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  [Dungeon]

  When I looked for the source of the thumping beat, that echoed around my dungeon I found it at the entrance, or more specifically I found him. It was a man. Covered in shiny metal and holding a large axe in one hand.

  He entered the dungeon cautiously, stepping into the black mist that covered my entrance with slow deliberate steps, checking the ground with his axe handle each time. There was nothing there beyond a straight tunnel.

  It took him about two minutes to exit the darkness that clouded my entrance cutting off his vision, before he emerged into my first floor.

  As I observed his methodical, slow steps it occurred to me that it would be funny to put stairs going down to the first floor instead of the flat ramp currently there.

  Back to the man, he had dusty blonde hair edging towards white, and a pair of deep blue eyes whose lustre had faded with the years.

  A square jaw bristled with a thick brown beard half of which was going grey, in places. The grey hairs and the few wrinkles that I could see, gave away his age.

  He had broad shoulders, currently covered in leather and steel armour, and around his waist, a belt with several potions and pouches. On the whole I thought he seemed rather well equipped for my first adventurer but then he was alone.

  As the man exited into the floor and gazed upon my splendid creation, his mouth dropped and his arm relaxed, letting the axe hang loose in his fingers until the axe head hit the floor with a soft ‘tink’ distracted as he was.

  His vacant look lasted only briefly before he snapped back to himself. Pausing briefly, he pulled a face that made me think he was annoyed with himself, and then glanced around with a more direct, pointed look. He observed the dungeon in an almost analytical sense.

  He moved forwards slowly and carefully and proceeded to examine the plants, grasses, bushes, walls and all the other interesting features I had incorporated into this floor from the safety of the open ground.

  Retreating back, away from the grass he stood for a few moments observing all that lay before him. I frowned as I stood, this was not what the guide had suggested the first delver would be like, he was too prepared, to careful, as if the temptations of the treasure I could give held no sway with him.

  ‘Perhaps he is an oddity’, I thought to myself.

  Seemingly having satisfied something he needed, the man moved forwards with purpose, pushing open the grasses that blocked his way, stepping through with… well, not grace… but fortitude and strength.

  He circled around the floor keeping his back close to the wall like hedges as he skirted the first room and turned to his left.

  It wasn’t long before he would find a chest, and I watched with mounting anticipation as he neared one of my willows. Spotting it he marched forward and cautiously pushed open the branches using his axe.

  Fool. I thought fiendishly as I waited.

  I almost winced as he was sent falling back. Whipped by the branches, with a deep gouge taken out of his chest plate. By this point it was clear to me he was at least a bit more experienced with dungeons and I took it as excellent news that my plants could catch someone with at least a little experience out.

  Unfortunately, that only lasted until the man, stood just out of range calmly chopping his way through the branches that lashed out at him. I sighed, that was the drawback with a tree, it couldn’t move.

  Unless…

  No, not now! I thought to myself feeling the flicker of an idea forming. I banished it for the moment intent to focus upon this man.

  He pocketed the loot, looking a little disheartened at my meagre offerings and continued on.

  Tough, I thought, there were no active predators here, no good treasure for that. Derision bubbled up within me at the idea of rewarding someone more than I had for such a simple task.

  It took him another 45 minutes to fully explore the floor, having missed the iron spine hedgehogs and mad magpie both. He despatched another couple of my weeping willows of garotte, taking the loot and looking surprised when some of the trees did nothing. Hopefully he would be confused when the trees all changed places before his next entrance. Assuming he survived to try again.

  Unfortunately, I expected he would as the man was a bit too careful.

  Walking down to the second floor, he stared at the steps apprehensively. He paused again at the entrance to the second floor, before spotting the staircase in the tree and making his way over to it.

  The man took far too long, and if all the adventurers were going to be like this, then I’d never get anything done, the incessant pounding that followed along with him delving seemed to demand my attention and prevented me from working.

  Thankfully, it was at least interesting to watch him explore and it wasn’t long before he was on the floor and examining something I hadn’t noticed, a wolf print.

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  I helped guide the wolves too him, interested in how he would deal with a wolf. It jumped out from behind a large tree and though it seemed to get him good, he recovered from the ambush quickly and slew it with no hesitation.

  How about the rest I thought. Go I commanded to the other wolves, watching as they advanced as a pack.

  The rest of the pack followed shortly, although he did receive enough damage to warrant using a potion. I stared at the vial, watching him consume it and following the mana as it worked to heal his injuries, filling in missing flesh and quenching bleeding. It was almost a shame, I was half rooting for his death.

  He grimaced, distaste evident on his face as he chucked the empty vial away.

  Curious, I looked at it in greater detail, zooming my vision in until…

  ~~

  You have discovered a middling healing potion, because it is mostly empty the amount you learn from it is insufficient to recreate this item. Find and collect another four empty potions or one full potion to learn more about this item.

  ~~

  Like a sneaky rogue, he worked his way through the rest of the level with ease. Having defeated the wolfpack the only threats remaining on the floor was the cat, but it hadn’t yet become mine, very soon though and the family of elementals. If he ascended into the trees he would find my avalt pythons and crash birds but for the moment the floor was clear.

  Surprising me as well as the man, he was tackled hard by the cat which ended up knocking him in the stream. It chuffed in what looked like amusement and darted away.

  He struggled to his feet in time to watch the cat launch from a different angle. With surprising dexterity, he swung his axe from down low catching the cat in the jaw with as much serendipitous luck as skill, killing it.

  No! I thought, angry with myself, how did I let myself lose the cat.

  Trapped under its furry corpse the man struggled to sit up.

  Oh no boyo, not going to happen. I said to myself commanding the water elementals to send a wave of water down the stream, washing away the intruder. The water carried the man downstream and out over the waterfall.

  He fell

  And he fell fast, and landed hard.

  I almost winced for him again, I didn’t I was a dungeon after all, but almost. A 30m fall onto his face was bound to hurt.

  He tried to raise his head, but it fell to the floor limply after but a moment, and with a wet slap he blacked out.

  Sighing I looked at the body of the cat, might as well make use of the mana I thought beginning to suck it up.

  ~~

  Warning: by consuming the mana of this snow leopard you will be unable to respawn it. This animal has completed 93% of the required attunement for dungeon integration and as such is eligible to be respawned with additional mana cost. Do you wish to consume this mana or respawn the cat for 1679 mana?

  Respawn

  Consume

  ~~

  Oh, you lucky man

  Now I wouldn’t have to kill him for sure.

  RESPAWN!

  With a slight blurring the corpse faded from view, and I felt that above me in the woodland floor the cat spring into life, bouncing around with obvious glee, glee I imagined at not being dead.

  I knew, as well, that it was now a dungeon creature and the link felt just as strong as to my wolves. I wondered what the dungeon attunement threshold was.

  Looking at the store I found the entry for the cat and sure enough it was available at a discount.

  With obvious delight I bought another one, designating this one as female and hoping they were happy together. Both cats would do well on my floor and were a great addition to the woodland.

  I decided that I would make them a small cave and plateau out of rock in the walls that they could call home, it would also prevent adventurers from skirting the walls to try and avoid fights if the leopards could get behind them and dive from above. Trying to dig into the rock though resulted in a splitting headache as the mana refused to work.

  ~~

  Dungeons are unable to perform terrain modification work behind the path of the lead delver.

  ~~

  I sighed, it would have to wait,

  Sorry cats.

  Strangely, nothing major came along to kill the man. Having recovered my cats, I returned to a non-interference policy. It would have been easy to direct an alligator over for an easy meal, but I resisted.

  The man was lucky, in fact only the insects investigated him. He received a few stings and bites that mollified my thirst for violence, if left untreated they could become infected, but I suspected one of the potions things on his belt would deal with the stings and bites handily.

  He was lying on a semi-hard section of ground in the swamp floor. It was a section of grasses that kind of floated on top of the water but were still anchored in place, so they didn’t end up drifting around. He was luck he had landed with his head out of the water.

  As he ‘slept’, water lapped around his waist and soaked into his clothes. I predicted that it would be pretty uncomfortable for him. Not that it wasn’t already with all the insects biting him.

  All to soon he started to wake up, but he appeared groggy and out of it. I guessed he would continue working his way through the dungeon once he had perked up a little.

  Since the thundering heartbeat wasn’t lessening, I sighed and settled down to watch him bumble his way through until he either died or decided to walk out.