He was slowly pulled from quite possibly the most restful sleep he had felt in his entire life by the stale air beginning to circulate and the sound of a creaking door swinging open.
His body ached, and his mouth was dry, he pushed himself onto his back and stared at the shadowed ceiling. He rolled onto his other side, wincing slightly as he moved and found what looked to be a firepit. He had seen the empty circle of stones briefly last night, but now it was filled with small logs, perfectly cut into easily manageable pieces with the surgical precision of a dungeon. He summoned fire and blue flame began to lick the logs, the torches along the walls lit as well, although that wasn’t his intention. The fires grew until the room began brightly illuminated, the blue gave the glow a slightly eerie feel.
Erak lay on the silky ground for a while, silently wishing for a blanket. He closed his eyes, his tiredness, hunger, and thirst battling for supremacy, eventually his thirst won out. He stood up slowly and grunted, and a sharp pain shot through his injured leg, Erak dug his nails into his palms and hobbled over to the small pond. With a quick spell checked it for parasites then he washed his face. He couldn’t count the amount of times he scooped water into his palms. Then finally he stood up and limped out of the ((SAFE_ROOM)).
He shivered as grew closer to the entrance, the fresh air biting his lungs. The only thing stopping him from leaving was a sheer wall was almost as tall as he was. One of the brownish ants helped him climb over and out. Which was surprising. He scanned the area around the entrance, reaching out mentally for any kind of ((MANA TRAIL)) his brother may have left behind.
He returned to the fireplace and slowly sat down; Erak lowered himself into a laying position and was about to close his eyes once more when the trio of slightly reddish ants from last night returned from the room beyond the ((SAFE_ROOM)). The two smaller ones dropped a couple pieces of fruit in his lap, while the larger one stared at him. Erak sitting back up with a grunt, picked up what looked to be a pear, and looked at it for a moment. He was trying to decide if he would rather wipe it off on his slimy tunic, eat it with ant spit on it, or painfully stand up and wash it off, when the larger ant walked up to him and began to gently prod his injured leg.
Erak flinched, the ant stopped and cocked its head at him, analyzing, it looked a little confused, almost, it stretched out one of its antennae toward him, Erak hesitated. The ant looked at him expectantly. Erak, not wanting to risk offense, reached out with his hand. The ant gently brushed its antennae along his palm in slow deliberate motions, obviously, they meant something, but the meaning was lost to him. Strangely, Erak got the sense that it was treating him like it would treat a frightened child, or perhaps someone very stupid. He felt the Dungeon’s eye turn to him.
The ant pulled away and turned back to inspect Erak’s leg. He forced himself to not recoil from the monstrous creature, it moved slowly, often looking back at him. Erak forced his muscles to relax. The ant leaned over his injured leg. The hard white casing that it had placed over it before crumbled. Erak flinched. The ant didn’t seem to notice. Its mandibles cut the fabric away, it passed what previously had been his pant leg to one of the smaller ants. Who dragged it over to the pond. Erak couldn’t see what it was doing however, because the second ant blocked his view.
While the large ant had begun to excrete another substance onto his leg. A cool numbness spread wherever the greyish liquid spread. For a moment the elf wondered if he was going to be eaten. The other ant came back with the cloth. The large ant backed away and the other two approached. They slid the damp cloth under his leg. The sand should’ve stuck to it, but it fell away after a soft breeze of ((MANA)) wafted through the room. The duo twisted the fabric around and around the wound. When they ran out of cloth, then they spat onto the edges of the fabric and it hardened.
Erak’s hands shook slightly, then he sighed and slipped off his shirt. He imagined six angry red streaks that had been torn through his musculature. Marring the large tattoo that had removed most sensation in his back in the first place. He folded himself in half, resting his brow in the sand, his muscles protested the movement. There was a sound of excited or panicked chittering, and then a faint cooling sensation.
The ants left him, and Erak couldn’t find the energy to push himself back into a sitting position, or put his shirt back on. He laid there in the sand, his mind quietly wandering as energy seemed to seep its way into his limbs as the pain and soreness receded. What sort of dungeon would heal a stranger? You could bet on a dungeon being curious, but not on them being helpful. Mentally he tried to identify the dungeon. She was obviously Entopathic, maybe a hive? He didn’t think she was too old, but couldn’t be sure until he investigated how many floors she had. He laid there what felt like hours, then he stood up, his musculature’s protests temporarily deafened by the ants. He put his shirt back on.
Erak walked over to the wall and unhooked one of the blue torches, his feet seemed to make far too much noise on the black sand, maybe that was intentional? He reached the door that led into the next room, it had no handle and looked thin, so he gently pressed on it. The door easily swung open. He hoisted his torch to reveal a dank earthen corridor. He felt something itch in the back of his mind that made him uneasy, like a constant scratching sound too quiet to be properly heard.
Erak continued with one hand dragging along the wall, his eyes flicking to every corner of the room, looking for any potential traps or encounters that the Dungeon might send his way. The hallways were long and tall, it took him a solid minute to pass through it and it was eerily empty. The hallway began to open into a room, he could see golden light peeking into the hallway and Erak quickened his pace and arrived at another door, a soft, dim glow penetrated the roughly put-together wood. He gently pushed on the door and it easily swung open.
The spawner room was more alive than the ((SAFE_ROOM)), the spawner itself glowed with life, but the room itself also seemed like a hub of traffic. The walls were earthen and curved upward into the roundish ceiling which was shored up with four uneven wooden pillars, and planks stretched across the ceiling, guarding against a faux danger of collapse. The wall behind the golden spawner had simple pictures of ants carved into it. He didn’t see any importance in the decoration, if the Dungeon had ((RETAINERS)) he would’ve met them instead of the medic ant.
Ants crawled on the ceilings, walls, and floors to get to other parts of the Dungeon, rarely was there an empty patch of traversable space. Sitting beside the spawner was an ant that was a bit darker and larger than the others, it had two large bulges on its back. Erak had seen a few different types of ants so far, but this one seemed strange, it turned its head toward him and he glimpsed something in its beady black eyes that made him shiver. He waited in the spawner room for a moment, looking around for the inevitable encounter, but it never came. An ant spawned, the strange ant clacked her mandibles together and the newborn walked up to her meekly, they touched antennae and the newborn went down the hallway to the left, slipping through the swinging doors after another ant before they closed.
Strange, he thought and followed the ant to the left hallway. Once again, the hallway was empty of traps and encounters but this time it was not empty of ants. They filled the hallway constantly running back and forth, more than once some ant hissed or clicked at him angrily for getting in the way, however, nothing attacked him. The hallway opened into another room.
This room felt larger than the spawner room but smaller than the ((SAFE_ROOM)) the walls were lined with cubby holes that were only half filled with various vegetation, he saw some fruit and berries, but it was mostly plants Erak didn’t recognize. The floor was riddled with dips that were filled with green boughs; the room was relatively empty other than that. Ants dashed in and out of the room carrying clumps of material, most of them crawling on the ceiling to get past what looked like an underground lake. The lake was swarmed by ants. The quick orangish ants darted in and took clumps of dirt from the larger reddish-brown ones, then left just as quickly as they came in.
Only one ant wasn’t moving at a frantic pace. It was horribly disfigured, and one of its antennae was shorter than the other, it hobbled around the room with only three whole legs, two were missing and scarred over while another was bent and dragged on the floor. It pulled a thin bundle of dried grasses out of a cubby and turned to put it in another. On its abdomen there was a long and thick scar that cut along its entire length. Erak swallowed, it was rare to find crippled monsters in a Dungeon though, not unheard of. If a ((BOSS)) went unbeaten for a long time then it would gain some scars if a ((RETAINER)) was attacked and did not die, it may limp or favor its wounds until it is slain again, but a regular monster that is severally crippled that hadn’t been sold was very strange, maybe the selling price wasn’t worth it?
Erak shrugged and walked toward the lake. The lake consisted of thick swampy water that made the air around it smelt sulfurous, it bubbled up every once in and a while, and mosquitos would fly up. He shivered. Rotted wood floated on the surface of the lake, and a blackened staircase covered in mold led down into the depths, promising treasure, curiosity coursed through his veins as he was about to lean his torch against the wall, but a pang in his leg made him rethink his decision.
He looked up at the ants swarming the corridor, and realized that it didn’t continue. He furrowed his brow and looked closer. The ants were digging out the hallway. By hand, or mandible. That was… incredibly inefficient. Why hadn’t the Dungeon just bought a hallway? unless of course, she couldn’t afford it.
Actually. Yes. That made sense. The Dungeon probably didn’t have a source of consistent prey this deep in the mountains, so she conserved ((MANA)) by having monsters expand her domain. Its not like she would have many threats this far out either, so she could afford a slower pace, that explained the lack of traps as well. Causing a strange developmental path. Erak smiled to himself and turned to leave.
He re-entered the spawner room and slipped through the doors and into the other hallway. He instantly flinched at the brightness, the whole hallway glowed. Some kind of vegetation layered the earthen walls, the corridor was empty, twisting thin pathways led through the glowing plant. Erak didn’t need his torch to see now. Reaching down, he felt the plant between his fingers, moss. With another slight smile, Erak picked his way through the moss, careful to walk on the provided pathways, lest he arouse the anger of the Dungeon who had so kindly given him board, and came to another door. This door was smoother than the others.
Erak pushed open the door, it swung open easily and the green glow of the moss illuminated the ((CORE)) room. His torch sputtered out. For a moment, confusion showed on his face, he would’ve thought this would be the boss room, that she would have some sort of protection before the ((SANCTUM)). The ants and mosquitos would ward off tired travelers, but he could tell, most adventurers would clear the Dungeon without much difficulty, especially if they took the trouble to come all the way out here. He shook his head and looked upon the ((SANCTUM)).
The room was plain, for a ((SANCTUM)). His eyes were drawn first to the ((CORE)) itself, a golden crystal teardrop, that, he noted quite concerningly seemed to be internally cracked. The doors swung shut behind him, and the glow of the ((CORE)) became more visible, it sat upon a simple stone pillar, with carvings that seemed to depict her emergence. Seven ants, one orb. He took a step forward and the ground crunched under his feet, was it sand again? Even with his night sight, he couldn’t tell, the glow from the previous room practically blinding him.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
A loud hiss interrupted his thoughts and he froze. He squinted in the darkness until his eyes fell upon a large dark shape at the bottom of the ((CORE)) pillar, he gripped his extinguished torch a little tighter. The thing stood up and was illuminated in the glow of the ((CORE)). It was an ant, he had seen some others like it in the Dungeon, and they were the ones that had attacked Erann, they were obviously meant to be more offensive. This one seemed bigger, he tried to remember if he had seen a ((RETAINER)) when the Dungeon attacked Erann, but he wasn’t sure. There was no way the Dungeon had a ((RETAINER)).
The ant made an echoing clicking sound, it bounced around the room, and then it was chorused by several invisible voices. The message was clear, he was not alone. Erak took a deep breath, bowed to the ((CORE)), and turned his attention to the rest of the room. There was a table with an unreadable sign hanging from it, donation table, that was normal enough. There was a total of eight stone pillars in the room, besides the one holding the ((CORE)). Each of them seemed to depict a different story, or perhaps even memories, in crude, tribal drawings. Four in the corners, four around the ((CORE)).
Erak walked to the pillar opposite the donation table, lots of ants were in one place, the ((SANCTUM)), he could see by the drawing of the ((CORE)), one group of ants was in a circle around four ants, one of the four ants looked like she might have been missing some of her legs, but it was hard to tell. In the next picture, it was about the same, except the circle was gone and an ant was in the air maybe? It was hard to tell, but she seemed mangled in this carving. He ran his hand along the grooves in the stone, wondering what they would reveal about this Dungeon- when they were properly copied and analyzed of course.
He turned to the ((CORE)), and stared at the internal crack in the crystal, how had that happened? What secrets of life did she hold? There was a trill of excitement in his chest as he was reminded of why he had wanted to become a ((READER)) in the first place when he could’ve become a ((DIPLOMAT)). Dungeons were... complicated, many of them knew things they couldn’t possibly, remembered things that never happened, but they always tended toward the extremes. It was no wonder that older Dungeons tended to shatter themselves. Erak wouldn’t be able to stand an existence, confined to a space where your only companions were mindless servants and you can’t tell if people are just trying to use you or trying to kill you.
He felt the Dungeons eye upon him, so he turned away from the ((CORE)) and left the ((SANCTUM)), hoping that she didn’t sense his pity. He stood in the mossy hallway, it was the only area with proper lighting, his eyes were drawn to a strange patch of moss, he stared and his elf eyes were eventually able to make out the shape of three ants, curled in a hole covered with a patch of moss, now that he thought about it, the moss seemed incredibly thick and long for moss. Erak smiled.
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She ‘woke up’ to a strange feeling of dread, being pulled from her state of the subconscious, she quickly scanned her ((DOMAIN)), and for a moment she hesitated on Erak, who was staring at her ((CORE)), but once he noticed her ((GAZE)) was on him he left. He seemed to be more injured than she first thought, his back was covered in red slashes and black scars. The feeling remained. The ants who were still asleep woke up and began to go busily about their duties, and those who were already awake hurried at their work. She paced back and forth through the hallways.
ENCOUNTER FAILED +20 MANA
“What?” Empress whispered, “What encounter?”
She scanned her ((DOMAIN)) again, and everything was in order. Everything was fine. The feeling of dread remained, Empress’ ((GAZE)) appeared in the entrance hallway, adjusting to the brighter light, Gatherer was leaning against the bottom of the small drop, posture relaxed. Nothing was out of order. She scrutinized the white wall that separated her ((DOMAIN)) from the rest of Mazre as if it would give way and reveal the threat to her. Empress was about to turn around when a mosquito slowly fluttered in the doorway. It flew sluggishly, its small translucent wings beating with an intense effort, it began to spiral downward unsteadily, halfway to the floor it dropped from the air, landing with a silent thud on the dirt floor, its legs were sprawled and its broken body twitched for a moment before it went still.
ENCOUNTER FAILED +20 MANA
Empress blinked. She floated closer, almost without realizing it. Every detail of the bug became sharp and defined, a thin sticky substance coated her wings, her head was half crushed, with her needle-like nose was torn away. She died a painful death, Empress reasoned. Floating away from the corpse, her ((GAZE)) adjusted to its regular zoom. Her mind, like that of all Dungeons, dissociated from her emotions and began to calculate the magnitude the of threat. She pinged Guard to mobilize her troops, then turned to Gatherer, wordlessly, Gatherer stood up, stretched like a cat, and began to rouse her squads. Who all followed her toward the((SAFE_ROOM)). She moved the second Swarm to the spawner room, even if it was barely a third of the firsts size. Empress stared at the entrance, and waited, five guards soon joined her, followed by Erak, who stopped a bit from the entrance.
Silver words appeared in the space in front of him. “Is something happening?”
Empress glanced at him, but she was in no mood to converse, she pinged Doktor to deal with him and resumed her vigil. Erak muttered something aloud, and ((MANA)) began to swirl. With a mild interest, Empress half paid attention to the way Erak’s ((MANA)) clashed with hers. Erak tensed. Empress blinked. He could see something.
A long purple stick with hooked ends was pushed through the top of the forcefield, around the stick was tied a black chainmail(?) of some kind, and golden plates sewn onto it. It hooked to the ceiling, Empress’ ((GAZE)) tilted. Another stick quickly took its place across from the other, it was identical. They both bent in places as if jointed, and Erak began to back away.
A creature lunged into the cave, it jumped through Empress’ ((GAZE)), hissing, it was a blur of purple, black, and gold, three times the size of an ant. Tackling Erak the floor the beast snapped mandibles at his face, Erak pushed that swirl of ((MANA)) against the fangs, pushing them barely back, something dripped from the fangs. It only had a two-segmented abdomen, while the ants had three segments, but it made up for that lack in its legs and eyes. The beast had eight spindly legs that dug into the dirt floor and six eyes. It was wearing armor, onyx chainmail under a golden half plate. But it needed no weapons. ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged, Spider, a chill swept through her ((DOMAIN)).
The guards charged the spider, weaving between its legs as Erak continued to struggle under the monsters weight. One of the guards wrapped her enlarged mandibles around a joint in the spider’s armor, and she struggled then bit down. The monster buckled and, while it had been ignoring the ants before, turned from Erak to face her attackers. Erak scrambled to his feet, gasping for breath. A second creature entered the Dungeon, it walked on two feet and wore full steel armor, except it lacked a helmet, it brandished a spear. Unlike Erak, who only had hair on the top of his head, the new creature had short grey fur that showed on all exposed places of its body. Its face was long and muzzled and two grey and bronze wings peaked out from his armor. Erak scrambled to his feet, and pushed himself into a fighting stance.
A guard climbed the walls until she was above the raging spider, she prepared to jump, but the furred thing threw his spear. It easily pierced her exoskeleton and she fell to the ground. Erak balled his hands into fists. Then a blue fireball shot toward the spider. The furred one pulled his weapon from the ant, and threw his spear again, this time at Erak. The spider threw one of the guards into a wall, she didn’t get back up. Crushing another guard under her feet, the spider hissed. The remaining two sisters stood together as they redoubled their assault. The ball of fire hit the spider squarely in the thorax, but it didn’t react. Another wave of ((MANA)) and the spear stopping in midair just as it was going to sink into Erak’s chest. It hovered in the air, the elf’s hands shook, he grabbed the spear. The furred beast barked something angrily at Erak.
Erak shouted a challenge in reply. Holding the spear ready, the beast charged him, shifting as he ran, shrinking and growing at the same time, until he was an entirely different creature. Her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged, wolf, falcon. The Spider lifted the last guard ant in its fangs, crushing her as she let out a silent death cry. The spider hissed to the wolf-bird, and the wolf circled Erak, growling a reply. A fire glowed on the tip of the spear. The spider ran down the corridor at an unnatural speed. The swarm chasing after it.
Empress was angry, it was a cold, simple anger, that didn’t match the pure indignant rage she sensed from her colonists. How dare it? How dare some base monster so easily push through her defenses? She pinged the rest of her ants to congregate in the spawner room, and she left Erak to fight the other monster.
DUE TO THREAT LEVEL 10 BEING PRESENT, ALL COLONISTS HAVE TEMPORARILY SWITCHED TO THE FATAL ALIGNMENT.
The spider dashed through the ((SAFE_ROOM)) and the gatherers and Doktor ants waited for it to leave the room before giving chase. The spider tore the door to the spawner room off its hinges and cast it aside. The newborn swarm struck at its six eyes while almost a hundred angry ants climbed up its legs and tore at its armor. The Nameless One managed to crawl onto its back and strike at its neck. It didn’t seem to be hindered as it entered the spawner room. The spider sunk its fangs into a runner who squealed before dying. It climbed up the mural and onto the roof, trampling those underfoot.
It grabbed the nearest ant, a builder this time, and threw it into the crowd. Guard abandoned her post in the ((SANCTUM)) and ran toward the spider like a stampeding bull. She charged the Spider, who turned to face her just in time for fangs to lock with mandibles, the swarm disbursed from the shock of the clash, The Nameless One fell off the back of the spider and onto the floor.
Empress tilted her head, and if she had a face, would’ve smiled. She connected her ((MANA POOL)) to Guard and pushed. Her ((MANA POOL)) was less than full, but Guard still shivered and began to push back against the crushing weight instead of buckling.
CONGRATULATIONS ONE OF-
“Silenced,” Empress shouted, dumping the stat points into strength without checking how many levels she had given Guard. She could tell the ant was beginning to molt.
Guard’s six legs gripped the dirt firmly as the spider pushed downward with its superior weight and size. The nameless one took command and the enraged colonists pulled back, encircling the combatants, heckling pheromones saturated the air, but they wouldn’t even think of disobeying orders. Once the monster fell, they would swarm it. Guard twisted under the weight, inching her mandibles lock on the spider’s fangs closer to the beast's hissing face.
Empress saw every muscle under Guard’s chitin flex, the black ant dug her back legs into the floor, then she pushed up with her front legs. Thrusting upward with incredible force. Thrown off balance, the spider tried to disentangle itself from the ant, but Guard used its retreat to jump forward and close her mandibles around the spider’s armored throat.
A howl echoed through the Dungeon. The blunt points on Guard’s mandibles couldn’t pierce the black chainmail that the spider wore, but her bite force was strong enough to crush.
The spider began to thrash, frantically trying to dislodge its attacker, more out of fear of suffocation, than decapitation. The other colonists rushed forward and began to strike at the beast’s legs, climbing and burying the monster in biting bodies. Hissing the spider looked around frantically for a retreat, feeling the jaws of death around its throat, and unable to remove them, it knew that there was only one way that the fight could still be won.
The spider charged through the crowd of ants, and directly toward the moss hallway door, the doors swung wildly as it ran past, knocking several of the ants off the back of the spider, the colonists gave chase. Guard still clung to its throat. The spider swung around, ((MANA)) crackled in the air for a moment and a blue web appeared in front of it, the spider turned around again and quickly reached its top speed. Ants charged at the web, and the runners reached it first, the second they touched the thick blue strands of silk, they began to convulse, smoke began to curl up from the unlucky ants, and they let out frantic pheromones, but none of their sisters came to aid them, even after they died, they were not released. The swarm ran into the web and merely made popping sounds and fell to the floor. The spider tore up moss as it ran, leaving polka-dotted holes in the manicured moss beds. Empress felt fear mingle with the ever-present rage as the monster burst into the ((SANCTUM)).
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Erak stared at the hybrid Beastkin as he circled him, each time, he grew closer, slowly tightening the noose around Erak’s neck. What had the Spider said his name was? Quinton? Erak adjusted his grip on the spear. Blue fire flickered on its head. it was long and well balanced, but it was a weapon he was unfamiliar with. Erak remember the Beastkin’s name, it was probably for the best, it was harder to kill someone once you knew their name.
Erak’s blood ran hot, he could hear his heart in his ears, and the world seemed to be in extremely sharp detail, his back still held the wounds of their last encounter. Erak wished he had put his shirt back on. He let the fire on the tip of the spear sputter out, leaving it glowing red, and hot. The wolf pounced, his wings clasped to his sides, fangs gleaming and his eyes bright. Erak held the spear aloft, the wolf used his wings to steer away from the point, landing beside the elf, but unable to pounce on him. Erak spun the spear and slammed the butt into the Beastkin's ribs. The wolf yelped and skidded away, the talons on his front legs leaving tracks in the dirt. Erak ran at the Beastkin and the Beastkin snarled, Erak let his hand fall to the middle of the spear.
The wolf leaped back as Erak thrust the spear at him, Erak pushed magic through the shaft of the weapon, snapping it in two. The wolf landed unsteadily on his feet. Erak stared at the two halves of the spear before spinning on his heel, and slinging the molten spearhead at the Beastkin. It moved far faster than it should have as telekinesis enveloped it and pushed it through the air.
