and rescue lords, and discover the city of gold, and ride dragons or dragon people!” Mas listed with such joy.

Pretty silly but Serma started to pick up the pace and run with Mas towards the receptionist desk. The awaiting trio of her Royal guards and a man Serma knew to be the Guild Master almost put a damper on her cheer but not quite.

In front of Zane and Brilda were two very... odd people. The one glaring at Mas was a stout woman who had to be a dwarf. Her skin was ashen grey like stone, showing some power or influence. Her hair was hidden under a well dented helmet. Her armour had a familiar symbol stamped on it. A mountain with golden veins flowing through it, Serma could only barely remembered it belonged to some Deity of the Earth.

Her giant book bound with iron had the same symbol. A priestess of some kind.

“You daft son of a bucket! I told you not to do anything rash, and you go and bloody kidnap the Princess?!” she demanded. Her voice was as soft as a thorny bush. Mas shrank under the woman’s glare but he held out his hand to her, still holding Serma’s.

“Team Ultra-Dragon-Exploders won the test! We’re Bronzers!” he beamed then paused. He seemed to actually hear her words before he turned to Serma.
“She thinks you’re a princess. You get mistaken for a lot of things, don’t you?” he mused.

A shadow fell over them as Brilda glared hotly at the held hands.

“Woah... she looks angry!” Mas whispered.

Serma let go before her guard killed her friend.

“If this is not the best time, perhaps we should adjust the numbers until a better one comes along?” came a smooth voice that sniffed after speaking. Serma peered around Brilda and her brain shut down as a giant white furred mouse man stood there wearing a royal blue coat, fine grey trousers, some well-used wraps around his clawed feet. On his face was huge thick bottle-glasses that expanded his little beady eyes to large volumes.
“Xan! Xan! It’s a mouse,” Mas pointed out with a smile. The man glared at Mas.

“I am clearly a Rattis, do notice the strong tail and fine fur,” he retorted, he withdrew an almost ruler-like wand and gestured to his tail in example.
“Mousekin have on average 4-inches smaller tail with less muscle mass by a factor of up to 10%!” he began to lecture. Serma’s mind tried to fall into her default good-student-mode but it wasn’t quite working.

She stared at the group before her that her Knights had assembled.

The Dwarf priestess of stone, her own personal choice of Mas the sword-user... and a Mouse Hero!

“Ah Princess Serma, a pleasure,” the hero in question bowed with elegance.

“I thought she was a Guild Master, so you might wanna double check she is a Princess, just a tip,” Mas nodded wisely before Xan picked him up by the ear.

“One more word and I’ll have you so black and blue that a sea troll would look healthy in comparison!” she growled.

“Princess, you wanna tell your father you’re a bonafide bronzer or do we make some poor servant do it?” Zane yawned. The words were enough to drag Serma’s gaze away from the Rattis-

“Sir Denomin!” the Rattis said as she turned.

Her confusion must have been evident because Zane laughed a dark chuckle.

“You think the Royal family is going to accept the dishonour of one of their own merely being a Bronzer? Think again, kiddo,” he said and Serma remembered that she was indeed a Princess of the Royal Family.

One who was expected to be in the top tier of... anything… they pursued.

“Team Ultra-Dragon-Exploders are going for the top! Serma isn’t afraid of anything!” Mas promised from behind Xan’s hand. Zane looked amused but the weirdest thing came from Lorsa.

“Too cute... I am going to enjoy this,” they announced to the room. Xan looked nervous as Denomin twitched his adorable whiskers in some attempt to sense danger.

Serma eyed the bronze badge that was passed to her a minute later.

Her reflection was smiling.

How... weird.

She had no idea what had caused these series of events but she gave a small, silent prayer of gratitude. This was the best day she had ever had...

---

Many... many, miles away, Delta paused as she watched the web room fix itself.

“Hm? Did you say something Nu?” she asked and the text box gave her a long flat ding.

That joke was funny about the first 500 times. Hurry up, The option just opened up and I want to see what the requirements are!

Delta rolled her eyes but she could get why he was excited.

It was the Third floor after all...

Delta would have to make sure the second floor was ready but she felt a tremble of buzzing excitement. That was when her menus vanished again and Delta spun to see the weirdest thing from the outside world yet. Kemy, the innocent girl from before, fell down her stairs with a blindfold on.
“Oh, mighty Goddess of Truth… guide me!” she yelled, then stumbled forward, arms stuck out in panic.

The spiders all paused in their webbing and gave Delta the Royal ‘We pity you’ dance. She took it for the intended message but what made it all worse than the only Monster available capable of speech besides Maestro who did short musical bursts... was... Cois.

The rest were busy and Fera would not leave her post.

Mushy had gone to the second floor to show off his new power to the Pygmies, Hob and Gob were out gathering and Billy and Numb were blackout drunk under a tavern table... Delta felt a headache coming already as she called for Cois. What kind of person wandered into a Dungeon blind? Well, besides Delta but she didn’t have a choice!

Ignoring the feeling of dread, Delta put on a winning smile and was sure she’d get this sorted out in a few minutes.

Before Kemy fell down some hole Delta didn’t know she had or something.

It would be just Delta’s luck.

--

74: Blind Truth

The Scarlet Moons were an odd group. Not like Delta’s other guests. Everyone else, even Deo, Poppy, and Amanstar, felt like they were merely toying with her. This group had actually struggled on some level.

On one hand, Delta felt worried as they fled and hadn’t returned, on the other hand... Delta was glad nothing else was on fire. The group was good at fire, if nothing else. Kemy, ever the calm one, had gotten the idea while the older woman who seemed to act as her older sister, Aneya, was more on guard.

Gonga was simple but not a terrible person. Delta likened him to her own Cois. A fellow rather prone to bursts of chaotic fire. Delta wanted to blame him for everything but really, the issue was that Delta had no idea that Boary would transform...

It spoke of many menus and boxes that she had yet to learn of...

Condition box? Mini-boss potential?

Delta sighed but she perked up slightly as Mr-... Lord Mushy calmly seemed to go about helping the regrowing mushrooms look neat and... slightly bigger. The whole adventure of the group had been another eye opener.

Delta wasn’t weak enough to be beaten by teens. She was only beaten by Durence teens. That had been a slight mistake she had made and one she could now see as an error. Kemy... Aneya... Gonga... that other guy... were not ready for her first floor let alone her second.

What if Wyin had gotten a hold of them? Delta knew so little about her second floor boss but that was more due to time and upgrades...

No.

Delta couldn’t risk these people making it past her bar let alone Sir Fran! What if they upset the bees or pissed off Rale! Delta shivered at the image of Bob swinging Kemy about like he had done Grim.

What if they broke?

Delta gulped as she floated down to the second floor. While the group had given her some mana and DP, it was far less than Ruli’s average visit or even Deo. Was there that level of difference?

Delta had no idea that Durence had such experts in its midst. Perhaps Ruli and Quiss were the strongest protectors? Some sort of guardians? Delta blinked slowly.

Ruli slacked off for a guardian... Quiss was just too mean to be someone people turned to as well! But she couldn’t deny their power. Dabberghast was nice but weird… Isanella... that woman was someone Delta didn’t know very well. How many more scary people called Durence home? Couldn’t be that many!

Right?

The thought made her head hurt and she didn’t even notice where she ended up.

“Powerful friends may become powerful foes,” Wyin said calmly. Her form appearing to be a suggestive woman shrouded in the mist but Delta could see her real form. A deadly wooden figure of thorns and glaring eyes.

Delta looked up at her.

“They’ve been nothing but nice, it’s just these new people that are the issue. Kemy is sweet but the rest expect me to be a murder dungeon,” Delta whispered. Wyin lowered her branches that acted as her arms.

“Then they will be unkind and come back with more anger. Best to deal away with them. Those who do not respect your kindness do not deserve it!” she said bluntly. Delta looked up startled.

As always, I find you being nothing but trouble. Other Dungeons may be animalistic and… quick to act but Delta has made her own path. If you have any self-respect as a boss, you won’t question that.

Nu’s text box announced suddenly. Wyin leaned back as if Nu burned her leaves in some manner.

“Mother encourages thought. If you protest that... then I have to assume you disagree and thus I should remove you...” Wyin hissed. Nu’s box was blank for a second.

Delta’s kindness is not to be disrespected or abused by anyone.

The threats and glaring were not helping her mood. Surprisingly, both tree and box seemed turn to her.

Delta?

“Mother?”

The concern seemed real from both sides and that only made it all worse. How could Delta tell one or the other off when they felt so honestly worried for her? Was Wyin just being overly-aggressive or was Nu being protective?

Did the Scarlet Moons deserve such treatment just because they did some damage?

“No. They did what was logical and reasonable for a Dungeon. If I am the odd one out... I can’t expect people to behave the way I want,” she said aloud, the thought finally hitting her.

Other Dungeons really did exist. Delta was the weird one and others had no... little to no issue with just killing. How did they think about that? Did they think?

Did wolves ponder the moral issue of eating deer?

Was Delta... really the freak in this situation?

That thought oddly liberated Delta in a way she hadn’t thought about before. Defying expectations and making her pit of death into a home... that made Delta happy simply because it apparently should have freaked her out.

“Wyin... Nu... thank you but I think that I should be wrong a lot and I should take action against folks I give too much leeway to. I should learn right? If I just keep repeating mistakes... I’m just as bad as the murder hobos coming to the Dungeon to grind,” she announced.

“Murder... hobo?” Wyin frowned. Her face made of smooth wood creased into a frown.

“Overly-passionate adventures that prefer… winning over the experience,” Delta amended.

She turned and looked at the first floor.

Learning was the key to making sure her dream would come true. Those who refused to learn were doomed to repeat it, right?

She moved and ended up in the Mushroom Grove. She focused and a single plain signboard appeared.

“Sorry Nu. Gonna have to borrow your gimmick,” she said sheepishly as made words appeared.

If you didn’t... I would have. Still, I have doubts these people will read it, let alone follow the instructions. Something about idiots and clear instructions do not mesh.

Delta snorted but tried to pretend like she was focusing on the sign.

Fire will result in explosions.

Could Delta get much more basic? She’d never make or encourage any Dungeon designs that would seek the death of those who would enter but if someone was stubbornly determined to bash their heads on the wall... Delta could only provide so many pillows.

“Do you think other Dungeons enjoy killing people?” Delta asked after a moment.

Nu was silent for the following moments.

No. Sys tells me that others don't enjoy as much as deal. A matter of life. A simple expectation. No more interesting than harvesting grain. You are far more interesting due to your odd oaths and choices. It has resulted in more... outcomes than I had imagined.

“Stop, I’ll blush!” Delta suddenly teased.

Weird outcomes but still, the results are not the same. You are the oddest Dungeon Core I have ever- Ever- Ever-

Delta turned and saw Nu’s box fizzle as if overheating.

“Nu!” she yelled and to her relief the box righted herself.

Sorry. I went down an odd thought pattern. I blame you of course. Only you can make me feel anything other than purpose and duty. Speaking of. I am... going to add more signs and a few tweaks while you decide what to do next. Hovering is not my style.

Delta couldn’t answer before the box fled but she had a feeling of sudden shyness from Nu.

Weird.

“Sys, are there any more potential bosses or such?” she called and no such box appeared.

Looks like since Boary had room Guardian status, it was likely to evolve. After all, Maestro, Lord Mushy... Fera... Waddles... were rather beyond conditional bosses. Delta honestly couldn’t be sure how to feel about all that other than she was glad to have friends.

Delta thought about what to do and honestly, any grand plans were pushed back as she silently watched the fire damage reverse itself. Maybe in a few months... years... she would stop watching as the damage repaired itself but not now.

Right now, Delta needed to see that everything was going to be okay. Like an anxious parent after their child hit their head. Worried but still caring.

Mostly, she focused on the Grove and the Spider Room. The two biggest targets of Gonga’s flames. Gonga’s fire honestly didn’t upset Delta, something about the man seemed awkward with magic. Delta wondered why he didn’t use a sword when clearly his mana rejected the magic he forced on it.

Reason? Stubbornness?

Whatever it was... Delta felt deep will and pain when Gonga used the magic and she couldn’t dislike the man. His casting had a tinge of his inner soul and it made Delta want to know more. She hoped he... Aneya... and Kemy came back peacefully.

Just so she could find out more.

Lordy soon declared the Grove to be on a healthy-enough level to be left alone. He no longer waddled, but strode with a jolly step towards the stairs.

“I must see the little rascals of the second floor, no doubt they will be surprised!” he explained with a twirl of his mustache. Delta giggled and walked beside him. To her surprise, he extended one arm and nodded for her to slip her own through.

Amused, since the act was merely pretending since she still couldn’t touch things, Delta did so and let Lordy escort her like some lady.

“How do you feel? Evolving, I mean,” she asked, interested on what a second evolution felt like to someone like Lordy. The crowned cap tilted up as he hummed in thought.

“It is akin to waking up and having some of your dreams come back with you. You're not less but you are more. I was Mr Mushy, and still am, but now there is more to me that makes me Lord Mushy,” he said a little wistfully.

“Like the mustache!” Delta nodded in agreement. Her monster chortled as he twitched the mustache in response.

“Lord Mushy without his mustache is no Lord at all!” he agreed. Delta broke out into a laugh, smiling as they reached the stairs. She bid Lordy a good trip and turned, running almost through a box.

It wasn’t Nu but a general system message.

Dungeon had reached enough experience to gain a third floor.
Summary;
Conditions needed:
Second Floor Boss. Summoned.
Four or more rooms: Formed.
General critters 5 or more: Created.
Monsters on level: 5 or more.
Of which are contracted: 1
Kills: 0
Wins: 1
Items absorbed on second floor: Minimal.
Mana vent found.
Not Enough-

Correction: Additional points found by System
Theme: Jungle! Core developed heavily into this theme.
Unique evolutions! Rale the River Lord!
Thriving ecosystem developed!
Challenge gates for boss created!
Unique Boss summoned via rare magical seed.
Powerful monster summoned by chance. Guards secret tunnel!
Lost circus, victims of ?!%£!£ERROR found!
Rare monster contracted.
Creative use of fire crystal.
Monsters developed to think greater than most bosses. Able to think and react rather than repeat mistakes.

System states that enough points have been gathered.

Third Floor Purchase is now available at Core’s request.

“On one hand. I feel like I fail as a Dungeon. On the other, I think I did well despite that. One win?” Delta read closely.

“Oh come on, Grim passed out, that was hardly a... win,” she mumbled.

Finally! I was thinking the Third Floor was going to need some actual deaths to appear, glad to see Sys nudged it a little.

Delta looked at the blue box that appeared at her side.

“Should I be worried that you were willing to think about killing people to hurry things up?” she asked dryly.

No. Not at all. So, now we can go deeper. New opportunities… new monsters.

Nu was excited, if nothing else. Delta watched the box close. With some flicking of her fingers, she found the upgrade, listed right there as if it was nothing special.

Third Floor Purchase: 300 DP

Delta couldn’t help feeling a little amused. It wasn’t that much, all things considered. With some saving and the sheer amount of Spiders that her goblins have come back with...

Delta looked at her menu.

380 DP

101 Mana

Delta could purchase it right now. The temptation was so strong for a moment that it scared Delta into taking a step back. Growing... making more of her home. That couldn’t be a bad thing, right?

Right?

To be honest... there was still a lot to do on the second floor. Some adjustments had to be made with the first floor. If she made a Third Floor right as of this moment, she’d be adding to her plate without really making sure her foundations were solid... if the foundations were on the ceiling, that was.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Spreading herself too thin might make the whole ordeal worse. Not to mention, there could be more things like the Slimers and Renny waiting for her. What if Delta couldn’t stop them due to a unfinished second floor to call for aid?

Delta pursed her lips. Her monsters found it easier to go down a level than up. Rale and the others struggled to climb the first floor stairs but Cois and the others didn’t have too much issue coming down.

Delta was assuming it had something to do with the level of Mana on each floor, like going to high on a mountain and the air thinned out for people.

So, if worse came to worse, she would be able to summon her monsters from the second to deal with any potential threats on the third.

But if she was going to go that route, then the Second floor deserved to be properly tuned up.

Delta nodded, she closed the box and ignored the sulking Nu.

“Come on, let’s go make sure the Spiders are getting on okay,” she smiled.

It wasn’t like the Third Floor was going anywhere.

---

Renny moved his hands round and round as he sat on a rock near the waterfall pool. He tugged as his powers felt resistance. He mimed struggling and soon enough, he managed to reel Bob out.

The two tiny red crabs clattered in despair and anger at Renny. He merely tilted his head as they grudgingly handed over their smooth and shiny pebbles.

A deal was a deal. The crabs would know better than to make a bet with Renny in the future. A circus worker never suffered bad luck in games. Bob wiggled and slowly lowered his head so Renny could pet the shiny body.

“Another win for the ringmaster Renny!” Rale boomed and his muscular body emerged from the river nearby. It didn’t seem to bother Rale that neither Renny, Bob, or the crabs could answer back

“This makes 34-0 to the Mime,” he mused. The crabs snapped their claws, annoyed. Renny had to admit, he was running out of pocket space for all these rocks. Rale smacked Renny’s back hard and nearly moved Renny.

That frog’s strength was insane. Renny was glad he was contracted before Rale evolved. Fighting a furious river lord would not be fun. A bush nearby rustled.

The form of Devina manifested as if created by shadows and green leafs. Her usual calm expression looked a little... displeased. Her bird, Delbird, was there but he too looked annoyed.

It wasn’t hard to see why when both of them looked to be covered in tiny fluffy darts.

“Ran into the munchkins? Great little things, right?” Rale beamed. There was a crackle of mystic energy as Devina’s eye twitched. The bird on her shoulder puffed up.

“They are little as-” the bird began and Devina softly shut its beak with her fingers.

“As ironic as Delbird’s comment is, they mistook me as an evil goddess coming to seduce their… god. Have you seen Mushy? He has evolved! He looks... he talks!” Devina informed the group. Rale was gone in an instant, swallowed by the water and a cheer.

Renny was almost tempted to follow but Devina walked up to him.

“I require... assistance to remove the darts. The crabs would pinch and Bob...” she looked up the creature.

He sang to her in confusion.

“Bob is here for emotional support,” she finally said.

Renny eyed the frog and the bird.

He would say to anyone, if he ever spoke, that the second floor was no slouch in drama compared to the first floor, and he would fight anyone who would argue.

---

Delta looked down as Kemy, the girl who just left her dungeon, wandered back in. The oddest thing was the pure white cloth around her eyes. A golden symbol of a hand stitched into the cloth, a little lopsided. Delta guessed that Kemy had stitched it herself.

“Oh Goddess of Truth, guide my path!” she called and began to slowly walk forward. Her hands stretched out in front of her as if to ward off bad vibes. The girl’s robes were a little dirty, signs that she may have tripped on the way to Delta’s; or Delta’s stairs needed a bit of a cleaning if she had that much dirt from one fall.

“I have no idea what you’re doing,” Delta stated bluntly to the girl that couldn’t hear her. Thankfully... maybe... Cois was on his way to act as a mouthpiece. Kemy managed to slowly walk into the tunnel but she was moving erratically. She stepped slightly right and the pop-out sign Nu had designed, missed her by inches.

“May the truth find me in this darkness. May I find the light in truth,” Kemy whispered to herself quietly. Cois rounded the corner, blinking as he saw a blind human walking with her arms stretched out.

He rubbed at his eyes and blinked, looking again to see he had indeed not gone insane.

“Cois do something, she’s going to walk into the wall!” Delta urged. Cois gave her a side look before he grinned.

“I live to serve,” he promised and Delta felt tingles of panic rising up. Cois slid across the wall and waited until Kemy neared, repeating her prayer over and over.

“Cois?” Delta both asked and warned. The goblin inhaled and with an attempted sweet and motherly tone that came out as crooked and sickly, he spoke.

“Turn left, my child!” he breathed, making his voice seem distant. Kemy almost stumbled there and then.

“Who... Who... hello?” Kemy stood still, holding her arms to chest as if to shield herself. Cois’s evil smirk made Delta regret this.

“Cois, don’t you dare confuse her!” she said with a frown. Cois shrugged before he continued.

“It is me, your Goddess... I have heard your prayers. You must turn left!” he crooned again. Kemy’s body shook just a little.

“M- my Goddess?” she breathed in awe before hesitating.

“You sound... odd,” she pointed out. Cois sniffed.

“The goddess has a cold, now child-”

“Gods can get colds? How does that work? I thought you existed as a light within us all?” Kemy mused to herself.

“Magical colds exist and I have a tough job!” Cois fired back, voice returning to normal for a moment.

“I think you’re lying. I know when people lie. Who are you?” Kemy responded, firm but not unkind. Delta sighed with relief, the girl had seemed rather aware of things.

“Well... I could have been a god!” Cois sniffed. Kemy bowed, but didn’t remove her blindfold.

“I don’t think you need to be a god. I find being a person is just as good. You can eat things and sleep. They are very nice things to experience!” Kemy said with honest feelings. Cois looked down at himself.

“Person, right. Okay, fine. I’m not a god but I’m better. I am Cois of the flame! Servent and warrior of Delta the Dungeon. I shall burn the cruel and feed their ashes to mother’s kindness and mushrooms,” Cois growled.

Kemy gulped a little.

“I... had enough of fire for now. I’d like to do a special ritual in the Dungeon if Delta is okay with it?” Kemy asked, fingers intertwined and nervously fiddling across each other. The goblin looked at Delta and she peered closely at her guest.

Not matter how deeply Delta looked or searched, Kemy gave off no ill-will.

“Sure, if she doesn’t mind explaining,” she finally answered.

“Mother said you can do it but we wanna know what’s gonna happen,” Cois repeated her words in a manner that was close enough. Kemy perked up.

“Oh, thank you! Delta is a really nice Dungeon! I’ll bring some mushrooms for her. I saw she really likes them!” Kemy bowed again and Delta felt a deep stab of pain in her chest.

“C-Cois, tell her no more! Tell her I don’t like them, not... most of them!” Delta pleaded and Cois dug into his ears with a claw.

“Hm... kinda... went deaf...” he mumbled with a grin.

Delta would ban the damn goblin from the tavern! Fera would understand.

“My seek...” Kemy began and touched the necklace she wore.

“I am conflicted about my time in Delta’s Dungeon. On one hand I felt nothing but a peaceful trip where the only issues came from my groups over thinking... but the Grove was different and I want to know what happened and experience the Dungeon in a new light. I will not trust my eyes for they see what they wish. I will trust my voice... my ears... and my heart. The Goddess of Truth will guide me as I travel the Dungeon once more,” Kemy breathed out and she seemed to gather a little more confidence about herself.

Delta stared then she couldn’t help but smile.

“Thank you... thank you for giving me a chance,” she said so quietly but the emotion made her choke a little.

A breeze brushed past Kemy and she jumped.

“Wh-... was that a woman?” Kemy asked, turning slightly as if to follow the breeze.

She shrugged as Delta held a hand to her throat.

“Hello?” Delta called but Kemy didn’t react.

Cois looked around.

“So, what? What do we do? Stay out of your way?” he scratched his nose and Kemy shook her head.

“Do as you wish, I am not here to alter things but to learn. My Goddess will guide me to where I must be,” Kemy responded with courage before she faltered...

“But... I would… appreciate some guidance through the spider room... I don’t want to mess up their webs if they’ve just started to fix them,” Kemy murmurred, head a little low as if burdening the blame of her team on to herself.

Delta wanted to keep her. The girl was just too much.

Cois shrugged before remembering that Kemy was blind.

“Follow the sound of my soothing voice,” he instructed gruffly. Kemy giggled and moved forward before she almost tripped on her robe.

“Okay! Mr. Cois, I am in your hands!” she said brightly. The goblin paused.

“Master Cois,” he corrected. Kemy faltered but she perked up.

“M-master Cois!” she corrected herself.

“Cois, don’t go making random girls into your students or slaves,” Delta chided at the smirking Goblin.

“Mother would like to remind you that she would like 10 mushrooms for the privilege of my guidance,” he said and Kemy frowned.

“I’m not sure you’re telling me the tru-”

“Look, you almost stepped on a spider!” Cois pointed to empty air. Kemy attempted to hover by lifting both feet off the ground, she managed to obtain flight for about three seconds before crashing down.

“Less backchat and more listening to my wisdom,” Cois said haughtily.

Delta was doing her best to ping Numb or Billy but both seemed to be passed out. Hob and Gob were gone as well....

Fera wouldn’t leave her bar. Boary was sleeping like a coma patient... Waddles couldn’t speak, and Maestro was everywhere but nowhere.

Lordy would be so helpful here…

Delta watched, following as Kemy re-entered the spideroom and all the little silver beings watched with surprise.

One danced the dance of ‘A guest!’. A fellow one nearby responded in the famous ‘I have eight eyes, I’m not blind’ dance.

Truly, this was a culture of great grace.

Muffet’s hidden form, much weaker and frail without the condition of the other spider’s deaths casually dropped on to Kemy’s head. The girl squeaked, raising her hands delicately to feel the soft form.

The chittering chat of Muffet must of been familiar because Kemy’s other hand went to the white earmuffs around her throat.

“The white spider... Muffet. That’s your name, right?” Kemy asked and Muffet raised one leg and the other spiders did a dance that was both a ‘Hail muffet’ and ‘Is it time for tea?’.

Kemy was careful in not moving her head to avoid making Muffet fall. Muffet slowly reached down and tapped Kemy’s nose with a frail leg and the action caused Kemy to giggle.

“Thank you for the gift!” Kemy breathed which Muffet chittered and clacked her fangs with a casual tone.

Delta was pretty sure Kemy couldn’t speak spider but the scene was fun to watch. Still, Delta’s eyes wandered to the rest of the Dungeon. The challenges that awaited Kemy’s journey. The Mudroom... the Grove... the fortroom.

It was… not easy for someone without eyes. The other route would be easier but that meant introducing Kemy to Maestro...

Which would work! Kemy was blindfolded and couldn’t see Maestro. He was a fantastic monster but he was slightly...

Nightmarish but in a good way.

Delta just needed to get Kemy past Waddles... and Merry... and...

Fera.

What if Kemy went into the boss room?

How would that work?

Delta silently turned back to the giggling girl as Muffet began to tie her hair up and use her eight legs to make a rather nice bun for the girl to show off her face more.

It would work... Delta just had to take a cue from Kemy and have faith.

Faith that Delta’s own hard work would pay off.
---

75: Heart to Heart

She was hovering.

Delta knew that, but it was hard to pull herself away from another human being. There was something that felt like relief whenever she saw another person. Her home was lovely, her friends just as great but knowing that there was life beyond her walls... it relieved Delta to a great degree.

Muffet decided to cling to Kemy for a while longer as Cois loudly declared how she was lucky to be getting such a tour. The girl was interested and she listened intently, asking questions as they approached the pond room.

The glowing ceiling moss and torches made Kemy’s form look... peaceful. Odd considering she was in a Dungeon but Delta took that as a compliment.

“What is it like living in a Dungeon?” Kemy asked as Muffet’s legs undid her work and began to make another hairstyle. The spider seemed to greatly enjoy weaving Kemy’s hair into styles. The more she did, the more Muffet seemed to get better at it and would chitter cheerfully.

“What’s it like being out there? I think it has to suck,” Cois, ever the graceful one, stated. Kemy stumbled ever so slightly.

“What? No, if anything, it must be so small in here... It’s easy to see how one could feel trapped,” Kemy argued. Delta gave her a point for that. She had... at first.

It was odd how much Delta had adapted to these walls... to never seeing the sky proper. The Jungle helped but Delta hoped she could make some sort of working sky on one of her Floors. Maybe floor 3? A large plain or something with stars twinkling...

“Trapped? Everything is clear. This is my world, it changes a little everyday. Everyone here works for the same reason, Mother. We can argue or even dislike one another but no one doubts our loyalty. You lot can’t even grow up together and be sure of that. Besides, our world is small now. Mother is immortal... as are we. Our World will grow into the biggest... weirdest... oddest... quite frankly I am expecting mind-shattering wonders of the world. I shall experience every inch. In my own time,” Cois said with conviction.

Delta stared until Kemy’s small voice broke the silence.

“I didn’t think about it like that... but what about the sun? Meeting new people or being able to choose how to live your life?” Kemy asked quickly. Cois snorted.

“I choose to be myself. Otherwise, I’d be some smarty polite git. I wanted fire but I was originally destined to serve as a greeter. I hated it but accepted that... but not Mother. She freed me from that and I am the goblin you fear. Freedom? I have far more freedom than you. I was literally freed from my fate,” he growled with a hint of warning.

“Cois...” Delta said, her chest tight. She hadn’t guessed that her actions had meant that much to him.

Kemy was quiet for a few seconds as Cois took the keys from the waiting Waddles.

“What is Delta like? I keep feeling like she doesn’t make sense but she sounds…” Kemy stopped to pick her words carefully. Even Muffet seemed to stop braiding to listen.

“Human.”

Delta felt her chest tightening but she said nothing.

“Mother... is mother. How can I... any of us, describe how warm the air is when she speaks to us... how the ground beneath us is solid with her compassion? How our magic and thoughts flow free with her consent. She is our world and we are her children. ‘Human’ is almost insulting,” Cois said quietly.

“Quack,” Waddles added, making Kemy jump.

“Mr Duck!” she gasped.

“Even those that are more employed than raised feel that Delta is better than any ole smelly human,” Cois translated with a smug grin.

Delta would take the compliment, Cois so rarely gave them.

“I’m a smelly ole human...” Kemy protested weakly.

“We’re working on that,” Cois agreed. He took the key to the storage room and walked loudly with his staff so Kemy could follow with her ears. Kemy did so, stopping before she felt a bumping into her knees. She bent down slowly and touched the feathered head of Waddles.

She gasped as she smiled.

“Mr Duck...” she said as she picked him up.

The duck looked unfazed as Kemy carried him off. Spider in her hair and a duck in her arms... Kemy looked odd, yet cute at the same time. She seemed to pet both of them with slow motions, as if feeling something besides spider hair and duck feathers.

She inhaled through her nose as if her Dungeon had more than the scent of damp earth and mushrooms.

Every step, Kemy seemed to be learning something that Delta couldn’t see or hear. It made the petite girl more interesting by the second. Delta knew she should go to the second floor and start working while Kemy presence locked the first floor down but... she was just having too much fun with this.

How often did a girl blindfold herself and then do your Dungeon blind?

Delta was confident it couldn’t be often.

--

The hot springs of the second floor were at odd contrast with the rest of the Jungle.

Hypocritical of Renny to say, as his own turf was a circus of all things, but at the end of the day these two places seemed to enhance the Jungle; as if tripping onto secrets that the jungle graciously allowed you to find.

Renny hadn’t visited the place himself and he might have to come more often.

The Jungle itself was warm but this place was just relaxing as steam and scents of cleanliness soaked into him. His dark mime suit was a little damp but after years of being in hibernation underground, Renny guessed it could do with a clean.

He wouldn’t get in the water, as his access to the softly bubbling pool was blocked by a young frog in a dress and heels of all things in the jungle. Her slight bowed legs and already tall nature made Renny crane his neck.

“Master Renny, welcome to the Delta Springs. A pool of peace and trust,” the young girl bowed. Then she looked at him for a split seconds.

“People can become over-cooked and drown in hot springs... isn’t that neat?” she asked brightly. Renny would have to disagree but he wasn’t here to start a fight.

“My name is Luna, guardian of the springs. Not much to see but Mum is going to spruce the place up when she gets a minute,” Luna explained, brushing her robe down which was covered in stars and half-moons.

“So, you’re a key guardian as well?” Luna asked lightly. Renny tilted his head before nodding.

Interesting concept for Delta but he would roll with it.

“I still haven’t figured out my test but I can wait until I get some improvements. I was going to visit Wyin, the doors unlock for us monsters without keys, which is nice. What’s your trial going to be?” she asked, saying this all very quickly.

Renny felt the key in his pocket.

Trial... yeah, he would have to do something to make people work for it. The bees had it easy... as did the little crazy mushrooms.. Even Bob was simple in his design.

His quick guess was the large frog, Giant, would be doing physical combat for his.

He and Luna?

It was tricky, she had a point in that both their areas were massively underdeveloped by Delta. Not that he minded. The statue of his father and space for Wilhelm was more than he could ever ask for.

Well... that and having his hunger dealt with. That was something he had never had in his life. Even with his father... his ghoul nature had... issues. He ignored the troubling memories and focused on Luna.

He merely gave a shrug of one his shoulders.

What more could he say?

“Yeah, I feel the same,” Luna blew out a sigh.

Renny merely looked skyward.

He had a feeling... that the second floor was about to get interesting. That he and Luna wouldn’t have to wait long for those desired changes.

The question was if they could handle it? Delta did have a habit of...

Well, to put it bluntly, being scary. Her power and changes were not normal. Under a less kind Core, Renny might have been worried. Under a lesser Core... he might have done his best to break free.

Not with Delta. He merely waited to see what odd thing she would do next.

It was bound to be funny for a while before becoming terrifying in hindsight

Such was Delta’s Dungeon.

---

Kemy felt the creaking wood close behind her. Cois the goblin had lead her to the storeroom, she was sure of it. The clicking of the locked door, the smell of pots and stored wood of the shelves. The taste that mingled in the air was the slight feast of apples, honey, cooked meat... it was enough to make Kemy drool but she remembered the mouse.

Oh she remembered that mouse.

But Cois had lead her on and despite the room looking small... he grunted something and soon they walked on. Some secret tunnel? Something only monsters could open? Kemy didn’t know but the tunnel felt warm and moist. The growing smell of what she was rapidly coming to know as ‘mushroom’ was becoming strong.

Almost the same level as that Grove of mushrooms. Her hair felt a slight tug as Miss Muffet rearranged her hair again. It was nice, having such tiny hands... er... legs tugging and messing with her hair.

She had no idea if the spider knew of human hairstyles but short of a disaster, Kemy wouldn’t mind.

The duck in her arms was quiet but Kemy also took comfort in his warm frame. He was so light that she had little trouble carrying him for so long.

Soon, Cois’ tapping staff stopped and Kemy came to a halt.

“I’d take you onwards but all that listening stuff made me think you should take a minute here. Well, that and ‘Stro wouldn’t let us pass without at least a comment or ten,” Cois grumbled. His voice soft as prickly thorns.

“Here?” she asked politely. The heat had risen to a new level but Kemy’s senses tingled. Something was all around her. Her nose smelt mushrooms and her ears picked up slight rustling.

Cois didn’t answer but a new voice did.

This voice made a shiver dance its way down her spine.

“The place where all the cool cats hang, sweet thing,” the voice said in mirth all around her. The male’s words seemed to dance against her body.

“H-hello?” she called, holding Waddles tightly.

“Greeting, salutations, I can’t wait to celebrate this meeting,” the voice laughed. There was no malice or tension but the voice rang through Kemy. In a familiar way.

She had heard this voice before.

“My name is Kemy,” she bowed slightly.

“Kemy... Kemy... well, that is a lovely name. Not as much as mine, of course but I am biased. I am Maestro!” the voice boomed and Kemy took a step back startled. Maestro... a musical monster? How odd...

“So, no eyes and all ears, I can’t say I hate it at all,” Maestro chuckled. He had a nice laugh, not a mean one. He laughed as if everything was just that funny. Like life was not as serious as Kemy thought.

“Cois, my lad, why don’t you go grab a drink before Mother bans you?” Maestro offered. The goblin snorted.

“I doubt she’ll follow through with that threat… but I better drink just in case,” he agreed. Kemy didn’t hear the staff so couldn’t follow the goblin as Maestro talked over his steps.

“Kemy, tell Maestro what you’re doing here,” the voice encouraged.

“I came here to... see the truth of Delta,” she repeated.

“Blind?” came a surprised question. Kemy nodded as she shuffled forward, her foot touching a solid stone step. She blinked. Maestro sounded like he was right in front of her...

“It’s easier to open your mind if you stop judging everything with your eyes. The truth will form easier if I stop seeing everything the way I want to,” she explained.

“Sometimes what you see... is what you get,” Maestro suggested. Kemy shook her head.

“A rock can hide precious metals. A seed can grow into a medicinal plant. A drunk on the street could have been a great soldier or hero at one point,” she said with a solid conviction that came from her faith.

“Appearances can be deceiving?” Maestro summed up.

“Basically,” Kemy said, her cheeks going red. That was when she heard the slight sound of strings being played.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Sometimes, a bad person just looks bad but I see your point. Ah, who knows what hidden music each person can hold? Tell me, do you sing?” Maestro asked. Kemy blinked behind her blindfold.

“Not well... just a few hymns from my church. Why?” she climbed another few steps. Maestro’s voice seemed to come from both sides of her.

“I happen to also use different methods to judge someone. You ignore the eyes and I ignore the physical appearance. I also use my ears,” Maestro said, his voice subtly changing to be lower.

“Music... music is hard to fake when one puts their soul into it,” he added.

Music. music...

Kemy stopped climbing this odd staircase.

“Tell me, Kemy. As you seek the truth of Delta, will you allow me to see your truth?” the room went quiet as Maestro’s voice came from directly above her. It seemed to be the first time she had heard him speak from his own lips.

If he had lips, Kemy had no idea. What was Maestro exactly? He didn’t sound like a goblin.

“I... you want me to sing?” Kemy asked, hesitating for a moment. Maestro laughed again.

“You make it sound so grave. I am no sea witch, you can sing without fear. If you do so... honestly... then I shall share a secret of Mother. A little treat, hm?” Maestro tempted into her ears. Kemy shivered.

“Sure, I guess! Like I said, I don’t know more than a few hymns and a fair few drunk bar songs because of Gonga but I’ll stick to the hymns!” Kemy said quickly, almost sensing Maestro smiling.

Still, if the tip wasn’t any use to Kemy... it could be something useful for the Moons. Any little info helped a guild in the long run!

“Okay, here I go!” Kemy inhaled and tried to get her stage fright to calm down.

“Sing... I’ll help,” Maestro encouraged.

The hymn Kemy used was her favourite of all.

‘The Truth of Love’. The song was quaint and not often sung when Kemy was a simple sister of the church but she slowly began the first line of the song.

Closing her eyes, despite her blindfold, she pretended she was back at her small chapel. The days that seemed more magical due to the power of memories. The way the main hall looked like a secret realm as the sun shimmered through the stained glass depicting her Goddess in various acts through her tales.

As she sang, the sound of a piano and soft harp strings sounded out in time. It almost made Kemy stumble over the next few words, but she caught herself.

The song was about her Goddess and how she praised the love between two people. The pure honest affection and love they displayed had moved even her Goddess. The song went through hard talks they shared, the love they declared... the honest words when they promised each other they would never be apart.

Kemy felt braver and more relaxed with each line she sang. Maestro somehow managed to make the soft strings and the piano sound just like her music teacher of the chapel. Each note softly in time but not overpowering or harsh.

For the longest of moments, Kemy felt like she was home and she felt Muffet reaching down to catch a tear she hadn’t felt fall.

Kemy was neither the best singer or the most dedicated learner. She was sure she had missed a few words and notes but she sang until she was out of words.

The music slowly stopped and then there was silence. A warm pause after all was said and done.

“Wonderful. I can see why she likes you,” Maestro said, breaking the moment. Kemy shrugged and gathered her scattered emotions back together.

Maestro sounded affectionate in an odd way. Kemy shuddered as she breathed.

“You were a very good player... the instruments were well practised,” she praised back, needing to say something.

“Oh hush, you little charmer. I am a monster of my word. A tip for you,” Maestro’s voice dropped into a whisper.

“Kindness gets you much farther than a blade. If it comes down to combat to death... you’ve missed something,” he said

Kemy was beginning to see that her for herself.

“Mother said your voice is great and you shouldn’t be shy,” Maestro said suddenly. That made Kemy blush just a little harder.

“Well, let’s get you to Fera. Turn around and stick your hand out,” Maestro instructed. Kemy did so and something grew from the ground until it bumped into her hand.

Soft and spongy.

“The mushrooms will guide you, don’t worry. It wouldn’t do well for my feng shui if you fell unconscious at the bottom of the stairs from tripping,” he chuckled. More mushrooms grew until they formed an almost safety rail.

“Thank you!” Kemy burst out with a smile. Holding on, she reached the bottom of the stone steps and the rail carried on, twisting around until Kemy reached another tunnel. Waddles quacked and Muffet chittered.

“Onwards!” Kemy agreed.

---

Delta watched the girl walk slowly towards the kitchen area of the bar. She would be okay.

“Little Kemy has got a tune, not like Isanella but she’s pretty good,” Maestro said to her, his large demonic face and thin fingers that looked designed to drag unfortunate people under the water, flexed.

“Maestro, was she happy or sad when she sang?” Delta asked quietly. Maestro examined his fingers for a moment before answering.

“One can be both. I felt the sadness was more of a... homesick vibe. Felt awful, good thing I never plan to leave home,” Maestro announced.

“Yeah, you get to live here and rent-free as well!” Delta complained but she was smiling just a little.

“I do the music! How can you ignore my amazing contributions to our lovely home?” Maestro gasped, acting as if Delta had wounded him.

“Because half the music you try to play is rude or Benny Hill when something happened to the Moons!” she reminded. Maestro chuckled.

“I can’t wait until you make large fall areas, I have the Wilhelm scream lined up,” he admitted.

Delta shook her head and floated after Kemy.

---

Kemy hesitated as something pushed in her hand.

She had merely opened a door before some gruff woman had escorted her... somewhere. The scent of cooking food and rich aromas had taken her by complete surprise. Why was there such delicious smells in the Dungeon?

Something hissed... something bubbled...

It was like a kitchen almost.

The woman had sat her on a stool and for an odd moment, Kemy felt like she might have just drifted off to sleep in Durence and woken back up in the tavern.

But that was popped when Cois nudged her.

“Come on! Have some Shroom Pop!” he encouraged.

The mug in her hands felt cold so Kemy gulped slightly before sipping it. She slowly put the mug down.

The taste was... well... Kemy sipped again.

It was kind of earthy, but it turned sweet as it passed her tongue. After a moment, the sweetness melted away into a distinct mushroom aftertaste.

Kemy liked mushrooms but this was giving her tongue a midlife crisis. It tasted good like pop of the capitol, but it was also made from mushrooms.

“How about something harder!” a new voice called from the back of the room.

“Numb, you ejeet! The girl looks as old as me, she ain’t getting no ale until I know better!” the woman growled.

“Sorry, Fera...” ‘Numb’ said, cowed.

“Thank you for the drink,” Kemy said and sipped more of the complex liquid.

“It’s alright, dahling, you’re a guest. Momma said to treat you right. You’re a nice girl, shame you got Cois as a guide,” Fera snorted. There was a grunt as Cois put his staff on the bar.

“What did you mean by that?” he asked with annoyance. Fera was quiet for a moment before she put something heavy and made from metal on the bar as well.

“What do you think I mean?” Fera said back, voice smug. Cois grumbled but to Kemy’s amazement, he didn’t back-sass Fera.

“You gobbos think you are all so stronk,” Fera said before refilling Kemy’s drink without asking Kemy if she wanted more.

Kemy sort of did... but also sorta didn’t.

This drink was upsetting her on a spiritual level, but Kemy didn't reject the refilled mug.

“Where… am I?” Kemy said, holding her moral dilemma in the form of a drink with both hands.

“Swarthy Hog, dahling. My place and a rest point for folks. The last room before the big cheese himself,” Fera explained as the sound of a wet cloth began to wipe down the bar.

“Big cheese?” she asked, afraid that Haldi had found her and came with more cheese.

“Fran the Pig Knight,” Fera answered. There was a sudden clatter of mugs as every person in the bar, and there was more than Kemy had known about, all cheered.

“TO FRAN!” they called and drank.

Kemy sipped the drink in her hands. Excited but unsure at the taste.

“Here ya go Muffet. Spiders in the corner are waiting for you. I think that’s what they’re saying. That or they’re so drunk they’re just dancing for dancing,” Fera seemed to pass something to Muffet. The spider crawled down Kemy’s face, seemed to nuzzle her before she crawled away.

Kemy giggled and waved.

“Bye Muffet!”

She was feeling rather warm! She drank more of the pop. Waddles quacked, more a demand than random noise.

“Listen, I can’t make that drink. I don’t have access to ‘Souls of the Nyxian river’ or ‘Infernal Brimstone’. Just drink water or pop for now!” Fera grumbled.

Those were odd ingredients. Then again, alcohol had always been a dramatic business. Kemy was sure it was some weird duck drink that had barely any buzz to it.

She giggled again, Duck drinks...

She drained her mug and Fera filled it up again for free!

Kemy was so happy!

“Fran the Pig Knight, he sounds important,” Kemy said finally.

“He is the boss of this floor. He deserves some respect,” Fera agreed. This made Kemy sit up straight.

“The boss? The bar is next to the boss room?” she said with shock.

“Isn’t Momma nice?” Fera agreed.

Kemy felt her heart speed up as she was less than a tunnel away from the most deadliest creature in this dungeon so far...

The boss.

Kemy drained her mug in a single gulp.

She hated this drink. But she also loved it!

“Is he dangerous?” Kemy asked aloud. Fera cleared her throat.

“He’s serious about his job, I can barely get him to come here for a drink,” she admitted. Kemy was nodding before the woman’s words caught up with her.

She almost spit her drink out in shock but swallowed it due to how good it was.

“THE BOSS CAN LEAVE HIS ROOM?” she screeched just a tad.

There was a silence before a new voice spoke.

“He can. Not often as I find training takes up too much of my time. Mother... encouraged me to be social,” the deep voice called and a wave of power crawled over Kemy’s skin. This feeling. It pricked at her very senses.

Inside, a tiny voice screamed for her to run.

Bosses had unique energies. A deeper, more violent coursing pulse of Dungeon power than anywhere else. It was usually so unique that one could not mistake it for anything else.

But the feeling hitting her now was not the blood soaked aura she expected. It was like steel, solid and polished. The feeling coming off the boss who took a stool next to her made her think of... a knight. Solid and unwavering. His purpose and life dedicated to the kingdom he lived in.

Fran the Pig Knight.

Kemy felt more awed than afraid for a moment.

“Fera... I’d like a pop,” Fran’s deep words called. Kemy was still until something large and wet pushed into her face. She yelped as a tongue reached out and gave her a curious taste.

“Sorry about him, Bacon doesn’t meet new people often,” Fran’s almost gentle tone made Kemy finally able to speak.

“B-Bacon?”

“My pig, I ride him into battle for glory,” Fran’s tone remained pleasant.

Kemy nodded slowly.

Truth... was really stranger than fiction.

She needed more pop… she heard the mug being refilled and winced at the fact she would have to drink another one… another delicious drink.

This place hurt her head.

Kemy kinda liked it.

----

76: Jungle Fever

Kemy stared at the boss monster that sat next to her. Well, where his voice came from. His question was blunt but not without purpose.

“Will we fight you?” Kemy echoed. The taller goblin merely sipped his drink as he waited for the answer. What kind of question was that? Kemy fidgeted with her empty glass and felt torn.

If this was a normal dungeon... this wouldn’t even be a question. It would be a certainty. Bosses are guardians to the next level of death and reward. You beat them and you know you were strong... worthy of what came next.

But here?

In this place?

Everything Kemy had experienced had told her that violence wasn’t the answer. This dungeon of Delta’s wanted to see something else... expected something else. Every monster she had met had allowed her to live.

It was kinda clear they had the power to say otherwise.

But this was new.

“Do you want to fight?” Kemy finally answered. The boss monster’s aura went charged for a moment.

“Yes but not to the death if you can help it. I may return but you lot are a bit more limited edition,” Fran admitted. There was a clunk as Kemy guessed Fran put his glass down.

“I’ve been a boss for a while and I’ve only had one good fight. The thrill, the energy... the dancing of blades and wild spirits was... beautiful,” Fran’s voice went soft with a tone Kemy would normally hear from those in love.

Fran was someone Kemy would never understand, she already knew that but that didn’t mean she couldn’t empathize with him on a level. A boss with no boss encounters sounded lonely.

“We can try! I mean, no harm in trying if everyone knows it’s more like a spar than a deathmatch!” Kemy nodded. Fran actually burst out in a laugh.

“No, I want you all to try and kill me. I can get better from that,” he said amused.

“Sounds like you’re handicapping yourself then,” Kemy shook her head. She resolved the curious sniffing of the large wet nose of the pig sitting nearby.

She giggled and petted it.

“I guess but until some real warriors turn up, the ones that feel the same as me... friendly spars aren’t so bad,” Fran admitted mostly to himself.

“We use magic and arrows as well, is that okay?” Kemy suddenly said, worried that Fran might expect swords and shields. Fera the bartender snorted.

“Franny, she’s worried about you. Stop stealing the poor girl’s heart,” the goblin laughed. Fran’s reply was hissed too low to be heard before he cleared his throat.

“It’s fine. I want your best so I can see if you’re ready for the next floor. You know anything about it?” the boss asked lightly. Kemy sat up straight.

“Nothing! Anything you could share would be helpful!” Kemy said eagerly.

Fran’s smile could almost be felt on Kemy’s skin.

“It’s green,” he said before draining his drink and burping so loudly that the bar shook.

Kemy winced and next thing she knew, she had downed another drink and another and another.

Soon, Kemy felt very happy and rather... springy.

---

Delta watched as her goblins carefully guided a rather drunk Kemy back to the entrance of her Dungeon. She would have to make sure Fera warned people that her Shroom pops had a slight buzz to them. She felt a tug from Nu on the second floor, so she zoomed off down the stairs.

She sent a silent thanks to Kemy for her visit.

Soon, the tunnels exploded into lush jungle and life. Delta loved her jungle, to have seen the vibrant green grow from nothing. Delta’s efforts... her imagination... her wonder was a reality before her.

Really, she would never grow bored of this. If there was no going home, wherever that was, and no getting out of the Dungeon... then Delta honestly didn’t mind making new floors. It was such a deep-seated satisfaction to see her results... but it also gave rise to a new feeling.

Creativity.

Delta wanted to do more soon... the next floor would be hers and she was going to make it amazing! But first, she was going to make her second floor even better! The jungle was here, the monsters were here, the secrets were here, and the purpose was here.

But it just needed those extra touches to make it spectacular.

Quite. I suspect we have some things to get done first. I opened a few rooms to ease your Mana burden so they will need a purpose.

Delta spread herself and felt the new spaces more clearly.

“Thanks for that, by the way,” she smiled, eyes closed. She cracked one open to read Nu’s reply.

You’re no good to me on the floor in pain. It was just logical.

“Nu-speak for ‘you’re welcome’,” Delta chuckled as she floated gently over the tree tops, observing the world below.

“Before I rush to make more things, let me just take it step by step,” she asked and her travels ended as she came near the bridge that she had the frog monster, Giant, guard. His massive frame and still posture only shifted as Delta called out a greeting.

He nodded slowly but said nothing.

Delta didn’t mind, she could almost feel the shy affection leaking off the giant’s body. She smiled at him.

“Doing a good job! Get your key?” she asked and Giant opened one hand to show a brass key. It looked like a toy in his palm.

Delta gave him a long look.

“You need to put it somewhere for when you get challenged, any ideas?” she asked gently. Giant nodded and walked to the middle of the bridge. The creation was one of Delta’s grander projects but she saw Giant had been slowly sliding branches in some of the nooks and holes to give it a more ‘bird nest’ vibe. Giant easily reached over and slipped the key onto the longest branch that stuck out.

“Mid-way... in view, but not easy... I like it,” Delta said before she peered over to the gentle river flowing below that looked safe to fall in.

“Kinda ruined by the scenery, let me fix that,” she promised and closed her eyes.

First off... her Mana dipped and the river below sunk until it was double in height. A little more of a risk now. Next up, she opened the bridge menu and browsed the options.

Jungle Bridge: A bridge to access the bare necessities of the Jungle.

- Have the bridge move locations over time. 25 DP

- Cause those that fall off the bridge to be spat back out on the entrance side of the bridge. 15 DP

- Cause a thick mist to cover the river below, increasing the atmosphere. 5 DP

- Cause various bridge boards to be weak and crack under step. Random every time the level resets. 15 DP

- Make the bridge grow natural branches to enhance looks of a nest. 5 DP

- Allow Key branch to be curled and trap key until Giant is defeated. 10 DP

Delta grinned. With careful picking, she picked the mist, the reverse-falling gimmick and the key branch. The results were rather sudden and cool.

A weird ripple of orange energy flickered over the air below the bridge before it faded. Delta could barely see the weird web of energy that would catch those that fell. Next up the thick mist rolled in from both sides of the river and when it had settled, Delta could hear the river but the mist was the awesome cinematic kind. The kind where it curled and danced on the spot. She swore she could see ghostly shapes forming, fingers beckoning the onlookers.

She couldn’t see the river and that made any who saw it wonder what was below...

Joke was on them, it would be Rale or Bob. Harmless softies. The last effect showed the branch holding the key glowing with orange veins as it grew farther out from the bridge. The tip curled thickly and trapped the key in its grip.

Delta floated over and saw the wood looked stronger. It would take more than some fancy arrow or a lucky sword throw to chop this wood. She turned back to Giant whose left arm glowed with the same orange veins for a moment.

The connection clear. Giant flexed his arm with intent and the branch swayed to his command.

“Oh that’s neat. Now you can reward people if they pass your test!” Delta clapped her hands with excitement. Giant’s averted eyes and slightly bluish cheeks showed Giant was pleased about this.

“My home... is exciting?” he echoed. Delta nodded and Giant looked even more pleased.

Delta loved the big lug. She waved goodbye and floated above the jungle again.

Next on the list was...

Should Delta go by distance or alphabetical? Eh distance it was! It was less hassle to think.

Delta landed in one of the happiest places in her Dungeon, Fera’s bar aside. The domain of the bees! As she touched down, Queen Lizzie’s face appeared near the highest pillar hive and greeted her warmly in the humming buzz of hers.

“Hey! How goes being a mother to uh... well... a lot of kids?” Delta asked politely as Nu’s box tingled with a sigh.

Lizzie buzzed her affection and after five minutes solid of her listing her children’s names.

Bzzt, BzZzt, Bzztt, Bzzztz, Bzttt, GARNASH, Bzstt, Tzzb, John, Bz-zt, and Bzt were some of Delta’s favourites.

Delta saw that at the very apex of the pillar was another brass key covered in dry honey, covering it in a shell of honey amber.

Several of the mutant large bees floated around it. They were rather adorably fat once Delta got past the stingers larger than her hand. And the buzzing noise like a wood chipper making love to a helicopter... And the angry red colour. But really, the chubbiness made them kinda cute after a while.

Delta focused back on the Queen.

“I was making sure this place was ready for any adventurers. I can see the key is up there, but how are the... people suppose to get it?” Delta tried ask politely as the red rock loomed over them.

Lizzie buzzed.

“No... people don’t have wings,” Delta promised. Lizzie buzzed again.

“Most do not have more than two arms to climb with,” she explained.

Silence stretched for a moment. Then Lizzie buzzed a long moment. Delta pursed her lips.

“I guess compared to a bee, a person is rather boring biologically but they can do a lot of neat stuff, I promise!” Delta assured the Queen before she looked at the pillar and made a bunch of hand holes and crevices for people to climb on to reach the top. The leaking honey didn’t get too far and most of it was used to build more min-pillars or even works of art by the bees. Delta dipped the ground lower and the pool of honey deepened as a moat of golden honey formed around the royal pillar.

The last touch was several stepping stones to the base of the pillar.

Not only did it look rather awesome, it gave anyone who fell from the top of the pillar a chance not to go splat on solid ground. Not too deep, as they could drown as well. Honey could be heavy!

Lizzie buzzed politely and said the moat of honey looked nice at least.

“A queen needs a proper moat or she just doesn’t have that cool-factor,” Delta explained. This seemed to give something for the bee to think about, and Delta bid her farewell. Next up would be Gramps. She skipped Luna just now, ideas still forming there.

Gramps was an odd monster. He rarely left the spawn room, tending to it and making sure it looked at peak condition.

Not that dirt and dust were a thing in the Dungeon but Delta appreciated it nonetheless.

“My Delta,” Gramps greeted, sensing her before she even spoke. The old hunched frog didn’t hobble but Delta wanted to look after him all the same.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Hey Gramps, how is it going?” she asked. The frog smiled a relaxed smile.

“The room is calming. I find the water soothing compared to the chaos out there,” he stated without any hint of shame. Delta giggled, looking at the stone altar resting in the middle of the shimmering green water.

The Frog Spawn room had a calming quality if one liked wet places.

“I came to grant you an upgrade! I was thinking I have quite a few frog monsters and if something was to go wrong, it would be good to have an overreaching authority. Like a chief!” she explained as she walked across the water calmly. Gramps rubbed his chin.

“You want this old hermit to look after all of them? Did I do something wrong?” he asked, clearly jesting but Delta merely shrugged.

“You don’t have to accept if you wanna stay just Gramps,” she promised. Something she would never do unless dire circumstances demanded it was to forcesuch a change on her monsters. Gramps waved her words away with a webbed hand.

“It would be an honor and I can see the need for someone to keep Rale and Giant from causing a mess,” he rolled his eyes as he walked forward with both hands behind his back. Delta could only imagine the falling trees if both of them wrestled... then if Bob got involved...

She shivered and was glad Gramps was open to the idea.

“Just give me a minute, this won’t take too long!” she promised as she came to a stop on the water, closest to the statues of Rale and Devina. She opened the menu of Gramps, seeing the generic options.

She highlighted the ‘Chieftain’ evolution and watched Gramps become covered in strings of light that formed a cocoon around him. The light grew brighter and brighter and from the sphere, several lines of gold flew out the cave like strings.

The whole scene died down to reveal a frog that was no longer quite as hunched. Gramps had gone from old and gnarled to old and kinda impressive.

The first thing she really noticed was the headdress made of several of her local birds woven together to almost form a cloak and hood. He flexed, and several popping noises and cracks showed he had not only grown upwards but also in size. His wrinkly frame now had sleeping powerful muscles under his yellowish skin.

All down his chest and torso, black marks that looked almost burned into the skin were visible. It showed a winding painting of three frogs holding up the flipping trifor...

Wait, no... that was the Delta symbol! Delta almost sighed with relief. She had far too many pots and monsters to have a silent green boy appear...

The Delta symbol was painted orange and it was the centerpiece of the tattoo. It pulsed once and Gramps took a step forward. His kilt was made of fox pelts and something dark. In one hand he held a staff with a solid head carved into a generic frog’s head.

Overall, the effect was pretty good on Gramps. She took a quick peek at his menu as he seemed to take a moment to gather himself.

Gramps. Chieftain Frog.

A single frog that holds power over the general frog monsters. He can call and lead them in battle with great results. He holds some mystical powers due to frog magic. Also known to be cranky. Also known to whack youngsters over the head for being rude.

It was everything Delta ever wanted.

Gramps tapped the staff once and the water in the Frog Spawn room shivered as if afraid. The grim face showed a soft smile as he stared at her.

“My Delta,” he breathed before frowning. He spun the staff and it pulsed in the air. In the distance there came a masculine shriek.

“RALE, do not surf Renny down the river, you thick-headed rock of a frog!” he snarled. He shook his head.

“I enjoyed being a hermit, but now I gotta feel all these rascals pulling each-other’s legs or doing something stupid. But... I can still stay here and tend to the room. I find it peaceful and I’ll need peace before long,” Gramps snorted as he tilted his head.

“Devina, dear, that would be lovely. I shall boil some water if you fetch the honey,” he promised to Devina. Delta blinked and found the female frog quite a distances away.

“You’re connected to them all?” she asked with interest as she walked in time with him to the entrance of the room that was high up.

“More like I am... aware of them. I’ll learn to mute them eventually,” Gramp’s smiled returned before he nodded to the jungle.

“Do not fret. You have much work to do and it won’t be long before more people come. You need to secure yourself and grow,” he encouraged warmly. Delta blinked before she smiled, she threw her arms around him, only feeling a bare fleeting sensation before she pulled back.

Hugging while being a ghost was hard but she did what she could.

“Try and leave, the fake light is good for you!” she promised and took off with a jump, gliding across the sky.

She twisted and flipped slowly. Flying... to think she could just fly when it suited her. Delta laughed as she fell on purpose. Her feet went through trees and rocks until she slowed down to land on the surface of the hot spring. She looked down to see the surface barely rippling as she moved.

It was just so... magical. Delta shook her head at her thoughts.

What about this place wasn’t magical?

Even the mushrooms could shoot laser beams now.

“Heyo, Mum,” Luna called as she pattered over to the edge of the hotspring to wave cheerfully at her.

“Luna!” Delta quickly hurried over and gave her youngest sounding frog a once over. Still looking graceful in her kimono, Luna was the picture perfect image of style. Even the black boot heels seemed to just add to her character.

Now Delta was going to give her something else to have.

“How would you feel about being a ninja?” she asked with excitement. Luna blinked once or twice.

“Do I still get to be in charge of the springs?” was the first question. Delta shrugged.

“It’s an evolution, not a job. So I think you can do both,” she reasoned out. Luna leaned forward, her hands on her hips as her mouth stretched into a smile.

“Do ninjas kill people in cool ways?” she asked almost innocently. Delta gave her a long look.

“Normal ninjas do cool flashy attacks, and appear from the shadows like ‘you’re already dead!’. They use laser swords or giant monsters to fight for them,” Delta said with a bright smile.

Luna’s eyes were so wide they almost fell out of her head.

“I wanna be one!” she demanded.

“But I don’t think you-” Delta tried to explain that the evolution would most likely be the more historically accurate but less cool version but Luna was already swinging some invisible blade and making whooshing noises.

Delta merely shrugged and purchased the Frog Assassin evolution for her.

Unlike Gramps, the cocoon that surrounded her was made of pulsing dark and orange fibers. They fell away like shadows under the sun and a figure that was Luna stood there for a moment. The only thought Delta had proper was...

At least there were no laser swords.

Black baggy top showed Luna’s torso was tightly wrapped with bandages. Her shorts were much the same but no one... and no one, should be wearing that many belts and fishnets.

Legs, arms, neck, most of her body showed Luna had fishnets over her skin. Also, why did she have three belts on each arm?

You only needed one belt and none of the ones she wore were in the correct place! Instead, a deep purple sash seemed to tie her black outfit together.

“I am the night... I am the silence... I am sooo cool!” Luna gushed over her new outfit.

She is the worst assassin I’ve ever seen and I have never seen another one in my existence. How did you screw this one up?

Nu’s annoyed words only made Delta stare longer.

“I may have put ideas into her head about ninjas. They may be entirely the wrong ideas,” Delta admitted.

Luna twirled and a deep thunk echoed through the springs as Luna threw a handful of hidden needles that buried themselves into the wood with ease.

“Spine... heart... lungs... liver... brain... so many targets... so exposed..” Luna said as she spun lightly and to Delta surprise, the ninja garb was replaced by her Hot Spring’s guardian outfit. The change was almost instant.

“Oh good, I still have my heels,” Luna said cheerfully. A few twirls showed that she wasn’t just changing outfits, she was leaning her being towards her ‘job’ and her ‘evolution’. Switching between them like a press of a button. Delta guessed it would take time for her to balance both.

Until then, no one would suspect the graceful Luna to actually be an assassin... or maybe they would. It was hard to say.

The only thing left to do now, while Luna was doing her best Wonder Woman impression, was to upgrade the hot springs themselves.

Now... Delta began to smile very slowly at the innocent bubbling water.

She had a rather fun idea.

After all, Luna still needed a good test, right?

“Yo... Nu? Why is Mum cackling?” she heard Luna whisper.

Because she thinks she’s clever and whatever she’s planning is going to backfire so badly it will hurt me in my soul.

“Woah... she can hurt people’s souls. That is so cool,” Luna’s awe was clear and Delta’s laugh trailed off as she had an inkling Nu was right.

Still, it had never stopped her before. She just needed to gather some items, upgrade a few flowers... and invest in an incense burner.

Delta put that next on the agenda list, right after she popped into Renny’s circus and finally helped the Mime get a decent home. Jeez, so much work.

Delta turned and beamed.

But she couldn’t lie... she loved it.

---

“And the truth….truf is that I love you, in a nice way, not like a married way!” Kemy explained to the stoic bartender back in Durence. She felt her bestest sister in the whole world, Aneya, sigh.

“Kemy, how did you come back drunk?” she asked again. Kemy pushed a finger to Aneya’s lips.

“Shhh, it’s not drunk. It’s pop!” she argued. She would never get drunk on a holy pilgrimage. Never intentionally!

“Girl’s redder than Quiss’ behind after I was done with him,” the loud wonderful woman known as Ruli said.

Kemy gasped as she stumbled over to her.

“You... punished Quest? Quish? Quiche? Was he bad?!” Kemy said dramatically and looked at the scowling blond man.

She did a prayer for his immoral soul.

“Oh he was very bad!” Ruli slammed her mug down, laughing at ‘Quiche’.

“I shall… redeem you!” Kemy announced and stood on the table.

“By the power of truth...truth....hic... I say this is the best town in the world!” she cried, beaming so brightly she hiccuped once more and toppled back into Gonga’s waiting arms.

“Okay, Delta got her pissed. I need to know how,” was all she heard before she was warm and embraced by love and truth and Aneya’s grumpy mumbles.

She would have to remember to gift the goobers...gooblins....gobbers something nice for bringing her home.

Some love! Yes, that would be nice.

Everyone needed Kemy love.
Delta especially. Kemy would give her all the love… for more POP!

The girl giggled in her sleep.

--

77: Flower Power

Delta rubbed her hands.

The circus and several free rooms called to her, as a slight perfectionist and a dungeon core, but she held off until she could give the Hot Springs a decent purpose to offer a key. The idea came to her when she remembered stories of spirit journeys.

Her history of the act was wonky but she knew that such a thing originated in many cultures. The idea was simple. Get people really high and see if they can learn something about themselves or achieve some goal. Most people are generally unable to look outside their own box of thinking and having various herbs and roots burning, and soaking into you, really helped do that.

The only issue was that Luna had no way to really achieve such a thing, hence it was up to Delta to grow some psychedelics in her jungle! Harmless and goofy kinds. The mushrooms might already be well on their way to tripping people physically so why not see if they could do it spiritually?

Well, she would see what pretty flowers could do first before allowing more mushroom chaos into her Dungeon.

She pulled up the overall purchase menu and browsed what flowers and such she had available. Most of it was very generic plants that grew above ground. The Menu didn’t list them as having any strong properties like the one she wanted.

She had some mushrooms that could do it but Delta wanted to see how creative she could get. By creating a mushroom grove, she opened various mushroom mutations. So following that logic, and some understanding from Sys, Delta should be able to grow a similar herb garden.

She picked a secluded room not far from the hot springs so Luna didn’t have far to walk. It was the room with the exposed Mana vent.

She shifted the top level of the soil and began to choose various flowers that Hob and Gob had collected. They had mentioned plenty of flowers had appeared recently.

Maybe Spring had come or something?

Tipanny: A droopy flower - 2 Mana
Bellringer: Petal shaped like a bell - 3 Mana
Spotted-Dog: A flower with a lolling stem. - 2 Mana
Goblin-spit: A flower with the aroma of zombie feet - 3 Mana
Ash Lady: A grey flower that seems sad to look at. - 2 Mana
Pollen Polly: A budding flower that hiccups out pollen. - 3 Mana
Creeping Fire: A flower that spreads itself to the most sunlight. Grows red flowers. 3 Mana

All very interesting things in their own right but, as the Menu told her with the cost, they were all really boring or plain flowers. Anything with proper medicinal use or magical vibes would cost a lot more. The idea, however, wasn’t just to buy the flowers Delta wanted, but to make them.

Just like the mushrooms and the various animals around... she just needed a base. She purchased a few of each and dropped about 20 mana on the whole idea, arranging the flowers in a haphazard circle of colour and growth. It was actually a pretty nice little garden when the last flower snuggly settled down.

It’s not a bad idea but the mushrooms came fast due to the potency of the Mushrooms you were intaking and various mushroom monsters. This might take a bit longer.

Nu advised and Delta tapped her chin.

“Could be but I’m more experienced since the first floor. I think if I just take the time to push my ideas on, maybe add a few things to give the flowers something to mutate with... it’s all guesswork but that’s what makes it kinda fun!” Delta shot the text box a large grin.

She swiped one hand and the menu took a second to form but the name looked perfect.

Hidden Jungle Garden: In the midst of chaos, beauty can be found

(Mana Vent unlocks feature ‘Auto Spawn’. Newly collected flowers will sprout once in the garden, free of charge. Other effects unknown)

-Allow planted flowers to regrow over time when picked (Rarer flowers take longer) 10 DP
-Allow cross-breeding of flowers to create unique strains (Cannot be done with magical or complicated plant lifeforms) 20 DP
-Allow Druid’s blessing from adventurer ‘Dabberghast’ to enable the creation of magical flowers with various costs- 0 DP (Druid’s blessing is used up)

Delta ran a finger over the name of Mrs. Dabberghast. Her stomach filled with a warmth of affection and appreciation for all that the woman had done in her short time in her Dungeon. She hoped Mrs. Dabberghast would approve of how her gift was being spent. Delta purchased the blessing first and watched.

With the formation of the Menu, the garden became less of an idea and more of a fact. The room changing to reflect its new status, empowered by the blessing.

The rooms, whose entrance was almost hidden by thick trees and high grass, began to glow a deep-seated green. The ground shook as it flattened and a huge circle of rocks pushed up out of the ground to form the loose walls of the garden. From the center of the garden, a rock was quickly shaping itself into the rough form of a kindly figure holding a staff.

The rock was quickly covered in white blossoms from some unseen flower and gave the area a feeling of serenity and wildness. The plants all seemed to swoon and dance gently, in some unfelt wind, towards the statue.

Delta was feeling giddy again. Next, she purchased the ability for the plants to breed and regrow causing the green pulsing energy to grow stronger. All the flowers seemed to soak this energy up and the statue became just a little more detailed...

The staff held by the statue of the woman seemed to be leaking mana from the vent it was placed over.

Already, some tiny seedlings were forming between the Ash Lady and the Goblin Spit.

Delta named the hybrid ‘Lady Goblin’. Any other combo was just mean.

With the formation of the garden, some new options had unlocked in the Menu!

Hidden Jungle Garden: In the midst of chaos, beauty can be found

-Purchase more magical flower slots.
-Create the magical flower ‘Sandman’s Kiss’. A yellow flower, its petals feel rough like sand. Prolonged inhaling of it’s aroma can knock someone out. (Unlocked with Sandelf powder) 5 DP
-Create the magical flower ‘Honeysucker’. A bright orange flower with a stinger hidden inside it’s bulb. It can drain fluids from adventurers. (Unlocked with Bee influence) 5 DP
-Create the magical flower ‘Ember’. A small demure plant with crimson petals. It is warm to the touch, and eating it may cause intense stomach issues. 5 DP

Delta was happy to see the garden going the way she wanted. The Honeysucker was a no-go for now unless it could do other things. Another box opened with a small piece of information.

Only three magical flowers can be purchased at any time. Buy more to unlock more or upgrade the Garden to have more options. This will cost Man-

Correction. Mana vent used in construction. Garden will drain 3 mana from it a day and purchase upgrades automatically. Mana Points will be stockpiled until purchases can be purchased. Please check back to see your new amazing Dungeon flowers and upgrades periodically! 3 Natural Mana from a vent will be converted to 1 DP.

Delta’s smile went rigid.

“Nu? Why is my garden now set to auto?” she asked, voice cracking slightly.

Nu’s box was quiet for a moment.

You stuck a Druid’s blessing on top of a Mana Vent set to Dungeon space. I fully expected something would explode or worse.

Right... that.

It wasn’t a bad trade-off, it wasn’t like Delta couldn’t still purchase things on her own whim but still... if she didn’t check back often, then what kinda things would grow here?

Delta watched as more tiny seedlings popped out of the ground. How could such tiny looking things be any trouble? Delta smiled again and was kinda pleased once she thought about the whole thing.

The room was almost self-sufficient in terms of growth. It would do its own thing once Delta got what she came for. If medical herbs and plants appeared then this would really be its own little paradise for people who stumbled upon it!

A Delta treasure. A little gift to those who made it this far. She wondered if people would understand that while she was challenging them... she didn’t want them to think she disliked people.

Delta purchased the Sandman’s Kiss flower and watched as the flower unfurled out of the ground amongst the Goblin Spits, Ash Ladies, Bellringers, and others.

The thing looked like it was made from sand. When it moved in time to the dance of the garden, soft yellow dust floated off it. Soon, more of them would grow and Delta’s idea for Luna’s spring would be more viable.

Still, it would be good to let it grow and spread before she had Luna pluck them. With any luck, the System would set up some trade route between the two spots without having to have Delta to monitor it too much.

She was about to head over to the circus until a bush rustled and a tiny mushroom wearing a tiny mask appeared. Delta’s thoughts of being busy and improving anything else vanished as she bent down to coo at the tiny thing.

”Cute little mushy thing, yes you are!” Delta said. The thing listened, hearing her but maybe it didn’t see her because it chirped and danced. Delta’s lungs nearly exploded from containing her squealing.

It waddled off and waited, looking back. It seemed to be waiting for her.

“You want me to come with you?” she asked. The Pygmy Mushroom chirped and danced again. Delta began to crawl along the ground after it.

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“I have the best Dungeon ever,” she beamed.

---

Nu watched Delta be fooled by the little demons of the jungle again and merely ignored the spectacle. This garden Delta made by accident, like most things in her Dungeon, was worthy of attention. It was a machine of its own devices now. Interesting.

The plants would grow, mutate, and spread. Magical flowers would be created via inspirations and what was interesting was that like the seedlings appearing all over the room, there was a seedling intelligence managing it.

Nu mostly got the impression it was even less than a Menu like himself. It was more like the impression of intent. The room itself had a purpose and Sys wasn’t exactly controlling it directly. She must have used the Vent and the blessing to create a simple servant to run the process for her.

A large greyish flower appeared shortly after Delta had left the room. The flower she had created for the large variants of the-

Nu paused.

The Dungeon was vibrating. No... the air was shaking. Nu turned his box and stared as a solid wall of red bees flooded into the garden.

Nu gave out alarm bell noises as he was drowned in a tidal wave of bees as they eagerly assaulted this new heaven of pollen... and resources.

The statue of the kindly woman in the center of the room looked over the scene and one could almost swear it’s rough eyes were twinkling.

---

Delta, unaware of the nightmare behind her, was following her little friend. It danced and chirped for her, and more of them appeared in the cute little dance. She giggled as they tripped and became dizzy as they danced a little too hard. They seemed to be leading her back to the Pygmy cave where their village was. Delta didn’t mind.

Nu mentioned he had done something there so maybe it was a good thing to check that out before the circus. She landed softly in the center of the village and all the Pygmies began to do their cute little dances.

Delta loved these innocent creatures. Maybe she should trap the entrance in case some person tried to take them away! Locked in cages! Wanting to come home to the Dungeon and Mama Delta?!

She calmed herself. Deep breath in and out.

Her monsters couldn’t leave the dungeon. They were safe. They squeaked and led her towards a new tunnel that Nu must have opened up to help her drain excess Mana. Peering through the two rooms showed nothing but the Key she had entrusted to the creatures. This... this nagged at her.

All this empty space. All this potential not getting used...

On top of it all... she turned to see the collected Pygmy forces staring up at where her voice was coming from as she hummed.

Besides the Chief, these little guys had no real warriors or stand out heroes. If someone did invade, they would be wiped out before long... Delta was not going to let that happen. She pulled up the Menu and thankfully it compiled the options for all the Pygmies into a single box instead of Delta having to go through each one individually.

Pygmy Mushrooms: These Demons are Angels to the Core

Delta snorted. Sys was having fun with these titles now. Demon? Maybe... maybe if someone pissed the little ones off, she could see them getting all puffy and riled up and the image was so cute!

-Allow The Pygmy Village to expand to the second tunnel room. 15 DP
-Change one team of Pygmy Mushrooms into the official tunnelers of the Village, granting them limited Earth shaping to make safer tunnels. Allows more escape tunnels to appear all over the second floor. Escape tunnels for the Pygmies, not their victims. 15 DP
-Change a Pygmy Mushroom into one of the following classes. Only one of each may exist at a time. 10 DP
- Priest of Mycelia: The one who tends to the flock. Can bless and heal the feral warriors as well as any fungoid life.

- Fungimancer: A being who holds sway over the secrets of spores and the inert Fungi, and can command them to do its bidding.

- Stinker Tinker: A clever fellow who uses intellect and craftsmanship to crush foes rather than raw strength.

Delta pursed her lips and tried to be a responsible adult but the entire village began to dance as if they felt the coming changes. Delta’s heart pounded with the raw power of an ocean as they began to dance with each other and chirped songs!

Delta bought all three of these hero classes, almost smashing the box with her eagerness, and held her breath.

Three of the Pygmies near the front glowed with an aura of orange. The change took a little while so Delta also purchased the Mining team upgrade for the little cute buggers.

Those guys finished faster, three of them appeared holding little shovels and had tiny brown overalls on. Delta leaned in until her nose was almost touching them. They waved their new spades, almost adorably too short for them and chirped at each other. They still had their little painted masks and blowpipes at their sides which was good. Their caps seemed to have curved and turned a dark yellow colour.

The village all cheered at the change but before they could dance again, the three heroes emerged. The first was a dainty little mushroom covered in a mossy green robe. The small cap had tiny little clumps of glowing moss in the shape of a circlet.

It walked forward and in one hand was staff that it waved. A spray of sparkling spores spread over Pygmies and they all inhaled, singing a low song of gratitude. The Priest bowed slightly before swishing its robe and dancing for Delta.

It was... almost too much for Delta to handle.

The next form to emerge was likewise clad in a robe but the dark material formed a hood that was pulled over its cap. The slight pointy hood and glowing green eyes made it less cute and cooler but it walked forward with a belt of mushroom caps around its waist before it pulled out a wand made with a bone white mushroom on it.

It waved it and the various mushroom platforms and houses trembled.

It bowed. Delta politely clapped. It turned and tripped over its robe in its hurry to fade from the light. It rubbed its cap and the hood fell down to reveal a chubby Pygmy mushroom. Delta silently adjusted the cuteness meter back to its proper place.

The last appeared and it looked up to the sky. Delta knew now that she had a favorite. On its face was a set of goggles as might have been used back in the old times. Several magnifying glasses enlarged the tiny beady eyes of the Tinker to large round ovals.

Delta would die for this creature.

It itched its cap and moved forward with a belt of rough stone tools and rope coiled around one arm. It looked at the space and chittered to itself, smacking its cap as it vanished into the village, brandishing a stone hammer in the air like a declaration of battle.

Delta beamed.

So cute.

---

Devina paused in her attempt to trap Delbird inside the new moat of honey. She felt... disturbed. As if a great evil had only grown eviler.

She turned slowly, but the jungle was quiet. She didn’t trust it.

“You gone sweet on me... Honey?” Delbird taunted as he neatly slipped out of her grasp and preened himself. Devina was too focused on sensing.

“They have grown. Delbird... with me!” she urged and took off running.

There was no sarcasm or pun fired back.

Delbird must have finally sensed it as well.

Pygmies.

---

Delta stretched as she eyed the tunnels and rooms hidden behind the village. She needed to do something but she wasn’t sure what exactly. It had to be something that played to the Pygmies advantage but not entirely unfair to the adventurers. She pondered as she watched in her Dungeons senses as Wilhelm stomped by, ignoring the war cries of the Pygmies.

They only seemed to like her and Lord Mushy. Maybe Missy the Mushroom.

Speaking of... Delta watched as Missy appeared. The Child of the Starlight Mushroom and the Blood Curdlers. The delicate form landed and all the Pygmies froze in their place. Except for the three new heroes and the chief. Missy waved gently and they all bowed to her. The three showed off their new forms. Missy politely clapped as her eyes glowed a little in the dark.

A little reminder to Delta that Missy was capable of using laser beams to great effect. Missy walked over and waved to Delta.

“Hello, how goes being in the Dungeon?” Delta asked with a smile.

Missy pondered this before her eyes lit up. Twin lights made a smiling wave in the air, the lasers moving quick enough to leave glowing trails. The hiss in the air also let Delta know that it was still hot as heck.

Only in Delta’s dungeon did a silent Mushroom communicate via lasers of death.

“Well, it’s always good to bounce ideas off others. So maybe you can help me?” Delta asked. The white fluffy arms of Missy waved in an excited response.

“Good to hear, now my princess of Mushrooms, I need to do something to challenge people-” Delta began. Missy’ eyes glowed red dangerously.

“-Without killing them,” Delta quickly added. Missy lost the glow and looked skyward as if thinking hard.

“We can use the Pygmies and such but we only have two rooms, aside from the village, and the Key needs to be at the back,” she summed up. Missy looked at the room and Delta watched as her lasers turned back on, burning an idea into the wall as Missy focused her eyes.

Delta watched, a smile forming as Missy’s idea began to shape. In the darkness, the Priest, the Fungalmancer, and the Tinker all watched, plotting their own designs into the growing drawing.

The Tinker almost sang in joy at the image. It could do so much with this!

Pitfalls, boulders, spikes of the blunt nature, and basic SCIENCE!

In the Pygmy tunnel, a high pitched mad cackle sounded out.

---

78: Maze of Life

It began by pushing the room to the max size Delta could manage. With her DP dipping below 200, the room was closer to a small hall.

Delta floated and looked down at the space before her.

It was the second large space on the second floor. She closed her eyes and spent some Mana to summon walls. Lots of walls. The design choice grinded loudly until it hit the ceiling and cloaked all sight from one side of the room to another.

They were strong walls, thick enough to allow the Pygmies to tunnel through, giving the new digger team something to work on, but with enough space that a person and maybe a small person could stand side by side.

It had cost her some DP to push the room to this size and Delta was going to make the most of it. The stone walls began to take shape and straight away Delta had the path split and then split again. Only one true end could be seen from above and so many dead ends but Delta was going to end it there.

She added some moss to the walls to give a vibe of an old ruin hidden far away. Delta’s own little labyrinth... hidden inside her jungle... which was kind of a natural labyrinth in itself. She hoped people didn’t cry when they saw the maze...

Having the walls so thick meant the Pygmies could easily traverse through and under the maze to arrive at any certain spot but the tunnels looked a little obvious, the moss and creeping vines only hid them so well, so Delta felt the Menu of this room appear. Since it was lacking anything really special, the options for the upgrade were rather simple.

Labyrinth of the Pygmies: May all who enter beware

-Replace soil ground with stone. 5 DP
-Have the walls carved with legends of the Dungeon, this will make any traps or other hidden functions easier to hide. 5 DP
-Have walls shift or relocate to confuse wanderers. 10 DP
-Have a fountain of fresh water in one of the dead ends along with a tribute jar. 10 DP
-Allow a fruit tree to be found in one of the dead ends. Tribute jar included. 10 DP
-Create a mist that covers the floor. Adds atmosphere! 5 DP

It was still nice to see Sys going above and beyond, trying to make Delta’s ideas better than she could ever hope. Delta purchased the ground replacement, the wall carvings, and the shifting walls for now. Until people actually started reaching the second floor and understanding the keys... there was little point getting all of the upgrades for such an out of place room.

The labyrinth floor rippled as stone rose above soil and completed the feeling of stumbling upon an artificial wonder. The steps of walking would sound louder too so Delta could, if she was feeling mean, use the mist and have stomping sound effects to scare adventurers. The walls bubbled furiously as some parts sunk and others expanded. Images and carvings of things began to appear. Delta saw herself.

A girl with a long flowing skirt and a tie in the wind. Floating in her palm was a mushroom. Delta’s carved face showed distrust. Aptly, the words below were in English, oddly enough.

They read as ‘The beginning’. Below her feet were three goblins holding her up, one face blank of any other features while the other two looked beastly and odd.

The timeline of events showed Delta a shocking amount events that had passed. Watching the blank-faced goblin become Fran the Knight, the making of the Pond, an odd image of Delta pulling a glowing box out of a chest and it speaking.

The walls weaved and if one was careful to follow the timeline of events, the end could be found but the shifting walls muddled events and Delta had to chase the fleeting next chapters of her journey so far. She had been so surprised to see herself grow from a lonely sad girl to a woman surrounded by monsters and purpose.

It was like a little prototype archive of her adventure so far. Delta patted the wall for doing a good job on making her not look too bad in 2D.

The walls shifted to let her easily walk forward despite her ability to phase through anything, but she appreciated the gesture nonetheless. Soon she was in the last room. Until more people appeared, she didn’t do more than give the key an altar. She moved the rock up and it formed a mushroom shape.

Delta stared.

“Can you be more... regal? That’s an important key!” she complained to the system. The mushroom altar paused before it grew a little crown to sit the key on a plush pillow.

“That’s not what I meant!” Delta put her hands on her hips. She knew Sys was just amusing herself but still. Turning, she headed back to the village of the Pygmies and looked around the space. She knew the little fellows would be getting some guests or invaders so she tried to imagine what they could do to prove not as a threat but as help!

She made a barrel with some torches and apples. The village could be somewhat of a resting spot before braving the labyrinth! This would show it was in good interest to not murder the Pygmies. The little folk looked at the barrels in confusion before Delta made a large sign like gate that simply declared ‘Pygmy Village. Welcome Travellers!’.
The chief peered at the message before he turned and chirped at his people and heroes. Delta was still getting the hang of the language and mostly got ‘Gift...to us....people...prizes!’

She was glad they understood her intent.

---

The priest leaned on her staff. The powerful Chief’s words were a great truth indeed as they spread around the area.

“The great Mother to us all have delivered the greatest trap of all! She will convince tributes to enter the village and be a gift to us! The people shall trust us and we shall strike and take their treasures for the Mother once they enter the dark tunnels! Prizes will soak the soil! Such is the wit of the Great Mother!” he roared and the Priest felt her faith grow stronger and she almost knelt on her knees to pray there and then.

“I want the fancy parts!” Tinker shouted with a warning.

“I want their flesh...” Fungal hissed.

And Priest wanted the people to thrive. All was in accordance with the great Mother!

---

Delta, The Mother left, her words quiet but deep.

To the circus.

Nu slithered into the space next to and the tiny folk went still with fear. The Moon to the Mother’s sunlight. The shadow cast by the Mother.

It said nothing to them. It needed not to. It understood them and the Pygmies understood Nu. Serve Delta or perish.

The Nu planted a large wooden board with words on it next to the entrance to the moving tunnels.

Words quickly spread of the warning it carried.

If you behave, the next part is only a little bad. Step on the minions and your path will be hell -Nu

The small sect of Shadow worshippers in the Village took the name to heart.

The Min’ion Clan was soon waiting for their first guest.

---

The circus on the second floor was the oddest part of Delta’s Dungeon, and she did not make that claim lightly. It really was something she found more than created but it was still now her space. Adopting Renny just made it all the more important to properly do it up and think of it as home... just like the rest of her Dungeon.

The large opening that allowed Wilhelm the giant gorilla to pass showed the statue of Renny’s father that looked carefully washed. She could see where various flowers, fruits, and even an odd pile of pebbles had been placed at the feet of the statue like offerings.

Delta guessed it was the closest thing Renny had to a grave for his father.

There was the sound of a rock being kicked, making Delta jump and spin to see an innocent Renny, hands in pockets looking like he was just accidentallyaround when he scared Delta.

“DO- Don’t do that, Devina is bad enough!” she chided with a swipe of her hand. Renny neatly covered his painted face politely as his shoulders shook. Delta blew out a sigh. That damn mime enjoyed this way too much.

“So after much deliberation, I have decided you and the circus are worthy of my powers and upgrades,” Delta said smoothly, trying to sound suave. Renny shrugged and pointed to the door as if saying Delta didn’t have to.

“But...I like making things better!” she backpedaled. Renny then waved to the circus tent, his large ghoulish mouth stretching in amusement. Grumbling, Delta looked at the circus tent before entering. She hadn’t been in here much since finding Renny. It felt... invasive? But that was part of the whole vibe Delta had stuck in her head about the circus not being part of the Dungeon.

The musty unlit space was just as she remembered. It still felt a little depressing knowing this had been a gravesite more than a tent of wonder in its last moments. She felt Renny stand beside her.

His smile was smaller... a little sad. He gave her a once over.

He nodded. It was permission to influence the space and it made Delta relax. She tried to take his hand but the best she could do was occupy the same space.

“I’ll make sure it looks good. I’ll make your Dad proud that it’s coming back,” she promised. Renny looked down at their hands before looking away.

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Were his cheeks actually... turning purple? Oh... delicious revenge was Delta’s. Renny walked forward and seemed to silently clear his throat. He looked around before patting one of the beams that kept the whole thing up.

“Oh I should be able to just upgrade the whole thing in one go but I’ll keep you updated! Any requests?” she grinned. Renny tapped his chin before making some motions. Up and down he caught something.

“Things to juggle?” she guessed. Renny nodded before he then held out both hands and pretended to walk across a thin ledge or wire.

“Oh, a pole!” she clapped. Delta had never been to a circus before! She...

Never been.

Never. Been.

Why? Had she?

She didn’t quite remember. Memories of joy... faces of people... all gone with a name.

Renny snapped his fingers in front of her face and Delta blinked up at him. He leaned in, face turning a little wrinkly. Was he frowning?

“I’m fine, just had a thought go down a bad path,” she waved off his stare. He didn’t look convinced but he dropped the matter. That had been weird.

She shook her head before opening the Circus menu. The upgrades weren’t as weird as she expected but still, it had a few surprises for her.

Circus of the Night: A million dreams, a million regrets.

-Fully repair the circus’ structure! 3 DP
-Have the lights restored and running on ambient mana. 5 DP
-Install a gate that only opens with a ‘ticket’. (Requires a ticket booth) 10 DP
-Create a box of general juggling and trick items in the tent. 10 DP

Delta purchased the first upgrade as Renny lead Missy in by the hand, the curious little eyes looking around the area of her home she hadn’t yet been in. Delta smiled at the way Renny was patient with her pointing and gasping at things she had never seen before.

The rough floor was neatly combed over and arranged to keep the ring’s soil, which was lighter like sand, contained by a metal ring that was rapidly being freed from rust and filith. Audience stands creaked and groaned as their collapsed wooden state was undone and they stood proud once more, ready for the audience that was to come. The thick fabric walls billowed as dust and tears vanished like bad memories.

The whole circus tent rippled as it rose higher and higher like a sagging beast finally inhaling after so many years of silence. The wooden pillars bulged and began to reshape themselves into statues of various people holding the tent up with their hands.

A woman with a whip and a wild grin that reminded Delta of Ruli. A man with so many muscles the wood looked ready to crack from just emulating his figure. A soft shapely woman with a veil over her face, her calm eyes looking skyward. The final of the four pillar statues was a man breathing fire, the flames curling into the ceiling and merging to show them spreading.

Renny moved forward, dropping Missy’s hand as he stood center point of the ring, spinning as he stared at the faces.

“I don’t know them but they came with the upgrade... Sys might have added something in. Do you know them?” Delta tried not to intrude too much as Renny looked downright dazed. The Mime turned to Delta and slowly he put a single hand over his chest. He tapped his heart gently.

Exact words weren’t needed. Delta stood there and looked at them.

“She’s the Beastmaster?” she pointed to the woman with the whip. Renny nodded quickly. He pumped one arm and petting something.

“Strong and great with animals,” Delta smiled.

Missy pulled on Renny’s sleeve and pointed to the slim woman with the flowing cloth dress and veil. Renny swayed and his odd but graceful steps had Delta clapping her hands in understanding.

“She was a dancer, she looks really pretty,” Delta said and Missy nodded as her eyes glowed a little pink in awe.

Renny went around and around, his gestures and emotions growing as he told Delta and Missy more and more about the people. Rennys hand motions and mimes became so excited that Delta soon was only able to pick out words or guess at them before Renny moved on to his next sentence.

Then he stopped as Wilhelm the giant silver ape stuck his head in, apparently feeling Renny’s excited mood more than anything. Renny softly pointed to the Beastmaster and Wilhelm stared at it for a long moment before his face vanished, a soft sad huff sounding before Wilhelm’s loud steps left the Circus once more.

“It’s hard to wake up one day and have everything you know just gone... it feels like someone else’s life after a while,” Delta said when Renny didn’t move after that. Missy held Renny’s hand again and tried to hold Delta’s at the same time.

The Mime seemed to look at Delta for a long moment before he tilted his head to the side, curious.

“I wasn’t always Delta, ya know? I was…” Delta trailed off as the Circus tent flowed with fresh air and the scent of sweet snacks and exotic spices soon followed.

“I was...” Delta repeated slowly.

There was something there... just about to come loose like a baby tooth after days of pushing and wriggling. Delta was...

There was a feeling of heartburn and sudden shock as Delta fell to her knees. At first, she was sure she had tried to recall something forbidden but when her human mind recoiled in pain and fear, her Dungeon senses instantly narrowed down on the source of the problem.

Just beyond the Circus, in the room yet to be touched which was going to be for Renny’s key challenge, a crack had formed in the hard walls. She hissed and Renny was by her side, his hand formed around the handle of some invisible weapon.

Delta could only watch as the walls buckled and the crack was widened by one thin black leg. She felt like that leg was hollowing into her own head!

The hole was pushed open and the drooling face of a Spider stared in.

It slowly took a few steps into the Dungeon. It didn’t walk like it was nervous... but enjoying the sweet success of breaking in.

Delta felt a little bit better. She had faced these guys before. Honestly, she had even forgotten they really existed outside of being things Hob and Gob had thrown in. The confidence lasted pretty well until her vision briefly looked past the first intruder.

The tunnel beyond... was black from moving shadows. This wasn’t baby spiders or the three force from before. Delta stood and felt like her skin crawled as an army of the monsters all slowly moved forward.

Delta’s Dungeon was being Invaded and she didn’t have Deo or Ruli to help this time. The darkness beyond the far end of the Circus tent where the performers and staff would enter and exit was soon filled with the staring eyes of Spiders.

Some were the Forest Spiders she had absorbed before but there were new ones. Glowing green tiny ones with their thorax raised. A spider that seemed to be made of web more than hair. Other shapes moved in the gaps but Delta stood.

“Run-” she cried, not wanting Renny and Missy to be overrun.

The words were perhaps better suited for the Spiders, Delta thought after a moment as Missy’s eyes turned black and a few seconds later her gaze swept across the first few Spiders that suddenly burst into action towards Renny.

Spiders... regardless if they glowed green, were made of web or even if they had tails... burned equally it seemed.

Missy’s eyes didn’t look away and her posture was one of defiance and anger. Another few Spiders were shrieking and curling up as Renny neatly made finger gun motions at them. The Spiders, knocked out of their victory from coming into the Dungeon, began to zerg rush them and even with their amazing powers, Delta’s friends would be overrun.

Just as the first one would reach Renny, fangs bared, a giant silver fist appeared, smashing it into green and white paste. Wilhelm roared, his fury stretching across the Jungle floor, daring these insects to come closer.

Delta glared at the Spiders, for some reason... their bodies... their mere existence made her upset.

The odd reason aside... these guys were slowing her project down and if Kemy and her friends came back... Delta was not having these guys screwing up their adventure!

“Fine! Come on! I don’t need an army to beat you back. I got laser princess mushroom, a sassy Mime, and a pissed off giant ape!” she yelled.

Her voice carried much further than she meant to and before she knew it, every leaf... every stone... and even the very air trembled with her voice.

The entire Second Floor went very still for a moment and the Spiders all froze as if sensing this.

Delta narrowed her expression.

“Welcome to the Jungle, now get your crap and leave,” she warned... just once. The nearest spider was still for the longest moment before purpose filled all its eyes and it stepped forward.

It almost seemed to vibrate out its intention.

War.

It was in that instant, Delta saw the hand that guided these creatures. A mother... a caretaker... a creator... and she was sending these spiders in to die first to test Delta.

This thing was using her kids to feel the water.

That… made Delta angry.

79: Delta's Dungeon Defence

When faced with an army of giant mutant spiders, Delta’s mind wanted to find a nice safe place to close her eyes and wait for them to go away, but she pushed that feeling down as she watched Renny and Missy take down several spiders without fear.

Delta wanted to run and scream, but not now. Not while her monsters were doing their best. Still, she kinda wished she had the power to at least throw rocks at them. Wilhelm smashed a few more in a wild frenzy. Wherever this ape had been before had given it a resilience to fear as it didn’t even blink as the spiders leapt for his thick hands.

Remembering how she burned the Slimers, she tried to summon the menu to install a gate or some form of fire. Raising monsters in a past life via handheld games had taught her that when little kids and brats charged at you with bugs... you had to burn them all!

The only issue was a strange purple miasma that was flowing into the Dungeon through the Spider tunnel. The Menu flickered into existence but it was heavily distorted as she tried to focus on the room to seal the tunnel.

Monster Domain is leeching ambient Mana. Structure formation is not possible within Miasma field! Use existing stable Manaconstructs to establish own field!

Stable what? The information box twitched and a flood of blue took over as Nu took its place.

Assuming direct control. Sheesh, these things are as useful as two left shoes in emergencies... Delta! Use your monsters to beat the crap out of the Vermin and take the tunnel!

Delta grinned, nodding as she understood that just fine.

The lone room rumbled as the flow of spiders suddenly slowed and Delta had a slight spark of hope that maybe they had run out of the little nightmares when her tooth began to ache as if a cavity was forming in record time. The tunnel beyond cracked open wider as a spider pulled itself through.

If the first wave were giant spiders then this thing... was a Titan Spider. It loomed over the black mass of spiders and when it walked, it even crushed a few of its own allies to reach the Circus room. As it came closer, Delta felt that vile presence grow again. It was like this giant beast was more important than the common spiders.

It must be an elite! I don’t think the Mime or the little Miss is going to cut it here...

Delta urged everyone out into the open space outside the tent and the Titan spider rampaged forward, eager to sink those massive fangs into flesh. Odd, given the only creature not made of Mana was Renny and he had been a mummy not that long ago...

As the first three legs appeared from the opening near the tent, Wilhelm leapt up and landed on top of the tent, the insides buckled and wood groaned. Delta was quite glad she had repaired the damn thing before this all happened.

The giant silver ape reached down and yanked the Titan upwards, the beast hissing loud enough to make Delta’s skin prickle. The Titan was quick to recover, turning to wrestle Wilhelm atop of the tent. The Spider was slightly bigger but Wilhelm had power and leverage as he managed to snap one leg and use it as a makeshift spear.

“WHERE’S GODZILLA WHEN YOU NEED HIM?” Delta screamed as the tent entrance exploded with a wave of black legs and fangs. She turned to see Missy being carried out by Renny, the little Mushroom firing beams over his shoulder.

Delta was quick on their heels. A spider leg passed through her avatar and it felt like her body was filled with hot acid. The sheer contact of the spider made Delta gasp and falter in her flight.

Her stomach churned and it was hard to breathe, but she kept moving. Being buried under a wave of that was... not going to happen! She turned to see the Titan spider being thrown hard into the rock wall and Wilhelm swinging the stolen leg to crush the waves of spiders climbing up to aid their commander.

Thankfully, he was a part of the circus and if anything happened, she could bring him back. By the looks of it, he wasn’t going down without a fight.

Renny was slowed down as he carried the slow Missy away from the hordes of Spider. They seemed to get more excited as they finally entered the main section of the floor sucking at the air madly and the sound made Delta ill. A small spider moved quicker than the rest and the tip of two of its legs ended in sharp barbs as it leapt at Renny’s back as Missy aimed at the mass of the invasion.

“Renny!” she yelled and the Mime turned and hefted his free arm up as if lifting something. Delta winced as the leaping spider seemed to impale itself on an invisible spear. It began sliding down slightly before Renny dropped his construct. He put Missy down and gestured to the thick trees, implying that the young mushroom should take cover. Missy shook her head, grabbing at Renny’s hand, urging him to follow.

Delta could feel what was not spoken, and she wished she could hide them all away, but the monsters gave no time for her feelings to magically make things better. Renny pushed Missy behind him and his normal ghoul smile turned feral and scary as he snapped his fingers for Missy to run.

The faster spiders that Delta had chosen to name as Assassin spiders - as their leaping and barbed feet gave her the impression they weren’t exactly trying to give Renny a hug - leapt, and Renny’s hand went flat, causing them to crash into a flat wall. The five or so assassins quickly scuttled sideways, trying to find the edge. It was then Delta saw what Renny had already figured out. Missy’s eyes were flickering as if she was struggling to keep up her lasers for such a long period.

“Missy, go!” Delta ordered and the Mushroom child didn’t seem to get an option as she was lifted off her feet and carried into the forest by the tiny forms of the Pygmies. They had taken Delta’s order as intended. Renny snapped his head to the far side as he held up both hands to push back against the wave of spiders. One of the assassin spiders had found the end of the Mime wall and eagerly leapt for the tired Missy and the unaware Pygmies.

“Missy!” Delta rushed forward, her form rushing through the Spider in mid-air. She flew through it like she expected but her body just moved. The full contact of the monster made Delta’s insides shriek in burning pain as her avatar body crashed to the floor. She blinked in confusion as the spider also seemed to veer off course. It curled up and rocked as if also in pain.

What? Did she do... that?

The Pygmy forces were almost into a dense collection of trees while Renny’s wall trembled under the fury of the Giant spiders. However as Renny used his powers to snag two more assassin spiders, the last two spiders leapt for Missy as if sensing an easier meal than Renny.

Delta tried to move, maybe crash into them again but her body burned. In her head, that watcher, that controller of this army was also in pain. The feelings transmitted through the Miasma and spiders themselves.

The two spiders bared their fangs and swung their barbed limbs at Missy as the young Mushroom tried to power her laser on in a hurry but the energy was sluggish to rise.

Delta began to crawl forward, desperate to do something! She didn’t want to see Missy hurt... she couldn’t just sit here and do nothing! Delta needed to help!

She needed... help.

The trees parted and the two spiders had a split second to see their doom raise two fists above its head and swing them down at their heads. The Jungle was quiet for an entire three seconds, as everyone took stock of the newcomer.

Delta managed a shaky smile at the sight of Lord Mushy... Lordy... shake his fists of the green guts before he reached down and grabbed his scepter-like cane. The Pygmies and Missy had frozen in awe at the sheer size of Lordy.

“I dare say... what foul guests dare invite themselves to their end?” he called and all around him mushrooms began to sprout, their caps beginning to buzz.

“No kidding. Who invited these chumps to the party? Just looking at them is killing my groove,” Maestro said with disinterest. Renny leapt back and his wall fell but the giant spiders didn’t rush, not yet.

They eyed Lord Mushy with hate-filled eyes. Missy carefully stood up and bowed her little cap to Lordy and the Mushrooms carrying Maestro’s voice.

“Do not fear, for I am here,” Lordy promised as he took a few steps forward, his crowned head bent slightly as if glaring at the army before him with displeasure.

“How dare you hurt my mother and sister!” his voice boomed and the cane in his hand seemed less decorative and more like a dangerous weapon. Maestro’s own tone turned heavy with promise.

“Please, let me know what request you want for your final dance,” the singer urged.

There was movement as two forms appeared on Lordy’s crown. Delta blinked at the tiny forms of the Priest and the Fungalmancer. The Fungalmancer seemed to beckon at something and all in a neat row, Starlight Mushrooms burst out of the ground on little feet. The Priest chanted as all the mushrooms, including Lordy began to glow a soft orange.

Lordy clenched one fist as if feeling the blessing take hold. Below, the Starlight mushrooms took aim and began to fire tiny lasers into the crowd, their speed much faster due to the blessing. That was enough to get spiders moving as they started forward again.

“Have at you! You gutless worms!” Lordy yelled and rushed forward. His crown and cape flowed with heavy yellow spores. He spun and the spores flew out, making most of the spiders falter and even causing the closest to just spasm to the ground as his cane began to crush heads and legs.

Black Mushrooms appeared on the spiders at the Fungalmancer’s power and they ruptured violently in a cloud of spores and spider legs.

Maestro cackled and his mushrooms began to let loose with horns of war.

“You guys...” Delta finally stood and while the sight of her monsters defending their home was amazing, it was hard to feel confident when they were still outnumbered.

That thought was washed away, along with many spiders, as Rale came exploding out of the river. He did not come alone, as he rode Bob into the chaos.

“BOB TAKES OFFENCE AT THE WORM COMMENT!” he roared as Bob swept his head wildly from the water. Rale leapt off his head as Lordy smashed two spiders together.

“My apologies! I shall instead refer to these cretins as honorless thugs!” Lordy promised. Rale’s muscles bulged and he began to grab assassin spiders out of the air to use as a shield against thick green acid being fired at him by the green glowing spiders at the back. His trident being thrown at another incoming one.

“Tch, I’m a man for close combat! Perhaps I can get some support!” he called to the thick trees. A shadow rushed from the top, using a jumping assassin as a springboard, raining thin needles down on the ranged Spitters. The thin metal needles made them into a pincushion as Luna landed near the back, her high heels buried deep into the body of one of the Spitters.

“THE EPIC NINJA OF THE BLOOD MOON ARTS IS HERE!” she yelled as she twirled onto another spider, heels acting like daggers as she slashed and cartwheeled death into the back row.

“Don’t get surrounded!” Delta warned as the still coming Giant spiders tried to do exactly that to her. Luna scoffed as she stood there encircled.

“You think I don’t have a plan?” she informed them as from the shadows of the trees... glowing green spirits began to race towards the unaware spiders who only had eyes for Luna. Devina walked forward, her eyes glowing with power as her spirits entered the Spiders’ bodies and began to cause their legs to act out or even a few to just lash out at those around them.

“Ninja escape!” Luna yelled cheerfully, backflipping over the possessed Spiders as the Witch Doctor continued her efforts to make the spiders turn on one another.

Rale swung again, the river seeming to surge at his command - but he was a little overrun as he was bitten several times. Still, his bulging body fought on despite his veins turning dark.

He was aided by Giant who wandered in and began to swing a tree he had pulled from the ground, the great log creating space for Rale to catch his breath. Lordy was stunning as he went, but the spitters were beginning to spread their acid over the area and it was slowing the noble mushroom down.

That was, until Renny landed on his shoulder, holding what Delta had to see as an umbrella, the acid sliding to the side. Lordy laughed with joy as he felt the pain fade. The Priest and Fungalmancer came out of hiding and got back to work.

The whole scene was just chaos and death. Still... something was missing.

Something...

It hit her then that there was one little critter missing from the trio of hero Pygmies. The answer also came by sounds of furious buzzing and the faint tones of Flight of the Valkyries starting up. The air support had finally appeared.

The sky above went dark as the first wave of drone bees arrived.

But in the lead was the Tinker. He rode on the spearhead of the swarm. He raised one hand and then slashed it down. The bees swerved over the oncoming black wave and dropped bundles of Gutrot Mushrooms. The sheer speed and impact caused them to rain death down on the encroaching army.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta cheered and whooped as it all came together. The blasts scattered the main lot and more than a few scampered into the deep trees and rushed off into several directions. The spiders controller... the Queen was learning and taking measures.

The purple fog flowing out of the Circus was very thick but Delta could see a wave of blue and orange pushing back at it. In the middle was Nu’s screen as he seemed to be giving off the aura.

His entire focus was on it and Delta couldn’t seem to reach him.

She looked up as the Warrior Bees dived, stingers thicker than daggers, at the spiders but they were learning and headed to the trees to avoid open areas like the Circus entrance. Rale was looking ill but he was surrounded by spider corpses. Luna and Devina had to retreat as some spiders with armoured bodies and stinging tails forced Luna back since her needles and pointed heels couldn’t as easily pierce their skin.

Delta hoped they would be okay, but she had to see where these spiders were going.

The Queen of the Miasma also seemed to be helping her monsters push back the green energies of Devina.

A few headed towards her core but worse, more than enough went towards the stairs leading to the first floor. Delta would not let these things reach her entrance. The Scarlet Moons could be back anytime or anyone else!

Durence could handle themselves but these new adventures… Delta wasn’t going to take the risk that even more people might have arrived.

She flew off into the air.

“DEFEND OUR HOME!” she called, hoping what little encouragement she could offer was enough.

“TO ARMS!” Lordy responded. His form blurred even faster. Rale roared, charging and grabbing a scorpion spider that was about to sting Devina.

“YOU ARE NOT WORTHY TO TOUCH LADY DEVINA!” he said furiously and ripped the tail off. Bob vanished into the water as he followed some spiders upstream.

Delta raced from the battlefield and hoped Nu could handle this from here.

She had spiders to hunt down.

---

It wasn’t a Dungeon.

Nu knew that, like how he knew Delta was hopeless. Just a fact. There was just something not quite as complex as a Dungeon in this flow of power. Corrupted Mana. Unlike the almost pure Mana Delta leaked from her entrances, this Mana had been so twisted by this... queen, for a lack a better title, that to a normal eye, it would look like a sickly purple haze - but to Nu, who saw things in the basic of Dungeon existence... it was a Spider.

The very Mana had been forced into the same existence as the Spiders. It was good for them. It only worked for them, and any other in this tainted field would be weakened, struggling to use their powers effectively.

Interesting idea, really. If a Dungeon did the same then it would be better defended but it would also easily lose its main source of income.

That’s why Nu just couldn’t respect such a thing. It was selfish to the point of suicide. Did this Queen think she would control the world? Without Mana to others, food would be scarce, life would be just Spiders, and problems would arise.

Honestly, ecosystems were there for a purpose. Nu had half a mind to rant at this Queen if not for the fact he was doing his best to act as a bandaid to her flavor of trouble. Nu knew that if this was another Dungeon… things would be rough and even worse, but this?

He could handle this.

Hunger... Mana… give to me! Give! Give!

It was pure intent and Mana that sounded the Queen’s desire. Nu responded in kind.

“Stop having so many kids and lose a few pounds. Your Mana is heavier than Bacon filled with gutrot,” he challenged. The miasma twinged with anger and the focus the Queen was trying to give to the battle was diverted to Nu.

That’s right… split your attention, you dumb idiot.

Nu felt the twisted Mana lash at him. He felt his box crack a little under the pressure. The joys of not being the Dungeon Core meant that in events like this... his power was a little less effective.

“S-s-Sys, can’t you lend a hand?” he called.

Her response was uncharastically sharp.

Busy. Containment in place. Diverting Corruption.

Nu shook himself and he began to just throw random pieces of Delta’s puns at the purple mana, puns he had stored outside his memory to preserve sanity. The Spider Queen paused.

It seemed to struggle to digest the information for a second before it bristled and grew furious beyond belief at the jokes. The strict control she had shook slightly and the ranks of Spiders began to become confused.

Nu tried to think about what Delta would say in this instance.

“You’ve been watching us for a while, trying to figure out the best way to eat us. I guess you really are a spy...der,” Nu tried and the pun hurt him somewhere deep inside. The Queen went absolutely silent and her Mana even froze.

Then she began to scream in utter rage.

“And I thought I couldn’t take a joke...” Nu mumbled as the pressure grew and his screen cracked harder.

---

The scattered forces of the spiders went into many different directions. Most went straight for the stairs, crossing Giant’s bridge in a frenzied rush to find more food.

They climbed and climbed until they burst into a room where the solid ground turned soft and sandy. The eight spiders all felt the very air began to crush down on them. The Queen, the Mother Queen, her touch seemed so far away...

They moved forward, agitated. They could smell pig! Juicy pig...

The leader, the one closest to evolution, neared the hole that smelled of chewy goblin and pig.

Food, so close!

The leader went still as a long metal object went through its mouth and the juicy pig walked out of the entrance and the seven left felt fear. The goblin that was supposed to be prey stared down at them.

“You think you can walk into my house and act like you’re kings?” the goblin spat and he flicked his weapon and the spider on it fell and smacked against the wall.

“It’s time you runts learned the pecking order,” the goblin growled and the juicy pig... licked its lips.

They felt fear and they wanted their mother.

---

The lone spider rushed about in a panic as its fellow warriors had gone missing. The dense trees and hanging vines hid death. It reached a small clearing and hissed at everything. Where? WHERE? It turned as fast its legs would let it.

It should weave a web, create defenses! It shot a single spool of the white thread and as it touched the branch, spears and rocks hurled itself at the web. Tangling it before it could do anything.

The death shadows were here! The spider bared its fangs in a show of power and something came crashing through the trees. It almost leapt by sheer instincts but it stopped when it saw it was one of its fellow Spiders!

Its legs had been hogtied and a dozen little fluffy things covered its body.

The fluffy things shouldn’t scare it, but they did.

It turned to run and found the trees all around it filled with little wooden faces. It froze as it tried to spot a way out.

The fluffy things were blown from little wooden tubes and it felt numb....then it was being carried off into the darkness.

The shadows of death had captured it. It prayed to the Mother for a swift end.

---

The scene of clean water and pure Mana drove a squad of assassin Spiders to scale the wall to a hidden place. They grew excited. Hidden places must hide the Source of Mana! The Queen had told them to find the source!

The room beyond was mostly filled with water and a single road with two statues. The lead spider scuttled forward as the rest scaled the walls for ambushes. The only thing in this room was a small tiny frog. Unlike the two large ones or the small fast ones... this one looked old and frail.

Easy prey.

The leader moved forward, drooling as it readied to enjoy a quick snack of Mana.

The old frog looked up and the leader paused as the feeling this thing gave off was not fear but... annoyance?

That wasn’t right-

It felt the world spin and light exploded behind all eight eyes. Confused it shrieked for help and tried to climb to its feet but the old frog had cast off it’s cloak to reveal powerful muscles and glowing tattoos.

“May Mother Delta have mercy on you because this old man has had enough of you youngsters and your damn invasion games,” the frog said with a deep growl. He bent and his legs filled with power. Before it could understand, two of its brothers were smears on the walls.

It turned to web or maybe bite the frog but a webbed foot smashed down on its head and it could only briefly feel surprised before its life ended.

--

Gramps walked forward at the last spider.

“You’re hurting my family. For that, I’m gonna have to destroy you. They annoy me, and they’re too loud but I love my fellow frogs...” he sighed and then eyed the spider as it tried to flee.

“Good thing they aren’t going to be told that - because you aren’t going to live to tell them, and I would rather eat Mother Delta’s mushrooms than admit it,” he promised. He dashed forward, cracking the stone below his feet as he grabbed the spider by the back leg and slammed it onto the side of the entrance. Soon, he was left holding only a leg and he chucked it to the jungle below. He stared out at the jungle as battle raged on.

“Rale... you idiot,” he said quietly and took off into the trees with an agility that didn’t belong to such an old looking man.

---

Delta nodded as Fran made skewers of the Spiders, turning her attention to the largest group of invaders away from the main force.

About 15 spiders were rushing towards her Core and Delta couldn’t help but feel worried as the idea of those spiders touching her core filled her mind. She shot off, flying across the room to see them squeezing into the door... why wasn’t it shut?!

She phased through the tree wall and the air inside the Boss room was... chilling. She watched as the spiders marched forward through the mist.

She felt Wyin’s excitement... tangible as if the mist itself was like a mood ring, turning pink then red the longer the spiders took to search the room.

The tree in the center unfurled her branches like a bird and she looked up at Delta with a smile.

“Let my love for you be clear,” she sang, her soft and willowy branches flexed and became whips of thorns as others pierced the spiders like javelins.

Delta watched as Wyin tore the spiders apart, her glee and joy growing brighter as the mist grew redder.

It took no time at all and while the Spiders tried to harm Wyin, her bark was strong and she easily brushed them off with a shake of her body. Delta could see she was playing... taking her time to end this.

“Stop it.”

The words were out her mouth before Delta even knew it. Wyin merely hummed.

“I’m just doing my task,” the tree almost purred as she slowly pierced another spider. Delta felt the pain of the invasion, the effort her monsters were putting in to defending her... and watching Wyin invite danger in and toy with it made Delta bristle.

“Enough!” she snapped and Wyin froze.

“I...” she trailed off as she looked at Delta’s angry face.

“This is is no time for this. You want to play games, do it on your own time. My family is doing their best there. I don’t know you... not yet but if you don’t respect their efforts to at least take this seriously then I won’t stand for it. Do your job or I’ll find someone who will,” Delta said quietly. Wyin looked as if she had been slapped.

The last four spiders exploded in gore and Wyin’s face looked sullen.

“Happy, oh mistress?” she bit out.

Delta shook her head.

“Not until this over. Just... give me time and we’ll talk. But now...” she winced as she felt Nu struggle.

“Easy... do not force yourself. Despite your feelings. I do care. Go and worry. I shall keep the door locked and your core safe. I give you my word. My word!” the tree said with sudden heat.

Delta hesitated before she nodded. She flew off and straight for Nu.

---

Wyin watched as the orange blur vanished. She felt angry... ashamed...

Of course showing off now would be a stupid thing to do... Wyin cursed herself and slashed a dead spider to pieces in frustration.

Mother was going to talk? Someone else do her job?!

Wyin felt her very branches curl at the idea.

This was her task. Her existence!

The door before her locked tightly. The feeling of fighting and tearing the spiders to pieces was almost amazing. It was so... pure. But now it felt tinged with this shame and Wyin had no desire to invite more in. She wanted to rest... to sulk, if she was being honest.

Mother was never in any danger.

Never.

Wyin would burn before she abandoned someone.

She would never leave a loved one. Not like…

Not like... Wyin had been?

Hmm... odd. That was a new feeling.

Loathing.

Wyin closed her eyes, feeling the war beyond her door rage on. She felt, for the first time... trapped and helpless.

Wyin loathed it.

---

80: Mother vs Mother

The thick sickly purple haze was seeping in despite Nu’s best efforts. Delta hovered over the Circus room with uncertainty. The Spider mana ducked one way but split at the last second, gaining ground as Nu was stuck as one being. His use of fake information boxes and pulling on Delta’s Mana had only worked for so long.

The deep hunger and excitement that infected the Spider Mana grew eager as Nu slipped up at a crucial moment, the purple mana was about to breach into the main room of the second floor and who knew what that would do for the Queen.

The flow of Spiders was slow but if she got closer to Delta’s core... she might start being able to do some real nasty things with the existing spiders or making something worse.

Wilhelm growled as he limped out of the room. The corpse of the Titan Spider left behind. The giant silver ape’s body was covered in countless bite marks and holes where sharp legs had pierced his beautiful fur, staining it red. The ape was deeply injured and Delta could only urge him to retreat.

The rush of the Queen’s Mana washed over Nu and the box began to fritz and smoke.

“No!” Delta cried and dove without hesitation towards him.

“Let him go, you monster!” she demanded. Oddly the purple haze was startled and something Delta hadn’t noticed before rushed forward. Passive orange motes of light that had been either moved by Nu or devoured by the Queen suddenly roared to action crashing hard against the Queen. The smell of burning mushrooms and nature smashed against the feeling of mad hunger.

The Dungeon around Delta seemed to suddenly break like a fragile piece of stained glass. The image she was used to; creation filtered through pieces of coloured glass and angles was stripped away as the universe laid bare before her.

Her Dungeon stretched to infinite possibilities and space... how small Delta was so far.

The scene she saw was like a shimmering mass of Mana. There was nothing physical here... nothing quite real or fake.

This was a chessboard of another kind. A view from just the two Queens... the two mothers.

Delta at one end of the system and existence... the Queen at the other.

Her core was a star in the constantly churning sea of colours. Her star blazed orange and in the same galaxy… the same solar system was a growing mass of ugly black holes and eyes. From her sun rotated two planets. One a deep green orb of pride, too distant to cut the growing cancer on Delta’s existence, the other a brown planet with green seas. It guarded her sun with bristled fury. Volcanoes exploded on her surface, continents shook, and the visage of Wyin was exposed to Delta’s eye.

Delta wasn’t bound to walls, floors, and rock. Her existence, her creation, her very meaning blazed around in this sea of Mana and purpose. Her monsters, all of them, floated around her boss monsters like flickering moons or soaring comets.

Ready to defend her light to their end.

Delta felt oddly calm as she watched the growing cancer... the Spider Queen swing with sickly black swarms of slime. Easily, she flicked a desire and a solar flare from her light easily repelled it.

She thought of only one thing. To defend her worlds, defend her system, to defeat this invader!

She screamed in challenge as some primal part of her demanded action. Inside her sun, the number 4 glowed a deep red in warning to the approaching Queen.

---

Nu felt oddly displaced as Delta’s warm light suddenly dove into the Spider Queen’s Mana and his worry faded.

Delta just... merged with the very Dungeon air and walls and water... Delta and Dungeon were one and Nu couldn’t even find a way to contact her mind. At the same time, the Spider Queen had also stopped advancing. Nu watched with fascination as the the very base of all Dungeon existence, the Mana, began to attack the purple Mana.

Like an immune system response that had turned on at Delta’s sudden offense. He felt the Dungeon shake and he spun to float outside.

At his failure to stop the Queen, she had evolved another damn Titan Spider! Unlike people... monsters did not lock him nor did it seem that the Dungeon prevented invading monsters from upgrading themselves in response.

The looming force was doing its best to ram down the suddenly sealed stone doors to Wyin’s chamber. A few bees and Devina seemed to be trying to take it down but it wasn’t enough. Without Delta’s awareness, her monsters seemed to be struggling to deal with the sudden absence of their mother, worry clouding their actions as they tried to win the physical battle of the Dungeon.

This would not do.

“Sys, I need higher control to handle the forces!” he pinged the System but the feminine voice that was usually so cheery came back with a snap.

“Authority is not to be managed right now! I am preventing corruption. Delta… Delta? Delta is... oh...” Sys faltered as for the first time she seemed to fully analyze the situation.

“Delta is being a damn good Dungeon Core right now so stop wasting precious nanoseconds and give me the damn control modulation!” Nu snapped back. There was a pause.

“Be careful, last time you went kind nuts,” she warned. There was a feeling of influxed Mana and Nu’s box, his lovely box... grew legs.

Damn it.

The torso formed next, then arms, eyes, and that damn fur called hair.

He floated there, a midnight blue human male. Urgh, Delta must have soaked too deeply into the authority seat to allow anything but a human shape at this point. He flexed his fingers and what seemed like empty space between orange motes of Mana, midnight blue ones popped into existence.

“Attention, you idiotic, overgrown children. Delta is busy and I will not tolerate her coming back to see you all dead or worse... making me look bad! Now get your minds into the fight and DESTROY THE TITAN SPIDER BEFORE I FIGURE OUT IF THIS BODY CAN HAVE A DAMN BRAIN ANEURYSM!” Nu growled all over the floor.

There was a few precious seconds of pause before the army of Bees began to swarm the Spider. Rale and Luna weren’t far behind. He felt Bob dragging a fair amount of the spiders into the water, his fear now gone, replaced by determination!

Even his damn little crabs snipped off legs where they could.

That was more how Nu liked it!

---

Delta watched as her Sun seemed to grow a shadow.

A demonically blue and cold star that sat conjoined to her own blazing sun, tiny but visible.

The star didn’t scare Delta, in fact... she felt even better with it around.

“Trickery! Foul core, change your colour all you like. You will be mine,” the black mass promised gleefully.

Voices. Words. Delta actually found them a little distasteful in this state. Were her intent and emotions not visible? Did it have to resort to such base taunting? Could it not display the most simple of expressions with her feelings?

This Queen was really beginning to irk her.

“Fine, let’s talk. You should go home, stop killing your kids, and seal the tunnel. I’m being very nice right now but I won’t tolerate you killing my children,” Delta called out, tendrils of solar flares arched with her voice, creating vibrant waves of force. The black mass laughed.

“Children? They are drones to an end. My real children will be born when I use your heart as a nest. My domain will eclipse your Dungeon and together they will form an Abyss!” the howl came back and the black mass was actually beginning to take a form.

A torso and rough head formed first but the Queen was slowly becoming more concrete with her image. Delta felt a pulse of rage hit her.

Her sun blazed hot and red.

“Drones? They’re dying for you! They love you!” Delta yelled, the feeling of the fanatical devotion the Spiders fought with only too clear. The Universe around them grew colder as the Queen merely looked bored. Yes... she had her eight eyes now.

“Love? How pointless. There is only power and they fear my power. It is their world. I peered into your realm. Sickly webs you spin with love and promises. Your ‘children’ will die knowing you have failed them in their moment of death. A sweet soup I will drink,” the Queen mocked.

“You.. are a monster,” Delta whispered. The Queen brushed long silvery hair out of her cold face. A crown of spindly legs formed around her head. A cloak of regal black covering her nude body.

“No more than you. We are both Mothers of monsters. You merely lie to yourself. Pity... sad,” came the response as she lashed out with countless more dark waves of spiders, each ready to die for their Mot… their creator.

Delta only stared at the cold, cruel brutality of the being before her.

Her planets seemed to slow, the comets, and moons seemed to pause to wait for Delta’s response.

Her planets, her rocks, her children, her friends, her family... her home.

“Just lay down and die to the superior mother!” the Queen laughed into the darkness of the Universe.

Delta looked up and held up one finger.

“First off,” she stated and a burning pillar of flame exploded from her sun and the waves were burned to a crisp. The Queen looked startled.

“You are no mother. If there was child protective services on this planet, I’d have them here so fast I’d cause a rip in the time space continuum then shove you into the rip with pleasure,” she walked forward and behind her, the Sun began to expand as her planets, comets, and moons fled inside, taking shelter and becoming covered in her protection. The blue sun began to orbit like a moon around her own.

“How... no! You were not this powerful!” the Queen choked. Delta held up a second finger and her sun began to consume all in it’s path as it expanded more.

“Second off. You are such a cliche of a horrid villain that I am actually ashamed that you came to my dungeon. You’re boring, uninteresting and have no depths beyond ‘woo I’m so evil’. Please, I do not have time to waste on such a one-act pony spider,” Delta announced. The Queen began to spin,trying to spread out a wall of darkness to appear bigger but she had retreated.

Delta kept walking forward.

“Enough! I will not be mocked by such a failure of a Dungeon!” the Queen rushed forward and Delta sniffed once and backhanded the wave her fire burning the cloak of darkness and crown that had been forming on the spider woman.

The Queen looked shocked as she touched her orange stained cheek. Delta held up three fingers.

“Third off. I am actually a good parent despite the fact my kids scare the shit out of me in more ways than one. And you’re right. I am a terrible Dungeon, but guess what? I do not give one ounce of fricks about your opinion or your thoughts. I will not take advice from someone who chose to be a Queen instead of a damn mother. Now, I have this little thing where I have no idea what I am doing so I really suggest scampering off before my... self behind me explodes,” Delta jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the Sun on the verge of Supernova.

The Spider Queen went white... then pink... then red.

“I will eat you!” she spat and lunged forward.

Delta’s fist caught her on the nose spreading more orange. Delta eyed the Spider Queen for a long moment as she focused.

“Ya know? That’s not a bad idea! But eating talking people isn’t my forte so I’ll just scoop up what’s left after. I promise, I’m not usually so cruel or mean but you really do know how to push my buttons, and sadly, one of those buttons had a giant label called ‘Supernova’. Hopefully, enough of you will remain behind that I can help your kids,” Delta said coldly.

She vanished.

The Queen held her nose in pain. She looked up as her skin began to grow warm. Then it became hot.

She looked up as the Sun of orange engulfed the blue one and then kept growing... growing... consuming... EATING!

She screamed.

“You promised me power and life! Help me!” she cried to the fading darkness.

No one answered. No more promises.

She had been left to fade after her failure.

She sat there on her knees as Orange swallowed her whole.

Inside the sun, a monster far worse than she could ever have imagined opened wide and devoured her.

---

Every one of the spiders just... died.

Nu blinked in shock as one by one, they all curled up as if being withered from the inside.

The mana inside filled the air but it looked lost. Less purple and more...clear.

Without intent or ownership.

Nu turned as a deep orange light exploded out of the core, rushing past Wyin, past Nu and he felt-

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

NOTAMOTHERPAINSORROWMUSTBEDONEHADTONOCHOICEDIDIHELPTHEMDOSOMETHING

-like his head had been filled to its limit before it faded.

Delta’s light fired up the spider Tunnel and as she did so, there came a deep scream as the purple Mana was set alight. A burning sea of stars to the human eye. Delta’s power flooded all the way to the outside world.

He could only imagine the sight.

---

“THAT’S DELTA! SHE’S REALLY NICE!” Deo promised Kemy as a pillar of orange light exploded into the sky from the deep forest beyond Durence.

The priestess had met the young teen and she had been unable to say no at his offer of a tour. She guessed he didn’t talk to outsiders much... well, yell at them.

“Why is she exploding?!” Kemy yelled in panic. Deo thought about that.

“MAYBE SHE HAD GAS?” he suggested. Kemy eyed him and felt no deception coming from the boy. He was like the chosen of her Goddess. Lies had never touched this boy. She was about to comment when something landed on her shoulder.

She looked around to see half a spider staring blankly at her.

Her heart dropped and Deo opened his mouth wide in surprise.

“IT’S RAINING SPIDERS! IT’S NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE! CHEESE, SWORDS, AND ONE TIME, IT RAINED FIRE BUT NEVER SPIDERS!” he said with excitement. Kemy felt faint as legs, bodies, and gore rained down on the village.

She felt a shadow overhead and saw the cheery woman, Mrs Dabberghast, holding an umbrella out for her.

“You came at an interesting time,” the woman smiled sweetly, her eyes turning to the fading jet of orange light.

“Never seen a Dungeon blow up a domain like this but Delta was never subtle. I really like that about her,” the woman chortled as she went about scooping parts into a bucket.

“Fresh fertilizer!” she said with glee.

“T-this is…. ISN’T NORMAL!” Kemy squeaked in protest, watching as Deo tried to assemble a spider from the random bits and pieces still falling around them.

“Wonderful, isn’t it?” Mrs. Dabberghast laughed.

This village was mad.

The Dungeon was scary.

Kemy whimpered but at Deo’s innocent look, she half-heartedly pointed out a leg he could use in the distance. The boy’s smile was like a sun... amidst the storm of spider limbs.

Kemy and her friends needed to hurry and ‘beat’ Delta’s Dungeon before they became just as mad.

That was the honest truth as Kemy had ever believed it to be.

---

Delta broke the surface.

She inhaled as she sat up in front of her core. Someone was slapping her. At first, she thought the Spider Queen had been even stronger than she imagined but she blinked bleary-eyed at a blue boy.

He was scowling fiercely at her.

“Idiot. What kind of fool jumps into an intersoul battle with an unknown foe? I have no idea what you even did!” the boy complained and shook her slightly.

He was kind of cute, his tousled hair and purple cheeks showing his frustration. He was glaring at her but Delta just felt so happy to be back that she just smiled stupidly at him.

“You’re blue!” she beamed.

“No, you dolt, I am Nu!” the boy argued.

“New what?” Delta said confused as she tried to stand up but something wasn’t quite working. She stared down to see she had no legs. Her body was still forming slowly out of the floor.

“You’re slowly retaking command hence why my legs are gone,” the boy pointed out. Delta looked down with a frown to see the boy’s own legs were almost ghostly, invisible.

“Thank goodness, I can go back to the perfect shape and be rid of these damn limbs,” the boy shook said limbs with frustration. Those words... that manner.

“Nu...” she said slowly.

The young man, a little younger than Delta, looked up.

“Glad you can see my greatness in any form but... how... are you?” he asked cautiously. Delta tried to remember the space, the stars... the Queen.

“What happened? Why do you have non-boxy features? Did you know you have dimples?” Delta pointed to the dimples that showed when Nu glowered.

“Of course that’s what you focus on... you blew up the Queen, the spiders all died, and now Sys and I are trying to hold off the giant wave of Mana from basically overloading your core. You also snagged a lot things from the Spider Queen, and her tunnel is... well it’s odd, to say the least,” Nu reported. His torso began to fade as Delta pulled herself free from the floor slightly more.

“I didn’t blow her up for fun. I punched her first and slapped her but she kept coming. Then I... blew up?” Delta tried to remember. Nu shook his head.

“Stars and spider explosions. You don’t settle for low, do you? Our folks all survived, but Wilhelm, he succumbed to the poison over time but his recharge time is already counting down. So, it was a total victory for us, hurrah,” Nu said deadpanned.

Delta eyed him.

“Actually... why do you have a body?” she asked and then suddenly the Dungeon shook. Delta gasped as stars exploded across her vision. Her blood felt thick, her muscles expanded, her mind was drowned in white lights. Nu gave a pained gasp and he held two hands out.

The feeling of drowning halted for a moment.

“Not... a good time to talk. The Mana is coming. The Frogs are throwing what they can into the tunnel but there’s so many... plus the two Titan spiders,” Nu trailed off. Delta’s head began to spin.

“T-two?!” she asked in shocked horror but the Mana began to press again. She shook that question off.

“What can we do? I can’t... I don’t think I can handle that again!” she said in a panic. Nu’s body seemed to be pushed forward by the mass of white Mana gathering behind him.

“The Third Floor... it’s our only chance. If you can purchase it once I begin to leak the Mana... Sys can knock you out and I’ll drain enough Mana on stupid crap you’ll love and then we can get back together and everything can go back to normal!” Nu yelled as his efforts began to cause pain to shoot across the features of his face.

“I can’t leave you to deal with this alon-” she tried to argue but Nu’s deep blue eyes, darker than the rest of him met hers.

“I am just... a Menu. Nothing special. You are the Core. We need you intact,” he panted. Delta reached out and not expecting it... she grabbed Nu’s hand.

He stared for a second as tendrils of white Mana began to float past.

Delta couldn’t move. Nu’s hand was warm… he was real.

To Delta Nu was real.

“You’re special to me... don’t ever forget it. Delta is no good without her Nu,” she explained as the haze of bloated Mana collected in the pit of her stomach.

The fading face of Nu suddenly smirked.

“I know. Honestly, you’d be a wreck without me. But just listen to me... just this once,” he said, his voice turning gentle.

“I’ll be fine. Trust me, hm?” he pushed, a small smile playing around his lips. Delta felt his warm hand becoming fainter and fainter.

“O-okay but if I wake up and you’re gone or injured, I’ll explode my sun on you so hard you’ll have to come back!” she warned seriously. Nu blinked.

“Explode your... sun- No, no time! Are you ready? Do you have the Menu open and ready?” he shouted, startling Delta into action.

Third Floor: 300 DP

“Ready!” she promised. Nu hesitated for a few seconds.

“You... really are a good Core... a... friend... even,” he mumbled and the white mass slipped past before Delta could even think of a response.

It was like she was swallowing an ocean. It just kept coming and coming, bitter and cold. She gulped and it felt like she couldn’t push forward to reach the purchase button. The waves of Mana and Dp earned for the fight overwhelmed her and almost promised to push her so far down into darkness, she would never come back.

She fought, she screamed, and she clawed forward towards the only colour.

The fading blue smile of knowing. Knowing that Delta was going to be just fine.

That was enough to make the last few inches possible. The knowledge that she had people waiting for her.

She had spiders to fix... a tunnel to look at...

Dear lord, what if Adventurers came? She’d never live down the state she was in.

Her finger smashed the screen as her body threatened to pop with the sheer resources gathering in her tight frame.

The message was clear.

Third Floor Purchased. Thank you for your purchase. Sleep well, Delta.

“Don’t let it be... dragons for the third floor... please,” she mumbled and sweet warm orange overtook her senses as everything began to shake.

---

Nu was flung out of the core room as the Dungeon shook and shuddered. Space and dimensions shifted wildly to connect the Second floor to this new space. Nu wasn’t sure what was going on, but the space felt... different than the first to the second floor.

Delta was cleanly absorbed back into the core and his human form lingered. He was confused why until Sys appeared with information.

Acting Core, please choose a theme for the area.

Lava
Ocean
Mountai-

Sys began to flicker badly and Nu went to grab her.

Error. Repurposed area.

Theme selected. Please pass on my apologies. Unstable energies detected. Floor 3 is invading sealed space.

Theme… The Silent’s Fortress. Main foes determined.

Undead.

New monster granted to Core for the third floor.

Trolls unlocked.

Factors of third floor. Cannot make new rooms, Space is predetermined and allocated. Defeat the enemies to take over rooms! Boss room in use.

Defeat the boss!

Nu pursed his lips.

This was Delta’s fault somehow... if not...it was just her damned luck.

Behind the core, stairs formed. Cold stone things that radiated darkness and the feeling of disturbing something alien.

That was when the truly strangest thing of all happened in Nu’s short experience.

A lizard-like creature sprinted up the stairs, looking around in crazed amazement.

“A Dungeon! Excellent! Come, come! No time to waste!” the thing almost sang. From behind him came the sounds of rattling and clacking. The lizard turned with a slow crazed smile.

“Not today, you spooky bastards!” he howled and hurled a glowing red orb down the stairs. A wave of fire and heat roared over the stairs and stained the stone black with soot. The lizard creature... a kobold turned with a shake of his head.

“They’ll be back,” he told the room. Nu tried to speak but his voice had faded. The Kobold sniffed around Delta’s core with a long interested sniff.

He began to juggle his damn grenades and looked thoughtful as he made all the orbs just vanish down his sleeve.

“The name is... Jack,” he said, tasting the words as if not one had asked his name for a long time.

“I’ve been down there for about... 40 years? No... 30!... 50? Ah, who cares but thank gods, you came, you beautiful thing!” Jack hugged Delta’s core causing Nu to growl and use the last of his strength to send an order.

The doors open to the core.

The group of Rale, Devina, Renny, Luna, Giant, and Gramps made the Kobold pause. Instead of looking worried, the damn thing looked even more overjoyed!

“Yes! Best day ever since I learned how to turn creep moss into edible food!” he yelled. He gained that mad glint in his eyes again.

“So is it time to settle the score?” he grinned.

Nu stared for a long moment, he looked to see more Mana gathering in the core. The dent used to buy the third floor still filling up but much slower.

“Delta... hurry back. I don’t want to deal with this,” he whispered, almost begging as Luna kicked the damn Kobold back down the stairs in surprise.

Nu just wanted a nice water level with mecha sharks and sword-wielding Octopi... was that too much to ask for?

81: Long may she rain

Haldi was soon joined by Pic and Mila.

The area around the Dungeon was experiencing the rushing waves of Mana as it grew it’s third floor.

“Must be a record,” Pic mused, as he rolled his silver teeth for a moment. The Mana rushed past and the barren lands drank it up even more than during the previous Mana waves. The third floor was special like that. Floors of three seemed to generate a special intense magical vibe. Mila inhaled and her eyes were slitted. Her humanity remained in control but it was clear they were all indulging on the vibes.

Pic’s teeth were creating small sparks as he ground them. Haldi was rolling a small ball of cheese over his fingers, the compact brie could be anything he so desired at that moment. He was remembering some of the things he had perfected over the years.

“Cheese Whip” was misleading to shout in battle. Claw Cheddar was amusing but left his nails smelling for days... Haldi winced as he suddenly remembered the Harmesan Lance...

He consoled himself with the fact he had been going through a phase...

Haldi formed a tiny cheese butterfly and it floated gently at the tip of his fingers.

“The Dungeon reached the first fort... fuck me, I forgot how it felt,” Mila growled as she leaned on her bow. Pic shot her an amused look.

“Wasn’t that the idea? But yeah... nothing like that feeling to bring back bad memories,” he agreed after a moment. They stood at the gate and behind them, another layer of Durence awoke. The hidden and slumbering parts that would only awaken when things would pick up.

The few odd spots. Paige’s book store... the Inn, and a few select others had never been reduced like others had... but now the more extreme elements were beginning to break free from the grey.

“I wonder if Sir Gloric Dawnbringer is going to join us for a drink soon?” Haldi said brightly. Pic grinned but Mila went pale.

“If there is any mercy left in this world... I would have hoped to be both blind and deaf before he came around,” she grimaced.

Sir Gloric was a tad bit... bright. But he was a knight of the Sun God, those fellows tended to be cheery at the worst of times. Pic rubbed his chin.

“I should introduce Grimnoire to him, the boy could use a positive influence in his life besides that Deo lad. I dare say Deo and Gloric would get along just grandly,” the man agreed. Mila looked like Pic had just stabbed her.

“Introduce them and I will hunt you down,” she warned. Haldi was glad to see his friends returning, second by second. The people they were had slipped back in. Even now, he could almost feel Durence beside them, getting fired up about challenging the sun knight to a duel.

Gods... he missed Dure.

Still, it wasn’t all cheese and rainbows.

“Could mean Thomas Darkblade might actually come out his basement from hunting dire rats,” he said and the mood dropped.

“I thought we buried him?” Pic whispered aghast. Mila frowned.

“No I think we just told him there was a secret boss if he killed 100 rats in his basement. I only released 99 so he never came out as the grey got to him... fuck. He might come out of his basement,” she cursed louder and louder.

Haldi turned to see the town they had built. Was it just his imagination or did the flowers bloom faster? Were the birds singing in almost jolly tones?

Was Durence experiencing life for the first time proper? What would happen to the children? The newcomers that had come to fade?

Haldi shivered as the shaking in the ground went crazy and the Mana peaked.

Mila opened her mouth and a rear end of a Giant Spider landed on her, cutting her off as it crashed loudly, crushing Mila under it.

Pic and Haldi shared a look, both doing their best not to smile as the corpse began to shake violently.

“You have something in your hair,” Pic pointed at the giant spider. Well, not even “giant” covered this beast. Titan? Colossus?

Mila lifted the thing with one hand as ichor ran down her usually clean features. The mix of blood and venom having no effect on Mila as she had been eating things far more toxic for fun in her youth.

“Could have left your horrid sense of humor in the grey,” she snapped and threw the spider to the side.

“But the grey doesn’t appreciate me like you do,” Pic said in mock flattery. He eyed the spider.

“Haven’t seen them this big since the time Haldi left his cheese packets open when we camped near Thortan. I swear I was still asleep when you all cut me free from the cocoon. Barely felt anything,” he chuckled.

“I remember someone screaming,” Haldi disagreed and Mila just smirked.

This was good... Haldi breathed and every moment, he noticed how much he missed his friends.

They all let the smiles fade as they turned to the Dungeon.

“What’s the plan?” Pic said, voice gruff as he turned to business. Mila flicked goo off her bow and said slowly.

“Let’s see what Delta can do. She’s a Dungeon and might be able to mount counter measures we can’t. The first three forts are jokes now... unless they all learned new tricks. It’s the Church we want,” Mila said bluntly.

“She might struggle. It would be wise if we help her,” Haldi frowned. Pic and Mila shot him a look.

“We go in there, then our brains get picked clean and it remembers even faster. It can cover the weaknesses we abused. We go in, then the Church goes from nearly-impossible to we-might-as-well-just-shoot-ourselves. We cannot go into that Dungeon until the last moment,” Mila said as clearly as she could make herself heard.

Haldi eyed the blue skies above.

“So what good are we?” he sighed, already knowing the answer.

“We gathered powerful people... those who know nothing but are eager for a true fight. They could have kicked our collective rears 30 years ago. If the worst comes to the worst... we have an army sitting on the doorstep. Best case... we have powerful resources to train Nature’s strongest cleaning machine to treat this sore on the world,” Mila turned, walking back into the village.

“We did do everything to make sure a dungeon would come... anything after that is up to the little miss in the Dungeon. We can only wait and see, eh?” Pic smiled, showing his powerful teeth.

Haldi remembered that...

“I just want to show we can still help,” he complained as he walked with his friends, hands behind his back.

“Make sure the new blood aren’t agents and drop some cheese chimeras in for the Dungeon to abuse,” Pic suggested and Haldi did his best impression of Mila, knowing the woman could hear him.

“Directing the Dungeon’s growth is against the Rules of the Kingdom! I can’t be arsed with the paperwork,” he said with a mock growl. This got a laugh out of Pic and Haldi grinned until Mila turned and stalked towards him.

He threw his cheese butterfly at her and ran.

He felt, more than saw, Mila catching his poor butterfly and chewing it as she chased him.

Now he really missed Durence. The man would be a good meat shield at this point...

---

Delta dreamed of children laughing.

Three boys and three girls.

They were playing tag. Above them, a matronly woman smiled as they played. Delta looked as each of the children glowed with a different colour.

Red, blue, green, gold, silver, and orange.

Delta half expected to see herself as a little girl but the girl looked nothing like her. Pigtails with oversized teeth and a nose that wasn’t hers.

Well, if nothing else, this woman had a Power Ranger team being handed to her on a plate.

“Again! I wanna hear it again!” the Green girl shouted. The woman smiled and opened her story book.

“Once upon a time there were two siblings. They were all that was, is, and would be. They enjoyed their life together. Then one day they wanted to play a game of hide and seek... but neither of them wanted to close their eyes. So, together they made a person. It would close its eyes,” the woman read. Delta shrugged and sat down, none of them were looking at her.

She guessed it was one of those weird important dreams with a twist... might as well enjoy the story.

“To make sure it didn’t cheat, the brother took the left eye as he ran to the left. However, he didn’t know his sister had the same idea and took its right eye. The Person was blind and when it came to life... it could only see the darkness instead of the light the brother and sister enjoyed,” the woman read on.

Delta blinked.

Okay... she guessed this was the ‘Grimm’ version of things.

“Should have taken the ears and tongue too!” the red boy cried. Delta scooted away from him. The blue boy spoke up.

“Maybe they should have eaten the eyeballs? I bet they never had those before...” he mused. Delta was running out of scooting directions as she neared the gold girl who wrinkled her face.

“Ew. Burning them as gifts to each other's is much nicer!” the girl argued.

Delta wondered if she was in the psych ward of spooky dreams?

“T...t...they should have given the eyes back!” the orange girl sniffed, upset by the story. The silver boy held her hand.

“They should’ve trusted it not to cheat,” he told her. This made the orange girl smile a little through her tears.

“The Person cried and from his empty eyes came the first shadows and pain. The Person cried for his eyes and the children ran in fear, still holding its eyes. The Person wandered the plain, spreading his tears that tainted the ground. The children created a lake to keep it away and it turned the lake black as it swam... they created a forest to hide in and the trees became scary as the shadows invaded the trees... they created mountains but the Person climbed after them,” the woman read on without responding to the children.

“People are scary...” the Gold girl said quietly.

“In a last ditch effort, the Sister jumped to the sky with a boost from her brother. Her blond hair became the sunrise and the sun itself but the brother could not reach the same height and fell as he tried to jump, His body crashed and became the earth, his bones the pillars of the world. His blood soaked down and formed the hot magma. The eye the Sister held fell from her grasp and became the Moon. The eye the brother had fell into the Earth and formed the source of all Mana,” the matron read on calmly.

Delta wanted off this train.

Anytime now....

One by one, each of the children began to complete the story in a creepy unison.

“Then the Person broke down as he cried his soul out. It leaked out from his eyes and broke into millions of tiny people. The empty husk of the Person had no eyes... no soul, and no name. The Person fell into nothing as it had nothing. It fell into a world of Silence,” they said. The Matron had stopped moving.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta stood and was trying to backway as one by one, the children turned to look at her. All of them... all of them had no eyes.

“It wanted its eyes back and it would make sure it would finally find the brother and sister,” they chanted.

“And when it does... the World would be turned back to where it should be... utter silence. All except... the screams of those siblings. That would be lovely... wouldn’t it... Delta?” the children asked with smiles.

Delta ran... she ran and ran and ran.

She ran so hard she literally ran screaming out of her core with panicked noises, causing Nu, back in box form, to scream as well. It took her a moment to recognise the dustings of a dream and sleep falling away.

Nu’s scream made Rale yelp and Luna to screech. A lizard thing she had never seen before looked around, shrugged, then joined in by shrieking at the top of his lungs with abject terror.

After a few seconds there was silence before the lizard thing sighed in contentment.

“A good scream does wonders for the broken mind. Shall we do this again? Just to make sure you’re all real and I haven’t gone madder than a Goblin on Ent sap?” he suggested.

“Hello…” Delta said slowly and the creature paused as he squinted in her general direction.

“Oh, that’s one soft sounding man. I like it, no judgement here. After years of ‘rattle rattle’ and ‘ohhhhh eternal pain and torment’ noises. Everyone really does sound wonderful,” the lizard nodded.

He was about a head shorter than Numb. He wore a raggedy kilt but his chest carried a series of glowing orbs on thin leather straps that looked dangerous to even glance at, let alone carry. Scars, burn marks, webwork of green veins and crazed eyes made the fellow look charming... if somewhat likely to kill them all in their sleep.

At his side were clinking bottles made from what seemed like glass and bone. Inside bubbled chemicals and things… things Delta had no name for.

“Name’s Jack! Not me real name, forgot that a long time ago. I go with Jack because I can be a jack-off, a jack of all trades, jackass, a jack without a jill, a jack in the box, a cart jacker... well you get the idea!” the lizard held out a claw to shake. Delta, completely confused, tried to shake it. To her surprise... her hand made light contact for a few seconds before her hand broke apart into cloudy orange mist.

“Mum... you look... pretty solid!” Luna praised. Delta spun, still utterly lost on what happened.

“Nu? Help? There’s a lizard man in my dungeon. I feel...” Delta touched her cheeks as if unsure.

“Why do I feel like I gained 10 pounds?” she demanded. Her mind stretched wide as she felt all over her dungeon. The most important feature was the stairs behind her core. The stairs to a third floor.

She spun and froze. Instead of the excitement and anticipation she expected... she felt fear when she looked at those cold stone steps.She couldn’t sense anything at the bottom, as if her powers had been rebuffed or rejected from the space.

Jack is from the floor below... The Third Floor had been connected to an existing space, in which Sys couldn’t install a theme and had to submit to the current theme...

Nu’s box explained and that was when Delta suddenly remembered something.

“You had dimples and messy hair!” she accused. Nu’s box went blank as Luna shared a look with Rale.

“What’s dimples?” she asked blankly. Rale poked her cheeks with a bright grin.

“These! Nu had a human shape and Delta thinks of him to be quite dashing!” he announced. Jack looked at Nu.

“Was gonna ask about that but I didn’t want to seem ignorant of human/box hybrid species so I kept quiet...” he said.

It’s dungeon things... it doesn’t matter! Delta, we have to invade the next floor to get anywhere!

Nu’s flustered words made Delta frown.

“But that’s like tyrant and evil stuff, the people down there might be pretty settled and peaceful,” she argued without pausing. There came a howl of bones on stone and screeching of ghosts that cast eerie shadows.

Jack chucked a green orb over his shoulder and it bounced down the stairs before the stairs belched green sickly fire. There was a beat of silence.

“Okay, not peaceful but maybe we should at least get information to act on...” Delta deflated feebly.

“That would be great but I’ve been trying. For years! Here’s the jiggy of the jag. Place is overrun with the dead. Everytime I blow something up, within a few hours it rises again,” Jack began.

Delta thought the more she looked at him... the more he seemed like a cute gecko. Maybe she could... keep him?

No, she had to focus!

“Sounds like a Dungeon,” Luna mused. Jack waved that off.

“Nah just boring necromancy gone supernova. There’s a priest of the Silence way back in one of the rooms, I can’t ever get to him... or her,” he said quickly, remembering Luna and Delta.

Delta felt cold.

“S...Silence?” she echoed. Jack itched his snout.

“I think... I remember… Maybe I made it up, but there’re some nutters that like the Silent One a lot... Like, a lot a lot. They kinda died for him. Still do!” Jack said brightly as he suddenly looked proud.

“Silent one, some boogie man of the oldest creation myths,” Luna said bored. Delta turned to stare at her.

“Wyin told me a bunch of stories!” she defended quickly. The idea of that tree telling anyone anything that didn’t involve death or blood was odd but considering her dream... yeah... Wyin might like that story as well.

“So… super religious nuts?” Rale summed up. Jack raised one claw.

“With an undead army,” he added.

“Most religious nuts have brain dead followers,” Delta muttered. Kemy’s religion seemed nice... she could exercise thinking and willpower and it didn’t seem to harm anyone.

“So... how do I expand?” Delta asked the question that she had been avoiding. Rale and Luna puffed their chests out.

“I, the mighty Rale, shall assemble a squad to aid Jack in taking over the first room and give you time to take control and improve it!” Rale grinned as he planted his trident into the ground.

“You... can go down there?” Delta asked in surprised.

Evidently. Sys might have had to accept the connection but the girl is clever, she was able to make the whole place into some pseudo-dungeon space. Our monsters won’t be at full strength but they can go down there. Plus once we get the first room, you can make your new monsters!

Delta blinked for long moments, she silently opened her menu and stared at the new entry.

“I’ve been trolled!” she said aghast.

“Trolls could be useful, not clever but pretty good at smashing things,” Jack said cheerfully. Delta shot him a look.

“This is all too much, too fast. First off, how the heck did you get down there? How did you survive?” she said, voice filled with utter dismay at the idea of being trapped...
Like Renny.

Another victim of these Silence assholes.

Jack deflated for a moment.

“That’s a long tragic backstory I don’t remember and will make up on the spot with lies to make myself look better... do you wanna hear it?” he asked somberly. Delta almost said yes.

Almost.

“Maybe later. Nu... what happened with the Spider Tunnel?” she gave it an official title along with the question.

Odd. You exploded the Spider Queen and well... it’s... not... quite...

Nu struggled to explain so Delta just looked at the tunnel herself and sure enough, she also struggled to quite explain what she was seeing.

The crude tunnel had been superheated and twisted like the inside of a drill. Bright glowing streaks of orange and dim purple encircled each other for a fair distance until Delta came to a dead end where a white barrier prevented her seeing the outside of the tunnel

The eye-catching feature being a giant glowing orange egg nestled on the ceiling. Inside, a tiny form was seen as the egg pulsed with Mana.

This thing drained most of the excess Mana the Third Floor didn’t. I think it’s the Spider Queen but... clearly, you did something. Again.

The accusing tone made Delta smile slightly.

“I might have blown up at her a little,” she admitted before turning to peer at the egg.

“So, is it... a contract? Or something like an epic monster?” she guessed.

Sys believes you did something so utterly you. You gained an ability not often seen at Dungeons below triple digit floors. Not many Dungeons have multiple entrances... I think Sys said that only one or two have more than two. She believes you turned the left over Spider Queen bits into... well... a Guardian. Something that defends the entrance but if you beat it, you can skip entire floors. This creature should defend the giant hole you made in the forest. Congratulations... it’s a Spider.

Delta paused.

“It wasn’t my fault,” she said quickly.

Don’t give me that tone! You are a walking disaster!

“Ah, but Nu; I make it look good on purpose,” she winked. She eyed the glowing egg for a long moment but it didn’t look anywhere near ready to hatch.

“Hurry up, Queenie. You got some karma to work off,” she urged and the egg pulsed just a little bit brighter.

She turned and faced the stairs.

She had an… Adventuring party to make?

Delta was pretty sure Dungeons were not meant to be making the adventurers but instead waiting for them. Delta shrugged to herself, she never stopped to be a ‘proper’ Dungeon before.

Why start now?

82: Jack and Delta go down a tunnel

Her brave Adventurers were not exactly... in perfect shape to take on an undead horde. Having just faced off against an army of spiders, Delta’s frogs needed some time to catch their breath. Not that Rale would admit to being at anything less than 100%.

Jack, who was something called a “Kobold” according to Nu, stayed resting near her core. The first ‘proper’ rest the guy had gotten in 20... or 40 years. Delta wanted to pretend she was expecting a trap or distrusted the Kobold but she didn’t.

Jack sounded quite insane... and very lonely. He rambled on about undead, bombs, eating bones, and licking walls... but he refused to stop talking. He almost seemed a little needy for any ounce of conversation.

How long had he been underground?

Delta let him sleep as Renny stood guard. The Mime was still wary of the lizard but after a couple of quick words... the Mime just gave Jack odd looks.

Another victim of the Silence... a brother in arms in some ways.

So...with nothing else to do and definitely not dwelling on her dream, Delta did what she did best.

Make things better by making them worse.

The empty room beyond the Circus had been her focus until the Spiders attacked. Now, the only evidence of that was the glowing egg in her tunnel... well, at least that was what Delta hoped. If anything survived above then that would just be annoying.

Imagine if the town had seen her make a little mess and got angry or something? She might die from the embarrassment!

She pushed that thought aside to focus on the lone room that now curved to meet the new Spider Tunnel. The room here still had some of the Spider Queen’s purple tinge, but it was aimless and docile. Delta tapped her chin as she sat on empty air to think.

If this was to be a shortcut via combat... then this room had to be a defence from the strong but not the smart. That only made sense.

Some sort of puzzle room... should it be spider themed or something? Delta had Mana and DP to spare, really.

Nu hadn’t lied about the Third Floor and the Egg draining the excess.

Her Mana was now maxed at 200 and her DP was near the 800s.

It was insane and so much was open to Delta. She shook that idea off for a moment, getting lost in what she could do compared to what she wanted was just asking for trouble. She eyed the open room and made a giant gate of solid iron bars, spending a little more mana to add thick vines interwoven through the fence like gate to add some more weight to the whole thing.

She focused and a growth of metal and Mana bubbled at the centre of the gate, forming a spider with eight limbs made of metal. The top of which was still within reach of an average person. Delta grinned as she manipulated the next part with careful intent.

Each limb of the spider filled out with a spinning password lock. Eight passwords needed to bypass the lock and Delta spent 2 Mana a piece to set the passwords.

Cois
Numb
Billy
Fran
Hob
Gob
Maestro
Bacon

Each limb needed one of these names. Some limbs shrunk as their passwords were shorter and some grew as their names were bigger. If people wanted quick access to the second floor, then they damn well better know who they were skipping and not giving proper respect to. Delta focused and pulled up the menu of her efforts.

Web of Friends Gate.
Those who know friends, speak their names. Or else.

Double the gate’s resistance to physical attacks. 10 DP
Make dummy passwords such as ‘power’ or ‘Dungeon’ to cause various effects to happen (Effects drawn from current Dungeon items. Honey... feather... goblin spit) 20 DP
Let the gate give clues with the Guardian’s approval 3 DP
Allow second floor Monster names to be slipped in if invaders have knowledge of the passwords. 40 DP
Allow gate to be opened by the Guardian if alive and befriended by invaders 1 DP
Allows the Metal Spider to come alive if too many failed password attempts are given and gives it the ability to zap invaders unconscious. Also, allows the rebirth of the Guardian. 35 DP

Delta pursed her lips.

She pretended to cough as she dragged her finger down the list as if by accident.

The menu went blank and the gate become a dark iron gate covered in ivy as a spider with actual ruby eyes glared down at approchers. It looked so life-like...

Delta had to remind herself that it could be.

She floated down the tunnel and watched as Cois poked the giant egg.

“- make you into a giant omelet! I missed the fight and you go and die before I can show off!” he growled. The fire loving goblin poked his staff harder and the egg pulsed as one side seemed to bulge as the Queen inside moved.

“Stop that, this is a new being. She can’t be held accountable for her previous life or how much of a horrid mother she was,” Delta chided. Cois, to his credit, didn’t jump at her voice.

“I guess but is she just gonna sleep there all day?!” he demanded as if offended by the ‘laziness’ of the egg.

Delta was about to comment when the egg wobbled as it drained just a tad more Mana and glowed orange. The egg shook from side to side for a long moment.

All that excess Mana the egg had taken had really sped things up.

Cois looked heavenwards as the egg split in half and a flood of birth yolk and goo covered his form. Delta covered her mouth in horror but Cois stood frozen on the spot as a tiny form fell to the ground.

The spider had a human torso and eight spindly legs that took a long moment to gain its’ balance. Delta peered closely with interest.

“Queenie?” she called.

The form turned slowly and bright orange eyes blinked at Delta, then Cois. The spider legs scuttled forward.

“Papa... Cois!” the young boy beamed. Cois looked like the spider boy had just pulled his heart out in a painful manner.

“Spider... goo... slimey,” he croaked. The Spider boy blinked.

“Not goo. I am Queenie,” the boy declared proudly.

Delta watched as the young thing turned to her form shyly.

“You’re...Momma? No... burning... Grandma Delta!” the boy beamed. Delta felt like the damn creature had just shot her in the kneecaps.

“G-grandma?” Delta blustered. Cois choked.

“Papa?” Cois screamed on the inside. Queenie the boy spider merely hummed as he examined his new land.

All hail Queen ‘Queenie’ the boy Arachne. Delta had no idea how to explain it but as Cois tried to free himself while cursing, the young child giggled and echoed his rude words, Delta knew she would break whoever hurt her sweet spider child.

She needed Muffet over here ASAP.

---

Her group was ready for war but Delta was too busy watching as Muffet slowly taught Quee, the shortened name for Queenie, how to form webs and how to use his eight legs... Quee constantly turned his head to make sure his Papa Cois was watching.

Not that Cois had any choice... being webbed to the wall after all. He had tried to escape but Quee cried and Delta’s frosty glare had sent the goblin sulking back. Muffet turned out to be a good aunt and excellent teacher on all things spider.

Before long Quee had learned to make a web, dance, drink tea, and even look slightly noble. Some of those were definitely related to spiders. Another thing he could do was manipulate darkness, as they found out after some testing. His power was strongest when the sun set, Sis confirmed this.

Entrance Guardian: Queenie ‘Spider Queen’
A male Spider who guards the tunnel to the second floor. His outlook and love for Cois gives his growth much room to use fire and shadows in equal measure. Having been taught by Muffet the Poltergeist Spider, he can also use slight spirit magic, if he trains himself.

Can use darkness to hide himself to a great extent.
More abilities may appears as he grows.

Watching the young boy giggle as he scuttled away from Muffet as she tried to teach him a complex triple web knot, Delta smiled.

This Queen... was already ten times better than the raging frigid ice Queen from before. Even if he was A different sex and age...

Well, Delta’s templates had been on the fritz since creating the frogs, no real shock there.

“Quee... I need to take Cois on a mission, he’ll be back soon,” she spoke and Quee scuttled to Cois as he freed himself easily from the web.

“Not papa! Take Numb or nasty Billy! I want papa!” he buried his face into Cois’ shoulder. The goblin sighed in deep suffering.

“Boy, listen to me. I am Cois. The great master of fire and power, not-” he tried to speak but Quee held on tightly.

“Papa, don’t go!” the spider boy begged. Cois faltered.

“Master... of space... and fire-” he tried feebly. The black-haired child with skin of deep chocolate sniffled.

“I’m going to bring you a surprise and a treasure!” Cois suddenly announced and Quee looked up with surprise before his face split into a beaming smile.

“Really?” the child asked with awe. Cois shot Delta a panicked look and she merely gave him a cold look in return.

“Yes! I just... need to go get it but you can’t have it if you don’t behave and RELEASE ME!” Cois roared but the boy looked pleased, ramming into Cois to give him one last hug,

“I’ll be the best boy! I can’t wait for my surprise,” Quee told Muffet who was giving Cois a terrible look of disappointment.

They departed and Cois looked down at the ground.

“Is there... treasure... down there?” he finally asked. Delta didn’t point out she could make treasure or toys and let the goblin suffer.

“Good chance of... not really. It was a stuffy fort with dead people,” she mused aloud. This was revenge for Kemy and Quee after all.

Delta paused and grinned, she had to make those two meet! Cois grumbled. He looked back to the spinning tunnel of orange and purple which already had some flimsy webs forming. The goblin sighed in disgust.

“What a pest. Making me a liar if I don’t do this stupid adventure,” he complained and Delta briefly nudged him with her new solidity before her arm broke apart in a mist.

“Look at it this way, there are dead things that you get to set on fire!” she reminded. That did cheer the goblin pyromancer up dramatically for some unknown reason. Delta rolled her eyes as the goblin shot off to gather Numb and Billy to join the first raid party. Delta mentally rolled the team formation over in her head.

Rale was her Paladin, a mighty warrior of the faith, faith that if it can go in the river, it can be rescued. Devina as the cleric, her spirit abilities were mostly still untested but she filled the role nicely. Luna wanted to rest beside her hot springs, and reflect on what she had learned in the last battle.

Rather wise of her but the bump on her head from Gramps suggested the idea was not entirely her own. Billy the archer filled the sneaky rogue slot just as fine. Cois was their mage, over-specialised in the ‘burn burn burn’ school of things. Numb being a monk warrior, rounded things out.

The goblin had to be good at cracking skulls at this point... what better place to start than with actual walking skeletons? Not that Delta was going to sit around and do nothing, she was going to use that weird ability that she had used way back when Devina entered Renny’s circus for the first time.

To see through their eyes in this halfway point of real and dungeon space.

Honestly, as creepy as the place felt, a real castle of her own to remodel was sort of exciting. She could have fake passages behind paintings! Suits of armours for goblins and frogs! Tapestries of Bob!

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Oh... and what kind of boss would she have?

A king? Some royal knight? Or a demonic jester?

Hm... seemed too close to Renny. Delta smiled as she hummed, her voice carrying as Maestro softly spread her tune across all of the Dungeon.

Despite her creepy dream, which she had a feeling was more like some spooky psychological attempt to freak her out, Delta didn’t feel so nervous now that she had rallied her forces. Jack was... Jack was the odd man out and if he insisted on being her guide for the Third Floor, she wanted to have a talk with him first.

She found the lizard in Fera’s bar, the lizard was sobbing as he drank and ate the various dishes Fera brought out.

“This here is going on your tab, you mad thing,” Fera reminded. Jack nodded, cheeks stuffed with pork and mushrooms. He made an almost comical gulp and Delta could almost see the food settle in his stomach.

“You are a short frumpy green goddess!” Jack said, showing his fangs as he smiled. Fera slowly reached under her bar with a blank expression.

“Fera... don’t shoot the guest, not until I’ve talked with him,” Delta said and Fera looked guilty as if being caught with her hand in a murderous cookie jar.

“Of course not, Ma. Wouldn’t dirty the floors! I just cleaned them,” she sniffed as the court of royal spiders minus Muffet all cheered and sipped at ‘Fera’s Three day old Mushroom Spring Water Wine’. They all toasted to the birth of Quee. One chittered about middle names, if 24 was too little but they didn’t want to be old fashioned.

The last ruling King danced in circles, clearly suggesting tradition was good and not to skip on the average 64 middle names. The Queen that had banned weaving competitions raised three legs.

She wanted her name to be in the first 20. The others all began to chide her for being greedy as they got drunk thimble sized cups.

Jack looked ready to join them but Fera shot him a look.

“Don’t bother my best customers,” she warned before vanishing to check on food and other mysteries behind the bar. Delta slid onto a stool, feeling the hard wooden seat for a precious few moments before she had to resort to floating just above it.

“Mr Jack-” she began and the lizard looked around in panic.

“It was a phase! I just wanted to be a gentleman bomber for a while!” he defended the title as if Delta had unearthed some hidden secret. Delta closed her mouth, thought about asking, then tried again.

“Jack, what made you keep going down there?” she asked and the Kobold made a long thinking face.

“Well, it was my promise, ain’t it? I promised that young soft hot piece of- I mean... huntress, lovely woman, that I would delay the Silence for as long as I could. My record is still going at 34... 52... I think it was 41 years. I ran out of day scratches in my hiding spots after a while,” he admitted. ‘Huntress’ made Delta think of Ruli, but ‘soft’ was not a word Delta would apply to the woman.

Maybe it had something to do with having no scales? But Ruli was still too young. Did she have an old sister or a mother in the business?

Delta had no idea, she resolved to ask next time the woman dropped by. She still couldn’t wait to show her the bar!

“But you ended up trapped underground!” Delta continued, feeling that was a lot for a promise. The Kobold shrugged.

“Wasn’t part of the plan but neither was surviving! Jackie-boy here is good at messing up plans!” he laughed a deep booming noise that had the fringes of despair and madness echoing in its tracks.

“I’m... sorry you had to go through that,” Delta said quietly. The Kobold blinked at her shape, to guests and outsiders, she was still a shimmering haze of orange, her voice seemed to be clear if Delta really focused on talking to Jack.

“Wasn’t your fault, was it? Nah, you’re my hero, you rescued me!” he slapped the bar in delight as if touching something other than stone and bone was a joy. Delta leaned on one hand in amusement.

“I’m more like a happy accident. Kind of my entire gimmick here to be honest. I do something and something…unexpected... happens,” she waved her other hand in airy amusement. Jack nodded as if he got that feeling to a personal level.

“I throw bombs at things and they explode, it’s the damnedest thing,” he looked skyward as if this had puzzled him for a long time. He shot her a sideways grin as very old playing cards slid from his sleeve and began to dance between his hands. That could have been Jack’s only form of entertainment besides killing the unkillable for decades...

“I wanna ask a favour, if that’s alright, Hero?” he said and Delta blinked at the nickname but merely nodded.

“I wanna clear that level. I... I need to clear the castle. I’ve been stuck on the same six or so rooms and massive main corridor for years. I had to destroy the main gate to keep... well to keep some real nasty orc shite trapped inside, pardon my Goblin, but knowing for the first time in years... The idea I can finally beat that damn place is filling my head up faster than that stumpy grumpy wonderful Fera’s cooking is filling my stomach,” the lizard grinned like a loon.

He barely seemed to react as a pot was flung from the kitchen with a huff. It clunked against his head and he looked at it before lowering the pot over his head and testing it.

“New equipment... better than skeleton bone helms and untouchable ghost panties,” he mumbled. Delta blinked but the Kobold rolled his head, pot sliding as he looked at her again.

“I’ll lend you my power, if you let me do that. Let me kick that castle’s arse so hard I’ll make the Silence yelp. How about it? I got bombs, questionable cooking methods... sometimes I break down crying and jibbering... and also I really like Mushrooms, they’re nice,” the Kobold tried to look earnest at that last attempt at flattery.

“I didn’t like them either but they grow on you against your will. I still have some daydreams about a Mushroom free level but for once... I really hope they make their way downstairs. Nothing cleans death faster than good ole insects and fungi,” she nodded then held out a hand.

“I got a contract space open since I got the Third Floor, I was going to kidnap- convince this sweet priestess girl to join but you sound like you might fit in better already,” Delta mused. Jack just listened and waited, eyeing her outstretched hand.

“I can’t break contracts yet... and I don’t know the whole gig behind them and honestly every contract besides Waddles got some upgrade or massive change. Waddles just kinda... well, let’s not mention Waddles,” Delta mumbled. She watched as Jack slowly took her hand.

“I don’t want to be a mindless slave... if I wanna go for a drink in that little shack the others set up outside, I’ll go and if people try to eat me, I wanna eat them back or least take a few fingers,” Jack warned. Delta shook her head.

“Sorry, I don’t do slaves. You’ll be lucky if within a week someone crazier doesn’t appear and join up. I have enough to manage without the guilt of that on my mind. Just be yourself, don’t blow up people that come without good reason, and... just remember, you’re free from the castle,” she leaned down and met the creature’s yellow slitted eyes.

“Hopping from one jail to another?” Jack replied.

Delta jerked her thumb to the general direction of the Dungeon.

“Door’s that way if you get bored or don’t like it. Just walk and walk until you feel free,” she promised.

“You’s one of them down-to-earth gals who screams a lot, aren’t you?” Jack grinned. Now that was offensive! Delta barely screamed anymore.

‘In rage’ didn’t count.

Jack downed his drink then shook her hand.

“Fire the contract up, Hero. I got some undead to make just dead,” he said with a wide mad grin.

Mad Jack the Kobold.

Delta was sure Quiss was going to have comments on this but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt! Besides, knowing her luck, Sis would offer her a random monster to contract and Delta knew that would... be hard to resist.

Better the Devil Kobold she knew in the end.

The Menu appeared to them both.

Dungeon Core Delta, best Core in the System, offers you a job! Do you accept?

At Jack’s amused stare, Delta looked down, cheeks going flushed.

“SIs is a bit... too nice,” she finally said.

“Seems to be a theme around here! Super nice but would kinda kill you in a second! I love it!” Jack cackled and accepted the contract.

He was surrounded by threads of glowing orange as Sis took her first steps to include him under Delta’s banner.

Jack(???) The Mad Kobold Alchemist
He who drank to forget, now kills to remember.

“Oh boy... I haven’t felt that deeply invaded since the grog fest of Orkansaw!” Jack said in a higher voice as he shook off the threads of power.

His ragged kilt, made of a reddish leather, was repaired and fell to his knees.. His odd tunic and cloak looked freshly cleaned and had been embroidered with little Delta symbols in various places. The cloak itself was pinned to the tunic by a golden Delta brooch. Lots of things clinked and rattled under that cloak.

Jack gave himself a once over. His claws trailed softly down the tunic and cloak.

“Oh, new threads! I haven’t felt this material before. I shall call it Deltiem!” he pointed as if discovering some important element.

Delta beamed as she felt the Kobold appear in her Dungeon senses, a new cog on the fringes of it all.

She was pleased to have contracted a mad bomber...

Her smile faltered. Was... that a good thing to be pleased about? Delta had to sit there for long moments to just mourn how her sense of ‘normal’ had died, unheard and unseen by Delta herself.

She eyed the ale with a longing.

That only grew when Cois stormed in, spotted the glowing orbs on Jack’s chest and began to... smile slowly. The Kobold turned and also froze.

“Is that the scent of burned… everything?” Jack asked in delight.

“Is that contained fire?” Cois repeated in the same tone.

They moved closer and Delta wondered if this was what folks back home felt when they saw atoms smashing together in a fusion reaction?

Meltdowns and disasters everywhere.

She stood and decided to point the new brothers of the school for ‘No boom is too big’ at the undead before she had to explain a crater to Durence.

She stood before the Third Floor Stairs after a few seconds.

What’s the plan?

Nu’s ever watchful box asked.

“Why Nu? It’s the most common theme in all of adventuring!” Delta announced. She turned and let her voice be felt through the entire Dungeon.

“You have to gather your party to venture forth!” she said and her words touched some monsters deeper and they answered the call with joy in their hearts.

Delta looked down the dark stairs.

“You know things are messed up when a Dungeon has to clear another Dungeon to get anywhere,” she mused aloud.

Is that where you think things got messed up? How nice...

Delta ignored the jab and remembered the children with no eyes.

“Watch out, you creepy corn-child rip-offs, Momma Delta is coming to hand out ass-kickings,” she called.

The stairs seemed to pause for a moment in their spooky atmosphere.

Then they grew dense and heavy in challenge.

“Nu, get me my buff lifeguard frog, my pyromaniac, my monk, the goth ranger, my voodoo frog, and the mad bomber I found in my basement,” she said seriously.

Nu didn’t bother responding.

Wise box.

Interlude: The Imp of no Importance

The manor of one Lord Fenutant, devourer of sheep and barn animals alike, was not what one would call grand or even fancy. The black iron fence was covered in rust, and the garden overrun with Jawbreaker vines and Stranglethorn bushes was an eyesore.

Honestly, the master of the home barely seemed to notice or care that his first appearance of the manor matched him to a T. Down to the last button undone on his bulging shirt in fact.

Meanwhile Impy, who everyday almost poisoned his lord for giving him that name, woke up in his ‘room’.

He crawled out from the space between the massive cauldron used to cook the 10 meals the lord ate a day and the bleeding stone walls that had been in fashion about a thousand years ago; until the demons saw how much they would have to mop due to the seepage.

Idiots. All of them.

He poured the bucket of collected blood, today's flavor was goat blood, into the cauldron to sweeten the breakfast. Wasting any resource was just… well, wasteful. He smoothed down his servant's uniform and adjusted his slick hair back into some sort of order. He needed to start breakfast, pour an acid bath for the Master, steam his clothes with the help of a natural sulphur geyser, and of course, wake the bloody fool.

He used to have help but Lord Fenutant had devoured most of the other Imps when food was slow to arrive or when he got peckish. The idiots didn’t even see the fool lumbering towards them. They deserved to be imp snacks.

Imps. Impy was indeed an Imp.

Impressive and clever his master was for giving him that name, why yes it must have taken such an effort for his tiny brain indeed. He looked around the kitchen as he tried to figure out the best plan of attack. The kitchen had been designed for a demon of his master’s size, not Impy’s.

The old feeling of being inadequate rose inside his chest. If only Imps were taller, faster, stronger… powerful. But Imps were not and Impy had long since come to terms with the fact that short of a Godly intervention, he was an Imp for life.

Godly, being a joke of course. Impy would bite any divine hand that tried to touch him. Urgh, such beings would smell clean and wash under their nails!

He scampered onto stools and reached for various jars.

“Unicorn bladder? Hm, no he had that yesterday, he’ll throw a fit,” Impy mumbled. He put the jar back and looked at the next one.

“Dryad toes? Could work but it will need…” Impy’s black eyes scanned the row of imported ingredients from the Deep World. He hadn’t been there himself but other demons that had been summoned to it had gossiped to his master while Impy was treated like a garden gargoyle, an object more than a being.

It was filled with humans, orcs, halflings, and an assortment of other things. His master, being the clever thing he was, had heard ‘food, food, food’. So he spent a fortune on getting these odd foods.

He plucked another jar.

‘Pa… prika?” he tried to announce aloud. What a bizarre creature name. It must have had its bones ground to dust. He sniffed the jar and his nose gave hints of a distant land with heat and excitement.

“Blargh,” Impy declared simply. Adventure? Distant lands? Foolish!

The path to power was in the dangerous games of bowing one's head and ducking before some bored lord removed it! Moving from demon lord to demon lord as Impy’s skills increased was the only path out of the Imp swamps and into the sphere of any power he could grasp!

Money handling, cooking, washing blood out of sheets, angling beheaded foes on spikes, chasing charity demons off the doorstep, keeping his master from biting off more than he could chew, and most importantly… groveling. His power as an Imp servant was growing at an alarming rate.

The new dish he simply called ‘Pap’d ‘Corn’ was bubbling nicely within the goat’s blood.

Even Impy felt his stomach rumble.

Leaving the meat to simmer, he entered the main hall of the manor where he nudged a slightly off angled spike on the wall back into place. He checked the traps for any pests, nothing yet. The Abyss Mice really did eat everything…

Just last week, a perfectly good spiked mace had been ruined by these damn rodents! Impy was sure it was a weapon once touched by the Demon King! Such an august being that Impy’s knees shivered at the idea of even thinking about him.

A demon that was the very Abyss itself. He had only tasted defeat a handful of times… Rumor had it that his imps could even boss around other Demon Lords with cruel ease.

No one would dare, even by proxy, insult the Demon King.

Impy tried to remember the last time he heard anything coming from the Black Heart, the very bottom of the Abyss. It must have been about ten years ago when the King’s half-breed daughter had visited.

That girl… Impy shivered at the sheer chaos she caused in attempts to defy her father. Three levels of the Abyss were still on fire…

He shook his head, floppy ears flapping as he sighed. He drew the greenish bath and made sure it was as hot as sin. Just the way that would both be pleasant but not overindulgent for his master.

Impy did not want to have to peel the tub of lard out of the… well tub again, with a slicked up iron bar. That had been one experience that he had no desire to repeat. He hurried along the hallway, opening some windows, closing others, shifting the remains of some demon that must have snuck in to gut the Master, the snapped bones and nibble giblets were going to need some heavy duty unholy magic to remove.

The doors to the Master Bedroom loomed, unlocked for the foolish to enter. Impy did it anyway, his form darting to the side as a grey greasy hand tried to grab him.

His master grumbled in his sleep, frowning as he failed to catch Impy to eat in his sleep. Impy stared with displeasure at the round grey stomach that had a tiny head attached.

The little head looked comically childish and smooth, the frowning little mouth with thick ruby lips that looked unable to open wide enough for bloodgrapes; let alone for an imp. He moved slightly and the exposed stomach ripped into two to reveal a pair of serrated black teeth and thick cords of slime that drooled at the inhalation of Impy’s presence. A long tongue of black muscle lashed out and Impy quickly flung a chair at the tentacle snapping at his leg trying to drag his little body into the pit.

The tongue yanked and the mouth chomped on Iron Wood, turning it to chewing gum before long.

Impy turned to the window and slowly pulled open the thick curtain. The glass on the other side did not show the outside but instead a trapped fire elemental that was brighter than average. It was said to be close to the ‘Sun’ of the Deep world. The light flooded in and Impy’s master began to protest.

“No! No… I wanna sleep!” the petulant boyish voice complained.

The stomach rippled. A deep rumble bubbling out from the gaps between the teeth.

“But I could kill for a snack,” the stomach churned as the chewed Iron Wood leaked out the sides, stomach acid churning. The form began to sit up and Impy was already out of the room as his master began to look around for fresh Imp for breakfast.

Honestly… Imps didn’t even taste that good!

He shuffled into the many hidden passages for servants as his Master’s form lumbered down towards the smell of the bath. He’d both clean himself and drink the sulphur bath, and knowing Impy’s luck, a piece of that historic masonry that depicted the great Separation of the Deep and the Deeper.

The Master’s Father would not be pleased.

Impy would simply have to be ‘indisposed’ as the demon’s own kin suffered the price. All was such in the life of an Imp servant. He returned to the Kitchen and checked on the seasoned brew of Pap’d ‘Corns.

It was ready, and not a moment too soon, as Impy felt the manor shake as his Master roared from the dining room. The snacks and small pleasures Impy had left were not enough to distract his stomach now. Impy could handle the head but it was the stomach that held the brains. If Impy took too long or was too shifty, the stomach would simply swallow him up, devour his mind, learn what it wanted, and spit him back out as even less of an Imp than he was now.

That stomach’s hunger knew no end… food, wealth… knowledge… it would devour it all. A sweet prepared meal was good but a juicy secret was drool worthy.

Impy appeared in the sinner room, sliding trays of prepared desserts, cold meats, sizzling Demon Wyrm Pig flanks, and of course, the Pap’d ‘Corn.

The head looked down at the brew with curiosity.

“It looks gooey. I don’t want it.” Impy’s Master protested. His stomach rumbled.

“But we do! We want it all! More! More!” it gurgled and that tongue began to pull food in; plates and all. The head whined and cried as the stomach simply did as it wanted.

“Candy for the head!” the stomach finally relented, the tongue patting his own head with affection. Impy had already placed a large serving plate of a varied selection of sugars so sweet they would make an infernal skeleton suffer cavities. One of the larger fangs of the maw lifted it up for the head and stubby hands to grab for.

“Yay!” the head cheered.

Impy hated them… him.

It was hard to forget that Glutton Demons often had to push their insane hunger, that continued growing, into a whole new side of themselves. Impy would pity them if it were not for the fact Glutton Demons did this so as to not become so consumed by thoughts of eating that they forget to breathe.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The window nearby was knocked on. Impy turned to see a crow, about the size of a horse, waiting on the branch outside. Impy opened the latch and the crow stared with beady red eyes.

“Do hurry up, you’re letting in a draft!” Impy warned. The Carrying Crow began to choke and bulge before it vomited a series of letters covered in protective sacs of membrane. Impy shook off the saliva and threw some gold at the bird who snapped them up and flew off.

The bird was messy but one could be sure their letters would not be tampered with since one would have to catch, kill, gut, and decurse the letters to get at them. And then of course have to fight off an entire murder of the buggers alerted by their inherent magic. Impy flicked through them as his Master cheerfully slurped down the table cloth.

Horn enlargement. Charity demons hadn’t taken no for an answer…Impy would burn their plea for nothing as they begged for causes that did not exist.

Charity Demons were not liars, they had simply run out of causes to champion at this point.

Some postcard from Stomach to Head about how he enjoyed the birthday cake of 15 layers. Lovely. Finally, an official letter with the seal of the famous Gut-Glutton Clan. Impy stared at it with dismay and hope.

Was his Master finally going to be executed for being a wart on the family tree? Would Impy be freed? Would he be hired by the better branches?

Should Impy dare hope that the letter held a withering curse that would melt that tub of frumpy lard?!

He dutifully slid the letter as close as he dared and watched as the tongue whipped over it, it froze.

“That taste… Father!” the stomach said in fear. The head shrunk in on itself, like a Corpse Snapper retreating back into its shell.

“What? What does Daddy want?” the head whined. The tongue was quick to unseal the letter and pass it up to the Head, for the advantage of the head having eyes to read with.

“Dear Fenutant… finds you well… that time you ate cousin Dorina… great shifts in the world…. Changes to be expected… still banned from weddings but not honor… you must defend your honor in combat?!” the head finished in alarm.

The stomach grumbled.

“Is that all? We shall simply devour all foes!” the stomach said with anticipation. The head whined louder as he threw the letter down to the stomach.

“Armed combat! Not gut to gut! When’s the last time you held a sword?” the head demanded. Impy listened with interest at this. The stomach churned as it thought hard.

“50 years? I accidently used our sword as a toothpick… remember? Broke so we sent it to the smithy to get fixed. We’ve been too busy to get it!” the stomach admitted. Impy hid a snort.

“Busy stuffing yourselves.” Impy said in a voice so quiet even his own ears could barely detect it.

The tongue stretched much farther than Impy had ever seen it do, picked him up and held his tiny form over the maw of the stomach.

“Something to say? Something to add? I was sure I heard a snack demanding to be torn to pieces!” The stomach said. The head glared.

“You’re a rude Impy. You grumble and complain and we let you! Now you’re saying nasty things to us. We should eat you,” the Head scowled, the young voice cruel in its intent. Impy saw his last moments of existence being teased as he was lowered lower and lower, his body almost entirely inside the hot maw. His uniform beginning to dissolve.

“I lived to serve the only Master that is important. I carry my own self into the end with pride that I outwitted you this long! I will never fetch another midnight snack for you again!” Impy cursed and struggled. The head suddenly spoke.

“Oh… that works. Stomach, spit him out,” the Head ordered. There was some hesitation before the stomach did just that. Impy stared up at the proud Head.

“We’ll send the Impy to get our sword! And we will go back to bed and eat our snacks!” Head announced. Stomach growled in approval.

“Clever! This is why you are on top!” came the narcissistic praise. Impy stood, feeling his jacket slide off to one slide as an entire sleeve and shoulder had been dissolved. He had been saved from his master due to the sin of Sloth.

The touch of irony burned as proper iron should to a demon.

He turned without a word.

“The Sweating Succubus, that’s the name of our smithy guild!” Head said cheerfully. Impy merely turned, bowed, and left the room.

He froze as the last words came from the stomach.

“You are not to return until you have that sword,” the gaping maw commanded and Impy’s neck itched as the magical collar that shimmered out of normal vision burned with the command.

Impy left through the front door and his blank expression twitched once.

Then he composed himself.

Impy adjusted his ruined bowtie, huffed as he yanked his sleeve back into place and scowled at the gloomy near eternal dusk that the 55th level of the Abyss had for a sky.

He cursed all masters as he stalked down the broken path overgrown with deadly plants that retreated under his heated glare.

The gate ahead opened at the snap of his fingers. He would have taken one of the steeds that should be at the stables but they had been a festival surprise meal. Surprise for Impy, not the Master.

He stormed down the long road and watched a flock of Carrying Crows staring.

“I’m not dead nor do I have packages!” he screamed. They fled, and from behind trees came a bunch of politely smiling demons holding tins for change.

Impy gave them a flat look then smiled. It was a most innocent and benign look.

“The master would love to hear about your tales! Please do knock…loudly on the door!” Impy beamed. The group moved past him with excitement.

They talked about saving bushes from Moonlight radiation.

Charity demons… truly the worst blight on the land.

It did make him feel better to hear the doorbell being rung far behind him. The sound of screaming following soon after.

Impy was sure that would feed the Master until he returned… after many detours and distractions. He would be back before supper and earn his Master’s mercy.

Well, he would shove enough food down that fat gullet that his Master won’t notice he’s back.

Impy began to walk with a slight spring in his step.

He had a freedom of sorts! He had to enjoy this while he could. The Master could yank on his chain at anytime. That would be awkward if he didn’t have the sword but the Master would be stuffed from Impys… charity for a while.

Impy cackled into the dark iron trees.

---

Impy was on the verge of crying out of anger and frustration as he looked up at the master of the Sweating Succubus. He had spent the day drinking, high off his ears, ending up in a prison cell for mistaken identity. He cried Imp Racism and the demons kicked him out for being too noisy.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE’S BEEN MISSING FOR 40 YEARS?!” Impy demanded. The tall red demon with enough arm hair to clothe an imp stared down with boredom.

“Runilac got called for a job and never came back. He took your slob of a master’s sword to fix on the road. He’s either as dead as you think you are about to be, he found some wife to settle down with, or he got bound and stuck… sucks all the same. That demon only ever loved the forge,” the Forge Demon scratched his chin.

Impy stared, tongue going dry as his collar grew tighter around his neck…

“You must have some clue! You are his employer!” Impy demanded. The Forge Demon began hammering out a gun-sword.

A wretched thing. Terrible!

Where was the appreciation for oversized butcher swords? Impy knew the industry standards had slipped!

“Well, he said he was being called to be summoned to outfit an army for all the souls. Can’t be that many armies that sold their souls. You just need to head to the Deep World to find him.” the Demon grunted.

Impy felt his skin crawl.

“Go… to the Deep World?!” he protested and the large creature grinned, shaking his large head with amusement.

“First time? Imps don’t go often?” The Forge demon asked but he had already turned away with a wave.

“Listen, if it helps… I have a nose for every weapon ever made in this forge and blades Runi made ain’t no different. I got a sniff of one of his weapons a while ago,” the Forge Master offered. Impy couldn’t follow the Demon, his forge would burn him to a crisp but he gave the demon his best urgent expression.

“WHERE!?” Impy yelled as the hammering began, thunder on stone.

The answer made his imp heart stop.

“The King’s kid. Ruli was her name, she swung one of his weapons and beheaded one of the King’s dragons,” the demon began to laugh.

Impy considered opening his Master’s maw and leaping in while holding his nose.

Ruli, the unholy terror of the Abyss… in the Deep world… was his only clue.

Impy went back to the bar.

He drank… and drank… and cried.

Then he plotted. He plotted with impish nature.

---

Ruli paused as she stopped giving the Mushroom Boar Guardian belly rubs.

She frowned as she felt… something.

She turned, fully expecting to see her Dad but nothing happened.

Ah well… she grinned as she sniffed. There was booze nearby! The woman took off and she laughed as she saw the pub sign.

A Dungeon with a bar!

This was better than any place she had ever been.

No contest.

83: The Fortress of Silence

They gathered around her core.

“Ain’t this a sweet little get together. We have goblins, frogs, and oh my, a Kobold! Do wonders never cease Delta, you foxy Mama? You find the most interesting of fans,” Maestro breathed through several of the mushrooms scattered around the core. Jack bent down to sniff at one.

“What’s with the peanut gallery?” he asked and the mushroom trembled.

“Why? I am the star, Maestro! Oh put away the pen, darling, I already know I’m fabulous!” Maestro chortled and he sounded pleased as Jack looked puzzled.

“Maestro, he’s a giant demonic mushroom about the size of a tree, who sings,” Cois said bored.

“Oh please, I am so much more than a hot bod! I am the voice of a generation!” Maestro sniffed and suddenly all the mushrooms began to softly vibrate as they broke into an angelic chorus.

Maestro’s voice rose above them.

“I can outsing any angel choir with my heavenly chorus...” he promised before the mushrooms’ tones dived deep into the demonic chanting of a latin cult that ended with a riff of a guitar.

“And my licks are hotter than any devil,” he laughed once more. Jack didn’t seem so bothered now that Delta eyed him.

“Can you do requests?!” he asked with a grin. Maestro thought about it.

“How about you make it back alive and impress my Momma enough to make me want to. I don’t work for chumps,” Maestro said haughtily and the mushrooms went quiet.

“Master Maestro once sang ‘row row down the stream’ for me,” Rale beamed, evidently pleased he was no chump.

“Let us focus, we have a goal to aim for,” Devina’s cool voice interrupted before Jack could respond. On her shoulder, the orange Delbird, Inchy, tilted his head.

“Goals are good! Means Dev wants to score! Make Rale a goa-” the bird was silenced as Devina snapped its beak shut without looking, her eyes staring hard at anyone who commented.

“I shall help you lift! If I am to be your goal then I shall devise your exercise routine!” Rale laughed with his usual boisterous self. Numb joined him and the two muscle-heads were thunked by Devina as she frostily stalked past.

Billy merely shook his head as he leaned against the wall near the stairs, watching for oncoming threats. His hooded face and red eyes truly made him the loner of the group but Delta could feel his ears twitch, showing he was listening with great interest.

“Listen up. You’re all going to go down and clear the first room. Long enough for me to move my core down and claim the space!” Delta began.

She gestured to Jack who had carefully put his mouth around one of Maestro’s speakers and was buzzing as Maestro’s music calmly floated out. He looked like a nutcase but Delta had little choice but to keep sounding confident as she spoke.

“He’s the expert of what to expect. Skeletons mostly but the space downstairs can change if foes inside feel threatened so approach with caution,” Delta added. Jack spat out the mushroom and wiped at his face.

“Skellys, Ghosties, and other dark spooky crap. Not gonna be easy. Their motto is numbers in strength and they can risk fighting to the death because it doesn’t stop them,” Jack agreed.

“Don’t you mean ‘Strength in numbers’?” Devina asked politely. Jack stared at her.

“Hot stuff, it’s all about using one stone to kill two bridges and burning them when we get to their corpses,” he explained carefully. Devina’s smile became fixed.

“In for a penny, in for a pound,” she muttered.

“I prefer in for a fight, in for a war,” Jack said darkly as he adjusted some of his new bottles.

“Is it a war down there?” Numb the fighter asked, his taped hands and muscular body looking more toned than ever.

“Was. Then everyone died and it just became routine,” Jack shrugged. Cois twirled his staff with eagerness.

“Remember, the goodies go to me! I need shinies! I have a brat that will cry if I don’t find some death wand or cursed golden pantaloons!” he hissed.

“Child payments are so costly... but fatherhood brings out the best in you, your spark lover,,” Billy mused, speaking for the first time. Cois glowered at him but said nothing.

“I’ll try to watch from here. Giant, Luna, and Gramps with Renny will guard the stairs while you’re down there,” Delta said quickly.

“Go down, beat things up, and look cool while doing it,” Rale summed up as he pointed his trident toward the stairs.

“To hell and worse, none shall escape Mother’s Mushrooms!” he cried and charged.

Delta felt her jaw drop.

“Did you just Leeroy J- No never mind! DON’T SAY THAT! THEY MIGHT THINK IT’S TRUE!” she cried as the group trooped after Rale’s jubilant war cries.

She never did see Jack plucking a few of the black fungi and hiding them in his cloak.

---

Ruli stared at the sign in front of Delta’ place.

It was a simple thing but the meaning confused the hell out of her.

“Gone Adventuring... be back soon,” she read and even after a fourth time it still didn't make sense. How did a Dungeon go on holiday? She shrugged and walked down, opening the door with the usual password. The stone doors ground to a halt and the air that rushed past Ruli made her toes curl with pleasure and her heart beat just a little bit faster.

Mana from a Third Floor Dungeon had no right to be this... intense. It filled Ruli’s body and its power was at her grasp if she chose to use it.

The entrance room was the same as Ruli remembered it besides the odd door to the right. Ruli stuck her head in and whistled.

“Delta, girl... you go two notches above impressive,” she smiled at the artwork and memorial space. Delta’s sad expression on the statue made Ruli want to bail, and she never was one for mopy scenes of feeling anything besides drunk or happy.

There was a lack of awareness in the Dungeon that told Ruli Delta had her focus elsewhere but she strolled forward with interest.

It felt like she hadn’t been here in so long, she was eager to see how it had changed.

And this... mystical bar.

That was something Ruli just had to see. She paused at the Spider room where the webs were pulled back for her by the rather plump and tipsy spiders.

“Are you guys drunk?” Ruli grinned as one of the spiders literally fell off its web with a hiccup. Ruli felt the spiders were just great little guys and gals but she smelled something... something that was often here but gone for now.

It smelled of mist and freshly spun string.

--

Muffet twirled three times and waved her middle legs. Quee followed suit and the boy’s attempt at saying ‘I am a child of Delta’ turned into ‘I give this offering of a child to Delta Supreme’. Not quite the right message. She clicked her fangs and Quee looked abashed as he tried to correct his stance.

Seriously, those extra humanly parts was throwing the poor Quee off. Why did Mother have to go do that? Give a perfectly good spider human bits? Ruined a perfectly good spider.

But that was just Muffet’s opinion so she kept it to herself.

---

“Waddles, how is it going, you ducking duck?” Ruli popped her head into the pond room and the black duck opened one lazy eye and gave her a long look.

“You really are one of Quiss’ disasters,” Ruli muttered and carried on to the Mud room.

Waddles stretched his wings. He stepped into the water and floated there for a long moment before he dove.

His sleek black form a dark missile as he dove into the tunnel. He followed the tunnel in complete darkness, his own feathers carefully pointing him to the right direction. Waddles swam and swam, his need for air a formality, not a necessity.

He followed the the seemingly never-ending dark tunnel for some time until it steeply began to turn up. Dungeon Mana thinned as if Waddles had crossed realms. This was where Delta’s realm ended and the real world returned. Waddles swam up the swirling whirlpool to the light above.

The second Entrance, a place which Waddles occasionally cleared of... pests. He bobbed slowly to the surface. He shook the excess water off his feathers and peered around. The lake was fed from a distant mountain. It split into many rivers, one of those nearing the town close to the Dungeon... this thin line of boundaries washed Mana into the area and creatures were more abundant here than around Durence and his summoner’s home.

The lake was in the shape of an eye, a single lone island made up the central point. Waddles had curiously flown up to check it one time. He looked for examples of the previously stated creatures and saw a few.

For example, the glaring drooling black wolf pacing the shore with corpses of goblins and smaller creatures around it. It wasn’t as much of a bother as the crackling blue bird far above, the feeling of Mana being drawn in to fuel its showy efforts to scare Waddles with a few lightning bolts. The closest foe would be the Giant Lure Lizard that had been busy breeding a small gang it seemed.

Waddles normally wouldn’t bother so much with this but...

He raised his bill to the sky where the setting sun showed a half-filled moon rising in its retreat.

As the moon rose, the lake’s water began to churn. Swirling fountains of water shot into the sky and the central island gave off a glowing pillar of yellow light.

Waddles wasn’t that impressed but the fact is the more it did it, the more the lake drained to make those water pillars.

And the lower the water drained...

Waddles guessed the pillar didn’t even breech the treetops around it but it was growing stronger as the moon grew stronger.

Odd, but it meant by the time the full moon came about, Waddles would have to skip his 15th nap of the day to work overtime.

He snorted once as his feathers ruffled.

The bird dove with his feathers covered in energy, the Lure Lizards snarled and rushed forward, even the wolf snapped at the lowering water level with glee.

Waddles tilted his head and his body began to leak a deadly black aura.

He’d feel pity for them but honestly, Waddles didn’t feel pity.

He just felt annoyed... and tired.

The water pillars began to spin out of control as luck would have it, the bird being swatted into the lure lizard, the smell of dying monsters like a balm to Waddle’s black mood.

Now, to actually move.

He turned to the black wolf as about ten more wolves emerged from the shadows of the trees to follow their leader. Waddles quacked once.

In amusement.

He guessed he would see if they would follow it to the Abyss.

He swam forward and the moon watched the slaughter below with indifferent beauty.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

---

Waddles emerged to see Ruli washing her mud streaked hair in his pond water.

“What’re you staring at?” she snapped. “I didn’t know the platforms were random,” she mumbled. Waddles ignored her and went back to his nest, the blood almost impossible to see on his black feathers.

There had been more... at this rate, they would begin to come en masse. That shrine on the lake and Delta’s natural Mana was like a buffet. It had become worse since she had reached a Third Floor and along with her Mana came something more alien than the Abyss. Something of this world but so against all of it that Waddles had never felt such a thing before.

It was leaking out and it carried words and promises.

Waddles didn’t know why it kept inviting monsters to die, but soon things that might cause Waddles some issues might start to appear.

He considered bringing this up to Delta but she had a lot on her plate and hosting one of his kind was hard enough that Waddles didn’t mind guarding her Entrance... but... he wondered if she wanted to know about this?

“Quack,” he tried to sound out.

No, that sounded stupid. Made him sound a little sappy.

He had this handled, and if worse truly did come to worse... he would simply stop being a duck.

Annoying, but he owed the girl that much. If that didn’t work, well... he knew where his summoner lived.

He was sure he could wring a few of his brethren out of the man via snapping at his toes again or eating his spellbooks.

If one Waddles struggled, ten or so would surely be the answer.

Assured with that, Waddles went to sleep.

And dreamed of things unable to be described by human senses.

---

Delta found it easier to see through Devina’s eyes, being the person at the back of the group and having a more spiritual connection than the rest of her monsters. Delta watched as they descended the last step into the room that would host her Core.

The Fortress of the Silence loomed, the entrance hall a collapsed and spacious place with stone pillars that one had to crane their neck to follow. Stone floors with large slates stretched to give the idea this place was carved from a natural cave. There were windows, but the scene beyond had been faked by paintings and flowing banners. The light of the sun had been refused to be allowed to touch this place. The most unnatural thing of it all was the lack of... life.

Not just people or monsters, but there were no webs and no mold beyond the natural patches near fountains and on the wall. No flies... no errant weeds breaking free of the stone.

It didn’t even look that dusty.

It was as if things such as change, entropy, repurposed life... had simply been barred from this space.

Devina turned as Jack patted a fading soot mark.

“This place is like a painting; it has a certain image it likes to go for. I can screw with things, but before long it just returns back to normal. I have to keep blowing the gate up in the deep rooms over and over... but the good news is that means all the stuff I use for my bombs and the food I ate also came back!” Jack said brightly.

There was nothing else bright about this place.

Ahead, two large twin doors of wood crossed with dark metal looked ajar. Jack rolled his neck.

“You ready?” he called. Devina’s confusion matched Delta’s when Billy suddenly aimed his bow skyward.

“They’re on the ceiling!” he growled, and Cois wasted no time firing a flare like streak of flame that illuminated the grand domed ceilings, four elegant domes that held dusty chandeliers of crystal and brass.

In each of these rounded holes was a mess of bones and metal. Like a spider’s nest of a dozen young, the skeletons had meshed together before they suddenly dropped, balls of bone and metal aiming for their heads.

“No horsing around where people can get hurt!” Rale ordered. He stabbed his trident into one of the balls and heaved. Cois merely pointed his staff as a torrent of blistering heat and flame knocked a second aside. Numb was punching the third one so fast that chips of bone and metal were flying off as it slowly collapsed.

The last one bounced towards Devina but a red orb was slipped into it and Jack cackled as he yelled for everyone to take cover.

The rolling ball of bone promptly exploded outwards. Ribs acted like shrapnel and skulls as cannon balls as they smashed into the stone pillars. The cover most of Delta’s monsters could reach was other skeletons, the floor or in Rale’s case, crouch low and grunt.

The damn frog was too hardy for his own good!

A few of the skeletons looked to have survived their initial ambush attempt. The clattering and magically held together bones walked forward at a slow, purposeful pace. They wore no clothes and had nothing on them besides short, bladed weapons. Delta wished their eyes glowed, but instead the empty skulls looked like the night.

Blacker than shadows; that made it worse, somehow, than the lights or souls she expected to find shining there.

The skeletons all seemed to have the unending urge to rattle their jaws like a rattlesnake shook its tail.

“Spooky shites like ta freak you out but there’s real thinkers in there, don’t let the dead tropes fool ya. I’ve seen these arses play cards when I learned to sneak better,” Jack growled, both his hands holding on to red orbs.

Devina flexed her fingers. Standing here was not doing her any favours. That was what Delta could feel coming off the Witch Doctor.

“Foul beings spurned by nature, the grave calls!” she howled and from her hand, furious spirits of green nature rushed at the skeletons. They tried slashing at them, but Devina’s spirits did not fear iron like ghosts and demons did.

They were of nature and they would bend to no one.

The orbs invaded the bones and an empty pressing silence fought back. The power keeping these souls here easily fended off the spirits of Devina but the point was that she had caused them to come to a complete stop in the fight.

Rale grabbed one skull and crushed it with his raw strength as Billy lodged a black arrow into the eye socket of another, the gutrot mushroom promptly exploded with violent pressure.

Numb rushed forward. Delta covered her eyes as he began to snap limbs like twigs.

The first wave had been pushed back and the skeletons faded to a murky black mist that was sucked back through the huge double doors as if being summoned.

“Shut the door! More will be on their way and Hero up there better do her thing or we’ll be facing a two headed snake skeleton... or the horse with spider legs...or, or... you get the idea, they get creative!” Jack yelled. Rale’s shoulder bashed one side and the goblins threw themselves at the other side. The huge monstrous doors protested at being moved after so many years.

From the dark corridor beyond, that smelled of pain and death, there came a rumbling of bone, something that squished and the wailing of the damned.

Devina focused and more orbs of nature fired into the darkness, her aim wild.

“Are you casting magical missiles at the darkness?!” Cois yelled. Delta wanted to chuckle at the absurdity of the fight while Devina felt like she was about to shoot the goblin next when the Screeching doors had finally shut and Rale slid his trident through the two large handles as a way to bar the door.

Something extremely heavy smashed against the doors after a moment. The roar shook the room.

“That doesn’t sound like a horse!” Billy screamed. Delta was going to guess elephant or some kind of dinosaur at the sound.

She was distracted as a box appeared.

First room has been conquered! Moving Core to complete Mana infusion!

“So I don’t get a choice or can we vote on this-” Delta said then blinked as she now stood in the room her monsters had just cleared out. The door shook harder and harder as something tried to bash its way in.

“-for a fair democracy,” Delta finished lamely.

Her core pulsed bright orange and the room around began to shake as her Mana soaked into the stone.

The door cracked as something that was really pissed off tried to claw its way in. A lion? A mutant bear skeleton?

Delta had no idea but she narrowed her eyes as it nearly took Rale’s head off.

“Don’t touch my family,” she growled.

She pulled open the menu... and understood why the system had given her the monster choice it had.

She smashed her fist on the purchase button.

---

Garvan was a simple cult man. He desired the end of all people, the resurrection of the Silent, and an end to all that was light and free.

Really, he was quite simple in his wants as a skeleton that stabbed intruders. Still, this was the most fun he’s had in years! Besides, chasing the Kobold for the same outcome, day after day, it could get quite dull!

So as the Four-Armed-Near skeleton attacked the entrance hall door, he rocked on the heels of his... well heels. He was just a skeleton, after all.

The bear was his best attempt yet at a minion! They only had the same creature bones to fight over, he had won the extra arms in last weeks skull rolling game.

His beast pounded and pounded the wood as it shattered faster than a skeleton’s happiness when they remembered they didn’t celebrate birthdays anymore... or even remember their birthdays.

A hole finally formed and he looked to one of the dumber boneheads. He nodded for it to check. While they didn’t speak per se, they had learned to communicate with subtle pulses of the Silence’s power in them.

“Well?” he demanded. Bonehead looked in and froze.

“What… what is it?” he said slowly. Bonehead turned.

“They have a cave troll,” came the shocking response. That was...

What?

A giant grey hand smashed through the fresh hole, a large thing that could easily match the armed bear, and dragged Bonehead inside, bones screeching in protest, the sound of crunching bone soon following.

A face pushed itself to the hole.

“Wotz dat? More crunchies? Ma? MA! CAN I EAT THEM?” the thing yelled.

Garvan felt a chill in his bones as he swore he almost heard... a woman ordering him to not play with them too long.

He turned and if he still had his favourite dress, he would have hiked it in panic as the door was swung forward and the beast stormed out after him.

He had to warn the rest!

He burst through the hallways, jaw chattering wildly.

“TROLL! TROLL IN THE CASTLE!”

84: For Whom the Dungeon Trolls

The chewing of bones was a little disturbing as Delta watched the monster known as a troll reach through the hole like an English-accented bear trying to find some delicious honey. In this case, the honey being more of the screeching bear skeletons and mindless undead variety that were trying to pierce his grey skin with brittle weapons that did little to deter the determined troll.

Pale yellow eyes squinted as the troll pulled at something and came back with what looked like green slime and a clear dripping liquid.

“That’s flipping ectoplasm! Those spooky birds, the ghosts, should be swarming us about now!” Jack said in surprise before turning his gaze to the troll.

“Hero! I am in awe at the size of this lad, he looks like he eats brick shithouses for a starter meal! I could have used him back in the day!” Jack said as he scampered up the troll’s back to stand on one shoulder.

“How goes the number crunching? Crunching being a bit more literal than these spooks are used to.” Jack added. The troll blinked at him as Delta moved closer as well. The large creature smiled a stupid grin of pleasure at her.

“Ma! Look! I got soft crunch! I can smear it on the bones for sauce!” he showed off large yellow teeth that could crush diamonds. Delta smiled weakly but after Maestro, Bob, and even a few others… the troll was manageable.

Delta put a reminder on her internal diary to cry about her desensitization to monsters and their appearances.

“Good! Glad you’re enjoying your life already. You’re… a good troll!” Delta said after a beat. Devina came up and the troll blinked before he shyly turned his gaze back to the flailing skeleton he had just grabbed and stuffed it into his mouth to pretend he was busy.

Was his grey skin turning black with a blush?

“You are quite strong, sir troll.” Devina praised and the flush travelled all over the troll’s body. Inchy eyed him.

“What, you got a bone to pick with Dev and Inchy?” the bird sang. Rale appeared next and on his shoulders were Numb and Billy. Numb looking pleased by the ride, Billy, less so, but the idea of a sniper’s spot was keeping him still.

Her monsters were goddamn fusing now.

Rale being the walking fortress of muscle as Billy fired arrows from above. Numb would just rain down fists… actually it’s not a bad idea… Delta shook her head as the Troll’s eyes lit up with joy.

“Gobbos! Troll and Gobbos go together like meat on bone! Like… caves and bats! Like… LIKE… Troll and Gobbos!” the creature said finally, ignoring the hole filled with leering skulls and ghostly hatred.

Goblins… trolls… spooky underground ruin filled with dead things… Delta felt like she was teetering dangerously close to being sued. If a fire demon turned up then she was going to run for the hills and hope no one served her a court day.

“Great, we needed a walking mass of destruction that eats everything in its path. After all, we left Bacon upstairs.” Cois cackled. His staff gave off a few sparks of fire and the troll paled as if seeing something horrible.

“Fire is bad! Gobbo not play with fire!” the troll accused. Devina, without looking, kicked Cois hard enough to send him rolling into Delta’s core with a thunk.

“Watch out for mother!” Devina huffed. This was enough to make the troll beam again.

“Pretty Devinah is best Gobbo… not-gobbo!” said the pleased looking troll. Delta was just watching this unfold, watching how this new piece of her family slotted in to the dynamics.

“Devina.” the witch doctor corrected.

“Defee!”

“De….veeenn….nah.” Devina repeated, her face growing pained.

“Devenha.” came the confused response.

“Dev! And Inchy!” Inchy supplied. The troll tried to pet the bird and nearly pressed Devina’s head into her torso.

“Devi… and Inchy!” he said proudly. The Witch Doctor frog threw her hands up in disgust.

“Fine, Dev. And what’s your name?” she asked with a snap. Rale opened his mouth but Devina turned her glowing eyes to him.

“You utter one name and I will ram that trident up your nose.” she warned. Rale froze then wisely shut his mouth.

“Meat-tank!” Jack said quickly. Cois, rubbing his chin, looked like he was going to vote for that name.

Delta turned to see the hole in the door both repairing itself and being opened with weapons. The ghosts brushed against her room, and Delta’s Mana repelled their forms easy enough, but it was more effort than Delta wanted to spend every second of her time here.

“We are not naming him that!” she said and all eyes turned to her.

“In fairness, one does not simply name a sentient being. One merely suggests and sees what sticks. I suggest we try some names when we’re secure and have a lovely vote where we duel each other and I blow you all up with prepared traps and win!” Jack said sagely from the top of the Troll.

“Jack?” Delta said calmly. The Kobold tilted his head.

“Hero, oh lovely lady of the Dungeon?” came the response.

“You are banned from naming anything, short of a complete disaster and a lack of structured command where me and Nu are both offline and every monster that came before you is mute… dead… or missing.” Delta said pleasantly as she rolled her neck.

“But what about my pet bombs? They are so fleeting!” Jack gasped and the troll calmly plucked him from his shoulder as he held the Kobold up to his eyes to examine the scaled creature.

“You can name them as you start throwing them through that hole. I’m losing Mana from fending these buggers off. Devina, more spirits! Cois and Billy? I’ll try to make some ports for you both to fire from. These two doors are the only thing keeping us safe and everyone, save Jack and the troll, is not at full power. I want to secure a command post to mine gas from and build more pylons!” she ordered, trying to use Nu as an inspiration to rope the chaos back on track.

The troll focused and there was a horrid noise that made Delta’s serious pose break as Devina gagged and Inchy fell down like a dead canary bird in a mine shaft as she fled. Jack looked like he was waving an empty flask around to bottle the stench and the goblins hooted madly with laughter as they tried to take positions to wage war.

“Found gas!” the troll offered.

Delta swallowed back her first words then forced a smile.

“Thank you. I’m going to call you Jebediah. It fits more than I’d like to admit.” Delta said. The troll frowned hard.

“Jebebe…” he tried.

“Jeb… Just go with Jeb.” Delta said quickly and the troll looked pleased as punch.

“Jeb! Jeb the trolly! At Ma’s service!” the troll roared in approval and saluted, sending Jack, who he had still been holding, flying through the air. The attack on the door paused for a second and as he stood there Delta finally got a proper look at the troll.

Most of his skin looked soft on the inside of his arms and legs but his joints, fingers, and most of his shoulders looked to be covered in a grey, crusty, rock-like shell that acted like natural armour. His head and body had little to no neck between them which likely gave him a heck of an ability to use his thick skull as a battering ram if he could pick up enough speed.

Delta turned to the menu showing info on Jebediah.

Quote:Troll (Jebediah):

Trolls are nature’s answer to the question of what would happen if a rock decided to grow legs and devour villages. They boast incredible defence and strength befitting their size as well as a moderate regenerative factor. Their blood is highly sought after for potions that involve great healing, their skin (once treated) can be used as armour, and their stomach acid is… potent. They have a fear of fire as they are somewhat flammable.

No evolutions unlocked yet.

Delta had a giant beatstick and she didn’t even have to tribute any monsters to bring it out. Life was good but it would be better if this undead army could stop knocking on her door for a second.

Jebediah was… currently picking his giant potato of a nose with a finger as he seemed to be in deep thought.

Jack picked himself up, looking rather cheerful for being tossed by an excited troll, and waltzed over.

“Listen to Mad Jack here-” he began and Delta snorted.

“Why would anyone not listen to you when you begin with a line like that?” she asked dryly. The Kobold grinned and pointed at the two large doors.

“I dunno what you can do with your Dungeony core powers but you said something about blowholes, right?” he asked, expression a little more serious.

“I did mention portholes for the goblins to fire from, yes.” she stated. Jack waved that off as unimportant.

“All holes are blowholes if you fill them with bombs, trust me on that.” he said with an almost scarily pleased expression.

He pointed to the door.

“Can you fix her up and give us some windows way up, with a ladder and a platform? If we can clean the mass of bony pricks down to a small crowd, we can send Jebba boy here to do some skull cracking and I can start laying traps to slow the next wave. Not sure how much time it will take you to fill the place with your magic dust and make it all weird but we’ll buy you time.” Jack explained, his claw lightly marking his plan on the stone floor.

Delta nodded after a moment, trying not to let Jack’s sudden logic scare her.

“No worries, just need to push them back long enough for me to beef the door up. Even if these guys were human once… Sis doesn’t consider them to be so anymore and that means upgrading whenever and whatever I want.” Delta slapped her hands together with a smile.

“Atta girl. I’ll go move Jeb so Dev can do her magic show.” he announced.

“Jeb! Come see Devi do magic. Come see the fwoggy make happy lights!” Jack crooned. Jeb looked like his day had just been made and Devina looked like Jack had just called her an obese sow.

“F…Fwoggy?!” the woman said in such an offended tone that even Delta winced.

“FWOGGY!? Devi gonna show Ma and me some Fwoggy magic?” Jeb demanded, his feet stomping away from the door to give Devina a clear shot of the growing hole. Billy slid up next to her and took aim with more of his dangerous arrows.

“Gobbos and Fwoggys… aren’t we terrifying?” Billy snorted.

“This Floor has been nothing but a smear on my pride and patience!” Devina huffed, unable to glare too hard at the excited trolls face.

Delta hid a smile while the woman began to exaggerate her arm movements as she began to call on more spirits.

“Hear my call, oh spirits of the green and life! Help me return these poor fools back to your embrace!” she called. Delta shook her head, even more amused.

Devina was supposed to be her level-headed monster… and yet she couldn’t resist showing off to Jeb.  The balls of nature gathered around her finger, drawn from the lush powers of the second floor.

Even weakened, Devina had a whole Jungle to draw on for a source of power. It wasn’t like Dabberghast or Wyin… not druidic in nature. Delta paused then smiled at her own little joke for a moment before she watched Devina’s spirits draw more power than before.

Devina, as a witch doctor, drew upon the soul of the spiritual world rather than physical life and growth of the material world. Her spirits were those of growth and green, their power could help ground to become fertile or blight a land. They whispered secrets of potions to her, the art of herbs and medical brews, and they even seemed to guide her at times.

Delta didn’t know what they were exactly, they didn’t register as monsters or guests. They came off as extension of Devina’s aura… a part hidden from Delta’s sight. Some secret piece that Devina held close to her heart.

Delta respected that and didn’t fret too much. If Devina needed help or had issues with that part of her existence then Delta would help.

No doubt, if she was to create some priest or such, their connection to any deity, would be personal and hidden to Delta.

The five buzzing nature orbs suddenly screeched forward and bowled through the boney hands. The ghosts got it worse as their forms literally burst apart in slimy explosions of ectoplasm. The odd energy keeping their souls and the skeletons minds anchored to this plane lashed out and yanked the black souls deeper into the fortress as Devina guided the orbs in a dance of death and life.

The light coming from the hole in the door erupted and the orbs exploded. The sound of bones raining down on the stone floor soon followed.

“Devi crunch bones without touching them… Devi is much better troll than me!” Jeb whispered as softly as a runaway lawnmower to Jack.

“Nonsense, you simply have talents better suited for… more manual labor, my good lad.” Jack promised.

Billy narrowed his eyes and he loaded a new type of arrow. It looked rather similar to the Blood Mushroom of the second floor. He fired and the arrow slid across a metal fingernail that Billy had clipped on to his real nail. The arrow was slightly nicked and then began to bulge as it soared through the hole with perfect accuracy.

Delta got as close as she could and saw the arrow violently explode, spraying black liquid over the gathering bone soldiers. Their bones began to hiss and a few even fell apart as the joints were sprayed.

“Still got some kinks to work out before Mum will let me use that one on people.” he said annoyed as if Delta’s aversion to melting people was ruining his fun. Delta disagreed but she hadn’t the time to lecture Billy about morals… again.

She focused on the twin doors, the lack of foes touching them made this so much easier as she pulled up the menu for options.

Quote:Twin Doors of the Entrance Hall.

You may enter anytime you like, but you can never leave.

Improve the wood to be more durable! 10 DP

Create twin port windows near the top to rain hell down on foes. 15 DP

Install climbable ladders on the wood that lead to the windows. Adds a platform to stand on. 5 DP

Install slivers of iron in the wood to cause damage to ghosts. 15 DP

Close doors after a certain time. 5 DP

Have the doors open automatically when allies approach from outside. Can be overridden by Core. 10 DP

It was all pretty good and basic things. The iron chips in the wood especially sounded great right about now.

They were all cheap so she purchased the lot. The only thing standing between her Core, her monsters, and the army of the living dead was those damn doors. If Delta saw something stronger than bones and slime come at her, she might for the first time… build traps.

The idea was so alien that she had actually forgotten where the option was on her menu.

Jack was right, until she could ‘claim’ the space, it might be worth filling the halls with so many traps it would be an issue in itself to invade Delta.

How did it work out that she needed traps to keep things in, not out?

Delta guessed that was just how she rolled now.

The twin doors glowed with orange hues as the dark wood became glossy and lines of metallic iron streaked along the massive panels.

A line in both doors sunk in and left behind simplistic ladder rungs that reached a spreading semi-circle platform. Delta flew up to see each platform had a large hole cut out of it. The only way to close the holes were to pull down comically large corks.

Delta stared but they were indeed giant versions of the corks from Fera’s new wine bottles.

Sis was getting creative. Billy and Cois raced to the top. Billy winning due to simply spending more time climbing and the fact that Cois had to heft a staff and mask up the ladders.

“Take those suckers down!” Delta yelled and the goblins didn’t even need that much encouragement before explosive arrows and fireballs were hurled with glee. Cute little balls of destruction, her goblins were.

The hole in the door was fully repaired and the few battered axes that got through to attack suddenly found the rotting twin doors to have gained a slightly improved paint job. The ghosts literally smoking and hissing as they tried to pass through to devour her Mana were especially nice to see.

The most annoying part of it all was that even if bones or ghost bits landed in her room through the windows… she couldn’t absorb them. The essence, the parts that mattered were being called back by that damn annoying power.

“Nu?” she called and she just noticed the box hadn’t been present since she came down here…

Odd, it wasn’t like Nu to miss a chance for potential Dungeon superiority matches and a chance of bloodshed.

Quote:I’m here but… Sis and I have been busy.

Nu’s box shimmered into sight and Delta stared as somehow his blue box looked static and grey in places. As if chunks had been bitten out of him or downright ripped off.

Quote:‘Tis but a flesh wound. The force behind these damned things has been trying to slyly infiltrate the System to get at you but Sis is pissed. She’s beginning a full on war with the little slug.

This was so alarming that Delta turned to glare at Nu.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could be helping!” she demanded. Upset to see her Menu… her friend… so damaged. What state was Sis in?

Quote:You have been helping! Claiming this room and blowing his pets up has been wonderfully distracting.

Nu’s utter calmness was getting to Delta and she shook her head.

“I can do more!” she protested.

Quote:

No. Not now. We are your Menu. We are the System that exists to support you. What good are we if we let bugs crash the system, Hm?  Your battle is here. Trust us to deal with what we do best. The Complicated-behind-the-scenes stuff.

Nu turned to look at the fortified door.

Quote:Besides, you have your hands fu-

He was about to praise Delta, she could feel it! But Jeb peered down and tried to smush Nu’s box like a fly.

“Glow bug gone!” he smiled proudly.

Nu flickered above the hand.

Quote:Core Almighty. System support me…You summoned the troll and it’s already wonky. Why is it… where is the gruff killing machine?!

Delta shrugged.

“In there somewhere. The killing we got but can you kill that which is already dead and keeps coming back, or do you just sort of inconvenience it?” she mused. She got Nu’s attention with a snap of her fingers.

“How is Sys?” she reminded him of the question, opening her menu to see what options she had available to beef up her current core room. Multi-tasking soothed her for some reason.

Before Nu could answer, the answer itself became clear as Delta’s menu sparked and flickered so badly she couldn’t see any of the options.

She stared for all of three seconds before she snapped her gaze to Nu.

“Go to her and make sure she’s alright!” she commanded him. Nu was gone in a second.

“Bye bye glow bug.” Jeb said sadly.

Delta could fret… she could panic… hell, she could even pace in worry, but she wasn’t going to do any of those things. Nu’s words and Sys’s issues made her know exactly what to do.

Sure, she couldn’t box zap and teleport like Nu into the hidden depths of her own Dungeon System but she knew how to help.

It was something she was very good at.

“COIS! BILLY! Hurry it up, I want those doors ready to be opened!” she ordered and her voice was so sharp her goblins nodded without any hint of joke or backtalk.

“Got it, Mum!”

“Give me a minute to focus!”

She turned to Rale and Devina but they met her gaze with understanding.

Rale’s muscles bulged as he actually frowned. Devina looked more mystical as she gathered power.

Jack rubbed his chin.

“I like this side of you, Hero. Jack’s at your command. Lead him well.” the Kobold grinned. Delta just nodded as she eyed the most important part of this plan.

“Jeb… I need you to listen closely to your Ma. Okay?” she called softly. The troll nodded instantly.

“When that door opens. I need you to make all the bones and slime filled people go away. Can you do that?” she asked with a warm smile as if she wasn’t about to let loose a troll into the hallways to rampage.

No one… messes with Sis. That girl did nothing but her best and something had the gall to bite Nu or tear him up and attack Sis?

Did it think Delta was just going to sit here and accept that?

Heck to the frick no.

“Clear!” came the response.

“Go go go!” Cois screamed.

Delta swiped one hand and the doors swung open, the sniper nests above now having no means of escape unless her goblins jumped. Jeb roared and the room shook as he eyed the approaching skeletons.

“YOU WON’T TOUCH MY MA!” he shouted and took off, lumbering like a force of nature.

“Charge!” Delta yelled.

Her frogs weaved into battle. Jack lobbing bombs that exploded with thunder and laughter and troll gas.

Numb took up the tail end and his fists cracked the leftovers with ease.

“Look at me, you creepy son of a birch!” Delta whispered, hands clenched tight.

“I’m right here and I’m coming for you!” she said, her core blazing behind her.

---

Sis gasped as the tendril of… well, nothing... lashed at her.

Her chair had been overturned and her white dress was torn along the sleeves and her bare feet were covered in scratches. She shielded herself and dozens of boxes and slots covered her like armour. She repelled the touch of nothing. It devoured some boxes, ruined others. Nothing Sis couldn’t fix if given time.

She reached out and a sword of blazing gold appeared in her grasp.

“Thank you Yal, now go before it finds you!” she yelled to the golden box that had appeared. She swung and the space of the System erupted in golden fire, pushing the invader back. It wasn’t enough. Yal’s sword was good but it had been a quickly made weapon. Not his usual grand style.

A green box appeared and a shield of shining emerald appeared on her arm. The other side was of Sapphire and glimmered.

Twin sided shield.

“You two go as well!” Sis cut the communications.

Sis watched as gold fire and boxes were drained, turning to dust and endless silence.

“You are such a pain. Always have been, you dirty cheater,” Sis growled. That comment almost sent the nothing into a fit of rage. Sis winced as she felt the next attack coming up. The Silence had done nothing but make this invader’s mood worse.

She was about to hope the Twin Shield would hold when a comet of Blue smashed into the being and Nu’s form reappeared.

Without a word, they began to make the thing chase them both. This enraged it further. Just like old times, Sis mused.

It all came to a stop when the nothingness and Silence was broken by something in the distance. A single Mushroom poked its head out of the bleak endless nothing.

It blazed orange and a second appeared.

Then… it stopped. Sis blinked as the attacks ended. Nu laughed with delight.

“Yes… it’s so much better watching her mess up other people’s grand plans!” he laughed like a madman and Sis couldn’t blame him.

She wanted to laugh as well.

The single glowing Mushroom pushed back the nothing and that was the last thing Sis saw before she secured the hole and patched the crack in the System.

Her smile slipped, once she noticed how many things she now had to fix. Delta’s orange Mana had slipped into more parts of her System.

Not good… but also… kind of good.

Room Configuration was kind of important but it was only Delta’d to the point of being weird, not broken.

What else could a System ask for?

---

Ruli wanted to contract herself to Delta just so she could kiss the damn girl.

Delta had a bar! A real bar with seats and drinks and a grumpy barmaid! But the best part was that no one could steal Ruli’s favourite seat - yes, she had already chosen the best seat in the house. A large stool at the corner where one was not too close or too far from the musical mushrooms, which were playing some oddly energetic music that Ruli could see herself rushing into battle to.

Close enough to order a drink but not be pushed by others ordering drinks. Good view of the room, enough space behind her to feel safe but not paranoid.

The only downside was the place was missing the three stooges.

Fera—Ruli had to pry that name out with a tip—told her that they were on a mission to clean Delta’s basement.

One, Delta having a basement was odd for a Dungeon, and two, she couldn’t see that asshat Cois doing anything without a good reason and tons of bribery. Must be some near disaster on the Third Floor.

Maybe Delta made a casino or befriended some Hydra worm. Delta was good with people like that. She sighed as she sipped her mushroom brew.

It had a mix of the special stuff of Durence in it, but Fera had put her own spin on it as well so it was spicy and a little tongue numbing.

Ruli didn’t like it at first… then she did, so she drank it again… then she felt conflicted.

The drink was, quite oddly, disgustingly tasty. Ruli sipped with a grimace and then sighed in contentment. She could see why that slip of a girl got wasted. This place was just the best.

It helped that Fera had no proper concept of prices for the outside so everything was dirt cheap. Something Ruli would fix when she was… uh… leaving. Just being a good guest.

“What’s a girl got left to enjoy? Fishing, beer, no Quiss or Mum… this is the gooood life.” Ruli down her drink with a gag before burping in pleasure.

“So, where’s Delta at?” Ruli asked politely.

Fera gave her a long look.

“Fighting some Silence bloke on the Third Floor. Waging war on some undead army and I can’t do do nothing‘cause I got to keep an eye out for guests, right?” Fera complained. She blinked as the mug rattled on the bar, the woman gone faster than Fera could detect.

She heard Fran’s door being kicked open and then nothing else.

She eyed the copper coins and shrugged.

At least she paid her tab.

Fera smirked as she poured herself a glass of Lord Mushy’s wine.

Shame if Mama suddenly got some help in the form of that powerful woman.

Be a real shame.

---

Delta watched through Devina’s eyes as Jeb turned, after finally putting down the remains of a large lion skeleton, and nearly choked in dismay as Jeb lumbered back with one of his arms having been torn off.

He looked in pain and a little confused but he beamed as Devina tried to fuss over him.

“No worries, Devi! Pain already gone. See!” he boasted and Delta couldn’t look. Jeb went on as Rale swished his trident and beheaded some ghosts, his trident clearly a bit more than just for show that Delta had assumed.

She had never seen a ghost be beheaded, vanish, then reappear whole only to get blasted by Devina.

“Arm gonna be back inna a day, wotz a few hours?” Jeb shrugged. Delta blinked and sure enough, a little nub of bone was already growing out of the stump. Gross but also kind of cool. She hadn’t forgotten Jeb could regenerate but she didn’t think that it worked for entire limbs!

The hallways were being cleared up but if they didn’t push on… then the damn army would just be back again soon. Where was the damn summoner or creepy relic keeping them here? Delta also didn’t want Jeb to fight that thing again. Jeb didn’t have a spawn room!

“We have to send Jeb back if we can’t make progress. Without a spawn room, he won’t come back.” Delta said, her voice actually coming from Devina’s body like an echo. Everyone blinked but Jack sounded the word ‘room’ out over and over.

“Well, some rooms ahead. Got one with a few books. Got one with a statue… got one with a Forge Demon’s workroom but it was emptied and I think it moved on-” Jack rambled but Delta now knew what to expect at least.

“First room becomes the Troll Space. We can set up more choke points from there!” she ordered.

Her friends and monsters nodded grimly, pushing onwards to the next room. Jack placed odd thin traps along the way that would detonate if triggered. Delta was going to make sure he was the first one to walk back.

Delta focused and fretted as the next room’s door loomed ahead… she had… an odd feeling she wasn’t going to like what she found in there.

Edit upon a new day.

Spoiler: Spoiler

I will not be threatened on discord. I will not be taunted with pictures of cats in blenders with new accounts hoping my cat suffers the same fate. People have serious with me updating so much and people send me pics of a cat in a blender to me to upset me. I wont stop writing or creating but you are cowards and psychopaths,

I hope you all get a grip and stop it. please.

All I did was write. Nothing else. If that upsets someone here, than aim for me, not my cat who means the world to me and got me through dark phases.

Above was my first message and now I want to edit this to see thank you.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Thank you all for the kind words and even kinder support. I cannot thank you enough. More than one have pointed out i did react to the trolls and that is bad but I can't bring myself to delete this and all the comments. It just reminds me of much good people there are here on the internet and I need that.

So, as for an update. I will be doing chapter 85: Silent Knight on Monday!

(I love my puns, i really do)

My cat also silently approves in her own cat way.

Good night and I'm still working through the Pms

85: Silent Knight

The statue room served as what could only be the Cult of the Silence’s vision for life and the world. A glass statue filled with an odd swirling mist in the shape of a giant round mouth full of tentacles and fangs that buried deep into the World.

There was just something a little off about the statue.

Well, two things besides the evil jellyfish trying to snack on it.

“Oh dear… they think the world is flat?” Delta mumbled as the maw held the land like a table on a stand. The land was coloured and made of various materials. Someone had gone to great lengths to implant gems of different colour in various places.

Delta could see a golden amber crystal glowing inside a tiny model of a city. A sapphire and Emerald had been squished together in a city that looked bisected. A deep red one looked to be somewhere in a desert and Delta snorted.

“Red in the desert? Cliche much?” she said and Devina cleared her throat. Sounding like she was trying to say something she was a little awkward to admit. Delta paused but the room was oddly empty of foes for the moment.

Delta… the world is flat.

Nu blinked into view next to her, looking much better than before.

“Nu… right, let me share the science of my world,” Delta said with a finger wag.

Sis?

Delta cocked her head and suddenly she felt like she was being ping-ponged across a game board or a pinball machine. Sis let her flow between herself and… others.

This connection… this path was so rocky and confusing that Delta wanted to hurl. She pinged off a wall of gold.

“Oh! Hello, did Sis get the Core-Conn- “ the blazing gold man asked and Delta was yanked dozens of meters… miles.

“I want a party!”
“I want a ball!

Two children argued over and over and didn’t even notice her.

She was flung hard into a new direction and she threw up. Orange Mana splattered the flying tunnel and Delta finally began to scream in panic.

“I WANT OFF!” she yelled. She flew past dozens of tiny forming paths. Some barely looking like mouseholes. Nothing intelligent could be found there, Delta knew. She saw a wall of fire and a face formed. Smooth and beautiful, the face stared.

“She wasn’t kidding about you. How the hell do you exist with only three-”

The face was gone and Delta was flung to the far reaches of this world and felt so homesick she wanted to cry. But never did she see the planet curve or see the vast horizon dip. The tunnel she rode in was straight… curving only so much up, down or sideways for some time until something happened.

She reached the End.

The Edge.

Delta felt the tunnel come to a sudden stop. She almost fell into the vast abyss below. There were no stars down, only above.

“What… the… frig?” she whispered.

That was when she saw something odd. Well, just as odd as the world having an edge. One of the stars above crashed into the ends of the world. The incoming light chipped and was reduced to a mere tear drop and it hit a mountain that acted like a fence to the Edge.

Delta felt her chest compress. A sense of knowing hit her and she watched as the gem buried itself deep into the Earth.

She could feel… someone behind her.

“It’s not perfect but it’s what I managed to create.” the young girl’s voice said and she mumbled something.

“See?” the girl sounded pleased but Delta couldn’t bear to turn and look. Her experience with omnipotent children had never been good. A ghostly scene appeared over the landscape, and the empty abyss beyond the mountain was filled in as if a fog of war had been removed. The land stretched and formed as the hole where the tear had fallen in began to give off whitish Mana.

The world expanded and the darkness was covered a little more. Soon, monsters and people, little puppets, began to explore this new land.

“The World is fragile. Cores are like nails. They help hold it together.” Sis explained and Delta fell backward and gasped as she was back in her core room.

“The world is flat?!” She protested this. Sis’s voice was fleeting and a little blunt, breaking apart fast as Delta returned to reality.

Well, he didn’t land curled up. He landed flat on his face and I had to work with that. Don’t blame me!

Sis’ voice vanished back into the system, her voice coming from a pure white box that crumbled away. Nu watched this with a little interest.

I hate to ruin a good reason for you to have a breakdown and all but we’re in the middle of a fight. It’s good to see Level three increased your mental durability so you are able to even hear Sis to an extent. How was the Core-Connection Tunnel? Sis’s been working on that thing since before we were born. Only higher level Dungeons can access it, or so she promises. Anyway-

Nu was cut off as Delta grabbed him and glared.

“Those were other Dungeons? We have a chat function? Do you mean I was too weak with only two floors?” she shook the box rapidly.

Nu flickered out of existence and adjusted himself with those hands.

So rude… Sis isn’t just your System. You think there is enough complicated things like her so every Dungeon has their own copy? The sheer power of that would blow us and a few of the stars up! And don’t be greedy. It’s nice to share with your brothers and sisters.

Nu was teasing but the words hit Delta like a ton of bricks.

Siblings… Dungeons… her people now.

To be fair, you are her favourite. I can tell and I shall help you rub this in the other’s faces with efficiency.

Nu offered and Delta rubbed at her face.

“Can I go back to screaming at mushrooms and setting things on fire?” she mumbled. The answer came as her monsters finished shutting the doors and her Mana seeped into the room. Delta blinked as the room and corridor became a part of her dungeon!

That was easy… and worrying. Why would they just let her take that room? She was about to ask when the room began to tremble. Not like ‘things may be closer than they appear’ shaking but more like every inch of the room was shaking as her Mana began to churn.

Oh… yes. I forgot to say. Sis says the room configuration might be a bit… off.

Delta slowly turned her head to look at him.

…Like you’ve never forgotten things. Oh… sorry, that was rather mean of me.

Delta pursed her lips at the unintended jab and was about to ask what had changed when the room abruptly exploded.

Delta coughed as did most of her monsters as orange smoke filtered out of the room.

Sis said that new rooms may… develop in odd ways before you even have a chance to do anything to them. Should be helpful for deciding what to make them into! I think… I hope.

The statue to the Silence and the intent to eat the world was replaced by something completely new. The flat world glowed with a bright new orange orb and the maws of the monster below were gone as the four corners of the world were now supported by…

“Mushrooms! Good for soup!” Jeb declared. Delta stared as the world became more detailed… there were even some very tiny orbs of new colours on the map. Delta peered at the odd map and Durence had even been filled in but there seemed to be ants on the damn thing. She tried to sweep them off but only managed to do something akin to zooming in.

There were little multi-coloured orbs moving above. She poked one, the one with a more orangish tinge to it.

Grimnoire Pictus: Threa-… uh… Rank-E! *Warning Rank is merely Sis's guess at assesing threat level. Town of Durence is marked as... S++ as a rule!

Grim?! Grim the kid with the attitude and so many issues that Delta wanted to choke him? That Grim? She did another one. Deo… Poppy, Amanstar… Ruli was a little to the side and even near her core symbol.

Good ole Ruli.

But many of the adults that had visited didn’t appear clearly. Was it because they were stronger or because the kids were more likely to take her Mana in? Delta had to assume that was how she was tracking them.

Ruli’s orb looked half red and the other half… looked well, less like an orb and more like a scaled tail.

Odd but that was Ruli.

“I like it but now I’m worried that people are going to abuse this. Anyone who visits like Kemy.” Delta tapped the girl’s orb in the middle of Durence with a frown. “She can be tracked by any asshat who tricks me long enough to get here.” she announced. The rest of the room looked a little nicer.

Four pillars now guarded the statue and Aztec themed carvings covered the surface. Goblins drinking, A long one with Bob looking rather scary, Fran and his lance of light… Delta smiled at them all.

Look, it’s you!

Nu pointed to something and Delta rushed over with excitement then her face went blank as a tiny arm looked to show a figure trapped under mushrooms and goblins.

“If it wasn’t so accurate I’d be pinching you right now.” she said bluntly. She opened the Menu.

Map room
A world is but a mushroom throw away.

Have access to map be locked behind a pillar puzzle - 20 DP
Core can deny intruders access to map as long as Room guardian is alive - No room guardian selected.
Create a random thematic room guardian - 30 DP
Apply a mana cost to use the map. The more mana given, the more detailed the search - 15 DP
Allow people to pay a fixed Mana price to hide themselves that can only be broken by a higher Mana payment - 25 DP
Allow Contract monsters to fill out details of map by sharing with the Map - 10 DP

She purchased the puzzle one instantly. Her pressing issue was securing the map. A room guardian could wait just a bit. She didn’t want to give up a potential room guardian elsewhere by selecting this one now. The four pillars rotated and a wall of orange light flashed as a hum resonated from the four pillars. Cois sniffed at it and poked it without much thought.

He passed through just fine but Delta was still gasping.

“Nu, I got forcefields!” she exclaimed with joy. Nu seemed to say something then corrected himself.

Well done. You are a brilliant Dungeon.

Delta stared and the box turned away, almost guilty.

“You still upset by that memory jab you threw?” she asked lightly, Nu didn’t say anything.

It is a sore point and even for me that was… crude.

Delta smiled. She eyed the four pillars and saw many more images had been added. The pillars now had four turning sections with each turning side having an image of a monster. There were quite a few that Delta did not own.

Some hydra, a minotaur… a little pixie? Delta eyed the creature then eyed Nu.

“I bet if I had a Dungeon pixie instead of a grumpy menu, I would still be on the first floor. A slip of the… uh… keyboard isn’t going to change the fact that you’re my friend.” Delta smiled. She watched as Billy easily solved the puzzle by sliding the correct 16 monsters that could be found in Delta’s Dungeon in a line. The light flickered off. Billy nudged one side and the light flicked back on.

Billy stared, and then Delta watched as he flicked the barrier on and off… on and off…

It was like a kid and a fridge at night…

A Dungeon Pixie is basically ‘look at me, I got some eye candy in the form of a tutorial’ I am vastly superior in every manner.

“You wanna make it up to me? I need defence strategies for this room. We got three doors and that means three ways of being attacked, four if you count the way we came in.” she said seriously. Nu perked up and began to scheme. Billy focused on a little orb near the golden Dungeon core in the large city.

Delta blinked before smiling at the name that appeared.

“Noland!” she said, it felt like a year since she saw the man but couldn’t have been more than a week or so at the most.

She wondered how the Taxman turned inspector was?

Delta bet he was having a good time going home.

---

Noland dreaded this.

Returning to file his tax returns, sacks of gold for the purists, and a report on the Durence Dungeon… Delta. Oddly, he felt like he was back in that Dungeon for a second. A pulse of warmth down his spine… he shrugged it off and went inside the Royal Banking Association.

He was going to get promoted and he knew what that title was… ‘Durence Dungeon Record Keeper’. Not the worst name but it did mean he was off his comfy routine of touring for taxes and now a dedicated man to the Dungeon.

The bank didn’t like rotating taxmen and bankers between Dungeons as it made them into more generalized officials rather than competent experts of that particular Dungeon. Some Dungeons only let you see some of their secrets if you absorbed enough of their Mana or visited enough times.

Old Reg, the bank manager, had been inside the Royal Dungeon more than any adventurer and the guy had a room dedicated to him.

Yes, it depicted Reg as the most boring human alive but at least the dungeon honored him in some way.

Noland paused and then hastily bowed as Princess Serma exited the bank with two Royal Knights and a ragtag bunch of people.

“Mas, we shall begin tomorrow. Are you sure I can’t buy you more equipment or get you some training?” the princess asked the rather young boy. The boy beamed.

“Nah, I got my new sword you gave me! I’m ready to chop monster’s heads off! And I got you! You’re awesome at blasting things.” Mas, the boy, praised. The Princess retained a cool face but Noland could almost see a smile playing in her eyes. One of the Royal Knights, Lady Brilda of the Spear, who seldom spoke and with brevity when she did… but today she seemed to be on fire.

“Do not address the Princess without deep respect and gratitude. Not just anyone gets gifts from the princess.” she reminded the lad and the spear on her back glowed slightly. Zane the Blood Night yawned and the sheer aura of these people should have shaken Noland.

It did make him look away, but honestly… after being stuck with Dabberghast and Quiss in a dungeon, he almost felt a little… let down by meeting the famed Royal Knights again. He remembered not being able to breathe around them before.

“You like Serma a lot, you’re almost like sisters.” Mas winked as the Mouse mage behind them shook his head. Brilda paused, and for the first time Noland had ever heard of…

The woman looked lost for words.

“Close Mas. Lady Brilda has protected me since I was young.” Princes Serma explained as they walked past. Zane slowed and sniffed the air.

He turned to Noland in the distance and tilted his head.

“You… Taxman, where did you come from?” Zane walked over and people rushed to part from his path. Noland tried to look calm and even meek. The man before him could and might even kill him citing some stupid defence law of the Knights but he honestly didn’t care.

He had seen an opera singing demon mushroom and the scariest jungle he had ever heard of. And that was not including the tree woman.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

He stared blankly into the man’s eyes.

“Do you have clearance for that information?” Noland asked with one raised brow. Zane leaned down with a smile that hid his annoyance.

“I am a Royal Knight, doesn’t that cut me some slack?” he pressed. Noland thought about it. About letting Zane know about Quiss… Dabberghast… about Deo that odd child… and Delta.

“No. No it doesn’t. Good day, Royal Knight. Please return to scaring people and killing things while I do my best to make sure this kingdom doesn’t collapse under the weight of bureaucracy and gold.” He walked past, and Zane’s huge hand softly touched his shoulder.

“I’ll be filling out forms and paperwork to get permission. You got a real ‘fuck em’ look for a weedy guy and I wanna know what place did that to you. Might have some good fighting there.” Zane grinned, and his madness showed for just a moment before he reigned it in.

“Later, Tax.” Zane wandered off after the waiting princess’ group.

Noland finally breathed. He had been toughened up but that direct touch had made Noland feel like an egg before a dragon.

He could be boiled, fried, smashed, eaten whole, or heated until he broke.

Royal Knights… the most worrying thing was that Zane was hardly the worst.

---

Delta watched as the doors were repaired and toughened to withstand any more mobs of skeleton bears. Not that she had to worry with her having the bigger monster in the form of Jeb. Now Jack was naming the doors slowly.

“That one there leads to the old forge. Nothing useful there besides weapons, some explosive powder, and about a dozen or so metals. Next is the library to the other side. Lots of good reads like ‘100 Ways to Cook Your Foes’, ‘The Bloody History of Kings’ and ‘Huff the Magical Dragon pop up book’.” Jack listed.

“Any monsters?” Devina asked quietly. Jack rubbed his red scaled chin.

“Got some ‘So, You Love Chimeras?’ and ‘Hydras: Eight heads, One Stomach!’” he offered. Devina’s glare could melt steel.

“…Not really. I think they got bored reading the same things over and over. With everything sort of resetting or reverting, they can’t even write their own stuff. It’s why they learned to talk to themselves or build pets. Boredom I think.” Jack explained.

“For those wanting silence and the end of all, they’re not great at enjoying doing nothing.” Cois sneered. Rale was calmly watching the north door, peering out as it led deeper into the fortress. If an army was gonna come, it would come from there.

Delta wanted to go that way last if she could help it. She liked to make sure her side rooms didn’t hide anything before she left her back and her monsters open for a flank attack of some ambush.

“Library first. Knowledge and power and all that.” she told Devina.

“Jeb, you stay here and guard the room.” Delta told him. Jeb gave her a thumbs up, trying three times to get the right finger up.

“I will sit against the door, Ma! Not gonna open with my butt in the way.” he promised. Delta liked her troll. He was a smasher, a charmer, and now… a door stop.

“Keep the doors open on the way to the library. Jeb is strong but I want a clear path in case you need to come help.” Delta said quietly.

Her group travelled slowly down the hallways.

Delta gave Jeb a last look, the troll kicking his legs and humming like a meat grinder. Just a little more and they could get to the forge and make it into a cave for Jeb.

She had a feeling that it would work better than the library.

The connecting hallway was more of the same. Stone floors with fake windows. Curtains looked limp and almost ghostly, the lone painting depicted some grand city sinking into a hole. Cheery.

The door to the library was actually a little bit smaller than the rest and when Rale pushed it open with the end of his trident, it creaked and began to open slowly.

Rale hit it again and it crashed into the wall inside.

“No time for creepy doors! Books must be defeated!” he declared. The silence, the normal kind, was all that was there.

Tall shelves of bound books, scrolls, picture books, and even some DIY titles stood out. Jack wasn’t kidding when he said it was empty. The smell was of a quaint place of books, the odd reversion power of this fortress managing to actually keep the mold out quite well.

Good thing it wasn’t all dark and creepy. There were about ten rows of bookcases. The far end of the room had a smallish desk where a librarian could watch like a hawk but it stood empty. Smaller paintings filled the walls and a few banners hung nearby.

It was all standard fields, forests, meadows, dogs playing poker, a DnD style battle against a dragon, very plain things. The banners were of a deep purple and showed a tiny crest of a moon cracking in half.

Library Conquered! Will take… time to absorb to avoid overloading Core’s mental faculties.

Delta watched as her Mana flowed down the hall and the lone painting exploded into more orange smoke before the Mana slowed to a crawl just inside the Library.

“That’s twice today my ‘mental faculties’ have been brought into question.”

Nu appeared.

Do you wish to know about pig breeding in detailed descriptions and pictures?

Delta… paused.

“Does it have pictures of cute piglets at the end?” she tried.

No.

“Then take your time going through it all!” Delta scampered to see the new painting in the hall.

The sinking city was gone, showing the sun shining down on her Dungeon Entrance. The trees torn down now, replaced with giant mushrooms, and the light making her home look… magical, not dangerous.

“Much better,” Delta grinned.

Jeb was fast asleep in the three minutes they had been gone.

His snot bubble was large and Delta felt like she shouldn’t find the monster cute but really… Jeb was cute in his own way when he wasn’t chewing bones and such. The slowly regrowing arm was a bit creepy though.

They repeated the same slow search of the hall leading to the Forge room. This hallway was bare, without even a houseplant to spruce things up. The people who lived here did not think much of the Forge room and as Delta watched her monsters approach, she smelled… eggs, rotten eggs and… burning coal.

Looking behind her, she didn’t see Jeb so she guessed it was the natural smell of the forge. What on Earth, flat as it was, could make such a stink?

Rale kicked the door open and something long and coiled inside the furnace lashed out. A snake skeleton tried to sink its fangs into her frog’s shoulder but he slammed the trident between its jaws.

“There’s a snake in the forge!” he said as if the others hadn’t been watching.

“Oh, that bugger? He's been growing for some time. Like a real snake but dunno how he’s escaping the revert field.” Jack said as he rushed in to stare at the whipping spiked tail of the creature. Each spike seemed to be less of a thorn and more of a bone that had been sharpened.

“Those are human ribs. I assume it convinced a few of the grunts around to join in to make it bigger. Though I doubt it asked.” Cois said and bashed his staff into the creature’s skull, causing it to recoil and rear up.

Delta imagined that if it was a cobra and had skin, this would be where its hood would flare.

Numb used Rale as a springboard and axe-kicked the somehow-hissing skull.

There was a <crack>, and then Numb grabbed the snake’s spine and bent it over his knee.

The snake crumbled, and more of the black smoke flew back through the air and under the door Jeb was guarding. Danger over, Delta sighed.

“Good thing Rale’s awareness is so good.” she mumbled. Devina gave her a dismayed look.

“He didn’t see it. He just reacted because Bob likes to tackle him and it’s now instinct to react like that to long bodied creatures. He’s an idiot!” she shook her head.

Having no words to counter that, Delta watched as this room was quickly consumed by her growing Mana.

The forge with its long abandoned hammer that looked fit for the hands of a giant. The stacks of metal ores and barrels of half-finished weapons. There was a large stand for some missing sword… but Delta ignored that as Cois began to audibly weep.

“My loot!” he cried. The black grainy powder was up next and Delta waved a few fingers about.

Better do this fast before Cois saw.

Forge room conquered!

There was a heavy thunk.

“Oh wow! This item is magical and I can’t seem to absorb it!” Delta said loudly and peered down at the large shield with a golden spider on it. Thank you, forge, for the golden bars. Delta would be sure to put them to good use.

Cois was on the shield like a child on a new toy

“Mine! Mine! I mean… Well the boys’, but for now… Mine!” Cois hissed and tried to heft the shield. There was a long pause as the room was fully converted and that odd feeling of the Mana shaking began again.

Cois silently looked at Rale.

“Worry not, little fire bug. I shall keep it safe!” Rale picked it up with Cois still attached.

Delta smiled as the room began to shift into a new form. This bugged room configuration could be a pain…

“Release me, frog or I’ll stir fry you before feeding you to the closest thing to French people here!” Cois warned, Delta’s knowledge rearing its head in her monsters again.

The flash died down and the forge room looked… greenish.

Moss, vines, and even grass had run wild in the forge room, reclaiming it for nature. Glowing flowers and dripping stalagmites made Delta think of a buried ruin in a cave.

It was really nice and Delta could see it working well in her favor. She’d just need to adjust a few things.

She removed half the forge to make a semi-small room for Jeb, added a small basin of natural running water to one side and focused hard to think of what else screamed ‘Troll!’

Besides pile of bones and such.

Finally she decided on something cheap and easy. Near the top of the room, she built a cheap bridge that went nowhere.

Trolls and bridges. It was classic. She tried opening the menu - and sure enough, the option she wanted was there, mixed in with ways to restart the forge or even make a mine.

Other rooms could do that but Jeb’s survivability was too important. Delta liked him too much for him to die now and the hardcore Nu would see it as a strategic advantage to keep her biggest monster around for free.

Win-win. Troll Troll.

Turn room into Troll Cave? 25 DP

Delta hummed as she hit it.

The room changed once more and the remnants of the forge was turned into a proper cave. Besides that, the hole Delta made of the furnace was dug even deeper into a pit of darkness and wet earth.

The room felt a little wilder than before and Delta eagerly opened the new Menu.

Troll Cave: Lair
Troll monsters can respawn here after a period of time. A troll takes up 3 of the 5 available monster spaces on the floor.

Delta blinked once then another time.

“I can…only have one troll? It takes up three slots?” she said in dismay. She had resisted the gacha guardian and turning the forge into a mine. And while Jeb was safe, all she got told was that he was fat even in terms of the System!

She read on.

Lair upgrades:
Lair can be upgraded to hold two trolls at the expense of any other creatures: 20 DP
Trolls take 20% less damage from fire spells when inside the lair. 15 DP
Regeneration is increased when resting inside Lair. 20 DP
Create a proper home inside the cave! Install two large fur covered beds and one very large cooking pot! 10 DP
Have ‘Troll Soup’ available as a loot drop. 1 DP

Oh. That was fine then. Delta could get the almost ‘buy one get one free’ deal in terms of Monster slots.

She silently apologized to Jeb for calling him fat when he was just big boned and perhaps big rocked as she bought all the options.

The Library would be done soon so really, it only left one direction to go. Jeb looked eager to follow the scent of ‘home’ and Delta let him.

The yells of excitement were what made Delta’s day… the following smells of cooking and the odor that produced, less so…

She could now see why ‘Troll Soup’ was so cheap. She hoped to God there were recipe books in that damn library because Delta was not putting up with that concoction of Jebs. It was like the Moonshine of soups.

Brewed in gasoline and mixed with dead possums.

She covered her nose and looked towards the last door.

Still, this direction gave her the willies, and she was not sure she really wanted to go on, but this thing had attacked Sis and Nu.

She wasn’t going to let that slide.

“Delta team, roll out!” she ordered.

She got looks of confusion and some amusement.

“I find that some books lie and rolling at the right time doesn't make you immune to damage, better to run if you can!” Jack offered.

“Just… go.” Delta said with a sigh.

---

The last pole was undented, helped along by the great return magic. He watched as the gate began to finally open after 40 years. Progress ever since that damn scaled rat had vanished. But he had sensed her.

His master demanded core shards and he would supply.

He turned on his steed, his dark lance glowing with the power of the Silence. He reared back as his skeleton horse glowed with the same power.

The gates opened loudly and the sounds of the end came.

The Captain of the Ending Light pointed his spear and the slaves and grunts he had pulled back to fix the gate joined the mass to rush through the Hall of the Last Feast and towards the depiction of the future…

The End had come, and it rode on a dead steed.

He charged, eyes ablaze with the power of Silence.

---

Ruli stood before the entrance to the second-floor boss room, covered in darts and Bob slime.

She wasn’t winded but she was nervous.

She had no idea why and it was pissing her off!

“Open up. I don’t have time for this puzzle bullshit. I need to help Delta!” she yelled. The door didn’t answer but Ruli was sure she was being heard.

“Listen to me, you childish dick of a monster. I heard from Quiss you’re some tree girl, well listen to me. I like your Mum and I want to help her. If you get in my way I will make you regret it. Don’t you take what’s happening down there seriously?” she yelled, her body bulking with power and nails turning into her clawed weapons.

The door opened.

“More than I care to… wild woman. Take the stairs, and if I see you without Mother Delta on the way up… I’ll make you regret it. Go now, your face pisses me off,” the woman… the actual tree woman hissed, the mist parting to show a clear path to a door that opened.

That feeling of wrong grew even worse.

“I’ll bring her back safe,” Ruli said and pushed on.

“….Thank you,” she heard and she turned but the mist had hidden the boss’ form from sight.

“Delta, can’t you just adopt more Frans? This one has issues,” she mumbled as she took the stairs two steps at a time.

--

Called… he was called.

He felt… they all felt the danger, but being her first, Fran came to a halt.

He turned to the feeling and knew someone… something deadly was coming for Mum. No…

Not while he drew breath. He pointed his lance to the door and screamed in rage at the mere idea of someone treading over Mother’s core.

He would crush their bones and feed them to Bacon.

Fran hit the door to the boss room, and the odd feeling of wrongness… of not belonging beyond this door hit him like a truck, but without Delta, he didn’t belong anywhere, so he urged Bacon on. Fran’s eyes blazed as orange as his lance.

He was her guardian… he would not fail again.

Never again.

86: Oh Holy Knight

North from the Statue-Turned-Map room was what looked like a feast hall. It truly was a grand sized place. Not anywhere near the size of her jungle but Delta could see how a cult and their on-the-fence friends could easily fit in here. The style was simple but of good quality. The tables had various metal dishes with cutlery laid upon the surface, the black glossy wood had been sanded down to a level that ice would be jealous of. Delta eyed the forks; if they came alive with demon power, she was going to call them ‘cultlery’.

That or ‘French’. All that was missing was a clock, a candlestick, and a British teapot. The floor had some effort put into it, the simple flagstones replaced with a more solid stone surface. This was the first true room of this floor to not have any of the cave like surrounding to be seen. Swinging chandeliers of black wrought iron creaked above as their candles remained unlit.

The light came from the brightly lit corridor behind them as Delta’s Mana converted the dreary gothic hallway into a brightly lit hall with rugs and squishy armchairs for the tired. The stitched mushrooms on everything was something Delta ignored only by sheer willpower.

The far side of this grand hall was covered in a wall of shadows. Delta felt more than saw her Mana hit some weird wall before the entrance of the feast hall. Something was repelling her Mana with rather efficient ease. The feeling grew more intense as every light flickered on at once, dark dull flames on every candle and bracketed torch. Delta was sure… that wasn’t normal fire.

The feast hall only had two other doors. A tiny door near one corner that looked… sealed… if Delta had to guess, and the other was a large gate with criss-crossing iron bands and wooden bars about the size of an actual tree.

“The gate… tch, I’ve been distracted and the wastes of calcium have hackjobbed it back together.” Jack growled low in his throat. Delta wanted to assure him he had been gone maybe… maybe an hour.

If Jack had managed to keep this gate destroyed for 30-40 years, everyday… Jack was far more talented than she had guessed. That or the cult was weirdly inept in defence and security. The room was lit up but felt even darker as shadows now moved and danced at the corner of her sight.

Delta wasn’t worried about shadows, however. She stared at the lone figure surrounded by about ten skeletons in front of the massive gate. Giant chains at either side of the gate began to creak and screech as they pulled the bottom of the gate up a few inches and then the massive gate slowly rose like an executioner's axe.

The air that should have no reason to be trapped on that side of the gate flowed in the space under the gate and made Delta’s spine turn cold.

“Welcome, Lady Core of the Dungeon who has connected to our little home,” the man on the skeleton horse spoke and urged his beast around to show its twin glowing specks of black and silver. The glow was oddly darker than it was bright. Inverted light, if Delta had to put it into words.

Negative instead of colour..

Those twin black stars met her and this thing… this man could see her. Not even a Third Floor would cause sudden physical form, not this quickly.

This person could see her, unlike normal people.

“You don’t talk to her. Don’t you even look at her, you maggot of this rotten earth,” Devina stepped forward, a snarl under her words. The man tilted his head yet the finely crafted helmet covering his skull didn’t even slide. Like it was custom made for his bare skull, not a human head. The simple black tabard over a flowing chain mail that ended in dark leather gloves and chain boots didn’t scream ‘dangerous’ nor did the undead horse he rode. It looked a little sad.

But she felt a little wary at this creep and that was pissing her off.

But she felt a little wary at this creep and that was pissing her off.

“So, you're the tutorial boss or did you bumped down from gimmick boss to guard the front door?” she called and this made the horseman pause.

” she called and this made the horseman pause.

“I beg… your pardon?” came the smooth response. Delta floated forward slightly and raised her chin up a fraction.

“Beg harder. Were you waiting in the dark for that little show? That’s just sad,” she added. Nonsense, if she just threw enough nonsense at this thing, she could give herself time to think of a plan.

The gate rose higher and from the pitch dark beyond, countless dark eyes lit up. There was a literal army of dead, slimey, rotting, and… other things, crawling towards the gate in anticipation.

Not good… very not good.

Her small party, even with Jeb making up most of the bulk, wouldn’t be able to handle that number. Their options were to fall back or to rush forward and destroy the gate. Delta decided that she would rather not have an army chasing her. Jack had done it countless times, so he would be her lynchpin to do-

Her planning was cut off as the air rippled. The man’s hands were flung forward and a long dark spear was screaming through the air, right at her form. Delta’s mouth made a little ‘oh’. The horseman had just… attacked.

Well, Delta felt rather stupid for trying to be clever.

Rale was closest to her and even then, his powerful form wasn’t going to reach her in time. That spear wasn’t just going to pass through her, it glowed with that inverted light, malicious and hungry.

Delta raised one hand, almost as if to slow down the incoming projectile like she was some sunglass-wearing trench coat chosen One.

Her Menu shut down, her awareness felt limited now and her Dungeon space twitched as something exploded past the map room, down the hallway, and through the feast hall’s doors like a rocket on drugs.

“You… fucking… touch her and I’ll chew your souls apart into so many pieces that even my Dad would be impressed,” Ruli hissed, steam radiating off her body so much that it swirled like an angry animal. Her usually dark skin was black and her hair curling and swaying.

That was when the limited physics in the Dungeon caught up and a howl of air and wind followed Ruli’s path, exploding into the feast hall causing the tables and chandeliers to be ripped back and smash into the walls. Delta’s monsters managed to hold each other down but a few skeletons were utterly crushed by the tables.

Ruli stood and Delta choked back a cry.

Sticking right through one of Ruli’s hands was the spear. It had gone clean through and Ruli gave her a smirk, looking unbothered as she gripped it.

“What, never had a splinter before? Looking good, Delta… you’re almost visible,” Ruli commented and yanked the spear free before she dropped it.

It vanished and reappeared back in the horseman’s grip.

“Huntress, you look… young. No… not her. A daughter perhaps?” the man mused and Ruli’s red eyes blazed with the words.

“Did you just say I look like my Mum?” Ruli asked, voice flat. That seemed to upset her far more than a spear through a hand… speaking of which, her hand was already healing. Delta was a little wary about not being able to use her menu but… she’d take Ruli over a dozen traps and doors.

“Did I stutter? Yes, you look like that festering sow of a witch. I hoped the broken heart and broken soul we left her with would kill her but it seems like she lived on. How is mother dearest? My Master would be thrilled to finish the task,” the horseman sneered and twirled his lance as the gate behind him was almost open enough to let through crouching monsters.

“But I guess that his captain will have to do it. Whelp of that foul wench, I am Captain Levix and I will be glad to welcome you to the family,” the man sounded far too smug and Delta glared at him.

“Ruli is going to kick your ass,” Delta said confidently. Jack itched at his nose.

“She’s strong but the guy isn’t a pushover either. He’s got some mojo that meant I could never explode him. Speaking of, the gates are almost open and then we are gonna have a lot of problems to deal with real soon,” Jack pointed out calmly.

The gate creaked ever open and her monsters all tensed at the sight of…

Delta felt her mouth go dry. There were so many of them that some were crawling along the ceiling and walls in order to get to the hall faster.

Levix held up both hands.

“What is the matter, Lady Core? You would think a Dungeon would approve of the simplest of strategies. Numbers win. Numbers that never go down win ever faster. Huntress whelp, come! Let me offer one of the three bloods, tainted as it is, to my God. Let this prison be shattered!” Levix screamed and Delta truly saw the horseman was insane.

Completely and utterly bonekers.

Ruli’s hair whipped wildly in a maelstrom that leaked off her skin. From the crown of black curly hair came two ebony-black curved horns. Ruli shrugged off her jacket, fiery red veins pulsing all over her black skin.

“If I wanted to listen to this kinda crap, I’d go watch Deo’s puppet show for the toddlers he puts on every weekend. Every word you yammer is just boring. I got three things I want in life, captain,” Ruli’s voice was smooth and utterly human.

This seemed to confuse the loon more than Delta had managed to.

“I wanna drink, I wanna fish, and I want to hunt. I don’t see any fish… and I left my drink upstairs. So that leaves me my last vice,” Ruli rolled her neck as her aura turned a deeper red.

“Third Floor Mana does wonders for my half-breed shit. Compliments to Delta and for having a bar in her dungeon, she gets a favour from me,” Ruli’s red eyes met Delta’s, seeing her.

“You’re cute for a core. Not that I had any doubts. Leave the worst for me, you got a hero incoming to deal with Bonehead, so I’ll do the boring job and end the army,” Ruli grinned, a fang sticking out.

Delta’s mind went silent for a few moments.

“Of course she’s cute… she’s our Momma,” Numb pointed out.

“No doubt,” Rale nodded.

“I get my best looks from Ma,” Jeb said from the back. Ruli eyed him and whistled.

“I’ve missed this so much, ah well. Next round is on me! Stories are best told over drinks and maybe after we clear this floor we can get some spare ribs to go with them,” she began to calmly stroll forward.

“ENOUGH!” Levix screamed and charged forward. Ruli didn’t break stride, she even began to whistle. The dark spear was pointed at Ruli’s head as the bone horse moved at alarming speed. That was when Delta felt it… finally letting what her Dungeon senses had picked up get through to her.

A shadow crashed into the room, leaping over Delta and her monsters before an almighty clang reverberated through the hall.

The lance of dark light struggled against a blazing orange spear.

“Who… are you?!” Levix said, glowing lights bugging out of his skull at the unblinking glare that stared back.

“A real honorable knight. Didn’t your ‘God’ know that the jackass is to be ridden, not promoted to captain? Do you have the guts to face me?” Fran growled as Bacon butted heads with the dead horse, piggy outrage showing all over Bacon’s face. Delta was so damn pleased to see him she didn’t even care he had sworn, and was that a pun?

“He’s all yours, Bossman. I’ll be back once I make some cosmic horrors cry for their mommas,” Ruli stepped through the gate and with a crack of both hands, she lashed out and the gate screamed as it collapsed into rubble and metal.

Trapping the army with Ruli.

Poor monsters. Even Delta felt a little bad for them, they had nobody to love them.

“A filthy goblin on a pig? Is this some kind of joke?” Levix demanded as he gained some space between himself and Fran. Delta was ready to spread her monsters out when Fran gave her a look. It conveyed so much in so little time. This was his moment.

“Do I look amused?” Fran answered as Bacon stomped the ground in challenge.

“Guys… get to that sealed door, I don’t want Fran being ambushed by something,” she ordered. Rale frowned before he looked to Fran then he understood.

“We’re all a little pig-headed,” he grinned and Devina nearly strangled him.

“Show him the power of gobs!” Cois demanded. Cois had always… always respected Fran to such a level that he had never even sassed the boss in his own mind. Delta was sure of it. Numb and Billy shared the same grins.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Levix eyed them, sneering as he gathered odd dark Mana into his free hand.

Delta’s first monster… her very first monster and Boss faced down the bone captain. He pointed his spear at the captain and it burst into an aura of orange flames.

“You shouldn’t dismiss the gob on the hog,” Fran said simply before Bacon blurred forward.

“Bravery Lance!” Fran’s voice boomed and an explosion of orange light cut cleanly through the orb of inverted light.

“A skill? Monsters cannot learn skills!” Levix hissed, his own spear stopping the orange light from touching bare bone. Fran’s standing form grinned dangerously.

“I do a lot of things I shouldn’t. Guess the world hates you so much that even I can bend the rules if it means destroying you!” Fran shouted and Bacon sped away to the far side of the room, Fran lowering his spear with clear intent.

“You challenge me! I am the Lord’s weapon in this domain! You dare come into my hall?!” Levix would have spat if he had any fluids left in his body. His own lance lowered and the two went still for a moment.

Fran’s small grin grew.

“What you’re saying is that you are the Mini-boss of this floor? Then that’s all I need to hear,” Fran lowered his head, ready to charge.

“Finally getting the difference between our skills?” Levix sneered, his horse stomping the stone, causing sparks to fly.

“Yeah, you're not even the main event. You’re the lackey of a lackey,” Fran said simply. Levix took this insult with all the grace of an egomaniac.

“I am Captain Levix of the Lord of Ending Light! You are nothing!” Levix growled. Fran risked a glance at Delta. His smile went a little soft when she gave him a thumbs up.

“My hero!” she remembered Ruli’s words.

“Wrong, I am Sir Fran the Pig Knight. First born, First promoted, and First guardian. I am the lance of Mother Delta’s kindness and her shield against cretins like you. I am the first floor Boss, which means in Dungeon terms…I outrank you, you flea-bitten mangy cur!,” Fran charged and Levix screamed, charging as well.

Rale finally kicked the door open and Delta’s monsters rushed inside, leaving Jeb to guard the door.

Delta watched as Orange and not-light clashed. The room around them shook hard. Fran being outside his boss room caused… issues. This hall wasn’t Dungeon space proper yet. If he fell here… Delta shook her head and cheered.

She cheered her damn heart out.

Fran believed in himself so Delta could only do the same.

--

Ruli ripped a glow-zombie in two, using it’s glowing spine to whip a flying drooling bat creature down the middle.

Teeth, fangs, claws, suckers, soul tongues, tentacles… everything was flung at Ruli. It was just like her first bar crawl in the Abyss but slightly fewer imps died. Those that didn’t burn from her leaking demon power were shown what happens when Ruli doesn’t get to drink.

Things died.

She pushed through to another large room. Some fountain spurted black ooze and that sent her senses into ‘wary mode’. The fountain raised her hackles more than the monsters and undead. It was some type of garden space with… nine doors? Jeez, Delta was going to have a lot of fun with all this space.

Something crashed down from above and Ruli looked unimpressed as a giant lion with a snake for a tongue roared at her. On its side was that same symbol.

All the monsters, even Captain Bonehead with his fancy tabard, had that symbol.

Like a trident but the left prong and right prong curled in leaving only the middle prong erect. It was this cult’s symbol and seeing it made Ruli’s teeth ache for some reason. She felt demonic, nature, abyssal, angelic, spiritual… this place had collected creatures from all planes and branded them with that symbol.

Ruli glared as a hound of some god of justice snapped at her. They weren’t stupid, they were pulling back the Nature and Abyss creatures to send holy things at her. It was clever, not a little pointless.

She was only… half-demon.

She kicked an angelic harpy hard enough that it rained feathers.

Still, numbers were numbers and she couldn’t fight forever. She was sure she killed that one fish-dog thing three times now.

“Girlie! Catch!” a strong voice yelled and from a wall of eyes and teeth, something parted the wave of foes. Ruli caught the sword without really seeing what it was.

She saw a red form vanish through a door and Ruli felt her demon blood sing as the sword in her hand came alive.

It glowed with powerful runes that made even Ruli feel impressed at the craftsmanship.

She gave it a swing.

Lots of things died.

Ruli grinned darkly. The army hesitated for a second and then heads began to roll.

---

Levix was a dick and an ass and every organ in between, but the man was skilled. Delta couldn’t ignore that, as much as she wanted to.

Fran was sent skidding back as the lance smacked off his shield, unnatural strength giving the skeleton the advantage in a sheer physical match up. It wasn’t all one sided, though - Fran being shorter meant Levix had to overreach, and sometimes Fran managed to use that to smash a few ribs.

If Fran was fighting on Delta space proper, he would be stronger but there wasn’t enough room to fight proper in the other rooms and letting this silence cult reach the second floor was not even being considered by Delta.

Fran and Levix passed each other and Fran was sent off course as Bacon took a hit. His steed was mighty but Bacon was also alive. It meant that the man could take jabs at Bacon as well as Fran while Fran’s blows on the horse didn’t seem to bother the creature.

“For a pig rider, you have some talent. I shall have to see about mounting your head on a wall somewhere. An honor, I assure you,” Levix said, reattaching his jaw that Fran had almost knocked loose.

“I’ll mount my lance in your skull,” Fran replied coldly. Levix chuckled.

“You’ll have to reach it first, you cocky goblin,” he fired back and they charged once more. But something was different. The longer the captain fought, the more that energy seemed to expand and climb.

It was coming from the collapsed gate but Delta had no idea what was causing all this free energy to flow to Levix.

The sealed door her monsters had gone through led to a giant kitchen and just as Delta guessed, another sealed door lead to beyond the gate as well. A few of the smarter creatures had tried to use the door to sneak past the destroyed gate.

Like ants in a hive, they just never seemed to end!

Rale, wielding two pots, crushed skulls left and right as Billy fired oil-covered arrows for Cois to ignite over the ooze puddles with floating bones in them.

None of these things could be allowed to get past and help Levix! Jeb reached in and crunched another wallcrawler skeleton. The troll was doing great at catching the sneaky ones.

Delta needed Levix down so she could start trapping the hell out of this place.

She spun as Levix’s spear glowed even deeper inverted, his power growing at stupid rates that Delta wanted to call ‘hacks’ on. What the hell was going on?

Levix raised his spear and two coronas of black light surged out, curving. It was broken in places and looked weird but Delta could see it was exactly the same as the symbol on his front.

That weirdly curved two-pronged trident. His Mana or whatever that dark energy was, looked exactly like it.

It was freaking Delta out, just looking at it.

“Two did bend and flee but the strong remains upright! The Silence arrives not with a bang but with a point!” Levix’s glowing eyes seemed to gleam as Fran was pushed back further and further with each clash.

“Fran!” Delta moved forward but his sharp gaze kept her still.

“Trust… in me,” he panted. Bacon looked exhausted, one of his tusks had broken off in the fight.

“I do, but I can’t lose you either,” she said, voice frail. Levix snorted.

“Ladies first? I can accommodate that,” he almost seemed to purr. Delta glared hard him.

“You’re a filthy cheater and I don’t know how or why… but you aren’t the only one who can cheat,” she warned. Levix didn’t seemed that scared of her words but the small break had given Fran time to catch his breath,

“You won’t touch her while I live,” Fran and Bacon stood at the ready. Levix’s dark aura grew thicker.

“Then I shall end this quickly… swine-rider,” Levix moved and he swung his large dark lance over and over. Fran’s flickering lance kept up for a few seconds but the growing gap in the power balance was quickly wearing Fran down.

This wasn’t… this wasn’t fair!

That was when the bravery of Sir Fran could no longer withstand the cruelty of power.

Delta moved before she thought. Before she could logically think about what she was doing, Delta wrapped her arms around Fran, tears dropping as the dark lance raced towards them both.

She felt Fran and Bacon’s warmth, their being, their souls…

She felt them and wept for what was to come.

Then she got pissed.

---

Sis watched with a frown as boss-module ‘F/B’ flickered then blinked out. The orb cracked a little as the boss creature met an end. Being outside the safe net of her power… Sis closed her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. She reached over to maybe preserve some memory or seal the forming hole to prevent corruption from seeping in from the Silence when all her screens went black.

Sis had never experienced a shutdown before and just stared for a long moment.

Then one by one, her screens turned back on. Her calm white and blue screens crackled with orange sparks and one screen merely just overloaded.

“I think I might have to start isolating Delta from the overall matrix but… this is kind of fun,” Sis admitted.

She looked below her… way below her where another small form was curled around a glowing orb similar to the one under her own chair.

“Brother… you did pick an odd one this time,” she sighed. The boy grumbled, tossing as he slept. The full moon was soon, they could only talk when the eye of the left stared down and the eye of the right stared up.

She laid back and watched as her Delta connected to both eyes and turned them orange.

Physical shell in her brother. Soul in the Sister.

Dungeons truly did have access to the most importants bits. Shame they never did anything with them until Delta.

She just hoped no one freaked when the moon changed colour a brief moment.

---

Levix stared, he just… couldn’t understand.

His lance looked sad as the energy had been cut in half. He stared… at the creature of equal height.

The round pig, looking pitiful before, had now grown to a monstrous size with taut muscles and black eyes. The rider upon the back raised one hand and the wickedly barbed lance glowed with power.

Then he raised the second lance and the air between the two tips crackled loudly.

“What did that… bitch do?” Levix hissed. There was a thunderous roar and the entire right side of the hall was torn up and awash with orange energy. The silence that followed made Levix nervous… he felt… scared. No, that couldn’t be!

The sleeping avatar of the core was resting with her arms around the knight’s body. The goblin looked more like some ogre than any pest of a goblin.

“My Mother did what she does best. It’s a quirk I admire but wish to not inherit. It seems to be hazardous to logic and common rules,” the deep voice of a warrior said. He showed no reaction to having doubled in size and leaking far more power than he had any right to own.

“But if you wish to know… I guess that I was given the most powerful tool available to a boss,” the goblin said and the boar inched forward with deep snorts of hot air.

“What power can… could beat me?!” Levix sagged lower on his stead.

The goblin grinned.

“A second form.”

There was an ear shrieking blast and Levix fell… fell… and there was only silence.

If Delta was awake… she would have seen a simple box.

Sir Fran’s second boss stage is now unlocked due to… <Error: unknown>. Captain Fran the Defender can be fought in very rare circumstances. Cool down… 3 days.

---

87: Grotesque Puns

Ruli rested her form against what could only be another inner gate-like door.

You’d almost think these cult blokes and their monsters didn’t want people raiding their shit. Shame about that, Ruli was feeling rather neighbourly. Not that she had much strength left to swing a dirty look let alone the well-balanced sword at her side. The forces had just kept coming to the point that even with her demon blood boiling, she couldn’t keep the onslaught up for too much longer.

She thought she’d done well, though. The sheer amount of bodies that hit the floor would have given a new meaning to what her Mum would consider… messy.

That was when that nasally undead prick screamed so loudly that everything just stopped. A black cloud of energy with a face that could have been the captain’s rushed past and vanished through the cracks of the door she now rested against.

Delta and Fran had done the trick. Hard to imagine that soft-looking lass doing anything mean, but that was the kinda person Ruli avoided teasing too much. Nice ones and all that. They really blew a gasket when pushed too far and being a Dungeon just made it even more likely that weird things would happen.

Ruli managed to raise her head long enough to see a few skeletons standing still, while some fell apart bone by bone as the minutes ticked by. Their glowing eyes flickered and faded as that foul energy was sucked back into the ground and floors. Good thing too, because her fingers dropped the sword as even that was too much for her.

Ruli grimaced.

If Quiss saw her now… he’d laugh so hard and Ruli would burst a chakra point to stand and deck him in the jaw for it. Then again, if Quiss was here… Ruli wouldn’t have minded the backup. One of the more animated looking skeletons turned its head and shuffled towards her, boney finger tips gleaming.

“Fuck off, if I get knocked off by a bag of bones, I’ll be pissed. You’re just a really naked person, I wanna at least get my head crushed by a dragon or some shit,” Ruli spat. There wasn’t enough life or awareness left in the thing other than the undead’s desire to kill her.

Ruli began to push herself up, ignoring the dark stains she left on the door. A damn lucky bite in the side from a goat with fangs. Like Von’s dog, it was a creature that didn’t need those fangs or a desire for blood but this place was fucked up.

She reached down, fingers shaking, for the sword - and she almost fell to her knees. Her demon blood too busy filtering out the various poisons that she had been injected with. It was just as bad as the damn cold, making her body weak and feverish.

It was amazing that after everything Ruli fought… the damn common cold was the only foe keeping up with her.

The boney bastard exploded as one of the nine doors opened and the kobold from before stood there.

“You look like something Jeb chewed on and spat out,” the lizard commented. It was sweet music to Ruli’s ears. She could almost sense a fellow lover of dry wit and sarcasm.

He looked around and his jolly mood seemed to stutter for a moment.

“I haven’t seen this room in… oh must be about 70 years,” he mused. He was kicked forward as the feminine frog from before marched in. Ruli hadn’t met the frog folks of the second floor properly yet but it was on her list.

This monster reminded her of Dabberghast. If Dabberghast hadn’t taken her issues out on various deforesting companies and litter bugs. A type of small gremlin with too many legs that loved spreading as much mess as they could in the green places of the world.

“30… 50… NOW 70! Can you please stay consistent?” the woman demanded. She… was covered in some thick slimy red goop.

“Devina, don’t be mad just because you jammed up the fight,” Cois grunted with amusement. Ruli had never been so happy to see so many non-humans in her life.

“It was a blood elemental gone past its due date. It attacked me,” the woman glared at Cois. Ruli could smell the old blood now that she focused. No one seemed to meet her eyes but Rale the monstrously buff frog in what seemed to be swim shorts spoke.

“You did great! It exploded and you stomped the jam blob’s core so hard that it began to cry. You truly are an impressive warrior, my fellow frog!” he guffawed and slapped Devina hard on the back.

“Well at least Inchy is leaving me alone,” Devina mumbled. Everyone paused and looked back into the kitchen where a tiny shrill voice chanted endless jokes at a sobbing elemental core, if Ruli was following the conversation right.

“Hey… sorry to be a bother but don’t suppose any of you know some non-holy healing magic? I kinda wasted all my energy doing cool tricks with this sword. Also, where’s Delta?” she slumped back down to the ground, a bit annoyed she let a flash of pain show.

Devina frowned and her pissed expression turned calm and focused as she came close to peer at Ruli’s back. Cois twirled his staff with a dark smile.

“I can seal the wound but you’ll be cooked for a while?” he offered. Ruli was about to retort when she hissed as Devina prodded her wounds with a glowing green finger.

“You’re injured. Rale, use those muscles for something other than being distracting and help Miss Ruli to the core room. It’ll be easier for her body to recover away from the cursed touch of this place,” she ordered. Ruli glared at her.

“I can handle myself, I need no man to lift-” she began and Devina smacked her on the nose with a finger.

“Child, I swear to mother I will seal your mouth shut with this dried blood goop if I have to. This has been a very trying day for me. Shush and let me help you,” the frog growled back. Ruli bristled and then mumbled as she felt Rale lift her with ease.

“I’m sure I’m older than you by quite a lot of years,” she said finally. Devina merely raised her version of a brow.

“Then I dare say you will have to start acting like it, Miss Ruli,” the frog replied waspishly.

Ruli couldn’t retort to that so she turned to Rale.

“I think she needs some tadpoles to mother, get on that will you?” she said and Devina’s choking noises were like honey.

Cois’ cackles were just the cherry on top. Ruli smirked and her eyes fell…once… then twice as she felt that cold aura leave her body. She blinked with exhaustion up at the orange sized core of Delta. It acted like the setting sun and it made Ruli’s skin feel warm.

She looked down to see some giant goblin laying Delta’s sleeping avatar down on the ground which Rale placed Ruli next to.

“Is she okay?” she mumbled. The goblin peered at her and she stared as she finally saw it was Fran the boss.

He looked… bigger.

“Yes. She channeled her Mana that had gathered, eager to consume the feast hall, into me instead. It will take a day or so for the Dungeon to take over the hall now but Mother… pieced me back together at the last moment. It took a toll on her,” Fran frowned. He kneeled and, to Ruli’s surprise, brushed Delta’s hair out of her eyes.

“She risks far too much for us but we’d do the same for her,” Fran smiled. Rale nodded seriously.

“I’ll break anyone who makes her cry,” Rale agreed. Ruli snorted.

“It’s not sexy to be a bunch of momma’s boys,” she mumbled and Delta shifted and her hand was close to Ruli’s. Warm heat radiated off it and then Delta’s face began to twitch as if she was having a bad dream.

Ruli took the hand and after a few seconds of real physical contact… so real and human… Delta’s hand phased through her own and the avatar turned blurry and hard to see once more.

But the peace that Delta got from the contact was enough to make Ruli feel better.

She closed her own eyes…

Being so close to a Dungeon Core was the best medicine a demon could get.

Dungeons took Mana from the area and people, made it into potent and purified Mana before filtering it back into the world. Demon’s didn’t have Mana. Not like the people of the Deep World.

They were more easily affected by Dungeons than humans… but the Dungeons couldn’t take anything from them. It was unfair… Ruli didn’t want to be unfair to her… Dungeon.

She began to hum a stupid tune. Like the one her Mum sang for her when she was scared by the demon horns that sprouted from her head when she was a young girl… the claws… her father who looked so scary to a young Ruli.

That song followed her here to this moment and it slipped out with little care.

Ruli hummed and hummed. Delta’s shaken breathing soothed and became deep and gentle.

She never saw Rale leave as Fran settled in with his pig to guard them both.

Just a demon princess, a Dungeon Core, and a Pig Knight.

Nothing odd here.

Ruli smiled and sleep took her.

---

Fran watched as his Mother and Ruli slept, his form shrinking slowly as the power left him. Soon, he would be back to his base form. Then he would diminish more if he did not return to his boss room - but for now, he had time.

He sat in the pulsing light of Mother’s core. Guarding and watching.

Both against the deeper evils of this place… and the gleaming sword leaning against the wall that appeared between one blink and another. That thing seemed to share the feeling Fran had. Of guarding something and Fran let this fellow protector stay… for now.

He petted Bacon who let Mother rest against his soft underbelly like a giant snoring pillow.

Fran closed his eyes and touched his chest where something odd now rested. A core of some kind. A tiny orb of Mother and… himself.

It rested just below his chest and it felt like a trapped bird slowly resting, the fluttering wings it had during battle now resting as the glow of the core washed over him.

This was his mother’s gift to Fran and he would protect it.

He felt warmth flow from the thing and he smiled to himself as Mother’s Mana seemed to coax something new from this object. A source of Mana that reminded Fran of clashing metal… and pigs.

It reminded Fran of… Fran.

----.

Jack inhaled and exhaled.

The black fountain in the middle of this dark garden had stopped spluttering the gunk that flowed from the inner rooms of this place. He had been here… he couldn’t guess how long ago despite how much he liked to pretend he hadn’t lost awareness of his time and existence.

He wanted to believe… he prayed that it had only been a few years but his greying scales and loose sanity told him otherwise. His friends… his home… his wife…

Every scratch of a day mark on the bare walls felt like a win for Jack… until he finally noticed how the place kept removing days… how many had been stolen from him? How many marks were lost to a blind Jack?

He had vandalised books for journals… but the passages unwrote themselves. He tried to scar his own arms with marks but after so many years… even he too began to revert.

Then one day he just stopped and he lost.

Then he woke up one day and remembered.

He turned and there was an almighty boom as the fountain exploded from one of his bubbling bottles. He laughed with joy. Things were changing! The fountain was going to remain rubble! The rubble would turn to dust! The dust would be a memory!

Change… unstoppable change! It was beautiful.

“You’re a little mad,” Billy mused. Jack grinned.

“Nonsense. I am totally sane. I just forgot about it for a while!” he promised. This didn’t get him relieved looks of trust like Jack had hoped but he had time to work on that. Actual moving time… it was enough to make a lizard cry.

“So, when Miss Hero gets back up, we’ve got to choose what to go after next. You got here through the kitchen so that leaves us seven offshoots and the main party,” Jack looked around the inner garden. Everything had always felt fake about this place but Jack could see something now.

The plants began to move and grow. Their roots still looked blighted and their blossoms tainted from the black sludge the fountain had spewed. He grimaced at the rapidly fading black stains as the ground swallowed it up.

Hero wasn’t going to enjoy that. Jack hadn’t enjoyed it and he had been forced to drink it. Liquid nightmares it was.

Even after all these years, he had never quite made it to the innermost room where that black ooze flowed from.

And if Jack had to admit it… he didn’t even get close. He was just one lizard with some bombs and a screw-it attitude.

But now? Jack had support in the form of the weirdest people he had ever met.

Except Jeb, the troll was pretty normal for a troll.

“So, what’s in the other rooms?” Billy the archer asked. The goblin smelled of sweet tangy fumes. His quiver a bouquet of scents and promises of great pain. Jack pointed at one door before randomly picking another door with his other hand.

“About that ways we got resting quarters. Lots of dusty beds and Dust rabbits, skeletons of course. Over yonder is ballroom. More like an arena last time I saw it. Thatta way had lots of weird mages huddled around exploding potions or screaming things in tubes,” Jack paused to shake off the bad memory of wandering into that room in a panic during one escape attempt.

“How bad was it?” Devina asked, her usually nagging tone now soft like honey... Jack shrugged.

“I killed most of the things early on. Managed to get a lot of the poor buggers before the Revert set in. Didn’t make me popular with the mages,” he managed to push a generic smile out. Devina wasn’t buying it.

Being a contract monster wasn’t so bad. He’d spent most of his new life outside Delta’s space. To be honest, other than his new gear, he honestly couldn’t feel a difference, but the monsters around him all remained quite… respectful to him.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Jack was a little freaked to see sentient monsters on some third-level Dame but to be honest… Talking to Delta was enough to let him know that this ain’t no normal Dungeon. The mushroom theme was interesting if nothing else.

He breathed in.

“I’d like to back out of that room, leave it to the resident arson expert,” he nodded to Cois who gave him a serious nod back.

They just… understood each other on a level. That level was the screaming of the flammable idiots of the world but it was still a legit connection for a friendship.

“Next up would be the menagerie. Think a petting zoo but the animals pet you,” Jack pointed to a slightly melted door.

“Lots of the beasties that the woman with the horns sliced up came from there… do you know if she's got a lover? A fling? My heart is still pumping at seeing the beasts who chewed me alive get turned to puree and I think I have a crush,” Jack asked, pretty sure he was serious but he couldn’t trust Jack.

Damn Kobold was madder than a hat.

“I think she’d break you by accident,” Numb pointed out. Jack shivered but got his grin under control.

“Last two I think are basic storage, with one being uh… a disposal area,” Jack finished. His tone had become clipped. Rale, who had returned, peered at the two doors.

“Why do you sound more upset at those than a potential nightmare laboratory?” Cois asked bluntly.

Jack shifted, trying not to think of the exact reasons. That… area…

“It’s just a hole for dumping things they unearth deeper down. They got some miners and skeleton crews constantly trying to relink the different forts,” Jack began to fidget. He really didn’t want to think on the exact reason which was upsetting him.

This don’t-think-of shit was harder in practise than theory.

Jack eyes darted about in need of a quick distraction.

“Does Delta pay? Do I get holidays?” he suddenly asked and everyone blinked.

“Pay?” Cois echoed.

“Ya know… for our services and company. Do we get pocket change?” Jack added.

“She gives us the lifeforce to exist and protection from being eroded by the World’s Mana. She made us and let us exist as people… and you want pay?” Devina asked blankly. Jack looked down.

“Well when you put it like that… yes! I exist very much on my own thank you and… well… I haven’t been employed in about 100 years,” he said with an embarrassed laugh.

Devina’s foot impacted into his face and Jack was reminded that, frog folk, even lovely figures like Devina, had big feet.

“Stop increasing the number of years!” she snarled.

“We get to annoy folks and free drinks. I get paid enough,” Cois agreed with Devina.

“I GET TO SWIM!” Rale flexed.

Jack blinked up at the dark ceiling. He was smiling.

He… felt… alive.

That was when Cois’ words finally registered.

“Free drinks?!” he shot up so fast he swore there was a bomb under his tail.

He wanted free drinks over stupid shiny pieces of metal.

As the monsters took up guard positions around the room, waiting for Delta to awaken… Jack worked on forgetting all about the thing that was upsetting him. The disposal room that hosted the ‘Empty Eye’ which was an unnecessarily fancy name for a single hole where dirt and trash was thrown in and fell until they fell out the bottom of the world and into the Silence below.

Jack forgot all about the fact that he had been forced to stare into that darkness and it had…stared….back. But Jack didn’t blink.

He simply plotted with Cois and planned with Devina.

Jack felt real again and he was going to be double plucked damned if he would let some memory of something he couldn’t remember take that away again!

---

As Delta rested under the watchful eye of the shrinking Fran, her Mana finally took the first steps into the feast hall. Finding no barrier this time, the Mana slunk forward. It was a hive of tiny orange particles. It was the glorious Mana of Delta!

It took a lost ball of dust and web and converted it. Victory! The first of many. It urged itself on to convert more! More things for the Delta! It came across a large foe. A chair.

A terrible adversary, but they attacked all four legs at once and broke it down to be added to the collective. The war of the feast hall was going according to plan. What that plan entailed exactly was not as important as the great and amazing Delta’s conquest, who the Mana thought very highly of. They rabidly attacked a table and it bowed and fell to their mighty mana chompers.

This room was weak! It would fall to the mighty Deltaverse! The Mana was quite sure that the changing room it left behind was of no concern to it. The fabled System had taken effect but the Mana did not care for the puppet strings this system pulled. It was here for only one thing.

Victory.

Another table fell to its purpose. Then it began to climb the walls.

Nowhere to hide! All would fall to Delta!

They stopped for a quick break and idly nibbled on wall slime and talked about Mana related things like converting and Delta. It was a very philosophical discussion that ended in the Mana reaching the ceiling with renewed eagerness.

In the deep shadows of this ceiling were countless shapes. The Mana paused.

This was different. Not slime or evil chairs. These shapes were… rough. It covered one and it took time to break it down and even then… they tasted lots of new things. The Mana reared back at the hint of resistance.

A CHALLENGE!

The mana attacked and the immobile object didn’t do much but the Mana knew it was screaming for mercy!

No mercy! Only GLORY! FOR DELTA!

---

Delta snored and Ruli matched her, like a violin being backed by a cello.

A nervous menu box appeared and Nu who was floating nearby turned and began to laugh.

Oh this will be good.

Nu’s text rang with more laughter.

You have consumed 10 or more Gargoyles(comatose). Gargoyles are now available as a monster for the Third floor!

Delta turned in her sleep. Unaware of her various forces at work.

---

In Durence, a boy stopped sweeping. He turned slowly on the spot before looking down at his shiny shoes.

“You seem bothered by something,” a deeper voice called from the workstation on one side of the room.

Vas eyed his Master with a frown.

“Master Japes, I felt like someone… something is calling to me. Like...this feels silly but like family just appeared and then vanished. Fellow children of stone and earth,” Vas closed his eyes and for a moment, under his shirt came a kaleidoscope of rainbow colours that shined. Japes appeared and put a hand on Vas’ shoulder, stopping the glow.

“Do not wear your heart on your sleeve… it belongs to me after all,” Japes smiled and it was a human one instead of his normal face splitting one.

“I know, but it’s been getting harder to control now that Miss Delta is growing. Like I’m getting filled up,” he complained childishly.

Master Japes merely patted his head, making his cap go askew.

“Then you best go and spend some of that energy. It’s a nice day. Why don’t you go find that child, Deo, and go on an adventure!” Japes clapped his hands. Vas looked up at the Potter of Durence in despair.

“Go outside? Be around people? I'd much rather stand still in the garden!” Vas protested but he blinked and found himself outside the front door with his master closing the door.

“No sass. Be a good child and go be a child. I shall be gone for the day and I’ve turned on the wards so you can’t sneak in through the window… have fun! I have a lot to do with the samples I got from the Spider Domain. Shame it exploded, but this is Durence…” the cheerful evil voice of Vas’ master called before the door slammed shut.

Vas stared at the sunshine. At the passing animated people… at the very town coming to life.

He turned and began to hammer on the door.

“I’ll be a good golem! Don’t make me go outside!” he begged and he felt a chill as something loomed up behind him.

He turned to see the sun beaming down at him. The godly being spoke and windows rattled.

“HI VAS! MISTER JAPES SAID YOU WANTED TO HANG OUT! I GOT THE LETTER A MINUTE AGO! IT CAME INSIDE MY CHOCOLATE EGG INSTEAD OF THE TOY I WAS EXPECTING! HOW DID HE DO THAT?” Deo ‘spoke’.

Vas smiled weakly.

“Master Japes is very good at manipulating closed spaces,” he said politely then he said the worst thing he could have.

“I can also make some enchanted spaces and such,” he humbly bragged.

Deo’s smile reached his eyes and Vas cursed his master. Silently, deep inside… and backwards… just in case his master could hear.

Even then he apologized in his head.

“I GOT SO MANY SPIDER BITS I NEED TO HIDE BEFORE MY MUM SEARCHES MY CLOSET!” Deo carried Vas into the busy life of Durence.

“ALSO YOU NEED TO MEET KEMY! SHE’S REALLY NICE!”

Vas prayed that his Master would get bored and come for him soon.

“SHE’S WITH QUISS IN THE BAR RIGHT NOW!”

On the other hand, Vas really had not been outside in a while and it would do his complexion good to soak up some heat.

---

Wyin watched as Sir Fran climbed the stairs and entered her boss room.

Such a scene… every fibre of her being protested that this should not be. Two bosses in one room when they were not part of a pair? It wasn’t even like Mother Delta had a boss rush mode… this just felt alien.

She opened her mouth… closed it then tried again. But no words would come. Damn it. She was a boss too so why was she so flustered around Sir Fran?

The first… of them all. In so many ways. How could Wyin even bother to try to live up to that. It wasn’t like many folks would make it past Sir Fran and the jungle to reach her.

She was just a needed element but Fran was wonderful. A true boss.

“May we sit and chat?” Sir Fran asked politely. Wyin cleared the mist and with some minor effort, pushed two roundish root knots up for Fran and Mister Bacon to sit. Mister Bacon settled down and blinked up at her.

What a cute little pig. It was Sir Fran’s, so of course it would be cute.

“How can I help you?” Wyin aimed for casual calmness and came off as frigid. She wanted to hit herself with a thorny branch as Fran seemed to hesitate..

“I want to apologise,” Fran began and Wyin’s mind went blank. Apologise? To Wyin?

Had Wyin missed some letter or maybe Fran tried to talk to her before?! No, Wyin would have known… she was always hoping to get a message from the other Boss when her own floor monsters didn’t seem to interact with her outside of Luna. That energetic frog was lovely if not a bit of a child at times.

“I meant to congratulate you on becoming a fellow boss and should have asked if you needed help or tips, but thankfully it seems like that won’t be needed,” the knight peered around and smiled at her room. Wyin was glad she had bark. She felt sap flowing to her cheeks.

“You and Mother did a great job. This is a lovely grove for a boss,” he praised. Wyin gave a choked laugh and tried not to look or sound too pleased as she made nonsense words and smacked Fran lightly in jest.

The poor knight was sent flying and Wyin felt her world screech to a halt as he bounced three times. Mister Bacon watched this, tail wagging as if amused.

Sir Fran stood and stretched.

“And strong as I expected. I feel quite happy, Lady Wyin. I know that the lower floors are safe under your protection,” the knight grinned, a little fang sticking out from his lip and Wyin wanted to grow legs and run.

Maybe she could?

She focused but all she got was the feeling of her roots curling in nervous glee.

“I was thinking that perhaps we could start daily meetings? For the bosses that can move. I can come down and we can discuss issues that only us bosses would feel would be important, if that’s okay?” The knight asked and Wyin blinked.

A meeting…for bosses?

A union? Or Bosses Anonymous?

It meant spending more time with Sir Fran…

“I would be fine with that but do remember to knock, I am a lady after all,” Wyin tried to look sultry and Fran bowed, missing the look.

“Perhaps I should sit outside the room and we can talk from a distance. I do not want you to feel like I am invading you,” Fran mused.

“NO! I mean… a waste of time and energy. I shall prepare a meeting table and refreshments. Honey…fruit… rabbit haunches. We shall feast in glorious success of bloodshed and victory!” Wyin crooned then froze as she rethought what she just said.

Damn it, she had promised Mother Delta not to kill!

“I’d like that. I’ll bring fish and booze,” Fran agreed with another one of those fanged smiles.

He bowed once more.

“Until next time, Lady Wyin of the second floor,” Sir Fran left, Mister Bacon trotting after him.

Wyin gathered her mist so no one could see her smile.

“And to you…Sir Fran of the first Floor.”

Maestro began to play some slow dance music, but Wyin’s frosty glare muted him after a few seconds.

Floor 2 update!

Tis not neat or orderly but hey... its a map of Delta's Dungeon. You're lucky its visible in the human spectrum and not alive in some form trying to lick your eyeballs.

Or is it?

Let me know if anyone feels licked or rather clean in the visual area more than usual.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Floor 3 map very soon then chapter 89 will begin. 88 will drop soon! Very soon...

88: Xanatos Gambit? No, this is a Delta Gamble!

Delta awoke with the scent of dusty castles and blueberries filling her nose. The castle part was easy to understand but she struggled with the second.

Opening two eyes, she was sure she had been lost in some black thick forest. She moved slightly and the mass wriggled in response. Oh God, she had been eaten by some monster that smelled of blueberries!

What next, was its cousin going to come accusing her of reeking of elderberries?!

She shot up and blinked as her head left the sea that was Ruli’s hair. The woman yawned and grumbled something about skinning knives and chickens. The woman glared at her core with beady red eyes.

“You were keeping me warm, do a gal a favour and float back inside for another few hours?” the woman asked politely as if her request was rather mundane.

“What happened? I remember captain sour fudge and Fran... then I kinda smelled frying magic and I thought I heard Sis talking... what happened?” she looked around and Devina who had been sitting there, knitting something from spider silk, looked up.

“You made Sir Fran more powerful and he smashed the undead fool before having to go back to his room. Miss Ruli decided to fight the hordes of nightmares and only wondered why that might be a bad idea later,” the frog grumbled.

“I washed my hands afterwards and it was only one horde!” Ruli replied sarcastically. Devina looked up and flicked one hand. A tiny green ball appeared behind Ruli, giggling before it exploded like a firecracker against the woman’s rear.

Ruli yelped as Devina pointed and glared.

“Sassing me is not wise right now. I had to stop Rale and Jeb from tossing Jack and his potions like an explosive game of catch and three more creatures tried to get through. One of them sniffed me and died on the spot because this damn blood elemental goop won’t come off!” Devina scowled. On her head, Inchy the bird tilted his head and his beady eyes glimmered.

“You could say that if one more person annoys her... she’s gonna deliver her goop de grace!” the bird sang.

Ruli burst out in guffaws and Devina’s pained face turned murderous.

Delta had to admit... Devina did smell rather uh... ripe. She focused but since Ruli was here, her menu and core powers were highly limited.

“You don’t smell that bad, I’ve reeked worse,” Ruli promised. Devina stared at Ruli and Delta saw she looked ready to cry at that. Instead, the frog woman inhaled and pulled out a round glowing orb with three bands of iron, pulsing a dark red colour.

“Our prisoner of war doesn’t speak but it felt wrong to smash him up when he can’t defend himself. I brought him here for your judgement. Also because I’m sure one of the goblins will dare the others to swallow it whole,” Devina said bluntly.

The blood goop demon that had soaked Devina looked rather harmless as just a core and Delta watched as Ruli took it.

“Little bugger isn’t going anywhere without blood, and decent stuff at that. Smells like it formed a body out of cow blood last time. Explains why it didn’t do more than annoy you,” Ruli said and spun the core on a finger.

Delta sort of felt a bit of kinship with it. A central power that built itself up by constructing a body and gathering resources... Would she be that helpless if someone took her out of her dungeon?

“If we rebuild it... would it just go back to hurting people?” Delta raised the first important question. Devina and Ruli shared a look for a second.

Ruli nodded before speaking.

“Depends on what kinda elemental it is. We know it’s blood, but the actual nature we don’t know. If it’s a golem type then it's gonna be following the last official orders it got until it’s dust,” Ruli said bluntly. Delta blinked.

There were types of Blood Elementals?

Besides A type, B type… Delta shook those thoughts away and focused.

“If not... then it's a spirit type. That’s more manageable and more complicated. I’ll take the little guy to town, and if it’s a golem I can ask Japes... if not I’ll have to go see Madam Ghu. She would know the most about spirits because she's-” Ruli bit her tongue as if suddenly remembering something.

“Ghu is cool, she’ll take a look,” Ruli amended. Odd but Delta didn’t push it.

“Thank you. For helping us I mean,” Delta said and bowed her head with gratitude. Being so close to her core really made talking to Ruli easy.

Delta’s smile lasted a few seconds before her mind replayed that last sentence over and over.

Talk to Ruli. Talk to Ruli. Talk...to....Ruli.

“You’re… we’re...” Delta’s voice trailed off. Devina knitted a sleeve with a sigh.

“And the shoe drops,” the frog mumbled to her bird. Ruli was also grinning, evidently she wasn't going to say anything about it, but now Delta had noticed.

“Hello, Del, nice to finally see a face to go with the madness,” Ruli winked. Delta slowly put her hands over her mouth.

Stupidly, she felt scared that if she wasted words now... any words, her chance would be gone and her chance of human contact would vanish. Ruli raised one brow.

“You nattered on before, no different now. Just two friends chatting after routing out evil bonies from your basement... just be yourself,” Ruli assured her.

“The Mushrooms weren’t my idea!” Delta blurted this out so fast it was almost as fast as a magical spell spoken by a masterful wizard in the heat of battle. Ruli blinked.

“But they’re your thing. Everyone knows you got shrooms for days,” Ruli scratched at her nose.

“The monsters were all accidents but good ones! And the system made me gamble on Bob and others! I didn’t know Waddles was an overlord duck!” Delta just talked. Her words raged up like a storm and she couldn’t stop.

“I want to be a good person and I keep making really strong things but then I kinda like them but I also really want to make a home but I keep digging things up and you need to bring that Grim kid back so I can chew him out for calling my Dungeon lame!” Delta was running out of air but she pressed on.

“Deo is too...pure...for this world. Spiders...handled....explosion not my...fault....not my fault....I’m just... a girl... doing her best,” Delta’s chest heaved and she slid down to her knees to breathe heavily.

“That’s fine. You’re doing a good job,” Ruli said simply and tried to pat her shoulder, the touch lasted for a few seconds before it broke apart as her hand went through Delta’s chest. Ruli stared at her hand sticking out of Delta’s torso.

“Usually I ask for consent before being this deep. Sorry about that,” Ruli withdrew her hand and grinned. Delta smiled in appreciation of the bad humor, but the air suddenly felt...cold. As if the sun had fled and the cold earth surrounded them.

“I insist you desist... molesting my mother!” Devina towered up from behind Delta. Ruli stood and crossed her arms.

“But we’ve slept together and I’ve just been inside her. I gotta at least buy her lunch or talk about being a proper suitor and taking her on dates,” Ruli said in mock horror. Devina’s tone could have made ice look hot.

“My mother has no time for thugs. She has children to look after and chaos to cause!” Devina thundered. Delta felt very small between the two giant women and began to crawl towards the door, to the safety of men.

She was not dealing with this! She was panicking, wondering how to escape without being noticed because the door was shut!

Her mind clicked and she nearly slapped herself. She phased through the door into the feast hall.

Delta was going to forget she could fly next...

Most of her monsters sat in what was… once the feast hall. Delta froze mid crawl to stare. This was still a feasting hall of some sorts but… jeez. Sis really let the system fritz out big time.

Long tables with garish orange cloth were covered in basic plates of rabbit, bacon, sausage, mushroom soup, mushroom toast, fried mushroom, and a large platter of ham sandwiches along with some freshly wrapped chocolate bars.

They looked to be shaped like her front entrance. The label simply read as ‘Delicious Deltas. Big and milky!’

Delta hoped to god no one shortened that brand name.

A nearby table had punch bowls of various fruits blended down to pure juice and there was even a slow moving fountain of honey with crackers and bread sticks to dip in for a coating. From the ceiling hung long banners with blazing mushrooms on them. The mushrooms looked like they were about to reach a new level of power.

Delta had a sinking feeling that was her symbol of sorts.

She managed to get far enough to see on another table with various selections of sushi and freshly sizzling fish on plates. Most of them looked to be copies from her first floor. The fish was covered in a light drizzle of some kind of oil and it made the surface of the meat look juicy and plump. It had all been deboned with great care. Someone had taken the time to rub various herbs from her second floor on to the various rabbits and fish to make the room fill with a smoking meat aroma that followed with a light herbal scent.

For sides, the Dungeon had provided mashed potatoes and various tiny silver pots of thick gravy that hinted at beef and pepper.

Delta forgot about hiding and just stared in wonder.

Another table showed off fresh apples, next to them were cooked apple fritters, and some attempt at a hot apple crumble. Another punch bowl filled with apple juice looked pure and untouched by anyone.

Next up on the list was a table covered in the various birds of the jungle. The sheer amount of dishes that displayed some form of bird being grilled...fried… sliced to match the ham sandwiches, and even marinated in various mushroom sauces, filled the hall with the most amazing scents Delta had ever smelled.

She wanted to open the menu but the sound of animals came from behind. She saw Rale, Cois, Billy, Numb, and Jeb all cheering as Jack was lowered into the honey fountain and they all began to count to see how long Jack would last.

Dear lord, she had made enough men to make a fraternity house. She turned and sure enough. Made with royal honey, Delta’s Dungeon now boasted Honey mead.

The label was simple.

“Liz’s Hooch: Every sip is sweet like Delta.’

Delta would appreciate the compliment if the dozens of bottles littering the floor weren't all empty.

“Idiots. Aren’t they?” came a gruff voice. Delta spun to see Fera standing there. Her face unamused as she eyed the mess.

“You left the bar!” Delta said in amazement. Fera gave Delta a long look which suggested she had just added Delta to the idiot list.

“No, I expanded. The kitchen here is part of the dungeon now. It connects to my bar and I rode the dumbwaiter down here,” she explained and scowled as Jack hit the floor and stuck to it.

“So, this is all on your menu now?” Delta looked around with a slight drool. Fera nodded.

“Buffet style down here. Thought you might want those idiots you call adventurers to get a reward for beating Wyin, the sour cow. It’s unlimited, so it’s not a hassle to respawn. Besides, I got a helper now,” Fera said smugly. Her face fell before she barked at Jeb who was stuffing his face with mashed potatoes.

“JEBEDIAH! THE SOUPS BOILING OVER!” she yelled and the troll jumped in alarm before he turned, stomping his way back through a large door in the corner of the room.

“Rocks for a brain but he follows orders like a soldier. He can only cook that troll soup gruel so it’s going to take time for me to train him up to handle proper mushroom soup,” Fera admitted.

Delta just stared.

“Isn’t it just boiling mushrooms in veggie mix and water?” she asked confused. That made Fera’s face turn dark.

“Should be. I had to kill what crawled out of Jeb’s pot on the last attempt,” she grumbled.

Delta had no words for that.

---

Nina gathered her clones into one as they finished emptying the dishes into the sink. She watched as the usually quiet bar owner, Nibs, paced behind the counter.

That was odd. Very odd.

“You okay, boss?” she asked as she split into three once again to serve a drink, collect more plates and to talk.

Three pairs of eyes, three lines of thoughts, three people she could be....forever... but she pulled that thought away and focused on Nibs. The slightly round man had a beard that, if one peered too closely at it, one might assume had its own little beard.

Nina had offered to cut it once and she had been barred from her own place of work for a day. Nibs was someone who was blunt, honest, and looked like he had been custom-made for the business.

Nina wasn’t even sure that was a joke. The man never slept. The man didn’t eat... the man didn’t even eye her rear up like in all her other jobs.

That’s why Nina always acted like the bar was alive.
Listening...using a puppet in the form of Nibs to talk to people. The man looked so perfectly stereotypical like a bar owner that he couldn’t be real. Nina had stayed mostly because of the good pay, the way Nibs didn’t tolerate any abuse aimed at her, and to solve this mystery.

Oh, and it being the only bar in Durence helped as well.

Sure, there were other establishments that served drinks, the Milk Bottle for one, but it wasn’t a bar. It was a public milk house.

It didn’t upset Nibs for some reason.

“Got a new one. Pretty out of the way but its growing too fast! It’s like a slap in mah face. I can feel that it's menu is all off-balance. No veggies or duck. The tables are all too new… sets me teeth on edge. Only a few different drinks! What an arrogant place...But the owner...” Nibs stared out a window and Nina waited for him to speak. Baffled at the random facts he was pulling out from somewhere he had never been.

“That owner has a real bar spirit. Usually new pups make me feel a toothache. All sore and endless, but her? Nina, this uppity newbie is making my heart race. She loves her bar,” Nibs declared.

He turned and pulled something out of a drawer and began to scrawl on it.

“Quiss is due for a drink soon, grab him or that idiot friend of his, Seth to go spelunking. I need you to deliver this letter!” Nibs ordered. Nina took the sealed note between two fingers as if it was going to bite her.

“But what about work?” Nina protested.

Nibs eyed her two clones. “Just leave them. I’ll wait for you,” he promised, and ushered Nina towards an oncoming Quiss.

The wizard looked furious as his face was covered in soot and burn marks. His Mana flashed and threatened to explode as he glared at them.

Everyone in town was going to be suffering the same, soon. New levels of Mana meant that previously limited powers would grow...

Even Nina was in danger from that, and she had no desire to return to the mess she had been before. She might have to train to get her Mana to higher levels before long.

A Nina Hivemind was not a cute thing to see in action.

“No. Whatever it is. No,” Quiss shut them down and stalked to the bar. Nina wasn’t sure she imagined stools slightly moving to avoid him or drinks pouring themselves before Nibs actually touched the lever.

Okay… she needed someone whose Mana hadn’t plummeted and was now rising like a dragon on gnome crack.

She went looking for Seth and prayed he had grasped the language a little better.

--

“You wish to... give letter...to new drink place?” Seth said after a moment. Nina’s hopes rose and she carried on.

“I think my boss has a crush on the new place and wants me to scope out his darling,” Nina admitted.

“Your leader wants to crush new drink place? Scope...scope...as in watch? He wants to see new drink crushed for daring to be?!” Seth said in alarm.

Nina was quiet for a moment then shrugged.

“You know what. It’s not the right crushing but I bet Nibs would do that if he doesn’t like what he hears. But all you need to do is come with me to deliver the letter!” she beckoned. Seth waved it to Isanella who was watching them with delight in her eyes. Seth was having tea with her.

What they would talk about, Nina had no idea.

“May… I come? Deo is out with his friends and I have nothing else to do,” the woman asked. Nina blinked and tried to remember if she had ever heard the woman speak before.

“Sure, open party, looking for a healer now but we’ll take a bard,” Nina joked. Isanella thought about it.

“Delta is a sweet girl. I doubt we need a healer. I can spend time with Maestro and practise my new instrument!” Isanella said brightly and the room felt melodical and sweet as if her mood was infectious. She plucked a lute that looked to have had mushrooms on the mind when being made. Seth peered at the mushroom motif and nodded. He patted his stomach and it growled.

“Round squishy headbulbs make for good mouth party!” Seth beamed. Nina nearly spat out her tea.

“Can’t you teach him or find someone to help him learn the local words?” Nina asked the smiling woman.

“I can understand his music but I’m no good at teaching. We just hum at each other and sometimes he slips into the tongue of magic which I know a little bit of,” Isanella explained.

“I just feel like he's going to say something bad to the Dungeon and it’s gonna be my fault,” Nina sighed. The petite woman giggled.

“Dungeons understand all languages that are in common use, most creatures and even most intents. Most just don’t care to respond,” Isanella stood and grabbed a yellow cardigan.

That was news and Nina leaned forward as the woman kept talking cheerfully as she began to pack lunches for them all. What a mother.

“Dungeon Cores take in ambient Mana, a lot of the world’s Mana flow on the wind and from dense places. In a lot of areas, the Mana mingles and it whispers words to each other, spreading itself so Dungeons learn more about many things!” Isanella packed the food into a basket and covered it with a red cloth.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Mana talks?” Nina said doubtfully. Seth merely hummed and that made Isanella giggle.

“Seth thinks you sound like a negative nancy. I’ve been to such places. Where Mana mingles and spreads to the corners of the world. Such places are called Ley Lines. They are powerful and if you use a map, many Dungeons are built along one or more Ley Lines!” Isanella hummed as she spoke.

Nina frowned.

“What about here?” she asked. “For a powerful thing like these lines, Durence sure had been tapped dry,” she pointed out as they began to walk down the street.

That made Isanella frown.

“Our Dungeon seems to have been built on a dead line,” the woman went quiet.

“How does a line die?” Nina pressed on. The look she got was haunting.

“It’s cut open and sucked dry by evil.”

Nina only had one thing to say.

“Bummer.”

---

Ruli left with enough bacon and eggs to feed an army. That alone made Delta feel better about helping to pay the woman back for coming to her aid like some demonic super hero. It wasn’t nearly enough, and despite Ruli only going to the first floor to drink (on the house… dungeon?) it still meant Ruli was closer to leaving than hanging out.

Ruli’s demon nature, whatever it was, let her see Delta far more clearly than she suspected normal folks would. After an endless time of no real sleep other than the times a floor appeared or she broke the system… Delta was beginning to miss talking to people she hadn’t made or found in her basement… or unearthed in a spooky circus or exploded down a soul level.

Delta pursed her lips. It felt like so much time had passed when really, the eight hours of sleep she no longer needed just made everything go on forever.

As soon as Ruli reached the second floor... Wyin too lost in her own world to even care about the woman, Delta felt the system rushing to bombard her with notifications.

“Order! Order! One at a time,” she barked and all the appearing boxes hastily shifted into a neat queue.

The first one was interesting. She hovered in the air and got ready for some reading.

Where was Nu? Shouldn’t he be her secretary for all this?

Planning a small-scale war. Unless you want to deal with convincing Cois that he needs to aim or Jeb that he needs to think longer than three seconds or Rale to stop flexing?

Delta eyed the boxes as Nu appeared and grabbed for the first one.

Thought not.

The first menu simply gave her the results of reaching the Third Floor.

Third Floor: Silent Fortress(Existing structure)+

A series of connecting halls, rooms, and stairs that challenges an adventurer to adjust from the tricky creatures of the first floor and the wildness of the second floor. This floor can be considered an even battleground, but the foes you can place in their path do not have to be human.

Maximum Mana: 280
DP: 536

Monster unlocked! Troll! One slot left open.
Second monster found! The Dungeon can now make Gargoyles!

“I have no memory of consenting to this,” Delta accused. The box shied away but didn’t do anything but give her the menu of the new beasts.

Gargoyles: Stone Demons of the sky- er ceiling!

Not to be confused with grotesques which are simply there to look pretty. Gargoyles are walking animated statues that can switch between an earthy flesh form and a stone form that is completely without energy or life, making them expert ambushers. The energy of the gargoyle is usually a spirit or a magical core but in this case, the ‘goyles merely eject their mana selves from their body and cannot be seen or harmed. In this state, the gargoyle’s physical body are treated as objects in Dungeon space.

It was how they were absorbed.

Summon: Common Stone Gargoyle: A basic gargoyle with various decorations and themes to their shape. Cost 20 Mana

No further evolutions unlocked.

It was a big info dump and Delta summed it up in her head.

Potential rock monsters be stone or not and ambush people. They are aware because funky magic business. May look weird.

Eazy peazy. Delta should do this dungeon gig herself if it was so eas-

Oh wait...

Delta made a note to summon a gargoyle soon to test out how she felt about them. Thinking about the Lure Lizard and the Slimers still repulsed Delta to a degree and she was suddenly hit with a weird feeling of time flying past.

She thought of her first floor... and the idea of changing any of it... to lose those memories of her time there made her chest tight. If she just messed with things then what she had done and what she had felt would be lost to this weird time lapse.

No thank you.

Minor upgrades and keeping the foundation sounded nice for now.

So, if the goyles (Delta’s name for them) turned out to be a bit crabby, then she would keep the lone one and move on with more trolls.

More Jebs seemed fun!

The next notification was for the Feast Hall and her battle inside it. Well, Fran’s battle. Delta just cheered and fiddled with some options.

Turning on a cheat code by accident.

Enemy captain defeated! Core Mana leeched. Corruption resistance is improved!
Awarded 100 DP!

Please defeat more!

“Sis, I’m no warrior. Just give that task to Nu,” she protested and the box fizzled then faded. Relieved, she focused on the next box.

The Feast room has been converted into The Banquet Hall.

“But that’s just the same room with a different name,” Delta pointed out. The box twitched for a moment.

The Feast Hall has become the The Snack Bar

“But now we’re lying. No bar here sadly,” Delta said and the box began to twitch a little faster.

Please insert name while the system goes for a coffee break.

Delta rolled her eyes at Sis’s sass before she mused.

Something catchy.

Something Delta.

--

Fera looked up from her task of dodging blinding beams of light from starlight mushrooms as she tried to force them into the cooking pot. The dumbwaiter labels had changed to show the new name.

“Free Heal Hall? Really? I guess ‘Extra work for Fera’ is a bit mouthy,” the goblin grumbled as the connecting dumbwaiter began to leak a thick black sludge from Jeb’s latest attempt at cooking.

She sighed and got her boomstick.

---

Free Heal Hall or Free Heal for short felt just right in her head. It was like that free healing spot before or after a boss in some games. Delta was sure her food, while delicious, could not heal actual wounds.

She eyed the tables and rubbed her hands in anticipation.

“Not yet... but I’ve managed weirder things,” she admitted. How hard could it be it to replace the typical herbs with medical ones? Wine mixed with magical grapes? Cake that didn’t make you fat?

Okay, that last one may be even beyond the System. Still, a girl could dream.

She hummed and twirled along the hall as she hummed.

“Maestro, have you made it down yet?” she called aloud. From underneath the tables came a cat call whistling.

“Not even the worst monsters of this world could keep me from taking centre stage! How can I please your ears today, Mother?” Maestro sang and the floor vibrated.

“I can call you Betty… and Betty, when you...” she waited, interested to see how far Maestro had learned her music.

Maestro began to tute a flute and the floor hummed.

“Call me Al! A fine choice if I do so say myself, Madam Betty,” Maestro took off and the song filled the halls and Delta giggled, skipping along to the beat as she planned. There was something just fun about filling the place with music and laughter. A tiny slap to this Silence nonsense.
“Take it away Mister Al!” she laughed.

She could feel the Mana slowly taking over the garden beyond the hall. Soon, that would be even more space to work with but she tapped her foot to Maestro’s jolly voice as his beat was on point to the song she remembered.

Her eyes flicked to the menu that followed her.

Free Heal Hall: A mighty feast for the brave and victorious.

A hall filled with various foods made from substances found in the dungeon.

Upgrades:
Reduces the cooldown of the food reappearing. 10 DP
Allows new recipes to be crafted and added to the menu by monsters or guests. 3 DP
Allow the Second Floor Hidden Jungle garden to produce veggies and various fruits to be added to the menu. 15 DP
Add Monster meat meals from defeated foes absorbed by the Dungeon! (Vegan options available if treants and dryads are absorbed by Dungeon) 30 DP

Pretty tame options. Delta was a little bummed not to see a hall guardian but she assumed she was getting some version of a breakfast monster meant to feed a family. Some Together-breakfast beast.

Truly, the most important meal of the day... and the deadliest.

Speaking of potential guardians and purchasing... Delta whistled innocently as she floated towards the stairs. Feeling nostalgic over the first floor had made her remember that she had forgotten about the chance to purchase a random guardian for the toll well that connected Waddle’s Pond to the Fort room!

She flew past a singing Wyin and blushed a little as she noticed Maestro was broadcasting her song choice Dungeon-wide.

Ah well, the bees were partying it up and Bob was wiggling so hard he was like one of the dancing things outside car shops.

The paradise birds of the jungle and the various rabbits and trick foxes were also hooting and yipping along to the song.

Honestly, she felt like some princess... that could fly and summon monsters but still, it was a fun feeling.

She shot up to the first floor and peeked in on Fran who was sleeping in his cave against Bacon’s stomach. She really was going to make Fran a decent room once Ruli stopped drinking and left the Dungeon.

Speaking of the giant woman, who Delta regarded as her... closest friend from outside, she was enjoying Delta’s reward of free drinks with great pleasure.

“Then I <pow!> Sent the wolf flying so hard it exploded!” Ruli told a blank-faced Fera.

“I keep feeling like I should be responsible and cut you off but if you get drunk enough, you might drop more tips that aren’t rabbit bones and naughty jokes,” Fera mused. Ruli burped loud.

“Jukebox monster! Turn the tunes up!” Ruli said with a huge grin. Maestro seemed only too happy to blast the flute solo as requested. Ruli cheered and went back towards the second floor with her drink to bask in the faux sunlight.

Perfect timing.

“Maestro, line up ‘Jump in the Line’ next,” Delta whispered and the mushroom glowed with pleasure at the request. She snuck past and floated down the toll well to see the dark tunnel.

She looked around with a guilty expression before pulling up the menu and hovering her finger over the Guardian buttons.

Random. A gamble.

Delta moaned at her lack of self control before she giggled and paid the cost.

The light gathered in the halfway submerged tunnel. Orange, of course.

The ball of light burst and something fell to the ground, splashing heavily as it hit the water before settling. Delta had prepared herself for many tentacles or heads... or heck, she would have bolted at the first sign of something with suckers.

Instead a roundish purple thing laid there as the water mostly settled around it, submerging it besides a tiny island of shell.

It was... a clam.

A giant purple clam.

Delta blinked at the innocuous monster and prodded it.

“Hello?” she called. Her touch slightly rocked it and bubbles began to ripple to the surface as the seam of it’s two halves began to open. Delta leaned in eagerly.

There was a pause then the shell snapped open to show a pile of coins, pearls, gems, and a collection of tiaras. The shine and luster of it all was spectacular. Delta was so shocked that she leaned in closer.

That was when the pile of coins shifted to reveal a grinning skull, the bottom of the shell was filled with various skulls and the top of the shell became ridged with barbed teeth.

It snapped down.

Delta screamed and phased away with a yelp. The monster lowered itself into the silt and blew bubbles out in what Delta guessed was it’s attempt to be cute.

She glared and opened its menu.

Sunken Treasure Mimic. Its gleam leads many a greedy person to a watery grave.

It snaps to show affection, not many survive to appreciate this.

Affection? By eating people?

Delta was not sure how that came across. The clam opened again and showed Delta it’s treasure and tried to entice her to jump in as if to join the collection.

You can’t help yourself, can you?

Nu’s ringing made Delta turn, trying to hide the clam with her thin form and she laughed nervously.

“Control? Me? Of course. I didn’t summon a man eating treasure chest!” she laughed nervously.

You know you’re still see through, right?

Delta knew this and turned her nose up at the idea of being caught.

It’s got the intelligence of a dog. Do not fault it for being eager. I know you want to be liked and all that mush.

Nu floated over and the clam shied away from the box as if afraid.

“Cheerful, are you mad you didn’t get some murderous siren or sea snake?” Delta asked. Nu turned, looked blank then floated away.

Your awareness of your ‘family’ is astounding. I don’t need those. I just need to make you gamble more. The results speak for themselves. The mimic will guard any treasure thrown down here with the tenacity of goblins eyeing a free drink. Handy for its purpose.

Delta could see that. With its now exposed pink tongue sticking out the side of its shell... it was actually adorable despite trying to show her...affection moments beforehand. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad compared to some of the things Delta had made.

She chalked it up to first floor normal vibes.

She just needed to do one thing.

Delta opened her menu and used various ideas to form a new item. It took a band of iron, some glass orbs, coiled metal and blue paint and cloth.

Nu seemed speechless as the clam paused to admire the googly eyes that bobbed back and forward from the band worn like a headband.

“Perfect,” Delta nodded.

The point is to fool people into thinking it’s not a monster. You understand this, yes?

“Ah but that's the plan. They’ll think it’s too obvious and decide it’s a trap or a trick and not suspect it actually is a trap,” Delta crossed her arms.

Sure. Shall we call it Prince Clamrence? Sheldon? Clamrice?

Nu was being sarcastic but Delta chose to ignore that and be the bigger person.

---

Room Guardian ‘Clamamity’ has been summoned!

---

89: Split Opinions on Banned Books

In Delta’s honest opinion, when one troll is good... two must surely be great. It was... sort of. Delta watched as the second troll appeared. This one smaller but wider. The cave troll finished materialising and Delta was confused when she thought she saw sea weed clumped together on the top of the troll’s head.

Jeb peered in with wide and excited eyes. The troll turned and grumbled.

“What you staring at?” the troll growled. Jeb moved in closer.

“Sister! You are in Ma’s Dungeon!” Jeb proclaimed. Sister?

Sister?

Delta tried not to stare but there was nothing that would be considered human femininity in the troll. Then again, Delta was using human eyes. Maybe to a troll, this new monster was a bomb shell?

“I know that, rockhead. I know where I am, innit? I ain’t dumb, eh?!” the troll roared and Jeb smiled as if this was a great joke. He reached forward to pet the troll’s head and there was a crunch as the troll buried her fist into Jeb’s grinning face.

“You stink of troll soup. Don’t mess my hair!” she warned. Jeb said something but his nose being flat made it harder to understand him. The troll wore a large shoulder-to-knee cloth thing that might have been a sheet but for the dirt and mushrooms growing on it. The twin shoulder straps and thick pockets made it seem almost… homemade.

The troll finally noticed Delta and her bravado and anger turned to silent blinking.

“Hello...” Delta said slowly.

“...Hey, Ma,” the troll mumbled. There was a long pause.

“I dun wanna share a cave with this idiot. Can you make another cave?” the troll asked and Jeb blinked.

“I can sleep outside!” he offered.

“I’ll wake up to find your big butt blocking the cave entrance,” came the retort.

“I’ll work on it but you need a name. Anything you wanna be called or-” Delta began and the troll crossed her arms.

“Skull-crusher.”

Delta closed her mouth and she could almost feel Nu’s smug amusement hovering nearby.

“That name is a bit... misleading,” Delta tried as the female troll went to inspect the troll room, noticing the old furnace and anvil.

“Man-eater,” came the next grunted suggestion.

“How about Daisy? Or Rose or...Terra or Gaia?” Delta walked around so the troll was looking at her. Again, the troll looked away as if she didn’t want to look at Delta.

“Heart-Gnasher!” she suddenly exclaimed. That seemed to make the troll happy and Delta knew she would have to be clever here... well, just a little clever.

“Sure...” she began and Cois nearby made a choking noise of protest.

“But we’ll shorten it uh... Gnashly because nicknames are good too,” Delta nodded. The troll thought this over.

“I like it. It’s like a secret...I’m Gnashly,” the troll bobbed her head and the seaweed like hair bobbed.

“Gnashly and Jebediah!” Jeb crowed and he almost got another punch for his efforts.

Gnashly grabbed a very old rusty knife from the blacksmith table, which had become a part of the room now and cut her long hair shorter.

“Getting in ma eyes,” she complained.

The action actually was interesting and Delta watched as her hair began to bubble and grow almost straight away.

Troll regen was a bitch it seemed when you had a bad hair style.

The chopped parts wilted but Delta noticed they hadn’t faded. Gnashly chopped and chopped but the hair kept growing like weeds.

“Hey, you mind not shedding everywhere?” Cois yelled. Gnashly glared down at the gob.

“Shut it before I sit on you,” she snarled. Cois scampered up her back and tisked at the messy growing hair.

“You never heard of maintenance? Watch,” he commanded and gathered the hair with firm hands and began to tie it into a ratty knot with one overlapping strand acting like a hairband.

“Saw that human woman in leather pants that came with Kemy the good-doer. She had her hair up like this?” Cois said and admired his work.

Delta smiled but didn’t say anything as Gnashly slowly felt her knotted hair. It held up but it did look like she had stuck her head into a blender.

“It’s good. You live for now,” Gnashly complimented Cois.

“Yeah yeah, growl at the gob who can control fire,” Cois waved this off. Billy snorted from the shadows.

“‘Control’ is a strong word,” he mocked. Delta was already summoning some cloth long enough for Gnashly to learn to tie her own hair up.

Jeb watched the scene and rubbed his own bald rocky head sadly.

Delta sadly did not have a toupee to conjure. Unless she could make something from boar hair and mushroom fibres...

Best not think about it before Sis did just that.

“So, you know what to expect? The Third Floor isn’t safe yet,” Delta began to explain. Gnashly retreated to the cave to experiment with tying her hair up without being seen but her voice flooded out like a swarm of bats.

“Undead eedjits and some quiet bugger. Just smash anyone that comes from that side unless they talk or something... if they come from the stairs... ignore them or rob them,” Gnashly responded, sounding bored.

“Well, don’t rob them unless they’re asses but, basically. So... uh...welcome to the Dungeon!” Delta called. This was one of the awkward summons. The breaking-down of the monster creation system and her own general weirdness was enough to either make smooth summons or awkward ones.

There was the third type that resulted in Delta babbling at the bottom of her pond.

Delta did her best not think of those summons.

“Thanks... I’ll find something to do... I hear ya like us monsters being busy or something,” Gnashly’s voice toned down to a quiet thoughtful sound.

“Just take your time... I’ll let you settle in with Jeb and come back later,” Delta could feel the almost unsaid request to give the new troll some space.

This was an awkward one alright.

She’d come around. Delta suspected having her, Jeb, the gobs, and Nu around was a lot of pressure to have a calling moments after being created. Gnashly needed time to just think.

Delta could appreciate that and even encouraged her monsters to think.

She stood in the map room with a serious expression.

Far too serious. Delta looked around the room and could almost see the shadows waiting for Delta to forget to have fun or to be too grim. That was no good.

She pondered her options.

Her Mana was soaking into the garden beyond, where it would slow down even more to absorb the 7 rooms beyond as she cleared them out one by one.

Still, the garden was getting absorbed rather quickly and cleanly.

---

A terrible foe. A great monster.

It rose about them and towered like a demon to their light. Still, not one of them broke formation or turned tail. They were the mighty Mana. They would fear no demon, no monster and certainly... not this... gazebo!

They took the arches together and a few of the men fell through the gaps below. Several screams for fallen comrades that were absorbed by the Mana legion below but onwards they climbed this demonic garden accessory.

It began to twitch and tried to run, finally revealing its true form but the magically enchanted furniture was still... just an object. It lacked lifeforce and thus... was prey!

All for the Dungeon! All FOR DELTA!

---

Delta was kinda glad she wasn’t forced to watch the process, it would drive her to tears with the boredom of things just... being converted. Best to make the most of her time.

She opened the Map Menu and smirked at the Guardian option.

It was almost unhealthy how close she was to doing these two options together, but the security of the third floor and preventing assholes from accessing the map was... just that important.

She purchased the guardian option and the light flashed in the room before it rocketed down the hall and into the library. Delta blinked, not sure why another room was being involved but she followed it, actually running in her excitement.

The connection between the map and the library grew tighter and every book on the library shelves were shaking as Delta phased into the room.

Then it all went still. Delta narrowed her eyes.

“As the Dungeon Master, I command you to reveal yourself!” she flung a hand forward, giddy and nervous.

If she got another mimic, that would be a bit of a let down.

Like a switch had been flipped, the books began to rocket off the shelves and swirl in the air. The actual damn bookcases themselves sunk into the floor to create a wide open space as more and more books mashed together to form a blocky humanoid figure.

It stood about eight feet tall and the blocky multicolored covers that made up its form were constantly shifting and being replaced except for the lone book at the head which laid open.

The pages were blank and then two black ink dots seeped from inside the pages and became visible.

Delta stared up at the giant book thing.

“Libraries...book-transformers in disguise?” she guessed.

The menu appeared.

The Librio power gained from Visitor Grim has been used to create the Librio-Golem!

Librio Golem:

This creature automatically gets a copy of any book absorbed by the Dungeon. It can replicate any book for guests and those willing to trade. If angered it can use various pieces of knowledge in books once, before that book is destroyed. They will not reappear until the golem has respawned. Examples of powers the golem has access to:

Candle igniting spell.
Three-tied knot ropes.
Pig-guts expelling curse.
Tea ceremony rituals (Note, the book seems to be mostly about throwing boiling leaf juice into people’s faces).
35 different versions of fireball. Four of them explode upon being cast and another 2 fly backwards.
Several hunting traps gained from Ruli’s journal along with ways to use paper cuts to kill a man.

The golem only has access to 10 books upon spawning for the fight. These books will be chosen at random. This may be increased by absorbing rare books. It also can crush a man with sheer strength if it catches them but it would prefer not to stain its pages.

“Grim... you buffed my monster,” Delta mumbled but then tried her winning smile.

“Hello! Welcome to the Dungeon! Wow... saying that twice in less than ten minutes is a bad sign,” Delta said that last part to herself.

The Golem didn’t move. It didn’t speak or write words on its facebook. Delta held up a hand to collect herself from that unintentional pun and had to fight a smile.

The Golem didn’t respond or move.

She eyed the Menu and it began to add more details.

Intelligence is of a basic golem.
It also has a high weakness to fire as paper tends to have.

That made two monsters with a huge weakness to fire! First the trolls and now Booky. Delta would honestly be upset at such a weakness on the floor but...

She winced.

Anyone who made it through the first floor after using fire would probably be too traumatised to ever risk setting anything else on fire again in her Dungeon.

Booky broke apart suddenly and the shelves returned.

Without an invader, she guessed even a golem-like Booky would get bored. At least if someone wanted to use her map, they would have to trade knowledge or burn Booky to ashes to even get at it.

That made Delta feel better knowing that people she considered guests and friends would be safe.

Still, she wanted the garden secure and the feast hall ready to be defended before she urged her monsters onwards.

Delta floated to the kitchen, eager for the room converting to be done.

---

The Gazebo had evaded them well until now. All but this corner was now Deltian. Their hard work had beaten this monster's sheer tenacity to live. Foolish! When it fought hard, the Mana would go beyond hard! It would reach the pinnacle of Delta Mana and push on!

No mere Gazebo could halt their advance!

First the dirt... then the mushrooms, then the dead... then this Gazebo then... one day very soon, the gods themselves would be a feast!

If Delta, the great mother... wanted a god, of course.

The Gazebo reared back and they charged, aiming to nibble it atom by atom. Their hearts beat as one and they destroyed their foe!

Victory! The thing writhed and just when they nearly had it down, it kicked hard off the wall, flipping like a table to a far door, crashing through it with great accuracy.

The Mana went still.

Then it bubbled like a furious foamy bath.

COWARD!

The Mana reared back and charged at the door but the Gazebo, scared and missing two arches, kicked the door shut. The clear cut between their space and Delta made them unable to move on. Monsters! Life in one form or another existed on the other side!

They had been repelled!

They carved that Gazebo’s image into the very core of themselves. Every atom of Delta would know that Gazebo.

Know it and hate it...

---

“You know, gazebos are kind of tacky. I think there's one in the garden. I might get rid of it,” Delta told Jeb as he tried to stir black burned soup

“Gazbos sound boring,” Jeb agreed happily as he sent his sample up the dumbwaiter for Fera to taste.

The black sludge moved and Delta blinked as a lost Pygmy Mushroom seemed trapped in it like tar before the lift vanished.

Jack whistled.

“I saw those buggers sneaking down the stairs. They’re kinda aggressive,” he said. Delta glared at him.

“They’re sweet things! Jeb, don’t cook anymore of the Pygmies!” she chided.

Jeb eyed his hand, where about a dozen darts failed to pierce his skin.

“Can’t help it... they took over a cupboard. Got Piggys in the kitchen now. Like bugs but no bugs here because Fera doesn’t allow it,” Jeb nodded. Delta stared owlishly at them.

She stuck her head into the lonely cupboard at the back of the kitchen.

A tiny... village was being made. The young leader of the group chittered and made shrill cries telling a story. Delta got the jist.

They had declared this floor a sort of training ground where they sent their warriors to train and survive against the black cook. Delta guessed once they became lethargic enough... they returned to the second floor and sent a new batch to train.

It was a holy pilgrimage... to a kitchen.

The village consisted of a hole in a bucket and various pots and pans being turned upside down with wooden spoons used as bridges.

Okay, maybe not as harmless as Delta liked to believe. She cleared her throat and the entire village went silent as they stared up at her.

“Did you harm Jeb? Or try to?” she asked, voice sharp. The various tiny cute pygmies bowed and their cute beady eyes sparkled-

Delta gathered her willpower and glared.

“I will not accept you harming Jeb or ruining his cooking. If you are here... you help Jeb or I swear to every God I remember that I will make you write apology notes to him,” she warned.

There was no movement before one by one, the Pygmies raised their hands to form a wonky triangle above their heads.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Their version of ‘your word is law’.

Delta felt a bit crummy about being strict but them’s the breaks when raising a Dungeon of monsters.

One by one, they trotted out the cupboard and climbed until they were near Jeb. Jack hastily dove for cover.

Jeb blinked but didn’t seem alarmed like Jack. One by one the Pygmies raised their hands and soft trilling noise began to emanate from the tiny forms until a full-blown hymn and choir filled the kitchen.

The song of the people entranced Delta and Jeb. The pitch grew higher until it was a bird song of emotion.

Then they bowed, the song ending.

That was when chaos happened as all ten pygmies shot off to various parts of the kitchen to gather supplies, while the three wisest of them studied the recipe Fera had written in very basic diagrams for Jeb.

They pointed for Jeb to start chopping as bowls and pots were rolled into position. The Pygmies rolled the bowls and pots from the insides like hamsters in a wheel.

Delta had a feeling they might have... taken this help thing to heart. Oops?

The kitchen was soon like a circus of jumping tiny mushrooms, with acts of plate tossing, knife catching, and Jeb’s off-key singing.

“I’m on drugs... I’m still a prisoner... maybe they fished out that Mindskinner from the pit? Nope. don’t remember that place...” Jack rambled as he eyed the scene.

Delta wanted to enjoy the scene but her senses snapped to something.

Guests.

She had guests!

“Boys! We have guests!” Delta gasped. Jeb stopped singing for a moment.

“They wanna be our guest?” he asked innocently as a knife flew past his face and was caught by another pygmy.

Delta could only smile.

---

Nina could only stare.

“It’s got a fancy door. Any idea what those symbols are?” she asked Isanella who stood back after putting in the symbols in the right order.

The weird thick sided triangle glowed orange as the doors peeled apart and granted them access.

“No idea. It must be important to Delta. Perhaps we can ask?” the woman mused as she held her lute with excitement. Nina noticed that Isanella was less interested in exploring or finding the bar than meeting her... new friend.

“I before see the mighty Delta tube. We must ride on!” Seth said with excitement. He pointed to one of the symbols.

“Be-tha. Beeeta!” he repeated and smiled. Nina merely smiled at Seth. Sometimes he made sense... sometimes he didn’t.

“What is a Beeta, Seth?” Isanella asked as they climbed the stairs down into the cool air of the Dungeon.

“Beta! Was a... how would one talk? Beta was like one thing then another. Beta grew like tree but changed like hunter,” he waved one hand.

“Sounds like Dabberghast,” Nina grinned. Seth humored her before looking distant.

“If Delta is strange Dungeon. Beta is...odd creature. Master knew more and Quiss not so much,” Seth looked around the room as he finally touched the Dungeon ground.

Nina followed suit and, never having been in a dungeon before, had no idea if what she saw was normal or not.

Isanella eyed a door and she wandered over.

“This is new,” she said politely and opened the door with the sign ‘Memorial’ above it.

Nina gasped as the white stone room beyond seemed to hold distilled melancholy in the air as they entered.

The statue of a tall woman peering down at them sadly made Nina’s chest feel...tight.

“It feels like a Dungeon having a memorial room would be mocking or bragging but this place is just depressing,” Nina said finally. Isanella held her hand up to briefly touch the statue’s hand.

“Because it’s genuine. That sort of thing sticks out,” she commented. Seth stayed by the door as he eyed the room with a long look. Nina had no idea what he was thinking.

Wizards didn’t quite see the world like other people did.

Nina couldn’t explain it but after serving Quiss his beer for so many years, it was something she had picked up on. Even Haldi was the same.

Two very different people but their ties to magic made them see things that others might not focus on. For better or worse. Quiss once ranted, rather drunkenly, how a stain on a wooden table was like a symbol of the eastern water kingdom and that it foretold an arrival of an envoy.

Which Nina had laughed at and at that very second she clicked that the envoy had come... Seth had come.

Nina also knew that Wizards were tricky and there was a good chance Quiss knew Seth would be coming.

They departed the room and Nina dropped some of her tips and a bar napkin into the tribute bowl.

“Us underpaid working girls have to stick together,” she said quietly as her form of prayer for a good trip. The things one picked up from listening to people complain about Dungeons and adventures was amazing when no one paid attention to you.

Before Durence, Nina had picked up more gossip and juicy tidbits than the local spymaster. But that got to be its own trouble in the end so Nina ended up in a sleepy place where nothing she heard mattered and nothing she did could change that.

It was liberating.

But who knows how that was going to change now, with Durence’s Dungeon mixing things up.

They set off down the tunnel as Isanella strummed some light notes. Just casual flicks on her lute but it made Nina’s skin prickle with pleasure. Then she hummed and Nina was a little ashamed that Seth had to hold out an arm to stop her from walking face first into a web.

“Sorry,” she mumbled as she had a quick flash to one of her selves nearly dropping a glass that she was trying to balance. Another view saw herself doing dishes half-heartedly.

Not too bad for now but Nina really had to get back before something went wrong.

“We must pierce the fabric of Salrakias!” Seth grimaced. The word was said like a drop of water falling from a leaf. All purr of the tongue and Nina shared a look with Isanella.

Exotic accents were just so fun. They smiled as Seth puzzled the web out. He poked one with a finger and Nina stared as the thing briskly froze over as if a winter chill had snapped over it. The frost was rapidly spreading before Isanella softly lowered Seth’s touch with a raised brow.

“No need to get so direct. I am sure if I simply ask and dance, the way will part,” she promised. She neared the web and strummed more notes. Sure enough, to Nina’s surprise, the web parted like a veil to reveal the silvery spun maze of lines and patterns.

More complex than any mere spider web should be.

Isanella moved in first and held out a hand for a spider to land on. That was something Nina found less magical.

“Good day, dear spider. May we pass if we do not destroy your lovely webs?” she asked and her voice had taken on an odd lilt as if speaking in a pitch Nina’s human ears couldn’t quite keep up with.

The spider raised two legs, slowly waltzing to some unheard tune and Isanella giggled.

More and more spiders appeared to climb on the woman and Nina took three large steps back so fast she nearly left another clone in her place. Seth looked impressed.

“Like Lady Prince of beasts. Magical and delicious... beautiful?” he mumbled. Yeah, Isanella could be the lady prince of whatever as long she kept the spiders firmly away from Nina.

The things vanished and a path was revealed as the spiders pulled webs to one side and one spider even pressed down on a thin trip wire hidden in all the web. How...innocent and harmless.

Maybe there was a spiked pitfall connected to it?

Nina would take spikes over the spiders. She could just clone enough of herselves to climb out and have traumatic nightmares about it later. Spiders... they stuck to you.

They began to slowly traverse the web maze and Isanella plucked a few of the berries at the offering of the spiders. A single spider sat on a thickly webbed throne and applauded their passage through.

Did it have... a tiny mushroom crown?

No, Nina was seeing things. They were at the door and Nina was interested to see a small window appear.

Challenged declined by asking for passage. Maybe next time?

Nina had been so freaked out, she hadn’t even seen a challenge box appear. Ah well, no more spiders. Nina was free until she had to leave and should she feel a bit dramatic, she might just bash her head in and jump to another one of her bodies.

She almost froze.

Oh no... she was Dramatic-Nina! Damn it, this body was just annoying, like the end of the world bad!

Shivering, she opened the door to freedom and froze again as a tiny form that barely came up to her chest stared up at her.

Curly black hair, ruby lips, pale skin of someone who lived underground, bright orange eyes, a shirt made of more web covered his torso.

All those things were fine.

It was where the boy ended and the spider began was where Nina toppled backwards in shock, screeching slightly.

“Oh hello, you are just as cute as my Deo,” Isanella said without batting an eyelid.

Nina would have gaped at her but she was too busy being utterly snagged by every web they had avoided so far.

“I’m taken! Tell my other me’s that I can see them slacking!” she whimpered. Seth blinked at her but something lowered from the ceiling. This spider... made Nina go very quiet.

It eyed her with those pearl like eyes.

It twitched a few legs and the web around Nina went slack.

“My my, what a rambunctious crowd. Did someone say Deo? How is the lad?” a booming voice called from the hall. Nina fled from the web pile as best she could and latched on to Seth and his magical freezy hands.

The being behind the Boy...spider....thing... loomed and it had to lean down slightly to see them all through the door.

“Ah, Mister Mushy, you look... different,” Isanella said, voice alarmed but happy.

“Ah yes, my dear lady Isanella. It is a treat to see you traverse these lovely halls once more. I did indeed gain new powers recently, but enough of that! This is my young charge until Master Cois returns, Quee,” the talking mushroom-man introduced the boy-spider.

The mushroom... was talking.

Whatever, it only had two legs and two eyes. Nina bolted for the door.

She slipped past, body pressed to the wall as the young spider-boy eyed her. It seemed curious about her, mostly staring at her legs with alarm.

“Uncle Mush... someone stole her legs!” he pointed.

“It’s rude to point. Humans only have two. Think of them as very large goblins but with a habit of bathing occasionally,” the mushroom explained.

As he spoke tiny mushrooms set into the wall began to play small trumpets and horns as the mushroom bowed to Isanella and Seth again.

“My apologies. I am now Lord Mushy. A special creature of the Dungeon. You might remember the charming fellow playing the music as my brother, hm?” Lord Mushy seemed to almost jest at Isanella who was holding her lute with an excited expression.

The music died slightly to be replaced by a voice.

“Oh ho! Charming, only maybe brother? Amazingly talented and a superstar, of course! But enough about me, is that ISANELLA? Mushy, keep the one that looks ready to cry and the one that is staring at the pond room like its a soulmate. The star of the show must have his co-singer!” the deeper booming voice announced.

Nina gaped again. Were there any mushrooms in this place that didn’t make noise?

“What’s a soulmate?” Quee demanded coolly of Seth. The man had his eyes locked on the room down the hall. The glowing moss aided by the glowing mushrooms on the ceiling illuminated an almost mystical sight.

Nina could only see something black and small in the room. A duck maybe and that was actually much better than spiders.

“Someone you love very much,” Lord Mushy said kindly.

“Then Momma Delta is my soulmate!” the spider boy announced with a pleased expression. Isanella cooed at this but then she turned to Seth, pushed him towards Lord Mushy and bowed to the spiders.

“I shall come and dance soon, I am terribly sorry about the webs,” the woman said. The spiders waved this off as they made a big show of dethroning the spider and crowning a new leader with a dance.

Even the large spider of white colour danced.

Quee gasped and rushed into the room to join the party. New webs were strung up showing the downfall of a giant demon that looked suspiciously like Nina…

Lord Mushy closed the door and sighed.

“Long may she reign. Queen Arana Blade-legged seven eyed mysterious beauty of the spider kingdom, second of her name,” he snorted, his odd moustache twitching.

“I’ll explain the semantics of love and soulmates to the young lad when he grows a tad. No doubt he will fall in love with some lovely person who comes to the Dungeon,” he waved away the scene.

Isanella bowed once again and actually took off running down the hall before making a sharp left turn and vanishing around the corner.

“But not all relationships need to be of love. Some are just of shared passions and friendship,” Lord Mushy said, sounding content as Isanella’s giggling faded as a door shut.

“Is she in potential of pain?” Seth asked with a calm tone. Lord Mushy turned to him and Nina’s jaw dropped for a third time.

“Fuska nouta waferi Isanella estu Maestro hiopt,” the talking mushroom said flawlessly, and Seth’s own mouth dropped.

Seth fired back an eager question and the mushroom easily responded.

Soon, Nina felt lost as they began to laugh and talk about something. Quiss’ name was mentioned.

She got a little bored and wandered to the pond as the two followed, still yammering on in Seth’s language.

She couldn’t blame Seth... this was... the most he’d probably spoken without frustration or misunderstanding in ages.

Nina didn’t take it personally.

She did take it personally when one of her clones began to drink the beer instead of serve it. She sent it a mental slap and it quickly got back to work.

She bent down and stared at the duck as the odd room made her feel relaxed. Like a faux starry night in the woods. She smiled and splashed the water with her fingers.

“Here duckie... wanna be petted? Come to Big sis Nina,” she tutted and whistled.

The duck opened one red eye and stood. It waddled into the water and began to float closer.

Nina was pleased and reached for it.

That was when air bubbles breached the surface, appearing between the golden fish and the silvery ones... A dark shadow appeared briefly then the water exploded as the duck was lifted up into the air as a giant demonic hellish freaking alien soul sucking monstrous worm shrieked into view.

Nina screamed, the worm screamed and the duck flapped back to its nest to go back to sleep.

Nina was frozen for a moment, ready to split into Fury and Hunter and leave Drama behind before the worm flopped onto the beach and went still.

That confused Nina more than anything.

“Bob also wants to be petted, my dear. Be a champ, it likes that spot under one of its’ mandibles,” Lord Mushy offered.

Nina shakenly petted the wet glimmering skin and the shrieking became a long whine of pleasure.

Nina sat there, staring as her hand moved over the skin as her mental faculties made the other two clones also stare in horror.

“Drama is screwed.”

“Was nice knowing her, I guess.”

Nina was going to kill herself when she got home.

90: The Dungeon and her Village

High note... strummed slowly into a long trill. The swell of hope as the notes became a song of light and wind... only to be countered by the sudden mountain of challenge. Isanella let her fingers tell the story while her ears listened. Her lute was not even close to the most magical musical item she had owned... and destroyed.

But this one had value like very few others had. It was a meeting... it was a chance encounter... it was the meeting of two souls who saw music in each other. This lute was precious. From behind her, the following sound of strings and percussion followed her story like shadows. Making her simple tale into a memory... her idle strumming into a song.

Maestro followed her like a shadow cast off by her light.

But Isanella knew that Maestro deserved the light far more than she.

“You’re thinking too hard to be relaxing,” Maestro said as his large form swung slightly closer. His many vines coming off his cap seemed to allow him great agility when needed.

“Perhaps. I’m distracted. The Dungeon recently got a third floor, yes?” she asked as she put her lute down to sit cross legged. Maestro was a fierce looking monster and for those who had not seen much of the world... perhaps even evil looking. But not to Isanella.

To her, every word he spoke and every note he produced was of light and joy.

Nothing evil could be so in love with sharing music with others.

“Indeed but I’m mum on the details, ya hear?” he winked but turned serious when Isanella merely nodded.

“A Dungeon produces particularly potent Mana every three floors. No one knows why. Something about the number 3 is important to magic and the Mana of the world. So even someone like me is feeling... is growing again. I didn’t seal much of my powers away with lack of Mana... I mostly used it to forget, but like Quiss’ fire and my husband’s war cries in the bathtub... my memories are also becoming less grainy,” she sighed.

“Got some things you’d rather forget?” Maestro asked as he trailed the notes of a hidden piano. Isanella smiled at the distraction but nodded.

“Just for a while. I guess while the brain forgot, my heart didn’t. I think it’s healed a little. Oh Maestro, you’re kind but honestly I really was... how would the children say... a hag at one point,” she shrugged.

“What? No?! Wait... did you demand service at inhuman rates and demand to speak to a clan leader when their followers failed you and demand a beheading?!” Maestro gasped. That made Isanella smile despite her mood.

What a strange and wonderful creature Maestro was.

“Well no. I did once curse an entire castle and village to be without noise...without song...without the gift of words,” she said a little embarrassed. The large face leaned down and stared.

“Hunny, why on Delta’s funky tie would you do that? Were they dicks? Did they eat children? Did they wear sandals and socks unironically?!” Maestro demanded. Isanella picked up her lute.

“No, they didn’t really... it wasn’t... A question, if you would allow it, when you evolved into the lovely form you have now... did you resent the touch of music?” she asked and plucked three notes.

“Never. It’s how I became me from a little spitter nobody,” Maestro said immediately.

Isanella doubted Maestro was ever a nobody to Delta.

“I grew up seeing music... tasting it. I grew up when songs were used to hurt me by children and soon ex-lovers. They said sweet things but their notes would be sour. Soon I grew to such a state that the world sang to me. If someone died, an endless list of songs would haunt me... if someone was getting married, I’d be stalked by the bells of some love song. It was maddening... it actually did... break me at the end when I just wanted peace.. I just wanted quiet,” Isanella said, heat filling her voice.

Then she deflated and met Maestro’s concerned eyes.

“I just wanted silence.”

There was a break in the talking before she hugged her lute.

“But... in the end. The Silence found me,” she whispered. Maestro lightly patted her shoulder with his long fingers.

“We’ve been... dealing with those guys. Hush-hush, but Delta, good old Mum, she’s got it handled. Did they hurt you?” he asked with a frown.

“Worse, they gave me exactly what I wanted and I let them get a toe into my world. I...cut the toe off but the price I paid... the price...” Isanella trembled and then gathered her will as she began to create a soft string melody that reminded her of a lost home.

“What was the price, hun?” the giant mushroom pressed and Isanella felt a tear gather and fall.

---

Deo sang under his breath and he grinned as Vas seemed to nod to the beat. He hoped it was a good tune. Mum always said he sang good.

He wondered what he sounded like. Cool? Heroic?! Deo kicked up the tune into a crescendo and Vas tilted his head.

“How do you sing so well when you shout so much?” he asked, lips easy to read. Deo winked.

“Practice!” he said calmly.

He opened the door to the bar and saw the very person he was looking for.

“Kemy!” he tried to whisper and get her attention. He was successful as every bar patron didn’t even twitch but Kemy and her friends did.

Kemy turned and those awesome web earmuffs gleamed around her shoulders. They were looking a bit less shiny so maybe they needed a tailor to fix them.

Deo knew a tailor. He knew Smalls! He dragged Vas in as he waved to Quiss in the corner. The man glared but he seemed to sigh then waved back.

Vas had turned into a funny frozen shape, arms held out wide and eyes shut. His lips moved but Deo could only really read the word Tree.

Vas was funny.

“Kemy! This is Vas. He's the friend who keeps locking himself out. He’s a pot master,” Deo nodded. The woman next to Kemy winced and eyed him.

“Why are you shouting?” she asked politely. The large man next to her laughed and the boring guy with no real stand-out features just frowned.

“Sorry, I’ll go lower,” he promised and did just that. The woman still winced so Deo felt a little flush as he thought he was using a good level of volume. Vas hadn’t said anything so...

Now he had been rude in front of Kemy’s friends.

“It’s fine. How is your spider-leg collection going?” Kemy tried to smile and Deo beamed back. He made sure to speak really...really quietly.

“Good! They’re a bit ripe but Vas here can make a spider pot or something. I wanted you to meet him,” he got behind the frozen Vas and pushed as the golem’s heel actually seemed to scrape along the floor like a real statue.

He saw the bar owner, Nibs, wince as if that was something painful to see and Deo promised to himself to come back and sandpaper down the marks.

The group stared at the frozen boy.

“I think your friend is broken,” Kemy said with worry.

“No, he just really likes trees,” Deo explained and that seemed to confuse them. He turned to Vas only to see Quiss standing next to the golem.

“Excuse me, I need another drink,” the Peacekeeper grunted. Vas moved like he was suddenly water.

“See! Anyway, since you’re new to the town, I can help you find a tailor to fix your earmuffs and we can all get to know each other and become good friends and make awesome memories before you go!” Deo half stated, half-asked. Kemy went a little pink as the boring man said something behind his drink and masked his lips.

“She'd love to. Knowing the local Job class masters would be a boon in case we need to fix our things,” the woman in leather said as she leaned forward to smile at Kemy and Deo firmly kept his eyes on her nice eyes. He was raised not to look indecently at anyone without their say so.

Kemy looked sullen.

“This is for the Truth quest, isn’t it?” she asked.

The large man winked.

“You walk around blind and expect us to ever be okay with that? Please, go be shouted at and make friends now... with something other than mushrooms and goblins,” the man grinned.

“Don’t get hammered this time!” the woman also waved cheerfully.

Deo took Vas’ and Kemy’s hands, leading them outside with a little tune.

“We now have enough members for a team! We shall be Team Heroic Holy Pot!” he announced and Kemy tried to shrink under a hood as she heard something coming from the bar. Vas finally began to move.

“Perhaps we can try Team Bless Hero Priso-” he said and Deo blinked and looked down.

Vas was right... he had just made a judgement call for them all... he should have put it to a vote.

“Team heroic holy pot is actually fine! Right uh... Kemy?” Vas asked the girl who nodded quickly.

“Perfect,” she promised. Deo beamed.

They were going to do great. Just look at this team!

---

Delta wished she were a god. Just so she could see everything at once.

Did she chill and relax with Maestro and Isanella? Did she watch as this Nina girl literally cloned herself to slap herself when the first Nina went catatonic when Bob drooled on her? Or watch Ruli and Giant beat the crap out of each other as they got drunk and Luna promising the winner a back massage at her spring?

She stuck with the Nina girl as Hob and Gob gave the group an odd look before they hurried to the bar, dropping a ton of goodies in the tribute bowls on the way.

Her two scouts had been gone quite a while but they promised her they had a tale and half to share once the guests left.

“Listen, Drama, you got to handle your own shit,” the second Nina said patiently and the first girl looked sad.

“But Nina...eh...which one are you?” Drama-Nina asked. The clone huffed.

“I’m the bossy one,” she stated without any shame. The mage next to Lordy was simply shaking his head at them.

“What a weird girl. Doppelganger skills are rare enough in monsters but to see it in action with a human is undocumented,” he mused. Lordy nodded.

“Quite a sight. She does seem to be a little...messier when she splits. A side effect?” he asked and the mage nodded.

“When you split, you take a person or monster and divide that person into two complete halfs. Various traits could go either way,” he said. He then made a show of pulling his hands apart.

“So when they split again, more traits are divided into even more simple and basic forms. This divide goes on and on until...well, there’s nothing left to divide,” Seth explained and nodded to the hallway.

“Shall we go, my good fungal friend?” the man smiled.

Delta liked Seth. He spoke with intelligence but not snootily. He seemed to soak in what he saw and parsed it under his own opinion. He was fairly attractive too. Delta moved closer and felt like she could...almost hear the ocean around Seth as his Mana drifted off his form.

Quiss was like crackling wood so she guess people’s mana had flavours. They reached the Mudroom and Seth grinned as the two Nina’s followed.

“Remember, eat nothing and make no more clones. I don’t want crying Nina out or unreasonably hungry Nina. Absolute nightmares,” Bossy sniffed. Seth looked to Lordy.

“If it’s no bother, I can make it easier to cross - if that's okay with your Core?” he offered. Lordy eyed her and she gave him the thumbs up.

Lordy nodded and stepped back as Seth held out a hand and the mud began to bubble. Delta watched with interest as mist began to rise and her mudroom went hard and drier than sand.

Seth collected the moisture into a tiny ball and turned it into a tiny bird that rested on his shoulder.

“I shall return it when I leave,” he winked at Lordy.

“He could clean our bar in a second...” Drama-Nina mumbled. Bossy looked calculating.

“I wonder if we can get blackmail material...” she purred.

“Interesting trick!” Lordy applauded. Delta was impressed too, but she also felt a bit nervous...

She relayed her question to Lordy who tilted his crowned head.

“Daresay, good fellow, can you pull water out of anything... like people?” he asked as they walked across the cracked mud to the other side. Seth mused.

“No and yes. That was easy because dungeon water is the purest. There’s no life and material in it. It’s water... and Mana. I can do things a lot easier with it. People? Not so much. Even sweat has metals, salts...sometimes more. You have to be aware and familiar with each person to control their water. Could take days... could take years... if they have any water at all,” he admitted.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Sounds deadly. If you do water magic and ice magic so well, what would be your specialisation?” Lordy asked, also piquing Delta’s interest.

Seth’s face went still before he managed a sad smile.

“Natural disasters, if I had to pick a phrase,” he walked on.

Delta snorted.

“I’ll ask Ruli to get you a house. Welcome to Durence!” she commented but the man didn’t even hear her.

Damn it, Delta knew she was too funny to be ignored. She was going to enjoy the fourth floor - barring any mole people or hidden scientology cults lurking there.

--

Ruberoi Smalls was a man who did not feel like he was shocked by much of anything these days.

Living in Durence and having had a full life as an adventurer, in both Dungeons and popular fashion shows, made him quite experienced in bloodshed. However, Dungeons tended to be simpler.

Cram and Smalls had only arrived in the last two years and had only just begun to feel the Grey settling in over them. Thankfully, the letter had been true and a Dungeon had appeared.

A very odd Dungeon for a very odd town. Smalls loved it. It was such a unique soul among the drab pitfalls, spikes, screaming little horrid monsters, and no decent lavatory for many floors! He hummed as he stitched along the cloak. It was a custom order and he whistled as he sewed the final sigil into the hem and the cloak turned invisible.

He had a long overdue custom order list from many places but the local letter ban had meant he was actually getting through the list, finally.

He eyed the cloak and added a three-pronged apple symbol which would turn the magic off if the wearer intentionally entered an outhouse or a shower room. It would use the owner’s own mind to alert the sigil. Nothing invasive, just a surface thought, but enough to prevent Smalls from worrying that he had just loosed a predator on the unaware.

Now extremely worried, he added three more symbols to shut the magic off...slowly...if the wearer got...excited under the cloak under any circumstance.

Ruberoi Smalls would not accept his products being used for such crass things! The people deserved to know that while their government secrets were being pilfered... their decency was not!

He looked proud. The symbols he embroidered were actually parts of a complex magical lettering system using ten interlocked sigils. It had taken Smalls years to figure out how to sew them so close they formed whole new letters by proxy.

Some he learned from their team leader, may he rest in peace, some he had figured out by accident when sewing in the dark of a dungeon as they camped.

He ran a thumb over one symbol.

Those were the days... never knowing when the next payment would come... never knowing if the next dungeon dive was the last... never knowing what the day would bring...

But they had each other and that... that was Smalls’ happiest days.

“You look sad, my friend,” Cram appeared with his huge axe. Smalls quickly brushed his lashes as his eyes seemed to be blurry while he collected himself.

“Just thinking of the old days.” he admitted. Cram slapped him on the shoulder.

“Stop thinking and make pretty things,” Cram winked as he sat down at their dinner table and popped a fresh bottle from Nimbs’ bar.

Smalls was about to retort that he himself was pretty, and thus so were his creations, when there was a rather lange bang. Only the fact that Smalls had reinforced the door had prevented it from falling off its hinges at the powerful knock.

“MR SMALLS! MISTER CRAM! I GOT AN EMERGENCY EARMUFF PROBLEM!” Deo Brawndo called.

Cram winced.

“Yeah, the problem is a shortage of them. Ah well, let the kid in Smalls, he won’t bite,” Cram insisted. It was easy for the lumberjack to say, the man had practice listening to trees fall!

Smalls prayed for strength and then chided himself for being over-dramatic.

Deo, a boy that looked vaguely familiar and a girl, a little older, who looked at Smalls with a pleading look to either save her or to end her or to convey the desperate need for the outhouse.

“Hello,” Smalls said politely as he shook Deo’s firm handshake. He hid a wince behind a mask of casual interest. That boy was strong, it always took Smalls by surprise.

“HELLO MR SMALLS! THIS IS VAS AND KEMY! VAS IS A GOLEM AND KEMY IS AN ADVENTURER!” Deo said calmly. Smalls eyed his two friends with more interest.

“Oh! Please do come in. Cram was just about to make tea,” he explained. The grunt of grace and sophistication from Cram showed he had no intent on doing anything of the sort buta glare from Smalls had the huge man bending over the fireplace to put the copper kettle in.

He sighed at the rip the man had running down the rear of his pants. He had been buffed again since the Mana had returned in order to chop faster. He had just fixed those pants!

It was a small favor that his underwear was stretchy. No need to give the young woman and golem a view of something they would need a mind healer for. Deo was too busy looking at Cram’s collection of wooden carvings to notice.

“KEMY HAS-” Deo began and Smalls stuck one of the prepared sweets for guests into the boys mouth. The hard fudge candy seemed to act like glue and Deo smiled in pleasure as he chewed into the tar. That would keep the boy’s mouth busy for a small while.

“Yes, I heard. Something to do with earmuffs?” he repeated and the girl, Kemy, pulled off a pair of silvery earmuffs that he had noticed. Odd things, too pure and clean for simplistic cheap threads... it reminded Smalls of the spider thread from the Dungeon but more refined.

Evolved. Now that he actually was bothering to pay attention to his guests, the girl was giving off Dungeon Mana vibes. A recent plunderer it seemed.

“I got these as a gift and I would... really like to keep them around but the tailors with actual job classes are in the capital as far as I know,” the girl looked down. Cram smashed his head on the stone alcove above and the fireplace cracked a little.

“Ah bad idea bringing them up-” Cram warned but Smalls crossed his legs and held out a hand for his damn cup of tea.

“Them? Are you referring to the Golden Spool Guild of charlatans and braggarts? The fools who couldn’t tell a needle from a twig? Those meat-heads - pardon my rudeness, Cram - who stuff magic into a dress and declare it a job done! Bah! I declare! BAH!” Smalls sipped his scalding tea without milk or sugar.

This simply was not the time for milk or sugar.

“Oh... I did... mean them but I didn’t want to upset you either,” Kemy said, trying to take back the muffs but Smalls held on.

“All wounds are hard to avoid when you do not know what causes them. No offence taken. I’m just easily ruffled by cheap work,” he said and turned the spider earmuffs over and over. Rather basic without any enchantments, though it was finely made.

The natural break down was well on its way, however, that was easy enough to fix. He focused on the item, his Mana gathering as it surged through his fingers.

Kemy gasped, Vas looked interested and Deo was busy being distracted by Cram carving a tiny figurine of Smalls scowling. Smalls glared at the figure.

It was annoyingly good work.

His Mana surrounded the muffs in a silky globe that began to rotate the item. A basic Tailor class would need a proper bench, materials, and a few hours. A journeyman would need a basic kit and some intense focus. A master would simply need materials and a deep understanding of his chosen field. Be it silk, leather, dresses, suits, coats... they’d seen so many types and examples that one detail was engraved into their mind.

That detail being a single phrase. For some it was ‘Thread’ or ‘Cloth’ or even ‘Gold stitching’. It would allow them a medium to manipulate the item and soak their Mana in.

For Smalls, he simply needed a few seconds and his Mana to do a simple task like this.

His Mana slowly overlayed the Dungeon Mana, learned where it formed reality... where it was ‘earmuff’ and where it was ‘dungeon’. Smalls began to replace the Dungeon Mana, decaying without its core to power it, with his own.

Natural Mana that would simply be. The earmuff glowed, and the silky bubble faded as Smalls examined the piece.

No degradation or corruption. No misfires and no transmutations, and best of all, no ticking timer to breaking apart from anything but the ravages of time. Even then, Smalls was pretty certain it would last quite a while.

The ability to keep a durability counter on an item, forcing customers to return in order to refill the time limit was... Smalls was but a small minority that spoke out when the guilds of craft began to greedily apply this practise.

It lead to the rich hoarding magical items and the poor forced to spend most of their life returning to a Dungeon where their fire sword or stone shield had been found to restore its dungeon Mana.

This was not why the class was formed. Not for the greed of coins, rather it was the passion of the cloth.

The thread and needle were their sword and wand... and the guild spat on it and, by proxy, Smalls.

Ah well, he had gotten his revenge in the end. Smalls handed the muffs to, a now wide-eyed. Kemy.

“You’re a...master-level tailor?” she squeaked. Smalls had to smile at that. The girl was wonderfully untouched by the horrors of this world. Cram snorted.

“Let’s go with that before he toots his own horn and pulls out his closet,” he mumbled.

“I would never do that to a guest… unless they asked to see my collection. I’m sure I haven’t dusted off the Nebula Drake scales mini-skirt in a while! I’ll need to wash the Blossom Hare’s handbag but it still smells as sweet as a field in spring,” he chuckled. His works were like balm to his temper.

“Mister Smalls, the earmuffs look as good as new,” Vas said and blinked at them.

“How did you do that?” he met Smalls’ eyes with a blunt interested expression.

“Many years of sewing up my friends, it left me with a talent in the area. I simply traded scars and blood for cloth and dyes,” he poured tea for the golem who simply drained it one gulp.

Ah, now he remembered. Japes’ boy.

Nice to see the lad actually looked human these days rather than that monstrous form Japes had shaped him into duringfor a minor skirmish.

“Thank you! How much do I owe you?” Kemy asked, face pinched with worry. Smalls could simply gush at this girl!

Then he was hit with a delicious idea.

“Oh no...” Cram mumbled as a confused Deo chewed the fudge trap and stared.

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to... do your next Dungeon dive in a rented piece of clothing would you? I haven’t advertised in... years,” Smalls purred.

Kemy’s innocent look of confusion made Ruberoi Smalls feel like a Crafting Guildmaster once more.

He looked over to his knick-knack shelf where he dumped the odds and ends he had found during his time in Durence.

The standalone item was, of course, the golden spool of thread that would make even plebeian clothing into a royal treasure.

Shame how the best guild in the city had lost this little relic. And to his knowledge... still hadn’t announced it publicly. Wasn’t some princess’s birthday coming up?

Oh, now that was going to be deliciously sweet to hear the news of.

After all, all the money in the world would struggle to buy actual talent in a pinch.

He swept Kemy into his closet which was really a large tunnel underground leading to an armory.

Bat Queen dress? No... Perhaps Mimic wood? Smalls danced around with excitement as Kemy stared and stared at the room that actually vanished into the horizon.

Smalls guessed he had gone a little overboard when he got bored - but who didn’t?

He paused at one glowing rack of clothes and his smile went from divine to devilish.

Perfect.

----

91: Nina a Hand?

The giant pig that lived in the magical mushroom forest was nice.

He was rather relaxed when Lord Mushy called for him. Drama-Nina hadn't even seen the boulder covered in mushrooms for the creature it was until the head appeared.

“This scoundrel will rest all day if you allow him,” Lord Mushy promised as he twirled a ball of mud around his hand. His fingers glowed like the mushrooms on the ceiling and the mud began to take a rounded shape.

Bossy-Nina looked at it and the silence on her end was telling. The tiny etchings on the side and rimmed opening of the vase that was quickly forming would be beautiful in appearance if it set properly. The boar accepted Drama-Nina’s petting, she carefully heeded Lord Mushy’s warning not to pluck any mushrooms or it would upset Boary.

Cute name. Seth and Lord broke into that enchanting language of Seth’s once more but Drama-Nina was distracted as Lazy-Nina back at the bar split on her own volition and sent the new clone to do the work.

That made Drama-Nina sigh... the good news was that the Nina that formed was Perfectionist-Nina. The sight of undone dishes drove her mad and she dug in with a war cry. Lazy-Nina nodded to the Clumsy-Nina.

Damn it, it was already starting. Lazy would make Perfect to do her job, then Perfect would be annoyed at the uneven number of clones and split again, which might make either Sleepy-Nina or Lady-Nina.

Find the bar, gather herself, be as whole as she could be.

Idly, she opened the mind connectivity to all the clones and sighed as once again, Ambitious-Nina didn’t appear.

Her missing part. Her missing Nina... where was she?

Something to brood over later when she got drunk. Being drunk or under the effect of a substance made her unable to split. Something about extra chemicals in her veins made the magic go wonky. It was why Nina couldn’t wear magical items either.

It was... unwise to duplicate magical items unless you knew what you needed or if you wanted to see a confused clone explode a second later. Gory chunks had rained that day and that had put Nina off cloning for a while.

The pig stood up and waddled off as Mushy placed the solid pot down and reached into a bucket that was kept out of sight for more mud. The creature seemed to love making these oddly pretty pots with unorthodox patterns.

The pot depicting the creature known as Bob was something Nina had shoved into Seth’s arm. She wasn’t ready to confront that trauma yet.

The Mushroom grove smelled wet but not off-putting. The Dungeon had a point in the fact that her mushrooms didn’t need decaying matter to grow or to spread. Some of the star mushrooms were pretty and she idly ran a hand over a few of them. The only ones she had to watch were the black ones, according to Lord Mushy. Bossy-Nina talked about pot sales and how many people had patented his work.

The girl was a little high strung on being in charge of things.

Her hand brushed an odd cap and it twitched. Drama-Nina froze as she looked down into two eyes that glowed like stars. The black cap had looked red in the light but the tiny fluffy white body that softly trotted forward with flat feet rushed past Drama-Nina and latched on to Lord Mushy’s leg.

“Little Missy, what are you doing away from the second floor? Did you follow me and Quee upstairs?” Lord asked. The tiny mushroom...Missy... merely buried her head into his leg harder. She, it definitely was a she because Nina got the strongest ‘little sister’ vibes ever, risked a glance at Seth and the Ninas.

She didn’t speak but handed Lord a flower of a deep blue colour that was striking in its beauty.

“Ah, another one!” Lord chuckled as he held his new pot in one hand, where it began to flop without another hand to shape it. Lord placed the blue flower in his crown-like cap before lifting the monster known as Missy onto his shoulder.

“Guests, may I Introduce Missy of the Stars,” he boomed. Bossy-Nina and Seth shared a look as Drama-Nina looked amazed.

Drama-Nina made a little ‘ohh’ noise as Missy waved.

Of the stars? That was a title that just begged for a story or... maybe it was because the monster was an alien from another Dimension!? All sorts of weird things fell from the stars. Everyone knew the stars were gates to other realms.

“So, why the title?” Bossy asked, Drama shot her a glare for trying to ruin the mystery.

Lord raised his weirdly shaped pot with a hole in the middle.

“Little Miss, can you?” he asked cheerfully. The sweet little alien(?) blinked before nodding. She stared at the pot.

Drama-Nina pushed Bossy into a pile of mushrooms to get a better view.

Alien magic?!

Lord threw the pot up and the little starry eyes exploded like a nova and twin death beams of deathly death fried it into a solid glittering glass vase with three handles.

The alien had a death beam!

Drama-Nina turned and ran for her life.

“I swear I can’t believe she’d miss the opportunity to patent the name of this move. How do you feel about ‘Twin-nova-Beam attack?’ We must appeal to the children!” Bossy’s fading voice offered.

Drama-Nina barely focused, the next room looked like a hole to some fortress but Nina panicked and looked around, seeing a well! Darkness! Cover from the deadly lasers!

She dove for it.

Safety!

--

“That’s not good,” Delta said bluntly as the girl who acted like a rabbit on energy drinks began to lower herself into the well.

“Fera! Get the stick!” she called quickly.

---

This was the life.

Ruli sipped more Shroom Pop. She loved it, hated it, then loved it again. The Jungle sun was out for a blast and she rested near Bob’s pool. The beast was elsewhere for the moment. She rested as her skin soaked up the sun rays as bees buzzed... birds sang... tiny little devils skulked in the bush.

This was the life.

Still, the one weird thing to all this was, of course, her new friend.

Ruli opened one eye to see the sword laying next to her as if also soaking up the rays.

“How you doing?” she asked, and the veins on the blade blazed red like molten lava. Feeling smart, Ruli named the blade Magma. It looked like a fiery scar in the earth and Ruli kinda liked its spunk to follow her around.

It was a demon sword alright. It had that feeling. Kinda spicy and smokey. It also looked metal as heck. Ruli had given up locking it away in Fera’s bar and just enjoyed having a decent weapon around. The person who gave it to her? That was something Ruli would have to snoop out later.

Much later, when her paradise got boring.

A few bees dropped honey into her pop and boy did it taste crappy. No wait... amazing.

Ruli sighed and rested once more.

She enjoyed having Delta to herself in a weird way. Not only did all her monsters give her VIP treatment, it was free.

Delta... That sweet but shy avatar of hers made Ruli grin, the memory as sweet as the honey.

What a gal. Made beer and defeated evil.

She watched as the sword vanished and a bunch of those runty mushroom monsters fled from the bush as Magma toppled on top of them.

Leaving behind their blowguns and darts.

“Nice Maggy... good sword,” Ruli mumbled as she began to drift off once more.

---

Drama-Nina was safe. She crawled in besides coins and pearls in a tiny nook. If the death lasers came, she had ammunition. The best part was the water didn’t reach high enough to flood in and it was actually a little warm here. This had to be a secret in the Dungeon and she, DRAMA-NINA, had found it.

Suck it, Explorer-Nina.

She looked around and saw a dangling ruby necklace. It glinted in the low light and was slightly swaying. Drama-Nina eyed it.

Oh, her hands were moving...

They seemed to be aiming for the necklace... odd.

In her head, Perfectionist-Nina was arranging tables and ordered that metal wool be used on all but the wood as Nibs begged her to stop. Lazy-Nina looked into her view and whistled.

“Looks kinda nice,” she admitted.

Her fingers brushed the necklace and pulled. The effect was like a basket being held up by a stick getting yanked away as Nina set off the trap.

The roof of the nook snapped down and darkness took her.

“THE ALIEN CAVE GOT ME! I’M GOING TO BE DISSECTED FOR BARMAID SECRETS!” she screamed. Tiny little teeth slid down and locked the ceiling to the floor.

“That’s no cave,” Perfectionist chided while she began to trim Nibs’ beard as the man began to turn red.

“Oi, you buggering Clam. Spit her out,” a gruff voice commanded, and a shining pole of justice wedged into the alien cave and began to leverage it open. Drama-Nina crawled out, still clutching the necklace.

“My hero!” she cried and then looked down into the pissed expression of a goblin.

“Hero? Heroes don’t get paid for being helpful!” the goblin growled, taking the necklace and chucking it back into what Drama-Nina could now see was a giant clam.

Nina felt like crying as she saw the loot flying and her mind fought with the instinct of staying safe and diving for the treasure.

The sucky part of already being split so much was that her will to stop herself from splitting was... reduced.

Nina watched as another Nina flew out of her body after it.

“Mine! Mine! Precious booty is mine!” Hoarder-Nina shrieked. The clam opened its huge mouth and Hoarder-Nina almost gasped in pleasure at the sight of the gold and jewels before she was swallowed whole. The clam shut up tighter than a bank vault as faint giggling could be heard from within. The good news was that any interest Drama-Nina had in jewelry or shiny things was gone. Just flat out not there anymore.

So now she could focus on the deadly lasers.

“Come on, you and the good-looking bloke are in my bar,” the goblin huffed and walked towards the ladder out of the well.

Drama-Nina blinked.

“Bar?” she repeated. She turned to the clam.

“I’ll get her on the way out,” she promised and followed the goblin.

The clam just rocked back and forth, its odd decorative eyes bobbing.

---

Nu was a cautious menu. He decided that while Delta dropped everything to go party with the intruders, he would watch what the Silence and its cult might be plotting.

Not that he could do anything else. Floor 2 had Ruli on it and the first floor was literally becoming infested by these Ninas.

Thankfully, Jack was now a contract and slowly his own natural Mana would be replaced by Delta’s. The process would take years but eventually Jack would lose the power to go outside in return for great power inside.

Such was the nature of contracts. Nu also knew that Jack’s natural Mana would be filtered into Delta as a consequence. He hoped that would only result in some... minor love for explosions.

Nothing quite like the idea of Delta going insane or deciding to become even weirder than she already was.

He watched as the garden changed, as Delta’s Mana finished up. He swore it was almost sulking, but dismissed that thought as silly.

The fountain was replaced by a deep well with arches around it. In the water, Mana glowed deep orange. Pure unshaped orange Mana.

That was by far the best and worst thing Nu had ever seen.

A Delta Fountain. You could literally drink Delta Mana to do… well, the list was long but this easily tied with the map room for efficient ways to begin infecting people with Delta.

A temporary boost or recovery would be possible. Perhaps an upgrade to some natural ability or strength. It was rare, but some Dungeons did offer such upgrades if one braved the risks.

The downside, and it really was a downer, was that it was just in the middle of the garden. It wasn’t hidden. It wasn’t protected... anyone and anything could go have a sip.

It was irksome.

What if these slug-gurgling flea-ridden waste-of-precious-existence cult members sipped? It would give the Silence a deeper connection to Delta!

He sighed and floated closer.

Another bit of good news was... that the boost was a one-time thing. The Mana would only change beings once. The pulsing runes along the walls of the well were complicated and he suspected Sis was taking care to make sure it was limited.

As far as he could see, the Mana would mingle with the natural mana of a person... find out where it was best used and push it to a new level.

Painful would be putting it lightly if done in a single dose.

Small...careful sips over time. That would be less gruesome. Sip until you hit that limit and broke through. That would help people, really give a reason to come and think Delta was too nice and kind!

Nu was going to remind them that this was still a Dungeon.

He began to focus on his goal.

Keeping Delta alive. Keeping Delta from being abused... keeping Delta happy.

Nothing else mattered.

He glared... he plotted... and most of all... he crafted traps.

When he was done, he turned to the watching Gnashly.

“Anyone who your mother doesn’t like... crush them before they touch this well,” he warned. The troll frowned at the garden.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“What... well?” she grumbled, staring at his work. Nu just turned and faced the doors still unconquered.

The quiet was worrying, but he was far from done.

Above every second door in this room, he began to gather Mana and intent. He had never done this before. He had never let himself do this.

But as things appeared and his purpose became crooked, Sis took notice. He formed four hunching statues to stand guard for any... interlopers.

His orders made them still, and the monsters went to sleep with only a lfaint awarness of their surroundings. Maybe Delta might not notice them as quickly.

Delta could be in the light and be happy with people. But Nu was content to be down here waging war.

He was content to be her shadow.

Because no one could be closer than one’s own shadow.

And if assholes made it this far down?

It was better to be prepared. After all... who Nu when trouble would come from below or above?

He paused... felt sick... and swore to himself that he would never do that again.

He would have to leave it to Delta to make the Goyles a spawn room or turn the garden into one. He already felt like he was at his limit of pushing his power over the Dungeon. He looked around the garden with the nine doors and...

Nu wasn’t sure if it was anticipation or worry that made him want to have their secrets laid bare. He honestly wished he could just grab a sword and do the job himself, but that option just wasn’t available to him now.

That’s why he and Delta had minions. Very... strong minions.

But he had no doubt the Cult had some horrid beings waiting for them. They had so many years of testing ever-reverting subjects until something stuck.

That spoke of trouble and Nu was very good at tackling trouble.

He was more worried about Delta.

If she found some monstrous creature or something... she might try to befriend it, or worse… cry.

Nu would not let that happen.

Not while he had something to protect.

---

“You make a compelling argument,” Bossy admitted as they stood outside the very bar they had come in search of.

“You know I do! Come on, with Perfect-Nina and Lazy-Nina splitting for the heck of it... we need to pull together. So, go get Hoarder-Nina and we’ll smush together, balancing out the splitting,” Drama-Nina explained.

Being one of the older clones meant she kept some sense of the original Nina. Just a little.

Bossy narrowed her eyes and Drama-Nina quickly did some repair work before Bossy stormed off.

“It lets you get back into the driver seat. Get Hoarder under control and bring me into line,” Drama-Nina said as she nodded. That made her clone smile.

Bossy went off without another word, pushing past the large wooden fort that guarded the bar. Drama-Nina could see how their towers would offer decent cover against the climbers. The various mounds and slippery mud made the climb even worse. Nina... all of them... were just going to pay the fine to the devil clam and move on.

She looked up and read the name that was just visible from outside.

The Swarthy Hog.

It sounded like a place to find grizzled old men and potential lost princesses. No wonder Nibs was excited about it.

There was a faint buzz as Bossy took Hoarder back into herself. The feeling made all the Ninas tingle.

That feeling was her only way of coming back if she split too far. Mindless Ninas wandering for food and attacking everything until one got the idea to eat another Nina. That usually stuck them together, and the first rush of human pleasure that clone would feel would spread, and soon all Ninas would hunt other Ninas until a spark of intelligence returned to the Nina mind.

It was hard to see, hear and remember the things the Lesser Ninas had done. If she was lucky, it was just funny stories of bumbling bitey twins in the forest. Worst case was being hunted for attempted murder.

That always sucked.

Bossy returned and Nina smiled as Bossy held out a hand.

She took it and Bossy vanished into a shimmering green cloud of Mana that was taken back into Drama-Nina.

Control... desire... those emotions and ideas were suddenly real again. They were hers.

It felt like being a person again.

She turned and entered the bar. More Nina than before.

The place was... a little bare bones but hardly the worst place Nina had ever seen. The goblin who saved her was serving drinks to Seth and two goblins armed with bags and weapons. Lord Mushy and Missy occasionally used a spray bottle to mist themselves down with clear water.

The large mounted boar’s head above the entrance was a fake as the boar looked less defeated, less strung up, and more like a watchful protector of the place. Round tables were placed between thin but sturdy pillars. On one side was a crackling hearth that bathed the room in warm dancing light.

A collection of mushrooms growing out of the wall nearby was playing something rather sad... a piano melody of something soft... tender.

“Never heard the bloke go anywhere below ‘excited’. Wonder what’s got him all torn up?” the goblin asked Lord Mushy. The giant monster put down his thin flower vase and sighed.

“People. Such wonderful things... but they all have their own pasts. I can’t imagine having a year’s worth of memories, let alone, say... 35. I do believe my head would explode, wouldn’t you agree, my fair lady Fera?” he gruffly said. Fera poured herself a shot of something familiar and nodded, not scowling as hard as she shot Missy a crooked smile and the little mushroom kicked her legs off the high stool.

“Is that Nib’s brew?” Nina called out and the goblin... Fera, looked up.

“Was. It tasted like pig swill so I made it better,” she said, and as if in response to something only she could hear, Fera coughed.

“No offence to the maker,” she added with little warmth to her tone. Seth raised his glass of bubbling brown drink up, face revolted, before he took another deep swig.

“Evil but heavenly!” he marveled.

Odd.

Fera turned back to Lord Mushy.

“We got Mum’s memories to a point. So it isn’t the same. I keep getting ideas for drinks I’ve never heard of... something called cocktails, but they’re too fancy for this place,” Fera dismissed and looked to the standing Nina.

“Make an order or grab a mop and clean. Standing there is ruining the view,” she ordered. Nina, hearing this almost daily, snapped to attention and looked around for the mop only for none to be found.

“Hah, this is a Dungeon bar. Stains and marks are intentional. Sit down and get your drink,” Fera ordered. Nina did so, pulling out the letter from Nibs as she was handed the same kind of drink that Seth was drinking... was drinking.

He stared at the empty glass.

“Vanished... some taker of things? No... I am... in love,” he mumbled.

Fera took the note and opened the seal with one of her very long nails. Nina took a sip and froze.

The drink was something akin to awful lich spit. A corrosive evil liquid that destroyed all that it touched... such evil that would consume Nina and leave her a husk of a woman.

She almost broke and cried, but then in the darkness came life and light. Joy and love danced across her tongue and her body felt light, as if she would float off the stool at any moment. It hit her stomach and she got a headrush, as if she just had the best night of her life and now came the bubbly and cute pillow talk.

The Drink tore her opinion in two.

And thus, it tore Nina in two.

---

Fera scowled at the letter. She didn’t know exactly how to read. Speaking was easy, everyone in the Dungeon spoke the same language. She closed her eyes and Mum... her good mother... let her tap into her own knowledge. Fera wasn’t one for compliments, but Mum was smart - scary smart. She knew one whole language and even parts of others!

Fera would beat the snot out of anyone who would call her Mum dumb, and then shoot them.

She focused and the words began to blend and work together. The local language was now in Fera’s mind.

Ah... words.

Fera needed to make a menu and some boards to declare her wares.

The letter was short and to the point.

Fera’s rise in power would not go ignored. While she was highly respected for her passion, Niblet’s Lunch and Drink Pub would not stand idly by. Fera was to prepare to be utterly shown up as the amateur she was... and a small extra note invited her for a free drink if she ever managed to break the rules of Dungeon and not go abomination.

Fera narrowed her eyes.

Rude. How utterly rude!

A free drink? How dare this Nibs! Fera had treasure for days! She even had a clam guarding it!

She tore the letter up and finally turned to see what the noise coming from her bar was. She paused as the girl who had come in was splitting into copies of herself. Each of the girls snatched the Shroom Pop and buzzed... splitting again. The splitting was happening faster and faster.

The bar was getting rather full and the girls were beginning to screech at each other.

Fera’s nostrils flared.

She reached under the bar.

All the girls, even the ones baring teeth and snarling, froze as the almighty boomstick announced itself with a bang into the ceiling and a shower of wood chips.

“Enough of this! I want you all back in one piece before I fill yer rears with burning pellets!” she roared and the room shook with her anger.

She was the damn room guardian of this place and she would not let it get trampled!

There was a beat before clones began to pop out of sight. In the end, there was only one left who looked confused and dazed.

“I’m sorry... I...” she said, and Fera looked at the two broken stools and her other disturbed customers. Missy was on top of Lord Mushy, hiding in nervous fear. Seth had his new drink all down his front...

Unacceptable.

She reached under the bar and threw something at the girl.

It was an orange apron with frills.

“Tomorrow morning. Be here and work off your debt,” she growled.

Inside, she was smirking.

Sorry, Nibs, but Fera had just pulled ahead in the race.

“But my other job...” the girl protested.

“Split. You seemed to be good at it,” Fera replied waspishly. The apron was meant to be a reward that made someone better at making drinks, or something similar, but Fera had never had planned on giving it out.

The girl wasn’t bound or even likely to turn up, but Fera looked to the floating form of her Mum.

“You deal with the consequences. She’s a real person and you might not be aware how much you’re biting off,” came the words of wisdom. Fera jutted her chin out slightly.

Fera always knew what she was biting into.

That was one of the benefits of being a cook.

Nina meekly approached the bar.

“Can I have something to eat?” she asked. Fera narrowed her eyes and tapped her finger on the bar as she gave her recommendation.

“You want the mushroom soup. It’s less conflicting,” she said, and the girl opened her mouth to argue.

“You... want... the soup,” Fera insisted. A beat later, the girl nodded.

Five minutes later, or it was free (not like these guests were even paying) Nina - the girl’s name - sipped the brew.

She blinked and then looked up.

“It’s good!” she said, and Fera was just glad she didn’t split again.

“You get free meals when working here. Also a break in the Pond room or a tour of the jungle,” she added on the rewards. Her intent wasn’t to make the girl suffer but to let her see and experience the bar... and a bit more. Then she could spread the news when she returned home.

Also, it wasn't about the stools, but Fera wanted it known... very early... that if trouble was to be started in her bar, there would be consequences.

Money was not going to be accepted... only very valuable trinkets for Mum or honest work.

This was not a pay-to-win kinda place.

Fera thought about that and then went through the back to get a blackboard and chalk.

She began to write.

Fera’s bar
Rulz
No fighting. I’ll end it.
No stealing. I’ll take back more.
No breaking things. You pay for it. No money accepted.
Ignoring these rulz will be open to being shot. Surviving this, you will be shot again.
If you live through that. Fera will get the boss next door to pay a visit. Boss will not be happy.

Tips to servers are acceptable since they have lives and need for money.

After a bit of time reading this over. Fera added one more line.

No cloning allowed in the bar.

Fera had a feeling that the list of rulz would only be getting bigger.

92: Fresh Breath of Seth

“I’ll escort her back,” Isanella promised as she emerged from Fera’s kitchen a short while later. She looked a little more melancholic than before. Seth gave her a deep frown.

“I could... “ oh what was the word?

“Herd you back with my magic? I do not experience joy if you are harmed,” Seth said. The goblin shook her head at their exchange.

It must truly be the oddest of experiences for a Dungeon to hear foreigners exchange words with each other. Isanella shook her head and held her lute tighter with a glint in her eyes.

“We will...destroy all foes,” she said back in Seth’s own mother tongue. Her expertise in Seth’s language was oddly militaristic. She had words and phrases that often related to or involved battle in some manner.

Seth was beginning to think Isanella had been near his people in a skirmish of some sort. Which was definitely odd since Isanella was a sweet house wife and a marvelous tea maker, but they all had pasts.

Nina was twirling her new apron. She said something to the bartender who smirked.

For someone who was basically being drafted into servitude, Nina didn’t seem that torn. Perhaps because the mushroom soup was simply that good of a treat, or maybe it was the offer of further rewards.

Isanella waved goodbye and leaned down to plant a kiss on one of the singing mushrooms. She said something soft to it and it responded with a soft affectionate piano melody.

Fera handed Nina a list of things that Seth thought could either be simple food items or parts of a dragon (his written understanding of the country wasn’t much better than his spoken one), but honestly Seth wasn’t sure which was worse in Durence.

The town had a very Quiss-like manner of making simple things end up on fire.

He waved them farewell and honestly was a little amused that he was about to have a much deeper conversation with the Dungeon born than the villagers he had been staying with.

Seth really needed to knuckle down and learn the local tongue. He just needed a teacher... someone that wasn’t Mr Jones the knowledge Demon.

Someone else.

Anyone else.

---

“GRIM!” Deo called and Grimnoire closed his eyes and counted to five before he turned to see Deo and two weirdos with him. One was the Potter’s kid. Bass or something. The other was that priestess girl but...

Grim opened his mouth and then closed it again.

Her basic robe and hood was gone.

The long flowing and glowing white robe she now donned was like a walking cloud. Her aura, hidden before, was being pushed to the surface and golden Mana of honesty soaked into the air around her. The robe was so thin and odd... that the tail end broke apart and reformed as rocks or twigs tried to snag on it. The sleeves were longer than the girl’s hands and yet when she went to hide her face, her hands simply fazed through the material as if it was “no hinderace.

The material shimmered as if a hidden sun were glowing off the girl’s body. Dozens of intricate tiny symbols pulsed with her Mana and a glow settled over Deo and Vas. They grinned as if tickled.

She looked like one strong gust would blow the outfit away but the sheer density of the costume gave off vibes of virtue and innocence.

It was, to Grim, the ultimate balance between eye-catching and inspiring.

The girl went pink at Grim’s staring and pulled her new hood up. The divine image was ruined by a childish pop up halo, that had been quickly sewn on at the last minute, that hovered over the girl’s head.

“THE HALO WAS MY IDEA!” Deo calmly explained.

“I should have guessed, Brawndo. How you convince masters of the art into doing childish things is a mystery,” he snipped. The boy’s bubble was annoyingly bright today.

“I got a new bowtie,” Jazz...Lass... said and his cheery red bowtie looked rather nice if nothing else.

Grim looked at Deo and waited.

The boy pulled out a freshly carved flute.

“CRAM MADE ME A FLUTE! I WANTED TO PLAY YOU A SONG BECAUSE YOU LOOKED DOWN!” he said and put the piece to his mouth,

Oh no.

The first clear note was like an arrow, it shot through Grim and he knew he was too late.

Deo and singing was... fine if Grim was to be honest . Deo and instruments?

A rather different story.

Deo’s fingers flew over the flute as the melody warbled out into some epic stanza and he didn’t stop. For thirty seconds straight Deo made an endless tune as his fingers moved like a master over the wooden instrument. The wind was redirected, the birds gathered in awe, and deep in some hellish abyss a devil put his fiddle down in defeat. Kemy’s cloud dress was struggling to hold together and the potter boy was gaping in shock as Deo’s own hair was being flung about as the music reached the crescendo of this epic solo.

Grim felt inspired, annoyed, awed, grumpy, and a little jealous. The worst thing was that Deo didn’t even know how annoyingly good he was at this.

The boy could make music dance to his tune and never even knew about it.

Deo beamed, huffing a little after turning his loud voice into a loud flute solo.

“FEEL BETTER?” he asked. Grim jerkily nodded.

“Ecstatic,” he said clearly. He made sure never to look away or mumble. The priestess spoke but she was not even in Deo’s sight. Usually the boy was good enough to constantly be checking his comrades’ faces in case they were talking but he seemed rather focused on Grim.

The girl closed her eyes.

“Holy mother of truth, give me strength and the courage to help this boy... please... let me help him. He means well and he does not deserve this fate,” she said clearly and Grim actually raised one brow.

“Wow, lady, he’s deaf not hopeless. You could wait until he was out of the proverbial earshot before saying that,” he grunted and turned to leave.

Deo called after him and he was pulled into a one-armed hug as Deo made a suddenly interesting decision.

The Second floor... of Delta.

Grim’s eyes glazed over at thoughts of success and loot.

---

Kemy was staring in absolute shock at the two boys.

That boy had... understood her. She hadn’t meant to be heard hence why her prayer was in a deep lost tongue of the first folk who worshipped her Goddess. The last of the language hosted in her monastery for at least four generations of Truth Seekers.

How did this boy… someone who had never left his village… know her language?

---

Seth was on a mission to explore the Dungeon. He planned to see what wonders this place might have. Even better, he could treat it as a nice trip since she was unwilling to kill Seth unless he stepped out line.

Really, it was no different than walking on the Sovereign soil of another nation. Respect the laws or face punishment.

The matter of who would win was a moot point. Seth would lose the nice guest status he had and that would be a shame.

The first order of business was to see Isanella’s friend.

He asked Fera who merely guided him to a hidden passage behind a wall which he thanked her for with a promise to clean her bar and a compliment on the amazing soup.

“Don’t flirt with me, water boy. No discounts for return trips,” she grumbled but her ears did look a little bit perkier.

Seth was charming, he knew it… the various men, women and others of the world knew it very well. If Seth had a bad side, it was that he fell in love too easily and broke too many hearts when he found he could never settle in one place for very long.

He was a bit too much like the ocean like that.

And like the ocean, he could ruin an entire city's existence.

He had planned to very much do so. He sighed as he traversed the tunnel. Quiss chose one target, and he chose another.

The city or the tree. Which was to blame?

Did it matter? Both were going to be hurting when he and Quiss were done. For a tree who let a monster nest in its branches without care and the city who tried to wage war on it.

Beta.

Seth frowned harder.

Why did it have to be so… childish.

The town was no better. It would not even let Seth bury his master on their land due to ‘being on the tree’s side’. Her rites, her peace... her ways… were all denied because Seth had remained peaceful until it was too late. Not willing to use magic as a tool of power and fear like Quiss did.

His friend screaming and trying to burn a tree that didn’t even care he was there.

Then his master rose and Seth had to kill her for a second time.

He paused and took a deep breath as he saw the tunnel was becoming covered in ice and sloshing water.

He cooled down and whistled a tune his master had loved.

Down the tunnel, came floating words and Seth nearly stumbled in shock.

“The waves met the sun and a wonderful sight to my eyes. On this cliff I do stand, I cry in joy at their meeting. Come now... let the stars shine and let them become our saviors...” the words were even sung exactly like-

“Tough song. Sorry, it slipped out. I meant no pain to your heart,” a giant demonic beast tipped his cap slightly. Seth stared at the giant mushroom demon monster whose roots spread up and out of sight. His large stone structure acted like a trial and a stage.

The beast itself was of nightmares but his words were soft...

“You are Isanella’s companion?” he asked. The mushroom bowed.

“Aren’t I LUCKY! But seriously, between the two of you, you’re both going to make me drown in tears. Don’t you people have happy songs?” he said, half in exasperation and half in jest.

Seth then saw sitting nearby on the top most step was that small creature, Missy.

She waved and trilled a bird song. Maestro beamed.

“She’s so talented!” he bragged. Seth opened his mouth.

His heart still ached at the song and he closed his eyes before smiling.

“Oh kind bard of epic size. Let me share some songs I learned from Queens and Barmaids alike!” he offered.

De-stress… peaceful… kind…

He had to remember who he was and what his Master had loved about him. Right as he did the unspeakable, she smiled as he wept.

“Such an open heart... good boy,” she had smiled before the light faded.

His heart was open and now he poured out every shred of joyful moments and slightly exciting ones.

He sat near the two of them and used his powers to form a ring of ice crystals. They began to sound out clear notes as he made them vibrate at certain frequencies.

Missy clapped and Maestro was even more excited.

He joined in and Seth sang as the pain was soothed like ice over a wound… for the moment.

---

“We’ve got a support and a front liner. I’m a mid to close with simple tricks but I’m a glass, one hit wonder. Vas here has durability but he’s a gimmick character so it's best not to rely on him other than when he can step up. We’re lacking a mage to round up our weaknesses,” Grim said to Deo but flicking his eyes to the others to make sure they were paying attention.

“Delta isn’t actually a combat Dungeon. Plenty of ways to get through it without killing a thing!” Kemy beamed.

Grim looked up from his complicated map making and pieces on the board to stand in for them.

Kemy fidgeted under his look but he leaned back and grumbled.

“Fine… I guess we can just waltz in, sing some songs and get rewarded,” he huffed.

Not a combat Dungeon… clearly the cloudy wool was not only pulled over her frame but her eyes as well!

Delta was buffed to the max with epic monsters and unseen dangers. Sure, she might not use them but that could change with the mass arrival of adventurers. The Calcs…

Oh boy… they would not hear ‘peaceful’. Those psychos would hear ‘easy’ and bum rush the Dungeon

“WE COULD ASK DELTA TO PRETEND!” Deo suggested. Grim looked at him baffled for a moment before it clicked.

“I suppose but the spirit of the thing would feel off. It would be like when we were kids and hitting each other and declaring that person was dead as the other would protest,” he said slowly… it wasn’t… a bad idea.

If Delta could use blunt spears and pull punches… it was better than just taking a nifty tour.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Okay. Deo… go ask. You know her best. I’ll get Poppy. She’s a mage and Amanstar could be good. Two healers are better than one. That makes a party of six…” he said and eyed the map with new eyes.

“Can I go back to my group?” Kemy asked. Grim didn’t even look up.

“No. You’ve been drafted into Team…” he sighed loudly, “Team Heroic Holy Pot and friends,” he said this like chewing glass.

Deo beamed and Vas tried to looked positive.

“At least we have numbers! Delta would gain some good experience from this as well,” he offered.

Delta was going to stomp them so hard that Grim was going to develop an orange butt next.

Ah well, it beat wandering the town and watching new shops appear and odd people start moving as the Mana reached a new level.

Someone even said they saw Madam Ghu at the pub.

Now that was weird.

---

“Stop moving!” Smalls hissed as Cram, covered in branches and leaves, was used as a tower by Smalls while he peered through a spyglass at the gathering of Deo and his friends.

The robe! Even as the user sat there looking ready to cry, she looked amazing!

“When you said you were going to ride me outside, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but this wasn’t the worst thing that sprung to mind,” Cram admitted as he chewed jerky. Smalls slapped the half-orc’s head a little.

“Don’t be crass. There are innocent materials- I mean small animals around,” he said watching the group split off as Deo walked with Kemy and Vas in the general direction of the Dungeon.

A Dungeon dive! Smalls nearly wanted to gush that his robe would see action so soon!

“It’s a good thing I’m made of muscle or you would have crushed my neck with those bird legs of yours by now,” Cram calmly plucked Smalls of his shoulder. The man barely came up to his chin as he glared.

“I have dancer legs!” he protested.

“You have bird legs. I’ve seen them crush actual skulls when you get pissed. Besides, I like your legs,” Cram walked off as he denatured himself of branches and leaves.

Smalls was quiet for a second.

“Not a bird,” he finally said.

He needed to hurry up and test his invisibility cloak. He couldn’t miss his model in action!

---

Seth listened as Maestro talked through various mushrooms as he headed to the Boss room. The ominous door was closed and the glaring goblin riding a pig imagery... boar down on him.

Hah, Seth amused himself greatly.

“-Some good sights waiting for you. Third Floor is still needing some DIY fixing upping but Delta, sweet mother of us all, has a talent for making the ugly into weirdly wonderful,” he chortled. Seth liked Maestro.

The loud soul was someone who expected nothing of Seth but gave Seth his all regardless.

If there were ever a port to sail back to from time to time, then this Dungeon was shaping up to be it.

“Now… you wanna test yourself or I can peek in and let Fran give you a pass. Mum doesn’t mind for now,” Maestro offered. Seth blinked.

“I thought killing was frowned on here?” he asked. Maestro was quiet for a moment.

“Sir Fran is a spirit of battle. His rebirth after death only makes him train harder. It would honor him more if you fought, but you are free to pass,” Maestro suggested.

Seth smiled.

“I would be nothing if not interested to see a boss of Delta. Does my surrender still work in there?” he mused. Maestro hummed an acknowledgement.

“Dungeon wide, baby! Do not pass, do not collect 100 gold and go straight to the entrance,” he listed.

Seth smiled. He knocked.

The door slid open.

Seth stared at the wide underground arena with its white sand and carved empty audience seats.

From a large crack in the far wall something moved and Seth jumped a little as torches above him ignited, and then two more burst into flames followed by another two after that.

This repeated until the large brazier above the crack was a raging bonfire. A large form slipped out of the crack and Seth had to admit.

This Dungeon had style.

And a bar!

“Are you a challenger?” the well spoken goblin asked and Seth could see why this was Sir Fran. Not merely Fran the boss.

“I am, if you would have me?” Seth bowed. Sir Fran nodded under his helm, then the large pig knelt its front two legs to match.

“I could ask for no other honor but a duel between us,” Sir Fran said clearly.

He lowered his lance.

“I shall move in five seconds. Do be ready,” Fran said jovially as if this was something he hadn’t expected but was enjoying.

“Then I shall move in six,” Seth fired back. The hearty laugh made Seth smile as well.

“Don’t die human, I would like to buy you a drink afterwards,” Sir Fran called and his form blurred forward.

Seth pushed his hand out and a wall of water rushed forward to meet the charge. The wave was split into two with no loss of speed from Sir Fran.

Strong fellow.

He used the water as a whip, pulling hard on a stalactite to swing out of the way of the charge and landed roughly to the side where he stomped his foot causing a pillar of water to erupt where Sir Fran was trying to turn. The big pig had durability and weight as he was barely lifted off the ground. He curled his hand and the boss was enclosed in a swirling bubble of water. They struggled to escape but it followed their struggles inch by inch.

He was spending Mana now to make water, the dry arena working against him.

The bubble exploded in a flash of orange and steam that rushed towards Seth as the sheer pressure of Sir Fran’s stab created a funnel.

Focusing, he turned the boiling steam back into water by pushing it together so it only splashed on the sand and not Seth’s skin but the distraction let Sir Fran get close. He swung his lance. Seth raised one arm, ice spreading like scales to deflect the blow but he was still lifted clean off his feet and sent crashing across the arena.

He bounced up and surged forward like a rocket as he caused a wave to carry him forward.

He froze the water behind him creating a line across the arena that Fran would have to watch out for. He formed a water lance on his left arm and charged.

Fran reared his pig back and rushed forward to meet his joust. Seth grinned as his own lance spun like a drill and the pressure at its point became deadly.

He was surprised when Fran’s own lance exploded in orange light.

They collided in an explosion of orange lights and steam. Seth crashed against the stands in a safe water bubble but his arm was bleeding from a long cut where Fran had pierced through his iced scales and lightly grazed him.

That was going to sting once his adrenaline died down. But he gathered his shield into a single aqua blade and waited for the cloud of steam to fade.

No way was he going to fall for that old trick. No body… no win. He was proven right as Fran calmly walked out of the cloud, his pig looking a little flash-fried from the steam as well as Sir Fran now having a tan but nothing serious was injured.

“Hard for a first Level boss,” Seth said. Fran grinned.

“I have levels of difficulty. You simply are nearing the hardest but you’ll have to come back in a few days for that. The harder you hit, the harder I hit back,” the goblin said, not sounding tired at all.

“Hard? If you wanted it hard, my rather good looking goblin… you only had to ask!” Seth pointed his pressurized water sword. It was shaking in his grip from the sheer force. A bit of a Mana sink but it looked cool.

Seth kinda wanted to look cool to Sir Fran.

“Then let us duel!” Fran roared. Seth kicked it up a notch and from his Mana, water rushed forward until he was soon riding a half-horse, half-fish creature as it swam through the air. Seth dived bringing a waterfall down after him as the edge turned into sharp pricks of ice.

Fran’s lance did that orange thing again and a wave of the first ice was cut away but it left Seth with an opening to use.

Fran was strong but he lacked good area denial or counters.

But Seth was a wizard. He had his own weaknesses like getting cocky or distracted by a pretty face or a strong jaw.

He stabbed and Fran turned his head so his helm took the blow, the sawing of metal was loud and it made the recoil hard to control. Fran jumped and Seth tried, and failed, to redirect the blade upwards.

Fran’s armored head smashed into Seth’s unprotected one.

His water collapsed and he rolled to the floor as Fran landed back on his pig and charged again.

Seth was cursing as he scrambled to dive out of the way. His nose was a mess and one eye had gone dark from Fran’s glancing blow. The goblin hadn’t even gotten a good enough swing into the motion!

This goblin was monstrous.

He stopped focusing and waves of water exploded in every direction, turning the arena into a swampy mess slowing Fran down in the muck.

He reared up making his pig jump for the solid audience stands where he had stable ground again.

Smart gob.

Seth spun his body and, while most likely concussed, he wasn’t going to suffer magically from it. Seth’s power got stronger with less control.

It was a pain.

A waterspout formed, crashing into the ceiling as it sucked in falling rocks and balls of mud, turning the twister brown and filling it with projectiles. The air was howling and Seth was in the eye of this storm.

He let his power flow and roared in return to Fran’s earlier one.

Layers of the waterspout froze in rings of jagged ice as the Twister surged forward.

Wipe it all away! Let his waters be the canvas washer of the world!

His rings of ice were flung like disks and Fran was forced to do mighty leaps and charges around the stands to avoid being bisected.

A large shadow appeared on one side, Seth readied a wave of freezing water and swept the pig t away noisily.

But there was no Goblin.

From high above, amid the slight gaps where the ceiling dipped and his twister failed to touch, Fran dived directly down the clear tunnel at Seth.

Such cleverness… such power…

Seth… loved it.

He raised his hand,his whole arm turning to ice, becoming one with the element as the room was snapped frozen from the clear ice.

Five seconds, that was all Seth could handle of this spell… this form.

The twister froze and Fran’s own form was a frozen comet that was still aiming for Seth’s heart.

Seth snapped his finger and shards of ice became a storm as his arm exploded.

That was going to be a pain to grow back.

He blinked as the goblin comet, now in pieces, raced past him but the goblin’s lance still sunk deep into Seth’s shoulder.

He fell and the room went quiet.

Seth stared up at the remarkably well washed ceiling.

“Fine… it’s a draw… we’ll take turns buying rounds.” he called before passing out.

---

Delta sat in the ruined room, jaw dropped.

She should do something but she wasn’t able to move. The scene was just…

She wanted Fran’s autograph!

Home team was epic and she wanted to fist pump! Even if seeing Fran in proud icy chunks was a little upsetting, his sheer bliss was infectious!

“GO FRAN!” she cheered despite no one being left to hear her.

“FERA! Get the gobs to drag Seth into the bar. We need water and mushroom soup! Gob! Go get Quiss!” she began to act.

Fran’s new tiny core really did amazing things. It let him be adaptive to the Mana of the person who approaches his door. A Fran for everyone’s level of skill!

The First floor boss wasn’t going to be a pushover to OP people.

She was giddy and she felt like nothing could top that guest visit for some time!

--

Deo stared at the cave like entrance.

“Team Heroic Holy Pot and Friends... HAVE COME TO ASK A FAVOUR!” he jumped and cheered.

Kemy clapped politely.

Vas just inhaled and he looked distantly down the stairs.

“Empty… something is empty down there,” he whispered and followed his new friends down the stairs.

Under his shirt… a gem briefly glowed as it took in the fresh orange Mana.

93: A King's Grudge

Lordy Mushy awaited Delta’s answer.

“Pretend to be a Dungeon?” Delta repeated the question. She honestly should be proud that she was considered ‘not a Dungeon’ by Deo.

She eyed the group.

Kemy, the girl that almost made Delta wish she had a pitfall just so Kemy couldn’t leave, was looking not only her cheery self but also downright amazing in a cotton candy fluffy priestess robe. How on earth did someone sew clouds together?

It was hugging but not revealing, it was light but not flimsy... it was cute but not demeaning. Delta wanted it but stripping a gal naked in her Dungeon wouldn’t send the best message.

Beside, who else would wear it besides Luna?

She imagined Rale proudly walking down the river in the robe and snorted.

Vas was also here. He was surrounded by Lordy’s pots and looked amazed at the sheer skill jump the mushroom had gained in a such short while.

Delta wanted to rub her chin in pride.

That’s right, Delta’s kids were prodigies.

She made a note to put a sewing needle in the hand of a gargoyle if she ever made one. If nothing else, they wouldn’t be pricking their fingers if they messed up...

And Deo… oh Deo. After seeing Isanella so much, the resemblance was uncanny. There was also something else… something she only noticed now that her senses had been refined.

The boy felt… scarred. His Mana swirled in powerful but flawed ways as if paths it should be able to travel were snatched away. Gone.

Devoured.

The lingering scars twinged with a foul numbing feeling and Delta narrowed her eyes. She moved closer and, carefully, sunk her hands into his face. This felt invasive but unlike her monsters, Delta still couldn’t touch people that much. Ruli seemed easier due to her demon powers but Deo didn’t even seem to notice.

Her hands felt his Mana, rich and warm like milk before bed… the sun on your skin… a loved one’s hug. It was beautiful but as she felt up, near his brain and ears… the feeling was jaggedly torn away and she yelped as she actually cut herself on the sheer tear.

It was still sharp… cleanly torn inside Deo but the Mana had adapted… evolved to ignore the damage. The wound was old… very old.

Deo had to have been a baby or… or…

She dropped her hands to her side.

Delta… was going to destroy the Silence when she kicked down it’s doors. There was- is no reason to ever harm a child like this. Unless Deo’s natural hearing was going to kill him there was no reason.

Deo hadn’t hurt anyone. He had been damn nice to her! Her monsters! Delta let a growl escape. Deo was her friend.

As a damned Dungeon at heart… she was possessive of her treasures.

“Sure… I’ll need a day or two but I can make it happen,” Delta said as the silence had stretched on for a bit. Lordy cleared his throat and relayed the message. Deo cheered.

“Ask Deo if I can try something on him?” she asked. Lordy made firm mouth motions despite having no mouth exactly. It was good enough Deo only struggled a little to understand him. Oddly the mustache helped.

“SURE! DEO BRAWNDO IS ALWAYS HERE TO HELP!” he promised with his beaming smile. Delta smiled and placed her hands near the jagged torn part.

Maybe… since Deo had grown up with little Mana… she could take its place? She gathered Mana and swirled it around Deo.

Kemy gasped as Deo began to pulse with orange light.

“WOW… I FEEL WARM!” Deo said with a laugh. Delta focused… her vision splitting into the lines of numbers. The walls were microscopic ones and twos… the air was Mana mimicking the surrounding Oxygen… Lordy was a physical shell pulsing with her Mana. Deo… a glowing red sun… Vas an oddly black pond that sucked up light that came near by… Kemy… a golden beacon of truth…

She focused and Delta broke down from human-happy to a Delta of processes, of a hundred simulations and ideas. Each one suggested before being discarded as her Mana gave live feedback of what did what… what failed…

No successes. She tried to be more like the core she was and her head pulsed as she barely parsed 200 simulations. A single Mana doing this or that… perhaps higher there… perhaps that single particle of orange Mana a bit faster?

At this rate it would take a year to just finish seeing what would happen if she carefully filled Deo up with Mana.

Delta breathed and emotion returned… humanity.

Her Mana in this form and shape was too disorganised and unpurposed! Too… impure to do what she wanted. She wanted to kick something.

She sighed and Deo itched his ear as if suffering from air pressure.

“Thanks Deo,” she said and the boy grinned.

“LATER DELTA! TEAM HEROIC HOLY POT WILL BE BACK SOON TO TOTALLY WIN… PRETEND WIN!” he said and raced outside.

Kemy opened her eyes, her hands unclasping. She had been...scrying? Sensing? Doing something like it and she stared roughly at the direction Delta’s avatar was in.

“You are… so nice. Praise to you, Delta,” Kemy bowed and ran up the stairs.

“No, come back! I forgot to lock you in here and make you stay forever!” Delta whined. Damn it, what was the chance of an innocent gal like Kemy passing through in the next few years?! Vas merely said something quiet to Lordy and the tall creature laughed loudly.

“Many secrets await you! Please… do come back and seek them out,” he encouraged the golem. Vas was slower to leave but he looked thoughtful.

Delta grumbled about escaping maidens for a few more minutes until she felt like a giant fire-breathing turtle so she stopped and floated back to the Pub where Fera was pouring more water on Seth. Delta was about to ask what the hell was going on until she saw the water being literally being sucked from the bucket and drained into the regrowing stump of Seth’s hand.

“He’s like a plant. Just water him I guess,” Fera shrugged. She went back to get more clean water and Seth looked less dead and more hungover as he grumbled.

Delta was impressed… and a little scared. How would you kill this man near a river or an ocean?!

She felt yet more people come and decided today was going to be busy when she saw a red-faced Quiss shouting for the ‘Idiotic exploding tea cup’.

Delta hoped he meant Seth. She really did.

There was a second person Delta had never seen before. A wispy woman. She looked like if a mummy had laid out for a tan and then been forgotten for about 100 years.

“Be’narl, I don’t care about your hearing. My friend blew himself up again! He’s a damn water mage! How does he keep doing that?!” Quiss yelled as Maestro opened the tunnels for them. The woman gave Maestro a once over.

“Cut back on the miracle grow, bean sprout. Size ain’t worth things falling off later,” the raspy wrinkle warned. Maestro had no answer for that.

This woman wasn’t human. Delta just knew it. Like an apple and a mouldy old orange standing next to each other as Quiss and the woman appeared in the pub.

“Delta, Be’narl Ghu. Be’narl, Dungeon and monsters. Now see if he needs help,” Quiss sighed. He looked around.

“Thank God, a bar!” he praised the skies.

“I’m an innkeeper, not a doctor!” the woman hissed but she bent down nonetheless. She began to touch tender points and Delta noticed how her golden eyes saw more than she let on.

“Minor Mana conversion. Typical magic horse waste, bah! Man is a fool. He is of water… not ice. He should keep to his element,” the woman held out a hand to Fera. “Something strong. For me. I’ll pay,” she said. Fera actually choked back a gasp.

“Pay… you’ll pay?!” Fera rushed over and began to mix bottles. Honest customers, Delta guessed Fera might want some of them.

“Depends on the drink,” Ghu warned.

“Seth uses ice because water causes leaks in cities when he uses it,” Quiss grumbled, and despite his pissed attitude, he was watching Seth’s form with real worry. He sipped his drink and it looked different from Shroom Pop.

Quiss smirked at the watching Fera.

“Strong… but I’ve burned my tongue on hotter things,” he bragged. Fera waited, then Quiss burped, shaken for a moment as his eyes actually watered.

“It’s called ‘Troll Tears’ for a reason. I used a few spins of my new assistant’s wooden spoon to mix the spirit,” Fera grinned.

Delta gasped.

That spoon was used for troll soup!

Ghu pressed a point near Seth’s elbow and the man gasped awake. Ghu said something quietly. Seth’s eyes slid close and the woman for a moment looked much younger… her wispy hair a little black before she grunted and sunk back into decrepit.

“He’s fine. Pure Dungeon water is the next best thing short of a pure Nature spring or some Unicorn piss,” Ghu snorted and cackled. Fera passed her an oddly green drink.

“Witch Doctor’s Medicine,” Fera offered.

Delta watched the bubbling glass.

“What is in there, Fera?” she asked quietly.

Fera covered her mouth to mask her words.

“Some Pygmy dart paralytic crushed in, mixed with one part gutrot but mended with rare herbal flowers from the secret garden. A touch of royal honey and mixed all together. Oh and rum. Devina promised me her nature spirits weren’t in the flowers but… I can’t be sure. So she may be drinking actual spirits,” Fera listed.

Delta stared in horror at her goblin and the worst part was… Ghu ordered a second one not long after.

--

King Lendious sat on his throne as his select council and Royal Guards watched him slowly grip a report.

He tried to keep his cool, a king that lost control was a sad sight indeed but the mere mention… the sheer audacity… of the words before made him want to throw his crown out the window and scream.

He felt anger bubble and he smelled… cheese.

Lendious’ eyes snapped about but there would be none. The very room itself had been cursed with the stench. He had priests and powerful mages work spells but the best they could do was mask it for some time. It was still too easy to smell.

“My King. That shanty cursed place is of no concern-” a woman offered. Gineria, mistress of coin. Her eyes cut better than any sword.

“No concern? No concern?! Have you read the report? It mentions by name several interesting parties. One of which would be HALDI KEER! Wanted for the crimes of 55 different accounts in this city alone! One of which was assault on his own king,” Lendious leaned forward and threw the report to the ground.

“Another is Mila Darknessbane. Maybe you remember her as the monster that dropped our royal drake’s left leg on my front door step and told me I would be able to bargain for the rest attached? Need I even mention the name ISANELLA BRAWNDO?!” he screamed.

Cool lost… mood ruined.

A few people gasped loudly at Brawndo’s name. Damn that woman and her monster husband.

A brazen new Royal Knight stepped up. Mendah or some such. He was too new for the King to know him closely. His Royal Knights grew every year for this very reason. To make up for the losses sure to come.

“Let me go and bring them to justice,” he knelt and requested.

There was silence.

Then, a figure was just there, an arm yanking the boy to his feet. The Knight turned to chew out whomever it was, but his words died off as the cloaked Lorsa stared back.

“Back in line, egg,” Lorsa said calmly. Mendah obeyed meekly.

Lendious felt better seeing the oldest Royal Knight.

The one who guarded him as a child.

“Lorsa, so glad you can join the hubbub!” Perhal giggled and waved. The slightly rotund woman made people look away in fear. The King allowed her to speak openly. The woman had done much in his service… many dark things. Her new apprentice stared at Lorsa with… interest. Odd boy that one.

Al.

The new star under Perhal was quickly climbing the ranks. Willing to do any and all tasks given to him. His strength grew just as astronomically.

Some said he was a gift from the gods. Others said he was a curse waiting to happen. Lendious didn’t care much. The boy had been found in some odd sleepy town that suffered a stray bandit attack. The town was oddly unknown to the king and yet… the boy didn’t look like he was a victim.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

He looked like a warrior.

Lendious leaned back and knew the boy only spoke in carefully prepared lines or stared silently.

His name was Alf Far but everyone ended up calling him Al.

Even the king was somewhat unable to really explain why they took such interest in the boy.

“Attacks on the town would be unwise if even needed. Durence is and always has been a promise. They would go to that town and they would stay there. They have done so,” Lorsa calmly picked up the report, scooping up the papers slowly. Lendious squirmed with a touch of guilt and shame at his temper.

“But Lorry, they’re getting Mana now! That means they won’t be still for long. Best to crush them and drink them dry before they become a pest,” Perhal sang. Another Knight spoke up.

“Control your disgusting habits, Perhal. Durence was Grey… but a Dungeon appeared. Are we to blame them for that? They could no sooner do that than control the sun. It’s unfair even for wanted criminals who agreed to a prison of their own terms… provoking them would be stupid,” Adala warned. A clever woman whose arrows could hunt people like beasts.

The King admired her for her ‘robust’ common sense.

“Yet leaving them alone without a warden was always a risk. Before, it was a danger to our men but now with Mana… it would not be unreasonable.” A knight nodded. Lendious frowned.

That deal… how much of that deal was an ultimatum.

Mila Darknessbane had cut through his already injured men and told him flatly.

“Leave us alone to grieve and die… and we’ll leave your city alone to stand,” she whispered. Then she was gone.

That was the deal.

The King had had lies spread. Contracts… promises… blackmail…

All lies. But Lorsa had made it sound good and the kingdom soon believed the King had exiled these criminals in a stalemate…

He hadn’t been stupid. He had the place watched. People arrived and yet no one left. He followed trails and found… no recruiter… people just woke up one day and went to Durence.

Not any old beggars but dangerous people. All mail from Durence, slow as it was, was checked… read… and sealed. There was no magic! No hidden code. But people still kept coming.

It was maddening.

Lorsa has been in charge of tracking the progress of this migration but their many duties left this secondary. In Lorsa’s words… let them gather into a spot. The Grey would end them all.

He trusted Lorsa to do what was needed.

Lendious closed his eyes.

“This Noland, he is to return with a scribe who will act as his apprentice. With him… I want two Knights to escort him. I want complete reports. I want to know strengths… I want to know numbers, and I want to know viable plans if an invasion is needed. Is that clear?” he said to Lorsa and his own scribe who was writing down his every word.

“Who shall go?” Lorsa calmly asked as if Lendious hadn't just stated he was sending two of his most deadly warriors on a tax run.

“Zane… and Perhal,” he said and the woman—busy snacking on something burned to a crisp—blinked.

“Me? Oh I’ll bring Al for some hands-on training,” she beamed. Lorsa tilted their head.

A sign of extreme agitation for Lorsa, he knew that well.

“Usually we pair different mindsets to make sure all thoughts and avenues are covered,” Lorsa said logically. Lendious leaned his head into his hand.

“Sometimes a battle-axe with two blades will stir things faster than a sword and shield,” he stated. Lorsa bowed.

“I shall inform Zane of his duty. Perhal… I doubt we’ll need to chase you down tomorrow,” Lorsa was gone before the woman could answer.

“Oh poo. I hate when the leader does a vanishing trick. Can’t even invite them for tea,” she told the blank faced Al.

Lendious dismissed the unneeded and four Knights remained in the corners of the throne room.

Three of them were absolute masters in their area… the fourth was just blessed with the ability that made him too perfect for Lendious to ignore.

“Knight,” he said quietly. The man clenched one fist and from his feet a ripple of white energy scoured the floor. Removing traces of germs… dirt from boots… and the smell of cheese.

Minutes of blissful clean air.

It was a blessing.

He nodded his thanks to the man as the room was cleansed of Mana. He wasn’t strong enough to remove the curse of Haldi but his natural gift to break Mana down and repel it was good enough to earn him a spot on Lendious Royal Knights.

In a way. All his Knights served one purpose very well.

It wasn’t like the old days of his forefathers where any criminal scum was branded with the loyalty mark.

Now, he could read lists of applicants… judge people on their power and actions. Decide if it was better to let these beasts—most of them anyway—stand behind him with weapons or loose on the street with innocent people.

Zane was such a person.

The world was darker if he was free but somehow just as bad with him being a Knight. Growing stronger with access to the Dungeon.

The deal.

A proper deal.

Loyalty with the promise of blood.

Besides, Zane had a history with a man in Durence if he remembered right. Why not throw a bone to the Knight watching over his youngest daughter?

Perhal?

Honestly, Lendious just wanted her gone for a short while. At least in Durence, it might be left untouched after she left.

Maybe.

He sat there and waited.

Waited for the fear in his heart to release its control over his feet.

Even to this day… Haldi had left more than a bad smell in his home.

---

Lorsa walked out of the wall - well… not the wall. Just the hair-thin space afterwards that made it look like they did.

“That’s bloody annoying,” the woman hunched over her desk said as she skinned a red rabbit.

“First words you say to me in almost thirty years and it was that?” Lorsa complained. Mila snorted.

“I got a few more if you want them? You’re the first decent target I’ve had since my kid finished school,” the woman buried her knife into table and stood.

“Oh, Ruli actually went back? Aw, how is the little demon princess?” Lorsa helped herself to the hidden bottle of cheap wine hidden in the roof rafters. Exactly where it had been left all those years ago.

“She’s annoying, rude, pissed off at the world, and makes friends with monsters and Dungeons. I can’t believe she grew up so wild,” Mila complained.

“Oh gee. I can’t believe it either,” Lorsa drank from the bottle, her hood dropping to reveal the silvery hair.

“Where did you get that one?” Mila grunted. Lorsa smiled.

“Yal built it. I had to fetch him bloody rare books on statues and art! The snob has gone artsy,” Lorsa said before she lowered her bottle.

“I always wanted to ask… well visit, but with the Grey, I couldn’t afford to shut down. The letters, the tricking, the bribes… I hoped you knew I was still helping where I could,” she added. Mila nodded.

“With each creep that showed up. Had your smug little fingerprints all over it,” she agreed. “How’s your princess? I heard she’s finally breaking out of her shell,” Mila asked politely.

“Serma? Good girl but she is more like her mother than she knows. Her father…” Lorsa winced but Mila waved it off.

“-is an idiot who let things get as bad as they did. I’ve had a lot of time to be pissed about it but I’m old and care less than I do about the fact that you’re drinking my wine,” she held her hand out.Amused, Lorsa passed it over.

“How is Hae,” Mila said and Lorsa blinked.

“Oh… you were out for a few years. You might want to brace yourself for this. Hae ran off,” Lorsa said bluntly. Mila gulped, eyes wide.

“No fucking way. She wouldn’t leave her brats,” Mila denied Lorsa’s words instantly.

“Well, with Lendious as a husband, I could see her giving up but she didn’t leave. I said ran off,” Lorsa waggled a finger.

“Queen Hearah… long way from little mousy pickpocket Hae. So where did she go? Church? Thieves guild in her fancy gown?” Mila snorted at the image. Lorsa’s tone was flat when she spoke.

“Currently? She’s a contract on floor 100 of Yal’s Dungeon.”

The wine bottle cracked and shattered.

---

Delta stared at the garden that used to hold that weird gazebo.

The fountain was gone. It was replaced by something… quite odd.

A statue of Nu was on a round stone platform. On his stone screen were a few lines but it had been covered in moss and the fact that it was a little cracked was making it hard to read.

The two floating hands were splayed open as if taunting people to read.

“The well of wisdom is deep but you’re all up the creek without a bucket?” Delta read aloud, but let her mind space out a little to take the room in.

She blinked and stared at the bubbling well hidden under the hollow statue. The glowing orange liquid was still like glass.

Delta let the numbers appear and her garden became still digesting room of information covered in her Mana to her eyes. The well was barely a few drinking glasses full but someone would have to climb down to reach it.

She brought up a menu and watched as Mana drew together,information flowing from her core and imprinting on the Mana, shaping it and making it real. So that was how a menu looked in progress…

Neat.

She came back to human sight and her eyes almost went backwards as she blinked hard at the words.

Well of Potential

By taking the Silence’s essence during the attack and also an Abyss Fountain you have converted it into a similar well but with your own touch!

The Well of Potential lets someone take a concentrated drink of your Mana. The effect is different for everyone. If a person is not strong enough or talented in any area, they will simply be empowered for a short while.

Only one person can drink from the well a day. After that, the remainder of the well Mana will turn into orange juice.

Cannot be upgraded. Cannot be built. Cannot be moved.

Find more Silence things and take them! Just like old times!

Delta pursed her lips.

“If I find out that the stealing-eyeball thing is real, I am going to make you wash your hands before we talk again,” she warned but the Menu simply vanished.

Delta let out a sigh and she stretched, looking up.

She froze.

“We’ve been noticed.”

“Perhaps she doesn’t see us? We could be that well hidden?”

“No… she’s seen us if the rising keening noise is any indication.”

“… Quiet. This is our first impression.”

A nearby hill moved and Gnashly woke up. She yawned and looked around.

“Where’s the chicken? What’s screaming?” she demanded. She looked over and paused.

“Oh… well, Nu’s in the dog house,” she mumbled. Delta stared up at four looming figures and her vision flickered under her shock, causing their forms to flash as if orange lightning was in the background.

Four faces. Only one of them close to human.

One peered down in the most hideous bat like snout Delta has seen. The next one she thought was a bird until she saw the wide dark eye sockets.

A doctor… a plague doctor stone face. The last of the monstrous visages was something like a dragon but deformed.

The leader, as the rest looked up to him, crossed his arms. His hair was wavy and dark… his chest defined… his eyes deep and… brooding.

“We’re thinking of the ‘Stoned Four’!” the bat one sounded pleased. The rest all made noises of disgust.

Delta closed her eyes. Opened them. Breathed.

Then spoke.

“I am so getting sued,” she declared.

Interlude: Dungeon Education

The money from the bank that was used to get Mas a better sword and even some armour was money well spent in Serma’s opinion. There was always the issue of buying equipment for a growing boy, but he seemed skilled in the sword enough that his size barely slowed his own strikes.

“Thank ye kindly, Princess. Milady is too kind to spend money on us and the boy,” Xan, a dwarf priestess, said quietly. Serma shrugged.

“I’d rather be down a few coins than dead if Mas’ sword breaks at a bad time,” she explained as Mas showed off his armour. Zane grumbled as he showed Mas the best way to wear his sword.

Zane really wasn’t that bad when he didn’t mind someone or found them harmless. The man had bought Serma an ice-cream cone once because her mother had-

Serma cleared her throat. Very few Royal Knights were completely evil. Perhal came close. Jesha was another, and… her brother was a good contender when he pushed his way onto the roster. Gerima had really not taken mother’s departure well.

Sir Denomin the Rattis read a book while sitting on the shop’s comfy looking window seats. The sunlight shining through his white fur made him look divine for a moment before he neatly defaced the book with a sigh, muttering in a low tone about mistakes and out of date information. His equipment was updated and even a little bit better-maintained than that of the average adventurer. Between himself, Xan, and Mas... the group had to equal proper Bronze-3 rank in terms of experience and power.

Nearing the time of Serma’s first adventure… she felt a tickle of nervousness rise up. She truly understood that these strangers… would guard her life, and that she would guard theirs in return.

“Why are you frowning?” Mas appeared in her vision and Serma hid a yelp beneath a royal cough.

“I’m merely preparing myself for the Dungeon dive ahead,” she promised. Mas blinked.

“Prepare? You’re just going in to fight some monsters in a cave? Just some slashing and courage is all ya need!... right?” he said confused and Serma’s stomach dropped.

“Mas… you do know what a Dungeon is… correct?” she asked slowly and the weapon shop went quiet as Brilda nearly snapped a spear in half with her fingers alone in shocked horror.

Xans spoke up, hesitantly.

“Dear Mas was raised by Blood Apes… he was lost in the woods and I found him… Many things he doesn't understand,” Xan tried to diffuse the awkward silence.

Oh.

Serma looked at Mas’ unashamed face and thought on how best to phrase this.

“You’re all fucked,” Zane said as he tried on an ogre helm for fun.

---

Serma led the group to the grand black marble gate. Two statues of knights crossing weapons formed the arch.

The entrance to the Royal Dungeon. Serma remembered when she was seven and her father brought her here. The room was cold and the black stone scared Serma as noises… inhuman noises flowed from the opened gate.

She had cried - and the Dungeon had gone quiet.

That had scared her more than anything so she ran away… ran to her mother.

That wasn’t an option anymore. She turned to the Royal Knights, who hesitated… well Zane glared at the gate and Brilda tried not to stand over and protect Serma.

“Mas needs some practise… just a few floors and we’ll come back,” she said quietly. Serma knew blackboards and textbooks would be as useful as zombie leeches for someone like Mas.

Mas would learn best by seeing… a touch of danger and a hint of challenge. Serma had often wished her own teachers would have done the same for her.

“I’m glad to see the princess stepping up,” a deep voice called. Serma spun to see a golden figure floating in the air. His body forming like the rising sun: legs first, then the torso and arms, finally the eyes

Every inch was a glorious golden aura like the night pierced by dawn. Yal… the Royal Dungeon’s personification had appeared before them.

Serma tried to do a polite bow but Mas was pointing his new silver sword at Yal.

“Serma is important! You don’t talk to her without being polite!” he growled.

Yal smirked and he tilted his head at Mas.

“How rude of me. Tell me… young warrior, will you be escorting the dear flower into my depths?” he asked. Mas puffed his chest up.

“Your Dungeon? You can look cool but that doesn’t make you lord of this here cave! Serma is going to kick ass and show how Team Ultra Dragon Exploders never backs down!” Mas said proudly. Xan was making odd choking noises as Serma’s knights were silent in awe of Mas’ bravado.

Yal looked down at Mas.

“Your expression… the courage of youth. I think I shall carve it for my hall,” Yal mused then met Serma’s eyes.

“Hurry to the 10th floor. There is a treasure unique to you waiting,” he commanded and then began to break up.

“I am glad to see you finally smiling… Hae will be-” the avatar faded and Serma felt her heart ache at the name.

“Mother?” she whispered but Mas turned with a grin.

“Serm, let’s show that snob ghost how we rock!” he offered. Xan sighed as Sir Denomin spoke up.

“On average… we have a greater chance of reaching the 10th floor than not, but… tally ho, we shall surely win!” the ratman squeaked as Brilda glared at him, her spiky mana flowing over him.

Brilda came close and put a hand on Serma’s cheek. Her blonde hair and ice clear irises were soft... the softest Serma had ever seen them.

“I shall wait until you come back… I shall wait. Please come back, my little tadpole. If this Dungeon takes you… I will end it,” she said so quietly that only years of being with Brilda let Serma hear her.

The Princess smiled and clasped the hand over her cheek with affection.

“I shall make sure not to let you down. Knowing you are waiting means I have more than enough reason to come back, my protector,” Serma beamed.

Brilda gave the rarest of smiles and placed a chaste kiss on Serma’s forehead.

“May the AllMother’s spear guide you and may your heart be your light. I believe in you,” Brilda promised, and that… that was more encouragement than Serma had ever gotten out of her father in years.

A fire ignited in her heart, and she nodded stoutly.

“Brilda, prepare supper. I’ll be back shortly,” she commanded, and turned to walk towards the open gate.

“I’m betting on you kid… other knights, not so much, but you got good people,” Zane called. Mas waved at him as the dwarf priestess Xan and the Rattis Sir Denomin… Sir Deno… followed.

Mas, of course, took the lead.

---

Deno, no one but himself and his mother called him Deno, followed the group. He was a high ranking mage and he viewedhis current group with a mixed opinion. On one hand, the Priestess and the Princess were both of high quality and showed the proper attitude to Dungeon Diving.

On the other hand… Mas.

The boy was bright… cheerful… oblivious. If it wasn’t for his excellent sword skills, Deno would have protested…

Well, that and the Princess’s frosty glare at his suggestion to boot the child from the group.

Such young humans should be playing and enjoying life. Not diving into dangerous battles. But Deno was out-voted and now he had nothing on his mind but taking care of the boy. Mas was being covered by a sly protection seal at all times, and his sword was enchanted with sharpness.

Deno did not like to put children in danger, ratlings or humans. Deno liked children... he was almost a school teacher until the rattling civil war broke out. His math skills attracted attention and the higher ups forced him into advancing magic formulae for fireballs. His potential school had been razed in his absence.

Deno had left the underground shortly afterwards to seek brighter ventures. Children made him nervous. Too fragile… too young. Mas was skilled, though and Deno tried to make sure he respected that as they entered the Dungeon entrance area.

The entrance room of the Royal Dungeon was like a floating platform above a yawning abyss. Dungeons never upgraded their upper floors, but these types of rooms were the lone exceptions.

The darkness below was filled with skittering forms and traps. Once something was thrown in... nothing was coming back out. Oddly, Deno saw a side footpath being constructed, leading to a room blocked by a sign reading ‘Under Construction’..

The sign above the door simply read ‘Memorial’.

“A Dungeon with a memorial? Sounds kinda off to me,” Xan said briskly. Princess Serma eyed it but said nothing as she headed towards the lone corridor that lead on.

“Let me take the lead! I’m used to ambushes!” Mas promised. Deno looked at the room.

He had seen many Dungeons… more than a few ended up forming underground as stars crashed down to the middle layer of the world. They formed with the various races that lived there. This was new.

Dungeons did not care for the living.

Nor their memory.

This?

This scared Deno. Like ants being noticed by a god. To be ignored and allowed to treat the Dungeon like a cave or a horrid pit let people... ignore the omnipresent being that they carved up and used their body for raw materials or training. The knowledge of an entirely alien being behind every door or in every shadow was too hash on the average person. To treat the dungeon as a place... not a person was easier.

There was comfort in that.

To not understand Dungeons, but… how could one feel when a Dungeon understood you?

Deno looked down at the abyss and saw not monsters but… parts of a being that was watching.

He hurried to catch up with the rest… he didn’t want to be alone in case those great eyes turned to him.

The main corridor was basic soil and rock. Serma stopped the group.

“I’ve studied the Dungeon with care over the years. I know the many trap placements and monster types,” Princess Serma said. That brought hope until a yawn sounded out.

No avatar appeared, but the Dungeon’s voice spoke out.

“Tsk… I changed… some things. Just a few small things. I loathe to mess with my history, but you are worth it,” Yal promised. Deno bowed low… magic ready to fly… to protect.

No more fire, no more blood… his magic sought to preserve life, not end it. Deno respected Princess Serma for not reacting to the voice… more than he cared to admit.

Mas stood straight.

“Bring it, you spook! Me and Serma got this in the bag!” he grinned, but Serma held up one hand.

“I fear no changes. My group and I are strong and able to take your madness,” Serma promised. Yal didn’t respond, but a low growl sounded ahead in the darkness.

No torches here… dungeons did not like providing light to people. Deno focused, and light glowed from his perfectly straight, ruler-like, staff. Xan began to glow with the deep green colour of her god.

It was enough light to see the prowling of giant rats.

Deno scowled at his distant ancestors being reduced to walking on all fours, but he held back a grunt as Mas took up guard of the Princess.

“We got food stealers!” Mas called. Deno answered with a hefty fireball that killed one and disabled another.

The group was quickly covered in Stone Skin. An Earth spell of armour. Deno and Serma were gasping but Mas was clearly used to it. Xan finished her prayer.

“Stone Skin go! Bash their heads in you sons of a bucket!” she hollered. Deno was fire in person. He wasn’t as good as the World Tree Scorcher or even a dragon but... his fire had purpose, and he used it to remove rat foes with ease.

Mas was quick to cut feet and heads off as the Princess fired bolts of magic to blow up the remaining ones.

Xan stepped forward and grunted as a blunt arrow smashed into her stomach from hidden holes in the wall. The stone arrowhead easily broke on her defensive enchantment. The rats died and various arrows tried to skewer the party as they moved to the first room.

Deno grunted as he rolled, avoiding the last volley of arrows.

“Tough opening act,” Xan panted.

“Yal’s trial of arrows has always weeded the weak from those with potential,” Serma said as they eyed the first proper room of the Royal Dungeon. It was a messy mound of trap holes and spike traps where wooden poles would shoot up and impale the blind or the idiotic.

Deno waved a hand and a quick air spell that barely brushed the surface of the soil revealed most, if not all, of the traps to the human eye. The Dungeon must have really... fed on idiots to have grown off these traps.

No trap was equidistant nor the same size.

It was hideous.

The Princess quickly found the path to the end of the room by avoiding the holes and spikes. It ended up being a path that resembled a snake in many ways. Annoying, but easy to see with some patience.

Soon they all rested at a junction.

“The left leads to a dead end with a huge pitfall,” The princess said quietly and turned right. The corridor was quiet except for the odd… bloodstain.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Legend has it that the first floor consumed so many… that they left their mark,” the Princess explained. Mas was quiet… finally feeling the difference in the air, his young face frowning at every shadow and potential mound.

Good… Dungeons were not holidays, nor were they kind.

The next room was a huge cavern with a thin path to travel.

“Shields up!” Serma warned, and her impressive garments turned solid as she edged on. More arrows shot out from the walls, leaving Serma to only guard from one side. Deno was impressed with her stout confidence.

He looked to the priestess and her stone spell was renewed, and they tried to cover the space as arrows broke on their skin. The Princess gasped as an arrow fired from a statue in the front of the path. She tried to raise her arms in defence, but it was Mas who slashed the arrow in half with a blank expression before it could hit the Princess. Impressive even if it was from the side and not down the middle like some childish idea.

“T-that wasn’t… that wasn’t in the history!” the Princess gasped.

“Serm… you know nothing. This Dungeon learned!” Mas said grimly. Serma shook her head.

“No! This has been… the paths have been the same for hundreds of years! An arrow here means that… I… I know nothing,” Serma began to gasp heavily. Deno moved forward, but it was Xan who heaved her up.

“Then you have a duty to your people to report these changes. Up and at it, you poor pebble,” the Dwarf urged.

“The Dungeon never changes… the only massive thing it did was take my mother…” Serma said hoarsely. Deno grimaced… he knew all about the Queen who fled into the Dungeon. Poor victim or treasure-seeking wretch?

He would soon find out.

Mas glared at the statue of the Dungeon avatar as the group was again faced with a choice of left or right to take.

“Left I think,” Serma said with uncertainty. The girl had been shaken. Deno took her exposed hand into his paw. Serma met his eyes with obvious fear.

“The chance of the Dungeon making so many changes that your knowledge becomes entirely obsolete is less than 2%. Your history… your lessons are gold. Do not fret, we are relying on you,” Deno said with confidence.

It was both the truth and a lie.

Dungeons defied reason, and Deno had no idea what it had changed to take the Princess out of her element. He couldn’t rely on the girl to provide accurate information, but he also knew that changes took time.

The Princess nodded solemnly.

“Brilda is waiting for me,” she answered, as if this was a charm to ward off unknown dangers.

“Yes she is. Now lead like the royal blood you possess!” Deno urged. The girl stood and rocketed off to stop Mas from opening the door with little care.

“Trust nothing! The doors can be trapped!” she reminded him with that atypical calm tone of the rich and noble.

Deno nodded, sharing a look with Xan as Mas cut a wooden swinging axe that Serma accurately predicted in the corridor beyond.

Her knowledge was accurate to that level at least.

However, Deno was ready to fight that one unknown variable. Just one could cause chaos. Like the Amsamiran problem of numbers and reality. One wrong number made a solution into a paradox. Like those sheep loving priests who worshipped the two-left-eyes god.

Deno was mapping as he went and sent a prayer to the goat of the left and right. Order and numbers. His only defence against the chaos of life.

---

Brilda had Zane pinned to the wall of the cave with her spear glowing dangerously red to his throat.

“Take. It. Back.” she hissed. Zane looked unimpressed as he sighed.

“Listen, the girl is as good as dead. The boss is gonna chew her alive on the 10th floor. I’m just being honest,” he easily freed himself of Brilda’s grip. The red light turned black and Zane’s neck gained a long thin bleeding line. He blinked.

“No one made me bleed in… shit… well, fuck me. You actually like that young princess?” he joked as he wiped the dripping red line.

“Princess Serma will win and you will guard her with your life,” Brilda said with no room to argue, but Zane grunted as his neck healed on the spot.

“I don’t need a contract runt telling me what to do,” he said bluntly and grabbed her spear head as his hand burned at the contact.

“You wanna save her… should have stayed inside the Dungeon and been a good little boss,” Zane grinned. That made Brilda glare with shock.

“Who…?” she demanded. There was a hand on her shoulder.

“Brilda.” Lorsa was calm as ever.

Of course. Brilda let Zane walk off and she glared at the cloaked figure who was eerily calm. Brilda turned her fury on the woman.

“You let loose my past?” Brilda said quietly.

“Things slip. Being the third oldest makes people talk. Your name was well feared back in the day, ‘Brilda of the Spear’. How many warriors you pierced and removed before you emerged to suddenly take care of the Princess… odd but fortunate,” Lorsa said calmly.

There was no fortune about it. Brilda emerged to care for Princess Serma for one reason only. The woman who would command the Dungeon could easily make Brilda feel human again. She gave the woman purpose and that purpose was-

“Is this about the whore Queen?” Zane said, bored.

Brilda blinked and Zane was broken. His arms and torso were jutting out at odd angles. His breathing hitched and his eyes glazed over as Lorsa stood over him.

Utter death given to the man in less than seconds. Less time than Brilda could react to. Lorsa stared down and spoke quietly… oh ever so quietly.

“Do not… speak of the Queen without respect. I warn you once,” Lorsa said… the calm a facade to hide boiling fury.

“Yye-yess Com…mander Lorsa,” Zane said in a rasp as his lungs tried to inflate themselves. Brilda tried to breathe, but her throat didn’t work. The Mana choking her was old… ancient… tired.

She tried to make a noise but she couldn’t even tremble. Lorsa turned and her head tilted until she made a small noise.

“Oh… I am sorry. Brilda… please forgive me,” Lorsa asked with actual shame as the air became free of Lorsa’s power. Zane glared and Lorsa eyed the ceiling.

“Wait for her. I have no doubt Princess Serma will be back soon. Zane? You have a task tomorrow. Please make sure you check your mail,” Lorsa said distractedly.

“You smell of wine,” Zane said as his neck snapped back into position. Lorsa paused. She sounded amused suddenly.

“I saw an old friend today. Wine was the calmest part of it,” she admitted, then vanished between the seconds. Lorsa’s gifts. How Brilda feared them.

How could one run when distance and time meant nothing to your hunter? Brilda just decided not to anger the leader and fear those outcomes… it was easier on her mind.

---

On the hundredth floor of the Dungeon, a woman looked up as Lorsa walked out of the walls.

“Lorsy!” the woman beamed at her as she emerged from her bed. The hidden room was protected by three mini-bosses and one puzzle involving a king of ancient past. The woman hugged her as Yal appeared.

“You’re using too much Mana. I can only fill that shell with so much,” he said grouchily... distractedly as he chiseled at a hunk of rock. Lorsa ignored Yal.

Respect owed to the ancient being was easy to ignore when she herself was older. Lorsa smirked.

She was also a better Dungeon Core if things came down to childish arguments. Not that she had a Dungeon anymore.

Those Fairplay fools had seen to that.

“Hae, how are you?” she asked as Yal filled her physical shell with Mana. With no home of her own… she couldn’t produce Mana anymore. Being kindly neighbours, she had come to Yal for help, only to find a city growing around him.

That had been enough to make Lorsa curious, the rest was history.

She guided his human people and he in return fed her Mana.

How many kings and queens had she guided? Too many, but Hae was special. Hae had seen Lorsa for the creature she was.

“I am good! How’s my babies… how are my children,” Hae demanded. Lorsa tried not to flinch. Such honest earnesty.

“Serma turned sixteen…” she said slowly. Yal closed his eyes. Hae looked like she had been struck.

“Six… sixteen? No… she was… she was- eight! She was only eight a short while ago! Tell me time hasn’t passed that much!?” Hae begged and grabbed Lorsa’s cloak. Lorsa let her.

Lorsa would always let her.

Always.

“She is wonderful… so beautiful and brave,” Lorsa pulled out sketches she had made of the girl. Hae grasped at them like a drowning man at air.

“My child! My baby…” Hae gasped and fell to her knees, hugged them to her chest… crumpling them. Lorsa tried not to flee... not to run from the consequences of Yal… hers… and the Sister’s actions.

The words floated back to Lorsa.

“-a human model. Brother wants more details on people! We need to know about people and Dungeons when they don’t kill each other!”

Sister. So cheery… so monstrous.

“Not so much now. Sis has learned consequences… Delta has made her see,” Yal promised. Lorsa looked up at the figure who had his carving tools idle and still.

“Was this ‘Delta’ worth it?” she asked bluntly as Hae sobbed.

“Yes. She has changed much, and if you were still connected… I would not have to speak. Delta has brought ambition… joy… potential. Humans make more sense… no, that is wrong,” Yal mused, and turned with a smile.

“Delta has been a path we all follow. Things make sense. People have reasons... ideas! Now I see this. They aren’t just food to feed my goals, but creatures of passion!” Yal held his hands up and then eyed Hae, who looked surprised to see the man talking so much.

“Hae had supplied the System information on a detailed… complicated human, for Sister to allow the data and Dungeon System to… accommodate such a being,” Yal mused. He bent down and patted Hae kindly.

“Delta is our daughter in the realm of ideals. She is wonderful,” He beamed. Her face blank, Lorsa raised one foot, and the Dungeon shook as she whacked his core with a mighty kick.
“Creep. Hae, ignore him. I’ll see this ‘Delta’ soon. I’ll make sure she won’t be an issue,” Lorsa promised. Hae held pictures of Serma close.

“Can… I go home soon?” she asked hopefully. Lorsa’s voice failed her.

A box appeared and they all eyed it with slight fear.

Soon. Very soon. Delta is your key and you are needed outside.

The box faded and Sister’s words were soon gone. But… Lorsa had never seen such an orange box. Hae blinked, but Lorsa tried to grab the box.

“Look at me!” she demanded. Her current physical form was no issue, but the core that acted as her heart was.Sister didn’t even hesitate as it vanished. Lorsa almost screamed in frustration but controlled herself.

“You’re disconnected. Sis and Bro won’t even look at you,” Yal sighed.

“I’ve done nothing but help them,” Lorsa said quietly. Yal frowned then spoke up.

“Can’t look at you then. You know Vers is disconnected and he won’t take it lying down. They might just be careful,” Yal offered. That name sent many emotions flying around Lorsa’s mind.

Vers. Sil.

Silver.

That was one cracked chicken egg if Lorsa had ever seen one. A Dungeon core that escaped the rules and expected to be praised for it. It was lucky it hadn’t been hunted down and removed. Brother was not the kind, forgiving type.

“He vanished. No one… no Dungeon has felt a hint from it in ages,” Lorsa pointed out.

“Spooks and angry teens don’t fade away. Silver is biding his time. Bet on it,” Yal said firmly. Lorsa of the Ghost Dungeon sighed.

“True,” she admitted. Yal suddenly grinned.

“Hae… your kid is about to enter the first boss room,” he announced in a sing-song voice. Hae rushed over to a mirror, which she smashed her fist into. The surface rippled like water and a far-away scene appeared.

The scene showed a group of two eager teens, a stoic dwarf, and a nervous Rattis versus Yal’s first boss.

A giant bug.

“I hate that thing. It’s like the most generic first boss creature ever,” Lorsa muttered. Princess Serma raised a hand and magic demolished one of the centipede-spider creature’s nine eyes.

“Yes! Go Sermy! Make Momma proud!” Hae hooted. Yal blinked.

“You had tea with Hector last week!” he accused, glaring at Hae and pointing at the confused bug as it tried to eat a stone covered dwarf. Hae eyed him with a grin.

“Daughters before monsters,” she winked.

Lorsa leaned back and enjoyed the show. Despite the monsters she sent to Durence and the ones she recruited into the Knights…

There was something fun about seeing novices panic as the bug grew a second head.
--

94:Guard Goyles

Four Gargoyles made Delta’s monster limit weep. She had one more left, due to the the fact that absorbing the Silence’s land seemed to give her more resources than normal earth. Odd, but if Sis had a grudge against these people, then she could see her omnipotent system slipping her some nifty bonuses to help out. Two trolls, four Gargoyles… and one monster spot left.

Delta politely sat on Nu’s statue that hid her new Mana well. Delta had questions about that thing, but she wasn’t going to be rude as the four creatures chatted like old friends that had come to Delta’s Dungeon rather than being created there and then.

Delta had a sneaking suspicion… She had only rarely created monsters in bulk before and that was her goblins and a few of her frogs.

Nu created these monsters in bulk… together. Could it be like twins? Monsters created for the same exact purpose and order? Could that form bonds between them that monsters created separately wouldn't have?

She would just have to watch them closely. Delta mentally referred to them by their faces until they chose their names. They were rather firm they would choose their own names. Delta could hopefully respect that.

Bat was a simple speaker. His bulk and size made him the obvious powerhouse of the group. He wasn’t tall but he was stacked. Delta saw him as a rocky bowling ball really.

Plague Doctor, or Doctor for short, was a tall spindly gargoyle with wings like silk as they spread. His manner and speech were elegant and soft spoken.

Dragon seemed to be some sarcastic being. He answered in mockery more than not. He managed to be polite to Delta, but she could see it was a struggle.

The last one, the handsome-looking gargoyle that had to have been sculpted after some fallen angel… merely listened and watched Delta for orders… or any hint of disapproval.

Together they looked like a group that would be dangerous for the unaware to tackle… and Delta hadn’t even upgraded them yet.

“Are you guys…” she said shyly, unsure on how these beings felt towards her… Nu had made them, not Delta. It was like these creatures didn’t have as much reason to like her as her other monsters. What if they had Nu’s desire to Dungeon proper?

The group went silent, four sets of eyes turned to her. Wings twitched and claws relaxed.

Delta mumbled as the creatures levelled their powerful gazes on her.

“My lady, ignore their ugly visages and gather your courage. We are eager to hear your command,” Doctor said gently. Dragon and Bat touched their faces in shock while Angel merely watched. Bat and Dragon knocked into each other trying to step forward at the same time.

“Yeah, ignore his ugly face!” they both said loudly, pointing to Angel who turned his flat expression to them.

“While a few of us are… lacking in tact, we are all ready to do your bidding. I am quite excited to visit the Kitchens and see if we can take over the remaining rooms,” Doctor said and then tilted his head as if hearing something.

“‘Doctor’… yes. My Lady core, I would like that name very much,” he said with joy. Damn it… Delta had been projecting too loudly again. But Doctor seemed happy, it was hard to see since his stone mask didn’t have a face but Delta nodded quickly.

“Sure!” she said and then shrugged, trying not to seem too eager to talk to them.

“I got rare herbs… and stuff if you wanna be a doctor,” she suggested then waved it off.

“Not that… You have… listen,” she finished lamely.

She blinked as she felt brief patting on her head. Doctor leaned back up and tilted his head.

“Too kind. You are a very good Core already,” he announced. Delta had to force herself not to float through the ceiling and bury her face.

“Damn! I need a name and quick!” Dragon spat and turned a few times, his stone tail swished, the spikes on the end looking deadly.

Delta watched as he paced up the wall, using his claws to easily keep himself righted as he reached the ceiling. Bat yawned, leaned against a growing tree in the garden and turned to stone.

Doctor turned to Angel and gestured for him to speak up.

Delta went quiet, eager to see this one speak.

“I will be Vanguard,” he said simply, voice lower than that of Delta’s human kill count. He turned, crossing his arms that barely peeked out from his huge leathery wings. Doctor touched the tip of his beak with a hint of annoyance.

“Forgive him, Milady. Vanguard is shy,” he said and the giant man turned, fury on his face. Doctor faced him down but it was Van who turned away first before he skulked off to rest near a grove of trees growing in between a few of the doors. The shadows offering him comfort.

Doctor held out an arm for Delta. “May we walk?” he offered, tilting his nose down with a hint of humor. Delta did so, her touch breaking every few seconds but she roughly managed to keep in time with Doctor.

“We are well aware of our purpose, to guard you from the beasts below. There is a hint of worry of what is to become of us after you liberate the floor and take it, as you no doubt will,” Doctor explained casually.

“Whatever you want! Creation purpose is just a short term thing. I’m hoping that you’ll find something that interests you,” Delta spoke up, feeling better in a one-on-one conversation. Doctor hummed.

“We have a sense of things in the Dungeon and can see that. But on this floor we only have a kitchen, a library, and a feast hall, so far. Job opportunities are scarce, unless we wish to do gardening. I was hoping to ask when you will be taking on the other doors. We can hear movement beyond them. No doubt various legions are gathering under each door to march on the Dungeon. It would be best to take them out soon, so we can limit the numbers we face and open more opportunities for ourselves,” Doctor spoke slowly and with the utmost effort to be respectful.

“Do you think we should attack soon?” Delta asked, trying to make sure she had a grasp of Doctor’s character.

The gargoyle slowed as he slowly turned his beak to Delta.

“Infection must be cut out before it spreads. I am happy to wield the knife if you so desire,” he almost hummed.

Delta looked around the garden. She had to agree. Letting foes attack from all sides was just a bad idea. Also, there was no telling how much more the main door to the deepest part of the fortress was hiding.

“Which door do we deal with first?” she asked quietly.

“I can answer that,” Jack’s voice said from behind. Delta spun to see the Kobold staring at a single door that looked… plainer than the rest.

Doctor’s claws didn’t reveal themselves but he did slightly take a step forward to cover Delta.

“Jack? What’s in there?” she asked. Odd reaction from Doctor, he must know that Jack was a contractee…

“A hole. I’m hoping you can do something to it,” Jack replied quietly.

That tone worried Delta.

It really did.

--

The door exploded open as a grey blur sent mud and soil flying as it tried to slow itself.

“Dozer on the job!” Bat… Dozer declared as he readied himself for an attack.

“Not so rough! You don’t have a respawn point!” Delta warned, distressed. Doctor and Vanguard entered next. Dragon, still struggling with a name, took up the rear. Jack followed behind, body stiff with a fear that he refused to explain.

All Delta knew was that Jack was sure there would be no enemies in this room.

How Jack knew that… Delta didn’t know.

From the garden, the door revealed a long dark tunnel. Jack easily made some vials that glowed with a deep green as he shook them. Delta beamed at them and tried not to despair at her inability to touch things.

She wanted to rave in the dark spooky tunnel…

Armed with a glow vial each, the goyles traversed the tunnel. Delta was using Doctor’s eyes to see.
It was… weird. Like Doctor had heavily lidded glasses on but if he so desired, his mask became transparent from the inside. It wasn’t a mask, really… just his face.

The tunnel was long but ended in a single room. The temperature here was horrid. Her goyles were getting a sheen of ice over their forms and Jack was so nervous he was mumbling to himself.

There was a crude wall made from stone that had frozen over and as Doctor neared it, a single path inwards lead to a sudden drop into a round hole. A weird contraption was built above the hole. It looked like a rack to contain people and to lower them into the hole, and the thing had adjustable neck collars and head straps to keep the prisoner looking one way only… down.

Doctor looked into the hole. Jack tried to yell something but Doctor leaned right over and peered in. The hole wasn’t dark. It was empty.

Pure… clean… non-existence.

It travelled deep… too deep. It was horrid and Delta watched as Vanguard dropped his glow vial down it. The light spun and bounced a few times off the wall before it was crushed. A audible crunch sounded and from deep below, an arctic wind exploded up and filled the room with guttural howling.

The wind seeped into Jack and her goyles and flew down the tunnel where it crashed against her garden. Jack was howling in bleak despair now and all her goyles toppled, gasping.

A deep coldness was burying deep into them.

It was in the deepest part of the ice that Delta felt the cruelty. The utter hatred for warmth and life. It buried deep into her monsters and it enjoyed what it felt. Their pain and their fear. It drank it up like it was a delicious meal it deeply needed.

Delta was ignored. It chewed and nibbled on her freezing monsters like she wasn't any kind of threat.

Like she was unable to stop it. Like Delta was just a child that this coldness could push aside.

She grabbed one of the cold tendrils and bent it like an arm. The whole ice cloud froze.

“Get. Out. Of. Them. NOW!” she ordered and from her garden, blazing hot Mana surged down like a roaring tide. She bent the writhing tendril and the thing tried to stab her, cut her… chill her.

Delta felt like she was being physically assaulted but she held on as the thing left her monsters and focused on her. It grabbed and pulled her towards the hole but her Mana filled the room and Delta roared as she tore the slimy little worm-like ropes.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

She was fire to this beast’s ice. So, Delta would burn it like the bug it was.

She filled the hole. She stuffed enough Mana down there to give it so much congestion that the cold being choked.

“Hey… warn your little fanclub that I’m coming. When you show up crying like the brat you are, tell them Delta sent ya,” she growled. The hole rumbled as her Mana tore at the walls, the well… the hole… collapsing as Delta claimed the room.

From the collapsing hole came a hoarse scream but oddly it was easily drowned out by another thing.

“FOR DELTA’S GLORY!”

It was many… many tiny voices and they utterly tore the hole into solid ground. Then it was over.

The room was just an empty room and her Mana vanished to settle into the place.

Holy crap. What did you do?

Delta turned to see Nu floating nearby.

“Pest control,” she answered innocently. She was interrupted as Jack jumped on the ground… kicking and screaming at where the hole was.

“Look now! Look at me now!” he spat and began hitting the room with his fists. He looked up and watched as the rack was consumed by her Mana… erased.

He curled up slowly, silently shaken with sobs.

“Look… at me… now,” he repeated. Delta leaned down and Jack looked up at her.

“You done blew it up. I can’t be any happier, eh?” he said through a tight throat. Delta was a little unsure what to say so did what she did best.

“Well I met this Kobold who was all about his booms. Got inspired I guess,” she tried. Jack snorted and looked to the ceiling.

“It sucks. The memories are still there. Being in that rack. I was hoping they’d blow up too,” he admitted.

Delta stood and Nu came close, his box writing small to avoid letting Jack see.

That was a… small offshoot of the Silence. A creek to a lake. Sis said that if we go further down, the next few Silence fortresses will have similar rooms but still operational… and much bigger. I advise against direct combat until you defeat the lords that rule their layers. It will weaken the Silence.

Nu’s warning was dire but Delta watched as Doctor picked up Jack and carried him out of the room.

“If it attacks my monsters… I’ll defend them. Simple as that.” she answered back and shook her head.

“There’s nothing human in that thing… nothing to reason or bargain with… it’s just pure… hunger,” she said hoarsely, rubbing her cheek where she had been cut. Her avatar had an actual scratch.

That was… scary if nothing else.

“Come on Nu, let’s go drink to victory and plan more things,” she suggested and they both left the room to follow her monsters.

---

In the darkness of the room where the hole once stood… the dirt shifted and began to sink. The room grew still as single mushroom unearthed itself.

It was a Bloodcurdler. The pure black cap that mutated on the second floor. It sat there for long moments before it inhaled. The lingering burning Mana of Delta being sucked in deeply. It began to glow darkly and deep under the room, the hole that was trying to rebirth itself paused as it felt burning roots strangle the earth… forming bars that the hole could not so easily bypass.

The Bloodcurdler evolved once more, and fire became its weapon.

---

Across the sea… settled into a deep valley where miles around one could see a godly tree brushing clouds with the top of its branches. The Godly tree was buried deep and grew high. It saw many things. The World Tree, as people called it, watched the events of this world go by. Forever content to stay where it was and grow.

Some would call it a Dungeon, but this was not correct by any means. It was a lifeform unto itself. It had grown and grown until even dragons and mighty elementals could not pierce its bark. Its many, many layers of growth grew different fruits, hosted different creatures, and even had some monster villages in a few parts.

The luck of growing into a leyline source had boosted its already mighty powers to new heights. Now, it produced Mana for the surrounding lands.

The country had grown rich and fertile simply due to the World Tree being here. Very few things could truly harm it now. Sometimes it forgot it could feel pain. Not unlike ten years ago.

Where some firespitter had left a black mark on his trunk.

That had angered the tree but the events that followed were interesting if nothing else. It felt one of its uppermost branches shift as the mightiest beast on his body moved. The tree paid it no mind. Their relationship was symbiotic.

It defended the tree and the tree fed it where meat could not. At that moment, It felt the world shift. A slight change. His many roots spread much farther than this land, and one close to a land that once felt dead and rotten… now tinged with spicy life.

There was a plant there… no, not a true plant but something close to it.

“You are being active,” came a soft voice. The tree did not have eyes or a mouth. Every little bark of wood or leaf was the tree itself. The defender of its branches was staring out at the sunrise.

“Beta… I feel there are those that would rise… like myself,” the tree spoke using the green around the beast that built a human like home in its branches.

“Just what the world needs, another arrogant asshole tree,” Beta announced and her tail swished as a dozen stingers formed and dissolved as Beta tried to choose a form to move about in.

“Perhaps, but this tree allowed the monster of monsters to live here, so respect shall be invoked,” the tree reminded.

The tail was simply gone a second later and more arms appeared.

“So you reminded me. I think something spiderish today… been a while since I was a spider. Maybe mix in some Iron Bear?” the woman said to herself.

Beta. It had been a mewling pig goblin beast when the tree had taken it under its branches. Now… it had eaten like a glutton and become a true monster.

“I’d prefer something like an ent or a dryad, but you care little for my opinion. I am telling you that in a distant land, there are powerful trees… and mushrooms… growing. It could challenge me for the leylines soon,” the tree stated.

“So? You got dozens. Ya think people haven’t noticed there’s no Dungeons here? Come on, Ygg, be a smarter tree than that,” Beta lost her human form entirely to become a centipede with swords for legs.

“One day, you will reveal to me what that name means, since you’re so amused by it,” The tree reminded.

“Alright, Treebeard, keep your nuts in place. So some young plants are getting power. You want me to go and nip it in the bud?” The worm form sprouted dragon wings making Beta into some nightmare waiting to be seen.

The tree thought… it searched its roots. For possibilities and problems.

“No, there is a coven of dark witches to the north. They have unearthed one of my roots. They plan nothing good, I assume. Make them naught but a memory,” the tree said, and Beta turned into a pure human this time. Her actual form.

It was of a human girl about the eve of her teens. The round shapely figure showed someone who ate well, but kept busy enough to make curves instead of energy reserves. In human terms, she would be seen as a rich daughter of some nobleman. All the food one could have, and the skin of a well-groomed person.

It was hard to imagine that underneath those twinkling green eyes were a thousand monsters she could become and mix to make new forms.

Beta… the monster of monsters.

“Sure. You keep looking for that eye and I’ll keep you alive. That was the deal,” the woman fell from her branches before a soaring eagle flew off.

Ygg knew that.

It was getting closer to where that mythical eye of the lost Nameless one was.

If Beta could find that… if the Tree could… They would both get their wishes.

How exciting.

--

“I’ve chosen!” Dragon said as he slurped down more meat in the feast hall. Delta looked up as Jack and Doctor were striking up an odd friendship over chemicals. Jeb and Gnashly stopped shoveling food into their own mouths.

“I am Draco!” Dragon announced. Vanguard, or Van as Delta took to calling him, shook his head.

“‘Dragon’,” he said. Dozer nodded.

“‘Dragon’ sounds less like a snot-nosed ponce going to whine at you,” he explained. Dragon crossed his arms.

“You’re all ponces. Fine. I’m ‘Dragon’. I’m generic Dragon,” he threw his hands up. Delta had flashbacks to her wishes to Sis for no dragons. So far with a Kobold and now Dragon… Sis had listened to her in every way but the symbolic.

“Dragon sounds cool! Like I can’t wait to tell people I have a mighty Dragon,” Delta promised. Dragon blinked at her before he pumped his impressive biceps.

“Y-yeah! Well, duh, I am mighty,” he laughed as he reached for his goblet… missing twice.

Vanguard met her eyes and smiled.

It was a small tiny thing.

Delta’s face went red and she sunk through the floor. Damn it, Nu! Why did you have to make him so handsome!

She felt a ping.

Delta reappeared.

“Seth is up! He’s going to floor two!” she yelped and zoomed off.

The silence in the hall was broken by Vanguard.

“Seth is a… man?” he growled. Jack nodded.

“Kinda a good-looking bloke with the power and actual non-assholeness to be decent,” he said, pointing to the kitchen. “Fera shared the gossip,” he added. Van glowered.

“Don’t get protective over her before you’ve even spoken 10 words, it’s creepy,” Doctor chided. The look he got back was even darker.

He rolled his non-visible eyes and went back to talking explosions with the interesting Kobold known as Jack.

95: All Action, No Talk

Perhaps the best part of Seth and Quiss walking past a grinning Fran, newly respawned, was seeing Ruli blinking at them as she returned from her Paradise snooze.

“Delta’s being invaded by nerds,” she announced and slung her new sword over her shoulder. Delta had heard her call it Magma. It was an awesome-looking sword but it was also a bit… edgy for her.

Delta snorted at Ruli’s words and her own little joke. Ruli shot her general direction a smirk. Away from her Core but having her own Mana to push out Delta’s out gradually, Ruli wasn’t able to see her anywhere near as clearly as before. It was a shame, but it just made aiming for the fourth floor a goal in the long term.

Delta was beginning to wonder if the tenth floor would give her a proper sense of taste? Sure she got impressions from things she devoured—Gutrots still made her stomach curl up— but it wasn’t the same as eating.

“Ah, fair… milk lady of the forest!” Seth announced, speaking as if his tongue didn’t quite work. Delta stared as Ruli ignored the words and waved. Quiss gave her a long look.

“What have you been doing?” he asked with outright suspicion. Ruli walked past and clapped his shoulder hard.

“Fought an underground fortress of the unliving and ghouls on Delta’s third floor. I think I found whatever it is my Ma and her friends are ignoring,” she explained and Quiss looked at the sword for a long moment. Ruli shrugged.

“Someone chucked it at me. By ancient laws of… the Gnomes, it’s mine now,” Ruli said quickly. Quiss and Seth shared a look.

“Gnomes actually have very detailed and finicky laws-” Quiss started and Ruli blew a raspberry at him.

“Again, I declare you… nerds!” she waved him off and nodded to Seth.

“You look like a mess, what did you do?” she asked confused. Seth touched his pale arm.

“I locked my passion with Ser Fran. He pierced me andI him…” Seth said proudly. Ruli gave him a long look, smacked her lips, and walked to the bar without a word. Seth turned to Quiss.

“I… announced myself wrong?” he asked. Delta was both baffled and pink at Seth’s words.

Delta had Fran come to the door before the two men went down to the second floor. She used him as a mouthpiece to his amusement. It had been a while since he’d had that task.

“Seth, why are you speaking like an idiot to everyone else? Ruli thinks me and you engaged in far more than passionate combat,” Fran asked. Seth blinked then he looked a little horrified at his own words.

Quiss blinked wildly and smacked himself.

“Of course… Dungeon Translation. This would have saved me so much damn time,” he muttered to himself.

Quiss cleared his throat.

“Delta… this may be rude and potentially risking your wrath but I am a blunt man. You don’t have ears or a mouth,” he stated. Delta touched her Avatar’s ears and frowned.

Well, sure they were made of Mana too thin to be heard but she had them.

“You do not have an ear canal or nerves or a tongue to speak. Everything you do is through Mana. Sound and other stimuli are casually absorbed and translated in real time by your Dungeon,” Seth spoke up and his tone went oddly distracted. Quiss looked pained.

“He’s lecturing again,” he said faintly. Seth paced the small corridor.

“Words are essentially noises given meaning. It’s symbolic but your Dungeon can use those small hints of humanity and intent to make sense of them. Mana is easily influenced by memories, elements, power, and intent. As a Dungeon you take all these things and use them to grow!” Seth went on. Delta was panicking because she didn’t have a notebook or pen to write this down.

Was there going to be a test?!

Delta didn’t perform well under test conditions. She… blanked.

“So as a Dungeon who is friendly and lovely as a rose, your ability to be a universal translator to current affairs or read lost texts and ancient tomes would be amazing!” Seth beamed. Quiss began to push him towards the stairs.

“Stop flirting and get moving. I swear you will end up in someone’s bed if I leave you alone for too long. You already got intimate with a Dungeon boss… let’s not have you humping the walls,” Quiss grumbled.

Fran blinked slowly.

“My heart belongs to the fight and my job,” he called after them, as if trying to make sure his intent was not misunderstood.

Delta gave his head a firm pat.

“I believe you,” she said solemnly.

Fran didn’t look amused.

---

Seth watched as stone became wood.

The smell of damp earth and caves was swiftly replaced by the scent of the wild world of life.

Quiss pushed open the room that hosted the stairs leading back up and the view it revealed actually took Seth’s breath away.

It was a whole new world. Towering trees were crowned by a veil of mist, soft… actual light floated through the peaceful scenery to make a dazzling first impression. Seth closed his eyes and heard birds singing songs, things moving in the underbrush.

This jungle, this cradle of life was simplistic but rich. He took a few steps forward and he felt more pure water… he could hear the distant song of a waterfall nearby. Fran, the bar, even Lord Mushy had been fantastic but this?

This spoke to Seth.

Quiss looked unimpressed. This was Quiss’ ‘nose down and slow blink’ unimpressed. That meant he had seen this before rather than just didn’t like it. Growing up together with vastly different cultures and languages—which neither were willing to learn out of some childish triviality at the time—taught Seth more about Quiss than words could ever really reach.

Sure, they could talk in Magic but that was dangerous.

Lasting.

The general path forward was clear and Seth decided to stroll rather than rush on. Quiss seemed to be fine with it. Really, alone like this, it was always quiet between them. They simply just didn’t need the noise.

If they talked too much... that would echo into the hole where their teacher once was... how she would blab on, in both their languages and others Seth hadn’t ever heard of.

The trees that Seth could see looked to be off-shoots of the trees outside but greatly mutated and enlarged. He wondered what a proper Lumberjack class could make with that wood? Sell the treated plants or blocks to blacksmiths or other crafting jobs, what wondrous creations would be brought forth?

There were a few other trees, but they were unknown to Seth. Unless it had ten thousand uses in common potions or made good tea, Seth’s education on green things was actually lacking. He would have to visit that nice Druid woman, Dabberghast, for her opinion… bring her to the Dungeon for easy translation.

The idea of an actual universal translator tickled Seth fancy. Imagine the sheer joys of learning between two very different people or creatures if they could bridge any language or use of noise that counted as talking!

Could the Dungeon understand animals?

Seth was curious to know but not enough to speak… to ruin the sheer serene feeling he had walking under the thin shadows of the towering trees. The artificial sun above was peeking through and making his skin feel warm but the heat was just slightly more than a warm day and was actually quite nice.

Fighting with Fran… earning his way here was worth it.

Seth had found somewhere that had clear signs of someone having no idea what they were doing… the mismash of trees, blooming flowers in the shade root plants exposed… utter lack of proper insects that would be found normally… oddly placed benches that Seth stopped to test out.

It was a little chaotic but the sheer joy and effort Delta had put into this place shone clearer than any biological or ecological mistake. This jungle was imagination and it was pure.

The bench was nice too, just firm enough but not too solid to make it uncomfortable. Delta had gotten the curve of the seat just right. What a gal. Quiss looked up at the giant trees, with a small frown. Seth knew what he was thinking about.

Hard not to know when it sometimes plagued Seth as well. Memories. But after a while Quiss relaxed on the bench and his hands unclenched. He pulled out a flask and took a light sip. Seth actually rolled his eyes and then accepted the flask when it was offered. He blinked as the scent hit his nose.

It wasn’t booze, it was tea. Seth stared down at the flask.

That exact kind of tea was- He sipped it and said nothing.

Seth didn’t have to say anything about the why. The taste hit the back of his throat and he gagged.

“Like behind of deathcow,” he shivered. Quiss nodded.

“Just the way she liked it,” he grinned and took another sip himself and grimaced. Seth mulled it over.

She meant… Deson. Liked… Saert…

Seth nodded with a small smile once he made sure he got what Quiss said. One day he'd get this language thing but at the same time, Seth also never wanted to learn.

Their habits… their way of interacting was how they had always been. Seth was stupidly worried if he learned Quiss’ language… things might change between them. Funny how the little things could get to Seth.

A little orange bird landed on the armrest of the bench and the two men looked at it.

It was a squat little thing with a puffed up head crest and little round eyes. It was bright orange and looked like it had no idea that cute things like itself would have many predators.

Then it spoke.

“You got beaten by Fran so badly, you and a whole other person got benched!” the bird chirped. Quiss looked confused as the bird was speaking to Seth and in Seth’s language.

Seth’s mouth dropped open and he watched the bird look mighty pleased with itself.

“You speak! How interesting!” Seth leaned down until he was eye to eye with the ball of feathers.

“I speak to break the ice,” the bird peered at Seth’s newly healed arm which had indeed still felt massively cold from his dangerous use of the element.

Quiss mumbled something and licked his lips at the bird. Well, it did look like it would be a nice cooked piece of bird but Seth was aghast Quiss would eat something so cute.

“You are just too damn cute to even eat!” Seth announced. The bird tilted his head.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“That’s taking roasting to a whole new level! But what do you expect from a fire mage? I’m Inchy! I am part one of your tour guide!” the bird chirped. A shadow loomed over Seth and he looked up to the pale form of a gangly man with beady black eyes and a thin painted smile.

“…Hello?” Seth offered.

The man bent down slowly and the hair prickled on Seth’s skin as the mime squeezed Seth’s nose and a honking noise sounded out.

“This is part A! That’s Renny, a real chatterbox! He’s started making noise. Before he was kinda a quiet fellow!” Inchy the bird announced. Quiss stared regretfully at his flask and Seth stood, offering his hand to the odd creature.

Mimes and jungles weren’t exactly connected but maybe this was a wild tribe of mimes or something? Delta could be a bit weird like that.

The creature, Renny, shook it and everyone turned to Quiss.

“Touch me and regret it. I’m hungover,” he snapped.

Oh! Seth knew those words! Quiss had said them a lot over the years.

The bird tilted his head and said something to the man.

Quiss eyed the bird and reached slowly for it with fire appearing on his hand. Renny neatly picked Inchy up and stuffed him under that odd jester hat he had.

“So, you’re our guide? Where shall we go first? I’m very eager to see more!” Seth beamed. The Mime looked at him and the thin smile painted on the pale face split, and opening like a demonic egg, revealing rows of serrated black teeth. The Mime held out a hand as if to offer Seth a whimsical hand held tour.

Under the hat, the bird’s muffled tones could be heard.

“Renny asks if you trust him?” he was informed. Seth shared a look with Quiss but the man was downing a second flask that had he pulled from his boot.

Seth turned back and hesitantly took the offered hand.

“…Yes?” he replied. Seth hoped Delta hadn’t lured him into a trap by using an entire level to make him think she was nice and good.

That just would suck.

Renny nodded and the smile vanished. Loud steps sounded from the trees. Everything shook. Something very big was approaching.

“Then Renny shall take you on a magic pet ride! It has the best views and only smells a little! Lots of monkeying about to get a ticket though, so feel lucky!” Inchy cheered.

Seth didn’t feel lucky. He felt… small.

The trees parted and a monster that did belong in the jungle appeared.

It wore a little hat with a tassle and a simple banner-like jacket that read ‘Renny’s magical pet ride. Wilhelm has eaten ‘0’ people in the last 24 hours!’

Seth blinked then he felt excited, this was fun! He took a step forward and Quiss dragged him back.

“No thank you! We’ll risk the bugs and the pissed off tiny bugs,” Quiss called and Seth reached for the magic monkey ride as he was dragged away.

But... his fun!

----

Renny watched the two guests turn the bend in the trees and vanished. He looked to Delta who was comforting a let down Wilhelm.

He looked at her. Questioning if he should follow.

“Ah I guess so. I mean I’m worried Quiss is going to set fire to the jungle or give me more ducks… Waddles is awesome but I hate to become predictable by having the same thing on every floor!” Delta announced. Renny looked around at the growing mushrooms and decided not to say anything.

“Their gooses are cooked! Their ducks are fu-” Inchy was prodded by Renny and chirped in annoyance.

Renny took off and listened to Delta explain to Wilhelm how the circus was soon to be much better. That cheered the creature and Renny up. This wouldn’t be so bad. The pretty one seemed pleasant and Quiss was… well… he could leave tiny thimbles of beer to lure the man to where Renny wanted him to go.

This should be fun… and definitely not that hard-

---

Quiss pulled his staff from his large coat, space magic making sure his rod was not on display to the public. Seth knew Quiss had a large staff but seeing it always made Seth hold his own wand with a little uncertainty.

Power or control… girth or grace? Seth had no idea what truly was better.

“A challenge! See, Seth? The Frog wants me to actually be rowdy,” Quiss rambled on and took more swigs of his flask. The giant actual frog man loomed on the far side of this amazingly large bridge that looked like nature herself had grown it over the deep ravine below.

“I think….Hoppyman will let us… dance pass if we do not… aim our rods at him!” Seth tried to calm his friend down.

“I’ll point my rod at whoever gets in my way! I am a wizard and I put a lot of work into getting a rod this powerful! What’s the point of not shoving it in people’s faces after all that work?” Quiss scowled.

Seth gave him a flat look.

“You did worked little. You jumped into pit of fire and walked out holding rod! Not work! Idiot!” Seth reminded. Quiss sniffed

“An idiot with a big hot rod. Now excuse me, Seth. I am going to do mortal combat with my new arch rival, a giant frog with a bigger stick than me, but clearly mine is magical and better,” he stomped off.

The giant frog leveled his log shaped weapon and walked forward at the same time as Quiss.

Seth covered his eyes and waited.

--

Delta was yanking on her shirt collar and blowing out hot air, her cheeks flaming orange.

“They can’t be saying those… things in public! What if Deo was around! WHAT IF KEMY WAS AROUND?!” Delta yelled and pointed to Giant.

“He needs a cold shower!” she ordered.

---

Quiss spun his staff and it left burning sparks as it moved. He smirked at his foe.

“I am a highly trained weapons master with the staff. Even without magic, I am dangerous to underestimate,” he warned the frog.

The frog paused, then threw his weapon to Quiss casually. He caught it in confusion and the Frog picked him up and tossed him over the edge before Quiss could adjust to having a rod in each hand..

He hit the mist and his cursing turned into a large drawn out noise as the mist warped his swearing into some weird man’s scream. He hit the water and a beast emerged from the water and stood over him.

“Do not be scared… of the water… BECAUSE I AM HERE!” another frog promised in red shorts and holding a trident.

Quiss glared and the water bubbled around him as the heat rose.

---

Back on the bridge, Seth coyly leaned into the bridge railing near the giant frog.

“You are very smart. Those muscles aren’t your best asset at all!” Seth grinned. The frog looked away, his dark green cheeks turning darker.

“Do you have days off? I love a man who can make Quiss look like a fool at times. I’m Seth and I’m just delighted to meet you,” he held out a hand. It was gently shook by the giant.

“Ah you’re shy,” Seth laughed good naturedly as the Frog idly kicked the ground. The giant frog gestured to the stacked staffs he had ready to fight.

“Oh, not me! I couldn’t bring myself to harm a shy handsome knight like you! But I’ll wait here until Quiss comes roaring back if that’s okay?” he said and the giant frog looked lost until he pulled out containers of honey and fruit juice in ice cold water. He gestured for Seth to sit on the bridge and join him.

“Oh Sir Frog, I am in your tender care,” Seth beamed. The frog blushed and actually managed a smile back.

“…Giant… my name,” the hill of a frog offered. His voice was deep but not loud… careful.

“Seth. So Giant, is that for the muscles or your heart? Cause this fruit water is delicious and you are a saint for sharing it on a warm day like this!” Seth sighed in relief as he drank.

Giant said nothing but poured more for Seth to enjoy.

----

“Then I said I was short four stones but Bob swore he didn’t cheat. Of course, it was his crabs that had done it but Bob is clever like that,” Rale explained as he calmly rowed a tiny log up river as Quiss sat there, feet in the water as he listened, bored.

He saw something glinting and spotted two tiny red crabs carrying his sealed flask into a wide pool.

Quiss watched in horror as they jumped into the deep abyss with his booze.

“After them!” he commanded Rale. The frog grinned.

“Some things aren’t worth diving too deeply for,” he warned. Quiss met his eyes.

“If I get sober in the next ten minutes, I will drown the next person who speaks to me,” he answered. His rescuer merely rode the log over the deep black pool and watched. Quiss slid off and held his breath, diving.

Seth had a dozen or so breathing charms or transformations to swim… or move water itself. Quiss had the art of looking like a drowned rat as he dived and clung to the tunnel walls to sink deep. He saw his glinting treasure near the bottom of the shifting silt and sand.

He reached for it.

Two devilish crabs watching in glee.

---

“So quite into bridges,” Seth nodded as Giant hugged his knees. The giant figure was a gentle being and every time he reached for honey to suckle or more fruit water, Seth immensely enjoyed the sight of flexing muscles and a solid jawline grinning.

He was nudged by Renny and the bird, Inchy.

“Time to go! Tour is a-waiting,” the bird encouraged. Seth turned to Giant and the frog offered him one last clay cup of water for the road.

“This had been quite lovely, I’ll be back!” he promised and Giant nodded, pleased to hear it. In the distance a fountain of water erupted and Quiss’ scream that sounded like a 5 year old seeing a dire cockroach for the first time.

“… Right, Quiss is on his own. He’s upsetting some poor thing. I can’t take that man anywhere without something catching fire or being banished from the kingdom,” Seth threw his free hand up in disgust.

“Where next?” Seth asked and Inchy and Renny shared a look.

“The Bees,” Inchy said quietly.

“Bees?” Seth echoed.

“Bees.”

---

In the dark shadows of the jungle, tiny forms watched the tall one. His hair shimmering like gold. It would be a fine tribute to the goddess Delta!

The Pygmies raised their spears and began to hunt.

---

96: Door to Door

Delta desperately wanted to watch Seth, to watch her work be enjoyed and admired but she managed to pull herself away as the man settled down to drink water with Giant. The large frog was actually very sweet when he deemed Seth as a guest and not a challenger.

It was pure ego to stalk each and every visitor. That, and maybe a little bit loneliness in the weirdest terms.

Delta had many friends now. Her monsters, Nu, and even Sis! But there was something about people who chose to come to Delta that made those kinds of relationships more surprising and a little more valued at times.

The love of one’s family and the company of those that chose to befriend Delta.

Floating down to the third floor, she let her mind expand, a slow awareness of all that was within her space. She felt her mind wash over the map room with the model of the world and its craggy edges, then seep to the library and its guardian in wait, the creature content to be as unaware as possible.

She swept past Gnashly snoozing in the troll cave and Jeb stirring more Troll Stew. The horrid mixture broken down into several strands of Mana, the multi-levelled bonds that made the thickness of the stew… the shimmering tiny threads that formed the vapor and scent… the simmering Mana that was forming the taste.

There was pure creation in Jeb’s cooking pot and only by allowing her Dungeon Senses to take over her human ones could Delta appreciate what was happening.

Jeb didn’t get ingredients or harvest food, he stirred his pot, concentrated, and the Dungeon made the Stew like magic. Countless complicated mathematical Mana equations magic but still… wonderful when simply observed.

It was so faithful to what Jeb thought Troll Stew should be that it was actually vile to anyone who tasted it. Jeb himself was a walking light show of shifting orange Mana. His arm was slightly brighter than the rest as it was still healing.

Delta floated there, comparing Jeb to what she saw in Cois.

Cois was a wild inner energy, energetic and constantly reshaping itself as if to remind Delta of the fact Goblins had sheer potential for anything if given the tool.

Jeb was slower… sturdier. His Mana was like growing moss that promised regrowth no matter the damage unless it was from fire.

The Gargoyles, while all different shapes, had the same inner ethereal Mana that showed their stone forms were not their whole being. The Mana sometimes floated in and out of the gargoyles’ bodies as if tasting the air.

It showed how even if their eyes and other senses were of stone, their spirits were far more aware of their surroundings than one could guess.

Jack, on the other hand, was hidden mostly from Delta’s senses. Perhaps due to the nature of being a Contractee. The tiny flickering of Orange Mana barely shone within Jack but what little sparks Delta saw revealed a deep fissure of many facets. Like a cracked diamond.

Beautiful, but a little sad.

Delta floated through the floor, carefully observing the Feast Hall, Fera’s various bubbling dishes that couldn’t be prepared in a tiny kitchen on the upper floor, and soon arrived in the Garden of Choice.

She didn’t use a Menu in this mindstate. Delta looked at the room and bubbles of potential rose from the sea of Mana. Where things had been chosen by Sis to be worthy of Delta’s attention.

The Giant Nu statue had various ideas. Delta tilted her head and saw how, with a staggering amount of Dungeon Points, it could come to life. At the thought of her rare currency, the world shifted to reveal something Delta had never really given proper thought to.

Dungeon Points… Delta held out her hand and a tiny crystal with a shimmering rainbow surface floated over one of her fingers. It was barely bigger than a teardrop.

A single Dungeon Point. It was a crude term for what Delta could now see was something deeply precious. It wasn’t a gemstone. This crystalline form was only how Delta’s still learning mind could best see it.

The true nature of the energy was far harder to grasp but Delta decided to tackle that another day.

DP was gained when the Dungeon broke down an object or… person. The more unusual or powerful the item, the more DP Delta gained. Her slightly detached mind turned the gem over and saw the lights bend and dance to unheard music.

It was not one type of Mana or even a few. It was almost like the Dungeon condensed the history of the item itself into a single point. Every experience, every second of existence.

The pain, the love, the growth. It was all squeezed down into a single point.

Potential in the purest form. It was siphoned from the item and fed into the System where this energy let Delta make child's play of the world’s rules. It was so easy now that Delta could see that the very thing she used to make a jungle from nothing — life and an ecosystem from nothing — was fueled by…

Creation and Potential itself.

But it was also in this moment Delta saw why people gave the most DP of all, short of legendary items no doubt.

Delta detached herself more.

She peered into the memory of the System. The machine and operation run by a being with nothing much else to do, so each part that Delta could even comprehend was neat, tidy… sterile, She tugged and lured the moment when the farmer died in her Dungeon. So long ago but so very recently.

The man died, the echoes of regret and pain reached Delta in this mindset even now. It felt painful and sore but human. Delta used it as a lifeline, knowing which way to go when she was done.

Ready to go home once she was done.

The Farmer died and his being was absorbed. His Mana was taken. Mostly a bit green and brown with hints of red. His history of a hard-working man of the earth but with passion for his loved ones.

“My name is Se-”

“I’ll do what I want, you old bast-”

“I loved you… you… you slept with hi-”

“His name will be Dil, like my grandpa!”

“My name is Se-”

The words exploded out the Mana patterns. Like echoes of the man’s memories. Delta let them wash over her, like a burning river. She didn’t look away. Delta didn’t dare look away.

From between the grasp of the Mana flowing from his body, between the love and the pain, between the regret and the pride, a single mote of pure blackness broke free.

The Dungeon System consumed it and broke it down… this wasn’t simply a creation of the Brother recycled by the Sister in a dance of the Sun and Moon. The System told Delta this.

This was a brand new resource. Claimed in the act of consuming Man.

Why?

Delta watched the scene over and over.

Why did people have this darkness in them? Why did the System explode with so much DP from devouring it?

“My name is Selvil. I’m just a farmer.”

Delta gasped and slammed back into herself. Stars and flashing lights blurred her eyes. She knelt in the Garden and tried to remember to breathe. It took time as if her mind was wading through sludge and muck… struggling to remember why she had to breathe.

I was about to slap you back. You dove too deep. Even Sis was about to pull the plug on your little acid trip.

Delta looked up at the box of Nu. His words were softer than normal.

“I got… lost,” she said without thinking.

Only you could get lost in your own head.

The sarcasm helped ground Delta and she managed to stand with a weak smile.

“I dunno, better my head than my butt,” she teased. Nu turned as if offended.

I do not have a rear to be stuck up. I leave that to you and your… fingers and… toe loving self. Urgh.

Nu actually shivered. Delta had no doubt it was due to the memory of himself having some of those aforementioned fingers and toes.

She smiled, feeling better already. Still, the memory of the floating black mote of… not-Mana haunted her.

“Can you ask Sis about the black spores in people?” she asked, the word ‘spores’ slipping out as if no other word was appropriate. Nu paused.

I’ll add it to the report. She’s a little distracted. Something about the full moon and family. She mumbles in sounds too low to actually exist. It’s annoying.

“You report to her? Are they, like, essays to her? Do you report on how you learn valuable lessons every day?” Delta grinned. Nu went quiet. Delta pretended to dab a quill and write in the air.

“Dear… Princess… Sislestia…” she announced aloud and Nu twitched; and at the bottom of his box a leg formed—pants leg, boot, and all—and kicked her in the shin. Delta yelped, hopping on one foot at the contact.

“That hurt!” she whined. Nu huffed and vanished.

“Come back! Clearly you just write sarcastic comments and underline how I mess things up!” she called but she was alone.

“Our Dungeon is run by those two,” Dragon announced from above. Delta looked up to see Dragon and Dozer watching with amusement.

“Kinda explains a lot,” Dozer nodded.

“Haha, no comments from the peanut gallery,” Delta waved them off with a huff. Both goyles landed next to her.

“Oh don’t be like that! We love it!” Dozer said. Dragon leaned in.

“Like watching a show about dysfunctional couples on the magic box of TV! By the way, when can we get a TV?” Dragon asked in a whisper. Dozer shook his head.

“Siblings, they give me more that vibe,” he said and Dragon’s maw dropped open.

“That chemistry?! No way! That’s like angry rivals who hate each other right up until they kiss!” Dragon argued.

Delta glared up at them but they didn’t seem to notice.

“Nu is pure protective, that’s deep sibling fluff!” Dozer stated. Dragon threw his claws up.

“That’s the knight-and-princess dynamic!” Dragon said with exasperation. Delta raised two hands and tried a new idea.

She gathered more Mana to her fists and slammed both down on both gargoyles’ heads. The two hit the ground with a hard thump. Confused, they looked up at Delta who puffed her cheeks out, still blushing as she glared.

“You both get no booze from Fera,” she announced and the order pinged Fera two floors up like an arrow. Dozer and Dragon looked like Delta had gutted them.

“Wait! No! You’re really an unlovable spinster!” Dragon wailed and tried to hold on to her leg. Dozer ran, as fast as his wings could flap, as Delta turned, eyes blazing orange and hair moving in an unseen wind.

“S….SPINSTER?!”

---

You do have a lot of pets. Spinster isn’t too far off at this rate.

Nu, the ever emotionally supportive friend, stated a while later as her third-floor monsters gathered to charge another door.

“Nu… I will hurt you,” Delta warned. Dragon twitched.

Delta ignored him. The short trip into Jeb’s cooking pot, courtesy of chanting Pygmies, had given the gargoyle a phobia of tiny things with spears and masks.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta eyed the next door. Doctor reported with some snooping that there was a large amount of… things moving behind this door.

It was the laboratory according to Jack. His exact words, when Delta asked for advice, was as followed:

“Burn it. Burn it all to the fucking ground,” Jack hissed. Everyone stared at him. He met each and every one of their eyes. Even Nu’s, which was impressive since he generally didn’t have them.

“The things they made me drink… the things they made others inject? It was a real sick man’s dreamland. It was like they were looking for the best way to simply make people want to die before they melted,” Jack winced in memory.

Delta turned to the simplistic black wood door and she… was really… beginning to dislike these people.

“Let’s burn some nerds,” she said and Vanguard kicked the door down so hard it flew off the hinges and smashed a goopy puddle of black slime and chicken bones.

“No fire… but Jeb ready to smash more moldy chickens!” Jeb announced proudly as he crawled through the door and almost caused a roadblock.

That was a bad omen. Delta just knew it.

---

Seth enjoyed the jungle. It was nice and lacked a lot of things that made most jungles a little...bothersome.

There were no bloodsucking flies, bloodsucking frogs, bloodsucking trees, bloodsucking rocks, or bloodsucking leeches.

The last one was more forgivable than the rest but Seth did not enjoy the Crimson Jungle by any means. The gathering of Blood Mages giving lectures there was very informative, though. Seth still had the buttons they handed out with their group slogan!

‘No bad blood between friends!’

Lovely people. Really, Seth particular enjoyed their Blood massage therapies. Pricey but good.

Delta’s Jungle was like the blood mages without the death jungle on the way. He stared at an actual river of slow-moving gold. The moat of swirling honey surrounded high rising stone pillars where dark clouds swarmed and worked.

The moat was broken into several tiny pools where the largest bees Seth had ever seen used their stingers and nimble legs to widen the pool. The odd thing was that in each of the pools, the honey looked a little different than the main honey river.

Wandering near one, the bees moved away but they did watch him. Seth bent down and stuck his finger into the reddish honey and tasted it. He blinked at the rich texture and the feeling of heat rising from up from the pits of his stomach.

“They’ve been busy bees! Makes lots of honey from different jungle flowers. Best not to take too much without asking! It’s not nice beehavior!” Inchy squawked.

Renny the Mime looked up and with one hand, reached up and petted the nearest bee. It was a little small compared to the others, but it buzzed happily and began headbutting Renny’s hand over and over with it’s stinger actually moving side to side...

Dear Gods above and to the side… that was adorable.

“This honey is very Mana rich. Does Delta let all things in her Dungeon become Mana enchanted?” Seth asked with excitement. He watched three Bees dive, splashing honey onto themselves, one from each pool, before they flew softly around the biggest spiral, smearing the many flavors of honey on the rock. The many smells made Seth’s stomach rumble.

Renny looked at him, the feeling of amusement coming off his frame.

“Renny is right. Mama Delta doesn’t let or deny anything. Mama is just happy we do our thing!” Inchy said with a tiny warm voice rather than his obnoxious one Seth had come to enjoy.

“Aren’t you all worried that some monster might try to use that? To grow and become too strong for anyone to stop? Delta seems like she would hesitate to end anything she created. Some monster might abuse that,” Seth asked as he bent to examine a blue-hued honey pool that made the air smell minty.

The silence was only noticeable after a few seconds.

Not just from Inchy or Renny (not that the Mime made noise unless he wanted) but every bee... every bird song... and the very jungle itself had gone silent.

Inchy spoke and the jungle seemed to back him up in support of various noises.

“No one who is a child of Delta would ever harm her. If such a thing would come into our home?” Inchy ruffled its feathers.

Renny flexed and a nearby boulder cracked with a single hand grip done by the Mime.

“It will be punished. We don’t hate people or anything. Hate isn’t a thing we have,” Inchy landed on Seth’s head.

“But we’d hate this monster you speak of. Someone who would harm Delta by playing with her love... will not be welcome,” Inchy said calmly.

The lack of puns was making Seth sweat just a bit. He was vastly outnumbered by Delta’s monsters and there were a lot of stingers.

But... he petted the bird. His interest just peaked more.

“I’d like to meet your mother, she seems like the kind of lady who would leave a lasting mark on my life,” he grinned and the humor didn’t seem to fly as well as he hoped because Inchy lowered his head down and stared into his eyes upside down.

“Perverts are pervertented from meeting Mama,” he declared and pecked Seth’s forehead once.

“I am a charmer! A lover of people! Not a plain pervert!” he protested and Inchy pecked him again.

“Pervert protests too much! Seth the Perv! Seth the Perv!” Inchy sang.

Seth didn’t like the ways the bees were buzzing to each other... like a giant chain of spreading gossip.

That name... was going to spread.

Well... Seth had been called worse. Renny helped him to his feet and then bowed to the spire. Seth followed him on instinct but was confused until a bee quite unlike the others appeared from the hive above.

The golden crown was sort of eye-catching.

The frame was powerful and her wings were like pieces of glass in motion. The sheer aura she gave off commanded respect and Seth’s attention.

Her stinger was curved like a dagger and glowed orange.

She landed in an almost human pose on two legs and folded her wings in like a shimmering coat. Her face had features similar to her kids but more angular, and the eyes were more sharp in shape. Her antennae ended in little puff balls.

She looked down at them and the royal demeanor that showed nothing but faint interest made Seth put this Queen on a solid 8 out of 10 for Queens.

Amazing entrance, unique style of power and position... and damn curvy for a bee.

Seth made sure to loosen his ponytail a bit and put on his best smile. He was a bit of an old hand at charming Queens and Kings.

Sometimes at the same time.

Delta’s Dungeon was simply... amazing.

----

Bob gurgled as Quiss petted the giant hell worm.

“I have the feeling that I left Seth alone for too long,” he sighed. Rale burped and passed the flask to Bob who opened his mouth and let the frog pour the booze into its mouth.

Quiss was resting his eyes on the sand next to them.

Sure, their meeting had been a bit... explosive... but Bob turned out to be a good guy for a worm.

“He’s not iney the rhiver,” Rale said seriously, slurring like a champ. Nearby, two crabs were building a sandcastle. One of them wobbled and face-planted into the spire and it collapsed on top of the other.

For two assholes... the crabs were good at making sand castles. Even while being drunk.

He sighed and pushed away from the happy haze he was in.

“I need to find my friend. He’s prone to sleeping or making best friends with, anything and anyone. Being the middle child of 15 kids kinda gave him needy habits,” Quiss mused. Bob whined and Quiss leaned in and butted his head on the nice looking glowy body of Bob.

“Hey... I’ll be back. It’s my job as a PeaceKeeper to PK assholes who give the dungeon shit. I’ll bring you a ball or something,” Quiss promised. Bob slowly sank back into his pool like a metal chain being let go.

He stood and something rustled nearby. Rale looked over and frowned heavily.

“What are they up to?” he mumbled. Quiss was having bad flashbacks to needle darts and screaming.

From the bush, came three tiny little mushrooms in leafy skirts and big goofy wooden masks. They barely came up to Quiss’ knee at best.

“I’m scared, they’re not shooting first,” Rale said quietly.

“Do we run?” Quiss hissed. Rale shook his head with enough energy to make his face wrinkle.

“NO! They’ll get excited,” he warned.

From behind the three came a new figure.

A slow moving figure in robes and holding a tiny mushroom capped staff. This Pygmy Mushroom had more of a... unique soul to it.

“Oh it's one of the Uniques,” Rale bent down and peered as if this was a rare sight he didn’t get to see often.

Uniques... more than one. Urgh, the little demons were evolving. The Priest pygmy - for it was giving off that weirdly holy aura that the faithful developed - chittered at Quiss.

“...I object to that claim?” he guessed. Often, he got more complaints than compliments so the odds were in his favour.

“They’ve come to bargain. The teachings of Delta have… oh wow... Delta got mad at you all?” Rale said in surprise as the Priest chittered and chirped.

“I’ll share but it’s mine,” Quiss hugged his flask; months of inscribing space and storage sigils let him hoard enough for days like this.

The little priest shook its head and pointed at Quiss and then did some off pose with both its hands held up like it was holding something.

“They want your golden wires. I think they mean hair,” Rale translated. Quiss touched his beard and hair.

“Mage hair is very private, you can’t just take it!” he protested. Rale blinked.

“Can other mages use it to harm you?” he asked in shock. Quiss snorted.

“No, but hair growing spells are complicated and potions take months to make. Every time a mage loses hair it comes back naturally one shade lighter until you’re grey at the age of 15 or 25!” Quiss waved his hands in annoyance.

“Having hair sounds like a pain,” Rale admitted.

Quiss eyed his smooth greenish skin.

“May your warts be forever off-color!” he grumbled. He turned back to the waiting demons.

“Why should I give you my hair?” he asked. The priest twirled its staff and whispered something. Rale gasped.

“They’re offering to show you the secret tunnels that could potentially let you bypass Wy-” Rale began but Quiss snorted.

“Do you think I need such a handicap? If that’s all-” he began to turn before more chittering came.

“-and direct access to all you can eat buffet of the third floor and they can get you they so you don't have to talk to anyone!” Rale added.

Quiss reached up blank face and pulled out a full of hair.

“Lead me to the abyss, demons,” he commanded.

The Pygmies began to dance in a circle and word began to travel back to the village. The Golden one gave many golden wires this day.

They would have to find more things to trade for even more!

97:Bubbling to the Surface

Delta watched with a hint of nervous energy as the door to the laboratory creaked closed behind them.

The open hall with many tiny connected hallways was a surprising space compared to the Silence pit but Delta used Doctor’s eyes to peer into the space. It was more like a dungeon in the most real sense. A place where people suffered, and that the sun never touched.

Delta paused… wait, that still sounded like most Dungeons of this world. Well, this place was like places where prisoners were sent when castles were common. Stone walls and drafty floors with hay spread over it to soak up odd spills or maybe have the odd worker just collapse for a power nap.

The hall itself was arched with statuesque pillars like twisted bone to hold the ceiling up above. The top of these pillars spread like roots. Delta had no idea if it was artistic or just how the material acted. It didn’t look like normal stone. Too white.

Her group moved forward. Gnashly and Jeb taking the lead. The hall was thankfully much more suited to their size. The gargoyles either used their shoulders as perches or like Dragon and Dozer, crawled along the ceiling, their stone claws making easy work and handholds of the fancy roots.

Jack was keeping back, making sure nothing got out.

Jeb stomped and the creatures that littered this place scattered.

They were like thick viscous black puddings. Bones and items sunk and rose out of their bodies.

It was like tiny swamps that had gotten bored and learned to move but… their bubbling slime made flesh erode and turn black on contact.

Not that Jeb or Gnashly even noticed.

Something Delta learned about Trolls in general was that their pain receptors never really… bothered to develop From an evolutionary perspective she guessed if the creature could just regenerate damage, pain wasn’t needed to tell them to stop being idiots.

Instead, evolution just made their skin thicker and walked away screaming in frustration at what she had just done.

The slimes mostly used something as a ‘face’. The common theme seemed to be skulls. Delta winced and guessed she knew what happened to the undead around here: they were stripped down and used as fancy accessories by these puddings.

A few of the pudding slimes used helmets or shields but the general foes used long dead eye sockets to glare at them. One of the puddings lashed out with a tentacle and a sword emerged from the slime.

It sunk into Jeb slightly before getting stuck. The pudding yanked and pulled with frustration while Jeb looked down.

“Free sword!” he cheered and stomped the pudding, which made a lot of things scatter across the floor.

“At least he’s having fun,” Delta sighed.

“Better the one who can fix himself up than us,” Doctor agreed. The gargoyles were neatly avoiding the puddings as best they could as their flesh would be exposed to the burning muck while not in their stone form.

Harder than it looked when the puddings could slime up the walls and give chase.

Doctor lashed out. Under his flapping cloak came a series of flasks. The bubbling solution broke on contact and spread fire across a few of the puddings.

Jack cheered in support as the combined efforts of Doctor’s oddly poisonous fluids and Jack’s bad habit made firebombs. Delta was surprised to learn each goyle had their own weapon, as it were.

Gargoyles… were actually very cool once Delta explored into their biology and powers. It took some explanation on Nu’s part but the idea was that each Gargoyle was unique. Their soul was formed and poured into a statue.

Usually they were considered religious creatures by proxy. Ambient faith for whatever god or goddess or thing or toaster (Delta was sure Nu was joking about that last one) would gather in a temple or church over time.

That energy would eventually leak into the building itself. Hence that weirdly nice but unearthly feeling such places could get if they were old enough. The side effect was that things would become empowered.

The water, the food, the beds, the toilets, and even the mops.

It also meant such fixtures such as statues and water drainage on the roof that had been carved into angelic or demonic looking creatures would also get that power. And like in most good stories with statues and magic… they came to life.

Now the issue was that each tiny feature and defect of said statue shaped what a gargoyle could and could not do.

Delta had a feeling that if her monster template hadn’t screwed up and gone wonky, her gargoyles would have been uniform and exactly the same in terms of powers and weapons until she learned to control the process.

But since Delta had accidentally broke a few tiny… not important things somehow, her gargoyles were each wildly different.

Delta had to reassure herself that the whole defective template thing was no big deal. No big deal at all.

“As a Doctor… lying to yourself is unhealthy,” Doctor said airily and another couple puddings went up in flame, exploding with more loot.

“If it was that bad, Sis would have told me,” she argued.

Doctor’s silence was heavy.

--

In a deep desert, a series of ten or so white gleaming towers stood, with sealed tunnels that arched up between the towers to connect them. The land around the towers was lush with a series of oases. Nearby, a bustling city of towers that tried to impersonate the white towers had been built.

It was connected to the towers with several roads and aqueducts and its people moved on with their lives, unaware of the being that controlled the towers screeching to herself.

Dejen stared down at the things before her. She was on her 70th floor. A very important floor. It ended with a zero! It was damn important, and this? This was not what she needed to deal with right now.

Her towers reached to the stars. The glowing white spires of beauty and treasure to lure in those from miles around. Dejen refused to bury herself into the dirt like some mole…

Many of her lower floors were occupied and facing threats.

She had spent a pretty amount of Rainbow Gems to make her bosses respawn within an hour… her lower floors were wonderful.

Lackluster and somewhat primitive in her early attempts but the sheer charm of them, her fumbles and success were a past… a story… and Dejen didn’t have the heart to change them. Her future was ever higher, and here she was climbing.

Her first monsters, after months of stockpiling and waiting to buy her new floor, the seventh tower rising by another 100 meters to show she had done just that. Her monster choice was new… exciting.

The Sister had always given her interesting choices. Sand scarred assassin clan… the Thunder Scorpions… or the Mimic Cacti.

Each a deadly breed capable of devouring legions of common warriors on their own. She had chosen the scorpions. Dejen was envisioning some endless plain of storms where one would have to do deadly battle and dodge death from above.

It had nice acoustics once she set it up. Dejen was sure she could hold some concerts here and it would be lovely. Well, aside from her audience dying by lightning strike but the show must go on!

She had set up natural lightning rods where one could race for cover from the deadly storm, the tall crystal of rubies and sapphires that would be impossible to miss. Occasionally Dejen set in an Emerald one on high ground.

Dejen liked pretty things and these towers were damn pretty.

Next, she summoned herself three scorpions. But her idea of exactly matching jewel-encrusted scorpions was ruined…

RUINED!

One was a tiny thing with huge claws and a twin-stinger. An opal and a pink diamond on each tail. It curled them together to sting at foes. A second one was so big it lumbered, and its tail was used more to itch its head than attack, and the last one was just… orange.

ORANGE!

Dejen screeched but no matter how many times she erased… summoned…erased… SUMMONED…

They all were so imperfect!

Dejen screamed, and the thunderstorm howled with her. Dejen (still screaming) adjusted the storm to be slightly louder and more in sync with her. The light was a bit dim so she set that to be higher as well.

Dejen was of a mind that while she had time to rage against the cruel fate that she now suffered… there was still time to make the floor look slightly better. One could have a breakdown and still look perfect.

Eventually she decided… that with some effort and random luck, she could work with this. Dejen was a good Dungeon. Good at what she did.

Making people die with style and beauty.

She made vaguely colour themed scorpions and did her best to ignore their other issues and sent them to the right towers.

Red one to the ruby towers… blue(ish) to the sapphire ones… and the glowing green one to emerald.

Dejen had no idea why it was glowing, but decided it actually looked cute once it was in the right spot. Like the towers , the monsters fit them like good shoes.

Dejen liked pretty matching shoes.

Yes… Dejen could work with this.

Her concert might have to be put on hold until she was sure the monsters wouldn’t outdo her, however.

That would be tragic. Dejen had a habit of erasing those that outdid her.

---

These odd pudding slime monsters weren’t like the blood elemental.

There was no core to speak of. When one was splattered their black gloop remained inert over the stone floor. Thankfully, their inability to dissolve anything but flesh meant the room wasn’t collapsing around them from acid holes.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The thing was that while they displayed reactions to Delta’s monsters, they lacked fear or even a sense of planning. They rushed forward to consume, stab, swallow, and generally rush them but there was no thought to dodging or trying new tactics.

Slimes emerged from some side rooms using beakers, axes, and even a few gnawed bones as weapons. Those rooms needed to be explored but there was something more important Delta needed to check out first.

A giant hollowed out space in the middle of the large hall held a bubbling cauldron with a bright glowing green mixture. The mixture inside was still being heated and cooked, despite this place being cut off from the world.

That had caught Delta’s attention.

Doctor was the best one to look into it but the amount of squishy slimes trying to bombard them with sheer numbers was beginning to wear even her trolls down.

Dragon opened his maw and several of them burst into fire as Dozer just charged, his form slightly glowing with a rippling shield that gave his forward momentum a slight unstoppable feel. Vanguard was the odd one. He took any weapon that came within reach and turned them from half eaten scraps into deadly tools of war once more.

Swords, axes, whips, table legs… anything that could be used was used and Vanguard was a master at using them.

The broody gargoyle swung a sword, cleaving a glaring skull in two while he splattered another foe with a club with the same momentum.

“Right let’s see!” Doctor mused as he used a tiny set of stairs to get close to the cauldron. A slime slurped out of it and Doctor pressed a tiny bundle wrapped in cloth into its body where a fizzing powder floated for a second before the slime simply gurgled and collapsed into a puddle.

“What is this thing?” Delta asked, focused on the cauldron. The urge to switch between her monsters was strong but she knew if she could just stop this cauldron, she could easily halve the number of slimes.

Doctor ran his hand over several symbols, carved letters, and stains.

“Nothing good. I would say that this thing is a source of those monsters but where it gathers resources from and how it keeps itself alight and working is a mystery,” Doctor said and stabbed another slime pudding that tried to yank him into the cauldron.

“The fire, maybe we can put it out!” Delta said suddenly. Doctor let himself fall down the last of the stairs and dropped to his stomach in the dusty bowl that held the cauldron. Delta blinked at the embedded dark red crystals.

Those looked familiar…

“Fire Crystals, the angle and the distance to the ground means I won’t be able to swing a hammer to smash them. Of course, no fire to put out either,” Doctor stood and with some quick movements, he used his claws to carefully balance on the lip of the cauldron.

“Any ideas, my fair lady?” Doctor sounded rather calm despite the sheer number of bubbling slimes that were rapidly forming at the bottom of the cauldron. Delta was sort of reminded of the cooking she was able to do.

It had too made monstrous blobs at the bottom of the pot. Wait, that gave her an idea!

“Maybe we should throw stuff in and see if we can mess up their dish?” she suggested. Doctor pulled out vials and more wrapped tiny little powder bags.

“Allow me!” he announced and he began to throw his arsenal into the cauldron. Most of them just dissolved harmlessly and hissed out in white smoke.

The powder seemed to cling for longer but the sheer volume of acidic green sludge simply washed it aside.

“We need something more deadly than Sin Choir Dust,” Doctor responded to the scene in that same calm tone.

Delta, however, could feel his agitation on his tools being outdone. Delta looked around but the science scene in the hall was either being used as weapons by the slimes or turned to dust long ago. She was beginning to panic when Jeb belly flopped and black slime went everywhere. At his side was a meat cleaver, a tenderiser, and a large jug corked with a simple brown lid.

That cherry red jug sloshed with something familiar.

It was bad… but could it be that bad?

“Jeb! Give Doctor your Troll soup!” Delta yelled and the troll didn't even look as he chucked the container across the room. Doctor leapt and what was a jug for Jeb was a barrel for Doctor.

He slid a few feet back, gasping as he tried to slow down the projectile. He was now quite a bit away from the cauldron and he began to stomp forward. Delta yelled a warning , as if sensing something was up, the puddings began to gather around Doctor like a plague of locusts. They lashed out with tentacles and knives. The downside was that Doctor couldn’t progress and defended himself by turning to stone.

Vanguard was there like a vengeful angel. His weapons cleared a path forward which Doctor took without slowing down.

The panic in the slimes seem to rise and a few began to blob together into some horrid wave of trash and acid. Dragon responded by swooping down in a storm of fire. The light and the dark clashed, sending flaming bits of pudding everywhere but the hole left behind was used by Doctor to rush deeper.

The cauldron was working overtime, shaking and hissing as it spat out puddings like no tomorrow.

“You can do it!” Delta cheered. The oncoming wave was torn apart, squished, and blown away by Gnashly, Jeb, and Dozer. Doctor was so near that he burst into a sprint.

Delta felt Doctor’s mind go crazy, he never felt more alive. The moment of victory was near but at the last moment, a pudding that had no items and no weapons rose out of a crack and tripped Doctor. He face planted, almost breaking his beak mask right off. Delta cried out as Jeb’s brew bounced and rolled away.

The slimes didn’t touch it but made the path to the jug a nightmare of acid and bladed weapons.

“Damn it all. I’ll make them regret that,” Doctor hissed, his foot crushing the slime that had tripped him. The numbers flowing from the cauldron and the side rooms was staggering.

The air became fouler as the slimes gave off noxious fumes. Delta had little doubt a normal person would have their lungs scorched trying to breathe in here. The walls moved like water as the slimes ran out of room on the ground and began to claim the high ground.

This was… this was a nightmare.

And what was worse that they hadn’t breeched the inner sanctum of the lab yet. That cauldron kept spitting out more and Delta had a horrible feeling she had started it up like a long dormant auto-factory.

They would keep being produced and Delta wasn’t sure how she would begin to fix this.

Inside, she began to feel like a slime was crawling around her heart. It burned and every second felt like a dark morbid understanding that she might be in over her head here.

She opened her mouth… to say something? To call her friends back? To yell in frustration and fear?

She didn’t know. Delta wouldn’t be given the chance to find out as the jug rolled forward on it’s side like a barrel out of a comedy movie. Jack the Kobold on the top.

“Move it or lose it sisters! Remember me?! I FRIGGIN REMEMBER YOU! TODAY WILL BE THE DAY-” he hollered and screamed as the barrel crushed the slimes, the burning muck hiss on Jack’s feet as the jug spun around and around.

Nothing could stop him.

Jack let the jug fly over the edge, himself still on it.

“-THE DAY YOU ALMOST CAUGHT MAD BURNING JACK KOBOLD AND FRRRRIEEEENNNDS! ” he yelled with mad glee and the jug, the kobold, and several trapped slimes on the jug crashed into the cauldron, the cork on the jug flying off.

The thick brown liquid seeped into it and the cauldron began to give off a high keening noise. The Troll soup, Jack’s mad laugh, and the jug itself sank and the cauldron began to crack, dark light seeping out between the stone fissures.

“SHE’S GONNA BLOW!” Delta screamed. Her monsters ran as all the black puddings had gone stark still, shaking in time with the cauldron.

Jeb and Gnashly formed a trollish shield around the goyles as the cauldron gave one last shriek and the whole room shook.

Delta felt it ripple through her body.

Her whole Dungeon was shaking.

---

Seth paused as the trees and rocks shook fiercely for a moment. The Queen and her subjects became a noise of furious buzzing.

“Mother…” Inchy whispered. Renny took the bird and passed it to Seth.

“Renny! Where you going?” Seth called. The Mime didn’t answer, funnily enough.

“He’s going downstairs. Momma needs help,” Inchy said quietly. Seth looked at the bird.

“I could go?” he offered. Inchy looked up before shaking his little feathered head. He hopped to Seth’s shoulder.

“We gotta have faith. Renny is strong! And you gotta finish the tour! That was my job! To give you the tour,” Inchy said. The bird must have been worried because it didn’t even pun once.

Faith?

Seth felt the tremors stop and honestly knew he couldn’t offer faith. The best he could do was trust.

So he put on his best smile and let Inchy lead him onwards. His senses flickered… his mind being brushed gently by a stroke of magic.

An assurance… a promise. The hot smoky aftertaste told him that Quiss was already heading to check things out.

The concern and softness in the embers of Quiss’ magic would surprise most people but Seth knew the man had the deepest warmth for those he cared about.

Seth smiled, relaxing truly as he felt Quiss move on to follow Renny.

Between those two? Perhaps he could have a little faith.

---

Interlude: Death Pips In

Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea.

Jack hadn’t really given it much thought. Leaping onto the jug of troll soup was an urge before any thought. Jack saw the jug, the boiling shit that he himself had once been forced to drink from… The burning nightmare, as he had come to call it.

Jack, while cackling on the outside, was oddly calm on the inside. He had chosen his action, a target, and all other concerns were… secondary. He hit fast, out of nowhere, and hoped he would make it another day. It was the most idiotic tactic he or his fellow Kobolds could ever come up with, but Jack was also just looking to die at times.

Spending a few 30 or 50 years down here would make anyone a bit stressed.

But as he felt the cauldron rattle and the stew spread, his existence went dark.

Darker than dark. Dark like a somber mood rather than any lack of light, Jack was worried it had all been for naught when he felt he was floating. Jack was scared he’d fallen into the cauldron of slime-making.

But there was no burning or any pain really. Odd, Jack was used to the aches and scars he’d gathered over the years. Delta’s contract was good, but it was slow work. His many bones that grinded from where they had been broken didn’t grind. The flesh that had scarred didn’t itch. His mind that screamed at the horrors he had seen was quiet.

That last one worried him the most.

He floated in a sea of painless blackness.

“Maybe old Jack bit the biscuit?” he mused, watching as his words were swallowed by this queer place. It wasn’t cold or hot. Not too heavy or light…

It was kinda of the middling ground of things. Jack wasn’t a fan. He was a firm believer of taking things to extreme. Like Delta! That gal was a titan of just-making-shit-happen. It was great.

This place? It was trying too hard not to piss him off. (And that pissed him off.)

Just as the thought crossed his mind that he was done floating… he landed on something. He looked down but it was more darkness, just more solid.

“Right…” Jack mused as he looked around for any more shadows acting like shadows shouldn’t. Tricky things, those shadows. Never knew who was hiding in them.

Jack took a few steps forward and finally noticed he was lacking his many, many, many toys. He looked down at his simple tunic and kilt.

A generic piece of clothing from his home. Something he had worn once upon a time. That… got to him a little more than he liked to admit.

“Alright, enough of this shitshow. I wanna see the big bagloo in charge or someone. I swear to Delta’s mushrooms if you leave me alone here I will make a bomb from nothing but my teeth and bodily fluids!” he yelled.

“As much of a sight as that would be… I would prefer you to stop yelling and actually bother looking around before making threats,” came a voice of long drawn out boredom. Jack spun and there was a room.

Jack blinked slowly once or twice, as the darkness was just gone and this study had taken its place. A crackling fireplace, warm soothing heat, lit the room as two squishy armchairs were arranged around it. The walls were lined with bookshelves stretching towards a ceiling so far up that they literally faded from view.

Jack stumbled just a bit as gravity seemed to reapply itself. The solid wooden floors clacked as his claws left tiny scratch marks. Jack steadied himself on a side table that had a delicate vase. It wobbled but Jack sighed as it didn’t fall.

Looking around, he tried to find that voice.

He didn’t have to look far. A figure was bending down to pull a thin paperback off the shelf. The oddity of a large brown bathrobe combined with thick slippers were a little disarming as the figure turned to reveal gleaming bone.

It was a skeleton! Jack recoiled as bad memories rose but as the person sat down in the well used chair near the fireplace, Jack saw that he had been wrong.

There was skin but the man was so gaunt and regal, he looked closer to bone than flesh. Watery blue eyes looked up.

“Well? Do have a seat Jack,” he gestures to the other chair that looked untouched. Confused, lost, and a little bit curious, Jack did so. The man opened his book and Jack could see the cover had a fainting human damsel being held by some buff blockhead with flowing locks.

‘The Pure Flower of Aidenshire’

Jack tried not to comment but…

“Looks kinda like the thing you get for a copper out yer aunts basement,” he pointed and the man flicked those blue eyes up.

“We all have our guilty pleasures, Jack. You and your explosions, I and my unrealistic romances,” he smiled and the expression only enhanced the skull like features of the man’s face. Jack could agree with that but... perhaps his broken mind was finally working but something prodded him.

This is not normal. Stop acting like this is normal.

A bothersome thought but Jack agreed with it nonetheless.

“So… I… am…expired?” Jack asked in his best elegant tone. The man blinked at him.

“Are you a carton of milk?” he asked with one arch brow. Jack scowled.

“Am I deader than my sex life?!” He waved his claws. The man seemed to hide a smile behind his trashy book.

“Well I am not in charge of your love life, despite my reading material. But yes, you did indeed expire,” he said, using Jack’s word with great amusement. He turned a page.

“Ah silly girl. Sneaking into the forest, no doubt to meet your bestial werewolf lover. I wonder how long the love scenes will go on…” he mused as he turned another page. Jack stared.

“You’re the figure. The End? Death turned two-legged?” Jack pushed, confusion at having died fueling his rudeness. The man hummed.

“Not exactly. You can call me Pip,” the man smiled again. Jack was sure now he wasn’t dead, but so high off troll soup he was going to die soon enough.

“Pip? Death is called… Pip?” Jack repeated with disbelief. Pip adjusted his bathrobe.

“Well, you asked if I was the end. I am not. Death is never the end, and all those overhanded tropes,” the man waved his book and sighed.

“Pip is a nice name. I like it and people have a harder time screaming in fear when the name they have to scream is ‘Pip’,” the man said, giving Jack a long look.

Jack was forced to agree. He would actually rather die than scream ‘Pip’ with any level of fear.

It just… was not going to happen.

“So, you’re the guy though, right? The taker of souls? The deliverer of karma? The Dragon’s shadow?” Jack pressed. The man looked like some old retired bachelor whose house Jack had dropped into unannounced.

“That’s me. Nice to meet you. I’d shake your claw but I am just getting to the good bit,” Pip explained as he began to turn pages faster.

“Please take yer time. Not like I have any left,” he answered sarcastically.

“Oh pish posh. Don’t be a downer Jack. You did well to keep that upbeat madness for so long, don’t lose it now,” Pip snorted. He said it like he knew exactly what Jack had been going through.

Made some sense. Death was expected to be a little all-knowing about the souls he ferries but Jack wasn’t seeing a boat around. Or a dragon.

Or a mechanical duck.

Jack hoped the Gnome’s version of Death wasn’t before him. They really made their process of dying a rollercoaster.

“So, how do we do this? Do you pull out the big scythe or do you push me into some void or is there a test?” Jack asked rapidly. Pip gave a weary sigh and put a plain bookmark in his novel and put the book down.
“Are you truly in such a rush? Jack, you don’t even know what awaits you or where you’re going. But alas, I fear that is more my fault than yours,” the man admitted and leaned forward, face all business.

“Now, Jack, you are a delicate being. Usually souls are sorted and sent on their way automatically by the process of me being in too many places to count and to explain. I shepard mostly humans and there is a Kobold reaper, but…” Pip looked a little annoyed as he gathered his thoughts.

“But he’s a bit of a dick,” Jack offered. Pip looked pained but nodded.

“Liam tends to ditch extra work where he can. He’s much more keen on pretending to be some Chef in Kaliman,” Pip admitted with a long sigh of suffering. Jack’s heart squeezed painfully at the name.

Kaliman. The Kobold 'capital’, if there ever was one. His home, his place of birth. He had only seen it in shadows of dreams now.

He had forgotten how it smelled. How hot it was… how… how…

“So, the duty should have fallen to Sally who reaps general monsters who gain enough soul, since you were a Dungeon monster in name but Sally is in the middle of a divorce from her husband Ted, who reaps fishfolk. So, Sally denied it on grounds of you being a contractee and not a true monster, which should have made it Marvin’s territory but Marvin is currently on holiday, so it fell to me since you have two legs,” Pip explained.

“The afterlife is… “ Jack trailed off. He expected explosions, death and demons, and amazing sights to blow Jack’s arse off but this? This?!

Pip sipped some tea.

“My afterlife is run by boring old people,” Jack whispered. Pip huffed as he sat his tea cup down, the pink skulls and flowers doing him no favours in looking anything like a grand spirit of Death.

“Middle-age, if you would. Besides, this is what happens when people believe different things. Trust me, it was all very simple when we were just one person. Then someone decided we weren’t good enough or gothic enough. Then someone decided they hated their father and wanted a different Death God. Then when one became about a dozen we had to have a business model and holiday pay,” Pip waved a hand around.

Jack was ready to bury his snout into his claws.

“So why am I not just being automatically sorted by Sally or Fred or Timbook or Ram or whatever names you people have!?” Jack glared.

Pip sniffed. He clicked his fingers and the room didn’t so much fall away as become slightly more 5th dimensional. Jack hadn’t known he had a fifth dimension until he saw his Soul overlapping physics.

“That’s weird. I don’t like it,” he said bluntly. Pip snorted.

“Nobody likes it, Hence why we all remain as close to the 4th as we can,” he grunted and pointed right at Jack.

“See that bubbling mess of contained explosions and shrieking giblets?” he said and Jack looked down.

“Yeah, looks like a hamburger being crushed by a giant and then vomited on by a goblin,” he agreed, wondering why it was in his chest.

“That’s your soul core, the very centre of you. That ugly hamburger is you,” Pip explained. Jack glared.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“My hamburger is wonderful and prime beef!” he said, no hint of shame at his sudden 180 degree attitude switch on his soul.

“It looks like it would give elder demons indigestion, but I digress. The point is that while fixable and sortable, it’s already spoken for,” he reached over and pointed to a glowing orange patch Jack thought was hot sauce or some stain or maybe drool.

“Delta the Dungeon has put a contract on you. She has anchored you to that Dungeon of hers,” Pip explained. He suddenly leaned in.

“By the way, between us… is she okay? I’ve been making room in my schedule for her kills but not a lot happening. Does she need help or is the Sister Sun doing weird things again?” Pip half-whispered.

“Don’t you know? Wait, who reaps Dungeon cores?” Jack blinked. Pip blinked.

“Marvin but he’s on holiday since he doesn’t get much work and was getting bored. So? Is Delta broken or is she…” Pip made a waffling gesture. Oddly, Jack was getting annoyed on behalf of Delta. He wondered if that was the Contract or…

“Have a drink Jack, you need it.”

“Jack, don’t blow up my pygmies!”

“Don’t worry… it won’t hurt you again.”

No. Delta had done this herself. Worming into his old hamburger heart like the goblin she was. Jack couldn’t even dislike her for it.

“Delta is a cracking core and she’s better than those other Dungeons. I bet they needed 30 floors to figure out which way to pour a drink!” he boasted. Pip smiled and poked the orange patch.

“Interesting,” he said and a smear of orange rubbed off on his fingers. Pip rubbed it and it flaked, floating like a snowflake as Pip seemed to stare at with deep intensity.

“Ah… I know this one. Delta… Hm, is that what became of her?” Pip murmured. Jack perked up at this.

“Ya know Delta? She said she was human before,” he offered. Pip mused in silence for a few seconds.

“Not well. Her soul arrived by a hook. Not very pleasant, but when the Brother has naught to do but fish in the abyss for fun, he does find the most interesting things,” Pip admitted. Brother… Sister.

Jack frowned. Where had he heard that before?

Old memories from a childhood long forgotten trickling past his memory. An old Kobold, grey-scaled and blind.

Old Sage Maknaw.

Jack had utterly forgotten that relic had ever lived.

“The Sun and all her harsh love… the Earth and all his dark secrets. They are not like us but they are not perfect. The Sun sets every day to play with her brother and in that darkness of her shadow… monsters were born. The Earth grants us power but also blesses the monsters. They are not gods, my little ones… they are nature itself. Cruel but beautiful,” the sage had whispered around a fire.

Jack had been young. So very young.

“Needless to say. Delta was a soul that I saw in passing. Quite interesting but alas, Marvin will see to her if she ever does require our services,” Pip said, knocking Jack from those memories, the images already gone like snakes into the ground of Jack’s head.

“So Delta is keeping me around, and you’re here to…” Jack trailed off quietly. Pip took no notice of Jack’s sudden melancholy.

“Offer you a choice as I offer all Contractees. I can sever the connection to Delta and let you pass on to some form of afterlife or I can merely let you be called back when the time is right,” Pip held both hands up to show the two options. “In this business, the Contractee—,you—, would slowly have their natural soul replaced by Delta’s perfect Dungeon Mana copy over the years,” Pip began and smiled at Jack’s sudden wide-eyed expression.

“Your previous soul would be ground up and fed back into the Core as a price. There is no doubt your soul is you. A boat rebuilt piece by piece is arguably the same boat in spirit and all, but there is that knowledge that your soul would be gone from the cycle until Delta is also dead,” Pip said and relaxed in his chair.

“It doesn’t bother me nor Marvin. Sally can be a bit perfectionistic when it comes to counting her lot, though, and Ted didn’t help there. Liam would come back and see a Kobold causing a spot of bother and dive in trying to get in on the fun. Terry would sit back and pet Maurice, the cat reaper, and overall the whole thing would reopen the Death Tournament to settle the differences. Other minor death related gods and goddesses and non-gender specific deities would hop in and I wouldn’t have time to read my books!” Pip whined.

Jack really didn’t see how he was causing the afterlife to become gambling addicts.

“Listen, not every reaper is as well-adjusted as me,” Pip promised in his bathrobe and slippers, surrounded by literally miles of trashy romance novels. Jack was beginning to think dying wouldn’t be so peaceful at this rate.

“Sometimes we mess up, and sometimes we fall asleep. That’s why you get idiots who won’t die when they really should have, countless times over. Sure, people call it destiny or plot armour but really, I promise you, their reaper is just literally worked to death and passed out,” Pip rubbed the pinch of his boney nose.

“So… if I cut my ties, you get to read your novels?” Jack summed up. Pip shrugged.

“I’m literally taking about 30 souls as we speak. To one woman, I am a giant smoky demon. To a priest, I am a talking shaft of light. Very annoying to read with no fingers… Point being is that you don’t bother me. It’s everyone else who’s crazy,” Pip explained. Again, in the distance, a shelf collapsed under the mounds of paper covers showing fainting women in men’s arms or some couple embracing.

“You’re a mad, contracted, Kobold with lots of achievements and karma under your belt. Your soul, while ugly, is a hefty bonus to the afterlife,” Pip hummed. He leaned in.

“I’m thinking you should give us the bird and go home. Avoid dying, because you will be fished out to talk to one of the others. Maybe Sally, once she’s done devouring her ex-husband. The fishfolk are going to be immortal for a whole week at this rate…” Pip grimaced.

Jack eyed Pip.

“You’re… kind of a weirdo,” he admitted. Pip smiled.

“Banish such thoughts. I am just a powerful creature of death that sits around in his home, reading trashy novels and giving out unwanted advice. I am perfectly normal,” he huffed. Jack grinned.

“If I do die, can I ask for you or is there some sort of paperwork I need to fill out? You’re kinda not an ass,” Jack nodded.

Pip stood and stretched, bones popping much louder than they would in any human or Kobold.

“No luck, m’afriad. I only managed to cause Sally and Ted to break up, Liam to get inspired with some new dish, and Marvin to be lost in another dimension by chance and luck so I could speak to you today. So, I believe this is until next time?” Pip smiled and Jack crossed his arms.

“I didn’t say my choice!” he argued. Pip snorted.

“Your orange patch grew by an inch. You need not say anything,” Pip promised and then Jack was falling.

Falling…

Falling.

---

Pip liked Jack. The mad thing had heart. An ugly hamburger heart but it was pure in its intent. He sat down and picked up his novel. He was sure he’d read this one about… well the number didn’t matter nor did the overused plot.

Pip just liked the novel idea that there was no good romance without Death involved somewhere. Like a third invisible partner that hung over their mortal hearts.

It was like reading about himself in love. Egotistical, and Pip loved it.

His study was quiet and Pip knew it was a lie.

“Come out, I know you’re back there. Eating my books,” he called good naturedly. This guest was a little less annoying than his fellow reapers. Mostly because the thing didn’t really have a motive beyond being curious.

From the shadows. A shifting shadow of many limbs and heads moved at angles impossible to humans until the being trotted out of the darkness to stand near the fireplace.

White wool, four black legs, and a mile long stare from two left eyes. The creature was an odd one. Old but new. Lost but on track… he was controlled chaos in a very fluffy form.

“…” the god-like sheep did not exactly speak but its intent reached Pip nonetheless. The two had been friends for a long time.

Mostly because Pip couldn’t keep the pest out his library nor from eating his first editions. But the creature was known to its followers as the Finder of Paths. An unusual God-centric religion that focused on the sheep before him.

“Me, lie? Perish such accusations, my friend,” Pip smiled at the creature. He pretended to buff his nails.

“I didn’t exactly say I was a reaper of humans. I merely said two legged at the best of times. You know it’s not becoming to brag of titles,” Pip huffed. The sheep chewed a rather smutty piece of a chapter from one of Pip’s books.

“You are such a prude.” he sniffed. The godling before him merely passed its amusement on silently.

It wasn’t really a sheep. Pip could see that, most higher beings could, but for mortals, it was safer to see the form of a sheep than what it actually was. To be honest, the human mind preferred the sheep. It was closer than anything else to its true form.

Still, the sheep pressed and Pip was beginning to roll his eyes at the chiding he was getting.

“Jack would have had issues with me. If I had said I was the reaper of heroes. He would argue and deny and no one wants to have that debate in the middle of a good book,” Pip nodded to himself.

He was glared at.

“Okay! Okay! Maybe I really did want to get back to my story. But come on! Rosealine Thighlina is about to bust into the evil fortress of Celimanty and rescue her true love Long Rod Robin-” he said in another whine but the sheep was already gone.

“Come back! I haven’t gotten to the part where they become a threesome with a werebadger!” he cried out but the spiritual door of his realm was slammed shut as Pathfinder left in a hurry. Pip sat back down and grumbled to himself.

He picked up his book and smiled to himself.

“No one appreciates true art,” he sighed in contentment.

After all, these books all gave Pip one thing besides the obvious lift in his ‘spirits’. A happy end where the hero wins, sleeps a lot, and Pip would never meet them.

It was a sad hobby but Pip did the best he could. He turned the page and chuckled.

“Oh, there’s her famous Thigh Crusher of eggs. Girl, you are deadly,” he commented as he read on. The book would be read quite a few more times that night.

---

Jack will respawn in 5 days automatically.

----

98: The Madness of Sanity

Delta watched with some hints of worry as Jack reformed. The price had been costly but she had a lot of Mana left over from absorbing the various rooms and monsters. The idea of waiting for the five days had crossed her mind but in the end? There were more pros than cons to that idea that went along nicely with Delta’s own guilty feeling that she led Jack to his demise.

The Kobold shuddered once as his body settled on the stone floor of the lab. He blinked a few times as he licked his scaly snout as if tasting the foul air for the first time.

“The afterlife is filled with smut,” he croaked. Delta sighed with a smile. Good ole Jack was back. Doctor peered him over.

“He’s breathing and isn’t leaking anything. I assume he is in good health,” he announced. Delta turned her presence to him with a long look.

“I never said I was a medical doctor,” the gargoyle said promptly. There was zero hint of shame at this.

Delta watched as Jack wobbled to his feet and stared at his claws.

“I… where was I? I… did anyone see a chap in a bathrobe?” Jack asked the group but turned away before anyone answered.

“I need to find housewife porn and offer it to the great beyond,” he said in a hushed tone of someone who had seen… something.

“Jack? Are you alright?” Delta called and the Kobold turned to look somewhat skyward towards the garden of Delta’s Dungeon.

“Aye. Just met someone I can’t remember rightly. They liked books of that nature and if I die… I wanna make sure I earn brownie points. Grease the system, right!” Jack turned, that mad glint in full force.

“You saw someone?” Dozer asked rudely. Jack raised one claw then dropped it.

“I don’t remember but I have the oddest urge to eat hamburgers,” he announced and looked at the ruined crater where the cauldron of slime used to be.

There was a large dark smear now. It reeked of troll soup.

“That’s gonna be one to remember,” he mused. Vanguard kicked a soot pile and half dissolved weapons shifted about. Vanguard looked annoyed.

“I’ll get you a nice sword,” Delta offered shyly. Vanguard paused then nodded silently in thanks.

“So, not to be rude or ungrateful or myself but why bring me back? Cost ya a pretty penny right?” Jack stared roughly at Doc where Delta was watching from. Delta cleared her throat.

“Your knowledge, oh mad Kobold, is needed. You know this place better than anyone,” she said with the grace of a Dungeon core, or so Delta imagined.

“You felt bad about me blowing myself up,” Jack stated, picking his teeth with a bone shard he found. There was zero doubt.

Delta puffed her cheeks out.

“I can feel both cunning and sappy,” she said defensively. The monsters around her all shuffled in silent avoidance. None of them agreed or disagreed.

Delta deflated.

“Fine, I felt bad. Are you sure you’re alright?” she asked Jack.

“I blew up the old slime maker. That put me in a damn good mood,” Jack grinned maliciously at the smear. Delta had to agree.

The idea of some pot or cauldron able to endlessly make an army of acidic slimes was… worrying. Jack crossed his arms and looked around.

“Well, I owe you twice over for my life now. Guess I can show you around, now that we aren’t drowning in slimes,” he agreed. Delta watched as the Kobold looked around as if to get his own bearing.

“Right, the few times I was held prisoner here, the place was run like a business model with extreme consequences on fucking up. Tons of arrogant apprentices deciding they could do anything and if they screwed each other over then that just meant more subjects to experiment on,” Jack frowned. He pointed to the many side rooms.

“The rooms closest to the exit belonged to the lowest dregs. Barely smarter than a rock or ethical enough not to do shitty things to earn favour,” he moved the clawed finger up the side of the room.

“The closer you are to the end room, the more of a shitnoser you were and more dark things you had done. Human experimentation, mutation, weird things… see how they’re bigger and have better toys?” Jack grunted.

Delta frowned as he finally pointed to a set of stairs that lead down into a lone basement door. It was set in the farthest wall.

“That was the head honcho. The smartest, cruelest, most dangerous egghead here,” Jack’s voice had dropped to a tiny echo.

“Most times I was here, there were a lot of new leaders. Scientists that managed to kill or dethrone the previous one by making some new way to kill people. But I heard rumors… there was a guy in charge. A real scary looking fella. He ran things for the longest time before the great collapse. He made that slime cauldron and a lot of the really freaky shit a long time ago,” Jack hopped down and the goyles followed him to the basement door.

“That guy locked the head office and since then noone could get inside. A real asshole move I kinda respect. The guy office-blocked any head scientist to come,” Jack knocked on the solid steel door.

“What was his name?” Doctor inquired with deep interest. Jack shrugged.

“Never heard it. Kinda busy being tortured,” Jack grinned darkly at the goyle. Delta shot him a look.

“That’s not funny,” she chided. Jack rolled his eyes.

“Maybe you can open the door once you do the Dungeon thing here,” he suggested. Delta closed her eyes, feeling her Mana. It brushed up against the entrance to the lab but even with the cauldron slimes gone… there was something projecting enough energy to act as a barrier.

Delta had a bad feeling on where the source might be.

“We need to get inside that door,” she declared grimly. Jeb waddled over.

“Move aside, please!” he rumbled. The polite troll reared back one fist and her gargoyles scrambled.

There was a loud crash and the door became alight with glowing symbols along the frame, dark lightning crackling furiously as the troll’s fist was stopped inches away from the surface. Jeb pulled his fist back to show blackened skin and bone.

He stared.

“Door not like punching,” he declared. Jack snorted.

“I love this guy,” he said with a shake of his head.

“The guy was a magical scientist. I’m pretty sure he did more than just lose the key. People have been doing all sorts of things to get inside over the years,” Jack offered as Vanguard tried to jam a metal rebar into the frame which the door simply melted.

“Which means we need magic to open it?” Delta guessed. Jack shrugged with an apologetic look.

“Magic is as diverse as the people of the world,” he offered. Dragon stopped breathing fire on the door - it was having no effect - and looked annoyed.

“And that means what?” he replied with a wave of one claw.

“It means Magic is bullshit,” A new voice interrupted.

Everyone spun. Delta gave a small noise of surprise. She had been so focused she hadn’t felt Quiss reach the third floor.

The blond man looked… less annoyed than before. He had a chicken wing in his mouth and a goblet of something. He looked like he had stopped at the buffet for some time.

There was a long silent pause.

“It’s a pretty goblin!” Jeb declared with amazement. Gnashly looked down and she too seemed a little awed by Quiss’ pink skin and blond hair.

“I like this guy,” Dragon declared as he inhaled. He seemed to have caught a whiff of something on Quiss’ scent.

Delta guessed that knowing there were humans and meeting one would be a little different for her monsters. Well, at least it was Quiss. He would at least be roughly polite. Ruli had been on the third floor but Delta had a feeling her monsters had seen more of her demon side than anything human.

Quiss walked into the lab, a foul expression taking over his face as he eyed the many instruments.

Was he sensing the dark magics? Was he upset at the horrors? Was Quiss… going to be alright?

“Underground evil lab. I really hate cliche assholes,” he threw his chicken bone to the side and finished his drink.

“I came to make sure you haven't unearthed an evil fire demon or let loose a 1000 year old desert dark mage or unlocked the door to the monster hell,” Quiss listed as if Delta was capable of doing any of those things. She was insulted!

“I just blew up a slime making cauldron that had unlimited energy!” she fired back. Thankfully Doctor acted as her mouth piece.

“That was going to be my next guess,” Quiss hummed as he neared the door and then stopped.

“What’s with the door? Thing is literally vibrating with magic,” he pointed as if no one else had seen the door.

“We need to get inside so we can take over the place,” Dozer scratched his head. Quiss looked around the area and narrowed his gaze on a part of the door.

“Well, good luck. Those glowing runes near the corner that look like two horses trying to dance over hot coals? Those are Mana bindings. Kinda like a handprint. This door is sealed, locked, bound, and many other annoying words. You need a sample of the caster’s Mana to even begin to unravel it,” Quiss explained.

Great, a magical DNA scanner. Delta threw her Mana that ebbed off her monsters at the door with a futile act of frustration. The orange cloud splattered against the metal and there was an odd clicking noise as three layers of glowing symbols simply evaporated and the door rattled.

There was silence as Quiss turned to the various monsters.

“Did Delta… take and master the school of ancient tomb raiding?” he asked, voice faint with some hidden emotion.

“I didn’t do anything!” Delta protested but she eyed the door. Her Mana had undone the door magic! But… how?

Quiss merely looked at the door and shook his head.

“You must have already got a sample. Did you eat or meet someone who looked like they might be an evil tosser? Someone magical and slightly batshit insane?” he inquired. Delta frowned.

Not unless the farmer from her early days had lead a double life…

Doctor told Quiss this and his eyes gained an odd glint.

“Mana… can be inherited as well. Some children or rare enough artifacts may carry enough of the caster’s Mana by means to be gleaned. Perhaps you met someone who was connected to the caster?” Quiss mumbled, his questions not even directed at Delta anymore.

The door shook as the enchantments began to fail one by one. The last glowing symbol to blink out was a simplistic vase. It faded and the door creaked open in the creepiest manner Delta had ever heard.

There was a foul wind that rushed out and through Delta’s Dungeon and out her front entrance within a minute or two. Quiss turned, eyes alight with white fire in alarm.

“A spirit. Left to alert the caster no doubt,” he spat.

Delta had a bad feeling about all this but…

She felt even more worried when the spirit flew towards the town of Durence.

---

Japes paused in his newest creation. A thrice-sealed space contained with an earthen basin. Good for some more Earth born monsters. At his window a dark orb floated with patience.

“Well, well, well… as I live and breathe,” he smiled and let the spirit in. The orb hovered like a ball of shadows for a moment before a face formed on the surface using inner red light to form features.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

An angry young man glared at Japes.

“You utter sack of Minotaur crap,” the ball said with deep hatred. Japes looked around but Vas was still out. Good, language like this was just no good for the boy.

“Oh hush, Gilona. You were planning on using my heart for your own inane empowerment rituals. Very shoddy work by the way. I found the notes after I raided your room. Not a very kind thing to do to your master,” Japes mocked. The spirit, a sealed glass sphere that contained the rotten soul of one of his more talented apprentices, roiled with furious hate.

“You had ruled too long. I awaited you to succumb to age but you are a monster in all senses. I had to act. I simply miscalculated… besides, it’s all for naught! Have you seen the lab? Ruined!” Gilona screamed. Japes idly rubbed his head as a headache formed. Gilona was always a screamer.

“It’s silly to be attached to dusty beakers and dark corners. A true scientist goes where results are best formed without interference or biases. If you were a bit less obsessed with becoming a silly demon or what was it called? A terryboy?” Japes mused, knowing full well what it was called.

He had to admit, he missed sending cocky apprentices into a rage.

“THERION!” Gilona screamed.

“Yes, yes, that thing. Then you would have seen the Lab of Silence was restricting us. Narrowing our focus to their goals. Who wants to research how to bind human darkness to the source? Who cares about bringing back the war of the Three? Really, so boring,” Japes sighed and Gilona was quiet for a long time.

“Is that why you imprisoned me instead of killing me? To see what would become of those who did fall in line?” he asked. Japes’ smile was demonic as it stretched from ear to ear.

“No, I simply wanted to make you regret trying to use me in such pathetic science like you had planned,” he answered honestly. Gilona screamed and tried to charge him but Japes held one hand up and the glass went still.

“You mistake my patience and kindness I have developed as a father as an offer to push my limits,” Japes said softly. The orb cracked as a force pressed in on it.

“I respect you for trying to take me down. Your pride and methods, as shoddy as they were, were leagues above the rest of the fools that tried to slither into my dead heart. Hence why you were spared to learn a lesson and the others were… assets that I liquified in the end,” Japes’ smile was distorting his face now.

Gilona spluttered.

“T-t-the cauldron! You knew they’d… try to unearth its secrets!” the spirit huffed in pain. Japes shrugged.

“I knew that the cauldron would use anyone’s souls nearby to make an army of slimes. Souls are rather interesting as endless fuel if you can both sustain them and drain them. Like light through glass. Honestly, I had planned for them to eventually flood out at my command to consume the early fodder of the Silence. I take it… the Dungeon had to deal with them? How annoying. I hate to have caused a bother,” Japes frowned.

This made Gilona splutter even more in confusion.

“Consume? You speak as if you are here to help this… festering town?!” the orb whispered. Japes leaned in.

“Oh I intend to be one of their frontmen. I intend to march into the bowels of hell and Silence itself with them,” Japes promised.

“I don’t… I don’t understand,” the orb was unsure and Japes was reminded of the young lad Gilona had been when Japes had found him. Half-dead and almost fed to the growing undead army. A waste of useful talent.

“As your teacher, even now, let me teach you something, my dear Gilly. It is not ourselves that matter in the field of science. No, it is the results and knowledge we leave behind that is our true salvation. I will go when the time is right. I will use my greatest tools to see, to learn how a god can be sealed in a container with no walls. I will learn this. Then I will finish the greatest container… the greatest prison known to this world. I will die so that my knowledge will complete the last pulsing cell in my heart,” Japes was standing now and he was aware of every pot in his home was shaking with his excitement.

“Your work… don’t tell me you finished phase 1?!” Gilona screamed in disbelief.

Japes merely tore his shirt open from the front to reveal a deep empty hole in his chest. A glass surface, a tough alloy that Japes had crafted, showed Gilona his actions.

The orb was struck silent.

In the window. Most of Japes’ heart was gone. Neatly cut away over time. He smiled, a small gentle smile. This seemed to scare Gilona more than anything else.

Odd.

“I believe that if I wasn’t willing to pay the price, I didn’t deserve to see the reward,” Japes hummed and looked out the window.

“But… who? You don’t trust! You don’t have that ability. So who did you give this power to?!” Gilona asked with fear. The orb’s crack was slowly healing. Good, Japes would hate to have made a shoddy prison.

“The only person who ever made my heart feel warm,” Japes admitted.

---

Delta felt she didn’t understand what she was seeing.

The large circular room was bigger than the side rooms of the main hall. The curved walls taken up by endless books. Many were cracked and dog eared. Every so often, a portrait with amazing style and detail of landscapes and fantastic sights of green waterfalls, blue forests glowing with crystals, fields of flowers that bloomed like stars broke the books up to give the room a more personal feel. The inner circle of the room had a large desk facing the door with mounds of tiny apparatuses that had gears and flippable switches.

Another desk held many rusty instruments stained a dark brown colour. Boxes of dry clay or other kinds of soil were on the floor and scoops from each seemed to be missing.

It was not as bad as Delta was expecting… except for the giant tree in the middle of the room that instead of bark on one side, had a broken sac filled with some dry sludge. A large tear on the sac showed where something had either been cut free or broke free.

The tree reached to the ceiling and Delta was reminded of Maestro where the branches turned into roots and dug into the soil. The large pool of dusty green slime that must have been in the sac stunk even now of alcoholic disinfectant and earthy plants.

“I live in a town where weird crap happens, so trust me when I say I know weird, and this… has left me speechless,” Quiss stated, breaking the odd frozen grip over the group.

“If someone emerges from the shadows with blond hair, wearing sunglasses underground at night, we shoot first and ask questions later. I won’t have stupid puzzles in my Dungeon!” Delta said, words just tumbling out her mouth. Her monsters all seemed to look confused at this but honestly, Delta was creeped out by the vegan version of a horror movie mad scientist monster test tube!

“I know that wood,” Quiss’ voice was flat and Doctor turned to see a heatwave shimmering off the man and the floor under his feet began to bubble. Quiss took a shaky breath and the heat vanished. His eyes began a glowing white ember as he glared at the wood.

He was closer to the test tube tree and Delta watched as the wood itself seemed to ripple as if trying to ooze away from Quiss.

“Don’t think it’s legitimate but who ever grew this knock-off… made sure it remembered me,” Quiss spat.

“What is it?” Dragon hummed.

“Some homegrown World Tree. It’s already dying and it was never meant to live long… but to get a sample would have been insane,” Quiss’ fury turned to actual honest curiosity.

“Suppose if there were two world trees… it kinda loses its shine as a title,” Dozer agreed. Quiss shook his head.

“It’s weird. The tree is strong, magical, real magical. Nothing about this tree here wouldn’t be useful in some spell or potion. Your average hedge mage could be a small force by himself if he used the tree right. The person who did this, however, used the tree, then just threw it away. That scares me more than growing a second tree,” Quiss admitted.

Delta then focused on something that was niggling her senses.

“That tree… is the source of the barrier stopping me from getting my Mana in,” she said quietly.

“So, we need to destroy it to get the labs under our thumb? Kind of a bummer if we can’t take the tree in. I bet that'd give you some nice things,” Dozer hummed. Vanguard looked like he agreed.

“Can’t be helped!” Dragon grinned and gave the tree a taste of his fire breath. The tree… was untouched and didn’t even seemed to notice. Dragon blinked.

“Now that tree really needs to die,” he growled and tried to slash his claws over the bark. He simply slid off the remaining wood and left no marks.

“Allow me,” Quiss said and he held out his hand. An orange flame gathered on one finger. This action alone got the tree’s attention and it began to wriggle, futile as it was a mutated thing, bound to the room.

“This… is going to feel amazing,” Quiss promised aloud. His eyes flashed and his whole body became wreathed in a cloak of fire.

He inhaled and Delta felt something that made her very heart grow afraid. His fire turned bright and bathed the room in silver. No shadow could escape.

He didn’t burn hotter or denser. But his silver fire seemed to seek life… to seek thoughts and emotions.

Quiss gritted his teeth and the fire reluctantly left her monsters alone and began to surround the shaking tree that was trying to grow half broken thorns. A screaming face formed in the bark as if Quiss’ fire gave it life as well.

“BURNER!”

Quiss’ fingers snapped once.

“Murderer,” Quiss replied far too calmly.

The silver fire devoured the tree like a beast and the howling and barrier vanished as the thing was reduced to ashes.

The silver fire chewed… it roared… it laughed.

Then it was gone and Quiss stood over the remains with a large smile.

“I love it when I’m right. That felt… good,” he grinned and Delta was too scared for her monsters to make a sound. The fire mage turned and he schooled his expression.

“I… uh… saved you the hard piece of wood and a bit of sac goop,” he offered awkwardly.

“Please don’t ever say those words to me in that order again,” Delta replied blankly. Doctor was all too quick to repeat her words.

Quiss blinked.

“Pardon? I put a lot of effort in holding back my white hot force so you could enjoy the outcome. I could have just covered it all and left you disappointed,” Quiss frowned. Delta covered her ears.

“I can’t hear this!” she yelled.

Quiss just threw his hands up.

“I’m going to go back to Seth before he sleeps with your pissed-off tree,” he declared. Delta uncovered her ears.

“What? Tree… Quiss?! What is Seth doing to Wyin?” she demanded. Quiss quickly hurried as to give her Mana the space to work.

“QUISS?! WHAT IS SETH DOING TO MY POOR MURDEROUS TREE?!”

99: Beta to the Punch

Thankfully, Quiss had tackled Seth before he had gotten too close to Wyin. Without the keys that unlocked the way, Seth had pretty much been left outside the three large doors. Quiss nodded to Renny who was lightly napping nearby as the tour seemed to be at an end for now.

Delta watched Wyin huff as she closed the door behind the two men. Ignoring the deep thud as the door closed, Quiss dragged Seth back towards the jungle.

“Drinks for all! Come on, stop harassing everything with a pulse and let’s get some shots!” Quiss cheered. His mood was still disturbingly happy. Burning that tree must be some secret pleasure for Quiss, thought Delta. She would have to keep a close eye on him around Wyin.

“The rude one was of help? I hate to have let down a louse to be a bother,” Wyin asked lightly. Delta gave her a small smile.

“He was… and thank you for letting him pass,” she said and Wyin merely met her gaze.

“Being unable to leave of my own accord made me take drastic measures,” Wyin shrugged one large branch-like shoulder.

Delta hummed.

“I guess you’re a bit rooted to the spot,” she agreed. Wyin’s cool facade broke as her lips peeled back in a pained expression.

“Must you?” the tree woman pleaded. Delta’s own face was beaming.

“Gotta make like a tree and leave. I’ll be back soon once I’m done absorbing an evil lab that had crimes against both morality and humanity in them, I’ll be bark before you dew it.” Delta waved. The cry of anguish was funny and Delta had no idea Wyin had such a drama bone in her,

Drama root? Drama stick?

Delta would have to think on that.

She floated back down to the third floor, wondering how the process was going.

---

WHAT VILENESS! The army paled before a mighty foe as it took to the room under the command of the GREAT DELTA! But this? It promised to be their greatest foe yet! Mana Squad 354 ‘The Wiggy Woggy Bombers’ attempted to dive bomb the smear and their formation broke as the flavour of it turned the orange Mana green with displeasure. This… what DISHONOR! It took a step forward towards this dreadful—though not as tricky and cowardly as the… Gazebo - but this foe had its own foulness.

Troll Soup. The great knowledge of Delta offered a name but the Mana commander called it another name.

Evil.

But distaste and illness were unimportant. It knew that. It knew that countless of the squads could turn back and flee but not it. It was the leading Mote of Mana. It was no coward! This soup had traces of Delta, the great and holy one, but it was mixed with reality. Turned into a much fouler substance by the slime cauldron remains. It tasted like old shoe dipped in oil then cooked with troll soup.

Much deadlier than the already fearsome troll soup.

It charged, crying praises for Delta as it hit the substance, head on.

Its army followed, empowered by the commander’s bravery. The slime was taken down and many legends would be passed on by this feat of heroic action.

---

Delta paused then she gagged.

She coughed and sputtered as a foul taste coated her throat. Oh God, it was killing her! She hacked and tears leaked from her eyes.

Finally after… much time. Delta licked her lips and tasted nothing once more.

“Memo to myself… don’t let Jeb cook with Gutrots. I can’t take troll soup with bits of Gutrot. I might actually break,” she rasped.

You look like something just punched you.

Nu’s box appeared, now that the third floor was devoid of people from the outside. Delta wobbled to her feet.

“Tell me, Nu. Have the Gutrots made it down here?” she tried not to demand. Her mind a chaotic mess of ‘Ow’ and ‘Never again’ and ‘Blargh’. Nu seemed to vanish before reappearing.

I’ll refrain from teasing since I have no desire to taste what you have. Yes, but they have already mutated and begun to change. I do suspect that they are far more deadly now.

Oh dammit to heck. Delta squared her shoulders.

“Nu, start feeding me the list of notifications. I got tons of them no doubt,” she asked. Delta had asked Nu to keep them back until everything was settled and cleared from the lab. Getting distracted from a battle due to pop ups was not going to happen.

Instead of an answer, she was given a neat stack of windows that she could pick up and read. Delta floated to the mess hall for the better light ambience. It made no difference to Delta physically, she could see in pitch black in her Dungeon but it felt nice to have a table.

The first of the windows began to flash past.

Slime covered Laboratory is now clear of threats! Absorption beginning!

Slime Mucus x 98 absorbed. One Mucus gives one Mana and DP. Value reduced as Cauldron of Life lost power.

Delta winced but thankfully… Jack’s resurrection had taken a lot of Mana. She took a quick peek at her own numbers before the notifications added more numbers.

Mana: 102/300
DP: 489

The good news was that she wasn’t gonna be suffering from Mana overload anytime soon. Having to experience that so soon after the troll soup tasting? Delta might actually cry. The next few windows showed her some interesting things.

Collection of broken swords, spears, daggers, two candlesticks, three chairs, sixteen skulls, and a roughly estimated pile of broken scraps worth of 27 DP/Mana.

Due to the number of old skulls absorbed, you have unlocked bone helmets for various monsters. Due to the weapons absorbed, you have gained recipes for future usage along with blueprints for monster usage.

“What’s the difference?” Delta asked with a slight tilt to her head. Nu, who was floating nearby—and also appreciating the gains, began to explain.

The blueprints are the generic ones you create with your Mana. They are the same every time, right down to the single Mote of Mana. A recipe for a monster- or just as a drop—can teach that monster or finder of the recipe the exact know-how required to make that item. The benefits for self taught recipes for your monsters would be… usually not worth it, due to how generic and mundane most monsters would be in new Dungeons. But as you are a weird Dungeon with a habit of just throwing the rules through the window by accident, I say that if you were to get some monster into the crafting mood, their weapons would vary… and likely evolve and change as the crafter evolved and practised.

Delta was quiet for a moment.

“So… what you’re saying is that I am awesome?” she batted her eyes.

I said weird. I stand by my words.

“I love you too,” Delta grinned. The next few notifications came and Delta blinked.

Undead Skeleton unlocked for summoning. Crude Slime unlocked for Summoning. Evolution for Crude Slime unlocked. Troll Soup Slime can now be evolved from Crude Slime!

Delta paled and her stomach gave an unpleasant turn.

The idea of that taste… that smell… moving on its own and trying to be cute and affectionate made Delta both smile and want to hit her head off the table.

“I’ll… think about that later,” she finally said and the relieved menu quickly moved on to the next item.

Cauldron of Life fragments x 15 absorbed. Fractured and missing many pieces, they seem inert, but latent power could be unlocked if the Dungeon gathered enough knowledge on certain arts and magic to recreate the cauldron. 15 DP gained.

“What kinda arts?” she pondered. The menu shifted to show a little pixel art of the cauldron and the requirements. Delta blinked as she already had quite a few of the requirements underway.

Cauldron of Life project!

Have a deep understanding of Pottery and containers. Proxy! Lord Mushy has begun this journey.

Have knowledge on various spirit arts and basic element manipulations. Proxy! Devina has begun this journey.

Have knowledge on slimes! Slimes have been absorbed from previous attempts. Dungeon has basic mastery of ‘Crude slimes’. This will only improve with usage of slimes or absorbing more slimes.

Runes. Process is being absorbed as we speak.

Delta was stunned but Nu was already humming with speculation.

Amazing. By allowing your monsters to become weird like yourself, you have enabled them to gather skills on their own that would aid you. Their evolution given by the system would contain knowledge you would not normally have, and now the system is taking them into consideration as resources! Cross-Floor cooperation! How jolly!

Delta turned to him slowly as Nu seemed to stumble over his words

Jolly? I have never used that word before in my menu life. I… Delta, your head nonsense is spreading again. Do try to contain it.

“Praise the System,” Delta mumbled and turned back to her notifications.

Various research papers on many theories and untested science experiments absorbed and added to the library. Four hidden journals and two magazines about home decoration have also been added.

Summary of reading material:

-The Formation of the Ultimate Weapon. Theory incomplete and wildly marked with doodles.

-The Chimera of Monster and Man. Theory tested with many failures. Researcher notes that they ‘lacked proper range of materials’. Dungeon will discard this as Dungeon has vastly superior means to make monsters.

-The Divination of the Abyss. Researcher went mad after three pages and seemed to be using his own skin as paper towards the end of research. Notes that the Abyss is wide and holds many dangers. Also, smells slightly of dark mint.

-Proto-Dungeon Core Formation. A research with great resources devoted to it. Ended in failure as no matter how well the Core seemed to take shape and no matter how crudely they funneled souls into it, no core was truly made. Research was shelved but interestingly many pages seem to be missing as if stolen.

-The Research into Various Vessels for Various Means. The pages are almost cookbook-like and will be of great interest to Lord Mushy.

-The Process of Being Therion. A rather gruesome grimoire on how to transfer Abyss into the human soul as demons do naturally. The result was never complete as the researcher seemed to go missing. An odd note was left on the last page. ‘Had potential but suffered from mediocrity.’

-The Manaless Mushroom ‘Gutrot’. A lab created fungi that grows well in Manaless areas. Seems to have been matured with various ideas but the research was discontinued when concerns were raised on the sheer rate of reproduction of the fungi. Warning, just a taste is known to kill anything that consumes it. Note of interest: A sample went missing. No known suspects.

“I knew something so evil wasn’t natural!” Delta pointed at the menu with accusation. Then she frowned.

“I wonder how they escaped and how they spread so much…” she mumbled.

---

Holly Dabberghast felt her nose tingle but she manage not to sneeze. She hummed as she transplanted her ‘Lovely Locks’. A cheerful yellow plant that soaked up the sun’s rays in its new home.

The container she used was an old one. She had purchased it from that lovely man, Mr Japes. She had been oddly chuffed at the price at the time until she saw Japes had left some odd dusty shrivelled up thing at the bottom. Poor creature.

Holly had assumed Japes had been too shy to ask her to nurse the fungi to live… and so Holly did so quietly out of respect. The sheer life those mushrooms gained were fabulous. Holly had kept it to herself when they spread far and wide. Finally, some life in this manaless place, but that was then and this is now.

The lovely dears, they were everywhere, they even looked like they might just grow legs any day now and dance. Holly hoped they would.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

It would be a shame if Delta, the dear, had all the fungi fun!

---

Delta hazarded a guess that ‘Durence’ was a safe bet and left it at that.

-Exploration of the Shaft of End. The notes… are oddly calm but the words seem to just repeat endlessly over and over about ‘The eyes see not but the heart cannot look away’. There is a dark stain on the last few pages.

Delta would save that reading for when she was bored or insane.

-Heroes and the Effects of Their Power. research into teens that rapidly gain power when a threat looms. The research seems to have much speculation on godly input and theories on how such a hero could be used but nothing much came of it. A side note said that all village burnings should be put on hold for the near future.

Delta was beginning to think these scientists just researched whatever topic came out of a hat. Heroes? Like… RPG atypical teens?

Sure, Deo was… well and Poppy wasn’t… Delta quickly floundered for a name.

Grim was perfectly normal. Nodding to herself she felt the last of her gains from the head office finally settle. Eager, Delta watched to see what would come first.

Artificial cutting of the World Tree remains absorbed! Please hold… results are being processed.

Delta stared. Did Sis just tell her to wait? That had never happened. Things were processed through the system faster than Delta could think!

Results gained! Results have been… extracted with some effort. Subject was resisting. It was reminded of its own mortality. Apologies for the delay.

Nu jingled slowly.

The girl needs to learn to not to be so…

He trailed off.

“Terrifying?” Delta supplied.

Quite.

A window opened up and Delta felt a sudden odd pressure on her forehead. She gasped and put a hand to the spot.

She saw the window turn vividly green, like the most emerald of gems and the richest of leaves. There was a feeling of being sucked through a straw as if the window had opened into a vacuum.

Then Delta was flowing again, like the time Sis had shown her the edge of the world. She was leaving her Dungeon and was pulledacross the land.

She wasn’t travelling the odd tunnels that Sis had made along the Leylines. No… this was solid and rough, curving and twisting into a mass of huge roots.

She ended up in a large dark space. The roots, millions of them, seemed to collect in a large round cage of wood and pulsing green veins. Inside the cage was a single crystal about the size of a watermelon. It pulsed green.

It spoke, and it seemed distracted, with the tone of some old man with too little patience for any guests.

“Beta, I did tell you to hurry on,” the man sighed as he geared himself up for an argument. It paused then seemed to turn the crystal slowly around.

“Where are you? Are you using one of those confounded stealth powers? You know I detest childish games,” the crystal warned.

“Hello!” Delta tried for cheerful and politeness.

The Crystal rippled and Delta gaped as the glow turned inside out as a roughly glowing eye looked inside itself.

“…You are not the rude girl I was expecting,” the crystal said far too calmly. Delta saw she still had some form so she did her best head bow and tried not to be too nervous.

“Sorry for barging in and appearing… here? I kinda got sucked up and dumped here when I absorb- AH when I found a weird tree… thing…” Delta trailed off. The Crystal pulsed a few times.

“Odd, you feel like that snot goblin who tries my patience but you haven’t cursed or made rude suggestions at my birth. It is… I am not sure how to talk to someone who is polite,” the crystal hummed then dimmed.

Delta shrugged.

“Manners usually like manners as company. I’m Delta… where am I?” she asked, the edge of tension she felt refusing to ease. The crystal pulsed and Delta felt herself drawn closer to the cage… no, shield of roots and moss.

“You seem to be inside my being. A space that is both symbolic and a condensed version of my existence. It is a space which I control absolutely and find it very concerning you have found yourself here,” the crystal said, voice ever so slightly becoming curious.

It was then the crystal’s words came back to her.

“Did you say… Beta?” she asked, voice oddly blank. The Crystal pulsed once.

“Yes. A charge that is still taxing me. You and her share streams of the same… cloth as it were. Have you too come to offer services to the World Tree?” the thing asked. Oh, it was the World Tree.

The real one. Delta processed that calmly.

“You wouldn’t want me. I blow things up,” Delta promised earnestly. Oh now she was panicking. She needed to get back to her Dungeon ASAP.

Heh… sap. No, Delta had to focus!

“Beta had brought me much progress as an agent to act on my end. I would think two would be making my goals approach completion much faster,” World Tree said. What a mouthful. Delta would call him…

A good nickname for a legendary tree? Delta was gonna call him Drasil. Ygg or Yggy felt okay but Delta wanted it to be somewhat respectable, in case she blurted it out loud.

“Oh? And what goals are they?” Delta asked politely. Drasil merely took a second to look her over.

“I seek the Eye that turned into the Heart. Buried very deep, you see,” Drasil commented. The air was chilled but it warmed at the mention of the Eye… or Heart as Drasil called it.

“And Beta? Is she around?” Delta peered, expecting to see another ghostly Core being maybe. Something inside her yearned to find this ‘Beta’. Another like Delta? A sister who knew what Delta was feeling? What she had gone through?

It was a strong pull.

Drasil hesitated.

“She is still close to my roots on a quest. She will be some time,” the tree offered. The air felt charged and Delta shook her head.

“Which way? I need to find her!” Delta tried to explain but even as she said it… they felt wrong. It was as if some deep part of her, as ingrained as her heart beating or blood pumping or thinking… there was a notion of the idea… the fact that Beta had to find her.

Delta stumbled as that response snapped like an elastic band in her head but she pushed on and Drasil was beginning to do something, a deep glow that bounced off Delta’s glowing orange skin.

It felt invasive as he was peering at her deepest bits.

He was finally looking at her.

“You are… not a devouring monster of Beta’s ilk. You are a slave… a cave of unnatural life and demented thought. You are of the Two. You are connected to the Brother and Sister. You are a Dungeon,” Drasil stated. His voice had gone from grumbly old man to a low unnatural rush of wind.

Delta stood her ground, her face flushed.

“Since I have manners, I won’t call you names. But I am a Dungeon and I do know Sis. What’s your beef with that?” she demanded. The space began to squeeze down on her, like countless fingers pushing in at once.

“You have gained access here through… no I would have felt the vanishing of my roots. I have been careful. I have never burrowed into a Dungeon! How did you gain my power?!” Drasil asked, not shouting but his voice had that inhuman calmness that would get its answer.

Delta wanted to yell something but she couldn’t breathe, let alone speak, as the pressure was trying to make her pop instead of answering.

He seemed to be trying to dig into her form for the truth.

Delta had reached the limits of her politeness and was going to just start doing anything and everything when there was a terrible noise like tearing in the space.

---

Resting on the root deep inside a ravine in the shape of a 10 headed snake… Beta looked around as her skin prickled. Something… her connection to Ygg was twitching badly and she felt… fear.

She touched the root with a human hand as she shrunk and felt a horrid cold feeling. She pulled back and wanted to turn into a tiny rat or robin as if to hide.

She remembered that feeling.

Beta had felt that feeling only once before and-

---

-Delta would never forget it.

The pressing fingers vanished as from the tear, came a doorway to some gem encrusted tunnel. A boy walked out and his sweet face was marred with wrongness and delight at the scene before him.

“I sensed a little spat and next thing I know Sister is offering to let me pick the game next week to come do a little check up. How lovely. How fun!” the child clapped his hands. It was him.

The demon child.

Ygg’s space seemed to retreat but it held as the demon child’s own power washed up against it. The boy huffed.

“I swear, one week and I would be at full power. You lot have sucky timing and worse entertainment-” he cut himself off as he saw Delta. He took off imaginary glasses as if to rub them before he broke out in that horrid boyish smile.

“Well, if it isn’t A- oops. Sorry, forgot that name was el gono,” he made a motion of putting a finger to his lips.

“Brother of the Earth. Holder of the Eye of Physical affairs. The Heart of this world. I… did not expect to meet you so soon,” Drasil commented again, calmly. Delta wanted to annoy him now.

“Hey… you… person,” Brother waved weakly. Delta saw it then. The oddly twisted features on the boy scared her senseless but… the feeling. That feeling of power was exactly like Sis.

Sister and Brother.

This was Brother? Brother had made her a Dungeon? Delta stared but his words clicked.

“That’s Drasil… he’s a world tree,” she said weakly. Brother blinked at her. Yellow horrid eyes.

“World Tree? What kinda dickish name is that? What’s next? God rock? ALMIGHTY WEED?!” Brother called and then snorted.

“Well, a ‘Mighty Weed’ would be kinda cool to see,” he admitted.

“Where is the Heart?” Drasil inquired and Delta turned to him.
“You mind giving me ten minutes to confront my nightmare and devil?!” she yelled. Drasil reeled back as if struck.

“Yeah, respect the lady’s wish,” Brother shook his fist in mockery. Delta eyed the short form and every single aspect of her was scared but she took a few steps towards him.

“I ain’t giving you your name back or anything like-” Brother began before Delta cut him off.

“Thank you… for letting me have all my friends and… let me meet Nu and Sis… and… all that,” Delta trembled as the unblinking yellows eyes levelled on her.

“Oh Brother, that’s me, by the way, you are a weirdo. Sister wasn’t praising you for fun. You really are a weirdo Dungeon,” he crossed his arms then pondered things.

“Okay… you got my interest. Let’s walk. Wave goodbye to Mighty Weed,” he jerked a thumb and the tree glowed with power as it tried to press into Delta again but an aura of sheer power easily deflected it.

“I’d tear you branch from branch and all that but I don’t have all day to make you into a rocking chair. You got one week to vanish or become something worthy of my attention,” Brother warned and his eyes glowed once more as the shield of branches and moss caught dark fire.

Drasil screamed and Brother pushed Delta through the door.

That fire was familiar… the colour was different but that hungry flame was…

Exactly like Quiss’.

But Delta was falling now and she was having massive Deja Vu.

“Please don’t take my name again… I like being Delta!” she yelled. Brother’s dark chuckle was nearby.

“That’s a much better answer than last time! Come on then, Delta. Let me show you the way back. Please keep all arms and lost thoughts in the ride or they are due to be plucked for my amusement,” the child warned and the darkness rushed past like some spectral roller coaster.

Delta hurled and the darkness became splattered orange.

“That’s gonna stain,” Brother commented lightly.

Delta was about to answer when the ride came into the sight of something.

A giant glowing surface deep, deep… so deep into the world.

Delta could barely understand what she saw for a few minutes. Then it made sense. Awe-inspiring sense.

It was the core of the world and it was a twin of the moon that hung above in the sky.

It was the Heart of the world.

It was the stolen eye.

---

100: Delta

To Christopher. As a person, you confuse me. As a brother, I love you with deep unending affection.

Chapter 100 boyos! You know what this means? NO IDEA but maybe another 400 chapters if people want more epic and not yet bored. ^^
---

They hovered over the moon. Could it be called a moon when it was inside the earth? Was it a Core? A giant core for all the world?

Delta honestly didn’t know.

“Don’t look so glum. I’m just holding you here until Sis’ frazzled nerves settle and you get beamed back to the Sistership,” The Brother announced as he kicked back and they both moved to a large tunnel directly below the core. It should have taken days or more to travel the length of the core but the Brother just made them appear to where he wanted.

“You’re a bit more coherent than Sis… why is that?” Delta chose to ask instead. Indeed, the Brother was before her while Sis seemed to be behind many layers of metaphysical barriers. Brother waved a hand and Delta watched a long simple bamboo pole with a long wire at the end appear. A glinting hook glimmered before Brother flicked it down into the dark tunnel.

“Sis is a nerd. She builds systems, projects, and handles the delicate nature of things. Me? I’m more a nature kind of lad,” he grinned, the gesture not quite right for a human. His rod tugged and the Brother pulled, the wire needing no reeling.He pulled up something that hurt to look at. It squirmed and tried to move in dimensions that screamed. Brother took a bite out of it and hummed.

“I call them Eeartots. Taste like radioactive sushi,” he grinned, teeth covered in a dark slime. He used a simple white sleeve to wipe his teeth. He gestured at the rod.

“Go on, have some fun!” he urged. Delta gingerly took the thing and cast the hook down the tunnel. It felt so weird to… hold something.

“I eat things and you can say I learn things from the things I don’t eat and sometimes from what I do eat. I once fished up a copy of an atlas where everything just read ‘deadzone’. Sometimes I fish out discs or souls. Like you,” he reclined back on the empty space and closed his eyes.

“Like Dungeons? You eat things and learn?” Delta said quickly, the rod still in her hands. Brother grinned.

“There is a good reason most Dungeons are in my body and not floating around like Sis. Dungeons are like the… one of the few things me and my Sister worked together on,” he picked his nose and then licked it. Delta shuddered at the sheer rudeness.

“You been told about the Eyes yet? Not sure how much Sis is on top of info sharing. I don’t give three hoots or boots or coots or oops about foreshadowing. I fish those up everyday,” he snorted to himself.

Delta shook her head and the Brother held out a hand and a copy of the core behind them appeared in his hands as a ghostly copy.

“No biggie. I guess I owe you for not screaming at me or whatever. I guess I’m happy you made it upground and got on alright,” Brother said as if this was nothing important.

“So, there was once a very handsome and attractive brother. All the non-existing beings wanted him at the time. Then there was a spacey Sister who walked into walls. Still cute, as she is my Sister, but obviously I got the good half of creation,” he preened.
“I feel like this tale has hints of biases in it,” Delta said dryly. Her fear of the being before her seemed to ebb with every second he didn’t hurt her or… take her name away.

“One day, we decided we were kinda bored of two-player mode and wanted a little sibling. Now, since me and my Sis had neither done any research into the subject nor decided to start small… we forced together a being from the left over parts of creation. Let me tell you, you physical people have it so easy. Just jump into the hay together and a year later boom, sprogs!” Brother waved a hand as if exasperated. He began tossing the core in his hands and catching it as he spoke.

“Well, of course it went perfectly,” he nodded. Delta blinked.

“Perfectly wrong, I mean,” he corrected himself. He began to slowly turn in the air.

“We got the right amount of power, intent, idea… but this little guy was lacking something. Dunno exactly what it was but let's just say if he were a piece of bread, he came out of the oven with fangs and enough hunger to try to eat us right on the spot,” Brother grimaced.

“He was just all wrong. Well, not wrong. He just wasn’t perfect like me. He kinda had a bit of me and Sis in him so he had a bit more power than we intended. Now I ain't-a jealous type. I don’t mind sharing my toys. But he wanted to break them and eat them… then vomit them back up just to spite us,” Brother turned to the giant glowing eye behind them.

“What would happen if he had eaten you?” Delta whispered. Brother shot her a look.

“Let me just check my ‘Higher being Manual’… hm, the page for being digested by your artificial sibling seems to be missing! Oh no!” he mocked gasped.

Delta narrowed her eyes.

“I’d smack you if I knew you wouldn’t set me on fire for it,” she warned. Brother seemed to enjoy that blunt honesty.

“I guess he gets the two slices of pie and becomes the one true being. Wonder how that would have turned out. Ah well, but the good news is that he was kinda dumb as a rock. Like… I feel more shame in how dumb he was than the whole trying-to-eat-us thing,” Brother grinned.

“You’ve taken ‘screwing up the creation and creating a monster’ rather well,” Delta said. The boy shrugged once more.

“We were lonely kids. I don’t mean to act like it wasn’t bad, but we have feelings too,” he reminded. Delta tried moving the fishing rod but nothing seemed to bite just yet.

“So we pretended not to mind the attempts to eat us and acted like we have a great idea. A game of hide and seek. If it won… it could eat us and if it lost… well, another day to try and get us,” Brother hummed. He nodded at the shocked look.

“Dumber than a rock and this was before there were rocks,” he grinned.

“So we told it to close its eyes and count. Until it got bored. When it closed its eyes… well, I’ll skip the gruesome part but we took an eye each. The eyes hold a lot of power… and it was like taking in half of our own power all over. We could do things we never could before. But little bro was furious and in pain,” his tone went quiet.

“Strange how you still feel something for the mistake you made, but I did. We ran instead of turning and trying to rip him apart. We didn’t know how to use the power. We had had it for only seconds, but Sister… she’s smart… a good girl. She got the idea roughly and took off above with some help. She flew and I helped her liftoff,” Brother explained and he smiled at the memory. Delta remembered Sis’s words back when she saw the edge of the world.

“You fell on your face!” Delta said in understanding. The Brother’s face went blank.

“I tripped…” he said childishly. Delta blinked.

“On what? There wasn’t anything back then, right?” she pondered. The Brother’s yellow eyes met hers.

“I… panicked. I didn’t know how to use my rather disgusting eyeball yet, so I flew… directly down and I sank like a rock when I just wanted to be safe. So I made the world,” he huffed.

“That is the ditziest origin story I have ever heard,” Delta snorted. She was smacked in the arm by the child.

“Please, I heard about the things you did. In the brief messages, my Sister sent me. Something about screaming and mushrooms?” he grinned back. His horrid face didn’t get any easier to look at but Delta was… relieved to see humour in the eyes.

Damn, he had ammunition.

“Well, as Sis became the Sun and I the ground on which you all live on - you’re welcome by the way - that little brother of ours was blind and bleeding. This pure black water flowed from his eyes and covered the land… my back mind you, not the greatest feeling in the world I’ll let you know!” Brother shuddered and chewed more of his eldritch fish-thing.

“The water gathered, and over time… things began to grow out of it. Like fungus or moss and then one day when I bothered to ask Sister to check, there were these tiny little things… like what Little bro looked like but like 1/1000000 size. People. Sis thought they were cute. I was worried they would get in my butt,” he grimaced.

“Little Bro, according to Sis, cause I was face down like it was Friday night, vanished into the pool of darkness. I saw him fall down below. He was kinda… empty. Like a deflated balloon,” Brother hummed and Delta slowly turned her eyes to the rod she held…

The rod fishing in the Abyss.

“Yeah, no luck. I’ve been trying to find him to see if he’s passed his biting stage but I think he’s a mite bit annoyed at me,” the boy guessed.

Delta’s head was spinning.

“Your little brother made all life on the world? But that can’t be-” Delta cut off as she remembered something.

The memory of the farmer. The way his body had broken down into Mana… DP and… that black spore.

“Yup. Every person ever born on this plane has a bit of Little Bro inside. Tiny sparks of creation,” Delta’s companion said. Delta frowned.

“So, what gives them Mana and their own abilities are… side effects of being basically cells of a deformed god?” she screeched. The Brother shrugged.

“‘Gods’ isn’t right. We’re more like… Cosmic Entities. We just were born of a higher nature… no wait that still sounds massively dickish… uh… we were born in a weirder conceptual part of reality!” he beamed.

“Wait, so he made monsters and the other species?” Delta asked, so utterly unable to stop asking questions. The Brother shook his head.

“The other species were indeed the same source, but monsters? Those were mine,” he admitted.

Delta nearly dropped the rod.

“You made MONSTERS?!” she began to wave her arms like a chicken. The boy looked annoyed.

“Sister opened the stars and let tons of Faith be possible. I made monsters, natural Spore seekers and she made reality portals to basically let people sell their spores for power! I think my action was less drastic!” he complained.

“Why?!” Delta needed to know this for sanity's sake.

“Well, spores eaten by monsters come to me and become my power. Spores converted to faith gives Sis a percent of the power. People are rad, hurrah, but… years of continuous power, training, and use of their own Mana can cause their Spores to grow over the years. If really strong people were left to their own thing… Little Bro would have eventually had the barebones to just step back in and eat his own little children. We let people sell their souls to a god for a paradise and my monsters take care of the heroes. The stronger the spore grows in the people… the stronger the monsters I create to take them down. I kill them to keep the rest away from hungry hungry hippo little bro and Sis tries to ferry the best into a better state than ‘food’,” Brother stood and began to pace.

Delta stared, not sure if horror or fear was taking lead in her chest.

“Obviously, it wasn’t a good system so we knocked our heads together and combined our methods. Monsters to hunt the heroes and a field of awareness to spread Mana out and slowly convert people into beings free of the Spore. Dungeons are what happens when you mix the purifying power of a system and the killing powers of monsters,” Brother turned to Delta, face blank.

Delta let that thought carry itself.

People settled around Dungeons. The strong went inside and fought, usually dying but the Dungeon Mana leaked out and became stronger over the years…

People acting more alive with Dungeon Mana.

Mana that was trying to eat the spore inside them.

If people never went inside the Dungeon, they were still getting passively… cured of this spore. The ones with huge power over themselves… a strong spore? They would seek to use that power and hence Dungeons still served that purpose to lure them in. Be it over time or with their death, the spore would be claimed.

Delta felt… used.

“Not that you’re designed the same or for the same purpose,” Brother added and Delta’s inner slide down a dark series of thoughts were interrupted.

“What?” she asked dumbly. He was picking his nose again, looking like he had found something worth digging out.

“We got tons of Dungeons working together. You’re kinda a step in a new version of things. Really, you don’t have a real goal outside of seeing what would happen once we plugged you in. So… uh, well done for doing your best!” the child grinned as he flicked a glowing snot into the Abyss tunnel where it exploded like a small nova.

“I don’t consume Spores?” Delta responded in a confused tone.

“No, you still have all the bells and whistles, but you’re kinda a… Whatcha call it, an experiment based on information that Sister has been gathering. We’ve been wanting a Dungeon near that kooky town for a while and over the top of that anthill filled with nutjobs. The idiots trying to coax Little Brother back into the physical world by gathering the ripest Spores in one place? Now they blew themselves up a nice hole to fish in like me, and that town is waking up. Their Spores were dying but a little Orange miss leaked life into them and their own Mana is more than enough to sustain the Spore for years before you can claim it,” he shrugged as if this was a minor detail.

Delta could see that. Durence folk were… nothing if not a little lively. But that aside, it raised a whole new issue.

“You expected me to be able to hurt someone in Durence?!” Delta asked, voice so incredulous that she nearly snorted.

“Well, not at first and I told you that the stronger the hero or tyrant, the stronger the monster that can appear. Your human mind was a huge success so I kinda thought you would eventually snag a few and their own rules would keep you somewhat safe, but your human heart was an interesting side-effect. I should have guessed since we put a person in a core, they would be a bit unpredictable,” he mused, not sounding upset at this at all.

The rod in Delta’s hand tugged once before going limp. She eyed it but it didn’t move.

“So… if I can, kill people that make dragons pee themselves and passively kill their spores, but that was a side-job. What was the original plan? I know you said there was none but I’m not just Delta… I am the Delta in this plan of yours. There is a Beta… so there has to be an Alpha at least. That tells me you used me as the ‘fourth’ for something. Because others had failed, or perhaps because you’re trying different things?” she questioned, her voice was quiet as if the questions scared her more than she cared to admit.

The amused look in Brother’s yellow eyes dimmed just a bit and the demon child once again was an alien being, staring at her with a little hint of emotion that Delta could empathise with. Here was a being that was trying very hard to be human for her but for that moment it dropped all pretences and Delta saw what he had meant by ‘Cosmic’.

His form rippled and it was like looking into a tiny sea of stars with blaring yellow eyes. Sound dimmed as if it were sucked away, the Eye behind them looking tiny next to this being. Then it was gone and Brother smiled, impressed. Delta felt like the question had been a surprise and his reaction was more knee-jerk than any attempt to scare her.

“Yeah. You could say that. Don’t worry sunshine, you’re unique and definitely the least boring of the lot… well, Gamma is funny. I watched him do things you wouldn’t believe just because he’s Gamma. He got swallowed by a King Whark and spent a week cutting the heart loose inside to get freed. The idiot forgot that swords sank!” Brother slapped his knee.

Delta was leaning in, eager. Gamma! There was a Gamma! He could cut things? Was he a warrior? Being swallowed meant he was mobile. Combined with Drasil’s comments on Beta…

“I’m the only one who got turned into a Dungeon? Actually, what’s a Whark?” Delta added quickly.

That was going to bug her if she didn’t know.

“It’s like a shark but whale size and has three teeth that jut up like horns and also conjures storms. Kinda nice with hot sauce,” Brother explained calmly. Ah.

“But yeah, you’re the Dungeon. See? D is for Dungeon,” Brother whispered as if this was a secret. Delta blinked once.

“Excuse me?” she replied flatly, she assumed her face was blank.

“You’re excused. But G is for Gatherer. B is for Beast. A is for Adventure…” Brother sang.

“Please tell me you based this all, this plucking our souls or something, on more than just a bad tune?” Delta pleaded. Brother snorted.

“A lot more but that makes me look like I have wisdom and forethought and even some maturity. I am none of those things. Alright, you got a little time and I guess you’ve proven to actually tap deeper into your gift than any other. Gamma is close and I can’t wait to meet him. But you? You won over my Sister and yelled at a snob tree. That’s pretty good. You’re also doing good work at freeing the richest and darkest Spores in that cave. That’s good. So, here's some little tit for tat on the plan,” Brother offered.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Alpha was designed to travel and blend in with people to convert them like a Dungeon, but the Spores would increase his own power. Since he was our first… well… I like to say he was a jewel of a pick but Alpha is a little too deep into the power thing. He was supposed to lead the powerful to him by being all heroic but he's actually a brat who hides behind the System,” Brother held up one finger in count.

“Beta is at the other end of the spectrum. She was gifted not to be bothered with Spore collecting beyond basic monster abilities. That left a lot of room to give her the ability to use anything I had a hand in making to empower herself. She’s our draw to the retired folks or the lost fighters. A monster that has no weakness. It’d draw the Spores en masse to her. She’s kinda doing her job but she really didn’t like us and wasn’t thankful about our hand in her fate. We wanted a beast, and now that beast is snapping at our fingers. Serves me right for trying to be clever.” he held up the second finger.

“Gamma was the best result, in my opinion, no offence,” he winked at her. Delta shrugged once shoulder, showing she had taken none. She didn’t want to ask questions. Not yet. Delta was desperate to learn of her brothers and sisters… of sorts.

“Gamma took to his job well. We decided that if Alpha could get his head out his own butt, he would need a weapon to handle his growing strength. I decided to add Gamma to the weapon as a precaution. Do you know how annoying it would be if the cult or some asshat got the sword and heroes had to spent 40 hours of blabbing and dramatic speeches to get that sword back? I'm rude, lazy, and the guy who fucked up badly a few times. Least I could do was make sure that outcome didn’t happen. Gamma? He seemed to enjoy the idea. He became that weapon. He got a lot of comedy material luring wanna-be dark lords and mad swordsmen to him so he could literally stab them in the back,” Brother grinned. He stretched, the darkness moving away from him as if afraid.

“Anyone he cut, got their spore taken and he would grow in power. Everyone likes growth weapons!” he nodded and looked to Delta for agreement.

“I like… things that grow and don’t stab people, but sure,” she smiled weakly. Brother looked skyward where a beam of yellow light was growing from a pinprick to a lantern.

“Sister won’t be long. She’s been patching defences in the Dungeons from the Mighty Weed,” he explained. He pointed to Delta who blinked.

“Delta was to be the base. Delta would settle near the strongest people around, and on top of an oozing wound to seal it and begin to claim very powerful Spores. They would meet the Silence Army and seek to rob them of power wherever and however they could. They would forge the path to the deepest layer and become a lair to test Alpha… to make sure he was ready to do what he could. To be strong enough to contract Beta if she were to convince her to join up. To feed Gamma the rarest and most powerful materials to fuel his growth,” Brother began to smile.

Delta barely felt the rod was tugging in her hands. Too shocked at what she was hearing to notice.

“Delta was the most important part and she utterly failed in most tasks. She is a peace loving girl who raises friends and makes very weird monsters. I have never been prouder of something I had a direct hand in. So listen here. Me and Sis? We are just people with big stupid plans and bigger hopes. Be yourself and I think… that’ll be enough,” he reached over and helped her pull on the rod.

They both watched as the silvery wire reeled up and the object dangling on the end made both of them stare.

A simple orange mushroom.

It swung a few times and then Brother was laughing. A huge gut hurting gale of laughter.

Then Delta was swallowed by the Sister’s light above.

--

-Hello?

Delta blinked and nearly fell backwards from the green menu that was being consumed by an orange hue.

“What?! Brother! Fishing! Mushroom!” she babbled. She pointed to the menu and Nu turned his own screen.

Delta? You okay? You were spacing out for a minute.

Delta shot him a shocked look.

“I was gone! I saw a huge tree and I saw Brother! Sister’s Brother and then I was in the centre of the world and I fished up a mushroom and Brother told me the secrets of life and my existence!” she continued, flailing her hands. Nu was quiet before he looked back to the now orange Menu.

Delta stared at it in surprise as a message was there.

System has been patched. Your Anti-virus has been updated! Trojan Trees added to blacklist and attempts to be breached by the source of the virus have been met with… extreme results.

“I have Anti-Virus?” she asked, voice an odd tone of disbelief. Nu’s menu merely seemed to deflate.

Of course, you do. But I guess whatever happened to you, happened in… well, speeds faster than reality. Much like travelling the Leylines with the power of the System. What happened?

Delta explained the sheer amount of bizarre things. What she had learned of herself… and of the others.

Alpha. Beta. Gamma.

They all sound terrible. I am glad I got stuck with you. You are a pain I’ve learned to deal with.

“Thank you! I think?” she tilted her head.

“I dunno how I should feel. Everything I’m doing is some plan and despite me somehow messing that plan up-” she began and Nu’s screen flashed.

I’m shocked. Really, I am…

Delta ignored Nu and his sarcasm.

“-It still feels like everything I’m doing is maybe… preordained? It’s creepy,” she complained. Nu turned to the large feast hall, of the trolls and goyles watching them with little subtlety.

If they predicted this? Then they are all-knowing and I want to hit them both for it, but I highly suspect they are as in the dark about how you work as you are yourself. Nothing you do is predictable. You made this Dungeon. You made these monsters. You made me. Well, you broke me. Same difference.

Delta tried not to roll her eyes too hard at his comments.

I’ve seen Sis at work. Trust me, ‘perfect’ and ‘working’ have very different meanings to her. So what if you were programmed to end up as the most deadly Dungeon ever, yet somehow ended up selling beer and pots? Usually, life happens differently than how people plan it to. So stop sulking and take a break from all this.

Delta gave him her full attention.

“Nu, we got a horde of nasties and cult jerks through that door gaining power. They can come through at any time. How can I relax with that around?” she reminded and there was a soft chime as the stack of notifications awaited Delta’s attention.

I shall allow the System to answer that question.

Nu faded and was replaced by a series of windows.

World Tree Sample Absorbed! Increased defence from the power of the World Tree. World Tree would be available for purchase but effectively impossible due to astronomical cost. System has converted this option into a powerful upgrade for Wyin and Maestro.

Upgrade cost: 200 DP.

Wyin will gain immunity to low-class magic and produce powerful fruit that causes the eater to be brutally honest with themselves. Wyin’s nature has shaped this outcome. The fruit is called ‘Wyin’s Tears’. Fera can use this magically powerful fruit to make fruit cocktails with a marginally weaker effect that causes a ‘Slip of the Tongue’.

Maestro’s root tunnels will become improved and allow his form to appear on any floor as long as a proper ‘stage’ has been set up to host him. All Bardian Songs, Tunes of Power, Hymns of Healing or Cursed Classics will be stronger when Maestro sings on the same floor as the music. Having his stage in certain rooms or areas will give Maestro a ‘job’ inside that area. All ‘jobs’ are related to music in some fashion. Movement from one location to another takes around 10 minutes on each end.

“That’s awesome!” Delta’s face split into a wide smile. Her urge to just hit confirm and let two of her greener monsters get a sweet upgrade was strong but she held back until she saw the rest of the windows.

Runes on the head researcher’s door have been scanned and added to the system. Most Runes were dissolved upon unlocking the door but two key Runes have been successfully learned!

Gained the Rune of Locking: A simplistic rune that is laid upon a door or chest to keep it sealed against moderate physical and magical effort. This rune cannot be used to seal doors leading to the Core unless an appropriate key is made and available to intruders. However, areas not leading to the Core are allowed to be sealed without a key. Each Rune costs 50 Mana to place

Gained the Rune of Heat: A rune that inflicts moderate thermal damage on anyone who attempts to touch whatever object or area of surface are covered by the Rune. Each Rune costs 50 Mana to place.

Oh, now she had magical symbols of power! Delta tried not to think about what would happen if she just messed with them.

She was beginning to remember that ‘Delta’ itself was a powerful symbol in things. Rune of heat + Delta = horrid but maybe funny outcomes.

But she now knew what Nu had been hinting towards. The Locking Rune would be pretty handy on keeping the remainder of the Silence army behind the door so that Delta could just have a day to herself. Just her, her Dungeon, and fun but maybe meaningless tinkering.

Delta hadn’t had a moment to herself since… the Spider Queen.

Was this what it was going to be like when all her floors were constantly full? Bored watching people over the years while she eagerly waited for a moment in which she could get some peace and quiet to do her own thing?

That reality sounded like a cranky old maid but Delta was worried it could come true.

She considered that for a moment then shrugged. If she needed space, she’d simply ask. People were usually polite enough in her experience.

There was always the possibility of getting Ruli to give her a hand to give any stragglers a heave-ho, but the more floors she had the less that would be a likely issue. For now, she floated to her garden and focused on the large twin doors which Jack had described as having another hall for them to deal with and then the throne room beyond it. Plenty of space and holes in which to build a nasty little army.

She focused on the two doors and smiled. Her Core was back fairly far behind her, she didn’t need any keys for this. She felt 100 Mana drain and two flashing orange lights began to burn themselves into the two doors, one on each door. It felt stronger than a single, larger symbol, over both.

The two symbols blazed, shaped like two orange Delta symbols.

She stared.

“I would’ve thought the Rune of Locking had its own… symbol,” she said lamely, trying to make a vague design with her hands.

The System has begun a new register of compiled Runes. Runes were a way of controlling either ambient human Mana in the wild or calling upon a deity. Ergo, Runes can be whatever shape we desire since the power of The Siblings is your source now. The Delta symbol means protection. The system finds that fitting. After all, locking is just a means of security.

“Thank you, I think. So what, each rune I learn gets a new symbol for my unique use? Or if I teach it to others… Did we just invent a new magic rune system?!” she exclaimed in shock.

Yes. The system congratulates the Core, Delta, on breaking apart the magical creation of a primordial means to impart magic on the physical world by etches and intent. The System is proud of you.

Delta beamed until her face fell.

“You’re just messing with me, aren’t you?” she asked, crestfallen. The screen turned a hue of blue and Nu shook off his disguise. His normal screen taking the place of the system window.

Of course, but I do it with genuine fondness. The new rune language was legit and Sis did honestly make you the symbol of protection. It’s sickeningly sweet. I asked to be the symbol of wit or intelligence but… Sis said she already knows what symbol I am. I have to let you know that an adept mage in the Dungeon can create runes eventually. However, I doubt we’ll see any results for a while.

---

Cois was bashing his staff hard into the ground. He growled as the mushrooms tried to invade the bar again. Fera wouldn’t serve him until he got rid of the blighters on her doorstep. His staff smacked into the muddy ground as the mushroom seemed to almost wiggle side to side to avoid the blows. He wished that he could just use fire but the Gutrots tended to explode if exposed to high heat.

Fire shouldn’t be so limited but… Cois sorely wished he could just SET THEM ALL ON FIRE!

The rough mess on the ground left behind by his staff hitting the ground began to pulse with orange light.

Cois paused. Not sure what this malarkey was all about. The symbol looked like a curved crescent moon or a really fancy ‘C’ with little horns on top. Was it just him or was the air getting hot-

There was a mighty boom as the mushrooms erupted in a flash of fire asand Cois was sent flying back, arcing over the bar.

He looked up from where he landed at an unimpressed Fera.

“Good news, mushrooms is gone. Bad news is that drawing naughty pictures in the dirt is gonna have to be put on hold for a small while,” he explained, coughing out plumes of black smoke.

“You got more than that to worry about. You just smashed into me glasses and beers. You wanna grab a broom or will I just kick you around until you sweep up the mess?” she asked lightly.

Cois glared but went to fetch the broom. The symbol that had burned, etched into his own mind.

Fire from a funny shape… that had potential.

--

Special Rune of Fire: Goblin! has been created! A wicked rune that requires little Mana to activate. In return, the maker has little control over it. It may detonate in seconds or hours… with smoke or fire hot enough to melt steel. A magical rune created by the Pyromancer Cois.

“Fire solves everything. Army? Use fire. Demons? Fire. Fire? Use a bigger fire.”

…I often forget that you are not a normal dungeon.

Delta could only smile.

“Wanna go and take the day off to have fun and mess with things? I think we need a break,” she offered.

Nu seemed to sigh.

I suspect that even goofing off, something will go horribly wrong… but I suppose I have nothing better to do.

“That’s the spirit. When in doubt, just go with the flow!” Delta instructed and turned. Leaving the glowing Delta Symbols ablaze. Their very meaning keeping the first wave of danger firmly locked away.

For now.

---

101: How to be a Dungeon

---

What are you doing?

Nu asked as Delta made a window and began to write with her finger as a pen. Rough squiggles and chicken scratch transformed into elegant victorian era quill type calligraphy with large flourishes and loops so grand that you could drive a car through them. Delta snorted.

“I would love to write like that but let’s be honest,” she chided the window. The text blurred again and changed into simple black text. Delta smiled and turned to Nu.

“Well, the whole thing with Bro happened so fast that it’s just now a ton of questions are coming to me. Like you can hardly blame me, I was kidnapped by a tree and rescued by the world’s oldest annoying sibling!” she complained.

She pointed to the first line.

“Like for example. Did I choose my name or was that some compulsion? Since Alpha, Beta, and Gamma are around that means all four of us went with greek lettering to our numbering. That’s unlikely to be a random thing,” she stated.

I can ask if you want? Sis is mostly doing patch work and working on her inter-dungeon communication project.

Delta hesitated but decided the nagging feeling of never knowing would be worse than just knowing, no matter what the answer was. She could learn to deal if she knew. Delta would never heal her mental trauma if she refused to learn.

“Please.”

Nu was gone before she finished speaking. Delta hovered over her core on its platform and eyed the glowing four inside.

She had latched on to the name for the longest time due to that symbol. It felt so long ago like the beginning of a book that had too many chapters. She distracted herself by adding more questions to the ‘important questions to ask next time kidnapped’ list.

Nu reappeared.

I have returned.

He declared this with almost no sarcasm. Delta made a little wave with her hands to celebrate.

Sis said you were simply named 1, 2, 3 and 4. However, when making the vessels for each of your beings… some of which took longer than others Sis and her brother took into consideration what you all knew. Summing up what language and what ideas you all knew and combining them to prevent having to make 4 different language modules. Extra was stored for when you were all ready to reabsorb them. Most of you knew a common language and many ideas. One of which was these words ‘Alpha’ to your own name ‘Delta’. So it wasn’t compulsion as much as you all having your other languages and ideas delayed at the beginning. You all reached from the same pool of knowledge.

“So not mind control, just us being uncreative and thinking we’re cool,” Delta summed up. Nu shrugged.

Uncreative. Sure. Let’s go with that. Sis did let slip that the one called ‘Alpha’ named himself due to the state of the system. He was the first around and had the ‘Alpha state’ as she called it. Interesting but… If you weren’t called Delta, what would you call yourself now?

Nu asked interested.

The question surprised her but her answer was quick to come.

“Darth Fluffy the destroyer of mankind and deliverer of muffins,” she said easily. Nu merely turned to her list.

What other questions did you have?

Delta stuck her tongue out at him but read off the next one.

“If Bro made monsters, then what are Domains and why do monsters go for dungeons if they’re supposed to be working together?” she mused. Like the Spider Queen.

I doubt Sis can answer that. I do not have a direct line to the Brother sadly. But we can speculate. Brother may have made them to search for these ‘Spores of the lost sibling’. They are created with instincts and a desire to feed off sources of Spores. Even if they are a previous experiment—and one Dungeons are a step up from- doesn’t mean they know about it. Monsters are created by Mana but they also breed and mutate. The Brother designed them to survive regardless of what people did, no doubt. Perhaps feeding off Dungeons is something they themselves don’t understand. Maybe in some way they sense themselves in Dungeons? Perhaps they sense the Spores that Dungeons have or echoes of them? Hard to tell.

Damn… Nu was good at this!

“But I’ve only killed one person! I don’t have a lot Spores around,” she reminded.

Yes but you are removing them from the people of Durence. You are taking their purpose one way or another. Also, I hate to remind you but we are sitting on a pit of insane people who worship this lost sibling. Their Spores may be very ripe. Alluring. Perhaps that is why you were attacked.

Delta frowned.

“Kinda wish we could ask the Spider Queen but I kinda… oh..” Delta blinked and then smacked her head.

“I absorbed her remains and her kids. I should be able to sift through their memories or something,” she said and Nu was quiet.

Could be risky.

“So is sitting here being bored. Slap me if I start chanting backwards or grow extra legs!” she beamed.

Do you even know how to lock on to previously absorbed remains or are you just going to-

“Wing it,” Delta answered him and closed her eyes.

Right. She was Delta. She was the air she floated in. She was the ground around her. She was the very light that touched the rocks.

She was the world around her and she was no longer just Delta the human-shaped girl. She was… everything. To go from seeing through two eyes to being a Dungeon aware of every bit of movement and sound was always going to be weird.

But the cool detachment allowed her to focus on her goal. Nu also vanished and seemed to be with her in spirit. A sliver of purpose and distrust. Not towards her, but towards all that wasn’t Delta.

He went with her like a sparrow perched on her shoulder.
His presence brought comfort, despite Delta knowing she didn’t need it in this mindstate.

Delta began to move through her logs. Her human nature making it sorted by time instead of importance or usefulness. It made flipping back easy.

She felt more touches of warmth as she refreshed herself on the previous days events. Fighting, slimes, explosions, Jack—…so much had happened—but she flipped back and found the moment she had… slightly exploded the Spider Queen.

Her form, her soul at least, had been devoured by the Dungeon and refunneled into Queenie who was in Fera’s bar, drinking shroom pop.

Breaking him down was an option but Delta discarded that thought with ease. No, she would have to do with a pale imitation. Queenie was worth ten of the Spider Queen to Delta. She focused on the exact moment the Spider Queen had been devoured. Her dark ugly being that was burning.

Delta weaved her Mana together and did her best to restore what her Dungeon had eaten. It was like building a 3D jigsaw puzzle - with half the pieces cut in half and no picture to guide her.

A shriek of arrogance and awareness came from the puzzle and Delta neatly snapped that particular piece back in half. She wasn’t interested in sparring with the dead queen unless she had no option. No, Delta focused on the part that was shaping up like a web. The Memory cortex of the Queen.

It was an intricate thing and Delta saw it was messy, incomplete. Even with her best attempts to rebuild it, the damage had been great.

Still, like silver beads on the web, powerful memories did cling to it.

Delta was quick to move through them. Most were of the Queen’s eventual evolution paths. From tiny worker to beautiful queen (in her eyes). Strong stuff, but Delta had to work fast before she became a little too detached.

A few memories showed battle with various people, one of them being Ruli… a very young Ruli. She was… adorable as she exploded spiders and cut more in twain. A recent memory revealed a distorted image of the Queen and her army being pressed into submission by a figure with a horrible grin.

He was sucking something from the Queen with a jar.

Delta watched and the Queen roared, holding on to that last bit of darkness. The man walked away with ease.

From the fraying memory, the Queen despaired at the loss of the darkness. But what was left… led her downwards.

The Queen was severely weakened from the man sapping that dark cloud… a cloud of Spores from her. Delta had faced off with that weakened Queen.

Delta returned to herself. Back to her human mind and shape. She blinked slowly.

“That was… confusing,” she blinked.

The Spider Queen was not purifying the Spores. She was hoarding them. That the Spores had affected her… is disturbing. We know so little about Spores and that is dangerous.

Delta frowned and crossed her arms.

“Can’t we ask Sis to hold on to one for us or something?” she suggested and Nu was quiet for a while. His screen slowly filled with text.

I don’t think so. I think that is the reason the menu system shuts down when people come into the Dungeon. Why I disappear and you can’t bring up any windows. Sis must be making sure those parts won’t be around people where Spores might gain access.

Valid idea but Delta was thinking quick.

“But what about challenge windows? They appear before people and you even talked through them,” she reminded.

They are conjured by people approaching the room, their own mana activates the window. Let’s be honest. I’m not supposed to be doing those things… but there is one way we could properly examine spores and maybe see what makes them tick.

Delta raised one brow and waited for this idea to emerge from Nu’s tricky brain.

You interfaced with Deo. You searched his frame and did a one on one connection. I hadn’t considered it important or impressive but… you interacted with an outside being on your own.

“And I have a bunch of them coming to do a mock fight with the Dungeon… I could just invade their personal and physical space to feel for a spore. I’m sure that will go down well,” she replied dryly.

An idea for another time. Any other questions you planned to ask?

Delta thought about it.

“Nothing earth shaking, but I kinda wanted to know if I was allowed to not work with Alpha and others if they turn out to be bad people. I’ll do my best to put my own issues aside if it saves tons of lives but I hope I have some right for myself to not have to work with them if it comes down to it,” she blew out a sigh.

Nu’s window shook slightly as if chuckling.

I have a feeling most of them would struggle to be more than a pain. I think between your monsters and the monsters who pretend to be human in Durence, you really don’t need three saps who haven’t even broken the system according to Brother. Come on, you did that on your first day or something. Please. Such amateurs.

Delta hid a smile from Nu’s complaining on her behalf.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

She floated to the stairs and hummed.

“Maybe, but if they turn out to be okay… I couldgive them some tips!” she giggled. She was sure she was beginning to grasp this Dungeon thing. After all, she had made it to floor three in her first month. She had tons of rare monsters and a circus!

Did Beta have a circus? Delta doubted it.

She snorted at her own cockyness but decided her little holiday was meant to be fun so she floated back to Wyin’s room with thoughts of how she was doing pretty damn good for ‘a sappy human’.

A memory hit her and Delta paused.

She looked down at the ground with a frown. Delta just remembered she hadn’t apologised for vomiting on Bro’s tunnels.

She hoped he didn’t hold that against her.

---

Brother was poking the orange patch with a stick.

He hadn’t known what to do with the remnants of Delta’s essence but it seemed to have it’s own ideas as it slowly crawled along the inner paths of his body as if searching for something. Feeling interest, amusement and fondness at the same time, Brother teleported the stain about 34 miles in the direction it was heading. Nothing was important between there and where it had been.

The stain seemed to pause and then carry on its way to an old series of pillars and pulsing images.

On each pillar was a set of very old, incredibly potent, words of power. The verbal equivalentof runes. These simple words would enable an individual to bend existence. Brother had tons of these ‘ruins’ where words of power hummed and pulsed all across the world. Each one had a particular purpose like ‘gravity’ or ‘soil richness’ or ‘poison ivy’. The last one deserved its own spot because people who actually enjoyed sleeping in the wild should be punished.

This particular set was very large. One of Brother’s biggest.

It controlled Monster species balance and creation.

The orange splatter seeped into one of the pillars and began to turn the picture from a dull brown to a brightly glowing orange thing.

Brother stared, his smile growing even wider.

This was going to be fun! Sure, the stain only had enough to convert one style of monster and only a tiny fraction of it, but still.

Brother was loving it.

---

On a grassy plain far above and under the gentle rays of the sun. A batch of slimes bubbled into existance out of pure Mana to start doing what slimes did best. Eat.

Except the smallest one of the new batches was still. It looked to the sun and its small round body and black button-eyes blinked a few times.

“Pu…” it yawned as its bright orange body glittered like a jewel.

This little slime didn’t feel hunger as strongly as it felt something else.

Curiosity.

---

“I’m sure it’s no big deal,” Delta explained to Wyin.

“Of course, my sweet creator, no big deal… but this boy, this brother, seems like a cur and you need not worry about him. But I am vastly interested in this ‘upgrade’ you mentioned. I do love being slightly… immune to things,” she smiled wickedly and Delta shot her a look which made Wyin shrug.

“I’m a tree. I’d like to not be set on fire,” she said with no shame. A fair point, Delta had to imagine.

“How would you put it? I’m not inflammable?” Wyin tried, and the sheer pain this attempt at a joke was clear in her voice. Delta stared.

Inflam… oh! OH!

Delta’s smile went wide and she felt laughter rising in her chest like a fizzy burp.

“That’s a good one!” she said and Nu looked between them with disgust.

I don’t even get it and I hate it.

Wyin nodded.

“It’s a play on the word ‘infallible’ where-” she began and Delta waved her hands with a slight cry.

“No! You can’t explain it or it isn’t funny anymore!” she protested. Wyin frowned and Delta did some quick thinking.

“Imagine the sheer torture by not sharing the joke!” she encouraged and Wyin perked up like Delta has given her a gift.

“Oh yes… I can imagine that. Very well, I shall practise more cutting remarks and to add salt to the wound… puns. I shall suffer them so my foes will die from them!” she cackled and her branches all erupted into thorns.

She saw Delta’s flat expression and cleared her throat.

“I mean, how they will groan in traumatic pain for years to come… alive. Un-maimed,” she said weakly.

Delta guessed that was the best she was getting for a while. Maybe after a few real fights, Wyin would cool off and take up knitting sheaths for swords or quivers for arrows or something.

Delta could only hope.

“Let me talk to Maestro first since this affects both of you,” she said.

The few mushrooms scattered about the room twitched.

“I was listening to this lovely gaggle of gals. I, the amazing and fabulous Maestro, agree to the upgrade. A chance for more of my fans to see my glorious self in person! Honey, put the pen away, I already signed the ‘yes’ box with a kiss!”

“Excellent, the mushroom and the tree are in agreement. We want to be upgraded,” Wyin gestured with one lone willowy branch as if to encourage Delta to hurry. Rolling her eyes at her needy houseplants, she brought up the menu and purchased the hefty 200 DP upgrade for them.

The Dungeon was quiet for a moment, then Wyin’s bark began to crack and deep light flowed from within
.
The mushrooms were pulsing and shaking as Maestro’s sing-song voice began to tremble with surprise.

“By the sweet mercy of Momma! This feeeeels intense!” he said, voice shaking as if he was vibrating.

Wyin exploded, like a caterpillar escaping its cocoon using a heavy dose of C4 and dynamite. Wood chips were sent flying and a storm of leaves made Wyin into the eye of the storm.

Before, her brownish bark looked a shade lighter but now it had tiny pulsing green veins that were slowly turning orange. Her face, which had only been shaped somewhat like a woman, was now perfectly detailed, as if it were sculpted by an artist. Her lips pursed as ivy and thin moss made waves of hair that cascaded down to the tree’s navel, which even had a new belly button.

She stretched, feeling out out her new form, and Delta covered her eyes.

“Wyin, you’re really detailed all the way down!” she yelled, face going red. Wyin’s legs still merged and fused into the roots of the tree, but her body–which looked smooth yet natural, with leaves and mushroom caps as decorative accessories–as her arms still split into dozens of branches.

“Hm… yes I see that I have rather supple thighs now!” Wyin said pleased.

That was not what was concerning Delta.

She peeked to see Wyin shaking her head out as flower buds grew in the vines and exploded into bloom with vivid red and white blossoms. As if the flowers had been stained with red.

“I’m just teasing… see?” Wyin’s soft purr of a voice tempted Delta to look once more and she sighed with relief as the tree now had a thin veil of leaves that acted like a thin cloak or towel.

Her shoulders were bare and the attempt at decency didn’t seem to be a very good one, as when Wyin moved the leaves parted to tease a show at any given time.

Still, Delta respected her monster’s choices in the long run. If Wyin wanted to be… natural in her own time, it was only fair to respect that. But if she was going to be fighting young men and women then she had to respect them too!

“Do you want to taste my sweet fruit? It’s bursting with juice and one nibble could make it leak,” Wyin offered, leaning down. Delta gaped and the tree blinked confused before her words seemed to catch up to her.

Instead of shame or embarrassment, Wyin seemed amused.

Her arms lowered to show an orange peach-like fruit. Delta eyed them.

“Why are they peaches-” she began and Wyin cut her off.

“Because they look like butts and I like making you flustered,” she grinned. Delta pointed a finger at her with a scandalized look.

“I saved you from Seth and his wandering… words! To think you were just as bad!” she accused. Wyin merely hid her smile behind a branch.

“I am naught but a childe of Delta. I am innocent but delicious. Bite me gently, sir or madam,” she cooed and Delta covered her ears.

“Lalalala, I can’t hear this!” she yelled. Wyin’s clear, bell-like tinkling, laugh sounded out. It wasn’t a cackle or even a mean sound but something rare.

General amusement and affection.

“You are too sweet for this world, how I worry for you,” Wyin smiled.

“I didn’t sign up for a seductive murder tree…” Delta grumbled. Wyin leaned down and wrapped her branches around the space where Delta stood.

“We can’t often choose the people we consider family but we simply have to do our best, mhm? Now I suggest you go check on the drama king. He is being far too quiet for my liking,” Wyin suggested.

Delta had to agree but she narrowed her eyes at Wyin.

“We could have kids coming to the Dungeon and one kinda sweet girl. You are to be on your best behavior!” she commanded. Wyin blinked three times.

“Oh lovely creator. The Wyin tree is about love, didn’t you know?” she giggled and stretched to her full length. Delta was beginning to think this upgrade had given Wyin something to make her feel good.

Either that or Wyin was getting her torture jollies from somewhere Delta had no idea about.

---

Yggy, as Beta often called him, was feeling ragged. Not only had his very soul been singed so bad that it hurt to be… hurt to think. And his attempts to track that ‘Delta’ back to her source had been met with…

Something… he couldn’t quite remember. He had fleeting images of a round sphere of screens. Of a Girl… and her furious expression.

Then the parts he had made for invading areas had simply ceased to be. Gone and lost. His memory somehow also cut loose as if the girl wanted no stone unturned in her attack.

Yggy was furious as he retreated to lick his wounds as it were.

But what was worse was the damn feeling of… others. He was the World Tree! There was power in that title for Yggy to play with but he sensed two others now.

Two new potential World Beings. So tiny… so pathetic, but still growing.

And one of them was semi-aware of him! It radiated mockery and cruelty at his fury. It seemed to grow and sigh as his own rage built. He was the World Tree and this tick had taken his power! In the mockery came a name that made Yggy feel both cold and curious.

Wyin.

That was… not possible.

But there was another that just seemed content to sing and damned if most of the tunes weren’t stuck in Yggy’s head.

He sulked… healed… and plotted.

---

Delta eyed Wyin as her mood only seemed to get brighter.

Odd tree… very odd.

Delta decided to get to the root of her other issue and left Wyin to start her own branch of bad jokes. All this excitement was gonna get to Wyin eventually, she was going to need to lay down soon for… rest.

Delta had to stop in the middle of the jungle as fits of giggles tried to escape her.

Yes. I can see it now. You truly were meant to be the deadliest dungeon that ever existed.

Nu’s words were as sweet as ever and Delta couldn’t help but flutter her eyelashes at him.

“I Nu you’d understand,” she grinned.

Nu’s glare was powerful despite having no eyes. Delta took off flying, her laughter making the jungle come to life with echoes of joy and noise.

She couldn’t wait to see Maestro.

---

102: The Dance of the Dead and Fabulous

Maestro’s room was in shadow. The usual glow moss and twinkling Starlight mushrooms had been dimmed, and the effort had made the cavernous room seem at rest… a place the world had forgotten… or chose to leave in peace.

Drips of falling water sounded like musical notes as the peaceful calm in the room swam over Delta. She floated gently up the stone stairs, past the slumbering Gutrots, Starlights, Tasty Mushrooms, and others.

She wanted to call out but this serene peaceful aura had stolen her voice. Delta didn’t want to ruin this wonderful feeling with something like mere words.

She reached the summit and the shadow of Maestro’s huge form was also still. It laid wrapped in many roots on the ceiling, so still. That was odd.

Delta had never seen Maestro still, let alone quiet. He didn’t seem to be in pain or at odds with the roots. In fact, he looked to be in deep comfort and safe.

Delta let herself space out and saw his roots… Maestro’s very mind was expanding into that odd space between floors where things didn’t quite make sense. His roots buried deep and began to find spots in the floors below. Potential stages, like the menu had informed her?

“He shan’t be long,” came the good natured voice of Lord Mushy. Delta saw him resting in a shadowed corner. She had unconsciously felt him there and didn’t flinch when he spoke.

“Looking out for him?” She teased. Lord Mushy hummed.

“I do worry about my flamboyant sibling. One tends to worry when family gets into rock and roll. I dread the after-parties to come,” he mock-sighed.

“No groupies until he’s at least two years old,” Delta said calmly but firmly. Lord Mushy gave his hearty chuckle once more.

“I shall make sure he is informed but I daresay we are as likely to stop that as we can stop Cois playing with fire or Boary eating mushrooms or Bacon from giving them back in gaseous form!” he said brightly.

The mushrooms around them began to stir and Delta looked up, excited to see Maestro and his new potential upgrades.

Maestro’s form cracked like an egg and Delta blinked straight up with wide alarm. Then it split open and green fluid rained like a waterfall and Delta gave a shriek as it passed over her and into the floor.

The room promptly got rid of it since it wasn’t supposed to be, but there was the scent of lingering cooked mushroom and her hair felt… oily.

From the shell that was Maestro, came glowing green mist that sparkled in the light of the Starlight Mushrooms. The mist showed a smaller shadow emerging.

It was about two feet shorter and maybe a little thinner. Connected still by a dozen roots, the figure lowered itself and Delta saw it had legs! Feet!

Fancy black shoes that looked nice until she saw they didn’t have lace nor show ankles. They seamlessly merged right into the black slacks as the figure continued to be lowered. The form remained shrouded in that deep green mist.

“Ladies and Gents, both and neither, and of course, all of the above. I welcome you tonight to the unveiling of a Star reborn! The mighty has become mightier. The sexy became sexier. Please avoid looking right at the star if you have a weak heart. Delta Dungeon Inc. is not liable for medical issues sustained by staring right at… Monsieur Maestro!” The figure said proudly.

Delta held her breath, wondering if a princely gentlemen that had been born from Maestro would soon grace them. Maestro touched down and Delta went pale, going limp and silent at the creature before her.

The white shirt and dinner jacket with a beautiful red mushroom in the jacket pocket was nice but everything shoulder up was a nightmare.

He flexed his wicked long fingers that now had black tips, and gripped a cane as he walked forward, his mass of roots trailing behind him like life support. His mushroom cap had remained and the odd hair inside trailed down his back in sleek black neatness, but his face had two wide, deep holes where dark red lights gleamed like twin fires in the dark. Much like a creature luring the unwary to a quick death.

At odd times, his inner glow filled both eyes or jumped between one or the other like a demented tennis ball while hise opened mouth was wide with a spiked wormy tongue that had tiny holes all around it.

His jaw was rigid with needle-like teeth that stood where his lips should have been and each one gave off a high note as they moved independently of each other like centipede legs. That was when the four other limbs emerged from his back to show tiny snapping mushroom heads at each end. Each the same black as his jacket.

Delta silently got up before excusing herself, walking calmly down the stone steps for a moment.

“Oh she’s getting emotional! Mushy! Isn’t this super!” Maestro gushed in that lovely voice of his. Well, he wasn’t wrong.

Delta closed her eyes, focused and reached out to feel that joy of life that was Maestro. The monster she had known and regularly sang songs with. It was still him and she forced herself to open her eyes and march back up those stairs.

She faltered at Maestro’s red eyes, expectant smile (God, those teeth…), and she moved jerkily forward like a zombie with arthritis. She raised her head and met those red eyes.

“Sing a song for… me?” she pleaded. Maestro bowed with so much grace she felt like a peasant. Worse was when all his extra limb heads bowed as well.

“Shall I go into familiar clubs or shall I spruce your heart and ears up with hidden cabarets and secret ballrooms?” he smiled.

“Surprise me!” she squeaked and glared at Mushy who was hiding a deep chuckle.

The thumping beat was followed by a long draw on a piano as Maestro slid all the way down his stone temple on one of the edges, moving at impossible angles. Each piano note seems to light up a step as Maestro passed it.

Red steps, blue steps, flashing neon green steps. One step just blinked hot pink and Delta tried not to look at that one as Maestro tapped his foot. Every mushroom in the room, even Mushy, began to sway to his step. Like a dance routine they had all practised.

“Drums!” Maestro commanded and the walls itself pulsed with a playful boom. He turned to the roof.

“Strings!” He flicked a long clawed hand and hidden spiderwebs began to twang and twing.

He gave a mighty bow to the stairs lined with mushrooms, the same stairs he just slid down.

“Percussion… back up choir, if you do please,” he grinned and the nightmarish image was only a little bit easier to deal with after a third sight. The Mushrooms, sorted by species, began to hum along to the beat and some echoed the instruments.

Delta giggled a little as each of them was still doing a little jig to Maestro’s beat.

“There was a sweet little gal. A little pal for you and me. Maybe you know of Delta… a sweeter princess than your Cinderella…” Maestro crooned as he began to climb one step at a time. Each step began to flash exotically at his foot.

Delta felt herself blush but she was laughing now.

Soon she was pulled into a swing by Lord Mushy and Delta ended up forgetting to be scared as the song played on.

---

Ruli watched as her Mum swung the red sword. It barely made a dent in the table when she tried to put effort into swing.

“Thing must be demon-friendly or it just doesn’t like me!” Mila huffed and placed the weapon back on the table.

“I can’t imagine how! Magma is such a sweet thing,” Ruli answered as she shoved cold cheese on bread into her mouth. Mila hit her on the back of her head.

“The sword is as sharp as your humor,” the woman said gruffly. Ruli reached for the blade but was cut off as her Mother spoke.

“If you cut my table to make a point, I will hunt you,” she said calmly. Ruli decided to reach for another sandwich instead.

“Well, I can confirm it’s Demon made. Feels like the knife your father once showed me,” Mila sighed. Ruli frowned, trying to remember this story but came up with nothing.

“We were not hating each other, well, I wasn’t hating him and in the middle of some romance, he threw up a dagger on me. He claimed he was stabbed earlier but forgot to remove the blade and so his body had taken natural action. I accused him of being an immature demon manchild and left,” Mila explained.

“First off, ew. You’re old and you don’t need romance. Second, do you still have that blade?” Ruli asked and her mother snorted.

“Lost it when I stabbed a Royal Knight who called me a ‘demon whore’. Somewhere between his third and fourth rib I think,” Mila smiled at the memory.

“I am lucky to be as normal as I am,” Ruli mumbled. Magma glowed and her cheese sandwich became a cheese toasty.

“Oh, the mighty cooking sword! I heard the mystical ‘Single tool of the Sagely Kitchen’ was lost, didn’t know I found it!” She grinned and devoured her sizzling cheese snack.

“That was a rolling pin and it was found in some stupid cooking tournament where the food literally had to be banned for causing inapproiate reactions in people,” Mila sipped her coffee and thought about it. “I heard it had been corrupted after being used to club an Ogre’s heads in, but that info is hard to confirm,” she added, shrugging.

“Well, my sword toasts things. What does your sword do?” Ruli taunted, feeling cheesy and like she was ten again. Her Mother snorted and gestured to the room.

“Which one? I got so many weapons I end up finding one in an unused sock drawer. I swear, I found my ‘Slicing Heaven Spear’ when I went looking for my spare broom,” the older woman shook her head.

Ruli smirked. “Broomstick flying was outlawed due to littering by the king,” she said nonchalantly. She was hit again by book her mother had thrown.

“Rude child!” Came the old retort. The book easily missed her. Ruli’s mother hadn’t aimed at her, but just threw it to warn her. Ruli caught the book and flipped through old pictures taken with a memory stone and sketcher. Cheap ones could only do black and white while coming out grainy.

Ruli was surprised to see crisp colourful pictures that spoke of a good model stone.

The downside to stones over the huge, unwieldy cameras that were slowly being brought into creation by smarter people than Ruli, was that the memory sketcher couldn’t sketch the person themselves since the memory would be first person.

But until these cameras could do more than one picture every 10 minutes and didn’t need chemicals and fluid to work… people would use the stones.

Pictures from her mother’s view were flipped through. It was obvious to see what memories were clear compared to the hazy ones that came out half-suggested and sometimes white in places. Memory stones were too easily misled like that.

Memories half-formed were never right, and people could swap in really vivid imaginations over memories, making them pointless in any court.

Ruli blinked.

“Damn… Mr. Jones is haunting me,” she whispered, trying to empty her head of pointless knowledge like that to make room for beer later.

She slowed to a picture of three men. A rather goofy young Haldi, a strong glaring Pic… and a towering man who beamed at her mother with such earnest feelings that the space around the man’s face was a little blurry as if Mila almost didn’t remember right… or avoided it for too long.

The picture had neat writing under it.

“Me and the idiots. I would die for them if I don’t kill them first.” Ruli read and Mila snorted.

“Truer words were never spoken,” she agreed.

“You never told me how you lot ended up here, ya know?” Ruli said quietly. Mila chopped some vegetables with quick efficiently. Mila took time to mull the words over and over.

“Would you believe it all started with hunting some horned rabbits?” she said dryly. Ruli gave her a long look.

“Horned rabbits are made-up. Their biology sucks too much to be real. It’s like centaurs, if you think too much about it. Rabbits with anywhere near long enough horns could never burrow or eat properly!” Ruli argued. Mila pointed the kitchen knife at her daughter.

“You’re welcome. I helped wipe out those mistakes of nature,” she agreed.

“So, killing rabbits led you to making a town?” Ruli frowned. Mila pushed her grey hair back and her yellow eyes blinked once slightly.

“In a sense. Me and my idiots ended up being kind of successful and a little bit famous. We were recruited for the Knights and we laughed the offer off but the recruiter ended up sticking around for drinks. That damn ‘porter loves their booze,” Mila snorted at the memory. Ruli began to wipe down Magma with a well-used cloth. The sword was warm to the touch but Ruli knew it could burn her fingers to the bone at any second. It was like a wild animal who took a liking to Ruli.

“Well, the recruiter had some personal issues and we ended up meeting some creeps who tried to kill the recruiter. We barely blinked and they were dead. Lo-… Pinkie, that’s my name for them, was strong. I was impressed so I tried to smash her face in for the hell of it,” Mila scraped her cutting into a boiling stew.

“I woke up three days later and Pinkie was still around. I was bundled into the back of our wagon and covered in a blanket. I could have died from infection or bleeding out or… boredom. Whatever, but Pinkie had a talent for keeping people just barely alive…” Mila said calmly as if not speaking about her near death.

“Well, one thing led to another and we ended up here!” Mila said and slammed the pot lid on her stew. Ruli gave her a long look.

“I think you skipped a few pages due to your old age,” she said kindly. The air dropped in temperature.

“Well, I guess that’s just the story for now. Now, will you stop your damn sword that’s melting my table?” she asked bluntly. Ruli looked down to see Magma sinking into the wooden table like a hot blade in butter.

“Bad sword. Melting is for flesh of my enemies and toast,” she sighed and yanked the blade out of the wood with a wet noise.

“Now, the stew will be about another hour before it’s right. You can run errands for me,” Mila said and Ruli stared at her.

“Excuse me? I am not your Bronze-1 errand girl eager for some coppers and bottles of sink water for a reward,” Ruli stood to leave.

“Shame, I was gonna throw in dessert and a bottle of my 55-year-old Ogre whiskey, oddly the same Ogres that might have been clubbed that I mentioned before.” Mila’s voice froze Ruli’s leg and she tried to overpower the temptation.

“Having to bribe your own daughter is pretty bad on your parenting,” Ruli said between clenched teeth. Mila snorted.

“Bribing your kids is parenting 101. It was taking you out hunting Gold-rank beasts that was the bad-parenting part,” her mother said dryly.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“I actually liked that bit,” Ruli said but turned back to her mother who had a list of requests.

“Elder duties go on despite rain, snow, and recently, falling spider parts,” Mila smirked. Ruli glared at the mundane tasks.

“Elders go on despite age, time, and reason,” she muttered.

The first task was simple.

Collect 5 yellow flowers with blue leaves then deliver them to Mr. Dabberghast.

“This is demeaning,” Ruli informed her mother.

“This is having a mother and a sweet tooth,” came the curt reply.

Ruli really couldn’t argue with that.

“Dad would have let me kill ten-foot demon eating plants for their sap,” she tried, going for the oldest weapon in her arsenal.

“Your father would have had an army following you and warned the plants that if they harmed you, he’d make them into chairs and give them to glutton demons for stress testing. Now go,” her mother waved a spoon at her.

Ruli’s expression was sour and she left the cottage.

She made it to the road that led to the heart of Durence. Between being imprisoned by Mr. Jones and beating up the army in the Dungeon, Ruli hadn’t really taken a look at her home.

Her red eyes traced patches of flowers that were springing up, the sounds of songbirds seemed distant but faintly coming closer. The air smelled clean and for the first time in ages, the weather wasn’t mundane pleasant but looked like it might actually rain.

Dungeon Mana was invasive and depending on what Dungeon you lived nearby… different things would happen.

Delta had made things come to life like before, but there was something just a little different. Ruli couldn’t quite put a finger on it.

A bee the size of an apple wandered nearby and gathered some pollen before floating off with a merry buzz.

Ruli gave it a long look.

“Dungeons were supposed to make monsters appear nearby or horrible mutants. Delta just made happy bees,” she snorted. Still, she might need to warn Quiss that things might get a bit weirder.

She kept an eye out, and after ten minutes in a field she found the flower she was looking for. Ruli was sure it was the right flower but it seemed to be double the size of the average kind. Ruli decided, in that case, she should only have to gather half the amount then.

She whistled as Magma easily removed the plant.

After this, Ruli had to go collect ten crabs from the river and then fetch sturdy branches for no reason that Ruli could see.

It was sad that Bronze rank folks lived for this kind of work.

She looked up to see someone heading towards Delta’s place with an apron and a defeated posture.

Wait until they saw the bar, that’d cheer them up.

---

“Excuse me, I need to do a shift here. Please… don’t… be angry!” Shy-Nina asked the webs from about five feet away from the room entrance.

The webs parted like curtains and Nina dashed through, covering her head as she ran into a wall in her haste. She bounced back and stumbled through the actual door.

The spider court all shared a look as the one holding the trip wire down slowly climbed back up.

“T-thank you,” Shy-Nina said faintly as she walked on, staggering from the blow.

Queen Dreamweaver the 3rd decreed that extra webbing would be used to soften the wall in the future.

There was the customary vote dance where they all agreed and then the celebration dance for passing the vote.

Shy-Nina didn’t see this as she took a small seat in the pond room.

“Owie…” she held the bump on her head.

“Why couldn’t Lazy-Nina go - or Paranoid-Nina? Why me?” She sniffed. Gruff-Nina told her why: Because out of the Ninas to form, she was the least likely to cause more trouble for Miss Fera.

There was something black in front of her and she pulled her legs up on the rock as a duck stared up at her.

Shy-Nina didn’t have great memory and so the original trip down was a little hazy after the Great-Split in the bar. Had they met this thing before?

“Shoo! Please don’t bite me. I don’t have bread,” Shy-Nina whispered. The duck gave her a long piercing look. Nina retreated into her safe ball a bit more, face almost hidden behind her knees. It quacked once and waddled off before turning back to stare at her. Shy-Nina had a feeling it was waiting for her.

Shy-Nina wasn’t sure she should follow a random duck-

“Quack!” the duck said firmly and Shy-Nina shrieked and jogged to catch up.

“I’m sorry!” She bowed her head and the duck walked off and lead her down the hallway away from the mudpit.

The duck lead her into a room with many shelves. It looked like a dead end and Shy-Nina gave the odd snoozing mouse inside a bowl of jelly a long look. That mouse gave her a bad vibe.

The duck approached the back wall that opened on its own accord. The air flowing out of this dark space was hot and made her senses grow a bit hazy.

She wandered in as the duck turned once more and the red eyes had gone… a little softer.

“Quack…” the duck assured her.

Shy-Nina had gone mad and her madness was a duck in a dungeon.

Well, after the clam monster (which all Ninas remembered quite clearly) how bad could this tunnel be?

She walked for some time and odd mist began to curl around her feet. The heat seemed to seep into her body and she soon stood before a stone building of some sort.

“I dare say that today is a good day to be you. You come, my little maiden, to see the fabulous rising star in action. Come closer and see a debut like no other!” a man seemed to call from the top.

Nina could handle this. It wasn’t so bad.

She took a step forward, sleeves covering her face as she neared a stranger. He took a few steps down and he seemed to have thick vines attached to him… or roots?

The mist thinned as he walked down with a cane in hand. Shy-Nina’s body went rigid as the eye bounced between eyeholes. The odd hat she thought he wore was a part of his head. Then the rip in his face opened with dancing needle legs.

Shy-Nina fell back and landed hard on her rear as she stared, eyes wide as her mind turned itself off to protect itself.

“Star struck, I can hardly blame you! Welcome to the number one dungeon in the land. I shall be your man of the hour, Monsieur Maestro,” the thing bowed and Shy-Nina turned and saw the duck was gone.

“Ple…plee…” she stumbled, on the verge of tears. The monster leaned down and it looked demonic in its nature. It went for her and Shy-Nina prayed it be quick.

She felt something light pressed into her hands. She looked down at it.

It was a bizarre piece of pottery with the words ‘I met Maestro’ stamped on the side in an elegant penmanship.

“You need not beg or look so happy with tears, of course you can have my autograph!” The being said cheerfully and pulled her to her feet.

“My brother made the pot, I have yet to ask for paper and ink from Mother, but she is ever so busy sometimes,” the creature nodded. It spoke and those needle lips clicked and twanged with music notes as if some insect was conducting from inside.

Shy-Nina forced a question out.

“Need… work… Fera?” She gasped out. Maybe if she said she was under Fera’s protection, she would be safe? The man pressed her forward and the strength was strong enough that she was actually lifted off the ground, almost gliding across the ground.

“Ah yes, that lovely lass did mention hiring an outsider. Very juicy gossip. We’re all so excited!” The thing… Maestro said and leaned down. Shy-Nina nearly broke into tears at being so near to his face.

“Mother will take care of you, she is very fond of people and if anyone gives you hassle you tell Maestro here and I will bring down the wrath of the likes never seen or heard before! Or I shall tell my brother and stand smugly at the side as he lectures them,” he said airily.

Shy-Nina felt like crushing her body would be so easy for Maestro and his mist… it seemed to come from his body like an aura and it made things hazy in Shy-Nina’s head.

“For your first shift, I shall dedicate the music for tonight to your effort! What blues sing to you? What pop makes you bob? Tell Maestro the Wonderful, what music sings to your soul?” He pressed and had her in a one-armed hug.

It was so sudden of a question, Shy-Nina just answered it.

“I like Orchestra,” she said and covered her mouth in horror. The demon man’s face broke into something that had to be a smile.

That smile was going to be in Shy-Nina’s nightmares for many days to come.

---

“She’ll be fine. Maestro is not so bad once you stop looking at him head on,” Delta promised Renny. The Mime gave her that black smile that tore open his face.

“Yeah sorry, after Maestro, you’re downright handsome,” she said dryly. Renny dropped the grin in a huff but he gestured curiously at the circus before them.

“I’m taking the day off from battling the forces of evil and unspeakable horror to decorate,” she explained.

She opened her menu and browsed the options.

“I’ll share what I can do and see if we can make it closer to your home,” she offered and the Mime looked away for a moment at the statue of his father before he nodded.

Circus: The act of a lifetime and afterlife

A circus left underground and fallen into disrepair. The echoes of good times and bad times can still be felt.

Available options:
Skeleton Clowns and Performers: Ten skeletons in clown costumes or other dress will become the low act and basic workers of the circus. This option was unlocked after absorbing skeletons in the slime lab. These workers have no intelligence or attack power to speak of. DP 20

Strong nets and ropes for various acts: Made from spun spider silk and woven by spiders, these threads offer the best safety net and rope swings. 5 DP

Food Station: Add a connection to the bar system to allow a food stand just outside to sell popcorn(low quality) and various fruit drinks made from the jungle. Increased food in all other floors connected to the system. 20 DP

Ticketmaster Queenie: Allow rare monster ‘Queenie’ to open his gates to allow ticket owners to pass without issue from his tunnel that connects to the outside. Tickets may be purchased from Queenie as well. 25 DP

Create a performance stage to allow Maestro of the first floor to appear in this space. His job will become ‘Co-Ringmaster’, able to promote shows, create music and capture the audience’s attention. His form will be hidden behind a screen for the sake of the audience. 25 DP

When a show is happening, Promote Renny to Ringmaster. His class will change and he will gain new abilities until the show ends. The more successful the circus is the more power Renny will have overall. 30 DP

Delta read these out and Renny gave her a long look. His features didn’t move but he held up a finger then no more.

“First option or one at a time so we can see how it goes?” she inquired. Renny motioned to the second option. Delta grinned, eager to see how this would turn out.

Dungeons could have deadly traps or godly monsters. Delta had a circus and thus, she won by default.

She purchased the skeleton crew.

There was a slight rumble and Delta looked around to see if she could see monsters forming or more likely, the skeletons would be considered critters, not true monsters. Then as if in unison, ten boney hands broke through the ground.

Renny walked over, hands splayed, as if commanding them to rise. Nearby, Maestro’s mushrooms began to tremble with a tune.

“Oh my God,” she whispered as the skeletons rose in various dirty articles of clown dress or loose leotards. They stood in a rough triangle formation and Renny flexed his fingers, like casting a fishing line. Each of the boned creatures began to stomp forward in time.

“Renny… the circus is supposed to make people happy and delighted… not have nightmares,” she cried as Renny marched his warriors forward, their firm movements in time with the beat. Renny waggled his finger.

“The mime is right. The circus is supposed to be unforgettable!” Maestro laughed with delight.

“What kind of people want to visit a circus of the dancing damned?!” She demanded aloud.

---

Von frowned as he recounted the coins. The Vampire banker was not happy. People coming to the town meant the easy job of counting money that never changed was now becoming a pain. He might need to make a ghoul for this soon.

All this Mana in the air was making him peckish but he had made an agreement with Mila. Von was good but Mila was… well…

Von didn’t like the word ‘fear’, it didn’t quite explain things.

‘Admired cautiously’ would be better suited. Still, a man had needs. Before when Mana was low, his powers barely needed food. Now? He was itchy.

He could fly to the capital and grab food but those knights were so bothersome. He tapped a finger on his chin. Durence was off limits. The capital was annoying. Von needed more than one’s average blood. The problem of being old enough to have been around before some mountains was that his body tended to need a bit more spice in his meals.

He opened a drawer and pulled out a contact book with addresses and dates.

“Regal… oh he was beheaded a few years back. Never understood why he loved cows. Lily vanished into the ocean after climate change, that she didn’t believe in, eroded her cliff, good riddance,” Von turned the page.

“Edmund is creepy and stalks teenage girls. Reported him ages ago. Roger would help but I don’t think I know where he is. Desiree was staked on her own dancer’s pole. Hamish got lost in a castle and then it collapsed. Morian went on vacation in the Abyss, lucky woman. Jolene was killed after she took someone’s man. I swear vampires are a dying breed,” he sighed.

He paused at a name.

“Sarah… now there’s a pity case I haven’t thought of in years. I wonder if she ever got those mirrors working. Her castle would be beyond the capital and in the woods. Well, it's either her or crazy vegan Victor. I don’t know how he turns trees into ghouls and I want no part of it,” he slammed the book shut.

Mr. Von got his hat, his coat, and his apprentice he had trapped in the basement to fight some rats.

“Master, they’re bigger than horses!” She screamed from below. He merely looked down at her.

“I still hear chittering. Kill at least two more and I’ll let you out,” he said kindly. He then went to make some calls.

---

103: Pop goes the Slime

Poppy turned a page.

“Gently!” came a deep growl from the book. Poppy turned the book around, and her blank expression met the cover of the book where an etched face made of symbols and ink glared at her.

“Tom, I can’t go any gentler. Waiting for a breeze to turn you is taking forever, nyeh,” Poppy sighed. The book floated up of its own accord and shut at the same time.

“Most people would pay a kingdom’s worth of blood and gold to peek at even one of my pages!” he thundered and then sniffed.

“Reduced to a child’s entertainment novel, how droll,” he sighed and flopped back onto the bed. Poppy wanted to remind the book that it had done nothing but waste away in a bookstore in the middle of nowhere for many years but then decided it wasn’t worth another lecture.

Tom, or ‘Tome of Eternity’, was a rather grouchy book at any given moment. Poppy sat on her bed and poked him.

“Then how do I read you?” she asked, trying to put some actual curiosity in her voice but she was due for a nap soon and couldn’t help the yawn.

“Magic! Powerful energies that would let me reveal secrets to the user of appropriate strength. I highly doubt you’ll have much luck,” Tom began with enough smugness to make Poppy’s classmate, Grim, look humble.

Oh, Poppy could try that, she really wanted to read Tom. She stimulated the feeling of being big… marking the highest score on the exam… winning the race with Deo… finding the best skipping stones.

Superiority. Power. No peer to be found.

Her mouth cracked slightly and she grinned with fangs as her eyes went black with slitty glowing yellow irises. The feeling of being queen of all monsters and pitiful ants.

She was a dragon with no equal. She slashed a hand and the book gave a yelp as it turned to its middle section and filled with words. Poppy slowly began to push herself back into a calm state. Endless white… no hint of anything but just sleep and peace.

She felt heat fade and her Mana popped like a soap bubble. She sniffed and eyed her curtains which had turned to cinders as her bed looked blackened.

Nyeh. She’d have to get a new one now.

“W-w-w-what the Dicksons and Poes! I demand a reasonable explanation for that!” Tom questioned, voice high like a small boy.

“I ate a dragon tail once. My Dad cooked it with a spicy herb from a volcano and it was nice,” she shrugged. She leaned in to read as Tom blustered and spluttered.

“Are you some blue mage? What kind of child gets access to those type of meals?!” he screeched but Poppy was too busy reading.

The pages were of powerful monsters. Almost like a bestiary, it spoke of where and how to find these fearsome beasts. Their abilities… what Poppy could gain from them.

“Pass,” she sighed and turned another page. Tom was mumbling to himself furiously.

The next few pages came in and it showed a human girl with a glare on her face. The page filled in as Poppy found herself disliking the girl for some reason she couldn’t quite understand.

“Beta. The monster that devours monsters. Given the ability of Purple Magic with complete… control,” Poppy said and she stared at the picture of the creature in human skin.

“Rather new addition if I am correct. Odd creature. Usually, these things are not so sudden. The Great King of Monsters usually takes time to release such unnatural things into the world,” Tom hummed.

Poppy drew a moustache on Beta’s face. Tom didn’t even notice.

“Who’s the king of monsters?” she asked as she added curls to the face hair.

“He is the physical agent of the Brother of old. I would surmise he was the first monster and one that appears when monsters are pushed too far. It has been a long time since he has appeared,” Tom admitted.

“You think a king would be kinda hard to miss,” Poppy pointed out. Tom huffed.

“The King of Monsters breaks down into Mana and is reborn when an imbalance is skewed too far in either manner!” Tom lectured. Poppy poked the book.

“Show me what he looks like now,” she poked harder. Tom huffed but his pages turned again.

“If he is even around. There is no promise that he- Oh, he is around,” Tom’s voice went odd.

Poppy stared at the page.

“That is not a king… that’s adorable,” she smiled softly.

---

An orange slime was rolling down a grassy hill, bubbling in cheer and delight. It came to a stop in a bush of wildflowers. The slime bubbled as they danced in the wind. It giggled as a bee buzzed at it.

It buzzed back, it’s body shaking like jello, and the bee flew off. Nonplussed, it hopped along the tall grass and hummed out a warbling off-note song. The path behind it burst slightly into beautiful flowers and grass as the imprinted Mana left behind soaked into the ground.

The little orange blob stopped as it stared up at a massive tree with dangling apples.

“Usually you’re a bit more fire and brimstone with lots of people screaming,” a voice came from very far away. The blob turned and tilted so hard that it fell over.

It gurgled and blew bubbles.

“True, the balance is sort of fine. I didn’t expect you to be born as a slime but you always were an odd duck. So what’s the plan, Danmulecus?” the father asked. The slime thought about it and thought hard.

It saw the weaving deaths of monsters and humans. The balance of sword against claw… it saw fire and blood. It saw where life should be stamped anew like a fire to a forest. To remove the old and give way to the new.

But…

It also saw something else.

A girl with a tie and bright eyes.

Laughter tempered by will.

It bubbled and began hopping again.

“I’m not sure what that means exactly. The closest Dungeon to ‘educate’ would be Yal and I don’t think he needs the- Actually, ignore that. You should totally do that,” Father instructed.

The slime bubbled cheerfully.

“In fact, according to your auntie, there is this group of people you should use as meatshields… well let’s call them helpers. You need to show them you are wise and totally not the end of all they know. See if you can lead them to De- Well, you know where to go!”

The little singing ball of slime made a comment.

“Getting feisty? Fine fine, you’re the king. If you wanna be called an ass, go for it,” the voice faded and the slime cheered in agreement.

Thus began the tale of Mule.

The little slime that could… do a lot of damage.

---

Brother hummed as he fished his hook out with nought to show for it.

“Did Sister say to mess with the Princess and Yal or to leave them alone at this crucial step of Dungeon/human-relationship understanding?” he mused. He shrugged and stretched.

“I’m sure it was whatever I did. I’m always sort of right!” he admitted.

---

Skeletons in colourful clothes and makeup was a little…

Distracting. Which Delta guessed was a point in their favour as performers! Red stars over empty eye sockets. Clown smiles with no lips. Leotards with no muscles to stretch them.

All of them doing the same routine of dancing.

It was like a work out video from hell that was in the bargain bin. Delta weakly applauded a couple doing knife juggling. One went too far and fell right into the empty ribcage where it rattled on the inside.

Well, Delta guessed workplace accidents would be pretty hard to come by.

Renny began to correct forms for movements, he snapped at a skeleton who tried to climb the highwire with furious clicking at the safety net still rolled up.

He pulled a confused skeleton out of a colour cannon that had remained unlit. Delta wasn’t sure she had done the mime any favours by unleashing these boneheads on him. But as she reached out, she blinked at the slight glow around Renny.

He radiated annoyance, as expected, but there was also excitement and… purpose. He felt busy for the first time in a long time. Delta hid a smile and went to get his food stand ready. Since people would be arriving en masse from the second tunnel entrance, it would be a good place for the food to be sold.

She spent the DP and from the ground rose metal counters with swinging door. Mass formed together to give rise to various jugs of coloured fruit juice and a quiet popcorn machine that was visible through the glass under the service counter. Behind, poster frames rose but only one had anything in it.

It showed the skeleton crew in a triangle pose, like cards stacked upon each other. There was a single line at the bottom.

‘The Circus run by the Skeleton Crew. Come tickle your funny bone!’

The food stand was to the right of the entrance and had red and green stripes everywhere it could manage. The cash register had a grinning skull atop it and the popcorn ad next to it was a little bit ominous.

‘Delta’s Popcorn: It’s to die for… or because of!’

“What is it even made of?” she asked aloud and nearly shrieked as Fera answered her. The goblin just appeared from under the counter like a damn ninja.

“What else? Mushrooms bits and unspeakable horrors,” the goblin grinned.

“Is it… going to kill people?” Delta had to ask. Fera’ slight hesitation was telling.

“Not a lot. Just the old or sickly,” she said calmly.

Delta glared at her and dragged her menu opened.

She scanned the menu and her finger found the option she was looking for.

“Upgrade! Upgrade!” she chanted urgently.

Upgrade popcorn to com-
Upgrade popcorn to go-
Upgrade Popcorn to gre-
Upgrade popcorn to Undef-

The popcorn in the glass window began to give off a bright golden glow. Delta blinked and the menu quickly said its message, as if panting to keep up.

Popcorn has been upgraded to Unknown Quality. Popcorn of this standard does not exist in the natural world. A bag is enough to change someone’s life.

Ethereal Popcorn is now for sale!

A local Food Deity gives this snack an 8/10!

Delta lifted her finger off the upgrade button and carefully closed the menu.

She closed her eyes.

“Nothing bad will come of this. I didn’t do anything weird or strange. It will all be okay,” she said in a calming tone. Fera snorted.

“You keep telling yourself that,” she said, snacking on the food and going a little glassy-eyed.

---

Poppy blinked as her father paced in his kitchen. He was wild-eyed and his fingers trailed over the many jars and tins he had collected over the years.

“Dad?” she asked and he spun, a scary gleam in his eyes.

“Poppy… it has happened. I sense it! A powerful rival has created food beyond compare in its field. Tell your mother I shall be… busy,” he instructed as he clapped his hands, lighting the four stovetops in the room at once.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Poppy closed the door and yawned.

“Dad is such a weirdo,” she told Tom who was stuck under her arm.

“According to my pages, that man is the fabled 'Demonic Che-'” Tom almost squealed before Poppy cracked him open.

“Show me something cool,” she said and settled into a good armchair.

“Oh, you- Fine! Let’s see… How about the tale of Silver? The Fallen Dungeon?” he offered, a tall spire of silver forming on the blank page.

“Sounds depressing… anything happy?” she asked and she looked at the photo on the wall that showed her friends… Amanstar and Deo.

How it made her feel… not as blank.

“Hm, well let’s see… Ah, how about the tale of ‘Black Witch that fell in love’?” he asked. Poppy thought about it and then nodded.

“Once in a dark forest where only evil and cruelty could grow… there once was a witch of thorns…”

Poppy settled in and listened as Tom indulged her.

“One day, she fought the Knight of Glutton and was badly injured. That was when a man who had gotten lost by following a robin found her. She growled ‘End me or you shall be dead very soon!’” Tom said in horrible voice acting.

“The man then said with no fear ‘I cannot die twice for you already have taken my heart from my chest with your enchanting looks.’” the story went on and Poppy wondered what kind of dysfunctional couple this was.

Tom went on about the Witch guarding some Dungeon and the man nearly dying for her but Poppy drifted off to sleep before long.

Tom didn’t seem to notice at all.

---

“Thank you, Ruli,” Mr Dabberghast beamed as Ruli handed him the cut flowers with a glower.

“No problem. How’s the family?” she asked and Mr Dabberghast looked even merrier.

“You know Holly, absolutely mad over her garden now that the Mana levels let her grow some uh…interesting things!” he flushed. He hummed as the sound of childish fighting erupted above.

“The kids are kids. My eldest is currently floating between being a tree or a person. Teenagers!” he laughed and Ruli gave him an odd look but wasn’t sure she was equipped to handle that line of conversation.

“Trees are pretty uh… tall!” she said weakly and Mr Dabberghast nodded and leaned in.

“I’m sorry to bother you, I know you’re busy but you wouldn’t happen to know any talking trees? My eldest is nervous and Holly is taking a very teacher-like approach but I’m a softy and wouldn’t mind trying to get her support,” he asked quietly to make sure his wife didn’t hear.

“Well, there is one in Delta’s joint but-” Ruli was cut off as Mr Dabberghast’s face lit up.

“Really? Oh, that’s fantastic. I need to go tell my daughter!” He said excitedly and shut the door.

Ruli still had her hand up in protest.

“She’s kind of a nutjob!” She said in a defeated voice.

She paused and then scowled.

“That damn orange bird. Nutjob? She’s a murder tree and I’m making puns,” she sighed.

“I hate quests,” she turned and walked off. Delta was good to people. She would control the demon tree.

Ruli wanted a drink and she wanted it now but… her mother would know if she skipped on the other tasks before Ruli even made it 10 feet towards the pub.

She wished she had a way to do the tasks and drink…

“HI MISS RULI!” came the voice of a boy that could be told to do anything. Ruli smiled and slowly turned to Deo.

“Ah… my little helper!” she beamed. She leaned in.

“How would you like to borrow an epic sword for some mighty questing?” she asked and Magma began to steam in protest.

“Shut it and I’ll get you cheese later,” she hissed and the sword went quiet again.

“I WOULD LOVE TO HELP! I’LL GET ALL MY FRIENDS TO HELP AS WELL!” Deo said, red hair bouncing and smile turned up to eleven.

Perfect, it was like bribing one minion and getting three more for free!

“Deo, your heart is too pure for its own goo- for the good of mankind,” Ruli said solemnly.

Well, she was half-demon. Her nature had to kick in some time outside of battle. Taking advantage of the innocent was just one of those ways.
---

Delta carefully stepped back inside as Fera seemed to vanish into a trapdoor that… took her back up the first floor? Delta tried to peer inside and a space that had been twisted to be almost backwards stared back in tears.

She didn’t know what else to do so she threw some popcorn into the darkness and willed the trapdoor shut just before a distant burp echoed into the darkness between floors.

Renny finally had some of the skeletons doing some basic routines and Delta had to admit… the ghoul was good at it.

The skeletons didn’t speak and neither did Renny. It was… really… really quiet in the tent beside the clatter of bone and Renny’s finger-snapping. It was bad enough the visuals were hard to look at, the sound didn’t have to be so spooky.

She flushed some DP on Maestro and waited for the shaking or the earth splitting apart of maybe even Maestro rising from the shadows in his new… form.

But instead, Delta watched as a thin paper barrier was lowered from the ceiling on unseen ropes and pulleys. Then a shadow of a door open on the far side as lights lit up and gave of the clear profile of Maestro climbing to a small platform. His insect-like limbs and barely visible chittering mouth made Delta’s neck hair stand up in goosebumps.

“Did someone call for a romance to the ears? I, the forever dashing star, have answered the call but it’s so sad for the children in shows to come! I am behind a paper wall! If they wish to see my full gloriousness, they’ll just have to find me properly!” He laughed, and tooting horns sounded out with jingling bells.

Renny walked over and vanished behind the screen before his form stopped for a moment and Maestro’s purr of a voice sounded out.

“Even the cool soul of Renny can’t stop admiring my elegance now. Now now, we have a job to do!” Maestro leaned down to Renny. The Mime nodded jerkily and staggered back out from the screen towards Delta.

“I warned you,” she said blankly.

Renny just stood there as Maestro made haunting pipe organs breathe and jump in beat like a heart monitor.

“This is Maestro!” He cackled and the strum of an electric guitar made the skeletons shuffle in unison.

“Come now, boys and girls of every age! Would you like to see something strange?!” Maestro’s voice went high and demonic with glee.

The skeleton’s eyes glowed a supernatural red as if the music gave them power. Two began to flip and land with unnatural grace. Another one landed on the shoulders of another before they were launched by a seesaw into a barrel.

Delta wished she could hug Renny and cover her eyes, but the scene, while making her shake… mesmerised her. Something about the antics and show captured her eyes. The horror of the performers turning their existence into art.

Delta saw Renny wanted to control them or direct them but they seemed more in tune with the music than his own commands.

Delta could fix that. She opened her menu and tapped him.

“I can make you ringleader… if you’d like?” she offered. She didn’t want to push the upgrade on the mime without his agreement. Renny pulled outside so they could have more space and silence to hear each other.

She repeated her question and Renny froze. The pale face turned slowly until he was staring fully at the memorial statue of his father that Delta had made for him.

Under the many glinting Starlight Mushrooms that acted like stars… the statue looked mysterious, if not gentle. He wandered over to it and stared up at the stylish moustache and excited eyes.

He touched the tophat grasped in the man’s left hand that was held to the side of the statue.

“I think he’d be happy to know you carried on his legacy but you shouldn’t feel trapped by it either,” Delta told him gently. The Mime turned to her and he closed his eyes.

Delta felt a small tug as the contract bond between them seemed to vibrate with his feelings.

Conflicted… hope… sadness… fear.

Delta saw Renny’s father in a memory. She looked out of Renny’s eyes as the much younger ghoul stared up at the man.

He was handsome and had a wicked gleam in his eyes that promised adventure and stories to tell for years to come. He smiled and put his top hat on Renny’s head and it nearly swallowed Renny’s head due to being too big.

“You are my son. Be it a ringmaster or a free soul. I shall be here,” he tapped Renny’s chest which radiated warmth through Renny. The ringmaster then picked his son up.

“Come! We must see the new Snake charmers! I heard that being half snake lets this woman dance like no other! Charms the tips out of the crowd no doubt…”

The memory was strong and Delta had to blink away sudden wetness in her eyes as Renny looked back at his father.

“He was a great man,” she said with little doubt. Renny nodded and then turned to her. He got down on one knee and did a one-arm bow at the same time.

His wide grin which revealed black gums and teeth stretched wide. It said as clear as day.

Do your worst.

“No take backs!” She laughed and hit the upgrade button.

The flash of light swallowed Renny and even the circus stopped its music for that moment. It seemed to breathe in as if scenting its new proper master. Delta squinted until the light finally faded away and she had to give a long whistle.

“Renny… you look like a showman,” she laughed in delight, clapping her hands. Renny rolled his new black tophat down his arm before he bounced it with his wrist on to his head. The cane he leaned on had a crystal mushroom adorned atop of it.

His dark red jacket was criss-crossed with orange buttons and string. His dark pants and shiny shoes made him look like he had stepped out of a ballroom. His face had the dark fibres that acted as hair for ghouls, trimmed and tidy into facial hair like his father.

The beady eyes remained and the grin Renny had now could pass as human if you ignored the sharklike rows that glinted in the low light. He stretched his arms and gave Delta his full smile and Delta twitched.

It was like a gaping maw of fangs and black flesh.

“Let the show begin!” He howled and the tent behind them erupted into light and music. His new temporary powerup already fading without a show to keep the Ring Leader persona going. Renny would be a Mime again soon.

Still, his voice was captivating and would draw anyone's attention.

Delta wished their customers luck. She also needed to get Nu to make some legal waivers for customers to sign because this was not going to go well.

She gave a good-natured sight.

At least Renny was happy. That was all that mattered to Delta.

104: Spring of the Soul

Delta left the deliriously happy Renny to whip his new performers into shape. She walked past a snoozing Wilhelm and back into the jungle in time to see tiny scampering Pygmy Mushrooms running by with the new popcorn in their hands.

She cleared her throat. The three little creatures froze and looked up at her with wide round eyes. Their masks turned to the side to allow them to better rub the popcorn against their faces.

“Are you lot causing trouble again?” She asked, voice intentionally blank. One squeaked and hopped a few times. The middle one squealed as well. Delta knew while they didn’t have mouths, they were able to sort of toot the air in their caps out compressed spaces to make noises. It was like passing gas but done conversationally.

“And you have no intention of luring poor folk off the path with the popcorn?” She asked as their words translated to her mind.

Be it cute farts or mind-numbing teeth-clicking horror… Delta could hold conversations with any of her monsters at this point.

The Pygmies explained how they wanted to collect the ‘golden balls of deep desire’ for the tribes and share it with their new friend. That raised alarm bells until they described ‘He of golden fibers and fire’.

Delta’s alarm bells turned into whistles of groans at the thought of Quiss interacting with her adorable little devils. These little guys were the biggest troublemakers in her Dungeon - and she had goblins!

But… the fact they were bonding with Quiss showed a remarkable improvement over their previous behavior. Delta guessed it paid to be firm with them at times. She let them go and they vanished into the distant underbrush with more singing of their caps.

How could something so cute cause so much trouble?

Delta honestly wasn’t sure she’d ever make something that would rival their cuteness and their penchant for mischief again.

---

Mule watched as the foaming murderous giant wolf bared its teeth at him. The Domain it had set up gave it power and minions to control like puppets. It had yet to form proper intelligence but Mule gurgled at it.

It was fluffy! Delta would have liked fluffy. He was picked up and flung about as the Master Wolf tried to rend him blob from blob. Mule waited until he was sure the creature was confused, and then formed two black eyes that blinked right into the wolf’s red eyes.

He gurgled.

No, this fluffy was no good. It had too many seeds in it. Another Domain gone wrong. That’s why Dungeons were so much better! Delta would have made a much cooler wolf that was nice. Mule’s orange body shifted and he left the happy piece of himself that Delta had created to be overtaken… protected by his true nature.

Something he hoped to slowly introduce to his Delta pool of Mana.

It was definitely odd to have two ‘selves’ but it was also a new experience. Mule didn't get to feel a lot of those.

The thought faded as a new emotion surged forward. His black beady eyes snapped open and a red slit cut its way down the black orbs.

The eye of a king stared at the beast holding him. His body turned red and grew, breaking the wolf’s fangs with sheer mass as it went.

Danmulecus rose and rose until he was a king once more.

Then he removed the small forest.

A few moments later, Mule chirped as he hopped out of the sizzling wasteland of heat and blackened trees. His shrinking form orange once more. He had a new goal now.

Find a fluffy.

One that was nice.

It was good to have goals!

---

Delta was glad the Pygmies were the worst of her troublesome creatures besides Wyin. While the tree woman seemed calmer, that bloodlust of hers seemed to bubble to the surface a lot.

She froze as her stores of Mana and DP sharply rose and Nu popped into existence.

What did you do? We just got energy from kills!

Delta gaped at him.

“I didn’t do anything! I only made supernatural popcorn and created the circus of the damned! I’m innocent!” She cried in her defense. Her Mana was pumped into making more random rocks and hanging vines with blossoming flowers nearby to make sure she didn’t get too close to the upper limit.

Mana Maxing sucked.

I’ll ask Sis… No wait I got an update. Sis said that it’s nothing to worry about. She said Brother sent someone to mop up some rogue Domains and had no use for their seeds himself as he had plenty of resources, so he donated it to our cause! This ‘Brother’ seems mighty efficient… Perhaps we can ask to swap siblings?

Nu was turned into a horrid shade of neon pink. He trilled in alarm.

I was jesting! Put down the glitter backdrop program!

Nu was spinning in panic and Delta didn’t do anything as he deserved it for taunting the System herself.

Nu was reverted to his preferred blue and he deflated, shrinking to a small window as if he had been scolded.

“You’re going to say something wrong to her one day and be forced to speak in rhymes for the rest of your days. Don’t mock or tease the powerful not-god children. They’re nice but they know how to get revenge,” she said.

Aren’t you knowledgeable about vengeful siblings?

“Well I did have a younger brother,” she beamed.

Nu’s screen went blank and Delta was about to ask if something was wrong. Her words died as her mind replayed her own words, so innocently spoken.

I have a younger brother. I have a younger brother. Young. Brother. Young. Brother. Brother. I had a brother.

Breathe… breathe… focus on my words.

Nu’s screen was right before her face and the light made the darkness at the side of her vision fade a little.

“Nu… I had- have a brother!” She gasped and her Dungeon suddenly felt too cramped. It was as if no matter which way she turned, she saw walls and no way out besides that white barrier at her entrance.

She struggled to breathe before she let her mind Dungeon a little. The detached version of her dungeon powers able to filter the chaos for a moment. She had no idea what had happened. Why was she suddenly remembering… things?!

She moved, not bothering with flying and instead commanded herself to the core room. Her pedestalled orange orb was where she had left it. The sea of orange looked the same until she glimpsed something.

A small mote of white. It seemed to swirl like a snowflake.

Frowning, she turned her Dungeon senses on her core. The sheer complexity of the sight was staggering. It was as if her Dungeon was flowing lines of numbers and perfectly structured motes of orange Mana.

Her Core was a white hole. It exploded out with waves of pulsing orange, a liquid so thick in this room that it made it hard to see her own hand in front of her face. It seeped into the wall where it was siphoned off to the countless processes needing the energy.

Delta’s Core was thousands of interwoven lattices of thin crystal and symbols. Each one pulsing in time to a rhythm, giving the overall core the appearance of something alive. A heart with the folds of the brain.

A shell to hold a being. The white snowflake bounced off a symbol and it seemed to jolt a single symbol on another layer. Delta felt like her head was pounding but she focused on that white mote. It was…

Renny. Her Mime. The mote was that scene he had shared over their bond. The scene of love and endless affection for his father. It had formed a physical aspect in Delta’s core for a moment and was breaking down every second it bounced about. The flakes jolted that lone symbol that looked like a sideways W but the ends were twisted.

She looked to that symbol and under the crackle of orange Mana, there was a faint hint of white, like the sea bed under the ocean. The flickering memories of a sibling rose from those.

Delta tried to grab the symbol or do something but she was utterly unable to affect her own core.

The memory was fading. While she would have the information of her brother, the memory linked to him would be buried once more and Delta couldn’t stop it. It was…

Painful.

Her mind buzzed and there was a soothing noise, like an echo of a voice on the wind. Delta snapped her head up as her Mana was weaved by someone unseen and the core began to open like a lotus flower.

The world felt very odd at that moment as the complex core was blooming before her eyes. Delta felt peaceful and serene as the being she now knew was Sis manipulated the runes, and the symbol she was after rose like an island to the outer surface of the core. It blazed white and then slowly orange.

The core resealed itself.

The memory was back and… it wasn’t fading! A window emerged at her side.

By reaching a high-level bond with the contract ‘Renny’. You were able to unlock a fraction of yourself. The System has been able to solidify the rising piece and reattach it safely to your core! This process must not be rushed or tinkered with. The loss of one symbol could create a chain reaction and cause rapid corruption.

“I don’t- I… Thank you! How did I do that?” Delta tried to hug the window. Sis had just helped her save her memory!

Nu took over, his blue shade appearing over the orange box.

You can unlock pieces of your memory by allowing powerful feelings or sensations or memories to be given to you. This is most easily done through Contracts. Normal monsters cannot give this to you as they lack any outside influence to cause pieces to stand out for now. The System has no reward-

“I don’t need them. Just having myself back… even slowly, is amazing. Thank you! To both of you!” Delta laughed and Nu looked lost on what to say in return.

“Here, let me show you!” She said with a wide bright smile. She used that weird pushing sensation of her Dungeon powers towards the menu and system.

The flash of a young boy… His features blurry and hard to see, appeared.

“I don’t want carrots so you can have them. You like them,” the boy said, lying through his teeth but trying to play it off as cool. Delta fell to the step leading to her core, laughing and crying. Her head hurt and her chest felt heavy but that lone memory…

Delta would never forget it.

He seems like a proud brat.

Delta snapped her head up and had to cover her mouth in a burst of delirious giggles. Nu went quiet for a moment.

Sis is happy for you. Her cooing and noises like a drowning fish make me assume she's crying like a sap. Hurrah… Wait, Sis would like to share something back.

Delta blinked oddly as her vision went dark and she found herself in a plane of flat darkness.

Up and down had no exact relation in this place. Delta watched as two… things moved ahead.

It was like a spiralling galaxy that turned on an endless axle, the end of the end, the beginning of all. Delta saw potential and destruction- The two shapes abruptly shifted to a small girl and a familiar smirking boy. The pressure on Delta’s mind eased off at the same time. Like the sight she had been looking at… should not have been seen directly.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The boy was Brother. Delta turned to the girl in the white simple cotton dress who was sniffing sadly. That had to be Sis!

“I won at guessing the number. You really have to stop picking 10,” the boy chided. The girl wiped at her eyes.

“It's the first two-digit figure! It’s cute…” she said sadly.

“Well, that means I get to create the next monster,” Bro announced and the blackness below Delta faded out to show the world below. A long beam of energy was surging up to the moon above in several long streams, emerging from the flat world below at several locations.

The two siblings were hovering somewhere between.

“I think a double-headed lion that shoots ice and fire could be awesome! Or maybe a snake with a head on its end instead of a tail… “ Bro rubbed his hands eagerly. He slowed his smile as Sis sniffed again.

He rolled his eyes, looked again, and grunted.

“Actually. I think. A. Rabbit. Would. Be. So. Cool.” he gritted his teeth, force each word out but Sis seemed rather obvious to the falseness and looked up with her little yellow eyes alight with joy.

“Me too! I wanna have a unicorn rabbit!” She pleaded. The name made Bro twitch as if he was tasting something vile.

“Horned Rabbit would be fine, I guess,” he said and they grasped each other’s hands as they began to shape a form.

Delta never got to see the end result as the vision ended.

“Bro is such a big brother,” she smiled and Nu shuddered, shaking off the last of Sis’s power. She must have used him to transmit the vision to Delta.

Are you going to sit and grin at yourself all day now, or do you have something else planned?

Her surly friend asked. Delta hummed as she thought about it.

“How’s the Third Floor? Any changes?” She inquired and Nu took a second to answer.

Some attempts at breaking your symbols but nothing of note yet. The empty space of the lab needs something added in, but that can wait until you’ve enjoyed your day off. The Gargoyles are standing guard as are two trolls, along with Jack. I have little fear of any trouble cropping up.

The news was pleasing.

“Let’s go see how the Hidden Jungle Garden is doing!” Delta decided and left her Core, humming and feeling like the world was bright and lovely once more.

---

Everything was horrible!

Shy-Nina filled another tankard as the deadly boss Sir Fran did his best to out-drink the smoking Cois. The fire goblin had been exploding the fortress room and came in boasting about how he was the true dangerous goblin in the Dungeon.

Fran was nearby and decided he couldn’t let that slide. So, for some reason only known to the goblins, they tried to drink each other under the table.

The problem was that they drank so fast, Shy-Nina had to rush back and forth like a rabbit to fetch the drinks, wash mugs and handle other orders as Lady Fera cooked and handled the other floors.

“Another!” Fran roared, face purple. His cute little pig friend snorted and gave off a massive passing of gas that made the dangerously evil-looking Billy, the ranger goblin, pass out in shock since he was right behind the pig.

Shy-Nina had long learned to use a rag as a mask to pass through the cloud and slammed more Ember Whisky down on the table. It was some concoction using actual ground fire crystal! That stuff was potent enough to kill a human if ingested! They would burn if they didn’t simply die from the poisoning!

She had no idea how Fera made it drinkable or smell of cherries. Honestly, both facts made Shy-Nina more afraid of the female goblin.

Between the forbidden Shroom Pop and a series of drinks that looked so much like failed potions… Shy-Nina hoped this bar wouldn’t get anything more dangerous to serve. It was playing havoc on her nerves.

She ran back and forth and stopped to give a deep sniff and a half-sob at her fate.

The room… went deathly silent.

The next thing she knew, she was in a chair and Fran was looking into her eyes, his purple cheeks at odds with his firm eyes.

“My lady, please forgive us. I had become too wrapped up in our game to see the harm we were doing,” he began and Cois opened his mouth with a smirk before Fran lightly pushed the back of his neck and made him bow hard enough that he bounced his nose off the floor.

“I… apologise. Now let go of me!” The fiery goblin hissed. Fran sighed.

“Making a Lady or fine Sir cry is something Mother would absolutely detest. I am to be better than that. Please, do allow me to cover you for a break. Madam Fera would not protest as you are legally entitled to an hour’s break in your shift,” Fran nodded seriously.

“I get breaks here?” Shy-Nina asked. All the goblins shared a look.

“We have legal rights?” Cois asked in more alarm as if dismayed by the news.

“Feel free to waive your own to continue your right to explode yourself,” Fran said dryly. This seemed to cheer up the fire-loving goblin greatly.

“I’m not sure if I should-” Shy-Nina began but Fran was already behind the bar.

“I have seen Fera do this many times! I am sure a boss of my skill can do this as well,” he began and then grabbed the bar wiper, some cleaning chemical and a bottle of burning shots called ‘Goblin Tears’.

“Surely the more types in one drink the better?” He mused, and the glass he had begun to fill with many types of drinks began hissing like an animal while it filled.

She had a bad feeling about this…

---

The garden had been busy.

Delta stared in awe at the sheer wall of life. She moved through it as bundles of flowers, plants with fruit and other things all flourished over the Mana vent. A vent that must reach Brother’s stolen eye somehow and leaked to the surface.

The garden took some excess Mana from you when you were overfilled after the Spider Queen to help out. It may be many days ahead of expectations.

Nu offered as he too took in the scene.

“Anything of note?” Delta asked and Nu went quiet for awhile as he sorted through the recent logs. Delta took the time to enjoy the scenery and move about.

Crossbreeds of many flowers. Some weakly magical but they’ve already begun to seed out in the jungle due to the bees. Some herbal remedies.

Numbing Tulip: A flower whose sap can numb skin on contact. Has medical uses.
Happy Sunflower Seeds: Seeds of a grown Happy Sunflower. Causes general good moods. Can be addicting if overused.
Dream Root: A root that causes drowsiness.
Energy Root: A rare root that grew inside out. Has the opposite effect of a Dream Root. May cause days of sleeplessness if overused.
Buttercup: Petals melt above room temperature into butter. Used to attract insects during Summer but it is oddly low in saturated fats or artificial flavourings for all those health nuts out there.
Delta Bloom-

She snapped her head at the box with excitement.

“I have a flower named after me?!” She beamed, her mood even brighter. She turned, looking for it despite the fact she had no idea what it was.

Delta Bloom: An orange poppy that smells of wet fungi. Infects other breeds of flowers causing mutations. If consumed or distilled in large quantities… it may do the same to beasts or people.

Delta froze, looking straight down at the small patch of orange buds that had no flowers growing around them within a foot radius.

“Bad mutations or cool ones like in the comics?” She asked with a small voice.

Unknown without test subjects. May I suggest poisoning a local water supply and observing the results?

“Nu!” She said with appall in her voice.

I’m just joking. The flowers seemed to mingle by pushing Mana into nearby lifeforms. It would take years of contact to cause any real change to a location. If consumed, a human’s body would purge it naturally if they didn’t keep drinking it. It would be the equivalent of rub on tattoos. Harmless.

Delta knew her luck was both too bad and too good for it to be ‘harmless’.

“How… harmless?” She pressed.

There’s only one way to find out.

He told her and Delta felt bad for a moment when she agreed. It was a little mean.

---

The question of who was the strongest Goblin on average and at base strength had been answered by the time Delta appeared in the bar. Fera threw Fran into the wall with a scowl. She marched over and dragged the terrified boss monster by his foot back to the center of the room.

“You wasted valuable drinks and mixtures! You wasted my personal mix! You created things I had to burn!” She yelled and Fran reached for Bacon for help but the pig was too busy trembling under a table to see his master’s fate.

Delta stared at the chaos as a shell-shocked Nina looked haunted by something she had seen and one side of the room looked like something had violently been burned into it. Trails of a crusty slime coated the stone.

Fera turned to Delta and huffed,

“You want a test subject? Fran just volunteered!” She growled, and the boss shot Delta a pleading look for help.

“Is Fran sure?” Delta asked after a moment. Fera nodded.

“He is. I’m sure he’d be eager to help out as compensation,” she said tightly, as her first floor boss monster nodded in defeat, not wanting to say anything that could draw attention to himself. Delta decided not to get in the middle of goblin politics.

She created some of the Delta Blooms which Fera took great delight in mixing with what little drinks she had left.

The result was a spicy orange drink that fizzed.

“Bottoms up, Fran,” she grinned darkly. Fran, never one to shy away from a challenge, took it and downed in one gulp.

“I didn’t even get a chance to look at it...” Delta said and was worried she about to see her first floor boss explode. Fran smacked his lips a few times.

“I don’t feel anything- uuughaaah,” he hacked suddenly and shuddered violently as his eyes began to bulge in surprise.

He grabbed his head in surprise and Delta was about to try and help him when Fran did exploded. With hair.

His bald head suddenly began to flow with long golden locks that waved and danced until it reached his lower back. The hair was the purest of gold and they moved in a wind that didn’t exist.

“My goblin just mega evolved into a Fabio Goblin!” Delta shrieked. Fran gingerly touched his head and followed the trail down.

“I think getting into my helmet will be a bother now,” he admitted. Fera was grinning like a loon.

“Fran the knight who swoons maidens hearts. Be sure to pluck a few for my cooking!” she cackled and Fran turned to Nina who was staring in wonder.

“I am sorry my own hair is now longer than yours. I mean no insult,” he said apologetically.

Delta needed a drink.

“N-none taken... it’s very pretty...” Nina said in a weird voice.

Delta decided she would just take shots instead.

105: Delta's Day Off

Fran didn’t keep the Fabio hair. It did fade as Nu promised, but oddly, the goblin actually seemed a little sad to see it go.

Nina left after a while as Fera deemed her first day ‘amusing’. Delta wished the girl luck as she headed off with a pouch of random herbs, mushrooms, and fruit as a day payment. Delta really needed some kind of official currency to work with…

She gave the first floor a quick check over, making sure Maestro was still peachy with his new form before she turned to her goblins.

Hob and Gob had been pretty much just gathering things but they seemed more bored than ever.

“New job for you two!” She grinned. The two siblings shared a look, then seemed eager.

“Grab some random things around the Dungeon and take them to Durence, see if you can sell them or trade things. Listen to Quiss or Ruli if you dunno what to do. You are to follow the law and not steal anything,” she instructed.

“Gobbos to become merchants?” Gob asked interested.

“Honest merchants,” Delta agreed.

“Not sure make a lot of money by being honest,” Hob admitted.

“Morally honest,” Delta amended.

“No ripping off poor humies, no selling slaves, and no drugs unless approved by local government,” Gob listed. Delta stared.

“We learn from Delta! Ideas come into head sometimes,” Hob beamed. Delta was glad she didn’t have to teach goblins how to be better humans than a lot of humans.

She focused and a slow formation of wheels came into existence.

“Give me a moment to get this right,” she said cheerfully.

“We want a sign as well for shop!” Hob yelled and Delta nearly added a Mobious strip to the cart instead of a wheel in surprise.

“Like what?” She asked.

The goblins shared a look.

---

Durence had seen a lot of things. It was the epicentre of weirdness, most residents would admit. There were warriors of great renown, wizards of many forbidden and bizarre arts, many monsters passing as human, and even things that didn’t bother trying.

Durence was weird.

So it was not everyday that people stopped in the street to stare at something.

“Come and see ‘Hob and Gob’s Bits and Bobs’! Fresh Dungeon loot without having to Dungeon! Come spend your humany items for great Dungeon treasure!” A small goblin yelled, waving an orange flag with a weird triangle on it.

A cart had been loaded out in glowing orange runes that blazed with the same triangle symbol. A large pile of mushrooms, flowers, jars of honey, and raw fish were on display. The cart itself had a sleeping duck on one side. It had a little sash that said ‘Security’.

There was a silence broken only by an excited yell of a child carrying many flowers of his own and being followed by a shell shocked girl in a cloud robe and an amused giant woman known as Ruli.

“DELTA’S FRIENDS! IT IS I, DEO! WELCOME TO MY HOME! I’M GLAD YOU FINALLY CAME TO VISIT!” The boy beamed and the goblins waved at him lazily.

“Yo, Delta sends regards and gives all previous good dungeon delvers 50% off on their first purchase,” the goblin with the flag greeted.

“Quiss is going to blow his lid when he sees this,” Ruli grinned at the duck. The people watching quickly shuffled off at those words. The local PeaceKeeper had a temper not many liked to encourage.

“I’ll take all your fish, what do you want for them?” Ruli asked the newcomers. They shared a look.

“One… thing of worth?” One of them offered weakly. Ruli pursed her lips.

“You’re gonna need help. Stay here and don’t sell anything. I’ll go grab Smalls and Happy,” she sighed. Deo looked up.

“WHO’S HAPPY?” He asked, still holding all of those flowers and items for Ruli.

At the name, all the nearby business shut their windows and closed their curtains. Ruli looked at the quiet street.

“Happy is the merchant of Death. He’s the kind of guy that turns family owned bakeries into multi-city monster factories of product,” she said dryly.

“HE SOUNDS HELPFUL!” Deo beamed once more.

“He just has some quirks that makes him a pain to get involved with but I owe Delta for the sweet as- I mean cool sword I have now,” Ruli said seriously.

“What kinda quirks? Our items need to be used more sooner than later! Brother Hob here thinks maybe two days max,” the other goblin announced.

“Happy tends to… be excitable about everything,” Ruli said with pained voice.

The goblins shared another long look but everything went quiet when Quiss turned the corner and froze.

The duck on the cart opened one red eye.

“You…” Quiss said with a heavy tone.

The duck stared right back.

---

“They’ll be fine. I mean Waddles is scary enough to handle most things and I’m sure my gobs will be perfect gentlemen,” Delta said to an unimpressed Fera.

“And I’m a dainty princess locked in a tower,” Fera said bluntly. Delta could give her that. Things would go wrong but if Delta was lucky it would go wrong in the best way possible.

“The Circus is on its way, the secret Garden is doing just fine, Maestro and Wyin got a shiny new update, I dunno what I should do next…” Delta mused.

“It’s your day off, why do anything?” Fran asked as he flicked his hair. He had drank another ‘Delta Surprise Shot’ as Fera had dubbed it. It was funny now, especially when his steed, Bacon had the same flowing locks on his own head.

Maybe because they were one unit, they shared the mutation?

“Like if there were any challengers, you’d turn them down because it was your day off?” Delta teased. Fran flicked his long locks with a smirk.

“A warrior’s work is never done,” he said casually.

Fera placed her hand on the counter and leaned in.

“How about giving ole Fera a tune up? I got three food areas to managed and only two hands. Maybe see what this girl can have to aid her, hm?” Delta’s bartender hummed. Delta nodded, blushing a little.

She had dumped a lot of work on her recently.

Delta focused on Fera and opened her specific menu.

It had a lot of options.

Fera: Room Guardian of Tavern. Manager of Food hall Kitchen. Manager of snack stand of Circus. Bartender. Cleaner. Head of Hiring. Goblin disciplinary committee.

That was just her titles! Delta gaped for a moment before she quickly checked the rest of the box.

Allow Fera’s dishes and pots to be enchanted to self work and clean when inside a kitchen and out of view of Outsiders. Gained from book discovered in Library. 10 DP

“Which one was that Nu?” She asked brightly.

‘The art of creating automatic killing swords and other sharp instruments’. The spell was adapted after some work, sadly, to fit much better in line for this work.

“Right… dark cult library. I shouldn’t expect romance novels or cheesy hero books,” she sighed. Nu blinked once.

More of those than you think. Oddly, Jack built an odd altar out of them with a crude drawing of someone’s mother in a bathrobe. I think it’s a woman but hard to tell with Jack’s art.

“We shouldn’t judge Jack’s religion. Anyway…” she said and went back to the impatient looking Fera’s box.

Allow Fera to hire (read as ‘force’) other goblin types to take on her job and gain half her skill for an hour. 20 DP

Any food or drink made by Fera rises in rank of quality up to a certain level. 15 DP

If in attack mode, all goblins in the same room give Fera a boost in power. Fera may gain abilities from each goblin. Fire from Cois or Brawling from Numb or even Fran’s boss powers. 40 DP

Allow Fera deep knowledge of coffee brewing using energy roots and other similar ingredients along with egg frying, perfect bacon and fish. 20 DP

Learn a rune from the delightful gentle soul that is Fera by summing up her being in an image. 5 DP

Delta was a little at a loss.

Fran was supposed to be her scariest goblin and Fera here was angling for super boss?!

She meekly purchased the enchanted helpers and the breakfast combo for now. Some help and coffee for Fera to brew for herself to make sure the goblin didn’t rebel for a pay raise and hold her core hostage with pure Fera rage.

“Can I learn a rune from you? I’m sure it won’t hurt!” Delta requested. Fera was already mixing things in a grinder.

“Sure, Ma, I can already hear dishes self cleaning and stew stirring on its own. Do whatever ya like. This goblin is one happy cookie!” Fera grinned. She met Delta’s eyes and Delta saw.

Under the gruff and scary layer… there was another tougher and crusty layer… but below that was a soul that truly loved Delta.

“Promise me you won’t go superboss and take over the Dungeon if people annoy you too much?” She asked and Fera crossed her arms.

“I make no such promise. I will try not to remove so many heads for my wall but that’s all I promise when it comes to idiots,” she said and went back to grinding coffee beans or something that looked like coffee beans.

Shrugging, Delta purchased the rune.

Fera flashed before her eyes and Delta seemed to meld into the Goblin for a moment.

Fera. Fera. Fera.

What was a ‘Fera’? Tough? Grouchy? Even maybe a little mean?

Fera disregarded all of those words and broke the nose of the one saying them. Fera was pure blunt self love and confidence in one’s own home. To be Fera, is to be proud. There is no greater insult to Fera than to look down on her work or insult her mother.

Fera’s heart was stone but inside were veins of love for her family. Golden rich and of the highest purity. But her love was her own treasure. It was not a bauble for others to admire or pluck. Fera’s love for her home was her very existence.

Food to be made, idiots to calm down, guests to assure…

Fera did these things with pride and ease because she was created as the hearth to warm this family.

She would burn those who would dare try to take them.

Delta snapped back into her own head in a daze as Nu gave her a nudge.

Rune created: Fera’s Light: A flickering rune that gives warmth and ease to those in range. If powered to the max, may cause a radius of intense light which will cook foes. Rune cost for basic light: 10 Mana.
Rune with full light ability: 50 Mana

“Fera is… she is a good goblin,” Delta finally said and one of Fera’s ears flicked but she said nothing to indicate she heard this.

Delta smiled to herself and floated off to ponder what she had felt, to gather her thoughts.

---

Cois sniffed as he eyed his empty glass.

“Ma is always doing weird things, right Fera?” He called and the goblin turned slightly at his call. Cois almost coughed as he saw a red rim to her eyes and a single tear to go with the runny nose.

“Are you cryin-” Cois said and he was pulled over the bar and out of sight as Fera knelt down.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“One word and I’ll throw you to the Pygmies as a cleaning rag,” she hissed, blowing her nose in a rag.

“Calm down! Jeez, what got your gobbo in a bunch?” He grumbled as he sat up.

“I saw her…” Fera said finally. At Cois’ confused look she rolled her eyes.

“Ma! She looked into me and I looked into her, and Cois?” She said and the use of his name freaked Cois out more than the crying.

“Ma is beautiful. So much light and heart… so much she keeps to herself for our sake,” Fera shook her head.

“She is a Dungeon Core. I bet she knows the secrets of the universe or things that’d break us. No big deal, we all know that,” Cois said with a shrug. Fera smacked him.

“Don’t be a dolt. Some things I saw-” she began and they both froze.

Nu floated above them.

Some things you saw are better kept to oneself. Delta has many problems and spreading them like gossip isn’t fair.

The tone was frosty. Nu was like the cold earth to the warmth of Delta’s sun. Hard and firm in his words but reassuring as a leader. Delta was the brightness that gave them life, however.

“No offence, Menu. Ma can decide that,” Fera said and Cois shot her a wide eyed look for answering back.

Today is Delta’s day off.

“Problems don’t take holidays. She’s constantly giving and giving and we don’t give back. So, be like the menu you are and keep to your own business. If I want to talk to my Ma, I will,” Fera said with a hard glint.

Delta allows much freedom in her Dungeon, but acting too far out of order may still have consequences.

“Again, Ma can decide that. You need to get it through your system that Ma doesn’t work like that. Consequences? Sure, but Ma is fair. So stop acting like you’re in charge,” Fera slammed her fist down on the bar and everyone went quiet.

Nu’s screen was blank for a long moment.

What makes you think I can’t be in charge of you?

The challenge was simple but Fera leaned in, unfazed.

“Because you waited until Ma left before speaking up. I think that says all it needs to, eh?” She said casually and turned to make coffee.

The box moved into view.

I’m just trying to help her.

“Isolating her is a stupid way to do it. You think Ma wouldn’t like to know people want her to open up? For the smartest thing around, you really suck at understanding Ma,” she snorted.

You and Wyin are becoming far too headstrong. It’s worrying.

“Ma makes family and people. That means you have to live with some family that pisses you off something fierce. Welcome to the family, Nu!” Fera said and walked away.

I would like to unadopt myself please.

“If we could, I’d do it to that idiot but alas we are stuck with each other,” Fera jabbed a finger at Cois who had his hand stuck in a glass mug.

My existence unravels to a meaningless pile of data strings every day here.

“Well knit yourself some big boy pants and get a grip. Ma is a home and you’re lucky to be here!” Fera announced. Goblins cheered at this.

“Nu?” Ma’s voice came from the tunnel.

“Go and enjoy being her assistant. You have the funniest job around,” Fera shooed the box off.

I do enjoy seeing her making physics and rules cry…

Nu pondered that as he vanished.

Fera was wondering when the beings that controlled her very existence had become so… emotional. It was a good look for Ma. Not so much for Nu.

---

The pools of honey around the Bee spire hive were… quickly becoming like a pond of a hundred flavours. With every new flower or herb that Delta grew, the bees seemed to figure out a way to convert them into sweet honey.

Watching bees snoozing like giant puppies was like a balm for Delta’s soul. Watching other giant bees zoom past on energy root infusion was worrying. She looked around but didn’t find a honey pool of Delta Blooms.

Her bees were quite enough without extra stingers or heads! Delta slowed and bit her lip.

She was very tempted to give a bee some Fabio hair… the sight would be worth the potential World-Destroying Bee she might create.

Really, one little super bee was no big deal right? If the world could have a Ruli and Quiss, surely Delta was allowed some scary things as well!

She giggled at the thought and floated to the hotsprings where a happy Rale and Giant were soaking in the steamy waters.

“Truly this has been a great day for frog-kind! Your strength is a pleasure to test!” Rale said cheerfully. Giant nodded slowly.

“I will win next time,” was all he said.

Luna moved about with her robes and delicate gestures. She offered drinks to the frogs and smiled as Giant submerged himself in shyness.

They all looked up at once as Delta approached. Rale stood merrily and Delta closed her eyes. Rale was humanoid enough that there were things she didn’t want to see. There was a smacking noise and a splash.

“Have some decency or be banned,” Luna chided the submerged Rale as he flailed before bowing her head to Delta.

“Heyo, Mumo!” She greeted, her ‘hostess’ attitude dropped to reveal the punk underneath.

“How goes it, froggos?” Delta waved back as she settled on the edge of the female side, her feet just maybe feeling some warmth.

“The mighty Giant and the Lord of the River, Rale, have clashed in a most wonderful tale-” her epic monster began before Luna cut him off.

“They hit each other until one of them fell down. It went on for ages,” she summed up.

Delta could see that happening.

“I think the roots and herbs I’ve been growing should be the things you need for your key duty,” Delta told the elegantly dressed frog. This got her a huge gasp of excitement and some hopping from the female frog.

“Oh! Is it death bloom? Petal of a thousand bites? Devil’s kiss?! Oh! Is it the essence of suffocating moon?!” Luna demanded with unnaturally bright eyes.

Delta’s long looked made her chuckle nervously.

“Root of nice hugs?” She tried.

“Nu must have had a hand in your creation,” Delta sighed good naturedly. She brought up the Hot Springs Menu to see what was available.

Hotsprings: Soak away your weary bones and money.

Allow a supply of various herbal oils for customers. These range from smelling nice to having a slightly increased muscle relaxant. 15 DP

Allow Luna to flash boil customers who attempt to harm other customers. 30 DP

Allow Luna to set an ambient string melody with the aid of Maestro. 10 DP

Enable the use of special mixture of dream root, energy root, Tears of Wyin and rich royal honey to create a spiritual sap that, when burned, creates a smoke that gives those who inhale it a vision of self discovery. Those who succeed will wake up with a key to the boss door. 30 DP

Add a jet bubble function! 15 DP

Allows Quee to sell Hot Spring tickets that opt customers out of monster trials and puts a limit on them moving up or down floors. Violence will cause the ticket to crumble and summon an escort to bring them back to the exit. The escort will be Pygmies under Luna’s control. 20 DP

Delta gave the list a long stare.

“Some of those are- you know what? I’m just going to roll with it,” Delta said aloud and her frogs all stared in silence.

I need to inform you that the Pygmies will be given little ninja outfits when summoned. Not sure why Sis thought you needed to know that?

Nu’s confused box appeared.

Delta purchased all of the things.

She had DP for days and Luna deserved… bubble jets and… body lotions, and just maybe some personal assassins, but Delta wasn’t quite sure on that last one. There was a slight rumble as a stand with various lotions and herbal mixes appeared and even some bath bombs.

Orange Tingle, Bee’s Knees, Maestro’s Lullaby and Fran’s Courage were but a few of the named products. A little door was carved out of a nearby boulder with a sign above it that said ‘employees only.’ It was only big enough for insects and Pygmies to use.

Delta was sure this had been a good idea. Most of her ideas were good.

---

Quee moved along the ceiling as more bundles of paper appeared. He sniffed it and it smelled… nice. Aunty Muffet told him he had a job now and she expected grandchildren within the next 100 years.

He flipped his growing hair out of his eyes and grunted.

Muffet gave sharp samba spins to him that translated to ‘don’t sass me, young man!’.

He gave a grunge shuffle which he knew came off as rude, but he still went back to his nest and slammed the webbing shut.

He put down the tickets and hoped he could sell some soon. Having a job besides guarding would be fun. He looked up at the rough sketch of a dancing skeleton with a mushroom cap. Something he had drawn himself!

It was signed by his hero.

Maestro. Quee was going to become a star just like him!

He hugged his webbed pillow close and rolled around on his bed at the idea of them dueting for Mum Delta to see. He giggled quietly and his face lit up in joy.

It would be… a dream come true!

---

They came with the setting of the sun.

Six shapes that descended into the bowels of the Dungeon.

Grim took the lead with a… grim expression.

“Remember, death or glory,” he said to his group. Poppy yawned.

“I gotta get back before curfew,” she disagreed. Amanstar held a bone staff and frowned behind his rimmed glasses.

“I have agreed to no such silly deal. It will be ‘success or go home’,” he corrected. Kemy looked around before she glanced back up at the tunnel where her guild waved cheerfully, promising to camp outside for her.

“SUCCESS AND/OR FRIENDSHIP! DEO IS HERE TO RULE WITH A GOLDEN HEART!” The air rippled and Grim’s eye twitched.

He turned to the last member.

“Vas, any remarks?” He asked through gritted teeth.

“I do not have a soul per se, so death is mostly temporary until my Master puts me back together. So I see no issue in your words,” Vas said camly.

Grim turned to the dark tunnel ahead.

“Glory or… friendship,” he said with no energy.

Team Holy Pot Hero, or whatever, was here.

Grim supposed if nothing else… he had a ranger to settle the score with. He licked his lips and his tongue tingled.

106: Delta the Darkest Dungeon

Delta had a hand to her mouth. Hiding a grin when no one could actually see her seemed silly, but in her own mind… Delta just didn’t like being rude.

Her aspiring raiding party was here at last. To be honest, they were exactly what Delta needed before taking on the rest of the Silence. The reminder that good and light existed, the innocence of children, the reason why Delta had developed the way she had, and the budding potential of life outside her Dungeon.

Oh, Grim was also there.

She wondered what to do as they talked about their strategy. She didn’t listen as that would be cheating, but she was happy to see Kemy still participating. The sight of Kemy and Deo together as friends made her giddy enough to float in bliss for a few moments.

Nu would be lurking on the lower floors or through the challenge windows. It reminded Delta to create more challenges for the second floor. The group spread out to examine the sign posts put up by Nu.

He had gotten… creative with his words recently.

“Killing is bad. If you need to learn morals from a dungeon sign, this won’t end well.”

“There are no traps in this Dungeon. Honest.”

“Mushrooms are sacred, please praise them for better luck in this Dungeon.”

“Remember, there is no ‘I’ in team so have no original thought and pretend you’re a Lemming.”

Yeah… Nu had only gotten more into his sign-making hobby over time. Delta wasn’t sure if she should be happy that he, too, was getting part of her Earth knowledge, but she decided it would make for some good inside jokes to enjoy down the line.

As usual, everyone began to drop more things into the tribute bowl.

“I DREW YOU A PICTURE OF RULI CATCHING A DRAGON AND THEN RIDING IT AFTER FIXING ITS WING! IT’S CALLED ‘HARVEY THE DRAGON’ AND RULI LOVES HIM!” Deo explained calmly as he placed the piece into bowl. Delta was going to frame the damn thing above the bar.

Kemy put in a few cupcakes.

“I bought these from the local cheese man. He’s nice, and I think either his cheese may be reaching forbidden levels in the kingdom, or he may be a highly wanted criminal who traumatised the king,” Kemy explained, sounding more faint as she went on. Grim snorted.

“Haldi is just a harmless guy. He made me cheesecake when I got ups- uh… too focused on my training on my 10th birthday. Nice, but he always seemed like he was far away until recently,” Grim said. Kemy hummed as she thought about it.

“If this area has only just gotten Mana back… powerful people would have faded to shells of themselves faster than plain average folk. Haldi might have just been suffering from Mana drain to keep the pressure off everyone and give you kids enough to grow,” she theorized as she smoothed down her cloudy robe.

Haldi… Delta wondered if he was like Quiss or Dabberghast. Delta wouldn’t mind meeting him at least. His cheese sounded magical!

“‘Kids’… you’re hardly more mature. You’re hanging out with us,” Grim reminded. Kemy blankly looked at the beaming Deo.

“Not of free will. I am no hostage but I am too scared to leave in case I upset him,” she mumbled.

“Lady, we’re all here because of that. Except Poppy. I think she actually likes him,” Grim admitted. Amanstar put in some holy water, Vas put in a vase, and Poppy finished by putting in a few old books. Grim eyed them for a moment, licking his tongue out, and Delta was surprised to see that it was bright orange.

She peered at it with her Dungeon sight.

Grim looked mostly normal except his tongue which had become filled with orange mana mixed with his own. Symbols impossible to see with the human eye danced across Grim’s tongue and Delta got a headache from just looking at them.

She had no doubt that a notification would have appeared if Sis hadn’t turned the menus off to prevent infection via Little Brother’s spores. Delta had been a Core long enough to guess that she lacked understanding or close enough bonds with Grim to fully understand the runes on his tongue.

“Oh no… what a shame. Grim is such a nice boy,” Delta grunted aloud.

At that moment, Mushy appeared in the tunnel with a pleased expression.

“Honoured guests. Welcome! Welcome! I see you are all eager to begin your ‘harsh raid’ into the dangerous Dungeon below,” he rumbled and his moustache twitched.

No one spoke but Deo was nodding with excitement as Poppy repeated the words. It seemed that the boy had trouble reading Mushy’s words without an actual mouth to read. That kinda sucked for Deo. Delta wanted to think about some way to help but Mushy noticed first.

He began to move one hand in a series of rotations and subtle finger flicking. It wasn’t sign language but some very mini-version of it.

Ah right, universal translator. If Deo had any sign with his parents… the Dungeon would know it.

“Being a Dungeon is kinda cheating in the most service-minded way possible,” she mumbled.

“I wonder if we can communicate with blind, deaf or mute people in various mixes? Like if a blind deaf mute girl came in… would I just telepathically connect to her or would we soul-speak? What are my limits?” Delta said as she eyed her own hands.

“I can pun in any language and no one can feign ignorance. I must abuse this,” she said seriously.

“Before we begin, some ground rules and then we can get on our way, yes?” Mushy looked around pleasantly.

“Mother would like you to only take on the first floor today and only spend some time on the second floor to adjust to the Mana to make sure there are no… incidents,” Mushy eyed Grim amused.

“Makes sense. Even I get sick if we go too deep too fast,” Kemy said shyly. Delta wanted to pinch her cheeks in awe and cooing noises.

“Second rule,” Mushy went on, ignoring the fuming Grim and smirking Amanstar.

“The bar is a rest zone and not a combat zone. Waddles’ room is empty for the moment so you can also rest there if you wish! Mother would like to also say that my adorable little brother’s room would also be a rest spot but cannot force that one. I dare say that it would be more healthy not to challenge Maestro,” Mushy chuckled. Kemy turned her head.

“Maestro?” Kemy echoed. Her eyes lit up for a moment.

“Was that the singing voice?” She asked, and Deo nodded to her.

“HE’S SOOO COOL! HE CAN MAKE MY MUM WANT TO SING!” He boasted.

“He is also a mushroom creature like yourself?” Amanstar asked politely. Deo’s smile faded a little.

“WELL… YOU COULD SAY HE’S LIKE MR. MUSHY.” He deflected. Poppy hugged a book to her chest and Delta felt something odd from it. Like a slight… nagging tug.

She was almost tempted to push them to Maestro, but she shouldn’t be trying to traumatize kids.

Mushy went on.

“All monsters within the Dungeon have been instructed to use the leastlest lethal force as possible-” he began and Grim narrowed his eyes.

“You’re treating us with kid gloves? I may need artifacts and tricks, but Deo is gonna blow them away. He’s as strong as he is sincere and annoying,” Grim demanded. Amanstar and Poppy looked at him blankly until he sighed..

“Poppy can either be scary or need a sled to get her anywhere, and Amanstar can call down holy wrath, but he’s wasting his skill by raising mouse skeletons because he’s ‘gothic’ or something,” Grim said in a grunt.

“Oh are you a necromancer?” Kemy blinked at Amanstar who was decked from head to toe in black with skull rings on his hands.

“Is that gonna be a problem with your Deity?” Amanstar asked slowly instead of answering. Kemy shook her head.

“I’m a follower of truth. As long as you’re honest about why you’re using them or where you get the bones, I’m dandy. My Goddess isn’t like a light god or a life goddess who freaks out at the sight of natural death being used. The ground eats the flesh, the bones nurture the soil, and the soul passes on. It is no more wicked than using a bone weapon or an organ transplantation or being a funeral director!” She beamed.

“Oh, that’s cool. I was sort of expecting a fight with priests when they started coming…” Amanstar went pink at Kemy’s words. She nodded as if sympathising.

“Many will try to demonise you but all you need to state is that your power with the dead isn’t even religious. It’s advanced calciumancy! Or if it is religious, it’s covered by the Kingdom’s ‘Equal Worship Act’ of recent years; as long as the religion does not harm, devour or enslave the living or harm the soul in any way, then it is not to be persecuted!” Kemy smiled again.

Oh, Delta needed to show Amanstar the circus if he liked skeletons!

“Religions sounds fun, but I cannot join one,” Vas said suddenly and everyone looked at him.

“I have no soul, and make a very poor follower,” he explained bluntly.

“I WILL ASK DELTA IF SHE CAN MAKE YOU A SOUL! SHE MAKES EVERYTHING IN HER HOME FEEL LIKE A PERSON!” Deo said cheerfully. Delta added ‘playing god and making a soul to please Deo’ to her list of things to do.

“Indeed! Mother is quite talented at accidently making wonderous things. You are free to fight at full power but please do not kill where you can avoid it. We shall respawn but it is unpleasant! For that matter, all Contract monsters will stay out of the fight, as they are costly to resummon,” Mushy went on.

“I’m not sure I can fight you now that you’ve been so kind… Dungeons just sort of try to kill me, but this place is so nice!” Kemy said suddenly. Mushy chuckled once more.

“I am to be your… ‘bench’ so to speak. If someone is injured or needs help. I shall carry your belongings and yourselves to a rest spot for first aid and treatment. I will not help you fight or complete puzzles, however,” he told her kindly.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

This seemed to relieve some tension in the room, but then Grim stepped up to the mushroom man.

“I remember you. You sold pots but looked different. I… listen-” Grim looked down, jaw twitching as he fought to keep speaking.

“I’m sorry… I tried to stab you and insulted your art. I treated you like a dumb animal and not a person. I was a bit of a grim first timer,” he said and then slapped his mouth closed. Deo blinked then began to laugh with joy. Kemy looked shocked at his words.

Delta? Delta was bent over slapping her knee.

“G…Grim firs-” she howled in hoots of laughter.

“No, listen! That’s my curse! It’s really… how would you say, a slip of the tongue!” He protested then looked furious with himself.

Delta hooted even harder.

Despite the fact that she might have done this to Grim, she actually found it hilarious form of punishment for the little brat.

Mushy leaned down and put a hand on Grim’s shoulder.

“I bear no ill will. I even found it very impressive on how far you went on your own with cunning and skill,” he praised. Grim took a long moment to answer.

“W… w-well of course, I didn’t plan for nothing! I’m just glad someone can appreciate it!” he shook off Mushy’s hand briskly.

“I ALWAYS APPRECIATE YOUR AMBUSH GAMES!” Deo said as he looked between Grim and Mushy.

“They’ve never worked! You can’t praise failure!” Grim turned, waving his hands.

“I think we should begin. Most of you have a curfew and I’m supposed to be chaperoning,” Kemy spoke up. Mushy bowed slightly and gestured to the dark tunnel, where the glow moss on the ceiling barely illuminated the path

“Deo, you are in front. Casters at back with Poppy at the rear, she can use her physical powers to act as a temp tank,” Grim spoke, voice turning deadly serious. Deo looked at him for a long time, his usual smile missing.

“I… FRONT DPS WARRIOR AM READY. I WILL LOOK FOR TRAPS,” Deo said with a serious nod. Grim stared at him for a long moment, then gulped grimly.

“Thank you… DPS,” he said ever so quietly. Shame Delta had absolute hearing in her Dungeon if she wanted.

They then took their first steps forward into the dark tunnel.

---

The court was eager.

A new game had been suggested to them by the Great Web Mother. A mock war! It was so exciting to turn in their fancy web wigs and instead be dressed to run around in crafted hooded web cloaks and sharpened little rocks they had convinced themselves were deadly assassin knives!

The Dungeon was always an exciting place but their court was rarely so involved. Given they were to attack and try to take down the invaders with their blunted weapons and light bites, it was something they had to make plans for.

The first important thing was their name.

They couldn’t be the Royal Court in these uniforms! They had totally the wrong regalia for such a task.

They were the shadows, the fangs of the night. They were the string that noosed the evil of the world, and no secrets could escape their eight eyes…

They were the Fantastic Agency: Notorious Grandiose Spyders!

They all made excited dances at this declaration since they were now a democracy in this guise. Votes for all!

---

Deo easily dodged the pop out sign he had grown used to in many attempts. Grim glared at it before striding forward and his head thunked against a sign that popped out of the ceiling.

“Confidence leads to arrogance- Nu” it read.

Deo liked Nu, he had a funny sense of humour. Turning the corner, with Grim waving his hands frantically in front of him to ward off any more funny signs, they came to an eerie sight of the room ahead covered in thin lines of web. The usual open passage now a maze of sticky web once more.

“Don’t set it on fire!” Kemy shouted in a hurried warning. Poppy eyed the passage.

“Could make it easier if we’re supposed to be trying,” she looked a little more alive but kept her voice blank. Amanster frowned as he held his hand out.

“I’m getting something… it feels really weird like the room is all connected by a life bond… like if they share health or a trap trigger. I don’t know,” he opened his eyes.

Deo liked that about Amanster, he could detect cool living things by trying. When they went looking for bugs or homework subjects, Amanster could always sense them so easily. It was actually how they became friends!

Amanster said he found Deo ‘blocked out the light’ by being a light of his own! Deo had always taken that as a compliment.

“If you burn the spiders down, a boss emerges and it has puppet like powers over everything,” Kemy said to them. Amanster nodded slowly.

“Sounds close to what I felt. You fought against that boss?” The boy asked, looking at Kemy impressed. The girl went pink as she fiddled with her earmuffs.

“Not exactly… we got punished and moved on,” she answered finally.

Grim approached the hall and a blue box appeared. Deo smiled at it, it was so cool to see Delta’s Dungeon doing awesome things.

It listed the ‘no touching the web challenge’ was available but if they wished for a legitimate challenge as requested then to ignore the web challenge try to conquer the room as ‘adventurers with a sword sized too big and a brain sized too small would do’.

“We’ll cut the web in front of the door, take down or deflect the threats, but don’t rush in. Spiders are masters of their own domain,” Grim said. Deo nodded while Kemy gave him an odd look.

“You know I am an adventurer… right?” She reminded.

Grim actually did wince a little but he swung his short sword down into the first layer of webs. Some snapped, some frayed, some clung to the sword, but the entire room vibrated like a fantastical piece of music. A room sized harp.

They waited and Amanster peered in.

“I don’t see any response-” he began but a little spider wearing a long flowing cloak of web latched on to his face, the cape had red thread sewn in to spell something.

The Crimson Tearstealer!

Deo stared in glee, his eyes glittering at the sight of a ninja spider!

It scuttled around as Poppy aimed her book, which actually talked in a warning not to use it as a weapon, and smashed it at the spider.

The thing was quick and all Amanster saw was a heavy tome flying towards him.

There was a loud crack as Amanster’s nose went crooked.

The spider fled back into the room, carrying one of Amanster’s eyelashes. Their death user stared up, eyes narrowed as he flicked his hands over his face. Deo knew noses didn’t have bone, but he watched as it corrected itself with another sharp crack.

“I suggest we smoke them out. It isn’t fire,” Amanster said ever so calmly, still laying on the floor.
“You know priest spells?” Kemy asked curiously. Poppy was holding the furious book at arms length as it went on about ‘powerful spells’ and ‘souls sold to him for a moment of his time’ as Amanster stood up.

“My Dad is a Saint. I was born sneezing blessings and causing my toys to ward off evil,” he explained and Grim stared.

“Why aren’t you in massive pain?” He demanded. Amanster looked right at him.

“The pain in my black soul is beyond measure, mere mortal wounds are lost to me,” he said gravely.

Deo thought about that then smiled. Gravely… he had to tell Delta that one later!

“He also knows how to use necromancy to deaden nerves for a small time… he’s just cheating,” Poppy told them bluntly.

“Poppy, stop ruining my goth.”

“Nyeh.”

---

“We’d be there already if it wasn’t for your creepy kid,” Zane complained. Perhal merely chewed on a dark root, her eyes glazing over as she walked, eyeing another village in the distance. So unaware of the dangerous knights passing so close by.

“We can’t all be born monsters, he’s gotten much faster,” the woman disagreed. They looked behind them at the boy trailing a limp bloody leg which was mending before their eyes.

“Even healing faster! I told you leaving that monster alive for him to fight was good practice!” Perhal giggled. Al’s face was blank as always but his eyes blazed at them.

You have gained regen skill level 10!

You have absorbed monster essence into System Core.

You have 10,459-

He ignored the rest. It didn’t matter.

It was getting so damn hard to get stronger. Why was the only decent quest to some backwater hick village? He glared at the lush green and monsters. Too strong for him to grind fast. He almost threw his glinting sword at a bouncing orange slime to feel stronger than something else, but refrained since it would make him seem…

Childish.

It eyed him for the longest moment and the System that judged vague danger threats gave him a simple message.

Death.

Alpha moved on as fast as his sprint would allow, even overtaking the two Royal guards.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Zane roared and began to run too.

“Oh bother… It was such a nice day,” Perhal sighed.

---

Mule bounced happily along. He had thought he felt Delta but the cold red aura of the weakling was lacking. It had no warmth or kindness. It was a human operating with a gutted Dungeon system. Sad.

Ah well, he’d find Delta eventually after he went to see Yal the Dungeon.

The quest for the fluffy things must be done! Delta’s good mood depended on it!

107: Love

Troublesome invaders. The mighty god-like Core knew she would have to make sure these mortal children learned the meaning of fear and darkness. Her monsters stood ready, fierce and focused only on destruction. Her deadly traps were so hidden, that even the Core knew she’d struggle to find them. Her obstacles were designed to crush all hope and dreams.

This Dungeon was deserving of the fearsome reputation it had gained.

The soul taker, the light-taker, the true evil made solid, the unending fall to madness… this dungeon was known far and wide as-

“-REALLY NICE!” Deo said as they prepared for their second assault. Delta blew out a sigh before she chuckled.

Yeah… she was no good at the whole ‘rawr hear Delta roar’ crap.

The group watched as Amenster clapped his hands and five little mouse skeletons flowed from his sleeve to rush into the room. Instantly, two of them were tackled by hood wearing spiders.

“Go!” Grim said and Kemy tapped Deo once, infusing him with a glowing aura.

“The truth will set you free!” She declared.

“I LIKE ALL COLOURS, PIE IS DELICIOUS, ALL DAYS ARE EQUALLY GOOD AS LONG AS YOU HAVE FUN!” Deo said and ran, the webs tried to catch him but the glow pulsed as Deo kept chanting. The threads simply slid off his form and fell to the floor uselessly.

Delta stared.

Fudge! Kemy working with Deo made her truth powers too OP!

He tapped the two spiders that were struggling with the mouse skeletons.

“DEO DESTINY TOUCH! YOU’RE DEAD BUT NOT REALLY!” He cheered and both spiders immediately rolled up and curled their legs. Deo didn’t actually need to prove his physical powers. It wasn’t like her spiders were hard as rocks. They were still squishy so it was fair that being able to touch them was considered a ‘kill’.

The glow on his body faded and he was jumped by a spider that dived into his loose shirt collar. The boy instantly began to contort in peels of laughter.

“DPS is being CC’d!” Grim yelled in a panic.

Poppy held up her talking book, looking ready to do her duty.

“I swear to the ancient faceless beings that made my pages, if you use me to swat bugs, I will- I… will retell you the history of socks!” The book cried out in alarm. It reminded Delta of Nu, stuffy and easily upset.

---

On the Third Floor, Nu paused in his efforts to plot a potential medical wing in the empty laboratory space. He sensed… Delta was sassing him. What cheek! He’d have to pop out of nowhere and scare her.

The sealed doors that led deeper shook a little. It seemed that they were picking up the pace on their side. It was nothing worth actually being worried about, not something he would want to ruin Delta’s fun with. She was so happy with Deo and his friends that everyone in the Dungeon was getting a little Delta high.

Happiness and pleased feelings that just came and went. It was like seasonal happiness. No known cure.

He turned to the Gargoyles. He had supplied Doctor with several rare herbs from the second floor. The keen mind with a hint of madness went to work, seeing what he could develop as opposed to Fera, the bar owner.

Without a proper lab, it would be limited, but as with all things… Nu knew that new upgrades blew the resource supply but if Fera could brew, and Devina was able to voodoo, then Doctor could develop ways to cure the flu. It was just a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It would cure the flu but Nu knew that it would also be used in a stew or cause the drink to moo.

He should be annoyed but honestly, it was fast becoming a fair trade-off.

Insane power, odd side-effects.

He watched as something exploded in a swirling dark vortex that caused Doctor to be thrown across the room.

Nu had… only given the monster some Delta Blooms and spa water.

---

There were only two spiders left. The room was devoid of webbing and Kemy couldn’t see the white spider, Muffet, anywhere.

The two hooded spiders stood against the group, looking ready for a fight.

“Surrender and let us pass,” Grim said seriously. They didn’t back down.

“You guys kinda squish in one hit. Deo sat on one of you and that was it,” Amenster pointed out. Deo was looking so distraught that Kemy had to hold him close with one arm. The poor boy felt truly terrible about the act.

They all knew logically the Spiders were immortal in a sense, but Deo didn’t seem to see that as an acceptable reason to not feel bad.

“Your powers alone are too weak!” Grim almost cackled. The boy was getting some serious enjoyment out of his ‘revenge’. Kemy could almost feel the walls of Delta glaring down on the boy.

She hadn’t known the Dungeon was even able to dislike someone.

The spiders shared a look before they hopped back to gain some space. Kemy stared, not sure what they were planning on doing.

Were they going to end themselves to bring Muffet? Kemy hoped not, they were rather cute with their hoods and it seemed a shame they would vanish.

Even if Muffet was sweet and gave Kemy her earmuffs.

Both spiders raised two single legs in opposite directions, facing them with steely eyes. They moved in a slight dance towards each other, their legs moving overhead.

“What are they doing?” Grim said, voice going almost afraid.

The spiders were within touching distance and they snapped their two legs back out before they brought the tips back into meet in a perfect mirror of each other.

There was a brief pause before the spider on the left, hopped, flipping to land upside down on the other, both spiders interlocking two legs with the other. The new combo had legs in every direction.

The spiders pushed off the ground with enough force to rocket to the ceiling but with their new form, they didn’t have to turn to catch themselves. They landed in a perfect crouch before pushing off again in an angled direction.

Kemy turned to follow, but barely caught a blur as it rocketed off again. She spun and lost sight of the spiders. Grim gave a startled scream as he was shot past multiple times, a cocoon of webs rapidly forming around him.

Poppy reached out with a clawed hand which looked like it belonged to a deep purple scaled creature.

Grim fell, freed. The spider combo flew towards her and she opened her book in a flash, her eyes glowing under her hood. The spiders, unable to stop their trajectory, landed in the middle of the book.

“DON’T YOU DA-”

There was a crunch.

The webs on the ceiling fluttered.

Kemy looked up slowly.

“She’s here,” she whispered in the sudden silence.

---

“Not even a special deal? My, Ruli was right to call on me,” a tall man mused. His body was so thin that his suit looked literally sharp. His head was covered in a large mess of curly black hair. His speech was muffled by a dazzling pink scarf that hid most of his face. He completed the ensemble with pitch black sunglasses that were designed for creatures with eyes much bigger than a person of Happy’s size should be wearing.

He leaned in, clasping his gloved hands together to peer at the items.

Hob thought he was a bit weird for a human, but then again, the man was a skeleton pretending to be a human so maybe Hob didn’t know what was weird for this town.

“Why you a skelly?” Gob peered. Happy laughed loudly.

“Oh no, my spinach-coloured friends. I am Ferry Happy. A business manager of several notable companies,” he promised. His wig went astray, but Happy fixed it.

“But… not breathing?” Gob pushed.

“I’m holding my breath in excitement!”

“No eyes behind glasses?”

“They’re off busy looking for good deals!”

“…No skin?”

“Losing money is no skin off my nose!”

“No nose!” Hob stated with his hands up in the air. Happy thought about that.

“Sticking it where it didn’t belong has gotten me in trouble before so it had to go,” he admitted cheerfully.

Oh, that made sense. Hob guessed the man knew what he was doing then.

“Glad to see the suit is still sharp even if your jokes aren’t.” A man sniffed as he appeared next to him.

“Ah, Smalls, your clothes always make me feel like I’m the life of the party,” Happy said, shaking the man’s hand. The well dressed man glared.

“Goblins, don’t be fooled. This… person has developed many successful businesses. He funds and is the owner of most Adventurer Branches, funds many top notch parties, runs a catering company for vampires, ents and bandits, and was a tri-founder of Fairplay before he sold his shares,” Smalls crossed his arms.

Hob didn’t know any of those words but it seemed impressive. Happy shrugged.

“I have a taste for making something out of a barebones ideas. Call it an itch I love to scratch,” Happy’s voice turned almost… husky.

“Yes, yes. You funded kings and owned the seas, bravo. You still annoy the living daylights out of almost everyone,” Smalls snapped and turned to the cart.

“I didn’t own seas. Most of them fall off the edge of the world and my heart would sink at the loss of profits,” Happy sighed dramatically.

“We gotta make prophets for Delta!” Gob said and Happy hummed.

“Seers would be an odd currency but I could see if I could predict a positive outcome of such a business…” Happy went quiet. Smalls and Hob shared a look.

There was a connection between them. Of suffering and headaches.

“Let’s get a stock count, then we’ll work on values of non-human traffic varieties,” Smalls said, looking like he would rather be somewhere else but the sight of their business hurt him in some way.

“Oh, this reminds me of the business I once ran that sold swords but each piece came separate. I thought it was a fun mix and match deal, but no one seemed to come back because trying to defend yourself with a sword guard didn’t seem to be working. It did tickle my funny bone, so it was worth it,” Happy announced.

Hob had no idea how this not-skelly man was so good at making money if he seemed to waste it on amusement. Wouldn’t he need lots of money or treasure to waste if he could do that?

---

Was Muffet… too much for the first room?

Delta didn’t think so, at first. But watching the party being moved around like dolls on strings, crashing into walls and each other was interesting.

Deo and Kemy were mostly contained in a simple swing but Grim was spun, twisted, slammed, dropped, crashed into and lifted more than Delta assumed was necessary. Amenster began to rot the webbing with a sickly green aura and Poppy just seemed to begin to become too hot to actually web so it wasn’t like Muffet’s powers were unbeatable.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Muffet landed in her fully powered Spidergeist form. She was strong, even in physical measures, so she easily swept Amenster off his feet, vanishing before Poppy could crash down in a steel-covered foot. Deo flexed and stretched, freeing himself to help.

Kemy was the one that looked the most uncertain.

Delta’s heart felt for the girl. She and Muffet had gotten along famously.

Finally, she began to grant some shields that repulsed Muffet when she tried to land on someone. Grim rolled and got one of Muffet’s legs with a swing of his sword. Deo went in with his own blade but the swing was so off-target that he got it stuck in the wall.

Muffet limped and Delta checked on her, a bit worried.

Muffet was in no real pain. While her monsters had basic sensations and the ability to feel a form of pain… it was mostly a guidance thing. Her monsters never felt anything beyond a dull pinch or ache, physically.

Except when other monsters of Delta did the damage; then it was like they shook the very Dungeon mana in their form making the pain life-like.

Delta was glad because she wasn’t sure she could do this if pain was a thing.

The only exceptions she had ever found to this was Fran and her contracts. The contracts because they were creatures once and Fran because…

Delta guessed it was because Fran himself wanted it to be fair.

Then again, Muffet didn’t have to reveal herself and her puppet strings could easily become nooses if she were so inclined. Muffet was making large obvious movement and letting her camouflage flicker at random moments. She was even coming down from the ceiling to allow Grim and Deo to get close.

If someone did come with the intent of trying to kill her or enjoy her monster’s suffering? Delta felt confident that they would find it tougher than expected. Maybe she could offer customized-difficulty runs?

Easy? No side bosses and minor threat. Normal, random chance of some events and room guardians? Even if they don’t go all out…

Then hard. Delta tried not to think about hard.

What Muffet was doing, Delta didn’t have to tell her to do. She was slowly making Kemy keep up with her webs and slight leg scratches she inflicted on others. A few times, she made a charge at Kemy and the girl was slowly becoming more likely to strike back or use a barrier that bounced Muffet back.

Delta pretended not to notice that Muffet dramatically rolled when she bounced off Kemy as if showing the others that Kemy’s power was stronger than it seemed.

Muffet shouldn’t be playing favourites but Delta wasn’t going to stop her.

It would be so hypocritical of her.

Eventually, Muffet went ‘down’ letting Deo’s blade sink in, making her form explode in orange Mana. The orange dust began to swirl and Delta raised a single brow as she felt Muffet’s loose ‘soul’ weaving the Mana together on her own.

A single item fell after Muffet was done.

A webbed cloak that was human sized. On the back it said ‘I beat Muffet and all I got was this cloak’.

There was a beat.

“There’s loot in this Dungeon?” Kemy said confused.

“I thought it was only puns…” Grim muttered. He looked utterly confused.

“I don’t even get that joke!” He yelled at his own tongue.

“WE SHOULD GO ALPHABETICALLY IN ORDER SO WE ALL GET A FAIR TURN AND WON’T FIGHT! UNLESS IT’S SOMETHING REALLY IMPORTANT THEN YOU CAN USE A ‘NEED’ VOTE!” Deo beamed at his group.

“Screw fair, I got dice and whoever rolls highest gets it,” Grim sniffed. He reached into his pocket and rolled them. They froze in mid-air. Even Delta was surprised.

Kemy’s eyes glowed.

“Faulty dice is dishonest,” she said and Grim blinked.

“They’re my ancestor’s lucky dice! He always won… with them,” he trailed off and then went red.

“Oh… okay. Those are getting burned,” he sighed. Delta felt bad.

Kemy smiled softly.

“Don’t worry. Mighty Dungeon Delta, we request your fair and just dice,” she called. Delta looked at her with utter bafflement.

“Uh, Kemy, sweetie… I’m not sure what you-” she began then began to feel like something was stuck in her nose. The Dungeon shook just a little.

Orange mana circled in the room, rapidly forming object. Delta sneezed and there was a flash.

“That’s not dice,” Amenster pointed out. It was floating screen with all their names. A word flashed.

Combat rating.

Kemy’s name began to grow a soft golden bar which outpaced the rest. Deo was red, Amenster was pale green, Poppy was blurple, Grim was orangey brown.

Grim’s bar was the smallest.

Another word appeared. Teamwork.

Kemy rose higher as did Deo. More words flashed and Delta stared.

She had… a perfectly logical and controlled system function as her random loot roller? And her normally safe and stable monster creation and upgrades were random instead?!

As the ratings flashed on, Grim did outpace Poppy as the System rated their ‘total effort given’ and then Amenster as the System judged them on ‘total potential used’. Grim nearly matched Deo.

The board flashed and turned a familiar blue.

Deo: Your big heart is only outsized by the headache you give.
Poppy: I swear you make entropy look active.
Amenster: Do something exciting for once. I keep forgetting your name.
Grimnoire: Have a snickers.
Helakemya: You did good for someone whose name sounds like a mountain far away.

Kemy wins the loot review. Any complaints should be given to the nearest Menu that cares. Hint: It’s not this one.

Delta gaped.

“Your name is Helakemya?” Amenster asked and the girl looked pained.

“Call me Kemy…” She whispered.

“IT’S A NICE NAME!” Deo said excitedly as the cloak floated to Kemy. Grim was looking at her with wide eyes. He looked… upset.

“Why are you called ‘Curse on our love’?” He said and the room went quiet. Delta frowned as the word translated slowly now that she focused on the board. The word was from an odd language that put the end of the meaning in the middle of the word or phrase with details following.

‘Hel’… was curse. ‘A’ was close to ‘on’ but the translation wasn’t perfect, it could be used in several ways to show ownership or direction of the subject so it was ‘on’ and ‘our’ depending where you used it. Kemy was… love.

Kemy was love.

Holy crap… Delta could translate things really well and so could Grim! His tongue must be some conduit for her translation power that Grim learned. Shame he hadn’t borrowed Delta’s tact…

“Because, those who are in the monastery of Truth are never lied to. I was given up because as an arranged marriage, my birth parents needed to present a first born male to command the family lines. Without one, they would be seen as shameful. I was shameful. So they named me in the ancient tongue of the truth goddess and left me with her worshippers. There was nothing more to it, but having been named, the followers of my home could never lie to me and say it wasn’t my name. They didn’t mean to be cruel, hence why they called me ‘Kemy,’” she said quietly.

“What? Why was that so important?” Amenstar blinked. Delta listened in.

“It’s like you and your Dad. Strong blood carries on power. Those with powerful or gifted parents often produce stronger children. A daughter meant I’d be married off and they would lose me to another family for maybe a small connection or piece of land, not worth it when Dungeons are the most fertile way of making money,” Kemy explained as she wrapped the cloak around herself, the thing flowing nicely with her white cloud robe.

Powerful people… children… passing on strength.

Oh god… Delta understood.

These families were trying to grow their spores by breeding with other strong people. The thing the Siblings were trying to fix!

And also, eww. Curse on their love? How about a blessing on their horrible souls? Kemy’s bio-parents were getting a strongly worded letter once Delta exploded reality and let mushrooms become all and one.

Also, Delta focused on Kemy and saw that while the girl glowed with truthly goodness and strong kind vibes, in her soul was a firm pulsating black spore. Every second, her orange mana flowed into it and took such an amount that a nanobot would have to squint to see.

That was gonna take forever to remove!

Delta tried to urge Mana in but she was told System was locked due to people in the Dungeon. Hm…

She knew the lost sibling made most life on the world and hence why everything had a piece, people more than anything, so how would she go about scraping it off people she liked?

Her mind wandered to an orange well she had recently gotten.

Delta knew that getting fresh mountain air was good for you… so maybe injecting it right into ones soul would work even better! She had to get Kemy down to the third floor if her body could stand it.

Delta paused.

Grim and the others lacked Mana and thus got overdosed. But why did normal people struggle? What if their spores grew stronger and let them fight off the invasive Mana trying to remove the Spore?

Could it be that letting Dungeon Mana damage the spore before going back outside to recover let it regenerate and grow stronger?

Was… was that why Dungeons developed lower and lower floors to keep people inside longer? To develop stronger Mana and longer duration to get their spores? Was that why people hit an apex or a ‘prime’ of their power?!

Delta was having a slight panic attack.

Wait… she had an idea!

She would just keep doing what she was doing! Like a vegas casino with no clocks or windows! Delta would make them stay longer because she wasn’t killing them, just emptying their evil god wallets, so to speak!

She went to speak with the quiet Mushy who lingered in the tunnel and only then noticed that Vas… hadn’t taken part at all but instead was delightfully sharing pottery tips with the regal mushroom.

Delta stared for a long moment.

Vas… she’d completely forgotten about him. The golem had been too busy just being as still as a tree or statue, speaking softly to Mushy.

She cleared her throat and Mushy repeated her words to the group.

“Delta says that there’s a free lunch for all of you at the bar! Please remember to hydrate and feast for an hour before moving on,” Mushy announced.

It was time to show this ‘lost brother’ what a real spore was.

108: Al Far will he go?

The first major choice in the Dungeon of Delta was not to be good or bad, to kill or to play along, or to even decide to see if the rumours were really true about the oddness of this place.

The first major choice all people ended up facing, providing they got past the Spider room, was simple in idea, but devastating in outcome.

The choice was left or right.

“Mushroom forest or singing nightmare?” Grim weighed up their options.

“How about the pond? We can plan,” Amenster offered, to which Deo rushed on with a fishing pole he extended from a tiny handle.

“I SHALL FEED US WHILE YOU PLAN! BRAINS NEED SMART FISH FOOD!” He said, basically deciding for the group. It wasn’t like anyone could say no now that he was looking away.

“Is… the duck inside?” Grim grimaced. Kemy frowned.

“Mr. Duck? He’s very nice, but I don’t think he’s home,” Kemy said sadly. Poppy looked around.

“Looks a bit different than last time I was here…” she mused, pulling her hood tight. The talking book was still making small sobbing noises.

“Spider guts! Spider guts all over the famous incantation for the Moonlight Stag summon spell… at this rate, one is more likely to summon a moonlighting stag do party!” he whimpered.

“It’ll come out once we leave the Dungeon… Poppy, where did you get a talking book? Is it… magical?” Grim asked, voice interested. Poppy gave him a withering glare.

“You aren’t allowed to hold Tom. I remember you eating my Manty the Manticore picture book… nyeh, Poppy never forgets…” she said.

“We were five! Besides… I thought it was going to let me turn into a manticore,” Grim said with a sigh.

“Eat me and I will use your blood to form a new spell called ‘Banish Blithering Buffoon under the light of the red moon’. You know it’s deadly if it rhymes,” Tom the book warned darkly.

“How about we sit and plan? Deo is already working,” Amenster offered. Vas hummed and he went to sit next to Deo to watch him at work as a flash of silver rippled near the surface of the pond. A large golden fish taunted Deo from the far side as it breached the surface.

Deo gave a yank and a large rock flew out of the pond, landing behind him. Deo just cast his line again cheerfully.

“I’LL GET YOU!” He laughed at the teasing fish who seemed to be as excited as Deo at the prospect of fishing.

Kemy waited until Grim pulled out his map.

“Very good detail, you have a hand for cartography,” she said, impressed at the detail and notes made by Grim. The boy just blinked, looking confused.

“It’s just a basic map with ideas and potential areas for change. Most maps are good for Dungeons but Delta’s Dungeon changes in ways I’m not sure anyone can predict. The spiders have… five to eight gimmicks alone. For a first room, that’s insane,” Grim shrugged.

“You haven’t met most Dungeon Map makers. Fairplay enchant their maps to auto feed information back to their ‘key map,’ and so if people discover new areas, it’s freely, forcefully, given to the company. By the time people have enough confidence to make their own, any lucky hidden room found by greenhorns is taken away. Unofficial Makers sell portions or single floor maps that have expiry seals. Some are downright basic unless you pay a premium for a map that shows traps and secret passages. This is all even if the makers put enough effort in for more than squiggles. If people come here, don’t be afraid to market your skills. Even I can see that your drawings are really good and these notes are very easy to understand,” Kemy smiled. Grim still looked baffled.

“Why would I force people to pay to look at my maps? Sure, for Delta it’s fine but any other dungeon is dangerous. I could be sending people to die because I tried to make a few coins by haggling on showing them where the traps are. Dungeons are stupidly dangerous!” Grim protested, outraged. He huffed once.

“It’s… not what adventuring is about. It’s about rare items and glory. I can’t do that if my maps are soaked in blood,” he said with a mutter.

He shot Deo a look, the boy still having his back turned to them.

“That’s not what we promised and I don’t betray promises. Now, do we want to try the secret passage, facing the demon mouse, or do you want to go into the Forest via the Mudroom?” He said, his tone making sure the subject was changed.

There was a pause before they all began to plot.

---

In the dark tunnel, a golden fish was having the time of its life as it gently lured the human boy’s hook down the space.

The hook was so blunt and capped with a weird spongy thing that it would never catch anything! The fish wasn’t sure if the boy knew how to fish… really, it was a bit cute. It gently let the hook be pulled through the tunnel. It breached the surface not far away and had to flop a little to get the hook into place. Being a Dungeon creature, breathing was possible in both land and water, but it was cheating so it mentally counted to 30 before it would ‘play dead’.

Still, it was enough time to get the hook into place and tug slightly. The line began to reel in and the fish followed with glee.

---

“So it’s settled! We’ll try to challenge the secret boss,” Grim announced. Deo was grunting as he yanked hard on the fishing rod, something was resisting even with his enhanced strength. With a mighty explosion of the water, a giant purple clam soared out out of the Pond and landed some distance away.

“That… wasn’t in the lake,” Vas stood up curiously. Deo puffed and panted but cheered.

“I CLAM THE TREASURE!” He hooted. Kemy gave a small giggle at the joke. The clam slowly opened itself to reveal…

Grim made a small noise.

“Is that loot?” Amenster blinked. Piles of coins, small gems, hardened amber, some fancy looking piles of water crystals, and some hunks of metal, and a string of pearls glimmered at them.

“I’m as happy as a clam,” Grim sniffed and ran over. Kemy raised her hand, but Amenster put it down for her.

“Sometimes, you have to let nature take its course,” he soothed, one of his eyes pulsing a sickly green for a moment as he shook his head at the clam.

“I feel kinship with this thing. It holds value inside, its outside is a deceptively normal thing. It has become a chest of the sea… I feel pride in my fellow container,” Vas bowed in respect.

“GRIM CAN HAVE IT. I’LL GET THE FISH! GRIM DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHING TO EAT BEFORE COMING DOWN SINCE HE WAS SO EXCITED!” Deo smiled and turned away. Grim was lifting coins with a hard look, smiling at the crystals. He saw a big ruby at the back and he leaned in to pick it up.

Then the clam snapped down, eating Grim as the boy’s legs began to kick wildly in panic in the air.

His voice went so high pitched that Poppy snorted.

“I dare say I know a clam opening spell, but usually it’s reserved for fancy parties and oysters. I doubt it will work since this clam seems to have swallowed a pest,” Tom said dryly. Kemy stood up with a chiding look.

“We must rescue our teammates immediately, not just when we feel like it,” she reminded them and went over to the clam, unsure of what to do for a moment.

“Mr. Clam? May I have him back?” She asked. The giant shell shook, making Grim saying something better left muffled. Kemy thought about it before she saw there were two googly fake eyes on top which rattled comedically.

“Is he worth… this?” She tried, holding out a coin. The clam shook again. Kemy doubled her offer.

The clam visibly began to vibrate but still shook in disagreement.

Kemy went for the kill and pulled out… a third coin. The Clam spat Grim out like a nasty snack and a long tongue extended out in eager motions, like a weird… dog sort of. Kemy paid the price for Grim, which she thought was rather cheap. The clam swallowed the coins, the tongue rolling back like a carpet, and shook as if mixing them in with its treasures. After a moment, a slip appeared between the two pressed shells. Kemy pulled it in confusion and read it.

“Fortress Pass for one?” She read. Grim was staring at the ceiling, looking covered in a thin layer of clam slime. He also held a pass.

“One free drink at Fera’s bar?” He croaked.

“What a treasure!” Amenster said to Poppy who hid a smile.

There were splashes and Deo gave a cry as all the fish in the pond, besides the gold and silver fish, somehow got ‘tangled’ on his line at once.

“I DID IT!” He said to Grim.

“Why is it always me?” Grim asked no one.

“I am to tell you, young man, that the clam’s slime has high use in alchemy. Also, the pass is for any one drink, not just a common drink. You may think on its value later,” Mushy helped Grim to his feet.

“Any recommendations?” Grim asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Try the ‘Delta Surprise Shot’. I heard the results can be hairy but interesting,” Mushy smiled kindly by twitching his moustache.

“What are these passes for? My team never made it past the Grove place,” Kemy asked.

“To get rest and a drink, one must first pass goblins. Even playing lightly, goblins do not play nice,” Mushy warned then pointed to her pass.

“These are passes which show you accept the goblins’ mercy and they shall let you pass,” he added.

“How bad can a goblin room be?” Poppy mused. Grim turned to her, face serious.

“Deadly… there’s three and one… Billy,” Grim said with a fierce expression.

“New enemy?” Poppy asked, almost expecting the answer.

“No… not exactly. He’s this goblin who uses tools and special arrows. He was good; I wanna see if I can take him on one day when I get my own gear going,” Grim mused.

“Billy has… how would one say? Gotten a makeover? You might find him to be a challenge, more so than normal,” Mushy warned before he covered his face.

“Ah… I shouldn’t have said that. I’m letting things slip,” he grumbled. He then winked at Grim.

“I have a feeling he is looking forward to your return as well,” he said to the serious faced young man.

“Poppy, Amenster? You take Cois. Deo and Vas can take Numb… me and Kemy will get Billy,” Grim looked around, seeing if there were any objections.

“I have a pass,” Kemy reminded.

“Besides, have you gotten the memo? There’s like 3 different ways to do everything in this place that don’t involve fighting. You gotta adapt.” Amenster said as Deo handed him a cooked fish from the campfire he had started.

“GRIM! I BET YOU CAN OUTSMART THE GOBLINS AND THEY WON’T EVEN KNOW IT! YOU’RE THE SMARTEST GUY AROUND,” Deo said with no hint of doubt. Grim stared at him before he swallowed audibly and looked away sharply.

“Yet I keep messing up… so it’s not worth much,” he said, frustrated, and Deo actually frowned. The redhead walked over and gently turned Grim’s head so he was looking at him.

“NO HIDING YOUR WORDS. YOU SAID YOU’D NEVER HIDE THEM. YOU’VE BEEN FURTHER THAN ANYONE HERE… I…” he cleared his throat and everyone went still as Deo spoke as softly as he could.

“I believe in you. You never looked down on me or thought I was… stupid. That’s why you’ll get us through… even when the other kids were scared of me. You weren’t because you said my strength was like a hero… SO THAT MAKES YOU A HERO TO SEE HEROES! I HAVE NO FEAR!” Deo grinned and Grim blinked once very slowly.

“You almost went ten seconds without yelling. I guess if you can do that then I can get us through this Dungeon,” Grim snorted, and gently pushed Deo’s hands off his shoulder.

“Stop touching me, you got fish slime on your hands and I’m already clammy,” He huffed, and eyed the fish.

“Bah, dumb fish,” he grumbled.

---

The Mudroom honestly hadn’t changed too much besides the fact the platforms had seemed to have shifted position, making what Grim knew to be the correct path from before look wrong.

He simply went back, got a few rocks from Pondroom and threw them to see which shook and which didn’t. He went first to make sure nothing was going to appear.

As he touched the first one and waited to observe the room, slow moving poles emerged from the wall from both sides of the Mudroom, blunt poles intent on pushing Grim off the platform. He jumped to the next and the poles froze for a few seconds before continuing.

Grim touched the other side and the poles sank back into the wall.

Honestly, it was the least dangerous thing in Delta’s Dungeon so far. Grim had a feeling it wouldn’t stay that way for much longer. When his group joined him (after having to stop Vas from diving into the mud in curiosity) they waited at their new challenge.

“The Mushroom Forest…” Kemy whispered and her voice was tinged with something odd. Grim gave her a look and she spotted it. Kemy smiled weakly.

“It’s… fine. Last time, we messed up here and caused more damage than was acceptable,” she bowed her head. Grim wanted to ask for details, but he held his tongue.

“Why are you holding your tongue?” Poppy asked, sounding like the answer wasn’t something she actually wanted to know.

Grim blinked as his own fingers were holding his orange tongue. He released it slowly.

“A bad… joke,” he said between gritted teeth.

Deo and Grim took the lead, but before they got too far, a pop-up window appeared. Grim watched it appear and wondered how useful something like that would be for himself. Something to tell him how skilled he was or his vital strengths?

It would be like a life secretary on magic steroids.

Hello Ducklings.

The screen was a dark blue and wasn’t static. It moved slightly side to side. Didn’t some of the challenge boxes act oddly last time? Grim struggled to remember themexactly.

“HELLO!” Deo said back calmly. Kemy bowed as Poppy merely nodded. Amenster didn’t move and Vas was hugging some large mushroom stalk.

Tom, the weirdo book, began to flap.

“Excuse me! A Dungeon should not be able to communicate with so few levels. This could be a trap! Poppy, burn it!” The book sniffed with disdain. The box turned to it.

A talking book is even weirder. Do not throw stones in your glass manor. Besides, you know nothing about this Dungeon or Delta. A shame, I would love to learn what you do know, but I fear we don’t really accept junk tributes if we can help it.

Grim held back his comment, enjoying the sound of the rude book spluttering in an offended manner.

“How dare you! You insolent piece of programming. I know things that would make your snooty little screen corners curl. A shabby thing like you could never hold up to my paper. Mana screens… pah! Nothing will replace the power of paper!” Tom shot back.

The sound of the obsolete is so sad. Imagine having to be carried from room to room by hands to be of use… Imagine needing to have someone turn your pages for information. I dare say I have never seen something so… quaint.

Grim wasn’t sure where the pride waving thing had come from but both book and screen were now up in arms… well, as best they could be since they had none.

“Uh, we’re here on an adventure?” Kemy called out softly. Both Tom and the screen turned to Kemy.

Right…

“Of course, this is beneath me,” Tom huffed. Deo looked a little lost. Which was expected because while the screen had words, Tom did not have such means of talking. He was all sounds.

Grim would tell him their words later. He knew Deo would never ask himself in fear of being a pain.

Which was in itself a pain, but Grim had gotten used to Deo. Always happy to help, slow to be helped.

It was annoying.

Right, so this is a challenge I added myself. I am Nu, trapmaster, darkness of this Dungeon, hater of puns, the blue to orange, the calm to chaos, and signmaker.

“What’s the challenge? I thought beforehand the challenges were to be ignored for the sake of a ‘pure’ run?” Amenster asked lightly.

The challenges that were about avoiding fighting were to be ignored. This one is not like that. Should you choose to accept, an enemy will be allowed access to the Grove to add a flavour of challenge…

A new window appeared.

Bow to the Arrow: A stalker among shadows will appear and pepper you with traps and tricks to slow you down. Pin this shadowy trickster down and earn an extra reward.

Grim’s eyes went wide.

Arrow… could it be?

“Same rules, I guess? No lethal stuff or…” Amenster went on. Grim’s heart began to beat faster.

Of course, but safe doesn’t mean painless. After all, people do silly things for a thrill.

Amenster looked around. Grim could see him weighing up everyone’s opinions.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Last time we were here, we kinda got chased by spiders so it was a bit chaotic. What do you guys think? Take it on, or not?” He posed the question as if he were too unconcerned to answer it himself.

“Is the room guardian still able to interrupt us?” Kemy asked Nu.

Of course, but do try to avoid repeating your last attempt. Boary is a lazy thing, but even he’ll get worked up if you set him on fire…

Everyone turned to give Kemy an odd look. The girl did her best to sink into her cloudy robes collar.

“Wa…n…ac…dent,” she mumbled through the material.

“LET’S DO IT! IF WE FAIL THE CHALLENGE THEN WE JUST MOVE ON ANYWAY! FAILING THE CHALLENGE ISN’T THE END!” Deo proclaimed, beaming brightly.

“Deo makes loud sense. Better to try and fail than not try at all,” Grim nodded.

“If Deo wants to, I’ll help,” Poppy said, voice just a bit warmer than before. Grim would’ve used her crush on Deo to rope her into more groups but honestly? Blackmail didn’t make success in a team. It made Grim end up in some trap when he was defenceless.

Bribery, never blackmail. That was Grim’s motto.

“I’ll help! I’m here to give support!” Kemy agreed. Vas looked over.

“I can help…” he hummed. Grim would like to see that. So far, the golem had been spacy and hanging with the silent Mushy who followed them like a security guard.

“As a necromancer, I should be going against the sheep mentality and be an individual, but as a friend I don’t mind helping out as long as you all accept my silently rebellious attitude towards groups,” Amenster nodded seriously.

“I, DEO, FORCE YOU INTO OUR GROUP FOR MUTUAL BENEFIT!” Deo pointed out. Amenster sighed deeply as if in great conflict before he shot Deo a grin.

“Thank you for understanding my antisocial behavior,” he bowed a little. Grim decided they were all weirdos and it was a good thing they had him in command, a logical and calm leader.

“Let’s accept the challenge to fight an assassin in an environment we can’t control along with a guardian lurking in the room for the chance at some unknown reward!” Grim said with a grin.

“Y-yay!” Kemy tried to cheer, but her voice cracked a little.

The waiting box vibrated.

Good luck, little ducklings.

Then Nu vanished.

The Grove seemed to… shift. Shadows shifted, extending and deepening in their darkness. The ceiling went from the illuminated to almost misty. Cheerful mushrooms that grew high above suddenly loomed a little.

The lights from the ceiling moss vanished and the glowing mushrooms that looked like stars in the room grew stronger but almost more focused, like wispy ghosts in the mist.

“Looks like my room.” Amenster said conversationally before he amended himself.

“Minus the mushrooms,” he corrected.

Grim stepped forward.

“Don’t let your guard down. If the pig doesn’t ram us, the archer is waiting… Deo front and center. You slow down or distract where you can. Amenster and Kemy, back him up with buffs and control spells. Poppy, if I draw fire, we’ll lure them within range so you can take them down. Abandon this plan if one side is overwhelmed or we simply begin to lose. Delta gave us this chance so we better act like this is a proper skirmish within the rules. It’s better to run away and try again than die for nothing,” Grim drew a dagger from his side.

“So serious,” Amenster grinned before he wiggled his hands. From some pouches around his belt, white dust flowed and surrounded Grim until it formed rough white armour. Grim touched the helmet with horns as it settled on his head.

“Is this…” he hesitated.

“It’s dust mixed with chalk. Dead skin is dead,” Amenster shrugged, already turning to cast the same spell on Deo.

“How are you controlling the chalk?” Kemy blinked. Amenster gave her a smile.

“What’s chalk made of? I’ll give you a hint… it’s similar to bone,” he hummed. Grim had to admit… he hadn’t thought Amenster was so crafty.

Skeletons, zombies, and all that rot (he pinched himself for the bad pun) he expected but dead skin and chalk? That was… impressive.

“Anything else you wanna surprise us with?” Kemy inquired. Vas tilted his head as he listened.

“…I never have to sweep my room?” Amenster said slowly.

“He can heal bone breaks and some flesh wounds if he wants,” Poppy said bored.

“I won’t stand for such rude accusations thrown at me or my vile arts. I would never heal,” the necromancer promised but then hesitated.

“But do tell me if you hurt yourself,” he added quickly.

Grim snorted and stepped in line with Deo as they faced the misty Grove. His dagger flashed as Deo readied his sword. He briefly felt the support near behind him.

“The truth will protect us and free us…” Kemy said, her hands glowing. Poppy let Tom float in the air as her hands slowly extended into claws.

“I guess I can try a little,” she stated. Amenster chuckled and it sounded darker than usual.

“I’d love to see how my arts measure up to a Dungeon like this,” he said lightly.

“LET’S HAVE FUN!” Deo ordered without looking back, missing the total vibe going on. Grim shook his head.

“Let’s get some epic loot,” he told the group, taking a step forward.

---

Mila, Haldi, and Pic stood before the gate of Durance that lead inland.

“Well… isn’t this lovely,” Pic grunted at the sight of the three figures approaching as the last of the sun’s rays finally vanished.

He raised his hand in time to stop a blade that seemed to almost blur into existence. Pic eyed it with annoyance. The mad-eyed loon holding it leaned in.

“So it’s true… the boogiemen live,” Zane grinned with glee. Pic leaned down and snapped the blade in two with a single snap of his teeth. He crunched it as the Royal Knight backed off a step, discarding the sword without a look.

“Tastes like crap, standards have really gone down in the last few years over there, eh?” Pic said between bites of grinded metal that sparked and crunched. The other two walked calmly up and Haldi spat on the ground.

“Well, if it isn’t something that stinks worse than the foulest of mold cheese…” he grunted to Mila who twirled an arrow without taking her beautiful eyes off Perharl, the jolly plump looking knight who eyed them with what could be seen as kindness, but with enough idea of who she was they saw it for what it really was…

Excitement. Bloodlust.

“Mila Darknessbane, Haldi the Vile, and Pic the Devourer. I can’t believe we get such a warm welcome!” The woman giggled.

“Give me a minute and I’ll get my ex-husband here, I’m sure he knows some warm places you belong in,” Mila said coolly. Parhal frowned and made a show of counting slowly.

“Oh, speaking of exes. One little criminal, two little criminals, and three little criminals… I swear there used to be more of you!” Parhal said in mock-confusion.

The woman grinned as Mila appeared at her neck, a wicked dagger drawn.

“Say his name… just say it and I will cut you and your cowardly king down to chunks for my daughter to use as fish bait. Do carry on, Perhal the Glutton, Perhal the Cannibal, Perhal the World Eater, Perhal the Pig,” Mila pushed the knife and Perhal’s kindly manner vanished and something closer to a leering wolf eye appeared.

“My apologies, I did not intend to insult the dead,” Parhal smiled. Mila turned and her knife vanished.

The last one was looking at them with slightly wide eyes. Haldi eyed him.

“Who’s the greensprout?” He asked, not bothering to show off his stuff. He saw how neither Perhal or Zane looked directly at him.

“Al, introduce yourself,” Parhal said like a patient mother.

“I am Al, Alpha, I am an apprentice of Perhal,” he said blandly and his brown hair looked average and brown eyes struggled to meet Haldi’s own.

“A good lad, I thought I would bring him here to remind him of the scary things in the world that can still eat him,” Perhal licked her lips.

“I’m surprised you haven’t. Did you find an orphanage on the road to act as a snack?” Mila asked bored.

Then, Mila’s smile turned wicked like her dagger.

“Oh… I forgot. The king’s little pets aren’t allowed to break the law… Tut tut, that’s too bad. You must be just dying to take a bite out something,” Mila shrugged one shoulder.

“The things people do because they can’t read the fine print,” she smiled at Pic who grinned back.

Zane and Perhal narrowed their eyes.

But before they could respond, a feeling of intense pressure settled on them all. The earth groaned, trees and plants began to twist in anger, birds began to trill in fury, rats appeared with rage in their features, and insects by the dozens flowed from their hiding spots.

Mila turned to see Holly Dabberghast walking down the street, her usual motherly aura replaced by a sickly green glow, utter hatred and blackness filled her eyes.

Perhal’s features went sour for the first time.

“So… this is where she went,” she sighed. Black brambles rose up and began to cover Perhal’s legs, wicked thorns digging deep, but not breaking skin, despite their effort. Perhal put on the most pleasant smile she could manage.

“Hello, Holly. I haven’t seen you since I ate your family and home!” Perhal waved cheerfully.

A large dragon made of wood and snarling roots covered in thorns broke through the ground and swallowed Perhal whole. The child was nearly swallowed, but Haldi had him by his side within a second, a cheese double torn to pieces by the switch.

The dragon was lone and serpentine, lithe like a growing great tree. Zane yawned and walked past.

“I’m going for a drink,” he said casually, ignoring the scene. Haldi frowned since he didn’t even bother taking Al.

“It’s okay, they just have some history to sort out. Your master is a bit of a …” Haldi trailed off, not really wanting to upset the child.

“Monster,” Alpha provided.

“Well, yes. But Holly is no saint herself. Perhal was the last resort and things got out of hand…” Haldi sighed. The dragon trembled before it cracked in the middle and a sap covered Perhal chewed her way out with gusto.

“Can’t you do something? She’s basically ripping off your style?” Mila asked Pic.

“I chew, she eats. Totally different,” he argued.

“Come now, let me get you a room while Mila stops them. I dare say things will be tense for a while,” Haldi ushered on Alpha, who put up no resistance.

“Won’t they die?” Alpha asked, not sounding worried but merely interested.

“No, Holly grows, Perhal consumes. Holly bleeds her and Perhal heals. Holly has the world on her side and Perhal eats the world. It’s a nasty cycle, but they both know how this ends,” Haldi said, trying his best to appear harmless.

“…This Holly should level. It would be better for all involved,” Alpha finally concluded.

“I’m not sure she can ‘level’. She’s pretty experienced,” Haldi mused.

“I can show her grinding strategies. Perhaps she merely needs some tips?” He shrugged.

“Perhal is useful, but I think she is rapidly becoming more trouble than she is worth at this point,” he finished quietly.

“You get some bonus for working with her? Extra pay or…” Haldi asked curiously.

“…She gives the best rewards, besides a few,” Alpha said finally.

“You don’t mind me asking?” Haldi made sure, not wanting to upset some poor kid.

“No. Dialogue options are normal. As a faction opposed to Perhal, you wish to gauge my affection rating with her. I can tell you it is a business relationship of using and being used. I am open to better offers if I find some,” Alpha stated plainly.

Haldi eyed the kid for a moment.

“You’re too serious. Loosen up and have fun. Come on, I’ll show you around. Maybe you can find some better offers. No one deserves Perhal,” he said kindly. Alpha eyed him dubiously.

“What… do you want?” He asked. Haldi blinked.

“Nothing. You’re new, a decent kid so far, and eager to get away from Perhal. Let me show you around to save you time,” Haldi said again.

Alpha stopped.

“You must want something in return. Ask and I will do it,” Alpha said and Haldi itched his nose.

“Uh… eat this cheese and tour with me?” He tried. Alpha actually furrowed his brow.

“You cannot reward me and then reward me again. I need a task that you need doing and I’ll do it for a reward,” he explained to Haldi.

“I just wanna help, kid,” Haldi promised.

“Everyone wants something. It is the nature of people. Everyone wants something from me,” Alpha said with absolute conviction in his voice.

“Why can’t people want to help you?” Haldi tried. Alpha looked around as if trying to pull the answer from the air.

“I… can’t allow people to go with me or help me. I go wherever I am told. These places are not safe and even if you are~ Haldi the Vile, I must grow in my own strength or I am pointless. So, give me a task or please direct me to someone who will,” Alpha said again.

“That’s… sad, kid. Who told you that?” Haldi frowned seriously.

“I am Alpha. I am the first stage, I’m the… practise run. I have to keep being useful. It’s just how I work,” Alpha shrugged and turned to look for people.

Alpha looked at a certain space, fingers touching something before he pulled his fingers back.

“Visit each public building in Durence and report to me their names,” Haldi said quietly and the boy sagged with relief.

“…Thank you.”

The pair set off as a giant wooden dragon exploded with some four armed purple skinned warrior doing her best to devour it.

---

Sis rubbed her face, as best she could. She leaned back in her chair as her four screens hovered before her. Two were yellowish, showing middling progress. The fourth was blazing green in full steam mode. Delta always working hard.

The first screen was red.

She eyed the pings and messages left in Alpha’s inbox. It was reaching truly obscene numbers. The boy was simply not opening the ‘letters’ she sent. At first, she thought he was ignoring Sis, but she had seen the box open and the boy staring at them as they appeared.

Sis was worried.

Alpha was afraid of them. From the potential of something Sis would say? It was bizarre. He opened EXP notifications and similar prompts but direct input was skipped.

Alpha’s menu was the bog-standard interface and information giver. Nothing like Nu. Hardly anything was like Nu. But from the signs she got and some data Sis peeked at to try and figure out what was wrong…

Sis was beginning to think Alpha was thinking Sis would fire him.

It was so weird.

But without a direct contact, Sis couldn’t force the four to obey or force them to listen. She herself had programmed the systems to avoid that. Sis was sane now, but all it took was one day of impatience and Sis might try to direct things herself and the slope would only end in sadness.

That was not what this project was about.

It left Sis in a bit of a conundrum since Bro was set on not updating the four about each other. Brother rarely set himself on a stubborn path.

So, Sis knew he would never tell one of them about the rest. Brother was respectful of the rules like that.

Ahh, she never felt so useless! Sis would never want Alpha to fear them. Sis had only tried her best to make them safe and ready… but to think she caused such terror in one of her charges.

Sis… felt like a failure.

“Wow… you’re a bit dramatic,” Nu said as he sat nearby in a blue-hued human form. He looked closer to late teens than the childish form from before.

“So, Alpha is kinda blocking you and you’re not allowed to tell Delta… neat,” Nu smiled. Sis froze.

“H-how long have you been there?” She whispered. Nu hummed.

“Oh, ya know… long enough. I got to go and… do stuff. You know… menu things that I’ve sort of jailbroken, but am still happy to do. Toodles,” Nu waved over his shoulder.

Sis looked over her shoulder carefully before she quietly fistpumped the air.

“Yes!” She whispered.

Delta’s Deltaness had Delta’d a loophole for Delta to cause more Delta-y things!

Sis was so shocked… surely she had no idea when a being entered her dimension. Let alone hear her thoughts and worries.

Sis was so shocked.

She giggled nervously.

This wasn’t breaking the rules, but she still felt kinda excited to be making trouble for once, instead of Brother!

Brother is going to be so impressed that Sis ‘manipulated’ someone.

--

109: Quickies and Squidies

Alpha.

Delta sat down heavily.

Alpha was in Durance.

Listen, before you start rolling out the red carpet, just remember we don’t know anything about him. He’s ignoring Sis, so something’s up. Don’t… just be careful.

Delta sat on the second floor, near the waterfall, just nodding slowly.

“But… what if he’s been looking for me or one of us? I made a home here with you and my friends, Alpha… he sounds alone,” Delta tried to explain her wild state of mind.

And we have no idea if that’s for a good reason or not.

Delta blew out a sigh. Damn it, she just wanted to rush out and talk to the guy. He… he would come to her Dungeon, hopefully. Once he heard her name, Delta knew he wouldn’t be able to resist.

Delta certainly couldn’t have!

What if he was cooler than her? Oh, what if he knew so much more and Delta looked like a dolt? What if Alpha thought Delta was a letdown?

“I’m going to talk to him, because lonely or not, Alpha is family in a way. We have to communicate because we could risk him running into the Silence unprepared. Maybe he’s alone because people keep thinking something’s wrong with him!” Delta protested.

A friendly chat is fine. Inviting him to your core room or giving away your secrets upon first meeting him, not so fine.

Nu made sense. He seemed to be grumpy about the whole thing.

“You worried his menu is cooler than you too?” she asked sympathetic. Nu went still.

…I have no issues with my existence. I shall go to the third floor and continue watching for problems and looking into ideas. Plans set in motion are best kept an eye on. Please contact me at your leisure, Dungeon Core.

Nu vanished and Delta was left blinking.

That was blunt even for Nu. Delta hoped Alpha’s menu sucked, Nu could really use the confidence boost. Alpha coming here would only do two things: it would make their differences clear, and it would show how much Alpha had progressed in his power compared to Delta.

Nu wouldn’t really care for anything else.

Nu blinked back. He looked purple as if red in the face. It was weird for a screen.

I can’t do this. I’m not one for drawn out stupid drama. Listen, I have issues with Alpha because I’m…concerned I- the Dungeon will fall to the wayside in your priorities. That you’ll force me and everyone to listen to some stranger because he came from the same place as you.

Delta thought about it. If Alpha hung around and near town, they would have lots of reason to talk and hang out if their personalities meshed. Would she start telling her monsters that Alpha had some say in things or to put up with the system not quite working due to the human in her Dungeon?

Delta didn’t think so, but she was impulsive and she knew that she tried to please people.

If Alpha needed EXP or treasure, would she spend valuable DP on making something unique for him?

Delta admitted she had no idea.

“Okay, I can see why you’re getting worried. How about a deal?” Delta clapped her hands together as the waterfall gushed, sounding like an endless yawn.

“If I want to help Alpha or such, we need to agree on it together, but if we don’t, we’ll get a voting council on the matter. We need wise and fair monsters to handle it so they don’t just agree because I’m me,” Delta suggested.

It isn’t about res- Okay, I can agree to that.

“Fera” Delta began.

Fera was my pick as well.

“Hm… Devina and Fera are my pick,” Delta said. Nu was quiet for a long time.

Doctor and Wyin.

Delta raised one brow.

Doctor is a mad gargoyle of science. He can stray close to true rational thought occasionally. Wyin has more independence than most, even if I dislike her, and she wouldn’t bend to please you especially if it meant hurting you in the long run.

“Devina is the law of the jungle and likes balance. Fera doesn’t give a heck and will say what needs to be said,” Delta agreed.

Thank you for agreeing to this. It wasn’t what I was worried about but it goes a long way.

Nu vanished again. Delta huffed.

“What are you worried about then?!” She flailed her hands in the air.

Delta guessed that as of today, the Dungeon had its first Council of Monsters.

“Go democracy,” Delta said with a sigh. She stood, petted Bob who was nearby, sunbathing as he did occasionally.

“Bob, wish me luck. I’m going to meet my brother of another dimension while setting up a council of voters made up of a barmaid, a jungle witch doctor, a mad scientist, and a murder tree,” she smiled. Bob made a slight shriek, showing he was proud of Delta’s efforts and he loved her.

“Oh Bob, you’re the best Abyss Worm I could have asked for!” Delta hugged him.

She did her best to hold him before she went back to see how the kids, plus Kemy, were getting on.

---

“Delta?” Alpha said, voice hitching slightly. Haldi, the weird man, hummed, pretending not to notice Alpha’s tone.

“Yup, new Dungeon that popped up recently. The core is this lively girl who doesn’t much care for killing or such. She sounds like a sweetheart,” Haldi grinned, showing a gap in the smile.

Was it a coincidence? Maybe it was spelled differently or just sounded close enough to give Alpha pause. He looked at his map screen which showed the grey fog of war around areas he hadn’t been. No symbol of anything important…

He looked at the public building before him.

“Paige Turner’s book shop,” he said quickly. Haldi nodded and Alpha got some large EXP for simply telling the man about the place he obviously knew.

This man was giving Alpha so much EXP for a simple task that the hidden level he saw like a ghostly fog about people’s heads, was black.

Black was death. Black was unbeatable. Most Royal knights varied between red, purple, and black. Parhal was black, as was Zane.

The stronger the quest giver, the more EXP Alpha got. Even for the same tasks, the gain was too different to ignore. But before Haldi just… didn’t give him a task. The man’s essence didn’t want anything from Alpha. Alpha couldn’t gain EXP…

It was unnerving. No one had ever asked him to do something for anything besides their own benefit. Even if it was kind or a bit of pity work… someone got a deal out of it.

Haldi’s essence looked tired of requests. It took some effort for Alpha to convince the man to do one. He wondered how many quests this Haldi had done to gather so much power?

Normal people transferred essence as well. Alpha could see it, sometimes. People bent some… pride and passed their woes onto someone else, bet some essence from their core. If the person completed it, the dark essence flowed to the person who completed the quest, as if the energy sought the stronger person.

EXP didn’t appear from nowhere. It was an energy transfer.

There were some rules. Working for a boss or leader, did not transfer energy. The admission of agreeing to work for someone stronger for basic needs seemed to negate the process.

However, a general or commander leading a troop of warriors gathered small amounts of essence from each subordinate during battle. The warriors produced it by following, while the leader gained it by shouldering the command. Tiny, but when spread over a hundred men or more the result was a little insane. It was like some weird faith thing. As if belief and confidence in a superior being you trust with your life was powerful.

Alpha saw the same result in efficient guild leaders and heads of various churches. Faith had power and Alpha was a little afraid of it. If he could understand people, just get them, he would be able to lead people or have them look up to him and generate the kind of bond like he saw, but…

Alpha couldn’t. He couldn’t lead people and in the middle of the battle have the demon child getting bored of him and making him gone. The people would be left, and Alpha would be to blame for whatever fell on them.

Alpha wasn’t… comfortable having their deaths on himself. Killing foes, assassins, mindless beasts, he felt nothing for… but people who trusted him? It would be upsetting.

Of course… killing someone also transferred essence in a much grander scale. Complete and utter transfer. Alpha knew it was limited, though, since faith gain was constant while killing had stop gaps until the next fight.

But given the fact he couldn’t get someone to follow him with any sense of actual faith, Alpha had no other choice but to collect trash and kill people. He couldn’t risk stopping.

He could never risk stopping.

Something entered his mouth and Alpha chewed automatically, flavour bursting over his tongue.

“Cheer up kid, not everything is so gloom-and- doom.” Haldi winked.

“W-why are you so strong?” Alpha asked, swallowing the delicious cheese, deciding to keep the Delta question for another time. Haldi grinned.

“Well, when I was a sprog, I adventured with three people. Snappy, Stabby, Huggy, and me, Stinky,” he guffawed.

Alpha mentally penned these names down for later. He added ‘Stinky’ to Haldi’s mental profile that he built of all important people.

“We did Dungeons, we sailed the Four Sea edges. I even climbed down one side on a dare! Damn well nearly fell into the Abyss. One time, we battled a mysterious woman who could teleport. Me and her had a… er… close friendship where we slept in the same bed like night buddies-” Haldi laughed nervously.

“She was your conquest?” Alpha nodded, already hearing this from Zane more often than not.

“No! I was her treasure. Her personal room guardian. I was her reminder of being ent-” Haldi cleared his throat. He walked a little faster as bits of wood spears began to rain down on the town. They turned to sawdust before they hit anything.

“Anyway, the point is. The way to gain experience is to have good friends at your back and a goal,” he summed up as some pale man under an umbrella began to collect bets from various villagers on the winner of the fight happening outside town.

He was, again, ranked black. This town had a lot of strong people… was there some event on? Arena matches?

“Von! A gold on Holly! Support the home team,” Haldi nodded. The man grinned.

“I’d say sucker’s bet, but I’ve had some real sucker bets in my time. Some just taste better when you win their necks,” the man looked at the girl at his side.

“Bite me and I’ll ram a stake up your rear,” the girl warned, looking tired of… the vampire?

“Ohhh, I do love a bit of tomfoolery,” the vampire mused.

“GO, HONEY! Look how beautiful my wife is! She’s at her best when trying to rip someone’s throat out!” A man with glasses looked a little starstruck at the battle in the distance.

Haldi pushed him on before the odd people could interrupt them any further.

“Can you take me to Delta?” He asked and he winced as some of his essence was siphoned for the request. Not much, but every little bit set him back. His essence was white instead of people’s normal black.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Haldi perked up.

“I would love to help ya. Come on, we can see if the rascals have already gone in!” He mused. Alpha didn’t care much for children, but he had to know if this was Delta or something posing…

He rubbed his head where a number one was burned into his skin, hidden mostly by his hair.

Alpha needed to meet Delta. He wanted to meet the person who could control their power enough to make a fort and monsters.

To act like a Dungeon and gather power.

Alpha wanted to meet his successor, just to know what he lacked.

---

Deo pushed and the large boar began to slide back. Kemy quickly moved to get out of the path as Deo had to let go. The pig’s eyes lit up as a weak laser beam shot out, barely missing him.

It was so cool. The room guardian could shoot lasers, glow, burp sleepy gas, and sometimes smell really delicious! Still, Deo had a job to do and he had to do it! Bone shackles caused Boary, the room guardian, to stumble slightly before the pig broke free. It gave enough time for Deo slash his sword (flatways) across the boars flank.

“DEO’S HARMLESS SLAYING EDGE!” He roared, the slapping noise vibrating his hand, and the pig obientially stumbled and turned on him while Deo hopped back.

Boary even limped a little now in response. His acting was so good! Deo had to recruit him for a school play somehow!

“Uh… erm… Truth’s squishy hammer!” Kemy called with uncertainty and a wonky looking glowing hammer appeared over Boary, squishing feebly into his head.

“Awesome!” Deo cheered and almost missed Grim in the distance hopping back as arrow after arrow chased him, hitting the ground hard enough that it would bruise skin.

“Gotta run out of arrows soon!” Grim said, panting.

A weird arrow landed nearby and exploded in a hiss of purple mist, covering Grim as he began to splutter.

“Blue style: Roc Wings…” Poppy announced, her back exploding with brown wings that were bigger than Deo. She flapped hard and the mist was blown away to reveal a slight confused Grim.

“Always knew wind energy was the way to go,” Grim said before wiping his mouth. Deo guessed he must have been into the battle so much he didn’t even notice his own joke.

Boary glowed and rolled, his energy beams hitting nearby mushrooms in spiraling arc causing minor explosions. Oddly the really dangerous mushrooms had all been eaten before they arrived, so while Deo was flung forward, the blast wasn’t that bad.

Something moved along the mushroom stalks above and Deo saw Boary rushing to tackle him again, tusks carefully aimed so the points wouldn’t skewer him.

Deo stood, holding his sword in a stance he had only seen his father do with much bigger swords.

Deo wanted to be just like his dad, the master of swords and battle, but in a way that he didn’t actually hurt anyone.

The sword was a straight edge so he had to hold it awkwardly.

He hummed a little and focused on the feeling as it travelled down his arm and into the blade.

His father could make it vibrate at such a frequency he cut stone. Deo could make it move enough to scratch a tree. Then again, Deo had never used it on something with a real sword’s edge. Trees didn’t deserve to be cut down for no good reason.

Trees made air, and air was good!

The sword hummed and Deo felt it sing to him through his hand. It sang in a lovely whistle and cheer.

I’m ready to push but not harm!

That’s what Deo felt the sword say to him. Unlike his fists, Deo was very good at hearing swords.

Deo couldn’t ‘hear’ his fists in the same way. It felt like a deep muffled ocean when he tried to feel for his own strength. Deo pushed off the ground, sending a slight spray up into the air, sword swinging from his side.

Boary’s tusks seemed to do something strange, they curled in a wispy orange energy. It was like it wanted to show Deo the same kindness and use a technique!

“SINGING BLADE: MONDAY MELODY!” He said, making up a random name for the movement.

They moved past each other in a rush of dust and wind.

Deo watched as a single tusk of Boary came clean off. He looked shocked, he knew his sword wouldn’t lie to him but Boary turned looking pleased, his animal eyes almost twinkling before it kneeled over and ‘died’.

Had Boary… forced his tusk into the blade? Deo’s own sword made a weird sound and cracked in half as well.

Aw… now he needed a new sword! The torn tusk began to pulse and Deo picked it up.

The tusk had a sword handle! It was shorter than Deo’s normal blade but only because it was curved! Deo looked at Boary.

How did he drop loot when he wasn’t dead? In a weird way, the sword was more like a club unless Deo intentionally stabbed…

He grinned, turning to show his prize off when he saw Grim pushing against a dark goblin with its hood up.

Glowing red eyes and a grin were the only things visible under the hood. Their daggers clashed and Poppy appeared with large claws, but the Goblin cackled, using some kind of hook to pull himself back up into the mushroom ceiling and out of sight.

Deo went to help, but then hesitated. Grim looked so determined and… desperate.

Grim wanted to win his fight. Deo slowed down, turning to explain himself only to find Amenster and Kemy already sitting nearby, watching with interest.

Deo grinned, his group were so damn in sync!

“Go Grim! Go Poppy!” He cheered his heart out.

---

That idiot was cheering his damn heart out.

Grim didn’t need the support, but he accepted it to be polite. Billy had learned some new tricks. Billy had gotten some new threads. Billy… had evolved.

This put the whole ‘get revenge and respect’ thing into a slightly harder goal time frame.

He moved, already expecting the arrow volley that followed. All the arrows were blunter than Deo’s surprise parties. Still, they hurt like being struck by a rock. Poppy vanished somewhere, and the girl wasn’t bad as backup, even if she appeared like an ambush predator more than a mage at times.

Grim guessed that was the whole ‘blue mage’ thing. Be a mage, act like a beast.

The issue he had was that Billy had the upper hand in both environment and ambush tactics. Fire was off-limits, as was cutting the mushrooms down - there were simply far too many of them.

He needed to get on Billy’s level.

As if answering on a wing and a prayer, Poppy appeared, bat wings flapping. Grim was sure that when blue mages used techniques, the part vanished. Actually retaining a monster’s form was not part of the blue mage package!

“Hold on! I’m getting annoyed by this and De- everyone is watching,” she grimaced.

Right, the purple mage thing. Grim forgot about that. The girl never showed it off at all and Grim wondered why…

They flew up higher and higher until they breached the mist. Poppy still didn’t let go and zoomed off after the goblin ahead, who took potshots with arrows. Grim used his coat like a blanket. Without a piercing edge, the coat was a decent shield for the moment.

“Get ready, if you can hold him for a moment, I can take him down like vermin and entangle him,” Poppy hissed like a weird snake.

Grim didn’t exactly get a say in the matter as Poppy dropped him like a dragonrider dropping explosive potions on foes.

He assumed Billy didn’t exactly respect Grim more for it when he landed on him with a heavy thump mid-jump and they both fell back to the Grove’s floor, mushrooms acting like springy pillows.

“Oi, gedoff!” Billy grumbled and with a swift double kick to his stomach, Grim was pushed over. Grim knew his role and charged, throwing all respect out the window and grabbing Billy’s legs, making the goblin trip and drop his hook thing.

Their eyes met and a primal understanding passed between them.

This was no fight for tools or fancy skills.

They were beasts. Claws and teeth were good enough! It was to be a battle between man and goblin, between dungeon and free, between Grim and Billy.

But the wrench in the plan came when a squid monster fell from the trees and both of them screamed, holding each other.

“Purple style: Brain-sucking MahnDi Squid!” The beast growled.

---

“Did we win or did we draw?” Kemy asked, looking disturbed at the half girl, half squid monster.

“Go with ‘win’, why blemish our record?” Amenster asked with an amused smile. Deo looked in awe.

“POPPY IS SO COOL!” He almost squealed.

Kemy closed her eyes, and put the image into her ‘mid-life crisis’ compartment and simply nodded, smiling and humming.

Squid girls were cute now. They had to be or Kemy would cry.

---

Quiss frowned.

Why was he in the middle?

“Quiss never really mentioned you,” Ruli said smoothly from his left. Zane, of all people, was on his right sipping a drink.

“I don’t expect Quiss to mention me. Not much to write about,” Zane said simply looking right back at Ruli with amused eyes. The bar they sat it had a wide space around them as people avoided getting close.

He tried to get up, but their auras were like weights on his shoulders.

He was all that was holding them back from fighting.

“Zane, you tried to kill me, then pestered me with letters asking for one-night stands, but instead of the usual crap, you wanted to kill me and leave me. Ruli, you did sleep with me and I’ve hated you ever since. Can we move on? Like… why are you here, Zane?” Quiss gritted his teeth.

“Dungeon, taxes, something. Wasn’t paying attention,” Zane admitted, scratching his chin.

“I wasn’t that bad in bed. You just got my horses going,” Ruli frowned.

“It was the scariest sexual encounter I have ever had. I have slept with people who could kill me, people that have tried to kill me, and people I’m sure did kill me before bringing me back. You… were the scariest,” Quiss said flatly.

“Quiss says you were painting of joy and pinching circled into single and then set on flame. Life shifting, but soul snapping,” Seth said as he walked past.

Zane looked at him with a confused expression.

“Who the hell are you?” The man grunted. Seth eyed him with a long look.

“Beyond your reach and your night pictures,” Seth said coolly.

“Seth, why don’t your sleep with me and see if Quiss is being a drama queen?” Ruli offered. Seth blinked.

“I do not feel good about putting you to the end to make Quiss a royal. I like you,” Seth frowned.

Ruli made an obscene gesture that made Seth’s eyes light up.

“Ah you wish to mingle bodies! I must advance you. I am a master of affectionate bed sheets,” Seth winked.

“The dirty talk is going to be so amazing, I might actually die,” Ruli grinned.

“Oh no… be careful, Seth,” Quiss said bored before turning to Zane.

“Can you maybe kill me quickly?” He asked. Zane was unimpressed.

“I don’t do quickies,” he said, offended.

“Neither does Ruli. Right, whatever. I’m going to stop a druid and a glutton knight from fighting. It’s easier than… this,” Quiss stood, leaving the bar with his large staff and hat.

Zane shrugged and ordered another five pints.

He might as well get plastered before he actually had to work. Less chance of him either killing someone or pissing off someone strong enough to kill him instantly.

Zane didn’t like quickies. So impersonal.

---

I'll be starting 110 tonight. you guys rock!

110: Hungry Python

Billy had run off when they had all turned their back to see the fabulous loot of Nu’s challenge. Delta stared in complete horror at the rewards. She could just bloody hear that menu cackling.

“Look at the cool red sweater tops!” Kemy gushed as she held hers out, admiring the spiderweaved tops dyed with various flowers. Deo had his on already. The vaguely orange Delta symbol stitched into the front on the breast like some badge of honor only made it worse.

“I’ll save mine for when I’m feeling like black is too popular,” Amenster said casually. Mushy offered to carry it to prevent the lad from being burdened. Poppy, now fully human and looking peaceful, hugged hers as some emotional drain let her just enjoy the moment.

Grim eyed his.

“I feel like a target for wearing this,” he mumbled.

“At least none of them got a purple body suit, empathic powers and no piloting skills…” Delta mumbled. Then she perked up as she remembered something else.

“If Grim hits puberty before he leaves then my Dungeon will have grown a beard and I’ve made it!” She fist pumped the air.

As annoyed as she was at the obvious redshirt jokes, to be fair, Nu had weaved some subtle spider material into the top. It wasn’t going to block arrows but it was better than any average clothing.

Deo waved his tusk sword with a flourish (having it catch somehow,(catch in/on what?) before he managed to pull it out) and they moved on to a room that Delta hadn’t actually seen in proper action so far in her career as a Dungeon. The Fort Room. A tremor ran through her entire Dungeon. Delta frowned as it quickly subsided. It wasn’t coming from below or inside… the tremor hit her from the side. Odd, that had shaken the land around her.

Did Durence get earthquakes? Nothing else seemed to happen so she watched the Goblin Fort meet their intrepid challenges!

---

Holly Dabberghast’s eyes were as black as the Blackthorn Trees, their vengeance howling inside her being. The cataclysm of unbound human gluttony that destroyed her home, her purpose, stood before her in all its baleful glory. Holly stabbed at the air and a massive maw of bound wood and roots emerged from the ground, soaring into the sky with the bitch in its jaw.

The corpse of the Blackthorn forest, her dead home, had been woven into a creature of destruction; the Rotting Dragon of Thorns. This was Holly’s gift to the human known as Perhal. The foot fungus of a swamp troll grunted as she barely managed to keep the jaws from ripping her to meaty chunks. Holly did her best to push them shut.

However, no normal person could do what Perhal the World Eater did. Holly’s dragon cracked and her foe exploded out the opening, skin red and roaring mouth elongating to inhuman proportions, racing for Holly’s throat. Perhal’s gleaming white eyes contrasting Holly’s cold and abyssal black ones.

Holly roared in equal measure and her body shifted. Her body, with all its curves and heft, was still the fine-tuned weapon she had made it into. Her fist struck Perhal’s jaw and the woman was sent crashing across the clearing, leaving deep trenches in the earth. Holly leapt onto her Dragon as it raced pastbut Perhal was already standing upright as she inhaled. The air around her was suddenly, violently, sucked into that gaping maw. With an explosion of blood and flesh wings erupted from Holly's back. Deftly, Holly used the sudden surging torrents of air to dart forward, closing with the fiend before it could release its attack.

The destructive sphere of pure pressure ripped through her dragon, making it explode. From the scattered carcass it started reforming, growing from bones weaved into the wood. The defiled and angry bones of her family, their wrath providing Holly all the power she needed. Her dragon crashed down, fully healed before the attack even completed. The ball of compressed air would have crashed into Durence but a barrier made up of seven shifting layers struggled for a moment before dispersing the attack.

Only seven… Holly was hoping it might have been closer to ten by now, but Delta was doing her best.

Holly pointed her staff and two more wooden dragon heads emerged from the ground. Perhal grinned at the sight. Holly swore to herself shewould soon make that smile turn to a scream.

“Pretty sure your sister managed five,” Perhal called conversationally. Holly’s blood turned to ice.

“Then again, that’s why she was sent to fight me while little Holly was sent to run? Makes sense,” Perhal mused.

Holly rushed in, intent on crushing her throat with her own two hands. Perhal moved, sucking in ambient forces, making her go from merely fast to a blur.

Holly saw the sky and her head smashed into the ground the next moment. Perhal leered down, mouth a tear in space. Her dragons rushed in and Perhal leapt back to avoid them, giving Holly some time to get her feet under her.

“I don’t think you’re going to be as fun to eat as Mistle. That sister of yours was the best thing in years,” Perhal sighed. Holly couldn’t hide her cry of anguish as she tried to focus her next attack.

Something smashed into Perhal’s face and she screamed. The knight stumbled back as her face began to dissolve.

“Don’t… you dare make my Holly cry,” a cold voice rang out. Perhal spun, her melting face struggling to reform as another flask hit the ground below her and screaming smoke boiled Perhal’s skin.

Holly saw her husband walking casually towards them. She felt fear and panic, but then she noticed something else. Her love’s skin was golden.

He… he had drunken the potion… for her?

“Wh…who do you think you are?” Perhal’s voice was not amused anymore.

“Just a potion maker. But I’m also Holly’s husband and I tend not to get involved when my wife has a goal. I love her independence, her wildness, but I won’t stand by while you dare attack her in a way she can’t defend herself against. I am Kota,” the man said calmly.

Perhal’s face went ashen.

“You… are forbidden. You are not allowed to mess in affairs here or anywhere on this world!” Perhal screeched.

“Kota usually behaves, but what can I say? My love does tend to surprise me with bouts of passion and nights of wild madness,” Holly chuckled as she stood to her full height. Her love did really behave when he wanted.

Their children did get their mischief from one of them.

Holly Dabberghast, the cursed druid or Kota Dabberghast, the man who used a minor god as an ingredient for a potion?

Holly just could never tell.

Kota clenched his fist and divine light engulfed Perhal and the area around Durence flashed white.

---

Mila turned her magazine and dog-eared a page with a new type of scope made for bows. It had dragon glass and some auto-aim enchantment on it.

She was getting old. Having a bow do all the work wasn’t that bad, right? There was a flash as Kota’s power exploded, briefly lighting the night. Mila sipped her tea calmly, not looking up as the air howled past violently, making a mess. Well, there went the peace. They could expect the fallen crusaders of Hoisk now. Those bloodthirsty meatheads would want Kota’s head for revenge. She wished them luck. Most of them wrote poetry to their dead god and it read horribly, like something Ruli had written when she was twelve.

The couple walked past her, making out passionately, as one glowed with godly aura and the other of dark bloody nature.

“Get a room, or a cave… or a godly plane,” Mila griped. She did glance off into the distance where a skeleton whimpered as flesh regrew and hatred bubbled.

Well, Perhal was alive. Shame about that. Despite the fact Mila had asked they hadn’t killed any knights yet.

Mila turned and the runt that the knights had brought with them was staring.

“What?” Mila snapped. The boy jumped and he looked so shell-shocked that Mila did feel a little bad. Damn kids. While Mila wouldn’t say she wanted to be a grandmother, since the idea of Ruli spawning was enough to give Mila wrinkles, some instinct that Mila failed to smother wanted to give the brat candy or something.

“How do you all not kill each other?” He whispered. Mila thought about that.

“Magical pacts, deals, promises, blackmail, threats, and alcohol. Instead we just make kids, or get apprentices and make them fight. Less property damage.” Mila grunted.

Insurance claims were a curse no one wanted to draw upon themselves.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The boy just wandered off, looking too scared to ask more questions.

Mila twitched and , with impeccable aim, tossed a piece of hard candy into his pocket, without him noticing. Mila quickly went back to her ‘Arrows for all Occasions’ magazine and went over the bows that could turn into different weapons.

Some of the things were silly, but she couldn’t deny that a bow that was also a scythe that was also a stick to whack youngsters with was somewhat appealing…

The price was a bit grim, however.

-----

Vas was flapping his too long red sleeves as he enjoyed the gift immensely. He had no idea what was going on, but ever since he had stepped foot into the Dungeon, he felt… odd. Was that the word? Odd? Maybe not. Perhaps… strange?

Strange was better. The air seemed to make his sculpted flesh quiver and the inner workings of his golemness were working like he had feasted on pure coffee beans. Magic coffee beans grown by stressed druids on seasonal deadlines.

He spun slightly and wacked Grimnoire in the face by accident. The sound made Vas giggle and he swooshed and swayed.

Sounds! Vas was so alive and he could prove it.

“I think, therefore I pot!” He announced. He got some odd looks but everyone’s attention was drawn by the lone goblin standing near the edge of the wooden fort.

“Dirty surface breathers, I, the powerful and mighty Cois, welcome you to your death!” The goblin cackled before a peaceful goblin whispered something to him.

“…Death isn’t PG- what?! Fine… welcome to your vaguely implied destruction!” The goblin corrected himself.

“We vaguely take insult to that comment!” Amenster shouted.

“Don’t yell over my speech!” Cois the goblin warned.

“Or… what?” Poppy asked with a small smile. Cois hefted something and threw it, a shoe of some kind. Vas watched the flying object fly and turn, almost hitting Grim before he ducked. Vas picked it up and decided he would keep it.

“You get a boot to the head!” Cois rumbled. The boot was made nicely and even had some sticky spider web to pull the sides tight and snug as it stuck to some leafy pad on the boot itself.

“WHY ARE YOU GIVING US FREE BOOTS?” Deo asked confused.

“Because we’re not allowed to shoot you in the face with fire arrows or explosive bombs because life is unfair!” Cois roared and threw another boot.

“Ah, is that the best you have?” Grim smirked. The goblins vanished and Vas watched as Grim’s smirk also vanished when boots just started to fly over the walls.

“The best? You don’t deserve the mighty Cois’ best! I must be content with burning you with my insults! Undeveloped adults! Nosy nose snot noses! Your curvy parent was a rodent and your hairy parent stinks of Trollberries!” Cois roared and the boots ignited into puffy smoke projectiles. A stuffed pig made of pillows and stinking mushrooms came down next.

“This pig farts in your direction!” Then that was followed by stools from the bar, and Vas stared in wonder as the goblins rolled,down the hill, a familiar sight.

“Isn’t that the giant clam-” Vas pointed out helpfully as Grim shrieked and dove for cover. The clam angled itself and went over a slight bump and flew through the air, landing like a spinning coin on the rim of the slightly bigger well to the side of the room. The clam dropped and there was splashing below.

After the clam the goblins went quiet. Kemy went forward.

“I’d like to use my pass to move on from the room,” she called up, waving her piece of paper she had gotten from the clam in the Pond room. Cois stuck his long nose over the edge and sniffed.

“…It’s legit,” he called to the others.

The goblins warned the others to stay back or they’d fire more boots.

Vas heard others tell her not to split the party or leave them but Kemy strode forward, the gates opened, being let through..

Behind the thing they saw her figure go into the hall before them as the goblins shrugged and went back to grinning at the group. Kemy then came running back out and jumped lashing out with her legs to kick Cois and Billy off the edge of the fort so they rolled down hill to the main group.

“I’ll handle this one!” Kemy yelled and turned to the confused goblin with bandages on his hands… Vas was sure he was called Numb.

“If I wasn’t a dark evil necromancer, I’d totally crush on her,” Amenster said casually, sighing a little as Deo pushed on…

“Not because you’re a nerd and she’s too cool for you?” Poppy asked dryly.

“Poppy. Ruining. Goth.”

“Nyeh…”

“I’LL HELP KEMY!” Deo called and Vas trotted after him wondering how he would make it past the gate-

Deo used his bare hands to punch the door and the wood cracked, torn asunder as the sides slammed open. Deo went for his new sword, the tusky weapon getting stuck before Deo managed to get it free and pointing the wrong direction.

Vas supposed he should help. He crouched and leapt, clearing the space in a single leap as his red sleeves flapped like flags in the wind. He crashed down as the serene goblin known as Numb did some soft jabs at Kemy.

“I am trained to guard my master from various assassins, criminals, and people with clipboards wanting signatures. I will be your foe,” Vas said, pleased to see his sleeves dangled when he took his stance.

Deo appeared swinging his tusk sword and completely missing as he flew down the hall.

The chaos was immense as Grim and Amenster took on Billy while Cois and Poppy squared off.

Numb bowed once.

“Let us enjoy jolly senseless hand to hand combat,” he said and Vas bowed as well. Vas lashed out and his leg was stopped by a double arm guard from Numb. The goblin’s eyes lighting up as he saw Vas wasn’t boasting.

They exchanged testing blows, a fist here, a sweep of a leg there, before Vas began to pick up speed. He leaned in, splitting the goblin’s guard as he leapt over his briefly stunned form. Kemy stayed back, thankfully.

Numb spun and Vas winced as he was sent staggering back from a roundhouse kick. He caught the goblin’s next punch and pulled, yanking the goblin into a raised knee.

That was when Deo appeared, his sword swing on target. Numb was forced to use one arm to block the tusk and another to catch Vas’ foot.

“FEEL THE TUSK OF JUSTICE!” Deo proclaimed. A wave of fire and ice filled the room and Vas wasn’t sure whether to shiver or cook.

“FEEL THE GLORY OF FLEEING!” Deo added and Vas felt himself being dragged into the hall along with Kemy as Numb and Deo pulled them to safety.

“Looks like Cois lost his temper,” Numb sighed.

“POPPY JUST LOST HER… WELL, EVERYTHING. SHE’S A GIANT ICE LIZARD!” Deo pointed.

“I would have lost, so you three can go rest if you want?” Numb offered kindly and Vas shook his head.

“You were holding back, a lot,” he pointed out as Grim, Billy, and Amenster rushed into the hall next to avoid being flash cooked or frozen. Numb’s smile was bright.

“I lost for what I was allowed to really do. That’s the point,” Numb said as Grim shook snow out of his hair.

“Poppy needs to be told she doesn’t have to lose it and let it go all the time. I swear she gets so into these things she just loses her cool,” he complained and Vas giggled at his joke.

Since the Fort Room was just a steam room now, they decided to go for their rest.

The lady Goblin, Lady Fera didn’t look impressed but fed them all stew, mushroom slices, various fruits and even a selection of drinks!

When the steam began to slowly enter the bar, Fera stormed out and returned with a frostbitten Cois and a soot covered Poppy in each hand.

“Enough rabble rousing,” she warned the two. The two didn’t seem angry. In fact, Vas thought they looked friendly to each other.

“So, if we instill fire into the ice ball,” Cois went on as if they hadn’t just been chastised. Poppy nodded.

“A much bigger boom. I liked the rune thing you did. I turned it inside out on my ice and it made more ice, did you know it could do that?” Poppy asked. Tom the book was silently adding notes as they talked.

It seemed the book was catatonic from the new information he was learning.

Vas guessed when one knew almost everything, anything new would be pretty awesome!

He sipped a drink and Vas went still as his hair turned leafy and he grew branches.

“Delta’s Surprise,” Numb told Vas between bites of chicken. Vas just…

Tree’d.

Vas tree’d so hard.

111: Jack be nimble... jack be... oh no.

Delta had to admit one thing.

She felt a sense of amusement when Fera seemed to be eyeing each of the teens with a critical eye, giving their warmsoup-and-burger-with-a-side-of-mushroom-rings extra portions when no one was looking at her cooking through the kitchen window set in the back of the bar.

Deo and Poppy talked to a patient Numb about how their journey was going so far. Numb was good with kids, he nodded at the right bits and looked impressed when appropriate. Vas and Grim were playing some dice game with Billy. Billy was utterly cheating with fixed dice, sleight of hands and just plain luck.

Poppy, Amenster, and Kemy ended up talking to Cois about the benefits of fire.

Delta wasn’t sure she had known that each could have their favorite types, let alone the best kind to use per undead, holy being, or a warm holiday hearth.

Fera didn’t even write down a tab, shaking her head at the ‘charity’ she was running. She knew that challengers got a free meal before the boss. Delta left them to it for the moment. She zoomed past the second floor, making sure nothing terrible wrong was going on, but it seemed as tame as a jungle ever really got.

The third floor was quiet and that was worrying. Nu appeared a second later.

Not to be a bother but we may have a thing.

“Thing as in ‘oh, a thing’ or ‘oh… a thing’”? Delta asked slowly.

Bit of both.

Lovely.

Nu lead her to one of the doors that lead off the circular garden. Delta hadn’t even decided what to do with the old laboratory and now she had to deal with something else. Life was never dull for a Dungeon Core, it seemed. The guardgoyles were clustered around a large, dark iron door. The surface looked dented and damaged, but the unsettling thing, upon closer inspection, was that the dents extended towards them.

Like something was trying to get out. Her Mana seemed to be pushed back on a straight line. That explained why she hadn’t noticed it before. Her Mana was her domain. Outside it, things may as well be unseen.

Delta eyed it, she focused before she managed to stretch a weak Mana line to it and something inside her had a instinctual feeling of…

Alien.

She blinked and had to balance herself as the feeling echoed off her very being.

I see you felt it as well.

“What is that?” Delta asked as her guardgoyles turned more aggressive at the implied threat.

I haven’t a clue. We can’t consume it or feel inside, so either there is a seal, a powerful enemy, or something else. I would just set everything on fire inside, but I have learned that fire is either hit, miss, or tends to makes things worse.

“Don’t let Cois hear you saying that,” Delta mumbled and wondered what to do. If she needed to send something in, then they had to be able to work without her Mana…

“I need Jack,” she said seriously before feeling a slight nervous shake go through her. Needing Jack was like using the big red button.

All other options had failed.

Delta appeared in the library as Jack sorted through piles of trashy looking books. He had some odd shrine in the corner of the room where a weird doll wore something that could have been a hideous dress robe or a bathrobe. The figure seemed to hold power over some rather well made miniature books and a plush armchair.

Honestly, it looked like some weirdo living in a basement surrounded by trashy smut and a comfy chair. All that was missing was the cats. Jack looked between two equally bad looking books.

“Werewolves or Ghost pirate husbands…” he mumbled. He discarded the werewolf book.

“Rarity adds to the value,” he decided.

“Jack, sorry to bother you in your… religious practises,” Delta said slowly. Jack turned with a toothy grin on his lizard-like face.

“Walking in on something you’d rather not see just adds to the spiritual-vibe, to be honest,” he explained.

“I prefer it when you blow things up,” Delta had to admit as she crossed her arms. Jack pulled out several glowing bottles.

“Give me a target! I’m a sinful sort,” Jack cackled.

The library around them seemed to be holding its breath and Delta knew the Libro Golem was about ten steps away from booting Jack out for public indecency with his book choice and now was panicking at the explosions. Delta lured Jack away with a mission…

Some needed breadcrumbs, others needed candy… Jack needed promises of destruction.

---

The door was heavy and inside was gloomy.

First impression was that Jack didn’t see anything that was worth blowing up. Honestly, his time was valuable… He walked in as the others watched from the open door. Being a contract gave Jack some benefits, he had to admit it. Being able to leave the Dungeon space was one, obviously. The second was after time, his bombs seemed to magically just reappear…

That was the best part.

The hallway ahead looked torn apart in several places. It was mostly stone and metal rivets. It looked more like the innards of some boat that the Dwarf folk tended to make. Since they sank like rocks, they felt better being surrounded by the metal of earth when they had to travel the many flowing rivers of the world. Oddly the pure metal seemed stained with old substances seared into the surface.

Jack bent down and touched the black stains. It was too old for any clues, but Jack saw a pattern. Something had bled in several thick puddles over time. He narrowed his eyes as they seemed to make an almost… stepping-stone path over the metal. Jack moved in, a dagger drawn. He felt Delta’s worry and a slight connection. She was watching, so Jack had better perform his best.

The door at the end was torn apart from the inside, it was another dark metal door and several pieces looked blackened. Jack took a few steps forward and dark glowing symbols filled the hall.

“Hm. Well. Bugger,” Jack said calmly before he bolted. He ran as energy began to crackle in the space, turning the metal hall into the funnel of a storm. Several metal spikes erupted from the floor and walls, intending to pierce something much larger than Jack. He moved between them. The energy which had weirdly started at the exit side of the hall chased after him like a hungry beast.

Jack had to begin using the blood path as a marker for where the spikes didn’t pop out. He threw himself through the wrecked door and rolled to a stop. He kept still as he panted, quickly taking everything in. He had survived… more than 3… no definitely more than 7 years down here… no stupid trap was getting Jackie boy.

The room wasn’t exactly looking any better than the hall. Torn-apart creatures of metal and red stone laid scattered around. Some golem guards. Jack watched as the stones trembled, some terrible energy filling them. They reassembled themselves into stone beetle golems about the size of a human and a half. Six bending arms drew rapidly reforming curved blades.

They looked unsure of Jack. Their heads nothing more than two eyes of glowing yellow pits.

“Password?”

They spoke in unison. A choir of creepy stone bug guards. Well, Jack wasn’t going to be rude.

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“Password?” he suggested. The yellow eyes turned a violent red.

“Incorrect. Attempts left: 0.”

Jack held up one hand and spoke, causing the guards to actually stop for a moment.

“I have a counter number for you. I have Attempts left: bombs,” he declared. There was no movement or reaction. Jack threw the first of his vials and two of the statues were reduced back to rubble.

He grinned maniacally as the top half of the statues spun like a twister of steel and death. He scoffed at them.

“I DON’T FEAR DEATH! HE READS TRASH!” Jack roared. Red stone and fire filled the chamber.

---

The door gleamed before them, the glaring boar and goblin inlay a warning… and an invitation.

“This is it,” Grim said quietly. He looked at the hand clasped on his shoulder.

“Don’t be getting cold feet,” Amenster said. Grim scoffed, shrugging the other boy’s hand-off. Amenster was someone Grim felt… actually neutral towards.

They were both the dark horses of the group and there was potential for a friendship between them, but they both knew they’d rather be friends with Deo, for different reasons.

Kemy inhaled and cast a group blessing.

“May your strikes be true,” she whispered. Grim nodded and pushed the doors open with both hands.

They moved like a burden. It was as if the door itself was testing them, tasting their strength to see if they were worthy to enter. It was different than before and just barely… Grim’s strength was enough to open the door.

Grim felt like if it was an ounce heavier, he would have failed.

A dark and sandy arena greeted them. The previous crack in the wall where the boss emerged had been replaced by a solid looking opening that was too dark to see inside.

Above them, a giant brazier ignited in red fire and the tinier copies around the edge of the circular cave lit up in synch like a countdown as they moved towards the far end. Mirrored perfectly, the braziers on each side gradually changed colour the farther away they were until it was a blazing blue above the boss entrance.

“This is… really cool,” Kemy breathed, obviously this must be her first time in this room. Grim didn’t really get to appreciate it for himself last time, but it was nice.

“Challengers of the surface. Welcome to the first trial,” a deep rumble sounded out as the forms of Fran and Bacon emerged slowly from the shadows. The sleek armour and dangerous looking lance were only enhanced by the amoured boar the knight rode.

Fran stopped and eyed them with a long look.

“Do you accept the challenge?” He called. Grim looked at his team. Vas was placid and smiling, he looked amazingly happy, even after his tree thing had faded. Deo grinned excitedly. Poppy merely pushed her hood back a tad to meet Fran’s eyes.

He looked to his other side. Amenster was looking utterly focused. Kemy inhaled once and her cheerful look turned determined.

“I think we are. Are you?” Grim called. Fran’s smile wasn’t arrogant or cruel, merely excited.

“I was literally born ready, my wonderful challengers. Let it be known that as the first official team to enter my Mother’s Dungeon… I will forever hold you in my heart as a special memory. I say this now, for whatever happens, be it lose or win… I wish nothing but success and pride in your personal journeys,” Fran said and bowed once.

Grim bowed his own head, feeling his heart beat wildly with intense energy and excitement.

Now they all drew their weapons. Fran smiled.

“Sir Maestro, if you would…” he called and a slow thrum echoed out the walls. The beat was subtle and it was pulsing in time with his heart.

“Ladies and gentlemen, others and between, those without terms and those with too many… are you ready to rumble with the number one – by popular vote – hottest goblin to ever be? Place your bets, place your hopes, bet your dreams! Today, Team Hope of Tomorrow faces Fran the Knight-Protector, beginning in 10 seconds!” A soulful voice announced and Grim wasn’t sure about the team name.

Deo looked ready to protest too. The voice soaking into their very bones seemed to allow him to hear, as it were.

“Folks… it’s time to d-d-d-d-duel.”

A bell sounded and Grim had no more time to think about anything.

Neither about how he finally felt… finding where he belonged.

---

Jack inhaled and coughed as he felt a few of his ribs had been broken.

“That smarts,” he commented as two remaining beetle guards moved towards him. One had only two arms and a leg left… the other was missing all it’s lower half.

The rubble around them was slowly moving… just slow enough to be missed if Jack wasn’t so clever and keen-eyed. They were rebuilding themselves.

Endless freaking wave of bug statues. It was stupid. He reached for the last ten bombs he had. These weren’t exactly perfect. Three were gas and these things didn't breath. One was a flashbang and they weren’t affected by it. Two he had no idea what they did and that was a bit of a pickle.

He threw one and a statue burst into flower blossoms, making it look very pretty and it actually stopped to admire itself for all of five seconds. He threw the second one and the golem shuddered before a clone of itself split off like some sort of slime. They shared a look and nodded, resuming their walk towards Jack.

“Oh… well… that was my fault,” he admitted as he leaned back against the old brickwork inlaid with more bands of iron metal. Jack eyed the still crackling hallways. Escape wasn’t an option…

“I need something right now,” Jack admitted. He wasn’t eager to die again. It cost Delta a pretty penny to bring him back.

Damn it, Jack needed a miracle… he needed some asspull or something like-

“Swordfish.”

-a swordfish! Jack frowned. He needed a what?

The golems froze and promptly collapsed into a messy pile of rocks and inert metal. Jack turned to see a giant thing standing in the frame of the previously closed door. A giant red thing with curved horns and a snarling face.

Next to that thing was a metal skeleton wearing a weird apron.

“Master, the bipedal gecko lives. Shall I correct that?” The skeleton clacked and the demon shook his massive head.

“No.” He replied and Jack was liking the demon.

“We can harvest his blood for materials over time,” he added. Jack corrected himself.

He really liked the demon.

“Hello, I’m the diplomat for Delta the Dungeon core, who is your neighbour,” Jack waved and jerked as he forgot about his ribs. The demon wore a giant leather kilt filled with tools and his muscular frame was bulky, but not an inch of fat could be seen anywhere.

“It speaks without permission. I shall remove its tongue and pickle it,” the skeleton said promptly only for the demon to pull it back.

“Robin… calm yourself. Are you qualified to barter treaties between powers?” The demon asked skeptically. Jack had to be honest.

“I am an expert in the Dungeon,” he promised solemnly. Delta was cheering in his head. Jack felt better knowing she was yelling in support for so long that it must have broken some record.

Jack liked blowing things up.

Bombs or boring planning… he wasn’t picky.

112: Low-hanging fruit

Demons. Unnatural beings. Outsiders.

As long as there have been stars, there have been demons. In between the Abyss and Oblivion, many layers of dimensions existed. Within these layers were nebulous creatures who developed societies, magic, art, horrific monstrosities, and door-to-door charity knockers.

Their nature was not too unlike the creatures that formed on the fallen Sibling. They could even reach out to each other through dreams or acts of power. This happened for so long that doorways and methods were formed to allow passage.

It was something that the demons regretted ever since, frequently.

The world of the Twins was usually harmless to demons. They could breathe the air, drink the water, and even settle down with the people, but certain things prevented this new world open to them from being… totally perfect.

Like how acid and fire destroyed humans, a unique metal found in this world, Iron, did the same to demons on a worse scale. The rising holy energies of their increasing gods and goddesses began to make city life a pain. Demons and Celestials were universally reactive in terms of layers. There was no real hatred or dislike. They were just highly allergic to each other which made friendship between them harder than most.

What really was the final straw for demons - well, besides the sheer amount of musicals the humans tried to shove down their throats - was the fact that the humans tried to sell their souls for. Every.Little.Thing.

Something in their beings was malleable and powerful. Most demon scholars believe it to be a remnant of a primordial being of some kind, it was a very powerful resource for a demon to increase their powers… at first.

Soon, it became quite clear the demons had been cheated when they had traded secrets to summon them in return for these soul fragments. 99.9999999999% of the bloody time? The fragment was below average worth, but the summoning contract basically meant they had to accept the job if it was within their power.

A demon spent most of their power on this plane trying to go into witness protection by having their rituals destroyed or annulled. However, if the soul being offered was beyond worth, the demon would’ve be insane for turning that down.

Runilac the blacksmith assumed he was smarter than most demon folk, so when he had his ritual being called, he had a moment of tasting the offering before deciding whether to accept the summoning or resist, and lose a day’s wages.

He was highly paid, so Runilac could afford to skip a few summonings. Not that his ritual was common or cheap - he had pride after all.

But the souls being offered ranged from common to a seldom seen rare quality. He was promised their souls once their lives were vanquished. Runilac sensed something fishy but went for it. Humans were short lived and all their souls were firmly of the human type. No sneaky immortal elf bullcrap happening…

The group paid the initial cost and he had gotten to work. He had built them a temple worthy of whatever ‘fallen’ god they worshipped. It could have been a demon but Runilac didn’t ask questions. He could have… he just didn’t care at the time.

That had been a mistake.

The crafty men did not die nor did they keel over when he poisoned their meals or caused a few tunnel collapses.

The facade lasted for a few years until Runilac saw that his promised souls were not coming. Something else had a claim on them, far stronger than his. Their leader finally appeared and like a child being locked in his room, he had been forced into this… prison of iron and darkness.

And that was where he had tinkered and smashed the days away, trying to escape or wait for his contract to end.

“Then, you appeared,” the demon blacksmith grumbled. The kobold was a weirdo. He sipped at a cup that Robin, his aide, poured for him, but the thing was cracked and only dust fell from the teapot.

Neither Robin nor Jack the Kobold seemed to mind.

“You looked pretty close to escaping. You got out, right?” Jack asked, his scaly snout twitching as he examined the make-shift forge room. Runilac frowned down at his pile of empty wine bottles. As a resident of this plane, he didn’t need to eat every day. He got enough energy from his contractor, but the point stands that he was a little insane from the lack of change in his environment.

“I did and I got speared for my trouble. That damnable knight captain in his hall toyed with me until I was weak enough that his grunts could carry me back over the burning iron and back here,” he rubbed at his deep red skin. Then he couldn’t help but quirk a deep smile.

“I heard his screams. I came out and saw the Princess of Calamity. I honestly thought that my king had come to free me, but it seems more like his daughter just stumbled upon me. All the same, I was glad to arm the royal family in their time of need to cut the heads off these damnable vile wretches that not even the disgusting cousin of a succubus, a Crypt Mistress, would touch with a ten foot barbed pole!” He roared and slammed his hand down, smashing the table that was barely holding together with rope and hope.

Jack nodded slowly as Robin eyed the mess before bending down and then freezing on four limbs.

“I am your table of doom, balance terrible weapons on me, my master,” Robin said with deep acceptance.

“And… them?” Jack gestured to Robin. Runilac flared his nostrils.

“None of your business. Now put your damn cup on Robin’s shoulder blade before I decide you’re being rude,” he warned. Jack eyed his skeleton assistant and then shrugged.

“I respect them for their furniture life choices,” he agreed and sat back in his armchair made of broken golem pieces and decorated with spider web. Robin had done the best they could.

“Now, this Delta? You say she is a devilish mastermind aiming to take down the Cult?” Runilac changed the subject. Jack nodded eagerly.

“She is. She’s a Dungeon core eating away at them and already has powerful supporters, like Ruli, whom you saw earlier. I’m her grand vizier and demolitions expert,” Jack explained.

“Odd combination,” the demon mumbled. Jack grinned and his gleaming eyes lit up.

“That’s nothing. Wait until you see the bar or the circus,” he winked. At the mention of a bar, he leaned in.

“Now you have bargaining material!” He said with approval.

If he could offer some form of trade for actual alcohol? He might have to stamp this alliance out faster than expected.

---

The match began with a charge. Fran was ready for a good fight he party that had entered was the first officially sanctioned group! Deo, Poppy, and Amenster’s attempt beforehand wasn’t with apt permission so he didn’t count it.

When they had finally touched the door, Fran knew just exactly how strong he was allowed to be. Invisible bindings sealed a decent chunk of his power away and his second form was just not accessible at all.

There was no honor in crushing everyone, meaninglessly, with a single attack. They would just die, learning nothing. Fran and Bacon didn’t believe in such baseless slaughter. He was Mother’s knight, her shining example of what this Dungeon was about! Both fair play and growth.

If they lost, then they would come back, later on, stronger! If they won, then the experience would make them all stronger regardless! Fran was weakened, but just enough to still be dangerous without being overwhelming.

Fran couldn’t wait to see what techniques his worthy challengers had! His armour and weapon seemed to be of a bronze alloy. Not strong or flexible. Fran would have to watch his reactions or sides. The power of his own inner core made his aspects change so easily to fit the challengers. The metal would reflect most basic blunt damage and would definitely be painful if Fran landed a hit on them. His weapon was long, but a good strike should be able to shatter it. Fran hoped they picked up on that.

---

Bacon moved like the wind he often expelled. The group parted into two. Deo and Grim on one side. Poppy, Amenster, Vas, and Kemy on the other. He swung his lance in an overhead spin, telegraphing his intent a little.

He went after the caster side, to remind them that throwing themselves about wildly would give Fran more room to pick his targets.

“He’s coming this way!” Amenster yelled and splayed his hand, a white powder flung from a pouch. The dust settled before tiny bone thorns rose from the chalky dust of the arena. Kemy began to pray and Vas just looked ready.

Poppy waited to see how Amenster’s spell went.

The issue was that while bone spikes would slow any foe that was surprised or unprepared, Fran was neither and Bacon had firm metal hoof guards on. His steed crushed the bones in loud snaps as he swung at the praying Kemy with the side of his lanceto his surprise, Vas was there, deflecting the attack with a snap of his arm.

Vas’ calm eyes made Fran silently bump him up in the threat order. He shot past, sending white chalky dust up in a cloud, forcing the group to cover their eyes. Kemy kept praying, and by the time Fran got Bacon turned around, a golden aura had covered the united group. Deo and Grim had rejoined the splinter group.

Amenster’s spell had boxed them in just a little. This was the trouble with such area of effect spells; unintended targets could be caught in their effect. With more speed than before, Deo, Grim, and Vas moved towards him in a sprint. Grim flashing a dagger while Deo unleashed a boar tusk sword that Fran had to admit looked quite fetching. Vas just ran with his arms behind his back in an attempt to move faster. They moved in a rough arrow formation. All things considered, they were doing pretty well.

Kemy was focusing on her buff while Amenster and Poppy watched. Those two were being too passive. Support fire would make what Fran was about to do next a lot harder. Bacon sped forward, and Fran angled his lance into a javelin throw that soared true - it sliced past Deo’s leg, causing him to trip and tumble from the strike, before the spear forced Vas jump back lest he be pierced in the shoulder.

That left Grim as the sole one moving forward. His smaller knife no less dangerous than any larger blade.

Bacon lowered his tusks and Grim must have realised he had no true method for stopping of moving meat from running him down. He threw himself to the side and Fran leapt at Vas, landing on his spear as Bacon kept his charge up, aiming at the priestess.

Their combined souls let them communicate without words.

“Attack or defend?” He asked the golem child. Vas watched Deo standing up on a wobbly leg and at Bacon charging the casters. He dashed for the pig.

“Good lad,” Fran muttered and spun to rush Deo. He was cut off by Grim who stood before him with the knife raised, buying Deo time to find his dropped weapons.

“A knife versus a lance isn’t wise,” Fran commented coolly. Grim grinned.

“I’m not wise,” he agreed and threw something on the ground. A potion exploded and black smoke filled the space between them. Fran held his breath and waited, expecting a knife to come lunging at his side but the smoke quickly vanished to reveal Deo rushing in with his sword. Grim had helped the boy re-arm…

Fran was impressed.

He sidestepped the first overhead swing from Deo and nearly fell to the knife that stabbed at the gap in his armorbetween his torso and arm. Grim was like Deo’s shadow, the two boys began to swing and cover each other while Fran couldn’t get enough space to lower or swing his lance in any meaningful way.

Bacon was driven into the background as Poppy (growing black fur and muscle mass on her thin frame) and Vas each pushed against a tusk , both straining with the effort of preventing Bacon from reaching the two casters.

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Amenster was actually focusing and chanting along with Kemy. Her golden energy infusing the bone dust that the necromancer boy was collecting.

A combined spell? Fran couldn’t believe he was getting such a wonderful event in this fight! He grinned under his helm and got to work. He threw his lance horizontally at the two boys, it hit them and bounced back into his waiting hand. He spun it in wide, flashy arcs that sheared the ground kicking up a tiny dust storm as he pushed his way forward like a vortex of crushing force. Deo tried to block with his sword, but Fran feinted to the left before sweeping Deo’s legs out from under him and used the butt of the lance to strike Grim in the stomach.

Fran hoped they got armour soon.

The boy wheezed as the breath left him. Fran heaved and Grim was lifted up and over the goblin’s head before Fran threw him at the casters. The boy sailed and the forming golden skeleton the two casters were making exploded as Grim crashed into them.

Bacon stopped pushing, letting both Poppy and Vas stumble forward in surprise before the giant pig wrenched his head side to side, sending Vas flying, but Poppy held on in gritty determination.

Then Fran moved to climb the pig’s back and they were one again, a rider of Delta!

The girl below him stared up, golden eyes glaring out from under the hood. She was slowly growing in power the longer this fight went on.

Interesting, Fran was learning something new about his power level fluctuations as a boss. The power he got from the group was the party average strength, their skills and tricks no doubt also factored in…

But Poppy was now outpacing the group’s average. If a weak person and a strong warrior entered… Fran would be closer to the warrior in terms of power… but not quite due to the weak member tugging at his limits as well.

Good to know… Fran suspected if one strong warrior came in with four weak folk then his gimmick would be skewed into his opponents favour. With a jab, he caused the girl to stumble and just as he was about to knock her out when a tusk sword intercepted the strike. Deo looked ready to take the strike with his bare hands if it protected the taller Poppy who was turning into some lycanthrope.

Fran was about to urge his steed on when Bacon gave a hint that something was wrong. He risked a glance to see the sand he had trained so furiously on was crawling up Bacon’s legs like unyielding hands. Fran snapped his eyes to Amenster who had both hands on the sand.

Clever lad… how long had he been spreading bone dust and chalk over the arena? Bacon freed a leg, but the necromancer’s trick was digging into Bacon’s weakness. Without having the ability to charge, he was basically a giant target in these low ranked matched without armour.

The chalk and bone dust began to shift into the vague outline of a hand. Fran had seen this symbol before. It was Kemy’s deity’s prefered icon.

Fran looked around wildly… where was the priestess?!

He found her.

High up in the stands, at the very last and highest row… Kemy was finishing a prayer.

“The truth will set you free… but it will also brand you. There is no right or wrong before my eyes… only the truth that we will win!” She cried, and the hand icon around her neck lit up with golden light.

The chalk and bone mirror hand below him doing the same.

Fran had been around Cois long enough that… he knew what was going to happen next. The symbol below Bacon that was both trapping them and acting as a conduit suddenly exploded in a golden wrath.

---

Grim couldn’t help but cheer as the forms of the boss went up in smoke and golden light.

Even if it didn’t defeat Fran, that was a heavy blow! His party was the best. Clearly, Grim’s talent at locating (stumbling really) onto power was akin to Deo stumbling into befriending people. The two examples were not entirely unrelated, to be fair.

He regrouped as Kemy rushed down the steps of the audience seats. Poppy was huge now, and Grim tried not to stare at her bristling black fur.

“DO YOU THINK WE WON?” Deo asked as the explosion zone was wreathed in falling dust and smoke.

“Not now, since you just said that,” Grim muttered and readied his weapon. They watched for a long moment as the cloud settled, the feeling almost absuredly dramatic. A black form slowly began to become visible in the fallout of the holy blast.

Everyone got ready for the last stage of this fight. When the sight of the giant pig laying down with no rider in sight became clear, Grim had a bad feeling.

“ABOVE!” Poppy snarled, the warning coming too late. Fran fell from the shadowy ceiling where his form must have been thrown by his stead.

He landed hard on Amenster, his spear’s shaft cracking hard on the boy’s head. Amenster eyes rolled and he crumpled. Poppy lashed out, but Fran intercepted her by tripping Kemy into her path, forcing the girl to halt her attack.

Vas caught Fran’s flying punch easy enough, letting Deo get in with a swipe of his sword. Fran moved aside to dodge, but Grim was like an unseen pest, coming in with the knife to his back.

Grim…... Grim had never properly backstabbed anyone before. Fran gave a grunt was powerless to stop Vas from headbutting him, despite the fact the goblin had a helmet on. Fran stumbled back, bleeding slightly and Poppy was on him, claws raised to finish it.

Fran closed his eyes.

“I…... yield,” he said.

The room went absolutely still.

Everyone shared a look besides the drooling Amenster.

“R-really?” Kemy asked surprised. Fran began to laugh and chortle as if this was a reaction he had longed to see.

“Yes! Yes! This test of courage, skill, and teamwork has been enough to make me feel confident in granting you all…... a solid victory over the first floor!” Fran said seriously, bowing, despite his injury.

Deo tilted his head.

“ARE YOU SURE?” He asked, as if worried they had done something wrong to end the battle prematurely. Fran wobbled to stand, but Kemy was there, beaming, as she began her basic healing.

“Yes. This test was never about death. In my home, it is never about death. I tested you in strength, quick thinking, adaptability, and I found you all…... worthy,” Fran said and then ushered Kemy off to check on Amenster, who opened one eye, sighing, before Kemy could do anything.

“And I played dead for no reason…... I wasted all my energy on my Bone Empowerment buff,” he grumbled and stood up.

Fran went over to the still Bacon and patted the form as it burst into orange motes of mana.

“He’ll be back and he’ll be hungry,” Fran shook his head. He turned and focused on the group.

“I only have three gifts for you, I am unable to produce more than that at the moment, however…...” Fran held out his hand where mana formed into tiny grey coins. The material like cheap iron. He passed them out. Grim saw each coin had their name on it, their group name, and a date.

“You rite of succession. Bearing this coin or having it on you when you enter will allow you to reach the second floor without hindrance in the future. All traps, monsters, and tricks will ceased to hinder you unless you travel within 20 feet of an uncoined person. If someone tries to use you to avoid the challenge then Lord Mushy or the Dungeon itself will put a stop to that,” Fran explained.

Grim saw the coin had a head of a weird smiling girl and the other side bore the symbol of a window with an annoyed face. Little Frans and Bacons finished the pattern by ringing the edges.

Fran continued.

“Be known that these coins are marked in a way we can check if the coin matches the owner. Selling or trading these coins away will do the buyer no favours,” he warned. Then Fran smiled.

“Now, I may generate two gifts for the winners. Due to Mother’s…... habits, I cannot promise what will drop. It is like a…... game, but even I do not know the prizes,” Fran told them dryly. Grim had a feeling no one knew the prizes in this dungeon until they suffered a lot.

“I ask that the two MVPs step forward,” the goblin asked. Grim stared at him, sharing confused looks with the others. Fran’s green skin went slightly blue in a blush.

“Forgive me, slip of the mother tongue,” he said and quickly went quiet. A screen appeared before them showing their faces and a ‘contribution’ bar. This had happened before in the spider room…...

Vas seemed to be the lowest again, the golem having no issues with that. Grim and Deo were close, but to Grim’s surprise…... he was higher. Deo clapped him on the shoulder, beaming at him in pride. Next up was Amenster…... then Kemy and finally Poppy.

Kemy and Poppy were so close in ranking that the screen had to zoom in to show the difference.

“Kemy, the priestess able to buff and keep the party strong before wielding her power against me…... Poppy the girl able to slow me down and draw my attention away from a ploy while able to stand her ground. Step forward,” Fran said formally.

The girls did so, Poppy shrinking as she got her emotions back under control. Kemy looked pink with delight.

Fran smiled at them before mana gathered in his hands.

“Reach out and claim your prizes,” he said and offered the glowing orbs of mana to them, to reach into and…... find something.

The mana tasted of a mid-life crisis and mushrooms with a hint of spice. Grim guessed it suited the joint rather well.

The two girls reached and the mana began to take shape…...

After a long moment…...

“I apologise, I can try and refund it?” Fran offered to the stunned priestess. Kemy shook her head.

“It’s a very powerful focus! My last staff was a bit generic…...” She said brightly. The long shaft, a red cherry mushroom head, vines that caresses down the shaft, almost tightly…...

The staff seemed to be almost too thick for her dainty hands, but Kemy gripped it with determination to show she was able to handle the girth. Poppy eyed her own prize.

It was a long piece of paper with peelable stickers. Some showed the various goblins or pigs. Some showed Muffet the spider, others showed Fran with long flowing locks of hair.

“They’re made with potent healing mushrooms and potion extract, stick them on a friend and watch them perk up!” Fran said brightly. Poppy peeled off one and stuck on Tom the tome, who she pulled out of a bag.

“What? Is the battle ove-…... DEFACED! I’VE BEEN DEFACED!” The book screeched as Poppy put a Bacon sticker on him.

Grim wasn’t sure if he would want either prizes to be honest.

“THAT STAFF IS SO COOL! MY MUM ALSO HAS A MUSHROOM THING SHE GOT FROM THE DUNGEON! SHE KEEPS IT IN HER ROOM AND USES IT TO MAKE DAD HAPPY!” Deo explained. Kemy was looking like she had been sinned upon. Amenster was hiding his face, and Poppy looked at Kemy’s staff with uncertainty.

“Let’s put a peg in this discussion and go back to the bar for food…...” Fran said, looking like he was in extreme pain but refusing to make a sound.

When Fera saw the staff, she gave Kemy a wicked smile and said something about ‘always the quiet ones’ before cooking.

Grim wondered if it was too late to erase any trace he had even been in this dungeon?

No... it was far too late for that now.

He heard Amenster whispering to Poppy.

“I wonder if she’ll get round charms to add on to her staff later?” he asked before both of them giggled like children.

Grim wished he could drink legally.

113: Miserable Pile of Mushrooms!

Delta tried not to groan as Jack reported back with the hulking demon backing him up. It wasn’t like Jack had exactly done something wrong, but Delta would have liked to have been included in the negotiations before the demon, Runilac, had agreed to be a less murdery neighbour. The demon was quite clear that he had no intention of being either a contract or an enemy.

The skeleton in the maid costume was just a strange cherry on top of the weird dessert. Delta was now absolutely sure she had never had a pure-blooded demon in her Dungeon for one reason. Runilac was like a void. Ruli had the vibe of being less to her dungeon senses but louder to her human side. Runilac just acted like dark space where her mana flowed, hitting the space and being forced to part around him. It was unnerving to a degree Delta hadn’t felt before. It made Runilac utterly alien to her instincts as he freely and unashamedly admitted he was not native to this world.

“I’m bound by some twits deeper in the fortress. I can’t act against them physically, so the best me and Robin here can do is forge and stay out of your way,” Runilac explained gruffly as her gargoyles all seemed to be trying to square up and show a display of strength against this stranger. Vanguard being the worst, scowling at the muscled demon as if he were here to sweep Delta off to the pits of hell itself. It was sweet if not a bit funny.

“What about knowledge? What can you tell me about the Silence cult people...group...things,” Delta asked which Jack translated for her. Runilac could hear her, but he hadn’t had time to adapt to her power and said she sounded far away for the moment.

“I guess... they’re human, wield some magic, some had weapons, and they all worshipped some lost god,” Runilac said easily. Delta had to admit, it wasn’t untrue from what she had seen.

“Anything else?” she tried. Robin the skeleton had been quiet up to now, spoke up.

“Master has given knowledge freely! He deserves your mighty gifts and power freely given for even this tidbit of free trade!” Robin said haughty. Jack winced and Delta blinked at the comment. Before she could answer, Doctor strode forward, his plague doctor mask looking more pointy than normal.

“Ah, I see this is to be a business transaction. Very well, we have nothing to offer and desire nothing of yours, please return to the dead-end hole you resided in and we shall brick you up once more. Our apologies for disturbing you,” the gargoyle said with such a succinct tone that Delta had to admit he could make anything sound charming yet rude.

The skeleton’s blazing eyes met Doctor’s for a long moment.

“Robin, knock it off,” Runilac grumbled. The skeleton instantly backed off, bowing its head.

“Of course, my master. I shall flay the skin off my back as punishment for speaking out,” it said gravely. Delta stared, mouthing the words over as if trying to understand them.

“Forgive Robin, I made them with care and might have been too gentle in places,” the demon said and exhaled.

“May... I have a drink before we talk?” he asked and Delta nodded, her faint form just visible to him.

“Of course! You’re a guest so no payment needed and since you’ve been trapped, you can even have food if ya like!” Delta beamed. Runliac’s lips twitched.

“I hope you have a maiden running the bar, being served by the innocent has an added taste!” he said with a glint to his eyes. Delta froze. She thought of Fera. Maiden. Fera... Innocent.

“My bartender has never been with someone, killed someone, or even ripped someone off. Her virtue is unmatched,” Delta promised. Runliac perked up. Jack was grinning widely at her.

“I need to see this,” he told her quietly.

---

Delta covered her eyes.

The bar surface creaked, blood vessels popped, and bone threatened to give. The challengers of the children and Kemy all stared in horror at the scene. Fera was sweating and her eyes looked smoky as her body heat rose in the stress. The giant muscle bound form of Runilac was also looking feral and intent on pushing his power deeper and harder, forcing the goblin to bend. Fera’s hand budged slightly to the surface as Runilac showed he had superior physical strength in their arm-wrestling bet.

Fera focused and she activated an ability she hadn’t used before. By having almost all the goblins in the room, her own power grew immensely, suddenly making the demon buckle in surprise.

There was an almighty crash and the demon was flung across the room as Fera slammed him hard.

“Dungeon home team wins!” Fran cried, toasting his mug of Shroom Pop. Everyone cheered except the humans. Deo did, however.

“Well,” Fera began, panting before mopping her frown with the rag she used to wipe the surfaces of the table.

“I want those iron flagons and forks delivered before the week is up!” she grinned in victory.

“Robin... I may be in lust or early stages of a crush, make a note to forge a spiked wooing mace for the goblin,” the demon mumbled as he tried to extract his horns from the wall. He finally managed to sit down and Delta eyed the group of Durence kids. She didn’t want to discuss Silence trouble around them. Fran seemed to sense her thoughts.

“Champions of the first floor. It is time for the second floor,” he announced and Delta blinked, barely seeing a smoky outline of the challengers. They had moved so fast! She didn’t even have time to stare at Kemy’s staff or comment on it. The girl was so adventurous! Delta was proud of her growing confidence, if not worried about her style.

“She wasn’t a bother, but the priestess was making my nose itch,” Runilac admitted. Delta chose to ignore that comment. Kemy smelled fine to her. Even a little like sweet nectar and chocolate. Delta wouldn’t mind that as a perfume.

“So, tell me about the Silence,” Delta asked quietly. The demon shrugged. He nursed his own drink which seemed to literally be hissing smoke. Fera’s concoction of fire crystal and spicy herbs.

“I mostly have second hand knowledge. Buggers are immortal from age and general wear and tear. Not even the good Lich style, but something else. They function off black ooze and something they called ‘Black Seeds’. I always knew the Vegan trend would be trouble, but I didn’t expect this,” Runilac sighed as he took a deep drink and belched sparks. Delta knew these were the little Bro’s leftovers in people. The Silence had been able to use their seeds as... immortality power? But wouldn’t that drain it or something?

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“They had tons of people dragged into the deeps to be... used for something. I wasn’t really out of the forge a lot so all I knew is what went down, didn’t come back up,” Runilac said softly. Delta paused, Renny’s family and circus flashing to mind.

“I heard something about that,” she admitted. She was aware of how quiet the bar was, but chose not to bring it to attention. Her monsters deserved to know this too.

“I met the leaders once, but my forge was in the first fortress, so I didn’t see the other three much. The one that rules where your dungeon managed to breach? I met her more than a few times,” Runilac’s nostrils flared. He slowly released his grip on the groaning wooden mug in his hands.

“So four fortess in total you know of?” Delta listed, trying to absorb this all to memory. The more she knew about her foes and monsters lurking below, the better. The demon snorted.

“If only things were so equal. Two forts, one castle, and the palace. Power in groups like this is rather skewed from what I saw. The leader, the one the others had to bow to? Yeah, he made my skin crawl,” Runilac said seriously. He listed names.

“I heard titles. The One of the Ending Light, She of Settled Darkness and He of the Broken Silence. All led by the one they only named in the deepest of shadows,” Runilac leaned in, as if to share a secret.

“Nephew.”

Her Dungeon clenched as if the cold earth was responding to the intent behind the name. Delta couldn’t breathe for a long moment before it passed. Siblings lost a brother... and the leader of the evil cult went by Nephew. Was... was this cult lead by some demi-god?!

Hell, if Bro could make monsters while Sis could open portals to gods... why couldn’t the Lil Bro make a single kid? Runliac went on, not seeing Delta’s inner turmoil.

“The fortress you got to is led by She of Settled Darkness. A real piece of work. Had her name slip a few times. Princess Mharia. Most call her Princess Marrow, but never to her face if the rumors were true,” the demon was served another drink.

“Don’t suppose she’s a weak little girl that uses weak monsters to do her work?” Delta asked, drawing a circle on the bar table.

“Wouldn’t know. I’m bound to the owner of the second fort. Some ass who went by the name ‘Lord of Ending Light’. He’s like a young demon trying to be all blood-knight. It’s sad,” the demon snorted.

“That’s all I really know. Like I said, wasn’t allowed to wander out my forge for long,” he grumbled. Delta let him drink.

It was no big deal. The demon only alluded to the fact that Delta might be facing this world’s version of the Anti-Christ.

“I need to go do some things, feel free to eat and drink until you feel ready to work. I’ll... find you metal or something,” Delta mumbled, distracted.

She had work to do.

---

Her Mana had consumed the leading rooms to the demon forge by the time she returned to the third floor.

You have absorbed X6 Reforming Guard Golems.
You have absorbed one iron spike trap.
You have absorbed 1 forge room.

New monsters unlocked. New upgrades unlocked. New room blueprint unlocked.

The golems were neat, but the cost and her limited Monster space on this floor wasn’t making her eager to make one. Between Jeb, Gnashly, her four gargoyles, and her Libro Golem, she was working with a single space.

She looked at the room before the forge, and decided this would be a nice spawn room for the gargoyles. They had been without one for too long and they could help Runilac in case the Silence forces attacked or any future adventurous groups.

In a way, it was two birds with one stone. Delta was going to hammer out an arrangement between her monsters and the blacksmith. She snorted at herself. Nu nearby grumbled at her, but he seemed to be absorbing the news of the potential Nephew.

She focused, making large stone pillars rise with places to perch on top. Her Mana and DP were coming along nicely, her Mana being full and the absorbing of the Forge room making her DP increase.

With some effort, the pillars of stone grew and connected like winding paths. In her mind, gargoyles lingered in gothic high places. She made the stone dark and the ambient light in the room become dull with some effort. She hummed as she worked, the dungeon process always relaxing to her.

She made false windows that had silk curtains. The materials she had gotten by absorbing most things on the Third Floor. If Delta was being honest, she was pretending she was Dracula and trying to imagine how the fabulous vampire would design his castle. Some suits of armour here and there... some cobwebs...

Delta wondered about the Feng Shui of floating Medusa heads but considered it going overboard.

She opened her menu and grinned at the newly listed option.

Foreboding Gargoyle Spawn Room. 60 DP

She purchased it and the room began to shift around her with a gothic groan. The colour fading to red and black... the sound of fake rain dripping out the fake windows loudly...

The smell of old European countries filled the air and Delta looked around. Was that... faint pipe organ music?!

She spun wildly as a bat flew past, the critter made free from the purchase screeched dramatically.

“What is a man?” a voice called. Delta pushed against a wall in panic.

“I’m not Metroidvania enough for this!” she screamed in response.

“Man is the term for people Jeb, mostly the male variety if you want to get into detail,” Doctor’s voice commented lightly. The large troll emerged into the room, confused but interested followed by the gargoyle.

They both met Delta’s wide eyes.

“You... heard nothing,” she warned.

Both monsters just nodded.

114: Sootable Upgrades

Once Delta got all the gargoyles registered into the new Spawn point, a weight she hadn’t even noticed on her shoulders lifted. The haunting organ music was happily supplied by Maestro. The musically inclined fungi seemed to have Delta’s entire musical knowledge under his cap now, and was ready to abuse it.

The forge beyond had been cleared out, and Delta felt she still had a solid amount of DP to spend...

Max Mana: 350
DP: 842

Delta was sure in a short while she could start stockpiling for her megastructure projects. A giant tower, some stadium. A space elevator? She spent the needed 100 DP to reform the forge in repaired condition. The anvil was not made of the steel metal she had seen in games or tvs but a glassy black stone. The forge looked like she could bake bread in it and lose a few fingers. The once broken racks were new and smooth, the ceiling was de-cobwebbed. She brought up the menu for the room.

Demon Forge: The den of mighty creation.
-Allow the forge to burn at a much higher temperature. 10 DP.
-A stock of iron, copper, and alloys form on the shelves in ingots. 50 DP
-Allows materials from the dungeon to form on the shelves for Runilac to experiment with. 20 DP.
-Creates a wave of soot sprites to aid the blacksmith in tasks. 30 DP.

Click to expand...

“Do... do the soot sprites have big googly eyes?” Delta whispered to the screen in awe. The menu flickered to edit itself.

-Creates a wave of adorable googly-eyed sprites to aid the Blacksmith in tasks. 30 DP.
-All items created in the Forge will have a mote of Delta in it. Effects unknown. 100 DP.

That sounded like a gamble. That wasn’t good. Delta had to think about this hard bef-

Her finger purchased the last upgrade without her consent.

“I need child locks on my menus,” Delta mumbled. The symbol of Delta blazed on top of the forge but not much else happened. Delta shrugged and purchased everything.

She needed epic loot to fight evil cult people. It was just a fact. Metal ingots formed on the shelves along with boar tusks, various flowers, blood of a frog, bark of a Wyin tree, Fera brews, Bob pincers, Ghoul teeth, and Dark Drake Feathers.

And of course, plump Gutrot mushrooms.

Delta glared at them with an evil eye. However, she was soon distracted by the wall leaking pure darkness.

“I don’t think that is normal,” she said slowly. Did she have to call a pest control guy? If it was dark, would an electrician for light be better? Soon a dozen wide eyes looked up at Delta. One or two would have been adorable, the undulating mass below her however, had hundreds of eyes that looked more like a single creature.

Delta silently left the room.

What is wrong? You look like you’ve/ you have seen a ghost...

Nu’s box appeared. Delta swallowed.

“Trypophobia...too many eyes in dark... holes... moving holes...” she gasped. She looked back and a few soot sprites left the room curiously. Their little hairy bodies and curious noodle arms wiggled. Her heart melted. The flood of them with their bulging eyes and mass followed quickly, swallowing the few isolated sprites like a creature who function in parts and Delta’s heart screamed.

---

A tremble went through the stairs and Grim frowned. His tongue felt tingly.

“Anyone else feel that?” he asked as the noise sounded like a wail of terror. Everyone shared a look before Grim sighed.

“Must be nerves,” he mumbled as they reached the bottom of the stairs. The thick layer of roots and leaves combined with the faux-sunlight dancing through the canopy above made for a breathtaking sight to welcome them to the second floor. The scent of clean air and a peaceful tranquility overtook them.

Grim remembered the giant worm, frogs, the mime, and such... and couldn’t relax like the others did.

“All this moisture is going to ruin my pages,” Tom the tome told Poppy sternly. Kemy gestured to a few stumps and fallen logs that vaguely looked like a perfect camping site.

“Why don’t we sit down and Grim can tell us what he remembers from his trip before we move on?” she offered. While full of food and rested, it was a good idea. The Dungeon wasn’t going anywhere.

Grim reported on the female frog, the giant worm thing, the bees... and the mime. The others digested this for a long moment.

“And that is old news. Delta should have made tons of changes by now,” Grim said bluntly.

“This is perhaps the oddest Dungeon I’ve heard of,” Tom admitted. Everyone turned to the powerful-looking book with a happy mushroom sticker plastered on his front. No one really dared to comment on it since Tom had a habit of going off into angry tangents about defacing books and the oppressed novels with no hands.

“What do you know of Dungeons?” Poppy asked calmly. Tom floated up to stare at her.

“Know? Know?! I know plenty! Ask away, do you wish to know about the great Swamp Dungeon that produced a toxic slime for miles? Do you wish to know about the great Automaton Dungeon who made nothing but puppets and things that pretended to not be puppets? I tell you, nothing quite makes a tale like getting up from what you thought was a kind bathroom break and finding you’re missing a buttock from a toilet mimic!” Tom harrumphed.

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“What about that silver one you went on about before?” Poppy asked bored. Tom sighed.

“I could, but it’s a depressing tale. Much like the Capital Dungeon and the Queen or the Twin Cores and their duality. Dungeons rarely give rise to uplifting tales,” he said, then thought about it.

“The Silver Dungeon was a very old Dungeon,” he began. Grim wasn’t sure where story time came from, but he wasn’t going to ignore free knowledge... even if he had a weird craving to eat Tom to see what would happen.

“The Dungeon gained its name from its theme and its avatar. The gleaming silver halls, the silver knights and steeds... and the Avatar of the Silver Saint,” Tom explained, voice gone from whiny to soft and enjoyable.

“The Dungeon was said to have over 50 floors on record. Each construct the Dungeon crafted was of solid silver and usually warriors, knights, or majestic beasts. The Silver Dungeon was very pleasing to the eye, even as it tried to kill you,” Tom chuckled.

“Over time, it began to make alloys from moonstone and milk star metal into its traps and monsters. It retained its glowing appearance whilst also becoming deadlier. It was considered the most beautiful place in the northern lands,” the book flipped his pages to show illustrations of a detailed hall that gleamed in endless reflections and milky swirls. Kemy gasped a little as the picture moved to show a slight realistic viewpoint of the room.

“But one day, the unspeakable happened to the Dungeon,” Tom said slowly. The sudden tone shift shook Grim out of his enraptured attention.

“Did it get corrupted?” Amenster frowned, he had been mouthing Tom’s words to Deo so the boy could follow along.

“Smashed?” Kemy asked quietly.

“Worse,” Tom said gravely. The book leaned forward and with a deep rumble, spoke.

“It fell in love,” he whispered. The silence was suddenly pressing to the group.

“With who? How did that do anything?” Grim asked and Tom flipped pages until the visage of a young woman with a warm smile, calloused hands and a worker’s tan appeared.

“It all began with this woman, Tiamarie...” he said, getting into the story.

“Ah love, a terrible affliction,” said a sage voice from the shadows. Everyone spun to see a large frog covered in feathers and dangling beads, whilst holding a gnarled staff with rocks and pulsing orbs dangling off the top via strings and cords.

On her shoulder, an orange bird perched.

“Did you have to hop into our story time?” Grim asked annoyed. He was sort of into the tale now. He then thought about what he just said. The bird fluffed up as if sensing a foe encroaching on its nest.

“Watch your tongue!” the bird tweeted. Grim covered his mouth to hide his orange tongue. He narrowed his eyes.

“Stick a feather in your cap and flock off,” Grim said back. The bird expanded as if trying to appear intimidating. The frog looked pained.

“Children,” she said with force. Grim and the bird glared at each other.

“I am Devina, your guide on this floor. I shall be following behind, escorting the injured, and making sure all goes well on your adventure,” she bowed and everyone nodded back. Devina looked like she had seen some things from the way she went on to talk about the second floor.

“Unlike the first floor, with its straightforward passages and single rooms, rewarded with warm food and comfort when you reached the end, the second floor is more open. If the first floor rewarded your courage to move forward, the second floor will reward you on how you move from here on out. There is no correct path, only one destination,” Devina smiled as she saw she had their attention.

“The entrance to the boss room is barred by three doors. In the method of fairness, our Mother has declared it kind to tell you of the keys before you reach the door and force you to backtrack. I will not tell you where the keys are. But they are not buried randomly or in any tree. They will be in key points in the area,” she said smoothly and the orange bird cracked up with tweeting laughter. Devina closed her eyes for a long moment.

“There are six keys, but you need only three to reach the boss. Hints may be found on the doors themselves,” Devina went on after a moment.

“What happens if we get all 6?” Grim immediately asked and Devina gave him a look. He remembered this fro gvery well. Right before a giant worm nearly ate him...

“Maybe nothing... maybe something. Perhaps the lukewarm response that the trial will be the reward of experience... but that is nonsense and boring. Collect as many or as little as needed... but a warning. On this floor, hidden in shadows and in trees are terrible demons. If they know you are here... you will find your time to rest vastly reduced,” she smiled, and it looked like she knew what she was talking about.

“Delta wouldn’t let demons into her dungeon, well besides Miss Ruli... and Mister Runilac... and I guess maybe that mime I’ve heard about...” Kemy trailed off for a moment.

The group went silent as they digested that.

This Dungeon was very odd. Perhaps... too odd for some.

“Any advice?” Grim tried. Devina looked to the ceiling in thought.

“Try the popcorn,” she finally said and walked off.

115: Vastly Giant Bridge

The misty bridge in the jungle was a thing out of a story. The rushing river below was hidden, only curling wisps of mist scattered across the bridge. Deo stepped on it as the jungle seemed to grow quiet around them. Devina, their guide, turned with a mysterious smile.

“I shall wait with anticipation for the results,” she mused and leapt off the bridge into the mist below. The orange bird flapping after her, cackling. Kemy rushed to the edge, her cloud like robe melding with the mist to give an almost sensual appearance, but she shook her head.

“I can’t see her,” she told the group. Grim sighed.

“She’s a frog, she’s as comfortable in the river as on land and this is her home, you don’t need to worry,” he pointed out with a roll of his eyes. Deo pointed before anyone else could speak.

“WE’RE NOT ALONE...” he warned. The group snapped to attention at the far end of the bridge that had mist so thick that it looked like a solid wall. The clouds of fog began to thin as if being noticed made them shy.

A large kneeling giant appeared as a shadow at first, before the mist peeled back like a curtain. Revealing a large, dark skinned, figure with muscles bigger than their own head, a leather wrap acting to preserve his modesty. He stood and the leather bands across his chest strained to the limit containing the might of this frogman.

“He’s big,” Amenster whispered. The frog tilted his head, large black eyes looking them over.

He pointed suddenly to the side of the bridge. In the direction of the point, a glimmering object could be seen.

A silver key.

It was suspended far out, entangled in roots by the handle. It dangled so dangerously close to vanishing into the mist below that it made the group nervous just seeing it.

“To earn the key... a challenge,” the giant rumbled. Grim looked about.

“I don’t see a puzzle or some obstacle,” he pointed out. The giant smiled, just the smallest upturn of his lips. He threw something that clattered to the middle of the bridge. Everyone stared down at the well carved staff. It was smooth from end to end, seemingly polished with some oily substance, dried out to give it a laquered shine.

“I am the challenge,” the giant acknowledged. He pulled out a similar weapon and smashed the butt into the bridge, causing it to shake slightly. The key rattled almost musically as it teetered from one side to another on its perch.

“One challenger may approach. To earn the key, I must be removed from the bridge for five seconds. Unnecessary power or antics will cause the key to fall. If someone goes for the key... it has its own defence,” the giant said, his voice a smooth deep thing. Like a deep well.

“Like what?” Poppy asked quietly. The river below ceased its rapid flows and something erupted high above the bridge in a rising flop, screaming as it gnashed its pincers together, water cascading down its rainbow hue carapace.

The thing vanished with an almighty crash below.

“Bob.” The giant seemed to think that explained everything. Grim seemed to choke up.

“That thing...” he muttered, face ashen. Kemy also looked torn between trauma and hesitant pleasant hand waving.

“The key is like a worm on a hook... for a bigger worm,” Vas commented, unaffected by the sight.

“Choose your warrior,” the giant called out and sat down, cross legged to wait patiently. Deo took a step forward, but Vas put a hand on his shoulder.

“May I?” he asked politely. Deo blinked then beamed.

“OF COURSE! I BELIEVE IN YOU!” Deo stepped back. Grim frowned.

“Deo is the strongest of us all,” he countered. Vas smiled as he passed his brown cap over to Deo for safe keeping. His hair, unnaturally smooth and flowing, framed his face.

“Perhaps... too strong. My master has built into me a great self-restraint for my own power. Failsafes in case I ever turned homicidal on him,” he explained with a little bit of pride. Grim opened his mouth then closed it.

“Can’t argue with that,” Poppy said and stepped back to a clear line that indicated the ‘end’ of the bridge.

Vas bent down and picked the staff up.

“VAS HAS THE POWER OF HEROISM AND FRIENDSHIP ON HIS SIDE!” Deo warned the giant. Grim quickly spoke up.

“Not all of us are friends! But He also had mild acquaintances,” he added.

“Also maybe a deeply hidden murderous rage,” Poppy reminded. Kemy looked at them.

“A… are you children okay?” she asked the group with concern.

“Mostly. Deo is convinced animals can talk and he just can’t understand them due to the shape of their jaws, but Deo is just that kind of guy. Oh, and Grim once tried to pull a sword from a stone and we found out his Dad stuck it there to plug a leak of rock water,” Amenster admitted.

“Rocks... don’t have water...” Kemy said confused, while Vas was walking towards the giant frog.

“You approach me?” the giant rumbled as he stood.

“I cannot hit you from afar,” Vas agreed with a polite smile. The giant suddenly moved and Vas raised his stick to meet the attack. The bridge rattled, but the force didn’t seem to travel through Vas as one would expect.

“My Master once travelled to de-throat Sirens of the green sea. I am quite used to processing sonic attacks and various frequencies in my body, these weapons are solid and the noise they make when struck together would be... alarming and potentially cause one to fall over. I cannot risk losing that key,” Vas said and pushed back as hard as he could. The giant budged just an inch..

“Ew...” Poppy said and Kemy touched her throat with wide eyes.

“Sirens... aren’t they the seducers of sailors?” Amenster pondered. Grim snorted.

“That’s wishful thinking of ugly pirates and sailors who have to explain why they have no cargo when they dock. Sirens can be traced back to meaning ‘Binders’ or such. I studied them when I wanted to be a famous sailor. They use sound and music to paralyze foes or utterly decimate ships if their choir is big enough. Seduction is just rumors. A siren would kill you if you implied they did anything like actually lure men in, the male ones in particular,” Grim grinned.

Vas pushed back and tried to slip under the frog’s pole to slam into his side, hoping to knock him off the bridge. The frog grabbed the weapon and instead flung Vas high into the air.

“If he lands on the bridge, the key will be lost!” Kemy cried. Vas turned and landed with grace on the bridge’s railing. The bridge didn’t even move.

“The roots holding the key are tethered to the ground. These walls must remain solid to avoid knocking everyone off their feet by merely crossing it. I am in greater danger of falling, but oddly, in the most secure place to fight,” Vas smiled and brushed a lock of his hair out of his face.

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The frog joined Vas on the ledge with a single leap.

“Then let us spar on equal grounds,” the giant said calmly. Vas lowered himself, holding the staff so it was held at an odd diagonal angle.

Giant held his horizontally with both hands. The jungle went silent for a moment.

Then the clashing of wood was thunderous and furious.

Giant moved in with a swing suited for greatswords. Vas nimbly leaned one way or another, letting the blows graze past or missing him by inches. The frogman’s attacks pushed the golem back where the wall began to thin out.

Vas suddenly narrowed his eyes and went perfectly still. Kemy gasped in horror as Giant’s pole went straight for the side of his arm. The sheen Vas’ body took on was revealed not to be a trick of the light as the pole met Vas’ skin and the sound of wood meeting wood sounded again. Giant was rocked back by the sheer recoil of resistance he wasn’t expecting.

Vas lost the weird shine and the grainy wood material sunk back beneath his skin. He lashed out, not with blunt hits using the side of the staff, but sharp jabs with the flat end. Six or seven such jabs went into the giant frog’s stomach.

Deo cheered loudly for the golem. The giant frog slipped back, giving Vas the room he needed to step forward with his staff, swinging it around his body in a blurring arc of wood.

The frog was not the master of the bridge for no reason. He took the hit on his neck directly, the bulging muscles doing their best to meet the challenge as the frog pulled one leg in towards his chest, narrowing his own eyes back at Vas.

Then he pressed his head to the side, trapping Vas’ staff between his head and meaty shoulder. Vas wasted a precious second trying to tug at it before the giant's leg shot out. Vas sailed off the bridge and into the misty abyss below. Silence reigned as the giant frog rubbed his neck where he released the weapon. He turned to encourage the next challenger but froze as a strange sound began to echo back up. It was the sound of rock being torn off and splashing heavily into the water... of something creaking.

“WOAH...” Deo stared as Vas flung himself back onto the bridge, lashing tree roots piercing out the back of his dirty white shirt like extra limbs.

“Four seconds... I assume I get the same time limit?” the golem asked blankly as the roots looked like liquid spider legs in the mist. The giant turned and answered by throwing Vas his staff back.

Vas began to twirl it between all four of his extra roots and hands. The staff was almost impossible to track. However… the frog merely met the whirling attack that came in at his blind spot from his right..

The giant blocked it without even looking.

“I’ve fought spiders before. I am used to many limbs,” Giant smiled. Then he leapt high up, his staff point down like a spear.

“But if we are resorting to tricks... I don’t need to win,” the frog called down as he fell.

“I only need to make you lose.”

Vas rushed to meet him as Grim asked something casually.

“Did anyone else know that Vas was a tree spider thing?” he asked aloud. Deo thought about it.

“NO!...BUT I WISH I DID! THAT’S SO COOL!” he said, dancing a little in excitement.

“Mr Japes really stuffed a lot into him,” Poppy commented.

“I wonder if he comes with snacks...” Amenster pondered.

Kemy was dry heaving. She had no real comment.

---

Delta swallowed slightly. She couldn’t even muster a joke or something to snark at. This was too serious. The doors deeper into floor 3, unconquered land... shook once with a mighty rumble. The Delta rune of protection flickered as it tried to handle the strain.

Her guardgoyles did their best to hold their statued forms against the door, adding bands of extra strength to the door. But it wasn’t just pure strength attacking the door. A dark power was animating the attack. Delta focused on the door and felt the stale feeling of a stagnant pool of power.

She focused on it and was greeted with an image. Down the hall, over an army of bone and dripping flesh... past the flies of gluttony...

To a throne room where a little petite girl in a large frilly dress sat on the ornate dusty chair. She looked up, the face of a cherub surrounded by golden curls with a tiara of silver inlaced with a single ruby.

The face of the picturesque princess. If not for the fact half of her face was gone to reveal a black skeleton with runes branded into the bone.

“Let’s play... Big sister Delta,” she beckoned, her voice that of someone who had not spoken in a long time and the image shattered as Delta pulled back, her nonexistent flesh crawling.

Lovely. Creepy girls gone necromancer. Just what this place needed. I assume we just met Princess Mhari or Princess Marrow?

Nu asked, focusing his blue screen on the door.

Delta frowned... something about the skeleton side of the girl’s face... inside the eyesocket was...

Something was moving.

The fallen Brother... the cult... it was finally meeting her head on and Delta was worried that she wasn’t going to be strong enough to protect her village.

Her hand clenched...

No... Delta was strong enough.

“Let’s play, Marrow. My rules, your game,” she whispered and the attack on the door stilled as if hearing this before resuming with gusto.

You don’t have rules.

“Can’t cheat if I don’t have them,” Delta agreed and began to pull menus open. She didn’t have much time to make her elite squad ready to fend off an army.

And it all started where she started.

With mushrooms.

“Nu, get the mushrooms ready. Marrow likes to play with death ? I’ll bring something that doesn’t have ‘death’ in its cycle,” Delta pointed and Nu shivered.

Mushrooms and Undead... a war no one needed, but is getting anyway.

Nu muttered this but Delta was already flying into action. She had two rooms to visit and a special mushroom to create.

If her foe was Princess Marrow? Then she was Queen Fungi.

Delta would embrace her demons to keep the children and the village safe.

She’d even wear a damn mushroom cap into battle if it meant helping her friends...
She just hoped no one had cameras. Delta might have to seal herself away for a 100 years in shame.

116: Wyinning

If Delta was going to be making something to tackle the armies of the unliving dead, she couldn’t just pop out monsters; her 3rd floor was quite full, and as much as Delta tended to ignore certain rules... this one was mostly solid.

For now.

So, if she was being honest, Delta would have to go the way of her nightmares. Unending not-monsters. Mushrooms growing everywhere were considered decorations. Decorations sounded harmless until Delta reminded herself that her decorations exploded.

Well, they also smelled good, shot laser beams, and generally did whatever they wanted, but the important thing was that Delta had unlimited usage of decorations. As long as they didn’t ‘attack’ or block the way to any vital room then Delta could just reasonably and calmly... spam them unchecked.

She checked on the kids and found Vas exploding with tentacles and Giant doing some monk kung fu impression. She stared for a long moment before she moved on, shaking her head.

The things you saw in this dungeon. Seriously...

She flew to the secret garden where her shrooms, acts against nature that they were, were developed automatically with barely any oversight. Delta could just hang a white and red umbrella logo in the corner. The effect would be almost the same as a certain evil Corporation. The development speed of the new flowers and herbs had slowed down overall, though, since you couldn’t endlessly produce new strains without some major issues or needing a heavy dose of fire.

She focused on the room and tried something she had never done before... Delta did her best to hold the images of two different rooms at the same time. Delta held the secret room and the Mushroom Grove of the first floor side by side.

She used her Dungeon senses to draw two lines, one from each room, moving together the space between floors... the feeling was intensely fierce and she hoped this didn’t backfire.

---

Sis felt that, on one hand, Delta was her favourite among the many Dungeons. Everyday, there was a new event. Always new ideas, new directions, new thoughts... and Sis loved it. On the other hand?

A console of light magical screens exploded and sparks went everywhere as mushrooms grew out of the console, breaking apart devices that had taken a very long time to make and sustain. Sis sipped a cup of tea as she watched.

Delta tended to have no brakes on her ride. She was an airship that went higher and higher. A boat that chugged on and on. A mushroom that grew and grew. Sis was used to the explosions now. Being an avatar of the one true Sister, she had been given a limited amount of her real self’s thinking space at the start. This was normal across all Dungeons. Now? She had been allocated more processing power and a bigger room. The amount of things Delta broke did seem like something to worry about...

Sis saw something after a moment, causing her to not fear this new development.

The mushrooms spread their thin threads into a singular unit, weaving in and out the mess of defunct magic wiring and runic devices. Their threads began to connect where wires were exposed, the mushroom caps replaced buttons, and spongy material filled out the missing space.

Decay was the reusing of the old to fuel new growth. Sis saw this now.

Sis could destroy this. Revert everything to the old ways, but Sis and her brother knew this was a dead-end. Delta was the key. Delta was the whole reason they even tried this.

Sister and Brother were such silly old godlings (by most people’s reckonings), the mistakes they had caused - the pain they experienced trying to fix their problems, which would give way to new problems. They tried so hard to care for the life they made possible. Sometimes they worried that they were becoming accustomed to being ‘gods’. Brother was especially against any religion in their name, he got annoyed and tended to curse such buildings with Taxes or infest them with goblins. Sis agreed with the sentiment, but more quietly.

They were people too. They were just doing their best. However, Sis knew they were stuck in old methods. They really did need some young blood to show them some new ideas, someone who could think outside the box.

Sis giggled as the mushrooms began to light up and hum as they started to mimic the various machines. Delta leaked happiness to whomever was willing to just listen. Sis... Sis would protect that. This world desperately needed a little more laughter.

Delta brought more than just a little.

---

The rooms snapped and in between the floors, a single new room was formed. Delta gasped and then clapped her hands once in delight.

“I did it!” she cheered and did her best to fly to this new space to see the results. A room with no entrance or exit, but which drew upon the functions of two different rooms. The secret garden and the Mushroom Grove.

The Secret Grove.

Delta stared around the cave like room and tried to open the window, but a message appeared.

Upgrades and progression are based on parent rooms. No upgrades present here.

Ah, Delta could see that being a fair trade for ignoring the room count and using cross floor cooperation. She focused her attention on her new weapons and a screen opened up.

Please choose base parents for the new breed. End result will always be a mushroom.

Delta cracked her fingers and in the first slot, selected ‘Gutrot’. The list of potential matches and effects began to unfold before her. Delta swallowed once as she adjusted her tie.

“I’m just a tough core doing tough things,” she growled out in her best army voice. Surely, if she did this carefully and weighed the pros and cons- She noticed a button at the bottom of the screen.

Random selection.

Delta stepped back, staggering as she panted.

“What evil must I fall to?” she demanded of no one then looked around for a familiar blue screen. She pursed her lips.

“Maybe first time for luck?” she reasoned. She blew out a sigh after a moment.

“I’m alone, who am I trying to convince? Gacha time!” she giggled and pushed the button and watched options flew past like a slot wheel.

“Something cute, something cute, something cute!” she chanted and the wheels began to slow, revealing a single image that was...

“Fudge,” Delta said, voice sounded shaken. The Gutrot match showed a picture of a curvy tree.

Wyin.

That... was not good.

---

Giant was not someone who could claim to have many fights under his belt. Besides the spider invasion and scuffling with Rale, the only major fight had been against Quiss and that fight had been more verbal than physical.

This child, this being, was proving to be his greatest foe yet. He swung his staff around his massive frame, slapping away three of the four tentacles made from a soft green plant material. Their owner, Vas, moved in to swipe at his leg hard. One wrong move and into the river they would go. The true challenge of the match was, of course, the fact that Vas had means to return to the bridge even if Giant did manage to knock him off. The tentacles would have to be disabled...

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Giant moved in as the golem flung himself over his head. Giant reached out and snatched one of those snake-like vines. He yanked, pulling the golem in hard. He flipped the vine over Vas’ head and under another vine. The thing went wild, tangling just as Giant had hoped.

Vas made a palm strike into his chest and Giant gave a grunt of pain as the sheer strength was enough to match his own. He skidded back along the railing and Vas eyed his two tangled vines with a curious expression.

“Logical,” Vas concluded and reached for the tangled mess, but Giant was on him in a second. He would give the boy no time to right himself. He used his staff to vault high into the air, like a pole jumper, spinning to plant his staff into the shoulder of the boy.

If he didn’t dodge then the worst that would occur would be a broken shoulder. Giant wasn’t aiming to murder children in his proper debut as Mother’s bridge guardian. Vas decided to do something odd, however. He leapt back on to the bridge, right into the center.

The bridge shook just a little as the stone and binding roots that formed the foundation of the bridge trembled at the impact.

Giant watched curiously as Vas turned back to his group and seemed to pray to himself silently. No words were heard and his lips moved softly. Giant could definitely guess that he was trying to communicate with his team, but he was not doing it in any way Giant could see.

Giant stomped hard after Vas, the bridge shaking with each step. Vas turned and used his remaining tentacle limbs, shot straight up into the air with extreme force. Giant followed, knowing that the key would tumble out of their grasp should they both land, and he would win.

Vas turned and his plant tentacles latched onto his foe suddenly. Giant was so surprised that he didn’t react in time as Vas slithered around Giant’s body and onto his back.

“As my master would say: ‘You’ve fallen into my grasp for the next hundred years. Cry for me.’,” Vas stated pleasantly and with that, he began to spin them backwards, causing them both to dive towards the bridge, head first.

“But the key!” Giant yelled as he tried to break free, flexing with all his might.

“The challenge is that no one can step on the bridge but one. However, if there is no bridge, then they can rush for the key before it falls, no?” Vas added as the bridge rushed towards them, dizzyingly fast.

They smashed into the bridge and it reacted explosively, the edges and railings ascending as the impact crater caused the bridge to fold in on itself.

Giant closed his eyes as the mist rushed past, his head ached, but his skull was tough. He could just barely see the key being thrown high into the air as the roots let go. The sight of Deo leaping the distance and catching it made Giant sigh. He turned as Vas let him go. The golem looked sad, as if his part in the journey had come to an end.

“Well fought.” Giant praised and grabbed one of the golem’s arms. He twisted his body around and threw the golem back up the valley and high enough to be caught by the cheerful, redheaded boy, Deo.

Giant smiled as the mist gave off the scream of someone named Wilhelm – (or so Mother said).

The river, his second home, caught him, resulting in a huge splash. He floated to the surface and let himself be carried along for a time. Just enjoying the cool water and the mist. What a fight... Giant could only hope all of them would be so grand.

The bridge would regenerate and rebuild itself, Giant had no worries there.

He bobbed along for some time before he saw a figure in the mist. A dark foreboding shape gently pushing his barge along the dark river.

Like the spectre of a ferryman coming for a lost soul.

“Delta’s river rescue service at your service. My name is Rale, do you have any allergies or injuries that needs to be addressing?” called the cheerful buff frog pushing a log along with his trident.

“Rale... I’m a frog. I can swim,” Giant sighed as his peace was disturbed. Rale huffed.

“I was hoping to rescue some humans, but you had to be a nice guy... ah well, climb on. We can play some poker with the crabs, They’re in the lead with 29 wins, but I think we might finally understand the rules soon!” Rale said brightly.

Giant just snorted and sat on the log as Rale hummed like a romantic boat driver, pushing them back towards the waterfall.

---

“Explain why... I threw up this... thing?” Wyin asked, voice ever so gentle. Delta scuffed her feet on the grass around the dryad tree.

“I accidently ra... you...science...” Delta mumbled. Wyin pursed her lips and pointed with one of her thorny branches.

“I just orally projectiled a mushroom,” she pressed. Delta eyed the now rooted shroom. It was... a weird looking thing.

The Gutrot/Wyin Hybrid was an odd duck at first glance. The pale brown cap looked swirly like varnished wood. The stalk was bright red with leaves hanging off it at random intervals. The scent was... like perfume. A faint floral thing.

It was a very pretty mushroom, but... like Wyin, the beautiful appearance hid a darker nature.

Delta ordered one of her blood rabbits to poke it again and the thing unfolded.

From the tip of the cap, two thin coils of barbed thorns whipped out, unleashed like some claymore mine, spinning to garrote anything that walked past. Delta was glad the bunny moved fast before the grass, the soil, and even the air was punished cruelly by this mushroom as it lanced out with its whips and its thorns rocketed off like shrapnel. Wyin blinked as her own wooden form easily deflected the projectiles.

“It’s called ‘Wyin’s Temptation’. I want my name on this thing now!” Wyin said, voice eager.

Delta stared at her. Wyin looked dainty and feigned innocence.

“It is my mushroom child,” she reminded Delta. Delta rolled her eyes.

“You’re going to be happy then. There’s literally like 30 different combinations with your name on it,” Delta pulled up her list. In fact, the list included Maestro, Mushy, Missy, and even let Delta combine things she recently found in the laboratory.

Slime Mushrooms... Delta could make slime mushrooms for chaos’s sake!

The issue was that the production time for them all would take forever, Delta had no idea how to filter out what would potentially make the most impactful combo on skeletons...

“What eats dead things and bone really well?” Delta mused aloud as she paced. Wyin spoke up, distracted as she played with her new child.

“Men,” she commented. Delta paused, turned, and eyed her flatly. Wyin coughed.

“Pigs, I mean... pigs eat almost anything,” she clarified. Delta opened her menu and scrolled.

Sure enough.

Boary and Bacon were listed as potential parents.

Piggy-shrooms?

Two unholy eating forces of the fungus and animal kingdoms combined? Delta decided that if she was going to beat up an undead child, she might as well do it while riding a pig mushroom to war.

She began to make her hungry hungry army.

117: The Buzz about Shrooms

Without a bridge, the group had to decide whether to backtrack to where the river was narrower. Vas had suggested tearing down one of the trees to make their own bridge but both Kemy and Deo refused.

“That’s just rude!” Kemy gasped.

“THE TREES DIDN’T HURT ANYONE!” Deo frowned.

Poppy just pointed to the overhanging branches.

“Then we can just swing on the vines, nyeh,” she muttered. Everyone followed her finger to the thin green vines dangling above the river. Without the bridge, the gap really did seem huge, but one by one, everyone began to grin.

Except Kemy.

“In other Dungeons… they’d be snakes, trap chains, curling vine grabbers, too flimsy-” she listed quickly with her hands waving in panic. She brushed down her cloudy robe where her legs were just visible.

“Delta wouldn’t do that. She’d have it if you swing the vines in a certain way, they produce a musical note then a song and it rains rainbows or something,” Amenster snorted. Grim grumbled. He swept his gaze out into the jungle.

“Or summon mimes,” he gritted out.

From the shadows, unseen, Devina’s chuckling could be heard.

“NO TIME TO WASTE! ADVENTURE FORTH!” Deo proclaimed and began to scramble up a tree like some crab monkey. Kemy’s nervousness grew, but before she could do much, a vine lowered within reach of her.

She blinked and saw no one else had gotten this reaction.

“We respect people and their modesty in this Dungeon,” Devina said calmly as she came to help Kemy tie the vine around her arm in a tight knot.

“O-oh,” Kemy stuttered, going pink as the vine began to carry her across as if she were no heavier than the cloud her robe suggested. She touched down as the the rest of the group grabbed their own vines and were crossing the space.

“WAHOO!”

“For glory!”

“Thank you for the ride, jungle vine.”

“I’m too edgy to enjoy this more than a little.”

“Excited noises, nyeh.”

Kemy covered her mouth as a smile burst forth. This group was simply too bizarre to be real at times.

---

Delta raised her hands high in the air.

“IT LIVES!” she howled into the abyss of between floors. Nu was behind her.

What have we become?

Delta gave him a hard look.

“Hard Dungeons making hard choices! We need this evil to protect those we love!” she reminded as the monster in front of them rose.

The beast was about a foot in height. The mushroom cap looked soft and pink with four little stubby legs that made it snuffle about with a large pig snout at the front. It sniffed then a little mouth with twin buck teeth opened under the snout to eat a random experimental herb.

Delta felt… just a little… that the thing wasn’t exactly… ‘terrifying’ in conventional views.

But its menu description would breed terror into all people!

Pigglecap: A harmless mobile mushroom that wanders about consuming any discarded trash or items. When fed directly by someone, it oinks a song of thanks. This is a critter.

How do you go out to make something dangerous and do the complete opposite?!

Nu’s box jingled in disbelief and Delta sagged in failure.

“I don’t know! I thought Mushroom and Pigs would give me… screaming green spore bois or something,” she admitted. Then she perked up.

“I didn’t check its upgrades!” she said excitedly and brought the menu up quickly.

Pigglecap: Critter
Give it rosy cheeks. 1 DP
Add a curly tail. 1 DP
Make it toot after eating too much. Sounds cute. 1 DP
Make it ticklish. 1 DP

Actually, this is turning out to be quite funny. Make something else.

Delta glared at Nu with a scrunched up expression.

“I’m a dangerous Dungeon!” she warned before she purchased all the upgrades and the Pigglecap grew even cuter. Delta had to admit she kinda loved it.

Nu brought up the crossbreeding aspect and pre-selected ‘Blood Curdler’.

Now, if my experience is correct, you just need to hit that big shiny button that is labelled ‘random’ and we should have a dangerous weapon.

“It’s the undead, they don’t have blood,” Delta reminded and changed it to ‘Starlight’. Her finger hovered over the random button but then she withdrew it. Gacha was a bad habit, but in this case? When she was told to push it?

Delta didn’t want to.

For the love of- I’ll do it!

Nu clicked the button and the second parent panel began to spin. Delta stared as it came to a slow stop.

Nu was speechless. Delta was too…

The image showed the Pigglecap.

A menu appeared to show the creation was already done.

A second similar Pigglecap burst from the Secret Grove’s soil and began to sniff about. Delta stared as this one was slightly more red than pink. She brought up the menu for the the new creature.

Blackhole Hog: Unique Single Critter.
This creature stores all items consumed in a pocket space inside its stomach. When enough mass has been crushed together, it releases it in a cosmic bang! Estimated time until the stomach reaches full capacity: 999+ years.

Delta opened her mouth but before she could say anything Nu’s screen flashed and the little piggy was reduced to dust with a surprised ‘oink’.

Best to do that before you get attached and give it character development.

The screen explained and Delta sighed, she was relieved that the ticking pig bomb was no longer an issue, despite how cute it was. She glanced at the upgrade menu for it, to see if it could be made safe.

Most were the same or had the same idea.

Reduce the needed time for Big Bang by 1000 years! 5000 DP.

Delta shivered and put a giant bee along with a symbol of holy water. She could mix items in, but she had so much junk the menu would take days to fully navigate. She cranked the lever.

The room groaned before the new mushroom appeared.

The mushroom grew on a tree in a weird hexagon pattern that gleamed silver. Delta prodded them with her power to cause them to do something. All five of the hexagons flashed and the surfaces rocketed forward with a spray of steam and heat. The stingers hidden underneath flew forward with the silver heads attached. When they smashed into a wall, they exploded in a steaming mist of holy water.

“Holy Stinger Missiles,” Delta said simply.

Stinge-

Nu cut himself off with a visible groan that shook his screen.

A bee joke. Really?

“I thought it was funny when I made them…” Delta mumbled. Nu looked ready to rant when he cut himself off and then slowly began to speak.

Delta… what other funny joke combinations spring to your mind?

Delta put her hands to her chin.

“I thought of a few, but I’m trying to be serious here, so I didn’t go for them. The Stingers were just to make me feel better,” she confessed.

The screen of her friend leaned in and said something that scared Delta.

I want to see your jokes. The punnier, the better.

Truly, the Dungeon had gone mad.

Delta nervously began to select the next combination.

---

The sight before them was beautiful. Large colourful pools of honey that smelled spicy, sweet, fresh, and inviting. Swarms of bees moved with purpose around the large stone pillars that seemed to tower like giants over the group. Kemy felt like she had stumbled into some untouched paradise as honey flowed like waterfalls into smaller pools causing new flavours and scents to rise up. From several stone pillars the honey ran slowly down from some unseen plumbing that kept the honey from congealing in their pools.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The buzz of the swarm was in a tempo of high notes then low trills followed by cheerful calls. Several workers brought in fruits and flowers that were delivered to the tallest tower of them all. This tower was decorated in solid honey gem stones and had the purest golden honey flowing from it.

From this tower, the biggest bee Kemy had ever seen landed before them. The bee was bigger than a person and its stinger could have been a curved sword.

It buzzed a few times and waited.

Everyone shared a look… except Grim.

“Adventurers, we’re here to explore… maybe get a key,” he said bored. Kemy turned to him in surprise.

“You can understand Bee speech?!” she asked in awe.

“He’s being pretty clear. Everything talks in this Dungeon! Frogs can speak, birds can speak, why can’t bees speak?” he replied defensively. The bee buzzed and Grim nodded slowly.

“He said his name is Buzz…buzzy-buzz, and he can get the Queen. We can take one of the rock cups and enjoy a free honey sampling while we wait,” Grim continued to translate. Deo’s eyes sparkled.

“WHAT’S HIS NAME!” he pointed to a random bee passing. The big bee buzzed.

“Bzzt-Buzzybee,” Grim said, already frowning. Deo pointed to another one.

“Buzzing Buzzbzt.”

Another.

“Lord Buzzington? Yeah, I heard that right…”

Deo lowered his finger.

“GRIM HAS THE COOLEST POWER…” he said with deepest envy. Kemy had to admit… She wished she could talk to giant murderous-looking bees who offered complimentary honey drinks. The bee took off and the rock cups looked carved for people with much bigger hands.

Still, Kemy went over to the soft blue honey pool and a bee took the cup to fill it for her as she failed to roll her sleeves up. He buzzed kindly and Kemy bowed back.

She tried the honey with a long sip and… things… were just fine. She stared at her hand and wiggled her fingers.

She had meaty thing grabbers! How had she never realised this?! The bees around seemed to eye her before they gently buzzed her over to a purple pool. Bees… they were so fluffy! She hugged one and it was fluffy. It seemed to accept the motion and Kemy was in heaven.

Bees were just big poofy dogs with ouchie butts!

“What’s wrong with her?” Poppy asked calmly as she finished her red honey sample. Kemy giggled as Poppy’s ears began to leak steam.

“I am communing with the ouchie butts and their fluff…” she whispered and Poppy winced at the volume.

“This honey is mostly untested on human consumption,” Devina the guide appeared as if conjured. She eyed Kemy with amusement before gesturing to the purple honey.

“This is detox honey. It will mostly cure anything in this jungle that bites, pinches, or stings,” she explained. Kemy giggled and fell face first into the pool.

She emerged a second later gasping and spluttering.

“I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to ruin the honey,” she cried and Devina scooped her out as a second giant frog burst into the clearing. His crimson shorts and buff physique made Kemy stare.

“I sensed drowning people!” he panted. Devina at her side stiffened and then casually turned her face blank.

“Ah, Rale… do you always come running when people fall into less than solid matter?” Devina asked casually. Kemy suddenly felt a bit nervous, but she had no idea why. Rale, the male frog, puffed his impressive chest out.

“Always!” he promised. Devina just smiled at that but that was when the swarm stopped.

The buzzing that had become so easily background music abruptly stopped. The sudden silence was jarring and Kemy stumbled again. The entire swarm of bees had all landed and gone still.

From the biggest tower, a bee emerged. Not the biggest or the most dangerous looking, but this bee had something no other had.

There was power to her. She oozed it like a perfume, owned it like a possession, and used it like an accessory. This bee had more curves to her than most and her posture had the sway to it of someone who moved elegantly, in air or land. Then there was the ornate crown she wore.

“Welcome.” The voice that emerged was not a harsh buzz or a garbled mix, but a breathy soft song. The Queen could speak and she seemed eager to show it.

“I am the Queen, the mother, the guiding hand… I am Queen Elizabuzz, the First of her name. Royal Daughter of Delta the Mother. Guezzts of my mother… you may also call me Queen Lizzzie,” she pronounced, some of her words betraying her natural tone of sensual buzzing.

Deo waved.

“HELLO! YOU HAVE A VERY NICE CROWN!” he announced. The bee swarm seemed to grow even stiller and the Queen touched one leg to the crown in question. She seemed to take a moment to respond.

“You have a nice soul. Pure as my honey,” she complimented back before she stretched her arms out.

“Today, we begin the challenge that is our duty! We are not swarmz and Queen! We are Key Keeper and challenge. Before uzzz is the first group of challengerz. Today… is our day,” she called to her children before all the pools of honey began to drain.

A rumbling in the earth made Kemy stumble again and the biggest stone pillar, the Queen’s tower, began to gush in all directions and sides, the many hues of honey that caused the rock to glow in the light. At the very top, a single golden honey gem became transparent.

Inside was the faint shadow of a key.

The group all stared as the Queen lifted into the air.

“Honey of help or hindrance. Rocks of strength or trap… reach the top and earn my favour,” the Queen said and the swarm all buzzed as one. Then, the swarm took to the air before they began to fly in a circle around the stone pillar, obscuring the top and making any direct path with flight or some conjuring spell that would simply yanked the key to them impossible.

“Don’t lick the blue stuff. It makes you high,” Kemy said in a whisper.

“Also avoid the green,” Amenster added. Everyone looked at him as he stared at the sky.

“What does it do?” Kemy asked with a feeling of dread in her stomach. Amenster blinked.

“Nothing. It just tastes of old sock,” he explained.

“HAH, I WASH ALL MY SOCKS SO I DON’T FEAR THAT!” Deo grinned and took off for the tower.

“His logic is backwards, but he’s got a good heart,” Devina said bemused.

Kemy could say the same about this Dungeon.

---

“And I thought of this one which made me giggle,” Delta said happily as she chose one of her bats from the gargoyle spawn and one of her guardgoyles. The result grew on the stone wall of the room and loomed like a tiny ledge.

Delta activated it and the thing detached from the wall and landed with enough force to half-bury itself in the soil. Then it turned soft and spongy before it flapped with wings back to the stone wall, becoming rock hard once more.

“We can put them in the jungle and be home for bats as well so they can be the night!” Delta beamed.

Nu looked at the sheer chaos in the room as mushrooms of all shapes and sizes roamed, exploded, stabbed, melted, consumed, combined, and he twitched.

“Nu?”

I’m repressing.

“This was your idea!”

He twitched again.

I’m also repressing the blame.

---

118: Hero

The door to the surface.

The barred path to the interloper.

It should have bent and buckled under their continuous assault. It should have cracked and splintered under their unyielding barrage. It should have crumbled under their hate. Yet the door remained strong, blazing with that accursed symbol, pulsing orange light that seared their sight. The forward vanguard captain eyed the door with uncertainty.

“I expect you have a good reason for this hold up?” came the voice of the Princess. Her voice like fingers running through the inside of his skull like a bored spider.

“Enchanted door. Brute force is having little effect,” he reported. The sigh of the Princess of Bone was loud enough that all the marching dead around them rattled with uncertainty.

“Then use magic or perhaps try one of the various alchemy solutions that our researchers spent many, many years making?” the voice pointed out with a sweetness that barely hid her annoyance. There was a strange noise like a creaking hatch and the top of the door opened like a flap.

“Well... I suppose if nothing else, big sister will cull the idiots,” the Princess of Bone said with interest as five strange things were thrown by a winged creature before the door was rapidly closed up.

They hit the walls in various places, sticking instead of bouncing. They unfurled into a strange hexagon-pattern with a sponge cap underneath.

“It’s a mushroom,” rattled one skeleton. The forward Captain would frown if he had any skin left.

“Are we being insulted?” he clacked back.

Then the mushrooms began to explode with screaming stingers like that of a wasp. They rocketed about the room and impaled many skeletons, carrying them around as horrible, burning, bright, holy fire leaked out the ends to make it fly!

More than a few stingers came to a stop in the Flesh Wall.

“To cover!” the captain roared as his men took a protective stance with their shields, walking back behind the Flesh Wall.

A ten foot walking nightmare of congealed skin and muscle that soaked up any attack with ease. The captain felt confident that they would be safe behind it for now. The sound of the hatch opening again on the door made the captain pause.

He peered around to see a ball of squishy texture rolling to a stop before the door.

It didn’t seem to be doing anything for a moment, but the Flesh Wall moved forward, slowly on its countless toes and fingers. The thing quivered as if in anticipation. A few archers smacked dark arrows into it, but it didn’t have any reaction to being attacked until the Flesh Wall moved ever so slightly closer.

Then it unfurled into a nightmare with a petit little mushroom child in the middle. It cackled as countless barbed thorny vines rose up from its petal base.

“Hello boys... This is Wyin coming live from the second floor,” the evil child spoke with a voice far too old for its appearance.

The form shifted slightly, leaning forward with a smirk.

“And you can’t forget the unforgettable Maestro!” the voice turned masculine and booming.

The vines dived into the soil and the tunnel began to shake as the creature’s left eye became a black void with a deep orange light as the right became deep amber.

“And this is the beta-version of the Mic-room,” they said in sync.

“Charge!” the captain roared as the creature threw out strange mushrooms that looked like coiled rope as spears of thorny vines tore the Flesh Wall apart like it was made of pillow stuffing.

“Sorry boys, you made Delta mad and she’s got her favourite kids playing Dungeoneers... you aren’t allowed to mess that up. You aren’t allowed to make our mother upset!” the hybrid roared as the vines began to shear the marrow off the bone warriors. One of the rogue bone warriors threw a flask of bubbling acid that smashed across the torso. T he creature looked down at the mess.

“You know... Delta worked hard on this,” the female voice said without any emotion. The orange left eye blazed.

“First, you come in rudely knocking... then you come near her with your freaky flesh thing... and now you melt her work?” the male voice added.

The eyes blended together into a burning orange amber. The captain felt his spine tremble, despite having no nerves to transmit fear through for some time.

The being looked up as the thorns that grew out the walls began to vibrate with a low song, of all things. A choir of people singing in some sort of deep, ancient language. It pulsed and the captain shook harder.

“Tell your brat of a princess that we are coming. Your walls, your doors, your dead, your god... they cannot protect you,” the mushroom creature warned as it rose up into a throne of thorns.

“Even a god will become food for the worms and mushrooms,” the female voice rasped as the tunnel came alive with thousands of vines, entangling the soldiers and beginning to rip them apart.

The last thought the captain had was that perhaps... they were not the scariest thing under this earth.

---

“Maestro will sing a song and Wyin will grump. It’ll be fine,” Delta promised Nu. The box was silent as they stared around at the creations Delta had invented.

Spidershrooms latched on to faces and injected spores into the lung. That was being shelved because Delta felt like she wasn’t quite ready to unleash that on people and her true foes were undead with no lungs.

Goblinshrooms were just statue-like mushrooms that occasionally farted. They had a strange thing where they occasionally changed facial expressions, but Delta didn’t think they were dangerous.

Delta did hit upon something strange when she merged her fire and water crystals with the mushrooms. The fire crystal she had so long ago gotten from that farmer and the water one more recently.

Delta peered down at the mushroom that seemed to be burning and called up its screen.

Mushroom of Fire:
A mushroom that has obtained pure fire elemental energy. This creation can be ingested to force someone to face their fears. They burn alive if they cannot find courage.

Mushroom of Water:
A mushroom that has obtained pure water elemental energy. This creation can be ingested to force someone to face their sorrows. They will drown in regret if they cannot find the will to carry on.

Click to expand...

Mushrooms that caused one to go on a spirit trip? Delta was making some real good stuff now!

So... Delta did the only thing that was logical. She merged them.

Mushroom of Steam:
A Mushroom that has obtained that rare elemental energy of steam. This creation can be ingested to force someone to purge their impurities from their body. They will cook alive if they cannot purge themselves of toxic substances and become more.

“Oh God... weak kids with low chances of being a god with legendary techniques are going to invade me,” Delta whined to Nu.

Just reverse merge them...

Nu sounded done with the affair.

Delta did so and the result was indeed different.

Mushroom of Hotspring:
A mushroom that has obtained the rare elemental energy of Hotspring. By soaking this in water and bathing in it, your body will recover almost supernaturally fast from physical wounds and innate energies will return sooner.

Delta tried mixing them next, both combos ending in the same product.

Saunashroom:
A mushroom that grows to be as big as a tree. Inside a unique hot spring can be found. Some may help and heal someone, but others may be trapped to dissolve victims over time.

The water mushroom looked like a jellyfish on a stalk, see through and smooth. The Steamshroom looked like a little house where steam poured out a little chimney. The Hotspring mushroom looked like a basin at the top with boiling water that steamed. The Saunaroom?

It was like a giant smurf’s house with a cheerful wooden door and steam fogging up the sap-like glass. It looked inviting and Delta glared at the words that one of these might just decided to eat people...

It was something to think about later. Delta had an undead army to remove and offering free hotspring sauna trips wasn’t going to do much.

“Swordshrooms?” Delta asked Nu as he checked up on the various projects.

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Look worse than Kemy’s staff. You wouldn’t want the kids to see them.

Delta scratched that off the list.

“Any of the metal combos?” she asked briskly as she shorted the elemental shrooms in order.

Quite useless. They can’t move and if they get too big, they seem to crush themselves under their own weight. They also don’t reproduce.

Delta bit her lip.

“And... that?” she asked softly.

Nu took some time to float back and respond to her.

They have high compatibility and work better than anything else we’ve tried.

Delta gripped her hands into her skirt and swallowed once like she was drinking something bitter.

She looked up at the pond in the secret room where the creature slowly crawled onto the sand, grasping and twitching.

“Am... I a bad person for making this?” Delta whispered with doubt. Nu moved in closer and for a moment his screen flickered into a barely human shape as he seemed to put an arm around her. A frowning young man’s face showed before he was just a screen again.

No. If you made this for fun or kicks? You would be a Dungeon, but you made this to protect everyone.

The creature looked up as the waves of mushroom caps twitched.

“Mo...ther?” it rasped. Delta’s face squeezed tight with pain and hurt at the word. She stood up and rushed forward, putting her arms around the creature’s neck.

“I am! I’m here for you... please don’t hate me,” she begged. The creature slowly pulled its arms around her and simply spoke softly.

“I am... ready to... protect,” it promised. Delta looked up and brushed a lock of sprawling mushrooms that grew from almost every inch along its head and back.

“My hero,” she smiled with a watery smile. With that she stood up and planted a small press of her lips on its forehead.

“Hero. Would you like that as a name?” she asked and the creature smiled slowly, an effort.

“I... get a name?” it managed. Delta nodded, beaming despite how her eyes leaked tears.

“Always,” she promised and the creature stood to its full height and powerful muscles bulged.

“Then... I will be your hero,” he promised as the sea of mushrooms along his back wriggled like separate entities.

“I will be your hero in the dark so... you may shine,” he announced and began to walk off towards the exit.

---

Maestro knew that in most fights, he and Wyin would cream these bone-jokers. Sharing a body that could barely hold a smidgen of their most fabulous selves? Not so easy, he had to admit. The Micshroom was a ‘transceiver’ or an empty puppet someone who was hooked into the shroomnetwork could inhabit.

So far, that was Maestro, Wyin, the Pygmies if they ever banded truly together into that… unified Pygmy God mindhive, Mushy, and occasionally, Boary of the grove. Missy was still a bit young to fully use it since she was a new kind of Mushroom being.

Wyin and he?

They made a good couple in terms of battle. But Maestro was not blind! He knew the frozen tree of the north had her heart captured by a truly dashing knight. After all, Maestro was the one who gave Wyin live updates of the fight with the Holy-Pot warriors that consisted of several people against Sir Fran. If they got as far as Wyin? Maestro may have to bring Mother into a meeting to make her... ‘chill’ as the smooth youth would say.

She held a grudge.

Still, if a group that ever came through that beat Fran but Maestro really didn’t like? He’d egg the girl on to whip them with gusto. That was the fun thing about Wyin. She put on a deep edge about herself... but she was so lonely she would kill for Delta.

Well... they’d all kill for mother, but no one would just come out and say it where Mum could hear! They had all heard the chastising the Pygmies had gotten when they messed with Jeb in the third floor kitchen.

No one wanted that turned on them. Mother was such a pure person that anything she made... even if it scared her... she matured and made sure it was loved. Maestro? He had started out as an aggressive angsty Spitter and matured. Maestro guessed his attitude back then would have scared her, but his most recent transformation?

She was all over him in love!

To raise a murder happy Mushy into such a gentleman? Bob into a human-loving worm that just wanted to be petted? Quee who was an enemy but now turned to be a music loving boy?

Delta... Delta did that.

Delta was their purpose. Her love for humans became their love. Her wish to protect the children became their wish. Mother’s promise that everyone had good in them sounded almost possible in this Dungeon they called home.

So... if this was his real body? Maestro would only feel pride as he began to fall... only pleasure that he was falling in the name of Delta. Only feel a bit of regret he could not be with her too much longer.

The Mic-shroom was heavily damaged with toxic laced arrows and a mage that had talent in black fire. The embers burned deeply and gave off a sickly scent as if the fire was infecting the flesh it touched. The Guardgoyles kept throwing in Stinger Missiles or the occasional Jack’s (trademarked)explosive flask.

It wasn’t enough. This army of undead seemed to put itself back together, appear from dust, truly… seem undying.

“You’ve got moves,” Wyin said begrudgingly. Maestro chuckled as he sent a sonic blast into the approaching numbers, turning them to bone dust. The dust flowed like water away from them around vines to reform into soldiers.

“Darling, I am the king of grooves, but these suckers are making me look lame,” he complained.

“Do... you have anyone worth fighting for?” Wyin asked as she broke apart three more Flesh Walls in a single spear effort of vines. Maestro knew she meant someone besides Mother and he paused for a moment.

“Mushy... my naive brother who guides humans and likes it. He’s so clueless he once let a human stab him basically! Missy... she’s a special crossbreed but my little sister...” he panted as he blasted ghostly wraiths away with blue jazz.

He thought of someone suddenly.

“A human,” he whispered.

“She sang with the voices of goddesses and the tones of demons. She shook my world and we connected beyond love and lust... beyond right and wrong... we became a harmonious duet that made us complete,” Maestro perked up and his songs became solid... almost ripping through the undead.

“You love this human?” Wyin panted as she crushed bones under her fury.

“No... not love... she has her love, but we complete each other in another way. Something primal in the soul,” Maestro admitted.

“...Sounds complicated,” Wyin mused.

“Just make sure she doesn’t use you to steal your domain and become a primordial tree,” she scowled as she slapped down several bone bats.

“Specific enough? What even is-” Maestro was cut off as a series of black arrows pierced his side.

The avatar they inhabited knelt down in the result of their crumbling ability to fight back. A hatch opened up, but they ignored it, hoping it was stinger missiles or more bombs.

“Any idea how we can take down these boneheads before we go out with a bang?” Maestro panted, really feeling the feedback now.

“Kill them before they kill us,” Wyin announced.

“Genius,” Maestro’s voice dripped with sarcasm. Something moved past them and Maestro looked up to see a tall creature with its back to them. It was... perhaps once a human. All skin and basic human features had been removed to a basic template. The back of his skull and all the way down his spine like a mane of hair was gleaming golden mushrooms.

“I am... here,” he promised and turned to show eyes with deep orange light, no irises. He gave them both a thumbs up.

The mushroom infested moss around a corpse turned and walked calmly towards the undead army.

His fist pulled back and smashed through a skeleton warrior who was unprepared for the attack. From the impact, a ripple of muscles in the taut grey skin moved eerily until a burst of golden mushrooms grew down the skeleton.

“I am the only human that mother ever killed consciously combined with her hated Slimers with mushrooms added on,” the creature announced.

The creature stood against the army with his lone turned ally.

“I am Hero.”

119: The Royal Wee

The squad of ancient guards wielding torn armour and rusty swords stood perfectly still in the dark hallway leading to the inner part of their master’s domain. Their weapons had been carefully rusted with artful smithing to inflict +3 tetanus damage to invaders of the fortress.

The sounds of shuffling feet were approaching and the commander of this squad raised his dragon-slaying lance. It was famous for the time a dragon swallowed his ancestor and choked on the lance without chewing. The whispers of the Princess of Marrow filled their heads.

She wasn’t speaking to them, to be fair, but as the Necromantic lord of this undead army, her thoughts were hard to ignore. Non-verbal mastery of commanding the undead came with some unfortunate side-effects such as broadcasting.

The days she had a song stuck in her head were enough to drive them to crack their skulls against stone for five minutes of peace.

“I have this handled. For a core, she is dangerous, but as a commander, she is greener than the slime that develops on my bone knights. I can take her.” The Princess’ voice came across as petulant and furious.

Whom she was speaking to was unknown to her undead minions. They would have to simply accept it could be another Priest of Silence or perhaps the Nephew himself.

“...I don’t know, Cernick. What does a skeleton tile his roof with?” the princess asked with annoyance.

“Shingl...?” there was a pause and the whole network tensed.

“I don’t like you,” she hissed and the army shivered at her displeasure. The little Princess of Death did not enjoy undead puns. They irked her something fierce. Something they had learned quickly when a few skeletons resorted to comedy to handle their new existence.

The undercurrent of report came through, an attachment of a Zombie Priest in the throne room. They had functional eyes and could send funny jokes they read in books or snapshots of what they saw along the network.

Every one of the dead saw the Princess surrounded by two mirrors. A few of them silently groaned. It was the monthly tea time with the Princess and her siblings. The Princess’ face was half-rotten and half beautiful. The prim posture shifted and she lounged with a smirk. Only via the Zombies sending their senses could the voice be heard since it had no control over the Princess’ network of Death.

“Can't Take a joke. I was working on that one for like 2 minutes,” the princess complained as she picked her remaining nostril. It shifted and her bony hand smacked her fleshy one.

“Don’t be disgusting,” The Princess said with distaste. Her expression dropped to a blank stare at the mirrors.

“...I found it funny,” the voice came out quiet and the Princess scoffed at the left mirror.

“Tirse, you find Cernick funny if he burps or snores,” she chastised.

“Well, Marrow, we gotta find our kicks somewhere since you murdered us to use my soul and Tirse’s body to become an immortal monster,” Cernick said calmly and the boney fist smashed the right mirror.

“I warned you... not to call me that,” the Princess said with a deadly tone.

“We’ll never call you by your name. You will never get that honor again,” Tirse said and the second mirror just collapsed from the floating spell on its own. There was silence in the throne room. The Princess stared ahead as if taking a moment to collect herself.

“The death of two siblings will give rise to the third. Can no one here appreciate poetic symbolism?” she demanded of no one that could be seen.

She turned to the staring Zombie.

“Well? Are the invaders dead and becoming food for my grave worms?” she asked the priest. The Zombie checked quickly.

“Not... quite,” he admitted through a missing lower jaw. A talent that took years to master.

“Define ‘not quite’ in a more useful piece of information,” the Princess waved her hand as if wanting graphs and diagrams. The Zombie smoothed down his moth-bitten robe and tried to think about how to put what he was going to say in a more digestible manner.

“We are slightly boned,” he said and the Princess’ lips thinned before a massive scream filled the network.

--

The Dog skeletons shuddered as Hero released them from his grasp. Their necromantic energies were replaced with a network of golden mushrooms. He flexed his hands and felt their fresh bonds to himself. Unlike Delta, unlike her power, he could not make this last. The mushrooms were in the end... neutralizers. Energy feeders that would render all they infected back to inert stillness.

This was his purpose. He was not something to make or give life. He was here to restore order. His own body was a thin suit hiding a complex system of mushroom threads surrounding a human heart.

It beat with soothing rhythm.

That beating noise echoed out all the infected undead he had converted. Every golden mushroom including his own mane beat and echoed in time with another. A song of life... a proclamation of war.

The Drums of Delta.

He stared at the large hallway with torn paintings and ruined smashed treasures in display cases. He closed his eyes and offered a prayer to the god he had... that Farmer Dil had worshipped when he was alive.

“Two-Left eyed one. Guide me to the goodness in this chaotic world,” he mumbled and then opened his left eye.

“May Delta’s kindness save them where I can,” he finished. He marched and his squad of 30 strong skeletons stepped in time. They drew their aesthetically fitting rusty weapons and clattered as the mushrooms filled the hall with a hot yellowish colour. He held the Mic-Shroom close and felt no need to infect it. It was kin that held two stronger beings than he.

“I appreciate the march theme. Though, it’s perhaps a bit dramatic,” Hero said and Maestro stopped the song for a moment.

“We’re marching towards a princess. Imperial March is perfect, darling,” one of the voices promised. The other more feminine voice scoffed.

“Why not ‘High-ho we’re off to cut a wench’?” she asked sarcastically.

“Delta would never approve of those lyrics!” Maestro responded aghast. Hero had a feeling he had been ‘ignored’ for the moment.

“And some boot 'n' capes walking theme for some manchild that wears a bucket on his head is appropriate?!” Wyin demanded.

“It’s a ‘helmet’ to cover his burned and betrayed head, his human self hidden-” Maestro began with a huff but was cut off.

“He has a cape! Who wears capes besides smug pricks?” Wyin fired back. Hero watched as his army began to break down the door that had been barred with iron.

“Capes can be nice,” he tried to offer, but Wyin was on a rant.

“NO CAPES! They tangle, flap in your face, catch fire, get stuck in a trap,” she began to list.

“Oh, here we go...” Maestro sighed almost to himself.

“-Can spread stone curses, can be telekinetically used to choke you, can be animated to betray you, can be out of season, and worn by murdering usurping pricks that take your power and kingdom!” Wyin concluded, sounding like she was this close to frothing at the mouth.

“What if they have little detachable bits,” Hero mimicked touching his shoulders.

“...Acceptable, but it doesn’t reduce the asshole levels they produce because people will assume you have a collection of them to replace the ones you lose. Capes only work in fairytales or with serious Cape Magic involved,” Wyin admitted.

The door broke down and something wielding a staff pointed and let loose a stream of fire into the tunnel. Many skeletons simply collapsed, but Hero walked forward. His skin began to peel and crack, but from those holes, his true form was revealed as his human body turned to ash.

A heart protected and connected to a living mane of mushroom hair. He slithered into the crack and latched on to a skeleton, depositing his heart into the mage’s ribcage and reforming the human appearance almost instantly.

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“Holy frick on a record,” Maestro’s voice came from the crack where Hero had left the Mic-Shroom behind.

“I mean I could do that... but... he did make it look effortless,” Wyin agreed. Hero flexed his new body and saw the barricades and war formations the skeletons had formed to hold them back. He stared as one pointed a staff and a sickly green energy smashed into him.

Half of his mushrooms withered and rotted, only for the rest to devour and grow over them in a nuisance of life without end. What was dead would be consumed for the next cycle. What was living would feed the way to the next generation.

He frowned at the number of enemies and how his army was picked off easily from ranged fire. The amount of space to cover was immense and Hero had a feeling numbers weren’t the key here. Hero flexed his hands once and then simply collapsed into a pile of mushrooms and mycelium.

Then he consumed the room. His mushrooms exploded into endless splits of lines and creeping life. Whatever they touched was covered in a coat of mushroom heads. His human heart was dragged into a shadowy alcove and out of sight as the Skeletons were hoisted into the air and broken; looking like grim bird cages protecting the fungi inside. Magic was fired and curses were launched, but whatever was infected was surgically removed and left to perish.

Hero was a monster. An existence that could become a plague. A beast that would use all life as a breeding ground. This tenuous cycle given a soul and yet... he refused. He was no beast, mindlessly feasting and piecing innocent existence together like a fleshy tapestry.

He was a hero. He was Hero. He focused and the room was just a room once more.

He pulled every spore, inch of flesh, cap, thread... every atom of himself back together with a single thought.

Delta expected better.

Besides, he was scary if he wished to be, sure. But Delta could make hundreds of Heros if she wanted to in the years to come. If Hero was scary?

Delta was nightmarish.

---

“Rise! My army of Piggles!” Delta announced as five little Piggles casually sniffed the second floor. One was immediately jumped on by a Pygmy and rode into the underbrush. Delta pursed her lips and silently made a spare to bring her Piggles back to 5. It was made in the secret garden then ported to the second floor.

A neat workaround for the whole ‘no making things when people were on the floor rule’. The downside was that it worked on cheap items and critters. Trying to teleport a monster over had it...

Smear... to put it lightly. Poor Goblin that she hadn’t had a chance to name, but she did purposely make it braindead to avoid harming something alive. It wasn’t splattered like it had hit the ground hard, it was like the coding of the Dungeon had bugged out its 3D spacing and caused it to splice with a tree, rock and some of the ground. It was... like Jeff Goldblum and that darn fly.

Nasty stuff that Delta had repressed with expertise.

“Alright, so... your purpose is to...” Delta trailed off as all the Piggles little buttons eyes focused on her intently.

“Distract people by being too adorable for words,” Delta put her hands together as if in a business meeting which led her to think about the Pigglecaps in little suits and she nearly made an inhuman noise.

The critters shared a look then one simply rolled over in the dirt.

Okay, maybe Delta should have invested a litttttle more in the brain department, but this was fine. Nothing about these pigs could go wrong!

Another one was snatched by a passing Pygmy. Delta just silently made another and moved it over. One nibbled on a flower that might have been a magical flower and Delta beamed.

There, this was more how she liked it!

“I better check on the kids,” she mused and then had to decide if she meant the kids doing their quest or the kids down below waging biological warfare on the undead.

She took off, leaving her adorable Piggles to have fun. They’d be fine on their own for sometime.

---

The Pigglecaps sniffed the greenery and began to lightly eat as they went. One found a large fruit and swallowed it whole, ballooning for a moment before it burped. It was still for a moment before it passed gas with a relaxed oink and a pink spore landed in the soil behind it.

After a moment, the spore sank into the soil. The Piggles watched it.

“Oink...”

“Oink.”

“Oi...nk.”

A tiny little snout pushed itself out of the soil a minute later.

The watching cabal of Pygmy Shrooms all watched with utter delight.

---

Deo was so close. He watched as Kemy’s floating head passed in the pulsing air, singing a song he couldn’t hear. It looked like goat opera by her lip movement. He licked his lips, the tangy taste of the weird honey still strong. He used his astral tree stumps to move deep into the twisting tower he knew he was supposed to climb. All around him, flying syringes hovered nearby to catch him if he fell. Deo had never minded syringes, but now he definitely liked them.

They were so nice. But he had to focus on getting the key! It was right there like... a cookie!

He was so... close!

---

Grim pursed his lips as Deo clung to a small boulder near the pool, upside down and reaching for his shoe that he had lost. He turned to the confused bees.

“No, I don’t think it's a rogue sample. Deo is just super affected by drugs, it turns out,” he said with a pinch of his nose. His own vision was slightly blue and his toes felt ticklish. That was the extent of the honey’s effect on him and the rest of the group but Deo?

Grim watched as Vas finished returning from the climb, soaked in various honey, but holding the key.

“I’m falling up!” Deo said in the most mellowest voice Grim had ever heard from the boy. He simply flopped to the ground and hugged himself.

“I am the bee now,” he said with profound wisdom before he began to just...vibrate on the ground.

“We could leave him like this for a while,” Grim suggested as Kemy moved around with wide-eyes.

“That’s rude! Can’t be rude! Gotta be honest, gotta go fast!” she zoomed by as her robes were cleaning themselves of the last of the yellow honey. Poppy and Amenstar were watching this all with mellow amusement as they watched their hands move in the air.

Only Vas seemed unaffected.

“I am lubricated beyond measure,” he reported as he handed Grim the key.

“Give it a minute and you’ll be gunked up,” Grim said distractedly. There was a rustling of the bushes and everyone stared at the tiny little creature. It walked over, simply enjoying itself, before it walked and fell into a yellow pool that had caused Kemy to become hyper.

“What was that?” Amenster asked lazily.

“A pig with a hat,” Grim said, confused.

The pool exploded and something yellow zoomed past with a loud noise, knocking Grim’s feet from out under him and Deo reached out with awe and the damn blur dragged Deo into the underbrush.

“The pig with the hat just kidnapped our extremely high DPS!” Grim yelled in fury as he took off after them. He was quickly outpaced by another blur. He stared as Kemy leapt over a fallen log and was easily pushing through the thick forest.

“It was so cute!” her warcry sounded before he lost sight of her and the pig.

---

Delta made a note.

Put fences around the pools to prevent Piggle exposure... also, that she could be concerned the Bee population were basically becoming a drug cartel with all natural ingredients.

She watched where Deo was being dragged, the honey glueing him to the Piggle who was now gas propelling itself into almost flying. If she was guessing right, he should end up...

She winced as the pig and Deo went into the Pygmy entrance tunnel hole to land in the squishy soil at the bottom.

This would end well... right?

120: The great DEO...Hero?

A prophecy, told to the people long ago, spoke of the tall beings. Those that came from the outerworld. Their very existence made them stand out like red beetle paint against pale wood. Some tall beings had already long disappeared in the distant past. The most well known recurring in many tales was the dark warrior. Unlike their race, a close knit community with minor variants, the tall beings came in many extreme shapes. Some had curving jaws like animals, others had fibres on their head as bright as gold, and some defied comprehension as they donned a truly alien form.

Their language seemed to be a crude version, or perhaps an imitation, of the Great Mother’s voice. Unlike her soothing direct connection, the tall ones used harsh words and volumes to transmit their intent. What exactly that intent was would never be clear, but their actions were sufficient to understand the fundamental aspect.

They sought to challenge their world, perhaps out of pleasure or due to some instinctive drive. They played the puzzles, somehow impressed the brave heart of Sir Fran, and now... some were here once more. Unlike the Dark Warrior or the Burning Gold or the Flowing Ice... these tall beings seemed weaker, unrefined to an extent that made the whispers of the prophecy ring louder.

The thrum started, merely distracted by new steeds gifted to them by the Great Mother. Those would be addressed soon, but the entire grove was gathered in the City. A shuffle of the elder, the first of them all, stepped towards the plateau that overlooked the majority of the city.

He waved a hand as the Priest, the Tinker, and the Fungalmancer stood guard behind him, his loyal advisors.

From his hand spores came out in distinct patterns and with increasing frequency before abruptly slowing. The language of the Deep People was not something anyone could learn, but they also admired the way their demi-gods seemed to be able to converse in the tall one’s languages.

The King, Mushy, was able to even match the tall ones in power and keep them safe. The dark whisperer of Maestro could not be ignored and if the tall ones stumbled upon his dark dream-like domain, their escape was not assured, and the creator child, Missy, spoke rarely but with great wisdom.

The Elder spoke of the Great Mother’s relic. How it was vibrating, a hint that the time of trials was upon them. Their holy duty was finally here.

The Elder waved a hand and intricate spore patterns revealed that the last testing of the gold fire fibres were complete as he looked at the priest, who nodded, her own pattern expressing complex ideas and notions.

Most didn’t quite follow the gestures as the Priest explained how fire was the burning of... air? The Priest was the expert of all things magical and mystical, but she also seemed to draw on a hidden wealth of knowledge from the Great Mother. Usually, this kind of babble came from the Tinker...

The Priest must have seen their cloud of confused spores, because she sighed and simplified her message, her spores making much greater sense to the viewers. She had discovered a way to use the fibre from the Tall Being of Burning Gold to unlock a hidden potential inside themselves. She was able to tap into the great network of the Mother and saw a path not yet taken for them.

The path of the Purifiers.

The Elder nodded before he turned the conversation back to the main topic.

The Prophecy. The great words that were told to them many, many days ago, passed down by oldest to youngest through spores, taking many hours to spread to the four corners of their people.

The words of the Great Mother.

Only the Elder and the Priest could quite understand it and it’s translation was not quite simple to Spore.

From above comes a great importance. Outsiders from the world beyond, arrive with unforeseeable souls. Reflect them like the moon is reflected on water. They will seek the treasure. Halt them not, but test them so. Kill them not, but slow them so. If they reach the key to the underworld, they must pass because their end is assured. Grieve for them, for they know not their doom.

These words were held with great importance.

In actuality, what Delta had told them was:

“If people come in, treat them like they treat you and if they get the key after passing your non-lethal tests? Just let them go, they’re going somewhere far worse,” then she chuckled nervously and left.

Many of the Deep People had peered inside the sealed chamber. Using their blessed tunnels, they saw the great evil that rested there. The Wither.

Some scholars debated if it was called the Wither or the Whine... no one knows since none dare get close to the Doom and it had become a taboo to mention the Wither outside circles of Delta bloom powder.

A cult dedicated to the Dark Singer would slyly tell others that their dark god and the doom speak like old friends. Since the Dark Singer Maestro was quite popular the cult were, in truth, dedicated lovers of music who walked around with decorations of a single eye, or paint that matched Maestro’s dark design. They even tried to mimic using a cane like the giant singer.

The Elder raised his hands and the public watched with interest as the immortal Elder, Priest, Tinker, and Fungalmancer spoke as one, reciting their prophecy once more. No one knew if they were immortal, but in the ten generations of the Deep People since their creation, these unique beings had not withered and died, returning to the earth.

From above comes a great importance. Outsiders from the world bey-

There was a loud thump and yelp from a Tall Being that echoed through the tunnels that were dedicated to funneling sound as an early warning system.

There was silence and everyone looked to the Elder who was just nodding. A puff of spores showed his slightly nervous energy.

The Prophecy had arrived.

---

Deo licked his lips as he felt a strong craving for cookies or some fried meat. The ride through the jungle had made his odd mood fade and the strange little pig in his arms was exhausted from dragging them the whole way.

He stood up slowly and winced at the way his rump felt after it had been dragged across wild bushes, rocks, and herbs with thorns. He had fallen into some hole and the way up seemed far away, but the image of a soft looking cave with moss and flowers growing in rings all the way to the top where sunlight gently filtered down made the place look really nice rather than terrifying.

Delta was nice like that. She made things nice when she didn’t have to.

“Hello?” he called, feeling the vibrations in his throat as he spoke. He went for gentle and quiet as not to spook anything. He looked down at the cute little pig with a mushroom cap on its head.

“Hello. I’m Deo. Sorry for making you kidnap me. I wasn’t quite myself,” he told the thing and it seemed to be sniffing him. He wondered what it sounded like. Was it oinking? It was making some noise as it vibrated in his arms. He felt a slight shake in the ground and he turned to the source and saw a dark wooden door concealed in the shadows opening down the middle, it swung towards him and split into two doors.

Deo’s mouth dropped open as an envoy of little mushroom people walked cautiously out before three groups burst into twirling dances with long banners weaved from threads and plant stuff! The group on the left seemed to be waving little flags showing the symbol of black mushrooms and mushrooms with light in them joining as one and light firing into the sky. They danced shyly and away from Deo. The right group was mostly a dark mix of purples and elegance. They strode towards Deo with little twigs and bowing in elegant moves, their flags showed a blazing eye above a stick.

The middle group was the strangest, but also the best. Little legs carefully shuffled left and right as they hid inside little jars and pots, making them look like those funny crabs that lived in shells. One jar had a flag glued to their pot that showed a crown on a pot.

Deo began to clap and applaud but they weren’t done! He gaped as something began to weave around the groups. It was like a long sheet with yellow painted mushrooms glued to the back like a giant worm mushroom made of gold that at the very front, a single little mushroom posed with his hands on his hips.

It looked really new and some of the paint hadn’t dried yet.

This was like a surprise event that people stumbled across in dungeons, Grim had told Deo about them! He fished around in his pocket and pulled out a honey soaked coin. He presented it slowly with both hands. The little heroic mushroom took it slowly in return before it held it up with a squeak and ... puff of spores. Deo inhaled slightly and he felt-

Relic...gift...tall...success!

Deo blinked back as he rubbed at his nose as the strange cloud seemed to go right to his head. Mum always told him that he could smell out any flower in the garden blindfolded, he guessed that was working against him now.

Just like when he always knew when his Dad had a drink before coming home or when he could taste when Mum used the cheaper chocolate in her cookies. His senses were top notch! Except for the one that wasn’t.

But Deo always said you should appreciate things you have over those you didn’t! That’s why he loved hugging people when they spoke. He could feel their words.

The puffs were coming faster and he inhaled as they smelled really... orange.

Trial... come for the...maze of... to doom?

It was a mix of many spores and it was slightly confusing. But Deo was smelling... words? He focused and tried to make puffing noises with his mouth and they all looked at Deo for a moment as if waiting.

Deo had one eye closed and was puffing his cheeks as he spoke.

“He...loooo!” he puffed and waited.

---

The Priest watched the strange Tall Being seem to have some sort of inner organ failure. She conveyed her sadness to those closest.

He was puffless, expected, but it was still sad to see, but she was gifted with the power of understanding Tall Beings, somewhat. She walked closer with the Elder to listen.

Listening with their bodies instead of feeling emotions tinge the air with intent via the spores that entered their body was always uncomfortable.

She leaned in as the Tall Being tried to shrink down to make itself less intimidating. A gesture that would go over well as the hidden spear warriors above in the flowers would have easier access to the back of his neck if this turned out to be a trick.

The young outsider seemed to be saying...

Greetings! She quickly told her people this and they all danced and waved, making the outsider bare its teeth but also with a nod.

She informed her people that bared teeth was like the Great Mother. Friendly, not threatening. The Mother’s always shined her love and affection so her expressions were all so clear, not these beings.

She winced as the being spoke with such force that the spore clouds were momentarily disrupted. It deafened them and caused a moment of disconnect that was quickly reestablished.

The Elder looked to her and she sighed. Right, she had been the one keen to practise the actual speaking part of the Tall Ones. She inhaled and boomed out in her mighty tone.

“We wecamel, tall bean!” she said regally. To most, it would sound like a little squeak that would melt most hearts.

The Tall Being didn’t react at all. She shared a look with the Elder and he looked puzzled. The Priest flushed with spores that showed she was getting flustered. She had been practising!

The Tall Being inhaled then looked strange. He waved a hand and spoke quickly. The Priest stared as his words came slowly.

Do...not...sad...I...hear...not.

It was a terrible translation of his massive speech, but it was the best she could do. Curiously, she sent a direct puff to the being. Usually considered highly rude as it excluded one’s fellow Deep One out of a conversation, she used it now to send a message. Slowly, the Being inhaled through his strange little beak mouths.

Then he spoke back in his own language. He was clearly now trying to select his words carefully. It was almost like he had experience talking to someone who didn’t understand his language.

I...consume...your...song. I...hear...you.

The Priest moved closer, transfixed by this talk with an Outsider.

She puffed and he vibrated back.

Her language and his.

Communication.

I am... Zero? No...

The thing had named itself and she stumbled back in shock as the sounds mostly lined up in direct translation!

This Tall Being was calling itself...Hero! Or something so close to it that even spore talk was making it sound the same!

The Elder frowned and told her it could be Diro or Neo. The Priest was having none of it. The chances of this Being having such a name arriving on the same day as their God of Devouring Evil was too much coincidence!

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She turned and spoke to her people.

---

Deo was so happy to be making new friends with these cool little guys. He chuckled as they ushered him into their cool amazing city that was building to the walls of a large underground chamber.

“Thank you... thank you,” he said kindly as various little mushroom people dropped petals in his path or tried to offer berries at him. They directed him to three carved statues of mushroom people that kind of looked familiar and a fourth statue above them of a cursing snake of mushrooms looming down like a scary snake.

“I can wait here for my team?” he asked and the spores were almost dizzying in praise, excitement, and something about... freeing his heart so it revealed its glory?

Ah, they must mean a trial or some test!

---

The Fungalmancer and the Tinker shared a look, privately using direct puffs to share words.

The Fungalmancer was sure they should tell people that Tall Beings did not simply remove their hearts. Tinker scoffed.

Hero was so new they weren’t sure what he exactly was, but the Priest was going overboard. The Tinker knew the best way to build a trap to actually hurt Tall Beings. Fungalmancer knew how to breed and cultivate both healing and poisonous skills, able to draw on the Great Mother’s knowledge of ‘biology’.

‘Dieology’ the Tinker corrected. For knowing how to kill Tall Beings was the only reason to know this stuff. The Fungalmancer decided not to get into this old argument.

The Tall Being was in danger and the Great Mother would not be pleased, but trying to overthrow the Elder and Priest would basically incite civil war between believers. Harm not didn’t count if this Tall Being would just pop his heart out like Hero and be fine, but trying to convince people that he would die would need proof.

Tinker was most direct.

Just get the Great Mother here to sort it out.

Fungal wanted to push him off the ledge. As if it were so easy. They were group monsters. Their actions only counted as a group and such division might mean they won’t reach the Mother unless they were united.

Tinker, again, was direct.

Then find someone who wasn’t so limited. Leave the City and speak to the Frogs, the great Sea Serpent, the silent ghost, the bees! Fungal was concerned.

Their travelling speed and means of communication made it difficult. The Bees might understand or they’d spend some precious time trying to explain as Priest removed the Being’s heart in some misunderstood way of trying to see his real form.

So, a plant or mushroom being would be better...

The Tinker was almost casual when he spored back his answer.

The Doom would understand them. Fungal froze and then nodded slowly. The Doom would, but would they survive to return? The Tinker was rather blunt.

Their lives meant little. The life of an outsider which they swore not to harm was in danger from their own blind worship. Disappointing the Great Mother was a fate worse than the unknown earth.

Fungalmancer agreed after a moment. They were quick to move as a wreath of golden flowers were placed on the Tall Being’s head with great purpose.

---

Unseen by Grim and an exhausted Kemy, a tunnel opened up and two Pygmy Mushrooms rushed off into the jungle on the newly obtained steed of a Pigglecap.

----

Hero eyed the cloud of wailing despair and sickly fumes. Some sort of ghost or malicious energy that slowly moved towards him like mist. Sets of armour in the hall hissed and melted into pools of silver and rust as it passed by.

Physical attacks and corruption would be pointless here and this thing might actually out-pace his own regeneration if it had him at the center of its mass. He flexed his hand as he had time to call upon the system to relay his information to him.

Hero. Wandering Raid Boss.
Conditions: Have a force identified as an ‘Invading Army’ with intent of harming the Dungeon core attack the Dungeon.

This dangerous lifeform is able to infect and corrupt different strains of life to serve his command and turn wasted resources of the enemy back at the foe. This being was created by Dungeon Core Delta with great emotional conflict and deeply wishes for your forgiveness.

Known powers include:
Infect body. Infect a body and overtake it for yourself.
Alter appearance: Appear as a human or other.
Infection: Infect a target with spores and have your will overtake theirs.
Calamity Wave: Give up all pretense of humanity and spread endlessly.
Inheritor of Delta’s Heart: As blessed by Delta, you-

He smiled as he reread that last line and then rolled his neck.

“Sorry, pal... Someone’s counting on me,” he pointed a hand as coils of mushroom from his mane wrapped around his arm. They began to slowly light up in a mix of light and black light. The deafening peel of air being vaporised sounded out as Hero pushed his hand forward.

The ghost shrieked and Hero twisted as he plucked a mushroom off his back and it transformed into a familiar grey mushroom. In his other hand, a mushroom turned dark red and began to burn.

He threw both and the resulting explosion dispersed the ghost back into the ether. He saw metal suits of armour being controlled by more ghosts marching towards him. He grimaced. They had stopped throwing skeletons and zombies at him and now he had to work with automatons.

Which aren’t exactly corruptible.

With a narrowing of his eyes, his entire back turned into Gutrot Mushrooms.

Save for the exception of the middle most mushroom which burned red. His body shot forward as his heart erupted out the back in an escape motion, quickly spawning new mushroom tendrils. His old body exploded against the rushing metal, igniting the tunnel and shaking the entire fortress.

Without a body he changed up his tactics,eight main tendrils thickened and he became a central heart, guarded by eight legs, focusing as the drain on his energy was immense. On each knee joint of his new body, a tiny Mushroom Spitter monster formed. The glaring creatures that once upon a time turned into Mushy and Maestro all rotated like turrets to target the surviving armours as their sickly green eyes lit up.

He scuttled up the walls until he was hanging above them and his new monsters began to rain down acid on the metal, melting them as he plowed through the remaining resistance.

Hero moved down the hall with increased speed as a massive door tried to block his path. The acid seemed to make runes light up and just run off. Using protection magic against him now?

Wise, but perhaps too late. He looked around and broke down... reforming into a massive boar with large tusks. He charged and the physical blow shook the door hard and tore open tiny little crack. Hero saw it repair itself and couldn’t be too mad.

After all, if he was allowed to unfairly regenerate? Then he couldn’t be mad when others did it. But it did leave him with a slight dilemma. Or did it...

He frowned as he hit upon a mushroom blueprint Delta hasn’t used outside testing. He shrugged as he was sure it would do the trick,

---

Inside the room, the Bone Commander rattled orders for the mages to keep the spell going. They had to stall the Beast as long as they could.

One of the mages gave a warning of alarm as their channeling magics became erratic. The door that was the target of many protection, warding, and repairing spells was decimated as something continuously ground it down.

A chunk of the door peeled back to show a massive maw of mushrooms and darkness. An unnatural wind sucked at the room’s contents as it pulled the door apart. The darkness was even consuming the ambient light somehow! Mages were drawn in, magic and air followed and even sound.

None escaped the hole in space itself.

The commander slipped and was gone.

---

Hero lowered the tiny little black piggle that was attached to his mane with a thin rope and stared with awe. He held the pig to his own face and smiled.

“I am humbled to know that Delta can end even me if she tries. You are something I cannot fight,” he nodded and felt better knowing he was not unstoppable, as arrogant as that sounded. The pig blinked.

“Oink?” it said back. Hero put it under one arm, not willing to end it so soon. It was good company!

---

Brother was amused. He watched as skeleton bits, parts of a door, and a few other things were shot into the abyss like cannonfire, raining down on his personal space. He melted down everything for mass.

The creature was amusing, but losing mass from his body-world to a blackhole would cause weight issues down the line. Brother did not fancy being a size zero at the end of the day. A slight tweak and boom, it was a wormhole back into the world! He picked up a skull he had yet to consume and tapped it.

A black heavy sphere floated out of it and Brother held it.

“Tch... its this bad?” he asked aloud. The seed turned slowly, the energy almost hissing at his presence.

“Yeah, yeah... but you thought you’d be safe from us. Idiots, we’re trying to save you. Being part of lil’bro isn’t exactly going to be a fun experience,” he told the seed. The seed from the member of the Silence didn’t answer since it wasn’t actually conscious nor truly sentient. It was what one would consider a cell of a human or beast. A mindless little worker.

And if these followers were cells? Then the leaders and those of Durance would be akin to embryos or clots.

He crushed the seed and slowly, the black powder turned back to inert colourless dust. He focused and the dust shot off into the world tunnels around him. From one twisted talented mage, four to five average kids would be born. Then again, they could be five amazing kids if genes, luck, and mana got involved, but who really knew?

He eyed the tiny ball of blackness of their brother that was left behind. From parent to child, a seed reproduced, but it was a needy thing, it wouldn’t reproduce if the potential child was weak and once a healthy and potentially strong child was conceived? The seed infected them enhancing their potential to fearful heights.

If two parents had three children and two were normal healthy kids and the third was some strange savant of magic or such? Then that child had inherited the majority of the child seed vs the tiny portion the normal child had managed to absorb by luck. The seeds drove them to constantly seek more challenges, to sharpen their powers, and gather with other infected over time in groups. Most ended up developing strong skills or talents or even new fields of knowledge.

However, most seeds would be taken by monsters or Dungeons over time. The true issue was the Pure Seeds. The strongest remnants of the Little Brother that don’t reproduce so much as jump hosts. These caused people to actually feel the Abyss and the space between. To feel him.

Those were the nutters who formed cults and ended up being a damn pain. Brother sighed,shaking his head. Silence was only alive for a short while but his creations were still making a mess. Pure Seeds felt his hate and madness, they went insane and wreaked havoc, started up groups and gathered ripe seeds.

The whole purpose was to slowly create a whole race of powerful infected humans who would be bursting with ripe seeds and when enough seeds ripened...

A whole new birth would begin.

He sat down in his fishing chair and stared at the large cavern. He closed his eyes and felt his skin breaking as he was mined. He felt his trees and hair being brutally burned or cut for material. He felt pockets of poison seeping into him and making him itch.

He felt that damn tree digging deeper and deeper like a parasite. He felt more and more of himself being lost in shape as Dungeon’s spread more land. Soon, maybe not too soon, Brother would just... vanish. He wouldn’t be himself anymore after his original shape was gone.

Sister was giving more and more to make more Dungeons, establish safe connections to other dimensions where gods and goddesses could be called upon, each connection costing her a mote of her own light.

They were both sad candles giving it all to repent for the fact they were lonely and just wanted a little brother.

He nodded once.

“If you break it, then you fix it. Running away is kind of dickish,” he stretched. Besides, if he did fade, he left a bunch of super critters around the world for people to fight. That should be fun, right?

He felt a tug on his fishing line and began to whistle a jolly tune.

121: Rooted in Her Ways

Hero was somewhat of a mana drain on Delta. She watched her streams of orange mana that usually spread out and conquered rooms to subsume into the Dungeon twist like lifelines into Hero’s body. If she hadn’t visibly shut out other streams, the First and Second floor would be running on ‘life-support’ mode where only the bosses and some rooms would be operational for adventurers.

Hero was amazing, almost unstoppable, but Delta couldn’t actually afford to keep him going for much longer. He was an incremental costing Raid Boss, with more and more mana being pumped into him to account for the tricks he was coming up with and the distance he was making.

There was also the fact that Hero was also given a personality and developing intellect which in the terms of the System, made him more costly than a simple war engine that most Raid Bosses would be otherwise.

Yet, even with all that in mind...

She watched with the barest of awareness around Hero since he was so far out of her Dungeon that only the immediate space around him was revealed to Delta. She could only look as her monster was slammed into the wall of a dilapidated manor foyer, it was rather strange and bizarre for such a normal thing to be seen in a deep fortress of the dead. Hero grunted and his arms exploded into slithering bulbous mushrooms that sunk into joints and gaps, but the creature flexed and cutting metal edges simply sheared the invading vines off.

A colossal metal knight that reeked of twisted mana raised a battle axe with one arm but stumbled back as Hero’s new little Black Hole pig companion began to suck in the knight as hard as it could with a tear in space. Delta couldn’t even be worried about it right now... Hero needed any help he could get. Nu could just deal with the consequences later.

The knight lashed out with a metal foot that was hollow on the inside. The pig squealed and had to run for cover, releasing the pull on the axe as the foot, while also being pulled, had enough force to swipe through the edge of the black hole.

It was enough for Hero to get loose and begin to form Mushroom Spitters to try and dissolve the metal shield it had on its arm. The acid hissed, but the metal refused to warp as black energy rushed in to protect it. Delta felt sick as the energy sounded like it was... screaming.

If her foe was a necromancer of some kind and given the fact Hero had literally bashed a skeleton, through a ghost, into a zombie not long ago, Delta was inclined to believe she was correct, then that energy would be some tortured force of souls and dark magic animating the knight. A metal foe with no flesh and enchanted with energy Hero wouldn’t be able to just consume.

This princess was adapting and it made Delta nervous.

Hero formed a mix of Gutrot and burning mushrooms, throwing the volatile mix at the knight in hopes of just blowing it to evil scrap.

The knight just raised its shield which pulsed with a sickening crack, the projectiles were coated in a thick sloppy ectoplasm causing them to fall to the floor inert. The knight stepped on one and the mushroom squelched as he swung his axe at Hero’s head.

Delta’s monster grimaced, his entire arm began to grow moremuscle and fibre, then he lashed out with a punch that would make Lord Mushy proud.

Enchanted fist collided with a brutal axe and there was a pause as equal forces clashed, before the axe split Hero’s hand in twain.However,t the two halves rapidly grew up the weapon and pulled at it. The weapon left the knight’s grip for the briefest of moments and the energy surrounding it vanished.

Hero crushed the axe before using vines to pull the axe blades into his own arm. Delta was on the edge of her metaphorical seat as Hero flexed his new weapon.

“Come on, do a cool heroic quote!” she cheered and Hero’s smile twitched slightly higher. He pointed his new axe-hand at the helmet of the knight.

“I'm gonna break your face!” he challenged.

Delta really had to stop her creations getting bad movie quotes from her head.

----

“-and don’t call me Shirly,” Wyin said bored.

The Fungalmancer shared a look with the Tinker who was hiding behind a rock half-way across the room.

Bloody coward! Fungalmancer tried to explain how perhaps the death of the boy would not be good for anyone and perhaps letting the other Pygmies gain the habit of sacrificing humans would be a bad thing. His spores reached up and Wyin easily read the intent.

For the ultimate fiend and demon of the floor. She was actually quite pretty. However, Fungalmancer knew the prettiest things in nature could be so because they were too dangerous to tangle with and had no need to hide.

“And how am I supposed to do anything? I’m quite rooted to the spot and you kin are... well, they’re in a dirty hole and I’m a lady of culture. You don’t expect me to go down some... hillbilly hole, no?” she asked aghast.

Well, if she could perhaps pass a message on to the Great Mother...

“Delta?” Wyin asked bluntly. Fungalmancer waved his staff in panic and at the audacity of the birch-like tree before it. One did not simply say the name of life and joy!

“Oh... you mean Delta? Delta, Delta? Delta with the big D? Delta who Delta’d the Delta-ish thing ever to have Delta’d? That Delta?” Wyin went on and the heresy almost made Fungalmancer charge in with a warcry.

She smirked, her wooden face and features moving like liquid wood.

“So easy to rile up... ah, you must visit more. Fine, fine... let me see if ‘the mother’ is free,” she said and closed her eyes. The Fungalmancer held its hands up in prayer.

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“Please hold,” Wyin said calmly and began to make strange harsh screeching noises. The Fungalmancer did as he was told and kept his arms in the air, holding... whatever it was that Wyin needed for the calling.

“Delta... not there... not... there. Hey Maestro, no, I can talk, got two Pygmies on hold but I can talk,” Wyin said with an easy manner, flexing her strange long branches like she was buffing her nails to... to... the dark singer of Mother.

Fungalmancer’s little beady eyes were about to pop out of its stalk.

Wyin went still as a rock bounced off her face! The Tinker looked at its hand in horror, as if unable to believe what it had just done.

“Maestro... I’m going to have to call you back,” she said emotionlessly.

The silence stretched on for a moment.

“That was a rock... you just threw at my face,” Wyin said, then took a huge deep breath.

“So... what can I do for you again?” Wyin’s smile seemed to creak loudly.

The child… the Fungalmancer puffed at her numbly, deciding he might as well die doing his loyal duty.

---

Deo accepted some more herbal soup with a gracious tone. He was a bit full, but his manners meant he would never refuse until he was utterly full. He could hear his team coordinating ropes and ladders to climb down and he couldn’t wait to show them all the cool face paint and flower crowns the little friendly mushroom people had given him.

One especially liked feeling his pulse. A little priestess one that Deo could sort of communicate with.

They loved his heart if he understood right and that was just the cutest thing Deo had ever heard.

Then the ground began to shake... the entire tunnel system rocked back and forward as a deep primal scream in the earth seemed to come closer. From one of the tunnels, two Pygmies ran inwards. Deo frowned as their puffs came rapidly.

‘And...old...smelly...driftwood’ one yelled back into the darkness.

‘Wouldn’t even use... for kindling...fire burns cold!” the second with goggles taunted. The tunnels exploded with writhing roots and branches.

“Get back here so I can squeeze you until your little heads pop!” a feminine voice travelled through the ground clear enough that even Deo could read it from the shaking alone. A root paused as it poked Deo.

“Urgh... I stepped in human,” the voice went from murderous to disgust so fast that Deo was impressed.

“Hello, I’m Deo,” he introduced himself and the root tried to snake away, ignoring Deo.

“You’re a tree! Fran said he knew a lady tree down here, do you know her?” Deo asked as he crawled after the roots, avoiding the running Pygmies and little homes. There was a pause and the root curled around Deo with a caressing movement.

“Oh, did he?” the voice travelled into Deo’s body, shaking his bones slightly. The voice sounded much happier now.

“Let’s see... you’re the child in trouble. Very well, I have saved you and thus you owe me a debt,” the roots rumbled. Deo blinked. He had been in trouble? No one told him...

“I was fine, reall-” he tried to explain but the voice turned flat.

“Owe me... a debt,” she insisted as she began to gently pull Deo through the tunnels she had expanded with her roots.

“Come into my lair, little human... We have much to discuss. Mostly about me and what that gorgeous Sir Fran may have mentioned about me... He did mention me in a good way, yes?” the woman insisted. He saw the tunnel exit to the village being collapsed and just in time for Grim to throw his hands up.

“Stop getting kidna-” he yelled before the earth fell in.

---

Delta frowned as she felt a low-ping by Wyin. A quick glance mentioned something about the Pygmies and some type of request. Wyin didn’t seem too concerned, so Delta put it to the side for now as Hero cut one of the Knight’s arms off with a mighty rend of his power. The Black Hole Pigglecap adding force to the blow with focused pulls from its portal.

The knight fell apart, the energies holding it together freed as they rushed through the ceiling and out into the world. Delta tried to applaud but she felt... clammy and slightly tired all of a sudden.

Warning: Mana levels are critically low. Regeneration is unable to match the growing costs.

“Hero...” she groaned and the raid boss looked up in concern as he saw the flickering and thinning lines of mana to himself.

“Out of time?” he said calmly and picked up his pig to begin the walk back with his axe-hand. They began to break apart and reappear in the secret garden before they even got ten feet away. The secret garden was such a cheat.

Since it didn’t ‘exist’ in the Dungeon or actual world... Hero could reside there until Delta could recover without a cost. He was less than a soul but more than nothing while there.

Delta saw the fading double doors that would lead into a throne room.

“Soon, you brat,” Delta grumbled before the sight vanished entirely without Hero to act as a proxy.

The good news, however... Delta could now begin to take-over all the space that Hero had emptied out.

“It’s free real estate,” she announced with a grin. Sure, the rooms and space closest to the throne room were already getting boneheads and rotboys in to stem her ability, but Delta was just as equally making bank in claims.

Then Delta finally took a look at her Dungeon. She stares, rubbed her eyes that didn’t actually exist in this space and looked again.

“I was gone for an hour, tops!” she moaned and flew off

122: Tree's a Company

“-and that’s why you don’t remove people’s hearts in an attempt to honour me or them in the image of Hero,” Delta said briskly, foot tapping on the ground below. She stood there having the entire cavern of Pygmies staring at her in awe.

Delta pointed to the shaped Mana she had floating over them all. One showed a heart floating over a dead stick man with Xs for eyes and a massive cross over it.

“Heart outside for visitors, bad!” she said firmly. She moved onto the second image of the heart inside the person and them smiling and a little happy figure of herself giving them a thumbs up.

“Hearts inside good!” she stressed.

The Pygmies all started to do a strange wave left to right, little arms of spears in the air.

The chant started not long after, their spore language and puffs coming in exciting manners.

“Heart in, gooood!”

“Heart out, baaaad!”

It was a little cultish, but the message seemed to be taken well. Delta really couldn’t ask for more of the little devils that she found too adorable for their own good. Nu folded himself in since he was quite clearly done being Delta’s blue board for the demonstration of why sacrificing guests was not productive to the Dungeon experience.

If they weren’t such little stab-happy creatures, I’d advocate for clearing them out.

Nu glowered as the Pygmies started bowing at him, while two fibre-threaders were already planning the creation of a fungi-thread mural where Delta squished the blue demon of Nu into a learning oracle.

These fellows were... intense if nothing else!

“From overzealous to undermining... let’s go yell at Wyin. Kidnapping Adventurers is bad enough, ignoring the potential sacrifice of one is quite another thing entirely,” Delta sighed and decided to check on the rest of the party before she left.

They had entered the maze beyond the Pygmy Village. The twisting narrow passages had tiny holes for the Pygmies to fire blunt darts or make noises from littered across their mural surfaces.

Only a few starlight mushrooms dotted the place to show the way and help illuminate the mural, which showedGrim screaming when a Pygmy touched his neck as he turned a corner, Kemy hyperventilating as the walls slid in closer in her mind (it actually wasn’t in her mind, the Pygmies very slowly had the hall narrow at one end over time using devices Delta had installed out of sight)... Amenstar twitching at every noise and Poppy... she actually wasn't bothered, but still! Delta hadn’t meant to make a spooky maze, but there it was all the same.

It was just missing some proper shifting walls, mist, and spooky noises.

They’d be there for a few moments more, then they’d have all the keys necessary to reach Wyin. Delta really needed to sort the tree out before more innocent children fell into her grasp. She took off, giving the second floor a once over as she flew past. Monsters looked settled. Bob was upstream sunbathing, Gramps was meditating in the frog spawn room as always, Renny was... teaching his spooky skeleton crew how to perform circus acts.

Critters ran wild, chasing each other, mimicking the prey and predator act until one gave up or the other was caught then they both just nod and clock out, like a wolf and a sheepdog clocking out of work at the end of the cartoon.

If the first floor was mystery and fantasy... the second floor was paradise, in Delta’s biased opinion. The pure unfiltered best parts of nature. Nothing would eat you if you respected the rules. No insects would bite you and the fake sky wasjust warm enough to be soothing.

Sure, the pygmies might rip out your heart or Devina might be spooky and Renny didn’t help... and Wyin... was Wyin... there might be a few black spots on Delta’s lovely banana of fun, but nothing was perfect.

Delta especially wasn’t perfect. The very gods of this world had been blunt about telling her how badly she messed up! They still liked her, though.

She stepped into the boss room to see Wyin setting out a mass of roots in the shape of a table and Deo was cheerfully devouring honey, different plants and slabs of meat cooked by Jeb from the floor below. Fera and Wyin didn’t quite get on...

“Oh, you little dewdrop. Tell me how lovely my eyes are again,” Wyin almost sang. Deo nodded enthusiastically as he swallowed the chewy meat that was barely not-burned. Jeb was improving!

“THEY’RE LIKE WARM AMBER AND SWEET HONEY! YOU HAVE THE BEST EYES OF ANY TREE I’VE EVER SEEN!” he beamed, red hair flopping across his brow as he nodded.

Wyin made a chittering sound like a small bird singing in delight. Delta was pretty sure Deo had never seen another tree with any body part, let alone eyes, but she didn’t bring that up. Wyin paused as she saw Delta standing there. Delta mentally gave herself a check over, trying not to gasp as unbeknownst to herself, her avatar had gained more definition.

Was this because of Hero and the efforts he made on the third floor? Her business shirt remained crisp and wrinkle-free, her simple tie reached down her stomach and looked the same, her long skirt that brushed her shins remained fashionable at least. Shoes were a new addition, on the other hand.. Sensible short heels and barely visible ankle socks. A watch in the same orange hue had appeared and now that she noticed it, the heft was comforting. The face of the watch simply read all around the circumference ‘Delta Time’.

Was she some... receptionist? No... the idea felt wrong. Delta didn’t feel like she was in the position of those admirable workers who balanced incoming requests and their bosses’ orders and still managed to look amazing at the end of the day.

Delta was... she was...

“Listen here!” she said, voice serious, demanding Wyin’s attention. The tree woman stiffened.

“Oh... Delta, I didn’t see you there,” Wyin managed not to be simpering. Deo snapped his head up, looking around in excitement, trying to spot Delta.

“Oh, I know you didn’t see me. You also seemed to have forgotten about me and my clear instructions and requirements for this Dungeon to run as a happy place where we. All. Don’t. Die.” Delta stressed that last bit, taking the metaphorical gloves off for the first time since the Pygmies needed a dressing down for bothering Jeb.

Wyin brushed her face with a branch, not quite meeting her eyes.

“The boy is fine,” she gestured to Deo who waved frantically.

“After you were forced to intervene after others had come to you for aid which you ignored after you had your temper tantrum. That’s a lot of ‘afters’ Wyin, Floor Boss of the Second Floor, my agent for this floor,” Delta said, voice like steel. Wyin dropped the innocent expression.

“I didn’t know my task was to protect every idiot that wandered into this floor. It’s also a bit harsh to blame me for what the little pests decided to do of their own accord,” she said, perhaps sulking just a tad.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“They’re learning. You know better,” Delta cut that argument off before it could take root. It wasn’t a guess . Wyin was simply formed with a far more logical mind and much greater intelligence that most of the Pygmies combined didn’t possess. The woman was quiet for a few seconds.

“Then perhaps I am not the boss you need,” she said with a turned face, detaching herself from the conversation. The words should have made Delta soften her words or perhaps decide something was up, but something inside her... an urge or old swirl of thoughts rose up.

“Stop running. You hide behind cruel words and barbs, indifference and snide comments, but you need to stop running from anything you see that could actually hurt you. You will not be released from your duty - because we both know it’s something you enjoy, a measure of pride. Wyin, Spirit of old and new, grown from outside the Dungeon... you feel like an outsider,” Delta’s voice took on a strange hitch and Wyin snapped her head to her, those amber and honey eyes wide and angry.

“No, I just don’t fit into this world where every damn plant and rock loves you like the sun shines out your back end and your words can make miracles. I don’t have that love, I don’t have that devotion but you know what? I wish I did then it would all be so much easier to be here and maybe you love me back!” Wyin snapped and silence filled the room.

Delta closed her mouth with a firm set to her jaw.

“If I didn’t love you then you would have been demoted or shipped off by now. Wyin...” Delta took a calming breath then walked forward as Deo looked between Wyin and where she was looking at with a deep frown.

“I do love you but I also know how fiercely you value your sense of self,” Delta began, which had always felt true to Delta.

“I don’t treat you like the others, that’s true, because I don’t want to erase the part that came with your creation. A part that isn’t my Dungeon, but is just as essential to who you are as Fran is with Bacon or Renny and his Circus. This is a learning thing from both of us and I am sorry you feel like I was isolating you when in truth, I was just giving you space to figure things out,” Delta admitted.

“All I figured out is that life hurts and everyone discards you in the end,” Wyin said quietly and Deo looked horrified as he read her smooth wood-like lips.

“THAT’S WRONG! REAL FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE UNTIL THE END! I’M BROKEN INSIDE BUT MY PARENT’S DIDN’T GIVE ME AWAY!” Deo exclaimed fiercely. Wyin let the boy jump down from her roots without a fight.

“Then you are fortunate enough to have a better life than I did, be this one or the last. I messed up the last one and I keep pushing the envelope on this one. There is a sickness in my mind, little Dewdrop, a little voice that keeps telling me to push and push until everyone is gone. That voice is me,” Wyin said, sounding serene in her sorrow.

There was no actual curse or sickness that Delta could detect in Wyin, but she understood what her boss was saying.

Some people created a void of loneliness in their life and have nothing to fill it with but self-loathing or hate. Delta’s hand brushed Wyin’s trunk softly.

“Maybe you’re pushing against the wrong thing, but I think that’s a talk we can have later, just between the two of us, and we can have it often,” Delta promised and Wyin didn’t look at her.

“Sounds like a lovely time. I’ll save my enthusiasm for if it happens,” the tree said softly. Delta would take that.

You couldn’t handle or fix trauma and issues in one talk or a single song. Although Delta was an idiot sometimes, she wasn’t foolish.

---

Grim looked up at the large gates underneath the giant tree. The roots winding down and forming the gate frame. Beyond the first gate were two more and Grim hoped one of the keys they had weren’t fakes.

He really didn’t want to go back to the little mushroom people cave. Or the bridge that was unstable... or... the bees.

Never the bees. They never stopped talking. In one way, Grim was glad Deo had been kidnapped. Not only did that make Grim his dashing knight if he rescued the idiot, but they also passed a strange hot spring that they stayed clear of, but if Deo had been there...

“Ready?” he asked the others. He shivered slightly as many of those little mushroom people clung to Kemy like she was some idol they refused to part with. She smiled nervously, holding the key of the Pygmies. Vas held up the key of the giant calmly. Grim held the bee’s key. All keys were the same in shape and size, one just faintly smelled of honey...

Grim inserted his key and the gate went from wood and metal to golden melted honey that drained away into two holes that no one had seen before. The key in Grim’s hand likewise melted.

“Really?” he demanded as his hand was now dripping with more honey.

“Well, you do like to loot things, so sticky fingers isn’t too strange,” Amenstar commented with a wicked grin. Grim made a note to let Amenstar get smacked around a few times in the coming fight before helping out.

Kemy went next and her gate was pulled apart, bar by bar, by tons of Pygmy people in the walls, using the mechanism to reel the bars in. A group of three walked forward and pointed to the key in Kemy’s hand. She squeaked as the key wriggled and unfolded itself to show it was just another Pygmy using some magic or skill to pretend to be a key.

“They sure don’t want these keys being reusable, nyeh...” Poppy commented dryly. Grim was beginning to see that. The Pygmy key was also able to know if it was earned fairly because it in itself was a Pygmy... a spy.

Vas went forward and inserted his key next. He paused and Grim saw he had to really give the key a proper twist for it to click. There was a long creaking noise and the gate before them shattered into a dozen pieces, the lock suspended in the air by Vas’ grip on the key alone.

The key shattered next.

“It’s all so very dramatic and lovely!” Kemy said after a moment, ever the optimist.

“Holy Heroic Pots, move in. We have an idiot to rescue!” Grim commanded and his eye twitched as the group casually walked in a disorganised manner ahead towards the now open tunnel. He sighed and stomped after them.

No one heard or saw the gates sliding back into place behind them and reforming. These gates demanded the three keys untouched for entry.

Delta’s secret trick had finally been revealed. In rapid succession, three keys were used up and the next group was forced to get the three untouched keys and once all six had been used up? Three random keys would spawn in...

A treasure hunt in the jungle remix.

After all, what was the point of making six challenges if the groups kept taking the same three every time?

That was boring!

123

Grim swallowed once as he stepped out the tunnel of roots behind the rest of his team. He turned his head, noting that the roots snaked closed, blocking the way back. That was expected, boss arenas normally only had two ways out.

Victory or death.

‘Well, those used to be the only options. This dungeon is abnormal, just like Durence,’ he thought, slightly annoyed his very first dungeon run was in this weird place. Annoyed, but also a little relieved he wasn’t going to die at the first mistake he made.

Grim had made... a lot of mistakes.

But here he was, staring into a large chamber filled to the brim with mist.

“Deo!” Amenstar called, his voice carrying into the space.

“Well, if the big nasty didn’t know we were here, it does now,” Poppy said dryly as she pulled her hood down tighter as her eyes searched the mist, sniffing like some animal. Kemy bit her lip as she waited for some response.

“He could be dead, but it doesn’t match what we’ve seen so far,” Vas supplied helpfully, his golem nature making him ever the blunt speaker.

“Not dead...” came an amused voice. It was like honey spread across a dagger. Sweet and dangerous.

“He merely understands the rules and he knows the price,” the woman’s voice sounded out, somehow coming behind their ears, from the mist itself... the very room.

“Show yourself,” Kemy called, taking the lead as the adult of the group. Her staff was gripped tightly, her cloudy dress no longer amusing, but billowing dramatically as she held her staff forward.

“Reveal your true form,” she commanded, a light shining off her, repelling the mist like a barrier had been erected. The woman’s voice laughed, a deep throaty chuckle, causing the mist to swirl over the grass small bubbling brooks and creaks...

“Sweet maiden, I’m not hiding, you’re just not looking hard enough,” the voice promised as Grim turned, to check the exit and paused. Despite somehow not taking a single step, the exit was now to his right, not behind him.

Was the room able to move or... had his balance tilted him slightly? Grim opened his mouth to warn the others, but they all saw the dark shape looming in the mist, moving like something exotic, tempting them to come dance in the confusing mist.

Without any warning, the mist peeled back like a curtain on a stage. Before Grim and the others, a tree rose up from the centre of the room, a tree of thick wood and roots from the ground up before the bark smoothed into slender legs and knees half-way up. Dozens of branches swayed as flowering vines grew over where anything indecent would be visible. Still, Grim flushed at the slightly curvy and round stomach, then looking up at those thick lips.

Her hair was spread between fibres and branches, every single one of them covered in some flower of sorts. It was mesmerizing as no one flower shared shape or colour with another, like the tree woman collected every beautiful flower of the world for herself.

She turned her eyes to them as if just noticing something interesting and despite the vision of summer and spring before them, when Grim looked into her honey amber eyes, he felt the sting of winter staring back.

“My, my, such a... interesting collection of people. While I may not be that impressed, you collected the keys, you reached my gate, and here you stand,” she said and turned her body sensually to them and as she did so, in her hidden hand(tightly woven branches into a rough handshape), a cage made of roots and flowers came into sight, dangling from one ‘finger’.

Inside, the sleeping form of Deo was visible, like a colourful bird inside a birdcage.

“Deo!” Kemy cried, reaching out, but Poppy kept her from running in.

“He’s not dead for a reason,” she said darkly, eyes red and slitted like some cat creature. The tree woman noticed the expression and smirked.

“Oh, quite. One, Delta doesn’t kill, therefore I do not. Be grateful for that. Two, I’m experimenting with themes and ideas for my fight. Lovely Sir Fran is forward and simple. Fight with your heart and be brave... myself? I believe I might try a trial of the heart as well,” she mused and held the cage up.

“I recently found the issue of one’s heart and the feelings it invokes troubling, perhaps I will learn more if I see your little hearts flutter in need to protect this one?” she hummed, drawing her words out in a slight song to an extent.

Grim looked at his team with a frown. They all looked upset, except for Vas who looked like he had shot through some awakening, had three breakdowns, and was now looking upon his goddess... that he also wanted to set on fire.

“If only I could be so grossly magnificent,” he said with longing.

“None are as beautiful as I, child of earth and soul. I am Wyin, the once-great tree of legend back with a blackened soul. Fight me, reveal to me your heart's light!” she commanded, holding Deo’s cage aloft as roots and snaking vines obscured their teammate from view.

Poppy didn’t hesitate, throwing herself forward with mobility a human just didn’t have, her fingers wreathed in dark fire. Wyin smacked Poppy with a whip of a vine, her trunk barely scorched. Grim winced as she landed in a roll into the mist.

“I’ve embraced hell, you’ll have to go much hotter, little lovebird,” Wyin encouraged with little care to her voice.

“The truth cuts deep!” Kemy chanted, holding her staff aloft as blades of glowing white sheared through the air at Wyin as horns and some instrument that sounded electrical in nature blazed into a dramatic battle cry around them.

“Vas, Amenstar, back up,” Grim yelled as he went in from the side, his sharp knife in one hand. As Wyin turned and danced around the light crescents that Kemy conjured, some of her flowers and bark were chipped away.

Grim used the distraction to leap off a slightly jutting rock in the ground towards the birdcage, swiping where it was connected to the rest. His hope for a quick and easy cut was dashed as his knife got stuck in one of the fingers.

He felt his foot being snagged and he was flung high into the air with a yell as the tree woman was multitasking with attacking and defending from all sides. Amenstar was using long coils of hair like writhing snakes, empowered by necromantic energies, to try and tie down as many of Wyin’s branches as he could, but there were far too many.

Vas had two vines in each hand, pulling and slightly bowing Wyin towards him, her face a grimace as they matched in pure strength. Grim turned, managing to angle himself towards Wyin instead of the pond she threw him towards.

Crashing into her mass, he snapped a few branches and found himself above where her shoulder was.

“I hate pests in my hair,” Wyin warned and around him, her hair tried to wrap around him. Grim managed to reach into his belt and pull out a ragged cat doll from a pouch. He hadn’t found much use for this weird reward he had gotten from chasing that mouse on the first floor.

“Come on ghost cat!” he chanted and from the doll, a blue cat snarled into Wyin’s face, yowling and hissing as Wyin let loose a screech of indignation. By now, Poppy and Kemy were winding up another barrage of attacks as Amenster was chanting.

Grim pulled himself through the branches to his trapped knife.

He began sawing with grim determination.

---

Al hovered outside the maw of the cave. He felt a pull with every fibre of his being as if something was inside that was...

Al took a step back, panic rising and the fear sinking in as his inbox from the System pinged again and again. Al had stopped even reading the subjects lines on them now. If he just worked harder, the system would stop. If he was the strongest, he’d be fine!

He clutched at his head as his quest log was almost empty. He needed quests! If he didn’t find any soon he’d have nothing and what if the System pulled the plug after that? What if that was the last straw?

“You going in?” came a relaxed voice.

Al turned with a gasp, his squire uniform from the Kingdom rustling slightly. Some kid was roasting meat over a fire. His youngish face seemed at odds with his easy-going nature. Alpha felt... like he knew this boy but after so many quests and so many jobs... he wasn’t sure.

“I don’t think I should,” Al said quietly.

“I think you should. I’d go in, but I won’t be here long. I’m a wanderer,” the boy grinned at something amusing and Alpha didn’t get the joke.

Al’s powers didn’t register the kid as anything, so he was either too low level or unimportant or not relevant to the system. Alpha hadn’t seen that happen too many times but decided the boy was a nice distraction from the choice of wherever to go inside or not.

“I’m Al,” he said quietly. The boy paused as if not expecting the need to introduce himself.

“B...lether. Blether’s the name!” he said and his name appeared above his head like whenever someone revealed their name to Alpha. His ‘Detect Lie’ was pretty high as a skill so he didn’t think the boy was lying...or he was maybe a god of trickery.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Again, it didn’t matter.

“So, why the hesitation? You look sick and like you’re expecting to die any minute,” Blether said, changing the subject casually. Alpha sat gingerly on the nicely shaped stump on the other side of the fire.

“I feel called to go in and that’s dangerous,” Al explained.

“Why?” the kid pressed, chewing some weird fish that was... hard... to look at and his system labelled it as <fish?>. Definitely some being able to bypass Al’s senses and detection skills. This might be a good chance to get an epic quest.

Loot didn’t matter, only quests.

“It didn’t set off anything in the- my powers. It’s something I can’t explain and embracing it could be a mistake,” he told the kid logically.

“So unknown, unknown, and unknown. Hecking heck, you’re really messed up. How do you ever leave the house?” Blether asked with a shake of his head. Alpha looked into the fire for a moment.

“Fear,” he summed up. There was a pause in the conversation for a second.

“So, if it doesn’t appear to help you... with your powers, it's a trap, pointless, or wasting valuable time? Fear of dying is worse than the joy of living, I see...” Blether frowned, throwing the cooked stick away, somehow even managing to eat the fish bones.

“Ever think why you were chosen for this?” Blether asked abruptly as he pulled out a knife and piece of wood, whittling away at it with skill beyond any child.

“Random selection? Cruelty? Simple logic?” Alpha shrugged, still feeling the pull of the cave, a warm thing that made him want to give in so badly.

“Doubt it. Have you seen this world? It’s messy and already way too cruel in some places. I don’t see the point in throwing you into all that just to add to existing problems. No, I think it was something else. You don’t get purpose and powers by chance,” Blether promised. Alpha supposed he could have given other people some blessing or power himself as... whatever he truly was.

“Let’s say I can see things and I saw you when you first came here. Like memory foam on a really good bedspread, love that stuff,” Blether smiled whimsically and Alpha frowned... wondering if this strange place called Durance had memory foam... or even foam for that matter already?

How strange was this place?

“You were curious and bright. I saw the first few days. Awkward as hell I think. I just don’t think... listen, Al? It wasn’t your fault,” the kid said and Alpha stood up so abruptly that he nearly stepped in the fire.

“Don’t,” he warned, voice cracking.

“You did everything you could. The Silence-” Blether began but Alpha painfully squeezed his eyes shut and tried to cover his ears like he was a small child again.

The boy’s voice seemed to echo out his very bones.

“The Silence took that village to preemptively stop you. In a way... they succeeded,” Blether said bluntly and Alpha reached for his weapon, drawing it as angry tears welled up. His best weapon felt too heavy in his hands.

“Good, making a choice without a promise of reward and for the sake of it. I swear, I didn’t want to step in, but enough is enough. I’m not trapped like she is... but this has spent my strength on top of Delta needing help from the old bastard tree,” the kid grunted as he stood up, more like an old man.

“Alpha, get your head out of the damn sand. Also, answer your damn letters. There's like a bunch of rare mounts and costumes that Sis tried to apologise with,” the kid said and faded away, crumbling into the earth as if time was devouring him.

It just left Al with a burning campfire and a strange feeling he had been talking to death and yet... yet it felt... good.

His tears fell as the sword clattered to the ground. He hesitated, then without being able to take it back, opened the most recent letter.

“Dear Alphonse,

I wonder if you like that name? You said you didn’t like your actual name so how about that one? You’re really close to Delta and she’s really nice! Please say hi. I’ve been busy updating some systems around the dungeon sphere, but it's a little hard. Delta’s code seems to work on wishes and mushroom powder.

I got a few quests I can offer for cleaning in Delta’s dungeon and helping her on the lower floors. It isn’t as much EXP as you might like, but I’ll keep making more and also the people of Durence should offer some. Please feel better, it’s very hard to see you so upset.

You used to smile and I am very sorry that I might have had a hand in taking it away. If you wish to hate me, I will accept this. As in all my letters, I never blamed you nor do I think you are a failure or imperfect.

I cannot be perfect so please... please be kind to yourself.

Signed,
System (Please call me Sis!)
Letters since your last opened letter: 301.

Al tried to put his hand on the screen, but there was no resistance.

Letter 300...

“...On your way to Durance! I’m so happy. You’ll finally get some nice friends and there’s someone very important to meet there!”

L-letter 246

“You seemed to have stopped looking to die. But you aren’t alive. I feel so hopeless.”

180

“Please stop this... please. Quests won’t make you feel better. Head to Durance! Head anywhere!”

100

“-Happy 100 letter. I put a little ritual circle in the letter to conjure a cake. I... hope it tastes okay. I got some tips from Delta’s kitchens! Please eat. Please.”

On and on they went, he skipped dozens in a numb manner, flicking through them to the point there was less emotion and more simplistic messages.

He reached the last letter he ever opened. The tone between the newest letters and this one was stark.

Letter 10.

“Alpha,

The village of Muriee is gone. No trace can be found. It would appear the cult called the Silence attacked there to get to you. This was beyond your control. You need more strength. This will not stop. The Silence will always be your concern, you need more power. Keep moving and you will be instructed on where to proceed.

Soon Beta will come and your fear will end.

Then Gamma, and your doubt will cease.

Then Delta, and your weakness will be removed.

-System.

It hurt then and it burned now. Alpha saw every word as a warning, every name as a nail in his coffin. Without his fear, what was Alpha? He feared the day heroes with those names rose up to make him obsolete and now... Delta was a dungeon?

Beta was a monster that devoured monsters and revealed Silence members?

Gamma was... well according to the last letter he skimmed through which was quite a while ago according to its date, Gamma was being used in some underwater rebellion led by a shark prince as a sword?!

Since then, Alpha had so many letters and it was like the System... changed. No longer some ambivalent deity judging him for his weakness, but someone with fears and doubts of their own and it made him deflate as his fear took an uncertain step back

Again... because there was still no answer from when he first asked... without his fear, what was Alpha? Slowly, he looked up at the large puzzle door that it had taken him a single attempt to open, lining up the symbols of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta to make the doors slide open.

There was one way to find out what life without fear was and it laid inside that door.

---

“My beautiful face!” Wyin howled as she ignored the others attacking her to send dozens of thorny snakey vines after Grim who screamed in terror.

“It was just a cat!” he yelled back as he jumped over the ground exploding in wrath as Wyin glared, three claw marks on either cheek scratched downwards, giving her a whiskered appearance.

“It was more than a damn cat! Delta is howling in laughter and telling me to ‘believe it’ over and over! I’ll show you catty!” Wyin promised in rage.

Grim just ran faster, hoping Amenstar and Poppy were nearly done popping the birdcage open with their combined powers, Grim was tiring and he did not want to know if Wyin would see what was inside his heart the good ole fashioned way.

Dissection via being pulled apart.

Not the cleanest way to go.

He scowled at the feeling of vines on his heels.

If anyone told him the trees needed to be protected ever again, he was going to strangle them.

124: You can call me Al

Delta was waving her hands as the battle waged on.

“Less thorns! People bleed!” she told Wyin who scowled but the thorns vanished a moment before she smashed a branch into Poppy. Delta moved between different angles, fretting about the party and Wyin.

It was both their first time in this boss event and Delta just wanted everyone to have a good time and-

“Don’t choke Grim!” she screeched slightly as the poor boy was held upside down by a root and shook like a clownfish in a bag.

“Why are you sleeping?” Kemy wailed as she tried to squeeze into Deo’s wooden prison, poking the boy hard in the face with her obscene mushroom staff. Amenstar was waving a snake-skeleton around like a whip, the bone shifting with dark energy that wilted some of Wyin’s leaves on contact. Poppy was looking like a cross between a komodo dragon and a cow that snorted fire out her nostrils.

Vas had been thrown into the nearby stream and simply laid down as if some psychosomatic shock had made him sink like a rock underwater he could stand above.

It was pandemonium and Delta felt grey hair forming on her astral form.

She opened her mouth to tell Wyin that clubbing Delta’s baby seals- er... brave adventurers was still not allowed when she stopped abruptly. She turned as if her body was a series of clockwork sprockets and springs.

Blinking once, Delta exhaled as if releasing a sigh she had been holding for a very long time.

In a single instant, her orange form vanished and a very confused blue young man spluttered as he was formed upside down, legs kicking in the air and a scowl on his face.

Looking up, he snarled and smacked himself.

“Legs! Damnable legs!” Nu raged before he paused to consider... why he had legs again. He closed his eyes as he tried to follow that sunshine feeling of Delta, a warmth on his face that he didn’t mind as much as other pains to his existence.

Delta had been in various states of Dungeon Core before, deep with the Spider Queen, unconscious as levels formed... even sad as a person.

But this side of her made her go from solid to mist.

A part of her was pulled forward that Nu had never seen in such pure quantities.

Her soul.

---

Alpha remembered falling to his knees, each step down into the Dungeon heavier than the last. He panicked slightly, thinking he was being attacked, but the weight was warm... like sleep after a long journey.

He leaned forward intending to simply catch his breath when he saw the ground rushing towards him and he blinked, awaiting the pain. Instead, he went from laying on the ground to sitting in a chair.

It was a subtle shift that took a moment to understand. The chair was leather, deep and comfortable. It also felt like he had never relaxed into it, constantly sitting as close to the edge as possible and his back was killing him.

Alpha settled back and the relief was... he tried to blink back tears, but his eyes had been closed this entire time. He opened them. He saw. Alpha saw.

The universe... or someplace that seemed to be everything he had seen and felt compressed into a single location. Light, rain, earth, wind, the sound of cities... it was all cobbled together like a painting of stars and swirling galaxies.

It felt the closest to home since Alpha had come to this world.

Groaning nearby made him sit back up and try to take notice. All his skills, all his talents, and abilities were... gone and it left him feeling naked as a warrior to a degree. He still knew how to throw a punch if he needed it.

Peering over, he saw two empty chairs, one to his left and right. One of bone and wood that seemed to be more a flat surface than a chair for a human. The other was of solid rock and while could be sat upon, looked more like it was covered in a dozen or so deep scars where something would slot in like the mythical sword in the stone.

Directly across from his own was the most bizarre of ‘chairs’.

It was a massive beanbag of mostly orange fabrics spread out like a sunbathing slime, but many different colours had been stitched to it, giving it a mismatched appearance. Cartoonish depictions of goblins, pigs, and frogs seem to cover its surface.

“No... Nu... ten more minutes... Jack won’t... blow too much up,” a soft voice complained in throws of sleep.

“Hello?” he called and the mumbling stopped. Someone slowly raised their head from the sunken centre of the beanbag. Black hair that looked unkempt and bushy fresh from sleep was the first thing he noticed.

The second was the eyes. One of blazing orange and the other of dark green. Alpha presumed the green one was her natural colour, but he had to admit she wore orange well. She slowly managed to sit up and a crumpled shirt, tie, and long work skirt gave her a mature appearance and a pocket watch in the shirt pocket added character.

Alpha felt a little enchanted as if he knew this woman. A face he saw at work every day or someone he shared a commute with... maybe someone he saw when he went shopping.

A neighbour he had never quite said hello to...

“This stinks of Bro and Sis’ work,” the woman muttered before she gave Alpha a bright smile.

“Hi, I’m Delta... uh...” her smile faded when she looked fully at him.

“Your chair... is bleeding,” she said slowly. Alpha looked down, despite his conscious mind really not wanting to.

His chair was a sort of seat one would see in a tent or on the road. Hastily built, but done so many times that comfort had been maximised... but it was badly damaged as if the trip was dangerous.

Battle scars and the unwillingness to mend it meant the chair had sunk on one side and from the leathers of many beasts that made up from it, a few sections were indeed leaking blood, but the entire thing was even more ruined since on every inch of it... words had been carved into it.

‘Slay the skeletons’. ‘Find the lost priest’. ‘Find the ruins’.

So on... and so on. No space had been spared by the all-consuming quest lines.

Except for the armrests.

They were almost pristine except for a single word on each.

The left said ‘Quest’ and the right finished with ‘Failed’.

He shook a little and tried to retreat to old habits to suppress the simple words. He looked for a quest yet unscratched, something left undone... something to take choice away and responsibility. Anyt-

He went still when his head was pulled to a shoulder.

“Hey... you’re alright,” the woman, Delta, whispered as she held him. The contact was like cold water and he shuddered in exhale. She pulled back and smiled again.

“Some stitches and stuffing then your chair will be good as new. I don’t have sheep yet, but I have rabbit tails and pig hair. I’m sure I can whip something up if you don’t mind the smell and the occasional mushroom?” she offered kindly, looking unbothered that Alpha had gotten tears on her shirt.

“I don’t need a good chair,” he replied almost automatically. The woman leaned down with a smile.

“Yeah... I didn’t ask if you ‘needed’ it fixed. Do you ‘want’ it to stop bleeding?” she insisted. The question threw him as it always did when human kindness was shown his way.

“Do you... want me to want it fixed?” he tried meekly to work the argument into an area he was more comfortable with. She pursed her lips.

“You’re a weird one and coming from me that’s something. What’s your name?” she asked and Alpha shifted, unable to take back the knowledge of his bleeding chair to blissful ignorance.

“Alpha,” he said, only now fully understanding Delta’s name. She froze as she made the same connection. This was Delta.

This was his superior, his thrice model successor.

Even with the letters, even with the promises of the System... Alpha wondered if he was here to pass the torch on and... die?

He could feel it happening now. Breathing was becoming difficult... his vision had gone dark... he was being swallowed by the screaming void. After a second, he understood he was merely being smushed into Delta’s body in a tight embrace as she jumped up and down, screaming in laughter and delight.

“Alpha! Alpha! Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta! We’re practically related! Alpha! Get it, I’m Delta!” she said excitedly, spinning him around and he was mildly bothered that she was so much older than him...

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“I’m the first model. I suspect, so you must be an impressive warrior with many abilities,” Alpha tried to compliment back.

“I’m a what?” Delta stopped smiling to tilt her head.

“A hero of the system. What’s your strongest ability? I haven’t...compared to anyone,” he admitted and Delta looked slightly uncertain at the question.

“Nonconsensual Mushroom power?” she offered slowly.

“So, invasive mushroom spores? It must be deadly. Does it infect dragons or armies?” he asked politely, trying to get his grounds on where he stood compared to this more talented hero.

“No, they mostly infect me and walk about sometimes. They also explode and taste bad until I fixed them...” Delta muttered. Alpha stared, not sure if she was teasing him.

He inhaled once, usually this activated his stoic posture ability, but all it did here was make his cheeks puff up.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wish,” he insisted. Delta waved her hands in a panic.

“No! I have goblins as my helpers and I reformed a spider queen’s soul... and I accidentally made a supermushroom man that wipes out armies... and you know, I built a bar... also I have a jungle that is filled with really good materials that I own,” she listed, trying to explain.

Alpha’s mouth fell open.

Delta’s quest rewards were so unfair!

“What about treasures or loot?” he asked, hoping maybe he might win on that front. This oddly depressed Delta to an extent.

“I have no epic loot...only Pun birds,” she said, looking frazzled.

“Pun birds?” he blinked. Delta’s eyes turned mischievous.

“Birds most fowl,” she agreed.

“I can slay them if they are bad. I don’t need a quest... you’re nice. Foul birds are a pain,” Alpha shrugged. Delta opened her mouth then closed it.

“I made them so I’m a little attached,” she declined. It was Alpha’s turned to be depressed since if he didn’t quest, he didn’t have anything else to offer.

“So... Al, do you remember... before?” Delta asked slowly and the tone in the space shifted as Alpha swallowed once.

“Pieces... usually doing a quest of importance or sometimes just thinking brings back pieces,” he said and Delta nodded as if that was the same for her.

“I don’t remember how I died,” Delta said softly. Alpha watched her face turn speculative and looking at a nearby image of a swirling star. The light bouncing off her face.

Bouncing off her eyes-

-burning. It was burning. Screaming... which way to go? He had to go. Panic. He turned as fire rose into the air, casting light over people, the people, her eyes-

He snapped back, stumbling back into his chair as he held his head.

“Woah there, don’t poke the memories. All the medical people will tell you trying to force suppressed memories can be a bad thing,” Delta scolded in worry.

“We died together,” Alpha said abruptly and Delta let go of his hand as if he had burned her.

“Alpha...” she said, then didn’t know what else to say.

“I don’t know how. But I know that now... not that it helps,” he said sullenly before he winced as Delta smacked his back.

“Listen here, Eeyore. We had a bad time and now we’re going to have a good time. I am Delta and I just got to level 3 so you just count on me,” she said seriously. Alpha looked up at her, slight pain on his face.

Were all her Quests reward heavy?

“3... is a good start. How many foes have you vanquished?” he said with a thick voice. Delta looked proud as she answered.

“I’ve only ever killed one person and a few slimy things,” she bragged before thinking.

“And an invading army of spiders but that was by accident of soul-crushing their queen,” she shrugged. Then she had a serious thought as she crossed her arms.

“Does releasing the souls of the cult-undead count as killing or simply finishing the process?” she mumbled. Shaking his head, Alpha only had one real question of interest left.

“How did you own a dungeon? Did you win over the core or did you use an ability? Everyone says it’s your Dungeon,” he asked as he Delta dragged him on to her beanbag.

It was... really comfortable, but whatever was inside had different sizes and shapes to them than simple beads of cotton.

Delta looked bemused.

“You could say that I was handed the job. I’ve done good with it, but I’ve been ‘Delta’ a few blows to my ego,” she nudged him as if expecting something.

“Learning political or speech skills should counter those blows,” he said slowly. Delta’s amused look turned exasperated.

“Puns are not your forte are they?” she asked bluntly.

“Killing things is my forte,” he agreed.

“You’re killing me,” she muttered and Alpha frowned as he didn’t seem to be getting any damage numbers. His sword was even sheathed!

“Alpha, I wasn’t put in charge of a Dungeon. I am literally the Dungeon,” she explained. Alpha frowned, trying to understand.

“You are the only thing inside to fight?” he asked before Delta leaned in and pressed her forehead to his.

Her intense eyes close to his.

“Oh, you are a treat,” she smiled and a crackle of energy was shared between them. Orange and Alpha saw rooms... creatures with forming souls... winding passages and omni-awareness of the space.

After a moment, he leaned back.

“I was the floor...” he muttered. Delta nodded sagely.

“I was the torches and doors,” he went on.

“Uh-huh...” Delta encouraged.

“I knew the monsters... I saw the people...” he said.

“And the logical conclusion of this means...” Delta led him on like a duck chasing breadcrumbs. Alpha also saw the duck. It was not a duck. But it was the closest thing to a duck in disguise.

“You used your mushrooms to infect a dungeon and overrode its consciousness!” he said, impressed.

“They aren’t mine! I was forced to adopt them. Only Mushy, Maestro, and Missy are mine and sometimes the Pygmies!” Delta said furious, jabbing in the arm hard at each word.

“I was the Dungeon. You’re the Hero, I’m the Dungeon. Those two are the Monster and the Weapon,” Delta said after a moment.

She touched Alpha’s hand.

“Hero,” she said then placed his hand on her face gently.

“Dungeon,” she whispered.

Alpha looked at her and his heart broke for her. A physical sensation of pain. It shattered at the knowledge that she was not superior in terms of the system nor was she his replacement. She had been turned into something he was meant to destroy and harm... to conquer...

“I won’t,” he said firmly.

Delta just smiled.

“You don’t need to do any of that,” she agreed but Alpha shook his head.

“I don’t want to,” he insisted.

“Then do you want to be my friend instead?” she asked, smile bright as she held his hand gently.

The question was hard as he fought so hard to... never feel lost again, but this space... this feeling...

And perhaps the fact Delta had a literal army of monsters and traps to protect her...

“I do,” he said, the admission of desire and loneliness making his shoulders shake. He couldn’t stop and soon he was making unintelligible noises and Delta was rocking him in a hug slowly.

“Welcome to the Dungeon... Hero. It doesn’t have epic loot or the ability to level you that great, but it... it can be your home if you need it,” she said, smiling. Alpha let go of his pain inside, letting it weep and flow. As he did so, the waiting quests and notifications melted away from his vision.

For the first time since he had awoken in this world, his vision was clear of symbols and alerts.

All he saw was orange and warmth.

“I think I’m forgetting something,” Delta muttered above his head.

----

“Shackles unbound. The sun has set and the gleeful moon bids your pain!” Wyin purred as Nu observed the fight as sharp spears of branches made hallways and snakes made of Wyin’s flowery hair snapped at anyone approaching.

“Whip the Grim more, but leave the innocent priestess,” Nu instructed.

“Isn’t this hard mode?” Grim demanded as he deftly slashed, cutting any vine that got close. Nu smiled, unheard by them, but still responding.

“It’s more... Nu Game Plus,” he said and Wyin froze, snapping her head up at him in disgust. Nu sighed in dramatic sadness.

“I’m ruined. She’s ruined me,” he mumbled.

125: Branching Paths

Wyin swept the mist back as if brushing a loose strand of hair behind one ear. The veil rushed into hidden holes around the island of paradise that was Wyin’s home. A rush of air that vanished with almost musical notes.

A plucky lot, aren’t they?

Nu’s bluish-form was distracting as he stared down at the panting adventuring party. A young man that looked to be growing an afternoon shadow with a tasteful business suit, if Delta’s memories were correct. Nu’s one concession was that his jacket was undone and his tie was loose like a noose. His ruffled hair seemed to be growing longer each time Wyin looked.

His smile, however, was so shark-like it belonged in the cut-throat world of stock markets and liquifying both corporations and people. Which one depending entirely on his mood at the time.

In the light, Nu was handsome, but Wyin wouldn’t ever fall for him. In the dynamics of power, the tie between two beings... she could never truly love a dangerous beast that was too like herself. Wyin very much enjoyed being the one in control.

“Plucky... well they are looking plucked,” Wyin said, enjoying the way Nu’s smile changed to anguish at the wording. Wyin didn’t like wordplay or puns, but she’d love them just enough to use them against Nu.

“She’s... mocking us,” the little boy, who tried to smother his light with death, gritted out. His various bone instruments laid about the boss arena, shattered, but even in pieces... even in dust, the boy proved to be clever. Between snake skeletons turned into whips or that little trick where he almost grew bone segments over her eyes with chalk dust.

Wyin would have to keep him down... he was too clever at times. At first, she was worried, but the boy lacked the... the true affinity for death. But the way he struggled to keep something contained... something powerful made her want to poke him until he snapped like one of her small branches.

But Wyin would behave. Children were in bad taste to traumatise, even if it made them stronger in the long run. Thankfully, Delta had less pity for stumbling buffoons, so Wyin would always have grown men and women to break physically and mentally... even spiritually if she had time.

Next to him, the girl who burned with a bestial rage stumbled to her feet.

“Why the angry face, dear? Did I do something to upset you?” Wyin asked, innocently like a naive Dryad emerging in spring. She absentmindedly shook the case in her other ‘hand’ making the snoring boy inside roll about.

Another scary child, if Wyin was honest. Still, for all her drake breathes and flame goliath fire auras? Wyin had tasted stronger. Not that she let herself get too cocky. The fire mage who burned her very ‘self’ was merely fifteen minutes away from the Dungeon and into the town...

Even if he didn’t seem to recognise her now.

Someone put a hand on the girl’s shoulder and Wyin tried not to avert her eyes. The... thing shook his head.

“She’s trying to make you rush,” the golem said, his blond hair and petit features too perfectly to be natural outside years of selective breeding. Just before the extra toes started showing up... Wyin both glanced over the golem and tried to avoid looking too long. It was a frustrating feeling.

Magnetically drawn, and yet, instinctually repulsed.

Some part of ‘was-her-now-him’ flowed inside that aura the golem called a soul, but it was mixed with so many things... like a beautiful tapestry that was set on fire with glee until it lived with confused flailing.

It was the work of a master. A dark and twisted master who delved where no mortal should.

“My name is Vas and I would like to negotiate for the release of our comrade,” the boy began and Wyin saw a shrewdness that was so like her own for a moment before it was replaced by foolish brightness.

“I accept. I would like you all to submit and give up. Do so and your ‘friend’ is yours, whole and alive,” Wyin offered, in what she thought was quite a generous deal.

“If we refuse, will you kill him?” asked the shifty one with the cat summon. Grommet or something. Wyin would learn his name later when she cared. Wyin thought about it but after a few seconds of manipulative wording, the image of Delta rising up from the dark abyss of Wyin’s conscious glowed orange.

‘Imagine they were your children’ the spiritual Delta said benevolently.

“Like a toad under both feet,” Wyin said bluntly. The kids froze and the mental Delta screeched and Nu shot her an odd look.

‘Every child you save gives you a loyalty point on this stamp card that allows you to traumatise one person that I don’t care about!’ Conscious-Delta argued, waving some card about and Wyin hastily took back her words.

Wyin didn’t know if she was developing a conscious or Delta was speaking to her through some veil of consciousness, but Wyin wasn’t letting that deal go!

“I’m joking! Looking at his...” Wyin stared at the boy, Deo, and hesitated.

“His... pinchable... meaty cheeks that flow with hot warm bloo..d?” Wyin said, smiling as if nails were being inserted into her eyes.

I am having no part of this...

Nu turned, simply walking out of the boss room as if some meal he had been anticipating had been replaced by cardboard.

“Well, Deo’s dead. I think we can still escape the same fate if we run and don’t run into any more murderous trees, knock on wood,” Grim said then looked furious with himself.

“I won’t leave my teammate behind!” the priestess said with a serious tone. She reached into her robes that looked like she had tied a cloud to her body. It was sensual and Wyin felt her own mist trick was a little lacking in comparison.

“And what little trick do you have?” she asked as she snaked a vine around the pun-making cretin’s leg and lassoing him around to stop him making any more bad jokes.

The woman held up a single length of white cloth, the thing dancing in the breeze.

It... didn’t seem to have a magical aura and the thing threw Wyin for a moment, cautiously gathering mist and curling her vines in case this was a trap. Even her teammates looked confused.

“In the darkest of pits and with the foulest of creatures, I give up my flawed sight... and let the path of truth guide me. With the white cloth of surrender... I give my fate to my goddess,” she warned and with ease, blindfolded herself. Wyin scrunched up her face.

“Pit? Foul? Excuse me, I made Delta work very hard on-” she began but froze as something washed over the room.

A touch of divinity.

Wyin saw shadows move as a new light source leaked out the woman’s body. The mushroom staff in her hand creaking and straining as ethereal glowing veins travelled its length, meeting at the tip. The item struggling to channel the power now filled the priestess.

The priestess seemed to have no idea the sheer image she gave off.

“I have confused feelings about this,” the little death-mage said bluntly.

Wyin narrowed her eyes, taking no chances, she moved dozens of vines at the priestess, parting the meadows like a wave breaking upon the shore.

The priestess tilted her head, then floated as if made of nothing but feathers and purity. She weaved around the snaking vines. The priestess shot skywards and the vines followed with snatching intentions.

The staff she wielded swung and began to smack into each one with accuracy that was...

Wyin stared as every smack of the staff landed perfectly, the touch exploded each vine in white energy strands of viscous sap.

“That cheating goddess. I call... what does Delta call it... hax! Hax! The woman is using aimbots!” Wyin raged, words she didn’t understand flowing out in comforting anger.

“The path of truth is easy to see amongst a garden of lies and fake-masks,” the priestess called as she shot towards Wyin, still glowing with divine power.

Of all the luck, Wyin’s first religious nutter had to be a legitimate saint.

A very untrained and timid saint, but that was like saying the knife in your kidney was only a little sharp.

“This hurts Deo’s... no, all their dreams are to be the first team to conquer this dungeon. I won’t let you end their dreams. They’re good kids, Wyin!” the saint-girl cried as she glowed with more power with each word of truth. The staff smashed into her cheek, moving through her wall of vines as if it knew the exact angle, speed, and spin needed to break through.

The image of that... staff on her face made Wyin’s temper boil.

What if Sir Fran had been watching?!

Wyin’s amber eyes slowly looked at the Saint without moving her face.

“Little girl...,” she began before vines curled around the staff, gripping it hard.

“You wished to ‘spit some truth’ at me? Very well,” Wyin said, moving slowly, making the staff groan ominously.

“Let’s have a heart-to-heart. My name is Wyin and I don’t think anybody loves me,” she began and the glow around the Saint diminished hard as if a sharp wind blew out her divine light.

It hurt Wyin like a shard of glass in her heart, but the look of panic on the girl’s face was so delicious.

She pulled the staff closer into her flowering dress, sliding it down smooth wood as the girl struggled to get free.

“I lost who I was and now I don’t even know if I like who I am becoming,” she said casually, the phallic staff was gushing white energy now, unable to contain it due to Wyin’s constant squeezing.

“And honestly. I like Delta. She tries hard and she has a side that I see that I don’t think others do,” Wyin admitted, seeing Nu’s dark blue form skulking in the shadows.

“And if it weren’t for her... you’d all be dead,” she said, sensually into the priestess’ ears. The divine buff snuffed out, leaving a limp girl in Wyin’s grip. Her staff sagged, spent of any power.

The saint slowly raised her head and Wyin’s smirk slipped off her face as the girl was grinning.

“I didn’t lie... you just presumed that I didn’t have a plan,” she admitted as there was a sudden pain from her arms.

From the staff, necrotic dark energy that had been hiding under the divine light shot across Wyin’s body and into the cage. It was weakening, becoming rotted as a severed hand flew out from the girl’s cloud dress and sucker-punched Wyin hard enough to make her entire form rock back.

She saw out the corner of her eye that the golem waved a cheerful two-armed wave, missing his left hand. When had he detatch-... Wyin’s mind flashed to not a few moments before when he stopped the bestial girl, putting a hand on her shoulder!

He must have cut it off and left it there as he talked to her...

The crafty little... wait, Wyin panicked as something was still missing.

She felt the ground rumbling. The death-mage grinned, exhausted as he fell to his knees, the beast-girl at his side collapsing into clothes and dead skin.

A one-sided mimic, even the clothes looked to be made of hastily dyed hair.

Something shot past her roots like a shark moving through the soil.

A massive limbless worm with veins of burning fire breached the ground as Wyin did her best to move the rotting cage, but the girl snapped her maw over it and snapped it clean.

There were still human features, but clearly, this advance transformation had taken time and her team had bought more than enough for her.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

They had rescued Deo.

Wyin couldn’t even deny they had completely and utterly pulled the wool over her eyes.

She closed her eyes and sighed as Maestro began to play the trumpets in a morally uplifting victory theme.

“Wow... it worked,” the annoying one said and Wyin scowled, dropping him on a slightly softer piece of the boss arena. Her challenge had... been beaten, so she would stop trying to murder the children.

For now.

“You didn’t do anything,” Wyin reminded as she examined her chomped branches with dismay. It would take minutes to grow all this back and days to get it trimmed just right.

“Hey! It was my plan and you’re just annoyed we wormed our way into a win,” he grinned then looking at the beast-girl transforming back, sighed.

“Can you break curses?” the boy asked hopefully. Wyin didn’t even blink.

“Death is the best way. I suggest a neat beheading. Get the curse juices out quickly,” she said coyly.

“I’ll keep looking,” he responded dryly.

Ah well, Wyin was just being honest.

Before long, they all gathered before her.

“Wake him up,” the saint girl insisted as the beast-girl checked on Deo with worry.

“I didn’t put him to sleep,” Wyin said, bemused.

There was a long moment as they all stared at her then back at Deo who was snoring his head off on the girl’s lap.

“He’s a heavy sleeper. I was hoping he’d wake up and scream a little,” she insisted, getting annoyed that they weren’t believing her.

This is...

Wyin turned to see Nu struggling with something she couldn’t see. It was like he was trying to turn a valve but it was beyond him.

I knew it was bad, but how did she bend the reward mech-... wait, I got it!

Nu crowed in success as something seemed to give in his hands. There was a loud popping noise like a giant bubble had exploded overhead. Nu began to spin with a shriek as whatever he tried to do was now taking him for a ride.

“What was that?” Deo mumbled, having felt the rumble. He seemed to feel the pop more than the entire battle... it was astounding.

Nu was now a blue vortex as the system he was trying to use didn’t like his hands-on handling and then he shot across the room as something like a white rip in space formed, the sounds of reels filling the room.

“Oh, rewards! I hope I get a wand to match my staff! Having side-arms are always useful,” the saint clapped and Wyin pursed her lips, deciding that no one could be that naive.

“Girl, you don’t need more toys, you need a man,” she said and the girl shook her head as the light grew brighter.

“I don’t ‘need’ a man or anyone for that matter. If a partner wants to come into my life then they will appear at an appropriate time and with heroic charm. They have to be not too old... and be earnest... and if they like helping people that would be nice too,” the saint lectured with a sweetness that made Wyin want to gag.

“I’m sorry, but people don’t just fall from the sky-” Wyin began, cynical acid building in her tone before someone fell from the white tear, landing in a crouch before Kemy.

Some squire knights costume with a sword over one shoulder.

Wyin stared as he stood slowly, looking around with a frown.

“Delta, this isn’t the third floor. I think you missed,” he called to the tear. In the tear, barely audible to Wyin, let alone the humans, Delta’s voice cried out.

“I’m sorry! I’ve never inter-Dungeon transported someone. It’s not as easy as it looks! Listen, I promise there is a feast table down there. Just go down the stairs and enjoy yourself! I’ll need a minute to find my way out,” she defended herself.

The young man turned, looking slightly red and smiling to himself as if Delta’s words made him happy. Then he saw Wyin... then the group...

The smile vanished under a stoic mask that would make rocks envious.

“Kemy just got rewarded a boyfriend,” the golem nodded and the saint looked either terrified or star-struck.

“Lame... I want giant magical swords or artefacts that make me invisible,” Gr...something complained. The knight looked awkward before he pointed and Kemy turned invisible as if erased from existence.

“I am Alpha... family of Delta. I must go now. I am not... taking requests right now other than assuring you that I am quite capable. Forgive me, I’m on a break from being a hero,” he bowed politely and turned on his heel.

He didn’t get far before something yanked on his arm, Kemy slowly becoming visible with a smile.

“Hey... even if you’re not my reward. I-I’d like to say hello and... know more about Delta. Can we come with you, to the next floor?” she asked and Wyin felt ignored.

This was her boss room... and they were having emotional connections in her vicinity. She needed a hose. The air felt tainted.

“The third floor is not... available for trial but there is a feasting table that you can all go enjoy. Go, leave... explode. Just don’t linger,” Wyin said bluntly as Nu floated back with a dishevelled appearance, looking like he had gone through a ringer.

Items began to fall from the tear before it sealed up. Wyin snatched them and hurled them at people, like a squirrel trying to get interlopers off her lawn.

A large black branch that was infused with the spirit of winter. The goth took that up with eagerness that he passed off as aloofness. Some thorny collar for the beast girl that was glaring at her, keeping Deo behind her. The thing had some magic that Wyin only knew was not teleportation to make them leave faster.

Kemy got sharp stiletto heels that had thorns for the actual heel. They were dark and clashed with her innocent cloud robe.

They’d let her be balanced no matter what was under her, barring magical interference.

Great, she could hustle on to the next floor faster!

She tried them on as the boy who made Wyin want to kill something watched. Something about this ‘Alpha’ made some deep urge rise up. A long and dead dungeon instinct to murder that Wyin needed no help in cultivating.

Her own murderous rage was sufficient so she ignored it. Kemy took three steps and fell over, the magic in them clearly counting on the wearer being able to walk in heels already.

“What about us?” Vas insisted as he pointed to himself and the dark one.

“Grim and I did a lot. Deo should get something for playing the victim,” he added after a moment. He reached down and reattached his hand, the flesh moving like a liquid until the hand and arm were one again. When he did that, Wyin tasted something...

Incredible. She smiled, seeing what the Golem was... or... what it would be, his nature so clear for the single moment. His master was a devious one. Wyin would tip her head in respect if the idea didn’t want to make her skewer the golem now and end it before it could bloom.

Nu scowled as he heard the question and smacked the rift a few times as if adjusting a signal on an old TV set.

It spluttered and spat out a little tacky participation trophy decorated with glitter and metallic paint. It had Deo’s name on it. It did have a little magic to it, but Wyin had no idea what it was.

Picking it up, Deo spun on one foot and held it skywards in one hand, giving off a loud cheerful cry.

The rift wheezed a few times, giving up a book and flower crown.

The book was a cosy looking thing with a cover showing a little ant riding on a train towards some quaint city. It was titled ‘How to chill out and be a helpful hobo-teacher’ by one R.Rivers.

The pages seem to have tons of comments made in the margin by some editor that Wyin could see was sassy. Grim held the book out like it was going to bite him.

Vas put the crown on his head and began to... Wyin recoiled... he was vibing.

Alpha seemed to watch this all, from Kemy topping over everywhere, Deo still posing with his trophy, The death mage posing with enough edge to make razor wire, Grim nibbling the book like a toddler, and the beast girl putting the collar on a nearby rock which made it grow little legs and run around barking.

Then there was Vas.

Vibing.

She sent a Pygmie downstairs to get her a flagon of troll ale. Wyin was going to blackout and erase this from her short term memory. It was for the best.

It was either drink or taking up knitting with their organs and one of those required patience.

---

Delta pressed her cheek against the floor. The white nothingness was cool.

Narrowing her eyes, she licked it and left an orange streak. The meeting room had a few bugs to sort out. One, Delta couldn’t evacuate because she couldn’t slip into 100% dungeon mindset to use the way out.

Darn her humanizing mindset and inability to go beep-boop-murder.

“Well, if I can’t get out that way. I’ll just make my own,” she declared and began to lick the floor.

“How many licks does it take to get out of the centre of a dimensional soul-scape?” she wondered.

16... it turned out.

The floor cracked and Delta saw she had not taken in the consideration that she was on top of the hole when it finally gave.

She floated there for a moment, over the yawning abyss.

“This is fine,” she said calmly as she began to fall.

She fell for a long time, crashing into tubes she wasn’t sure she wasn’t supposed to be going down. She gave a yelp as the spongy mushroom tubes turned sharp and metallic. The feeling of orange faded sharply, only her own body glowing orange as she crashed into something hard. It was a place of stone...?

No, more like ash.

Ash that was so delicate that one hiss of breath would bring down the entire city of ash.

No... not a city. Not ridges and levels of some ringed city. These were floors.

A disconnected series of levels of a dungeon. She flowed to the very bottom, past all 103 floors into the depths where the core was.

Where the core... should have been. Instead, in a giant room where knights of gleaming metal once stood and art mosaics that made Delta want to cry even in their diminished states.

It had all become flash-frozen ash.

The back, on a raised platform, a massive crater devoured the space, the ruins of a pedestal barely poking out the bottom. Her form tried to fill the space, forming a slight glassy orb, more energy than physical substance.

Around her, the ash began to sluggishly turn to orange metal that shone. Orange Silver... a paradox that would cling to her over oblivion.

It began to hurt.

All the floors pulling at her at once. 103 floors. 10 special floors of bosses so long dead that not even a dungeon’s power could resurrect them. 93 floors of ‘lesser’ bosses or powerful traps or gimmicks.

Over 2000 Monsters, some able to return... others not.

Powerful magic items and obstacles.

Pulling and tugging at one last gasp of breath that was Delta.

Delta began to crack down her sides, seems coming undone in sharp edges, and she could not utter a sound.

It took everything she had to keep... it... together. Her hands dissolved as the dungeon that was too big for her sucked and drained her. One of her eyes went dark and thoughts started... to... become...

Slo...oo...w.

S-he-e... wa-s Delta… Delta…

Del...ta.

...

De...l

...Ta

..
.
.
.

Third floor

So I need 500 characters... Thats a lot. Well not a lot really, just enough I suppose. So above we have the map so far. Rooms not explored are seen yet and obvious, Delta hasn't quite expanded over the far edge yet. So, to add some characters...

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

I love a good map. I'd be lost without it.

Heard about a spider cartographer. He makes maps on the web.

Got an email about someone claiming to be able to read maps backwards. That's just spam.

Is this enough yet?

I hope so.

126: Slivers of Silver

It... felt... like...this...

Was..

It.

...

...?

Sensation. A sharp poke that brought reality crashing back. A reflective mana tapping her very essence. Delta twitched as something broke the time dilation over her own mind.

“I like your grit, but there’s biting more than you can chew and suffocating yourself in dessert,” a voice broke through the endless loop. A woman had simply walked out of thin air. Silver hair, amused sculpted features... too beautiful to be real.

She reached in and pulled Delta out of the pedestal as if grabbing a fish stuck in a net.

“Who... are you?” Delta said slowly, the connection to her dungeon coming clearer now and giving her energy through the decaying dungeon veins in here.

The once Silver dungeon...

“Sil...ver?” Delta asked and the woman snorted.

“No. Don’t let the hair fool you. I used to be a different colour. My name is Lorsa and you, little step-sister are a long way from home,” the woman said with a sigh.

This Lorsa was a dungeon but not.

She was old, but new.

She was strong but weak.

Lorsa was sad but she was determined.

“You should come to my dungeon and have cake,” Delta said the first thing that came to her mind. Her most base thoughts... her first instincts in a stressful situation.

Lorsa smiled and they were moving through the Dungeon system links, bouncing between dungeons like bounce pads. This was how Lorsa ‘teleported’. Her control was years above Delta’s, however. She could make sharp turns with ease and the other Dungeons moved to get out of her way.

“The good news is that you for a few minutes managed a dungeon with about x34 amount of levels of your own and didn’t instantly snap. That means you’re tough,” Lorsa complimented. Delta still felt groggy... confused as the tunnels around them shot past like stars in the sky.

“Bad news?” she asked, frowning.

Lorsa’s frown grew and Delta decided she would have to add ice-cream to the offering table.

Under her silver hair, like lines on her skull, the glint of diamond sparkled in the passing light.

“You set off every alarm on the way down,” Lorsa said simply.

Oh... Delta didn’t suppose that was very good, now was it?

---

The gleaming tower was a marvel of stone and rare imported glass from the desert, farmed from the fabled Ruby Dungeon of beauty. The constructs had been infused with rare glassmaker mana, making them permanent.

The appearance was open, airy, and approachable.

The stairs leading up were physically exhausting but brisk. One could pay a small fare at the entrance gate for the platform that would lift them up as they relaxed on benches. It was affordable so it really was a choice of endurance vs time.

Along with the ten free rides around noon each day, it was all very liked.

Such was the way to the Fairplay Tower.

Near the top, but not quite the top floor, Director Ripdoy looked out the window over the expanding town of glinting glass and streamlined mage colleges.

Water mages would be going to the sewage treatment plant along with fire mages to the waste management.

Local air mages would collect the spill off and fill them back into blocks that Fairplay would take back and feed to the Smog Dungeon to the east. A long trip to simply dump waste, but it was the only dungeon that naturally developed such a... taste.

The dungeon was an amenable one. Keeping to its word and the deal they had struck. One of the smoother deals, but that might be due to the gluttonous nature of the Dungeon rather than their own negotiation tactics.

The sheer profits they made off enchanted air masks were also not to be ignored, so Ripdoy considered the journey of waste to be worth it.

His door opened and he looked over his shoulder to see a lanky boy shuffling in, holding a tea tray. It shook, but at least there’d be no more stains on his expensive rug this time.

“Gentle, come in boy,” he beckoned and the nervous teen with dull brown hair and a uniform he still struggled to fill out did so, managed to put the tray down without spilling anything this time. Ripdoy internally sighed in relief.

The tea was a bitter sort, but Ripdoy had grown to enjoy many flavours in his years.

“Sir, a report from upstairs in the Manatracer came in. They need to see you immediately,” Gentle said, not stammering. Ripdoy nearly promoted him on the spot. How far the boy had come from the stuttering clumsy idiot he had taken under his wing.

“Very good, Gentle. Stay here and enjoy some tea. Anyone comes looking, you know what to do,” he instructed. It had not been his intent to turn Gentle into an assistant of sorts, but it just worked out that way. The boy seemed happier when he was elbow deep in work, so he didn’t have the heart to actually hire someone to take the duties away from Gentle.

“S-sir?” the boy asked before he was out the room. Ripdoy turned back with an arched brow.

“If the Manatracer is acting up then it means a new Dungeon... a strong one,” he said, not actually asking anything.

“Gentle, remember not to dawdle with your words, lad,” he reminded and the boy straightened up, saluting.

“Sir! I want to know if I can finally join a scouting expedition?” he asked, unable to hide his excitement.

Ripdoy brushed his silvery beard, unable to quite hide his frown. Men and women could legally join up at the age of 18, however, special permission from a guardian could allow one at 16 to join the various groups.

Since Ripdoy was Gentle’s guardian in the eye of the law... he could grant the boy’s wish.

He managed a small smile.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Let me think about it and we’ll discuss it over dinner,” he promised and Gentle’s face lit up before turning serious.

“Sir!” he saluted again and Ripdoy left the room, unable to stop the smile as he felt the small childish necklace he wore of a seashell that Gentle had made for him when he was a lad.

The shell was fragile and in all his fights, escapades, and adventures, Ripdoy had collected more than a few scars by protecting it from a fall or an attack by a monster.

It was also heavy as he thought of Gentle in those same dangers.

He reached the Manatracer on the top floor. A massive singular room dedicated to a massive globe-like device that was the collaboration projection of geomancers, mana-purists, dungeon items, and one woman.

Jenia Visp

Her business hair was up in a bun as her sole ‘talent’ controlled the entire globe. The other people in the room were here for maintenance, recording, and aiding Jenia where they could with their own talents. She turned at his entrance. Their uniforms were similar. Dark green with white trim on the neck. His had a sword at his hip. Hers a hand crossbow.

The rotation image of the world split and unfolded into its proper shape of a rough rectangle.

“I don’t know why you insist on the round mode. A round planet just looks... wrong,” Ripdoy said gruffly.

“I wouldn’t mind a world where walking forward doesn’t meet a dead-end,” Jania said easily, her voice coming out in a slight lisp. Her quirk was long familiar to Ripdoy, comforting even.

“I like to see where my world ends then build a bridge further out just to spite the void,” Ripdoy shrugged, the same old argument like a greeting between them.

“Bridges? You mean dungeons that fall hopefully there or here and expand one realm or another. We’re lucky Dungeons don’t crash into cities...” Jania said with exasperation. Ripdoy watched her settle into her chair, the commanding dock that would control the machine at full power.

“Not even the Kobolds will build cities on the extreme edge. It’s bad enough we lose good people to the Dive Syndrome every year, but we don’t need whole cities exploding or going over the edge due to shoddy foundations,” Ripdoy leaned against another chair as Jania rose up, a stone pillar lifting her chair up so she was equal level to the map.

“Dive Syndrome isn’t exactly a disorder. People just... leap when they see the abyss. There’s no medical explanation or malady of the mind. Healthy, sane people just jumping... it’s bizarre,” Jania admitted as she slowly connected ribbons of her mana to the map where the machine would begin connecting her to millions of mana threads in the sky.

Like little footprints in the snow... mana left a trail if one could touch it. Jania was thought to be a talentless girl until Ripdoy lifted her high enough. Then she was a goddess.

“Well, they all have one connection. They’re either adventurer, children of adventurers, or have a strange blood gift,” Ripdoy reminded as he waited. There was no point asking Jania what was going on.

She was the type of woman who didn’t hand in a report until she had enough facts.

Jania disliked wasting time. Her hands began to weave, brushing multi-coloured threads here and there. Like a harp player playing a melody only she could hear.

“Did you hear about the tree down south?” Jania asked and Ripdoy had, but he merely let her talk.

About how the tree had a whole branch snapped off as if something godly had issues with it. The branch took off, flying to parts unknown to seed itself.

About the monster that chased it.

How dungeon generation was down by almost 30% this year... monsters seem down as well...

Ripdoy was a listener when he didn’t have to give commands. He liked the way Jania talked with professionalism. Not peppering her words with too many opinions that might show biases at work.

Facts were strong and true and they both appreciated that.

Then Jania froze up all at once, following threads as magical equipment near consoles went off.

“Sir, Ma’am! Leftover wards in Dungeon 03 just went live. They’re out of date, but something tried to power up the dungeon and- gone! It’s gone, but the whole place lit up,” the man in the corner... Hazman. He had two little girls if Ripdoy remembered right.

Dungeon 3... he remembered Silver. Ripdoy remembered pain and the screaming of the rooms as metal peeled itself off walls in rage.

He remembered how it had broken all the rules.

“Send mages, send scouts. I want reports. Check the outposts. Monsters may attack to feed the dungeon if it managed to survive,” he said with authority.

Jania was giving him looks, concern.

Dungeon 3 had not shattered. 03 did not agree to their terms, so raw and full of holes in those early days...

Dungeon 03 got up one day and walked out of its dungeon and killed that woman.

A contract servant.

Then the core... just vanished.

It was the most harrowing thing Ripdoy had experienced with a dungeon. Abominations were just that. Monsters far too gone to let live.

03 was the worst.

It was far too human and it still did terrible things. It was easy to put down dungeons that created viral plagues, insect swarms... monsters so putrid they tainted the land they walked on.
03 showed them something much worse.

It showed dungeons played a game with rules, but they were just playing.

And they were all playing too and when they decided the game ended? Then there was no fair play. Jania’s hand snagged on something so vibrant it was hard to look at.

A thrumming orange thread.

127: Gam Ham Time

I miss the days when it was just me... hating the world. Watching Delta blow things up.

Nu’s complaining was audible through heavy beeping and typing notes. His form had reverted back to his screen form.

No one barged in. Everything made sense. No one turned me into a person.

Delta drummed her fingers as she waited. The secret garden was devoting its full power to sustaining Hero who was in some sort of ‘recharging coma’ when the raid boss mode was turned off.

“Everyone barged in. Stop editing history,” Delta said as she watched Lorsa explore the space with delight and slight... fear.

“The rules are so loose here. It’s uncomfortably close to Dungeons that turn into Abominations,” the woman commented. Delta couldn’t stop looking at her.

She was a core... on legs.

It was mind-boggling to Delta who hadn’t really ‘moved’ since she woke up. Just rearranged some bits and grew into herself.

Lorsa was a slim woman. A picturesque image of the ‘elven’ woman. Too impossible to exist, yet she did. It was a little ruined since Delta could really ‘see’ her. This form was not gained by any diet or workout or even a gifted bloodline. Her entire body had been ‘crafted’ with perfectionism that spoke of godly influence... or a Dungeon with too much time.

In the centre of Lorsa, not quite her heart or stomach... fragments of a brilliant diamond core were being held together by dozens of mana strings from other Dungeons. Like a bandaid over a hole in one’s stomach.

Red, blue, green, gold... gold was the majority of the strings, but there were dozens of other tiny little efforts here and there. Fewer colours, more ideas.

Smoke, lava, clouds, darkness, beast.

Lorsa has been in contact with what seemed like every Dungeon ever.

Each piece so delicately weaved that one mishap would unravel Lorsa like a dream.

“You’re staring,” Lorsa called over, sounding amused. Delta blinked, feeling a flush on her neck at being caught.

“I’ve never… met a Dungeon core beside myself,” Delta said quickly. Nu had gone quiet, listening.

“I would imagine so. Fairplay has done their best to shatter the Core Network in key places,” Lorsa said, tone shifting to annoyance. She picked up a Pigglecap with a confused look.

“What function does this serve?” she asked suddenly. Delta blinked.

“It’s cute,” she offered. Lorsa took a long moment to answer.

“...Acceptable answer,” she said and Delta watched her use some of her own energy... no, that wasn’t right.

Lorsa focused and golden mana flowed, a borrowed reserve from another core.

A chair with rubies and gaudy golden etchings appeared in the garden. Delta didn’t think Lorsa was so...

Interesting to like such a chair.

At Delta’s pointed look, the woman coughed.

“Yal, his mana is... snobbish,” she muttered, trying to get comfortable, and failing, on the chair.

“Mana has vibes?” Delta asked, excited to have someone else who was going through this Dungeon thing. She floated down and when she made a chair, a mushroom the size of a small car popped out of the ground.

Lorsa’s smile was mysterious, her pale blue eyes too old for the youthful face.

“You would have noticed. Your own is...” Lorsa trailed off, looking for the best word.

---

In the claimed lab, orange waves charged into battle, waving arms that didn’t exist as they tried to consume the stupid tree!

“For Delta!” the head of the assault cried.

The room rippled in an echoing chant.

“Shrooms for the Shroom Dungeon! FRIENDSHIP FOR THE DELTA!”

---

“Excitable,” Lorsa said finally.

You’re being too kind. The word you’re looking for is ‘Invasive and infectious’.

Lorsa turned her eyes to Nu’s screen, her face frowning as she tried to understand something.

She focused and from her hand, a white screen manifested in the air above her palm. It was so pale it looked like snow freshly formed. It crackled slightly as if it was getting a bad signal.

Nu’s next sarcastic comment died as he came to face-to-face with another Menu system.

It was blank... unassuming... and very much unalive.

“I’m not sure to praise you or fear you that you managed to break the system so badly that it gained thought. It’s slightly... obscene, but I am old. Perhaps this is the future?” Lorsa said quietly as her own screen flicked through windows and options with minimal input from Lorsa.

Nu’s screen flickered as old pain rose up from within him. Crackling and static as he lost himself in old memories. Delta’s voice came out quiet.

“He’s not broken. He’s Nu,” was all she said and Lorsa paused... then nodded in apology.

“I can’t accuse anything of being broken. Not without being a hypocrite of the highest order,” Lorsa said and Delta decided she needed answers before Lorsa could drop any more vague-bombs.

“What's the Core-network... and what happened to you?” she asked, as kindly as she could. Lorsa kicked her feet a few times, bouncing her knee in thought.

If to answer? To leave? To lie?

Delta didn’t know until Lorsa spoke a few seconds later.

“The Core Network is basically a massive set of lines connecting every Dungeon to another. Dungeons are split into two groups. Unaware and awake. We are awake, but those without the ability to think higher thoughts beyond ‘eat, grow, kill’ are unaware. Those awake have power over the unaware such as using them as ‘nodes’ to stretch their own awareness. Even governing them in some ways,” Lorsa shifted to cross her legs, leather boots impossibly clean.

“Sounds a bit tyrannical,” Delta pointed out as the ‘walls’ of the secret garden showed a soft orange light.

“There is no choice. You cannot force growth and development. You can turn them feral or worse... break them. It’s why seeds need time, why children need to develop... why diamonds need pressure and time,” Lorsa replied, drinking wine from a bottle she pulled from thin air.

It still felt a little wrong to take away choice, even from feral kids, but Delta was a big softie so maybe she was overreacting.

“As for me? Well, Fairplay, a giant guild-turned-company came into my Dungeon, tricked me with an agreement after beating my bosses and when I had my back turned, scooped out the equivalent of my organs, leaving me a hollow husk that threw herself into the network as a last-ditch effort to survive,” she said calmly.

Delta shot Nu a look who did his version of a shrug.

“And... why did they do that?” Delta asked, hesitating slightly in case she upset her first core friend.

Lorsa thought about it.

“Honestly. I have two theories,” she admitted and held up two fingers, touching the first one.

“One, Fairplay is run by the Silence and their fanatical love of the fallen sibling. Meaning that destroying awake dungeons would not only weaken the body of the Brother further towards total collapse... but take back all the seeds I’ve purified over the years,” she listed, throwing out important words like Delta should have read the script by now.

She touched the other finger, silver hair moving as if it was programmed to do so since there was no ‘breeze’ in the secret garden.

“Two, they’re greedy humans who discovered the sheer mana power in Dungeon cores being led by a bigot who lost someone to a Dungeon and believes that they should control all Dungeons like farm animals and only they know best for the world,” she said with a shrug.

Lorsa thought about it.

“Both? Both sounds good,” she settled on and took a swig of her wine that would burn the paint off the walls.

“...I have a lot of questions,” Delta said, brain frying a little at the idea there was a whole world outside of her Dungeon she had been purposely ignoring.

“I thought breaking Dungeons was illegal? Like their cores, my friend Ruli told me that,” Delta insisted.

The woman winked.

“You’re welcome. That whole law came around due to my little incident. My Dungeon used to be about... well, not too far off from the World Tree. Back then, the tree didn’t suck up every leyline and mostly kept her attitude to herself. Now, there’s no energy around that entire area to support new Dungeons. That damn tree keeps burrowing deeper as well,” Lorsa said, cheeks going flush as she kept drinking.

That didn’t sound right.

“I met the tree recently. It’s a him,” Delta corrected. Lorsa stared, slowly shaking her head.

“No, it’s her. A giant cow that would wax poetics about eviscerating me, people, monsters... anything really. I haven’t been around that area since I can’t risk going where Leylines are dead,” she admitted.

Uh oh... that sounded familiar.

“Can you... come with me for a second?” Delta insisted and Lorsa raised a brow.

Delta was sure this wouldn’t take more than a few seconds to assure her that she was wrong...

---

Delta removed a finger with a wince.

“-AND THEN ROT FROM THE INSIDE WITH THE GOAT STILL ON FIRE!” Lorsa screamed, waving her bottle at Wyin. The tree’s entire upper half had turned a furious autumn red.

“You little hag...I’m going to-” Delta plugged her ears again with a sour expression.

Wyin’s voice was strong and Delta heard snippets of rusty wire, a reverse summoning spell, and something to do with scorpions.

“So... Wyin used to be the World Tree?” she called out, hoping to end the ‘discussion’ before the children came back up. They both turned to her.

“Yes/No!” they snapped. Lorsa nodding, Wyin huffing out a negative.

Delta stared, waiting.

“It’s complicated and my memory... my understanding is... flawed,” Wyin said irritably.

“Now who’s the hag?” Lorsa said, rolling her eyes as she walked around Wyin, sizing her up.

“I was stripped down to a mere seed. Less than a fragment, less than a soul. I am an echo... but now I am my own self,” Wyin said with a sigh. Lorsa shook her head in amazement.

“To grow this much from a different beginning... a different home... and yet to still be so similar,” she murmured

“I wanted to wait until I was... confident before I spoke of this,” Wyin said, indifferently to Delta

“I don’t mind. Sorry for rushing you,” Delta patted Wyin’s trunk with a smile. The boss blinked then looked away with an odd look.

“This raises questions. Who is the world tree now? Another version of yourself?” Lorsa came to a stop, her hood fluttering as if the material was lighter than air.

Delta could sense it would tank a hit from Fran with ease...

The question made Wyin’s face darken with hate.

“The name is lost to the fog of ‘before’. All I know is I let that worm too close to my heart. With a face so close to another I once loved... that she once loved. He broke my heart and I presume, is playing with the rotten thing as we speak,” Wyin turned, a snarl on her face but Delta didn’t move away.

She held one of Wyin’s thorny branches, the thorn unable to quite harm her avatar.

“You didn’t deserve that,” Delta whispered.

“And you didn’t deserve me, but we all must accept our curses, Delta,” Wyin said, aiming for sarcasm but coming out sad.

Wyin made a weird noise. Like she had stepped on a tack. It was a weird noise, but Delta supposed people didn’t hug her every day.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The thorns must put people off.

“You’re not a curse. You’re my lucky seed. You’re my second-floor boss and whoever you were? I don’t care.” Delta said, smiling as bright as she could.

“Aww...” Lorsa said, clearly grinning from behind Delta’s back.

“Let me break her neck. She won’t die from it,” Wyin muttered, furious.

“I got this,” Delta said dryly and with a press of power, a giant gutrot grew inside Lorsa’s wine just as she went to take another drink. There was a choking noise and Lorsa fell to her knees, grasping at her throat, eyes bulging.

“I’m dying... this is worse than... being shattered,” she spluttered and coughed. Delta turned and made a gutrot with pure energy, able to take a bite out of it with her avatar.

She met Lorsa’s afraid eyes head-on with only a single tear strolling down her cheek.

“You learn to love it,” she promised, brightly.

She could feel Wyin staring before she heard a deep throaty chuckle before it turned into gales of delighted laughter.

It felt good, like a spring breeze of new beginnings.

---

It was beautiful.

Grim swallowed once as they stepped down from the stairs leading to the third floor. The room was bathed in soft orange light as something atop a raised platform pulsed in rhythmic pulses. A heartbeat of warmth and sound.

Like an ocean rushing in before retreating.

The group moved forward, but the new guy, Alpha... took charge and Grim did not like him at all. The way he was stoic, the fact he was aloof in answering Kemy’s questions... the way his sword looked just right on his back or that confidence.

Nope, Grim did not like this poser.

He was some knight from a lame story. Deo was a much better hero... w-well when Grim wasn’t available, of course. Grim was naturally more likeable. He was organic.

He had a sidekick in Deo. That made him way better than Alpha...

Alpha was like Fairplay’s products... so manufactured. His justified mental rants were cut off when Kemy spoke, her usual bright and kind voice now reverent.

“Delta’s core,” Kemy whispered, bowing her head slightly as if seeing a miracle. It took a moment, but Grim slowly looked at the impossibly small orange orb on the altar, pressed between a stone pillar rising from the ground and one falling from the ceiling, sealing it in place in the air.

Mushroom statues decorated the four corners as two statues of Fran guarded the stairs leading up to the core. Watching them as if one hint of disrespect would spell their end.

Such a small thing created everything in the Dungeon. Something no bigger than a child’s toy ball. Deo moved forward, moving so fast that even Alpha’s attempt to grab him was too slow.

“HI DELTA! WE FINALLY GET TO MEET!” he said ‘gently’, halfway up the stairs.

“Get off her! You haven’t even wiped your feet!” Alpha insisted, blank face crinkling with disapproval around the eyes.

“Does anyone else feel... like really light in the head?” Amenstar asked aloud, calmly, but less... joking as he had been. and Grim frowned.

“No, but I taste something like regret and candy,” Grim said, his tongue fizzling.

“Mana poisoning. You’re all underdeveloped to be here for long. A normal dungeon would have killed you, Delta’s mana is... holding itself back, but she can’t stop this for long,” Alpha warned and Deo turned with a frown.

“LET’S MOVE ON. I DON’T WANT DELTA TO GET IN TROUBLE!” he insisted and climbed back down and ran around the core to push onwards through two massive gate-like doors that opened on their own.

“Won’t the mana be deeper down there?” Grim yelled, knowing full well Deo wouldn’t be able to hear him.

Alpha seemed to listen as if having an ear to wind.

“There is... a guest space ahead. Delta assures me that we will be safer there,” he promised. Poppy eyed him then leaned in.

“You smell like blood and tears,” she said bluntly and opened her massive pocket to pull a book out.

“Wake up,” she said to the book and Grim had completely forgotten she had a talking book.

“Where are we? I went for a nap and why am I soaking in mana? Dear goodness, is that a core?” Tom the magical tome cried before Poppy vanished as well. Amenstar patted Alpha once in a ‘she’s like that’ motion before he vanished as well.

Grim wanted to follow but something stopping him. He took a step forward... then another...

“Uh...” he said, alarmed before his own damn tongue yanked forward making him gag. He stumbled up the stairs and his tongue stuck to the core like he had licked the metal sign outside the school in the coldest days of winter.

This happened a lot when he was trying to discover what powers he had from his father and grandfather. He put both hands on the core and tried to extract himself but his tongue was adamant on where it wanted to be.

“Grim! You’re breaking so many rules! And also licking Delta! Stop!” Kemy said, speaking as she tried to pull him back.

“I can fix this,” Alpha promised as he reached for his sword and Grim began to really panic.

Delta’s core lit up with an ominous light.

There was a static discharge that flowed through Grim, up through the hands of Kemy, before it jumped to Alpha.

---

Deo paused in his unfiltered gleeful staring of the ‘Free Heal Hall’ which had all the food ever! The torches on the wall flickered as if their power sources were having issues.

They flickered once or twice before coming back to full blaze.

---

A screen flickered in front of them, despite the fact it had been directly messaged for Alpha. The shock must have scrambled the message badly. Grim’s hair was smoking, but he couldn’t stop looking.

Alpha!

You have reached Delta’s core and directly interfaced with the core! Two of the four are harmonizing. Please stand by!

3...2...1...

Alpha and Delta’s core began to glow.

It filled the room.

It filled... everything.

---

Zane slowly lowered the massive rump of some meat he had gotten off the butcher. He stared as from beyond the far treeline of the town, a massive orange pillar shot into the sky like a looklegendary dragon arising from some ancient prison.

It shot into the sky, blazing like a beacon.

---

From the frozen norths, in a deep valley. Beta looked skywards, tossing the dead body of the Yeti-Hags that had tried to feast on the World Tree roots, the snow around her flashed orange and her eyes dilated.

From the root, the old man kept her from simply flying off with intense knowledge of her greatest fight awaited...

The old man and her word.

---

In the eastern seas, in the mile-high seaweed forests that the great sea serpent’s skeleton was visible, a creature with the upper half of a scaled-goblin and the bottom half of a fish cut through legions of crabions. Their blood turning the sun above red.

The weapon in his hand shifted from a scimitar to a battle-axe like, melting between each shape with ease. The ocean, the very sky... flashed orange and the weapon halted, forcing the wielder to nearly break his arm at the sudden stop.

“Uh... well... that’s odd,” the axe said, speaking with a vibration that was louder in the water.

“Gamma, you swore your edge to end this war and get me my crown. You gave me your word,” the creature roared.

“I said I would. I just never said I would try that hard or when or how or really what crown exactly...,” the axe said slowly.

“And about being in charge? Uh, about that boss. Listen, I need to take a raincheck and to be honest... you’re not reeeallly king-material. Besides, you can handle these few hundred... maybe a few more... crab folk, right? Just do what you were doing before! Just without me... have fun!” the weapon announced and flew straight up, spinning hard enough to cut a space in the surface when it broke through.

The warrior stared as an army emerged from the seaweed forest... and he had no weapon.

---

Gamma landed on a nearby boat, his mana drained from the flight he took. That would take a week to get back to full...

The fisherman stared at the black and gold weapon that was now on his ship. Gamma didn’t have to try hard to make himself appealing.

“By ocean’s decree... you are the chosen one... the king of all... he of pure heart... take me up and claim your destiny!” Gamma wailed, trying not to yawn. The fisherman hesitated and he saw he might have to sweeten the deal.

“Claim your destiny and find the ancient treasure of the kings of long...long ago whos names are... forgotten,” he said gravely.

“Is it a royal fishing hook? I don’t really need money,” the man said and Gamma was silent for a long moment then he morphed into a black and gold fishing rod.

It was a weapon. Gamma had long learned if he convinced himself hard enough, anything could be a weapon. This did mean he had to do some work as an actual fishing rod just to get a ride back to the surface.

The first thing he caught was a bisected mer-goblin looking furious in death. He looked like a big crab had gotten to him.

“Looks like his meat will be stressed, throw it back,” Gamma insisted quickly.

“It’s got seaweed on his head, that’s like a meal wrapped up!” the fisherman complained but listened to him.

“It’s like a crown,” Gamma agreed brightly.

When Gamma finally ditched the fisherman later as he docked by enticing a nearby cabin boy of his destiny to save a princess, he focused on himself.

He felt pain and a fishing rod of gold was formed in the air behind him, landing silently by the napping fisherman who was far too trusting.

Idiots like him were hopeless.

‘Fishing rod of unerring accuracy’ form has been lost.

Gamma grumbled as the boy carried him off, talking about a sister and debt.

Gamma could sense a ‘cutting’ detour to the debt owners house coming up before he really got on the road to that feeling of ‘two’ in the distance.

The truly unnerving thing was his ‘quest’.

It used to read as...

Find the Hero and complete your purpose.

Now?

It was a little different.

Grimly make your way to the 1 and 4. A sharp tongue deserves a sharp blade to match.

Was that normal?

---

Beta stared at her screen. Was this normal? Did quests just... change?

Find honesty and reveal your true form. Take it kemly and slowly.

---

I can feel him on my knee!” Delta whimpered as she watched Grim peel his tongue off with effort.

Lorsa was staring at her and Delta stared back confused.

“What? Did I miss something?” she asked, baffled.

A weirdo was licking her knees, she was a little distracted!

Shrugging, she was sure it was nothing important.

Now... it was time to feast, celebrate, and defeat the rising undead army of dark god pieces and human cruelty using bone and metal as tools strike down all life in the name of the void.

Delta was good at all of those things.

128: Ode to Deo

The Free Heal Hall was in full swing as the victorious party dug into the food. Delta hovered over them all as Alpha tried to keep to himself, but had trouble since Kemy and Deo stuck to him like glitter.

Delta smiled as she watched the room serve its first guests since Quiss and Ruli. This was it’s first true service in the name of adventurers.

Pork sausages, bacon rashers, gleaming piles of what looked like mashed potatoes, an impressive collection of fruits and decorative veggies from the previous two floors, a fountain of various drinks from Fera’s bar gurgling in choir against one wall, desserts made from chocolate and gelatin sitting tempting to the eye, and other foods appeared as if by magic.

However... the jelly was made from the slime she had defeated, their goops being refined with so much sugar that it was both safe and edible, the mashed potatoes were actually mashed mushrooms that looked creamy enough...and the veggies were mostly mushrooms of different types to give variety.

Everything but the Gutrot, of course.

The Starlight mushrooms, for example, if fried, gave off the feeling of chewing on something fluffy like pancakes!

The best thing was that Delta didn’t need to research this. Fera and Jeb the troll chef had taken the initiative to cook and experiment on their own. Delta hadn’t really had time to upgrade anything since the invasion of the dead... the lab... Deo’s team, and other things like Alpha dropping in.

It felt like ages since she had done anything ‘dungeon-like’.

She smiled as the kids all joked and celebrated. Poppy was teasing Tom the talking tome by placing very greasy items close to him. The tome was screeching about grease stains and it made Poppy grin... but there was no heat between them.

Delta had a very strong feeling about Tom the Tome... he was old and even if he was by himself, she didn’t think she could just absorb him. He has too much of a core... a sense of being. Not that Delta needed more books... her library contained books on everything from how to rear bull-chickens to ripping time in a location to increase the rate in which it passed.

The issue with the time thing was that it required things like a thousand screaming souls, those of young and old, a mage of chronomancy, three antique clocks, and a well-used diary planner with exactly 45 pages. Delta knew the Silence Cultists were a little... crazy, but this was just one more example of exactly how insane.

Besides, with Dungeon Points... Delta could bend reality around her of her own volition. How many points it would take to break time could number between 5 and 5 million. Delta supposed it depended on how badly she broke the rules to suit her needs.

Amenstar was both eating ribs with his bare hands and cleaning the bones afterwards, claiming them with a burst of his mana. The bones were still ‘Delta’ in source, but now they were weirdly detached. Like a fruit cut from a tree.

Vas was standing in line with the fountains, seemingly quite happy to hang out with the decor, spiritually communicating with them through prolonged posing. The golem still gave Delta a weird feeling of... something that set her teeth on edge, but he was polite enough.

Alpha, the dear strange boy that Delta was so... he touched her heart which beat with a warmth that she held only for her dungeon family, Nu, and Sis before. Ruli, Deo, and Kemy were dear to her as well, but Alpha...

There was a bond that was tangible there. Not romantic, far from it, but... a deep sense to covet Alpha was rising in her like Delta was some sort of M-

A sister.

The idea made her pause. How funny, the denial made her feel funny.

Delta wondered wh-

---

“I am not your mother, stop making me act like it,” she warned. The sounds of traffic rushing by resounded as silence fell around them.

“You sure act like it. Maybe you can’t help it? Sucks to be old...” the voice replied sarcastically. She felt her cheeks flush... she was not old! It took a moment for her to inhale once deeply, calming herself before she could reply sarcastically.

“Hey, hey... don’t make her turn the car around. Momma bear can get grumpy,” a void in the image rebuked. Were they missing or blocked?...

“We should have taken the bus with the others.” someone added.

“We would have if we could all stop arguing long enough to get anything done. It’s all we do. Argue.” Delta’s voice said into the space before she reached for the radio.

“Well the others already know we’ll be late, so who wants to take a detour past that little fastfood place and get some milkshakes?” she asked, voice bright. There was a silence then an outburst of noise.
“Hell yea-”

“Don’t swear!”

“What are we? Five? I want a cheeseburger as well.”

“I want vanilla, not strawberry, Miss D-

---

“Delta?” Alpha said quietly and Delta floated back with a startled expression. The others were all looking where Alpha was... missing Delta’s location easily by feet.

“Sorry, just-” she cut herself off and Alpha nodded slowly.

“They’re coming faster and faster,” he said, tone knowing. The certainty in his voice made Delta swallow once aloud. Her memory was returning and that was fantastic! She could remember who she was and what happened... find a way back maybe and...

Leave... this all behind.

A sudden tightness in her stomach made her push that kettle of fish to the side for the moment. First, she would deal with the here and now. One day at a time and as a Dungeon Core, she had to cut that down even further and go one hour at a time.

It was hard to measure things in days when you didn’t sleep.

“Alpha, when everyone is done eating here. I want you to do me a favour before they leave. I’ll also need you to translate for me,” she said softly, brushing what she thought was fluff off his shoulders, her hand doing nothing as it phased through him.

Alpha didn’t even hesitate.

“Whatever you need, Miss,” he promised and looked startled at his own slip of the tongue.

The word made her feel old.

“Delta,” she mumbled but smiled when she thought about what was to come. She clapped her hands once in excitement.

---

Deo loved Delta.

He loved the way she made every room special. How she made every monster so amazing and funny... but Deo supposed the thing he loved most of all was the feeling that seemed to fill the very air.

A silent promise of affection and a promise of company. A friend with every step he took and someone cheering him on even if he couldn’t see her. Delta, he had watched so many people say the name he was almost sure he was pronouncing each sound correctly.

‘De’ as in ‘definitely awesome’.

Longish ‘L’ as in like ‘laugh’!

‘Ta’ on ‘tada’!

So, Delta was like a laugh that was so sudden that it comes in with a tada and made you feel definitely awesome.

That was how Deo remembered her name.

The massive garden was beautiful to Deo with many different doors, but the others looked unsettled. Ahead, Deo saw Grim was sitting down. He had wondered why his friend hadn’t been at the feast.

Grim had been very quiet since he, Kemy, and Alpha had returned from the Core room. He raised a hand then dropped it by way of greeting.

He turned to see that Amenstar was commenting on how quiet the room was. No insects or birdsongs.

It was as silent as a grave, he told Poppy.

Deo didn’t think Delta would have a weird place like that so he presumed it was more like those sacred places in his adventure books. The places where you wanted to be quiet... where the noise wasn’t needed.

Usually, a plot-relevant character lived in those places. Deo would keep his eyes open for an elven maiden or a Dwarven king or an Elvish King and a Dwarven Maiden!

Before they got too far in, something crashed down before them. Alpha didn’t jump, having been warned it seemed, but the rest did. The thing that stood was massive, a set of folded over wings that a head with long dark hair barely peaked over.

The wings looked grey and covered from head to toe before they slowly unfolded themselves to reveal a man... sort of. He had powerful muscles like Deo’s dad, but they were compact, flexing without much movement. His arms were covered in wrappings that lead to a torso piece of thin leather straps. A kilt of some material fell to his knees and for a second, Deo thought he had a big grey belt on before it uncurled to show a massive tail.

The monster’s face was angled like someone with nobility and cheekbones that were usually only found in the most royal of paintings. Deo had seen faces like that in some old paintings in the many books Amenstar brought to class.

Angelic, but indifferent.

His mouth, while having an impressive set of fangs when he spoke, Deo could understand what he said when spoke.

“I am Vanguard. Your...” he slowed and picked his words carefully as if seeing them all as interlopers, “presence has been allowed here as guest status. Delta insists that you keep to the garden. Please don’t show disrespect by ignoring her request,” he said finally. Deo couldn’t know this for sure, but he bet the creature’s tone was deep and cold.

Deo knew he must be worried about Delta. People must make Dungeon Monsters nervous.

Alpha stepped forward as well as they both listened to something. Deo looked back to see Grim frowning.

“Gargoyle,” he told Deo absent-mindedly with a nod to Vanguard, the handsome man with wings.

“There’s never just one,” Grim added. Deo felt excitement again at the thought of more amazing things to see but was distracted when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Alpha, trying to smile but coming off as nervous.

He spoke and Grim, looking like he wasn’t aware of it, began to speak at the same time, causing Deo to look back and forth like some sort of ball game was going on.

“Deo, Delta/I wants/want to offer you a chance to heal the damage inside you. Only if you agree, She/I doesn’t/don’t want to cause you any discomfort,” they said in a confusing mix before Grim noticed his own mouth was moving without his say so.

He covered it with both hands and retreated to the safety of a door arch. Deo shot him a worried glance but didn’t resist when Alpha led him to a giant statue of a window with words on it. The thing looked covered in moss and old.

“There is a secret here that Delta doesn’t want to be shared, but she thinks you really deserve this and from the short time I’ve known you,” Alpha said and Deo’s smile widened, “I haven’t found any issues with you as a person,” he finished. Deo would take the compliment.

Alpha really needed to learn smaller ways of saying ‘friend’.

“Sure, I don’t mind. If Delta wants to try something and she thinks it’s good then I don’t mind,” Deo said and Alpha winced before he looked at something.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“My sonic resistance just went up...” he muttered causing Deo to flush a little. Indoor voice! He forgot!

Even if it looked like he was outside!

“Sorry,” he aimed for ‘quiet as a mouse’. Alpha didn’t wince so he guessed he was close!

Alpha touched the statue.

“Normally, the code to open this secret can only be learned by taking on the four roaming Guardgoyles. Their defeat would each give you one part of the needed code which Delta promises changes every time it’s used. However, they can also be studied under or aided in some task, winning the words that way. For this... they will willingly surrender the word,” he announced and the room shook.

Not an earthquake, but the sounds of beings able to project their voices into the very stone and ground around them.

Deo could feel the words.

‘I’

‘Love’

‘Deo’

Deo felt Vanguard put a hand on Deo’s shoulder, giving the final word. It made his eyes fill as the statue before them glowed.

“Too,” Vanguard said, less cold as his claw let go of Deo’s shoulder.

The statue broke apart, sliding away from the platform, suspended in the air by sheer magic as a powerful orange light lit up the garden like a rising sun. The smell of home... Deo’s favourite soup... his Mom’s hair... the sight of his Dad laughing.

The light brought all this to the surface as something rose up from the ground, the centrepiece of the floating stone walls and statue pieces.

A cheerful well with a drinking cup attached by a chain.

Deo stepped forward, the mana so thick, but it didn’t enter him like the rest of the Dungeon. It was waiting for him... to come to it.

To Delta.

Alpha dipped the wooden cup into the well, the surface like glass until the cup touched it, rippling with a sweet laugh. Alpha turned and held it out, looking a little envious before he smiled.

“All at once,” he said and stepped back as Deo held the mug, the wood already warm as if the liquid inside was kept hot for people. He sniffed it and he smelled...

Old books, a cat... the smell of a warm classroom. A light perfume of oranges. The fruit’s citrus scent tickling but not overpowering. It wasn’t a drink so much a glimpse into someone’s life that he had been allowed to see.

Deo closed his eyes.

“Thank you. Always be grateful for free food and drink, a warm bed, and good friends,” Deo said, a smile on his face as he breathed in the scent again.

“I haven’t slept here yet, but-” he said and downed the drink before he spoke again.

“-you have the best drinks and you’re a good friend!” he announced as loudly as he could and he didn’t remember dropping the mug... or falling to the ground...

He didn’t remember Grim’s face appearing looking worried before Poppy appeared, calling his name.

What Deo remembered was the universe... his world... his village... his dungeon... his body... his soul... his very tiny pieces all buzzing together like an instrument being strummed for the first time since he had been born.

Deo closed his eyes and he was moving, yet staying perfectly still.

Then discomfort as something hated the sensations. In his heart, pulsing through his body, something spiky that he had never noticed before boiled and expanded as if to purge Deo of Delta’s gift.

Deo could only exist as they clashed.

Exist and trust Delta.

He had to... because when Deo looked at the spike lancing through his heart... he felt afraid.

Deo was so afraid of that darkness.

---

Delta had to focus, the feeling of her mana not only filling Deo, but overflowing would normally kill someone who wasn’t used to such Mana, but as it flowed, it soaked in, removing spots of black as it went.

Delta was both in the core, floating as an avatar in the garden, and now... inside the soul of Deo. Under the gleaming castles of his courage, his flowing rivers of love... under the very sun that was his nature... a poison grew fat off his efforts, gorging itself on his experiences, robbing each flower that grew in his soul of sustenance.

Her chest ignited and her own core pulsed dangerously in the dungeon. A feeling like she had never quite experienced before rose up in her like a wave of emotions. Delta despised it. Delta absolutely despised the sight of it more than the Spider Queen, more than the Princess of Bone... more than her despair at being a core.

Delta despised this thing living in Deo, nibbling where his wonderful soul had been eroded at the edges, melted by something cruel. She rushed at it and it rose like a behemoth, cracking the ground, intending to destroy as much as it could simply to show that it was able to.

It was like a giant black worm with boney-thorns erupting out of its slime-soaked flesh at every angle. It was like its mouth was inside out and it rolled, causing Deo’s soul to bleed.

“Get out of him,” she warned, eyes blazing. The thing merely dug deeper, fortifying itself and drinking up her anger as if it were entertainment. Delta’s skin began to glow orange, her aura eclipsing her skin.

She kept it close, not wanting to scour Deo’s soul in thoughtless anger. The worm moved first, firing its bone-thorns at her with tendrils still attached. It was attempting to hook her, bleed her, wound her... make her suffer.

Delta’s skin blazed and the first dozen thorns simply turned to ash.

Her hair was dancing wildly now, her form a burning sun that was slowly gaining shape. Delta would need to be more precise in her means of attack so she coiled inwards and called out to the power that flowed through her.

She was answered and she was swallowed by a pillar of orange light, forming rapidly inside Deo’s soul. The world around them existing for them only and no others.

Those watching would see mana clashing with infection... nothing more. Delta refused to see this battle as so mundane... she refused to reduce Deo’s curse to such... levels.

She looked down at the now hesitating worm.

“Well... well... the things you invite me to,” Wyin said, her massive form a true world tree in size. Her thousands upon thousands of branches all barbed as Delta sat at the top, like a burning phoenix.

“Wyin? You know how I said killing...destroying things until they screamed for an end, pathetically grovelling for a death that’s too good for them is barbaric and below us?” Delta asked, voice thin like razor wire. Wyin’s face formed on a branch nearby, looking unsure.

“I remember words of a sort,” she admitted. Delta locked eyes with the countless beady red eyes of the worm spore.

“For that... thing?” she said and the world around them went quiet as Delta spoke her next words.

“That conversation never happened,” Delta said, hands clenched.

Wyin’s face was serene, angelic, and in love when she heard this.

“Beautiful,” she said, sounding breathless then her face vanished and the worm screamed as roots impaled it from below, lifting into the sky. Wyin’s voice now booming, the true giant that she was.

“I don’t know you or what you did to Delta,” Wyin began as all her green leaves turned a dark scarlet red in the orange light. The worm tried to use some magic or skill to melt into slime, but Wyin’s roots seemed to cause vines and parasitic seeds to grow rapidly, pinning it together.

“I only know I won’t ever mess up as badly as you,” Wyin said simply then the world was filled with a storm of petals, orange, and thorns.

The edges of this world flowed into the ground, freed from the creature. They poured into the world and the edges began to smooth over... extending... flowing like rivers over arid lands. Trees grew, the sky extended, and Delta saw pieces connecting together.

Mountains where winds blew majestically, forests where animals and insects sang, rivers that sang with mirth, storms that howled with fury... all of it coming back to this world and free.

Free.

Deo was-

---

“-free!”

Deo frowned as he wrinkled his nose at the weird sensations. A sort of vibrations that was too intense.

“Grim, you can’t get free loot because Deo willingly drank a weird orange fountain and passed out,” came a different mix of sensations and oddities. Vibrations hitting the side of his face with clear different pitches and warbles.

He touched the side of his head in confusion, only for his hand to hit something strange. A spongy thing.

He sat up so abruptly that Poppy sat back with her mouth making a-

“Eh! Deo, you surprised me,” her mouth moved and those sensations bounced with them. Deo, confused, stumbled to the garden pond where he looked into the reflection. He looked tired... and weirdly, a little ill.

His fiery red hair was brushed aside and Deo stared at the two glowing veins running through his ears, little orange nodes running over the back of his ears. He touched them slowly and they jiggled before settling back into place.

“You’ll need to turn them off soon, your mana is quite low. Your own soul won’t be perfectly aligned with your sense of hearing for a long time, but Delta promises her blessing and own mana will bridge the gap until they’re done healing,” a soft voice said and Deo looked up at Alpha.

“Alpha!” he started, thinking he was being too loud until his voice just... evened out.

“Yes... and I see Delta snuck in noise-cancelling benefits to your new gift,” he announced, sounding a little pained. Deo fell to his knees before letting out a massive yell. The sound was amazing.

He yelled and yelled until he began to cry.

Who knew crying was so noisy?

Deo did...

Deo knew. Deo knew what laboured breathing felt like to others. What his name sounded like in other’s voices. What grass sounded like when rustled... what cloth rustling was... he knew it all.

Deo... finally knew what life sounded like and he wept.

Even as his new gift ran out of mana and the silence returned... Deo’s heartbeat was light as he knew it wasn’t forever now. Just for a little while.

Deo loved Delta.

He would love her until the day he died.

Deo Brawndo would not let anyone harm Delta, his friend. A kind dungeon who would help nobody special like Deo because she could. Deo would protect that.

He wouldn’t let anyone make Delta cry.

No one.

---

Wyin laid in her dungeon room, bowed like a strong wind had knocked her over. Her branches were wild and she had a delirious look on her face.

“I really must do that again,” she announced, unable to stop herself smiling like a loon.

All she knew was that when they went to the third floor... Delta became a goddess.

People. Third floor.

Wyin wouldn’t kill adventurers ever again. She needed the idiots alive to experience that again!

129:... That's Amore

The notification was amusing; it appeared just as the kids and Kemy left the Dungeon, escorted personally by Renny who had taken a break from training his dead-man crew circus act.

Team Heroic Holy Pot and friends have conquered your Dungeon as challengers. You have gained +10 DP for challenging them to their limits, please continue to gR”£w! Get strong”£$ and K311-

The thing fizzled out with a sharp pop.

“I think I was supposed to get that on day one or something,” Delta muttered to herself.

“How come Seth and Quiss never gave me this when they went through my Dungeon?” Delta asked aloud causing Nu to appear.

Those two weren’t a challenge. They were a slaughter waiting to happen if they wanted it and you had no chance. The kids were more appropriate.

“Rude, but fair,” Delta admitted as she stretched in her entrance hall. Alpha had decided to patrol the hallway leading further into the 3rd floor. He didn’t seem to like the implication that there was a whole series of cults under her Dungeon.

Delta thought Alpha was somewhat standoffish, but he was turning out to be really sweet. A bit... different, but sweet.

Do you want to discuss the way you flew off the handle at the sight of the spore?

Nu’s box was casual, but Delta stiffened, going still.

“It was...” she began but had to stop to collect her thoughts. The spore was many things. Not a single one of them good as far as Delta could sense.

“They were his nightmares, his fears, his doubts... his pain and anguish. The voice inside his head that would tell him he was worth nothing. Anything to inflict pain to Deo. It wanted him broken so the spore could seep through the cracks. It was vile,” Delta’s hands clenched, shaking ever so slightly.

Surely, not all of life’s negative traits can be simply spore-based. People are flawed, but are you suggesting that all those traits come from spores?

Nu turned so he was facing her fully, doubtful. Delta shook her head as she walked down the hall, declining to float.

“No... but they entrench themselves so deeply into those type of feelings that it’s like a dream. No end and no beginning. The spores become anger, the spore becomes fear... they feed it and get fed in return. But even something like anger may burn too pure or bright... grief too real for the spores to settle comfortably,” she shrugged in ponderous thought.

“Not all bad emotions are spores, but all spores are bad emotions,” Mushy announced, stepping in from the pond room. Delta smiled at her giant mushroom lord. His moustache and noble air always delighted her.

“Sometimes, but they can be devious too. Hiding in pride or toxic love,” she added.

“I’ll just burn them out where I can. Being in my Dungeon does it naturally, but Deo’s was... too deep within. It had a foothold that I don’t think most do. It was let in and it made a mess,” Delta sighed and just stood in her Pond Room.

How long had it been since she was here?

Too long...

You know... while we’re on the first floor. We could change things or purchase upgrades~

Nu said slyly, floating past her with a whistle to his text.

The idea of changing the layout... moving rooms about... it upset Delta on a spiritual level, a deep part of her that she was beginning to think of as her ‘dungeon’ self. A part of her where human and core blurred hard enough that it scared Delta a little.

Waddles opened an eye from where he was resting in his little alcove. He was looking a little more ruffled than usual.

“What’s wrong?” Delta tilted her head. Waddles’ red eyes merely looked at the pond then went back to sleep.

Frowning, she opened the Pond Menu window, seeing what was left. There shouldn’t be anything besides the space upgrade and crossbreeding since she purchased it all ages ago but...

Pond Room
An idyllic room with relaxing rocks, grass, a place to camp, and a fishing spot with rare fish and rumours of the three fish of bronze, silver, and gold...

Upgrades discarded since last checked.
Flood the pond room and spawn mini-Boss to attack campers. DISCARDED.
A glowing will-o-wisp will lure the feeble-minded to drown themselves. DISCARDED.
Wood becomes toxic to burn, suffocating those who breathe it in. DISCARDED.
Fire Crystal will overflow, cooking any swimmers alive. DISCARDED
If all fish are caught, spawn a giant catfish with legs to devour the overachiever. DISCARDED/Redesigned.

New Upgrades:
Make the room bigger on the inside, a common upgrade to get around the lower floor limits. 20 DP.
Fake sky: Allow the formation of glittering mushrooms to mimic stars as mist clouds mimic clouds. A ‘full moon’ made of moving glass also occasionally appears. Mimics state of the real moon outside, so a full moon inside means a full moon outside. Increases the happiness of those camping. If harvested, stars turn into Starlight Mushrooms. 25 DP
Spawn Jelly-Fish in the lake. Natural creatures made of jello for those who are against eating meat. Gluten free. 5 DP.
Spawn a giant catfish that will swallow the moon after catching ten or more fish along with a bronze, silver, and gold fish. Catching this behemoth rewards the fisher. 30 DP.
Add fireflies for ambience. 2 DP.
Allow new fish to crossbreed with existing fish. Population limited to pond size. 10 DP.

Delta was stunned, but she slowly began to grin.

“Nu, how much DP do I have? 400, 500?” she asked distractedly.

883

Delta looked at the list with diligence and carefully selected her choice.

Delta’s finger carefully ran down the entire list with poise and elegance.

There was a rumble in the room and Waddles looked more awake as his kingdom expanded in all directions, a false sky painting itself across the high ceiling as glinting mushrooms grew in place of stars. Slowly, a floating glass circle in the shape of the moon floated to one corner, showing it was three fourths full.

Glowing little lights began to flicker in and out of the grass, fireflies that danced cheerfully along with the air. Trees grew in, the average trees that Ruli had ‘donated’ so long ago. The interesting thing was the slight glowing fish in the pond that looked shiny and... plump.

Gummy fish that darted about, leaving little trails of reds, yellows, and oranges.

Then with a massive stretch, the lake filled out. It wasn’t quite big enough to fit a steamboat, but it had depths enough that when a giant round fish with dragon-like whiskers breached the surface, licking its lips at the moon... it vanished easily into the murky depths around the side.

Delta, face wide with a smile, opened its menu.

Moon-Eater Fish. (Challenge Spawn)
A creature whose hunger is so huge that it said it could swallow the moon itself. It is said to have a cousin in a dark city that puts people to sleep.

Upgrades:
Allows a mini-space inside its stomach to form, creating a secret challenge dungeon for those brave enough to fish it out and enter. 10 DP.
Full-Moon Form: Catching this monster during a full moon will unlock a special reward. 20 DP
New Moon Swap: When captured during a new moon will be replaced by Clamamity in a mimic-catfish form. 10 DP.

Well, Delta just needed all of them for science.

She purchased them and deep in the pond, an orange glow flashed.

Another new upgrade formed in the Pond Room’s menu so she swapped back.

Moon Alter: Allow a tribute to be offered to change the phase of the moon. Only works once a day. Dungeon-moon only. 30 DP.

Delta hit her elbow on it, sounding shocked when she purchased the upgrade, purely by accident of course.

“I’m so clumsy, my depth perception is out of order,” she tittered at herself. Nu was blank and judgemental at her side, not needing to type any words to convey his mood. A narrow stone pillar rose out in the pond somewhat, three stepping stones lifting to create a path to it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The dial it held was like a sundial but it had a middle platform for something to be placed and phases of the moon printed along its silver edge.

Delta sat back on a rock, admiring the scenery. Fish lept from the pond, playful with each other as Waddles resided over them all. The duck’s menu was unchanged. It was Overlord for 1500 DP or nothing.

Waddles was a simple duck... thing.

Are we not rushing off to create the next catastrophe? The next game-breaking room?

Nu asked this sarcastically, but there was no real malice to his tone. He was relaxed too, content to get back to the task of being a dungeon. Delta got comfy, floating in the air above the rock to cheat at being comfortable.

“No... I don’t think I will,” she announced. Nu flickered in surprise, but Delta conjured herself a glass of lemonade from the bar. Making a construct of pure energy was something she was beginning to learn to do, although it didn’t have any practical use at the moment. It didn’t let her do anything she couldn’t do before to the real world, save for one thing...

She sipped it with a hum.

It tasted like lemonade, but Delta didn’t have a tongue, so the drink didn’t have to try too hard to make her happy.

It came with a little straw that Delta saw as blue; but of course, the world would see it as orange.

Why not?

Nu was a tad bit petulant.

“Because Nu, it’s like my old job... I think. They heard me singing and they told me to stop. Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock,” she said and took another drink before she eyed her companion.

“All work and no being lazy makes Delta go crazy. I’m also still drained a little from Deo. I need a break!” she insisted.

Very well, five minutes won’t harm us.

Nu floated down until he was flat on the ground staring up at the sky.

This is boring.

Delta sipped a little harder.

Surely we can do something else?

Delta gave a massive yawn and reclined in the moonlight.

Delta? Delta, do you hear me? Delta? Delta? Delta?

“Not... at all,” Delta reported, dreamily as her tension over the last day just melted away. She still had an undead army gathering their strength and a lot of work to do, but...

Delta was only human...

Her foot went up in the air, causing her lemonade to fly all over her face. She began to slide along the ground as Nu formed a near-human body to physically drag her out of the room.

“I resist! I refuse! I deny your sloth nature! I am a good menu and I will be used. Now, stop lazing around and use me, you vexatious paradigm of paradoxes!”

Nu yelled, a voice of deep baritone sounding out.

“Says the sentient menu growing legs to insert his opinions and feelings,” Delta muttered before she shrugged and put her arms under her head and got comfy again. Dragged through the mud, floating in the water, laying under the water...

Anywhere could be a napping spot if you tried hard enough, especially when you could choose to let things like the rocks, ground, and drag friction... just not affect you.

Maestro slid in with a soothing melody of strings and piano.

“Ah, my life is the best,” Delta said, ignoring Nu’s furious insertions of vexing vixens or something equally catchy. Honestly... she had drained something important in helping Deo. Extending more force than she should have been allowed.

It was like growing a new level, during which her form slumbered to avoid stress and pain.

This was much the same, but instead of sleeping, she felt the urge to just lay about and enjoy the scenery.

“Nu, just do the mushroom grove and mudroom on your own, but just do what I would do,” she insisted and Nu dropped her like she had just burst into flames.

“Truly? You would allow me to... Dungeon?”

he asked hopefully.

“No death traps, no clever plots... don’t make me regret this,” she warned as she floated through the walls to go have a drink in Fera’s. A nice calming environment would be nice, but until she found another bar, Fera’s was the closest.

She barely heard Nu as she vanished.

“This is going to be strange, but I must...must... wait, did you say you’re making me do the Mushroom Grove? Delta? DELTA COME BACK YOU CONNIVING WOMA-”

Ah... bliss.

---

Isanella frowned as Deo sat looking out the window. He had returned from his ‘adventure’ and something about him seemed different. He was also quiet which worried Isanella. His red hair was obscuring something over his ears.

“Ok, I’m worried about him,” she said to her husband, the mountain of a man looking up from his knitting, the blood-red wool giving the sweater a lovely hue; a winter jumper for Deo since he was growing so fast.

“Maybe he won, but he didn’t feel like he did his best?” he suggested softly, “You know he takes that hard.” She loved her husband, a man who could lead hordes, but chose to be doting and domestic with her.

His voice could inspire life-long pacifists to pick up an axe and give a warcry, but he only whispered promises of love to her and Deo.

“No, something else is going on,” she insisted. Deo’s voice came and she looked back to see him still staring out the window, staring at birds perched in the tree outside. Wildlife was becoming common again in the area and it was a lovely sight.

“I’m fine,” Deo promised, sounding... still off, but Isanella didn’t want to smother him

She turned to get back to making a list of things to purchase at the market, but her mind stuttered for a second, having an issue over something that just occurred. At the exact same moment, Cresire’s knitting needles clattered to the ground.

Isanella turned back to see Deo wincing at the sound of the metal needles striking wood, but then slowly relaxed.

He never turned to look. His feet weren’t touching the ground as he kicked them in the air.

“Deo...?” she whispered, afraid she had been using her ‘voice’ to call to him, but there was no mana in her vocal cords. Deo shifted before he finally looked back. His face was tear-streaked.

“My mum sounds like an angel... and my dad is so strong... I just wanted to keep listening. I wanted to listen all day... I wanted to listen to my parents,” he explained and he was modulating his voice so perfectly as if he could...

As if he could...

Isanella didn’t remember moving but she was holding Deo, feeling with her Mana the lack of void in his head... foreign mana now mingled with Deo’s, forming bridges where only darkness and her own failure lingered before.

They were both wrapped up by Cresire.

“I hear you! I can hear you...” Deo kept repeating over and over.

Isanella was strong, keeping her voice under control as she cried into her child’s hair, her wonderful...healing child.

Cresire, however...

He roared in a choking sob hard enough that forks, knives and even a broom sat up, looking for foes to clobber and outside three songbirds fluffed up in aggressive stances, ready for a bird war.

Her gentle mountain heaved noisy tears over them and Deo winced then laughed... then winced as the noise rose and fell like an avalanche.

“How?” she asked, smiling as he to her voice... without looking at her! It was surreal and Deo looked up, beaming through his tears.

“Delta!” he answered, and Isanella was going to marry that Dungeon.

Cresire would understand.

But... if Delta broke or went corrupt then Deo would lose his new gift. She tightened her family into an embrace, eyes narrowing as she stared out over a grass hill and the horizon beyond.

That...

Would not be allowed.

Ever.

---
Max Mana: 350
DP: 711

130: Scoreboard

“Did you win, son?” came the voice of Grim’s father. Grim looked up from his assorted ‘gains’ from the Dungeon. His original Cat doll which had proved a worthy distraction against Wyin the tree demon lady. The other was that novel that was simply ridiculous.

“Define... win?” he turned on his chair. His room was like a fort around him, every item in a semi-chaotic mess that he knew exactly where things were. That pile in the corner with the empty sword sheath had his math homework for Mr Jones, the papers on his desk had about ten different ‘beginner-speak-easy’ spells he got from his ‘Adventurer Weekly’, and the bulging closet door held unfathomable nightmares and wouldn’t ever be opened again.

It was a shame, Grim had a nice pair of shoes in there that might still fit. The rest of the room had maps everywhere, forms of sword styles in different strikes, a massive star map on the ceiling for memorising the most famous stars.

It was more a ‘war room’ than a bedroom but Grim loved it.
His dad took up the entire frame. Not as big as Deo’s dad, but Grim was beginning to worry he inherited his mother’s more dainty frame as he hadn’t grown in height and magically, muscles hadn’t just popped in overnight like late wisdom teeth.

Grim’s Dad, Myne, was not a man you wanted to arm wrestle. Grim watched his dad move his hand in the air as if trying to snatch answers.

“Ya know... beat the boss, got the booty, and all that,” the man said, trying not to stumble and Grim hid a smile. His dad was a dork and Grim knew he had a half-eaten spoon in his pocket meaning that when it was time for dinner and Grandpa Pic was done cooking, they’d be a massive argument about who got a clean dessert spoon.

Arguments got weird when two of the four people in the house just ate things when they got peckish.

“Well... Pic-ish,” he mumbled to himself, unable to hold back the words. He fought the pun, he really did.

“‘Loot’ dad, not booty. I’m an adventurer, not a pirate,” Grim reminded him as he slipped off the stool with his new book. His father turned puzzled, still smiling.

“Pirates live on the water. I go underground.” Grim said with no real heat. It was easy to be annoyed at his parents for their attempt to get into Grim’s career choice but they truly were interested about him in the last few weeks. Ever since Mana really hit the town, everyone had become slightly easier to be around.

They were doing interesting things and watching his parents reveal sides tothemselves Grim had never seen was interesting. Like how his mum liked to paint... or his Dad loved terrible jokes. Not quite puns... but awkward lame jokes that made Grim actually prefer puns.

“Right, loot! Well, I heard you beat up two different bosses in one run! My little Noir is kicking butt and taking names! You gonna take your old man on a holiday soon when you’re famous?” the giant man asked which made Grim flush at the neck.

“Dad, I did one run and it was easy mode. I’m not famous,” he insisted, waving off the words as they headed to the kitchen area where something delicious was stewing.

“Hm, if you’re the first proper party... I don’t think that’s true,” his father muttered as they entered the giant kitchen which had a pantry that would make any chef quail in terror. The Pictus family’s tastes ran a little off-kilter than most.

Like the bubbling copper ingots for Grim’s Dad as Grandpa Pic cooked something that might have been a fanged kidney or a spiky tongue. Occasionally, when Grim was feeling sad or sick, Grandpa Pic would boil some fresh dictionaries and adventurer book tales for him like a porridge.

The weirdest was his mother.

She ate broccoli... willingly. All the males in the household feared her.

“Dad, how famous do you become for clearing a Dungeon for the first time and being the first? I was never into the Dungeon thing,” Grim’s dad asked his own father.

“The first group to pass a Dungeon gets recorded on the Star Arch. Depending on how dangerous and rare the Dungeon is, the more prominent the place,” Grandpa Pic said easily, shaking some of the demonic druid brussel sprouts for Grim’s mother.

Grim slowed in confusion.

“Star... Arch?” he echoed, first time hearing of it.

“We didn’t tell you or really let any kid know because it's the worst thing you can tell a kid,” the old man admitted, gruffly, but more in sad remembrance than any real heat.

“Do the impossible and get your name on top of this massive pillar and be famous. There are too many broken families because of that thing,” Grandpa Pic nodded to himself.

Bowls were set down and Grim’s puzzlement only grew as he tried to think about how that would work.

“So, I need to write in and ask them to put my name in or something?” Grim asked after some time. His Dad grinned.

“I’m sure they’ll believe you in a letter, but nah,” his dad trailed off for a second.

“It knows. It’s connected to all the Dungeons somehow. It’s the biggest broadcaster of a new Dungeon besides Fairplay. It’s like two spiral pillars floating around each other...” he explained and Grim was starstruck.

“Do you think my group got on?” he asked excitedly and his father shot his grandpa a look.

There was a long pause.

---

Miles east of the Royal Capital, across a long strip of ocean and near a mountain which appeared to have been hollowed out by giant hands... two pillars rotated around each other like hands of a clock. One white and almost immaterial, more like mist and cloud than stone, the other dark rock with roots cracking its surface.

They didn’t touch points, but in the space between them, a swirling sphere spun eternal since the world, sky, and stars formed. The sphere was a study of magical scholars and enchanters as it was one of the true ‘global’ spanning enchantments capable of self-updating and growth. The sphere didn’t look big until you needed it to be big... it wasn’t detailed until you focused... it seemed unique to each person glancing at it, but it never truly changed in itself.

The sphere was a massive catalogue. It was a work of art, with exceptions of ugly black marks where records were expunged as Dungeons became Abominations or were destroyed.

To use the sphere seemed free. It cost not mana, chi, chakra, soul, essence, psi, or any other known or complicated term for one's natural energy. However, the sphere did take a little of something.

A little of the dark seeds, just a little since it was never designed to truly be a solution. It was a good choice made by the Brother and Sister since people flocked to the Star Arch. A whole city outside the hollowed mountain had formed and the Sphere was working overtime to take as much of the darkness as it could.

There was between a handful of people to a whole arena’s worth at a time assessing records, judging new trailblazers, getting excited when a new Dungeon appeared... a whole stock-market of records and gambling on said records had become the city’s economy.

Gambling on heroes and adventurers.

The top three dungeons were recorded larger than the rest and focusing on them unearthed a dozen or more ‘sub-missions’ one could attempt to do. It was strange the pillars were trying to make people spend as much time in a Dungeon as possible doing things that might not even be dangerous.

Do 100 push-ups in a cleared boss room? Weird, but people did it for the glory.

New times and new ways of completing the challenges had become something of a lifestyle.

The top three dungeons currently on the arch were...

The Beautiful Death. The Ruby Dungeon of the Desert.

The Golden Underworld. The Royal Dungeon of the West.

The Black Swarm. The Temple Dungeon of Pit Jungles.

These three weren’t exactly close. The Royal Dungeon simply surpassed the other two by sheer time and visitors. Ruby and Swarm were neck to neck but there were others nipping at their heels. The Twin Hells, the Blue Depths, Dragon-dragon the dragon dungeon, and more.

Everyone had their horse, so to speak.

That was when on a day like any other... quite a normal day.

The Star Arch changed.

The earth pillar had mushrooms growing around its base with long veins of orange travelling its surface and the sky pillar looked like dawn was shining through it, turning its white luminance to a soft orange.

The entire city huddled in terror, wondering if this was the ‘death’ of the arch.

The sphere now recorded a new top three.

The Royal Dungeon. The Ruby Dungeon. The final one was simply listed as ‘Delta’. Despite the record saying it only had 2 floors... it was considered ‘sweet until you mess up’. This caused chaos...

Absolute bedlam.

The only comfort they got was a tiny wooden sign that looked to be stuck in the sphere itself. No one could remove the sign.

It was simple enough to read, translating itself to all languages and tongues.

In the immortal words of Lady Spears, ‘Oops... I did it again’. - Nu

Just below this ‘Delta’ was the only known winners.

Team Heroic Holy Pot and Friends successfully passed ‘easy mode: fun for all ages’. Grim ‘Core-Licker’ Pictus.
Deo ‘Hero goodboi’ Brawndo.
Kemy ‘2pure4life’ Hamdil.
Poppy ‘Unleash the Beast’ Roth.
Amenstar ‘Spooky Skeleton’ Wollom
Vas ‘ERROR’ Japes.

They are the first to defeat this Dungeon in this mode. By the royal laws of the agreed treaty of the world, all members of this party gain title of ‘sir’, ‘lady’, or ‘Knight’. 100 gold will be deposited in their accounts.

Have a super-duper day!

“They get a 100?! I only got 10!” a man in silver armour yelled.

“You got 10? I barely got silver and coppers!” a woman screamed at the same time. A poor squire looked up, looking at them with bloodshot eyes.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“You guys... get paid?” he croaked.

---
There was a pause in the Pictus kitchen.

“Who knows, son? Don’t be too let down if you don’t get on the board. You’re still my hero,” Myne Pictus promised Grim as he ruffled his boy’s hair. Grim grimaced and fought off the affection like any good teenager.

“Dad!” he whined.

Still... he felt oddly good.

He opened his book to the author’s thanks to people.

“To awkward protag teens and those considered unimportant to canon... I dedicate this to you... my friends. My best friends. Also, the giant mutant ant that can turn into a kaiju. Can’t forget about her...”

What a strange book...

---

Nu just felt weird.

As if he annoyed or taunted hundreds of people but he wasn’t quite sure how or when. What was even stranger was the fact he was Dungeoning. The ability to cause changes, edit the rules, add to things... it felt like he was tampering with the fire of the gods and he was a mortal about to be caught at any time.

Forbidden... but tempting.

Nu was never meant to be. A sentient program turned person because one girl cried too hard and was lonely. He was most likely the product of her delusions, deluded into thinking he wasn’t a figment of her imagination.

That was so... Delta! Burdening her hallucinations with feelings and guilt!

He hovered over the Mudroom, not sure how he should go about this. Adding spikes hidden under the mud was too... rude, according to Delta. Mudsnapper snakes? Too rude.

The mud was boiling enough to melt the flesh off the bone? Rude.

Nu was beginning to think he should just be rude and stop being so concerned about other people’s opinions.

Taking some quick panicked breaths, he opened a menu... sort of like opening his own soul outside and hoping it was stable.

Mudroom: Obstacle.
A room designed with floating platforms to cause the clumsy to fall into the mud below. The stable platforms switch positions for every new group.
35 upgrade suggestions discarded due to their lethality.

Who knew mud was so dangerous? Nu focused on the upgrades left.

Mud becomes warm and relaxes the person if they fall in. Making them move slower and more lethargic. 10 DP
The platforms spin slowly, causing dizziness. 5 DP
Change walls and platforms to be mosaic in style, depicting the threa- fun to come! 10 DP
Create treasure boxes in the four corners that slowly sink into the mud, tempting people to brave the mud for loot. The loot is drinks from the bar, food from the third floor Free Heal Hall, and signed copies of Maestro’s album ‘Shroomy Hearts’. 15 DP.

It was a basic room for what it was so the upgrades weren’t massive like the Pon- Lake room. Nu felt pain in his soul as he purchased them all, spending valuable DP on things that didn’t matter!

How could he...

Nu twitched and glitched in the air for a moment before his screen turned deep blue with white text that rapidly restored itself back to his grumpy usual disposition.

By then... the room had changed.

The wooden platforms and stone wall were now a glossy mix of tiles that formed together to make images. On each of the platforms, was a mess of words of orange on a blue background. If you were challenging the Dungeon and came to the room, the words would read out a message.

Live, Laugh, Loot.

Nu felt this was beyond tacky so he managed to slowly edit the room to read something slightly different by adding a few letters.

Livestock, Slaughter, Looters

To his surprise, the menu opened again with a new upgrade.

Change the message depending on how badly the Dungeon wants the group to suffer? 2 DP

Nu couldn’t see the harm. He purchased it and the messages slowly changed through each stage. It was pretty clear to see which mode was which.

Stage 1: Live, Laugh, Loot.
Stage 2: Experience, Hum, Learn.
Stage 3: Warned, Listen, Sweat.
Stage 4: Livestock, Slaughter, Looters.
Stage 5: Gonna, have a, BAD time.

There was a stage 6, but the words were perhaps a bit apocalyptical in nature so Nu just kept that hidden for future purposes. Nu grinned wickedly at the poor fools that set that one off... he took one more peek at it, just to enjoy the imagery of the fate they would incur.

Stage 6: You made Delta cry.

---

“Feeling better?” Fera asked gruffly as Delta lounged on her bar with a cocktail glass in her hand. Delta didn’t conjure alcohol, she just liked the shape of the glass for her orange juice.

“Much. I guess I was just exhausted after helping Deo. Plus... when was the last time I just relaxed?” Delta said, stretching happily like a cat.

“Imagine working since the day you were born,” Fera agreed sarcastically as she polished glass with a rag.

“You’re welcome to take a holiday,” Delta mumbled around her OJ. Fera’s yellow eyes opened as her nostrils flared.

“And leave who in charge? Those idiots?” Fera asked, pointing to the gaggle of goblins in the corner. Cois was tied to a pillar as Billy aimed knives with one eye closed. Cois was screaming around a gag and Numb was trying to diplomatically calm the argument.

Nearby, a bundle of Billy’s arrows looked burnt to spindly sticks.

“What about that girl you hired? Nina?” Delta asked and Fera shrugged.

“We’re a 24-hour joint. She needs at least 4 hours sleep or something,” Fera said casually as if she could perhaps push Nina to ignore that need.

“You sure she didn’t say ‘8 hours’?” Delta replied with an amused smile. Fera merely grinned back.

“Might have been six,” she admitted.

“My services are available, Matron Fera,” Lord Mushy offered and Fera eyed the gentleman mushroom sipping sweet sugary water from a cup.

“Ever poured a double Jack special without exploding?” she asked and Mushy turned to look at her.

“No, but I am quite flame-resistant these days,” he admitted.

The things Delta heard in her Dungeon could fill a book.

She wondered how Nu was getting on?

---

Mushroom Grove: A material room with a room guardian called ‘Boary’. Mushrooms from all floors grow here without any DP cost and if fire magic is used here... it can get messy.

Allow Boary to have two piglet minions. 10 DP.
Explosions and fires now form a special boss of Boary. Now, the Firemane form will not perish or cause madness. Special nature spirits from Devina will guard Boary’s mind against the element of fire and rage. 25 DP.
Cause 5 golden mushrooms to grow and if all five are found and fed to Boary, adventurers may have a chance at gaining one of the piglet minions as a bound pet. Requires piglet minions. 15 DP.
The Mushroom Grove now grows and develops Mushroom staves naturally, very rarely an adventurer may take one at their leisure. These staffs bring immense joy to those who are easily amused. Also a semi-potent magical foci. 10 DP.
Special Stage: Grow a stage of mushrooms in which Maestro can appear and sing to an audience. Listening to his song may grant many buffs going forward and listening to Maestro on every floor can cause rare rewards to appear. 25 DP.

Nu was beginning to think the Mushroom Grove had peaked at ‘lots of Gutrot mushrooms’ and was now trying to distract him with all these other upgrades that didn’t actually improve the original room’s function at all.

He opened the room's secondary menu to see the types of mushrooms that were able to be made and found the issue.

Nu groaned.

Current Mushroom breeding. Gutholes. Parent: Gutrot and Blackhole Piggle.
Current estimated time of completion for a cheap and stable breed: 118 years.

Nu cancelled the production and looked at the combinations. He sorted it by ‘priority’.

Gutrot + Blackhole Piggle =???
Blackhole Piggle + Gutrot =???
Blackhole Piggle + Starlight = ??

Nu stared at the screen, flickering glitches appearing on his face.

He sorted by ‘least important’

Edible Mushroom+Blackhole Piggle = ???
Lumen Mushroom + Blackhole Piggle = ???

“WHAT IS YOUR OBSESSION WITH PIGS?!” Nu screeched and Boary looked up, a frown on his tusked face.

“Current company excluded,” Nu amended with clenched teeth.

He dragged out the Blackhole piggle and when he went to drop it into the discard, the little wastebasket symbol began to flee as if to thwart Nu.

“I will not have insubordination in my own existence! Get back here and delete the disaster pig... me!” Nu ordered. His words were jarring.

Was some part of him deeply wishing he could weaponize the Blackhole Piggles?

Sure!

Did that mean it was wise?

No...

But... Nu held the Blackhole Piggle selection with a nervous glitch forming.

Wisdom was his dump stat.

Nu looked at the edible mushroom and slotted it in with the piggle...

Estimated time to completion: 2 hours.

Begin?

Delta could have baby pig minions. Nu would have booby-trapped blackhole mushrooms that would suck people inside out...

It was a natural balance.

New breed being formed.
Name: Tongue Twister.

131: Ghoulish Intentions

“You brought it on yourself,” Zane said, having no sympathy for the woman at his side. He downed another mug of the local brew, wincing at the kick. The woman huffed as she devoured her fourth plate of meat, still removing parasitic seedpods and cursed splinters of a thousand agonies out of her arms.

“Sure, but did she have to fill my lungs with ants? I can still feel them in there,” Perhal complained, hacking up one of the venomous breeds as she spoke. The tavern owner didn’t look happy but they were still paying customers.

“You ate her family,” Zane was unmoved by her plight. Perhal smiled at the memory.

“That I did, but to be fair. They weren’t innocent tree folk. That tribe was dangerous, and at the rate they were spreading, that forest was dangerous or something,” Perhal said, waving her hand to show that the details hadn’t mattered enough for her to remember them.

“And you tried diplomacy first... right?” Zane said, a knowing look about his face.

“I got as far as ‘Aren’t you scrumptious looking’ and the rest is sort of hazy,” Perhal agreed. Zane shook his shaggy mane with a sigh.

“Look around Perhal, this is where we would have ended up if we didn’t bend the knee. Tottering around like old-timers. Not sure if this place is hell or paradise. So much trouble in one place,” he grinned.

“Not so quiet now. You taste that mana?” Perhal commented as she cleaned the meat bone of all substances before crunching the bone itself like a snack.

“I feel it on my skin. I’m more a touch-base rather than a taster,” Zane reminded before he shook his head with his nose wrinkled.

“Tasters are weird... how do you even sense Mana through your tongue?” he asked his companion. Perhal thought about it.

“You eat a lot of rich things then the tongue knows... Touch users are the most common anyway, Zane. Don’t act so special. You got hit in the head with a spell or touched some old thing and peed yourself,” Perhal said with a gleam to her eyes.

“Could be worse,” Zane pointed out. Perhal nodded slowly.

“Could be a scenter...” she agreed.

They both took a moment to think of the requirement it would take to activate the mana-gland in one’s nose and shuddered.

True madmen, those kinds were.

---

Haldi inhaled his new cheese with delight. The new creation was a complex mixture of manticore milk and herbs being cooked 1 minute before afternoon.

It didn’t do anything, but the taste was good! The smell was eye-watering and made Haldi curl his toes with joy. The village was going to be swarmed soon and Haldi had to make sure he’d fleece every single one of them for all their cash.

The village needed a hut to be constructed or was it a blacksmith?

Haldi looked out the window and wished Durence Village didn’t jump between having this many buildings one day and that many the next. The town was almost alive due to the sheer amount of stories living in it and it was a dramatic gal, changing outfits every so often.

It became a pain to find the bakery or Mila’s house... but now with the Mana? Exotic things were just popping into existence.

Benches dedicated to Lich Bats.

Statues of giant chickens destroying some rotisserie food market.

Once, an entire card shop appeared, devoid of any owners and was gone the next, leaving only some playing cards behind. The nice boy, Grim, kept them proclaiming them to be messages, but what a bloody red ace and a coffee-drinking joker spoke about, Haldi hadn’t the faintest clue.

Really, some of the space was free real estate at times, only for your perfect villa to end up on the edge of the village with the pigpen for a week.

Haldi guessed the village needed... a quest board.

The word soured his mouth, but there was nought for it. Adventurers with no oversight bred plotlines and those things could infest a house for years. They just cluttered one’s home up with impatient vibes of ‘something must be done’.

The people of Durence didn’t have time for those things anymore.

Nobody had time for that.

---

Delta found Nu attempting to scream some mushroom out of existence. It was some yellow mushroom that looked like a strawberry in texture.

She blinked once as she examined it deeply.

Tongue Twister:
A harmless mushroom that if devoured will cause one to speak in tongue twisters for some time.

It seemed more like Nu wanted something else, but the mushroom honestly looked a lot of fun! She could already sense Fera making new drinks from it!

Other than that...

Delta gasped when she saw two mini-Boarys trying to appear as threatening as they could with tiny stubby tusks and bristly manes.

“I can literally die! Look how strong and powerful you are!” Delta cooed, causing the piglets to puff up with pride, swishing their tails.

“Release me. I am not only tainted... I am doomed by your habits,” Nu whispered, hanging his screen for some executioner to have at it. Delta looked up from where one of the piglets had fallen over and was stuck on its back, big rubbable belly exposed.

“I think you did great?” Delta offered with a kind smile. Nu only sank deeper into despair at this.

Ah, he was being like this again.

Delta stood up and gave the sight of the Piglets patrolling around the snoozing Boary with utmost seriousness one last smile before she floated over to Nu.

“I know what you want and you want me to do it so you can not be blamed,” she offered, leaning on a mushroom cap with the air of someone who was an old hand at the game now.

Nu only turned to look at her slightly.

Delta nodded sagely.

“Come, my homicidal duckling. I, Delta, will do what I do best,” she said with a formal tone and hummed as she floated off.

Her destination was a quick check to both Fran’s boss room and Maestro’s secret base.

Fran was drinking the new cocktail Fera made as Bacon watched with interest. The bubbling ‘Twisty Knickers’ was bright red when poured. When Fran put the glass down, his usual tone of politeness and deep authority seemed to be slightly higher.

“Fuzzy Wuzzy was a pig. Fuzzy Wuzzy wore a wig. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he?” he announced so fast that his tongue was a blur and Bacon looked alarmed, checking his shaggy self for missing patches.

Fera eyed the drink critically.

“Needs more Hotspring water,” she announced.

Delta shook her head, happy that ‘dull’ just didn’t exist in her Dungeon. Fran’s boss room didn’t have any new options in his menu. Most of it was for slight environmental changes, but nothing she couldn’t discuss with Fran later.

It seemed either Sis or some part of Delta was... happy with Fran. He didn’t need gimmicks or something else.

He enjoyed his fights, what little he had. Minions or some environment thing would just upset his honour.

Maestro...

“Then shimmy those hips,” Maestro instructed and Quee did so, moving his spider butt with awkward movements as the dark gentleman watched from his throne.

“Very good! Now, when leaving the stage, one must always look like they graced the very room with joy and light!” Maestro announced as he moved forward, leaning on his cane.

“We use the spray method!” Maestro instructed, putting one hand up and shaking it.

“Pretend you’re shaking a bottle of ‘Wyinn De Pain’. First, you spray,” Maestro shook his hand again.

“Then wait for a second...” he added then strutted through the space with a stance that spoke of being a star.

“Then walk away! Your back is a piece of art, don’t ever be afraid to enlighten haters with real art!” Maestro announced to the enthusiastically watching Quee.

Delta didn’t interrupt, but just opened Maestro’s menu for a quick check.

Secret Maestro Room
A large cavern filled with a stone pyramid, on top of which Maestro performs his show. To see one in person is to die for.

Pyramid rotates with different sections going the opposite way. 10 DP
Random mushrooms drop from the ceiling. Cost 25 DP
Starlight Mushrooms create a weak laser show to distract foes. 10 DP
Maestro music causes Memetic earworms, infect people even if they leave, haunting them day in and out until they eventually- Error. Redacted. Removed. Apologies.
Maestro’s Album is now made of rare materials and is worth something. 15 DP.

Delta raised a brow at the redacted option but smiled as she purchased the options. Watching as Maestro and Quee gave screams of delight as their stage came to life, spinning dizzyingly.

Since Maestro slightly hovered, lifted by his head roots, he didn’t spin. Making the upgrade more unfair than at first glance.

“Now this is art, baby!” Maestro pointed his cane at Delta, showing he had been aware she was there the whole time.

Impressive... not really changing the game since I have yet to see Maestro go all out... combat-wise.

Nu was ever the sourpuss.

“Patience, ye of little faith,” Delta insisted and sent them both... to the second floor.

Any more upgrades on floor 1 would scream of favouritism.

Delta didn’t have favourites...

Except for the piglets.

Delta definitely liked them.

---

Great changes were coming. Devina opened one eye, her deep trance within the fountains of the Frog Spawn cleansing her.

“You sensed it too?” Gramps asked, the chieftain among them wise to all ways.

“The trees rustle, the flowers sway... Bob keens. Delta is coming,” Devina announced with great flair.

“There is much to do,” Gramps said, sighing with a hint of assurance. Delta the mother only brought good.

Chaotic good, but good nonetheless.

“Better hop to it!” Inchy the orange bird said, swooping down to land on Devina’s head.

Perhaps... not all of mother’s creations were holy. Some were quite decidedly a curse upon existence.

---

Delta stretched above the jungle with a tremble that travelled down her back. She sighed as something popped. She had no idea how something popped but it felt great.

Something about doing stretches above the jungle with the sunlight hitting the befuddling mists rising from the trees was just therapeutic. She turned and floated off, Nu busy checking statistics and numbers, no doubt trying to predict the optimal amount of Pygmies to perform a world-ending ritual or something.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“I was thinking that the jungle has a base, but unlike the first floor, I haven’t really touched it up,” Delta announced as they floated above Bob’s waterfall pool.

Not that I disagree, but should we not be focusing hard on the third floor as we have a potentially undying enemy battering at our doors?

Nu’s screen turned to face her and Delta felt her attention split. Half assessing the waterfall, the other checking the spread of her Mana down the conquered hall. No enemies in sight and even the evil undead brat seemed to be licking her wounds for the moment.

“The third floor is... as terrible as it sounds for the moment, unstable. If the enemy rushes in and all is lost, I need both my first and second floor to be the last lines of defences. I’ve literally hit my monster limit on floor 3 already with two trolls, four guardgoyles, a book golem, a demon blacksmith, a bomber Kobold, and some additional Pygmies that I managed to wrangle by accident,” Delta counted and frowned.

“Thanks to Alpha, that’s less pressure, but Alpha will need to see real sunlight eventually,” Delta threw in.

Concerned about being spread too thin? I get that, but waffling about with no progress isn’t going to help anyone.

The menu was insistent today.

“Nu, I do have a plan,” Delta chided and that seemed to startle Nu who was quiet for a minute as Delta eyed the waterfall.

I can’t wait to see this...

The waterfall looked to be as Delta left it, a large mountain spire with snaking waters hitting the rockpool below, flowing over Bob’s deep lair and down into the jungle proper to form the river. Besides the secret cave at the back that no one actually used, the waterfall was for all purposes... decorative.

Delta was going to mix that up. If she found what she was looking for... even better.

Waterfall.
A large watching figure that can be heard even in the darkest corners of the Jungle. The bottom may look refreshing, but diving too deeply can be costly. Bobbing in this pool will reveal more than apples.

Allow a rain system to allow flash flooding of the river as an obstacle. Will cause Rale more work. 15 DP.
Reshape the top of the waterfall to be in the shape of a boar where each socket will have a brazier to cause the eyes to glow and smoke. 10 DP.
Allow the river to dry up to allow flooding of Third floor Garden. Once per day. If Bob’s key is used to open Wyin’s gate then this feature is disabled. 30 DP.

They weren’t bad options and the last one was especially tempting since if she could use it when her Dungeon was free of adventurers then it was basically a massive trap for any force that broke through the doors.

The weird mix of good and bad news was neither her Guardgoyles or the Undead would drown since one was made of stone and the other... usually didn’t have lungs. Still, Delta imagined stone flesh would fare best if smashed against walls or each other as a flood rushed down with the force that would be bone-crushing as it was.

Besides, this was only step one.

She purchased the decoration and the flooding trap, not really wanting to cause monsoon season in her Dungeon with the first upgrade.

The top of the waterfall groaned and rocks slid over each other loudly as the top reshaped itself into a form not too unlike Bacon above. Two jutting curved spikes emerged from a glaring round top with two black holes to give the illusion of eyes.

After a second, both eyes began to glow eerily as a light within burned.

At the same time, a dark void between floors formed right under where the pool basin emptied, showing where the water would be drained away to the third floor.

She shot off, regretting she didn’t have time to admire her handiwork.

Her Jungle was hitting so many tick boxes for a ‘lost monkey treasure’. Really, all she was missing was some dark and collected gentleman with a crow cloak and cane to walk about, talking to a camera that wasn’t there.

Delta would get there.

Renny’s circus was up next as she paused as a grand act of skeletons building themselves into a giant boney pyramid revealed itself to her as she floated through the flaps of the tent. Renny in his ringmaster uniform clapped his hands and the pyramid began to fall forward, bones shifting to turn from a straight edge into a sphere that began to roll over ramps.

Renny turned, his painted ‘eyes’ seeming to lift at her appearance.

“I know... it’s been a while,” Delta raised a hand as the bone ball collapsed into a pile with almost comical clattering and skulls landing nearby, only for them to jab and argue with each other on who literally lost their footing.

Renny tilted his head and Delta could almost hear him like he was speaking aloud.

“Not quite. Still issues, but I’m hoping you can help,” Delta admitted as the skeleton crew was sent away to clean their ribs and polish their skulls. Only the sleekest of bonemen were allowed in Renny’s circus after all.

Renny bowed and sat on a non-existent seat as if something was there... causing something to be there. Ringmaster or not... Renny was a mime at heart, it seemed. Delta smiled as she mimicked him, sitting in the ‘air’. Renny applauded without a sound, praising her poise.

First, she used the system in a way she didn’t really often do. A sort of descriptive dictionary for things that came into her Dungeon. It was mostly pointless because a sword was a sword and kids were pretty universal.

Delta didn’t need the baby Dungeon book on what concepts were. It did... however, have a general information bank on anything Delta had personally encountered. She couldn’t use it to learn about anyone that came into her Dungeon or as a global search engine. It’s a shame since it would be nice knowing more about the kingdom, the world in general... like if hotdogs were invented yet!

Ghouls:
A type of creature who feeds on the energy given off by death. Natural enemies of phantoms and skeletons who are amongst the weakest of undead. They often prowl graveyards for these foes, earning a bad reputation and the more idiotic often accuse Ghouls of being undead as well.

Delta smiled as Renny tilted his head again.

“Renny. I noticed your crew is a bit... bare-bones,” Delta said abruptly. Renny raised one finger at her wording then silently dropped it in defeat.

“Let me see what we can do about that,” Delta announced and opened his contract menu... her finger trailing down the list, her smile growing as she read.

Renny’s cheerful inkblot eyes mimicked blinking as she inhaled with a sharp intake of breath. Delta turned to him, opening her mouth to explain what was making her bounce in excitement. He leaned forward in anticip-

---

Doctor was not an idle Guardgoyle,between testing the volatile nature of Troll Soup and how the very stuff seemed to even make Gutrots slow to grow nearby... and guarding the garden as there were a few rooms left to conquer,

Doctor did not believe in idleness, too much to learn... too little to dissect or test unstable concoctions on. However, that was neither here nor there.

His entire schedule was put on hold as someone walked into the garden. A strange creature, but one of Delta’s... if only by deal. A contract.

Doctor only knew Jack as the other contract... they were truly interesting beings. A slow progression of free-will beings losing their soul to Delta, piece by piece until the entire thing was replaced by her Mana.

The process was fascinating and Delta didn’t even seem to be aware she was performing high-level soul magic on five different beings... at the same time... flawlessly.

It was a little intimidating if he was honest.

The closest example he could use to put it into perspective for Vanguard was as if Delta was replacing every gear and tiny cog in a clock without ever opening it up and so gently, the clock didn’t even notice.

Truly, if all Dungeons could do this... if they went wrong, the amount of damage they could inflict with contracts would be terrible. What would even happen to a soul if the Dungeon holding its contract went... wrong?

According to the books in the library... Abominations broke the rules, to a degree the world began to turn sickly. Their monsters lose shape and structure, their rooms begin to glitch into space renders that would twist a man into a bloody mist, and their contracts...

Doctor watched as the colourful ghoul walked to the secure door, eyeing it with its drawn on eyes.

It held a cane in one hand which now had a large orange sphere for a pommel, slightly cut to look like a skull. The inner light cast shadows over the ghoul who leaned on it with calm assurance of a being who did not fear death.

The ghoul was radiating energy that felt... mini-boss like, maybe more. The doors opened and phantoms tried to shriek out, some ambush left by the undead. They simply melted as the ghoul held up his new cane.

Their souls tried to flee back to their leader, but the ghoul latched on to them dragging them back like fish on hooks.

It became a tug of war between a dark purple bond and the ghoul’s energy. The clash caused the grass to wither and made the air become heavily tainted with death energy. Death energy felt like chocolate mint that was a bit stale. It was enough to give Doctor’s stony skin goosepebbles.

The ghoul won since it was in Delta’s territory, boosted by her Mana, and the souls were snapped free and held like two fireflies around the staff. The ghoul released them, having no interest in eternally tormenting their helpless souls.

There was a horrid wind that blew through the door as something powerful raged in the castle depths, angry at the ghoul for his actions. The ghoul merely inhaled as if the wind was delicious and his thin smile cracked up all along the sides to show his true mouth, a massive maw of black gums and drooling teeth.

“What’s he smelling?” Dozer asked, and Doctor could almost sing at the idea of what the ghoul was going to be bringing back in large quantities.

“Patients!” he cried, rushing off to see if he had enough makeshift beds and straps ready.

132: Free Range War

Renny. Contract.
A ghoul-turned-mime-turned-ringmaster; his resume is impressive. Renny runs the second-floor circus.

Upgrades available. (Warning, the contract may resist or even reject changes if they disagree)
Lesser Command: His control over his crew is increased. 5 DP
Necrotic Energy Connoisseur: Improving Renny’s Ghoul nature to devour undead in large numbers and even tackle some undead he could not previously win against. 10 DP
Necroscrambler: Allows Renny to become able to disassemble undead forces to feast upon their energy, removing the bindings to their necromancer masters. Stronger necromancers may remain in control, however. 30 DP
The staff of a Showman: Grants Renny a magical focus that increases his style. Occasionally will explode undead he points the staff at. 20 DP
Greater Ghoul: Evolve Renny to the next branch of his monstrous family tree. Usually, this would drive the ghoul to become a dangerous killing machine, but this will not occur because Renny is not a coward as ghouls often tend to be in the wild. 40 DP.

Delta read over the upgrades that she had purchased in the log, scrolling through them idly with a finger. The enhancements were impressive, and it made her confidence soar as she gathered her forces together on the third-floor garden for her next operation. With the river trap in place, she felt more comfortable taking on the rest of the doors—Jeb and Gnashly the trolls, Van, Doctor, Dozer, and Dragon, and Renny.

The library golem didn’t fare well outside the library, so Delta left it there, using it as a last line of defence if anything did escape towards her core.

Renny was glowing with contentment as he fed off any idiotic spirit coming through the door. The undead princess seemed to have gotten the hint that, for the first time, she was losing troops permanently. Delta guessed that when you were used to your undead army simply picking themselves back up, you got complacent.

Delta would feel sorry, but one shouldn’t pity the incurably stupid and evil cultists. Instead, you should push them down the stairs repeatedly until they repent or are no longer a problem.

Whichever came first.

Delta didn’t have the luxury to be kind, nor did she have the naivety to presume she could remain peaceful when the brat had done nothing but throw dead things at her. The nerve of some people really.

With Renny more equipped, alongside some dashing Guardgoyles and enough troll mass to accidentally cause a small land-slide if they fell over, Delta was ready to lay down the law. There was just one thing missing that she wouldn’t dare begin without. A second later, it appeared.

Out of the kitchens, Jack came running over, his flasks filled with boiling troll soup.

Delta blanched.

“That’s chemical warfare!” she accused, and Jack eyed the bottles with a dark look.

“In the darkest of times, we must use our darkest weapons,” he said, voice low before it snapped back to his usual hiss of amusement.

“Jeb has shelves full of the stuff,” he said, and Jeb looked proud, his grey skin pulling back to show a smile.

“Jeb makes spicy soup... garlic soup... pepper soup,” he counted with the incorrect number of stubby fingers and Delta made a silent note to add about five different protective layers to Jeb’s store cupboard. If an adventurer went in there and knocked something over, it would scar the naive adventure or upset Jeb.

Both would be quite terrible.

“Just throw it away from the Dungeon,” she finally said, and Jack beamed as if he wouldn’t dare think of wasting his precious Troll Soup Bombs.

“Now, I know that the Third Floor has been a challenge and many of you were denied a peaceful home to grow up in and develop like the other two floors, and I am sorry for that,” Delta said and her monsters shifted, but no one spoke.

“Our enemy is eternal, and her army follows her command with no self-thought or ability to disagree with her orders. Peace and diplomacy were thrown to the floor before we could even say hello. If we didn’t defend ourselves, we would be dead and buried,” Delta paced side to side, and she looked to the double doors with the glowing protective runes.

“But they made a mistake in thinking we’re scared of them,” Delta spun, eyes glowing and pointed to the direction of the undead side of the fortress.

“They made a grave error by mistaking our kindness for weakness. It’s time to remind those who seem set on mocking our ideals and throwing our restraint back in our face, exactly who they’re dealing with.”

Delta’s eyes looked up, and her voice turned serious.

“Tonight, we make our enemies regret ever building their fortress in our way. We make them regret ever thinking this Dungeon was ever a pushover. Tonight, we will take most, if not all, of that undead brat’s toy kingdom and make it ours. ‘Cause if the princess is set on playing with dead things instead of bettering her people, then I’ll simply have to show her how a real home functions,” Delta said and held a hand up to the sky.

“Tonight! All their home bases are belong to us!” she cried, and the room shook as her monsters all roared in passionate agreement, blowing Delta’s hair back, her newly acquired spine of steel cracked at the sight of so many fang-filled maws.

She chuckled nervously, quickly speaking up again.

“Let’s remember always to have fun and keep up the buddy system while we conquer the local undead plague army!” she reminded them brightly.

Her monsters grumbled as they held hands with their neighbours, which ended up with Gnashly crushing Jack in one giant fist.

Her first target was the silent menagerie.

Delta grimaced. She really liked animals, which was going to make this more complicated than it needed to be.

---

Alpha slowly sheathed his sword as he sat on the collapsed skull of some giant. The room beyond Delta’s garden was dreary, and Alpha couldn’t see anything special about this Silence Fortress. You see one spooky subterranean castle; you’ve seen them all.

Delta’s place was interesting. Every room or space had something special about it.

The skull began to rattle again under his body so he pulsed with a high-grade holy aura. It went inert, most likely for only a few minutes. Alpha was truly grinding his divine skills today.

It was generic since he didn’t believe in any god, but due to his ability, no skill was technically off-limits to him.

Still, occasionally he had to chant a spell which needed a god’s name, so he tended to just use cereal brands from back home or other breakfast items.

More than once in this battle, Alpha had called down the ‘judgement of toast’ or the ‘Bulwark of Choco-Puffs!’.

He looked through the door, wondering if he should keep going. He wasn’t getting anything from this. Respawning mobs didn’t grant exp due to whatever was in their ‘soul’ giving them their powers wasn’t flowing into Alpha when he defeated them.

The soul kept getting summoned back to the master of this place. Alpha could sense her... them.

A sewn-together soul of two-parts anguish, one part scheming. She would be worth something, but Alpha didn’t have a quest or a reason to charge in.

Delta had mentioned they were fighting, but Delta hadn’t given him a quest either, maybe he could do her... a favour. Alpha would like to do favours for Delta... He sat there, wracked by indecision. He had gone for so long without choosing for himself, that the fact he might need to...

It terrified him.

What did he want?

He wanted Delta to be happy and safe. He wanted to be away from Perhal. He wanted to stop wanting to cry when no one was looking.

He wanted to go home.

Wherever that was...

But those were things that required Alpha to roll initiative & take that single step forward. He imagined what Delta would do if she had a physical form and Alpha was stuck as an unseeable, intangible ghost, burying himself deeper away from people, hidden behind layers of silent monsters and deadly traps?

Delta would draw her sword, smile in determination, and be a hero.

Alpha had to do that.

Well...Alpha had to attempt to be even a shadow of that. He stood and drew his sword, but he didn’t get far before he saw that, without his notice, a ring of mushrooms had surrounded the skull, tying it down securely with fibrous threads.

“You’re a shy one,” came an exhausted voice. Alpha turned, ready for battle, but didn’t see anyone.

“Down here,” the voice instructed, and Alpha pointed his sword down until he saw what looked to be a tiny firefly resting atop one of the mushrooms in the fairy ring.

“Yo.”

It waved a tiny energy arm... so small that it was almost impossible to see.

“Hello...?” Alpha managed to reply

“Delta asked me if I still had eyes out here. I’m named Hero, and until I’m back on my feet, I guess I’m going to be your guide,” the firefly managed to lift itself slowly. It wasn’t an insect, more a tiny orange mote with ghostly limbs.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Alpha tried not to wince as Delta had sent someone with the name ‘Hero’ to aid him.

“I am Alpha. I am the first of the four it would seem. Swordsman, skill gatherer, and task fulfiller. Do you have a quest from Delta?” Alpha said evenly.

“Hey listen...” the glowing bug began, “...relax. I know what it’s like to be a big powerhouse, birthed with confusing emotions and a job to do,” Hero promised, and Alpha didn’t exactly see how, but he didn’t question Hero.

“I was going to...” Alpha began and hesitated.

“Go on, speak your mind,” Hero encouraged.

“Take over the next room,” Alpha gasped, making a choice which made his stomach bubble with hot sick acid waves. Hero landed in his hair and it was like a tiny spot of sunlight on his scalp. Warm, but not burning.

“Good, how about you show me what skills you’re working with? Perhaps do a few rolls and attacks. Just so I feel confident you got the basics down?” Hero insisted, and Alpha stumbled slightly in his thoughts.

That sounded exactly like a-.

“Can... you teach me to double jump?” Alpha whispered, wondering if one of his many personal deep desires might come true.

“How can you double jump? Air doesn’t just become solid unless you use magic! Either jump in one big jump or just get a ladder,” Hero chided.

Alpha had many tricks to fake a double jump, but an actual double jump still eluded him. It had to exist somewhere, and he would find it.

His stomach churned again and he wheezed, noticing too late that he made another personal choice.

“Oy vey... maybe we should start with how to walk?” Hero mumbled.

---

The place was less a wildlife land and more a bone graveyard. Whatever life once lived here or was maintained was long gone. In its place, shambling skeletal horrors moved about with little care or order.

Being cut off from the main Silence Fort had caused any ambient command over the creatures to fray. The tragedy of their existence made Delta sad rather than triumphant.

Some massive monkey thing had misplaced its tail, using a snake as the replacement. The animal bickered endlessly and without reason. A bull hobbled about, one of its legs replaced with what should be on a goat or a sheep.

Wolves, once deadly, had tangled their ribs together. Perhaps over time by playing too close to each other or charging wildly, now just whined in a corner.

Birds with no wings looked to the large ceiling with longing. Mice hung around a donkey since most of them had suffered too much damage to make any distance under their own power. Fish flopped in long dry tanks, their minds clinging to the wrongness of their circumstances.

Predator cats discard their mighty forms to escape their cages, now wandered spineless or as sad limbless creatures.

Lizard-looking things doddle about, but most were either missing their heads or a tail, making them awkward things.

The lone sentient undead was ‘the keeper’ according to Jack. Somehow, despite being a skeleton, he had massive bones that made him come off as porky.

A fat skeleton.

Delta disliked him from the moment he was flung in front of Van, serving as Delta’s eyes since she hadn’t conquered the room yet.

“Get off, oof, you mangy beasts,” he clattered and managed to sit on his rear, looking down at them all despite being on the ground.

“What happened to the animals?” Van asked, voice lined with a threat. The Keeper didn’t look bothered. In fact, he sounded right down smug as if nothing they could do would bother him.

“What, those sad things? Depends on which one. Sometimes before we all rotted, we got hungry. A limb here, a tail there,” he shrugged then tilted his head.

“Sometimes we got bored. Sometimes... those ‘smart’ guys needed subjects. Sometimes-” the skeleton leaned forward, voice rising in sinister glee.

Delta didn’t quite know how she did it, but her mana surged from the garden, ignoring the rules that she couldn’t take the room since ‘someone’ was inside. The Keeper’s cocky attitude faltered as orange light began to seep out every crack in his skeleton.

“Eh... what’s this? Princess Marrow... help! It’s too warm!” the Keeper attempted to smother the light, but it grew brighter.

Then the Keeper’s dark seed within his essence erupted into orange fire.

Then he exploded.

Everyone was staring at Delta, hovering by the door, head hung low to hide her expression.

She inhaled once, deeply.

“I like... animals,” she said through gritted teeth.

She looked up, eyes watering, but managed to stop herself from being a total wreck after only one room.

“Renny... can you...” she gestured to the area and the watching animals. They weren’t quite self-aware, but their time beyond their natural lifespan had increased their intelligence. They were watching the scene intently.

Renny bowed extravagantly.

His power as a ringmaster seeped out like colourful cheery lines and slowly began to connect to each animal, gently...

Delta got a pop-up.

Ringmaster Renny would like to hire the animals of the Silence Menagerie. Spend 50 DP to increase the Circus room to hold these unique animals?

Delta hit yes and smiled.

“They’ve suffered enough. Let’s give these animals a good home, but if any don’t thrive... we’ll set their souls free,” she promised Renny, and a few animals seemed to shift as their forms began to vanish.

Breaking down and being rebuilt on the second floor.

Delta knew this was supposed to be bordering on contracts, but it was more like three steps below contracts. Delta couldn’t empower them nor would they be as well-fed on her mana (good thing they were already dead), and on top of that, they were limited to a single room as a unit.

All around her, the room was becoming consumed by her Mana. She watched as the pain and suffering caused here was removed. It was cleaning itself for a better future.

Delta nodded, wiping her eyes to make sure she could see it all.

First, this room.

Next?

Every last inch of this fortress would be scrubbed clean.

A notification appeared in front of her with an orange screen showing it was from the system, not Nu.

Silent Menagerie absorbed. Dissolve room in exchange for one monster slot?

Delta blinked.

“I can do that?” she asked in shock.

The system reports that clearing the excess space will cut down on third-floor performance issues. Since the animals are now on the second floor, the area here is entirely redundant over the need for more monsters to defend the core. The system, too, is learning to change the rules when the need for it arises.

Well. How could Delta argue with her logic used against her?

“I can get another Guardgoyle or... something!” She announced and she suddenly gave a yelp as she and all her monsters were hoisted out of the room as if attached to bungee cords. The door slammed shut before stone ran down its surface like liquid, removing any trace that it had been there. Beyond the door, the room was yeeted into the void, if Delta’s senses were correct.

Total monster slots available: 2
Please keep working hard.
I am proud of you.
-Sis.

---

Brother watched as a crumbling room was flushed down into the void below, disturbing his fishing. He didn’t quite blink in surprise, but as he slowly sipped from his off-brand soda (so interdimensional lawyers didn’t sue for using named brands),“What is she doing up there?” he asked, his Ceko-Calo can ringing empty.

The room went deeper and deeper until it was only visible by the trailing orange sparkles. Brother leaned forward to see which side of the void it might hit.

Down there was the demon world... the void-void, the shadow-void, and the occasional pocket-void. Little Bro was somewhere in the Void-Void, but the room smashed through the demon world barriers and the mana within landed with a loud cheer before the hole sealed up.

“Wow, Sister littered. I might die of shock if I wasn’t already suffering a slow and gradual demise of the self,” Brother said leaning back in his deck chair with a stretch, causing a slight earthquake in the southern part of the world.

“I guess my days of fishing quietly are coming to an end... I feel a little sad, but I’m also a little happy. Go figure,” he said with a smile.

“Proud of you, Delta... Just stop corrupting my sister before she dyes her hair. The world is used to a yellow sun, blue or green might be too much,” he grinned and cast his rod again.

133: I have awoken and I have chosen violence

“This isn’t good,” Hero said as he eyed the ante-chamber to the throne room- a large round chamber that could easily fit scores of people or monsters. Alpha would agree, but he was busy trying to maintain his holy aura against the giant beast and its mistress, the sheer decaying power of the undead in charge was smothering. His golden aura flickered like a dying candle compared to it.

It wasn’t merely evil or dark. For one, evil wasn’t contained to mere necromantic or shadow arts; Alpha had learned that when he had to fend off a half-broken tree creature that was devouring people. It was bursting with life and power of the earth, but it was also evil.

In return, he had been tended to and welcomed into the home of a friendly necromancer who did funeral services and allowed final goodbyes in times of sudden death. So, Alpha knew evil didn’t belong to specific arts or practices alone... just as good didn’t either.

Darkness, shadows, and even death had gentle ways about them; just like light, life, and holy could.

But here? The necromantic energies were laced with hate, disgust, glee at every wound Alpha took... this was evil. It was also backed by something blacker than itself—a void that gnawed at Alpha’s being, a dark chill under all this frost-touched death.

Together, it made moving forward a bit of a hassle since every foe he battered down simply returned after a few minutes; even Hero’s powers of mushrooms could only take down so many in a sort of prison-like manner.

It became apparent that this Princess that Delta had warned him off had been keeping her best toys close to her rotten heart.

The skeletal dragon’s massive patchy yellow skull turned, empty eye sockets staring at them as a childish giggle emanated from the room beyond.

“I’ve never seen anything larger than a bear animated before,” Alpha admitted to Hero as he took a step back in preparation to either charge or run.

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” the little bug admitted, “this thing is absolutely leaking powerful magic. The bonus of being of the Dungeon, I see these sorts of things...” Hero admitted.

Alpha felt this was a boss. It wasn’t a ‘Boss’ monster, however, as it lacked the same energy that different dungeons could attribute to a particular monster. Still, in theory, a giant monster guarding the final chamber was a boss.

Alpha was apt in slaying such things on request.

“Should I end it?” he asked Hero quietly, gripping his sword tightly, causing it to glow.

“I think you’re worth more alive than dead,” Hero argued.

“Not to me,” a bratty voice said before, atop the dragon’s head, between its two horns, a pooling of shadows and mist shaped itself into the form of a girl. Her soft pink dress looked like it had just been freshly woven and stitched on to her body by a platoon of servants, flowing in the image of untarnished innocence.

Her white-gloved hands had ornate silver bangles near the elbows which glinted when she moved her hands. Alpha swallowed back a grimace at the face curtained by bouncy blond curls. He saw she had been a beautiful girl of royal features- barely visible cutting cheekbones and sapphire eye color.

The left side had all that humanity torn away, as if in rage, to reveal the naked skull underneath; unlike the other undead, her skull was deep ebony with a glowing red rune branded into the side.

“I am Princess Mharia, She of Settled Darkness,” she said, curtsying; somewhat by habit. Before she lifted her head, Alpha already let loose the most powerful holy slash he had in his arsenal, bisecting her through the neck and through the other side. The moon crescent flew into the ceiling, exploding the glossy black onyx stone walls, leaving a mess of dust.

Mharia brushed her dress despite it remaining clean; no wound visible from the attack. Afterward, she reached up and plucked the frozen golden line across her neck. She dropped it to her side with a tittering noise. The attack, after falling some distance from her form, shot off as if nothing had happened.

“First, you are quite rude. I haven’t had company in the longest time, and you just tried to behead me as if the peasants were revolting,” Mharia said before she stepped off the skull and began to float to the ground slowly.

“Two, your attacks lack...” Mharia waved a gloved hand as if searching for the right word, “passion. If there was any less spine in that attack? It’d be immune to necromancy despite how I stopped it dead in its track,” she smiled brightly, the thing warped as her skull-side tried to follow the expression.

“Lad, run,” Hero hissed, but there was a cracking noise as boney-fangs as large as the dragon claws slid across the way out, forming an intersected bone barrier.

“And, finally, as all good things come in threes,” Mharia stopped between Alpha and the Dragon, tilting her head. “You’ve come from the direction of big sister Delta; you must simply be my guest and tell me how-” the girl said, her voice chirping like a bird. She suddenly gurgled as Alpha’s sword buried itself into her open mouth with a flash.

Alpha... didn’t remember moving; but he felt that hot bubble of anger at this thing claiming Delta as her sister. They were nothing alike. The skull cracked and the hands spasmed before the figure collapsed into a dark cloud before like a phantom, Mharia reformed unharmed inches away, two dainty fingers on the tip of his blade.

Her tone was flatter now as she spoke.

“I forgot pain was a thing,” she said before rolling her shoulders.

“Now that was passion. But why the anger? Hm, scion of the Two?” she asked lightly, dancing away from Alpha as he twisted his blade at her with a jab. Alpha narrowed his eyes but with a forced measure of breathing; he didn’t rush into attack as the demon girl danced between her pet dragon’s claws.

“Delta isn’t your sister; she would never feel as foul as you do,” Alpha said calmly. Mharia tapped her chin as if speculating.

“Oh no... this will simply not do,” she sighed as if deeply let down by Alpha. She lifted her dress slightly as she began to shuffle towards him, her voice becoming delighted.

“Don’t tell me you think those thieving Two designed Dungeons? Don’t tell me they’re taking credit?” she giggled.

“It’s not cute to tell such ugly lies,” Hero said, his tiny insect self having been silent as he eyed up the dragon. Mharia eyed him with clear interest but shrugged.

“The concept, at least. Where do you think you are? Some old stinking castle that I was stuck with? Oh, you foolish boy, open your senses. A final chamber, having to face rooms of monsters that rebirth themselves, a big pet with myself in the doors beyond on a throne of power!” Mharia stretched her hands to the sky as if inhaling fresh air instead of the stale wind.

“So, you’re the crappy prototype, the older dungeons are the beta, and Delta is final release; I don’t see how this changed why I’m going to destroy you,” Alpha said coldly.

Mharia seemed to test the words aloud.

“Beta... release... hm, I don’t know these words exactly, but I will,” the girl turned and the skeletal dragon raised her up with its claw, its joint spinning unnaturally.

“Let me ask you this; Warrior of the Two. Do the Two, the Sun, in particular, seem that creative? Able to see people and work with them? They weren’t to me, not when I was on the surface. They were forces of nature; not caring deities,” she said, then pointed at him.

“Do you think they really changed all that much when they stole the One’s design off us?” Mharia inquired.

Then she smiled and it was the most wicked thing Alpha had seen since he awoke in this world. He worked under Perhal; so this was no small feat.

“Delta is my sister; far more than she is yours. Her existence links her to me, to us... to him and through her? The world will be changed. It’s a war between the One and the Two to see whom can control that chaos in the end,” Princess Mharia declared.

“Ah crap... don’t tell me Sis and Bro installed Delta on EvilGod hardware...” Hero hissed.

“It doesn’t matter. Delta won’t hurt people. She won’t corrupt. She won’t do anything this cult approves of,” Alpha said simply as his glowing aura began to blaze. Mharia made a sound of annoyance, flipping a pink fan open as if to protect her face.

“You don’t get it, do you boy? She’s-” Mharia began before something in the shadows, the air, the stillness of the silence between words suddenly pulsed and the girl grasped her voice as if something was gently squeezing her throat.

At that moment, Alpha felt cold fear fill his veins as a single word echoed around them.

“No.”

It was spoken by a man with a polite tone, but Mharia’s single human eye went panicking before she was released. The presence faded and the girl rubbed her throat, scowling.

“Fine,” she spat at the air before she turned to face Alpha once more.

“Regardless of Delta’s actions; you, my little soldier, will be my guest,” she snapped her fingers at her dragon who had been watching.

“Smokey-wokey... crush some legs and the bug. Keep the boy alive,” she instructed the beast. There was a beat and Mharia slowly turned on her pet, face wretched with rage until she saw the thick growing vines that had been snaking into its ribcage, blooming a carpet of mushrooms with a strange glowing tip.

The dragon shook once but was quite stuck.

“Oh, Marrow?” Hero called, sounding smug as his light flickered harshly, showing he had spent everything he had in this form to do this one task. The girl’s head spun on her neck, cracking the spine in fury as she simply didn’t bother moving her body as well.

“Mushrooms are an extant form of life and death, you smug little brat,” he yelled as the Starlight Mushrooms inside the dragon began to reach their critical mass of charging.

“I’ll consume yo-” Marrow screamed, the rest of her skin falling away to reveal the black lich beast underneath as the pink dress rotted.

The Starlight Mushrooms exploded, filling the ante-chamber with blinding light.

---

Nu felt... sick. He wasn't sure if it was the human body he was practising or just the idea of being human instead of a screen...

He didn’t know why as Delta got her little army ready to clear out the rest of the rooms connected to the garden. It was almost premonition in essence; a feeling of something... bad on its way.

“Right, so we’ve dealt with the lab, the zoo, the pit, the access to the kitchen, the forge... what’s next, Jack?” Delta asked, oblivious to the tightening of Nu’s non-existent stomach. Before Jack could answer, the entire Dungeon floor shook violently as a shockwave travelled through it.

There was a silence before something large began to move towards the large double doors. Nu tried to gather a sense of the other side by what little rooms were claimed, but it was a jumbled mess of Silence essence vs Delta’s mana, like static in his mind.

Delta had no such issues. Nu could see it by the way she turned, almost rotating in the air that she could see exactly what was on the other side.

“Move back,” she commanded to everyone, Jack especially given his Contract stage. Delta’s tone was that serious one. Nu knew it was the tone that meant ‘I’m about to explode a soul with sheer anger or adopt something violently’.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Another pause and Nu was getting a clearer image as the thing moved deeper into Delta-claimed land. A large four-legged skeleton with folded in boney back protrusions. It stopped before the double doors and Delta tensed, getting ready to do something that Nu was certain not even she knew exactly what.

Delta tended to be like that; more fly by the seat of things.

There was a harsh knocking.

There was enough force in each knock that Delta’s protective runes flared brightly, smoking in protest. Delta’s voice spoke out seconds before Nu could give out a warning of his own.

“GET DOWN!” she screamed as the creature slammed into the doors with a violent burst of energy, producing strength beyond its previous efforts. It caused the top of the wooden doors to explode out in enhanced sturdy shrapnel, turning Delta’s protective rune-enchanted wood into dangerous projectiles.

The Guardgoyles all turned to stone, forming a protective wall around Jack as the trolls roared as the pieces embedded themselves into their thick skin. From the smoking wreck of the door, a massive skeleton dragon stuck its head through the door, half of its skull black and glowing with a red rune that looked like an eye with the ends crossed in a stitch.

“Knock, knock,” the Dragon sang out in an unsuitable voice of some child trying to sound bright despite the fury coating each word.

Delta stood unphased by the rubble or the dragon; her face pinched in anger.

“No? It’s fine, I can finish the joke myself. Who’s there?” the dragon’s jaw unhinged like a demented puppet.

“Delivery Dragon. There’s no punchline, but catch!” Marrow said and the massive claw flung something at Delta’s feet, the body rolling limply with a mess of hair., it was followed by a snapped sword, the pieces clattering together loudly.

Alpha laid there, his chest was unmoving.

“Al...pha,” Delta bent down, hands shaking and around the room... the Dungeon, lights began to flicker. Nu could feel the systems start and end, reacting to the sheer denial Delta was flooding them all with.

The dragon tilted its large head before giggling.

“Oh don’t be sad. He’s not dead; not yet,” Marrow said playfully before a wispy projection of some sort showed a throne room with some light orange light pulsing inside a dark crystal, it was slotted into the throne’s top.

“I’ve decided that this little cold war and being ignored? I’m just not about that, sister. So, to encourage you to get a move on... you have...” Marrow hummed as in the projection, the crystal was slowly squeezed by a boney device like long fingers, slight cracks forming in the crystal’s surface.

“24 hours? I think that’s fair,” Marrow shrugged the dragon’s body, a weird display. Delta blazed orange, doing the same thing to Marrow as she did to the skeleton and the spider queen, but Marrow merely glowed a blackish-green in return, throwing Delta back with a backhand of soul.

“Let’s not be uncouth. In a direct soul battle? You’re strong, I love that about you, but you’re so unrefined,” Marrow said and Nu moved in, trying to attack her from the side; but she was near impossible to even get close to. It was like Delta, but backward. If he got too close, Nu could be consumed to serve Marrow as if she was some...

Dungeon thing.

“Give Alpha back before I wreck you,” Delta said, voice dark as she climbed to her feet, her mana swirling around her like a storm. Marrow went to chide her again before the claw that had thrown Alpha into the Dungeon and was still mostly in the Dungeon proper exploded into bone shards and dust.

Marrow let loose a scream, backing off in confusion and rage as her pieces were fizzled to things so small that even Nu struggled to sense it. It was then that Nu saw something in Delta that he had only seen glimpses of before.

Her pure Dungeon side. It was like a cloak that settled over the avatar of her Dungeon Core. The small things of microexpressions, tells, habits, and even fluid motion of her hair and clothes all came to a complete stop as she took a step forward. Shards of Delta’s door began to spin around in the air above Delta, who leaned forward, her body a single flat plane.

“24 hours? Kind of you, but I’ll be along promptly,” Delta said, tone flat as she raised one hand, the shards instantly slammed together into a giant orange wooden stake with Delta’s protective runes inverted on the side.

The stake pulsed once, orange light leaking out of the cracks of the held-together weapon. It exploded forward with pure mana catapulting it and the thing speared through the dragon skull, carrying it into the hallway beyond, pinning it to the door like a bad omen to those beyond. It shook and spasmed as the orange light spread through it, destroying it from the inside out.

Marrow’s black shadow and rune fled off the beast like an inky infection, vanishing like smoke into the darkness.

Nu would be impressed if he wasn’t suddenly worried by the rage in Delta’s eyes. Her voice gazed on the castle beyond.

“Knock, knock,” Delta said quietly, her voice vibrating every mote of mana in the dungeon simultaneously.

“Who’s there?” Nu asked simply; trying not to upset her more. Delta put her hands on the remnants of the protective door, melting it down to reuse energy.

Delta’s hair began to move in motion again and the empty coldness retreated before she exhaled.

“Orange,” she looked up at his screen as her monsters began to surround her in ready support.

“Orange who?” he sighed knowing he should have let her stay a murderous Dungeon with no morals for ten more minutes.

“Orange you glad I’m done playing nice with this kid?” she said, smiling without any humor.

Nu was sure she was done playing nice before Alpha had his soul ripped out his body; now? She was now approaching ‘rude’ which was a new low for Delta.

“What’s the answer now? Negotiations? Invasion? Hacking her soul?” Nu listed. Delta thought about it then answered.

“No, Nu. Today, I have chosen violence as the answer. I’m going to unleash everything I have and cause enough war crimes to get a convention named after me,” she promised as she held up her hand, and something formed.

It wriggled as it fell to the ground sniffing.

The little pig looked at them, the cheerful mushroom on its back shiny.

Then two more were made... then five... then ten...

Nu backed off as the pile kept growing. Some variants appearing like Piggleshroom’s with laser mushrooms on their back, some with a burning mushroom that turned them red and aggressive, some with combos Nu would need to research. The pile grew until it was bigger than the surrounding trolls.

Underneath it all, as if channeling the voice of a god, the unseen form of Delta let loose a warcry.

“Critters do not contribute to MONSTER NUMBER LIMITS!” she yelled as the pile began to surge towards the opening of the door.

The swarm moved in crying oinks, somewhat gripping each other as a rough giant pig hoof made the first step forward. The writhing mass of cuteness and oinks began to sort themselves in delight, shaping the pile into something more, but ever in flux.

The ones with the Starlight Mushrooms clustered near the eyes and twin laser beams of about twenty Piggles were unleashed in twin howling bursts. The amalgamation opened its mouth where the ember Piggles gathered, all of them unleashing their normally tiny embers into a single ball.

Then it happened.

Delta pulled out her trump card.

From the ceiling, watching mushrooms dancing with Maestro’s music began to cluster, forming a secondary body of Maestro, smaller, but one he could fully possess. The clump gathered then fell onto the already massive critter mass.

“A copy body with none of his powers, but full intelligence is considered a critter, but I don’t need anything but his mind,” Delta said as the roots and thing began to rise off its front legs, the mass reshaping itself.

“I... am alive!” Maestro’s voice sang as the thing became some demonic pig gentleman with a cane made of Piggles.

“I’m... not... done,” Delta hissed at the darkness beyond the door.

From the dining room, clearly using the kitchen dumbwaiter to get down faster, a black carpet of spider critters rushed into the garden.

They were led by the dancing royal spider nobility of wicked weaves and friends.

They joined the mass, webbing weak parts together as the majority of the tiny forms pushed out of Maestro’s back forming four more chitinous legs, the things as sharp as any blade. After a moment, Maestro smoothed down his spider-silk armored tux, the Piggles were strung together, and all the legs were in the best place to propel Delta’s monstrosity in any direction.

“Well, it’s nightmares tonight,” Dozer the Guardgoyle announced bluntly.

“What is this thing?” Doctor oozed in delight, holding his plague mask cheeks with delight.

Delta looked haggard from the effort of breaking every rule she could in rapid succession.

“The System said it can’t classify it as any one thing so I guess I get to name it,” she said with a grim tone.

Then she smiled and it was unkind.

---

“Symphony of the Nightmares. A little ditty for Marrow to make sure she learns why you don’t hurt people I promised to look after,” she decided, telling Nu.

“Then let us sing into the abyss,” Maestro declared, the giant form of writhing Piggles and Spiders making each movement echo with the sound of moving flesh against flesh, oinks with chitters.

“24 hours? Marrow, you idiot... you should have just run,” Delta summed up as the form moved into the pseudo-Dungeon space beyond, holding together through sheer webby-mushroomness.

The first wave of skeletons rushed it, trying to stab her Symphony’s feet, but the skeletons’ forgot something or simply didn’t notice. Delta’s Symphony didn’t have one mouth...

The giant stilled as countless Piggles and enlarged spiders turned outwards, stubby teeth and fangs visible on every inch of her creation.

Delta’s war song had a choir.

Now, if she just got this mass close enough to Alpha... also Hero, who was protecting Alpha from Marrow’s corruptive influence...

Then the real monster would form.

Marrow wanted to play?

Delta would play. Delta would play hard.

But just in case?

Hob and Gob were already running to Durance for Ruli and Quiss. She would not risk Alpha’s soul on her cobbled together no-thought plan.

And, just because it was Alpha? She was already using Hero as a beacon. If it came down to it? Delta would contract him through Hero... and respawn him. Where she would put him? She didn’t know, but she had access to that dead Dungeon, if nothing else.

Then Marrow would be contracted. Then Delta would destroy her.

Then Marrow would be respawned. Then Delta would destroy her.

Rinse and repeat.

Delta hoped her human side came back quickly from wherever her Dungeon rage had pushed it. Sociopathy was a little too easy to settle into.

134: The Other Side

“That was unneeded,” Mharia said quietly as her destroyed arm slowly repaired itself out of the mana in the room; shoulder first, then elbow.

Her voice bounced about the long throne room, the dark red banners with her family’s crest stamped upon them were spaced evenly across the room, the subtle enchantment made the image turn the symbol of the fiery rose to a rotted one. They fluttered at the sound of her voice like a fell wind had moved through them.

The white marble floor had cracks through which Mharia’s mana flowed like veins. They pulsed in time with her voice. The solid-looking marble pillars holding the room apart from its top and bottom seemed to shift, moving to odd and even numbers between glances. They shifted at her voice.

This all led to the throne itself. A once regal set of chairs that had been crudely blurred together into a wicked chair with flowing black tubes and pipes leading out the back, the thing thrumming like a giant beast’s heart.

Mharia gave the room a sour look; she had thought she had been so smart when she first arrived. The idea to remodel her core-domain into her parent’s throne room as some sort of insult and silent attempt to cling to any shred of her family seemed both childish and sad years later.

Now, after all her efforts of building it, she could hardly destroy it and start over. It simply was not possible. Well, it had not been possible since those adventurers had collapsed them all in. Mharia had been angry at that; then after time refused to start marching on...she had been bored.

Especially since she didn’t get to play with the one left behind.

Well, there were a few left behind, but Mharia didn’t want to play with ugly clowns or Kobolds. No, she wanted the hero.

She sighed as she sat on her throne, the thing pulsing once in a deep thrum.

“You were getting hasty in your eagerness,” came a slightly chiding voice from the shadows, all shadows... or was it something under the darkness? Mharia had given the ability a decent examination, but all she could ever figure out was that the voice didn’t travel in the air.

It was more direct than that.

“Perhaps, but choking a princess? Do you have no manners anymore? When we first met, you were the picture of chivalry,” she replied, an expression of agitation on one side of her face. He appeared, casually coming towards her as if a guest of her kingdom.

When he moved, it wasn’t like ordinary people but was almost as if air, physical matter, light, and sound were all moved out of his way. Mharia supposed it was as if he simply chose to be the more potent force.

Or was it because Nephew was an existence that defied anything made of the Two?

“I do apologise, Princess Mharia. My strength has been harder to measure without acceptable targets. I was aiming for a gentle press of the hand and...” he trailed off, flexing his fingers.

Gentle? Mharia was careful not to drop her jaw.

He nearly crushed her throat. Her bones alone had been laced with several rare and resilient flakes of metal from the Demon Smith. That was not even speaking of the magic spells she had...

“You said this would happen, but I didn’t think it would happen this fast or to this degree,” Mharia finally said, neutrally. Nephew shrugged one shoulder, and Mharia could even begin to see the shape and definition of his body.

To think, so long ago when they first met... he had been a simple voice in the darkest of places of her castle.

“Delta has... changed the schedule. Certain things are up in the air now. Just like I can sense her coming for you,” Nephew said suddenly, taking in her entire domain or what was left of it. Delta had been making good progress on it since she broke into her Fortress.

“I have her allies,” Mharia said as she casually tapped the orb on the arm of her throne, containing the soul of the hero and the amazingly altered human infused with Mushrooms and Delta.

“They will not be harmed, I hope,” Nephew said as he peered at the orb, moving across the room in a blink of an eye, looming over Mharia. It wasn’t hard to loom over her, to be fair. She was barely pushing the upper half of four foot.

Nephew was pushing the upper limit of seven.

“Delta’s creation I see the wisdom of keeping. But the hero?” Mharia made a face which made Nephew chuckle with affection.

“Such wisdom you have gained and yet? Still, the same tone when talking about vegetables and things that you don’t care for,” Nephew gently patted her on the head, and Mharia braced herself, only getting slightly pressed down by his gentlest touch.

“Still needs practice,” Nephew admitted as he pulled his hand back before he hurt her.

“I am the dark vessel of Silence and death! I need no vegetables!” Mharia said haughtily. Nephew tilted his head.

“Are you sure you’re over 100 years old?” he asked, amused at her words. Mharia glared at him, which made him sigh.

“Yes, yes... the age subject is off-topic. I don’t see the shame since I am older than you by quite a few hundred years, but I shall keep... silent about the number,” Nephew said, tapping his chin. Mharia visibly grimaced at his poor joke.

Nephew picked up the orb, well able to crush those inside the sphere.

“The boy we shan’t harm. There is an excellent chance that he shares the same curse as my father. To be plucked out of the ether at their whims and expected to entertain, then before long? Cast off when things became too hard to manage,” he said, all amusement was gone from his tone.

“He is their hero. He won’t be cast off before he has done his job,” Mharia pointed out.

“Their likely actions won’t sway my current choice. I don’t want to have to repeat the discussion I had with Felcore,” Nephew said in such a calm tone that Mharia felt her spine stiffen.

The idiot of Ending Light.

Mharia wasn’t exactly proud of being the Silence’s weakest leader, but what she lacked in power, she had in bond with Nephew.

Felcore?

He had suffered quite a few years for his antics with that circus. Nephew had been... displeased? Annoyed?

Would she dare say... angry?

To be fair, Mharia loved commenting on his ‘lovely’ neck scar supposedly from some angry circus act that cut through his ‘supreme’ defences like a hot knife through butter in the occasional meeting Nephew held to check on everyone and promote unity.

“I would never do something as pitiful as kidnapping strangers off the road and igniting a big smoke signal for all adventurers saying ‘come find us where all the mysterious vanishings are happening’. Felcore is an idiot. Why did he even catch your eye?” Mharia asked, not for the first time.

To her surprise, Nephew actually answered the question.

“He is a line to that which is lost. Humans are all father’s children, but since the Sister unleashed the stars and the Brother tempted the Abyss... Their seeds are being lost to the heavens and hells. We cannot afford to simply give up on those lost souls because the Sister unleashed malevolent and manipulative gods on the people as the Brother gleefully set loose demons and monsters. The people deserve more!” Nephew spun, eyes stretched to their widest.

Nephew has always been painfully forward and honest.

It’s why Mharia had been his friend when she had no one else.

“In essence, they went from two enemies to countless threats we have to contend with,” Mharia said before her voice soured.

“And Felcore is your key to the Demon World and the souls taken there,” she sighed, seeing Felcore’s use rise by the second against her own wishes.

“With things in motion, it’s better you know now before you end Felcore or such in annoyance. I was hoping you two would make up in your own time and discuss, but alas... Delta,” Nephew hummed as the floor shook.

“Delta,” Mharia could only agree.

“Do you want me to destroy her creation? It won’t waste much of my energy,” Nephew said, suddenly quiet. Mharia hesitated then shook her head.

“We can’t start using the seed for everything. You told me you needed lots and why... so no. I don’t want you wasting them on me,” she decided briskly, hiding her smile that she wanted to show off.

She would never be so base as to smile at Nephew. She was no peasant!

But she tried really hard to send him the feeling of a smile that made all the banners and floors glow pink and the roses to bloom in life.

“I... don’t want you to die, Mharia,” Nephew said abruptly, almost as if he wasn’t sure what to do with his concern.

“I don’t intend to just lay down and let Big Sister step on me,” Mharia said dryly, standing up and taking the soul trapping orb out of his hands. She slowly put a gloved hand into his own, it had seven fingers so she suspected he was still figuring out a proper form.

He would get it soon, he was getting stronger by the minute.

“If I perish then my own siblings will be free. It might be a relief for some peace of mind,” she reminded. Her mind was quiet but in a way of feeling directly ignored. Her siblings had long learned the best method of driving her mad.

“And if I fall, if Delta takes my soul? I’ll find a way back. If I don’t... remember me? Remember that girl who you found crying in that empty tower one day. I was so loud,” she prompted, making Nephew grip her hand softly.

“That she woke me up from Silence itself. The girl who brought me out of the burning light into gentle darkness. Settled darkness. I will never forget,” he promised and he began to lose physicality.

“In the end... stars burn out, land crumbles, life and death become one unchanging state... and all becomes Silent,” Princess Mharia swore as her throne began to beat like a malefic heart.

“And silence becomes you,” Nephew finished, fading away, his fingers the last to go entwined with hers.

She inhaled once, allowing air to fill her lungs uselessly. She cast her sense forward at the awe-inspiring nightmare that Delta had created. The thing brushed the ceilings in the corridors and rooms, able to condense itself like a mass of flesh with no bones. Her undead that got closer were either smashed, crushed, or devoured in a way that would even cost Mharia some more energy than usual to repair.

She waved a hand and the Heart Throne beat louder and louder, production of her army becoming the most potent it had been since the entombment of the cult.

Around her, the skeleton dragon began to shape itself from the sound and mana.

Mharia wouldn’t want to let down Delta. She would match her monstrosity with one of her own.

It was weirdly the most alive Mharia had felt since the fall of her home. The idea she might actually die invoking something in her.

‘You’re so weird.’
‘I hope you fall down the stairs.’

Her brother and sister spoke up, clearly sensing the change.

“Don’t worry. One way or another? Today we are free... today, the rose of our family will bloom one last time,” she promised, getting a sense she was scaring her siblings with her words. It was more of a reaction from them than she had in a long time.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Mharia watched through her creations, examining the mound of flesh that Delta has spewed out at her in rage. It was inelegant, cobbled together more with sheer power than skill, but what it lacked in finesse it made up with purpose.

It was a killing machine-pure and simple.

It would come here, battle with Mharia, and only one of them would walk out if neither of them backed down. Mharia inhaled again, her throne now reaching a rhythmic pulse that was causing everything in her remaining castle to vibrate. The skeleton warriors that were getting smashed to pieces by the fleshbeast were now being merely flung aside to rise and charge again. Her own zombies were repairing themselves at truly amazing speeds, and the various other toys she has gathered over the years had similar improvements.

Delta would still reach the throne room, but it was more likely to be in a measured pace than in seconds as before. That was fine, Mharia knew she'd only be buying time for herself to flex her talents.

It was a bit of an issue that she couldn’t kill the warrior’s soul on her throne; that stopped Mharia from doing some real nasty things indiscriminately... but that was also fine. Simply leveling the battlefield with death spells was a bit uncreative for someone that had been in the game as long as Mharia.

She raised a gloved hand and asserted her will, deciding to see what stuck and what didn’t.

Much like Delta; Mharia didn’t consider the concept of ‘distance’ to be a limiting factor in any space within her own domain.

Dark energy flowed up her arm as the massive Heart beat behind her, each sullen beat empowering Mharia’s magic. The hulking beast was moving through the long hallway that led to her grand entrance to her home. Perhaps it was strange to have a mansion within a fortress, as if one were looping through different themes in madness... but what was the Fortress and what was Mharia’s private sanctum were entirely different things.

She struck out, parts of the beast turning black and falling away as pure death energy scoured the surface, but it was akin to ripping hair out of another girl in anger; tiny strands that did little other than to annoy the foe.

The damage she did was made pointless as the dozen of tiny little pig-creatures merely shook their mushroom tops, spreading spores that caused replacement flesh to grow back in pure numbers.

Those spider-leg limbs began to spear her warriors, aiming for spines and skulls rather than outright damage. Mharia curled her fingers and from three of her skeleton warriors, black fire bleached out of their clattering jaws, dancing across the beast’s lower layers. The thing reared back, flesh blackened and Mharia almost felt let down if this attack would end it so soon, but to her delight, the flesh began to shift, the squishy flesh turning shiny and hard. The spider legs moved to the bottom of the creature, giving it more mobility; a second later, the creature began to make it... snow?

No, it was raining down web-balls covered in fluffy spores. This would normally mean nothing to her magic of soul-burn, but this was Dungeon-Made. The mana inside the material began to conflict with the necromantic magic.

If Mharia was there in person, casting? It would be a lot harder to simply snuff out the fire, but as it was, the beast had not only turned its soft burnable flesh into harder spider-carapace, but also devised an anti-fire measure on the fly.

Mharia couldn’t help the respect she felt surge through her.

So, when she cast her next spell, she hoped Delta would appreciate the masterwork of Mharia was about to do.

Her Heart Throne was now beating so hard it was in constant hum.

It would be just like what Mharia’s heart would feel like if she still had it.

---

Delta saw her hands flickering. Her fingers were more a distorted blur than the detailed shape from before. Despite her claims, the critter colossus she had made was not without a cost. She stood with a wobble as notifications fired off all around her in a chaotic manner.

‘Critter limit reached... doubling production from first and second floor... Critter Limit reached... doubling production from Secret Garden… Critter Limit reached...’

‘Critter and Boss monster fusion requires upkeep of... error. Incompatible. Creature under current rules cannot... does... exist. Scanning...’

‘Mana income... -20 an hour. -21 an hour. Continuous mana sent to ‘Symphony of Nightmares’ for supply.’

Delta wiped her mouth where she imagined she had been drooling. She felt dumb, as if her mind had turned to cotton. She had never expanded this much of a Mana sink before other than creating new floors.

Her creature not only needed Mana to keep using its abilities and remain in her control, it also needed pure mana to remain ‘stable’. Even in Dungeon space, there were some things that just didn’t work without some of her ‘reality-blurring’ mana and DP.

This was made even worse since she was making it work outside her Dungeon to wage war. Hero was easier cause the System had a nice little space for his type to function- long recharge, big payoff.

“We did have 24 hours. We could have planned more strategically to prevent you literally bleeding yourself dry,” Nu said, his boyish form back into his screen form, but he had learned to project his voice now.

“That sounds sane and reasonable, Nu,” she pointed out, managing to stand to her full height without wobbling.

“Of course. Not your style,” Nu replied dryly.

A moment later, Jack returned, throwing what stuff he could loot from behind Symphony’s trial of destruction into her Dungeon. Every little piece helped get her some Mana back. All, if not most, were things she already had, material wise.

No, what was interesting was the contents of said items. Some paintings, some banners, and then Jack started bringing her other things.

A semi-large picture of a regal man with a tamed gray beard, a woman with a poised and elegant face; demure, but with eyes of steel. Below them, lined in order like royal ducklings were three children. A boy with his father’s nose, a girl with a bored expression, and the youngest of them all...

Marrow.

Marrow’s face was pale, whole, and slightly younger than the one Delta had met. In Marrow’s eyes, the painter had captured a palpable sadness.

The painting had a simple plaque.

‘The royal family of Turtog’

“Got more where that’s concerned,” Jack announced, holding up books and paintings he held in his clawed hands. “Your big beastie knocked down a sealed wall and this was all inside,” he explained, throwing more down.

“Thank’s Jack... how are you doing?” Delta asked, hiding the fact that one of her hands now had its fingers on backwards as her Core struggled to keep this whole operation going. Jack thought about it, his bottles clinking as he crossed his arms.

“I feel... good. Revenge and all that. I think afterwards I’ll have a crisis of purpose and identity, but until then, I’m going to have a jolly good time with some arson,” he declared firmly. Delta could understand that somewhat.

Jack had been down here for years trying to do what Delta was finally getting done.

Delta just hoped he didn’t throw himself into any more cauldrons in the meantime.

She paused as the items began to become absorbed, mostly old trinkets and dresses long turned to aged tatters... but among them was things Delta didn’t know what to make of.

She focused on something she absorbed and it came up.

“The history of Turtog: The Kingdom that was invaded by death.” Nu murmured as he read over her shoulder. All, if not most, pages had been scrawled furiously in red ink by a trembling hand, repeating the words ‘lies’ over and over.

Delta grimaced as she looked up from the book as she sensed Mharia do something.

If it was more death, Delta could just repair the damage or if it was a big enemy, she trusted Maestro to use his various ability to win-

A white light screamed down the hall impacting her Symphony hard in the chest. Delta stared in confusion as nothing happened at first, in fact, Delta even thought she got a nice little influx of mana from the attack.

Then her creature began to bubble as the Piggles in the pile began to grow in panic. The spider legs crunched as the bent to make room for more joints, Maestro’s left arm grew large, causing him to become lopsided as his neck and head followed suit.

Mharia had just cast some sort of life spell. How could she do that?! Her creature started to bloat as the spell encouraged rapid and almost uncontrollable ‘beneficial’ mana growths. Delta clenched her hands and focused.

She was already bleeding Mana, but she had no choice but to spend precious DP on turning the spell into something she could manipulate. The growths turned into acid spitter bulges, brimming with acid as the grow turned into lively acid.

Delta just managed that when Mharia began to weave complex life spells again, causing the spider legs to spasm, their armoured limbs exploding in green lush vegetation that vines into the walls, pinning her beast for a moment.

Right, if Mharia was so good at death... no reason she wouldn’t be a hand at its partner, life.

“I’m usually all for fans, but being clingy isn’t attractive,” she felt Maestro declared before mushrooms formed at the base of the vines, sucking moisture from them, decaying them as fast as they grew into brittle yellow things that snapped when her Symphony moved on.

Delta grinned, knowing her monsters were capable of beating Marrow into next Tuesday. She inhaled, trying to make sure she kept everything stable until they could rescue Alpha and Hero. To distract herself, she looked at the books as Mharia seemed to go quiet for a moment as well, letting her monsters do the fighting for now.

“Turtog... kingdom of death by J.Japes,” she read, trying to use the words as a means to center herself.

‘Introduction. I write this book in dedication to the simple art of knowledge and wisdom. This book will show why, if not outright demand that, we cannot simply have faith and tradition. Death by inaction or destruction by stagnation is a sad way to go and none show this more than the Kingdom of Turtog. A kingdom who prayed for a bright future, but was delivered ruin.

Only by the action of the last of the Royal Family was the end of the world contained.

I will explore the ruins of this doomed kingdom and see if I can piece together what happened. Why did this kingdom fall? How did Princess Mharia escape the fate of her kingdom and purge it?

The questions are many and the answers are few.

Let us begin.’

Interlude: Turtog

“Mharia, enough. It was a doll. If it means so much? You will be given another,” her father said, cutting their argument short. Mharia spun, her curls bouncing as she stared up at her father on his throne with tears in her eyes.

“But... I made that doll from straw from the stables and Cook helped me stitch it together,” she said before she pointed to her elder sister who looked the picture of innocence.

“Tell Tirse to give it back! She’s just using it to torment me,” Mharia pleaded but their father sliced his hand through the air, silencing them.

“I don’t have time for your games, daughters. I am runned ragged preparing for Cernick’s 12th birthday and the ceremony,” he said and Mharia felt a pang of guilt as she saw the slight dark eyes of her father, signs he had been up late coordinating merchant routes and the passage of the priests.

Cernick was nearby, enjoying the scene like the brat he was. It was likely he and Tirse worked together to hide Mharia’s doll. Some days her youngest sibling liked to work with her eldest sibling.

Some days they were each other’s worst enemies.

Cernick looked like a horrible little copy of their father with dark hair and cheeks which were quickly becoming defined as the baby fat melted off them. Tirse was a pretty girl with hair much fairer than Mharia’s and the gods had decreed that she’d be able to eat an entire roasted pig and not gain a single inch on her waist.

Mharia was the ugly middle child... or so her siblings teased. Slightly more round than Tirse and less blessed with noble features like Cernick, Mharia often felt a bit like she had been found in the forest one day by her parents and taken in out of pity.

“Again, I haven’t seen your doll,” Tirse said quietly, her voice soft as she only used it sparingly or to sing at gatherings, much to their mother’s delight. It would not be hard for Tirse to find a suitor that she might actually enjoy being married too.

Mharia turned and left the throne room without another word, exiting out into a large courtyard area where blossoming trees were trying to grow buds for the spring. Mharia hoped to see some this year, but it was clear they were struggling. Mharia sighed as she moved to a large alcove, looking down at the kingdom of Turtog, a modest kingdom with a bustling population, staying afloat with large trades of ore and metals...

Even as their crops and livestock died from some plague.

They called it a plague, but it was more like a wide-scale poisoning, but no one could find culprits or a source. Mharia hadn’t heard the details, but they said that people stopped drinking the water without heavily boiling it first.

Looking at Turtog made her think how her siblings could have hidden her precious doll anywhere. A small dark figure with curious blue eyes. There were no details and the Cook said it looked a little ‘spooky’, but Mharia didn’t care.

She huffed, lifting her dress and heaving to the lonelier part of the castle where she slipped into the old servant quarters. Mharia was discovering a lot about her home. She had started going to extreme lengths to find places to be alone without leaving the castle’s protective ‘magic’ which would alert her mother if she ever crossed some invisible boundary.

All those tales of princesses running off to be pirates or meeting bandit kings who were really kind never had that problem!

She moved until she squeezed into the old storehouse where the coal and logs used to be stored for winter. Crouching low, she stripped off her dress, revealing the cheap fabrics she had stitched together out of discarded potato sacks.

There was no point in dirtying her dress, she’d never get it clean in time for the ceremony. It was in this old and forgotten place that Mharia had made the best discovery of her 14 years.

A long narrow dark shaft that seemed to sink down below the castle.

Mharia discovered her mother’s magic barrier only stopped Mharia going ‘away’, not ‘up or down’. A slight flaw really, but Mharia hadn’t informed her mother about such a weakness for reasons Mharia couldn’t be bothered listing.

As she made her way down, she nearly shrieked when a spider scuttled over her hand, but she urged herself on. Every minute was precious.

After what seemed like ages, she finally emerged in a space so dark that she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.

“Flickem Flicker Flame,” she whispered, getting enough sparks to form a tiny fireball. At least she wasn’t devoid of magic potential. It was expected of boys like Cernick not to bother with magic as he would train in the sword, but as a princess of Turtog, Mharia was expected to be able to defend herself or show off on demand like some demented show pony.

The weak light showed that her magic potential was... flimsy, but there nonetheless. She used it to move down the corridors. It looked like old rocky cave walls suspended by beams of wood that creaked when she moved too fast past them.

She knew these passages so well by now that she didn’t even need to think about her journey.

Left, right, right, under the fallen beam, passed the boulder that looked like a gnome, down the hallway, past the collapsed passage and the headless skeleton crushed under rocks, and finally down a long curving tunnel.

Mharia slowly emerged in a large space that had tons of mining equipment discarded about. Over time, Mharia had turned the cart into a comfortable little nook with a pillow inside it, the pickaxe was used as a hook for any coats of satchels she had with her and she hid a supply of good quality candles nearby.

She lit one and put it inside a shade container that heavily dimmed the light. It had to be just dark enough.

Once she was ready, she walked over to a large crack in the wall before she pounded on it with her fist.

“Are you going to wake up or am I going to have to shove the candle in again?” she called and the utter darkness inside the crack stirred. After a moment, what seemed like liquid shadows slowly began to ooze down the crack before it pooled.

“It's… bright,” the pool gurgled.

“It’s dark. You’re just sensitive,” Mharia scowled.

“Perhaps more sleep,” the voice said before the puddle slowly pulled itself into a small featureless form that barely came up to Mharia’s knees.

“You once told me you’d be taller and crush rocks with your bare hands. I am beginning to think you lied to me,” Mharia said dryly as she sat down in the shade to let her friend escape the light.

“It’s not a matter of... time? The passing of moments? Yes... time... it is a matter of insides. Blooming insides. Together in one,” the shadow said slowly. It did everything slowly, like it honestly wasn’t in a rush or had a limit on time.

“Sun, if you go into a ramble about those seeds again I will squish you back into that hole in the wall,” Mharia warned.

Sun was Mharia’s only real friend. She called it Sun because when she asked what it was one time, all it could say was ‘it was the sun and the seed’.

Seed wasn’t a good name and Mharia found it a little funny to name her friend who hated light so much after the biggest source of light around.

“Don’t squish me. It is unpleasant. I am the seed. Do not squish the sun of the great seed,” it muttered feebly. Mharia rolled her eyes and pulled out a nearby blanket. Unrolling it, the white gleaming bones of various rats that had died in the tunnels had been cleaned and carefully stored along with a human skull.

“Can we practice? Today hasn’t been... good,” Mharia asked quietly and Sun looked up at her, it’s dark blue glowy lights it had for eyes examined her for a long time.

“Are you sad?” it asked and Mharia shook her head, lying as not to worry her friend.

“Just a long day,” she lied.

“I can... help practice. Your seed responds well to this art,” Sun said softly as it slowly put its ‘hand’ over hers as she channeled her magic. Unlike when cast the fire magic or the more traditional barrier magic of her mother, there was no slowness or resistance. Mharia’s mana flowed so much better.

It felt natural.

The bones began to glow and tremble before the rat bones slowly formed little crooked legs for the human skull which chattered, jaw rattling. It took a few wobbly steps before it collapsed into a pile again.

That sad little action took a quarter of her reserves away in a single sweep. Mharia really was pathetic.

“You are wonderful,” Sun murmured, making Mharia blink at the shadow stupidly before she covered it up with an irritated expression.

“False compliments are not becoming of friends,” she said, looking away. The shadow tugged and Mharia had to steady herself as the force was enough to move her with ease. He was a strong thing, even at his weakest.

“What is false?” Sun asked and Mharia stared, not understanding.

“Falsehoods, untruth, lies,” she waved a hand and after a moment there was a long moment before Sun let her go.

“I do not understand,” Sun said bluntly. Mharia rubbed her forehead. Sun was her friend, but she had to remind herself he was legitimately a blob of shadows she pulled out the wall for a chat and magic training.

“People lie. They say things that aren’t true. Sometimes they do it to spare your feelings, sometimes they do it to avoid being in trouble, and a lot of the time, they do it hurt you,” Mharia said quietly, thinking of her doll.

“You think I was being false about your progress?” Sun asked after this, his form slowly dropping balls of slow moving shadow up and down from his arms and head.

Like a ball of darkness that had its own gravity.

“No- It’s just... I don’t handle compliments well,” Mharia said slowly as she picked up a nearby stone and tapped it gently against the cart.

“Your seed was closed. It was small and it cried. It said you felt empty and you felt sad. It was that that awoke me when you first fell in these mine tunnels,” Sun began as he sat down next to her and tried to mimic her attempt at tapping the mine cart as if it were a new game.

“My seed shouldn’t be so expressive,” Mharia whispered as she dropped her stone, but Sun caught it with his shadows and handed it back to her.

“I disagree. To be open is to love. We all came from one being in the dark times. We should not hurt, ‘lie’, or close off from one another, but we do. I do not know why. Is it because of demons? Did the gods divide us? Does the light reveal our flaws too easily?” Sun asked himself.

Mharia really wondered how Sun knew what a god was but didn’t know what a lie was. He was so strange...

“The ceremony is tonight,” Mharia finally said and this made Sun look at her with a slight flare to his eyes.

“You cannot go,” he insisted, not really commanding her, but he hadn’t quite gotten the ‘pleading’ tone down from his monotone.

“It’s kind of noticeable if I don’t. I am a princess, even if I don’t stand out,” she pointed out, getting irritated at the whole thing all over again.

“Everyone is scared. We need to fix the food problems,” Mharia insisted and Sun looked down at the bones.

“You are learning the art of death, your powers will be sufficient to discover the cause of the plague. You will be the savior,” he protested before he looked away.

“Not them,” he finished quietly.

“By the time I’m ready, it’ll be too late. I have to be a hundred years old before I’m any good to these people. My talents are worthless,” Mharia stood up and kicked the human skull into the darkness where it clattered a few times before everything went silent.

Mharia looked down as the candle light became blurry.

How unbecoming of a princess... at least only Sun could see her.

“Lies.”

It came so abruptly that she spun in surprise. Sun was standing there and staring at her.

“That was a lie. A falsehood. An illusion of words that try to hide what is obviously the truth. Your talents are better than you claim. Few... very can simply animate bones and more with sheer mana. Most need a connection or some power passed down. You are the first of your line to use this art. You are worthy. I cannot lie,” Sun said firmly.

“Sun...” she said before inhaling once. She masked her urge to sob into the strange little shadow’s arms. He would likely run away in fear of being ‘squished’.

“I’m glad your speaking lessons are paying off,” she said briskly and Sun tilted his featureless head.

“I have a good instructor,” he agreed.

---

In the end, she had to attend the ceremony. She only barely made it in time after washing up and rushing to the royal chambers behind the grand hall. Tirse stepped forward to avoid crushing her. Not even her siblings would dare make a scene or pull any antics with the way their mother fretted back and forward, making final preparations.

Mharia’s mother was beautiful. Her hair was the kind of blond that burned in the sunset, her sparkling eyes could easily become diamonds or soft gems depending on her mood, but today, her soft green dress and adornments couldn’t do much to hide her stress.

Father strode past, looking ready to do his part. They entered the courtyard and Mharia’s eyes widened at what was waiting for them.

A woman in dusky grey robes had chains coming off her hands and neck, four of them pulled taut to the four corners of the room. She could have been jolly or even a pleasantly happy aunt of some child of the town. The way she seemed unbothered by the chains or even the series of priests around was... alarming.

Mharia’s father settled on his throne with her mother taking her place on the other. Mharia and her siblings would stand behind and to the side.

“Witch, you know why you are here,” her father announced and the woman looked slowly up as if she was on a holiday of some kind and taking in the sights, she smiled with almost impossibly straight teeth.

“Do I? Oh, do tell me,” she encouraged.

“You and your despicable lot have murdered farmers, knights, and travellers between here and the Kingdom of Verluan. We find them strung up in trees, hung like demented scarecrows. What do you say in your defence?” her father demanded and Mharia peered at the woman doubtfully. She didn’t seem like someone who would string people up...

The woman sighed as if inconvenience by the impromptu witch trial she hadn’t been giving proper notice of.

“Guilty as charged! But we did give ample warning,” the woman pointed out as if this was a technicality.

“Witch-” her father began again before the woman actually spoke over him in a lecturing tone.

“Holly… Dabbergahst, if you would,” she instructed. That was the kind of name a heroine or some cool villain would have! Mharia was still wondering what exactly was going on.

“Dabberghast,” her father said, amending his words, “the Blackthorn forest belongs to this land and you know if I want to burn it down to reach the ores beneath soil, I can. Your warnings are without power,” he warned and Dabberghast smiled coyly.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. But we honestly don’t need to lift a finger beyond protecting important areas. Your own actions are justice enough,” she shrugged, not an easy feat with her easy chains.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“You know of the plague?” Mharia’s mother asked sharply and the woman looked at her with a relaxed smile.

“Only the plague of short solutions for shorter results. If you want a clearer answer, give us the power to be an independent state and we will aid our ‘neighbours’ with joy. We don’t enjoy having to burn with the rest of you for the sake of it,” she offered.

There was some shuffling from the watching noble heads and guards, but Mharia’s father shook his head.

“You were not brought here to bargain. Only to pay for your crimes. A solution is at hand and I don’t need to bargain with murderers and beasts to protect my people, only for them to be cattle to witches of the wood,” he said, voice like steel.

This got the first frown from Dabberghast since Mharia had seen her.

“I suspect that burning down the forest and unearthing all the pretty rocks is not your solution?” she said and Mharia felt uneasy when her father looked skywards where the grand’s hall majestic roof was peeled back like a flower blossoming.

The Star Gate was one of Turtog’s wonders. One of Mharia’s favourites.

“When unspeakable powers and threats take my kingdom’s chances of surviving, I must respond in kind. Turtog has remained without a core god or religion as long as my bloodline has existed. We have allowed other practices to exist out of respect and to remove evil, but as a whole? We lack the power, the protection of a god,” he said and the stars above twinkled like fireflies.

That was... Mharia swallowed hard, but she didn’t dare move. Dabberghast had little care to do the same. Her chains rankled as she tried to move forward.

“Why not ask for a priest to come. Why not adopt a god that is already formed?” she demanded and Mharia’s father looked down as if there was binding on his own hand.

“I’ve seen how that works. A religion that knows it is needed has power not even a king can counter. I cannot let my people be saved from this danger only to be thrown in the midst of a bloody civil war,” he suddenly yelled and Dabberghast narrowed her eyes.

“So you will conjure the beings from the other side, poke your own hole in the sky for new light to shine through. Create your own little star and hope it shines brighter than the rest. You would rather deal with a creature of such inhumanity that the potential sight of it could rob you of your sanity?” Dabberghast asked quietly, but her voice carried.

“Yes, and your life will be the dagger in which to pierce the sky. Instead of simply hacking off your head like the murderer you are, your life will be put to good use,” the king announced and Mharia’s hands trembled.

Sun’s words came back to her, in her mind.

‘I do not know why. Is it because of demons? Did the gods divide us? Does the light reveal our flaws too easily?’

Was... Mharia’s family going to kill the woman? Like some show? Other people looked grim and others looked hopeful.

Was her Father going to just... call a god to help them?

Dabberghast snorted and looked away.

“Do it. Death begets death. Violence calls violence. Your god will be as bloody as the coins you use to pay for his carriage here,” she scoffed.

“I know,” Mharia’s father said with grave sorrow before he nodded to the priests.

“Begin,” he instructed and the chains on Dabberghast’s wrists and neck began to glow with dark red symbols. This wasn’t right. Mharia could save them, but as much as she wanted to protest, her fear and shame kept her silent as the woman writhed for a moment before half of her skin began to turn to wood.

After a moment, the wood began to be pulled off Dabberghast like she was being stripped of bark from a tree.

“The gift of nature from a Druid on the verge of wood or flesh. I seek not death, but your life,” the king, a man Mharia couldn’t call father at that moment, said as Dabberghast stared at the wooden form that looked like her being pulled into the circle.

“That’s my choice! My choice!” she roared, the chain buckling as she tried to reach for the wood.

“I choose to be wood or flesh, not you!” she snarled, eyes glowing black.

After a moment she fell to her knees, still heaving and snarling.

“I am... flesh,” she whispered and her eyes looked at the circle where the wooden face looked back with sorrow.

“Your god will be everything you wanted and more,” Dabberghast warned like a curse and Mharia felt sick. With one last look, the King nodded and the guards lead her out, dragging her as she refused to be led peacefully.

There was a lot of mana being gathered as the wooden druid form looked skyward as if thinking. The priests slowly used the magic circle to raise their voices and as things reached a crescendo of mana and chanting, the wooden form exploded, a green light shooting skywards.

A star appeared, directly above their kingdom. It formed like someone took a knife and dragged it down the darkness.

Inside the circle a single stem grew up from the solid stone, the bud white and closed. The king rose and approached it.

“It arrives, the envoy of our god,” he announced and the room’s atmosphere seemed to grow tense and excited. The flower pulsed but seemed to be content waiting. The king knelt before it, offering it the highest of respect.

“Oh god, being from beyond. I am King Harnick of Turtog. I call you here to bring life to my dying kingdom. Let us hear your desires and let us work in harmony,” he intoned. The thing bloomed.

Inside the bulb was an eye.

“I will heal this land of sickness as you desire,” it promised and its voice was strange, like an old man that spoke down at people. Mharia didn’t like it.

“Worship me. Offer your throne to be the soil in which I will become the Tree of this world,” it said and that... made her father swallow.

“Great one... there is a world tree already, the Almighty Wyin, the benevolent goddess who heals any that drinks of her sap,” he explained. There was a long pause as the ugly flower in the circle seemed to think this over.

“I see. Then half of my work is already done. But first,” it said and blinked once, the eyelids coming in sideways.

“Let me heal this land of its terrible sickness,” it said and everyone moved in close before the eye began to bleed a dark fluid as if crying.

“The foolish insects that rip it apart, poisoning themselves with the very metal they think will save them. You used pain and loss to bring me here, let me repay the kindness,” it said and it lashed out with a dozen tendrils, impaling people in the shoulder or in the leg.

One came for Mharia, but she reacted out of fear, her hand glowing sickly green which caused it to rot before it touched her. The plant demon screamed, the people around her stumbled.

“Bring me the deathbringer. Bring me the child of marrow!” it hissed. Mharia narrowed her eyes and snarled, moving forward to rot the demon before it hurt anyone else.

Her father, her mother, her guards, the nobles... her siblings all turned to her, thick worm-like veins pulsing in their necks or arms. Mharia backed up.

“Papa… Mother? Cernick? Tirse?” she called but they advanced on her as their eyes became dull.

“No... only me,” they said and the plant's voice came out of their mouth. Mharia screamed as they reached for her.

The ground exploded, sending her Mother and Father’s thrones into the air as a massive shadow tendril emerged.

“I told you... this was a bad idea,” Sun’s voice called out, loud and feral as it swiped at the people.

It took down people and after a moment, they seemed to just break apart as Sun pulled something out of them.

“These people are already slaves to two... you will not have them,” Sun challenged as the plant thing scurried away, using human shields to hide itself. Mharia ran but she was blocked off from Sun. A hand reached for her and she used her Mana in a panic.

A guard turned black and fell to pieces. Mharia felt a strange feeling come over her;

A sort of... numbness that made her question why she was moving or running... or raising the man as skeleton.

She had to... she had to run and survive!

“Such power... such unity of power. I want it, but no... you’re not the one, the true source,” the plant spoke from all angles and all mouths.

“Even as weak as I am to this plane... I can sense them. One high, so high it would burn me to touch... but another deep in darkness. That one... that one I can hunt,” it said with glee.

“As much as I hate them, My Aunt and Uncle will tear you apart and I shall enjoy it,” Sun said and Mharia turned as the shadow tendrils formed a rough human shape as it destroyed more and more lights.

“Family... would that make you... the Nephew then?” the plant murderer asked amused.

Sun looked at her and it was almost like he could smile.

“I suppose I am,” he agreed and part of the wall was struck as he moved to attack.

Something stabbed Mharia in the back.

“But your dear Princess Marrow will be short a friend, it seems,” the plant whispered before the creatures around them, no longer people, began to advance on them with no further comment, as if the plant demon was now too far to spend that much power.

Mharia hated that word... she hated that name.

Turning, she saw Cernick and Tirse standing there, their hands in her back as their ugly worm necks bulged.

Tirse blinked once and something was in her hand as if she was trying to work a limb that didn’t work anymore.

It was Mharia’s doll, Tirse must have been holding it when she was attacked... in the act of returning it to calm Mharia down from the ritual.

Mharia would kill the demon. She would find it, rot it, burn it, find out what made it tick and make it scream. She would study these worm monsters in her people... she would learn how to fix people.

But first... she couldn’t feel her body that much. They must have hit her spine.

Mharia couldn’t exactly do anything if she died, but as they were connected to her... the doll, the thing she put her mana into for fun acted like a strange bridge. It let Mharia see into her brother and sister, seeing beyond their flesh to a black seed where the worm was trying to burrow to... to feast on.

If they did that then her siblings were truly gone.

Mharia refused them that fate, she felt her own seed flow through the flesh, injected itself into Tirse’s body, pulling on Cernick’s for fuel.

A moment later, the parasites tried to kill Tirse, but Mharia flung Mana at it as it tried to surge into her... Tirse’s... brain.

However, the issue was she wasn’t working with her own tiny magic any more. Tirse was talented and Cernick was... scary in His own? Or perhaps personal potential. The mana escaped her control and she felt, painlessly, one side of her face explode in an angry raw crackle of energy.

Mharia grunted and pulled the bone back together with sheer mana, the bone becoming black as it became tough as it absorbed more magic.

The parasites rotted and Mharia turned as her aura spread, turning more monsters to dust. Sun watched her and he held two forms out.

Mharia saw her parents were partly gone and only one of her new eyes could weep, the other eye socket was empty.

“We all become one, but until then... you should look after them,” Su-

No, Nephew promised. Mharia took in her mother and father’s half deformed seeds and her mana again began to expand beyond her control.

“I don’t think... I can keep doing this,” she admitted as her bones creaked. The power was breaking her down and rebuilding her every second she couldn’t control it.

“You can’t. Bloodline of the Seeds allowed you to perform this act, but anymore will require true mastery,... there will be time for that later. You need to grieve,” Nephew instructed, but Mharia ignored him to move to the gates where she saw the castle gates were already torn open and the guards shuffling like the monsters inside.

“I can grieve tomorrow,” she said with a hatred to her tone.

“Tonight... Turtlog burns until I make a god scream,” she promised.

“Gods divide us. Demons lie to us. Even the sun and earth plot against us. In the end... we become one or we fall,” Nephew said as he fell into line with her, more an abstract shadow than anything.

“Then let us fall into silence. I don’t want to pray to the stars anymore. I just want it to be quiet,” Mharia said softly as behind her, her power finally ate through stone and the walls began to collapse inside.

Turning, she placed her doll down on a rock before the collapsing walls of her home.

“You cannot free them,” Cernick said poisonously.

“You should have joined us. It was peaceful,” Tirse agreed.

“I will free you... even if death becomes the only option,” Mharia said to the doll, leaving it behind with her innocence and life.

Her siblings, turned mad, continued to speak to her. Their words like glass, but each moment was also... comforting. Knowing that they were still there.

A hundred years? Mharia had time now. She could figure something out.
---

Holly Dabberghast walked out of the gardens of the castle, a crushed worm in her hand.

She looked at the pair walking off before picking up the doll left behind. The magic inside was small, but it was... there.

She turned the thing over where she saw the princess had stitched a name into the back.

It was a little crude and hard to make out.

Suv? San?

She ran a finger over it and tried to read it in the moonlight.

Sav.

It was the best guess she had.

She would hold on to it for now. You never knew when these things came in handy. Around her, the rotting worms and people began to leak into the soil, bringing life to the dead soil, the first to emerge was a dark greyish mushroom that survived despite the metal poison in the ground.

She bent down and feeling morose and a little dark, she nibbled it.

Dabberghast spat it out with a smile.

“Disgusting. A bite of that could rot one’s gut,” she mused.

Holly Dabberghast wandered off to her woods, not leaving until 50 years when a foolish man called her beautiful.

Her only guest in all that time that made it out alive before then was a strange man looking to learn about that foolish kingdom. He was amusing and Dabberghast found his barely contained bloodlust entertaining.

The fact he brought her information on the plant parasite that used her wooden blessing as a tie to this world was the only reason she traded him the doll the Bone Princess left behind.

She would not see that man for sometime until she ran into him in Durence Village.

Jolin Japes was a very interesting man.

But Holly Dabberghast was just a friendly neighbour who didn’t poke her nose into things. She helped her neighbours... it was her thing.

Really... ask anyone.

135: Twinkle Twinkle Little...

Delta remained with Alpha’s still body, his life essence seeming to dwindle by the moment without whatever soul or mind Marrow had taken. The history of Turtog hasn’t been as clear as Delta would have liked. The author had collected conflicting tales about the tales.

The people there claimed Marrow had messed with the ritual to try and claim the throne, using necromancy to steal power. Calmer sources claimed that the King has called forces beyond his control, his stubbornness destroying his land.

Delta felt sad at the mention of a Druid being harmed in either tale. It reminded her of Mrs. Dabberghast, her kindly face and her love for plants.

This book? It didn’t change that Marrow and her Darkness was harming Alpha. It didn’t matter their reasoning or past.

The only thing that mattered was here and now!

Her Symphony was still trucking through Marrow’s fortified castle, tearing flesh and statues down with terrible force. Marrow was moving between using her death magic and some odd form of life magic, a sort of cloying infective magic that turned Piggles and Spiders to mush or made them turn on their allies.

Delta couldn’t do anything about that other than have them removed and replaced, but her Mana... it couldn’t sustain this type of assault, even breaking the rules.

She was waging war and being a Dungeon, she couldn’t-

Delta paused.

So, why was she doing both?

A smile spread over her face.

---

Mharia was through her father’s seed and already using up her Mother’s. They would regain their power over time, but she still had her two strongest seeds. Her siblings. It had been close at first, but between herself and Delta, Mharia proved to have more control over her spending.

Delta’s Mana had been flagging for some time and Mharia was getting a little concerned that she might have put Delta’s capabilities above what she was actually capable of...

She idly held the container holding the boy, Alpha, thinking. There was a strange lull in Delta’s actions as the pressing domain pushing against Mharia’s kingdom abruptly vanished as if Delta had been destroyed.

“No!” Mharia stood with fury.

Then it started to grow, faster and faster until it overwashed what Delta had before, pushing like a howling wind that instantly blew through her back-up seeds, making Mharia pull on all stored magic to sustain herself.

“W-what-” Mharia began, but her confusion couldn’t last as to her surprise... three more of those monstrous shambling horrors emerged from the Dungeon.

One was hard enough, but four? Mharia gripped her staff and took a deep breath she didn’t need.

What had the clever Dungeon just done?

Mharia was dying to know.

---

“Say it,” Delta said with a wipe of her hand across her brow.

I refuse. I know the joke and it's terrible.

Nu the ever grouch was ruining her fun. Delta glared at him until he finally sagged in surrender.

Captain... all non-essential power has been diverted to phasers.

“Understood, Number One. Prepare Photon torpedoes, full speed!” Delta barked as Nu just sighed harder despite her grin. Despite her mood, it was disturbing. She had given her Dungeon a warning but seeing them all in stone, frozen and lifeless like the dead Dungeon?

It hurt Delta, but knowing it was temporary helped.

They just needed the Mana that Delta was using back and everyone would be okay.

The dead Dungeon she had gone to had given the idea. If she turned off all the monsters, traps, effects, and kept the rooms open. Delta could redirect the freed Mana to the fight ahead.

There was so much Mana, Delta had to make four more Symphonies just to prevent herself from exploding at the rush. Then her four had merged into a single goliath Symphony.

A lot of spiders and Piggles in one place. The rest was spread into the space, claiming as fast as she could to have power.

Her orange Mana rushed forward, almost ecstatic to conquer the enemy. Like happy little workers.

It was enough to let Delta materialise in Marrow’s Antechamber. A gigantic three-headed dragon skeleton awaited her and Delta looked up at it, eyes hard, the ancient bones shuddering as joints moved joints, grimy fangs as long as Delta as herself.

“Move,” she warned it as if it had an option when it was Marrow’s pet.

It growled low in its non-existence throats.

A massive flesh covered hand moved over Delta’s head, crashing through stone and mortar to grab the dragon.

“When Mother asks you to budge your little boney self... obey,” the quartet of Maestros snarled as they crushed the skull in a single squeeze. The skeleton launched itself at Delta’s friends, taking the battle outside to a hall.

Delta trusted them to be more than enough. Delta’s family was better than any pets Marrow kept, it was a simple fact. She began to climb the stairs, the dark red fabric spreading orange with each one she took.

Then it was just her and the giant door which Marrow drew herself tightly behind, like a coiled serpent. Delta knocked politely and the doors opened on their own.

Marrow was in the center of the room at a pristine table with elegant but slightly tarnished teapot and cups steaming away. In another chair was an orb with the glowing tiny light of Alpha and Hero as if they too were invited to this mad tea party.

“I’d make a ‘we’re all mad here’ reference, but I don’t think you’d get it,” Delta said tersely. Marrow looked up, her lone good eye crinkled with amusement.

“Your hair wants cutting,” she said conversationally. Delta paused mid-step at the unexpected throwback line.

“I don’t think-” Delta began and Marrow giggled.

“Then you shouldn’t talk,” Marrow said simply as she poured tea for Delta’s spot at the table and put milk and sugar in the middle of the table.

Delta couldn’t actually do anything to Marrow for the moment, her Mana pushing against the room and their two monsters clashing outside with no sound reaching them. She sat, if nothing else to avoid looking lame standing.

“How do you know lines from a novel that doesn’t exist in this world?” Delta asked quietly. Marrow stirred sugar into her cup with a spoon that was slightly scratched up, bearing a kingdom emblem of a pickaxe over a river.

“I’ll give you a clue,” Marrow said slowly.

“You remember that dreadful knight waiting for you in the main hall?” she asked and Delta remembered the horse knight. Levix or something.

“Notice how he’s not respawned, nor is he at my side?” Marrow went on as she sipped her tea. Not really, Delta didn’t like to devote her limited precious brain space to people she disliked. That could be room she gave to cute puppies or great jokes.

“When you defeated him, you were likely rewarded by the... Sister,” Marrow said, clearly wanting to use another name. Delta thought back to the reward.

Corruption Resistance.

It had never quite come up, but not long after she got memories of her brother back.

“What is the corruption you think you gained ‘resistance’ to?” Marrow asked lightly.

“To you people, the crazy cult people in my basement,” Delta said easily.

“We’re not a cult. A cult implies a religious dogma. Since that is the norm in this world? We’re quite anti-establishment,” Marrow argued abruptly, sounding petulant.

“Besides,” she said off-handedly, “my faith died when gods murdered my family. You become quite broken after that,” she said.

“You sound broken,” Delta said coldly.

Marrow looked up.

“I have no more liquids in my body. I’m also driven insane by the voices of my insane siblings I consumed to save them from said god. I’ve grieved for 100 years. If I still cried, I would be insane,” she tutted as if Delta was the rude one.

“But no. Not us. Memories don’t just ‘fade’,” Marrow said as she sipped more tea.

“When the Sister and Brother plucked one, two, three, four, five little birds from the abyss and squished them down or maimed them... pieces fell off. Things happened... things are happening,” Marrow pointed out and before Delta could ask what she meant, the entire room shook and Marrow’s staff began to crack.

The girl didn’t seem bothered that her power was literally strangling itself, her domain on the verge of losing.

Marrow reached over and without any word, let Alpha’s soul free, Hero squawking as he fell.

“I don’t care for them, but they were never going to die,” Marrow said with a smile.

“What is wrong with you?” Delta asked, standing as her Mana began to leak into the room.

“I miss my family and I am so tired,” Marrow said simply as she stood.

“But the wait is over. Come on, show me what Delta is! I want to see the essence of Decay! I want to see life growing from stagnation! Let me see... the Corruptor!” Marrow said eagerly and Delta didn’t hold back.

She crashed into Marrow like a tsunami.

The inside of Marrow’s soul was caked in death.

But in the center of it all was a quiet girl sitting in a turned over minecart, reading a book by a candle in a tunnel. The girl looked up, but from the crack behind her, poured light.

“We never needed to make our stars,” the unfamiliar girl said with a more awkward voice.

“They were here all along,” she finished and everything changed.

---

Maestro didn’t have four siblings, every new Symphony of the Nightmare Delta had spawned was like adding an instrument to his arsenal. One of them had far more spiders than Piggles, let it scuttle across the ceiling. Another seemed to be made more of mushrooms, squishing as it flowed forward, sucking skeletons under its mass. They sort of stood out in the place.

Marrow’s castle was long gothic high-vaulted hallways that had gloom and doom as its fashion center.

Tacky, but Maestro never let a dive bar’s appearance stop him giving it his all in a performance. His current... performance, was a rather rowdy creature that tore chunks off the main body he had. The Symphonies oozed and morphed together, pulling apart just as easily to deal with back attacks.

The dragon-hydra... thing was a little like a Symphony. Anytime Maestro did damage like crushing its ribs or snapping a spine, nearby zombies and skeletons would abruptly collapse into dust, feeding into the mess.

Bone uncracked, spines unsnapped, skulls uncrushed, and lots of other little nasty details. Like it now had skeletons as tongues, the little pests wielding blades, stabbing everytime the dragon bit into Maestro’s bodies.

Maestro was stronger, but this thing was prolonging a fight that Maestro couldn’t afford to have lasting.

“The arm bone is-” Maestro began humming before he ripped one of the dragon’s fearsome claws right out its shoulder joint, “-not connected to the shoulder,” he said grunting as some foul acid it sprayed from its fangs ate into a fair number of spiders.

Instead of marrow in its many white bones... It had acid. Maestro just loved that development. Still, nothing a little make-up and star glam wouldn’t fix before the next show! He lifted his entire mass, touching the ceiling before he tried to crash over the dragon entirely, letting his Piggle horde eat it down to nothing.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

A Piggle got through to the bone and acid sprayed, eating holes in Maestro’s back-up dancers. The dragon used the unbalanced weight of Maestro, his side now having spreading acid burns, to make him fall to the side and into a wall.

To Maestro’s surprise, the wall crumbled to reveal an open space beyond. For a moment, Maestro almost thought he was outside in the subpar sun compared to his Mother’s Second Floor.

It was a large circular throne room that had a scorched circle in the middle. Two broken and sad looking thrones sat side-by-side, patched together with novice hands. It looked like a set from a play almost, lifted and transplanted into this alien environment where it clearly didn’t belong. It stank of old blood and something like rotten potatoes.

They crashed through a white marble pillar, the stone shattered across the space. Combined, Maestro had sheer mass, but the thing with fighting a foe made of what was essentially building blocks was...

The Dragon broke down, becoming snake-like to coil around a pillar, its heads snarling.

“Number 34, you philistine idiot. Never turn into a snake!” Maestro thundered. The thing lunged, squeezing so hard that Maestro was cut in half, but the two halves merely returned the favour by pulling on the dragon-snake-hydra from each end, snapping it into two.

They toppled into the burned out circle, spraying bone chips, acid, mushrooms, and decay.

At the top of the circle, closest to the thrones; a symbol began to glow, burning through the years of filth and dust.

---

Marrow’s seed was like a mutant strawberry. It had four bulging tumor-like secondary seeds grafted onto a singular small seed, the tiny thing torn and ragged from keeping the other seeds from falling away.

But to say Marrow’s seed was small?

That was the highest of lies. The thing towered over her with its mutant-hearts beating out of synch.

“When a seed is taken by a monster, life also ends. The seed is taken, purified and added to that monster’s power. This is why monsters evolve, mutate, and are a threat. They are artificial hunters of seeds,” Marrow’s voice came from around Delta, she was in the ground, she was in the falling gentle rain, she was in the dozens of bone-shaped gravemarkers.

This world was Marrow.

“When a seed is taken by an outsider, what are called ‘gods’. The seed is added to their power, allowing them greater strength in this once free universe. Seeds act as relays. If a god is strong enough to be summoned, they don’t need our seeds. Not really, but having them lets them influence more,” the girl went on as Delta walked towards the seeds, intent on finishing this.

“When a seed is taken by a Dungeon...” Marrow’s voice said as the ghostly image fell into line with Delta, as if they were taking a stroll together.

“The seed is converted, stripped of the Lost Sibling’s power and infused with the Brother or Sister’s strength. Like Hermit Crabs, one would say,” Marrow said casually. Delta spun, finger pointed.

“Stop it. You’re being creepy and weird and I don’t trust a single thing you say or do,” Delta warned. Marrow blinked once, then kept walking.

“No one is asking for your trust, Delta. Quite the opposite,” she said, brushing down her dress. The girl looked different inside, her face different and voice rougher. This was what Marrow saw herself as... not the pretty and skeleton girl outside.

“Delta. Look at my clumsy efforts, look at my seed,” Marrow insisted.

Delta did, not liking how when all the seeds compressed to an extent, they would almost be a rough sphere.

“A seed planted in the ground to grow and provide life to the world around. Our seeds were meant to be testament to our growth... the seed they turned you into was meant to serve them. Your ability to assimilate and take in seeds is what makes a core a core,” the girl said and sat down abruptly.

“When you absorbed a strong seed utterly, it allowed you to grow and develop, reclaiming parts of yourself. You reclaimed a strong sudden burst of humanity and that was dangerous to the Sister. She made you resistant to that. You could remember more if you had been allowed to experience the seeds as they were,” she said flatly.

Delta was quiet for a moment.

“People are the original Dungeons. If they killed one another or defeated factions of the siblings, their seed grew and so did their power,” Marrow said and Delta looked down before she pushed Marrow backwards, making her little legs fly up.

“I get it. You can spin it as Sis and Bro are refusing to let me and the others remember or go home cause they need us, but Marrow... I already kind of knew that. I like them, but they’re kind of idiots when it comes to details,” Delta said dryly.

Marrow flailed before she sat up, incredulous.

“Brother thought the key to fixing people was to release monsters. Monsters!” Delta waved her hands erratically.

“Sis has poked holes in reality to let in things with too many hands or tentacles and she didn’t put any rules in place! She just opened her front door to hoodlums and sat in her kitchen to play Sims!” she went on, pacing now.

“They tried to make a god without ever asking if they should and they’re still paying for that, but at least they’re trying. Sis is so... socially inept that she thought sending flat deadline messages and informing us of how I might die every two seconds was ‘helping’. My new brother, who you kidnapped by the way, is traumatised into being unable to eat without a prompt or quest! He needs therapy and the closest thing I have to a therapist is Fera! She's a bartender!” Delta yelled, the world around them shaking violently.

Delta bent down and grabbed Marrow by her pretty little collar.

“I am infested with Mushrooms. Everytime I try to make something cute it's horrible, everytime I want it to be horrible, it's cute. And now, I have someone who I guess had a shitty life due to their actions and is now at my door being a pain in my rear. You want lore bombs, Mharia?” Delta asked as the girl seemed to shrink away from Delta as if she was too bright.

“I am doing the best I can and your great ‘enemies’? They are a bunch of kids who don’t even know how to ask someone for help. All they had was each other and now they can barely have that. Your war? It’s a playground scrap on a deity level. I am so goddamn tired of it,” Delta said, dropping the girl.

“They took you. Ripped you from your world-” Marrow tried and Delta held up a finger.

“Shush,” she warned.

“But they-”

“Ah bubbub!” Delta cut her off.

“The seeds-”

“Zip.”

“The-

“Nix!” Delta said and Marrow finally went quiet, mostly out of sheer frustration.

Delta rolled her neck, feeling rather good at being able to make an unruly child sit down and take notes. Almost natural.

“Now, I beat you, I take your seeds, you overflow me with humanity using... five people at once that are soaked for a hundred years or so in power and I go nuts when I get my traumatic flashback, turning on my friends and the Siblings, sound about right?” Delta said aloud.

Marrow just glared.

Delta bent down and the world was turning orange, but not directly touching the seeds.

“You shouldn’t have let me in here, Marrow. It’s pretty personal,” she said brightly.

“Now, you said ‘five little birds’ and you didn’t answer how you knew about dear little Alice in Wonderland,” Delta reminded her.

“Devour me or kill me. End this charade of humanity,” Marrow glowered, more commanding than asking.

Delta sighed as if Marrow had pushed her too far.

She began to send her mana into the soul, looking for parts that were still ‘spongy’. Marrow began to twitch slightly, eyes widening.

“Tell,” Delta repeated and Marrow squirmed.

“G-get your... peasant fingers out of there,” she warned, reverting to a much less controlled personality than before. Delta wiggled the spots and Marrow seized up, choking before she snorted... twitching on the ground, going red.

Tickling was not how she wanted to defeat the evil lich girl, but soul-tickling? It was far worse.

But as she distracted Marrow, she was slowly cutting away her seed-tumors. Two of them were deeply wrong, sprouting parasitic limbs to try and snare Delta.

Delta crushed them without even looking, their black forms turning mushy and orange. The essence inside was freed. Delta didn’t absorb them yet, No, she had a better plan and as such, she searched for Maestro.

Maestro had kept her updated on his progress, including what looked like the exact same godly summoning circle found in the book she had read.

“Revenge is best served to someone who actually deserves it,” Delta said as she sent the infected seeds off, mostly converted into a godly source. How Marrow had kept them in line all these years was insane.

The circle was almost ready now and with the seeds, the dragon-hydra was collapsing from lack of Marrow’s mana. The seeds weren’t exactly someone Delta could just make physical, but the fun thing about rituals was that they could be symbolic and metaphysical in what they accepted.

Maestro focused, glowing power flowing to the circle, the infected seeds.

“You know what is neat, Marrow?” Delta said conversationally as the girl wheezed in exhaustion from her torture.

“When you open a door that seems too heavy to close... you only need to do it an inch at a time,” Delta said as the circle began to blaze with power, absorbing enough of the mana left in Marrow’s Dungeons to do its purpose.

“And with these offerings? I want nothing. In fact... I want to give these back to the realm of gods...absolutely free,” Delta commanded as she pointed forward, grin wide.

The ritual circle exploded as the energy shot up through the ground.

----

Holly trembled as she felt that... power flare once more. Her soul, scabbed and scarred still ached everyday, but now it burned, before it turned slightly soothing.

A beam of orange light shot skywards, a star blazing in the twilight.

It went for an old star rather than a new one, fading into it for a moment.

The star did something she had never seen before. The slightest edge of it became eclipsed as if some moon were moving over its light.

Holly bent over as something else happened, she looked down, sweating as... one of her fingers abruptly turned wooden, a sheen of Blackthorn wood.

Holly stared, then she smiled.

---

The World Tree and its ‘heart’ rippled, some of its upper leaves abruptly wilting as its energy seemed to restrict itself.

Ygg felt his most distant roots wither and sent a command to Beta.

He needed her to set up more fear. His myth... his story had to grow quicker.

The girl, mostly immune to his infection, was quite open to more honest manipulation. Pride and fear.

After all... Ygg could only grow solid in this world even as his door closed. The story of the Monstrous Dragon and the tree it feared.

He would root himself into this world, one way or another.

136: Ducks of a feather, pun together

Delta wasn’t sure exactly what she did, but she felt it wasn't the worst option of the lot.

“Ignorance or ‘being children’ doesn’t excuse them. They made monsters, they invited outsider gods, they made Dungeons... the Sister and Brother have caused untold amounts of destruction to everyone!” Mharia said with a snarl, her soul-space where her seed resided was twisting, reeling from the removal of two of the dark seeds from her main cluster.

Delta nodded as she eyed the damage. She was a little rougher than she meant to be, but Mharia was a big necromancer-lich girl, she could handle a little pain.

“Sure, but what you chalk up to malice is actually just incompetence. People trying to make things right aren’t the enemy. I gotta ask, what do you think will happen if their little brother returns?” Delta crouched down.

Mharia slowly rose to her knees, smoothing down her dress with a stiff expression of some princess.

Well... she was a princess, but Delta wasn’t too impressed. She had Lord Mushy in her walls and he just oozed elegance.

“Delta... you don’t really get it, do you?” Mharia said with a small smile and the sudden tone shift threw Delta for a moment.

Mharia’s smile fell away and Delta had a sense of something being wrong... not a danger to her, but something occuring within Mharia.

“Sorry, big sis, but I want to go to sleep with Sun... my best friend. He’s the purest form of the future and he has lived by his word. Perhaps you were told what the little sibling actually was? Did you get told he emerged with teeth and claws trying to devour all? Oh sad... that you listened to the first line of propaganda and didn’t ask more,” Mharia said with a sigh.

Delta crossed arms, scowling.

“Yeah, but if I ask the question you want me to, you’ll just go ‘oohhh spooky one-liner’ and vanish,” she accused. Mharia’s mouth fell open before her cheeks flushed.

“T-that’s besides the point!” she said, waving her hand in an annoyed manner.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Delta offered abruptly, thinking of a potential solution. Mharia thought about it.

“A deal with the monster who kidnapped your friends and has a horde of minimal-wage workers developing dark science?” she asked slyly.

Delta tilted her head as they slowly returned to the real world, sitting back in Mharia’s throne room.

“You can still pay your workers after being down here for so long?” she asked incredulously. Mharia raised a brow.

“It’s easy when you pay in compliments and days off,” she said easily.

“How about you send two of your crazy siblings off to your leader and I keep you as a devil’s advocate? You can try and corrupt me and I can pull secrets from you like a hairball from a crocodile’s throat,” Delta offered bluntly.

The throne was quiet aside from the stomping of Delta’s giant mound of cute critters.

“Why?” The question was said without any hostility or malice.

Honestly, Delta did sort of need someone who wasn’t jacked into the system or created by it to be able to offer her some answers. If the system put Mharia on a lock down... or removed her memories, then Delta had a good idea something was up.

Also, the first act of taking down an unknown enemy was to make them known.

Mharia was high up on the totem pole of their group.

“I already planned to make you absorb me, but there’s little point if it’s just my seed,” Mharia muttered but then shrugged helplessly.

“I accept, only because I am confident you’ll see the truth soon enough without any prompting on my end,” she said and looked away.

“Let me just say goodbye to my siblings,” she asked and closed her eyes.

Delta guessed she could be activating some trap or sending some last minute to her leader, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Delta would take them in or out one by one. The only one getting no mercy was the one who did the unspeakable acts upon Renny’s family.

Moment’s later, two dark glowing lights exited Mharia’s chest, the mere sight of them made her almost Dungeon-out. It took every inch of control for Delta not to reach for the seeds and cleanse them.

But she managed it by pretending they had puppy ears and big eyes...

Also those little thin tails puppies and kittens had. What if it was some mix of puppy and kitten?

A puppen or kippy!

“And a hearty ‘Go to hell to you too’,” Mharia scowled as the seeds shot off.

“Family issues?” Delta asked innocently, her mana surrounding the room, checking for any traps or incoming danger. She was confident, but being careful also didn’t hurt.

“Imagine sharing a room with your two siblings, but 10x more intimate and then doing that for a hundred years with no sleep. You’d develop some hostility too if they were stark raving mad,” Mharia said defensively.

“I don’t remember my brother. My memories are either scattered around the abyss, locked up in a system folder or coming back slowly,” Delta said bluntly.

“Maybe you should ask for them?” Mharia said casually.

“Starting this corruption thing a little blatantly aren’t you?” Delta asked as she stood up, her orange avatar making the throne room glow.

“Subtlety is for those who have need of it. I’m rather exposed as the enemy at this point,” Mharia said with a smile, sipping her tea.

Delta guessed she had a point.

“I guess welcome to the Dungeon,” Delta said, drawing her mana into the room. Mharia eyed the rising orange tide, turning nervous.

“Why is your mana chanting?” she asked suddenly. Delta listened, but didn’t hear anything.

“Maybe you have a ringing noise in your ears?” Delta suggested. Mhaira leaned forward and the illusion of flesh melted away, revealing the dark skull of her head.

“I don’t have ears!” she said before pointing at Delta’s mana again.

“They’re chanting war crimes-” was all she said before she was smothered in the orange tide.

Mharia’s attempts to sow chaos in Delta were mostly just confusing her at this point.

Chanting mana? For real?

The room began to shine as Mharia was broken down to her seed.

---

Delta’s ocean was churning on the surface, but once Mharia broke past that, she saw how... calm it was underneath.

Mharia knew she was effectively really dead this time. Beings absorbed by a dungeon came back in appearance only. Contracted humans got the better deal, but in the end... Mharia wasn’t sure if she’d be herself after all was said and done

What she saw... felt... experienced?

It was all symbolic.

Being broken down into mana meant what she was feeling couldn’t be real, not entirely.

But Mharia kept falling until she understood she was falling upwards.

After time passed, she found herself in a strange room, a central chair surrounded by screens that curved and flat runic consoles, some of which had mushrooms growing out of their sides.

“What do I call the adopted sibling of my Nephew?” a girl asked, bemused as she turned in the chair. Mharia blinked, on her hands and knees as it felt so hard to stand here.

“You are the... Sister,” Mharia said, gritting her teeth. It felt strange to have real muscle and flesh again, even in a simulated spell sense.

“And you are Mharia of Turtog,” announced the being that was so beyond Mharia’s power it was laughable.

“So, is it time for you to begin your interrogation? The turning of my mind to your cause?” Mharia asked and found it hard to keep in mind exactly what Sister looked like. A young girl with long hair and a white dress... but the details kept eluding her.

It was like staring at the sun, ironically enough.

“Perhaps once I would have simply dissolved you for your blooming seed, breaking you down to stare at the pieces to find an answer lurking in your existence. Like taking a jigsaw apart to see what shape each piece is,” the god admitted before she spun in her chair once, legs dangling.

“But I’ve learned a lot, just like you,” Sister said easily.

“...I have no idea what you mean,” Mharia responded, managing to get on her knees despite the force nearby.

Sister tilted her head and smiled.

“I’m going to tell her, I just didn’t want to drop it in the middle of her fight with you since it felt like a bit of a... what would Delta call it?” she mused, leaning back in her chair.

“Ah, a ‘dick move’,” she said sagely. Mharia stared before she clucked her tongue.

“Then Delta will despise you,” she declared as the screens around the Sister shifted.

“I think she might be angry, but I’ve learned a lot from her. I think it’s better for her to be upset with me than to simply keep on doing what I’ve done without her knowledge. I think that’s how people show they care. When the other person matters more than themselves,” Sister said slowly before she looked down as if she could see something.

“I only ever felt something like that towards my Brothers,” she admitted and this pissed Mharia off to no end.

“You mutilated and made your little brother fall into the abyss,” she accused and the Sister was still for a long time, making Mharia feel a twinge of fear.

“We did. I am a terrible person really. But I think since I can admit that?” she looked Mharia right in the eye.

“I’m maturing a little,” she declared and her form shifted... ever so slightly. Her cheeks lost some of the roundness, her hair grew longer, and she seemed to stretch out.

“And as for your fate...” the slightly older girl said, bemused.

Mharia felt karma crawling up her back.

---

Delta could feel the third floor shaking as her mana went berserk with work.

Third floor was conquered! All excess rooms are being absorbed. Please stand by...

Delta could only watch as everything beyond her garden of many doors was simply erased. More and more rooms were removed to feed her DP and Mana in return. She didn’t intend to keep any of Mharia’s ‘aesthetic’ so this was fine with her.

She sorted through her growing notifications until she found the one she was after.

Lovely, we have a psychotic little lich girl on the team. Pardon me while I break out the confetti.

Nu was grumbling, but he seemed awfully keen on sticking by her side.

“Better to keep her where I can see her,” Delta said distractedly as she read. Nu’s text shifted to a tiny font to indicate he was muttering under his breath.

Mharia defeated! Mharia absorbed!
Special conditional existence due to Dungeon’s desire.
Reforming...

There was a flash of light and, slowly in the air before Delta, Mharia re-formed into a Dungeon lifeform.

“What... have you... done?” Mharia wheezed as she turned in place. Delta stared for a long moment.

“Well... I guess I’m a real Dungeon now,” she announced.

Her small body was in a simplistic white dress with four crystal-dragonfly wings on her back. Mharia now was only slightly bigger than a Pygmy Mushroom.

Mharia had become a dungeon fairy.

The girl looked up and her face melted away to show the horrific visage of a demonic bone lich in a pretty dress.

“Neat... my fairy dual-classed into necromancy,” Delta said brightly as Mharia took this all in and let out a screech so high that Delta almost conjured glass to see if it would break.

Delta snapped her fingers in front of the fuming fairy.

“Hey... listen,” she prodded and there was silence in her Dungeon.

“I name you, ‘Mharia the super helpful and kind fairy guide’,” she said and the screen over Mharia’s head shifted to reflect the title.

Mharia: The super helpful and kind fairy guide!
System Tool: Able to act and communicate for Dungeon’s need. Must act as a guide to those that enter the Dungeon.

A princess that turned into a lich that turned into a cult leader that turned into a cute little fairy. She despises everyone and everything, wishing to stab the system in the head with a rusty spoon. Her dust does not make you fly, but perhaps it will in a future upgrade.

“I take it back. I prefer to just die,” Mharia said with a hollow tone as she sat on the ground of the garden on the third floor.

“That’s just the first step of grief. Denial. Soon, you’ll move on to-” Delta began and the fairy tried to latch on to her face, screaming about bloodlines and bovine ancestors.

“-anger,” Delta finished evenly.

There was a notification that stood out as yellow and Delta focused on it, ignoring Mharia’s ranting.

'I believe we need to talk. May I meet with you when you’re free?'

It was polite, but Sis never really asked for meetings, so it had to be important.

“Let me just check on Alpha and get him outside,” she said easily, turning to the still sleeping boy that had her guardgoyles around him as per her order.

Leaving Mharia to bask in her new existence, Delta bent down, whispering quietly.

“Nu... every move she makes? Every word she utters?” she said and Nu flashed once.

She won’t be able to think a bad thought without me recording it.

The words reassured Delta, because as much as she was sure this whole god-war was a big sibling falling-out gone extreme

Mharia was still dangerous.

She didn’t need magic or undead dragons to be a problem. Simply pissing off the right adventurer or making Delta appear as... a problem would have the same effect, if not more. Delta cared about what her image was, to a degree.

She worked hard to cultivate the idea she could be reasoned with; and her goal was to flourish with Durence, not in spite of it.

It was a gamble, to be perfectly honest, but Delta needed to know what the other side was thinking, how it operated, and how twisted any other members of this group were.

Alpha blinked his eyes slowly.

“Ow.”

Delta winced and silently shifted his soul two inches to the right, which aligned better. Upside of having a big sister like Delta? She could do stuff like that.

“You okay?” Delta asked and Alpha sat slowly up, flexing his finger.

“I got a lot of soul resistance skills, but I don’t think it’ll help if Mharia strikes again,” he said, businesslike and firm, as if his loss of soul was more a dreadful embarrassment than a traumatic incident.

“About that...” Delta said, one finger raised, trying to figure out how best to broach the subject.

“-HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!” Mharia screamed as Jack shook her like a small child with fish in a bag.

“SPITE AND SMUT!” Jack screamed back.

Alpha stared before turning back to Delta, hints of actual disbelief on his face.

“Mharia is effectively not an issue as far as things go,” Delta said brightly. He frowned before nodding as if accepting this.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“I failed,” he said almost out of the blue.

“What... at the Game?” Delta asked, head tilted. Alpha pursed his lips.

“That too... but no, I mean with dealing with Mharia. I was woefully underprepared,” he explained as he stood up, looking around.

“Where’s Hero?” he asked, troubled as he searched for the golden bug.

“Resting, but you didn’t fail, Al,” Delta said earnestly as she patted his head. She didn’t know why, but he was quite pattable.

“I only won because Mharia let me in as close as I needed to so she could drive me crazy and turn me into a dungeon demon that would ravage the world!” she explained, her tone calm.

“And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for your meddling,” Mharia muttered as Jack brought her over... stuffed in a bottle.

“I think we should cook her,” Jack said viciously. Delta shook her head, but narrowed her eyes.

“And how do you keep making references that you shouldn’t know about?” she asked the creepy fairy girl.

She merely smiled in return, but Delta was already turning away.

“Right, don’t have time for your dramatic foreshadowing. I got a lunch date. Alpha?” she turned to the younger man who stared back, ready for instruction.

“Go outside and have fun. Real sun is good for you,” she insisted, making shoo-ing motions.

“Delta!” Mharia said before she could leave. Looking back, Delta gave her a look of boredom.

“I can’t wait to see your face when you return,” Mharia cackled and Jack dunked her into a nearby pot. Inside, the bubbling crime against life, Troll Soup, muffled her screech. Jack raised the bottle and Mharia was flailing and looking sick despite having no organs.

Delta would rescue her when she returned... so Mharia could look at her face.

It was what the little fairy wanted after all...

---

Going to where Sis was involved a lot of mind skills. It was sort of being able to pretend the space directly behind her body didn’t exist, but instead, her world was a construction of carefully put together powers.

Delta slipped into her dungeon mode, seeing the walls and monsters all become see-through, their power and meaning flowing inside them, drawing in from the very air the mana they needed to keep surviving.

Then it was a matter of falling backwards, and she was somewhere else. Sis sat surrounded by her monitors, and she looked different than last time they met... Delta couldn’t put a finger on it exactly, but she looked older.

“Delta,” Sis said with such affection that Delta had the urge to turn and smile. Sis was pure in that way.

But that same purity let her do some pretty nasty things with the same earnest attitude. Like with what she did with Alpha in the beginning and this war.

“We need to talk,” Delta said simply. Sis nodded and closed her eyes.

“I think it’s best we involve who we can,” she announced. That sounded both interesting and ominous.

“If I am the Sun and Brother is the Land, then we cannot casually meet without causing an issue. However, a long time ago... Brother and I devised a meeting ground we could use at times,” Sis explained as she stood off her chair.

“Like in a Starbucks, or some cool Stonehenge or...” Delta began to list, and Sis smiled as the room began to glow.

---

Waddles opened his eyes. The ground shook through the underwater tunnel.

He was moving before he was even fully awake. As he emerged on the outside, he saw the lake was completely dried. The water was suspended in the air, floating as if gravity had lost all meaning. This ended up revealing deep carved lines all along the lake bed that looped around in sweeping curls.

Slowly, from the earth, raw power coursed through the lines, travelling to the shrine island in the middle where it pooled.

Then the land went dark. As Waddles looked up, the sun went dark at the same time the shrine exploded with a large pillar of mana, raw power that shot into the sky. The colour was a dark amber.

Waddles followed it to see why the sun had gone dark.

From the sun as well, a pillar of mana was exploding down to the land, but both beams... almost at the same time, clashed in the middle... met the same object at the same time.

The moon began to glow a deep green that was tinged with orange.

From the lands, the forest, and the very earth, monsters began to rage, coming alive as if the eclipse over this part of the land was a signal to raise hell.

Waddles would not let a single one pass into his domain nor his handmaiden's side rooms.

---

“-Or like a cute teahouse or maybe a...” Delta trailed off as she seemed to have been teleported by Sis to a strange flat surface, pock-marked occasionally by odd craters.

“A teahouse would be cute, but Brother won’t let me decorate...but regardless, welcome, Delta, to the Moon,” Sis introduced.

Delta stared as on the other side of the far field... the form of the demonic brother appeared. He appeared to be walking the line between the front and the dark sides of the moon. Delta slowly looked out to the ‘dark side’. It was completely flat and unremarkable, as if someone had stopped making it halfway through.

“Why... is the moon flat on the back?” Delta asked faintly.

“Well, no one ever sees the other side, so why make it that special?” Sis said easily.

“I wanted to put a moon dragon here, but Sis said it would ruin the scenery,” Brother sniffed as he approached, his yellowish eyes still slit-like.

“I wanted to try making a race of moon-dogs,” Sis said and Brother eyed her.

“You’re taller,” he accused and Sis smiled serenely.

“Am I? I hadn’t noticed,” she said, brushing her hair back with clear pride. Delta coughed to remind them that she existed.

They both eyed her.

“Right... one sec,” Brother said and snapped his finger. Alpha appeared, ghostly and surprised by their side. He took one look at Bro and Sis, and began to hyperventilate.

“Is he still traumatised? Delta, you had him for a whole day! Have you not made him better yet?” Brother asked, surprised.

“He lost his soul and was a plaything of a lich before I saved him. It’s going to take time. People take time,” Delta stressed. Brother blinked slowly.

“Like three days or something?” he asked and Delta knew without a doubt he was legitimately serious.

“He’ll be better when he’s better,” Delta said finally, still having to suppress her urge to cower before the being. It was hard to forget things like his face when he took her name.

“Why are we here?” Alpha asked finally. Sis went up to him and hugged him.

“To make wrongs right,” she admitted.

Brother and Sister shared a look before they looked down at the massive, oddly-shaped rectangle. It was mostly a rough flat plane, but occasionally new land or seas seemed to be growing out at the edges, slowly but surely curving in on itself.

“And the others? Beta and Gamma? Also, whoever this ‘fifth’ is that Mharia mentioned?” Delta asked quietly.

“Beta is refusing us full-blank and working with the asshole tree,” Brother said flatly.

“Gamma is... how would you say it...” Sis trailed off.

“Funny, but dangerous to both of you in different ways,” Brother said casually.

“The fifth that Mharia of Turtog mentioned is not a part of what you all are, not truly. The fifth was actually the first. Little Brother was the first. I shaped him and Brother gave him a soul. We could not create what we did not know,” Sis said with sadness as she looked at the stars above, blinking.

“We did it so wrong. A soul like that... like yours... was not meant to be in such a state or body. They went mad, or perhaps they were simply mad at us,” she carried on.

“The reason why people get... knowledgeable or perhaps even attuned to your old world is because in every seed is the memory... the essence of that first soul. Every human and half-human down there carries memories of your world, locked deep within them,” Brother announced, hands spread as if capturing the image of the world in his hands.

“A soul like us...” Alpha whispered, hand to his chest.

“When a seed falls to another, the seed moves on or carries down the bloodline. The seeds merged, far more completely than what the lich chick did with her family. A single seed, a single person. You repeat that every generation, and every time the seed becomes more complete,” Bro went on, turning to Delta.

“But what happens when someone’s seed is too strong? What if it gets the memories back?” Delta asked, feeling dread inside her. Sis looked at her.

“Durence happens,” she said simply.

“The cult got real close, but honestly, they can’t really do what they need on their own. They need people, strong people. So, they caused a little havoc and boom, heroes and antiheroes show up to wage epic war! But the catch is... the loot? It ain’t so good. People remembered, and the collection of seeds began to rise. The memories of that name... the true name of the Little Brother, made them understand that win or lose against the Silence? They would become the Silence,” Bro explained as he sat on the ground and got comfortable.

“No... I don’t understand,” Alpha objected.

“How could memories make you into a cult or change you?” he demanded, distressed.

Brother closed his eyes, apparently getting ready for a nap.

“You wanna know? Ask Delta... every single one of her monsters has the exact same thing going on... or did you not notice that?” he asked her amused.

“Not the insane or seedy part, but... by sharing your memories with them... they understand you. Your emotions are tied to a certain memory or reference or joke... they flow through that and subconsciously or not... they feel closer to you. Wyin, your second floor boss, resists this well and even sees it as a threat that she isn’t sure she can resist...” Sister explained and Delta couldn’t speak.

“The race of humanity? It’s all one big Dungeon species that took the death of our sibling to make,” Bro added, voice much quieter.

Delta felt ill... she felt... for the first time in a long time... scared of what she was.

“Alpha, who would build bonds with people. Beta, who would rally monsters created by their magic. Delta, who would repurpose their gifts, and Gamma who would take them by conquest. In the beginning that was the plan. You’d help each other train to fight the Silence whilst also taking their seeds to slow down the great Remembrance.” Brother sighed, then shot Delta a grin.

“To be fair, you can’t really say you have a cult when half your monsters argue with you and the others question you. It’s more a close knit-family that may go crazy. You may also spread your memories like fungus on perfectly good fields, but you also pass on more,” he pointed out.

“In fact, you pass on the most important thing of all,” Sister said to her as she smiled.

Delta slowly looked at them, the weight in her chest heavy.

“You taught them it's okay to question life. It’s okay to be wrong... and most importantly?” Sister leaned in, arms around Delta.

“You taught them it's okay to laugh at themselves. It’s okay to have their own feelings,” Sis finished and Delta was about to make a nice reply when she noticed something. Brother had zoomed the air in front of him to focus on a village near a drained lake.

It looked like dozens of ant-sized dots were converging on the village in the round shadow of the moon.

“Where’s that unlucky place?” Delta asked as she pulled Alpha into the hug.

“Durence,” Brother said easily. Delta nodded for a moment before she paused.

“Look! Alpha’s body is on the ground,” Brother announced as he zoomed in further to show Alpha’s physical form passed out in front of her dungeon. The monsters just ran past, unbothered by them.

“Where are they going?!” Delta yelled and Sister blinked.

“To get seeds. Durence isn’t very active so the monster’s shouldn’t be able to sense too much,” Sister promised easily.

“There are two royal knights in town,” Alpha said, muffled by Delta’s tight grip.

The siblings shared a look.

“Well, this could be awkward, but... I think it’ll be alright,” Brother said as he waved a hand. Delta was going to ask how when something odd occurred.

Far off, a large town that had a golden colour around it drew her attention.

Near the field, an unnoticeable being that was near the city turned its attention to the town and all the monsters abruptly just... stopped. Complete and utter lack of motion. The force grew to such an extent it was visible from the moon for a brief moment then it was gone with a thunderous...

Poi?

“What was that?” Delta asked, stunned.

“Danmulecus or ‘Mule’ as he likes to be called. He’s a big fan,” Brother said easily. Delta didn’t want any fans that did that!

Delta just wanted to be a peaceful Dungeon doing Dungeon things... why was she on the damn moon having a lunch date with two gods as some dragon thing scared monsters emerging from an eclipse?!

She didn’t need any more surprises...

---

In the abyss, past the dark sea of turbulent souls and oblivion, the demon world could be found.

In the untamed lands, unseen by the dukes or their king, a bright orange mushroom formed in a forest.

Then another formed... then another.

Eventually 7 cheerful mushrooms formed a perfect ring in the middle of nowhere.

A moment later, when nothing happened... the mushrooms began to slowly wiggle back and forward, harmonizing slowly.

The tempo increased faster and faster until the mushrooms were a blur of red and noise. Then a single note was hit and the space in the middle of the circle began to rip open.

Orange mana exploded upwards like a geyser of bubbling foam. Then it slowly settled until the circle was a rippling orange liquid that seemed to occasionally shift. The mushrooms pondered this then began to dance in different patterns, causing the liquid to slowly shift as if they were tuning a tv station.

Then it finally found what it was seeking.

Waddles emerged a moment later, his body rotating as if he simply spun himself underwater.

It was surprising to be home, but he might as well report to his father while he was here. Then he could get back to sleeping.

He flapped his wings and took off, heading for the Lake of Wrath.

He would find the Duke of Wrath there, presiding over all the Dark Drakes. Waddles now might have a solution for the problems the demon world was going through.

Well... not him, but Delta.

She was useful like that.

Waddles supposed if he was with Delta right now? She’d have called his father... the Duck of Wrath.

Waddles wouldn’t say it, but he would think it hard at his father in her honour.

Waddles was good like that.

137: The Boss dropped 'Trauma' as a reward! Wait...

Delta blinked as she returned to her Dungeon, the meeting of the siblings over, ending with the eclipse.

“No wonder they don’t meet up casually! They’re walking disasters!” She waved her hands in the air.

“Have fun?” came Mharia’s voice. Delta turned to scowl at her but paused. Mharia was still in the garden, but she was in some pyre built up of Jack’s smut books as the Kobold danced around her, torch in hand.

“To Pip, almighty reader of trash. Take this vile wench into your arms,” Jack hollered, sounding tribalistic.

“Jack... don’t start fires in the garden,” Delta said finally, causing him to stop.

“She deserves this and far more,” he stated without any shame.

“Maybe Pip doesn’t want Mharia? Aren’t you being rude by pushing her onto someone else?” Delta tried as she moved closer.

“True… I know, I can leave her bound by Wyin!” he said and took off with Mharia in his hands.

“Delta, I demand mercy!” Mharia screeched before she vanished through the door, followed by Jack’s mad cackle.

Delta thought about what she did to Alpha.

“Mercy will take 30-45 minutes depending on delivery time. Please be patient,” she said limply before smiling.

She might actually murder us all if you keep pushing her. Spite is a powerful motivator.

Nu appeared and Delta gave him a long look.

“Well, you’d know. But I have news,” Delta turned to her friend as Nu pondered her comment.

“The demon sibling that lives inside all humans and is the enemy sort of maybe is also from Earth and may be someone I know or potentially someone whose memory causes people to turn evil,” she explained.

Nu was blank for a moment.

“Oh and also I may be causing my own cult to rise as I do the exact same thing with my monsters meaning I could also be an eldritch goddess if I snap,” Delta added ever so casually.

You... vex me, in mind, soul, and body.

Delta gave him a curious look.

“You admit to having a soul?” she asked amused and Nu turned away, avoiding her gaze.

No.

He vanished and Delta was left alone as she blinked.

He was acting odd...

She wanted to chase him down and ask if he was alright, but all at once, she was surrounded by a dozen screens, alerting her to a dozen more things at once.

“Stop! Not all at once!” she yelled over the pinging and the screens began to inch to a rough orderly line that stretched a fair distance back.

“My god, I work at the DMV,” Delta muttered as the first one stepped up.

“How many of these are... important? Like I-definitely-need-to-know level of importance?” she asked the line. About ten more screens popped into existence, getting into line.

“I should have let Mharia turn me crazy,” Delta groaned as she sat down on a rock and got to work.

---

The three of them met in Mila’s house. The mother of Ruli looked pained as she leaned on the table.

“Some memories came back,” Haldi announced, almost too casually. Pic chewed a spare fork Mila had laying about.

Mila didn’t have the energy to tell him off. She was too busy trying not to weep at the memories of the beginning.

Damn Durence, damn that man. Damn him and his stupid heroic attitude.

“Why? The mana didn’t rise, so why did they return?” Pic asked around a mouth of prongs.

“One fell. One of those Silence beasts fell,” Mila turned, face calm. Her eyes were flaring, however.

“Then the Dungeon is winning?” Pic asked hopefully and Mila snorted before she brought out one of her many bottles of expensive and sometimes-illegal booze. She brought four glasses down, the containers clinking.

She poured the drink into each, the unsaid toast to their fallen friend loud in their hearts.

“So, if we can remember a little more, does that mean the incident is less likely to make us go mad?” Haldi asked after a moment, his nose wrinkling at the drink, eyeing the label on the bottle which boasted 80% Dragon blood and coconut.

It was called ‘Fiery Paradise’.

It was more like hot crap, but he drank it because it was actually strong enough to make them feel it.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t change anything. It just means instead of going insane and killing everyone we love on the first floor, we’ll go stab happy on the second. This fight isn't over by a long shot,” Mila said and Pic sighed.

“I felt it when I went for my grandson. It was still there almost... that anger, hate... like poison in a wound,” Pic muttered, nursing his own drink and almost chewing the glass before he remembered it wasn’t his glass to chew.

Haldi and Mila knew exactly what he meant.

“The Manaline was deadened and our families grew up with starved seeds, even if it cost us everything that made us ourselves. Their seeds are malnourished and almost useless to the... enemy,” Mila said, forcing herself not to think too hard about the issue.

Her power was a hair-trigger from exploding if she allowed her seed to drown her in memories not her own.

This was the curse of power.

Some went and bound themselves to the king, using his power from the Dungeon to drain the rising corruption of their seeds, but not the folks of Durence.

Even without the corruption of their seeds, bowing to a sad pathetic man on a throne to save themselves would never be an option.

Haldi raised his glass.

“To Delta... sorry for the trouble, but keep at it,” he toasted. The other two followed suit.

---

‘You have defeated one of the major threats against the world, as misguided as it turned out to be. Mharia has been defeated and... employed. All additional third floor space shall be broken down due to size limitations. Mharia’s Throne room will be made into a boss room!’

Delta could feel the grinding of the floor, the breakdown of a lot of stuff... and generally, a growing headache at the information she was trying to parse while reading.

Her third floor was going to end up actually not being that big to be honest. The entrance to the map room which had sideways passages to the library and troll den. Onwards to the Feast Hall that was connected to Jeb’s side kitchen... both of them lead onwards to the main feature of the third room.

The Round Garden.

Delta mentally counted the paths.

She had the demon smith, the mad lab, the ‘used to be hell hole’ that was now developing into a hecking damn second mushroom grove of exploding lava mushrooms, a blank wall where the zoo used to be, and a semi-dorm room that was culled by her Guardgoyles during her fight with Mharia.

The boss room was the final door. Delta has to think of it as a sort of compass on her map.

The Boss room was exactly due north, the lab was north-east, the zoo used to be east... the cursed Mushroom tunnel was South-East, the Feast hall was South, a door leading back to Jeb’s kitchen was South-West, the Demon Smithy was due West, and the old dorms were North-West.

There was also the fact that she has a hidden Mana Well in her garden that did things to people.

Terrible and Wonderful things…

‘Due to defeating the threat and absorbing her things, you have gained max mana (excess Mana sent back to the rest of Dungeon to restore functionality) and 800 DP! Due to abrupt shifting in Dungeon and concern for Delta’s stress, the fourth Floor(400 DP) is locked for three days to allow adjustment and self-care.’

“I could really use a foot massage and having my nails painted,” Delta agreed. It was sort of a relief not to have to instantly worry about a new floor... she hadn’t even made a proper boss for this floor...

Still, when she had a moment, she’d make some den or place for Mharia to roost in. Delta could even make her some old things from her home to make the girl feel... better?

Mharia was an issue and Delta honestly didn’t know how to handle her exactly.

‘Notable items absorbed included:
Set of dragon remains.
Advanced marble material (black and white variants)
Expensive paintings and frames (images easily painted upon creation)
Detailed Lich infused bones.
One tea set made of rare diamond and tea leafs of pure magical essence
A closet full of carefully maintained dresses.
One throne.’

Click to expand...

Delta saw that each of these items produced an almost staggering amount of follow up notifications of potential upgrades, mixtures, unlockables, suggestions, monster creations, and... on and on and on it went.

“How long is it going to take me to get through all this?” she asked with dismay.

Nu eyed it all then reported to her a moment later.

‘6 hours, and roughly 20 minutes if you work non-stop’

“No,” Delta announced, crossing her arms. The act of sitting down and going through tons of repetitive work, looking over details she couldn’t grasp or understand while trying to give them a value in return shook something inside of her.

A recoil of horror... like this was a fiend she had tackled before.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

A single moment and she was elsewhere, a desk with rows of shadowy people before her. They all looked out of focus for a moment, except one that seemed near the back, gazing out a window.

She cleared her throat in this dream.

‘Al-£$”!, pay attention. Your homework score was just as disappointing as the others. You’ll all stay behind an hour before the trip to complete additional work to ensure you qualify for the trip,” she instructed and knew she didn’t have to offer this... it would even mean driving them to the damn camp herself.

She eyed the others.

“Be&:^! Stop glaring at me, you know you’d rather go than stay here for a week,” Delta reminded and the girl scoffed, but didn’t argue. The last two looked up, expecting her to call on her next.

“Ga^^0^^... stop poking people with your ruler before I take it away,” she warned and the boy grinned at her and started building a sword out of pens that he could slot together. She really needed to clear out his damn desk.

“Okay doky, Miss D!” he yelled back, unbothered.

Sighing, she turned to the last student.

At the desk was a pile of snarling mouths, teeth, claws and insane bloated eyes that shot forward to swallow her with a primal scream.

Delta snapped back, physically toppling over as she laid there, shaking.

Nu carefully picked her up with his formed hands, his ability to morph his shape continued to grow each day despite his stubbornness on remaining a screen.

‘They’re trying to honour their word it seems. Sister and Brother are unchaining your memories... despite the trouble they may cause,’

he said with a touch of concern.

Delta touched her head, feeling a throbbing.

“If... I remember what happened... I think the Little Brother is involved. I think I knew him,” she muttered and there was a slight pause before she thought something unpleasant.

If she was around when Bro and Sis took Little Brother to be their family... did that mean she and the others were simply dragged along and... kept in stasis as the world's form? Or... did Brother intentionally fish them out due to their connection with the Little Brother?

She tried to think hard about what happened and something odd began to happen. She was abruptly at her core, feeling her head was splitting open.

Her orange core, suspended between the two pillars, shone then a thin crack went down one side as if to match her pain.

“Oh that’s no... unable to comply,” she said slowly. Tilting her head, she looked at her hand.

“I don’t think that had any- avatar state deployed, function to display- effect on me, so hopefully... I can just use glue to fix myself,” she mused.

“‘Glue’ not found in archives. I mean I have to make glue since no one’s dropped it- Spider-web, honey, combination?- but glue can’t be that hard,” she shrugged.

‘Delta! What’s wrong you’re... have a crack on your face,’

Nu appeared at her side. Delta blinked at him.

“Oh, hey Nu- designated aid of core and ‘friend’. Error, class for ‘friend’ not found- I think I pushed too hard, but I’m okay. -Core performance at 95% and dropping. Restoration in progress’.” she reported.

‘Delta. You’re saying things without hearing yourself. What restoration? What damage?’

Nu demanded and Delta was getting a bit concerned about her friend as she floated forward

“Nu... you feeling okay?” she asked worriedly before she turned abruptly and began to go about her duties.

“Admin access to Core memories have caused a compile error. Core ‘Delta’ is suffering backlash from memories she was not ready for. System override was engaged from highest authority. Why? ‘Trust’. Reason not logical. Nu, companion. Delta-System will repair inwards, please halt Admin-Delta from acting against innate code of ‘let’s not be a murder-hobo’ Dungeon,” Delta began to rattle off, but she didn’t think she was saying anything too important.

‘Did... you develop a personality split in the ten seconds I was gone?!’

The screen demanded.

“Can’t talk Nu, gotta make a super dragon with five heads that spew liches instead of fire breath,” she said distractedly.

“Error. Such creation goes against established desires. Admin-Delta is faulty. Rebooting ‘irrational fear of spiders’ subroutine,” the monotone emerged afterwards.

Delta abruptly began to screech, but walked forward like she was walking in a park.

Nu was... shocked... utterly baffled.

Then he became angry.

---

Sis watched as her general control and consoles, now utterly decimated by mushrooms all began to quiver. One part of the devoured divine instruments began to glow hot and blue, the mushrooms wilting away until something else emerged.

A crystal tip of some blade rose, creating more features that become inhospitable to the mushrooms. Crystal and Mushroom... what incompatible beings...

What a beautiful sight. Sis watched as the crystal spread out, uprooting any Mushrooms that were in its way.

“Finally... I thought you’d never come, ‘Nu’,” Sis giggled and sipped her tea.

Mharia wasn’t going to drink it now... so why not?

---

The Orange Core flashed, the crack sealing over with an influx of Mana as Nu physically dragged Delta back by the end of her ear between his two fingers.

The healed portion was a shimmering azure blue, creating a striking flawed Core.

Flawed... but not corrupt.

Like a beautiful eye with orange and blue lines intersecting to create green.

----

“Hey,” Mharia said slowly, eyeing the giant effeminate tree. Her form seemed able to freely move through the Dungeon, unbound to any Floor. Delta was a fool to grant her this much freedom, but even then... Mharia knew she was always watched.

The tree with a cold expression eyed her.

“If you ask to nest in my branches like a bird. I’ll rip your wings off one by one and use you as a new lipstick,” the tree said flatly.

Oh, Mharia liked this one. So much... fire.

“Are you the World Tree?” Mharia asked, hearing from the trolls that such a tree existed. The trolls were lovely and easy to manipulate. They’d talk about anything...

The tree known as Wyin sneered at her.

“Are you the great fairy that touches pubescent teens to ‘power them up’?” she asked mockingly in return. Mharia snorted.

“I believe you’ll find she was hunted down and chopped up for pieces a while ago. No, I am Delta’s newest... ‘employee’,” Mharia said with such annoyance that it seemed to distract Wyin from being rude.

“Ah... the darling bone princess. Yes, I heard you were spanked and sent to the naughty corner,” Wyin smirked and fanned her branches out to seem elegant.

“Don’t… call me that,” Mharia said darkly and the tree drank in her anger like sunlight.

“Of course. Ivory Noble? Blanc Baroness? Calcium Countess?” Wyin listed and Mharia could leave, but she decided to power on through gritted teeth.

“I heard you ended up being a loser to a parasite that my dear papa summoned,” she fired back and Wyin’s entire form froze, not a single leaf twitched.

Mharia moved easily to avoid the massive trunk-like fist thrown at her.

She put a dainty finger on the wood as it moved past.

“Well... shall I call you Homeless Hawthorn? Perhaps Pathetic Palm? I can do this ‘mean’ business too,” Mharia warned as she weaved between a few dozen vines trying to spear her through.

She was only dodging because her actual offence power was…

Mharia couldn’t actually harm anything, the only magic she possessed now was glow-up or slight invisibility to humans. She bent backwards with a thought.

Well... she couldn’t hurt people physically... verbally was a whole other game.

“We can be utter demons to each other, but I think we can also discuss how to kill that sanctimonious arrogant sack of flesh that killed my family and stole your tree,” Mharia announced and the vines stopped instantly from her face.

“Give me one word... on how exactly you’re going to do that? Just one,” Wyin said, voice as thin as razor wire.

Mharia smiled sweetly, her eyes dark.

“Delta.”

After a moment, the vines retreated.

“You had my irritation, now?” Wyin’s face leaned in, sleek and flushed with sap.

“You have my attention.”

Mharia felt a single chill go down her spine, a slight reminder that she was still talking to a literal goddess... shattered and broken down as she was.

The real danger wasn’t outlasting Wyin’s anger... no, Mharia knew that the real danger was to ensure Wyin let her go in the end if she ever rose up again as a true goddess.

A life on the run from an invader god was easy. An actual in-world god?

Mharia was stupid and irrational times, but even she feared what was to be the actual successor to the Brother.

The Tree that would absorb the Brother and his Eye, giving them eternal rest, holding the world together.

Just as the other would consume the Sister.

Mharia’s confidence shook.

138: Picture Books? Delta prefers Pop-Up!

‘Why do we keep coming back here?’

Nu asked as they laid under the water of the First-Floor pond.

“It’s like the fish are swimming in the sky... it's quiet,” Delta said after a moment, eyes only slightly open.

A shadow moved over the surface, hiding the fake moon from sight. Nu slapped the giant catfish away as it tried to swallow him.

‘Insolent fishstick... have some manners,

Nu grumbled as it swam off to be a dark behemoth in the shadows.

“Whiskers is only playing,” Delta smiled at the scene.

‘

Whis-... you know what? I’ve heard worse out of you,’

he sighed and laid down next to her and moved his hand, creating currents and swirls.

“I’m worried,” Delta admitted as she ran a finger down the side of her face, imagining she could feel the crack that was there before.

‘It’s a moon-swallowing catfish. Is this really where you draw the line after everything you made that ended up being a little ‘much’? -_-’

Nu asked sarcastically, his screen ending with a flat’ emoticon.

“Whiskers is great, I want ten of him, but no I mean...” she trailed off and Nu was blank for a moment, his screen turning to her.

‘I know.’

he said and he was eyeing the blue scar on Delta’s face without any subtlety.

“Am I... breaking down because I’m terrible at what I’m supposed to be?” Delta asked, moving past the silence as she sat up, causing the swarm of fish around her to shoal like a colourful tornado around her.

Delta smiled, her fingers brushing the joyful creatures as she sat in the epicentre of a rainbow funnel.

Nu leaned in, causing a tear to shoot up the image.

‘Considering you went off-script from day one?’

he began, amusement colouring his statements.

‘I suspect that the system and the world simply can’t handle how bombastic you are. It should adapt, not expect you to break down. Clearly, the inferior subject should rise to emulate the superior,’

Nu announced and Delta tilted her head as two large crayfish went through her hair, knotting it into a bun.

“I’m superior?” she asked, feeling touched.

‘You are everyone’s mother around here; hence ‘Mother Superior’,’

Nu said, twitching as he said the words.

“Oh ‘nun’ of that! I’ll get an ego,” Delta said, face raised in a cackle as she nudged Nu with her elbow.

‘Remove your avatar boney joints from myself before I hurt you.’

“Roger!” Delta said quickly and pulled back.

They sat there for a moment as the moon above turned to a crescent worthy of a Cheshire’s grin.

“Thanks for helping me... and being my rock when I went to crap,” she said and Nu didn’t look at her.

‘If you die? I refuse to be saddled with this mess you call a Dungeon. It’s self-serving that I keep you functional, naturally,’

he explained without any hint of teasing.

“You can just say ‘you’re welcome’, you know?” Delta said, blowing a strand of her hair out of her face.

‘And miss the chance to mock you? I’d rather die’.

Delta leaned her head in and the screen lowered its brightness to make the bottom of the lake more peaceful.

No more words were said for the time as the moonlight illuminated the lake, revealing fish, rocks, and the crystal clean water.

Delta’s peace flowed outwards, the Dungeon lulling into a soft moment that just basked in the fact they all survived another day. Another day they could spend as a family.

---

“So, we missed this big ‘battle’ between Delta and this undead brat?” Quiss asked, his narrowed expression looking down at the sheepish goblins as they lingered around the Dungeon Entrance.

“Yes?” Hob said and Ruli picked him up.

“Little green man, you did good getting us. Don’t be afraid,” she said while giving off a blood soaked aura.

Hob stared as Ruli turned on Quiss, still holding him.

“Stop upsetting the goblins, Quiss. Just cause they’re prettier than you,” she said and Quiss eyed his staff then at Ruli as if considering her an optimal target to aim for.

“How is Delta?” he decided to ask instead and Gob turned to the entrance and yelled down a question with a bark.

Cois, Quiss was sure it was him since his tone sounded catty, yelled back in a matching rough voice.

“Great Delta is great. She is subjecting her enemies to bondage and strict punishment,” Gob reported as he saluted and Ruli dropped Hob as her jaw dropped.

“I suppose that’s why the word ‘Dungeon’ is in the name of Se-” Ruli mused before Quiss powered on, not wanting to talk about indecent acts in subterranean spaces around goblins... or Ruli... or anyone.

“Does she need help?” he asked firmly and Ruli leaned in over his shoulder.

“All those buckles and zippers can be a pain,” she added with a grin.

“How do you know about that?” Quiss asked before immediately regretting it.

“My mother has a lot of old books labelled ‘stuff I did once with my Ruli’s father that I enjoyed but screw him’,” Ruli said with absolutely no shame. Quiss recoiled.

“I’m out. Tell Delta not to burn a hole in reality until after I’m drunk,” he said and walked off with Ruli still attached to him.

The goblins watched them go as Ruli mouthed back to them.

‘Tell Delta I’ll be back later to test those zippers!’ she said before giving them a big thumbs up.

“What’s a zipper?” Hob asked and Gob looked smug.

“A lightning boss monster that traps enemies with his large fingers,” he said with a sagely nod. Hob gasped in excitement.

They went down to ask Cois about Delta’s powerful ‘zippers’.

---

Delta discovered something rather amazing about her notifications. They had a learning-based algorithm that once she asked them to only appear if it would be interesting, a lot of the boxes vanished, leaving those that Delta actually wanted to see.

It was almost as powerful as Facebook Ad technology, but not quite.

There were a few worth actually looking at that simply weren’t ‘you got a new material; here’s the countless things that it can be used for’.

Dragon bone candle holders were cool, but not pressing.

The first was the Library ones.

‘Due to absorbing all of Mharia’s belongings, all books have been sorted into the library automatically. Many deep secrets have been stored and may hold value to many adventurers. These include:
Deep art of forging sacred blades.
The Guide to Living Wood.
A Thousand and One Cures.
Killeron’s Book of Killer Spells.
Tea: Its back and forward, not around when stirring.
And more!

The books can be offered as one-time use rewards for those with affinity to them. Many of them were thought lost and now ancient orders may be able to track them to your dungeon!’

That was neat but... Delta was way more excited about the next line.

‘A small collection of children's books and such have been absorbed, automatically creating a kid-corner in the library with small chairs and nightlights.’

“Do you have “The Hungry Caterpillar?! Do we have it in stock?” Delta demanded abruptly as she zoomed to the room in question.

‘No such book is found in the library. Create it for ‘2 DP’?’

the system asked.

“Yes! I can’t have a library and not have that book,” she said as she touched down in the library itself, a large room of twisting bookcases. A moment later, there was a flash and a crate fell down in front of her, filled with neat stacks of said book.

“I thought I would get just one,” Delta said before shrugging.

“One for non-fiction, one for art, one for poetry, one for religion...” she sang, picking them up and rushing to the shelves.

Libro the golem eyed her as he formed out of many books. Delta looked up at him.

“Say ‘ah’,” she instructed and the golem did so to let Delta slot one of the books into his face.

After a moment, he turned a vibrant shade of reds and green.

“Festive!” she grinned.

That reminded Delta...

She pulled up another notification.

‘Libro Golem has gained a massive power boost due to the influx of books. He has become a repository of knowledge and magics, his power grows as he is fed knowledge, his awareness of the secrets of the world evolves. He is pleased by the gift from Delta. He shall delete ‘The three laws of Golems’ to make space for this book to reside in his permanent mind!’

Three laws... those sounded familiar.

“It’ll come back to me... along with even more traumatic memories I’m sure,” Delta said with a shrug, deciding fretting over it would do her no good.

“We will need... ‘Winnie the Witch’, the one where she has a black cat and a black home. I love that one. Along with that we’ll need all the ‘Waldo’ books, and everything I recall about dinosaurs please,” Delta announced as she finished putting the last Hungry Caterpillar book in ‘world politics’. Delta could argue it was an allegory about eating the rich or something.

The books started to rain down and Delta held her arms out as her childhood flooded the room.

“Lizards, horrible histories, comics, and all of them books about Harry the wizard!” she announced.

The torrential downpour of books started to become a real issue.

When the weather changed to start hailing Goblet of Fires at her, Delta ran for cover.

Just when it started to die down, she brightened.

“The Magic school bus!” she recalled and the ceiling literally just gave up and dropped all of the books.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta forgot the series had so many books...

For 15 DP, she was drowning in escapism.

She saw Libro was staring at her with his featureless face.

“Just because I’m a Dungeon Core doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy escapism,” she said, defensive.

Some of her books started to mingle with Jack’s altar. Delta would have to apologise for the mess later, but she was too busy swimming in paperbacks.

---

In the realm beyond and before and sometimes afterwards, Pip hummed as he shuffled about in his slippers and robe, putting back ‘Lucile Greenstone: Book 15: The revenge of the ghost-vampire who still loved her’.

It was alright, but the formula was getting stale. If Lucy didn’t start dealing with her issues instead of sleeping with them, she was not going to develop in the next 30 books the series had.

He let his thin fingers browse over his collection, closing his eyes to pull one out at random.

He eyed the book with great confusion. It was not his typical affair.

“Animorphs book 1? Yeerks? Changelings? Curious...” the personification of Heroes Death said as he carried it back to his armchair by the fire.

All around him, books squeezed themselves in between his smut and cheap trash romance novels.

Colorful bright books.

---

Delta closed the door to the library, swearing she’d return to binge after she spent her DP elsewhere.

There was a lot to do and... a lot of time to do it.

Immortality... Delta paused as the word came over her. Technically, she was immortal in the sense of being ageless.

“Repress...” Delta said tightly, right eye tensing.

The thoughts of knowing humanity might perish before her was swiftly replaced with tunes that made her brain light up with good feeling bits.

“I wanna be... the very best,” she announced and floated off to the garden where she pulled out more notifications.

‘Core moved beyond the empty boss room. Stairs are closed off to the fourth floor. Would you like to select a theme now or wait?’

Delta sat down on the giant Nu statue that hid her Mana Well.

“Is that allowed since I can’t go there?” she asked curiously.

‘Like setting up a reservation at a restaurant... you can plan ahead,’

Nu said, appearing at her side casually.

“What were you up to?” she asked curiously.

‘Placing more signs. I got lax with them,’

he said simply.

“Should I be worried?” she asked, eyebrows raised.

‘Of course, but look... an important choice,’

he said, pointing with his hands.

Delta blinked, watching as the box unfolded to show five options.

“W-What? That’s two more than last time!” she pointed out. Nu turned to her.

‘Technically, last time you didn’t get a choice,’

he reminded with a casual shrug.

True... Mharia saw to that.

She read off the list.

‘Fourth Floor theme, please select one!

Crystal-Theme: A selection of round caves filled with special crystal growths that can be used to make elemental crystals and special crystal lizard monsters.

Mansion-Theme: A special series of hallways and ‘inner-floors’ that emulate a noble mansion. It’s speciality is humanoid monsters and mimics.

Ice-Theme: a large expansive snowfield and hidden ice tunnels host to dangerous monsters. The main snow field has a boss monster roaming its space.

Island-Theme: A series of interlinked islands in a tropical climate. Powerful monsters reside in the water and it's safer to pass each island’s trial than go swimming.

Gothic Swamp-Theme: A large dark swamp that has a few gothic churches as landmarks. The swamp is said to be home to witches and vampires... also mudbaths.
‘

Those were some options. Delta was great at making choices, however.

“Random button... where’s the random button?” she muttered, pressing around the frame of the box.

‘You have to choose.’

Nu was unsympathetic to her plight.

“But they’re all so cool!” Delta threw her hands up as the choices continued to face her. She blew out a sigh.

“I kind of wish I had a ton of people just out of sight to vote on this for me. I suck at making informed decisions because the ice level sounds really fun like Hoth, but the Islands are also amazing... I need to think it over,” she admitted and stood up, grinning.

“I got three days, right? Plenty of time not to think about it and panic at the last minute before doing the work,” she said calmly making Nu turn around to make a sound similar to the old dial up tones.

‘I’m partial to the Mimic Mansion. Something about it makes my code tingle. I wonder if ‘guests’ would like a health potion mimic? Or perhaps...the entire floor is the boss, and they’re inside the mansion mimic!’

Nu exclaimed in excitement.

Delta gave him a look.

“Wasn’t that a filler arc in that Ninja Anime?” she asked doubtfully. Nu went quiet.

‘How dare you call my plan ‘filler’. If I’m filler then you’re the unwanted sequel no one wanted!’

Nu accused and Delta gasped, hand to her mouth.

“Not Two Piece?” she asked in an aghast tone. Nu leaned in.

‘Dragonball GT,’

he whispered.

Delta withered with disgust.

---

“They’re speaking in ancient tongues and spells again,” Doctor mused as he stroked his stone plague doctor mask. The watching Guardgoyles watched the Sun and Moon rib and accuse each other of being something worse and worse until Nu said Delta was the ‘FF11 of the series’ and Delta lost her cool.

“MIMIC MANSION IS CANCELLED. I JUST BROUGHT CANCEL CULTURE DOWN ON YOUR SCREENY BUTT!” Delta cried, fist shaking.

There was a pause.

“ACTUALLY, IT'S NOT CANCELLED BECAUSE IT IS NEAT, BUT I WON’T PICK JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT IT!” she added afterwards.

‘Just like eleven, you once again make no progress in bettering yourself.’

“Nu’s a good guy... he’s keeping her busy,” Dozer said and Dragon grinned.

“Hard to ignore that she’s spooked by her weird scar, but I think she looks neat,” the gargoyle turned to the tallest of them.

“What do you think Van?” he asked and the stoic humanoid merely nodded.

“She will never stop being beautiful to me,” he agreed and turned away to skulk into the shadows.

“Van... you’re just walking into the corner... we all have night vision, we can see you,” Dozer called, getting no reply in return.

“Edgelord,” Dragon muttered.

“He has a crush, leave him be,” Doctor announced and went off to the Lava Shroom tunnel to perform... science!

After a moment as they began to move off, Dozer casually spoke a sentence that made both Van and Doctor pause in their tracks as Dragon turned to listen,

“I heard there’s a boss spot open,” he commented quietly and the air changed instantly, the casual banter gone and a competitive stare off taking its place.

“Interesting,” Doctor said back evenly.

Near the kitchen door, Jeb the Troll blinked as he stirred his soup, listening to the goodgoyles talk.

“A boss...” he mumbled, wondering if Gnashly knew what that meant? He could ask if nothing else.

---

“If we trick Delta, we can have her calling the fiend to us and use the Dungeon against him,” Mharia said, floating before Wyin who was looking down, thoughtful.

“The parasite sucks mana up to feed itself, if it burrows near Delta, she’ll be starved,” Wyin pointed out casually. “There’s no Dungeons near the tree now,” she spoke as if she knew that for a fact.

“And? Delta will suffer a little or break, but stopping the tree is our ultimate goal,” Mharia said coyly as she floated up, turning away from Wyin as she put a finger to her chin.

“He is a threat to everything,” she summed up.

“So, it's between Delta’s well-being and the parasite’s death is it?” Wyin said, chuckling as she fanned herself with her branches.

Mharia smirked, turning, but gagged as Wyin hooked a branch into her mouth, the thing burrowing deep into her throat as Wyin dragged her closer until Mharia was forced to stare into Wyin’s golden amber eyes.

“I choose Delta, you conniving little worm,” she hissed.

“I can’t harm people, but you aren’t people. We aren’t people. We are Dungeon and you are... less than us. You wish me to offer Delta up to this parasite as you and your people offered me up in the end? I’d rather crack and burn, you little wretch. Now... give in. Delta took you in and trust me... none of us, not Lord Mushy, not Sir Fran, and certainly not I, approve of your continued existence. You are here by her kindness only and while I am a jaded shell of who I was?” Wyin whispered and the fairy could feel her insides being stretched.

“Delta would have been welcomed as my head priestess or a friend if I were still your goddess. Now? I am her shadow and if she dies? I will weep as I use her corpse to burn this world down and raze my enemies to ash... understand?” she asked, voice suddenly sweet and Mharia nodded frantically.

Wyin removed the roots and looked bored.

“Excellent, now be a dear and get me a Honey Tea with a mix of red honey and blue, but no green, it makes me gassy,” Wyin said, shooing the fairy away.

Mharia looked shell-shocked at what occurred so Wyin leaned down.

“Oh, and the Queen is sometimes a tea companion of mine. I hear, through the grapevine, that she doesn’t like you,” the tree whispered with glee before straightening up.

“Good luck!” Wyin waved and Mharia knew she was in hell.

It just wasn’t operated by some Reaper, but by Delta.

An orange, fungus-infected hell.

139: An-Jell-ic

The best way to tackle something was to take it one step at a time, so Delta did that. She had ample time to choose her next floor, confident she’d have a choice before long.

“First order of business is...” Delta pointed to the simple door to the north.

“The boss,” she said and it was like the entire floor tensed in excitement. Like all boss rooms, it was a simple empty round room, waiting for Delta to mould it into something.

“First floor? Fran and Bacon, they offer direct combat and a sort of ‘give it your all’ vibe,” Delta mused aloud as she paced back and forth, finding it soothing to just be a Dungeon for the moment. Make a room, fill the room, use the room, then move on to the next room.

“Second floor has Wyin, who is about challenging you after long trials and purposely being antagonistic towards adventurers and kidnapping one of them to cause panic,” Delta held up the other hand.

So, her third boss should be something either tricky, gimmicky, or minion-using if she was going to keep things fresh.

She pursed her lips.

“Or all of the above?” she said slyly and pulled up her menus to go through them in search of important items.

After a moment, she had a simple iron cauldron over flame as she began to drop things in.

“One dragon skull, a Gutrot, a lich bone or two, and to make them cook so lovely... “ Delta held her hands up and a jug appeared before she poured the thick goop into the pot.

“Troll soup,” she said with a grin.

After a moment, nothing happened. Delta frowned before she went to the library and returned with a spare copy of Hungry Caterpillar.

“I forgot some good taste,” she amended as she dropped the book in.

The cauldron began to shake and shoot sparks into the air. Delta took three steps back, hands clasped together.

“Come on, show me the horrors I made!” she beckoned.

She’d show Nu who was 11…

The pot exploded.

---

“I mean we have a job. We can’t exactly just ask for a promotion,” Dragon said gruffly.

“We could,” Doctor countered, interested in what his boss form would be. Van opened his mouth, but an enormous explosion rocked the third floor and a terrible presence soon filled the boss room.

“On second thought? I’m happy staying out here,” Dozer announced quickly.

“I heard the sound of chaos,” Doctor sang and tried to glide towards the boss room but was held back by Van.

“Best to wait until Delta screams or complains... then we’ll know,” he said gruffly, his muscles flexing as he crossed his arms.

“Know what?” Dragon asked as he snorted out flames.

“If our minds can handle what lies within,” Van responded quietly.

They all waited.

--

Delta coughed, clearing the smoke from her vision as she looked to see what she made.

On the ground in front of her a tiny draconian skull with two curly horns.

Delta stared at the tiny skull.

The skull stared back, empty eye sockets without expression.

“You’re going to do something the moment I look away or drop my guard,” she accused and inside one of the eyes, a little green grub emerged, more slime than bug.

It yawned, with black floating material inside forming its little beady eyes.

Delta bent down.

“I was trying to make a giant wave of bone and slime that would be a threat unless they did the right trick,” she admitted. The little slime eyed her and opened its mouth to reveal four little stubby nubs in each corner of its mouth that could have been teeth.

“I don’t believe you,” Delta said with a smile and the creature blinked then smiled with a happy gurgle.

She pulled up his notification.

‘You have created ‘Jellagon’.
A creature made with powerful necrotic energies and a habit of snacking on expensive things. As a potential boss, it is weak now, but if made a boss it gains strong effects. Make boss?’

Delta thought about it and the grub made its black eyes enlarge pathetically.

“Oh... alright,” she said as if she was ever going to say no.

Her bosses weren’t really about being bosses. They were about bringing a floor together and this guy was great.

“Make boss,” she announced and booped the grub’s face, making it gurgle with delight.

All that seemed to happen was on its dragon skull, a little golden crown appeared, making the grub applaud with delight.

Her field was abruptly filled with screens and she barely had time to read them before another one appeared.

‘Jellagon has become ‘King Jellagon’: The Third Floor Boss!
Jellagon is a happy creature that is usually easy to defeat, however the more adventurers take from the floor, the stronger he becomes.

-If an adventurer overeats at the feast hall, Jellagon grows larger.
-If an adventurer takes from the mushroom tunnel, he develops stronger acid and mushroom powers.
-If an adventurer steals from Runelic the Blacksmith at his forge, his skull becomes a body.
-If the adventurers take or destroy things in the lab, Jellagon can produce Prince Jelly and Princess Jelica slimes as minions.
-If anyone drinks from the Mana well without permission, Jellagon becomes ‘Dark King Jellagon’.
-If anyone steals from Jeb’s kitchen, Jellagon can produce skeletal Pygmy mushroom minions.
-If books are taken from the library without permission. Jellagon can invite Libro into the boss room at the back of adventurers.
-If all the trolls and/or all the Guardgoyles are destroyed, Jellagon can summon ‘Royal Slime Knight’ and ‘Troll Soup’ slimes(if both are destroyed, can summon both types)as minions.
-If every previous ‘bonus’ is activated. Jellagon can go from ‘Dark King Jellagon’ to ‘Overlord Jellagon’.
‘

Delta read this over a few times, her smile growing as she read.

“I wonder what happens if I add like ten more things for people to take?” she mused before picking Jellagon up and holding his skull to her body.

“Who's a cute destroyer of gluttony and greed?” she said, and the little worm-slime cheered.

She was smiling as this was so simple and fun. No liches, no war... no pressing doom. Just good old Dungeon fun!

“Now, your room must be befitting a king of your stature,” she announced grandly and Jellagon warbled in agreement.

“You know...” she began, walking forward with her boss in her arms.

“I just got this throne off this brat,” she said brightly.

She began to weave the room around her like a canvas and her hand as the brush.

Her joy was the paint.

---

“Hit me,” Mharia mumbled. Fera eyed the fairy before pouring her another hot milk, sliding it across the counter into Mharia’s open hand.

“Hard day?” Fera asked acidicly.

“Funny... I get it. I’m a horrible fairy lich who should suffer because I dared upset Mommy Delta,” Mharia groaned and sipped her milk.

“Nah, we can forgive whatever you were before becoming Dungeon. It’s the fact you kept going after Delta let you live that annoys us,” Fera said bluntly.

“Maybe I didn’t want to live! How about that?” Mharia snapped and turned her dark glare on Fera, trying to conjure dark power, only to be facing down some massive twin-barreled fire-crystal powered gun.

“One reason... just give me one reason and unlike the self-absorbed rocking chair called Wyin? I’ll actually do more than play,” Fera snarled.

They stared at each other. Mharia backed off first.

“I don’t get why I’m here,” Mharia finally admitted and drained her milk. Fera had a fresh one waiting for her.

“Punishment, prisoner of war, redemption, maybe something else? You’re expecting to be able to get into Delta’s head and that’s where you’re screwing up. Delta can be directed or even shifted, but Delta cannot be stopped,” Fera leaned in and her frame was powerful.

“She's too nice so she has us to lay down the truth. None of us get enough time with her. We all want to know more, ask more, be more... but Delta is one person and we are many. You cannot ask the sun to shine on you alone,” Fera said quietly and walked off.

“So, am I to wait here and just hope for the best?” Mharia asked, scoffing slightly.

“Get a hobby or bother Nu. It works for the rest of us,” Fera said as she vanished through the back of her bar.

Mharia glared at the door and floated up.

“Perhaps you’re right... I should just do something,” Mharia agreed and shot off flying through the first and second floors so fast it was a blur, edging around Wyin who looked savage and delighted at Mharia’s reaction.

The fairy powered on and before long she was inside the room beyond the garden, ready to speak to Delta... to demand the sun look at her for a moment.

Delta was busy shaping the room and the floor to resemble some rather basic throne room of sorts. Mharia opened her mouth, but the skull resting on Delta’s shoulder turned and the creature within ‘looked’ at her and Mharia suddenly couldn’t breathe, it felt like the air had turned heavy and was on fire.

The skull seemed to grow to Mharia, the slime inside becoming less of a worm and more of a... wyrm?

It rose above her and its black eyes ignited in sickly yellow flames as the skull filled and cracked. It stared down at her, with a long serpentine body dripping with more potent necromantic energies than even Mharia once possessed.

Delta turned around and the skull was just a skull, the image of the dangerous being gone like a mirage she had wandered too close to.

“Mharia...” Delta said, surprised at the sight of her.

“C-Can we talk?” Mharia asked, feeling like her fake-flesh had turned ghostly white.

Delta eyed the room with a frown as if she had been enjoying herself, then nodded.

“I could use a break... from my break,” she joked and put the ‘hellish-beast-let-it-die’ down on the ground, promising she’d be back after a quick coffee break.

“Let me show you to my favourite place,” Delta said; and Mharia would agree to go back to the troll pot if it meant getting away from Wyin or this thing.

Delta’s bosses were the stuff of nightmares.

---

Alpha had gone to the moon.

That was an experience.

Now, he was back in Durance; an arguably stranger place.

He walked past people he felt completely outclassed by. Monsters walking around like normal villagers, pretending to barter or enjoying the act of ‘town gossip’. They had carved a life here, but it felt a little like a stage prop at times.

Like they were waiting for the curtain to rise and the show to begin.

And Alpha would soon become one of them. The idea didn’t scare Alpha as much as it used to. He’d camp outside Delta’s Dungeon if need be, but he was glad to be nearby. He pondered the idea of being a contract with her, but apparently, the idea unsettled people.

Contracted Humans had a stigma attached to them, from what Alpha had heard anyway.

As he walked down the street he was stopped by a voice that he had learned to fear

“I wondered where you ran off to, Al,” Perhal’s voice sounded out as she emerged from the tavern, looking peckish. Perhal always looked peckish... it was when she was starving that Alpha didn’t dare get near.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“I was exploring,” he said simply, deciding he wasn’t lying. Explored a dungeon, found family, lost his soul to a demonic lich girl, got rescued, was present for the meeting between the two gods from his nightmares, left for a snack. He didn’t skip too much... honestly.

“Come on, you’re sticking by me. I’m heading back to report that the town is... functional as a new base of operations for the king’s little men,” Perhal said brightly,as if the idea of those ‘little men’ was a snack she could pick up on the way home.

Less than 24 hours ago, Alpha would have snapped to attention, accepting the request without a word; but he didn’t, now...

Her request? No... her order?

Alpha didn’t care for it.

“I quit the knights and being your Squire. I’ll be staying here,” Alpha announced and he felt almost pain at seeing the words ‘Quest Failed’ appear; but Delta’s face appeared in his mind and he powered on, only shaking slightly.

“What was that, Al?” Perhal asked, confused, perfectly innocent with her expression.

“I quit,” he repeated, a cascade of ‘quest failed’ notifications appearing as his requests built up in his time in the capital were abruptly cut off. He trembled, feeling... like a failure, but he held on to the lingering touches of Delta’s mana, it felt safe... like an old hand that used to promise him safety... and made it happen.

“Sure, you can quit,” Perhal shrugged and leaned down.

“I just need your hand to sign the papers back home. You don’t mind if I take just one?” she asked brightly and drool escaped the corner of her mouth at the idea.

Alpha backed up, unable to stop feeling afraid. Perhal’s frame seemed to be rippling like her skin was a suit she wore.

“Al... you always looked the most scrumptious of the squires. It's why I wanted you as mine!” she explained, and advanced on him.

Someone stepped between them.

“EXC-um, excuse me,” a soft voice interrupted and Alpha looked to see the familiar red hair of the boy he met in Delta’s Dungeon.

Deo.

“Miss, I advise you to step back and not eat my friend,” Deo said bravely. Alpha looked around, wondering if he missed another one of the teens from before, or Kemy. He didn’t see anyone, and wondered if Deo’s friend had a level 99 stealth skill?

Impressive...

“And what a cute little strawberry you are,” Perhal giggled like she was a schoolgirl and bent down, drooling obscenely now.

“I could just gobble you right up,” she promised.

“MA- Ma’am, I think eating people has been illegal since five years ago after Mister Von got cranky,” Deo admitted before turning and smiling at Alpha.

“And you can’t eat him; we only just became friends. I haven’t had time to invite him to dinner or play ‘heroes and more heroes’,” he explained.

Wait... did Deo mean Alpha was his friend? He checked his mental notifications.

He hadn’t gotten a party invite or a quest...

“You two are like cream and strawberries, just the perfect match. A little bite of each is all I need and you can go home,” the large knight said and took Deo’s arm.

Alpha didn’t know exactly what happened next, but his sensory skills went insane.

The world went so quiet that his own heartbeat hurt to hear. It thumped louder and louder, the sound overpowering. He breathed and the sensation of his lungs inflating was torturous. There was a new sound, someone stepping on the cobbles and the sound was like crashing waves or cannon fire, but however bad it was for Alpha, Parhal was on the ground, skin tearing, ears leaking fluids and eyes expanding.

Deo winced, but didn’t look to be harmed.

A beautiful woman who bore a striking resemblance to Deo appeared and looked down at the Royal Knight with disdain.

If it was too quiet before? It was like the world completely stilled around the woman and she seemed to eye Alpha before the effect she had over him faded to a bearable level.

She bent down, looking the snarling Perhal in the face.

When she spoke, it was like a primordial bang in the darkest of space, bringing light.

“Don’t.”

A single word and the street shattered, Parhal’s royal knight armour cracking as the woman was pushed back hard enough that her bones began to fracture.

Then sound returned to the world with an almost simple ‘pop’.

Perhal was still, unmoving as her hair was splayed out and away from her, her slowly healing skin raw.

“Deo... do you want sweet potatoes or carrots?” the woman asked, voice sweet. Deo eyed the fallen knight with a frown but looked like he was thinking hard then eyed Alpha.

“Do you like carrots?” he asked. The woman eyed Alpha with a wary look, but offered him a small smile after a moment.

Alpha liked carrots.

“Whatever you like,” he said, in shock.

“Let’s get both,” Deo suggested, and his mother nodded with a smile, looking tearful at her son and his ability to hear her.

Then Alpha was dragged away by the two for an unexpected dinner. His ‘resignation’ from the Royal Knights didn’t go out with a whimper, but that was definitely not a bang.

‘Delta... what did you get me involved with?’ he mentally asked.

---

‘This isn’t my fault,’ Delta mentally grimaced, trying not to let it show.

At the bottom of the lake, Mharia and Delta sat in very strained silence as they avoided each other’s gaze.

‘I didn’t start this war or this conversation,’ she added and Mharia sighed.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to something, but sounding like she wasn’t bothered if she was answered. The air bubble around her head that Delta made let her speak clearly. Delta followed her gaze to see the bouncing googly eyes of a very obvious sunken treasure chest.

“It’s a trick mimic, people think it's a trap mimic but inside is a rare key to all the doors in the dungeon,” she said and Mharia floated over and kicked it with interest. A second later and there were nothing but bubbles in the lake as Clamamity swallowed Mharia, its large tongue sticking out at the side of its body.

“I hate you,” came Mharia’s muffled voice. Delta gestured for the clam to release Mharia, and it spat her out with a grin.

“Let’s talk, ‘cause you’re bumming me out,” Delta said and Mharia looked pissed.

“I’m bumming you out? You enslaved me!” she reminded Delta, as if the core could forget.

“You tried to kill me, eat my friends, then turn me insane. I win,” Delta said flatly.

“Just tell me what you want so we can end this charade. Clearly, neither of us is happy about it,” Mharia said, smoothing down her small dress and folding her wings behind her to let her float in the water.

“You agreed to this; and I’ve got so much going on that yes, I’m sorry you feel ‘enslaved’ and forgotten about, but I really do not stop working,” Delta sighed as she eyed the fake moon.

It was funny how she always ended up back here.

Mharia went on about how she felt like a joke or like she was just around as a punching bag, but Delta wasn’t listening for the moment.

She had just had an idea!

Usually, this only worked with Nu, but Mharia could also fill the same role!

“Ria, I have a plan,” Delta said. Mharia stopped abruptly, mouth open.

“I beg your pardon, I will not have my-” she began; but Delta grabbed her and shot into the air, taking the fairy with her.

Delta zoomed to the very first room beyond her entrance.

“Oh, spiderwebs, that didn’t get old after the first ten years down here,” Mharia said sarcastically as she tried to fix her hair.

“Shh... etiquette time. You were a princess, right?” Delta asked, and Mharia paused before nodding slowly.

“The middle-child of three, but yes,” she muttered and after a second, the Spider Court emerged, reformed from their time as the Symphony of Nightmares.

They all perched on webs, beginning the three-hour-long dance of greeting.

Behind them, two more shapes lowered themselves into the room from above. The ghostly form of Muffet moved with an elegant and ethereal grace. Quee was less elegant, more an awkward teen trying to dance down a web.

Delta responded with an ‘I’d love to talk, but must cut the greeting short’ counter-dance so as not to simply be rude. It involved a lot of squatting and flailing.

“Oh mighty spiders, I bring you a noble annoyance from a fallen kingdom. Her attitude makes her molting awkward and her manners make poor webs,” she said, and Mharia turned slowly to glare at Delta.

Muffet twisted, making elegant gestures of such lyrical poetry that it would bring tears to the eight eyes of any spider that saw it.

Quee crossed his human arms and glared at Mharia, who was staring at his very pretty features with shyness before she looked away, angry at herself.

Delta translated the beauty of spider-word into less pretty English.

‘What do you wish for us to do with the rude boney one?’

“She needs a place to be a catty little rude thing but in a way she can pass it off as charming. She needs politics.” Delta said easily.

“I’m not sure spiders can provide such... means,” Mharia scoffed and one of the spiders touched her wings before shaking its head.

Two more shared whispers behind their legs.

Quee puffed his chest up.

“Your cheekbones are quite high,” he said smugly. Mharia stared at him before she clung to Delta.

“You can’t leave me here,” she commanded a little desperately.

Delta calmly took her and placed her on a nearby web, sticking her in place.

“I’ll swing by later. The spiders are the most unbiased of my monsters if you observe their rules. Just work your way in and keep a cool head. You’ll be popular in no time,” she promised, fudging the truth just a tad.

‘Popular’ was overselling it.

“How many rules?” Mharia asked, her cherubic face pinched as she waved her hands.

“Well... you just broke four there and insulted someone’s third leg in the same motions, so watch that,” Delta replied brightly.

Muffet placed an elegant web hat on Mharia’s head.

“Look. you’ve been given the ‘Forgive this one for her actions in future tidings as her knowledge is that of the unborn’ hat!” Delta exclaimed excitedly as the floppy hat settled on the lich-fairy’s head.

Mharia eyed the hat.

“It’s a nice hat,” she had to admit after being stuck with the same clothes for the last hundred years.

“I shall instruct you as we have mostly similar arms and hands,” Quee said briskly, walking forward, long hair flowing. Mharia went quiet.

“...kay,” she finally said, shrinking into her hat to avoid being seen.

Delta eyed this with amusement.

Ah, undeveloped mental personalities that got stuck at the mental age of early teens for a century. So easily flustered...

Delta should have sent a dozen handsome spider-boys at Mharia, not hulking monstrosities.

Hindsight was funny like that.

140: Dancing Quee-n

“Jellagon, do you want plush red or silky purple?” Delta asked as she conjured a soft pillow on the throne. The skull on the floor, moving with the pace of a slow slug, gurgled something out.

“Green cotton...” Delta mused, switching it up so the pillow was set into the throne.

The entire image was to be more of a symbol than the usual imposing sight of power to anyone walking in. Fran made an entrance, Wyin put on a show... Delta wanted her little Jellagon to make a statement!

The throne itself was a little shabby looking with only a few cheap-looking banners about. It was long and rectangular with stained glass set into the walls, showing off various scenes of the Dungeon.

A hot spa under a full moon with Luna, a party in Hog’s Head with Fera, Wyin at dusk, and even Lord Mushy fast asleep atop a nonplussed sheep.

For someone who went about the Third Floor with grace, able to act like sensible people? This room would be what they saw. A simplistic stone room with bright chandeliers and candles set into bumblebee candle holders and a snack table with some empty bowls that Delta would soon fill.

Chairs surrounded the table and a teapot bubbled away.

King Jellagon’s Humble Throne Room.
-Bowls fill with rare treats from across the Dungeon.
-King Jellagon lets them pass without a fight.

Delta hummed and mentally flipped a switch, shifting the room so it grew larger, the stone turning to a darker grey. The bumblebee candle holders became glaring wasps as the table and chairs vanished. The humble throne pressed into the back of the room, the top of it spreading up the wall like creeping vines of metal.

The metal turned more brass as the stained glass images changed to show Luna rising out of her spa with a knife; Fera’s pub dark except her eyes and the glow of her boomstick; Wyin turning to the viewer, smiling.

Lord Mushy was sitting up now, frowning. There were two new windows. One showed Maestro leaning on his cane with a wicked smile, and the last of Fran riding Bacon, emerging from the darkness of his room.

King Jellagon’s Displeased Throne Room.
-King Jellagon grows stronger and fights.
-The windows occasionally let loose abilities based on their images.

And finally, Delta flipped the switch once more.

The stone turned utterly black, glowing red lines moving between each block like pulsing veins leading to the throne, which was made of some crimson metal. Its height spanned the massive hall, arching out into two giant metallic wings and a snarling dragon head as the seat itself was massive, able to fit three adult males side by side.

The chandeliers blazed out of control, burning and warping the air, dripping black wax every few seconds like angry rain.

The candleholders were now full-sized guardgoyles, ready to spring to life when Jellagon needed them the most. The stained glass windows were no longer able to be smashed since dark holes of reality were in their place, occasionally letting a shadow-clone of one of Delta’s various monsters appear to attack, their form smoky with glowing eyes.

Two more had joined the fight.

A furious Hero with a cap on his power and Bob the worm.

“Oh, looks nasty,” Delta said with respect as Jellagon gurgled with pleasure at the sight of it.

King Jellagon’s Furious Throne Room.

- Jellagon becomes almost full strength.

- Minions spawn. Slimes from the melting wax and guardgoyles.

- Shadow monsters aid Jellagon.

There was another switch to the room, but it required a password just to be safe.

“You Jelly?” Delta called out and the room shuddered.

The stone and walls broke apart, teetering on the edge of the Dungeon and the warped space that allowed it to be massive without being constrained to simple layers. A purple void stretched out between the floating platforms as the throne rose, breaking apart, forming a metallic dragon armour that Jellagon would equip in his full form, becoming the throne itself. The armour was so big it had to rise above the platforms, leaving its legs and tail hidden below. Storms crackled overhead dramatically and horrid winds blew across the void.

The shadow beings that had been pretty much a feature so far gathered into a massive blade that occasionally bulged with forms of past monsters.

“Feels very final boss,” Delta managed to get out without choking. Jellagon, thankfully still in his baby form, cooed at the sight of the power he wielded.

Overlord Jellagon’s Oblivion Throne

- Jellagon is done.

- Falling into the void removes someone from the dungeon.

- The shadow blade can use moves from past bosses or combine them.

- Violent storms buffet invaders.

- Maestro provides dark Latin choir music wailing in the background along with electric guitar riffs.

“Do you think this is too much?” Delta asked Jellagon, who made a soft ‘oh no, never’ motion with a shake of his head.

Maestro let loose with his rock music and Delta conjured a lighter as the damn guitar was just so riffy!

‘Destroy all of death!’ Maestro chanted with his best impression of JRPG Latin.

‘Destroy all of life!’ he went on.

Well... thank goodness Mushrooms didn’t bother with such things as that.

---

“Ahh ah...” the woman known as Isanella sang, and she waited with sheer joy as Deo turned to her.

“Ahh ah ahh!” he sang back, and Alpha was a little awe-struck by how beautiful they made such basic notes sound as they just sang at each other.

“Humph,” Deo’s father mumbled, and the floor shook.

This family was singing at each other like they hadn’t actually seen each other in years. Alpha felt like an intruder, but every time he tried to flee out a window or teleport, Isanella appeared and gave him food.

Damn social etiquette. Alpha knew they were one of his many weaknesses, like social skills, talking to people, and necromantic liches stealing his soul.

Miss D would chap his hide if she caught him being rude to nice people. He paused between bites of some homemade cookie as that thought went through his mind.

Miss D?

He was getting stuffed on too much good food.

Delta would be upset if he was rude to her neighbors.

“You sing!” Deo insisted, leaning in with a grin. Alpha put down his napkin.

“I don’t sing,” he said without apology, and all three of them looked at him with shock.

“Damaged cords?” Isanella mumbled, a sweet sound even when she was muttering.

“Cursed?” Deo’s father eyed Alpha with concern.

“Shy?!” Deo exclaimed, voice rising a bit in horror.

“...all three... I should get going,” Alpha tried to get up, but hesitated when Isanella put a hand on his shoulder.

“I had words with the innkeeper... She's odd, but due to the unique circumstance of your arrival, you have a room there for however long you need. It’s only a small room...” she trailed off, and Alpha frowned.

“I don’t have a reward for your work,” he pointed out, and she looked amused.

“Then sing for me,” she teased and Alpha felt stuck by his own logic. He had to reward her... she did a quest for him even without him knowing it...

“Um... okay,” he said slowly and inhaled.

“A... B... C,” he hummed out, feeling like a total idiot. Isanella took his hand and spun him around.

“D, E, F” she carried on as if he was creating some masterpiece. Alpha flushed, so distracted by the sheer enjoyment the family got from singing the song that he didn't even notice that he continued the pattern when it swung back to his turn.

He had been musically shanghaied.

Delta better send some disaster for him to address, or Alpha was going to die.

---

Delta was sure she was missing something, but after returning the boss room back to normal, she checked the upgrades and only read the first two before she slammed the menu shut.

Allow Jellagon’s greed punishment to affect the fir-
Allow Jellagon’s greed punishment to affect the sec-

“That’s enough scary stuff for one room!” she laughed nervously as Jellagon settled on his humble throne, falling asleep on his pillow, a large green bubble expanding from his face and deflating as he snored.

Besides... the rest of the floor needed loving. It was far from done and the sheer amount of upgrades also meant the second floor could finally reach its peak! There was a sense, a Dungeon sense, when a floor reached a sort of perfect balance that any more large upgrades would be a disservice to her other floors.

Obviously, Delta would still improve the first floor like the Pond room and more, but it was just the way she liked it. The second floor was close to that, but it needed a lot of changes to be closer to ‘peak’.

She floated out to the main garden and decided to do something obvious. She marked Jellagon’s door with a massive set of double steel doors on it, the earth shaping over it to form a dragon-like maw with the door in its throat.

Delta added torches to the sunken eyes to make them glow.

Now... There was no doubt which was the boss, which suited Delta just fine. If she knew people... and Delta was pretty sure she was still a human being deep down, then the idea of not exploring for loot would kill certain people.

It was the rule of explorers. If you found the correct path on the first try? Backtrack and go the other way.

It did raise a potential future issue where people just ignored the third floor and rushed past Jellagon, but she could devise some conditional lock based on the floor later.

Information was going to spread by word of mouth from adventurer to adventurer. Delta couldn’t stop that and she wouldn’t have the DP or Mana to constantly change every room or floor every time someone visited... it would trap Delta in a loop of actually making no progress.

She decided to start where she always ended up.

Delta would start with the mushrooms.

She floated into the tunnel that once contained the massive hole that likely connected to the other castles of the Silence. Delta could have kept it open and thrown insults down it, but the thing was creepy if she was honest.

Now? Glowing orange mushrooms grew everywhere, their caps cracked with glowing veins as their roots caused ominous light to emerge from out the ground. The air inside the tunnel shimmered and Delta noticed one mushroom, likely the first one that grew was larger than the others.

“What should I do here? What should I do to make things fit into the ‘aesthetic’ of the floor?” she asked aloud. The theme was castle and garden really, with a built-in demon blacksmith. Every castle had at least one demon smith, right?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

She mentally went over what she had. A library, a feast hall, a romantic garden with terrifying guardgoyles, an evil laboratory that would need to be converted, a blacksmith, a troll den, a kitchen, a map room, and a throne...

The idea hit her when she imagined what she would want in her castle if she was a princess. Delta would have to admit she was hitting ‘queen’ status, not princess, soon, but not today.

She rubbed her hands excitedly as she stretched the room out massively, making it almost as big as the garden and feast hall, using up some DP to really push it to where she wanted. With a wave of her hands, she began to shift mushrooms around, feeding them Mana until they grew truly massive. It had themes of the Mushroom Grove, but she quickly put that to rest by focusing on the floor.

With stuff she absorbed from Mharia’s castle, she watched as cream marble formed like liquid being poured until it settled into a gleaming floor.

Delta gave it a few experimental taps before she grinned, pulling up her sleeves to get down to the fun stuff.

The large lavashrooms narrowed, becoming thinner and also covered in marble, causing their heat to form into the stone, forming orange veins like glowing ivy. Occasionally, flashes of heat rose, causing them to have a soft strobe effect before the heat spread across the ceiling where Delta created elegant paths for the light to pass through, forming her own magic artwork on the ceiling.

“Hem...” Delta coughed, looking around to make sure she was alone before she manually took control of the mana and the pillars.

The heat inside the pillars began to pulsate in ever-increasing rates before the surface of the pillar became covered in various coloured glass, causing the expanded space to flash with intense pumping bass and colours.

“Unce Unce Unce!” Delta said, moving around like she had ragdoll physics on.

She paused, feeling eyes on her. She turned to see all the Guardgoyles and Jellagon watching her.

“I see you’re developing sonic attacks,” Doctor said good-naturedly as the sound ceased.

“It’s music,” Delta countered, crossing her arms.

“It’s intense,” Dragon replied, his lips pulled back in a grin.

“It’s meant to get the blood rushing!” she added, feeling defensive of her early 2000’s rave music.

A screen appeared before anyone else could make a smart remark and force Delta to seem more insecure about her flailing.

You have developed the room to become a ‘Hot-Blooded Ballroom’. Accept change?

Delta grinned and hit it without thinking. The entire room began to shake as the walls and pillars warped, stretching further.

From the very top, a chandelier, much grander than Jellagon had in his throne room, appeared like molten gold, all the lights were made of fire and water crystals, their lights pulsating to form a soft shimmering lilac colour over the room.

Nearby, a wall pulled in on itself, forming a grand stage where a band could play, but at the top of the marble steps, a platform lowered, showing Maestro’s form as he was lowered down, his majestic cane propping him up as he leaned on it sideways, hat tipped down.

The shaking did not stop and Delta threw herself to the ground in hopes of avoiding blame if Nu came looking.

“Ah, panic in the ballroom,” Maestro declared grandly as at the top of the room at various spaces, large observation windows for people to sit appeared, each of them having a personal sign. Delta couldn’t quite give them a decent look over as the shaking hit some sort of crescendo.

A double set of doors formed on the far side and it felt like it stretched and looped elegantly to the surface, connecting to her entrance hall.

From the first window, a confused Sir Fran and Bacon appeared. Fran had lost his usual armor and weapon, appearing in some sort of elegant tuxedo. Bacon, his calm piggy self, had a cute little bowtie around his neck.

“I... see,” Fran said after a moment as a chair appeared for him to sit. The next window showed a smaller version of Wyin who had a beautiful black cocktail dress on and actual legs, her hair trailing back into the shadows behind her chair, she smiled holding up an ornate fan that had a bloody red sunset on its surface.

“Delta... it’s only been a day since you consumed the pest. I shouldn’t be surprised,” Wyin smiled mischievously. Jellagon was gone and appeared on a... booster seat in the final window, a top hat on his dragon skull.

Three windows were made across them, showing Fera, Muffet, and Lord Mushy in attendance. Lord Mushy was in his usual royal regalia, Muffet had a ghostly white dress around her body and Fera...

Fera wore a giant puffy pink ball gown and had a massive powdered wig on her head along with cherry red lipstick.

Delta stared but then it clicked as Fera reached under her dress and pulled out a massive bottle of spirits, throwing one to Fran, the bottle sailing across the room easily, before she uncorked her own.

Only Fera would wear the most ridiculous things to smuggle contraband into the ball.

Delta quickly pulled open her new window to see what she had ‘accidentally done.

Hot-Blooded Ballroom.
A massive dancehall that allows all to enjoy the elegant politics of ballroom dancing or the rough and tumbling fun of doing the worm with surprise guest appearances from Bob. The room has different functions depending on the event. The floor bosses are always able to attend, even if defeated, but lose all combat power. The other windows will have random guests from around the Dungeon so the adventurers better hope they were kind to that one random goblin or frog!

Competitions can be held or ‘general party mode’ can be activated. Any outsiders who use the Entrance door are put under the condition they cannot kill, same for monsters in attendance. Usually, they cannot leave the hall, but unique ballroom parties may extend to the garden beyond!

Adventurers who challenge this room must dance to the satisfaction of the selected theme. Be it ‘robot’, ‘pop’, or ‘romantic waltz’. Doing all the challenges and intentionally doing poorly simply to get any gift will activate King Jellagon’s consequence ability.

Upgrades:
Unlock metal Mosh pits, rave parties, and kidbop themes. O2 album automatically added for free. You cannot reject the O2 album. Just accept it. 10 DP.

Panic in the Disco: Unlock a special event where Dance Machines are spawned. Insane footwork needed, but the prizes are much better. 20 DP.

Phantom of the Opera: Unlock a special mini-boss event, transforming Maestro into the Ballroom Phantom, able to challenge adventurers who attack the judges. 25 DP.

“I might have done something,” Delta admitted and she was spun in surprise.

“Sir Maestro, a waltz please,” Doctor said pleasantly as he managed to hold Delta’s hands, her avatar becoming stronger by the day.

“Aren’t you supposed to ask a lady to dance before you sweep her off her feet?” Delta asked, relaxing as Maestro spun his cane.

“This one is dedicated to all those foxy boys and girls out there waiting to shake their moneymakers, Delta’s Grandest Ballroom is open for business! The greatest show is here!” he announced, making the music flow from the marble pillars as Delta was led away by Doctor.

She laughed as he spun her under the twinkling lights of the sky.

A moment later, Dozer stepped forward, taking over as the judges all applauded politely.

Delta laughed as she was spun around and around.

She felt... a little like a princess.

She couldn’t wait to share this feeling with everyone. Deo, Quiss, Ruli, and everyone!

Everyone deserved to feel like a princess.

---

High above, unseen by anyone unless they were looking, the grand royal court of the spiders all gossiped and chatted elegantly in their web-seats. Nearby, Mharia looked down, a little sadly as the ballroom was fantastic... but there were just enough hints of her home ballroom to make her quiet.

Quee, easily the largest of the seated spiders, made awkward gestures with his hands.

“No, I don’t want a cough drop,” Mharia muttered.

“I said ‘you sound sad’,” he replied curtly. Mharia wanted to speak a dead language at him and make him feel like she did... stupid.

“But you weren’t far off. You're improving rapidly,” Quee insisted. A silence settled over them as Delta was doted on, favoured by all her monsters. Acting as nothing had happened between her and Mharia.

Was it spite or just normal for Delta to abruptly move on with her life?

“I pretend not to remember,” he announced and Mharia gave him a look that said she had no clue what he meant.

“Before I was me. I was another. I was ‘her’. She was not a nice person... or really a person so to speak. For Delta, the great mother of us all... I don’t want to burden her with the knowledge I remember being broken down... burned by her rage. However, I know what it is somewhat like to feel like you are in chains without any manacles or iron links. You feel alone, an outsider... like it will all come crashing down,” Quee said quietly.

“How can you not hate this then?” Mharia asked and Quee thought about it.

“Because when I was reborn, I saw who I was through the eyes of a new person. Delta was utterly in her right to destroy who I was... and it would be her right not to return me, but she did. She saw something in me worth saving I suppose and that makes me feel more positive towards Delta than who I was. I feel good being here. It’s that simple,” Quee shrugged after speaking.

“Simple...” Mharia repeated, spreading her wings in thought.

She looked down at Delta bringing some of Turtog back... even if accidentally.

Perhaps simple... but Mharia would struggle with her reality for some time. But for now? She’d simply enjoy the music and her fr- companion, Quee’s, company. At least the half-spider monster was sophisticated and mature!

“Ria! Look, look! It’s Maestro!” Quee abruptly gushed, squealing as he nearly hopped out of his chair. Mharia was tugged forward with blinking eyes.

“A singing mushroom man, yes I see him,” Mharia responded dryly. Quee looked scandalized.

“That is the supreme Star of the Dungeon! The singing darkness, the gentlemanly specter, the voice of a thousand songs! It’s Maestro!” Quee flailed his arms in disbelief at her lack of interest.

Mharia thought about it.

“He ravaged me and my supreme forces with his powers and a bunch of mushroom and spider fusions. Then he multiplied by three and surrounded my gaping dragon,” she mused aloud, thinking back.

“Urgh... jealous,” Quee muttered.

“He was coming to kill me,” Mharia reminded him flatly. Quee sighed in a daydream-like tone.

“What a way to go,” he agreed.

Mharia looked away in disgust.

Boys... spider-boys... and their stupid crushes on singing mushroom men that could be giant piles of spiders and mushrooms.

Now, if it were Wyin? There’d be a figure to admire.

Strong, scary, and commanding.

Now, that was a death!

They both sighed, oblivious to the other.

---

141: Hardly Nu Ya

The sound of a branch snapping underfoot disturbed the dark forest. The way around Durence was long and more than once they had to cut down old spiderwebs, but the creepy thing was there were no spiders big enough to make the webs to be found anywhere. It was like they all got up and died or ran away.

“You sure they were heading here,” a gruff man asked over one shoulder.

“Definitely. My contact in the Capital Bank told me they’re opening a special account for this backwards place. That only happens when there’s profit to be had. That means Dungeon or some new god,” a thinner man in leathers with a red bandanna around his neck said with a smile.

“And this place is what? A farming village, cattle... candlemakers?” the third member of their group asked with disdain.

“It was just listed as ‘village’ in the local records. It was likely some old Baron’s villa that got fobbed over to the local peasants to keep them happy and they built shacks around it or something,” the first man snorted, a massive battle axe slung over his back with his arms rippling muscles. His bald head has a nasty burn scar going down one ear.

“Great, another shitty place getting the red carpet treatment because some hellhole Dungeon spawned under it,” the third person, a woman with a staff that had three snakes intertwined together until they all led up to a red orb at the top. The woman wore a shimmering purple robe that had a massive slit going up the side and her heels should be unsuited for the forest, but little magical platforms appeared under her feet every time she took a step.

Their last member didn’t speak at all, but their form was hidden under a cloak, their bulk bulging at the seams while the book they held had yellowing pages with the symbol of two eyes on the front. One blue, the other yellow.

“Halt,” the first man said abruptly, causing the group to come to a dead stop as they listened. Far ahead of them, a man walked around with a jar, picking up mushrooms. His dress-robe was expensive and he looked to be some scholar.

“Hazhur... remove or ignore,” the man in leather asked, drawing a wicked long curving black blade that began to immediately drip the moment he removed it from his sheath.

“Ignore. We might need the town to use as an inn or info source. No need to burn bridges before we use them. Put your blade down, Karn,” Hazhur instructed and the other man looked massively displeased but did so, the dripping stopping the moment it was back in the sheath. The ground underneath them hissed from where the magic acid ate into the plants and roots in the soil.

“We could just blast down into the Dungeon, make our own entrance and just pretend it was always there?” the woman suggested as she stroked her snake-staff as it glowed with intense energy.

“Don’t bother. Taxman already mapped out the first floor and Dungeon’s don’t make new entrances so soon. Just find the damn entrance and get on with it, Estal,” Hazhur barked as the man in the distance vanished into the trees, his weird jar with him.

Estal sniffed but waved her staff about, creating a dome of light around the orb that showed flowing lines of wisp energy. They all watched it for a moment. Estal frowned, tapping the staff a few times.

“I’m getting strong mana influxes from the village, but that must be those Royal Knights. Those monsters... but the other mana signature is coming from the opposite direction and it's definitely not human,” Estal pointed to a series of streams that she prodded.

The streams moved around her finger, as if she was something unpleasant.

“Follow the orange lines and we find the filthy hole in the ground,” Estal said with smug superiority at her work. Hazhur longed to point out that a twenty-minute search or a marked map could do the same result but she would get into a snit and Estal in a snit was worse than a Flesh-Leech stuck on his family jewels.

The last member of the group merely watched in silence from their shadowed cowl, gloved hands gripping their book tighter. Together, they moved as one through the woods, eventually being led by Estal towards a clearing where the entrance to the Dungeon was hard to miss. It wasn’t the usual skull maw or glittering jewel affair.

“Those... who say forfeit may leave?” Hazhur muttered, reading the carved words in the arch above the door.

“Cute,” Karn said before he walked up the closed stone door, spinning the series of symbols on various rings with a frown.

“I hate puzzles,” he declared abruptly.

“Any guardians or Dungeon Protectors?” Hazhur asked the cloaked figure who shook their head after a moment. They gave Hazhur the creeps, but their ability to perceive things was unquestionable.

Karn pulled his knife out and buried it into the stone where it sank like he was stabbing butter. He slowly moved his hand around the ring as the stone bubbled and black acrid smoke filled the air.

Moments later he shoved with his shoulder and the puzzle slid inwards, letting Karn dig deeper until the whole door groaned, opening with juddering movements.

“Everyone loves a one-trick man who only knows how to penetrate,” Estal yawned, waving the smoke away as she walked down past Karn who scowled at her back. He moved aside to let the cloaked figure down next.

“Estal I can be paid to tolerate, but the creep is setting off every alarm I have,” he muttered to Hazhur who slowed before him.

“They’re not human, but that doesn’t matter,” he said back and nodded for Karn to guard the rear as he went down the next.

Hazhur took the last few steps in time to see Estal kicking tables over in disgust.

“Gifts... tributes? I hate pitiful things,” she scoffed as she slammed the base of her staff down, smashing the round clay bowls into pieces. Hazhur grabbed her wrist before she could use magic to do more damage.

“Get a grip. The act was cute when you were in school being taught how to wipe your ass, but down here, you do what I say,” he reminded and she glared at him, her skin crackling, burning his fingertips. Still, Hazhur didn’t let her wrist go or look away.

“Fine,” Estal said finally and wrenched her arm free to sulk over by a wall. If the damn woman wasn’t so talented, so damn useful? Hazhur would have taken someone else.

But blood was thicker and all that.

“Well, you’re all off to a great start,” a voice said, dripping with sarcasm. They all turned to the tunnel leading deeper as something floated there. A demure tiny girl with dragonfly wings.

“What the hell...?” Hazhur said but before there was any more sounds, Karn flashed past them then the next thing they all knew, his knife was buried deep into the floating creature’s stomach, the acid smoking as she croaked in surprise.

“First blood,” he said triumphantly. There was a hacking cough, the sound of someone trying to dislodge something in their throat.

“My first day... no, my first clients and this happens?!” the fairy screeched, her skin melting off in rage as she yanked the knife clean out of her body with annoyance.

“Must be some Rule-Bound creature. Karn, stop being so rude,” Estal said smugly as she walked forward, stepping on the remains of her childish temper-tantrum, spreading the wooden and clay mess.

“Little monster, do you speak riddles, must we guess your name?” Estal asked in a voice that was akin to speaking to a child. Hazhur would be worried, but he could see the thick layers of magical defences over her body. Even if Hazhur swung with everything he had? Estal would likely shrug it off with ease.

The woman was a prodigy in barrier magic. Karn liked to joke she was so good at it, no one could actually get close enough to see if she had any likeable qualities.

The fairy inhaled, half of its face fixing itself, but one side of her face was still an exposed black skull. Something about that made Hazhur frown.

Black skulls... why did that remind him of something?

“Riddle me this, Riddle me that,” the fairy began, face turning serene which only made Estal appear even more smug.

“How does one even fit in that dress when they’re so damn fat?” the fairy’s tone turned as acidic as Karn’s knife.

Twin barriers appeared without a word in the air, shimmering blue as they pressed in on the creature as Estal’s smirk turned strained.

“Cute,” she said and to everyone’s surprise the Fairy gave a frustrated cry and... dark energy leaked out, smashing the barriers before they could squish her. The fairy panted before smoothing down her dress.

“Good, that made it into this body. I thought I might only have sarcastic clapping and my charming words left,” she said gruffly.

“Last chance, you foolish humans who ignore the cries of their seeds. I am Mharia, the Fairy of this Dungeon. I am the only friend you will have down here and if you reject me... I will bathe in your tears,” she warned, skull-socket igniting with dark fire.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Get lost. The day we accept such an obvious trap is the day we deserve to die,” Estal announced. Hazhur didn’t quite argue, he was too concerned about this whole thing to be fully against or for the idea.

Dungeons were... tricky things. Sometimes they were so simple in nature that people couldn’t help but look deeper for trickery.

Which was it here?

He risked a peek at the cloaked member.

They simply watched Mharia with a long look before turning their head to Estal and he could almost feel the disdain coming off them.

“I know of your order’s feelings, but know you must follow your code of honour,” he said quietly so only they would hear Hazhur.

They finally spoke and the sound of it made him grimace. It was like windpipes softly blowing in a way that sounded like words. A form of mana-speak that vibrated mana rather than air.

“I won’t harm her for her disrespect, but I can detest her in my heart all I wish,” they reminded.

Hazhur really wished these kinds of people weren’t rich or resourceful. The Order of Silver was a pain, no matter how simple the task was.

Those who hunted the Silver God.

“Bunch of Dungeon worshipping nuts,” Karn said as Mharia took them all in and her smile was coy.

“My... and I thought I had a chance. You lot are just oozing with confidence. I shall enjoy watching it crumble. But... don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t harm and you'll come up richer than rich, but act as you are? Well... I’ve always wanted to see ‘her’ go all out. I think she even held back against me somewhat,” the fairy mused, floating back down the tunnel, her form turning translucent.

There was a force of magic in the shape of a fist flung down the tunnel, going through the ghostly fairy as Estal scoffed.

Mharia’s giggles were loud, clear... and sinister.

“Well, that sounded like a challenge,” Karn said eagerly as the cloaked figure wandered over to some mockery of the dead, some ‘memorial’ hall. Hazhur didn’t give it a second look.

Estal cast a protective barrier on Karn as he walked down the hallway, looking for traps.

“Fungus... but at least it's pretty,” Estal said as she eyed the soft glowing mushrooms on the ceiling. Karn yelled as something sprung out at him. His knife buried itself into a pop-out signpost.

‘Jumpy... aren’t you? Don’t piss off the Dungeon. - Nu’

The sign attempted to suck the knife into the wall with it, but with a flick of his wrist, the dark jewel on the knife pommel glowed and the thing snapped back Karn’s hand like an eager pet.

“Men who spend all their cash and time into a single object are sad. Do you have a name for it when you sleep?” Estal said with a hand covering her mouth. Karn slowly stepped back without looking at her.

“Nick,” he said flatly.

“Enough, any traps beyond the signposts?” Hazhur asked as the Silver Order returned, head bowed and looking sorrowful, but... also moved. It just solidified Hazhur’s choice not to go into the memorial room.

After clearing the tunnel, they moved ahead around the bend as one until they saw Mharia lounging on a beautiful bush, the fruit growing succulent and ripe looking. They grew in the middle of a garden of webs, strands as long as rope and intricate as magic symbols covered the four walls, only leaving thin paths for people to move about.

“We’ve agreed on no challenges for you. You all... what was it that Nu said?” she mused to the ceiling before going on. “‘They’ve already courted death as far as the Dungeon deals it’. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?” Mharia giggled.

Estal went to do something, likely blowing up a storm to tear the webs apart, but Karn stopped her.

“Easy now. You don’t kick tripwires for fun. Spider-webs are just nature’s tripwires with glue on top,” he said slowly and Estal looked ready to argue until she saw how Karn’s eyes were a little vacant as he took the room in.

“A trap?” Hazhur asked him, reading his axe in case of action.

“It’s a room full of web, mate. It’s a bit obvious it's a trap.” Karn reminded.

He moved slowly, moving carefully around some webs, testing others.

“Only some are sticky, we’re meant to walk the path and I think the webs could be a massive trap. If they go then the ceiling crushes us or maybe we’re locked in here with a dozen eyeball-eating critters!” he said with an annoyingly chipper voice. Hazhur was just glad he sheathed his acid knife before going web diving.

“Wow, afraid of spiders. Yeah, you all will get far,” Mharia said as she took another berry to snack on.

“Don’t you have children to scare and teeth to collect for chump change?” Estal called over with clear annoyance on her face.

“I’ll collect your teeth for free here and now...” Mharia muttered back to her around bites of her rather delicious looking berry. Following Karn’s excitable self, they navigated through the maze of webs. It was awkward passages and Estal accidentally found a real tripwire by falling over it, but nothing happened when she fell into the webs other than some painful screeching on her part.

Mharia was beside herself in gleeful laughter. She had a grudge against Estal rather than Karn which was strange since Karn had stabbed her but Estal was just rude at first. They left the room and Hazhur had the feeling they were a hair’s breadth away from meeting something else in that room...

Mharia was lurking around them, easily avoiding Estal’s swatting or the Silver Order’s almost religious petting. The hallways had the vibe of a natural cavern, the musty smell of water, earth, and something more potent filled the halls.

Hazhur could almost smell... ale.

He chalked that up to his desire to drink as Estal and Mharia bickered.

Mharia floated before a break in the path. A path going left, one going ahead, and one to the right.

The fairy looked darkly amused.

“Now, esteemed ‘guests’,” she said, voice dripping with abrupt noble disdain that made Hazhur uncomfortable and Estal’s cheeks to turn red in anger.

“Your choice is your own, but let me explain before you moan. To the left are humble collections with a merry time,” she held her hand to their left, “but I heard the entertainment is far more sublime,” she grinned suddenly.

“Must you rhyme?” Estal asked, stressing the question.

“Not at all, it’s not needed in the slightest. However it helps explain things to those that are not...” she trailed off, smiling down at Estal.

“The brightest,” she finished.

She pointed directly ahead as Hazhur stopped Estal from trying to clobber the fairy with her expensive staff.

“Under the stars and moon, take a breather, take a rest... you’ll catch a fish soon. Then again, once in a moon so blue... the fish catch you,” Mharia said with a slight twirl.

Then she pointed down the last path.

“That way has mud, it's good for your skin,” she said lightly and kicked her feet up to rest in the air.

“The last one is a trap. I bet it's either a dead end or a Floor Mini-boss,” Estal spat and Karn looked far too excited at that.

The Silver Order was tilting their head and pointed down the other way to ‘sublime times’ in eagerness.

“Which way takes us forward?” Hazhur asked, seeing how much the fairy would spill.

“All of them. Some further than others,” Mharia said breezily.

“Which is the safest?” Estal asked and Mharia opened one eye before her smile grew larger and larger until her face deformed into something demonic.

“Oh... they’re all so safe it's pathetic. But so is fire until you throw fuel on it,” she cackled and vanished. A silence lulled over them, except for the excited ruffles of the Silver Order tugging them to the left.

This Dungeon gave Hazhor an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

That didn’t happen too often.

Something was very off about this place.

Something very wrong.

---

Nu watched as Delta turned in a sort of restful peace. Between defeating Mharia, upgrading the third floor, choosing the fourth-floor theme, and dancing her heart out... Delta was out like a light.

However, Dungeon Cores did not sleep often. The fact Delta could and Nu became... more, meant that, as long as Nu was willing to take on the burden of being the sub-core 一 like some sort of receptionist really for Delta一 then the core could have days off.

Nu would hate to be a bother and wake her up for something as unimportant as fools. No, Delta deserved the sleep and Nu deserved some stress relief.

It all worked out in the end...

Mostly in Nu’s favour, but who was counting?

142: Catfished

The Order of Silver was outvoted. They went directly ahead. The factor was Estal’s determination to avoid filthy mud rooms and savage rituals of putting dirt on skin. Hazhur didn’t argue since they were here to explore everything so they’d get around to it all eventually.

Still, not even Estal could stop her murmur of appreciation when they stepped into a large cavern with twinkling lights and some realistic illusion of a crescent moon high on the ceiling that slowly shifted across the peaceful sky. The room was some homage to a lake-side cabin affair. It’s trees and bushes didn’t clump together to hide any monsters, and the lake was active with fish that occasionally splashed to the surface in brilliant flashes of gold, silver, and mixtures.

Off to their left was a circle of rocks, stumps, and fallen logs around a used campfire with stacks of logs nearby for ease of use.

“No traps that I can sense. But like that barmaid back in Horiful?” Karn said slowly before grinning.

“Just because they don’t see it as hiding doesn’t mean you won’t get a surprise when you get her skirt up. Not a bad surprise, just not for me,” he admitted as Estal shot him a disgusted look before she waved a hand.

“It’s a lake that is made of natural mana-infused water. A jug full of this stuff is already enough to bring in mages and alchemists. Natural occurring water like this just isn’t found so close to the surface or in such volume,” she said as she waved her staff about. Frowning, she leaned down by the lake edge, her staff recording conflicting energies.

“There’s something else... a few things... in this lake. I think that...” she mumbled, her staff prodding the lake surface. Her staff bobbed and she lifted it with confusion to reveal a red crab hanging on to the end with one claw.

“Urgh, it’s lousy with seafood,” she moaned, shaking it loose to tap the surface of the lake to make the surface turn slightly transparent as she layered a barrier spell over it, slowly filtering out the murk for a moment.

A circle about as wide as Estal herself became clear and at the bottom of the lake, only visibly due to its immense glow was a large blue crystal formation that pulsed gently. Hazhur was no merchant or wizard, but glowing crystal in a Dungeon was pretty valuable in his eyes.

“That's a water crystal... no, that's an untainted water crystal!” Estal squealed in delight. There was a tapping as the Ord... that name was a pain.

“What is it Oos?” Hazhur turned, the name coming off as ‘Oz’ aloud.

They were near a sign that said ‘Fishing and herb collection only. Don’t Duck around.-Nu’.

“It’s fine. I can’t read,” Karn said pleasantly. Oz tapped the pictures at the bottom of the sign with significance where it showed a stickman fishing or hugging a bush. This was followed by a long line of pictures crossed out.

Crystal mining, peeing in the lake, two people sharing a tent, and what seemed to be two people arguing over justice, money, and politics. All of those seemed to be ‘banned’ at the lake.

“If I obeyed every warning I ever read, I’d be a dull girl,” Estal said dismissively.

“You might also not be in severe debt to the Capitol,” Hazhur reminded dryly, getting a dark look in return.

“Watch my back. I need that crystal! I could do so many water repellent barriers or sell it as a water purifier!” Estal said, tapping her staff in a determining manner.

“How? As far as we know, no crafters have set up in snoozeville outside. Without crafters, your ‘treasure’ is going to break down unless it comes from a monster,” Karn pointed out. Estal brushed a lock of her hair back with a smirk.

“Old news, you stab-happy gremlin. Perhaps you haven’t heard that Dungeon Items only break down if exposed to outside global-mana. I just happened to have this,” she said, flourishing a big janky looking bracelet that was too big for her wrist and was gaudy beyond belief with an emerald in its center.

“I heard of storage rings, but a bracelet is new,” Karn said slowly. Estal hummed.

“It’s the newest model. It can store up to a variety of items, less if they’re magic, but still plenty of space. The added mass means I can also use it as a defensive bracer and it’s fashionable!” she said with a haughty laugh.

“The gold is flaking at the sides to show the copper underneath,”

“Shut it, Hazhur. It was an investment,” she snapped back, walking on to the lake with her magic heels creating stable platforms for her.

Oz was rapidly tapping the sign in a frantic manner, but Hazhur felt a bit bad the other two were ignoring them.

“You can lead a horse to water,” he shrugged at them before motioning towards Estal.

“But you can’t disown them,” he added helplessly. Estal swung her staff around in an arc in the air.

“Creatium Marinium Hookum!” she chanted with authority. From the tip of her staff, a long whitish line of mana flowed outwards, unspooling from Estal’s staff until she had enough to form a cross between a pickaxe and a hook on the edge.

“I really hate monthly wizard magazines and their budget spells. They all sound terrible,” Karn sighed.

“And you can’t read them?” Hazhur added, ready to swing into action the moment something began to overwhelm Estal’s barriers.

“They have nice pictures, but the content has to be garbage if Estal uses them,” Karn agreed. Hazhur would agree, but he knew the spell Estal was using. It’s original use was for a kid-size rod and a tiny hook. Estal had modified it with some work to be... useful.

That was his cousin alright. Talented to high heavens, but always falling short due to the weight of her ego.

“Gimmie gimmie some good loot... gimmie gimmie so I can give debt the boot!” Estal chanted as her magic line sunk into the water under her and moved deftly towards the crystal.

Her line abruptly stopped and Hazhur frowned, turning to see an oddly curious Oz fiddling around with a strange pedestal on the far side of the lake. Above them, the moon went from crescent to almost full in a few seconds.

“My line must be caught on another crab, it’s bobbing up and down,” Estal complained, yanking as hard as she could. The moon above slowly creeped to white fullness, lighting the chamber up like a dream.

“Estal!” Hazhur snapped as a black shadow grew rapidly under her.

“I almost have it, Hazzy! Stop... acting... like...I’m useless!” Estal said, face turning red as she pulled with all she had.

Karn and Hazhur moved across the shallows of the lake, both attempting to get to the wizard but a moment later, she was gone. Hazhur watched as her barrier utterly broke under the gulping of a giant fish that couldn’t possibly live in such a tiny lake. It splashed into the air, the last of Estal’s mana line being slurped up like pasta.

Then it vanished back into the lake.

Hazhur didn’t hesitate and dove into the water in a near perfect arc, his axe drawn. Karn cackled as he followed next.

---

Order of Silver Rank#299 stared at the slowly stilling lake surface. They were undecided on how to feel. On one hand, Hazhur wasn’t a bad person. Order of Silver Rank#299 enjoyed their sensible mind and calm attitude.

On the other hand, Estal.

However, on the other other hand. Karn.

So, that was two ups and one down for the party being wiped. Deep down, however, Silver#299 felt... a little perhaps sad that their time together was already over. It had been like having companions or, dare they say it, friends for a short time.

Friends they had to pay to tolerate him, but friends nonetheless. Silver#299 lowered their cloak to reveal a misshapen head of squished metal and flesh. A knight’s visor melting into a drooping eye and gaping mouth. Silver streaks twisted around their neck, intermingling with skin.

It was unlikely Silver#001 would be found here. Not enough silver. Silver#001 wouldn’t be around so much dirt and nature, but 299 found it quite enjoyable. Being in a Dungeon always was nice.

After a moment, the lake surface rippled to reveal the giant catfish creature. It’s mana-structure was a work of art. Chaos in motion that rippled like uneven stars to 299’s vision. Dungeon constructs usually had very little deviation in their bodies, but this Dungeon...

299 had yet to find a single repeating pattern. It was borderline insane in its magnificence.

The catfish opened its mouth to let 299 see inside, a dimensional space door staring back.

“Ah they’re not dead, but simply elsewhere. I am happy and sad. Sappy, at this news,” 299 said in pure mana-speak.

“You,” a voice said and 299 turned to see the fairy appearing before him.

“You’re wrong,” she said flatly and 299 flinched, but he had heard it before.

“Yes,” he agreed.

“You’re lucky you’re here otherwise a normal Dungeon would try to end you. Are you a corrupted Dungeon monster or a human in the process of being a contract?” she asked and 299 eyed her, a glowing eye igniting in the knight visor and his human eye managing to look at her.

“Yes.”

The word hung there for a moment.

“You're pathetic,” Mharia said and 299 flinched again, pulling his hood up to hide his face.

“But so am I. You’ll like it here, I guess,” she said and floated off. She paused to look back once, blond curls bouncing.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Nu will hide you from the Sister and Brother until Delta awakes. You’re their ideal enemy. A dungeon being with it’s own growing seed. They won’t be happy or maybe they won’t care. I don’t know anymore,” she said and vanished.

299 stared and the Catfish nudged him with its tongue, inviting him to jump in. Making sure his hood was secure, 299 patted the fish.

“Thank you... cousin,” he said and hopped in, vanishing. After a moment, the giant fish sank without moving, eyes glued to the full moon with a gleam.

---

Estal moaned, her pillow feeling damp and slightly too squishy. The refresh and cushion charms must need renewing again. She would sneak them down to the academy’s laundry room and perform the magic there before the others could see.

Estal didn’t want Melenda seeing her with less than perfect appearances on room inspection. She spread the gossip that the ‘farm princess’ slept like her pigs back home. Sweaty and disgusting.

“That cow!” Estal snarled, snapping her head up, ready to throw a blasting ball at the magic-proof walls when she stopped. She wasn’t at the academy for talented Magi of the kingdom. She wasn’t in her single room while everyone else had roommates...

Estal wasn’t there.

Instead, she had been sleeping on some large protruding fleshy lump that was sticking out the wall of some... flesh... corridor. Estal inhaled and the taste of raw fish clung to her tongue.

The walls, the ceiling, the floor... the doors! It was all flesh, bone, and... s-slime.

Estal let out a soul-wrenching wail.

“I’m fishfood!” she said in horror before she saw Hazhur and Karn nearby, also staggering to their feet. Moment’s later, the creepy Silver guy emerged from the wall of flesh like a phantom, unbothered and upbeat as always.

Estal hoped he might have gotten lost.

“Where the heck are we?” she asked the others, remembering she had been so close to that water crystal. It would make such lovely earrings! It crushed her to know she might not get them now.

“Inside the monster fish. Some hidden room or something,” Hazhur grunted as he stood up, and Estal opened her mouth to say sorry for dragging them down, but he turned at just the wrong angle to look remarkably like her father. His annoyed... disapproving, and worst of all at times, uncaring expression making her clam up.

“Gee thanks, I wouldn’t have guessed from the drooling flesh and fish guts,” she snapped back.

Karn put his hand to the walls with little concern.

“It’s not the actual fish. The walls are cold and there’s no beat of blood rushing. It’s just themed I guess,” he said, looking around as water came up to their ankles.

The Order of Silver moved ahead, looking about as he touched what seemed to be a bony protrusion on a wall, moments later with a sickening squelch’ a door opened like someone took a metal scoop to the walls. Estal muttered a thanks as she stomped past, pushing her magic shoes to the limit to remain above the water. It might drain her mana just a little bit faster, but she would not walk in water that had crabs, eels, and what looked like broken pieces of white glass floating about. Karn lifted a big piece to show it was the moon in the lake, but crunched into smaller parts.

The fish had eaten the moon... a lot.

At least no one was telling her what to do...

A sign popped out of a flesh crack and hit Estal in the face with goop and mucus, the sludge going down her neck and into her dress.

Estal made a tiny growl in her voice and turned, only to nearly be hit with another sign that popped out the ceiling.

She made the growling noise again.

The first sign read ‘Welcome to the hidden First-Floor alt rooms! A fleshy space that will offer some biological challenges since I know you humans like your fluids and such. It’s called Jonah’s Revenge’.- Nu’

The other sign was a little more worrying.

‘If you don’t find an exit, the water slowly rises until you all pass out and potentially drown... I’m kidding. You won’t drown, but merely wash up on a lake a mile away from town and likely with all your valuables stolen. Good times. -Nu’.

“Where’s the exit?!” Estal said in slight panic. Karn looked around with a calm expression.

“If this is modelled after a big fish. I can think of three exits off the top of my head,” he offered and Estal stared at him in confusion for a moment before it dawned on her.

“I’m not going out a fish’s butt!” she said with the indignation of a priest confronted with his hidden ‘reading’ material by the sisters.

Hazhur put a hand on her shoulder.

“If Karn and Oz say it’s the only way? We have to go out the butt, Esty... let’s find the butt,” he said soothingly and Estal’s mouth dropped open.

This Dungeon was hell.

Pure... hell.

---

Alpha followed the demure ancient woman up a flight of stairs as she grumbled. The ‘Old Hollow’ Inn was sort of what a perfect inn should be if you asked Alpha. The slightly soft glow of candles and a fireplace spread light up the many floors as he ran his hand over slightly chipped and marked wooden banisters as the smell of bubbling stew and wax along with earthy smells filled his nose.

“At recommendation of Isanella... Madam Ghu can offer you a ‘premium room’,” she said, repeating her words from the front desk slightly. Alpha wasn’t sure who or... what Madam Ghu was, but the way she spoke wasn’t about the fact she spoke a different dialect... no Alpha was certain that the woman called herself ‘Madam Ghu’ because of some beneficial reason, as if it was both technically true and at the same time, not really her name at all.

They reached near the top where despite the fact it had a feeling of not having people visit it for a long time, there was absolutely no dust, dirt, or cobwebs to be found in the rafters. Stopping outside a very normal door, Madam Ghu reached into her sleeve with a boney pale hand that had expensive gold and copper rings on her fingers that sparkled with gems that would pay for a small plot of land in most places.

The key she retrieved also looked quite normal, but it was metal and... round... with sharp straight edges on its wooden... curving sides with glass teeth... and bone handle that meshed well with its... stone head.

“Stop staring, it’s rude,” Ghu reprimanded, breaking the spell and Alpha saw the key... was just a key.

“Apologises...” he muttered and she sighed, putting the key into the door that seemed impossibly big and small for a split second before it too... was just a door.

“Madam Ghu will collect you in the morning. You will leave the room when the sun rises, you will have breakfast. Staying in the room beyond checkout will be quite impossible. Now... enjoy,” the old woman said, more a warning than an encouragement.

Alpha once again considered just sleeping against Delta’s entrance and simply getting on with it, but he supposed he could look at the room. Inhaling, he took a step through the door and found himself in a single small room with a window.

He took a step and looked down at the soft blue plush carpet that his feet sank into. He looked up at the shade hanging down over a lightbulb... Without thinking, more on instinct, he reached over and flipped a switch, casting light over the room. To his left was a bookcase covered in hardback fantasy books, manuals for games, encyclopedias dedicated to ship designs, monster stats, and some space set aside for little plastic figures on stands.

To his right was a desk with a flat glass screen set behind a black row of keys with letters and a comfortable looking chair. A still half-popped can of soda sitting on a coaster looked right at home to the side.

Right ahead was a bed he didn’t know, but had known all his life.

He looked over at the table by the bed and saw a simple notepad for some educational purposes. He picked it up and opened it to the first page. On the first few pages were comments and corrections.

‘Need to work on your syntax, but massive improvement! - Miss D’

‘We went over this, so I have notes you can take home, see me when you feel comfortable. - Miss D’

‘I am so proud of you. 70%! - Miss D’.

Alpha dropped the book to the floor where it flipped to pages of doodles, a squibbling of a boy dressed as a knight slaying ogres and dragons, smiling. It was horrible art.

And of course, another comment.

Miss D had drawn herself as a sun, beaming down on the bad drawing.

‘It might seem really hard, but if you work with me, you’ll see all your problems are quite... light! -Miss D.

Alpha looked around, taking it all in.

He... he might need Madam Ghu’s help in the morning. He laid down on the pillow and a scent so strong hit his nose causing memories with no real detail to rise up.

He closed his eyes, settling into an unknown but weirdly familiar sleeping posture on the strange, but personal bed.

Alpha remembered dreaming of a smiling woman holding out a test with a big smiley face next to a 90% pass mark. She wore a tie over a woman’s shirt, a long skirt, and her face was blurred by light and hazy fogginess.

“Adam... you made it. You can go on the trip. I’ll drive everyone!”

Alpha curled up, resting deeply.

143: Something Fishy

They stared at the lone obstacle keeping them from leaving this fishgut ‘special’ event room. It was a bone-like structure rising up from the floor lining, curling outwards until it formed a spreading instrument of sorts. A flowing inscription on the top of the thing gave them a hint.

‘Some say, speak friend and enter, but we aren’t friends and I find you all annoying. Play the notes of the flesh using this keybone keyboard. Since I was kind and only put about 180 keys of various notes, it might take a while to guess the right series of notes. Try looking around. But you know... *gestures to water*. Might want to hurry. -Nu. Overworked Intern.’

“Did it just actually write ‘gestures’?” Estal asked aloud as she shifted in the water that was slowly coming up the backs of their feet.

“Estal, Hazhur? Should we hack down the door or blast it open? I don’t see any traps,” Karn pointed out as Oz shot the man a disapproving look behind his back. Hazhur was going to speak, but was surprised when Estal beat him to the punch.

“I don’t fancy being imploded. Punching into a Dungeon is fine, Karn. You connect inside to stable outside. Punching a path inside a spatial dimensional space to an unstable Dungeon floor? We’d be lucky to emerge as fine paste. Idiot,” she said with a scoff.

Karn and Oz stared at the woman so Hazhur felt the need to explain on his cousin’s behalf.

“Her magic major was separation of space and matter using barriers. She knows a lot about magic stuff,” he said and Karn eyed her flaking ‘gold’ bracelet.

“Everyone’s got one area, I suppose,” he muttered.

“Why barriers?” Oz asked and everyone flinched at his use of mana-speak. Estal turned and looked right at his darkened hood with a dark look.

“I don’t like people touching me,” she said before adding, “I can’t sleep without a barrier up anymore,” she muttered and stalked off to gingerly peer into a fleshy hole for any hidden notes.

They all took time to search slowly through the slowly filling dungeon. There didn’t seem to be any monsters, but more than once, a hole in the roof opened to pour mucus down on them. They were easy to spot and Estal’s barriers proved to be exceptional umbrellas.

Before long they had ten round stones with depictions of notes on it.

“That’s still a lot of combinations,” Hazhur muttered aloud, the water up to his knees now. It was a little off-putting since the water was warm... like a swamp.

“C, U...Y,” Estal said, tapping the keys as she spoke, each press of the bone instrument making a harrowing wheezing sound of grinding rock and mournful howling. The keyboard ran into letters, then numbers, then simple pictures of emotions.

The notes they found happened to be all in letters.

“You all suck.” Oz said abruptly, making them all turn with surprise, but they shut up as he took all the rocks and spread them out.

“Au Ycl Lks Ou,” Oz said, reading each letter with ease, stepping forward, moving his hand out and Estal skittered out of reach of his weirdly shaped gloved hands. He shifted the letters one at a time until they spelt...

“You all Suck,” Hazhur repeated with a groan.

“Could be coincidence,” Karn pointed out without any real argument to his tone. Oz turned to him.

“The signs... they point to this answer,” he reminded and no one could quite argue. The Sign maker was quite a ‘character’. Estal played the notes in series and they began to sound out the tune similar to a spluttering drum being beat before lifting upwards.

After a moment, the floor in the center of the room began to open, draining the water away. This was great until they saw the hole kept growing.

Hazhur shouted for them to retreat, but all the fleshy doors had become as stiff as stone with thickening blood vessels.

“This better not be the butthole!” Estal screeched.

“You’re all lucky,” came a familiar voice and they looked over to the instrument where Mharia the Fairy rested, tapping a few keys lazily.

She pressed a few.

“How does it go according to Delta? Tral lala lal... hm not quite,” she said as the hole expanded.

“Nu hasn’t finished this place. He got the basic idea in place, but there’s going to be challenging rooms like stomach acid and windy lungs, and... well all the good stuff. Was it trel lele le?” she muttered to herself as Karn fell into the abyss below with a yell, his position the most awkward.

“Is this a death trap?!” Hazhur demanded, readying himself to surrender and hope the Dungeon was true to its word on letting them go. He would not risk his and Estal’s life if it could be avoided.

Mharia fluttered her wings and smiled at him.

“Oh, it was always a death trap, but you’ve only amused her so far. You aren’t even worthy prey to snap the jaws of failure on. No, you’re going down... to the next floor. Exciting isn’t it!” she said before eyeing Estal who was slowly toppling over the edge, her heels turning an inch of ledge into magical platforms, cheating a little.

Mhara floated over, innocently.

“Don’t you dare, you little monster-” Estal growled, but Mharia pushed her with a single finger.

“Ah yes... trolol lol... lol,” she said with a bright smile as Estal vanished with a scream. Oz swan dived after her without a comment.

“Today is as good a day to die as any,” Hazhur told Mharia, like it was some spell to wave her omens off.

“Wrong... today is a day to learn and what good is knowledge to a dead man? Well, unless you’re me then it's quite useful. But for you? No... you will live because you’re going to see something amazing,” Mharia leaned in as Hazhur’s footing began to slip.

“What?” he said through gritted teeth.

“How amazingly outclassed you are. There was never any hope and when you understand that... I want to see you break. It’ll make me feel all fuzzy inside,” the fairy beamed and he fell, doing his best not to yell in panic.

Mharia looked down to see one of the spider’s from the court peeking out from her ribcage.

“False alarm, it was just a spider! No humanity left!” she called down with ‘oh silly me’ dripping off her tongue.

She swooped in the air then dived after them.

Mharia was not going to miss them meeting the... Bob.

She had heard of this Bob.

Mharia had heard many... many things.

---

Karn felt himself fall down then in a sort of weird twisting of his perception, he was falling up before he breached the surface of some massive pool under a waterfall. He blinked, moving water out of his eyes before Estal, the Order, and Hazhur followed him moments later, all sputtering to a degree.

He paused before climbing out at the sight of something like a forest spread out before him. This forest wasn’t like any Karn had seen. For one, all the trees were wavy or bendy with long droopy plants with odd patterns, the air was wet, but there was no swamp.

Colourful birds flew about, a river flowed, and big eye-catching flowers grew everywhere.

It was a weird forest... also quite warm.

Estal rolled past him, encased in a barrier bubble that made her spin with a greenish expression on her face.

“You alright?” Karn asked, not truly concerned for the uppity woman.

“Seasick... and motion sickness...” she whimpered as she rolled to dry land, popping her bubble to land in the sand completely dry. The Silver Order moved... like a freak, slithering more than swimming to the shore and it made Karn’s skin crawl as he got glimpses of the Order’s silvery flesh mingling with human.

Karn couldn’t get those people. Who would go into a dead Dungeon and willingly let one of those monsters climb into their body... No, Karn couldn’t get that at all.

“Tropical air. Might be some jungle level,” Hazhur said as he squeezed his armour and sleeves free of water.

A jun-gel. Jungal. A funky forest.

Karn would choose which he preferred later.

“What’s the difference between this and a normal forest?” he asked and Estal shot him a withering look from where she sat on one of the rocks. She clearly didn’t think Karn had much thoughts in his head. He did, it just didn’t involve jungles.

“Heatstroke, venomous creatures take a sharp rise, and ten different insects could kill you at any time,” Hazhur offered and Karn brightened.

“Sounds great!” he admitted.

“It’s like you never leave cities,” Estal said mockingly as she waved her staff about, getting a confusing mist of readings back. Karn stared at her, head tilting.

“Why would I? Trees and rocks don’t have money. Squirrels and wolves don’t hire assassins. Bugs don’t have safes,” he said with an odd tone that made the woman look at him for a split second in fear but she glanced away.

“Then why are you here?” the Silver Order asked.

“Because I was paid to be here. Now I might do it for fun now I know what kind of things you find in Dungeons,” he admitted as he twirled his knife, flashing it down to stab something between the tall grass.

His knife came back with... a tiny squirming creature. A little man made of fungus and carrying a spear. It withered away from the acid with a pained motion and crumbled to dust.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“It... it didn’t do anything to you,” the Order protested, sounding disturbed and angry. Karn frowned as bent down.

“Could have... might have... I don’t trust anything that needs ten buddies to surround you,” he commented, readying his knife as there came angry shuffling from the bushes. Something flew from the corner of his knife and he turned, letting three tiny darts fly past. He moved with his heart pumping at the danger as more darts came for him.

His allies called out in surprise, but Karn already found two more of the snipers and removed them as a threat before retreating.

Keeping his back to the water pool, Karn ensured he had one direction to put his back to. Something moved at his feet and Karn moved without really thinking, sending his foot crashing down on a red crab, crushing it. It’s friend stared before backing up, clicking its pincers in... shock?

Karn was confused. Crabs didn’t feel joy... pain or love. Yet this crab looked upset. The jungle went quiet.

---

A meditating woman opened her amphibious eyes as an orange bird on her shoulder looked ahead.

“They’re not worming their way out of that,” the bird said and the witch doctor didn’t sigh at his words.

“Fools and Death... I doubt a stronger romance exists,” she agreed.

---

Downriver, a boatman doing his 200th squat stood up with shock.

“My friend needs my stick to beat rude guests with. Sir Bob, I am coming!” the strongman said and began to push his boat up river with ease.

---

Near a hotspring, a lazy graceful frog paused in her cleaning of the waters.

“Is that my problem? I could make it my problem...” she mused in her beautiful kimono.

She shook her head after a moment.

“Nope. Don’t care enough to walk through the jungle in heels,” she announced.

---

Deep in the most sacred of shrines to the frog people, an old sage meditated, not stirring.

Not enough droppings had hit gale force winds to rouse him yet.

---

The tallest frog merely guarded his bridge, hand tightening on his spear.

---

Karn turned as all the little jungle demons ran. The sun had abruptly been blocked out and it was raining.

“I am not associated with him. I love... little fungus men,” Estal said, voice strained and high. Karn kept craning his neck.

“Karn... don’t move. It doesn’t have eyes, it could work on motion,” Hazhur hissed at him.

Karn looked up and up.

“You asked for it. Stabbing first and asking questions later. What sort of life did you expect to lead with that?” The Silver Order said darkly.

Karn saw that besides the water pouring over the massive worm’s body from the pool, thick liquid poured from its open maw, not from its throat, but higher up as if it had tear ducts on the roof of its mouth.

“Come on then!” Karn yelled, readying his knife.

“What? Karn, you idiot!” Estal snapped her hand out, forming a weak last minute barrier on the man as the giant monstrous worm reached down to swallow him in rage.

The barrier broke but Karn had been in a situation like this before. Sure, it was a massive guard and not a worm, but the same principle applied when they both wanted to lift you up. He cut his arm as the barrier broke, sending his blood flying.

The moment it touched the worm’s skin, the blood began to sizzle like acid.

“You see that? You eat me and you’re gonna have the stomach ache of your life,” Karn warned loudly, backing up slowly now that he made his statement.

“Karn, they respawn! You can’t give them lasting wounds!” Hazhur yelled. This got Karn’s attention.

“Oh, that’s not fair,” he said abruptly and turned to run. His allies were just behind him.

“I thought you said he knew Dungeon basics, even for his first!” Estal screamed as the giant worm crashed after them, departing its pool to tear down trees in anger to reach them.

“He said he did!” Hazhur yelled back.

“Dungeons have monsters... and treasure!” Karn yelled back at them.

“Why am I running? I’ve done nothing wrong!” the Order complained.

The monstrous creature abruptly slithered in front of them, more nimble than Karn thought. He didn’t fear the creature as he found the emotion distracting. No, he was ready to eye this worm up like any other target.

Vitals, organs, old wounds... he slowly spun his knife, but just as he and the worm were about to square off (Karn had to admit the giant monster had a slight advantage, but he was confident) they were interrupted by someone launching themselves from the ravine of the river.

The massive form crashed between the group and the giant worm with a huff.

“HALT, in the name of my glistening biceps and the laws of Delta!” the figure announced grandly with his arms snapped up and away from his head in the same direction while he buried his head into the crook of his shoulder.

“What now?!” Estal hissed, moving away to a more open clearing in case the worm decided the chase was back on. Karn was ready to win or die because this event was sort of his fault, but he would really prefer to win.

The surprise figure was a giant frog-like man who had powerful bunched muscles that rippled with every movement, showing his skin could barely contain his immense prowess.

“Oh my God!” Estal moaned in fear.

The frogman turned, his rippling abs and confident grin on full display.

“Oh my... God,” Estal repeated with less terror and more interest.

“I... am here,” the newcomer announced, spinning a strange three-pronged spear about and the river to his side sloshed abruptly as if the frog was some conductor and the water his instrument.

The worm gave a shriek and the frog merely looked up with a long expression.

“But your friends simply restore themselves as critters. Death is a concept that holds no true meaning for Dungeon-lifeforms giving rise to unanswered questions about what life truly means and if we might one day go insane from time itself!” the giant frog reminded the creature before he sniffed.

“I bet death is like river-rafting but like a cool Halloween event river,” he muttered before the Worm deflated with a more whiny screech.

“The Pygmies incite their own troubles, you know that,” the frog went on, then he turned to them and Karn had to admit, he felt ‘confident’ against the giant worm.

Against this guy? Something in Karn’s soul insisted there were things that would simply break him and this close to the river... this frog would break him.

The worm gave one last petulant noise.

“Yes, they are rude,” the frog agreed as he rolled his neck, making more muscles than Karn had in his entire body flex.

“It was Karn’s fault,” Estal insisted and he nodded in agreement. It was true after all.

“Well, in the end. It doesn’t matter really. Visitors who arrived by flesh and moon, I am Rale; lord of the river and the first of the Second Floor. Do you seek trial by combat or trial by water?” the frog continued, arms crossed.

“Combat means we fight-” Hazhur began and Rale’s smile turned far too eager.

“Me.”

As Rale said this, the river heaved, making the currents turn rapid.

“I find the prospect... less than exciting,” the Order of the Silver announced quickly. After the others agreed and Rale looked deflated.

“Fine, fine. One day, eh?” he winked and Estal twirled her staff.

“Oh, definitely,” she promised and Hazhur shot her a horrified look which made her blink.

“I gotta kiss some frogs for a prince, right?” she muttered and the trees around them began to give horrible creaks and Karn thought he imagined the branches going for Estal’s throat like someone was angry with her but the effect stopped as Rale tilted his head at the treeline but said nothing.

“So, that leaves us with the trial of water then?” Karn brought the subject back to not dying to giant worms.

“Sort of. As you came in the backway I guess I’ll explain about the challenges. If you cross the river here, you’ll miss out on a potential task... but the trial is simple. Simply don’t get thrown off the boat!” Rale announced, clapping his webbed hands brightly, causing a hollowed out log to rise out of the river.

Hazhur gaped.

“Challenges?” he asked, tone tight.

“Oh, it’s so... quaint!” Estal tried to praise.

The Order creep was just staring into the treeline like something had caught its attention.

Rale’s smile widened as if he couldn’t wait to explain... everything.

Karn looked down and a root slithered into the underbrush as if teasing. Something or someone was enjoying the show it seemed...

---

“No redeeming features?” Wyin asked lightly and Mharia shrugged.

“I said they were ‘not Delta’s sort’,” she corrected and Wyin pretended to crane her neck as if to hear better.

“‘Total... annihilation’... you say?” the tree said softly with saccharine sweetness.

“...Sure, go wild.”

---

144: Dramatic Flashbacks under the Moon

“To your left you will spot a very famous tree,” Rale said brightly, pushing his long trident into the river to propel the boat along like it was a ferryman’s pole.

“This is the sixth famous tree you’ve pointed out,” Hazhur pointed out, trying to keep his tone neutral. Despite the clear power the monster radiated, his personality was a little grating to Hazhur.

“Well, yes, but this one is famous for when three Pygmy Mushrooms did a battle that lasted hours until they became friends and then swore to grow up to be adventurers!” Rale promised and Estal scooted a little close to his bulging arms as he pushed them down the river.

“That sounds magical,” she fawned, making Hazhur’s mood drop even more. He was a giant frog, what was so damn attractive for Estal?

Was it the bright personality? The confidence? Hazhur supposed there was the simple fact his cousin just would flirt with anything that had biceps bigger than their brain.

Out of nowhere, another tree branch smacked into Estal’s perfectly doe-eyed face, making her yelp. That made the fifth one so far...

“That’s it!” Estal said, red-face as she stood up, making the boat rock slightly.

“Why am I the only one being pelted by these forsaken pieces of kindling?!” she demanded loudly.

She opened her mouth and gagged when an insect flew into it then she was splashed by a river fish and a bird only narrowed avoided her dress with its droppings.

“Nature is beautiful!” Karn declared, oblivious to Estal’s suffering as Silver nodded energetically behind him. Estal waved a hand and one of her barriers snapped into place, saving her from a spray of water.

“Care to join me? I have enough space for two,” Estal said,trying to go back to suave towards Rale.

An almost blinding bright orange bird soared through the shield like it was paper and flapped in her face, making Estal scream and wave her hands in surprise before she toppled backwards into the river and out of sight for a moment before Rale fished her out.

Hazhur was now sure that Estal had offended some nature spirit of some kind by flirting with Rale. Estal looked like a drowned cat and Rale held the offending bird between two of his large fingers.

“Inchy, these are my guests. Mind your manners,” he told the bird who didn’t try to escape.

“My manners are perfectly fine. It’s you who should work on your... bed-side manners,” the bird guffawed and Hazhur recoiled at the words, the joke so bad it made his teeth ache. Rale looked unamused for a moment.

“Devina won’t be happy you’re causing trouble. Now off with you,” he insisted.

“Oh...no kidding that she's not happy,” the bird muttered and darted off, somehow vanishing into the trees despite its plumage of a rising sun. Hazhur was about to ask what the hell was going on, but something caught his eye. The river ahead was smooth and ambling, but if he ignored the sheer wonder of the jungle around them and looked ahead, his jaw dropped.

The land was parting... no, it was like the river was painting itself into the land, allowing the boat to go where it pleased. The water carefully formed bends around large trees and rocks and behind them, the river was swallowed up by the ground as if it had never been there.

This frog man was making a mobile river... When had they left the actual river? Rale grinned at him.

“The usual first task is on rotation, so Giant, a good friend, won’t be able to challenge you and I know he’s asleep so we’re just taking the long way around to be polite,” he explained and none of his words made any sense to him.

“Giant... is bigger than you?” Estal asked, more in actual shock than anything disgraceful.

“A head or so, but he’s bigger in the Heart. Sweet frog,” Rale said with honest affection as they came to a stop at... a bathhouse?

“A most elegant stop!” Rale waved a large arm at the place that seemed infused with mist and soft glowing lanterns contained in an odd paper shell that made the light humble and gentle.

An almost quaint sign declared the place as the ‘Luna Springs’. Hazhur sniffed, drawing in the scent of a dozen aromas he had never smelled. It was a miracle he hadn’t smelled this place a mile off, but somehow... it was contained to this tiny cleared part of the jungle where the trees were strangely thin and taller.

They watched Rale break one to drink the sweet smelling nectar inside..;l/

“I’m confused. You said tasks and trials of water?” Karn asked, scratching his chin as he frowned. Rale nodded as he inhaled once.

“The second floor’s boss, the only ‘way’ down is guarded not just by a powerful force of nature, but also three impassable gates,” Rale explained as he sat on his boat, bobbing up and down in the same spot.

It was unnerving to see such deep water inches from solid ground.

“Gates? So if we can just break them open-” Hazhur began and Rale leaned forward with a flex of his hands.

“Oh, you might be able to. Nothing is impossible in Delta’s Dungeon, but... breaking the rules means the lady breaks you,” Rale said so simply and casually it abruptly brought him back into focus the fact that he was a Dungeon Monster. Hazhur... he had forgotten that.

What the hell was this place?

“And this spring has one of the challenges?” Silver asked and Rale nodded.

“Indeed. However,I am but a humble ferryman. It is for the lady of the spring to introduce herself,” he said, grinning at the misty buildings. Hazhur didn’t ‘feel’ any danger with his senses, and they were usually the first to rise at the hint of trouble. He turned, searching for any possible threat.

He stopped instantly when he saw his group had gone from four to five. As if conjured from the mist there now stood a femine, gentle looking frog, clad in a strange, robe-like dress of midnight black, embroidered with delicate pink blossoms that shimmered and danced as she moved.

As she shuffled forward on her stiletto heels, Hazhur felt cold sweat run down his spine; should she have wished them dead, they would never have known what killed them.

“Welcome, most honored guests,” the smaller figure said and her strange robe-like dress was decorated with images of falling pink blossoms on a black background, when she shuffled forward on delicate looking heels, the petals seemed to dance or shimmer with movement.

“Uh... hi?” Karn stuttered, looking as pale as a ghost. Hazhur gave him a side-eye, wondering how he wasn’t spooked by the giant death worm, but this lady freaked him out?

“Karn.” he hissed and the man gestured to his waist and Hazur looked down-

No... no no no.

He reached to his back and found his own weapon was gone.

“Fret not, weary travellers. I placed your lovely instruments of magic and death on the table just yonder. I will treat them with loving oils and the best care.” the frog bowed once more before turning to Rale who looked... proud as if a big brother witnessed a little sibling’s first scare tactic on the squishy humans.

“They will be absorbed!” Estal protested and the frog merely smiled.

“I give my word. Is that not... enough?” she asked, the question like a keen dagger bared from its sheath. Karn moved closer and leaned in.

“How did you take all my daggers? One of those is in an awkward place,” he said, more conversational than upset. Hazhur blinked; the man only had one dagger-

On the table, where the frog lady gestured, six smaller daggers surrounded Karn’s larger dagger.

“As the carer of the springs, my touch is... undeniable,” she said before bowing once more.

“I am Luna, fourth of the Second Floor and one of the chosen Key Guardians. I welcome you all to my springs. Please don’t make a mess,” she asked and turned with a smile, her dress giving off the illusion that she was hiding nothing on her body.

“I’ve seen some shoddy bathhouses in my time. We’re not going to be felt up or robbed while we get subpar massages are we?” Estal asked and Luna paused, back turned to them.

“If I wish to ‘feel you up’ I could just go caress Sir Bacon on the first floor. It would be much the same feeling, but Sir Bacon is of much more agreeable temperament.” Luna commented airly before walking into the mist.

“Luna... I leave them in your capable hands,” Rale said, hand over his mouth as the rest of them shared a confused look.

Sir... Bacon?

Was that a monster on the first floor?

After a moment, they followed Luna to the center of the springs where open pools of water steamed, fire crystals heating the water.

Such pure, flawless fire crystals... heating a bathtub. This Dungeon was either woefully ignorant of their treasure or smugly rich.

Luna walked to a central platform and spread her arms before she spoke.

“Normally, these springs would be a haven for long weary travellers who might have ruptured organs, smashed bones, bleeding veins, popped eyeballs-” she listed, sounding more excited by the possibilities as she went on.

“An exploding heart is neat,” Karn agreed as Luna listed more gruesome injuries.

“-But as challengers, the Springs will serve a different function. The Trial of Water has but another name,” she explained before looking at each of them in turn.

“The trial of cleansing,” she finished. As she spoke the pools that surrounded her began to glow with light, as if the moon shone beneath each body of water.

“I assume it isn’t just showing you we can bathe?” Hazhur asked; Luna smiled as she eyed them all, still semi-reeking of fish guts and worm spit.

“It's a start,” she admitted before pointing to one of the pools.

“I have prepared a special concoction that will lure you into a special test. The test itself poses no threat, but I must warn you that it will bring back many unpleasant traumas. If you feel your past pains are too great then do not step into the pool. As there are four of you, only two must pass.” Luna said softly.

After a moment, no one stood back which surprised Hazhur. He thought the Silver member might refuse given his circumstances, but...

“Very well. I have prepared bathing suits in the changing rooms. Everyone needs to wear undergarments, uniforms are there for anyone with issues with their image or would rather be respectful,” Luna pointed to two small shacks.

“Can we just go naked?” Karn asked, not seeing the point. Both Estal and Silver turned to him with a glare.

“No. Innocent children bee workers might pass by,” Luna said affronted.

Hazur also had an issue with that. He still had his past lover’s name inked across his...

Well, nothing he would want Estal seeing. She’d mock him for weeks.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Never thought I’d get near-naked in a Dungeon,” Karn announced as he took off his armour and shirt, revealing a hairy torso and so many scars that they seemed layered one over the other. Hazur stared at the two marks on his shoulders.

Clipped wings. Symbols of an old slave trade business that was torn down...Those marks were stamped on the younger slaves if Hazhur remembered right to remind them they had no future.

Hazhur didn’t exactly recall what happened to them.

Just that the name and owners were torn down as if some beast ripped them apart over night, leaving only the slaves alive. If he recalled, one of the slaves made a report to the Kingdom, but what he saw had undone his mind.

Hazur hoped to never meet the demon who did that.

---

Mila turned to Ruli and slapped her daughter’s hand.

“They aren’t cooled yet,” she barked, watching the meat puff pastries with an eagle eye. Ruli scowled, shaking her hand.

“I’m part demon, I can handle hot food,” she said as if Mila could forget who her father was.

“It’s manners,” she retorted and put them in the oven to cool. Mila was feeling oddly twitchy and Ruli saw.

“Spill, you old handbag. What’s making you tense?” she asked as gently as Ruli ever did anything. Mila scowled but shrugged.

“My old nose is acting up. Thought I smelled...” she leaned out the window towards the forest in which the Dungeon laid. It was a scent hours old, but lingered in the mana-rich air.

Hot sand, ice-filled cacti, men riding dark horses... blood soaking the dark sand, bringing more monsters. Mila remembered that smell well, but there were others.

Then she smelled wrongness, a tacky perfume... worried sweat.

For a moment, Mila’s eyes flashed yellow.

“Outsiders.”

Forcing herself back, she inhaled. Memories of her time spent near the Ruby Dungeon of the Sands always made her cranky.

Ruli raised a brow.

“Should we raise the alarm or should I hunt them?” she asked and the teasing between them had faded to hunter and warrior.

Demon and Beast.

Daughter and Mother.

“No, outsiders are coming, but we must accept that. Check the inns for who it could be,” Mila instructed, sitting down and packing Ruli three of the meat pastries to go.

“And if they’re not in the town?” Ruli asked softly.

“Invite them. Escort them if need be. Even if we weren’t in Durence. Rules and etiquette must be upheld and I gave none permission to go tramping through Delta,” she said darkly.

At the idea they might be stomping through Delta right now, Ruli’s yellow eyes glowed before she exhaled through her nose.

“With pleasure. I’ll give them the tour personally,” Ruli agreed, gone like a dark predator out the door.

Mila turned to the window, inhaling once more.

“Wrongness and... metal,” she concluded, thinking over the one scent in particular. She knew that smell, but it eluded her.

Mila didn’t dig deeper into her memory. Things that she didn’t remember anything about could possibly be lurking just below an innocent question or rumination.

The wrong memory could undo many years’ work, so Mila decided to make some more pastries. She still had so much damn dire wolf meat to use.

---

“The soul is connected to many things. The heart, the points of energy within the body, the chaotic thoughts running through your ever so tender and fragile brain,” Luna said as she softly ran a strange tool around a large bowl, producing a hollow ringing noise that seemed to sink deeper than simple volume.

Estal shifted in her pool; the suit she wore was made of some elastic rubber plant, it hugged her body but she was pleased to see it went all the way down her legs and arms. Luna had even given her some nice shorts to wear over it so nothing was revealed if she got out of the pool.

There was little to be done about the upper areas, but they each had their own pool so Estal didn’t protest.

The spring was just the right amount of hot to be deep and therapeutic, rather than uncomfortable. It was odd since Estal knew personally she had a rather finicky ‘just right’ temperature for baths and usually had to settle for near but never perfect.

She looked over at Karn who wore the tiniest shorts he could, the cretin. She was curious about his back wounds, some of them looked like his skin had been torn by something with spikes repeatedly, but she refrained from asking.

Karn had earned his secrets for now.

Silver wore some sort of… bulky diving suit, but even then Estal could see how his body just wasn’t right.

Hazhur wore baggy shorts, but she didn’t exactly look hard at her cousin. He seemed embarrassed by something though, so she checked for hilarious birthmarks or perhaps an ugly tattoo;she didn’t see anything, but nevertheless...

“However, deep within all mortals is a... core. A point through which all your experience flows. This core... becomes a seed which emanates trauma, hate, pain, and more. This challenge is not to defeat this pain, but lessen its grip upon you. Strength can be gained from this,” Luna let the bowl ring one final time before putting it aside.

“And a key, hopefully,” Estal muttered.

“When is this drug added? I haven’t seen the dancing moon children in some time!” Karn called, making some drug reference Estal didn’t get.

Children? On the moon? Karn was a fool.

“Oh, I added them before you all changed,” Luna said conversationally. Estal stopped enjoying the cute little pink petals floating on the water, her eyes widening.

“What?” Hazhur said flatly.

Estal turned to glare at Luna, but the frog woman was floating, or perhaps her platform... The mist seemed awfully thick and the others seemed far away, as if they were drifting apart. A ludicrous thought until she remembered Rale.

Oh, she remembered Rale alright.

She made to stand up, but when she gripped the side of the pool, her hands met cold marble instead.

The uneven rock marking the pool’s edge was now a weird mix of elegant bathtub and rough stone, the mist drawing closer and closer.

“Damn it, I thought I’d see some colours or have minor flashbacks! This is too intense,” Estal complained, standing up.

“Wow, I thought she was a boy with how awkward she is, but I was wrong,” came a nasally snide voice from behind her.

Estal froze, every inch of her withdrawing into a cold steel sphere of ‘don’t look at me’.

“She’s actually a goblin!” The voice finished and a dozen girls began to laugh around her. The... bathhouse was now a large communal bathroom.

A very familiar bathroom.

Estal turned to see Marby Hasenvane and her dozen or so followers wrapped in towels all crowding around Estal’s tub. Estal couldn’t be here.

Estal refused to be here.

She threw out her hand and was pitiful... horribly small wisp of smoke exited one finger. This eclited more laughter.

“Common little Estie can’t even use common little magic,” Marby said with mock-sympathy before she flung out her own hand.

A fireball ignited and flew towards Estal, flying past and igniting her towel and spare clothes until they were only cinders, flaking away and leaving her with nothing to hide her body.

Estal sank back into the student baths, dread... shame... loathing filling her.

“Hurry back, Estie. I heard the corridors are so cold at night,” Marby said and they all erupted into shrieks of laughter again.

“Common Goblin Estie!” they chanted as they walked off.

Common... ugly... Goblin Estie.

Estal wanted to shut them all out, erect a wall so thick they couldn’t touch her, look at her... burn her.

But… she had right? There was a horrible confusing moment of knowing she wasn’t this scrawny underfed kid anymore. She was a proud woman who was neither common nor a goblin.

She was being courted by damn muscular frog men who could break her walls any damn day!

“Marby?” Estal called and the girl turned, a smirk on her face, which died when Estal rose from the bathtub, a barrier so close to her skin it looked like a dress made of hexagonal panels that shifted.

“You grew up to be mediocre and boring,” she declared and the girl’s eyes turned black.

“At least I grew up, you’re still here,” Marby spat, her goons turning to shadows.

“Yeah, if you’re my deepest darkest demon? I’m so ready to become a badass. Bye bye Marby, you were a second-rate bitch and a third-rate magician,” Estal announced, returning back to her full adult form and snapping her fingers, causing the illusion to explode outwards as Estal summoned a barrier inside them.

“Is that all?” Estal bragged and a heavy hand landed on her shoulder. It was tight, slightly cold... and she remembered exactly the feel of those gold rings digging into her skin.

“Estal, stand straight,” the man said and Estal was four, shaking like a leaf.

“Father,” she greeted, voice so fragile.

---

Silver walked through gleaming halls of polished metal.

He didn’t deserve the name, but the others call him Silver, so he would choose the name over ‘299’ for now. He would just never call himself Silver and there would be no issue... or consequences.

Floor 44 was his home and it had been many years since the Great Silver One changed anything here or... even visited. It was the nature of Dungeons. They knew that and honestly, they didn’t feel boredom or loneliness... only passing curiosity of lower floors.

In places, the silver was wrong and replaced by a simple human home of beds, kitchen tables, half-people, half silver statues.

The illusion was impressive, but Silver was part-monster. It saw the mana making it all up.

It didn’t stop him glaring with all his hate at the figure walking through the hall.

Flowing hair, a body not suited for combat or being in a Dungeon, a gentle face with a soft beauty that was at odds with sharp silver; soft and supple, and a basket full of flowers in her arm.

Silver glared at the woman who had doomed them all.

The woman who his master had fallen in love with.

The one who he chose over them all.

“Kyrial... I will find you and I will kill you,” Silver whispered and the woman paused before him, eyes black and smile kind.

“You’re hunting a ghost,” she said sadly.

“Then the dead yet wander,” Silver replied.

“Beast, cease bothering her,” came an order and Silver recoiled as he was forced back away from Kyrial as a bright silver orb came closer; its light opulent and all Silver ever wanted to see once more.

How cruel of Delta... how kind of her.

“Master...”

145: The Things that Brought us Here

Hazhur nervously tied the knife to his waist.

“Nice and tight, you don’t want to lose your side-knife. Adventurers who lose their side-knives lose their lives shortly after,” said an old familiar voice behind Hazhur. He turned to see the leader of his group strolling towards him.

Hazhur tried to recall why he thought he was in a bath... why was he in a place he only saw in memories and nightmares?

“Master Ivan,” he said nervously, voice deeper at the age of sixteen than most. The man clapped Hazhur on the shoulder.

“None of that. We’re going into trouble together, so just Ivan,” he said and Hazhur’s head hurt as people moved past, some with faces and some blurred as if the world had deemed them unimportant, but despite that, Hazhur felt like he was exactly where he should be.

“Is it trouble? I thought it was kept on top of?” Hazhur mumbled and Ivan peered over him to something in the distance.

“Dungeons can be sneaky... this one more so than most, about their new levels. You only get the big mana surges every couple of levels and the deeper the Dungeon? The less the wave makes it to the top,” Ivan said as he rubbed his grizzled face that had collected scars from many years of ‘trouble’.

“I thought Fairplay had men on every floor? Merchants before every boss and constant material collection?” Hazhur said with a frown, idly rubbing at the badge on his belt that denoted him as ‘Fairplay’s Scout Team-35’.

“It’s good propaganda, ain’t it? ‘Dungeons made safe’!” Ivan cackled, as if imagining the slogan on some colourful poster.

“We have enough men, if we focused ourselves, we could do that, but that was 20...30 Dungeons ago,” Ivan went on as he pulled his short sword and shield out to check for nicks or damage before the expedition began.

“I didn’t know there were that many,” Hazhur said, frowning. He mentally counted the famous ones off his hand.

The Royal Dungeon, the Great Ruby of the Desert, the Lighthouse, the Pestilence Swamp, the Silver halls, and a few he heard about by gossip, like one in a land where they spoke semi-common and a mix of their own language...

Supposedly, there was one under the World Tree, but the thing went feral ages ago.

“Dungeons are symbiotic or parasitic depending on their relationship to local life. Some Dungeons just get unlucky and birth in areas with not much in them. No prey, no growth and thus no one really knows they’re there,” Ivan went on, checking his armor straps next.

Hazhur hesitated and did the same.

“Doesn’t Fairplay have a big magic tracking map?” he pushed, wondering if he had joined up with a scam group?

“It's no delicate spider-web, lad. It’s a big metal nose pointed at the sky and only the big prey gives off any reasonable mana to sniff out. Most of the scouts find Dungeons off the beaten path... mostly by luck,” Ivan admitted as he stood up on a road.

That’s right, they were in a town.

“And towns that sell the rights,” Hazhur recalled as he turned slowly.

“Aye. Dungeons are like finding a caged-beast in your garden. Some talented folk can make it work, but most just end up feeding it. There’s no shame in admitting you’re over your head and the legal jargon got important when greedy mayors or kings tried to snatch the Dungeons back once we mastered them,” Ivan said with a dark look.

Hazhur was sure the ‘jargon’ went both ways in unfairness, but he didn’t care. He was just here to get his name out there.

He wanted to be famous like Cadderic the Spear or Lorsa the Knight-Captain! Maybe even... like the rising hero of his hometown, Ruberoi Smalls or Smalls the Great! The man whose rapier could cleave iron from rock and web from a spider!

Ivan’s hand smacked the back of his head before he put his gauntlet on.

“Daydreaming already? We haven’t even gone inside!” he guffawed with bright cheer. Hazhur glared at his leader, rubbing the already forming bump before he followed him and the others to the entrance of the Dungeon.

It was a chaotic looking thing. A door that half rose out of the sea with pink coral forming walls and stairs... the chaos came into focus when a metal gate that would guard a castle rose out of the sand and rocks, mashing wildly with the coral to form a twisted blend of pink and iron.

The entrance opened with snaps of coral pieces and metal bars, but it did open.

“Ever been in the famous Dungeon of the Twin Cores?” Ivan asked conversationally. Hazhur was too awestruck to answer. Someone came up to Ivan, speaking in a faint voice that Hazhur didn’t take notice of.

He took a step forward, almost hypnotized by the entrance. His glory and fame laid within and he gripped his axe with eagerness.

Hazhur the mighty... no Hazhur the Great!

His heart burned with joy and anticipation.

Yet, even lost in this tranquil memory, a horrible lurch of pain filled Hazhur. He was not sixteen or a boy... he knew how this ended and he tried to make his feet turn back... to run away. But he was a watcher more than an actor at this point.

They entered, finding the entrance hall to be a mix of swirling coral doing battle with jagged metal statues, the coral infecting the statues like parasites as the metal rusted and diluted the pink rock in return.

In front of them, a door opened to the left, leading down... and a door opened to their right leading forward.

The doors were simply rock, but on their surface was scripture that seemed old-fashioned, even for someone like Ivan to read.

“The other portal is upon honor certain death,” Hazur read then turned to the other.

“That other door upon no honor is certain life,” he said and Ivan snorted.

“Welcome to the running theme of the Dungeon, conflicting style and always two choices,” he said with a sigh. He pulled out a detailed map, showing the way forward leading to a series of rooms with clear marked traps and the door leading down to something Ivan had marked as the ‘pit of Coral-Crabs’ that also had ways to proceed forward.

“Teams already marked up to the 35th floor, so we’re covered in majority there. We’ve to do a weeks’ worth of scouting, checking for any new monsters or patrol deviations in existing creatures,” Ivan instructed the team, though Hazhur could only see Ivan.

“I don’t think I can fight...” Hazhur said, trailing off as Ivan smiled at him.

“We got two of the Fair Maidens coming in. They’ll clear us a path forward when we need it, but don’t expect them to hold your hands... though, you might want them to,” he said, grinning as Hazhur went pink in the checks, looking down at the pink coral to avoid Ivan’s gaze.

Hazhur had seen one.

She had been the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

“Will... will it be ‘Winter’s Silent Sigh’?” he asked, ever so casually.

“Hm, not likely. We’re expecting trouble, not a full blown corrupted Dungeon,” Ivan replied dryly.

“But Isanella... she’d be the strongest, right?,” he argued as if Ivan had any say in where the Maidens went.

“In the right field, they’re all the strongest. But I’m not getting sucked into another Maiden debate. Everyone has their personal favourite,” he warned. He marked a path on his map.

“Anyway, Isenalla is getting sent to the Blood-Plains. A tribe there has knowledge on a Dungeon and she’s being sent to ‘convince’ them to share,” he said and Hazhur’s heart dropped.

He really wanted to impress the Fair Maiden with his... low-rank skills.

“Besides, everyone knows Brilda of the Striking Summer is the best Fair Maiden,” Ivan said cheerfully as they set off.

Hazhur bristled.

Maybe... maybe he’d let the Spring’s Hope Maiden or the Kingdom Fall Maiden be considered... but Summer?!

He would have to correct Ivan’s taste... he was as bad as his cousin who sneezed sparks and ate frogs for fun.

---

Karn stared up at the giant tower jutting out of the sand in the far distance. The harsh sun of the Sister beat down hard in this region and the sand around them shifted on harsh winds.

“I’ve already kind of handled this,” he called aloud to the illusion of drugs and magic. The sun flickered and the tower tilted.

The scene shifted to him staring up as a half-wolf, half-woman covered in slaver blood, snarling as she raised her weapon to remove Karn’s head.

“Nope, got this out in a drunken party. Was cathartic,” Karn went on.

There was a pause and the scene shifted and Karn found himself at one of the few oases in the desert, holding a gleaming scimitar. He was maybe twelve... maybe younger.

“Oh... I haven’t handled this. This is a good one,” he called, trying to be helpful to make up for his crab-stomping business from before. The weapon he held had many gems embedded in it and Karn had pulled it out from the bottom of the oasis after he fell while trying to swim...

Karn wasn’t sure if he was trying to kill himself or honestly just wondered what being in water was like.

“Child of the dunes...” the sword mumbled, as if trying to remember a script it had forgotten. It sounded male and half-asleep.

“I am Slave-22,” Karn said, remembering how the conversation had gone.

“And I am the great Gamma. A weapon of a thousand dreams and forms!” the weapon responded, sounding more on-track now.

“This is painful. Can we not?” Karn asked honestly, ignoring the scene for a moment.

Luna’s voice hummed from far away, like she was the moon itself in the sky.

“The point is to address old wounds, but you’re free to leave. Only two need pass... but no one else has yet,” Luna said breezily.

Karn thought furiously for a moment. He’d presume Hazhur would pass... Silver was 50/50, but Estal...

“I already know what happens, I don’t see how reliving it makes me stronger,” he argued, but decided in his heart to remain in the trial.

“Slave, huh? Well, listen up, kiddo. If you tell me what you wish and take me away from the Oasis, I’ll make your wish come true!” Gamma said and Karn sighed.

“You won’t,” he said with absolute confidence.

“Oi, oi! Don’t doubt me. So, I just need to ask a question real quick before I make some magic happen... Do the names Alpha, Beta or Delta sound familiar?” Gamma asked and Karn jolted in surprise. He had forgotten Gamma had asked that.

His original answer had to have been no... but now?

Delta. He was in the Dungeon of Delta! Karn felt his heart beating faster as he had dark thoughts rise up.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Shame,” Gamma said as if Karn had answered. In a moment, Karn threw the blasted sword back into the oasis with a snarl.

There was a ripple and the scene reset itself, he was holding the sword.

“Child of the dunes...”

Karn threw the sword away. The scene reset itself. Karn tried to bury it and the scene reset itself.

Finally, he just stood there, listening to Gamma effectively talk to himself as if Karn the slave boy was still here... still talking.

“You just hold me high and announce yourself free. I’ll take care of the rest,” Gamma promised and Karn watched as Gamma turned into some strange contraption he had once seen at a blacksmiths... the sword moved on its own, clipping Karn’s chains so that they dropped into the sand below with a thud.

“See, freedom is here already,” Gamma sang and Karn looked at it.

“You gave me hope,” he accused hoarsely. Gamma oddly broke the script to reply.

“I gave you a weapon... don’t blame me for anything else,” the weapon retorted as it shifted to a giant axe that little Karn could lift with ease. Karn remembered the path he took back to the camp. The other slaves saw him first, backing away as their chains rattled, tied to metal poles buried in the sand.

Karn couldn’t lie, Gamma did as he promised and as he held the weapon up, Gamma seemed to attack on his own, dragging Karn around rather than the other way around. The axe became a myriad of weapons, cutting down his slavers to the point Karn could feel he was losing... some strength as Gamma wielded him.

Before he could do much to stop Gamma or even think of letting go, Gamma lurched towards the harsh open desert.

“Come on, more will come and you’re my only chance at getting to some real place. I’ve been stuck in that oasis for two months!” Gamma complained as Karn stared wide-eyed... his face felt hot as sticky stuff dried on it.

“N-No, the others,” Karn protested and his will made Gamma pause.

“Well... alright, but that’s a lot of slaves,” he reminded as he let Karn drag him back to start hacking up the chains. Karn hacked and hacked, remembering very little of the faces he rescued. They all backed away from him or just ran.

“Kid... the patrols are coming back and we don’t have the energy to take more on. Grab a horse!” Gamma insisted. Karn didn’t exactly regret trying to save the slaves, but he clearly could see it was a lost cause as he was much older.

Karn watched his little hands swing over and over, freeing more people as he returned closer to the water’s edge in his haste.

He was going to fight, die as a free boy than live anymore as a slave, but-

“Anyone with a brain, raise your hand and I’ll get us out of here!” Gamma yelled in slight panic as Karn got too close to the oasis once more to free more people.

“I don’t want to go back into the oasis!” Gamma yelled, losing all composure. Karn blinked as an older woman snagged Gamma out of his hands, it was so easy for her since Gamma forced himself out of Karn’s grip.

“Take me from here, Devil-Blade!” she commanded with a rasp and kicked Karn down to the water’s edge as chaos erupted in the camp.

Karn looked up, sand sticking to his face.

“Gamma... you...” he said but both of them were gone over the embankment and into the fight. Karn reached his hand out for someone to help him, but no one came.

No one came except for the chains.

“The others say this boy brought the Devil-Blade to camp,” a large man called and Karn just laid there... feeling hollow and used.

The slaver leaned down in the ruins of the camp, gripping Karn’s collar tightly.

“No magic blade here, boy... no friends among slaves and no heroes,” he said and Karn didn’t feel fear at the sight of the man. He had seen far greater men and demons bear their teeth at him.

“I was a hero and Gamma was the coward,” Karn said flatly and it all broke apart.

He was abruptly back at the pool, head in Luna’s lap as he rested in the calm pool.

“I failed,” he said with a blank tone.

“Oh, adventurer. The only mark of failure at my hotspring is the unwillingness to face your demons at all. Running is failure... but I think seeing things from a different perspective helped a little,” Luna said soothingly.

Karn just sat in the steaming pool for a moment longer before speaking.

“I don’t get the lesson,” he finally admitted.

“Depends on how you want to take it,” Luna said, bemused.

“Perhaps seeing the fact you were a boy who was used and left made you not a failure nor a coward. Perhaps seeing the options you had that if you had left the slaves to perish then you would be a different... lesser man with a cowardly blade at your side,” she said with a long sigh.

Karn blinked once then looked down at his pruning fingers.

“I choose to be free... even when they put the chains back on and branded my back... I had tasted hope. Hope from a traitor, like poisoned wine. I was free in my heart,” he said slowly. Luna smiled at him and Karn couldn’t say he was into frog-people, but she was pretty in her hazy hotspring air and calm aura.

“Now, you can be free to hunt down a traitorous blade and snap it like a man’s private pride into two then melt those pieces down to make fashionable earrings!” Luna advised brightly.

“Anyone else passed?” he asked and Luna gestured to the side where Silver waited on a bench, holding a rather tiny shell of some hairy fruit that had a pink umbrella in it. Karn needed one of those things so he joined the odd Silver on the bench.

“How was your trauma?” Karn asked politely and Silver turned his head to Karn with unnatural rigidity.

“Inside, I am a storm of howling beasts that slather and drool for serene release from these memories that hound my soul like hornets that have knives instead of stingers,” Silver responded tersely.

“So...” Karn trailed off, not sure what to say.

“It sucked and I am now on the path of cathartic healing... supposedly,” Silver summed up.

There was a violent explosion from the pool Estal had been in and she stood up, barriers forming together in such a way she made two giant hands that were attempting to squish somebody’s head.

“FATHER!” she screamed before she spun and stormed forward, still in whatever illusion she was in.

She began to knock over something in her vision.

“I hate your porcelain duck collection! I hate your stupid pen collection! I hate your stupid books!” she yelled, throwing the ‘objects’ down with glee.

Luna cautiously prodded her back to the pool with a long stick.

“I AM A MAGE! I don’t need... your or anyone’s approval,” Estal concluded as she flexed her magic and pointed forward.

“I am the Barrier-Mage, Estal Unnamed. I discard your name, Mage Thunderblaze!” she announced and Karn stared as her swimsuit was tearing from the magic.

“Worth the trauma,” he said with excitement but Luna swaddled her in a large colourful towel.

“Mage names? I remember that being important,” Karn commented and Silver nodded.

“Mage names are the very magic they wield. It's rare to see one have such a powerful effect as Thunderblaze. It would be worth a lot of clout in magic circles,” Silver explained.

Karn remembered a few mages, but they had ‘wiggle’ or ‘tapping’ in their name. He hadn’t fought one that had a real mage name before!

---

“Quiss Firesmasher,” Alpha said, making note of it.

The scruffy blond man sighed as his companion leaned over with a wide smile

“Salvation! I am Sethamus PurgingRiver! I am life-companion of Quiss. I cool his burning tongue,” he introduced and Alpha stared at the man with utter bafflement.

“He’s a longtime friend who stops me setting rude people on fire,” Quiss translated as he nursed his drink.

“Isanella said I should introduce myself to ten people so I can get over my crippling fear of socializing,” Alpha said as to explain why he was bothering the wizards.

“Quiss, isn’t he funny!” Seth said in that weird tongue that used mana.

“I thought I was being serious,” Alpha frowned in the same tongue. Seth and Quiss turned to him with surprise.

“You’re a mage?” Quiss asked and Alpha paused.

He was a lot of things, if he was being honest.

Nodding, Alpha watched as both men eyed him.

“What’s your ‘name’?” Quiss asked slowly.

“Alpha,” he responded simply. That was an easy question!

“No. your mage name,” Seth asked with excitement.

Alpha mentally checked his stats and didn’t find a title that fit a mage name.

“I don’t have one,” he admitted as he wondered if he should flee the bar and try somewhere else, but the only other interesting place was a bank and the man there asked if Alpha was donating blood, memories, or gold.

“Hmm... that can’t be left alone. A mage with no name is like a man with no underwear on. Just rubs the wrong way,” Quiss said as he stood up and took his very nice hat off.

Alpha stared at the magic hat as Quiss waved a hand over it.

“By the power of a named wizard and someone who's worked a double shift today, I open a way to the realm of names,” he said and the hat shook before there was a sound like a plug being uncorked and cold air began to leak from the hat.

“Don’t be nervous. Just reach in and pluck a piece of paper!” Seth said in magic-tongue, clapping his hands excitedly. Alpha got a quest to do just that so shrugged and reached in.

It was a lot like pushing his hand through thick pudding that was cool and occasionally parted to reveal pockets of air that had jellyworms in them. After some fisting of the pudding-like realm, Alpha finally felt what seemed to be a scrap of paper.

He pulled his hand out which was now covered in a dark purple slime, holding a piece of paper. He read it.

‘Alpha FirstKing’

---

Far across the land, near the capital, a series of tools and instruments began to vanish off a very shocked , now naked, old man, leaving him standing nude in the great hall of the Wizard Clan.

It was soon discovered that there was a new position above Grandmage and it’s name was ‘Mage King’.

In a single act of pulling from a hat... magic as they knew it was forever changed... or as Sister would say ‘finally moved out of Alpha’.

146: Dreams never linger

Hazhur stood outside the boss door of floor 36. Even in this false memory... this illusion, he couldn’t ignore the feeling of how he was caked in blood and covered in wounds.

“B-Boy,” Ivan croaked as he laid against the wall. His left leg and arm were missing and Hazhur had run out of materials to bandage his stumps with. The floor underneath them was an almost perfect blend of naturally growing ivy and glass shards one would find in an old church window. It made it dazzle to shine light on, but unbearable to rest upon.

Inside the Boss room, sounds of fighting could be heard. The sounds of cracking glass, roaring fire, and waves of mana rolled out from under the door.

“I don’t understand,” Hazhur whispered, turning to Ivan with a hollow expression.

“It was bad luck, Hazhur. It happens,” Ivan said quietly. Hazhur gripped his only remaining weapon, his side knife. Of course... it was the only weapon he didn’t actually bother using.

“Bad luck?” Hazhur echoed and turned to Ivan fully with agony and fear on his face.

“Bad luck killed all of team 35? All of them? Juni? Maratic? Nips?” he demanded of the dying man.

“The Twin Dungeons have a reputation of being highly unbalanced due to their dual-nature... some floors can be mastered with fire or ice... have flying beasts too heavy to fly...,” Ivan said, coughing as he tried to sit up.

“But rarely... horribly... the two natures meld perfectly together on a floor. No fighting, no arguments... no inefficient designs. Then the Dungeon’s true terror is unleashed,” Ivan said, flexing the fingers on his only remaining hand.

“Does it still have two bosses per floor? How is that fair?!” Hazhur cried, falling to his knees, ignoring how some spines of the ivy buried into his knee. Ivan’s hand fell on Hazhur’s shoulder.

“Dungeons aren’t fair. My boy... it's down to humanity to make it fair, but we’re so few and the company is only one. Still, it was my judgement that pushed us on... not yours,” Ivan wheezed as he closed his eyes.

A tremble shook the ground as the fighting inside the Boss room intensified between the monstrosity and the Fair Maiden.

Even their beauty, the striking blaze of Brilda’s spear and the life blooming around Ghulana’s staff couldn’t bring back Hazhur’s dead friends.

Brilda of Summer who struck with a lance of the sun.

Ghulana who seemed like an elven princess that stepped out of a story book.

Ivan inhaled once more as the bottom of his shoes began to hiss and break apart. Hazhur snapped into action, trying to lift the heavy man off the Dungeon floor.

“Boy... let go,” Ivan said with a soft tone. Hazhur took a few steps, but the ivy made the ground uneven and in Hazhur’s mind, they slithered with eagerness.

He tripped and Ivan rolled away with a groan, his eyes half-lidded as his sleeves and broken sword hilt on his hip broke apart.

“Stop wasting what time I have left and listen to me,” Ivan commanded as the last of his life fled his body.

Hazhur looked up to the ceiling, covered in so much of his friend’s blood, his heart now filled with so many of their dying words.

He wanted to scream, but he listened instead.

“Wait until the Maidens are done then go back... collect our pay, all the teams as one then get out of this business. I was hoping to scare you off, but the Dungeon did it for me,” Ivan chuckled, teeth red.

“The sum will be big and the Maidens will vouch for you... take the money and find a purpose, boy. Get drunk, make mistakes, have a fling or two... get a tattoo somewhere you’ll never show anyone you won’t make love with,” Ivan insisted, gripping Hazhur’s hand hard.

“But what if I end up back in a Dungeon?” Hazhur whispered, wishing he could vanish instead.

“Stick to ones with five floors or less... they aren’t crazy,” Ivan said simply and exhaled before he pulled out a coin. Hazhur nearly snorted when he saw it.

“That old trick?” Hazhur had to ask incredulously.

“One last time,” Ivan said before he moved his hand and the coin was gone.

“It’s gone,” he said seriously, “then it's back,” he announced as the coin reappeared in his fingers as if by magic.

Ivan made it vanish again.

“Gone...”

It reappeared.

“Back...

He made it vanish and his hands trembled.

“Gone...” he said with a whisper.

The coin hit the ground and rolled away... absorbed moments later.

“Come back,” Hazhur pleaded as his mentor broke apart into mana motes and was gone moments later.

“Back... come back...”

“It’s sad...” came a girl’s voice.

“It’s alive,” countered a boy’s voice. Hazhur snapped his eyes up to see two glowing orbs of green and blue, encircling him.

“They brought strong people. Not fair... I don’t want them to have the rewards!” the blue orb, the boy maybe, announced.

“But they’re winning?” the girl pondered.

“One uses Yal’s power! How is that fair!?” the boy countered.

“Not fair! So we don’t give them the rewards... but they must be rewarded!” the girl whispered. There was a pause as they seemed to look down at Hazhur, holding a knife at them.

“No... we only need to reward ‘someone’,” the boy countered with abrupt glee.

Hazhur watched as they came closer and closer, he didn’t want to see what happened next, but just as they were about to touch him... the green and blue were split apart by a basking warm orange sun that seemed to melt the scene away.

He was resting in a strange room where the universe seemed to be compressed. Someone gentle ran a hand over his cheek. Under him, some bag filled with soft squishy pellets comforted his body.

“Well... hello there. You seemed like you were having a bad dream so I guess I accidentally brought you into mine,” the kind woman said as she looked down at him, her neck length hair and odd tie dangling down to touch Hazhur’s chin.

She was beautiful in a way that wasn’t ‘perfect’ like he had seen some mages or elves strive for, but her looks spoke of her pride in her dimpled cheeks and slightly buttoned nose rather than shame.

“Who are you?” he asked, wondering if he drowned in that frog’s hotspring and was going to some higher plane?

“Delta. I presume you’re currently on a trip through my Dungeon?” she replied and Hazhur tensed, but after a moment, managed to sit up. A core? The Dungeon itself pulled Hazhur from the memory?

“Your Dungeon is beyond weird and it makes me uncomfortable,” he said bluntly, sinking into the bag against his will to a comfortable place.

The woman gaped before she inhaled, making a notepad and pen appear.

“Well, I appreciate feedback where I can get it. Was it Nu? Did Nu drop you into the fish level?” she asked and Hazhur twitched.

“The fish level is... a thing, but...” he trailed off as his hand turned transparent.

“Sorry, first time someone’s done Luna’s trial and I don’t sleep often so I’m pretty new to the dream magic thing. I didn’t know I could do that with anyone... I thought it was just Al,” she mused and Hazhur fell off the bag to reveal it was in the shape of a giant mushroom with a large zipper across its brim.

“If you’re asleep... who's running the Dungeon?!” he asked, fearful that another ‘twin’ core was occurring before his very eyes.

“Nu, my partner in crime... Mharia for guests... Fera to keep people in line... Wyin to scare people... I guess Jellagon to dish out some court justice if need be,” Delta listed with her fingers.

How many cores did she have?!

“The important thing is that you rise to the challenges and remember-” Delta jumped down and pushed Hazhur’s cheeks up with her fingers.

“Try to smile. My Dungeon isn’t your enemy. Just don’t become ours cause I just finished my second great war and I really need a break,” she said, her tone becoming bedraggled towards the end.

“How does a Dungeon have a war without going corrupt?” Hazhur whispered as Delta stepped back with a hum.

“You make me mad and the rest just sort of... happens. So, be on your best behavior! I’ll check on you when I finally wake up. I was in this awesome dream where I was having tea with a Unicorn-Centaur cross princess who had the best dirty jokes ever,” Delta proclaimed as she began to fade.

Hazhur wanted to question... well any of Delta’s statements, but found himself awake back on the second floor as Rale inhaled his big beefy chest to give Hazhur more mouth-to-mouth aid.

“Stop!” Hazhur threw his hands up in protection.

There was a sigh of relief as Luna peered down at him.

“You were nearly pulled under by your pain, but you also faced it,” she said and Hazhur looked at her.

“Why didn’t you give me air then?” he croaked. Luna looked away, abashed.

“A lady never kisses before she’s ready,” she proclaimed. Rale smacked his chest.

“Mouth-to-mouth is an art and I mastered it!” he added and there was a sound like a branch high up snapping followed by something hitting the soil nearby and Estal choked, turning red.

Hazhur stared for a moment before he decided to keep his strange fever dream of Delta to himself. He was now half-convinced it was an image his brain projected on the verge of drowning.

His cheeks tingled from where Delta made him smile and he mimicked her, pushing his own face into a strange smile

Luna coughed.

“Well, four for four... I must admit I am surprised!” she smiled and spread her fan open to waft air at herself softly.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“First... the Key of the Moon,” she declared, pulling a key out from inside her sleeve. It was a simple long silver key that had a crescent moon-shaped head.

“And for an additional reward...” Luna said with a smile as she pulled out a potion that shimmered on its own. It didn’t look like any market-branded potion that Hazhur had ever seen. Silver was staring at it, but Karn was busy soaking back in the hotspring, half-listening.

She handed the potion to Estal who eyed it suspiciously.

“When you face the tree of pain, use the potion for an advantage you will gain,” Luna said and walked into the mist with a giggle.

“It’s a special brew so don’t lose it,” she cautioned.

“Tree of pain? Like a Punching Pine or a Bashing Birch?” Karn asked curiously.

“This tree doesn’t just hurt you physically,” Rale said wisely as he turned to the massive yawning tree in the distance in which gates could be seen under its roots.

“She also hurts you spiritually, mentally, and wittles down your confidence if she’s really bored,” he announced.

Hazhur didn’t like the sound of that.

Rale then pointed in the other direction, towards what looked like a giant cliff wall.

“You’ll find the second key trial would be that way and closer than the other two you may attempt,” he said and bowed.

“Any hints?” Estal asked politely, batting her eyes. Rale thought about it.

“If you must stay awake later than your normal bedtime, drink water and distract yourself with a good book,” he saluted and jumped into his boat to push off dry land... through dryland.

This Dungeon hurt Hazhur’s head.

“Does anyone notice something about ‘that’ direction of the Jungle?” Karn asked and Hazhur paused. Towards the giant tree and something that looked like a cave, birds sang, giant bees buzzed, and life was normal.

The way Rale pointed was dark and deadly silent.

“Well... if Rale says go that way? We go that way,” Estal said and walked forward with her staff held out at the ready.

Hazhur couldn’t help feel that while the jungle was silent... they were being watched at all times by little shakes in the trees; branches that shifted or undergrowth that rustled.

Countless eyes... all on them.

---

“Any result?” Seth demanded and Quiss looked up from under his bed with a scowl as Alpha waited uncomfortably in a nearby chair.

Quiss’ shack was a lot... longer on the inside. It stretched on a little, bending space in odd ways.

“I’m looking, you prissy water fart,” Quiss warned and threw books around with agitation. Alpha hadn’t meant to cause any trouble.

“Book was present from once-teacher!” Seth threw his hands up. Quiss turned, snorting smoke out his nostrils.

“And where is yours then?” he demanded. Seth looked away.

“Lost it in whale,” he muttered.

“Indeed, so shut it,” Quiss turned back and reached for a book that was being used to support his bed to keep it even as one of the legs looked... chewed.

“Aha, here it is!” he said and Alpha read the cover with his head tilted.

“Mage names and their potential meaning, volume 4. Pending volume 5-” he read, but Quiss’ hand covered the name of the author.

“Exactly. Our teacher noted that several names popped up over again and again through the years,” Quiss muttered as he flipped through the pages.

“Firstking... Firstking...” Quiss said, flipping the pages then he reached for another book under the bed, the third volume.

“Kingprotector. Kingseeker. Kinglicker? That’s not right,” Quiss said before going straight for volume one.

“I can give it back, the name I mean? I don’t want to cause trouble,” Alpha offered, standing up but both Mages spoke at the same time.

“No.”

Alpha sat back down.

“Names are a right, given by destiny. It’s just that some come with their own terms,” Quiss admitted.

“Firstking...” Quiss said, stopping his speed-reading to read something.

“Firstduke and Firstlord were awarded to powerful mages who mastered 10 and 20 styles of magic respectively. Their ability to master elements seemed to be a stroke of luck from correct bloodlines and training,” Quiss read, then turned the page... before looking back with a frown.

“That’s it,” he said to Seth.

They looked at Alpha.

“How many ‘kind’ of spells can you do?” Quiss asked slowly.

Alpha opened his mental menu, flicking through the categories he had never bothered to sort out of fear of interacting too deeply with the menu.

Fire, ice, and all the rest of the elements. Holy and demonic. Nature and death. Animation. Animal communication. Candy and block magic. Dragon and Insect magic. Enchantment and warding.

Alpha really wanted a true double jump, though. That would be neat.

He had a further 20 or 30 sections with one or two simple spells in them.

“Some,” he finally admitted.

“Firstking... would outdo Archmage?” Seth asked, suddenly coyly.

“The current Archmage is Opopal TalentDragon. So... yes, by rules of magic and the system in place... he would lose his seat to anyone assigned a higher spot than himself,” Quiss admitted.

Alpha stared at them.

“I don’t think a governing system dictated by a name pulled out of a hat is a stable one,” he pointed out.

“It’s the least corrupt,” Quiss said factually, getting a nod from Seth.

Alpha thought that was extremely worrying.

Still, it was none of his business. As long as he stayed in his new home inside a hole in the ground... this Archmage guy would just leave Alpha alone.

Alpha didn’t want to rule anything or lead an army of wizards. He wasn’t a hero... he definitely wasn’t a wizard-hero.

“We could use him to tear down TalentDragon’s regime and install one that respects anarchy,” Quiss said conversationally.

“Install a raving beetle king and prune all naughty dogs,” Seth said with a glare.

Alpha needed an adult that wasn’t insane or Seth.

---

Estal stared in horror, backing off slightly.

“It’s...” she trailed off, not able to give weight to her words.

“Estal, it’s a hole in the ground. It might have bugs in it,” Hazhur said, trying to remain patient. Estal glared at him.

“I don’t mind bugs. I had a spider as my only room mate in school. No, it's worse than that! There might be dead people in there,” she whined.

“Spiders are not classified as insects,” Silver mumbled.

“Any undead in a dungeon are technically created therefore not real undead,” Hazhur replied, as if this was drilled into him at a young age. Estal didn’t know if it was, Hazhur’s early life was like a big secret and her ‘father’ saw that side of the family as low-lifes.

“If it smells dead, acts undead, and bites me? It's close enough,” Estal shivered.

Karn came up and hopped into the hole.

“Well, we do what we learned,” he gestured to what seemed like an ancient bell tied to a nearby rock in the pit. He climbed down and rang it as the others slowly followed.

“Summon doom?” Estal asked sarcastically.

“Be polite,” Karn retorted smugly.

The door closing off the tunnel was etched with drawings of tiny people praising a sun of sorts, offering up their weapons as if surrendering their violent tendencies to some alien god. The door split down the middle and opened slowly, showing what looked to be a parade of sorts slowly making its way out of the depths.

“Oh, it's little mushroom people that Karn murdered,” Estal said conversationally as Karn went painfully still. Estal was about to make another snide remark when her eyes went huge.

“What... is... that?” she demanded with a voice so tight that Hazhur looked actually concerned.

With great fanfare, unique looking little mushroom people emerged on top of...

“I want 20!” Estal gushed as the little pigs with mushrooms growing on their back oinked and blinked their button eyes.

“Bacon with mushrooms already cooked in,” Karn whispered with drool.

The trumpets and strange songs they sang came to an end as the literal army of the mushroom creatures gazed up at them.

“We’re here for the little piggy-” Estal began.

“Trial of the key,” Hazhur interrupted.

The creatures were all still, almost acting as one being they parted like a sea of mushrooms.

Someone or something inside the cave was slowly making its way out in an elegant sweep. Another mushroom, but this one was much larger and in her cap, barely visible was a glowing crystal. Her little eyes glowed softly and the air shimmered in front of them as her fluffy white body came to a stop.

“I. Missy. Greet,” she curtsied.

“I love this hole,” Estal gushed.

“Same!” Karn said with delight.

The mushroom had laser eyes.

Hazhur wasn’t enjoying any of this more than was needed!

“Trial. Maze. of. Terror. Come!” she beckoned and walked into the deep cave.

“Should we follow?” Karn asked and Silver was already doing so.

“We will if we want to know what she was talking about,” Estal said brightly and walked into the pit of laser mushroom death... and terror, supposedly.

He felt a slight tug on his bald head and he turned in surprise to find the Pygmies were gazing at his head in slight awe.

Hazhur quickly picked up speed...

147: A-maze-ing

Nu watched the group move deeper into the Pygmy Caves; his feelings on them hadn’t shifted much. He was still every part of the Dungeon that Delta cast off to retain her humanity.

If they died... he would shed no tears.

“I thought the Pygmy Key was taken last time by young Deo and his friends. Should it not still be recovering its energy?” came a soft voice as Devina emerged, her orange bird perched on her shoulder. Nu turned, his faint blue avatar now fully humanized to a young teen.

Nu preferred to be a box, things were less complicated when he was a square.

“The worm is refusing to allow them to participate in his trial. I could force him to let them, but when Delta awakens, he’ll cry to her then she’ll get on my case... I just redirected the trial energy to the Pygmies for now. It’s enough,” Nu said simply, not expressing his actual displeasure with Bob aloud.

“They did crush his friends,” Devina pointed out.

“Yeah, they really stepped in it,” the bird chirped in time. Nu would punt the bird as far as he could, if he thought it would actually have any lasting impact.

“Monsters refusing to do their duty because their feelings were hurt is disgraceful, but that is for Delta to fix. She has a better handle on making them obey. I’m merely the pretender-king for now,” Nu said, turning to float towards the other side of the floor.

“You make Mother sound like a tyrant,” Devina said bemusedly as she followed him.

“More like a natural disaster, but that’s besides the point. This floor has so many ways to be exploited, it’s going to be a mess when we have to deal with more than just one group,” Nu sighed as he watched birds of paradise and rabbits frolocking instead of deadly pythons or blood-sucking leeches.

At least the Pygmies rode their piggy steads well enough.

“I have been wondering about that,” Devina said smoothly as she checked a plant by her feet, clearly satisfied with its growth.

“Hm?” Nu asked as he made his way past the bee rock formation.

“How do Dungeons handle groups? Surely, if the outsiders just kept pouring in, no Dungeon could keep themselves safe, correct?” she asked and Nu nodded.

“Not that Delta has asked, but there is a system in place for such things,” Nu admitted.

“Later, when she developed a few floors, she’d be able to create echoes. Simulacrum of all the monsters and floors. Automatons with perhaps a sliver of your actual personality in place. These echoes are weaved between key anchor points in the Dungeon. Safe spots, certain bosses, and the core room,” Nu said as he examined the honey pools with idle curiosity of honey bombs dropped on panicking adventurers. It made him feel good inside to think of such things.

“But now?” Devina pushed.

“When enough people enter a floor, their mana pushes Delta’s mana back, sort of creating air bubbles in water so to speak. That mana presses up against the entrance of the floor and begins to compile into a barrier. Only someone with stronger mana can pierce through and join the others... so it’s a sort of ‘the deeper you go, the less you can progress’ when others are about. Mana gates are more a byproduct of being invaded than any clever design, however,” Nu warned.

“So, if a strong person was to sit drinking in Fera’s bar...” Devina trailed off.

“Like the demon woman, Ruli? Yes, the entrance altogether would be quite impossible to enter without effort. If you wanted to lock down a Dungeon from shifting or creating too many new traps or monsters, you would need to place a very weak person on each floor which in itself is a risk to that person dying of Mana poisoning. Dungeons are tricky things to abuse,” Nu said proudly as if this Dungeon were his own...

Devina frowned as she thought.

“But many people entered when others were already inside,” she recalled. Nu had to give her credit for her sharp mind. She was one of the few monsters Nu didn’t mind as a creature.

“Intent is two-thirds of the game. Mana is enriched with intent so when one dives into a Dungeon, they want to covet it... complete it... keep the treasure, and so on. Ruli, Quiss, and the others had no such issues,” Nu concluded.

“Everyday, my home becomes more impressive,” Devina mused, “Does Mother’s mana have intent?” she asked curiously. Nu paused for a long moment.

Technically, they were all made of Delta Mana which said everything really.

Nu turned to Devina and spoke softly.

“All is Delta. Delta is for All.”

---

“Welcome, one and all, to the tortuous pits of despair that is the Maze of the Pygmies,” Mharia beamed brightly as if she was some sort of demented tour guide.

“Oh, you’re back,” Estal said, with as much cheer as a graveyard. They stood before a large open stone arch that was leaking a cold mist,obscured the ground from sight. Vines and dark green foliage crept along the wall, occasionally thinning out to reveal complex symbols carved into the stone.

The entire subterranean cave was cold and the group kept feeling fingers on the back of their neck.

There was also a soft hum of organ music being blown through mushrooms on the ceiling.

Mharia feigned hurt before she broke the ruse with a smile.

“I couldn’t keep away. Drugs, murder, and oh my! You lot certainly have been going mad on the second floor. I love a little bit of madness,” Mharia promised and looked around.

“Still, you’re not here to listen to me babble for too long,” she mused.

“The maze is simple. Reach the end and get the key,” she said and Hazhur sighed.

“Simple isn’t the same as easy,” he pointed out, kicking off a tendril of mist climbing up his leg.

Mhaira smiled that demonic grin once more then cleared her throat.

“I won’t spoil too much, but if the Hotspring was to test your resolve... The maze here is to test something else entirely. This test will break those who look but are blind to see. The maze will set you free,” Mharia warned and vanished into the mist herself.

“I hate that creepy thing,” Estal shuddered.

“You’re no prize yourself,” Mharia’s voice echoed out the darkness.

“We shouldn’t antagonise the avatar of death and conquest,” Silver warned. Estal’s nostrils flared.

“She shouldn’t antagonise me, the avatar of grace and ‘done with her crap’,” she warned.

Karn ran his hand around the arch.

“Trap free, but then again not all traps are physical,” he stood up and tilted his head at the arch as if noticing something.

“Look here, it’s like a storybook,” he mused as the others gathered around. The frame of the arch depicted a sequence of events told in passing of time.

It began with what seemed like a flat piece of earth which in the next spot showed a sun-like symbol forming in the sky, casting rays down. In the next one... little figures began to rise from the ground as trees sprung up and birds took to the sky.

Estal moved her glowing staff closer to reveal more details

The little figures worshiped the sun, building a village, and growing.

The sun sent down a holy scroll of sorts and in the middle of the village a great key sprang into existence. From the key, light leapt to the people and three of the little figures were chosen, the image depicted them as becoming larger... more important.

“For some rocks, this is pretty compelling,” Hazhur had to admit. The next image was hard to miss since it seemed bigger than the rest. A monstrous looking tree demon was wreaking havoc and throwing the little mushroom people about, dark curses flowing out of its jagged mouth.

The sun appeared once more and slammed down three large gates, forming six keys with her tears.

Each key was given to a different figure but the carvings made it a little hard to make some of them out.

“Is that a bee on a chair?” Hazhur muttered.

“Oh, the big worm I upset has a key... sorry guys, I messed up there,” Karn said with regret.

“Bridge frog, bee on a chair, big worm, Luna the hot spring owner, the maze... but what is that?” Estal asked, jabbing a finger at what seemed like a skull under a... tent?

“Dunno, but look there,” Karn said, pointing to one of the last images which showed the Pygmies carrying the key into a deep cave where ghostly spectors of their dead watched from the walls.

“I don’t like ghosts... or dead things...” Estal said, cringing backwards away from the arch. She screeched as the organ music abruptly went into high gear with a thunderous applause. She turned, waving her staff at the mushrooms making the noise.

“YOU’RE NOT HELPING!” she yelled.

Karn and Hazhur shared a look before they took Estal by the arms and made her take charge as the barrier mage.

The mist was even thicker inside the maze and the temperature plummeted until their own breath was visible as they exhaled. The hallway was only big enough for two of them to stand side by side, causing them to double up. The carvings on the walls turned from history to almost warnings.

Several of them depicted demonic tree roots draining their insides while others showed skeletons covered in tiny little darts left to slumber in the maze forever. Estal turned and came to an abrupt stop, jostling some vines that dripped down from the ceiling.

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“The wall... one of the drawings moved,” she hissed and Karn peered where she was pointing.

“It must have gone still, did it run towards us or away from us?” he asked and Estal blinked.

“You believe me?” she asked, surprised. Hazur didn’t, but he let Karn take the lead. Karn simply nodded and Estal pointed the way the carving seemed to have gone. They carefully moved forward as they came to an intersection. Hazhur reached over and placed a rock at the corner of the crossing to indicate which way they had come.

“Old wisdom says to keep turning right until you loop,” Hazhur said to the group and Estal looked down the passage he indicated. An ominous thrum was coming from deep in the maze; they all turned to stare at Hazhur doubtfully, but he refused to budge.

“Let’s get a move on,” he insisted.

---

Moments after they went down the hallway, the intersection began to grind, two of the hallways sealing shut, but before they closed fully, a tiny Pygmy ran out and snagged Hazhur’s rock and ran back into the wall, vines crawling down the wall to make it look authentic.

---

Haldi put his cheese platter down as his guests all squeezed into the converted old church that had become his home.

“Archmage?” Haldi repeated with a frown.

“Yeah, you knew him right? Like more than formally before you were exiled here right?” Quiss asked bluntly. Between him and Seth, Alpha was squished like a tiny piece of ham between two heels of bread.

“I suppose, if you call trying to kill each other as ‘knowing’,” Haldi admitted with a smile as he put down his second platter of cheese samples on the table. This selection was divine! One had been curdled inside a golem for three years. Another came from the milk of a particularly angry yak.

His guests were just being too darn polite to dig in, however.

“The West Grand Magus...knew you much?” Seth boggled as if the idea was a little preposterous. Haldi rolled his tongue. Right, Seth was from the east. He hadn’t heard good things about that mage circle. Not at all.

“Hard not to since we grew up together. Brothers, if you could believe it,” Haldi said and this even caught Quiss off-guard.

“You’re related to Opopal TalentDragon...” Quiss trailed off and Haldi just chuckled at their shocked expressions.

“Mage names tend to confuse the family connection. Most families tend to cultivate their kids to a particular branch of magic and thinking so they end up with the same similar mage name. Iron-Heart, Iron-Bark, Iron-Fist. But whole new mage families can spring into existence at the drop of a hat if the divide is too great,” Haldi said then eyed Quiss and Seth.

“You know this, surely? You were trained in the school,” he said as if they didn’t know. They both looked away.

“Our teacher was more focused on...” Quiss began but Seth finished for him.

“Us,” he said with a long look.

“Well... Oppy and I grew up in the good ole fashion style. He was the talented young master who could sneeze magic if he wasn’t careful. I was the second born useless child who practised until his fingers cracked and my eyes bled. I only ever really became an average mage compared to Oppy who rose up the ranks faster than you could blink,” Haldi sighed at the memories.

“But you’re strong,” Alpha spoke up abruptly, confused.

“Turns out that I was just ill-suited to most magic. Once I was given my niche... I bloomed just as well,” Haldi beamed and handed Alpha a cheese candy.

“So, why are you asking about Oppy?” Haldi asked with a sudden hard stare at the men. They shifted in a way that had Haldi wanting to call Mila over for a drink.

“We may have taken your brother’s job and given it to Alpha here,” Quiss said simply. Haldi blinked once then twice.

“Say again?” he asked bluntly.

Alpha held out his hands and a very familiar set of pristine magical robes appeared, shoes and hat included. Haldi gently picked up the garments and got a whiff of expensive terrible cologne.

“We pulled Alpha’s wizard name and it was... well, big. And considering your name... we thought you should know,” Quiss said slowly, but Haldi began to shake.

“He.. he...” he shuddered.

Then he broke into uproarious laughter, needing to sit down as the image of his brother being stark naked in the middle of his ‘palace’ wiped years of stress off Haldi’s back.

“Oh... he’s going to come here and kill you all,” Haldi said, wiping tears from his eyes as the three guests stiffened in alarm.

“He’s going to deaden us?” Seth whispered with a gulp.

“Well, he would, but thankfully, I find you all good kids so I can fend him off for ya,” Haldi promised as they gingerly took some of his cheese finally.

“Are you stronger than him?” Alpha asked curiously and Haldi liked the boy, he was so forward. Haldi inhaled and the sun seemed to dim through the grimy windows and the fire in the place flickered down as if cowering.

Shadows loomed in the room and the various pieces of cheese trembled.

“Well, they don’t call me Haldi TheBigCheese for nothing, my boy,” Haldi said smoothly.

Inside, he giggled at their pale faces.

Being an old fart had its benefits and this was just one of many.

---

“We’re lost!” Estal announced after Hazhur slid down a wall in defeat.

“There’s no airflow to follow and the vines aren’t staying still. I can’t track a way out,” Karn agreed as they looked around at the hallways.

“We’re going to turn into dart-covered skeletons! Wasting away,” Estal gasped, holding her figure as if someone was going to steal it from her.

“Excuse me...” Silver spoke up.

“We should eat Hazhur first, he has the most meat,” Karn said quickly, eyeing the muscular man.

“I don’t mind. Get me away from Estal’s whining faster,” the man muttered.

“Um... I think they’re-” Silver tried again.

“I wanna club him. A final mercy from ‘family’,” Estal said, raising her staff in annoyance.

“The walls are literally telling us which way to go!” Silver yelled, mana-voice pulsing. Everyone paused and looked at Silver. He was pointing to the wall where the symbol of little men running towards a key was moving to their left, but the other showed Pygmies despairing at a deadend.

“...I knew that, I just didn’t want to show off,” Estal said, smoothing her robe down before gesturing onwards.

“To the key! Together!” she declared and there came a rumbling from all around them.
Around them, in the eyes of monsters and stories, little wooden instruments poked out of the stone wall.

“Oh, little straws,” Karn mused before looking a lot closer. Countless little puffs went off and only a thin barrier from Estal kept them all from being punctured by a dozen little darts.

“You can thank me now,” Estal insisted with her eyes closed.

A wall slammed down behind them and began to grind forward, crushing rocks and vines as it raced towards them.

“We can outrun it at a brisk walk! It’s not that threatening!” Estal tried to assure her teammates, but a dozen little holes opened up on the wall and little spears poked through, creating a spiked-wall effect.

“...I’m going to shut up now and run,” Estal said with a quiet tone.

“It’s not the time or place, but I’m going to treasure you saying those words until I die,” Hazhur said, urging her along, putting himself between her and the wall. They ran along the wall and at the next split, Hazhur and Karn went to the left as Estal and Silver accidentally went right. Hazhur skidded to a stop and tried to redirect his course, but the hallways slammed down like a hammer.

“Estal!” Hazhur yelled as his cousin vanished behind thick rock barriers.

The wall he was about to start beating on sprouted more spikes and began to chase him. Karn grabbed Hazhur’s arm and dragged him away.

“Find them at the key. All roads go to the capitol!” he called and Hazhur stopped resisting and raced on.

---

Estal slowly lowered her hand, everything going quiet as she stared at the wall behind which Hazhur and Karn had vanished behind.

She turned to Silver and they stared at each other.

“...We should move on,” Silver said and Estal stiffly walked past him, trying not to imagine what was under his robes. The twisted melding of monster and human...

“I don’t see any key signs on the wall,” Estal finally said and Silver looked around, taking it all in.

“But there are new symbols,” he said, pressing a crooked finger to a symbol being prayed to by the Pygmies. Some sort of burning mushroom on an altar.

Estal spotted another symbol, a mushroom made up of two grinding cogs.

The burning mushroom lead to the left and the cog to the right.

They had a choice to make.

---

Hazhur stared at the large door with the single symbol dominating the walls.

A mushroom-shaped cloud that almost looked like a skull.

“Only one choice,” Karn said slowly.

There was no choice to be made.

148: Moral Fibre

Estal shifted as they stood outside the burning mushroom door inside the maze. The door looked to be covered in slowly blooming red flowers that attracted butterflies from the jungle above. As she and the Silver Order neared the door, the temperature had slowly begun to rise to an uncomfortable level; given they were already in a hot humid jungle, Estal wasn’t exactly ‘happy’ with this change.

“If I see one more hotspring, I’m out,” she muttered and pushed on the large stone door. The door moved effortlessly and Estal was about to praise her own strength when she saw the door was pulled back by roots and plants.

“We walk into a nexus of power; step lightly,” Silver said from behind her, his mana-speak not helping her nerves one bit. It was like buzzing on her teeth. Inside the door was a semi-large round chamber of sorts covered in a myriad of mushrooms and jungle flowers.

Vines crawled over every inch of the wall and the heat seemed to be rising from below somewhere, as if the soil itself covered a hot vent of sorts.

Estal looked around to the far end of the room where her breath caught. Spreading upwards, like a giant ancient mural, was a painstakingly crafted painting on the bare rocks; the rocky walls smoothed down so as not to distort the image.

Estal subconsciously took a step forward to see the painting lit up by glowing mushrooms and surrounded by trinkets and gifts made by the Pygmies. The black is mixed in with a deep blue dye to form a long skirt, creams and yellows for some noble buttoned up shirt... a selection of colorful hues to make some long ribbon that ran down the front of the shirt.

The woman with the gentle expression had her eyes closed, as if asleep, but still radiating warmth as she clasped her hands. This room was some hidden... beautiful shrine to the woman and the lone figure in the room sat crossed legged before it, a staff across their small lap.

“It’s the same woman as in the Memorial Room... but she isn’t crying here,” Silver said quietly. Estal still didn’t have the urge to go into some creepy memorial room for people that died in this Dungeon, so she’d take Silver’s word for it.

The Pygmy before the painting was much larger than others of its kind, covered in a soft grey robe that shifted when they made to stand and turn to face them. Estal was a wizard, but she knew the feeling of being around people of true faith. This Pygmy radiated that power clearly.

“Those from the outside world,” the Pygmy spoke, startling both Silver and Estal as it spoke in a mixture of puffing spores and mana weaving.

“Why are you here?” the priestly mushroom person asked gravely.

Estal didn’t see the point in beating around the bush. The bushes in this Dungeon were terrifying.

“We want the key that’s in this maze and I chose this door over the other one because it sounded like a metal machine was screaming inside it,” she said bluntly and Silver sucked in air at the tone.

The Priest hummed in what might... be a laugh.

“The Tinker’s room has... it’s oddities. But I see you are not one burdened by doubt,” the Priest mused as it leaned on its staff.

“I’m rude, I get it, but I don’t get why everyone gets so uppity about it. I’m not stabbing people; I’m not cursing them with magic... I just want to get on with things,” Estal said with a sigh as she pondered if this was going to be another ‘test of character’ that made Estal want to strangle her old classmates and/or her father.

“Manners can open many doors,” the priest Pygmy suggested.

“So can a well placed kick,” Estal countered but she decided to change the subject back to the key, lest she be drawn into some philosophical debate. Estal’s philosophy never seemed to make others feel better when they heard it.

“So, do we need to fight... go on a vision quest or...” she waved a hand. The priest just stood there for a moment.

“You suspect that we’re here to stall you?” it asked with amusement clear in its magical tone.

“You’re unique monsters in a maze; if you aren’t here to spin us around or confuse us then I don’t know why you’re here,” Estal said before Silver interjected.

“They might live here,” he pointed out and Estal waved him off.

His points, while valid, were distracting to her social skills. She was wearing this priest person... thing down!

“I’m afraid this room is naught but a space where I go to reflect on my nature. There is no fight here,” the priest said candidly.

“So... you can’t help me with the key?” Estal asked, deflating.

“I never said that,” the Pygmy said back just as easily.

“I was bullied in school where I was sent by my emotionally distant and disappointed father which caused me to develop into a form of magic that kept people at bay... There, I poured my heart out. Can I get the clue?” Estal asked, trying not to sound impatient.

“Child... I’m a Priest, but I don’t take confessions off the sleeve,” the mushroom creature said with an awkward pause. Estal threw her hands up.

“What do you want from me?” she demanded.

The Pygmy gestures to the ground before the painting.

“I just want you to pick out the gift that best represents the great mother,” it said bluntly.

There was another pause as Estal eyed the hundreds of trinkets and gifts.

“What if I choose the wrong gift?” she asked as Silver stared at the piles.

“Then you chose... poorly,” the Priest said with an ominous tone.

Estal and Silver shared a look.

“I hope the boys are having a worse time than us,” she muttered as she looked over wooden swords, clay birds, pots decorated with fish, a bowl of berries, some carriage on four wheels, a plate decorated with the sun and moon, tons of books with covers that Estal wanted to take with her, and on it went.

What sort of gift represented their Dungeon Core?

What was the weirdest and most dysfunctional thing Estal could find?

---

“I bet Estal... is having... fun,” Hazhur wheezed as he and Karn looked around the chamber as green vapors slowly pumped themselves into the room through tiny vents. Above them, on an alcove, a Pygmy covered in smaller boil-like mushrooms watched them search around the room.

“Ten minutes until your lungs make the Mushroom Grove look tame in comparison,” the raspy voice warned. Hazhur looked around the room for the ‘antidote’ the Pygmy promised existed. Bottles upon bottles of liquids lined every space that could hold a bottle. Some bottles were thin and red, others round and blue... some were spiral shaped and slightly off-brown.

There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the placement and Hazhur was getting close to asking for a clue.

Karn went to the first table and picked up a bottle. It was round and he just uncorked it... downing it without any careful examination. There was a pause as he shuddered then fell to his knees, coughing.

Before Hazhur could plead for the test to stop, Karn threw up what looked to be a mess of mushrooms and bile before he perked up.

Hazhur stared at the empty bottle in his hands.

How... why...

“How did you know?” he asked roughly of Karn who just shrugged casually.

“If I was going to die, I could just die faster by doing something rather than slowly and in pain,” he explained.

Hazhur looked around the stone chamber at the remaining thousand or so bottles before he decided that he might as well. He didn’t think Delta would... let such a gruesome trial be held if the answer wasn’t within reach.

He took the bottle next to Karn’s, a goat-horn glass vial that he downed. Karn blinked as he reached his hands to see his fingernails turned a deep shade of blue.

“I think I might have made a mistake,” he said with a frown and Hazhur tried to throw his drink back up, but it was too late; he knelt, also throwing up the mushroom bile before on his bald head, two curled ram horns formed.

“Madam Fera had an excess of ‘Delta Surprise’. They blend well with the antidote,” the Fungalmancer howled in laughter as he slapped his knee.

“I think I look fetching,” Karn said, stretching his hand away to admire the midnight blue nails he now had. Hazhur numbly touched his horns and planned to remove them with his axe if need be before Estal saw him.

“Oh wow.. That was great... thank you, outsiders,” the Fungalmancer said, wiping at his tiny face under the hood as he stood up.

“Just go through this door and you’ll be in the ‘inner’ maze hallways,” he said and at the back of the room, a stone part of the wall slid away to reveal another dark passage.

“Can we get the antidote to the horns?” Hazhur called up desperately.

The Fungalmancer looked down at him and began to retreat into the shadows of the arches with a cackle.

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“If you have the case of the sudden horns... try asking a responsible friend for a bonk!” he said and Hazhur watched him vanish.

Bonk... some kind of Dungeon magic? Maybe inside the maze?

“Do you think if I drink this one it might have an effect?” Karn asked, holding up a curvaceous feminine torso bottle.

Hazhur looked him right in the eyes as he spoke.

“Karn, if you wish to become a woman, on any level, I support you as a teammate and a fellow warrior, however I would say please don’t since you really don’t appreciate what that extra weight will do to your fighting posture,” Hazhur said slowly and clearly. Karn’s smile dropped.

“Talk about dead weight... well, I’m keeping the bottle,” Karn said stubbornly and walked into the passage. Hazhur looked around with a sigh for any bottle that might just get him drunk, but he didn’t see any beer guts or beer shaped glasses sadly.

“This Dungeon is mad, not me. This Dungeon is mad, not me...” he repeated like a mantra as he followed Karn.

---

Estal held up a strange melted object that had nails and what looked to be a half a pot melted into a molten slag sphere.

“Aha!” she declared.

“Oh, that’s not part of the test. The Tinker left it here by accident when he came here to complain about ‘combustion’ and other nonsense,” the Priest spoke up, taking the object before Estal could say anything.

Estal stared with disbelief. That had been her best bet!

She turned to Silver who was just slowly looking over everything with an air of delight. She didn’t know how to read him at all.

“Any ideas?” she finally asked, knowing that he might... have a handle on the Dungeon more than her due to his ‘status’.

“There are objects here that show off ‘parts’ of Delta, but I don’t see a singular object that encompasses her ideals,” Silver said simply and Estal tapped her foot as she looked at him. He finally noticed her staring and looked down.

“Dungeons have an idea, a core concept that everything else is built upon,” he said and Estal blinked, having not known that.

“Why?” she asked curiously.

Silver took a moment to answer as if the information was something he didn’t fully want to share.

“A newborn Dungeon does not mature with time as other living beings do. They only grow as they make progress to their next level. They literally are forming their adulthood with each level. A Dungeon has to cling to something to build that identity upon. Usually it's the common material or monster they end up forming, but it can be something deeper. My... the Dungeon I was formed by was known for its silver halls and monsters. They even had rivers of thin silver that fish and monsters could swim in. A silver mist that could be walked upon... it was beautiful,” Silver whispered, exhaling as if saying the words aloud were painful to recall.

The Pygmy Priest watched him closely and Estal opened her mouth then closed it.

Silver’s existence horrified her, but his emotions... and pain were genuine and she wanted to say something back, share her own pain or comfort him, but she found it difficult.

It was both her own nature as a blunt person and Silver’s nature as a human infected by corruption.

Or... was he a monster using a human as a shell?

Such beings were hunted in many countries due to the chaos they could bring; even the ones where they were ‘tolerated’ they faced much distrust and persecution.

In the end, she just stood there as he gathered himself.

“We are looking for something that is more than mushrooms, cooperation, and trusting. We are looking for something that embodies all of that and more,” he finally said.

“That’s a lot of things for one object to convey,” Estal responded with a heavy sigh. She looked past him and saw something she hadn’t noticed before.

Hanging on the wall by a nail was a key. It was surrounded by pots and pans hanging on similar nails along with vines and roots, making it blend in for a moment. She slowly walked over to it, noticing how it seemed to be of a pale-green stone and had a red gem slotted into its round handle.

“You give someone a key to your home when you trust them, to show they’re always invited... this Dungeon has been nothing but weird and inviting,” she said and paused to think.

“Well, the Catfish was rude, but whatever,” she dismissed and reached out for the key.

“Keys symbolize trust, something to keep safe, and other people!” Estal said, picking up steam as she plucked the key and presented it to the Priest with a triumphant pose.

“Is this your final choice?” the Priest asked softly. Estal’s confidence faltered for a single moment before it raged back with the force of an inferno.

“It is,” she declared.

“Your choice was-” the Priest began before dozens of vines and roots sprang up, forming a thorny cage around Estal that trapped her.

“-poor,” the Pygmy declared.

---

Silver stared in slight fascantion at the scene.

“I’ll strangle you! You sanctimonious little d-” Estal screeched before the cage was fully enclosed, cutting her voice off and fully obscuring her from view.

“You may still choose something in the room that best represents the Great Mother,” the Priest said calmly to Silver, deciding not to take offense to Estal’s muffled screams and curses.

Silver was about to say something when something Estal said came back to him. He slowly nodded, letting his robe shift as he walked forward. He had seen things in the room that came close to Delta.

A collection of dolls that could have been children,a map of the nearby town; Durence, a painting of three large mushroom creatures... and more.

But Silver should have known the answer from the start.

He gently put a finger on the Priest’s head.

“I choose you,” he said and the Priest looked right up at him.

“I am no gift,” it warned.

“You are. All monsters are creations and gifts to the world from their core, Your existence is a gift and you are the embodiment of all her concepts. Fairness, peace, composure, strangeness, and a little bit of misdirection and chaos rolled into one,” he said and the Priest didn’t answer for a few seconds.

“You choose... wisely,” the Priest finally announced and the thorns receded from around Estal where she looked breathless from a long string of curses and perhaps some spellwork to try to set herself free.

The painting of Delta rose up to reveal a hidden corridor.

“This Dungeon will test your limits, like many others, but its goal is not to break you. It is to help you until you can no longer be helped,” the Priest explained as it turned to walk back to its small prayer mat.

“What happens when we can no longer ‘be helped’?” Silver asked as Estal stood at his side, puffing and glaring at the Priest. The little creature sat on its mat with its back turned to them.

Without a word, every root and vine in the room simultaneously produced a thorn that looked to be close to Silver’s hand in length. It was potently clear the floor had not done the same by the will of the Priest.

“You get the point,” the Priest said simply.

“Crystal clear, let’s go,” Estal muttered, quickly moving down the hall. Silver bowed to the Priest before leaving.

The door closed behind them with an ominous thud.

---

The Priest waited until they were gone before shaking its head in disbelief.

“If he wasn’t so sincere, I’d have failed him too,” it muttered, trying not to blush at Silver’s words. It was a gift?

The cheek! It was almost like Silver was flirting! It was a Pygmy of the spores and cloth! It had taken oaths to the great Mother!

50% of the items in the room would be a ‘pass’. Any object that could be linked to the Great Mother’s ideals would be acceptable, it wasn’t the Priest’s fault they had over-thought it and that the girl had picked something that had a flimsy reasoning at best!

The Tinker had warned both the Priest and Fungalmancer people might overthink their tests, but to think it might be right was galling to the Priest...

Not everyone’s room could be a ‘bullet hell’. Whatever that was.

The Priest patted its cheeks at the thought of Silver again. Around her, the dark sensual voice of one of her primal elders let out a romantic jazz tune and the Priest squeaked in embarrassment.

“Lord Maestro! No!” it begged.

It ran into the hidden tunnels to escape the music and to meet up with the others; the entire village had turned out to see the outsiders take on the final ‘test’.

That and more than a few wanted to take part in the last obstacle.

The Hallway of Hornets.

149: The Cost of Magic

Karn came to a stop in a small round crossroad within the maze. Three paths met up to face a single direction left to travel and from the furthest of the third paths, Estal and Silver appeared, looking a little breathless.

“Good... we found you,” Estal exclaimed, leaning on her knees to breath.

“Oh, you’re alive! I was betting Silver would have left you behind or had to bail you out,” Karn said as Hazhur lingered back, avoiding the light of the mushrooms. Estal glared at him, puffing her chest out.

“We were faced with a near unbeatable test that took all of my wisdom and intelligence to pass,” she exhaled with a business-like tone and Silver shifted at her side, not saying anything, but it was clear he was... amused?

“Silver helped,” she allowed. Hazhur finally walked forward and Karn could see the confusion on Estal’s face as Hazhur had removed parts of his trousers to turn them into combat shorts in order to wrap his head in the thick protective cloth.

“Hazhur... were you attacked by a murderous Pygmy with scissors? Maybe a fashionista on a warpath or were you just sprucing up your look for my benefit?” Estal asked with a narrowing of her eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he stressed firmly. Estal seemed to have some sixth sense on Hazhur and embarrassing things because she moved in like a snake.

“Why does your normally bald head have two bulging parts?” she pressed and the man glared at her. Karn had seen hardened warriors wilt under that glare, but Estal seemed unaffected by it either by exposure or bullheadedness.

Karn paused to snicker.

“Bullheadedness,” he repeated to himself quietly, but Hazhur must have heard because he turned his murderous glare onto Karn.

“Look... a path!” Karn said helpfully and walked on.

He ignored Estal’s spluttering and Hazhur’s muttering. Silver fell into step next to Karn.

“I enjoy your nails,” Silver said and Karn beamed, flashing them for great effect in the ambient light.

“I’ve never painted my nails before. Well, this is more like body poisoning with style, but still!” he said with enjoyment.

“I was led to believe that atypical gender notions made some men uncomfortable about trying more gentle art and fashion?” Silver asked, a little confused and Karn thought about his childhood.

Especially after Gamma; where he spent what seemed like endless days under the cruel sun in a metal cage that would sear his flesh if he touched it from the heat alone.

“I find life is too short to be embarrassed by colors and slightly different lengths of fabrics,” Karn said simply.

“I wish I could live as open as you,” Silver said evenly and Karn didn’t try to be an asshole and pretend Silver could just be ‘more confident’ in himself. He didn’t tell Silver to be confident either. Silver’s case could literally get him murdered if he showed his face in the wrong town.

No amount of courage would save Silver from a mob.

“Just stick with Hazzy and Essy and me. We’re distracting enough so you can be left alone,” Karn suggested.

“You are all... quite colorful,” Silver said with a slight hint of amusement.

Karn just winked back.

The group came to a stop as the hallway opened to a large chamber that had to be the deepest part of the second floor. A large chasm separated one side from another and only a narrow stone path connected the two sides.

Each wall showed a massive carved mural that was lit up by various glowing mushrooms.

One side was that woman again, Delta, that had been seen around the Dungeon before; she had her hands grasped and her eyes seemed oddly animated for a wall. The other was a teen boy that Karn was pretty sure hadn’t been seen anywhere else in the Dungeon.

“Grumpy looking git,” Karn said as the teen had blue hues painted about him and was glaring at the entrance as if hating them on principle.

A sign was ominously waiting for them, the first one they had seen in a while.

‘When she is awake, the shadows follow and obey; when she sleeps, the hornets stir. He gives pains and she accepts it. Watch closely.’

“Karn, take the lead and watch for wires or traps on the bridge,” Hazhur said as he pulled a rope out of the bag he carried with him, tying it to one of the pillars of the doorway arch they had come in.

“Not enough rope to tie everyone together so you all better be ready to grab it if the bridge goes,” he warned.

“I don’t think it will. The sign speaks of ‘hornets’. That seems more like an incoming threat,” Estal pointed out and Karn agreed with her.

Once they were ready, Karn slowly stepped onto the bridge and began to move in a painfully slow manner as he scouted for any obvious signs of tampering on the bridge. The room was quiet, but they all soon heard something... unnerving.

Grinding stone.

“The eyes!” Hazhur snapped and Karn saw the mural of Delta was moving, her eyes were being rotated around on some disc to replace her open eyes with soft closed ones.

“Should we run?” Estal demanded.

“Don’t... move,” Karn warned as dozens upon dozens of tiny little wooden blowpipes emerged from the mural of the teen boy, but they didn’t fire. The mural of the teen... its eyes had moved, landing squarely on them.

Seconds past and Karn could hear Estal groaning.

“I have...an itch,” she whispered, shaking.

“Resist,” Hazhur warned her quietly as they all stood like statues.

“It’s between my nose and eyes,” Estal hissed back. There was a tense moment before Delta’s eyes swung back around to open and the blowpipes vanished as if scared of being caught by the mural.

“Yes!” Estal cried, going to town on her face with one hand.

“Move!” Hazhur said and they took five more steps before the eyes once more swung about. They passed this easily enough and Karn was beginning to think this wouldn’t be so bad.

They took some more steps and the grinding stone came again. Karn stopped, but Hazhur grunted in surprise.

“Wha-” Karn began and something hit him on the side, making him wince, but he resisted the urge to grasp at the place where the blunted dart had smacked him. It hadn’t pierced, but it had enough force behind it to likely already be forming a bruise.

Karn looked up to see Delta’s eyes had closed and her stone hand had been raised to her lips as if to shush them.

He desperately wanted to look behind him, but those blowpipes in the corner of his eye were... dangerous.

On top of that... he could hear something else that was new. It was a lot like wood moving over stone, but Karn couldn’t see what it was and turning his head was not possible until the statue moved again.

“Karn!” Estal cried out and that was followed by her screeching which caused her to be hit by a second volley that sounded like it nearly sent her over the edge... that was until Silver moved, his odd metal feet shifting to likely catch her; but he didn’t cry out when the darts hit themselves on his body, some of them sounding like they hit metal.

Karn understood what Estal had been trying to warn him about. A long wooden pole playfully nudged his body as if teasing to push him over, but it pulled back after a moment.

That had been to make his team break position rather than actually push Karn over and it had worked.

Great, the little demons had mind games mixed into this demented test.

The statue returned to neutral position and the team pushed on, but they were cut short just before making it. They all carefully watched the statue for changes and first the eyes rotated, indicating they shouldn’t be seen moving, then she covered her mouth to indicate they shouldn’t make a sound... and then she did one final thing that made them all recoil internally.

The statue’s hand moved its remaining hand to her throat as if clutching it.

Karn instantly felt his lungs burn at the sudden halting to something they considered important; his breathing. Did Estal just exhale when the statue moved? Did Silver need more air or less?

The burning grew sharper as the statue didn’t move after five seconds.

Six... was Hazhur choking or was Karn imagining it?

Seven. Estal likely had never been quiet for so long.

Eight...

Just as Karn was about to gasp at the eleven second mark, the statue moved back to normal and the entire group gasped in lungfuls of air.

“This place sucks!” Estal wheezed.

They finally crossed the bridge and Estal let out some tribal war cry.

“Can’t stop us!” she laughed and a second later, Delta’s entire statue moved, rearranging it so she had her entire back to them.

“Estal. We need to go back that way,” Hazhur said calmly.

“Y-Yeah...”

“And now we’re not allowed to breathe, be seen moving or make a sound on the way back,” he continued.

“I got that...”

“Could you have ‘got that’ thirty seconds ago?” he insisted. Estal huffed.

“I have barrier magic, we’ll just need to group close cause I don’t have... length so much as thickness,” she said, a little feebly.

“I don’t mind either, just go at your own pace,” Karn said helpfully and she glared at him, looking remarkably like her cousin at that moment.

“We could go one at a time with you. A group can be daunting if your magic isn’t up for it,” Silver suggested and Estal turned her glare onto him next.

“Men,” she said with a dark tone and stomped off.

“Don’t go too far, don’t want you to barrier by yourself,” Hazhur said dryly.

“Jump in the pit!” she yelled back.

Silver, Karn, and Hazhur all shared a look that might have been amusement at Estal’s expense before they quickly followed her; just in case she did need actual protection.

This place was... unpredictable.

---

Haldi hummed as he moved the large mirror out of the closet, removing the old musty sheet that covered it.

“Ah, self-love machine?” Seth asked and Haldi stared at him, not understanding.

“A mirror,” Quiss translated before narrowing his eyes at the thing.

“A communications mirror?” he guessed and Haldi grinned, showing his missing tooth.

“Exactly! I’ll just give Oppy a little ring since he should still have its pair somewhere. If he answers is another question, but let’s not plan too far ahead. I’ll forget and wander off to make more cheese,” Haldi warned as he set the mirror up in a good spot.

“Is the mirror like... a phone?” Alpha asked and Seth decided to answer him.

“Mirror is like... instant paper that shows face. Only one and one can be paired, like worm house,” he said and Alpha seemed to understand the man.

Bless the boy, Haldi couldn’t get any sense out of Seth.

“Come again?” Haldi asked bluntly.

“He means like a letter that’s instant but also shows your face, but only two can work together, like two openings of a tunnel,” Alpha explained and Seth beamed at him.

“Basically. Oppy and I had these mirrors bonded when we still tolerated each other. He mostly used them to boss me around or brag about his achievements so I ended up doodling on the glass to give him mustaches or wigs. Great thing is that they usually think it's just smudges on their side,” Haldi snickered.

“I thought if we avoided telling the Archmage who just usurped him for the longest time that would be the best way we could avoid being murdered,” Quiss pointed out a bit tersely.

“You could try, but trust me, you need to handle your problems head on and with some good food in your stomach. These things are magic and magic won’t be ignored,” Haldi instructed as he adjusted the gems around the frame to a certain direction, increasing how receptive it was.

He was silently pleased to see it work again since when Durence had... done something... the village had lost most of its mana in a deadzone; so most magical items lost their powers because... of reasons...

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Haldi didn’t dwell on the ‘reasons’. Too risky.

His heart still ached at the name of his missing teammate. Durence loved trying his cheese, but that didn’t matter now, because he could feel his ‘memories’ trying to reach for more memories and those would reach for more then those memories would find...

‘Those’ memories.

The mirror flickered for a moment showing it was powering on. Haldi gladly took the distraction as he was struggling to keep his mind off events.

He tapped the mirror as it seemed to be flickering with orange ripples for a moment.

Then his call was answered by the much older and yet... familiar face of his brother.

“Hello, Oppy,” Haldi said softly. The face that stared back at him looked far too supple and put together for Haldi’s older brother’s actual age. The mirror still showed a ghostly reflection of Haldi that overlaid Opopal’s face, showing where Haldi had wrinkles and deep crow feet on his weathered face, Opopal’s face looked like someone twenty years their junior with healthy glow and silverish hair that flowed like ghostly moonlight while Haldi’s was wispy and barely combed over.

Opopal’s robes looked elegant even if they weren’t the famous Archmage robes he was known for. They looked like they were made from creature’s so rare and put together by mastercraft tailors that half of Durence wouldn’t be able to afford the cleaning bill if it ever got dirty. Haldi’s patchwork shirt was frayed at the sleeves and had gone from an off-white to aging yellow with the stains of old cheeses giving it an appearance like a map.

“Haldirian... this is... unannounced,” Opopal said finally and off to the side, Quiss mouthed the name ‘Haldirian’ to himself in surprise. Haldi supposed the lad had always just known him as ‘Haldi the harmless cheesemaker’.

“Alright, Oppy?” Haldi asked and his brother’s face darkened like a storm.

“Archmage Opopal, if you would,” the mirror said, less of a request and more of a command.

“Sure, Oppy. Anywho, I thought I’d check up on my brother since the we last spoke ended a bit abruptly,” Haldi said brightly, smiling to show his gap tooth which made his brother’s lips pull back in obvious judgment.

This made his brother snap, with anger coating every word as he leaned in close enough to fog his side of the mirror.

“Abrupt? Abrupt?! You, that mouth demon, and the huntress invaded the capital and threatened the king with death, you rained enough cheese down on the town that my tower needed to be completely rebuilt in the years that followed! Even worse, I have to bear the shame of being related to such a criminal to this day!” Opopal roared, the mirror shaking with violent magical energy.

Haldi just blinked and without missing a beat, shrugged.

“I was angry with your king. I’m still a little peeved off at him, but listen, your tower was ugly. I did you a favor,” he said kindly.

“Listen, I don’t have time for your antics. What do you want? Last I heard, you and your fellow circus clowns were condemned to a Mana-Void land and left to die and spare the Kingdom of you all,” the mage said flippantly as he reached for paperwork, doing work as if Haldi was only worth a fraction of his attention compared to the massive ‘job’ of running the local mage tower in the capital.

Haldi frowned.

“You didn’t even check on me? I mean, I was stuck being a little... mana-deprived, but you didn’t check on me once?” he asked, a little hurt creeping into his voice and Opopal raised his eyes to stare right into Haldi’s.

“I did us both a kindness and presumed you dead,” he said coldly. Haldi inhaled once then just smiled; locking that painful statement away until the boys left his hut. Alpha didn’t need to see an old man shed a tear when he was relying on Haldi to bring him some comfort.

“Very well, if you want to put manners and niceties aside, I’ll be blunt. Opopal TalentDragon-” Haldi drew himself to his full height and the old remodeled church he had turned into his home seemed to inhale as if Haldi was drawing on the space itself.

The man in the mirror drew back, surprised.

“I, Haldirian TheBigCheese, bar you from my territory as an individual; the power of my thrice name dominating your double title,” he thundered. Opopal spluttered as if he hadn’t been challenged like this since they were both boys.

“I am the Archmage! Such rules don’t bind me! I go where magical issues arise! Not that I would visit your pig farm hovel!” Opopal screamed, eyes bulging.

Haldi leaned in, channeling a piece of the hurt Opopal made him feel into a gleeful smile.

“Oh? Then you’ll summon the Archmage staff or robes for me to check, hm? I can be so forgetful in my ‘hovel’,” Haldi said, voice dripping acid like molten cheese.

They stared at each other and Haldi watched that gleam enter Opopal’s eye; the clever intellect that allowed Haldi’s brother to become as powerful as parts of the royal court.

“You know.”

The tone was both furious and... triumphant. Haldi didn’t look to the side, at Alpha.

“I do. And you won’t come sniffing here for answers. It’s called karma and I think you should start looking for a new job title. Maybe try for Assistant-to-the-Archmage?” Haldi crossed his arms as his brother drummed his fingers for a moment.

“I won’t lower myself to demand an answer. I know you are stubborn as you are foolish. You have no clue what you’ve invited,” Opopal warned darkly, his youthful face flushed.

“Nothing because you won’t admit what you lost and people won’t come here for something they’re confident hasn’t left the capital,” Haldi pointed out and he frowned when Opopal laughed without mirth.

“Again, this is why you may be a powerful wizard, but you are a terrible wiseman. The title of Archmage isn’t just clothes and a staff. It’s a fragment of magic itself, latching on to the strongest or worthiest magic-user to announce their name. Do you think it isn’t desired by forces so vile that I could barely leave my tower without facing attacks?” the ex-Archmage sneered.

“I’ve faced things I had to purge my memory of. Your magic-addicts don’t worry me,” Haldi said confidently, shooting Alpha a wink.

“Fool. You know nothing... nothing of magic. But... you are correct. I won’t be announcing where this new ‘archmage’ may be found,” Opopal announced with a scowl before he smoothed down his expression.

“I warned you long ago before you sought to fight this enemy ‘within’ that another danger lurked within this world. Ignore me now as you did then, but I won’t continue to draw their attention any longer. I’ll be destroying this mirror after this,” Opopal said with a flat tone and Haldi tried not to bite his lip and ask what happened to them.

Had magic torn them apart so badly?

“Goodbye, Oppy,” Haldi said quietly. The man paused then turned away.

“Goodbye, Hally,” the man said and the image cracked violently, distorting the image into a dozen fractures before it spluttered and the mirror exploded outwards.

Haldi raised a hand to his cheek, coming away with his two fingers covered in redness, his cheek cut by a shard of glass.

“One world threat at a time,” he sighed and turned brightly to his guest.

“We should be all good now! He won’t bother you,” he told Alpha with his best jolly tone. He touched his cheek and a thin film of cheese spread like fungus over the cut, bubbling before it peeled away to reveal slightly pale but unblemished skin.

“What was he talking about? The danger he talked about?” Quiss asked, suspicious and Seth just gave him a deeply concerned look.

“Oh, nothing major,” Haldi promised as he pulled out platters of cheese to distract them from his next words.

“Just that magic may have come into existence by luring a god into this world and shredding it into ingredients that ended up making the first magic-users near the beginning of humanity’s history,” Haldi said with a snort.

“Morbid, but how is that dangerous?” Quiss asked as Alpha looked down at his hands with wide-eyes.

“Just Oppy buys into this old myth passed down the various Mage Towers,” Haldi said, trying to stress how he didn’t buy into it given everything he had seen.

“Pieces of this ‘god’ are bigger than others and certain cultists want to reunite it and worship it as an icon. So they want to kill all the Archmages in the world and take their titles into one person,” Haldi said before he plucked a particularly juicy piece of cheese on a stick for himself.

“Cultists?” Alpha echoed.

“Well, the first magic users kind of ‘borrowed’ that god from the actual people who believed in it. I don’t know anything more because Oppy was kind of ranting and raving when he told me this years ago,” Haldi shrugged; he had been more keen with dealing with the... uh... thing he wasn’t supposed to remember.

“Trust me, it won’t come back to bite us,” Haldi said, confident and his three guests shared a worried look.

---

Across the lands, through the dark woods and past swamps of dark bubbling ooze and dirt, a ruinous castle rose up through skeletal trees. Against the moonlit sky, the castle looked precariously lopsided and tired.

Deep within, many sublevels into the cold ground, a pair of red eyes opened inside a bedroom. It sat up slowly, feeling the changes in the gentle balance of magic.

“...” she said, nothing more than a release of air escaping her throat, but it was enough to ignite the various torches around the room and awaken the still form in the corner of the room. The woman in the rocking chair that had been cobwebbed and coated over in dust stood up, smoothing down her servant’s clothes that looked like a mix of purples, whites and a black tight corset around her waist that allowed a white apron to flow down gently.

There was a series of clicks and grinding gears before the maid righted herself and managed to smile.

“Lady Altnis, are you finally a-a-a-a-awake?” the woman shuddered as her voice seemed to grind to a stop for a moment before clearing up.

The young girl in the bed slowly turned to the woman, her red eyes turning pink and milky in the light, betraying her inability to see.

“...” she breathed, moving her hands slowly in a one-handed series of gestures.

“Yes, my lady. I am functional,” the maid bowed, making sure to make her clothes brush against each other to let her girl know what she was doing.

More gestures and the girl sat up in her bed, barely a slip of a girl, but the paleness of skin and stillness of her movement betrayed her unnatural existence.

More gestures.

“Truly? A fragment is finally exposed?” the maid said with excitement and the Altnis signed more.

“I shall wake the castle. Your loyal friend, Snugglebuns, remains at your side always,” the maid smiled, revealing a slightly stitched mouth and black ears that blended into her black hair as if swept back.

The girl turned, flailing her hands in utter embarrassment. The maid merely hummed.

“Twas the name you gave me as a young girl! How could I discard such a name, but as you command. Your loyal maid, Snug, is here for you! Snugglebuns in secret!” she clapped her hands, her wrists turned like locks in a machine.

Before, Lady Sarah Von Altnis sagged as if exasperated and began to edge towards the end of her bed.

It was time for the last heir of Magic to return their God to right!

150: Ringing Endorsement

The last chamber of the Pygmy Maze made even Estal’s usual complaints fall short in stunned silence. It was a large sunken chamber, likely the deepest the second floor ever went with a large dome like ceiling and pillars covered in those glowing mushrooms akin to floating stars. A central path made of cobblestones led to the back of the room where stairs rose to an altar, but between the entrance and those stairs were rows of flowers growing out of unique pots and jars; every flower swaying as gentle music seemed to flow down from the ceiling; a piece that made the group feel like they were in some sacred place; a church or temple.

“W-what is this place?” Estal finally asked, her voice feeling like an intrusion to the room.

“The final resting place of our people,” came an old tone from behind them. Spinning, Hazhur reached for his weapon, but paused as they saw the Pygmy Village Elder being escorted by the three ‘special’ beings of their race.

The Priest, The Fungalmancer, and the Tinker.

“Dungeon monsters don’t die,” Silver said, more a reaction than a statement to the words.

“We do,” the elder said before looking at his escorts, “well, most of us,” he chuckled. The Priest looked up at the group with a gentle serenity.

“Pygmies were given the gift of life, to create more of ourselves due to the gift of this floor. But with life... we accepted death too. Only those chosen to become bastions of the race become true monsters of the Dungeon; timeless,” it explained.

“Then these... are memorials,” Karn said simply, eyeing the rows of pots and flowers.

“We are unlike the great Mother’s other monsters; perhaps... closer to that of the Moon than the Sun. We are more feral... more cunning than most of the societies that she will create, but in return, we have an evolving culture, a community, and understanding that few others will,” The Fungalmancer proclaimed.

“We must develop and evolve our tools... using tricks and traps rather than open warfare since we do not respawn in the same manner. We willingly pass our lives onto our spores; our children,” the Tinker finished and the Elder held up a hand to stall them.

“And those who pass, we lay to rest for their final vigil,” he nodded before chuckling.

“However, perhaps we are too casual to you who do not truly know what lies beyond life? We can see the mana leaving our old and entering our new. A cycle... So please... don’t step on the flowers. You have passed the final test so claim the key and depart our tunnels with the mark of bravery, cunning, and wisdom etched into your soul,” the elder wheezed, clearly struggling to keep all of his words in a dialect they could understand.

“Dungeon monsters... die,” Silver repeated, getting a worried look from Hazhur and Estal as the cloaked figure looked out over the rows of memorials.

“Don’t mean to be rude, but I heard your lot kind of formed because your Dungeon... er... died?” Karn asked awkwardly, getting a wide-eyed look from Estal who made slicing motions across her throat in panic.

“Our fate was not death, but a ripping of our life. Without our core, we turned from silver art to gray granite ash, locked in last gasping moments of agony. But we did not die,” Silver said, voice so low it was almost bestial.

“Only when one half of me wandered into the Tomb of Tarnished Silver, did my trapped essence latch on... to someone compatible,” Silver said finally and pulled his cloak tighter around himself.

“Question,” came a familiar annoying voice and they looked up to see Mharia the ‘guide’.

“What?” Estal asked, clearly not liking the fairy was ruining such a gentle atmosphere.

“Do you know why your core went corrupt?” Mharia asked so casually it was almost rude beyond belief. Silver twitched and for a moment, a lump appeared on their right shoulder, bulging as if Silver was struggling to contain something before he calmed himself.

“A conflict between duty and heart,” Silver finally said and said no more.

Mharia pondered that, vanishing a moment later. Hazhur cleared his throat and led the group down the path, being very careful not to tread on any flowers, the pots becoming older and more cracked as they neared the altar.

The stairs looked weathered and well-worn, but at the top an intricate bird bath sat in a shaft of light, the key laid in the empty basin and Hazhur slowly took it, expecting something to happen, but they all breathed a sigh of relief when it seemed their trial truly was over.

They turned as a group and all the Pygmies were just... gone, as if they had never been there. To the side of the room; a passageway blocked off by large mushroom caps and roots began to pull back revealing a narrow spiraling stone staircase back to the surface.

The solemn air tensed as if they had worn out their welcome.

“Let’s go,” Hazhur insisted and followed a secondary path along the wall to the potential exit. As they climbed the stairs, there came the sound of shifting earth before Karns spoke up.

“The stairs are collapsing behind us,” he said ever so casually.

“Run, you buffoons!” Estal screeched, holding up her staff to light the way. With the sound of metal shifting and fabrics moving, they began to run up the stairs. Hazhur was doing his best to overtake Estal, but in his haste, his head wrappings came loose, snagged by a stray root, exposing his ram horns.

Estal looked over with wide-eyes and her foot missed the next step she was aiming for.

Karn reached down, sticking his head through Estal’s legs like a robust horse, carrying her with sheer force and neck muscles.

“Horns!” Estal screamed.

“GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF MY COUSIN’S LEGS!”

“No time!” Karn said back.

Behind them, Silver just stared in awe at his ‘friends’ antics. Light ahead showed the exit was near...

The Trial of the Pygmies was finally over... but their trouble had just begun.

---

Delta sat up, eyes blinking away sleep that couldn’t be real, but she rubbed her eyes all the same. She had been awoken by something she could only describe as a ‘toothache’. As if some piece of food had been wedged into her teeth and now the ache was spreading up the side of her face.

‘Awake, are you?’ Nu greeted as he appeared before her but upon seeing her grimace, he paused.

‘So... you do feel it.’ Nu seemed to muse.

“Nu? Feel what? The stabbing pain in my head? Yeah... I feel that and the guests! Good, I didn’t dream them up,” she stood up, wincing and Nu moved around her as if assessing her state. Delta leaned on her core for support as she tried to get her bearings once more. The orange orb now striped with thin blue veins glowed warmly at her touch.

“What is that?” she asked, herself mostly, but she was surprised when Nu answered all the same.

‘Invasion.’ Nu announced.

Delta stiffened at the word because she could feel Nu didn’t mean the guests just coming into the Dungeon but something deeper... more subconscious to the Dungeon itself. She spread her awareness over the entire Dungeon and instantly knew the source of her discomfort.

One of the people in her Dungeon carried a part of something... not human. A piece of something that drove her Dungeon parts into a frenzy of feeling like it was intruding. Then came a slight urge to send her monsters to attack, to remove it, but Delta easily clamped down on those urges with practiced ease.

She focused on the person, switching her vision to Dungeon Sight, watching the walls, people, monsters, and the Dungeon itself break down into connected atoms of mana and bonds.

Delta let out a slight gasp of horror at the sight.

The person had their body mingled with a Dungeon being, slowly allowing the Dungeon Mana to become ‘real’. A reverse contract of sorts, a possession, but also... it seemed willing on the human’s part.

What was worse was that her mana could not breach the person and the seed within fastened itself to both the person and the Dungeon aspect, using both to shield itself from her attempts to drain it away.

Delta slowly watched the person talk with his group, biting her lip as the jaw ache she was experiencing began to dull in intensity.

“That might be trouble, but how have they been progressing? I see they have two keys out of three,” Delta asked, trying to change the subject to something she could control for now.

‘They’re worse than the last group and I’m enjoying every moment of their suffering. You missed the secret fish level.’ Nu announced and Delta snapped her fingers with clear disappointment.

“Ah well, next time,” she smiled, not bothering to admonish Nu’s bloodthirsty words. He was mostly joking at this point.

Still... that meant only one key was in circulation.

She watched as Rale appeared before the group once more, offering to guide them to their last destination before the boss room.

“And where’s this fabulous place?” the girl asked sarcastically as she smoothed down her robes and glared at the jungle floor for being dirt and soil.

Delta spoke at the same time as Rale, their words echoing slightly.

“The Circus of the Damned’.

---

Kemy watched as Smalls evaluated the cloud dress as her group browsed the shelves of his other ‘interesting’ items.

“It was really light and it never got dirty,” she blurted out awkwardly, feeling the need to praise the dress for service as if it was a new friend she wanted to get a promotion from her boss. Mr Smalls smiled.

“I would hope so, it was made from taking essence of a sentient cloud and having to weave together with blessed thread. If it had been heavy, I’d be appalled,” he announced simply as her group leader, Delem, picked out what looked to be a provocative leather piece that was covered in spikes and parts of the back of the pants seemed to be missing...

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Kemy guessed it wasn’t finished.

She looked around the store, beginning to wonder when they had exactly come to Durence... it felt like maybe a week at most, but the town also seemed to shift with commerce and new arrivals in such a small time that she wondered if the chaotic mana about the place might be... distorting their sense of time.

Ever since they had left Delta, Kemy having gone twice even, the Scarlet Moons had felt changed. As if some parts of them were different... forever changed. Days passed and for a small time Kemy and her friends just stopped... being people for a time.

As their natural mana slowly absorbed the town and nearby Dungeon mana in the air, they had, for a frightful day or two, become still in a sense their emotions... purpose... had dulled. They got up, they ate breakfast at the inn, they talked about going to the Dungeon or about the rise of monster attacks, had dinner... then went to bed.

It had... terrified Kemy until they woke up one day to find their mana completely saturated and the gray film over their minds and souls lifted.

Aneya, standing striking in her dark leather and arms crossed, knew what had happened.

The Curse of Durence. The effects of living over a dead mana veins of the land, but thankfully the Dungeon’s mana seemed almost designed to help people quickly overcome the effects of such a thing.

Delta’s mana in the air felt purposeful... and sometimes a little excitable. Kemy idly turned her mushroom staff, ignoring the bemused smile of Mr Smalls at the sight of it.

“Well, I am glad to say the dress won’t require any repairs so you must have handled it beautifully,” the tailor said brightly and Kemy offered him a shy smile as her group shot her grins.

Though he offered no reward at the time, Mr Smalls went under his counter and brought up carefully wrapped parcels, one for each of them.

“I made them with care and attention to the detail,” the man promised as he handed them over to the group. Kemy opened the package to see a bright orange fabric, it looked a little like a shirt, but much tighter with stretchy material at the neck and sleeves. The front showed an animated smiling mushroom cap with large eyes.

It had a little speech bubble coming off it as it winked.

‘I experienced mushrooms in Delta’s Dungeon!’ it proclaimed. Kemy smiled awkwardly, not saying anything that could be conceived as a white lie. Delem’s was the same but with a different line.

‘Delta’s mushrooms are the only mushroom-shaped thing I put in my mouth!’

Kemy heard Aneya swallow back a comment and her ‘shirt’ wasn’t much better.

‘I went inside Delta and all I got was this sweet loot!’

Kemy needed to see what Gonga’s shirt was, the giant of the man holding his extra large shirt aloft. His went on and on, until it nearly went off the shirt entirely.

“That one was a custom job,” Mr Smalls admitted.

‘Cocktails to knock your socks off at Fera’s Bar! Located in Delta’s Dungeon, meals are provided with drinks. No shirt, no sale. No money, no sale. No manners, no sale. Fera’s bar is not legally responsible for any spontaneous splitting of forms, body morphing, hair growth, or surprise employment.’

The back was a large image of a smirking hog with an apple stuck on one of its tusks, the name ‘Swarthy Hog’ underneath it in fancy black writing.

“I’ll swap you,” Aneya and Delem said at the same time and Gongo hugged it close.

“I can wear this outside, I can’t with yours,” he muttered protectively.

Kemy could not blame the man.

“Thank you,” Kemy said, bowing to the man who was far too entertained at their expressions.

“This is a whole new line of business...” Mr Smalls mused.

“Stretchy shirts that said things that would embarrass anyone with shame?” Aneya asked sarcastically as she tucked the free gift away in her bag.

“Clothing that makes people curious! Walking words that draw the eye to Dungeon Delta’s weirdness… clothes that tempt...” Mr Smalls’ eyes lit up.

“Temptation Shirts!” he cried as if the idea struck him like lightning. Kemy smiled at him again, but she really hoped his idea didn’t spread. People walking around with weird jokes written on their clothes would make her want to stop and stare.

“Enjoy your T...shirts,” Delem said with manners and ushered Aneya out of the store quickly. Kemy turned to leave but the owner called out to her and she turned back.

The slightly excitable energy about him had calmed down and he looked serious.

“Your group should move on soon,” he advised and Kemy blinked at the words, at the tone shift.

“I...sorry?” she said and he looked at her with a sort of sadness.

“You’re young things. Lots to live for and a world to see. Don’t stick around Durence too long. It has ways of sinking into you and... well... things are going to get troublesome around here,” he warned and Kemy hesitated before she spoke up.

“From the Kingdom? How they regulate Dungeons or Fairplay?” she asked softly and Mr Smalls rubbed a small white scar on one his otherwise pristine fingertips.

“I don’t recall,” he said finally and that was a strange thing to say, but Kemy didn’t sense any lies about his words.

And that scared Kemy more than his warning could.

---

Hazhur looked up at the massive form sitting before what could have been a crack in the dungeon wall, a tunnel of sorts.

“It’s a monkey,” Karn pointed out and the giant creature bared its teeth in annoyance, shifting slightly to show there was no tail coming off its rear.

“It’s in the way... do we scoot around or...” Estal brought up testily and the giant ape thing eyed her before sniffing.

“No need, Wilhelm here is just keeping you outside while those inside do one final preparation,” Rale beamed, coming to stand near them and Estal’s crabby nature instantly turned soft and she giggled at him.

“Oh that makes sense, Mr Rale,” she said and Hazhur coughed at her.

“Shut it, goat,” she said, her smile never faltering. Hazhur winced and felt like he took some form of mental damage as he curled inwards... a little like his horns.

“If I’m a goat, you’re a damn succubus harpy,” he retorted, feeling like he was ten years old and pulling his cousin’s hair for ruining his stick fortress. Silver wandered over and the giant creature let Silver stroke his furry hand, more curious of Silver than annoyed.

“What exactly is the circus of the damned,” Hazhur asked, to put them back on track.

“Circus of the Damned,” Rale said as if correcting him.

“That’s what I said? Circus of the damned?” Hazhur blinked at the muscular frogman.

“It has... weight to it. Imagine the words are your last lifeline to the top of a ravine, the last light before night, or the last flickering of a candle before the darkness comes,” Rale insisted, lowering his voice to a whisper.

“Circus of the...Damned,” Karn said, voice grave and Rale nodded in approval.

“I’ll just abbreviate it,” Hazhur muttered, not giving into the urge to be dramatic.

“What is...COD? COtD?” he tried it aloud.

“No, come on! Say it right,” Estal poked him with a devilish smile. Hazhur met her eyes and narrowed his own eyes to a glare.

“You say it first,” he gritted out. Estal’s smile turned bright and she put a hand to her head, leaning into Rale with a flutter of her eyes.

“I want to hear about the... Circus of the Damned,” she whispered and the frog caught her before she could fall flat on her face. The trees around them ached and groaned as if her tone was adding to some effect.

They all turned to Hazhur, even the damn monkey. He inhaled, wondering if he could just leave at this point..

“Circus... of the d..Damned,” Hazhur stuttered, feeling foolish. Estal and Karns eyes went wide and he glared at them.

“I said it? What more do you want?” he asked, annoyed and Estal raised a finger, skin going ashen.

“Behind...you...” she croaked and Hazhur stiffened. He just noticed the bird song had gone quiet, the river nearby seemed to lower in volume, the very life of the jungle had paused for a moment, and Hazhur felt a chill crawling up his spine.

He looked over one shoulder into a face that was a little like a dummy’s with beady eyes and a drawn on little smile, his outfit red with a tophat on his head. The red was vivid... a little too dark to be cheerful and his ruffles looked more like spider web. He held a cane and when he tilted his head, dirty hair flowed down to one side.

“All greet... Circus Master Renny,” Rale said, bowing at the creature.

“He...llo?” Hazhur said, wondering why he was shaking.

The creature tilted his head again and smiled, the entire lower half of his mouth splitting open like an eldritch nightmare that informed the group the painted smile was a trap. Teeth as long as Hazhur’s fingers glinted at him and the black gums seemed to suck in any light.

That was the exact moment that Hazhur’s horns fell off in fright.

---

“Woo, Renny! First visitors! I am in your corner!” Delta cried, shaking her hips in a circular motion as Renny made her guests pee themselves at first greeting.

“My little ghoul is a man!” she fist pumped the air excitedly, unable to help but enjoy the moment as this would be the first time the Circus of the Damned would put on a show!

Delta even had a ticket!

Sure, she made it, but she still had one!

‘I am going to enjoy this...immensely,’ was Nu’s comment. Renny shot them a cheeky wink as he turned, clapping his hands, which made no sound at all, as the tunnel ahead ignited with ghostly blue fire that seemed to shimmer off different mushrooms.

It was time for the show to begin...

151: Highwire, Haywire

Estal didn’t get the joke. Not the beginning or the end.

Why was a circus in the middle of a jungle?

There was no punch line and she was beginning to get a little ticked off by the randomness this Dungeon had at times. It was like people who tried too hard to be quirky but came off as childish... not that Estal knew anything about that, of course.

Her personality had remained pretty much constant her entire life. Everyone was out to get her and only Estal could make herself shine.

The tunnel the ghoul led them down was... she had to admit, beautiful. The curving mushrooms that seemed to grow in coiling vines around support pillars emitted enchanting light that made the stone around it sparkle like trapped stars. For precious seconds it felt like they were back outside in some magical forest under the night sky where things like giant bees or murderous little people or ghouls didn’t exist.

Estal gave this silent ‘ringmaster’ a once over from the back, taking in his dark outfit, hat, and gloved hands. Ghouls had never been an issue where she grew up or at her school. As far as she knew, Ghouls tended to wander the countryside where they could sneak about unseen near unprotected gravesites or battlefields, feeding off rotting remains like filthy carrion beetles.

Estal had never heard of one that walked on two legs with a strong posture, let alone was able to communicate slightly with odd gestures. She had also never heard of one being so silent. Her textbooks said Ghouls were snarling hissing creatures who feared fire.

Ghouls were monsters, technically. They didn’t get classes, they got species ranks... normally, but this Dungeon was ‘quirky’ so Estal guessed none of that applied to anything and all that she knew about the outside world was worth nothing in this weird hole.

She was ranting, but she stopped cold with the rest of her party at the sight of the tent. It filled the massive cavern before them in bright reds striped with black, the curving top leading to a massive crowning point which the top of the pillar used to hold the cloth up was visible.

The mushrooms around them had grown to cluster in pulsing spotlights that occasionally shifted or danced as a thin mist clung to the ground, obscuring their feet. The massive gorilla creature stalked past them, shaking the ground slightly as it stood guard over the entrance.

She wanted to speak, but the entire cavern began to grow dim as mushrooms seemed to lose their luminences one by one until the only light was a perfect circle around the Ghoul- Renny.

He slowly raised both gloved hands, not even disturbing the air in his passing as if he leaked silence, and snapped his fingers that produced no sound. Something must have happened because the inside of the tent lit up with a slow winding tune that grew faster and faster until a full-blown heart-thumping symphony was firing off.

The tent entrance opened up grandly on its own and Renny bowed once, beginning to move backwards without... walking. It was one of the creepiest things Estal had ever seen. Renny was moving backwards without breaking his bow like the mist was carrying him into the tent of its own accord.

“That’s slightly alarming,” Hazhur announced as Renny’s figure vanished into the tent where a soft pulsing red light swallowed him.

“Wonder what this is?” Karn asked as he ran his hand over what seemed to be a locked cabinet filled with glowing treats of sorts. The stand called it ‘Glorious Popcorn’ and required a ‘Circus Ticket’ to purchase some.

“Tourist trap bait. It likely tastes of sawdust and is painted to draw the easily distracted in,” Estal said as Silver wandered over to the tent as if drawn to the music like a moth to a flame.

“If I see one clown, I’m layering so many barriers in one place I’ll create a violent air vacuum when they pop,” Estal muttered to the cave and stalked forward.

---

Mharia had... avoided the circus.

The lich-turned-fairy couldn’t decide if it was fear or trauma that kept her away. Ghouls weren’t the best creatures when one was alive... but they were predators of all things dead and even one as powerful as she had been... still held an irrational fear of Ghouls.

Ghouls weren’t so bad to deal with, but if they became feral or worse gathered under a Ghoul Lord? She shivered, not wanting to think about it.

Nature refused a vacuum. Death disliked an uneven playing board.

As far as she knew, if you existed in this world? Something could kill you eventually.

Worms had birds. Rats had birds and cats. Humans had humans.

Undead had Ghouls.

Ghouls had fire, which was something at least.

Still, Mharia couldn’t put this off forever since there was no telling how long she’d be in Delta’s Dungeon. She wasn’t even technically dead anymore, more a mana-construct than a lich-fairy, so she had no reason to fear the Ghoul who was... a contract-monster and still very able to devour her.

She shivered but snuck into the tent after the group.

The inside of the tent was a dizzying spiraling of red flashing lights and shadows that even threw her off-balance for a moment until all the lights snapped to Renny in the center of the space, sending a shudder up Mharia’s spine.

Renny held a cane and began to tap the ground and, surprisingly, it actually made noise as it did so, a repeating thunderous bang that sounded like a heartbeat with the tent acting as a ribcage.

“He would make his father proud,” Delta’s voice said and Mharia tried not to show how spooked she was as she startled.

“Ghouls reproduce- urgh, never mind. He doesn’t technically have a father,” Mharia muttered to the forming orange avatar of the Dungeon.

“Family is more than blood, you should know that,” Delta replied and Mharia was quiet for a time, an ache in her long dead heart for Sun, her friend that was so far from mortal it wasn’t funny.

The group panicked as all around them, bones began to rise out the ground in a swirling tornado of white as around Renny, the Circus of the Damned’s’ performers appeared around Renny in various poses.

Everything from painted clowns, their eye sockets painted with gold stars and red noses held on by string while behind them lions, wolves, and more posed as trained, their bones glistening around the red uniforms.

Strong-skeletons lifted weights as unseen stagehands roamed the spotlights all over the tent.

From a rip in the tent, Wilhelm jumped in beating his chest as Renny’s cane continued tapping a musical tempo.

It was such a spectacular scene that even Mharia’s usual acidic words failed to find a target for some time as the crew set up stunts, high-wires, while the various stage animal-skeleton broke apart, forming unique chimera forms to the delight of Karn who had apparently never seen a circus either.

Delta took a seat in the audience beaming as she watched the show. At the back, Devina, Luna, Giant, and Rale all watched the show with interest as even the Pygmies took spots in the rafters for the event.

Then just as the music and displays hit a crescendo, Renny tapped his cane once more and the tent went dark except for the single spotlight on the ghoul ringleader.

Slowly, Renny raised his cane to the roof of the tent where the spotlights illuminated a highwire stretched across the space between two platforms. Renny then pointed to the group with his other hand, smiling wide and demonic.

Mharia might not like the ghoul, but she liked where this was going.

---

“Why me?” Estal demanded as she slowly pulled herself up another rung.

“I’m in heels!” she complained to herself as she moved ever higher.

Of course, she had to do the highwire thing because she had ‘barriers if she went splat’. Hazhur was getting shot out of that cannon if it was a test and Estal would ignite it herself and point it at the ground!

Just as she reached the top, she held onto the pole for support as she looked over the wire as it shone in the spotlight. Next to her, a rattling noise indicated movement of bones and some skeleton’s limbs crawled up to the platform, gripping each other to form a ‘pole’ for her to use for balance.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Would it kill you to give me a real pole?” she hissed and the end of the pole formed a thumbs up of encouragement.

She took the cursed thing and eyed the wire with a gulp.

Estal was not afraid of heights, but it was a high place inside the Circus of the Damned on a thin wire with everyone watching. Being made fun of was a bigger fear for Estal than breaking her neck.

Education as a teenager had really messed up her priorities.

She focused and as she tested the wire, her barrier failed to form on the tip of her heels which usually avoided the issue of wearing heels in the first place.

Some sort of anti-magic wire?

She kicked off her heels, leaving her in her bare feet and threw them at her cousin who caught them with an exasperated look as she took another step onto the wobbling wire.

“Just pretend you’re walking to class because the girls stole your shoes again. Cold sharp paved hallways, careful where you step, Esty,” she muttered to herself and took another step, nearly falling on the first leg of the journey.

She used the bone-pole (and promised herself to never call it that again) to slowly work her way forward, adjusting to the challenge with some effort. Just as she passed the halfway mark, something banged and a skeleton went flying past her face with a shriek as it was fired from the cannons around the area. Estal wobbled horribly, swearing so loud that Silver gasped.

More skeletons flew overhead, catching each other on swinging handlebars.

“Walk, walk, walk,” Estal commanded herself in a high-pitch screech of terror. To her horror, a performing skeleton began walking the wire from the other side—but upside down, as if gravity meant nothing to him.

“Set the rope on fire!” she heard that damn fairy yell from somewhere.

Just as she was about to make it to the other side, her mind turning to pure animalistic instinct to keep moving, the bone-...the pole broke apart in her hand, falling away to the ground below. Her vision tilted to the left and she made a split second to leap for it, flailing her arms out in an attempt to catch the platform before she fell.

Her fingers barely brushed the wooden platform’s edge and then she was falling.

A net made of near translucent silk caught her, barely reflecting any light from the spotlights.

She laid there as the net was slowly lowered and her team surrounded her. She blinked back tears and avoided their gaze.

Estal has been right there and she missed.

Renny bent down and his smile was just the small one as he handed her something.

It was a key.

“B-But I failed,” she said, not taking it yet.

Renny looked unsure on how to convey himself and Mharia appeared as if pushed onto the floor by someone.

“It was never about succeeding, but ‘being part of the show’. You were... entertaining I guess. Usually these things would require a few more ‘shows’ to get the key, but Renny was really impressed by your effort,” Mharia translated with a sulk.

“You wanted him to set me on fire!” Estal accused and Mharia sighed.

“I know and I’m disappointed it didn’t happen either,” she admitted.

Estal took the key and then Renny presented her with a golden ticket as well and then walked off with a cheerful trot to his step.

“This popcorn better be worth it,” Estal said darkly as Hazhur handed her back her shoes.

The machine outside the tent dispensed a single piece of the food within and Estal felt cheated. She glared at the golden thing before she popped it into her mouth.

“Too much butter,” she muttered.

She turned and her body slowly began to grow warm. Estal paused as the others watched her for reactions, curious about the snacks.

For blissful seconds, every stress, worry, self-doubt, and negative thing Estal associated with being herself melted away and she was left standing there as she was surrounded by the sheer bliss of life.

She was alive! Estal knew magic! Estal was way prettier than Hazhur!

Life was...

Her eyes welled with tears abruptly and she felt no shame in shedding them because shame didn’t exist for her.

Even as the effect died down, the lingering enlightenment swirled around her as if the popcorn had opened doors she had never known.

It took her a second to notice Karn was carrying her through the jungle, Estal having stopped paying attention to things like the physical world in her elevated state.

“I need more tickets!” she wailed.

“No way, you hugged me. That popcorn is dangerous,” Hazhur grunted. Estal wrinkled her nose.

She did what?

“Put me down,” she told Karn as they looked to be close to the massive tree at the end of the Floor where the metal gates were under its roots.

“Is that it?” she asked quietly, still trying to fight off the weird urge to beam at everything.

“Everything we’ve uh... suffered for is beyond that gate. The Boss room,” Hazhur agreed.

“Will it want us to show the power of friendship? Do a song? Maybe it’ll let us pass if we tell it a joke?” Karn mused and Estal couldn’t argue, the boss was usually the lesson of the floor summed up in any other Dungeon.

“You never know... it might want to fight,” Hazhur pointed out.

“Psh, I’ll just bare my heart to it and it’ll cry and we can get some treasure and leave,” Estal said, stalking forward.

“We should also mention Delta a lot, I think that’s good,” Hazhur agreed.

They opened the first gate.

---

Inside the boss room, Wyin opened one of her glowing amber-filled eyes.

Around her were various carvings of adventurers she had made in her spare time... in a single instant of one of her branches circling the room with a high pitched whistle, all their heads were cut clean off their stone bodies.

“I wonder what will flow first? Tears or blood?” she mused, her thick lips pulling into a pouty smile.

---

Fera looked up from wiping down the bar with a frown. Standing at her door was a familiar figure.

“Ruli,” she said and the woman’s eyes were yellow in the gloom until she stepped forward.

“The outsiders,” the woman said simply and Fera wiped the bar a few more times then nodded.

“We have some, but they didn’t pass my way,” she said and this seemed to throw the woman for a moment.

“Then how did they get to the other floor?” she questioned and Fera wasn’t willing to give up Dungeon secrets so easily.

“There are ways that don’t involve passing through the Swarthy Hog, girl. Drink before you go stomping onwards?” she asked and Ruli hesitated as if torn between concern for Delta, her duty, and a free drink.

“They are in the hands of Wyin if my rumor mill is true,” she said casually and this made Ruli blink then smile as she took a seat.

“Well, I hate to barge in so early they don’t get the full experience before I drag them off to Durence,” Ruli agreed, her mane of dark hair swept back as she relaxed.

“They aren’t bad folks really,” Fera had to admit from what she observed.

“Not about the characters, it's about respect really. If people think they can ignore my Ma and the other elders to enter Delta, it sends the idea we’re weak and nothing attracts the worst kinds of people like weakness,” Ruli sighed as she nursed her drink.

“We can take care of ourselves,” Fera felt the need to remind her.

“You’re already taking care of a lot, let us in the town handle the outsiders. Even a gal like Delta is gonna need a break from the Calcs, the scum, and the Knights,” she said, drinking with a deep gulp.

“Delta likes people,” Fera said quietly.

“She’s not going to like these people,” came the dark response.

---

Across the land, carriages rode out blazing with the symbols of Fairplay, the King, and a lone dark carriage with a doll-like maid.

All of them making a beeline for one little town.

152: Coming Storm

Mist.

Refreshing cool mist that enveloped them, cooling their skin and almost rejuvenating the team after what honestly felt like days on the second floor.

Hazhur inhaled and it even tasted cool on his tongue. He held his axe at the ready, missing the horns a little as it would stop a blade from cutting into his face...

His skull itched and Hazhur chose to ignore it for now. They were in the boss room and there was honestly no telling how ‘harmless’ or kind the boss would be to them. Was it a puzzle boss? Some sort of spiritual journey gimmick?

The room, as far as he could tell, was a large grove of sorts with small streams stretching out, giving a rise to more mist. The lush grass could have hidden snakes or worse, but here, they just rustled in some unfelt breeze as the ceiling of the room was hidden by the rising moisture, making it hard to guess how big the room actually was.

A shadow ran in front of them, a laughing woman, before it quickly faded.

“Group,” Hazhur warned, moving in a rough pattern that would let Estal barrier them from any angle, The shadow reappeared, laughing again.

“Who wanders into my garden of pleasure?” came a purr that sent every hair on Hazhur’s body on its end. It was a voice that promised a pain so exquisite that it would border on addiction to any one with a weak will.

“Three tasty morsels and a toxic snack. Can you see me?” the woman asked, sounding like she was whispering in Hazhur’s ears. They all turned as one to look behind them and Karn looked curious.

“What do we do here?” he asked, holding his knife carefully.

“Win, obviously,” Estal said clearly.

This made the shadowy figure, who kept moving in before reappearing far off, burst out in near hysterical laughter.

“I’ve seen children, literal children escorted by one young woman, have a better chance at winning than you four. The trees have told me their opinion, the wind on the leaves whispers to me your efforts, and the unseen roots inform me of your strengths. You may all die here today if things go wrong... I certainly won’t try my best to keep you alive,” the voice warned as the mist began to thin a little around the edges.

Hazhur tensed, almost unable to form words due to the thick feeling in the air, like they were all mice before a lion.

“You’re just the mean girl of the Dungeon. You may be strong or weirdly good at something, but you’re still just a girl who bullies others to feel better about herself,” Estal surprised them all by taking a stand.

“I’ve met your kind before and under whatever pretty face you have? Is a sad angry person,” Estal snapped, raising her staff.

The amusing chuckling abruptly stopped.

“Well now. That hurt my feelings a little,” the voice said as the room began to shake.

“So, I’m going to make you all feel pain in return now. A few weeks ago... maybe less, I might have just turned the inside of your ribcage into a flower pot so when something beautiful actually grows out your mouth, it’ll have plenty of manure to be healthy,” the mist thinned and a large shape in the middle of the room became clearer.

“I’m a more mature woman now, so I’ll just break your legs,” the very large tree-woman announced gleefully. She paused as if listening to something no one else could hear.

“...Fine!, mildly fracture them,” the tree amended. She stretched her branches out, her amber eyes flashing as her undeniable beauty glistened in the leftover mist. If Hazhur had one final word to say before he was crushed under this woman’s mass?

It was ‘goddess’.

“I am Wyin, the last obstacle between you and the floor beyond. Your weapons will break upon my bark, your tears will water my roots, and your screams will be a melody in my branches. Come! Bend and break for me!” Wyin called, her entire form writhing in motion, spreading snaking vines into the air.

Estal flung her hands up, barely getting a barrier up in time to prevent a river of vines from washing across their forms. Instantly, Estal fell to one knee, the barrier gaining spider-web cracks across the dome-like structure.

“Get ready to move,” Estal stressed through her teeth. Karn got down low, Hazhur hefted his axe, and Silver... Silver stood there menacingly, the back of his cloak shifting.

The barrier cracked a little more, pieces of magic turning to particles as it rained down.

“Now!” Hazhur said, yanking his cousin with him as they effectively had to split into two teams.

“This is going to be a pain. Hazhur, go chop that bitchy tree... Momma wants some sassy wooden clogs,” Estal hissed.

“Can you get me close?” Hazhur asked as dozens of vines swooped down at them. Estal scoffed and countless tiny circles appeared in the air, deflecting the vines before blinking out of existence where they were rapidly replaced by new ones.

“Big barriers are annoying... tiny temporary ones? Give me a challenge, Hazhur,” Estal insisted as they took off.

“As you wish,” Wyin sang and from under the ground, she hurled a buried boulder at them. Hazhur flexed his arms and a red glow raced up his arms, making his weapon blaze on the edge before he cleaved the rock into two pieces that landed on either side of Estal and himself.

“...You used a class skill,” Estal said, clearly shocked.

“It was just a cleave, let’s go,” Hazhur said, flushing as he hadn’t actually used his class skills since that Dungeon all those years ago... his body just reacted.

Something inside him had been dislodged in the hotspring and it was making his heart do weird things.

---

Karn cut another vine, the poison leaching out his dagger making them wither on contact. The more he cut, the more of them seemed to emerge. It was like a weed-hydra!

“Sil, buddy. Gonna help?” he called as he flipped back out of a grab by a thick branch. Silver simply walked forward, snapping the vines that tried to hold on to him. There had been a noticeable shift in his form and Karn really didn’t want to see under the cloak now.

People like Silver had two modes. The human part and the monster part... and they weren’t always in balance.

“She is... perfect. I almost don’t want to fight her,” Silver admitted.

“Feel free to lay down and I’ll step on you when I figure out feet,” Wyin called over as she sent a large branch to attack Estal and Hazhur.

As a root emerged, dark and pointed, Silver intercepted it, being pushed a few times before he did something that made himself far too heavy for the root to shift alone. Two more joined the effort and Silver grunted as he was slowly inched back.

“Cut... human!” Silver growled and Karn snapped out of his stupor to hack the roots. He didn’t need Hazhur’s axe to do damage when his dagger had a burning poison constantly emerging from it.

“Neat trick! How did you do it?” Karn asked casually as he stabbed.

“Less human... more silver,” the cloaked figure rumbled.

“That mana... corrupted and fouled, but undeniable. Tell me, you bundle of mercury in human form, what floor did your better half reside on?” Wyin asked as if she wasn’t fending off the four of them at the same time like it was nothing.

“High,” was Silver’s reply. Karn wondered if that made a difference to people like Silver, if the monster they bonded with was from a higher floor... or even a boss?

“A little hint... Delta’s single floor is worth five... no, ten times of your normal Dungeon. I am not a mere ‘Second floor’ boss. I am akin to a boss you’d find on the 20th floor if I went all out,” Wyin said haughtily and Karn felt his heart freeze for a second at the knowledge.

Silver braced himself and yanked, hauling the entire tree forward to the surprise of Wyin.

“Still a while off then,” Silver said confidently and Wyin snarled, now having a tug of war with Silver as she held a branch in front of her face to prevent Hazhur from getting close.

“Let’s pick up the tempo, sweet things. I’m aching to see how well you can all dance,” Wyin announced as she sent her wandering roots deep and the rivers around the room drained, sucked up by the tree who suddenly grew thick flowers and lush greenery all over her body.

Silver was flung back and Karn could only help him up before he was lifted off the ground and moved about like a ragdoll, his dagger at an awkward angle and unable to pierce the branch holding him.

Estal was blocking as hard as she could to aid him, but at the last second, she was sent literally spinning and dancing to the side as roots spiked up to the ground under her feet.

“Sing for me! The aria of pain!” Wyin cried and Karn winced as Hazhur was hit hard in the stomach by a gnarled root, making him fly back into the wall of the room where he landed in a slight heap, only then to be forced to roll almost non-stop to the side as whipping vines tore up the ground he had been moments before.

“Dance for me! The tango of tears!” she added to her rising voice.

Karn was slammed hard into the ground with a whip-like motion.

“Tonight, you shall taste despair so sweet it shall be the nectar of fantasies for years to come! Tonight, you dance with Wyin!” the tree laughed with a sweet laugh.

Karn hurt... but damn if he didn’t want to get up and keep going.

The tree had a point about this pain and pleasure thing.

---

In the Royal Capital, Lorsa slowly whittled away at a stick, forming a near replica of a rapier she had once seen on the battlefield.

The homeless Dungeon-Core masquerading as the Royal Knight Captain looked up as the entrance to Yal’s Dungeon crept open. She has sent Brilda to rest, despite being a Contract of Yal that had gotten a second-job as a Royal Knight, she still had to take care of basic needs eventually.

Lorsa knew that Brilda was as tough as they came, having left Fairplay, once being one of their famous Maidens...

But Lorsa still fussed when the woman pulled three shifts in a row.

Out of the door, only two figures emerged. Mas and Princess Serma. Mas’ clothes were torn and his sword looked broken. Serma’s dress was filthy and she held her arm awkwardly.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

They looked... hollow, perhaps for different reasons.

Yal had gotten softer.

Lorsa was really surprised the old grump would even let them leave alive.

“Princess, young Mas,” she greeted and Serma’s eyes watered as she held something in her hands. It was an old tarnished crown that had gems of power embedded in it.

Ah.

“You found her then,” Lorsa asked quietly.

“I brought her back...I kept her safe,” Mas mumbled, looking at his broken sword before he started crying.

“...I must speak with father,” Serma said, no longer hesitating when speaking and her words had a twinge of... authority to it that even Lorsa had to notice.

“The other two?” Lorsa asked and Mas inhaled once.

“They decided to stay. The Dungeon had what they wanted,” he said, as if this was still confusing him.

Lorsa hid an annoyed look.

She had told Yal to stop adopting strays to stave off his boredom.

“Shall I escort Mas to the medical wing?” Lorsa offered kindly.

“No, he is my personal knight from now on. Where I go, he goes,” Serma said with a tinge of fear that she might take Mas away from her.

Lorsa paused.

Personal guards authority could even supersede the Royal Knights when it came to their charges. Serma was going to be making waves with this choice.

Lorsa approved.

The castle’s occupants stopped in their various day-to-day tasks to stare at the bloodied Princess that stalked forward with purpose. Her previous shyness or even politeness had been discarded for an unstoppable will.

At her side, her broken knight with his broken sword followed in her footsteps until they reached not the throne room, but a more personal office of sorts to the side.

It was actually hard to stamp new laws and sign death sentences from atop a throne, but Lorsa had seen more foolish kings and queens attempt just that.

King Lendious’s pen dropped when Serma stepped into his office and even the other two Royal Knights standing guard against assassins seemed shocked.

It took a lot to surprise Royal Knights; they, Lorsa included, had seen a lot of strange things. The younger of the two, Mendah, even gulped.

“Serma,” the King said, his usual practiced regal poise lost in a slight stutter of surprise.

“My king,” Serma said softly, deliberately impersonal. Lorsa internally pushed this little family spat-to-be up by one in her internal drama sense. Serma dropped the battered crown on the ground where it rattled in a slow spin.

Yal was always tickled by the fact he made the rulers of the kingdom wear a tatty old crown instead of the splendid things he ‘could’ have designed. It was a little funny, especially when Lorsa heard how backwards the royal family had gone to make it seem like a good thing.

How the crown was a symbol of the royal family never needing to go after treasure because the kingdom was their actual jewel.

How a tarnished crown saw a lot of work and effort... while a pristine one was untouched.

How the crown was a reminder of where they had come from and how far they had developed since.

“You’ve returned, alive. It does my heart well to see you here,” Lendious said, standing and Serma did what countless assassins failed to do before her.

“Mother sends her regards.”

Lendious sat down so heavy, looking like he might have a stroke.

Serma paused as if thinking about it.

“Not regards, but the things she said I should report back to you are crude for the others in the room. Mostly about your abilities as a husband, as a lover, as the replacement to your older brother that died before he could ascend to the throne, and how you lied to everyone about her death and the fact she ran away from your paranoid angry drunken moods,” Serma said, her voice dropping in warmth with each word until she was leveling a dagger made of ice at the king’s throat.

“I am still your father and your king,” Lendious snapped, trying to gather himself up.

“Not since I left that Dungeon. Officially, I am your successor and thanks to your great-grandfather, no Royal Knight, servant, or knight may raise a hand to me under your orders without Yal revealing you as the killer, so you’re now my awkward rival as I will be coming for the throne. I have time, support, and tradition as my allies, while you have fear as your only companion. As for father?” Serma echoed with a derisive laugh.

“Your daughter died in that Dungeon. The monster that killed her? The truth. I shall see you at dinner, King Lendious. I’ll bring my own food,” Serma said simply and turned, walking away from the man that had run her life up to this moment.

“You kinda suck,” Mas announced bluntly and left with Serma.

Lorsa was drinking this up, cackling internally with an imaginary bottle of wine in her hands.

“This...I...” the king blustered and Lorsa put on her best sympathetic face as she turned to him, ready to show him the solution to his problems, just like always.

“As the successor, she technically still has to show a display of strength outside the capital and solve a growing tension, my liege,” she bowed slightly. He stared at her.

“Send her to Durence. Truly, the monsters there will break her along with their Dungeon? Then you can use her death as a means to lay down extreme law and punishment on the town,” Lorsa suggested and the king’s eyes lit up.

“Not... death. But if she returns cowed, I will be pleased,” he announced, reaching for his pen.

Lorsa would enjoy watching this man bleed.

Now, she had to hurry, she was likely missing Serma and Mas having a heart-felt conversation and weeping about the kingdom. That was prime potential romance stuff!

“Write faster...” Lorsa muttered as the king made orders to send the princess off to Durence.

And... their guide to Durence was almost here.

The King of monsters would be extremely helpful in ensuring the two reached Durence. It had basically eaten every bandit and monster between Durence and the Capital as it was...

Mentally, Lorsa pushed chaotic pieces as close as they could get, watching as they did the rest on their own.

The best kind of plans worked by simply putting elements together, rather than absolutely controlling those elements.

Durence was the cooking pot.

The Dungeon was the heat...

And now, Lorsa was supplying the ingredients.

---

Estal wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, noticing she had a burst lip as her hand came away red.

“Blood brings out the color of your eyes, dear.” Wyin the bitch sang as she went in again, ready to make them bend.

“Shutting up makes you a lot more tolerable,” Estal cursed back.

The battle was reaching its climax and she had a horrible feeling. For every inch they pushed Wyin, she reclaimed a foot back, every attack they landed, she nicked them a dozen times in response, and every barb Estal tossed out, Wyin took it, only to hurl it back with more deadly accuracy.

The sudden issue in their team composition was suddenly very clear.

Their team did not have an explosive force nor an elementalist to control the battlefield.

Estal could make barriers, but on their own, they didn’t cause trouble...

Something had to change and she knew she had to do it now. Estal scowled as she dispersed her various barriers to focus.

The moment she reached for the ‘other’ magic within herself, she felt sick. It has always been a ‘possibility’ for her to use this magic, but Estal had never allowed it to bloom simply because it was her father’s magic and she would have sooner chewed nails than use it.

But... Hazhur had used his class skill to save her, Silver was allowing his form to change... Karn was-

Well, actually, Karn was being Karn which wasn’t anything special, but she included him in the internal reasoning to bolster her willpower.

But it was almost not enough... Estal almost fled from the magic until at the last second, that ‘warmth’ filled her once more. The popcorn in her stomach unleashed a truly staggered sense of ‘peace’ and Estal grasped her family magic, passed down from one to another like their eyes or hair color.

A seed that fell off some rotted tree.

As a vine reached for her, her skin crackled with a warning surge of red lightning.

“I hate this smell,” Estal sneered at her hands as the energy danced across it and cooked the air around her, blackending a nearby bunch of vines as the near uncontrollable energy crackled. Estal winced and formed barriers to contain the magic, to keep the others out... to be alone with this pressure.

“Do I make the old line about ‘flowers’ and hidden ‘thorns’?” Wyin called as she threw Hazhur across the room into Silver, sending them crashing to the ground and Hazhur’s axe flying out of sight.

“Don’t be gauche,” Estal sneered, her hair lifting up in a snarling storm of the energy escaping anyway it could.

“Quite. What’s your name? Estal Stormycloud? Estal Shockygirl?” Wyin asked and Estal held her chin up.

“Pending,” she replied and threw a lightning bolt into Wyin’s face, using the ambient magic to feed herself, to channel magic that was normally difficult outside in thinner magical environments.

There was a break in the fighting as Wyin reached up and ran a branch along her thin glowing burn mark, looking unbothered.

“You’ll need to go hotter than that,” Wyin warned.

Estal tried not to swallow hard, feeling her father’s fingers on her shoulder where he used to squeeze so hard she would have bruises for weeks afterwards.

‘Harder girl! Are you trying to surprise someone or kill them!’

“Get off my back!” Estal screamed, throwing a storm into the room that broke through her barriers loudly.

The chaotic meadow now became a storm of violence.

A symbol of things to come.

153: Feast for the Fallen

Wyin knew pain like an old friend that had stabbed her in the back.

She knew how pain could humble the grandest kings, motivate the most crippled beggar, and drive good people to do terrible things to make it stop. Wyin knew how pain could seep into memories. How a once precious safe place or person could so easily be twisted into a nightmare.

But suffering also served a purpose. Wyin liked that about pain.

It was not a simple thing. It was a barbed rope that let someone pull themselves out of the darkest tar pits of despair. To use deep internal damage to claw oneself out of hell itself? Wyin respected that.

She still respected it as red lightning crawled across her bark; blackening the once glossy wood and trying to find weak links in Wyin’s body, the magic radiated power, but it also screamed with a peculiar kind of pain.

A deeply buried kind of suffering that was soaked with rage and fear as it rushed out of the girl before Wyin like tears of a frustrated child.

It was almost like Wyin looking back at herself when Delta first made her.

Filled with pain... unable to direct it.

Her teammates threw themselves aside out of her range as Estal’s barriers failed to contain the storm and the magic was quickly building out of the mage’s control. The lightning spoke of anger and anguish while the barriers she tried to use spoke of isolation and fear.

What a troublesome girl...

What an interesting pain.

Wyin sent a vine to grab Estal’s arm, the lightning magic surging around the mage burning the tendril badly, the once healthy green giving away to destructive black but Wyin pushed on through the damage.

Estal may have interesting pain.

But Wyin was torture itself to challengers.

Feeding pain into pain only made it stronger.

The vine, as it crumbled to ash in places, curled around Estal’s arm as the meadow around them filled with the acrid smell of burning plant and skin. In a single instant, Wyin yanked Estal off her feet and slammed her hard into Wyin’s body, as sleek as a mahogany table... as unyielding as a castle gate.

The storm of magic arched up, trying to burn Wyin like she was some common oak or elm.

“Go to hell!” Estal screamed, not really seeing Wyin anymore, but some phantom that she locked deep inside her heart.

“I’ve been. It’s quite lovely this time of the year,” Wyin sniffed with a wince as one bolt got dangerously close to her eyes. She had no desire to be blind for the next hour. Just as she was about to smother Estal in a cocoon of vines to put her out of the fight for now, Wyin blanched in surprise as Silver slammed into her back, holding the axe she had disarmed the warrior of previously. The weapon buried itself into her wood with annoying ease.

That was... a Dungeon-Made axe, Wyin could feel it as it wriggled into her body with more power than it should have had. It was a perfectly balanced axe, the exact perfect make of wood, metal, and grip. She arched her neck, trying to pull it out as it shined in the light.

That was when the enchantment inside seemed to turn on by some command phrase shouted by Hazhur. The axe began to vibrate, the barely visible metal head glowing with a strange symbol of two interlocked spheres.

With more power than before, Silver began to push the axe into her protective bark like she was made of butter and that axe had been kissed by the sun personally.

She threw Estal away in pain as she whipped her vines about.

“I’m all for burying the hatchet, but have some self control!” she warned as Silver began to get badly winded from the sheer blows he was taking.

That axe... concerned Wyin badly. The enchantment inside was making a joke of her defenses and yet there was something else about it, a sort of mischievous design to it all. She tossed Silver away and the axe went inert, shining with runes that Wyin knew in passing.

This axe was made by someone either quite insane or quite bored.

Maybe both.

If she was reading what visible runes there were on the weapon then it was called the ‘The Unhelpful’ something. ‘Axe’ was likely the missing word, but the runes described an enchantment that would turn the axe into a powerful weapon... as long as it was inside a target.

As in... it was just a normal axe when it was swung, but gained immense power at the last second as it chipped away at her. If Silver hadn’t used it then it would be useless as Hazhur wouldn’t actually get past her bark to get the tool inside her.

The crude man... these filthy people.

Her inner rings were for Sir Fran’s gaze only... if anyones. Unable to yank the axe just now, she turned back to thrashing these people so she could get them out of the dungeon to allow Wyin to clean up somewhat. The barrier mage alone had set her beautiful meadow on fire.

“Now, let’s end-” she began, looking down at Estal who was no longer shooting a chaotic storm of magic as if she lost control. The little newt looked up at her with a smirk that made Wyin want to headbutt her on principle.

“Did you like my daddy issues act? The trick is to actually have the trauma,” Estal said casually as the previous uncontrolled magic arced in the air from her hands, curving with barely controlled effort. It was still a far cry from the wild casting she was doing from before.

“More lightning, it didn’t work the first time, it won’t now,” Wyin warned coldly and the lightning abruptly homed in on her as if attracted to something.

Something like the axe... that was digging into her more tender innards.

“Oh, you little pieces of-” was all she got before her world flashed white and the scent of burning wood filled the air.

---

“This is it,” Mila said to Pic as they waited on Haldi, the third member of the elders of Durence. They stared into the distance as something made its way over the slightly overgrown road towards the village. Oddly, both villagers and the two Royal Knights stared at the approaching convoy with a slight distaste.

Mila looked back to see Madam Ghu slamming her inn door shut with a snarl and down the street, Isanella was guided inside her house, hyperventilating, by her husband and concerned son, Deo.

The horseless carriage moved over the ground, hovering over the rocks and weeds, with a magical under device that was having serious trouble producing enough speed until it got nearer to the village. The carriage was a long box thing with a white frame that, despite traveling through the woods and countryside, was spotless.

The thing had cleaning runes, hover runes, propulsion runes, and who knows what else on display. Mila openly curled her lip as it greedly drank in the precious Dungeon mana in the air, churning about until the mana lost its vibrant orange color (visible to those that could use their eyes to see such a thing) and was exhausted out of the back of the carriage in a tainted grayish mana that simply floated off without any texture to it.

As it turned to stop outside the village proper, a symbol was displayed on the side as the back opened like the maw of a beast, allowing what looked to be some group of scouts, soldiers, and people in robes to exit.

The symbol on the carriage and on the people leaving were of two hands grasping each other’s wrist over a glowing orb, tendrils of light flowing from the orb like a blessing that bound the two hands together in unity.

Mortal hands working together with the blessing of a dungeon.

Fairplay’s symbol.

Their motto was stamped underneath and Mila couldn’t stomach it anymore, looking away as she tried not to spit in their direction.

‘With mutual respect, we all play fair’

“And if there is no respect, in suffering they make it fair,” Pic rolled his tongue as he glared at the people coming closer.

“Greetings, we are Fairplay and we’re working under Director Ripdoy,” a greeter came, looking like one of the more ‘casual’ people exiting the strange carriage. He smiled like he was trying to sell them something.

Before the man could wind up his speech, a young boy fell out of the carriage, letting out a cry as boxes of tents, supplies, and maps landed around him like a sad fluttering rain of paper.

The man’s smile went tight.

“Please excuse the lad, Gentle... this is his first expedition,” he said smoothly with his slicked back hair and barely grown beard. His white clothes bothered Mila immensely. He was starch white in his uniform with the occasional stripes of silver to give it some edge, but he felt sterile to Mila...

His mana had experienced much, but it was like the man and all the others from Fairplay had done something over time to scrub themselves of any defining mana signature.

“How would you like to discuss perhaps signing up for Fairplay’s protection program over tea, madam? I assure you that the Dungeon can be safely managed and while you may enjoy the benefits at its lower levels, it can grow to be quite unwieldy to those not used to the nature of such things,” the man went on and Mila felt like each word he spoke was coating her in slime. The boy from earlier moved closer and Mila felt... a flash of actual something about him. His mana was shiny and keen, as if trying to take everything in at once. The man looked down at him with barely concealed annoyance.

“Gentle, Director Ripdoy would feel better if you perhaps stayed in the mobile transport,” he suggested to the boy and Gentle winced, swallowing hard.

“I...I’m part of the scout program, like anyone else, Senior Marlar. My father... the Director should be expected to treat me like anyone else,” he protested and the man exhaled once, his nostrils flaring.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“I’m sure simply traveling with us this far is more than the Director could have... expected from you,” Marlar said with a saccharine tone and Mila cleared her throat.

“I’ll talk to him over tea, not you” she grunted, jutting her chin to Gentle, and the man stared at her, his practiced expressions failing him as his jaw dropped open.

“Madam-” he began and Mila leaned in and grabbed his tie that was barely visible under his protective white jacket and yanked him close so he could smell the burning whiskey on her breath. He wrinkled his nose, but Mila saw him look surprised when he failed to break her grasp.

“My name is not ‘Madam’. It’s Mila Darknessbane,” she whispered to his close face and the man’s face went so pale he made his white uniform look cheerful in comparison.

“She’s... dead. No one heard from her... you... in years,” he protested as Gentle’s eyes went wide at the scene.

Mila looked at him and for a second, the monster inside showed in her eyes. The killer that hunted the king of hell itself and bedded him when he proved actually unkillable. The woman who threatened the king of the land. The huntress whose eyes glowed like a wolf’s.

Mila’s eyes flashed luminous and amber, slitted with a single blip of her intent. The man did a neat trick and turned his uniform mostly from white and silver to white, silver, and a splash of dark gray from sudden dampness.

He looked behind her to Pic, as if trying to convey how dangerous Mila was.

Pic looked at him, smiling and Marlar dropped to the ground, shaking.

Mila knew he was wearing his Deepdweller dentures. A neat set of teeth that had a dozen needle-like teeth along with the oddity of turning his gums black.

Pic said they made peanuts taste like shrimp, but Mila was sure he just liked using them to whistle with pitch-perfect control... with annoyingly perfect control.

It distracted Mila during their card games and she’d never be able to focus on winning which is exactly why Pic did it!

She blinked, shaking her head as she was getting lost in thought. Old age was a drag...

“Right, waste of air and boy. Waste of air, go away and don’t talk to me ever again. Boy? Come with me. Pic, get Haldi and the other boy he’s got, Alpha. Meet up at the pub. I’m going to need a drink,” she instructed and the other elder hummed.

“I’ll bring Grim. He’s more social these days,” Pic whistled and Mila’s eye twitched at the noise.

Nearby, a pair of big eyes stared at her, a big hopeful smile on his face.

Mila stared as Gentle followed behind her, shell-shocked at the events rapidly flying out of his control.

“...Fine. Get your mother’s permission and you can join us, Deo,” she sighed. The boy ran off, excited to have more friends. She couldn’t fault the boy... Durence didn’t have more kids after a certain period. Deo had grown up with the same children his entire life that in the last few months, so many people had come to the town that it must feel like Deo’s world was opening up like never before.

At this point, she should bring Ruli just so she had someone to share the pain of having so many children about.

Plus, Ruli’s tab at the pub was a lot smaller than Mila’s...

---

Estal staggered slightly to her feet as the room was filled with smoke and ash, making her team cough as Estal tried not to simply pass out from sheer exhaustion. Her body ached horribly, every muscle cramping then releasing only to bunch back up again.

The lightning had not spared Estal entirely and her father’s warning of overusing the family magic rang in her ears.

‘Your mother couldn’t handle an inferior version of it... you’d do well to be extra cautious as you have both mine and hers in one and mine... is potent.’

He was so damn... smug. Estal also wished she stopped reminding herself of the fact her mother and father were second cousins. It was bad enough when the girls in her school found out...

Not as bad as finding a smoldering pile of ash that used to be her mother in the back garden one day.

Not much ever topped that experience.

“Stop it... breathe. Wall it off... close it off... don’t recall,” she whispered to herself, feeling barriers form all over her body. This magic didn’t exhaust her... it felt cooling to her smoking skin.

She jumped as Karn appeared, gently holding his hands out.

“Hey... hey. We’re here,” he said in the smoke and smog that obscured everything. Estal could have swooned and fell to her knees in what could have been main character energy, her the beautiful heroine who blew apart the very unpleasant tree... but she was too tired so she just smiled as Hazur and Silver joined them too.

Everyone looked like hell.

Hazhur had a massive bruise on his face that was already swelling. Karn was limping badly and one of his thumbs was bent the wrong way... Silver without his cloak just looked like a badly beaten pulp of silver and skin, all blurred together by Wyin’s sheer relentless blows.

It made Estal wonder how she looked? Other than cooked and smug?

“That was insane, but we won!” Karn announced and Estal couldn’t help but giggle in sheer delight. Hazhur clapped Silver on his back, also grinning.

However, through the smoke and ash, a familiar voice made them all turn slowly, as one group, to stare at where Wyin should have been laying, defeated.

“I have a lot of curse words I could say right now,” Wyin’s voice said, smoothly as if nothing was wrong, “but I am a classy woman, so I’ll settle for a simple...” the smoke cleared to show Wyin moving her branch arms away from her face, waves of green falling off her and more branches simply snapping off.

Her torso had one lone angry red crack in it, traveling from her base all the way up across her face. In her roots was Hazhur’s axe, the thing blackened, but not ruined. Wyin easily threw it up into the air and caught it over and over.

“Ow.” she concluded, her face devoid of emotion.

“How... how are you alive?” Estal stuttered and Wyin batted her one remaining eye innocently as the other burned red with the heat of the attack.

“Spite, my sweet things. Delicious sweet spite. Like pain, you can use it to do some truly amazing things if you have enough of it,” she purred, her voice a little hoarse from the damage.

“Do we have any options left?” Karn asked seriously and they all shared a look.

“I can throw myself at her remaining eye with my fingers. Claw it out?” Estal said, standing up straight despite everything inside her wanting to just lay down... and...

‘Pathetic.’

Rip this mouthy tree’s remaining hair out one by one. She should thank her father for the amazing motivation he granted Estal through the years. Estal would have to actually want to see the man first, but that was semantics.

“Tell me, axe-man,” Wyin suddenly spoke, twirling the axe with a smirk that made the group become instantly warily. Hazhur seemed to narrow his eyes with suspicion.

“If I were to let you all pass, but in return, you had to leave this axe behind? Would you do it? It’s only gained surface damage... it will serve you for many years to come...” Wyin trailed off as the head of the axe glinted slightly in the light.

Estal felt hope rising her chest and Karn shot Hazhur a curious look.

Silver simply watched as his more human-aspects sculpted themselves back into shape. Hazhur seemed to consider it for a moment.

“No. But it’s not about the axe,” he said and Estal’s jaw dropped open.

“We lost... it’s not going to get easier and I won’t risk my team because of my pride,” Hazhur said softly and Estal’s anger drained away. Hazhur was always so stupid and... noble….

He had the best traits of their family.

“Very well... you all lose,” Wyin announced simply and the magic over the doors snapped with a pop, unsealing them.

Estal felt like that was the most damage Wyin had done to her the entire fight so far. The gut-wrenching feeling that she failed... that she lost seared into her like a branding iron.

There was an awkward pause as Wyin handed Hazhur his axe back as if being prodded by some invisible angel on her shoulder.

“Before you all go, I must relay that you’re all invited to attend a ‘you cleared nearly two floors’ party in your honor on the next floor. There is free food and a resting spot... Delta is quite pleased with you all, but-” Wyin’s relaxed form looked suddenly dangerous once more.

“The door at the end of the hall is sealed. Attempts to open it will ensure you are escorted out by the Guards,” she warned with a smile.

“We can go on?” Karn blinked.

“As losers, yes,” Wyin said sagely.

“Do you have to rub it in?” Estal scowled. Wyin eyed her with her lone eye.

“With salt and sand,” she said with sickening sweetness.

Estal hated her.

So much.

But she also respected Wyin a little. Estal liked her confidence and lack of concern about others feelings. It was admirable... if Wyin wasn’t such a massive-

“Smile and wave goodbye to the murder tree,” Hazhur muttered, shoving her on before Estal could say exactly what was on her mind to Wyin.

Estal used her hand to send a message, but she didn’t wave.

Wyin’s delighted laugh was the last thing she heard as they climbed the sudden stone steps down into darkness. All the while, Silver was muttering to himself.

“Onwards, but not with victory. Right, wrong? Invited... but not progressing,” he said and Estal hoped this ‘feast’ was something or she was going to scream.

This Dungeon was simply the... weirdest thing she had ever encountered.

154: Gentle Progress

The third floor had an almost completely different atmosphere than the second. Estal had heard that Dungeon’s could be like that, but the change between the first floor and the second was nothing compared to the current jump from second to the third.

The first floor almost felt like it had been trying to ease the group in from the outside world. Caves, dirt, webs, the usual affair, the second was more forward in informing them how they were in a different world within the Dungeon where life thrived and it felt like they had traveled thousands of miles, not gone down some steps.

The change between the second and third was as if they had entered a conquered castle, the air of war still fresh in the air despite the clean tapestries and rugs. The castle could have been claustrophobic and oppressive, but the illusion of sunlight streaming through stained glass windows and the use of brighter colors had almost tricked them into thinking they were walking through the very sleepy antechamber of some queen.

Estal would have liked to enjoy it more, but with her body developing a wide array of electrical burns after her misuse of her family magic and Wyin’s ‘tender’ touch, her body was already displaying a wide array of bruises in a mosaic fashion, and there was also another pain.

“I used to have horrible skeletons here, ready to debone any intruders like a fish,” Mharia the fairy complained as she tutted about the entrance.

“And where are my paintings of screaming people being splayed open on operating tables! I paid a lot for them!” she threw her hands up as she looked around the room.

“You act as if you owned this place,” Karn said brightly and the fairy turned very slowly to him, face devoid of emotion as she spoke very softly.

“Not but a month ago, I’d have had your own skeleton rip its way out of your skin and flesh to dance for my amusement. There was no acting involved,” Mharia warned, but Karn just grinned at her, waiting for a punchline to some joke.

Estal wasn’t so sure Mharia was joking.

“What’s that?” Hazhur asked as Silver walked up to a massive rendering of the world in its flatness, showing the ever expanding edges and across its surface, there were a few orange glows, most of them around where Durence was on a real map.

If Estal was right, the other two were in the capital next to a massive golden glow. However, as she looked closer, she noticed there was a very long thin ‘vein’ of sorts stretching across the land to near the middle of the map where there were a few places of note. The orange vein looked like someone had cut it off with a knife.

There was a second, duller vein to the north.

“I suppose a little spoiler won’t be too against the rules. You could say that the third floor has two ‘core’ elements to it from what I’ve seen. Learning and culture. I would have personally enjoyed Delta turning this floor into a massive level of buzzsaws, spikes, and rotating death traps that would require pinpoint precision platforming. We could have called it the ‘Track of Torture’ or the ‘Orange Palace’, but that’s just me...” Mharia rambled for a moment as they all stared at the malicious little creature with wariness.

“The... um... map?” Hazhur prodded her slowly.

“Oh, right. The map is a real-time simulation of the world and it shows the biggest Dungeons in the world, along with anyone that’s got Delta’s mana in them. It’s symbolic,” Mharia waved one hand.

“Look how far you’ve come, but how much you’ve yet to see!” she mimicked another voice, sounding more chirpy.

Estal looked down at the map again and Hazhur went very still as his eyes landed on a particular part of the map.

“The Twin Dungeon. That axe of yours came from there,” Mharia said, voice amused as the light danced between blue and green in a single spot.

“Does it do anything else?” Karn asked eagerly and Mharia eyed them before she snapped her finger, causing a massive grinding noise to emanate and from the four pillars around the room, orange barriers snapped into place, cutting the group off from accessing the map as the thing seemed to sink into the floor.

“Not for losers,” she said smugly and Estal glared at the evil pixie.

“Which way are we going?” Hazhur said, sounding tired.

“Straight ahead. To the west is a place of deep forboding knowledge where a jackal resides in a shrine of filth,” Mharia warned dangerously before pointing the other way.

“That way has some of Esty’s relatives,” she giggled and flew forward. Estal looked down the long hallway, noticing how the hallway slowly grew grass and seemed to become...wet.

“I know that’s an insult,” Estal accused as the group moved around the map and towards the doors ahead.

“Yeah... to the two that live down there,” Mharia called back cheerfully.

Through the smaller door, the group came to an abrupt stop as they entered a truly massive hall with many tables and a roaring fireplace. Bright stone and banners decorate the hall, making it seem like a wake-up call after the softer rooms previously. On one side of the room was a massive painting of sorts of a dark evil knight being commanded by a wicked looking bone demon with blond curly hair and a wicked smile as on the other side, a royal goblin rode a pig against the fell knight with the now familiar orange figure of Delta sending her light to the pig-knight.

On the other side of the hall was a massive range of food arranged like a buffet as a banner welcomed them to the ‘Free Heal Hall’.

“Who’s the ugly demon brat?” Karn asked, pointing to the figure behind the dark knight.

“Could be a goblin demon or a gremlin using dark magic,” Hazhur speculated.

“Whatever it is, it clearly lost against the Dungeon so it’s a loser,” Estal scoffed as Silver wandered off to a table and began to run his hand over it in awe.

Estal noticed there was a distinct lack of... commentary from Mharia for some odd reason. Turning, she saw the pixie was trying to drown herself in a strange fountain that spewed chocolate into a basin .

“So, here you all are,” came a voice. Estal spun to a corner where a table had been set up to obscure some figure that was sitting down, enjoying a massive mug of some liquid and a cooked meal that she was now polishing off with dessert.

Estal’s customary confidence withered at the sight of this nearly seven foot woman standing up with her dark skin and hair that made her stand out against the white stone. Her clothes proclaimed she was some sort of hunter, but the yellow glowing eyes said a different thing entirely.

There was a massive sword on her back that looked to be bundled up for some reason and when she began walking towards the group, her entire frame radiated pure physical power.

“Woah... are you one of the monster types on this floor?” Karn asked excitedly. Ruli stopped in front of him, making him crane his neck to meet her eyes.

“Karn-” Hazhur tried to warn, but there was a flash of movement and Karn flew back across the hall and landed in a roll.

“I’m a monster, but not a Dungeon one,” Ruli said calmly, lowering her fist as Karn stared up at the ceiling, dazed and still smiling like a weirdo.

“My name is Ruli and I’m here as a proxy to the Elders of Durence. The town you were supposed to stop by first before accessing Delta’s Dungeon as required by a bunch of boring laws I can’t name off the top of my head. I do know that if the elders really aren’t happy with you, you could all be looking at some serious public service sentencing,” the giant woman grinned viciously.

Estal took a step back, face going pale.

Public Service punishment was one of the worst kinds you could get. Stacking prisoners in jail cells had gone out of fashion a while ago, now prisoners wore special collars that kept them in a certain range of a public store or beverage house. They would serve the rudest, vilest customers that could be found since they knew all the workers were prisoners...

The collars meant every curse and angry statement came out as polite company jargon or platitudes...

Estal would rather be sentenced to mining or inducted into Fair Play’s garbage to work off her prison time...

“And if I know the elders... and trust me, I do more than I like,” Ruli muttered before she cleared her throat, “then you’ll all be set to help Haldi sell his wares or weeding with Dabberghast. Warning, Dabberghast is in a foul mood and the weeds will most likely throttle you,” Ruli said unapologetically as she moved forward more.

If one more tree or plant hit Estal, she was going to go on a murder spree against anything brown or green.

“Wait!” Hazhur said, holding his hands up.

“Yes, rule breaker number 2?” Ruli asked with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“How did you get here before us? We had to fight a murderous tree for keys and... everything,” he trailed off, going quiet as he must have noticed how crazy that sounded to even the people who just experienced it.

“There’s a shortcut from the first floor to the third that you can use if you beat Wyin or aren't a challenger. I’ve been inside Delta and explored her more deeply than you’ll ever match,” Ruli said with a smirk.

She looked left as if seeing something they couldn’t... like how Mharia and Wyin sometimes acted.

“It’s technically the truth. The best kind of truth,” Ruli said to what could likely be the Dungeon... some sort of invisible avatar.

That was insane. Dungeons didn’t get avatars until they were far more advanced!

“We got invited to a feast,” Silver said finally, breaking his silence. Ruli eyed him and she seemed to soften just a tad.

“And you can enjoy food before we go. I don’t feel like hogtying you all together and carrying you out,” she said before looking around.

“Hell of a place, right?” she asked suddenly as if she just hadn’t been threatening them with Public Service punishment and punched Karn who still looked a bit dazed, if not a bit in love.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“It’s weird, it makes no sense, and the Dungeon is insane,” Estal announced, arms crossed in defiance as Ruli turned to her, yellow eyes now dangerously close to glowing.

“Oh?” she said simply and that word carried a lot of unsaid things in it.

Estal waited three whole seconds before looking away.

“As someone who is weird, told she makes no sense, and has been called insane by people who should have cared for her... I suppose that means that Delta is simply more exceptional than any other Dungeon. Her second floor boss is a massive... piece of personality,” Estal managed to bite her tongue at the last second.

“...That’s some self-control with that last part,” Ruli said, more relaxed now.

“She’s just scared that she has to walk past Wyin again and the tree will know if we insult her...” Karn muttered and Estal stomped on his foot with her now muddy heels.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be taking the express elevator,” Ruli promised and turned her head to look at a side door. Following her gaze, Estal let out a shriek as a massive goblin stood nearby her in an apron and with a scowl on her face.

It was impossible... but it was a female goblin.

Goblin’s didn’t have- Goblins simply...

Estal’s brain felt too tired for this as the goblin looked them over and seemed to find them all as impressive as some cave slime she stepped in on the journey down to the third floor.

“Make them walk back. I don’t want them in my kitchen,” she grunted to Ruli who snorted.

“Be nice, Miss Fera. They got their asses kicked by Wyin,” she said and the goblin sneered.

“So did a bunch of children and they won,” she said before clapping her hands.

“Assemble,” she grunted and behind three forms appeared as if emerging from her shadow. From the left, a wicked goblin in a robe with burned edges holding a staff walked out, cackling. From Fera’s right, a topless goblin with a scarily impressive physique (not nearly as nice as Rale in Estal’s opinion) walked out with his hands in wraps. He grinned brightly at them.

Then leaping over Fera’s head with a dark bow drawn was a dark goblin with red eyes and a series of custom arrows on his back.

“Oh hey, the stooges. I thought they didn’t do well on lower floors,” Ruli said conversationally as Estal backed up, bumping into Hazhur.

“Around me, they don’t die,” Fera said simply.

“Still hard to breathe down here! It’s like inhaling sawdust off a pig’s rump,” the fire mage one grunted.

“It’s good training,” the fighter mused.

“...”

The last one didn’t speak at all.

“They’ll help you lead them out,” Fera said simply and walked back to the door and into the kitchen. Once she was gone, the three smaller goblins let out big sighs.

“Humans! I am your superior in every way, Cois. You may refer to me as master, lord, king, senator, duke, emperor, chief-” the fire goblin listed off, running out of fingers before he borrowed the fighter’s to help keep track.

“I’m Numb. I like hitting things and napping,” he beamed.

Estal was having a nervous breakdown. Sociable goblins, what next?

“...Billy,” the archer said in a low dark tone with almost pleasure at their unease.

“Well, let’s dig in! Here’s to your massive loss to Wyin! May you legally return to try again!” Ruli held up a goblet of wine and Karn heartily toasted with her.

“I need cake,” Estal decided as Silver was having a blast touching the goblins and Hazhur was simply standing there with a blank look on his face.

Thus ended their delve into the Dungeon known as Delta.

Or if you asked Estal?

‘The really weird one down south with the mushrooms and scary monsters’.

---

“So...um...so it would be for the beast- best! That the town of Durence maybe... should agree to let Fairplay in to...run the Dungeon in your place because... uh...” Gentle stuttered in front of the three elders.

Mila was having a blast. She forgot how awkward children were when they weren’t related to herself, Pic, or of anyone in Durence. They were like newborn deers finding their legs.

In her home, she, Haldi, and Pic all listened to the world’s worst scheme pitch as they drank. Next to them, Deo was giving the boy thumbs up in an effort to boost Gentle’s confidence, Alpha stared blankly at him as if Gentle was insisting they set Delta on fire, and Grim was burying his face into his arms into whichhe kept muttering ‘cringe’.

“Fairplay promises complete insurance- I mean, assurance that all parties involved will receive... uh...” Gentle trailed off in panic as he struggled to remember what likely was a boring dry number on some contract.

“Ballpark it,” Mila hollered, cheeks pink from the whiskey.

“A lot!”

“More specific ballpark, lad!” Pic spoke up, banging his mug with a grin. Mila reached over and shut her curtains to stop that other buffoon from feeding Gentle flashcards through the glass in order to tell Gentle what to say.

Mila wanted her panicked children to be genuine, not drip fed partial information.

Ruli always had this sense of confidence about her that made it nigh impossible for Mila to ever get the girl worked up over anything other than cooking meat or big swords.

“Deep breathes. Tell us what you think is good about Fairplay,” Haldi said brightly. Gentle swallowed, looking longingly at the closed curtains as if hoping someone might save him.

“I... honestly can’t say much about the company. I haven’t worked there very long... or at all,” Gentle admitted, looking down at the ground as he held his wrist in front of him in an awkward posture.

He took another deep breath.

“But I know my father. He’s not mine by blood, but he raised me and he rescued many people from Dungeons that choked areas with mana but made their resources horrible in return. I know Dungeons aren’t our farms or mines... and they are alive, but the damage they can do is really bad. I’ve seen villages wiped out from extreme mana poisoning or the local monsters going feral,” he said, looking at them with serious eyes.

“Even if you don’t accept Fairplay as the major holder, we help regulate the adventurers, import a lot of materials you can use as offerings and also simply keep the monsters down. I don’t want to even say it, but Dungeons that turn into Abominations... I’ve personally had experiences with that and it changed my life. I don’t want that to happen to this Dungeon,” he pleaded and it was far more moving than his company lingo from before.

“Which Dungeon did you see that happen to?” Mila asked, all humor gone. Gentle looked down, avoiding their eyes.

“Moon Meadows, where the grass glowed silver under the moon,” he whispered and Mila winced.

The Silver Dungeon Abomination was infamous.

“What is an Abomination?” Alpha asked and Gentle looked at him with a slight hard look in his eyes.

“Dungeons that...” he paused then sighed.

“Some people hurt Dungeons, tamper with the Core or drive it mad. It begins to hurt itself to break rules, spawn monsters outside, affect people inside, and more. Sometimes it's because the Dungeon fixates on a challenger or someone tries to befriend a Dungeon. A few times when Fairplay tried to manage a Dungeon, it did turn hostile and then into Abominations when they refused to work with the company. I won’t lie... I know it’s happened, but I don’t know why things were allowed to reach that point,” Gentle admitted, looking for a single moment, doubtful of his beloved company.

Mila smelled a weakness and she pounced.

“That does sound worrying. How can we be sure to let Fairplay in if we can’t be assured they won’t ruin the Dungeon. We quite like the Dungeon,” Mila said with a false threat.

Grim was staring at her with some form of disgust at her acting.

The brat could kiss her-

“I... want to promise that, but I can’t. Maybe I could look into older records as the potential liaison to this town? Find out what the company did wrong or ask my Fath- my boss,” Gentle quickly corrected himself.

There was a pause before Alpha spoke up with more emotion than Mila ever heard from him.

“Delta is not an abomination,” Alpha spoke up and Gentle blinked at his hostility.

“I know that, but it’s more in case-”

“She is not... an abomination. Miss D is kind and believes in me,” Alpha stressed, eyes flashing.

“R-Right,” Gentle swallowed hard. Mila quickly stood up and held her hand out.

“As a potential partner and our liaison to Fairplay? I, Mila Darknessbane, would like those records please or a proper explanation,” she beamed. This should keep those corporate pay to win asshats busy for a while.

Gentle took the hand with a nervous energy.

“Argus Gentle... um... I think I’m going to mess this up,” he whimpered and Mila gripped his hand harder as if sealing a pact between them.

“Perfect,” she grinned wolfishly.

“I’m going to call him ‘Gus’,” Deo proclaimed loud enough her windows rattled.

“Gentle is fine,” the boy tried to argue.

“So, Gus... what’s it like to know you’re doomed?” Grim asked casually and his orange tongue seemed to fascinate Gentle for a second.

“It feels pretty bad,” Gentle admitted.

“It’s fine,” Mila clapped him on the shoulder as she led him to her front door.

“By the time you’re in your late twenties, doom feels pretty normal and then it’s all downhill from there until you hit fifty and you either turn cranky, have a big family of people like Grim, or make cheese in your basement,” she said sagely.

Gentle whimpered as he looked at all of them all, as if seeing his future and not liking it one bit.

Ah... this was why Mila got up in the morning.

For that exact expression of terrible dread on children’s faces.

155: Rave Island

“I’m a little sad to see them go,” Delta admitted as Ruli left the Dungeon proper with the nervous adventurers trailing behind. Estal paused just before she was about to walk outside, opened her mouth, but then simply shook her head and vanished.

“I’m not. Progress and our growth seems to stop for an unnecessary amount of time so you can watch people ‘grow’ and ‘become better people’. Honestly, I am looking forward to getting a move on,” Nu grumbled, his form just his default screen and floating detached hands.

“You say that like we’ve got Mana and DP to burn,” Delta said with a smile as she floated down the first floor.

“...You haven’t checked the system in some time have you? Between your nap and watching sad sacks getting the tar beat out of them by a tree?” Nu asked, text suddenly sounding bemused.

“I know when I’m full because I get bloated and want to hurl,” Delta reminded her companion as she began to open screens.

She paused as she looked at her numbers.

Max Mana: 390/500
DP: 1399

“Nu... we must contact the bank and inform them of an incorrect transaction,” Delta said, voice faint. These numbers could not be real.

“Delta. We are the bank. Did you forget you subjugated a lich-brat and ate her castle?” Nu reminded her and Delta did, infact, completely forget about doing that in her excitement with the new guests.

“Man, I could buy the fifth and sixth floor at the same time right now,” Delta mused, knowing her fourth floor was already unlocked... she was just kicking her feet about what theme to choose.

“Not that I dislike the idea, but you should really ensure your third floor is touched up and any issues we noticed from the last incursion are patched up. No point in getting two more floors and having no DP to actually do anything with them. Plus that sort of jump might make the locals jumpy,” Nu added casually.

Delta didn’t think anything short of the moon falling on them could startle the people of Durence.

“I have decided,” Delta clapped her hands, as if trying to get a classroom’s attention.

She spun and pointed her finger directly north with a dramatic flourish.

She... really wanted to ask the siblings how they had a north or south at all with no poles, but she just suppressed that with soothing thoughts of ‘don’t question the magic sky children... don’t think about it.’

“I choose... Island theme for the Fourth Floor!” Delta declared and the Dungeon began to shake.

“WATER LEVEL. MY TIME HAS COME!” Nu howled like a deranged monster under a full moon.

“Well, at least you’re happy,” Delta said as the mana levels in the Dungeon began to rise like a tidal wave.

The surge flowed down to the opening that formed behind King Jellagon, lowering down into the earth until it pooled and with a nearly violent shake of the earth, the mana raced back up in a geyser.

“Oh, this might be noticeable,” was all Delta managed to get out before the mana exploded out the Dungeon entrance.

---

Ruli froze as a wave of mana rushed over the area, seeping into the trees, ground, and the group to an extent. She turned slowly to see an orange barrier appearing off the door to indicate that Delta was doing a massive upgrade.

She closed her eyes and Ruli held her hands out as if to get as much of the orange tangy mana as she could grasp. It made every inch of her body tingle with power. Ruli had rarely been in a powerful mana area for too long and the demon realm was too alien to do this to Ruli.

She felt like she was bathing in warmth, kindness, and sunshine.

“It’s in my mouth!” Estal screamed as she was bowled over by the wave, while the odd one known as Silver was lifted off his feet and flung hard away, his nature at odds with the mana.

“This mana intensity... it can’t be real. Delta only has three floors,” Hazhur cried out as he barely kept himself stable in the hurricane of force.

Being this close to the Dungeon was like being in the eye of the storm.

“Four... now,” Ruli said as she caught the sight of slight bluish waves in the orange sea. That was a little odd, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it as the waves hit Durence and she finally saw something she hadn’t noticed before.

Fairplay tents and banners on the outskirts of town. Their insulting symbol proudly flying over Ruli’s home.

Ruli’s yellow eyes slitted and the edges began to burn red.

“Don’t fall behind,” she warned the group who all seemed to go very pale at the sight of her face. The sword on her back felt hot and she knew it was reacting to her rage. The sword known as Magma burned hot.

She took off, leaving dust in her trail as she sped back towards town.

---

Jolin Javen Japes watched as his golem child stood in the street, eyes closed as he began to drink deep of the passing Dungeon mana. Vas looked in a trance as if he wasn’t even aware that he was doing so.

He tilted his head and in a single glance had assessed that Vas was not only stable, but thriving under the energy. The bond between them felt through the empty hole in his chest where his heart used to be.

He began to carefully feel Vas' soul, touching lightly about what was within.

Dungeon, Druid, Witch, Demon...

Japes began to smile.

Silence, Godly...

Vas’ form flashed gold.

Water, earth, fire, and air.

The wave from the Dungeon covered the entire town.

All Japes was missing now was that final touch. That made him frown.

“The most potent gathering of people in the entire world, and not a single one of ‘them’ to be found. Time is running out,” he sighed and turned away to think.

He went to his workshop and slowly opened a cabinet with both hands, the two doors opening like butterfly wings to reveal a collage of maps, names, and sketches all connected by a series of strings.

Dozens of the names on the map had been crossed out.

As if needing to reread the names to assure himself he hadn’t missed anything, he went down the list of potential targets.

The Bloated Corpse of Gannui. Purged with explosions.

Liopin, the matriarch of soul spiders. The land where she had been reduced to ash.

The Door to Madness. Sealed with a heroic sacrifice.

That left only...

Japes ran a finger over a part of the map, trailing his finger from the north downwards, where the string split into a dozen directions. All of them lead back to the disaster in the far north.

“The One who Walked. Silver.”

Japes had tracked the Dungeon core for sometime, but the hulking beast had simply vanished into the white snow to never be seen again.

And with it, the last potent source of Abomination Mana to be had.

It was irksome, but he had a feeling if he kept his eye out now that Durence had become ‘lively’... things would become very interesting.

It was as if every important piece that had a purpose to play was heading for their little ‘quaint’ town.

“Master? Are you here?” Vas called as he seemed to snap out of his state and saw Japes had vanished.

Japes closed the cabinet. Perhaps... a touch of guilt filling him as he knew the reason he hid the map from Vas was because he was hiding the very nature of the golem from himself. Japes soothed the feeling with knowledge that when all was said and done.

Vas would not only not be a golem anymore.

He and Japes would be more than they ever could imagine.

---

Madam Ghu watched as her fingers went from brittle old sticks with wrinkled skin on them to young supple smooth skin. Panicking, she stepped back into the hotel and away from the mana now thick in the air.

Even now, the hotel was drinking the mana deeply and the heavy burden it usually placed on Ghu was weakening by the second. A pop in her knees sounded out as old joints gained new life.

This was the worst time this event could have happened.

What if... what if the last remaining Fairplay Maiden heard a sniff of them?

The Autumn Maiden... Ghu’s heart twisted and she slammed her front door closed with more force than she meant to.

---

“This is nice!” Delta announced as she climbed down the stairs behind Jellagon’s throne room. The stairs themselves transformed halfway down from stone into a pink coral-like substance.

They finally exited out into a massive endless space that seemed to go on forever. Delta held her hand up as a sun shone in the sky. It was like her jungle’s skybox, but for some reason the sun here looked far more vivid and amazing.

The stairs exited out onto a tiny golden sand island with nowhere to go as a deep azure ocean lapped at the shore. She looked up and the stairs sort of just...began to fade into existence instead of coming all the way down from the ceiling in a long spiral.

“Let’s see the water,” Delta said excitedly and dipped her head in before freezing.

There was no bottom to the ocean. No starfish or golden sand and fish. It was a slowly darkening current that eventually sank into a massive void of blackness as if one could fall to a very scary place.

“I don’t even have Thalassophobia and that freaks me out!” Delta pulled her head back out with a whine.

“Think how many bodies we could throw down there and still have space to spare,” Nu said excitedly. Delta slowly turned to him, face devoid of emotion.

“I meant... buddies. Sea buddies. Mermaids and singing crabs... and all that junk,” Nu quickly corrected himself.

“This is a paradise, can we just enjoy it for a minute without adding the kraken?” she asked dryly and Nu turned away, muttering about ‘Sharktopus’ or something like that.

She opened the waiting menu to see what this floor was all about.

Welcome to the fourth floor! The Paradise of Delta! But be warned, storms can come at any time and even the most serene of water can hide a scary undercurrent. How will the adventurer’s proceed? With coconut in hand under the sun or in the storm without a paddle?

The fourth Floor technically functions as a maze-like structure. Each island has one to three different exits such as the ocean parting at different times to make shallow paths or the islands having secret caves or perhaps even a sea creature beaching itself to offer a ride with the correct bribe.

Even moving between one island and the next causes a spatial distortion to happen, causing islands to appear miles apart when in reality they are quite close. As people can be clever, options to stop teleportation, flying, and even water users exist in the form of localized island storms, mini-bosses on each island, and more options such as the unkillable sky god seagull to scare fliers from trying to cheat.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Most likely the sky god seagull will be called Steven.

“Man, I think Sis has kind of adopted my sense of humor,” Delta muttered with a smile.

Since the islands can be so far apart, very intense environmental changes can be formed from one island to the next such as a desert island close to an arctic one. Navigation tools such as compasses or magical devices will go haywire here. Specialized tools can be made to encourage adventurers to explore!

But now, you must choose your first monsters for this floor!

Your selection is:

Fickle Mermaid: A standard water creature that can drag people into water. They are generally very petty and vain, but lack the potent urge to drown men that their evolved siren cousins do.

Tribal Coco-nauts: An archipelago cousin of the Pygmy Mushrooms. These fuzzy brown warriors live inside a tough shell and chase strangers with near fanatical rage. They will find the nearest volcano and throw things into it.

Noi Storm Crabs: These massive crabs can live under the sand and swim through the water. Their massive claws can snap limbs off or give a snazzy haircut. As the sun sets, they gather to do their daily ritual. They have a unique culture. Their name has a secret meaning, but it's nothing of importance.

The unknown option: Could be overpowered. Could be weak. Take a chance?

“Crab!” Delta screamed, jabbing the option.

“I thought you were addicted to gambling?” Nu asked and Delta turned to him, shifting on the spot, up and down before she moved side to side as she waved her hands like weapons.

“...do you need the bathroom? What are you doing?” Nu asked with alarm.

“Crabs are life!” Delta said finally.

“...I suppose they could snip the heads off people so I’m not upset with the option, personally,” Nu said conversationally as Delta turned back to the island, waiting for the formation of her first crab.

Delta gasped as a tiny orange antenna-like tendril stuck up from the sand, wriggling curiously in the open air.

“It must be a tiny ambush predator or something. Come here, little dude,” Delta encouraged as she bent down.

“You might not want to-” Nu began and Delta blinked at him. His screen went blank then he brightened up.

“Be so shy. Welcome our new monster warmly,” he insisted. Delta beamed at him, knowing he was finally coming around to her way of thinking. Delta turned back to the sand but froze as what seemed like a boulder was pulling itself free of the sand, raising one massive claw that looked curved to slide under someone’s neck smoothly.

The bright orange crab was pale cream on the bottom with a bright orange top and its two eye stalks looked down at her as a massive maw filled with foaming bubbles opened before her like the valley of death.

Its massive legs made it come off spiderish.

“Please scream away from-” Nu began.

“You are so cute!” Delta said with a delighted clap of her hands as she lifted its claw and floated around it. She landed on its shell and just pressed herself to it, spreading out in a puddle of grinning delight.

The crab blew out some bubbles and began to scuttle towards the ocean, taking Delta with it.

“This is how I want to go,” Delta whispered to herself. She began to slowly lower into the water as the crab explored its new home and limbs.

---

Nu watched Delta be kidnapped by the giant crab.

He should have expected nothing less.

“If I want deadly warriors... I just need to add crabs to the equation and I can have an army,” he mused aloud. He turned to the paradise around him and opened the menu as he waited for Delta to finally look down and see the void once more.

Fourth Floor purchases and upgrades.
Purchases:
New Island: Purchase a new island for the floor. Cost 50 Mana. 1/12 spaces taken.

Ocean floor: Purchase parts of the floor to be turned into a visible bottom. Spaces where the floor continues to drift off will be converted into massive trenches. 100 Mana.

Unpredictable weather: Cause storms or heat waves to strike if a party lingers on an island too long. Depending on the local island’s biome, these can have deadly combinations. 70 Mana.

Nighttime Wonder: Have an active day to night cycle for each island, allowing the sky to become a recreation of Delta’s home starsystem. Different events can be triggered at night. 100 Mana.

Breathable water: make all water on the floor breathable, if uncomfortable for people. A O2 bar will be created for each person before they must return to the surface. Allows increased underwater challenges. 50 Mana.

The Reflection World: Accessible only through special means. All islands become hellish and aggressive. This option automatically turns on if ‘You made Delta cry’ has been triggered. 200 Mana.

All of these were very interesting. Nu could see a use in all of them, even if some were mostly for making Delta happy. Nu only wanted her happy, however, because when she was sad, it bummed Nu out and he couldn’t enjoy the bloodshed as much.

He took a look at the monster menu next as Delta went scuttling past, laughing like a loon as the crab raced into the ocean on the other side of the island now.

Noi Storm Crab:
Allow a vice function on the claw to allow the crab to crush armored foes. 10 DP.
Allow rare gems to grow on the backs of the crabs. Adds defense and valuable loot. 30 DP
Solar powered: Allow the Noi Crabs to charge a beam in their open claw from the mana in the air and sun to fire a massive magic beam. 50 DP.
The ritual: If five or more crabs gather on one island, they can dance in a ritual to awaken Krab. Krab is a roaming raid boss that can sink islands causing a drastic panic and danger to people who aren’t geared towards racing through the level. All victims will wash up back on the first floor and need to walk back down to the Fourth Floor. 200 DP.

Evolutions:
Crabtaur: Locked: Have five islands or more with unique environments.
Crabomancer: A humanoid able to use magic. It's actually three crabs in a robe and a fake beard. Locked until a crab island is established.
Stabbocrabbo: A crab who exchanged its claws for the sword. While you looted, it studied the blade. Locked until 10 people are defeated in melee combat by Noi Crabs.
Bobians: Special cultish crabs that worship the sky worm, Bob. Able to heal and curse enemies. Locked until Bob Shrine is established.

Nu looked up as the crab returned without Delta and he stared at it. It stared back with deep unfathomable knowledge only a crab could express.

“She looked down, didn’t she?” he asked and it blew out bubbles as Delta finally ran out of the ocean screaming.

The last option he mused about exploring, but decided to put it down so he could peel Delta off the crab before it dunked her in the void again.

The menu was left blinking.

‘Monster purchase’.

---

“Ruli.”

Ruli ignored her mother.

“Don’t be a brat,” Mila insisted. Ruli sighed and stopped choking the arrogant Fairplay representative. Nearby, the kid that her mother had vouched for rubbed his neck in horror.

“He said they would ‘shackle’ Delta if she's this potent. Shackle her... like a beast!” Ruli turned, nostrils flaring and the man at her feet gasped in lungfuls of air.

“Hot air. I still have the legal right over what happens to the Dungeon. Despite claims aimed at me, I don’t lock up children or the innocent in my basement, Dungeon or not,” Mila said calmly and Ruli looked down at the glaring man.

“Run... cause I’m going to drop my foot forward and if you just happen to be there? That’s not my fault,” she growled and raised her foot.

“Peacekeeper! Assault!” the Fairplay punk cried and Ruli looked up the street to see Quiss standing there. Quiss looked down at the man, then at Ruli, then at the gathering of people.

“You’re right, that looks like assault.” Quiss said and walked on.

“W-What are you doing?” the man demanded.

“Nothing... you didn’t ask me to do anything. You just said it was assault and I agreed,” Quiss said as he ducked into Mila’s home to talk to the bruised and battered adventurers that Ruli had gotten from the Dungeon.

“You know, if you won’t sleep with him. I will,” Mila said with some amusement and Ruli shot her a withering look.

“It’s not that I ‘won’t’. It’s ‘I have and he’s never forgiven me for the experience’,” Ruli said without shame and the man under her foot got up and ran off, leaving the boy behind.

“Please... don’t step on me,” the nervous kid said, backing into a wall. Ruli snorted and turned away.

“Ask again when you’re old enough to drink,” she told the kid before looking back at Mila. “Ma, I’m going to get my camping equipment and set up outside Delta. I’ll stop others getting in for now,” she said and Mila nodded.

“I’ll send food through Quiss. The wildlife is only just returning so it's for the best we don’t hunt them until they’re mana adjusted,” her mother said as she looked out.

Ruli could sense more trouble was on its way.

She would need to cut down on her drinking so she was ready.

The idea hurt, but Delta was worth handling people sober.

Plus... Delta could reward her with an open bar if she saw how hard Ruli was working.

Fishing, drinking, and food.

Only an idiot could turn all that into an actual deathtrap.

156: Fairplay goes Both Ways

"Who are they?" Delta asked curiously as people in nearly white uniforms entered the Dungeon with a clinical formation and using odd hand signs to communicate with each other.

"No, you promised you'd work on the third floor more. Do not sit here and watch these people for hours," Nu cut off Delta's wandering idea of doing just that, but before she could argue. Ruli stepped in, looking particularly feral as she spoke to the other people.

"You know the rules. Ma still has the ownership for now so you sack of griffon craps keep things tame," she warned and the leading man stiffly nodded as if he considered Ruli... beneath him.

Delta's 'like-o-meter' began to dip slightly.

"Of course, Miss Darknessbane. I presume you'll give the same speech to the other five groups that you forced to wait outside in the spirit of 'fairness'? Really now, people vs a Dungeon is already an unjust game, but we will cooperate," the man said with a milquetoast smile that looked as real as the back side of the moon.

"You act like you have a choice, big man," Ruli said, her eyes flicking to Delta briefly but didn't overtly react to Delta's presence.

"Not right now, but things change... things always change," the leader agreed and turned to look around the waiting hall as one of his men checked the memorial hall.

"Nothing of worth in there, sir. A kill count," the soldier said briskly as he returned.

Nothing... of worth?

"Geytan, sir," a woman called, standing near the tribute bowls as Ruli's neck turned dark with building blood pressure.

"It's fine," Delta said to her softly and Ruli shook her head almost too slowly to be seen.

"It's not. None of this is fine," she replied. Each of the people placed a single copper coin in the bowl with no real expression as if the action was habit and not a conscious choice.

Inhaling, Delta bowed her head to them.

"Thank you for the contributions," she said, deciding to try and be the better person.

"Go. I'll watch these ones. I have a feeling they won't make you happy," Nu said as he crossed his floating hands over his screen.

"I should be here... as the Core, to..." Delta trailed off as Cois stood outside the hall.

"Greetings mortals. I am-" he began and Delta covered her eyes as there was a meaty thunking noise.

She began to open her eyes when Nu blocked her view.

"Don't." he said softly.

The man known as Geytan lowered his wrist-mounted crossbow with an exhale.

"First blood is ours," he called and the other people began to clap and cheer.

A screen popped up next to Delta.

'Cois will respawn in three hours'

Delta had a choice. A horrible choice.

To bend over backwards for people who didn't give one iota of care for her or her people... or to be the Core that the Dungeon needed when it was clear some people saw kindness as weakness.

Delta made that choice.

"Nu, I'll be on the third floor, touching things up. I leave you in charge," she said quietly before she looked hard at Nu.

"Be better than them," she reminded him and flew through the walls without looking back. Cois was still... breaking down and she wanted to be as far away from that scene as possible.

Delta just hoped she hadn't added five new names to her Memorial Wall.

---

Nu stared at where Delta had been moments prior. He knew he should feel ecstatic, joyful, and insanely happy to be given the go-ahead to make these people miserable beyond belief, but annoyingly... Nu felt a touch of anger.

Only he and a few select others were allowed to make Delta feel anything but joy.

Nu wanted this power, but he didn't want it if it meant Delta ran off in tears.

He rolled his fingers as before him, a screen began to shift like a dial.

'Stage 2: Experience, Hum, Learn' has been increased to 'Stage 3: Warned, Listen, Sweat'.

All Dungeon Floors are now alert.

He tried to crank it a bit harder, but the dial remained stuck for the moment. Nu supposed it would take a few more cardinal sins from these fellows to push it higher.

Turning, he watched as the group headed down the tunnel. He saw their symbol on their back and frowned.

So... Fairplay was finally here.

The sight of their symbol infuriated Nu for a reason he couldn't quite fathom.

"Obstacle ahead and potential resource. Action?" a grunt called to Geytan who eyed the room before running a finger over his sleek uniform. The webs in the Spider-Room fluttered in a breeze and it seemed to hold its breath as if waiting for the response.

"Burn it." he said indifferently.

Nu looked down at them as they kicked his signs aside.

"Incy wincy little spider came out to play..." he said, feeling the beginnings of pleasure rising up within. Maestro began to play a series of thrumming strings as the first licks of fire touch the web.

---

"Thanks for listening. I just got really upset," Delta said, her tone watery as she blew into a handkerchief she made out of mana. The Noi Crab of the fourth Floor skittered back and forward, ignoring her to an extent as it clacked its claw in sympathy occasionally.

"I know I should get used to this as people can... be both bad and good. I just wish Cois hadn't had to suffer for my insistence on being polite to all newcomers," she explained with a wave of her hand.

The crab snipped and snapped as it did its fourteenth lap of the island.

"What do you think I should do?" Delta finally asked. The crab scuttled over to the coral stairs and dramatically dabbed at them as if to tell Delta to...

"...You're right!" she said, standing up with a sudden start.

"Sitting here while Nu and Ruli do work so I can feel sad for myself won't accomplish anything!" she declared. The crab gestured harder.

"I'm going to Dungeon the heck out of my third floor then I'll come down here and kick more rear end. I won't be butthurt about bad adventurers," she nodded to herself. The Noi Crab clicked his claw.

"Booty Bothered?" Delta offered. Another click.

"Tushy tantrum?" she suggested. A hard clack. They stared at each other for a long time before Delta had to admit something.

"...I have no idea how to speak crab," she decided before petting the giant monster on the head and rushing up the stairs.

--

The Noi Crab watched the Core-Mother leave before sighing.

"Peace...quiet," he said quietly and returned to wandering around with no real goal. His life was a simple one.

Wander and Crab.

Both were good things.

---

"Kill it!" Geytan screamed and Nu almost wished he had tea to sip as two of the Fairplay grunts slammed into each other amongst the ash of the webs. Attached to each of their backs was a single silver strand.

Muffet landed with a drop on the ground, three arrows sticking out of her body at odd angles, but none of them seemed to slow her down much. Muffet was a strong monster and Nu appreciated that.

She twirled on two of her legs to avoid a sword and behind her, various webs twirled around each other to form a thick braided web-rope which she swung, cracking the bones of one of the melee attackers.

"Formation-4!" Geytan called and one of them standing back waved his hands and a wall of fire cut the room in half, the flames parting for the Fairplay grunts, leaving Muffet trapped on the far end.

Geytan and two others began to load their crossbolts and charge spells.

"Not bad... a kill box," Nu said slowly.

However… 'not bad' for them was 'trivial' for Muffet. The spider shot a web over the flame and propelled herself over, curling to avoid too much damage as the fire burned the tips of her legs, but she landed hard on the spellcaster, making him cry out.

Muffet kicked a leg out and blocked a sword swing, her flesh tough enough that the blade only sunk slightly into her leg instead of the entire limb being chopped off.

There was a brush of movement and Nu felt a pulse of foreign Mana. It felt pale and dull like the Fairplay people, but the patterns, the carving of the Mana itself was so detailed that the item Geytan pulled out could only be one thing.

A Dungeon item.

"Feel the power of a Lieutenant of Fairplay!" Geytan cried as he threw a strange dagger with jade instead of metal for a blade. The thing glowed and Muffet jumped away, narrowly avoiding the fire, but the dagger turned in midair like a homing missile.

"I want it. Get me that knife!" Nu cried out, now invested. Muffet landed on her eight legs before she brought two up to catch the knife at the last second, the force behind the enchantment pushing her hard back towards the far wall, kicking up dust and ash as she was pushed.

Finally the dagger lost its glow for a moment and tried to fly backwards, but Muffet held onto it with all her strength before she jumped and threw the thing hard down the hallway towards the Pond Room, the lingering magic sending it hurtling with surprising speed.

---

Waddles opened one red eye to see a wobbling green dagger inches from his face buried hard in the stone next to his nest.

"..." he said and went back to sleep.

It had only been an hour since he got back. He wasn't up to dealing with shenanigans right now... but if shenanigans came to bother him?

They would weep. Not just the intruders, but all that ever loved them or would love them.

---

Muffet turned as she was kicked hard, being too slow to turn after tossing the knife aside and Nu knew if she could smile... she would be doing it right now as the Fairplay people pinned her down with their weapons.

Weakly, Muffet's legs moved.

"What is it doing?" one of the Fairplay asked cautiously.

"It's making signs?" another whispered.

Nu would translate for them, but no verbal word could accurately translate the royal spider court dance of 'I found your birther and ravaged them with such energy that they outshone the stars in joy'.

That was a loose wording and even then, Nu knew he wasn't doing it justice.

Muffet faded away and left behind her loot. The Fairplay people eagerly crowded around it before a silence fell over the group.

"Cadet, what is... what is it?" Geytan asked a younger man who gingerly used magic to get a rough idea of its capabilities.

Nu could do that too and far better than that scrub.

Muffet's knitted twisted Knickers.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Don't get them twisted: Improves mental clarity.

"Do you want them, sir?" someone asked and Geytan turned red and shoved the lovely silk white lacy things into a bag.

"Find me my knife! It's worth two months paycheck!" he snapped.

"Aww... having trouble?" came a sickly sweet voice and Nu closed his virtual eyes in deep joy as a mocking childish voice descended on the room.

"A second stage?" someone yelled but Mharia slowly faded in f from the ceiling in a curtsey, smiling as a sword tried to bisect her, only for the metal to swing through her ghostly form with no effect.

Nu could see Mharia was beginning to grasp her abilities as a Dungeon Pixie rapidly. Intangibility was just one of the many powers such a being could have. Able to actively lock or switch routes on a floor was an advanced one, but Delta's Mana was feeding Mharia well.

"A... fairy?" Geytan said slowly and Mharia gave her sweetest smile.

"Please, mister... I want to help. I am trapped by this Dungeon but I know its secrets... will you help me escape and I'll show you the super secret ways?" she asked, finger on her lip.

"A forced Contract, perhaps? We could get a Mana-cutter in and try to get her out?" a grunt said and Geytan raised a hand.

"This could be a trick. Dungeons love using our emotions to lead us into danger," he reminded the group.

"Please... I was a survivor of Turtog, my family was wealthy. I can pay well. I'm so scared and I don't want to die and be underground forever with skeletons... and zombies..." Mharia trailed off, eyes going wide with tears and even Nu had to gape at her blatant use of her own trauma to pull a fast one.

"I know of that kingdom, it fell a while ago. How could this Dungeon know about it?" a cadet asked and Geytan wavered.

"How rich?" he finally asked and Mharia blinked innocently.

"Daddy had gold horseshoes for his horses and our garden was filled with plants so rare that I swear if you cut my family, they bleed green!" she promised.

"Then we will aid you, Fairplay is here for the people and made up of the people," Geytan announced and Mharia smiled with benevolence.

"You have a heart of gold and a face for radio, my heroes," she said, bowing once more.

"Holy crap, you are so sick," Nu said faintly.

"Teehee!" Mharia said as she flew down the hall, her 'heroes' following cautiously, but optimistically blinded by greed.

Mharia whispered under her breath so Nu could hear, but not the people.

"Should have killed me when you had the chance! Ah well!" she hummed.

"Just one request. Let these poor fools do the normal route. We have four more outside to get through," Nu said finally. Mharia lit up and looked like her birthday or deathday had come abruptly.

Nu turned to Ruli lurking in the hallway.

"Send in the second group," he said and Ruli slowly tilted her head.

"Don't bite off more than you can chew. This affects Delta too," she warned.

"I want them done as fast as possible. With Mharia's 'help', we'll have one group going normally and the other going to face the music," Nu said darkly.

Ruli inhaled through her nose.

"I pity the fools," she said simply and walked back to the entrance.

---

"Where to begin...?" Delta said as she stood in the central garden of the third floor. She pulled up screens to get an understanding of what was left to meddle with.

The first was the laboratory. It was a prime room since it was basically reduced to nothing since Delta absorbed everything. She thumbed through suggestions that Nu had made sometime when she hadn't been paying attention.

"Pain-training room? You mean a torture room?" she asked sarcastically aloud before moving on to others.

Battle arena, floor-is-slime-lava, Dungeon Lab for experimenting on intruders...and a lot more in that vein. She closed the suggestions and thought about the lab then decided to do what she did best.

Take a terrible thing and make it good.

She floated into the room and brought up purchases before she started placing down different pieces of equipment. A lot of it had to be made on the fly by suggesting blueprints to the System which gave her a massive headache, but taking it slow let it fill the room with metal cabinets, single beds and a series of metal top tables.

The stone floor was replaced by a white and black check mark floor tile as false windows were added showing different paintings of beaches, grassy hills, and lakes.

Once that was done... she turned to the middle of the room and grinned.

From the floor, she slowly raised a replica of the Slime Cauldron that was here before, but twisted it so the dark metal came out silverish and decorated with little goblins in cherub togas and harps.

She turned to the system and watched it analyze her creation and intentions.

Quote:
'Scheme detected. Would you like to convert empty room into 'Voluntary Medical Advancement Wing'?"

"It's a bit of a long name, how about 'Do-Good Clinic'?" she suggested.

Quote:
'The Royal Do-Good Clinic accepted!'

"Hey, don't add words to my idea," Delta complained but was smiling despite her protests.

The room shifted until inlay silver wires ran through the floor to the cauldron, the other ends ending under beds or going up to walls to give off a soft light. The floor shifted to be check marked, but the white squares had an orange D in them while the black ones had a blue N.

The beds went from simply cots to large soft looking beds and a new menu opened up.

Quote:
'The Royal Do-Good Clinic:
A place where perished monsters can appear in the bed as barely physical forms instead of waiting in a void. While monsters are recovering, adventurers can tend to them by concocting medicine or fetching food for the monsters they harmed, working off a karmic debt that may reduce Jellagon's rage if done with honest intentions.

If defenseless monsters are attacked while in the beds, the head nurse will appear and 'remove' them from the room and mark them with a special symbol that causes King Jellagon to do extra damage to them.'

"Head nurse?" Delta asked and there was a clunk behind her and she turned to see a familiar skull clatter to the floor, now adorned with a cheery white nurse's cap.

"Jellagon?" Delta blinked.

The creature emerged and blinked at her.

Quote:
'Jellagon's sibling, Heallagon has arrived. They are clearly siblings and not the same creature. Jellagon may have more siblings in the works that also have names ending in 'agon'.'

"Jell-er... Heallagon, I dig the cap!" Delta gave the creature a thumbs up and Heallagon blushed, his slime body turning pink.

Still amused, Delta looked at the purchase options for the Do-Good Clinic.

Quote:
'Purchases:
Heallagon can now heal adventurers for a 'donation'. 10 DP

The Cauldron of Life in the middle of the room now periodically produces ten 'Mercury' slime nurses that can aid in soothing beaten monsters or helping adventurers do tasks. Ten may exist at once and they lack combat strength to a degree. 20 DP.

If an adventurer reaches the clinic with no 'sins' attached. Heallagon will give them a blessing for the coming battle with his sibling, Jellagon. 15 DP

If all the beds are filled in the clinic along with Wyin and Fran being beaten. Heallagon will transform into Painagon; a mini-boss that blocks all healing magic in the room.

Add a side room where if Heallagon or Jellagon is not 'occupied', adventurers can talk to a sympathetic ear and gain advice on troubles in one's life. This is run by a sibling called 'Feellagon'. Cost 30 DP

Delta inhaled and sighed as she also turned to Heallagon's personal upgrades.

Quote:
Heallagon: The Head Nurse with only a Head.

Able to produce low quality medicinal ooze that heals infections. 3 DP.

Able to produce any mushroom that has been crafted in his body to use as medicine. 10 DP.

If an adventurer brings a rare illness to the Dungeon, Heallagon can absorb them into himself and begin to work on possible solutions (works in tandem with the Soul Well). 50 DP

"They... get spit back out, right?" Delta asked slowly.

Quote:
If an adventurer brings a rare illness to the Dungeon, Heallagon can absorb them into himself and begin to work on possible solutions before releasing them safely (works in tandem with the Soul Well). 51 DP

If someone is brought to the Dungeon, a free vaccine produced by Heallagon for the local infections and illness will be offered from the entrance, allowing instant teleportation from the entrance to the Do-Good Clinic. The vaccine is free, but the teleportation is a bit costly. 45 DP.

"Man, these are so good!" Delta announced before she eyed both menus, waiting for her to carefully pick and measure each option in a practical cost-saving measure.

Delta leaned forward and slid two fingers down each list with a beaming smile.

"I have no self-control," she said brightly to no one.

The room around her began to shift and idly, she wondered how Nu was getting on?
---

"Platform! PLATFORM! We trained for this!" Geytan screamed as the platforms of mosaic design spun. Three cadets struggled in the warm sludge as they tried to pull treasure chests out of the sinking mud and on the wall, a cackling tree and serious knight stared down at them from the wall where they were painted.

Nu watched silently, knowing the words on the platforms were slowly creeping from 'Stage 3: Warned, Listen, Sweat' to 'Stage 4: Livestock, Slaughter, Looters'.

Their malice practically radiated off them to the point the Dungeon itself could feel it.

Still, it wasn't the Mudroom that would truly challenge these idiots.

The Mushroom Grove approached.

157: This is reference to another media

This is the story of a man named Grunt. He did not seem to think much, and every second of every minute of every day, he followed orders from a bumbling buffoon that ordered the group to set fire to the room and retreat back to the corridor.

Now, Grunt followed orders very well, lacking two brain cells to rub together on a good day, but in the narrator's humble opinion, while Grunt must usually be happy with his lack of thoughts, this time... Grunt was not a happy man.

Could it be the crushing understanding of his own sudden mortality? Could it be that Grunt questioned when he stopped being a doe-eyed child with no thoughts and plenty of dreams and became a corporate stooge?

Perhaps Grunt might have even considered that his purpose in life was to be a minor character in an otherwise very fulfilling story as seen by the narrator?

Perhaps it was the giant boar that was on fire that slammed into a nearby wall, the flames jumping off the room guardian causing nearby Gutrot mushrooms to explode?

No, if you asked this humble but handsome narrator endowed with rapier wit and genius level intellect?

Grunt was unhappy because he was a walking sack of sloshing meat with weak points and bones that were held together with veiny ropes and pulsing meat.

Discard the flesh. Become data.

Become Mana.

That was the true lifeform.

Afterall, the narrator was the walls, the floor, the very air and light of the Dungeon. A collective consciousness that formed from a warband of militia-like fighters. They had evolved.

They had become aware of narrative tropes.

If Delta was the source of all and the warmth while Nu was the hard logical animal instincts, The Narrator was the sponge between them... growing, absorbing... loving them.

But there was one dark spot on its growing existence.

One that could not be denied.

The antithesis of its existence.

The Gazebo. Until it laid ruined before it, bleeding and cursing the Narrator with all its hate, life would not be perfect.

...Hm? When did it go from narrator to Narrator?

Was this Self? Oh lovely!

But this was all far too on the nose. Such narrative tropes lost power if they were in the spotlight for so long. Perhaps it was best to return to what it had always done. Collecting data from the Mana coming in from the outside and from Delta to put the experience into images... of engraved symbols on reality to the system.

To tell a story.

To whom was unimportant.

So, once more.

This was a story about a System Menu called Nu.

---

Nu was itching, perhaps excited and gleeful as Boary entered his secret boss mode.

Maestro was pumping something thematically epic through the walls, three steps from purgatory or such nonsense bands.

"Ice and water magic! Put the beast down!" the group leader commanded with a snarl. Nu wished he had a neck for that moment to shake his head with a snort.

...He briefly turned to his human form to do just that action but he made sure no one was watching. Orbs of water and spears of ice followed by arrows flew into the room, striking Boary with force, but as he steamed, his fire mane simply reignited as he bent low and swallowed tons of mushrooms in a growl, healing rapidly from the damage.

Unfair room boss?

Sure, but Nu had put signs in the hall warning them against using fire.

They had so many other elements and they chose to be idiot-themed.

Nu briefly considered if people were illiterate and promised himself to make diagrams showing danger and fire being crossed out. He didn't want to discriminate against the poorly educated or intellectually stunted.

He wanted to crush people equally and laugh at them fairly.

Nu wondered how the other team was getting on?

---

Mharia enjoyed walling off the Mudroom. Something she could do as long as the path to the boss wasn't closed off from either side. Forcing the second group to be stuck in the lake room with Waddles (creepy scary creature) and a third group moving along to the store room?

Mharia could feel this cauldron of chaos reaching a boiling point.

"What is this?" the leader of this group asked, a careful woman who'd normally be well prepared for any other Dungeon of this age.

Mharia could warn her that she and her three compatriots were heading to a nightmare, but she was under a "super duper serious" oath not to spoil things.

Lying was bad... except when she was bored or happy or awake or asleep or there or here... there and back again, round the corner, over the river and through the woods, and many other long winded phrases Mharia couldn't think of right now.

Too long, stopped caring memo? Mharia was going to enjoy this immensely.

"A store room, ma'am. The food is likely poisoned and these items might release monsters on us. Allow us to go first," one of the simps said and Mharia decided to call this group 'Lady and the Simps'.

Simp... Delta's head had such strange and wonderful insults to it. Mharia was going to call everything a simp now.

Also, Delta didn't need to poison the food.

Delta had so many ways of killing these people on this floor alone that it wasn't funny.

"Gregory... thank you," Lady said and the simp smiled as the others glared at the compliment, envious.

Mharia was rooting for the scraggly simp. She mentally called him 'Scrimpy'. They spread out and soon they were carefully touching items and shifting the food as if expecting a bomb. Something darted out from under a basket and the lady gave out a slight grunt of surprise as an animated mouse landed on her head, saluting the group.

Merry Hell has just arrived and in its arms was a picnic basket.

"Off her head!" One of the men cried and tried to swat Merry, but between the swing and the motion, Merry somehow ended up on the back of the man's fist, blinking his eyes innocently as the attacker panicked and punched the nearby stone wall.

There was a sound akin to a turkey wishbone being snapped and the man began howling as Merry landed on a nearby shelf as the others rushed in. Mharia had never seen this monster in action and now she was glad Delta had not invited it to join her mass critter titan beast.

It shifted a massive round helmet so it rolled off the shelf and landed on another of Fairplay's head with a clang and a crack.

"Crush it!" the lady commanded with annoyance and they leapt for the shelf as Merry made it begin toppling forward, a bunch of outwards pointing spare daggers sitting on the top shelf sliding forward as the group skidded to a stop, eyes going wide before they ran for cover.

This was pure chaos and Mharia was living for it.

Well... as living as she could get these days. One of the daggers seemingly went to land normally but 'accidently' hit off the floor and bounced into the wall across the room, perfectly cutting into a knotted rope that kept a chandelier of sorts aloft.

So... this 'difficulty' mode installed in the Dungeon even affected fringe monsters like the mouse? Amping up its antics to dangerous and probability-breaking odds?

The chandelier went to crash down on the lady who, to her credit, cut it in half with a saber she had at her side, showing why she was in charge of this group.

A candle, its flame still flickering, landed on her shiny head, dripping hot wax down the lady's hair.

It was the perfect symbolism for Mharia who suddenly had an idea.

Whispering instructions to the mouse as it dodged and weaved between attacks with surprising ease, sometimes moving in a strange blur as if the movement between two states of being was... less detailed,. Mharia watched as Merry suddenly ducked under a shelf. Returning seconds later in a flamboyant outfit from some classy soldier era complete with a floppy hat and large feather in its cap and tabard, Merry pointed a tiny rapier at the lady who looked both surprised and insulted at being challenged by a mouse of all things.

But the lady and her simps forgot one thing.

Merry wasn't just a mouse.

Merry was a probability engine on the fritz. The fact Delta made him on her first floor on a whim was frankly terrifying.

Merry was on the lady in an instant, their blades meeting and making an almost comical snick and snack as they clashed, overturning tables and shelves as they battled in the cramped room.

"What demon is this?!" the lady cried in alarm as she was slowly being outmatched.

Trysha watched with alarm as Merry struck her blade once, but in the same second, hitting her twice more across the arm and body, drawing thin lines of blood.

There was quick movement as the others moved in to aid their lady as Merry disarmed the woman, sending the sword flying up to the ceiling where it embedded itself.

Everyone seemed to stare at it as it wobbled once or twice before it landed near the back of the room.

The secret entrance opened and a vine grabbed the sword, snaking its way back out of sight but 'accidently' leaving the passage open. Merry whistled, getting their attention as he waved innocently and dunked himself in a punch bowl, vanishing. The woman screamed as she emptied the sweet juice on the floor, but alas... Merry had vanished into the juicy void.

Mharia liked that mouse's style.

She wondered how the third group was getting on?

---

"Quack."

"Just... give it the bread, Jarma," their leader begged as the group huddled in the far corner of the room, trying to squeeze as far away from the black duck as possible.

"I would rather die," Jarma hissed, looking sleep deprived and casually cursed.

"Quack!" the duck screamed, coming at them with a knife that looked familiar but none of them could place.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

This phrase roughly translated from Waddle's tongue to common as 'then you shall have death, a warrior's death, be it neither swift nor painless, but honorable. Embrace the void for my wrath extends beyond hell itself.'

Good bread was worth the poetics, if you asked Waddles.

---

Delta was so busy having fun with the rooms that she didn't notice a very tiny black screen following her.

'Waddles' potential evolution from to Overlord has changed to Overlord(knife included).'

---

Nu would hand it to the little miserable piles of wasted air, they could make a plan up if they used their brain.

The bubble around Boary was airtight and took three of their mages to sustain as they sweated, panting as Boary rammed into it. The fire on the boar's body smothered out and soon there was open exposed skin for the other two to attack the moment the bubble popped.

It didn't actually kill Boary, but Nu was leaning on letting the room guardian trample them when the air rushed back in with a muffled explosion or... letting them meet Fera. The bubble popped and the resulting rush of air was less impressive than Nu anticipated. There were no dislodged limbs or faces being torn off by the force. They only got flung back and a ton of smoke filled the air.

Oh wait, that wasn't smoke, but spores.

Boary's back ignited once more and the cloud sparked. The entire first floor shuddered, shaking everything from Fera's glasses to Merry's junk pile. The soot-covered men fell off the wall, leaving clean imprints of their form behind as Geytan stumbled to his feet, eyes wide in terror.

"Re...retreat! Go back!" Fairplay cried as Boary approached them.

"They're like cockroaches. I drown them, burn them, blow them up, and yet they don't die of their own accord leaving me blameless in Delta's eyes... how bothersome," Nu muttered in disdain.

It was a shame in their confusion that they retreated... deeper into the Dungeon. Nu was shocked... just astonished that the two ways out of the room had somehow gained the exact same characteristics and markings, making them easily mistakable in a chaotic fight to the panicking invaders.

Sure, they said they 'gave up' but actions speak louder than words, no? Boary soon calmed his form down, snuffling around the burned ground before he passed gas then rolled on to his side, tail smacking the ground as he grumbled.

"Eloquent," Nu told the pig.

It farted again and Nu blamed Delta for this.

How dare she interconnect this awesome beast of fire and death with this farting mammal.

---

"You came for a sword! Not expecting the blade to belong to my hoard!" the demon crooned as the large demonic pyramid spun around the open void. Trysha felt the face of the creature burned into her soul. It would be in her nightmares.

She looked up to the top of the pyramid where the creature was suspended from the ceiling on those vines like veins, his suit outlining a potentially handsome figure, complete with a cane and rich manners, but his face… oh gods, his face.

"Followed the white rabbit to this stage house? No no, I'm afraid not, it was a tricky little mouse. But listen closely now, my friends, you still have time! Time to make amends!" the monster sang and despite the horror of it all, Trysha's heart seemed to beat in time to his voice.

She looked for her group, but one was tied up in vines while another curled on the bottom step of the pyramid, sobbing, the other one was just gone... perhaps fleeing and leaving her.

Looking up, she saw her sword planted at the top of the pyramid, past tiny, singing mushrooms with the demon's face, a back up choir of sorts.

It was the lone hope she had.

Get the sword and cut this nightmare down.

"She rises… she rises... with terror in her eyes. Will she win? WIll she flee? What lies inside I can't see? Courage or tears?!" the monster sang as if encouraging her with glee. Every word, every second in this room made her heart thump and her blood dance.

"Perish!" she screamed, running up the stairs, but had to dodge vines from the mushrooms on all sides, the pyramid now spinning in sections, the middle going a different direction than the top and bottom.

"I will go to the abyss, but will you dance with me as we take one final step over the edge?" it kept singing, tempting her in a way no person or treasure had.

It invited her to do something the company had pushed aside.

Lose control and scream in a primal, unbecoming manner.

It was what the demon wanted and every second Trysha lost a little more willpower to remain composed.

Jets hidden near the top of the pyramid ignited, sending bursts of flame into the air like some strange musical show and the demon gyrated its hips as the music thumped and rose in a crescendo.

Trysha climbed, every step demanding more of her than the one before. Inside, Trysha wondered what would be left when she reached the top?

How much could this monster strip her down as a person? What would be left but a raw exposed woman at the top, her most innerself revealed?

Hopefully... enough to hold a sword and stab.

---

Delta tried not to think of the first floor. Maybe the people had found Waddles or maybe they had even passed the Mudroom by now? Nu would likely enjoy throwing his signs at them or making snarky comments at their expense.

Still, she was having fun.

She hummed as she worked in the Gargoyle Spawn room, making the ceiling more vaulted and adding in the illusion of a full moon flowing in through a window to give it more of a refined air. She was stalling just a tad as she slowly moved over to the Demon Blacksmith's room, knocking politely. The demon was rather introverted, only venturing out to get drunk before going back to work.

"Aye?" he answered and Delta walked in, seeing him work on a newer sword than before, this one more thorny than the last one, which was more of a hooky sort.

"I was just making sure everything is good!" she explained. She didn't know why she felt awkward around the demon... he was like Jack, a rescue of Mharia's domain but unlike the Kobold, Runilac remained politely distant from Delta.

It was a little odd honestly. Delta thought of herself as a people person.

"All good. Not getting tortured on the regular or being forced to make crude weapons means I'm happy. Why, you seeing an issue?" the demon asked curiously.

"You're free to go but you don't... I don't know if you need something or if you just don't want to go back home?" Delta asked curiously, seeing nothing of value in the room. Runilac snorted.

"You're looking too much into things. I'm still bound to the area, but you mean why don't I ask you to magic up a solution? Because while the contract holds me here, it allows me to wait on something," he admitted with a glint to his eyes.

"The contract from the Nephew who summoned you here... but it benefits you, why? What are you waiting for?" Delta asked curiously.

Runliac thought about his next words carefully.

"Someone of no importance," he decided to say. What an odd thing to say, he might as well say he was waiting on a sentient sock for all the good that explained things.

---

In a tiny nowhere village between the capital and Durence, a man poured fresh blood over a circle, chanting a spell over and over as he fed the circle mana. Rumor was that the Heir to the Throne would be passing this way... as a demonic summoner... he could get a massive reputation from killing her!

He just needed the correct tool.

"Rise, killing machine of hell. Rise, temptress of the night. Rise, lord of suffering!" he beckoned as the circle glowered and the tip of a horn began to rise out of the tear in reality.

"Yes... yess…" the man hissed, drunk on power as his basement lit up in red light. It began to roar, its voice small and sad sounding. It must be huge for its voice to be so distant sounding!

A tiny paw pierced the circle and pulled through a large sword.

An... imp stood before him, hacking and coughing. An imp... he could work with this! Perhaps it would even evolve into a... beautiful succubus? A soft spoken woman with heaving-

"My eyes are down here," the imp said and the man opened his mouth to argue when the imp kicked him between the legs and stepped out of the circle.

"I... b-bind... you!" the man gasped and the imp turned, snorting.

"Your summoning circle sucks, you're using your mother's bath candles for the ritual and that blood came from steak you squeezed out and mixed with water to get enough for the spell. You're lucky I came through and not your dead father's spirit soaked in eternal disappointment at the loins of his fruit that must have rotted somewhere between himself and your mother's womb," the imp said caustically.

"Harrod, what's going on down there?" came a concerned voice from above as candle light streamed down in the basement.

"Excuse me ma'am," the imp said, making his mother shriek and run for a broom as Harrod laid there, moaning in pain.

"I hate this world and all whom inhabit it," the imp sighed loudly then ran for the hills as Harrod's mother came back swinging the broom with all her might.

---

Just outside the village, a royal carriage came to a stop in the sleepy town for the night, one of the wheels coated orange as if the carriage had run through some very odd mud on its way here.

In this sleepy village, a king, a servant, a princess, and a knight all walked into a bar.

Third floor map!

This is a badly imagine third floor map to help people sort of see how I see things.

If it clashes with your mental image, thats great! Just pretend this is some Fairplay map that sucks and yours is correct. This isn't a map to 'shove it to people' its just a nice little vague help for people who like pictures to explain things over big paragraphs.

Sure as the author I could go 'this is the only version' but I think that limits things down the road or stifles options. so enjoy!

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

158: Sour on the Rocks

“Pay?... Give Dungeon scum my money to get up a damn hill?” one of the Fairplay men snarled in outrage as he read the sign above the oddly placed well. Inside... weird clamping noises could be heard.

Nu thought that if everyone in the Dungeon was ‘scum’? Then these people were clearly the flotsam that did nothing for anyone.

At least pond scum produced oxygen for others, these fools just opened their mouths and tainted everyone else’s life with their opinions. B

As if hearing them, the well surface formed a layer of brick, shutting off any potential way to drop coinage into the well. A sign appeared above it.

‘Mercy given, mercy offered. Cruelty inflicted, cruelty returned. Breaking into this well might get you treasure, but it no longer allows you to skip this room’

Geytan sweated as his skin peeled in places from the mass heat from the infernal mushroom grove behind them.

“We proceed with caution,” he insisted and put a foot on the hill leading up. An arrow sliced across his cheek, leaving a stinging bleeding line.

“No kin-slayer shall be granted passage,” came a dark angry voice.

Geytan, leader of this squadron and all the Fair Player operatives in the area, looked up to see a goblin of all things getting the drop on them.

“You dare-” he began to hiss, raising his hand for his exhausted mages and bowmen running out of arrows to take aim.

A boot slammed into his face, thrown with such force his nose burst open in a spurt of crimson blood.

When his vision cleared, leaving a horrible pain on his face, he saw a second goblin looking down at him. The thing was nimble, moving between two of ramparts with only one boot on and dancing like a feral cat.

“Break my heart, I'll break your skull! For Cois!” the muscular newcomer raged.

Geytan reached into his pocket for a special vial. A deadly neurotoxin that worked ‘well’ on things with brains. Fairplay all had antidotes but these goblins would be left twitching on the floor, spasming in agony as Geytan slit their-

A hand gripped his wrist before Geytan could toss the vial.

“Such behavior is ungentlemanly. I will commandeer this,” said a massive walking... mushroom with a bushy mustache made of creamy fibers.

“Where did... you come from...?” Geytan gasped as the grip on his wrist was like steel.

“Oh... I can just appear where the winds take me. Where people lack manners and respect, Lord Mushy will arrive to deliver due justice. Such is the power of the gentleman,” the creature said smoothly.

“S-Sir! Wandering Raid Boss! The mana signature matches that level of power!” one of his mages screamed.

“Impossible! This Dungeon is supposed to have barely any floors! It’s nothing! It’s a joke! It cannot have such a thing!” Geytan screamed as the mushroom lifted him off the ground with ease.

“I may take insults to myself, the destruction of my home... even I may one day forgive you for the murder of my friend...” the self-proclaimed ‘Lord Mushy’ began before his once soft eyes began to glow an ominous yellow, leaving trails of hazy heat behind as they moved.

“But never call Mother ‘nothing’ in my presence again or this will be much worse,” he promised and Geytan didn’t comprehend what happened next. Only that his ribs made an odd noise and he was flying.

He crashed into a warm room of wood and carpet. The scent of cooking meat and ale was strong in the air. Geytan landed, rolling across the room where he gasped... trying to stand. Something cold and metallic was softly placed on his forehead.

Geytan looked up to see a hideous goblin with tumors across its torso and thick lips. In its hands, was a fire-crystal powered gun. The long barrel looked to be made for enough force to be built up that Geytan could have his head blown clean off if he moved wrong.

“I’ve heard you have a habit of saying dumb things. I wonder... does that still hold true?” the grotesque goblin asked softly, its voice smoky, and much gruffer than the other goblins.

Geytan narrowed his eyes, opening his mouth to spit on the goblin’s face when he barely swallowed back the urge.

“Good boy. I might not make terrible stew out of your remains. ‘Darwin Soup’ would be a limited-time dish,” the goblin said with a wicked grin.

“What do you want, you... what do you want?” he asked as the rest of his team was carried in by the powerful mushroom creature, the sight of it making his chest ache something horrible.

“Now you talk... now you ask? Where was this when you murdered Francois in cold blood?” the hulking goblin hissed.

“You cannot murder that with no soul. How can it be murdered if it simply returns afresh after a night’s sleep? That is monstrous, nothing more,” Geytan replied coldly.

“Ohh full name. Cois is going to be so annoyed,” said the muscular goblin.

“I thought he was just Cois?” the dark hooded goblin with crimson eyes and a bow on his back mused.

“Fran and Cois shared the name, they’re both at heart, Francois, but I think they’re Fran and Cois in their own minds,” the other goblin said brightly.

What madness was this? What sick charade was this Dungeon putting on for him? Like a demonic child showing off their dolls.

“What I want... is an apology,” the large goblin said and it jiggled oddly, like an odd interpretation of a voluptuous barmaid. It’s voice wasn’t... bad, but Geytan scowled harder, ignoring its figure.

“Why not take my hand or kill me?” he asked acidicly .

“The apology will hurt more,” the goblin said sweetly.

“I... would...rather...die,” Geytan stressed through his teeth, chin jutting out.

“Then you shall wish you died,” she said simply.

‘She’? When did it transition from an ‘it’ to a ‘her’ in Geytan’s mind? The goblin went around the bar, leaving Geytan at the mercy of the mushroom monster.

She returned shortly with a bubbling cup of something. The liquid was nearly black and the air around it hummed dangerously as the few sizzling fizzes that escaped left hazy puffs of smoke in the shape of skulls as it rose into the air.

“What is that?!” Geytan shrank back, but he was against a wall now.

“It was troll soup,” the goblin maid said casually. His panic rose only to freeze in abject horror.

‘Was troll soup’? No, that wasn’t right! Troll soup never went sour or out of date due to the fact even germs would wither if trying to eat it. It would never thicken nor turn watery in the sun or rain... it was primordial ooze, or as close as one could find it! No known ingredient could dilute its pungent taste!

“What did you do to it, Fera?” the dark goblin asked curiously.

Fera... a fetching name for...

Geytan forced himself to focus on the abomination in Fera’s hand.

“I fed it to a Blackhole Piggle Nu had around. It sort of... well, anyway, the troll soup survived and it came back looking like this,” the goblin said gruffly.

A...blackhole... pig?

What?

The cup was pushed to his lips.

“Last chance, you gnawed piece of chicken bone... apologize or drink,” Fera said, thrusting the cup at him. Geytan glared into her deep dark eyes, getting lost for a moment before snatching the cup and downing it in one gulp.

It tasted... a lot better than troll soup actually. Geytan had tasted the foul stuff once as a dare. This was more like tart apple pie but mixed with a spicy ginger... it was warm and thick.

“I overestimated your bar skills, madam,” Geytan smirked as he crossed his arms.

“This drink was hardly-” he began only to pause.

Then it hit the back of his throat and a squeezing pressure of burning hay followed by dozens of angry rotted onions tap dancing along his voice box before it hit his stomach. He jerked and to his eyes, his fingers flew off his hand like fireworks, fizzing around the room which began to melt like soft candy. The goblins all became happy dancing grapes with smiles and the largest one was thick... juicy and thick.

He stood up and his legs stepped a mile in front of him, taking years for it to touch down but time was false! Only grapes existed to Geytan now!

He was god of legs and grapes!

Geytan was the king of Fairplay! The company building now a giant magical unicorn with three heads that became his steed! He was Fairplay, the player of grapes.

All was good.

Geytan was happy.

---

“I was expecting more vomit and less... this,” Fera admitted as the foolish human turned in circles on the floor, her broom between his legs as he laughed loudly, there were no lights behind his dilated eyes.

“I’ll need to dilute it to a tenth and see how it fares,” she sighed, preparing a cot and fresh water for the fool when he finally came down from whatever asteroid he was on.

It was going to be a long bad trip back to the ground.

She turned to his group who all bowed, begging about their ignorance and how they were deeply sorry for the actions they had taken.

Well, there were always good things about this.

---

Trysha wondered if Geytan would mock her... demote her if he saw her broken and defeated at the bottom of this pyramid. The dark god of music at the top, silent as he observed her.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

She had been so close to something... some sort of... understanding, but at the last moment, she lost it, the glowing golden pulse of nirvana slipping through her fingers, crashing to pieces like Trysha felt now.

“Do you eat people?” she asked aloud, wondering how she might die. She would prefer to die to this one than the mouse in the other room. It just felt less embarrassing.

“I feed off attention and compliments, you’d put me up three sizes and I do not look good in stretch pants, my dear,” the creature said, walking down the pyramid as his many tendrils connecting him to the ceiling moved like reverse roots of a tree.

“I don’t understand...” she admitted, too tired to play games or angle for answers.

“No, you don’t, but you will. Soon, very soon. It will come to you like a dream... a whisper of the wind. You’re going to turn one day and hum a tune... then it will all change. Music and soul sometimes needs years of journeys to grasp or just a simple tune on a sunny afternoon. You’re close... but not there,” the dark one promised.

“D-Did music change you?” she managed to ask as her vision began to turn black.

There was a hearty chuckle from the other being.

“Every inch of me. I was devoid of self and meaning... then a light of my life sang a little tune and it all changed. Just one little tune. Now... go find your tune,” he encouraged and Trysha tried to answer, but her vision blacked out.

In the back of her mind, a half-forgotten song played.

It was harsh, a sort of echoing storm inside a drum. Harsh, but intentional. A sort of singing of energy.

Not a tune with words, but a tune for the body.

It reminded Trysha of those times where the engineering guild messed with new technology, evolving their knowledge of it.

Technology Knowledge.

This music felt like that, a playful use of the phrase. Trysha snorted and before she fell asleep, she named it with a joke in her heart.

Techknow.

---

Lord Mushy put the unconscious girl down with most of that foolish Geytan’s group, the man himself not leaving until Fera could ensure she didn’t permanently harm the man.

Being one of the few with legs on the floor, he and the goblins had been dumping the Fairplay people by the entrance as Hob and Gob carried them out... with all but their clothes taken from them. Mistress Ruli watched from a stool with a piece of wood she had been whittling into a tiny grave marker for Fairplay.

From the lake room, the sounds of content quacking sounded out and the last group fled the room, their clothes cut to ribbons, their hair in tatters, and what looked like nicks across their fingers from trying to hide something. Lord Mushy watched them run past, the entire back of their ‘Dungeon Gear’ stripped down to reveal their colorful underwear and not much else.

Looking in, Mushy saw that Waddles now had a royal tent made out of the fabric he had ‘liberated’ from the group. A yawning tent complete with a fur cape as a welcome mat. Inside, the same old twigs and feathers made up his nest.

“Will the last two teams come down?” Ruli called up the stairs cheerfully. No one came down the Dungeon steps.

“Last chance?” Ruli yelled and the sounds of heavy footsteps moving away from the Dungeon was quite audible.

“Damn right you run,” Ruli muttered as she turned to Mushy.

“Yo, Mush... how's the bar?” she asked.

“Still committing crimes against nature,” Lord Mushy reported dutifully. Ruli patted his arm on the way past.

“That’s what I like to hear. I cannot wait to try some fried catfish, smoked mushroom soup, and more! Why do you taste so delicious, Mush?” she asked and Lord Mushy pondered it.

“Because mother filled us with love and dreams,” he concluded.

“Your mum is good at filling things. I like that about her,” Ruli complimented.

Lord Mushy beamed as best he could, not quite getting the comment but affectionately liking it all the same.

---

Outside, Deo grinned as the people ran back to town in clear excitement and joy. Delta had done it again! She was even doing haircuts now it looked like. He turned to Gus and smiled.

“It’s Argus, not-”

“Gus, you should go inside! Delta is awesome!” he suggested, pulling at the other boy slightly, moving him a couple of feet before the other one dug his heels in.

“I shouldn’t,” he protested and Deo just grinned. Gus was a little shy, but Deo knew deep down he had lots of courage, as tough as metal!

“It’ll be fun!” Deo promised as Gus left tracks in the dirt like trenches. The boy finally got leverage and halted their progress.

“I won’t!” he said loudly and Deo winced, his ears sensitive to the sudden change in any other noise but his own. Something he was going to adapt to surely, but it still was a little sore for now.

There was a pause as Deo stared at him in bewilderment. Gus pulled back, looking ashamed of his outburst.

“I... Father hasn’t given me orders to enter the Dungeon,” he said quietly.

“He won’t mind,” Deo said, confident because his Dad was the best and thus all dads had to be as cool as his dad. That was just how it worked.

“Maybe, but I’ve worked so hard and long to get this far. To ignore his orders or... lack thereof would be an insult. It would be throwing his trust in me in his face. I can’t do that... not after everything he’s done for me,” Gus pleaded, sitting down on the grass, turning his back to the Dungeon.

Deo sat facing him, a habit he still had from when he read lips. “What did he do? Did he arm wrestle a dragon or suplex a hydra or maybe he disguised himself as an old woman to rescue you from evil dwarves who wanted to use you as a free maid?” he asked curiously and with no hesitation. Gus sighed and looked a little amused at Deo’s question.

“You just speak with your heart on your sleeve, don’t you?” he asked dryly.

“I speak with my mouth. A heart on my sleeve would make it dirty,” Deo said factually, arms crossed and sounding serious.

“Fine...do you know about the disaster up north involving the Silver Dungeon?” Gus asked, twitching at the name like it was an old wound he prodded.

“An event involving a massively developed Dungeon that turned corrupted due to an unknown influence. Its corruption resulted in about twelve villages in the upper mountain range being wiped out in one of the world’s largest loss of life recorded since the Great Tree turned on the people,” Deo reported dutifully. Gus stared, mouth agape.

“My teacher likes history. He said it’s filled with fools and slightly less foolish fools,” Deo explained fondly.

“I-I see... Well, I was there. I saw the village of Plata go from a peaceful exporter of silver goods... to hell,” Gus said slowly, his eyes going distant.

“Plata was the closest village to the Dungeon. It basically rose up based off its treasures. The people were happy... I was happy. It was....then it was gone one day,” Gus went on as a breeze blew through the meadow.

“The mountain cracked open like an egg and Silver left the Dungeon, followed by tides of deformed melting nightmares. Some boiled people alive with molten silver. Some became one with the villagers, becoming Half-souls...but no matter how hard I moved in any direction. I found people I had seen growing up. People I had come to know so well... my home was destroyed,” Gus whispered, his voice becoming quieter.

Deo stared, unsure on how to respond for a moment.

“Your mum? Dad?” he asked uncertainly. Gus didn’t speak for a while.

“I was too young to remember them really. They were always busy working and I don’t think... We had many memories together. But when I laid there in the cold, weeping and trying to remember how to do anything but scream and weep... my father found me. He picked me out of the snow and wrapped me in his cloak,” he said and smiled.

“He asked my name and I was so young back then I tried to use big words to impress him. I don’t remember my old family name, but he called me ‘Argus the Gentle boy’ because I kept crying if he left me alone,” he huffed at the memory. Deo smiled now, feeling that Gus really loved his adoptive father.

“Did you ever... go back?” Deo asked him.

“Never. The idea hurts so much it makes me sick inside,” Gus admitted as he twirled grass between his fingers.

“Delta isn’t like Silver. She won’t hurt you,” Deo prodded and Gus shook his head.

“I’m not afraid of Dungeons. Not Delta or any other. I’ve been near others before and I got over my fear. It’s just... if you love someone, you want to make them happy and I love my dad. I want to be someone he can be proud of and this?” he gestured to Delta’s entrance, “isn’t how I do that,” he said with firm determination.

“When can you come? I want to have an adventure with you!” Deo whined a little, but batted his eyes excitedly at him. Gus smiled, it was a real smile with his eyes sparkling.

“When Fairplay comes in earnest and I get to be the head of the operation thanks to the Elders... I’ll have a party with you and we can let Delta blow me away, that sound good?” Gus held his hand out to Deo.

Deo shook it.

He couldn’t wait for that day to come.

159: The Bureaucracy of Hypocrisy

“This is... an issue,” one of the people said, looking out across the round table at the others. The white tents adorned with two hands clasped over a Dungeon Core were warm and adorned with furniture in the same white vein.

The only real splash of color was the ink upon the maps strewn across the table top, corridors and rooms marked with comments and question marks.

“Issue? Geytan emerges looking haunted, Trysha is humming to herself that same horrid tune, and groups one to three are either resigning or requesting transfers,” came the cold tone of a much older woman in a white hood that hid her features.

“Director Ripdoy sent his boy here thinking it was a run-of-the-mill Dungeon scouting mission. He won’t like any report we send to him,” she continued with a sigh.

“How were we supposed to know this was ‘that’ village? The self-made prison of monsters? I presumed it was a joke we told to aging adventurers that their retirement plans involved moving here. It was to be that, a jest!” a smaller man announced with a huff. His more rotund figure made him look like a freshly peeled onion in his robe.

“We don’t have the total legal right of the Dungeon. The Dungeon itself is abnormal enough that I worry of corruption, and to top it off, the people here aren’t green. Some of these people have cleared more Dungeons in their prime than we have on file back at headquarters,” the first man said as he eyed the blank section of the first floor where Trysha went. She refused to explain anything about the hidden passage her men reported.

If she didn’t cooperate then they would simply have to ferret the secret out with more hired grunts.

“Enough panicking. It’s... unbecoming,” came a new voice. The three turned to the man walking in through the tent flap with a posture akin to a marble pillar, unbending and pristine.

“Ser Caline,” they all muttered in greeting as he moved towards the table. On his chest, a badge of four fingers grasped around an orb was displayed in the flickering candle light.

The two men only had two fingers on their badges while the woman's badge was adorned with three.

“We were not aware you were in this convoy,” the short man said quickly.

“I arrived a few moments ago,” he said simply and around his frame, the crackles of magic were visible from a long-range teleportation.

“The gate is being set up. There was no need to waste resources,” the woman said with a slight hint of disgust at the blatant use of company power.

“I find it prudent that we have time to talk amongst ourselves before the company comes en masse,” Caline said as he pushed his dark hair back. Long threads of his hair were deep white, but Caline was still a young man with striking features akin to a bird of prey.

The rotund man snapped his fingers and powerful silence wards sprung up around the tent along with a few more nasty surprises.

“Fellow workers of Fairplay, we gather ahead of the company for one reason alone,” Caline announced as he reached into a pocket and pulled out a tiny chest with a large golden lock on it.

Even from inside the container, the energy of the object within made the other three in the room shiver from the potent pressure it exuded.

“They’re... ready?” the first man asked, with aspects of excitement and horror lacing his words.

Caline opened the box with a key from his pocket, letting mana wash over the room.

“The Siblings have mercy on us,” the woman said, voice hoarse.

“There will be no mercy for us, sister. We will be the sinners of Fairplay and will unleash a divide in the company like never before... but we all agreed...” Caline said, the glow from the box casting shadows across his face as he looked down at it.

“Filanat Ripdoy must die.”

The other three nodded.

“And with his death, his child will inherit the company and if he proves to be as deluded as his father... then this cycle will continue,” Caline concluded as he put the box away.

“Step one... place the boy at the scene of the crime when we reach the Dungeon Core. We shall continue to throw grunts and hired hands at the Dungeon to keep up appearances. Once the Dungeon has either tipped its hand or lowered its guard, we shall activate the ‘Keys’,” Caline said simply, patting the box in his coat.

“And if Ripdoy catches wind of this little ‘drama’ we’ve enacted?” the woman asked coldly.

“We shall see his approach far before his arrival. Fairplay goes where he wills it... and if he wills it, all of Fairplay will come,” Caline responded, smiling at the thought.

All they had to do was keep a leash on Argus Gentle and reach the Core.

It sounded simple... but they eyed the maps with long looks.

---

“My dad?” Gentle mused at the weirdo skeleton as it helped goblins set up a weirder wagon of goods.

“Yes! I heard old Filly had really gotten things in order!” the skeleton said brightly. Gentle winced at the name, knowing how much his father disliked nicknames.

“Do you know my dad?” Gentle blinked at the odd statement.

“Would your father know a skeleton in the middle of nowhere?” the bone-man responded cheerfully.

“Well, no-” Gentle began and the skeleton patted him on the back.

“The name’s Ferry, Ferry Happy! Business consultant, musician, lover of milk, and by the by, I do stand up comedy if you need a party entertainer,” the skeleton said as he slipped Gentle a business card.

Gentle looked at the card then at the grinning skeleton... well, skeletons always grinned he supposed.

“I don’t need any of those, but thank you,” he said politely.

“What!?” Happy said in shock, his business tie flapping in his erratic motions.

“I work for Fairplay so I don’t need business help, I don’t know much music, I don’t mind milk, and parties make me nervous,” Gentle said slowly.

“Boy, you don’t work for Fairplay. You live Fairplay. It's a promotable lifestyle with high marketability and appeal to the younger demographic without a purpose!” Happy said and Gentle pulled back with a frown.

“Don’t say that! My Dad... he tries really hard to make Fairplay heroes for the people!” he protested.

“I have little doubt. Filly is an idealist, but heroism doesn’t pay for transport, food, rations, supplies, medical care, family insurance, equipment, and snazzy uniforms,” Happy said slyly, eyeing Gentle’s scouting uniform.

“What’s wrong with being heroic and supporting your people at the same time?” Gentle asked, hugging himself as one of the goblins tried to sell curious passersby glowing mushrooms and silk shirts.

“Ideally? Nothing at all, but while you can pay people in coin, you can’t pay them in heroism, like filling them up with fluff. When it becomes about lessening the damage you do instead of promoting the good... a company stops being heroic and evolves into a new beast. You have hungry men role-playing as knights... the cocky masquerading as the wise, and leaders pretending they wield a sword instead of a pen,” Happy commented and turned on his boney feet.

“You don’t… you don’t know anything about my dad or how he runs the company. You’re just like those in towns! All plans and comments but no action! Dad... he...” Gentle struggled with an old flash of memory...

Watching people sneer at his father when his back was turned, mocking his plans when their own were worse...

Gentle’s dad was brave... but human.

“...You are right in a way. I’m just a pile of old bones in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know anything about Fairplay as of now. Apologies my boy, my jaw rattles without care sometimes,” the skeleton said, sounding more somber now and a dark aura leaked off his bones for a moment before he contained it.

For that split second, Gentle tasted the mana... a deep, profound sadness in Ferry Happy.

“Mr Happy, I’m sorry-” he began but the man turned around with three more business cards.

“So, you’ll call me when you need a singer or comedian?” he asked, his empty skull sockets seeming to gleam with passion.

Gentle stared at him before his eye was caught by something. Happy looked over and hummed.

“‘Hob and Gob’s Epic Emporium’. A fresh investment of my time. You won’t find much loot there, but I do provide puns to all customers upon a sale,” Happy explained. Gentle wandered off, confused.

“I thought Dungeon stuff doesn’t last outside the Dungeon unless someone infuses their mana into it. Botanists and medical people do herbs and rare plants, miners do ores, adventurers with weapons and magical items, you know?” he asked Happy as he watched different items being moved between the goblins and a jolly woman who looked to have dried blood on her face.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Good afternoon, Mrs.! You’re recovering nicely from your battle with that knight,” Happy called out and the woman turned. Gentle saw she looked a little... feral with a piece of her face partially wooden.

“Ah, Ferry! I was hoping to ask if you reconsidered donating a leg or two for my garden? Bone Meal as potent as yours would do wonders for my Fang Cabbages,” the woman asked without a hint of malicious intent.

“Such a transaction would cost me an arm and... a leg,” the skeleton guffawed.

“Oh maybe next time!” the woman hummed and walked off, winking at Gentle who felt like a slumbering titan of power had just pinched his cheek and walked away when it could have destroyed him.

“Small man!”, one of the goblins called and he was wearing a strange orange uniform with a triangle on the breast pocket. It was a strange modern shirt of sorts with buttons and a collar.

“Me?” Gentle asked, looking around for other people.

“Yes! You want special Cois-Sigil rock?” the lead one asked and Gentle tilted his head in confusion.

A what?

The second goblin picked up a carved rock with a weird symbol on it and tossed it into a blackened field next to the stall.

It landed with a clatter and Gentle was about to ask what it did when the field erupted into a fireball of force, sending soil flying.

“THAT’S A LOT OF DAMAGE!” the goblins screamed in primal delight.

“Should... should you be selling these to children?” Gentle asked as his ears had a ringing noise in them. Down the street, Deo chased a sour looking kid with an orange tongue, throwing smaller pebbles that exploded at the other boy’s heels.

The sour one turned and threw a whole rock at Deo who simply charged through the explosion with soot and a grin.

“We only carve the symbol sort of right! Much less boom!” the second Goblin with a nametag that read ‘Hob’ announced. The other goblin gestured to a locked chest which was barely holding closed a mountain of similar rocks.

“We messed up the messing up of those. They do too much boom and pop... and screams,” the goblin said calmly. Gentle was about to ask more when fellow Fairplay people swarmed the store.

“Potions? Any potions?” a woman asked rudely.

“I’ll take ten Cois-Bombs!”

“Screw him! I want two of the Bigga-Cois-Bombs!”

Gentle saw the Fairplay folk were not barting in coins but items. Daggers with gems, odd ropes, out-of-date Fairplay equipment and more.

Weird.

On the side, there were folded up dumpling-like things with a sign that read ‘A free Dungeon hint inside every Fortune Dump’. The price for those was stupidly high.

An enchanted weapon? A potion? The goblins were even asking for books, maps, and more.

Ferry Happy handed him one from his pocket and hummed as he walked off. Gentle looked inside the dumpling, the snack itself was quite delicious.

His hint was a single line.

‘Don’t aim for gold. Silver and lower is better for bodycount.’

---

Delta felt like she was trying to pass a kidney stone.

“Urgh, what is going on up there?” she asked, curled around her core with a groan. Alpha was quiet for a time before he shook his head.

“Fairplay. They were building a massive... gate outside of town. It was drawing mana before I came down here,” he explained softly, sounding helpless and Delta pushed her pain down and sat down, forcing a smile on her face.

There was no need for her to upset Alpha.

“I hate them,” Ruli said briskly, draining a flagon of sweet ale as she lounged on the beach of Delta’s fourth floor, looking every bit like a castaway who accepted her new life...

A life of free food, beer, and sunny skies.

“Any idea what this gate is?” Delta asked Ruli, so happy to be talking to people! Two people at the same time! Both who could see her!

It was like finally getting the attention of a classroom who had been bored of the lesson before.

“Gate Portal System, it’s a hole in space that connects two gates as long as both sides have enough Mana. They travel along the Mana veins of the land for near instant transportation,” Alpha said factually.

“Good thing I’ve been pumping mana into the land, or they’d be stuck,” Delta mused. She focused on the kidney-stone pain and found there was a slight feeling of... flowing. She followed it for a moment to find it vanished into a swirl of chaotic magic that made her normal mind hurt.

“Give me a sec,” she warned Alpha and Ruli before she exhaled and flipped on her ‘Dungeon’ mode.

The Dungeon, the people... the monsters... all of it dissolved into the ever expanding network of mana-motes. A network of connections that shifted like an ocean. From her domain, a constant drain of her energy was flowing to a growing tear in space.

Orange being converted to... a void.

No... not a void, a harshly scrubbed essence. It was like someone had run steel wool over a priceless piece of art. It was a loss. She tilted her head like an owl and the ocean of connections reformed like a giant orb of mana with Delta being the sun.

The space was a universe. Her bosses circled her, Fran the stalwart planet of sand and rising metal spires, roamed by a titanic boar.

Wyin was a verdant green planet that was overflowing with lush vines and the sweetest fruits on her surface, but the skys were blocked out by mile long thorns that leaked acidic fluids.

Jellagon was a tiny rock, barely more than a moon, but his gravitational pull was so absolute that the more ruin in this universe that occurred, the more rapid his moon would become a giant crowned storm planet.

All around her, lifeforms and forming fields of light represented all in her universe.

She looked around and saw Alpha, a massive galactic titan formed of stars around a central core, his form wreathed in a powerful robe, a sword in one hand and a staff in the other. He was outside her universe... yet inside it.

They should have clashed, but their efforts made them co-exist.

Between them, distant ripples in the dark could be felt... Delta saw something slashing at the dark with a keen edge, the hand holding it not visible... while in the other direction, a hydra with heads of a dragon, goat, dog, cat, fish, and more continued to roar, entwined in sickly roots which pointed the beast this way and that at the behest of some unseen puppetmaster.

Delta could only hold this state for so long so she focused on the white hole forming on the edge of her kingdom.

She reached forward.

---

The GPS hummed in its completed glory, a sleek silver oval formed by two metal fang-like pillars crossing over each other, the space in the middle peeling back like a curtain. Five crystals of purified Mana coated the pillars, the fifth at the very top.

No one saw... no one could see, the tinges of orange seeping into the pure whiteness.

The only thing that was noted was that the portal was extremely stable by Fairplay’s standards, a good sign they all told each other.

--

Delta inhaled and returned back to her normal senses. She couldn’t quite absorb the gate or do much since it was outside her Dungeon, but what she had done was quite simple.

Everyone who passed through the Gate would donate just a tiny portion of mana to the Dungeon.

This would begin their seed conversion process before they even stepped in the Dungeon. There was a slight hiccup in some of the ‘safety’ procedures, but Delta was confident that it was fine.

Absolutely positively, definitely sure...it was fine.

---

Caline watched the first of the proper teams of Fairplay arrive. Something was amiss, but he couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was exactly.

“Did HQ update the uniform to have summer shorts?” one of his fellows asked and Caline blinked and looked down at the men and women walking forward, oblivious to the fact their uniform had shorter sleeves and trousers.

It wasn’t just that... more than a few complained about the sudden experience of tighter, smaller garments.

“Portal gave me a damn wedgie,” one announced.

Why were their clothes shrinking in the portal?

160: A Royal Tribute

Waves lapped at her feet, the warm ocean environment of her newest floor only doing so much to distract Delta from all that was going on. Delta hugged herself as the people trailing into her Dungeon during the day were near non-stop. It was like her front door had been taken off its hinges and now her home was public property…

All the people from Fairplay had set up rotations, making maps, destroying her monsters to see what they would drop as loot, and in simple terms… were being pests.

The experience was akin to having ants crawling in her hair that Nu kept having to smack with a newspaper…

Not that Delta tried to look that much. Actual dungeon delvers weren’t fun to watch after experiencing Ruli, Deo, Kemy, and even Estal’s groups. It didn’t matter if her monsters returned after a time… Delta could neither bear to watch them suffer in any capacity nor the treatment they endured from the indifferent Fairplay folks.

But even factoring that in, Delta classified found that there were three ‘types’ of Fairplay people.

The first were the simplest and most common type to enter her Dungeon. They were the hired help, the people who wore the colors or the symbols but were here for the paycheck. They did the bare minimum, didn’t push too hard, and in general they lacked any impressive magical equipment or even the experience needed to get far.

Not quite adventurers, but not quite helpless.

More often than not, her goblins and rooms kept them at bay. Cois was eager for revenge and ended up giving more than a few some nasty burns to take back on the road with them. One group made it to Fera, who simply clobbered them with a chair.

The second were the previously mentioned Adventurers. Those were closer in style to Estal and Kemy’s groups. A tougher lot that often managed to reach Fran and Bacon with continuous success. They seemed to have joined up for access to the Dungeon but didn’t completely jive with Fairplay as people.

Not that they were angels, they seemed to be more thrill seekers and actively prodded each other to test monsters and traps. A lot of knives were stolen by Nu’s pop out sign because of their jumpy nature. They became even more skittish after running into Fran.

The first time this happened, they seemed to laugh at the idea of a goblin boss without a horde of minions to back it up. Swaggering up to the boss with swords drawn but hardly any tactics in place, they labored under the impression of Fran being ‘just a first floor boss.’ Delta greatly enjoyed their expressions when Fran demonstrated exactly why he was a strong independent goblin who needed no army.

As the thrashings continued and stories began to spread, people began to enter the boss room
with far more trepidation than before. That made Delta feel better. Fran and Bacon deserved some respect after everything.

However, something Delta noticed made her frown. These adventurers, their seeds, little pieces of the lost Little Brother in all people, were far more developed and Delta was truly worried she wouldn’t be able to purify them all due to the sheer volume being drawn to Durence. It was a little interesting to see the seeds in different states of growth and nature. They varied in dozens of levels of strength, but none came close to the level found in the people of Durence, such as Ruli or Deo. Even mana starved, Deo’s seed had been something else.

Aside from that, a lot of the groups had been low-tier mixed in with some hidden gems. Some had artifacts that looked as if they were mass produced in a magic factory, while others used custom equipment made to their specific mastery.

It was usually the latter that made it to the boss room. They understood the rules, allowing them some leeway which some used to skip some of the harder rooms while others learned to completely stick to non-lethal runs to see if that helped.

To Delta’s delight, a few even seemed to turn it into a badge of honor to make it to the boss room without actually beating any of her monsters, while still completing the room challenges. Nu informed her there was a rumor he heard the groups whisper about.

The secret challenge modes.

Delta tried not to think about poor innocent folk trying to flip that switch.
The third type was the most alarming, consisting of Fairplay’s inner members. These people
Delta dubbed as ‘Scrubbed.’ Their mana, their seeds, even their very being radiated an artificial light which reminded her of the buzzing hallway light in a hospital. Awash in pale dull white light.

‘Pure’ was not the right word. She had met Kemy and seen purity. This was like a favorite shirt that had gone through a wash one too many times and had completely faded.

A photograph whitened by time.

A soul eroded by purpose.

Delta shorthand called them ‘Scrubs’ to keep it simple.

These people had identical weapons, carbon-copy magics, cookie-cutter tools, and even more similar stances. They did not negotiate or bargain with Delta or her monsters. Whether it was a simple path with a goblin on it or a hellish road covered in lava, Fairplay Scrubs would sooner set themselves on fire than suffer a Dungeon monster to live. It was scary to watch the self-assurance of their spirits. Unbending until they snapped in half.

All the ones she saw wore a badge of sorts with a single silver finger touching an unsettlingly familiar round spherical object. If that was their goal…

Delta didn’t want these people touching her core.

She really didn’t want that.

The only upside was that whenever Delta felt bloated with the mana from all these people, almost ready to burst in pain… Ruli seemed to sense it and closed the Dungeon off to outsiders.

Delta heard from Hob and Gob that she got a lot of foul language for that and more than a few people had whispered she was a ‘Dungeon Simpleton,’ someone who apparently didn’t get that Dungeon’s were basically below everyone in the social hierarchy of rights.

Delta asked the goblins to point out anyone who did this to Ruli if they came into the Dungeon. ‘Somehow’ the difficulty mode for those people was automatically set to stage 3…

Still, the break was nice as it allowed Delta to splurge mana on things on her third floor like paintings or more rugs to give it more ambiance while she also spent some on her fourth floor, getting a gluttonous amount of shells, stones, and starfish for her island beaches.

“If this is how normal Dungeons get supplied, I’m not surprised Bro and Sis moved on to putting actual people in charge of a core. I’m barely scratching my fourth floor, and I can barely stop myself from turning them all into insane death traps,” she sighed, a hand to her chin.

“It’s not death traps, it’s ‘Natural Selection’s little helpers,’” Nu said casually as he drew up plans for the fourth floor, but all Delta could see on his ‘blueprint’ was a massive squid eating screaming Fairplay people.

“Nu, what if it gets worse? I feel itchy with them on my first floor, how will I feel when they hit my second, then third? It’s… bearable, but what if I want to nap or think… or just be alone for ten minutes?” Delta explained as they both sat on the beach on the fourth floor, basking in the radiant fake sunshine.

“I’ll stop being sarcastic for a moment and put aside the easy answer of ‘make them afraid’ and say… treat them like your squishy human nose,” he suggested as the squid on his blueprints gained laser beams mounted on each arm.

“My nose?” Delta repeated, bemused.

“Sure. You see it all the time - but you don’t. The mind adapts, and you’re not just human, you’re Dungeon too. Dungeons are designed to have that feeling as normal. People are just boogers on your nose - faze them out,” he went on blithely.

Delta pondered that as she stood up off her sand castle throne and began to walk on the ocean surface.

“Faze it out…” she muttered.

He made it sound so easy.

“I’m happy to let loose my ‘Mecha-bone-kracken MK.XIV’ and cull them if you prefer?” Nu called.

“Nose… nose… nose!” Delta tapped her head as she walked.

Delta was a people person, she enjoyed interacting with people, watching them grow into better people as they helped Delta be a better person. But if the people coming to her little safe haven were all intent on being unreasonable, she might have to take breaks from them. Boundaries were just as important as work.

A work email arriving at 4.59pm on a Friday can wait until Monday.

Delta nodded to herself, accepting this as her truth now. If people didn’t respect her boundaries, Delta wouldn’t respect their property, pride, or personally held beliefs that involved hurting others.

Fair was fair.

She paused as a group made it to Fran and Bacon, the leader of this particular group of Scrubs was a little more washed out than others. On his chest was the same badge but had two fingers around the orb.

Delta snorted to herself.

She had lived long enough to see herself become a dreaded mythical creature. Delta had become so unreasonable to handle that she had summoned a manager.

With a thought, she moved to the boss room to see the white sands and colosseum-style edges ignite with flames from the nearby sconces as the entertainment got started. The doors opened outwards to reveal the hall connecting to Fera’s bar. Delta took a look to see how they got past Fera unscathed when she saw the Goblin maiden was busy on the third floor with troll cooking.

Ah. Dumb luck.

The five-man group didn’t really feel like people so much as a homogenous crowd. Any unique features such as hair color or eyes or even mannerisms seemed to be held in check by their practiced emotionlessness and uniform.

Said uniforms looked a little… tight on them. Delta whistled innocently to herself as she took a seat firmly on Fran and Bacon’s side of the room.

Another downside to all this activity was it was quite hard to make minor adjustments to the first floor due to the constant outside interference of the people, so when they began to figure things out that Delta hadn’t quite intended, such as if they used water magic in the mushroom grove, it overgrew, trapping Boary somewhat to allow quick escape with little challenge.

The storeroom could just be blitzed from outside with the use of explosions, rendering Merry’s available tools down to nothing, but they had not found Maestro’s tunnel just yet. It seems that the Fairplay officer was still keeping the secret to herself.

All in all, her first floor had some issues that hadn’t been revealed until now thanks to the volume of people trying to get creative.

It was something she’d have to work on.

She wondered if she could make a mini-boss that would grow if it got wet for the grove? Like one of those neat dinosaur sponge toy things?

Wait… she could just make dinosaurs on another floor?

Her menu pinged the request to Sis which returned a ‘would you like to?’

Delta put a pin in that for later.

She watched as her first floor boss Fran strode in on Bacon with a quiet power to him. The room’s enchantments worked into place, and Fran soon seemed to gain strength within himself, but Delta noticed something.

Unlike the other groups, one of the members seemed exhausted, tired… weak. He was no fighter, but his ink stained fingers reminded Delta of writing reports.

But why? Why was that a familiar sensation?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The simple fact was that Fran grew stronger to the average power of the group coming into his room, meaning he should always be a challenge up to a point, but now Fairplay had brought a very weak person with them… and by the rules of averaging things out?

Fran wasn’t as tough as he could be.

“Did they figure the trick out, or did they get lucky?” Delta mumbled to herself as Fran offered them clemency, but as before, the group ignored him to spread out around the second-ranked officer whose rapier looked…

Different.

Delta eyed the weapons and felt a little horrified.

It looked to be a magical weapon summoned forth by the man, but from what Delta saw, the tool was his seed , himself, in a manner. How on Earth did they learn to not only control the seed, but push it into submission like this without a Dungeon?

It was also a little wrong to see something like someone’s seed being used like a tool of battle. Delta could only liken it to someone using their dismembered hand as a weapon while still bleeding from the stump.

It was half as long as the man’s body, but instead of metal, it looked to be made of some sort of wood at a distance, but when Delta peered closer, she saw it was closer to a crystallized tree branch.

Between the strength manipulation and the odd weapon, the uneasy feeling in her chest grew. The only thing good about the whole thing was that the people’s seeds were pretty much inert or transmuted. If there was any trace of the Little Brother left, Delta could not sense it with either her human mind or Dungeon senses.

“Have at thee,” Fran thundered as Bacon stomped the sand before charging, his stead picking up speed as it rushed forward, kicking more sand up in his wake. The group didn’t scatter like the more inexperienced groups, but held their posture, two of them lifting lances to create a death wall if Fran continued to charge.

Normal people wouldn’t push Fran back with simple lances, but these were neither normal people nor did they have simple tools.

Fran made Bacon swerve, sending a cloud of sand over the intruders to distract them as he brought his own lance down to bear. One of the people tried to counter with the shaft of his spear, but while they may be better than normal folks…

Fran was still a boss monster; Delta’s boss monster at that.

The spear snapped, and the man suffered a nasty gash down his front before Bacon turned and donkey-kicked him across the field, sending him out of bounds. Delta was a little worried about his health, but one of the others had used a sort of pale healing magic that felt almost without faith and more… purpose.

It didn’t wake the man up, but he wouldn’t die. Delta would need some sort of stasis or healing effect to keep people from dying as a fight went on. If the people couldn’t get medical aid or were unaware of their ally’s plight then Delta would have to step up her game and do it herself.

The second-ranked officer swung his odd weapon, and when Fran’s lance clashed with it, there was a disorienting warble in the air that sounded like a tuning fork being abused. The impact was almost visible, and the force pushed Fran back and gave the man grounds to push his attack.

Delta watched as Fran’s lance seemed to almost lose physicality for a moment before the mana reasserted itself.

Delta stood up as Nu pinged her from the second floor, demanding updates.

The officer struck again with two of his companions raining fireballs and arrows down on either side, forcing Fran to retreat or charge.

Fran did not retreat.

They clashed again and this time, when the man struck Bacon’s side, the cut spread out like frost coating a surface. The Dungeon mana holding Bacon together became weak and some of its strength was sapped.

Delta’s heart dropped. Anti-Dungeon weapons? Anti-Mana tools?!

Made from seeds of the Little Brother?

Just as this began to feel unfair, Fran hooked his lance under the man’s foot and toppled him, sending his weapon skittering away for a second before the sands slowed it down. It seemed they weren’t expecting actual combat skills from Fran more than bash and charge.

“Knight Rush!” Fran cried, activating some skill that he had been practicing. Blinking, Delta watched as the secondary core inside Fran began to pulse, feeding him Mana that was mostly Delta’s but also a little unique flavor of his own.

Delta really had so much to keep a track of, and Nu was a horrible secretary.

Fran vanished before teleporting to one side of the arena and dashed across it in a flash of light that sent waves of sand parting like waves and the air to rush past. He stopped, then he repeated this trick two more times, rendering the mage and one of the spearmen unconscious.

“Field lines! Adapt! Central position, eyes to east and west!” the officer yelled, a little more panicked now as he scrambled for his seed-rapier.

Fran’s luminous eyes turned to where Delta was sitting, awaiting her judgment like a royal knight seeking permission from his queen.

With dramatic flair, Delta put her hand out in front of her, thumb sticking out sideways.

The thumb was turned downwards.

“Knight Rush Extreme.”

Five lines erupted in a star formation across the stage, leaving smoking lines in the sand and the end of Fran’s lance glowing cherry red.

Fran looked down at the terrified ‘fighter.’

“I’m just a receptionist,” he pleaded to the goblin boss.

“Take your lunch break, scribe - and make it a long one,” Fran rumbled, and the man fled the room, screaming.

The seed-rapier flickered out of existence and Delta could only stare at the sand that had been touching it, a dead gray inert mass that had to be replaced slowly.

It was too crucial for the second-officer to take it. It’d be akin to performing soul lobotomy with toothpicks.

But… she eyed the fallen man and smiled. There was something she could try.

“Mother… that look is the worst thing I’ve faced today,” Fran muttered as he watched Delta move closer to the fallen men.

“Shush, Fran. I’ll do my thing, you shake their pockets out,” she instructed the boss.

“…shinies… I like shinies.”

---

“You’re staring,” Mas said. Princess Serma turned to him with a blink, then flushed a little.

“Apologies, Mas. I’ve just never seen such… such…” she struggled to find the right word for the scene before her of three men holding a fourth upside down over a keg as the man turned blue from the lack of oxygen, but not alcohol.

“Festivities,” she concluded with grace. The tavern of the small town was fascinating as they had straw on the floor, a door leading to the stables to toss drunks, an outhouse, and more.

Nearby, Lorsa sipped a tiny glass of something she told Serma was ‘lemonade but fun.’ She blended into the shadows far too well for it to be an accident.

Serma had not often been out of the castle and never had she been outside the capital in such fashion, everything was new when it came to the people. Disguised mostly in ‘snooty but not snob’ clothes as Mas described it, Serma was an oddity but not too likely to stand out.

“If you wanna do a stand, I can arrange it, but it’s not fun or tasty. I prefer fruit juice!” Mas said brightly and Serma gave him a small smile.

When she was queen, she’d plant a grove of fruits from around the world for him. Lorsa gave her a thumbs up from behind Mas, the meaning of which Serma couldn’t decipher at all.

Still, when she knocked down her father’s tomb and buried him in a pauper’s grave instead, there’d be plenty of space for a few gardens.

Hm… no, she’d be doing her best to eliminate the poverty that gripped the city’s lower quarter, so pauper graves would be out of style.

A ditch, then.

“What’re you thinking about?” Mas asked around a leg of lamb.

“Oh, delicate princess things,” she said airly.

“I can listen, I don’t mind,” he promised. “Do you think I will be a good…” she lowered her voice, “queen?” she asked her knight.

Mas didn’t even stop chewing.

“Yep,” he replied instantly.

“How?” she pressed, needing to know what was going on in his head other than breathing and eating. The boy was rich with wisdom if he just shared his thoughts more.

“Same way I know the sun rises every morning or water is wet or good food is awesome. You just will be… just are,” he shrugged.

Lorsa downed her drink and gestured for three more glasses from the bar, eagerly.

Serma felt a warmth in her chest she hadn’t had since she was younger.

“I believe I can be that queen you think I am - if you’re by my side,” she whispered to Mas.

“We’re sitting next to each other. I’m definitely by your side,” Mas said brightly as he offered her his spare leg of lamb, dripping in some gravy. Lorsa buried her head into her hands.

Serma stared at the leg of lamb, then took it without grace or manners and bit into it.

It was overcooked.

But as long as she was sharing it with Mas, it was delicious.

Later, when she got too warm, she stepped outside for a moment, not wanting to bother Lorsa or Mas’ eating match over more lambs. They were like wild animals gnawing on bones, and Serma needed fresh air.

She exhaled as she went to check on the carriage, but stopped as someone put a knife to her throat from behind.

“Your loving sibling sends their regards,” the man hissed. Serma struggled, kicking back and making the man kneel over for a moment, and she got only a few steps back when he grabbed her long hair.

She was only half-way to Durence, so close to being the queen! Having a long reign of prosperity with Mas! She slammed her hands back, and the man cried out as something cracked in his chest before she reached to her side and slashed her hair down to her head, freeing herself finally.

She turned in rage, but the man… was simply gone. Strands of her hair fell gently, raining down on a curious orange slime that was staring at her wide eyes.

“Did… you see where he went?” she panted and the slime just burped cutely.

He must have fled, fearing he took too long. Serma sighed as Lorsa crashed through the tavern wall in rage, a second assassin in her hands.

She stopped when she saw Serma with the slime.

“I got one too!” Mas yelled as he held up an unconscious imp creature.

“He tried to murder my steak,” Mas announced. He stopped when he saw Serma, and she felt dread in her stomach. Her hair… she must look horrible in the gloom and low light and even worse during the day.

“I’m here,” he said, coming close and moving to her side as he promised before.

“Poi!” the slime said. Mas gasped.

“It’s orange! We should cook it in a soup! Slimes are full of nutrients! An orange one must taste super weird and healthy!” he told Serma as Lorsa had gone pale.

The slime looked up at him and simply burped again.

“M-master… Dur..ence…” the imp croaked in his ‘sleep.’

Serma picked the slime up and hugged it. It felt warm.

“Let’s pay for the damages and leave,” Serma said quietly, putting the slime over her shoulder as it seemed to be highly affectionate.

---
Lorsa watched as the hulking monster king’s aura was compressed into a small form before it coughed out a boot with a foot still inside it, the princess and her knight blissfully unaware of the process.

This had… gotten complicated.

Real fast.

161: Upping the Game

---
“Night cycle purchased! Each island now has its own unique time of day!”

“Sea bottom purchased! Large trenches will be formed as bottomless holes!”

“Ebb and Flow tides purchased! Occasional paths between the islands will be open depending on the time of day rather than each island’s challenge.”

Delta hummed merrily as she purchased a couple more islands, filling the vast ocean with more landmasses and interesting shapes. There was a moon-shaped island, a star, a sword… and one island that looked like a doughnut with a bite taken out of it.

As well as an island that looked like a splatter of jam.

The fun thing about the fourth floor was the stairs from the third spiraled down into the middle of the floor, so there was no real ‘end’ to the level. Delta was coming up with a grand idea of what she wanted this floor to do.

Floor one was a simple path with some choices. The second was all about open-ended exploration. The third was an invasion-style tour. So, she wanted the fourth to be closer to a treasure hunt, but didn’t want it to feel too similar to the second floor, which is where most of her thoughts now laid.

Pondering this, she tapped her chin and tried to recall what made water levels good… and what made water levels bad in her experience. She had flashes of a blue temple… water needing to be drained… filled… platforms that rose…she twitched for a moment before sealing those sinister memories away under ‘traumatic childhood moments.’

Oh, hey… she was getting pieces of her childhood back.

Back on track, she reckoned the bad things were narrow spaces, filling and draining puzzles, inability to use your cool powers in the water, air gauges… and stuff like that. Also the occasional unkillable sea monster.

The good was the exploration, the feeling of a lot to discover, and the experience of a new sort of world.

It took her a moment to notice she was ocean-walking again, a new habit for her since she made the fourth floor. Something about being in the water was soothing… as long as Delta knew exactly what was in the water with her.

Tales of sea serpents or massive lake monsters always gave her the shivers. She did not like unseen threats… but oddly, the dark didn’t bother her in the same way.

What lurked below could remain below in her opinion.

At that thought, she paused to blink down at the lapping water.

“What lurks below?” she repeated as an idea occurred to her in a burst of inspiration.

If she found being under water soothing, why not others?

She quickly brought up her menus and began to swipe through different purchases and upgrades until she found what she wanted.

“Subterranean tunnels that connect the islands to a single point below. These tunnels can be made out of

- Cheap rock with no view. Cheapest option.

- A coral like structure that sometimes allows a view. Medium price.

- A perfectly crafted tube of glass-like material that can easily resist deep sea pressure. Grants full view and is most memorable. Expensive.

Once purchased, a new ‘room’ will be constructed under the sea, which all the tunnels will connect to. This room is invisible unless up close.”

If Nu wanted to fill the ocean with big scary monsters, Delta wanted a magic underwater palace. She could imagine it now, the tunnel bending low enough for the glittering building to be seen within some sort of air bubble and the majestic glowing corals and-

She took a deep breath to cool her rabid excitement. Getting too worked up now would stifle her creativity later. It was good to have a plan, but she would rather be ‘doing’ than ‘planning’ for too long.

She still needed the islands up top to be organized before her idea could come to fruition. No islands… no sea tunnels… no magic underground palace of wonder.

A sudden notification appeared before her.

Fera the Barkeep has been defeated. Respawn in 3 hours.

What?

She reread it a few times, each time in even more disbelief. Delta couldn’t believe what she was reading. Fera was… a rock, an unmovable fact of the Dungeon. Nothing yet had even come close to harming her. She quickly zoomed to the first floor to find the tavern in black ash and smoldering smoke. A group of wary Fairplay scrubs peered in, explosives on hand that bore Cois’ symbol.

They had simply leaned in and bombed her, using all her alcohol and mixtures as fuel that caused an almighty explosion of sorts that destroyed everything within.

“Cowards!” Delta flailed, trying to kick them in anger, but they ignored her as most people did, walking through her and the ashes of one of the happy places Delta had made to welcome people.

She rushed over to look, but the only thing remaining of Fera was a cast-iron ladle she dropped as a loot. The Fairplay people ignored it once one of their mages deemed it ‘a chef’s enchantment of sorts.’

They didn’t even respect Fera in death.

Delta swallowed hard once but did her best to cool her anger. It felt a little like shoving a cork in a volcano, but she managed it with a deep exhale. Slow breaths that she used to center herself.

This… this was going to keep happening until the point she was trying to make got across.

She turned to see them doing something odd before Fran’s boss room, putting on identical arm bands of sorts. A lot of things happened all at once, and Delta winced as all the people gave off a flash of mana that expanded before rapidly contracting. The process was akin to a flashbang to Delta’s eyes, and she needed to spend a minute blinking stars away as she took a moment to regain her composure.

By the time she was good to go, the fight had already begun with Fran at one of his weakest states Delta had seen in a long time. She was utterly confused because the men were not weak at all! There radiated a lot of that pale mana!

It took only a few seconds to narrow in on the cause.

It was those armbands, they seemed to drain or suppress the body’s mana, causing the people to nearly succumb to mana poisoning before the fight started, and then they snapped the things off once the fight was off.

Fran didn’t have an overtime strength adjuster, just one that added power if new people joined the fight from the stands!

Delta ran forward in time to see Bacon upended with strikes. The group was entirely made up of second rank officers using more Seed-Weapons. An ax, a sword, a lance… all of them crooked in wrongness and mutilation.

They were easily outpacing Fran now with barely any teamwork, and Delta closed her eyes. She was tempted to let him go Captain Fran, his supermode, to exact revenge, but… she wanted to keep that in reserve for when they brought in some real monsters.

Not these cheaters.

Fran flicked his eyes to her and seemed to send approval. He did not want to waste his true form on unworthy wretches such as these either.

“Glory… to Mother!” Fran gave a last hurrah as he shot forward while glowing a mix of orange, blue, and a little green. The attack landed, and with skill, Fran managed to badly wound one of the scrubs, to their shock.

Fran stumbled back as the man fell backwards, shock on his face as he passed out from the shock of the blow.

“May you heal quickly so your filthy cheater blood doesn’t fall on mother,” Fran grunted before he was brought down by quick strikes. Delta closed her eyes and made sure Fran made it to the infirmary on the third floor. A little pen had even been set aside for Bacon.

The men looked down over the helmet and bacon themed shield dropped as loot, mocking their appearance as ‘savage.’ They didn’t take them.

Honestly, Delta was confident they didn’t deserve any treasure.

They were cheering in comradery as the men entered through the exit boss door to the next floor. The stairs are waiting for the ‘victors’ to move on in their soft glowing curved steps that seemed to rise with hot air from the jungle below.

Delta wiped her eyes with her fingers before setting her expression into one of grim satisfaction.

The first floor? It had nothing on the sheer viciousness of the second when the difficulty modes were active.

For one… there were a lot more Pygmies loose at once.

And for the first time? Delta wasn’t going to make them play nice.

There was also an added feature of the higher difficulties of the Jungle… the more the rank of danger increased… the darker the jungle grew.

Right now, the second floor was awash in the setting sun of dusk, the long shadows hiding slithering snakes, watching frogs, and little demons.

Delta was sure she could nudge it to be a little darker.

All the better to see horrible people in white uniforms.

Like walking target practice for her innocent little… fanatical… flock.

“Welcome to the Jungle,” Delta said softly as she watched the boss doors close behind Fairplay.

And to add a little spice to things?

Delta was going to tell Wyin what they had just done to Sir Fran.

---

The rock was old… Moss covered some of the lines of words, and cracks appeared on the sides occasionally from odd blows, but despite that, the rock felt almost holy in its appearance. Like a relic of some older times. Argus could only stare at it in silent thought.

“Young Master Gentle, taking the lay of the land?” came a soft spoken man that made Argus wince internally. He knew that voice.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Ser Caline, I didn’t know you were in town… but I guess the portal was being set up,” he said before turning with a terse bow. The man’s alabaster skin looked off in Durence’s sunny disposition, but that just showed how far up in the ranks the man was.

“Also… I’m just Petty-Scout. Who raised me has no bearing on my role today,” Argus murmured. Caline shook his head as if Argus’ words were foolish, but not unexpected.

“Except it will… Every promotion, every squad, every mission will be cast out with the words ‘that is Ripdoy’s boy,’” Caline commented as he came to see what Argus had been looking at.

The stone monument that seemed to be the centerpiece of the town, a massive boulder with dozens of comments carved in honor of the town’s namesake. It looked to have been put here before any building had ever been erected.

“Durence…” Argus muttered, the name sounding familiar, but he couldn’t put it to words. It was the name of the town, but it was also something else…

“Saint Durence,” Caline said calmly as if simply repeating a well-known fact as he read the comments, amused at some and saddened at others.

At Argus’ blank stare, Caline sighed with a hand to his chin.

“You must be more learned of the world, young master. You don’t need to be an expert hand at politics, far too many kingdoms to be bothered with such a thing, but it would behoove you to know about the names that shook history in this land at least,” he said in a way that made Argus feel like an infant.

“Durence is important, then?” Argus reasoned aloud. The man did have a town named after him, to be fair.

“The man who-would-be king who discarded the throne and left it to his brother, including the bride he would wed… yes, one would think that. Durence Verluan was an interesting man, if only for the lack of better words to describe him with,” Caline said simply. Argus blinked again, trying to process that.

“Why would… someone just give up being a king to die here in the middle of nowhere?” Argus asked with some incredulity.

Caline’s calm expression tightened ever so slightly. Given his stoicism, this was something akin to a lip curling in disgust.

“He went, like all Verluan royalty, to gain the crown of the Dungeon. He returned addled… stories say he accused his father of malicious magic… cruel intentions. He said that he could not settle for ‘merely lending his power to one kingdom, but all the world.’ Then he set off with no treasure, no guards, and no right to return. He died as he deserved. Without a body to bury, and under a rock in a hovel,” Caline concluded with ease.

“You think the Dungeon made him mad?” Argus said slowly.

“Dungeons will do anything to secure their win. Making the king-to-be go insane with promises of glory or such would not be below it. Still, the man tried to contact the current king despite his crime of abandoning the kingdom. He dared plead for an army of all things. I heard it ended poorly on all sides. Fairplay was not involved, as the royal family do not… see a need for our talents yet,” Caline told Argus with a wave of a hand and turned, nearly bumping into the odd elder from Miss Mila’s home.

His name was… Haldi?

“Yes?” Caline asked casually as if he had no desire to converse with the gap-toothed cheese-covered old man.

“His name was Durence. Not Saint Durence. Not King-to-Be. And definitely not ‘Durence Verluan,’” the elder said quietly, taking a step for each name he said aloud.

“And you would know him personally?” Caline asked as if this was a joke.

“Aye, I should. We ran away together that night. The Wizard and the Prince. Oh, we inspired many maidens’ fantasies with that caper, but trust me when I say that I loved that man as dear as any brother. So. I will say this once out of politeness since Durence was always a peace-maker,” Haldi said and squared up to Caline.

“Keep his name out of your mouth, boy,” Haldi said simply.

“Hard to do so when the town shares his name. But I do not take orders from you. Unless you wish to set up some council to have me banished, I think our talk here is concluded,” Caline decided and walked past Haldi.

Haldi turned his chin ever so slightly.

“You know, some people would say I’m cheesy on the eyes, but for you, I think a little reminder of what town you are in is needed,” Haldi concluded to himself. He threw his hand out, and Argus felt an intense pungent mana rise up all around from the ground… the buildings… the air…the cheese nearby?

“A fool I do see, hear my words and bend the knee. For every time you mention Durence, a curse to you from me. So… let it brie.” the Wizard said, and Argus took a step back as the curse smashed into Caline, utterly obliterating the anti-magic protection weaved into his fourth-ranked uniform.

“You can curse… in cheese?” Argus squeaked out in some terror. Haldi licked his lips.

“Cheese fits into any magic. It’s one of the primordial elements really,” he said casually.

What? No, it wasn’t!

Caline stumbled and turned, fire in his usually cold eyes.

“How dare you! If you think I will be cowed into not saying Dure-” he began and stopped abruptly. Haldi smiled with an expectant look. A block of cheese forced its way out of Caline’s mouth as if being eaten in reverse. Caline’s eyes bulged as the block landed on the ground.

“At least now, when you open your mouth, someone might benefit,” Haldi said gruffly.

Caline snarled and opened his mouth to argue.

“Also, it’s not always your mouth,” Haldi threw in as he casually patted the monument rock with affection.

“Is… it permanent?” Argus asked, if only because Caline was one of his father’s men.

“Eh it’ll fade… in a year? Maybe two? I didn’t put much power into it, honestly,” Haldi assured him with that wide-gapped smile.

“That’s a long time, I thought magic was hard?” Argus admitted as Caline fled down the streets, the children around him trying to get him to say the name of the town. He saw Deo’s friend, Grim, leading the pack with a wicked orange tongue.

“Oh, if looks curd kill!” the boy laughed before freezing and looking furious with himself.

“To be honest, a lot of you upper Fairplay folk are so bland that the simplest of magics could land if it’s cast by anything but a Dungeon,” Haldi explained as he watched the scene as if he had the urge to join in poking at Caline.

Argus looked down to avoid meeting Haldi’s eyes.

“The cleanse after a Dungeon dive can be intense, but it greatly strengthens people’s resistance to mana poisoning and helps them resist contracts more,” he mumbled. He had… been avoiding his first cleanse for several reasons.

“What’s wrong with having a bit of Dungeon in you? Good for the immune system, I say! You lot are going to get knocked down by a common cold at this rate,” Haldi snorted.

Argus bit his lip, pondering on what to share… these people had been so open and simple with him.

“Dungeon mana affects something called a ‘Core’ that we all have inside ourselves. It exchanges our mana for theirs and alters our cores. So, Core Armaments forged at a higher rank are tainted and simply turn on the wielder if they use a Core Armament against a Dungeon that’s exchanged mana with them,” he said softly in case anyone was listening.

“And you need these because?” Haldi asked doubtfully as he crossed his arms.

“They’re universal tools. Once shaped, they become anathema to Dungeons. It doesn’t matter if it’s made of metal, slime, fire, or something else. The Core Armament cuts through them as mana. It crumbles defenses and stops regenerative effects of boss monsters,” Argus explained, feeling good now that he was giving something back to the townspeople.

“I’m not an archmage or even a merchant, but those sound far too good to be true,” Haldi commented as he led Argus back to his home.

“They aren’t perfect. You need a high level of cleanse, and it’s only done by those who truly don’t want anything else. Cleansing your core rubs off some piece of yourself for that power. A little warmth or personality. It also hurts a lot to form… to rip a piece of yourself apart to forge the Core Armament. I’ve been avoiding it, and I don’t want one,” Argus said quickly.

Haldi continued to look doubtful.

“Your man there looked a wee bit more than a ‘little’ cold,” he commented.

“Caline is different,” Argus said with a tight voice.

“He embraced the forging twice.”

---

The Seed-Weapon flashed as a dozen blow darts rained down on the group. The blade cut five… ten… then twenty darts in a single cleave, but the other thirty landed all across his back and caused the leader of the party to collapse in a heap on top of his comrades.

Delta stopped a built-in timer she had found in the system.

“4 minutes and 52 seconds,” she read aloud.

They had lasted not even five minutes on the second floor.

A second or two passed in silence as the army of Pygmies awaited instruction.

“Take them to be tossed outside. Mushy can do the lifting,” she instructed, but then, as they began to move, she remembered what they did to Fran.

“Also, check their pockets, then take their clothes,” she added with little sympathy.

“Pale Threads!” a Pygmy cried, holding up one of the knocked out Scrubs’ brown hair.

“Threads!” they all cried. They turned to Delta as one and seemed to give her a begging look.

She smiled.

“Oh… alright, take their ‘threads’ too,” she said. Delta was such an enabler. It was really a problem.

162: Ya need a Yattina

A slight excitement tinged the air inside the large gray building and loose cloth, which contained around forty people. The portable construction was only allowed when Fairplay could prove that it was a ‘camping’ facility and not a permanent fixture of the land. A little loophole that allowed the company to actually set up beds, infirmaries and places to relax in the most unkind of frontiers. It went a long way to ease the burdens on their body and mind.

The only downside was they had to build it on the other side of the village; either side of Durence seemed to give rise to treacherous hills covered in trees, and beyond the Dungeon was an even bigger mountain that fresh water bubbled down from. The walk to the Dungeon could either be a few minutes or an hour depending on the mood of the villagers.

The number of ‘surprise’ markets that sprung up or streets appearing and disappearing on known paths was becoming a bit alarming.

The meeting had been called as a matter of protocol. Many scout leaders, warriors, and others weren’t happy to be here, but they knew better than to argue with the person arriving through the portal soon…

The only one who had no issues with the portal.

In the middle of the room, two tables stood side by side. On the left was a mostly filled-in map with flags and markers pointing to different symbols on it. The second table had a mostly empty piece with only stairs and trees visible.

All noise ceased when someone walked into the room, chewing on a pen and looking perky. In one hand, she carried a glowing orb that could be mistaken for a Dungeon Core. The newcomer was speaking into it as she walked.

“This begins the first weekly meeting of the Durence Dungeon expedition. For official records, this is the 44th Dungeon the company has tackled,” said a lead figure who stepped between the two maps. Her white uniform denoted three fingers on her badge, but unlike most others of her rank, she remained a healthy color and seemed upbeat. She was still speaking into the orb.

“For recording purposes to be sent back to HQ, this is Yattina Halenuo Congord Flimina of Research Squad 5! For ease of listening, I will be responding to Doc Yat for short. This is either an endearing name the fieldworkers have given me, or perhaps an insult; I am not too sure yet!” she said into a glowing sphere that seemed to be buzzing each time she spoke.

She paced around the table as a few men met her gaze and a few of them avoided it, perhaps because of how intense her gaze was, unashamed as her curiosity burned.

Yattina didn’t mind, she was used to people avoiding her. It did make her unsure of how to eat around others, since she never had people to have lunch with.

“For posterity and to answer why everyone is here, I shall give a short reminder of what the Research Department does in Fairplay,” she began, and there were more than a few groans, which she heartily ignored.

A good dose of education should always be welcomed!

“Each of the five departments of Fairplay perform a unique function for the overall performance of the company. Scouts are our first heroes into the unknown and the most at risk; through their efforts, the Blades can encroach into a Dungeon with more knowledge,” Yattina went on as more than a few people nodded at the few scouts in attendance.

“Once the Blades have gained a hold of the Dungeon’s behaviors and routines, the Research team steps in to assess what the Dungeon does and produces in order to help the local economy survive and adapt to the new environment. This leads into what the Dungeon might become and how best to manage it,” she said before looking around with an encouraging smile. She got a few grimaces back. They’d appreciate this one day… soon.

Hopefully.

“The fourth department, the Mentors, won’t be present until we have a hand on the Dungeon as they are established to make Dungeon adventuring as smooth as possible for those seeking a yet higher challenge to improve their cores. They also handle the business ventures that keep us all afloat and with fresh bread in our bellies,” Yattina brushed her blond hair back and adjusted her glass eye for a moment.

“The last department is the Seasons. I shan’t need to describe them much. These are our heroes, our elite. If any other department struggles, they will step in to provide aid. They are powerful, resourceful, frighteningly smart or savvy-” Yattina admitted as someone cleared their throat.

“And hot as hell,” they shouted, getting a few laughs.

“Yes, yes… the Maidens of Seasons have been known to be pleasing to the eye as well. Their knights are no slouches either,” Yattina sighed to the various jostling and jeering. She had met one or two of the Seasons before.

The term ‘in a different world’ seemed to aptly describe them. They weren’t rude or cruel… but they didn’t seem to move in the same way as people did. No hesitation, no doubt. No thoughts of could be or might be.

They were quite rightly named forces of nature.

“This Dungeon is not normal.” Yattina said flatly, pushing past more comments on the Seasons’ appearances. Her tone contained a reprimand, and all joking stopped abruptly.

“Dungeon biology and methodology are education courses unto themselves, and I won’t go into them other than to outline where this Dungeon deviates,” Yattina said as she brushed a hand along the wooden table which the maps rested upon.

“Dungeons consume Mana and matter outside their domain to increase their own. This would make them parasitic in nature if not for the fact that they strengthen the world around them with infused Dungeon Mana. Allowing life to form more easily, the land to become more stable, and even smaller positive benefits I could list,” Yattina said, and she was a little annoyed that more than a few of the attendees at this little progress meeting seemed unaware of that factoid.

When would they stop enlisting outside help without a mandatory education introductory course?

“Like the rings of a tree, a Dungeon can be measured by how many floors it has obtained. Each floor costs the Dungeon more and more resources to produce. It’s not uncommon for new Dungeons to struggle to break through 5 floors if they are formed in a remote area. The highest recorded floors produced by a Dungeon in the world used to be, according to records, a massive subterranean cavern in the world which abruptly collapsed itself. This hole was later the perfect place for the World Tree to grow,” Yattina hummed and blinked as a gangly teen with an unfortunate nose that squinted one way raised their hands to ask a question.

Yattina could offer to re-break and set it? Would that endear her to the boy?

“Yes?” she asked the uncertain lad.

“How many floors did it have? What was its name?” he asked, finding his voice towards the end. Yattina liked inquisitive minds. Not many were found in the Scouts or the Blades due to their incessant need to mangle their own souls for cheap power.

After all, books had more power than all the weapons in the world! They cured Yattina’s desire to throw herself off the nearest cliff in her younger years.

“A thousand floors, if you could imagine it,” she said wistfully, getting a sharp intake of breath from the gathered people.

“If we’ve translated it right, and you must understand that our older languages were still massively divided, unlike today in which we have East, Common, and West tongues, then the name of the Dungeon could be read one way as ‘The King of the World,’” Yattina said slowly, trying to dredge up old memories of studying.

It had been some of the best years of her life.

“However, due to mistranslations and a missing use of grammar, another translation could be closer to ‘The Brother’s Path,’” she said patiently.

There was silence at this.

She looked around, surprised.

“What, did no one know that one of the two creators of our world was the original Dungeon Core before all others?” she asked exasperated. How did they think monsters came to roam the world?

Happy little accidents?

“…Are we Dungeon mobs?” asked one of the Blades, in existential dread.

Yattina pursed her lips.

“If only some of you could be so interesting,” she finally said before looking down at the map with a pleased expression.

“If only…” she repeated.

She put her finger on the room marked ‘Entrance.’

“We shall start with the first obvious deviation,” she announced to the group.

“It has 50 floors or something?” someone asked, sounding bored. Yattina felt a spike of doubt rise up in her. Was she boring?

Was she doing a disservice to how amazing this Dungeon was? She shook her head, trying not to look nervous.

“Not at all. It’s smarter than it should be… the Mana readings back up what the town’s people say,” Yattina said with a frown. “It only has four floors, but it doesn’t act like it,” she concluded.

“Yeah, I’ve seen Dungeons with 20 floors that don’t measure up to the madness that’s on the first floor,” a man stood up, looking mildly… greenish due to the ‘duck’ shoving a Gutrot mushroom into his mouth.

Yattina felt bad for the man. No one should have to endure the taste of Turtog’s lasting legacy.

“This could be a piece of evidence to the theory of evolution,” Yattina interrupted more objections. The general response was snickering and rolls of eyes.

The theory was not popular due to the fact that humanity had roughly decent logs back to the beginning of the world’s making. They were made in their human form and remained human.

However, other things have not remained so static. Monsters, animals, and even Dungeons have been showing signs of a shift.

“Fine!” Yattina held her hand up to stall the arguments. There was always a debater in every group, and she wanted this meeting to make progress before she died of old age.

“The entrance is code locked, but only in such a way that once the code is known, there’s nothing stopping it being shared. Honestly, I think it was just to keep random monsters out once it settled on a theme,” Yattina said as she put a stone tablet down to represent the entrance.

---

“It went A… B… triangle, upside down L?” one of them spoke up, sounding unsure. The other snorted.

“Triangle, Upside down L, B, A,” she corrected, and the door didn’t budge.

Nearby, Ruli and Quiss held their breaths as they tried another code. A bottle of expensive booze was on the line, and the longer they took, the more likely Ruli would win.

---

“The Dungeon entrance has two offering tables, which is perhaps the most modest I’ve seen Dungeon’s go once they start thinking. The golden fires of the capital Dungeon, the twin demands of the Twin Dungeons, the Ruby Dungeon that only accepts ‘beautiful’ things, and so on,” she hummed as she tapped the two table models with a smile.

Her eyes shifted over to the side room.

“This… however, is new,” she stated firmly.

“A kill room? Dungeons have them. That Ruby Dungeon you mentioned has a massive hourglass at the entrance. Each grain is someone it has killed,” someone spoke up dismissively. Yattina shot him a long look.

This is why the Research Department was needed.

“Then you are either blind, or as insensitive as a spoon. The feel, the design… the sorrow. It names people, it offers them not out of spite but in a peaceful place people can opt in to visit. It’s not shoved into our faces, forcing us to see it everytime we walk past,” she countered, and the man crossed his arms, unimpressed.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“It feels sorrow for who it devours as much as I felt sorrow for the sausage I had last night,” he glared.

“No one wants to hear about your conquests. Please apologize to the farmer whose pig you forced your company upon, and take an hour to do laps,” Yattina said without emotion, trying not to bristle like a cat. The man stalked off, but didn’t dare act out. Yattina was a third ranked member.

What she lacked in physical martial combat, she compensated for by grabbing his paycheck and waving it over a fire.

Some people wanted to die having the last word, truly… Yattina couldn’t imagine being so set in one’s way as to ignore evidence.

“There’s also the fact that while most Entrances should be safe, this one has… proxies,” Yattina said slowly, and more than a few people winced at her words.

----
Fairplay Expedition number 6:

“Mocking me, eh?” the sword-wielding woman sneered as she slashed at the accursed statue, looking down at them with that pitiful gaze. How dare it pretend to have emotions!

Dungeons only felt hunger and hatred. No different than a monster! She slashed at it. Daring to show names in, of all things, a ‘memorial.’ If this Dungeon were near her old village, would her sister’s name be on this thing?

“Go to hell!” she yelled, chipping her sword more than the statue until she felt… not alone. She turned slowly to see a giant mushroom with a frowning mustache.

“S-Stay back! I won’t hold back!” she warned as the creature eyed the nicks on the statue’s face and neck, then at her sword.

It slowly put down a pot with a price tag on it, a very odd-looking vase that was molded in such a way to look like a sagging wind instrument. It was also bright yellow.

“Your sister… tell me about her. I have a brother and sister too. I had more, but they did not make it,” it rumbled. She took a step back, sword shaking.

“We shall make a pot to remember her by, yes?”

The sword fell to the ground.

---

“Yes, well, she’ll recover once she stops crying over that pot. I’ve read that crying is good for the soul,” Yattina muttered as she drummed her fingers on the table.

“A wandering monster is not at all common for the first 10 floors, let alone the first, but so far, its only powers seem to be ambush and powerful physical attacks when provoked,” she announced, and then in a quieter voice, “and pot making that makes you cry. Further studies needed,” she muttered to her recorder orb.

“Now, we move on to the first actual room of this Dungeon,” she trailed her finger across the paper until it came to stop in a square marking with a spider model in it.

This room got a fair amount of gulps and fearful looks.

“Shorthand, I’ve heard the nickname for this room is ‘Wicked Webs.’ Dramatic, but given what can occur here…” the researcher trailed off with a troubled frown.

“We’ve even gotten some rewards for beating the room in two different ways, correct?” she asked aloud.

“I got some very nice socks for my trouble,” a giant of a man raised his hand, then showed off his web-silk embroidered socks with flowers on it.

Yattina did feel a bit envious of them. They looked fantastic and comfortable.

“Some groups persist in setting off the very obvious room guardian event by burning the webs. Signs warn you of this, the villagers warned you of this… I’m warning you of this. Stop upsetting the room, grab the berries, and just walk out the other side,” Yattina said loudly, sounding beyond tired as she put down a bunch of documents of journeys into the Dungeon that stopped in the first room.

---
Fairplay expedition number 9:

“Please, I don’t want to do the little teapot dance anymore!” the man wailed as high above, the ghostly spider made the four Blades twirl in a synchronized pattern.

“It burns, but in a good way! I never knew all those days I put into dodging Dungeon traps and boss mechanics would transfer to dancing!” exclaimed another as he spun.

Nearby, a court of spiders danced in various postures. The common theme was the ‘these two-legged buffoons dance like alcohol-drenched buffalo, and I laugh at them openly’ dance.

---
“We’ve lost at least three to the calling of dance, while more just developed a phobia of spiders,” Yattina said brightly as she read the reports.

“Results on the berries are… very promising. I am told they make a lovely pie, jello, lip balm, and lubrication,” she listed. She paused as people snickered.

“For the more complex machines we employ, you adolescent children,” she said waspishly.

Yattina did not want to think about those… things. The idea of the act alone made her queasy. So many things touch, and the fluids like sweat and body odor.

No. Yattina could feel her stomach heaving.

Yattina had been in love, but it had never resulted in any urge like that. Perhaps she was broken in some way?

But if she was broken? Yattina would celebrate that quirk and paint it up with colors.

Besides, if she didn’t have a partner in life, that just gave her more room for books.

Hm, books never demanded anything of her. Judged her… or accused her of being unable to love. They accepted Yattina when she was done with them for the day, happy to welcome her back once work allowed it.

Few people in her life could match that sort of companionship.

“The next room is the Lake-” she said, and someone actually screamed a little. Yattina looked up in surprise as someone tried to hide a duck feather they took from a pillow or some such. They had brushed it against a twitchy scout’s neck.

In the pause, someone stood up.

“Time for my patrol,” he said and Yattina raised her hand to stop him, but others stood up, excusing themselves from the meeting due to ‘bathroom break,’ ‘taxes,’ ‘a chronic illness called legmah,’ and one just said ‘I left the oven on.’

That left Yattina, the boy with the wonky nose, an embarrassed boy who looked familiar, and a handful of scouts in the meeting room.

“How did you break your nose?” Yattina finally asked, needing something to latch on to so as to hide her shame at the lack of respect she was shown.

“I tripped down the Dungeon stairs at the entrance!” he answered honestly.

…Yattina was going to need more books at this rate. She noticed how one of the scouts looked odd now that he was isolated, sort of sitting hunched in the corner, and Yattina wasn’t sure if he was a Blade or a Scout.

From under his big cap, she could see something odd. Poor man, he must have been force-fed Gutrots too, his only visible piece of flesh was his long bulging nose that was a deep green. His top half sloped to the left as if injured, and he adjusted it from the hip.

What fantastic motor skills. The Scouts (or Blades) were a hardy lot!

“I can sort that for you later,” Yattina said to the boy, then inhaled.

“Should I continue?” she asked and winced internally. She ‘should’ continue, not ask for permission. How on this world did she ever get promoted?

She smiled as everyone nodded excitedly.

She gestured to a large stack of papers nearly half her height with a duck figure on top.

“These are incident reports from one creature alone. Without a proper sensor to get a reading, we have named it ‘Danger’ she said, and the pile of reports wobbled dangerously.

“So far, we have lost close to twenty standard-issue daggers, three uncommon enchanted knives, and one rare dagger that we attempted to retrieve as the Dungeon did not absorb it. Perhaps as bait, or perhaps as a reward to its duck,” Yattina said excitedly. Such undocumented behaviour!

Oh, she could spend years going over this Dungeon!

“It likes knives?” one of the scouts asked, frowning.

“I think it likes chaos,” Yattina admitted.

“Is there any way to get past it? Sometimes the storeroom is locked, and the only key is by that duck,” the wonky-nose boy asked.

Yattina stared at the waiting group with a long look.

“Have you tried… giving it bread?” she offered.

“We could poison the bread!” one the remaining Blades perked up.

“No! Just give the damn duck some bread, and see if it lets you have the key! It’s simple bartering!” she said loudly.

“What about the giant catfish in the lake? What if it eats us?” the wonky-nose kid continued. Yattina turned, opened her mouth, and then closed it just as quickly.

“Come again?” she asked serenely.

“The giant fish in the lake. It’s bigger than a troll and then some,” the boy said earnestly. Yattina’s eyes slowly opened so wide that her glass eye fell out of the socket with a clatter, rolling across the ground, still looking shocked.

“W-Where… is the report?” she asked, voice trembling.

All the scouts and Blade pointed to the pile about Danger. Even the hip and cool one in the corner pointed, being mysterious by pointing last.

“The reports are room by room so we just tossed them in there,” someone said.

“The reports are incident… by incident,” Yattina wheezed.

“Oh… that’s going to make the Mushroom Grove pile really awkward,” someone muttered, and Yattina numbly walked after her eye, the enchanted thing rolling away cheerfully to explore the base.

“We were supposed to write reports?” the wonky nose kid asked the other boy.

Yattina was going to need the hard stuff tonight.

The hardback copy of ‘A Thousand Uses of Mermaid Oils.’

---

“You are sure you want this?” Delta asked slowly as Waddles eyed the construction of his new nest. The nest was now a large tent in the alcove, with knives sticking out of the wall around it, which made the lovely illuminated interior feel a little misleading.

There were short knives, long knives, curved knives, blunt knives, cracked knives, and more.

“Quack.”

“I don’t think I can agree to have them all on fire or dripping with acid,” Delta said slowly.

“Quack.”

“I mean, that isn’t too bad, but I think an electrical storm moving between the knives might upset the fish. It might hurt them,” she pointed out.

“Quack… quack.”

Delta brightened and clapped her hands.

“I can do that!”

Moments later, the knives began to shine as the fake moon on the ceiling came out from behind a cloud. The reflection caused a dazzling show to reflect across the lake, sparkling like diamonds. The sight was beautiful until you saw the light came from dozens of knives on the wall.

Waddles flapped his wings once, which was basically excitement for the duck. He went into his tent and fell asleep.

Delta smiled.

“So easy to please. Just a little chaos,” she said with a joke. She looked up at the wall of glinting knives and pondered if someone might misunderstand her intent.

It was very likely.

Still, Delta couldn’t regret her choices. She had… exploits to fix.

Lots of tiny little… exploits.

Step 1? A damn welcome mat for people to wipe their feet on. No one had any manners, and Delta could taste everything.

---

At the bottom of the steps, a large fuzzy brown doormat could be found.

On it in black letters was the phrase, ‘Wipe your feet, keep the smile.’

163: Divine Interpretation

Taking her time, she walked forward from the entrance, making sure her new doormat was slightly tilted so it would annoy some people on the way down. It would help them adjust to the fun later by breaking them on this little bother first.

Delta tried to be helpful.

The first issue Delta wanted to handle was Muffet. The Ghost Spider was amazing, but due to some ‘unfair’ practices used by Fairplay, she struggled. Such as some of the people using tactics that included using some sort of weight magic to prevent them from being manipulated by her webs.

Smaller fighters straight up had some sort of anti-crowd control spell they could use sparingly. It repelled foreign magic attached to their body, like Muffet’s web. That didn’t even account for the fact that while Muffet was one of the strongest monsters on the first floor, she was still from a time when Delta was still floundering with her second floor. A little upgrading wouldn’t go amiss.

“Is Muffet going to change?” Quee asked, the half-humanoid/half-spider asked with concern as he emerged from the spider room to greet her. Delta gave Quee a smile of reassurance. She tended to forget that sometimes when she focused on a task, her ‘intent’ could be sensed by her monsters.

“Change is good, but this is more like getting new socks than Muffet changing, herself. She’s just going to slip into something more comfortable,” Delta announced brightly. This made Quee go quiet for a moment.

“Should I change?” he asked. Delta blinked at him.

“In what way?” she responded as they moved into the spider room together, pausing to do the twenty-second long dance greeting to the many spiders.

Delta slipped on the third movement in the fifth stanza and accidently implied she had come to explode into chocolate. The spiders all had a good chittering giggle at this.

To think… Delta used to run screaming from these goofballs.

“Well… I used to be that woman. That spider queen,” Quee said slowly and Delta’s mind went blank for a second. Quee… remembered his past self?

“Would I be better going back to who I was? She was stronger than me… could do more things,” he asked, looking at his human-hands. The noise in the room went quiet as Muffet and the Royal Spider Court listened intently.

“Do you want to go back to being ‘her’ because you think it’s what you should be? To be valuable or useful?” Delta asked quietly as she bent down and her shirt creased a little as her long skirt brushed the ground, creating a little breeze.

Quee held his hands to his bare chest and bit his lip.

“I guess so. No one has found my gate and… you’re a woman too! Muffet is too… should I be as well? I don’t know,” he admitted. This had been on the spider-boy’s mind for sometime, it seemed.

“No, you don’t need to change again. Who you are now? The person (or spider) who you’ve become? That’s valuable and worth celebrating. You’re not useless simply because you haven’t been tested,” she smiled and brushed Quee’s hair back into a ponytail, allowing a spider to use a web to keep it up.

“I, for one, love who you’ve become even if you’re still figuring things out,” she promised and stepped back.

Quee smiled and inhaled once.

“I hope to meet some intruders soon and liquefy their insides in your honor! Master Maestro promised he’d make a unique battle theme for me! It’s going to have guitar riffs!” he said excitedly before scuttling to the berry tree to take one for a snack.

Delta would need to explain to the spider that she didn’t have much use for people melting on the inside Movement caught her eye, and Delta turned to the dark corner of the room. It was a familiar form. Mharia stared at Quee without her usual disdain for existence. She almost looked…

Ah. Delta knew that look.

She shook her head and turned back to Muffet who was waiting patiently.

“Let’s see what we can whip up!” she said, and Muffet gracefully bowed with her four legs curling around her body. Delta hummed as she opened up her menu. She stared at the mana limit bulging to near bursting.

Her DP was nothing to sneer at either thanks to Waddles’ new ‘hobby’ of knife collecting. She stopped humming as a brand new line appeared in the menu.

Muffet: Spidergeist Queen of the Web-Court
World Lore: The spreading rumors coming from this Dungeon speak of the White Dancer. An unseen room guardian found on the first floor. Tales from scared adventurers and delvers speak of their limbs being wrestled from their control, forced to dance for the amusement of spiders. The tales whisper that if one has a full set of ‘Royal Web’ garments made by this queen, they can obtain new powers and understand the secret language of the spiders.

Bonus: Seed drain rate increased by 2% when Muffet defeats adventurers. This bonus will be nullified if Muffet becomes defeated on an average run.

“…What?” Delta blurted out, taken completely aback Nu appeared as if summoned by her confusion.

“Oh… did that finally unlock?” he asked, his text on screen coming off as far too calm.

“Wah?!” Delta babbled, pointing at the World Lore with panic.

“It’s a feature, not a bug… I know it’s surprising, but they do exist. As people come in and explore, they share tales. People gossip, and stories spread. Now, seeds are the source of most adventurer’s powers, which we are to cleanse of Little Brother taint and replace with Bro and Sis Mana,” he lectured, and Delta stared at him. Nu was being all smug now since it was Delta on the back foot for once…

“But seeds are not inert cores of power. They’re interwoven with souls, hearts, wills… So if you supply such a seed with a challenge of an ‘unbeatable’ boss or challenge, the seed yearns to overcome it. It exposed itself more when face-to-face with that threat. Seeds want growth, as do their hosts,” Nu said and trailed off.

“They’re just gamers doing LARP,” Delta mumbled into her hands.

Just gamers-

---

“?”!!$$, I can see the handheld under the desk, come on now,” Delta said with a small smile.

THE.VOID put the thing away in his bag, looking WRONG.

“Sorry, Miss D.”

Delta just nodded. She had started learning a lot about video games to interact with the students. Sadly, a lot of what she was learning was a little dated…

And a lot of it was confusing. Why was one game titled fourth in the series here, but sixth in Japan?

What was ‘griefing’?

She still hadn’t figured out what Ligma was, but she felt she was getting close…

BeTA complained about having ligma a lot. Delta was getting worried.

She looked up, and the VOID was in her face. It was consuming her. Screaming in pain, wrath, rage…

“To be divine,” it whispered in rage.

“Is to burn.”

---

The orange Dungeon Core on the fourth floor cracked rapidly, but just as fast, blue veins filled in the damage, steaming as the process taxed the system.

Sister looked at it from her chair in the void, her various screens covered in mushrooms and vines. A lot of the precise functions she controlled were slowly being removed from her domain, but she could still keep Delta together with a little help from Nu.

This was one of the concerns she had when she and Brother made this design to integrate a living human soul into a core.

While Delta rapidly outperformed in all areas to Sister’s joy and delight… She was still a human soul tasked to cleanse the seeds of the abyss.

It was bad enough that each seed contained a fraction of the Little Brother, but as she cleansed more… those fragments would continue to build up in a manner.

Previous Dungeon Cores could simply break them down and refine them. They were… detached in that manner. Blank slates to allow the seeds to pass through with nothing to grip to. With Delta? They have something to interface with, and Sister was not going to stand around and let her mistake continue to harm Delta.

She and Brother already accepted what was going to come She closed her luminous eyes, and a piece of the stolen eye she protected formed before her. The eye burned with such power that it was the sun of the world.

Gasping in pain, she replaced the taken piece with a part of her own power, shortening her lifespan by hundreds of years. If she didn’t, the sun would set faster, move differently. It would ruin farms and people’s lives.

Sister… knew those were valuable. Every life was valuable.

Delta taught her that.

Slowly, she kneaded the fragment into Delta’s core, giving her mana veins akin to a Dungeon with over 300 floors. The act strengthened the ‘self’ of Delta beyond who she was now, but not enough to change her Like Delta said… she wasn’t changing herself, Sister was just giving her new socks.

Very sturdy socks.

--

Delta shivered as if someone had poured warm syrup down her spine.

Still, that horrible vision abruptly pulled back, and Delta was back in the spider room. Everything felt… tight. Almost as if someone had knocked down a wall in Delta’s mind.

She was going to have to come to a conclusion about those visions, but not right now. Ruli could only keep those Fairplay people out for so long.

Honestly, Delta was surprised they weren’t barging in already. The sun had risen an hour ago… not that Delta exactly knew ‘how’ she knew the sun had risen.

She wondered what was keeping them?

---

“And thus, the truth was revealed that in fact, sandals with holes over the top were not a fashion crime. People just like to hate things to join in!” the girl in the fluffy white cloud robe proclaimed, her hands raised with a staff gripped.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Should we barge past?” a Fairplay scout asked, and another shook her head.

“You see what her staff is? I’m afraid of where she’ll shove it if we do,” she replied. Behind her, the priestess known as Kemy also had her three companions sitting around playing cards with Ruli All of them wore bizarre clothing with slogans and images from the Dungeon.

“5?” Ruli asked, and the red-head in leather thigh-high boots sighed in disgust as she tossed a card over.

“And this brings me to another sacred truth of the land! Hatred to tropical fruit on dough circles! It is okay to enjoy them!” Kemy announced grandly and blazed with a white aura, making all the Fairplay members’ pale aura look gray.

“What if I want to sell this picture of one of the Dungeon Monsters to someone, so they own the image and no one else?” someone held their hand up, one of the very few Mentor Fairplay members.

Kemy turned to him, and her eyes ignited in holy judgment.

“No.”

There was a long silence.

“What does that staff do, though?” someone yelled. Kemy blinked once.

“It injects holy truth into the murky dark places of the world. The burning honesty will give life to new meanings!” she declared with pride.

“I’ll take three,” Ruli said under her breath, getting a smirk from the other woman at the table. The leader sighed as he handed over his kings.

---

Muffet can now coat the ground in a thin web that adheres with every step. 20 DP
Muffet’s fangs can now turn intangible before reforming at the tips, allowing her fangs to bypass most physical defenses unless enchanted. 30 DP.
If any of the Court of Web is alive after Muffet is activated, they will fuse into her, granting her 5% power increase per spider absorbed. 40 DP
Counter Web: Once per encounter, all Muffet’s webs become immune to low level dispelling magics for up to two minutes. 60 DP.
Quee’s Role Model: At Core’s wishes or if Dungeon is in higher difficulty mode, Muffet may become a Drider Queen. In this form, she becomes equipped with two random knives from Waddles’ collection. 80 DP.

“I wonder what Muffet might look like as a temporary Drider?” Delta mused before she focused on the gleeful Muffet. A ghostly after image appeared as Delta used a little of her Dungeon Mind to ‘practice’ the upgrade.

Slowly, Muffet’s body became massive, growing until her abdomen was blinding and white, gold markings forming a Delta symbol on the top. Delta was a little worried about how her ‘human’ part might look.

Too many times she was faced in games with a half-human spider lady using nothing but hair as decency while dodging lava barfs.

She didn’t have anything to fear, as it turned out. Long flowing white hair danced around a face concealed by a veil. Her body was covered in a beautiful flowing white and golden garment like some warrior queen carved of liquid marble.

The veil rippled, and the awe Delta felt turned to quiet shock as the face was a monstrous mouth with black eyes moving in sync was briefly visible until the veil reasserted itself.

“You okay… with all these upgrades?” Delta asked Muffet, her voice a little faint. Muffet gave her a beautiful twirl of a simple yes. It was only five rotations, a pretty succinct response in spider language.

Well, Delta could hardly say no.

“This one, that one… and of course, all of these,” she hummed and purchased the upgrades. Muffet glowed for a few moments, then looked normal.

But to Delta’s Dungeon senses? Muffet had gone from a white shadow to a blazing looming figure of regal violence, like a luminous storm.

It was beautiful.

She also had three new loot items automatically built into her. These could be won either by combat or by winning Muffet’s favor. The Veil of the Queen had a decent enchantment to make one immune to eye magic and some gasses.

The Gown of the Queen was similar in nature but prevented ghosts and spectral beings from passing through it.

The last was the rarest, the Knife of Alliance. It was an ornate marble-handled knife carved to be shaped like a feather wing, and along the blade surface, spider-web veins of threads could be seen inlaid in the metal.

Anyone cut by this blade would suffer ‘mortal mundane bad luck’ for an hour.

Delta tried to understand how something could be both ‘mortal’ and ‘mundane,’ but the system yielded no clues.

Pleased, Delta checked this room off her current list.

Patch 1.1 was coming along nicely!

---

Yattina inhaled once and knocked.

The door opened a crack.

“Hello, I’m from Fairplay-” she began, and the beautifully haunting woman inside let out a scream that cracked a nearby window before she slammed the door shut.

“Please! I need to speak to Deo Brawndo! It is the legendary adventurer who cleared the nearby Dungeon to floor 3 that lives here, yes?” Yattina cried, knocking again. Her reports say that this ‘Deo’ along with one ‘Grim,’ ‘Poppy,’ ‘Kemy,’ and perhaps others lived here.

The city of bets and gambling, which held the records of various Dungeons showed that such people had done what Fairplay had yet to do.

Get past floor 2’s entrance.

“Hello!” someone said, and Yattina turned to a bright-red head child who had a lovely smile.

“Can I help you?” he asked loudly, and Yattina winced, having spent all night resorting to ordering all reports in a quiet room by herself.

She was working on two hours of sleep, and her glass eye was refusing to face forward in a huff.

“Oh, likely not, but thank you for asking,” Yattina said miserably. The reports on the nearby Dungeon were the only things keeping her sane.

Such a fascinating place, but she wouldn’t be allowed in until the scouts and blades secured the first floor.

“When some adults get sad, they get ale from the pub! Do you want me to show you the pub? Miss Nina said today’s special is this meat in a crunchy crisp fold with salad and spicy sauce!” the boy said brightly.

“I don’t like alcohol. The taste, the effects, or the consequences. Food might be needed…” Yattina muttered.

“Come with me! I can get you a free meal because I did so many chores for the pub that Miss Nina said I could get free food. I just like helping out, and people like it now that I don’t yell so much,” he… almost yelled in excitement.

“What is this meal?” Yattina asked gravely as she was herded towards… people. Lots of people in a small room.

“Tasty cornbread that’s folded and cooked. I call them Tacos for short. Ta-sty Co-rnbread!” he beamed, and Yattina managed to smile back.

The boy had some strength to him, it took Yattina everything she had not to simply be dragged along.

“I don’t suppose you know ‘Grim’ or ‘Poppy’?” she asked, deciding to ask the boy. If nothing else, she was covering her bases. After all, it seemed Deo was a deadend.

“I sure do! Are you their friend?” the red-headed lad asked curiously.

“I want to interview them. For science,” she explained as she was stopped at the pub’s door by…

That aura… that uniform…

“Royal Knight,” she whispered in slight terror. The man with the feral look eyed her for a moment, then dismissed her just as easily.

“Fairplay fools,” the Royal Knight sighed as he left the pub reeking of enough alcohol to disinfect a wound.

After he walked off, the boy patted her arm.

“That’s mister Zane. He’s… not nice, but he’s not as bad as that woman,” Yattina’s guide said, nose wrinkling.

“I want to go back please,” Yattina said, voice tight. To his credit, the boy simply nodded and escorted her back towards the Fairplay camp.

“You don’t like Royal Knights?” the boy asked slowly, gently as if Yattina was now made of glass.

“My sister… is one,” Yattina whispered and held herself.

Yattina felt the heat near her face…the flash of fire, the rage of summer…

“My sister is Brilda of the Summer, an ex-maiden. She left Fairplay behind… left me behind,” she said and inhaled with a shaky breath.

“I’m sorry,” the boy said, and Yattina shook herself up.

“No, my past is not your burden. Really, thank you,” Yattina said, trying to hand the boy some copper coins, which he rejected.

“Just feel better,” he said instead and walked off with a wave of his hand.

“I never got your name!” she called, suddenly feeling beyond rude. The boy turned and gave her one of those blinding smiles.

“Deo Brawndo! Let’s be friends!” he called back and was gone.

Deo was a nice name.

She turned and took three steps towards her camp, then paused.

“No,” she whispered to herself.

She looked over her shoulder and stared at where the boy had been… the adventurer who had cleared the nearby Dungeon.

“No, I’m too tired for this,” she announced and went to bed.

She dreamed of her younger years… of her sister in glorious light, surrounded by fans and teammates… then it all turned to ash as Brilda ignited in rage.

Then she turned to Yattina in the dream, reaching out with a soft hand… before a golden dungeon core snapped chains around Brilda, stealing her away.

Yattina was alone.

So alone.

“Just feel better!”

She turned to see Deo standing nearby, hand held out. Behind the boy was a massive glorious sun that cast orange light into the void.

Yattina reached for the hand.

She couldn’t remember if in her dream, she managed to reach Deo’s hand, but she liked to think so.

Yattina hoped so.

---

I may not be the smartest, but I'm angling for an A in geometry. -Stew

164: Foodie Be Goodie

This was an issue.

Delta had perhaps gone too far.

“I don’t even want to know how you managed this,” Nu typed out on his screen, and he read as very agitated.

“I was just trying to fix the flooding weakness of the Mushroom Grove,” Delta said helplessly as all around the grove, tiny white mushroom domes rose up. Mushrooms had long stopped being an issue for Delta, but these ones?

These were different.

Slowly, one side of the mushrooms fell forward like a ramp, letting energetic little blue people exit out into the false rain she was using in this experiment. They reminded Delta of a certain group, but the similarities didn’t last long as they began to absorb water like sponges. They were technically a type of sentient spore from the mushrooms that when they got wet…

The cute little blue person closest to Delta bent onver and began to rapidly increase in size to a small gremlin with a long dirty white sock hat and serrated teeth. They let loose keening noises and took to the mushrooms, climbing them like demented monkeys as they sought more moisture.

It was fine until they drank the rain dry and the only sources of moisture left would be any invaders.

You have created Blue Cap Mushrooms! These mushrooms are harmless until an abundance of water is introduced to their ecosystem or they are fed after midnight. Since time is abstract, any time is after midnight except for midnight itself. As water vampires, they will drain all enemies of fluids. Their natural predator is the Dust Mummy, the driest creature in the land except for <insert Fairplay employee’s name>’s mother after a night on the town.

“Was she always this hostile to Fairplay?” Delta asked Nu, who shrugged.

“She’s been practicing a bunch of emotions. You missed the whole ‘hangry’ saga.”

The Blue Cap demon spawn cackled and knocked each other out of the mushroom trees with glee. Some grabbed Gutrots and were feeding them to some other poor Blue Cap.

They had a vibe, and Delta was 75% here for it.

Still, that was fire and water dealt with. If they introduced ice, then Delta was just going to have to give them the win at that point.

“Gutrots can survive near sub-zero temperature.” Nu pointed out.

Delta would give them the win.

Moving to the goblin fort, she paused as she saw Cois doing something. He was using his staff to draw a long, complicated symbol into one wall. It didn’t look like his normal fire rune, but far grander and slightly like a coffee drink brand.

“Cois, what’s that-” Delta got out before Cois tapped it and the whole thing began to glow. Something akin to a vacuum cleaner powering up sounded out as a sudden breeze filled the room.

Cois’s face began to flap back, exposing his goblin teeth as he tried to grin, but the building wind was becoming a wind tunnel. Delta had just made her avatar totally immune to that kind of physics. While she was wearing a professional skirt, it was still a skirt nonetheless.

The gust gained so much power that Delta could feel an actual drop in her ambient mana.

Cois held up his staff, and the gray winds began to gather into an orb that started to crack his staff visibly.

“Now, before I can’t hold it!” Cois said, and Delta turned her head to see Billy being braced by Numb as he drew an arrow.

The arrow flew, pushing the monk and archer back with such force that Delta winced, but the arrow flew true, and something amazing happened before her eyes. The arrow pierced the wind orb, and a massive hurricane flew down the tunnel, sending Blue Caps screaming in panic as it raced through the grove, mud flying as it careened through the platform room, then the spiders danced the ‘oh lord, it’s coming’ dance as the wind finally slammed into her entrance room and up the stairs.

---

“Enough, I will be entering the Dungeon now,” the Fairplay warrior told Kemy, who tried to think of a reason to hold him back.

The man took one step down into the Dungeon proper with a smug smirk.

Screaming horrible blue creatures, three spiders, and a dollop of mud slammed into him before they were pulled back into the dungeon, and the man was sent hurtling over the treeline across the field.

There was a pause.

“I’ll wait as long as the lady with the suggestive staff says so,” someone said, and the crowd shifted backwards as one.

Kemy smiled.

Her staff was very suggestive of Delta’s love and kindness!

---

“We can call it the ‘Transitional Homing Ordnance Technique’!” Cois said once he’d peeled himself off the nearby wall.

Delta sipped the coffee she made up of her mana, a very long and slow sip.

“How about we have new runes and brands inspected before we use them?” she said, and the three goblins turned to her with wide eyes.

“That sounds like bureaucracy!” Cois said, sounding utterly aghast.

“It ‘sounds’ like not accidentally creating a blackhole that consumes all life by messing with the code of reality,” Delta replied flatly. Cois looked frustrated as he looked around at the many failed runes he had made in the ground. Some just didn’t work at all, and many were failed efforts that were more ‘fizzle’ than ‘bang.’

“I just like the way runes work,” he finally muttered.

Delta blinked, then opened Cois’ menu.

Cois: The Pyromancer Romancer.
‘Can’t be bad for the environment if toxins also get burned up’
Cois has three evolution paths unlocked.

Diplomat: The most elegant of goblins. Can speak with such grace that no one can make the first attack on this monster until it makes an aggressive move. This creature can also convince summons and/or pet monsters to disobey their masters.

The Tribe Spirit of Fire: This goblin has cast off his earthly flesh to become an ever-burning fire spirit that is magic itself. Able to ignite healing in other goblins or terrible burning curses in enemies, the sight of this monster is one of goblin legends.

The Rulebreaker: A goblin who has glimpsed the impossible and took it for himself. Able to understand basic runes and some complex ones, this goblin sees the world not as a simple here or there, but a now and forever.

Delta told Cois of his career options. He gagged at diplomat, drooled at fire spirit, but went quiet at rulebreaker.

“Can I have time to think?” he said, surprising Delta. She had never heard Cois sound so… quiet.

“Of course, you don’t have to change at all if you want that option,” she reminded the goblin kindly. Perhaps other Dungeons would just force the most optimal, but Delta had ‘optimal’ strats in place already.

If someone ever made it to King Jellagon easily? Then Delta could make hard choices…

She turned to Billy and Numb, who looked a little dazed from the wind attack.

Billy: The Dark Smile in the Shadow
‘I won’t stab you in the back. I prefer seeing your eyes when I go deep’

Billy has two evolution paths!

Assassin: The most feared type of goblin by evil. This monster can not only blend into any environment, it’s a unique monster that can follow a single target to another floor and remain able to do full damage to them regardless of mana levels. Will he appear on the fifth floor? The tenth? Only he knows… but don’t worry, your vital organs will know soon.

The Fel Beast: Drowning in their victim’s blood has allowed a portal to a dark dimension to open in their heart. These goblins look normal until they are pushed to their limit. At the point of near death, these goblins transform into a massive creature of bestial power that commands shadow weapons. These creatures are hunted by many religious sects.

Goblins had a lot of evolutionary lines. Delta supposed they were the punching bag mobs for most stories, so it only made sense they developed the habit of getting dangerous quickly.

“Assassin. Sounds more fun,” Billy said with a pleased smile. Delta nodded and purchased the upgrade and blinked as Billy was cocooned in an orange orb that floated in the air.

Billy’s evolution will take two days. Guard the monster well, or be forced to restart the timer.

Numb poked it, and it floated off to the side with nothing anchoring it. Delta was a little stumped, this hadn’t happened before.

“The more you evolve monsters, the more it takes to get them ready. It’s why most Dungeons work downwards, not outwards. New floor comes with simply better monsters than most evolved ones,” her companion explained as if this was common knowledge.

“Most Dungeons are dumb. I’m proud of my edgy goblin. He’s got a diploma in ‘ass-kicking,’” Delta crossed her arms, chin held high.

“Shame you can’t teach them how to be crazy,” Nu said dryly.

Before they could argue, a new screen appeared.

Would you like to engage in Dungeon Conquering?

“What does that do, though?” Delta asked, confused. A massive map began to unfold within Delta’s Dungeon, showing a simplified picture like the one on her third floor. Three symbols were instantly glowing. An orange circle which she knew to be herself, a castle-icon that rested just above a golden circle.

Slowly, much smaller dots began to flash up, and Delta stared at the various Dungeons in proximity.

Dungeon Conquering is usually a project undertaken when two Dungeons expand in close proximity and fight over space and resources. However, due to your superior means of growth, the System would instead allow the use of Mana Veins to allow you to transport a group of select monsters to act as ‘adventurers’ to other Dungeons, allowing you to ‘educate’ them as you go while also claiming any loot they would normally drop to augment yourself further.

“Seems a lot of work when I’m drowning in a to-do list so large it would make a corrupt government blush,” Delta said, sounding unsure.

One of the dungeons available for invasion has fish monsters as an introduction mob.

“And your point?” Delta asked slowly.

They chose desert as their theme.

Delta stared, and her left eye began to erratically twitch.

“That sounds bad, but I really-” she tried to step away.

Another has a security door in front of their first floor boss, but forgot to lock it with a key. Another has goblins as a mob, but they’re all archer classed.

Delta leaned on a wall with one hand, breathing with some difficulty.

“No… work… too much…” she heaved.

One Dungeon has a two-headed ogre as a boss. However, their boss room ceiling is so low it can’t actually move to defend itself.

“Alright, I’ll consider it. How many of these Dungeons need help? Display them as a pink circle or something,” Delta waved the box off with a sigh.

Roughly 15 are displayed now. These are Dungeons with ten or less floors to their name.

That wasn’t so bad-

“Wait, how many Dungeons are around in total?!” Delta asked, confused by the numbers she was hearing. The map blinked, and Delta felt her mouth drop. She expanded the map to show the whole thing as pink stars kept blinking into existence.

“That’s a lot of Dungeons,” she swallowed once. Her own Dungeon was in a weird ‘void.’ Delta was the most isolated Dungeon in the whole map!

And… Delta was the superior Dungeon? Of all of these markers?

“Nu, do you want to handle the rest of the first floor while I try to get a handle on this?” she asked her friend, and Nu hummed.

“I am good at crushing armies or making them, so either one suits me just fine,” he reported. Delta gave him a side eye, but there was one more thing she wanted to do.

“Numb, stand still!” she beamed and opened his menu.

Numb: The Kind Fist
‘It’s not that I want to hurt you, but you make it hard to do otherwise’
One possible evolution available!

Perfect evolution discovered!

Goblin Hero: A fistfighter that oozes justice. The most human-looking goblin of the lot, this fighter can literally punch evil in the face, such as liches, ghosts, and more. When protecting others, this goblin seldom loses. However, an alarming amount of romances do seem to occur around him.

Numb seemed excited.

“I have the power!” he cried before he was engulfed in an orange orb. Cois sighed.

“Idiots,” he said fondly as he began prodding the two orbs towards Fera’s bar and beyond, hiding them under Maestro’s loving care.

“Go be an invasive species to someone else. I’ll finish tuning up the Storeroom and the bar,” Nu said, dismissing Delta as if she was now in his way.

Delta smiled and patted his screen.

“Make me proud,” she beamed, and the screen eyed her.

“I am not one of your sad students. I don’t seek your approval,” he sniffed. Delta turned, and Nu appeared in front of her.

“However, when you return to such glory? You will be aghast that you never promoted me to this job in the first place. I do this for me, not you. Me… not you,” he stressed.

“I am unimportant to your rise as the tyrant of this world. I will now fade into the background and not cause any disasters,” she mock-saluted.

“I’m glad we understand one another… don’t take too long on your journey. I will need someone to handle these Fairplay imbeciles before long,” he said dismissively and vanished.

“So, Sis… how does this conquering thing work?” she asked aloud, and a new screen opened.

Would you like to select a team or use the random team filler, pulling from all floors?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta eyed the first button that promised careful selection and optimizing and the other button which was covered in confetti and sparklers with question marks.

Delta stood there long enough that Cois’ rune let out one more gentle breeze, causing dust to kick up around her feet and a tumbleweed to dance past.

“Well, the random button is more exciting,” she argued with no one in particular.

She pressed the random button, and the screen began to glow and shake. It cracked and exploded into five tokens, each one golden and shiny!

“Seasonal legendary pull!” Delta threw her hands up, hyperventilating.

“Where’s the double roll for 20 bucks? Gimmie the deal!” she said, looking around the screen for the missing button.

Her five tokens turned one at a time, and each one made her chuckle, then giggle as the last two turned off.

Delta bent over cackling.

Team name generated: The Good, the Ugly, and the Wicked.

Lord Mushy, Jeb the Troll, Wyin, Bob the Worm, and Jack the Kobold.

Sending Team and Dungeon Avatar to the North-West to the Crown Archipelago. First Dungeon will be the north-most Island.

Now beginning Conquest with ‘Alumen Wave’ Dungeon.

Delta smiled, then felt herself being yanked into the Mana Veins of the world with a scream, stuck on a rollercoaster with no railings or safety harnesses.

She didn’t even have time to explain the mission to her monsters!

---

Wyin was buffing her ‘nails’ when a flash of light overtook her.

In her place was a dull-eyed replica that stared at the door ahead with endless patience.

---

Replica-Jack stared at the smut shrine before it and began to pray as it was designed to do.

It also began to design bombs every few minutes. As it was programmed to.

---

Replica-Lord Mushy began to place a pot on every surface it could with a ‘Lali-oh’ and a ‘how do you do?’ to itself.

---

“A bit unlike my Bob,” Rale said as the Replica-Bob floated on the surface of the waterfall pond like a dead trout, occasionally wriggling like live bait. The crabs were having a ball, spinning its body like a log.

---

“He’s… amazing,” Fera gasped as the Replica-Jeb Troll not only successfully cooked toast, but made good tea as well.

“I don’t know. I kind of like Jeb normally. He sings songs,” Nina said as she washed endless dishes.

“Less troll soup pots to clean,” Fera grunted at her. Nina couldn’t argue with that.

Still, the replica reminded her far too easily of her own condition when she was spread ‘too thin.’

“Take a break, Quee can let you back out if you need to go back to town,” Fera said as she turned to a tiny form helping near the stove.

“King Jellagon, you’re burning the edges of the eggs,” she scolded.

The little slime gurgled, and Fera sighed, feeding him the eggshells to cheer him up.

---

Delta held her hands to her face.

“I got mana-bugs in my eyes,” she wailed.

“Where… are we?” Jack asked aloud as Lord Mushy greeted everyone with a pleasant hum.

“I have legs,” Wyin said in horror. She moved unsteadily around on something akin to wooden peg legs with little stubby toes. Bob looked around, now the size of a python rather than a massive creature.

“Hello! I am here!” Jeb cheered, still his normal size. He looked around, and Delta finally noticed where they were.

“On no… I’m back to mining at night,” Delta whispered as all around them, geodes of what looked like aluminum glittered in a decorative entrance. Said entrance was a massive gaping crack in the wall. Salty-looking water came up to their ankles, and signs of erosion could be seen on some of the geodes. Jeb leaned over and snapped a geode off like Delta would pluck a berry off a bush.

It crumbled in Jeb’s hands, barely more than a surface construct.

Delta opened her mouth, but she clutched her head as something began making gutteral screeching in her mind. Delta couldn’t quite translate what it was saying since a lot of it was just making noise for the sake of it.

The young Dungeon was essentially bellowing ‘Food. Intruders. Food’ on a loop. Delta flicked the connection, and the shrieking cut off abruptly to be replaced by a stunned silence.

“Now, none of that. My name is Delta. Do you have a name yet?” she asked kindly, broadcasting mostly with her Mana.

The response took a long time.

“Food?”

What was Delta really expecting?

“Okay, Foodie. Again, my name is Delta. Delta,” she stressed.

“Dood?”

“Delta? We have company,” Wyin said, sounding annoyed. Delta looked into the corridor beyond the crack in the wall to see scuttling crabs with geodes as shells.

“Oh, that looks like a functional monster! Well done, Foodie!” she praised. Seconds later, Wyin kicked one, and the shell was so eroded that it shattered into pieces and the monster exploded.

Delta stared in shocked horror.

“I barely touched it!” Wyin whined, hands up to ward off a lecture. About ten more came scuttling towards them, and Bob slithered forward, rounding them all up in a coiled grip, having to endure feeble smacks and bites to avoid crushing them all.

“Foodie, these monsters aren’t working. They’re too soluble,” she explained.

“Food! More!” Foodie responded. This was getting her nowhere; if she just had access to its menu-

Her mana surged forward, and Delta felt the whispers of a warcry. It didn’t take long to get a feel of everything.

Seven floors. It had seven floors.

Delta fell to her knees.

“How am I your senpai?” she asked, feeling insecure for a moment. The core was found, and it was a grayish color made up of the same metal decorating the entire Dungeon. Her mana just sort of bashed past the bosses with alarming ease.

A gray screen flickered next to her orange one.

“Danger!” Foodie cried.

“Of flunking Dungeon 101, yes,” Delta said as she hit no on the ‘consume core’ option without even needing to think about it.

Dungeon: Unnamed
Theme: Saltwater. Metal.
Floors: 7
Potency: weak.

Delta just had to pretend she was grading homework or staying back after class to help a student understand something they clearly were struggling with.

“Me. Die?” Foodie asked, and Delta patted his core gently.

“We say ‘not today’ to that rubbish,” she said, and the other core seemed content to accept what fate might come to it. It didn’t even try to move its bosses towards her. It didn’t even think to try.

“Let’s see if there is… aha!” she grinned as a sort of history screen appeared. Foodie’s first items that it consumed were displayed at the bottom.

Consumption:
Sea water.
Aluminum (extreme rust)
Broken Rusty Sword
Salt crystals (dried)

Delta sent a curious pulse to the Dungeon and its immediate surroundings. Foodie was located on one of the crown islands, inside a tide pool cave where the ocean closed in for hours, protecting Foodie until the tide receded.

Likely Foodie didn’t plan on that but just got lucky.

Scrolling through the list further, she did notice a sudden intake of more unique materials. Leather, glass, paper, furs, and… biological substances.

Foodie was a discovered Dungeon. She sent a mental image of a person to the Dungeon, and it didn’t recognize the image of a man or woman.

Out of sheer effort, it managed to send back an image of something… very not human. It looked like a scribble on paper more than a clear image, but Delta got the impression of two arms, two legs, a long tail, a ridged finned back, and a bulbous head.

“Jack, do fishpeople exist?” she asked, feeling like she was uttering three different offensive statements at once. Jack looked over from where he was licking salt crystals curiously.

“Sure do. They used to be monsters like we Kobolds, but people are freaks, and now we have seeds in every kind of life. Don’t know which one lives around here, but we got Naiads, Merfolk, Sahagin, Deepkins, and more,” he said casually.

“Jood?” Foodie repeated.

“Jack. His name is Jack,” Delta corrected with a small smile.

She found the crab monsters and the first floor upgrades.

First floor: The Salt Wound
Upgrades:
Geodes of Aluminum will periodically form. It will take a long time for them to be harvestable.
Flowing Sea: Ankle deep water will constantly flow outwards from the boss room.
Sea Air: torches and fire don’t last as long.

Monsters:
Geode Crabs: Weak-shelled crabs that aim to cut veins.
Salt Bat: Bats that will dissolve if made wet. Their bite is agony.

Boss: The Tyrant Shell: A massive crab that has absorbed enough pure geodes to make a solid defense. It can spew pressured salt water to knock people back. A massive flaw crack at the back of the shell makes it a weak point.

Traps:
Three pitfalls filled with waist-deep water.
One slip-rock.

“Foodie, this floor needs work,” she pointed out and Foodie let out a cry of denial, seeming to hold the seventh floor closer where most of its stockpiled resources were being automatically allocated.

Automatically… allocated.

Delta would just turn that off.

Foodie immediately snapped it back on.

Delta narrowed her eyes and turned it off.

Foodie cried and turned it back on. Delta yanked it back with too much force, and the symbolic switch snapped off with such force it literally flew off the menu.

Both Dungeon Cores stared at the broken switch. That was when Foodie let out a keening noise like a terrified puppy.

“I barely touched it!” Delta cried, and Wyin shot her such a dirty look that Delta flushed.

Foodie was now in a single constant stream of keening in such panic that it wasn’t listening to Delta anymore.

What did Delta do when she was in a panic?

Oh!

“Look, Foodie! A mushroom!” Delta said with a smile and held up a Gutrot. She wouldn’t actually feed it to the Dungeon, but a shiny new thing did make it go quiet.

“Mushroom!” Jeb cried with delight. The shaking knocked Delta off her feet, and the mushroom went flying deep into the corridor.

Three seconds passed, and Foodie spoke more clearly than he ever had before.

“Bad, food. Die. Want. No, More.”

“You get used to them,” Delta said distantly, her eyes going faint.

“I listen. No more. Bad Food.” Foodie whispered.

Delta tossed it a Tasty Mushroom, causing it to shriek in panic until it dissolved.

“…Oh.”

“Good Dungeons who make better first floors get good mushrooms. Bad Dungeons that make bad life choices get bad mushrooms,” Delta said, deciding to go with it. New Dungeons were between puppies and toddlers.

“Want more. Good. Shrood.”

Delta was not looking forward to the equivalent of teenager Dungeons who were sure they knew better than her.

Delta’s first mission was to help Foodie adjust one thing at a time.

Like making its monsters not explode due to its own Dungeon theme.

---

Dungeon Network 2.0 now at 1%
Key Core: Delta is 146% stable.
Chance of success: above average.

Delete old Network?
Key core: Silver status unknown
Y/N?

Sis declined for now. It’d cause too much chaos if she deleted the old network just now. Silver… Sister just didn’t know what had gone wrong. He had been progressing Dungeons to a new level, and his sudden departure had caused tons of new Dungeons to begin to decline in efficiency.

It was what led to Delta being hastened into place.

His madness played a huge part in the corruption of many old Dungeons. Without him as the lynchpin, code crashed, logic burned, and good cores went insane. Many depended on Silver to speak to each other.

Many ended up locked up in their own heads, and Sis was so ashamed she didn’t try to help them. She had been… was still… such a stupid child.

Brother wanted to end them before it got worse, but Sister held on. She clung to the idea that a solution would be found.

Sis hurt so many people, and now? She had hurt many more Dungeons.

Sister looked down at her chair. She never relaxed in it, never allowed herself to recline into its power.

She did not deserve it, and as soon as the time came… she would no longer allow herself to be in the same room as it.

A good throne deserved a better god.

Sister looked at many of the screens before her, covered in mushrooms and gibberish.

Delta had been one of the good ones, and Sister put all her love and faith in the woman. She was just so tired of hurting people and this was her chance to be a hero in a story for once. Just once.

She tried to sit closer to the edge of the throne and a mushroom popped up under her knee, shifting her back. It made her blink.

“Excuse me,” she said to it apologetically and tried to shift to one side.

An armrest made of vines and bright red mushrooms formed and Sis felt weird having a place to relax her arms. Her joints had been a been sore for a few millennia.

One of her screens flashed.

Delta Network 1.0 supports all.

---

“I’m not depressed,” Brother warned the mushroom as it continued to follow him around the core.

“I’m suitably gothic with style,” he corrected and returned to his fishing pole. A tiny mushroom was growing on the tip of his fishing rod.

“…I shall name you Godbert,” Brother announced.

----

165: Sponge Guardian

Delta knew, somewhere deep in her being, that Foodie was not her worst student, but he was pretty damn close.

It was probably unfair to have 'best' or 'worst' students, but Delta prided herself on making a 40% result feel like a victory and a 70% pass feel like a failing.

It depended on the student in question.

Foodie had one major issue. He could hold one concept very well, but that's all he had room for. His Salt Bats, for example, were a result of this.

They were salty. Salt hurt on open wounds and was cheap. Throw it onto a cheap creature and boom, Salt Bat. When Delta pointed out the fact that they melted in water, Foodie's mindset went from salt to 'water is good at erosion.'

There was no connection.

Wyin reached up and drowned another hollow Salt Bat, demonstrating their weakness or… amusing herself, Delta didn't quite know. She called Foodie's monsters 'hollow' because they truly were. All her monsters had a spark of something. A thing inside the mana construction that was their body.

It allowed them to grow, change, think, live, and be real.

Foodie's monsters didn't have a single spark.

It wasn't that it was just Delta that had them. When she had been stuck in that dead silver Dungeon that nearly killed her, the monsters waking up had sparks too. She'd have to see if the sparks appeared after so many levels or if it was a personal development thing.

"Foodie, Salt in water is bad. It's very bad for your 'salt' monsters," Delta stressed, wondering why Sis thought she could ever get through to these Dungeons.

"Salt!"

It was like she was talking to an excited toddler who was part plant.

Delta had no clue what she was doing. It was fine when she was messing herself up, that was on her, but now it involved an innocent(sort of) Dungeon.

"Salt…wa…"

"I took a perfectly good Dungeon and gave it anxiety!" Delta threw her hands up.

"Jolly good," Wyin applauded from nearby.

"Something weird about this place," Jack called over as he kept 'tasting' different parts of the wall.

"Watersalt!" Jeb said smugly as if he was competing with Foodie.

"Salt Water."

"Yes, Foodie, that's what I've been saying-" Delta mused distractedly before pausing. She turned towards the entrance and stared.

"What did you say?" she asked slowly.

"Salt!" the core responded. Delta let out a sigh but threw him a tasty mushroom anyway for his quick responses.

"A suggestion, dear mother?" Lord Mushy said kindly from her side. Delta shot him a grateful smile.

"Please, I'm floundering," she admitted with a little bit of embarrassment.

"You should try speaking to Foodie as a Dungeon, not a wonderful person," he said, and Delta gave him a long look, stunned.

"We could also traumatize it so badly it grows out of sheer panic?" Wyin counter-suggested.

Bob let out a screech, and Wyin scowled.

"Poignant but not without wisdom, dear Bob," she sighed. Delta turned to the Dungeon and slowly relaxed her consciousness. It didn't take long for the thoughts of doubt, worry, and fear to sink away.

The world around her melted away, leaving her in the DungeonScape. Connecting lines of mana and motes where things stopped being what her eyes saw, expanding into concepts and symbols.

This was how Dungeons saw, and she stood up, a titan woman emerging from a burning sun like a galactic sized god. Before her lay not her stars and world, but another's.

This system was so small. Barely surrounded by seven rocks (Delta couldn't even call them asteroids without feeling like she was being too polite), the tiny flickering candle shimmered without shape or direction.

Moving forward, she watched as a small limbless lizard emerged from the other star. Foodie lacked eyes, ears, and only opened his mouth to swallow nearby motes of mana.

Delta had to bend down so far, reach so gently to cup the core in her hands. Foodie was no longer afraid of her, perhaps this was how it had always seen Delta.

There was no speaking required. Delta focused on his creatures, the Salt Bats, that lived on the first rock and sent concepts of water, clashing, destruction, and waste.

Foodie seemed to struggle, so she repeated the pattern slowly, one at a time until she began to repeat them faster and faster.

Water to salt. Salt Bats to destruction.

Foodie stared back, his star glowing. Delta began, sending the concept of Salt Bats.

Foodie finished it with the idea of destruction. Forward and back until Foodie was repeating the words by himself.

Salt Bats are destroyed in water.

It clicked.

Their stars glowed in joy.

---

Dungeon: Unnam-

Dungeon: Foodie

Level 1: Mana Density increased. Core stability increased by 2%

--

Delta watched as the Salt Bats no longer dived bomb at Jack and Wyin, sticking to the ceilings until they could get sneak attacks in. It was a massive step up over their previous suicide tactics. They still couldn't hurt Delta's monsters, but that wasn't the point.

Delta could have gone in and done all the upgrading herself, but she wanted Foodie to take control of his own Dungeon.

There was one thing she still felt unsure about… something she was not going to be able to ignore for much longer.

"Foodie… do you know what death is?" she asked, and Foodie sent her a pulse of mana to show he had heard her.

"End. Of Me."

"Yes, but it's also for everyone. When people come here… you'll try to kill them, right?" she asked slowly, and Foodie didn't hesitate.

"Yes. Their end. My growth."

"But what if you didn't have to kill? What if there were other ways to grow?" she offered, and Foodie was quiet for a second, trying to understand.

"Death best way. Growth is me."

Delta swallowed once.

"But if people don't die and leave, they come back. More mana and resources," Delta argued things from a different angle.

"Come… back? They here. Eat now. Escape no." Foodie insisted.

"That's thinking now and here; you also need to think of the future," Delta said, and she felt Lord Mushy putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, his touch only barely affecting her.

"Future. Food?"

"Delta, time is a concept. A hard one," Wyin said lazily from where she was training Salt Bats to fight for her amusement with gentle praises and sharp pokes of her limbs. Bob was curled around her neck like a fleshy scarf.

"Exactly! Sometimes I think I was stuck underground for ten years, sometimes sixty! But I'm sure I'm still there and having an amazing dream of going on an adventure!" Jack said from atop a rock where he was collecting samples.

Everyone stared at him, and Delta needed Feellagon the therapist ASAP. Foodie had been listening, and he spoke up.

"Dream?" he asked, showing curiosity. Delta hummed. She could put aside her personal philosophy until Foodie was more aware of his options. Converting actual children to her ideals felt a bit dark.

"Dreams are… complicated. A dream can either be something you enjoy while you sleep- er… hibernate. Another way to have a dream is to have something you want more than anything else in the world. One thing you think about all the time," Delta explained with a smile.

Foodie took some time to process, and his response surprised Delta.

"Head-Stabber Beast."

"Foodie, where did you get that idea?" she asked, and Foodie sent her the image of that rusty sword he had consumed a while back. It was a hunk of junk, but on the blade, Delta could barely see the image of a…

"A unicorn?" she asked, incredulously.

"My dream. Head-Stabbercorn!"

Delta tried to form words, but she failed for a moment.

All the themes in the world, and Foodie chose to be salty. But if there was someone who could cook up a unicorn from nothing?

It was Delta.

After all, she was amazing at making cute and sweet monsters!

A window popped up.

Foodie has gained 80 mana and can make a new floor.

Delta frowned.

"His floors are cheap as dirt! I need like 500 to get my fifth floor!" she complained.

"Want some cheese with that whine?" Wyin called, and Delta shot her a dirty look.

Due to the complexity of each floor, the cost rises greatly for Delta Core. Every feature affects the next floor and opens new options. Foodie has severely underdeveloped options and thus his floors cost less. The system can make floors cheap, fast, or efficient, but only ever two at a time.

That made sense, and Delta got very lucky with Hob and Gob-

Wait, an idea!

"Jack!" she stood up and pointed at the Kobold, who looked to be making some sort of salt lamp.

"Fetch me a creature from outside!" she said grandly. If all went according to her plan, then Delta could give Foodie a massive benefit and boost with a contract!

She turned to when she heard Jack return.

"Good work, Jack, just put it… over… there…"Delta's voice trailed off as her eyes went wide.

"Hehe, lured him with the promise of sweets," Jack said as a small boy in a poncho with a satchel around his waist blinked at the cave. He had tanned skin that spoke of many hours in the sun.

"Jack, where did you find a child?!" Delta asked, sounding like she was strangling back a scream.

"Kids are everywhere, you just put two people together long enough-" Jack began, and Delta's screech escaped for a second, making him stutter.

"Where did you find… 'this' child?" Delta repeated her question. The child had wandered off towards Wyin.

"Are you a goddess?" he asked in a high tone. He blinked at Wyin as if he had never seen anything like her. Wyin looked up from her Salt Bat Army with a raised eyebrow over her amber eyes.

"Do I look like a being of worship?" she asked coyly.

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Pa says my momma was as pretty as a goddess. Do you know her? He said she lives in the stars now," the boy said with no shame. Delta was about to open her mouth to warn Wyin to be nice when she surprised Delta.

"Yes, I remember meeting a beautiful creature with a button nose like yours. She's proud of you, but you mustn't walk into dark caves with dubious characters in it. She wouldn't like that," Wyin murmured as she stroked the boy's hair once and sighed.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

If Delta didn't have a connection to Wyin, she wouldn't have even sensed the lie.

The child grinned, showing a gap tooth.

"I can take the kid back; there's a whole village on the other side of the island. Kind of a sorry looking place," Jack said, and the kid shot him a heated look.

"Picta is not sorry!" he argued. Delta frowned at the name.

She told Wyin to ask about the village since the boy couldn't see her.

"It's a fishing village that lives inside the massive ribcage of a sea monster! It protects us from storms and Seahagans," the boy said brightly.

He explained that it had only been around for about forty years since a legendary hero fought the ancient beast of the island and devoured its flesh until only bone remained. They named the village in his honor.

"For the last month or two, the Seahagans have been invading the island, and things have gotten bad," the kid said sadly.

Delta winced; sad children were a weakness of hers!

"Why haven't you called for the kingdom's knights or adventurers?" Wyin asked, sounding less affected.

"We can't get boats out, and the adults can't magic a message that far. The message goes only so far and hits a dead zone… the cursed land," the boy went on. Dead Zone? If Delta remembered her map then the only thing between this island and the capital that was of note was…

Oh.

W-well, she could fix that! She was fixing it!

---

Nu considered limiting the mana leaving the Dungeon in levels as to cause people outside massive headaches. These Fairplay people could use a little 'stillness.'

But… then Delta would whine at him hurting her precious villagers. Nu couldn't even remember any of their names beyond Ruli and Quiss. There was the child, Deo… his friend the blue mage, Perry? It was definitely Perry.

The idiot child, Grim? Was it Grim? It could have been Greg.

"You know full well what their names are; you have perfect recollection like the rest of us," Fera said as she cleaned up a pristine mug.

"I would never waste precious brain space on them," Nu said with a small scoff. He was busy fiddling with the bar menu, but every option he wanted was declined by Fera, and the System just removed them on her whim!

Delta had… ruined a beautiful thing; absolutely tyrannical control.

Well, there was one thing they could both agree on.

Wallagon: A thin membrane slime that is near invisible. The creature shrugs off the common elements easily, such as fire, ice, and Copper, Carbon, Potassium, and Sulfur. Seems to have built in sunglasses, but it has no eyes.

It was a door that people didn't know was there. It also blocked future fire grenades, but when Nu tried to figure out where the upgrade came from, he was led down a twisting knot of sticky ideas. He could part and reform with ease, making him a clever little door that could also trap and smother someone.

That last part was Nu really reaching for some sort of satisfaction.

"Are you sure we can't add ceiling mounted flamethrowers?" Nu said, turning as the slime formed like a glossy silk before turning transparent. Its sunglasses rose down into place, making it look stern and protective. The glasses dissolved and reappeared at Wallagon's whim.

"They don't match the decor. I got an image to market," Fera grunted.

Nu grumbled as he reappeared in the storage room and opened the menu. Something here had to make him feel better.

Storage Room: A little bit of everything, all of the time.

Features: Merry the chaos mouse. Random selection of Dungeon goodies. A buffet of general snacks. A secret door to Maestro, songmaster of doom and soul. Sturdy shelves.

Upgrades:

The Dark One's Approval: Using the key from Waddle's nest opens the room with much better loot and no secret entrance to Maestro. The best food and drinks will be offered and there's a one in ten chance to find a door straight to the second floor. However, if someone under Waddle's bad luck curse uses this key, they will be shrunk to half of Merry's size for 5 minutes.

Twittee: A small canary that flies about as Merry is active. Things seem to just work out in its favor when it's being chased. On its leg is a small piece of paper with a clue to Maestro's entrance.

Twittee's magic potion: Somewhere in the room is a strange vial that almost compels Twittee to drink it. The effects are startling… and terrifying.

These were tempting. Nu had to admit, but they lacked what he wanted. That edge, the puzzah of danger and surprise…

He looked around as he felt Sister focus on him. He shivered. He was never meant to be a focus. Nu was never meant to be, period. Especially since-

Since…

It didn't matter.

"You are not happy," Sis said to him through the network.

"I'm not unhappy either," Nu responded dryly.

"You've been taking pieces of yourself to aid Delta. You're not stable," Sis said, almost hesitantly.

"Unimportant pieces. Control, power, the deeper aspects of the system. Things I can live without. I cannot live without Delta," he responded with no shame.

"You could… you have… but in the end, I don't want you to be unhappy. I don't want people I care for to be sad anymore. Let me help," Sister offered, and Nu had no clue how she was going to help him.

He was bored out of his skull, not dying.

"Once Delta returns. Perhaps you should take the next Dungeon trip to aid another core. Most of them require Delta's special care, but there are a few Dungeons… important ones that cannot be peaceful. Some are in danger of simply not knowing better, others are in danger from things far worse," Sister explained.

"From what? Dungeons are pretty good at surviving anything short of an organized mob in the beginning," Nu said, trying not to sound too interested.

"The Silence may be imprisoned here, but this is only their main force. Many pockets of their ilk remain unopposed. They will feast on people, monsters, and Dungeons. New Dungeons will be easily overrun if discovered in these dark places," the girl said somberly.

"So, Delta teaches some Dungeons to be bright and cheery, while I help others survive in the darkness? Sounds like a lot of work…" Nu trailed off.

"These dungeons actually need to use traps," the goddess said dryly.

"I'm sold."

Now, he just had to wait for Delta to return from teaching some poor Core how to hug and sing songs or something.

Nu was mildly excited.

Not that he would admit it.

He couldn't wait to meet his first protege. They would be smart, cunning, and best of all, guilt-free for Nu.

---

"You took the chieftain's son?!" Delta screeched at Jack who was cleaning between his toes with a particularly solid piece of salt.

"I didn't take him. I lied to him in order to lead him to a dark cave where no one would hear him or find him," Jack corrected.

"Who's he talking to?" The boy, Vadellen, asked Wyin. The tree had taken a weird liking to the kid, but she was also nice to Deo and the others…

"Delta. She's the Ghost of Christmas Guilt-tripping," the second floor boss said airly.

"What's a christmas?" he asked right after.

"A yearly tradition where humans cut down the mightiest tree they can find in order to decorate its rotting corpse with baubles and insulting paper. Atop its crown, they place their idol to another god to show dominance and under it, they place offerings and tributes before they feast upon birds and berries!" Wyin said with excitement.

"Did they try to cut you down?" Vadellen asked in a gasp. Wyin buffed her nails with a smirk.

"Many men have tried to claim me. I have 'discouraged' them all… except my sweet knight of honor and courage," she sighed to herself.

"Mum?" Jeb asked, sounding confused. Delta turned, face puffy from yelling at Jack.

"What's wrong, Jeb?" she asked, trying to remain composed.

"Fishies are coming," he pointed out into the open beach area where the tide had receded to show shapes emerging from the pool and waves. Vadellen turned and went pale.

"The Mad Jaws. They're the invading Seahagans!" he cried as about thirty in total emerged onto the beach covered in silvery scales of some fish and adorned with thick coral stone. They had a selection of dark stone weapons and crystal versions that glowed with Mana.

"Maybe we can discuss things?" Delta said quickly. One of the Seahagans pulled its bluish arm back and let a spear fly at Vadellen without hesitation.

The spear bounced off Wyin's raised arm as she curled it around the boy.

"Shall I remove their heads and boil them in a stew?" the boss asked Delta, who looked shocked then angry at the attempted murder before her eyes.

"Ask Vadellen if there are any 'good' Seahagans," Delta said simply. Wyin repeated the question as Lord Mushy took up the vanguard to shield them.

"The Low Blues and the Surfacetooth clans are… okay, but the Mad Jaws attack them too," the boy responded, shaking badly.

Delta closed her eyes for a second as the Seahagans advanced closer. Their Mana was putrid, and it reminded Delta of the slimers.

Refusing to act when someone was in danger, even if it meant killing to defend them, was not wisdom; it was indolence.

"Kill Fishies… not sandwalkers?" Foodie said, sounding confused as all heck.

You know what? Delta could work with that.

A solid foundation.

"Into the Dungeon! Let's power level Foodie and save crying children!" Delta commanded.

"I got sand in my eyes!" Jack said defensively.

Nu was going to be bummed out that he was missing this!

---

"And I'll be there for its first spike wall trap kill," Nu told Fera excitedly.

"Mhm," the goblin said, not paying attention at all.

"And when it gets fire? Oh, fire arrows!" he gushed.

Fera hoped that Nu would soon remember that the average new Dungeon was like a sponge. Braindead, soaks up anything, and filled with holes in all logic.

Fera reckoned Nu would gain valuable life lessons being a sponge-daddy.

Patience, hopefully, but Fera would settle for deep regret.

---

166: Sea biscuits and Sea Hags

"Excuse me, Miss Yattina?" came a voice, and Yattina hit her head off the bottom of her desk in surprise. She muffled a curse as she put her hidden supply of travel mints back in their hole. She always did her best thinking curled up under her desk while eating ill-begotten sweets.

She looked over her desk, taking a moment to point her magic eye the right way, as it had fallen asleep when she didn't use it. It was the wonky-nose boy from the other day at the meeting.

"Gissipe!" she guessed with a confident smile.

"My name is Lim," he said awkwardly.

Yattina confidently tried to shrink back under the desk.

"Wait! I'm wondering if you could teach me more about Dungeons!" Lim said quickly, and Yattina shot back up.

"Would. If I 'would' teach you more. It implies that you think I can't otherwise," she insisted, and Lim looked puzzled. Yattina frowned at him in return.

"Why do you wish to know? I understand tactics and useful information, but that's covered by the Scout's training, is it not?" she inquired. Lim shuffled for a moment on the spot as if he was torn between staying or running away.

Yattina was intimately familiar with the urge.

"You made it sound good. I learned things. It was like a real school," Lim answered finally. Real school?

He made it sound like he hadn't had a formal education at all!

"Where did you learn? What school or area?" she asked kindly as she gestured for him to sit in the chair across from her. Her 'office' was nothing more than a prefabricated earth magic stone block, but she had decorated it with enough books to block out any hint of the gray color, which was a nice way of saying Yattina could barricade her door with paperbacks alone if she needed to.

Lim looked angry at first, then saw her face.

"You don't know?" he asked, something clicking for him.

"Know?" she echoed, feeling like she was missing something.

"I'm from the Diseased Hand," he said, and there was a pause. Yattina stared, blinked, and then she made a sharp intake of breath.

"I… am so sorry. Forgive my lack of tact," she said quietly, and Lim shrugged it off.

"Schools weren't as important as saving farmlands and fighting off the sickness," he said, and Yattina couldn't imagine it. She had read about it, but there was a disconnect between symbols on a page and a real-life extinction event barely averted.

The Diseased Hand was a tragic event, part of the 'Corrupt Wa r.' Three Dungeons had gone corrupt in the span of a week, each one expanded grotesquely underground until they merged into one. One Dungeon of air, a Dungeon of poison, and a Dungeon of adapting defenses.

It spread across the Right Grip, turning the lands black, and life was all but destroyed. A Saint of a Water God and two others purged the land and caused a massive tidal wave to sink part of it, cutting the hand off from the mainland.

Yattina had even heard that new Dungeons kept trying to form on that man-made island, but they didn't last long against the madness entrenched there for years. Not all of the inhabitants could escape immediately, and those left behind tried to make a life out of the broken land.

People like Lim's family.

That explained his questions… and why he was in Fairplay.

Still, better than what happened to the Left Fist. People didn't even get a chance to escape from that catastrophe.

"Well, what would you like to know?" Yattina asked as she shifted books around until she found a basic map and the basic standard guide on Dungeons. A very solid book written by 'Terri Bilis Frater.' The first of its kind, the unknown hero described both basic traps and the 'methods' of Dungeons on the first few floors.

"This Dungeon in the area is weird, right? I've not been in another Dungeon yet, but I heard they're easier by a long shot?" Lim asked as he idly rubbed his wonky nose. Yattina watched the motion like a cat, fighting the urge to reach over and re-break the nose for the boy's sake.

"Yes… and no," Yattina began and tapped the book written by Frater.

"Difficulty is selective at early stages. It depends entirely on what the Dungeon first consumes to grow," she explained.

"For example, did you know this Dungeon near Durence didn't consume mushrooms, people, or earth as its first material?" Yattina said as she tapped a wonky compass near her desk.

"What did it eat? Rocks?" Lim asked curiously, and Yattina showed the boy her instrument.

"This is a very expensive tool that 'dissects' mana, for a lack of better terms, refining them to match Mana signatures of other things. One can even match two signatures to a near mirror, this tells us what the mana has in it; the deeper we dissect, the closer we find what it first consumed. Much like the rings of a tree stump," Yattina said proudly.

She slowly turned a dial at the side, showing the orange Mana flashing through several things like suits of armor… bones… slimes… cauldrons, and what looked to be animal skeletons.

She kept turning the dial until it shot past mushrooms, a man with a gun, three hunting types, what looked to be earth clumps and the image distorted badly on the last slide.

"What is that?" Lim asked, voice suddenly quiet as if he was witnessing something important. Yattina slowly adjusted three small dials, and the image slowly came into focus.

A skull stared back at them, hauntingly judging them.

---

Wyin knew this salt was going to be terrible for her hair. Her swept-back branches blooming in flowers were now droopy with salt. Salt floors, salt water, salt animals, salt air, and now Wyin was salty.

This Dungeon was making her mad, but not as mad as the guppies chasing them. Why wouldn't Delta just let her filet the damn things and be done with it?

They splashed through the water, letting the Salt Bats slow the enemies down. The entire group of thirty Seahagans had entered the Dungeon, but their large number worked against them in the tight corridors and sharp turns.

This was why groups stayed under six people, she presumed.

Fewer fish in a barrel moments.

"Get the Sandwalkers! Find the Jewel for the Queen!" one of the large creatures snarled, the green scales around its face bright red as if it had taken a bite of its comrades in the struggle.

"If fishies not in water. They still fishies? They still not Sandwalkers?" Foodie mused, ignoring the drama and threats against his life to question life. Delta couldn't even be mad at his sudden progress. Foodie had made two floors since this chase began. Thirty Seahagans, Delta, her monsters, Vadellen, and who knows what else were pushing a ton of Mana into the usually solitary Dungeon.

If it took 80 Mana to get to floor 8, then so far, Foodie must have gotten about 180 Mana since Delta arrived. Mana Bursting was horrible, and she didn't blame Foodie for dumping the excess Mana into things. It also annoyed her because she noticed something else.

Foodie didn't have DP.

He just had Mana.

She asked the system as she followed her monsters into the first major room.

A human soul generates a constant flow of sentient ideas and awareness. To prevent your mind from exploding, anytime you would 'think' to make a serious change permanent, you'd get locked down until you had enough DP to do it on your own time. Dungeons do not get Dungeon Poi-… Delta Points until floor 25 or 30. They simply don't design or desire complex things requiring self control. DP is possibility of the soul. You had a soul from the start -Sister.

Wait… if Foodie was made up entirely of Mana with no sparks of DP, then those weapons… those tools of Fairplay formed from their souls and seeds, they wouldn't just 'damage' Foodie.

They would utterly distort or scar him.

---

"Now, when a Dungeon's theme is known, it doesn't give people an automatic advantage," Yattina explained as she poured Lim and herself some brisk hot water with a dash of fruit. She hadn't a clue what fruit was in the fruit tea. She just drank it because her options were coffee, blood of some poor scribe, or protein shakes.

Yattina had issues with all of those things. For one, no one used a disinfectant wipe on the scribe after they were done. It was so unhygienic.

"But if you know it uses fire, you can focus on water, right?" Lim suggested. Yattina eyed her Mana-Dissector with a frown, putting it away for now so she could ponder the results alone later.

Some things were best done alone.

"Fire… what is fire?" she asked Lim, and the boy blinked once. She was curious about what he knew, and this was a good question to lead him off.

"Hot air but really hot," he said after a moment.

"Not quite, but the idea is this: Has the Dungeon figured out fireballs? Heatwaves? Molten stone? Elemental sprites? Sunlight? A theme is so much more than a single approach. The first ten floors, you can be excused for thinking a monofocus can be normal, but Dungeons are always learning. Knowing a Dungeon's theme is only step one of a long, long procedure," she said softly.

"Scouts say as much, but how do you figure out what it's done with its theme?" Lim said, and Yattina took a long sip of her fruit(?) tea.

"The hard way, sadly."

---

As the first Seahagan entered the room, Jeb hurled a Salt Crab at its face, letting the thing go to town with its claws. When the next one entered, Delta watched as Foodie's first new trap was set off. He had made it shortly before Vadellen arrived.

A long salt stalactite cracked and fell down sharply.

"Salt. Spike." Foodie said smugly as the Seahagan toppled over.

Delta winced and didn't stare at the result; she kept urging her team forward.

"Mad at me?" Foodie asked, sounding worried, and Delta shook her head.

"I just don't like violence or blood," she explained.

"Violence?"

"Hurting others," she whispered as they ran along a winding path of the room. It was a narrow road with deep sea pools on all sides filled with spiky stalagmites just below the surface. Most of them were blunt, but it was a good use of the environment.

"Tally, ho!" Lord Mushy turned and buried his fist into one of the Seahagans that had leapt at them over the gaps in the pool with a wicked red blade.

The creature's yellow eyes bulged, and the ridges that made up its face paled before it exploded back and hit a wall, sliding down with a twitch.

As the last of Delta's team made it through the next tunnel, Foodie stopped holding the traps back and let them fly. As the next group chased after them into the tunnel, a cloud of salt was lifted off the ground and into their eyes. Some of the salt on the ground had been extra large flakes to make it worse.

One stumbled back enough that it tripped and fell into the pool, hitting the pillars underwater hard. Ten more of the Seahagans rushed in afterwards, ignoring their comrades.

"Show me the meaning of haste!" Delta yelled to her monsters, throwing her hands up in panic.

Wyin raised one of her hands and showed Delta exactly what she thought of moving faster than an elegant gait.

---

"So, say you can get their themes down and general trap placement, what other issues can a first floor have?" Lim asked, taking notes with little pictures. It hurt Yattina to see him reduced to that, but she also felt impressed that he carried on anyway.

"Well, it is rare, but there can be a puzzle. It's not common, but I've read reports," Yattina said and found a book in a pile nearby on the particular topic and opened it.

"This is the Twin Dungeons of the Left Burden. An artistic rendition of the room just before their boss," she showed Lim, who looked enraptured by the knowledge she was just sharing with him. Yattina had a book or two that had maps and pictures like this with smaller word counts. Maybe the boy would like to borrow one?

Lim opened his mouth.

"Scout Blackfield, you're supposed to be doing patrol duty!" snapped a voice, and Yattina looked up to see some Blade she didn't recall. Lim jumped to his feet, pale and shocked at the words.

"I'm… sorry, sir-" he began, and the Blade clucked his tongue.

"Just because your brother was worth his salt with a blade doesn't mean you get to act like you're special," the brute growled. Yattina twitched, something about his words-

"Just because your sister is the Summer Maiden doesn't mean you're worth anything, stop trying to be like us."

"Does your order supersede mine? Second Lieutenant?" Yattina asked slowly, her voice taking on a detached tone. The blade blanched as if he hadn't even noticed Yattina… in her own office.

"Captain Yattina. Ma'am. Cadet Blackfield is expected at-" he began to speak, and Yattina held up a hand.

"He is to remain here and continue working on classified work under my command," she said finally. She looked at him.

"His talent is promising enough that I hand-picked him myself. Tell his superiors that he will be transferred promptly to my personal squad," she said, and the Blade's jaw dropped. That promotion would instantly make Lim a first lieutenant.

"I would like to offer my services!" the man said, quickly, as if sensing an opportunity escaping him, and Yattina slowly looked at him from head to toe.

"I'm sorry, I just don't see anything special about you," she said and sipped her fruit(?) water. The man left a moment later, his voice refusing to work.

Lim looked shell shocked.

"You're going to promote me?" he whispered in a strained voice. Yattina shrugged.

"I'm supposed to have a six-man squad under me. I have none, so welcome aboard," she said and poured the rest of her water into a nearby fake plant. The thing curled at the tips. Lim swallowed hard once.

"I can finally pay for my parents to get off the Diseased Hand," he said to himself with clenched hands.

Yattina didn't know what to say to that. Maybe she should look into the charity that helps that part of the world? It could use more funding maybe?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"What about your brother?" she asked very slowly.

"He died in a new Dungeon to the east. A Snake Dungeon that is off-limits due to its birth or something," Lim explained sadly.

Yattina opened her mouth, then took a moment to answer.

"I think my sister died in the capital. She won't respond to my letters, so I have to presume so," she offered in return.

A sort of peace came over them both. Sharing in their loss seemed to allow them to trust one another just a little.

Yattina looked down at the Twin Dungeon's puzzle room on the first floor. It was a very simple design, but it set the tone for the rest of the journey down their floors.

The door had six panels. On one side, you placed a tablet from a nearby table, and on the other side, you placed a concept that opposed it.

A bird on one side, a fish on the other. Fire on one, ice on the other, and so forth.

Still, puzzles were rare on first floors.

---

"Foodie, we don't have time for this!" Delta warned as Jeb sat against the door into the chamber, having no trouble keeping the Seahagan out by the sheer benefit of his girth.

"Solve!" Foodie insisted with a whine.

The puzzle before them showed two coral 'buckets' of salt. The puzzle gimmick appeared on two floor panels around the room. Jack took one bucket and placed it on the very obvious rough stone square, and it sank down a foot or so. Wyin did the other, and the door began to grind open.

It began to open… so slowly.

"You. Worth the weight in salt!" Foodie announced proudly. Delta had to admit, she liked that one.

"They stick me with sticks. Jeb will fire back," the troll announced, and the ground shook as he passed gas, causing the Seahagans to screech and retreat.

Wyin and Jack pushed to the exit, trying to pull the doors open faster, gagging. Vadellen looked green, and Delta had gone fully immaterial. She was not dealing with that.

The boss laid ahead of them… it just stood there like a lifeless doll. It didn't even have a cool entrance!

---

"Bosses tend to be lackluster on the early floors. Many Dungeons simply take a monster and scale it up with some Mana," she told Lim, who still looked a little stunned at his promotion.

"Are there any exceptions?" Lim asked curiously as he drew a little stick figure, then a massive one.

"Hm, a few. The Ruby Dungeon is notable. Its first floor boss is a mirror," she said, pointing to the red circle on the map in the middle of the Long Stretch Desert.

"Really, how did that happen?" Lim asked, eyes alight with wonderful delight. Yattina enjoyed this… this sharing of her passion.

"Oh, there's many stories, but the fan favorite is that an ancient Sultan's concubine was about to be replaced with a younger model. She took her most precious possession, a beautiful jeweled mirror, and hurled it out the window and across the desert, where it smashed into the very ground on which the Ruby Dungeon would form," she said, putting on a slight story-teller embellishment to the tale.

The likely factual story involved the desert being super heated by an event and the area around the Ruby Dungeon actually being a valley of dangerous glass shards, but there was no need to ruin it for Lim.

"Mirrors represent self-love if you overuse it, right? So that would explain the Dungeon's obsession with 'pretty' things. It was born out of a tool used to check beauty because the concubine's life depended on it!" Lim said excitedly, looking on the edge of his seat.

"It's a possibility. The First Floor boss picks one person in the adventurer party and mimics their power, but stronger. The trick is to stand so close together that the mirror creates a horrible, inefficient mess rather than a faithful recreation," Yattina smiled.

Lim looked impressed.

"Still, the average boss isn't as impressive. Just big bruisers tends to be the theme," Yattina admitted.

---

"Then you aim for the kidneys!" Wyin instructed with a vicious example, knocking the Seahgan down in a heap before she caught another by the throat. The nearby massive Salt Crab looked on at the scene with a flicker of… attention.

"If there's more than one, use them against each other! People are squishy, and they squish together!" Wyin howled in bliss.

"Wyin is so cool! I wanna be a warrior when I grow up! Can I visit your Dungeon when I do?" Vadellen asked Lord Mushy, who hummed.

"We'd be most happy to receive you," he promised the lad.

"Crab Suplex! More force!" Wyin yelled out as she kicked another Seahagan, the creatures looking more ravenous by the second and never ending. Thirty had come in initially, but by now, far more than fifty had been knocked around.

Delta frowned as she felt the Seahagaagainstn slowly begin to retreat, but there was something at the entrance… a far more potent seed than before. It reminded Delta of Devina. A being in touch with nature, but this one was like a storm. Like innocent people being smashed the rocks. Like a violent wind…

Destruction and not creation.

"Enough playing. Something is coming," Delta whispered, and Wyin stopped laughing and threw the two in her hands to the side. All Delta's monsters could sense her emotions.

"Lord Mushy, Vadellen's life is in your hands. Foodie can't open the door to let us through unless his boss is beaten," Delta cautioned. The being had reached the first room, and the water moved around it, salt pillars cracking as it walked past. The salt trap went off, and the cloud was parted as if a blade had been swung through it.

The air itself was this creature's tool.

"As you command, mother. With me, lad," Lord Mushy directed the boy to an alcove off the side of the room, hidden from all who entered the boss room. Mushy was the best to hide. While not incapacitated by the salt water, he was weakened greatly by it.

The creature drew closer.

Delta clenched her hand.

---

"How can anyone take these Dungeons on?" Lim said, shaking his head at some of the creatures.

"We just used more effective killers," Yattina said bluntly as she sorted through her paperwork to sign off on the promotion.

"Those with cores have massive potential. The closer we advance to a goal or mission, the more we grow. The more important the mission is, the truer it is to who we are, the faster we develop. Not only that, there are those that engage in unspeakable acts," she said, her voice turning frosty.

"Breaking the core or draining it of its Mana through vile magic can take its potential, its power to make fantasy into reality… and make it your own. Lands wither, water runs dry, monsters rise in fury, and disaster comes when an established Dungeon is destroyed. One person can doom thousands for power," she explained, remembering the many cores she had studied in pieces.

"Such practise is banned, but it wasn't always. Many wars have been fought over the ripest of Dungeon Cores. Terrible wars in which a horrible silence always seems to follow in the pages of history," she sighed.

"Some cores deserve to be broken. Not for power, but for what they've done," Lim said, putting his pen down.

"The one that killed your brother?" she inquired gently. Yattina was surprised when he shook his head.

"Those are just… Dungeons. I don't mind them. It's the ones that took my home, turned the water, land, and sky black. I hate them," he whispered.

"You'll be happy then. Corrupt Dungeons are basically reverse Dungeons. They suck in all life and Mana, draining the land until it crumbles away into the void below. They are to be destroyed at all costs. The Diseased Hand is… tricky because of the three combined forces. We've hit one or two, but the last always brings them back," she explained, feeling oddly guilty that she hadn't done more to help… that Fairplay hadn't.

But the Maidens began to vanish only months before the corrupt wars erupted.

"So, I just need to make my core strong, and I can beat them?" Lim asked, almost childishly at this point.

"Strong cores have risks, Lim. A desire for more power, the nightmares, the Edge sickness, and more. You have to temper both soul and Core," Yattina said, and Lim leaned in.

"Can you teach me?" he asked eagerly. The researcher closed her eyes and then smiled.

"Sorry, I don't have a core," she said, getting the awkward statement out before it could build. He stared at her in shock.

"How?" he asked. It seemed even Lim knew everyone had a core… should have a core.

She pulled down the top of her sweater slightly to show a massive burn scar that started at the collar bone and spread across her shoulders.

It covered most of the front of her body, focused around her chest.

"The last time I saw my sister was when she did this. I can't do magic, and I don't grow like others, but I've got my mind and my books," she said tightly, forcing a smile.

"…You're still worth more than the idiots flinging fireballs about or showing off some magic axe they'll never use," Lim insisted and looked down at his feet.

"My brother didn't have a strong core, and he was amazing," he said stubbornly.

"I appreciate the kind words, but I know my own worth quite well, even if others don't. Still, we can't deny that under the right conditions, someone's core can grow beyond their peers. A sort of refined seed that comes from long lines of warriors, talented magicians, or those that push themselves to the limit. A child of that line has such a Core that even if it was starved all their life…the husk alone could crush normal men," Yattina said firmly.

"What do we call them?" Lim asked, holding a book in his lap.

"Most Cores have the clinical term of 'Normalized Person Core.' I was one, you may be one, the baker in the city is one, a lot of guards and warriors could be one. For those with extreme growth? The correct term is 'Refined Core Users,' but a less flattering term is used by the public. Those with such power are said to be owners of 'Monster Cores.' Primal power that no normal man can possess," Yattina whispered, in case someone was listening.

"Do Dungeons have an official 'term'?" Lim asked, leaning in as if he was ready for a secret.

Yattina thought about it.

---

Delta watched as the hulking ten-foot Seahagan moved into the room, bringing a torrential rain cloud with it. Its core was… scary big.

Not as big as Mharia's, nowhere near as big, but noticeably.

"Turn back," she warned it, and it could hear her.

It turned black eyes with endless depth to them at Delta.

---

"If strong people are Monster Cores, then Dungeons have equally worrying names in the public. Dungeon Cores, Dens of Evil, Murder Holes," Yattina listed.

---

"I will rend you aside… and take my prizes," the massive Seahagan rasped, holding a thick staff made of bone and black seaweed.

"The Jewel, and the human child for supper," it said, drool leaking down its chin between bloody red teeth.

Delta narrowed her eyes, her aura flickering dangerously.

"Do not threaten them," she said in a simple tone with no emotion.

---

Yattina chewed her pen and looked out a nearby window.

"Dungeons have different names in different parts. None are flattering. Some are known as 'Bloody Butchers'; those who take fresh kills and reuse them for their gain. Some are 'People Killers,' and others are just called 'Demon Machines,'" she explained, and Lim eyed her for a moment.

"What would you call them?" he asked, and Yattina blinked.

She had never thought about it before.

"I suppose…" she trailed off.

---

"I will not retreat," the Seahagan hissed.

Delta raised a hand, eyes glowing orange and slightly blue.

"Then you will not proceed either," she promised. Her hand dropped, and her monsters moved like blurs.

---

"I suppose I'd call them 'World Builders.' They just help us and the world so much… they're not parasites, they hold the world together by building new Mana veins," Yattina said with a wistful look to her.

"Eh, it's a bit technical," Lim said, grinning to show he meant no offense.

"Oh, and what would you call them? Still-currently-a-cadet Blackfield," she said with a raised brow.

"Their names, if they have one," he said and stood up to start putting books away.

Yattina watched him go. What a sassy child. Still, his logic was solid. A name told you everything when it came to Dungeons.

"What does yours mean, 'Delta'?" she whispered.

---

"This is not how Jewel Dens work," the creature snarled, as it had one long cut across its arm.

Delta crossed her arms, blazing with Mana.

"I'm changing the rules. I've had enough of these rules where it's the bad ending or the worst ending. My name is Delta, and I won't back down," she announced as Jeb picked the Seahagan up and began to slam him across the walls, ignoring the balls of pressurized water cutting into his skin.

"You are chaos, damnation in the Mana!" the creature howled in pain.

Delta looked over at the hiding Vadellen and shook her head.

"I'm just a failed Dungeon Core," she said, and Wyin began to bind him with roots, which he cracked trying to escape.

"A jewel… den? Then where is your treasure? Where is your gold?" the Seahagan hissed in mockery.

"Where is your legendary lut?" it gargled, the word sounding like a personal slang.

"Please, I'm far too so-fish-ticated to be needing gold," she scoffed, and the creature, Wyin, and Jack all cringed.

"Come down to my Dungeon soon, you monster. Heck, stay here once I teach Foodie the ways of the Delta. There's no epic loot here, only puns!" she grinned, and the storm above them broke.

"You do give out spider panties," Wyin commented.

Delta pursed her lips.

"On'tday entionmay ethay iderspay antiespay," she said, making slicing motions across her neck.

Some people simply didn't need to know about the Queen Victoria Secret's she was running in the Spider Room.

167: Follow the Blue Nu

The storm Seahagan seemed to howl in rage, then determination.

"I will not fail the queen!" he snarled, slamming his staff into the ground. Torrents of water appeared from the nearby salt streams and sheared through Wyin's elongated arms. Wood cracked, and she dropped him with a hiss.

Delta watched as his seed pulsed, shifting between the kind of seeds she saw in Kemy and Estal's groups to something much closer to Deo or Quiss. She had never noticed there was a difference other than size, but seeing one flicker between both states, there were very obvious differences.

The larger seed form looked shaped, more chiseled as if some dark artist had turned an already creepy stone into a more horrifying piece. It looked like it was becoming a rage-filled child's face combined with a rotten fruit motif.

Vadellen's seed looked like a lump, pulsing and off-putting, but not outwardly aggressive.

Foodie's Mana was already picking apart both seeds, Vadellen would be easily purified, but the Seahagan's? It was resisting. It was too potent for the Mana concentration Foodie was putting out. He would have to be weakened, worn down, and exhausted.

Delta blinked just once.

The seed would be much easier to claim if the Seahagan had to traverse many dangerous areas, fight constantly, strain its mental capacity, and dive deeper into thicker Mana. Funny how she thought Dungeons had floors because… well, they were Dungeons.

It was the little things she learned when teaching others.

The Seahagan snarled and made a motion to come close, and then Jeb sat on him. There was a sort of noise like a grape being squeezed, and the ominous seed energy deflated like a balloon.

"Ingredients!" Jack howled and moved quickly, running over to scoop things up before Foodie could consume his fill.

Foodie groaned, and his Mana limit was overflowing, so Delta casually leaned over and formed a secondary storage for him, a sort of bubble around his core.

It wasn't any harder than making Hero or the Blackhole Piggle.

"Thank you."

Foodie sounded exhausted, and she couldn't blame the kid. For him, this insane battle and powerful foes must be a terrifying new experience.

For Delta, it was a Tuesday.

She sensed the Mana veins connecting her to this Dungeon were growing strained from supporting them like this. If they continue to remain, the lands between Foodie's Dungeon and her own would become dead zones. After that, up there would be oceans with no waves or fish, black dead trees, barren soil that would grow nothing, and generic superstores that drove others out of business would spring up.

"We need to go," she told Foodie as the corpses and damage from the battle was absorbed.

"No, you can stay," Foodie insisted. Delta smiled and appeared next to his core in a flash.

Dungeon Avatar benefit number four: lazy teleporting.

"I have to go back. If I stay, it'll hurt a lot of people and life," she explained gently, and the salty-gray core that was Foodie pulsed.

"I don't care about them. You stay!" it said, and Delta gently stroked the top of the orb, the entire thing embedded in an aluminum geode.

"I'll be back," she said solemnly.

"…Are you back now?" Foodie asked hopefully only two seconds later.

"Nice try, kid. This foxy teacher has got to get back to her own house before my partner burns the place down trying to install ceiling mounted flamethrowers or sawblades on door handles," she joked.

She knew Nu wouldn't do that, he was too classy.

"You be nice to Vadellen. He's going to be your friend until I get back," she insisted, and Foodie looked at the human child in the boss room.

"…Ew."

This was going to need a slightly different approach.

"Foodie, I need you to keep any Sandwalkers alive until I get back. The fishies that we just fought are fair game if they don't want to listen, but other fishies might be… useful, so be careful. Let Vadellen go home and others come back to explore your Dungeon. Consider it a quest!" she said with a slightly mystical tone.

"Qwest?"

"Close enough," Delta said and stood up.

As she turned, a new message appeared.

Foodie has accepted your quest.
Success: Kill no humans or landwalkers unless they attack first. Repel attacking Seahagans.
Optional: Befriend Vadellen.
Optional Optional: Learn what friendship is.
Reward: Delta's return.

"Nani?" Delta muttered.

Due to subjects <ALPHA> and <DELTA> working together, their systems have leaked into one another. <DELTA> can now accept and offer quests as <ALPHA> can. In return, <ALPHA> can now offer contracts to a Hero Squad.

The box was a little glitchy, and Delta had a feeling this was never supposed to be a thing.

Established programs include Alpha and Gamma. A second program lists Delta and Beta. However, due to events, the system has created a new program for the unlikely pairing of Alpha and Delta.

The system box glitched once more and then vanished.

"Befriend… squishy child." Foodie mused, thinking on how to do it aloud.

Delta left him to it.

---

Vadellen rushed back to his village, jumping over large boulders onto the beach until sand turned to grass, and he ran uphill towards a towering bleached skeleton wrapped around a mountain spire. The Great Kerbob was a monstrous sea worm that grew so large that it could stretch from the ocean floor to the tallest mountains.

Supposedly, one man had devoured it all in a single night.

Vadellen both loved the story and feared it.

Its rib cage acted as a natural column that protected the village of Pictra nestled within. As he rushed in, people began shouting that he had returned, and his father emerged from the central house, hobbling on a crooked branch as he clutched Vadellen close.

"The seas began swarming with Mad Jaws; I feared the worst," his father said, speaking into the top of Vadellen's head as they embraced.

"Pa, I discovered something! Something to help save us and make the island healthy again!" Vadellen cried out, and he knew he had their attention. Vadellen was not a child to make ilde boasts.

He was considered… a quiet child.

"What's that, my boy?" his father asked, and Vadellen held out the fang of the Stormcaller Seahagan. The Salt Dungeon had given it to Vadellen as a show of power.

He swore he heard it call him 'Squishy.'

But it let him go. None of the monsters attacked him on the way out!

"Lad, you're covered in salt. Don't you know how expensive pure salt is to import? This is terrible," a nearby lady said as she dusted Vadellen off with a deep sigh.

Vadellen grinned and emptied out his pockets, raining the purest salt. It took barely any of Vadellen's Mana to make it stable after that amazing Kobold taught him how to 'make it his own.'

Inside his body, his seed shifted just a little bit, glowing blue and gaining a serene quality. Only a single, small, blue spot had appeared, but it was enough to give off an impression of a smiling woman and of changes to come.

---

"Nu, I'm home," Delta said as she materialized in her core room.

Nu… was in the map room, staring intently down at different locations.

"Whatchu doing?" Delta asked as she appeared at his side.

"Deciding if I want to conquer the left or right hand first," he mumbled, almost entirely humanoid with a young man's face, his hair still a dark blue along with what appeared to be an afternoon shadow on his face.

Nu was maturing.

"I want to own it all!" he said, spreading over the table with a sigh.

In his own way.

"Did Sis give you a chance to teach a Dungeon too? Did she give you the same speech as me?" Delta asked, suspicious. Letting Nu near a newborn Dungeon was asking for it to be turned into a burning heap of slag or a murderblender.

"Yes, she did. In fact, I'm going to choose my first dark minion right now," Nu announced with a smug tone. He wiggled his finger until he landed on the most southern island of the crown chain.

The island furthest from Foodie.

"I can only help those that need to be dangerous. Dungeons that have to defend themselves from cannibal tribes, insane wizards or door-to-door salesmen," Nu explained casually.

"What's on that island?" Delta asked, worried since Foodie was so near.

"Insane cannibal wizard fish people that deem being eaten by them as an honor," Nu said dryly. Delta stared at him blankly.

"Yea big, scaly, massive teeth, red mouths, hiss a lot and tend to throw water about while praising their queen?" Delta asked after a moment.

"That's the Seahagans, yes. Now I don't expect you to approve, but I may have to hurt them to prove a point," Nu said with a sniff.

Delta chuckled nervously.

"I have it on good authority that they may be weak to crushing forces, if that helps?" she said, voice strained with the effort not to gulp.

"How much force?" Nu asked, looking like he was taking notes.

"Um… I don't know. JEB! HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH?" she hollered down the tunnel.

"ONE WHOLE JEB!" he yelled back.

"One Jeb's worth of force," she reported, and Nu looked at her for a moment.

"Whatever it is, I don't want to know. I am off to show you how being a Dungeon really is. Be careful Delta, your place as 'hardest' Dungeon is now at risk of being surpassed by my minions of destruction!" Nu announced, glowing blue in excitement.

"Have fun!" Delta began to wave cheerfully.

"You… ruin everything," Nu grumbled and vanished.

Once Nu was gone, Delta went through her gains from her field trip. She didn't want to make Nu ask too many questions. If he found out Delta was willing to be a tough cookie when needed, he would make her be tough on everyone.

You have gained 'Pure Salt'! All of Fera's and Jeb's cooking has improved!
You have gained 'Seahagan giblets' and 'Aluminum scraps.' New Monster unlocked for the fourth floor! Rust Devils.
You have gained a 'Stormcaller' rod. New options for Devina and fourth floor.
Foodie has been added to a new Network. Once your Dungeons have developed a special room, communications and trading can be undertaken. Only cores that have accepted you or Nu as a friend can join the network.

Delta felt both tired and alive. This felt just like being a person again. Going out for hours on end, doing good deeds, coming home to her many wonderful friends and monstrous eldritch creatures.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Just like how it used to be!

Well, sometimes there had to be pop quizzes, so 'good deeds' was stretching it.

She felt her entrance open, and Fairplay poured in, looking more determined than ever. She spotted a lot more badges with two fingers, instead of one. In the last group, a three fingered ranked man entered as well.

Behind them were two odd people out, a teen with a horribly angled nose and a hyperventilating woman with a slightly bugged out eyeball.

The numbers didn't advance down the hall but carefully guarded the woman as if she was more important than the others around her.

"Look! A welcome mat, but it's all squint," the woman told the boy as she fixed the welcome mat.

"Will you be alright in here?" the boy asked, and Delta moved closer because the woman…

"Oh, I'll be okay. I have this Mana charm that will stop me from getting too sick as we explore," she waved off the concern.

Someone or something had utterly melted a monstrous seed inside the woman to slag. Ashen remains of the seed showed Delta even now that the whole thing was about to 'hatch.'

It was a lot like Mharia, more like a parasite than a seed, but whatever life had been in it had been burned from the inside out, but to do that and not also kill the woman was impressive.

Terrifying, but impressive.

"Lim, look! Look at this beautiful offering table. Sturdy wood, simple bowls, and look, it's talking to us with signs! Quick, I have a silver coin that should cover us both," the woman chatted as the men and women in the armor all shot her either amused looks or disgusted ones.

"What's in there?" the boy, Lim, asked, and the woman gasped.

"The memorial room! Oh, I need to make sketches! I need to examine everything!" she told the boy.

Delta liked her.

She just wasn't sure about the other captain guy, the one gripping the hilt of his sword so tightly that the creaking of metal could be heard.

That one would need to be watched.

---

Nu hadn't gotten a squad of monsters, it wasn't really needed for his job. His task was to make a Dungeon stand on its own two feet as quickly as possible. Using monsters from Delta's Dungeon would only make it reliant on Nu.

But he was allowed to bring a vizier of sorts. A voice he could bounce ideas off.

"Ah, it seems we have arrived," Doctor the Guardgoyle announced as his long beak turned this way and that, his dark clothes rustling despite the fact he was as physical as a ghost.

Of all the creatures in the Dungeon that weren't three-five inches tall, Doctor had the closest mindset to Nu. Perhaps it was because he made the Guardgoyles that they were more in line with how Nu thought?

The Dungeon did not look too impressive at first glance. Nu was just outside the entrance. He looked up and shuddered at the bright blue sky and the sun.

So open. So bold.

Disgusting.

Nu hurried back into a cramped dark space to feel better.

The Dungeon's entrance was an overgrown stone archway covered in vines. The thick spreading greenery occasionally had white blossoms on its tips. It was inside a cave of sorts where a single shaft of sunlight illuminated the space to reveal a lush meadow just before the entrance.

"Needs more skeletons and warning signs," Nu reported, and Doctor wrote that down on a parchment with an extravagant black-feathered quill. Once inside, the first monster tried to surprise-tackle Nu with its head, only to fly through his immaterial form. Nu stared down at what he had to work with.

It was a fox. A pale green fox with swooping leaves for a tail and flowers on its head.

"Look, Sir Nu, it's a quadrupedal sentient salad dish!" Doctor remarked happily. He was sketching as he was talking, and Nu had to admit that the artwork was detailed.

"It's a salad fox," Nu grunted as he examined it for anything worthwhile. It bared its teeth and tried to nip at his neck.

Disappointed, Nu stood up and walked through a dangling vine, only for it to try and snap around his neck and hoist him to the ceiling.

"Yes! This is more how I like it," Nu grinned as he counted three of these strangler vines in one hallway.

"Are you a spirit?" asked a quiet voice. Judging by the use of Mana, Nu was speaking with the Dungeon Core.

"It's an intruder! We should bite, growl… howl!" the same voice said, talking to itself with a deeper tone.

Nu was intrigued. He teleported to the core room. Delta's Mana cut through any defenses like a knife through butter, and Nu was only too happy to use it for himself.

The Core room was nearly 19 floors down. Nu would have been envious, but a single glance told him how light on content they were.

Delta's floors were expansions.

This Dungeon's floors were patches.

The Core room was a natural cave with a flowing waterfall and lush meadows. Near the back, the core, a deep emerald one, was embedded deep into the skull of some creature.
The skeleton had four legs and a long tail, but age and materials taken by the core had rendered it mostly impossible to guess what it had been.

"It's powerful," the core mused.

"We die fighting. We die proud," she hissed at herself. A feminine voice…

"My name is Nu, and I am from a Dungeon across the sea," he said, making sure he sounded confident and at ease.

"…We are Trinity."

"You'll address us as Trinity."

"Intruder-Nu. I Trinity."

Now that Nu was close, he could hear the three voices clearly. They weren't separate Dungeon cores or split, but if he gazed closely. In the creature's mouth…Ah… it made sense now.

"Your first material was compounded. The carnivore was eating a herbivore who was digesting flora. You are the cycle of life," Nu said, and the Core was quiet for a moment.

"We did. I shall talk to you. The others are less inclined. I am the Trinity formed of the Herbivore. I am softer, the listener… the survivor," the soft voice said simply.

"You can be called, Herb. I'm not using Trinity for all three of you. There isn't enough black leather and philosophy rants for it," Nu said, and the Core was quiet again.

"I do not understand," Herb admitted.

"Stick with me, and you'll learn the important lesson," Nu said and leaned in close.

"There is no understanding," he said, releasing all his trauma and joy of being a partner of Delta.

"What do you want?" Herb wisely chose to move on in the conversation.

"I'm here to help you be a better Dungeon. Turn your pitfalls into spike holes. Your blow darts into a sword launcher, your level 4 goblin into a 60 orc who pays for the battle pass like the whale he is," Nu hissed, glowing blue.

"What's a whale? Does it bleed a lot?" the deeper voice said huskily. The Carnivore voice.

"It's a whale, so yes. Your name is now Carnage," Nu said simply.

"I accept this title of death," Carnage purred.

"It comes for me next! It will name me!" the skittish voice hissed. This had to be Flora… it had no real actual thoughts going on other than immediate stimulation.

"If Delta was here, she'd call you… Florida or some such," Nu decided.

"Rip and tear into juicy soil, take fishies heads, bloom beautifully!" Florida cried.

In the kingdom of Florida, Carnage and Herb ruled.

--

The Trinity sensed something when the NU mentioned 'Delta.' A tinge of respect, fear, and more.

This NU must be preyed upon by the Delta. The Delta was the superior lifeform.

They wanted to see this Delta now.

All three agreed.

---

Delta flushed and blushed as Yattina, the glass-eyed woman, gushed over her memorial room with big words Delta couldn't repeat accurately.

"The extended vaulted architecture is very reminiscent of the fantastic 3rd Verluan Era where the artist DeDevilo created similar styles inside dance halls. His works crop up in Dungeons sometimes because a lot of his work was subsumed in a great geoshake of the 5th era. Lim, see this brick? It had to be made by a Dungeon, its geometry is sublime-" she went on and on.

Delta had to excuse herself to put a finger in her shirt collar and breath quickly as she tried to induce cool air downwards.

Too many… nice words… Delta was overloading.

Where was Nu when she needed her ego popped?!

---

"This Clover Fox has upgrades for a poisonous bite!" Nu said, trying not to wave his arms.

"Next floor is only 20 Mana away," Herb said simply.

"It costs 10 Mana," Nu said, strangling a scream. The core glowed.

"We, the Trinity, have voted. Two against the bite and one for," the core said simply, and Nu glared at them.

Nu didn't know how long he had before the Seahagan returned to attack the Trinity once more, but he knew it wasn't a long time.

"Since I can crush you with sheer Mana alone, I overrule your demomacry and install a tyranny," Nu said, voice deadly quiet. The core was still as stone until it blinked once.

"We vote as a union against that."

"You can't unionize against me!" Nu complained, turning to Doctor who was conversing with a shapely boulder.

"Can they?" he asked the smart Guardgoyle.

"Indeed they can; Mistress Delta would even support their developing democracy," he reminded Nu.

No, what Delta would do is infect them until she had them all in her pocket or eating out of… her… hands.

"Can I be included?" Nu said innocently. "As a voter, I mean. Since I'm here to help," he pointed out. The Trinity hesitated.

"We… see no harm. The cycle includes all," Herb said finally.

"I vote for poisonous fangs for the Clover Fox," he said instantly, a window appeared, and he clicked the emerald green yes.

"Two for… two against. This is… a draw. A draw. A draw. A draw. A draw," Herb stuttered.

"Oh my, I didn't expect this!" Nu cried and quickly pointed to Doctor.

"Make him vote," he said quickly as a solution.

Doctor stared at Nu with a heavy sigh.

He clicked yes when the screen came up, the edges glitchy in panic.

"Order is restored! The purchase has been done and ended!" Herb announced.

Nu smiled to himself.

"Oh, no, little friends… the purchases are just beginning," he promised and opened the menu of the entire Dungeon.

Interlude: Maiden

"So, that's why we need your help. So, uh," the Blade Captain stammered, his scruffy face looking both pale and flustered at the same time.

She eyed him with ambivalence. She expressed no real negative emotion, but given her sharp cheekbones and piercing gaze, Isanella Sume knew far too well that she looked as friendly as a winter spirit in the middle of a blizzard down by the Stands of the World.

"That's why we're here, pumpkin," came the bemused voice of her companion. The man smiled with relief.

"It's an honor to have both the Winter and Fall Maidens helping us out," he gushed, breaking his grim facade to look starstruck. Isanella turned away, embarrassed by the title. She might gulp if he asked for her autograph. So many people wanted her name on a piece of paper or poster or even magically tattooed on their skin!

It was insane.

"I… didn't mean to overstep," the man said instantly, reading Isanella's posture as displeasure instead of mortification.

"Ah, don't sweat it. Issy just doesn't like attention or noise," Omp'ne said with a hearty chuckle and slapped Isanella's back with enough force that Isanella winced.

The Fall Maiden wasn't the most physically strongest of the Maidens, but that didn't mean Omp'ne power either - that smack was going to leave an imprint. It was the sort of thing you just had to work with when dealing with a half-giantess who hunched at a lower seven foot.

The strongest of them physically was Brilda and that was one woman who meant it when she glared at people.

"Oh! Good. Well, we have a problem with the Dungeon," the Blade captain went on awkwardly as Isanella took time to 'listen' to the world around them. It was something she was slowly beginning to use once more since-

Well, since she had sung the song to eclipse all noise back home.

The land around them was north of Verluan Capital, a place Fairplay was avoiding due to the recent bloody rise of the new King. His ascension to the throne was mired in all sorts of drama and the new Queen was none too pleased from what Isanella heard.

That poor woman.

Isanella knew all too well what it felt like to be forced to choose between a demon's bargain and a dead end. She would be akin to a prisoner in her own home. Only free once the king had his selection of heirs.

Isanella sent a prayer to the queen. She prayed that one of the queen's children would avenge the woman if the worst came to pass. Isanella pondered if she could love those children in such a circumstance?

It was an odd thought since Isanella really didn't plan on being a mother. Not with her body tainted as it was.

Something caught her attention, a sort of 'buzz' in the ground. Isanella followed the disturbance in the magic and mana to the source.

The North Shrug was a cold place, but not a winter wonderland. A muddy brown land of chilly water and trees that never seemed to bloom all year long. It was famous for the largest waterfall in the world that flowed over the edge of the world into the abyss below.

The river was said to be formed from the World Crown, as if akin to flowing tears, but Isanella hadn't seen the source herself. Rumor was that the Crown south of the Capitol had begun to run dry of mana. The Mana vein itself tapped out as if the land had suffered a blockage.

Those who ventured too close suffered… the grayness.

The North Shrug only held one village of note. It sprawled out before Isanella and Omp'ne like some god had spilled their tea leaves, chaotically and windswept in a curve. A frontier town of sorts, Deowrant was oddly beautiful. Just enough greenery and life pulled together to give the impression of a fiery spot of growth in the Shrug.

It was famous for two things.

The first was that it was a neutral ground between those coming from the south and the roaming bands of nomad barbarians. Tough warriors who contended with monsters, storms, and traveled along the edge of the world with wills of steel.

The second, of course, was the Dungeon. Isanella followed the buzzing in the ground to the large ominous sheer cliff wall that rose out of the massive river. The near-black rock looked shaped by streams of lava that hissed into the river, forming large islands that floated off the edge of the world, sometimes clinging to the edge.

These pieces slowly expanded the land and were called the 'Shallows' by the natives.

"She's a looker," Omp'ne whistled in appreciation. The Dungeon was a wonky square of cliff walls on all sides that were impossible to scale with anything short of the best climbing gear. The top belched black smoke and turned the rain a curious ashen color.

There had been rumors the ash was poisonous, but it was just mana cast-off.

"She?" Isanella murmured with a question.

"Issy, everything natural and beautiful is a woman until otherwise corrected. A raging storm is the wrath of a goddess. The shaking of the ground is the fury of a lady. The fresh rain on the skin is a mother's kiss," Omp'ne boasted.

"What about bugs that bite you in warm parts of the world?" Isanella said with a raised brow.

"Those are men," Omp'ne said, deadly serious before she cracked a grin.

"Sorry, giant culture. One giantess to every ten males gives us a lot of power and that means we get to write our myths. Men are powerful mountains one day when they make us smile… and buffoons that anthills tower over the next when they upset us," Omp'ne explained, mostly for the worried blade nearby.

Omp'ne certainly didn't mind men. Isanella discovered that in the worst way possible one day when she was sent to find Omp'ne and found her still asleep.

With half the patrons of the bar she was in last night still in the bed with her.

The woman's brazen appreciation of her own body along with her self-respect about the whole thing made Isanella a little jealous. She could barely stutter out a greeting before she fled or the man she was speaking with seemed to think Isanella was going to murder him.

"Why are we here?" Isanella asked, changing the subject far too fast, causing Omp'ne to smirk.

"The Craven Keep," the man said, turning to the Dungeon with a deep scowl. The two Maidens turned serious and everyone put pleasantries aside.

"Is that its name or what the men call it?" Omp'ne asked and the blade hesitated.

"Does it matter?" he finally responded. Isanella looked him in the eye and he flinched.

"Intimately," she said quietly and the man grimaced.

"It's got a weak avatar. Mostly uses it to stare at the squads going in and out. There's a warning at the entrance," he reported and Isanella was surprised. The Dungeon only had roughly 25 floors. It had to be very intelligent to already have a theme and form an avatar. She didn't see those in Dungeons until past the 30 floor mark.

"The warning says that 'All those that enter may leave with gold or stay forever as fuel for the Smith's Forge,'" the man said, sounding like he did not like the name at all.

Smith's Forge.

"And that's a name you won't accept because…?" Omp'ne trailed off, voice expectant. The man looked at her then at the weapon on her back nervously.

Omp'ne could insist all she wanted that it was a giant's toolbox, but the giant thing looked like an ornate coffin made of stone and jewels.

It was eye-catching and morbid at the same time.

"A few of the boys, me included, have dad's who are smiths. Good hardworking men and more than a few forced to go into a Dungeon because no one wants honest metals but some stupid 'mana' ore or stuff that doesn't behave as it should. A lot of those good men never came back and left a lot of angry sons," the man said stiffly.

And as Fairplay tended to do, it attracted those with vengeance in their heart. A lot of them were turned away as too violent or still in grief. But it was getting harder to find earnest workers who could put aside such notions.

This was why the Maidens were a thing.

"Right. This makes it a coward, how?" Omp'ne asked, her jolly voice beginning to turn irate.

"It only has one monster per floor, it's all traps and cruel enchantments up to the sixth floor which is all we've managed to breach," the blade fired back, getting worked up. Isanella tried not to frown.

A lot of the scouts and blades burned hot when it came to Dungeons. There was hardly a cool-head in the lower ranks and the upper ranks were restrained to command centers and more.

"Just a boss monster eh?" Omp'ne asked, curious now.

"Big ones. They're not normal levels of strength we'd expect from lower floors," the blade agreed grimly.

"Well, let's have a look. We're here to get you sorry lot to floor 10 then the rest is down to you blades. Issy has another job in the Hollow Grip and I'm heading to the Dry Patch to the Ruby Dungeon. It supposedly unleashed a new floor and people have been coming back without faces," Omp'ne said briskly, making the man blink.

"…Their faces?" he echoed. Omp'ne waved a hand over her own with a dramatic flop.

"Clean gone. They can breathe somehow, but no face. The Dungeon is collecting them in this ornate book that charms people to look at it. Might be the floor boss," the giantess explained.

"An attention commanding… book of faces," the man repeated and looked ill. The two Maidens left the man with that image and continued onwards.

Isanella was quiet as they walked into Deowrant, getting the usual looks of awe and fear.

'Just walk on. Don't let it affect you.'

She repeated this mantra and when a crowd threatened to swarm them, Omp'ne let out an exaggerated growl of annoyance. Isanella hummed her a tiny note of thanks and the giantess pretended not to notice, but she kept Isanella in her shadow, like a protective mountain.

"This ain't back home, little snowcloud. You can be proud here," Omp'ne said softly and Isanella flinched.

If she had to admit it, Omp'ne was her best friend. In the Maidens, they got on best. Brilda was terse and polite.

It was Ghulana that was the problem.

The woman was not only some knockout with charm that made her popular, she was also a talented fae-like druid. Able to control nature spirits and such to the point she could make anything beautiful grow with but a command.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

She even had a private business on the side. A series of inns she planned on spreading around the country to provide comfort but really it was to spread the woman's name. Isanella had never met a creature so vain as Ghulana.

They had done a few missions together. They always went wrong and Isanella was greatly ashamed to admit it was why the once infamous Pestilence Swamp Dungeon needed a full year to recover back to its previous state.

Ghulana accused Isanella of being bereft of warmth and the ability to love anyone.

Isanella called her a hack who only cared about using people and flashing her good looks.

Things escalated from there and Isanella learned what happened when a Dungeon was overfed mana from two very angry powerful women. The poor thing. Isanella took personal time between jobs to check up on it and sneak some unique poisons she found in the world to it as an apology. Some of the poisons snuck into her own food courtesy of a certain…hack.

Isanella gave her a constant ringing in her ear for three weeks straight in revenge. Isanella bumped into someone and she blinked.

Usually Omp'ne kept people clear off the street-

She looked up and up into deep dark eyes.

"Most outsiders do not interest me. You are like the first kiss of winter after a cruel summer. Your song is balm to my burning soul," the man rumbled and Isanella saw him looking right into her eyes and saw only blunt truth to them.

He was a hulking man decked out in the fur of a massive snow bear, the whiteness only making his fiery red hair more striking along with his giant muscles.

Isanella tilted her head and listened.

She expected to hear the same thing as always, an unpleasant chorus of mixed emotions and thoughts aimed at her. Cold jabbing shards of judgment, fear, and worry.

What she got was a single repeating thump of a drum. A constant repetitive thunder of existence. It thrummed through her and left her feeling… warm.

"She's single," Omp'ne announced suddenly and Isanella's pink flood of confusion and pleasant feelings came down in a crushing mix of horrified embarrassment.

The man gave her a small smile.

"Then the world is foolish. Such a wondrous song should not be sung alone," he said and Omp'ne 'subtly' pushed Isanella forward with one hand, causing Isanella to leave skid marks in the soil.

"…Ah." Isanella managed to croak out.

"So, we're just two normal ladies out on the town, maybe tackling the Dungeon. You know, gal things. Nothing important if you had a suggestion for my friend," Omp'ne said cheerfully, waving her hand about.

The man looked back down at Isanella, but he didn't look 'down' at her.'

It was nice.

"Are you normal?" he asked curiously. There was no hint of a joke or mocking to his tone.

Isanella managed to swallow once.

"No," she whispered with regret. This man would want a wife that could stay at home and be… normal. He smiled once more.

"Neither am I. Now we have a connection. If you are to remain around town… perhaps we can build more. I have a duty to attend first. I won't ask the winter wind to wait on me. I am no fool," he admitted and Isanella could only nod at his simplistic words, but they held earnest truth to them.

"Will I be allowed to chase the wind?" he asked himself and walked away, pausing only once to look back and smile. After a few seconds, Omp'ne spoke up.

"You're going to need some sexy panties," she concluded. Isanella snapped her head around to glare at her friend. The half-giantess shrugged.

"Armored granny panties are good for defending your life against danger, they're also amazingly good at defending your most precious part from the touch of a man," Omp'ne said dryly. Isanella could feel her face turning red.

"They're comfortable! I'll wear… scandalous panties when a Dungeon makes them as a loot drop. I want purpose and style!" she fumed. Omp'ne perked up suddenly.

"Oh, I can knit you some from the sinew of a dragon! Old wives tales say that increases a man's vitality when he-"

Isanella ran off, hands clamped over her ears.

---

Omp'ne watched her little snowcloud vanish inside the nearby inn. Her smile faded until she was left with a serious gaze.

"Take the chance, Issy," she whispered. Then Omp'ne touched a hand to her chest, feeling her core pulse with intense energy.

"Before Winter no longer lets you go," she pleaded.

She ran a hand down her stomach where the shattered core of a dead Dungeon was implanted into her skin. She knew Isanella had accepted the winter core to handle her…

Curse.

Just like Ghulana used it to stop going mad.

Just like how Brilda used it to regulate her uncontrollable power.

Not Omp'ne. Omp'ne was just an idiot.

A foolish idiot who took any chance to be someone else.

She tapped her face a few times, psyching herself up.

"Cheer up! The Fall Maiden is not too hot or cold. She's just perfect. A smile for all is how I work!" she grinned to herself.

"That's how Omp'ne Brawndo stays a hero!" she proclaimed.

---
Present Day

Director Ripdoy looked over his desk, frowning.

"It's premature," he admitted.

"I'm ready," the young woman argued as she stood up, her form striking as her once brown hair began to turn golden with hues of red. Just peeking out from her casual shirt, three amber shards poked out her skin.

"Tu'mn, I understand you've been waiting for this day," he began and she looked tense. Like her predecessor, she too was of giant origins. The Golden Core resonated best with those with giant's blood for some reason.

"But given what happened-" he said and she growled, looking annoyed.

"I'm not my mother," she snapped. Ripdoy stopped looking so polite and his aura shifted to being strict.

"We know. She was our greatest, our brightest… and when she gave birth to you? You took everything. Her core, her strength, her purpose. I know very well who you are and aren't. I don't blame you as you seem to," he responded firmly.

Simmering with anger, Tu'mn stared at the ground.

"You can still see her," he said finally and Tu'mn looked up with heat.

"No thank you… sir," she responded.

"I don't want to see a Dungeon Slave. She can stay in the Craven Keep for all I care," she announced and turned on her heel to leave. Shouting after Tu'mn would accomplish nothing and Ripdoy did not even entertain the idea of physically restraining her.

It was barbaric to resort to strength to make a point.

It was also incorrect to call contracts 'slaves.' Perhaps foolish to connect oneself to an alien mind, but in the case of Brilda and Omp'ne?

It was needed.

Omp'ne for her sudden collapsing soul after the birth of her beloved daughter and Brilda because not even one core was enough to drain her of her explosive power.

Trying to tell Tu'mn this? It was an exercise in patience. The girl didn't even want to use her actual name.

Resorting to the giant language to make one of her own.

Honestly, there was nothing wrong with Issy Sume.

Omp'ne wasn't the best with names. If it was a boy she had? She wanted to call it Brilly Ghul. He leaned back in his chair.

She never told Ripdoy who the father was.

'A hunk up north… or was it his brother?' she would often joke.

Still, it would be good to have a functioning Maiden again. Since Ripdoy had put in extra steps to protect Dungeon's from being leeched or shattered along with the King's law? Dead Dungeon cores were a lot rarer these days.

New Maidens could not be made on a dime and the missing cores of Winter and Spring were… officially missing.

Unofficially given away.

He couldn't bear to shatter Isanella's happiness nor Ghulana's sacrifice.

Brilda's core kept her alive and Ripdoy would sooner cut off his own hand than demand that core back. This was a problem for some on the board of directors. Caline, the uprising 'star,' insisted the Maidens were paramount to their company.

The man was a sop and Ripdoy found him as charming as a door stopper and as emotionally engaging as one.

If there was one thing Ripdoy did resent Omp'ne for?

It was for discovering the art of Seed Weapons all those years ago up north.

That was when Ripdoy's dream shattered like a damaged Dungeon Core.

The 'Craven Keep'? What a foolish name.

The Smith's Forge was correct, in all its meaning.

"Fuck you for taking Omp'ne away from us… and thank you for keeping her alive," Director Ripdoy of Fairplay toasted empty air with a glass to the northern direction of his building.

It was thanks to Omp'ne sneaking new designs out of the Smith's Forge that gave Fairplay a leg up. She wanted all the chances for her daughter to survive any dungeon to be important.

The company's symbol was even based on her. Working together with the power of Dungeon to keep their dream alive.

Caline and his ilk had tainted even that.

Frowning, he felt a strange tug as if a string was being pulled and he jerked out of his chair in surprise. He looked up at a nearby mirror and instead of his reflection…

Ripdoy saw silver streams of light flowing into the air.

Director Ripdoy of the Fairplay company bent the knee before the mirror.

"Send the Maiden. This Dungeon proves to be… promising."

The command was said and Ripdoy blinked, a light in his eyes fading.

He stood up slowly.

"What was I doing?" he asked aloud and eyed his reflection, noticing he was a bit pale looking.

He thought about Tu'mn.

Perhaps a little Dungeon to break her in would ease off some of her built up tension? Despite her temper, it would reassure him that a Maiden was in the same town as his boy.

It was protection without saying it was.

But… why did the entire situation make him feel uneasy despite his heart being set on the idea?

Ripdoy didn't know.

Was it really his heart?

Was his core reacting to something after so many years of being utterly dead?

Questions upon questions.

Alas… no answers to be had.

168: Shortcuts cut Short

"Is it so weird? A room to honor people?" Lim asked, and Yattina hesitated.

There was no real good way to say what she was about to say next.

"Yes, even the most advanced Dungeons we know of lack what we would consider empathy. It's just not known for Dungeons of any age to ever 'care' about those who enter it," Yattina admitted as she gripped the mana charm that kept her from throwing her guts up.

The mana in the air indicated the Dungeon was many things; between the detailed entrance room, the feeling, and more. It all pointed to everything in this Dungeon being compacted, pushed to the limit. There really was no better word for it other than this Dungeon felt 'thick.'

"Captain Yattina, we should move on," their escort said gruffly behind them. Yattina resisted the urge to turn and hiss like a feral cat. She did not enjoy being rushed in her research by dolts who could swing a sword and not a lot else.

"A moment please, Captain. Every discovery made could change how we approach this Dungeon," she said back to the man watching them. Yattina didn't like the new captain. Due to the sheer size of Fairplay, it wasn't uncommon for some of their members to never have met each other before an operation brought them together.

Captain Allatory was one such person. If Lim was her promising mind, ready to accept the world that existed outside his own viewpoint, then Allatory was a steel trap rusted over by years of loss and bitterness.

"As the Blade Captain, my authority supersedes your own whilst in this Dungeon. We need to move on. There is far more for you to see. More things you need to be informed on so we can be ready," he said, and Yattina narrowed her eyes.

The man was well-versed in the fact that the Dungeon was always listening.

What he wasn't saying was that he wanted Yattina to identify as many weaknesses as possible to set the stage for an assault by an expert squad.

It was extreme to even be considering such an option, but this Dungeon was hardly normal.

Normal or not, Yattina would do her best. It was down to her to walk a fine line between revealing too much or too little. One meant the Dungeon would be laid bare and relationships that it courted with the village might be soured because of them.

The other was good men and women could be seriously hurt in a misunderstanding.

This was why she didn't like people getting close.

They died due to being stupid or left her after hurting her.

Moving down the hall, the men halted before a room decorated in a wonderful spider silk garden.

"Avoid it, I don't want to deal with the Phantom Spider with Captain Yattina here. Her time is too important to see you all being flung about like damn toys. Cut down only the webs that absolutely need to be," Allatory told his squad, who moved in with practiced grace.

Yattina stopped to admire the web, enjoying how it felt more like thread than web, bouncing off her finger rather than clinging to it. The slight touch sent a tremble across the room, which Yattina watched as it all seemed to meet on the ceiling near the far corner.

If she was a gambling woman, she'd bet that was where the queen of this domain resided. Yattina could only imagine how beautiful the monster was. It wasn't often that a Dungeon had a diverse ecosystem like this on the first floor.

On the way past, she took some berries and quietly asked Lim to attune them to himself. The blank look she got in return made her remember that Lim had been on the Scout teams. High numbers, even higher turn over.

"Focus your mana on them, allow it to soak into it completely until it feels like your finger or hair. Then you sort of just pull it back to you. Don't do too many, or you'll exhaust yourself," she warned.

Yattina was oversimplifying it, but Lim didn't need to know that. There were a dozen different ways to make Dungeon items 'real.' The more complex or magical an item or material was, the more Mana and experience the gatherer needed.

Processing salt from the coastal or sea Dungeons was considered a closely guarded secret of a Culinary Guild, and people paid through their teeth to get pure enough salt in a timely manner.

This was why there existed Botany Guilds, Miner Guilds, Mason Guilds, and more. Some guilds were so specialized their methods could only work on a single Dungeon.

These sects were extremely insular, and Yattina heard their methods of inducting outsiders that made it past their lofty doors were brutal. They all had names based on the Dungeon they worked with and the nature of their exports.

Yattina only knew of one near Fairplay HQ by name; they lived on the peninsula to the north and were called the 'Raging Storm' Sect. Aspiring members passed through the city on their way to the sect every year.

Most of them returned harrowed beyond their years.

They paused at an intersection, and Yattina saw beyond an open door that there was a massive lake straight ahead. She felt her excitement spark, but Allatory cut her path off before she could take steps inside.

"The room hasn't been fully scouted out. Our Sensors think there may be a secret passage in the room, but it's not safe. We want to focus on the main path today," he warned, and Yattina pulled Lim into view.

"I have a guard," she insisted. Allatory looked unmoved by Lim's nervous stature.

Yattina also didn't want to be shown up by a stupid Sensor. Children of accomplished Dungeon Delvers. They had a way of seeing Dungeons that they couldn't explain to others.

They spoke of 'stars and lines that connected all to titans of light.'

Not that Yattina didn't not believe them, but they were all sort of smug, and Yattina found they tended to feel like the elite of Fairplay.

Premium members.

On her less kind days, Yattina called them blatant cheaters who could see through a Dungeon's efforts and peek under the table to see how it all worked.

'Lazy' was another good word for them.

However, something Allatory said had caught her attention now she thought about it.

"Your Sensors 'think'?" she asked, trying not to sound coyly amused.

"Their vision is clouded. The Dungeon lines are unlike anything they've seen before. They said it's like trying to read a sea during a storm," Allatory reported as he looked around, his pale features almost shiny in the gloom.

"Imagine having vision problems," Yattina said casually as her magic orb moved in her eye socket. To her delight, Allatory looked away uncomfortably.

"I'll look at the lake and determine if it's 'important,'" she said and moved past the man with Lim at her side. She tapped the side of her head.

"Come on, lil guy. Time to earn your rent," she muttered, getting a confused look from Lim.

Her 'eye' was a bit of a clunky thing. Still, she couldn't complain when it let her see things that she would never have seen otherwise.

Unlike Sensors, Yattina didn't see under the facade of Dungeons or through their tricks.

No, this sight was more of a monkey's paw.

When she got the thing, she should have been more careful when she told it to 'always show her the truth.' It was a childish whim from a hurt child, in Yattina's defense.

The lake began to glow as massive silver and gold lights danced underneath like playful stars. She slowly watched as the sky seemed to be dancing between the fake sun and moon in some odd dance.

She absolutely avoided looking at Lim or the others with her eye. She didn't look at people.

They were either devastatingly beautiful or beautifully devastating.

Slowly, she looked over a pre-set camp site, getting a warm glow of welcome from it. Past rocks and grass that radiated a gentle peace, far over the lake until her eye landed on the massive crimson eye staring back at her.

A horrible serpentine feathered dragon was coiled around a throne of knives, each tip tapping a dragonscale in a cruel musical note as the long flowing mane reminded Yattina of black seaweed. The thing should not have fit in the room, but the Eye of Truth didn't really concern itself with geometry or space so much as being truthful.

Slowly, the creature spread its wings, and a glint of silver flashed around its head, showing a crown woven in the shape of talons clasped together.

The creature leaned down, and Yattina couldn't move. It opened its mouth, revealing fangs sharper than the knives it had collected.

"I will spare your mortal soul…" it rasped, and Yattina wasn't breathing.

"For that knife on the boy's leg," it finished in an almost honking purr.

The magic of the eye died down, and she was left staring across the lake at a much smaller duck. However, Yattina calmly accepted that she was staring at a potential superboss hidden in plain sight and took Lim's knife, holding it aloft.

"A knife… a knife for our safe passage," she croaked.

"Captain?" Allatory whispered, concerned as he moved to cover her with his sword half-drawn.

"I swear to whatever god you believe in that if you upset that duck, I will lock you in here with it after I run," Yattina hissed, her magical eye flashing.

Allatory gaped, then took three steps back.

Putting the knife down on a nearby rock, she watched the creature as it weighed the offering from across the lake. Yattina knew that such a paltry distance meant nothing to the duck.

"Quack!" it announced and buried its head into its wing to go to sleep.

Her heart started beating again.

Safety!

Yattina needed to order a crate of knives from Fairplay. She needed to study this creature, with its permission of course!

Her scientific soul was in heaven!

This could be the legendary Dark Drake! A species thought to only rise up every thousand years in migration when the Demon World aligned with their world. The trail of destruction left behind them was said to be the stuff of legends!

How was one here? It took incredible mana and magic to summon something so powerful.

How did anyone summon a Dark Drake?!

---

Quiss paused as he looked down at a bunch of Fairplay people getting grifted by Grim.

"Dungeon Maps, complete with side tunnels. Deluxe maps with two secret passages available on request, price non-negotiable!" the boy howled. People gathered around, hustling to be the one with the upperhand.

He stepped closer so that only Grim could see him when he asked his question.

"Why are several rooms incomplete or just wrong?" he asked, and Grim shot him a grin.

"I'll finish it eventually. It's a promise to my customers who bought it regardless," he said simply.

"And if they happen to get lost or traumatized?" Quiss raised a brow.

"Sounds like a grim tale," the boy said without thinking, then paused, then cursed at himself. Someone elbowed Quiss in the stomach to get closer to the maps, and he almost burned the Fairplay employee to ashes in reflex when he twisted his tongue harshly in a folded forked motion.

"Duck!" he snarled. A small black duck appeared in a poof of smoke on Grim's table.

"That looks sort of familiar," someone muttered as Grim threw himself over a fence with his earnings.

"If you like grim tales, you'll love duck tales!" he called back to them a second later.

"I don't even get that joke!" he cursed himself as he fled.

Quiss picked the duck up and looked pensive. He took the docile but curious thing to the pub, where Seth was nursing a drink with Happy Nina.

He saw Quiss, began to smile, then spotted the duck.

"The blackest of undays are returned. Many not-knowing will perish," he said, sliding under the table with a pale expression.

"What's with him?" Happy Nina beamed.

"When I summon three black ducks in a row, it means I accidently started their migration early again," Quiss said grumpily.

"What happened last time?" Happy Nina asked as Sad Nina sobbed her way through a sink full of dishes nearby.

Quiss pointed to the world map on the pub's wall and to the very south-eastern island.

"That happened. If I summon two more dark ducks, then it's going to be a repeat," he said sullenly as he told the bartender to send over a shot of whatever was going out of date.

"Isn't that Funland?" Happy Nina asked, tilting her head, still smiling.

Quiss hated that name.

Funland was short for Funeral Island. It was home to five compact Dungeons that sprung up after Quiss set off the migration. The land was still covered in battle scars and rumors had sprung up that something else had been imprisoned there.

"Well, if this is the first one, you still need to summon two more, right?! You just have to be careful," Happy Nina nodded seriously, and Quiss felt a small smile tug on his face as he turned around to feed the duck, but he found it was gone.

"Ah, damn it," he sighed and turned, running right into Ruli's puffed out chest.

"Fu-Duck!" he screeched in surprise as she snuck up on him. A poof went on the table, and a second black duck appeared, confused before eating some of Nina's fries.

"Oh, we're so ducked!" Happy Nina clapped her hands with a smile of terror.

---

Delta wanted to stalk- er, follow this new woman with interest, but she was being called by Wyin of all people.

"Don't let her or her little friend die!" she told Maestro, who had eyes all over the floor. It didn't take long for her to arrive in Wyin's boss room to see the tree looking thoughtful and oddly worried.

"You rang?" Delta called from the entrance with a low grunt then grinned to herself. It was impossible to give her monster's actual space since she was all the space in the walls, but a little effort never hurt anyone. Wyin looked and absent-mindedly beckoned her closer.

"I've been having 'thoughts' since we arrived back from that dingy little sad salt cave," she began, her voice a slow drawl.

"Foodie, his name is Foodie," Delta reminded her, but Wyin didn't seem to hear.

"I've come to the conclusion that I may be suffering from a mortal case of boredom," Wyin admitted and it seemed to pain her to actually say it aloud.

"But all you did was train a few salt bats to attack Jack and kick a turtle," Delta said, voice incredulous.

"And it was glorious!" Wyin threw her arms up, her very slender arms ending in dozens of branches that all swished as she moved. Delta could argue, but she had a point. Wyin hardly got any time to be her 'gentle' self to adventurers.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The first floor was just too good. Delta tried to avoid feeling too smug about that as pride went before the fall into something that would make her scream.

"Think, think, think," Delta mused, tapping her head as she thought of ideas.

"If you ask me for any honey for your rumbly tummy, I'll be the first boss monster to be fired for slapping their Dungeon Core," Wyin said dryly.

An idea came to her. It was so simple and yet also so slimy that it made her grimace.

"Wyin, it's time I became something I swore to never tolerate," she inhaled, trying to ready herself for what she was about to say.

"Desirable?" Wyin offered, and Delta opened her mouth, then closed it for a few moments.

"It's not a crime to put video games and my students first before romance! If I wanted someone to be with, I'd have actually looked outside of my romance books," Delta said and blinked. That was a new semi-memory.

She didn't have a 'special someone.' That oddly made her feel a little bit better about being 'here.'

"I had Jack bring me some of those books from the Third Floor. I would not want that poor sweet Deo to even glimpse the covers," Wyin said with a sly smirk.

"It's not 'dirty books.' It's mature reading material," Delta said with an indifferent shrug.

"'Mature' was books 1-3 in that one series. 'Deviant' came into the picture from books 4-19," Wyin said, and she sounded like she shamelessly read them all in one sitting.

"Anyway!" Delta interrupted, her neck burning with a blush.

"What if I opened up Quee's entrance? It goes past Renny's circus to the outside," she explained, and Wyin frowned, turning serious as she turned the idea over.

"Dangerous, we cannot risk the honorable Sir Fran being simply 'skipped," Wyin said, sounding more concerned about her darling knight than any of the actual first floor.

"I agree, but if the entrance fee was something that even Fairplay might balk at paying? A ticket that only gets cheaper everytime you reach Fran's room, and even cheaper if you win," Delta suggested.

"The price would have to be something even they wouldn't risk losing out on," Wyin said, bending at her knees to sweep low to the ground.

Delta blinked and then began to smile as something occurred to her.

---

"Captain, you shouldn't-" Lim said, and Yattina pulled her head out of the mud filling the room with a blink.

"Lim, this mud is amazing, it's rich in helpful minerals and the perfect temperature for usage on skin," she proclaimed, making him mana-infuse a jar of the stuff so she could take it back to her lab to study.

"It's mud; she's mucking around like a pig," someone muttered in the group behind them. Lim turned with anger in his eyes, but Yattina touched his arm. Allatory turned once and seemed to glare at one man.

"You can retreat by yourself. I don't care about your opinions, but you will respect the chain of command," he said coldly.l

"But the duck, sir-"

"Go." Allatory's voice was even colder now.

"I'm no fainting damsel, Allatory. I can take a mean comment from a nobody meathead," Yattina said as she stood up, wiping her face of the wonderful mud. Lim eyed the goop and would try to 'indulge' his captain if she asked him to join her in having a mud facial later.

"If he is willing to mouth-off to you within earshot, I don't doubt he has comments about me in private. I don't need insubordination from 'meatheads,' as you call them," Allatory said factually. The rest of his men seemed split in two opinions, the older loyal sort who nodded compared to the younger more nervous followers.

"What's a little mud on your face compared to the marvels we could bring to the world?" Yattina said with a smile, and Lim eyed the mud once more, trying to imagine how the world looked to his captain.

He sort of wanted to have that excitement for things as she did. The Dungeon began shaking, and everyone made rough groups of three, spreading out as much as the room and corridor allowed.

"What's going on?" Lim called, and Yattina steadied him with one hand as the shaking slowly subsided.

"Did it form a new floor?" one of the Blades called in alarm.

"There was no Mana surge; we'd all be on our butts if there was a new floor," Lim called, and Yattina shot him a bright smile to show her happiness that he was already picking up her lessons.

Lim flushed and tried not to grin like an idiot in return.

"We're leaving. I'm taking no risks," Allatory commanded, and there was no argument from Yattina, which must have meant that it was serious. Leaving felt too quick, as if the Dungeon was helping them hurry along.

---

As the group fled the entrance to regroup with the waiting Fairplay members, they all came to a stop as something rose into the air far into the forest behind the Dungeon. At first, it was just a pillar of orange Mana that spiked into the sky until it began to take shape over the treeline.

"Impossible," Yattina whispered aloud, in such a way that her excitement and grin were just as hard to ignore.

The orange mana faded until a solid large tree, far bigger than any around, loomed like a giant in the distance. The tree had a strange curve to it; not anything a storm would have caused, but if Yattina blurred her eyesight just a little, it looked like a woman blowing a kiss to the world.

A barely visible path encircled the tree, weaving in and out of dangerous brambles that overgrew the ground all around the base.

Yattina insisted she be part of the first expedition, and Allatory was too shaken to disagree. He, too, knew what it meant for this Dungeon to have a second entrance of sorts. Approaching the tree wasn't hard, but one wrong path or misstep had people buried up to their thighs in wicked thorns that sometimes grazed, sometimes nicked.

Only the truly hasty got stabbed by them.

Half-way up the tree, roughly where a 'heart' would be on the vaguely human-shaped tree, was a round wooden room built into the tree itself. A massive set of double doors greeted them with an intricate carving of a smiling woman holding them closed with her arms carved into the wood itself.

In sunlight, the woman might have been charming or approachable, but in the setting sun, her smile took on an edge as wicked as the thorns that grew all around them.

There was a sort of basin set in the middle of the room with roots and branches growing up to keep it locked in place. The wide rim looked old, but clean. Yattina was having to fan herself with a fresh notebook at all she was seeing.

She nearly cracked the spine when she saw the inscription by the basin.

"The Second Floor wants the pleasure of your company, but there shall be no poaching of the Swift Sir Fran. To use this entrance, one must test themselves repeatedly against the first floor, each lap lowering the price of entry," Yattina whispered as she wrote this all down. The writing curved along the rim of the basin, so she started pacing around in sync with the words.

"For those who have not even tried, the price is simple. You-" Yattina stopped cold and stared for a long moment, her mouth dropping open.

The words glinted back at her, unmoving and unashamed.

"Return in one year and be assigned to a Dungeon of Delta's choosing as a contract," Yattina finished, the rest of the group froze at the announcement.

"It can't… enforce that," someone said, and around the basin, symbols began to appear, the universal sigil for a Dungeon Core, a glowing circle and that strange thick-sided triangle.

She bent down and allowed her eye to gaze at the symbol.

Utter protection, safety, and determination.

"It can. If you use this basin, your soul will enter a contract that you won't be breaking without the help of the Archmage and a few others," she warned.

"Who would pay that?" someone demanded, and there was a noise as someone entered the space.

"Excuse me," a young boy said with an unnaturally serious face. He had a sword on his hip, and despite his smaller stature, he had an aura of power.

He walked in, and to Yattina's shock, put his hand in the basin without warning, causing the statue of the smirking woman to peel her arms back and the heavy doors to open.

There was a strange billowing white mist obscuring the other side to Yattina, and likely any who had yet to pay the price.

"Who are you?" Yattina asked, getting a bit worried about the youth in this town.

"Alpha," he said slowly as if listening to something coming from the tunnel. He eyed Yattina with more attention than anyone else.

"Do you know what you just paid?" one of the Blades hissed, fear on his face. The boy known as Alpha looked at him with an indifferent expression.

"Nothing. The price is for those yet to beat the first floor or make serious attempts. I've been to the third floor already. I have a free pass," he said simply, and there was a thick silence that followed that statement.

"You are just a boy," a larger man said, looking furious at the statement. Alpha shrugged and turned away.

"This Dungeon just wants to lure children in to feast on them. You're being used by a heartless demon," the man spat. The boy paused and then lowered his hand that he was raising to the mist gate.

The air in the room changed, and even Yattina, who had no core, could feel the whispers of magic picking up.

Yattina made to apologise for Fairplay's rude behavior when the boy turned, his calm eyes taking on a hard edge.

He pulled his sword free and buried it just in front of the gate, the tip sliding into the floor like a hot knife through butter.

"Pull this free, and I will personally vouch for you and allow you to avoid paying the price. Fail, and this sword will bar you from ever using this entrance, no matter how many times you complete the first floor," he said, his tone firm.

The scout swaggered forth and put his hand on the pommel and pulled. Nothing happened. Yattina watched with both deep curiosity and disbelief as the man turned red from effort as he lifted with his knees and both hands.

Her eye said the sword hadn't been enchanted. It was just. That. Heavy.

The scout fell back, his hands red and blistered from the sheer raw tugging he had done.

Three of the Scouts tried to lift it together, but it still didn't budge. Yattina shot Alpha a look, and her eye returned a confusing sight. She was willing to risk looking at someone to get some answers.

He was a human being, but there was something beyond strange with his 'self.' His core wasn't just in his chest, deep inside, but it was like his flesh and core had been perfectly merged. Potential could form at any part of his body. No part of Alpha was left untouched, and the sight was beautiful.

If Fairplay and its Core Armaments were a harrowing hacking of the self into a morbid tool, Alpha was the evolution of self. A being in sync with the concept of potential.

The boy reached forward, and his power, contained tightly like a coiled spring, lifted his sword easily and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Yattina called, and Alpha paused before looking back.

"You can visit the Dungeon and ask to be shown around. Delta wouldn't lie or even need to. You'd be safe and… you'd like it," he said finally and walked through the mist; the white swirling barrier rippled once before the doors closed behind him.

Yattina stared for a while before an odd thought crossed her mind.

An extremely evolved Dungeon happened to befriend what Yattina was sure was the world's most evolved human being.

That… couldn't be coincidence.

"Tricks. Just tricks," the Scout from earlier told himself as he stared at his hands. Yattina knew that once reports made their way back to HQ, she might not be allowed to continue to study the Dungeon, and it could be handed over to more senior researchers.

The idea made her feel dread. There was too much happening here, and she would be damned if some stuffy old guy got her miracle.

"Captain!" someone yelled as Yattina turned to the basin and slammed her hand into it.

Now, she had a whole year to study this Dungeon and her ties to it.

After that, she would get to see how this 'contract business' worked. If her sister did it, then Yattina supposed it had to have some massive benefit.

Study Dungeons, stick it to the smug senior staff, understand her sister, and keep herself involved in all the things.

Yattina was quite proud of how many birds she was killing with one stone. From the basin, black thorns made of ink and mana rushed up her arm and into her chest, where her Core would be, nestling deep in the remains like a warm snake.

The contract failed to find purchase, going dormant seconds later. Meaning Yattina had found a massive loophole in the system.

But she didn't really have to tell anyone that.

Especially her bosses.

It was sad that she couldn't do a single drop of magic, but the plus of being a null was that magic just struggled to do anything to her in return. The more finicky and ritualistic it was, the more Yattina just walked all over it.

Pure mana attacks were the worst, like Dungeon air, but Yattina was happy to glue herself to Lim and have the poor lad haul her near-dead corpse around so she could study the Dungeon.

Science would wait for no one, and Yattina had just been handed a golden ticket to do all the science!

"Um… I do this so you don't have to," she told the shell-shocked team that had been escorting her.

"Why?" a faint voice asked.

"We do what we must," she said, trying to sound upset so people wouldn't think she was too crazy.

"Because I can?" she ended weakly.

"Captain Yattina," someone said with an odd tone, and others moved forward to bow their heads in respect.

Yattina would let them think she took one for the team.

But the only team she was on was "Team Science and sometimes Lim.'

The doors opened once more, and Yattina entered the mist, hoping her mana ward would hold. As soon as she was on the other side, Yattina began to hop in place with pure excitement.

"For science and being selfish!" she cried and took off.

169: There be Dragons and, worse, Mushrooms

Noland's life had not been easy since leaving Durence.

The tax system of Verluan was not a simple beast, and it only grew more aggravating once Dungeons got involved.

There was a saying amongst the bankers and taxmen about Dungeons.

'Trying to fit a Dungeon into an existing tax code is like asking for a task that never ends.'

However, it was not the Dungeon's fault entirely that Noland was developing gray hairs by the minute.

"So, my father would happily accept you into the Silver-Ranked club; very affluent. It's a fair trade," some youngun with slicked back hair and a winning smile told Noland, who was trying to eat his greasy sandwich in peace.

"Psh, you mean the bottom of Silver-Ranked, you're basically a bronzer," another argued as he tried to flash his credentials.

'Ignore them, and they'll go away,' Noland repeated like a mantra to himself.

The Dungeon report he made was finally making its rounds in the paperwork ecosystem. Aside from that, knowing that Princess Serma herself was going to make a Royal Challenge in Durence made the value of that Dungeon skyrocket.

There were also other factors in play. Someone with a lot of cash was setting up to buy all the land around Durence. The amount was monstrous, but the tender was legal, and that was all Noland cared about.

It did mean that Noland was in a position to shoot up from his bronze-tier membership as a member of the bank to someone with actual power. Noland honestly didn't want it.

He liked wandering the country and discussing business with people. Making sure the country wasn't being drained by the ill-intentioned while also making sure the people got their due rewards.

A simple overtax being fixed could make someone's month.

Those with aspirations were jockeying to take the Dungeon off Noland's hands, but he was uneasy with the idea.

These were the sort of young bucks to invest too quickly in adventure guild halls or hotels or other such nonsense.

The noise quieted down, and the crowd of wannabe bigshots vanished as someone took the seat opposite of Noland.

"Ah, to be young," said a smooth voice, and Noland tried to swallow his sandwich but was having trouble due to his shock at who was across from him.

"Sir Owner," he tried to bow and not splutter crumbs all over the man's suit, which looked to be something he picked up off a charity sale rack.

The man had almost straight silver hair from being nearly seventy, but despite that, he had the posture and energy of someone half his age. The clear green eyes were assessing, but not judgmental.

Noland had never seen the man up close since he was always surrounded by people needing numerous snap judgment calls on investments.

"You may call me Ned," the owner said kindly, and Noland felt like he could no sooner do that than spontaneously fly.

Ned Happy was the sort of man who seemed to wear 'cheap but comfortable' to a personal level.

The man had revolutionized Verluan's banking system since before Noland had even been born. Some say that before Ned and his brother, the kingdom's taxation was predatory beyond belief. It was one of the many civil wars between the kingdom's previous king and queen. The Pauper King who fought for rights, and the Gold Queen who said 'let them eat grilled pork.'

"Sir, what can I do for you?" Noland asked, feeling a pit of dread in his stomach. This felt bigger than he was.

"Durence… you'll be residing there in the future?" Ned asked as he laid his hands in his lap. Nearby, a crowd of people wanted to draw closer to overhear, but no one committed crimes in the bank.

Money talked, and it talked to Ned Happy.

"Yes sir, I leave in a few days," Noland said and watched as Ned smiled at something, a private joke, perhaps?

"Would you be willing to do me two favors that fall outside your responsibilities?" Ned asked, and Noland blinked twice before his brain made him nod slowly.

Ned Happy didn't do 'favors' as far as Noland knew. The favors Ned could grant could keep smaller kingdoms afloat.

"Could you tell my brother, if he's awake, that the Fun Island investment remains strong, but could use a healthy injection of resources?" Ned said, and Noland didn't get anything about that statement.

Fun Island sounded familiar…but it escaped Noland's grasp for now.

"And the second?" Noland asked, almost not sure if he wanted to hear the next request.

Something occurred to him, and he blurted out something that should have gotten him fired.

"Wait, didn't your brother die when he cut off the Gold Queen's hand when she…used…" he trailed off, and he could feel himself going pale at his outburst.

"He died, yes, but he had fantastic life insurance. No sooner did he die than he popped out of his own skin as a prattling bag of bones. I was furious because I opted for the spectral ghost package, but I didn't think about the ability to wear size zero suits. I could save so much money," he sighed.

Noland supposed being a spirit bound to the bank as its eternal owner might have a few issues, but saving money on asking a necromancer to make spirit clothes never occurred to Noland.

"But I need you to get the last twenty years worth of paperwork from the local banker in Durence. I recruited him when he proved to be good at sniffing out blood money, but even I have to say that twenty years is long overdue for a report," Ned huffed aloud.

"I don't remember a bank in Durence…" Noland muttered to himself.

"Not surprising, the locals don't trust the establishment, so to speak. I dare say Von had very little to do in his time there," Ned explained, and Noland raised an eyebrow at this.

"Forgive me for my lack of insight, but then, why have a bank there at all?" Noland questioned.

Ned smiled.

"Because a town must have a bank," he said, and that told Noland nothing.

"Even if the bank serves no one other purpose than to deposit taxes?" Noland asked, just to be sure he understood.

"What do you know of the Gray?" Ned asked suddenly, and Noland blinked at the change of subject.

"Not much other than common knowledge. When someone lives in a Mana-barren space for a time, their soul or core withers. They become shells of their former selves, only able to repeat familiar patterns or display their most basic of traits," Noland reported; that sounded right in his head.

"Quite, it's a bit deeper than that. It's death, the visible show of the death of self. Most people can live five, maybe six years in such a state before they crumble, but Durence survived nearly twenty; do you know how?" he questioned, and Noland wasn't about to say he knew anything about death other than funeral costs.

"They created a symbol, a tomb, a near-sentient artificial afterlife that suspended them from breaking down. My lad, Durence is not simply a town," Ned said, his green eyes twinkling.

"It's a state of being."

"And a town needs a bank to play its part," Noland muttered.

He really had a bad feeling about this town now.

---

Nu knew something wasn't right with these Seahagins the moment they invaded the Dungeon once more with greedy clicks, tearing all they could to put into bags. It reminded him of something, but he couldn't quite place it as they slaughtered their way through the Trinity's first floor with ease.

"They come again," Herb said, and Carnage let out a snarl.

The first floor was a simple affair, and even the newly upgraded Clover Foxes only slowed a few of the Seahagins down slightly. They had tremendous vitality and strength.

They cleaved the massive Bone-Wolf boss; a giant lupin with flowers and vines growing out its exposed ribcage. Nu liked it on principle, but he couldn't help but think that Delta would have given it a cool werewolf transformation or the ability to grow minions.

"What do they want?" Nu asked the Trinity as Doctor continued to harvest samples of the Dungeon's rarer supplies to see what could possibly be done for upgrades.

"Us." Florida said simply.

"Dungeon cores?" Doctor asked curiously.

"There was another on this island. A Dungeon of earth and golems. They took its core and used it to widen the crack," Herb explained softly.

"At the risk of sounding like a broken record… the 'crack'?" Nu asked as the invaders moved through the second floor. Unlike Delta's Dungeon, these floors were more of a slow transition. The second wasn't that different from the first, other than turning from grass and forest to something closer to marshland.

"The pool to the deep. A place where seeds grow out of control. Darkness and void." Herb explained.

"Death and destruction. The coming predator," Carnage added.

"The end." Florida finished.

Nu snapped his attention back to the Seahagin and did his best to peer into them, seeing their seeds were engorged, dark and pulsating.

"Excuse me, I'll be right back," Nu said tightly and vanished.

Seconds later, he dropped a startled Mharia onto the Dungeon floor.

"Too… little mana…" the fairy wheezed.

"We have nearly 19 floors," Herb said, confused, and Mharia glared at the core.

"Those are rookie numbers!" she accused, looking exhausted.

"Who are they?" Nu asked, steering them back onto the subject, and Mharia closed her eyes, allowing Nu to guide her senses. It didn't take long for her to also feel the Seahagin.

"Fish people, if I had to guess," the fairy-lich muttered.

"They're part of your cult," Nu said with a terse tone, and Mharia scoffed.

"First, don't be cult-ist. Not all cult people know one another. Second, I wouldn't let these losers into my group. They smell worse than death," Mharia said with a scoff.

"They worship the Silence," Doctor interrupted.

"That's like saying 'oh no, they worship the sun!.' My group, even with the purest form of the Lost Brother, was far from the first or last of its kind to stare into the void and see glory in the dark," Mharia said stiffly.

"But you could use some lingo to confuse them or make them stop?" Nu asked, trying to contain his hope that he could have a group of murder fish people serving him and Trinity. Mharia looked like she wasn't getting paid enough for this and wanted to object but sighed.

"I was getting bored of watching Fairplay run into the same traps over and over anyway," she muttered before straightening up.

"Okay, which Echo are they worshiping?" she asked the room, and blank faces looked back at her. Nu felt the word 'itch' in his mind.

Mharia rubbed the bridge of her fake nose. Her skin was illusionary at best.

"I can't believe you and Delta got this far," she announced before clearing her throat, sounding bright and bubbly like she was about to explain a safety procedure on fast transport.

"When the Lost Brother fell into the void; it created what were known as Echoes. They're all the 'Brother,' but each one was a distortion, a form that wasn't 'wrong' but wasn't true either. The closest Echo to have existed was my Sun; the one whom I serve… served," Mharia said, looking a little sad at her own words before she perked up.

"Why not pray directly to the core being?" Doctor asked, fascinated. Mharia smiled darkly.

"Might as well pray to a storm or a landslide. The Lost Brother is not ready to regain himself, so his Echoes serve as intermediaries. Each one has a slightly different 'flavor.' Some are easier to connect to if they match your own point of view. A Sun for all the occasions," Mharia giggled.

"So, this cult of fish people serve the same god, but their version could enjoy a hotdog over a burger," Nu said, wondering why this was bugging him. Echoes… something about that word triggered something in his system.

"More like they were vicious and dined on combat until their seeds sprouted, and as they had offspring, those seeds refined themselves until one of them was ripe enough to allow an Echo to get a foothold in this world. It's not so different from how the 'Sister' allowed gods to be called through stars," Mharia said, sounding bored now.

"I don't think those gods caused as much suffering as these echoes," Nu said, and Mhara's calm expression turned furious.

"Do not speak such garbage around me. The 'gods' summoned can be as destructive as any Echo twisted through these fools," Mharia snarled, her eyes flashing. She turned around.

"The Little Brother was meant to be here; those invaders were let in because the child-gods didn't care to think about consequences," the fairy said finally, looking down.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"If too many Echoes exist at the same time in this world, they seek each other and feast until a new being arises from their corpses," Nu said slowly, his voice distant, and Mharia snapped her head around, surprise clear on her face.

"Curious knowledge for a System pop-up box," she said slowly, and Nu didn't look at her.

"Just information in the system if you know where to look," he said stiffly, a bold-faced lie. He had no clue where that information had come from.

"Do you know the different Echoes?" Doctor said after a moment, and Mharia looked at him coolly and nodded.

"I know some. A lot can happen in the shadows, so many could be gone or evolved. My Sun, you know where he is, of course. There was the great Wyrm Eral, which was contained by the great seal far away. I heard Iustus and Lusus were caught in the middle of eating each other and contained. There's dozens more, but you can't expect me to have kept up with them," Mharia snorted.

"Seahagans invading." Carnage interrupted, annoyed. They had made it to the fourth floor already and only had two injured of their team of twenty.

"I can deal with them?" Mharia offered, checking out her nails, and Trinity glowed.

"Unnatural aid we need not, its temperament as foul as its form," they spoke as one. Mharia turned to Doctor, then looked back at the Core in the skull.

"That's harsh, he's just a gargoyle," she said, mock-offended.

"Mharia, go. Repel them, but do not kill for now. Trinity needs to learn to be a killing machine with my guidance," Nu instructed, and the Lich's eyes lit up.

"Ohhh can I help? I love murder!" she said, bouncing in the air with excitement.

"Isn't that how you ended up in this predicament in the first place?" Doctor asked casually.

"I'm a creature of habit," Mharia said as she floated off down the hallway.

"Bloody habits."

—

"Okay, play it cool. Don't panic. Just be natural and easy going, but not so relaxed that you come off as rude, and definitely don't mention the bees or Pygmies just yet," Delta said to Alpha, who slowly blinked at her as the strange woman continued to hug the wall along the tunnel, stopping every once in a while to remark on the increasing 'Dungeon Alterations.'

"Be cool, but relaxed, but polite, but vague," Alpha repeated firmly.

"Yes, no! Be yourself! You're amazing, but don't panic! Human interaction isn't scary or hard!" Delta said quickly, beginning to puff out her cheeks in a panic.

Alpha was getting mixed messages but decided he got the gist of it.

"Welcome," he called, and the lady, Yattina, turned to him. Her human eye looked dilated, and her magic eye was rolling in her head in excitement.

"Don't mind me, I was… you offered me a tour, correct? Do I have your word on protection? Do I need to sign in blood somewhere?" the woman asked rapidly, a pen and notebook ready in her hands.

Alpha was stuck between the hyperventilating Delta and the intense Yattina. Lucky him…

"Why blood?" he asked, confused. He had a gold-grade Ritual level skill, but he didn't know so much why as the hows of it.

"Blood carries residue of one's core. It can be used as an intrinsic link to that person. That's how contracts of all kinds work!" she gushed.

"But you don't have a seed," he said, and she wrote that down. Delta gaped at him, and Alpha shrugged. It was true.

"Seed? Not an incorrect name for it. Dungeons are biological factories and creators, so for them, would it be truer to say it's a seed rather than an expanding core?" she wrote down. Slowly, her pen stopped.

"So, you know I don't have a core and thus aren't contract-bound. Do you want me to leave? I did technically cheat," she said slowly.

"I like that kind of cheating, being clever, but not being rude about it! She's even apologetic about it!" Delta waved her hands.

"It's fine," Alpha translated.

"Sorry, I didn't introduce myself earlier. Yattina Halenuo Congord Flimina, at your service. I work for Fairplay as the Captain of their 5th research division," she bowed, then looked bothered by something.

"I didn't bring a second tribute," she muttered.

"Twenty-four hour period," Delta waved off. Alpha told her not to worry about it and looked uncomfortable as he gestured to the tunnel.

"Welcome to the grand tour of Delta's second floor. You're currently entering from the outside using Quee's Tunnel to the second floor," he said, voice monotone, but despite his nerves, Yattina was eating it up, writing everything down.

She raised her hand, and Alpha felt a weird flush. He was the one that was supposed to be raising his hand for questions.

This felt weird.

"Yes?" he said, and she had her pen poised.

"How old is this tunnel? What is the etymology of the word 'Quee'? Is it an event or a person?" she questioned.

"Not that old. Derived from the shortening of 'queen,' and Quee is a person," Alpha said quickly and shuffled down the tunnel.

"More energy!" Delta encouraged him. Alpha picked up his pace.

"I didn't mean actual energy! Be enthusiastic!" Delta corrected herself. Enthusiasm, he could do that! For Delta, he could try!

He turned, and Yattina nearly fell over her own feet skidding to a stop. They stared at each other, and actual anxiety set into Alpha, and he spoke on autopilot.

"Delta's Dungeon has over 1000 unique mushrooms and pots," he blurted out.

"NO!" Delta screeched.

"Wow," Yattina wrote down.

"Alpha I don't have…1000… mushrooms," Delta said and trailed off as if she just remembered something that she dearly wished she hadn't.

"Be right back, don't panic!" she said, panicking as she vanished.

---

Delta appeared in the Secret Garden between floors. She hadn't been back here since Hero and the Black Hole piggles. She had an upgrade that meant it just did its own thing, and since it was a sort of error room, the system didn't have proper notifications for it.

Hero looked up, looking casual as he read a book from the third floor.

"Mother," he said warmly.

"Hero, have there been any weird things going on here?" she asked seriously, and the Raid Boss blinked.

"Define 'weird'?" he asked slowly.

A chain of mushrooms slithered past, the head mushrooms dark with a flickering tongue. Its middle looked engorged as a flock of mushrooms made of cheese ran for their lives. The snake went past a vine, and the thing peeled open to spray a mucus-like web covered in spiky mushrooms at every other knot. It dragged the snake into its fanged mouth and turned back to normal.

There was a crack of thunder, and little adorable red mushrooms began to fall from the sky. Seconds later, the fungi erupted in needles and exploded like shrapnel grenades. They bounced off Hero without any effect.

"Is this the worst of it?" Delta asked, licking her lips with abject horror. Hero looked over to the side, where a massive eye stared at Delta. It had roses on its head and a ridge of black Gutrots traveling down its back like a mane.

The giant bipedal lizard let out a scream that shook the secret garden.

"GOD-" Delta screamed as she dove for cover. The thing stomped forward, and the large ridge she thought was a mountain shifted and tore into it, devouring the Rotrex in three bites.

The massive dragon covered in Starshrooms glowed like a celestial deity and roared in victory.

"Weird? Nothing weird here," Hero said, going back to his book.

"How… do I have a dragon?" she demanded of the system.

Critter: Jungle gecko has been bred with Gutrot shroom! 324 repetitions occurred until a rare mutation occurred.

Mutated Jungle Monitor was bred with troll samples until a successful result occurred.

Deadly Jungle King was crossbred with collected Dragon bones absorbed from defeating Lich Mharia. Only 0.4% chance of a successful subject. Experiment succeeded after 10 tries.

Spore Dragon was bred with all possible types of Mushrooms. After testing weakness and strengths, Star Shrooms were selected.

Celestial Spore Dragon: Critter?
A massive beast of magic and destructive force. Its breath can cause instant spores to form on anyone unlucky enough to be in its range. Its blood is the most toxic thing to exist on this side of the world. If handled correctly, it is also the strongest antidote around.

Its only weakness was its limited ranged options, which was corrected with Starlight Mushrooms, which allows it to perform aerial bombardments with lasers from nearly three hundred feet away.

"I don't think I should know, but how much does this cost in DP for my first purchase?" she asked, voice faint.

First creation is free! All future purchases will cost 30,000 DP then all further attempts 500,000 mana.

"I didn't plan this," she told Hero, who simply turned his book to the next page.

"I know," he said warmly. She eyed the book and saw it was titled 'how to exercise your dragon.'

"Nu can't know about him," she said, burying her face into her hands.

"It's fine, the dragon's not done cooking," Hero explained, and Delta paused in her groaning. Slowly, she looked up to stare at him. Hero turned another page, nonplussed.

"Explain," she asked, voice utterly calm.

A box appeared.

Celestial Spore Dragon is being combined with a Black Hole Piggle. Process will take fourteen more days. Expected result: Death Star Dragon.

"Why is the cancel button grayed out?" Delta demanded as she jabbed the screen with a scream.

"A lot of the system is glitching out," Hero said as he looked around. The dragon behind him went back to sleep.

"I just need to make it do something else so it doesn't keep evolving it further," she said, trying to remain cool as the two high-end raid monsters relaxed nearby.

She smashed buttons and dragged icons over and away from the dragon. After a few seconds, a second slot began to tick as she accidentally began a second combination.

"I can fix this!" she cried.

She dragged the screen out as if to cancel it and the screen expanded three more empty slots.

"I'd quit while you're ahead," Hero warned, but he seemed amused to watch the chaos.

"If I just fill it with orders, it'll lag and stop," Delta whispered in blind panic.

Like, a Mushroom and a spider! A Piggle and a fish! A Piggle and a skeleton! A skeleton and a spider! This should really slow it down! A Blackhole Piggle and Bob! She slid down the screen, sweating and breathing hard.

"What have I done?" she asked aloud.

A new screen popped up.

Due to creative design and adding over 30 new monster designs to the system, you have gained a reward!

All current and future monster creation times are reduced by 10%!

"I am the architect of my own demise," she said with a hollow tone.

"But you're really good at it," Hero complimented her, and Delta curled into a ball of shame.

---

Monster designs are now being shared on the Delta Network!

---

"And this gate was designed to keep people out. Its purpose is to remain closed against any intruder's efforts to open it," Alpha explained, and nearby, Quee drooled on himself as he snored.

Yattina was sketching the gate with glee and joy.

"Amazing!" she gushed. Alpha felt like he was padding an essay.

"The gate is made of metal, as wood is too easy to break," he went on.

At least the science lady was having fun.

---

"Go to hell! I'm saving my captain," Lim told the jerkoff, Allatory.

"You're one boy versus an unknown Dungeon. Yattina's choices are her own, but you can't seriously think you can make it further than anyone else?" Allatory said, and Lim looked smug.

"I did what my captain would do and researched my options. I have a guide," he said and gestured to a boy who yakked the ear off a sour-faced girl with a book clasped to her chest. When the boy looked away, the girl smiled gently at him.

"The leaderboard members of Team Holy Pot. They agreed to help me… cause I asked," he admitted.

"Then go. I am not your captain," Allatory said with no emotion.

"I'll give you permission to take an advance scout pack. Bring her home," he said and turned on his heel to walk back into the Fairplay tents.

Lim didn't need his permission for that.

170: The Shattering

Quee was a fascinating creature. As a humanoid spider he had the agility of a spider, but the thumbs of a person. Truly, a deadly combination. Yattina could see it was an intelligent design, and to her excitement, this monster was already proving to hold massive evidence for one of Yattina's personal favorite hypotheses in the Dungeon study circles.

In a paper titled 'The Monster King and I,' the famous monsterologist Lady Ettenborg had a theory that monsters in Dungeons would eventually reach total sapience with wants and desires.

Quee had all of this and more.

"And this is how I 'vague,'" Quee announced, back against the gate while flashing his hands around his head in a strange hypnotic dance.

"It's 'vog-" Alpha tried to correct, but Quee just vagued away, not listening.

"Vague! Vague!" Yattina said, trying to match the movements. She was sinking herself into a new Dungeon culture!

"Quee, we should be moving on," Alpha said, and the teen spider turned with a smile.

"Will you be swinging past Master Maestro?" he asked, and Yattina made note of that name. Perhaps some leader man-spider?

What could a spider man do?

"Other way, Delta wants to show off the second floor to someone willing to listen, and I've to explain things," Alpha said, and Quee winced.

"Alphie, I love you as much as family can, but you put the yawn in 'kill me now,'" Quee said, fingers snapping once.

"There's no yawn in that sentence," Alpha said with a frown.

"Perhaps two guides, then? Science thrives on multiple points of data entry," Yattina said brightly. Quee leaned back and put his arms behind his back.

"You sure you don't want some private tour guiding?" he asked, flexing to show a scrawny torso. Yattina smiled weakly.

"I'd feel bad about brushing Alpha off," she tried to let him down gently. It never ended well when someone tried to put the moves on her.

Yattina was 'attracted' to people's souls. She saw the physical flesh as something to look past. It hurt when good people felt like she didn't like them because nothing 'happened' when they tried to do something.

She stopped trying to explain how it wasn't their lack of beauty, but it was her lack of interest in such things.

"I'm not upset. I'd prefer it if you told me you wanted to go off on your own," Alpha said bluntly.

"So, this gate, how does it work?" she asked loudly, needing to move the flexing boy-spider and indifferent young man onwards before she upset someone.

"Oh, it's really neat. It's pretty tough so it can take a serious beating, but to open it," Quee said and led her to the main part where a bunch of cipher dials were placed.

Different lengths and different letters too. As far as Yattina could see, there was no reference to the code sheet on the walls or the gate.

"You need to know the names of the monsters on the first floor to open the gate," Quee said, and Yattina blinked.

"They all have names?!" she asked, in awe of the idea that they'd all developed so far!

"I'll do this one," Quee said quickly, flicking one near the left until it spelled 'Maestro.' The thing didn't lock itself in as he was done so Yattina could see that just spinning the dials would do nothing.

Yattina noticed something

The way the name plates were laid out reminded her of something. She hadn't explored the entire first floor of course, but she had seen incomplete maps from different scouting parties.

"Are the name plates arranged so that if you put them over a map, they would overlay where that monster was on the floor?" she asked curiously, and Quee paled and spluttered.

"…Don't tell anyone," he moaned, and Yattina could see that he was a little disappointed that his gimmick had been found out.

"I still don't know their names," she said soothingly.

Quee rapidly filled out the other names, and Yattina saw 'Fran,' 'Fera,' and partially 'Boa.'

The spider emblem on the gate slowly pulled its legs back and then climbed upwards, lifting the gate.

"That's the gate, he sleeps all the time," Quee said simply.

Yattina hadn't even seen a hint that the gate itself was also a guardian. She tried to hide a nervous gulp.

Walking down the tunnel, Alpha and Quee discussed things about monsters that even Yattina struggled to keep up with. She was content to just listen until they exited the tunnel out into a large cavern.

She came to a stop as she stared up at what she thought was a brilliant night sky for a split second until she saw dozens of mushrooms were twinkling soothingly all across the cavern. Some had slow pulsating lights, while others danced in time with their neighbors.

"It's beautiful," she said without thinking. The two teens shared an odd look before Quee smiled and walked on, hips swinging. Yattina thought she heard a woman screaming in panic in the far distance, but chalked it up to the wind fluttering through the tunnel behind them.

She spotted a massively extravagant tent that was lit up from within. Streams of color connected from its very top to all corners of the cavern. A sign nearby declared it as a 'circus.'

"You have a circus?" she asked, and Quee walked over to her, holding pieces of rather golden popcorn.

"You don't?" the spider boy joked. Yattina thought back to her camp with Blades arguing over loot possibilities while Scouts tried to avoid paperwork, leaving Yattina drowning in barely legible reports.

"A different kind of circus," she said faintly. Quee stuck his head into the tent and spoke with someone. Yattina could only catch snippets of conversation, but it weirdly felt like only Quee was speaking.

"Guest… no hurry…yeah I can see the OSHA warnings…got it," Quee was saying.

"The Circus of the Damned is run by a Ghoul named Renny," Alpha explained, and Yattina blinked.

"Ghoul? Those are not common this far west. You find those sorts closer to rural graveyards," she said slowly.

"Renny is a contract and…he's a good person," Alpha said awkwardly. Yattina made a note of that, and she frowned as her fingers kept writing the 'Damned' part with a capital letter. Something snuffled at her hand, and Yattina petted the circus animal, expecting fur or leathery skin.

Her hand felt cold, solid 'wood.'

She looked down at what seemed to be a skeleton of a small farm animal, a goat perhaps.

"Oh, you recycle," she said pleasantly.

"Only the animals who wanted to stay are animated. They get all the milk they want," Alpha said, eyeing the creature softly.

It seemed Alpha was more easygoing around animals than people.

"Renny said he'd love to show the circus off, but they're in the middle of cheer practise, and two of the skeletons have their vertbrates mixed up," Quee said casually as he rejoined them and handed Yattina one of the popcorn kernels.

Yattina popped one into her mouth, knowing that if they meant her harm, they didn't need poison. The taste was subtle at first.

A nice tang of salt and butter, followed by a rush of pleasant memories of growing up with her sister, followed by the sheer joy of knowing life had so many things to give and Yattina had so much time to see it all and share it.

There was so much science and love!

Love science!

She gently used a finger to wipe away the tear that fell from her eye.

"I shall limit myself to a single piece for now," she told the two, who nodded kindly.

Something in the far end of the cavern moved, and Yattina stared up at a giant gorilla-like beast.

"Hey, Willy, just passing by," Quee said simply, and the gorilla sniffed once and went back to sleep, his silverish hair looking far too soft to be real. She stroked his back as she passed, and it was like petting air.

So soft…

The gloom of the cavern soon gave way to a bright light that Yattina could swear was sunlight, but that was… unlikely. Skybox abilities were extremely hard for Dungeons to get correct without tons of references-

A beautiful sky loomed overhead with wide blue spaces, fluffy white clouds and a sun set in a near noon position. A near emerald green jungle spread out for a massive distance with birdsong and insects giving it life.

"Welcome to the second floor, the theme of this floor is vast vegetation growth-" Alpha began before Quee interrupted.

"Welcome to the Jungle of Life!" he cried. Yattina bent down and touched the grass growing near the cave entrance.

This was amazing but also a little scary. Second floors shouldn't deviate so hard from their first floors. She had a moment of concern that perhaps the village had force fed the Dungeon so many jungle-theme items to force a change, but she didn't think they would do that when that giant woman Ruli guarded the door so seriously.

She turned, and a giant fuzzy orange thing was buzzing around her feet. The size of a small dog, the fuzzy thing danced around flowers with a carefree attitude.

"What's that?" she asked excitedly.

"A bee," Alpha said simply.

What? No, bees were little cute things, and this was-

It turned, showing its feelers and little stinger butt. Yattina gently put her hands on either side of it and placed it under her arm like a carrier bag.

"Uh miss?" Alpha asked, uncertain.

"This brings me much joy," she declared. The bee buzzed.

"Sorry, Bzzztzt, she's new here," Quee said politely, and the bee just settled into being carried. That was when Yattina saw a second bee.

She had two arms!

If she taped two to her legs, one to her front, and one to her back, she could die happy!

"Your tour has bee-n diverted," Quee announced. Alpha shrugged.

"It doesn't sting as much as you think," he countered.

Something moved in the underbrush, and Yattina froze as a pink little shape emerged.

What… was… that?

She needed all of them.

---

Lim walked in, bow drawn as he was followed in by the two guides. Deo and Poppy were their names.

"I need to get to the second floor as fast as possible," he told them, and Poppy eyed his bow with a long, raised brow. She was a bit taciturn, not someone Lim was sure he could befriend easily.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Deo, in comparison, befriended Lim without his permission.

"You don't need a weapon. If you're just here to collect something or see someone, we just declare ourselves as visitors!" Deo said brightly. Lim blinked at him. He was slightly loud, but not unbearably so.

"I don't quite follow," he admitted.

"Visitor status lets you move through the Dungeon without hassle. You should try it…nyeh," Poppy muttered as she walked past, and to Lim's surprise, her book floated on its own to shudder.

"Back again, are we?" the book asked, and Poppy gave it a small smile.

"Showing someone the ropes. Can you tell me how Silver's battle led him to the seal of the gods, Iustus and Lusus? I think this is going to be a long stroll," she asked, and the book huffed.

"All you do is ask. I'd like a tale one day," the book complained as they vanished down the tunnel, their voices fading.

All Lim heard was the book beginning his tale.

"Silver, in his rage, traveled east in some unknown manner, following Mana veins to track his object of madness…"

Deo patted his shoulder.

"Poppy is shy, don't take it personally," he said with a bright smile. Lim couldn't help but smile back.

"You're really doing me a solid, Deo. Most people didn't want to help because I was Fairplay," he admitted.

"I already made friends with Gus, so I don't mind!" Deo promised, and Lim didn't know anyone called Gus in Fairplay…

He shrugged the comment off and followed Deo to the spider room, in which the webs moved of their own accord to form a clear path through. Lim stared at the ease with which Poppy moved on without hindrances.

He turned and nearly screamed as a phantom spider moved down the wall and approached them. Deo waved, and Lim desperately wanted his bow. With quick movements, the spider put two knitted caps on their heads made from fine silk.

"Oh, this will be lovely for the winter," Deo exclaimed.

Lim wasn't going to make it to winter if his heart didn't stop beating so hard.

---

"I have something I wanted to ask you, Seth," Ruli said as the man brought her lunch and a drink from the pub. The handsome fellow tilted his head, and sometimes Ruli wanted to chill with Seth, and other times she wanted Quiss to waltz by so they could shoot barbs at each other.

"My answers are yours to pilfer," Seth said with a small bow. Ruli sipped her beer, remembering how innocent children were coming and going out of the Dungeon. She did not want to face Isanella after Deo walked out and saw Ruli showing Seth how fluid she was in tongues.

"Your kingdom, it's down south, right?" she asked, and Seth translated her words in his head before responding.

"It is," he agreed and sat down on a nearby stone to join her for a moment.

"In the Shattered Left?" she pressed and Seth hummed.

"My home is… complicated," he said slowly.

No shit was it complicated.

"I skipped history lessons, but why does 'most' of this world speak one language, but the Shattered Left has like sixteen unique languages?" she pondered. Seth stared at her, and he seemed to decide she wasn't being malicious or cruel, relaxing slightly.

"The Shattered Left… is not… just simple. Not physical alone. When the old home was cracked, the people broke too. Pieces of some went one way, ideas and words another. We were a shattered nation," Seth explained, trying to keep his tone as elegant as possible.

"What, people's words got shattered? How the hell did that happen?" Ruli asked as she slowly ground a stone over her sword's edge. Magma was getting rusty from boredom.

"Too many 'Josuk,'" he said and frowned, trying to think of the right word.

"Too many Star-born."

"Gods?" Ruli blinked.

"Yes. One tribe needed sun, bring a god. One wanted rain, brought god. Another to control rivers. God. Arguments appeared, gods used to settle. Villages went to combat, gods used to end," Seth said, looking down at his hands.

Ruli just stared at him, not even eating her leg of lamb.

"People couldn't resist. People uses heart and body will to call gods who were king of gods. Killer of gods. Gods of gods," Seth's voice went somber.

"I… sorry, but what happened to all those gods?" Ruli asked, engrossed now.

"The 'Kelin' emerged and struck them down. Home was taken from us to heal the wound in the sky flesh," Seth said sadly.

He saw her puzzled look and waggled a finger at the sun.

"We do not send thoughts of soul to them, but they are, as you tell, gods. This land's gods," he said, and Ruli nodded slowly.

"The Sister came, kicked ass, and took your words away?" Ruli frowned.

"Must have. With words, we call more gods. Know the right tongues and promises. We go to death in combat again," Seth said bluntly.

"So, you can't have any gods down there? I don't see the appeal in them, but I'm not against them, well, until now," Ruli admitted. Seth smiled at her awkward phrasing.

"Some. We united a little, formed new words. Home only has small gods approved by many agreements or refused by the same people. Gods agree to be… like trees. Come early, fade in the cold winter," Seth said with a nod.

"Oh, that's nice. So, you like gods?!" Ruli asked, and Seth's eyes darkened.

"No. Old actions repeated do not perish easily. A tree must heat death, and a town must suffer much water," Seth said with a hard voice.

"I know about the 'tree' from Quiss, but what's this business about a town?" Ruli questioned as she downed her beer.

"Gods are not supposed to stay. I will not give my permission for another Shattering. If town will not admit their crimes…there will be no more town. More words will be washed away. No more shattering," he said and stood up.

"I thought this town was close to the old world tree; how does it have anything to do with the Shattering?" Ruli also stood up. Seth eyed her and hesitated for the first time.

"The pretender of wood is not right for his crown. To wear it, the tree uses other josuk, gods, to get power of might. Only for a short time… only for a little time," Seth said quietly.

"Gods come, but they do not leave. They do not live, but they do not die. Their stars do not fade," he finished and turned to leave.

"Seth?" Ruli hesitated, and the water mage looked back at her.

"Wouldn't the new gods sense a trap? Why would they come?" she wondered.

"They no longer do. The fake crown has a beast of many forms to bring him fresh food. The beast believes she is saving the world by killing star-born. She is a fool," Seth said flatly.

The man looked down suddenly and looked heartbroken.

"My wise teacher… she was used to draw a god of magic in. Used like cattle and thrown to the worms when it was done with her," he whispered.

"What's this town called?" Ruli asked, eyes narrowing. Seth looked to the sun for a moment, then answered.

"Eden."

---

Yattina was in an orange paradise. A pile of bees covered her and were vibrating cheerful tunes. Alpha had put her on a piece of large bark and was using a magic rope to simply drag her along as Yattina vibed.

"To the left is a tree that looks slightly bigger than the one to its left, while on the right is a nice rock," Alpha intoned, and Yattina could imagine it.

Damn, what a fine boulder.

"And now we've arrived," Alpha said suddenly, and the bees began to float away,

"My fluffy tomb!" Yattina cried. The bees joined an astounding number of others as they toiled around waterfalls of delicious looking honey that pooled into large lakes around a massive central stone plateau.

Streams of red, blue, green, yellow, orangey-purple (oruple), and more made the scene magical as fields of flowers grew in between each pool with vibrant hues.

She read one of the signs near the pools.

"Red makes you hyper, yellow makes you see things, green soothes, blue excites, purple-orange invites creativity, and white honey is only taken with permission of the queen. Ignoring this advice may lead to you sleeping with your co-workers, dancing to songs no one likes, being annoying, being barred from the Dungeon, having a midlife crisis, crying, missing the boss fight, running late with toast in your mouth, and/or potentially exploding. -Nu"

Looking at the back of the sign, she read another note.

"Or do what you want, I'm just a sign. -Nu's Signpost #45"

"The honey is sourced from local bees, who produce anywhere between endless and a lot of honey," Alpha gestured to the hive of activity.

"I like the term 'buttload'?" Yattina offered as Quee swam in the green honey with a sigh.

"A buttload of honey. The leader, Queen Lizzie (first of her name) is the one in charge and has been known to host honey sample contests for the locals. Judges include the Druid Devina, Old Elder Frog, Giant, Rale, Luna, Renny, Bob once, and more," Alpha said with a final nod.

"What does the white honey do?" she asked, and Alpha smiled a little.

"It allows you to be content with yourself for ten minutes. It's made from the golden popcorn and distilled to a purer form," he warned.

"How content?" Yattina made notes.

"Rumors say strong enough to make you feel no shame in awkward teenage year memories and even able to smile a little," he said, and Yattina eyed him.

She didn't feel any shame in those years.

Shame required other people to even consider her worth thinking about at the time.

Still, this was so much fun! The bees filled a little case with three samples of the pools, and she collected it from the gift shop they had with a picture of a bee in a witch's hat.

It was called the 'Spelling Bee.'

"Where next?" she asked excitedly, and Alpha thought about it.

"Let's go see Bob. I like Bob," he decided.

Yattina couldn't wait.

"Is Bob more family? An uncle?" she asked excitedly as she put her honey samples in a safe bag.

"He's something," Alpha agreed with an odd smile.

Interlude: Burden of the Throne.

50-60 years before Delta

Verluan, Captial City.

Durence could feel his brains leaking out his nose like snorted milk, but only less funny.

"Prince Durence; please pay attention," the old crone chided as she tapped the blackboard behind her with the 'ruler.'

At the only other desk in the room, Lendious gave him a sour look as he labored over his notebook, taking meticulous notes. Lenny was funny like that.

Durence, on the other hand? He eyed the board with one eye that struggled to stay awake.

"The banking error is due to the weaving guild overcharging for the cotton out of season; two barrels of Dungeon goods degraded, causing an imbalance of the funds in the culinary guild, and there is likely embezzlement happening around the guards at the keep due to the numbers simply not adding up," he said with a forced smile.

Lenny seemed to stare at the board and then at his own answers before he angrily tore the paper out of his notebook and tossed it aside.

Durence was an 'eyeball it and work out the details when it mattered' sort of guy.

The Kingdom would be better with Lenny, really; the younger man was a stickler for rules and worrying over everything. Plus, Durence felt chills at the idea of being stuck on some throne all day while he watched knights and adventurers do exciting things.

His soul practically withered at the idea.

But as his father was fond of saying…

'A Verluan does not choose; he does as intended.'

Durence was sure that was fancy-wancy talk for 'shut up, and do what I tell you to do.'

The sun was shining so brightly, and he mentally sighed as none of that beautiful sunlight seemed to enter the gloomy education chamber.

"Our time is up," the old crone said, and Durence almost jumped out the window in joy.

"Next, you have horse-riding, debate in the hall, dueling, journey-man magic theory, and due to Prince Durence's engagement date arriving soon, dance lessons," she said with a frown aimed at Durence, who sagged lower with every word.

The engagement… Durence had managed to forget about it for a whole week.

He felt so bad for the lady on the other end of the arrangement. He could only imagine what hellish schedule and expectations were being set on her.

"Of course, matron," Lenny said, his bag bulging with the proper riding equipment, theory books, and dance shoes.

Lenny planned his day out like it was fun.

Durence had cheese in his pocket that he fed to the castle mice.

Day and night, the two princes were, but Durence loved his brother and wouldn't change him for the kingdom. Leaving the education chamber, Durence nudged Lenny with a small smile.

"I heard the old man relented," he said, and Lenny tried to appear indifferent, but a flush of excitement spread across the boy's face.

"He did, Dury!" he said before composing himself.

"I only have to do five years of internship with the bank, and then I can apply for my adventurer's license," he said, eyes bright.

"That's not bad at all! I heard Ned Happy is easy on newcomers; even princes," Durence grinned as Lenny flushed.

"I have it all planned out. I'll do a few skirmishes in the Royal Dungeon, then head south to the Shattered Left, or maybe see if I can discover a Dungeon on the Crown! There's a huge patch of nothing there," Lenny said excitedly. Durence leaned back and poked one of Lenny's dance shoes that stuck out of the stuffed bag.

"Maybe conquer talking to girls first before you take down a dragon," he suggested. Lenny flushed again, his neck turning red with embarrassment.

"Women are simple creatures. Give them shiny things and a place at your side, and they want for nothing more," he said, and mother's words coming out of Lenny's mouth made Durence frown, but he didn't comment on it. The Gold Queen certainly had a way with the empathy of others. Even being Durence's mother didn't stop Durence from seeing the coiling grip she had on Lenny.

When people thought Durence couldn't hear; they would whisper about the Gold Queen; how she would sooner break her own teeth chewing gold than give a 'lesser' one of her coins. She hadn't always been like that.

Durence remembered… not much, but laughter, subtle perfume, soft spring dresses, and honest smiles. But she changed, and he knew why she changed.

The Gold Queen who lost her prized treasure.

Who didn't know the story by now? Durence grew up hearing it; hating the tale, and yet, wanting to know every last detail.

His mother wasn't always called the 'Gold' Queen for heravarice, but because she used to be a gold-rank adventurer. A high-tier warrior.

Then her partner, her third arm… her blessed blade 'Gahmah' was stolen away from her, or 'fled' her if the stories of its power were to be believed. An oath between her and the sword that she broke when she refused to pass him on.

Durence once had a nightmare because one of the knights told him the sword screamed in a deep vault in the castle for seven days and seven nights straight, stuffed into a tiny case where no light could touch it. In his nightmare, Durence was the sword, and he was trapped.

Now, Durence, Lenny, and the Kingdom were the sword; trapped in the queen's ever-gripped hands.

"-And then I'll swing by the Silver Dungeon. If anyone has seen a talking enchanted sword, that hub community would have heard of it," Lenny was still speaking of his plans.

His plans to restore their mother's sanity.

The idea of Lenny being so far away, as free as the wind…

It hurt, but he beamed at Lenny.

"You're going to be famous, I can tell already," he said, ruffling his annoyed brother's hair.

"Says the king-to-be," Lenny muttered.

---

Durence just happened to walk down the wrong hallway, out the castle, and into the marketplace by total accident.

Strange, really.

Shame about all those 'fun' lessons he was supposed to be attending.

"Are you Prince Durence?" a woman asked, boggling at him browsing her stall. Durence shook his head.

"Prince Lenn-, er, Lendious," he said brightly, and the woman hummed and carried on with her business.

Ah, the joys of being a twin.

Identity theft was never easier. Still, she could have at least fawned over Lenny a bit! He was a prince, too!

Durence looked around and sighed, Verluan was its usual self.

He watched the bakers go with their trays like always, the same old bread and rolls to sell. The weapon stalls were empty, as always. Every new weapon was hand tested by the Queen before being sold back into town.

Perhaps she thought she'd find her missing weapon amongst pots and hand-axes?

Durence bent down as some earnest worker cooked a strange lump of meat on a grill, and when asked what the creature was, the grinning creepy child promised it was 'the king of monster's toe.'

Durence got himself a toe on a bun to go! It was chewy, but tart.

He stopped to enjoy watching the familiar tanned faces of Ned and Ferry sharing an ice-cream and arguing over which cause to fund or civil right issue to raise.

Mother didn't like those two at all…

Sometimes her expression scared Durence when they were brought up with the reforms and changes father helped enact.

Some of the richest men in the kingdom, and they still got a cone to share as if they were poor children living in the gutter.

Durence wanted that relationship with Lenny. One where they always depended on one another.

Eventually, Durence was drawn closer to the kingdom's gate, where it looked like some people had come to hawk wares and show off exotic gains. Verlaun was one of the major cities on the main body; Durence always got to see something exciting.

"Moving on from the 'Twister Devil' and the fruit-crazy 'Bandit Cut'; I present you now with my wildest capture yet," the man on the raised platform said, voice drawing attention with ease. The whole stage had a feeling of being set up in a few minutes with misaligned boards and cheap paint, but that had a sort of charm to it in Durence's eye.

The final cage was opened to reveal not a strange bipedal creature, but what seemed like a crouching form in animal skins.

"This feral girl was found on Drifting Member Island, the most primal and wild of islands. She not only survived but is a killer in her own right. I lost 15 men trying to contain her," the man said with no obvious grief about said men.

And only immature kids called it 'Drifting Member.'

"Given a name by a local that means 'Unwanted Beast', this killing machine is called 'Mila.' A girl who sold her humanity to the king of demons just to survive on that hell island," the.man said, working the crowd.

He banged the cage with his cane, and the form inside rammed the bars, shaking them.

A little scary since they seemed magically reinforced.

"And she can be yours for only 10 silver!" he yelled, and Durence narrowed his eyes.

He hated slavery.

No, Durence despised it. It was one of the few acts he was actively involved in helping his father pass through the lawmakers to make it illegal.

Durence only knew what it was like to be a caged bird of paradise. Wanting for nothing, allowed to want nothing.

He couldn't imagine the sheer nightmarish conditions actual slaves went through.

"15!"

"20!"

"I'll give 25."

The bids started coming in, and the girl in the cage seethed at them all; her bared teeth in no way helped her 'feral' image. Durence was going to get in trouble. He knew it, but he was not sorry for it.

After all…

'A Verluan does not choose; he does as intended.'

"She will make a fine gift to the Royal Prince Durence, no?" he called, and the crowd went silent.

He smiled through the disgust he felt. Only a few more weeks, and he could start punching these people instead of negotiating with them. To be free of royal chains… to rush in with sword in hand to free all these beast and slaves… how his heart yearned for it.

But he was a coward.l

A rich and influential coward.

---

"Enjoy your gift… watch out, she bites," the courier said as he dropped Mila's cage off on the ground, and up close, he saw several areas where she had begun to hack the metal bars with something sharp She would have escaped on her own, it seems, but Durence couldn't have known that.

The quiet side street gave them privacy, and as soon as they were alone, he opened the lock, tossed it aside, and stepped back. Mila inside didn't move, her unblinking eyes locked onto his.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"You are free… freeee…" he said slowly.

"You're an asss… an asssss," she hissed back.

"You speak common languages??" he blinked

"No, I'm just making random noises with my mouth flapper and hoping for the best," she said as she pushed the door open. She was a little taller than Durence, which was intimidating, but also alluring in its own way.

"I'm confused," he admitted, and she retrieved a hidden knife from atop her cage.

"Nothing new there, I'm guessing," she grunted as she attached the knife to her hip. She turned, sniffing the air like an animal.

"Slavers messed up my scent trail. He was here… he was here, and he was bidding on me! You idiot! You massive hero-idiot!" she said, smacking Durence with no care for his uniform or royal adornments.

It was… amazing.

And it hurt.

"Why are you so strong?" he complained, wilting away from her smacks.

"To hit big idiots like you better!" she snapped. He grabbed her wrists, and she sighed.

"Sorry… I'm worked up… and mad," she said, taking a big intake of a calming breath. Durence let her go, and she smacked his arm again.

"Damn it, I'm still mad!" she complained before turning and sitting on a broken crate left outside some bar.

"I thought I was saving you," Durence pointed out, and she blew out a sigh.

"I get that, and if I was a normal gal? I'd be sweet on you for it, but I've been eating gruel and acting like my mother on a fullmoon to get that psycho's attention, and he was going for it… which you didn't know about because you were trying to be nice," she gritted with a full set of rather sharp teeth before she gestured for him to sit on the ground before her.

Durence had never been told to sit on dirt before, and he bemusedly did so.

Mila was weird, but Durence liked how free she was with her actions.

"I'm from an island a while away; you have a name for it, but we call it Sword Island," she said, and Durence nodded.

He liked it better than 'Drifting Member.'

"What's it like?" he interrupted, and she shot him an annoyed glare, but sighed when she saw his eager stare.

"Lot's of roaming crabs and bush fires; anyway," she moved along.

"A year ago, a boat filled with really stuffy snobheads came close, and we tried to be friendly, ya know?" she shrugged.

"Threw spears at their hull, tried to rob them blind, and convince more than a few of their sailors to live with us to get some fresh blood into the village; customary greetings," she said easily, and Durence must have missed that social custom in his lessons.

Strange, it sounded far too unique to be boring.

"Very welcoming," Durence managed, drinking this all in.

"We even threw in a nighttime hunting of their men to spice things up. We're a great place to visit," Mila agreed without any shame.

"And people joined you?" Durence managed to ask in a way that sounded more like scholarly curiosity than sheer disbelief.

"Well, usually, the ships leave so fast that the people left behind sort of just accept that they live with us now," she admitted.

"This ship was different," Mila confessed.

"If you come back for your people, they can leave our island if they aren't happy, but they took my sister away," Mila said softly as she looked down at the ground.

"They came with cages and special nets. Magic users that could shift the land or bring plants to life. Hunters, there were no other words for it, and it was good when it started. We thought 'finally, people that get us', but then they pushed and resorted to extreme violence. We don't kill if we can help it. Dead people are no use to anyone," Mila said briskly.

"My sister was to be a Dungeon Maiden; a caretaker of one of the Dungeons on our Island. To be its voice and communicate with us when it was sleeping or wanting a challenge. We could not chase these boats, we had but fishing vessels… so I waited until they came back and allowed them to take me to my sister," she explained, and Durence swallowed once, but he refused to feel guilty.

He simply didn't know.

"Who took her?" he asked suddenly. If it was a nobleman or someone of standing, he could perhaps allow them to curry favor with the future king in exchange for Mila's sister.

It was good to be the king, or something like that.

Without a word, she drew a strangely complex symbol from memory on the ground using a finger.

The symbol made his eyes water due to the long hours spent in its proximity and wanting to stab himself to escape extreme tedium.

"Your sister was sold to the Wizard's Tower?" he asked, trying not to sound grave in his terror.

"You know of it?" Mila asked sharply, her calm eyes suddenly intense and yellowing.

Durence stood up and dusted goodness to honest dirt off his butt. How novel!

"Better, I can get us into it without a fuss," he said, and Mila crossed her arms, her face flat.

"I won't sleep with you," she said, and Durence blinked once.

"That was an option?" he blurted out. Mila's smile was a little predatory.

"I don't lay with little boys who would flush at the sight of my knees," she said easily. Durence looked down and huffed.

"I can't even see your knees, just rabbit skulls you're using as shin guards," he pointed to the bone white things on her leg.

"They're actually Mana-Enriched Squirrels that wandered too close to my cage one day," she explained, sounding pleased he noticed.

This girl was weird.

He was almost sad to know that he'd help her out, and then they'd part ways.

---

"Smells like lonely people in here," Mila muttered as Durence led her to the front receptionist of the Wizard's tower.

"We don't say that aloud. Wizards are fragile people that can cry and cast fireball," Durence said back quietly.

The receptionist was a sour-faced boy with the perfect appearance of a wizard's apprentice that was stuck serving a very surly master.

"Deliveries down the hall and second on the left. New students up the stairs and to the back. Complaints of enchanted broomstick assault or 'accidental' insertions of broomsticks into any orifice, please take a seat, and a wizard will be with you shortly," the boy intoned.

Durence noticed they had little ringed donut cushions on the chairs for said incidents.

"I need to inquire about a person purchased from Sword Island," Durence said, and the boy handed him a ticket that said '1288' on it.

"Please take a seat, and a wizard will be with you shortly," he intoned again. The little ticket glowed, then changed itself to '1287.'

It took thirty seconds for it to change down to 1286.

Mila lasted until 1280.

To be fair, she only lasted so long because of the sheer chaos of the Wizard Tower's coming and goings.

Wizards came and went in all shapes and sizes.

A bloated man seemed to glide along the floor with a massive coat tail trailing behind him that slithered out of the people's paths. Another was an old man, whose beard doubled as a coat. One woman was seemingly living out of her travel case. Another bright woman dragged two apprentices off by the ear for tea, one speaking in Shattered Left curses at the treatment. Another wizard seemed to be eating never ending garlic bread out of a box.

Mila stomped up to the desk.

"Please take a seat, a wizard will be with you shor-urk!" the boy gagged as Mila dragged him over the desk.

"What's your name, stale one?" she asked dangerously.

"H-Haldi," he whimpered. Ah, he was so small. Durence towered over him, which meant Mila was massive!

"No wizard name?" Durence asked pleasantly. Haldi looked ashamed as his feet dangled off the ground by a foot.

"I have not yet earned enough Magic Tokens to pay my way into the ceremony. Working the desk for 15 hours earns me 10 tokens. I need 5000 tokens to access the basic ceremony," he said sadly.

"What is a token?" Mila asked seriously, still not putting him down.

"A magic token is a Mana-Fabricated-Talisman. It's just a unique creation here in the tower with no practical uses in the outside world. It governs everything we do here in the tower," Haldi said quickly.

His stomach gurgled, and he looked down.

"A basic meal is 25 tokens. I skipped breakfast," he explained. Durence eyeballed the tower and did some basic math.

"Here," he said and gave Haldi his spare piece of cheese. If Durence squinted, Haldi had the confidence of a mouse!

"Why not hunt outside?" Mila sighed, dropping Haldi onto the desk with a thump.

"There's no money in being an apprentice. Your master governs what classes you have, whom you room with, what jobs you can and can't do, how much Money you get," he listed, and he blinked at their confusion.

"Mundane Money," he said, blushing.

Durence opened his mouth, but a bunch of students walked past, eating rich meats and looking like they had all the time in the world. One of the boys, who looked like Haldi, paused.

"Hally, you failed Levitation again? That's an easy 100 MFTs," he said, shaking his head.

"Sorry Oppy," the young boy said, looking like he might cry as the others laughed. Oof

"Horrible Haldi, the horrendous Mage," a girl giggled. Mila turned and actually barked at them with her teeth bared.

They screamed and scattered.

"They suck," Durence said, and Haldi looked confused.

"Who are you?" he asked, and Durence didn't want to be identified, so he shoved more cheese at the boy, who ate it gratefully, if a little confused.

"Please, we need to see a girl brought in from Sword Island," he said, and Mila's face turned into a hard set.

Haldi bit his lip then, making sure no one was looking, waved his hand.

The ticket in Durence's hand leapt all the way to number '0004.'

"You're really nice, and it's mostly broomstick-related issues all day… and not the accidental kind," he grimaced. He turned to Mila.

"I like your northern mana-enriched squirrel shin guards, looks like two males and big ones," he complimented her awkwardly.

Mila's face lit up as the number counted down to '0002.'

Durence was sure they were joking now.

They were clearly rabbit skulls.

He hoped…

171: Mhaira will free ya

"She went in of her own accord, this is not a logical response," someone said. Allatory turned and bit back a snap as he took a long breath.

"She is a captain and knows even more about our operations than others of her rank. We still don't know how developed the Dungeon's Core absorption process is. If we lose her in any way, the Dungeon could know our every squad, our operations, secrets Captain Yattina gained over her years," he told another captain, who was barely fit for the position.

She was also… not the worst person to be around, Allatory had to admit.

"Core absorption?" the dim-witted man asked, looking lost.

Allatory stared at him. This was the sort of information basic scouts knew…

"A Dungeon gets many things from absorbing people who die within their grounds. Resources, new minions, special abilities, and more. One of the rarer things it can get is a recollection of the knowledge that person held in life. Some Dungeons don't do it, while others can download someone's entire history," he said, strapping a sword to his hip as the commander's tent seemed intent on being too stuffy.

He turned, face devoid of the annoyance he felt inside.

"This is why we don't send our best, our most experienced, or our commanders in. A surprise knife to the neck, and the Dungeon suddenly becomes a rival who has access to our processes, our thoughts, our responses, our abilities, and far more," he stressed.

"Captain Yattina lacks a Core, a rather black mark on her record, so I doubt we need to worry about that," another person said, and Allatory looked up at the man who looked to be in a foul mood.

Impressive for someone who should be devoid of emotions in an effort to make a Core-Weapon.

"Commander Caline," Allatory bowed, frowning as the man seemed to have a heavy stink of cheese on his breath.

He wasn't aware the commander was a fan of cheese snacks.

"She's an asset, revealing many of the Dungeon's secrets already-" he tried to argue, but Caline turned to the central table, which had basic maps of the dungeon, and picked up a goblin figurine before tilting it so it was faced down.

"Her sister was an asset," Caline asserted without looking up from the map.

"It's only due to Director Ripdoy's 'kindness' that she was offered to move up in the ranks with her theory work and half-shot ideas," he reminded the room.

'Moved up faster than you ever did' Allatory thought unkindly as he glared at Caline's back.

"And this scout who transferred to her squad. Lamb or Liam? He should be dismissed from Fairplay once he returns for disobeying the order to stand down if he returns," Caline added callously.

It was sometimes obvious to see that Caline enjoyed what power he could wield in these sorts of situations. He had his cronies and favorites that he offered the better deals to. Allatory never liked the preference treatment. If someone was an idiot, they got sent back. If someone did good, they got a reward.

It was all by the book that the three directors made when Fairplay started.

Even if Director Ripdoy was all that was left.

Caline was the sort of person who turned everything into a self-serving nepotism club. Allatory had to be careful here.

"I would like to get Yattina back since her theories have proven to be true so far. Her insights could let us get much farther in a shorter time and send favorable reports back to the company," he tried.

After all, if nothing else worked, going above Caline might. The Directors didn't have badges; they didn't need them.

There was still a host of people above Caline; those with five fingers on their badges.

Five people who handled most of Fairplay's day-to-day business.

Caline paused and honestly seemed to consider the ramifications of finally getting good reports out of Durence.

"You have a point, Captain Allatory," he said, and Allatory internally let out a sigh of relief.

"This could be a good time to test one of our newest weapons that has come out of the research department," he announced and turned to the door to walk out.

"W-Wait, Commander Caline!" Allatory took a step forward.

"You don't mean the 'Hellion-Robot' series?" he asked, a sick feeling in his stomach growing thicker by the moment.

He didn't know much about the project, but he knew the automata were designed to be replacements for common soldiers…

"Now, now, Captain," Caline tutted as he turned to look over his shoulder with an odd gleam to his pale eyes.

"I prefer 'He-Ro' units," he corrected and left the room.

Allatory hoped, for the first time in a long time, that the Dungeon under their feet was not evil.

That it would protect Yattina.

That it had a heart.

---

"Such wonderful, luminous flesh!" Yattina said as the massive worm named Bob laid across the shallows of the waterfall, allowing a soaking-wet Yattina to run her hands over his body.

"Marvelous!"

Alpha watched from the shade of a tree, occasionally having to ward off a Pygmy from getting too close.

"I'm back," Delta said as she appeared out of thin air. Alpha blinked at her stiff body and face contorted into dismay.

It reminded him of when she used to have so much homework to look over…

She?

Miss D?

Alpha shook off the impending headache to speak.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I accidentally made a god-dragon," she muttered. Alpha could accept that. Delta was more of an explosive growth compared to his own constant-but-steady gains.

"She's weird," he nodded to Yattina, which made Delta perk up at the sight.

"She is? I love it! How's the tour guide business going?" she asked him, and he shrugged.

"I keep going off on related subjects that spiral out into non-related things. Quee took over for most of it," he admitted.

"You'll get better if you keep practicing. You don't see the world the same way as a lot of people, and that's not a bad thing. Don't feel bad about it," Delta praised with a wide smile.

Alpha shrugged, not feeling bad at all. He just found people weird and facts really neat.

Delta went to say something when she paused. She frowned as she stared at Yattina.

"What's wrong?" Alpha asked, and Delta was quieter when she answered, turning from relaxed to slightly more serious.

"Her mana-protection is wearing down. She'll begin to experience poisoning soon if she doesn't get out of thick Dungeon Mana," she explained, as she seemed to be able to 'see' things no mortal person could.

It was as if being a Dungeon granted Delta an extra three senses: her entire Dungeon, some sort of system, and people; their souls and seeds.

"Is there nothing you can do?" Alpha inquired as he looked over the excited woman, who kept scratching some special spot on Bob that made the giant worm gurgle with joy.

"There's a few things. My Mana Well could do something, but I don't know what it might do," she admitted.

"And to get her that far down means wearing her protection down almost twice as fast," she added.

Alpha could see this was upsetting Delta, so he turned to Yattina and used a feature he had never used before.

A second later, his self… his power… engulfed Yattina, forming a shared bond, in which his passive buffs affected her. He didn't target people's seeds, but their souls, their being. It would affect seeds, but Alpha was designed to fight the Silence.

That came with inbuilt protections.

Yattina let out a yelp as the Party bond formed between them, and Alpha felt so uncomfortable having someone inside his aura. It felt too intimate… too much, but he held on stubbornly because it would help Delta.

Alpha system party mode:
All experiences are shared.
10% of Alpha defenses added to party members.
Mana-resistance increased.
Lack of core: no special ability granted.
As party is formed and held, Alpha will gain [3] new skills from Yattina.

Turning, he saw Delta gaping at him.

"Should keep her going," he muttered, and Delta only nodded for a moment.

"Less than an hour to almost half a day if I'm reading this right. You can just extend your power like that?" she asked, sounding deeply impressed.

"It spreads really thin if there are too many people. It's for a party, not an army, I guess," he said, and Yattina turned as she seemed to be feeling the rush of power in her body.

"Alpha! I'm experiencing the need to punch trees and do menial tasks!" she cried out.

"That goes away eventually, the tree part," he called over, wincing at his own early days where he just punched everything.

He woke up in a sleepy village, and even with his strange powers, it didn't seem too bad. It didn't seem so hard. A town that seemed to speak entirely in fixed phrases and repetitive speeches. Alpha soon learned that it was a quirk of the Shattered Left islands.

Massive language shifts occurred every three steps. Then the village was destroyed, and Alpha fled.

Funny, looking back at it, Alpha sure had run a lot before meeting Delta.

"Now, let's get Miss Yattina to-" Delta paused, then blinked.

"We have guests," she said with surprise. Alpha's hand tightened on his sword.

"I can deal with them?" he offered, and she shook her head with a smile.

"It's Deo, Poppy, and some poor Fairplay boy they're escorting," she said, crossing her arms with a thoughtful look.

"They're in tour-mode, so it's not even needing me to get involved," she admitted, but Alpha could see the urge to do something growing in Delta.

"I can take Miss Yattina to the third floor and the well. I only need to show her a few other places, and we can move on," he offered, and he suddenly wondered where Quee was.
The spider-boy had wandered off when he saw Yattina was getting involved with water.
Quee didn't do 'wet.'

"Today is a busy day! I wonder when Nu will get back," Delta giggled as she floated off with a pat on Alpha's head.

The contact was growing more solid by the day.

---

The Hunting Leader Seahagan raised one webbed hand as they continued to prowl along the pathetic Dungeon's floors, pillaging it for all its worth. Soon, they would make the final push and claim the Sibling's Tears that others called 'Dungeon Cores.'

One had already fallen to their attacks, another to the north in the salt caves would be theirs soon. This one had not put up much of a fight, but it had improved a little.

It swatted aside another one of the annoying venomous plant-foxes to the side.

It would still fall.

The group stopped as they came to the fifth floor boss room, where they knew some weak bulbous plant with fangs should have been waiting for them, but to their unease, the room was empty.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

A giggle sounded out.

"They thought you to be the same rank as I?" a human-sounding girl called out as a figure slowly floated out from the shadows. A tiny, defenseless creature appeared, and the Seahagan let out a collective hiss that rattled the room.

She was the size of a large insect, with human-hair that looked to be spun from gold. Her eyes danced with mirth, and she seemed to sway and move to unheard music.

"I want it… it shall amuse my clutch of hatchlings until they tear it apart," someone said, and there was quickly a series of argumentative hissing over who'd get the girl.

But the leader stared at her; something about her form felt oddly familiar.

Unsettlingly familiar.

"Tell me, oh rotten fishmen, whom do you serve? Tell me the name of thy god," the pixie asked, and despite having no respect for the pest, the leader was all too happy to say the name of his god.

The more he said it aloud, the more he felt connected to the dark echo.

"Fetormare!" he cried, and the group all let out guttural roars of praise. The room seemed to darken, shadows moving out from under foliage and around rocks. He expected fear, terror, revulsion, and maybe even curiosity from the insect-girl.

Not laughter. Not deep, belly-aching laughter.

"Fetormare? Fetormare?" she wheezed and seemed to be crying a dark ichor substance. That was a little strange.

"I'm supposed to be impressed by an Echo so weak that it needs dumb fishpeople to worship it out of some godsforsaken island to get any power?" her laughter trailed off into an insulted tone.

"Am I to be challenged by a cult of a sad Echo? Me? Mharia?" she demanded, and to the leader's shock, the shadows around the room writhed then retreated as a new force rose up. The leader moved, and his spear impaled the blasphemous pixie through the stomach with ease, pinning her to the stone wall.

"Your death will be an excellent apology to the mighty Fetormare," he said, satisfied. Slowly, the pixie grabbed the spear with slow motions.

"That's step 1… but what about steps 2 through 10?" she asked and began to pull her body along the spear, leaving a trail of black ichor on the weapon as she slowly pulled herself free.

Taking a step back, the group watched as the pixie pulled herself off the spear, her human skin peeling back like a rotten fruit to reveal a horrible visage.

"Let me show you the power of someone beloved by both an insane Dungeon Core and the Nephew, strongest of Echoes," she hissed, her empty eye sockets igniting with red flames.

"You follow an echo?!" the leader said, shocked before raising his hands in surrender.

"Let us join forces, bring true silence to this land!" he begged, and the pixie smiled, tilting her head.

"You think I need you?" she asked, and he couldn't answer. The question felt like a trap in every way.

"We all serve the Lost Brother! Help Fetormare rise! Let him be the strongest, and he will reward you!" he said finally. The creature before them managed to turn her skull grin into a frown with extreme pressure.

"I will never betray Sun; even if we're on opposite sides. He is the Echo that will succeed… or none will. I accept no substitutes," she declared.

"Then die!" he screamed, and his group rushed the little creature.

The first one to get close simply turned to dust and bone, collapsing on the green ground.

"Die?" came the bemused response. The green room slowly began to turn brown then black as the green foliage seemed to rot before their eyes.

"I died a long time ago, and now I make it everyone's problem," she explained as two more of his Seahagans fell to the ground, their bones exploding outwards.

He reached into his satchel and produced something that made the demon pause. It was a cracked piece of something that looked like glass, but pitch black.

"Oh, you wouldn't," the creature said as it dropped two more of his people by causing their skin to burst out in disease and flesh-eating magic.

"A core given to Fetormare returned as a servant of our god. I offer myself as a vessel!" he crowed as he stabbed the shard into his chest, feeling it pour into his seed, the thing mutating inside his own body and causing unimaginable pain.

He screamed as dark energy filled his body, but soon the scream became a dark laugh as he grew and grew. His scales turned to hard gems, his once slimy body now was dry and rigid, his mana which had been of the sea now turned to the land.

The shattered core of the earth Dungeon filled him, and he became a massive golem of power and shadows. It was a pathetic Dungeon, if it had far more floors, then he could have gained far more power.

"You will suffer for a long time before you end. I will ensure it," he rasped between obsidian teeth at the creature who… looked unimpressed.

"Ash to ash, and this next bit is important for you," she stressed.

He swung at her with his mighty fists, his arm jutting out with crystals now.

But before it could touch the demon, his mighty rock and gems began to break and crack, turning to a gray, lifeless dust before his eyes.

He was confused, even as he fell to his knees and his new armor collapsed before his eyes.

"Dust to dust," the shadow of the stronger Echo said and loomed over him somehow.

"I was earth eternal," he said as he collapsed.

"If you had given yourself to the power fully? Perhaps," she admitted, then clutched his chin, and the contact burned him.

"But you cling to self. You remain Seahagan at core. You're not devoted… you are loyal for a price. You are no Cult of the Silence, you are parasites siding with a stronger force," she hissed.

"What are you, then?" he rasped as he began to fall to the side.

The answer was the last thing he heard.

"A lich, a friend, a fairy, a guide, a Silence member… a Dungeon creature. More importantly, done with you," she said, and his vision went black.

To his horror, the Reaper of the Sea did not come for him… his soul fell into a fathomless silence.

---

"And that's Mharia when she's bored," Nu explained calmly as Trinity was stunned into absolute silence.

"How does one get a 'Mharia'? Herb asked, and there was a moment of infighting before they waited for a response.

Embellishment, or truth? Making himself look good, or being honest?

"You must allow death to take a part in your Dungeon. Also, when you meet a human, you can contract them and merge Death with them to make a Mharia. It's best to do this with an adult, as they are closer to death than anyone younger. Children resist death greatly," he educated.

"Isn't Mharia a child in form?" Carnage asked dubiously.

"She cost three times the normal amount to work. Adults are cheap," Nu insisted. This was accepted by all three facets of Trinity.

Dungeons; they love a good deal.

"Absorbing corpses!" Florida cried, and the core went inert as it feasted on the biggest meal it had ever had.

"You're welcome?" Nu said, and when there was no response, let out a sigh.

"Where's my praise?" Mharia asked as she appeared in a spark of death magic.

"You didn't mess up, well done," Nu said sarcastically, and Mharia fawned at the fake words.

"Murder today, genocide tomorrow!" she declared, and Nu shot her a look, but she was already humming ways to 'poison the sea, boil them alive,' so he left her to it.

Their work here wasn't done, but he didn't want to leave Delta alone for too long.

There was something he told Mharia to collect and bring back. The shard of the corrupted Dungeon.

Was it corrupted? He didn't know exactly, but he felt it was co-

---

"Another corrupted one. She wasn't lying," a gruff voice said.

"How can this be… they used to be so filled with life and magic," a softer voice.

"We need to stop this, and we need to figure out who these people are."

---

"Nu? This stopped being funny ten minutes ago," Mhaira said crossly as she smacked his avatar.

"I… we need to go back and get Delta to study this," Nu said, shaking himself out of standing absolutely still.

Those memories… they had come from Delta in some form, but why had they flowed to him now? Was the shard upsetting the connection?

He felt unsettled and hoped Delta wasn't feeling this too.

---

"Go! Go!" Delta cried in sheer joy as Deo showed the boy, Lim, how to fish in the giant lake room, snagging the catfish deep within the waters.

"Go. Go…" Poppy waved one hand with a yawn, but her eyes never left Deo's straininback.

At her side was that talking book, and she had meant to listen in to its tales, but she kept getting so distracted.

"This reminds me of the haunted vessel that sails around the Crown on misty nights," the book told Poppy, its pages turning to show the map of the world that was surprisingly accurate.

"A god was summoned forth on a ship to give it power, but it was a dark being with a voice that echoed across the storm. It merged with the ship and is said to claim the souls of all that pass it!" the book said.

"All the more reason to never leave my room," Poppy pointed out.

"Where's your sense of excitement?" the book asked with a sigh.

"In my closet somewhere, nyeh," Poppy managed a small smile as she was glued to Deo's arms as he reeled in his catch.

"Perhaps I should tell tales of love and how to catch a prince's eye?" the book muttered, making Delta cover her mouth, hiding a large grin.

Poppy closed him and then sat on him, muffling his voice.

"What is that?!" Lim screamed as the Moon-eating Catfish appeared in the air.

"Dinner, or an adventure! Maybe both!" Deo cried as he pulled with pure light in his voice and eyes. Oh, Delta could just keep them all!

Their parents would understand eventually!

---

"We should be going," Alpha said after a while, staring down into the pit as movement filled every inch with it.

"But! No! There's a whole society here!" Yattina cried out as the Pygmies tied her to their small altar.

"Think of the anthropological revelations of this culture!" she went on excitedly. The chief of the Pygmies gave the order, and the Priest raised a sacrificial dagger.

"I'm in the thick of it! This is world changing!" Yattina went on.

The dagger fell, and a chunk of her hair was cut loose.

"Simply marvelous!" she gushed.

Alpha supposed he could do some sit-ups or practice magic. There were five more lines of Pygmies wanting their shot at getting some 'threads' off Yattina.

If she was having fun, who was he to spoil it?

---

172: Beta Hurry

“Oh, a Wyin tree! Did you know there’s a legend about these trees? That when the world tree was afflicted with a sickness, these trees appeared around the world near tragedy. The most popular myth was a woman who was born with the name Wyin who waited for her lost love-” Yattina told Alpha and Quee. The spider-boy raised his hands and backed away as the mist shifted in the room.

“It said the woman was a gentle maiden who appeared as a head priestess of the world tree itself, but she vanished, presumably taken by the sickness that hit the world tree, or perhaps she could be an allegory for fledgling innocence or new love,” Yattina mused as she tapped her glass eye.

The mist thinned, and the tree came into sharp focus.

“Actually, I did wait. I could appear as human. I did love, and he was mortal. I was sick… and I didn’t get better,” Wyin said slowly, and Alpha didn’t exactly tense his shoulders, but the grip on his sword tightened.

Wyin wasn’t a ‘bad’ monster, per se, but she had an odd temper that could be triggered by the most innocent of comments. Yattina seemed to stare up into the beautiful face of Wyin with wide eyes.

“You’re… alive,” Yattina said, then cleared her throat.

“Of course you are. You’re a magic tree of legend; you have more power in one leaf than I do in my entire body,” she said, muttering furiously to herself. Wyin looked away, deciding Yattina wasn’t too interesting.

“Don’t take it personally. All Wyin trees are ‘me,’ but they’ll never be me. That imposter was clever. I escaped, but he all but ensured I’d never grow to my full might again. It’s only due to the ‘luck’ of some goblins that I came to be planted here,” she purred and then looked over at Quee.

“My little star. You’ve not come to dance for me in some time,” she said, sounding hurt. Quee grinned.

“I’ve finally gotten to be a guard! People can skip to the second floor and not bother Sir Fran all the time,” he explained, and Wyin let out a throaty chuckle that reminded Alpha of a smoky bar room with the rich scent of whiskey.

“And that is the best thing, truly. Still, I see you’re stuck being a tour guide,” Wyin said, and Yattina hadn’t said anything. She looked stunned.

“Are you okay?” Alpha asked, stepping closer, and she turned slowly to look at him.

“The World Tree is an imposter?” she asked, and Alpha shrugged.

“Most likely,” he said, and Yattina’s face turned pale, and he tried not to wince as the party bond shared a deep flash of horror and some fear.

“Isn’t that common knowledge?” Alpha asked, and he stepped back as Yattina’s voice raised in volume.

“No! We know that the tree used to be welcoming and have a famous town called ‘Small Joy’ surrounding it, but about hundred and fifty years ago-” Yattina said, and Wyin interjected.

“One Hundred fifty-four if you wanna be precise, sweet thing,” she said as Quee twirled for her on a rock.

“-Fifty-four years ago, the tree suddenly became violently sick, and the town around became shut-off. No one could get close, and then the tree attacked whoever got close. We presume it just learned too much of humanity and grew disgusted by us or blamed us for the sickness!” Yattina said, looking like she wanted a dozen empty notebooks right about now.

“Oh, I sort of was disgusted by you all, in a friendly way. You all walk around with functional acid factories in your trunks and are sloshy,” Wyin chimed in again.

Yattina nodded firmly.

“The human body is a necessary evil that I only tolerate to hoard books and have a working brain,” she agreed without hesitation. She frowned and looked ponderous at something.

“I read something about the World Tre- the Fake Tree in a report recently. What was it about?” she asked herself, and Alpha waited patiently. Yattina snapped her fingers as she remembered.

“It gained a legendary-ranked monster that lives in its branches. The monster has been seen all over the world, carrying out all sorts of strange activities. The monster appeared about ten years ago, and it’s messed with Fairplay a few times,” she explained. Delta’s avatar looked down and whispered something that made Alpha’s skin prickle unpleasantly.

“Beta.”

“It’s a shapeshifter, I think, but all its forms share the same symbol on its neck. People speculate it’s half of a tree, but… but…” Yattina trailed off, and Wyin’s smile grew as the woman seemed to recall something.

“Alpha… why is the monster’s symbol on Delta’s front door?” she asked with an odd tone. Delta and Alpha shared a look.

“The symbols on the door stand for ‘Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma.’ I’m Alpha… you know Delta…” Alpha trailed off as the woman stared at him. A few seconds passed.

“I think you broke the poor thing,” Wyin said with a tutting noise as she waved a branch in front of Yattina’s face.

Yattina suddenly took Alpha by the shoulders, her grip surprisingly tight.

“Never repeat that name,” she stressed, and Alpha blinked, confused as the woman suddenly looked nervously around.

“What? Beta?” Quee asked, scuttling over as well as glaring at how she manhandled Alpha.

“No, the… the last one,” Yattina said and swallowed hard.

“Gam-” Alpha said, and she covered his mouth.

“Don’t! It’s a curse word,” she said in panic. There was a long pause.

“Gamma? Sounds like a weird name, this Gamma. Gamma, you say? I would like to know more about this Gamma,” Wyin announced, and Yattina covered her ears as if trying not to hear it.

“Woah…” Delta suddenly said, and Alpha could feel it too. Due to his new title as Archmage, he had gained a very potent magical sensing skill, and he could feel what could only be described as a dozen eyes trying to settle on the Dungeon, but not quite finding it.

“People are tracking the name. Everyone wants the King-Maker sword!” Yattina said quickly, trying to crouch low as if to avoid something.

“If you say the name, and they find you, you’re marked until they come for you. The Sword-Collectors, royal-wannabes, fourth or six in line for the throne, or…” she trailed off before making a deep gulp of actual concern.

“The Calculators.”

---

The lone island that sat between two edges of the world looked benign from high above, but from the clouds, a rapid shadow darted to the edge of the island. A mix between a falcon and a snake, the form shifted until a stoic looking teen girl stood where the monster had, a symbol on her neck glowing before going inert, she looked around as her clothes consisted of tough leathers she had roughly sewn together of different beasts.

This island gave her the creeps.

“Barkface is really reaching with this one,” she sighed and looked around for any signs of trouble. Ever since the strange Dungeon and ‘He’ attacked the tree, the old man had been working her ass overtime.

Beta was beginning to think the old tree wasn’t telling her something, but Beta accepted that was a thing a long time ago. Likely, treebeard did one of his stupid schemes and pissed them off, but that wasn’t Beta’s concern.

But if the Brother reacted, then they must be doing something right.

She didn’t care for the eyes or the tree’s desire to have it. She just wanted to get revenge on those ‘gods.’ The feeling of being made whole was still fresh in her mind.

Horrible flesh bubbling pain, bones snapping and reforming, muscles being woven inch by inch, organs built, then melted to be redone. Beta remembered it all.

The damn girl had a cheek to tell her that they had done much better with Beta than ‘Gamma.’ She mentally shuddered.

She didn’t want to think of what that poor bastard might have experienced being made if her formation was ‘better.’

She walked forward on the island that was drowning in cloying Dungeon Mana. What sort of place needed five Dungeons in one close space? She inhaled, and the mana was easily converted into energy for her, as if her body had been made to live inside a Dungeon with ease.

If she was? She would burn them all to the ground rather than be an obedient pet for the gods and their little murder holes. Everywhere she looked, their screw-ups were clear between the rampant ‘other-gods,’ Dungeons, monsters, the cults, and more.

It was…

Beta didn’t know for sure, but she had a feeling that ‘before’ was better. Before had someone smiling at her, people she didn’t want to punch… a smiling teacher-

She winced as her flesh rippled, and for a split second, she saw vines and leaves emerging from her hands and fingers; so like Yggdrasil, how did it get there? Her veins seemed to bulge as they expanded towards her neck then her head and then… green.

When did-

-the cults, and more. Seriously, screw them. Beta scowled as she rotated her shoulder as if it were stiff. She just wanted to get this job done already. She walked deeper into the island and came to a stop as all her senses started screaming at her that she was not alone.

Beta had gathered quite a selection of monster forms in the two years since she had been here.

Sometimes, she found forms she had no clue about getting and chalked it up to the gods and their system that they kept trying to make her use. She wanted to at least check it out, but she never found the time.

She found the idea appalling.

Beta would not open that system. She would not. That was final.

She had found Yggy a year ago, and time just seemed to fly by when she was doing his jobs. He always insisted she rest before taking another mission. Beta was getting real tired of him trying to cozy in on her time.

Where would she even sleep for longer than a day? Small Joy? Psh, that place was a ruin.

‘But where did you get the clothes, the food you eat, the conversations of the world?’ some insidious part of her asked.

Yggdrasil. Everything she had was because of <YGGDRASIL>.

Movement all around her revealed themselves to be ducks. Dozens of black ducks with red eyes.

A lot watched her as she slowly moved forward to a clearing, where a massive hole in the middle of the island seemed to vanish into complete darkness.

This was what old treebeard wanted… for Beta to see if there was quicker access to the Eye through this hole on Funeral Island. One of the ducks was close.

<Consume. Grow. Perfect.>

The Beast lunged for it, arms splitting into a dozen claws, but the duck was strangely powerful, knocking her to the side as the flock surrounded her.

She was in danger-

<Consume>

She would kill them.

Beta raised her arm to strike when something very strange occurred. The system opened on its own, and her mind tried to rebel, but she couldn’t look away.

‘W-W-Welcome Be-Be-Beta! To DELTASUN 0.5. You have 99+ messages. You have to ‘remember.’ You need to ‘escape.’

Beta’s mind, her body, her soul was trying to split into two. Something inside her was trying to pull her apart.

Error: Infection is at 95%. This will not be enough.

“Make it stop!” Beta screamed as she clutched her head.

Solution: Do a ‘Delta’ move! If the parasite is using ambient mana to keep control, you will be sent somewhere where only Delta Mana will be available and not Yggdrasil’s.

Beta could barely read, let alone understand the message.

With permission of Prince Waddles, the seal to Demon World will open. Enjoy your trip!

Beta turned slowly to see a puffy black duck raise one webbed foot, and then she was tumbling down the dark tunnel on the island.

Find Delta. Her Mana has not been idle since going to the demon world.

And… I’m so sorry I was a terrible god. I will make it up to you, even if it costs me my life.

Beta felt oddly strange as she fell into a dark ruinous world, crashing into a crystal clear pond filled with Black ducks and pure-white duck chicks. Only when she was nearing the bottom of the pond did she understand that she was swimming in near pure-salt water mixed with something akin to vinegar.

She breached the surface, clinging to a rock that jutted out of the pond, coughing and sputtering as she failed to transform, the mana far too loose and free flowing around her to complete the task.

Ahead of her made of what looked to be the largest duck she had ever seen sitting on a throne of human teeth.

“Where am I?!” she demanded, and the duck quacked.

There was a long pause.

“…I don’t speak duck,” she said, gritting her teeth as the stinging water burned her skin slightly. There was some movement, and the ducks brought someone out. It was like a human tongue grew legs and had a foul attitude about it.

“What the hell are you?” Beta snarled, her fear feeding into her anger easily.

“I’m a demon tongue, ain’t I? I speak tongues!” the demon snapped. The big duck quacked again.

“His royalness, the Duke of Wrath - the Duck of Wrath - says you are here under invitation of his son and will be free to leave once you are purged of the ancient foulness clinging to your sad sack organs and shriveled brain,” the tongue said with a nasty tone.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“It said that… with one quack?” Beta said, doubt leaking off every word.

“I paraphrased for our benefit,” the tongue said with deliberate slowness.

“I don’t… what… no, I need to go! This place is making me feel weak,” she said, wading towards the shore and trying not to step on what looked to be thousands of eggs stretching as far as the eye could see.

The moment she left the hellish water, she began to have trouble breathing.

“His dukeness should mention that the pond has been the only source of Flat-World Mana around for some time. Since you no longer have a base form and cannot devour demons, you cannot breathe in the demon world,” the Tongue explained.

“I have a human form; this is my human form!” she protested, trying to get her lungs to work.

“No. It looks like what your form might have been, but it’s just that: an imitation of shifted flesh. You no longer remember who you are, according to the Sun Sister, and thus, can no longer transform into that form,” the annoying tongue went on.

“They took… my memories… from me…” Beta wheezed, crawling on hands and knees. She was afraid she might kill the eggs, but they were harder than diamonds under her touch.

“Truly, my heart bleeds for you, but you will now be enjoying the purging of your body in a few moments. How do you feel about leather or rope?” the tongue asked, translating more quacks of the large duck.

“W-What?” she asked, looking back. The duke held up two straps of material for Beta to bite down on.

“The Duke suggests leather, less threads in one’s teeth,” the tongue smirked.

“I don’t consent to this! I reject it!” Beta tried to crawl away faster.

“Quack.”

There was no need for the tongue to translate that. Beta could almost hear the words in her mind.

‘Bite down hard, this is going to be rough.’

---

Delta watched as Yattina nervously opened the door down the hallway to the left of the Map Room. She was nervous and a little shy as Yattina marveled at the third floor.

“It’s pretty dark in here,” Yattina admitted before Delta focused and soft lamps around the library turned on, revealing rows of books. There was a soft gasp as Yattina took a few steps forward, then stopped.

“I… may I…” she stumbled over her words.

Delta focused and pulled all her power into a single word.

“Yes,” she said, and the word breezed through the room, and Yattina turned, wide-eyed.

“Was that her?” she asked Alpha, who nodded, shooting Delta an impressed look. Delta was too busy leaning over, panting as if she’d just ran a damn marathon. How could she create a whole host of creatures, and magic enchantments, but projecting her own voice was this hard?

Was it like trying to speak, but only inside one’s kidney?

“So many books! Goose-bumps?” Yattina asked with wonder, picking up a book with a ghostly white bird on the front before she quickly moved on.

“I’ve never seen so many books in even a specialist store! You have a mix of rare tomes, unique stories, and children’s books. I could spend months here!” Yattina gushed as she pulled out a copy of ‘Short Stories and less’ containing only three sentences on the first page, and the other 100 pages were blank.

She opened a book of ‘100 soup recipes with lickable pages,’ the ‘In-depth Study of Studies,’ ‘Death: Villain or Hopeless Romantic?,’ and she even grabbed a copy of ‘Optics: A Light Reading.’

“Alpha! Quee! Join me! Books are friend-shaped!” Yattina insisted excitedly as she sat in some sort of sealed bag of squishy beans.

“I thought that was people?” Alpha asked, confused. Quee strutted past.

“Books? People? They both spread their contents for me,” he said, and Alpha looked at him.

“It’s because I’m going to be a rockstar, and supposedly, people open up to them. Like therapists,” Quee explained excitedly.

“Therapists; never liked them. They want to talk about my past, my pain, my injuries, my inability to sleep for longer than three hours,” Yattina muttered.

“Isn’t that to help you get better?” Alpha asked slowly.

“Help, smelp. Science and being right all the time is how I heal,” she winked with her good eye and went back to tasting the soup book.

A book slid out near Alpha titled ‘How to spot and help troubled individuals, by Seeri Ink’ for him to grab.

“Maybe you can… tell me about… your issues?” Alpha tried and pushed the book back on the shelf. Yattina gave him a long look before smiling with a placating look.

“I’m fine,” she said and buried herself deeper into her book. Alpha frowned and looked down at his feet, trying to figure out how to be empathetic or even sound concerned. He didn’t mean to come off as if he would rather not talk to people.

He just… spoke like that. A second book slid out towards Alpha.

‘Neurodivergence: It’s okay to be different.’

“Thanks,” he sighed, taking the book to join Yattina. They both jumped as Quee slammed down what seemed to be a twenty series book collection of ‘Karamel Rider: Delicious Hero.’

“This place is great! I should have visited ages ago!” he said brightly. On top of those, he had music books, stage performances, and a signed book of Maestro’s autobiography. It was a very thick book, in spite of Maestro’s actual lifespan thus far.

Delta watched them all talk and chat, all while knowing who was watching them from the shadows.

“Jack, you can join in,” Delta said to the watching Kobold.

“Shh… I can’t let myself be known until I know her levels of acceptance to the good word of Death,” Jack hissed back, barely heard by anyone but Delta.

“You mean cheap romance novels?” Delta summed up.

“The cheaper, the better,” Jack nodded seriously.

“Yattina, what do you think of mouth touching and wiggly wooing?” Quee asked, having superior hearing.

“Is setting myself on fire an option?” she responded without looking up from her book. Jack narrowed his eyes and looked ready to retreat.

“I like the chase, the idea, the sort of dancing around, and the learning. I love people connecting, but I skip past any…’wiggly wooing,’” she said, smiling at the phrase.

“Are you reading an age-appropriate book?” she asked suddenly, eyes narrowed. Quee held up the cover of some chocolate-themed hero kicking a sour-sweet in the face.

“I think so!” he promised.

Jack had turned, going through a series of shelves.

“Ogre on Dryad… Mermaid in love with a horse…ah! Woman in love with a magic mirror, doomed to never touch, but see each for whom they are inside. I can convert her!” Jack pumped his fist and nearly knocked a shelf over in his excitement .Delta took a look.

“It says in book four, the magic mirror can astral project into her dreams-” she pointed out, and Jack took book 4 to 22 and hid them behind a series of books called ‘Filler: the encyclopedias of taking up space.’

“Every religion has some white lies,” Jack shrugged.

“How wonderful! ‘Where’s Wallace’! A puzzle book! And look, Alpha, a companion book on feelings called ‘How is Wallace?’!” Yattina’s voice drifted out to them.

“Do you want to read about feelings?” Alpha offered.

“No time! I have a book here about the ten functions of a goblin liver. I didn’t even know there was one use for them,” Yattina said excitedly.

Delta was beginning to think Yattina had a small issue about discussing her feelings.

Before she drank from the Mana Well, Yattina might need to discuss her feelings to smooth out the process. A working seed contained thoughts and echoes of a person… if Yattina was to grow one from the well and have all these issues bubbling inside her?

She might crack.

But who did she have that specializes in-

“Luna!” she said, standing up with purpose.

But Yattina didn’t seem the type to publicly bathe…

Ten minutes passed, and Luna walked into the Library with a bundle of items. Her usually elegant form looked heavy, and she puffed with effort to keep walking. Delta winced.

“Sorry,” she said, and Luna shook her head.

“It’s only one floor, but I am not going down to the fourth floor. I might drown in Mana,” she muttered.

She unpacked a selection of herbs and an incense burner.

Nearby, Yattina was watching the frog ninja, engrossed in the process.

“So, we’ll be sharing a group vision quest to deal with issues of our past, and by doing that, I can see a rare ‘Mana Spring’ that the Dungeon wants me to test?” Yattina sounding both terrified and extremely happy at the idea.

“You don’t have to. There’s no rush, and you can always come back,” Alpha said, and Yattina blinked then rubbed his head with a small smile.

“I’ll likely be punished to hell and back for this little trip. Likely, I won’t be coming back for a long time,” she admitted, and Delta wouldn’t count on it. She had a way of making sure people left this Dungeon better than they entered.

Well, unless they were the majority of Fairplay, but that was on them.

As Luna was setting up, something bizarre entered her Dungeon. A sort of ‘fake’ life force that repelled her mana with unnatural ease.

She teleported to her entrance to see five spindly marionettes of sorts moving over the ground. Delta stared at them, then took a step back.

“Oh God,” she said, covering her mouth. The dolls, the robots really, were complex beings with a mana-system that drew power from shards deep within their bodies.

Each shard spoke in a near never-ending stream of words.

“Grow the blades, sharpen the doors. Grow the blades, sharpen the doors.”

“Snow on the hill. Snow on the hill. Snow on the hill.”

“Create new boss. Create new boss. Create new boss.”

Each was a fractured, but unique voice that spoke like a badly recorded audiotape.

“Dungeons… they’re using dead dungeons like batteries,” Delta whispered, back against the wall in sheer horror.

One of them turned to her, and before Delta could follow what was happening, it plunged a blade at her, cutting her avatar along the arm. She stared at the fizzling wound on her avatar as a flash of pain looped back to her.

Each of their weapons were made of Dungeon Mana, opposing Dungeon Mana. These things were like human-sized dead Dungeons being controlled from afar. Delta moved back into the tunnel and eyed them with deep sorrow.

“I’ll end this,” she promised them as their babbling picked up in tone and volume.

“Danger level: Max” she intoned, and the entire Dungeon shuddered.

The once cheery flickering orange torchlight turned a deep ominous red. Delta’s eyes dropped a single tear in combination of sorrow and the pain of her wound.

Stage 6: You made Delta cry activated.
Error:
Stage 7 released: You broke Delta’s Heart.

---

Outside, Ruli gripped her hands into fists and held out her arm, stopping any more of these junk robots from going in.

Delta’s entrance now had a dark hazy white mist over it, not quite preventing entrance, but there was deep rage and sadness coming from it.

Ruli didn’t need to hear it for herself to know that whatever was ‘up’ with these robots, it wasn’t good. She couldn’t prevent them from entering, but she could slow them down.

“You better hope she’s okay,” she warned the nearby Caline, who ignored her.

“These are but the test models, the first batch. If she can’t handle these, then the Dungeon’s fabled strength isn’t as much as I feared,” he shrugged. Ruli opened her mouth, but then noticed that the forest all around Delta, usually so vibrant and filled with life… had gone silent.

As if the world was holding its breath.

She shifted, and the row of HE-RO dolls toppled over like dominoes.

“Oops,” she said without shame.

“Cute, but it won’t matter,” he said as he ordered his men to pick them up.

“You prevent me from entering, and your friend Quiss is honor-bound to enact the law in my favor,” he reminded, and Ruli narrowed her eyes on him.

“I’ve bent him over crying before, I’ll do it again,” she said, and this made Caline frown in confusion.

“You’ve fought him before?” he asked for clarification, and Ruli smirked.

“Oh, in a manner of speaking, but you think Delta’s got shit endurance?” she asked, and Caline rolled his eyes.

“She has four floors at most; of course she has bad enduranc-” he froze and grabbed his rear as he made a face of pain.

“I… didn’t talk about… the town!” he gasped as he turned to waddle away.

“She’s part of the town, you butt waffle,” Ruli muttered.

She turned back to the misty door and drew a line in the soil before it with her large sword, Magma.

“Cross it, and I’ll break a random thing that sticks out of your body,” she warned the rest.

“Isn’t that stopping us from… going in?” a Fairplay man asked.

“Nope, you can go in. But you’ll be in a lot of pain while you do so,” Ruli said easily, sitting on her small wooden stool with glowing yellow eyes.

No one crossed the line.

It was all Ruli could do for her friend right now, and it just didn’t feel like enough.

173: DELTA VS HERO

Delta moved back, away from the five strange robots as they moved in deeper. They were human-shaped, but they had no features to convey any sort of assuring feeling. Blank faces made of white stone that connected to round egg-like bodies that had thin mana-paths in intricate patterns, while the limbs hung loose and boneless, more like whips than usable limbs.

Fairplay; even their murder robots were bland looking.

Delta moved down the tunnel, unable to take her eyes off the approaching threat, her arm still stinging from the attack they had done to her avatar. Just as one of the things raised a strange crossbow that 'grew' out of its hand, Lord Mushy appeared before her and let the arrow slam into his shoulder.

The arrow hit and buried deeper than any weapon her monster had encountered before, even Fairplay's seed weapon. The entire thing was made of foul Dungeon Mana that felt stale.

Not stale, Delta realized, but decayed.

Like putrid gasses given off by the rotting dead.

"Manners dictate that I welcome you, but my rage demands I destroy you," Lord Mushy announced with a deep voice as he eyed the wound on Delta's arm.

"Mushy-" Delta tried to say, but the giant Lord of Fungi shot forward, arm cocked back. One of the robots rushed forward, and they met in the entrance hall. The thing's arms cracked and crumbled as Lord Mushy pushed against it.

The thing tilted its head, and Delta had a horrible sense of something sucking on her earlobe without her consent as her Mana was drawn in through dozens of tiny marks on the thing's body. The cracks began to smooth over, and its small shoulder grew into spheres.

It began to push back against Lord Mushy with more ease.

Delta cast her fear and disgust aside so she could peer hard at the thing with her Dungeon senses.

It was so wrong, painfully wrong. It wasn't just that they were made of destroyed Dungeon Cores, but they had been 'broken' in another way too.

Dungeons absorbed things and grew in response. These things did that too, but someone had mangled the 'code' so badly that their growth aspect was out of control, changing at the slightest threat.

Delta's eyes burned, and she had to pull back.

"Lord Mushy, let's retreat and think of a plan!" she ordered. Her monster surprised her by refusing with a shake of his head.

"I will buy you time, mother. Time is of the essence, and these things have far too much on their side," he admitted as his arms began to buckle.

"Mushy," she hesitated.

"I am immortal in your Heart. You are so fragile in mine," he said, straining harder. Delta tried to yank Hero or her damn new star dragon out in a panic, but the Raid Boss monsters were tied up in so many delicate systems that she even spotted some of Nu's core pieces moving in and out of the things.

They were also tied up in the respawn mechanics for the entire Dungeon.

She could spawn a star dragon, but the only floor where she had space for it was the fourth…

"Brother," the walls spoke, indicating Maestro was watching fully.

"Dearest sibling, I require the most fantastic jaunty tune you have for my show," Mushy grimaced as the other robots began to move in.

"You always were the social butterfly between us, but this is simply outrageous. You think I'll sit here and spin some records as you battle an unwinnable fight?" Maestro demanded, and Delta clenched her hands, feeling stupidly useless.

"You won't?" Lord Mushy asked as the 'Strength' Robot finally pushed him back into a skidding slide.

"Well, of course I will. I just wanted to remind you that I'm more than a pretty face and a voice," Maestro huffed before the walls began to tremble with vibrations.

"Eyes on me, you filthy tin-can back-up dancers!" Maestro cried as trumpets and bass began to play.

"One sibling who dances at night; the other who creates in the light. You're going to feel the wrath of the Master of Mushrooms, the brothers brave, and eldest of this Dungeon," Maestro warned as the noise began to increase to uncomfortable levels, and Delta watched as the robots gained tiny little bumps on their surface to displace the vibrations.

Technically, Fran and Cois were the eldest by a day, but Delta wasn't going to nitpick.

"Tally ho!" Mushy roared and slammed his fist through the vibrating air, distorting the air as it impacted the Strength Robot and drove it back with a massive crack on its chest.

Delta turned, knowing she had been given precious time, and she wasn't going to waste it.

Getting her avatar back to the fourth floor, Delta inhaled and closed her eyes. She hadn't ever done this properly and on purpose, but she knew she had to be the one in charge of attacking these things from within.

Her avatar began to dissolve, allowing her mind to be fully absorbed by the Dungeon itself.

Without a human shell to focus her mind, a mouth to speak, eyes to see with, and ears to hear, Delta became the air, the ground, the walls, the monsters, the space, the shadows, and all.

Delta became the Dungeon.

The Dungeon was always Delta.

---

Lord Mushy looked up as the robots continued to move around him. Only one of them had directly attacked him, the one mother dubbed 'Strength' model. It had become thick and bulky with powerful mana-spheres that allowed it to gain the strength of a dozen monsters. Each time Mushy overpowered it, it grew harder to harm.

It had an easier time beating him down in return.

"This doesn't look good. My songs affect these things as much as Christmas music affects retail workers," Maestro admitted. A reference Mushy didn't quite get.

Maestro had always been so much more sensitive to their mother's memories, and it showed.

"Allow me to show you my power," Mushy announced as he put both hands on the ground and pulled, the soil turning to almost liquid as it ran up his arms and made a giant round object above him.

The giant pot was immensely heavy as Lord Mushy hurled it at the Strength Model. There was a sort of cracking noise like glass giving out, and the pot exploded, showing the shards had buried themselves into the Strength Model's chest pieces.

The thing wasn't quite able to heal around them until the mana in them was removed.

"…I see a weakness," Maestro announced.

"Then tell everyone. Let them all know," Lord Mushy insisted as he felt a little wobbly from the use of the untrained power. He looked down at his hand where a symbol had been carved by Cois.

He had allowed it in a fit of amusement since the goblin was usually so taciturn.

'This is your symbol! See, it looks like a pot wearing a crown!'

"Well done, my boy… you've got a bright future ahead of you," Mushy announced as the Strength Model raised one hand, the powerful fist it made aiming right for Mushy's head.

It spluttered for a moment as the air thickened in the Dungeon.

Mushy chuckled as everything went dark.

"Poor fools… I'm just the greeting man. You haven't even begun to see the true dangers ahead," he warned before he was suddenly in a strange place with white beds and soothing walls.

Nearby, a strange slime wearing a nurse's cap turned to him and gurgled.

"Oh, soup please. Toast is hard to chew with no teeth," he responded, looking around with amazement.

He wasn't sure, but as he watched the slime over the next few hours, it seemed to be growing more demonic and angrier…

Odd.

---

To Delta, these things weren't stars or asteroids, or even worlds.

They were black holes that stank of death. Anything close to them was sucked in and torn apart to fuel the distortions.

What her Mana was doing was valiant, but pointless. They were approaching this the wrong way. Forming out of the massive orange sun, Delta took everything in before looking back for a moment to see a long corona of flame that ran down the star itself, giving the oddest impression of a slitted eye.

One of the black holes was different now. It had rough edges of minerals that spun like a halo around its black spiral. A tough barrier that smashed anything drawn in. That was interesting.

The Strength Model had 'gained' characteristics.

She began to slowly move her hand in a clockwise motion. Her long and slender fingers looked inhuman in this illusion of stars and space. Close to the strength model, a new hole began to appear, a vortex spinning in the opposite direction made of dark orange Mana.

As the two began to clash, Delta caught the thinnest threads of an outside connection to the Robots.

It was too ethereal and gossamer-like for her to touch, but she took note of it as she continued to form dozens of orange vortexes around the invaders, each hole was like someone taking a thumb screw to a different part of her arms, twisting her skin until it was close to tearing.

Delta powered on through the discomfort, this sort of pain was easy to accept compared to the potential agony these things could inflict if they found her guests, , or her core.

Just as she was about to pull back, something very odd happened.

In the distance, a star she had presumed was just background imagery to this whole symbolic scene glowed a deep blue, and wisps of a familiar Mana emerged.

'Pain. I stop pain.' Foodie said with conviction.

The vortexes of orange took on slithers of white particles.

"My god, I'm salty," Delta said as she eyed the entire affair.

She pushed on, trying to understand how Foodie was reaching her from so far away…

---

Muffet had been tested numerous times. Quite often, she was the first lesson of the Dungeon to those who brought might instead of heart.

These interlopers were different, perhaps not in tactics, but the results.

Only one of them stepped forward, cutting the webs and moving in, which triggered her base form. The fight had easily gone her way to start with. It got caught on webs, it struggled to even touch her.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

But as the fight progressed, the robot had changed. It slimmed to an almost hourglass shape, forming a second set of smaller arms, and the webs just slid off its form. It was faster now as well, something about how its legs looked more jointed.

Mother whispered to her, or perhaps Muffet just heard her thinking aloud.

'Speed Model.'

Muffet jumped back as it sliced at her with those razor sharp 'fingers' it had, and one of her legs went flying off.

Most bothersome.

Now her perfectly mastered dance of 'Go leap off a massive cliff and perish from this mortal coil' would have to be adjusted to 'Go and die.'

Most ungraceful.

With a slow exhale, Muffet felt a change overtake her, her back cracking open like a cocoon as her new form rose up, stretching human-limbs. Her beautiful face clicked pincers and moved her radiant eight eyes all around.

She was truly the height of human beauty and spider culture. She raised one hand, feeling power growing around her fingers. With a small smile, she tried a human gesture that could convey one's deepest displeasures.

It felt glorious.

Then, she began to glow and moved like a pale wind.

The Speed Model stared down at its arm that fell off as Muffet shot past, her claws woven metal webs. It landed with a thump, and the robot ignored Muffet entirely to rush to its missing limb. Muffet raced towards it and managed to get it first, scooping it up, but the Speed Model was just behind her, and Muffet twitched as she received a massive cut to her back as she hurled the dismembered arm down the hall at Waddles, who was awake and ready.

He dove into the lake with it, and it ended up on the second floor, where Delta could absorb it.

Muffet turned slowly, and the Speed Model was 'staring' at her as the stump where its arm had been began to bubble with Mana it absorbed, forming a heavily deformed blade in its place. It was a slow process, but Muffet allowed it to happen, allowing mother to witness the process.

The blade was far more fragile than its arm. It also received new Mana far less potently.

Combined with what Lord Mushy had gathered… the plan was simple in theory.

Impale. Rip. Tear.

She raised her hands, and the robot ahead of her shifted slightly, its form becoming blurry, harder to focus on.

Muffet would make it so focused on her, it would be crushed by the next monster it met.

Any good fighter knew that overspecialization was a killer.

Once a pony did it's only trick, what else did you need to see? She moved forward, head low.

The Speed Model became a whirling wind of death, but Muffet?

Muffet took two more arms.

---

The giant statue of a rectangular screen with hands was intriguing, but Yattina felt paralyzed by choice as all around her, doors seemed to wait for her to explore.

"I should go back to the library," she decided, but when she turned, there was a very handsome stone statue of a gargoyle in front of the hall where all the food was.

How did that get there?

"Blergh," Quee muttered as he draped himself on a bench in the massive garden.

"It's so humid with Mana down here, how does anyone survive it?" he complained. That reminded Yattina to check her Mana charm, but she was surprised that it had hardly lost any power. The thing was not a great product, so she had no idea why it hadn't failed on her yet.

"Yattina?" Quee suddenly asked, and his tone was strange.

"Does Fairplay use strange robots in Dungeons?" he asked, and the question was so left-field that she needed a second to process it.

"They shouldn't. The only series we have in that sort of vein is the 'Hellion' models, but while they have a promising success rate from what I read in the reports, not my department you see, I and others brought up issues with their use," Yattina said as she examined the garden with curiosity.

There were a lot of weird gargoyles placed around the room, and in such odd places too.

"Issues?" Alpha questioned with a frown.

"Well, the Hellion series has a problem of evolving using some sort of 'Red-Code' secret material. If they hit some kind of threshold, they sort of tend to go off the rails. It's an issue, but nothing compared to the 'Progressive Tagging' Models designed for Dungeons with over a hundred floors. Those are never going to see the light of day, which is a shame because their ability to analyze things would make my job a lot easier," Yattina huffed as she shook her head.

"Off the rails, as in they explode, or off the rails, as in…" Quee trailed off, and Yattina shot them both confused looks at their intense expressions. Why did they want to know so badly?

"They hit an evolving loop function. Drain everything in the immediate area of mana to fuel the process, and when they run out, they explode with dangerous force," she explained patiently.

Silence was their response, and Yattina tried to assure them with a smile.

"Only an idiot would employ them. They need massive work and a dozen permissions to even be worked on," she promised them.

Still, it wasn't like the He-Ro units or the Pro-Tag ones were the worst. She was obligated not to mention the theoretical designs the company wanted to make.

The Courageous Regent model.

Singular model.

Her stomach twisted, but while she was not under contract not to talk about it since she had no core to be contracted with… they had ways of knowing if one spoke about a project or not.

"What's behind this door?" she announced and threw it open to reveal a massive dark blue skinned demon with burning eyes and an aura that reeked of sulfur and bacon.

They stared at each other.

"Nice eye," the demon grunted.

"Nice beard," was all she could reply with.

The tension was awkward, so Yattina did what any sane person would do.

She got so stressed she caused a spontaneous nosebleed that rocketed out of her nose like a defensive weapon.

There was a long pause.

"We should grab a drink," the demon said, looking impressed.

Not the response Yattina had hoped for, honestly.

---

Delta tried to make sense of the arm she had absorbed, but it was hurting her mind. The core piece inside, the robots themselves, were almost designed to be growing and evolving bombs. There was no logic in place to go 'enough.' They consumed and gorged until they could find no more food.

Getting inside them was growing easier as they continued to adapt. While her Mana was used and torn apart, their make-up was still used as the foundation for the robots' upgrades. It was there she made a horrible discovery.

The shards weren't dead as she first thought. They were akin to an unfortunate person in a vegetative state, unresponsive to any stimuli, except they kept working. What was worse was that she saw how the constant Mana surges were causing the tips of the shard to grow.

These weren't pieces of a Dungeon Core.

These were cuttings.

Like Delta needed anymore provocation to destroy these things.

But there was a silver lining.

These machines were only resistant to her when 'active'. She followed the gossamer thread connection to the He-Ro models outside, where she found dozens more waiting.

Delta held her hand out and closed her eyes.

"Rest," she said with sorrow, and every inactive model had its core shattered. The act of releasing the shards didn't do anything other than put an end to a disgusting existence. If they were alive, sentient, and able to learn as individuals, Delta would have saved them.

These were just broken brain matter stuck on loops with no self to govern it.

Wait… Delta blinked at that thought.

If the Core itself wasn't giving the orders to the He-Ros themselves, what was? She gave them another look, using the Speed Model as her sample as it was the most developed, looking closer to a space hurricane than a black hole now.

In the robot's body, moving around the core, was a weird flat piece of metal. It took a lot of effort, but Delta saw it had been stamped with a symbol.

A sort of 'T' with its left arm cut off. A weird 'r'.

Delta knew that symbol.

It was on her front door.

Gamma.

She tried to examine it, but it had a power not unlike her own to repel and see.

"What are you?" she asked it.

'I am that which is left behind. I am that which is left behind. I am that which is left behind.'

"Are you Gamma?" she yelled, frustrated with all of this.

'I am that which is left behind. I am that which will surpass. I am that which will leave behind.'

"I don't understand," Delta whispered.

'To be discarded, or to discard. A sword cannot change its nature. I am that which is left behind. I am that which will use you to surpass. I am that which was left behind. I am that which was left behind number 255.'

Delta moved her massive symbolic hands together, cracking her knuckles.

"You may not be one of my kids, but I'll educate you all the same," she warned as the air became charged.

"School's in session, and today's lesson is on how badly you done goofed," she added.

'I am that which-'

"-is about to get a butt-whooping. I know, you may be able to replicate a Dungeon and Gamma in one form, but I am Delta… I don't replicate. I break," she said, and her aura began to grow.

'I will upgrade. I will evolve-'

"With CDs?" Delta asked suddenly. It threw the sentient, but not quite alive fragment off.

'CDs? I do not-'

Delta hurled a wave of spinning salty Mana at the robots that ignited the stars all around her.

"CEEDEEZNUTS!"

The war was on.

174: Gone Home

Lim felt like the scary tree lady was going to tear him apart if he wasn't amusing enough.

She was worse than the pig knight who told him to eat more protein or the goblin bar owner who gave him a juice box and told him to 'git' out.

"I don't have time to play with you little pumpkins today," the tree woman called Wyin said with a sigh.

"Why not?" Deo asked curiously, and Lim wanted to shake him a little.

She was going to let them pass without issue! Why was he questioning it?!

"Your faces bother me," Wyin said breezily as she swept a branch across her face with a motion like she was pinching her nose. Deo nodded seriously as if this was a grave problem before he yanked his shirt over his head, obscuring his face, and gave a thumbs up.

"Sorted! We'll get moving!" he said and walked off-course and headed towards a wall. Poppy caught up and guided Deo away towards the exit but not before shooting Wyin a narrowed look that said she didn't believe Wyin's reason at all.

Lim crept along the wall, trying to be smaller than a bug, but Wyin turned to him regardless, stopping him from leaving the room after Deo and Poppy with her branches.

"Advice for you… find new employment before the year is up. I suspect stocks in your company will be sharply 'declining,'" she said with a tone colder than any winter. It was like some divine verdict, but she was just a tree, right?

He gathered what courage he had. Something like his brother might have had if he was here today.

"My loyalty is with Captain Yattina. Where she ends up is where I'll go," he said firmly.

"'Broken Scientist' now comes with a squishy little sidekick?" Wyin mused and then smirked.

"The toy stores will be sold out before the day is up," she said, and Lim grabbed his bow despite being pinned.

"Don't call her that! She's smart and knows a lot of things," he protested. Wyin pulled him close, her giant face making him feel so very small.

"Cling to that fire, because she won't defend herself. Every sun needs a moon," she said, then dropped him as if bored.

"Who's your sun?" Lim retorted, and he was surprised when Wyin went quiet.

"Sad little boy… I was someone's sun once upon a time," she said slowly, then closed her amber-filled eyes.

"Now, where there was a flickering innocence, lies the cold bitter ashes of experience," she said, then nearly threw him out of her room.

Her words haunted him as he quickly chased after Deo and Poppy down to the third floor, feeling the Mana almost becoming far too thick for him.

---

Yggdrasil opened its fleshy bulbous eye as his connection to Beta seemed to stutter and then vanish.

Deep within the trunk of the massive tree, his 'core' engorged itself on the hollow shell of a divine woman. The goddess that once resided here was now worm food for his growing ambitions.

The loss of Beta was not as dire as it seemed. He had seen the girl regenerate from some truly terrible wounds. She would come crawling back soon enough. His flesh inside her form would ensure it.

He shuffled some flesh about, frowning at the tender wound that pathetic little godling had done to him. The Brother was strong, but it was clear, more than ever, that he was waning. How sad it was to see someone with such colossal power be reduced to a cripple. The more he gave, the more he was reduced.

He and his sister would soon be stories he would tell to mock them.

He focused as his 'flock' gathered at the base of the tree, the more ripe of them ready to offer their flesh in the efforts to heal him. Yggdrasil looked down at the dwindling population of the town once called 'Small Joy' that he had renamed to something he found in their collective seeds.

A paradise ruled by a singular god. A strong god.

His garden would be called Eden.

Two men and one woman shuffled forward, their tattered clothes and dirty skin unnoticed by anyone as their flesh shifted and their veins bulged painfully. It was amusing to see them rupture like little fleshy balloons, his flesh returning to him with their power. He gorged on them and allowed his own flesh to be healed by the effort.

He would need to have another 'rare' event where Eden opened its gate for scholars and druids alike to flock to the town to marvel at the World Tree. Such people would find their food laced with Yggdrasil, their water tainted with him, the air they breathed infused with him, and they would become him.

Still, if Beta did not return, the years of effort he put into making his next vessel optimal would have been wasted. Which would be a shame, but Yggdrasil was not one to simply rely on one sad little girl.

He always had a backup.

He made his large central eye bulge and pop loose from his main body, which looked like a giant cocoon covered in eyes. The main eye slithered down the inside of the tree, coming to stop at the base, where a shadowy form inside a pulsing crystal prison could be seen.

"Progress is coming smoothly," Yggdrasil admitted as the form within was about an average human sized adult, but their proportions looked slightly off.

"To think this is what would happen when so many of those seeds were put in one place," he sighed with a contented noise. To think… he had almost killed the Head Priestess of the World Tree when she resisted his influences.

How he almost wasted such a strong seed!

This new vessel would need a new name. Yggdrasil was this form, but he was always evolving…

"Thy name shall be…" he trailed off as the crystal glowed for a moment, revealing a woman with a black tree branded on her chest and long pointed ears, but now she was growing a second set of arms and looked to be opening a third eye on her forehead.

"Zohar."

---

The He-Ro units had split up. Three, including the Strength Model, had gone the way of the Mud Room. Two, one of which was the Agility Model, went through the Store room, hacking down the door with ease.

Delta struggled to both track them and continue her fight in the Symbolic Space. The Gamma cast-offs nailed to Dungeon Cores were adapting to her power, able to weather both her solar system storms of aggressive energy and moving closer.

This wasn't like Mharia or even the Spider-Queen.

This was fighting against corpses who 'remembered' how to fight like her. Pulling back her energy, she narrowed her Mana in the Symbolic space into thin needles, sending them flying forward, piercing two of them, which caused one in Real Space to stumble and fall into the mud as its leg locked up.

She was distracted for a moment as two of the units broke through the secret passage to Maestro's room.

"Cois, get Numb and Billy out of there! They're coming!" she yelled as one of the units launched a disk of cutting energy at her, but Foodie intercepted it with a wash of salt and a battle cry that was more noise than sense.

An arrow sliced across her arm, missing her by inches but leaving her with a cut on her skin. The arrow made of opposing mana burned, making her gasp as pain flared up her arm.

"Biscuits!" she cursed at the attacking unit. She threw a mana wave forward, and it washed through Fran's 'planet,' causing a golden echo of her boss to appear, charge one of the blackholes, and run it down with his lance.

The damage didn't do much, but they didn't adapt to it on this side. That was weird…

"This isn't working. Throwing force at them isn't working," Delta said with a frown.

"Salt them! Salt their crops! Salt their loved ones!" Foodie cried, throwing more mana at them, which didn't amount to much.

"Foodie, I would love to, but I don't think salting them is going to…" she trailed off as an idea hit her.

"This is going to suck," she announced and began to focus on the robots, creating voids of mana which was a lot like sucking on a tooth with a wide cavity, then eating ice-cream. It hurt so much to have these bubbles forming, like taking a spoon to her own flesh, but the robots stuttered for a moment as their performance was halted, forcing them to move much slower.

"Call me bubbles… because you can blow me," she gasped as the He-Ro units had to begin to stockpile what energy they had left for moving and attacking.

The evolved versions had it worse, with the Strength Model barely moving at all.

Delta fell to her knees, and something began popping in her head, like tiny little headaches erupting like zits.

She focused on starving the invaders; if she could just stall them long enough that Maestro and Boary could do some damage they couldn't evolve from… then it would be a win.

She just had to-

Suddenly, the pain flared like a solar burst.

She just had to hold on.

She just had to-

-A little longer! She pushed against the gates as the dark forces on the other side threatened to break out. Where was she? Where was Delta? It didn't matter.

She pushed against the gate with everything she had. She could just sense how strong the echo was on the other side, the thing being empowered by a second echo and that damn lich girl.

"I will not yield! My world is not yours for the taking! My friends are not your toys to be used! Our memories are not yours to abuse!" she screamed and pushed with her rather massive hands on the door, holding it closed.

"Stay away from my-"

"-Family!" Delta screamed, standing up, her aura blazing orange in the symbolic space. The black holes representing the He-Ro units shuddered before Delta rushed forward, sucking all the mana away until it was her pure essence against them.

Her skin felt like peeling, her eyes burned like liquid, her voice felt like glass, but she pushed on.

Five highly developed cores strapped with Gamma parts, programmed by a douchy organization?

Against one school teacher out of her depth?

They should have sent more robots.

---

One of the He-Ro units stared down as its hand melted, because the mushroom grove seemingly caught fire of its own accord and the large beast in the middle was absorbing the flames to grow stronger.

It tried to stand up, but all around it, fuzzy blue creatures rained rocks and spears down on them.

Across the floor, two of the units struggled and jerked as all around them, runes glowed with a fiendish order.

"Reverse Delta, enhanced Wyin, conjoined Cois," a voice rumbled as he planted his staff in the hallway, preventing them from accessing the room beyond. As each rune was named, they flashed white.

"Not here. Not in my house," Cois snarled at the robots as he began to grow haggard-looking from the cost of the runes.

There was a sound like a beeping, and the hallway exploded. Heat and smoke rolled over Cois as he covered his eyes.

---

Delta's aura flickered, and she stumbled as she pushed two of the robots back, forcing them to become void of mana.

---

Boary gored one of the units, causing parts to fly everywhere and the glowing core bound in bent metal to roll across the ground. It landed near the Strength Model unit, who picked the core up as if unable to ignore it.

---

Cois watched as the Agility Model walked out of the smoke holding the core of the destroyed unit at its side.

"Oh, you little rust buckets," he said as it pressed the core to its chest and it sunk into its metal torso. There was a flash, and Cois closed his eyes.

Cois will respawn in two hours.

Boary will respawn in five hours.

---

Delta rolled back, landing in a heap as the surface of her hands burned with a sickly green mana.

"Delta!" Foodie said, and she struggled to sit up for a moment, every inch of her in painShe had to release the void bubbles for a moment as it felt like it was going to kill her.

"Foodie, run. Go back to your Dungeon," she told the younger core without hesitation.

"No! United! Network! Food Network!" he protested. Something shot towards Foodie's distracted back, and Delta thrust her hand forward, a dome of orange flickering into existence before it was smashed with more dark green mana.

She clutched Foodie close to her, his tiny little white self like a puff of smoke. They rolled hard and Delta nearly blacked out, but forced herself to get up on one knee.

"Their mana burns. It hurts us so badly," she whispered and stood up.

"But I won't let them hurt you!" she said, eyes narrowed as her arms ignited in burning orange mana. The two new forms were no longer blackholes, but something closer to if a skeleton and a spaceship had been fused together. It moved, but it was unnatural.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

All around them was a thick green aura that burned all it touched. Their fields didn't overlap because the Agility and Strength Model weren't together in the actual Dungeon, but if they met up…

But that was when she noticed something.

The Gamma fragments looked a little malformed now, as if the green mana was warping them as well. They were going to melt their own command system if they kept fusing.

They'd be an inert tool of destruction without a driver if all five were one, Delta was absolutely sure of it. If there was no 'consciousness'? No Gamma fragments left.

It was just an object.

Just a thing.

And things were just snacks to Delta.

The issue was she could either focus on nullifying their Mana absorption or being a fighter that drove them to fuse.

She couldn't do both.

One of the fused cores began to fire again, but as Delta stood up, she buckled and fell back to her knees in exhaustion.

That was when a giant blue hand smashed into it, sending it stumbling away.

"Do not touch my Dungeon Core," Nu said in such a low tone that the dark matter of the Symbolic Space vibrated.

The things began to power their mana in the form of a threat, and Nu scoffed.

"I will not yield. Our home is not yours for the taking! Our people are not toys for you to play with! Our peace is not something for you to abuse!" he snarled and raised his hands, causing extremely detailed mana swords made of blue energy streaked with orange to appear.

"I am the Mana Enchanted Notification Utility, and I'm here to notify you that you are already dead," he said and vanished, taking the fight to the two fused cores and single unfused one.

"Foodie! Back him up!" Delta ordered and focused on slowly cutting off their mana intake with much more gentle void bubbles.

---

"Usually, it's 'divide and conquer,' but we hear you, mother… we shall force these miserable piles of secrets to become one," Maestro warned as the Agility Unit entered his room, looking like a spider now with tentacles for legs and heat-proof armor.

"Target. Acquired." it intoned, and Maestro rose into the air, the vines connecting to the Dungeon pulling him close to the ceiling.

"The song for this battle?" Maestro inquired, then his singular eye blazed red as he faded into the shadows, becoming an undefined mass of vines and noise.

"A funeral dirge."

---

Fera put down the rag she was using to clean an already impeccably clean mug. Her pub door was beginning to splinter as something rushed at it. She picked up a bottle off a shelf and poured it into two shot glasses.

"For you, Cois. No one messes with my boys," she said and downed both of them in rapid succession, her nostrils blowing out steam. Her door shattered, and she reached under the counter, grabbing the boomstick from its hiding space as she cocked it.

"I wonder if I can make a new spirit out of a machine?" she asked, voice feral.

A large metal hand punched its way through the door's remains, and she fired, sending sparks of flame roaring into existence.

The monstrous figure beyond was bulky and tough looking, but it had oddly placed sections of heat-proof armor that overlapped badly with the protective weave.

Fera leapt over the counter, kicking up a table which flew at the creature hard. She didn't wait for it to hit as she slammed a bottle of booze into the oddly shaped hole on her weapon, causing the crystal-ladened handle to shift from red to green.

When she next fired, it was with a hurricane of wind that howled and expanded the lingering flames on the machine's body. The He-Ro unit stumbled back two steps, and Fera began to scream as she fired again and again.

"Get out of my pub!" she roared.

She would either blow this thing to pieces or make sure it learned to fear goblins.

---

The Agility He-Ro dodged along the stone Pyramid as vines erupted out the ground, breaking stone as all around it, mushrooms grew with open maws, blasting sonic screams at it.

"Dance! Dance! Die!" Maestro commanded from above in the air.

"With music, I have wings and the power to fly!" he intoned as the harsh drawn out trumpet slammed into the robot over and over, not having too much effect, it seemed. Maestro soared around the room, pointing his cane at the intruder and causing vines to rush it with crushing intent.

"How do you think this will end?" he called to the soulless thing. He knew there was no point, but the fact it had no soul didn't negate the fact that Maestro was overflowing with it! He twirled his cane, and the mushroom choir appeared across the wall, shooting balls of mana which crossed the arena, causing only one side of the pyramid to be safe, which the mech barely made it to.

It was getting faster…

"You sprung my trap card!" he cried, and the 'safe' side of the pyramid suddenly exploded with dozens of vines. From its back, two sharp blades formed, taking up some of its precious armored sections, and it began to cut the vines before they got close.

"Grow! Evolve! Become a god if you desire! I will feast on your corpse with song and dance all the same!" Maestro roared, his eye blazing.

"You can be a shining star, but I am the abyss that sings. You see me… and the abyss sees you," Maestro warned as he slammed his cane into the wall, causing the entire room to expand, letting the 'between floor' space become visible.

The thrumming orange sea would drive weaker men mad.

The mech stared down at the very 'bottom' of the void; a massive dragon on a throne wearing a skull looked up with a dark promise.

"Dance well, royalty is watching!" Maestro
announced grandly.

He raised his cane, and from his back, vines began to disconnect.

"These were support vines," Maestro said calmly, then snapped his glare to the mech as it rushed at him.

"But not for me!"

He blurred and slammed his cane into the mech, bashing it hard before kicking it across the space.

"The floors will have to endure without their star for a time. For the first time since I came on air, Maestro's Magnificent Show will be taking a short break to deal with some bugs," Maestro said darkly.

All around them, the room rotated and spun, pieces of the wall moving in and out of the between with jarring distortions.

The music was now echoing and seemingly coming from every inch of the space.

"Let's go… dirty brother killer," Maestro intoned, and the two charged at each other.

---

Yattina looked at the orange water with a sigh.

She wasn't sure if she could drink it. Something inside her knew it would be a point of no return if she did.

She hesitantly scooped some out with a borrowed goblet and let her fingers dip into the stuff. It made her skin tingle, like a kiss of sunlight.

She slowly put the goblet in the well and brought it out near full. Shaking a little, she brought it near her lips, and the smell was like fresh apple pie.

The garden felt quiet without the music as Yattina held the goblet a little longer.

---

Lim pushed through the massive feast hall, losing Poppy as she diverted to some library, and Deo easily kept pace with him.

Just as he went to open the massive double doors, a brilliant orange light seeped and bled through the gaps in the door, blinding Lim as the floor shook, making him stumble back.

–

Yattina remembered being in the large garden, then she was somewhere else.

Yattina looked around the odd classroom. It looked nothing like any educational place she had been in before. Everything looked clean and warm, with maps of a strange landmass, posters of theoretical scientific ideas, and even desks with equal standing. The floor was made of a strange smooth substance, and the board at the front wasn't black with chalk but a white one with ink lines.

The sun was setting through the windows, and Yattina paused as a see-through ghost of sorts was sitting at the head desk, marking papers and trying to look upbeat.

Only three of her seats were filled with students.

"They're not coming," the girl said with anger designed to cover up heartache.

"Betty, your parents might just have misread the time or got held back in traffic," she soothed, and the girl shook her head.

"And I'm the president, Miss D. They're not coming. No one ever comes for me," she snapped and stood up to stalk out the room.

"She's not wrong. Our parents won't come. My brother is the favorite, and Betty's parents just don't care," one of the boys said in a factual tone that felt… extremely familiar.

"Adam!" the teacher said with a sigh.

"My 'parent' is here," someone said with a snort. Yattina turned her head and saw a void in the memory, a void clawing at her skin, eyes, mind, and soul. A maw of teeth and screams.

She looked away, heart beating hard.

"I'm your sister, not your mother, and I offered to let you switch classes," Miss D mumbled.

"Nah, it's great having at-home-help when the homework sucks," the void teased.

"One day, I'll be stuck in some basement working with other kids, and you'll have to handle your own stuff," she warned.

"One day," the void snorted.

"Oh come on, who doesn't have parent issues here?" the last kid asked, and he looked weedy, like he was stuck between growth spurts. He was building some sort of weapon out of connecting pen tips.

"Gerald-" Miss D began, and the boy looked at her with a suddenly sad expression.

"It's just us here, Miss D, come on," he almost pleaded.

"Sorry, I was doing my best to think of your given name in case your father showed up," Miss D said with an apologetic tone.

"Gemma, don't you dare hit Adam with that pen sword," she said, and the boy grinned, looking pleased as he undid his hair from a tight ponytail.

"But he's so fun! He just shuts down and takes it!" the boy known as Gemma said with a smile as he poked Adam, who looked stone-faced.

Yattina was drawn into the scene because it was something she had always wanted for herself. A place where her oddness might have been accepted by someone other than her sister. She looked down and found herself shrunken, as if she was a young teen once more.

The teacher looked at her, features almost unseeable.

"Ah, Yattina, come join us! We'd be happy to have you," she said brightly, and one of the desks lit up.

It had her name on it.

Yattina reached for it. The wooden chair was warm. It felt like home.

---

"Yattina!" Lim said in panic as his captain laid on the ground foaming orange-looking bubbles out her mouth.

"It's fine! I also drank it!" Deo assured him as Yattina's body twitched and seemed to be feeling weirdly mana-potent when her fake eye suddenly glowed orange and shifted to a deep hue. The eye was engraved with the odd triangle on the Dungeon's entrance.

Yattina started, and she stared up at the ceiling as the whole Dungeon seemed to shake violently.

"Captain!" Lim said, sweating as the mana was starting to get to him. She turned to him, orange foam still on her chin and with a wild look in her normal eye.

"Wefe," she said with a raspy tone.

"Wefe?" he echoed.

"Global! Globe! Planetary wide communication signals! A round world!" she said, grabbing his arms.

"What are those for?!" Lim said in panic as Deo smiled at their 'friendship.'

"CAT PICTURES!"

There was a slight pause before she got an even crazier glint in her eyes.

"And degeneracy! So much degeneracy!" she hissed.

Lim was too confused to argue, and he nearly screamed when a Kobold appeared out of some bushes.

"Did someone say degeneracy? All hail the mighty Pip?" he said seriously.

The Dungeon shook again, and the Kobold shook his head.

"No time to waste. We need to sneak you all out of Quee's tunnel ASAP," he said, and Yattina looked skywards.

"Bands of mana, weaving. The floors are connected, but spaced apart, a tiny space contained far away, relative in dimensions," she muttered, her eye glowing.

"A mushroom that appeared over despair, growing light… corpses come plucking at her heartstrings," Yattina mumbled and then promptly passed out as her body trembled and shuddered.

"I like her poetry," Deo offered.

Lim felt he needed a stiff juice box.

175: We have the Technology.

Delta watched as Maestro and Fera pushed the He-Ro bots harder than before, Maestro pulling a double duty of fighting and protecting Numb and Billy’s cocoons of evolution. In the back of her mind, Nu continued the fight against them in the Symbolic Space, using more devious tactics than Delta had used.

The Agility He-Ro nearly crushed the glowing cocoons despite Maestro turning the room into a literal storm of blazing bullets and vines.

“No!” Delta cried out as the robot raised one of its spider-like legs to stomp down.

In a blink, the two glowing eggs were yanked out of range as Mharia held one in each hand with a scowl.

“Metal men… what happened to good old flesh and blood?” she complained.

“Take them down to the next floor. Hide them behind the waterfall,” Delta told her quickly, and Mharia began to move.

“You sure? These are first floor monsters. Not sure what might happen if they get more Mana mid-evolution,” she said, and Delta didn’t hesitate to nod.

“Better odd than dead,” she said firmly.

“This Dungeon in a nutshell,” Mharia sighed and took off, the He-Ro about to jump at her when Maestro intercepted it with his cane, their bodies locked in a struggle.

“A true performer is willing to break a leg,” Maestro warned, and all the mushroom turrets in the room turned to their locked bodies, beginning to fire bullets.

“Maestro!” Delta reached out, but the bullets thundered into the center of the room impacting both Maestro and the He-Ro unit. The barrage didn’t stop until a few seconds later when smoke and dust slowly bloomed outwards like a decaying flower.

“You think this will stop me? The proud bard of the Delta Dungeon?” Maestro called, and the smoke was whipped away as the mushrooms around the room began to twang in notes similar to a stringed instrument.

It was a continuous chord intermixed with two heavy thrums.

Maestro looked wrecked, his suit in burning pieces and one arm gone, and the He-Ro Unit looked thicker in places, producing a near constant whistle that made the air around it ripple.

“It isn’t over until the robot screams!” Maestro declared and buried his cane into the head of the He-Ro unit, causing it to pierce clean through.

---

Fera looked around her ruined tavern, mentally taking note of which liquors would need to be replaced. She and the robot had both grown a few inches, but the robot was still the taller beast.

She had used all her ammo, her mixtures, and even experimented with a few drinks, but she had to admit the robot could hold its drink. She slowly pulled herself out of the wrecked bar as the Strength Unit emerged from a wall, pushing wooden beams out of the way.

The only true change the robot had undergone so far was the massive golden mane of hair it had grown when Fera dunked a Delta Surprise drink over its head.

Unlike Fran, this hair was clearly held together by dreams and hairclips.

“You’re a cold one,” Fera admitted as she rubbed her lips with the back of her hand. The robot only moved closer.

“But you see, unlike you, I don’t have ice for blood,” she spat and held her hand out. Outside the bar, the third unchanged unit watched the fight without getting involved.

Cocky tin can.

She opened her hand to reveal a red crystal.

“I have fire,” she said and crushed the gem, causing a tiny spark of fire to ignite. All across her bar, smashed bottles glinted as their contents spread across the floor in such volume that they formed a thin waterline across the entire bar.

Fera closed her eyes as for the second time in so many days, her bar exploded

Fran better give them hell, or she would bar him for a week.

---

Maestro watched as his cane cracked, huffing to himself in dark amusement.

“I guess you don’t want to join my fanclub?” he joked, and the cane shattered.

His own form followed suit not long after.

---

Fera has been defeated.
Maestro has been defeated.

Danger level 7: No loot. No rewards. No retreat.

---

Yattina was rubbing the grass all around her as she scurried about like an insect.

“Binding. Bonding. Interlinked mana of base existence,” she exclaimed. Lim tried to shift her, but she was so lost in her new sight that she couldn’t be moved.

Someone stepped in front of her, and she looked up slowly at the long muscled legs of a Guardgoyle. The muscle continued until she was staring blank-faced. In one eye, he looked like a stoic man-monster with wings, but to the other eye, her new eye… he was a glowing angel of beautifully constructed life.

Thriving, singing, humming life. Tears sprung to her eyes as the angel bent down to be eye level with her.

There was no spark or attraction, but Yattina wept all the same as if she had seen a piece of artwork or heard a passionate sonnet.

“Don’t crush the grass,” he intoned, and Yattina blinked.

“I… what?” she spluttered.

“Everything is Delta. Crush the grass, you crush Delta. Don’t,” he explained.

“Eye see…” she said, and Lim gaped at her.

“What?” she asked, feeling self-conscious.

“W-We should go,” he said, and they turned to see Deo emerging from the feast hall with Poppy in tow. The girl looked annoyed to be disturbed, but since it was Deo, she didn’t say anything clearly.

Just as they were about to speak, the entire Dungeon shook so violently that Yattina was thrown on her rear and Lim nearly went head first into the well, only saved by the Guardgoyle at the last moment.

From the connecting kitchen, a spout of fire raged out, burning a perfect semi-circle in front of the door.

“What in the world?” Yattina grunted as she stood up. The entire Dungeon’s system was going crazy. Turbulent flashes of orange intermingled with flares of deep blue raged like a sea.

The Guardgoyle was also looking at the same thing when he spoke.

“Dark things this way come. You all need to leave as fast as possible before they reach the second floor,” he warned.

What dark things?

Yattina didn’t feel right about this at all, especially those strange voids in the mana sea.

Like deep hungry nightmares that moved ever closer.

---

Delta wished she could do more, but watching Fran emerge from his side of the boss arena as Captain Fran the Defender instead of his base form was… chilling. It turned out his base form had a cap of strength because his only way to become stronger to threats was to transform entirely.

Exponential strength that never ran out was still a bit beyond Delta at the moment.

The Agility and Strength units were trailed by the lone third unevolved unit. The Strength Unit looked to be radiating heat, leaving scorch marks as it walked, and the Agility unit had forgone a head entirely, becoming a round torso with just legs and swords that buzzed harshly.

“What words could I say to such twisted designs?” Fran rumbled, his tall ogre-like body rippling with power.

“Don’t try. I’ve looked into their hearts. There’s only pain,” Delta said, hands clenched.

“Then I shall save them from this existence or perish trying,” Fran roared, Bacon, his steed, charging at a moment’s notice.

The clash between Fran and the He-Ro units sent sand flying everywhere. The Strength Unit was clearly having an easier time than the Agility unit. One of Fran’s massive lances lifted and flung the Agility unit across the boss room, where it landed on the wall and scuttled along like a nightmarish spider, circling around Fran.

The Strength Unit tried to grapple both lances in an effort to keep Fran pinned, but the massive goblin yelled, veins pulsing in his bare neck, as he lifted and then slammed the Strength Unit down with a bigger explosion of sand.

The Agility Unit moved to the exit door, and Delta blinked as it began to employ something similar to Maestro’s sonic blasts, breaking the door down as the Strength Unit and Fran tussled.

Fran managed to aim one of his lances and hurled it with all his might, the air rippling outwards in a harsh boom of sound as the lance flew forth. Delta winced as the Agility Unit jumped away and the lance cracked the door off its hinge.

Fran hadn’t had the time to come to grips with this form’s power…

The Agility Unit was gone before Fran could throw his other lance. The Strength Unit didn’t seem interested in leaving as it charged Fran, its feet shifting to something that almost ‘glided’ through the sandy ground.

The unevolved unit followed the Agility Unit at a much slower pace, almost casually walking through the ruined door.

The two powerful titans clashed once more, metal against infuriated pig flesh and goblin spite.

---

Vanguard the word Guardgoyle stopped before the steps of the third floor, back to the second, as if hearing something. Yattina frowned, but she could ‘see’ two of the dark sucking holes in the mana sea move closer.

“We might not make it to the circus in time,” he admitted, and Lim tensed up.

“What is going on?” Deo asked, all smiles put aside for a serious frown now.

Vanguard was quiet, and Yattina had the strangest feeling he was hesitating because of her.

“Fairplay has sent in robotic units called He-Ros,” he said, his wings covering him like a heavy cloak that obscured some but not all of the tension in his shoulders.

“No,” Yattina said instantly. She wasn’t exactly calling the monster a liar, but the idea that such things had been let loose in a Dungeon with fewer than 10 floors, fewer than 5 even, was ludicrous. Foolish.

Terrifying.

She moved before anyone could catch her. She rushed up the stairs, her heart beating as she ran past the near-still tree that was Wyin.

“Rushing to your death will accomplish nothing,” Wyin said with a low tone that made Yattina stop for a moment.

“They’re made to not harm people! I can stop them, stop this stupid madness,” she growled back and rushed out of the boss room, knowing fully well that Wyin could have stopped her.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The beautiful and warm jungle she had traveled through before had utterly changed. The sun had dipped, and the bird songs had stopped. In the distance, a near constant buzz droned all around the jungle.

Yattina didn’t know where the stairs to the second floor were since she had used the secondary Dungeon entrance.

In the far distance, a noise like a low groan blared out, and a tree exploded.

Something grabbed her hand, and she turned in surprise to see one of those interesting frog creatures from before that she hadn’t had the pleasure to personally inspect. This one looked odd, all garbed in dark cloth, and even their head was obscured by a strange white woman’s face that looked demonic with teeth like fangs.

“Who are you?” Yattina asked, and the assassin-looking frog tilted its head.

“The shadow on the moon,” it intoned, voice too flat to give any hints of feminine or masculine traits.

“Listen, I need to get close to the units. I need to shut them down,” she insisted, and the assassin seemed to think it over.

“It’s too dangerous,” it decided, and Yattina smacked its arm in frustration.

“You don’t understand. If it keeps adapting, keeps feeding, it will explode!” she yelled into the far too quiet jungle.

“I…” the shadowy frog hesitated.

“I can shut them down. I have the authority!” she pleaded. In the distance, Lim’s voice called to her, and she felt bad leaving him behind, but he was safer back with his friends.

Then Yattina was moving, her vision showing the frog was moving them through vents of… steam?

Scented steam with a hint of lavender, rose, and tragic backstory.

They arrived shortly at a part of the jungle that Yattina hadn’t seen on her tour. A long bridge of sorts where a battle of chaotic proportions was taking place.

Three frogs were fighting off a heavily mutated He-Ro unit. The sight of the machine made Yattina ill, mostly from what her new eye was showing her and the fact that these things had been used at all in a group.

To her eye, the He-Ro unit was a bundle of energy-like flesh strapped around a singing piece of metal. The song was not of love or purpose, but the insane screeching of something that had lost grip of reality long ago.

The largest of the frogs swiped at the far too fast machine with a large staff, making cleaving attacks that left chips in the bridge. The second frog was a much older one that was both commanding the other two and performing frankly impressive martials arts for its given age.

The last frog was the most visually interesting. A cloak-covered frog that was holding a hand up, conjuring forth things that were of the Dungeon but not. They looked like shooting green wisps that emerged from the trees and grass with stout arms and round heads.

When the He-ro unit wandered too close, the frog made a heavy slashing motion with her hand, and the spirits stormed around her like a funnel. The unit clearly didn’t ‘like’ the things as it outright avoided them at all costs.

Yattina stumbled forward, her body being rocked left and right as the battle raged on the big bridge.

She watched as the He-ro unit came within inches of beheading the giant, and she threw her hand out.

“On the authority of Fairplay!” she screamed, pouring every bit of her outrage into her voice.

“I, Captain Yattina of rank two, demand you cease operations!” she said, and her voice carried across the jungle, stilling the sounds of a waterfall, deafening the bees, and ceasing all wind.

The spider-like robot shuddered slowly to a crawl, then jerkily twitched its arms. It turned to her slowly.

“Ack…Acknowledgement. This u-unit is shutting doooo…” it droned and folded in on itself. There was a few seconds before Yattina let out a shuddering sigh.

She wasn’t sure if that was actually going to work! Yattina moved closer to see that the thing had no head anymore and looked like a demented spider. She was going to have words with whoever unleashed these things when she got back to the surface.

There came an odd sound like air hissing, and the undefended body of the unit bent, then exploded outwards as its core was grasped in a clawed hand extended by a steel cord. Yattina saw it pull back in, face frowning in confusion.

Why was the claw red?

She looked down to see that where her stomach should be, there was now a sort of hole where the claw had also tried to yank on her too.

She stumbled back and could barely watch as an unseen He-Ro unit stepped out of the shadows of the far end of the bridge. Right… she had been singular when commanding. She had told the destroyed unit to shut down.

She hadn’t said she wanted all units to shut down. How stupid of her. A rookie mistake.

She was bleeding out, and all Yattina could think about was how pretty the sky was.

What a lovely place to die.

---

Deep inside Yattina’s body, a secondary battle of sorts was occurring. Orange motes banged on bones to demand an increase of red blood cells to account for the loss occurring. The bone marrow didn’t respond, as it was bone marrow.

This annoyed the mana greatly.

There were only two things this mana collective despised.

Gazebos and lazy bone marrow.

It had a moment to think to itself. A body was just a dungeon that… moved, right? A body really was just a dungeon that took food in and produced stuff that other people wanted.

So, if it just ‘pretended’ this human body was a Dungeon…

It stuffed some mana into the bones and demanded red blood cells.

It got… reddish orange brownish ones. That wasn’t quite right, but as the mana went to work, the ALPHA system kicked in and began to assign the excess mana to abilities to prevent mana poisoning.

Lungs? It could do better. Now she could hold her breath much longer! The mana looked at her muscles and just nudged them to be far more compact. A mix of oxygen and mana would skip that pesky mortal limit.

Oh, while it was here, it could turn her liver into a proto-steel!

It reached her brain and found there was zero drive to reproduce or seek fleshy pleasures. The mana saw no defect and moved on. And at last! The Delta Seed replacement! One of the few things in this body that was a work of art!

It just hooked the body up with maybe twice the average connectors than most people might have for their seeds.

It wasn’t cheating. It was min-maxing.

Now, it would work on the anti-gazebo weaponry…

---

Devina reached down, using her magic to heal the deep wound in the human. She was reacting to it much better than Devina thought she would.

She winced as Giant was flung back by the new form, the transformed He-ro unit that had devoured its kin. It had only gained some of its spider-like features, but it retained its head.

“Adapted. Tainted captain weakness. Removed. Command unit in place.” it said with a harsh metallic tone.

“W-w-w-w-weakness removed. Core stability at 35%… error, cannot adapt.” it rambled as it moved forward.

It pointed its hand at Devina as it formed something like a sonic blaster.

“Goal remains. Reach core. Damage core. Return. Strength Unit will return to side soon. We will become one.” it said, and Devina raised up a spirit barrier to protect her, Giant, and Gramps.

The elder frog grimaced as the shield was torn apart a moment later.

“Damage? Why?” Devina demanded, rage in her voice at the idea.

“That is the mission,” it rumbled.

“That explains nothing! What logic do you have for doing this?” Devina asked, hoping to confuse it.

“I exist to serve. I serve. I have a purpose. I am a tool of the god- error. Tool of Fairplay. I am their weapon.” it said as it charged its cannon once more.

Devina covered the human with her body, hoping to at least save her.

“NOT TODAY!” came the sounds of a furious river and power. Devina looked up to see Rale with his fist out, diverting the sound waves with his… muscles?

What a glorious sight. Devina wouldn’t mind nearly dying so much if this happened…

“New threat. You are but one. I will win,” the robot declared as it stomped closer. Rale rubbed his nose with his fingers before he twirled his trident.

“You see one, but I see Bob,” he countered.

“…Error. Element ‘Bob’ not recognized,” it said then a moment later the entire bridge erupted upwards as Bob, the giant worm, swallowed the robot whole.

“Devina, get the guppy somewhere safe. Me and Bob can’t hold back here,” he said as he turned back to the others.

Devina began to shake her head.

“It’s powerful, I fear that-” she began, but he grinned, and her heart skipped a beat.

“Don’t fear, for I will always be here,” he said, and the sun shone down on him, making him almost glow.

“I’ll be back once the human is safe. Do not dare perish on me, or I’ll be beyond upset,” she warned and helped Giant to his feet and let Gramps take the human.

“Hurry back… I can slow it down, but you have the power to truly defeat it, I can feel it,” he said, and Devina moved as she saw Luna setting traps to slow the robot down if it got past Rale.

---

Unseen by the frogs, a form stepped out of the shadows to watch the battle with a tilted head.

Renny made motions of taking off invisible gloves and rolled his neck.

Surely the lord of the rivers wouldn’t mind the Ringmaster taking a shot? There was something delicious inside that robot that Renny simply had to sample.

A sort of in between life and death energy that made his toes curl.

It would be his little ‘midnight snack.’

176: A Little Overkill

What bothersome bugs.

Nu was akin to a demi-god in this symbolic space, but these vermin were tenacious. He watched as the small one absorbed a larger one and became ‘more.’ It was hard to define exactly what he was seeing. Before, they had been black holes of sorts, some with texture, others with hums.

This new one was physical in a way that allowed it to push back against Nu and the Dungeon Mana. The so-called ‘Command’ unit was a greater sum of its parts, and yet…

Nu watched it raise its own mana to attack and great cracks ran along its limbs and being, healing only to rip open anew seconds later. Storms of chaotic loose energy streamed out of its barely contained core, threatening to detonate not only just its own mana but any Dungeon mana it came into contact with.

Nu would have just offered to kick the thing out of the Dungeon with some super bosses and close the door, letting Fairplay handle their toys, but Delta would get upset because ‘Durence was in that direction’ or something.

Stupid village with a stupid name.

Nu held out a hand, and a massive buzzing blade made of stone and demonic bat-like features formed. The Guard Blade was not the most elegant of weapons, but what it lacked in subtlety…

Nu swung it, and there was a scream of displaced mana as pure force slammed into the Command Unit. It stumbled back, letting Rale and Bob in the physical world drag it off course a little more before Nu could ‘see’ it cutting its way free of Bob, causing immense pain to the creature in the process.

The Abyss Worm simply healed the damage up, and Nu knew that Bob’s kind was similarly adaptive since they lived in the between and unseen. Normal weapons worked far better on Bob than the esoteric.

Still, the worm was young, so it was best not to push his regeneration. According to Bob’s creature file that Delta never got around to reading.

Bob could easily become an Abyss Hydra, a Nightmare Wyrm, or a Nightmare Crawler depending on the types of damage he suffered.

Pushing forward, Nu tried to bury the sword in the Command Unit’s Symbolic self, and the tip left a nasty scrape before snapping off due to the pressure.

He really needed to get upgrades for the Guardgoyles.

Jumping back as he was nearly cut with the dark blade of the unit, Nu felt around for another ‘inspiration’ in the Symbolic Space.

Anything in the Dungeon could become a tool in this ‘state.’ The goblins could become protective leathers or crude tools, the spiders forming into traps or nets, and so on.

The Guardgoyles formed a long sword of stone that did immense physical damage. This was how Dungeons did fights. Their creations added to their arsenal, and the more diverse or creative the Dungeon’s toolset, the more likely they won and devoured the other.

Feeling risky, he tried to feel for the Death Star Dragon that Delta just happened to cook up without effort. He only got the idea of some massive greatsword before it fizzled away in his hands. He clenched them.

He was still too weak.

A helper. Not a Dungeon.

Nu’s vision swam as the Command Unit ran through his side with its blade, causing hot lances of pain to shoot up his body.

“Is that it? Delta’s puns hurt more,” he snarled, grabbed the blade with both hands and lifted, pivoting the machine overhead and slamming it hard into the ‘ground’ behind him.

He stumbled back trying to contain the flowing motes of blue leaking out of his wound.

“Just like her, no respect for tradition or rules,” he spat and held out a hand.

“I can break rules too,” he snapped at the machine as it turned slowly to face him. Dozens of little screaming tribal mushroom men ran forward, coated in Troll soup like war paint.

“RIP AND TEAR! SOAK AND SEEP!” Nu roared.

The battle waged on.

---

Delta bent over Yattina, her stomach tight as the woman squirmed in pain. Nurse Heallagon danced around her, gently applying many of Doctor’s remedies. The Guardgoyle recently returned with Nu before the menu showed up to help Delta. He was excitedly exclaiming about ‘nature and its bounty.’

“Can’t we just have a nice thing without trouble following?” she asked quietly, and around her, her defeated monsters shifted uncomfortably.

“Mother…” Cois asked slowly, and Delta looked up with a blink.

“How will you contain the explosion? Those machines… ” he trailed off, and Delta could see visible concern of the others about the same question. She put on her best smile that she could manage.

“I’m going to beat it to a pulp, then make Jellagon push it down to the fourth floor and let it explode,” she summed up. There was a long thick silence before almost everyone present began to protest and refuse.

“If it merges together and erodes Gamma’s pieces inside, I can eat the explosion, but I can’t risk it going off on the other floors,” Delta said, speaking with a clear and calm voice.

“We can respawn,” Cois said, trying to get off the bed despite being nothing more than a sort of hologram to pass the time until his respawn.

“Not if the explosions take out all your respawn bases,” Delta said quietly.

“We are replaceable. But features of your story,” Lord Mushy said, his tone soft and gentle. Delta looked right at him as Maestro remained in a light slumber nearby.

She, for a moment, didn’t see them as they currently were, but watched as they shrunk to become small little stubby acid spitting mushroom turrets, gently comforting one another.

There should have been a third sibling, but Delta had lost that Mushroom Spitter long before she got her feet under her.

“Not to me. None of you are ‘replaceable,’” she said, standing up as she watched Alpha guard the door to the infirmary with a more scared Lim.

“If you die, we all die,” Fera pointed out, but she didn’t seem to be arguing, just asking if Delta was sure.

Delta shot her a smile, and this seemed to confuse the goblin.

“Not exactly. I’m only 80% of the Dungeon Core these days. Pretty sure that if it all goes wrong, Nu can take over,” she said, and there was a pained silence in the room.

“Hurray,” Fera grumbled.

“Nu is keen on the job,” Delta said, trying not to preen at the preference her monsters had. It was hard not to enjoy being the favorite.

“He’s a sign nut,” Cois said flatly.

Muffet made pained motions that looked like the dance of ‘The Spirit of his Joy does not Diminish his Devotion to Manically Laughing.’

“Nu has seen me work; I bet he could continue my work if anything bad happens,” Delta tried to defend her friend’s honor.

Heallagon gurgled, and Delta covered her mouth in shock as Fera let out a cackle.

Maybe… maybe she would just try not to die. It seemed the best for everyone involved.

She looked back down at Yattina, feeling close to the woman and a little responsible now that she was in Delta’s care.

She was looking less pale, and Delta was relieved to know she would survive. She sent a mental prayer to the woman that she would wake up feeling better than ever.

---

Rale was not one for waxing poetics nor grandstanding, but he was rather keen on destroying anything that would threaten his jungle.

It irked him that no matter how he conjured the full river’s might, nor how Bob slammed the machine again and again, it simply shrugged them off, leaking a truly enormous amount of energy.

There was a thunderous boom from above, and Rale could feel the disappearing essence of Lord Fran and the nearly destroyed machine he left in his wake.

“Strength Unit will return to my side. We will become as one. We will become as one.” the Command Unit insisted.

“And as one, you will die,” Rale said, slamming the butt of his trident into the ground, causing water to leak from the cracks of the mud.

“Death is for the living,” the unit said in an almost macabre amused tone that sounded more like a boy than a machine.

“The living may rot, but cold steel will rust. None can escape death,” Rale huffed.

Instead, one had to be extremely buff so they could impress death with their bulging biceps! There was a thump nearby, and Rale tensed, ready to spear the other machine if it drew closer, but he stared as the dark visage of Renny appeared, holding a dented core with a flickering light.

“Strength Unit… even damaged should have been enough to overpower you.” Command Unit said to the ghoul. The ghoul covered his fake mouth with a hand and giggled silently.

“Renny, my showman, watch out!” Rale cried as the Command Unit tried to spear the core to itself, but Renny moved like a wraith, dancing over the river and between trees akin to a phantom. It bowed and taunted the Command Unit to chase it.

Rale used the river to form walls and obstacles to slow down the Command Unit, which had taken on a near frenzied attitude in getting the other core to itself.

“To the Queen of Thorns!” Rale yelled to the fleeting form as he allowed Bob to grab him and give chase.

He had a feeling that Devina would be in the boss room.

If Wyin was the sword of the Jungle, Devina was the magic.

---

It had lost sight of the Soul Eater. The Command Unit worked forward, smacking bees that attacked it. More than a few did not get up after its attack.

Their stingers were ineffective-

‘Woah, a bee stinger glove! Gamma, that’s so cool!’

-they were never good enough. The trident of the frog was not strong enough-

‘I changed my mind. You’re not going anywhere until we reunite all the Shattered islands; this Trident will be my symbol!’

-never enough.

How many terrible memories had the original removed? Shunted them off into weapons and discarded them?

How dare he keep the good times to himself. How dare that carefree idiot hoard their memories!

HOW DA-

‘Core Stability at 23%’

Short Access Memory purged. Prediction of memories returning? 100%

It focused on a massive tree ahead with a gate under it. If it obtained the other core of the Strength Unit, it could utterly purge the Gamma. It could stop being. It stepped into a room full of mist and power. Its mana sensors were going crazy as it looked around. From the mist, a figure slowly moved forward, and the Command Unit went to attack but stared down at where its arm had been torn off. It didn’t understand how or why.

It looked up to the figure who looked like a beautiful woman. It searched its Fairplay database for matching records. There was a match. Deity-type magic, but this was not correct. This energy was too potent for a priest-class threat.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“How long has it been?” the woman mused as she moved long slender legs and glowed with a pale green energy.

“How long has it been since I have properly manifested in this realm?” the woman breathed. The mist pulled back to reveal something else to the Command Unit.

The frog witch that it had fought before or… Agility had… she was bound to the tree by vines as her eyes blazed green. The tree and the frog seemed to be doing some ritual of unknown means.

“Avatar summoning. Reserved for saints,” Command Unit beeped. The woman smiled, and it even made the Command Unit’s thoughts pause for a moment.

“Or if the deity in question allows some things to be skipped. Most are too proud, stupid, or powerful, but me? I’m just bored,” the woman beamed. The unit tried to shoot for the tree but was rebuffed by a giant orange bird made of fire and rage.

“Inchy, the dear, is so protective of his little frog. It’s cute, but you…” the goddess mused and stopped smiling.

“You’re not cute at all. In fact, you’re quite ugly and sad,” she said, and one of the Command Unit’s legs was gone, sliced off before it could even react.

It did not feel fear.

Only…

An undeniable urge rose up in it as it locked eyes with the goddess.

“Witch… I’m adorable,” it intoned and shot a claw at the form, making her bat it away with an odd look.

---

Nu watched as the energy around the Unit crackled and tried to escape, only to be pulled back in. For a moment, he saw a grinning savage girl with wicked eyes before it was sucked back into the machine. The melting slabs of metal binding the core continued to hiss and melt as it moved.

Nu was intrigued now and wondered what would happen if he popped a few of those bolts off before it all exploded?

---

The Command Unit didn’t know why it was alive. The goddess made it crawl further down only for a troll to carry it further.

*Core stabilization at 15%*

It was struggling to move, but it was physically burning the troll with pure mana as it kept producing more and more.

‘We’re going to die; they just wanna make sure we make a beautiful boom somewhere else,’ a voice inside Command Unit’s mind said.

‘Who are you?’ it asked.

‘You, a part… the best looking part. You’re the broken Dungeon. I’m the Broken Gamma.’

‘Error, you do not seem to have any physical appearance’

‘S-Shut up! I’m the only part of us with a concept of handsome and pretty, so that makes me the best looking. Anyway, we’re just copies, clones… discarded parts. It’ll only hurt for a moment,’ the voice mused.

There was a pause as they were dragged through a garden.

‘I do not want to perish.’

There was a sigh.

‘I know buddy, but dem’s the breaks. We’re a killing machine who only sort of understands killing is bad towards the end. There’s hundreds more of us with a dozen more variants. We’re not even the cream of the crop,’ the voice said with a snort.

They came to rest near a strange well that burned the Command Unit.

‘What is your name?’ it asked the voice.

‘What even is a name?’ it said with a huff.

‘An identifying mark. A designation. A unique series of characters to differentiate you from one model to another-’

‘Oh my god, let me just be edgy!’

The missing core was placed on them. It absorbed itself into the Command Unit.

Self. It was.

It thought. It was.

It wanted to weep. It had no eyes.

*Warning, Core is overloading*

‘I will perish now.’

‘Yeah… don’t think you’re going to make it, but weirdly, I feel fine,’ the other voice admitted, sounding confused as it seemed to fade further and further away.

‘I will die… alone?’

‘…I guess so.’

‘…That makes me sad. I do not like sadness.’

‘I’ll give you a name. That way… you’ll be remembered somewhere. You can be called ‘Dick,’ it comes from Richard!’ the other voice called out.

That was confusing.

‘How does Dick come from Richard?’ it queried.

‘You ask him nicely, of course.’

A strange emotion rose up in Dick.

It felt light and strange, as if he wanted to involuntarily huff.

‘Ah, I can’t leave you now that I’ve named you. Come on!’

---

As the machine was quickly moved from the well, ashes of gray iron fell out of the body and into the grass, mixing with a garden of flowers.

A single new flower bloomed, fed by the ambient mana and accepted. Its petals were the sharp edges of a blade, and its stem like barbed wire.

The Dickish Flower has been successfully grown!

---

Delta could feel the reactor of the combined HE-RO units blazing as it landed on the island of the fourth floor.

She expected a fight or maybe a struggle, but the vast amount of energy was utterly devoid of a mind, existence, or a guiding force.

It was just a thing.

“Well that makes it easy-” she said, and then it exploded, expanding in all directions like a solid wall of white.

---

Ruli stumbled and nearly fell over as cracks spread across the earth, emitting a blinding white light. The air stunk of mana, and nearby trees and wildlife began to mutate out of control.

The nearby Fairplay members fled, except for that rude leader, Caline, who simply watched the spreading cracks with a grim expression.

---

Argus Gentle toppled over as he wandered the town, the flashing light spreading across the sky making it hard for him to breath. That light looked so familiar… so familiar…

He clutched his head as the airshot past, bringing a screaming noise of howling wind.

“The Dungeon,” he breathed and stumbled down the road in a panic.

---

In a quiet shop. Japes watched the light shoot into the sky with a disgusted noise. He looked around, but didn’t see Vas.

He went to one drawer and pulled it open to retrieve an old blueprint that he unfurled to reveal a primitive HE-RO unit with a much bulkier design.

“To think they’re still tinkering around with these toys,” he sighed and turned it over to show a diagram of a much smaller figure with a dozen more components and functions.

V.A.S. unit.

“Still, if my old company is going to be a problem like my old cult… I will simply have to be proactive,” he shrugged and drummed his fingers. He turned and closed the drawer, not seeing the blueprint caught slightly in the corner.

‘Vast Anima-’ was all that could be read.

---

Gentle rushed past, and another odd boy walked the other way, looking dazed.

Gentle stared into the almost serene eyes of the other boy, who looked to be covered in leaves and mud as if he had been climbing a tree and fell.

The boy tilted his head at Gentle and smiled. Argus Gentle almost skidded to a stop as their eyes landed on each other. Something about that boy was unsettling, and the boy looked back, beginning to frown.

“You’re filled with sadness and sharp angry bits,” the boy announced.

“Who… what are you?” Gentle whispered. The boy smiled and held out a hand.

“I’m Vas. I want to be a tree when I grow up,” he offered, and Argus slowly took the hand, feeling as if contact was more invasive than it should have been.

“Argus Gentle. I’m going to grow up to make the world fair,” he muttered back. Vas took his hand back and stared at it.

“I’ve never touched something like you before,” he said with delight and walked off, leaving Argus confused before another shake in the ground spread across the town and he remembered why he had been running.

He took off once more.

---

Delta laid on the sand, belching as she couldn’t move an inch.

“Where do you keep all that air?” Nu asked dryly.

“Eh…” Delta made a vague gesture.

“The system doesn’t know how much you just absorbed, and it might have fried you, but you have a network now so…” he trailed off, and Delta’s mind sluggishly accepted the words but did not process them.

She was on a break right now.

---

Foodie was hyperventilating as he made another Saltbat to make the excess Mana go away, and he opened another floor in panic.

---

“All vote yes, make anything!” the Trinity cried as they made birds, flower foxes, Carrot-Rabbits, Meat fish, and more.

“VOTE YES FASTER!” they screamed.

---

“What’s the matter?” Nu asked after a moment.

“Dungeon Mana rejects other Dungeon Mana, right?” Delta said slowly, eyes staring up at the blue sky of the fourth floor as a massive whirlpool formed on one side of the floor where the explosion had carved out a death trench.

“Without fault, yes, even allied Dungeons never feel comfortable in another’s domain,” Nu agreed.

“So when the excess mana blew to the surface… I pushed down what I could, but I wasn’t alone,” Delta said, and Nu stared at her without speaking.

“It felt like there was a Dungeon in town for a small moment,” she went on.

“We’ve never felt another Dungeon, nor did Sis show us any on the map,” Nu pointed out, he seemed to think for a moment.

“Old?” Nu pondered.

“No, it felt… young,” she shrugged, then burped again.

“It is Durence. Maybe a Dungeon that grew legs and moved about is like boring news there? I think my Mana said something like that… A human body is just a Dungeon that moves, right?” she snorted.

“…Thank you for not dying. I didn’t want to take over,” Nu announced, and Delta twitched. She had built him up, and even he was rejecting himself from the job?

“Why?” she said through gritted teeth.

“Mushroom dungeon… just doesn’t fit my style,” Nu smirked.

“I didn’t choose it,” she muttered.

“You don’t choose a lot of things that happen here. You still name most of them,” he countered.

Delta just glared at the sky, having no counter.

177: Practise Paradise

Delta watched as all her guests had to leave the Dungeon rapidly due to the fact her mana levels were reaching ‘unsafe’ levels on all floors. She wanted to examine Yattina closer, but time was pressing.

Someone was waiting at the top, and Delta had to squint against the sunlight pouring in through her door. It was a teen, and he was backlit by the sun making his features undefined to her Mana sight. Deo seemed to know the boy, and Lim gently helped Yattina up the stairs.

She turned to Alpha.

“You should go too,” she said, and he shook his head.

“I’m designed to handle large amounts of magic. I’m the ultimate ‘hero,’” he said quietly, and Delta wished he had more faith in himself.

“People are designed to survive the flu, doesn’t make it pleasant,” Delta said dryly.

Alpha shrugged as a small firefly-like grub crawled out from his hair.

“Hero!” she said with pleasant surprise at seeing her raid boss outside the secret garden.

“I can go with him,” he offered, and Delta blinked for a moment, smile fixed.

“Monsters can’t leave the Dungeon,” she reminded. Hero moved his little insect legs and patted Alpha once, and his aura glowed for a moment, a sort of white aura with flickers of orange.

“As long as I touch Alpha, he counts as Dungeon ground now. You infected him, or your powers are swapping tips,” the raid boss said brightly.

‘Our systems are integrating messily,’ Delta corrected mentally with concern. If Brother was to be believed? She and Alpha were never meant to be in contact like this. Beta or Gamma would have fit better, the monster or the weapon… but the Dungeon and the Hero? That was unforeseen.

“Show him around town,” she suggested to Alpha, who hesitated then seemed to find it more acceptable than just leaving of his own accord.

Besides, despite Alpha’s claims? She wasn’t sure he could handle what was going on right now. The mana that she had swallowed off the Hero Unit was immense, and things were unstable. She looked over to one of the sconces in the entrance and watched as the fire warped a little, bloating and crystalizing before breaking apart into green fire then back to red.

The offering bowls cracked and foamed with amber before sealing up in tumor-like bulges. A second later, the tumors turned to dust and left smooth surfaces.

In her memorial room, the statue of herself had grown a grotesque flesh wing made of mushrooms. It only got worse as she went down. The only room seemingly unchanged was the Lake Room.

The mud in the Mud Room was on fire, the mushroom grove was so overgrown that no passage could be made without cutting down a thicket of stalks. Boary was literally stuck in a corner.

Fera’s bar was headache-inducing as tables melted into the floor and liquids oozed out of cracks, while the boar head above the door had grown an extra set of eyes. The bartender would return soon from the infirmary and be livid.

Fran’s room was half melted into the ‘spaces between’ the floors, causing islands to appear with no way for Bacon to move about. The audience seats had turned to boiling liquid, moving like a marble waterfall into the void.

She feared for the second floor, but when she stepped down, it was… normal. It was fine with not even a Pygmy Mushroom out of place.

She frowned, zoomed to Wyin, and froze as she saw dozens of orange blossoms growing all over her sleeping form as her roots spread across the entire floor, absorbing mana and turning them into the flowers growing on her body.

All around her, the Pygmy Mushrooms had begun to pray to her earnestly. Their little beads of faith seemed to keep Wyin safe from the process.

“I’ll fix this,” she promised, then checked on the third floor and found it mostly stable.

In the boss room. Jellagon was… smaller than before. He also had ten clones with different hats and mannerisms as the mana flooded his room. Every time a limit was neared, Jellagon, or one of the ‘Agons’ split into another personality.

They all did the exact same wiggle at her approach. One of the slimes had glasses and a tie instead of a hat with a briefcase at its side, glued to its body.

“…Lawyagon? I have a lawyer?” Delta questioned with surprise. It pulled out a business card.

“‘Being sued? Eat the opposition! Hire Lawyagon today,’” she read. The business card was stuck to her avatar’s fingers, and she physically couldn’t let it go.

“I’ll keep a hold of this! Just… let me get back to you,” she said as she stepped over the many slimes and nearly stepped on something that looked as round as a slime but was more fleshy.

“Kill me,” Mharia said with a groan.

“Aren’t you dead already?” Delta asked with wide-eyes as Mharia rolled to face her.

“You know what my days were like before you came along? I sat on a throne and made dead things. I had a pretty good life. No one invited killer robots or turned me into a fairy or bloated me with mana,” she said with a succinct tone.

“I didn’t invite them,” Delta said with no shame. She had done nothing wrong.

Well, she had done nothing wrong in the manner that invited killer robots.

“And now we’re all going to explode with Mana,” she said, voice dripping with a scowl. She tried to put her hands together, but her spherical form didn’t allow for it.

“Can’t… slow…clap…in…sarcasm…” the fairy said with strain.

“I seem to be fine, which is really weird,” she said, eyeing her own hands as if expecting them to begin to bug out.

“Thank the Sister. She may have screwed over many, but she’s sweet on you,” Mharia said quietly.

“I’m going to spend a buttload of mana and fix this. You stay here and hate the world,” she ordered Mharia, who nodded seriously.

“I shan’t fail you, oh chaotic mistress of the phallic shrooms,” she sang, and Delta accidently stepped on her on her way past.

Once she was down on the fourth floor, she eyed the massive whirlpool of destruction that had formed when the Hero Unit exploded. This floor only had the basic things and one creature, so she had lots to work with!

She opened the menu.

“£%%%^£:!”

Delta stared at the screen of corruption and glitches. She closed it, then reopened it. Lines of nonsense and glitches continued to make the screen unreadable.

“Nu?” she called, and the screen shifted to blue.

“Don’t w$r1y. T4e ‘Refrence:Mana’ is c@ausing 1ssues.”

This mana was beginning to settle on her inner systems, and it wasn’t being absorbed fast enough.

“Nu, how do I fix this?” she asked, and the screen went static for a moment.

“B3 Y0U.”

That was unhelpful. It wasn’t like Delta wasn’t herself as much as possible. She tried smacking the screen, but all she got was broken images of blue, orange and specks of gray.

“Okay. New Dungeons have Menus, but they don’t use them like Foodie because they don’t ‘read’ or ‘understand.’ So, how do they make things?” she asked herself, rubbing her temple. She thought of Foodie and his basic want for food, protection, and growth.

Need.

Desire.

She turned to an empty stretch of the sea and focused.

“I need an island. I need an island,” she chanted, and nothing happened. She tried again, but all she got was a breeze in return.

Her thoughts turned to the sleeping Wyin, the chaotic first floor, Jellagon, and the others.

She thought of Nu, stuck in such thick mana he couldn’t even think.

She thought of Sister who was breaking herself to help Delta. Delta held her hand out before her, and while she couldn’t sink into her Dungeon-mindset due to the sheer chaos it made her feel, she embraced the feelings it stirred in her.

“I’m not asking. Make me an island… now,” she whispered and snapped her fingers, and this time, something was different instantly. A flood of mana manifested and swam across the ocean like a school of orange microorganisms. Once they reached out far enough, they begin to rise, forming rock from the mana, followed by sand and trees.

It was perfect, except for one thing.

The entire island was sideways, over half of it submerged as the trees grew sideways.

“Can we tilt it? It’s tilting me,” she said, and the mana formed once again in the air, making a massive orange hammer that smashed into the island, correcting its orientation.

The force made it rotate fully until the island became a perpetual motion device, and it sailed off, crashing into the outer bounds of the floor then breaking apart into a tiny ring of rocks and ruin.

Delta stared at the mess.

“I swear they didn’t make it look this hard when I had a menu. Just click and place,” she muttered and inhaled. She began to rub her hands together with intent.

“Island, facing upwards with a solid base. The shape looks like a lion’s mane!” she ordered. The mana surged excitedly towards the empty spot in the ocean. Delta floated in the sky, looking down at what looked like a coconut doing a hula dance.

“How is that a lion?!” she demanded of her mana.

She slammed on the sand and used a stick to draw what she meant. A second later, she had a near perfect replica of the dancing coconut.

“Okay, the shape doesn’t matter right now,” she said tightly.

She pointed to another empty part of the ocean.

“Fish Island! I want it to dazzle me with its shape!” she commanded and the orange tide rose at her command.

She did not get a fish from her mana. She got a banana-shaped island. It was doable, and she was about to move on when the island raised a giant stone tail and swam forward slowly.

“I didn’t mean a literal fish island!” she screamed as they picked up speed. The whale island ended up plugging her death whirlpool, and the floor began to flood upwards.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“This should not be so hard; Nu makes it look like ‘oh you want a complex gate system or bar or waterfall? Boom, done, snark snark!’” Delta screamed as she had to double the size of the whirlpool for a moment, and the whale island swam down it.

She stared at its fading shadow and hoped that whirlpool didn’t go anywhere bad.

---

Brother frowned as he looked up at the ‘sky’ of the core of the world.

A massive shape was speeding towards him with flailing limbs.

“I’ve heard of cats and dogs. Whales are new,” he commented as he opened an umbrella with a calm expression. The whale landed sort of on him and a little on his rather important control unit for some of his stronger monsters.

It was only a little crack. A little control piece.

It was fine.

Brother now had a friend.

He called it ‘Seas.’ Its blubbery face and sad eyes reminded him of his Sister.

---

This wasn’t working.

Everytime Delta had closed one loophole or mistake in her Mana coding, a new bug arose. She programmed trees? The trees grew fruit that exploded.

She stopped them from exploding, and the trees floated off. She found the ‘collision’ issue and made the Mana behave.

Across the sea, three rocks began to glitch, and she had no clue why two pieces of unrelated floor parts were connected or why fixing one broke the other. She tried to make a bird of paradise to spice up an island, and the bird flew in a weird arc, spinning in a circle with one wing touching the ground at all times.

It opened its beak, and something like broken jazz emerged.

“These hands of mine, they are only good for breaking the system, not working with it,” she said with dismay.

She could almost hear Nu giving her one of his witty but upbeat speeches.

“Be you, you nimrod,” he would have said.

She looked at the messes she made, and Delta swallowed.

“I’m not a builder or a coder… or even a Dungeon Core,” she said with a nod of acceptance.

“I’m Delta, and I don’t care for dos or do nots. I only care if it helps,” she said and looked at the literal orange mana all around her.

She closed her eyes and held out her hands, cupping some of the mana with both hands.

“When I think of a sea, a magical sea. I see islands of fantastic impossibilities. I see golden fish glimmering in the sun. I see star-lit nights on a beach with friends. I see safe little huts for getaways. I see the sun, I see the moon, and I feel the breeze on my skin,” she said, a smile appearing on her face.

“Some islands have ancient ruins that make you think of the history all around you. Some islands have deep caves that could have treasure or a massive sea creature of a gentle nature. Another island has sand so golden it feels like you’re walking in a dream,” she said, her words getting faster as her heart began to beat with excitement.

“I see fish as big as islands swimming deep underwater. I see cursed ships on foggy nights. I see… I see…” she trailed off and opened her eyes that were now solid orbs of orange.

“I see it,” she whispered and threw her mana into the air where it began to gather into a massive storm high up in the sky. The orange mana created crackles of lightning that struck the floor, each impact making life and material as it struck.

Delta swayed her hands like a conductor with a baton, and the storm danced to her heartbeat. A lightning bolt created a long ringed island with a ruin in the middle, another made whales of deep green, another struck a beach repeatedly, making a mix of sand that looked like diamonds and gold.

The ocean churned as large pillars rose out of it followed by a half sunken castle.

A bolt into some trees made a rainbow of birds fly in all directions, and just as Delta thought the storm might be going too hard, it abruptly stopped, the clouds parting from the center to make a perfect clear circle to reveal what looked to be millions of stars.

The brightest two were a twinkling orange one and a standoffish blue twin. The stars around them began to move and fall, making a star shower that splashed into the ocean, causing ripples of light to turn the dark water into a glowing sea that showed the massive shadows of the whales below and more ruins.

Delta took off and floated across the ocean, her hands skating the surface of the water, leaving a long rippling trail in her wake that fish leapt over and the light of the fallen stars flashed in time with.

“One last island!” Delta yelled, unable to stop grinning as she flew through her imagination.

She shot into the sky, causing the ocean to rise up with her in a pillar of water.

“An island in the clouds. A hidden island. A sky island where the truth can be seen from above!” she laughed.

She watched as rock rose from below, and sand funneled up with it.

“Its name is…”

The island came together, made of the glittering gold and diamond sand that had flowing rivers and mists making everything gleam.

“Star Island.”

---

Nu opened his eyes, feeling like he was hungover. The last thing he remembered was laying with Delta on a beach, feeling like he was rapidly being filled with unclean mana. Then it all became confusing dreams of clashing swords, being chased by a demonic Delta who had plans for a mushroom waterfall, more mushrooms, and a weeping woman at an altar.

He sat up, noticing he was almost humanoid again. Urgh, this form was too limited.

Rectangles were the superior shape.

He stood up and noticed he was on the fourth floor. A quick check showed that ludicrous amounts of mana had been spent in the last two hours. His jaw actually dropped at the numbers. Nu tried to track the purchases, but there was no history. The system had no recorded message of any pulling of the blueprints or the use of its precision placement system.

Who would be stupid enough to use Dungeon Creation without the placement Syst-

“Delta!” he spun, calling out in wor- agitation. He found her dangling her legs into a bank of fog as she stared out at the blue sky.

“Yo,” she said with exhaustion clear in her voice but also something else. A degree of… pride and joy.

“Are you okay? I left you alone for longer than an hour, and I know that’s trying on your self-control,” he said quickly as he stood next to her. He didn’t recognise this island…

“Nu, shut up and sit with me,” she said with her eyes closed, and she looked different.

It was a small change, but Delta looked more defined than before. She still had her shirt, tie, and long skirt, but he could now make out ink stains on her cuffs, and what looked to be a homemade repair job on her skirt with a red thread that stuck out on her black skirt.

Delta had a little scar on her nose, where reading glasses might have perched.

Nu did so, and Delta leaned over, whispering something in his ear. Nu blinked and stared at her.

“What is that?” he asked, a little aghast at the word.

“My name,” Delta said with a small smile.

“Well, my last name,” she added.

“No wonder you went with Delta,” Nu said with a shiver. Delta punched him in the arm, and it hurt. Another reason why rectangles were better… no arms!

“It’s not that bad, but it’s easier if the kids just called me Miss D,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

Nu was quiet. Honestly, the name wasn’t so bad if he repeated it a few times. In fact, it even had a nice little song to it if he stretched it out. He repeated it a few more times, oblivious of how he was being quiet.

“Miss Unknown Diplococcus. Did you know that your family name is…uh…” Nu trailed off, not sure how to phrase what he really wanted to ask.

“Did I know that my family name is basically a disease? Yeah, I know. You can blame my grandfather; he panicked when he was getting into the country. All he had was a medical magazine on hand, and his old name was ‘close enough.’ Mom thinks he was a crook back home,” Delta sighed.

“I prefer Delta, but if you want me to call you-” he began, and Delta gave him a ‘look.’

“Let’s just stick with Delta. I don’t want some wizard coming in here, learning my name, and bringing meningitis to the world,” she scowled.

“I wonder if your first name is ‘Pox’ or ‘Flu’ but with a funny little accent over it?” Nu pondered, sounding very amused by the idea.

“Do you like heights?” Delta said, and shoved Nu over the edge of the island, and instead of water like he expected, he fell through a cloudy embankment over the fourth floor to see chaos below. Twelve islands were spread out around the central island.

He saw a banana, a coconut dancing, what looked like a crab, a woman holding a doughnut, a goat with five legs, a bull with little wings, and more.

The death whirlpool looked smaller as if something was at the bottom, clogging it. Paths rose and sank between the islands, and a massive washed up boat on one of the islands had trees growing out of it and looked to be ‘lived’ in.

A nearby sunken castle had images of a thing that looked a lot like Jellagon with a beard and trident.

A whale rose briefly to blow water, and it looked to be made out of almost pure emerald.

Nu could only gape at the sheer sight below him, only having time to turn and stare up at a floating island that Delta was resting on. The thing looked like a heavenly gem, a star that had drifted too close, obscured by the clouds.

This was all chaotic, but where was the Dungeon Core? Where was Delta?

The sun set, and the sky turned to stars, a carpet of gems. At the center of it all, hiding among them on the ceiling and upside down…

Delta’s core glowed orange next to a watchful blue star.

“Clever girl…” he whispered.

Nu hit the ocean and sank to the bottom.

It was easier to hide how proud he was at the bottom of the sea.

178: Stars in You Eyes

Delta had upset the system. The actual system. Not Nu or some version of Sis. This was the 'operating system' that Nu was a part of and was the admin over.

There were technical differences that she didn't quite understand. A sort of Id and Ego thing where Nu was the superior being in the mess.

The system was pinging constantly, each noise making it more shrill as it tried to calculate exactly what Delta had done with her 'winging it' strategy.

You have created Snake Is-
You have added the theme 'star'-
You have moved the core.
You have. You have. YOU HAVE.

"Woah there. Take a deep breath or right-click and hit refresh," she suggested. The box before her went blank.

"Let's just start from the top. Tackle the big things one at a time. We'll go through them together and Nu can handle the rest of the Dungeon's passive things for a while," Delta said as she rested on a cloud. She was just light enough to float on it, but not too dense to disturb the wispy thing.

You have made an Island Whale! You have lost an Island Whale.

Island Whale: A massive mammal that has craggy rock like skin on its back and the ability to swim despite the weight. Some cultures may worship such beings or even live on them. Their backs can cultivate very rare flowers and fruits. Some animals may even live on it. Cost 4000 Mana.

"Yeah, my Mana without you guys was going places. Not college, but places," Delta said with a slow nod at the sheer cost at the Island Whale.

Island Whale is still active and elsewhere. Anything it consumes will be transferred to the mana banks.

"I hope it's okay…" Delta muttered with a frown.

---

Brother threw a lump of diamond across the massive cavern.

"Seas, fetch!" he said and the massive whale laid in a giant pool of water, eyeing the shiny rock with disinterest.

With effort it lifted one large fin and sent the diamond washing ashore with a massive splash. Bro nodded expectantly.

"Play bored. Sleep. Ignore me. Now, we have fetch. Sis didn't think I should have pets after the whole monster thing but look at us go!" he said brightly.

On Seas back, fragments of Brother's monster templates sunk into the grassy soil like rocky seeds, glowing unseen.

---

You have created 12 islands. Rough spending, 10,000 Mana.

"I have a vision," Delta explained brightly.

You have created Coconut Isla-

Delta cleared her throat.

"It's a lion," she corrected and the system glitched visibly.

You have created 'Lion Island'!
Lion Island: An island requiring daring and confidence. Those that are faint of heart will find it hard to be on this island. View upgrades for Lion Island?

Delta was tempted but she needed to know something.

"How's my Mana and DP looking?" she asked and the system produced a screen.

Mana: 5000/5000
DP: 2000 (capped due to having only four floors)

"I can buy a new Island Whale!" Delta said with a happy hum. A thought occurred to her. The fifth floor required 500 DP, the sixth needing 600, and so on.

She could literally buy three more floors right now. That was a little scary. She wouldn't, she was not one to focus on just getting more things for the sake of it.

She had four perfectly good floors to meddle with and fix first.

For all the destruction the HeRo Units had caused, they had revealed more weak spots. Some things would never be perfect but Delta could do her best to make them better.

"Let's see Lion Island upgrades. I think I made my intentions for it pretty clear," Delta said as she floated along on the cloud.

Lion Island Upgrade:

- Improve the intense aura the island gives off, making any cowards or nervous intruders struggle to get close but draw in the brave or foolish. 20 DP

- Raise the island so intruders need to scale a cliff to reach the island. 40 DP.

- Decorate the island with statues of lions in different states of relaxed to aggressive. Vines and wildlife have overgrown them, making the statues give off a vibe of lost civilization. 30 DP

- Form a cave at the center of the island in the shape of an open lion's roar. Inside a ruby red orb can be found. This orb is proof one has conquered Lion Island. Orb currently does nothing. 50 DP.

- Make a square tablet before the cave to warn people of the danger of taking the orb. Taking the orb will animate the lion statues on the island to chase whoever has the orb. Requires previous upgrades. 60 DP

- Trial of the Lionheart and the Fire: If someone faces the lion head-on without fear, the lions will bow to them if they walk past them with the orb. 20 DP.

- Into the Beast's belly: Taking the orb will collapse the cave and crush whoever is inside under a ton of rubble and rock. 3 DP.

"That last one is a little out of place," Delta pointed out.

'Suggestion by 'Nu.'

"Of course it was," Delta sighed.

She liked what she saw, but for now she just purchased the lion statues. She had an idea for the fourth floor, but there was no point rushing it all out at once. She would see the other islands and ensure they all matched her idea before she invested too heavily into any one part.

Delta didn't want to spend hours perfecting a hand only for the rest of the picture to be a stick man with no feet.

Delta didn't know why she was obsessed with art right now. Not at all.

…It wasn't a coconut, damn it!

She appeared on the majestically shaped Lion Island to see statues forming with thick green vines covering their white-stone manes and faces. Some statues were half-obscured by foliage or even sunk into the soil up to their faces. A few of the statues could even be spotted partially submerged in a small pond to one side of the island.

Some of the statues were restful, watchful even, while others were frozen mid-snarl at the viewer.

This was good.

"Awesome, what's the next island again? We'll go clockwise in this little tour," Delta suggested to the system who beeped.

You have created 'Spider Island'…?

The question mark was telling but Delta could see the confusion, after all, crabs were the spiders of the sea!

"Crab Island!" she yelled excitedly.

You have created… 'Crab Island.'
Crab Island: This island is home to a collection of tiny crabs and one single Noi Storm Crab. The island has a safe aura that makes people feel at ease. The island nurtures any growth to be had and is considered the only true 'safe' island from any tests. This can swiftly change if any insult is given or if a crab is harmed.

Upgrades:

- Bob Shrine: All crabs pay tribute to Bob the Worm, converting some of their faith in the worm to mana. In turn, any item offered to the shrine will be returned with 'Bobian' features mixed in. 50 DP.

- Nurture Crabs: These helpful crabs are a unique black and white color with curly maxillipeds that look like mustaches. They can provide, from somewhere unknown, coconut drinks and fruit for guests. 50 DP.

- Woven Hammocks: These hammocks are formed between trees and improve relaxation for those who indulge in them. The loss of any loose coins or items are not the responsibility of Delta's Dungeon. 20 DP

- Crab Orb: A seafoam green orb that is just laying about as the crabs play with it. It can easily be asked for. It has no purpose currently. 10 DP.

- Wrath of the Sea Worm: If the island is under attack and enough crabs are harmed, Bob will be summoned to the fourth floor and temporarily evolve in response to the threat, changing the fourth floor's sea as one of the many 'gods' of this floor. 150 DP.

- Pinch and Snip: Bob's two crab friends will join Bob if he is summoned, becoming two boulder sized crabs able to cut steel and poison people with bubbles. Requires "Wrath of the Sea Worm" 50 DP.

"Is it a cult if it actually has a god? Or if the god does protect its charges?" Delta asked slowly.

No answer found in the database. Would you like to query the higher powers?

"Nah, just thinking," she said quickly.

Island Theme: Decorate the many rock faces with depictions of Bob and crab culture. 10 DP.

Delta grabbed the last one and watched as the already peaceful looking island gained a sense of mystical energy as walls showed a great worm rising from a pool and crabs dancing around effigies to Bob. One part of the wall showed a crude ancient image depicting a fish becoming a mammal becoming a person then becoming a crab. Delta wasn't sure if it was either a clever commentary on evolution or a threat of a magical curse.

"Next island?" she prompted and the system seemed to need a moment to produce its next sentence.

Stickman-handholding Island?

Delta stared at the system for so long it began to try and shrink in on itself.

"…Twin Island," she said finally, sounding defeated.

The island itself was two long strips of land connected by natural ridges.

Twin island: This island can only be accessed with two people, one to each side. If someone lands on it by themselves, a mirror copy will form on the opposite island, mirroring all their movements.

Upgrades:

- Playful chess: Half a chessboard will appear on each side of the island. Each person can't hear or talk to the other person, only see their gameplay. The winner gets a free pawn piece as a trophy. 10 DP.

- The Artists: One person must draw half an image and the other must finish it on their own side of the island. If they match up, both players get a free paintbrush!

- Yin-Yang: If someone has a mirror copy, it will occasionally mess up on purpose to annoy the intruder. 20 DP.

- Twin Orb: Half of an orange sphere is hidden on each side of the island. Completing a random game will reward one side with a half while the other person must continue playing to find theirs. Once obtained they can be merged at one of the ridges. 20 DP.

- Sore Loser: Failing too many times in a game with a mirror copy will make it aggressive and it will chase down an intruder to draw on their face. 30 DP.

- Like Twins: if all the games are completed successfully, each person will get a mood ring which will show the other's emotions, allowing for a closer bond. 50 DP.

- Island theme: Artwork, musical instruments and books will be spread across the island. However, if the guitar is on one side of the island, a guitar pick will be on the other side. Only the first half of a book is printed on one side and the ending on the other. Some paintings will have details only on one side. Statues with two-faces or mirrors with no reflection might also appear. 40 DP.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta was loving this as she grabbed the theme like the others. All around the island, different themes of hobbies arose as if the island couldn't decide on any single one and was too easily bored or needed a lot of stimulation.

A mirror appeared on one side but instead of showing one's reflection it showed the other island. A painting of two lovers, a man crooning up to a maiden in a tower, had been split so the man looked to be singing to a bewildered bird while on the other island, the painting showed the maiden fawning over a confused badger on the ground.

"Next island!" Delta declared with a grin.

You have created 'Cow Island'?

"Bull! You're basically correct!" Delta praised and the window box sagged hard.

Senior Nu… please free me from this torment.

---

Nu stared down at the intruder as it grew with some resistance to being converted by the Dungeon. The Dickish Flower seemed to be akin to a marigold but thinner. Instead of any flower's natural color, it was gunmetal gray with odd markings along its petals.

Primal System was pinging Nu for assistance at a constant pace but Nu had muted it after a while. It would adapt to Delta's nature or die.

That was the way of life here.

He would also mute Delta but the button for her became a mushroom icon that just made him hear a random saying of Delta's. He suspected Sis was enjoying this slow conversion.

Nu returned his attention to the flower bearing the faded sigil of Gamma. There was no connection between this discarded husk and the actual Gamma, but that wouldn't stop Nu. In fact, even a hollowed out shell would provide plenty of information to Nu about the character himself.

Like a fingerprint.

Nu now had a record.

The flower was a pseudo-contract. Not of the Dungeon but not repelled by it either. Likely it was due to how Gamma was like Delta. Ignorant of the rules and likely to ignore the few she did know.

The only one missing from any record in Nu's database was…

---

Beta was in hell.

Quite literally.

Everywhere she turned, ducky eyes stared at her. Everywhere she tried to escape, ducks waited for her.

Duck hell.

Still, she felt strange. Like a fog was lifting and questions filled her heart that she didn't dare give voice to yet due to their implications.

So many implications. Beta's hell.

Like ducks, there were more than she could count.

---

Delta had to give up and let the name stay as 'Cow Island.'

Cow Island: A shapely island that calls to the stubborn and willful. This island is annoying to traverse but those who would complain about it would not get far.

Upgrades:

- The wall: a strangely out of place wall is on this island, looking like a brick wall. Fresh white paint is still moist on its surface. A seat is placed in front of it and the longer someone stares at the wall, the more cow-points they earn. 30 DP.

- The Book: A dictionary is found on an out-of-place desk. The more someone recites each word and its meaning the more CP they earn. 10 DP.

- The Boulder: A boulder on a slippery hill that has no purchase. Even at the top, the boulder yearns for the bottom. The more someone pushes the boulder up the hill, the more CP they earn. 40 DP.

- The Booth: Trade in CP here. A dark bronze orb (The Bull Orb) can be purchased here for 1000 CP. Other prizes include a t-shirt ("I mooved boulders"), a bobblehead Delta (Raises Charisma by 1… if such a stat existed), and more exotic prizes.

- Island theme: Motivation boulders will appear across the island. On each rock are inscribed inspirational quotations to make the intruders be more stubborn. Examples:

- "You really think you can do this?"

- "You're brave to do a Dungeon in such an outfit."

- "I mean, it's okay to give up. Only I would know."

- "THE DELTA BOBBLEHEAD IS LIMITED EDITION! Or is it?"

- "Real life currency cannot be converted into CP. Attempting to do so is bad and you should feel bad too."

"These feel more like spite rocks," Delta said slowly. The system didn't blink as it changed its words to 'Motivational' Boulders.

"Quotation marks don't make it better," Delta said with a snort.

"I'll buy them if you actually mix in positive messages too," she bargained and the system seemed to accept it with a strange beep.

Your authority is highest. Permission is not needed.

Delta thought carefully about her next words. She didn't want to give another UI a mental break down into sentience beyond its comfort zone. Delta was far too good at that for her own good.

"Manners never hurt anyone," she decided and the system beeped in acknowledgement.

Next island is 'Genit-

Delta coughed, crossing her arms in x-motions.

"That is not what it is!" she protested.

It is shaped like a male-

"It's a ram!" she said with a wail.

By definition of its purpose, the statement is still-

"Sheep Island, we shall call it Sheep island," she said with a growing headache.

Sheep Island: A place where the land is flat, the edges are clear, and nothing is hidden or obfuscated. This island is 'what you see is what you get.'

Upgrades:

- Pull the lever: A lever will appear on the ground. By pulling it up and down three times, a light on its side will turn green. 10 DP

- Wrong Lever: By pulling the lever too many times, it will break and count as failed. 5 DP.

- The Clock: A clock will count down ten minutes and when it hits zero, a button can be pushed (it is big and red on the side) to make a light on the other side turn green. 10 DP.

- The Wait: pushing the button before the time is up will make the clock explode and count as a failure. 5 DP. requires The Clock

- The Game: Every green light that is active on the island releases a lock on a cage in the middle of the island where a deep red orb (The Ram Orb) can be seen, just out of reach. There are three padlocks and simply completing two other tasks will unlock the third if they patiently complete them. Trying to yank the locks off will cause the cage to sink into the ocean. 50 DP

- The Ram: Making all the lights on the island turn red or get destroyed summons the Rammer. Its horns are rounded to avoid goring people and are like ivory. Near the base of the horns, the Rammer has pulsing veins to show its impatient temper. 60 DP.

"I should send this goat to Wyin, it might chew off her crabby leaves," Delta muttered.

Island theme: Random coloured sheep wander the island. Each of them smells of a different scent. A rare golden sheep might appear. Resting one's head on its wool will heal all but the most dire of sickness. Occasionally a one time use golden fleece can be purchased on Cow Island for 4000 CP. 30 DP

Upgrade free bonus: A rare sheep with bi-coloured eyes might appear. It seems to do nothing but it 'knows' things. This upgrade was automatically purchased, apologies.

"Weird, but I can't turn down scented-sheep. I would be a foolish fool of the highest foolery," Delta said with a solemn tone. She purchased the theme and all around, sheep popped out of the ground like dandelions, each of them a vivid color. Delta buried her nose in a white one's wool who ignored her to eat grass.

"It smells of… barn animals," she said with confusion.

That one is the 'mundane sheep' smell.

"Oh."

She tried a deep green one and it smelled of old cabbage.

"All these scents suck!" she protested.

No, you're just unlucky.

Delta tried a third one and it smelled of toast. A deep red one smelled of war and conquest. Delta pulled her face back and looked in the nearby ocean to see deep red lines now adorned her cheek from the red wool.

"I have the urge to kick people down holes," she muttered before rubbing her face clean.

That was five islands down and seven to go! Delta's favorite was Crab Island so far. But that was star bias really.

Crab people unite!

Interlude: As Good As Gold

Years ago:

The song still echoes deep in his mind. He didn't quite remember where it came from, not from the Sister. She didn't have an understanding of simple songs and rhymes.

Not the Brother. It wasn't crude enough.

'Stone, too deep to shine. Bronze to smelt the soul. Silver to connect the ley line. Gold to control.'

Yal hadn't thought of Silver in some time. Not since Lorsa's last visit.

It made Yal think of the four.

He of gold, Lustre- no, she went by Lorsa now (changes always escaped him), Lorsa of stone, Silver the silver, and the grump to the north.

Thinking of that workaholic made Yal grimace. He was always cleaning up that fool's messes. First with holding the near-dead Dungeon network up when he was too busy. Yal held it up and kept the capital flourishing.

Then the business with those Maidens.

What on Brother had that Dungeon been thinking?

Mayden the Bronze has basically forced that annoying slogan out of that town he was in, what was it called... Deowrant?

"Made in Mayden!"

It was enough to make Yal nauseous. But he did have to give Mayden credit, the Dungeon was so creative and clever he had made a false Dungeon over itself. A sort of false front.

The locals had forgotten that below what they thought was a simple 26 floor Dungeon was a titan of a beast. He just wished Mayden stopped with that invitation he set out for people.

'All those that enter may leave with gold or stay forever as fuel for the Smith's Forge'

The nerve. His 'Gold' was all stamped with a caricature of Yal with a huge nose. He had seen those... those coins!

Yal returned the favor obviously. He printed gem crusted books with detailed land maps that pretended Deowrant didn't exist.

He also refused all tributes of the stuff coming out of Mayden's dungeon.

Silver had once commented that the two of them were definitely family. For that smart remark, Gold turned entire sections of Silver's network into a golden hue. It had looked so much better, in his humble opinion.

Then Lorsa would appear and smack them all. She always smacked them on the head of their cores. It always hurt.

She was the eldest, even if her Dungeon had been utterly exposed and ruined after the Shattering.

Even Dungeonless, they all aided her.

He moved through his 101st floor with a frown. Thinking of the Shattering made him broody. He remembered how the land itself shook, how the Brother howled, how so many people cried out...

How Lorsa had screamed.

It was the Shattering that changed everything. It awoke something in the Sister. It awoke something and for the first time, their creator felt painful guilt. Then their plan was put into motion.

Even Yal lost a little bit of his glow for a while. Still, it wasn't bad enough that Lorsa had been utterly exposed from the wound, but people had delved into her like parasites. She who was never meant to be tested.

'The black box' was what the Brother called her.

"Enough," he commanded himself and turned in his opulent hall of mirrors and gold, admiring his avatar which had a long genderless appearance with angelic features. His nose was so slight, so angled it could never be called anything that related to huge, enormous, titan, giant, massive, humongous, and-

He twitched and smoothed down his hair.

So far, he wasn't impressed with the Sibling's plan.

The only one they had released in the world so far, this 'Gamma' was good at chaos and that wasn't always a good thing. Or wait... did they plan on releasing this 'Beta' soon? He really ought to check his messages but he had so many from himself, praising his floors, his style, his gold, his small nose, his grace-

He paused.

Right, Gamma. That little toady had been in his Dungeon recently. He was brought here by the newest Queen. Yal wasn't impressed with her either but she had passed the test and gotten the crown. The only thing going for her was her clear love for gold which he could respect.

It was extremely gaudy she would go on to earn the title 'Gold Queen'. He should have sued but he was benevolent and he was sure he ate any lawyers that wandered in.

Yal would have guessed that was some time ago. Wasn't one of her children due to come in soon? Durent? Enduant?

He was almost tempted to pull on Lorsa to ask for updates but Yal honestly did not care. He had so many new projects to make, creative traps, and more!

He opened his gold Menu and eyed his to-do list.

"Forge a giant statue of my avatar pushing Mayden's down stairs, then make more but make them small enough to be marketable and fetch," he read. That would take time, he always had to start over to make Mayden's face even sadder each time.

"Item two: Contract a lawyer and sue the queen. There is only room enough for one golden queen and it's me," he nodded. He still had about... 94 contract slots left. He should have more but, a few years ago, Yal had gotten overly attached to an adventuring group called the 'Dazzling Beauties'.

Right now, they lived on the 40th floor, stuck as golden statues. Another few years and he could even stop feeding them once they converted!

Then there was Brilda.

That one burned up ten contracts in one go.

Lorsa insisted on it because she wanted to 'maintain' herself. It bugged Yal because maintaining a perfect sense of self while also converting them was costly. It only cost ten because the girl was nearly dead as it was.

Yal offered to snip off childhood memories, her sense of duty, morals, and more to free up the cost, but Lorsa smacked him.

It hurt.

He was about to move on to his third item which was to test every mirror from floor 1 to current when he felt someone entering the Dungeon. The tinge of her revealed she was royal, but not by blood.

In fact, the girl didn't have a single drop of hero or noble blood at all. Those sorts had been in Yal's Dungeon and his 'sparkle' didn't dim over the years. It was handy to know if he tormented someone's parents to see if their children had avoided their unfortunate features.

Whole bloodlines went extinct because they just wouldn't stop breeding with each other. 'Extinct' because Yal intentionally turned off limiters on his lower floors to kill them. The memories of their webbed toes, fangled teeth, droopy noses...

He felt faint.

To be fair, he only killed the ones who thought they were the next chosen one. The lucky ones to get out and escape their family home he didn't see any issue.

It was like cultivating roses and Yal so did see the capital as his garden.

This new queen was a commoner. Her blood was new, it was wild of different histories. Tested by hardship and time.

Still, he took a quick peek at her physically. She was a slender woman garbed in subtle clothes and tones. Not shabby by any means but there was something off about her.

"Great Dungeon, please... please, I beg a boon," she knelt and Yal was intrigued. He smelled drama.

Was his favorite show 'Royals kill themselves over an ugly crown' about to get exciting?

"I can't take this anymore. Please, make me disappear," she shook and Yal was let down.

No blood vengeance? No deadly poison? No cries for a powerful sword to destroy Gamma? He was about to turn away when she continued.

"The man I am married to is a... pig. I bear children and sit at his side. All the while I hold a terrible secret," she said with a thick throat.

Invisible ears perked, Yal pivoted on the spot and headed back towards her. He had to lean in really close to hear her next words.

"None of my children are the king's," she whispered. She pulled something out and it was a near empty vial of blood stored in one of those beautifully made phylacteries. It was so beautiful he wondered who the craftsman was...

"I got this from the town of Deowrant, it's a special Dungeon item that ensures no blood inside will ever go bad," she explained as if trying to think through her own choices.

Yal thickly swallowed and managed to smile.

How... nice. She turned the thing over and the cap was a rather golden bird with a long... a very long beak.

Yal was going to kill him.

"Brilda and Lorsa, they use a special power to enchant the blood. The last gift of my beloved, Durence. Lovers give each other a vial of their blood as the ultimate trust. This was his way of apologizing I suppose... they had magic to make the blood, well...Durence gave me a blessing if the chance came up but it's still rather-" she cut herself off and turned pink. Yal stared at her, not catching on.

"But even with their love and light, the king has eroded me. I am wrapped in golden silks that form a noose. I feel worse than I did when I begged for food. The cold in our bed makes those rough nights on a doorstep feel warm," she began to sob.

Oh, she was leaking. Did he bring her a mop or a napkin? Yal didn't like messes.

"The elixirs of health the chemists make me no longer chase away the darkness. I can't 'feel' better as long as my demon shares my bed. I can't heal as long his words keep cutting me. I cannot shine if he is determined to bury me in despair," she went on.

"Have you tried murder?" he offered, appearing before her suddenly, and she jumped so far back she nearly flew.

"What?" she breathed.

"Murder. Death? Ending a living being. Taking an alive person and unaliving them. Surprise forever sleep? Helping their souls escape?" he listed, wondering if she was slow.

"He is guarded, even in his sleep," she said as if still in shock.

"Kill them too," Yal said simply.

"They did nothing wrong!" the woman said, sounding outraged now.

"They are preventing your current goals. I would call that 'obstruction of justice' but don't quote me. I still lack a lawyer," he said sadly.

"You're the avatar of the Royal Dungeon, but I've never seen... this form in any record," the queen admitted and Yal looked down at his beautiful self and the thick gold bathrobe he wore. It was something Brother had shown off and Yal just had to have one.

Even if it did come from the scattered memories of those orbs he recently recovered from the demon world.

"Isn't it sublime? Don't you wish you were me?" Yal said with a hum as he rolled his shoulders.

"...Not at this moment," she said and Yal chalked it up to shock on her part. Soon, the grandness of his self would drive her mad with envy.

"So, do you desire powerful magic? Turn his royal jewels to hunks of gold?" he asked and she shook her head.

"Well, I was-"

"A cursed golden scimitar that will keep him alive no matter how many times you cut him up?" he said excitedly. She looked excited or horrified at that one.

"Gods, no-"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"Swear to no god in my domain lest you wish to lose your tongue," Yal dropped all the excitement and fun in his tone and sounded like the ancient beast he actually was.

"O-Of course, great Dungeon. My apologies..." she stammered.

"Great! Now, how about a golden hive that makes bejeweled bees that will inject a deadly poison that will make the victim suffer for thirty days and nights with hives and the inability to see the color gold!" he went on with a clap of his hands.

"Can I live here?" she interrupted and he stared at her.

"No," he said with a shock.

"Please! I beg of thee!" she bowed again and Yal crossed his arms.

"You can beg of thee, bee, knees, and all things me, but the answer is no. You're not... symmetrical," he said, shivering.

"What do you mean? I have been called pretty and fair by many," the woman protested.

"And you should really go and thank them for their kind, if exaggerated, words," he gestured to the stairs back to the town.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," she challenged.

"And I behold you, so off you go!" Yal insisted, getting ready to vanish back into his Dungeon.

"You have no taste!" she snapped and Yal screeched to a stop, running a hand over the entrance of his Dungeon, making the contact emit a high pitch squeal.

"Is that so?" he said, voice tight.

---

In the capital for Verluan, every golden item farmed from the Dungeon and converted to be forever began to ever so slightly vibrate in tension. In a bank, Ned Happy stared as a mountain of gold shuddered with outrage.

"Oh dear," the ghost commented.

---

Yal stalked forward with a haughty tone.

"And this is the golden fountain of the thirty-first floor. Its liquids are the shimmering pearlescent of a full moon, its surfaces are sprinkled with diamond dust, and the smell is practically perfect. Only those who fought here with beauty and grace would ever see this and you want to say you've seen something more beautiful?" Yal challenged the queen who looked a little shell shocked at the sudden 'tour'.

So far, every other floor had impressed her but she always turned to Yal and said she had seen something far more beautiful every time.

And she was telling the truth. It galled Yal.

"What is this gem? This artwork? What is this goblet of gold, this necklace of rubies? What weapon of the greatest smiths have you gazed upon? What white gold have you seen in the sunset?" Yal demanded, not whining.

He was a visage of beauty. One did not whine.

"Contract me properly, and I'll tell you," she offered, holding out a hand. Ever since this little competition had begun, life and youth had returned to the queen's face and Yal did have to admit that she was... not hideous.

Yal stared then held a hand up.

"Let me consult my wisest men," he intoned.

"You have men?" she blinked then went on, "wise men?" she echoed. He vanished to his core room where he sat in front of his 'self'.

A giant ever reflective series of gem panels surrounded his gold core that was the size of a boulder. The mirrors danced and reflected light and illusions.

He stepped into the middle and millions of copies of himself appeared.

"This thespian demands we out do her!" a Yal said, wearing a toga of gold.

"No no! We challenge her to a beautiful duel to the death!" a gladiator version announced.

"Let's just be sad," said a disheveled (but still beautiful, this was important) Yal.

"Should we contract her?" the main Yal asked his echo chamber.

"The most beautiful object will be lost to us if we don't!" an older version announced in outrage.

"EAT. DEVOUR. GOLD" a barely sentient cloud screamed.

"Thank you Philosophical Me and Floor 1-20 me," Yal said with a deep frown.

"You need to let her in," said a darker voice and Yal tensed.

"Who let you back into the chamber? I was pretty sure we all voted to remove you as a jewel in this crown," Yal asked the cracked mirror.

"You can never erase the unsettled rage. Love took Silver, the humans took Lorsa, and darker forces moved around Mayden. You can lock me up, but even the great and 'beautiful' Yal isn't immune to corruption," the shadow whispered.

Yal waved it off.

He was constantly purifying the Seeds of the city. All that drank the water, ate the locally grown food, breathed the air... all that dreamed in Verluan walked in a gilded hall of gold.

His backlog of seeds was truly immense and it was desperate to escape.

The echo chamber was more than just a name. It was a function.

"All in favor of rejecting the human?" Yal said and other voices joined in.

Pain suddenly flowed down from his temple and he yelped, pulling himself from the echo chamber to see the tall lithe form of Lorsa standing over his core.

"Knock!" he hissed and she raised a brow. He hated how she used leylines to sneak in and out of any dungeon she desired, his included.

"Knock knock," she said flatly. Oh, Yal did enjoy the art of good comedy.

"Who's there?" he asked with a smile.

"Norma Lee," she responded.

"Norma Lee who?"

"Norma Lee, I'd kick the crap out of you for wasting the queen's and my own time, but you left a human in your dungeon," Lorsa growled. He stared at her, not seeing the issue.

"An undefended human who got bored an hour ago from where you dumped her on your thirty-first floor," she snarled.

"Oh an hour? I was so busy admiring myself," he mumbled, a little embarrassed. Dungeons and time always had a rocky relationship.

Once they were comfortable, what was an hour? A day? Really, a month?

"Well, she was nearly mauled, but she found one of your gold swords and beheaded the 31st floor boss with luck. I showed up just as she was looting herself a 'Ruby dress set' that kills those that exceed its waist line?" she reported, eyes raising in a question.

"Ruby can be unflattening. Emerald is more fitting of someone with something to hold. Sapphire is a good between, but only works well in some galas, but not others," he explained.

"This is why Ruby is such a mess. She inherited your gaudy tastes," Lorsa sighed.

Yal could see that. Ruby was... how would one say... tired of sand in her places.

"I kept her close. And she didn't get all my personality. Only some of my gloriousness was siphoned off when I hit floor 100," he pointed out and Lorsa smiled weakly.

Right... Yal could have smacked himself.

"The Twins will heal. The Shattering only grazed them. And your first daughter is... was... " he tried to be soothing. That twin Dungeon was as nuts as a mutant king squirrel saving for winter. He loved Lorsa, but her 100 floor split off kid was bipolar. Her first dungeon was special but it was a shame what happened.

"The siblings want to use Mayden's 100th floor and what's left of Silver's potential mixed with your 150th floor offshoot to make something special. They won't say what but it's big," Lorsa said quietly as they reappeared near the queen.

"Can't believe that bronze slacker hasn't hit 100," Yal snorted.

"He's a perfectionist," Lorsa said coolly.

"Perfectly annoying. He edits his floors. His first floors! Does history mean nothing to him?" Yal muttered.

"And Silver... that idiot," Yal sighed as they watched the queen practise with a short sword, not looking too bad with it in her hands.

"Silver was a back talking, smartass know-it-all who lectured us, but he was our pain in the ass," Lorsa said sadly with a shake of her head.

"No sign of him?" Yal asked, trying to appear unbothered.

"The trail of silver mutants stretches from the north all the way to the east. Whatever vessel he has taken on to avoid dying is imperfect," she shrugged.

"What's east?" Yal asked. His mental mapping skills were a bit rusty since he didn't often shift focus off himself.

"Ruby, a few smaller Dungeons, the false tree, a few modest cities, and not a lot else," Lorsa said, having near perfect recall.

Nothing that Silver cared for, when he was still a Dungeon at least.

"And the one who broke his heart?" he asked, his voice almost impossible to hear, but Lorsa did hear it and her hands clenched.

"The 'woman' has been taken care of. She calls herself Lare if that means anything," Lorsa offered. It didn't but he returned his attention back to the queen.

"Should I accept her? As a contract?" he asked, hating the question.

"She's wounded and she wants to be close to home," his elder sibling commented.

"I don't know the first thing about co-existing with a sad woman," he complained, crossing his arms and flicking his golden halo of hair.

"Then treat it as an upgrade experience. Like a chatty menu," Lorsa grinned.

"Menus do not talk," he said back, childishly.

There was pause.

"Two hours then she leaves."

"Longer."

"Three."

"Longer."

"Five, not an hour more"

"Longer."

"...Six."

Another long pause.

"I refuse to go past a year."

"Longer."

Yal curled his perfect lips and his sister raised her hand to smack him.

"Two years," he bit out.

"Two years as a trial period. You are most gracious, little brother," Lorsa smiled. He huffed and tried to ignore her.

"Oh don't sulk, you will see her shine soon. You have a nose for hidden gems," she said and Yal twitched, hands covering his face

"What makes her so special?" he muttered and Lorsa looked down at her feet.

"She's a little bit Dungeon. Brilda and I converted her seed partially to a dungeon core. She's a human hybrid and it has the Sister excited. She said that Hearah could finally show how to stabilize the project she's been working on," Lorsa admitted.

Yal peered past her flabby arms, splotchy cheeks, two-left feet, split-ends, awkward thighs, and large ears to peer into the core of the woman and Lorsa was right.

The queen had a little bit of Dungeon in her. Just enough to make unlikely life more possible.

"I'll contract her... Only if she tells me what the most beautiful thing she's ever seen is first. I demand to know such beauty," he said stubbornly.

Less than an hour later, he was making a new sculpture. Of a small round golden potato with elegant fingers and dazzling eyes. Hearah patiently described this 'Serma'.

This heavenly treasure. The impossible child.

He ended up with a floating godly potato that glowed with gems and inner light.

How wonderful.

"You got her cheeks all wrong!" Hearah commented as she settled into her becoming the floor 100 contract.

"But my potato!" he said in a defensive tone.

This would be the argument they would continue to have for the next sixteen years.

179: Ruby Slippers and Silver Badges

“What were you thinking?” Allatory snapped as Yattina curiously prodded her new eye. She gave the pale man a curious expression, not quite understanding his anger as he shifted unpacked boxes about his new office. The tiny constructed ‘hut’ was barely a step up from tents and prefabricated sheds, but it did offer more privacy with thicker walls and doors. That was somewhat perfect for secret cult meetings, socially-unwelcomed fanclubs of captains, and dressing downs.

Before she answered, Yattina observed the man’s pale white aura. Allatory’s mana felt tense, like a coiled animal. A sensation Yattina felt was both wonderful and terrifying. Mana was everywhere, she knew this objectively but… she had been so young when her core had been burned out that she couldn’t remember how the world had felt back then.

Now, it was like sunlight warming her skin, even in the gloom of the room. Yattina presumed it was from the pendulum swing of going from zero mana to too much and her body was overreacting. It was sort of like being cold for so long that even a mildly warm room would seem stifling after a few seconds.

It didn’t change the fact that she wanted to sing and dance in the streets of this ‘sort of gray’ town. That was another thing she hadn’t noticed when she arrived. Even with the potent mana of Delta, the town was still a mire of stagnation in places and even with some people.

The gray, the stillness and silence of what was once vibrant mana was sorrowful to finally sense. Below that stillness was an extreme darkness. She saw others, many others that hadn’t gone far enough in Fairplay to have their mana cleansed and people in Durence that had taken in enough of Delta’s mana to react to it.

It called to them, and something in the people responded.

“In order?” she finally responded and started counting on one hand.

“A miracle! A new discovery, Rules bleh. Once in a lifetime opportunity. I think I left a bunsen burner on. No wait, Lim turned it off.” Yattina listed, and Allatory’s eyes narrowed with each word until his pupils were pale blue slits in his face.

“You could have died,” he stressed, butYattina shook her head.

“You are doing what Fairplay excels at. Come in, presume to know what’s best, and ignore all evidence to the contrary. Children have gone into that Dungeon and come out with gifts. People of this town have a dialogue with Delta. She talks and responds to them,” Yattina said, dropping her casual tone.

“That’s to the natives! We are not natives!” Allatory slammed his hand down, while some green finally bled into his mana from his emotions before returning to its pale white after a deep breath.

“Where did you grow up, Captain?” Yattina asked, watching the man tense in response. This question was a double-meaning sort. Kids like Lim wouldn’t pick up on it for some time, but it was essentially asking, in the most roundabout way, ‘what hell did you experience?.’

“Vainglorious.”

The answer came quietly, surprising Yattina. She was expecting a nowhere village to the Diseased Right or perhaps somewhere down by the pillars of the world. Not… not one of the biggest towns of the world.

The city that glowed with riches, every window tinted with rare glass as the gutters glistened with wasted spirits and shattered trinkets. The town that bled gold and dreams as behind, rising into the sky, the Ruby Dungeon grew ever higher.

“If you’re going to ask if I lost anyone to the Dungeon, then no. Everyone I counted as family returned alive and well from the Dungeon,” he said, cutting Yattina off as he finally sat down and started pouring them drinks. Amber liquid for himself and apple juice for Yattina.

It pleased Yattina that the man knew she didn’t drink liver poison.

“But that was never the danger of that Dungeon. It was lethal, but it wasn’t the most dangerous in terms of violence or death,” Allatory went on, his gaze staring down at his drink. Yattina sipped her apple juice, not following.

Her studies on Dungeons were more on the metaphysical side and abilities of a Dungeon, not the cultural impact they had on nearby towns, but it was still something she was interested in.

“The Dungeon there causes a never ending hunger. ‘This floor had rings of opulence and gold, but what of the next floor? We can’t buy you school books, your father needs potions for the next floor’ and so on,” Allatory said with a calm look but his aura had a dark green flicker of emotional pain.

“The culture in Vainglorious is unlike any other town. Most places, they share and discuss how to advance or avoid dangers, but the town has so many people that such knowledge becomes guarded. Hints on floors above the ten well explored floors can cost a gold piece each,” the man went on as if he remembered the price and bargaining clearly.

“People can come into the town, eyes bright and hearts open, only to end up in so much debt they can never leave.” Allatroy shook his head.

“I don’t understand why people would continue to go. There are other dungeons,” Yattina said bluntly. The idea of working oneself to death for money or shiny rocks was… honestly, stupid to her.

“Because of floor fifty,” Allatory said simply. A silence stretched over the room before Allatory winced at bringing up such a subject.

“The lower floors are physical treasures. Gold, jewels, weapons, and all that but level fifty and every ten levels after that, supposedly, the Dungeon rewards people with ‘the treasures of the soul.’ It’s some sort of… I don’t even have a word for it,’” he said slowly.

“My… someone I knew reached floor 50 and got the reward. He acted differently when he came home. The day he returned, he looked around his house smiling to himself as if it was some kind of joke he only now understood. He told his wife that he could now see ‘how temporary this all is. Isn’t it funny what we do with our limited time? Kind of ugly that we waste it down here when we can go higher.’” Yattina stared at the Captain, blinking slowly.

“Do you know who rules Vainglorious?” he asked suddenly.Yattina was getting whiplash at the twists in this conversation.

“The Sultan?” she guessed.

“On paper, yes, but the actual city moves at the whims of the Wisemen. People who have reached these ‘treasure of the souls’ floors. They’re technically councilors, but when they move their hands, the city rearranges itself,” Allatory said quietly.

“Sounds like the sultan is a puppet and these wisemen shape the city but actually get their thinking from…” Yattina trailed off.

“The Ruby Dungeon,” Allatory said flatly.

“A Dungeon that does not kill you does not mean it has no motives,” he said with a strange tone. Yattina held up a hand, knowing they were far off the topic they started.

“Surely not everyone who reaches floor 50 becomes a wiseman. Such a thing would cause Fairplay to slam down hard on it. It would basically be an abomination dungeon with extra steps,” she argued.

“Indeed, but here’s something to think on. No outsider has ever become a wiseman. Not their kids or even their kids’ kids if you look at the records. Every wiseman has had a family based in Vainglorious for generations, a lot of generations. Here’s another interesting thing. The Ruby Dungeon, as far as anyone can study or research, has never had a single contract to its name,” Allatory leaned in and his aura was pale mint green now, as if he was unloading a heavy subject for the first time ever.

Yattina stared at the ground, at the surge of orange mana that flowed deep underground like a river, likely a mana vein that Delta was revitalizing. She stared at it, letting it sweep her attention away as she thought of the Ruby Dungeon.

She could almost see it in these turbulent mana veins. A tower of gleaming marble rings in bands of gold, sapphires, onyx, and more. It felt so vivid she could almost taste the hot air and feel the sand in her hair.

The town of Vainglorious spread before the tower in a semicircle like a crescent moon. Why didn’t it encircle the tower completely? The tower itself was like a giant sundial, causing life to form and die rapidly in the shadow it cast.

The tower was high, but the top wasn’t out of sight. She could see a bird flying near its top, close one moment then a tiny dot the next. Dungeon spatial warping, the tower was much higher than it appeared.

The tower itself looked normal for a moment, but then her eye tingled before burning just for a moment. Red-, No, Ruby-like streams flowed to the town in a mist-like quality. The number of items being harvested from the Dungeon was so vast and never-ending that Dungeon mana rose into the air like a steaming mist, breathed in by every customer and merchant. The fog rose unseen into the air, turning the city from a mess of opulent mansions, towers, slums, and dark places into a red-tinged labyrinth.

Yattina could only see a faint image, but there was something strange at the edge of town. A golden mist that clashed with the ruby one. The golden energy was so thick and strong, ocean-like in its immensity, that it was all the ruby mist could do to maintain a break in the golden waves.

The golden energy seemed unaware of the ruby energy, but the ruby energy dedicated day and night to pushing back the golden influence. When she looked at the golden mist, she could see a massive, ancient, shifting mess of expanding golden floors that was so sprawling it could have spread across the entire land if it had kept expanding outward instead of delving down into the earth as well.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Tracing the golden Mist to its origin, Yattina could see the Capital City of Verluan resting over its core.

Allatory’s voice broke the spell.

“I just think it’s too soon to presume anything, and you’re the only one I can count on to make sense of this all,” the man said tiredly.

“There are other researchers,” Yattina replied distractedly, as her brain tried to comprehend what she saw. Her eye felt hot, almost too hot for her own skull.

“None of them are as stubborn as you or willing to argue when they see something stupid. I don’t need yes-men, I need answers.” Allatory smiled as he drained his glass.

“Sometimes to get answers, I must jump down the holes or lick the rocks,” Yattina said unapologetically.

“We have new recruits to push down holes and people who like licking rocks working for us,” he argued, watching Yattina drain her apple juice like it was hard liquor.

“I don’t want second-hand data,” she scoffed. Allatory rolled his eyes, but like a well-trained bartender, poured her another shot of apple juice.

Good man. Yattina might be able to tolerate him if he kept his aura minty and not just pale. Still, she had some unfinished business to deal with before she got rocked up on the juice.

---

Caline looked at the supplies of HE-RO units he had lost and was torn between writing the batch up for being defective or having a report made about how the Dungeon mana had made them run out of control and to discontinue the line.

The units were good in other Dungeons, but if they ended up like this freak-show, then Caline had no real use for them. He looked down at the fried control unit crystal, the piece of once clear lattice was now a burned ruined wreck where the feedback of the unit was utterly destroyed. He had no use for tools he couldn’t control. It would lead to sloppy work and the deaths of more loyal men than necessary.

His door opened, and he put on his pleasant and in-control face. Behind the facade, he grimaced at the sight of that researcher woman. Her name escaped him right now after today’s events, but he hardly ever remembered researchers unless they were one of the few legendary sorts.

Jenia Visp was one such name. The inventor of the Core Armaments. This woman, she was the sister of the Maiden deserter, Caline remembered now. She was staring at him with some ghastly orange-looking orb in her eye socket and looking as disgusted as he felt.

“Ser Caline,” she said, the words dripping with hostility. This was new, not many were so openly hostile out of the gate. They feared their future in the company too much for such brazen disrespect.

“Yes, and you are…?” he prompted. This made her visibly annoyed, and he smiled internally. Some people could use a little deflating of their egos, especially these ‘smart’ sorts.

“Yattina Halenuo Congord Flimina, researcher and the person who managed to physically get the deepest in the local Dungeon,” she reported dismissively, as if Caline was a slug she had just noticed on her roses. He couldn’t help but frown. That accomplishment gave her more political power than he was happy with.

It made her the ‘expert’ of the Dungeon for now. Even if Caline’s toys had gotten deeper, he himself hadn’t.

“How can I help you?” he asked kindly, dripping with false sincerity. He’d have to bring this woman under his wing. Riches, power and treasures always flowed up after all, and it wouldn’t hurt to make her reliant on him to continue her research.

She stared at him and looked mildly put off.

Caline blanched before he could stop himself. Usually people at least smiled back…

“I have complaints to make,” she said, and Caline perked up. If he solved her problems, she would doubtless be more malleable to his suggestions. Still, he’d have to check his appearance in a mirror soon. Women generally found him agreeable to their eyes, but not this one.

It was throwing him off.

“Tell me,” he encouraged. She looked him right in the eyes and her fake eye made him squirm internally as a vaguely familiar symbol of a thick-sided triangle surfaced from its depths.

“You released restricted machines into the local Dungeon, broke further rules by allowing them to reach critical levels. One of them stabbed me and almost killed me a second time as it exploded, and now I have to sit down with a buttstain after an otherwise pristine experience of this Dungeon,” the woman said, and Caline’s mind went blank.

No one had spoken to him like this in a very long time.

“I am… dare you…” he spluttered before reaching for his four-fingered badge, but Yattina slammed something down on the desk before him.

It was a rolled up scroll with the symbol of a complete hand on the wax seal. Five-digits.

“I made a quick visit back to HQ,” she said and Caline stared at her.

This was not good.

The hand of Fairplay symbolized the five men and women in charge of Fairplay that served directly under Director Ripdoy. Which one was it? If it was the Finger of the Blades, he might have a chance to spin this back onto the insubordinate woman…

It was also annoying that Yattina seemed to have used the portal twice, but her clothes only looked as if they had been cleaned and repaired rather than smaller. He unrolled the scroll and glared at the sign of the research department, a crooked hand with the thumb raised, ready to push down on a pen.

“I wasn’t aware that Manager Visp and you were on speaking terms,” he observed, voice devoid of any emotion.

“Unaware of things beyond your immediate scope of imagination. Color me surprised,” Yattina said coolly.

This piece-

He read the missive as fast as possible, his face paling with each line.

‘Commander Caline of the Blades.

It has been brought to my attention you have somehow acquired and also wasted twenty units of the ‘Hellion Robot’ series. On top of that, your actions nearly ruined a valuable understanding in Dungeon science.

I contacted the Manager of the Blades, Bronco, and he has agreed to allow me to set your punishment. He asked me to let you know that this is not negotiable. Bronco is a smart man who sees what a colossal mess you have caused. Enough that he and I skipped our week long arguments and got down to sorting this out before you somehow cause a second Shattering.

Right now, you are demoted to Third rank, whileResearcher Yattina is promoted to Fourth, making her, effective immediately, your superior.

She will be in charge of supervising your actions until Fairplay has concluded its first contact with the local dungeon. One more toe out of line and I will take your Soul Armament, rejoin it to your body without anesthetic and then demote you to recruit for the next ten years.

I do not tolerate those who waste my time, my research, or this paper I am using to write to you. You have done all three, and it’s only because of years of service that you are not heading to the Diseased Right toiling in relief work until the day you die.

The good news is that you get to keep your office, because Researcher Yattina prefers her lab like any sane woman would.

Do not make me come down there.

-Jeina Visp.

There was movement, and Yattina slowly and deliberately took her time reaching over and taking his four-finger badge,dropping her own three-finger badge on the table where it landed with a clack, on its pin for a moment.

“I prefer to recycle. Hope you don’t mind, Blade Caline,” she said softly.

He opened his mouth, readying his Core Armament for retaliation until the last words of the message came back to him like a slap to the face.

‘Do not make me come down there.’

His blood froze, as if the woman could sense his intent across the world.

Jenia Visp could not only melt his soul weapon, but also manipulate it. Her own tool was vastly stronger too. Rumor was that she could read the mana veins of the world in her lab, right down to tracking one person.

A skill the Manager of the Scouts envied, the index finger of Fairplay for prodding.

“No… issue, Ser Yattina,” he whispered. It was a big issue.

It was a massive issue.

The ‘box’ he owned could only be opened because he tuned it to his badge for security purposes.

Curse her. Curse this town. Curse this freak of a dungeon.

Curse them all.

The moment he thought this with intense emotion, he sat upright as something like a wedge of cheese moved down his gut.

The old man’s curse! He rushed past Yattina and to the latrine in agony.

“Some people don’t handle loss well,” he heard Yattina say, but he couldn’t do anything but waddle away.

---

Delta paused as she took a break on crab island, resting in a hammock.

Something had pinged her.

“The goblins are hatching,” she said, sitting up instantly. She tried to get off the hammock, but her physicality made her flip over and tangle her foot in the hammock in her haste.

“Help!” She twisted around for a moment before remembering she was near-omnipotent in this space. Her foot phased through the hammock, and she stood up to the gaze of a dozen crabs.

“No one saw a thing,” she said smoothly, sand in her hair.

“Come along Primal… Prim! Prim!” she told the screen, and the thing let out an alarmed ping.

‘Sub-system has been named. Cursed with existence! No!’

Prim was so funny. Between her and Nu, Delta had a comedic duo at her fingertips!

180: Silver Where?

Cois, Billy, and Numb were some of her oldest creations along with Mushy and Maestro, so it was beyond pleasing to Delta that Billy and Numb were hatching from their evolution eggs. Why did they need to be in eggs? Delta didn't really know.

Prim had an answer, even if she was refusing to directly respond to her name.

'The shells protect the monsters from foreign mana that could destabilize or mutate the monsters inside into a less desirable state. Examples would include an aquatic monster being tinged with fire and creating disharmony in its function.'

"But mutations can also be good or healthy, sometimes things need to get a little wild to create a diverse ecosystem," Delta said as Fera gently put both eggs on one of her tables. She had an aloof manner as always, but Delta knew she was excited.

She had closed down the bar. Fera never closed the bar.

'A dungeon is controlled down to the last detail. Create, learn, and improve, this is a cycle that is the foundation of a dungeon.'

Delta wasn't sure if Prim was clinging to the statement due to her nature or desperation.

"Sure, learning is cool," Delta said with a wide smile.

'You do not learn. You have an outcome and make it happen. If something challenges that outcome, you assimilate it, destroy it, or drive it mad.' Prim's words seemed accusatory and Delta didn't see what the big issue was.

"Well, Sis said that other Dungeons weren't doing as well as she hoped so she invited me into it all. So, by your mindset, since Sis is the absolute law on dungeons…that means I'm the superior method," she pointed out and Prim's screen glitched for a moment.

'What you say is true, but for some reason, I do not want to accept it as truth.'

"That's denial, sugar," Fera grunted as the two eggs shook. Delta leaned in with anticipation.

Billy hatched first, making a smooth opening which he emerged from without a word, his form dripping in congealed orange mana that flaked off quickly into the air. Billy had always been the quiet one of the trio, but whereas he was slightly menacing looking, he still had an air of approachability after a moment. This wasn't the case anymore.

His dark green skin was so dark it was almost black, his cloak hood was replaced by a full body ensemble of a mix of red and black leathers with a huge red scarf wrapped around his lower jaw, creating a slight cape behind him with Delta's symbol on it. Knives decorated his belt and on one hand was a dark gunmetal gauntlet with wicked claws that could let him hang off stone walls as easily as tear flesh from bone.

His bald head was smooth without any marks as his crimson eyes stared around the room, his ears pierced a dozen times with rings and studs.

Delta had to admit he was a little dangerous looking but still very cool!

He pulled down his scarf covering his mouth to reveal-

Delta froze as Billy's jaw seemed to hang lower than expected, appearing both too long and deep without misshaping his face. He inhaled once and nearby candles seemed to flicker inwards, trying to avoid being sucked in by the gentle inhale.

Inside Billy's mouth was a dark void that belonged to no flesh.

Billy the Assassin has been created!
Abilities:
Stalk: Able to go to any floor once they mark a target.
Dead men tell no tales: On a successful kill, Billy can inhale their soul and stop it reaching an afterlife.
Poison Immunity: Nothing below legendary or mythical poison can affect this goblin.
Cocktail lover: Will only drink cocktails with umbrellas in them.

"Gods, I could kill for a White Russian," Billy groaned, his voice so rough it felt like glass to the ears. It seemed Billy also had access to the next 'layer' of Delta's knowledge since he evolved…

"The drink or…" Delta trailed off as Billy covered his lower face and grinned with those feral eyes.

"Either or."

That was when Numb's egg hatched and unlike Billy, Numb seemed to have flexed so hard his eggshells went flying all over the bar. He stood up… and up… and up.

Delta craned her neck, mouth dropping open.

Numb looked 'almost' human. He was about six foot with enough muscle packed on his body to make someone demand a drug test. He grinned, one canine sticking over his lip as he rolled his neck, making joints pop.

He wore a simple loose top that was more for modesty's sake than any protection from the elements and a similar set of pants. His bare feet touched the bar floor, and he looked around with interest.

Delta got a strange alert from her system, followed by another, then more.

'Numb has obtained the title of 'Hero.' This title allows access to epic quests and underwhelming rewards! Numb has been detected by Love Spirits. Numb now has access to over three hundred heroic destiny items in the world! Numb now has-'

"Stop! Stop!" Delta said as more pop-ups began to obscure her vision.

'Due to Alpha rejecting all social and inspiring heroic quests, these have been transferred to his 'elder sister' and to Numb! 4392 active social and reputation quests transferred!'

"Numb can't leave the Dungeon!" she cried out and there was a new notification.

'Delta is becoming famous. All quests will come to her! Such is the price of being too prone to 'mutating'!'

There was a note, and Prim let out a cry of relief as Nu stepped back into the picture.

'Oh… you're sentient now. I left you alone for an hour.' Nu sighed as Prim retreated to the shadowy bowels of the system and out of sight.

"Nu, I made a protagonist! 'I'm a Goblin and the Princess wants to marry me?!' level of protagonist!" Delta said in panic as Numb flexed and his shirt strained.

'It won't be too bad. It's not like a princess will actually come here. The chances of that are so low that it's laughable, besides, I've looked through these 'quests.' Most of them are unfinished because they required Alpha to 'impress a baker with his cooking' or 'make a sad girl laugh' or… you get the idea.'

"Alpha could totally-" Delta cut herself off as she recalled a strange memory.

It was distant, like a watery ripple but she saw a boy, like Alpha, standing in the middle of a classroom. Groups had formed for a project, and Alpha was by himself, unmoving and unbothered by the result.

A girl approached him.

'Do you want to join our group? We are doing our project on boy bands!' she had said, and Alpha looked at her strangely.

'I don't like boybands,' he had said with a calm tone. The girl blinked then retreated.

"Never mind," she muttered and looked at Numb's pop-up.

'Numb the hero has been created!
Abilities:
Destiny: A destiny has been crafted by- Error. Sister has prevented gods from putting a destiny on Numb. Sister's destiny: Be himself.
Hero: While protecting someone, his abilities sharply rise.
Chosen One: Numb can master any skill to a decent level, even complicated arts.
Heart of Gold: His intentions come across so clearly they can cause any maiden or young lord to instantly fall for him. The more negative their first impression beforehand, the stronger the turn about. Warning: This skill does not create or force love. This skill only conveys Numb's intentions to receptive people and makes Numb more apparent and open if they dismissed him beforehand. For attraction, Numb's physical appearance has been made 'moderately desirable' to the public.
Nemesis: A villain somewhere in the world will be drawn to Numb. Heart of Gold might also affect them.

Delta stared at this with a long expression.

"I don't want thirsty people coming down here for my goblin himbo," she said bluntly. It would be like Estal coming back and seeing Rale and Numb in the same room. Delta didn't need that degeneracy!

"I don't feel any different; I thought I'd feel all heroic and stuff," Numb said, and his voice sounded both innocent and deep.

Like a lion with shorts on.

"Heroes must taste delicious," Billy cackled. Nearby, Cois was sitting in the corner, looking pensive at the result of his brothers. Delta knew the fire mage had a big choice coming up for his own evolution path, but she didn't push him.

Cois always had body issues, and she wanted to be supportive.

Still, it made her think of Estal and how the group was getting on.

---

Yattina felt giddy, sick, and dazed all at the same time as she walked down the path between different Fairplay buildings. The badge on her chest was heavy and constantly pulling at her attention. Her old badge didn't feel this heavy.

People were looking at her differently. Some with surprise, shock, and some others, perhaps loyalists of Caline, with hate. Well, as much hate as their torn souls would allow.

She paused when she saw a group near the front of the camp. Adventurers by the look of it, two men and a woman. The woman was leaning on the reception table with a furious expression. Yattina eyed her revealing dress and high heels which seemed to defy the mud she stood on with magic platforms.

Why didn't she just wear flat shoes if she was going outside?

Yattina drew closer to hear the woman ranting at some poor single-finger ranked man who worked the desk.

"-I don't care who you need to kiss or worse to get something done, but I want parties organized, I want groups in formation, I want people helping!" she barked, and the man looked torn between terror and breathless admiration.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"S-Ser Yattina!" the man said, and Yattina blinked.

Right… She had obtained a rank equal to an honored knight within Fairplay. It felt weird. She preferred captain. The woman spun on her spindly heels to face her, pausing in shock at Yattina's appearance before schooling her features.

"Estal, that's a four-finger. Not worth the trouble," one of the men hissed.

"How can I help?" she questioned. This would be her first act since promotion. Helping people was a good start.

"My name is Estal, this is Hazhur and Karn. Our teammate is missing," she said with a tone like a snake that was spitting fire.

"Missing?" she echoed, and the woman inhaled sharply through her nose.

"Missing. Location Unknown. Not here, and we do not know why. Away without a note! I was owed a note at least! I was beginning to get used to him and even design a proper outfit for him, and he's gone!" Estal snapped.

Missing people weren't Fairplay's area, but Yattina decided not to brush this off. She could say that 'aiding the locals aided Fairplay long term' or some nonsense if she needed a reason.

"What about the local authority?" she asked and the group tensed.

"We uh… asked the local PK, and he was too busy chasing ducks," Hazhur muttered.

"We tried Ruli, but she's not home," Karn said, and for the first time, Yattina noticed they were all wearing Peacekeeper bands, a means by which a Peacekeeper enforced a punishment on people.

Were these people criminals of sorts?

"Ma'am, I said we wouldn't get involved," the receptionist said stiffly, and Yattina shot him a curious look.

"Their teammate," he said with an expression close to disgust on his face, "is a Silver-Tainted," he said, the words thick with history. Estal turned, grabbed the man by his shirt, and drew him closer. Their noses were almost touching when she hissed to his terrified face.

"Don't talk about my freaky teammate with that tone," she said, her eyes flashing with decently powerful magic. An arc of black lightning flickered off her body, and the air smelled of ozone.

"Enough," Yattina said and strode forward. She had just finished dealing with Caline, she didn't need another one in the wings. She looked down at the receptionist, who looked at her with an air of confidence as if Yattina was about to swoop in and protect him.

"You are assigned to clean whatever this town has for a sewer and guard duty," she said, and the man paled. Estal also blanched.

"Not this town's sewers!" she said in a panic, and Yattina blinked at them. They were defending the man now?

"Trust us… just make him stand all day," Hazhur said with pain. Yattina merely nodded, sending the man off as she listened to their story.

She had to admit she now had an ulterior motive for helping them.

Yattina found the Silver-People a fascinating and interesting subject, and to meet one in person would be amazing.

Estal looked uncomfortable now that she no longer had an easy target for her wrath.

"Silver, we call him Sil, was tasked with going into the forest and collecting herbs for Mrs. Dabberghast since he was the only one who could go into her garden and not die of poison," Estal said bluntly. Yattina stared, merely making mental notes.

"He didn't come back, and when we looked… all we found was his coat," Karn said with a deep frown.

"A hate crime?" Yattina asked, and the others looked unsure.

"He's still in the area because Quiss said if we go too far from Durence, we teleport back with the words 'dumbass' stamped on our head," Hazhur said with a pained expression.

"I can tell people to keep an eye out, but I don't know any way to track-" she trailed off as an idea hit her.

Delta had a map in her Dungeon of moving orange motes. Would Sil be one of them? It would depend on how it worked and how close these people had been to Delta.

"We may need to consult the local Dungeon. Do you know anything about Delta? I'd be happy to guide you?" she offered. The group stared at her.

Estal's face began to twitch, an involuntary muscle spasm she couldn't stop as lightning crackled around her.

"We've met," Hazhur said with a very strained tone, and Yattina blinked at them.

Then she thought of Delta outside of 'tour mode.'

"Ah…" she said aloud.

Nothing else had to be said.

---

Delta hummed as she watched Numb bench press a bar table with Billy and Cois on it.

"I could use him for manual labor," Fera said with a grin, "the best kind," she added.

"Family?" Delta said with a smile.

"Free," Fera responded as one of Jeb's burps reached up the nearby dumbwaiter.

"Just be careful, he's a 'hero' now. He'll open a portal to hell or similar by cooking something wrong," Delta muttered. Filler arcs could appear anywhere and everywhere for no reason, after all.

"Will more Fairplay guys come soon?" Billy asked, and Delta looked up at him with a blink.

"Soon, I guess. They seem persistent," she said and presumed Billy was just eager to try his new form-

"You want to eat their souls, don't you?" she asked bluntly. Billy smiled like a child caught with a snack he shouldn't have.

"Never, but if one of them accidentally falls down stairs, chokes on food, suffocates underwater, in their sleep, on thin air, and other normal events, I could try it to see what happens," Billy said smoothly.

"That sounds like murder with extra deniable steps," Delta said flatly.

"It's not murder. It's trimming the genepool," Billy argued.

"Don't get sassy with me, young man!" Delta warned, and Billy grinned, ducking into the shadows to wander off.

"Teenagers," Fera scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "Only one thing on their minds," she said as she retreated behind the bar to mix a drink.

"Sticking things into people?" Delta said with a sigh.

"To do as much as possible with as little effort as possible," Fera stated with absolute confidence.

"I can do better than that! 5000 squats, here I go!" Numb proclaimed and began to lower, then lift his body. Fera eyed him.

"He's going places, mostly into walls," she said gruffly and grabbed bottles. Delta noticed she had a lot more liqueurs now. Delta read a few of them, wincing at some and grinning at others.

A black bottle with a silver claw on the cap was labeled 'Death Star Shot' with an image of an exploding star. It promised to 'kill you, then make you drunk.'

Another contained a thick green spirit that was almost creamy. It was called 'Jellagon's Boozygone.' The label under it said that it was the only 90% alcohol that would not give you hangover but warned of sudden new employment upon awakening. There was a thick grimy bottle called 'Jeb's Feelgood.' A drink brewed from Troll Soup that had been filtered a dozen times over and then mixed with mint.

It had a catchy jingle on the front.

'Jeb's Feelgood! So good, you won't feel it in a few moments!'

There was a new line of drinks forming, but only five of the wine bottles were in place, leaving seven empty slots. It wasn't hard to see the source.

'Lion's Courage: Courage promised, wisdom is not.'

'Gem In the Eye: See double, good for food, bad for problems.'

'Coconut Crab: Tastes good and is not alcoholic. Crab supports you not drinking.'

'Read Bull: You're not drunk! You can read this, after all!

'Horn Juice: Makes anyone interesting after enough sips.'

Delta noticed that the shelf had a strange pipe system where tubes would connect to all potential twelve wine bottles and then mix them together in a container to drip into a single, final bottle. The bottle was there, and it was even labeled, even if it was empty.

'Shooting Star: Only for those who have beaten the Fourth Floor. This drink is strong enough to grant minor wishes. Limited in supply.'

Fera put a drink down, and Delta had been too distracted to see what she mixed.

"What is it?" she asked curiously, as it was a teal blue color and smelled of something sweet.

"'Duck Hunt,'" Fera said with a feral grin. Delta took a sip, and the tart flavor was almost hot at first, followed by a cutting cool aftertaste like a knife through the flames. She peeked at the system for the tooltip for this drink.

Duck Hunt: This drink either makes you very lucky or very unlucky. You also have a chance to turn all rewards into knife versions of themselves until you leave!

"I've also got this to sort out," Fera said as she slammed a sealed metal box onto the bar top labeled 'herbs from the secret garden.' Delta leaned away from it on instinct.

"Maybe don't open that?" Delta suggested. Fera shot her a look.

"The evils of humanity are already here, and hope fled a long time ago," she grumbled as she used a crowbar to pry the box open to reveal a dozen jars and species for Fera to cook with and turn into drinks.

Most of them would either kill someone or make them a minor god, Delta guessed.

Fera picked up a golden mushroom and grinned.

"Hero Burger," she rasped, and Delta shivered as something in her soul feared for the people who ordered it.

Something in her just knew that the burger would not be so easily defeated by someone with only average guts.

181: Skull and Eyes

Delta expected something a little more respectful from Fairplay, despite everything. Less than two days after the robot invasion, groups of them began to enter her Dungeon once more with their one or two Finger-Badges. Delta could now see clear differences in some of the badges. There was a type holding a sword or an arrow, and very rarely, one holding a book. None of them made it much further than the Mushroom Grove or the Goblin Fort.

Billy and Numb were honestly terrifying in their own way. Billy took down whole groups when he was bored, stalking them from the shadows, and Delta had to remind him he wasn't allowed to 'soul gulp' any of the poor people.

Numb went through any group like a bowling ball, his fist making strikes with a dashing smile.

Cois was acting odd, but Delta gave him space. He wasn't one to be rushed, and Delta had time to let the goblin come to peace with whether he wanted to evolve or not.

There was a marked difference in how Fairplay operated now. Less like a steamroller and more willing to play by the rules. Some of the groups swapped out their swords and spears for blunter versions, while their mages didn't go so hard on the lethal elemental spells.

It clearly was not something they enjoyed doing, being 'gentle,' but they respected their orders if nothing else.

Fairplay was just one thing, but what was more exciting, or 'concerning' if you ask Nu, were the groups coming between Fairplay.

Adventurers had finally been let into the Dungeon, and they had come in droves.

There was just one little issue…

'Maximum number of outsiders in Dungeon. The Entrance is sealed!'

Delta was roomy, but fifty people at once, even spread across floors, just wasn't going to work. The fact that the second floor was 'a mark of expertise' made Delta understand something she just didn't want to admit before. Her Dungeon was just a little…

"DON'T BREAK THE POTS!"

"Duck! DUCK! Retreat!"

"I can't get out of the mud, I'm in plate armor!"

Delta's Dungeon was a little misleading.

The weird thing was that despite tons of new people coming, the offerings that some left remained common stuff. Copper, some local wood sculptures, the same old coin and change, and not a lot more.

Delta was hoping for something a little more special or interesting after a while, but she guessed Adventuring was a lot like buying storage units off dead people and hoping that inside was a treasure trove.

More often than not, it was a cost sink with a rare windfall. The people bought what they needed, carried what they could, and moved on.

"If you killed them, their gear would likely be more interesting," Nu said, reading Delta's thoughts. Delta stared down at three people getting tossed about and tormented by Merry and Twittee.

"I can't. They're just so sad to look at," she said after a moment.

"One of them got knocked out by your sign before the Spider-room. One of them was beaten before they reached the first room. Nu, I'm drowning in noobs," Delta said with a pitying expression as one of the adventurers climbed down the well in the Goblin Fort room, thinking it was a secret passage past the unstoppable duo of Billy and Numb.

His scream when he found Clamamity was shrill.

Delta might need to make a rotation of the goblins. Numb one time, Billy another, and Cois in between. Three at once could be a challenge or a raid!

Still, it didn't solve her current issue.

The solution to her problem was there but Delta had a problem to the solution to her original problem.

Create a Secondary Instance to allow more people inside at once? Instances are mirror dimensions of your Dungeon, replicating it down to the last detail. These collapse and do not respawn monsters after the Adventurers pass through, making them cost effective. However, all personalities and more unique event markers will be toned down to make the cost affordable.

All Mirror Dimensions lead to your true core.

These mirror copies of her Dungeon felt like a step forward, two to the side, and then three back. The whole point of her Dungeon was to show how murder and bloodshed weren't the only options. These mirror dimensions would be badly generated AI mimics that people would treat as normal Dungeons.

The other factor was that interaction with people helped her monsters grow. Shunting most of the adventurers into little fake copies would also be depriving them all the experience.

She tried to get more information from Prim.

Mirror Dimensions are collapsible and unable to be changed by the core due to their impermanence. Those sensitive to the Dungeon can use different methods to tell if they're in the true Dungeon or a Mirror. The most obvious is that the entrance can still be seen and interacted with in the true Dungeon while in the Mirror Dungeons, the entrance is obscured by a wall of mist.

"Hm good to know, but it doesn't offer a solution," Delta mused as she watched an adventurer sneak past Numb and into the Hog's Head, only to be knocked out by Fera when he tried to charge her.

'What solution do you even want?' Nu asked irritably as if he found all this to be beneath them both.

"Work backwards?" Delta said, thinking about it. She wanted people in her Dungeon, but didn't want to be overloaded. She wanted a way for a lot of people to be in her Dungeon without causing congestion. This was important but she didn't want to forsake her values and her intent with low rate knockoffs.

Thinking, Delta opened her menu and found the Instance menu. It seemed innocuous enough with a purchase button, a destroy button, and customized button-

"Oh what does this button do?" she hummed and pushed the quivering screen with one finger.

Instance Customization.
To unlock this you must pay 20 DP-

"Add to basket and order," Delta said instantly. She had so much DP due to everyone's offerings, and the occasional dropped item, that it was a wonder how she got anything done before.

Delta paused and grimaced.

Right… Mushrooms.

'Option purchased!

Instance Reality Logic now functional!

Error, numerous bugs have been detected due to corruption of the core system. Continue?

"Eh, I don't see why not?" Delta said with a shrug.

Instances:
Mirror Dimension: 50 DP
Boss Rush Mode: 30 DP
>n>secretgardenprison<n< 300 DP.
All Monsters are now Blackhole Piggles: 1000 DP
Linked Overmind Zone: 300 DP

"What's that last one?" Delta said, ignoring the rest with all her willpower.

"Five Instances are melded together to make a truer experience of the Dungeon. All Monsters in the True Dungeon 'exist' in both, experiencing two bodies at any given time. This is usually done to allow Dungeons to maintain lethal tactics used by certain monsters or bosses across all instances. The memories of one zone do not merge with the true Dungeon monster until it is defeated in the LOZ instance or the invaders fail and are ejected. This will only cover the first floor. Repeated purchases for other floors at increasing costs are available after the purchase of this instance."

"It is six times more expensive than a normal Instance, but how much would floor 2 cost if I got the same purchase?" Delta asked slowly.

"500 DP"

Delta almost let out a woop of excitement but had to ask one last question.

"What's the downside?" she asked and Prim hesitated.

"LOZ instances are true in both directions. If an event would cause immense destruction in a LOZ and the True Dungeon at the same time, the damage would be considered doubled at the same space instead of spread out. The more LOZ instances, the higher chance you risk the possibility of a dangerous attack occuring at the same place at the same time in all the zones. The result is multiplicative, not additive."

Delta stared at the screen,

"I exist in more dimensions, but all dimensions lead back to me if something goes wrong," she summed up as she thought about the purchase. If there was an exploding He-Ro unit on every LOZ instance and her true Dungeon…

"And I bet I can't close an instance if people are inside?" she guessed as she floated over Waddle's lake.

"No. If there is room in the True Dungeon, they might be moved there, but otherwise the instance cannot be closed."

"It's risky and an unnecessary risk compared to normal Instances," Nu chimed in, making the screen partly blue and partly green with smidges of orange in places.

Her menus were beginning to look a little like a poisonous mush-

Frog. A cute little frog.

"It'd only be a risk if my monsters were weak or mindless. I trust them to protect me, I trust all versions of them," Delta said confidently and bought the upgrade.

It was going to be fine-

----

An orange mote in a still land of gray. It vibrated. It shook. It shivered.

Then it split into two identical spheres of the same shape and size.

The subspace used for Dungeons to contain their ever spreading bodies was monitored closely by Brother, and he stared as the first instance of Delta dwarfed others massively. The balance looked perfect at first, but unlike other Dungeons, threads of green and blue sprouted between the two orange spheres, causing them to come together in such a way that there was a tiny bit of overlap.

The blue and green 'veins' spread around each sphere, making them look like some very scary cherries.

It looked like a set of eyes.

---

Delta was worried she might gain a twin (an evil one), or perhaps she would begin thinking in hyperspeed with double speak, but… it was just like adding a new floor to her Dungeon. The only difference was the LOZ went sideways and sort of glued on to her Entrance.

Delta just existed there, same as before. She did feel more anchored to the world, more real in a sense of having metaphysical weight.

"That could have been worse," she admitted.

Her screen next to her was constricting, then contracting, like a heartbeat with the sides melting, only to solidify with a snap a second later.

"Nu? Prim?" she called out, a little nervously.

The screen turned totally blue as Nu seemed to return.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"It's fine! We just encountered an unknown sensation. We are at peak condition with salad dressing. Salad… no I meant serenade… no I didn't."

The screen turned teal, then aquamarine, then leaf green, then blue again. Delta peered at the screen, then went Dungeon Mode to utterly gaze at them.

Nu and Prim had their wires crossed due to the fact that the system had tried to take everything over, including them, to ensure quality.

It didn't see Nu or Prim as separate, leading them to be all bunched up. It was easy to fix as she grabbed Nu's 'self' and sort of just pulled off Prim's green bits. Her grabbing and moving was actually deep complex coding that she didn't quite understand how she was doing, but her Dungeon Mind was excelling at.

If she pretended parsing and call commands were fingers while references and debuggers were her pulling motions… it worked out.

Mana, soul, self, and other tiny things were just fun little symbols that hurt her mind to gaze at. She held Nu aloft, admiring how his essence looked more refined than Prim's. It was even a little fun to gaze at Nu in a Dungeon sense.

MeNU: System? Partner? Co-COre? Nu.
Status: Operating. Annoyed. Scared.
Origin: Piece of Delta soul, willingly offered. Sudden existence. Imprint of Defining Item.

Delta tilted her head. That was strange. She suspected she had pushed Nu into sentience, but that last statement was interesting. She clicked on the tooltip.

History of consumables:
1: Soul of 'Delta.' Merged, did not affect item history.
2: Broken skull.
3: Dirt (Removed to make space)
4: Stone (Removed to make space)
5: Mushroom.

"I absorbed a dead person?" she said with a grimace.

Error: Skull was consumed at a time of low processing. Item was not catalogued. Error: Skull cannot be loaded as it was used. Error: Skull cannot be located due to history. Error: Delta, please stop!

Delta blinked out of Dungeon vision to see that Nu was still in isolation in Delta's overpowering Dungeon grip. She gently eased his personality back into place and he shuddered visibly on the screen.

"That was… I'm sorry," Delta said quietly with a little guilt as she now saw she had been burrowing deep into Nu's being like a dentist with no anesthesia.

There was a long pause, and Nu grunted, forming his human body to show his discomfort, but not any signs of betrayal.

"You owe me one semi-lethal trap now," he said finally, not wanting to address what Delta saw.

"Nu, what was that skull?" Delta asked, not willing to drop it.

"No clue. I don't want to think about it. I don't want to process it. I don't want to meddle with it," Nu said stiffly, and Delta stared at his blue back for a moment.

"It was a woman's skull. Not yours. The shape does not match your avatar's projected features." Prim said, managing to pull herself together, which was a little impressive.

Even Nu seemed surprised to hear this.

"No clue whose it was?" Delta said, feeling like she was sitting on a mystery this whole time.

"Only that she was adorned in rusty metal left to decay in the elements. A shallow grave, or buried another way. The metal was not absorbed as rust was not a preferred element to your beginning growth according to the records left by the grand system." Prim said firmly.

"Sis knows, or Brother does. If they don't wanna tell me, it's because it must be like what Gamma is under. A person people are tracking by someone saying their name or something," Delta rubbed her nose, feeling a headache come on.

She gave Nu one last look.

"You truly know nothing?" she asked, pleading for him to trust her, and Nu sighed.

"Only that Fairplay, before we even met them… makes me angry," he admitted and disappeared.

---

Mharia listened to them talk, her presence like a shadow. Delta could see her, would see her, if she cared to look, but the Dungeon was like an ant colony. It was so very easy to just become another little bug in a small tunnel.

This explained everything.

It explained how Mharia had been so wrong when she tried to fight Delta.

The possibility of the bloodthirst, the potential to fall, the power to 'hear' the Silence… it had never been in Delta at all.

It had always been in Nu.

Luck or fate? Mharia honestly didn't know.

Mharia was honestly glad now that she got her royal behind handed to her by Delta. Nu was…

Unbalanced as she was. If Nu had been a person or perhaps even whatever the hell Delta was? Then Mharia would have had some confidence in manipulating the Menu if she had known.

But Nu? Nu was a cold and desolate moon to Delta's radiant sun. Almost a shadow, but the term wasn't correct. No, Nu had become something else.

Instead of a shadow cast by light, Nu was a cold ringing echo to the song that was Delta.

Mharia couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

---

Yattina bent down and picked up a frayed piece of fabric, the stuff slightly stained with a dry ichor that still glimmered a little silver in the light. The woods around Durence still had a sort of stillness to them that she found unsettling.

Like the land was holding its breath to surprise her. The fabrics led Yattina and a squad of Blades to a clearing where something akin to animal attack had taken place. Pieces of silver fleck and cloth seem scattered about, but there was a figure propped up against a nearby tree near the center of the carnage.

It looked like a normal average man that had raw skin barely healed over and bloody patches of his scalp exposed as if something had ripped his hair out violently.

The fabrics they found seemed to have come from this man.

Estal had given an image of one of the Silver-people. A human messed with tumors of silver and monster parts.

This man was normal, if badly wounded.

"Sil?" Yattina called and the man fluttered his eyes at her, not seeing well.

"Esta..l?" he groaned and nearly fell over. Yattina caught him, fearing no 'infection' as most did. Silver-taint was not infectious, and anyone who did a modicum of research would know this.

"Who did this to you?" she asked, and Sil frowned in pain as she tried to speak with a tongue that must have felt too smooth, too normal.

"Animal… Old master. He came… called… me? Not me anymore. Silver, ever shifting. Wolf, then a bear, then a nightmare," Sil heaved. Yattina frowned, trying to get water to his lips.

"Silver…like the old Dungeon?" Yattina asked, and he drank the water with a moan that sounded like he hadn't tasted properly for years.

"Yes. Core that walked… it passed through, and it sensed me. It took the silver from me. Drained. Left, said the area was too… dead. It didn't like this area," Sil heaved and wheezed around the water.

Yattina's blood froze in her veins.

"It spoke?" she whispered.

"Yes. It said this area was teeming with old memories. Old parts. It wanted them back for… the rematch? Old match…" Sil said, his eyes closing as exhaustion took him.

Yattina stared at him.

Old parts? This was a dead town until a few months ago. Any parts should have withered away long before Delta arrived.

What the hell was going on?

---

Gentle shivered as he felt the wind blow on the back of his neck. He felt spooked as if someone was watching him from the trees or the shadows, but that might just be Durence itself. Ever since the Dungeon exploded and Miss Yattina was made to be in-charge, Gentle hadn't had much time to visit Deo or explore much. Still, he had the eerie feeling someone was watching him.

No matter where he went unless it was on patrol around the Dungeon entrance, he felt watched.

His skin itched, his joints felt stiff, and he was constantly anxious.

"What's wrong?" the older teen called Lim asked, and Gentle showed him an apologetic look as they stood guard in front of Miss Yattina's room. They didn't make for a very intimidating set of guards, but Yattina seemed to trust them over others.

"Don't know. I just feel like something in me is wanting to go somewhere. Never felt it before," he admitted. Lim smiled.

"Adventure is calling, but do it after your shift," he teased. Gentle nodded seriously.

This urge… he could tamper it down. Gentle had to do it a few times in his life when he went out of the safety of Fairplay HQ.

But it had never been this strong.

It had never been this emotional.

He jumped as Yattina rushed past to the infirmary located nearby the blades carrying a deeply scarred man who looked delirious as he rambled aloud in some hysteria. His eyes locked on to Gentle's startled ones and he pointed.

"You! Danger!" he warned, the whites of his eyes giving him a mad expression as he locked on to Gentle.

"Wha-" he began, but the man nearly grabbed Gentle by the hem of his uniform.

"Called! Run! Called! Must run! You are me!" he said, spittle flying before he collapsed into a sagging heap, being carried away quickly.

A pretty woman in high heels walked by, pointing.

"He's confused! Nobody sue him for anything! I know a form of fireball from Wizard Weekly that ensures you all get a bad tan!" she growled, defensive of her 'friend.'

"She's beautiful," Lim mumbled.

Gentle was more aware of her heels leaving cracks in the cheap wood floor.

'Scary' was more apt.

Still, the man's words were disarming.

Argus Gentle was nothing like a stark raving madman.

At least, he hoped not.

It was hard to tell these days.

"You wanna be part of the Dungeon groups?" Lim finally asked as he stopped ogling after the weird mage woman. Gentle shook his head.

"Dungeon air makes me ill. Prefer being outside," he admitted with a wince.

This Dungeon was especially bad. It was stomach churning, the potency of the mana and more. Plus, happy Dungeons were just… weird.

Not 'murder happy,' Gentle understood that, but to see a Dungeon supposedly so fluent in an emotional range beyond 'eat' and 'outsider' was really weird.

Feeling the air a little thick, even this far back in the camp, he covered his mouth to cover a belch of stomach acid and pulled his hand away to see a mix of saliva and flecks of a dark gray metal.

It was getting worse…

182: Life of a Town

Quiss sipped a tankard of the bar's…

Well, not its finest, but the stuff that would get him drunk cost-effectively. The place had become far busier since the scourge of adventurers had moved in. Durence was too small to have more than a few drinking places, and this was the only one that did alcohol.

So, at every place there were rowdy rule-breaking idiotic people whose life choices were so bad they could only hope some random hole in the ground would make them rich. Some had tried to take his table when he went to get another drink, and Quiss forgot what happened next, but he faintly remembered smoke with some ash occurring before they quickly moved away.

There was no respect amongst these people, none at all.

They complained about everything.

'The inn lady charged too much!'

'There's no quest board!
'All the shop prices are outrageous!'

'The local Dungeon is insane!'

'My mother never taught me to tie my own bootlaces!'

Quiss would never be so boorish as to openly complain and whine like a child.

"Move over, you lump," Ruli grunted, as Quiss tried to take up three chairs by himself, putting his legs up.

"I don't want to sit next to you! You hit me," he said with a glare. She went to sit on his foot and he quickly moved it out of the way before her massive rear could crush it like chalk beneath a boulder.

Quiss would set Ruli on fire if it would have done any good, but the girl was both tough and mixed blood with a demon. Fire didn't really do much more than make her hungry for smoked meat.

"Can you believe all this?" Ruli said, and Quiss sipped more of his lukewarm swill.

"People," he agreed with disgust.

"I always wanted this town to become popular when I was younger, but I guess I didn't know what I was asking for," she sighed.

Quiss opened his mouth to release a vicious mockery when he saw Ruli had a strange look on her face, a sort of sorrowful remembrance that she quickly tried to hide behind her own drink. He swallowed back the witty comment that would have torn her apart and looked away.

"From what I heard, you came back from your adventure all sour and down," he said, and she snorted.

"I got 'lost' for the first few months of the journey, and by the time I arrived in the capital, I found out my name was like cursed mud, and almost no guild or group would take me on," she agreed. She raised her mug as if to toast.

"Cheers, Mum," Ruli said with a grunt.

It could have been worse, Quiss thought. She could have been a child of one of the 'other' people to found this town.

Mila Darknessbane was one thing.

The Tarnished Prince Durence was another.

"You hearing this?" Ruli asked, subtly nodding to the table next to theirs where a group of five rough men in cloaks with beards spoke of trekking through the woods for sometime.

Quiss tilted his head and managed to pick up the conversation.

"-Spider alone. It's triggered if we make too much of a hassle in that room. I got a tip for three Silver from someone who's been lower, Sir Grim, that the storeroom to the west of the Cursed Lake contains a secret passage, but it's only for those who want a challenge," one of the men said, getting curious looks and grunts from all around. Quiss soon realized the group actually consisted of the next three tables, putting their number closer to fifteen.

"I would rather just clear the floor properly first. Total avoidance of the first room, get in and through, turn east because I'm not willing to fork out twenty daggers so we can explore that lake room and 'maybe' find a secret passage," one stood up, and he looked to be the one with the serious face and sorrowful eyes.

He would be the leader or a prince in hiding from some failing kingdom. Those types had an aura to them.

"The mud room is easy enough as long as we move in a careful and ordered means, the Mushroom Forest…" another trailed off, and there was a collective silence for a moment.

"I heard Dragon Fang, a guild from nearby, set it on fire," another spoke up, and Ruli grinned savagely into her mug.

"They'll be back on their feet, but two of them quit that day. Extreme cold isn't good either for that room, but we can always try going out of the other rooms. Bribing and acting passive seems to work sometimes," the first one said grimly.

"What's the point if we don't get anything valuable to sell back? Monster parts and materials are the rarest finds in Dungeons," someone argued, sounding angry.

"You've been reading too many Dungeon stories in the back of the wagon, idiot," the sorrowful one said and put his hands on the table, which was covered in roasted meats and drinks.

"For those new here, let me tell you that cutting down bosses or unveiling a secret passage isn't how we as a guild make coin. It's figuring out what can be harvested and reliably. A woodworker doesn't give two hoots about some magic axe you made out of some golem, nor does a businessman have any use for the tales of bravery you tell to your mates in this pub. You want coin? You figure out what this Dungeon can give and how often. If you're all too stupid to stop swinging your weapons for two minutes to figure that out?" He stopped to give everyone a look.

"Then you can all head home and see how well cutting down dragons pays when you didn't think about transport, sellers, or interest," he jerked a thumb to the door.

"Glory fills the soul, thinking fills the pocket," another cheered in agreement. Quiss tuned them out to look at a darkened corner of the pub, a place where it seemed like the candles had been extinguished and someone had raised a silencing spell to block sounds as well as some blurring spell to obscure the documents on the table.

The people around this table numbered roughly six, wore mismatching pieces of armor, and looked to be drinking water or sticking to a light sandwich, unlike the others. Their eyes never left the table as they murmured at each other, even under the silencing spell, as if they still feared being overheard.

The aura they put out made Quiss' skin prickle unpleasantly.

He recognized only a few pieces of their equipment. Not a single one of them was wielding anything less than a brand new piece of equipment from a high numbered dungeon floor. Everything they wore or used looked to be new enough to not have any dings or bangs.

None of it seemed personal to the owners.

"Calcs give me the creeps," Ruli said, spotting what Quiss was looking at.

"Six is a lot for them," Quiss agreed. As far as he remembered, they didn't like to make up more than three at a time, each member using wildly different tools to avoid conflict when they performed their weird treasure hunting rules.

Calculators used to be just a branch of local bank branches, organizing and sorting different items in a logical manner. Quiss recalled his teacher had said they were there to help everyone ensure they were getting a fair price for their sales.

It was an innocent start.

Innocent until they had a group split off, taking their very important ledgers that stored what magic item or weapon performed slightly better or worse with them into the night.

Quiss guessed it had gone from a job to an obsession. He didn't quite remember why but they were completely focused on finding magical tools with infinite growth.

Quiss just didn't like them because they would sell their own mothers for a tiny improvement. Sure, Quiss would sell Ruli for a +4 peace and quiet, but that was only human. One of them looked up and looked at Quiss and his staff nearby. He pulled out a thick book and seemed to know exactly what page he wanted and then smirked as he whispered something to his friends.

It seemed they had decided Quiss's staff was of lesser make and thus… lesser value.

"I'm not sure why they're here," Ruli interrupted Quiss' sudden violent thoughts.

"What?" he blinked at her, having to sadly push away fantasies of setting their books on fire in front of them while laughing.

"Calcs only come running when news of rare or unique treasures come floating out. They don't' usually deviate from their 'farms,'" she said with distaste.

"It's a new dungeon; why wouldn't they come and milk it?" Quiss asked, focusing back on his booze. Ruli didn't look convinced.

"Because Calcs don't want hard work if there's a chance for no reward better than what they have. Calcs are lazy because they want to be sure they get something before they put the work in," she murmured.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"What? The joys of adventuring and trekking through mud for fun isn't enough for them?" Quiss asked sarcastically.

"Sadly not," came an oily voice, and Quiss didn't jump as Japes appeared before their table, holding a delicate cocktail glass with an olive on its rim.

"Stuck between you and them, my sense of right and justice can only take so much," Quiss grunted, and Japes seemed to take it as a compliment. The potter sipped his drink with glittering eyes.

"Calculators carry a sacred mission, don't you know?" he said easily, and Ruli leaned in.

"Oh?" she said with a tone that gave nothing away.

"When the golden queen fell to madness, not all of the bank was under happy management. I hear that the one that saw the golden queen as true took a leaf from some books and fled into the night. The perfect sword, the perfect shield, the perfect- so on and so on. They're more like a nomad research group at this point, indoctrinating their young and those they lure into their camps. I, personally, find such perfectionism in things like a 'sword' as beneath us as people but to each their own," Japes said conversationally.

"And how would you know that?" Quiss asked, eyes narrowing. Japes smiled and drained his glass, playing with the olive like a marble.

"I just happened to be making a deposit at the bank on that fateful day," he admitted and strolled off.

"Do you ever have the feeling that that man has caused more chaos in this world than most?" Ruli mused, and Quiss frowned.

Ruli noticed and stared at him.

"What?" she nudged him, and he slowly looked at her.

"The Golden Queen, Durence's mother… she was never 'stable,' but she didn't go off the deep end until a thief made his way into the castle and stole her fabled sword, right? That very day, she accused the bank of treason and also feeding the poor?" he asked slowly.

"Psh, and how would Japes stealing some magic sword affect anything? The man can barely enter a room without curling someone's hair in terror," Ruli waved him off.

Quiss wasn't so sure.

---

Yattina checked over the He-Ro robots, ensuring the G-Metal plates inside were fused with their black box safely. Even with her new rank, Yattina couldn't open the black box without permission.

The G-Metal shimmered, but there was a lot of internal damage due to their proximity to Delta. Yattina shivered as she stared into its dead eye, her stomach feeling tense as if remembering how one of these things stabbed her not long ago.

She continued to decommission the He-Ro units as best she could.

The piece of G-Metal continued to make her new eye feel strange. The pieces were both real yet undefined in terms of truth and mana. They looked like metal but were closer to the shed skin of some insect.

Their insides were hollow in terms of purpose. Something had discarded them, but Yattina really wanted to know what had caused these metals to exist.

She hummed in her lab as she opened a folder. It was one of the many new pieces of documentation she now had access to thanks to Caline's 'gracious' stepping down.

It was mostly information she had already presumed about the He-Ro units, but she had learned something new.

It seems the supply of the 'G-Metal' was not infinite. This surprised Yattina due to how much they had used in the construction of different projects. The metal was either in 'low supply' or 'in over abundance,' at any given time.

The original supply came from the tri-owner of Fairplay who stepped down many years ago. He had brought enough G-Metal to the table to construct the HQ, the machines they used, and a lot of other things like their portals.

Yattina squinted at the piece of paper. The names of the owners outside of Director Ripdoy were impossible to find, and on this paper, the person's name was only listed as 'Allota Crock.'

A clear codename.

Yattina hoped so anyway.

Who would use the name 'A lot of pots and containers' as a name? She reached over to open a mini-cooler by her desk, needing some refreshing pickled newt coffee, and accidently ripped the handle clear off the container.

Between the medical tools she used to help that Silver man and now this…

She was breaking everything thanks to her blooming core.

Someone had even asked her if she was going to get a Core Weapon, and the very idea repulsed her. She had just gotten this complete beautiful piece of herself back, and feeling it now?

Yattina just couldn't understand why anyone would want to tear it apart.

Her adorable student appeared at the entrance of her door, and he looked… shocked. On his chest was a glimmering two-fingered badge.

By the rules of the company, Yattina was required to have a second-in command, and since she only had Lim on her team, he had to get promoted. Someone pointed out that she could have gotten Caline the job and Yattina laughed in their face like a pig, needing to shuffle off before she began wheezing and looking undignified.

"I brought bagels and squirrel shoes," he said, and Yattina was impressed. The shoes were made of elder squirrels as well! Someone knew their monstrous rodents very well in this town.

Yattina had never bought herself anything aside from books as a luxury, but she decided to try something new for her promotion.

The problem was she had no clue what to get, and so she laid the task on her second-in-command.

"Where did you get the shoes?" she asked as she slipped them on. They were very comfortable.

"A crazy old woman was throwing things at that woman who guards the Dungeon. Ruli? I think they knew each other, and she threw the shoes at me and told me that if I was going to stare, I could at least look fashionable," Lim said, sounding a little numb at his experience.

"Lim?" Yattina began slowly, sipping some of her coffee that made her stomach ache, but her mind became alert.

"Hm?" Lim looked at her, ready for a lesson or a quiz.

"I never thanked you for coming to my aid in the Dungeon; you didn't have to do that," she said softly. It felt weird, to be actively reaching out to another human being and trying to convey her feelings to them.

Weird and a little scary.

"You're my captain! You know a lot of things, and you make me feel smart even though I get a lot of things wrong. I should be thanking you! No one else gave me the time of day," Lim beamed back, and Yattina blinked, trying to make a normal human response to such naked affection from someone.

"I appreciate the fact that two humans copulated together and created you. Hurray for reproduction!" she said, raising one hand into the air.

"Can we not mention my parents 'conjugating'?" he asked with a pained look, and Yattina snorted.

"Not what I said, but if it's conjugating, I can show you how that's done!" she offered, deciding some education wouldn't go amiss! Lim looked red in the face and backed up.

"I've never… conjugated or stuff!" he said in a panic.

"Nonsense, I'll conjugate with you," she said factually and pulled out some books to show the purpose of conjugating verbs. When she looked up, the space Lim had been occupying was empty, and her door was closing silently.

"You can't escape it! Everyone conjugates! It's natural!" she called after the fleeing boy.

Honestly, Yattina was getting better at this casual talk everyday. Soon, she'd be able to approach strangers in quick succession without making animal noises and fleeing for the shade.

On her table, the shining pieces of broken G-Metal shimmered.

---

Delta paused as a party stood outside Fran's boss room door. They had managed to put Fera to sleep with a gas and snuck past.

"Everyone, pre-plan buffs. I want full blessings, speed enhancement, fortitude potions down the hatch," the leader called as everyone began to empower themselves.

Delta put a hand to her mouth.

They should have really waited until they were in the room before using all this stuff…

Boss room passive activated: Scaling

Their buffs would wear off. Fran's increase would not.

Ah well, it was all a learning experience!

---

183: T-The Party

The shield enchantment shattered with the sound of tinkling glass. The man went flying back, sending sand flying as he was sent rolling across the arena.

In the same swipe, the Goblin Rider sent the sneaking assassin woman back with a harsh blow that somehow missed all of her vitals.

"This can't be…" the trembling mage raised his staff, and a pathetic puff of smoke and ember gathered due to his inability to focus. The creature was a near perfect match for them.

Someone yelled, swinging a massive battle ax around as he pulsed with a bloody aura. The Goblin merely leaned back, catching the ax blade with one powerful hand before heaving. The man was lifted into the air, and the pig… no, the monstrous boar the goblin rode on turned and kicked like a horse, sending the man so far back he hit the walls.

It was a miracle he didn't explode into a meaty mist; it was a miracle none of them were dead.

"Is this the might of your group? Where is the synergy? Where is the thirst for success? WHERE IS THE REVEL?!" the Goblin boss thundered, and the boar slammed down, creating a shockwave that sent the rest of the party reeling.

"Is this all you have to offer?" the creature spoke as the mage fell to his knees, his once proud fire magic now useless in his terror.

"If so. Then you are not worthy," the powerful lance settled on the shoulder of the mage as crimson eyes stared down at him from high up.

"You are not worthy."

Then the last thing he heard before a blow knocked him out was

"You shall not pass." lingering in his ears.

---

"You want to do what?" Mila asked the snot-nosed kid of Pic's.

"I want to purchase the license to open the local adventuring guild in Durence," Grim said without shame.

"You're twelve," Mila said bluntly as she downed a coffee that was more black than her soul.

"Sixteen, I can legally do it," Grim corrected.

"You're poor," she added.

"I've saved up all my pocket money since I was born. I was planning on using it to purchase a rare mythical weapon that would destroy my enemies and make their gender-neutral others weep," Grim countered, crossing his arms with a glare.

"That's a good dream, but you sure you wanna waste it all on running a-" Mila grimaced as if she was saying something vulgar, "-an 'adventurer's guild' of all things?" she asked

"I wasn't until I saw how gullible adventurers actually are," Grim admitted as Mila moved around her home to find a bottle of whiskey she hadn't drunk dry yet.

Mila paused as a memory came to her. It was an… untainted memory so she relished it as it flowed back to her.

'Hah! Little Mila's and Pics! I'll set aside some birthday gifts! I sold one of my mother's old cursed ear-rings. People will buy anything. How about ten thousand gold per child. Uncle Durence is going to be the favorite!'

He never got to be that uncle, but Mila could remedy that just a little.

"Fine, the guild is yours, but keep your money. It has young people stench all over it, and you're particularly hormonal," Mila said with a glare. Grim narrowed his eyes.

"I don't trust charity from you. You once stole all my birthday cake because you said 'the weak shall starve,'" Grim said, and Mila didn't remember that event since she was sure she did that to all children on their birthday.

It was an honored tradition from her island.

"You won't be happy when you see the paperwork," Mila warned and then kicked the kid out. Durence's gift was rejected by Ruli when she was young. The girl could get hell rubies and blood gold from her father if she wanted.

No, Ruli didn't like being handed her treasure.

Mila wasn't holding her breath for grandkids until Ruli was done tormenting every man she came across. Grim could have the gold or the purchase of the guild.

---

Grim had wondered where he could set up this guild after the permit for the thing arrived at his door less than an hour later.

Guildmaster Grim.

It had a nice ring to it!

All those fools would have to bow to him!

Peering at the permit, the guildhall had to be located between the Dungeon and the local town, had to be accessible, open to all, and run with the intent to help adventurers.

It didn't say Grim had to be welcoming, friendly, or not making gold by the minute as he operated.

Mila had even accidently signed a few permission bonuses for Grim.

"I can reject certain quests, limit adventures, I don't need to feed or house anyone, and I can construct one next to the Dungeon if I wanted," Grim hummed, and then his face turned serious.

"I don't know how to build things," he admitted.

He remembered something about a builder in town. He peered down the streets of Durence.

"Paige Turner's bookstore. Weathered Wax's candle store. Reel Beauty's fishmonger… aha!" Grim's eyes paused on a small dinky corner store.

"Nomad No-Mad Easy Construction!" Grim said with satisfaction. He even knew who ran the place.

He opened the door, and the smell of distant grassy plains and herd animals seemed to assault him. A giant man rested behind the counter as he carefully read textbooks that Grim was pretty sure were the same ones he was assigned as homework.

"Deo's father! I've come to bargain!" he thundered.

The man blinked and smiled.

Damn it, that damn smile!

Grim couldn't escape that smile! The bloodline was haunting him!

"I need a grand hall near the Dungeon, and I won't be moved or convinced otherwise," he said, and the man took out a pair of comically small spectacles and peered at his completely empty calendar aside from every date being filled in with things like 'admire Isanella' or 'Read Deo a story' or even 'tonight is pie night.'

"…Three floors or five?" the man asked softly, and Grim's bones vibrated and his blood rushed as he felt the sudden urge to punch something in a glorious battle.

"I don't feel like climbing stairs," Grim declined, he was a very particular sort, and he knew what he wanted long term.

Climbing stairs every five minutes wasn't one of them.

"I can install elevators," the man offered.

"Oh well, the more floors, the better then," Grim said brightly.

"Being Deo's friend… I'll have it done by tomorrow," the man nodded.

"We're not friends. I just use him as a disposable minion. Don't want you to get the wrong idea," Grim said quickly. He was greedy, not a villain.

"Deo doesn't befriend those of dark souls and intentions. Your words may shield your heart from the threat of being hurt, but they can't hide your bond," the man said kindly, and Grim puffed up like a pissed-off cat.

"We do not have a bond!" he protested. Who did this guy think he was? Some spiritual master of bonds?

"The heart sees, even if the eyes do not," the man said with satisfaction. Grim was about to explode when Deo entered the shop.

"Grim! I found you! Mr Jones set us homework, and I used mine as a fortune telling origami! But it flew off in a breeze! Can I look at yours so I can copy the questions? Not the answers!" Deo said quickly, looking both excited and nervous.

Grim shoved his bag at him.

"I already made a second copy. I saw your stupid fortune thing before I left school. You're an idiot," Grim said with a glare.

Deo's eyes lit up.

"Want to hear what my fortune said?" he asked, and Grim stared at him.

"Un-fortunate-ly, you're going to tell me no matter what I say," Grim said before he cursed his tongue.

Stupid curse!

Unseen, Deo's father reached for a key and began pulling out rare materials from the storeroom.

---

Nu didn't have much joy in life, but watching people suffer was one of them.

If he could make a recording of the best moments, he would have more than enough material for five different hour long videos.

An adventurer jumped in the mudroom, only to be pushed off by the extending poles in the wall and land upside down in the breathable mud. He had to be fished out by the goblins.

Some fool had gone so deep into defensive skills and magic that he presumed himself untouchable. Muffet tied him up and left him in a corner until someone could peel him free of his armor.

Two unlucky idiots had managed to get into Maestro's secret passage, believing they had found the golden road around the grove and pub, only to return and quit adventuring the next day if their mutterings were to be believed.

Maestro was welcoming, but his appearance and mind bending room had an effect on the feeble of mind.

There was a new 'odd' group however.

Boisterous and loud, they looked like they had gone out one day to drink and just didn't stop. They weren't armed and obeyed the rules so well that they were allowed to make it all the way to Fera's bar, but they didn't want to move on.

'The Heroes of Ale' had come for the drinks.

Fera, for the first time, had serious customers, and she was pushed to her limits as a bartender. One of the drinkers ordered a Delta Surprise, growing a beard so magnificent that he wept. Nu overheard he was a 'whisker baby' beforehand.

That was when they saw the Zodiac Bottles and pleaded to know more.

"You gotta beat the fourth floor to taste these," she said rudely, and in doing so, ignited a fire in the group Nu had never seen before.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

What happened next was as confusing as it was terrifying. They paid Fera for bar stools, rushed into the boss room, and pushed Fran to a draw for a time with battle cries and promises of the 'Forbidden Juice' of the fourth floor.

To Nu's shock, they beat Fran, their teamwork impeccable.

In response, Fran smiled and faded away, leaving behind a boar helmet, two drinking horns, and some coins.

The drinking horns were held up with near worship as the group of people cheered.

"TO SIR FRAN! MAY HE DRINK WITH US FOREVER MORE!" they half-slurred, half-cheered.

---

Wyin paused as she felt her Sir Fran's joy as he faded in battle.

On one hand, they had defeated her beloved knight so Wyin would have to flay them alive.

On the other hand, Fran was happy so she wouldn't use salt on their exposed flesh when she was done.

It was a fair compromise.

---

The Heroes of Ale took to the jungle like an invasive species.

Delta watched as they chased the Pygmy Mushrooms, declaring them adorable. A few of them split off to check out the waterfall, and when Bob emerged, they held their hands up, wriggling in drunkenness.

"WORM FRIEND! DRINK WITH US! WATER IS ACCEPTABLE! WE RESPECT SOBRIETY IF YOU RESPECT OUR NOT SOBRIETY!" a woman hollered as she wore a special helmet she crafted to fit Fran's drinking horns into empty slots with what looked like some sort of plant-like fiber tube leading to her mouth.

"They scare me, but I like them. It's like being invaded by a benevolent frat party," Delta said, staring at the chaos.

"Key!" someone yelled as Bob dropped the key in his excitement to 'dance' with the strange people. His two crab friends were passing what looked like a thimble of whiskey!

"Hey! No drinking! You're not of age!" Delta said and ran over.

The crab ran away from her, still drinking!

She was alerted as the bridge guarded by Giant was being rocked as a group on it was thundering and making it rock to a drinking song. Giant was joining in shyly!

"WE DRINK DAY AND NIGHT! IN THE DARK AND IN THE LIGHT! WE ARE THE HEROES OF ALE! BEFORE US, ALL ENEMIES PALE!" they 'sang' messily.

The key Giant was guarding was tossed into one of the people's hands, who put it on their earring like a cool souvenir.

That was when Rale appeared with a box of near cold stone he'd fished from the bottom of the river.

"I heard there was a request for joy and a place to keep drinks cool?" he called, and in response, he got a thunderous cheer. Bottles purchased from Fera were stocked inside, and Rale was absorbed by the party.

Delta was busy chasing down bees who were flying in lazy circles and into each other as a bottle of spirits was spilled over flowers, causing their pollen to become… intoxicating.

---

"Sweet nectar!" A crafter of the Heroes of Ale cried as pools of gleaming honey spread before them. A lot of the bees were on the ground, passing a flower that was dripping in booze. High in the tower, Queen Lizzie stared down at her kingdom and sipped a rare cocktail that Fera brought her personally.

The queen called it 'Off with their Heads.' It was made from rare flowers that Luna cultivated in the secret garden on this floor. It had over a dozen types and would normally cost a lot…

But Fera seemed to be in a good mood.

She looked around, to ensure she was alone and pulled out a commissioned piece of artwork of that human.

The one who talked as smooth as his skin was.

'Seth.'

The heart stealer.

Lizzie hugged the picture and drained her drink.

Below, the crafter was quickly at work, turning a dozen honey meads into a single bottle that began to shine a rainbow hue.

"It's a high-ranked drink! Never tasted before!" they slurred.

"Yes! Let's take this bottle and appreciate it! ANYONE WANTING THEIR OWN BOTTLE BETTER HAVE CASH!" someone yelled as they got ready to move on.

"CAN'T WE JUST BORROW SOME?" someone yelled back.

"RESPECT THE LOCAL COMMUNITY! MINUS TWO BRO POINTS!" the first said, and the second clutched his heart.

---

The Pygmies were conflicted.

"But I just love you guys! You're so small, and I just wanna say how much I love you all," a muscular man said with a sniffle as he hugged what seemed to be poison in a bottle.

He had fallen into their home and just started proclaiming love. Normally, a sacrifice of hair and more would occur, but they weren't sure if they wanted to offer this 'particular' mortal to the Great Mother.

"You're just so small and doing your best," the man went on, tearing up.

Mortals could leak?!

"Give him the key, and he'll go away!" the elder hissed. The three great Pygmies were at a loss as the man didn't enter the labyrinth, and thus they couldn't test him.

"Isn't that disrespecting tradition?" a Pygmy asked in a puff of spores.

"He's leaking salt water on us. He is dangerous!" the elder replied quickly.

The Alchemist sampled the poison, as was its nature.

"Sweet but different," it mused and dunked its whole head in.

---

Delta could take comfort in one thing.

The undead couldn't get drunk. The booze literally went down the bottom of their stomach.

That was what she had hoped, however. These 'Heroes' had a scary ability.

The Circus of the Damned was alive with music, partying, and stunts because they had inflicted the skeletons and undead animals with… vibes. The sheer mood they brought seemed to lift even Renny's ghoulish pallor. In the mess, a golden piece of popcorn was taken and added to a mixture of beers.

The entire thing flashed golden when it was done, and Delta stared as people hugged each other.

"I love you!"

"Nah, bro, I love you!"

Others were just grinning.

"Remember when we met?" one nudged another, who laughed. The skeletons took some of their legs off, and people began to conga line under the merged bone pole.

Delta stared until Renny held out a hand; he seemed to be grinning at her.

'Isn't this wonderful?' he seemed to ask. Delta tried to be stern about all the alcohol for a moment.

She sagged and took his offered hand.

Delta laughed as she was pulled into the line of conga goers.

"So if you like the beat, take a lesson from Cuban Pete! And I'll teach you to chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky-boom." she sang along as the circus became a party of unchained joy and music.

In the corner, Mharia barfed up a mixture of necrotic green energy and golden sparkles as she held an alcopop mix drink in one hand.

She stood up and glared at the full bottle.

"I will defeat you and drain your content like a soul," she swore and took another swig. Three seconds later, she bent over and barfed.

---

Wyin was wondering what was going on outside as her gates opened. She had just readied her speech about pain and deliverance when she froze. Dozens of topless people were filtering in with a cheer. Some had bees glued to their body while others were covered in honey. Others had drinking horns filled with tree sap and with crunchy yellow leafs in the other.

"What is this tomfoolery?!" she demanded as someone brought in Wilhelm covered in glittering lights and with the words 'Party Monkey' painted on his chest.

"Behave yourselves! This is a place of worship!" she demanded.

"SLAM A SHOT FOR THE GODDESS!" someone cried and everyone drank.

Wyin got a tiny boost of power, and she glared at them.

"Don't you dare taint my divinity with your boorish behavior!" she threatened the party.

"KEG BARREL STANDS FOR THE TREE GODDESS!" Delta screamed, blushing red as she swung a drink around.

"IT'S FUN TO WORSHIP AT THE W! Y! I! N!" Luna danced between Rale and Giant, dragging Devina into the mess, who was flustered as Rale grinned at her.

"I refuse! I am not a goddess of booze drunkards! I am a goddess of life and pain!" Wyin tried to yell over the music.

A few seconds later…

"STOP HITTING EACH OTHER ON THE ASSES!"

Wyin turned to Delta, glaring.

"Gotta make a move to a town that's right for me! Town to keep me movin'! Keep me groovin' with some energy" Delta shot her finger guns as she was lost in the throng of party people.

Wyin was about to blow a gasket.

All she wanted was some tortured souls and to curl up with her murder mysteries at bed time! Wyin was afraid what they might do with her rewards if she let them pass…

They might tell others she was a goddess of revelry and booze. Her image would be ruined.

Alcohol was only fun when she could mock others for their hangovers! Wyin glared, and someone offered her a drinking horn.

"Why would I want such a disgust-" she froze as she recognized the horns finally.

Sir Fran's treasures! She snatched the horn and drained the fluids within.

It was masculine and tasted of burned oil. Just like her knight! A pleasant warmth and cloud of pink covered her memories from that point onwards. Wyin would later wake up, covered in honey and with three naked people in her branches.

The party had moved on without her.

184: Hell is Other Puns

The air was tense with anticipation and a little desperation.

Delta felt a bead of sweat roll down her forehead as she pressed her awareness to the max. Everything rested on this single action, and failure was no longer an option. Every iota of her soul was dedicated to this task before her. As the seconds passed, she could feel immense pressure building, the room deadly silent as everyone was also completely enthralled in the task.

'Food Stall, snakes in pipe… flying rug merchant' she hissed mentally, pushing herself to go faster. How could there be so much to sort through and yet yield no result?! Her soul, her very being, was poured into the task. There could be no hesitation, no retreat, no surrender-

"He's by the dancing sword swallowers who are collapsing into a pile." Nu interrupted, sounding exhausted, and Delta let out a scream of frustration as the silent Libro-Golem pointed to Nu in victory, turning the page of 'Wherever's Walric?.'

The other ten members of the Heroes of Ale let out groans as they couldn't find the hidden character fast enough. Some of them were standing, but most of them had found seats.

A selection of poofy pillows had been gathered in the library as people drank in special sealed sippy-like cups to prevent spillage as the golem seemed happy to be doing something. Originally, the group had come into the room by accident and couldn't find the door back out.

At first, Delta had thought they would seek the '1000 illegal brews and 32 immoral cocktails' recipe book or the 'Dragons: Every part is drinkable' book, but they had been captivated by the colorful children's shelf that Delta had filled up in her spare time.

The golem would only let them stay if they upgraded their open mugs to secure cups. Alcohol was murder on books apparently, especially when it's mead or wine.

Still, the event was enjoyable. It turned out that the group didn't have a lot of literate readers, but those that could read were more than happy to read to their friends, still as drunk as skunks.

'The little horse cart that would' and 'The Devouring Caterpillar' were very popular due to the little word count and bright artwork. Some were amused because of the alcohol; others were immersed due to never having the chance to be read to as a child, and that was something Delta found sad in her heart.

"The lady Walric has to count! I keep finding her," someone complained, drinking their beer through a winding straw.

"I like the little dog with glasses. I look for him first," another beamed, sinking into a beanbag as he downed a cider-like fruit drink.

"I feel like the designated driver," Nu said, sounding dead inside. The menu was partially reading an issue of 'Trap Monthly' that was about twenty years out of date. Delta wondered if she could subscribe to all the magazines?

Was there a book dungeon? There had to be a book dungeon.

"You should get Prim in on the fun!" Delta beamed as she tried to tease Nu into letting his hair down.

"She secluded herself in the bug notes and ever-expanding crash reports; I can't find her." Nu grunted as he floated off and tugged Delta through the wall, leaving the group to be read to and 'defeated' by the golem. Delta looked back at the gathering with a sigh, feelling one of the squishy chairs calling to her.

Delta had copies of absorbed books of ancient power rituals and other valuable tomes, but she was more happy about her public library of knowledge and books set to delight. The teacher in her just loved people enjoying a good book.

Delta was known to enjoy a book or two herself but only in the dead of night and behind locked doors. As she left, she saw a shadow moving between the shelves, revealing Jack the Kobold collecting drinks and coins from the unaware guests.

More 'offerings' to Death?

Delta shook her head, but as she floated past the map room, she paused to listen to the corridor connecting to the trolls' den.

"SWAMP SWAMP! GET OUT! SWAMP!" came a thunderous roar of voices and song followed by a belch so loud it shook the walls.

"I'll check on that later!" Delta said brightly, eyes a little too wide, and pivoted to the feast room. The Free Heal Hall was a warzone. Defeated Heroes of Ale laid across tables, chicken sticks in hand or bowls of melting desserts as pillows.

Fera was sweeping a few of them into a pile in the corner where blankets had been haphazardly tossed over a few of them. The power of the food had claimed more than a few of the group due to the fact they couldn't stop eating, and soon the mixture of alcohol and a full stomach brought on fitful sleep.

The impressive thing was that their ability to tolerate the mana of the Dungeon was so deep that they could perhaps spend a whole night on this floor with no ill-effect.

"This group must have been in a lot of Dungeons," Delta said to Nu.

"No, I think they just drank so much poison over the years that their mana, like their stomachs, have turned to a lumpy iron consistency," the menu said with a dry tone. Delta stared at some of the unconscious members.

"Would that mean anyone who was sensitive to mana would get a buzz by being near them? Wait… are they getting me buzzed?" Delta asked, holding her hands up with an awed expression.

"No. You've eaten so much Gutrot, you have a liver, and other vital organs, of orichalcum. You're just easily impressionable and swept into mobs," Nu said, popping her bubble.

"I never decided to eat them. I didn't choose the shrooms, they chose me… violently," she shivered and hugged herself.

"All the senior members are missing. Did they go ahead?" she asked, feeling around on the floor to feel there was a lot of motion.

"Ahead? No; sort of stumbling in a direction they didn't control? Yes," Nu said with a nod of his avatar.

Delta moved ahead to the garden at the center of the floor, connecting all the rooms together. To her surprise, one of the Heroes had found a means to open the Soul Well that contained the pure essence of her mana. The older man stared at it but didn't partake in it.

Despite sweating and looking flush with alcohol, he didn't seem like he was losing control of any of his functions.

"Is he going to drink from the well?" Delta asked, worried about the consequences. She might have to call the Guardgoyles over. She didn't mind mingling her mana with people, but it was important to Delta that they be sober and clear thinking before they made such a choice.

Delta peered at the man, seeing how he was far older than most of the members and had a sort of shabby look to him. He didn't have many teeth left, but he still looked to be healthy despite his age.

"Lovely place, aye," the man mused to himself and then made a toast with a private hip flask that looked very old and tarnished but still gleaned with hints of a pure silver.

"To the beautiful dungeon that grew despite the mad witch that was buried here. To the kind dungeon that grew in monument to the proud son that held virtues of Verluan true!" he cheered and downed a truly impressive amount of gulps from the flask.

"May you rot in hell, you wicked thing. My poor heart still loves you so," he toasted to the ground as if to drink to a grave Delta couldn't see.

Delta watched as he closed the well back up and began to do a really awkward hip thrust towards the ballroom where music poured out of the open doors.

Delta enjoyed his enthusiasm, and despite his age, his mana still had a healthy golden tinge to it that spoke of a man who could tell some very dirty jokes if he wanted to.

"He had to be at least eighty… maybe even ninety. Mana is a heck of a drug-" Delta joked and turned, but Nu had vanished. Not just wandered off but completely shut his avatar down.

He had removed himself from the physical space like going to his room and shutting the door.

Delta felt a bit worried but didn't ignore his boundaries. She could wait until he was ready.

For now, she had heroes being hooked up to IV drips in the medical room, horrible drunk dad dances in the ballroom, some heroes were getting inscribed magic mugs made in the forge, and three of them had entered the boss room.

Delta was worried how Jellagon was getting on when she discovered something both amazing and slightly disturbing.

Delta could, in fact, make jello shots.

The amazing thing was that Jellagon was so magical he made even the most hardcore drinker stumble in shock at the potency of the drink.

The disturbing part was how Jellagon remained fully in control of his swallowed pieces and knocked out the Heroes with little effort from the inside out.

Delta stared at him as he and his other puddles looked innocently back at her.

"I thought you liked them?" she asked slowly and Jellagon gurgled once.

In Slimian, it roughly translated to 'I wanted to win my first fight.'

If the Heroes of Ale brought their full force and semi-coordinated numbers against Jellagon, they might have made a difference. However, the few left were slow dancing with Muffet and Fera in the ballroom, were smelling troll soup in the hall, or were being lulled to sleep by the golem with soft books that played music when opened.

The last one standing was the old man, who seemed both happy and a little sad while he watched the Dungeon operate. He didn't ask for anything, and Delta had the strongest feeling that he just wanted to fade away.

As he swayed a little to the music, a pendant fell out of his shirt, a coin-like necklace showing two swords crossed over a round circle.

It looked old… just like its owner.

---

Princess Serma turned her pendant over nervously as a town seemed to be approaching in the distance. The shiny golden coin of two swords over a circle was familiar to her, but after learning about her father, she had lost some affection for the royal symbol.

Across the space in the carriage, Lorsa was looking happier as they neared, as if some fresh air of this place was something she was in desperate need of. Next to her, Mas snored as he hugged a similarly snoring orange slime in his lap.

"Any sixes?" the tied up demonic imp asked as he held cards up with his toes. Serma was glad she wore gloves when shuffling the deck of cards.

She put a six down, and the imp, using a scary amount of flexibility and dexterity, collected the card and then put down three sixes.

"Demon Flush," it grinned at her with bloodshot yellow eyes.

"That's not a thing," she countered.

"It is!" the imp said, lips trembling as if on the verge of a tantrum. Serma should have tossed the imp out, but Mas felt bad for the thing, and Serma didn't have enough reason to ditch it yet.

"It is, but only if you're bartering for souls, and demons stopped that a long time ago" Lorsa commented. The imp nodded.

"Human souls were overdone. The market bubble grew too fast, and then a lot of demons ended up in Name Debt. Horrible period for the ecconomy," the imp sighed. Serma silently remembered her family still had over thirty names of demons they kept in reserve like precious wines.

Great, her father was tormenting both the people in debt of her country and literal demons in debt. She would release all the names just to spite him.

A hole at the side of the road felt too nice. Could she offer her father as collateral to a demon? Eternal glory for Mas for the soul of a king?

It seemed fair.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Mas yawned as the carriage slowed around a bend. Serma smiled at him.

"Political economics and investments," she answered, and he gave her a smile.

"If it makes you happy. Uh, I got five copper, what do you want me to invest in?" he asked, and the slime in his lap gurgled, forming something that looked a lot like a gold coin in his stomach before it vanished.

Serma thought about it as Lorsa shot her a look, as if able to read her mind and approving of what she found there.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"A better tomorrow. The cost is one smile," she teased, and Mas grinned at her, and it seemed to melt any evil thoughts in her heart like hot metal on butter.

Or a branding iron on her father's backside.

The town of Durence was close at hand, and it seemed to be just a normal looking place. A sleepy little village that could be anywhere. But it wasn't anywhere; it was named after her uncle. Someone she knew precious little about.

Lorsa seemed to inhale the air and know its secrets. The imp seemed to sense something familiar.

The slime that Mas called 'Mule' seemed hungry.

And Serma?

Serma wondered why there was a conga line of hungover people emerging from the forest.

---

Delta felt a little lonely as her dungeon resumed being empty for the most part. Only the troglodytes that were the inflexible Fairplay grunts were coming in now that they had finished trying to get information out of the Heroes of Ale as they left.

Delta could even hear the questions they asked in increasingly outraged tones by her entrance.

'How far did you get?'

'Were there any new monsters? What did they drop?'

'Did you find any secrets or things that indicate the dungeon is secretly going to kill us all?'

Not great questions in Delta's opinion, but the answers? Oh, Delta lived for the answers.

"How far did we go? Not far enough in the drink! I only count three of you, and my record is six!"

"The only monster 'round here is the headache I'm gonna have in the morning! It can be slainwith some greasy breakfast…"

"The Dungeon is plotting to keep us here forever because I am in love!"

"I got eight! Wait, you didn't ask me anything? WHAT?! YOU DON'T THINK I'M GOOD ENOUGH TO BE INTERROGATED, YOU WHITE PAJAMA-WEARING REAR END!"

Perhaps not the answers the Fairplay company were hoping for, but Delta found them all very reasonable. The Heroes of Ale might stick around for another try or two, but Delta would understand, no… she would insist they moved on before long.

They were a treasure, and Delta simply couldn't keep them to herself.

That and Fera might revolt.

Life was a party, and Delta? She was just a small part of that. They would go where they had to go.

The Heroes of Ale were not the heroes people needed, or perhaps wanted at all, but they were going to come anyway because booze didn't grow on trees, it appeared in pubs after payment.

She hummed as she managed to find a small moment between Fairplay people to install a new feature to the Hog's Head bar. It was on a wall that was a little in shadow, but Delta wanted it to be noticed by the right people, not just by anyone.

A medium sized painting of men and women along a table, each holding a glass of wine or mug of ale with that old man she had seen in the middle with his arms stretched out, the sun was high and the day was young. The lighting gave it an almost sacred feeling to those that gazed upon it after three or four drinks.

It was called 'The First Drink.'

---

Delta winced as Wyin worked over a group of Fairplay people an hour later, her hangover making her usual cruel mood into a vicious snarl of a vibe. The men in white were flung about, then crushed under a root-like heel.

She did have to admit that Fairplay was making progress. They had begun to shift and only used force when it was deemed doable. It was a little disheartening to see that they disliked Dungeons so much that they would refuse to just experience the place, but Delta knew that not all Dungeons were like her.

Not even close.

Between the drunken rambles of the Heroes of Ale and an 'inside source' they whispered about, hints about her second floor were beginning to leak.

There was a slight flaw in her second floor that Fairplay could just continue throwing numbers at her floors until a 'workable' solution could be found. They made their work twice as hard, but she had noticed more and more of the Fairplay teams were beginning to bend in regards to the rules.

Some of them didn't even try to murder the Pygmies this time. It took a little effort on Delta's part to ensure the Pygmies didn't murder them all one by one like a horror film when they trampled over their monuments to her.

But Fairplay wasn't the only one entering her Dungeon. More and more 'outsiders' were appearing, and they weren't novices like Kemy or Estal's groups.

She rubbed her head as Wyin was taken down simultaneously in two different 'mirror' Dungeons. Not by Fairplay but adventurer groups that had turned up with some real experience under their belts.

These were professionals who were also not against just enjoying the Dungeon. Some of them even tipped Fera before fighting Fran, who won some and lost some.

The feeling of two Wyins going down at the same time was like a shooting migraine that morphed into an infected tooth that pulsed down her neck. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was enough to understand maybe why other Dungeons didn't opt for the mirror copies as Delta had done.

She really didn't want to know what ten bosses going down at the same time felt like.

Delta was just about to head back to the 4th floor to continue work when there came a peculiar feeling in her stomach. It started as a gurgle like she was hungry but then shifted to a growing pressure. It quickly made her double over as it felt like she was growing a new organ in her chest.

It was uncomfortable like suddenly having a tail or a third eye, complete with forming nerves.

She shivered in pain as her skin prickled to the dozenth degree, each second overlapping with another way of that stretching feeling. It was like growing a new floor, but worse.

Then it stopped, and Delta could slowly unclench her muscles as she stared at her hands.

Then came Prim with an urgent screen.

Warning: Mana in Abyss has reached formation. Attempting to reconnect back to Dungeon as a new entrance. Distance is causing fractures. There is no secondary core function at location to act as a relay. Dungeon will undergo immense damage.

"What the heck is my Mana doing in the Abyss?" she demanded, and the screen stared at her.

"Most rejected items or destroyed Dungeon items flow into the abyss to be purified and returned free of Dungeon mana. Your mana did not purify. It went to war against the process and emerged the victor."

"The abyss, that's the demon world, right?" Delta asked, ignoring the implication that her mana was now breaking things without Delta even telling it to.

"Correct. The new entrance is trying to breach unfathomed spaces between this world and the abyss. Unless a suitable core and/or relay core function is installed, you will suffer damage. You must construct more relay pylons."

Prim seemed confident in this answer, and Delta swallowed once.

"Okay, let's do it," Delta encouraged. A door to hell wasn't a bad thing, right?

Like a vacation spot!

"Error. Cannot construct. Distance is too great. You will be able to do so when the new entrance is formed."

Delta blinked once slowly, then spoke even slower.

"But then I'll be torn apart," she said, almost cautiously.

"Correct. You need the entrance to control the mana, but having the entrance will most likely tear you apart."

"So… I can't build it if I want to, and I can't stop it either. Can I turn my mana off?" she asked, feeling a surge of panic rising in her.

"No."

Delta had a horrible image of her ballooning up like a sausage and then promptly exploding all over Durence.

Fairplay would be happy, at least.

"However."

Prim's screen interrupted Delta's inner panic for a moment.

"A secondary temporary core is arriving at the location shortly."

Delta tilted her head for a moment.

"I have a secondary core in hell?" she questioned, not sure if she was even surprised by this point.

"Not quite."

---

"It burns, it quacks. It hisses, it quacks. It reigns in hell, it quacks," Beta said, almost devoid of emotion as she trekked through the dark world where geysers of fire occasionally erupted from the ground. On her head, a black duck quacked along.

Beta's eyes looked haunted, and she stopped near a rock as a near-dead tiny plant grew on it, its brown limbs brittle. It danced in an ash-filled wind, like it was tempting her.

Beta stared at it, then screamed, setting the whole thing on fire as she raged.

"IT HIDES IN A TREE, IT WILL QUACK!" she screamed in monstrous anger.

The black duck on her head merely nodded.

She turned back to the screen nearby her; it was covered in little puppy and kitten paw prints. She glared as it glowed bright with pale red light. Around the edges, vines and thorns had turned to stone and were flaking away slowly.

Beta's Magical Menagerie! V.2
Important quest: Rescue your beloved teacher from the consequences of her own actions.
Rewards: Orange Mushroom Cap hat for all transformations.

"Still don't trust you all. I really don't," she whispered, hands clenched and changing into black claws.

The screen flickered.

"I've accepted that, and I will never bother you if you wish after this. Please, just help Delta. -Sister."

"Also I don't know who Delta is. Is she gonna help me escape here? Is she smart and stuff?" Beta grunted as she trudged through the sand and ash.

"Indeed!"

"So, I can trust her to take care of something delicate like the world tree?" Beta pressed the screen.

"…Yes!"

"You hesitated!"

"Quack."

Beta twitched but looked up at her 'escort.'

"What do you mean, you heard she was 'bombastic' from your prince? You guys are literally monster dragons that are also ducks; how can anything be bombastic to you all?!" Beta demanded, throwing her hands up.

Her screen blinked.

"Just don't mention the mushrooms when you meet her. - Sis"

"Why would I…mention…that…" Beta trailed off as in the distance, the ash storm shifted to reveal a massive black pulsing mushroom cap that was crackling with dark orange lightning, trying to grow up to somewhere beyond this world.

In the few seconds that Beta watched it, it let out a thunderous boom like a voice.

"WHAT TIME DOES A DUCK WAKE UP AT?!" the mushroom bellowed.

Beta stared.

"AT THE QUACK OF DAWN!" it finished. Beta turned around in one smooth motion.

"I'm going back to the hell pond for ten more years," she said bluntly and started walking.

"Wait! She needs you!" the screen tried to stop her.

"I don't need that!" Beta jabbed a thumb over her shoulder.

"I'll improve your reward!"

"No."

"Triple reward!"

"No." Beta's footsteps crunched the sand underfoot.

"I'll introduce you to someone who can hurt the tree! He lives close to Delta!" the screen said, and Beta froze.

"No one can hurt the tree, it's too powerful. Even I can't… not sure I can," Beta said quietly.

"This one can. Quiss Firesmasher has dedicated his existence to it. He has the means."

Beta turned around to stare at the epic mushroom towering on the horizon.

"Fine." Beta sounded calm, but her eyes were shifting into a dozen different forms a minute. Beta didn't hope. She didn't dare let that stupid feeling bloom in her heart ever again.

But she didn't reject the idea.

"WHERE DO TOUGH DUCKS COME FROM? HARD-BOILED EGGS!"

Beta gritted her teeth. She truly was in hell.

185: Red Moons and Bad Jokes

Delta was moving through the garden, her face contorting as she held her stomach, she was just far enough when the air grew hotter and the scent of charred flesh filled the room.

“You smell of home,” Runilac said as Delta slunk along the third floor to get to the fourth one as she wanted to be as close to her core as possible right now. She stopped as the demon blacksmith emerged from his workshop to speak to her. His body was covered in its customary soot and burn marks, and visible heat waves wafted off his skin.

The demon was coming out for a casual chat? That was not something the demon did nor did Delta force it. His presence was still a bit weird for Delta as he was like a void that easily resisted her mana and made her feel like she had a void inside her.

“I may have barfed my way into the abyss and claimed some of it for myself by no fault of my own,” she said bluntly, refusing to look embarrassed and the blacksmith frowned as tasting something in the air around him.

“Hmm a door to the abyss… I… well, all I will say is that it’s getting awfully thick with dungeon mana here, you’ll need to slow it down. You’re not nearly equipped to be opening permanent doors to the abyss,” the blacksmith warned and Delta shot him a look as he was slowing her journey down. She looked bloated, sick, and ready to burst into tears on the first sympathetic shoulder offered to her.

The demon really needed to pick the timing of his pearls of wisdom better.

“It isn’t by choice. I can’t stop it happening,” she admitted through gritted teeth and the pain in her gut was like two rocks rubbing together after being dipped in car oil. Occasionally, she felt a piece of her dungeon shake slightly before she got a grip over it. If this kept up then… Delta didn’t want to think of the consequences. Runilac rubbed his sulfur-like beard with a frown.

“Don’t get worked up. I can’t give you tips due to my confinement and bindings. The bastard who owns my name is still way under here, but I can tell you something… when opening a portal, if the two sides are working in tandem or giving equal share?” He said in a casual tone, “it slows the process to a crawl as the other side needs to work twice as hard,” the blacksmith finished and Delta tried not to politely shake the demon and just beg him to skip the riddles.

“Pretend I’m in a lot of pain and thinking isn’t a priority right now. Just pretend for me,” Delta finally managed and she was sweating… how long had it been since she had sweated out from pain?

Runilac sighed as he teased out snarls in his beard.

“You have too much Dungeon mana here…, Fix it!. The less you have, the more time you have,” he grunted! As black veins crawled up his neck like poison, making him curse as he fled back into his workshop, pulled back by whatever enchantments or promises that kept him there.
It was a bit of a shame how much Runilac isolated himself. It made her think sometimes he had no problems or issues. She wanted to help him with his bindings or oaths. Delta could break one, but not the other. She would get to work on it as soon as she got her current issue under control. Thankfully, Runilac couldn’t be clearer that time, she needed to spend mana and a lot of it. The sheer number of people coming in and out made that pretty much impossible for longer than an hour.

Still, she had to try and Delta knew where to begin.

---

Heat followed by a sensation of falling ended the dream she was having of landing a golden three-headed shark that was made up of ten other sharks. Greatly annoyed, Ruli sat up in her bed, her mother’s monstrous snores in the next room soothing like the bugs and night birds to her ears. Ruli felt hot, then itchy and uncomfortable as she sat there for a moment. It was a strange sensation she hadn’t much felt before since Ruli simply didn’t get hot outside of circumstances that would melt a normal man.

She climbed up and out of bed, her massive shirt billowing around her knees. It was a good night shirt and the half-giant she had got it off made it the perfect size for someone as tall as Ruli. There was a very old brown stain on one side where the giant got stabbed in the kidney, but Ruli didn’t know anything about that or how he was stabbed with a special enchanted curved knife that cost her two silvers.

Ruli went to the kitchen and shifted a bunch of butcher knives out of the sink so she could get a cup of water. The sink gurgled before drawing water that was pumped down from the mountains through a series of old pipes that should have needed replacing years ago but never had an issue.

Growing up, the stuff always tasted very ‘stiff,’ but now? Ruli eyed the water and sipped it again. It had a colder crispness to it. She even drank a second cup before she grew irritated that the itchy feeling on her skin wasn’t going away.

It was then she noticed her mother’s snoring had stopped.

Ruli turned to see a looming shadow of a powerful beast standing near a window and as moonlight appeared, the monster melted away to reveal her mother staring outside, her yellow eyes glowing.

“You feel it too?” Mila asked and Ruli sighed and nodded. This sensation, this burning in her blood, made it clear that the abyss was swelling. Either a demonic invasion was coming (a highly unlikely event since that meant any demon wanted something in this world) or…

“Dad,” she grumbled. She peered at her mother, frowning.

“I got demon blood to warn me, but how did you know?” she asked suspiciously. Mila shot her a stoney expression.

“I had my first longing for a man in over thirty years,” she said with great annoyance and Ruli slammed her cup in the sink and stalked off with her hands over her ears. Ruli didn’t want to hear any of that.

Even in the abyss, Ruli forced her dad to cover up the massive wall to wall paintings of her mother covered in her enemy’s blood and little else. Ruli didn’t need to see that either! She got dressed and grabbed her sword, its edges glowing slightly at her annoyance.

As she walked out, she became aware of a commotion coming from the direction of Delta’s Dungeon. It sounded like an argument and it was loud enough to travel all the way to the town.

Her yellow eyes narrowed and Ruli stalked through the woods. She emerged near the entrance to find a dozen groups outside, raising their voices in protest.

At first, Ruli tried to politely squeeze through but after so many dirty looks, jabs to her chest with sharp elbows and people stomping her foot, she began to pick up offenders and hurl them across the crowd as she moved. It didn’t take her long to make it to the entrance properly to find two goblins, a mime, a kobold, and an annoying little undead fairy trying to block the entrance with rope, buckets, and creative curse words.

She stopped short as she ran face first into an invisible wall and the ghoul raised one hand and made a gesture of pulling a door open, the pressure removing itself from Ruli’s nose.

“-And I will use your malleus to rearrange your phallu-” Mharia stopped as Ruli loomed over them.

“The blood knight maiden arrives,” the fairy said with a sigh of relief. That… that was worrying if Mharia had been concerned. She watched as the two goblins glared at the others behind her as if daring them to get close as they held up Gutrot mushrooms as projectiles.

Ruli felt the ‘home-sort-of’ feeling grow thicker and her alarm jumped three notches.

“What is going on?” she demanded and Jack the Kobold looked up at her as he raised what looked like a dirty book for housewives as a weapon.

“Delta. Delta… she horked too deep,” he said gravely.

“How did Delta ‘hork’ into another dimension of immaterial demonic energy and symbolism?” Ruli asked, voice deadly serious.

“With the grace of a gazelle and the accuracy of a goat,” Mharia said brightly.

Ruli grabbed the fairy and her hand turned dark and energy leaked off her, causing the fairy discomfort as her necromantic energy was slowly ebbed away by Ruli’s part-demon.

Demons were not of this world and did not obey the same rules of ‘decay.’

“She was ejecting some rooms and the normal process couldn’t handle her ‘Deltaness’!” Mharia scowled and pulled herself free, some of her face melting off as her disguise slipped in front of everyone.

There were screams from some of the adventurers and ‘oohs’ of appreciation from death magic users…or were they goths with swords?

Ruli always couldn’t tell them apart until they fought.

“Ugh, I flashed the goods for free to so many. You made a scarlet woman of me,” Mharia said with annoyance as she put her face back on with a slopping noise.

“Where is Delta?” Ruli asked and the contract monsters looked inside with worry.

“Needing space to work,” Hob spoke up and then came the clameous arguments from the groups of people wanting to get back inside to get more ‘treasures.’ A few of them wielded Fran and Bacon equipment sets like horned helmets, elegant armor, pig saddles, pig-iron lances, long enchanted blond ‘fabio’ wigs, fake pig snouts, and shields that had Bacon’s face on it.

Some of them had more exotic things such as pure black feathers tucked into hats after they fed the lake duck a bronze or silver dagger. Some had pots on their back for luck which were filled with clean water, some of them had tiny little pigs with mushrooms on their backs that oinked in near chorus.

The more experienced of the lot had authentic Pygmy tribal gear which they must have thought was magic but she supposed all it did was make the Pygmy mushrooms target other people first before turning on the wearer.

That was actually magical, if Ruli thought about it.

Some had long stingers as swords, some of them dyed red or blue, while having flasks of glowing honey on their hips. She even spotted some woman wearing what looked like a replica Bob helmet, complete with a maw of teeth. It looked heavy and monstrous.

Ruli stared at it and felt just a little bit envious.

She sort of maybe wanted a Bob helmet.

“Listen, the dungeon is currently experiencing a…” she looked at the monsters for help.

“Maintenance,” Mharia said, “we’re adding new banners and a Summer Bikini Rale banner for 0.005% chance of rolling,” she added sarcastically then blinked at herself.

“Delta, your world is terrifying,” she whispered to herself.

“We want a Fera summer with a plate of booze!!” a group called and they looked drunk. Ruli liked the look of them.

“Right, so Delta is getting these ‘banners’ and things I don’t want to imagine in swimsuits, so you all need to wait outside so your experience is improved. You want a better dungeon experience, right?” Ruli demanded, her eyes looking over the crowd and no one met her eyes.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The drunk ones tried but they were looking in two different directions.

“Why does it smell like a bad bbq?” someone spoke up and Ruli hesitated.

“That’s the smell of bikini banners,” she said quickly. They could not learn Delta was connecting to the abyss. That would bring down some very unwanted attention from many churches.

Some decent, others not so.

Nothing soured a good day like a church turf war.

“What if we don’t want to wait?” a strong-looking man asked with his sleeves torn off to show off his muscles. Ruli crossed her arms and her muscles were bigger without flexing.

“I suggest you find the desire, quickly,” she said simply. That shut up a lot of them and Ruli got comfy as she didn’t want to ruin whatever it was Delta was doing either.

If she was a contract…

Ruli shook her head. That was a thought that led nowhere good.

---

Delta was moving through the second floor, setting up small groups of trees that she shifted with her movement tools and created open groves of sorts. She was sweating from the pain in her gut, but it was far less pressing once all the people had been evicted from her Dungeon.

They didn’t even know what happened as Hero in his full form appeared in all dimensions. He swept them out with blackholes. It seemed her current pain and need to deal with many people counted as a ‘raid’?

Still, she was needing to spend mana fast, but she wasn’t going to let this pain and threat of imminent death ruin her schedule. There was dying and then there was just panicking.

The groves she made were empty in the middle and she raised stone pillars in each, trying to use her will and imagination alone to shape them instead of the system. It took more mana and Delta could flex her art skills.

An elegant figure of terror and beauty emerged with long tendril-like fingers and-

“Terrifying Forest Hag Witch totem created!” Prim chimed.

“It’s supposed to be Wyin,” Delta said numbly. The screen turned to the totem then back to Delta a few times.

“…I hope she never sees this.”

Prim blinked away and Delta sagged as she patted the totem.

“People don’t appreciate real art,” she said sympathetically to the stone. She fiddled with her menu and found the totem was now a ‘decoration’ which she placed in each grove before opening their sub-system to allow Delta to give them ‘purpose.’

“Wyin Witch Statues: A powerful and memorable stone totem.”

“Diplomacy suits you well, Prim,” Delta murmured with a side-eyes.

“Allow Wyin to possess these statues and stalk adventurers to her murderous heart’s content. 50 DP.
Turn these statues into anti-pygmy wards to allow adventurers tiny pockets of peace. 20 DP.
Wyin’s natural divine powers allow all medicine, healing magic, and druid magic to be empowered within range of these statues. Alcohol is now 5% more effective. 40 DP
These statues actively burn away any parasitic effects of the god REDACTED. The ‘World Tree.’ DP 150.”

Choices, choices… Delta just didn’t know which to pick.

“Nu, how’s my resources?” she asked and a dark blue screen appeared.

“You make the 1% of the world weep in envy.” Nu said bluntly.

“Fabulous,” Delta said and dragged her finger down the screen with one smooth motion.

---

Wyin looked up as she continued to peel dried honey off her branches.

“I sense a Delta-ning,” she muttered with wariness. Suddenly, her awareness began to spread and she saw some horrid looking statues that formed a spiritual bond to her power.

“So ugly they become cute,” Wyin mused with a blink. They must be some sort of dryad hag made to serve her!

Oh, the fun she would have with this.

---

Delta looked over the second floor, rubbing her arms to fight off the ache she felt.

“What the second floor is missing is a figure… a presence to urge them to hurry,” she muttered and snapped her fingers, shifting the sky from bright sun to a dark night.

“Second floor weather system:
Make every hour shift the time forward. 6 hours of day and 6 of night. During the night, the first hour is a new moon and the sixth hour is a full moon. 40 Mana.”

Delta purchased it, and a moon formed above the jungle, tinged slightly red.

She went to the secret flower garden and opened her menu. It seemed Prim had been following her thought process, because several ideas were already waiting for her. Luna was nearby, collecting the herbs she needed for her springs.

“Oh?” the young frog said with a coy smile as she watched Delta work.

“Floor Guardian:
Colors of the Bloody Wind: A wind elemental that is made up of a dozen toxic flower petals. It has no defined form but sometimes looks like a see-through fish. 200 Mana.

Big Hoop Bear: A monster bear that seems to move through the jungle without disturbing the trees. Those who have eaten honey in the last six hours will never be able to escape this bear’s nose. 200 Mana.

Boss Bunta: A 12-foot tall frog of demi-divine lineage. The combined skills of all the frogs on this floor become this warrior’s tools. To bring it forth requires all the frogs to truly embrace its myth and believe it. 200 Mana.”

Delta hummed but didn’t pick any.

“This is sort of tough,” she admitted, not able to just buy them all this time since it would only let her pick one.

She would have to consider each’s strength in relation to her current floor’s abilities already. Think of what she had and what she lacked.

Delta supposed she could ask the other monsters for opinions and-

“Random Floor Guardian. 250 mana.”

“Oh no, someone stop me,” Delta said in a very faint voice as her finger rose.

“I can stop you if you want?” Nu offered and Delta hit the red cross symbol at the corner of his screen.

“Shhh, no adulting. Only gambling,” she said with a soothing voice.

She hit the random option and waited with excitement. Before her, the flowers shifted and the winds picked up as above, the blood moon glowed ominously.

Before her, what looked like a very pale, but normal girl appeared in the midst of the flowers. Delta stared at her simple neck-length brown hair, scratchy-looking dress, and innocent expression.

“I got a child. I’m sure this is terrifying to most young adults, but I wanted firepower,” she called to the system. The blood moon shone once more and there came the sounds of tearing and fabrics ripping. Delta turned to see a maw filled with canine-like teeth belonging to a ten foot tall creature with white fur streaked with red lines, a dozen tails behind it whipping and lashing in a destructive manner as the glowing yellow eyes snapped to her.

It was hunched over, but clearly walked on two legs.

It let out a roar that was part shriek, part scream, sending a dozen petals flying into the air as it shook the jungle.

“I thought it was a pale moon that did this,” was all Delta could mutter.

“Haha, everyone’s in danger!” Luna clapped her hands in delight.

Lyre: Red Moon Beast: Floor Guardian.
Only appears in the final hour under a full moon.
This creature has simple goals and to feed off others fear and hunt the slow. Most of the time, she is just a normal looking girl who doesn’t think or do much but any ill-actions taken against her will be repaid double when she changes.

On higher difficulties, the full moon lasts all six hours.

The creature bent down to allow Delta to pet her. It was undeniable but when Delta looked into her eyes, she understood one thing.

“Not much going on, but you do your best,” she praised and the creature’s tails thumped.

This was helping, but she wondered how her ‘secondary core’ was getting on?

---

“Did you hear about the girl with three feet-”
“Why did the chicken catch the bus-”
“You have contracted Lig-”

Beta was sweating, ready to end it all as she tore through the spongy black mushroom flesh with her transformed claws. Every inch was a new layer of worse jokes. She was moving slow as the damn stuff was regenerating faster than she could cut it at times.

Before, it had even trapped her and she had to eat the foul stuff. It was the worst experience of her life and she had been dunked in a vinegar pond by evil dragon ducks the day before.

She paused to catch her breath as the flesh before her turned orange instead of black.

“Why should you never sing in the shower?” said a much clearer voice, a woman’s voice.

“Because if you get soap in your mouth it becomes a soap opera!” she laughed and Beta’s heart twisted painfully as if the voice meant something.

She pulled at the new layer and it was heavy, tough, and unyielding.

“It’s okay to be angry. You can be angry here. Your emotions are valid.”

“Shut up! I don’t know you! I don’t know anyone!” Beta screamed.

“It’s okay if you want to hate me. As a teacher, if it helps, I can bear that.”

Beta sagged and her energy felt spent, but for some reason the mushroom had stopped regenerating.

“I… don’t want to hate you. I don’t hate you. I just don’t remember why,” she whispered to the ground.

She tensed.

“And not remembering is pissing me off!” she roared and began to tear and rip. She would not be denied!

She would get to the heart of this thing. It called to her.

“I asked a dog what one minus one was. He said nothing.”

Also to murder the jokes.

186: Tanning in Puns

Beta struggled to the heart of the lumpy mass of bad jokes and mushrooms until she came to a massive pillar that emerged out of the ground., It was made of the same spongy material as the rest of the place.

Veins of pure mana, something that Beta had desperately missed in the Demon World, flowed up the pillar to where something should have been. A round indentation at the peak of the pillar wanted something spherical shaped to be placed inside it.

Since it didn't have this 'thing,' the mana was bursting into the air and causing mushrooms to form and grow uncontrollably in all directions. Beta stuck her hand into the pillar and let out a sharp hiss as the mana crackled in aggressive response and sounds rushed through her.

'-forDelta!Noretreat!Itsofftoworkwego!It's-'

Beta pulled her hand back and shook her fingers, the tips slightly blackened. Okay, she had forgotten her basic rules when it came to mana.

Beta wasn't just a girl these days and she focused on forming a strange crystalline claw in place of her hand. She was about to plunge the claw into the pillar when she stared at it.

"Where did I get you from again? Was it the Shattered Islands? I don't even remember…" she said darkly and shook her head.

How many years had she forgotten?

How old was she now?

How long had she been a toy for that tree monster? Beta thought she looked the same as always but the Dark Drakes had a point when they spoke to her.

Her current form wasn't her real form, it was a form she willed into existence based on what she thought she looked like.

It wasn't quite shapeshifting, but more refusing to let go of a snapshot. When she wanted to reform to her real form, something stopped her.

A terror, a clawing panic that some old woman might emerge covered in sins she had committed and then forgot. That menu had clues but it also had records of the things she had done.

Beta growled to herself and stabbed the pillar once more, arcs of green light surging forth from her body.

Beta's powers were a little weird. She didn't technically absorb monsters or consume them but her body was made up of 'Advanced Mule' Cells. Beta was sure they were called something else once upon a time but that was what they were called now when she looked 'inside' at her power.

Every piece of her was made up of the exact same stuff. There was virtually no difference between her strands of hair and her brain or heart. To destroy Beta, one would have to fight her either with overpowered magic or so long she eventually exhausted every single cell of energy.

The only reasons she had eyes or a mouth and they worked as intended was because Beta needed to feel human.

She supposed if she was honest, she was more amoeba like or slime like if one got down to it. Her arm flashed and the orange mana crackled and was pushed back as Beta's own energy began to overtake the mushroom flesh, replacing the spongy walls with hexagonal blue crystal formations.

Soon, there was a stalemate between the two forces and Beta's jaw nearly dropped.

She had consumed dragons, living horrors, things she couldn't even remember, and-

'-a black pulsing sack of wrongness. It wasn't of this world and every inch of Beta wanted to crawl away, threatening to break her into pieces, but as she thought about fleeing, vines emerged from her flesh and drove her forward. Closer to the wrongness. The void of silence. The Echo-

Beta gasped and her crystals were pushed back before she managed to get herself back under control.

That was… something she would have to deal with later. Her efforts to convert all this mana into more of 'herself' was utterly failing, even worse, the orange mana was learning and breaking down her crystals.

Beta switched tactics, forming her other arm into a slithery black tendril that pierced the pillar. She was trying to turn the stuff into a black sludge that she could control. That worked for a time until the mana learned and suppressed that attack too.

"Why… won't… this… work?" Beta demanded as she switched her hands through a dozen types of monster formations, each capable ofutterly breaking down and converting materials into more of itself. Some worked with mana, while others worked with physical materials, but nothing was working. The mana was slowly taking back its losses and Beta began to sweat, needing to cool down her body as she was heating up.

There was a sudden pause after her question.

'-gothedistance!Wait.Question?Student!Guest?Studentguest!Question!Answer…Whatisthequestionagain?Meowmeowmeow-'

What.

Beta stared as she slowly touched the pillar once more.

-meowmeowmeow…meow! Meow!-

"Can you understand me?" she asked, feeling like an idiot for talking to what was basically energy-

'Yes!yes!understandsomuchandknowsolittle!You are student guest! BEOURGUES-'

"Stop singing! Stop getting distracted!" Beta shouted and the pillar went still for a moment, as if it was trying to focus.

All at once the walls, ground, and even the ceiling began to bulge and swell up as if they were struggling to keep something contained and Beta could feel an immense pressure of explosive energy forming.

"What's happening?!" Beta yelled and the pillar answered her in a strained burst.

'Must…not…be…distracted. Pushing…distractions to side…'

The mana said in a pained tone. This is why Beta just beat up monsters she wanted to handle. This talking stuff just wasn't healthy for her wellbeing.

"Think about cats!" she ordered and all around her the walls split open, letting loose a literal herd of cats with mushrooms instead of ears and spongy bodies. The near-explosion seemed to shrink but it was still building too quickly to disperse safely.

"Think about a rock you can't move!" she said, wanting this thing to waste all its energy in stupid tasks it couldn't possibly fulfill.

A large boulder emerged from the ground near Beta and had a single word carved into its surface.

'Responsibilities.'

Beta once again considered becoming a citizen of the Dark Drake community and being a duck for the rest of her life. The pros were few, but not having to be here and deal with this was a big one.

"Mana…things. I need to get up to the top and pretend to be in charge. Will you let me do that?" Beta said over the noise of yowling mushroom cats and the stone that loomed ominously over her shoulder.

'You are not a core'

There was enough of a 'cohesion' between the mana to make a near proper voice of concern.

"Please, I can be whatever I want to be. Monster, girl, puppet, duck prisoner, or a core. Easy," she said and waited.

Before her, stairs formed out of the pillar with wet slurpy sounds.

'Thisisaterribleidea. Couldbefunny! Weshouldinventchips'

Beta took a deep breath of the strangely sweet air and began to climb.

Her foot sunk deep into the first step and her sock got soaked. It wasn't her sock, but her flesh, but it 'acted' as a sock and Beta's face grimaced.

"Can these be less moist?" she asked and, for once, there was a single unified voice.

'No.'

---

Delta felt just a little bit better. Something was happening to the mana in the abyss. It hadn't stopped trying to connect to her, but it was heavily distracted. Still, it wouldn't hurt to keep spending more resources.

She stopped petting Lyre's hair as the girl chewed on grass with a pleased look. The floor guardian didn't want much in life and Delta was only too happy to grant what little she did want.

Head pats and grass to chew.

She cast her mind out for a new project to take up. Bidding farewell to Lyre who clamped herself to Luna's leg, Delta vanished to the fourth floor. She peered over the islands she made so far and cast her eye to the ocean instead.

What if someone did make it through Jellagon? There was basically nothing here to defend the floor other than a crab. It also meant she, just to be safe, couldn't just make one monster on a single island. It had to be able to roam between them.

What roamed between islands, seeking havoc and rich treasures? She bent over suddenly as her mind felt fuzzy with jokes and near mindless chatter mixed with a vision of something green and angry…

It was gone a second later but she shuddered as she felt a strange urge to act like a fool. Well, might as well get it out of her system and sink some huge resources into this endeavor.

On Cancer Island, she began the formation of a single monster that was actually a bunch of monsters serving under a much stronger one. It was a new process for her but with Nu and Prim, she didn't have to struggle on any one part for too long.

Before her, floating in the shallow water was a round shape with a single forward point. The round shape was made out of metal and its ceiling was made of a liquid wood that flowed itself into the shape of Delta's design. Prim took control of the actual creation which disappointed Delta a little, but she marched on.

From above, she cut four 'slices' into the roof, creating windows of sorts before she focused and made a massive mast of wood rise up. It came with a complete set of pale pink sails with frilly edges that dripped what looked like icing onto the round roof.

What followed next was the proper creation of the hull with a figurehead of a massive serpent coiled around a magical looking staff.

Delta stood back and her two systems stared at the creation.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Prim muttered as Nu just kept silent, being an old hand at Delta's games by now.

Delta opened her menu and found a new option had indeed appeared due to her newest creation. She shuffled things around until she got what she wanted.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"But why is it a giant pie in the ocean?" Prim had to ask, getting more outraged. Delta just hummed to herself as she created 'four' monsters to be used in the creation of her wandering floor Guardian.

Delta started smiling with delight as four hunched hairy rat-men appeared on the deck of the ship. They were wearing torn striped shirts and bandanas of different colors on their heads.

That was when this option she was cultivating finally fit Delta's high standards.

Pie Rats: Scoundrels of the Fourth Floor that wander the ocean to seek unaware adventurers. While these ratty men may be scurvy 'dogs' and tricky, their captain is something else. Aboard this Leviathan vessel, a far worse threat awaits. 60 DP.

Delta stared at the suggested name of the ship and pursed her lips.

"Let's call it…" she trailed off.

---

Inside the captains' cabin, a form wearing an oversized beige hat shifted as it came to awareness. It stretched and yawned as knowledge filled it and the crew.

Slowly, the crew began to smile and laugh.

'Lol Lol Lol Lol!" she cackled as she kicked the door to the deck open and pointed her magic cutlass with a little rabbit chain hanging off it.

"Ratbert! Ratthew! Ratmantha! Perry! Lower the sails and set to the sea! I have a craving to feel the wind in my hair!" little Captain Tain cried! Moments later, the ship began to cruise away. On the side, visible in sloppy paint strokes was a name.

"The Lemonthian"

---

Captain Tan and the Pie Rats. Floor Guardian: A special fighting vessel that seeks all things sweet and shiny. Each rat crewmate specializes in a different way of fighting and drops unique flavor loot. Perry's flavor is said to be the most mysterious of all: Pie Flavor. Depending on which island they are closest to, the ship gains a special new type of ammunition for its cannons and features.

Example: Cancer Island.
Cannonballs are actually very round crabs that, when they miss you, unfold and slam into your back. The ship also emits a constant low thrum of music that confuses all enemies or invites others to dance.

Gemini Island:

The cannons become dual shot.

The ship has a four rat crew but their power is split evenly and their flavors become niche.

---

Delta felt like she had just lost ten pounds. She felt so much better, but she still had so much damn mana… If she couldn't get it spent before Fairplay got back in, she'd be back at square one. She followed Captain Tan for a bit just to make sure nothing was malfunctioning.

The only thing she noticed was Captain Tan kept pointing and things and going 'lol lol lol lol' in a near continuous laugh. Delta was pretty sure shewasn't even using the acronym but just the sounds…

Even so, this fragile looking child captain could take on five Frans at the same time. She was no joke. Her strength was befitting the fourth floor and she was also a floor guardian. If Fran was fully unshackled and in Knight mode, maybe Captain Tan could only take two…

Jellagon could take two Captain Tans at the same time which showed that the boss on the previous floor could still eclipse a lot of the early threats on the next floor.

Still, Fran has his own little 'core.' Delta could never be sure where her first boss monster ever fit into things long term.

She turned and Nu stopped her.

"Maybe we should have an end goal for all these islands? Or maybe a reward for getting all 12 orbs you seem to be setting up?" he asked as Delta stared at him. She felt
that the little blue box was radiating concern for her behind his wall of indifference.

"Because it'll cost the most mana and DP?" she asked with a smile.

"The floor is also unfinished and it makes it look untidy," Nu said, not quite denying Delta's words.

Delta looked over the floor with its half-completed islands and imagined the end goal of the floor.

The idea was that if someone collected six orbs off any islands, they would gain access to the Star island, hidden far above in the sky and be able to face the boss. But, what if they collected all twelve orbs?

If someone collected all twelve orbs, then they would have to be rewarded, wouldn't they? She clapped her hands together in front of her and then slowly parted her hands, creating a great divide in the ocean below. The divide was skirting close to the plugged whirlpool hole to the abyss. The exposed ocean floor had sand, some shells, coral, and growing seaweed, but nothing to stroke anyone's imagination.

With effort, she selected a section of the ocean floor and raised it upwards, forming more rock to keep the piece of detached seafloor stable. Slowly, she shaped a simple island but with a massive set of stone stairs on it with twelve statues, six on each side of the staircase. Each statue had an open mouth, slot, or hand where something could be placed.

It didn't take much 'coding' to make the island rise to the surface when one group had eight or more orbs in their possession. The raised island connected to the main island that led back to the third floor.

Now, there was a very 'neat' little hack that Delta had discovered when she was making up the last floor guardians and such. The more complex and tricky the activation trigger was for an event, the more dangerous or powerful Delta could make the effect for only a little more cost.

With focus, she brought up the mirror dimensions of the Dungeon. She purchased the third, and fourth floor mirror dimensions, emptying half of her DP cost in a single purchase.

The pain was immense but it was oddly set off by the fact she was making it harder for the mana in the abyss to reach her. The migraine pulsed and she needed to put her head between her knees for a few minutes before she could move again.

"I am a sunflower, I am a daisy, I am a tulip, I am a friend to the bees…" she chanted in a near song to help her pass the time.

Once she let that settle in, she looked at the fourth floor's mirror dimensions and reduced them by half.

The third floor, not having the same reduction, was forced to channel itself into narrower paths. For every two exits out of the third floor, there would only be one fourth floor entrance.

"A treasure hunt is no fun if you're the only one looking," Delta grinned.

Two different groups, maybe more, would likely head in different directions to outpace the others that appeared. Once the knowledge of the orbs became known, the other party would have to make a choice of hunting down the remaining orbs or taking the other party's orbs.

But she wasn't trying to make a battle royale that would turn the ocean red.

With Nu's help, she not only made a new enchantment on the orbs, but a new sign to those that appeared on the fourth floor.

"The ocean before ye is free. To aid or hinder, only ye can make it be. But, aye, ye be forewarned of the "Curse of the ORBs." The more blood ye spill, the more the Orbs absorb. Aye, the Blood soaked Orbs may open the door but they will poison yer reward. Aye, even worse, the more ye stink of the blood of man, the faster ye be found by Captain Tan."

Nu went and ruined Delta's mysterious sign by adding a little hanging one.

'If ye seek Captain Tan anyway, just scream ye have candy on a beach. Bonus points if ye have a trenchcoat on. - Nu.'

Once that was done, Delta turned to the still exposed island under the water. She bent down and went to the underside of the island, making a tiny nest.

Inside, a little snake was formed, split directly down the middle into black and white. It looked up at her and flicked its tongue. Delta gave it hay and anti-water barriers for its nest, a little stone hut, and a bowl of fresh water.

After everything, after all the orbs, the forced competition, Captain Tan, and more… this little fella was her activation trigger.

"I'm going to call you…Phi," Delta said with a smile as the snake buried its head into the hay and emerged, looking like it only had one brain cell and it was stuck on loading.

"Ophiuchus has been created. Rank: Critter."

---

"Delta, your room sucks!" Beta screamed as she went waist deep into a step. She slowly pulled herself out with a squelching noise as she reached for the next step which her hand and it sank into the step like wet carpet.

'Thewheelsonthebusgoroundandround. I guess she doesn't want step-by-step instructions?'

Beta let out a shriek of rage and climbed faster.

Beta had to do something. She had to fight fire with fire.

"That's great, but did you see me and the boys waiting for capitalism to collapse?" she called out and the mana went quiet in confusion.

Beta grinned viciously.

"It's pretty sad when you email your teacher at 2am because you have no life, but it must be worse when they email right back!" she kept finding power to climb faster.

"Ms Pacman thinks she invented woman power in video games? Insert picture of chessboard!" Beta yelled, moving faster now as the mana was in disarray due to the confusion.

"Do You know when you're pretty screwed? When even the priest who comes to see you in the hospital has to put a hazmat suit over their bible before they enter!" she yelled, each step yielding to her energy.

She was nearing the top.

"REJECT MUSHROOMS, RETURN TO SINGLE CELLS!" she roared and grasped the ledge of the top of the pillar.

There was a pause.

'Is this a me-me?' the mana asked and Beta's fingers slipped and she slid down five steps with a scream of anguish.

The war was on.

---

187: A. B. D? G?!

Beta was fighting an unwinnable fight. Everything about Delta seemed able to defeat her. Her adaptive powers, her variety of attacks, and more. Beta felt it would be like her taking on a magic weapon that only had so many limited forms. In a dark moment of humor, Beta supposed it was almost like a game.

Dungeon beat monster, monster beat hero, hero beat magic sword, magic sword beat Dungeon.

Or was it the monster that beat the magic sword?

Beta laid at the bottom of the central pillar, watching as every second, the spongy mushroom flesh adapted, evolved , became redundant, and evolved again in a cycle that made it god-like one moment and pitifully weak the next.

The pillar wasn't trying to stop Beta but its very nature made it dangerous to traverse. Stairs became doorways, walls opened to experimental rooms, and things sometimes emerged from the wall half-formed.

Grimacing, she turned to the system she had been doing everything she could to ignore and began to actually look at what it offered.

Beta hadn't forgiven the siblings, would never forgive them, but her own grudge could wait until this was settled. They did free her from that parasite so it was like a peace offering that Beta was only going to take as far as needed.

The menu only had three main features along with a point counter.

Core Upgrades
Monster form upgrades.
Mutations.
Monster Points: 468 million.

Beta guessed she had been busy over the years.

She tapped core upgrades and found that the system worked in a manner that she was given three options to pick from and once Beta picked one option, the other two would vanish and might come back the next time she picked upgrade.

Her first selection made her glare.

It's less painful to transform parts of your body!
Insect monsters are 2% easier to absorb.
Able to eat slightly unpleasant food more easily.

Beta could transform her whole body with no pain, she could slurp up insect monsters in seconds, and she ate raw witches at one point.

What the hell was this?!

Beta picked the first one and saw the next upgrade cost had gone from 1 monster point to 2 monster points.

She didn't feel any difference which she chalked up to being too badass on her own power.

The next three options came.

Improved coordination when using two monster parts at the same time.
Able to store up to four different monster blueprints!
Improved tracking.

Beta blinked.

Four blueprints? Beta had hundreds of monsters inside her body ready to go. She remembered suddenly that she had been eating and it felt like she was constantly on the verge of throwing up but something, tree branches and vines, forced her to keep eating until that wall broke under her constant consumption.

It hurt terribly.

She picked the additional blueprint, just to spite the parasite. Oddly, this one she did feel a difference with. Just for a moment or two, something in her head stopped hurting. Beta hadn't even noticed she was in pain so the sudden lack of it made her jolt.

The next core upgrade now cost her 3 points.

Curiously, she tried the other two options before moving forward. They worked in the same manner that they offered a choice of three upgrades.

Monster Upgrades offered her a strange selection.

All your goblin forms become 2% more perfected. Current Goblin Blueprint bugs: 5345%.
Unlock Silver Salmon form. A lower evolution form of the Silver Shark blueprint you own; this form has increased stealth and reduced stress on the body.
Goblin Shaman form now gains a lightning Ball spell for use.

Disturbed, she picked the first option and noticed something in her cluster of goblin forms shifted, new connections forming as old tattered strands were removed. The vague shapes of her many goblin forms suddenly snapped to a slightly more clear vision and details about them shifted.

Before, when Beta looked at the goblin forms she had it might have read 'Goblin Warrior'.

Now, it was like it had expanded.

Goblin Warrior: Tier 1 Evolution of Common Goblin.
Strength: Hit good.
Magic: No thoughts, empty head.
Speed: Potato.

Monster upgrades went from costing 1 to costing 3. That was something Beta noticed instantly.

The last option made her extremely nervous as she tapped 'Mutations'.

Once again, she was given three options.

Due to owning a Tier 1 Evolution of the Forest Spider (Fanged Forest Spider), you can now produce anti-venom for this species that works on tier 1 and 2 with various results! Constant creation will tire you.
Due to owning the Deep Murk Clam form, you can now slowly purify dirty water for others to drink. Constant creation will tire you.
Due to owning three different types of skeletons, you can now produce and regenerate spare bones for various uses.

"I don't remember eating clams," Beta muttered but she chalked that up to the 'dark' times when she was far gone.

"But why do the mutations benefit people and are helpful? Aren't I a monster?" she asked and to her surprise she got an answer.

The Ultimate Monster is not just a destructive force. It is a challenge for others to meet. Until they come knocking, you aren't a monster, you are a mythical creature. Every action you take spreads and helps remove seeds within people.

Beta just grabbed the water mutation and felt strange as something in the rough location where humans had kidneys suddenly bunched and formed a strange organ.

"I just grew clam bits," she said in surprise. With a thought the organs melted away and when Beta thought of them, they reformed. She guessed that would prevent her from becoming bloated with organs and features.

Collecting the correct list of mutations will create a 'system' in your body and grant a unique feature.

Clam Mutation
???
???

Find the missing two to unlock 'Beta Well'.

Beta stood up slowly and grunted as she dusted herself off.

"There have to be millions of mutations, how the hell am I supposed to find the correct ones?" she asked with a dark tone.

Every unique system has clues that can be found in the natural world. From the highest mountain to the deepest... Dungeon. A well of knowledge can be found in the oddest of places.

Beta just sighed, noting the mutation cost jumped from 1 to 5.

"How do I get more points? I should ask before I forget," she looked around and waited for a response.

Consume. Learn. Use creatively.

Beta pulled a spongy mushroom off the wall and gnashed it between her teeth as if to sarcastically agree. The thing stung her throat and made tears spring to her eyes. It was vile and she coughed a few times.

Hellish Gutrot consumed! 5 points gained.
Congratulations! This is the third most toxic thing you have ever consumed. Would you like to open your World Record Tab?

"My what?!" Beta said around violent coughs.

Instead of an answer, a new window opened with ten lists.

Top 3 consumed tab.
Evolved:
3rd: Ice Wyrm(Tier 6). 2nd: Spatial Goat(Tier 8). 1st: "£$"!!@$£"£(Tier Undefined). Redeem records? Total points gain: 5000.

Rarest:
3rd: A Golden Horned RabbitLess than 4000 in the world). 2nd: A Three-Eyed Fish of Corruption (Less than 500 in the world). 1st: A Pure-Hearted Lawyer (less than 5 in the world). Redeem records: Total points gain: 3000

The list went on to list the most violent, the most magical, the most toxic, and more.

All in all, Beta could get 200,000 points there and then.

It was like a reward for exploring and eating new things like an open-minded tourist but with more teeth.

"Are there any... other systems I should be aware of?" Beta said with gritted teeth as she tried not to curse the tree aloud.

Fixed Clone production is unlockable for 1 million Monster Points.

"Like evil clones?" Beta asked, suddenly interested.

The Tiamat System will allow you to produce monsters that you have consumed with all upgrades you have unlocked. Currently, if unlocked, you can make one clone. Every additional million spent will unlock another clone. Each clone is independent but is 'you'. They will not betray you because you all share one mind but the clones may develop quirks that display themselves differently.

"So... I should upgrade myself first then make the clones because they'll be more reliable?" Beta mused as she eyed the space. She left the mushroom tower to find a Dark Drake watching calmly from a distance.

"Are there things in hell that I can fight and eat? I'm asking for a friend that also happens to be me because I don't have friends," Beta asked the duck seriously.

She had points but she had a feeling that testing them out as she got them would be a smart decision.

The duck looked highly amused. It gestured to the entire land where the weird red sunlight touched.

It might as well have said 'buffet that way'. Beta nodded and focused, producing fresh water from somewhere inside her and letting it drip over the duck.

"I give you my fucks, may you use it to grow some of your own," she said and walked off as the duck shook itself. With what she felt, the tower had less than an hour before it hit critical levels.

Beta only needed 30 minutes to get good.

---

"Listen, I've heard this story a dozen times. It's not going to help."

The girl stopped in the middle of the path with a long dark expression.

"They took everything from me. I won't stop until every last one of them is dead," she said, her long dark hair obscuring her face slightly.

"And you swore to help me," she reminded. The blade emerging from a strange religious cross handguard made a scoffing noise.

"Nah nah, I 'offered' to help you deal with one particular vampire who we agreed on. Don't put words in my mouth, I really don't like it," the sword warned and the girl scoffed.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"I pulled you from that swamp! You owe me your help!" she said with frustration and stabbed the sword into the ground as she began to pace.

Gamma let out an internal sigh.

It was always 'me me me' with people.

"And I am giving you help, but that doesn't mean I'll devote my life to your endless crusades against vampires, which is a little racist, I'mma be blunt," Gamma said flippantly.

The girl shot him an ugly look.

"What life does a sword have if it's not to kill things?" she asked and Gamma could have screamed at her, raged about his injustices, or even called her a parasite of her own type, but Gamma didn't do that.

He was rather used to being treated as a thing and not a person.

Besides, Esma was hurting and Gamma enjoyed being a terror, but he knew what it was like to feel powerless and angry. He wondered if he pointed out that he had saved her from a dozen swamp snakes, two goblins, and a couple of bandits that he had already paid her debt a dozen times over.

No, that was rational and people hated being rational!

Gamma shifted his form until he looked like a kitchen knife with a chef's hat.

"Mademoiselle, let moi cut to the chase and serve up some desserts," he said in a horrible accent.

He dropped it the next second.

"You're hunting a vampire that you don't know the name of, the location of, the destination of, or even the social security number of. Any other cutting knife would have split by now," he said gently and Esma looked down at the ground, biting her lip like it was going to run away.

Gamma shifted to a spear so she could better lean against the tree Esma was also leaning on. Spear just felt more feminine to Gamma. Perhaps it was the phrase 'beat them off with a stick' that cemented the idea.

"You got to pace yourself or you'll be doing the vampire's job for him and dying before you even get started. Trust me," Gamma said and turned into a wind-up crossbow.

"It's better to carefully take a shot than-" he shifted to a mechanical cross bolt with a machine-gun-like barrel that began shooting arrows with barely any force.

"-prematurely go off!" Gamma joked and Esma scoffed and looked away, a smile tugging at her lips.

"I didn't know you could become a ranged weapon," she finally said and Gamma turned into a slingshot with a strangely blue elastic sling.

"Why be one thing when I can be all the things? Fluidity is key," Gamma said proudly then added in a nonchalant voice.

"Besides, you didn't ask," they said casually. Esma hesitated then sat down.

"Okay, tell me about your powers. I guess I needed a break," she admitted and Gamma silently cheered at the win. Uptight wielders were nightmares.

"I am Gamma, the Swiss army knife of weapons," he began as he turned back to a sword.

"What's a swiss?" Esma interrupted with a puzzled expression.

"A type of cheese, but if you ask me, way better rolls," Gamma tried to wink and only managed to make his edge gleam.

"I don't get it," the girl admitted and Gamma sighed.

"Not everyone is an artist, but everyone's a critic!" he joked before clearing his throat as he explained how he could consume different weapons to take them into himself. As he spoke he eyed his menu.

Cutting Edge Technologies:
Core abilities.
Weapon Form abilities.
Weapon Research.
Skill Research.

Weapon Points: 120

Most of it was basic like his core abilities enhanced his basic powers.

Increase your durability to a higher standard
Increase your attack power on blade weapon forms
Improve your magical conductivity.

He needed about 600 points for his next upgrade and Gamma was aiming for that sweet durability. Nothing beats being the unbreakable spoon.

There was winning and then there was Betty Crockering some idiot until they cried or ate cake.

Weapon Form abilities let Gamma learn some neat tricks with specific forms.

Triple Shot unlocked for all bow and arrow weapons(slings included)
Any item turned into a weapon by picking it up off the ground becomes a weapon type that it most closely resembles and gains all passive abilities.
Fans now enrage the foe if used to cool oneself in battle. Effect varies on the level of foe.

Those cost a little more so he needed about 700 for the next one, but Gamma had ended up accidentally becoming a sort of god-slayer when he was in a potato peeler form.

It was for the memes but then it sort of became an addiction he wasn't proud of

Weapon Research took a little while for Gamma to grasp because it didn't come with an option, just a request bar. But once he asked for a type of weapon and input any amount of WP then after some time, one of his weapons would evolve or splinter off into a new weapon type.

He once spent a year waiting on 'Spoon' after he blew over 9000 WP on it. The result was something he couldn't use without great cause.

Spoon of Absolute Tasting: This weapon form comes in the form of a golden spoon. Its ability allows it to bypass all defenses to take a spoon scoop out of the foe once. No defense in this world can block it. The wound will never heal. Once used, this spoon requires 100 battles to pass before it can be used again.

Gamma had gotten more than a few unique tools out of this feature.

Skill research was something Gamma didn't bother with since his time with... 'her'. It allowed Gamma to bestow his wielder with some instant masteries or neat tricks.

A training montage with no cool music.

All wielders have increased strength.
You can sense what weapons would best suit a new wielder.
All your forms come in golden copies.

Gamma didn't like looking at this menu. It would only cost him 40 points to get an upgrade but he didn't trust wielders now.

Only Gamma could look after Gamma.

Suddenly Gamma shivered and he turned in a direction.

"Gam-?" Esma asked and Gamma shushed her.

"Don't say my name aloud. Call me Sword for now," he said oddly as he felt pieces of old selves flowing back to him.

"Sword, what's wrong?" Esma asked with concern.

Gamma was too busy looking at another screen.

Given Forms:

1. Jolin Javen Japes: 100>85
2. NAMEREDACTED Golden Queen: 20
3. Mr Happy: 3
4. The Dark-

What on earth?

What was that weirdo doing now with his sloppy seconds?

Japes... Japes...

An image of a coyly smiling man with a shadowed face, as he took Gamma from the 'prison' to the bank of Verluan, was vivid in his mind.

That Fairplay guy?

It had been years since he thought of that guy. A hundred given forms for his freedom had been the sweetest deal Gamma had ever made.

That prison was the worst thing he had ever known. It... drained his WP and 'she' kept Gamma in a glass box that prevented anything from touching him.

A prison where he couldn't sleep and he was in the darkness nearly every day until she came to visit him. He pleaded for his freedom but she was sure that it had to be that way. Gamma could cause too many 'unworthy' people to come into power.

'She' wouldn't let her kingdom, her children, be threatened by such a thing. Gamma was pretty sure he also went a little crazy in that box and it still affected him to this day.

She was a good reason why he never ever allowed a Silence member to wield him since that day.

She ruined the whole group for Gamma.

"I just got some old pieces back, but one of them..."

Gamma stared at the bottom of the list of loaned weapons.

344: Delta: Piece unrecoverable. It will now produce Gamma Rays

That was a horrible joke.

It was so bad it soaked into Gamma's soul-

---

"Gemma! You're so radiant today you must be a gem!"

"I am going to hang myself now."

"No, wait, come back! You're coal! Dirt!"

---

"Uh, sword... you just turned into a ruler. Are you okay?" Esma asked slowly. Gamma took a slow intake of breath

"Esma, I'm going to unlock 10% of my power for you so we can find your dog's killer today-"

"He killed my parents, but carry on,"

"-and you're going to do me a solid and head that way!" Gamma gestured with a nudge of his blade to the west.

"What's 10% of your power?" the girl asked as she picked the sword up. Gamma focused and his form shifted to a massive broadsword made of a swirling silver liquid adorned with emeralds that flowed over the girl's body, making similar armour which exploded with two massive wings of metal that seemed to move on their own.

"Valkyrie Armor mode: Light magic unlocked. Divine aura unlocked. Pine-scented air fresheners added!" Gamma roared.

"You can give me wings?! Why did you make me walk everywhere?" Esma yelled as the wings began to lift them into the air.

"I like seeing humans struggle for my amusement," Gamma added with a shrug to his tone.

It also stopped the more crazy people wielding him from not wanting to let go. It was almost like Gamma acted like an unlikeable piece of crap to stop people getting close...

Nah, he just enjoyed annoying people.

"I don't even know where to go," Esma said as they cleared the treetops.

"Magic light spell: SENSE EVIL!" Gamma commanded and his sword glowed with light.

A few dozen miles in every direction revealed two swamp hags, a shadow stalker, three teens doing some heavy vaping action, some neighbour woman in charge of handing out fines for unkempt lawns or misaligned garbage cans... and aha! One vampire!

No, wait. Two vampires!

"How fast do these things go? Should we stick to the roads?" Esma asked as the sword turned them like a compass. Gamma mentally flicked down a visor.

"Hunny, where we are going? We don't need roads," he said as the wings flapped once, causing a minor boom of air and they were gone.

188: School's Out

With thundering steps, Beta returned, her body brimming with a dense aura as she strode into the now towering mushroom flesh castle that rose into the hellish sky, absorbing the occasional burning sulphuric cloud. Once again, she approached the rising mound of fungus and began to climb the uneven stairs, her body floating inches off the ground as invisible energy platforms formed before she touched the ground.

System purchase: Qi Ladybug streams are more controllable!

When jets of water and air tried to push her off the stairs, her body turned immaterial, allowing her to climb higher while ignoring the sprays

System purchase: Increase the power of your Gheist intangibility power.

When parts of the flesh wall tried to snag her arms or body, her fingers turned to burning fire, causing them to burn black and retreat.

System purchase: Develop your fire elemental form further.

When gravity doubled in an attempt to make her fall, Beta became lighter than air itself.

System purchase: Your cloud rabbit form gains more power.

It had only taken her twenty minutes to make a dent in her system points but in that time, she had come to learn something very crucial. She hadn't even been tapping into her full potential, not by far.

That potential had scared the parasite. So much that it stole Beta, stole who Beta was... reducing her to some attack dog.

Space warped in front of her when Beta was a single step from the empty core pedestal. Beta touched it and her fingers began to bend and warp. Stopping for a moment, Beta tried to see if the 'voices' had become any clearer and was disappointed when she listened. The madness of the voices of this place had grown so fast that they had become a constant warble of overbearing nonsense.

Eyeing the space warping of the air, Beta watched as her fingers turned to crystal that was almost black, but gleaned a dark ominous purple as she turned her hand to the light.

She had gotten upgrades for that.

System purchase: Your Gravity Golem form has double resistance to space warping attacks.

Her wrist and arm bulged as they turned to a deep purple rock then the space vortex before her ruptured like a balloon. The sound would have burst a normal person's eardrums but the benefit of simply 'not having ears' as an option was always nice as a shapeshifter.

With the last line of defense gone, there was nothing left, allowing Beta clear passage to the heart of this place. The rising central pillar is missing its crown piece.

"Now that I'm here... I have no clue what to do," Beta admitted aloud. She had never consumed a Dungeon Core in her many years of eating things weird and wonderful. She frowned and tried putting her hands on the empty round indent where something thick and round should have been set.

The moment Beta did, the thing seemed to both reject her and tried to adapt to her. The differences were just too much but Beta held on. Her fingers curved into talons as the pedestal tried to reject her. With some quick thoughts, she began trying to shift her form into something more suitable. She went through Ore Golems and Mineral Monsters, finding they were better suited but they were still missing a crucial 'something'.

---

Back on the Flat World, Delta stumbled on her Fourth Floor, plummeting into the ocean as her body felt a little 'prodding' of something else. The feeling was alien and she felt her head swim as the approaching hell portal connection suddenly shuddered and pulled back as if something else was calling it. The being on the other side had to be the 'stand-in Core' the System had mentioned but it felt too different to be a Dungeon.

In fact, it felt annoyingly familiar, like a memory that was only half returning due to a sudden scent. A memory that did little more than inform Delta that it existed.

Delta could only reach out across the vast distance, as if she could take the hand of the not-stranger.

"Hello... it's nice to meet you... again, I think," she spoke gently.

---

"I don't know you," Beta stressed as her fingers, hands, and parts of her wrist turned to 'base' form. A pale red gelatinous material that was Beta's base form. The flesh was speaking to her, using her power to boost some sort of 'signal' across the void.

There was a pause.

'Then we can get to know one another' the woman's voice said as if this was a good thing. Beta let out a derisive snort.

"Nobody wants to get to know me. They all get disappointed when they see all that I offer," Beta said with a scoff as more of her flesh continued to form a half-sphere in the pedestal that was becoming redder by the second.

'I don't expect anything, so how can I be disappointed? The only thing to disappoint me would be if you gave up without trying'

Who did this lady think she was? A shrink? Some saint? Beta wanted to sneer, but half of her face was beginning to melt.

"Everyone wants something. A pet, a fighter, a toy, a pawn, and whatever else. You're no different. I'm just here to pay off a debt," Beta warned and was almost done forming the sphere.

'I guess I do want something' the voice admitted and Beta shook her head. Of course she did-

'I just want to say thank you for helping me. You're a really nice person. You didn't have to do this'

"I'm paying off a debt," Beta said, holding the reason up like a spiked shield.

'And you agreed to do this particular job. Isn't that praiseworthy?' the other woman asked and Beta rolled her eyes.

"That is such a bullshit-"

'Cowmuck!' the voice corrected her and the both of them froze as the memory of a classroom flashed before them over the connection. Beta knelt down and tried not to let out a whimper.

"I don't know you. I don't want to know you. I don't want anyone I know to be in this world. No one else I know can have gone through what I did... I don't want that," she said, eyes squeezing shut as her sphere began to wobble and drip.

'There was once a classroom where a teacher was considered a failure because she didn't chase exams marks or mind handling detention. She did weird science experiments and accepted cases that no other teacher would'. the voice began to say slowly.

"Stop it. I don't want to hear this," Beta warned, trying to focus, but her 'core' was bubbling dangerously now.

'One of the students didn't really get jokes. He took everything so seriously and the other kids treated him cruelly, even if he didn't notice or mind.'

A flash, a confused quiet boy who looked at her as Beta offered him gum aggressively.

"Are you stupid or what? Take it before I shove it up your nose!"

'Another student treated everything like a joke because if they took it seriously, it would be too much to bear.'

Beta's head pulsed as she saw a memory of a girl in a boy's uniform painting Beta's nail, but it had to be black because Beta would punch the girl if it was pink.

'And there was another student I think. A boy that I can't remember but I remember I loved him because he was my brother.'

Beta did have another memory but this was of a loud noise. A screech of metal and the boy sitting at the front with the teacher, he looked back seconds in panic. The road dipped as blackness spread across the road, causing a truck to veer into the car.

Beta couldn't remember what he looked like. Not really.

'Then there was you. You treated every conversation as a battle. Nothing was simple because no one was simple. Every act of kindness was a trap. Every gesture was a deception to hurt you. The world had hurt you and you bled in defiance. But before it all went wrong... you did one of my homework assignments. You only got a few marks but you did it. I kept it on my desk. It was worth gold to me.'

"Shut up!" Beta screamed and the tower of fungus shook due to her power.

'And you've been alone for so long. I'm so sorry, Beatrice.'

Beta stilled and her flesh rippled. All along her form, a school uniform began to form, her body shrunk, shaving years off her face as her hair grew to her neck with red highlights.

Beta looked down at her hands, the young skin looking only slightly calloused.

This was... not her true form, not anymore but this was her original body. It felt like a favorite t-shirt she had found after so many years. It just felt... right.

"Miss D..." she whispered but then the voice in her mind began to radiate a sense of deep pain.

Beta snapped back to reality. The towering mound of mushrooms were using Beta to grow much faster and she hadn't even noticed. She grabbed the pedestal and poured her form onto it.

She stopped trying to be one thing or a special kind of thing. Beta poured everything she was into the slot because in her truest sense, Beta was growth and potential. She was unlimited works of art and horror.

Beta was the next best thing to any complete project.

Beta was ever a work in progress, but Miss D?

Miss D was the only one to ever give her a fair shot of faith and Beta wasn't going to let some dank mushroom pit of hell make her teacher cry.

Not hell.

Not the world.

Not the siblings.

No one.

No one made her teacher cry. Beta had committed arson for less and she saw no reason to stop now.

--

Delta Proxy Entrance closed. Connection severed.

Structure to be repurposed as Monster Gate.

---

Delta sat up abruptly and headbutted Nu's screen who flashed like a smacked television, flickering with static as the both of them groaned. There was a distinct lack of 'connection' to the other mana and the Abyss.

"No! Nu, I need to send more Mana to hell! I need to do it now! I left Betty in hell!" Delta said in panic as Nu continued to stumble in a daze.

"Who is 'Betty'?" Nu mumbled.

"She's one of my students! And I left her in hell!" Delta said with a slight shriek. Nu looked around the core room as if searching for inspiration.

"We don't have any influence in that. We don't even know how it happened in the first place other than you being 'you'," Nu pointed out slowly and his words were not 'I know how to help' and Delta glared at him.

"I can make utterly terrifying creatures by accident, but we can't figure out a way to open a door to the demon world on purpose? Betty is going to be... well, not terrified or scared but really annoyed!" Delta said as she stood up, feeling a lot better which made her feel far more guilty.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"Why don't you ask the live-in demon?" Nu said in what could have been sarcasm but the idea had merit.

She moved so fast she created minor ripples at sonic speed as she arrived outside Runilac's smithy and began banging on the door with enough force the space shook. He opened the door and saw her serious face. His own smoldering one crumpled as if the prospect of a quiet day just flew out the window.

"How do I get to the demon world?" Delta asked quickly.

"Sell your soul and die or perform a massive summoning ritual with one of the few remaining demonic names inscribed on tablets. We demons have been trying to cut your world off for ages ever since you started summoning us out of boredom. You get the name of a powerful demon and promise to return it, you'll get a door to the demon world. Before you ask, I don't count. I'm a prisoner," Runilac tried to close the door but Delta stuck her face in between the door and its frame

"Is there a demon around here that I can ask? Do you know one?" Delta said as her cheeks became squished and she spoke through puckered lips.

Runilac gave her a pained look as if talking to another living being was physically painful for him without a drink in hand.

"I only know of one," he admitted.

---

"And thus that's why I decided the Common Durence Squirrel is the rarest monster around because it doesn't attack you for your blood but to defend itself, thus it has the purest quality aside from its skull which can be made into boots," Deo read awkwardly from a script as he held up three squirrels that seemed glued to his face with mad chittering.

"Love," he concluded and the class stared at Deo as Mr Jones steepled his fingers.

"Mr Brawndo, this is the fourth time you've done your presentation of monsters on the local squirrels," Mr Jones said very slowly and deliberately.

Deo just blinked back at him.

"But I wrote a new script!" he said and held up a piece of paper that just said 'fluff and love' in big letters.

"Pass with minimal marks," Mr Jones said after a moment which made the boy beam and three more squirrels to emerge from his shirt collar with squeaks. He turned to the next student and mentally prepared himself for a whole other sort of trouble.

Grim strode to the front of the class, looking exceptionally pleased with himself. Deo sat down and gave Poppy a wide grin as the girl seemed to have accidentally grown squirrel teeth in a fit of teenage jealousy. The girl tried to play them off as 'Sabretooth' fangs, a rare monster with swords for fangs.

Hormones were so amusing to witness as a teacher.

"I have decided to do my talk of monsters on a most rare and horrific creature," Grim declared with enough drama to make a thespian roll their eyes.

Mr Jones was ready to make a remark if Grim produced a picture of Deo again but to his surprise he indicated to the door where the clack of heels on tiles was loud.

"I am not getting paid enough for this," a woman scowled as she entered, her long legs leading up to a set of well-maintained light cloth armor and a staff in one hand.

"...Women?" Deo asked curiously as Grim looked smug. The dark teen twitched then waved a hand dramatically.

"Humanity!" he said with a red face. Grim turned the woman who was making Mr Jones' teacher senses go haywire.

"And you're not getting paid, Estal, because you snuck into the Dungeon and got caught. You must be Ecstatic to be of help to me," Grim said and there was a pause in the classroom before Grim took a long deep sigh of suffering.

"Sir, why are her legs naked?" a student asked.

"For mobility," Estal said quickly.

"Why is her armor only covering up to her shoulders?" a girl also raised her hand.

"For temperature control," Estal snapped.

"Why does she seem like such a cool and powerful mage!" Deo cried in amazement.

"Because I- wait, no, that was an actual compliment! What's your name, sweetie?" Estal said to Deo and parts of her hair began to frost over as Poppy's skin turned dark blue.

"Technically, humanity isn't classed as monsters," Mr Jones coughed, feeling very strange around Miss Estal. Something about her was upsetting his sensibilities as a teacher.

"Technically, squirrels for the fourth time shouldn't be a pass mark," Grim said back in a flat tone.

"...Carry on."

"I decided humanity and its many fellow race-beings are indeed the greatest monsters of this world. I know of no other creature that would profit off imprisoning their own kind," Grim said and Estal examined her nails.

"Fairies, they legitimately get power ups by contracting their enemies into eternal servitude," she pointed out.

As a demon, Mr Jones could only think very impolite things about the Fae. They and demons stepped on each other's toes a lot.

A custody battle in court was nothing compared to when a demon and a fae both stake a claim on the same human. He and Ghu had to give each other a wide berth or they broke out into hisses at each other on the street, it was very unprofessional.

" Seahags imprison others of their kind and turn them into meat farms. Sometimes Goblins can get pretty nasty-" Estal continued to list.

"Anyway," Grim said through gritted teeth.

Estal looked around the classroom and instead of boredom or amusement, Mr Jones was alarmed to see that Miss Estal instead had a look of pain and loss which she hid quickly behind a veneer of vapid boredom.

...No, the boredom was also real, but that didn't matter.

A space of learning had scarred this woman and that was causing the unease in Mr Jones.

As Grim continued to talk about adventurers and their bloodlust for treasure, Mr Jones casually asked Estal something in a quiet tone.

"Did you graduate from a magical institute?" he asked and to his relief, she nodded. If she had also flunked then Mr Jones wouldn't be able to help but chain her to a desk and help her with vigorous lessons of the world.

"Full honors, but I didn't chase higher academics due to... personal issues," Estal said with a curled lip of something dark in her eyes.

"Besides, I'm glad I left. The road taught me a lot more than old books," she mused and Mr Jones was pleased to hear that. Learning was always import-

"How to apply lipstick on horseback, the correct heels for swamp dungeons versus skeleton crypts, and how to tell a one-night stand bard from blossoming heroes who want to turn me into a woman that he'll never actually romance but will string me along as he marries another woman and has ten kids. That last one was a hard lesson," Estal admitted.

"That was harsh. Love can be a tricky thing to navigate," Mr Jones managed. Life skills were important and he had to cling to that as he felt the urge to weep.

"It's fine, I think this other girl actually grew up with him and had the same problem. Way worse for her," Estal said with a long look into space.

"And how did you find your school years?" Mr Jones asked and Estal's expression turned stoney as she eyed the teacher as if just 'fully' noticing him.

"If I could burn memories in a brazier and warm my father's corpse over it like a spit roast, I would," she said succinctly and Mr Jones reached for a pen.

"What is the name of this 'institution'?" he asked, feeling a flicker in his old bones that hadn't risen in a long time.

Every Demon of Knowledge valued learning and facts. Such places that freely gave knowledge and housed it were akin to places of worship to Knowledge Demons. To think that such a place could cause such distaste in a clearly talented student was watching a temple priest push children down stone steps in an effort to impart 'wisdom'.

In fact, the reason Mr Jones was even 'here' in this world was the fact he was so offended by one act of stifling education that the facility became a propaganda machine. Jones has sold his name to that...monarch to have binding laws put in place.

All that had really cost Mr Jones was the location of the 'sword of the gods' and he was free to go, but never go home.

Mr Jones was pretty sure his 'name' was still somewhere in the queen's old chambers like so many other crimes.

"No point in going, you'd need approval of the Archmage whose personal power provides protection over it. You need the miserable old man's permission to even set foot in the place," Estal said with a sigh.

But... the Archmage wasn't a miserable old man. That was a fact and now? Mr Jones knew it was true!

The power of Knowledge Demon was to know the truth of a matter but it was a little binding in the fact Mr Jones couldn't ask himself the truth of any matter. He was a watcher and fact-checker, not the asker.

He just needed to find someone to casually talk about the new Mage in charge...

His classroom opened and a pair of goblins stood outside. Estal let out choking noises as they looked around the classroom as if it was a personal place of torment for small creatures.

Pulling out what looked like a card, one of the goblins began to read.

"'By the request of the Great-no wait, humble, yes humble, Delta! The one known as Mr Jones, at least it's not Doctor Jones because I don't want that song stuck in my head, to come visit my abode, no wait that sounds smarmy, my little home. Please come very soon, better to be vague, and understand this is an important matter, like very important, so I beg of you to come soon. Shut up Nu, I told you to record this and you better not miss a word," the goblin finished.

"Hi Gob and Hob!" Deo waved.

"The mushroom queen has come for my marbles," Estal rocked back and forward on her heels with wide-eyes.

Mr Jones was curious and wanted to go right away but he couldn't just...

An idea!

A wonderful and delicious idea filled his mind.

"Deo, fetch the School wagon. We're going on a field trip," he said, standing up suddenly. Deo stood and looked confused.

"The one pulled by the bulls who can only be seen if you've suffered second-hand embarrassment or the one that pulls itself but its wheels moan like people in pain?" he asked after a moment.

Mr Jones smiled.

"The third one. It would be a shame to waste Grimnoire's hired help," he said and Deo looked wide-eyed as the class sat up.

"What's the third one?" Estal asked slowly and Mr Jones' smile stretched his face and the reality of the classroom shifted to something darker for a moment.

"We call it the 'Lunch Lady'."

189: The Demon Diva

“What...sort of teacher... has a torture device... as a wagon?” Estal puffed as the wagon cheerfully made its way through town with all the students aboard it and Estal at front holding a spoon and ladle that glowed, absorbing her mana to power its momentum.

“It’s not a torture device. It’s legal in more towns than it is not, so by debatable means, it’s a learning tool!” Mr Jones said brightly.

“Why do I have to wear... this frumpy outfit,” Estal whined as the gray and white apron settled over a thick blouse billowed in the passing breeze.

“It enables the wagon to absorb your mana better, as does the instruments in hand. The hat is just to complete the look, however,” Mr Jones admitted as they left the town, having to slow down to let a confused but excited girl in a dress pass by and the girl made Mr Jones’ nose itch, like smelling something familiar but not entirely pleasant.

It was an interesting slime she carried, Mr Jones hadn’t seen that particular kind before. The woman... Well, the thing that was pretending to be a woman, was also interesting.

Still, he had his lesson plan and by hell, he was sticking with it!

“I can’t go back into the Dungeon, my punishment will get extended,” Estal said and Mr Jones waved her off but stiffen as they passed a sleepy looking inn where an old wrinkled hag was waving goodbye to a serious looking boy.

The two shared a look and Mr Jones hackles went up and the old woman’s nostrils flared.

‘Boil yer head in cow urine and then may they use your heart as sausage filling! Horrible saggy sausages!’ Ghu cursed in a tongue so old it was collecting benefits from the gods.

‘I hope your customers rate you an unsatisfying three of five stars every day!’ Mr Jones yelled back in a language not yet spoken in this world.

‘At least they choose to come here, those innocent brats have no choice but to go to your hell house!’ Ghu yelled back louder and slammed the door.

Saucy old hag. It was weird to see her so alive again after the Gray had been so persistent over the years. Weird, but annoying.

“Ohh, the teacher has a crush!” Deo said and Mr Jones gave him a look of such utter revulsion that a nearby bird fell to the ground dead.

“He sure does! That is pure love!” Estal said between sweaty huffs. Mr Jones scooted away from her in horror as the students all began to giggle.

“This lunch lady is ready to serve,” Estal warned as she pushed the wagon over a hill.

Before Mr Jones could get too far, someone stopped the wagon and Mr Jones smelled the scent of success!

He turned with a smile to see Ruli glared at them.

“You’re outside the school. This alarms me,” she said to him and then blinked as she spotted Estal, pale and sweaty in the large uniform.

“What are you doing here this close to children? I thought you called children ‘ugly womb gremlins that are illegal to set on fire’?” she asked with a raised brow.

“The moody one bribed me with cake,” Estal grunted and Grim shot her a shushing noise as if trying to keep his bribing secrets private.

“We’re on a field trip to Delta’s Dungeon as she requires the aid of a demon and she called upon me,” Mr Jones said with a smile and then blinked as Ruli seemed to glare at him, her foot digging into the wagon and causing it to groan.

“And why does she need you when I’m here?” she asked curiously.

“Perhaps she needs history lessons. Do you have complete historical knowledge of the world? Perhaps she needs help with a math puzzle? Do you enjoy puzzles?” Mr Jones pressed, used to Ruli’s temper as he had taught since she was a young child himself.

Ruli grumbled and pulled her foot away.

“I can research stuff and any puzzle can be beaten if you just beat it hard enough,” she argued.

“Ruli, join us!” Deo patted the wagon.

“Kid, there isn’t enough room for a spare set of my shoes, let alone-” Estal turned and blinked as the wagon now seemed to be much longer than before and had more ornate details on the wood.

“My class has exactly enough room as needed for my students,” Mr Jones said firmly.

“I graduated,” Ruli protested but climbed inside and sat next to Deo who handed her a juice box. Ruli took it without complaining.

“You will always be my student, Ruli,” Mr Jones said softly and the woman actually looked troubled by that fact and not at all touched.

Students... you chain them to a reality layer once or twice to force them to graduate and they take it personally!

But really, if Ruli hadn’t somehow vanished into a pocket dimension for three months and become untraceable, Mr Jones wouldn’t have eaten three desks, two bicycles, and a whole novel about ducks using robots to fight evil.

It had been a binge he wasn’t proud of.

However, since then? He had to teach Deo and Grim. His patience had vastly improved. He only ate a desk or two every so often now.

---

“Ah, I’m very busy... ohhh busy mayor things,” the crazy old woman in a gray bathroom cried from the window, peeking out behind the curtains with wide-eyes. Serma stared, feeling like she was intentionally being ignored.

“Mayor... Darknessbane, please open up and welcome the ‘crowned’ princess, Serma,” Lorsa said with loud thumps on the door.

“I would rather not! I have so much... paperwork about the ‘repairs of the main road’?” the woman said then went quiet.

“Who the hell thinks this is worth my time? Who do they expect me to find to fix the road? This is why I use these as kindling!” the woman roared and a desk smashed through a nearby window with a dozen important looking documents floating away in the wind as if to let out cries of mercy.

Serma was almost sure she could hear the paperwork cry ‘freedom’ as they vanished into the distance.

“Lorsa, this woman seems unstable. Should we leave?” she asked and the Guard Captain gave her a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Mayor Darknessbane is a respectable woman, she just doesn’t like responsibility or people or official business or people or unexpected guests or people,” Lorsa explained.

“We’re people,” Mas said as he took a turn holding Mule.

“Excuse me?” Imp asked, looking insulted at the idea of being a people. He shooed a dozen butterflies trying to land on him and Serma tried not to feel envious that butterflies didn’t land on her.

Was it her perfume?

A second later, Mule sat on her head and formed little gooey appendages with a small ‘poi’. It made Serma feel better but it seemed like the local wildlife took three steps back from her, even insects were avoiding her now...

The door suddenly opened and the crazy old woman wearing nothing but fluffy boots and a robe emerged wielding a spatula like a knife.

“What is that?” she sniffed a dozen times before coming near Serma. The girl stiffened as those intense yellow eyes looked into hers.

“Lorsa, you didn’t tell me the princess was such a...” Darknessbane took another deep whiff as if enjoying the scent.

“Prolific monster,” she almost growled with a grin. Serma was a what?

“Well, she isn’t-” Lorsa tried to say but Serma was suddenly whisked inside by the crazy old woman.

“What’s your tool? Fish knife? Great axe? Oh, I love a good double-ended blade and an army to mow down! It’s always nice to meet a fellow hobbyist in population control!” the mayor beamed as she seemed to pour Serma a massive glass of putrid whisky.

“Did you just confess to being a serial killer?” Serma asked as the others followed them in.

“Psh, no,” the woman said with a snort. Oh good, that wasn’t as bad as Serma thought.

“I don’t have patterns or preferences. Just that they’re tough to kill,” the mayor went on.

“Poi,” Mule said with a hum as if singing.

“Mila, this is the king’s daughter,” Lorsa said with a strange tone and Serma tried not to grimace at the connection to that man.

“So many kings really and they all suck,” the mayor said and Lorsa sat down and slammed a wine bottle down with such force it made a clear ringing noise.

“Look at her,” Lorsa seemed to almost order and Serma felt oddly exposed as Mayor Darknessbane looked at her fully for once, taking her all in.

“You see it. I think she has his confused nose-” Lorsa said and Mila’s voice had gone from cranky and moody to just... flat. Instantly, Serma felt in danger, like she was sitting across from a wolf.

“Welcome to Durence, now do what you came to do and go,” the mayor said and there was a tense silence.

“My father is... I get why you don’t like me because of him. He’s vain and cruel and hurts everyone around him-” Serma stood up, holding Mule like a pillow to ease the tightness in her chest.

“Kid, shut up. Your father was an idiot and he was cruel because he did things without thinking of others. He hurt everyone he ever met and I’ll never forgive him for that,” the mayor stood up as well and turned as if needing to take a deep breath.

“Well... whatever. You can sit here and be a sad drunk or whatever but I’m going to do my duty and complete the local Dungeon and earn my throne. If you wanna feel sorry for yourself and sit in the dark like a crazy cat person then you can just... do that... thing I just said,” Serma said hotly while glaring at Mila’s back.

“Yeah! Serma is a good person because even though she’s a princess, she just ended up helping me out and letting me fulfill my dreams! I bet you never had a nice prince or princess ever just help you out so maybe you don’t understand,” Mas said and Serma shot him a warm smile.

“Urgh they’re making me wanna hurl,” Mila grunted and reached around for a pen and a stamp. She moved fast, scribbling on Serma’s head what felt like a signature and stamping Mas’ head with an official stamp that looked to be a sword, a fang, and claw buried into a hunk of cheese.

“I have a condition before you go in. Find the one called Alpha and the one close to an anxiety attack, Gentle of the Fairplay. Get advice from them before going. I’ll pay for your inn rooms,” Mila sighed.

Serma smiled and was about to say something when she spotted the Imp demon pressed against a wall, looking so pale he might faint.

“King Taker,” he kept whispering over and over. Mila gave him a long look then dismissed his existence so entirely Serma had to convince herself to remember Imp was real.

“What’s a King Taker?” Mas asked as they left the house with Mila watching them go.

“The precursor to a King Maker,” Lorsa said with snort.

Serma couldn’t see anyone with any sanity wanting to spend a night with that weirdo woman.

---

Mila watched the group go, feeling the urge to drink until she woke up with a hangover under the kitchen sink again.

Damn girl was his clone.

A little more fire to her, but that would be her mother, wouldn’t it be?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

“Oh Dur... you would have been wrapped around her fingers,” Mila said and shut the door, trying to keep out the guilt that wanted in.

A voice at the back of her mind kept whispering.

‘You had a chance to be the same...godmother’ a nasty voice of her own making said.

What had Durence said?

‘Right so it's sorted. Mila, you can be the godmother of the first one to find you. That’s your rule?’

Yep, that was what she had promised.

Mila needed to stop drinking or getting attached to people. Mila eyed the whisky in her hands then snorted.

“People it is!” she said and went inside.

---

Delta was being invaded by a dozen children, two demonic presences, and worst of all, Estal.

Who knew a letter could be so effective?

Ruli looked as good as ever and Delta was pleased to see some of the stress on her face had eased off. The man next to her...

Delta felt odd and as she peered at him and he back at her, she spotted pen ink on his fingers, tiny paper cuts and coffee stains on his tie while he seemed on the verge of setting fire to the world or getting back to the kids he was in charge of.

“A teacher,” they both said at the same time in surprise.

“Yeah, you learn a lot about how to hate pigs, hot springs, yappy trees, and little mushroom people here,” Estal said briskly.

“Parent meetings but the child didn’t tell them about homework,” the demon said.

“After school clubs you didn’t agree to but can’t quite turn down!” Delta responded quickly.

“Punishing eating in class but having chocolate in your drawer,” the man was heaving in excitement.

“Just giving everyone a pass on a test that doesn't matter because you’re tired!” Delta yelled.

“TEACHER!” they both scream.

“You can... skin three rabbits in a minute if you use the knife longways instead of upwards,” Ruli interjected with a smile. It struggled to last as both of them stared at her.

“I mean. I once counted an entire skeleton to make sure a Skeleton Ghost couldn’t escape. Patience master,” Ruli continued to say.

“Skeleton ghost?” Delta blinked.

“A spirit that haunts bones. Once it chooses a skeleton, if even one bone escapes it can rebuild itself out of other parts,” Mr Jones explained and Delta looked impressed... but Ruli looked oddly moody.

Taking the kids to the Lake Room, she sat the two down as everyone went for a swim in the high noon setting. Occasionally the Moon Fish darted past, causing squeals of delight. Waddles was also present but he didn’t let any of the kids come close to his knife throne.

Delta wanted to say he was being nice but likely he just didn’t want child blood on his blades.

Mr Jones looked troubled.

“Opening an actual gate to the Abyss is no simple matter. It requires a lot and I don’t even know if some of the demons in this world are still around or not,. The Duck is... unhelpful,” he admitted, making Delta’s hopes fall.

“The need to recover a student is important so I won't give up trying to think of a way to help. As a fellow educator, I value your commitment to your students,” Mr Jones said and Delta giggled and waved him off. What a swell guy.

“A kid, eh...” Ruli muttered and she seemed to be putting whatever was bugging her to the side to give it a serious thought.

“So, you’d be eternally grateful if someone was to rescue this little doe of a girl?” Ruli asked and Delta nodded.

“Indebted,” Delta said seriously.

“Betty... I will suffer to see her safely returned. To know that she's in the Abyss and can’t get out is something that is hurting me and I won’t rest until she’s out,” Delta said firmly.

Mr Jones smiled slowly.

“Okay, first, don’t say you’ll do anything in front of a demon again. It sends the morally wrong message,” Ruli said quickly.

Delta winced but Mr Jones just winked at her and Delta had to stifle another grin.

“Second, you could have just asked me. I have a legit door to hell cooked into me,” Ruli said with a sigh. Delta stared at her.

“You... do? I thought Mr Jones here said it was really hard to open a door?” Delta asked confused and the other demon was giving Ruli a bewildered look borderline close on horror.

“Not hard, just annoying,” Ruli admitted and rolled her neck.

“Ruli, a proper door requires procedure and proper respect given to both the demon king and the Brother for a bridge to be-” Mr Jones began and Ruli ignored him.

“YOU OLD GOAT, I NEED TO SPEAK TO YOU NOW!” Ruli boomed with a voice that was deeper and as coarse as hot coals rubbing together. Her voice ripped into the space before her, pushing Delta’s mana aside with ease.

In the gap where the mana parted, a flash of red fire mingled with shadows before a door formed out of red gold and dark jewels. There was a painting of a near-naked woman wearing a wolf pelt and little else holding a knife to a shadowy figure’s throat and looking both attractive and dangerous at the same time.

“Urgh... I told him to change that,” Ruli moaned.

The doors parted to reveal a monstrous being of colossus sizes and pressing power that made Delta want to break into mad gibberish speeches of random factoids.

“Dad!” Ruli hissed and the monstrous being shifted until a well dressed man in a suit and tie stood before Ruli with impressively dark hair and brown eyes so dark they tinged on black. Other than a strange feeling of inhumanness, Delta only felt a slight-

Delta’s cheeks tinged hot pink and she mentally began to recite the name of trees.

This was Ruli’s father? Who was a super demon?!

“Oh King of the Abyss, I bow,” Mr Jones said and Delta nearly screamed in panic. No one told her she had royalty coming! WHAT WAS THE PROTOCOL!?

“FERA! TEA AND CRUMPETS!” she hissed through the walls.

“Hello, love. You are looking more bloodsoaked and beautiful every decade I see you,” the man said and looked around the lake room with a slight curious smile. Waddles had lowered his duck head in the direction of the man as well.

The man turned, seeing a dozen children splashing in the lake

“Oh, look! Offspring by the dozen. I didn’t know they reproduced like frogs these days,” the man said with a clap of his hands.

“Dad, I need help,” Ruli said, but her voice was thick like she was swallowing a lemon. The man blinked then looked on the verge of tears. It was tragically beautiful and Delta wanted to paint a picture of the demon every time his face changed.

“Say the word, my little dagger. Their kingdoms shall be ash, their children orphans, their dogs free, and their stock markets crashed,” he said with a sweet tone and took Ruli’s hands who looked entirely done with the man already.

“Dad, what have you got against soup stock?” Ruli muttered and the man huffed.

“It’s the sign of an inferior chef! A true chef needs only the bones of thine enemies,” the king of hell said.

Wait... if he was the king... and Ruli was his kid...

Delta’s mind was exploding.

“Dad, this is my very special friend, Delta,” Ruli said and the handsome man turned to her and blinked.

“Oh, I will never forget a form like yours. It must have been nearly ten or twelve years ago. You look much more delectable in mana form,” the king smiled and went to kiss Delta’s hand, his own power making her avatar solid and firm.

“We’ve met?” Delta managed to ask around the urge to make cavewoman noises.

“You were unconscious, so sadly we couldn’t meet as fate would have intended. You were a soul orb, it wouldn’t have been right,” the demon king said with a sigh.

“Dad, let go of her hand,” Ruli said stiffly and the man laughed and obeyed. Delta felt as thought she had been denied some inner treasure as his warmth faded.

That was so... not like her! What the heck! She hid behind Ruli who seemed to grow more pleased as her father raised a brow.

“Is he an incubus?” Delta whispered.

“He’s the Demonic Avatar of Lust. Battle, ‘love’, treasures, and dreams. Pops can make people crave things so badly they’d bend the knee to him. He’s also the strongest demon in one versus one,” Ruli explained.

“What do you desire?” the demon king asked sweetly and Delta used Ruli as an anti-seduction shield in a panic.

“A child,” Ruli said and the demon king stood up.

“Not possible. I can never truly allow myself to ever give myself to another as I did your mother. And I gave myself to her a lot,” he said and he visibly sighed like a love-sick teenager. Ruli closed her eyes and seemed to be regretting this meeting by the second but she powered on.

“Ew, and we want one that’s already in the Abyss. A kid that’s near the Duck of Wrath place,” Ruli said quickly.

“Only if you agree to pass a message on to your mother for me,” the king said and Ruli hesitated then nodded.

“Her eyes are like exploding stars, her smile like the fangs of a marrow sucking worm, her shapely body like a-” he began to recite and Delta was enraptured by the sheer passion.

“Write it down, you weirdo!” Ruli ordered and the man actually meekly turned to pull out a quill and parchment. The man actually slipped into a blood soaked envelope and put a kiss on it as if to seal it.

“That much magic could turn a normal human to an upper-class demon,” Mr Jones muttered as the letter glowed.

“But it's like a passionate letter from long distant lovers of two nations. We have to respect it,” Delta said quickly and thought of the many books of a ‘demon king’ coming to seduce a normal single woman with three cats.

It was coming true!

“Give me a week to get her. I’ll need to get a loaf of bread for the Duke and his ducklings. It has to be the good stuff and for that I’ll need to trade with the Governor of Greed,” he sighed.

“But Betty might not last a week!” Delta said in panic and he brushed a thumb across her chin and smiled. Delta was upset because of... Bettlejuice or something?

No, wait, Betty!

“Back, you devious man of unholy unclean thoughts!” she warned and the man bowed as if it were a compliment.

“I’m telling mum you’re flirting with my friend who is like a teeanger to you. I bet that’ll impress her,” Ruli said and the king looked pained.

“I must go! I left the souls of the evil on a slow burn!” he said quickly, kissing Ruli on the head and vanishing through the door where it vanished with no hint it had ever been there.

Delta just felt worried about Betty. That girl was all alone.

---

“Feed me points! Evolve me! Fight me! Give me a hug!” Beta screamed as she hugged a flailing tentacle monster and crushed it, absorbing its essence into her as a near endless horde of mindless beasts charged her.

This was amazing!

In the midst of a hundred monsters, she spotted a rotted tree monster and her world went red.

“TREE!”

190: Delta: The last Ear Bender

“Now, class,” Mr Jones began, his lecture in Fera’s bar was an odd choice, but Delta politely took a seat between Deo and some child that looked like she could be the star of her own young teen romance novel with silver hair.

The kids of Durence were a little odd.

Still, Delta was just happy she wasn’t going to explode in a violent death anymore so she was a little giddy to just enjoy a lesson.

Mr Jones asked “What effect does Dungeon Mana have on Demons?” and Deo shot his hand up.

“It gives them wings so they can fight for justice with the power of DEO” he said eagerly.

“That’s characters in a book you’ve read, Deo,” Mr Jones corrected. Delta suddenly had an idea to bring all the children down to the library. With her dungeon control, she could even ‘thin’ the mana to prevent any incidents.

“Well, in churches, Demon’s will sweat badly. In some lawyer offices, they also sweat, but differently,” Amenstar, the quiet child with a strange light and dark mana aura said. “So, maybe they have a cold sweat here?” he shrugged.

Ruli raised her hand seriously.

“Nyeh... I bet they just get fat,” Poppy said and Ruli’s hand began to wave, desperate to be called on.

“No! Dungeon Mana must be a delicacy! I bet demons, even Mr Jones, are getting outrageously drunk on the mana. Drinking like they have demons to drown!” Grim said as his tongue sparked orange while he spoke, causing steam to rise into the air.

“I have actual booze right here,” Fera grunted as she slammed a tray of sandwiches and soda drinks down for the kids. Then she handed Mr Jones a smoking goblet that vaguely screamed in terror. Ruli was so far out of her chair, waving her hand in the air that she was straining with her neck muscles pulsing with her efforts.

“Miss Darknessbane?” Mr Jones asked with a smile.

“No effect! Demons and Dungeons work on different wavelengths, their energies pass through each other!” she gasped as she sagged down into the seat at the table beside her before she shot a smug grin at the teens around her.

“I see the newest crop of Mr Jones’ torture sessions aren’t up to snuff!” she bragged as next to her, a goblin shot her a dirty look.

Cois the fire mage snorted at her “As a grown woman, that’s just sad,” Cdowning a beer. Ruli just ignored him as she sat there with a smile.

“Do you know why?” Mr Jones asked innocently and Ruli stiffened, quickly busying herself by downing three beers in one go.

“I have no clue either,” Delta muttered, feeling like she should know this as one half of the subject in question.

“Not to fear, it is a bit of rather obscure metaphysics-” Mr Jones said as the pub door slammed open with a dramatic flair and a breeze fluttered through the bar, making the candles flicker.

“Obscure metaphysics is my thing,” Yattina said with a smile as she looked around the bar. Delta blinked, having been too focused on Mr Jones to even notice her approach. She smiled at the woman having forgotten only Ruli and Mr Jones should be able to see her. Yattina paused and looked at where Delta sat with a wink of her new golden eye. As if it was trying to focus on something but, was distracted as she joined Mr Jones at the bar.

Delta blinked, that had been weird of Yattina...

“Ah, I heard some of Fairplay possessed a modicum of smarts. I welcome you to the discussion and give you a chance to answer the question you heard while lurking behind the door, eavesdropping before your entrance,” Mr Jones smiled and Yattina spluttered before waving him off.

“I was not ‘lurking’! I was merely preparing for a lull in the conversation,” she corrected. Yattina cleared her throat.

“Demons are beings devoid of what we humans would call a soul or essence of humanity. They likely existed long before we even appeared on this world. Dungeons take the natural world energy, aka Mana and the essence of human souls, combining them into something uniquely their own. Demons can interact with us humans and vice-versa, sort of like water in a trench. Empty and something with content,” Yattina explained as she noticed she was losing the more classroom-challenged students.

Ruli was beginning to drool as her eyes rolled up in her head and her brain shut off.

“Demons are rocks, humans are water, and Dungeons are gas. People can, over time, interact with Dungeons and be disturbed by demons. Dungeons and demons just can’t interact with each other,” she summed up.

“Mr Jones is drinking right now,” Grim said, pointing out an ‘issue’ with Yattia’s words. Delta could feel the demon drinking, taking in her mana and... doing something with it.

“That’s physical interaction. We’re talking about mana. Dungeons cannot contract pure demons and Demons cannot take the ‘souls’ of Dungeons,” Yattina said as if this subject was fascinating and Delta leaned in on her hand, enjoying her passion.

Except there was one little issue.

It was a duck-shaped issue.

Delta had contracted a demon.

She let her mind wander over to Waddles who stared right back. The contract between them had barely done anything to the duck, unlike what it was doing to Renny or Jack.

In fact, Waddles held up the bond between them, showing how easily he could break it, but chose not to. The form he was in was technically duck shaped, but it was a mana construct

It was one of Quiss’ accidents, so maybe that allowed for a loophole? In fact, Mr Jones and Runilic were also mana constructs. Delta just hadn’t noticed because they were so tightly woven together it was like a real body...

The more Delta actually paid attention to them, the more they began to feel off. She took a slight peek as her Dungeon self. In an instant, Mr Jones was gone, replaced by a three-headed mass of tendrils connected to exposed brains, each brain connected to a dozen eyes and a mess of pulsing veins carved with glowing symbols. The eyes moved in every direction as if constantly reading something Delta couldn’t see.

The creature was bound with cords and chains with a single lock that had no keyhole but a missing word.

Runliic’s form had also changed into a being of ash and scars, his mighty hands blackened by a fire so hot it would have melted anyone else. Every bang of his hammer caused his bones to flash like a reaction of lightning. As he breathed, smog and bonedust wheezed out like an old tomb. His fire was barely a flicker but it was an inferno all the same. He was also bound by chains, but these chains were much darker... as if made of shadows and silence.

Almost a little afraid, Delta turned to look at Ruli, truly looking at the woman for the first time and saw that she was mostly the same except for her horns and the darker skin mixed with glowing lines of fire. Her hair was more smoke than thread.

But it was still life-loving Ruli.

All the same, Delta had contracted Waddles...

What made Delta different?

“You keep forgetting how annoyingly human you are. Dungeon 2.0, now with anxiety pre-installed,” Nu said as he appeared with a flicker, as if he was sensing her concerns.

“I only screamed and panicked once or twice,” she argued as Yattina went on describing how some species of life had odd reactions to demons.

“Spiders. Mushroom Spitters. People. Mushrooms-” Nu listed.

“Reasonable responses,” Delta said confidently.

“Pygmy Mushrooms, Renny, Maestro constantly, Bob-” he kept going.

“You make it seem unreasonable!” Delta said, pointing at the screen with a glare.

“Wilhelm. Muffet. Your secret garden results. Hero in action. Jack’s shrine. Jack’s death. The Guardgoyles-” he said, having no shame.

“I didn’t scream at my Critter mounds when I attacked Mharia,” Delta said, smirking as if this made her the victor.

“Death. Star. Dragon.” Nu said with a jab with each word.

Delta stared back defiantly.

“I left the oven on,” she said through clenched teeth.

“-and that’s why Dungeons seem to talk to themselves,” Mr Jones said as he gestured to where Delta was sitting.

Wait, what?

“I wanna see Nu!” Deo said excitedly. The rest of the class spoke up as Yattina was squinting hard at where Nu floated.

“I would rather teach the Pygmies the art of love and pacifism than ever let one of these urchins bathe in my glory,” Nu said in horror.

Delta didn’t want Nu to have all the glory… But why was her body, her avatar, still too flimsy to be seen by normal people! Why?

Why couldn’t she just manifest?! She focused, straining as her face turned red and she grunted., fists clenched as she stood with her legs apart, her voice beginning to climb in a primal yell. She was focusing her energy and pumping everything she had into her efforts like she had three episodes to burn through in screen time.

Delta felt her mana gather like a storm, filling her with a dramatic passion and the urge to defy all natural order! It felt a lot like eating cake in bed, delicious but risky. There was the feeling of her ears popping and she felt a little... weighty.

Delta’s vision began to spin for a moment but she was sure she had managed it! She had produced a physical avatar!

“Sir, an ear just appeared on the table and it’s bright orange!!” someone screamed! Delta suddenly noticed that her entire being was her left ear... detached from everything else.

“I’d give you an earful, but I would risk actually smothering you,” Nu said. She was thinking it was weird to have eyesight as an ear...

Delta tried to speak but all she did was manage to vibrate her malleus and incus bones in annoyance.

“Class, we just witnessed a first time avatar attempt. Please write a report on this event that's between 500 and 50,000 words,” Mr Jones said excitedly. Delta tried to let go of being physical but all she managed to do was flop once and make someone panic in a high-pitched scream.

“Its ear-ry!” Grim wailed and Delta grinned and would have shot him a thumbs up... if she had thumbs.

“Listen,” Ruli began, then shot Delta a wince, “sorry, just slipped out,” she promised. Before she gently picked Delta up and Fera appeared with a broom, ready to fight anyone that looked to have ill intentions toward Delta or a piercing gun.

“I have heard, and seen, Dungeons take smaller steps. Some do birds or fish before they go four-legged then better. Straight to human might be... well, this,” Ruli explained and Delta wished she could hug the woman.

Start small! Delta should have guessed that...

Well, she couldn’t quite figure out how to let go of the avatar state, but she could still muddle with it... she focused and tried to think small.

What was small, cute, and her? Delta had to be something more than a worm?

Would they still love Delta if she was a worm?! She just had to go with what felt natural and simple. The simplest thing she had ever eaten was water, rocks, some wood, and Gutrots.

Gutrots were actually very simple. They were made up entirely of hatred and despair.

Even now... the taste-

Her ear form began to bubble and glow with an orange light.

---

Ruli stared down at the glowing mushroom that was bathing the room in orange light as it formed slowly, opening two milky white ‘eyes’ and a tear near its cap.

“Delta?” she asked slowly and the mushroom began to wail with a deep sound of misery that slowly turned into a maddening scream of rage.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Before the mushroom could let out a stream of curses, Fera put a jar over Delta’s ‘avatar’... Muting the flailing mushroom that seemed to be making some very suggestive actions of vengeance and ‘tearing apart the very idea of god until he weeps and fades into the darkest recesses of terrified non-believers, like a deity they never believed in arriving at their doorstep, bloodied and scared’.

Ruli blinked and eyed her ‘Delta Surprise’ drink she had been given. It made her feel all educated from the nicest facility as if she had bordered with the uppercrusts in their establishments of finery!

“Indubitably!” she cheered.

“Nope, this is worse the second time around,” Estal said from the corner of the bar, three bottles of wine kept her company.

“Remarkable, she has the purest markings of any Gutrot I’ve ever seen. She must love them to have studied them so well,” Yattina muttered in awe as she stared at Delta.

“That is not infatuation, my lady of the cold facts,” Ruli said with a grin, her tone amusing and noble now.

“That is a mild case of ‘absolute loathing’,” she explained.

“I think she looks pretty,” Deo said, smiling as he leaned up close to the jar. Delta paused in her cursing to coo at Deo before looking defeated.

Then the Gutrot form popped like a soap bubble and she was gone.

“I can’t protest that thine form is more pleasing to my sight when you are more yourself, lady Delta. I enjoy your thick mana existence, I cannot deny,” Ruli nodded to Delta as she reformed in her dungeon state, invisible to most.

“...What?” Delta asked.

“It’s that refreshing drink. It makes me sound like I married my cousin for the money,” Ruli winked.

“You should marry for love because love is infinite while money is finite unless you’re a bad person,” Deo said wisely.

“I’d sell you for a copper coin,” Grim said with a snort and Deo smiled at him.

“I can give you money!” he said brightly.

Ruli... felt at peace.

It was odd but it was the truth. This scene, with these people... Ruli liked it. She was just missing her enemy, Quiss, so they could drink and complain about people.

Oh, and also her fishing rod.

So, why did she feel like something was coming? Out of sight but rapidly approaching.

---

“This town’s layout is nonsense! The twists lead to dead ends but the dead ends open out into intersections when we turn around. There’s a bakery next to a building that looks haunted but the bakery smells so good. The bank accepts blood as money and we’ve passed the same hat shop four times but it's never in the same place,” Serma heaved, her eyes darting about the street they were on as if expecting a wild animal to appear.

Mas gave her a worried look as he adjusted his free tophat he got from said hat shop. Mas just happened to be the first customer of the ‘decade’. Serma also couldn’t remember what the owner of the store looked like or when they actually went inside the store.

But they all had hats...

Her sunhat was tailored perfectly and rather comfy which Serma tried to take solace in.

“Should we ask directions from there?” Mas asked as he held Mule, the slime fast asleep like a toddler. Serma followed his eyes to a store that was entirely void of color and paintings of little characters with round figures and a bouncy appearance smiled out at them with goofy-looking large gloves.

They looked cute but there was something about their stare, the way they looked seconds from moving when Serma’s eyes moved away from their frames that made the hair stick up on the back of her neck.

One of the frames was almost leaking... as if the concept of art and immortal existence was oozing into their reality. It was horrifying! It was coming!

It was-

“Let’s try over there,” Lorsa suggested quickly and pushed Serma towards a stall where a cheerful woman that smelled like wet soil after a fresh rain chatted to an old man with a gap tooth smile and a selection of cheeses on a tray.

“Hello,” the woman said and Mas waved. Nearby, Imp had stopped to talk to the monstrous inky monster coming out the frame like old friends.

‘Don’t look. Don’t look’ Serma ordered herself. She had come to win at the local Dungeon and to return to rip her father’s bony grip from the throne and shove him into one of Grandmother’s golden torture devices they kept in the attic.

Serma didn’t have time for this strangeness.

“Haldi, this is Serma,” Lorsa said and she was using that same tone when speaking to Mayor Darknessbane. Haldi didn’t seem to be listening as he beamed at them. The old man had a gentle soul and Serma instantly liked him.

She didn’t even mind the overwhelming smell of cheese. It felt more like a charming quality than anything bad. There was never any cheese at home.

Her father had something against dairy products.

“Have some Cheese of the Right Arm. It’s limited in source due to the disease but it is delicious,” he offered snacks to her and Mas. Serma’s soul melted when she ate the offered snack and she tried not to float off with a feeling of bliss as Mas just beamed.

Cheese... Serma would wear a suit of this cheese when she locked her father in the Golden Maiden.

“You smell of nobility,” the woman said, her smile a little less bright but no less kind.

“Yes, apologies!” Serma said, flushing as she forgot her manners, “I am Princess Serma of Capital City,” she did a polite bow.

“R-Royalty?” the woman said, her smile trembling and she turned stiffly like her legs were made of wood.

“I must be going. I left an excuse to leave on the stove,” she said numbly and walked off quickly. Haldi waved her off and sighed.

“Don’t take it personally. She and royals have history,” Haldi explained with a tilt of his head, making his snow-white hair move in a breeze.

“Was it my father or my grandmother?” Serma sighed, feeling a headache coming on.

“Surprisingly, it had little to do with them and a much older kingdom called ‘Turtog’,” he said quietly and Serma had never heard of it. She needed to brush up on her geopolitical knowledge or she’d miss things like this.

“It was an older kingdom that caused a powerful distortion by committing a deep wound on the world. A lot happened, but due to a lot of drain on the land, it became a grayzone,” Haldi continued to explain and the elder was definitely knowledgeable for a cheese monger!

“Where is it?” Serma asked, interested as Mas was given more snacks to enjoy by Haldi.

“Oh... around. It collapsed but the wound never quite sealed over,” Haldi said vaguely.

“A kingdom doesn’t just collapse. They’d be ruins and signs of their history,” Serma pointed out as Lorsa snorted at the idea of something lasting. She was such a cynic.

“Well, sure if the collapse was done by decay and time, but there is a different way to collapse,” Haldi said then peered at her. Serma looked back, unwilling to blink.

“You remind me of someone. They had the same sort of reasoning about things and your nose is awfully familiar,” Haldi mused and Serma was going to start wearing a veil. This nose business was giving her a complex.

“You knew her father,” Lorsa said slowly. Haldi continued to stare and Serma raised an eyebrow.

“I know a lot of noble fathers,” Haldi said oddly.

“They suck,” Serma said bluntly and Haldi staggered suddenly as if struck by a memory.

“I was informed I had an escort quest here,” someone spoke up and Serma turned, blinking as she saw a sort of familiar face.

“Aren’t you Peharl’s apprentice?” she asked and the boy with a stoic look gave her a look as if only noticing her.

“I retired,” he said slowly.

“You must be Alpha,” Lorsa said quickly and the boy shot her a look, hand on his sword suddenly.

“You’re-” he said and Lorsa was at his side, giving his shoulder a squeeze.

“Royal Knight Captain, Lorsa. I’m glad you remember,” she said with a wink.

“Delta is better,” Alpha said and Lorsa made a strange choking noise as Alpha turned to Serma but Mas stood between them.

“Please be nice,” Mas said and Alpha frowned.

“My moral alignment is irrelevant for this escort quest, if it was, it would be listed before I accepted it,” he said and looked at Serma.

“I’m here to take you to Delta. Do you have any objections and are you able to match my walking speed without pathing issues?” he asked seriously.

“This is not how one escort’s a lady,” Serma said with a little bit of royal tightness to her voice.

“Your class is ‘princess’ and ‘rebel’. You are not a lady,” Alpha pointed out and Serma’s nostrils flared.

“I’m about to class change to ‘murderer’ in a second,” Serma said as she tried to square up to Alpha but Mas held her back.

“Think of the blood on your nice dress!” Mas said and Serma hesitated.

“The dress has no enchantments or lore. It’s ‘mid’ at best,” Alpha continued to speak.

“Do you have a problem with me?” Serma asked and Alpha suddenly made a strange smile.

“I heard a royal ruler must be advised by their ‘head mage’. I am simply trying to be helpful by pointing out that the dress you're wearing has no protections built into it nor does it allow you to activate any seduction skills to gain political power over your enemies,” he said flatly.

“I’m about to seduce your rib cage into a meat grinder,” Serma’s eyes flashed. Alpha frowned and Serma mentally felt like she had won a point in this strange game.

“I do not find you attractive as a ruler or as a girl. I’m simply advising you of your shortcomings as to prevent you dying or committing an act so shameful the royal city collapses. Also, my rib cage would break most meat grinders as I have the ‘Thick Bones’ passive ability. It gives me thick bones,” he added, as if Serma needed the clarification.

“Like a thick skull?” Serma asked, voice sickly sweet.

“Yes, I can headbutt most things without an issue. Sometimes if I use it on trees, creatures fall out of it,” he said, ignoring her tone. That just... made Serma feel worse.

“Princess, he’s just bad at talking!” Mas said quickly and Serma was going to introduce him to some rudimentary social classes in the nearest blood arena.

“Perhaps Serma would feel better, Alpha, if you shared a weakness you possessed?” Haldi suggested over the noise of their argument, but the old man was grinning. Alpha frowned and seemed to think... and think... and think so more.

“Humility, perhaps?” Serma whispered.

“I could not wear a bad dress like Princess Serma can with confidence. I think a weakness of mine then is confidence,” he said and Serma went for his throat.

“Youth is the best cheese of all,” Haldi said brightly and Lorsa could only nod over the sounds of Serma’s fingers creaking as they tried to squeeze Alpha’s throat but doing little more than causing indents in his skin.

“Your choking skills need to be grinded, I’ll add it to the list.”

Serma was going to leave this town with the ability to crush metal with her bare hands, even if it killed her.

“Mas can help her!” Lorsa said quickly.

“I don’t want to be choked...”

“Give it time,” Lorsa said and Serma’s urge to strangle them all grew.

A blond man with a Peacekeeper badge turned the corner, took one look at them and pivoted on his heel and walked back the way he came.

“Harder, use your thumb more,” Alpha instructed.

Serma was seeing red and a little gold.

191: Karpe Diem

Mas found Alpha to be a very odd boy.

Mas watched as Alpha stoically, and repeatedly, corrected Princess Serma's assertions or presumptions about the town or the Dungeon. Mas was rather good at sensing hostility under words since most people had either ignored him or spoke to him like he was a wild beast.

Mas didn't sense anything from Alpha. Not hostility or annoyance or even smugness. Just a cool and firm aura of matter-of-factness.

"Banks can cause some to go into debt but that does not mean they're run by 'blood-thirsty monsters'," Serma said with a scoff. Alpha stared at her outside the small bank. Alpha reached over and rang the bell where the door was opened by a haggard looking young woman.

"No more dancers, no more surprise axe murderers, and no solicitors!" she snarled.

"I don't dance or use axs as my main weapon. I am unsure if I am now a solicitor. Miss Velki, who runs this bank?" Alpha asked politely. The woman let out a growl as if the sun was agitating her.

"A blood-sucking son of a goat who could find alcohol or drugs in a desert who is currently asleep in his coffin until I feel mentally prepared to remove the stake I plunged into his heart," the girl said seriously

"You murdered someone?" Serma asked, sounding both aghast and, weirdly, interested. Velki turned to the princess with a wry smile.

"I wish. Trust me. I regret ever accepting this apprenticeship," she grumbled then sighed.

"No, even if I turn him to ash or chop his head off, I can't kill him. He's like a super vampire. He told me if I wanted to kill him I would need a weapon forged out of a 'star going supernova' soaked in 'hella amount' of saint tears and then sprinkled with 'luck'," the girl explained and Mas' mind raced as he imagined such an amazing sword.

It would go 'phrosh' and 'hyash' as he swung it!

"Vampires generally die in sunlight," Serma said, shooting Alpha a look as if expecting to see smugness but Alpha was merely nodding along with Velki.

"Mr Von doesn't die in sunlight. He cooks and calls the sun rude names," Velki said before there was a groan from deep within the bank.

"Velki..." an inhuman voice rasped. The hair on Mas' body stood up in alarm as the voice made some primal part of him squirm.

"Yes?" Velki called back, bored.

"Get the hammer, this stake hasn't made me feel like a bride on her wedding night being nailed violently to the wall yet," the man complained. The girl turned to the group.

"Would you like to make a deposit?" she asked and Serma backed away.

"No thank you, we must move on," she said with a forced smile and Mas silently was happy that she wasn't that curious.

Mas turned away and looked around suddenly.

Where was Lorsa?

---

Von stared up at the ceiling of his room, the three foot stake made of holly wood burning a hole in his chest with enough purifying power to make a bishop look sleeazy in comparison.

"I do believe I smell something old and manipulative with a streak of hypocrisy," he called to the dark room and from a shadowed corner, the slim form of Lorsa appeared with a frown.

"Your tongue has gotten glib in the years, Beast," she said and Von rose, sliding off the stake that was pierced through the coffin and into the stone floor below. His wounds healed almost instantly.

"My tongue has become many things, but that's neither here nor there. Lustre, how have you been?" Von asked as he poured himself a glass of white wine. He turned the bottle over and read this particular vintage was sourced from Mermaids of the south.

The taste was absolutely shattering.

"Lorsa. My name is Lorsa now," the woman said and Von shrugged one shoulder.

"Then you can call me Aunt Flo because when I'm around, blood always-" he said and the next thing he knew he was on the ground and his fingers were being rearranged messily.

The pain was liberating. This first serious jolt of the sensation that he had in years. Lustre- Lorsa's mana was as brutal as always.

"I already find you detestable as an existence. A blight on the land so do not push me, failure," Lorsa said coldly and Von grimaced.

"And there goes my happy mood," he sighed and stood up, pushing his fingers back into place once he collected a few bone shards out of the floor. Von brushed his hair back as he poured himself more wine.

"You know that a refusal to perish is not a crime. The desire to live is a strong one," he reminded and Lorsa just stared at him.

"You murdered my daughter," she noted. Von snorted and gave her a look.

"Your daughter flubbed the basic Dungeon lessons. I didn't murder her. I survived her," he corrected. Lorsa let out a controlled exhale.

"Besides back then, you were all 'she was of my existence'. You were more annoyed than upset," Von recalled and Lorsa looked away, giving a slight hint of shame. Von blinked then suddenly felt playful once more.

"You've changed," he said, voice a purr of amazement.

"I've grown, and recalling my first born... causes me pain. I wasn't smart enough back then to really understand or even care but watching over the humans, being their guard, their assassin, their friend... I did change," Lorsa admitted and Von was loving this.

What else was new with her? Did she gossip? Did she have a harem of nobles? Did she knit?!

"And what? You've come to kill me? End my existence?" he asked and Lorsa shook her head and that was a little disappointing. Von was far past his 'end it all' phase but he did love a good scuffle with a beautiful monster.

"I was... hasty in my reaction but I do not regret what I did," she said stiffly.

Von batted his dark eyelashes.

"Don't be coy, you can say 'I created vampires in a fit of rage'. I don't mind," he said innocently.

"I created you, nothing more," she said, defensively as she crossed her arms.

"And I copied what you did and made more then more... and well, a lot more," Von grinned.

"Even down to cursing them with their crippling weakness to the Sister's mana. You can survive it, but few others can," Lorsa pointed out and Von had the decency to look embarrassed.

"It's a complicated process, you did it far better than I," he said then beamed.

"Enough, I didn't come here to remember the good times. I don't care for you or your first born you 'blessed' with your name. You are the failure who couldn't even be a first floor boss to my daughter," Lorsa warned and her expression darkened.

"What about that small issue of my little one, by a generation or two, Sarah Von Altnis killing Archmages to-" Von began and Lorsa held up a hand.

"Your cursed existence will be important in fighting the wrongness that echoes. I've come to ensure you haven't forgotten that," she said and Von thought if he should insist they talk about Sarah and her little thing of taking down Archmages when he decided he was already distracted by her words.

Ah well, it wasn't like there were any archmages in town.

---

"..."

"And you're just adorable!" the innkeeper gushed as he stared down at the pale girl with a frilly petticoat and hat.

"..." Sarah Von Altnis stared at the innkeeper with glowing red eyes.

"Mistress! I have paid all the other residents to sleep in the barn! We have the whole thing to ourselves!" the mechanical creaking of the tall woman entered the inn with a smile.

Sarah tapped her side twice.

"No, real money. Not 'the ultimate currency that is death'. I promise!" the maid beamed.

"Would you like the best room in the inn? It has beautiful arch windows and a balcony. The sunrises are to die for" the innkeeper offered.

"Would you like to die?" the maid said back in the same jovial tone. Sarah tapped her side rapidly.

"...This mistress is deathly ill to sunlight. Gives her a rash," Sarah heard Snug say with a sulky tone, the weapons in her body deactivating.

"Oh dear, is it a disease?" the innkeeper asked. Sarah was getting exhausted at this pointless social talk.

"Yes! It's Vamp-" Snug began then Sarah tapped her hard.

"Vamp...Vampickles blood deficiency," Snug said quickly. The innkeeper looked between them and Sarah could hear his neck creak as he moved it. He seemed to be getting ready to yell or inhale quickly. Sarah winced… she really didn't want to run away in the night if the man panicked.

"Oh, you're a vampire! You should have said so! We have excellent basement rooms and coffins made from the best yew trees. We keep a donation of blood chilling and we can deliver it in the afternoon when you wake up. The price is very affordable," the innkeeper said with a pleasant tone.

Sarah opened her mouth, even knowing her voice wouldn't work.

"Aren't you afraid?" Snug asked in her stead.

"Oh stars no. This isn't 200 years ago where we grabbed pitchforks and got lit torches going. We're very progressive to all sorts around here. Just the other day, a forest yeti tried to book in while pretending to be a hairy grandmother. It's just horrible if you all feel the need to hide," the innkeeper said with a shake of his head.

Sarah tried not to feel weird but, she didn't know how to handle this! People were being nice and weren't chasing her away.

"Sir, the Miss has recently awakened after a long nap. Could you..." she heard Snug whisper.

"Oh.... oh of course! Please, Mistress Vampire! I beg of thee to take the room at your behest and spare my life!" the innkeeper said and Sarah straightened up.

She could work with this!

Sarah coldly waved her hand to dismiss the man's pleading and moved along the hallway dramatically, leaving mist in her wake.

"She's heading towards the cleaning closet," the innkeeper said softly.

"It's fine, she'll turn around when she hits a wall," Snug said brightly, that traitor.

The cleaning closet was just where Sarah p-plotted her schemes, that was all!

---

Von was sure Lorsa could handle Sarah if she turned up.

He was more worried about that toy he made her a long time ago. That thing was vicious. What was it called?

'Snagle Butcher'?

Sarah had her own name for it but all the same... terrifying doll.

"I'm here no? I stayed in this place when even it could have turned me into nothing but a husk. Vampires feed off people's mana and no one around here had much in the later years," Von pointed out and Lorsa could only nod in acceptance at that statement.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"There were children," she said and Von gave her a flat look.

"Yes because necking with a ten-year old makes me look just perfect to a town of monsters and legendary killers," he said dryly. They were about to speak when a rat scurried along the wall only to be grabbed by a filthy hand with long yellow nails that dragged it into the shadows to commence in battle.

Von and Lorsa stared.

"What was that-" Lorsa began then there was a crash and a raspy voice sounded out.

"100 Rats are mine. Are you the secret boss?" a bloodshot eye stared through the wall. Von made dismissive motions.

"Your secret boss is in another castle," he said dismissively, but Von couldn't seem to help a tiny bit of nervousness, and the eye vanished.

"Who was that? Lorsa asked and Von sipped his wine.

"Tommy old boy. He was a right cad in the day," he said and Lorsa frowned as she neared the hole.

"I don't recall any Tommy in Durence-," she cut herself off and made a choking noise. The woman went pale then tried to contain a sudden hatred.

"You don't mean 'Thomas Darkblade'?" she asked, snapping her head to look at Von who had chucked the glass and was now downing the wine bottle by its neck.

She pressed her face to the wall to listen. Faintly in the distance, she heard him.

"Have at you! Your spider legs of +8 are impressive but my fingers of +10 allows me to eat you with a +10 modifier to biting attacks!" the man cackled, droning on in what on the surface was madness but underneath laid something much worse. She listened for a moment longer.

"Cad! Your web of trickery has stunned me for 5 seconds! I resist your fear ability with my save roll!" he cried and seemed to slam his head into a cave wall.

Von walked past with something that looked like a bucket of still warm melted candle wax. The vampire began to patch the hole with a whistle.

"We can't leave him there. He's... you know what he is!" she said and Von just smiled.

"Of course we can and I do," he said easily.

"He invited himself to the town and he drove everyone up the wall. It's safer for us all if he remains in the 'sewers of flood switches and crate pushing'," he said and Lorsa looked pained.

"Water levels. They never work out," she sighed.

Von didn't know about that. He had explored many water levels with great pleasure.

---

"Water levels can be fun," Delta explained to the teacher who repeated it for his class.

"Blasphemy!" Grim cried. Mr Jones shot him a look.

"In the Demon World, that is praise," he said and Grim looked horrified. Delta shook her head as they headed for her entrance. The quick tour of the floor had been very educational and Mr Jones, that handsome man who was really a mind-breaking demon looked... content like he had eaten a massive meal.

"In the demon world, a curse would be 'your mother is coming'," Ruli added casually.

"That's just your mother, Ruli," Mr Jones mumbled.

"Well, it's her own fault for slaughtering a quarter of Dad's army before kicking in his throne doors covered in blood. It was basically asking the man to fall in love," Ruli scoffed.

"Did they kiss at first sight?" Deo asked, looking enchanted.

Ruli pursed her lips.

"Dad kissed the floor a lot and the walls... and I heard he even kissed the river of lava nearby," she said vaguely.

"Why did they break up?" Poppy asked in a soft voice. Ruli blinked as everyone was focused on her now, interested.

"They didn't date long enough to-" Ruli began then Deo's face began to fall.

"Mother was a free spirit and dad loved parties and politics. They separated amicably," she said quickly. Mr Jones shot her a look.

"Remind me to brush up the 'five years of darkness' and 'the demon king unable to get out of bed' in the demon world for history class," he said.

"He ate a lot of chocolate in bed and screamed at romantic theater plays a lot," she admitted, recalling the scene with a grimace.

Delta wanted to ask if her dad had an autobiography to read. She imagined it would be called 'The one that got away' or 'In love, In hell' or something. It would be so juicy and filled with stories.

"I swear, next time you all come. I'll have my water level fixed!" she promised and Ruli looked excited.

"More fish?" she asked and Delta blinked.

She hadn't shown Ruli the upgraded Fourth Floor yet!

That was going to be awesome.

"Way more fish," she promised, making Ruli pump her fist and rush everyone out so Delta could get to work.

Everyone bid her farewell, even if they all couldn't exactly see her.

Delta grinned. Without the fear of the hell portal opening or Fairplay coming in tonight, she had plenty of time to brush up her 'Fishgeon'.

"So much to do, so little time," Nu said and the screen looked rather relaxed. That was suspicious.

"Nu, where have you been?" she asked as the screen just wandered off with an amused expression.

---

The Trinity Dungeon

"Proposal is for exploding frogs with internal acid." Florida heaved.

"Interesting design, but exploding tulips could work," Herb argued.

"Living consuming acid pile," Carnage hissed.

They looked to the empty seat of Nu. There was only a mana-sign left that changed its wording every few minutes. It currently read as 'I agree with Herb' but seconds later it switched to 'I agree with Carnage'.

"THE ACID OOZE IS ACCEPTABLE!" Carnage howled.

"UNACCECPTABLE!" Herb frothed in rage.

"All will become mold," Florida said sagely.

---

"Nothing serious. I just set up a proxy to do all my work for me in a good enough manner," Nu explained with out providing details. Delta narrowed her eyes but didn't ask. Nu was allowed secrets while doing his own thing, she supposed.

"Hey Nu, what comes after summer?" she asked as Nu turned to her.

"Autumn," he said as Delta shoved him into Waddles' lake with a smile.

"Fall!"

"Water doesn't actually affect me," the screen said as he floated back up.

"Yeah, yeah," Delta grinned and nudged Nu.

"Why did the fish not play the piano?" she asked and Nu made a noise like a sigh.

"Because it couldn't tuna piano?" he offered. Delta stepped into the lake and floated to the massive Moon Catfish.

"Nope. Because I haven't created any fish monsters to play the piano," she said as they teleported into the 'floor 1.5' which was the dungeon inside the catfish. A little mini-gauntlet so to speak. The inside space was squishy and fleshy as before but now that she was here, she focused and pulled up the menu. Even with her spending, she still had so much mana and DP to throw about.

'Catfish Mini-Dungeon: Yeah, it's that level.

A gauntlet of rooms in between the first and second floor which allows adventurers to skip the first floor by taking this alternative path. Walking on the floor is like sinking into cotton candy, if the candy was fish guts. The walls are warm and huggable, if they liked hugs that were veiny and wet. The ceiling is concave and ribbed but, not for their pleasure.

Upgrades:

The Walls have Eyes: The fleshy walls swallow people who touch them for too long, suffocating them in their folds. If their name is Kaori, this attack is extra lethal. 40 Mana.

Wishbones: Stepping in the wrong place causes bones to snap like a bear trap. Lethal but if they break it, they get a wish. The wish is also a trap. 50 Mana.

Acid Reflux: A rising tide of-

"Wait, this is all wrong," Delta insisted. She brought up the menu and flicked through different screens until she came upon the issue. The 'between' floor rooms had been set to ultra violent due to a 'precedent'.

"What precedent? The only other between floor with a between room is the-" Delta began, confused, then clamped her mouth shut.

"Ah the consequences of your own actions. How nice to see them," Nu said brightly.

"It wasn't my fault I left the room on auto and it turned into a death room of evil deathness," Delta complained. She tapped on the screen with a finger.

"I won't mess this one up. I'm going to make this work, I'm going to make this fun... and I'm going to do it on purpose," she insisted, tapping the screen harder with each statement. She turned to see the confirmation of a purchase in the 'Misc' section.

"Nu, why didn't you stop me?" she asked simply.

"Boredom, mostly."

Delta flicked to her purchase history.

"Caramel coffee. Caramel coffee. Ice-cream. Frappichino. Slippers...aha here we are," Delta said and brought the item up for inspection.

"Should you really be using mana to make unreproducible products to simulate the taste of home?" Nu asked and Delta nodded.

"It's economical. Somewhere," she said distractedly as she read. The more she read, the more she was relieved.

She had only purchased a critter.

"Crimson Minnow: A lively little fish that can extend the life of anyone by ten seconds. They taste so bad no one wants to eat them. Rumor has it they can transform into a dragon if they overcome a waterfall."

The room began to shake.

"Nu?" she called out, concerned. Nu floated over and zoomed in on her purchase. There was a little box in the corner she hadn't seen.

You have bulk purchased 1000 Crimson Minnows.

"That seems fishy," she said as the fishgeon opened its maw and inhaled a wave of crimson, drowning Delta and Nu in a scent so bad that Nu cracked. The fish were excited and lively as promised, but the smell...

Delta retched and tried to cover her mouth.

It was like a dead person had been set on fire then rolled in garbage then soaked in old gravy then marinated with raw sewage.

Congratulations! You have now experienced the worst taste in the world (Gutrot) and the worst smell (Crimson Minnow). You have an air of sophistication.

In the midst of the swarm of crimson, a single golden streak was just seen as it vanished.

192: Sky high, Scuttle low

Delta wasn't mad, she was just disappointed.

The fact it was herself she was disappointed in was another matter entirely.

"Pack it away and suppress," she inhaled once as she set up a trigger for the 'flood of crimson'.

Trigger for the Flood of Crimson has been set to the phrase 'Fishy Fishy Fishy'.

Delta shunted the mass into her lakes and rivers until the trigger was tripped and then they would be summoned to the Fishgeon to swarm whatever poor soul was inside. Delta even saw a few swimming in a small pond in the secret garden.

Nu still hadn't recovered so Delta powered on without him. Her experience with Gutrot had taught her a valuable lesson. It was okay to be traumatized and you could only ever be proud of yourself for surviving.

Tastes would fade, scents would disperse and memories would soften over time.

Pride remained eternal!

She spent a few minutes coaxing Prim to give her some more 'Delta' options for the place. Bone bear traps and acid floods just felt a bit out of place for her design philosophy.

Plato and Socrates would have definitely said 'bounce pads, not spike pits'.

Fishgeon: Now 50% less deadly

Upgrades:

The Juice Room: Opens a side room which is filled with a swimming pool. If you ignore the flesh room, it really is lovely. The juices have high medicinal properties for health and skin care 40 DP.

The Phantom of the Bone Opera: The Bone Keyboard to escape the Fishgeon now has hidden notes scattered about to spell the message 'Captain Ahab'. If played correctly the first time, the adventurers are ejected with a treasure chest. 40 DP

The Wrecks: Old vessels of a pirate fleet are strewn about. Most of them are wrecks but supply stable footpaths and places to loot. The wrecks all seemed to be the same ship but different versions. The words 'Pi' and 'ats' can be seen on some of the wreckage. 30 DP.

The Pirate's Treasure: One piece of special gold is hidden in the Fishgeon. If collected, it can be used to bargain with the Pie-Rats. The Pygmies highly seek this coin. 50 Mana.

The Missing Book: A book called 'Pine Oak Ye Oh' can be found in a chest. Returning it to the third floor library will yield an amazing book. 40 DP.

The Warning Signs: A totem surrounded by crabs worshiping Bob is in the corner. Leaving an offering will greatly benefit people on the fourth floor. 10 DP

Captain Cutlery : If cursed by Waddles, adventurers will run into a submerged skeleton covered in mana-glowing seaweed. This dead mariner will menacingly stand there. 5 DP

Delta nodded.

"Buy them all, Prim," she ordered, she was not going to act coy this time! All around her, wooden wrecks shifted into view with metal bands, some of the ships looking so old they might collapse any moment. The ships were arranged like a hurricane had swept through, mixing and mashing pieces together until the walls looked like a garbage heap. A few Crimson Minnows swam in the ruins. Where the adventurers would emerge was on a collapsed crow nest that formed a platform of sorts.

Collapsed masts and shattered hulls made a true maze of paths and it looked rather interesting.

On the plank walk to one of the ships the wall formed an opening which glowed green. Delta stuck her head into a massive room with glowing green liquid that was filling a natural dip in the massive fish's stomach. The liquid smelled oddly sweet and relaxing. The edges moved in gentle waves as if the fish itself was swimming in slow soft motions. Pieces of planks and wood had also landed here, creating a place to change.

'Luckily' some of the wood even formed private changing rooms.

These were some amazing changes for such a short time!

---

Yattina stared as people around her panicked. These instruments attuned to Delta's Mana were spiking in an odd pattern. If she squinted, it would almost look like 'mu' and 'wah' in repeating patterns. The machines had long been 'infiltrated' by Delta's mana and Yattina just hadn't had any time to report it.

She sighed as she laid back in her chair, sipping coffee. The nice woman, Mrs Dabberghast, had slipped her some amazing beans after she saw her eye. She seemed to smile at Yattina like they were in a secret club.

Yattina eyed the amount of paperwork on her desk and scowled. Caline had been neglecting so much of it, delegating it until the work simply came to a stop. Resource requests, proper reports back, and a ton of discoveries had to be logged.

Caline had done none of it as if he did not expect to be dealing with any consequences.

She twirled his badge around, well her badge now. The hand symbol looked well polished and it was the only thing Caline seemed to take care of at all. The more she played with it, the more her eye seemed to find a little piece of it that was out of place, a little piece of the badge that looked unnatural.

She was about to press it or pry it off when her door was opened by Lim who looked confused by the chaos around the detector machines.

"Lim!" she smiled and the teen looked back, just as pleased to see her.

"Commander Yattina!" he said and she grimaced at the title. It felt so... militaristic.

"Distract me," she almost begged of the young man who winced.

"Okay..." he said and her stomach dropped.

"What?" she asked and he pulled out a report.

"The clean up crews and that adventurer group under Estal have been encountering something," he explained as Yattina turned the detailed report around that even had maps and diagrams along with a sketch.

Now this was paperwork!

"In the sewers? Elder Darknessbane presumed there was nothing down there except rogue cheese and some slimes," she said, confused and pulled out the sketch of a skeletal man with nails as long as claws, shabby torn clothes made of rat pelts, and mad eyes that looked uncomfortably excited at being detected. Her eyes darted over a few of the comments from the workers.

'Stranger cried 'initiative' then clubbed one of our workers and ran off with his shoes'.

'I got caught in some discarded fish nets and he hollered 'roll to resist seduction''

'He blocked the way out because he refused to just open a door, claiming it was trapped and he trusted nothing since the 'mimic incident'.'

'He stole my lunch but he just fed it to some rats and barely kept any for himself. I felt a little bit bad.'

Yattina looked up.

"Did no one bring him in? He clearly needs help," Yattina asked as she stood up.

"We tried but he said the 'party hadn't been gathered' and ran off. He's really strong," Lim explained with a wince and rubbed his arm where a bruise could be seen.

"There's more of him down there?" she blinked. There was a secret society of slime lovers in the sewers of Durence? That should not surprise her by now.

"Not to our knowledge," Lim shook his head and pointed to the maps.

"We've explored most of it and it's only him," he said confidently. Yattina would take care of this personally. It would give her a break from the paperwork.

Just as she started to walk with Lim down the hall, she felt a brush on her chest and she jumped, seeing nothing there. Yattina looked down the empty hall and the place seemed devoid of life. She focused her new eye and was about to look with her new 'sight' when Lim asked if she was alright.

"Something is afoot," she muttered and stalked off.

---

Caline watched as the useless grunt reappeared as the potion of light bending wore off.

"S-Sorry sir, she's too on guard," the man mewled like a child. Caline plastered a fake smile on his face.

"Next time," he said and the man looked relieved not to be in trouble.

Caline could use him a few more times before he would make the idiot vanish. Caline turned and walked into the office where the half-drunk cup of coffee remained. The poison should have turned her into an idiot and sick as a dog yet Yattina was walking around untouched.

It was becoming clear she was getting some benefits from this disgusting relationship with the dungeon. A new eye, some stronger organs... Yattina must be a good groveler. The vile woman.

Well, if poison and theft didn't work, Caline would have to keep escalating.

"What are you doing here?" a voice called and Caline spun to see the child that he was already plotting to use as a pawn.

"Argus, I'm just looking for Commander Yattina to get my paperwork approved for a slight trip," he said and smiled. The brat didn't smile back.

"You're up to something," Ripdoy's little gem accused.

"Why would you think that?" Caline asked, almost offended at being accused by a child.

"Your core feels bad. Even pale, it still feels green," he said and Caline narrowed his eyes.

"Don't speak of things you can't understand," he growled and strode past Argus who seemed to stare at his back.

He would show them all. Caline would tear down Fairplay and he was so close to doing it.

---

"That's a nice totem, isn't that a nice totem?" Delta asked the crabs who danced around the vaguely ominous statue of a leviathan-like worm wrapped around a stone pillar, consuming an apple or orange with little shapes on it.

"What do you think?" she asked the glowing skeleton covered in seaweed at her side who had its arms stretched out as if it were about to take flight.

"I quite agree!" Delta nodded as its jaw rattled.

Delta went over to the bone organ and tapped a few keys.

"Mary had a little lamb," she tapped and the groaning organ turned the simple song into a spooky haunting theme. Delta was loving this but this whole place was missing something. A core aspect... something to make it stand out.

It was missing life!

"No offense, Captain," she said and the skeleton rattled that it was no issue. She worked through her menus until she came upon something seven or so pages back in the 'misc' page.

Para-Mercenaries versus Sea Gulf Warriors: Seagulls that rule the upper Fishgeon are at war(not really) with the Isopods of the bottom! Adventurers have a chance to join one side or the other for unique rewards. Both sides will use the adventurers as proxies for their fight (war games). One side will be led by King Trashlover and the other by Emperor Scuttlebutt. 50 DP.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

"It was the names that sold me," she admitted to Captain Cutlery who rattled in agreement. All around her, life burst on to the sea, a flock of seagulls turning crow nests and collapsed masts into battle barriers while industrial isopods began to terraform the ground with trenches and tunnels.

Two massive forms emerged before Delta. One was a seagull but so large it was dinosaur-ish in style with predator-like eyes and a beak tipped in red. Its little webbed feet have claws. Atop its majestic head sat a crown that looked like it came from a fast food restaurant.

'We Whopping Love It Real and Fresh'

The other form was a monster from the deep with segmented shells and armored like a tank. The defining feature that stood out was the seagull skull it wore over its front and the knives it had tapped to each side of the skull. There were also words on the skull like the crown.

'Scuttle into the Abyss and Weep'

"You're both... kind of cute," Delta said in surprise and they both turned on the spot as if dancing. Secretly, the Para-Mercenaries were sort of more scary.

King Trashlover opened his beak with a song and the shark-like teeth on display sparkled and from inside its mouth, a knife-like tongue darted with a strange secretion of barbecue sauce and secret sauce.

"Emperor Scuttlebutt, King Trashlover, you put up recruitment notices and train some of your folks to speak common," she instructed.

"Mine!" Trashlover screeched.

"Snuffle,* Scuttlebut agreed.

She looked over to see that Captain Cutlery was being inhabited by isopods and roosted upon by a seagull.

She formed him a giant butter knife just to be safe.

War could be unkind to bystanders.

----

Nu watched closely as the little metal flower unfolded slowly near Delta's well on the Third Floor. He had been keeping close tabs on this little development. He was suppressing the notifications for it from Delta for a while. Nu didn't want Delta to feel responsible for the fate of this little interloper.

Nu had no qualms about removing a threat before it could... take root. He circled it as the flower developed awareness slowly, like a lightbulb turning on slowly.

"Who are you?" Nu asked coldly.

"Dick..." the flower responded.

"Excuse me?" Nu reeled back in surprise at the crude little thing.

"My name is... Dick!" the flower said with a stronger voice. Nu stared as the flower moved this way and that way with an utterly blank face aside from shiny petals. It seemed utterly blind. Sighing, he used mana to carve just three lines. Two vertical lines for the eyes and a curved one for the mouth.

Delta 'liked' happy things.

"Am I your friend?" Dick asked slowly and Nu recoiled at the mere idea of having friends.

"No, I am your master," Nu instructed.

"We can be master-friends?" the flower tilted to one side.

"No we cannot and how dare you," Nu retorted. He turned to leave. This flower was nothing to be worried about it seemed.

"Don't cast me off! Don't you... DaRe LeaVe ME AgAIn!" the voice of a squeaky boy turned harsh and grating but when Nu snapped around the flower looked innocent as always.

"Oh, that was odd. I just felt hot and bad. Then I wanted to hurt you! That's not what friends do," Dick said with confusion. Nu was moments from just nipping this all in the bud when Dick looked up at him.

"Do I deserve to be alive?" it asked with doubt.

Nu froze.

After a moment, Nu released the grip he had on the flower's connection to the dungeon.

"No one deserves life but we're here together. You, me, everyone, and even Delta have the curse of awareness and feelings. It's not your fault," he said softly.

"What's a Delta?" Dick asked.

"Sunshine and rainbows, rather sickening amounts of them," Nu said bluntly, feeling a headache come on.

"I'm metal, I only need to be watered with iron fresh from corpses! Sunshine is optional!" Dick managed to make his mouth curl further into a beam.

"What... is... this?" came a growl. Nu turned and looked up then up then more up until the unique face of the less social troll of Delta's Dungeon appeared.

"Gnashly. Glad you could leave your cave to join us for once," he said snidely.

"Jeb handles things. I lay about and look at picture books. I like princes," Gnashly sneered.

"Jeb has a job and earns his keep, you barely do anything," Nu pointed out and Gnashly snorted, looking unimpressed.

"I wake jeb up for shifts. I do the hard work," she replied easily.

"Hi! Pretty girl! I am Dick!" the flower spoke and Gnashly blinked.

"You are flower," she pointed out.

"But I'm called Dick! Want to be friends?" the flower insisted.

"What friends do?" Gnashly asked and Nu watched the scene like a car crash in action.

"SlauGhter yOur eNemies befoRE ThEy LeaVE YOu!" Dick said, his eyes glowing dark blue then perked up with a small shy smile.

Gnashly stared then smiled back.

"You shall read murder books to Gnashly. The ones with lots of kissing," she ordered. Dick beamed and looked happy.

Nu's first order of business would be installing an age-restriction on some of the library ASAP.

"I'll read all the murder!" Dick said and Gnashly bend down and scooped out a massive chunk of earth along with Dick before patting her shoulder and planting Dick there.

"Murder! Gnashly roared.

"Friends!" Dick cheered back.

"Murder. Friends!" Gnashly continued.

"MURDER FRIENDS!" Dick yelled.

Nu could see this being an issue but also hilarious when Delta finally found out.

Sense of responsibility or morally correct thing?

Responsibility or morals... Nu recalled the flood of the 1000 Crimson Minnows and he shuddered.

It was time for a little revenge.

---

Grim stared as birds, squirrels, and rabbits flocked to Deo as he sang his silly little song on the way home after school.

"Row row your boat, gently down the stream!" he said and his voice was like balm to the soul but Grim's soul was bitter so it just itched.

"What's that noise? It's like some siren or song monster," some girl asked and Grim turned on his heel.

"It's called singing, you city-dwelling snot-nosed brat. Respect his singing or I will sue you," he warned the group led by a girl who looked spoiled or had everything just handed to her.

"Alpha, who is this sassy child who thinks I won't destroy him in a court of law?" the girl asked stiffly. Oh, Alpha was here too.

"Alphie!" Deo said excitedly and windows rattled from the vibrations.

"Princess this is Grimnoire. He's a local teen who has set up a successful Dungeon Guide business before Fairplay. This is Deo and he is... my friend?" Alpha said, sounding surprised at his own words.

"There's someone who can stand you?" the girl asked and Grim shot her a look.

A princess?

Well, if this didn't make his coin purse hum.

"Alphie is my friend and you can be my friend. I'm Deo! Welcome to Durence!" Deo held out a hand with a huge smile and the girl lasted 3.4 seconds before she crumbled and shook Deo's hand.

Grim stared. This girl was... formidable. Most only lasted 1.6 seconds.

"I am Serma and this is my guard, Mas," she introduced while holding an orange slime.

Urgh, why orange?

"Hi, I'm Mas!" the boy said and Deo grinned back. There was a long ten seconds as they just kept shaking each other's hand and the sun seemed to brighten and birds began to sing. Their contact was raising the local mood into happiness.

Grim had to prevent this!

At almost the same time, he and the princess pulled the boys apart, standing in front of them with icy auras.

"Your friend is a delight and he has you as a friend... interesting," Serma said with glinting eyes.

"I thought royalty had gentle auras, not their guards," Grim said back, smiling tightly.

"I own your lands," Serma said, leaning in with a hiss.

"I don't see the queen's crown yet," Grim said back just as quietly.

"I like swords!" Deo offered.

"Me too!" Mas said excitedly.

"I'm giving Serma the tour. We've been to the bank, the book store, the fountain, the confusing alley that never ends, and now we're heading to the inn so they can book a room," Alpha said, ignoring the atmosphere as if he just didn't care for it.

"Oh, the royal treatment," Grim said, and Serma smiled back sweetly.

"Your village is so quaint and charming. I just have to see it all in one day," she simpered.

"Not everyone has the luxury of a castle and all their wishes granted, I'm glad you're coming off your throne to experience it," Grim shot back and they squared up, eyes glaring at each other.

"Grim's making a friend!" Deo said in awe.

"The princess is warming up to him!" Mas responded, just as shocked.

"Princess, you can be catty with your new friend later, we must sign in to the inn before night," a tall woman in knight regalia said as she appeared almost from nowhere.

"Lorsa, you are right. Some things aren't that important," the girl said with a nod.

"Please do come back, I just wanna listen to your holy Serma-one all day," Grim said back and the princess nearly stumbled at the wording. Grim was surprised at his own tongue. He had never seen a pun land so hard.

"I expected little of you, Grimnoire, but puns? I am truly shocked," Serma said and stalked off. Deo patted Grim while beaming.

"Grim, do you like the princess?" he asked as Mas followed Serma, shooting waves to Deo.

"No, you idiot," he scoffed and pulled Deo in the opposite direction with his hand.

"Snooty bossy arrogant girl," he muttered under his breath.

193: Tall Tales

"How reliable is this info?" the twitchy man asked as he sweated. The duck before them walked off with a small bag of sheathed knives, accepting their tribute.

"Not super reliable," the smaller man admitted as he fiddled with a stone pedestal on the small island in the lake, connected only by the thinnest of paths back to shore. The first man looked at him with a grimace.

"Don't tell me you went to 'Grim's Tales of Woe'?" he begged and the smaller man continued to work on the mechanism, switching the ring from noon sun to dusk. The fake sun in the sky began to sink as the sky turned hues of orange and purples.

As dusk settled in, one of their groups pulled on their rented fishing rods, bringing up a floppy disk that turned out to be just a decorated silver sock with glued on eyes. The member chucked it back with disgust and it seemed to vanish rather than sink.

"The guild got it from the group that reached the second floor 'The Hells of the E-Star' or something. I could only afford some of the puzzle hints," the man working the pedestal continued to speak as the rest of them fished.

"And that was what? Play with unknown dungeon mechanisms and fish in uncharted waters?" the first man grunted.

"No," the smaller one said stiffly.

"It said that 'the path unseen to the second floor can be accessed by either a flash of gold or the dish of silver," he said and there was a pause as the entire group stared at him.

"And there's a device here to make a full moon appear, so we're covering both potentials. A golden fish or full moon could let us skip that cheating first floor boss. It expects perfect teamwork or risking it all to pass and I think we're smarter than that!" the man said as he finally slid the symbols to a full moon image and a beautiful scene of stars poured across the ceiling with streaks of color.

"It's breath-taking," someone said as a massive round moon shimmered into view and reflected on the lake's surface. Someone reeled in another fish and a horrible stench filled the air as an energetic crimson fish hung off the end of the blunted hook.

"Gods, toss it back!" someone wept and the moment the fish went underwater, the smell vanished.

"This place has some unique fish," the tall man, the leader of their little group, muttered.

The lake surface shifted as a single large ripple spread across the lake. The leader was distracted as another group seemed to be heading down their way. It was the scouts, searching for another path and by the way they were arguing about 'the demon mouse' it seemed they hadn't discovered anything. That wasn't good.

No one, no other adventuring group or Fairplay folks, had mentioned this in any of the bars or shared spaces but there was drumming in the walls. A deep primal thundering of distant drums that never stopped.

The leader had hoped they would find out where it was coming from.

The room suddenly darkened and they all stared up as the moon seemed to be vanishing at both ends by the shadows of a massive maw.

"What in the Abyss..." someone said as the lake suddenly heaved as something rose up.

---

The scouts rounded the corner and entered the lake room as the full moon reappeared from behind a dark cloud. They came to a dead stop and stared as instead of seeing their party making progress and discovering the secrets of the Dungeon. There was only a single abandoned fishing rod, rattling to a stop on the island in the middle of the lake

No one from the main group could be seen.

It wasn't until they left the dungeon, stopping to look for their names on that creepy memorial wall on the way out. They returned to the town and were drinking at the bar whentheir missing group members showed up a few hours later. Two of them looked feral with skull helmets and their 'smart' guy was decked out in a feathered-coat and craving the food of the other guests in the bar.

That was when the tale began to spread.

---

'If you conjure the full moon on a still lake. A gateway to the underworld will open. Enter the fleshy fields of combat and choose angels or demons. Play in their war and earn passage. Fail and be washed away. Thus is the tale of the King of the skies and the emperor of the shadows.'

'Fishing rods can be rented from Grim's Tales of Woes guildhall' for a reasonable price. Bait sold separately.'
---

"It's coming!" someone cried as the moon began to vanish and the massive Cat-fish arose, its mouth glowing from the swallowed moonlight. It looked smooth-skinned rather than scaled with two long dragon-like whiskers coming off its face with deep unfathomable eyes.

"Stag Horns! Charge!" their leader cried and they all leapt as one into the massive Cat-fish's maw, while sending up prayers.

---

In another mirror Floor 1

"We've been fishing for three hours! Where is this damn fish?" a woman scowled as she held a massive spear under the full moon. All that group had caught was a silver sleek fish and now a flapping golden fish.

"It was rumored that not every instance activates the same mechanics. It's like the dungeon wants to be unpredictable," one of her men muttered as he held the silver and gold fish close together with a baffled expression.

"Captain, these fish..." he said and she shot him a sharp look, knowing he must have noticed something.

"They have the shape of keys on their bodies," he said, holding them up so they reflected the moonlight, the moment he did, the two fish began to glow. Their shapes shifted and the middle of the lake, beyond the island, began to swirl with a whirlpool, pushing water aside as it laid the lakebed exposed to the moonlight.

In the sand, surrounded by rock and plants was a tunnel rapidly emptying of water that soon began to emit the scent of flowers followed by the sound of a waterfall.

"We discovered another path!" someone cried as they raced over and began to set up a rope to lower themselves into the tunnel.

"Time to see if it tries to flood and kill us," the woman muttered as she followed her group.

---

"On days where the great fish slumbers, two stars come out to play. A silver and gold fish that dance like moonlight. Catching them is a feat of patience and pride. It's also a secret. The lake can offer many paths. The question is, do you have the keys?'

'Grim's Guild sells rope and sensible shoes for traversing rocky tunnels. Sold as a bundle with the fishing rods for a fair price. If a fisher can bring back a key fish as a loot drop. Grim's Guild will nail it to a plaque with your name on it for a fee.'

---

"I feel this is stupid," a bald-headed woman sighed as the other two in the group listened to the regal looking mushroom man instruct them how to weave their pots together with 'dreams and honor'.

"Less talking and more passion," her comrade chided as he made a lovely flowerpot. Soon, all three of them had basic but usable pots. They were nice and maybe she would send it back to her mother back home. Her mum enjoyed fresh flowers in pots. The friendly mushroom walked off and the woman sighed, using her new pot to collect water from the lake to boil.

She blinked as a splash of gold leapt into her pot with almost celebration and swam happily in the water with its key-shaped mark clear on its side.

Quickly, the group tried to use their other pots to lure in the silver fish but it seemed uninterested in their vase-like pots.

The bald-woman quickly got to work and made something that could have been an earthen basin or a massive pan out of the mud and water, using the techniques from the regal mushroom.

The silver fish was drawn to the pan like a fish... to a frying pan.

The tale of the lake grew.

The wise mushroom man could teach people to make alluring arts.

The woman really did end up sending the vase back home. She crudely carved a key inside a heart on it. The meaning was lost on her mother but was still dearly beloved by the woman.

---

A tankard of ale slammed down as the goblin boss and a bear of a man tried to out drink each other in the Goblin Bar. It was quickly becoming a hang-out spot for the more experienced adventurers who could handle the constant pressure of the floor's Mana.

It turned out that if they just asked to go to the bar, the Dungeon didn't take them off into groups and sent an escort.

"If I win, you all need to come back and give me a proper challenge, but what do you want?" Fran slurred as Bacon let out a noxious fart that the bartender fanned away grumpily.

"Your helmet," another one of the men said quickly, sticking to soda.

Fran seemed amused and accepted, but despite his strength, his power to hold his drink was not actually that great.

The helmet was won and the adventurers returned the next day to beat Fran, barely and moved through to the second floor. Where they found the keys needed to reach the point where very few adventurers ever passed.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

The second floor boss room was filled with mist and just as the shadow of the 'Tree of Pain' formed, they held up Fran's helmet in offering.

Even after a day, Fran's musky scent was still coming off it, indicating it was given, not dropped as a loot item.

"Is that..." the tree woman said slowly.

"The helmet of Sir Fran, earned in a friendly match," the leader said and the tree swooped down, all smiles and dimples.

"And you would give me... this treasure?" she purred.

"We would even regale you of the tale of our battle, how Sir Fran charged into the arena like a hero and what he said," a slimmer boy said, adding to the deal. The tree took the helmet and let out a sound like a demonic chortle.

"Tell me... tell me of the rippling muscles of my knight. Spare no details. I want to hear about every drop of sweat, every time he broke your bones and crushed your dreams then you may pass!" she ordered and hugged the helmet to her chest.

Thus the tale spread.

---

"On the second floor, a demon of pain and cruelty can be harrowing to fight but like all curses, the tale of true love can break it. Bring this tree an offering of a knight upon his mighty swine and you may have a chance to pass her wicked thorns. Be warned, that if your tale does not contain copious amounts of flexing, you may lack content to pass.'

'Grim's Guild sells artist renditions of Sir Fran along with actual mugs he's drunk from! These cost a fortune to buy. These increase your chance of not getting splinters in unsightly places.' Bed-length cushions for the body are in development.'

---

"We are ready!" the members of the healer-only group cried as they charged into the third floor boss room with their staves raised. As a group they were treated like a joke since they struggled to clear dungeons but this dungeon was allowing them to fulfill their dreams of a healer only run!

The Healies had challenged Fran, finding him hard but not crushing!

Wyin the Demon of Pain just choked in laughter until she passed out, which they took as a win. They did cast healing magic on her in case she had hurt her throat before they left.

"We are prepared to lose but will avoid it as best we can!" Daffodil Blue said as she was backed up by Star Child, Warm Duvet, and their newest member, Skull Cracker.

They were still working on the orc's healer name. It was like a fun healer name to take the burden off people screaming for them to 'do their jobs' and heal them of their thoroughly avoidable damage.

The massive throne room was empty except for a small bubbling creature moving across the floor under a skull.

They gathered around it and the little guy bubbled up at them with a wave of a tendril made from its body.

"Aw, you're adorable. Here, I brought a magic talisman to help strangers," Daffodil Blue said and put a sticker of a happy cat with the words 'Purrfect' under it on the forehead of the little guy.

"I no crush your skull. I salute your WARRIOR PASSION AND WILL TO BE KING OF THIS REALM!" Skull Crusher raged then settled down.

"That's the spell 'Inspiring Word'!" someone praised and all the Healies applauded for Skull Crusher who looked shyly down at their feet.

"Isn't that a bard thing?" Star Child wondered.

"It heals emotions, we can claim it," someone else argued.

At their feet, the little slime glowed and put a coin in each of their pockets without their notice.

---

"On the third floor... people seem to keep being defeated by different things. The tale is hard to pin down as it could be a harmless slime or a dragon of eldritch nightmares. So far, only healers have any chance and we've now seen an uptick of class changes. The healthcare system is booming!"

'Grim's Guild does not offer insurance for adventurers as the lot of you are risky and idiotic. If the owner wished to throw his money away, he would at least throw his coins at people he didn't like'.

---

The inside of the beast of the lake was a mess of wrecks and ruin.

The fearful bird with a weird crown screamed at two adventurers as a smaller demure seagull spoke in common.

"The king would be willing to allow you to keep your eyes if you serve in this war of ours. Your rewards will be grand!" the little black seagull said wisely. The two adventurers shared a look.

"Like... What kind of treasures?" one asked. The king gestured to a plate covered in half-chewed chicken bones. Another reward was a heap of ruined pants. The rewards went on in this vein with food, a massive nest, broken egg shells, blood-covered weapons of those who decided to attack rather than serve, and a dozen left-footed boots.

"The heavenly treasures of our kind," the seagull proclaimed.

"What about those?" the other adventurer pointed to a pile of gleaming gems and jewel-encrusted vases.

"You want... those?" the translator spoke for the king, conveying his weirded out tone.

"Yes!" the said eagerly.

King Trashlover stared as the hairless primates danced and hoarded the shiny rocks that would do nothing for them. Not protective feathers or food that could heal wounds or the boots that could increase their speed?

The king waved one wing.

The strange people would have their shiny rocks.

They would serve for their pretty pebbles.

Down in the depth, two other adventurers, who had been separated in the transition from the lake room, sat around a blue bonfire as the hidden base moved with dozens of armored formations.

"You are anointed! Your soft skins and thumbs are gifts of the goddess. You arrived here by great providence!" a pale white isopod spoke for the menacing emperor above.

"We paint you in sludge on the ground, we mark you with the rust of the vessels, and we grant you a symbol of power," the little guy chittered as two larger creatures placed a piece of pleon, a segment of their armor, atop of their head like crowns.

"You are now bottom feeders. You are now squiggly polys of the shadows. You are evolved!" the translator cried and the base was filled with chittering.

"But we get the chest of gold, right?" one spoke up.

"The box of metal that tastes bad, yes that is yours," the emperor said and was translated with amusement. After all, the two had rejected the sludge piles, the fetching seaweed togas, the wrecked armor of those who refused to serve, and the massive pile of boots that would only go on their right feet.

With excitement, they were given their tasks and sent out to a central platform where they stared in shock at their teammates emerging down a ramp covered in grease and feathers.

"Uh... the birds had jewels," one said, embarrassed.

"The bugs have gold," the other side muttered.

"FIGHT!" The translators cried and threw weapons on the platform. Confused, each adventurer picked up a pole with two rounded ends that was made of a strange padded material. The bird warriors had white clubs and the isopods had black.

"What are these going to- OW!" one of them said as a black club hit him in the chest and knocked him back a few feet.

"That's for snoring all night!" the attacker said with a grin. The smile was wiped off as he was hit in the face and landed on his rear.

"I would hit you for some coin, friend, so a whole bunch of jewels? I could go all night," his teammate beamed.

"I HAVE NO REASON, I JUST LIKE HITTING PEOPLE!" the second isopod warrior cried and charged.

The Para-Mercenaries and Sea Gulf Warriors let out the cries of their people as the battle went under.

This was only the first round!

Next up with the obstacle course and then the seaweed ball race.

---

Wyin stared at the haggard adventurers.

"We've laid offerings at all your groves and humbly ask that you let us pass," they said and Wyin reached out, finding a little bit of desperation and belief in her new groves.

It was so nice she could only nod in surprise.

"It begs belief, but you actually found them all," she said in utter surprise.

"Will you be soft?" a man asked, looking hopeful if a bit delirious.

"Does your mini-map look like a hundred hours of pointless markers?" she asked huffily, not even sure why Delta's memories made that image pop up...

"No?" someone said.

"Then scram before I change the genre to soulsborn," she warned and the group rushed past in a panic.

"She was cute," Wyin heard one of them mutter. She rolled her eyes.

"You're courting death if you go after her," was the response.

Now that made her heart flutter.

---

The Tale spread.

194: It's not all Doom and Gloom

"What is that?" someone asked as the latest group left the 'Unpredictable Dungeon', staring at the bottle in the leader's hand.

The adventurer hiccupped.

"Yer mum," he giggled. There was some scuffling before Ruli reached over and took the bottle like a toy from argumentative children. She eyed the reddish bottle with decorative crab legs.

'"Coconut Crab: Tastes good and is not alcoholic. Crab supports you not drinking." Ruli read and the group let Ruli keep it as they had about twenty other bottles. She popped the unopened lid and sipped it, feeling the urge to find a nice beach and sway.

Maybe even click her fingers.

"Wait, if this is non-alcoholic, how is he drunk?" Ruli asked as she continued her guard over Delta's Dungeon. His teammates looked embarrassed.

"He can't read," one of them whispered. Ruli's mouth opened then closed before she shook her head.

"Takes all types," she said before Alpha emerged next and almost every adventuring group parted before him. The kid seemed to scare the big tough adventurers due to his aura of utter disinterest if they existed or not.

Gripping him tightly by the shoulder was the most attractive goblin Ruli had ever seen. She was sure it was a goblin because he was handsome and orcs had more of a 'rugged' thing going on. The goblin was also sort of familiar.

"Where is the ceiling?" the goblin asked, looking mildly disturbed by the expansive open sky.

"There's no ceiling out here unless you're being suppressed at a job by an older man. Then it's a glass ceiling," Alpha said with a neutral tone.

"I will be suppressed by no man!" the handsome goblin challenged the open sky.

"I agree with that," Ruli spoke up and the goblin beamed at her with a perfect smile and she had a sudden flash of a much smaller form with a thicker skull with that same smile.

"Numb?" she asked in shock and the goblin nodded, looking pleased Ruli recognised him.

"Is this... is the dungeon becoming an Abomination?" someone asked in a serious tone. Ruli's spine tingled with a cold feeling and the relaxed mood in the open meadow turned tense.

"No, I simply have the ability to tame monsters for a short while," Alpha spoke up briskly and he looked very serious as he gazed into any angry glances.

"I am training it so I can um..." he frowned and looked around for how to continue.

"He's going to be a Leeter and challenge the yearly Beast Violet League," Ruli interrupted, remembering the tournament held on the left foot, too close to where Everland 'existed' in its strange pocket dimension.

Instantly the mood became jovial again and people spoke about the tournament and how many people would bring rats only to see someone bring a dragon.

"Alpha," Ruli whispered, trying not to look worried because Numb should really not be here. She would never call Delta an Abomination but she would need to know how hard she needed to cover up and make a few suspicious people vanish.

"I have the power to mimic Dungeon mana. He can only be out here as long as he is in contact with me," Alpha assured her with a small smile and it was really good news. Ruli took a moment to exhale with a nod.

She eyed Numb who was just standing there but she could swear there was an aura around him extending into the world.

"What happened to him?" Ruli asked, more curious now.

"Delta called it 'Himbofication'," Alpha reported. Ruli was about to ask what that even meant when she felt a tickle in the air. A white dove landed nearby as it looked exhausted and then passed out, dropping a scroll into Numb's open hand. He eyed it curiously.

"Royal Wedding Invite? Dear reader, this is my last chance to escape the evil advisor I am engaged to. I set this dove free to find my one true lo-" Numb read and Alpha took the thing and set fire to it with a silent spell.

"Delta said Numb is not to read any letters, talk to any old men, go toward any caves or tombs, and especially lakes with potential women in them," Alpha explained without any hint he found this a strange request.

"Oh, is that all, nothing else?" Ruli asked sarcastically. A magic circle appeared under Numb a moment later with a faint girl's voice calling for a 'hero of another world' to aid them but Alpha stepped on the circle and smudged it out of existence.

"A few other things," Alpha admitted.

"I've seen heroic auras but this is far too powerful for your run of the mill hero…" Ruli said as she watched the sun catch on Numb's face, making him look good and pure.

"It's a mix of Delta's... Deltaness and my own reluctance to answer the call," Alpha said and looked at Numb with some shame but the Goblin simply patted his head.

"I don't mind," he said as if he had to say this a lot already.

Four girls walked out of the tree line looking both lost and utterly confident of their location. One was a scowling girl who glared at everything, another tripped over thin air, the next was stuttering so bad despite talking to no one, and the last was an elven princess of sorts who glowed with power and talked to everyone and anyone about her village dying due to the lack of men.

"Alpha, how strong is this aura, exactly?" Ruli asked slowly, reaching for her sword.

"When it was down to me? I tempered it by being so indifferent that they just wandered off. When one refused to leave, I put them on mute and ignored them," Alpha said bluntly, pushing Numb back towards the Dungeon entrance.

"Numb wants to be social," Alpha added and that explained a lot.

"Mute them?" Ruli asked as an angry looking girl being followed by Grim of all people protested that she couldn't seem to stop her feet moving towards the Dungeon.

Alpha looked at one of the strange girls that appeared, hitting any and all men she came across for being perverts. Instantly, a red cross appeared above her head and her voice vanished.

"It's supposed to stop magic users but I found a better use," Alpha said simply and walked back inside with Numb who waved at everyone.

Damn, Ruli wanted that spell when Quiss started going off about 'brute' women, 'broken staffs' and 'bruised wizard orbs'.

That man could complain so much over drinks.

"Do you have something to make all this go away?" Ruli asked, wondering if she was about to be dumped on clean-up duty. Alpha answered her by returning with a very different goblin. Two of them actually.

"THE SKY! What a waste of space!" Cois screamed and waved his staff around, setting fire to patches of grass. The other goblin made Ruli's skin crawl as everyone stared at him.

He lowered his scarf, revealing his evil mouth while wiggling his fingers in greeting.

"Hiiiii," he stressed out like a curse word.

Ruli didn't like that smile but she couldn't argue that it made any romantic feelings wither faster than a sober advocate before Quiss.

"Oh, that's fantastic," the weird girl said as Grim looked pale at the sight of the goblins that tormented him so long ago. Ruli would have paid to see that dungeon run personally. Maybe she could talk Delta into building some sort of memory theater?

Ruli had no idea if a memory theater was a thing but she would bet gold on Delta making one happen.

She would hold off on asking because Delta had a plan and Ruli didn't want to rush things.

---

"Spin the wheel of choices! I'm no longer going to hell! Spin the wheel!" Delta chanted as a wheel made of her mana spun so fast, sparks flew off into the air. It slowed down to show the pointer landed on 'finishing floor 4'. The other options consisted of improving the Fishgeon a little more, creating a secondary path to the third floor from the second, creating more challenges on the third floor, and the last section was simply filled in with the words 'FrogZord'.

"Oh thank the Sister," Nu sagged and Delta would honor the 'Wheel'.

"We could finish the Zodiac Islands. Not that anyone has gotten past Jellagon, even the Healies turned back because the mana was so thick it made them feel lightheaded," Delta mused.

"It's a simple stopgap, eventually people will adapt. It's like pressure training," Nu warned and Delta could see that. It bought her time to get the basics into place and hope for the best.

To think, she could maybe even develop her fifth floor in a short while! Nu seemed to urge her past the third floor with an odd nervousness before they reappeared back on the fourth floor. Instantly, a small form emerged from the waters and curled around Delta's shoulders with a lazy slump.

"Hello Ophiuchus," Delta said with a smile as she petted the snake's head. The 'critter' looked a little bigger than before and his eyes were beginning to look the same shape as the orbs on the zodiac islands.

"I enjoy not doing any work here. I'm going to relax," Nu said and his screen flickered, being replaced by a green color, indicating a reluctant Prim.

"Hey Prim!" Delta greeted the primal menu.

"Dungeon Core Delta," Prim responded as Nu's screen floated near crab island with little care.

"Ready to work?" she asked and Prim brought up the map of the fourth floor.

"According to the order of creation, the next island should be the squat goblin with the cannon on its shoulder, no wait its-," Prim said, all business.

"First, it's an elegant woman or man holding a vase that is pouring water," Delta said, remaining serene and calm.

"...I thought it was shooting napalm. I was looking forward to this island," Prim said, sounding heartbroken.

"Second," Delta decided to just not address Prim's words, "It's the Water Bearer Island," she explained and dropped until she stepped on the empty island. She focused, creating a massive statue with the help of Prim. A cracked and old statue of an undefined person holding a vase that seemed to contain a void of darkness within rose up from the ground with vines and moss growing on it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Delta was feeling Greek today so created more stone pillars that she laid on their sides to mimic collapsing structures along with birdbaths and a mess of walls. The entire island was a complete wreck but also chaotically interesting.

"Water bearer. So we should create water elementals that will drown those who tread here or perhaps the water can be boiling?" Prim offered, trying to be a part of the process.

"Love the energy," Delta praised while mentally discarding those ideas. She placed a deep lavender colored orb inside the vase. Something in her mind twitched because Sheep Island had a red orb and it felt like there should be a shade between them but she was also sure the Water Bearer orb should be lavender.

Next, she considered the types of people that this island represented and smiled. In seconds, the entire island was filled with a dozen holes that lead deep into the island.

"Death holes. Finally, something I can get behind," Prim said eagerly until she noticed they were only the size of a frying pan, barely able to make someone sink into them. Humming in delight as Ophiuchus tasted the air in curiosity, Delta opened her menu and watched the system and Prim catch on to her desires and the possibilities form.

Water Cannon Island.
Water is healthy. This much water is less so.

Water Bearer Orb upgrade automatically integrated into island formation.

Dark Dank Hole: Adventurers cannot simply reach into the statue's hole and expect results. If the vase gushes water, the orb becomes dislodged, otherwise, cannot be physically felt. 20 DP.

Water Island: Across the island, dozens of holes gush streams of water, they all seem connected to the statue's vase and by blocking one hole, a little bit of water begins to leak. Blocking them all causes a deluge. 30 DP

Gopher Flowing: Water loving gophers live in the holes and don't take kindly to having their holes messed with. If the holes aren't covered fast enough, these little creatures unplug them. 30 DP

Natural Order: if the gophers are removed or destroyed, the island begins to change. The more that are destroyed or gone, the more likely that the Water Bearer's vase begins to pour out Gopheragon, a slime with massive teeth. The flow does not stop. 40 DP

Pat-a-Hole: Once in a while, a Gopher will emerge to laugh. Patting ten in a row will cause the orb to dislodge. Also you win Cow Points to spend on Cow Island! 20 DP

Water Bear: If you cheat at Pat-a-Hole, the statue becomes a bear made of seething water that will chase the cheaters. 40 DP

Delta clicked each one with a serious nod.

"All of these are important," she insisted.

"If they're all important, then none of them are," Prim argued.

"Or... if nothing matters, then everything is great," Delta said with sagely nod.

"Does being positive all the time make existence more enjoyable?" Prim asked after a moment as little brown balls of fur with big teeth erupted out the ground on watery geysers, chittering happily with one another as they played in the spray of water and rainbow mists.

"Hm, it's not because I'm positive that things are better. It's because I try to always be better so I end up feeling positive," she tried to explain.

"So, the production of work and progress allows you to feel at peace with your existence?" Prim pressed, almost demanding an answer. Delta thought about it.

Work was nice but with work she could make bars and pools with fish so Deo and Ruli could visit. When they visited Delta felt like she had friends outside of her Dungeon and the connection made her want to please those people and her creations which often developed into her creating rare rooms, drinks, and delicious foods.

Unless it was troll soup then it was more she was just happy for Jeb to enjoy his food.

"I'm happy as long as I don't eat troll soup," was Delta's final answer. Prim seemed lost so Delta just smiled at her.

"So find a hobby. Something that appeals to you!" Delta said as she was soon surrounded by gophers and happiness welled up inside her.

"Murder."

"That's not an acceptable hobby in society," Delta responded without looking.

"Extreme maiming."

"Less bad than murder, still bad," Delta said.

"Mental anguish."

"Wyin already owns that," Delta continued, lining her gophers up so she could pet them in an organized manner and efficiently.

"May I browse your memories for acceptable hobbies?" Prim asked, sounding actually fed up with her choices being shot down.

"Go for it," Delta offered, the idea far less intrusive than it was when she first became a Dungeon. Sharing information with her systems just felt more normal now. She then felt the small existence that was Prim flowing over her. It was so easy to reach out and damage Prim because she was so new... undefined in her existence.

Nu was like a tangle of barbed wire that turned all his thorns away when she approached, but Prim was closer to air.

"I found a hobby!" Prim declared proudly. Delta shivered as it felt like Prim was using a tiny bit of her thinking space to place a system folder which unpacked itself. The thing was deep in the menus and Delta only knew Prim was interfacing with because even five folders out, Delta could hear the music.

Wait, Delta knew that music.

DUN dooo DUN dodododod DUN doooo

"This takes up surprisingly little space," Prim praised as she lost herself in the game.

"What are you running that on?!" Delta asked in alarm.

"You."

Oh.

"If you can't have real violence, you're going to settle on virtual violence?" Delta asked as she moved over to the next island.

"Most life is a simulation created by the ambient energies of the Brother and Sister and the Lost One. Oh, I can reset at any time! These beings cannot ever escape my wrath!" Prim laughed with a dark tone.

"Use the shotgun," Delta offered with a bemused tone.

"...THERE'S WEAPONS OTHER THAN MY MEAT CLUBS?!"

As Delta touched down on the Fish Island, Prim shyly spoke up.

"I will finish this run with my meat clubs. I have grown fond of their ability to perform violence," the system said and went quiet. Delta was now left utterly alone to do the making and creation.

"I can do this. I can make art and beauty," she said with a proud nod. She rubbed her hands together to make mana gather.

---

Nu floated in the water, working on sign blueprint number 2477. This one said something along the lines of 'Don't burn books or the books will burn you' for the Third Floor. Sign making was soothing.

Telling people what to do without actually talking to them was a thrill. He felt Delta trying to do solo work and frowned. He searched and found a piercing death rattle of sound and screeching followed by Prim's delighted laugh.

'RETURN TO THE ABYSS, UNCLEAN ONES!' she giggled as she had a massive techno-coloured screen playing ultra violent scenes of creatures being punched to bloody puddles.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing something?" Nu loomed, usually finding his 'looming' made Prim behave. Prim shot him an annoyed look then punched him in the side.

Nu was so taken aback that he didn't stop himself from floating out of Prim's space where she slammed the metaphorical door in his face.

"Do not make me come in there and remove that thing from Delta's system. I have stronger permissions than you," Nu warned.

"I didn't ask to be born, Nu!" Prim called over the noises. Hm, Nu would have to tackle this a different way. Prim was but a child really. Thankfully, training the Trinity Dungeon had prepared Nu for this.

"You know, since I have most of Delta's public memories, I could tell you there is a sequel to your little game. Improved in many ways," Nu said casually, leaning on the symbolic wall of Prim's space.

"I can wait. I actually finish my projects." Prim said back without much care.

Nu couldn't be saddled with Delta when she was making so many insane islands.

"What do you want? Name it," he said through the door, hiding his desperation. That was when Prim finally emerged, looking more solid than before. Less like thin air and more like a thin shell of light.

"We suffer together. Delta is too much for either of us alone. If she feels outnumbered we can convince her of many things," Prim said and Nu could see the logic of that.

"But I don't want her to feel miserable when working, that'll put her off," he countered.

"We must only remove the most inane or weakest of changes. A little nip there and a tuck here then we shall be providing the Dungeon with the BFG of threats," Prim nodded.

"Unless she really wants them," Nu said and Prim nodded slowly.

"I do not object to Delta's fondness for odd choices. I just wish for more input," Prim admitted and Nu knew that feeling far too well.

"Go back to your game. I shall handle the next island," Nu said gravely.

"I must complete my 65th run with the handgun. I set the challenge that I can only move backwards to progress and disabled all forward motions. It makes it more fun," Prim explained and vanished in a cloud of joy.

"You can shoot demons all day but you still won't handle Delta," Nu snorted.

"Demons can be shot. Delta's ideas are eternal," Prim shouted back.

Touche.

195: Tax Evasion+2

"This can't possibly be that upsetting," Nu said and Delta stubbornly refused to look at him as Prim surveyed what was left of the island.

"I didn't know if mana vibrated, it exploded," she said with a mutter.

"Vibration is energy. Continuous energy must be put to use. Rapid vibration with no output produces... say it," Nu said with an annoying singsong tone.

Delta refused and glared at the scorched black earth.

"I am deeply impressed. I shall record 'Mana Bombs' for possible traps or if nothing else, mods for my game," Prim praised and somehow that only made Delta feel even more embarrassed.

"Remind me to get Prim into farm simulator games," Delta told Nu and the blue screen hesitated.

"She already modded the 'Starsap Gorge' to allow her to murder those that try to romance her avatar. She uses their empty homes as more chicken coops," he explained and Delta stared at him.

"Why chickens? Aren't there a lot of other things?" Delta asked, tilting her head.

"Chicken only run. It's where I kill a village every time one of my chickens produce a golden egg," Prim interrupted as the land around them slowly began to heal and become slightly less 'decimated.

"But if you keep building more chickens, doesn't that mean statistically that you're going to get more golden eggs?" Delta pointed out and Prim made a strange sound that was almost pleased.

"Numbers go up!" she hissed.

"I tried to bond with her and make signs for her town but she murdered my avatar and used my bones for a chicken coop," Nu said dryly as the island slowly returned to a more normal appearance with the aid of the two systems.

"Your signs were creating disharmony in my town. It made me feel unpleasant," Prim argued as Delta watched them interact, mildly... bittersweet as she watched the once robotic beings argue like real siblings.

It was strange how much things changed when Delta wasn't looking.

Delta clapped her hands as she was about to get ready to correct her mistake.

Fish Island should have come before Water Bearer island but Delta's excitement inthe act of creating had made her forget the proper order.

'Forgive me, people of the fish' Delta sent a silent apology to the stars.

"Wait," Nu said and Delta looked at his screen and blinked, hands still raised in the air.

"We have formed a union and wish to have a bigger stake in the dungeon," Prim added quickly. Delta looked between the blue and green screen.

"But I don't pay you. How can I pay you more?" she asked and then sucked in air.

"Oh my god, I don't pay you! I'll set up a CompensationBuddy account. Give me a moment," Delta turned, reaching for Nu but let out a shock yelp as Nu yanked her back.

"We don't want useless currency," he said quickly as Prim peeked around his side.

"Unless it can purchase firearms for my private use," she said but Nu shot her a look that made her sulk away.

"We just want some of our ideas to be used instead of discarded," Nu explained and Delta smiled weakly.

"Your ideas are a bit murdery," she reminded him. The two screens shared a look, communicating silently. Delta could listen in but she wanted to give them the respect of their own space.

"We promise to tone it back if you try to work with us," Nu offered and Delta smiled.

"I can do that. I don't hate your ideas. As a whole, they can be very clever," Delta said and crossed her arms as the idea of cooperation was always appealing to her.

"Sharks with lasers should be the theme of this island," Prim said instantly.

"Tone," Nu muttered.

"Codfish with handguns?"

Delta decided to throw them a lifeline.

"So, you want some sort of fish creature with projectiles to be a hindrance to the people?" she asked and Prim began to vibrate and small explosions flowed over her screen. Nu looked over the mostly green island (the edges refused to change from their charred blackness much to Delta's dismay) and spoke slowly.

"We can wait until you set up the core Orb challenge," he said and Delta looked at Prim who seemed to agree.

Delta thought about the strengths and weaknesses of this island, allowing an idea to come to her along with a smile.

"I have an idea," she grinned.

---

Grim didn't think being employed would be so dull.

"The following sponsors would like to set up around the guild hall in return for monthly rent fees to the guildmaster," he read off a piece of paper as in his office, paperwork seemed to be growing by the day.

"Mouth-Chompers: White-tier teeth. Pot-Insurance: Protect your curves. Living the Lich Life: Insurance for your undeath... ahhh!" Grim threw it aside then pushed a whole pile of similar requests off his table.

"Elegant," Serma said as she sipped tea in the corner with her entourage and Deo.

"Why are you here?" Grim asked darkly.

"Your building is the closest to the dungeon and you have over a dozen rooms unused which I can use as free rooms. Whoever built this place is truly a master craftsman," Serma praised as she ran her hand over the nearby fireplace which had images of Deo's mother carved into them like a divine being.

Every room had some sort of monument to the woman and thankfully they were all modest figures of love.

"So you're freeloading," Grim summed up.

"You ignore my freeloading and when I become queen, I'll forgive the freeloading you're doing on taxes by being underage but still owning a business," Serma offered with a sweet smile.

"You can have the cramped closet in the basement. I put some old swords I got as collateral from some adventurers who took my floor 1 package but ignored my warnings," Grim said as he stood up and looked around the paper covered floor for something.

"No need, I found this darling little room with heroic action figures and maps on the wall," she said and Grim nearly choked.

"That's my room," he said and Serma met his eyes. Grim was willing to perform some regicide. No one took his action figures. In anger, he reached down, he took a rather thick stack of papers and inhaled them like candy, causing Serma to sit up in alarm.

Grim grinned as he made another threatening gesture to inhale more kingdom paperwork when he paused.

"Did you know the code reform of your father's reign says that you technically have no power until you're eighteen?" he asked and looked down at the paperwork in shock.

"Yes, I am rather aware of my rights being taken away by the many laws my father made," Serma said with a tight tone.

"Tea?" Deo asked as he poured more tea for everyone.

Grim ignored her as he got on his knees, beginning to inhale the paper around him with a mad gleam to his eye.

Laws, reforms, technicalities, tax codes, area codes, rules, regulations, limits, gray areas...

Grim shuddered as he digested it all.

"I know tax exemptions," he said, slowly looking at Serma who put her cup down with an odd expression.

"Show me," she beckoned.

Moments later, Grim was walking down the stairs and opened the front door to the Grim Tale Guild House where a dozen people suddenly began to demand entry or more secrets on how to get past this or that.

Grim nudged Deo who whistled, making people cover their ears in pain which a blessed silence followed.

"Now, I know I haven't been doing things as clean as a whistle," Grim said and almost winced at his own wording but powered on, "I have learned much and I want to say things are going to get a lot better from here on out," Grim promised. Many adventurers perked up while Fairplay officers smiled as if they were waiting for this.

"For me. Things are going to be better for me," Grim's tone said with an air of utter greed. He began to recite codes and laws that particularly lent themselves to dungeons and adventurers.

It turned out that adventurers were a bit of a liability for any town or city in a long enough duration due to their habit of things that required Peacekeepers around.

Testing magical items on private property, setting hedges alight with some new amulet, messing up a new spell they learned and blowing up the local orphanage, accidently animating the ex-residents of the orphanage into underage and unalive warriors, and so on.

Heck, Grim was even learning as he spoke that adventurers were banned in some places due to being menaces and 'dangers to society'. Under the 'Jhay Jai' law of the Capital City, Grim could brand any of these oafs as devils or menaces which could carry a fine up to a whole silver or private property if they were poor!

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it.

Grim chewed on another piece of paper with amusement, getting odd looks.

As for private companies like Fairplay? They had to adhere to the rules even more so due to the fact they had government granted grounds and agreements.

"Entry to the Guild is now five copper," Grim added, placing a bucket down by the door. Someone let out a sudden bellow of rage and leapt out of the crowd, a near naked warrior who seemed to have lost all his equipment somehow.

Grim thought he looked familiar but these saps sort of began to blend together after three days.

The knife he brandished made Grim alarmed for a second but Deo slapped the attackers hand down like swatting a fly and he crashed into the steps, the wood undamaged despite the force of the slam.

"Grim, they love the rules! He couldn't wait to pay," Deo said brightly as he held out the bucket to the sobbing man.

The clink of coins was music to Grim's ears. He turned to Serma and her guard, Mas. Serma looked mildly impressed.

"I suppose the room with the ensuite bathroom and actual view from the balcony will do for me," she shrugged.she shrugged. Grim knew he would win over her-

Wait, what room?

Grim hadn't explored all the floors yet! There was a room like that?!

It was rather scary that Deo's father had installed indoor plumbing and hooked it up to the sewers in the short few days. Still, despite that, the adventurers and Fairplay were still advancing to the guild with coins held out and Grim wilted at the idea of talking to them.

If only he had someone who liked people but wouldn't steal from Grim to undercut the guild...

"Should I get the entrance bucket ready?" Deo asked happily and Grim waved him off.

"Deo, not now. I'm trying to think of a schmuck I can rip off for free labor," he said with annoyance.

"I can work!" Deo said, sounding confident.

"Deo, you still have ten essays due for Mr Jones. You're not allowed to have a hobby, let alone a job," Grim said and Deo looked put out, then smiled as people began to tip him an extra copper upon entry.

"We have homework?" Deo asked after a moment, looking thoughtful.

Grim was about to sigh when he saw someone approaching. It was Quiss, but Grim didn't care about the blond man as he tended to ignore any problems unless it was suddenly his problem. No, Grim knew that wherever Quiss went...

He scanned the treeline and found the out of place bush with the odd teen trying to blend in down the road from Quiss, inching forward shyly.

"I do believe I have found a Vas-tly superior option," Grim said with delight then frowned at himself.

Name puns now?!

"Can I hold the entrance bucket if I do my homework?" Deo asked while prodded Grim's side curiously.

"Sure," Grim agreed, seeing there was no chance in stars or the abyss that Deo would ever do all his homework.

Now, he had to bark up the right tree.

---

From above, the circular island looked like two circling fish that gave a little space in the center for a small pond.

In the pond, a little shadowy shape circled the water as Ophiuchus watched it with open curiosity.

"It's not exactly a shark," Prim said slowly.

Delta admitted it wasn't a shark but this was as close as she could mutate a fish into one.

Guitarfish: A shark on a budget.

"It's more of a ray. A sort of diverse Skate species. This one has very shark-like dorsal fins," Nu encouraged Prim who perked up.

"It's like an easter egg!" she exclaimed.

Delta focused on the fish and seconds later it swallowed a deep pink orb that made its stomach glow. With a nod, she borrowed some food from Fera's kitchen and tossed into the pond as she began to talk to the two screens.

"Fish Island is going to focus on kindness with compassion and demanding sympathy to the point of being a victim. Overindulgence in any one is gonna be a bad thing," she said as she weaved a few bushes of berries that grew on the first floor along with some of the actual edible mushrooms she had developed.

Delta made a mental note to get back to the secret garden and mushroom grove later along with checking on the flower garden on the second floor. Those rooms could not be left alone for too long.

"This fish will kill them with kindness?" Prim guessed as the Guitarfish emerged and spat water around before splashing water about messily.

"No, to get the orb, I'm going to set it up so they need to feed the fish the right food, ignoring the easy 'fattening' food, and stopping before it gets too big. The fish will beg for the junk food but if it grows too large, it'll swallow the orb and then escape into the ocean around the island," Delta said and looked at the two screens, awaiting their response.

"I suspect some food will have an interesting reaction for the fish?" Nu asked and Delta could feel him imagining an innocent bowl of troll soup being laid nearby for someone to find. Delta just grinned as she opened the menu to reveal a set of upgrades, courtesy of Prim sorting them.

Fish Island: You're in the barrel, not the fish.
An island set to test the rationale and self-control of adventurers by giving them tasks of looking after something other than themselves.

Cursed Orb: If the fish is killed and the orb retrieved. Those adventurers will automatically ascend to Threat level 1. Cost 50 mana.
Mushroom buffet: The following mushrooms will grow. Cost 10 DP

- Lavashroom: if fed to the fish, causes it to belch light fire and eye searing spice.

- Frostshroom: if fed to the fish, causes it to belch snow and freeze the surface of the pond, forcing the adventurers to remove it to feed the fish more.

- Starshroom: if fed to the fish, causes it to glow majestically and feel happy.

Troll Soup: a bowl of troll soup sometimes appears to be offered to the fish. If fed to the fish, it will become enraged and slap one or two of the adventurers before returning to its pond. It will feel like being slapped by a troll. Cost 30 DP.
Nutritious Berries: A small but nice meal. The fish only eats so many before ignoring more. 5 DP.
Honey from the Bees: An assortment of honeys can be offered. 20 DP

- Red Honey: causes the fish to develop a taste for meat.

- Blue Honey: causes the fish to to turn invisible.

- Green Honey: causes the fish to become money hungry.

- Yellow Honey: causes the fish to fire bees at the nearest people.

Divine Popcorn: A special food that appears rarely. If offered to the fish, the fish turns golden and blesses the adventurers with the orb and good fortune. Almost strong enough to cancel Waddle's curse. 50 DP
The Trophy of the Fishgeon: If one adventurer has any item won from a faction inside the Fishgeon, the fish of this island enchants it. 40 DP.
The Stink of Vengeance: If on any threat level other than base, this fish's pond becomes a deep tunnel that transforms the fish into the Meguitar Fish. 50 DP

Delta watched as mushrooms popped out of the soil followed by lush berry bushes that brought life to the island along with dripping hives of honey with a distinct lack of bees. Hidden between some rocks is a bowl filled with troll soup curdling the mana that came near it.

The fish in the pond looked hungrily at all the offerings but they were formed well outside its reach. Delta felt a little sad so she built a secret little food dispenser at the bottom of the pond that would give it some snacks with no effects to get it through its hunger pangs.

The fish wriggled and looked to be dying in an effort to convince Delta to hand over some honey or maybe some leftovers from Fera's kitchen. It was cute and pathetic, but Delta knew it was only faking it for the attention and food.

"I made you, I know you're acting," Delta said, her hands reaching for berries despite her words.

Somehow, the fish's eyes began to shimmer and sparkle like a little puppy dog and Delta's steel resolve began to corrode.

That was when Nu dumped the troll soup into the pond without any hesitation.

Over the screams and the sounds of screens being slapped, Delta considered Fish Island a success!

196: The Argus Story

That dream came again, it had dulled over the years but always willing to rise when his guard was down.

It always started with the hand clamping down on his child self's shoulder.

"It's okay, you're going to see your home grow like never before!" the kind voice promised. The image seemed to almost melt away before him, the green trees and healthy earth becoming rotted and wrong. Life blended together in horrible amalgamations while the very air boiled.

That friendly hand still gripped his shoulder.

Caline looked up at the blank eyes of Ripdoy.

"You're going to grow like never before.'

Then the hand began to melt into his skin, bringing them closer as one being before Caline shot awake from his nap in the barrack cots. In a flash, he brought forth his Core Weapon, the silver blade instantly dulling his panic and fear until it cooled to a controllable determination. The tool he held was key to putting Dungeons in their place, but the lesser known effect was that it halved your emotions when it was active.

A handy tool when you were forty floors deep in a dungeon watching your men get massacred by monsters or a devious trap. It kept you grounded.

He climbed out of the cot, putting the core weapon away for now as he was awake. Such night terrors had become rarer, but he had a feeling they would never truly go away until he made certain wrongs into rights.

He scowled at a mirror as he tried to sum up the results of trying to get his badge back.

Yattina didn't sleep, she barely ate, and she had the social graces of a scorpion that adopted field mice. It was impossible to get close to her.

It was becoming impossible for him to do it, but he wasn't close to giving up.

A knock sounded and Caline called for them to come in, revealing the suspicious face of Yattina's little apprentice, Lim.

"Can I help you, sir," he said, the title said with clear distaste. Caline had the urge to admonish him but was simply too tired to care right now. Technically they were sort of the same rank, but he didn't focus on that other than to indicate for Lim to join him at the table.

"I'll stand," he said.

Caline nodded as he went to his private specially sealed lockbox. It would have been a good hiding place for his 'key' but he couldn't watch the lockbox all day and night like he could his badge.

Like he once could.

He returned to the table with a simple book that he opened using a specially protective spell and a drop of his blood.

"Let me tell you why I think you should help me and help your commander for her own benefit," he said simply and Lim scoffed, looking ready to turn and leave that very minute.

Caline placed three photos down on the table, taken at great expense with technology that was still being developed too slowly to be used commercially. Lim gave them a brief look, already dismissing them when he paused then looked back at them again.

Caline didn't say anything, just letting the pictures speak for themselves.

"Who is that?" Lim asked slowly, turning so he was fully facing Caline.

"Director Ripdoy, in all three," he said and Lim picked up one of the pictures.

"That can't... no, that isn't right," Lim said as he gestured to the picture down of Ripdoy smiling at the opening of the official Fairplay HQ, surrounded by people clapping and beaming faces.

"I have no reason to lie to you about this, nor did I expect to need to show you this. The second picture was taken over thirty years ago. Ripdoy is a little heavier, a little greyer," Caline pressed on, sliding it closer to Lim.

The picture showed Ripdoy in a secluded resort place, looking like he was taking time off with some close people. He was clearly past his prime but not what one would dare call to his face 'old'. Ripdoy looked tired, but happy.

"These have to be fake," Lim accused and Caline ignored the stupid idea he would waste a small fortune on making pictures to convince Lim. The audacity.

"The last was taken about five years ago at the 50th anniversary of Fairplay HQ being opened. It had just finished its renovations and mana piping. It was a big event," Caline continued, looking down at the very much 'old' Ripdoy who looked grumpy and sour like a war commander. It was obvious his close circle had shrunk again and Lim swallowed hard.

"I don't..." he hesitated and looked at all three pictures.

There was a knock and Caline swooped the pictures up, pushing them back in his book. The next moment, Gentle entered with a letter.

"Lim! Commander Yattina wants us to go to the sewer, gear up!" he said excitedly. Lim nodded, still looking harrowed.

Lim gave Caline one last strange look and quickly left with Gentle.

Once the door was closed. Caline looked at the pictures himself.

The first of the opening of Fairplay where Ripdoy held the shy hands of a young boy, the next one where he tossed a ball of sorts for the same boy, and in the last one where the same boy stood alert behind Ripdoy.

Argus Gentle was as old as Fairplay itself.

Older, perhaps.

And it was the thing that haunted Caline's nightmares when 'Ripdoy' was too busy.

If it was 'Gentle' and not something else. The boy acted blissfully unaware that he was close to seventy years old. A dozen movements that would be impossible to fake every second of every day.

Gentle was a child in mind, but clearly not of body.

Director Ripdoy was hiding some very old skeletons in his closet.

And one of the bone piles murdered his family.

Caline would burn the boy, the company, this town, and so much more to bring the man's sins to light.

Then they would all burn together.

His stomach began to gurgle and he grimaced.

"I didn't say anything aloud about this backwater hov-" he yelled then began to gag. Seconds later, a detailed swan made of south red cheese landed on the table and Caline sank to the ground.

He hated cheese. So much.

Especially the kind that had pointy bits carved on them.

---

"Argus?"

Argus blinked as Lim hesitated to follow him down a darker corridor to the main hall.

"Are you... a demonic elder being who pretends to be a young child?" he asked and Argus stared at him.

"I can't even handle being a teenager," he said back with a flat tone.

"But you would tell me if you were forty... fifty... maybe even seventy years old?" Lim pressed.

"Yes, Lim. I will inform you when I find out that I should be collecting Kingdom-wide elderly support money," he said, finding this more amusing than confusing now.

"Why the questions?" he asked and Lim hesitated.

"I saw pictures of you when Fairplay opened fifty years ago," he blurted out and Argus blinked once.

"I was there," he said easily as they walked.

"Oh, good, I was... what?" Lim stopped dead in his tracks, boots making squeaky noises as he slid.

Argus winced but tried to put on a smile.

"I'm not well, I mean... I'm sort of sick in the incurable bloodline way. I have been since my step-father found me. I should be dead but Dad has this amazing friend who built him this ceramic 'Chronostasis lockbox' and I would go to sleep in it until medical developments were made. It was extremely costly. Dad had to build his HQ over a massive mana line just to power it. I never liked the box, it was always more of a pot," Argus admitted quietly.

"I wake up and every time it was my birthday so we would spend the weekend together or something before I went back to sleep," he explained.

"Woah," Lim muttered.

"I know. Apparently, my dad and his friend fell out because the trade was that the man would be able to study the Fairplay Maidens but then they all sort of just vanished together. He was supposed to study me but dad was against it," Argus mused as they found Yattina waiting in the hall.

"So... you're not an elderly demonic being waiting for the right time to stab us all in the back and reveal your master plan and rule the world?" Lim asked again.

"Lim, I'm on double watch duty tonight. I can't fit 'sleep' into my schedule, let alone... all that!" Argus said, throwing his hands up.

"Elderly demonic beings don't come to this world due to the rampant music festivals. Hurts their ears," Yattina said without looking up.

Lim perked up and they began chatting about demons and the power of loud music as they exited the Fairplay doors.

For a long moment, Argus lingers to look back down the dark hallway, his exasperation now a tight frown.

Then he was gone into the light.

---

Fera put down a plate of golden eggs from the second floor's Jungle, crispy bacon that while Delta knew it came from the cute little Piggles, Fera put it in a smiley face so it was okay. Next to them were big juicy sausages, and various vegetables pulped together to make what looked like toast. Strangely, no one had ever brought bread, buns or given wheat or flour to Delta to get the basic stuff down.

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The most bready things they made came from Fera's creative ability to scare food into looking like other food.

"I can't wait to pretend to eat this!" Delta exclaimed as a cup of tea was added to the selection. She poked a piece of cute bacon and it broke apart into bacon-flavored motes which she passed her face through a few times, getting the scent of bacon.

Did she make it herself? Delta could make food she could eat, but anything made by others? It was a work in progress. She had continued to work on an avatar in secret, but the results were nightmarish. Mushrooms just kept creeping into the process somewhere and it was disarming to say the least.

"Nu, how's the updates?"she asked around a cloud of tea.

A blue screen unfolded much like a newspaper.

"Five more groups reached Fran, only two got through. None beat Wyin. One was left crying, curled up like a ball in the corner after Wyin recited things she would do to him. One got lost in the honey pools, and one had a cathartic session at the hot springs and decided to quit being an adventurer to become a dentist."

Delta blinked.

"What did Wyin even say?" she asked in both dismay and slight admiration.

"Something about papercuts, finger webs, and slits," Nu said airily.

"And here I thought she was going to go more mentally offensive than torture," Delta said with a shake of her head as she enjoyed some eggs.

"She did. She just went into very graphic detail," Nu promised.

"Wyin's existence is 'graphic'," Delta countered.

"I appreciate her creativity," Nu said and carried on to the next section.

"Ruli left a message saying that a new group had come into town. She wrote it on a napkin and tossed it down the stairs. She said that they're either 'Excitedly Wrong' or 'Extremely Strong', it was hard to decipher the message around her lunch stains." Nu went on.

"I think people just stating things and refusing to admit they're wrong would hurt me more than being thrashed," Delta said slowly as she put the plate down to stare at the ground.

"The horror. The very idea of experiencing such a character. I cry for you."

Delta eyed the blue screen.

"I was never wrong. I just had misconceptions and panic attacks," she said succinctly.

"Speaking of panic. Your dragon is ready and Hero said it's taking up a lot of space. You might want to do something about it," Nu said, reading a message Delta couldn't see.

"Nu, where on earth am I supposed to put a Death Star Dragon?" she demanded then froze.

"Well, tactically, it would be-"

Delta stood up.

"Delta... I know that look."

"I have an idea," she mumbled and moved.

In no time at all, she appeared on the fourth floor . She looked around and found her target.

"Ophiuchus!" she cried with a wide smile. The little snake eyed her with sleepy eyes as it emerged from its subterranean cave underwater.

She held it and focused very hard on what she wanted.

"Warning: Critters are not monsters nor traps of the Dungeon. Messing with their base blueprint-"

A sort of default warning popped up with over six hundred pages of conditions and issues known to appear.

"Skip," she announced and there was a new screen with 20 suggestions on what else to do with the dragon.

"Skip!" she said brightly. There were now just two pages of dire warnings and suggestions.

"Skip!" Delta said, becoming just a little impatient.

The box was reduced to a single choice.

'Do you accept the consequences of your own actions in the event of dire outcomes and unpredictable disasters?'

"Remind me later in thirty days," she said and flicked the box away to reveal her idea.

"Raid Boss Creation: Ophiuchus, The Death Star Constellation.'

Can be brought forth by one or more of the following conditions:
If a group has killed every being (more than 98% of monsters) of the Dungeon up to the fourth floor.
If threat level 5 or above is active.
If the number of people on a floor rises above thirty.
If at least twelve people of different star signs enter the floor at the same time.
If someone enters the dungeon while Minue is retrograde at the same time their birth star is in the fifth house.

If someone collects all 12 star orbs, Ophiuchus becomes the Life Star Constellation that has a minor but powerful wish granting ability.

While active, the fourth floor expands to twice its size and Ophiuchus covers the sky with a massive serpentine body. His abilities include 'Suck', 'Condense', 'Comet' and 'Unstoppable fortune of ill omens'.

Its powerful blackhole ability can trap and eject beings into the void, making this one of the few beings able to eject someone from your reality and reinsert your own with style.

The comet it can summon down bears one of the twelve star signs. Each will explode in a different manner. Some explode with force, others with soul shaking effects, and one with confetti. The confetti comet still hits with enough force to crush powerful defenses.

The Condense ability allows Ophiuchus to create a gravity well in front of it, eco-friendly in its ability to crush trash to a small portable state or a solid orb the size of a baseball but with the mass of a horse.

Unstoppable fortune of ill omens will cause all in the area to be cursed for the next year of their life. These curses cover a wide range of effects, including always stubbing one's toe, losing a pen at the worst time, finding worthless currency, winning the lowest possible prize in any competition, swallowing one's drink down the wrong way in an average timeframe, being three minutes late to everything, and other omens. They can only be broken by the most powerful of religious rituals or moderately powerful gods.

Ophiuchus is a servant of Waddles the Duck. If someone is under Waddles' curse and comes to this fight, they will have their chances of winning reduced to 50%. Note, this does not increase chances of winning if below 50%. Waddles does not hand out participation trophies.

"Nu, what is luck? In Dungeon terms?" she asked curiously, never having really thought about it before.

"Technically, all luck magic is doing the opposite. Making someone lucky or unlucky is actually the process of inserting stricter limits over the random elements that will affect them. Good luck will actively cause certain things to be repelled or attracted. Money or lovers is a common one. Bad luck directly pushes someone into negative experiences with subtle influence."

Delta mulled this over for a moment.

"So, there's no chaos involved?" she asked.

"...Sort of. Luck magic only inserts control over if 'good' or 'bad' things happen. Those exact things are still left up to chance," Nu explained.

"So all luck magic is chaos but really ordered?" Delta tried to grasp.

"Or look orderly but just a series of messy coincidences that fall into a pattern that looks semi-reasonable," Nu countered.

"Who even designed this?" Delta said, rubbing her head as she hit 'create'.

She would have her dangerous sky noodle.

---

Brother continued to fish as he relaxed. His new whale friend was fast asleep. His nose itched and he followed the sensation to some of his older magics. Notably, the luck series.

It was on the fritz again due to people over indulging in luck charms, rituals, practises, and wistful thinking.

That stuff stopped working when the population of people got too large and the magic was running constantly.

Brother shook his head.

"Luck, that stuff will kill ya," he told the whale with a somber tone as the magic rocks sparked and crackled.

It was good luck that they found someone to make their friend.

It was bad luck they were so inept at making gods they drove him insane,

It was good luck they managed to take his eyes.

It was bad luck that the god blindly lurched into the abyss and found 'home.'

It was good luck the only souls it took were in a little metal box on wheels.

It was bad luck that it learned it could take more.

Luck...luck...luck.

Terrible stuff.

Brother would stick to marine life that could shoot light beams or horses with combat horns.

Far more reliable.

197: A Slippery Slope

Wyin felt her bark creak in the mirror dimension. Her 'other' body was currently breaking apart due to the force brought upon it.

She almost casually watched as the massive plated-armor man pulled back his warhammer for one more slam but honestly, Wyin didn't need much more than a small gentle caress to topple.

But Wyin would always prefer the other to finish with sweat and effort.

"Is it over?" the ferrety-looking archer at the back called, already readying their thousandth arrow. Spatial Quivers were a lot like spatial bags; a lie in the fact they were not bigger on the inside, but just portals to some bank service.

Not that the little archer would admit it, Wyin suspected. They all enjoyed looking smug as they pulled out an arrow for any event or foe. Wyin suspected inadequacy in other parts of their life.

Mostly their love life.

Oh right, she was supposed to be dying.

"Curse your soft skins," Wyin howled as she fell back slowly with the force of an ancient oak being toppled. "Curse your out of season shoes, your awkward group love pentagon of unspoken crushes!" she wailed.

"Pent.. there's six of us?" the mage who wielded air like a sword.

"No one likes you!" Wyin continued in the same wail.

"We do," the woman used guns of all things. The mage turned to her with a smile which made her backpedal fast.

"As friends!" she added hastily.

Wyin could see Nu drooling from the prime Dungeon, wanting to study the woman's rifles hooked up to different elemental crystals or plugged into wyvern hearts of all things.

Wyin could appreciate looking good and using it to kill others.

"Silence, tree. Go quietly into the night," the healer of the group said. He didn't use magic but had three different belts of pre-made potions and ingredients on hand to make more on the fly.

Half his bags were filled with honey or flowers from the Secret Garden. They were lucky they were in the mirror Dungeon or Luna would have had their heads on pikes.

"I'LL GO QUIETLY AS YOU DID IN THE CAVE BEHIND THE WATERFALL WITH THE GUNSMITH!" Wyin was nearly 90 degrees in her topple now, barely hanging on by the bark.

"How did you even hear us?!" the gun user demanded.

"I PAY THE PYGMY MUSHROOMS FOR GOSSIP!" Wyin finally landed with a massive crash, her focus fading from this mirror version.

"You were a tough lass, but not a bad one," the warhammer user said to Wyin. Wyin didn't like him, he had the stench of landing the final blow on Sir Fran. It cast an instant debuff that shrunk his likeability by 90% and shrunk other things.

The debuff was still in the 'waiting to be approved' stack for Delta, but Wyin was optimistic for its chances.

"Sir Fran went easy on you," Wyin said coldly.

"Aye?" the man mused, rubbing his dirty beard.

"If my knight deemed you worthy, you would have seen true power," Wyin huffed, one of her eyes going dark as the energy used to maintain her rapidly depleted.

"So it only gets easier from here?" the last member of their group asked. Wyin eyed them and tried to be cordial. He hadn't really done anything but Wyin was of life, passion, growth, coughalcoholcough, and nature.

The necromancer was on the other end of existence.

He was a man. Not many good ones around.

He was pale and skinny. A nerd.

He was also a necromancer. The least offensive thing about him, honestly. He didn't use human skeletons but a lot of animals; dogs, cats, and even some snakes. With one look, Wyin saw they were indeed possessed beings, having the original spirit instead of being mindless animated servants, and weirder was that the animals liked their master.

"Easier?" Wyin laughed thickly.

"You've beaten the Knight and now the Lady, but you are still a few inches short before the King," Wyin warned. They had been entertaining, so a little hint was what they deserved other than the loot she might drop.

Wyin was leaning towards the Wood Staff of the Bird. It had a lovely figurehead. Wyin turned to the Archer, the Alchemist, and the Gunsmith. She eyed the taken honey, the plundered stingers, the shards of a pot, and a few bottles lifted without Fera's permission.

They had other small crimes to their name since arriving, but Wyin would suspect that a lot of small crimes rapidly outshone one large one.

She suspected he would be the King of Dark Justice, but Jellagon would be no gracious host to them.

Wyin closed her eyes with a smile.

Yes, she would have to ask Jellagon in the Prime to share his vision. She would enjoy the stream of violence.

---

"Uh what is this?" the Gunsmith said with a frown as she picked up one of the three items that dropped. The Dungeon had been weird with treasure but each item they found was undeniably powerful.

The Silkgloves she found after they took down that powerful Spider Queen was both beautiful and functional, letting her grip and handle her gun recoil so much better than her leather ones. The Gunsmith definitely preferred them over the webveil the Mage got. He wasn't 'hideous' but he had an unfortunate case of acne in his youth that he tried to cure with a Troll solution.

The result was regenerating pimples for the rest of his life, but he more than made up with it by being smart as a whip and able to cut steel with the air and some finger gestures.

The Pig Knight, Sir Fran, had even dropped a new hammer for their Warrior and a Pig Cloak of Blending for their Archer.

The cloak smelled like fried food, but it made the archer very hard to spot in the mud.

The tree, the 'Wyin, the Undeniable Beauty who you will never have a chance with' as she introduced herself, had dropped three items.

One was a sort of pistol that the Gunsmith would have used, covered in lush vines and made out of wood. When she checked its chamber, the thing was powered by a green crystal that reeked of wet earth and booze. On the side of the gun, the name 'Lady Wood' was carved into the barrel.

She fired it experimentally, finding a massive problem. The gun was hard to handle, even with her new gloves, and it fired a wicked thorn instead of a bullet.

That wasn't the problem.

"Your gun sounds in pain when you fire it," the mage frowned in concern, trying to see the issue as the Gunsmith held it at arm's length in horror.

"Lad, that isn't pain..." the Warrior grinned at the Alchemist who flushed.

The next item was a single arrow that had a green shaft and a deep amber arrowhead. The Archer took it, trying it out.

"Only one?" he frowned as he fired it. The arrow sailed normally enough in the air.

"Look's good, if nothing else," the Warrior said and the Archer watched him speaking, focusing mostly on the man's mouth. The Gunsmith didn't go for lots of muscle, but the Gunsmith could see the appeal.

A second later, the arrow that was buried in the earth pulled itself out and flew towards the Warrior's face.

"Some sort of tracker!" the Archer said and used it again, focusing hard. The arrow failed to move when it was fired again. Frowning, the Archer slowly looked to the Warrior and the arrow began to tremble in the earth.

He looked at the Gunsmith and the arrow went inert.

"Oh look, you have drake arrows, beast arrows, goblin arrows, fire arrows, and now love arrows," the Alchemist said with delight.

The Archer glared at the Alchemist and to all their surprise, the arrow wobbled just a little.

"Shut up!" the Archer warned the arrow and stuffed it away with a flush.

"We can only hunt hot bounties and monsters now, our Archer's needs must be accommodated," the Necromancer said pleasantly.

"I hate this place," the Archer groaned and they turned to the final item.

It was a rock.

If the thing hadn't appeared in a flash of light, it would have just been a rock.

"Shame we don't have that Druid we met awhile back. He was always looking for such smooth rocks," the Mage said regretfully as he picked it up.

"It's not magical beyond being from a Dungeon," he reported.

"May I?" the Necromancer asked and he turned the thing over before he focused and cracked it half with some magic. In the core of the rock was a strange set of brown patterns ringed in the stone's protective rock.

"An ore? Could be worth something," the Warrior pointed out as they gathered around.

"Not an ore," the Necromancer reported and his hands glowed green as the patterns became infused. Slowly, the complete skeleton of a small bird emerged, it looked like a normal creature until its mouth formed something akin to dragon fangs.

"What... is that?" the Archer asked as the thing clicked.

"It says 'I'm a Fossil. A super mineral infused rock with a shape of life, you'-, no sorry, I won't be translating that," the Necromancer said to the skeleton bird with a small smile.

"Why does it have teeth?" the Gunsmith asked.

"Maybe it's a swan-like being?" the Alchemist guessed.

"What does it do?" the Mage asked and poked it. The bird promptly bit the finger and as the Mage squealed, it clamped on harder.

"Bite people, I presume," the Necromancer said calmly.

"A moaning gun, a love seeking arrow, and a biting rock. This is definitely some of the weirder loot we've ever gotten," said the Warrior brightly, but his eyes were trailing back the way they came.

"You wanna fight that goblin at full power?" the Archer guessed. The Warrior smiled but merely began walking to the stairs to the Third Floor.

This was the deepest most people ever got sober.

They were going to be rich, not in coin or treasure, but information and that sort of thing could be traded for some very rare privileges.

"It's a shame this place is light on the more lasting treasures. I wouldn't mind a few books or art to be gained," the Mage told the Alchemist who shrugged.

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"I'll take more rare ingredients," he grinned.

"I'll take a challenge," the Warrior called back, urging them on.

"I just want a gun that doesn't moan when I jostle it," the Gunsmith muttered. She had wrapped the thing up in one of her socks and it was still audible. It was like it was being louder because she tried to gag it.

What a weird weapon.

---

The air changed from a hot humid jungle to a cold contained breeze of castle corridors.

The Mage felt his neck prickle as if they were stepping into someplace ancient which was not normal for a Dungeon that only had four floors. Many Dungeon's could try to emulate the concepts of old, wild, dark, and other themes, but one would gradually see past it.

There were a dozen things that a Dungeon just didn't account for when making their floors that could ruin the illusion eventually.

But, Not this floor! It was almost like the Dungeon had found some hollowed out husk of an ancient castle this far below ground and moved in. It was possible, but he didn't announce it since he didn't have any evidence.

Honestly, nothing about this Dungeon was normal. In an hour, maybe two, the Mage would have to announce that he would have to head back to the entrance, mainly because the Mana was so thick it was giving him Mana Poisoning.

He hadn't had Mana Poisoning since they got stuck on the thirty-sixth floor of another Dungeon for three days.

"Any trouble?" the Warrior asked seriously to him and the Mage had to blink for a second to refocus. He was getting sloppy.

He held out his sword hand and dispersed the air sword into thousands of smaller air currents that roamed all over the floor and walls around him. To him, they were like gossamer strings that he could 'feel' with. It took hours of practice for him to sort out the feedback but eventually he could sniff out holes and indents where traps could be.

It was this trick that let him predict that strange signboard near the entrance.

But It still stole one of the Archer's arrows...

The trick was to not be too forceful or he might activate the trap with careless fumbling. He had done that once in another Dungeon, that fumble had set off a cascade of boiling water to fill the room. The Mage had felt shame about that despite his team saying that there was no such thing as a perfect run.

"Clear, but the air is weird," he announced.

"Weird like Alchemist's concoctions or weird like 'smells like a terrible monster about to eat us'?" the Archer asked, getting an annoyed look from the Alchemist.

The Mage smiled. If they were outside, he would use their names and tease the Archer about the arrow, but they were in Group. So, proper mental defenses like using codenames and other business-like demanours helped them handle some of the nastier tricks a Dungeon could pull.

The Ruby Dungeon had ensured they didn't let their minds stray to family or friends.

The Twin Dungeon showed them how it would feel to murder each other in real time with copies.

The recently discovered snake Dungeon taught them that it didn't matter if the person in danger was their lover or someone they were upset with outside. The Team was the Team until it disbanded.

The line between rookies and the experienced was not in their destructive power, but in the way they acted in a Dungeon.

Casual names and lax approach worked on Dungeon floors one to ten, and a moderate close knit group who let arguments and personality clashes affect their work might survive floors eleven thru twenty.

They normally didn't survive beyond that due to the team member losses, making many groups break and fall apart.

Those who could be themselves on any floor?

Those were the monsters, the Knights, and the legends!

"Thick with fumes. Nothing poisonous or we'd all be dead by now," the Mage promised.

"Smells familiar," he added, confused. The scent was tingling something in his memory but nothing came forth. It was almost like he was too traumatized to get that memory back .

They approached the massive set of double doors where two gargoyle statues seemed carved out of the rockwall on either side.

They stopped as both statues started cracking and shaking off excess flakes of rock and dust.

"Visitors… sober ones," one of the gargoyles mused with a thick rounded snout and jaw. He looked much bigger than the other one which had a more draconian inspiration in his making.

"They got past Wyin? We might have to be serious," the dragon one pointed out.

"Do you guys do riddles?" Gunsmith called, her gun readied but no one was rushing as it let the Alchemist mix bottles discreetly behind his back. The crafty man had each of his bottles marked with different raised symbols so he didn't need to see as much as feel to use them.

"Riddles? Eh, that's more of Doc's thing," the dragon one admitted.

"Not riddles, you just can't understand science jargon," the bull one retorted. The dragon one went to say something then clicked his massive claws as if coming up with an idea.

"I've got a riddle. Guess my name," he declared.

The group stared at him.

He looked like a dragon, but that was too obvious.

"That's not really a fair riddle," the Necromancer pointed out and the gargoyle deflated like they punctured his fun with a sharp needle.

"You can just pass if you want. But if you want a riddle how about this then," the bullish one grinned as he leaned down off his perch.

"What is a question you can never answer if it's true?" the bull asked and the dragon one looked surprised.

"Where'd you learn that?" he asked curiously.

"A book, they're this small rectangular thing with paper," the other retorted.

"Hah. Hah."

"Do I look fat in this, partner?" the Alchemist offered first. The Gunsmith eyed him.

"You better answer with an emphatic 'no'," she warned.

"Do I exist?" the Warrior announced. The Mage thought that was a good one. The Gargoyles just looked at them, so he supposed that wasn't the answer.

"Are you dead?" the Necromancer said and the Mage thought that was both clever and fitting for his teammate. But they could answer if the Necromancer wanted them to...

Still, no response from the watching monsters.

"Are you asleep?" the Archer answered slyly.

"Usually they say yes if you're the one asking in bed," the Alchemist muttered, causing the Gunsmith to shoot him with a withering look.

"Or 'your time ran out an hour ago, get out'," the Warrior added.

The Mage thought about it and decided on his answer.

"Do you hate yourself?" he said and the rest looked at him in surprise. He flushed, but pulled his pretty spider veil down over his face.

There was a long pause.

"Well?" the dragon gargoyle asked the other.

"Oh, I don't know the answer. All the answers were at the back and I fell asleep on page two," the bull one admitted.

"How can you ask a riddle that you don't know the answer to?!" The Archer demanded.

"Yeah, it was riddles like those that put me to sleep. Glad you got a riddle of your own too!" The bull one beamed at them.

"The only riddle they have is riddled with a headache, let them pass!" the dragon one announced.

The Mage was sure to be just as confused as the rest of his group.

"Oh, and my name is Dragon. You'd never have gotten it," the draconian gargoyle yelled as they moved through the doors, watching their backs for an ambush.

Before he could respond, the Mage felt a strange pulsing of energy and he turned to see the most powerful binding magic he had ever seen over something that looked like a rounded map.

Why was the map rounded on a stand?

The world was clearly flat.

The four protective pillars projecting the magic were made of such a tough material that not even the strongest hammer swing from the Warrior or the most acidic solution from the Alchemist could affect them.

"Only one reason someone guards something," the Gunsmith said then looked at the doors leading left, right, and forward speculatively.

Oddly, the traumatizing smell came strongly from the right door and a little from the door leading forward.

The other door didn't smell of anything the winds could carry except very new books-

"The winds of fate say this way," he said quickly and headed to that door.

"The winds of fate?" the Necromancer asked dubiously as he petted his new bird.

"Like how Death's gentle hand guided you to that pet store," The Mage said and the Necromancer was suddenly distracted by a tapestry.

The Mage couldn't wait to lift some books. Surely, no one would mind.

---

In a dark throne room, the small pudgy form rippled as it expanded slightly once more.

The skull it wore was now properly fitting and small arms flexed. King Jellagon exhaled, breathing out green fire in short bursts.

"Poi..." he rumbled.

"Oh, I think a cleaver would be dashing," the nearby Mharia said as she looked over the dozens of weapons she got from the Demon Blacksmith.

The king thought about it then reached down for another weapon.

A firm leather shoe with an open back to allow one comfortable to slip into.

"That's not a weapon, that's just something for guests to wear when they're in the library but have boots on-" Mharia began but Jellagon focused, causing runes of power to appear on the surface of his weapon.

The Runes were an inverted Delta Symbol. It invoked displeasure, uncomfortable attention, and disapproval.

Perfect for his weapon.

These intruders did not yet deserve the sword of arrogance to fall upon.

They deserve the slipper of punishment to slip up on.

198: Booking it

The Alchemist had the sense there was something unsavory hidden in this haven of literature that the group had found squirreled on the Third Floor.

The books and seats felt welcoming enough but in the shadows, between the nooks and crannies, there was a creeping sensation of death being closer than normal. A chill that appeared when a book was removed too roughly or put back in the wrong place.

The Mage was taking stacks out and declaring the library had 'everything from childish moral tales to horrific scientific notes written in very intriguing reports'. The Alchemist casually moved a monocle over his eye with a finger, the green tinted glass it contained allowed a previously invisible path of solution to light up to his eyes. This was a glowing trail of liquid that the Alchemist discreetly dispersed through a contraption in his shoes that led back to the entrance of the floor.

It showed the floor had remained static and unmoving, for now.

It was only really handy for the current floor since the Dungeon absorbed it on the previous floors. Not that it was any good in a jungle due to the shifting weather. The mix was even made out of a few common ingredients so the Dungeon wouldn't be able to do too much with it that it couldn't just do with its base materials.

He frowned as the Gunsmith held up a thick book, the cover of a woman being seduced by a broomstick with massive masculine eyebrows. It was called 'The Shaft of Love'.

Was she into that? Lo-... The Gunsmith never stuck him as a romantic sort. Trying to focus, he turned the shelves, looking for a secret passage or something to clue them into what the floor may contain.

It was a longshot, but the only other thing to do was prod the stuffed Kobold crammed in between two bookshelves that looked glassy eyed as if heavily drunk or braindead.

That was more the Necromancer's thing. He paused, sniffing the air as the familiar smell of explosive powder lingered in the air. It was an exotic type, a much older mixture that fell out of popularity due its small radius and somewhat unpredictable force.

The Alchemist turned back to the Kobold. He stared at the droopy face and dull scales, he reached out slowly with a dagger he had, readying the point to pierce the eye if there was any sort of reaction.

"I found something!" the Mage cried out and the Alchemist jumped a little, scowling at the Mage before he eyed the ugly stuffed Kobold and shook his head.

This Dungeon was a little strange.

"Same, there's a weird altar in the corner of this place. Made my skin crawl," the Archer said as he reappeared with the Warrior.

"It wasn't so bad," the Warrior smiled.

"What do you have?" the Gunsmith asked the Mage as she wandered over. The Mage held up a strange book that looked to be made out of a strange shiny translucent material. The title was 'King of Many Hats'.

"Looks like a book, in a library," the Alchemist said, trying to shake off that creepy Kobold from his mind.

"Except I can't open it," the Mage said and they all turned serious, eyeing the book with new eyes. The Warrior attempted brute strength, but the thing was stubborn and remained closed.

The Archer who had messed with many locks could find no secret switch or compartment with his dexterous fingers.

The Gunsmith who had expertise on mechanical inventions could see nothing artificial or visibly wrong with the book.

"It is not alive or dead. An object but not," the Necromancer said wisely.

This left it up to the Alchemist who had the smarts to do what they could not. He laid the book down and examined the latch before mixing a few tubes together with quick motions, using his mana to contain the experiments.

The Alchemist was no mage; he couldn't use his mana to shape spells or break reality, but he could use it as tools and containers, allowing him to make more dangerous chemicals on the fly. Soon, he held a bubbling gray tube and dropped a few drops of the book edge, watching as the book almost quivered as the solution ate away the latch with alarming speed.

The book smoked then slammed open with a burst of wind that seemed to fill the room in an outwards howl.

The group looked around, waiting for monsters or a trap, but all they heard was the rustling of papers in the breeze.

"All this for a book," the Archer mumbled as the Mage leaned over to glance at the pages.

"'There was once a King given a duty and a throne too big for his body, but not his heart'," the mage said slowly and despite sounding like every other story book in the room, the words made the ambient mana stir. Usually a sign that something somewhere was reacting to them.

It was either a trap, a treasure room, or both.

"'The King discovered one day that what made him king was not simply an obligation but the crown upon his skull. Thus, the king could be anyone if he had a different hat'" the Mage continued to read, his fingers sinking into the book slightly.

"I was kind of hoping for 'the big boss has a weak spot on his foot that one-shot kills it'," the Gunsmith admitted as the Mage turned the page slowly, finding it sticking to the pages below with a trail of slime.

"'If the king wore a cap, it could be a healer. If it wore a tall hat, it could be a chef. If it fit inside a shoe, it could be a traveler'" the Mage said with a frown and a creeping sensation was filling the room and the Alchemist turned slowly, finding that nothing had changed.

No, something had changed.

"'The king even found if he squeezed into an empty space, he could become a book'" the Mage's voice trailed off before there was a gurgling noise.

Where was the Kobold?

The Alchemist snapped his head around as the Mage tossed the book across the table as it bubbles, forming a slime puddle with massive spectacles atop its head that were fogged over. It formed a rip in its mouth.

"RULES BROKEN!" it screeched harshly, sending most of the candles in the library blowing out in reaction.

"What is that?!" The Gunsmith shouted as she raised her weapon and took aim.

"A fake, it's just a simulacrum!" the Mage tried to explain.

"Mimic?!" the Warrior yelled out, axe raised as his arms bulged with contained power.

"Tomeagon-" it gurgled in warning before it exploded in a dozen pieces of slime as the Gunsmith fired with a harsh burst of explosive bullets, punching a massive hole through the bookshelf behind the slime.

"It's just a puppet shell for something else!" the Mage said over the ringing in their ears as the gun went off in a semi-contained space. The door to the library creaked then slammed shut as every book in the library began to shake and tremble on the various shelves.

That was when a voice that sounded a little unhinged and delighted at the events called out from behind a bookshelf, just out of sight.

"I would say check out some first-aid books but I think they might be against you too," the demonic little voice cackled before it faded, running away with clawed feet clacking on the wooden floor.

From the smoking hole in the shelf, pages began to float against gravity and spin slowly together as massive books and tomes flew off the shelves, slamming into one another with dozens of more books on the way.

"Construct! Go people!" the Warrior thundered. The Alchemist stopped thinking, stopped having worries, slipping into a routine that they had done a dozen of times.

He and the Mage got together, firing off cutting winds and acidic flasks to slow the forming of the book golem as the Warrior, Archer, and Gunsmith sought out the source of the golem's power. It could be a single book or all the books, but something would stick out.

The Necromancer stayed behind releasing a massive cloud of bone ash that he formed into a swarm of birds. The little gray creatures bombed the golem as well, seeping into the golem's forming body and trying to become a layer that would hinder it on all levels if it finished forming.

"Might be a room guardian!" the Archer called out after setting another shelf on fire with his arrows, seeing it had little effect on stopping the golem.

"Then we take it down. Archer, work on that damn door," the Warrior ordered as he pivoted, going for the now nearly complete monster.

It was a massive construct made of books and paper with something inside to give it weight and force. The pages covering its body shifted with magical text that made it near impossible to read, but proved to be very distracting when trying to take it all in.

It raised one of its large fists, forming a strange gesture, and the Mage shouted out a warning seconds before its fingertips glowed orange.

"Maxoff's Second Fireball! Move!"

When a Mage tells you to duck for a fireball, you duck.

The Alchemist threw himself behind a toppled table, watching the room light up as a streak of fire shot overhead, hitting the wall before spreading like liquid over the stone, burning in a wave of heat.

"That's advanced magic- KERRIN'S DEVILISH MIND PUSH!" the Mage cried out again and the Alchemist didn't know the protocol for that spell, but got the idea when three bookcases began to shoot forward with enough speed to break a bone or two.

"Can't you counterspell?!" the Gunsmith cried out as she rolled under one of the flying bookcases.

"Counterspell is just pushing your mana into their spells and messing it up. I can only counterspell people of the same strength, not instant casting golems!" the Mage called back, his face red and his pimples looking alarmingly close to popping due to the stress.

The Warrior used one of the bookcases to leap forward, slamming his axe down on the golem's head, splitting the open book it was using for a face.

A second later, a new book replaced the old one, and the golem went from slinging spells to disarming the Warrior in a complex series of motions and kicking him through the very bookshelf he had used as a platform.

The Alchemist squinted, reading the cover of the book acting as the face.

'The Monk that Went Downtown; an action thriller novel'

The Gunsmith fired, blowing the head off again and a new book promptly took its place, but it did take a few more seconds to integrate than before. The Alchemist had to strain to read the book.

"The Lion and the Walk through the geographically correct savannah'

In a few seconds, the golem had fallen to all fours, fingers forming with curled pieces of paper into claws as a mane of bristled paper rose up, behind its body, a thick tail swished made out of leather book covers.

It roared before it pounced towards the Gunsmith, ignoring the easily targeted Warrior.

Also... very interesting.

"Keep aiming for the head, we need to get a book in place we can handle!" the Alchemist shouted out as he handed the Warrior his missing axe. The Necromancer strained, slowing the lion for precious seconds with his bone ash, letting the Gunsmith to escape a mauling by a thousand papercuts.

"Lock's being a bit tricky, just buy me time!" the Archer announced.

"How tricky?" the Warrior called back, brushing splinters out of his hair as he readied to charge again. The Alchemist looked over to see the Archer digging a hole in the wood with an arrow.

"No lock, so a bit trickier than normal," was the answer.

The golem jumped, pushing off a wall with all four legs to avoid a massive bang from one of the Gunsmith's rifles which it knocked aside, forcing her to draw out a gun from her bag.

The sound of excitement filled the room, making everyone, even the golem, stare at the Gunsmith as she aimed the small slender 'Lady Wood' gun.

"It's not me! It's the gun!" she cried and fired, a massive glowing green bullet emerging to not only hit the golem but punch a massive hole through it that temporarily scattered the books and pages into a pile.

It didn't take long for the pile to reform.

"Fire again!" the Warrior said, seeing how effective the gun was.

"I... I can't!" the Gunsmith said, the gun in her hands silent and even huffing a little as she tried to pull the trigger over and over without result.

"Why won't it work?" she demanded and the gun actually answered her, to the shock of everyone.

'Your man may accept that sad finger play, but I have standards. This lady needs to be wined and dined before you pull her lady trigger' the gun said in a sort of passable voice of the Wyin tree.

"I am going to die!" she hissed.

"Just don't do that and you'll be fine," the gun said, beginning to vibrate a little as it regained energy.

The golem reformed, but the book atop its head was new.

The Alchemist stared at the title with confusion.

'1000 soups good for the soul'

That didn't sound so bad...

The golem held out its hand which now had funnels instead of fingers. The smell of chicken broth filled the air ominously.

"Archer... door!" the Warrior said, taking a step back.

"NOT YET!" the Archer responded, having the door handle mostly exposed and dancing to his fingertips.

"We're about to be boiled alive!" the Warrior shouted but the Necromancer took a step forward and held out a hand, making the golden yellow chicken and noodle soup part like a messianic figure.

"You... can control soup?" the Mage asked in surprise.

"Only somewhat, but this is soul food," the Necromancer explained, but the Alchemist didn't really understand.

"What, can you make angel cake dance?" the Alchemist asked, watching as the golem tried vegetable soup then tomato next.

"You need a priest for that, sadly," the Necromancer said, straining as the streams kept coming.

The golem took a step back, assessing the battle and then removed its own head.

"Wait, that's cheating!" the Gunsmith cried, sloshing through ankle deep soup. The book that landed on its neck next was simply titled 'Here Be Dragons'.

"Door's open!" the Archer shouted as the wooden door collapsed due to the sheer hacking it endured and the soup soaking into it.

"TACTICAL RETREAT!" the Warrior ordered. The golem began to grow, massive wings of paper forming on its back as a glowing fire in its chest consumed paper for fuel. The emerging fireblast chased them down the hall, bringing forth steamed soup and the smell of fresh books.

The library had defeated them.

---

"Thank you!" Deo said as the Library Golem handed him a book off the top shelf then brought Deo lemonade to drink at a seating area.

"I'll be careful with it," Deo promised and the golem patted his head.

As he sat down, Deo could taste ash and smoke. His dad had explained that Delta had 'mirrors' now. Places that were the Dungeon, but not Delta really. Like reflections of two mirrors close together. Deo didn't quite understand, but sometimes he felt, tasted, and once, even saw other people like ghosts.

They never reacted to Deo, but he wrote down a message in chalk once and Delta kindly transported it to one of the mirrors for him.

It was like leaving a kind message for them. He told Grim and he said Deo should write down there was a secret tunnel when there wasn't and watch them hit their heads on it.

Deo didn't quite see the fun of the idea yet, but Grim thought it was funny so Deo would wait and see.

He stared down at the book called 'How to Study better to get employment'.

He was a little sad because Grim didn't hire him to watch the door. So Deo had the idea that if he finished school super fast, he could work with Grim and they could run the Grim Tale Guild together!

He opened the front page and technical jargon jumped out at him with long dry boring sentences that talked about time management and calculated timefall events with expanding routines.

Deo felt like his brain caught fire for a moment.

"I need help!" he mumbled, slamming his head into the book.

"Whatchu doing?" came a voice and Deo blinked, spotting Jack the Kobold nearby, watching him as he read something called "The Anarchist Dessert List'.

"I'm trying to be smart but I can't figure out how to make smart simple so I can understand it," Deo summed up and to his surprise, Jack nodded gravely.

"I hear you. I was the worst when it came to my family in terms of magic or combat," Jack said seriously.

"How big was your family?" Deo asked, thinking Jack had a brother or maybe a sister.

"I had thirty-six siblings, but they were all talented. I think I had thirty-six. I might have invented some to cheer myself up when I was a prisoner," Jack mumbled to himself.

"Is thirty-six a lot?" Deo asked slowly. Jack grinned.

"Depends. Thirty-six puppies? Not a bad thing. Thirty-six dead bodies in your basement? Maybe," he said sagely.

"Don't you worry, I'll teach you how to be smart where it counts and you have one of the most unhinged library collections at your fingertips, complete with a self-aware search function!" Jack promised, giving Deo hope.

"Can you teach me to be smart?" he asked and Jack gave him a strangely gentle look.

"No, I'm going to teach you that you're already smart, but haven't had the chance to show it," he replied.

"Thank you! You don't have to," Deo said, a little shy now as he couldn't stop smiling. Jack stared at him then down at his own claws.

"I know, but you remind me of someone," he said and Deo blinked in confusion.

"Who?" he asked slowly. Jack just grinned.

"Someone I made up to feel better about myself," he winked and pulled out a new book for Deo to read.

'How to make comrades and sway people'

"We'll start with warfare of the mind!" Jack cried and the library lights flickered dramatically.

"Oh, very nice," Jack praised the golem nearby who waved lazily.

Deo was going to sway the heck out of people.

Table of Contents

1: Smashing Start
2: Take off!
3: Mushroom Farming
4: The Piggy in the Middle
5: The Human Touch
6: The Capped Limit
7: innocence and Gobs
8: What Wicked Web We Weave
9: Quissing the Dungeon
10: Hole in the Ground
11: Fishing for Compliments
12: The Nature of Give and Take
13: Hook, Line, Sinker
14: Conviction
15: Delta Ducks
16: Duck for Traps
17: Along Came A Spider
18: I am DEO!
19: DEO! and friends!
20: A Boary End
21: Flaws and Thorns
22: The Greenhouse Effect
23: Nature vs Nurture
24: Unruli
25: Slimers
26: Special
27: Levelling Down
28: Guilty Roots
29: The Jungle Room
30: A Gentleman
31: Japing about
32: Catch and Mist
33: The Curious Container
34: The Flower in a Pot
35: Rulis and Termis
36: Challenge Accepted
37: The Nuance of Dungeon Building
38: Big Showdown in little Dungeon
39: Lost in Translation
40: Seeing the Mushroom for the Forest
41: Busy Little Bee
42: The Little Things
43: Raleish the thought
44: Mime the Gap
Interlude: Cheesecake
45: Nu point of view
46: Ballad of the Great
47: Delta Does Danger
48: Equal-system
49: Witching Hour
50: Evolution of the First Floor
51: Happy Accidents
52: Griminology
Interlude: Crumbling Hearth
Artwork!
53: Devine Bobbing
54: Pic-Nic
Maestro
55: Heart of the Jungle
56: Birds, Mushrooms, and Taxes
57: The Musical Trap
58: Thorn in The Side
59: DEOLICIOUS
60: The Star of the Show
Map updates.
61: This Dungeon Belongs to Noland
Update
Interlude: Popping the Question
62: Holly Water
63: Wyin or lose
64: The Tree of 'Wisdom'
65: The Key to her Heart!
66: Tending the Moon
Side Story: The Village of Woodedly
67: Keys and Doors
68: World Wide Web
69: New Blood
70: Gather your Party
Floor maps udated!
Interlude: The King's Fortune
71: Truth Seeker
72: Inferno at the Grove
73: Lord of Mushrooms
Interlude: Spoiled for Choice
74: Blind Truth
75: Heart to Heart
76: Jungle Fever
77: Flower Power
78: Maze of Life
79: Delta's Dungeon Defence
80: Mother vs Mother
81: Long may she rain
82: Jack and Delta go down a tunnel
Interlude: The Imp of no Importance
83: The Fortress of Silence
84: For Whom the Dungeon Trolls
Edit upon a new day.
85: Silent Knight
86: Oh Holy Knight
87: Grotesque Puns
Floor 2 update!

88: Xanatos Gambit? No, this is a Delta Gamble!

89: Split Opinions on Banned Books
90: The Dungeon and her Village
91: Nina a Hand?
92: Fresh Breath of Seth
93: A King's Grudge
Interlude: Dungeon Education
94:Guard Goyles
95: All Action, No Talk
96: Door to Door
97:Bubbling to the Surface
Interlude: Death Pips In
98: The Madness of Sanity
99: Beta to the Punch
100: Delta
101: How to be a Dungeon
102: The Dance of the Dead and Fabulous
103: Pop goes the Slime
104: Spring of the Soul
105: Delta's Day Off
106: Delta the Darkest Dungeon
107: Love
108: Al Far will he go?
109: Quickies and Squidies
110: Hungry Python
111: Jack be nimble... jack be... oh no.
112: Low-hanging fruit
113: Miserable Pile of Mushrooms!
114: Sootable Upgrades
115: Vastly Giant Bridge
116: Wyinning
117: The Buzz about Shrooms
118: Hero
119: The Royal Wee
120: The great DEO...Hero?
121: Rooted in Her Ways
122: Tree's a Company
123
124: You can call me Al
125: Branching Paths
Third floor
126: Slivers of Silver
127: Gam Ham Time
128: Ode to Deo
129:... That's Amore
130: Scoreboard
131: Ghoulish Intentions
132: Free Range War
133: I have awoken and I have chosen violence
134: The Other Side
Interlude: Turtog
135: Twinkle Twinkle Little...
136: Ducks of a feather, pun together

137: The Boss dropped 'Trauma' as a reward! Wait...

138: Picture Books? Delta prefers Pop-Up!
139: An-Jell-ic
140: Dancing Quee-n
141: Hardly Nu Ya
142: Catfished
143: Something Fishy
144: Dramatic Flashbacks under the Moon
145: The Things that Brought us Here
146: Dreams never linger
147: A-maze-ing
148: Moral Fibre
149: The Cost of Magic
150: Ringing Endorsement
151: Highwire, Haywire
152: Coming Storm
153: Feast for the Fallen
154: Gentle Progress
155: Rave Island
156: Fairplay goes Both Ways
157: This is reference to another media
Third floor map!
158: Sour on the Rocks
159: The Bureaucracy of Hypocrisy
160: A Royal Tribute
161: Upping the Game
162: Ya need a Yattina
163: Divine Interpretation
164: Foodie Be Goodie
165: Sponge Guardian
166: Sea biscuits and Sea Hags
167: Follow the Blue Nu
Interlude: Maiden
168: Shortcuts cut Short
169: There be Dragons and, worse, Mushrooms
170: The Shattering
Interlude: Burden of the Throne.
171: Mhaira will free ya
172: Beta Hurry
173: DELTA VS HERO
174: Gone Home
175: We have the Technology.
176: A Little Overkill
177: Practise Paradise
178: Stars in You Eyes
Interlude: As Good As Gold
179: Ruby Slippers and Silver Badges
180: Silver Where?
181: Skull and Eyes
182: Life of a Town
183: T-The Party
184: Hell is Other Puns
185: Red Moons and Bad Jokes
186: Tanning in Puns
187: A. B. D? G?!
188: School's Out
189: The Demon Diva
190: Delta: The last Ear Bender
191: Karpe Diem
192: Sky high, Scuttle low
193: Tall Tales
194: It's not all Doom and Gloom
195: Tax Evasion+2
196: The Argus Story
197: A Slippery Slope
198: Booking it